The TGG Multiverse
"Anatomy of a War"
Opening
The questions come with any contact. 'Where did you get this technology?' 'Why are the histories divergent?' And eventually, 'Can we join in too?' Such it's been since the nations of Universe SE-1 and Universe PA-6 first made contact with each other over a century ago. In the hundred years since dozens of universes have been catalogued, hundreds of worlds colonized, trillions of people in hundreds of nations opened to frontiers never before imagined. They are all of all shapes and sizes: great star empires that control literally thousands of planets, moons, planetoids, and asteroids and minor nations that may own a continent on some colony world in the Earth Core or Mid-Range Sectors. Some nations at contact were crawling around near-Earth space with 53c-capable Heim Drives, some jumping from star system to star system with Kearny-Fuchida systems, others racing across the void at up to five, ten, even fifteen light years per hour (that's over 100,000 times the speed of light, by the way) in Cochrane (or Kollek, or Baeur-Wagner) Space Warp Drives. And of course there are the ever-present hyperspace drives that various universes inevitably found. Most people favor the Cochrane/Kollek/Bauer-Wagner/Whomever Space Warp Drives these days. They tend to give the most bang for the buck, even though they can be the fussiest (and of course, within 30 light years nobody can challenge the Kearny-Fuchidas anyway). But that's not why you're here.
As for the questions? Well, that's the point of the book isn't it? We'll get into details later, but as this is an opening chapter let's summarize.
The Multiversal Era began in what we today would roughly call 2028 Alliance Standard Time. That was not the year that the first interuniversal contact was made, but rather that in the universes of SE-1 and PA-6 sets of alien ruins were found that contained databanks that had survived for thousands of years. Nobody knew what the name of the aliens who left either set was, or what they had been; such is presumed lost from elements of the old systems that were unrecoverable due to the time passed. What they did find led researchers from both universes on the path to discovering the mysteries of the known but then uncared-for element Straczynskium and the effects it could have if forced to bleed particles through exposure to electrical current. Five years would pass before the first IU radios were in use by both sides. Contact would be grudging, even after the researchers learned how to send video along the universe-spanning carrier waves. But by 2041 AST, it would be completed. The first IU Jump Gates were built and the nations of SE-1 and PA-6 would make contact. The contact had repercussions in both universes, but especially in SE-1 where states suspicious of the recently-formed alliance of Australia-led Oceania, the United States, and the United Kingdom had reason to further fear their close relations with the political body of the UNSE in PA-6; the result was a short yet bloody conflict between the Russian Federation and the Anglo-American Treaty Alliance which the United Nation-States of Earth from PA-6 would intervene in to go down in history as the Third Anglo-Russian Space War. Out of that stalemated conflict would come the historic New Brasilia Treaty, signed on the premier colony capital of the Brazilian Republic of SE-1 and heralding the foundation of the Inter-Universal Commerce and Exploration Commission. Under the multinational IUCEC, given control of all IU-related technology dissemination by the signatories, the race for the Multiverse was on.
The histories were divergent. Both had suffered tumultuous, bloody 21st Centuries, but had emerged differently from them. Even moreso was the difference in actual time; what is now 2028 AST was 2450 for the people of SE-1 and 2508 for those in PA-6. One universe had seen World War III wreck the globe in the 21st Century and lead to major changes upon the map (the union of Scandinavia, the annexation of Cuba and Mexico to the United States and statehood for the nations of Hispaniola, the restoration of the Donbass and Crimea to Russia, Taiwan's final reunion with mainland China) and the names Armand Giuseppe and Reinhardt von Krager would be etched into the history books of SE-1 in the same tenor as the names Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler were. The other had not seen WWIII per se but a series of conflicts, political shifts and revolutions peaceful and violent, and demographic collapse that left a battered United States as the only major global state still standing as the 22nd Century began, prompting the visionaries of that time to unify a war-weary, resource-deprived globe under a reformed United Nations based on American constitutional principles. These striking differences would be further complicated by other universes. AR-12, where democratic states of Humanity led by the powerful French and the United States faced both those Human nations that had turned to authoritarianism and the feared alien empire of the Coserians. FHI-8, where North America had become sharply divided in the 21st Century, Europe devastated and then plunged into a fascism it has yet to shake off, Britain under an imperial monarchy, and the horrors of the 21st and 22nd Centuries leading to the near extermination of the Semitic Races from the Middle East. The examples are many; to list them all has in fact caused entire volumes of works to come from the Multiverse's brightest historians. It is, honestly, beyond the purview of this work.
