near the wormhole (arriving part 2)

S'Tan took a deep breath before continuing. He was about to suggest something unthinkable.

"I...have to agree with the Governor. I know the Romulan point of view, and I know they will see this as the 'holier-than-thou' Starfleet officers commanding that they weren't 'smart' enough to complete their mission. I suggest that we try to succinctly explain why they cannot come with us, but leave them to their own devices. We cannot afford to risk all of our own non-military personnel's lives to assist stubborn science. Romulans are not to be underestimated."

From tactical Aron'Son nodded in solemn agreement.

"The Dominion made that mistake once, believing the Romulan government would never side with the Federation...they were wrong."

"We certainly will not," acknowledged the Andorian captain to both his officers in turn; " Mister Snow; distance from the anomaly's outer perimeter?"

"Five point three billion kilometers, Captain; at present full impulse speed, we'll cross the outer boundary in about twenty and a half  hours."

"ETA at warp 2?"

"About... thirty-seven minutes."

Kheren nodded as if expecting the answers he had been given. Then he looked at his first officer as if to acknowledge him and what he had said earlier before raising his eyes as if talking to himself.

"Phoenix; your probes are of the latest design and use the new Sangliar engines if I recall. Could you launch a sublight probe to the edge of the anomaly right now... and then a warp capable one after that to penetrate within it?"

Over the speaker, the science chief of Syntron's ship was the one to answer.

"Lieutenant Livingstone here again, Sir; a class 1 to 4 probe would reach the perimeter in nineteen point six hours and a class 5 probe or better could be launced at nineteen point twenty-three hours later so as to overtake it and enter the area at the same moment. But the warp engine of the second probe would shut down quickly once inside the anomaly's zone of  effect..."

"I am fully aware of that, Lieutenant. In fact, I am counting on it."

There was a short moment of silence as people over the other vessel were pondering the strange request before Livingstone spoke again.

"May I ask, Sir, the purpose of these launches? We already have extensive astrometric data about the anomaly..."

"We do, Lieutenant. And would you make it so that the sublight probe be linked as a full relay transmitter for the other one?"

"A class 2 probe has full imagery capabilities; and a class 5 would provide all appropriate astrometric data."

"Captain Syntron; I would appreciate for you to see it done... and no need to be discreet at all about it."

On the bridge of the Phoenix, both the X'Ell at science and the Caitian at tactical turned to face their Vulcan commanding officer for authorization.

"There will be no inconspicuous undertaking occurring here Captain Kheren," Syntron noted to his counterpart on the Horizon.

Without hesitation and the channel still open to the flagship, Syntron immediately gave a subtle nod as he stoically voiced his command to the officers on the bridge of the Phoenix.

"Launch both probes immediately when each are in place and ready to be discharged."

The Vulcan's keen eyes then shifted to the main viewscreen as he awaited the sight of the different rates of acceleration for each probe being sent for their specifically designed task. There would be an enormous amount of possibilities riding on the success of these probes, let alone the potential outcomes based on interpretation of this information by all of those who choose utilize the incoming data. This will be direct information and should nullify any concerns of falsified or manipulated data. It was indeed a calculated risk, but one worth taking to try to secure a peaceful resolution to the dilemma that they were all facing with the three Romulan ships approaching the anomaly portal.   

The Romulan on the Horizon shook his head.

"Sir, they still will not accept this. Tomalak is duty bound to push his ships into the anomaly. Sela will punish him for using the singularity cores as an excuse."

"At least what I heard of the Khazara's commanding officer would agree with your assessment, Lieutenant," Kheren retorted calmly.

"It's not Tomalak I am worried about, Captain. No...Commander Toreth...she has the eyes of a snake and the heart of a black hole." The Romulan retorted, "She would be foolish to incite a mutiny against Tomalak...but that same comment has been made before by now-deceased Commanders in the past. As long as we know Tomalak is in power, they will not try anything. But Toreth will not allow for too many delays or strange occurences, like our probes..."

Kheren sat forward in his chair, elbows on his knees, all four eyes looking straight at the large viewer in front of him. 

