Voices From The Rift

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. And yet there it was as clear as day. Captain Jonathan Hawk listened to the distress message again from his ready room on his starship The Orion.

“What sector did this come from?” he asked the admiral that had contacted him about the signal. The admiral pressed a button on his computer and a second later Jonathan saw a number sequence on his own computer screen. He frowned, he recognized that sector. “I don’t remember any planets being in that sector.” he said.

“There aren’t.” replied the admiral. Jonathan hit a button on the computer to switch back to the admiral’s face. “And a far as we can tell no ships are in that sector. Or at least shouldn’t be, human or otherwise. Starfleet wants you to check it out.” This region of space was known as The Void, nothing was there. No planets, no stars, no anything. No captain wanted to go into The Void as there was nothing of interest to look at for light years. With nothing to look at people try to find something else to fill that hole and sometimes that something is not pleasant. No signal should be coming from that sector as there is nothing there to send a signal from.

“Isn’t this a flagship job?” Jonathan said. It was more if a statement than a question.

“You’re the fastest ship. And since you were on the flagship for a number of years you’re uniquely qualified for the job. Get there as fast as you can and report back what you find.”

“Aye, sir. Orion out.” Jonathan said with a sigh. He switched his computer off. He stayed seated in his chair for a few moments. At 33 he was one of the youngest captains Starfleet had ever seen. After graduating top of his class at Starfleet Academy at age 17 he was immediately assigned to The Stargazer. He was there for about 5 years before he was given the chance to join the crew of The Enterprise the flagship for The United Federation Of Planets. He stayed with The Enterprise for 8 years being promoted to commander for the last 4. And now here he was captain of his own ship for 3 years now. Jonathan stood straightened his uniform and exited his room onto the bridge.

“Ensign. Set a course for sector 499 warp 9.” he said loudly.

“Aye, sir.” the young officer said as she went to work. Commander James Horris, 1st officer looked at Jonathan questionably.

“The Void.” he asked.

“Course laid in sir.” the helmsmen interrupted.

“Engage.” Jonathan said. As they flew Jonathan filled in his crew on the mission.

“Starfleet wants us to check out the transmission. Most likely a ship just lost power or something and drifted into The Void.” he said. “This is probably just a simple rescue mission.”

“Still The Void? That’s not somewhere you want to end up.” Commander James Horris said.

“Most likely they were just following the edge before losing power.” Lieutenant Willam Johnson, the ship’s chief of security and weapons officer, chimed in. Jonathan was only half listening to the conversation on the bridge. Usually he would discourage this type of speculation but something about this mission wasn’t sitting right with him. Something didn’t feel right Jonathan just couldn’t put his finger on it.

6 hours later they arrived at the void. and Jonathan ordered all stop.

“Mr. Johnson open all channels.” Jonathan said.

“Channels open.” Willam Johnson confirmed.

“This is captain Jonathan Hawk of the Federation Starship Orion. Are you in need of assistants?”Jonathan announced as he stood from his command chair.

“No response.” Willam said.

“We are here to provide assistants if you need it. Please respond.” Jonathan said. He looked at Willam.

“Still no response.” Willam said with a shake of his head. Jonathan sighed and sat back down.

“Take us in ensign full impulse.” he said.

“Aye, sir full impulse.” she said as the ship moved into the void.

****

“Mr. Acker anything on sensors?” Jonathan asked.

“Nothing, no planets, no stars, no ships….no wreckage. Lieutenant Commander Jack Acker replied. Jonathan turned on a screen attached to his chair so he could see the sensor readings. Nothing.

“Switch to long range sensors. I’ll be in my ready room.” Jonathan said as he walked over to the small door in the corner of the bridge. He turned on his computer.

“Computer display a map of The Void over a sector map.” he commanded. A grid map of the The Void appeared on the screen. He isolated the sector the message had come as well as the adjacent sectors. It shouldn’t be this hard to find an adrift ship they hardly move and if it had been destroyed there would be wreckage. He started running stimulations to see how far a ship could drift in 6 hours.

****

“Captain to the Bridge!” Jonathan heard James’ voice through his comm badge. He quickly walked out.

“Report!” Jonathan said.

“We’ve detected a spacial anomaly off the port bow.” James reported.

“On screen.” Jonathan said. The screen showed nothing. “Magnify.” still nothing. “Maximum magnification.” Now they could see a small glowing white line or strip just sitting there in space.

“That wasn’t there a moment ago.” Willam said.

Jonathan sat in his chair and looked at the screen on his chair again. This thing had no mass, no energy, no defining edge. It was like a tear or rip in space.

“Is that a wormhole?” asked the helmsman or woman in this case.

“No, it’s a Rift.” said Jonathan softly. The helmswoman thought for a moment.

“I don’t remember that from the academy.” she said.

“You wouldn’t.” said Jonathan. “They are incredibly rare. This would be only the 5th time in recorded history one’s been seen. I only know about them because my academy professor was one of the few who had actually witnessed one. Rifts act like wormholes in the fact that they can transport you great distances quickly. But are more stable. Both ends are fixed in space and don’t whip around like wormholes. Rifts are also microscopic and stay open for minutes or days.”

“Sir! We are picking up a transmission audio only.” Willam said.

“Let’s hear it.” Jonathan replied. The audio was very garbled with a lot of interference but they could still make out most of the message.

“We need help!” a feminine voice screamed over a massive amount of background noise. Yelling and screaming was heard in the background as well as some sort of metallic whining sound. The next part of the message was lost in static before her voice was heard again. “…critical failure….(interference)… massive damage…” a massive explosion was heard.

“Vala are you ok?” a male voice said.

“Yes I-I’m ok.” the feminine voice said back. “If anyone can hear us please we need hel-..” the last part was cut off by a huge crash it sounded like something large fell. An automated voice cut through the interference, “Containment breach, catastrophic failure in 9 minutes.” A loud pop and an hiss like gas leaking before the message cut out. Everyone sat stunned.

“That transmission originated from The Rift.” Willam said softly. If this was any other situation they would have helped immediately. But here they were completely helpless The Rift was too small not even one of their shuttles could get through.

“Captain! The Rift is growing!” Lieutenant Commander Jack Acker reported alarmed. Everyone looked to the screen and yes The Rift was growing and getting wider.

“Sir, we’re receiving another transmission audio only.” Willam said.

“Let’s hear it.” Jonathan said. It was the same female voice but they where unable to understand her because of all the screaming, yelling, and crashing they could hear in the background. The transmission cut out.

“Sir, The Rift is now the size of our ship.” Jack Acker said. Jonathan now had a decision to make. He walked to the front of his ship and turned to look at the whole bridge crew.

“I have no right to ask this of any of you. This is a desperate plea for help and as Starfleet officers it is our duty to answer. Based on what we just heard we don’t have time to contact Starfleet. So if we do this it will be without backup…. and this could be a one way trip.” James slowly stood up and said, “Captain I believe I speak for everyone when I say. We are The Orion, our continuing mission is to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go were no one has gone before.” Jonathan smiled.

“We’re all in agreement then?” he said. One by one everyone responded with aye! Jonathan with head held high walked back to his chair and sat down. He tapped a button on the arm of his chair.

“All hands this is the captain.” he said. “Hold onto something. We are about to have a rough ride and the inertia dampers may not be able t0 compensate.” He looked towards the helm. “Set a course for The Rift.”

“Course laid in.” came her reply. Jonathan focused his gaze on the screen and said,

“Take us in ensign, nice and slow.” The huge ship slowly move forward. As they began to enter The Rift the whole ship started shaking violently.