#Tellarite Cruiser

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Pre-Federation fleet, "United"

[weerd1]

ENT Rewatch Starlog, 28 April, 2024: Episode 3.24 “Zero Hour”

The NX-01 races to complete their modifications which will allow them to use their deflector to disable the Sphere they call “Sphere 41” while Archer, Reed, Sato, and MACOs are on Degra’s ship with Jannar the Arboreal, and the Primate council member chasing down the weapon. Dolim the Reptilian has now destroyed the Insectoids escorting him when they questioned him, but Degra’s ship will be no match for the Reptilian cruiser.

Archer has the still reeling Hoshi trying to decrypt Degra’s notes on how to disable the weapon when Daniels appears. He show’s Archer a ceremony seven years in the future, where Archer, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites are about to convene the United Federation of Planets. Daniels warns Archer that he MUST be there for this to happen, so Reed or Sato must destroy the weapon. Archer is not persuaded.

The Sphere Builders begin to accelerate the spatial distortion around Sphere 41, meaning Phlox has to engineer a fix to keep the crew’s brains from unspooling at the neuron level…he will not be able to protect their bodies though, and the fix will only protect their minds for a few minutes. They are ready however, and Mayweather has to use thrusters to get them through, the impulse power being used to power the beam to destroy the sphere.

Archer and company catch up with the weapon and Dolim, who has already destoryed an orbital science station, but are the only ship to try and stop them. They are suddenly joined in battle by an Andorian cruiser; Shran has tracked them despite the orders of his government and begins to engage the Reptilians while the humans transport onto the weapon and start their sabotage. 

On Enterprise, they have started firing, but the space around the sphere is disrupted enough the Sphere Builders can board the ship and try to disrupt the operation. Phlox remembers the physiology of the test subject they found and instructs the MACOs how to set their weapons to affect the Builders. They are pushing their deadline and already suffering severe skin damage when Tucker succeeds in his attack on the sphere; it implodes and begins a chain reaction, causing spheres to collapse across the Delphic Expanse. The spatial distortions cannot be sustained and the Builder are thrown back into their dimension. 

Reed protects Archer and Sato long enough to complete the sabotage. They return to Degra’s ship while Archer stays to do the last step. Dolim transports to the weapon as Shran destroys his vessel. He fights Archer who dispatches him with one last explosive, and the weapon explodes as Archer races toward the extraction point. 

Later, Enterprise rendezvous with Degra’s ship, only to learn that Archer did not make it. T’Pol assumes command, and with the Xindi hopeful for a new chapter in their history, the Aquatics take the NX-01 back to Earth. Entering the system, they are unable to pick up any hails. Mayweather and Tucker take a shuttlepod down to San Francisco, only to be attacked by three WWII era P-51 Mustangs. Meanwhile, in a Nazi field hospital, a badly burned Archer lays on a bunk, approached by a red-eyed alien in full Nazi regalia. 

Overall a very engaging and exciting end to the Xindi storyline…not allowed to really end because of the head-scratching addition of space Nazis. The tension between the two desperate missions to confront the weapon and the sphere is nicely cranked up at a good pace throughout the episode, and nice to see Archer win a fight (even if he needed a bomb to do it). 

Something I really appreciate here is, as much as some crewmembers are almost forgotten through this season, this episode makes sure everyone has a piece: Hoshi with her decryption; Reed defending her on the weapon; Mayweather’s fancy piloting; Phlox knowing how to defeat the Sphere builders (even some bridge time!). Fits nicely with the Big Three’s efforts on their missions.  

Was glad to see the slightly shoe-horned appearance of Shran too. Always happy to see Jeffrey Combs, and nice to see Shran’s ongoing interaction with Archer, but I am at a bit of a loss as to why there were no, well, Earth ships defending Earth?  I know the NX-02 is still under construction—we heard that just two episodes back—but where is the rest of the fleet? Surely Admiral Forrest has SOME of the Intrepid Class or Delta Class ships in system just in case the NX-01 mission to the Expanse fails?  I almost thought that perhaps the timeline sabotage that we will find out makes Space Nazis happen had already taken effect, but that orbital station WAS there for Dolim to destroy, and that’s a point made later that other stations are only missing AFTER the change. Not sure that all makes any sense to me.

I have walked away from this episode with a New-Trek headcanon though: Surely the potential alliance now with the post-Expanse Xindi means some access to their technology, in particular their “vortex” they use to travel FTL.  Note how much similarity in the picture above there is between that and the way warp effects look in both the Kelvin Timeline and shows like Discovery or Strange New Worlds.

Perhaps THIS is one of the fluid changes to the timeline SNW has canonized as the differences between TOS and the modern shows’ 23rd Century. “Warp Drive” for the SNW 1701 includes Xindi vortex physics, just as I believe the warp drive the Enterprise uses in the ’09 film is enhanced by the telemetry the Kelvin survivors captured of the Narada’s transwarp technology from the late 24th Century. 

We KNOW all these time travel shenanigans have had lasting effects on the prime timeline (like the shifting of the Eugenics Wars from the 1990s to the 2040s); I’m going to say this was one of them.

