From the ashes

In the blackness of this region of space, only the bright but distant, yellow-white glare of Beta Caeli fell on the immense field of debris slowly swirling before the dim lights of the other faraway stars. This mass of twisted pieces of burnt metal of all shapes and sizes however was not expanding from what remained of the afterglow of the colossal explosion from which it was born; on the contrary, it was slowly but surely receding towards the small, deep darkened center where even the last traces of the deflagration were disappearing, like swallowed into nothingness.

One piece of floating metal however was alone moving slowly but steadily away from the rest of the coalescing debris field, alone still carried by the momentum left from the massive detonation. It was the largest by far, and it was not dying embers and flames but low flickering lights that defined it's round, disc-shaped form.

Within the primary hull of what has been known as the Federation starship Artemis, lights finally flickered back fully to life from ceiling panels and on consoles starting to chime and chirp again. And on the bridge, light brought back life again as all the silhouettes present stirred back to full readiness, still seated at their posts thanks to the personal inertial dampeners they had all been wearing.

The first voice to break the soft music of the systems and instruments, all resuming functions and starting autotmated diagnostics, came from the center seat in a croaked, soft bark.

"Report."

"Sir... emergency saucer separation was successful," first answered the towering Andorian woman sitting to his forward left. " Tactical sensors report no other presence in a one parsec radius. Our secondary hull fully rammed the target. Enemy ship destroyed."

There was no cheer on the Artemis bridge. Even while doing their duty in safeguarding the Federation and themselves, triumphant against a vastly superior force at the dire cost of sacrificing their own vessel, no one aboard took joy in taking lives, even enemy lives.

Recovering from the barely averted shockwave as a result of the massive explosions emanating from the two colliding starships, Syntron regained his bearing as he began to check on the overall status of their situation and the ship. The tall bearded Vulcan then stood and looked at the chief medical officer just as Kheren voiced his own shared concern.

"Survivors?"

"Aside from our distinguished guest of an Admiral in the brig, none from the Romulan vessel," grimly confirmed Doctor Nasaro-Myth from his own internal and external sensors. "But all crewmembers safe and accounted for."

From the center seat, Captain Kheren sighed as much with regret as with relief.

"Ship status?"

"Minimal damage to aft ventral plating," immediately reported acting chief engineer Baoule, sweat glistening on his bald, dark-skinned pate. "No further damage beyond the earlier hull breaches we suffered on decks 4 and 10, notably crew quarters and cargobay 2, and the heavy damage to our port side sensors, ventral phaser array and torpedo launcher. We have full impulse power, reserve power from our fusion reactors and half our batteries."

Syntron then looked over to the multi-task station and asked "Any additional information Lieutenant Cheonghi?"

"All primary hull systems fully operational except for long range sensors and communications which went offline following the proxinmity blast we went through," added the Ops Chief from the multitask forward console. "We lost all content of cargobay 2 but we still have enough reserves left for seven hundred people for three years."

"Tactical sensors fully operational except in our lower forward port arc," Tyvya told her captain. "We have the same blind spot where our ventral port phaser array and torpedo launcher were destroyed. We can however compensate if we use any of the 95 probes we still have available. We have minimal metaphasic shielding and two-thirds of our torpedo complement left."

"Our initial speed and the wavefront of the collision threw us clear out of the blast zone and six hundred thousand kilometers out of the debris field," now reported chief flight control officer Aguk Snow. " We are currently floating free but with no momentum. We are holding steady four light years from Starbase 10; at full impulse, it will take us eight years to get back. However, we still have our primary shuttlebay with two class X, one class XI and one class VIII shuttle which, like our bridge module, can make warp 6 and bring us back in four days. But it would take about three trips back and forth to evacuate everyone."

Acting chief of science Valencia Irksos was last to talk.

"Our current position is point nine light year from the Japori system orbiting Beta Caeli. The fourth planet is L class, barely inhabitable with a thin oxygen-argon atmosphere but no sentient lifeforms, according to latest survey. it would however suffice if we are forced to seek shelter, supplies or to make any emergency repair or landing."