"Exactly what I am counting on, Chief."

The engineer looked at the Andorian with his mouth wide open.

"...Sir?"

Aboard the Polaris, the escort's sensors immediately detected the first probe launch and Lieutenant Ji'Lan reported them to Oseno.

"Sir, the Phoenix has just launched a probe toward the anomaly." 

"Interesting.." Oseno said to no one in particular "Mister Variel, get me a secure channel to the Horizon." 

The intelligence specialist entered a few simple commands and then nodded at Oseno.

"Polaris to Horizon, Captain the Romulans have made no sign of any overt aggression from our point of view and my science officer noted that the Phoenix has launched a probe toward the anomaly...is anything wrong, Sir?"

"Keep your eyes open, Polaris. That's what I hope our friends out there will wonder too."

And on the lead Romulan vessel, the same report was forwarded to the two officers on the command dais.

"What are they doing?" exclaimed Toreth with her furrowed brow even lower than usual.

"They may know something that we don't," mused Tomalak with a raised eyebrow as he lowered himself closer to the viewer before them.

"Then some heads should roll in the intelligence network," retorted Toreth acidly. "They're up to something; treaty or not, they don't want us here and allow us into their little private pocket universe. Federation exploitation would not suffer us to... "

"Federation timidity more like it," cut the admiral. "I know the Andorian captain well enough; he proved himself almost Rihansuu in his resolve... But the probe was launched by the ship with the Vulcan captain; Vulcans are not like Andorians, even less like us. He must apprehend something and proceeds with typical exagerated caution... or maybe just indulge in his kind's insufferable scientific curiosity."

"I'm not fond of speculation," the woman commander stated bluntly. " And with their destroyer right behind us, I'm sure they plan to trick us before we go through that space portal. Comm, raise the Starfleet ship."

"Belay that order," sternly said Tomalak. "Commander, have passive scanners watch them closely... but do not tell them that they have us on edge and wondering what's going on. If we do nothing, that will put them on edge and wondering... and force them into their next move while we make ourselves ready."

For almost a day, the convoy travelled leisurely towards a bright point of light that came up to the eye looking much like the famous Bajoran wormhole; a swirling mass of luminous gases funneling themselves into a small point of darkness. here hwoever, the cosmic passage stayed open and the revolving thin clouds of lights were gold and orange in color, streaked with white flashes as if the thing was like a caged beast testing the bars of it's cages at irregular intervals. What also diverged from it was the huge ring of plasma fire and lightning that enclosed it. Finally, there were numerous small pinpoints of light like beacons encircling all, forming like a very loose and white net of tiny stars in the immensity of blackness that surrounded it.

Alpha shift was coming back on the bridge of the Horizon and Captain Kheren sat in his chair looking for a good moment in silence at the strange scene filling up the main viewer. he was quite familiar with it, despite it's now altered form and appearance. He had been the starship commander who had discovered it a few years ago. He had gone through it as far as the pocket universe they were travelling to and back. he had gone into it more often and longer than any other captain, including his former first officer, Syntron. And with him, he had almost died in it while helping to tame it before it destroyed the whole universe. yet, the fiery dance of energies still held his gaze in rapt fascination for a moment before he finally tore his mind from the swirl of memories and emotions  and awe it inspired to address his officers.

"Report."

"All systems nominal, Captain," confirmed chief of ops Cheonghi as he resumed his post, all three hands already extracting reports from all over the ship on his board.

"We are at the launch point of the second probe, Sir," said Aguk Snow barely back at the helm.

"Romulans have not deviated from our own flight plan nor transmitted anything," then added Lieutenant S'Kon as he was releived by chief Aron'Son."But now they are scanning the anomaly... and our probe as well. I beleive they are tapping into it's return signal."

The Andorian nodded absently, obviously expecting what he was hearing.

"First probe is about to enter the outer ring of the anomaly," confirmed Valencia Irksos after receivning a confirming nod from her Illythirii chief of science busy with the data collection of the main sensors.

"All stop."

"Answering all stop," confirmed the Inuit helmsman. "Phoenix coming also at station keeping in position for the second launch."

