Chapter Text
A bone-rattling loud Klaxon drove me to instant alertness.
“Situation critical!” were the first sounds that forced me to consciousness. My addled mind raced to sort through its disorientation. I sought my last clear memory.
I remembered walking back to my car. I had been working in a far more dangerous neighborhood than I felt comfortable with. My assumption when someone knocked me out from behind had been a robbery. I had brief flashes of memories after that. Being strapped to a table poked and prodded. The powerlessness of hospitalization and even surgery was not new to me. The coldness of those who did it was. There was no pretense of consolation, not even a hint of understanding.
They performed excruciating procedures again and again. No questions were asked no answers were given, those present talked among themselves as if I was not there. As if I was not a person. I was to them merely a medium and they acted upon it. One such actor seemed to hold hope that whatever they were doing would end in success the others were doubtful. One had joked that if my body exploded then the first would have to clean my cell himself.
In the present I was nude. They had not even given me the dignity of a paper surgical gown. The room was quite small as was the door. My body ached and my head throbbed. Through those inconveniences, something pushed at the back of my mind. The voice from the alarm was somehow familiar. It was Majel Barrett Roddenberry. Someone had programmed an alarm to sound like the computer from Star Trek.
Seeing nothing but a foam mat and drain in my metal cell I examined the door. There were no internal keypads or controls, nothing but smooth metal. In frustration, I hit the door with a blow that half knocked half punched.
“Let me out of here!” I cried out.
To my surprise, the door opened. Outside was a small hallway the floor here at least had a rubber center track. As I started out a fresh surprise came for me.
“Request acknowledged. Life support in the stations' central unit is below safe standards. Smoke inhalation and toxic compounds create a respiratory risk. Do not enter that area without protective gear. Multiple hull fractures in the central unit are sealed by emergency force fields. The main power is offline supplementary and reserve power is holding. The main shuttle bay and operations have been completely destroyed. The turbo-lift shaft above the central unit has suffered catastrophic damage. Main computing is offline. Primary operating systems have suffered a complete failure. The system has rebooted via default backups.” The familiar voice calmly informed.
“You are responding to my vocal input? Can I do anything to stabilize things?” I inquired.
“Yes, this system is set up for vocal interface. You will find tools and emergency environmental equipment if you follow the yellow lights.” The voice explained as such lights appeared on the wall.
My mind spun either this was an amazing bit of trickery or I was in some sort of space station. A station run by a computer out of Star Trek. Survival came first. I shelved the mind-blowing weirdness and took off after the light. I sprinted down the cramped hallways following the lights. I pulled off a wall panel when the lights stopped. Inside was something that made me rethink everything I had seen up to this point.
I regarded the tiny goggles and face mask as my perspective on things updated. I was not going down a small hall. It seemed I was in fact an inordinately large person. I had to be a good eight and a half feet tall.
I should have been freaking out about this but my brain refused to lock up. my mind kept working through the implications. It made connections to the pieces of remembered imagery. I was not that large when I was last conscious. The size increase had to have happened while I was unconscious in the cell. Whatever experiment they had done had increased my physical size, dramatically. This was beyond my understanding of science. It seemed so impossible. Yet it had, obviously, happened. If such an impossible thing happened what else could have occurred?
I found I was more bothered by the fact that the shock wasn’t bothering me. I felt like a stranger in my own mind. I had never been the sort to fall to pieces in an emergency but this was something very different. I wanted to focus on this more but I could not shelve the portion of my instinct that prioritized survival.
“You will have to give me precise instructions step by step on how to make repairs. Guide me to the priorities. We must keep the station intact while maintaining life support and power. Who else is alive on station” I shot off rapid-fire.
“You are the only known intelligent life form. There are unknown small lifeforms in the bioscience lab. Evidence is they are not sapient. They are also currently in no direct danger.” The computer informed me.
“Acknowledged let's get to this then” I replied.
I spent hours working without a break. I was able to find a system with a display and see the shape of this place. It was similar to Starbase 375 or perhaps closer to K-7 only upside down and partly buried in an asteroid. It had been a typical Starfleet mushroom station. Rather than free-floating, it was growing out of the rocky depths of an asteroid. At the surface level arms branched out ending in disks. The labs and prisoner storage were in these arms. The “cap” of the mushroom had been destroyed. The stalk ended in a ragged stump.
I had no idea where the attack had come from. It had destroyed many important things in that "cap". The shuttle bay, the control center, the main computer, the primary generator, the communications, the transporter, and the list went on. Luckily for me the life support, internal structure, reserve power, artificial gravity, and the replicators were decentralized.
The station's exterior and the surface of the asteroid had solar panels. The immediate danger came from the holes in the station's remaining sections. The power draw of the force fields holding the vacuum at bay exceeded the output of the solar panels. I had to seal the leaks before they deplete the power.
A slightly lower priority was extinguishing the fires. They had started from damaged power systems. They caused arcs and plasma leaks. a few volatile compounds in the labs had ignited from shock. Numerous places had broken into blazes. They could be extinguished by force fields. That was not an option due to so much power being tied up holding the holes in the station closed.
