Kellen Ereth’s eyes were glued to the console in front of him as he tried to navigate the increasingly small and complex subspace tunnel the Galaxy found itself in. The small display on the left of the console gave him at least some idea of how to adjust the ship’s attitude as needed; the navigational sensor struggling to map out what lay ahead considering the ship’s velcoty. He’d taken the impulse engines down to one quarter but it hadn’t changed anything; this tunnel was in control.

He gripped the console with one hand as he shifted the ship to port to avoid another small spot of derbies. The tunnel was littered with the debris of ships that didn’t survive the trip. He didn’t bother to glance at the sensors, he didn’t have time to distract himself nor did he care, but from the glimpses he caught in the viewscreen the debris was old. Very old. His stomach jumped up into his throat as he evened the ship back out, the inertial dampers struggling to keep up. He took a deep breath, doing his best to remember the breathing techniques that Lieutenant Carter had instructed him to use. He could do this. It wasn’t like that happened on that runabout on Frontier Day. He was in control. 

He was in control. 

“Captain, these tunnels are getting difficult to navigate. There are hazards all over the place.”

Myers gripped the armrest of her console as the shit shuddered again. “Do you best Ensign. If the hazards are too large to get around, take us down another corridor but until then I want the Gorn ship followed.”

Myers wasn’t about to let the Gorn breeding ship go. It was easier than they expected to pick up the tral of the Gorn ship and the Galaxy hadn’t taken much damage when it entered the anomaly. They also seemed to have some level of control; they could steer the ship down pathways but they had no control over speed and no real idea where they were going. 

“Sheilds are holding at 86%, Captain.” Offered Brex. “Still just minor damage reports and no injuries reported.”

“Let’s hope we keep it that way. Any sign of the Gorn ship?”

Lieutenant Commander T’Keu cleared her throat. “None, aside from their warp trial. I have run simulations and It does appear we can fire weapons while inside the subspace tunnel though I would not recommend doing so; knocking a ship out of the tunnel could be catastrophic.”

Demar let out a dissatisfied grunt. “If we can fire our weapons, so can the Gorn. I don’t care to meet them in here.”

“Neither do I Commander. It’s reasonable to assume they are moving at the same speed or faster than us and they had a head start; hopefully, we encounter them in real space.” Now that the ship was fairly stable, minus a few bumps and tilts here and there, Myers stood and walked over to Commander Conklin at the science console. “Any idea what we are in, Alex?”

Conkling pulled up the last set of sensor readings the computer had processed. “Actually, yes. These readings match the sensor readings that the USS Voyager recorded when they were in Turei Underspace. It almost sort of matches some of the readings from the few other ships that had been allowed the use of the Underspace.”

Clara leaned against the pillar next to the science station. “Underspace? That doesn’t make much sense. As far as we know Underspace doesn’t extend that deep into the Beta Quadrant.”

Alex shrugged. “It’s possible that the Turei didn’t disclose all their knowledge of Underspace routes to the Federation or that they had no idea it went this far out. Considering the way the Federation had been acting in the last decade or so, I can see why they wouldn’t want us to know they had access to the Federation’s backyard.”

Clara leaned over and pointed to the beta radiation waveforms on the screen. “These tunnels look like they are in a deep state of flux; the waveform readings match but they are clearly unstable. Could it be possible that new tunnels are forming?”

Again, all Alex could offer was a shrug. “I don’t know enough about Underspace to give you a solid answer. The debris we are coming across is old, really, really old. It may to new entrance and exit points are forming but the tunnels themselves are super old. When I have more time to pour over the details, I can give you a better answer.”

Clara nodded. “Perhaps the better question is, would we be able to find our way back through the tunnels to get home?”

“Ah, yes. That’s something I can give you an answer to. ” Alex pulled up an overview of their route through the tunnels. “We should be able to trace our way back home so long as we go back in through the aperture we exit from. I’ve recorded the location of where a new tunnel branches off from the one we are in; we can use those as landmarks to find our way back.”

Clara squeezed his shoulder. “Good work Commander.”

“Captain.” Called out Erith. “We’re approaching an exit aperture but there is an issue.” Erith pulled up the nav sensors on the main screen showing the Gorn’s trail leaving the Underspace network but immediately in front of the aperture was a large mass of debris. 

“Can you maneuver us around it Ensign?” Inquired Geden.

Erith shook his head. “No sir. No matter what way I maneuver the ship, the tunnel isn’t large enough to avoid an impact and there isn’t a branching tunnel to take us down a different path. The best I can do is have it scrape along the bottom hull.”

Clara sighed as she sat down. “Can the shields take it?”

Brex looked over the should status on his screen. “To an extent; simulations say shields will take the brunt of the impact and if we divert emergency power to the keel shield grid we’ll still have around 40% shield integrity. We’ll still run the risk of more extensive damage.”

“That’ll have to do.” Clara opened a shipwide channel. “All hands, this is the bridge. Brace for impact and immediate declaration.”

Kellen watched the approaching dot on his nav sensors, finger hovering over the ship’s attitude control to shift them upwards at the right time. With his free hand, he tapped in a set of commands to fire the breaking thrusters and cut off the impulse engines the moment they returned to free space. “Impact in ten, nine, eight.” He jabbed his finger against the console, commanding the ship to lurch upwards. “Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one!”

The exit aperture seemed to wobble in the space it occupied for a few moments before the USS Galaxy burst out of it, bow angled up while the keel shields were still lit up a bright, angry-looking, blue.  The breaking thrusters fired as expected, struggling to slow the ship down.

