The IKS Qul’val lumbered towards the aberrant anomaly, the Underspace-rooted singularity that threatened to destroy the Vespara System. Behind the Neg’Vhar battlecruiser, a Duderstadt fast cruiser followed. Admiral Reyes had left the Polaris over the colony to continue its work, in case they failed in the corona of the Vesparan star, and now she stood on the bridge of the USS Serenity alongside Captain Lewis.

The turbolift whisked open, and an aged man stepped out. He was no younger than the pair standing center on the bridge, but as opposed to the Admiral and the Captain, both of whom looked apprehensive, Dr. Tom Brooks appeared energized and excited. He’d dabbled in many forms of exotic science over the times through which he’d lived, some that none of his colleagues would ever believe, but this would be new, even for him.

“Good of you to join us, Tom,” Admiral Reyes nodded in his direction.

“Wouldn’t miss this for spacetime itself,” Dr. Brooks smiled as he took over at the Serenity’s science station. It wasn’t any mark against Lieutenant Commander he’d relieved. It was simply a fact that there was no one better suited to this moment than the guy who’d written the book on the probabilistic compaction of non-closed subspace resulting from the inequivalent topologies of the spacetime waveform – well, except for Dr. Luke Lockwood, who, in his dissertation, had literally expanded modern subspace theory to account for sharp homeomorphic topological deformations, but Admiral Reyes had left him behind, aware that if things went horribly wrong with their experiment, someone would need to continue the work.

“How was your progress on the Ingenuity?” Admiral Reyes asked.

“We were able to maintain an average effective belayment of 20.3%,” Dr. Brooks reported. If they could keep that up, they’d buy the planet more than a week before it fell into the singularity. If the Klingons could pull off what they claimed, though, it would all be unnecessary. “I think Miss Raine was about to kill me and Akil for what we did to her warp core though.” The spicy Lieutenant had been more than a bit stressed by all the modifications Dr. Brooks and Dr. al-Qadir had made to her warp core.

“Shoulda brought the Serenity,” Captain Lewis chuckled. “Nothing shakes Commander Sharpe.” Even when he’d demanded their Chief Engineer ride the edge of a core breach as they tore into the Roche lobe of the Beta Serpentis binary pair, the man hadn’t batted an eye. He was the perfect pairing for a captain who seemed to seek out danger and fling them straight into it.

But for Admiral Reyes, she’d known it took less lives to manage the Ingenuity, and that had been the calculus she’d done when she chose to take Commander Lee’s ship into the ergosphere of the singularity a day prior. For this mission though, they needed a different ship. Dr. Brooks and Dr. al-Qadir had done a number on the Ingenuity‘s warp assembly, and it would take too long to fix her up. Configured as a deep space reconnaissance cruiser, the Serenity was the next best thing.

“Ma’am, we’re approaching the outer corona of the star,” reported Lieutenant Selik from the conn.

Dead ahead, the K-type main sequence orange dwarf now dominated the viewscreen, the optical processors downscaling the luminosity of the star to avoid it overwhelming their eyes. As they drew nearer, they could make out the accretion lines of solar material funneling into a hole of infinite blackness, the Underspace aperture that had gone crazy as a result of mechanics they still didn’t fully understand. 

What they did understand, or at least hoped they understood, was how to stop the singularity. The IKS Qul’val, for reasons still unexplained, had subspace field generators, coils, stabilizers, and a control system that would, in theory, be able to create an inversion of the amplified tetryon field. With careful harmonics matching, that negative energy density waveform could be used to nullify the gravitational waves of the singularity… or at least, that was how the theory went. It still had to be proven out. They were in the realm of pure mathematics, well beyond anything that had actually been attempted in the real world before, and that came with uncertainty.

“Hold at a distance of 3 R☉,” Admiral Reyes ordered the Vulcan flight controller. “Only the Qul’val has to close the entire distance.” She’d already spent a night in the ergosphere of the singularity, taking on the full brunt of the gravitational shear and the frame dragging, and she saw no reason to put the Serenity under that strain needlessly. Plus, the distance would buy them a bit of time if things went wrong.

“Aye, ma’am,” Lieutenant Selik confirmed as he slowed the ship.

