Star Trek Outwardly Mobile
Receeding to Infinity
By
Jay P. Hailey
and
Dennnis Washburn
"Report." I said as I entered the Bridge.
Mendez looked at me with haunted eyes. "We're receiving a distress call."
"On screen." I replied.
"It's audio only." Stephanie said. "Putting it on audio."
The sound of static filled the bridge. A familiar voice said "This is the USS Discovery with an urgent distress call. Will any ship within the sound of my voice please respond. This is the USS Discovery with an urgent distress call..."
"It just repeats from there." Stephanie said.
I looked at Mendez. "Do you recognize that voice?"
He nodded. "It's you, Captain."
I had a sincere case of the willies. "Authenticate that signal." I said to Stephanie.
"It's authentic, Captain. The embedded codes check." Stephanie said. She sounded calm and matter of fact. I wondered how she could manage it. "The time code checks out five hours in the future."
My mind whirled. Either it was some extremely accurate forgery, or in the next five hours we would run into some trouble with time travel.
Could I do anything to avoid it? Was the Discovery innocently chugging to her doom? I didn't know the answers but I knew that the other Discovery might, assuming it wasn't something else entirely..
I had been drilled since my days as a cadet about the dangers of time travel. It was considered a top priority to avoid contaminating the time line. The presence of people from other times often had chaotic effects on history, and the results were still not well understood.
My standing orders required me to avoid a Discovery from the future. However, my most important standing orders were to safeguard life as a whole, The Federation and Federation citizens, and the welfare of my crew, in that order.
Besides, I was desperately curious about what the other Discovery had run into, if that's what was really going on.
"Range to the distressed ship?" I asked.
"One hour at maximum warp, Captain." Spaat replied.
"Set your course and engage." I said. "Open a hailing frequency."
"Frequency open, Captain." Stephanie said.
"This is the USS Discovery. We are responding to your call." I said.
There was no reply.
-*-
An hour later the Discovery dropped out of warp. We had been calling the entire time we were racing to the scene but there had been no reply.
The battered form of a Galaxy class starship hung on our screen.
"Captain, I recommend that we hold a good distance away from that ship." Kamaline said.
"How much?" I asked.
Kamaline looked thoughtful. "That would hard to say. One hundred kilometers or more would be nice."
"All right." I said "Mr Spaat hold a one hundred kilometer separation from that ship."
"Aye, Sir." Spaat said.
"What's the reason for the separation, Lieutenant?" Mendez asked.
Kamaline activated a control on her science panel. The picture of the other starship was surrounded by brightly colored computer graphics portraying some sort of energy field around her.
"That ship is embedded in a dimensional interphase, Commander." Kamaline reported. "It's unstable and very energetic. That may be why they weren't answering our hails. The field is also jamming subspace pretty thoroughly."
"Hmmm." I said. "Can you adapt the sensors to counter act the field?"
Kamaline nodded. "The more we read the interphase the better we'll be able to see through it."
"Okay. Let me know when you can send a sensor beam or a communications beam through it. Lucas, please scan that ship with the passive sensors. The dimensional interphase doesn't seem to be affecting visible light too badly." I said.
"Aye, Sir." McCoy replied.
The view of the other ship zoomed in and we could start making out some details. I was wrong about the interphase affecting visible light. The image swam in rainbow patterned interference. We could see large details and occasionally a small detail would swim into view, only to be obscured before we could really see it. One detail at was plain to us was the lettering on the outside of the hull. "USS Discovery NCC 71801"
We could see all sorts of odd damage, too. Hull plate buckling, a couple of compartments were opened to vacuum, and the lights aboard seemed to be flickering.
Fifteen minutes later Kamaline reported her results. "I am beginning to be able to get scans through, now Captain."
"Go ahead and start scanning." I said. "Can we get a communications beam through?"
Kamaline nodded "Yes, Sir."
"Hail them, Stephanie." I said.
"Hailing frequencies open." Steophanie said. "This is the USS Discovery to... USS Discovery. Please respond. This is the USS Discovery hailing, please respond."
We waited but there was no reply.
Several minutes later, Kamaline said. "I have completed my first scanning pass."
"Any life forms?" I asked.
