<USS Avalon> The Rift by Ensign Anthony Manson

The Rift

by Ensign Anthony Manson

The ship sensors rang on my consoles. Proximity alarms whaled in tiny bleeps 
that the rifts were huge and that while we were at a safe distance; the 
computer felt more comfortable that we?d be further from it. If we were any 
further from it, I wouldn?t get as accurate sensor readings as I would here at 
our present position. 50,000 kilometers away was safe. Normally, I?d start with 
using the short range sensors to start doing sweep around the rifts to detect 
any sort of temporal effects. Usually, with rifts- you don?t get temporal time 
dilation. But rifts were a little unpredictable. The only anomaly I ever read 
on that had a standard way of making sensor sweeps and having accurate data 
available was a wormhole. And even that, for all it?s accurate data gatherings 
could still be a little troublesome. The only one that had ever made a lasting 
stand in it?s consistency was the Bajoran Wormhole. Or maybe not, but 
nonetheless, they're all the same; confusing.

The short range sensor sweep was done on the out skirt of this rift. A time 
dilation of almost a minute. That wasn?t too bad. The ship was far enough from 
the rift and experiencing any time dilation was not going to be a possibility. 
Unfortunately, the sensors could not penetrate the rift to get more accurate 
data. Having to reroute some power, I had the secondary deflector go up and 
further the sensor?s abilities. I have to admit, using the main deflector would 
be practical, easier and a certain power boost; but I didn?t need that much of 
a boost, and besides the secondary is almost as powerful. And while the main 
deflector could do a multitude of task, I still didn?t like the idea of having 
particles bashing against the cold metal of the ship. There are just some 
things you can?t trust in technology. For me it just happens to be the main 
deflector. 

Well, the secondary deflector coupled with the short range sensor didn?t give 
me much. I had to narrow it down. Passive sensor sweeping is more accurate when 
searching for details, but it takes longer. The computer gave an estimate time 
of twenty minutes for a full sweep under this narrow of a bandwidth. The first 
scans made me frown. There were undetermined, or unknown, particles within the 
rift. And the amount of tachyons present within the rifts were high; computer 
readouts further implied that should the ship be in one of these rifts, massive 
temporal displacement could occur. Exactly how much displacement was unknown. I 
compiled the notes and sent the computer to it?s work again. Having too many 
unknowns did no one any good. After what seem to be minutes dragging onto 
hours, the results came in with best estimates of a temporal difference of ten 
to as much as twenty five years. Past or future was also undetermined. 

Then again, this was all speculation. I really had no background into the 
science of temporal anomalies. A minor at best, but nothing to a degree which I 
can place my expertise to. And as it were, I was question the sensors myself. 
That was up to the science department. If my sensors were right, long range was 
picking up another rift. I didn?t give it much thought since my immediate 
concern was looming closer to us. Science department would have already 
detected this without a doubt, so they could handle it. Temporal stuff is 
confusing, and more then anyone wants- hard work. If it took multiple reports 
to fill out a temporal occurrence, you would drown in a temporal rift. 

I finished the sensors with the first rift, took the notes and recorded data 
and sent them to the science department. I programed the sensors to run 
continuously and gather any data in case the rift changed in it?s present state 
and keep a stream of updates. That was all to it. Wasn't too bad, after all...



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