Chapter 4

Out of the frying pan and into the fire

Onboard the Illustrious as the black hole suddenly formed where the Romulan vessel had once been, chaos erupted on the bridge, orders given, tactics tried but to no avail they were being pulled in, a sudden gravity wave hit the ship, and within seconds most of the crew were incapacitated. Nathan Rothchild thought to himself 'I never thought it would be this way…… as blackness formed round him, slipping into darkness.

Cassandra slowly watched each crew member within the bridge pass out, until she was the only one left still functioning, looking at view screen she saw a formation of what her sensors told her was a black hole of some sort, but this was artificial. As she started to take more readings, time slowed down until everything simple stopped.

Somewhere in space a flash of light heralded the opening of a wormhole, it pulsed three times before it vanished, tumbling without power were three vessels, lifeless, drifting, one severely damaged, the other two showed the signs of battle damage.

Moving its way through space to its destination was the Thunderchild, an Omega class destroyer of earth force.

On the edge of sensor range a reading alerted the helmsmen that something, something rather strange had accrued.

"Sir" the young officer said as he looked towards Captain Hamilton, "I am reading some sort of anomaly a distortion of space, right upon the edge of our sensor range"

"What sort of distortion?"

"I'm not too sure sir, and at this range I can tell you very little, I would suggest that we get closer for more accurate readings".

"Agreed, helm takes us in"

With that the Omega class Destroyer, turned slowly and head towards the sensor reading, it would take a couple of hours to get there, time enough to prepare for what ever was waiting.

On the CNC deck the captain turned and looked towards the doors as they hissed open, in walked a member of Psi Corps, she was as normal dressed in black, hair pulled back in a tight pony tail.

"Yes Ms Parker, and what brings you to the CNC deck?"

Looking at the captain with an icy cold glare, she sighed and spoke softly, "Do I really have to answer that? As you know Sheridan's supplies sometimes come through this point en route to Babylon 5, we need to find them and stop them. I sensed something was wrong and we've changed from or original plans, so I came to find to what, after scanning you I notice its not because of any misplaced loyalty, but because of something more like a mysteries sensor reading, and I do so like a good mystery, so I think I'll stay on CnC to find out what's out there.

The captain inwardly sighed, this was all he needed, a member of Psi Corps on his command deck watching over things.

Meanwhile onboard the Illustrious, the bridge crew had started to slowly started to come round, the first up was the commander, who looked round at the rest of the ship, Cassandra's was standing motionless and flickering.

"Cassandra" called Seven, nothing no response, then she called again "Computer" again nothing she was starting to get worried, for the console in front of her was inoperative.

"Report" Nathan said as he started to come round himself..

"Computer systems all seem to functional, but we are locked out" reported the Commander, "it seems as if for some reason……"

Cassandra suddenly turned round looking at the commander and the Commodore; she left a brief smile play across her lips as she saw they were conscious.

"Sir, sensors are online, but the warp core and weapons are offline, main power likewise is online", said Cassandra as she looked into space for a brief moment.

"Sir I have two other things to report, one, we have a vessel of unknown origins heading this was, two the Astex is starting to come back online, as we are however the Starcroft is in a critical condition she could withstand being towed by a tractor beam."

Nathan started to pull himself together as he listened to the report being given to him by the ships AI.

More of the bridge crew had started to come round, a com channel opened to the bridge.

"Sir this is Lt Harrison, Warp core is down and will take approximately 30 minuets, as will the weapons and shield. However the armour plate generators are in full working order and ready for use if we need them.

"Commodore" Cassandra said looking towards him and the commander with a concerned look on her face, "Judging from scans of this area I feel we have a problem, for one I cannot find any Starfleet signatures or communications from anywhere, and for a second the quantum signature of where we are is different from our own, in effect I believe we are not in our own universe sir."

Stunned silence covered the bridge, for a brief moment no one said anything then the commander spoke, "Sir I have a visualization of what the vessel looks like."

"Very good on screen commander"

With that the image on the screen appeared, it was a long bulky ungainly vessel with a rotating section halfway down its hull, it was defiantly a warship of some sort.

"I would suggest scanning the vessel; however I approximate that the rotating section is to provide gravity" the command said with a hint of disgust in her voice.

"The Question is Seven, would you think they have been able to detect us?"

"I would say Commodore that they have detected something, whether it is our vessels or the means of how we got to our current location. Otherwise I would pose this question, why would they be on a direct intercept course?"

Nathan let that last question wash over him; it was interrupted when the Astex hailed them.

