Ansolon Season 02 / Episode 07
by Alan Tripp
2412
U.S.S. Stardrifter
Capt. J’nae Travanner Skysen dropped back into her command seat, letting out an explosion of air as she did so.
As a Vulcan, Jenni (her nickname since the academy) did NOT like losing her composure.
But there were certain times where a little of her human genies were appropriate to allow to shine through.
And THIS was one of those moments.
And if she were not Vulcan, she’d likely be unleashing a string of curse words at this very moment.
But she was Vulcan and also captain of the U.S.S. Stardrifter … which was living up partially to her name at the moment.
“Send out on all channels a general distress call,” she ordered.
U.S.S. Britannia
The refitted Odyssey-class U.S.S. Britannia sliced smoothly through the clouds of Hell’s Gate with her captain sitting comfortably in a favorite chair in his ready room … padd in hand.
Capt. Standing Wolf was making use of a lull in activity to catch up on a bit of reading … status reports from elsewhere within the fleet.
The current one caused him a bit of a chuckle as it was a back and forth exchange between Fleet Admiral Ka’nej Hauk and the yard master … one Jenkins … who was responsible for the drydock facilities surrounding Starbase Ansolon.
And apparently the good Klingon admiral had taken the Ross-class U.S.S. Mythos out of spacedock for a search and rescue mission, despite the fact said ship had not yet completed trials.
What made the incident more interesting is that the Mythos ran aground on a subspace sandbar just before a metreon storm hit.
Let’s just say the Mythos was in the process of itself being rescued with said ship still needing a tow back to space dock … once said storm abates that is.
Wolf imagined the good Admiral was NOT taking the matter well.
Especially since Jenkins was making sure the incident was very, very public.
[“Captain to the bridge.”]
With a sigh, the seasoned captain … one born in another reality btw … rose from his chair, tossed the padd lightly onto his desk and made for the exit.
Within moments, he was on the bridge.
“Report.”
Cmdr. Janel Kimmons was already rising from the centerseat.
“We have received a distress call from the U.S.S. Stardrifter,” she began.
“It’s not much on details and broken up, but we do have an idea as to point of origin,” she continued.
“Let’s hear it,” he ordered.
To say it was broken up was an understatement.
All he could decern from it were the words “Stardrifter,” “found,” “stuck,” “gravity” and “need help.”
The rest was a soup of distortion and static.
“Send word to command apprising them of the situation,” Wolf ordered.
“And recall the fighters.”
He stepped forward of the command well.
“Helm, once the wing is aboard, set course for the epicenter of the transmission … best possible speed.”
— Three Hours Later —
When the Britannia came out of warp, she shuttered violently sending more than a few down to their knees or worse … at least those standing.
On the viewer among the reddish clouds of Hell’s Gate, was the gaping maw of a black hole
And for some reason, sensors did not detect it until they were almost on top of it.
At least while at warp.
Now that they had a visual, they knew better how to align the sensors to begin painting a bigger picture.
At least as much as this beast was willing to thus far share.
Standing Wolf followed the stream of data coming in via the interface built into his chair.
And after a few seconds, he realized he’d seen something like it before.
“Centerpoint,” he whispered under his breath.
Well, not that old starbase from another reality so much as where it was located … in the heart of the Neffen Cluster.
The Neffen Cluster had been a massive cluster of black holes with very few safe paths in or out.
Centerpoint had been constructed within a massive pocket of calm space in a star system that somehow found balance with the gravity wells surrounding.
As a member of the Sam Houston’s crew, Wolf had been a veteran of both Battles of Centerpoint and spent many a day exploring Centerpoint and its surrounding space.
And this looked so close to the original … from that other verse … that it could almost be a copy.
“But where’s the path in and out he asked,”
“Captain, we’re being hailed.”
“On screen.”
Wolf had met Jenni only a handful of times, but it was enough to note the edges of relief around her eyes.
[“I wasn’t sure anyone would receive our distress call,”] she said in her normal cool Vulcan manner.
Her image crackled here and there as the gravimetric forces fought to distort it.
“What happened?” Wolf asked.
[“We think we’ve located the approximate location of the lost Crazy Horse,”] she began.
[“Following information relayed to us by an Orion interceptor led us here,} she explained. [“And we were following a path through the currents trying to reach it when the currents took a turn and the path disappeared.’}
[“We are lucky we fell into a safe pocket but appear to be trapped,] she continued. [“Can’t seem to escape.”]
Wolf rubbed his bearded chin, realizing they might have to leave the area if only to (1) let command know where the hell they were and (2) tell possible help where to go.
A place that looked to him damned similar to another place he had gotten to know well … but apparently not well enough.
They were definitely going to need help. … A LOT of help.
Respectfully,
— Capt. J’nae Skysen
CO, U.S.S. Stardrifter
and
— Capt. Standing Wolf
CO, U.S.S. Britannia
—- OUT OF STORY —-
This sets the real stage for the meat of “The Straits.”
And not much, but it was fun for me being able to reference the Battle of Centerpoint, Centerpoint Station and the Neffen Cluster.