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| - "What do we know about the Cormai?" Aznia asked the question openly to her senior staff in the Federalist's briefing room. "The Cormai are an advanced civilization, but have apparently shown no interest in space faring technology." Lt. Atom informed the Captain, "The Romulans and Zakdorn have both visited their planet, but we will be the first Federation ship to make contact with them. Reports suggest that the Cormai believe they share their planet with another species called the Ketallians, but no evidence suggests that they actually exist." Quallo chimed in, "According to what I've heard, the Cormai will have conversations with people who aren't there. They will leave vacant places at meeting tables for the Ketallian to join them. They have an obsessive devotion toward these invisible counterparts, yet no physical evidence has even been presented that suggests there is anyone actually there. It's as if they have an entire society of imaginary friends." "Fascinating." Aznia responded, "Perhaps we can be the first to make contact with the Ketallian people as well." "Captain," Span interjected, "We have no evidence that such a race exists. Perhaps a more skeptical approach is warranted." "Skepticism is always healthy, Mr. Span," Aznia reassured the Vulcan doctor, "but if the Cormai insist that there is somebody there, I'm going to try to take their word for it. Our mission is to seek out new life, and this sounds like a fantastic opportunity. For the time being, I'd like us to operate with respect and open-mindedness toward the claims of the Cormai, however outlandish they may seem. Is that understood?" The crew nodded. "Alright." Aznia smiled, "A first contact mission is a nice change of pace for us. This is why we're all out here. Let's savor the opportunity and do everything we can to make a new friend. Dismissed." --- The Federalist arrived in orbit of the Cormai home world, "A hail is coming in from the surface." Quallo reported. "On screen." Deet stood from her chair. "Greetings," a tall, slim, grey skinned man stood in the left half of the view screen; his equally grey hair draped long and free from his head down past his shoulders. His appearance was quite humanoid, if devoid of any color. "I am Coadjunct Ooralin, Leader of the Cormai People." he gestured to the empty right half of the view screen, "This is Coadjunct Leatur, Leader of the Ketallian People." he smiled, toward the vacant area beside him, as if listening to someone speak." Aznia watched the Cormai leader carefully for an indication that he was waiting for a response. She did not want to appear to interrupt the Ketallian if they were issuing a greeting. "Well, Captain?" Ooralin suddenly cut in from the silence. "I'm sorry, Coadjunct..." she paused, rethinking her presentation. She turned to the vacant area of the screen. "I am sorry to say that we can not see or hear you, Coadjunct Leatur." she turned back to Ooralin, "Could you please repeat your counterpart's question so that I may answer?" Ooralin sighed, "This is most frustrating, Captain. Every visitor we get insists that there is nobody here when they are clearly standing right before us!" "I apologize if I've offended you, but I certainly don't wish to insist that nobody is there; only that I can not see them." Aznia reiterated, turning to the vacant side of screen. "I would like to learn more about the Ketallians, and to see if contact can be established between us." Ooralin nodded. "I appreciate that, Captain. Perhaps you would join us here. We'd love to have you and your crew as guests." "I look forward to it." Aznia happily responded. The grey man on screen simply nodded his head as the viewscreen cut out. Aznia turned to her science officer, "Atom, what do you make of it." "I am conducting scans of the planet surface, and the city centers seem to be populated uniformly with Cormai life signs. There are no indications of another sentient species." The Android reported. Aznia stepped behind the Android's station, peering over his shoulder at the console. "Atom, I want you to continue scanning this planet. Don't confine your scans to lifeforms. Look for anything unusual. I'd like a report of your findings by the time we get back." "Understood." The android confidently replied to the order. "Span, Quallo, I'd like you to accompany me to the planet's surface. Bring a class three medical tricorder. Let's see if we can get some close range scans." Aznia turned to her first officer, "Elsie, you have the bridge." --- The officers transported to the planet's surface and were greeted by Coadjunct Ooralin. "Thank you for joining us, Captain." He