25: Calm before the Storm

Virmire

SSV Normandy

Medical Bay

14:00

October 12th 2183

xxx

MacLeod looked up from his bed as the door to the bay opened and in walked Shepard and a Salarian who he guessed was in charge of the STG team.

"Everything back in place Mac?" Asked Shepard teasingly. She really should stop it but teasing him with that nickname – and all the banter they were having – was too much fun. Some of her crew were starting to whisper about it, there was even a suggestion that the two of them were attracted to each other but Shepard knew that while that was possible, nothing was ever going to happen. She saw him more like a long-lost brother than a possible lover. Besides, he was with D'Mora and she was happy for them.

MacLeod fixed her with a death stare, though his eyes and the twitch of his lips told her it was only in jest. "Well if someone had reached our location quicker, I wouldn't have had to stay here for the last hour."

Shepard smacked his shoulder – the good one – and turned to the Salarian. "This is Captain Kirrahe of the STG. He's a little upset that we're all the reinforcements that the Council sent."

MacLeod stifled a laugh. "Well the Council didn't actually send me." Kirrahe looked from one Human to the other in confusion. "I'm here as Saren kidnapped members of my crew and I'd like to ask him to give them back."

"I see." He clearly did not. "The Commander tells me that you have energy based weapons. Forgive me, but I find that, and other aspects of the story she has told me, somewhat hard to believe."

MacLeod shook his head as he wondered how often he would have to explain this while they were stuck here. A thought deep down told him that they could be here forever and that concerned him deeply, yet that same part realised it meant he could be with Isha with no interference from either of their governments, so he did find the idea of being permanently stuck as somewhat liveable.

He swung his legs off the bed and stood up easily. His right arm was in a loose sling, the shoulder had been re-set and his ribs healed with a combination of Alliance and Starfleet technology. The injuries had healed to such a degree that Chakwas had reluctantly given him a bill of clean health, though he was to wear the sling until they attacked Saren's base, and probably afterwards as he was very likely to re-injure it during the assault.

"Well, I'd be happy to show you." The trio left the medical bay and made their way down to the cargo hold for Kirrahe's demonstration.

...

Cargo Bay

xxx

Ratcliffe leaned against the lockers as he spoke; "By the score keeping we agreed I've got a hundred and twenty two points." He was smiling smugly as he had shot so many Geth he felt only MacLeod could have a higher score, given to the fact he had taken out two Armatures single-handedly. Ratcliffe might like his commander, but he was not going to give him the points for the Colossus, those belonged to Jankowski.

Williams hid a smile as she turned from cleaning her rifle. "Really? Is that all?" She could feel the smile creep across her lips as she spoke. "Since I was manning the Mako's guns, I took out all the Geth we had to clear to reach you and your team so let me think." She paused and tapped her chin lightly with her index finger. "If I remember right, that gives me around two hundred and sixty points."

Ratcliffe cursed under his breath as he looked at her. "Good thing we're not finished yet then isn't it?" He flashed her his best smile and saw her blush slightly as she turned to face him.

"You know, Alliance regs say I can't get involved with an officer." She said as she stepped towards him.

"Good thing I'm not in the Alliance." He said as she came closer.

She looked at him carefully. "We'll see." She said as she walked right past him without looking him in the eyes. "We'll see."

Ratcliffe smiled to himself and looked down at the weapon she had just been using. He had an interest in older style ballistic weapons and as such found the logical advancements made in this universe to be intriguing, much like a certain gunnery chief.

"Ratcliffe!" He turned and saw MacLeod pointing a phaser rifle at him. Shepard was standing next to him, as was Williams and a small number of Salarians.

"Sir?" He asked in fear. Somehow, he just knew where this was going but he hoped he was wrong.

"Stand still." MacLeod handed the rifle to Williams who gained a very twisted smile as she aimed the rifle at him.

Ratcliffe raised his hands and opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out as Williams fired the phaser and he slumped to the ground.

