Norvek definately liked this Cardassian. It no longer mattered where he came from or from what universe spawned him, he liked him and admired his style.
Jayne is not impressed. Let Cyclops look after Norvek then. "We will speak to you when we damn well want to. We'll cooperate with you, but there's no way we're taking your orders." Lissa might be easy to throw aside, but she would be more difficult. Cooperation was fine, slavish acceptance of Cardassian authority didn't even make it onto her 'consider for the good of the group' list, never mind the 'good ideas' list.
Lissa picked herself up from the floor, never taking her eyes off of Morrain as she did so, now her jaw ached along with her neck but she resisted the impulse to rub either, not in front of Morrain, she would *not* give him the satisfaction. "That's telling him, Jayne." she said, then to Morrain, "Didn't you hear me before? I had six years of being ordered around by Cardies, never again. I am *through* taking orders from Cardies and *you* least of all!" she snarled, then turned back to Jayne. "I tried to tell you before, this is the *worst* of them all!"
Norvek was impressed with his new found friend Morrain, but this situation could not be tolerated if they were to get out of this whatever.
"Enough!! This is not going to get us anywhere. You human (referring to Lissa), unless you have anything constructive to say to the groups getting out of here just shut up. Your ranting is not going to help us any, so for the good of the group keep it to your self, and SHUT UP!! Now Morrain, tone the rhetoric down, this is not your Alliance. This is some kind of torturous, hellish, joke; and the only way that we are going to be able to get out of it is to work together, at least to get out of here. After that... well that is up to you. Now Commander Lunn you, me, and this other must stay out of their dispute. It would serve all of us better if we did. Don't you think??" Norvek put in.
Norvek's tone was rough and grating at first, but tempered with Morrain and the others. It even got almost pleasant with Lunn.
Jayne nodded. Norvek spoke sense, although agreeing with a Cardie was a new experience to her. "Yes. Or if you're going to kill each other, do it later. For now I suggest we all work on getting out of here and back to where we belong. Any idea, Jeffrey?" She turned to face Kirk.
Ellie's face had no expression at all. She didn't have the energy to hate the Cardassian properly. "Since we're not to speak to you," she said simply, "does that mean you're not interested in having a physician with cybernetic experience have a look at your useless prosthesis?" She found his eyes and wondered what he saw in hers. She wondered mostly what *was* in her eyes. "Because it's no skin off my nose either way," she said simply.
Lissa stared at the second Cardie...what had Morrain called him..."Norvek?"yes, that was it..."Didn't you hear me?" she snapped..."I *don't* take orders from *Cardies*!" she glared at Norvek as she said that..."as to getting out of here, that's something *he*" jabbing a finger at Morrain..."*won't* be doing, understood...as for *you*, Cardie, just stay out of the way or you'll get what he gets." Without waiting for a reply she turned and moved over to Jayne...she took a deep breath..."I'm ready to start looking if you are, but for your own sake *don't* trust him..."
Norvek replies, "If you insist on threatening me when I have done nothing to you, even in the slightest, I will make sure that you are not able to carry them out."
"You don't frighten me either, Cardie..." she snapped, then turned back to Jayne..."Shall we go?"
Norvek just ignored her, as she was not worth his time, even though he had plenty of it at the moment.
Morrain was puzzled. Why had Norvek undermined his authority here. He was from a different reaity, of course, and one that had a powerful Terran empire of some sort, despite being based on peace.
Was it possible that Terrans had abilities other than mining? Probably not, he decided, but most of these were soft, unable to coordinate themselves to kill him whilst they had the chance.
Then there was this 'doctor'. Perhaps... Morrain opened his mouth to reply to her, when the last, locked, door snapped open.
There was a bright white light, and a wave of heat. A humanoid body was flung through, followed by something other. It was dark against the light, a thick-limbed spider-like thing, with eight legs on the ground, a short abdomen aligned with the floor, and a vertical head/torso. It was also eight feet tall.
