Disclaimer: I do not own anything except the original characters.


Chapter 8:

"Welcome to the bridge!"

Ratula looked around generally impressed. Although there were still some minor areas being repaired, the rest of the room was near spotless. Consoles were arranged along the bulkhead with some emphasis forward toward a large window. A single raised console sat forward of a short platform with chairs where the commanding officers undoubtedly sat.

It seemed that Starfleet and Imperial architects thought similarly in placing the command in the center of the bridge. However, unlike the deep trench and walkway of a Star Destroyer to emphasize the command officers over the lower ranked, he noticed that the general impression was to give everyone on the bridge equal footing, with the raised center platform merely indicating where the ship's master would sit.

"I say captain, this bridge is quite impressive for an exploratory ship. However, may I ask how you handle external communications? I don't see anything here that looks like an emitter."

Aka'ula looked at him with a slight puzzled look.

"By what do you mean by that?"

Eri spoke up instead, explaining for the Imperial captain.

"He means that in our galaxy, we communicate through what we call the Holonet. It is a galaxy wide network that allows us to communicate through holograms."

Nodding in understanding, he pointed to the window.

"That right there is our viewscreen. While primarily for external viewing, we also use it for holographic communications. It may look like a window", he said to a skeptical Eri "but it is in fact a current hologram of the surrounding space."

Ratula looked further impressed as he walked up and examined the screen more closely.

"Is that so? It does looks like just a glass window right now."

Smirking, Aka'ula walked up to a console and pressed a few buttons. Suddenly the viewscreen switched from a starfield to a large grassy field complete with small lake. The sudden change caused Ratula to jump in surprise. Coming over his slight shock, he peered again, a small smile on his face as he tilted his head from side to side, noticing the realistic depth of the hologram.

"Marvelous. I haven't seen such a convincing hologram in years, and you say that this is also used for communications?"

"Yes and more. Now if you shall follow me, we shall stop by holodeck 2 on the way to engineering."

The trio left the bridge and took a turbolift down to deck 6. Walking up to a door, Red motioned to for them to enter first. Ratula entered gladly, but Eri grabbed Red's arm and caught his attention.

"What are you thinking, giving him a tour of the ship?" She whispered, making sure that Ratula couldn't overhear. "Aren't you afraid of giving away vital information?"

Red calmly shook his head, leaning down slightly to answer her.

"I am only showing you non-classified and quite common technology throughout this area of space. I will not be sharing anything that isn't standard to most space-faring races, at least in our galaxy."

Somewhat satisfied with the answer, the redhead entered the room and immediately wondered why. There was nothing in the grey room other than a single console over which Ratula was examining.

"Now welcome to the most popular room aboard the ship!" exclaimed Red from behind, being slightly overdramatic in Eri's opinion. There was nothing here that seemed even remotely exciting. However, Ratula looked more interested than her as the Starfleet officer walked to the center of the room.

"Computer, activate program Kagami 47!"

Suddenly the entire room shimmered and they found themselves in a garden. Several trees were laden with fruits as small insects fluttered about the flowerbeds below. The trio was on a small flagstone path right next to a large fountain.

"Now this is a hologram!" The imperial officer realized, bent down and was amazed as the water flowed around his fingers. Taking his hand back out, he dried of his hand on his pants. Eri, watching the action, looked back to Red.

"How can he get wet like that? I thought that this was a hologram?"

"The holodeck does project most objects via hologram. However, we use an array of force fields to simulate large surfaces while small scale objects are actually replicated."

"Replicated?"

Walking up to a tree, Red picked two apples and threw it to the guests.

Ratula bit into his immediately, while Eri hesitated with an apprehended look. However, looking at the expression on Ratula's face, she tentatively bit down. The fruit's skin gave way, and Eri was surprised at the realistic taste and texture. Taking a few more bites, she sat down on the edge of the fountain, taking in her surroundings.

"What do you think?"

Eri swallowed and nodded, suddenly remembering that she needed to record a message herself.

"I have to agree. This is very impressive, but can you program a holographic message from here?"

"Yes I can, however I am unsure if we worked a way to get our protocols compatible with each other yet."

Ratula finished his apple and chucked the core into a nearby compost bin. Walking back up to them, he turned his attention to Eri.

"Is you shuttle's communications array still functional? If it is, you could record a message from there and transfer it to the Kairos."

Eri thought a bit then shook her head.

"The system was damaged during our battle and I don't have the tools to fix it at the moment."

Ratula, looking slightly guilty, asked his earlier question again.

"Are you sure that you don't want us to drop you off at Coruscant? Or at least an outpost of the Alliance?"

Eri turned away looked down at her reflection in the fountain, a slightly depressed expression gracing her features as she felt a few of the blue tiles.

"Sorry, I still don't feel that I should trust you. The empire killed my master and my parents when I was little, it is something that I still can't let go."

Ratula stood there, unable to find anything to say that he thought would be comforting .Feeling that the topic was getting into dangerous territories, Red called for the exit and led them all outside. Eri appreciated it as they walked toward their next destination.

"Our next stop is Engineering, if you wish, we can grab a few tools to see if we can repair you shuttle for you."