I do wish the writers (looking at you Berman and Braga) had given a little more space for the denouement of the Xindi saga before plunging us right into this new time travel story…I know it’s tenuously connected, but I’d like to have seen the Earth aftermath now instead of having to wait two more episodes making extensive use of the Paramount back lot. I guess to really complete this rewatch, I have to take those on as well, so as much as I thought this would be my last Enterprise write up, stay tuned for…

NEXT VOYAGE:  The crew of Enterprise show us all Nazis, even Space Nazis, should be punched in “Storm Front Part 1.”  

(Images taken from the main website for @trekcore; I am happy to remove the images if asked.)

[defconprime]

Cover for Official Starships Collection issue 115, Tellarite Cruiser, 2018.

[ship-o-rama]

Tellarite Heavy Cruiser

Profile: Front-line warship for the Tellarite armed forces in the second half of the 23rd Century. Comparable in strength of a Constitution-Class starship.

Pictured: In 2270 a Tellarite Heavy Cruiser under the command of Brog opens fire on the Enterprise after being accused of destroying a civilian passenger liner. 

Appeared in Star Trek: Burden of Knowledge #3, IDW Comics

[eomproject]

"Rendevous in the Federation Phalanx" - Advertisement from Vickers Armstrong, 2261.

The British Isles-based engineering conglomerate was one of Starfleet's key contractors during the 2250s and 60s, taking over the construction of almost all destroyers and scouts by 2265.

Despite it's name and strong British Pedigree, 23rd century Vickers-Armstrongs is actually a conglomerate of Human, Andorian and Tellarite engineering co-operatives financed by rigellian pension funds and a lunar investment project. The name and brand had been bought from the defunct business in the mid 21st century by it's workers, and had survived the third world war as a manufacturer of solar aircraft engines. It had contributed to the D,E and G class freighters commissioned by the Earth Cargo Service.

Vickers-Armstrongs returned to military hardware during the Romulan war, when it was contracted to build parts for Daedalus and later Yorktown class vessels. Post-War it rapidly expanded its civilian construction yards to support the massive growth in traffic in the new UFP. In 2188 it merged with the ailing Tellarite Mechanist Grouping, ensuring it's technically expertise would be retained in one place; the Rolls-Royce brand - long limited to antique cars and hobby engines - returned as a mark of pedigree on next generation fusion engines.

By the 2240s Vickers had eight facilities across four worlds; three on earth, two on Tellar prime and one on Mars, Vulcan and Antares respectively. In 2249 Vickers would take over construction of the Hermes "Achilles" sub-variant, resolving issues with the torpedo roll bar. With Starfleet's main shipyards focusing during and after the war in the reconstruction of the fleet's cruiser force, Vickers was one of the many civilian conglomerates commissioned to help rebuild - and later upgrade the destroyer and scout roster of Starfleet Command.

[veshialles]

Right, so literally zero people asked for this, but allow me to present to you the crew of the USS Veraia (NCC-5617-D). I have a lot of different captains and crews in Star Trek Online, but this is probably one of my favourites of the ones I’ve created so far. Now normally, I like to go all out with the uniforms for my captain and crew, but just this once I figured I’d stick to so-called “protocol” with the Odyssey uniforms. Never used to like these uniforms that much, not enough colour in my opinion, but they’ve kind of grown on me.

Anyway, I’m rambling. Introductions are in order. From left to right:

Lt. J.G. Vurjek Taahu Omjir Eshiale (Bajoran, Female, 29, Science Division, Chief Science Officer)

Lt. Cmdr. Tasira Kestroh dalne Vohn (Tawrkai, Intersex, 72, Tactical & Security Division, Chief Security Officer)

Lt. Regaa Lorrial (Trill, Male, 34, Medical Division, Chief Medical Officer)

Ens. Cybel (Android, Female, 8, Science Division, Linguistics Specialist)

Lt. Wirkur Tiggand (Tellarite [23c], Male, 30, Engineering Division, Chief Engineer)

Lt. Joshua Morand (Human [23c], Male, 24, Tactical & Security Division, Master-At-Arms)

Cpt. T’erzea Sorul (Vulcan [23c], Female, 45, Command Division, Commanding Officer)

Cmdr. Asariath Zh’oqiar (Andorian [23c], Zhen/Female, 27, Command Division, First Officer)

Lt. Cmdr. Lenralia Veki (Vulcan [23c], Female, 76, Medical Division, Chief Counselor)

Lt. J.G. Divohl Rajelr Tavan (Cardassian, Male, 53, Operations Division, Bosun)

Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Tyler Deveraux (Human, Male, 64, Operations Division, Chief Operations Officer)

Ens. Anetha Drolkas, Daughter of Khi’shti (Klingon, Female, 32, Engineering Division, Flight Control Officer)

NOT PICTURED ABOVE: (There wasn’t room for them in the group photo, so I’ll include a standalone below)

Cadet Cordelia Pascal (Human, Female, 19, Tactical & Security Division, Tactical Officer)

So yeah, I think that about covers everyone currently on the roster. I’ll probably elaborate more on the crew members individually at a later time, but that’s all for now!