"Can we join too?" Through the century since the signing of the New Brasilia Treaty this question has been asked again and again, as successive space-faring civilizations have been encountered and have sought to experience the wonderous bounty of the Multiverse. Of resource-rich planets found in dozens of copies across the known cosmos. The IUCEC has admitted many new members, such to the point that its structure now begins to resemble the United Nations of the 20th Century, each member nation guarding its seat with such jealousy that even those nations that founded the Alliance of Democratic Nations this past decade have stubbornly retained their seats. The IUCEC has even seen fit to grant the Alliance Government it's own seat upon the IUCEC simply so it can be represented as an entity, its own constituent nations still enforcing their interests as they see fit. The IUCEC considers its mandate to be the peaceful expansion of the Multiversal Community. The Jump Gates it operates are protected by treaty (and sometimes by the force of its signatories, as MWB-32's Clans of Kerensky discovered recently). There is no telling how the IUCEC may yet evolve in the future, with such diverse new political entities as the Federated Commonwealth of MWB-32, the races of the InterStellar Alliance of EM-5, and the large United Federation of Planets of ST-3 all seeking membership on various conditions.
With the questions answered with such brevity, it should be noted that the Multiverse refuses to be so easily summarized. The scope and diversity of it boggles the mind. Universes like MWB-32, SE-1, and PA-6, with no known existing alien races, alongside the universes of EM-5 and ST-3 and AR-12 where aliens are more common; over a hundred ply the spaceways of ST-3. Lands of opportunity and lands of empty promise beckon to many many trillions of souls, all kinds of variants of what we, until lately, knew as Humankind, but might more accurately call Sentientkind in this magnificent era. We have a Multiverse with multiple copies of each nation, made different from individual history but still similar in background. A Multiverse where the surviving German and Austrian and Russian Empires that, for most, fell in what is called World War I still exist today as thriving space-faring empires of Universe AGC-1, while Texas stands as a space-faring Great Power of FHI-8 and an individual state of the United States of SE-1 or AR-12. A Multiverse of spiritual Dorei and rational Vulcans, nationalist Davions and internationalist Starfleeters, proud Klingon warriors and contemplative Minbari scholars.
This is the Multiverse. And now we're going to tell its story.
-Preface of "The Multiverse: A Short-Yet-Still-So-Very-Long History" by Dr. John Lawson, Dean of Multiversal History, University of New Chatham, published 2153 AST/2575 SE-1 Calender
Prologue
From the moment the Alliance of Democratic Nations purchased the New Liberty Sector from the Federation, desiring of another trading partner and a shorter border with the aggressive Cardassians, the two states were on a collision course. Alliance intervention in the Keloan Civil War in February and March of 2153 AST and their resulting restoration of the J'Keloiioa Dynasty to the Keloan race's throne convinced the Cardassians that they had to keep Bajor, which they had strip-mined into uselessness, in order to maintain a flanking position against the Federation in a future war. In turn they sought to crack down on the Bajoran Resistance, using patsies in the Federation's fanatical anti-war movement to ensure the Federation government lacked the political capital to respond.
This brutal crackdown, and other measures the Federation took under the pressure of their anti-war movement at Cardassian insistence, disgusted an Alliance populace that was growing to sympathize with the wave of desperate Bajoran refugees flooding into their ST-3 Colonial Zone. Soon the ADN, to prevent the Cardassians from seizing Bajorans and other innocents of its ships in Federation space, began sending its own ships on escort duties into Federation territory, to be joined eventually by the British Empire of FHI-8, the Federated Commonwealth of MWB-32, and the EM-5 InterStellar Alliance's White Star
Fleet.
Clash was inevitable and an incident in August 2153 AST nearly led to war, then to negotiations that might have defused the situation and paved the way for a peaceful end. These talks were undermined by a sincere but foolish Federation Ambassador Kranitz, who leaked a bellicose Cardassian negotiating position summary, meant by the Cardassian authors to placate internal foes, in the misguided belief that the likelihood of war being the result of a failure to negotiate would provoke an ADN public outcry for negotiations, even concessions, with the Cardassian Union. The Cardassian behavior, and the leaked note, left an Alliance Government facing an election year no choice but to be firm with a violent, brutal Cardassian regime that was widely loathed and hated amongst the Alliance nations' citizenry. The result was a victory for President Nicolas Mamatmas' Democratic Party against the Federalist Party, securing a plurality of the Alliance Council and the election of Democratic candidate Rachel MacKenzie (a former Canadian SE-1 Senator and Foreign Minister to Mamatmas' predecessor Jennifer Verdes) to the Chancellorship of the Alliance Council. With the elections over, President Mamatmas was free to pursue diplomatic avenues over Bajor.
Unfortunately, due to mistakes and miscalculations, the Cardassians would in their fashion of the time have a different idea of how to deal with the Alliance and the "Bajoran Problem".
-Excerpt from "The First Modern Crusade: The War to Liberate Bajor" by Dr. Kesha Cornheiser, Professor of Modern History at the University of Darane-Umiral
Mwinyiburg, Henderson, ADN Colonial Zone
Universe ST-3
20 November 2153 AST
11:45 GST
Approx. UFP Stardate: 44890
In the backyard of a small suburban home, Hawa Small was kneeling by her five year-old son Farid to clean the boy up after he'd gotten muddy from going into the dirt after playing in their small swimming pool. As she wiped the towel over the boy's face, clearing the lighter brown mixture from her son's dark ebony skin, Farid asked, "Mama, what's a Texan?"
