Disclaimer: the characters and Universe of Star Trek do not belong to me. I've received no financial gain from this story.
A/N: The story follows on immediately from the end of 'Zero Hour', but it isn't necessary to have seen the episode to follow the story. I've avoided all speculation and spoilers for Season 4 so this is bound to be AU.
Constructive criticism welcomed.
Spoilers: 'Countdown', 'Zero Hour'.
Zero Plus
Chapter 1
"What the hell...?!" cried Trip as the tracer bullets whipped past the descending shuttlepod, rattling harmlessly against the hull. He caught a brief glimpse of their source... old-fashioned fighter planes?!
Travis had already reacted and pulled the shuttlepod up into a steep climb, arrowing away from the glittering expanse of the Pacific Ocean. The shuttlepod easily outdistanced and out maneuvered the slower aircraft. By the time the planes had banked around for another pass, the shuttlepod had vanished from their sight.
"Travis, did you see what I saw?" asked Trip, eyes wide in disbelief. He had to be hallucinating... didn't he?
"Uh huh," agreed Travis, checking for pursuit on his displays but finding none. He turned to the Commander. "Those were piston aircraft; World War 2 vintage at a guess."
Trip ran a hand over his head. "This is screwy. What were they doing there?"
Travis had no answer. He checked his display again. "They're not following us. If they're authentic, we are well out of their reach."
Leaning forward to check for himself, Trip could see the heavens were empty again. In the window, indigo shaded into inky black as they reached the outer atmosphere. Now that was odd too. They hadn't come across any orbital or sub-orbital vessels. There should be significant traffic. A chill settled over Trip. Something was very, very wrong. "Travis... run a few surface scans and match 'em up with the latest maps."
As Travis moved to comply, Trip opened a comm channel. "Tucker to Enterprise."
"Go ahead, Commander," came T'Pol's immediate response.
"We've made contact," said Trip, pausing as he wondered how he was going to report this. He locked eyes with Travis who shrugged.
"What does Starfleet instruct we do?"
"Well, it wasn't Starfleet we made contact with. We couldn't raise them. It was a squadron of aircraft... World War 2 fighter aircraft."
There was the briefest pause as T'Pol took in this unexpected information. "Explain."
Trip gave a shaky laugh. "I wish I could, T'Pol."
Malcolm's voice cut into the conversation. "Could they be part of some historical re-enactment, Commander?"
Trip gave a mirthless smile. "Well, if they were, it was complete in every detail, down to the tracer fire!"
T'Pol said, "They fired on you?"
Trip could hear Malcolm's startled grunt in the background.
"Yeah. No damage though. We didn't make voice contact."
There was silence as everyone considered the situation. Travis turned to Trip. "Commander, I've got the comparison results up."
Trip steeled himself. "Sonofa..." he breathed as he took in the incredible but undeniable results. He coughed, and cleared his throat. "T'Pol, you better see this. I'm transmitting the results now." He gave a quick nod to Travis who tapped the send button.
"On main viewscreen," ordered T'Pol.
The crew on Enterprise's bridge and the two men on the shuttlepod gazed at the overlay.
"Well," said Malcolm eventually, his voice strained, " I can't believe there would have been that many changes since we were last home. There's certainly some correlation, but significant areas are different."
"Yes," agreed T'Pol. "For example, the Vulcan compound is absent."
"And Starfleet Headquarters," added Malcolm.
Trip put into words what most of them feared. "D'you think we've traveled back in time? Perhaps something happened when we destroyed the sphere."
"No, Commander," said Travis emphatically. "The star charts were totally accurate. I would know if we had somehow ended up in the past."
T'Pol said, "Commander. You should return to Enterprise and we will consider these results in more detail."
Biting his lower lip, Trip thought for a moment. "Actually, T'Pol, I think Travis and I should go down again. We need more information - not just changes in the city layout. We're not going to make any progress from high orbit."
T'Pol made an instant decision. "Very well, but remain in contact with Enterprise. Until we understand what has happened, it would be prudent to avoid detection."
"We'll certainly do our best," said Trip with a grin. "Tucker out." He closed the channel. "Okay, Travis, let's try this again. We'll take some mid-level orbital passes around the planet and then come in lower -somewhere where there isn't much activity."
