Mission 3

[Amanda Rose]

Mission Date: June 29, 1863 1004 hours

Chad made his way through the empty countryside and came close to the
presidential quarters of Gettysburg Seminary. Inside, the Schmucker
family was getting prepared to evacuate. The rest of the campus was
basically deserted. The young men studying for the pastoral ministry
vacated the premises when they heard the rebels were coming.

A young woman came out of the house carrying two buckets of water.
"Excuse me, ma'am," Chad said with his best attempt at hiding his
Hispanic accent, "could you point me in the direction of the
president?"

"Father's in there," she said, pointing to a small study.

"Thank you," Chad smiled in return.

Chad followed the young lady as she introduced him.

"I'm sorry, sir," she said. "I didn't get your name."

"Baker," Chad said, "Alexander Baker, from Harper's Weekly."

She sighed. Maybe there were too many reporters floating around these
parts. Maybe she didn't like the paper. Whatever the reason, she
didn't seem too thrilled with that informaion.

"A Mr. Baker is here to see you, Father," she said to the older
gentleman sitting at his desk. "He's a reporter from Harper's
Weekly."

The older Schmucker eyed him with an air of suspicion for a moment.

"President Schmucker," Chad said quickly, "you may be wondering why
I'm here. It's a fair question since I hear the rebel army is
advancing this way. However, I'm working on a series of articles for
the Weekly to give a fresh perspective on the war. I'm going through
the border states and getting the opinion of the great religious
leaders in the areas affected most by the fighting."

"I really have no time for this, young man," the older gentleman said.
"The Confederate army is breathing down the neck of this great
theological institution. I'm not even sure God could stop them from
terrorizing this hallowed ground."

Chad nodded knowingly. "I guess I can come back if I'm back in this
direction again in the future. I would really like to get a Lutheran
perspective on this war, but maybe I'll just have to get one from
Tennessee or Missouri."

Schmucker huffed noisily. "If you're that desperate for a story, go
ahead. Tennessee might give you a chance, but I doubt you know
German, son. That'll be a hindrance trying to talk with the Missouri
folk. Not a one of them speak English."

Chad smiled. "I'll remember that if I ever make it that far. I'm
sorry I've wasted your time with this. If I may have your permission
to call upon you again once the army is through ..."

Schmucker nodded and waved at Chad dismissively. Chad nodded and
turned to head out the door. As he exited the study, Chad thought he
could hear Schmucker mumble, "Heathen trash. Both the rebels and the
muck-rakers."

Chad thought he should call the older gentleman on it, but he decided
that wouldn't be such a good idea. As he stood in the front yard of
the presidential quarters, he reached into his pocket for his pocket
watch. ~At least I know what this gadget's supposed to do~ Chad
thought to himself. ~Some of the other gadgets I'm not so sure of.~

He read the time. 1032. He had just enough time to make it back to
the beam-out coordinates. The conversation with Schmucker didn't
provide many answers, but it was supposed to be a quiet day of
preparatory evacuation before the fighting began.

At 1044, he topped the crest of _WHATEVER_HILL_ where most of the away
team was assembled. The only ones missing were Blake and Hamilton.
Blake arrived a moment later and said, "Everything looks good for
history here."

Young said, "Pendragon, scan the area for life signs. Kirk, can you
see anyone who might catch sight of the beam out?"

tag - Pendragon, Kirk

When the all-clear was given, Chad opened up his billfold, "Young to
America, five to beam up."

The transporter effect swept them away back to the ship just as a
young couple were stumbling out of the woods at the bottom of the
hill. The young lady looked to still be arranging her clothing to
look less disheveled than it really was.

tag - away team, Clara (figured it might be a good way to get her tied in)

Back aboard the America, Young stepped off the transporter pad and
opened a comm line to the Bridge. "Lieutenant Smith, I'd like to see
you in my office in five minutes. Young out."

