Forwarded by the ASC-VSO Posted: 29 Apr 2004 17:58:16 GMT In: alt.startrek.creative From: sisko2374@aol.com (Sisko2374) Part 5 of 5 "Third Way Out" It was as if he had never left the engine room. Only the people that had been around him were gone. Even as he sprang through the opening doors toward the bridge he continued to slap and call on his communicator badge for Ezri. When he got to the bridge he found the crew, in various states of revival, slumped about what would have been their stations on the Defiant. Ezri was stirring in her command chair, holding her bruised chin in her hands. Julian went to her side, pulling out his medical tri-corder, scanning her head.. "What's the diagnosis Doctor?" Bashir returned his tri-corder to his belt. "Two aspirins and call me in the morning. No fractures, nothing broken, a mild concussion. How do you feel?" Ezri kept rubbing her jaw. "Like I just flunked my command test. Where's the Terran's Defiant at?" Julian moved to the conn. "Halfway to Jupiter and on course for the wormhole. By the way, Jordan was with Section 31. She set us up with Smiley." "Jordan? Why?" "Apparently to get a 20th century Terran book that laid the foundation for the Empire. They want to train their cadre in the art of rule and statecraft. Or so she claims. But what puzzles me is how did the rebels get their copy of the Defiant here undetected?" "False warp signature," Ezri sat back down in the command chair. "They simulated the warp emissions of an Alliance battle cruiser and later on, the Ferengi merchantman. That was probably them that you detected around Alpha Centauri a few days ago. Then they faked us out with an Alliance battle cruiser signature again when they warped into the solar system. That false signature, and some luck, allowed them to get through a few hundred light years of Alliance space as well." "Well, we have to get back before she does and warn the Federation. She admitted that Section 31 plans to start a new war between the Dominion and the Federation." "A war? We have to leave now. Is the warp drive on line?" A flashing red indicator on the conn panel caught Julian's eye. "More bad news I'm afraid. They ejected and destroyed the warp core. Without that there's no way to get back to the wormhole and our universe." "They don't want us following them or alerting Star Fleet that they've got the Defiant. What about the transporters?" Ezri speculated. "Couldn't we alter them like Smiley did when he kidnaped Captain Sisko? So that we could pass through the quantum density field between the two universes and beam back home?" Bashir shook his head. "The original transporter accident that brought Kirk into the Mirror universe was possible only because of a freak planetary ion storm in the upper atmosphere of Halkan. Occurring simultaneously in both universes, it temporarily weakened an already weak section of the separating quantum density field and the transporter ionizer. Smiley was able to recreate that original transporter malfunction only because the wormhole permanently weakens the space-time density field between the two universes in the Bajoran system. That's why the wormhole can serve as a conduit to the Mirror universe. To transport back we'd have to get near the wormhole or somehow find another ion storm occurring simultaneously on a planet in both universes where the fabric of space-time and the intervening quantum density field are already sufficiently weakened. Highly improbable to say the least." Julian slumped in the navigator's chair. "We might as well face it. We're marooned! It will take us centuries at relativistic velocities to reach the wormhole without warp drive! And without a cloaking device we don't have a Breen's chance in hell of getting there undetected by the Alliance. It would have been more merciful if Smiley had simply phasered us out of existence or blown us apart with our own quantum torpedoes." Ezri glumly nodded. "Yeah, quantum torpedoes...that would have been quick." She began to pace the bridge. "Wait a minute Julian! When Smiley downloaded the Defiant's specs do you think he downloaded the plans for the quantum torpedoes as well?" Julian shrugged. "I don't know, why?" "Because there might be a third way out of here for us. I just remembered something that Worf told Jadzia once about traversing a quantum fissure in space-time that launched him into a whole series of parallel quantum realities. If Smiley loaded enough quantum torpedoes on board, maybe, just maybe, we can create our own space-time fissure at some structural weak point in the quantum density field and get home." Julian's face lit up in a big smile. "Captain, I like the way you think" Turning to the navigation console, his hands flashed over the controls. "Yes! Weapons system shows a complement of sixteen quantum torpedoes." Ezri nodded. "Good. We'll probably need them all. The only problem is that we'll have to be pretty close when they detonate. The temporary fissure will only stay open a few seconds before it implodes back in on itself." Julian's face fell slightly. "Oh. Well, at least our stay in the Mirror universe will be over, one way or another. Let's just hope Smiley's boys built