"I can't get that level of detail, yet Captain." Kamaline said.
"What can you tell us of that dimensional interphase?" Mendez asked.
"I have no idea where it came from or what's causing it. I know that it's centered on the other Discovery and conditions inside are pretty harsh. There are radiation fluxes and gravity waves being spontaneously generated inside the interphase. It seems to have already damaged the other Discovery pretty badly. I can make out stress damage to the hull, the spaceframe has been warped in places, and the power systems are doing something pretty odd." Kamaline reported. "Over all that Discovery is in bad shape."
I thought about it for a moment. "Lucas, can you get enough of a data channel to access the other Discovery's computer?"
"I can try, Sir." McCoy said he began entering commands.
A few moments later he said. "The other Discovery's main computer is down, and the communications system is badly damaged. I can reroute but it'll take a while."
"Please do. I want to find out what happened to those people." I said.
"Before it happens to us?" Mendez asked.
"You betcha." I replied grimly.
-*-
Our investigation stalled at the point. We couldn't get any better sensor resolution. We couldn't raise anyone on the other ship. We couldn't find out why the other Discovery was stuck in dimensional interphase, or even exactly what that strange phenomenon entailed.
"Can I beam over to that ship?" I asked.
"I *don't* recommend it. " Mendez said immediately.
Kamaline shook her head, "There's no way to punch a transporter beam through that interference, Captain, let alone, safely."
"I don't suppose a shuttlecraft could make it." I said dubiously.
"Actually, that's not as big a problem as the transporter." Kamaline said. "The gravity waves pose a serious threat to the Discovery because she's so big that the wave doesn't affect all parts of her at once. But a shuttle craft should be able to ride the out much more easily. I don't know how accurately you could pilot through the waves, but the shuttle should be able to stay in one piece."
I nodded. "Okay. Then a shuttlecraft it is."
Mendez stayed calm with effort. "Why do you want to go over there, Captain?"
I looked at him, I could feel an odd look crawl across my face. "I have to know what that other Captain Hailey did. I have to try and see if I can make it right. Next of all, maybe we can help them out? This time it is us who need the rescuing. Who better than us to provide it?"
Mendez shook his head. "I don't think you should go. But if you feel you must, then that's it's isn't it?"
"It's just something that I have to do, Carlos."
-*-
I took Stephanie, Dr Burlington and Lieutenant Gravas with me.
The trip to the edge of the interphase was uneventful. But when we hit the edge the shuttle craft tumbled and spun. The intertial compensators held, but it made me a little dizzy and sick to see the stars and the two small points of light that marked the two starships spinning around in front of the viewports like that.
Stephanie wrestled with the shuttlecraft gamely. She kept her eyes off the spinning stars and focused down on her instrument panel.
Eventually the shuttle craft recovered and we proceeded. The small engineering panel in front of me reported that the engines and power systems of the shuttlecraft were maxed out. It's small shields were also maxed out but holding.
I could feel in my brain and in my bones the rainbow swirl distortion. It was not a comfortable feeling. My thoughts would slip or get distorted or be colored by... something. I couldn't define exactly what the effect was exactly but I knew it was unpleasant.
Our comm system lit up and a very distorted call came through.
"Discovery to Piper, Come in!" It was our Discovery.
"Discovery this is shuttlecraft Piper, go ahead." I replied.
"Captain, I have some bad news." Commander Mendez reported "When you penetrated the dimensional interphase, it expanded suddenly."
I was not having a good day. "What? What's your status?"
"We're inside the interphase now. We're holding on, but eventually we will have to retreat, or risk damage to the Discovery."
"Don't risk it. Get out of the interphase area now. We'll fly out to meet
you when we're done.
"Aye Sir."
Stephanie was getting the shuttlecraft slowly but sure to follow her lead. The commsystem lit up again.
"Discovery to Piper."
"Hailey here. Go ahead."
Mendez sounded grim. "The gravitational waves are too intense for our warp drive. They are too strong for the Impulse drive. We're stuck."
I took a deep breath. "Take every measure you reasonably can to free the Discovery, Commander. I have a feeling that the answers to all this are on that other ship. We'll continue our mission and report what we find." I said.
