Flight of the Phoenix

Leaving the cargo bay, Syntron descended in the turbolift to deck 8. As the doors opened, he traveled directly to the Arboretum which was a bit disheveled, surprising vacant and yet still freshly aromatic with the scents of a multitude of plants bearing blossoms and fruits gathered from diverse locations throughout the galaxy.

He walked over to the Vulcan plants that were thriving in one section of the foliage-filled Arboretum and gathered several handfuls of vegetation among various specimens and placed them in an unused container nearby to take with him to his quarters.

Moments later after arriving into the First Officer’s quarters, he initiated a classical piece of music to perform as he began preparing a meal out of the fresh vegetation.

Afterward, he dined to the sounds of Mozart swirling through the airwaves and after which began a meditative session in preparation for a brief resting period.

Abruptly several hours later, an audio note triggered to alert him of the upcoming officers meeting.

He gathered his PADD, headed up to the bridge, and entered into the meeting.

Once again the senior staff of the starship Artemis met in the main conference room, around the triangular table over which floated a tridimensional display of the saucer section; what was left of the once eighty years old majestic Ambassador class. The detached primary hull was seen angling itself towards a black spot like a hole floating between them all as the copper-skinned Inuit helmsman, Lieutenant Aguk Snow, explained:

"With the precise astrometrics provided by Lieutenant Irksos, all simulations and following tests showed us the best approach angle for our loop around the microsingularity. The first problem will be going during the initial loop through a short time dilation period, of which we can not exactly estimate the effects."

"Now wait a minute," objected Elliago Nasaro-Myth; "I thought we were going to avoid any time warp..."

"We are, Doctor," explained Valencia Irksos then. "But to use the infinite gravimetric pull of the singularity to make us break the light barrier, we will have to push our engines to emergency impulse speed as we get accelerated by that pull; and with the considerable loss of mass we went through when we left our engineering hull in the Romulans' faces, we may go well beyond the normal 0.95c, probably up to 0.96 or even 0.97... but that will leave us at least a few seconds in Einsteinian space before a warp bubble appears after the last 0.03c the singularity will provide us."

Aguk Snow finished while looking at Captain Kheren.

"For us, it will be a scant few seconds; but to the rest of the universe, it will be like several days at least, if not more, depending on how fast a warp field will form around us and take us out of normal space. At best estimates, we calculate emergence in three to five days from now... just in time to complete Operation Horizon as planned. At worse..."

"We might get frozen at the edge of lightspeed for ever." completed the Andorian, nodding in understanding.

"At least it never happened during the simulations," said the helmsman with an optimistic smile.

"Well if it does now, we'll just push the reset button," shot back sarcastically the Deltan doctor.

Kheren ignored him and addressed again his Chief Navigator.

"That's for the first pass. What about the following loops?"

As the display started showing the starship orbiting the black dot faster and closer with each revolution, Snow answered:

"Once we complete a loop and get a warpfield, each successive loop will be angled closer to the gravity well to add more gravimetric pull to a renewed impulse power thrust, building up a new layer of subspace and taking us one more warp factor up after each pass. The next problem will appear once we get to the warp 5 treshold."

A power graph came up beside the display as science officer Irksos took over the presentation.

"It is no surprise that it took almost a century between Zephrom Cochrane's warp 1 flight and Jonathan Archer's first warp 5 starship; and then almost another century to get from his NX-01 USS Enterprise to Christopher Pike's Constitution class successor. Power-fuel-consumption-velocity ratio reaches a peak halfway through the warp scale, before it smoothes out through the laws of conservation of energy."

"In other words, it takes more energy to go from warp 1 to warp 5 than to go from warp 5 to 10," summarized Elliago.

"Yes Doctor, although the initial ratio problem starts again beyond warp 9.1 until you need infinite energy to reach infinite speed; warp 10."

"I'm a physician, my dear, not a physicist. What does it mean for us?"

Aguk Snow then spoke again.

"It means that, as we will go for warp 5, we will have to angle the ship at a much sharper angle towards the singularity. One error in trajectory or distance... and we will plunge right into it with no force in the universe able to pull us away. You can imagine what will happen when a three-hundred meters wide structure will try at warp 4.9 to enter a three micron-wide aperture..."

