Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews everyone, but just to answer one, the absolute last thing we need is more "Trip/T'Pol" smut. Come on, we just got a brand new page to work with. Can't we have just one category where good, gripping stories outnumber the nonsense ones?
By the way: Who said anything about Romulans?
She watched the repeat of the Navigation screen on her console and inhaled deeply. It wasn't a sense of fear or dread that she was feeling. That was impossible. Perhaps "trepidation" was the proper word. It was a sensation she was getting accustomed to on this particular voyage.
Whatever the sensation was, it drove her to stare unflinchingly at her displays, waiting for a moment that she thought she'd never see, mainly because she thought the Humans would never be so...audacious as to attempt it.
It was...unnerving to be so wrong about Humans in so many different ways, yet be so right about them in all the worst ways. They should never have left their star system. It was bound to upset the delicate balance of the galaxy in ways she could only imagine.
The icon moved on, ever on, until it crossed a threshold. As it continued on its course, she was surprised to realize that she'd been holding her breath. She let it out, quietly, then contemplated a course of action. Perhaps a subtle reminder of the enormity of the situation they were now in was in order.
"We have just left the boundaries of charted space." She said, matter-of-factly.
Captain Jonathan Archer, commander of the Earth Starship Enterprise, turned to look at her from his command chair. "Very well, T'Pol." He said to his Science Officer. "Steady on this course, Helm."
"Aye, Sir." Ensign Mayweather acknowledged from the Flight Control station.
She didn't let it show, or allow herself to feel it, but had she been human, T'Pol might have felt dejected that her soft warning had been so thoroughly ignored. Still, it would be prudent if the commanding officer fully understood the implications of setting their current course. T'Pol left her station and walked over to Archer's chair. She'd learned over the recent weeks that human ship commanders preferred to maintain the appearance of absolute authority and knowledge at all times, which meant that any dissent would have to be made without an open verbal debate. It seemed inefficient, since the best ideas weren't always heard under such a hierarchical structure, but unlike her fellow crew members she understood all too well the potential consequences in ignoring alien social mores.
"You understand," she said quietly, "that if we do not follow the star charts my people have provided for you, it will be difficult for me to act as a guide."
"I understand that perfectly." Archer said. "In fact, I understood it the three other times you've mentioned it since I said we'd be taking this course. Look, T'Pol, is this an exploration mission or not?"
"It is." The Vulcan conceded.
"The idea behind exploration is to learn about and see new things. I'm sure the Vulcan star charts are very precise and thorough, but they don't cover everything that we might reach with our new ship."
"They were not meant to cover everything, merely..." Archer cut her off.
"My point is we shouldn't limit ourselves to what's already been visited. We have a perfect opportunity to add some truly new worlds and civilizations to what is already on the charts. That's what we're going to do right now. Besides," he couldn't help but add, "you haven't exactly been much of a guide."
As he watched her respond, he noticed that T'Pol's right eyebrow went up, just a tad. He wondered idly if all Vulcans did that.
"I cannot be an effective guide if the people I am guiding fail to heed my warnings." She said. Her tone changed only slightly, but still noticeably. Maybe the raised eyebrow was as close as they got to an irritated expression.
"We've done all right so far without your 'guidance'." Archer said, unable to hide his own rising irritation. "We've conducted several detailed planetary scans, made two successful First Contacts, thus gaining two new friends in the galaxy..."
"The Klingons cannot be considered 'friends' just because they did not try to kill you when you brought back their soldier. As for the Axanar..."
This time T'Pol was interrupted by the undulations of the ship. Enterprise was suddenly rocked in its path by a strange wave of energy. The ship rode it like a schooner in a monsoon, throwing everyone and everything not secured in place off balance. T'Pol had to grab the railing to keep from hitting the deck.
When it stopped, Archer stood and looked around the bridge. "Everyone okay?" He said, getting a collection of nods in response as T'Pol resumed her station.
"Damage." He said. The watchstander at the Engineering console checked her screens.
"Ship's undamaged." She said. "No hull breeches or blown circuits."
"Injury reports coming in." Ensign Sato, the Communications Officer said. "Mainly bumps and bruises. Dr. Phlox is on top of it."
