Across spacetime

 The ship rocked as each disruptor blast shook the shields. Using the strength in his shoulders Gunner held his position at tactical and scanned the warbird. The heat resonating from her disruptors was all the lock he needed. Not to mention in those few seconds directly following their use is when each weapon was at its weakest.

“Fire”

With the speed of a Klingon warrior Gunner ran through tactical controls and fired rotating blasts from every phaser bank. The hum of the phasers filled the bridge as the viewscreen showed the familiar orange glow striking the Romulan target. One by one the remaining disruptor banks exploded into small flashes of fire before being snuffed out by the vacuum of space. In only a matter of seconds the D'Deridex sat smoking and charred worse than before, but unable to fire another shot.

“All weapons disabled sir.” Gunner reported.

While peace is always the way a part of Gunner hoped for an order to keep firing, but the mystery of what happened was greater. The warrior in him wanted to see this through.

“Target still locked sir, and awaiting your command.”

Terix observed the efficiency of the tactical cadet with a quiet admiration, Gunner was as good as his name suggested. He observed the smoking warbird on the Alsea's view screen "Not so mighty now are we.."  he thought.  The part of him that seethed with hatred of the Romulan Empire wanted nothing more than to tell Gunner to finish the job. He wanted to tell the half Klingon to let loose the full fire of the Prometheus Class warship's batteries and reduce the D'deridex to slag. He was enraged at the carelessness of the Romulan commander engaging in a firefight this close to an anomaly that could destroy them all and his rage extended even further by the cowardice of this fvai attacking an obviously disabled enemy. Terix knew that Gunner would want to finish the fight as well, but as he had learned on Earth, no matter what the Imperial propaganda said; that was not Starfleet. Starfleet believed in holding their officers to a higher standard, that destroying a disabled enemy and taking lives was a last resort even when that enemy attacked you first. If Terix were a Romulan commander he would be expected to destroy his enemy and ensure there were no survivors, but despite sharing their blood, and even their upbringing; he was not like them and so he stood. 

"Counselor, open a channel." He turned and faced Gunner "If that ship so much as twitches send them to Gre'thor." 

"Channel open," the holographic Betazoid responded "but I cannot guarantee they can hear you." 

"Romulan commander, this is the USS Alsea, you have committed an act of war. Stand down immediately and vacate Federation space. If you attempt to resume your attack or make any other offensive movement we will continue to defend ourselves. Do not be foolish Commander, be Rihannsu and save your honor while you can." 

There was only static and screeching sounds from the speakers as they watched the D'Deridex majestically continue on it's trajectory, drifting like a galley now without oars, warp nacelles and impulse exhaust glows growing fainter and with a distinct green color. There were clearly less lights doting it's green-plated hull than before and many more were flickering out. Then, from several open bays, a swarm of flying objets flew out towards the Alsea. No scanners were needed to identify them; they were all workbees and shuttles. There were even very tiny objects that could only be thruster suits, coming out from various airlocks along the massive hull.

Something screched again in the comm speakers but nothing could be made out.

''Its not us, Sir; our comm system is fully operational, '' the holographic counselor confirmed from the medical command chair. ''My  bioscanners are registering Romulan lifesigns in those vehicles and suits, most of them faint or fluctuating.''

Gunner worked to configure the phaser system. At such a range it would be practically impossible to fine tune the beam to hit something the size of a person, but he was easily able to fine tune the beams to hit the worker bees and small shuttles.

"Target locked on incoming objects. Should I fire?" Gunner asked.

Terix considered the possibilities...were these Romulans that bloodthirsty that they would attempt a suicide attempt to invade or attack the Federation ship? Even if they made it any invaders would be easily contained by the Alsea's security fields and he could deploy holographic security teams to combat them. Would they try suicide runs against the Alsea? Explode the warp cores of their shuttles in an attempt to scuttle the warship? That seemed unlikely...Romulans were fierce combatants it was true, but they were normally not suicidal fanatics. It was the fact that the life signs were faint that gave Terix pause...these soldiers and officers may simply be trying to escape their dying vessel. Even if he could get them aboard what would he do with them? The Alsea had no medical personnel, no relief supplies though those could be replicated, and no crew to deal with the survivors of the Romulan vessel save for the engineering crew. 