He then looked up once more at his commanding officer with a smile he tried to make reassuring.

"Again, Sir, all simulations went well."

"I'll keep my finger on the reset button anyway," smirked Nasaro-Myth with a dry humor he did not really felt.

Kheren shot a quick glare at the Deltan before asking after a few seconds of silence, looking at the display and the increasingly faster orbiting of the replica over the table:

"Estimated maximum speed and time of arrival to our destination?"

"We will not be able to go beyond warp 9 without high risk of loosing flight control and falling into the gravity well," said Snow. "At warp 9, it will take us twenty-three hours from here to anomaly quadrant 2... that is, not counting a few days of relativistic time... if we're lucky."

Kheren nodded. Then he looked at the dark-skinned bald Human sitting between the Inuit pilot and the Edoan chief of Ops Cheonghi.

"Ship status?"

"All systems nominal, except for long range sensors and communications. We finished external repairs along with the rebuilding of our damaged port torpedo launcher and phaser array, so all that is left are internal repairs. We will be done with them during our flight towards the anomaly. This will leave ample time to finish the torpedo and probe conversion into trilithium emitters following Mister Syntron's instructions. With two launchers, deployement will be a bit slow but steady."

"It will take us fifty successive salvos to deploy them all with two operational burst-five launchers," confirmed Tyvya seated with Irksos and Nasaro-Myth on the other side of the triangular table. "I recommend doing it over a three minutes period to avoid any risk of overheating the tubes... and just so you know, we will be left only with six phaser arrays once we're done."

"Let us hope the Alsea will have taken care of the Romulan problem by the time we get there... and that the rest of the fleet will have done as well with the apprehended Klingon and cultist threat," wished the Andorian captain. "Crew status, Doc?"

"All in high spirits and good shape aside from Ensign Neloth which I will keep in sickbay for at least another day; her burns were pretty deep... but she'll be recovered just in time for our big light show. All this talk about "gravity propulsion" and "warpspeed without warp engines" has everyone pretty excited. Well, almost everyone."

The smirk he shot back at Kheren left no doubt about who felt less than enthusiastic over their next planned course of action.

With a short, silent laugh, the dark-hued Andorian then turned his silvery eyes towards the tall bearded Vulcan sitting on his side of the table.

"Any further word, Number One?"

The first officer nodded affirmatively on ackowledgement.

“As Lieutenant Irksos indicated, all simulations for our impending breakaway maneuver with the singularity have been conducted and honed to within acceptable parameters. The success of implementation nevertheless is contingent on absolute precision throughout each stage of this procedure.”

Allowing a moment for the gravity of this statement to be absorbed, the first officer then continued.

“In regards to the trilithium-infusion process, according to recent calculations we shall have 34.7% of the trilithium torpedoes completed by the time we are set to initiate the breakaway maneuver. The remainder of this process will be completed while we are warping back to the perimeter of the anomaly and will be finalized before we enter this region.”

After a brief pause and with a look of stern concentration, the Vulcan first officer added “This final aspect though is clearly dependent on the forthcoming maneuver proceeding accordingly during the breakaway from the singularity.”

"In other words; we fumble, we blow it... and us with it." smirked Elliago.

Kheren just nodded and asked all around:

"When will we be ready to go?"

"Further training and simulation will not improve our chances at this point," admitted Aguk Snow. "Ready as we will ever be, Captain."

"All major systems ready, Sir," answered the shrill voice of Cheonghi. "Our structural integrity field and inertial dampeners are fully operational, but I strongly recommend personal inertial dampeners still to every crewmember. Dancing around a black hole is bound to shake us up a little."

"Full impulse power at your disposal, Captain," followed Robert Baoule. "Warp field controls will be ready to monitor and control our warp status once we reach warp 1... alhough without a warp core, it will be very interesting, to say the least... and tricky. But we can do it, Sir."

"Sensors have been calibrated for the output of the singularity and linked to navigation; any fluctuation will be detected and compensated for," announced Valencia Irksos.

"All safety measures regarding flight in hazardous conditions have been implemented," then said Tyvya.

"And the entire crew is primed and ready to go, eager even," chimed in Elliago Nasaro-Myth. "Emergency protocol is in place both with personnel and EMH grid."