"Texans are people from Texas."
"Ms. Jenny at school says she's Texan. Where is it?" More questions from the always curious Farid.
"Texas is a country in North America, Farid. Well, from our Earth's North America. It's a State in the United States on the other Earths."
"What's the United States?"
"You'll learn what that is, was, when you get older and have history class," Hawa finished wiping away her son's face and looked him straight in the eye. "Now, you have to promise me you won't be jumping into the dirty after swimming. The dirt here becomes mud very easily." She was going to have to speak to her husband about getting an artificial lawn. "And it makes you very...."
Everything around them got terribly white for a moment. Farid brought his hands up to his eyes and screamed. Panicking, Hawa grabbed his hands and pulled them away. "Mama, I can't see!" he cried.
Hawa turned to see what had blinded her son, and the sight she saw caused her draw to stop. "Oh my God...."
In the distance, a mushroom cloud was growing on the horizon.
In Orbit
The Xepolite freighter
Deyteliz pulled out of orbit a few moments after the vessel's sensors detected the atomic detonation directly below them, in the Bajoran settlement of Gytep. They had just finished transporting their load of unique consumer goods to a warehouse in Mwinyiburg. As the vessel powered it's warp drive, the Hetman who commmanded the vessel looked to his special "passenger". "The package was received."
"Very good," the dark-clothed Cardassian replied. "If you excuse me, I'll be in my quarters."
The Hetman nodded and watched the Cardassian leave. Like a handful of other Xepolite merchants, he'd done jobs for the Cardassian government, but this one left him feeling uneasy and frightened.
Though not enough that he didn't mind being paid.
Gytep
12:50 GST
Seated in the back of one of the trucks rumbling out toward Gytep from Mwinyiburg, Father Joseph Diagana - a priest of the Roman Catholic Church - was riding with Father Daniel Haddis of the Ethiopian Coptic Church. The two men were acquaintances and friends, and often talked about issues of Christian doctrine and faith. But now they were silent in their radiation suits, small bibles in their hands and grim expressions on their faces.
The truck rumbled to a stop in what had been home to thousands of Bajorans and aid workers. Many were still alive, though virtually all had radiation burns. As he emerged from the back of the truck and looked out, Father Diagana's mouth started to drop open. "Holy Mother of God..."
There were bodies laid out everywhere. In fact, it appeared that immediately after the nuclear detonation that shattered their new homes, the Bajorans had grimly set to work in dealing with the aftermath even as their bodies grew racked from radiation sickness. A Bajoran priest wearing charred clothes that looked like they'd melted into his body was trying to comfort a weeping young Human aid worker. One of the Bajorans directed Fathers Haddis and Diagana to the place to do their work - the lines of charred corpses wearing the various uniforms of aid workers and others. The two priests went to work giving the Last Rites to the slain while medical workers went to work on sustaining and healing the living.
Another truck had a camera crew from one of the local media TV stations. A frowning, sick-looking young woman looked into the camera from inside her radiation suit and began to speak of the known facts; that a nuclear device had been detonated in the Bajoran refugee settlement of Gytep, that there were over three thousand people living in Gytep, and that the casualty estimates had yet to be determined.
The reporter then brought the camera to a grisly site; a fallen building that had once been the town school. Nearby the rubble, where the irradiated Bajorans were still digging, was a line of small corpses. The reporter and her cameraman were silent as the shot panned over them. A Bajoran woman wearing scorched rags and with prominent radiation burns on her face and body was looking through the line. FInally she seemed to spot the right identifying mark, probably a necklace, and began to wail as she fell to her knees and lifted the charred, blackened body into her arms, some patches of surviving blonde hair on the child's scalp. The woman's crying was hysterical and painracking, drawing sobs from the reporter as her cameraman captured the image for all the world to see.
Nearby, as he gave Last Rites to the scorched remains of the Human schoolteacher, Father Diagana prayed for more than the woman's soul. He prayed for Justice. This was not just a tragedy. This was a grievous sin, an evil committed against innocent people.
And Father Diagana knew that the wicked who committed this sin would be punished.
Paris, Earth, United Federation of Planets
15:45 GST
Inside the spacious Presidential office overlooking the Eiffel Tower in the distance, Gao Hi-Yuan sat in a simple gray jumpsuit. The Commissioner of Starfleet Operations, Kerlo Tobis, was standing to one side. Admiral Garfield Dayton of Starfleet Intelligence was standing to the other. The two men had just informed Gao of the priority report about the atomic detonation at Gytep. "I see," Gao said. "Was it detonated by Bajoran terrorists and was it an intentional act?"
"We can't tell for either," Commissioner Tobis stated.
Gao nodded slowly at that. "Well, we need to get confirmation. The political situation would justify a demand for observers to the cleanup of Gytep, would it not? Our observers could also verify Gytep was a terrorist training camp."
