By Richard Woodock

Last time on Star Trek: Fortitude (S02EP05)

Miles stepped onto the bridge.

“Helm,” he said. “Set a course for the Maelstrom Expanse. Maximum warp.”

 “You planning to red line the engines again?” Penny White asked from the Engineering station.

Miles smiled. “We both know you wouldn’t let me do that… without at least a five-minute warning.”

The stars shifted. The Fortitude turned. And the unknown awaited.

And now the Continuation…

The stars stretched, then resolved. The USS Fortitude slipped from warp not with violence, but with intention, its mass settling into real space as though it had always belonged there. Ahead, the stars held their positions. Unchanged. Perfect.

“Helm,” Admiral Miles Llewellyn said calmly, “hold us at the boundary.”

Sieneth Th’rel’s antennae angled forward as her hands hovered over the controls. “We are at relative rest,” she said. “Though… it doesn’t feel like it.”

“Yellow Alert,” Commander Teshla Phyhr ordered.

The lighting dimmed into amber tones across the bridge. Not alarm. Awareness.

Commander Rose Harrington was already working. “Baseline stellar cartography is stable,” she said. “No drift. No distortion. No excuses.” She paused briefly. “Which is mildly disappointing.”

A few quiet smiles passed between stations.

Commander Penny White’s voice followed over the comm. “Oh no,” she said dryly. “The universe is behaving itself. However will we cope?”

“Barely,” Harrington replied.

Llewellyn leaned forward slightly, his eyes fixed not on the stars but on the space between them. “That’s the problem,” he said.

USS Fortitude: Deck 6

Crewman Tarris stood by a viewport, staring out at the same stretch of perfect, unmoving stars. He was not sure why he had stopped. Only that leaving felt… incorrect.

“You feel it too?” Crewman Vel stepped beside him.

“Feel what?” Tarris asked.

Vel hesitated, then said quietly, “…Nothing.” A pause. “That’s the problem.”

They both kept watching.

USS Fortitude: Main Bridge

On the bridge, Harrington continued. “Deploying probe array. New Year configuration.”

The probes launched, fanning out in controlled arcs, each one carrying the modified sensor lattice developed after the new year’s celebration. Repurposed. Refined.

“Telemetry link stable,” Harrington said. “For now.”

“Helm,” Llewellyn said.

Sieneth tilted her head slightly. “I can hear it,” she said softly.

The bridge stilled.

“Clarify,” Phyhr said.

“It’s not a signal,” Sieneth replied. “It’s… rhythm.” She paused. “Like something moving beneath the surface.”

Llewellyn said nothing. “Bring the probe data to the viewer.”

USS Fortitude: Hazard Team

In auxiliary operations, Zulu Team had already assembled. They always did.

“So,” Reeve said, watching the data stream update, “we’re mapping the thing everyone else is stuck inside.”

“From a safe distance,” Drevik added.

Nalora did not look away from the display. “If there is a safe distance.”

Ch’korrak snorted. “Of course there is. It’s called someone else goes first.”

Reeve did not react. “That is not how this team works.”

“Was worth suggesting,” Ch’korrak muttered.

Ssa’kith rumbled quietly.

Velra adjusted the data feed. “It is adapting,” she said.

Reeve looked at her. “Explain.”

“It shifted before the probe realigned,” she said. “It anticipated the change.” A pause. “It is learning us.”

USS Fortitude: Main Bridge

On the main viewer, the data first appeared as noise. Then it resolved. Lines emerged. Faint, curving, shifting.

“Gravimetric flow,” said Lieutenant Commander Neku Langi. “But too consistent.”

“Subspace current?” Harrington asked.

“No,” Langi replied. “Subspace does not behave this cleanly.”

“Then what does?” Phyhr asked.

Langi hesitated. “…nothing.”

The lines moved. Not random. Not chaotic. They flowed.

USS Fortitude: Main Engineering

In Engineering, the warp core hummed with perfect consistency. Commander Penny White stared at the readings with open suspicion.

“Everything is nominal,” a technician offered.

“I know,” Penny said. She paused. “That is what is bothering me.”

USS Fortitude: Observation Ward

In the observation lounge, the senior staff gathered around the shifting display.

USS Fortitude: Main Bridge

“It is directional,” Harrington said. “There is structure to it.”

“Not structure,” Langi corrected. “Phased movement.”

Dr Aiyana Blackhorse stepped forward. “I have seen this before,” she said quietly.

The room stilled.

“In the Codex. The way it described transitions.”

Llewellyn nodded once. “Not a boundary.”

Phyhr met his gaze. “A passage.”

USS Fortitude: Deck 4 (later)

On Deck 4 in the mess hall, Ensign Drevik carefully adjusted a small potted plant beside his tray. “This is Snappy,” he said. “He is very good for morale.”

Crewman Jex stared at him. “Does Snappy feel it too?”

Drevik paused. “…yes,” he said. “But in a very supportive way.”

“…we are doomed,” Jex replied.

USS Fortitude: Main bridge/Auxiliary Operations at the same time

On the bridge, Harrington’s voice cut through the quiet. “Captain, we are detecting signal harmonics within the flow.”

“Source?” Phyhr asked.

“It is not localised,” Harrington said. “It is embedded.”

The viewer shifted. The currents aligned.

For a moment something appeared. A shape. Not solid. Not defined. But present.

Then gone.

No one spoke.

In auxiliary operations, Velra replayed the moment. “It is not a structure,” she said.

“Not nothing either,” Ch’korrak replied.

Ssa’kith spoke, low and certain. “It watches the doorway.”

Reeve folded his arms. “And we are standing in it.”

USS Fortitude: Captain’s Ready Room Off Main Bridge

In his ready room, Llewellyn stood alone. The data scrolled behind him. Flow. Pattern. Endless.

He closed his eyes.

“…Dad?”

His eyes opened.

He said nothing.

When he returned to the bridge, Commander Phyhr stood beside him. “Hazard Team is ready,” she said.

“Keep them out of the Straits,” Llewellyn replied. A pause. “For now.”

Phyhr studied him, understanding more than he had said. “Do you believe we are mapping it?” she asked.

Llewellyn looked to the viewer, to the flowing currents, to the space that no longer behaved like space.

“No,” he said quietly.

The lines shifted again. Subtle. Deliberate. Adjusting. Around the Fortitude.

“I think…” A narrow channel formed, brief and tentative. “…it is showing us how to move through it.”

Silence settled across the bridge. Across the ship.

USS Fortitude: All over the Ship

On Deck 6, Tarris felt it again. That same absence. That same wrongness.

In Engineering, Penny White frowned at a system that refused to fail.

In auxiliary operations, Zulu Team watched a pattern that watched them back.

And on the bridge, the currents parted. Just enough.

As if waiting.

NRPG:

Alan, The Straits has shown us the way… now we must decide if it was ever ours to take.

OK and now we enter Season 3 and a Joint venture of this story will be reflected from Miles and the Fortitudes point of view and my good friend Alan is going to do his viewpoint, the main points of the story are a little bit of a secrete even to me, but back in our old Play by Email days we never knew what the other was going to post, we had an idea and that was it, so this is going to be fantastic trip down memory lane.

Stay Tuned!