Son of Jetrel
Talaxian Colony Rinax II, April 17 2459, Alpha Quadrant
The comm system in Neelix’s office booted up. “Ambassador Neelix, we’re being hailed by Starfleet. It’s the U.S.S. Counterpoint. Should I route it through to you?” Neelix was a Talaxian whom Admiral Janeway, or at the time, Captain Kathryn Janeway, met in the Delta Quadrant when she was stranded there for 7 years. He joined her crew and was on Voyager for 6 and a half years, before he left. He was then appointed the official Federation Ambassador to the Delta Quadrant. Later, during the Iconian War*, he was one of the last Talaxians alive. He was captaining one of the 8 convoys Cyrus Lyctan found when he ventured into the Delta Quadrant.* After the war, he started up the Talaxian colony Rinax II on a remote moon in Federation space. “Greetings, old friend. This is Admiral Kathryn Janeway. I know I haven’t been around to see you very often, but I hope you understand I’m busy. I’m so excited to see you again, and I only wish it could be under better circumstances. Please beam aboard to my ready room.” Neelix has mixed feelings about the message. On the one hand, he was ecstatic to see his old friend. On the other, he was very worried about what could be so important that the Federation flagship, the Counterpoint, along with one of the most decorated admirals in Starfleet, would be visiting his tiny colony. He tapped his combadge. “Engineering, lower the shields and beam me over to the Counterpoint.”
The room Neelix beamed into was filled with many of his old friends: Admiral Kathryn Janeway, Admiral Ubaday Ulax,* Captain Omat’Etan,* Admiral Cyrus Lyctan,* Admiral Takkerra Lyctan,* Admiral Zris Elzerov,* Captain Tuvok, Commander B’Ellanna Torres, Commander Tom Paris, Captain Harry Kim, Captain Chakotay, and The Doctor. Neelix smiled, seeing so many old friends in one room, but stopped when he saw the grave looks on their faces. “Neelix, sit down. We have something we need to discuss.” Ordered Admiral Janeway. He nodded and found a chair. “We have some terrible reports from the Federation outposts in the Delta Quadrant. Masses of organic matter, covering kilometres, being beamed aboard ships and stations and either murdering or forcing the entire crew to escape. These masses are made up of organic matter from multiple dead organisms and suffocating them like a wave of molasses. One ensign on a ship that was taken by these…things….reported that he recognized a faint energy reading from a species he had met years ago in the Delta Quadrant. He was one of Voyager’s crew members. Before he could identify it, he was killed by a console explosion.” Chakotay told Neelix. Neelix gulped. “An-and what-what would you like me to do?” He stuttered. Neelix was scared. Omat’Etan spoke up. “All of us in this room are to go on a tactical recon mission. We’re going to find out whom and/or what is doing this, how and why.” Next was Cyrus. “We will be taking the following ships with us: the U.S.S. Counterpoint, the U.S.S. Takei,* the U.S.S. Hawking,* the U.S.S. Astrea,* the U.S.S Valencia,* the U.S.S. Prill,* the U.S.S. Zirconian,* the U.S.S. Voyager, as well as your personal vessel, the Baxial, and all 8 Talaxian convoys that survived the Iconian War.* The Baxial and the Valencia will, however, be docked aboard the Counterpoint unless they are required for away missions or combat. This makes a total fleet of 17 Federation vessels. This should offer you a little more comfort.” “This is a secret mission, and only the people in this room and the highest of Starfleet officers know. We will be running a skeleton crew on every ship. On the large ships, we will have one captain, one first officer, and two experienced officers in every department. This will amount to about 20 crew on every ship. On the Baxial and the Valencia, we will only have two officers. So, in total, we will need approximately 300 people on this mission.” Reported Takkerra. “Every ship will be equipped with the finest technology and crew. We will be absolutely prepared for any circumstance. I’ve even designed a shield-sharing system, so all the ships will pool their shield power together and create one collective shield.” assured B’Ellanna. Neelix tilted his head, side to side, thinking about the mission. Admiral Janeway stood. “Our fleet will rendezvous at DSOmega, a secret deep space station on the border of the Delta Quadrant and the Alpha Quadrant, tomorrow at 1200 hours sharp.” Everyone stood, saluted and walked to wherever they needed to go. Neelix beamed back to the colony, but this time to the hangar.
