CHAPTER 4: Beyond Antares (part 4)

 "Affirmative..."

"Now, I need to you fire our port side thrusters at full power."

T'lana fought again to move her body, and hit the console as her vision began to blur. The effect was immediate as the slowing Polaris kicked out to her starboard side and the starboard side of the Horizon as T'lana slumped forward. Over the next several minutes, the ship's computer using commands V'rell had entered while he was directing T'lana fought against forces that would tear the Aquarius class vessel apart and brought it to a stop where it finally hung motionless in space.

Several million kilometers from her position, the USS Horizon came also to a dead stop and just floated there with almost all lights gone, her immense shape and now low power signature rendered undetectable by the close by blue and red, lightning-crisscrossed nebula towards which border she was drifting.

Disheveled at her station, the Orion Ops officer tried to get her thoughts and bearings straight as she refocused her attention back to her console. Although still a bit disoriented, she began to swiftly analyze the current condition of the ship after that frightening ride. A part of her was amazed, yet very appreciative that they were still alive and that the ship was not literally torn to pieces.

Elisha Leone then turned to face the captain as she spoke. "Sir... The ship's hull and overall structure are intact, except for the hull breach on deck 31... which are temporarily sealed by our automated force-fields."

Kheren heard but half of what the orion woman was saying, coming around with his antennae sprouting again from his thick haired white  skull to bring back colors, smells and sounds. He deactivated his PID and stood up to come to the Ops console, lying on it as he looked out at the blueish haze on the main viewer while listening to his Ops chief.

She continued scanning for information. "Currently power is available, but only at bare minimal levels. Sensors also indicate a high level of residual tachyons present within the propulsion systems."

She paused for a moment as she continued to scrutinize the readings.

"Also Sir, the transwarp drive is off-line for the foreseeable future.... and for now, only low level warp is available."

Looking up again, Elisha stated the obvious.

"We won't be travelling any where far for quite a while, Sir."

"Thank you, Lieutenant Leone." Then tapping his combadge he spoke with a loud voice. "All personnel report to your department chiefs. All departments, report on ship and crew status to First Officer. "

Closing off the channel, he spoke to his bridge crew.

"Tactical; status of the Polaris. Doctor, try to raise them. "

Kheren went to help Lieutenant Mrriish to get up and see if she was alright, as she had fallen not being in a seat when she lost counsciousness. He then saw Snowfire coming up half-dazed from the floor and helped her up with one strong hand back into her seat.

" You all right, Lieutenant Commander? "

The Illythirii was obviously too groggy to even answer but otherwise she looked fine; fact was, the emergency medical holographic system, cued to activate the instant there as any significant injury anywhere on the ship, had not showed itself near her, nor the Caitian security woman.

There was however an EMH beside the slumped form of the chief of tactical and security, Sarah Corcoran.

"How is she? " asked Kheren coming quickly beside them both.

"From what I can gather, their was a slight failure of her PID and she smacked her head on her console, " answered the artificial medical officer without looking up from Corcoran's inert body as his fingers probed her skull. Eyes, hands, all his senses were in fact medical tricorder terminals directly linked to the computer in sickbay, making the EMH able to perform his duties without the help of external instrumentation. " A solid concussion; she will be out cold for at least several hours and I do not recommend reviving her before she can come out of it on her own. There are elevated stress indicators in her bloodstream and glandular system. She needs rest, physically and mentally. "

"Do what's best for her," simply answered the Andorian as both the EMH and his patient were beamed out to the main sickbay. He then turned towards the security station. " Lieutenant Tyvya, take over tactical. "

The Andorian giantess smoothly moved her towering frame to the forward station as the black-furred Caitian Mrriish took her place, calling a replacement to her post near the turbolift.

" Now... I want to know what happened, " asked the captain outloud.

" There was no failure of the transwarp system, Sir, " immediately answered the bald, dark-skinned Robert Baoule at the engineering station. "There was not even a glitch on one board light. Preliminary level 4 diagnostics confirm no problem with the ship herself. "

His black-skinned, short-haired twin Norbert at the secondary science station then answered in lieu of his still dazed department chief.

"Captain, there was a massive tachyon surge just prior to our sudden acceleration. Lieutenant Commander K'Leysha had had time to cross-reference the sensor readings with computer data and there is no doubt as to what happened; we were caught in an uncharted subspace eddy and propelled off course. "

"Why did not our sensors warn us about it? " 

"They did, Sir; but although they can affect sublight vessels and accidentally throw them into warp for a time, subspace eddies are too weak to have effect on actual starship warpfields. However, we have just discovered that they can have a significant effect on a ship using a transwarp field. We can avoid such incident in the future by simply calibrating but a few forward sensors for long range detection of a certain level of tachyon emissions and then steer clear of any subspace eddy. "

"Proceed with the modification, " immediately ordered Kheren. "now, where did this... eddy... sent us? Where are we? "

"We are still in the Alpha Quadrant of our galaxy, rimward... but... twenty-nine thousand light years from Federation Space!" breathed out Tyvya from her tactical sensor readout. 

Silence fell all across the bridge when everyone heard the fantastic figure. In barely over a quarter of an hour they had travelled almost to the edge of the galaxy!

"We are currently at the inner edge of the remnants of an ancient nebula, Mutara class. It is interfering with our sensors as expected but the Syntron space sonar is unhindered this close to it's edge and can give us full readings forward. "

They all understood then why there was a blueish, white-flashing haze on their view of the starfield on the main screen before them. Many aboard were from the original USS Artemis crew and had had actual experience navigating through such a dense mass of space dust and static discharges.

"And what is that thin blue line across the screen? " Inquired the Andorian commanding officer as he got back to his center seat. They all noticed it then, something that looked like a pixel glitch on the computer-generated image right in the middle of it, cutting it neatly in half.

" That... that is the great galactic barrier, Sir, " finally answered Norbert Baoule with undisguised awe.

Again, silence fell around them. In all of History, only one ship had ever come this far; the legendary USS Enterprise of Captain James T. Kirk... first testing a secret timewarp engine, then with a Medusan navigator to verify the species aptitude to navigate through it and finally after being hijacked and modified by refugees from the Andromeda galaxy.

And now, the USS Horizon.

The tought brought then another to the mind of her captain.

"Contact the Polaris; see if they are alright. "

It was Tyvya who answered him with a worried tone.

"Captain... I just finished full scanning at our sensors' extreme range, twenty-two light years... the entire sector. The Polaris... Sir, there is no trace of her. "