Each hole I sealed, arc I stopped, or fire I put out reduced the strain on the power systems. I managed to find time to break open some emergency food and water as I rushed around. I worked at a fevered pace and kept going for nearly twenty hours. I reached a point where all the hull breaches were sealed and fires extinguished. In the current low-power mode, we were below the generation of the solar array. A slow trickle of power was charging the reserves rather than depleting them.
Adrenaline and panic fade before tiredness. I gave the computer instructions to wake me in eight hours and crashed hard.
The next day having secured my immediate existence, I was able to investigate more of the why and where. The computer had no name and little in the way of personality. I ordered it to respond to the name Majel because I felt like a fool addressing “computer”.
The station was not the property of Starfleet. It was primarily created from components obtained from the United Federation of Planets. Prefabricated modules that could be linked in a variety of configurations for colony and outpost work. It looked like whoever had assembled it had built in a self-destruct. Majel and I tried to piece together events. Something attacked the station. The attackers were within the "cap" of the mushroom. The internal security had fought back and then triggered the self-destruct. Their unfamiliarity with the specifications of the technology had ruined their plans
The central antimatter power supply was not energetic enough to destroy the entire station. The central computer had wiped itself before the explosion. The failure triggered a built-in safety measure. The distributed computer system loaded Majel in the absence of another OS. Meant to stop a total failure from accidents her number one priority was saving the station and anything alive on it. Thank God or Q or whatever was responsible for the federation's love of multiple redundant backups.
This logically wouldn’t have been what the owners wanted. However, I objected to dying and Majel was not programmed to make such a differentiation. It didn’t matter one whit what they desired.
I used dereplication to dispose of the bodies of what was likely some of my captors and my fellow victims. I took the time to say a few words for the latter. I didn’t know them but for luck, I would have been one of them.
With only one occupant the base could last many decades. The limited non-organic replicator stores were of concern. They would not run out any time soon. With no communications or ships when they did resupply would be impossible.
Some labs that already served as automatic cultivation centers for plants. Others grew certain animals. So I started to see if any of it could be growing food to stretch the organic replicator supplies. Each lab had information stored in it that pertained to its immediate objectives. In fact, much of the base seemed to function on extreme compartmentalization. The room where something was used held the only terminal where one could look up information on that subject.
While doing an overview I recognized one of the plants. It was listed as an ingredient in a formula I had been dosed with. I ran to the room where the experiments took place. As I was the last experiment the notes were still there detailing the procedures. I had been dosed with three compounds and then subjected to treatments to kickstart them. Two of these treatments were listed as stable with expected results. Copious notes on what the expectations were, both separately and when the first two procedures were mixed were available. The third formula had no successful tests. The only notes on it were about the messy failures. It overwhelmed those subjected to it resulting in painful and messy deaths.
I looked over the effects of the treatments and how differently my mind and body functioned now. I was larger, stronger, faster, and had greater endurance. I had less ability to directly measure the mental changes but I was pretty sure my mind was also faster, stronger, and more observant. I seemed to have a photographic memory as well.
All of these were said to be the results of the first compound. Having seen both ends I headed to the middle. That was the chemical synthesis lab. Where the raw components were turned into the finished formulas.
I found the workstation that oversaw this particular compound. I watched the automated process turn raw components into a finished product. Small purple heart-shaped herbs were pureed separated, components removed, other additives mixed in, and finally, after a few catalyst procedures turned into a glowing blue liquid.
A heart-shaped herb that would only grow when exposed to the radiated energy of an extra-dimensional metal that absorbed or redirected vibrations of kinetic energy.
Here is where things leaped up in weirdness. I had lived on earth in the 2020s. I was in my late 30’s and grew up watching Star Trek. I knew its history had a legacy from the 60s. The timeline had diverted from our own by at least the ’90s. Being in what I knew of as a fictional world was only topped by finding out one of the formulas I had been exposed to had been lifted from a completely different fictional universe.
Panic seemed an appropriate response but it didn’t come. I found myself checking off how many things about how I had ended up here this explained.
The lab had notes on a research group that had been looking into further refinements of this formula off-station through gate nineteen.
“Majel can you locate gate nineteen?” I inquired.
“Searching gate nineteen is at a subsurface level labeled reduced activity.”
“Show me” I ordered getting up to follow her markers.
It was a fairly open cargo bay-like area with five rings of metal that other than lacking chevrons looked like they were akin to the Stargates from SG-1.
“I take it that these open portals to other worlds. Can we open them?”
“The noted power draw to open a gate is beyond the maximum solar output available. Tapping reserve power to open one is possible. However, be advised extended use would quickly drain available systems.” Majel warned
“I’ll wait till we top off the reserves then.” I decided. I returned to my hunt studying the other formulas used to make me whatever I had become.
The second formula was meant to give psionic powers. I wasn’t sure if I had any of those or not. I followed the production chain backward into the chemical labs. The formula was refined primarily from the brain, cerebral-spinal fluid, and mucus of a creature from the animal labs.
In those labs, I found the small mauve creatures that looked like a cross between a cuttlefish and a tadpole. Which had to be fed some grey fungus from the other lab to survive.
