The *USS Ronin* was still five days out from Starbase 901. Admiral Pike sat in his quarters, completely lost in thought. They had escaped the clutches of the Kelvans for the moment, but the entire Kelvan civilization was still headed for the Federation. How could they possibly stop an invasion of that magnitude? The Starbase had been apprised of the situation and would no doubt be able to lend a few ships to their cause, but still....
Yeoman Piper came in carrying an armful of PADDs. As she set them down on the coffee table, Pike realized that something was amiss. He searched his memories, and finally came up with what it was -- Piper wasn't her usual cheerful self. She seemed more lost in thought than he was.
"What's troubling you, Yeoman?"
"Huh?" Pike's question seemed to startle her out of her own trance. "Oh.... I was just thinking, Admiral."
"About what?"
"The Kelvans, what else?" she shrugged tiredly. She was a brave young woman and rarely admitted to fatigue, but Pike knew that the past four months had taken their toll on her just as they had on everyone else. "I was just wishing that there was something we could do to help them."
"Help them?"
"Sure, Admiral. They're here because the Andromeda galaxy exploded and they have to find a new home. And the only reason they overran the Andromeda galaxy was because their original home galaxy exploded too."
"It's their own fault, Jamie. They overused their technology to the point where it destroyed their environment. Not once but twice. They've ruined galaxy after galaxy, and now they're here. The whole story is in that alien archive of Benton's. You saw it just like everyone else."
"Yeah.... Still," Jamie said. "I'd still rather find a happy solution that kill an entire race."
"We all would, Yeoman," said Pike. "I just don't think that's possible in this case."
"If you say so, Admiral. You know best." She seemed to cheer up just a little now that she'd had the chance to get that off her chest. "Will there be anything else?"
Pike shook his head. "No, that'll be all, Yeoman. You can turn in for the night."
"Thank you, Admiral. Good night." Piper turned on her heel and quietly left the cabin.
Pike sat for a while longer, thinking. Piper's wish that they could come to a peaceful solution had struck a chord with him. They were the 'good guys', after all. How could he reconcile that with wiping out an entire race, assuming they somehow succeeded. The only way he could think of to help the Kelvans was so somehow go back in time and prevent the destruction of their original galaxy, Maffei I. But that was impossible. The time and distances involved were just too great. Besides, he almost would rather face a million Kelvan Battle Planets than a couple of agents from Starfleet Temporal Investigations.
Besides, if the pattern of galactic destruction the Kelvans had set held true, then they had even *bigger* problems to worry about than a million Battle Planets overrunning the Federation and the rest of the Galaxy. He sighed heavily and rubbed his temples. He'd rested long enough. He thumbed the comm panel on the table top before him and said, "Pike to Lieutenant Benton."
[Benton here,] came the terse reply.
"How's the research coming?"
[Slower than I had hoped, Admiral. The *Ronin's* sensors just aren't sensitive enough to detect a phenomenon this tenuous and widespread. We'll have to wait until we reach Starbase 901 before we get confirmation.]
Pike frowned. "Very well. Keep trying anyway." He clicked off and leaned back in his chair. Five days was a long time to wait for his answer, but he was sure what it was going to be. When the Kelvans had arrived in the Andromeda galaxy, the shockwave of a million transwarp conduits opening swept across that galaxy, setting off chain reactions that eventually destroyed it. Now the Kelvans had arrive in the Milky Way. Another million transwarp conduits had opened, and he was pretty sure there was another gravitic shockwave making its way even now toward the heart of his own Galaxy.