Starship Vengeance

Chapter 23

***A/N***
Be careful what you wish for. I tried something new with this chapter. Let me know how it turned out.
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Repairs continued without any major incidents. After three days of non-stop work, the worst of the damage had been repaired and the fleet was deemed worthy to fly. Sarah returned shortly before our scheduled departure and lost herself in whatever project she was working on. She had spent the entire three days with the Xroex. I found it interesting that they welcomed her so openly, yet shunned the rest of us. I made a mental note to asker her about it.

"Admiral," Lt. Sanchez said, getting my attention. "All ships are docked and all crew accounted for. We are ready to initiate jump sequence."

"Charge the drives and initiate jump in five minutes," I commanded. We were continuing our mission of searching for other species that may have been hidden throughout the galaxy. I was confident that there had to be more out there, especially after our encounter with the Xroex.

The third anomaly was our intended destination. Our flight plan consisted of four longer jumps to reach the anomaly. This would give the repair crews more time in between jumps to finish up the repairs. The next anomaly was fairly close, relatively speaking. It took just over a day to arrive at the boundary. With images of the first anomaly still fresh in our minds, we approached the unknown space cautiously.

"Admiral, scan complete. Immediate area clear of all threats." Lt. Young stated. "In fact, there is nothing at all."

I skeptically pulled up the scan results and was shocked. Not only was there nothing that could be construed as a threat, there was indeed nothing at all. Ahead of us was the Sahara desert of the Galaxy, a vast void of nothingness. "Take us in slowly," I commanded. "Launch probes every ten minutes. I do not want to be caught by surprise." As we approached the void, I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention. I thought everything I had been through would have prepared me for anything, but something about this place gave me the creeps. I could tell I wasn't the only one affected by the ominous feeling that permeated the bridge. I stood and walked to the projection of our surrounding area. The further we went into the void, the more celestial bodies dropped from view. Soon, the display was empty, with the exception of the Unity and the freshly launched probes.

I stood there for hours. Eventually, I was flanked by Sarah and Shahae, both sharing in my bewilderment at our new surroundings. "How is it possible for nothing to exist here?" Shahae asked.

"You knowledge of the mechanics of the universe is extremely limited. Its vastness and complexities are beyond all our comprehensions," Sarah responded.

I was about to reply when an alarm went off, killing the silence of the bridge. Sarah, Shahae, and I made a mad dash to the offending station. The station was dedicated to monitoring incoming probe telemetry.

"What's going on?" I asked the technician, manning the station. He was suddenly overwhelmed at being the center of attention.

"W...we lost a probe," he stuttered.

"Where?" I demanded.

"I'll upload all probe telemetry to the holoscreen," he said, gaining back some self-confidence.

We returned to the center of the bridge. The holographic projection had changed. It now showed a much larger area with indicators for each probe. A red indicator sat near the center. "Fire a probe at high speeds one klick to the right of the lost probe," I ordered.

"You think there is something out there, don't you?" Shahae asked.

"This will give us a better idea. Last time I checked probes didn't go silent without reason."