[snip]

Time passed and about thirty minutes later Stella contacted the Bridge back.

=/\= Captain, this is Lieutenant Gagnon. Mister Kahuna says that we’re ready to fire when ready! =/\=

=/\= Bridge here. Captain Glen speaking. Excellent work Lt. Tell Kahuna to begin the slow release of the materials.... Sorry, there’s been a change of plan and we are going to send the stuff out without a torpedo casing first, to save them for later. So, slowly does it too. I suggest a few items every thirty minutes. Is that all clear/ =/\=

=/\= Clear as fresh polished crystal captain sir! =/\= Stella peeped. =/\= The Big Kahuna is pulling out the casings now, and I’m loading in the rest back into the tubes. We have one tube ready. Let us know when you want us to go sir! =/\=

=/\= You may eject the first load right away! =/\= Glen replied.

Rana in Kahuna’s absence had gone down to the helm station to take his place. He sat in the chair and after a moment of reading all the data coming in from the helm station laughed and said to the captain. ” I must say that Lieutenant Gagnon certainly seems happy to be put to work.”

“She does appear to be enjoying getting down to the lower decks,” the Captain replied.

Standing at her station, M’Mera listened to the chatter around her as they all waited for the results of the garbage being sent out.
“The debriss has been ejected, Captain.” She said as she peered at her console.

The ship eased to a controlled drift as inert debris and tagged flotsam were jettisoned from the torpedo tubes. At first, the objects dispersed normally—then their paths subtly diverged. Some fragments slowed, others curved, and a few oscillated as if riding unseen swells.

Telemetry from the radioactive tracers revealed the cause: layered gravitational waves threading the region. The debris stretched and bunched into loose bands, outlining troughs and ridges in local spacetime. No single point of origin was identified; the waves intersected and shifted, forming shallow channels and compressed crests.

There was no immediate danger to the ship—but the result was unmistakable.
The drifting debris had become a live, three-dimensional map of the gravitational wave field.

For the first time, the crew could see the terrain beneath the surf, and begin to judge where it might be safest—or most dangerous—to navigate next.

No one said any more about how she might be feeling, so Elyss was able to study the results of the garbage as it spread out and showed them the physical paths of the gravitational wave field. It was a strange way to figure it out, but it had actually worked. Zavey ‘hmphed’ softly, expressing her surprise.

Rana, sitting at the helm, watched the screen and became confused more than a few times at the readouts. Rana’s brow furrowed at first but then as watched a smile like that of a little boy crossed his lips as he spoke saying simply. ” Well, it worked!”

Cross who was watching attentively heaved a sigh of relief ,now that they had a clear understanding of what lies ahead.

Thalos stood at the tactical station, silver eyes fixed on the readouts before him. The XO’s plan had worked.

A small smile crept across his face—brief, restrained, and gone almost as quickly as it appeared. Pride stirred beneath the surface, not for the audacity of the maneuver alone, but for its execution. Bold plans carried risk, and this one had paid off. Still, experience had taught him that success was often the prelude to complacency.

He would not allow that.

His attention returned fully to the tactical display, antennae angled forward as his senses worked in quiet tandem with the console. Phaser banks remained charged. Torpedo launchers were primed and standing by. Every system responded within acceptable parameters.

Thalos adjusted his stance slightly, one hand resting near the control interface, posture relaxed but ready. The Imperial Guard instinct stirred again—an urge to assume that danger was never truly past. He did not suppress it this time. Instead, he harnessed it, letting it sharpen his focus rather than control him.

The silence on the bridge felt thin.

“The last thing we need is a surprise enemy attack,” he murmured, more to himself than anyone else, eyes scanning long-range sensors for the faintest anomaly.

For now, space remained clear.

But Thalos watched all the same.

Glen also watched the viewscreen. The ejected materials made swirling patterns in the gravity waves and one might say it was even beautiful. “Not only do the materials show us the position of the waves, they should also prevent any ship from using them to remain hidden,” Glen said.

