Chasing the Cloud

There was a diffuse light all around, like that of the rising sun filtering through the waves of the ocean to briefly light up the depths before hiding again behind clouds. The very fabric of space, fluid and dense, rippled softly as if a brief gust of wind had raked the surface.It was wnough however to shake every part of even the mighty starship that was creeping away from both light and wind towards where waited the tiny cylinder-shaped craft that was her escort. And she too felt the tremor and was briefly bathed in light, the distance leaving her with the same tremors as the big ship relative to their size.

Then all seemed to be quiet again in Fluidic Space. But everyone aboard the USS Horizon and the USS Polaris knew that the depths ahead of them stirred even more than that short moment they had now come through.

And there was another stirring as well; one that gripped the entire crew, hoping that they were possibly going to find and bring their captain back.

"The rift has collapsed on itself, Sir," reported the scientist Norbert Baoule hunched over his sensor readouts. "Gravitational forces are settling slowly to previoulsy recorded parameters after the subspace effect of our static transwarp shell. I estimate the aperture will remain closed for about one standard year. Then, natural gravitational forces in the sector and within this universe will reopen it again."

"Minor stress to our superstructure from the collapse, " then said his twin brother Robert from the engineering console. "Structural Integrity Field compensating. Damage repair teams already working to seal microfractures... but there will be the need for some drydock work to bring back everything to optimal condition. As predicted, unable to form a warp bubble within this pea soup they call a universe. You may use that extra power to boost up shields, weapons and systems at your discretion, Sir. But we have full impulse power and thrusters at your disposal,"

"No casualties reported," then said Doctor Lumquist from the medical command chair at the left of Redding. "Personal Inertial Dampeners kept everyone safe and sound during all the shake, rattle and roll. I have reestablished contact with the Polaris."

"Dawn reporting docked and secure in shuttlebay 1, Sir," then said Elisha Leône with her eyes on her ops station screens. "Commander Sisko on his way to the bridge. All systems coming back to nominal status. crew is on yellow alert."

"I have the Polarris on our forrward sensorrs," now announced Lieutenant Mrriish at tactical. "And something else, at the verry edge of ourr scannerrs... some kind of,... disturrbance. It must be massive to rregisterr even this faintly overr such distances."

***

Alarm klaxons blared as the Polaris felt the effects of the collapse of the subspace rift and Jureth gripped the command chair as the little escort vibrated and shook for a moment and then it was gone. The damage to the smaller ship was slightly more than her larger mothership.

"Damage report!" he ordered when the shaking had stopped

Before anyone could get a word in the gruff voice of the ship's Andorian chief engineer Akaal called to the bridge

"Conn, engineering, what in the name of all that is good was that? We just blew an EPS conduit on the starboard side and the power grid is completely out of whack. Warp core efficiency has been reduced to seventy percent, I think we may have some real damage there, but the containment field is holding. The computer is also telling me that we have moderate structural damage near the aft section of the ship, but the SIF field is already adjusting. I'm also reading several hull fractures, but I'm going to need help to patch them all before we encounter that...thing. Our impulse drive is limited to three quarters as well thank to the power grid issue. I can correct it but it will take time. Order of priority says I should seal the hull fractures first..Sir."

"Get our impulse drive back to full," Oseno replied "We need the extra speed, use our reserves if necessary then pull whatever personnel you need to handle the hull fractures." 

"Aye Sir, Akaal out." 

The Romulan Engineer sighed.

"Sir, thanks to that little shakeup, my original plan is now out the window. Any adjustments made to the core would most likely cripple the Polaris and almost guarantee a core breach.  We can only now rely on the torpedo plan. That being said, we can still send the idea to Blakely and Baoule and let the Horizon's superior power systems use that idea, should we....fail." The Romulan stopped speaking after ending his statement on such a dark note. He was beginning to think this would be a one way trip without the Horizon's support.

"Conn, tactical, new sensor contact...just on the fringe of detection range. It's the Horizon, Sir." reported Lieutenant Kalaar

Oseno nodded.