Again, the Andorian just nodded but then ordered:

"Doc, have a log buoy prepared and jettisoned towards Starbase 10 describing our last twenty hours of activity and what we are preparing to do. Wether we manage it or not, at least they will know what has happened."

"Will do."

Kheren stood up.

"Time to go, gentlebeings... and, especially now more than ever, may the winds be at our backs. Sound red alert."

As the klaxon blared all accross the remaining primary hull of the starship Artemis, the bridge officers also stood up and immediately poured out of the room and into the short corridor that led to the bridge and their assigned stations.

Kheren stood at his seat before the triangular table, watching them unhesitantly go to face all perils of the unknown; deeply beleiving in their duty and the values it stood for, calmly confident in themselves, their ship and their commanding officer... moved as much by hope as by resolve. The Andorian had never felt more proud than today at having these particular officers still with him in this pivotal moment for the whole galaxy. He had served with so many officers since he graduated from the Academy; some great, some good, a few not so good; but now, those that were here with him, that remained with him despite all odds, those were undoubtebly the best there were. He felt humbled and honored to be with them, comes what may.

But most of all, as much as they felt confident in him making the right decisions once more, he felt confident that they could pull this off, beat the odds once again; because they were there with him.

Amazingly, as he walked out of the meeting room, last to make it to the bridge, there was a smile on his rigid face.

Syntron scurried out of the conference room behind the other officers and upon his arrival back on the main bridge sat down in the executive officer’s seat besides the center seat. He took a moment and rechecked all of his specs and then gazed around carefully at the bridge crew as they prepared for this monumental event about to occur. This was going to be a very coordinated effort among a variety of officer across several departments and sections of the ship.

But now the time for dress rehearsals were through. The main show was about to commence and this team of highly trained and dedicated officers aboard the Artemis would have to execute this operation like the performance of a finely-tuned and prepared symphony engaged in the performance of their lifetime; which in reality they were.

"Mister Syntron," reported helmsman Snow from the console in front of him and to his left; "helm ready for launch; flight path computed."

"Sensors calibration to focal point of flight and link to nav control optimal, Sir" then confirmed science chief Irksos from over his left shoulder.

"Power nominal; structural integrity field and inertial dampeners at maximum, Exec," now said chief engineer Baoule to him from behind his right ear.

"All personnel, activate PIDs now," said tactical and security senior officer Tyvya in front of him, not only to him but to the entire ship through intraship channels. Then, as all the bridge officers put on and activated the harness that would ensure their survival from the shearing forces they were about to invoke, she confirmed to him: "All personnel reports ready under condition red status, Lieutenant Commander."

"Emergency protocols confirmed; damage control and trauma teams at the ready; EMH grid on standby," Chief medical officer Nasaro-Myth. Then he adressed the entire crew complement: "All hands, prepare for maximum impulse acceleration up to light barrier breakthrough."

"Deflector field at one-hundred and seventeen percent output; all systems are green," completed chief of ops Cheonghi.

Now, they all waited for the word to be given.

Captain Kheren then came up to the bridge and sat in his big command chair, looked straight out at the main viewer and the deceptively quiet looking field of stars before saying:

"Log buoy ready, Doc?"

"Already in launch tube 1, Captain."

"Lieutenant Tyvya; launch the buoy."

There was a soft, far away echo and then a flash of light on the screen.

"Log buoy away, Sir. Estimated time of arrival at Starbase 10: twelve hours." confirmed the giantess.

The Andorian then glanced at his Vulcan first officer.

"Number One, please lead the maneuver. After all, it was your idea."

“Acknowledged Captain” Syntron responded with a very serious expression etched across his face like that of a stalking predator.

Moving himself into a posture of alertness and total concentration, the first officer steadily leaned forward as he commanded:

“Helm, ahead full impulse. Move us into position, and then follow the projected angle of approach for our initial pass.”

"Aye, Sir; ahead full; heading 110 mark 5."

The Artemis saucer responded to the keyed in commands of the Inuit helmsman as she thrust forward toward their small but extremely powerful target that was positioned ahead of them.

Looking at reddish brown skinned helmsman, the Vulcan second in command added “This first loop will be critical Lieutenant Snow. Be certain that our angle of trajectory and velocity are precise.”