Lissa saw the new arrivals, but didn't move closer to them, it was more important to keep watch on Morrain...and this Norvek, too, she didn't know him but she didn't have to, he was another Cardie and therefore not to be trusted as far as she was concerned...she looked to Jayne, Jeffrey, Ellie, and the other woman...what had Ellie called her, McCaffrey? then back to Morrain, she'd watch *him* and see what happened next.
Norvek took 2 steps back when the thing exited. It was quite nasty looking, something you would find in an alley of a cardassian slum on a poor Cardassian Colony. However, as he was older and wiser than most he did not attack the beasty thing, but did try to geta look into the room to see what may be in there.
Past the thing, there was a corridor, and Norvek could see windows. However there was too much light for him to see through them from here.
Norvek stared a bit longer just to make sure that he could not make anything out that may be important. Then he turned his attention back to the group and the thing that they were now attacking.
"Get it!!" Kirk yells. "This may be our only chaance!!"
Lissa glanced momentarily at Morrain, then leapt to grab the thing even as Jeffrey also did.
Kirk and Kane got hold of the thing, a limb or two each. Quite what they intended to do was unclear at first.
"The rest of you, grab its other legs!"
It was warm, and it was hard to tell whether they were holding armour or an environment suit.
The creature took another step forward, then paused as if confused and surprised by the attack.
Then, as Kirk manged by brute force, to bend one of its legs off the floor, a phaser-like beam fired wildly from a bump on the carapace, gouging a hole from the corner Norvek was using for cover.
Norvek ducked as the shot came. When he stuck his head back up he quickly ducked again. Then he left his position and began to help the others with the thing or whatever it was.
Morrain grabbed Spauldings' arm, but not too hard, Terran or not, diplomacy was called for.
"I think you have about a minute to fix my arm. Please don't argue, it's strong and I have a plan."
Ellie felt for the access plates and began opening the arm. "If you ever raise this arm against me," she told him flatly, "I'll be very disappointed."
"I'll bear that in mind." Morrain said, without emotion.
Inside the arm, apart from the expected artificial musculature, neurotranslators and such, was a power cell, with its connections hanging free.
All it would take would be to plug the leads back in, and reseal the acces plate.
Ellie frowned at what she found. Perhaps they were making Cardassians dumber in his universe. She reached in with her petite little fingers and made the necessary connections, and tripped the reset button.
Something whirred, and the arm, and Morrain's artificial eye, came back to life.
With three of them on it, the creature (?) decided it was facing losing odds. It began to hobble backwards, occasionally, and ineffectually firing it's phasers.
A high-pitched trilling sound, an alarm of some kind, began. There appeared however to be no source for the sound.
***
Meanwhile, The thing was getting more violent in it's attempts to shake off its assailants. A sharp twist, and Lissa was forced to grab hold of something. Her handhold wrenched free, and even as she landed on her backside, she realised several things.
What she held was the phaser from the thing's carapace--and it seemed to be a type she could use. And she also had a clear shot at Morrain, who was preoccupied with his arm...
But the creature was turning towards her.
For all of several seconds she lay there catching her breath as the creature drew closer to her. And there was Morrain, an irresistible target as he was occupied with repairing his arm, but....no, not like this, it wasn't right this way. As much as she wanted Morrain dead, it had to be as she'd told Shiarrael, he had to *know* it was coming, from whom and why. And besides, even if she managed to get him, the creature could still finish her. Morrain was a known quantity, after all, where this...thing...was something else entirely.
All this passed through her mind in a split second, then she raised the phaser, aimed, and fired...
directly at the approaching spider-thing.
The phaser emptied itself into its former owner, disintegrating it in a blinding flash. A blast of foul, chemical smelling hot air, like rock dust in the desert blew Kirk, Norvek and Lissa back several feet.
Norvek landed outside the door, in a deserted corridor with picture- windows along one side. Then, free of any obstruction, the door began to close.
Morrain dived across the floor before Ellie even realised he was moving, and jammed his artificial arm under the door just before it shut. To his relief, the door did not crush the prosthesis, and he began working it into a position where he could lift the door without tearing his arm off.
