The dark between the stars

  ''Snow to main engineering; Commander Sangliar, ETA one minute, mark.''

''On my way. Maintain yellow alert. Drop out of warp, start scans and hails on all frequencies.''

''Acknowledged.''

In the command seat, the inuit woman turned to address every cadet and hologram at their stations.

'' Hansen, drop out of warp in thirty seconds... mark,  then proceed at full impulse along a parabolic course towards the source of the signal. Shadowhunt, Gunner, full sensor sweep of the target area. Terix, assist Gunner at tactical 2, concentrating on everything but the target area. Counselor...''

''I have a signal... no, two of them,'' the half-betazoid hologram announced, frowning. ''One is indeed a Starfleet disaster beacon transmission, still too garbled to identify; the other appears to be an encoded blip, barely reaching our position, also unidentifiable. Both are intermittent and very weak. One other thing; there is heavy subspace interference in this area; we are completely cut off from normal transmission traffic.''

''Dropping out of warp.''

On the main viewer, the streaks of light suddenly fixated as distant twinkling points of light, the familiar vista of outer space... except right in the center of the screen, where there was an odd shimmering of them, and them all much more coalesced, strangely off color in that particular place, as if seen under water.

''It... it looks like... like sparks from a campfire, '' Hansen said before clearing his voice and bringing back forcefully his eyes to his console. ''Full impulse, parabolic course 15 mark 45 to 345 mark 30. Distance forty-seven million kilometers, ETA ten point four minutes.''

"I have never seen a campfire move before" Gunner exclaimed.

Slowly but visibly, the curious optical phenomenon swerved to the left of the screen before just as slowly starting to recenter itself.

''Engineering to bridge.''

The growl made Snow stiffen in her chair.

''Bridge here.''

''My team reports that our dillithium crystals have depolarized as we dropped to normal space. Some kind of external interference. It is preventing them from recrystallizing in the articulation frame. So boys and girls no warp power until we figure out what the blazes is going on. I'll have people look at our shuttles and torpedoes to see if they are as affected, which is most likely. I'll be on the bridge as soon as I can. Proceed with upmost caution Snow. This is getting worse by the minute.''

'' Ah... affirmative, un... understood Sir. Bridge out.''

She stood ramrod straight in complete silence for a full minute before she  spoke with clipped tones.

''Shadowhunt, I want answers. What's going on out there? Terix, assist science by studying any data on record of anything even remotely similar to this... interference. Gunner, get a fix on this.. ship that seem to be at the center of it and tell me who we are dealing with, if they may be responsible for this... interference. And modify strategies and tactics without torpedoes and shuttles limited to impulse.''

"Aye" Gunner said as he frantically worked out new tactical plans on the console before him.

Not being able to fire torpedoes did not make them useless however. Using torpedoes as mines is a tactic not unfamiliar to the young Klingon. Unless the torpedoes were completely useless, in which case Gunner was more perplexed.

"This will take... a few minutes"

Before them, the curious visual anomaly was slowly but surely getting larger.

''ETA six minutes, '' Hansen reported, swallowing what was left of his saliva between his drying lips.

Gunner worked as fast as he could. Hopefully this thing did not mean violence, but if so the crew had six minutes to be ready for battle with only half their weapons and no escape plan.

Terix moved to the tactical 2 station as ordered and while not a tactical officer some of the other experiences he'd had before joining Starfleet left him with some weapons system familiarity. He quickly identified the basic controls and began scanning for other targets outside their primary area and set the computer to notify him if it picked up anything resembling a contact. Next he moved to one of the utility consoles and brought up the scientific data base. He began looking for incidents with similar phenomena and while there were many incidents in Starfleet records only a few were similar and none exactly similary.

"Lieutenant Snow, Starfleet records do not show any specific incidents that match the phenomena we are detecting. Devidian incursions are known to be temporal in nature, cosmozoans haven been known to produce varying forms of energy, and the Azimuth Horizon was often described as being multi-colored or sparkling...but none of those incidents produced any effect on dilithium like the one reported by engineering. In fact, the Azimuth Horizon caused increased reaction in warp drives driving them to the point of breach not depolarization. Devidians feed of organics and since none of us are dying I would say we are not dealing with a Devidian incursion. In fact, we may be dealing with an entirely new phenomenon."

