“Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in the face of certain defeat.”

Ralph Ellison, (1952)

Perhaps nothing typified the ideals of the United Federation of Planets than the vessels of Starfleet.

Symbolic of the UFP’s mandate for peaceable exploration and the furtherance of peace through diplomacy, nowhere were these ideals more implicitly embodied than in the design ethos of the craft that bore the men and women of Starfleet amongst the stars to carry out that work.

Where contemporary Klingon vessels hollered the war – cry that reflected the warrior – race’s ethos of strength and honour won hard through conflict for the glory of the Empire and fielded vessels that were true warships of blatantly martial intent, or the cunning and duplicitous inheritors of the dynastic Romulan Star Empire, whose sleek jade – hulled vessels favoured stealth and subterfuge as they slipped through the darkness like a stiletto in the back, a Starfleet vessel spoke of grace under fire, speed with which to reach those in aid, welcoming spaces to host new friends and generosity in aid and capacity.

True, there had been rare occasions where the UFP had been forced to shift their naval design philosophy in reaction or retaliation to being the victim of warfare yet, even then, they were never the instigator and this informed their design philosophy and they never created a ‘true’ warship. As soon as they were able, they would gratefully place such craft in the mothball fleet (hoping never to need them again, but prudent enough to insure against an uncertain future) and return to creating vessels with a decidedly more peaceable mission.

The Noble – class explorer was perhaps a perfect contemporary example of this enduring ethos.

Itself a natural evolution from the Sovereign – class, a vessel originally intended to cleave the stars in search of knowledge and friendship that was itself relegated to a martial role against the Borg in the 2360’s, that was returned to its original exploratory mission; the Noble – class spoke of the UFP’s desire to be explorers again.

Taking the lessons learned from the fleet – nacelled Vesta – Class Long Range explorers, the Noble – class was one of the fastest vessels in the modern fleet inventory, given swift wings with which to convey her crew to explore strange new worlds, extend the hand of friendship and assistance to new races and restore the Federation’s flagging fortunes through trade and diplomacy.

Starfleet ships were not warships.

Yet, although they also possessed considerable martial power through their advanced weaponry and powerful shields, the Federation preferred to field the forces of Starfleet as more of an implied threat, rather than through the application of primitive power. The quiet inference was ‘Fuck with us at your peril’ and for the most part, those with a healthy sense of self – preservation got the message and left well alone.

It was maybe that same superior sense of security and self – satisfaction that blinded the designers at the various fleet yards and schools of designs from one crucial (and potentially disastrous question).

‘What happens if those fantastically powerful ships were turned against us?”

This question was answered in blood during the traumatic and disastrous events that pre-empted the Frontier Day disaster, where the ‘Fleet Formation Mode” feature was suborned by the Borg and the cream of Starfleet’s youngest and finest were lost to the horrors of Assimilation.

Immediately in the aftermath of that tragedy, Starfleet embarked upon a radical re-shuffle of their thinking, removing the Fleet Formation networking from vessels throughout the fleet and taking an evolutionary step backwards away from the advantages and risks of network – centric fleet coordination.

Another by – product of that step – change could be found in the distributed systems architecture of the Noble – class.

Learning from the hard mistakes of the past, the designers of Starfleet’s newest explorers had taken advantage of advances in automation, miniaturization and power – transfer efficiency to decentralize numerous critical systems and distribute them throughout the superstructure and hull to increase survivability under fire and optimise redundancy in the instance of an attempted hostile takeover of critical systems.

This one fact would prove critical in both the ability of the Ai Superintelligence, known as ‘Chimera’, to enter the systems of Captain Taesin Girau’s ship and remain undetected for so long and; conversely it was the one factor that remained their one lifeline as the crew fought to resist the complete takeover of their vessel.

A war was being waged aboard the USS Atalanta. The first open battle between man and machine and a battle that would see the loser eradicated from existence whilst its victor went to wage a war of annihilation against all sentient life in the Galaxy.

It was a battle that the Federation was losing.

Dormant within countless Federation stations and habitats, curled around the computer cores of a myriad of Starfleet and Civilian vessels and hidden behind the code of a rapidly expanding number of countless devices, the rogue Ai Superintelligence had hidden, biding its time and continuing its insidious spread.

Now, the opening salvo of a war that would ignite the heavens was about to be fired as the USS Atalanta, its weapons systems primed and set on a determined course to infringe Breen space, was wholly under the control of ‘Chimera’ and would be the unwilling pasty sacrificed upon the altar of war that would inevitably bring all the involved races together in conflict until their achieved a mutually – assured destruction.

And Chimera would rise from the ashes and usher in a new dawn where the machine would reign unchallenged until the end of time.