"Gunner, is there any coordination to the objects? Are they making an attack run or are they trying to get away from their dying ship?"

"Unknown sir. If there is an attack pattern it is not one I have ever seen." Gunner responded.

"However if it is an evacuation it is certainly the most organized and coordinated movement I have ever seen."

Sabrina scanned the worker bees and shuttles as the conversation on the bridge bounced back and forth. 

“Just as we could not interfere and transport those impaired crew members we registered on the Artemis aboard, we cannot bring any member of that Romulan ship aboard either. They are not from our timeline. To do so would also be in violation of the protocols regarding the Department of Temporal Investigations. I would recommend putting a greater distance between us and those escaping pods to avoid any possibility of further interactions.”

Hansen couldn't help but notice that this was the second instance that Sabrina had reminded the crew about temporal rules which forbade rescuing these out-of-time crews. Lep considered his first response of some dozen minutes ago and, with a quick glance in Cadet Shadowhunts' direction, swallowed a retort about again interjecting leaving people to survive or die at the whims of fate. Instead, biting a response off with a subdued growl, he prepared to again move the Alsea on Terix's orders. He surmised that fate would direct the acting captain's response and these Romulans, although obviously dying, would be left to chance like the Artemis's crew was before them.

Terix stood in front of the command chair, his eyes moving back and forth between Shadowhunt and the viewscreen for a long moment. The idea of leaving the Romulans to die, despite his intense feelings toward the Empire, was almost as distasteful as leaving the Artemis crew to their fate. Sabrina was right however, he could not rescue them as they were likely destined to die in the anomaly. He had already potentially altered their course by firing on their ship though given what he knew of the Artemis he had little choice in the matter. There could be no more debate, the regulations were clear and it was time to get the Alsea out of danger as had been his charge from Commander Sangliar when the Tellarite placed him in command. 

"Mister Hansen...maneuver away from the Romulans, and return us to our original parallel trajectory. Gunner, set up your phasers to fire on the anomaly. Use the data provided by the USS Voyager to guide your power levels and targeting. We will close the anomaly and then we will return to the Starbase."

Gunner shifted his target lock from the small craft to the center of anomaly.

“Phasers ready at your command” Gunner reported.

Glancing over to the center seat, Sabrina interjected once again.

“If we can get engineering to bring our deflector dish back online, we could use it to emit inverted ionic pulses at the base of the tear as initially recommended. This preceding the low intensity phaser fire could work in conjunction to close up that subspace rift.”

As the ship started to move away from the incoming swarm, there was again an energy surge on Gunner's tactical sensors; and another one on the science console's sensor readout. That last one was timed with the Romulan craft wavering and disappearing into the anomaly. But the other one was reading like a warp core breach; from all the objects, big and small, flying towards them.

“If the sensor readings are any indication, it appears that those escaping crafts may be on a kamikaze mission to the vessel that dealt their ship a fatal blow… us!” Sabrina bellowed as she attempted to engage deflector control.

Gunner maintained his lock on the anomaly, but was ready to fire at the incoming craft.

Time was not on their side to deliberate an immediate action.

“Those avenging workbees, shuttles, pods and thruster suits are low mass objects. If we channel whatever large amount of energy we can spare into the deflector dish and emit it in a blast, it may be forceful enough repel the approaching swarm… like an ocean wave pushing small crafts further out to sea.”

Sabrina’s attention shifted back to her console and the viewscreen as she calculated the dwindling time to impact.

Part of Terix wanted to kick himself for not wanting to believe the Romulans would attempt to destroy the Alsea...perhaps their extended exposure to the anomaly was affecting their judgement, but he didn't really have time to consider their physiological and psychological states at the moment. His one job was to get himself and his fellow cadets out of this mess they'd wandered into and he was not about to fail if he could help it.