This meeting with the Chief of Communications shouldn't take but a
moment. He just had to make sure he was clear on his directions since
Smith was the type to take the orders to the literal extreme.

TBC

Commander Chad Young
Executive Officer/Chief of Science
U.S.S. America

[Amanda Rose]

Mission Date: June 29, 1863 1204 hours

"Go," she ordered him crisply. She looked at the science officer.
"Please take readings.
Nahuel, try and figure out if anything unusual has happened during
pregnancy that may
have caused this. Maria," Tegau took the woman's hand. "You and your
baby will be fine."

Goking nodded at the command. He almost felt the need to salute with
how crisp it was. This situation with the XO's wife and the twins was
interesting to a degree, but he had no clue what he could do about it.

He left Sickbay and headed to his quarters. The entire situation had
taken him away from the ticker tape. He had wanted to see if there
was any reaction to his last posting.

Once he got into his quarters, he headed straight to his terminal.
There was nothing. In fact, it looked like the entire system had been
wiped clean. There were no entries at all.

That fact puzzled James. He wondered about it so he decided to send
an anonymous posting again. But he was refused entrance while trying
to access it anonymously.

~This is odd~ he thought. ~Have they disabled the ticker tape for some reason?~

He tried something else. He knew that there had been several away
missions during this blast to the past, but every member of the away
teams had been officers. Maybe a small note about how nice it would
be to see the enlisted crewmen get to go on away missions would be in
order. Just as a test."

He logged into the ticker tape without a problem. He then began to
compose his message:

"Subject: Enlisted Question

Dear Crew of the U.S.S. America,

It has come to the attention of several people aboard the ship that
the enlisted personnel seem to be overlooked for away missions. I
don't see that this policy is quite fair. Some people want to serve
the Federation in a capacity that is very well in keeping with an
enlisted status. Why is it that we aren't allowed away mission spots?
We've got the training we need to be considered part of the crew and
we get the responsibilities of being members of the crew, but why not
the perks of away missions?

Sincerely,

Crewman James Carl Goking"

He ended his message and sat there looking at the screen. A second
later, the acceptance message showed that it had been posted to the
ticker tape. Maybe this would cause some lively discussion among the
crew and hopefully enlighten some of the superiors of their own
neglect.

He decided that a shower and a nap would do well from his overnight
shift. Little did he know the Pandora's box he'd opened.

Crewman James Carl Goking
Medical Technician
U.S.S. America

[Amanda Rose]

Mission Date: June 29, 1863 1120 hours

Young sat in his office on B Deck. He was still in his era apparel.
He hadn't seen fit to change it since he had immediate business to
take care of with the Chief of Communications.

A small blond man stepped into the office. "Lieutenant Douglas Smith,
reporting as ordered, sir."

"Sit down, Smith," Young said quickly. "We've got work to do."

"Aye, sir," Smith said.

"Am I correct in understanding that your department controls access to
the ticker tape system?" Young asked.

Smith nodded. "We are, Sir. Is there a problem with it?"

"There have been several anonymous posts to the ticker tape over the
course of our stroll through history that are quite unwarranted and on
the verge of prosecutable."

Smith gulped. "That's the designed beauty of the ticker tape system.
It's a completely anonymous system for members of the crew to vent
their feelings, frustrations, etc. without getting reprimanded for
it."

"I've always attached my name to my messages," Young said. "I don't
see the need in making some of the slanderous accusations and hiding
behind the flag of anonymity. From now on, there is to be no
anonymous access to the ticker tape system. Every message must have
the name logged along with it."

Smith nodded hesitantly. "Aye, sir."

"Also," Young continued, "I want the system set up to directly notify
me of the location and time of any attempt to access the system
anonymously. Have them send the notifications directly to my office
terminal."

"Understood, sir," Smith said. "Give me about 20 minutes to get
everything changed over and tested. The notifications you'll get
between in that time can be disregarded because they should say they'd
be coming from the Bridge."

"Good," Young said in a clipped tone. "I want this situation under
control as soon as possible."