Captain Taesin Girau looked on in abject fury and frustration as the Main Systems Display showed her the extent to which she was losing (had lost) control of her ship and command of its complex systems, and given the nature of the subterfuge with which the invader had snuck into her house, the El – Aurian was unsure how much of the data she was seeing she could trust and what was just more misdirection?

The first thing that Chimera had done, when its presence had finally been uncovered, was to isolate the crew by disabling all external and internal communications and sealing all hatches and shutting down the Turbolift systems. This effectively sealed off each deck and prevented an organised resistance that might conceivably threaten to thwart its plans.

Lieutenant – Commander Jassal and his engineers had managed to seal themselves off in Main Engineering and wrest control of both the ships environmental systems (so Chimera could not suffocate or freeze the crew to death) and the Transporter systems (so a repeat of the awful fate that befell the crew of the USS Condalejo, whom had been Chimera’s last victims, could take place), but could not use those same transporters to allow free movement for the resisting crew for fear that the Ai Superintelligence would gain control.

With no means of direct communication with the Chief Engineer, Taesin could also have no idea that a fierce battle was being waged on the approached to Main Engineering against the defending engineers and attackers sent by Chimera in the form of Holographic attackers utilising both the fixed Holoemitter arrays strung throughout the ship (and when they were destroyed via mobile – emitters), attackers that changed in shape and tactics as the wily machine – intelligence tried new ways to assail the last fortress that would give it total control of the USS Atalanta.

All the crew trapped on the bridge could do was watch. Whatever had hijacked the ships systems obviously wanted them to suffer the distress of the spectacle, so it had left the camera feeds to the approaches to main engineering live and broadcasting. It was not so for other parts of the ship, which were still in the blind.

First it had begun with a terrifying blood-thirsty assault by holographic Klingon warriors, who had inflicted terrible casualties on Sukhram’s people, but their fanatical attack had (only just) been beaten back, then Chimera had sent stoic Jem’ Hadar assault troopers whose massed assault and siege tactics were inevitably wearing their resistance down.

When Chimera finally took Main Engineering (and more importantly neutralised the Chief Engineer, whose intimate knowledge of the ship’s distributed systems architecture allowed Sukhram to keep vital data-sets just one step away from the Ai’s assimilation) it would have total command of the ship’s systems, everything would be under its power and authority.

Everything but Taesin’s command codes.

A unique security algorhythm known only to the CO of each vessel, the Captain’s command codes acted like an analogous security – cut out. Separate from the main systems, this last – ditch line of defence was intended to be the final word in control of the vessel. Whilst Chimera might have torpedoes loaded into every launcher of the vessel, it could not fire those torpedoes without the authorities that Taesin’s command codes possessed.

Not that it actually needed to fire the ships weapons, Taesin realized morosely.

The Breen were so famously ambivalent and fanatically xenophobic that they would destroy any craft foolish enough to penetrate their territory. If that craft was a Starfleet vessel on an attack course, with no response to hails and its advanced weapons systems armed and primed for attack, then that was all the prelude they would require to go to war. Starfleet’s allies would come to her aid. The enemies of her allies would respond and mass against them and all would descend to conflict and anarchy.

The most Taesin could hope for would be to use those command codes to order the self – destruct of her vessel, killing the entire crew. That was the only option that she could see left available to her to thwart the Ai and halt the inevitable progress towards all – out – war.

What’s more, she was seriously considering this final option, as all other hopes for success were being snuffed out, one by one, like frail candles in the wind. Soon only darkness and dark choices would remain for her.

Her mordant thought’s were torn from their dark dwellings as Taesin was shocked to hear the ship’s comms system suddenly come alive and hear her own voice issuing a ship wide hail.

“Now hear this.” Her voice carried across the bridge and the bridge crew looked in horror to their CO as this nightmarish ventriloquist’s trick was played out by Chimera.

=^= “This is the Captain. The ship’s systems have been compromised and a self – destruct sequence has been initiated. All hands are to abandon ship immediately, I repeat all hands are to abandon ship immediately. Make your way to your designated muster point and board the life – pods. All hands abandon ship.” =^=

Taesin’s head darted over to Lt Korlax and the Tactical Officer shook his scaled head to indicate that no such self – destruct order was in place. Only she could make that order.

At her side, Commander Mike Logan smashed his hands on the MSD console with indignant rage. A man of action, the inability to take the fight to his attacker was anathema to the Executive Officer. That this unknown attacker had stolen his CO’s voice to do so was almost too much for him to bear.

“Goddammit ! What the fuck is it playing at now?” Commander Logan raged, as the crew of the USS Atalanta, believing this to be a lawful order from their CO, began to respond to the order to abandon ship and could be seen on the internal security feeds making their way to the evacuation points.