Through the windows in the corridor, Norvek could see a graveyard of ships. There were a few he recognised, a constitution class ship whose scarred lettering read Def-something, a Klingon D7, an ancient Cardassian ship he had read about once. And many more that were unrecognisable in whole or in part.
Some were half destroyed, like the Klingon ship, some seemed pristine, like a saucer shaped vessel nearby, 'HMS Awesome' stencilled across her hull in Human lettering.
To his relief, the door did not crush the prosthesis, and he began working it into a position where he could lift the door without tearing his arm off.
And amongst these derelicts, like shepherds, dark, triangular ships moved, sometimes invisible except when they passed in front of the oblate, angry planet below.
Even its night side glowed redly with volcanic fires, and one of the dark ships seemed to be headed to the surface.
Lissa stared at the array of ships opemmouthed, she'd never seen so many all at once, and wondered what it could mean. Then a horrible idea struck her..."Those ships out there...and *we're* here..." she paused for a moment, looking around at the others. "do any of you see whatever you're from out there?" she strained to see if she could pick out her escape pod in the assemblage.
Jayne was fascinated. She'd never seen such an assemblage of ships before. So many different technologies, so many different designs. But they were all ships, no sigh of the starbase she had come from. "No sign of my starbase, I'm afraid."
"You won't find the ship you came from." Morrain stated, as he stood up. "The vessel that brought us here from the battle was too small."
Lissa looked at the other Terrans...Jeffrey...Ellie...and McCaffrey..."What about the rest of you...anaything you recognize out there?"
She scanned the assortment again, still hoping for a glimpse of *something* familiar.
As soon as he regained his senses, Kirk rushed over to help Morrain with the door.
His arm whined in protest, but with Kirk's help, the door rose to about 18 inches off the floor. There it jammed and point-blank refused to budge up or, more fortunately, down.
Morrain scrambled through.
"Hey Norvek, is there a switch for this door on your side?", shouted Kirk at the door, hoping that Norvek could hear him.
Lissa stared at Morrain, pure hatred blazing in her eyes, her fingers tensed on the alien's phaser she still held and it was only by closing her eyes and counting silently to ten that she managed to keep herself from shooting him where he stood. When she opened them again and spoke, the voice was pure ice. "Too small...?? You mean you actually *saw*..." she shook her head. "No, I won't ask why you didn't say anything," she muttered to herself. "I know you better than *that*."
"Actually, I did mention something. But since no-one seemed interested, I decided you didn't want to know."
She clutched at the phaser, with effort keeping herself from raising it towards him. "Your days are already numbered, Morrain, don't tempt me to make them any less. " she snarled. "And if there's *anything* you can tell us better do it now before I lose my grip on this."
Morrain turned to Kirk and Norvek, "Can you believe this? I'm being threatened by a child with an empty phaser."
Norvek laughed slightly, but noticeably.
Lissa did a double take...empty? the thing hadn't been empty a few minutes ago. "I don't think you want to test that, Morrain, because if I do, it'll be you who's the guinea pig...now start talking..."
"Now, I recommend we take one of those ships..and I recommend...that one!" He was pointing directly at the HMS Awesome.
Norvek thought then said, "Then we do what with the ship? Just get out of here sounds like a good idea, but just how do we do that?"
Lissa kept hold of the phaser, and nodded, glancing momentariyly to the ship, then back at Morrain and the others...she'd watch *him*, and go along with whatever the others did.
Morrain looked back at the phaser-armed Terran. "There are blinking lights on that weapon which suggest to me that you discharged all of it into the alien. Now if you really want to shoot me, do it." He spread his arms. "But I'm telling you that the gun is empty, and it is time we were off."
Lissa bit her lip...she wanted to, oh how she wanted to, she'd waited years to be this close to him but now..."I don't believe a word you're saying about this," she waved the phaser slightly, "but that doesn't matter. I don't need a phaser to kill you but I'll wait till we get out of here. Just remember this, one way or another, you are dead, remember what I told you, as far as you're concerned my name is Death." with that she looked to Jayne and Jeffrey. "Let's go, shall we...?"