[sshbpodcast]

Vessel detected: Alien ships in Star Trek: Part 6

By Ames

Finally, A Star to Steer Her By is reaching the end of the parade of ships in this blog series, and the big finale is going to feature just a ton of ships from Enterprise! The CGI has come a long way and using models has started taking a backseat, so it’s way easier to show off a much wider variety of ships from all our new, old friends and new, old enemies. The prequel series gets to really fill in a lot of gaps that were left wide open in the franchise, especially concerning all our ally races in the Federation, some familiar foes, and even a ton of new baddies (and that’s just the Xindi plotline alone!).

Settle in for the last leg of our ride spotting as many alien ships as we can stand. You can see all the ships we’re covering below and also listen to the banter at the tail of this week’s podcast episode (discussion starts at 57:25). It’s been a long road, but at least we’ve had some fun ships to test drive along the way.

[images © CBS/Paramount, Ex Astris Scientia, Eaglemoss Ltd., Star Trek Shipyards, Star Trek Timelines, probably others]

Vulcan Surak class

Despite the fact that they’re our closest allies throughout the whole franchise, we don’t actually get to see much Vulcan technology in Star Trek. So when we finally get to see the Ni’Var, its design is just perfectly logical. This ship is so typically Vulcan in its geometric design: what other race would build a big circle into their pointy-ass ship except for our pointy-eared friends?

Andorian battlecruiser

Speaking of allies we never got to see a ton of before this: Andorians! Enterprise gives us all the blue-skinned aliens we’ve been asking for and then some! The “then some” is their battlecruiser, the Kumari, which looks kinda like the natural progression that fighter jets would follow if they evolved for space travel. They’re just stealthy and good at killing with their tons of weaponry, as Andorians are wont to do.

Tellarite cruiser

The other Federation-founding member race is the Tellarites, and though we only catch glimpses of their ships in the show, that’s not going to stop the merchanising of toys and video games. The Tellarites get an almost Romulan green to their ships, which are heavily weighted to the rear where they have what look like almost conventional rocket boosters strapped to their butts!

Orion scout ship

Okay, so I probably should have covered this ship when we covered TOS, but we only get a decent look at it in the remaster. Before that, the Orion scout ship that torments the Enterprise in “Journey to Babel” just looks like a smudgy light. The remaster gave us this spinny octagon of light balls which is quite distinct from anything else. And even more than the Species 8472 ships we discussed last week, this one gives us big space anus vibes.

Orion Syndicate interceptor

The reason I bring up the Orion scout ship from TOS is so that we can be caught up when we look at the Orion Syndicate interceptor from Enterprise. The forward-swooping wings remind us of a big ram’s head or a weird green uterus flying around in space. We don’t usually see the wings of a ship pointing forward this way, and it’s actually a pretty nice design.

Suliban cruiser

Another race we meet in Enterprise is the Suliban and they have a clutch of ships for us to look at. Their cruiser just looks like a cockroach ship. All the Suliban ships we’ll see have that same kind of ruddy brown color palette and hard metal look like they just skittered (like a cockroach!) out of a mineshaft.

Suliban long cell ship

Another Suliban ship, this one has a little piggy face on what’s essentially a long LEGO brick body. We find it interesting that it seems to be symmetrical front-to-back, which we don’t see much in ship design. We know they can hook up together, so maybe this one is designed to go both forward and backwards like an Amtrak train!

Suliban short cell ship

One more Suliban ship, clearly from that same red-brown family of dense-looking ships. Like their cylindrical counterparts above, these little spherical beads can cloak and also can link together to make a larger mass... like monkey bread perhaps. And now we’re all thinking about monkey bread and won’t be able to get anything else done until we have some.

Xindi Reptilian ship

And we’re back! Say what you will about the Xindi arc in Enterprise (and Chris is already preparing to when we get there on the podcast!), but their ships are all absolutely beautiful. We get some shades of the Son’a ships that we liked so much from Insurrection in the fanciful swooping designs in the Reptilians’ ships, but even longer and sleeker, like a needlessly elaborate butterfly. They look like they have a texture and finesse and we’re all about them.

Xindi Insectoid ship

Somehow the Reptilians’ ships look more like insects than the Insectoids’ ships, but you know what, we still like them! These ships look kinda like a grappling hook. We also don’t see a lot of ships with threeway symmetry like this ship more or less has, so that’s another point in their favor, as is their pretty bluey color. Overall, they just look like a lot of knives pointing at you, which we can respect.

Xindi Aquatic ship

Another very beautiful ship from the Xindi! Very fittingly, the Aquatics’ ships look almost liquidy, with more organic-looking lines that swoop and curve. We could list a whole bunch of aquatic creatures it reminds us of, but suffice it to say that these turquoise beauties are clearly inspired by the ocean. They also have an almost pointless hole in their design for some reason, but we can forgive that.

Xindi Primate ship

Speaking of pointless holes, the Primates’ ships have even more cutouts for some reason. We’re reminded of the speeder bikes from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi just from their long, sledlike design. When we look close, we start to spy what looks like a little Voyager spoon shape embedded in its top. Neat! 