"What if you can't escape the interphase once we're out, Captain?" Mendez asked pointedly.
"Then you can say 'I told you so'." I said. "If we remain trapped in the interphase, then take the Discovery home, Carlos. Piper out."
We crept up on the other Discovery. She looked bad. Now that we knew what was happening to her we could see where the gravitational waves were slowly but surely tearing the ship apart. Her structural integrity fields were mostly holding, but that wouldn't last forever. Unless we could discover the reason for the dimensional interphase and end it, then this Discovery was doomed.
We docked to the exterior port behind the main bridge. It was one of the few times I had ever seen the Discovery from that angle and it was nice. Except that this wasn't my Discovery. I could see that things were subtly wrong in the main briefing room as we passed over it to the docking port, but I couldn't see exactly what.
We docked and the atmosphere inside the other Discovery scanned good. I opened the hatch and stepped through into the USS Discovery.
We walked through the reception lounge. I called "Hello? Anyone home?" There was no answer.
There was a plant in the reception lounge. The plant had been violently yanked out of it's pot, crushed and thrown against the forward bulkhead. There was dirt scattered along the bottom of the bulkhead.
We went forward into the Bridge.
It was a scene of horror. The entire front of the bridge was coated with blood. The smell was awful. In a heap at the angle where the deck met the bulkhead there was... stuff. Gore. Wreckage. Lots and lots of blood and guts. Intermingled with it there was skin, hair and Starfleet uniforms.
Gravas looked grim "Not good."
Stephanie looked somewhat green. "My sentiments exactly."
Gravas explained "Failure of the intertial dampeners."
"Is that what happened?" I asked. Now that he mentioned it, that was what it was supposed to look like.
"I saw something like it before. A very primitive and ugly ship. The beings inside looked the same." Gravas said.
My stomache was dancing. "Let's get to work shall we? Stephanie, you go ahead and try to get the com system back on line so that our Discovery can download the logs of this one. Dr. Burlington, if you'd please go to sick bay and look for the chief medical officers notes. gravas, please go to engineering and see if you can stabilize this Discovery's power systems. If you find anyone living, tell them Captain Hailey wants them on... in the main briefing room."
"Aye, Sir." Stephanie said. They went to the main turbo lift. It refused to open for them.
"Computer, status of the turbo lifts?" I called. There was no answer.
"I guess it's down." Dr. Burlington said. "Joy."
So they exited through the back of the bridge where the stairs were. Crawling around the Discovery was going to take awhile. I got to work on the bridge. About five minutes into trying to revive the main computer, I got a serious case of the willies. I couldn't concentrate well with the... stuff behind me. Was that me? Commander Mendez? Kamaline? Squished to pulp and lying just behind me. I went into the ready room and began to work in there.
Despite the failure of the inertial dampeners, the plumbing in the head worked fine. And when I finished throwing up I was able to mostly concentrate on my task.
The desk swayed from time to time as gravitational waves passed. The inertial dampeners had reset and were not being seriously taxed and so it looked they would hold, at least on the bridge. Then I got to work on the main computer.
The internal communications system, the internal data network was compromised beyond anything I had ever seen outside of simulations. It was cut in many places. I couldn't tell how without going and inspecting manually, but it seemed like a lot of it was damaged. Other parts were locked off with several lockout codes. My over ride code worked in this Discovery and eventually I was able to reroute enough of the system to get it almost working.
I activated the intership address. "Attention. This is the Captain. Anyone not of the Piper's crew please report to the main briefing room."
I keyed the internal sensor system and scanned for life forms. There were plants and animals, but no people.
Briefly I turned to the Engineering section. The structural integrity fields were failing. But the power systems were running at about seventy five percent of maximum power but most of the energy was being channeled back into the power system. I was able to activate secondary power systems and stabilize this Discovery a little more.
Then I turned to the toughest job. Trying to recover the captain's logs. Two of the three main computers simply didn't appear. No signal in response. The third backup computer was of a non-standard design. It was slow coming on line and was badly scrambled when it did. Some one had been systematically damaging it's programing. I tried to begin a recovery program but it was balking me. I am not the best programmer around but I can manage when I really have to. Untangling the tertiary computer helped me take my mind off the carnage on the bridge. Besides I was now about desperate to find out what mistakes that other Hailey had made.