gestured to an empty space next to him, "Of course, no introduction is needed for Coadjunct Leatur..." Aznia gazed toward the empty space, doing her best to address the nothingness she perceived, "Hello. We look forward to learning more about your people as we visit. We hope this can be the beginning of a strong partnership... I hate to intrude, but would you permit us to conduct some scans of you, so that we can try to learn a bit more about why we can not perceive you?" Ooralin nodded, "Of course. You may proceed." Span removed his tricorder, "Please stand directly in front of me." he said to thin air. About 30 seconds of intensive scanning passed before Span closed the tricorder. "I detect nothing, Captain." he reported. The Coadjunct simply shook his head, "You're scanning for our kind of matter. The Ketallians exist in a different realm." "How do you interact with them?" Aznia inquired. "We see them almost as clearly as we see you. Frankly, I don't understand why outsiders can not perceive them." "Can you touch them?" Span asked. Ooralin shook his head from side to side, "No. Our matter passes right through them, just as their matter passes right through us. We have our own cities, our own buildings, our own things... but we share this planet. We communicate and share information. They are as much a part of our culture as we are a part of theirs." Span raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "Would you hold up your hand." Ooralin asked Span. Span obliged. "Five digits... interesting." The Coadjunct was momentarily fascinated by Span's Vulcan hand, holding his own four fingered hand up beside it. Returning to his train of thought, he continued, "Hold your hand behind your back so that I can not see it. Leatur will stand behind you, and will tell me how many of your digits you hold up." Span nodded, he held up one finger behind his back. "One." The Coadjunct correctly reported. Aznia raised and eyebrow toward Span, somewhat impressed. "I'm suspecting that wasn't just a lucky guess." The tour of the Cormai capitol continued, as they were surprised by the architectural style. It was as if pieces of structures were intentionally missing, as if another building would stand in a vacant space between two busy structures. Roads would end abruptly in places with seemingly no logical terminus. It was as if half of this society just didn't exist. As curious as it seemed, the inhabitants that they encountered were friendly, and seemed to appreciate the Starfleet officers' open mindedness. "Why hasn't your culture reached out into space?" Aznia asked the Ooralin. "The Ketallians have engaged in some space travel, but they have found very little of interest, we assumed there was very little intelligent life out there. Aside from mining expiditions, they've found little of interest. Of course, the Cormai can not travel in Ketallian ships, as we do not interact with their matter. We were actually very surprised when visitors began to arrive at our planet, as we assumed we were the only species in our region of space." "Would you like to visit our ship, Coadjunct?" Aznia offered. "It would be a great honor, Captain." Aznia tapped her commbadge. "Deet to Federalist, four to beam up." Aznia led the Coadjunct on a tour of the ship, they stopped at a crew lounge to appreciate the view of the planet below. "It's an amazing perspective to see one's home from above. I am so grateful for this opportunity." he stated in awe. "Perhaps you'd like to see..." Aznia was interrupted by a klaxon mid sentence. "Walesa to Deet, we're getting a distress call from a Romulan Science Ship on the outer edge of this solar system. "What are the Romulans doing here?" Aznia turned to Ooralin. Ooralin shrugged, "I know nothing about this." "Coadjunct, we'll return you to the planet before we leave to..." Ooralin interrupted, "I think this may be important business to my people. I'd like to accompany you." "Very well." Aznia tapped her commbadge "Walesa, lay in a course. I'll be right there..." --- The Federalist arrived at the scene of distress, a Romulan science vessel was being thrown asunder by a spacial distortion. Atom chimed in, "The Romulan vessel's singularity core appears to be destabilizing. The space around the vessel is being pulled out of phase." "Hail the Romulan ship." Aznia ordered. "Starfleet!" a Romulan Subcommander pleaded, "We've been drawn into a gravemetric distortion. We seem to be anchored here by a cross-focal point in the rift. We're losing structural integrity!" Aznia ordered, "Quallo, ready a tractor beam. See if we can pull them out of there." "I can't get a lock captain, the space around the ship is too distorted." Quallo