Aftermath: on board the planet-killer

For long seconds, everything seemed to accelerate. The energy build up in the bow of the planet killer, it's movement towards the livng solar system, the attack run of the dreadnought, the destructive advance of the Undines that had boarded the intruder... then, everything stopped.

It was like a moment of eternity, flashing in all their minds between two heartbeats until the end of the universe.

A void suddenly was felt from all the minds connected during this instant, like something emerging from the depth or moving out far away in the darkness; something that had been there but shouldn't have been... something that now was gone. Something...or...

Someone.

And then, a new consciousness manifested itself in all the minds on board the planet killer, in the conflict area and all accross Fluidic Space. A new consciousness, yet instantly known to all... and a thought.

"It is over. All is well. The weak has perished."

On board the intruder ship, on the dreadnought, in the entire area and alla ccross Fluidic Space, everyone recognized the mind thus made known. And on board the two Starfleet ships, everyone recognized the  craggy, unsmiling yet serene face that appeared on their viewing screen.

Boothby.

Or rather, the Undine having taken the likeness of the legendary gardener of Starfleet Academy. He was standing in the forward central control room of his bioship. Behind him, there was a strange ovoid pod-like thing broken open like a hatched egg, still oozing some dark green liquid from it's edges. On the wall to it's right, an sphincter-like aperture also was ripped open, several tall silhouettes of three-legged, grey-skinned Undines standing in the broken down doorway with large eyes blinking in confusion.

"Federation people," then said the Boothby-creature with a firm voice, "stand down. There will be no more violence, no more fear, no more suffering, no more painful deaths here... or ever. It is done."

And what he stated was also perceived by all the sensitive minds throughout his ship, throughout the battle zone, throughout the entire immensity of Fluidic Space.

Aboard the flagship of Lotus Fleet, Joey Sisko wasn't wavering just yet.

"Doctor, open a channel."

"You're on, Sir."

This is Commander Joey D. Sisko in temporary command of the USS Horizon from the United Federation of Planets. I will ask this once; where is Captain Kheren?"

"The exact same question was voiced at the exact same moment from behind the altered Undine. From the doorway behind him stood the bajoran commanding officer of the Polaris.

The Boothby impersonator turned a small smile to him as he entered with his team in a very well coordinated and efficent covering deployement that would leave him a pile of cinders if he even twitched the wrong way. The old man's head nodded appreciatively to them and back to the viewer were Sisko stood before the command chair of the Horison as if he was himself about to jump through the screen at the slightest excuse.

"Excellent... You Starfleet people are exactly what I hoped for... what we needed... to be strong... and survive."

His cryptic words were only met by phaser rifles powered up noisily. Boothby sighed and laughed at the same time but the joy quickly froze on his elderly features as one hand went to something that was lying below the viewing screen

From his vantage point, the half-Bajoran on the Starfleet ship could not see it. In the command center of the planet-killer however, everyone could stare at the two meters ovoid shape encased in the wall. It looked like some giant seedpod with fine tendrils sprouting out from it to imbed themselves in the wall, green as the skin-textured bulkhead itself and slightly luminous. And in the light they could make out a form. It was in a foetal position, darker than the pod itself.

It was an Undine. But instead of the usual dull grey-green color, it was dark grey with a definite blue tinge to it.

And it was neither moving nor breathing.

"Your captain is a ... very peculiar creature," Boothby then said in his gravely voice. "We didn't knew his kind had an osmotic circulatory system and was so... susceptible to biochemical inoculations; you Starfleet people are so different from one another, it boggles the mind. The effect of our altering compound was really astonishingly fast on his physiology... and we didn't know until now that he was a genetic mutant... and completely braindead to psionics. The final result was beyond my... expectations."

"What have you done to him?"

The voice of Alexandria Somers was so cold and hard it sounded like the phaser blast she was barely restraining herself to fire at the polymorphed being. Boothby didn't seem to mind but cocked an eyebrow at her.

"You were there, if I recall correctly. I had been mortally injured by the attack of those who did not share my... vision. I needed someone to take my place; to take control of my ship and finish what I had started."

"To do what?" asked Sisko from accross the screen.

The transformed Undine sighed and looked at each of them in turn as he spoke with a grave tone.

"Save my people."

He paused a moment then looked more pointedly at Sisko and Oseno while he explained.