“Well, my sweet, it looks like we’ll be heading out again. We’ll make it through, I promise.” Neelix rubbed the Baxial’s hull soothingly, as though it could truly understand what he was telling it. He started up the systems on all the convoys, and ordered the Talaxians on the mission to report to the hangar. When they arrived, he started a speech. “Friends, we have fought many hardships in our lifetimes. I remember when Rinax was still a beautiful place, inhabited by friendly people. Now it’s a dead moon in a dead system, in a dead quadrant.”* The room went silent. “But there have been reports of a spark of life in our old quadrant. Maybe hope that we can one day rebuild our society. For now, we must trust Starfleet with our lives. They have never failed us before.” The group cheered. They saluted, and boarded their respective ships. “Here we go again.” The old Talaxian sighed, and suddenly realized how old he had gotten. The death of Rinax was well over 90 years ago. If it wasn’t for the Federation’s medical technology, he would almost definitely be dead by now. Most Talaxians didn’t live past 80. He shook this thought off and boarded the Baxial.
Neelix arrived at DSOmega right on time. A cheerful Talaxian voice booted up. “Mr. Neelix, we’re being hailed.” “Thank you, Computer. Put it on the main viewscreen.” An image of Janeway on the bridge of Voyager showed on the viewscreen. Nostalgia overcame Neelix. He hadn’t been on that bridge in 81 years. “Good to see us both back in command of our ships, eh, Mr. Neelix?” He smiled back. “Yes, Captain. Shall we head out?” “I can’t see why not. All of our ships are here, and in prime condition. Let’s go!” The ships headed out to their first destination, a Federation outpost near the edge of the Delta Quadrant, and prepared to beam aboard.
**Neelix next found himself inside the station, surrounded by strange goo, corpses, and the smell of death-all in all, a depressing and disturbing place. Janeway spoke up again. “Everyone, scan for life signs. If there are any survivors, we need to get to them as soon as possible.” They all pulled out their tricorders and began to scan. Neelix gasped, seeing a faint blip on his screen. “Captain, there’s one over this way!” They ran to try and find the fading life form under all the debris. There had clearly been a battle here. The station hadn’t gone without a fight. They heard moaning, and followed it as it grew louder. Eventually, they found a Vulcan male, trapped under console shrapnel. They lifted it up off of him, and suddenly realized who he was, or who he had been-Ensign Vorik, one of the few Vulcan crew members on board Voyager during their 7 years in the delta Quadrant. “Captain…we fought back, as hard as we could….but the enemy was simply too strong for us. That thing beamed onto our station and began to expand and trap everyone in its grasp. Eventually, we managed to kill it, but by that point, the station was already too badly damaged to repair. A few managed to escape, but most of us were left here to die. At least now, I can die in peace, knowing that my old friends will avenge my death.” “Vorik! Don’t let go-“yelled B’Ellanna. But before she could finish her sentence, Janeway stopped her. “This is what he would want. He knew that he couldn’t be saved, B’Ellanna.” “I know this was one of your oldest friends, but we must put him aside and continue our search. Let us go.” remarked Cyrus. They continued their search for hours, but all they could find were more corpses and goo. Until they came to the Transporter Room. “Zris, check the logs.” Ordered Ubaday. “Aye, sir.” Zris was about to reach for the console, which had miraculously survived, but B’Ellanna grabbed his hand. “You listen here, PetaQ. I’m the senior engineer here. When there’s work to be done, I’m the chief. You’ll be my assistant. Janeway gasped. “I think you might be mistaking the words “senior” and “senile”, Torres.” Remarked Zris, condescendingly. B’Ellanna was about to punch him in the face when Janeway and Cyrus stepped in the middle. “Listen here, you two. You both have unique experiences in engineering. B’Ellanna, you were stranded in a remote quadrant for seven years, and still managed to keep your ship in tip-top shape. And Zris, you single-handedly killed one hundred Iconian troops in the midst of a battle simply using a few tricks.*** You two will have to learn to pool your unique gifts and co-operate, at least for this mission.” The two veteran engineers scowled, nodded and began work on the transporter logs.
Back in the briefing room aboard the Counterpoint, B’ellanna and Zris stood up to report their findings.
“We discovered an energy signature of the ship that transported the mass over to the outpost. B’Ellanna thought it looked familiar, but she couldn’t find it in the Alpha, Beta or Gamma Quadrant sections of the Federation database.” Reported Zris. “So, I decided to cross-reference it with the Delta Quadrant database aboard Voyager. I found a match-Haakonian.” Neelix’s face crinkled up when he heard that name. They were the people who had killed the people of Rinax, the moon of his homeworld, which he had lived on up until he was a young adult. They had then taken control of his home world, Talax, and all of its colonies. “For those of you who have not had the….pleasure….of meeting a Haakonian, they are some of the most ruthless, violent people I have ever met. I pray that they are not still alive.” growled Neelix. The Zirconian Fleet’s* senior staff gulped, and Voyager’s senior staff lowered their heads. Ubaday turned to Janeway, as she was the leader of this mission. “What will be our next move, Admiral?” “I have a hunch. Have all your ships lay in a course for Haakonia.” ordered Kathryn.