responded. "How about transporters?" Aznia inquired. "We can't drop our shields! It's all that's keeping our ship together!" The Romulan subcommander interjected, "But if you fire a photon torpedo at the focal point of the rift, I think we can survive the blast and break whatever is tethering us here." "It should work, Captain." Atom answered. Aznia turned back to Tactical, "Quallo, prepare a torpedo!" "Wait, no!" Ooralin interrupted. "There are Ketallian mining ships in this area! If you start firing weapons, people could be killed." "Coadjunct, we need some way to detect those ships... quickly." Aznia insisted. "Let me access a communications array? I'll contact traffic control on our homeworld and have the position of their ships patched through to your sensors." "Dewoh, help him with that." Aznia nodded to the bridges rear security station. Span stepped up beside the Captain, lowering his voice. "Captain, we still don't even know that these people exist. It is illogical to endanger the Romulan ship by prolonging this." "Span, you saw the effect these people have. They did the 'number behind the back' trick for you. How much evidence do you need?" Aznia scoffed. "Many species have telepathic abilities. And some species have powerful imaginations that may allow the to collectively believe a delusion like this. There are many explanations for what we've seen. We need to work with the confirmed evidence we have. And we have no solid evidence to suggest that the Ketallian species exists." The Vulcan insisted. "We're patching through the Cormai transponder signals now Captain." Dewoh interrupted from the back of the bridge. "This is... not what we want to see." An overlay appeared on the viewscreen. One signal marker appeared directly within the phenomenon that was anchoring the Romulan ship. "The Romulans are tethered to a Ketallian ship?!" Ooralin exclaimed. "You can't open fire on them! There are 75 workers on that ship!!" "Captain, our shields are failing!!" The Romulan hailed, "Fire now!!" Aznia hesitated, briefly looking back at Span and shaking her head. She turned back to the Romulan mournfully. "We can't open fire, Subcommander. We believe there is another ship on the other side of that rift. Have your crew evacuate to transporter pads and cargo bays, so we can get a lock as quickly as possible when your shields fail." The Subcommander nodded to another officer, "This is unacceptable, Captain!!" the viewscreen cut out. A moment passed by, "Their shields have collapsed!!" Quallo shouted. "Beam them out! NOW!!" Aznia yelled just as the Romulan ship exploded. Everyone waited in silence for an eternal moment. First of Eight was finally broke the report, "We saved 94. But that ship had an expected compliment of 150." "The Cormai homeworld is reporting that the Ketallian mining vessel is adrift, but suffered no casualties." Dewoh signaled. The Cormai Coadjunct stepped up beside Aznia, "Captain, you've done everything you could've done. This is a sad day." "Span, I'll accompany you to sick bay. I'm sure the Romulan survivors will have wounded." Aznia lamented, stepping into the turbolift. Before the doors closed, Atom rushed into the lift. "Captain, I believe I know what is happening." the doors closed as the three officers discussed the situation. "Turbolift, hold." Aznia wanted an uninterrupted explanation. "I believe the Ketallian people exist... in a perpendicular universe." Atom explained. "Perpendicular? This sounds like something from a bad science fiction story." Aznia mocked. She rested her face in her hand a quick moment, "I'm sorry Atom, go ahead." "We assume that alternate realities travel parallel to our own. This is not always the case. Realities exist across multiple dimensions- beyond our own perception. Normally, two intersecting realities would not interact in any perceivable way, as they are fundamentally out of phase from one and other. But in this case, there is a link through space time." "What do you mean?" Aznia raised an eyebrow. Atom explained, "My scans of the planet turned up unusual gravemetric readings. The planet's mass could not account for the entirety of its gravity field. I believe at the core of their homeworld, there is a microscopic but stable black hole." "Wouldn't it consume the planet?" Aznia inquired, somewhat ignorantly. "Not necessarily." Atom continued, "If the black hole is linked in equilibrium to another black hole in the corresponding universe- two black holes occupying the same space and the same time in two different universes- we could see nothing more than a stable gravity field as an outsider. Anything beyond the surface of the microsingularity would be impossible