Subject: Grail: "The Great Brightness" - `Countdown to Danger'

<<Stardate: 47307.30- 14:45>>

<<Bridge>>

Epic Terrakian entered the Bridge in the middle of excited chaos.

All stations were alive with activity even though the ship was not

moving. And most surprisingly, the Conn officers had the most to do.

`Captain' Hillary Singh noted the entrance of Epic and made her way

toward him, but not before checking her hair in the reflective surface

of the engineering display.

Epic felt her ardor and mentally shook his head. He hadn't managed

to turn that one off yet. What did he need to do? Hit her?

"Captain Terrakian.", she addressed him formally, but with a

delighted smile.

"Captain Singh.", Epic acknowledged the courtesy and the woman.

"Sir. The information we have received from the probe is

astounding." Her excitement washed over Epic like a wave. He was

becoming excited by her proximity. "Ms. Donucci is confident that she

can navigate these gravimetric currents with success. However, there is

a binary star near our exit point that will exert tremendous pressure on

us."

Epic knew there was more and nodded for it.

"Mr. DeMontigny has a plan that will allow the Grail to utilise

that gravimetric concentration to our advantage. He called it `shooting

the curl', but I believe he was referring to Sulus Slingshot. It has

been successfully repeated on four separate occasions."

Epic considered it a moment. "Have we run any simulations on this?"

"No, sir.", she replied. "But I will make the necessary information

available to both Ms. Donucci and Mr. DeMontigny. Shall I inform them of

your desires?"

"Please do.", Epic replied, moving toward the Big Chair. But

Hillary stopped him.

"There is one other thing.", her tone became more serious. "Before

we lost communication with the probe, we..."

"`Lost communication'?", Epic interrupted.

"Yes, sir.", Hillary nodded. "After the probe broke through the

last obstacle, it was helplessy lost to the binary star. But that wasn't

the worst thing."

Epic waited on the edge of his patience.

"Because of the probes extended range, we were able to get some

readings on the planetary system beyond." She showed him a padd. He

handed it back with the barest glance and a shrug.

"Because of a severe subspace flux, presumably caused by the

collapsed sun, we will be unable to create a warp field within that

planetary system. We will only have impulse power while we remain."

Epic nodded. It wasn't the end of the world. Even on full impulse,

a single solar system would only require a few hours to negotiate.

"Thank you for your report, Captain.", Epic smiled, then turned to

address the Bridge. His voice rose in power.

"First, I want to thank everyone for their efforts in this

enterprise. The results were gratifying and should do great things to

insure our success.

"Second, we will enter the Great Brightness at 09:00 tomorrow. We

will be on a Yellow Alert for the duration of that flight, which has

been approximated for six hours. Beyond that, we will be in the

Kerestian planetary system. Decisions for further actions will be made

after overcoming that obstacle.

"Ms. Donucci.", Epic said, smiling at her. "Make sure you get your

rest tonight. Because tomorrow, it's all YOU."

All eyes turned to Alison as Epic walked up to her. His tone was

low. "And I want DeMontigny with you in case we have to `shoot the

curl'."