"Good; Palos, send them a message notifying them of our damage status and that we are still making best speed toward the anomaly. Now, K'leysha, Ji'lian, what was that?" 

Officer Ji'lian was first to respond as she had been monitoring the sensors.

"The rift between our universe and this one has closed, Sir. Commander Redding's static transwarp shell was successful in warping gravitational fields to seal it... at least until natural forces in the sector will eventually reopen it in the next nine to twelve standard months. What we felt was a ripple aftereffect in local gravitation from the... rearranging of space back there. Considering the density and composition of Fluidic Space, it was not unlike a massive wave thrown against our hull. The effect of course is fast dissipating with distance but it was still a good wallop this close to it."

"I'm in contact with the Horizon, Sir," then reported Palos. "They acknowledge our status report and confirm success in closing the rift. Commander Redding is on the channel."

On board the largest starship of the United Federation of Planets, the doctor in the medical command chair similarily reported to the large man in the captain's chair.

"Polaris reporting some damage to their superstructure and warp core but they are about to proceed at full impulse towards the forward disturbance. You have a clear channel to Commander Oseno, Sir."

"Glad to see you pulled through that Polaris, It was a bit more of a bang than we were expecting but it worked perfectly." Redding swiveled to face the screen directly.

"The Horizon came through it without a scratch, so we'll be headed your way shortly, but at impulse speeds you will reach the target area well ahead of us."

"Your orders are to assess the situation as best as you can but not to take any direct action UNLESS you deem it absolutely essential, you are to wait for us. Is that understood Commander?" He gave a nod to Sisko as he entered the bridge.

Before Jureth could answer, his tactical officer spoke with a definite urgency in his voice.

"Sir! tactical sensors are registering numerous objects moving  at near light speed towards a specific sector; by configuration, I read several dozen Nicor class cruisers, over a dozen Dromias class heavy cruisers, no less than half a dozen Vila battleships and at least one Thetys dreadnought."

"Like Bootby's ship," said Ji'lian. "And there may be as much coming from the other side, from beyond our sensor range." 

"ETA of the Undine Fleet with the object; twenty minutes," finished Kalaar.

"At emergency impulse, they'll be fully engaged when we'll arrive," then helmsman Hunter told them all.

For long minutes, they flew at high impulse in pursuit of the invading entity that had entered this universe before them, the Horizon in tow. They were still on their intercept course when the ominious silence aboard was finally broken.

"I can get us a visual now... extreme magnification,"  stated as her fingers crawled over her console.

On the main viewer of the Polaris, the image blurred a moment as the computer worked hard to synthesize an image from all the sensor data it was receiving. It took a moment for it to gather enough information to do so an extrapolated from records in it's memory banks to fill in the blanks like color and precise shapes, but what they got was a frighteningly clear image of what was happening.

Before their eyes sprawled the energy cloud, much much larger than the one they had witnessed previoulsy coming from the Bootby dreadnought. It was brighter also and greener than the pure yellow sparkling effect they remembered. It was moving at nearly the speed of light according to the sensor data; but on the visual representation they were looking at, it was like a slow, heavy fog rolling ponderously away from them... and towards a darker, even larger object.

At first glance, it looked like a planet; an immense, roughly ovoid object, flattenend at the poles and thicker in the middle, Pale yellowish wisps of colors swirled over various shades of greens and browns, like clouds over land masses and expanses of oceans, eerily looking like some primeval Earth with the colors of a vast puddle of oily mud. There was also a faint, subtle, almost imperceptible movement to it all, as if the cosmic-scaled object was somehow... pulsing... breathing... alive...

And, according to their instruments, it was.

"Sir..."