On the bridge, smoke filled the air, the red of the emergency lights piercing through it as best it could. Multiple alarms were sounding as the bridge crew picked themselves up from the floor.

“Is anyone hurt?” Geden choked and coughed on the acrid smoke as he pulled himself back into his chair. 

Thankfully a chorus of no’s came from the crew. While many had scrapes and bruises, it seemed they had escaped serious harm. 

“Status report.” Clara brushed some dust off her uniform top, trying to even out her breath as best she could.

Brex had managed to keep himself in his seat, almost dislocating his arm in the process. “I’m reading damage to the EPS network; blowouts on Decks 3, 5, 11, 18, 21, 15, and 29. SIF is holding at 94%, shields are at 11%, but weapons and sensors are mostly online. Engines are online but not sure what speed we can get. No info on casualties or fatalities yet.”

“Better than expected considering the bumpy ride.” Clara coughed, the smoke on the bridge slowing lifting as the environmental controls compensated. “Where are we and where are the Gorn”?

Alex brushed some light debris off his console’s screen. “Astrometrics sensors are still calibrating to our new location. I’m not seeing the Gorn ship, but I do see a warp trail that is most likely theirs.”

“Dr. V’Rel is reporting that there are numerous casualties but no fatalities reported so far. The vast majority are bumps, scrapes, concussions, and broken bones but she’s reporting very few serious injuries.” Brex turned to face the Captain. “Commander Broheth is also on his way up to brief you in person.”

“That can’t be good.” She said softly. “Commander Conklin, any idea where we are?”

“Yes, and it’s not good.” Alex pulled up the galaxy map on the viewscreen, lines dividing the Milky Way into four quadrants. A small, pulsing, Starfleet Delta sat in the middle of one of them. “We’re in the Gamma Quadrant, far beyond anything Starfleet had ever explored. I can’t even tell you if this is Dominion territory.”

“How long would it take for us to get to either the Bajorian Wormhole or Federation territory?” Geden’s eyes didn’t leave the screen as he spoke.

“The wormhole is closer. At high warp, we could get there in 17 months if we took a direct course and only stopped to give the engines a cool down.” His console let out a shrill beep, his eyes going wide before closing, almost in defeat. “And the Underspace aperture just closed behind us.”

Clara stiffened in her chair. “Can you tell where the Gorn ship went?”

“As best I can tell, they headed towards a Class M planet several lightyears away. I can’t get a solid scan on the planet at this distance, but it does appear to be inhabited.”

Clara rubbed her forehead. It wouldn’t surprise her if the Gorn had gone off in search of more hosts for their young; breeding ships were notoriously ruthless and if they felt they had no way of getting back to the Beta Quadrant, they’d want to establish a foothold quickly. The question was, do they go after the Gorn or attempt to open up Underspace to get back home? If the Gorn were going after innocent people they had a moral duty to attempt to help but it wasn’t a decision she’d be willing to make on her own.

The doors to the front port turbolift opened; Lieutenant Commander Broheth walked out, uniform already covered in grime. “Captain, if you’ll join me in the pit I’ll give you a full rundown.”

Clara nodded and followed the Bolian to the back of the bridge. The yard workers had nicknamed this portion of the bridge ‘the pit’, which was mostly apt. You had to take a few steps down as the area was sunken down, a ring of consoles around it that could be used as needed. It was usually used in crisis situations but was, overall, used as needed. The MSD was found on the large screen along the back wall.

Broheth tapped a small button next to the MSD, and a variety of green, yellow, and red dots appeared over the screen. “Red is critical damage, mostly the EPS network, yellow is vital but we can live without it and green is low priority, mostly superficial interior damage and EPS damage to places like the holodeck. Overall it’s not that bad. The is little to no structural damage, weapons are online, and sensors are online but impaired. There was an EPS juncture explosion near the secondary computer core that impacted the hardline connections. It’s not going to cripple the ship, Commander Conklin might just have some issues with long range sensor resolution. The big issue is this.” He pointed to a large red dot that was pulsing where the port nacelle met the engineering hull.

“Please don’t tell me there is a risk of another nacelle detaching; I got my fill of that at Beol II.”

“No detachment risk, thankfully, but there was a large EPS blowout at the junction of the port nacelle and engineering hull. I’ve had to reduce the flow of warp plasma due to the damage. With the port nacelle running at lower power the best we can do is warp 2.”

Clara let out a sigh; they likely couldn’t outrun much at warp 2. “Can we operate on one nacelle at a higher speed?”

Broheth made a face that said ‘Please don’t make me do that’. “In an emergency, yes. It severely strains the warp nacelle that is operating and we run the risk of cracking a coil if we do it for too long. I don’t feel comfortable doing it unless help is nearby.”

Clara sighed. “That is the one thing we don’t have. How long will repairs take?”

“I can get you full warp speeds in about 36 hours; most of the EPS network should be good to go in about 72 hours if nothing else goes wrong.”

“Let’s hope nothing else goes wrong. Pull any off duty personnel you need; our priority is to restore the EPS network and warp power.”

“Aye, ma’am” Broheth trotted up the 3 steps that marked the entrance of the pit as Clara leaned against the wall..

She watched as the various lights on the MSD pulsed red, green, and yellow; like lights on a Christmas tree that nobody wanted. It seemed, in this day and age, there was no hiding from trouble anymore.