Eri perked up slightly.

"Are you sure? How much would that cost? I am afraid I don't have much money."

The Starfleet officer shook his head and smiled at her.

"Don't worry. As long as we are able to fix it with onboard supplies it wouldn't cost you anything"

"Really? What about your own repairs?"

"The essential repairs are already taken care of. We were scheduled to return to spacedock after our mission anyway so the rest can be done then. You don't have access to any other facilities at the moment and at least we do it for free."

-AO-

A few minutes later the three were standing in the middle of engineering, the guests staring up at the large glowing blue column reaching from beneath the deck to the overhead. Eri took a look at one of the consoles, unable to decipherer the alien writing.

"What is this thing?"

Red stood slightly confused and responded to her question with some slight hesitation.

"That is our warp core." Seeing the two with still confused faces, he continued. "You know, the reaction chamber that powers a warp drive?"

Both looked at the man strangely. Ratula asked first.

"Warp drive? Is that some sort of propulsion system like hyperdrive?"

Half the engineers stopped what they were doing at the question and a dozen sets of eyes were gazing at the two with shock. Suddenly feeling uncomfortable, Ratula and Eri wondered if the question was inappropriate as even Kagami was staring at them as if they were crazy. Before the Starfleet captain could respond, an engineer stepped forward, several tools hanging from a waist band.

"Never heard of warp drive? Captain, where exactly are these people from?"

"They are guests from another galaxy, chief."

The chief engineer looked at the two with slight apprehension.

"Don't have warp drive in your galaxy?"

Both shook their heads, wondering why exactly these people were making such a big deal about this 'warp drive'.

"How exactly are you able to travel faster than light? You must have some sort of superluminal drive system."

"He said we use hyperdrive." Eri said, raising an eyebrow as a few engineers sniggered behind their hands. The chief engineer shook his head and looked at the Imperial officer to see if this was some type of joke, but the man just nodded his head. Rolling his eyes and muttering something under his breath, he looked back up at the two.

"Hyperdrive? One needs hyperspace in order for a hyperdrive to work."

Eri looked at him as if he was the one who was crazy.

"Well duh, how can one travel without hyperspace? Or produce power without hypermatter reactors?"

Just as the chief engineer was about to comment, Ratula suddenly remembered the scans that they took just moments before the earlier battle.

"Hyperspace doesn't exist here in this galaxy does it?"

Both Red and the chief turned their heads to the captain.

"No, it is just a theoretical domain in this galaxy. Efforts to prove existence of hyperspace have turned up fruitless. So are you saying that your galaxy has it?"

"Yes we do and we use it for our primary means of faster than light transportation and communication."

The chief gazed at him wide eyed and spoke up.

"So you actually have hyperdrives? How fast can your ships go?"

"We can run from the center of the galaxy to the edge in just a few weeks, maybe a few days if you got the right route and fast enough drive."

The Starfleet crew gazed in amazement at the two, tension lessening as Ratula and Eri noticed the awe on their faces. Continuing on, the Imperial captain explained further.

"A recent experiment showed that hyperspace and hypermatter can't be supported if the subspace boundary is not stabilized. When we exited the wormhole, our scans showed that your subspace is very wild and unpredictable. I think that you weren't able to prove hyperspace here because there was no opportunity for it to form in the first place."

Red and the chief nodded in comprehension.

"Our hyperdrives work by releasing energy in a rapid burst, distorting subspace just enough to accelerate us into hyperspace."

"Warp drive does something similar here. However instead of propelling us into hyperspace, we just continually ride the waves at superluminal speeds."

Eri looked a bit lost; everyone was using sophisticated words to explain their concepts again. Fortunately they were still using words that she understood. However, she never recalled an experiment such as the one that Ratula was talking about.

"Before we continue, I do not recall any experiment like that being reported." Eri said, looking at Ratula in suspicion again.

The man looked at her and sighed, glancing around slightly before replying.

"The Empire was secretly experimenting with hypermatter before Endor."

"If it was secret, why are you telling us?"

"The admirals were trying to find a more efficient form of fuel for some project at the Kuat Yards, but neither they nor I trusted Kalaghata with this information so they sent him to the unknown regions with me to babysit him. We were there for a few weeks when you showed up and you already know what happened next."

The others looked at him in interest.

"What exactly is this project, captain?"

"I am afraid I do not know, it is top secret even from most of the admirals."

Eri looked at him in annoyance, speaking out.

"We hope that this secret project is not some sort of Death Star."

"If there is one thing I know Ms. Eri, is that it is definitely not a Death Star, but is some kind of ship. I myself don't like what I have heard about this project and will try to find out more about it for you."

Everyone looked at him in amazement.

"Did you just say that you are going to spy on your own people, for us?"

"…yes."


A/N: Then we start the primary plotline. Sorry for the delay as it is now nearing finals week and it is definitely screwing me over. Hopefully I can update more quickly soon. This chapter is somewhat heavy on explanations, but bear with me. Almost everything will become important plotwise except for the chief engineer character...I want to keep the number of main characters down to a minimum. Please R&R.