Williams smiled as she handed the rifle to MacLeod. "Thank you, sir." She said before she saluted Shepard and walked towards the elevator, planning to grab a quick snack before they assault on Saren's base. The plan for which had been explained briefly to MacLeod as they came down to the cargo bay.

MacLeod turned to Kirrahe and smiled as he held up the compression rifle. "That was setting two. He'll be out for around five minutes and when he awakes, he'll have a minor headache at best." He saw the looks Kirrahe and his XO, Rentola, were giving the phaser. "While we won't be issuing any such rifles to your team, I'll send two of my team with yours to help your assault."

Kirrahe was examining the phaser rifle closely. He had heard rumours of the STG and the Asari developing basic particle beams, but this was light-years ahead of anything they had cooked up so far. "How effective is it against kinetic barriers?"

MacLeod shared a look with Shepard and allowed her to answer; "The Commander here took out two Armatures using two such rifles in less than twenty seconds of continuous fire." Rentola gasped at the knowledge. "Their barriers had no effect on the beams as they are, like ours, unable to stop beams of pure energy." She looked at MacLeod a slight smile on her face. "Though strangely, starship barriers do offer some protection, though it is minimal at best."

Kirrahe placed his hand on his chin as he thought about the idea of having such weapons available to him during the assault. He turned to MacLeod. "Thank you Commander. I will do my best to ensure your men are protected at all times by at least two of my own."

MacLeod gave a small nod at the promise. "Thank you." He snapped his fingers and walked over to the shuttle. Shepard and Kirrahe waited outside for a few minutes until MacLeod came back out with Munroe and a pair of hyposprays.

"If you'll allow my medic to inject something we might be able to help with your odds of survival."

Kirrahe looked at the hypos. The device seemed similar to devices used in medical facilities across the galaxy. "I am not sure what good an injection would do Commander." He said questioningly.

MacLeod smiled as he nodded for Munroe to inject both Salarians. "We have a device that allows us to transport living people from one place to another." He held up a hand to stop the torrent of questions that were already forming in the minds of both Salarians. "I won't explain how it works, but I'll show it working." He tapped his badge. "Energize."

The two Salarians –and a few other people present – watched in disbelief as MacLeod disappeared in a swirl of blue light, only to reappear ten seconds later on the other side of the bay.

MacLeod walked back over to the Salarians and smiled; "That's how we were able to get the jump on the Geth at the second gatehouse.

"Now, we can't just beam into Saren's base as the same dampening field that blocked your communications back to your Council is also affecting the scanner the transporter uses." He held up the hypospray. "This will inject a small device that will allow us to, hopefully, be able to beam anyone out of the base and the surrounding area, even while the dampening field is up. Once it is down, we should be able to beam everyone back without the transponders.

"Now, the technology for how this works is classified but as this is a joint operation, I'm using my command authority to provide the transporter for emergency evacuations of wounded personnel. However, you will just have to turn off your eezo power sources or things will get very messy."

"Messy?" asked Rentola.

MacLeod grimaced slightly. "We beamed up a Biotic Batarian prisoner. The active eezo in his blood exploded when re-assembled, killing him and two others, while four more people ended up in sickbay."

Kirrahe nodded. Element Zero was unstable when energy was applied to it so the reaction was understandable, if extreme, and he had no wish to see that happen to any of his team. "I will inform my team to remember that. Thank you."

He turned and looked at Shepard. "If there is nothing else I'll go and ready my men. Have your soldiers come to me in five minutes for their assignments."

The two Salarians turned and walked out of the ship, with Munroe in tow, and Shepard turned to MacLeod.

"You sure about the transporter working?"

He shook his head. "No, I hope we can remove the jamming field, but even then, I'm not sure if the sub-dermal transceivers will be strong enough for the transporter to get a lock on to." He paused and sighed. "If, when we find my people, I'll place them inside a pattern enhancer and have them beamed back here. I'll carry the enhancers myself." He looked at her with pain in his eyes. "If something happens to me, get her… Get them inside the enhancers, tag them with the hypo and flip the switch on all the enhancers. Jankowski will know what to do."