"Yes, please..." muttered Elliago seated right behind Snow and watching him intently, hands gripping the armrests of his chair.

The navigation display showed an overlay of the calculated trajectory that the maneuvering commands of the pilot on his controls brought exactly over that of the actual ship heading, pitch and yaw. As the velocity readout indicated seventy-five thousand kilometers a second, the entire ship vibrated slightly.

"Please?" repeated with more insistence the Deltan doctor.

"We're entering the edge of the debris field, Sir," then explained Cheonghi with his usual shrill voice; which didn't help in reassuring the chief medical officer. "At this speed, some of the larger debris are getting pulverized on our deflector field while we now have but less than a third of of our mass left."

"It's not even bothering our structural integrity field, Doctor," added Baoule behind the command podium.

"Well, it's bothering me," grumbled Elliago.

Aguk Snow interrupted the banter addressing again the first officer.

"We're in position and moving steadily towards the breaking point, Sir. Gravity field of the singularity is starting to pull at the helm controls. Ready for emergency impulse."

Syntron vigilantly studied the velocity, course and position readout as the Artemis approached its optimal calculated vector and at the moment of precise alignment stated authoritatively “Engage NOW Mr. Snow!”

Echoes of the Vulcan's voice still ringed in the air when the helmsman of the Artemis brought impulse power to maximum levels that, in perfect synchronisation, Ops chief Cheonghi redirected to the propulsion system instead of letting this excess power routinely refill their batteries. Despite the added layer of their individual dampeners to the ship's own that chief engineer Baoule kept at maximum and a bit more, they all felt the sudden acceleration that followed the tugging gravity line of the singularity they were rushing at. It was more a trick of the mind than any actual perception, played on them by the rising whine of the engines and the vibrating of the deckplates under their tensed feet; but going at near the speed of light in this manner certainly left an impression on them all, even the veterans among them.

"Zero point five c... point six... point seven... point eight... point nine... "

The whole frame of the ship shuddered and resounded as if it was intermittently banged on like a gong by some unseen titan outside. They all knew it was debris from the field around the singularity that they were flying through. At their increasing velocity, their deflector field was hitting them out of their path with increasing force, literally disintegrating them and creating a trail of metal dust and particles around and behind them like a streaking comet. yet, the noise was as ominious as it was becoming deafening with each passing second they flew faster and faster still.

"Point nine-one... nine two... nine-three... nine-four... nine-five..."

This was the normal maximum any starship could manage with impulse power pushed beyond their normal limit. It was usually risked only in combat situations or dire escape circumstances as it required everything from the inertial dampeners to avoid time dilation effects. And now, the Artemis, bereft of two-thirds of its original mass and still sporting one of the most powerful and efficient impulse drive ever devized, went even beyond.

"Point nine-six... nine seven..."

Then, before everyone's eyes, everything started to blur and blend; shapes, colors, sounds, even feelings and thoughts became like they were suddenly plunging underwater, slow, thick, diffuse, distant. People, consoles, lights, sounds were doubled, trebbled...

"N-i-n-e... e-i-g-h-t... ... n-i-n-e... n-i-n-e... ... ..."

A sudden white flash blinded them as if from everywhere down to their very soul; a thunderous deflagration slowly crept seemingly from within themselves and outward to fill up the entire universe... and beyond, for all eternity...

And then, in an instant, they were all looking at a streaking field of stars rushing at them.

"Warp one!" shouted Aguk Snow.

Anticipating their possible incapacitation, they had programmed the main computer to take over during the expected time dilation phase. They all saw the ship's nav monitor confirm that they were already pivoting at warp 1 at the apogee of their first orbit around the singularity before they could escape it's gravitational pull, already adding it to their faster than light speed for the next pass.

"Power, SIF and deflector field holding steady," reported Baoule with a definitely releived voice.

"All systems nominal," added Cheonghi from the multitask ops station right before the warpfield vista on the wide screen.

"Sensors recording expected data and confirming loop maneuver successful," Irksos then reported. "But exact effect of time dilation will only be possible to calculate once we return to normal space."

"Too late to worry about that now," said Kheren sitting deeper in his large, boxy command chair. "How's the crew, Doc?"

