Where is oblivion? -- SD 10302.26

[LoAmi 0]

Lo'Ami stared back at Ziggy, suddenly realizing they had a problem. It wasn't just that their pilot thought the half-Trill was a Vulcan named Jeremy, nor that he was talking to people who were not there about a mission that wasn't theirs - it was also that Buddy Kinton had stolen his lunch money.  No, that can't be right.  Lo'Ami once again felt a momentary, sharp pain in his back.  But, that too was not the major problem.

 

The major problem was that Ziggy had just set a course and activated the Chocolate Moose's warp drive.  With all the dilithium shattered to powder, he had just channeled a massive amount of precious energy into an empty chamber.  Warning klaxons went off as the drive systems went down.  The yacht floated on its momentum and was buffetted by the same currents that Kawalas had detected inexplicably accelerating and decelerating Arcadia's test torpedo.

 

Sitting in the co-pilot's chair has the unfortunate consequence that in case the pilot becomes incapacitated, the crewman sitting there must take over control of the craft.  Transferring control was easy enough.  What to do with that control was another story.  Yes, Arphazad Lo'Ami had graduated Starfleet Academy.  He had taken the usual piloting courses.  He had been a member of "Bright Green Squadron," the one so aptly named for its cadets; the ones who came out of the experience piloting as if they were so green they had never before seen a shuttle.  Now was not the time to ask the junior officer sitting in the back, Kawalas, to take over control.  Calling for help would be fruitless - Arcadia's transporters and tractor beams were down conserving power.

 

Not that there was much control to gain.  Drive systems were not responding.  The helm control read off 27,000 km from Arcadia.  Soon, they would impact the edges of the void; the edges that had bounced an unarmed photon torpedo and destroyed a standard science probe.

 

"Kawalas, set off the phasers."  The low-power phasers went off in all directions.  The void's borders absorbed the energy.  At least their mission would not be a complete failure.  The edges of the void would be completely mapped.  They were fluctuating in space.  At least that might explain the currents.

 

The location beacon read 30,000 km from Arcadia. With all attempts to regain control failing, and nothing else to do, Lo'Ami screamed: "Brace for impact!"

At 30,013 km, the yacht's sensors detected biosign readings.

 

 

 

***

On the bridge of the Arcadia, the face of the science officer on duty, Ensign Asimov, turned color.  A burst of data arrived from the yacht, then:

"The yacht is gone, sir."  

The bridge crew gazed at the science station.

After a pause, short for a chronometer, but feeling like an eternity:

"Sensors are picking up a debris field at its last known location."