Shepard gave a slight nod of understanding. The science of that was way over her head, but she followed the gist of what he had said and knew well what he was asking her to do, if it came to it. "OK. I'm planning to send Ash, ah Chief Williams, with Kirrahe, what about you?"

MacLeod smiled a little; "Ironically Ratcliffe and Fourier." They shared the smile at the idea of the two soldiers who had been flirting being assigned together by chance. "He's Hazard's XO, and she's a sniper. Since we'll be dealing with close quarter fighting, she'll be more use for the direct assault providing long-range support and he needs the experience of commanding small teams. And he could benefit from watching someone other than me giving orders to mid-sized combat units."

Shepard couldn't help but smile at him. When she had first met him, he had been chipper but it was a ruse which she had easily seen was nothing more than a ruse for the fact that he was uncomfortable with commanding a starship. However, here, during a ground operation in combat he was fully able to lead if needed. She decided then and there that if anything happened to her, he'd assume command of the team until they could finish the mission. While he was an outsider, he had more seemed to have more experience of leading a diverse team than anyone else she could think of, and he held the same rank as her.

"OK, get your team together. We'll assemble outside with Kirrahe then move out on his signal." MacLeod nodded and turned to go back into the shuttle. After the almost-debacle at the gatehouse with energy cells and grenades running out, he planned to be more prepared this time.

Shepard activated her com-unit from her omnitool. "Shepard to all ground team members. Assemble outside in five minutes in full assault gear."

Soon enough everyone was present and she made the calls about teams. Williams would go with the two Starfleet officers and the STG. Tali would stay on-board to check on and prep the bomb.

Shepard decided that Liara would join MacLeod's four-man team, while Alenko, Garrus and Wrex would be in her team.

Shepard had talked with MacLeod about the idea of two teams and she had settled on Liara as she was the least a military of her crew and would probably fit in better with a Starfleet unit, as while they were combat trained, they were clearly not a dedicated combat unit. Additionally, she would provide MacLeod with a biotic should the need arise, and could do an excellent job of examining their technology as it was used and then provide Shepard with an after action report on it.

...

Fang Shipyard

USS Vanguard

Conference Room

15:00

xxx

Varik waited patiently as everyone filled into the conference room and took a seat. It had been almost a week since they had assembled for a senior briefing and if Varik did not know any better, he would believe that MacLeod had an aversion to such meetings.

After being at the Fang Shipyard for a full day, he had decided to call a senior staff meeting to go over the status of the ship, and from there, he planned to be able to provide MacLeod with a full report when he returned.

Varik had taken the lead chair as senior officer, with Havaris having chosen to sit to his left and Judal to his right. Down Havaris' side were Sub-Lieutenant Khev and Major Sahen – Khev had been ordered by D'Mora to reveal that the Centurion was actually a Major from the Tal Shiar, something Varik found troubling to have to deal with – and his engineering deputy Sarq.

On Judal's side were Ensigns Drake and Gwagra representing the practical and hard science units and Lieutenant Reiji, an Andorian who was the senior pilot left following the murder of Lieutenant Mok. While Varik felt the move to split the already small science team into two units was unusual, he could see the logic behind such a move, especially if they ended up stuck in this universe for any length of time.

"If everyone is ready?" He asked as he looked at the faces. "Very well, Lieutenant Sarq you may begin."

The Tellarite nodded then spoke: "As you know, almost all repairs have been completed and level one diagnostics have been carried out on all major systems save for the Warp core, weapons and armour." He paused in case anyone wished to ask something, but no one did. "We've held off on those three after the incident with the Geth."

