Sirens

Peator sighs at Worwynd's hot-headedness as he urges ZeaDar to try and corral the Squadron into a less dense area of the cloud. For some reason, the Quill is able to slowly manoeuvre without getting stuck. Peator checks in with the other pilots, then turns his attention to contacting Sentinel. It would take all his concentration to reach through the cloud and find the mind of the Commander. Despite many years of training, it is the third martial art, Far Eye, he has always found the hardest. Peator empties his mind and blurs his focus, allowing the fierce lines of concentration to slip from his brow as he looks for the Commander's thoughts.

'Commander Pierce, I am trying to manoeuvre the Squadron together, are you able to blast this cloud of whatever it is, to clear a path for us to escape through!'

'Ahh! Peator! You are all alive? Thank the stars! What channel are you on and I'll put you on the bridge comms! Is anyone else getting this?'

The rest of crew stare slightly bewilderedly as Commander Pierce suddenly starts talking to himself.

'There are no communication messages coming in?' Swayla asks, alarmed at the Commander's sudden imaginary conversation, wondering if the stress of the situation is too much for him.

Too late Pierce realises the voice he is hearing is not over his communicator.

'Peator?' he asks tentatively, 'Are you still there?'

'Yes, Commander, I am sorry I should have warned you, I am using one of my Master Arts, the Far Eye. To keep it a tactical advantage, I do not readily reveal I am able to reach into people's minds. But there seems no other way. Perhaps you could think your responses?'

The Commander shakes his head and announces to the crew and the cameras, 'I'm sorry I thought I heard something, must have just been interference from the entity!'

Peator watches the Commander's thoughts as he explains their reasoning about the nature of the entity and how it is at rest outside the space station.

'It would explain how ZeaDar can still move while the other craft are stuck fast, Quills are very greedy, it is consuming the cloud as foodstuff as fast as the cloud can convert the movement into energy. But if the cloud is as large as you say, Commander, it would take a great flock of Quills to eat through it and as far as I know, ZeaDar is the only one in this quadrant.'

Something occurs to the Commander and Peator smiles at the thought and retreats from his mind as Pierce swivels gently in the low gravity and quizzes Numbers on his idea.

'What if this entity was a.. a foodstuff? Like plankton in an ocean, which somehow ended up inside the wormhole, growing gargantuan without its natural predator to keep it under control? A sort of deep space algae bloom? All we need to do is find something to eat it faster than it can absorb energy.'

'Algae blooms? I have information on these phenomena, I shall scan the Borg database for a suitable creature...' But before Numbers can retrieve any information the viewscreen starts to expand further as remote cameras detect movement beyond the station and the entity.

'What is this now?' Swayla lets go of the handrail and floats towards the viewscreen, trying to make sense of what they are all seeing. Far off, deep into space are what appear to be ripples. As though a thread is being pulled in a cloth, distorting the distant stars and wrinkling their light. As the ripples move closer, what at first seemed to be a single wave is, in fact, a giant shoal of some kind of creature she has never seen before.

Numbers breaks the awed silence on the bridge by announcing, 'Ah, I have it, Commander, what we need are Star Sirens. A rare phenomenon, more myth than reality. But according to the database, theses ancient, roaming space creatures absorb energy, normally in form of starlight and convert it for their own use. There are stories of marooned spaceships being rescued by them as they pass by, in large shoals of...of...'

'Ripples?' Pierce asks pointing at the viewscreen. Numbers looks up from his scanning and watches for a moment, then nods.

'Yes, like ripples, Commander.'

The camera crew on board the bridge of Deep Space Sentinel keep filming as wave after wave of Star Sirens roll through space towards the entity. Across the Federation people watch in wonder as the first scientific sighting of this rare space creature is observed by millions. To begin with, they are barely visible but, as they near the cloud, their individual shapes can be seen.

'Like whales!' Jones exclaims as the barely visible hulks glide up to the cloud and engulf it.

Across the screen streaks of energy spark through the Sirens, illuminating them like lightening, as they absorb the energy stored in the entity. Soon the whole screen is bathed in the most extraordinary light, so intense the crew have to shield their eyes and look away. Then, almost as quickly as it started the light is gone and the viewscreen returns to normal. Where the entity had been is now only space and the squadron, grouped together in formation in front of the Bridge. The external monitors on the station track the departing Star Sirens as they move on, a great wave across the galaxy, leaving nothing but an aurora of light, gorgeous greens, golds and purples, in their wake.

The Commander watches the sirens depart, his mind filled with a sense of profound wonder. Clearly Deep Space Sentinel was going to be a whole new kind of experience as he smiles and shakes his head. He calls through to Engineering. 'Chief, can you fire Sentinel up and get us moving again?'

'Of course, Commander. Gravitational rotation underway.'