“Everrything iss rready now, ssirr. Ourr ssheildss arre rready, and we have a path. I am coorrdinating with Engineerring to be ssurre we hold togetherr thrrough this”

Cross addressed the Captain ‘’ Captain would it not be wise to put the ship on green alert , not all the crew knows what conflict or disturbance we might encounter ‘’.

Rana had almost forgotten that they were supposed to be mapping all this as well as just plotting a course through it. He set the scanners to record everything they were doing. He smiled at the thought of the fist map in history to be made of trash.

Zavey tilted her head, eyes moving rapidly as layered telemetry poured across her display. The drifting debris formed luminous ribbons against the black of space, each one tracing a subtle contour in spacetime itself.

“Wow…” she murmured, fingers dancing over the console. “The tracers are behaving exactly as predicted by non-linear gravitic wave theory—only we’ve never been able to observe it this directly before.”

She tucked a random lock of hair behind her ear.

“What we’re seeing, Captain, is not a single wavefront but a braided field—multiple gravitational harmonics overlapping and reinforcing one another. That explains the oscillations we recorded during the jolt. We weren’t struck by turbulence… we passed through a compression ridge.”

Lieutenant Elyss Zavey
Chief Science Officer USS Merrimack

As he has tried to tell people before, Glen knows little about astrophysics; he’s a pilot and only studied a little optics, but he didn’t wish to appear stupid, so he just acknowledged the CSO and said, “Fantastic… the science has finally been demonstrated and supported by original empirical data!”

Then Glen added, “We can probably rest easier now, follow our already agreed and laid-in course, and go back to our normal duties; given a green light as Dr. Cross just mentioned.”

There was one a troubling thought yet one he could not exclude =/\= Sickbay to bridge is there an increase in radiation? =/\= .

=/\= Bridge here. This is the Captain speaking, Doctor Hunter. We haven’t identified any increase, but it would be wise to begin to mass-replicate the drug Hydronalin as a precaution anyway. Why do you ask? =/\=

=/\= Two patients exhibiting the same symptoms of nausea and vomiting, it could be food poisoning still waiting for the lab results =/\= a pause =/\= Shall start replicating Hyronalin =/\ =.

=/\= Hold on one moment =/\= Glen replied.

“Dr. Cross?” Glen asked the CMO, “It’s your department and I wouldn’t want to step on your toes, but it would seem prudent to me? Shall I tell him yes? The Gravity Waves are very likely to be causing nausea and vomiting too. Especially that last jolt!”

Cross nodded ‘’ Yes please do ‘’ for now she still wanted to stay on the bridge ,once they clear the Expanse the CMO definitely wanted to know what they would be facing .

Glen replied, =/\= Yes, begin making a stockpile of Hyronalin in case we should need it. =/\=

Rana was glad to have Lt. Zavey back in the game. While he knew a little bit about such things he only felt that he probably only knew enough to be dangerous. ” Sir?” Rana began as he turned toward the captain. ” If we agree with Lt. Zavey , and I do. Wouldn’t it be more prudent to try to steer the ship away from the area where the waves are colliding? Or at least be prepared to do so if something changes rapidly?”

Rana Singh Number One

Glen replied, “Before we entered the Expanse, I had Lt. Pokorski design an optimum route through. One that would allow us close enough access to catalogue all areas in the most efficient manner, while avoiding all those regions where we could identify problems, either from our own, or from existing records of measurements taken. If we want to complete this task in a year rather than decades, then we still must do something like that. The plan is already flexible enough to allow for detours, should we encounter areas, such as you describe, where we find waves are colliding, but I’m not sure how we can predict such areas in advance of actually detecting them with the same equipment we are using to survey. So, we’ll just have to reverse course when that happens. We can’t avoid mapping entire areas as that is the brief of mission itself.”

• Glen, CO