Looking at the chief engineer, acting executive officer Syntron ordered:

“Lieutenant Baoule, have damage control start with closing the breach in cargo bay 2. Afterward, have them then check over all power systems and integrity field.”

"Aye, Sir." simply answered the bald dark man.."I recommend also that we endeavor to repair our communications as soon as possible while we're at it. They must have registered our fireworks back at Starbase 10 and if they have tried to raise us, they will certainly be worried by our silence."

"And hopefully have someone able to come and look for us," chimed in Helmsman Snow. "But even at maximum warp, it will take them at least half a day to get here.. that is, if they can come. There is still that anomaly out there to worry them maybe more than lil' ole us."

The Vulcan then looked over to the multi-task station.

"Lieutenant Cheonghi, begin a diagnostics of all systems and afterward work out a plan for long-term space travel options… in case no rescue efforts are initiated."

"Right away, Sir," dilligently retorted the six-limbed Edoan.

Addressing the chief tactical and security officer, Syntron stated to the Andorian giantess:

"Lieutenant Tyvya, put together a team of security officers to assist damage control in effecting repairs, focusing initially on the keys sites throughout the saucer. Also, have tactical continue scanning for any vessels in the vicinity… friendly or otherwise, and report anything at all that might come into range."

"Aknowledged."

Focusing his attention next back to the science department, the first officer then addressed his assistant science chief now manning the science station again.

"Lieutenant Irksos, keep using available scanners to continue checking all nearby star systems and any additional options for any M class planets nearby… just in case we need an emergency landing at some point as we proceed in our situation here."

"As you know, this is a fairly well known and mapped out part of space, Sir," the black woman added to her nod of agreement. " We're more or less lost in our own backyard, so to speak. I will bring you shortly a list of all inhabitable worlds in order of reachable distance and travel time relative to our current propulsion capabilities and supplies."

Kheren let his Vulcan acting first officer give all the appropriate operational orders to secure their current situation and provide for their immediate survival. He took a moment of silence after that to assimilate all the information provided by his bridge crew. Then, He signaled the chief medical officer beside him to open a shipwide comm channel.

"This is the captain. We have successfully stopped the Romulan threat against Starbase 10 and, hopefully, the USS Alsea has stopped the one against Operation Horizon. By this time, the rest of the fleet should be well on its way to corral the anomaly and put an end, at least in the short term, to this menace. We now have our primary hull left and all the resources to survive and get back home. Again, you have today proven your devotion to duty, your courage and your worth. Now, and until we complete our task and return home, I will ask for each you to keep this faith you have shown in your worth, your courage, in yourself and each other for a while longer. All hands, secure all stations and report to your deck officer, then take a break. We will all be called again to do our duty soon enough."

Once the channel was closed, Kheren stood up and strode towards the left hand door of the bridge as he ordered:

"All senior bridge officers, report to the briefing room in fifteen minutes."

When the time came for the highest ranking officers of the Artemis to convene, all departments had reported status and progress to their chiefs, which in turn transmitted everything to the command bridge chair of the acting executive officer. Now, the Vulcan had in hand all the current details of their remaining capabilties when Chief of the Boat Andre Hollet came up to the bridge with the relief bridge officers taking the positions of Snow, Cheonghi, Baoule, Tyvya, Irksos, Nasaro-Myth and himself. The seven bridge officers then silently went through the lefthand door of the bridge and the short corridor that, past the captain's ready room, led to the secondary turbolift and the main conference room. They all sat in their customary places around the old style triangular table, Baoule, Cheonghi and Snow on one side, Tyvya, Irksos and Nasaro-Myth on the other and the last one facing the large windows was occupied by First Officer Syntron and Captain Kheren, now turning from the windows to face them and take his seat.

They were all familiar now with his habit of thinking in front of the large transparencies showing the vastness of space, as if the innumerable lights of the stars were as many muses that had inspired him so many times his unpredictable, unorthodox, sometimes even bewildering plans in the past; as if, in his mind, the stars themselves were part of his bridge crew.