All of this was almost exactly mirrored aboard the Romulan lead ship.

"What are they up to now?" wondered Commander Toreth just as she had done nineteen hours ago.

Like the rest of the lead crew, she had tapped into her Vulcanoid physiology to stay up, awake and attentive beyond normal resting time so as not to miss anything those wily Starfleet people could have tried; this however had done nothing to ease her mood, even less to mollify it.

Beside her, Admiral Tomalak said nothing, furrowing his brow as he watched the two Federation vessels come to a full stop several million kilometers from the awesome cosmic phenomenon displaying fires and lights of gold, orange and white before them all.

"Commander," then reported the subcommander at sensor station, "the federation science ship just launched another probe; it went into warp right on the trail of the first one... That sublight probe just stopped on the edge of the anomaly."

"We do receive the telemetry of that first probe..."

It was not so much a question from Tomalak addressed to the officer as a reminder of what his duty was.

"Yes, Admiral. The data we are receiving is like nothing we expected. It is..."

"If you dare say that it is fascinating, I will shoot you myself where you stand and send your still fuming corpse over to them, labelled as a Federation Vulcan spy," interrupted Toreth with impatience. "Launch an Iota Probe at that second Starfleet one and tag it to it."

As the launch of the Romulan probe barely registered as a far away hollow sound within the bow of the enormous cruiser, Tomalak raised an eyebrow towards her.

"We can just as easily tap into their second probe as we did the first one."

"And they can just as easily feed us a false signal, distort the data or funnel or attention away from anything they actually focus their attention on," retorted the stern woman. "I'm not going to let them play us without making a move to show them that we are aware of their tricks... and that we will find what it is."

And on the Starfleet vessels, that move had also been noticed.

"The lead Romulan ship launched an interstellar probe," announced Jonathan Livingstone to his commanding officer as the Vulcan was coming back to the bridge."It trails our second one into the anomaly."

Aboard all ships, the flight of the two warp probes was followed with varied feelings and expectations. The Romulan one was about four times as fast as the Starfleet minimal warp capable one, obvioulsy more comparable to the class 9 than the much shorter range and limited capability class 5 sent by the Federation explorer. Despite being launched after it, the Romulan one quickly overtook it so that they actually entered the anomaly at the same time on a parallel course.

It took about twenty seconds for the Starfleet probe to suddenly drop out of warp, her antimatter quickly siphoned out by the anomaly. her improved impulse engine however allowed it to continue it's cruise, albeit at a considerably slower speed.

But it didn't get far. Just as suddenly, the Romulan probe also fell out of warp as the fires of the anomaly suddenly surged brutally towards it, along with debris of stellar and planetary matter, all through suddenly expanding subspace fractures that converged on it like bolts of lightning then followed by those rivers of plasma fire flowing through them, dragging neutron-hard debris with them. 

It was destroyed in an instant, the too close Starfleet probe along with it.

On the Phoenix, there were nods of acknowledgement between the officers who had predicted the outcome. On the Horizon, Captain Kheren sat back saying nothing.

On the Romulan vessels, it was all shock and astonishment.

"What... what happened out there?" stuttered Toreth

" Our probe... It acted like a singularity within the anomaly, drawing all matter and energy directly to it's propulsion system," finally explained a white-faced centurion at sensor station.

"These probes have the same micro-singularity drive as our ships!" exclaimed the woman in the command chair, looking at the older officer sitting beside her. " We can not turn off our power source like these matter-antimatter vessels of theirs can; if we go in there, we will be destroyed!"

"Telemetry from the Starfleet probe at the edge of the zone are confirmed by our scanners, Commander... Admiral..." finished the centurion.

"They knew..." Tomalak then uttered between dry lips. 

" Starfleet scum! They would have led us to our deaths!"

The old admiral looked at her with contempt in his hard-etched features.

"Don't act denser than you are, Toreth; if they had had such intentions, why would they send probes in, if they alone knew what was going to happen to us when we would have blindly followed them in?"

"Why didn't they tell us then?" shot back the woman obviously insulted.

