Fluid Chalange

Prologue

Starbase Geneva

After the completion of their last mission and the speed of a quick turn around and re-supply at Spacedock Phoenix the Serenity disengaged form its docking port and slipped out into space. They were going to the Gallus system so lend support to the construction of the Deep Sight research platform which would be placed deep in the systems massive gas giant. Before the Serenity could warp out of the system a message came from star fleet command at Star base Geneva for Commander Jay. She took the communication in her office and when she had finished she ordered the Serenity immediately into the subspace river to a head towards exit junction Zulu Zulu 597.

Junction Zulu Zulu 597

The transit to junction Zulu Zulu 597 went with out any problems during the transit Jay got together her command staff and told them what was happening. Star fleet had sent a fleet of deep space probes through the subspace river system with powerful sensors to try and find new exit points. During a sweep of a new discovered tributary one of the probes triggered a mid-transit exit. As the probe passed the event horizon it sent back a few fleeting images before Starfleet lost contact with it. They took the information and started to try and get a fix of the location. They eventually found a match. The data was related to USS Voyager when she was lost in the Delta quadrant. It was the same images of fluidic space where Voyager fought Species 8471. The Serenity’s mission was to go and find the probe and carefully explore some of fluidic space.

Transit

Exiting the Subspace River

As the Serenity approached the area where the probe transited Jay used the information that the probe had sent back. She ordered a changed the shields geometry so that they would ‘skip’ out of the river and then ordered red alert and collusion alerts before ordering the Serenity out of the subspace river. The transit was not the usual mild bump and rapidly decelerates of normal transit exit it was like the Serenity had been dropped into a tsunami. Power surged through the ship blowout consoles and overloading power relays. Anything that was not strapped down tightly was flung around inside of the hull like a leaf in a storm which included any louse peace of equipment and the ships crew. Bulkheads and hull plates were strained passed there design limits. Structural integrity failed causing a few minor hull breaches and then they were through and into fluidic space.

Arrived Battered and Bruised

Fluidic Space

The battered and leaking Serenity floated drifting as the lights blinked on and off as they main power threatened to fail, leaking atmospher into fluidic space as the crew began to realized that they had survived. Jay ordered the immediate status of the ship and then began repairing the damage to the ship and treating the wounded that were quickly arriving in sickbay. As the Serenity began to heal its self under the watchful eyes of Master Chief McDonald and its crew under Dr Moss, Jay reached out into the surrounding area with its sensors to see what they could see. The surrounding area was empty of any life that they could tell. The only big return from their sensor sweeps was a large asteroid field of what could only be described as corral which was on the far reaches of the sensors range. There was also the faint trail wake of the deep space probe that had headed in that direction. A report from the science department broke Jay from looking at the sensor sweeps. Sazboe informed her that they had drifted from their exit point from the subspace river into fluidic space. They need the information from the probe to work out the precise angle of entry back into the subspace river. If they could not get this information then they would be trapped in fluidic space until they found another way out which would take a long time. A return order was sent to the probe but the signal was bounced back by nebula. Jay then ordered a pursuit course as the Serenity slowly headed after the probe.

Into The Unknown

The Lost Probe

As the Serenity headed after the probe the surrounding space began to appear on its sensors. The nebula appeared to be more extensive then first thought. It surrounded the Serenity is a compete sphere and was very densely packed so that the sensors had problems penetrating it. Sazboe speculated that the area around where they had dropped out of the subspace river had cleared a pocket of space not effected by the nebula and that what remains were trapped in this shape by some thing that they could not understand at this time. The trail of the probe lead them into a densely packed part of the nebula. Jay slowed the Serenity even further as they approached the asteroids pushing the sensors to their limit to try and see if there were any surprises up ahead. Jay took the Serenity to red alert and collusion alerts as she ordered the Serenity to slide into the Nebula as their sensors range dropped at an alarming rate to almost nothing The Serenity moved slowly though the nebula doggedly following the decaying trail of the probe. With its sensors only working at such a sort range Jay was worried that they would run into something before they were able to see it let alone move out of its way. Suddenly some ghosted into existence on the scanners. Jay ordered the engines to be stopped as the coasted towards it. As they came closer and closer the sensors showed that it was some sort of large biological creature at the center is the nebula and the trail of the probe was heading right towards it.

Softly, Softly, Catchy Monkey

The Monster

The creature was massive from what the scans could tell it was the size of a small moon with long tenticals and the probe was directly in front of it. Jay ordered the Serenity to move forward slowly but as they crept closer alarms sounded on Pachakan’s tactical console. The monster was stirring. Jay ordered the Serenity back away from the monster which appeared to settle it. They could not go closer in care the monster woke up and they could not leave the probe as it was their only way home. Grayjoy suggested to take one of the submersible shuttlecraft to try and pick it up instead as the shuttlecraft was a lot smaller then the Serenity. Jay agreed and the away team consisting of Grayjoy, M’Epak and McDonald headed towards the probe in the shuttlecraft. They approached and got the probe on board and just as they were heading back to the Serenity the monster awoke.

Time For A, Quick Get Away

Jay ordered the Serenity forwards towards the charging monster and the fleeing shuttlecraft. The Serenity swooped in and scooped up the shuttlecraft as it turned to head back the way it had come. The monster was not that easily cheated out of an easy meal as it surged powerfully after the retreating Serenity. Jay watched the tactical display as the distance from the creature was getting shorter and shorter. She ordered the four retractable launch engines that were used to get the Serenity into orbit to be extended and fired up. It was at this point the monster began its attack. Biological guided creatures began to erupt from the monsters mouth and dart towards the Serenity. At the tactical console Pachakan began to launch interceptors and countermeasure to destroy or trick the bio-weapons so that none of them were able to hit the hull. With all the engines powering the Serenity at as close to warp speed as possible she was able to put pace the monster and its biological weapon creatures as it headed back to the where they had exited from the subspace river.

Epilogue

Data fromt he Probe

Sipen Daquee, Miss Peterson and Sazboe managed to use the information uploaded from the probe to for the Serenity to entered into the subspace river at the precisely correct angle so that they were able to slip in with out sustaining any untoward damage. One safely into the subspace river they Serenity headed towards Star base Geneva to make a full report.