Or maybe he did that just to calm himself down. Even after all the time and adventures they had all shared over the years, very few even suspected the fiery passions that boiled deep within him, behind this cold, stoic exterior he offered.

Tyvya knew; and not just because she also was Andorian.

But she kept as quiet and professional as the rest of her shipmates, not even glancing at Syntron who alone knew about her own passions. She too was born of a people of fire from a world of ice; she too could bury desired passion under needed discipline as Kheren did... at least for now, while they had still probelms to solve and duties to finish.

As he came out from his contemplation to sit with his officers, Captain Kheren immediately voiced both:

"People, we are left with an impulse ship five light years from where our duty now calls. Our part in the containement of the Azimuth Horizon anomaly is evidently severely compromised."

He made a pause to let everyone to also ascertain properly their situation. Then, looking intently at each one of them in turn, he said with a firm, determined voice:

"But, before we decide to send out a distress call and wait for a rescue, or proceed to return home and abandon our part in the operation, I want from you all to give me any other possible idea, however outlandish, to beat these odds and still do our duty. You have proven yourself time and again the best crew any ship and captain could ever count on. So, people... I want options."

Acting Chief Engineer Robert Baoule was first to talk.

"Captain; we have no warp core available, except for the small ones on our four remaining shuttlecrafts and on the bridge module. Even all together, their output is too negligible to substitute for our lost main core. Almost a day has passed since we set out and it would also take them almost five days at their maximum speed of warp 6 to reach our planned theater of operations; by then, if containement has not been completed, their presence would come too late anyway. Sir, if we are to contribute somehow in the effort against the anomaly, it must be in some other capacity."

"I am open to suggestions," repeated Kheren in an almost ironical tone.

Sitting in the meeting as the senior officers began assessing their present circumstances and their possible options, First Officer Syntron seized the moment and immediately spoke up.

"Captain, we must get back on course to the anomaly. With the Romulans imprudent attempts to destroy this phenomenon, they will instead most likely add the proverbial fuel to the fire, making it literally impossible for us to counteract their galactic faux pas."

He then added seriously yet stoically "Our window of opportunity to successfully complete our mission is rapidly diminishing. We can’t afford to expend much more time than we already have."

Leaving this troublesome thought dangling like some foreboding scythe above their heads, Syntron knew that the Captain was going to need another option. He spent his time before the meeting continuing to complete an analysis of the area and the resources immediately available to create another option. He was now ready to present his first idea.

"Captain, in regards to our overall plan to defuse the anomaly, our intent as previously discussed was to systematically impose the equivalency of hypothermia within the entity itself by strategically launching a series of carefully prepared trilithium probes throughout key areas of the anomaly. When simultaneously activated, the trilithium within these probes would theoretically react to reduce the extreme temperature within the anomaly which is required to maintain its high energy state of existence, down to the point of deionization; thus causing the anomaly’s plasma-like power source to revert back down to an innocuous gaseous state of matter."

He then paused for a moment before proceeding.

"We still have ninety-five percent of our probe complement available here in the saucer section. Unfortunately, we lost our main trilithium supply when the main section of our ship collided and destroyed the Romulan vessel. This initially seemed to have ended our chances for implementing our strategy regarding the anomaly. However, I decided to intensely scan the region in a large radius around the collision site to see if there were any remnant traces of trilithium among the wreckage and debris."

Syntron gazed back down to confirm the data registered on his PADD while the meeting room remained as silent as a crypt.

Looking up he stated "Captain according to repeated scans, there is enough trilithium scattered throughout this area to fill all of all remaining probes with the requisite amount… with some amount to keep in reserves. However, we would need to immediately send out the remaining shuttle collectors to carefully harvest the residual particles strewn throughout the debris."

"With the few shuttles we have left, that would take a couple of hours at least," said Aguk Snow, "but it can be done."

"With the time needed to convert all our probes as trillithium emitters, we could be ready to implement their deployement in about five to six hours," added Irksos. "However, not all of them can go to warp and only a very few of them can go beyond warp 2. Considering also the distance and chances of drifting, malfunction, collisions and other hampering factors, natural or not so natural, launching them from here towards the anomaly is not a valid option."