This time, Tomalak smiled; but it was a dry, joyless smile.

"Would you have beleived them? Would you have beleived any data they would have sent us directly?"

It took a moment for the deep green of her cheeks to return to it,s usual color.

"No," she finally admitted.

"Give us a channel to the Federation ships."

Toreth nodded and signalled her comm officer to do as the Admiral suggested. Once communication was established, She just glowered at the split screen showing all three Starfleet bridges as Tomalak spoke with a forced air of congeniality.

"Starfleet vessels; it seems we have encountered... technical difficulties that are forcing us to postpone our exploration and colonization projects for the time being. Regretfully, we will have to withdraw and return to our home base to... assess those... difficulties."

The Engineer on the Horizon let out a silent sigh of relief as the words left the ship's audio speakers. He trusted few people in this universe, and none of them were Romulan. The sooner they were at warp speed away from the anomaly, the better.

Redding had to admit to himself that he didn't see that maneuver coming, so subtle was it in its delivery.

The Captain played on the Romulans paranoia as well as their pride, to almost a degree of a master spy.

But why didn't he see it coming? that's what bothered him the most, at some point he should have realized what Kheren was up to.. but he didn't.

Was he so comfortable with the thought of them dying that he didn't even try? He would have to think on it more later.

For his part, Kheren was not showing any feeling at all about the situation. Even his antennae remained perfectly leveled and unmoving as he answered the call of the Romulan Admiral,

"Admiral, this missed upportunity for joint exploration and colonization is truly sadening. It would have done much to ease the relations between our two people. Hopefully we may find another chance later; after all, it is a whole universe waiting for all of us over there. I have no doubt your scientists and technicians will find a way to circumvent those... difficulties. At least the data you got from this unfortunate incident should prove useful in that regard."

Tomalak could not perceive any deceit, contempt or even mockery in the Andorian's voice or expression. And in truth, there were none; Kheren was genuinely convinced that this could have been an opportunity to  benefit both their civilizations, a step further towards, if not actual peace and cooperation, at least a better, more durable truce. Hence why he had arranged for them to discover for themselves and avoid the deadly danger they had been so close of falling into. That the whole consequence could be a definite advantage for the Federation in asserting itself on the other side was not much of a concern to him, at least not as much as building bridges and trust with the Romulans... if they ever would be willing to...

maybe... in time...

Kheren was not a blind idealist however; his statement was also a warning; it stated plainly that he knew about the tapping into the Starfleet probe, the convenient hapenstance of their meeting in this area of space telling of spying activities, the current technological edge of Starfleet over the Imperial Navy... but most of all, that he knew how their minds worked... and that he wanted them to know that he knew.

And he made it quite clear.

"In the meantime, Admiral Tomalak, Commander Toreth... you will maintain your current position, in contact with the local monitoring stations, until Starfleet sends a suitable escort to guide you back to the border, as specified by our treaty. We would not want you to lose your treaty privileges over any unfortunate incident or misunderstanding that could compromise the good will we have so far showed one another today."

The nod and cold smile of Tomalak was more than just acknowledgement and salute; it conceded it all... for now.

Once the screen went off, Kheren looked at Redding.

"Make sure Starfleet is notified of the situation and sends that escort presently. "

He then lifted his head slightly to spoke into the bridge ship to ship comlink left open all this time.

"Captain Syntron; thanks to you and your crew. We will now resume our journey. Polaris, this is Horizon; follow us through the portal and assume duties as planned for the exploration of the other side until we reach our objective." 

As he finished, he lowered his gaze back to his first officer, silently giving him the go word for the Horizon to follow suite.

A collective sigh of relief was felt throughout the bridge of the Phoenix as these precarious events unfolded; even within the calm exterior of the Vulcan commanding officer.

"Acknowledged Captain Kheren, we are prepared to proceed with the mission" Syntron responded.

He closed the channel and mentally noted the calm and almost Vulcan-like manner in which Kheren had skillfully interacted with the Romulans.  This situation could have just as easily resulted in many fatalities and renewed confrontations. Instead, there may all have actually reaped some benefits from this close and almost deadly encounter.