"On screen Lt Hanson", the bridge of the Astex appears its bridge crew working hurriedly.

Captain Amanda Folds stood up and walk forwards before she spoke.

"Commodore, we have taken some light damage here, but we too have detected the ship head our way, I'd like to beam over to the Illustrious to discuss our next plan of action."

"Very well Captain, let us say five minuets in my ready room?"

"Yes sir, I'll see you then"

With that the screen went back to the star field around them

"Commander, how long would you say before that vessel reaches our present location?"

"In approximately 1 hour 57 minuets sir"

In the ready room Commodore Rothchild was address the theories of how they got to wherever here was. Sitting listening to the theories was the Betazoid Captain Amanda Folds; she listened intently and then spoke.

"So if I have this right, we were thrown or sucked into this" she said gesturing with her hands, "Universe when the Romulan vessel, what imploded forming some sort of rift?"

"To be exact captain, it was by the looks and read outs from my sensors more akin to a black whole, but in the same was strangely different, for if it were a black hole, we would have been, destroyed, however, we are quite clearly here." Cassandra spoke softly.

"Commodore, Captain, we have a situation that is just over 1 hour and 47 minuets away, both of our ships are operational save for the warp drive and shields at this time, however the Starcroft is crippled, what is our course of action?" The commander said as she looked towards each of the members that sat round the table in the ready room.

"Commodore, I would suggest that we send over a boarding party to the star croft and find out what condition the ship is in."

"Agreed captain" Nathan said in a thoughtful tone; "I would much prefer to salvage her, however if not then I would suggest that we scuttle her after taken anything of value from her."

"Lt Harrison "Nathan spoke as he taped his com badge, "Take an engineering away team over to the starcroft and see what condition she is in, I want a report in thirty minuets"

"Understood Commodore" the Lieutenants replied

Five minuets later six people stood on the transporter pad, Lt Harrison was the last to step on she look round at the rest of the team, then at the transporter chief.

"Energize"

With that the buzzing of the transporter filled the room as the team vanished and materialized onboard the bridge of the Yorkshire class ship, the Starcroft. The bridge of the Starcroft was of an older style, Lt Harrison looked around, the consoles she was looking at, and others upon the bridge all seemed to be flashing showing multiple computer errors.

"T'vek, take Sam with you and get down to engineering and see what shape the warp core and impulse drives are in, I'm getting very little response from these consoles." Lt Harrison said as she scraped away debris that lay on the console she was studying.

"Of course Lieutenant" the Vulcan replied in a monotone voice.

The two of them headed for the turbo lift doors that lead off the bridge, surprisingly they opened, and they made there way over to engineering.

"Lieutenant, I think we've a problem here, it looks like the computer main core is starting a cascade failure, which would take a replace core, which we don't have readily available."

A bad feeling started to creep over Lt Harrison as she looked round this old ship; it was further complied with the report from T'vek.

It seemed that the warp core itself had started to depolarised and as such was pretty much scrap.

"Lt Harrison to commodore Rothchild"

"Go ahead Lieutenant"

"Sir, as you know the Starcroft has taken a real battering, and without a space dock it would be difficult to repair." She continued to inform Nathan about the computer and warp core's

A few moments later the away team vanished off the bridge of the Starcroft, and on the bridge

of the Illustrious all stood as Nathan spoke, "We've come from our home to here, wherever here is, in one peace all save for the starcroft, it was fortunate that her last mission as bate for the Romulan's she was under computer control. However the last mission took its toll on her, as she took far more damage then either the Illustrious or the Astex. It is with great regret that I now have to consign her to the history books. Cassandra, insulate the Starcroft self destruct."

Cassandra looked blankly ahead for a second then looked at the Commodore; "Self destructed set, please input your command code sir"

Nathan entered the code into the console next to him, as the Starcroft was shortly engulfed in flames as she blew herself apart. For a few moments no one said anything, and then Nathan looked towards the Commander.

"Commander scan the vessel"

On board the Thunderchild, the helmsmen that had first noted the strange energy reading suddenly spoke out.

"CAPTAIN, there has been a large type of explosion in the location of the first anomaly"

As the helmsmen finished talking the consoles and systems of the thunderchild started to fluctuate.

"What the hells going on? The captain barked

"Were being scanned, sir by something"

"Something, you'll have to do better then that!"

"I'm getting my scans reflected back at me; all I'm getting is sensor echoes of a ship, or two I think"

"Battle stations, the captain called increase speed; I want to see what the hell these things are"