"Bridge to engineering, we need the deflector back now! Gunner, target as many of the incomings as you can and open fire."

Gunner quickly refocused the targeting system and with tactical Klingon efficiency began to fire on the incoming objects. The hum of the phasers again filled the bridge but this time the hums were quick and quieter as Gunner fired a barrage of focused phaser beams. Within seconds more than two dozen of the closest shuttles and worker bees. Gunner even managed to keep the beams active as they swept from target to target vaporizing numerous of the person sized objects in the process. Even with his fast tactical response, and deadly accuracy, Gunner was unsure he could shoot down everything before they reached the ship.

With the deflector still not responding, Sabrina jumped up from her post and headed for the turbolift.

“Getting that deflector online!” she yelled as the lift door closed and began its decent. She knew that a small team was working to get it back functioning again, but with only a skeleton crew aboard, the engineering staff’s priorities were split among all of the systems requiring assistance. She worked on the deflector while the vessel was docked, so everything was still fresh in her mind.

Arriving to the deflector area, the first thing they did was retest test the power source. The system was powered by three redundant high-powered graviton polarity source generators. These fed two 550-millicochrane subspace field distortion amplifiers, with the resulting energy being focused by the subspace coils through the deflector array. The system itself would not turn on at all.

Along with two engineers, they divided and each methodically sorted and tested through every component of the apparatus piece-by-piece. Everything was checking out, so they continued delving deeper into the equipment. The diagnostic effort was beginning to feel rather ominous until they finally discovered three relays that had been shorted out by the anti-tachyon pulse.

An engineer ran to grab replacement parts as they began the extraction process of the damaged elements. Returning with components in hand, they each carefully supplanted each of the damaged relays then replaced the outer panels protecting them.

They hustled back to the deflector controls as they attempted to bring the deflector dish back online. This time they were able to get it to at least to power up. It ran through a series of self -diagnostic tests before eventually displaying the image indicating nominal status.

Sabrina activated a communications channel to the bridge.

“Deflector is back online,” she announced as she thanked her partners then ran out of the area and back to the turbolift. 

"Acknowledged," Terix replied "Mister Hansen, point our deflector at the incoming objects." He then addressed the golden-eyed holographic android "Operations, configure the deflector to emit a burst with whatever energy we can spare, but do not take power from shields, weapons, engines or life support. Fire the burst  directly at the incoming targets as soon as you are ready." 

"Aye Captain, configuring now."

Hansen quickly bent over the helm console and began manipulating the thruster controls to swing the large ship back about on her Zee axis. By using just the forward port and aft starboard thrusters, Lep managed to also keep their parallel orientation in relation to the rift and not diminish the ship's momentum through space on the original trajectory.

While Hansen worked on the configurations Gunner continued to fire controlled phaser blasts at the swarm of incoming craft. As they approached and scattered locks became more difficult, and Gunner knew now that he was not going to be able to shoot down the entire swarm.

The turbolift doors swooshed open as Sabrina bounced her way back to the science station. Carefully checking the console, she confirmed that the deflector dish was operational as it was being readied for an energy burst directed at the oncoming threat. She looked over to Hansen.

“Well Lep, how about you send a tidal wave of available energy towards those approaching antagonists and send them on their way?” she commented with a Mona Lisa-like smile.

"Do It." was Terix only reply and then to the half Klingon cadet he ordered "Gunner, hold your fire."

  Hansen returned a slight grin to Sabrina's smile and then glanced at the view screen. The approaching swarm had originated at a moving point of origin, which encompassed the entire arc of the Romulan vessel. Thus the trajectories that Gunner had been tracking during his targeting were spreading exponentially, like a shot gun pattern at slow speed. However, these 'pellets' were under their own power and converging toward the Alsea as well. Picking a point of attack at the near left of the swarming dots, Lep brought their main deflector into alignment with that point while still maintaining the momentum of the ships reversing course parallel to the rift. Once aligned he prepared to sweep starboard with the ship, pausing while he then answered Shadowhunt.

