(This story takes place around Season 4 of Deep Space Nine, and after all three campaigns in StarCraft 2 but before the epilogue)

  “Have you heard about a certain young ensign and a certain bajoran officer recently?” Dax asked whimsically as Kira passed by on her way to a station.

  “No, I have not.” Kira responded almost flatly as she focuses more on the work than on the conversation.

  “Well.” Dax began, dragging the word out to get her attention. “I happen to know that Ensign Trevors and Officer Liliana are now a couple.” Dax finished and just continued to stare at Kira as she worked slower and slower as her mind began to process what was just said. After a few moments of silence she spoke up.

  “That Liliana?” Kira said in disbelief and far louder than she intended. Dax let out a short laugh at Kira’s reaction.

  “Yes, That Liliana.” She said, still jovial at her friend’s late and enthusiastic response.

  “Well I’ll be.” Kira said as she quickly tries to hide her blush and embarrassing moment by turning around and giving a much more subdued response. “I’ll admit I never thought the girl had it in her.” Kira said now mostly calmed down.

  “It’s not like she took the initiative after all. Trevors apparently got her a new earring recently straight from Bajor.” Dax said no longer even pretending to work and just fully engaging in her conversation with Dax.

  “He did what?” Kira said, turning around, no longer working herself. She paused for a moment to think. “Apparently I’m much more out of the loop than I originally thought. I didn’t realize it was that serious.” She said thinking about her own mess of a love life. She did well to put on a poker face and not let it show, but Dax noticed anyway, choosing instead not to press that issue out of respect for her still bereaved friend.

  “Yes, that serious.” Dax said as she spun around to resume work on her station, leaving Kira just standing there, staring at her for a few moments before going back to work herself. As the conversation died down, Sisko left his office and started to head over to the replicator.

  “One Raktajino.” He said to the replicator. After the whooshing sound finished and the drink was replicated he grabbed it and spun around to see a confused looking Dax.

  “Isn’t it a little late for a Raktajino?” She said, seeing the cup in his hand. Her question then changed once she watched him take the first sip.

  “No, better question, didn’t you already have one this morning when you got in?” Sisko took a few steps closer to her as he finished his sip with a satisfied look.

  “I don’t know, I can’t seem to shake this tiredness I’ve had since I got in. Worse yet, I have had this weird feeling in my gut all morning.” Dax whimsically raised an eyebrow.

  “Stomach problems? Seems like a good excuse to visit our esteemed Doctor.” She said with a smile. Sisko is about to open his mouth to respond when he is cut off by a very concerned looking Dax who is noticing a blinking indicator on her station monitor.

  “Benjamin? You’d better come take a look at this.” She said no longer looking at him but the readout displayed in front of her. Briskly walking over to her station he peered over her shoulder and looked at the readouts. The monitor was indicating some kind of spatial disturbance, the same kind that usually means the wormhole is about to open.

  “Are we expecting any ships today?” He said to the room, or anyone who could more quickly get him the information.

  “No, the Federation Science Vessel Baochuan isn’t scheduled to return for at least another week and no other ships are scheduled to enter the Gamma Quadrant anytime today.” Kira said as she looked over a Padd of data. Sisko paused as he slowly put down his cup.

  “What are the chances that this is the Dominion?” He said as he looked to Dax feeling that the old man’s experience might be the best help here. However her response is unhelpful at best as she just returned his question with a doubtful and worrisome gaze. There were a few moments as the tension hung in the air before Sisko acted.

  “Red Alert. All hands to battle stations. Whatever is coming out of the wormhole I want us to be sufficiently prepared.” As people in Ops begin to scramble to their positions Dax got a better look at the readings. There was something strange about this whole situation.

  First, the station’s equipment is tuned to be able to pick up the wormhole opening even before they see it occur, but it isn't so powerful that it can give them this much of a head start. So either the ship in the wormhole is moving very slowly or something else is going on. The second thing she noticed that gave credence to the latter is that the neutrino levels being given off are far too high, much larger than what is given off by the wormhole alone. However it was the third thing that concerned her the most.

  The neutrinos were not centered at the wormhole like they normally would be, they were off. No, all of the readings were off. It just began to occur to her that there was not one occurrence going on right now, but 3 separate neutrino readings coming through to her. As if 3 separate wormholes were opening up right before her eyes. In all her years of experience nothing like this had occurred. She had no idea what this meant but she knew she had to tell Benjamin.

  “Benjamin, I think we have a bigger problem.” Dax said with a serious and concerned tone.