Keeping an eye on Morrain, she moved to follow Jeffrey. "And one more thing, Morrain. Don't you *ever* call me a child again. You're the last person in our universe who has the right to do that. I stopped being a child the day we first met. Even though you don't remember, I do." and with that she moved over to Jeffrey. "I'll help you look." she said to him."As for him, I won't keep talking about it if it bother's you so much, but it's for your own sake and everyone else here. *Don't trust him*..."
Kirk whispered to Lissa, "of course I don't trust him he's a Cardassian, I have noticed. But you've put him on his guard, and made him even more of a threat to us all. He'll betray us as soon as he can, beacause you've convinced him we'll do the same."
Kirk and Lissa moved down the corridor looking for methods of transportation.
Around the next corner, in an alcove, was an irregular platform with a control panels of sorts set into the wall. The graphical user interface seemed relativeley intuitive, and seemed to indicate a transportation device.
Most of the other panels showed some empty cells with their doors open. Cells which looked remarkable familiar. One showed a large room where four of the alien things guarded several hundred humans.
From faces amongst the crowd, Lissa realised they had all come from the back end of the Indomitable.
Lissa did a double take as she saw the crowd of humans, and recognized at least some of the faces.
"Jeffrey..." she whispered."Those people...remember my telling you that I was from a ship we'd stolen from the Cardies? There was a firefight with them, the damage forced us to separate the ship." she took a deep breath. "Those people were on the section that we had to leave behind, we thought it'd blown up." she paused again..."And just FYI, Morrain was in command of the tac pursuit they'd sent after us...though as you may have guessed he and I go back a lot further than that.." she sighed..."What do you think we should do, those poor people don't belong here any more than we do..."
Lissa joined Jeffrey in checking out the transporter panel as he asked..."Now, how do we get a lock on?"
"It can't be that different from the transporters either of us know, can it? I mean, physics is physics, right?" she sounded uncertain.
"Physics is physics, but transporters have a variety of different formats." announced Jayne coming up behind them. "I spent a while as transporter chief on SB15. Let me see that." Admittedly with a number of non-coms under her to do a lot of the work, but she still had to be able to do everything herself. She prided herself on never requiring anyone under her command to do something she couldn't.
She edged between them and examined the controls.
The transporters are fairly lucid as to their operation, most of the icons make sense. However, the location coordinate system is not clear at all. Some unusual variables seem to be in the system. The principle this thing uses is not discernable, but there is one icon which looks a bit like a subspace stress diagram for a wormhole.
'Hmm...' Jayne thought. 'If I didn't know better I'd say that this was a trans-dimensional transporter. But I don't know better, and we are all from different universes, as are those ships.' She looked up from the console and at the people around her. "I think that this transporter will get us all back to our own realities. It seems to generate the appropriate wormholes to send people through." The look of hope in peoples' eyes was not lost on her.
She took a deep breath. "I'll try to get you all home."
The alarm (which has been going for a while) changed pitch, became louder, more insistent.
"But how can you be sure where anyone who goes thru that will end up?" Lissa asked."What I mean is, this thing might put us back in our proper universes, but we could end up floating in space there."
"You could try getting into a couple of those ships over there." Jayne turned to Jeffrey. "If you can get everyone into the appropriate ship, I'll try to get everyone back to their appropriate universes. While you're capturing the ships, I'll have time to work out exactly how to do it." She smiled softly. "At the worst, you'll end up in the wrong universe, but at least they won't be torturing you again."
"I'd say we go for it," Lissa said to Jayne, then looked at Jeffrey. "Let's get started, shall we?"
She paused, looked back at Jayne for a moment...""Look...if I don't see you again, and you get back, could you find 'Gatha and get a message to her for me? tell her I said hi and hope she's doing ok." she paused for a moment. "I don't know if you would know her, she's the--I mean, she came from my universe but stayed in yours."
