The single pod floated in space. Lifeless almost. The initial thrust to get it away from the ship had long since dead – no doubt burned out in an attempt to escape the gravitational pull of the black hole. Not that it helped much. They had been too far in when Gaheris tried to escape. If there had been no statistical chance of making it, he would have stayed on the Andromeda Ascendant but that wasn’t the case. There had been a shot that the escape pod would have enough thrust to get away. It was small, but still a chance at survival. And if there was one thing a Nietzschean prized above all else – it was survival. First for one's genes and then, of course, one’s self. 

Gaheris wasn’t worried about the former. He had left behind multiple wives and a handful of children. They would continue his legacy, passing on his genes far into the future. His genes would survive. But it was nice to survive personally as well. Thus the reason he took the odds. Though, if he didn’t know better, he would have guessed that Andromeda had given him false information in revenge for killing the captain. That brought a flood of different emotions. First, sorrow. Dylan was a friend. He did not take that lightly, despite what was done. Besides, it didn’t matter now. What was done was done. Second, amusement. Andromeda was an AI. She wouldn’t lie to a commanding officer – even one who betrayed the captain. The rules of mutiny were a bit dicey when there was no other officer alive. So at least he didn’t have to worry about her trying to just get rid of him. Not to mention, it wasn’t as if she had specific feelings on the matter. Everything was programmed. Well done and realistic, but programming nonetheless. 

He glanced over at the avatar unit. He had ordered her to come aboard as well. Even separate from the ship she had all the knowledge, not to mention a wealth of information on the Commonwealth. Not that THAT mattered now. 

The android was fairly composed considering they were disconnected from the ship, out of range of it – presuming it even survived. The very fact they survived was a miracle in and of itself. But either way – the ship was gone. The AI was the ship. Being split from it must be.

He scoffed. She might be programmed with emotion but the android was still rational and logical and coding. There might be some issue with her program due to being split – the androids were not really planned to be used separately from the ship. No, the avatar unit was to be used if for some reason the crew was low and they needed additional hands. Physical hands.  

Her voice cut into his thoughts. “There is no sign of the black hole. Whatever happened, we appear to be far from it.” Rommie examined the small monitor on the escape pod. There were basic navigational components to help guide it to a nearby planet or ship but nothing fast or long distance. Compared to her, this was very low tech and frustrating. “No sign of myself anywhere. I don’t even feel the connection so we aren’t even in the same system.”

“Where are we?” Gaheris sat up and winced slightly. The shot from Dylan’s lance had grazed him on the side. A little more to the left and he wouldn’t be here. A little bit of luck on his part. Not that he was particularly proud of that. He actually was glad for the injury. It meant Dylan did well. He hadn’t gone done like any other human. He had proved himself.

Rommie didn’t look at him. “From the stars, we are in the Yol’tor system, Andromeda Galaxy.” 

Gaheris raised an eyebrow at that. That was a long way from the Hephaistos system. “Are you sure?”

She turned and scrutinizing him with a look. If she was human he would have said she was mad at him. But she wasn’t. And the emotional programming she had didn’t really account for that. She could have anger but only if it made sense to the programming. “If you were on the bridge, I could show you. But here….” She waved her hand frustratingly at the panel. “The star patterns indicate this is the Yol’tor system. But it’s not right.”

“Oh?” Gaheris looked over her shoulder. 

“There’s nothing here. No settlements. No traffic. The Yol’tor system was home to nearly three trillion beings. Even this far out we should see lots of traffic. There’s nothing.”

Gaheris frowned. That was strange. But then again, so was going through a black hole and surviving. “So we’re stuck here?”

Rommie turned with a slight frown. “Yes. No rescue in sight and only have three hours, nineteen minutes, and forty-three seconds of air left.”

“Touching. Thankfully for me, you don’t breathe.” Gaheris sat back down. “Did you send out a distress call?”

“I did. Though no one will hear it unless they are in this system. At least not in time to aid you.”