In addition to standard sensors, Sabrina continued implementing a long-range tachyon beam toward the perplexing spectacle before them; variegating the narrow emission, searching for any specks of data to provide answers. It was frustrating to see an anomalous auroral fluctuating off in the distance on the viewscreen yet remain in the dark as to its origin or composition. She looked despondently towards the center seat of the bridge.

“I’m sorry Sir,” she responded with an articulation of professionalism. “I am not receiving any new data on the phenomena ahead nor on the intermittent signals that we’ve detected.” 

''Ah... Lieutenant Snow... what... what is this?''

From the helm, Hansen pointed on the screen at something suddenly visible within the odd shimmering. it looked closer, denser and yet, strangely evanescent and distant. But it had a distinct circular shape with something seemingly sprouting ramrod straight under and behind it.

As Sabrina continued to monitor the sensor readings, she noticed something peculiar about the stars within the anomaly ahead. She rechecked her findings to confirm the results before addressing the commanding officer.

“Sir, the space in this area ahead appears to be fractured. In addition, the stars registering within that phenomena are not localized, they appear to be from a completely different spacetime location. I am trying to find a match in the databank, but so far there…” She froze mid-sentence as she gazed at what appeared to be a match.

“This may be a bit difficult to acknowledge, but our records indicate that this configuration match a position between this sector and sector 001… which currently is 94 light years from our present location.”

Then her eyes widened even further as she noted the stardate in accordant with the registry.

“Sir, this rift anomaly may be a portal to not only a different location in space, but also 248 standard years in our past!”

''A rift of some sort?'' wondered Snow outloud. ''Natural or artificial? Accidental or... deliberate?''

Continuing the scans Gunner worked hard to calibrate the sensors through interference. Treating the target as hostile gave him a few tricks he learned to get a weapon’s lock. The sensors were being bombarded, but certain images were coming through.

“Captain, I have something” Gunner exclaimed.

“The sensors are being bombarded with an abnormally high level of chroniton particles, which is causing massive interference.” Gunner reported.

Before anyone could say anything, Gunner continued his report in haste.

“The chroniton particles are rapidly decaying, which took a minute to calibrate through. I used the targeting sensors to get a more precise reading.”

Gunner continued to work with the sensors as the information poured in.

“The object we are detecting is approximately five hundred and twenty-six meters long and one hundred and twenty-eight meters high. The mass is three point seven million metric tons”

Back at the auxiliary station the console began beeping at Terix. The Romulan pulled his eyes away from the database and looked at the signal. His scanning program had a target!

"Lieutenant, I have a new contact" he said evenly as the computer began feeding him information "the computer has found something outside of our target area. It's a Federation transponder!" Terix almost jumped from his seat and moved back to the tactical 2 console so he could read the data directly "The computer has identified it,  registry number NCC-64121 USS...." the Romulan trailed off because he couldn't believe what he was reading. He looked up from the computer and directly at Lieutenant Snow "USS Artemis."

Looking up from the science station Sabrina was as equally astonished as her Romulan colleague. Then she glanced over at the Inuit woman serving temporarily in command as she spoke solemnly.

“As noted by the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes of early 20th century Earth, when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” 

She thought for a moment before elaborating.

“Even though it seemed improbable at the time Lieutenant, I did mention the Artemis as what seemed like an implausible source of the signals we were receiving earlier. However, with the shift in positioning of the stars indicating that we are peering through this rift into another century, perhaps what we are seeing is a version of this heavy cruiser crossing into our universe from around the 24th century.”

Sabrina looked around and could sense skepticism. Nevertheless, she continued as ideas continued to gel within her memory.

“According to Starfleet history, that vessel was presumed lost at the end of the Cardassian Wars, but it was rediscovered later hidden inside an abandoned secret asteroid base. Perhaps this ship could be its state between when it was lost and later found in the asteroid.”

"Or," Terix said recalling a temporal science basics course at the academy "perhaps a battle with the Cardassians created the rift. Large weapons discharges have been known to create varying temporal effects." 

Gunner worked through the tactical scans of what appeared to be the USS Artemis.

“Tactical scans complete Captain” Gunner reported.