Xindi Arboreal ship

You’re saying, “Wait, didn’t we already see this ship up above when we talked Tellarites?” And well, you’re half right since both the Arboreals’ and the Tellarites’ ships were sneaky reuses of the Arkonian warship design that we also see in Enterprise, but we’ll allow it because there have been a number of good ships already. This one has less green and more brown than the Tellarite ship and a little more texture to it, as far as I can tell.

Tholian ship

Lastly, I wanted to do a quick side-by-side comparison of the Tholian ships from The Original Series and from Enterprise. Originally, they just look like little arrowheads and it was good that they kept it simple, stupid. Now we have more CGI so there’s more texture and detailing, but it overall keeps the essence of that same simplicity, stupid. Like the new USS Enterprise from Discovery and Strange New Worlds, we find this to be a good reinterpretation of TOS design without badly overhauling it.

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That’s it for alien starships until we get a new crop in from any of the currently airing series, but that’s a journey for another day. Until then, we’re still making our way through Voyager and you can keep up with us over on SoundCloud or wherever you listen to podcasts, friend us on Facebook and Twitter, and have yourself some monkey bread, on us!

[rodsager]

Two Ugly Step Sisters and Sulibanella

Two Ugly Step Sisters and Sulibanella

I mentioned a while back, my temptation to purchase the Tellarite ship and I ended up getting the multi-faction three ship package. How about that play on words in the title, huh? OK a tad on the cheesy side, I’ll admit. But these three ships really are two ugly step sisters and a “Cinderella” of sorts as the Sulliban ship for Romulan players is the only one that is not ugly. I wouldn’t call the…

[spynotebook]

All Images: CBS

Star Trek’s Mirror Universe is one of—hell, the—most famous parallel universes in science fiction history. In fact, it almost has a timeline of its own as rich as the prime reality of Trek itself. So if you’ve been confused by all the Mirror-verse happenings in Discovery—and why wouldn’t you be?—we’re here to help put it all together.

The order we’ve explored the Mirror Universe in is, just like Trek as a whole, not exactly chronologically linear. As each Star Trek series has jumped backwards or forwards in time, so has our window into this most famous of alternate realities. Some of the “newest” information on the Mirror Universe is two decades old, while new information about its early years been revealed repeatedly over the course of Star Trek: Discovery’s ongoing first season, which has spent its back half on a new Mirror adventure. So, for convenience’s sake, we’ll be running through this chronologically in terms of the Mirror Universe’s timeline, not by the chronological order of Star Trek series themselves.

Enterprise Era: Origins of an Empire

Just as Enterprise itself reflects some of the earliest years of Starfleet and the eventual birth of the Federation, much of what we learn of the Mirror Universe in both parts of the season four story “In a Mirror, Darkly” is from some of the earliest days of the rise of the Terran Empire.

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Although not explicitly shown, the Terran Empire seemingly rose out of a political faction on Earth before humanity took to the stars. The Mirror version of Captain Archer described the Empire as having been around for hundreds of years, and given Enterprise is set in the 2150s, it’s likely some form of it existed pre-human spaceflight or even before the unification of Earth. Either way, the Terran Empire as we know it really began in 2063, when Zefram Cochrane made contact with the first Vulcans to land on Earth, as he does in Star Trek’s prime reality. Instead of offering a handshake, Mirror Cochrane simply shot the first Vulcan he met and then pillaged their ship—stealing technology that sends humanity not just beyond Earth, but on a mission of conquest against the other sentient species of the cosmos.

Just under a century after that first meeting, the Terran Empire was fully established, and the Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites, Orions, and Denobulans had all been conquered and subjugated by the human regime. And that’s when a temporal accident sent one of the U.S.S. Defiant—a 23rd-century, Constitution-Class cruiser like Kirk’s Enterprise—to the 22nd-century Mirror Universe during the events of “The Tholian Web.” Although it was briefly captured by the Tholians, the Mirror version of Archer’s Enterprise crew took it by force.

The Defiant was wildly more advanced than any other ship known to the Empire at the time, and Archer planned to use its immense power to overthrow the current, unknown Emperor and rule the Terran Empire. Instead, his former “Captain’s Woman” Hoshi Sato betrayed him, poisoned him, and became Empress herself after threatening to bombard Earth with the Defiant’s advanced weaponry, if the current ruling order didn’t submit to her will. They did.

Discovery Era: A New Hope

Roughly a century later, in the 2250s, not much has changed for the Empire when Star Trek: Discovery enters the Mirror Universe in its currently-ongoing story line. The Empire was still the dominant force of the Alpha Quadrant, although apparently the title bestowed upon its ruler had become gender-neutral since the days of Empress Sato, and the Mirror version of Phillipa Georgiou was the current “Faceless Emperor” of the regime. Apparently the Emperor no longer rules from Earth itself (presumably to avoid situations like, say, someone rolling up with a big spaceship and threatening to bomb the planet to bits), because Emperor Georgiou appears on a gigantic cityship that also serves as the Imperial Palace, the I.S.S. Charon, which looks like it’s powered by a giant, star-like reactor.