Syntron addressed his helm officer.

"Proceed Mister Moore" he commanded as his eyes then shifted back toward the main viewscreen and the sight of the other federation vessels traveling with them.

One disaster averted... who knows what waits ahead?  the Yeoman Jessica Albera thought to herself as her attention was focused on the ships now as they skillfully moved toward the imminent portal.

"Aye Sir," Oseno responded from the Polaris bridge as he smiled at the captain's ability to read the Romulans like a book. The skillful Andorian had played on everything in the Roumlan nature and allowed them to come to the inevitable conclusion on their own, it was a brilliant strategic maneuver.

"Mister Hunter, fall into line behind the Horizon, and take us through."

 Taking this cue from Captain Syntron's orders to Moore, David nodded for Lieutenant Kennedy to take over the main station on the bridge and proceeded toward the nearest lift, addressing the Vulcan captain on his destination.

"Heading to main engineering Captain. I'll oversee the shutdown of the core from there once we are at terminus with the perimeter of the anomaly".

Gazing for a moment back toward the turbolift at his chief engineer, Syntron calmly responded from the center seat.

"That would be an advisable course of action Commander Rogers. See to it that we don't find ourselves thrust within another dire situation crossing through this problematic threshold."  

On the Horizon, Roger's counterpart was preparing his ship for the same thing. He had already locked down engineering and disengaging the security locks on the core.

"Captain, the Horizon is ready to disengage the warp core and begin cruising on the advanced impulse engines on your command."

"Mister Snow?"

"At full impulse, ETA with wormhole aperture is four point seven minutes, Captain."

Kheren looked back at his chief enginner as he sat deeper in his command chair.

"Disengage, chief."

And as he so ordered he turned to his first officer.

"Stand ready to take over if I falter, Number One; we Andorians are quite sensitive to the anomaly's electromagnetic havoc."

The Captains words snapped him out of his thoughtful malaise, and back into focus. "Of course sir, I've seen it happen a few times before and have a good idea what to look for."

His eyes rose to meet those of Miramanee Blackbird standing right next to the seated man.

"And you do the same with Counselor Lyrya, Yeoman."

"Aye, Captain," the red-skinned woman answered, crossing the bridge to stand on the opposite side of the command well near the Aenar at the medical command chair.

Aron'Son took a moment to glance at the armed security officers on the bridge ensuring that none of them were Andorian and then glanced over at Lieutenant Tyvya wondering if additional medical or security personnel were needed in case all of the Andorians on the bridge became affected by the anomaly. Without asking for permission the Jem'Hadar entered commands in his console sending a message to the security office and ordering an additional three man detachment to the bridge knowing from his brief time aboard the Horizon that all of them of them would be trained medics and could additionally help restrain any of the Andorians if they reacted violently. 

The engineering chief nodded as he entered his command code to deactivate the matter/antimatter reaction in their warp core. His screen flashed red as he disabled the klaxon that was not necessary in this situation. The core started powering down, as he diverted the remaining power into critical operation systems.

"Core shutting down, Sir. We will hit minimum power at the aperture of the anomaly." He calmly responded.

Kheren once again looked at the main viewer and crossed his powerful arms on his thick chest.

"Alright people... we're going in."

Espying the Andorian science officer working near the new X'ell science chief, Captain Syntron contacted his holographic medical chief from the center seat of the USS Phoenix.

"Doctor Gray, be advised that our entrance into this anomaly will have adverse affects on our Andorian crew."    

As the EMH suddenly materialized on the bridge, he responded without missing a beat.

"I am cognizant of the anomaly's proclivity to wreak havoc with Andorian physiology Captain. My staff has a representative in proximity to each of our Andorian crew members. I will be here to assist Lieutenant Hunter, should the need arise."

With her missing antenna recently replaced by the EMH, Kalynda was about to protest this exchange she easily picked up on by the tilted position of tandem antennae. However, she could see that both the captain and the holographic medical chief would not easily dismiss this precaution through mere objection. Kalynda silently sighed as she focused her attention back on the work with her avian CSO.