Stars streaked past the USS Hyperion, a vessel unlike any in the fleet. Sleek, silent, and ominously advanced, its hull shimmered with transformium alloy, and its AI core pulsed with the merged intelligence of Skynet's reprogrammed seed and Federation ethics algorithms. A silent monument to one man's impossible journey.
Shepherd Fox.
Once a dimensional traveler, fugitive, and ghost, he now stood on the bridge as Level 12 Clearance holder—granted to only the rarest minds across Starfleet and the Federation's scientific elite.
His presence here, in the heart of the unknown, had taken years to build. But behind every system, every adaptive hull, every rift-based engine in the Hyperion, was the unspoken truth: Shepherd had seen what was coming.
One Year Earlier – Starfleet Integration
After escaping the multiversal conflicts of the Terminator and Transformers timelines, Shepherd returned to the main universe with a singular vision—protect this reality from the fate he had witnessed.
He began quietly, slipping through Starfleet's outer systems under stealth, depositing schematics in obscure research outposts: zero-point stabilizers, quantum memory cores, self-repairing alloys. His knowledge stunned researchers. Even cloaked Romulan satellites picked up anomalies around Jupiter's orbit, where entire research platforms accelerated past theoretical limits overnight.
Starfleet eventually traced the advances to a single individual.
They brought him in, cautiously. Many viewed him as a threat—until Admiral Kathryn Janeway intervened.
Recognizing elements from Voyager's Delta Quadrant encounters in his designs, she offered him protection and legitimacy. With Janeway's endorsement, Shepherd was integrated into Utopia Planitia's Advanced Theoretical Division, answering directly to Starfleet's Scientific Council.
By his second month, he'd developed adaptive stealth drives immune to Borg scanning. By his sixth, he'd proposed a hybrid fusion-warp system using repurposed Rift Energy. Starfleet granted him Level 12 clearance, and the Hyperion Project was born—his flagship, his platform, his shield against the threats yet unseen.
Present – Sector Omega-24, Deep Space
"Approaching rift boundary," Lieutenant Maren reported.
The Hyperion dropped out of warp. Before them floated a gaping tear in space—swirling, unnatural, pulsing with dim violet and black energy. A forced wound in the fabric of reality.
"Engage cloaking veil," Shepherd ordered.
The ship shimmered from view.
"Begin full-spectrum scan," he added. "I want Rift harmonics, dimensional flux, and any trace of core extraction."
The ship's AI, Alix, responded."Analysis in progress. Dimensional siphoning detected. Origin signature: Godspace-adjacent."
Shepherd's expression hardened. "It's started."
This was the same pattern he'd seen in the Terminator timeline. The Plunderers—the unseen threat consuming world cores—had opened another breach. Their extraction methods were ruthless, draining planets of their source energy to feed ascension rituals through Godspace itself.
Not here. Not again.
He activated the bridge's main console and sent a probe directly into the rift.
"Time until full core destabilization?" he asked.
"Estimated at thirty-eight standard days," Alix replied.
That was the window. After that, the entire local dimension would collapse.
Federation Council – Earth
On Earth, Shepherd's rise hadn't gone unnoticed. Within the halls of Starfleet Command, a secure meeting convened.
"He's tampered with things beyond comprehension," Admiral Forlan said. "Dimensional tech, sentient AI, even anti-matter subspace drives—we can't control him."
Janeway shot back. "You can't control time either, but you prepare for it."
"He's changing Starfleet," T'Paal noted, "and the future of this quadrant."
No one disagreed. Already, technologies born of Shepherd's mind were being integrated across the fleet—warp coils resistant to spatial folding, deflector arrays with quantum redundancy, even medical nanites derived from transformium.
Helios Systems, his private venture—backed silently by the Federation—had begun seeding civilian infrastructure with his breakthroughs.
To some, he was a savior.
To others, a harbinger.
Aboard the Hyperion
As the probe returned data, Alix spoke again."Rift breach echoes a prior signature. Source vector resembles dimensional threads present in the Terminator timeline. Probability of Plunderer involvement: 91.4%."
"They're testing our defenses," Shepherd said, eyes locked on the breach. "Seeing if this world is vulnerable."
"And is it?" Maren asked.
He turned. "Not while I'm breathing."
Alix's interface flared."Rift trace reveals outbound echo—a second world connected to this tear. Shall we pursue?"
Shepherd nodded. "Prepare the Rift Lancer. But first... get me coordinates. I want to see where they've been—what they've already taken."
His journey had come full circle—from scavenger to defender. From survivor to sentinel.
He would not let another universe fall.
Not this one.