More disclaimer: This work is my own. Do not repost this story beyond the limits of the Fair Use standards of Copyright Law (quotes, examples, ‘you gotta read this’ excerpts, the usual).
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Theex worked her way through the rubble that had been Navigation. Her Engineer said it was completely totaled. She agreed. They'd use that facet to pile damaged equipment from the other facets of the ship.
She made a note in the lattice and went back towards Control. It was an adjacent facet so she was already nearly there.
Her whole ship was still reeling from the...whatever the event was. The captain hardly noticed the little wave of dizziness stepping between facets. The shift in verticality was usually a thrill. The dizzy point where the sloped wall became a flat floor always reminded Theex that she captained a full ship. Now she was more worried about the ship than her status.
The concentric rings of control were full of crewmen and officers still trying to sort out damage and options.
Her executive officer was running Central Damage Control on the second ring. Theex knew that Heest was good at her job. She aimed instead for Ops.
Middle officer Cleur was shaking her head.
"Where are we?" Theex asked. "Have you worked that out yet?"
"Not in any useful way, Captain." Cleur pointed at her information screens. "All I can tell you is that we're surrounded by deranged matter."
"Matter can be crazy?" Theex asked.
"This shit is," Cleur's aide said from a workstation.
The screens made no sense to Theex. She took a deep breath and prepared to volunteer the fact of her ignorance.
Cleur smiled, even the face of crazy. "No reason you should have ever heard of it, Captain," Cleur explained. "It's a physical impossibility. Hypothetical stuff from theoretical physics. Drunk physicists joke write papers about it and refuse to defend them sober."
She called up a graphic. "Okay," Theex said, "I know what the periodic table is. Seven hundred harmonious configurations of the basic atom."
"Right," Cleur said. "All matter is made of one atom, just different organized for the particular needs of that discrete object. Now, imagine that you took one of those basic configurations and unfolded it."
"Unfolded?"
"Stretch the atom. Break it apart. Use the individual configurations as cutting marks to split it like a ship on the breakers."
"LIKE a ship broken up?" Theex shook her head. "But matter doesn't separate. We configure it, reconfigure it, change the harmonies.... This doesn't make sense."
"It's not supposed to. The theory is, if you can part the configurations, then they start forming new individual atoms. Each one unique to the new harmony." Theex stared.
"Okay, one last try. You know how the refilter takes used water and turns two configurations upside down to make new air?" Theex nodded at the oversimplification of the subnuclear process.
"Well, in deranged matter, you'd have one atom or a collection of atoms that acted like water...and another that acted like gas. At the same time."
"And that's what hit the Far Traveling Seeker?" Theex said. "deranged matter? That would explain a lot. It probably affected the ship like anti-matter."
"I don't know what hit us, Captain. I'm saying..." She pointed at the screen. "That's what scanners say is all around us. Whatever did hit us moved us. Into a deranged matter universe."
Cleur shook her head. "Captain, I don't know where we are. And not in terms of distance or bearing to Scellar. I mean, I don't know what dimension Scellar is."
Theex stared at her Ops officer, then the screen. "Crap," she said.
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"Status report Number One."
Riker turned to face the Captain as Picard came out of the turbo lift. "We've reached the moon the research facility was on, sir."
"Was?"
"Data?" Riker turned to face the screen. Picard followed his gaze. The devastation was visible from the ship's height in orbit. A great gaping hole in the body's surface gaped like a disruptor wound.
"Scale?" Picard asked softly.
"It would take seven thousand cobalt torpedoes to do the same amount of damage to an orbital body," Worf supplied.
"The hole is twice as big across as Australia, Captain," was Riker's suggestion.
"Two point two five-" Data started to correct. Riker caught his eye and made a throat-cutting gesture. The android stopped talking.
"Do we have any idea what they were working on?" Picard asked. No one had an answer.
"Sir!" Everyone turned to the Ops position. Data was punching at his console. "There is a very strange energy reading at the center of the crater."
