Prologue
Sector
291, not a very interesting part of the Alpha quadrant... Recently discovered
by a science ship, there was supposed to be nothing there except for a very
peculiar phenomenon that was a never-before-seen thing in the history of
Starfleet.
The
Hydra nebula, also, simply known as the Hydra, a dark purple and blue swirl of
energetic dust clouds. Vaguely reminiscent of the shape of the mythical beast
upon which it was named. Many Federation scientific vessels have studied the
strange energy spikes and subspace distortions that leave perplexed the best of
scientists for two years.
Now, in the year 2380, the
USS-Crystal moved slowly towards the Hydra nebula.
Captain
Jack Kingston watched the nebula on the viewscreen with interest: « Run a deep
scan of the nebula's outer field. Try to find a breach in the field to see if
we can send a probe inside. »
« Aye, sir. » Said Commander Jennifer Rouge, the science
officer assigned to ops. « I'm not finding any breaches on this side of the
nebula. We'll have to move a bit farther to be able to scan the opposite side.
»
«
Okay. » The captain nodded. « Set a course, heading 30 mark
5. Full impulse. »
« Aye, sir, full impulse. » Lieutenant Gerald Landiciati, the officer assigned to conn. A few seconds later, Rouge exclaimed: «
Captain! I'm reading a breach! »
«
Coordinates? » The captain asked, checking the graphs on his
armrests-computers.
«
It's in grid...grid G15, it's about one-hundred and sixty-five meters in
diameter. » Landiciati reported. « We can send a few
probes in there, captain. »
No
ship had ever found a breach larger than fifty centimetres wide. Micro-probes
had been inserted into those miniscule breaches but no considerable amount of
information had been amassed. This new breach was amazing! It was even big
enough to send an entire starship through.
«
Prepare a few dozen probes. » He said. « Send them as soon as possible into
that nebula. I want as much info as we can collect about this nebula. An
opportunity like this doesn't come around every day. »
«
Yes, sir… We'll be ready to fire the first five in ten minutes. » Reported
Rouge.
«
Excellent. I'll be in my ready-room; I need to contact Starfleet to let them
know what's going on. They need to send more research ships here. We're only
one starship, and the Hydra is quite big. »
Three
minutes later, the