“Can the sensors image anything at the rift’s center?” Vale asked, seated in the chair at Riker’s immediate right. She seemed as eager as Riker was to avoid dwelling on the thalaron weapon that had killed Data.
“Not yet, Commander,” said Cadet Dakal. “I’m going to increase the gain.” Dakal touched his console, entering a command.
Hell unleashed itself at that precise moment. The placid, glowing tendrils of energy that surrounded the rift’s event horizon suddenly crackled with agitation, like the tentacles of some legendary kraken preparing to strike at its prey. Then the viewscreen was awash in blinding light for an instant, just before the bridge was plunged into absolute stygian darkness.
For a timeless interval, Riker thought he had ceased to exist. The ship’s gravity seemed to have failed along with the lights, and he felt as though he were plunging in freefall through an infinite void.
His command chair grew comfortably solid beneath him, and the sensation of weightless disorientation gradually passed as the dim red emergency lighting kicked in. Alarm klaxons blared. Mercifully, Vale ordered them silenced.
“Ship’s status?” he shouted, then turned to see that everyone was still at their stations, though all present were wide-eyed with surprise. Once again the automatic restraints had activated, and everyone was struggling out of them, Riker himself included. The main viewscreen was working, but displayed only a hash of random static.
After a beat, everyone working on the bridge sounded off. Then, over the intercom, each department head reported in.
“We’ll have power restored in a few minutes, Captain,”Dr. Ra-Havreii reported from the engine room. “I only wish I knew what just happened to us.”
“That makes all of us, Commander,” Riker told Titan’s new, if provisional, chief engineer. “We’ll let you know once we figure it out ourselves.” He turned toward the science console, beside which stood both Jaza and Dakal, the latter of whom appeared to be utterly guilt-stricken. “Any ideas about that, Mr. Jaza?”
The bridge doors slid open before Jaza could answer. Riker turned in time to see Admiral Akaar step out onto the upper level.
Intent on his scanners and monitors, Jaza said, “My best guess is that the rift’s energies somehow interacted with our scanning beams.”
The static that dominated the main viewscreen settled down to the prosaic image of black space, punctuated by countless stars. Riker didn’t recognize any of the constellations. But then, he didn’t expect to, so deep inside Romulan space.
“Meaning what?” Riker asked.
Jaza looked up, his expression mild. “We’ve been drawn over the edge of the rift’s event horizon, Captain.”
“Then—where isthe rift?” Riker asked, gesturing toward the main screen, which stubbornly continued to display nothing but stars and trackless empty space.
Tuvok rose from his tactical station, an almost haunted look on his face. “It appears that the question isn’t where the rifthas gone, Captain. It is where wehave gone.”
Riker was liking this situation less and less. “Meaning?”
“Meaning I have begun running comparisons of the stars in this volume of space with our stellar cartography database. Titanseems to have abruptly shifted position.”
“Shifted,” Riker said, cold fingers of dread clutching at his guts. “Shifted how far?”
“My preliminary estimate is a distance of about two hundred and ten thousand light-years.”
Riker tried to get his mind around that. “That would take us well outside the Milky Way galaxy.” Pointing toward the star-dappled viewscreen, he added, “That hardly looks like intergalactic space.”
Jaza, who had apparently been attempting to check out Tuvok’s findings, straightened up from the console he had been hunched over. “That’s because we seem to be inside one of the Milky Way’s small, irregular satellite galaxies. I’ll want to consult with Lieutenant Pazlar to make sure, but I think we’ve landed smack inside the Small Magellanic Cloud.”
Riker noticed then that Tuvok and Akaar had both turned visibly pale.
“Neyel territory,” Akaar said quietly.
Tuvok nodded. “So it would seem.”
“You two have been here before,” Riker said. He wasn’t asking a question.
“Yes,” Akaar said. “On Excelsior.Over eighty years ago. The Neyel made this place their home centuries ago, long before the Federation came to be.”
“These…Neyel,” said Vale. “Is that what the locals call themselves?”
“Yes,” Tuvok said, impassive but still pale with obvious surprise.
“Humanoid?” Deanna wanted to know.
“More than that, Commander,” Akaar said. “The Neyel are human.”
Riker felt his jaw drop involuntarily, his gaze turning back to the viewscreen. Humans? Out here?
And as Titansailed on through the alien galaxy, her captain wondered what else awaited them among those unfamiliar stars.
THE VOYAGES OF THE
STARSHIP TITAN
CONTINUE IN
THE RED KING
About the Authors
MICHAEL A. MARTIN’s solo short fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.He has also coauthored (with Andy Mangels) several Star Trekcomics for Marvel and Wildstorm and numerous Star Treknovels and e-books, including this volume and Titan: Book Two—The Red King(forthcoming); Star Trek: Worlds of Deep Space 9 Book Two: Trill—Unjoined; Star Trek: The Lost Era 2298—The Sundered; Star Trek: Deep Space 9 Mission: Gamma Book Three—Cathedral; Star Trek: The Next Generation: Section 31—Rogue; Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers#30 and #31 (“Ishtar Rising” Books 1 and 2); stories in the Prophecy and Changeand Tales of the Dominion Waranthologies, as well as in the soon-to-be-released Tales from the Captain’s Tableanthology; and three novels based on the Roswelltelevision series. His work has also been published by Atlas Editions (in their Star Trek Universesubscription card series), Star Trek Monthly, Dreamwatch,Grolier Books, Visible Ink Press, and Gareth Stevens, Inc., for whom he has penned several World Almanac Library of the Statesnonfiction books for young readers. He lives with his wife, Jenny, and their two sons in Portland, Oregon.
ANDY MANGELS is the coauthor of several Star Treknovels, e-books, short stories, and comic books, as well as a trio of Roswellnovels, all cowritten with Michael A. Martin. Flying solo, he is the best-selling author of many entertainment books including Animation on DVD: The Ultimate Guideand Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Characters,as well as a significant number of entries in The Superhero Bookfrom Visible Ink Press.