Chapter 3

            "Wow!  These pockets are very similar to the degradation patterns I studied at Daystrom."  The animate woman seemed very enthused with the project that Shelby had thrown in her lap.  Before either her Captain or Riker could voice objections she proceeded to spout of some of the research.

            "Lieutenant, what did we discuss last night?"  Tom fixed her with a glare.  "Get started.  I want a preliminary report in a couple of hours."  A second glare stopped the woman from making another comment.  "But not until then, dismissed."  He waited for her to exit herself before addressing Shelby.  "Are you sure that you wanted to do that Captain?"

            "If I had someone more qualified I wouldn't.  But she is one of the best in her field, in spite of her quirks.  There was also the vain hope that she would leave you alone for a while."  There was sympathy in her eyes.  "Tom believe it or not I actually understand what it is like to be in your position.  When I commanded the Exeter there were a lot of people who kept asking me about Mac.  I really got tired of it.  The difference here is I thought he was dead.  I admit it was a vain hope but at least you get a couple of hours of quiet before she starts again."  She never liked remembering that time of her life.  Not that she did not enjoy her stint as captain there, but between her grief of losing Mac and her own self discovery she often found that she preferred to keep her mind off of those six months.  "Tom admit I am impressed with how this past week has gone.  There are still enough similarities between you and Will Riker that I have to stop and think every time I want to talk to you.  But they way you have handled dealing with Rhiannon was very different from how Will would have.  Keep it up and the only problem you will have is the same  scenario that any set of twins have."

            "Thank you sir."

            "Now I have a question that might seem like an insult.  From these preliminary reports the area that we are heading for is riddled with these phase anomalies, most of them small enough to not be seen.  The pilot is going to have to be able to avoid them since we don't have an idea of what they would do to the ship.  My conn officers are good, but I don't think they are up to flying a bird this size through what is essentially a mine field, and the mines are smaller than escape pods.  The question is this, are you as good a pilot as Will?"

            "Yes, I am.  I am probably better than him now.  I got plenty of chances to practice, mostly in the bad lands.  I can get her in there."

            "Good.  We should have a reasonably good idea of what those things can do to this girl by morning.  I want you to get a couple of hours rest in the morning and then you are going to take the Trident in there.  Knowing the lieutenant we should have a very detailed report before your shift is over."  Eppy did not like the idea of asking Tom to do this.  The only pilot she really trusted in something like this was not even on this ship.  McHenry would be better suited to any condition where you could not rely on the sensors, or your sight.  But at best the Excalibur was two days from them and her instinct were telling her that she couldn't wait that long.  "You have the bridge.  I am going to bed."

              "Commander, I have the update you requested."

            Meyran's comment was the first she had made in almost three hours.  Until this point Tom had been enjoying what he felt was normal for the graveyard shift.  The conversations that had been passing around the bridge quietly had been innocuous enough.  Mostly the chatter that is normally exchanged by coworkers during a shift.  "Go ahead Lieutenant, but in concise words and no straying off the subject."

            "Yes sir.  But I am going to have to warn you that this will entail bringing you into it.  Sorry can't be helped."

            "Noted, just no more personal questions unless they have a direct bearing on what you have for me."

            "Aye.  Ok.  Right now everything we have seen hints to a quantum phase shift, nearly identical to what I have observed in transporter systems.  Very minute, say only  particles effected per million or so atoms.  It's only been a few years that we have been able to detect it.  And the degree of shift is similarly minute, .0057 percent.  This is so small that when a person is reintegrated both the pattern buffers and Heisenberg compensators miss it.  For something as complex as a person, it never amounts to anything and our normal regeneration process renders the change moot.  For it to even be detectable a person would have to transport several thousand times in a relatively short time.  And even then it most likely would not progress to the point where it would be seen on the atomic level."  She paused for a breath.

            "What does this have to do with either me or what's out there?"

               "Where it has to deal with you is that in your particular case I theorize that you were holistically out of phase by that same increment.  Since when your accident happened no one knew that you existed we can't be sure.  Being that little out of phase would not have been noticeable to you since it is close enough to our reality that you could interact as you would have even being in phase.  In the case of what we are seeing here, I think that something similar has happened.  From what I have gathered so far the data points to only a few particles per cubic kilometer of space.  I think that sections of space in this area are out of phase, and to the same degree that you were, which by the way should not be the case now.  As you have lived your new cells would have been in phase with this reality.  In what I have collected so far, the shift is apparently noticeable on the elemental level.  I can't be sure at this distance.  But if it is, we could have a very serious problem."

               "Just how serious?"  So far he had been impressed.  She had remained focused and had not drifted.

               "In the case of you, normal space would not be effected.  But in this case, What we are talking about is large enough to start a cascade reaction, which could most likely start to break the dimensional barrier down.  In an area the size of a planetary system which houses an Iconian gateway, it would be very bad.  If we are very lucky, the phenomenon is still in an early enough stage that we won't have anything to worry about, I won't know for sure until I can get really close to one of the areas."

               "Recommendations?"

               "We should be at the outskirts of the system in just over two hours.  When we get there I want to get near one of the larger pocket, I am going to say within transporter range, 40,000 kilometers or closer.  Then I can start to tell for sure what we are dealing with.  There are a couple theories that say something like this can be reversed, but we would need to know the exact cause before we tried anything."

               "Any ideas on that one yet?"

               "None that would hold water.  But everything looks like the whole area was transported."

               And Q thought me talking to Julianna telepathically was interesting.  He must be getting lax in his omnipotence.