Commander Chad Young
Executive Officer/Chief of Science
U.S.S. America

[Amanda Rose]

After the Briefing

O'Connor could not believe Young's cheap shot. To say that she was
angry was an understatement. She wanted to scream and yell at Young
but he had the unmitigated gall of walking out on her. She stormed
out into the corridor and noticed that Young and Wells were talking.

She was not about to yell at O'Connor in front of Wells. She
smiled. Wells. Yes, Wells. She would do. She was an engineer. If
Pendragon was going down with Young, then O'Connor would just have to
make arrangements to go down with Wells. She was not about to let
Young start calling the shots around the ship. She would teach him
who the XO was.

O'Connor walked briskly in the opposite direction of the two and sent
Wells a message:

"Lieutenant Wells, report to my quarters immediately upon receipt of
this message. I will explain more once you arrive."

tag - Wells

[Amanda Rose]

OOC: Making quick jumps here so that we finally get done with this
segment of the plot. You are encouraged to backpost as long as you
put the mission date tag at the beginning.

IC:

Mission Date: June 30, 1863 1300 hours

The away team met for the second day's travel into Gettysburg. This
time the entire away team (Delaney included) had assembled in
Transporter Room 2. The six of them beamed down and again found
themselves atop Oak Hill.

Young pulled out his binoculars and looked to the southeast toward the
town proper. He saw the banner for one of the Union corps, but he
couldn't remember which one it was.

"Mr. Blake," he said to the historian, handing the binoculars to him,
"which corps does that regiment belong to? I do believe it's part of
the Union army."

Blake looked through the binoculars. "That would be General Buford's
First Cavalry Corps. They heard that the Confederates were more than
likely heading this way so he'll take up a stance on the road between
here and Harrisburg to head them off."

"So," Young said, "does that mean everything's fine with history and
we can leave now?"

tag - Hamilton

Seeing that Heth's advance line wouldn't be there till later in the
afternoon, Young signalled the ship to have them beamed back up
without further discussion.

Commander Chad Young
Executive Officer/Chief of Science
U.S.S. America

[Amanda Rose]

OOC: Ask me about this if you want to play with it....

June 30, 1863

While O'Connor and Wells were gone and Young and his away team were
gone, a science console started to beep. If Keth were to notice it,
he might say, "Interesting shiny."

However, what was more interesting was that something was out there in
space. It was very small and beyond the America's bow. Whatever it
was, it was slowly growing in size.

Myers looked from her position on the bridge and inquired as to what
it was. All she got was analyzing. She prayed that the Captain knew
what she was doing in her radio silence.

tag - all on America

[Amanda Rose]

Ltjg Laura Wells
Engineer
USS America

She was not about to yell at O'Connor in front of Wells. She
smiled. Wells. Yes, Wells. She would do. She was an engineer. If
Pendragon was going down with Young, then O'Connor would just have to
make arrangements to go down with Wells. She was not about to let
Young start calling the shots around the ship. She would teach him
who the XO was.

O'Connor walked briskly in the opposite direction of the two and sent
Wells a message:

"Lieutenant Wells, report to my quarters immediately upon receipt of
this message. I will explain more once you arrive."


The little crash with the XO had sort of thrown Laura off balance. It took her a second to realize that little message was meant for her and whom it was from! She swallowed wondering what she'd done now then did an about face and headed for that destination.

Arriving, she looked at the door as if it were the entryway to some sort of cavernous doom. Perhaps the intermix formula wasn't what the captain had wanted? Maybe she was about to be repimanded? It was probably best. Stick her back in her corner in the rear of engineering she was more familiar with. She wasn't CEO material and she knew it. Why try to be?

She chimed the door.

[tag Captain]

[Amanda Rose]

Brian arrived in Transporter room 2 a quarter of an hour early - 0930; he wanted a little time to prepare. He made little piles of the equipment to go down - one for each of the away team - checking each item one last time before placing it in the pile. As each of the others arrived, he kitted them out and talked them through the gadgetry.