Jayne nodded, "If I see her, I'll tell her." Inwardly she doubted that she would see her own universe again, but how had Ambassador Spock put it? The needs of the many outweight the needs of the few? Something like that, anyway. Her expertise made her the logical choice to stay. Besides, she still had to see that Norvek got back. That stuck in her craw a little, that she was saving Cardassian lives as well, but Norvek was okay really, for a Cardie.
While she waited for Jeffrey to decide what they would do as far as getting to the ships, she looked back over at each of the others first McCaffrey then Spaulding then Norvek and last, but by no means least, Morrain.
It really bothered her that she hadn't been able to finish him off before now. She sighed and looked back to Jayne. "I just wish we didn't *all* have to go back," she said in a low voice, catching Jayne's eye with a meaningful look towards Morrain. "You don't understand, none of you do, it's not just cause he's a Cardie!" she bit her lip as the frustration, the old, old pain, threatened to surge up within her again and she couldn't let it, not here, not now.
"Just go get to a ship, dammit!" Jayne was poring over the control again, working out what did what. The main controls were easy enough, she just had to get to grips with that one odd set there, and she thought she had an idea about those. Now she'd made the decision, she just wanted to get on with it.
Morrain recognised the signs. He had seen them before. Never in a Terran, but he had seen Cardassians, even Klingons, come to the conclusion that they had to die for the 'greater good'. It was something he didn't really understand. The transporter program which had got him off the Rocinante seconds before it blew, was part of his life's philosophy. If he died, how could he protect the Alliance?
Lissa pulled herself together, nodded to Jayne, then took another look at the array of ships, trying to get an idea of what would be the shortest, safest, route to take to get to the Awesome.
Lissa was trying to work out how to get to a ship. But Morrain already knew. He stepped up to the transporter panel, studied it for a moment, and began tapping rapidly at the controls with his artificial hand.
Jayne started to protest, then watched. Of course. It was that simple.
Then he stepped onto the platform, and vanished in a flash of bright light.
Seconds after he disappeared, a concealed door at the end of the corridor opened, to admit three of their alien captors.
"On to the pad, all of you! NOW!" She ordered, prepping the system to send them to the ship.
Lissa glanced to Jayne, then saw the new arrivals and didn't waste any time. She leapt for the pad.
Kirk was quick behind her. "Get us out of here quick Jayne!"
Jayne heard the door behind her, the incoming aliens coming toward her and the fleeing crew. Jeffrey, Lissa, Norvek, McCaffrey and the others from the Stargazer... she had to get a message to the Admiral, and Norvek was her only chance. "Ambassador, tell the Admiral that the Stargazer's okay. And good luck, all of you."
Norvek replied, "You can count on it Commander. I will give her that message." His tone was formal and friendly, with just a touch of sorrow.
The creatures at the end of the corridor began scuttling towards the escapees. All seemed to be armed with phaser-like weapons, just as the other had been. They advanced, firing.
She stabbed the final control and the people before her disappeared in a flash.
At the last moment, a stray blast hit the transporter, blowing a large hole straight through it. All the monitors went dead, and a hum, barely noticeable up till now, faded away, its tone dropping as it did so.
The surge ran into the transporter beam, stunning the others for a few moments. As they arrived on the Awesome, Morrain was already working feverishly to activate the vessel.
A final run of teh fingers acros the controls and she scrambled the coordinates. It might not slow them down much, but even a few seconds delay might help her erstwhile comrades. With that, she turned to face her incoming captors...
"SURRENDER." something said, though the voice was directionless, sourceless.
"YOU CANNOT ESCAPE."
//Neither can you!// The voice was metallic, coming through some remote broadcast system.
What were probably the heads of the three aliens turned as one to look out of the window.
HMS Awesome rose into view, a baleful red light glowing within her massive phaser emitters.
Jayne held her breath, waiting for the burning pain that would, hopefully, kill her. After her memories of being the prisoner of these creatures that was by far her preferred option.
An almost familiar sensation took hold, and Jayne was beamed aboard the stolen ship.
The others were just getting to their feet. Morrain, sitting at the all-in-one helm/navigation/weapons console towards the front of the bridge, shut down the transporter, and shrugged.
"No escape." he said, and fired the phasers.