"As I told your captain, we are a race of individuals, a chaotic, egotistical, almost solliptic species. In our own universe, we are alone; but now that we are connected to yours, we are facing what we perceive as an incomprehensible challenge to our very being and an insurmontable threat to our very existence; that, not only of other sentient species, but societal species, species that band together for a common goal, be it conquest.. or survival. Against that, we were powerless... weak... doomed to perish."

Somers slightly lowered her weapon as understanding suddenly dawned on her.

"You wanted to unify your kind... with a common threat."

Boothby turned to smile at her.

"Another of your fearsome traits, you Starfleet people, one that you share with the Borg; you understand and adapt quickly. You are exactly right. Simplistic aproach, I agree, but we are a very simple race. The trick was to... bring to my people the same thought, the same feeling, the same conviction by focusing their attention, their emotions and their thoughts on one single thing that would show them that unity and cooperation were the best way to be strong... and survive.  I and a few others, those that had worked with me before on the Starfleet infiltration project, understood all this... but many more among us did not, even after facing the Borg threat... and yours."

"So you wanted us to play the bad guy for you," Sisko understood.

"Yes; that's why I was dismayed, no, disapointed, that your Starfleet had sent just one ship to meet us; I was expecting at least a task force, considering the threat we ourselves were to you. Again, I misjudged your versatility, your resourcefulness and your unpredictability... but most of all, that you would genuinely pursue a mission of peace even when you should have expected treachery."

Boothby laughed and shook his head like someone realizing he had become the victim of his own joke.

"I knew my... opposition would track me down. I wanted to persuade you to accompany me here, at the very center of our universe, where our species was born for that Peace Talk. At best, your intrusion would have forced those others to meet you and maybe your celebrated diplomatic skills and experience with other species would have convinced them; at worst, your... invasion of our space would have triggered the need to unify ourselves against your... threat. One way or the other, my people would have united, would have become stronger from that unity and would have been able to survive any future threat, real threat that would befall us."

"But... you were... killed," said Somers with blinking eyes.

"Yes; but because it happened on my ship, I did not cease to exist. Our ships are more than just a tool as yours are; they are also our individual birthplaces; our "mothers" you could say in terms of that strange biology of yours. So when I was "killed" here my genetic make-up was reabsorbed by the bio matrix around me and I was... rejuvenated and our psionic link was never broken, therefore keeping alive my entire psyche. And so, here I am... again."

"Then why did you..."

"Abduct your Captain?" interrupted Boothby before Somers could finish her question. "There was little time as my opponents were threatening you, me and all I hoped to accomplish... and this rejuvenation takes some time, time I could not afford to lose... nor lose all of you. So I injected the nearest person among you with our genetic-altering compound so that this individual could become one of us and so take control of my ship, learn of my plan through the biomind connection with it and either go with my plan or provoke the same incident that could trigger in my people the change I hoped for."

"But you did not anticipate that it would be Captain Kheren," Sisko then said.

"No; even less what he was and how it would change things so much. His physiology reacted so strongly to the injection that his new body went into shock; and his complete deadness to psionics made the telepathic link with him almost impossible except at a very primal level of consciousness, similar to that of my vessel itself. Their minds somehow mingled but with neither one nor in complete control or truly conscious but nevertheless driven by similar instincts; survive... protect their people... and get back home. On top of that, the mutation of your Andorian captain flared up with the change and pushed my dreadnought, the oldest and largest of our kind, into it's next, final stage; that which you now call planet-killer."

As he talked, the Human-shaped Undine walked to the pod were laid the body of the Undine-shaped Kheren.

"As it so happened, this turned my own ship into the very major threat I initially wanted you to be. A much more serious threat than I would have ever dared to risk... but hey, it worked!"

On the bridge of the Horizon, Both Baoule brothers, Mrriish, Lumquist and Snow were visibly startled. This was one of their captain's typical epithets!

Boothby laughed at their reaction.

"He does rub on you, doesn't he? Unfortunately even as my own being was reemerging, i could not really communicate with his mind and stop all this before it was too late. Most disturbing... but fortunately, you people were there. In the end, as I hoped, you all came out for us... you and him."

He turned to face Oseno Jureth. His hand opened a compartment in a console-looking protrusion of the floor from which he took out a three-pronged seringe looking tube with some blueish liquid sloshing in it and offered it to the Bajoran.

"Take your captain with you... with this... and most of all, our gratitude. You made us strong... and more of us... your friends."

(Tag: Any responses, insertions or additions)