Author's Note: Thank you for the likes, kudos, comments, and messages on Twitter!
A note re: stardates:
I have attempted to carefully stick within the timeline of in-universe stardates. However, in my research for this story I noticed that the First Series stardates are completely arbitrary.
For example, Skin of Evil (AKA the episode that shall not be named) occurred at an earlier in-universe stardate than Angel One, Arsenal of Freedom, The Battle, and The Big Goodbye.
So, please don't flame me when Stardates come up – I'll be sticking with established dates in canon even though they bounce around. For dates in my own original adventures, I'll be trying to squeeze them in accordingly.
Fun references in this chapter:
I've named the planet/system 'Heboyd' after the Stargate SG-1 character Henry Boyd. This little arc was loosely inspired by the SG-1 episodes A Matter of Time and The Pegasus Project. In the former, Boyd and his team are trapped off-world by the sudden formation of a black hole – a haunting image that is visible to his fellow SG members via video link. I wanted to drop in an Easter Egg for that.
Astronomy Domine is the name of a Pink Floyd song.
'Ten Aft' is a play on Ten Forward.
(Fortunately, in our story the heroes will always emerge victorious.)
As always, if you like my works or want to stay up to date with my art, comics, or just like chatting about the fandom you can join me @TheTartanTart on Twitter.
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"Let's check in with the Enterprise and let them know we've started," Riker said.
The shuttle was hovering within the stratosphere of one of Heboyd V's moons. The team had launched their first set of probes and were analysing a series of readings from orbit.
Worf opened a subspace channel.
"Shuttlepod two to Enterprise," Worf said.
There was no response.
"Shuttlepod two to Enterprise," Worf repeated.
Again, there was only silence.
"Enterprise, this is Riker. We have started our readings, please respond," Riker said.
Commander Riker racked his brain for an explanation.
They were within a close enough range that subspace communication should have been almost instantaneous.
Data was in the back portion of the shuttle with Geordi, Miles, and Wesley. Wesley and Geordi were working to prepare the next set of probes while Miles and Data analysed the incoming readings.
Miles gave a long, low whistle.
"It really is summat," Miles remarked as he logged their first batch of scans. "These gravitational readings are massive."
"Seems like they've increased since the last time this area was surveyed," Geordi said.
He'd been listening to Miles and Data read off some of the early numbers. Geordi was eager to wrap up their work on the next probe group so that he could get a look too.
"It has been several years since the last survey team was in this area. They also did not conduct such an extensive scan," Data advised.
"Data?" Riker hollered from the front of the shuttle.
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The Complication
Fanfiction"Am I the 'complication'?" Data asked. Following the events on Ligon II, Data struggles to reconcile the discrepancies between Tasha's verbal and nonverbal communication. Furthermore, his attempts to better understand what's happening lead to him fr...