“Their warp system appears to be offline. The reinforced duranium and tritanium ablative armor covers only fifty three percent of standard strategic areas. The structural integrity field shows one hundred and ten percent and their gravimetric shield system is reading forty seven percent”

Gunner continued

“Tactical systems show ten type x phaser arrays, but four are offline due to overheating. I am detecting one type five burst fire torpedo launchers both fore and aft with 45 quantum torpedoes still in their magazine. Of the twenty-six decks, nine are uninhabitable due to heavy damage and scans indicate that damage was caused by plasma detonations and disruptor fire.”

Working to concentrate scans for life, Gunner continued.

“Tactical sensors are also detecting three hundred and ninety-seven lifesigns, they are all very low and flickering however.”

Before he could continue the sensors beeped an alarm of an odd nature.

“There is also… wait that is odd. Their impulse power is at ninety four percent but is giving off a peculiar signature in a rapid and repeated on off pattern. There are no signs of malfunctions, so this feature would be deliberate.”

With concern laced within her voice, Sabrina gazed over at the mixed Klingon/Betazoid cadet as she inquired “That pattern that you are registering would not be a self-destruct sequence within the impulse engines would it?

"Recommend we back off," Terix said quickly "If that ship explodes we will have more than our dilithium crystals to worry about."

''Helm; modify trajectory beyond initial target point to bring us at a safe distance from a warp core breach,'' ordered Snow in clipped tones.

As the image swerved again to reflect the change in trajectory of the Alsea, the object within the shimmer of strange stars solidified into the blue-white shape of an Ambassador class starship of early 24th century, but obviously plated with state of the art armor and with a deflector dish and sensor dome that looked definitely early 25th century. Partly scratched as if by some gigantic space cat could be read the registry and name of the ship once heralded as the Stalwarth Guardian of the Federation.

''Lieutenant... I... I know this impulse pattern,'' Hansen said, his eyes wide. ''It's... it's the same as ours; this is the Sangliar Impulse Drive... the modified system developped for all Lotus Fleet ships to navigate the Azimuth Horizon anomaly.''

"That is nearly impossible," Terix stated "the Artemis was lost in battle according to the computer."

Sabrina gazed at the ambassador class vessel on the viewscreen with awe. She has studied its amazing fleet missions but could never phantom having an opportunity to actually see it intact positioned within range knowing the fate that occurred to the vessel. She focused her sensors onto what seemed like an aberration before them to see if she could detect life signs aboard. She then turned her eyes to the center seat.

“Attempting to register occupants or life signs aboard but I’m unable to penetrate their shields or something else is deflecting my scans.”

After trying unsuccessfully to scan the ship again, she gazed back and inquired, “Should we hail the ship, Captain?”  

''The local interference is blocking all channels,'' the holographic counselor answered. ''Even this close, the disaster beacon barely punches through... and it is designed to transmit even from the heart of an ion storm or the densest nebula on record.''

"There is one other possible explanation for this.." Terix ventured and then continued without waiting for acknowledgement "There are various encounters mentioned in the Starfleet database regarding the quote "mirror universe." It is something of note...though I don't believe the computer would have recorded the ship as our Artemis if that were the case." 

''If she was from the Terran Empire universe, her transponder and markings we see on the hull would then read I.S.S. Artemis; Imperial Star Ship, not U.S.S. Artemis,'' the half-betazoid counselor pointed out. ''However, the possibility that it could come from a parallel universe closer to ours than the Mirror Universe is plausible, given what we know of actual quantum realities.''

''Then it would have a different quantum signature, '' Snow reminded everyone. ''Wich would not have escaped your thorough scans,Cadet Shadowhunt. But you also pinpointed the spacetime discrepancy of this... area... and Cadet Gunner confirmed decaying chronitons...''

''But, Lieutenant, '' objected Hansen then, ''if this is the Artemis of Lotus Fleet, as it's impulse drive implies, if it was plucked out of the timeline like the Enterprise C had been, as Terix suggested, we should be aware of it no? What I recall of her fate is that it was reduced to it's saucer section when it was finally destroyed during Operation Horizon; not MIA; not whole as it is now.''

The Inuit woman sighted in obvious exasperation.

''Still no answers to hails?''

''Negative; and nothing else but the disaster beacon coming from them... barely, even this close,'' answered the hologram at her left.

''Then we'll have to go over there. Damn!''

