CHAPTER ONE
Stardate: 247615.27
August 12, 2570: 14:00 - Starship Standard Time
The gentle rumble of the ship and her engines could scarcely be felt under his feet as the ship hurtled towards her destiny at six hundred and forty five kilometers per second, a velocity beyond the scope and realization of almost all humanoid species but yet a fraction of the speed the ship would be at in a short time. Captain Joshua Freeman scanned the bridge of his ship, the powerful USS Calypso, and looked and the men and women he would lead into this new venture, he shifted uncomfortably in the new bridge chair in which he was perched, surely it would break in with time and be more comfortable, but for now it was, quite literally, a pain in his ass.
The bridge around him was clean and slick, the three primary stations for starship operation (operations, tactical, helm and navigation), his first officer sat by his side, looking over her small console coordinating the crew and finally the ma science and secondary stations situated around the perimeter of the bridge where scantly manned as they were't greatly needed at this early juncture. This was just part of the many, many, dull moments of starship life where moments of enjoyment, wonder and excitement would be met with hours and hours of just staring at streaking stars on the viewscreen.
"We should be approaching Sector 35.12.40.12 soon Sir," called out the youngest member of his crew.
"Thank you, ensign," Freeman called out to appease the young helmsman, "Slow to impulse at your discretion when we arrive."
"Aye, aye sir."
"Commander, I'm going to make some rounds," Freeman said, simply to cover the fact he wanted to get up and stretch his legs.
His hardened Centaurian first officer looked up from her console, a very striking and alluring woman from a race of people who where a direct offshoot of human beings, probably best explained as being the Vulcans to the human's Romulans, though that was hardly fair to Romulans or humans.
Centuries ago when human beings made the first sub-light colorizations of habitable worlds in the Sol System, as well as extra-solar systems a group had terraformed and colonized a sub-M class planet in the Alpha Centauri system, Earth's closest stellar neighbor. Their colonization had come shortly before the harsher times of Earth's third world war, which played a large part in the colonist's desires to leave, in the ensuing aftermath the Centauri settlers and those on Earth lost contact and eventually grew to be effectively different species. Peaceful re-contact wasn't a problem but the Centaurians, after a fifty years or more of separation, had formed their own society, one more logical and peaceful than humans had acquired at that stage, though where not all that far behind.
Commander Helen Logan looked to her commanding officer, a man she respected, and simply said, "Yes sir. I have the bridge," she tended to be a woman of very few words and tried to avoid social situations with those who where not of her kind, a trait of her race.
She arose, her short brown hair tied back as per seldom followed or enforced Starfleet Regulations, and moved to sit in the stiff captain's chair which probably proved to be more comfortable to her than it did its intended occupant.
The turbolift doors opened onto the area of the ship called the Welcoming Atrium a large plaza-like area in the secondary hull adjacent to the main entry hatches. The three-story high room had large windows on either-side looking out into the blackness of space, plenty of benches and seating areas, a small cafe that was nothing more than a glorified replimat and the centerpiece of the room was a very large fountain, there where also a few trees here; a room that proved to be a good companion piece to the ship's arboretum several decks above.
Some members of his crew where mingling around here off duty, some were at the replimat café enjoying some drinks others were just sitting around getting to know each other after only a few hours of traveling, considering the long trip ahead of them it was probably an activity they'd get tired of doing.
Throughout the ship it had a very fresh and clean air to it and that "new starship smell" that few officers get the chance to enjoy, as serving on brand new ships was typically reserved for only the very best. Freeman stood at one of the windows, folding his arms across his chest, and stared out the windows into the infinite blackness. Millions if not billions of worlds yet to be explored in their own galaxy after only 400-some years of exploration barely a third of the Milky Way Galaxy had been explored or scanned but deep-space exploration it still occurred constantly and between the major powers throughout was also considered pretty well covered. No, with a sigh, Freeman had agreed after much convention from his superiors that it was time for humanity to try and explore beyond the bounds of the Milky Way and the new warp engines the Daystrom Institute designed would make that possible.
"You know what they say about a man that stares at nothing?" a familiar voice called from behind.
Freeman turned on it and saw an old friend of his and Chief Medical Officer, Doctor Venlar a highly unusual Romulan; a man who was probably closer to being human than he was Romulan but much of that was probably the beside manner he developed during his time in Starfleet as a doctor.
Venlar gave Freeman a stiff smile and walked up to him with an open hand which Freeman glad took and they exchanged a friendly handshake.
"I didn't see you at the welcoming, where were you?" Freeman asked with a friendly smile.
"Oh you know me, work, work, work," said through another stiff smile.
Freeman hadn't really cared that Venlar wasn't there when he first boarded back at dry-dock he tried to be a relaxed and opened minded person and have even requested that the crew not bother to even show up in dress uniform which everyone gladly did, accept for Commander Logan of course.
The two old friends stood at the windows looking out into blackness silently for a few moments until the warp-streaks coalesced down into stationary stars, the ship had came out of warp.
The quintagenarian Romulan looked down a Captain Freeman and patted him on the back, "Josh I've known you for almost thirty years and I don't think there's any challenge I haven't seen you face with conviction and determination, I can tell from your mood you're filled with self doubt and worry, but I'd be worried to go into this kind of situation with anyone who wasn't. filled with a little fear."
Josh smiled, "Thanks, friend, you seem to always know how to say the right things,"
"Call it a gift."
"Bridge to Captain Freeman," the voice of his first officer sounded over the intercom.
Venlar gave Freeman a nod a walked off, headed back towards sickbay.
"Freeman here."
"Captain, we've arrived at the Ryuni Warpgate, sir."
"Understood, Commander. I'm on my way up."