"Yes, Mister President. I'll send out the order for Starfleet to assemble an observation team immediately. As soon as you get approval from the Alliance Government...."
"Do you really think the Alliance will bow to the demand?"
"Of course, Admiral Dayton." Gao smiled slightly. "Otherwise, they would confirm to the entire Alpha Quadrant that they had something to hide."
"Unless they had nothing," Dayton said.
Tobis rolled his eyes. "Admiral, you cannot seriously be questioning the intelligence again?"
"I'm not questioning it's authenticity," Dayton snapped. "I'm questioning how it was interpreted! We did not get any confirmation of the nature of Gytep before we informed the Cardassian Embassy of our find."
"Admiral, please don't insult our intelligence, and I'm not talking about spook crap when I say that!" Tobis slammed an open hand on the table beside the chair he was sitting in. "They were shipping weapons to the nearby city of Mwinyiburg. Heavy infantry weapons, the kind that the Bajoran terrorist fighters have been using to give the Cardassians on Bajor fits! Why would they be shipping arms to Mwinyiburg? The Alliance military has no supply depot there, and their Army and Marine bases are thousands of kilometers away!"
Dayton shook his head. "You have no idea of how dangerous this situation is? And how dangerous it is to make such a critical judgement based on very little hard evidence?"
"I believe Commissioner Tobis is quite aware of the danger, Admiral," Gao said, cutting in. "And I agree with his assessment, just as I did then. The Alliance has been working to destabilize the entire region. First Kelos and now Bajor. They must be brought to heel. This incident will embarrass their government. It will hurt their standing in the Alpha Quadrant and will probably bring down their current Administration. And I believe Rachel MacKenzie will be a far more reasonable leader than the militarist they have now." Gao leaned forward in his chair toward his desk. "I will be dispatching a note through the Alliance Embassy to President Mamatmas, insisting that the Federation be allowed to inspect the Gytep ruins as part of an investigation into how an atomic device was detonated in what was supposed to be a refugee settlement. Gentlemen, you are dismissed."
Washington D.C., Earth, Alliance of Democratic Nations
Universe Designate HE-1
19:50 GST
Inside the Oval Office, President Nicolas Mamatmas faced down his top security advisors with cold brown eyes. "Gentlemen, Lady," he nodded to Omiko Takahara, his Security Advisor. "I want to know what the Hell has happened on Henderson."
From his seat by Takara, Intelligence Director Sir James Bronson was the first to speak. "The investigation is still underway, Mister President. However, we have assembled enough data to rule out Bajoran involvement in the nuclear detonation."
"In what way?"
"The analysis of the blast pattern," Bronson answered. "Ground Zero was a public pavilion. Not the best place to hide a nuclear weapon. And our analysis of the residual elements and traces tell us it was a very crude device."
"Could it have been a suitcase nuke?"
"No. It was probably a tritium boosted device. Very low tech."
"The kind of device that Bajoran fighters would be able to put together using commnet data," Takahara stated. "This was a clear attempt to make the Bajoran liberation movement the primary suspect."
"How? Was it active in Gytep?"
"Not very."
Mamatmas nodded. "Anything else?"
"At the moment of detonation, a Xepolite-crewed freighter, the
Deyteliz, was in orbit delivering cargo to a supplier in Mwinyiburg." Bronson leaned forward and handed Mamatmas a manila-colored folder. Within were documents and reports, including a picture of an alien warp-capable spacecraft. "Our sources have identified the
Deyteliz as belonging to a Xepolite trading company with known ties to Cardassian military intelligence."
Mamatmas looked up from the folder with a scowl. "The Cardassians did this?"
Bronson exchanged a look with Takahara. "It is very possible."
Mamatmas turned his eyes from Takahara and Bronson to his Defense Minister, Gregory Rathbone. "Minister Rathbone, what do you think?"
"Given the information at hand, Mister President..." Rathbone shrugged. "It does look like the Cardassians could be respon...."
Bronson's phone rang at that moment. He took it out, noticing Mamatmas' scowl, and said, "I set it to only accept priority calls." After explaining himself, Bronson took the call. He gave Mamatmas a concerned look and said, "Really? Fax them to my portable immediately." Bronson took out his portable computer system and fed a few sheets of paper into it's printer. As he did so, they printed out text, which Bronson took and read.
"Director?"
"Sir, our analysts just received the latest decrypted Cardassian comm intercepts from our one of our code-breaking teams." Bronson handed one of the sheets to Mamatmas. "You'd better look at this, sir."
"This is the same Mossad team that broke the Cardassians' administrative codes?"
"Yes, Mister President."
Mamatmas began reading the sheet. As he did so, his face began to pale. "This talk of a package, do we know who sent it?"
"The Mossad team's decoders checked his identification codes versus the ones MI6 acquired in August." Bronson's jaw was clenched. "His name is Ortem Jorcet. He's an Obsidian Order agent, former military. And according to his Cardassian service record, he used to be a naval engineer."