That was the voice of the science officer, lifting slowly her gaze from her readouts to look in awe at the image on the screen. "this... this object the... cloud is moving towards... it's... it's about the size of the solar system. It's the densest part of Fluidic Space we have encountered so far and our scanner have a rough time penetrating it at this distance. But like everything else here, it is entirely composed of organic matter. It is so dense that it seems to form an almost separate zone within Fluidic Space, not unlike the Great Barrier that surrounds our galaxy. But within that... self-enclosed area, I detect several smaller but planet-sized denser bodies, each seemingly separate yet connected to the others around it. And from each I read an... an outer layer of protein-like material confining billions of similar units of something like... like cytoplasm with amino-acids around a denser core of what appears to be... desoxyrybonucleic acid..."

Palos too blinked at the screen, his voice suddenly faint.

"You mean this... this is..."

Ji'Lian looked at Oseno Jureth with wide eyes.

"Condition: alive."

Complete silence filled the entire bridge. They could only stare at this this object with wonder, knowing that they were looking at something no one had ever seen before: a multicellular organism whose diameter was equivalent to the distance between the sun and it's oort cloud beyond Pluto.

A living solar system.

"Relaying this to the Horizon, Sir," uttered the officer at ops with a distant voice, awestruck as the rest of them.

"Sir... look..."

Lieutenant Kalaar was pointing at the particle cloud looming before the organic colossus it was moving towards. Around it, a great number of sleek, greenish shapes was forming, coming from all directions. The computer had no difficulty extrapolating the data to reconfigure the image into the clear silhouettes of Undine ships converging like a swarm of angry bees towards the cloud.

Before their eyes, the numerous vessels first formed a conical dispersal pattern between the threatening entity and the living star system behind them. The Nicor ships adopted their dreadful star-shaped formation prior to unleashing their massive energy beam; but instead of firng at the cloud, they redirected that massive discharge to the Dromias heavy warships amidst them that had also formed triads with the Vila battleships. These larger bioships in turn directed their amplified cohesive beam to the gigantic Thetys dreadnought  in the center of them all.

From the elongated snout of the largest bioship, the overchcarged discharge of colossal energies blasted so wide and so intense that the viewer could not compensate the blinding glare that forced everyone on the bridge, even the Vulcans, to close their eyes and turn their heads. They only glimpsed the monstrous beam striking the particle cloud and the colossal bioship glow like a relay about to burn out before the glare painfully struck them even through their closed eyelids.

When they blinked back at the screen, they saw that the cloud of energized particles had swelled still... and in so doing, the reflected energy discharge had but disintegrated the dreadnought, severely damaged the battleship formations nearest to it and scarring the hulls of all the others as if they had all been splashed by acid.

And the thing continued forward.

The telepathic scream of death and despair then came at them like the aftershock of a seismic tremor. This time though, the Aegis mental shield was ready. Although even Snowfire flinched under the massive mental onslaught, there was only a brief moment of pain before they regained control and cohesion.

For a moment, the remnants of the fleet flew in apparent disarray. Then, after a short moment, they dispersed. Before the officers on the bridge could wonder what was going on, they spread themselves all around the vast cloud, gagain pointing their dagger-like prows toward it. This time, however, there was no energy discharges. Like a swarm of angry bees, they suddenly hurled themselves all at the same time at the cloud.

The larger ones, almost as big as Boothby's ship had been, entered the particle field and started to disintegrate like ice cubes thrown into a pool of lava. The clooud expanded and diluted as it dissolved the larger bioships and most of the smaller ones; but many of them managed to penetrate deeper into it, diluting further the massive energy field as it expended itself to devour them. Ans, as they were sacrificing themselves in this astounding charge from all directions, a few of the Nicor cruisers reached the darker, indistinct shape that was looming at the heart of the cloud; a long, massive, dark green shape that was seemingly ten times the size of the largest warship assaulting it.

This time, the death cries were just as numerous as before but more like multiple detonations than just one huge explosion of psionic energies as they had felt before. This time, the mental barrier protecting the Starfleet ships held with but some straining from their weakest members.

Then, the entire neurogenic field became as silent and cold as the night air over a graveyard.

