Chapter 7

The Event

Captain's Log Stardate 4523.4. Gerhardt Berg reporting. We continue our journey towards the edge of Federation Space in search of some mysterious signals. They appear to be artificial and of some intelligence but they were too degraded to make sense of. The Kongo has been dispatched to investigate. We are proceeding to the edge of Federation Space and possibly somewhat beyond. We have onboarded a guest; a post graduate student by the name of Ben Clarkson. He is of course somewhat stir crazy and I have had to have a couple of conversations with him about appropriate behavior with our younger female crew members. All in all, this should prove to be a quiet mission.

This will be my last mission with the Kongo. I am to be promoted to Commodore and assigned to Star Base 5 to lead up first contact missions. I am excited about the new adventure but I will miss this ship and crew. Some may disagree, but I consider this the finest ship and crew in the Fleet.

Captain Berg signed off from his log entry and looked around the ship. The mission was routine but everybody seemed to be at their post and attentive. The crew had learned enough to never take peace and quiet for granted. He thought briefly about the signals they had received. Not enough to try and interpret or translate, but enough to peak the Federation's interest. He suspected that some higher ups were trying to give him one more chance to make a first contact. He hoped they were successful.

"Commander, what is our status?" he asked the first officer.

"Optimal, sir," was the response. "We are proceeding at Warp 6 and all sensors are at maximum scanning for the signal. So far, no success."

"Well, it is never easy. Please advise Mr. Clarkson of our status and continue on. So, what do you think Assad? Any chance we find something new? I would hate to go out on a dud!"

"We, sir, are a ship of exploration. That usually means we don't know what we will find." He turned away with a smile. The Captain went back to his status reports noting that once again, he would not to speak to the young civilian about proper conduct on a Starship."

"Sir, do you hear something"

The captain looked over at Lieutenant Commander Scogaska and noted that the Andorian's antennae were twitching more than usual.

"No, what is it?" he asked. As soon as he said he noted that Lieutenant Rodriguez at the helm was suddenly looking uncomfortable. "Lieutenant…" he started when all of a sudden, he heard it too. It was very high pitched and pierced his skull. It was not really a sound. More of a feeling that seemed to grow.

"Report!" he yelled as the captain saw that the rest of the crew was suffering as well.

"Nothing on sensors. No indication of any audio signals that should be affecting us. I don't understand what is causing this." Answered the Andorian clearly agitated.

"Sir, there!" yelled Commander Hasan. On the viewscreen, several white balls of lights crossed in front of them.

"Scogaska?" he yelled.

"Nothing sir. No readings."

"Helm, full reverse course. Let's get out of here until we can figure this out."

"Yes sir!" Yelled the young helmswoman. As the shipped turned they noted on the screen something in the distance. It was far away but appeared to be enormous.

"Steer away from it!" Yelled the captain, "We don't know if its…"

And then he was not on the bridge. He was lying on a flat surface and his surroundings were completely white. There seemed to be a slight haze all around him. He looked down and saw that his uniform was completely white. He checked to make sure that his clothes had not been changed but he saw his Starfleet emblem and rank striping was intact.

"You are not the sons of Kobold," said a masculine voice in perfect English, "you should not be here. You cannot be here. You do not travel between the stars."

Captain Berg was disoriented but communicating was better than not. He stood and walked into the main area of the chamber.

"I am Captain Berg of the Federation Starship Kongo. We are a ship of exploration and, with all due respect, do travel between the stars. We came from very far away and have Warp technology which brought us here. We did not mean to intrude on your space and mean you no harm. Why did you attack us and take me prisoner?" He asked.

Suddenly a group of humanoids formed around him. They were also dressed in white and had veils over their faces. By human standards their bodies appeared to be female, but the seasoned captain had been around too long to make any such assumption.

"We did not attack you. We know that sometimes close encounters with us can be uncomfortable but he must decide what to do now. Count Iblis has caused this but we must make it right. The consequences otherwise are too high."

"Oh Iblis, he is a moron. In his desire for power, he has managed to turn space in this region on its head," the captain turned and saw a tall man with black hair and a smug expression on his face. He was wearing a captain's uniform expect his was still the correct color.

"Q, you are not meant to interfere with the Children of Earth for at least 100 years," admonished the white clad group.

"Well you're not going to let him remember anything anyway so what does it matter? I am not hear for him, we need to fix space before things get out of control."

Captain Berg tried to interject, "I am sorry I do not understand. Who is Iblis? Who is Q? What needs fixing? We have very skilled scientists who may be able to help…"

"Oh captain, I see that the arrogance I will see in Jean-Luc runs deep in the DNA of Starship captains. The damage which is done is beyond your ability to understand or even recognize. Not to worry, you have a while before our judgement of your kind begins. In the meantime, this ship of light and I will have to fix the damage that has been done. But there will be consequences and unfortunately, you are the one to pay the price."

"Judgement? Q right, what judgement do you intend to render on us?" The captain was growing more concerned by the event around him.

The mystery man scoffed and went to snap his fingers when the white collective said, "wait, they will be alone and helpless. There must be another way. They do not travel between the stars. This fight is not theirs."

"I cannot simply ignore the realities of the multiverse."

"We can move them to where there is hope. That is all we ask," cried the unified voice of the light.

"Very well. Now shall we…"

And Captain Berg was on the bridge. He thought he was somewhere else but he could not remember. He then realized the noise was gone. There was something, something important but he could not recall. It was like a dream that quickly faded upon waking.

"Captain, the noise appears to have completely disappeared and there are not anymore sightings of lights." Reported Scogaska.

"Okay, let's go to yellow alert and begin a full scan of the area. For now, I would still like to get some space between us and them until we understand what just happened. Reduce speed to Warp 4 and…"

Then the ship stopped. When a starship comes out of Warp there is a notable transition into normal space. During sub-space flight, inertial dampeners were needed even when they didn't always completely stop crew members from being thrown around. Even slight changes in speed were detectable by crewmembers. This was different. They were at Warp and then they were not moving. The lights went our briefly and came back on in emergency mode. The Captain recognized that the emergency batteries had just come on which alarmed him. He heard life support cycle as well as it was transferred to the last refuge of power the ship had.

"Report," he yelled once again.

His first officer was already talking to engineering and other staff. Scogaska was busy on his sensors trying to make sense out of anything.

After a minute, Hasan went back to the captain, "Sir, It appears that the entire dilithium matrix including spares have been blown out. The impulse fusion reactors are completely fused. It appears that long range scanners and sub-space communication are out. The only source of power are the batteries."

"Subspace," piped up Lt. Commander Scogaska. "Everyone of those systems touches subspace in some manner. I will investigate."

"Dammit," muttered the captain. "Okay, full damage assessment. Begin power conversation measures. We may be here a while."

"Captain," interrupted Kiko Rodriguez, "we have moved."

"What was that?" asked the Captain.

"The stars are different. We are not in the same place we were before."

The captain looked at the viewscreen. The helmswoman was right. The stars were different "But how is that possible. We don't travel between the stars," said Captain Berg without thinking.

"Excuse me sir," asked Commander Hasan perplexed.

"We don't trav…I am not sure. Something I think I heard once. Not important right now, Commander. We have work to do."