Then the commsystem chimed. It was Doctor Burlington. "Captain I need to see you in the main sickbay."
"What is it, Doctor?" I asked.
"There is something down here that I think you should see." Doctor Burlington sounded badly rattled.
"I'm on my way." I said. I saved the basics of my work to my tricorder and began the long walk to the main sickbay.
Down the stairs to deck seven. I almost tripped over a body. It was ensign Calloway. Her head had been beaten in with a length of conduit. My stomache began dancing again. Who would want to do that to Ensign Calloway?
When I got to Deck seven.I walked out of the stairwell to another scene of horror. Bodies were scattered along the deck. Some were bashed, some were burned and some were stabbed. They were all the crew of the Discovery.
There was the characteristic smell of ozone and cooked flesh in the air that marks a phaser fight.
Grimly I marched to sickbay. Inside it was a similar scene of horror. There were dead bodies on the tables, some held down by force fields. The medical crew and others from different departments were scattered around the deck murdered violently.
"Oh, Ghod." I said.
Dr. Burlington stepped out of the Chief Medical Officer's office. She was grey. "I found out what happened." She said.
"What?" I asked.
"The interphase has a damaging effect on people's minds. If exposed or too long they experience hallucinations, disorientation and eventually violent paranoia, leads to... this." She explained.
"How long have we got?" I asked.
"Two hours, maybe a little more." She said "But this Doctor Burlington found a treatment."
"Really? Then why didn't she use it?"
"Come here and see." Dr Burlington said.
I went to the CMO's office. There at the desk was Doctor Burlington again. But this one had a medical probe stuck through her head, pinning her to the desk.
"Ugh." I said. I turned and began looking for the sickbay's head. I almost made it before I was throwing up again.
"Do you always have that reaction to dead bodies?" Doctor Burlington asked me, with a forced casualness.
"No." I grated. "Only ones that I know. Can you use this Doctor's treatment for us?"
"I think so. But it's only temporary. The real cure is to get the hell out of the interphase." Doctor Burlington said.
"I am beginning to agree with you."
"Better late then never, I guess." She walked over to the medical replicator. It was dark. "There's no power to this. Can you do something about it?"
I looked around and there was crewman Wu with a phaser in his out stretched hand. I picked up the phaser. It still held half a charge. I walked over to medical replicator and wired it into the power leads.
"That ought to give you about four passes before it's done." I said.
Doctor Burlington said nothing to me. She immediately loaded the information off the medical PADD into the replicator and got to work.
The comm system chimed again. It was Gravas. "Captain, there is a serious situation in Main Engineering that requires your attention."
'What is it?" I asked, not relishing the trip down twenty nine more decks.
"I believe it is the source of the interphase." Gravas said, "but I can not understand it."
I rolled my eyes. "I'll be there as soon as I can."
Doctor Burlington said "Wait." She whipped a vial out of the medical replicator, grabbed a hypospray, slid the vial in and shot me in the arm with it.
Immediately the rainbow swirl effect in my brain seemed to lessen. "Thank you Doctor. That stuff really works."
"Remember that it's only temporary." She warned.
"I remember." I said.
-*-
Half an hour later I was very aware of how out of shape I was and how large the Discovery really was. I had to climb over dead bodies, and I had to detour around sections of the ship that were opened to space.
Eventually I made it to Main Engineering. The deep throb of the warp core was absent, but there was another noise that I could not identify. I walked in. As if the state of this Discovery and her crew were not bad enough, what I saw in the warp core was truly scary.
The warp core was glowing. The center of it was almost too bright to look at. It was shining with the characteristic blue glow of Cherenkov radiation.
Neither of those two things should have been happening. With light energy pouring out of it at that rate, I suspected that a breach was imminent.
"What in the hell is going in there?!" I demanded.
Gravas called me over to the master situation monitor. He shoved the dead body of Lieutenant James, one of the warp systems specialists, away from the console and showed me what it read.
"The warp core is occupied by an object the likes of which I have never seen." Gravas explained. "It seems to be some sort of dimensional breach."
"A what!?" I couldn't believe my ears.