That done, he reverted back to his usual shy self. When he was on "home territory" - talking gadgets, he was fine, but once it dissolved into standard social pleasantries, he was lost.

The chronometer clicked to 0945 and there was no sign of the XO or the doctor. Just as Brian was wondering whether it was all off, Young strode into the room.

"Let's go, people," he declared. "Let's check on history so we can get out of here quicker."

"Um... you might want these, sir," Brian said quietly, offering Young the equipment. He took it without a word, arranging it about his person as he stepped up to the transporter pad.

"Isn't there supposed to be a sixth on this mission?" one of the historians observed.

"Lieutenant Delaney is taking care of a medical situation in Sickbay," Young replied. "She'll join us the next two days. Right now, there's more important items on her agenda."

Brian took his place, taking a deep breath as the transporter room melted into the top of a hill. He marvelled at how tranquil it seemed given that it was so close to the front line of a major war.

Young scanned the area for life signs. "Doesn't look like much going on outside town this morning," he finally said. "Let's split up and check things out. Kirk, take Pendragon and Blake with you into town. Get a feel for the people in the town. Mr. Hamilton, come with me.
I'd like to check out how the Seminary is handling the situation. Be back here for beamout in one hour."

Kirk led the way, striding in a less-than-feminine-style-for-the-period.

"Er... ma'am?" he tugged her sleeve and hissed conspiratorially. "You might want to... um... well... you know?"

"What, Pendragon?" she replied without slowing.

"Um... shorten your stride a little? Maybe?"

"What's wrong, Lieutenant. Worried you can't keep up?"

"No, ma'am," actually, he was, but that wasn't the point he was trying to make. "It's just that it's not very... um... dainty?"

This time Kirk stopped dead. Her expression was such that Brian expected lasers to come from her eyes. Blake chuckled behind them and suddenly she burst out laughing too.

"Fair point, though I'm about as good at 'dainty' as you are at standing up for yourself, but seeing as you gave it a go, the least I can do is try."

They set out again, at a slightly easier pace, leaving Brian musing on her last comment.


TAG - I'll let someone else talk to the locals!


Lt jg Brian Pendragon

[Amanda Rose]

Mission Date: June 30, 1863 1206 hours

Chad was in his office, going through the research on the Battle of
Gettysburg for the next day's away mission. He still had less than an
hour until his next Bridge shift started. He wanted to get everything
lined up.

He was looking at the dawn lineup of the armies of the Potomac and
Northern Virginia thinking about the idiocy of fighting an entire war
with solely regionally-based armies and commanders when the alert
system on his terminal diverted his attention. Someone had tried to
access the ticker tape anonymously. It didn't surprise him who it was
... Goking.

~When will that boy ever learn?~ Chad thought to himself. A second
later, the newest message on the ticker tape arrived. A message
signed by Goking. ~This is getting hilarious.~

Chad read the message with amusement and then tapped the comm button
for the Bridge. "Young to the Bridge, patch me into Crewman Goking's
quarters."

James had laid down for his nap when the intercom buzzed. He tapped
the comm button the wall. "Crewman Goking here," he replied sleepily.

Chad sneered, "Crewman Goking, report to the XO's office immediately."

~Great!~ James thought to himself. ~My question hasn't been on the
tickertape two minutes and I'm already in trouble for it.~

"On my way, sir," he replied over the comm.

James got back into uniform and made sure he looked presentable before
he left for the XO's office. En route, he tried to keep from yawning
because of his long day the day before with the separating twins and,
of course, Soban.

Chad sat back in his chair, contemplating exactly which tact he should
use with the young crewman. Then again, young wasn't exactly the best
term for this crewman. He was only a year Chad's junior so that
technically made him rather old to still be just a Crewman. If his
attributed post to the ticker tape was any indication of former
assignments, there's no wonder he was a 34-year-old Crewman.

