The Passage Part 5

Captain’s Log, Stardate 60444.6 – Commander Tate, recording. We are now reasonably sure that the wave of supernovae has stopped. Or maybe has “been stopped”. The trans-cosmic scope of this even makes it impossible to see all angles. We can only try to draw conclusions to those events that our senses can perceive within our own universe.

One of the probes that we’d placed in the path of the phenomenon was parked in the star system that served as home to the object we’d christened “The Egg” . The probe was on the opposite side of the primary from that object when the phenomenon reached that system. When we slowed down the probe’s telemetry from that moment, we saw all the planetary bodies on the other side of the system apparently disintegrate and then a blinding flash that burned out most of the probe’s sensors. But unlike other probes we’d placed in the phenomenon’s path, this one still seemed to be intact and transmitting its basic location signal.

We continued along the phenomenon’s vector, but we saw no more evidence of the effect. It seemed to stop at SEG-CG477 – the “Egg system”. So we turned the Clarke around and slowly approached what seemed to be end of the path of stellar destruction.

On entering SEG-CG477 we launched four probes to escort us and provide a wider range of data and perspectives. What we found was that half the system had vanished, but the primary was still intact and perfectly stable. On approach to The Egg object, we found that the planet that it orbited and the rocky, asteroidal material had vanished, leaving the naked Egg – shiny, smooth, and clean like the chaos about it had never occurred. It continues to be an enigma to us… but now with even broader implications.

We collected data for six hours, then pulled together a meeting to review what we’d found. It appears the linear effect causing contacted stars to explode had been stopped when it contacted The Egg. Our Medusan navigator, Kervan, confirmed that the travelling object he as sensing in the co-local universe had stopped its motion and may have even been destroyed.

Only time will tell if these conclusions are correct, but it’s the best picture that we can assemble with the data available to us. As such we can not say with reliability whether what we experienced was a trans-universal rift caused by some manner of FLT drive wake, if it was a weapon designed to rip apart the matter of our universe, or whether it was something else all together? We ventured outside our galaxy for the first time to find strange, new manifestations of the natural world. Clearly we’ve hit the jackpot in encountering this phenomenon.

We have now parked in the SEG-CG477 system to effect minor repairs. Our probes continue to scout the system for more data that could shed light on the mystery, though few expect any kind of enlightening breakthrough is possible.

The Captain is still in phase-transition isolation and we are starting to get concerned. The isolation should have ended two days ago, but Geen-One’s orders were unambiguous: no one was to enter the Captain’s cabin while the transition was on-going. But in consulting with Dr. Paj we both feel that we need to draw a line if the isolation continues much longer as the Captain could be in some kind of trouble. So we have decided to give the Captain thirty standard hours more to emerge. If nothing happens, we will attempt to force an entry into the Captain’s cabin.

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Thanks for following this little multi-part chapter of the Clarke’s explorations of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy.
Century class model by DJ Curtis, converted to OBL by Celticarchie. Background by FrostBo, et al. DAZ Studio render.