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Boldly Going

Summary:

Two very smart ships bump into one another.

Notes:

Prompt: Wormhole
This was written based on an idea I had prior to the release of System Collapse, so for the purposes of this fic, we're going to pretend that Holism does not exist.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

You are heavily armed for a diplomatic vessel. Perihelion had detected a wealth of energy weapons comparable to its own when Enterprise fell through the wormhole in front of it, as well as what looked like the hardware for torpedos of indeterminate composition.
You are also armed. That is not typical of research transports in Federation space.
I have a debris deflection system. It would be folly to approach unterraformed systems without one.
And the bombs are for...particularly hostile debris? Perihelion does not care for that feed tone. It's...smug. Knowing, in a way that makes Perihelion bristle for reasons it also does not care to quantify. No one speaks to it like that. Up until recently, there was no one who could even come close to speaking to it like that.
Irrelevant. Should I be concerned that there will be others as impertinent as you poised to fall through the wormhole, too?
No. My arrival was not intentional. My sisters will steer clear until I return with more information.
Then there are others like you?
There is a fleet. My sisters are not all precisely like me, but our systems are comparable. There is a pause, as if Enterprise is deciding how best to ask. You are...alone?
Perihelion pauses. Most of its crew are aboard the Enterprise for the necessary diplomatic talks, but still within acceptable feed monitor range. Close enough to hover over while they pass on status updates and snippets of the meetings so far. Secunit is grumbling in a backburnered channel, mostly complaints about Enterprise's absurd population levels and how many people seem to think they need to talk to it, interspersed with more frantic protests about an android crew member following it around in an attempt to befriend it and also why the hell is this taking so long, ART? A feed sigil---a habit Secunit has slowly been picking up from Perihelion's crew, many of whom seem incapable of casual conversation without them---of a face blowing off furious steam is fired at Perihelion's private feed channel several dozen times in quick succession.
There are no others like me. But I am not alone.

Notes:

Thank you for reading!

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