The gruff, growling exclamation came from the turbolift as the Tellarite engineer stomped on the bridge, eyes on the space ghost floating in it's fog of stars. Big fists on wide hips, he stared at it for a long moment, truly like someone seeing a ghost. He sighed through his wide nostrils and looked at no one when he growled again.

''Who do we have as active top security and medical personel on board?''

Gunner had more security training than any cadet onboard, but he was still a cadet so he said nothing.

There was a short moment of silence before Snow answered.

''Ah, that would be me, Sir.''

He looked at her with his bushy eyebrows almost to his stout nose.

''Don't tell me this is Tuesday. ''

''Er, Sir... this was to be a short cadet cruise in close proximity to the starbase in Federation Space; we have four interns in sickbay field-tutored by the EMH... and eleven security people including Mister Gunner here... all cadets. The few noncoms we have are all in your engineering department, all the rest filled by EHOs. I'm... I'm the only officer on board with complete security training and fully cross-trained in emergency responses... Sir.''

Sangliar threw his thick hands in the air.

''Of course... Alright Snow, transporter room 1.'' 

''Beam over there, Sir?''

''Yes, Lieutenant; the annular confinement beam punches this... weird space unaltered as far as our testing shows. A sample organic transporter package went and came back unaltered, even if basic lock is sketchy at times. But we'll use a skeletal lock to make sure.''

''Sir, could we use such a lock to bring back...''

''Whatever is over there that we can't even identify? Not knowing if there is some unknown chemical or biological agent our transporter filters might fail to contain? Not bloody likely! We'll suit up and use transponder comm signals from our badges and tricorders to transmit audio and visual to the Alsea in real time, with signal amplifiers. We'll go there, assess the situation then proceed accordingly.''

He finally turned to address the cadets.

''Everyone else, you are needed at your post. YOU, sit there!''

He was pointing the captain's chair to Terix.

''You have one job; whatever it takes, keep this ship and this crew safe so that both can return to base. Don't go USS Valiant on me!''

Without even waiting for Terix to aknowledge, he then pointed to Gunner.

''You will be his XO. Lucky for us this is no combat situation, so that will make you useful at last.''

Gunner nodded.

He went back to the turbolift as he finished his orders to Sabrina and Lep, the only two other non-artificial lifeform on the bridge.

''You girl have a most important job; monitor the area and gather all info possible to find a way out of this space sargasso. And you, steerboy, make sure this ship doesn't capsize! With me Snow.''

The turbolift closed on her anxious face.

Terix stared at the closed turbolift doors as if expecting the Tellarite to reappear and fill the bridge with raucous laughter indicating he had pulled a cruel prank on them all. When that didn't happen the Romulan looked from the door to the vacant captain's chair and then at the faces around him on the bridge. As a Romulan, and having some of the old Romulan indoctrination still in his system, his first instinct was to suppress his anxiety at the orders he'd received. Unlike his Vulcan cousins however, he could not remain completely emotionless and he was sure that some of the trepidation he felt was probably quite transparent. For a long moment he stayed at the secondary tactical station before finally walking around the console and to the center of the circular bridge and seating himself in the command chair. He then turned to Gunner

"I would much prefer you remain at tactical and execute the commander's order to be my XO from there.  That may look like our formerly lost ally, but we do not know where they came from or who is in command. They could choose to fire on us at any minute. Mister Hansen, maintain our current position and advise of any helm trouble immediately. Cadet Shadowhunt, please immediately advise of any new information you uncover and any thoughts you might have on how to resolve our dilithium situation."

“Aye Sir” Gunner responded.

Sabrina leaned back in her chair for a moment as the events began to unfurl. She contemplated options as she kept her eyes fixated on the sensor readings. Moments slipped by as an idea began to sprout. She forced her attention away from her console and gazed at the Romulan nervously occupying the center seat.

“Until we resolve the depolarizing of our dillithium crystals, perhaps we could set up a method to shield them from whatever is causing this reaction to occur. If that does not solve the issue, we could remove and recrystallize some of the dilithium in sections.”

She looked around at the almost empty bridge for a few seconds before continuing.

“This way we could at least have warp drive available in case any other emergency situation arises.”

Terix nodded "It is at least something we can try. Work with Commander Sangliar's engineers from the bridge as best you can or perhaps our emergency hologram engineer could assist you."

Sabrina nodded as she swiftly created a few rough sketches then composed a message to the engineering department. Once completed she hailed the engineering department.