Suddenly the ship went to red alert.

"Report." The Captain ordered. "Have we been detected ?"

"Negative Captain, but we’ve lost the scan." ASHER replied.

"Captain, I’m getting a report about some kind of fight in corridor seventeen, Commander T’kul have been injured, sickbay has been alerted." Ensign Oakenshield replied from the tactical station. "I’m also detecting a shuttle launch.It’s the Interphase."

"Raise the forcefields, close the blast doors." The Captain ordered.

"Unable to comply, they’ve been taken off-line." Oakenshield informed the Captain.

"Can you get a lock on the shuttle ?" The Captain asked Oakenshield.

"The tractor emitters are also off-line Captain, I’m sorry." She replied.

"Fire forward phasers, disable their engines." Devore ordered.

"Weapons are off-line too Captain." Oakenshield replied.

"Doesn’t anything work on this ship anymore." The Captain remarked.

"Sir, I’m detecting one human lifesign onboard the Interphase." Oakenshield stated. "It’s Ensign Morriden and he’s heading straight for the wormhole."

"I wondered when he’d resurface. Mister ASHER, Mister Barker what’s the status of the slipstream bubble." The Captain asked.

"The simulations we’ve run have been inconclusive, we can’t predict what will happen when we enter the wormhole." ASHER replied. "We could end up being crushed by the black hole or emerge in a totally different universe.

"How long till you can get the bubble activated." Devore enquired.

"We can activate the slipstream drive right now." ASHER replied. "It shouldn’t take more than a minute to create a stable bubble."

"Do it." Devore ordered. "Helm, follow that shuttle."

The Leviathan closed every nearer to the wormhole, still showing up on sensors as a black hole. Anyone’s instinct would be telling them that the black hole was bad, to run away from it as fast as you could. The crew knew that the black hole was actually in another dimension to their own, but on sensors it looked real.

"We should be entering the wormhole in thirty seconds." Lt. Commander Barker remarked.

"Starting to create the slipstream bubble in ten, nine, eight.." ASHER counted down.

"Captain, I’m reading a small fleet of unidentified vessels approaching at transwarp speed." Ensign Oakenshield announced from the tactical station.

"Transwarp, that can only mean one thing. The Proletarians have found us." The Captain remarked.

"Four, Three.." ASHER continued.

"Should be abandon our course Captain." Brayden asked.

"Negative, we’re going into that wormhole, I just hope the Proletarians can’t follow." The Captain replied to his son.

"One. Slipstream bubble is stable at 99% efficiency". ASHER remarked.

Just then the ship was rocked by a powerful blast from behind the ship.

"We have three vessels following our course." Ensign Oakenshield announced.

"Increase speed to full impulse." Devore ordered. "Put the vessels on the screen."

The images of three Proletarian vessels appeared to the main viewscreen.

"They certainly look like Proletarian battle cruisers." Chu remarked.

"Captain, I wouldn’t advise going to full impulse." ASHER protested. "Whenever we’ve run simulations at full impulse the bubble has collapsed rapidly."

"Then let’s hope the simulations were wrong. If we don’t enter the wormhole before those ships destroy us, it won’t matter will it." Devore retorted. "Keep a close eye on your reading Mister ASHER. Can we fire back ?"

"Yes. I’ve managed to bring the weapons system back on-line Captain." Oakenshield stated.

"I wouldn’t advise phasers Captain, but torpedoes should go through the bubble fine." ASHER replied.

"Fire a volley of quantum torpedoes, maximum spread. Keep firing until we have none left if you have to." Devore ordered.

"Slipstream bubble is deteriorating, attempting to compensate." ASHER reported. "Bubble now at 80%."

"We’ll be entering the wormhole in thirty seconds." Brayden reported.

Salvo after salvo of quantum torpedoes shot out from behind the Leviathan, quickly destroying two of the pursuing vessels.