"Very well." Archer said. "Mayweather, All Stop. Lieutenant Reed, are there any ships out there that might have caused that?"
Reed, the Weapons Officer, did full scan of the surrounding area, then responded in his distinct British accent. "No vessels within range of our sensors, Cap'n."
"Very well." Archer said. He looked at the forward viewscreen, allowing himself to get lost in the stars for a moment as he thought.
"Engineering to Bridge." A voice called over the intercom. It was Lt. Commander Charles Tucker III, "Trip" to his friends and colleagues, the Chief Engineer. "Anything happening that we should know about?"
"We seem to have hit a bump in the road." Archer said. "How're the engines?"
"Everything is nominal down here." Tucker said. "We're at full power and there's no obvious damage. We can resume Warp travel at any time."
"Thank you, Trip. Stand by." Archer broke off, took another moment to think, then gave his orders. "Mayweather, bring us around on thrusters. T'Pol, Reed, I want you to do a thorough scan of the area we passed through. I want to know exactly what that was. Then we can..."
"Sir," Sato said, "my equipment just finished processing an incoming message. I think it was a coded signal piggybacked on...well, whatever it was that we just went through."
"Know what it says yet?"
"Universal Translator's going through it, but there's a problem. It's more mathematical than a language, as if whoever left it wanted to be sure it could be read by anybody."
"All right. Reed will handle the scans. Transfer the data you get to T'Pol's console. T'Pol, work with Sato on translating that message."
A few hours later, Archer was in his quarters having a quiet supper. Porthos hovered around his chair, waiting impatiently for the table scraps that he knew would eventually fall his way. The Captain didn't disappoint, and the beagle deftly intercepted a speck of beef that his master's hand tossed to the deck.
Archer was about to look at some paperwork when his doorchime sounded. "Come in." He said.
The door slid open and T'Pol and Sato walked in. "We have the message figured out." The Ensign said.
"It is a warning." The Vulcan added.
T'Pol had put a graphic representation of the area they were in on the main viewscreen on the bridge. Archer was examining it as she spoke. "The effects we experienced were caused by an energy barrier set in a ring approximately fifty million kilometers in diameter. It was designed to disrupt a Warp field as a ship passed through it."
"What for?" Trip asked.
"To get the attention of the crew, so that they would read the message propagating through the energy field. Through translation and analysis of the mathematical data we have found that the message tells of an unnavigable area of space further along our course."
"'Unnavigable'?" Archer said.
"The messengers called it a 'Null Pocket', an area of space that distorts Warp fields to the point where they will no longer be able to provide motive force."
"So if we had kept going..."
"We'd be dead in space." Mayweather said.
"How far away is this Null Pocket?" Archer said.
"Another five light-hours from our current position." T'Pol said.
"Any idea who left the warning?"
"We don't even know how it was left." Sato said. "The technique doesn't conform to any known communications technology."
"Have the Vulcans ever come across one of these things before?"
"Not to my knowledge, Captain." T'Pol said. "Apparently, we have discovered...'something new'."
Archer didn't miss the subtle, definitely un-Vulcan jibe, but she was right, and knowing that helped him make his decision.
"Resume course, full Impulse power. I'd like to see what a 'Null Pocket' looks like up close."
The Enterprise's officers went to carry out the Captain's order. As she resumed her station, T'Pol experienced that unnerving sensation again. If nothing else, Humans were consistently unpredictable...which of course was a contradiction in terms.
She might need to return to the homeworld for retraining after her tour on Enterprise was over.
Meanwhile, ten light-minutes away, protected by sensor wave distorting fields, a small ship watched Enterprise's progress as she resumed her heading.
"They're going on." One crewman said. "They're not even trying to go around."
The commander of the watch mission had expected that. These "Humans" were turning out to be just as problematic as the zorann had feared. He'd followed them on their excursion to the Klingon Homeworld and kept track as they met the Axanar. Each time they'd meddled in interstellar affairs, setting off a chain reaction in space relations that could undo all the hard work of his people.
Yet the Humans were about to make a classic mistake, one that might allow his people to conduct some rapid damage control.
"Let's follow them in." The commander said.
TBC...