"A dimensional breach. It is pouring out energy, and may be disrupting local space/time." Gravas explained. "It is getting bigger."
"How in the hell did they build a white hole in the warp core?" I wondered.
"I don't know. But I do know that the warp core is still capable of generating energy using the... white hole as you call it." Gravas said.
"That's even worse somehow!" I said. "Did you say it was growing?"
"That is correct. A majority of the core's energy is devoted to containing the breach. As the breach gets larger, the core develops more energy. But the Warp core has it's limits. Eventually the white hole will reach the limits of the ability of the warp core to contain it. Then this Discovery will explode."
"Can we shut it down?" I asked.
"I don't know. I suspect not." Gravas said.
"Time to go." I said. I tapped my commbadge "All hands, now here this. Piper's crew, get to the shuttlecraft, Anyone else, abandon ship. I repeat abandon ship."
Then Beloz and I had to climb 36 decks back to the main bridge.
-*-
The gravity waves and radiation fluxes were getting worse. The Piper undocked from the Discovery and spun away. As it passed I could see the forward edge of the other Discovery's hull crumple and fall off the ship.
Stephanie fought the shuttle and eventually we approached our own Discovery. I could see where hull plates were starting to buckle from the strain of the Interphase.
I tried to raise the Discovery on the radio, but there was no answer. My heart was pounding pretty thoroughly as we approached the #2 shuttlebay. But it opened for us, and I could see the light on and people moving around in there. It was a lovely sight.
We landed and climbed unsteadily to the Discovery's deck. Commander Mendez was there to meet us.
"I am sorry that we couldn't get through to you Captain. Our situation has grown worse. The interphase is affecting our minds." Mendez began.
"Doctor, get to sick bay and start pumping that treatment out now." I said. Doctor Burlington was already moving out of the shuttlebay.
"The other Discovery had found a treatment for the interphase syndrome, but not in time." I explained. "Hopefully we can settle things down long enough to escape this mess. The other Discovery is due to explode soon. I couldn't do anything to stop it."
Mendez nodded. "At least you made it back in good shape. We have had several instances of violence and severe injuries. Some people show no sign until they go mad."
I turned to Stephanie. "Get you security crews working. Grab every hand phaser on the ship and remove it's power pack. Go now."
Stephanie nodded and turned to get to work.
I started moving towards the Bridge. "Computer, identify." I gave the computer my override code. "Lock down all personal phaser weapons. No authorized targets, please confirm."
"Acknowledged." The Computer said "All Starfleet phasers now locked."
"That leaves the personal phasers." Mendez said. "The ones not issued by Starfleet."
I brushed it off. "I don't imagine that there are any more than five of those on the whole ship." Should I tell Carlos about mine? I might need it myself if the situation got bad enough. "Including mine." I said uncomfortably.
We went to the bridge. On the bridge they were still working hard to extricate the Discovery from the interphase. Kamaline wasn't there.
"Where's the Science Officer?" I asked.
Lucas McCoy turned to me and I could see a long set of scratches down his face. "She's been temporarily relieved from duty, Captain."
I was shaken. "Uh. Okay, Carry on."
Spaat reported. "Each time we approach the edge of the interphase, a large gravity wave is generated that forces us back. I don't believe that this is a coincidence."
My head spun. "So the interphase is deliberately keeping us here?"
Spaat looked grim. "No. But I believe that there is some attribute of the Discovery that affects the interphase in a synergistic fashion."
"So we're just the victims of bad luck." McCoy put in.
"I believe I just said that." Spaat replied.
I called to Engineering. "Mr Miatsu, what is your status?"
"Our warp core is fully functional. I can not give you warp drive because we can not accurately guess the actions of the interphase. The powerful gravity waves render the warp drives useless. Our impulse drive is operating at one hundred and twelve percent of rated maximum, however we have been unable to over power the effects of the interphase."
"Thank you Mr Miatsu, please keep trying." I said. Just then I heard shouts and the sounds of phaser fire from engineering.
"Security to Engineering!" I shouted.
At that moment the other Discovery brewed up. The explosion was powerful and marked by the odd blue glow that was a side effect of the white hole.
I looked for a moment and then ran to the turbolift. The rainbow distortion in my head faded. Mendez was right at my side.