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What we do know more about is the Empire’s opponents. The ongoing rebellion against the Terrans by the races they’d conquered survived the arrival of the Defiant the century prior, and is now joined by the Klingons. Unlike their prime counterparts of the same era, these Klingons successfully united the ruling Houses of their homeworld—led by the Mirror version of Voq, who became a prominent rebel figure known as the “Firewolf”—to form a single front pushing back against the Terran Empire alongside the Tellarites, Andorians, Vulcans, and other species.

Sadly, it seems like much of this fleeting rebellion might have been destroyed, after Emperor Georgiou callously bombed its main base of operations before Voq and his fellow allies could evacuate. Who knows, maybe we’ll learn they survived by the time Discovery’s first season has come to an end?

Speaking of Discovery, the crew, currently trapped in the Mirror universe, spent this weekend’s episode trying to get ahold of the Defiant’s records, hoping to figure out how it mysteriously appeared in the Mirror-verse in the previous century in hopes of using that info to return to the Prime universe. You can learn more about how that went in our most recent Star Trek: Discovery recap.

Star Trek: The Original Series Era: Changing Fortunes

Our first-ever encounter with the Mirror Universe in the original series episode “Mirror, Mirror” is set just a decade after the events of Discovery. But we still get some new information, like the fact that despite the Vulcans had been subjugated centuries ago by the Empire, by the 2260s they could serve aboard Imperial starships—in fact, Spock wasn’t just allowed on-board the I.S.S. Enterprise, but served as its second-in-command. His father Sarek, revealed as a rebel against the Empire in Discovery’s Mirror Universe adventure, was probably whatever the Vulcan equivalent of “royally pissed” is about it.

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Otherwise, everything’s the same. The Terran Empire still ruled the quadrant, gleefully putting down rebellions when they arise with an iron fist. It’s not until the end of “Mirror, Mirror” that the seeds are sown for a major change in the future of the Mirror Univers. Near the end of the prime Kirk and team’s sojourn into the malicious alt-reality, Kirk managed to convince Mirror Spock that it’s illogical to serve an Empire that’s doomed to fall one day, and that no galactic rule could perpetually sustain itself on fear and cruelty. The words stick with Mirror Spock, who went on to overthrow Mirror Kirk and eventually spark a revolution that would fundamentally alter the Mirror Universe forever.

Prime Kirk also gave Spock access to a mysterious secret weapon his Mirror counterpart had, called the Tantalus Field, which Kirk presents like it can kill literally anyone in the universe remotely—which seems like it would be a very convenient bit of gear for anyone planning a violent revolution. Yay?

Deep Space Nine Era: New Foes, New Rebels

By the late 24th-century, the Mirror Universe had undergone the most dramatic changes it had ever seen. Good news: Mirror Spock took Kirk’s message to heart, using his position of power (and aforementioned superweapon) to rise to rule the Terran Empire, enacting a swathe of reforms that brought about disarmament and a more peaceful, less warlike version of itself. Bad news: That less aggressive and demilitarized Empire got overthrown by an alliance between the Klingons and Cardassians, which liberated the worlds ruled by the Empire, and proceeded to enslave the Vulcans and Terrans themselves. The Alliance then became the dominating rulers of the Alpha Quadrant, led by Regent Worf.

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Suddenly finding themselves ruled instead of ruling, Terrans formed a rebellion quite like the ones they’d spent the prior centuries ruthlessly putting down. Inspired by an accidental trip into the Mirror Universe by Dr. Bashir and Kira Nerys in Deep Space Nine’s “Crossover,” the Mirror version of Benjamin Sisko led an organized revolution against the Alliance forces, striking out at the planet Bajor, a key member of the Alliance following its liberation from Terran hands, and the Cardassian station it was ruled from. Mirror Sisko fell in battle, and was replaced by the Mirror version of Miles O’Brien. With a little help from the Prime reality in the form of plans to for a new I.S.S. Defiant, the Terran Resistance eventually captured Mirror Worf, signaling the downfall of the Alliance’s rule.

Though we last saw the “latest” from the Mirror Universe all the way back in 1999 on TV, ancillary Star Trek material has attempted to try and fill in some extra gaps in the alt-reality’s centuries-long timeline. Everything from books, to video games, to even comics have slotted themselves into the spans of decades left untouched by Trek series, but beyond Deep Space Nine, we don’t really have an idea of where the Mirror Universe went after the Alliance’s downfall.

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For the foreseeable future, that’s likely to be the case. The only way we’ll see the future of the Mirror Universe is if Star Trek’s TV adventures travel beyond where past shows have gone before. With Discovery here to stay, that’s likely not going to happen any time soon.

[writesandramblings]

The Captain’s Secret - p.14

“All That Glitters”

A/N: Though “Drastic Measures” won’t be out for months yet, and I typically ignore the books and stick strictly to show content (because to date, I’ve read all of two Star Trek novels, and one of those was the Wrath of Khan novelization), and I had no intention of featuring this particular character initially... I felt it appropriate to give a nod and a reference to the book’s synopsis.

Full Chapter List Part 1 - Objects in Motion << 13 - Callbacks 15 - Threat Assessment >>

The smile faded from Lorca's face almost as quickly as the transmission terminated. He stared at the wall display, arms stiff and palms pressed against the desk, breathing slowly through his nose with a mixture of anger and disgust.