"Meaning he'd know how to build a tritium boosted atomic weapon." Mamatmas placed the paper down. "Can we link him to the
Deyteliz?"
"Not yet, Sir. But we've sent out an order to monitor the
Deyteliz's movements. If we're lucky, one of our agents in Cardassia might spot Jorcet disembarking."
"Okay, do we have any more evidence?" Mamatmas looked at the assembled. "I want to make sure I've got a strong case before we put forward a military response."
"The local traffic controllers noted that
Deyteliz left far orbit within two minutes of the atomic detonation," Takahara replied. "And they said there was a power spike from
Deyteliz during it's transport operation, corresponding closely to the time of detonation."
"Power spike?"
"The East African Space Traffic Control Bureau had their systems on Henderson upgraded four months ago with state-of-the-art sensor gear," Bronson said. "It's the best sensor gear available in the Alliance, Mister President. I've told my people to go through the records closely to see if we can find anything more to use."
"I'm still unsure, gentlemen. I..." Mamatmas' comm device on his desk buzzed. He pressed it and snapped, "Ms. Henley, I told you I was not to be disturbed."
"I'm sorry, Mister President, but I have a courier from the Foreign Ministry here with a priority dispatch from the Federation. It's supposed to be directly from President Gao."
Mamatmas bit into his lip. "Find, send it in!" He looked at the others as a smartly-dressed young African woman walked in, likely a minor Foreign Ministry bureaucrat. She apologized to the President for the interruption, handed him the slip of paper, and excused herself. Mamatmas sat back in his chair and read the paper. When he was finished he angrily tossed it aside. "Damn that pretentious....!"
"Mister President?"
Responding to Rathbone's gentle prod, Mamatmas thumped a hand on the table. "Word of this got damned fast to Paris in ST-3," he said. "The Federation is demanding that we allow them to send observers to Gytep for the investigation into what happened."
"What?" Rathbone's expression was one of confusion. "They've got nothing to do with this. And aren't they supposed to have that damned Prime Directive of non-interference?"
"Gao must have found out awfully fast about the attack. I wonder why he was so interested in Gytep?" Bronson shook his head. "Mister President, I do not like coincidences."
Mamatmas rubbed at his forehead. "I don't see why we shouldn't. Let his observers see all those little bodies." Again there was a call on Mamatmas' system. "Yes, Ms. Henley?"
"Sir, the Federation Embassy has announced that President Gao will be going live on IUNS in ten minutes. The Embassy sent a personal memo informing you that you needed to watch."
"You can tell Ambassador Merryweather that...." Mamatmas stopped himself from losing his temper. "Ms. Henley, I'd like to be left alone from now on. Do not worry about informing me of anything short of a declaration of war until I say otherwise."
"Yes, Mister President."
For the next ten minutes, the discussion was centered on the facts of the investigation, the kind of press statement that should be drawn up. At the appropriate time, Mamatmas turned his chair to the wall and activated the monitor. The locale of Paris and the Federation President's office was clear. Gao sat in his usual suit, staring at the screen. Then he began to give his live address.
"As many already know," Gao began, "eight hours ago an atomic device was detonated in a Bajoran-occupied camp in Alliance territory, on the planet Henderson. The use of atomic weaponry is a horror,.and rightfully so. But it comes to no surprise to this government. While working with the Cardassian Union to deal with the dangers of Bajoran terrorism, Federation sources uncovered arms shipments to Gytep by sources in Alliance government. This could only lead to one conclusion; that Gytep was not a refugee camp as often claimed, but was in fact a terrorist training camp established and supported by the Alliance Government for the purposes of destabilizing the Cardassian Union and its authority. We had informed the Cardassian government of this discovery in the hopes that Cardassia might have a chance to protect itself. Now we see that it was unneeded. The fanaticism of these Bajoran terrorists is seemingly so great that they were developing nuclear weapons to use against Cardassian forces, perhaps civilians, and it is a great fortune that they accidentally destroyed themselves with it instead of slaughtering innocent Cardassians. But even if the terrorists are gone, their backers remain. The Federation demands that the Alliance Government cease its support for Bajoran terrorism immediately, that they turn over to Cardassia agents of terror for trial, and that they pay reparations...."
Mamatmas shut off the TV and tossed the remote onto the table. "Those self-righteous sons of bitches," he said, somewhat shocked. "They uncover some piddly ass evidence and like damned taddle-telling children they go off to the fucking Cardassians and claim we're supporting terrorists?!" The others remained silent. Though Mamatmas did not curse often, it was never a surprise when he did; it was the grizzled old Master Chief showing through the refined statesman. "Can someone please tell me where Gao and those idiots got it in their heads that Gytep was a terrorist camp?!"
"We'll look into it immediately, Mister President."