"You mean when they boarded this ship and captured or killed six crewmembers?" Asked Sahen with a smirk. While he did not enjoy being stuck here, either in this universe or on this Human ship, he always found it amusing when the high and mighty Federation made a mistake.

Unlike many other members of the Tal Shiar and the Senate, he did not see the Humans as equals or worthy of respect, just merely a problem that the Empire had allowed to continue for far too long. As such, he was happily taking notes about all the new technology he could uncover while here for eventual report back to his superiors.

Sarq silently counted to five to fight off his races' pre-determination to argue every point before he replied. "Yes, when that happened." He looked away from the Romulan and looked at his fellow Starfleet officers. "Everything is working as well as we can hope without a serious overhaul in a dry-dock, though when we can do that is.." he paused. He had planned to say guess, but knowing how much Varik disapproved of such emotional concepts he changed his wording, "unknown at this time."

"That's putting it mildly." Muttered Havaris, which earned him a pair of pointed looks from Varik and Sahen. "Sorry."

"As I was saying," Continued Sarq after again talk a short pause to calm himself. "All systems are working within accepted parameters, and we have full power to all areas of the ship."

Varik gave his deputy a nod of thanks as he sat down. This was Sarq's first time in a senior briefing and Varik felt he had handled himself adequately. "Thank you Lieutenant." He looked at the very nervous Andorian. "Lieutenant Reiji, what is the status of our fighters and shuttles?"

Reiji fidgeted a little in her seat, clearly uncomfortable being at a senior briefing but she was the senior pilot left, thus such she was now the new CAG, even if her rank was far below that of a Commander. "We've reduced our fighter numbers to twelve Valkyries and used the spare parts to replicate a replacement for the Jindo. We've also taken the time to draw up a schedule to transform our shuttle contingent into either Danube or Venture class ships."

Varik nodded. One advantage that the Akira-class had over even the largest Starfleet vessels was that as a semi-dedicated fighter carrier she carried two industrial-sized replicators in the hanger bay instead of the normal one aboard the larger Galaxy and Sovereign class ships. This meant they could replicate or de-replicate two shuttle-sized ships in minutes, though all internal circuitry that was key, such as phaser arrays, isolinear chips and warp cores had to be removed before or added later. Overall, this meant they could get two new shuttle or runabout sized vessels up and running in about three hours, with the same amount of time needed to deconstruct one.

Varik pondered the suggestion and decided that it made sense. The runabouts and scouts would allow them to scout out other systems with dedicated ships and both classes were far better protected than a shuttle. "Without taking people away from other areas, go ahead with the plan Ensign, but keep three type eleven shuttles and the workbees available for possible emergencies." Reiji nodded, thankful that her idea had been approved as it would give the flight officers and crews something to do.

Varik looked at Havaris. "How are our tactical systems?"

Havaris smiled. "We've used the delivered antimatter and base materials to reload our torpedoes to around three hundred standards and we should be up to a full complement of four hundred by the time the Commander returns. Without setting up a specialized lab on an asteroid or moon, we will be unable to replace our Quantums. The three trans-spatials have been removed from the firing chambers and placed into cold storage. All three main phaser arrays are online, and working within expected parameters. We've also carried out checks on the secondary arrays but, as Lieutenant Sarq said, we haven't been able to carry out a full diagnostic and test."

Varik gave a nod and once again found himself impressed at the logic displayed by MacLeod. Before the Commander had left, he had discussed with Varik an idea which the Vulcan had found highly logical;

To not insult their guests in this dimension, and to help with the repairs, MacLeod had proposed using the money provided by the Citadel Council and the Systems Alliance to purchase - on the open market - the various refined materials they needed for repairs and anti-matter as well. In addition, he had ordered Varik to purchase supplies of materials used locally in ship construction for analysis and to deceive the locals into thinking that they had to buy such things instead of just replicating them from a base stock.

One of the quirks of replicating was that for metals and alloys, it was easier to create the parts and components to shape if they had the various raw materials for de-replicate first. MacLeod did not want the Council to know this and so he had made the decision to not purchase the raw materials, but the compounds and alloys instead.