It was a floating halo in the blackness of space, deep in the galactic "middle of nowhere." A ring nearly two kilometers in diameter with but the smallest of cabins for its four-man crew that made intragalactic travel easier and less of hassle for countless starships in the aligned Federation. Conventional warp drives would mean a nearly 20 year trip from one end of aligned space to the other a trip not wholly appealing for routine travel, thankfully the presence of warpgates made that travel easier and bearable for all but exploration travel.
Back on the bridge Captain Freeman looked at the massive structure as it and the space around it seemed to float in the middle of the bridge courtesy of the holographic viewscreen, "Hail the warpgate."
"Channel open, sir."
His tactical officer sat at his station in the front of the bridge, looking over his console, Matt Laslow a young human who came highly recommended by his previous commanding officer.
"Ryuni Warpgate, this is the starship Calypso requesting permission to the rim."
"Calypso permission granted."
Barely a moment later the floating ring space flashed brilliant white and then a violent whirling blue tempest filled the center of the ring, a long tunnel between the layers of reality was formed paving the way for Calypso's destiny.
"Ensign, take us in ahead slow."
Calypso crept towards the vortex with caution and entered it followed by a bright-white flash. The ride through the vortex was as smooth as one could expect for an artificial wormhole but still very much safe; a constant rumble, a shake here and there but nothing to get too worried about. On the edge of the galaxy, just a few hundred kilometers from The Great Barrier was the other end of the warpgate temporarily parked there just for this mission, it opened up spitting Calypso out at great speed. The crew looked at the viewer with awe, not many got to see The Great Barrier, a swirling and mysterious cloud of energy that circled the galaxy's rim. Few had crossed it and crossing it usually was met with unpleasant results.
"Are the shields ready?"
"Yes sir."
"Good. Let's hope they work."
The ship had been outfitted with special shields just for the great barrier, it was hoped that Triangulum didn’t possess a different barrier and these same shields would suffice for any that might be there. There was honestly no way of knowing.
"Shields up and ready sir."
"Freeman to engine room, prepare to bring the IG Warp Core on line."
Down in engineering Lieutenant Commander Robert Doud was overlooking reports and analyses in his office overlooking the spacious main engineering compartment of the ship. Out his office window he could see the gleaming warp core of the ship with swirling blue clouds of pure energy in them. Doud was a man of few words and the words he used where precise and deliberate. He didn't want to be mistaken and he didn't abide by taken blame for being misunderstood which usually led to him coming across as slightly patronizing.
He stood up from his desk and headed for the stairs the led down into the main floor of the engine room and stood at the foot of the "pool table" in the middle of the room, a complicated holographic display of the ship and all of her systems. "Attention everyone!" he shouted out to his crew.
"Ok everyone, its time for our first official test of this drive system, I want all eyes on all monitors at the slightest hint of trouble I don't just want to know about it but I want ten solutions, understood?"
All of those under his charge shouted back in unison,
"Yes sir!"
"Okay then, get to work!"
Everyone swiftly broke from their attention stance and buzzed around the room getting things ready.
"We're entering the barrier now, sir."
"Thank you helmsman, take it easy. Science, what do you have."
Lieutenant Aubrey Chambers flicked her blue eyes and shook her curly blonde bangs out of her eyes, "About what we'd expect sir, the shields seem to be working no effects inside the ship."
"Sir, engineering reports the drive is ready at your discretion," Commander Logan said.
It was then the rumbling stopped and the pink swirling gasses faded from the viewscreen passing behind the ship, leaving nothing on it. No stars, nothing. Just some blurs of light in the most distant of distances representing the other galaxies in the universe.
The crew looked at the viewscreen slightly astonished at what they were seeing, they had just left the galaxy. Oh, sure, other starships had been here before several hundred years ago James T. Kirk had been out this far, the Enterprise-D this far and further just 80 years after that but it was hardly routine experience and no one on board had been here.
"Engineering, open the injectors."
Four dozen decks below him, clear in the back of the ship, a massive tank of one the more unstable naturally occurring materials was stored the substance in this tank had caused more destruction and deaths in the galaxy than any other known to modern sciences. It was a substance once banned by Starfleet and even now was highly restricted and reluctantly used as a power source, but science and progress rarely is beneficial to those who play it safe.
The injector ports that had been feeding deuterium into the warp core closed allowing for the introduction of the protomatter in this tank to begin trickling into shaft, decks above in main engineering inside the main intermix chamber of the warp core the dilithium crystals that powered the standard warp drive slid into a side-chamber and the trilithium crystals slide out another. Milliseconds later as the protomatter met with the antimatter, already being fed into the chamber, inside the structure of the crystals the warpcore came alive again, filling with a brilliant green light.
The entire deck seemed to jump from under everyone as the ship lurched from the incredible power now feeding its relays. Commander Doud looked at his computer, "Captain our power production is off the charts!"
The ship was still standing still at station-keeping but Freeman could tell that every rivet in the ship's being wanted to race forward like a targ in heat. Outside the ship the external components to the new drive system, the hollow ends on the warp nacelles, gave off their own light. Whether they wanted it to or not the ship wasn't willing to stay still for long.
A high pitched whine filled the decks of the ship, just enough to be mildly irritating.
"Captain, the plasma capacitors are filling up fast, if we don't engage soon we're going to have to shut down."
This was the moment Freeman, Starfleet, and humanity's dreams have been waiting for, the voyage into the truly vast unknown.
The explorer spirit filled Freeman's heart as he eased down into his chair and smiled at his first officer who even had to let one break from her stolid face a bit, "Captain, ship is ready at your command."
Freeman turned to his awaiting Helmsman, "Ensign. Engage."
The helmsman with a slight bit of hesitation pressed the appropriate area of her console and instantly all the power that had been building up in the ship's circuits for the last half-minute was released out the ship's engines, filling the interior spaces of the ship with a blinding white light.