as good a copy of the ablative hull shielding as they did of the rest of the Defiant's systems." After consulting with both Julian and the computer, Ezri had decided that their best chance was to head for Jupiter. Space-time was most stretched and weakened in a deep gravitational well like a neutron star, black hole or wormhole. Since none of those existed in the Terran system and the solar plasma flares and intense radiation of the sun made it unsafe, Jupiter's gravitational well was the logical choice. The three hour trip to Jupiter passed slowly for everyone. As they looped about Io, heading for the Jovian giant's upper atmosphere Julian had a disturbing thought. "Ezri, what if our calculations are off by even a micron either way? Will we pass our own universe and break into another one, one so similar to ours that we won't even know it?" Ezri shrugged. "As long as it doesn't have the Alliance in it, I don't care! Seriously though, according to multi-universe theory, the parallel quantum realities are layered on top of each other. We're right next to the Mirror universe. So we just get off at the first stop!" She laughed. Julian was not amused. "You're forgetting, Julian. The computer has the quantum signature of our universe. It will know when to stop the ship." "If its able to stop in time." "Then we'll just stop in at Starfleet Headquarters, or whatever that universe's equivalent is, stock up with quantum torpedoes and try again. Maybe even pick up a replacement warp core and head for the wormhole." Bashir rolled his eyes. "We may not even exist in the next universe we wind up in!" "Relax, Julian, you worry too much." The bridge view screen grew fuzzy as the atmosphere of the gas giant filled the horizon. "Our worries may soon be over. Entering Jupiter's upper stratosphere. Wind speeds 800 kph plus." The Defiant shuddered slightly as she plunged deeper into the atmospheric maelstrom. "Hull pressure 400 psi and rising," Julian called out. The view screen was dissolving into incoherent patterns of interference. A red light flashed on Ezri's chair console. "Fire quantum torpedoes!" Six converging streaks of light leaped ahead of the Defiant. A fraction of a second later they met in a white blossom of quantum smashing destruction. "Brace for impact!" The Defiant lurched forward, meeting the shockwave head on. "Detecting a tear in space time six hundred kilometers ahead!' Julian braced himself against the science station as the inertial dampeners attempted to compensate for the ship's violent pitch and yaw. "Opening is spherical, 500 meters in diameter. Starting to close!" Ezri stiffened. Even through the random patterns on the view screen she could make out the yawning black void already visibly shrinking. "Full impulse now!" Instantly the Defiant accelerated, then disappeared into the blackness of the space time tear. Bridge lights dimmed, the view screen went black.. Ezri felt/heard the symbiont cry out inside her. She glanced at Julian, his face a grimace, his knuckles white as he clutched the console of the science station. A shudder passed through the entire ship, as if every atom of it was about to fly apart. Then suddenly they were through. The view screen displayed the interference pattern that told them they were descending into the Jovian atmosphere. "Helm, take us up!" "Aye, sir," Jackson responded. As the Defiant broke out of the atmosphere and back into space, Ezri called for a navigation check. "We're in Jupiter space. Everything is where its supposed to be," Julian responded. "The only question is, are we?" "We're being hailed." Alvarez announced from communications. "Put it on speaker," Ezri ordered, chewing her lip. "Jupiter station to Defiant. How ... where the devil did you come from?" Julian smiled at Ezri from the science station. "Quantum signature of this universe confirmed. We're home." Ezri breathed a big sigh of relief. "Defiant to Jupiter station. We came in the back door I guess. Request permission to dock. We're in need of repairs, food and some hot baths. And a secure channel to Starfleet Command." "Permission granted Defiant. But your transponder seems to be off line." Ezri bit her lip. Her luck was simultaneously incredibly good and bad. She had lost a ship, but then she'd brought one back, an identical Mirror universe Defiant but missing a warp core and a cloaking device. Would Star Fleet command accept it and over look her first command mishap? Or just dock her frontier pay allowance? Say for the next 300 years? Then there was the little matter of Cynthia Jordan and Section 31. Maybe Starfleet command would consider preventing a war a good trade for losing one little ship. THE END -- Stephen Ratliff ASC Awards Tech Support http://www.trekiverse.us/ASCAwards/commenting/ No Tribbles were harmed in the running of these Awards ASCL is a stories-only list, no discussion. Comments and feedback should be directed to alt.startrek .creative or directly to the author. Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASCL/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: ASCL-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! 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