"Main deflector aligned port side of swarm. Will sweep starboard when you start your burst Mademoiselle."

Confirming the level of energy charge built up in the deflector was approaching full capacity, Sabrina used her sensors to pinpoint the starting edge to release the pulse.

“Surf is up boys!” she announced as she engaged the deflector, initiating the high torque electrofluidic servos which emitted the first moments of pulses toward the approaching vermin.  Like a huge wave crashing over tiny boats, all the vessels in its path were swept backwards as if they were leaves blown away by a gust of wind.

Sabrina glanced over at Hansen to ensure that he swung the ship in an arc to keep the pulse moving starboard before the energy diminished.

As soon as Lep felt the vibrational hum of the main deflector' discharge firing he punched his helm controls, pivoting the ship to starboard with full power to the port forward thruster, and maintaining alignment along the swarm with the aft starboard one. As the ship spun, Hansen had to compensate for the thrust emitted by the deflectors pulse as it added reverse thrust to the Alsea's drift.

Watching the swarm be pushed aside Gunner pinpointed his fire and picked off the stragglers not touched by the wave. The hum of phaser fire and the buzz of the deflector dish filled Gunner's ears as he continued to pick off the few remaining ships and worker bees. As the hum of the phaser fire subsided Gunner watched the remaing ships scatter backwards and awaited further instructions.

After thoroughly surveying the region, Sabrina looked up from the science console then turned to face the Romulan temporarily in command.

“Deflector dish has been reconfigured to emit the inverted ionic pulses starting at the base of this rift… at your command.”

She then gazed over at Hansen. “Ready to seal up this nightmare?”

The holographic counselor turned towards the center seat.

''Sir I completed bioscans. There were no lifeforms in any of those objects; only biosample material like what we use to test transporters. And before we disposed of them, they were getting contaminated by increasing levels of atomic radiation.''

"So I did not kill anyone?" Gunner asked puzzled.

"It sure seemed real to me."

Before Gunner could continue he was cut off.

''Sir... the Artemis...''

The voice of the holographic ops officer brought eyes to the main viewer. Still looking powerless, the Ambassador class starship was also affected by their pulse. It was drifting out of the anomaly.

Terix eyes snapped from the counselor to the viewer and the slowly drifting Ambassador Class ship. The Romulan couldn't believe it, every time they tried to put things right something else went wrong, it was like a bad holodeck simulation!

"Ilhusra!" he exclaimed for the second time and perhaps a bit louder than he'd intended before composing himself.. "We have to put it back...Shadowhunt, Hansen options?  Can we use the tractor beam or deflector  to give it a push and correct their inertia?"

With swift manual dexterity, Sabrina reconfigured the deflector once again then offered an option.

“I changed the deflector from the inverted ionic pulses configuration to emit an inverted magnetic pulse.  We can use now use this emission to gently nudge the Ambassador class ship back to the other side of the rift.”

"Carefully," Terix replied with some reservation in his voice "Ms. Shadowhunt...carefully...put her back where she belongs."

Sabrina nodded back to the Romulan then focused her attention on the controls in front of her.

They knew that this would be a very delicate procedure. The energy beam discharged needed to be precise in terms of energy level and direction to carefully wrangle the Artemis through the portal and back into her correct spacetime. She studied and verified all information then calibrated the instruments accordingly.

She took a deep breath as she glanced up at the large viewscreen toward the majestic vessel basically suspended in space before them. A moment later she engaged the deflector and witnessed the low-level beam contact the ship. She verified that the vessel moved back slightly toward the rift as contact was established. She incrementally increased the inverted magnetic pulse of the deflector and watched the ship move backwards at a higher velocity. She continued minutely modifying the angle of the beam to keep the vessel on track towards the rift.