As the turbolift scooted us to main engineering we received a call from the bridge. "Main power has failed." McCoy said.
When we got to Engineering we saw Stephanie and several of her security people standing around the entrance to main engineering.
"It's Lieutenant James." Stephanie reported. "He's erected a quarantine field. We can't get through."
"Computer identify." I gave the computer my over ride code "Lower the quarantine field around main engineering."
The computer replied "Acknowledged. Warning. Unsafe environmental conditions noted in Main Engineering."
"Specify!" I yelled.
"Radiation hazard in Main Engineering." The computer said.
I turned to one of the security people. "How bad is it?"
He waved a tricorder at the doorway and then looked at the results. "Minor. We'd get sick in a couple of hours."
"Fine, let's go get him." I said.
Stephanie said "Captain, Could you unlock our phasers? It would make taking Main Engineering a lot easier."
Of course. All of their phaser were locked down. "How many people?" I asked.
"Just lieutenant James as far as I know." Stephanie replied.
I unlocked two phasers. "Set for stun." I ordered.
The two security people crept in and stunned Lieutenant James easily.
I walked into main engineering after them and suffered about the worst surprise of my life. James had the access hatch off the main intermix, and some strange machinery arranged around the access port. It was powered up and running. And in the center of my warp core there was a tiny little spark of light, glowing blue with Cherenkov radiation.
"Damn! " I yelled "Damn, damn, damn!" I ran to check on the master situations monitor. I had an ugly moment of deja vu as I hauled the stunned form of Lieutenant James off it. The main engineering computer was running a home made program that was odd to me. But the sensors inside were reporting the last thing I wanted to hear. There was a microscopic dimensional breach now residing in the Discovery's warp core. It was causing side effects like Cherenkov radiation, and a small distortion to the local space/time continuum.
Stephanie came up beside me and scooped up James' phaser. "Civilian model, Earth make. Stun setting only. We still have an engineering crew."
"Thank Ghod." I said Call in a medical team. I need James back up and talking."
"What did he do to the engines?" Stephanie asked curiously.
"I don't have a clue. That's why I need him up and talking."
-*-
Eventually Lieutenant James came around in sick bay. I was right there.
"Lieutenant, what in the hell did you do to my warp core?" I demanded.
James blanched. "Whu- what? What do you mean, Sir?"
"You opened a godamned white hole in the middle of the warp core. I want to know why and I want to know how to stop it." I said.
James looked confused, "I did? I don't remember doing that! How could I do that?"
The rest of the interview was similarly unhelpful. Lieutenant James had no memory of committing sabotage on the Discovery.
Miastu, my Chief Engineer reported. "The dimensional breach is growing at an exponential rate. Soon it will pose a danger to the Discovery. However, I can slow the process by using the warp core's own containment equipment."
"I think that you'll find that if you run the deuterium stream past the anomaly, you'll be able to draw power from it." I told him.
Miatsu looked at me like I just told him to power the starship by pedaling it. "That would be well outside of the specifications of the warp core. I would not like to operate the warp core that way without much more investigation. Hopefully, we will have solved the problem before that becomes necessary."
"The other Discovery made it work for a while. Let's bear it in mind in case it becomes necessary." I said.
Miatsu nodded unhappily. "Aye, Sir."
-*-
Lieutenant James, it turned out had been studying a theory about "Zero Point Energy." He quickly hauled out his reference material to it, and we read it avidly. Zero Point energy is an attempt to take advantage of an odd factor of quantum theory. If successful a zero point energy generator could theoretically be much more powerful than the Discovery's warp core. Theoretically.
Lieutenant James' hysterical and delusional attempt to make it work was what resulted in our current predicament.
I was in my ready room, studying the painfully complex zero point theory when
Mendez came in.
"We downloaded some of that other Discovery's navigational information."
He said. "There is a class M planet about half a day from here. The other
Discovery was heading towards us from it."
"Then our answers might be there." I wondered sincerely what the other Discovery had found at that planet that had provoked their situation.
Miatsu objected but we managed to get the warp core on line, and the Discovery set off towards the mystery planet. All the time the rainbow distortion feeling was getting worse. This time the monster was living the heart of my own ship.