“Here we are. Hail the planet.” Ordered Janeway. “But, Captain….there are no lifesigns on that planet.” Replied Harry Kim. “Just do it, Mr. Kim. Trust my instinct.” “Alright. Wait…there’s a response! I thought everyone in the Delta Quadrant was killed during the war! Should I route it through?” “Yes, Mr. Kim.” The main viewscreen booted up, and a Haakonian in a dark room showed his face. “Greetings, Admiral Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship Voyager. What a fancy title that is. Oh, and I see you took the liberty of bringing some friends with you. Well, I don’t really have many options here, do I? So, what is it you’d like to discuss?” offered the Haakonian. “No offense intended, but how the hell are you people even alive? 20 years ago, an enemy of ours called the Iconians came through this quadrant and destroyed nearly all life.” “Well, you did say nearly, didn’t you? We hid in underground bunkers, deep under the crusts of our empire’s worlds, impenetrable to sensors. We took the best of our technology and the most intelligent of our people and hid here and on other planets and waited the fight out. When you defeated the Iconians, we celebrated and are now rebuilding our society from the ground up-quite literally.” Kathryn paused for a moment. “Fascinating. Now, to business. You remember tales of the starship Voyager from your childhood, correct? Those tales were true. That ship was stranded in this quadrant 80 years ago. I was the captain of that ship, and that is the very vessel on which I stand.” Kathryn told the Haakonian proudly. “Really? How intriguing. You must be a very old woman, then, Admiral.” Janeway frowned. Janeway began to retaliate. “That was rather rude, don’t you think? Well, it doesn’t matter. Anyways, we met your race many years ago. We registered your species’ energy signature in this ship’s database. And we met a man who was responsible for the Metreon Cascade. **** He wanted to try to revive his victims, but ended up creating non-sentient masses or organic matter instead. Keeping up?” She looked at the man on the screen. He nodded to her. “A little while after the Iconian War, the Federation started to expand territory into the Delta Quadrant. A Spacedock here, a colony there. But a few months ago, we started to get disturbing reports from our people. Their installments were being overrun by giant masses of organic matter, similar to those that Jetrel ended up creating when he failed to revive his victims. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?” The Haakonian bit his lip. She could tell he was hiding something. “No, of course not. We’ll contact you if we find something.” “Thank you, sir.”
Jetrel the 2nd turned around to speak to his comrades. “They know that they’re behind this. What they don’t know is how weak we are. If they find that out, we most certainly will not win this quadrant back.”
Janeway was pacing in the ready room, frustrated, surrounded by the senior staff of the mission. “Calm down, Kathryn. It’s unhealthy to obsess.” The Doctor ordered. “How can I be calm at a time like this, Doctor? They are very clearly hiding something. I believe that they are using Jetrel’s technology to weaponize dead organic matter. If they continue, this may become a serious issue. We’ve already lost many lives. I’d prefer not to lose any more.” “What do you suggest, Kathryn? We can’t exactly kill them all. That’s completely against our beliefs. We’d be no better than them.” stated Tuvok. “Alright. Let’s regroup at the nearest dead system and think this over.” “Aye, captain. I’ll contact the other ships and lay in a course.”
The senior staff of the mission was seated in the Counterpoint’s ready room. “We know all the facts now. All we need to do is figure out how to proceed from here on.” The ship shook. Everyone stood. Ubaday tapped her combadge. “Ubaday to bridge. What the hell is going on out there? I thought everyone in this quadrant was supposed to be dead or decimated!” A conn officer responded. “Evidently not, captain. There are 4 Haakonian ships out there. Wait a second…they’ve ceased fire. They’re hailing us. I’ll beam you all up to the bridge.”
“Ah, good to see you with all your friends, Kathryn. So, are you ready to give up? If not, we will destroy you.” “Like hell you will! Conn, drop the hail! Everyone, back to your ships! Neelix, I’m going to need you out there on the Baxial. Cyrus, we’re going to need you to distribute your weapons collection in case of boarding parties. I’ll head back to Voyager.” Everyone followed Janeway’s orders, and the battle began.
