Chapter 9

We were an hour away from the destroyed fleets, when I managed to get another ten percent of the growth pods up. I was glad when the trans-warp rose to forty-five percent. Almost a quarter of our weapons were up, and stealth was at ninety percent

At least we were almost completely hidden.

“John!” Rommie said as she appeared. “I am detecting no less than twenty starships when we were.”

“Maintain stealth, with any luck we can get far enough away,” I said, as I hoped that we were.

I had Rommie keep track of Picard’s ship. I was somewhat upset that I couldn’t do the repairs on everything myself. I guess that I didn’t know exactly how they were put together, so I couldn’t fix them.

It was bad enough I had my own government after me. Then there was this energy race between the realities. Here? I had three of the four races that were war-like after me.

This was all especially after I had destroyed no less than thirty of their ships. Some of them their very heavily armed, defensive ships. Yeah, they were a real fan of me right now.

Then there was the fact that the federation was starting to become interested. Shit! The one I needed to be friends with, and they were afraid of me.

I thought about it more, I had destroyed a hell of a lot of ships, with just one ship. OK, I can see their caution now, fear and caution ok.

A tone let me know that another repair pod was finished as I started it on the trans-warp. The weapons were at fifty percent and climbing rapidly. Stealth was at ninety-five percent, with tram-warp at forty-nine percent.

I was starting to get antsy, I needed to return this weapon as fast as possible. My world, no my universe, was depending on it. The bad thing was that no one would ever know just how close to dead they were.

Here I thought that the stress of the headaches I had before I had these powers was bad. No, I thought, this is by far a lot more stress. Plus the fact that no one knew or probably cared.

I could only shake my head at the thought of all of this. I had drawn in as much information as I could about this situation. It seemed that a lot more was at stake than just my universe, so no real pressure, ha, ha.

Another tone a minute later let me know we had partial trans-warp. “What are you reading on trans-warp?” I asked.

“Reading now fifty-one percent, enough for a minute,” Rommie said.

I thought of the trans-warp, seeing that the last pod had repaired more than I thought. Concentrating, I felt it rise and heard Rommie say, “trans-warp now at fifty-two, three, four, five, six. Now stabilizing at fifty-six.”

I nodded, “take us as close to that ship as you can get,” I said.

It wasn’t too long after we exited the portal that we caught sight of Picard’s ship. The only problem was that their warp drive was putting us to shame. Well, at least we were a lot closer.

Again, as I had thought before, I might have to disable that ship to complete this. “Rommie, is there anyway that we can disable them without destroying anything?” I asked, though I was a little pissed off at that moment.

“John,” Rommie said in a strained voice. “Your levels have started to spike again. You need to calm, if you keep at this, you’ll pass out again.”

I took a deep breath then felt my body relax, though I was still tense as could be. “Sorry Rommie, as much as we have to do, and they are running from us. It makes me mad as hell,” I said.

“I am sorry John, I am attempting to shut down their engines. Ah! It appears that I have managed to drop them out of warp, though they are still running,” Rommie said.

“Damnit! I might have to go with my first suggestion. Are we at least catching up with them?” I asked.

“It appears that we barely are, we are having trouble with our warp and sub-light. It seems that the trouble we have with our trans-warp has affected them. I am attempting to repair the problem now,” Rommie said.

Damnit I thought, I thought of the three engines. Then I really got upset when I couldn’t find anything wrong with them. I knew that I couldn’t take them apart cause I didn’t know them or their parts.

I sat as I thought over and over what might be wrong with them. I suddenly smacked myself in the head. I had made these I didn’t really need to know what they were or their parts.

I thought of the sub-light being new, and it started to work like new. I then thought the same thing about the warp-drive. It, too, started to work like it was brand new.

That was all fine and well ‘til I got to the trans-warp. This was an idea I had when all this had started. I wasn’t sure that thinking about it like that would work.

Taking a deep breath, I thought about the trans-warp being completely brand new. To my complete and utter amazement, the trans-warp started up, running as if nothing was wrong with it.

A true smile came to my face as I opened my mouth to issue Rommie orders, then fell on my face. Shit I thought, bet I freaking did it again.