Kamaline came back on duty, released from the sickbay with an arm load of interphase treatment.
We were all working on any possible way to close down the dimensional breach.
Two hours later the interphase effect was very noticeable and beginning to interfere with the operation of the warp drive.
Kamaline and Miatsu reported, from main engineering.
I went down right away. The warp core stood open with familiar scanners and control equipment arranged around the pass through. I repressed a serious case of shudders.
I passed a medical tech who asked me. "How long has it been since you've been treated, sir?"
I tried to remember. "Uh, uh, it was over on the other Discovery."
She pressed the hypo into my arm. I could feel the distortion grow a little more distant.
I continued on to the master situation monitor.
"We have good news and bad news, Captain." Kamaline looked tired and strung out.
"Let's have it." I said.
"First the bad news." Miatsu said. Typical. "The Discovery has been moving in time as we have been warping towards our destination."
"What?" I asked.
Miatsu pointed out a bizarre equation on the monitor. I looked unpleasantly familiar. "It is the result of the interphase we're in, now. We're somewhat disengaged from the space/time continuum."
My head started to throb. "So we've been time traveling for the past two hours."
Kamaline noted. "Yes. We're moving into the past."
"Oh, good." I grated.
"Well that might not be entirely bad news." Kamaline said. "I know how to shut down the white hole."
"Excellent!" Was that the light at the end of the tunnel?
Kamaline nodded grimly. "The problem is that we don't have enough power to do it."
I grabbed the bridge of my nose. "We don't?"
"No. It's been too long and the white hole is too large for us to handle alone, now. But..." Kamaline hesitated.
"But what?" I demanded.
"Another Federation starship could transmit enough power to us to get the job done. One starship can't do it. Two can." Kamaline said.
"And by a coincidence..." I started.
"Yes, we happened to know where we can reach the only Federation starship within 500 light years." Kamaline said.
"The Discovery." I said. "That's totally against all regulations."
"Yes, but they can save us." Kamaline pointed out.
We set course for the other Discovery.
-*-
An hour and a half later the warp drive failed because of the interference from the dimensional interphase effect.
I was sitting on the bridge and my brain was running around in my skull like a rabid squirrel.
"If we sent a distress call, the other Discovery might get here in time." Mendez said. "If that's truly what you want to do."
I hesitated. The paradox skittered through my head. Then I knew the solution. I knew what I had to do.
"Open a Channel to the other Discovery."
-*-
"Report." I said as I entered the Bridge.
Mendez looked at me with haunted eyes. "We're receiving a distress call."
"On screen." I replied.
"It's audio only." Stephanie said. "Putting it on audio."
The sound of static filled the bridge. A familiar voice said "This is the USS Discovery with an urgent call to the USS Discovery. Do not approach us. Obey time travel regulations and avoid contact with us. I repeat, this is the USS Discovery with an urgent call to the USS Discovery. Do not approach..."
"It just repeats from there." Stephanie said.
I looked at Mendez. "Do you recognize that voice?"
He nodded. "It's you, Captain."
I had a sincere case of the willies. "Authenticate that signal." I said to Stephanie.
"It's authentic, Captain. The embedded codes check." Stephanie said. She sounded calm and matter of fact. I wondered how she could manage it. "The time code checks out five hours in the future."
My mind whirled. Either it was some extremely accurate forgery, or in the next five hours we would run into some trouble with time travel.
Could I do anything to avoid it? Was the Discovery innocently chugging to her doom? I didn't know the answers but I knew that the other Discovery might, assuming it wasn't something else entirely..
I had been drilled since my days as a cadet about the dangers of time travel. It was considered a top priority to avoid contaminating the time line. The presence of people from other times often had chaotic effects on history, and the results were still not well understood.
My standing orders required me to avoid a Discovery from the future.
Besides, the other Captain Hailey was telling me to stay away. I was desperately curious. But I asked everyone on the ship to trust Captain Hailey utterly. Could I do any less?
"Steady as she goes." I said. The Discovery continued cruising along her path.
An hour later we saw an explosion similar to a warp core breach from a Galaxy class starship. But it was odd, there was energy from it that simply didn't belong in a starship. We kept going.
-End-
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