[chewy027]

2400.6 – 2400.7 ~ Revelations

As the Revelation class scout ship neared the distortion, it began sending probe after probe into its maw. They all simply vanished without a trace leaving no hint that they had ever existed. This information was relayed to the High Command on Serenity, and the decision was made by Lord Chagnon and his councilors to allow the ship itself to approach the anomaly. This was made possible by the decree that all ships in the Vandron’s Navy were to be equipped with real-time communications devices that would transmit everything that the ship saw and everything that the crew spoke. It also allowed for orders to be transmitted as soon as they were decreed by the High Command. In an instant, the Revelation class starship vanished just as quickly as all of the probes. This turn of events was expected. However, what wasn’t expected was the sudden silence of communications and images being broadcast from the ship. Immediately, thoughts of regret swept through the mind of Chagnon: Had he made the wisest decision? Was the crew dead? Why did the transmissions cease? What should he do next? And he could visibly see the effects of the seeming loss on the faces of his comrades. And then, just as suddenly as it had vanished, the Revelation reappeared on their scanners as the anomaly gave a blinding flash as it spewed the little ship forth. For a moment there was silence, and then it was broken by the laughter of Vice Lord Junon.
“It’s a wormhole!” Junon sputtered with glee. “The Almighty be praised! We had thought that wormholes, if possible, could only exist in deep space. This is welcome news indeed.”
It was at this time that the voices of the crew came through over the speakers and the men and women of the tiny Revelation could be heard cheering and laughing for joy, though there was a hint of nervousness present in all of it.
“So what did you see?” asked Vice Lord Exnon. “What was on the other side?”
“What do you mean ‘other side’?” asked Vice Lord Defcon, “what is a ‘wormhole” anyway?”
“It’s a tunnel,” grinned Exnon, “a tunnel to another part of the Great Beyond.”
“He is right” added Junon, “a wormhole is adequately described as a tunnel, though what lays on the other side and how far away it exists are the questions on my mind.”
It was at this time that the crew had received the initial question and was responding.
“Another system,” the commander was saying, “but there were no signs of any planets. Just one dim yellow star, however, that was not all that we found.”
This Last sentence seemed to hang in the air like the incense that was burned to the Almighty.
“What do you mean ‘that was not all that we found.'” quipped Chagnon.
The room was silent until the captain responded, by this time the ship’s crew was also deadly silent. “Well, i…it seems th…that there was another ship in the system, in one of the far eastern parsecs." The captain's nervousness was detectable in his voice. "There was no time for communication, nor time to hide our own presence. If they are as advanced as we, they will have known that we were there. What’s more is that they seemed to already know of the properties of these anomalies, and es…escaped through one as soon as we appeared.”
“Are you sure of this? Are you positive it was another ship, and how do you know they escaped through one of these wormholes of their own?” Defcon spoke the words incredulously.
“W…well sir,” the captain went on. Even more timidly then before, “h…having studied the patterns of the anomalies or w…wormholes as you have called them, we have determined a way to d…detect them, sir. I…in fact, there are two more of these anomalies in our own home s…system. One to the far n…north and one in the south near H…hope, sir. The…therefore, we have de…determined that there was an anomaly in the same vicinity as the ship, and s…surmised that the ship must have passed through it, sir.”
“But are you sure it was a ship your scanners detected?” asked Defcon the disbelief now gone from his voice.
“Y…yes sir.” The captain began to regain his confidence, “It could have been nothing else. It was at a standstill, and then vectored off toward the wormhole, only to vanish an instant later.”
“So what of this system, what is it like, and where were you?” asked Exnon.
“Yes, please describe it to us.” added Junon.
“Like I already said, sir, it is barren. There are no signs of any planets, just the remains of a star, and of course the other wormhole to the far east, and one closer to our position to the North. As for distance, it was perhaps 40 light-years away. It was hard to tell, we were there in an instant, and came back through soon after.”
“So you are unharmed?” asked Chagnon feeling much relieved.
“Yes my lord. Praise be to the Almighty that we were not harmed.”
“But why did the transmissions cease?” asked Defcon.
Junon answered, “Going from a couple parsecs to 40 light-years will have that effect on communications.” And almost as an after thought added to himself, “I will have to devise a way to continue communications utilizing the strange properties of these wormholes.”

After a few more quick questions to the captain, the High Command retired to their deliberation room to decide what should be done. None thought that these wormholes were dangerous, the seemingly unharmed ship and crew proved this, however, with so many of these wormholes no one would take the risk of not further exploring them to be sure that they would not be invaded by a hostile enemy through one of them. The fact that a starship was present in the barren system proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was other highly intelligent life to be found, and that the far eastern wormhole held a way to reach beings of this caliber. After a few hours of deliberations many decisions were unanimously agreed upon. First, the Revelation and its crew would travel back into the Churba or barren system, and see if this ship would make another appearance. In the meantime, Vice Lord Junon and his team of scientists would devise a means to continue communications through the wormholes. Secondly, the current research into ship construction would be continued, for the projectile research had ceased, and the research into ship construction was going faster then expected. Vice Lord Defcon’s intuitions about the appearance of the wormholes had proved accurate, and they were now quite pleased that they had prepared thus. Finally, with the completion of the final Comet colony ship, Serenity would begin to mass produce Escort class Angels. They would be equipped with the new projectile weapons and the new shields in the event that they were attacked.
On Hope, the search for the Almighty was winding down as it appeared that there was no trace of any prior inhabitants. With that order of business settled the colonists turned their full attention to the completion of their own space yard, before commencing to build their monstrous research complex comprised of 23 research facilities. Though there were hints of disappointment that the Almighty was not found on Hope, things here were going well, and the High Command believed that in the future Hope would become as indispensable as Serenity itself.

[ September 02, 2003, 17:52: Message edited by: chewy027 ]