A couple minutes passed before the annunciator chimed to announce
James' presence. Chad had finally decided on the best route to go
with for this argument. "Enter," he said.

James marched into the office in an abrupt, highly militaristic
fashion. He feigned ignorance as he started to speak. "You wanted to
see me, Commander?"

"I do," Chad said harshly. "I have a problem, Mr. Goking. There is a
person on this ship who is making slanderous accusations against their
senior officers. Obviously, this is someone who does not understand
the way promotions work on a starship. If you desire a promotion, you
don't attack the character of the commanding officers. Wouldn't you
agree?"

James stood stunned for a moment. The XO wanted his help in finding
out his own anonymous posting. "I would say so."

"And furthermore," Chad said with a bit of a raise in his pitch, "this
person decides to hide behind the veil of anonymity. Secretly posting
this slander from the shadows. Hiding behind the veil of mystery.
Most disreputable way of handling one's affairs." Chad paused for a
moment to see if the younger man had any perceivable reaction to this
line of stinging rebukes. Finding none, he moved on, "I find it quite
appealing that this is happening at this time, though. Once I find
the person(s) responsible, I may have them beamed down so that they
could be drawn-and-quartered."

James' blood froze with the mental image. What he had taken from his
conversation with Soban and seen with O'Connor and Pendragon lead him
to submit that message. Now it was being called 'slander.' And the
possible punishment being considered was actually being drawn and
quartered. This definitely was a barbaric mission. Or maybe the
psychoses that had been rumored about Commander Young were right after
all.

James finally asked, "What does this have to do with me?"

Chad said, "At the present time, you are the most qualified person
aboard this ship to explain to me what type of person would do this
sort of thing. You are a psychology expert, correct?"

James nodded. ~How am I going to answer this question?~ he asked
himself another hard question. ~If I come down too hard on my
diagnosis, I'll be making myself look bad. If I try to sugar-coat it,
Young'll probably see right through it.~

"It's a difficult thing to diagnose," James started, "without a sample
of this 'slander'. I don't pay much attention to the ramblings on the
ticker tape to even know what might have been said."

Chad looked at him quizzically. "Who said anything about the ticker
tape system?"

James was startled by the question. He just assumed this conversation
would be about his last ticker tape message. Had Young not read his
last message?

He finally managed to come back with, "I figured since you had talked
about hiding behind anonymity and posting from the shadows that you
were leaning to the location of said materiale, which would most
likely be the ticker tape."

Chad continued to look at him without saying anything. There was a
new nervous twitch to the man. It was that twitch that was visible to
Command-rank officers because they'd seen it so many times in the
members of the crew--and even sometimes when they looked in the
mirror. Something about this wasn't exactly the truth. Was it that
he didn't know about the slander? Or was it that he was actually the
author and was trying now to cover his tracks?

James tried not to sweat visibly. He was still standing. He was
tired and really wanted to take a seat, but Young hadn't offered him a
seat. "Is there a copy of this 'slander' that I might take a look at
it?" he asked. "Maybe I can see something in the wording that can
help me diagnose the situation."

Chad handed him the ripped hardcopy from O'Connor. James read it a
couple of times. Chad could see that the man had seen this before,
but he was trying very hard to look as if it was the first time he'd
seen it.

"What's your expert opinion, Crewman Goking?" Chad asked, stressing
the word 'Crewman'.

"I'm not quite sure what to make of it, sir," James said hesitantly.
"The wording is harsh, but simple. It could be someone with an axe to
grind against the Captain or it could be the work of an adolescent
with an overactive imagination."

"You're saying it's either a troublemaker or Miss Connel?" Chad
asked. "Am I getting that assumption right?"

"I don't know if troublemaker would be the right word," James said.
"I'd probably say more troubled than troublemaker."