She sat down next to him in the small space. Her posture impeccable. She looked and sounded so human. The scientists on Tarn Vedra had done a very good job. If one was to touch her, she would feel just like a person. Even the axillary androids on the ship were nowhere near this realistic. 

Even though Gaheris had interacted with the avatar unit on occasion it always startled him a bit on how much she could pass for a true human. But then again most Commonwealth captains were either human or Nietzschean now. Her look, persona was adapted to make the captain and crew comfortable. Otherwise, she’d look more Vedran. Something he was glad she didn’t.

Turning his thoughts to survival he was glad he ordered the avatar unit to come along. Though separated from the ship at the moment she still had the complete knowledge of the ship’s databanks. She still, technically, was the ship. And that knowledge would be beneficial to helping him out of this situation. Helping him survive. At least until help arrived.

“Get me a complete breakdown of this pod. What can we do to boost the signal, get navigation back up and recycle the carbon dioxide?” 

Rommie looked at him. “So Nietzschean.” There was no prejudice, hatred or even pride. It was said with logical matter-of-fact. Using the monitor in front of them, she proceeded to pull up the schematics and go over what options they had.

[center] ~ ~ ~ [/center] 

[i]“Captain’s Log, stardate four-six-three-seven-nine point six. It has been two days since the [/i]Enterprise[i] was hit by the anomaly. It came out of nowhere – a dead area of space that seemed to be moving. There was no gravitational pull to it nor any other measurable aspect to it. Despite attempts to avoid it, we found ourselves passing through it. There was no damage done to our ship or even anything odd – initially. But we quickly discovered that whatever that anomaly was, it somehow transported us to a different place. None of the star charts match or are even close. We are completely lost, in an area of unknown space. Though our morale is still high, I fear it won’t be long before some of the crew starts to panic. Especially the families.”[/i]

Picard sat at the table and looked at his officers. Many had served under his command for several years and there was no one more capable than he would rather have in this situation. “Alright, we’ve had two days to examine this and look at every angle. We have to have something. Some data, some indication of where we are.” Though a professional, there was a slight bit of frustration. Not that he let it show. He was the captain and the crew would be looking to him. But how can he guide them? He didn’t even know what direction to go.  One wrong move and they could end up even further from Federation space instead of closer. “What do we have?” He looked at his first officer and then moved down the line. Data. La Forge. Worf. His gaze took in the whole group, even the doctor. “We can’t just sit here.”

“With all due respect, Sir,” Worf leaned forward. “We can’t exactly just fly off. We have no idea where we are at.”

“Exactly. Thus why we need options.” Picard leaned back in his chair. There were times when the weight of his position weighed on him. He did his best to keep it hidden, best to keep it under wraps but times like this could be a bit more difficult. He had his entire crew to look out for and he would be darned if he let them panic or lose hope. 

The com beeped. He flipped the switch a bit annoyed. “What is it?”

“Captain, we are picking up a distress signal.”

“On my way.” He rose and stared at the group. “We need to find a solution. If we have to, we might try to find a local inhabited system and hope they have some star charts that might match ours. But we could be looking at a needle in a haystack and I don’t like that.”

Turning he headed onto the bridge. “Report, Ensign.”

Ensign Erin Cadish was straight from the Academy. How she made it on the [i]Enterprise[/i] was something that still sent chills down her spine. She had always wanted to be on the [i]Enterprise[/i] but the flagship of the Federation didn’t just take anyone. Somehow though, she had been assigned. Replacing a young Wesley Crusher, she had only been on the ship a few months. And other than the fact they were completely lost now, it was the best thing in her life.

“Small pod, unknown design. Able to hold three maybe four passengers. One life sign aboard.” She looked up from her screen. “Sending out what seems to be a distress signal.”

“Anyway to contact them?” Picard inquired. 

Erin attempted to hail them but no response. “They aren’t picking up our hail.”

“Lock a tractor beam on the pod and prepare to bring it into shuttle bay two.” Picard turned. "Number One, Worf. Data you have the bridge."