By Nathan Warner
"Where...are we?" Captain Alvin Richards gasped, staring in disbelief out the screen. Silence drowned the Bridge of the U.S.S. Endeavor as his question faded in the tense air.
Outside the warm confines of the Nova class, the Universe was roiling in painful contractions of galactic birth - or was it the one long spasm of stellar death? It was impossible to tell. The dull light of the fiery galactic core and nearer nebulae bathed the ship in a throbbing, dark red light. Nearer still, wormholes or portals cascaded open in convulsions, revealing distant parts of the universe momentarily before spontaneously vaporizing out of existence.
Closer to the ship, black specks flickered alive and vanished in the vacuum like static on an ancient cathode ray-tube. Richards could see from the Science Station's readout that they were tears in space time - which was being torn at by unseen forces.
And then there was the most bizarre feature yet - an endless ocean of what appeared to be a liquid of some kind - or was it pure, untapped energy? Choppy waves of the glassy sea gently surged below them. It shimmered and flashed, reflecting the likeness of the violent tumult of the Universe like a shattered mirror.
Suddenly, Richards noticed the deafening silence around him at last and shook himself.
"Report!" he barked. His voice broke the spell. At that moment, everyone startled into action and busied themselves feverishly at their stations. Lt. Berdson turned from his science station.
"Captain, I have no idea...how we got here," he stuttered, "and I don't know...where 'here' is!"
Richards smiled grimly to himself. Only last night he'd been bemoaning in his log concerning his "trivial" orders to sample background neutrino levels in the Calabak nebula.
"We were explorers once!" he'd complained. The old earth saying came to his mind: "Careful what you wish for!"
This was the unknown, alright. They had truly gone where no ship had gone before, but would they live to tell about it? Would they find a way back home?
Not before taking in the sights! He decided. And why not? When the universe lifts its curtains for a moment and invites you to gaze behind the "known," a timid refusal hardly seems polite.
"Steady as she goes!" Richards ordered the helm, taking his seat definitively. "We're going in. This is what our ship was built for!"
