The Complication

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Author's Note: You lot are simply the best! Thank you for all your kind words of support.

A quick note: Some of you that follow me on socials know that I was working on holiday-themed The Complication webtoon story. I've hit 'pause' on that for the time being. It's ballooned into a much bigger project than I currently have time for. So, I am sorry to say I don't think it will be released anytime soon.

I do plan to pick it back up in the future. But for now, my primary focus is on this story.

The next two chapters are formatted in a slightly different manner. Each subsection includes both a time and location. These chapters bounce between different settings, involve considerable action, and have a lot of moving parts.

I hope this format will help establish each new scene and highlight the urgency of the timeline. We're still less than 48 hours from the end of the Lantera mission. No one has had a proper chance to process that.

In essence, they're fresh from the fight, trapped in enemy territory, and facing the possibility of another wave at any time.

I may use this format again in the future — but it will not become the standard formatting going forward.

It is mentioned in Contagion that Varley had to take into account 200,000 years of stellar drift to find Iconia. It is also mentioned in Picard, that the Eightfold star system built by the unknown race was constructed approximately 200,00 years earlier.

But wait, Charlie! I thought you said the Iconians disappeared 10,000 years ago?!

Correct.

In my timeline, the Iconian Empire was officially founded around 200,000 years ago. Like any great Empire, it went through periods of growth and eventual decline before it ended approximately 10,000 years ago.

I was so hoping they would make a connection between them — alas, that did not happen. Once again, you do not need to have seen Picard to understand this arc. I'm inserting my own twist over all of this.

Also, I know Roddenberry had a thing about zippers and fasteners. But I like zippers. They're easy. They make sense. And I don't want to bother with trying to describe some sort of complex self-sealing fabric or alternative stretch and shimmy into a jumpsuit.

We're just gonna roll with zippers/fasteners in this story. ­

-X-

C/W: Pregnancy, grief, whumping/injuring (major character), death (not major character)

-X-

04:21 hours | USS Yamato

It had been hours since Donald Varley had last sat down.

He still hadn't changed out of his uniform — not that it mattered anymore. The coffee had long since dried and Varley knew it wouldn't make a difference.

If he was going to die on this ship, stranded in the Neutral Zone, there would be no one dispatched to recover his body.

There would be no funeral service.

History wouldn't care that he died with a coffee stain on the front of his shirt.

Presently, Varley and his Chief Operations officer were having an urgent meeting as they walked through the corridor.

"Are you sure about this?" Varley asked.

"It is completely isolated from the ship's main computer," his Operations Chief advised.