"ETA, five minutes," announced Hunter from the helm.

Some of those bioships that had dared the energy field managed to limp away with their hulls oozing fiery fluids like blood from ugly wounds. But, this time, they had succeeded in their intent. A few of them had made direct impact on the thing inside the thinning cloud of death.

But still, it was not slowing it's unswerving journey towards the most central point of this universe; the Heart Of Life.

-----------

Aboard the Horizon Redding waited impatiently as they trailed behind the Polaris and could think of nothing better to do than watch the main view screen and brood.

But Lieutenant junior grade Moore was never one to sit still when he could be moving his tongue

"...I'm telling you, Snow, this universe is too vast not to have a better way to get around."

The Inuit hlemsman sighed.

"That might be true, or it might not... it's an alien universe, Moore."

Moore persisted "Sure but two plus two should equal four in any universe we can exist; standard laws of cause and effect might apply just about everywhere. Look, all I'm asking is that we take a look. Is that so much to ask?"

He flashed a winning smile.

"We should at least ask Redding first." Snow murmured, already working the controls.

"Naa... he's busy..."

Moore leaned in closer to whisper.

"And I don't think he'd listen to one of my ideas anyway. I don't think he likes me all that much."

Then he shrugged.

Snow rolled his eyes.

"You do take a little getting used to, I'll have to admit. But I don't think the Commander's the type to let that get in the way of his command decisions."

Moore looked over his colleague's work.

"Anything yet?"

"First, I have to reconfigure the sensor to detect ambient thermal radiation outside a troposphere, especially over a non-fixed 'open space' location like your suggesting. That would be impossible to find in 'normal' space, so the sensors don't know how to look for it ." Snow protested. "And even if your right and there are... currents out there, there's nothing to suggest one strong enough for us to catch up to the Captain before it to late."

He frowned at the thought.

"Oh com'on, would you put a big hole into enemy space and not make an express route for traffic? I'm telling you there has to be a super current right here, close by, so warships can get here on the double."

He placed his hand on Snow's shoulder, as if he might be to talking to a child. The console beeped and both looked down at it. Moore smiled. Snow glanced and nodded at Moore before speaking outloud.

"Commander, Lieutenant Moore and I found something."

Redding face was one of confusion. He had no idea they were even looking for something. Snow went on as Redding joined them. 

"We detected a large thermal displacement, Sir. It's a current much like the E.A.C. on Earth, but I don't think this one is a natural phenomenon; it has an parallel current of equal strength less than hundred meters away."

"The E... what? what are you suggesting, Lieutenant?"

Redding's time on his actual planet of birth had been extremely limited. The Inuit turned to face him and explain.

"The East Australian Current, Sir; it runs between Australia and New Zealand at about seven knots. This one moves.."

But Moore butted in

".. .A LOT faster, Sir... and its heading straight to where the Polaris is going. We could catch up to them in maybe twenty, twenty-five minutes."

"The trick will be to ride this current; but it so happens that kayaking was my favorite sport when I was a young man back in my native Yukon," added Aguk Snow with a small smile, looking forward to try yet unother way of handling a starship.

"We have paddles on this ship?" mocked Moore but suddenly curious at what his copper-skinned colleague intended to do.

"Kayaking requires that you alternate paddling one side or the other to best use a torrent's currents to propel yourself through their strongest direction.... without capsizing of course. It's a question of correct pressure and balance."

"And this ship has impulse exhausts on port and starboard," understood Moore with a smile and a nod. "I'll have to try that in the holodeck.

"I have a kayaking program already in the holomatrix," Snow said, then became more serious, addressing their current commanding officer; "I can do this, Sir." 

Redding smiled at them both "Outstanding work you two, take the helm Mr. Snow." Then returned to his seat.

"Doctor Lumquist, inform the Polaris that we found a faster passage, ETA 25 minutes, details to follow." and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Aye, Sir," the man in the medical command chair acknowledged, as he was the one handling communication, doubling up in it as ship counselor.