Amanda finished her mods on the new probes and they were launched very much when she said they would be. They joined overburdened probe 23 and resumed their joint scanning efforts. We returned to stellar cartography/astrometrics and studied the initial real time data while Donatra and Xon ran things from the bridge. Wesley had rerouted power to keep the shields going for a longer duration than initially designed to do; it ingeniously had something to do with using a modified warp field to further insulate and extend our deflector life; he could also partially phase us out of space time if needed; although I wasn't thrilled about that either. For now what we had was good enough.

Initial results from the enhanced probe network were promising. Amanda's science mod had worked as theorized. And while we didn't yet have a perfect answer her estimate of eighty percent or better for an accurate science explanation was better than ballpark accurate. "Tu990 is both a typical dark energy star and a unique subspace distortion event; it's a stellar hybrid in fact," said Amanda. "Deeper scans show this region of Visar to have been dark energy distorted long before the milky way's current formation; two point one four billion years. Regional subspace was distorted since the big bang." "So the subspace distortion aspect is much older than the dark energy itself?" "Yes. It's not always this way based on what we've seen along with current quantum theories regarding these phenomena. It could easily occur in reverse, but the affects would be similar." It was still a breakthrough though; these types of stars along with such a bizarre interaction of forces hadn't been encountered like this before; or in this manner. And if we hadn't had "Q drive" Starfleet wouldn't have gotten out here for another ten years or so at conventional expansion rates. This very mission and what we had learned already had put us ahead of the curve. That was a big win in my book.

We shared our findings with the bridge. "Excellent work," said Donatra. "This alone will give fed scientists plenty to talk for years to come." Xon said, "Captain - I recommend leaving the probe network here to continue monitoring tu990 while we should proceed deeper into the region." I looked at Amanda; she nodded. "Very well. Number one - take us to our next research grid when ready." "Aye captain." Even as we jumped to warp Amanda could easily stay linked to the probes from her station. I didn't like the idea of leaving what could be called "space litter" around but these were still active research assets. We would deal with that in time. For now we warped for our next grid; a set of similar stars - but bigger/older than tu990. The gravity forces here would be problematic; we also had to travel at lower warp velocities to deal with those subspace/regional/gravity hazards Wesley mentioned earlier. It would require constant/precise maneuvering; Wesley and Amanda would be tackling those items together.

I'd spoken to the crew as well to further reassure them of what Donatra had told them; I also reminded them she was XO and that her orders were the same as mine. That reached them better.

XXX

The ship shook despite the fact we were only warping at factor two. We were still about two hours away from the next research grid. Wesley was on the bridge at the rear engineering station. "Captain - we need to cut to factor one," he said. Amanda looked back at me; I nodded at her. We decelerated to that recommended factor and stayed there. There was still some additional spatial/subspace turbulence but for now we were holding it together. But this too was research. Future star ships that came through here would have the same issues. Everything we did here to interact with this region and its probable inhabitants was all about research. We were literally going where no one had gone before. It didn't seem like it because everything was so technical/"boring" right now but the truth was we were literally making history with every light year we passed in this region. That was our job!

More subspace turbulence hit us even harder this time - this despite flying only at factor one and constantly adjusting our warp field/shields. "Captain - we have to cut back to impulse," said Wesley. "Do it Mister Rogers." Nobody liked hearing that but ship safety was always first. Amanda throttled us back and we were back in normal space again. "Report." "Our warp field is growing increasingly unstable despite the many precautions we've taken," said Wesley. Amanda said, "I know why - tetryons." Donatra frowned/said, "Tetryons are unique to subspace aren't they?" "Yes," said Amanda, "but they can enter our normal space domain as well; both naturally/artificially. They are often highly energetic/unstable when they do enter normal space." "What is the cause here?" "Unknown. This region is so inherently volatile it's hard to say without further study." Yet another research item for the ever growing laundry list of such. We needed to discover the reason if possible; not only for increasing universal knowledge but also for future federation expeditions here. And they likely wouldn't have Qs with them to cheat with.

We crept along at half impulse. We got hit again by another tetryon wave. As they had random momentum it was very hard to track them. "Full stop." Now we truly were going nowhere. "Mister Crusher?" "This is all new phenomena captain. Starfleet has experience with tetryons but not on this scale; mostly individual celestial bodies and vessels. Plus it seems to be heavily interacting with both the dark energy and subspace domains to create very unique environmental hazards that are in a state of constant fluctuation." "And since tetryon radiation can't normally be tracked by sensors we wouldn't have discovered this until we literally ran into it," said Amanda.

I said, "From what I'm hearing warp propulsion might in fact be useless here." Everyone was silent at that; the Cochrane equation had just gone out the airlock it seemed; at least for now. Forget first contact; if we couldn't warp from A to B in this region we were royally screwed. Were we giving up? No; but this was still a big discovery in itself (although hardly an ideal one!). And its implications for future fed ops here were tossed up into the air. "Let's keep at it people. Let's see if we can find a way to go with the grain of this better. Understood?" "Aye sir," they said and went right back at it. They weren't demoralized by this; they were challenged by it. It's what they trained/lived for.

We had a ship full of geniuses/experts (a third of our complement were civilians; and most of the uniformed personnel were science/engineering staff. This was not a warship.). They'd certainly be earning their "pay" now. If we still had money of course...