STILL NOT IN KANSAS
by Soledad
Author's notes: For disclaimer, rating, etc., see Part One.
The Tenrakans are a so far nonexistent Delta Quadrant race, so Neelix' reference is irrelevant. The name has been created with the help of the famous T-race generator of the Ex Astris Scientia website.
PART TWO
Two hours later, they knew little more about the wormhole than they had known before. The readings remained contradictory and kept changing. However, the anomaly didn't show any signs of an untimely collapse, either.
"Fourteen hours left, if we can trust our calculations," Chakotay said quietly. "What are we going to do, Captain?"
Janeway shrugged, clearly not liking either of their choices. "Is there really a choice, Commander? Everything points to the wormhole leading straight into the heart of the Federation. It is stable enough to take a risk. Can we afford to miss this opportunity?"
"Not really," Chakotay admitted hesitantly. He had a bad feeling about the anomaly but no convincing arguments against the whole thing. "We are going in, aren't we?"
Janeway nodded. "We have to." She raised her voice a little to catch her chief helmsman's attention. "Mr. Paris? Plot a course to the entrance of the wormhole and go ahead. Half impulse."
"Yes Ma'am!" the blond pilot grinned in excitement. Long fingers danced on the helm console, then Paris looked back. "Course laid in. Half impulse ahead."
Voyager glided forth towards the disk-like entrance of the anomaly that seemed to be made of swirling golden dust. It was a beautiful sight – beautiful but also deadly, as they very well knew. Neelix and Kes, standing behind the captain's chair on the upper part of the bridge, gripped the railing with one hand and each other's hand with the other one. They usually wouldn't come to the bridge, unless asked, but this was something they didn't want to miss.
"Approaching outer perimeter," Paris reported calmly, modifying their course with feather-like touches on his control panel. Now everything depended on his formidable piloting skills. "Slowing down to one-quarter impulse."
Everyone held their breath on the bridge. Of course, they needed to slow down, unless they wanted to run into one of those violent gravitation eddies that had destroyed two of their probes just hours ago. But slowing down also meant that Voyager would be exposed to the destructive powers inside the anomaly longer. Still, there was nothing that could help that. They had to go through.
"Computer," Chakotay said in a controlled, even voice, "give me a visual at bearing three-two, mark two-eight-seven, range thirty-two hundred kilometres. Magnification: twenty per cent"
The display on the main viewscreen wavered and changed to a closer look of the anomaly. It looked like a hole in space, filled with golden fire, flaring around its perimeter. In its heart, there was a dark tunnel, however, and that was exactly where their course led.
"Sensors are picking up unusually high proton counts," Kim reported, frowning slightly at the data on his monitors.
"Could it be chrondrite echoes?" Janeway asked. "We are in the middle of an asteroid belt, after all."
But Kim shook his head, working his panel with both hands, checking multiple readings. "No, Captain. At least I don't think so. The neutrino disturbances are getting stronger as we approach the anomaly. In fact, these readings are very similar to those you can get when approaching the Bajoran wormhole near Deep Space Nine. Except…"
"Except what? I need answers, Ensign!" Janeway barked.
Kim glared at his monitors in disbelief. "Captain, something is very wrong here. A type-139 anomaly shouldn't emit chronotron particles. But this one does."
"Chronotron particles?" Chakotay groaned inwardly. Oh no, anything but time travel! "Captain, we have to reverse engines, now!"
But before Janeway could give any orders – or even think of one, for that matter – Voyager lurched forward violently, straight into the maw of the anomaly. Everyone, even Paris, was forced to shield their eyes from the sudden outburst of light when they were helplessly pulled into the wormhole.
A moment later Paris recovered from his initial shock. He blinked several times, clearing away the afterimage, then turned to his control panel – finding the readout screens dark.
"Sensors aren't functioning," he reported with infuriating calmness. "I'll have to fly by visual aid only. A good thing that the bridge has these great big windows."
"We are dead," someone from the back stations murmured tonelessly. Panic began to flicker through the bridge crew.
"This is only a temporary failure," Kim hurriedly stated, working furiously on his console, while Tuvok did the same on the backup systems' control panel. "Switching to auxiliary sensors… now."
The screens flickered back to life, even though the displays were a little blurred along the edges. Voyager shook heavily, the quickly changing gravitation fields tossing her like a nutshell. Several crewmembers already began showing first signs of space sickness and stumbled away from their stations. Paris, however, was rooted firmly in his pilot's seat, leaning lightly forward, his moving surely, steadily over his navigation panel, his eyes gleaming with excitement. Apparently, he was the only one insane enough to actually enjoy the ride.
