Angels and Wormholes

Paradox

"So why can't we talk to the Avalon?"

"Well, I've been trying. Either they're not listening, or they've already jumped."

"And if they jumped, then we can't signal them?"

"Right. I can't tap the glass if I don't know where it is. You need space-time coordinates to direct the quantum distortions."

"Hmm..." Erin paused in thought. "Why not try contacting the Gate?"

Catrina scratched her head. "That's not a bad idea. I mean, we wouldn't normally try it. The Gate's inefficient for comms, and unreliable -because of the distortion created by the Tunneling-Drive. But it could work, in theory. It might be worth a try."

Captain Barron overheard their exchange, and walked over to the pair. "You've got an idea?"

"Yea," Catrina answered. "Well, Erin suggested we try establishing a Q-Rad with the Gate."

"That'll work?"

"Potentially -there's gonna be a ton of distortion from their T-Drive, so anything we send is gonna be a bit garbled. It'll be like shouting across a noisy room... But in theory, if our signal was strong enough they could detect the interference. We'd have to divert additional power through the Q-Rad. But we might be able to get a signal to them."

"Alright. Now we're talking. Do the prep'. Let engineering know you're gonna need the extra draw. See what they can do."

"On it."

Rolland turned to Sergeant Riona Namarra. "Any luck with our coordinates?"

"I think so, yea -give or take a few dozen lightyears. Status is updated. Working on pathing now."

"Great. Good work."

"Alright." Catrina swiveled her chair away from her console towards Captain Barron. "Good to go. What message am I sending them?"

"Send them our coordinates. If I'm not mistaken, they can use that to establish a solid comm-link -and then maybe put us in contact with the Avalon and let them know where we are."

"Sounds like a plan." Catrina swiveled back to her station. "Sending signal now. A hundred-fifty percent distortion." The console beeped. The crew waited anxiously.

"Any response?"

"Nothing yet."

"Should we boost signal strength?"

"Sure. Trying two-hundred percent." Catrina slid her index finger across the console. "Still nothing."

"Maybe they're not listening?"

"I don't think we're loud enough."

"How high can we push the Q-Rad signal?"

"I'd be worried about blowing the inverters if we went much higher."

"Two-hundred-fifty?"

Catrina shook her head. "I wouldn't want to risk it."

"Could they realistically detect a signal at two hundred percent distortion?"

"It's a long shot. They'd have to know what to look for."

"So we need some way to boost signal strength."

"Yea."

"Alright. Head to engineering -see what you can come up with."

"Yes, sir". Catrina stood and headed for the exit.

"How's the pathing coming along?" Rolland walked to Namarra's station.

"Something weird going on. Take a look." Riona pointed to the data on her console. "I triangulated our position based on the nearet galaxies. That's the milky way. That's Andromeda. That's the Triangulum Galaxy. We're somewhere around here. Just about exactly where we were supposed to be."