to detect." "Fascinating. Then why are the Cormai able to see the Ketallians?" Aznia inquired. Atom shrugged, "I can not be sure without further study. It may be a result of evolving in such proximity to these unusual conditions. It may cause effects we can not truly predict." "Turbolift, continue." Aznia ordered. She turned back to her officers, "This is all fascinating, but I'm sure the Romulans will not accept this explanation." The turbolift arrived at deck four. As the officers stepped into the corridor toward sick bay, they were surprised to hear commotion ringing through the hallway. The Romulan survivors had suddenly turned on their Starfleet rescuers, and a firefight had broken out just moments before they stepped out. "Security to deck 4, the Romulans have decided to make this difficult!" Aznia accessed several phasers from a nearby weapons locker and backed up a security team that was fighting a group of Romulans near sickbay. "A ship for a ship, captain!" one of the Romulans screamed out, recognizing the senior officer. "You stood idly by while our ship was destroyed! For that we will take yours!" Aznia ducked behind a bulkhead for cover, "There's more to the story that you don't know! Stand down and we can work this out!" The disrupter fire continued, Atom took down two Romulans with precise shooting, but they were pinned back, outnumbered. "We need to hold them until security gets to this section." Aznia plotted, "Atom, can you evade their fire long enough to get into Science Lab 1?" "I believe so," the agile Android answered. "OK." she tapped a control panel on the wall. "I'm flooding Science Lab 1 with anethsizine. Lure as many of them in there as you can. Span and I will stay behind and cover you." Atom darted off down the corridor, diving out of the way of disrupter fire. Span picked off another Romulan. Once Atom disappeared through the Science Lab doors, two Romulans confidently chased in behind him. Four additional Romulans advanced on Aznia and Span. Aznia dove out into the corridor firing, knocking out another Romulan, but exposing herself in the process. Two Romulans drew a bead on the Captain. Just before they were able to fire, Atom reemerged from the Science Lab and stunned them both. "Nice shooting," Aznia breathed a sigh of relief. "Computer, status report!" "Weapons fire ceased on deck 4. Additional weapons fire detected on decks 7, 9, and 10." "Captain to all hands!" Aznia paged the entire crew, "Abandon the Delta section of the ship! Repeat, abandon the Delta section!" "Captain, is that wise?" Span warned. "We separate the Delta section, trapping a majority of the Romulans there in the process." Aznia explained. "I can lock out the command interface remotely. They'll be a sitting duck." Atom monitored from a wall console for a moment. He nodded to the Captain, "Delta section is clear of all Federation personnel." "Aznia to bridge, detach the Delta Section. Lock out all command functions for that section except life support!" The bulkheads whirred and the computer engaged a klaxon as several kilotons of tritanium broke away from the main mass of the ship. "Atom, can you detect how many Romulans remain aboard." The android tapped a query into the panel, "Fifteen. Three conscious and twelve unconscious." "Good. Dispatch security teams to clean up." Aznia lamented. "Take the Delta section in tow, let's get Coadjunct Ooralin back home." --- The Federalist returned to the Cormai home world with the Delta section in tow, Aznia met with the Coadjunct in the transporter room before he was returned to the planet's surface. "Do you have any idea how the Ketallian ship may have become tethered to the Romulan ship?" "Captain, I'm not a scientist. I'm sorry, but I'll have to refer you to our best people. I promise to have them overview everything that's gone on here, and we'll get back to you immediately. I can assure you, we are in your debt today." "Thank you, Coadjunct." Aznia watched as he was returned home. Aznia walked back to the bridge to handle the issue of the Romulan's held captive in the Delta section. "Hail them." she ordered. "To all Romulans aboard the Federalist Delta Section, you are under arrest for assault on a Federation starship under code 6, provision 14 of the Treaty of Bassen. You have the right to request arbitration, to withhold comment, and to speak to a representative from your government as soon as one becomes available. Do you wish to make a statement?" A Romulan Subcommander responded to the hail, "You are interfering with a Tal Shiar operation. We do not recognize the treaties signed by the Romulan Republic, as they do not represent our true Empire. As we speak, a Tal Shiar