Subject: Grail: "Unexplored Spaces" - 'Time flies when your working your

butt off!'

<<Stardate: 47307.29- 8:40>>

<<Stellar Cartography>>

François walked into the lab to find Hillary Singh already hard at

work. She was really enjoying this. After his run-in with Donucci,

François was assigned to help Hillary and Kyp Firespray to plot a course

through the Great Brightness. DeMontigny readily agreed for three

reasons. First, it was the perfect excuse to pull double shifts and not

be confined to his quarters. Second, it gave him less time to have the

'dream' (which he experienced twice more during the last week). Finally,

the complexity and sheer power of the gravitational fields of the Great

Brightness made it out to one of the greatest piloting challenges in the

galaxy. And François was determined to beat it. Unfortunately, the great

gravitational forces, combined with the intense radiation of the suns,

made for accurate scanning to be extremely difficult, bordering on the

impossible.

"So where's Kypper this morning?" François asked.

Hillary turned to face him, as if noticing him for the first time.

She was an attractive woman, having aged gracefully. Her fortysome years

added and air of confidence and experience to her physical features. She

smiled at the young Lt.(jg).

"Hi François. Kyp hasn't come in yet, he's probably on the Bridge."

she answered.

"I just finished my shift there and I didn't see him when I left.

Maybe he just slept in late. Anyway, where are we today?"

Hillary turned back to the center console and shook her head.

"Exactly at the same place we were yesterday. However, now that we

are a little bit closer to the Brightness, our sensors have clearly

discovered an entry point here," she pointed on the starchart, "but we

still can't see the interior. If we go in, we might not come out."

"I can get us out. I'm sure. Once inside, our scanners will be able

to find the gravitational borders..." François said, his eyes fixed on

the screen. He loved the dangerous aspect of it all, his blood was

already pumping harder through his veins.

Although in her new desire for adventure, Hillary shared François'

anticipation, she hadn't become a starship captain by being a hothead.

"That may be, François," she said, "but I don't think Captain Terrakian

will risk the entire ship with only your word that you can 'wing it'. We

need to find out more..."

Of course, she was right and François knew it. During the rest of

the day they worked on it. With the now closer sensors, and thanks to

the information previously furnished by Kyp Firespray, they managed to

make significant progress. They managed to map out a possible route

through. The interferance made the data somewhat uncertain, and they

would have to keep the sensors at maximum during the whole trip, but it

was more than anything else they had come up with in the last ten days.

There was one big problem though: they couldn't find a viable exit. The

last star was positioned in such a manner that it blocked the

'gravitational path' they had found. Hillary and François puzzled over

it for hours, with no success. Finally, Singh sat back in exasperarion.

"There is no way we can get around that thing, it's impossible!" she

sighed.

"Of course!" François suddenly exclaimed. "How could we have been so

blind? It's so simple!"

"What!?" Hillary got up and looked at the screen, "What do you mean,

simple?"

"If we can't go around it," François said as he looked up at her,

"we'll go through it."

"Through it?" Singh repeated, then her eyes opened wide as she

understood, "Of course, the slingshot effect! Why didn't we think of it

sooner? We'll just use the star's own gravitational force to pull us

through its field."

"And the speed we'll gain through it will help us escape the

combined pull of the Great Brightness. It sounds like a plan to me!" He

tapped his commbadge:

"DeMontigny to Donucci, you better come down to Stellar Cartography,

I think we've found our way through the Great Brightness."

Lt.(jg) François DeMontigny

Assistant Chief of Flight Control

USS Grail NCC 1124