He saw Lalana move in the corner of his eye and glanced towards her. She approached the desk and drew herself up to its height. He took a deep breath to clear his anger. "Get what you needed?"

Her huge, unblinking eyes betrayed nothing, but she reached into the bowl of fortune cookies on the table with her tail and plucked out one, putting it in front of him like a reward. "I am very sorry to have put you in this position, captain," she said. "But I cannot express adequately the immense thankfulness I feel for what you are doing for my people. The Lului will never forget this. I will make sure of it."

He smiled faintly and took the cookie. "That's reward enough for me." It was a shame lului didn't go in for tools or structures of any kind. He would have liked a statue or three, or a city named after him. Maybe in ten thousand years their culture would evolve to such a point. Unfortunately, absent written records, it seemed unlikely he would still be remembered. He cracked the cookie open.

"You have done so much more than I ever could have expected. Before I met you, the only aliens I had ever encountered were trying to hunt or kill me, or seemed not to think anything of the fact. That there is an entire Starfleet of people who would risk themselves to protect others is an unimaginable treasure."

An unimaginable treasure. There was no way of knowing at this point how much of her phrasings were the translator or nuance inherent to the lului language, but she really seemed to have a way with words. "It's a shame you don't write. I think you'd be good at it." She clicked her tongue, finding that funny. "No books, no art, no manufacturing, no buildings... What do your people do all day long?"

"We watch things! That is why our eyes are so big."

He wasn't entirely sure if it was a joke until he heard her lightly click twice. He chuckled faintly, shook his head, and sighed. She was worse than him in some ways.

She looked at the slip of paper on the table. "What did the fortune say?"

"If you fail to try, you never succeed."

"Ah! May I keep that one?"

He handed it to her with a shrug. It was the first time she'd shown any real interest in the physical paper. She pressed it against her chest with her tail, piercing it at the top and bottom with tendrils of fur that looped around through the miniscule holes and secured it in place. Of course, being unable to read, she had affixed it upside-down. He bit his tongue and decided not to mention it.

She tilted her head down to admire the paper adornment. When she turned back to him, it was easy to imagine she was smiling. "What will you do next?"

Lorca cocked his head and furrowed his brow. "You know how he said the price was higher for us than Margeh and T'rond'n?"

"Nn," she offered in assent, and nodded awkwardly. Apparently she was beginning to integrate human physical cues into her repertoire.

"I was thinking we'd go make up that shortfall." From the grin on his face, it was clear he had one of those plans that was going to be very dangerous fun to execute.

"Thirty seconds!"

Lorca was, at least for a moment, sitting in his chair, but the rush of adrenaline at what was coming propelled him out of it towards the viewscreen. "Red alert!" he called in a serious tone, but with an undeniable note of something approaching glee, because the coming encounter truly was in his wheelhouse. The ship lights dimmed to emergency as unnecessary systems terminated and valuable power and resources were redirected towards combat essentials.

"Five seconds!" Carver, too, sounded in good spirits, finding her captain's mood infectious.

The Triton slid into normal space with shields up and weapons powered, coming face to face with a waiting fleet of four starships of mixed origin: a Rigellian freighter refitted with extra weapons, a mid-size Tellarite attack cruiser, and a pair of Andorian strike craft, small and very quick. Behind this ragtag fleet sat a large asteroid outfitted with a docking port and several cannons and beam weapons, some of them stripped off of starships. Locating this base had been the central purpose of the Triton's recently abandoned patrol assignment in this sector of space.

"All power to dorsal shields, take us under," ordered Lorca. Under, of course, was a relative term in space, but Carver sent the ship along a course that presented the reinforced side of the ship to the enemy.

"Incoming hail!" reported Russo, loudly but calmly.

"Onscreen."

The yellow and blue face that appeared was entirely a familiar one, because Lorca had encountered it half a dozen times since taking command of the Triton. "Greshy!" he greeted in a tone verging on manic.

Greshengavalitenorat was entirely displeased to see him and frothed slightly as he spat back his name in full, because in his species, each syllable constituted a point of honor, and to refer to someone by anything less than their full name was implying an immense degree of disrespect and (in Lorca's case particularly) unforgivable familiarity. In fact, Gresh had added two more syllables since their last encounter: "Greshengavalitenoratimal!"

Lorca knew fully well that name syllables were usually added by Stibellian tribal leaders, and Gresh had not been appointed to this position much less seen a tribal elder in at least five years, so the syllables added to his name were all the pirate's own doing and hardly worthy of repeat.

The Triton shuddered as phaser blasts from Gresh's little fleet hit the shields to modest effect. Ops reported shields down eight percent, but that wasn't important. "Timal, that's new. Let me guess, it means 'runs from Starfleet,'" Lorca quipped, barely reacting to the volley. It was a good thing Benford wasn't present; he might have questioned whether or not baiting Gresh was truly a necessity.

It wasn't. But it was fun.

"You will be destroyed, human! You are no match for us." Another volley dropped the Triton's shields to seventy-five percent. "I want to watch the look on your face as you burn!"