battleship is en route to liberate us and to continue our mission. Release the command codes for this section, and we will forego the execution of your crew." "Even if I feared your threat, there's not a chance that would happen." Aznia mocked, "So why don't you tell us what you were doing here?" "This area of space is full of microsingularities that exist on the other side of a spacial divide," The Romulan arrogantly confessed, "We hoped to tether one of our singularity cores to the countering microsingularities, in order to perform a controlled pull- one of our ships into the alternate universe. From there we can travel to another point, completely undetected, and set up stations to reemerge at will. This technology will make cloaking devices look like cloth camouflage." Aznia turned to Atom for verification of the theory. The Android nodded. "I understand what they are proposing, Captain. With such technology they would become invisible to every method of detection..." "These microsingularities... what are they." Aznia asked. Atom answered, "I would deduce that they are actually the power cores of the Ketallian ships. The Romulans would only need to prey upon one of them in order to establish their own network of singularity beacons." Aznia understood, "So the microsingularities... They're trying to artificially bridge the gap the same way that the Cormai homeworld did naturally." "Captain, we've got company!" Quallo warned. A D'deridex class Warbird emerged from behind a cloak. "Red Alert, Shields Up. All hands to battlestations." Aznia responded with surprising calm. "Hail them." Tal Shiar Admiral Sirol appeared on the viewscreen, "Captain our scans indicate you are responsible for the destruction of the I.R.W. T'Ken, and that you are holding several of her crew captive. We demand you release them and surrender to stand trial!" "We are not responsible! They were preying on an innocent alien ship, and were caught up in their own anomaly. We saved several members of their crew, who in turn attacked us. They will need to stand trial under the Treaty of Bassen!" Aznia obstinately insisted. "So they've divulged their mission?" Sirol scoffed, "Traitors." He tapped a control on his panel, firing disrupters and plasma torpedoes on the unshielded Delta Section, destroying it in a single volley. "It's gone captain, all hands lost." Quallo reported in shock. "You didn't have to do that Sirol!" Aznia shouted across the monitor. "Enough blood has been shed today!" Sirol shook his head, "You don't understand, do you? This empire has been handed one loss, one tragedy after another! This technology will restore us to prominence, we will again be the raptor of this galaxy... and I will not allow you to stand in its way!!" The viewscreen cut out as the Warbird maneuvered into an attack posture. They unloaded a barrage of disrupter fire on the Federalist. "Shields down to 74%, Captain." Quallo informed. Aznia focused her senses on the battle, "Come about 17 degrees. Target their maneuvering thrusters with plasma cannons. I want to be sure they can't pursue." The Federalist opened fire on the Romulan thrusters, "That's not going to do it. We'll need another pass!" En'thaas spoke from the Helm. "Come about, lets get aggressive with them! Get in close, another volley, fire at will!" She ordered. "They're venting warp plasma, we don't want to fly into that!" First of Eight informed. "Back us off! Do we have torpedoes ready?" Aznia inquired. Quallo responded. "I can give you at least one high yield torpedo right away." "Hold off just a second, focus cannons on their shield emitters. Let's get everything we can out of that big shot." "Captain, something is happening to the Romulan singularity core." Atom informed. Aznia shifted her attention to the science display, "The Ketallians! They've ensnared the Warbird! The Romulan power levels are dropping rapidly!" "Captain, the Ketallians won't survive if a Romulan Warbird loses singularity containment in close proximity," Atom explained. "They aren't going to make it." Dewoh mournfully stated. "Yes they will." Aznia insisted. She turned to her First Officer, "Elsie. Evacuate the crew to the Alpha Section. I'm taking the Beta Section into the distortion!" "What is that going to do!?" Walesa argued. "I'm going to push the Alpha section through to the other universe and beam the Ketallian crew aboard." Aznia explained the crazy last ditch plan, "It's their only chance." "Captain... you're going to get yourself killed." Elsie pleaded. Aznia nodded, "They were willing to do the same for us. I'll be damned if I'm going to withhold their only chance!" Everyone hesitated in silence for a moment. "GO! That's