I wasn’t sure how long it was before I awoke, though this time, the headache wasn’t as bad as it had been. I groaned as I tried to get up, “it’s about time,” I heard Rommie.

Again, I groaned, “how long, I said, barely in a whisper.

“Almost five hours, what happened? When I felt your energy drop, I barely had time before you hit the deck,” Rommie said.

“As far as I can, I did way too much. I thought I hadn’t ‘til I went back over all I had done. Then I tried to completely redo all the engines, I might have to get you to monitor me. Can’t afford to pass out at a critical moment,” I told her.

“I also think that might be an excellent idea. I know that you have been raising your power, though I think it’s still not enough,” Romie said.

“Yeah,” I said with a smirk, “that is a good idea.”

“So how far ahead of us are they?” I asked.

“Well, since the engines are working like they did. We have been trailing slightly behind them for the last five hours. They just got their warp drive back a few minutes ago,” Rommie said.

I sighed as I watched the ship warp out, “alright Rommie follow them.” I thought about it, why in the hell was Picard’s ship seeming to be running from me, from us?

“Do you wish us to stay out of their sensor range?” Rommie asked.

“Yes, that would be prudent right now. Still, you know,” I started, “it almost seems that the ship is trying to avoid us, doesn’t it?’

Rommie appeared seeming to be in thought, “it does, now that you put that forward.”

“Is there any way that you can find out what the hell is going on?” I asked Rommie.

“I will do the best that I can sir,” Rommie said.

On board Picard’s ship not long after that, several alarms were going off. “Sir,” an officer said to Picard. “We have a computer breach. I have never seen anything like it.” The officer was typing as fast as he could, to no avail.

“Hmmm,” Picard said. “It appears that as fast as you or the computer counters, it breaks it. It’s almost as if it is alive. Shut it down as fast as possible, reload with all new parameters and antivirus.”

The officer did as instructed, then found that the computer took longer to shut down than it should have. “Sir, the computer almost refused to shut down. I haven’t seen this in my entire career.”

“This is Picard, computer emergency shut down Picard, alpha, delta, 1100210, enact,” Picard said.

It was a moment before the computer replied, “command request understood,” then the whole system shut down.

“There,” Picard said, “now then you need to load all the new parameters.”

The young officer could only look at Picard as if he were almost a god. Then he shrugged and did as he was ordered.

Picard made his way to his ready room, immediately calling the Admiral. “Sir,” he said as soon as the man’s image appeared. “It appears that we had a specific breach. This was an extremely powerful computer, which made it difficult to shut down. I had to use my executive code to do it.”

The Admiral was nodding all through the explanation. “It appears that whoever this person or entity is, they have found you. Considering the damage, they did to the Romulans, the Klingons and the Cardassians? Extreme caution is advised, though you still need to avoid them as much as possible.”

“Yes sir, I understand this though, if they are as powerful as you say they are? Might it be a mistake to keep avoiding them?” Picard said.

“The fact that they infiltrated your computer as easily as they did. They didn’t take anything, shows us that they were after something. What that is seems very unclear at the moment,” the admiral said.

Rommie had, of course, detected this communiqué playing it for me. This, of course, was starting to irritate the hell out of me. I almost broke into it, then thought I need information, so I listened.

I was sure that Rommie was proud of me that I held my tongue as well as my temper. The more they went on though, the angrier I became.

“Sir,” he went on, “so far they have made no move on the federation, nor any of our ships. Might I try to stop and talk to them?”

“As with any first contact, I don’t think that is advisable,” the Admiral said.

This, of course, finally did it as I started to type. You dear Admiral, are an idiot!

Both the Admiral and Picard had shocked looks on their faces. “Who the hell is this!” the Admiral said.

I typed again. I think you know who this is. As you said, if I was an enemy of Starfleet and the Federation, you’d know by now.

“What is it you want? Picard asked. “It seems that you have been after my ship for a while now. Is there something that is on it that you want?”

I laughed, then typed, your ship is somewhat antiquated, at least to me. No, I am not a Q as you thought, they have already made me angry.