Transphasic torpedoes were fired, every shuttle and small craft docked on the ships launched. 2 Haakonian ships were destroyed, but not before they beamed organic matter onto 2 of the convoys and the Valencia. They were overrun, and only half of those officers on board those ships were able to transport to the Counterpoint. Eventually, the Haakonians retreated, and the fleet had time to lick their wounds.
“Now, it’s clear to me what’s going on. The Haakonians have always been a species used to power. They couldn’t stand losing their empire, and they saw Jetrel’s work as their last chance at ruling the galaxy. But we stood in their way. We were a threat that needed to be destroyed. The way I see it, our last chance is to take out Haakonia as a threat, before this gets too serious.” Cyrus stood. “How exactly do you plan on accomplishing that, Kathryn? These people don’t seem to understand anything but dictatorship and violence.” The Doctor, to everyone’s surprise, stood to join the discussion. “I have a strategy. I watched the captain use it a few times back when we were stranded here. Here’s my plan.” Everyone huddled in to listen.
The fleet approached the planet. “Hail them, Mr. Kim.” The Haakonians responded immediately. “Come to finish us off, Admiral? I hope you realize we won’t go down without a fight.” Sneered Jetrel II. “You’re a disgrace to your father, Jetrel. He made a massive mistake that killed many, but he sacrificed his life to try and make up for it. You use his work, the work meant to bring back those he killed, to bring about more pain and suffering. You have no idea how much I would enjoy killing your pathetic little colony here and now. But unfortunately, that is against my standards, and you don’t deserve the satisfaction of forcing me to break my values. So I’m going to offer you a proposition. We will give your planets the technology for interplanetary travel, and enough supplies to build yourselves a new society, as well as defense systems. But all of your offensive equipment will be destroyed, and we will be doing a monthly patrol of the sector in which your…..empire….is located. We will offer you assistance when needed, but we will always keep an eye on you. Will you agree to our terms? Keep in mind your only other option is to be destroyed, here and now.” Jetrel sighed. “Fine, Admiral. I’m not happy, and I don’t like you or your people, but I don’t have a choice. “He took a pained look to his face. “We agree…to your terms. “ The bridge crew cheered. “Plot a course home, Mr. Paris. I’ll start working on my report.”
And so, Haakonia and its empire were kept under constant watch. They were brought supplies, and they began to rebuild their empire. The Delta Quadrant started to reveal a few other races that had hidden in bunkers under their planets’ crusts and the Federation contacted them and became allies. The lives of the people who were killed by Haakonian forces were honoured by all and things began to be peaceful again in the Milky Way Galaxy.
*In the year 2439, an ancient race called the Iconians, who were thought to be extinct up until 2409, finally made a comeback. They came back to the Milky Way Galaxy after 2,000 years with more powerful technology than any of the races there had ever seen, and travelled through the Delta Quadrant, killing nearly everyone there. When they got to the Alpha Quadrant, they stretched their influence throughout the Beta, Gamma, and Alpha quadrants and colonized 60% of the three quadrants. Eventually, a force led by Cyrus Lyctan, his crew, and the few races left over after the initial shock created an alliance. They then travelled to the Delta Quadrant, and found 8 Talaxian convoys, the only remnants of Talaxian society, and a certain amount of Borg. The “New Federation”, as the alliance was called, took a final stand at the Iconians’ new base, Iconia II, and killed the forces on the planet, driving the rest of them out of the Milky Way Galaxy once more. The Iconians took with them a new terrorist group dubbed “Shadow Beneath the Sun”, the last few True Way, Tal Shiar, Breen, and Hirogen left after having joined the Iconian Empire’s forces during the war.
For more details, see story “Back with a Vengeance” @ trekfanfiction.net/misecellaneous/joltikintokyo/back-with-a-vengeance
**Normally, flag officers like Admiral Janeway and diplomats like Ambassador Neelix would not be called upon for dangerous away missions like this one, but with the facts that they were the ones with the experience in the Delta Quadrant and that the fleet was running such a small crew, they had no choice but to venture out into unknown circumstances.
***During the battle at Iconia II, Iconian troops beamed through the New Federation fleet’s ships’ shields like they weren’t there. One hundred beamed onto Zris’ Andorian prototype ship, the U.S.S. Prill, and he tortured and killed them one by one, using whatever ideas he could come up with while simultaneously defending his ship from planetary fire and bombarding the planet with whatever firepower he could come up with.
****The event responsible for killing the people of Rinax. It was designed by a Haakonian man named Jetrel. It was a massive cloud of Metreon particles to be spread from a large warship. It covered the atmosphere, turning Rinax from the most pleasant planet in the system to a freezing-cold world of death. Anyone who didn’t die from freezing to death died from metreon poisoning.