an order!" Aznia demanded. The crew snapped to their rapid evacuation plan. The Alpha Section retreated from battle, as Aznia manually piloted the Beta Section into the distortion. She manually adjusted for gravemetric variances as the ship passed out of phase between the two tethered artificial singularities. As the Federalist's Beta Section passed near the Warbird, the Romulan ship fired a disruptor with its dying breaths, taking out the starboard nacelle. "I guess that's it." Aznia thought as the Federalist veered out of control, and death seemed certain. "Ketallian vessel, if you hear this..." Aznia felt her skin tingle as a transporter beam locked onto her in the last moment before the Beta Section lost containment and exploded. She materialized aboard a strange small ship, that violently shoot beneath her feet as the shockwave impacted. "Captain! Welcome aboard!" The colorful pilot cheerfully exclaimed. "Two seconds... kinda busy here! The only way out is... THROUGH!" the pilot screamed as the small craft rode the shockwave of the Federalist's core breach through the singularity, and back into Aznia's universe. "I guess that's that." As the ship emerged from turbulent space, the crippled Romulan Warbird was released from the anomaly powerless and adrift. "Excuse me, you are..." Aznia asked. A golden skinned woman stood up from the single pilot controls of the ship, "Leatur." she extended her hand, her short multicolored hair disheveled after the intense battle. "I'll be honest captain, I didn't expect to make it out of that..." "Neither did I." Aznia chuckled before turning serious, "...but I'm not sure we can send you home." "New adventures, Captain. You saved 75 of my people today. The least I could do is sacrifice myself to save your crew. And it turns out I didn't even need to do that. I'm smiling if you're smiling." --- The Alpha Section of the Federalist came about, collecting the small Ketallian craft. Aznia shed a proverbial tear to see that the saucer was all that was left of her beloved Federalist. "They'll build you a new one." the gregarious Ketallian empathetically interjected. "And I do have a request about that." "Anything." Aznia nodded. "I'd like asylum... with this whole new universe to explore. Did you know that in our universe we're the only intelligent life in the vicinity? A whole galaxy with nothing happening. This place seems exciting!" Aznia smiled, "Of course. We'll be happy to give you every opportunity to succeed here, and you can always return to the Cormai whenever you like." "Oh, stars, no!" she lamented, "I was chosen as Coadjunct when I was only a kid! And Ooralin... talk about a wind bag... Nice man, well meaning, but you try working with him every day for most of your life! Getting out here... away from the bureaucracy, away from the life I had... this is a blessing!" Aznia grinned widely, her own struggles came to mind. Just a year earlier, her dream of joining the JAG corps seemed shattered. Today she found herself embracing new frontiers, and unexpected challenges. "You know what? You're right. It's a better life out here. But I am going to miss this ship." Span stepped into the shuttlebay to meet Aznia and the Ketallian Coadjunct. Leatur held up one finger in front of the Vulcan's face grinning widely, nearly chuckling. Span nodded coldly, but graciously at the friendly taunt. He turned to the Captain, "Starfleet has been filled in, Captain. We are ordered to report to the 40Eridani-A shipyards for decommissioning. Admiral Park would like a word with you immediately." Aznia stepped toward a console in the shuttlebay, Park appeared looking stern. Aznia attempted to explain, "Admiral, I..." but she was cut off... "There will be a lot of people talking about what went on today." Park stated authoritatively, "It's a stigma to lose a ship under your command... it haunts a career. But let's be very clear here, you're still standing aboard the Federalist. There may not be much left of her: a mast, a tattered sail; but you didn't lose that ship. I'm going to see to it that you don't... Effective upon the decommission of your Federalist, I'm issuing special dispensation for the fleet's newest escort, the U.S.S. Hestia, to be renamed the U.S.S. Federalist; and for you to take command as soon as she's through her shake down paces." "Admiral... I..." Aznia was speechless. Park cut her off again, "You've become a real leader, Aznia. Edinger would be proud. And so am I. You deserve the best. Park out." The screen cut abruptly to a Starfleet command logo. "You know what," Aznia turned to Leatur, "You're right... This place is exciting."
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