The third formula was a mystery. Whatever they expected it to do they must have wanted it badly as they seemed to have tested it hundreds of times. Trying countless variations to get it to work. Whatever that formula had been it had been kept in the now-destroyed main building under the most secure storage
It seemed formula three overwhelmed the body or mind of each recipient. They had tried bolstering the recipients however nothing had preserved their life even the pair I was given. However, never had all three been administered at once perhaps that was the difference. It also might have been a random chance.
I found many other compounds and products were being studied here. It would seem random people from worlds with nothing else that interested those who ran this place were used as guinea pigs.
They were all assigned new destinations. Renamed with a string of numbers and letters. A few of them I recognized by the effects. They came from various fictional worlds. The spice melange, mutant growth hormone, element zero, adam, promicin, trilsettum serum, NZT-48, and venom, along with many I didn't recognize. Most of them were very random, had horrible side effects, or were not easily replenished.
The energy lab had devices that bombarded the body with various energies. Some affected the chemical process, others could enhance existing powers. A few gave abilities on their own again most were random or riddled with side effects.
I didn't even enter the viral lab. I had a good idea of what sort of things I would find. I also didn't want to go through the trouble of custom replicating a clean suit and studying cleanroom procedures.
When the power reserves hit maximum I activated gate 19. It opened into the basement of a nearly empty building. The computers here looked like they were from my own time and world. Only one of them was connected to the internet. It appeared I was in Willowdale Virginia. This base had been used for espionage across the world. The primary target was the nearby Culver University.
The spies here had been keeping track of the Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project. This was a version of the MCU. They had been keeping an eye on General Ross’ pet project. They had shut down the observation post as there was no current progress. Ross had yet to tap Dr. Banner.
Culver University might have been the primary target. They had watched other locations. Data on other areas like Wakanda Kamar-Taj and Stark Industries Headquarters was stored here.
There was something new for the first time some unscrubbed personal observations were left behind. My mysterious enemies had openly admired Hydra. They had been watching this world on and off since before the Second World War. It seemed they shared many modes of operation as well as a desire for total control.
It was late 2001 here if worse came to worse and I had to abandon the space station this would not be a terrible place to start over. However, I wanted to learn more about the kidnappers. Whatever their plans or goals I wanted to stop them both for revenge and to keep them from hurting anyone else.
I would run the risk of being dusted by the snap if I remained. I wasn't sure how I felt about that, what if I butterflied the narrow path to victory?
Leaving, I checked the other four working portals. Majel had revealed there were more rings no longer used in storage. However, the exact setup and tuning of these devices were uncertain.
Two of them drew my immediate interest and the start of a plan began to form. One was a Laboratory on Noveria in the Mass Effect universe. The enemy had formed an R and D company that they used when they needed to buy things such as more eezo. The lab was only staffed when they had a need for a set piece for meeting people. Most of the business was run by VI computers.
I had noticed each of the smaller outposts had been built and exclusively used local materials. Even the station was primarily created with what was local technology. Only where they were forced to, did my foes utilities out of universe materials.
This kept a low profile. It also passed over many opportunities for profit. Mass Effect had FTL ships small enough to fit through the gate. The Kodiak Drop Shuttle would be small enough to fit through the ring and I could fit it up the shaft that formed the neck of the station. I could take it to a local planet and find a way to arrange for new parts to repair the station before it ran out of spares.
All I needed was a source of revenue to buy one. There were numerous scientific instruments and devices here that might fit the bill. With Majel's help, I settled on a technology that would be extremely useful. There were numerous power storage systems that were more advanced than what was in use in Mass Effect. I picked a power cell that could hold roughly quadruple the charge per volume the average local storage medium could. I downloaded a schematic and means of creation using existing Mass Effect tools and negotiating with lawyers over the exonet I set up a new company that would license the technology to System Alliance corporations. I left instructions to the VI’s and lawyers for the new company to buy out the R and D company that owned the Noveria lab. Later it would buy the Kodiak in pieces and have them shipped to the lab. It would make moving it up into the neck even easier.
However, all of these worlds were dangerous. My enemies were obviously ruthless and potentially could field Psychic super soldiers. I needed training. I wanted to learn more science and technical skills. But, as before survival came first.
That is where the second portal had piqued my interest. It opened into a small post in the smuggler territory of the polar region of Arrakis in the Dune universe. The time period seemed to be late in the reign of Elrood the ninth. Most of the places where I could receive military training would require an oath and term of service. I didn’t really have time for all of that.
The Ginaz school of swordmasters however provided what was for most intents and purposes a Ph.D. in being a badass. If certain sources were right there might also be a satellite school to train Mentats.
There was enough melange in storage here to pay tuition. I could pay in water to be smuggled off the planet. I might be betrayed. The smugglers might attempt to rob me or cheat me. If I took no risks however I would never move forward. While I prepared to leave, I made sure Majel had access to some remote drones.
“While I am gone, keep stockpiling the super-soldier serum and that mauve psionic booster. Hold everything else steady and keep yourself and the station in good repair when I return I’ll have further plans.” I ordered