“And keep your fingers on the controls, Lieutenant.”

“I don’t have any choice, Admiral,” Lieutenant Selik pointed out. The reality, as his fingers danced across the controls, was that it was keeping constant inputs just to fight the gravitational effects they were facing at 3 R☉ from the singularity. “If I remove my fingers, our position will immediately degrade.”

“Yes, but that’s not what I mean,” Admiral Reyes clarified. “If this goes south, you’ll have mere seconds to flip a bitch and punch it.” 

The Vulcan looked over his shoulder for clarification. He understood the risk her orders were meant to address, but her instructions about the response that should follow were not within his vernacular. “Flip a female dog?”

“Have an escape course queued in ahead of time,” Admiral Reyes chuckled at his response. “And don’t wait for my orders to engage.” If the Klingons failed to match the waveform exactly, instead of nullifying the amplitude of the gravitational waves, they would amplify them. Whether it would be repulsive or attractive, the big brains from the Advanced Science, Technology and Research Activity weren’t quite sure, but they’d have 6.97 seconds before they found out. And she’d rather not be the crash test dummy for the hypotheses of her mathematicians.

“Understood,” Lieutenant Selik nodded.

“At least Ensign Vok came up with a way for us to start small,” Captain Lewis offered. The Saurian had come up with a way that they could test the efficacy of the Klingon equipment without cranking to full amplitude from the start.

“Yes, but you know as well as anyone, Jake,” Admiral Reyes reminded him. “Things don’t always go as planned.” They were dabbling with the weird and the exotic. The science behind this anomaly was, truth be told, beyond their primitive understanding of the universe. Snnar Vok, with Dr. Lockwood over his shoulder, would have modeled it out as well as anyone could, but they were building hypotheses from extrapolations that arose atop unsubstantiated theories.

“Incoming communique from the Qul’val,” reported Lieutenant Gadsen from the operations station.

“On screen.”

The face of her Klingon counterpart appeared on the display. 

“Admiral, we have arrived in the ergosphere of the singularity, and we are prepared to begin the experiment,” General Golroth reported. Behind him, Admiral Reyes could see the ship shaking under the strain, but neither the General nor his bridge crew seemed the least bit phased.

“And to confirm, you’re sticking to Ensign Vok’s test plan?” Admiral Reyes asked. She knew how the Klingons could be, and she didn’t want any inspired boldness. She understood the disastrous consequences that could come from going too fast. “We start small, and we regroup over Vespara Prime to study the results before we go forward with full suppression.”

“Yes, Admiral,” General Golroth nodded. “Contrary to what the naive among my people might say, today is not a good day to die. We bring no honor to our ancestors if we fail.”

“Godspeed, General.”

“Qul’val out.”

As the Klingon hung up, Captain Lewis looked over at the Admiral. 

“There’s still something they’re not telling us,” Captain Lewis offered skeptically. “Lockwood can drive me up a wall, but I’ve never doubted his wizardry, yet here, the Klingons have made him look like a child playing with crayons.” How did they know so much? And how did they just so happen to have exactly what they needed? And even more fundamentally, why were they here behaving so altruistically? “I can’t help but feel there’s more at play.”

“Of course there is,” nodded Admiral Reyes. “But what other play do we have?”

“True.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the callout from Dr. Brooks: “Their subspace field generators are coming online. Registering a build up along the coils.” And before anyone could ask, Dr. Brooks added a bit more for good measure: “And yes, at the resonance stipulated by Ensign Vok’s plan.” They were, for now, playing it by the book.

“Is it working?” Admiral Reyes asked.

“Stand by,” Dr. Brooks reminded her. “Even with the warping of spacetime around the singularity, force propagation is still limited, to some extent, by luminal limits.” Subspace had superluminal qualities, but as soon as the gravity-mediating bosons hit the normal spacetime manifold, they too came under speed-of-light constraints.

For a moment, an anticipatory silence settled over the bridge. It took the better part of a minute before they had their answer.

