Reaching The Heart

"Sir, we've reached the coordinates." Ensign Ambrose said.

"Full stop Ensign. On screen." The Captain replied.

"Captain, there's nothing here. It's just empty space." Shaka said looking out at the stars.

*No sun, no planets, nothing. Have we been duped ? Have we been lead into a trap ? Was I so gullible ?* These were the thoughts of Captain Devore.

"Sir, there's something strange here." Lieutenant Barker said, running his hands over the main science console.

"What's strange Chu ?" Commander Harris asked.

"I'm picking up a lot of residual stellar matter in the area, I think that there was once a planetary system here. But I'm not picking up any background radiation, I can't detect any evidence of a sun having ever existed in this area." Chu reported.

"Any sign of our 'guests' ?" Devore inquired.

"Nothing on short or long range sensors." Chu said.

Several minutes passed before eventually Chu said, "Captain, We are detecting slipstream vortices forming about a thousand meters behind us." *Looks like our hosts have arrived.*

"Captain, we're being hailed." Toran said "It's Si-Amber."

[Welcome Captain, Welcome to the Heart of Catatonia.]

The Leviathan was becoming part of a small armada. In total over twenty vessels, in varying sizes all of the same basic design had joined them. The largest of these flew past the Leviathan and started to emit a strong energy beam. Slowly, the beam caused something wonderful to appear in front of everyone's eyes.

"It would appear to be a wormhole Captain. However, I don't know why our sensors didn't detect it. If the Catatonian's have been opening and closing this wormhole, especially if they are forcing it open, there should have been evidence." Chu said with puzzlement in his voice. He hated not being able to find an explanation to something.

Finally the vessel stopped emitting the beam and started to move forward again, entering the wormhole. The wormhole entrance was just about wide enough for the Leviathan to pass through. However, once they were through the entrance a surprise awaited them. "Sir, Whatever we've just passed through it was not a wormhole." Chu said trying hard to find an answer as to where they were.

"Sir." Shaka said and then paused "I think I know where we are. Back at the Academy, whilst studying slipstream theories, there was one which said that it should be possible to create a static slipstream 'bubble'."

"You mean like a static warp bubble ?" Lieutenant Hansen inquired.

"Yes. Although you would need a tremendous amount of energy to create such a SS bubble. There have been every few static warp bubbles created partly because they are unpredictable and simply because it would take the energy output of a large warp core to achieve. To create a static SS bubble, you would need ten times the energy. However, once created it would take very little energy to keep the bubble intact." Shaka explained.

"Captain, we're detecting a large mass ahead." Toran announced.

"On screen" Devore ordered. In front of them 'stood' an amazing sight.

"It would appear to be over fifty kilometers in length and twenty kilometers at it's widest point." Chu reported.

The rest of the armada that has 'come' with the Leviathan sped towards the floating 'city', entering several openings spread over it's length.

"Move us onto a parallel course Mr. Ambrose. Chu are any of those channels large enough for the ship." The Captain said.

"No sir, I'm afraid not." Chu replied.

As the Leviathan came along side this 'Bemoth' of a vessel, they received a message.

"Put it on the speakers." Captain Devore said.

[Welcome people of the Leviathan. I, Cerys Mat'hews of the Catatonian council am pleased to meet representatives of the Federation. I look forward to meeting you in person.] The voice was female again, whether this was because the speaker was female or just how the universal translator was interpreting the Catatonians vocabulary no one knew.

"Can we transport onto the ship in this bubble ?" Devore inquired.

"In theory yes. Shaka said "Because the bubble is stable, there is no background interference, however no one has actually performed such a feat." *No one's ever seen a static SS bubble*

"Then let's play it safe. Mr. Hansen, If we can get permission from the Catatonian's I'd like you to personally perform a series of tests to determine whether transportation onto the vessel is possible. In the meantime, we're going to take the *Nile* across to the vessel. Toran, Shaka, Ambrose go find your dress uniforms." Devore said. "The WHITE one's." He added, remembering the fiasco in the Lounge of Spacedock three back in orbit around Earth, where his order for full dress uniform had found his crew in an assortment of three different uniforms.

"Open a channel." The Captain ordered. "This is Captain Devore of the USS Leviathan, I would be honoured to personally meet you. If you could provide us with co ordinates, we will transfer across in one of our shuttle vessels. Also, I would like to perform some tests to ascertain whether we can use our transporters in this SS bubble."

[Tell me more about this 'transporter' and these tests ?]

"We have the technology to 'transfer' matter from one location to another. These tests will consist of transporting several test items through this process and then return them back to the ship. There will be no danger to your vessel or it's inhabitants." The Captain explained.

[Then I will provide you with the coordinates of one of our empty cargo stores. If you pilot your shuttle to this location, you will come to a landing pad, where I will meet you in one hour.]

"Captain, we've received both sets of coordinates" Ambrose said.

"OK people, this is our first contact with inhabitants of the Beta quadrant, let's not start a fight unless we have to. It seems that everyone we meet want's to destroy us. Toran, Shaka, Ambrose meet me in shuttle bay one in half an hour. Commander Harris, you have the Bridge. Mr. Hansen, now that you've got the coordinates, start the transporter tests." Devore said.

He arose from his command seat and walked to the turbolift, closely followed by the *Leviathan's* Chief security officer, it's slipstream expert and their best helmsman and pilot.