"We’ve reached the wormhole threshold. Slipstream bubble at 40%, holding stable." ASHER reported.

The last of the three Proletarian ships exploded behind them, just as they passed the threshold..

"Any sign of Morriden ?" Devore asked.

"Sensors are very fuzzy, it must be the wormhole." Oakenshield replied. "I’m picking up a small metallic object about sixty kilometres ahead of us, it’s moving pretty fast."

"Can you get a weapons lock ?" Devore asked.

"I think so." Oakenshield replied. "Yes, target locked."

"Fire a quantum torpedo." The Captain ordered.

"NO." Shouted ASHER.

Before ASHER could raise his protest, the single torpedo sped ahead of the Leviathan and exploded.

Then everything went wild.

[Collision alert, Collission alert.] The computer shouted.

"What the …." Devore remarked, then looked at the viewscreen and saw the problem. "Evasive manoeuvres."

But it was too late. The two Leviathans ‘rammed’ each other, consoles exploded around the Bridge, followed by fires and then blackness.

The sounds of the two hulls scraping against each other could be heard throughout the ship.

"I’m detecting multiple hull breaches along the starboard side." ASHER reported. "Emergency force fields are failing."

Then the entire ship shook and everyone’s world started to spin.

The two Leviathans shot out of the other side of the wormhole and drifted in space.

ASHER was the first to recover.

"Report." The Captain ordered.

"The Leviathan’s heavily damaged, we’ve lost both the slipstream drive and the auxiliary warp core. We’ve got major damage to all systems, the weapons pod missing, probably sheered off by the explosion. In short, we’re drifting in pace with only thrusters to propel us." ASHER replied. "You should never have launched that torpedo, you could have killed us all."

"Now it not the time for recriminations. Where are we ?" Devore asked.

"Sensors are mostly off-line, but judging from the visual scans of the area, I’d estimate that we’re somewhere in the Beta quadrant." ASHER replied.

"We’re home." Devore said, almost sounding surprised. "And the wormhole ?"

"Is gone." ASHER replied. "The explosion from the torpedo must have been enough to close it."

Ensign Oakenshield rose from behind the tactical desk and tried to brush the debris off the console in front of her, only to cover it with her blood.

Lt. Commander Barker had already regained his composure and had removed the emergency medical kit. He walked across to where Oakenshield was now slumped and ran a dermal regenerator over the wound. The bleeding stopped and Oakenshield sat back down on the floor. Julia thanked the Lt. Commander, but as he looked at her, she got a strange feeling about him, as if he was attempting to hide something from her.

Ten minutes past before anyone reached the Bridge from outside, with most of the turbolift system either destroyed or inoperable, it was some achievement.

The first to arrive was a medical team, lead by Doctor Katts, then slowly engineering crews started to arrive. Within an hour the Bridge was cleared of all the debris and the crew were all treated for their injuries. ASHER had also managed to get the short-range sensors back online and had confirmed that they were indeed back in their own galaxy.

The viewscreen came back to life and everyone just stared. On the screen was an Akira class vessel, heavily damaged, but obviously still functioning. The rows of phaser arcs and the phaser turrets covered the surface.

"ASHER ?" Devore remarked.

"Scans show that the vessel is the ISS Leviathan, the explosion must have ripped a hole in the quantum fabric of space and somehow it was brought into our universe." ASHER replied.

"That’s not what I meant." Devore remarked angrily "What’s it status ?"

"Oh. The vessel seems to have faired no better than we have Captain. They too have a major hull breach. From the scans, I doubt that they’re in any shape to fight." ASHER replied. "And neither are we. Wait, I’m getting a power surge from the vessels impulse engines. They are moving away."

"Follow them." Devore ordered.

"We can’t sir." Brayden replied. "Our own impulse engines haven’t been brought back online, it will be another hour, Taline reports."

"Damn." Devore replied, rising from his chair and heading for his ready room. "I want a full damage report within the hour."