Into the Breach

"Captain's Log USS Polaris, Commander Oseno Jureth commanding...Commander Redding has ordered me to take the Polaris out for a series of drills. I intend to follow his orders, and if that gives me a chance to do some exploring, then so be it. I don't believe Captain Kheren to be dead, and I am hoping that we might find some clue while we're out here that we can take back to Commander Redding and Starfleet Command..."

Jureth surveyed the small bridge of the escort USS Polaris and noted that each of his people was at their station diligently getting the powerful little ship ready to go. Of course most of them were not aware that Oseno intended to take the ship into fluidic space, but he knew that each of them would act accordingly when the time came. Then there was Commander Snowfire K'leysha and her Aegis, Jureth had given them what space he could mostly in the ship's makeshift science area. He knew why they were here, but they were still taking up space that might be needed for triage in the event they found themselves in combat. Oseno rose from the command chair and addressed the bridge crew

"All stations, report go, no go for launch."

"Helm go," Shawn Hunter responded with his usual confidence

"Tactical go," Kalaar stated

"Ops go," came the voice of Variel Palos the intelligence officer whom Jureth had assigned as the ops officer for this mission mostly so he could keep an eye on him.

"Science go" replied the soft voice of Cera Ji'lian.

Oseno acknowledged them with a nod, and then tapped his combage "Bridge to engineering, Mister Akaal are you ready?"

"As we'll ever be Sir, at least we're not launching at transwarp this time." 

Oseno smiled at the gruff Andorian's reply "Very good, stand by for launch." He closed the channel "Lieutenant Palos, get us clearance." 

Palos opened a com channel to the hangar control station "This is USS Polaris to Horizon hangar control, requesting launch clearance." 

"Polaris, you are clear for launch,"

"Captain, we have clearance."

Oseno nodded "Mister Hunter, if you would please?"

"Aye Sir, disengaging umbilicals and clamps, docking bay opening." 

"Clear all moorings, and take us out."

"All moorings clear, power to aft thrusters."

The Polaris slowly maneuvered out of the docking bay opening and into open space for the first time since she was violently thrown from the Horizon during the ship's maiden voyage. 

"We are clear of the Horizon Sir" Hunter reported after several minutes 

"Alright Mister Hunter, let's stretch her legs. Take us away from the Horizon, one half impulse and then increase to full impulse after ten minutes. We'll run a full impulse for another ten and then take us back toward the fluidic rift. Mister Palos, report to the Horizon that we'll be conducting some engine trials before testing the sensor systems at the edge of the fludic rift."

"Aye Sir," both officers responded in unison. 

Oseno sat back down in the command chair as the Polaris began to accelerate away from her mother ship.

The Romulan engineer let the officers around the bridge squawk their responses and beat their chests in the usual Starfleet rituals. After all stations had reported in and the ship had launched, he turned away from the engineering console he was monitoring and gruffly commented to Oseno,

"Let the record show that I think this is a waste of time. Though I do have to say, I like this Starfleet I've joined. Let me know were I am needed, Sir."

To an untrained ear, his comment would only sound like a Romulan not wanting to take time testing the engines of a ship seldom used. However, S'Tan knew how to keep his comment vague enough so that only Oseno and Snowfire would understand that he was referring to the fact that they were disobeying Starfleet's direct orders.

Oseno glanced over at the engineer and raised an eyebrow, he knew exactly what Solius meant, but for the benefit of most of the bridge crew said "We have been ordered to conduct drills Lieutenant, and so we shall. The ship was damaged severely during our maiden voyage and her systems never received a full test. If you wish to help, I'm sure that Lieutenant Akaal in engineering could benefit from your expertise, or you are welcome to remain on the bridge if you wish."

The Romulan smiled, "Oh, I am sure that I would not be welcome in another engineer's engineering. Too many checks in the kitchen, I believe you say. I will remain on the bridge."

He turned around and began to analyze the engine outputs, over his shoulder he stated, "I didn't read anything about damage to the Polaris in the mission debrief from your prior mission. What caused it?"

Oseno smiled "We launched the ship while the Horizon was at transwarp, then there were the Jem'Hadar...and the rest...well it's classified."

"Coming up on the ten minute mark Captain," Shawn Hunter reported "Increasing speed to full impulse,"

"Thank you Mister Hunter," Oseno acknoledged "Inform me again when we make the turn." 