"How about using torpedoes instead?" asked Doctor Nasaro-Myth. They can go at more than warp 9..."

"But their range is limited to less than five million kilometers before their micro warp engine burns out," retorted Tyvya. "However, they can be converted into class IX probes, even if only short range ones; with the few spare torpedo casings we have added to them, we could make our trillithium devices count go up to four-hundred and fifty-three."

"Adding some more hours to get ready," the acting chief of science said. "And this is only if the rest of the fleet finished containing the anomaly as planned; if not, any gap in the subspace trench would only serve as a funnel for the plasma to eject forcibly instead of dying out."

"Creating the most titanic, powerful plasma cannon in the universe... as the Klingons probably have in mind," Ops Chief Cheonghi reminded them with a shudder in his shrill voice.

They had almost forgotten that the Romulans were not by far the only opponents to their efforts to save two universes. And the rest of the fleet would have to deal with them as well. For a moment, they all had a thought for the Lotus, the Spectre, the McKenzie and the rest of the Lotus Fleet ships which, like the Alsea, could still be locked in mortal combat with all those shortsighted forces.

But, if the Artemis alone had prevailed against her own terrible opposition, they were then confident that all their colleagues and friends would also. Hope was the fuel of success after all.

Kheren listened to the exchange and kept silent for a moment before turning again to the Vulcan beside him.

"Assuming best conditions prevail and the anomaly has been successfully contained within its own subspace domain by the fleet as planned... would less than five-hundred of those... trillithium devices be enough to defuse the plasma reaction of a nine cubic light year anomaly?"

"Theoretically speaking" Syntron replied "that should be more than sufficient to initiate the deionization process; that is, if we recalibrate the precise amount of trilithium in each device and then position these appropriately throughout the anomaly. However, as discussed, we will not be able to achieve our objective from our current location. We will be required to be positioned within close proximity to the anomaly to accurately place and simultaneously activate these devices in the optimal locations."

Then Syntron was silent for a moment before he spoke again.

"I also have an idea about reducing our distance from the anomaly Captain, but it is rather… unorthodox and potentially quite perilous" the Vulcan first officer divulged.

"You mean, more perilous than letting a cosmic anomaly burn down this whole universe?" countered Elliago with a dry smirk.

Kheren shot a half-amused, half-reproachful glance at the chief medical officer.

"Risk is our business," he quoted from James T. Kirk himself.

"And judging by our last action back there, we're indeed quite in business..." shot back the Deltan, looking out at the stars outside as if he could see the debris field they had left in their wake.

The Andorian sent a telling look his way before turning again to his first officer.

"Let's hear it."

Following a brief pause after the Captain’s prompt, Syntron began to explain his proposal.

"As you all recognize, as a consequence of the saucer separation and the resulting collision of our stardrive section directly into our adversary, we did indeed cause the destruction of the Romulan vessel. However, the cost of this event was that we also sacrificed our drive section which obviously contained the ship's warp drive… in addition to the majority of the ship’s weapons systems. Without our main propulsion available, we are now limited to mere impulse speeds."

Taking a brief moment to slightly shift himself in his seat, the first officer continued.

"Therefore we are also very limited in our current options as far as traveling to any chosen destination. In endeavoring to resolve this dilemma, I recognized that we needed to look beyond the availability of options within our ship. I then realized that our potential answer was positioned within range of our ship: the microsingularity that had powered the Romulan vessel was now a free floating singularity in space since the encasing ship has been blown to bits. Therefore, it stands to reason that theoretically… we could approach the perimeter of this singularity with the saucer section at our highest available impulse speed then curve around the intense gravitational force. Now if we continue this process repeatedly, we should increase our momentum to eventually reach warp 1."

Syntron looked around swiftly to see if the bridge officers or the Captain signaled any overt perception that this plan was too reckless, but detected no such extreme indication. He did however note perhaps a few apprehensive expressions. Nevertheless, he proceeded on with his thought.

