A piece of History (FT, OPEN)

[Species and Cultures]

NX-04 Discovery
NX-Class
Unknown Space
12th Febuary 2401 (Federation Reckoning)

The tiny NX-Class starship tumbled as it was spat from the violent spatial anomoly that had sucked them in. Slowly but surely the ship's crew regained control of their wayward starship and returned it to a normal attitude. Cruising slowly away as the golden vortex closed in on itself leaving them in the bleak darkness of space. As she pulled herself back to her feet, the commander of the NX-04 looked around the dimly lit bridge as her bridge crew did the same thing.

"Ok, what in god's name was that?" Captain Eveleyn 'Eve' Jackson asked as she returned to the captains chair in the centre of the bridge.

"Space-Time Vortex" Lieutenant Jenny Suel replied as she ran her fingers across her console.

"Time? That's just what we need" Eve muttered "Any idea where, or should I say, when we are?"

"Negative, none of the stars corrolate with our Star Charts"

"Damn" Eve mutted "Send out a general distress call on the Standard Frequencies, someone out there might be listening"

*********

An hour later Eve found herself being recalled to the bridge, she had taken the spare time to head down to the Medical bay and get her broken arm put in a sling to start healing. But she wasn't about to allow that to stop her commanding her ship. Returning to her seat she looked around. Like her the rest of the crew looked ragged and like they had been through hell, which in many way's they had.

"OK, what's so Important?" Eve demanded.

"I've got a Vessel on an Intercept course, nothing in any of the Databases" Lieutenant Commander Nathen Brooks reported from Tactical.

"Tactical Alert" Eve ordered "Polarise the Hull plating and charge the weapons"

The NX-04 came about just in time to watch as the much larger starship dropped out of warp and cruised towards them. Consisting off a large saucer section and an oddly shaped secondary hull, as well as huge Warp Naccelles, particually when compared to the one's powering the NX-04.

"Can you identify it?" Eve asked.

"There is writing on the hull all over the place, give me a second" Brooks replied before bringing up a series of text on the port side of the ships secondary hull "United Federation of Species and Culture Starship U.S.S Excelsior NCC-2000-A"

"It's in English?" Eve asked.

"Yes sir, we are being hailed"

"On screen"

Glancing towards the viewscreen, Eve watched as it flicked to show the busy bridge of the ship in front of her. In the centre a tall, brown haired man sat in what she assumed was the Captains Chair.

"I am Captain Jackson of the Earth Starship Discovery, please identify yourself, your ship is unknown to me"

"Captain Jackson, this is Captain Thomas Reynolds of the Federation Starship Excelsior, , with respect Captain, how did you get here, you are several hundred thousand lightyears and over two centuries from where you should be?"

"We're what?"

[Species and Cultures]

BUMP

[G-Tech Corporation]

Planerider Exelith
Status: Belowspace Coordinates 554RT-677CV

Techsin Falvia grimaced lightly. Around her in the Core servitors and fellow Techsins and Aviats hurried to and fro. They were conducting what could be described as.... unorthodox research. Many of the civilizations would deplore their actions, but in the knowledge came the quest.

The heart of the ship pulsed gently, ripping the fabric of that chaos know as Belowspace slightly. They were not going up though, back to the real plane of existence, but down. In the swirling colors of the Underrealm, those macabre reds and pinks and blues, a deeper crimson rift opened. It was not the customary black of the void in the Overworld, but a new space, unknown to all but a few. The blood-red maw dripped with the temptation of discovery, and danger.

The experiment was a success, but now, what to do?

She consulted again quickly with her colleagues, thousands of thoughtpulses exchanged and debated between the few hundred beings on board this vessel and the Cognati, and then she took the Planerider in.

As they breached the gap, a violent shuddering racked through the ship. Servitors fell like helter-skelter toys, and the Exelith was shaken from stem to stern of its enormous planet-sized bulk.
Around them glowed the deep violet and red of this new realm, and the rift began to close behind them.

Then, with a bang, the Core stopped. The craft was slung like a stone back out into realspace, hurtling end over enormous end.

Where were they, and when were they? Only time would tell.

[The Floridian Coast]

Iceblazer D36
Status: Returning to Homeworld Europa through Wormhole Zed Alpha 5


"What's our ETA?" asked Marshall Erik Bryce. His primary navigator ran some numbers through the ship's mainframe. Ensign Atho Jenta replied "In our time, about 4 hours. Sit tight. Open up the drinks, I suppose." "I'll save it for when we're home." Bryce replied.

Marshall Bryce made his way to his suite. He was the leader of an official expedition by the Europan-Titan Union to survey their most distant colonies. Many human citizens long ago were offered the chance to pioneer planets at the edge of known space. They were told, officially, that it was to ease overpopulation and expand the Union's borders and security; they were also given large amounts of wealth for it. Truthfully though, these planets were hand-selected for a reason. All of them laid within reach of strange phenomena, and with the advent of perfected time travel, generations of evolutionary mutations could be allowed to occur and reported back to Europa in Standard Time. Some results were successful, the residents of Planet 5 of Pulsar XX76Q had stunningly long life spans of 650,000 solar years on average. With the age of humans on the homeworld settled at 400 solar years, the genetic samples collected would be scientifically paramount. It would also stir much controversy and descent to develop these genetics - expanded life spans on a small scale had already contributed vastly to overpopulation.

Other colonists did not fare so well. There was no sign of any existence in any of the quark star colonies. Those on increasing gravity planets like Leviathan had mutated grotesquely. They crawled now, with their backs protruding massive exoskeletons. They had degenerated into substandard intelligence and had formed into warring tribes with no memory of their history. The Marshall was to recommend humane extermination.

Down at the controls, Emyra Radi was responding to an alert from handheld hyperprocessor. "Atho, get over here from a second." she called to him. The navigator took one more look to confirm everything was on the right course, and approached his colleague. "What do you need?" he asked her. "Something is wrong with my readings." Atho glanced at the strange readings.

4.....987.....35.....4593241568534337845246744...4...988...4...987.....23....3......987.....4

Atho jogged over and brought over a droid to run diagnostics. The small machine drilled its extensions into the hyperprocesser. As it glowed green to begin diagnostics, Atho and Emyra tried to wonder what was happening. "Hyperprocessors don't break" Emyra said out loud "We're passing through the fold, so there should be a reversing sequence, and no repetition at all." She asked the droid for its report. A monotone AI voice replied "Readings are correct. Hyperprocessor functions with precision."

Then they were blinded by flashing light. Green, green, blue, ultraviolet (Emyra had the eye modifications to see in ultraviolet, though her colleague did not), and they felt their vessel shake.

They woke up from a deep sleep on the floor of the deck. The Marshall came out with many of his soldiers and scientists crowding around to see what happened. "Where the hell are we? What just happened?" Emyra helped herself up while replying "A long series of anomalies, sir."

Their ship's window-guards for the wormhole automatically disengaged, and they found themselves next to two ships. "Who are they?" Bryce demanded impatiently. Atho was able to identify them as "Discovery" and "Excelsior". "One of them is hailing us now." said Atho. "This is Captain Thomas Reynolds of the Federation Starship Excelsior" the man spoke to them. After the formalities of identification, Captain Reynolds then asked "Why are you present here?" "We don't know." Marshall Bryce replied solemnly. "Nor does Earth Starship Discovery." said Reynolds back, almost with a tone of suspicion. Trying to phrase his next question scientifically correct, but lacking the words, Marshall Bryce just asked "What... year is it?"