[snip]

After a moment of thought, the young man tapped his comm badge. =^=Weir to Captain Andone. Captain, if we’re not indisposed with anything I’d like to request that we take the Ark Angel back to where we discovered the protoforms. We’re working on an alternative to the slipstream drive, but we need more information on their energy type.=^=
—Caelian Weir, Engineer—

“The power of thought,” V’alura mumbled, not speaking to anyone in particular. An absolutely insane idea, and the crazy part was that they knew it could be done. These protoforms were capable of turning thought into reality. Not only that, but they knew how to gather and contain that energy, as their experiments aboard the Runabout proved. Theoretically, it all checked out. Except this theoretically possible idea came down to two contention points: finding a dying protoform, and a person willing and able to think them home. A huge responsibility. A dangerous prospect. V’alura was no stranger to Vulcan strength of will, but would it be enough? Vulcans may be the leading experts of mental control, but they were not infallible.

Then, louder, to those standing beside her, “I think we need to learn if there is a relation between the amount of protoform energy, and the magnitude of the thought made reality. It could be we only need a small fraction of protoform energy to make our trip home a reality.” She straightened, eyes wide with an idea. “If we are able to find a dying protoform, and contain a part of the energy it expels postmortem, we could use it to send a probe to Federation Space and back. It wouldn’t be too much to think ‘send this probe to this location then bring it back to us after one minute.’ Or something like that. Then the probe can tell us if it made the trip or not!”

Ensign Belmont (Science)

Caelian nodded at V’alura’s suggestion as he turned the idea over in his mind. There were myriad ways they could test his theory, but the crux of the issue was that they were dealing with a completely new scientific process. Similar to their concern when originally arriving in this part of the universe, the engineer was worried about resources. Having absolutely no idea the lifecycle of a protoform, he couldn’t conceive the number of tests they could run before they would reach that make-or-break moment. There was the other side of V’alura’s theory to consider as well.

“That’s not a bad idea, but I can see one glaring flaw,” he murmured thoughtfully. He knuckled his chin as he worked the problem out verbally. When was the last time he had stopped to shave? “This all hinges on one of us having the presence of mind to hold a single thought—the concept of ‘home’—in their minds long enough for this to work. One stray thought of hunger or regret or longing and we could end up…”

He shuddered, cursed his imagination. “You’re right, of course: we have no real way to know how much energy we’d need to get home. And it’s a long trip. I know I’m being a bit naive in hoping that they’re as paracausal as the Q—that what they are alone is enough to make this possible—but hope alone isn’t going to win the day. Part of me was praying we could learn enough about their energy to replicate it, but there’s a danger in that, too.”

Caelian tried very hard not to consider how such a discovery could be abused. Assuming they could harness and replicate this new form of energy for their trip home, what would the Federation do with that knowledge? Nothing existed in a vacuum; it would get out. So much good could be done with the ability to shape reality to one’s whim, but as they so personally discovered in their encounter with Q one’s whim was not always benevolent. Could this have been how the Q began, simple explorers that learned to harness such energy? He had to tear his mind away from that rabbit hole of conjecture!

Caelian took a hard look at his projections, hanging suspended in the air above an ethereal ship like a prayer, and sighed heavily. It all seemed so impossible. So many “ifs” languished in those formulas, lurked in the variables and waited to trip them up. The things that could go wrong to his engineering mine alone were crushing. But they had to push past them if they were to succeed. He would have to push on, to boldly go. A faint smile found its way to his lips.

At least he wasn’t going alone anymore.

“One thing at a time,” he said finally. Firmly, as much to himself as V’alura. “Our first hurdle will be to find the energy and develop a way to store it. Once that’s done, we can run projections and determine how best to use it. We can definitely try it your way, since it would give us the most data for the expenditure—maybe even prep a data dump on our situation to transmit to Starfleet once it gets there, let everyone know what happened to us so they can work it from their side. If that doesn’t work, we can try a smaller jump, figure out the rate of dissipation and consumption that way.”

He gave her an encouraging smile. “It’s a good start.”

Drudoc’s voice came back on the comms =/\= Andone here, we’ll set course presently Ensign. =/\= She said

A moment later the feeling of the Ark Angel jumping to warp was felt slightly. After a few more minutes at warp the feeling of dropping from warp was felt, and Drudoc’s voice came back over the comms =/\= Andone to Ensign Weir, we’re on location, anything more you need from us up here? =/\= She asked then.

Caelian strode over to the console and set his hands to work uploading the relevant information on their work to the bridge. Once he was satisfied that they would know what to look for, he tapped his comm badge again.

=^=The Ark Angel will need to scan for protoform energy matching the wave pattern I’ve sent to the science station,=^= he replied. =^=I’m hoping that, since our new friend is a version of Miss Sharah, she’ll be able to sense her own kind and give us a better idea of where to look.=^=

A wry laugh broke free of his chest and filled the room. Buoni dei, they were actually going to do this! Grinning broadly, he chuckled. “Looks like we’re going fishing again!”
—Caelian Weir, Engineer —

There was a pause for long minutes before an NE replied…

=/\=..I’m picking up three large protomatter forms within scanning range fitting this profile, they seemed gathered around three large masses of Boridium just on the edge of the nebula..=/\= He said transmitting his findings to the holodeck as well.

MiniFayth spoke up looking up at the holographic imagery. “..Those are elder ones! They are nearing the end of their life and preparing for the rebirth. If you want to try harvesting their dying energies you must act quickly..” She stated.

GM CockRoach