"No casualties... except for a few churned stomachs," Doctor Nasaro-Myth mumbled. The slight greenish tinge of his own bald head seemed to confirm his diagnostic for the benefit of anyone looking at him.

"Congratulations, Mister Syntron," Tyvya said without turning from her tactical board, eyes on the main viewer. " You have achieved warp speed without warp drive. Zephrom Cochrane would be proud... if not jealous."

Himself grinning with his own eyes seemingly hypnotized by the streaking lights on the screen, Aguk Snow finally reported:

"Coming about, bearing 180 mark 355, speed warp 1.01 and climbing... ready for second loop, Mister Syntron."

He sounded like a first year cadet on his first shuttle piloting lesson.

Nodding an acknowledgment to helmsman Snow and Tyvya manning the tactical station, Syntron was inwardly struggling to recover from the queasiness that was lingering throughout his body as he fought back the sensation.

“Stay on course helmsman… steady as she goes” the first officer responded. This was as much to himself apparently as it was a command to the crew and the ship… as he strived equally to steady himself.

Looking down and checking the readings again, Syntron was refocusing his attention and could now see that they were approaching the next calculated vector point in the second phase of this operation. The ship had somehow managed to remain held together and they were currently on course for the next phase of this maneuver, yet somehow this operation itself seemed to be unfolding like some bizarre earth-like vaudevillian show; evoking smoke, mirrors and twisted perceptions that were challenging his very discernment as they had forced their way into warp speed.

Slowly regaining his composure once again, he assiduously followed their precise path until within a few moments the next vector point was rapidly approaching. Then once again at the optimal point the first officer stated commandingly “Engage again… NOW Mr. Snow!”

And once again, the chief flight officer of the Artemis turned the first officer's order into a sudden acceleration of the vessel. Usually, using the impulse engines during warp flight would add but a small fraction to a starship's actual velocity; not enough to make any difference at faster than light travel, so that energy was normally used for other systems during warp. But here, under the accelerating pull of an infinite gravity well, that fraction played indeed a definite role in pushing the vessel beyond it's current speed without producing it by itself.

And so, the increasing whine and vibration of the remaining engines made them all feel the acceleration the pilot reported:

"Warp one point one... warp one point two... one point three... one point four... point five... point six..."

This time, there was no banging and shaking as their first past had already cleared their path of all nearby debris... until they came near the focal point of their orbit, closer to the pulling singularity where debris from the earlier explosion where also drawn and coalescing before being swallowed by the microscopic black hole in a splash of disintegratin particles; something the even much larger starship had to take great care to avoid as it went by it, nearer than the last time.

"point seven,,, eight... nine..."

There was a new blinding flash and deflagration on the viewing screen, this time quite familiar.

"Warp 2!"

Again, all departments confirmed all green and the helmsman completed the second orbiting to angle again for the next one and their next warp jump, each time coming closer to the singularity, each time at a greater velocity. Repeating the looping maneuver from one to the next, the Artemis climbed the faster than light scale surely and steadily.

"Warp 3."

"Warp 4."

And then, the entire bridge started vibrating again as they came about one more time for the next warp treshold, this one the next most critical one: warp 5. With the power build up in their momentum and the tightness of their next flight close to a hard-sucking bottomless pit, relying on computer calculation alone was now as useless as trying to fly visually. Actual sensor monitoring of the singularity's fluctuations during the whole pass was now required to make the last second minute corrections that would send them beyond the critical treshold... or being pulverized, either by plunging into the infinitely crushing gravity well or by reentering to quickly and without controlled power into normal space.

Captain Kheren turned towards his first officer and former chief of science.

"Mister Syntron, this is where your expertise on sensors will be most required. If we miss this one..."

He did not have to finish his sentence.

“Understood Captain.” The first officer replied.

Meticulously keeping his eyes fixed on the readings emanating from the nearby micro singularity, the first officer continued monitoring the sensors intensely as they approached the upcoming critical moment in their endeavor to surpass warp 5 and beyond. They were balancing the ship on the slightest margin of a tightrope as they strived to maintain their distance and trajectory to and from the singularity itself. The tension among the crew now was excruciating as were the potential consequences of any errors.

Still monitoring the sensors and not bothering to look up, Syntron calmly stated “Mister Snow, increase the angle of our approach to the singularity by 47.3% on my mark.”