“It appears, ma’am, it’s working,” Dr. Brooks reported at last, his tone equal parts shocked and excited at the groundbreaking science happening before them. He hadn’t really been sure the Klingons could do it. They were not typically regarded highly in academic circles for their scientific acumen. “The Qul’val is matching the gravitational waveform with the inversion of the tetryon field, and it is having the intended effect of reducing the amplitude of graviton radiation.” Had they actually found a solution to this problem on the edge of their understanding?

Standing next to the Admiral, Captain Lewis exalted deeply, finally relaxing a bit. It was only then that he realized how tense he’d actually been. He was used to being in control, but for this whole affair, he was pretty much just along for the ride. The science was far beyond him, and the Klingons were the ones in the driver’s seat. “What now?”

“Now we wait,” Admiral Reyes elaborated. “The plan is to maintain these levels for ten minutes to confirm that the Qul’val‘s emitters can maintain coherence with the gravitational waveform, and then we back off to study the results.” If everything checked out, they’d return later in the day to attempt a full suppression of the singularity.

But that was only the plan.

“Umm,” Dr. Brooks cut in. “We have a problem.”

Admiral Reyes spun towards him, but she could see he was in the midst of something, so she waited as his hands flew across the controls, checking and double checking what he was seeing on the scopes.

Finally, Dr. Brooks provided an update: “I’m registering an energy build up within the phase coils of the Qul’val. They’re increasing amplitude to the tetryon field.”

“Fuck,” Admiral Reyes shook her head. “They’re not sticking to the plan.” This was exactly what she’d feared. Summit fever was a real thing, but there were lives at risk here. They needed to do this one by the book. “Get me General Golroth! Now!”

A moment later, the General appeared on the display again. 

“General, you need to stop!” the Admiral demanded desperately. She knew the consequences of what could happen. If the Klingons lost cohesion with the gravitational waveform, Polaris Squadron and Golroth’s other ships could warp away before the shockwave hit, but there would be no chance for the five million sheltering in place on the surface of Vespara Prime.

“Why?”

“The planet…”

“We’re saving the planet, Admiral,” General Golroth insisted. “Check your gauges. My men, they know what they’re doing. We’re matching the harmonics perfectly. In mere minutes, your planet will be safe.” His tone was confident, but not brash, like a man who knew they would succeed rather than one rallying on a false hope. But still, that didn’t offer her much comfort. It was just as possible, if not moreso, that he was merely a fool.

“We need to go slow, to study the results,” Admiral Reyes insisted. “To make sure there’s no way…”

“Glory favors the bold, Admiral” General Golgroth replied firmly. “You know this as well as anyone.” He would not be swayed. “It’ll all be over in a few minutes.” Admiral Reyes opened her mouth to protest, but the General didn’t give her the chance. “Qul’val out.”

And then the link cut out.

“Get him back!” Admiral Reyes demanded.

“He’s not picking up,” reported Lieutenant Gadsen. “But I’ll keep trying.”

Those blasted Klingons! They were going to get everyone killed! She stood there for a moment, debating her options. They could sit here and pray, but that seemed pretty fucking futile. What else could they do?

“What do you want us to do, ma’am?” asked Lieutenant Tarasova, echoing her inner thoughts. Too bad she didn’t have an answer. “Do you want me to stop them?” The way she said it, her inclinations were clear.

“You mean do I want you to shoot them?”

The tactical officer nodded.

Admiral Reyes looked over at Dr. Brooks. “What would happen if we put a torpedo through the side of that Neg’Vhar?” 

Everyone on the bridge stopped what they were doing and looked at her. Was she serious? Anything they did to stop the battlecruiser would compromise its propulsion and cause it to fall into the singularity. Condemning two thousand Klingons to a singularity wouldn’t be a good look, but on the flipside, the Klingons were, through their recklessness, risking the lives of millions.

“Besides starting an interstellar incident?” Dr. Brooks chuckled darkly, echoing what everyone was thinking. “Nothing good. It’s likely, if we did sufficient damage to stop them, that it would cause a desync before emissions stopped completely, and that would likely trigger exactly the desync in the waveforms that we’re worried they’d cause.” 

“I guess we’re in too deep already,” offered Captain Lewis.

They truly were now just along for the ride.