"Captain?" Snowfire called up from the bay she and her science/psi team had taken over for the duration of the cruiser. "We're all set down here. Separation from the Horizon Aegis went as expected and we're ready if the Undine come calling." She paused, as if checking a screen. "On that note, the rift will be shifting again in the next five minutes, so you'll want to watch for that. Then again, if you're willing to get close, the possible gains of being able to monitor a shift like that up close are hard to quantify."

"Understood Commander," Oseno replied "I want to test our sensor arrays on the rift, so I will make every effort to get as close as we can." Then he addressed his expert helmsman again "Mister Hunter, time to cut our test short, take us back toward the anomaly, full impulse." 

"Aye Sir," Hunter replied, "coming about, setting course for the rift full impulse" 

"Lieutenant Ji'Lian full power to sensors," Jureth ordered 

The Polaris made a swift one hundred and eighty degree turn and streaked back toward the fluidic space rift. Jureth tapped commands into the console on the command chair pulling up the program that he would activate as the ship approached the rift. He had written it with the help of both T'Lana and Shawn Hunter and it would lock the helm controls temporarily allowing the Polaris to enter the fluidic space rift and then after several seconds the program would terminate and delete itself making the Polaris entry into fluidic space appear to be a helm malfunction. 

The Romulan once again turned around, "Sir, Let the record show, I object to this defiance of Starfleet's orders." He paused for a moment before continuing, "The ship's systems are at full power and ready to enter the void"

"Lieutenant," Oseno admonished the engineer "I said nothing about intentionally entering the rift..that would be in direct conflict to the orders I was given-"

"Approaching the fluidic space rift Captain," Shawn Hunter reported breaking in

"Thank you Mister Hunter," Jureth replied as he subtly tapped the command chair console "Slow to one half impulse.."

"Aye Sir," Hunter tapped the helm but nothing happened and despite knowing what was going on he had to act like he didn't "I can't slow our speed, helm not responding captain!" 

"Mister Palos, bypass" Oseno ordered 

Palos attemped to shunt the helm control to his operations station and found that he could not "Unable to access helm controls captain, the system is frozen." 

"Sir, we are going enter the rift" Hunter

"Shields up!" Ordered 

The Polaris entered the fluidic space rift at full impulse power, and as she emerged on the opposite side Oseno's program terminated and as planned erased itself from the computer system. The ship continued on for several seconds at full impulse before Shawn Hunter reported he'd regained control of the ship.

"Helm appears to be responding again Sir," 

"All stop Mister Hunter,"

"Answering all stop Captain."

"Where are we?" 

"Approximately several thousand kilometers inside Fluidic Space Sir," Lieutenant Ji'Lian reported "I can't be more exact Sir, the navigational sensor array appears to have sustained some negative effects from entering the rift."

"I will attempt to boost the signal using the deflector dish. I might be able to pierce the Fluidic Space's anomaly." S'Tan interjected, "It would function as a burst and require time to recharge, however. I do not want to risk constant use and leave us stranded without warp capabilities."

"Thank you Lieutenant Solius...Well..."Oseno mused "since we are in Fluidic Space we might as well do some exploring...Lieutenant Ji'Lian, scan for any sign of Boothby's dreadnought"

"Aye Captain," 

Oseno tapped his combage "Oseno to K'Leysha, Commander, can you detect any telepathic sign of Captain Kheren?" 

Snowfire's voice was courteous, yet slightly strained. "We're examining the area - the biological nature of a great deal of it means that imprints should last quite a lot longer - but picking out a single strand will take time. A moment, please." Leaving the link open, she turned her concentration back to the search of the area around them for the signature of Kheren. She knew that mental signature very well, even if it was hard to reach. She'd never tried more than finding however, not only was it extremely rude but there was the truly formidable Aenar linked to him. A part of her spared a thought for that person - that friend. She hoped she'd be able to bring her husband back to her.

Tracing telempathic residue was sort of like building an electron microscope out of your brain. It was very hard to do, no less than marginally exhausting, and trying to use it in space was like trying to find an quark in a mole of deuterium. But...this wasn't space. Not really. Very few places in normal space had a concentration of organic matter this high, and that helped immeasurably. So it was more like only trying to find a needle in a haystack the size of your average shuttlecraft. As it happened however, Snowfire and the rest of the Circle were...motivated.