Voyager lurched again. Chakotay gritted his teeth and clutched the armrests of his seat so that he would not catapult onto the lower parts of the bridge. He asked himself, how long the hull would be able to withstand the violent gravitational pulls that battered the ship from all sides. As a skilled pilot himself, he found it hard to sit passively and let someone else do the work, but he had to admit that while he was very good, Paris certainly was even better.
Slowly, deliberately, the ship righted herself. The screens flickered. The main viewed dimmed, then brightened again – this time with the welcome sight of stars.
Janeway released a sigh of relief and looked up to Kim's station. "Ensign, can you verify our coordinates?" she asked.
"I'm trying," once again, Kim worked furiously for about twenty seconds, then replied in obvious surprise, "Captain, there is a binary star system, approximately forty thousand kilometres ahead. It contains a single G-class planet with a small moon. The computer identified the system as Epsilon Eridani 3, so the planet must indeed be Epsilon 3."
"In which case we should be in communications range of Starbase 80," Tuvok added with a slight frown.
"Try hailing the Starbase," Janeway ordered.
"No answer, Captain," Kim replied, after several tries. "I can't even discover any comm traffic on any of the known frequencies."
Janeway shook her head in disbelief. Starbase 80 was one of the huge space docks built at the end of the 22nd century, and – together with several identical ones – thoroughly overhauled a dozen times ever since, so that it looked brand new to the inexperienced eye. Drawing its energy from the large molten core of an E-class planet on the outskirts of Vulcan space, it was practically an independent city in space, with a population of over 25,000 – Vulcans, humans and dozens of other Federation species. It was impossible for such a large space port to go without communication even for minutes. Unless of course… unless the Starbase wasn't there anymore – or yet.
"Scan for any artificial structures within sensor range," she ordered.
Both Tuvok and Kim jumped into action, and this time it was the Vulcan who produced the results first.
"Captain, there is a structure in stationary orbit on the other side of Epsilon 3," he reported, "and I can also locate some highly unusual energy readings near it. Unfortunately, as long as we are in the shadow of the planet itself, we cannot get any visuals."
"Then it's time for us to take a closer look," Janeway said. "Mr, Paris, follow the sensor data and approach the structure slowly; one quarter impulse. Keep warp engines ready, so that we can use them immediately if necessary."
"Yes, Ma'am!" the pilot slowly, carefully let Voyager slide from behind the planet, and some ten minutes later the structure finally appeared on their main viewscreen.
"By Kahless," B'Elanna Torres breathed in awe; the fact that she referred to the mythical hero of her mother's people clearly showed her shock – she only did it in the most severe cases. "That thing is huge."
"Exactly five miles long," Tuvok said matter-of-factly. "It is divided into separate sections, that rotate at different speeds, most likely to provide different gravities for those who live on it. I believe it is safe to assume that the builders of this… structure did not have the technology to create artificial gravity."
"Is there anything similar recorded in the Federation databases?" Janeway looked at Paris as the most likely source of that sort of information. The pilot shook his head.
"Not even anything remotely similar, Captain. I've never seen anything like that."
"Well, it does look like a Tenrakan sausage," Neelix commented cheerfully.
Paris shot him a dirty look and replied to Janeway's inquisitive eyebrow. "Trust me, Captain. You don't want to know."
Janeway wisely gave up to ask any questions. The things Neelix found gastronomically stimulating could be disturbing at best to any other species. She had no doubts that Tenrakan sausage belonged to this particular category.
"Scan for lifesigns," she ordered instead.
"Sensors register two hundred and fifty thousand sixty-eight lifeforms," Kim reported, perplexed.
Everyone caught their breaths in astonishment. A quarter million people? That must have been one of the hugest starbases ever!
"Are they recognizable?" Chakotay asked.
"Some of them," Kim replied. "There apparently is a numerous human population on that thing. The other species are completely unknown. I can register more than a dozen different ones."
"A dozen or so unknown species in Vulcan space?" Samantha Wildman, currently manning the science station, wondered. "How is that possible?"
"It is not," Tuvok answered seriously. "Unless, of course, we are not in Vulcan space at all."
"But the instruments verify that we are on the right coordinates," Kim protested. "I have checked it twice. This is Vulcan space."
"These might be the right coordinates," Tuvok said, completely unfazed by the enormity of their situation. "But I very much doubt that this is the same universe."
Before anyone could have reacted, Paris looked up from his control panel.
"Captain, we are hailed by that… that station. The call is on a completely unusual frequency and coming in through the navigation computer."
TBC