"How strange?" Riker asked.
"Strange in what way?" Picard corrected.
"Unclear. The moon's atmosphere is collecting in the crater." He nodded towards the screen. A zoomed view showed two hurricane formations racing over the land. They appeared to be fighting by throwing tornadoes at each other.
"The electric activity prevents a good scan of the anomaly. I recommend an away team investigates further."
"Away team?" Troi asked. "In that?"
"The bottom of the crater is protected from much of the activity," Data explained. "There are winds, but the increasing pressure of the air, from all directions, merely pushes against each other. For now. I estimate several hours before the pressures equalize and the center becomes inhospitable."
"Captain?" Riker asked. Picard nodded. The XO tapped Data on his shoulder and beckoned to Worf. Second tier watchstanders slid into their duty stations as the officers headed for the turbolift.
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The Far Traveling Seeker hovered over the surface of...wherever they were. Unrelieved chaos extended in all directions as far as the cameras could see.
"Devastation," Theex said. "It looks like a very challenged battlefield."
"Now, now, Captain," Cleur said. "For all we know this is the balmy part of deranged Universe."
Heest snarled from where she stood by the Helm. The driving officers were fighting to control the ship. "Winds in excess of a thousand thets per second," she observed. "No life forms, even the exotic ones you'd expect around here. If that's balmy, gods save us from an early winter frost."
"HOLY CRAP!" Cleur shouted. Theex stepped to look at her display.
Long straight lines of energy came down out of the sky in enormous columns. "The energy readouts... It's like a small SUN out there!"
"Yes, Captain, but look!" According to the readout, matter was sliding down the energy columns. Small bits tumbled in a matrix, then stopped suddenly. More bits joined them, building into greater and greater sums.
"It's like someone's building...something," Cleur said, by throwing matter out of the sky."
"You assume this is intelligent," Heex said/asked.
"Gods I hope so," Cleur said. "If matter can just...appear around here? We can never find a safe place to shelter."
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"Protected?" Riker screamed over the gale.
"Relatively, sir," Data shouted back. There may have been a note of apology in his voice. He and Worf assisted the human in standing against the steady pressure of the winds.
"At least there's no buffeting," Worf said. "And no dust."
"That will come," Data promised. "Right now, there's nothing loose left to blow. But erosion and-"
"Have you scanned yet, Data?" Riker growled.
"Constantly sir, the material in question is in that direction."
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Cleur swore again. Theex rolled her eyes. "What?"
"Never mind an intelligence behind the beam, Captain. According to the scans....those structures are alive."
Heex echoed the swearing. Life signs were confused but undeniable.
"They're huge..." she muttered.
"And they're coming towards us," Cleur pointed out. Movement was slow but the giant...the horribly gigantic limbs really ate up the ground.
"Evasive?" Heest asked.
"Gently," Theex said with a glance up. One of the facets on the upper tier was Sickbay. A significant portion of her crew had been wounded in the dimension jump. Not all were in properly restrained beds.
Heest chose to slide to one side. The Far Traveling Seeker snuck away from the path of the approaching titans.
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"The material is moving, sir," Data shouted. Riker nodded and tried to keep his footing. They followed Data's lead towards their goal.
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"They appear to be intelligent," Cleur observed.
"Or, they're wild beasts that can smell Scellarian women," Heest muttered.
"Do we need to close the vents, then?" Theex asked.
Heest reflexively turned to another display. "Hull integrity is fully-" She rolled her eyes as her commander laughed. "Yes. Quite. You got me."
"Cleur?"
"Captain, there are artifacts on the giants that indicate at least the use of technology. Either we try to escape them or we try to make contact."
"Lean out the window and wave a handkerchief?" Theex asked softly. She squared her shoulders. "Okay, Heest. Let's come up to that one in the lead."
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"Sir?"
"Data?"
"I believe we have found the unusual object." Riker looked up. A small red object floated in front of Data's scanner. It looked familiar but he couldn't place it.