Norvek says to the group but especially to Jayne, "I believe that you will be able to deliever the message yourself, Commander."
The first noise to escape Jayne was a quiet 'mew' as she realised what had happened, that she was alive. Alive, free, and relatively safe. She stood for a few seconds, taking it all in. "Thank you, ambassador." she replied, almost automatically.
Lissa was slightlly relieved to find herself aboard the ship, and glad that the others had also made it. Well, most of them, anyway, it still galled her that Morrain had managed to survive no matter what happened.
But perhaps it was better this way, now she still had a chance to do what she'd promised herself she would so long ago. Though she couldn't help but wonder *when* she'd get another chance, now was not the time or none of them would make it back. She sighed and walked over to Jayne. "Glad we didn't lose you back there."
'Pull yourself together. You're still not out of it yet' she thought to herself, closing her eyes and centring herself before opening them again. "So am I," she replied with a slight smile, "so am I."
Ise Morrain had been pleasantly surprised by the Awesome. He had chosen it for several reasons. It had looked intact, he could read the writing on the hull, and therefore inside, and it had a sleek predatory look about it that he appreciated.
If Terrans could build ships like this in another universe, then they might be respectable after all. It seemed that most of the other- universe crew on board were from such a universe, and as such, he was quite keen to keep them there. The Indomitable had been a powerful ship indeed, but the Terrans who stole it were surely incapable of building anything like it.
"Well, now we've stolen a ship, what do we do with it?" he asked offhandedly.
Outside, three of the dark ships were suddely paying more attention to the 'derelict' ships.
Kirk quickly scanned the consoles to get an idea of what this ship was capable of.
The Awesome had been named well. It looked to be fairly autonomous, and probably only required a crew of twelve to operate. It wasn't as fast as some ships, topping out at 12.5, but seemed to be immensely manouverable. Acccording to the information Morrain was scrolling across the main viewer, it could out-turn any Cap-ship Kirk had ever seen.
In terms of weapons, it carried no torpedoes at all, but was armed with two 10m and two 15m phaser cannons mounted onto the keel.
"We need to get moving," Kirk moved to the helm controls, "Lissa man the sensors, I need to know everything I can about those ships, Jayne see if you can pick anything up on comms." Kirk left Morrain at the tactical console, he seemed happy there.
"The rest of you, find something useful to do."
"Aye, sir." Jayne slid into the seat at Ops, glad of something to do, glad to get back to something resembling normality. Her response to Jeffrey was instinctive, rather than intentional. She scanned the console in front of her and, recognising the subspace channel scanner, started scanning for comms traffic.
Plenty of communications were going on between the starbase they had just escaped, and the dark ships approaching them. Presumably they were setting up an attack, but it was all encrypted. Apart from that there was a background radio hum or some sort.
Lissa nodded to Jeffrey, then cut a sidelong glance at Morrain at the tactical station. *That* was something she did *not* like at all, *when* was she going to get another chance at him, and why couldn't the others see just how dangerous he was to have around? She sighed, and with effort forced her attention to the sensor console, taking a few moments to see if it was in any configuration she recognized.
Pleased with what he saw Kirk brought the Awesome about and moved her off into the thick of the derelict ships to gain some cover.
"Let's see how manoeuvrable they are," the Awesome dove down between a wrecked Ferengi Marauder and some unknown spherical craft.
The Dark ships were manouverable enough, but only at speeds significantly slower than the Awesome. Like a Footwork-Hart chasing a Williams, they were dropping back, unable to make the pace.
"Lissa, I need a large ship nearby, find one!"
Lissa nodded and bent over the sensors, scanning the assembled ships for anything of the size they'd need...
A subtle, immediately noticeable alarm went off on the bridge. Morrain took a few moments to locate the problem. It was some kind of spatial anomaly...
A nearby section of space was rudely dragged off to infinity as a massive gravity funnel opened. Blue light spilled out, followed quickly by a large vessel, the 'Act of God'.
Morrain turned to look at Kirk. "That big enough for you?"
Lissa looked up from her scanning to see the new ship...
