"Approaching cluster one now," said Operations/Science/Second Officer Rogers. "Go to impulse; ready all sensors and probes." "Aye captain." The dark star cluster - which Chief Engineer Crusher had mentioned earlier with very contagious fascination - would be one of the main draws of our time in the very exploratory rich Visar region. We could easily spend months here and not catalog everything. That was okay; Amanda and I were immortal and could. Of course we'd take our mortal souls' needs into account as well! But Starfleet was adamant about giving us what we wanted - tons to do in the exploration sense. I'd like to get JL out here at some point when his AQ assignment was done; he'd be a kid in a candy store in this region.
"All probes are in their launch tubes and are ready for all directional networked deployment captain," said Soong type variant android Ensign Xon; this was his first official mission as a Starfleet officer. Wesley and Amanda couldn't have picked a better name for him. We weren't here for knowledge; we were here for wisdom. And it didn't matter what brought each of the 1,012 of us out here in this flying metal thing we called a ship. For many it was pure science - although contrary to popular belief many people in the federation were still spiritual/religious. IDIC covered all of that; federation life was a both/and way of life, not an either/or one. So long as things were kept in their proper context everything else typically fell into place. For myself there was no doubt this was a spiritual, and scientific, journey. Science and spirituality for me went together; they always had. The Amazon way of life was about balance and complementary opposites; this was why eastern thought and ours went along so well together. This was why I could be both a warrior and a scientist at the same time; typically they were enemies; but for me they weren't and didn't need to be. There was a time/place for both; as there was for everything else. Brother would of course argue differently, but that was why he was War; it was his nature to do that; to ever divide/conquer/destroy.
"Very well Mister Xon; launch them all." "Aye sir." Every launching tube and comparable on this mighty Galaxy type ship shot out probes in all directions from all directions. The dark energy stars had created massive anti gravity events here which had made this a unique feature of the Visar region. Our mission here was to understand how these dark energy stars came into being and how much they could affect the rest of the galaxy. Anti gravity fields of a massive nature could affect galactic cohesion as a whole and could even end the milky way as a celestial structure as a whole. We didn't suspect sentient malice here; it was just a unique natural regional phenomenon that could unfortunately affect everything else non dark energy/matter adversely around it. Obviously dark matter/energy were common throughout the greater cosmos; but the Visar region had the greatest concentration of both within the known galaxy.
"Probe activity is going solid; their networking is solidifying," said Amanda. "Please allow our dark energy experts priority to all sensors and telescopes." "Yes captain." I stood from my chair and walked up a side incline to approach one of the rear science stations; I took the seat and started looking at the initial data. It was compelling. Initial data already indicated that this region had gone through a massive dark energy metamorphosis in the past 2.7 million earth years. The dark energy stars themselves formed faster than normal galactic stars and projected increasing amounts of dark energy distortion in all directions. There was already clear evidence that the region was affecting neighboring galactic regions that were not dark energy/matter influenced in any major way. Early simulations indicated that it would affect these areas negatively in the long term; hundreds of thousands of years to say the least. Granted, that wouldn't trouble most mortals but it was still worth noting. And these findings were hardly final.
Department heads Crusher and Tora entered the bridge from the side elevator with tablets in their hands; they were here to make their initial reports. "Captain," said Wesley, "warp usage should be okay in this region but we'll still need to be careful. And excluding Q workarounds we should still give ourselves some extra navigational time. Some of the dark energy distortions are rather strong. Some affect subspace on a fundamental level and could affect proper warp field formation." "Noted Mister Crusher. Anything else?" "No sir; I'll keep you apprised." CMO Tora: "Captain, these dark energy events could have a significant impact on the mortal crew's health; this of course generally excludes yourself Mister Xon and Mister Rogers." "Noted doctor. Anything else?" "I'm still working on radiation protection protocols. We will need to adjust our SOP on them to deal with the unique health factors of this region." "Also noted." "Lastly, sir, studying any/all life forms here will prove most enlightening. We are talking about life forms from the micro to the macroscopic that have evolved in the fullness of cosmic time and have fully adapted to dark energy/matter environments. A principal life science objective for this assignment must be to understand how this was possible. This will not only help us to understand how life could subsist in a place like this but can help our various species that cannot do so readily." I nodded. "Our fundamental conclusions here will help us to develop new life support technologies and medical techniques to help our species live/thrive in such settings." "Yes sir. We've done it many times before in other such naturally inhospitable environments." "Another item - all theory - is the life types we might encounter here. They would be a bizarre silicon/neutrino genetic combination." I nodded. "It's not too bizarre. Dark matter stardust, which all these stars are made of, had early counterparts that failed to fully form; they thus projected out the same dark stellar material in all directions that ultimately formed the raw material from which indigenous regional life forms here are made of. If we can understand these historical regional interactions we can then understand how to better protect various Fed species from their harmful effects." "Yes captain; I couldn't agree more. That's all for now sir." "Keep me apprised on the crew's condition as we travel through here." "Yes sir. We have fifty three children aboard; they will be my observation priority." I nodded. "Agreed."
We continued with our first major impulse maneuver; much of our time here studying the region would be conducted at sub warp. Not only to avoid navigational hazards as Wesley had mentioned but our best research would be done this way. The Excelsior was a flying research laboratory; that's exactly what we needed to be to unravel the mysteries of the Visar region; which were good/many. Semper Ex indeed!