"Is that it, Mr. Goking?" Chad asked. "Are you troubled? I know
you're the last person to attempt to post something to the ticker tape
anonymously. The fact that your little spiel about away missions
appeared just seconds after that leads me to believe that you're more
adept at the ticker tape system than you'd like me to believe. Now,"
he took a slow breath for a dramatic pause, "the question is, what's
all this about? What is this crap about with promotions? Is it
because you've been overlooked in the past? Is it because you've been
scrutinized the entire time you've been in StarFleet because you've
spent time in prison? Is that it? Are you so worried about your
reputation being weak that you have to bring others down so that you
feel more comfortable?"

James couldn't believe the tirade Young was going onto. Young had
baited him the entire time. Young knew exactly who had written the
message,but how? The ticker tape system was supposed to be completely
anonymous. How could Young know?

"Your biggest problem is that you don't understand the delicateness of
command," Chad said. "That's understandable since you're only a
Crewman and probably will stay a Crewman for the rest of your very
short career." Chad added a touch more venom with every word. "I've
had the Communications department run back through the anonymous
posting logs because the terminal from which the post was entered is
recorded for such purposes as this investigation."

Chad thought about this for a moment. "I've got two options for you.
First, you can apologize to Captain O'Connor and accept whatever
punishment she deems fit under the circumstances and you'll receive
yet another prejudicial transfer off a starship. You'll probably
never end up receiving another assignment again."

"What's the second option?" James asked with a great deal of curiosity.

"The second option," Chad said, "would be for me to inform the Captain
that you are the guilty party with the anonymous note and that I'll
take care of you personally. You want an away mission? Why don't I
just have you beam down right into the heart of the Battle of
Gettysburg?"

"I don't much like either option, sir, to be quite honest," James said.

"Honesty seems to be a mixed bag with you, Goking," Chad replied.
"You want to be honest about your dislike of the options I've given
yet you've done nothing but be dishonest by telling half-truths. You
even tried to blame this note on an eleven-year-old nineteenth-century
girl. What kind of man are you? Why, I ought to just take my
prosthetic leg off and beat you over the head with it. As of right
now, you are relieved of duty until you receive other instructions
from the Captain herself. In fact, I'll make an appointment for you
to meet with the Captain at her earliest convenience."

James hung his head. He didn't want to talk face-to-face with the
Captain knowing that she knew he was the culprit behind the note. He
didn't want to lose his position here. He so badly wanted to get out
of Moore's office that he'd do anything. Maybe that was why he lashed
out. He had always seen that Moore had some sort of infatuation with
O'Connor. Maybe it was displaced angst against the man who had pinned
him under thumb for a year, wasting his time--although he did receive
his doctorate--when he could have been given another ship.

He finally said, "I'll talk with her whenever is convenient for her."

Chad nodded. "Dismissed. You're confined to quarters as well."

James left the office and nearly immediately broke down in the
corridor. However, he was able to hold himself together until he got
back to his quarters. Then the floodgates opened.

Chad shook his head as the process was finally over. He signalled the
Captain, who should be in her ready room, but there was no answer. He
looked up her location in the computer and she couldn't be found.

"Damn her," he said. "She's gone down to the surface anyway. She
can't just leave well enough alone can she? Maybe SHE should be the
one beaten with the prosthetic!!"

Chad got up from his desk and made his way to the Bridge for his next
duty shift. This was going to be a long day.

Commander Chad Young
Executive Officer/Chief of Science

&

Crewman James Goking
Medical Technician/Slander Magnet
U.S.S. America

[Amanda Rose]

Keth looked down at his sensor display, in awe, in happy shiny
induced rapture. And in abject terror at the readings he was getting
from the ship's sensor pallets. The distortion was growing, in small
amounts and in time with ship's atomic clocks. With each hour that
passed, an extra fifteen feet was added to the length of the rip.

And for every hour, an extra light minute was added to the area of
space around the distortion. That meant, that as it grew wider, the
light from the sun and distant stars that shone through/past the
distortion were red shifting an extra light minute. Meaning that
slowly, the star's behind the and around the distortion were slowly
turning a cherry red. Already a few had blinked out of existence as
the fields distortion became stronger.