"I'd better go start preparing a press statement. And get the media to show as much from Gytep as you can. It'll be damned hard for them to claim they were all terrorists when people are facing dead children." Mamatmas thumped a hand on the table. "I don't suppose the Cardassians did this because of what the Federation told them?!"
"Always a possibility, Mister President," answered Takahara. "It would explain why they used a nuclear weapon. It would destroy what they assumed to be a resistance training camp and, at the same time, discredit the liberation movement and us when an investigation proved it as a training camp and not a refugee settlement."
"But it was a refugee settlement, and now the Cardassians have killed hundreds, maybe thousands of Bajorans immigrants in the Alliance and aid workers, including Alliance citizens!" Mamatmas shook his head and tapped the button on his desk. "The press is going to whip the public up again."
A voice came over the intercom. "Yes, Mister President?"
"Ms. Henley, get me the Service Chiefs."
Gregson Aerospace Force Base, New Norwich, ADN Colonial Zone
Universe Designate ST-3
20:25 GST
Gregson AFB was the home base for the 34th Strategic Bomber Group, a force of three bomber squadrons with 20 bombers each, thus consisting overall of sixty warp-capable aerospace bombers; British-built Harris bombers all. It was well-placed, about twenty kilometers outside the city limits of Fredrecton on the Earth-like planet New Norwich.
Inside the base's main building and the officers' rec room, Flying Officers Sheila O'Malley and Jenny Gomez were having a very unladylike arm-wrestling competition, much to the enjoyment of their fellows. However, it was soon to be interrupted.
As assembled officers of the 34th, 98th, and 112th Squadrons looked on, one of the Squadron Leaders turned the TV over to IUNS. It was replaying the Federation President's press conference and claim that Gytep was a Bajoran terrorist camp. A chorus of boos came from the assembled. Afterwards all eyes were fixed on IUNS giving footage from the aftermath of Gytep. Several broke into tears at the rows of dead children, the sight of Red Cross workers' burned corpses laid out, and the grim-faced Ethiopians from Mwinyiburg working on helping the survivors. The editor made sure to show the footage of what was widely becoming a signature photo of the event; a burned Bajoran woman cradling a blackened little corpse in her arm, crying. A few Catholics among the group crossed themselves out of habit for such a scene. It was heat-wrenching and enraging at the same time.
Two floors up, in the Base Command Center, Group Captain Amelia Fubuki was standing amongst the glowing lights and instruments of the command center, linked as it was to planetary traffic control and the Planetary Defense Command dug deep under the capitol city Lewisburg that was sixty kilometers away. Granted, Gregson AFB had no fighters - the aerospace fighter jets of the 54th Planetary Defense Group were stationed at McCarter AFB thirty kilometers from Lewisburg - but they all had to be aware of impending attack so that she could get her bombers in the air, if necessary.
The man at communications called out to her. "Captain, ma'am, we're getting a priority message from Sector Command."
This immediately brought Fubuki's attention. Sector Command on New Liberty would only be sending a priority message if.... She walked up and took the printout as it came out of the printing system. After reading it carefully, she asked the tech officer, "Are it's codes good?"
"Yes ma'am, the system has authenticated the codes."
"Then put me on the base PA."
The officers were still watching TV when an alert whistle came over the base PA system. "Attention all personnel, this is Base Commander Fubuki speaking. We have just received a command priority message from Sector Command, coming straight from Washington. At 20:19 GST, the President ordered all Alliance military forces in Universe Designate ST-3 to change alert level to DefCon 2. Repeat, we are now at DefCon 2. In compliance with the change in alert level, the base is under lockdown. No one can leave or enter without authorization. All bomber crews are ordered to be ready to report for duty in thirty minutes. All officers will report to briefing at that time. That is all."
Thirty minutes later, all of the officers in the Group were assembled at briefing. Captain Fubuki and her subordinate, Wing Commander Lenny Tasker, greeted them and informed them that each squadron would rotate 8 hour shifts - in accordance with their new alert status, there would be one squadron in the air or space at any given time. Squadron Leader Fred Storms volunteered his 98th Squadron to go first.
Not half an hour later, Flying Officer Jenny Gomez was pushing the throttle in the cockpit of her Harris bomber, dubbed the
Death Blossom, as it lifted off from Runway 4 of Gregson AFB. The bomber climbed in accordance with flight regs until it reached optimum high atmosphere altitude. At that point, Flying Officer Gomez switched to the belly thrusters to push the bomber into sub-orbit, from which she engaged the impulse drives and waited for her flight. The five flights of the 98th Squadron assembled into loose formation and moved away from New Norwich. Squadron Leader Storms gave each Flight an individual flight path. Gomez lined her Harris up with her Flight Lieutenant's craft and followed him into warp.
Trier, Earth, United Federation of Planets
23:18 GST
The Central Committee for the Ideologue Party was holding an evening session at Gao's request so that he could brief them to the developments in the Alliance Colonial Zone. The Committee was large, with over thirty members. They were in some ways the true power of the Federation - Party policy was dictated by the Committee, and all Party members generally had to be in line with policy lest they lose their patronage. And at the moment, the Ideologues controlled the government.