The Triton shifted a portion of shield power rearward to protect the warp nacelles as it put the bulk of Gresh's fleet behind it. Carver was taking them on a roundabout course towards the underside of the asteroid base. The base's defenses fired, further weakening the shields to sixty-two percent, but this had the added benefit of making it more difficult for the ship fleet to follow along that same course, as they ran the very real risk of running into friendly fire.

"You know, I would love to grant that wish for you, Greshy, but... Eraldo?"

Russo terminated the transmission. The Triton began to swing around the rear of the asteroid, out of reach of the station's forward-facing armaments.

Lorca held up his hand as if conducting an orchestra. "And... Now!" He dropped his hand, and on cue, the Triton's shields dropped.

Though the Triton's course under the asteroid had not been advisable for the allied pirate ships, one of the captains of the Andorian strike craft had the foresight to fly over the top of the base and began pelting the Triton's unshielded hull with phaser fire, scorching ugly marks across the ship's bow.

"Minor breaches, decks three to five," reported ops.

"Steady on," said Lorca. "Chief, tell me you're done!"

"Done!" came Billingsley's voice over the comms.

The command didn't need to be said, but Lorca gave it: "Shields up!" The strike craft's next shots was absorbed to little effect. "Full impulse!"

The Triton sailed over the strike craft and was presented with the rest of the pirate fleet again.

"Fire on that freighter!" The lieutenant at the tactical station didn't need to be told twice. The Rigellian freighter was four things: the largest of Gresh's craft, the most heavily armored, the slowest, and the least shielded. The freighter's main purpose was the transport of seized goods, not ship to ship combat, and though it had been outfitted with more weapons than were standard, like all retrofit armaments, its phaser systems were more liable to overload or misfire because the ship's power systems had not been designed for them. Especially when its shields were under stress.

Gresh's hodgepodge installation on the asteroid shared many of these same characteristics, with the substantial difference that its armaments, temperamental as they could be, were very powerful. Soaring back to the front of the asteroid put the Triton back in range of these weapons, and suddenly it was taking fire from both sides and Lorca had to grab the safety handle on Carver's station to avoid falling over. "Drop us," he said to Carver.

For a moment, it looked like the Triton was on a collision course with at least two members of Gresh's fleet, but the saucer continued its tilt downward, drawing the base's fire toward the pirate ships. Coupled with the Triton's fire, the freighter's shields sputtered and a small explosion sparked from an overloaded power relay. Its systems were disabled. Though its weapons were the weakest of the bunch, it was one less thing for Carver to worry about as she carried out Lorca's order of evasive maneuvers.

They had one goal and one goal only at this point: to distract Gresh's fleet and buy time.

In the Triton's faintly bulky EV Suits, the four figures making their way across the asteroid's surface could have been anyone. It was only on closer inspection that their identities were revealed: Commander Jackson Benford, Lieutenant Commander Reiko Morita, Lieutenant Commander Arzo, and a security officer named Walter Chen who held the rank of Lieutenant junior grade.

The battery of fire from the asteroid's defenses lit up the "sky" overhead with an array of red, yellow, and blue lights as beautiful as it was deadly. Benford led them towards the nearest access point and Arzo overrode the airlock controls.

Benford watched the Triton pass over their position, wincing at the assortment of fire the ship was taking. The shields were dangerously low already. Pushing his worry for the ship out of his mind, Benford followed the others into the airlock.

He waited for the telltale hiss of atmosphere to subside before removing his helmet. Arzo was already overriding the internal door controls. Benford, Morita, and Chen advanced with weapons ready.

They followed Arzo's directions, heading towards a dilithium signature through the twisting maze of rough-hewn rock tunnels. Luckily the Triton was doing an excellent job of keeping Gresh distracted, and most of the pirates were on their ships.

But not all. Two life signs were ahead, and from Arzo's readings, there was no way to reach the stash except through that tunnel. They would have to shoot their way through. They split to either side of the hallway and advanced.

The guards were a Stibellian female and an Orion male. The Stibellian heard their footsteps coming and called out, "Who goes there!" Her companion grunted dismissively.

"Probably just rocks," he said after a moment. There were occasional shudders as armaments from the Triton hit the asteroid base, shaking dust from the ceiling and walls.

"You're so stupid, Or-Harran," said the Stibellian. "You deserve to be here, but me—!"

They waited a moment, but the bickering seemed to have ended. The hall was quiet. Benford signaled Morita and Chen.

They whipped around the corner, firing to stun. The Orion male was unprepared, but the Stibellian female on his far side was facing them with her weapon at the ready. Still, both fell to the ground.

They proceeded towards the door, Morita with a frown. "Who hit her?" she asked, looking at the Stibellian. She'd targeted the larger Orion male and hadn't seen a shot hit the second target, and she didn't see any phaser burns.

The answer was no one. The Stibellian suddenly bounced to her feet, grabbing Chen as a shield, the point of a Klingon dagger pressing into his back. "Starfleet scum!" she hissed, backing towards to control panel by the door.

"Not one more step," warned Morita.

"You wouldn't shoot your own crew, Starfleet," said the Stibellian.

