Space, the final frontier. Or is it? In a remote corner of the Alpha Quadrant, a new and unique project has been started. Here, in the distant Bel System we find a new type of star base, one unlike ever seen before. This star base, wielding the codename 'Maelstrom', utilizes the sun's power to create a rift in space, a vortex much alike a wormhole, for a brief period of time, allowing whatever passes through it to travel to any part of the galaxy, or even to distant galaxies. These stories follow the adventures of its crew as they travel towards new destinations, meeting new friends and encountering new foes. These are the adventurers of the Star Gate.
Main Characters
David Rolans:
Commanding Officer of the Maelstrom. A young terran StarFleet officer. Though still inexperienced at being in command, he is anything but naieve.
Captain Black:
Originally asigned to guide Commander Rolans to the Maelstrom, Black turns out to be more than just an escort, always around to lend a helping hand.
Jagh Ramen:
A trill with an almost immposible tranquility; Jagh is asigned as David's first officer and tries to perform that duty at his best ability.
Argol Manck:
A tall Cardassian with a grumpy attitude; Why exactly he got asigned to the Maelstorm is still a mystery, but he seems to do his job well so nobody's really complaining. Argol is in charge of station security.
Anya Maras:
A bajoran woman who mans the science station; her knowledge seems varied, and her social skills well developped, even though she can't stand Manck, for obvious reasons...
Daniel Jackson:
A human in his thirties in charge of engineering. His skills are average, but his ability to improvise more than makes up for it, and he's one of the people who helped constructing the Central Reactor and one of the few who understands it fully.
Doctor Ragg:
A Ferengi as cowardly as they come, yet Ragg's medical skills and techniques rank among the finest in medical circles.
Previously
David Rolans, a young StarFleet officer, has recently been promoted to command the star base that goes by the codename of "Maelstrom." The young commanding officer knows little more about it than the station's name and is taken there by the enigmatic Captain Black.
After following the captain through a stable wormhole he discovers what Maelstrom really is: A very large starbase, engineered specially to generate a stable wormhole.
The freshly appointed commander and his new staff are quickly faced with their first crisis when the station's Central Core starts overloading; luckily, with their combined effort, this disaster is averted.
But then a cloaked Romulan Warbird is discovered near the station. A coincidence...? Or more than that..?
The answer to that is never determined, as the Romulan ship decides to make a quick exit when confronted with the threat of instant anihilation...
Time passes and a starfleet admiral arrives on the Maelstrom, to brief the crew of its first real mission...
Project Star Gate --- Chapter V --- 'To boldly go...' by Mark van der Laan
"All readings are normal; Reactor core at optimum efficiency," Anya's sweet voice anounced.
"Proceed to phase two," David ordered.
Phase two was initiated without trouble at all. The wormhole's coordinates were entered into the station's computer system, which would now in turn regulate the energy flow, opening a stable gateway to their destination: an M-class planet in the delta quadrant. Outside the Maelstrom a small assault vessel was waiting, ready to enter the 'stargate' as soon as the doorway opened, with aboard a highly skilled team of engineers and Admiral Kornokov, who would be leading this first mission.
"Approaching moment of contact, all readings normal," Anya confirmed.
"Commander," Argol interrupted, "We have just lost contact with the reactor control room, and sensors are detecting an intruder."
"Lock onto intruder with transporters," David hastily decided, "Beam him out of there!"
"The reactor's disrupting the sensors too much, I can't get a lock."
David Rolans, commander of the Maelstrom, immediately responded to this new threat, rising from his command chair and ordering the tall Cardassian in charge of security to follow him with a security team. He would not let the station's first real mission turn into failure, not in front of a StarFleet admiral.
Luckily whoever had invaded the controle room hadn't bothered to seal off the entrance, so they could storm into the room without any trouble at all, finding the engineers all stunned, except for one, a bald man, who was busy meddling with the central core's computer.
"Stop what you're doing right now and drop your gun!" David demanded. Before the man could do so, Argol had already fired his phaser. It was a good thing the phaser was set to stun, or the man would've been vaporized on the spot; but given it was at its lowest setting, all it did was partially stun the man.
Half stunned, the man spun around, holding a phaser himself.
"Drop it!" David commanded.
The bald man grinned back at him, then spun around in one fluid motion, firing his phaser at the terminal behind him. Obviously, it exploded. Argol reacted immediately, shooting the man again, this time sending him unconscious. This time however, he changed shape as well - and the bald engineer transformed into a ravenhaired, large Romulan.
Rolans tapped his comm badge: "Rolans to command center. We've captured the intruder but he's damaged the central computer. What is our status?"
It took some time before a reply came, David assumed they were running shipwide diagnostics. Meanwhile, the reactor core was producing an eerie buzzing sound. Finally, it was Jagh Ramen who responded: "Commander, we have a situation. We can't open the wormhole yet the reactor is reaching critical. If we don't get this up and running soon, we'll be obliterated."
And then there was a brilliant flash of light.
Time itself seemed to slow down at that moment and the next minutes seemed like centuries filled with a strange awareness, everything moving in slow motion. And then there was another flash and everything was back to normal.
"Status!" he practically barked, tapping his badge again.
"All systems normal. Main reactor has been deactivated and discharged."
"Commander?" - the voice had been Anya Maras' voice.
"What is it, Anya?"
"Sir, it seems that the reactor overload has caused a feedback on the station, I'm not sure how it happened and I'm not sure if we can reproduce it, but I've calculated three times and I'm pretty sure..."
"What is it, Anya?" David repeated, getting a little annoyed by the needless explanation.
"Sir, we're not in the Alpha Quadrant anymore."
"We are...what?"
"In fact, commander, we're not even in our own galaxy anymore."