"We've got a trace." Snowfire's voice was far more tired than it had been three minutes ago, but it was also triumphant. "I'm routing the course to the helm console. We'll tell you if it changes. It's degrading faster than expected, but as long as we stay on it and it doesn't start degrading faster we'll be fine. I would advise, however, that we drop a beacon here in the event that our navigation systems are damaged and we need to find our way back to the rift."

Jureth could hear the exhaustion in Snowfire's words and knew that she was likely trying very hard to keep a good feel for where the captain was. The Bajoran didn't really understand telepathy itself as it wasn't an ability most Bajorans exhibited. "A good idea Commander," Oseno replied "Please try not to over exert yourselves if you don't have to, I will leave a line open to the bridge." Jureth then directed his attention to the bridge crew

"Mister Hunter take the coordinates from Commander K'leysha and get us moving, and drop us a nav beacon while you're at it." 

"Aye Sir."

"Captain, I think I can help us with a track," said the soft spoken half Orion Cera Ji'Lian from her science station

"Go ahead Lieutenant," Oseno prodded her

"Computer, display sensor readout on main viewer" Ji'Lian ordered

The computer beeped and complied displaying the Polaris sensor data on the ship's main viewer. The display was two boxes with incoming data on the left side, and a stored pattern on the right side. 

"Our incoming sensor data is on the left, and the sensor readings of the Undine ship from the Horizon are on the right. As you can see Sir, there are faint traces of the pattern in the incoming data, but it has been altered in some way...it's the same ship..but with slight variations in its signature. I can't really explain it..Sir" 

"It's okay Lieutenant, feed that pattern to the helm, and Mister Hunter cross what Commander K'Leysha gave you with what the sensors are telling us."

"yes Sir," 

The Polaris set off moving deeper into fluidic space searching for the missing ship that might hold the crew's missing captain. As they began to follow the trail Jureth couldn't help but think of stories he'd heard of Earth's famous tracking dogs called bloodhounds and that the Polaris a little like an animal on the scent. 

"Commander, what exactly is the plan? Say we find Captain Kheren. Then what? The Undine clearly wanted him. I am not sure that they will just give him up if we ask politely." S'Tan asked. He did not have much faith in finding the former captain, nor did he really care one way or the other. But he understood the loyalty that the others were showing, and wouldn't get in their way. For now.

"The plan, Lieutenant, is that if we are able to find the captain alive, I will attempt to negotiate his return. If I can't do that I will consider options available to retrieving him by force including the use of the two highly trained MACO units currently aboard the Polaris. If neither of those options is feasible then as much as I would not want to we would return to the Horizon and report our findings to Commander Redding. If we find nothing in the next twelve hours we will return to the Horizon with nothing to show and I will answer to Commander Redding as he sees fit as by regulation as soon as Mister Hunter had control of the ship again I should have taken us back the way we came. Does that answer your question...Lieutenant?" 

Oseno added the last bit to remind the engineer that he was still the junior officer. By right the Bajoran could have simply dismissed the question as he was in command and was giving the orders but he believed that some officers weren't honest enough with their subordinates and since he wasn't required to keep his designs for this expedition a secret Jureth had no issues discussing them with Solius.

Solius nodded, "Yes, Commander, it does. I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page, and now that I know we are here to look for our Captain, I can better adjust the sensors to attempt to detect ships that have recently been in our space. Or at least give us a direction to compare to the voodoo people over there."

"Very good" Oseno said with a nod "Lieutenant Ji'Lian, anything?" 

"We're still on track Sir," Ji'Lian replied "but nothing on sensors."

"As Xenophobic as the Undine are known to be," T'Lana said speaking for the first time "It is curious that we have not been challenged yet." 

"I'm hoping they won't notice us." Jureth responded.

"That seems...unlikely." the Vulcan replied

The Polaris continued on for several more hours with no signs of any contact following the traces of the dreadnought that had disappeared with Captain Kheren aboard. Oseno was dismayed that they'd found nothing so far. How far could the ship possibly have gotten? Would they even find it? Was he taking these people to their deaths by venturing in to fluidic space? The last thought only entered his mine briefly, but he wouldn't be a normal being if it hadn't, and he certainly would be a normal commanding officer. Oseno resolved that whatever happened the chance of retrieving Captain Kheren was worth it. It was Lieutenant Kalaar from tactical that finally broke the silence with his deep bass intoning

"Con, tactical, new Sensor contact Sir. Undine vessel, cruiser class, bearing zero-one-zero mark two five zero. They are on an intercept course Sir." 