Then the seconds ticked by as if in slow motion as the first officer began this crucial count as the entire shaken saucer section of the Artemis continued being pulled increasing toward the powerful gravitational phenomenon.

“Five… four… three… two… one… Engage!”

The mounting whine of the impulse engines was now followed by and increasing groan from the entire hull as the Artemis flew at a sharper angle towards the unseen infinite mass of the microsingularity pulling at them with the full force of its gravitational field they were attempting to skim again, closer than ever before.

"Warp four point one... warp four point two... warp four point three..." counted up the copper-skinned helmsman.

"Structural integrity field straining!" warned chief engineer Baoule. "Inertial dampeners overheating to compensate..."

"Adding shield power to field; sending deflector pulse to reinforce shield output!" added Cheonghi as one hand flew over controls while the other two reflexively gripped the edges of his multitask ops console.

Despite their personal inertial dampeners strapped to their waist and chest, they all fellt the Artemis shake around them as the noise of the straining engine rose in pitch and loudness.

"Four point four... four point five... four point six..."

"Navigation sensor readings becoming fuzzy !" exclaimed Aguk snow, his fingers glued to his controls, his eyes wide and his jaws clenched. "Helm sluggish, trajectory unconfirmed!"

"Distorsion effect from the proximity of the singularity!" explained loudly Valencia Irksos from the readouts of the science station as she stood beside Syntron.

"Point seven!"

"Structural dampening field is..."

"Point eight!"

"Power fluctuating..."

"Point nine!"

"Gravimetric forces are..."

"Helm control..."

They could barely hear each other now, deafened by the engines trying now to angle them away from the edge of the immense gravitational field they were skimming dangerously close, to add their increasing velocity to it and once more sling away from it.

If they could...

“Breakaway NOW, Lieutenant!” Syntron bellowed to compensate for the vociferous shriek of the strained impulse engines straining to push beyond their threshold of mechanical tolerance. The tortured saucer of the Artemis not only sounded like it was going to be ripped apart from the sounds of twisting metal but it felt as if was now occurring; with its almost out of control structural vibrations reverberating throughout the remainder of this once mighty starship.

"Trying, Sir!" shouted back the helmsman straining to tame the buckling vessel with frantic fingers. "We are going to..."

There was a thunderous noise and a blinding flash, a sudden, brutal explosion of energy that shook them all despite their harnesses... and then, silence... and a strange, floating feeling... nothing moved but the dim light of stars...

Until it was all broken.

"Warp 5!"

As people regained senses, balance and wits, they could all see the streaking lights of stars on the main viewer coming at them in the familiar warp field effect of faster than light travel.

Even before Snow could retake control of the ship,the nav computer followed it's programming and was already bringing about the Artemis for the next slingshot course around the singularity.

"Report," asked Kheren fighting off a wave of dizziness as he sat straighter in his chair.

"No significant damage, Captain," first answered Robert Baoule. "Structural integrity field holding at ninety-three percent; inertial dampeners holding at ninety-seven percent. Power down to eighty-eight percent but steady."

"Rerouting reserve power to impulse reactors to compensate," then said Cheonghi. "All systems coming back online and showing green."

"The crew?" inquired the Andorian to the Deltan reseating himself at his left.

"Banged up but not the worse for wear... so far," Elliago confirmed from his internal sensor readout and listening to crew reports on the intraship comline. "Please don,t do this again..."

"We still got a few loops to go, Doc; but should be much smoother this time... Lieutenant Irksos?"

"Aye, Captain. Beyond the warp 5 barrier, we will need much less power to achieve higher velocities until we get to warp 9... but sharper piloting as we will angle each time closer to the singularity."

"Closer? You're kidding, right?" exclaimed the chief medical officer. "This was quite close enough for me, thank you very much! i think I left my digestive tract back there... at least what was in it..."

"Relax, Doctor," shot back Tyvya with a glance in his direction over her left shoulder; "this will be the easiest part."

"As soon as I find that reset button..." mumbled Nasaro-Myth gripping his medical command chair with both hands and looking intently at the warpfield on the wide screen before them all.

Even though theoretically they had just completed what they had anticipated as the most challenging aspect of this series of slingshot maneuvers in breaking warp 5, the strain on the ship and crew was definitely taking its toll.