The door to the room opened and an aide walked up to Gao, who was listening to Committee Clerk Rathgol Torskani speaking. He whispered something into Gao's ear and handed him a PADD. Gao read it and his jaw dropped slightly. The Centauran Torskani looked at Gao with an expression of interest and stopped speaking. "President, is there something you need to share?"
Gao seemed to recollect himself for the moment, as if judging whether to share this new information with the Committee. Finally, trapped by Torskani, he nodded slowly. "Yes, Comrade Torskani," he replied. "Starfleet just forwarded a report from their stations on the Alliance border. The Alliance military just went on high alert."
There were blank looks across the room. "Mamatmas is going to escalate," an Andorian, Dortavkh My'Toaro, said aloud. "He's going to accuse someone of attacking Gytep. Comrade Gao, shouldn't we put Starfleet on alert? What if Mamatmas blames us?"
"That will be unnecessary," Gao said confidentially. Having recovered from the immediate shock of Mamatmas' escalation, he was now thinking his way through. "Mamatmas is rattling the saber and hoping to divert attention from the fact that his government was aiding Bajoran terrorists. But the Alliance press is uncontrollable. They will prove us right."
"Are you so certain?" Torskani folded his hands together at his seat. "How do we know for certain that this is, was, a terrorist camp?"
"Our intelligence found the Alliance shipping weapons there. Why else would they be sending heavy ordinance to Gytep but to train Bajoran terrorists?"
"Did you investigate the matter further?"
Gao scowled. Torskani was ambitious and now Gao feared that Torskani was going to use this incident against him. "We did all we could. And our agreement with Cardassia required us to share the information."
Torskani didn't reply to that externally, but Gao knew he was thinking on it. "Well, Comrade Gao, perhaps you should go attend to this new development?"
Gao nodded slowly before answering, "Yes, I will." He stood from his chair. "As Chairman of the Committee, I turn the meeting over to the Clerk. I shall see you again tomorrow." At that point, Gao left.
Torskani waited until he was gone before continuing the meeting. "Comrades, I fear that the Party Chairman and President has miscalculated in his recent decisions. There is growing evidence from footage from sources on Henderson that Gytep was
not a terrorist camp. We should prepare a contingency should..."
Gao stepped off the transporter at Starfleet Command in San Francisco and stormed into the Command Center to meet with Tobis and Starfleet C-in-C Matthews. "What's going on?!", he demanded. "Has Mamatmas really put his forces on a war alert?"
"No, but he's gotten damned close," Matthews replied. "According to the information being released, Alliance military forces in ST-3 are at DefCon 2. That is the highest non-war alert level that the Alliance military has. The next step, DefCon 1, is essentially a war warning and indicates that war is imminent."
"He's insane!" Gao looked at the map screen, showing the Alliance Colonial Zone and markers for Alliance naval units deploying toward Cardassia and the Federation. "He's given himself no more room for escalation!"
"Or he knows something we don't," Matthews said.
"Order our local starbases and starships to increase sensor scans." Gao found himself sweating. "For all we know, he intends to attack us for the announcement we've made!"
"Sir, we have a small reserve we can deploy," Matthews said. "We could bring border strength up to 50 starships within 36 hours. And I can have the
Enterprise on location in 72 hours."
"Fifty starships? Fifty-one including the
Enterprise? How many ships does the Alliance have on sight?"
"Counting the ships monitoring space in Kelos? Roughly four hundred," was Tobis' response. "More if you count the border security forces like their cutters."
"Get me the Cardassian Embassy, then. If it comes down to it, the Alliance will be crushed between our forces and the Cardassians."
"The Cardassians, sir?" Matthews was taken aback. "Sir, I don't think we can trust them..."
"We have to now!" Gao stabbed a finger at the map. "These extra-universals... they're
mad! They get caught supporting terrorists and their choice is to escalate tensions to war?!"
The door opened and Admiral Dayton entered. "Mister President, Admiral, Commissioner..." Dayton brought up an isolinear chip. "We just got this feed from one of our agents in the Alliance. It's from the private Internet site of one of the cleanup people in Gytep." He slipped the chip into a data port on the main screen controls and brought up the video.
The video was clear enough. The person carrying the video recording device was walking about in rubble, showing burned Bajorans and Humans being treated by emergency personnel in radiation suits. The agent continued to walk about, showing the diggers preparing what would be mass graves for the unidentifiable bodies. And then the bodies themselves - some tragically small, all burned beyond recognition. Most of the faces in the room turned white. Matthews' jaw fell. "Mister President, if this is released to the press...."
"It won't be. The State Press cannot be allowed to circulate this," Gao said. "We'll let Miller's people suppress it. They were always useful idiots."
"And what will we do in terms of the border sectors, Mister President? They're in range of Alliance subspace transmitters. They can pick up Alliance news sources. Can you imagine what this will rile up in the Muscovite Worlds? New Minnesota? Vertola?"
