Dark Secrets: A Fan Story

Dark Secrets: A Fan Story

The Year 2488

Stardate 165422.7

USS Pike.  NCC-118929.  Eclipse Class long range deep space explorer.

During a deep space long range exploration of the Beta Quadrant the USS Pike discovered a colony of humans on a planet called Terralysium approximately 51000 lightyears from Earth.  The crew began investigating, their away teams discovered that these humans ancestors were brought to this planet during WWIII in the 21st century.  They also discovered evidence of a previous visit to this planet by a Starfleet ship in the 23rd century, specifically a USS Discovery and Captain Christopher Pike visiting in 2258.  Being totally unable to reconcile this with historical records Captain Martin contacted Starfleet with this information.  

In a nondescript office three people looked at the central holographic display showing the data sent back by the USS Pike regarding their discovery.  A dark skinned human with grey hair shook his head "It's too soon."  A blue skinned benzite nodded in agreement "knowledge of the USS Discovery and the events surrounding it is scarce, but even speaking about it is considered treason.  They cannot know.  Even Starfleet Command cannot know."  The third individual, a human male with a light complexion and a chiseled jaw shook his head "Starfleet will never get the chance to know.  The Pike's message will not be relayed to Starfleet Command, and the Pike will not return to Earth."  

At her desk in the Starfleet Corps of Engineers office in San Fransisco Captain Ellen Kittridge read through a variety of reports on the latest Starfleet technical breakthroughs.  Suddenly her console chirped, indicating an incoming transmission.  Looking up she was greeted by the face of a light skinned human man in a black leather jacket "Captain Ellen Kittridge.  This is a black flag directive.  You are not to discuss this with fellow officers or superiors.  There will be no record of this transmission."  Kittridge's jaw dropped.  Pressing a button on his own console the mysterious man continued.  You are ordered to contact the USS Pike, currently on a long range mission in the Beta Quadrant.  I have sent you an encrypted set of updates to the transwarp drive system.  You will transmit the updates to the Pike and order their chief Engineer Tyler Eldridge to implement these critical updates to the drives subspace flow matrix control system immediately."  Just as abruptly as the message began it ended, her console reverting to the standard Starfleet Corps of Engineers logo.  She sighed heavily.  There was nothing she could do.  The mysterious order givers were obviously monitoring her to make sure she carried out the orders, refusing to carry them out could get her court-martialed.  Or worse.  And if these mysterious order givers were the rumored Section 31, it probably would be worse.  With a shiver and a sense of foreboding she worked the controls on her console and opened a secure channel to the USS Pike's chief engineer.

In the engine room of the USS Pike chief engineer Tyler Eldridge checked the chronometer on the far wall "16:00".  Two more hours until the end of the shift.  He started to stand from his console to do a walking inspection of his engine room when a message appeared on his console screen "Incoming Transmission".  As he pressed the button to accept the transmission a blonde human woman in a yellow uniform with four pips and a slight but noticeable received British accent stared at him "Commander.  I'm sending you over some modifications to your transwarp control software, you'll need to implement these immediately.  Tyler raised an eyebrow "oh?  what kind of modifications are we talking about?"  "Critical ones" the blonde woman answered "the Corps of Engineers found a potentially dangerous flaw in the subspace flow matrix control software.  This update will correct the problem."  Scanning the updates on his second console Eldridge nodded "looks good.  I'd better get on it."  The blonde woman nodded "I'll leave you to it.  Kittridge out."  As the message ended Eldridge sighed "Ok.  Let me get this started."  As he worked the controls to begin implementing the upgrade the voice of Captain Martin addressed him over the comm system "Bridge to Engineering.  Tyler, what's the status of the transwarp drive?"  "I'm running priority control software updates now, should be online in about...10 minutes" Eldridge responded checking his console.  "Excellent" Walker answered "Starfleet has just given us new orders, we need to return to Earth for a priority mission as soon as possible".  

10 minutes 15 seconds later.  Tyler grinned as he saw the message on his console screen "update complete".  "Perfect".  Working his controls for a minute he tapped his combadge "Eldridge to bridge.  Transwarp is online."  "Excellent" Captain Martin responded, turning to his flight control and second officer, a dour Andorian named Sh'rel "Commander, you know the drill".  "Aye sir" the Andorian responded "course already set.  Powering up transwarp drive."  A ripple in the fabric of space appeared directly in front of the Pike, a ripple which quickly expanded into a mottled teal green hole seemingly not much larger than the ship itself.  "Conduit open" Sh'rel reported.  Commander Andrus, the Betazoid first officer, nodded "take us in".  Seconds later the ship slid forward, seeming to disappear into the blue green energy ripple.  Sh'rel reported "transwarp velocity.  We should reach sector 001 in 4 hours".  While Captain Martin mused on the incredible technological advancements that made such rapid travel possible Sh'rel studiously monitored his console.  Seeing an indicator flashing out of the corner of his eye his jaw dropped WARNING: FLOW MATRIX INVERSION "Captain-"  The word barely left his mouth when the ship shook violently, throwing most of the bridge crew to the floor.  He barely even heard the red alert klaxon sound before a deafening roar and searing wave of energy consumed the ship. 

In the dark, nondescript office the Bolian looked up from the holographic display "it is done."  The light skinned human nodded.  The updates were sent and integrated into the Pike's systems.  I have confirmed it.  The update contained hidden code that caused a cascade failure in the drives subspace flow matrix control systems, leading to an inversion in the transwarp matrix, imploding the conduit and causing the ship to be destroyed 20 seconds after entering transwarp.  The gray-haired, dark skinned human nodded "Starfleet will declare the ship missing, overdue.  They will send a ship out to her last known coordinates but find nothing.  As far as Starfleet is concerned, The Pike's last known coordinates are at the edge of Fen Domar territory, 35000 lightyears away.  This mission is classified."  With that the three rose from their chairs and left the room.

Finding no trace of the USS Pike anywhere near her last known coordinates an exhaustive search was launched.  After 3 months with no results the search was ended, and on Stardate 165457.2 the USS Pike was officially listed as disappeared, lost with all hands in the Beta Quadrant without a trace. 

The Year 3189  

With the mystery of the Burn solved and the Emerald Chain crisis averted Fleet Admiral Charles Vance settled down at his desk at Federation Headquarters, finally at ease.  Hearing his door chime sound he looked up "come in".  The door slid open and Dr. Kovich, his quaint formal suit and tie and ancient eyeglasses as immaculate as ever entered "Admiral."  "Dr. Kovich" Vance responded, gesturing him to a chair.  Kovich nodded and held out a data padd "Now that the USS Discovery is here and the immediate crisis is over I found something I think you'll want to see."  Curious Vance accepted the padd "Level 12 clearance.  Only the C-in-C can unseal this."  Working the padd he input his security clearance, the highest existing security clearance in Starfleet, and began reading the file.  Kovich nodded "It pertains to the USS Discovery.  I think you'll find it interesting."  After reading the file Vance looked up at Kovich "Starfleet-the Federation-this Section 31-they destroyed a Starfleet ship, killed a crew of over 1200 people to keep Discovery's existence secret."  "And Captain Pikes" Kovich responded "Christopher Pike is one of the most famous captains in Starfleet history.  Revealing the secret of Discovery and his involvement in the events surrounding it would cast a permanent shadow over his reputation.  Not to mention bringing up questions of how Discovery got that far out in the first place."  Vance nodded understandingly "the Spore Drive."  He looked up at the ceiling "Computer: contact Captain Burnham on the USS Discovery.  We need to have a talk."