As they again approached apogee in proximity to the singularity and then began their trajectory back toward the next loop, the apprehension was mounting in the crew parallel to the ensuing stress on the vessel itself. It was like being trapped in a large galactic elliptical rollercoaster that became more insidiously treacherous with each passing revolution. But they had made it this far and would see this through… one way or another.

Syntron quickly regained his equilibrium this time and recalculated the angle of approach.

“Lieutenant Snow, recalibrate our angle by an additional 15.6% and increase thrust at the given mark.”

"Changing course 016 mark 21, Aye," the helmsman aknowledged.

Counting silently to himself this time, the first officer watched their progress transpire on the computer screen and issued a command at the given moment.

“Now, Lieutenant!”

The far away sound of the engines slowly went up once more and, this time, the flight went so smoothly that they were all surprised when a sudden flash announced what Aguk Snow confirmed:

"We are at warp 6, Sir. Coming about 180 mark 323, adding compensating factor of fifteen point six percent as ordered. Ready for next pass."

"All systems nominal, Lieutenant Commander," reported Cheonghi with evident relief in his nevertheless shrill tone of voice.

"We're holding up quite well. Full power at your disposal, Exec," added Baoule.

Irksos took over the science station as Syntron could now return to his executive chair after noting for himself the clarity and reliability of sensor readouts.

"Are we there yet?" asked Elliago Nasaro-Myth to no one in particular.

“We are almost to our final breakaway point Doctor” the first officer replied as he sat back down in the executive chair by the Captain.

He acknowledged the chief medical officer’s desire to end this apparent vicious cycle of revolutions around this micro singularity, however under their current condition this was their only method available to gain enough velocity to travel back to the anomaly and finally complete their mission. In fact, they were most fortunate to have such an option placed in their proximity; even if this was ironically provided by the hands of an adversary out to destroy them.

Syntron then turned his attention back to the helmsman.

“Mister Snow, continue toward perigee and engage full thrusters once again, this time though at Lieutenant Irksos’ mark.”

Irksos as his assistant science chief was directly monitoring the sensors now and had witnessed repeatedly the procedure of the first officer as they surpassed each warp threshold.

Before she could protest, Syntron turned and faced her and stated seriously yet serenely “For every important event Lieutenant there is a first time.”

He then turned back and faced the main viewscreen.

"And all good things must come to an end," grumbled the Deltan doctor.

"You think our warp looping a good thing, Doc?" inquired Kheren without looking at him.

"Are you kidding? Of all the crazy, foolhardy, frightening stunt..."

"Then you have nothing to fear, Lieutenant Irksos," the Andorian said, still looking straight at the viewer; but his antennae were curving sharply towards one another.

"Get ready, Mister Snow..." then chimed in the dark-skinned woman at the sensors; and... mark!"

The now familiar voice of the impulse engines, distorted by the distance and the warpfield effect, rose to confirm their acceleration, although the computer rendering of the starfield at warp on the main screen did not change. The effect was too minute to be noticed by organic senses at almost four hundred times the speed of light; but with the increasing pull of the infinite gravity well they were flying by closer than ever, it brought their warp bubble into further compression and thus, propelling them faster still.

"Warp six point one... warp six point two... warp six point three... six point four... six point five... six point six... point seven... point eight... point nine..."

A sudden flash of light.

"Warp seven!"

The entire revolution had been so smooth this time that they felt as if they were still using their lost warp core. And, as before, the helmsman brought about the surviving saucer section of the Artemis to face again the invisible singularity, again at a sharper angle than before to brush it anew at an even greater speed than before. When the science officer gave him the signal, he sent again the vessel into a minute increase of speed; minute because even going well over two-hundred thousand kilometers per second was infinitesimal compared to their current velocity now well over six hundred times the speed of light. But even such a small addition was picked up and amplified immeasurably by the terribly powerful gravitational force of a mass collapsing on itself into infinity.

There was another rise in pitch from the impulse engines, then another sudden flash.

"Warp eight!"

One last time, Snow angled the Artemis into the tightest possible safe orbit around the microsingularity, waited for the science chief signal and, when it came, flew the three-hundred meters wide disc-shaped frame in a close loop; but this one, instead of coming as a standard orbit like all the others, took a larger angle out and away from the gravity well.