Roughly... 3,000m long by 2,550m wide by 1,150m high. The model is still under construction...
The gravity funnel, looked strangely familiar to Kirk, much like the effect the new dimension jump drive was intended to have. This might be their one and only opportunity to escape, and Kirk wasn't going to waste it. "Forget that, we're going down that funnel!"
"It does seem to be occupied right now." Morrain pointed out.
Lissa whirled to face Jeffrey.."What're you *doing*...we can't leave those people with those--those *things*.." she leapt quickly to try and stop Jeffrey but didn't get within reach of him before...
"Jayne was dealing with them, ask her!"
Kirk banked the Awesome round and dodged round the Act of God, and went full speed for the funnel.
As the stolen ship headed for the funnel, and left the debris field, two of the dark triangular ships managed to improve their pursuit. In addition, the 'Act of God' fired two of it's web-spitters at the fleeing ship.
Some deft manouvering from both Kirk and Morrain evaded the webs, and a tight dodge sent them screaming into the funnel, with a short period of flight along the large notch at the back of the huge flagship.
One of the pursuing ships failed to manouver in time, and with the AoG unable to decelerate any faster, smashed to tiny pieces on the nose of the bigger ship.
"I got them all off. They're on this ship's rec decks." Jayne confirmed without her eyes leaving the Ops boards. "I was the last off."
With fractions of a second to spare, the Awesome entered some kind of hyperspace, then the funnel closed, sealing off their pursuers. For now at least.
'Where next?' Jayne now wondered. The chances of this seemingly-random encounter throwing them back into her universe seemed frighteningly slim. Perhaps now was the time to see if the million-to-one-chance did indeed happen nine times out of ten.
Lissa took a second to murmur a soft "thank you" to Jayne, then turned back to the sensor console. "Let's find out." she began working the scanners. "I'll see what I can get about...*wherever* this is."
This 'space' is very odd, There are rapid fluctuations in the quantum signiatures of the small particles of dust present here. This indicates that these dust particles come from different universes.
However, there seems to be some affinity between a dust mote and a particular spot in space, so much so that those particles, when disturbed by the Awesome's passing, quickly resume their former positions.
The sensors are picking up one, particularly dense cluster of particles, all with the same signiature as Lissa and Morrain.
"Hmmm...." she glanced at Morrain for a moment.
Morrain seemed to be investigating the ship's computers, probably trying to find out what it could, and couldn't do.
Then she turned to Jeffrey. "Take us closer to *that*." she indicated the position on the screen..."there's something large there, and I have a feeling about what it might be, or at least where it's from. It's showing the same signature as the two of us..." she indicated herself and Morrain. "I want to see if we can get more exact reading on what it is besides dust particles."
"Okay, I'll bring us in closer, but slowly," replied Kirk. What Lissa was descibing sounded familiar. Kirk wished he had been a little more careful when he was reading the technical specs for the Dimension Jump drive. If only he could remember...
The Awesome slowly drifted towards Lissa's spot.
Then Kirk remembered... when a vessel opened up a dimensional wormhole, and went in, it would take minute particles of dust from the interstellar medium in in its 'wake'. Fuchida's theory said that any matter free to move in this 'space' would drift to a point congruent with it's universe of origin.
Of course, only a few grains would actually break free form the gravity of each ship...
"Could someone find a tricorder so we can check each others quantum signatures?"
"If there's one around here." Lissa replied, and looked around for any equipment storage compartments that might be nearby.
Indeed the bridge is liberally strewn with storage compartments, tricorders, palm beacons, communicators, but the phaser cupboard appears to be empty.
The tricorders are standard enough in function, but are styled to be operable by one hand. The case is indented to be gripped by the left hand, with buttons under each fingertip.
Jayne guessed what was coming next. If they could identify everyone's trace, they could get everyone back. More tricky transporter work, she suspected. An idea began to grow in her mind...
The Stargazer moved away from the wormhole to help protect herself and her away teams. The William Wallace moved along side as ordered to await what happens next.
But wait, there's
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This way to get back home