"Understood, Sir," said Travis, leveling out the shuttlepod.
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He was in pain - shooting agonies throughout his entire body. Through the haze of confusion, he groaned, but the sound he heard was far away. His throat was raspingly dry. He could see blurry shapes, areas of light amid dullness but could resolve nothing concrete. He groaned again as a slight movement of his right leg caused intense jarring running down his side.
He was so thirsty. 'Water' he tried to say, but no sound reached his lips. Only the enduring pain was real.
A low murmuring - a jumble of noises - they made no sense.
More agonies consumed him and he lost consciousness.
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The remaining senior staff - T'Pol, Malcolm and Phlox - bolstered by Lieutenant Hess representing Engineering - stood around the console in the situation room. Hoshi had insisted she was in good enough shape to take part and was perched on a seat at one end. Phlox was keeping a close eye on her. Recovery from the torture inflicted by the Xindi Reptilians was proceeding more slowly than he had hoped. She tired easily and found concentration difficult. Still, being an active member of the crew would give her a reason to fight for her health, so Phlox had approved her attendance at this meeting. He had observed with interest the great part the mind played in healing the human frame. For a non-telepathic race, it was remarkable. They were stronger and more resilient than he ever would have thought before embarking on this mission.
"These are the more comprehensive scans we have now received from Shuttlepod 1," said T'Pol, setting the animated display running. As Trip and Travis continued their sortie, data was continuously added in, increasing the coverage and amount of detail.
"The land masses are odd," commented Malcolm. "Mostly they conform to what we know but..." he put out a finger to freeze the display, "...here - this isn't right." He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
Hoshi said in a quiet, flat voice, "They are correct, if you go back a couple of hundred years."
Glancing over to Hoshi, Malcolm saw with concern that she had become even paler, if that were possible. He leaned back and crossed his arms, "But Travis said we hadn't moved through time."
"That is correct, Lieutenant," confirmed T'Pol. "I have analyzed the star fields and they are in agreement with what we would expect to see in our own time, as Ensign Mayweather reported."
"Then I don't understand," said Malcolm frowning. "This doesn't make sense."
"It does," whispered Hoshi, her attention fixed on the frozen display, "if you assume World War 3 never happened."
The humans around the table looked at one another in shock. Phlox remained inscrutable and T'Pol merely nodded. "That is my initial conclusion, also, Ensign," she said in measured tones.
Malcolm gave a little noise of protest. Raising an eyebrow, T'Pol said, "That is the logical conclusion."
"But how can that be? We haven't gone back in time, but World War 3 hasn't happened yet!" exclaimed Malcolm.
"I would postulate that either the timeline has been altered or possibly we have been thrown into a parallel universe."
"One in which World War 3 never happened," said Malcolm, trying to get to grips with this strange concept.
"Correct. I believe that when we destroyed Sphere 41, and with it the Expanse, the resulting sudden change in the space-time fabric caused a catastrophic breakdown of our surrounding space and took Enterprise into this new... condition."
No one spoke for several minutes. They had thought they were home at last, but now, it had all been turned on end.
Hess choked out what they were all thinking. "Does this mean, we won't be able to get home?" she turned fierce eyes on T'Pol, willing her to provide some comfort.
T'Pol looked at her and then at her other crewmates.
"I do not know," T'Pol admitted. "If my hypothesis is correct, the process required a huge amount of energy released from a vast region of space returning to a normal state from that of the Sphere Builders realm. Even if we determine exactly what has happened, it may prove... difficult... to replicate that."
"Bloody impossible," muttered Malcolm, rubbing his hand across his chin. Hess nodded. They both knew what energy levels might conceivably be required to reverse the process. How could they hope to replicate the Sphere Builders efforts?
T'Pol said, "Not necessarily. We do not know. We must gather more data."
Malcolm sighed. "We need to know exactly what we are dealing with before we can do anything about it."
"Correct, Lieutenant." T'Pol swept her gaze around her fellow officers. "Our first priority is to determine what has happened. We should not allow ourselves to become... distracted from that goal by unfruitful speculation."
The others all nodded. They tried to push back the overwhelming worries and concentrate on their immediate goal.
T'Pol said, "I will make an announcement to the rest of the crew."
TBC