"A twelve sider?" Worf exclaimed. The other two turned to stare at him. "My foster parents...one of their grandparents collected gaming artifacts."
"Fascinating," Riker spat. "I suppose you’re a 30
th level fire wizard?"
"Blood warrior, sir," Worf replied. "Um. I mean, the object resembles a 12-sided die. I had one..." He coughed. "I mean, there was one in the collection that was almost exactly the same color."
"It is a dodecahedron," Data supplied. "Each of the twelve pentagonal facets is angled at approximately 116 degrees from-" He paused at Riker's glare.
"Is it connected to the explosion?" Riker asked.
"Attempting to find out, sir." Data raised the tricorder and pressed a control.
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"Gods PRESERVE!" Theex shouted, hands clasped to her ears. A high-pitched warble appeared out of nowhere, shaking the very hull and every crew member's brain.
"It's coming from the artifact in the lead figure's hands!" Cleur shouted.
"Torpedoes!" Theex ordered. She grabbed onto the top of a console and stared at her weapons officer.
"Door controls were lost in the accident," Kief shouted. "But...I have full power to the beam!"
"Beam away, then!" Theex replied. At least one thing on the Seeker still worked. She turned to the visual display.
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Moments after Data engaged the tricorder's active sensors a light shot out of the dodecahedron. A beam as wide as one of the facets sliced straight through the device, bursting it into several pieces.
The unhindered beam shot on through the casing, cut the strap, nicked a bit of the android's uniform and through the space beneath his underarm.
The Starfleet officers turned to see a tiny hole shining in the bare rock of the crater. Smoke started to issue from the hole, quickly snatched away by the winds.
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The ship was blessedly silent. Everyone stared at the display.
"When you said full power..." Theex said. "Silly me, I thought you meant, oh, one hundred percent of the design power levels. Batle power. Not..." She waved a hand at the screen. "Not divine retribution. I've never seen a beam like that..."
"That's what the charge indicated, ma'am," Kief said softly. "Full power."
"I think I know what happened!" Cleur said. "At least one of the energies transmitted by the... The..."
"Wreckage?" Heest offered.
Cleur nodded. "It emitted a form of energy our collectors can absorb. It charged all the ship's batteries and still had power left. When she fired, it dumped all that power into the beam."
"Wicked," Kief said softly. Weaponeers, Theex thought with a shake of her head.
"CAPTAIN!" the engineer shouted. She looked straight up. The four engines huddled on the facet directly opposite the control room. The engineer stood off to one side.
"Yes, Dace?"
"Captain! All the batteries are fully charged! Cut my Damage Control estimates in half!"
She waved acknowledgement and turned to Cleur. "Tell me the good energy wasn't what rang the hull like a belly dancer's toe rattle?"
"I'll...have to analyze the scans, Captain."
"Good. Maybe we can get them to do that again." She waved at the screen. "Fly an apology pattern."
"Captain?" Heest asked.
"Sorry," Theex said. "I can wish, can't I?"
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"I do not believe it will allow active scans, sir."
"Didn't like the beam or doesn't give up secrets?" Riker mused.
"Doesn't matter," Worf said. "That tiny little thing packs substantial defensive power." Even in his shout, Riker detected admiration in his tone. Klingons, he thought with a roll of his eyes.
"I was taking passive scans," Data said. "The object did not react until I started active scans. It may object to the energies." Riker slid his tricorder off and handed it to Data. "I will attempt to avoid angering it, sir." He held the device up to show the floating object.
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There was a lull as the titans appeared to be discussing the destruction of their artifact. At least they weren't just smashing at the Seeker. One of their fists...
"Just how big are they?" Theex asked.
"On average, about fifty seven times as tall as the Far Traveling Seeker. More than 300 times as tall as a Scellarian," Fleur said.
"Really..." She looked at her fist. "So, if they hit us, that'd be 300 times as big..."