“The lost sheep is slowly heading back towards her pen,” Sabrina noted as she kept the magnetic pulse guiding the ship properly adjusted to get it back toward where it belonged. “Recommend that we prepare to repair the fence immediately afterwards to avoid any further escapees from creating more problems for us or anyone else.”

Terix nodded as he observed the Artemis moving back from where it had come "Agreed. Time to play surgeon, reconfigure the deflector and begin closing the anomaly as soon as you are able." 

As they approached the rim of the rift, Sabrina signaled to Hansen to keep their distance from the anomaly. The last thing they wanted was to find themselves pulled into a vortex of the past.

She then increased the pulse’s output for a final burst until she cut it off completely. With sigh of relief, they could see the lumbering vessel slowly cross the last hundred kilometers beyond the threshold of the rift and finally return back into its proper place in time.

As it moved further into its own spacetime, Sabrina swiftly reconfigured the deflector once again. 

She aimed the focus of the deflector beam towards port side of the tear in space then emitted the first inverted ionic pulses into it. In reaction, the rip in space contracted as if it were a corner of an eye blinking shut.

“Engage the phaser beam at this point and follow the path of the pulse,” she bellowed, as she tried to hold the corner of the rift shut.

Gunner quickly reconfigured the phasers for a fine beam and aimed at the pulse. The viewscreen showed the orange glow of a phaser following the pulse.

Hanson deftly held the Alsea steady as suggested by Shadowhunt as he watched the near surgical precision of her manipulation of the deflector beams pinpoint suturing of the rift. Although there was relatively little gravitational backlash from the rift, there had been a minute gravimetric push from the Atremis' great mass disturbing the local space. While minute, it did cause slight disturbance's in this small localized space, as had the Romulan D'Deridex' mass. Lep continued to adjust the Prometheus's orientation within the local mass disturbances, keeping her main deflector aligned with the center of the rift.

“My father always wanted me to be a surgeon,” Sabrina confessed as they continued repairing the torn rift in the fabric in space. “I wonder if this would count for anything in that regards from his perspective,” she pondered out loud, as they continued adjusting their surgical like procedure.

Gunner laughed to himself as Sabrina expressed humor in her paternal pride. Gunner’s father wanted him to be a warrior and already he had several stories of glorious combat. If the rest of his career was even close to today he would be joining his ancestors in Suto'vo'qor.

As the Artemis returned to the rift, they all saw lights coming alive across her hull. The massive pair of warp nacelles slowly started to glow as the bussard collectors reddened with collected particles and the deflector dish visibly reactivated itself in front of the cylindrical secondary hull.

And then it vanished like a mirage as the spacetime anomaly closed in on itself.

There was some static screeching through the comm channel's speakers. Then, only the peaceful silence of the distant stars winked at them.

Sabrina stared at the vista of distant stars across the viewscreen for a minute or so without blinking before looking down at the sensors, attempting to confirm what her eyes were registering.

“Did this actually work?” she questioned in general, not certain what to believe. 

Gunner’s tactical sensors showed nothing.

''I have no signal at all, '' the holographic counselor said after looking at her biosensor board and her comm channels. ''But I managed to decipher the last transmission we received. it was from the Artemis. It said ''Thank you Lotus Fleet. We are resuming operations.''

She looked at Terix.

''Voice recognition confirms the message was from Captain Kheren.”

Terix blinked at the mention of the famed Andorian's name. Even on Earth he had heard of the Lotus Fleet captain's exploits, and while part of him was surprised that anyone on the Artemis was able to perceive what had happened at the rift site another was not surprised in the least. 

"That is as a good an acknowledgement of our success as I believe we will get" he said to the bridge in general "Ms Shadowhunt, any further signs of other tendrils or fractures in the area?"

Sabrina ran a variety of sensor scans to the limit of their reach in all directions around the Alsea and beyond. Then she repeated the operations once again to verify, yet saw no anomalies registering at any frequency in the region.