Varik found it highly logical – if a little devious – and so had followed the orders competently. The compounds and alloys had all arrived quickly, though since they beamed everything onto the ship they had easily been able to detect and remove the tracking and monitoring devices that the various governments and corporations had tried to sneak onto their ship. The most interesting local alloy was Silaris, used as the armour of Asari military ships. Due to the nature of the material, a quick scan had found that it was actually twice as strong as the Tritanium alloy used in the construction of Starfleet vessels - though still far weaker than the advanced ablative armour brought back by the future Admiral Janeway.

Interestingly enough, the only thing that was coming in slow was the anti-matter itself, though they could manufacture enough on-board that this was not a real issue. Havaris had mentioned in his last security report that he suspected that it was being held back in an attempt to prevent the Vanguard from being fully re-fuelled.

Varik found such actions something he would expect of a Romulan or Cardassian, and planned to consult with Sub-Commander D'Mora and Commander MacLeod when they returned about this.

"Acceptable." He turned and looked from Havaris to Khev. "How is the integration of the Romulans into the security teams going?" He did not approve of the measure but it kept the Romulans busy – and under the watchful eye of security – while giving them something to do beyond spying on the advanced technology on-board the Vanguard.

Havaris indicated for Khev to answer, and the Romulan did so. "As well as could be expected." He hesitated and took a quick side-glance at his superior. "Some of our soldiers are unhappy that for every one Romulan in a security team, there are three Starfleet officers, and that they are only guarding non-critical systems. However, most understand that we would do the same if the roles were reversed." Sahen coughed a little. If the roles were reversed, he would have had the Federation crew thrown in the brig or out of the airlock, along with a few of his own people who were far too close to the Humans for his liking.

Khev ignored the sound of the Major and continued. "Also, four of our survivors are trained scientists or engineers and they were hoping to be assigned to the research teams for analysing and finding practical uses for the local technology."

"I'd be more than happy to have them join my teams." Said Drake, cutting off Sahen who planned to complain about this not already having happened. "One of them helped actually helped already with the Centurion heavy armour."

"Centurion?" Asked Judal, stating the question that everyone suddenly had.

Drake nodded. "Since the base armour given to us by the System Alliance was military green, and they looked like soldiers, one of my team jokingly called it that and the name is now sort of official." He looked at the two Romulans. "I hope that is ok?"

Sahen actually liked the usage of the name. While his general dislike of Humans was well known, he had studied up on their culture, specifically the words they had used to describe the Empire. He had been pleasantly surprised when he had found out about the Roman Empire that had existed on Earth thousands of years ago and actually approved of the Humans using the same names and concepts for the Star Empire. "It is acceptable." He was silently amused when Khev had a momentary look of surprise at the Tal Shiar officer liking a Human idea.

"Very well, we will designate the armour, and its variants, as the Centurion." Stated Varik, ending that particular little side topic. He had seen the final proposal for the heavy variant, and he found it effective, if somewhat disconcerting. The arm sockets had proved resistant to the attachment of type three phasers, but Drake and his team had gotten around that by using modified Romulan disruptor rifles that had been reconfigured to use Starfleet energy packs that were embedded in the armour itself. This left the hands free to carry other tools while giving the suit the firepower to take on small enemy forces single-handedly. At least now, Varik's curiosity about where the idea for that had come from had been satiated.

"What else have you discovered about the local technology?" He asked. Since the armour had been brought up, it was only logical to continue on that path of discussion for now.

Drake smiled. "Well, we've adapted the omnitool concept further to allow for a new type of tricorder." He lifted his arm to show the gauntlet he was wearing. Many of the science teams had started using the device as it was easier to use than a tricorder and kept their hands free for other tasks. "The local omnitool and the omnicorder variant that Commander MacLeod and his team are using both have limitations in needing to wear a large and complicated gauntlet like device on the arm.