"All stop Mister Hunter, let's see what they have to say." 

"Aye Sir, answering all stop." 

The Polaris slowed to a stop as the Undine vessel approached, and the tension aboard the Starfleet ship could be felt as they waited to hear from the usually agressive aliens.

On the screen, the now familiar greenish dagger-like shape of a Nicor starship was becoming bigger and bigger by the second. Like looking through water, the weird organic fluid that gave this universe it's peculiar name had a somewhat amplifying effect even on the computer-generated imagery the sensors offered to their eyes. The representation was deceptive as the alien organic ship was still millions of kilometers distant; but it looked a lot more closer... and it was definitelygetting closer... and fast.

The way the strange vessel flew towards them however was a bit disconcerting. It was like it couldn't keep her prow straight forward is came straight at them.

Kalaar was frowning as he hunched over his sensor readout.

" Sir? The Undine vessel is coming towards our position at half  impulse and slowing; ETA forty-seven seconds. But... "

He looked up at the Bajoran in the center seat.

"I read no energy output."

"And I read only residual life signs," now added Ji'Lian. "Merely a faint trace like that found on a... a freshly dead corpse."

Helmsman Hunter then rose his head sharply to the screen where the elongated shape of the Undine cruiser started to slowly tumble end over end, closer, much much closer.

"It's not on an interception course! It's on a collision course!

"Mister Hunter evasive maneuvers!" 

Shawn Hunter reacted immediately to Oseno's order pushing the Polaris impulse drive into full reverse and firing her forward maneuvering thrusters simultaneously. The seconds ticked off tensely but the combination of the thrusters and the building power of the impulse drive was enough to kick the escort backward and just out of the way of the hurtling ship.

"Helm, now that we're safe I want to know what happened on that ship. Pursuit course! Mister Kalaar, ready a tractor beam." 

"Aye Sir," both officers responded.

The Polaris lurched from reverse to forward motion and chased down the near powerless Undine vessel. Shawn Hunter deftly brought the ship as close to the drifting vessel as he dared.

"This is as good as it gets Captain."

"Mister Kalaar," Oseno "let's grab her."

"Aye Sir," the Capellan responded "tractor engaged we won't be able to hold her for too long, but it should be long enough to get some detailed scans." 

Oseno nodded "Mister Hunter can we slow her down?" 

"We could try Sir, but she's a lot bigger than we are." 

"Good point, try to match her velocity as best you can and put her on screen. Mister Solius your opinion? Are we reading anything significant? "

The Romulan shook his head, "Negative on readings sir. Just the same readings, no life signs, minimal power being generated or used. No shields that I can detect either. As for trying to scan, I don't see the point. We barely know anything about the Undine, or their ships. I am not sure a scan will get us any new data." He paused for a moment while he thought of something useful. "Sir." He continued, "if I could bypass a few of our security systems, I could divert all power to the tractor, creating a bigger 'net' than the norm...It might be enough to stop the ship for a few minutes. We could prepare a boarding party and get some boots on the ground to investigate."

Oseno considered Solius suggestion about boarding the Undine vessel. The last time they'd gone aboard one of the alien species ships they'd lost Captain Kheren, but they needed information and this ship was the best thing they had right now. Something was going on in Fluidic Space, and Jureth wanted to know what and whether or not Captain Kheren was involved. At the same time, however, they were inching closer to his self imposed twelve hour deadline for returning to the Horizon.

"Do it Lieutenant, and let me know when you can step away and  I will have two of the Marines meet us in the trasporter room."

"Captain," T'Lana said "it would be unwise for you to go to the Undine vessel yourself, you are the only command rank officer aboard the Polaris."

"Objection noted Lieutenant, but I'm going over there. You will be in command while I am off the ship, as Commander K'Leysha will be joining us as well if she is able."

"Aye Sir," T'lana replied even though she disliked Oseno's reply strongly. It was not logical to send the commander of a vessel into a dangerous situation yet it seemed Starfleet officers did that routinely usually over the objections of their subordinates, she found it puzzling.

Jureth turned his attention to Snowfire "Oseno to K'Leysha, Commander I am taking an away team to the Undine vessel we currently have under tow. I'd like you to join us."

"That is part of my duty as Chief Science Officer, especially at a time like this, Sir. On my way to the transporter  room."