“Keep monitoring, all of you,” Admiral Reyes ordered, noting everyone’s attention was on her rather than on their displays. It wasn’t like they could actually do anything though if they detected an issue, but at least it would give them something to do. “And Selik, keep that finger on the accelerator.”

Together, the bridge crew stood there with baited breath as Dr. Brooks reported changes in the amplitude of the inverted tetryon waveform. As it continued to tick up though, the good news was that it appeared the Klingons were keeping it in sync.

Admiral Reyes looked over at Captain Lewis. “This must have been a bit like how General Groves felt during the Trinity test.”

“The Trinity test?” Captain Lewis asked. He wasn’t familiar.

“Back in the twentieth century, humankind built its first atomic bomb,” Admiral Reyes explained. Captain Lewis nodded. Even knew that much. “But right before the first test, it was brought to the attention of the general supervising the experiment that the bomb might destroy the world.”

“Well, we all know how World War III turned out…”

“No, that came later,” Admiral Reyes shook her head. “But in the lead up to that test, a theory arose that the nuclear catalyst might never stop. It was feared it might forever exponentiate until it lit the atmosphere on fire. But the General, even when it was brought to his attention, he allowed the test to go forward on the hunch of his scientists that it wouldn’t happen.” Right now, they were gambling the fate of Vespara Prime on the hunch of the Klingon scientists.

“Maybe that’s what we have to do here,” shrugged Captain Lewis. “I mean, what other choice do we have?” It was easier for him to say though. If Vespara Prime fell, it would be tragic, but he wouldn’t have to answer for it. Admiral Reyes would. “If it’s any consolation, the Klingons seem far too prepared for this. It’s possible they really are that far ahead of us.”

“Well, let’s hope you’re right about that,” Admiral Reyes sighed. For the first time since General Golroth had arrived, she found herself hoping he hadn’t been fully truthful, and that there was something deeper at play, something that might give the Klingons the edge to succeed.

A few tense minutes later, they got their answer.

“Ma’am, I don’t believe it,” reported Dr. Brooks. “But they’ve done it. They’ve actually done it!” Looking out of the viewscreen, the bridge could see it too. The infinite blackness of the singularity was gone, and in its place, just off the bow of the Klingon battlecruiser, was an orange-brown aperture. In most cases, such an aperture would have been cause for concern, but in this case, it was a welcome sight. “There’s no longer any excessive graviton amplification emitting from the anomaly, and solar accretion has slowed to near zero. It is now, for lack of a better description, just a run of the mill Underspace aperture.”

“Except, of course, that it’s sitting in the corona of a star in the middle of the Beta Quadrant.”

“Yes, except that.”

And that made it still quite exceptional. They’d always believed the Underspace was unique to the Delta Quadrant, but now it was here, right on their doorstep. What did that mean for the future? Would this tunnel connect to the rest of the Underspace network and open up a new frontier for exploration?

“The Qul’val is powering down its field generators and backing away from the anomaly, ma’am,” Lieutenant Tarasova reported. “They’re signaling their intent to return to Vespara Prime.”

“And how’s the aperture doing?” Admiral Reyes asked of Dr. Brooks.

“It’s holding steady,” Dr. Brooks reported. “Much like how a black hole is a self-fulfilling prophecy, fueling itself forever as it sucks more and more matter in, the negative energy density core at the center of the aperture is fueled by the potentiation of subspace on the other side, keeping the excessive gravitation we monitored earlier at bay.” There’d been some disagreement as to whether it would be able to hold itself open after the Neg’Vhar backed off. Dr. Brooks had wagered that it would, not because he could prove the mathematics, but because of how apertures in the Delta Quadrant behaved, while Dr. Lockwood, and most of the others in the lab, had been on the other side of that bet, unable to see past what the mathematics could prove discretely.

“Dr. Brooks, keep our sensors trained on that aperture in case anything changes,” Admiral Reyes instructed. “Lieutenant Gasden, notify Polaris Squadron of our success, and Lieutenant Selik, set course for Vespara Prime and follow the Qul’val.” She wore a big smile across her face. They’d done it. They’d saved Vespara Prime. Or, more accurately, the Klingons had saved it. “We owe our friends a drink or three when we get back.”