"Jam them, if you have to." Gao's mind was racing. This had to be fake, it had to be! If it wasn't..... The realization that dawned on him was horrible. If there were no terrorists in Gytep, then who set off the nuke? The Cardassians were obvious suspects. And the Cardassians suspected Gytep because Gao's people had told them to.
"This has to be fake!" Tobis' expression was one of bewilderment. "Our intel was good!"
"It was obviously incorrectly analyzed," Dayton said, trying not to give off an "I told you so" attitude lest he lose his job.
"Who cares about the intel?!" Gao's shout filled the room. "Gentlemen, do you realize that the Federation could be drawn into a conflict because of this?! The Committee will have my head on a platter, and even if they don't want it, the Council will deliver it to them anyway!"
"Then what can we do, Mister President?"
"The only thing we can. Get ready for the worst and wait." Gao leaned against the table, suddenly feeling older and tired. "We'll let Mamatmas play the hand he's holding, and see where it leaves us."
Washington D.C., Earth, Alliance of Democratic Nations
Universe Designate HE-1
01:53 GST
21 November 2153 AST
Seated behind his desk in the Oval Office, Mamatmas was straightening his tie, now wearing a full suit with a black tie. Cameras were being set up for Mamatmas' imminent public address, to be held at exactly 0200 GST. Before him was a quick speech, effectively a public statement that was going to refute Gao's claims.
The door opened and Director Bronson entered. He walked right up to Mamatmas and handed him a folder. "Here, Mister President."
Mamatmas opened the folder and saw a picture of a Cardassian male on the inside. "This is Jorcet?"
"The
Deyteliz arrived at Bajor two hours ago. This was taken by one of our sources in the Bajoran Resistance currently living on the orbital refining station
Terok Nor."
"And Jorcet couldn't have boarded anywhere else?"
"The only other planet they stopped at was a brief, thirty minute stop at Gormel III. We have a man there who watched their airlock. He didn't enter."
"Then we can link Jorcet to the
Deyteliz, and the
Deyteliz, can we prove it transported the bomb in?"
"Not yet, Mister President."
"Keep your people working. Prove it."
Bronson nodded and stepped away from the desk. Mamatmas placed the folder inside a drawer in his desk and started to look over his statement again.
Finally he was given the signal that the feed was about to begin. When the countdown finished, Mamatmas looked sternly at the cameras and began reading from the teleprompter.
"Good evening, fellow Citizens," he began. "Over fourteen hours ago, a nuclear device was detonated on the planet Henderson in Universe Designate ST-3. It completely destroyed the Bajoran refugee settlement of Gytep. The final casualty toll is still being assessed, but currently it stands at one thousand dead all of the settlement's 3,000 occupants wounded." Mamatmas began to deliberately make his voice stronger and harsher in tone. "This was not merely terrorism, but a deliberate act of murder against innocent and defenseless civilians and the dedicated men and women who worked selflessly to improve their lives."
"Our investigation into this attack is still proceeding," Mamatmas continued, "but we have already uncovered evidence that the Cardassian Union is responsible for this evil act. This evidence is convincing enough that six hours ago, I ordered all Alliance military forces in Universe Designate ST-3 to DefCon 2."
And now for you, Gao, Mamatmas thought angrily as he gave a dramatic pause of a couple moments. "I will also state that I am personally appalled and angered by the behavior of the Federation President. While innocent Bajorans weep for the slaughter of their children, President Gao has the audacity, the sheer nerve, to claim that they are terrorists who
deserved to be slaughtered and that this Government supports terrorism against civilians! As President of the Alliance Government, I have lodged the strongest diplomatic protest possible over this callous disregard for the suffering of innocents. And as an individual, I am
enraged that President Gao seeks to use this tragedy, this despicable event, to attack the Alliance and the innocent Bajorans that we are protecting. The Federation has no only decided to abandon innocents to Cardassian brutality, but now they attack others for not doing the same. But this Government is not the Federation, and so long as I am President, the Alliance will
never choose the path of appeasement."
"The investigation into the attack is continuing, but I can insure everyone that the following will happen. We will find out the truth. We will find those responsible for this act of terrorism. We will strike back and we will punish the guilty in full accordance with all that is right and just. And we will not allow the saber-rattling of Cardassia, the rulers of what I can justly call an Evil Empire, to divert us from our goal. That is all."
The feed cut. Mamatmas leaned back in his seat and put a hand to his chin. Now to wait and see what would happen. But in his heart, Mamatmas knew how this would end. It was the only way it could end.
War.
As stated, they were ported from Timelines, where neither was outright shown to be homosexual or bi. Their relationship here was based on the idea that given the POW camp they endured, the abuses suffered, and everything else they've gone through, the two bonded and sought comfort together until they became intimate. I was indulging the idea of exploring whether preferences might shift due to such situations (or perhaps just latent bisexual nature coming out, I suppose).