"Using some simple replacements of local parts with our own technology, we've managed to make the HLT, or hard light tricorder, a simple clip-on device that sits on the forearm and has all the tools of both an omnitool and a tricorder, save for the nanite fabrication facility of the omnitool as those pose a security risk.

"The device has three times the memory capacity of a standard tricorder and can be adapted for use in the same way as a standard tricorder."

Drake paused and used his HLT to project a hologram of a hyperspanner. "We're still working on how to use the HLT to create fully usable devices from just force-fields, but once we have done so the HLT will make it possible to carry out repairs without having to search for a tool kit first." He smiled as he changed the hologram to that of a Klingon dagger. "It will also allow, in theory, the HLT to be used as a hand weapon generator, though that feature will only be added to Hazard team units once the technology is perfected."

Varik gave a slight nod of thanks. Several of his engineers had tried out the HLT over the last two days and had been glowing in their praise for the device . "Thank you Ensign." He turned to Gwagra as Drake sunk back into his seat. "Ensign Gwagra?"

Gwagra used a small console in front of her on the table and a holographic image of the Mass Relay appeared. "After examining the relay, and reading up on what was provided about Element Zero, I think we have got a working knowledge of how a Relay behaves." She waited as she had the hologram zoom in on the rotating structure at the rear of the Relay. "In essence, the Relays are only able to communicate with a handful of others. They do this by generating an incredibly powerful mass effect field around whatever it is that they wish to propel, which shrinks the ships mass, then opening a subspace window similar in theory to a Borg Transwarp Conduit and firing the vessel though the tunnel. It should be noted however, that the region of subspace that they use is one not currently understood by Federation science." There were a few shivers at the mention of the Borg, but no one interrupted the presentation.

"This allows the ships being propelled to not have to worry about any large gravitational objects - say a star or planet - that could inadvertently cross the path they are travelling on." She smiled a little. "It seems the locals lack any real understanding of subspace. So they cannot fully explain how the Relays work and as such they have not figured out that little trick even after thousands of years."

Varik found that both puzzling and disturbing. MacLeod had shared with him the observation about the local technology stagnating heavily once a race reached the Citadel and Varik found it troubling that it was indeed true of yet another piece if technology, especially as this one was the key to the whole Galactic wide travel system used by the local races. "Thank you Ensign. Now.."

"There were a few other things." Gwagra had no qualms about interrupting so happily did so now. "While analysing the data from the Citadel Relay, one of my team found several signals in a pocket region of subspace and after reviewing our earlier scans from the Relays we have passed through, we found that these signals seemed to act as links between the various types of Relays." She stopped as the holo-display changed to show the three Relays they had travelled through to get to the Citadel appeared onscreen. "The first Relay, classed as a Secondary Relay, had a series of subspace signals that linked to others, which seem to be other Secondary Relays within a range of no more than two hundred light years. The distance range of these Relays is based on the galactic map provided by the Citadel Council. The second larger Relay that we travelled thorough to reach the Citadel, which is classed as a Primary Relay, had another set of subspace signals. However, there were only three distinct signals in that set that we believe link it with other Primary Relays." She paused again, as the third, much larger, Relay appeared. This Relay was the Relay for the Serpent Nebula and the Citadel. "The Citadel Relay is different." She paused as the map came up of the main Primary Relays that were active around the Galactic core. "It has signals that seem to link it to over thirty different Primary Relays, meaning any Primary located at these roughly evenly distributed locations around the galaxy can access the Citadel."

"That seems flawed." Commented Sahen as he looked at the map. "If you built a station as the centre of your Empire, as the Protheans supposedly did, then it would be basic common sense to limit the ways that people can reach it as a means to protect yourself from threats."