Now, what is Red Shifting? A good example of Red Shifting, as far as
the simple human noggin was concerned, is driving in a snow storm. You
know the snow is falling horizontally downwards, but as your driving
it appears to be coming right at you. This is the same with star light
and light in general, the faster you got towards the speed of light
the more light began to look like it was speeding towards you. To your
rear would be heavy light, at the duller red side of the spectrum
retreating away from you. To your fore would be harsh and deadly blue
shifting, the compounding blasting of cosmic radiation turning
harmless X-rays into deadly Gamma ray butcher knifes.

The distortion wasn't moving as far as Keth could see, but it was
causing a localised red shift of light around it.

"Dark matter maybe?" Keth thought out loud, shaking his head "no dark
matter's gravitational, but it would have to be über dense to cause a
gravitational pull strong enough to red shift light like that…and it's
growing! Dark matter doesn't do that!"

He leaned back on his chair, tapping a claw tipped finger against his
lips.

"Maybe…maybe it's a quantum sink hole? That would explain the growth
as more stress is placed upon the space time kernel at its heart…but
it wouldn't' explain the red shifting…"

Not asking permission, a fault of his own really, he readied a pair
of probe. Each free flying drone powered by a single fusion rocket had
enough science equipment lashed to their sides to make an lab proud to
own one.

And if he was right, they'd be destroyed in a handful of seconds.

The first probe shot out from the America's torpedo launcher, the
camera's tracking it as it was pushed out slowly through a
depressurisation hatch, and then glare cancelled out the image as its
rocket ignited. The first probe arced out across the light second of
space between the ship and the distortion, curving out to arc behind
the anomaly and-

Zttz ZAP!

The probe's telemetry shorted out, the last reading's showing a
massive influx of hard particles and gamma rays. And the causing,
eerie blue light that had melted the camera lens after a single second
of filming. So, some how within the micrometer that was the rift's
width, light was red shifting away from the America and on the other
it was blue shifting towards them at such a pace the hardened probe's
casing could be compared between tissues paper and a blow torch.

Grimacing at the fate of the tiny probe, Keth fired the second and
more specially designed free flier. It to was pushed gently into the
void, and then kicked away by the force of its nuclear rocket. This
time the probe was on a ballistic trajectory straight at the rift,
aiming for its heart. Half way between the ship and the area of
gravity gone wrong, a second rocket fired and separated the probe into
its two separate components.

Stretched out between the aft and fore sections was a kilometre long
tether of stress tested titanium cabling, one of the stronger
materials made by man before finding help in the form of the Vulcan's.
The probe had been designed for Keth to drop into the heart of a gas
giant, allowing one section to descend slower than the higher section
as it floated down on anti gravity jets.

Almost by the time his mind had finished detailing what the probe
could and could not do, it made contact…and was promptly ripped from
existence by forces that accelerated it to close to light speed within
a single micron. Nothing was capable of surviving an acceleration like
that, not even with inertial compensators ramped up to over load.

But yet again, a second of data had shot out of the aft probe before
it was squashed by insane forces of nature. The probe's two sections,
Alpha and Beta, had recorded something unique. But apart from that,
the one thing that scared Keth was a simple part of there internal
house keeping programs. Alpha's internal atomic clock, a precise piece
of engineering, was out of sync with Beta's…in fact it was out of sync
with it's twin by over two hundred years.

Meaning that within that single second of data, the lag between Alpha
and then Beta's impact with the rift, Alpha had experienced over 200
years of compressed time…meaning that it might not have experienced
acceleration at all, it was simply out side of the Americas own time
stream…

Time stream?
Out of sync?

"Oh…" Keth began, leaning back from his console "Oh shit…"

TAG-Anyone on America, on the bridge...hello?

LtJr Keth Soban
Scicne Guy
USS America