Megastory 5

A Story by leroypowell3

The Enterprise-E investigates the destruction of an entire solar system.

Asteroids, asteroids, asteroids. That was the first thing the scanners registered when the ship came out of warp. The unnatural levels and variations of radiation was the next alert.

They had to increase their shields ten fold just to compensate.

To be honest, Captain Picard had seen things like this. He had stopped things that would have caused such a crisis in the past. But an entire solar system devastated beyond recognition. A solar system that he had visited. Worlds he had communicated with. Some he had even walked the surface of. This was a tragedy that he simply couldn’t bluff-brave his way through.

The Enterprise was one of several Federation ships sent to the relief effort. With such a horrific catastrophe, everyone sent ships to the rescue efforts. The Farangi, The Mimbari, The Romulans, anyone who had a ship in the area came to help.

For this at least, the civilizations of The Milky Way galaxy was united.

Starfleet had sent The Enterprise for more than just relief and rescue. They were to find out what in the universe happened. If this was some kind of weapon, where was it and who had it? If this was a natural phenomenon, what circumstances created it?

The rescue was hectic but joyful still, because the survivors were so thankful to their saviors for helping them.

Eager to get an understanding of what had happened, Captain Picard left the bridge and went to the makeshift medical ward to meet some of The Enterprise's new guests.

Dr. Crusher had finished treating her latest patient and Commander Worf, signaled for the captain to talk with this being in particular.

He was humanoid, with a bit too much hair coming out of his cheeks. There was a flatness to his nose that made Picard wonder how they breathed. With a warm smile, Picard introduced himself to the alien and asked what happened.

"The space gods had come." the alien started explaining. "As they always had. Every hundred years. We don't know why but we appease them as best we can. Personally I don't think they even care about us."

"What 'space gods' are these?" Picard wanted to know.

"Immense figures, 2000 feet tall." the alien lifted his hand as high as it would reach to help with the visual.

"They are the size of mountains. Their feet stretch across lakes. Sometimes their heads are above the clouds. They land all across the planet, stand around a while and then leave."

The alien leaned in for the importance of his next statement. "But this time it was different. This time something caught their attention. The ones that I saw all moved. They started looking up into the sky.

Well, into space, considering how tall they were. We could see it too. A monstrous planet that was approaching our own. It looked like it was going to ram us, some of the children said it looked like it was going to eat us. Our whole planet.

"But the space gods were unhappy about being interrupted, mind you, we have no idea what was being interrupted. At pretty much the same time, the space gods lifted up and went out to confront the monster planet. It was so massive that they were like tiny trees next to a volcano as they approached it. They surrounded it, and that was when the cosmic energy began tearing through our solar system. Our ships were not able to stay in formation and we could only run as fast as we could."

A battle of those proportions must have destroyed everything in our solar system. Even though I've lost my home planet and I shutter to think about how many of my people are now gone, I can't help but wonder. Who won that battle?"

Captain Picard pursed his lips. "I don't know. But I think that somehow we’ll find out.”

After a few hours of interviews retaling the same incident, the Enterprise received a priority 1 message. Picard and Riker were the only one’s authorized to receive it.

President RL Brand- who presided over the United Federation of Planets- had never personally made a transmission to the Enterprise before. He neglected the pleasantries and got straight down to business.

“The incident that you’re investigating, as I’m sure you know, is of top concern to everyone, ally, enemy, and independent. Because of this, we’ve been sharing information.

“So far, there’s not a lot of fact, but we’re starting to get a picture of what this threat is. The ‘space gods’ as the victim world was calling them are known to us. They’ve even had contact with Earth.”

“Celestials,” Picard completed the explanation. “We hear about them from time to time.”

“Yes, well the Celestials aren’t the threat.” Said Brande crisply. “Not to us anyway. It’s the other thing, that monster planet that they described. The Milky Way galaxy hasn’t really been its territory but races that exist outside of our local galaxy system have heard of it. It’s been a roundabout sort of communication because the Federation, of course, only works within the Alpha, Bete and Delta quadrants of our galaxy. Nevertheless we do have contacts beyond our regular sphere of influence and the warning is simple- ‘beware the chaos bringer’.

“That was enough to set some people off. There’s a coalition intent on acquiring the means to defend themselves against such a threat should it come again.

“A few years ago, Superman encountered planet-sized warmachine of unknown origins. He defeated the warlord who controlled it, but left the weapon intact.”

Commander Riker broke in. “Are you talking about Warworld sir?”

A bit surprised, President Brande shot is eyebrows up. “Yes, I am.”

Picard explained their foreknowledge. “A vague report of Superman’s adventure went out to all ship captains just incase we came across it.”

“Well now a more full report is coming your way. For the defense of the galaxy as a whole, the coalition is going to capture Warworld.”

The cast:

The Enterprise E crew (Star Trek)

RL Brande (Legion of Super Heroes) (DC)