“Protraction”
written by David Moody
Captain Lenti Utex

The air in the lift was oppressive and putrid with the awful redolence of burned Vulcan tissue. Lieutenant Sito’s face screwed up as she impatiently awaited the arrival of the lift to her proposed destination. The odor malodorous air reminded her strongly of a Cardassian chamber she had once been ensconced in, shortly after her seemingly untimely disappearance from the crew of the USS Enterprise. She had spent several days in small cramped spaces where Cardassian adjutants had spent decades pursuing their standard interrogation processes, most of which were certainly enervating, when not downright malignant.

=/\=

Under the expert hand of Lieutenant Talnar Ray, the Victory carefully climbed up from the sterling cerulean deep. In the last few seconds, it seemed as if the pressures and forces within the phenomenal marvel seemed to compound the vessel’s forward thrust, spewing them forth like an interstellar eruption.

Kennit found that she had never been so enthused to see the stars in all her life. She covered her mouth trying not to inhale the sable vapors emitting from the panel before Lieutenant Ray and dropped to one knee beside the man.

The Bridge crew spent several moments reorienting themselves, calling out damage reports to the Executive officer and reinitializing vital control systems and pathways.

Lieutenant Sito emerged from the aft turbolift, her nose bridge seeming to have crinkled more than usual, and headed directly for her post, the helm console, which was oddly pristene in comparison to its heavily damaged counterpart, the erstwhile operations station.

Lieutenant Ray abdicated the helm console to Lieutenant Sito and moved to stand behind Commander Kennit, his hands folded before him.

“So had anyone found out what exactly that was in there,” Sito asked.

TogHa turned to Sito from his position at the erstwhile operations console, “Not yet,” he grumbled softly.

Commander Kennit stood and peeked backward toward Lieutenant Ray. “I think perhaps we’d better try to find out before Captain Utex gets back,” she advised the bridge crew. “He’s likely to want the same answers I do when he gets back up here.”

Sito nodded, already reconfiguring the viewscreen to decay particle densities and increasing magnification to better view the area the Victory had just ejected itself from.

TogHa leaned over to Sito’s console and pressed an azure section of the forward port quadrant, and spoke lowly into the console, ordering the science and engineering teams to fabricate a replacement for the burned out operations console.

Kennit saw an image begin to crystallize into focus on the forward viewscreen and immediately recognized the odd structure that had been within the strangely extant sterling obfuscation. “She turned to her seat, stepping lithely around Lieutenant Ray, who followed her to the command bench and sat to her right shortly after the Commander. “Communications,” she said lowly, vista still attended to by the gauzy figure Sito was trying to resolve into focus on the main viewer. “Send a message to Starbase 416 that we may be late,” she advised.

Commander Revos quickly input the message Kennit had relayed, and told her, “Message en route.” He leaned heavily on the console. “May I advise caution exploring this unknown phenomenon,” he suggested, not having heard the lift doors sweep open behind him.

“No,” Lenti Utex told the man as he entered the Bridge from the aft turbolift. Barely noticing Kennit and Ray’s quick shift to the right, he moved toward the center seat of the bridge. “Revos, I want you to devise a method for us to move back into that cloud without injury,” he said.

Cadet Tal spoke up, “I may have some suggestions for you Commander,” she told the Security Chief. “Sending to your console.”

Utex whistled just before he sat down, only just noticing the squat, flat object on the screen. It was still shimmering into sharp reality, as Sito manipulated her console with years of expertise backing her up. It was large and flat, a rend in space that was bordered by a sharply silver, smooth frame. Within it’s depths, the space beyond seemed changed, as if it were a sort of doorway. Beyond the doorway was clear, open space.

“You all have three hours,” Utex whispered. “Then we’re going back in. I want to see what that is.” He saw, out of the corner of his eye, the operations console, and concluded, “Get that panel swapped out,” he told TogHa, then turned to Commander Kennit. “Let Starbase 416 know we’re likely to be a bit late,” he told her, eyes wide.