The Inuit pilot now hunched over his console. This last one would be the closest and to the singularity, at their fastest speed yet and this time ended up out of the ecliptic. Too close and they would fall for ever into the bottomless cosmic pit; too far and they would not gain breakaway speed; too soon and they would loose all their momentum and crash back into normal space as a new field of debris; too late and they would be trapped in orbit of the collapsed singularity.

The signal came; the engines roared; the flash blinded them again...

"Warp nine! And... on course towards quadrant 2 of the Azimuth Horizon!"

There was a cheer all accross the bridge and then, its echo was heard on all remaining ten decks of the starship Artemis.

"Confirming estimated time of arrival at twenty-three hours, Captain," finished Aguk Snow grinning.

"Well done, people," said Kheren through internal ship channels. " All personnel will resume normal ship routine and take appropriate rest period as scheduled until we reach our destination. Any after effect from our... warp launch shall be reported to the chief medical officer immediately and without fail. All systems will be on level 3 diagnostics and confirmed at optimal efficiency before we arrive, including those currently needing repairs and all auxilliary crafts. Conversion of probes and torpedoes into trilithium emitters will resume and also completed by that time. Report readiness to first officer. Captain out."

Turning his big swiveling chair towards his rear left, the commanding officer of the Artemis asked the dark-skinned woman sitting at the science station:

"Can you estimate the result of our time dilation period, Lieutenant?"

"Not until we finish repairs on the long range sensor grid, Sir. But you will have the exact stardate before we drop out of warp at our target zone."

The Andorian' antennae dropped slightly in mild disappointment but then perked up when he spun back towards his right and the Vulcan sitting in the exec chair.

"Well, Number One; so far you are two good hits out of three. Your trilithium harvesting was successful, and so was your warp speed loop maneuver. If your plan to snuff out the plasma fire of the anomaly work just as well, I will have no problem at all getting official recognition of your new field rank and status from Command."

Finally achieving a warp 9 velocity without warp engines and currently back on target for their destination toward the Azimuth Horizon Anomaly, the first officer nodded an acknowledgement to the words of appreciation from the Artemis Captain.

“Thank you Captain Kheren. Despite our challenging circumstances we have been most fortunate in implementing our… unique solutions.”

He then reflected on what specifically lay ahead of them as they were warping through space in the remaining battered saucer section of the Artemis.

“In regards to our third and most challenging resolution; extinguishing the threat of this anomaly, with your permission Captain I would like to supervise the completion of the remaining 65.3% of the trilithium torpedoes and the probe conversions into trilithium emitters. In addition, I was contemplating that perhaps there may be a way that we could use the coldness of space surrounding the ship among other potential options as a means to chill the torpedo launchers between each firing… if needed to protect them from overheading damage due to multiple successive launches. Perhaps with the assistance of Lieutenants Baoule and Blakely, we could discuss the possibility of such options.”

"I'm sure the Starfleet engineers who came up with the torpedo launchers design already took their working environement into account... but I'm not one to say. Do as you see best, Number One; you do have practically a day before you. Keep me posted."

And so saying, Kheren stood up and headed towards the door leading to his ready room.

"I'll be in my office for the remainder of the Alpha shift if anyone needs me. I have to prepare for a board of inquiry once we return... assuming we all do succeed in this Operation Horizon."

From her tactical station, Tyvya turned sharply towards him.

"Sir? Why would you face a board of inquiry?"

He stopped before the door just short of the distance needed to have it open before him.

"Why, I lost a ship in the line of duty."

"But... but you saved us all! And possibly this whole mission and the rest of the galaxy along with it!"

The Andorian turned to face his tactical chief with his chin raised.

"No, Lieutenant; you all saved yourselves, with your own discipline, your own competence and your own courage. And Lotus Fleet will be the one to succeed in this mission, in saving this galaxy; not I, nor even this ship alone. But I was the one to order the Artemis' destruction. I am the one responsible; and I will be called to assume that responsibility. All that, Lieutenant, is what Starfleet is all about: duty, teamwork and responsibility."

In the silence that followed his words, the commanding officer of the Artemis left the bridge, letting the closing door sigh at his back.