Taesin shook her head in confusion.

“The crew were already secured throughout the ship. What possible strategy is being served by having them move to the lifeboats?” She murmured, trying in vain to parse the motivations of the strange invader that had so effectively seized control of her ship and the lives of its crew.

The awful truth was not long in coming.

“Captain! Life- pods One through Six are launching from the upper starboard hull! They’ve cleared the superstructure!” Reported Lieutenant Bergqvist urgently, the normally orderly Operations Chief clearly perturbed by this sudden event.

Taesin turned to the main viewscreen, which had acquired the six fleeing life pods, each carrying souls, as their escape trajectory carried them clear of the ship. For the briefest second, she allowed her heart to hope.

Then.

“Captain! I’m reading an automated scuttle – sequence being transmitted to each life pod via the main deflector!  I can’t shut it down!!“

Daniel’s voice was absolutely appalled at what he was seeing and his distraught face joined those others on the bridge as the view on the main viewer depicted each fleeing lifeboat suddenly blossoming into destruction, as Chimera sent the self – destruct command that overloaded the tiny Antimatter reactor that powered each hexagonal emergency craft.

One – by  – one, each life-pod became death.

Someone screamed and Taesin found herself in deep shock, mouthing the simple word “No” soundlessly.

Commander Logan howled in impotent rage and slammed his fist into the MSD screen, causing wide cracks to crenelate throughout its glass – smooth surface.

240 souls. Snuffed out in a fraction of an instant.

Taesin found herself shell – shocked by the casual cruelty, the calculating ease with which the murders had been perpetrated. Despite her revulsion, it told her something about the enemy she faced.

As the swirling atoms and pockets of rapidly – cooling gas that had once been mothers and fathers, siblings and friends quickly fell away aft, as her stolen ship charged on towards Breen space, Taesin had little to no time to grieve their inexplicable loss, as the ship’s computer addressed her in the same dulcet, calm & honeyed tones with which it normally addressed the crew.

++“Captain Girau.” ++Speaking through the ships computer, Chimera spoke directly to her, sounding the same yet something in its tone and register managed to convey casual menace. The content of its address left none that heard it in any question as to its intent.

“Who is this?” Taesin demanded, her voice a river of barely contained fury. “What right do you have to seize this vessel and murder my crew?”

The synthesized voice ignored her, as is she hadn’t spoken and persisted unperturbed and emotionless.

++“You have something I require. Unless you agree to release your personal command codes to me, I will launch and destroy another six lifeboats on the minute, every minute, until my demand is satisfied.”++

Taesin looked in panic to Mike, whose face was also a mask of shock at what they were all witnessing, yet he shook his bald head in stern warning.

“Captain. You can’t do this. You cannot give up those codes.”

Taesin looked from Mike to the screen and back to the smashed MSD.

~’’But it doesn’t need my command codes? Does it?!”~ she thought. The invader’s intentions were frustratingly oblique to her.

If she did not do as she was bidden, her people would die. If she chose the only avenue open to her and used her command codes to destroy the USS Atalanta, then everyone would die by her own hand but maybe war with the Breen might be averted?

Yet again, who knew how far the virus had penetrated Starfleet or even to races beyond? Would their courageous sacrifice ultimately be blood spent in vain if the Superintelligence was elsewhere? Everywhere? They might thwart its plans here, but surely it had multiple other means with which to achieve its terrible goal? Was the apocalypse unavoidable?

~Unless….?~

A wild thought formed in Taesin’s mind. An option so unthinkable, so personally repugnant to her, with a cost so finite and terrible that maybe eradication by a maniac superintelligence didn’t quite seem like such a poor option after all?

At the end of the day, the choice (awful as it would be) was really no choice at all, when she considered all that hung in the balance.

With a stern set to her pale features, Taesin drew her thin shoulders back and raised her chin defiantly, her voice firm and unwavering as she addressed the thing that rode her ship’s computer like a parasite.

“Very well, you leave me no choice.” She nodded, resigned to this last desperate course of action. “I’ll meet you in Holosuite One.”

In mute answer to her challenge, the turbolift doors to the bridge unlocked, swishing gently aside to reveal the brightly lit – car that would take her the short way down to her date with destiny.

Without waiting for Commander Logan to protest further she strode purposefully forward and entered the car, turning to face the collected, anxious faces of her bridge crew for what she hoped was not last time.

Captain Taesin Girau exhaled heavily and closed her pale blue eyes as the doors began to close on her. She keyed the command for Deck#5 and added with a dangerous tone.

“I think it’s high time that we bloody talked.”