Morita jerked her chin confidently. "Try me." She lined up her shot. The Stibellian tried to pull Chen backwards, but he stood his ground, eyes fixed calmly on Morita. They were here to do a job and Chen had no intention of being the reason they failed it.

The Stibellian realized she didn't have the leverage to force Chen to shield her all the way to the panel. The frill behind her ears raised with anger. She wasn't going to be able to alert Gresh to the intruders.

But there was something she could do. "Remember me!" she shouted, and jammed the dagger through the EV suit into the soft flesh beneath Chen's ribcage. "I am Eqomaleniba, now Eqomalenibaley!" Apparently, the trend of assigning your own syllables was endemic to Gresh's crew.

Chen slumped against the wall. Morita fired and Stibellian fell to the ground for real this time. Both Morita and Arzo were at Chen's side a moment later. "I'm—I'm okay," he panted, wincing and groaning. The blood from the wound was dark and viscous. Morita applied a self-sealing compress to stop the flow.

"What about them?" asked Arzo, glancing at the pirates. "They may compromise our mission if they reveal we were down here."

"Not our concern," said Benford. "Can he move?"

"He shouldn't," advised Morita.

Benford and Arzo each took one of Chen's arms and helped him into the cargo storage area, sitting him against the wall behind one of the larger crates. He nodded his thanks.

The storage was full of crates of design and markings belonging to several spacefarings entities, Starfleet included. Several crates of unrefined dilithium sat among the various prizes and baubles seized from passing freighters. The quantity of dilithium was far more than they needed for their purposes. Arzo confirmed its quality and Benford attached transponders to two of the dilithium crates. Most of the goods would be returned to their rightful owners. If a couple of crates went missing, who was to say they hadn't been ferreted away somewhere else by one of the pirates, or used, or traded?

Benford checked his mission clock. They were running a couple minutes behind due to Chen's injury. He pressed a phaser into Chen's hand. "On to Objective B," he announced, and hoped the continuing barrage of fire they heard was a good sign.

"Shields down!"

"All power to weapons!" ordered Lorca as the lights of the bridge flickered and flashed. Where the hell was Benford?

The Triton was running a good game against the three remaining pirate ships and the base, but there was only so much it could do. The Andorian strike craft were impossible targets, so they had focused all their firepower on the Tellarite cruiser and the asteroid's firepower. The cruiser was moderately damaged. At this point, so was the Triton. Two of the asteroid's main batteries were down, including one of the flak cannons, but three-quarters of its armaments were still firing just fine.

If this remained a war of attrition, the Triton would lose.

"Warp signature!" called out the officer at Arzo's station, and a moment later, the Shenzhou slid into view, releasing a full volley of weapons fire toward the base and flying between the Triton and the brunt of the oncoming fire.

"They're hailing," said Russo, brushing the hair from his face as if anyone on the Shenzhou was going to care what the bridge crew of the Triton looked like.

A familiar face appeared onscreen. "Captain Georgiou, I see you got my invitation," greeted Lorca.

Philippa Georgiou couldn't resist a smile, partly because she was pleased to see the confident young man she had first encountered as lieutenant commander finally in command of his own starship, and partly because it was impossible not to feel a sense of pride at arriving on scene a last-minute hero. "Making trouble again I see, captain."

The bridge of the Shenzhou looked positively serene compared to the Triton. Absolutely no consoles were sparking, smoking, or blinking. No one looked the least bit unkempt. Lorca ignored the complete disparity between their bridges and smoothly replied, "Trouble? No, we've got this situation completely under control."

"Really?" questioned Georgiou. The Triton was matching course to the Shenzhou, keeping the other ship's shields between it and any further damage. One of the Andorian strike craft suddenly spun away at a vector away from the battle, disabled by the Shenzhou's superior phasers.

"Shields back online," reported ops.

"Oh, absolutely," said Lorca, and as if on cue, a line of explosions triggered on Gresh's asteroid and three more batteries went down. "Would you look at that."

Georgiou was surprised by that, and curious. "You?" she queried.

Lorca shrugged in reply. "Maybe." His smug smile said it all.

The Tellarite cruiser suddenly decided the battle didn't look so promising and broke away, cutting all power to its weapons and going to warp. Absent its larger companion, the remaining Andorian strike craft followed suit.

"No honor among pirates," said Lorca.

"Gresh is hailing," said Russo.

Lorca was gratified Gresh was still hailing the Triton instead of the newly-arrived Shenzhou. "Put it on."

The transmission was full of static, but Lorca could just about make out Gresh's infuriated expression. "Stop! Enough! I surrender!" His forces had abandoned him and his plunder wasn't worth dying over.

"We accept," said Lorca simply, and could have left it at that. Instead, he asked, "Tell me, Greshy. How many syllables do you think your Tribal Council will give me for bringing you in?"

Greshengavalitenoratimal howled and Georgiou shook her head. Yes, that was entirely the Gabriel Lorca she remembered.

Part 15

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Ships seen during "Preludes":

Medusan Transport

USS Dauntless

USS Protostar

Vau N'Akat vessels

Tellarite Cruiser

Kazon scout

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Tellarite Cruiser

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Tellarite Cruiser

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Eaglemoss Tellarite Cruiser, 2018.

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Tellarite Cruiser