"Red Alert!" Neil's voice thundered, and the lights dimmed, replaced by flashing red signals on every console. "All hands to battle stations!"
A flash of white illuminated the bridge transporter pads, and Captain Praxas, Science Officer Rivas, and Tactical Officer Veirik materialized, still dressed in their casual civilian attire.
"What's the situation, number…" Anzyl began, then faltered as he beheld the view screen. "Holy $(@!! A Crystalline Entity! Here?!" He struggled to regain his composure.
"It hasn't made any aggressive moves yet, sir," Eroga reported from her station.
"What a fascinating specimen," Nolan remarked in amazement from his science station. "Exactly 2,000 meters tall, inorganic yet alive, naturally warp-capable, and…" he elaborated.
"Capable of annihilating all organic life on a planet in a matter of moments," Anzyl interjected with a tone of resluteness, moving back to his chair. "It strips a planet of all organic matter—flora, fauna, even bacteria—leaving it desolate for generations."
"Records indicate that it functions as a giant electromagnetic conductor," Nolan added, "requiring a constant power supply and converting organic matter into energy."
"Shields?" Anzyl asked, ignoring his science officers notions.
"Shields are at one hundred percent," Keten confirmed.
"And it leaves a viscous residue in its wake, composed of hydrocarbons, lathinites, and nitrates," Nolan continued with his scientific observations.
"What about weapons?" Anzyl redirected his focus to Veirik.
"Octo-Omnidirectional beam array is hot and at full power," Veirik replied.
"Captain?" Nolan's voice rose in shock. "Surely, you don't intend to attack that thing?!"
"Nolan, my friend," Anzyl turned in his captain's chair to his Voth companion, "I appreciate your scientific curiosity." then returning to face forward, poised for battle, "However, all Crystalline Entities have a Priority 1 KOS order, and for good reason."
"KOS?" Nolan murmured to himself.
"Kill On Sight," Veirik responded quietly leaning over, their stations positioned side by side.
—
Outside in the vastness of space, the space station had finished its ventilation of billions of tribbles, leaving behind a thick cloud of furry organic matter. The immense Crystalline Entity loomed over the station, shining brilliantly before firing a wide beam of iridescent blue energy at the cloud. Instantly, massive portions of the thick tribble cloud were vaporized and absorbed by the entity.
—
"Engineering," Neil's voice boomed over the comms, as he sat at the captain's right hand, "Keep up the teleportation of civilians!"
"Scans show we're almost done, sir!" Keten replied. "The pattern buffer is at maximum capacity."
"Get those people aboard now, Lieutenant!" Neil roared, his gaze fixed on the viewscreen as the beam swept through the tribble cloud, absorbing all organic matter drifting in space.
"Sir," Nolan said, his voice filled with horror, "No organic life is detected on sensors in the vicinity of the space station."
"That thing just consumed over 12 billion tribbles?" Anzyl asked, his brow furrowing in concern.
"And who knows how many civilians we couldn't get to in time," Keten added somberly.
—
The Crystalline Entity then shimmered brightly and unleashed its electromagnetic beams at the Nexus, the Jouret Space Station, and the numerous other spacecraft in the vicinity.
The Nexus barely flinched from the energy onslaught.
"Shields at ninety-nine percent, sir," Keten reported. "That barely scratched us."
"However, other vessels didn't fare as well," Eroga noted from her station.
"I believe we have standing orders for this particular situation, sir," Veirik added, reminding the captain, "Priority One standing orders."
Anzyl nodded. "Thank you for the reminder, Veirik," he said, straightening his t-shirt. "Heluna, open a channel to all ships in the area."
"Hailing frequencies open, sir," she replied.
"This is Captain Anzyl Praxas of the Khitomer Alliance ship, the USS Nexus." Anzyl announced with authority. "Our ship is about to engage the Crystalline Entity. If any of you think you can handle a tussle with that thing then you are more than welcome to join us in the fight. For those who cannot, I strongly advise you to seek refuge and head to the Solanae Dyson Sphere gateway. We will keep this oversized sugar crystal occupied while you make your escape. Nexus out."
On the viewscreen, the majority of the ships altered course, heading swiftly toward the nearby Dyson gateway. Only three larger vessels remained.
"Sir, the USS Farragut, IKS Galactica, and the Eunoia are ready to assist," Heluna reported from her communications seat, "The Jouret station apologizes, but they are still addressing the lingering tribble threat and its aftermath."
Anzyl cracked his neck, his voice heavy with determination. "Four against one, almost doesn't seem fair," he muttered. "Helm, take us in, full impulse, heading 322-mark-022."
Lusaalli engaged the engines, propelling the Nexus forward straight towards the heart of the gigantic crystal structure.
Following closely were a Federation Concorde-class ship, a Klingon Vo'devwl-class Carrier, and a Pralor cruiser starship.
"Tactical," Anzyl commanded, "Light that thing up like a, well, a giant crystal."
"Firing all beam arrays," Veirik replied pressing buttons on his Tactical console.
The Nexus surged forward, unleashing eight multicolored beams in all directions at the different branches of the massive crystal. The impact caused sparks to fly, but it hardly left a scratch.
"Science? Tactical?" Anzyl leaned back in his chair, awaiting feedback. "Report. What worked best? If at all?"
"Analyzing," Nolan stated, fingers flying across the console. "It seemed to simply absorb all energy particle beams, sir. All except the yellow Kinetic cutting beam."
"Agreed," Veirik added. "The kinetic beam did the most damage."
"Leave it to the Borg to figure out how to fight a giant inorganic object," Neil muttered under his breath.
"Sir, the Entity seems to be moving on an intercept course toward the ships it was able to damage," Eroga called out.
"Helm, take us around and keep us positioned between us and the Crystalline Entity!" Anzyl commanded. "Tactical, fire at will!"
The Nexus maneuvered to intercept the massive crystal structure, positioning itself between the entity and the fleeing smaller ships heading towards the gateway. As the three other ships unleashed their entire arsenal at the massive crystal, the Nexus stood as a shield, ready to defend against the oncoming threat.
The Nexus hummed as it unleashed eight neon-yellow beams of pure kinetic energy. Originally assimilated and modified by the Borg Collective for slicing and cutting through ship hulls, today these beams were repurposed for the monumental task of dissecting a giant crystal.
"Negligible effect, sir," Veirik reported. "The beams don't seem powerful enough to slice through the thick crystal mass."
"We need a bigger knife…" Anzyl mused, pondering the situation.
Veirik caught onto the captain's idea. "A bigger knife, yes, that's it!" he exclaimed, swiftly typing commands into his console. "Setting all eight beams to concentrate on a single location, while priming the emitters for Beam Overload."
The Nexus held its position, readying for the Entity's approach. With a high-pitched hum, a single, much thicker and denser yellow beam surged from the front rim of the saucer section, slicing through and severing a limb of the crystal's main structure. The fractal shard of crystals was sent hurtling away from the main crystal.
"Nicely done, Veirik!" Anzyl and the crew cheered. "Now, if we can only do that with the rest of that oversized sugar crystal."
"Uh, sir?" Eroga interjected from her station. "Are you seeing this?"
The severed fractal branch broke apart into two dozen smaller tetrahedral fractals. Though smaller than the crystal entity, they were still comparable in size to starships. The fractals began flying independently, forming a geometric formation and heading directly toward the Nexus and the other ships.
"Well, that's new..." Anzyl gasped as the Nexus and its accompanying starships suddenly found themselves outnumbered six to one.