“Commander, we have an incoming hail from Starbase Four.” announced Chief Blargh just as Reyas returned to the bridge. “It’s Admiral Bennet.”

Sitting into the captain’s chair with ease, Reyas placed her hands on the chair’s arms as she told her Tellarite chief to open a channel. 

The viewscreen flickered to life as the signal with Starbase Bravo was established under awful conditions. Static filled the screen. “Commander Re-.” The admiral seemed to have paused and then there was a delay as his image caught up with him. “Stand…I’ve got…Temporal of…join-.” Again the garbled static overwhelmed the admiral’s signal.

“Come again, sir?” Reyas asked her superior but got nothing back that any of them could understand. Spinning the chair around to the left to look at her communications officer, she could see that he was working to get the admiral back. “Try applying a narrowband filter to the signal processor.”

Blargh just shook his head. “No affect ma’am. There’s too much interference.” He stated.

Turning around in her chair, Abbej spoke up. “Sounds like the admiral got your message and was saying something about the Department of Temporal Investigations.”

“Maybe.” Reyas said softly as she turned herself back around to face the viewscreen. “In any scenario, help is too far away. We need to act now to save the Odyssey. Are we ready?”

Tierra turned in her chair at engineering. “I think we are ma’am.” She sighed heavily. “Ma’am, permission to speak freely?”

Reyas just nodded to the engineer to proceed.

“I’m going to say it again ma’am, this is a very risky task. It may end up in us being destroyed as well as the Odyssey.” Tierra said with conviction after inhaling a big breath of air. “I don’t think this is the best course of action.”

“Your objection is noted, thank you lieutenant. Please proceed.” Reyas ordered. 

Returning to her computer panel, Tierra went ahead with the work. First the Telemachus moved close enough to the ejected warp core, then the modified tractor beam was fired towards it. Slowly they began to move away from the Odyssey, as they did the tractor beam stabilised the warp core and soon it came back to life. As they moved under the belly of their mothership the ejected drive self did as Reyas predicted, it began to attract the surge of chronokinetic energy that currently enveloped the Odyssey. Soon enough, like iron filings attracted to a magnet, the surge moved across the hull of the ship at an alarming speed as it chased after the warp drive. The Telemachus started to rock from the pressure as their impulse engines kicked in. Eventually they were far from the Odyssey but the surge hadn’t completely been removed from the large Starfleet vessel. Only some continued to follow after the warp core. 

“The containment field around the warp core is starting to fail, the modified tractor beam can’t keep re-enforcing it!” Tierra shouted over the commotion.

“Odyssey remains in a temporal flux!” Abbej announced in a high volume. 

Trying to work out why her plan had not worked, Reyas couldn’t explain it. It should have worked. If the warp core had attracted the surge in the first place then it should have removed it completely. 

An alarm went off at Tierra’s station. “Commander, we’re looking at a possible core breach in the next thirty seconds. We need to get rid of it. Now!”

Looking at the sensor readings before her, Reyas quickly made up her mind. “Helm alter course, take us into the original rift that created the surge.” She looked at everyone else, “All hands abandon ship. Proceed to the escape pods and use the shuttlepods as well.”

“Karyn, don’t be foolish!” Her mother said as she got up from the station she had been manning. “There has to be another way!”

Standing up and reliving her pilot, Reyas took over. “There isn’t. If the core detonates here then it will most likely damage Odyssey and we can’t outrun the blast radius in the Telemachus. Even with the gravimetric torpedo, it won’t be enough in time. But if I take the ship into the original rift then we can trap it on the other side and maybe stop the rift from causing any more damage.”

“That’s a big ‘IF’” Her mother added.

“How will you get out?” Abbej asked. 

“Go, now, there’s no discussion and that’s an order.” Reyas commanded, “Chief Blargh make sure my mother and her team get to the escape pods safely!” 

The Tellarite communications officer got up and escorted Naja off the bridge under her protests as the ‘abandon ship’ klaxon was going off. Tierra and Abbej just looked at one another as they approached the aft doors about to leave the bridge. Both of them had the same thought, smiled and quickly returned to their seats. 

“What the hell are you two doing?” Reyas screamed at them as the ship continued to shake from the external pressure. 

“Your plan may succeed if we help you.” Abbej answered. 

“The last of the escape pods have gone and both shuttlepods have launched.” Tierra announced. “There’s one left for us, if we survive this crazy ride!”

“Here goes nothing!” Reyas said smiling as she piloted the ship into the rift. She gave one more look at the two other women. “Thank you.” She said just as the ship crossed over the threshold into the rift with the Odyssey’s warp core being dragged along behind them. 

The rift itself looked like a monster’s mouth, with sparks and lighting being discharged in all directions. The bolts made it look like a set of hungry sharp teeth. As the rift interacted with them the warp core then exploded. Collapsing in on itself, the rift made a rumbling noise, like a stomach unhappy with what it had just digested.  

The Telemachus was gone.