Gwagra nodded slightly. "If it was an Empire that was paranoid yes, but that's not the really strange part of this." She paused as everyone looked at her. "There were two things that did not add up. First, when we tried to date the Serpent Nebula Relay, we could not do so from external scans as the structure is quantum locked. This means that it sits outside of space-time in a way that is difficult to explain."

"That's putting it mildly." Muttered Drake. When Gwagra had tried to explain it to him, he found it well beyond his understanding and resulted in him getting a migraine so bad he had had to visit sickbay for stronger mental relaxants than he was allowed to replicate personally.

Gwagra gave him an evil look before she continued. "As I was saying we were unable to date the external structure of the Citadel Relay, but using subspace frequency we were able to scan the internal structure and date it at several hundred million years old, at least. I would like to scan other Relays to confirm that this is true of the entire Relay network."

Those present sat in silence at the new information. If the readings were accurate, and the Relays were hundreds of millions of years old, it meant that the Protheans did not build them, someone or thing else had done so.

"Now for the truly unexpected part." Said Gwagra, which made everyone pay attention as if the age of the Relays was not the strange part, they were – to varying degrees – worried, excited or shocked at what could be. "We detected another signal that while it is in the region of subspace that it is used for linking the Relays, does not belong to any Relay."

"So where does it come from?"

Gwagra gave a slight nod. "The signal comes from the Citadel itself doctor." She used the controls to bring up an image of the massive station known as the Citadel. "This signal has the same pattern as that of those used to link the Relays and allow them to communicate and transport matter between two linked Relays but strangely, it does seem to lead to another known Relay." She waited as the others digested the idea that not only was the Citadel at the centre of a galactic web of travel, but that it leads to somewhere else that as off the map. "Indeed, the signal actually is aimed on a vector that heads through a dead region of our galaxy."

"So where does it lead?" Asked Sarq with as neutral a tone as he could manage.

Gwagra shrugged. "That's the mystery as this if the signal path is extended it quickly leads out of our galaxy, towards a large area of the universe, which in our dimension, is believed to be the location of a massive dark-matter nebula or proto-galaxy. It also suggests that there is more to the Citadel than meets the eye."

Varik thought about all the new information. He was not sure how to deal with it as these findings clearly challenged several long-held beliefs of the local races in regards to the Protheans and the Relays so just handing over the data could be disastrous. "Ensign, understanding the Citadel, the Relays and Element Zero and how they all link together is now the only area of study for your team, all other research will be handled by Ensign Drake and his teams." The two ensigns nodded at the orders and Varik looked around the room.

Everyone was in various states of shock or disbelief about the news but the briefing needed to continue, as there was one more major piece of business to attend to. Varik had already seen the report – it was his original reason for arranging this briefing – but still found the details of the report troubling.

"Ensigns, have you made any progress on determining how we can travel back to our own dimension?" He asked the two scientists. They shared look that the pair had filled those present with various states of dread.

Drake fiddled with his fingers before he spoke, though his eyes were stuck on the scratch he had recently made on the table. "We've got a few more things to analyse and as such we would prefer to make our presentation at a briefing tomorrow."

Varik easily picked up on the undercurrent from the young Ensign – as did everyone else – and knew not to push over such a delicate matter. "Very well. We will meet tomorrow at eighteen hundred and you will present your findings. Dismissed." All left the room with some sense of dread or foreboding at the news Drake would deliver tomorrow.

Drake himself waited until everyone else had left before letting his head hit the table. How was he going to tell them that all the data pertaining to their dimensional jump had been erased by the jump itself?

...

A/N: Now, how the Relays actually work is never explained in game, or at least I do not remember it ever being explained clearly so I used the idea of subspace/transwarp to link it to a ST concept.

Obviously, both the ST dimension and the ME dimension covered in this story are not the 'Prime' universes of the games or TV/movies, so things will be a little different.

If anyone can suggest a cleaner way to merge the FTL concepts of both dimension, or other tech issues, I'd be grateful to hear from you.

Hope you enjoyed and next time it's the base assault.