"No, Captain," Fleur corrected. "Their hand is 300 times as long. And 300 times as wide, and 300 times as deep." She pressed a control to highlight the face of one of the giants. "That one is twenty eight million times as big as you are."
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"Number One!"
"Yes, Captain," Riker replied to his communicator.
"The cushion effect is about to start breaking down. Prepare to beam out of there."
"Yes, sir. We're going to bring back our find. Data thinks it deserves further study."
"Very well. Transporter room!"
"Ready, Captain." Riker was unsurprised to find hear Craig's voice. The engineering officer volunteered for any tricky beaming exercise. He probably had his Klingon familiar nearby.
"Enterprise, three and a gaming die to beam up."
"Engaging, XO." The beam started to take effect. His mind expanded as the winds fell. Riker took one last breath....and the winds came back. He shot forward, narrowly avoiding hitting the strange object with his flailing arms.
"Enterprise, what the hell?"
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"Captain!" Fleur shouted from her console. "That strange beam is back! It's enveloping the titans...and US!"
"It's holding us in place!" Heest added. "Hull integrity is being challenged! Ten dipts before we're exposed to...whatever's out there!"
Theex ran to the Combat Control station. "Can we target the source of the beam?"
"We can target anything," Kief said. "And if the energy of this beam is powering the collectors, I think we can hit anything in the galaxy."
"It's easy enough," Heest said. "Aim straight up."
"Do the best you can," Theex told her weaponry Under Officer. "Hold actual fire until-"
"Captain! The beam is gone!"
"Collision imminent!" One of the titans staggered towards them, arms waving in slow motion as it floated across the surface. Heest backed the Seeker away, easily slipping around the approaching limb.
"Did they change their minds?" Kief asked. Theex shook her head.
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"Captain, Away team," Craig called on his communicator. "That alien object they found is deranged matter!"
"Explain," Picard's voice snapped.
"It's theoretical, sir," Craig replied. "Or it was until today." He glanced at his transporting partner. She nodded. "Long story short, sir, it's rumored in the KDF that it was deranged matter experiments that blew up Praxis.
"I fear that taking something like that apart in the transporter beam-"
"Could blow up at this end or down on the planet," Picard finished.
"Can we bring it back on a shuttle?" Riker called. "Data says this bit is stable. And it's showing signs of intelligence. We'd rather not abandon it."
"Is there time?" Picard asked back. "Beam up, grab a shuttle, safely navigate through the storms, then back up again?"
"And will it wait for us to do so?" Data added.
Craig reached out to grab Keerha and ran out the door of the transporter room. "Captain! We have an idea!"
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"And once more, the magic matter energy matrix forms," Cleur said. She checked a few screens. "This is different."
"How?" Theex asked.
"Before, the three giants rode one complicated energy column to the surface. Now, three beams are working on one artifact." She shook her head. "I don't know if the giants are crazy or just normal for a crazy universe."
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The shuttle formed more slowly than Riker was used to. The Transporter Twins had tied three cargo transporters together and were moving a shuttle straight down to their position.
They assured him that it would work. Data said probably. Worf just kept muttering about doing a full diagnostics before taking that thing into the air.
The whine finally faded and Craig said it was done. Riker smiled at the anticipation in the young Ensign's voice. Well, Riker thought, he could wait to find out if he'd managed another miracle.
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"Now what is that?" Heest asked.
"Shelter?" Kief suggested.
"The energy profile is far too high," Cleur said. "It could be a vessel."
"They can move matter by energy column," Kief said. "Why build a sidewalk if you can fly?"
"Maybe we can't fly?" Theex said. "They saw that the column energy affected us and came up with something else?"
The titans moved towards the artifact, whatever it was. A door opened and they climbed in. The door remained open, the last giant turned to face the Seeker.
"Why not?" Theex asked. "At least it's out of the wind. She pointed to the screen. "Helm! Take us through the door." She shook her head. "In all my thegs of navigating, never thought I'd give a command like that on a ship like the Seeker."