"From this point, we should then also be able to continue these increasing revolutions… building up our speed at the completion of each cycle until we ultimately reach the maximum warp factor we could sustain… perhaps warp 9.99. At this point, we would slingshot the saucer at this high warp velocity directly towards the anomaly. Mathematically, at warp 9.99 we would reach the perimeter of the anomaly in 5.5 hours and thus allow us the opportunity to implement the hypothermia procedure previously explained."

For the next moment, not a sound was heard. Then, Doctor Nasaro-Myth's voice broke the stunned silence, voicing everyone' s thought.

"The slingshot maneuver? Wouldn't this send us into a timewarp?"

Valencia Irksos answered him as she shook her head.

"You need to already be at high warp to be accelerated by the gravitational pull beyond spacewarp and into a temporal warp. Here, we're not doing anything much different than using the gravitational forces of the singularity to accelerate until we break the light barrier. It's a space travel concept that was already theorized on Earth during the twentieth century, but it was forgotten once Zephrom Cochrane came up with his matter-antimatter warp drive."

Aguk Snow nodded in sudden understanding.

"Since a singularity is infinite gravity, we could do so if we angle ourselves just right to fall into it and at the last moment deviate out. Theoretically, if we repeat it enough time, looping around it again and again, we could achieve any specific warp factor up to the warp barrier... maybe even up to timewarp even."

"Why don't we do just that then?" asked Elliago. "Go back in time before this whole mess began and fix it?"

"Temporal Prime Directive, Doctor," immediately reminded Kheren to him and everyone. "Unless we have evidence that this anomaly is the result of a deliberate temporal alteration, it would be as immoral as potentially catastrophic to attempt any meddling in actual historical events... like the emergence of this anomaly. It is a fact of the here and now... so we have to deal with it here and now."

"Not to mention the shape we are in," then said Robert Baoule. "We're not in tip top shape to begin with. Flying close to a black hole and angling to escape its attraction will put enormous stress on our superstructure. And this plan calls not only for master flying precision up close and personal with it, but to repeat it many times. This thing might be a well of infinite gravitational energy like all singularities, but it is still a microscopic one; flying near enough of it without being caught and torn apart will also require masterful monitoring on sensors in perfect coordination with navigation."

Cheonghi's typical shrill and croaky Edoan voice added to the tension born of all the implications that were discussed:

"And then, even concentrating all available power to structural integrity field and shields, it will be quite a wild, bumpy ride, to say the least. One wrong trajectory calculation, one error in maneuvering at the wrong moment... and we will be fully part of that debris field out there."

"Like that stopped us before..." drily commented the Deltan doctor, glancing at his commanding officer.

Kheren exchanged another look with him before finally ordering:

"Mister Syntron; take charge of the trillithium harvesting and of the conversion of all probes and torpedoes immediately. We will have all those hours to get our comm back up again and see what help Starbase 10 can provide... and prepare for this... wild ride if we have no other choice left. Mister Baoule, Mister Cheonghi; work on bringing comm back online and to reinforce our structural integrity as much as possible. Mister Snow, you will prepare yourself in holodeck 1 for the cumulative slingshot maneuver until you can do it as easily as coming out of spacedock. Lieutenant Irksos will assist you and program all needed parameters. Lieutenant Tyvya, Doctor, prepare all safety measures to safeguard the crew for such a flight and for any emergency scenario if it fails... or leave us in a bad shape afterwards."

They all aknowledged silently their orders. In each of them, there was relief that they would methodically and wisely try to make contact and rejoin again the fleet to do their duty; but their was also excitement at possibly having to attempt that which had never been done before: gravitational hyperpropulsion and cosmic-scaled plasma deionisation.

Such was the mind and heart, the soul of a Starfleet officer.

Kheren rose to end the briefing with most famous words:

"Make it so."

"Affirmative sir" Syntron acknowledged as he stood up from the triangular table and stole a brief glance out of the large bay window; noting the multitude of distant bright stars among the vastness of the surrounding dark infinite space. Once again, the crew of the Artemis was going to push the limits of their technology, their wits and their courage in an attempt to outmaneuver their grave circumstances. Ironically, this now seemed to be a routine expectation.