  “What is-” He began before he was cut off by the sound of the wormhole opening. Right before he saw it open a red wisp that seemed to gather together and form a ball and then shoot off into space, however he had little time to notice that because rather than seeing a ship emerge from the exit instead 3 ships emerge into his view. 3 ships that were unregistered in the Federation Database, and more importantly 3 ships that emerged from somewhere different than the exit of the wormhole.

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  “What in Sam’s Hell is going on?” Raynor said as his ship is rocked by another gravimetric distortion, as their ship was seemingly trapped in some kind of spacial corridor.

  “I’m not positive sir. Ever since we went to warp we have been trapped in this corridor and haven’t been able to get out.” Horner said a bit displeased himself at the lack of progress the engineers on the Hyperion have made.

  “We’ve been here for 20 godamn minutes, you think someone would have figured something out by now.” He turned to the comms station by his chair and hit the button to engineering. “Swann, you got an update for me? Me and the boys are getting real antsy up here.” There is a solid ten seconds without a response as the sounds of welding, hammers, and other various tools are used until eventually .

  “Uhhh, yeah sorry boss. It doesn’t seem like there’s any problem down here; it must be something external affecting the ship. I don’t think there’s anything I can do about it. But I gotta warn you, if the engines keep burning this hot we're gonna have problems that even I can’t fix.” Swann said worriedly before he hurries off to go try to figure out how to keep the engine from melting down.

  “Damn, just what I need.” Raynor said a bit less angry than before, having calmed his rage. “I’m not even sure how we got into this mess, one minute we’re picking up our boys from Tarsonis, the next we hit warp and this happens.” He said looking at Horner but speaking to no one in particular. With a sigh he sat down in the captain's chair and looked out the window showing the faint blue glow of whatever had them trapped obscuring any view of stars nearby.

  “I might be able to shed some light on that.” Nova said, her optical camouflage coming down as she revealed herself behind Raynor..

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “Nova!” Raynor said, jumping to his feet, hand on his revolver. He had no idea what kind of encounter this would be but with Nova it was better to air on the side of caution.

  “No need for that big boy, I’m just as trapped here as you are.” Nova said, her own gun held lazily in front of her pointed at the ground. At this Raynor does relax a bit, taking his hand off the gun, but he does not let his guard down, Nova was far too dangerous to do that.

  “You know something about this?” Raynor asked skeptically as Nova walked around from behind his chair.

  “Admittedly not as much as I should. I noticed a large Psionic energy wave engulf the ship just as we hit warp, the wave was big but the energy was subtle.” She said as she stopped walking and turned to face Raynor again. “Probably why none of the other ghosts here noticed anything.”

  “If I were to guess, this may be less a “something” and more a “someone.” Nova said as she nonchalauntly turned away and walked over to the window. Raynor followed after her.

  “You mean to tell me that this thing that has us trapped is a person’s doin’?” Raynor said skeptically.

  “I’m not sure.” Nova said as she once again faced Raynor. She raises her gun, not pointed at anyone or anything but simply showing she is ready for a fight if one were to break out. “But I intend to find out.” Feeling satisfied with herself Nova began to head to the door, only to stop when Raynor spoke up.

  “I just have one other question.” Raynor said with his hand now on his gun and looking at Nova with a stern expression. “What the hell are you doing on my ship?” Nova responded without turning around.

  “I had a mission on Tarsonis when your ship came into orbit, it just seemed like a good way to get off planet at the time.” She turned her head back a bit so she could see Raynor in her peripheral. “Satisfied?” Raynor lets the tension stay in the air for a moment before taking his hand off his gun and crossing his arms.

  “For now. But I'll be keeping an eye on you.” Raynor said to her sternly. There was a moment’s pause as Nova looked as if she was about to say something and thought better of it, instead just heading out the door from the bridge.

  “This whole mess just gets crazier and crazier.” Raynor said to himself as he looked back out the window again.

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  “My Queen, I have looked over the brood we have aboard, it is as you surmised, they are in a hibernative state, shall I send out the queens to wake them?” Zagara said to a Kerrigan whose hand is outstretched, touching the walls of the Leviathan seemingly communicating with it.

  “No, for now I just want all those that are ready to fight simply stay aware of the situation.” Kerrigan said as she retracted her hand from the Leviathan. “I will give the orders when it is the time to move.”

  “Yes my Queen.” Zagara said with a slight bow as she wandered off to check on other parts of the vessel.

  “What about the infested, Stukov?” She said, already aware of his presence entering the room before he was in her sight.

  “Ironically they seem as attentive as ever, but since the Psionic wave has encompassed the entire vessel they are running around like chickens with their heads cut off.” He said with a smile thinking of the imagery.

  “Do you believe you could still control them if I willed it?” Kerrigan asked, still feeling uneasy about the whole situation.

  “There may be a few misbehaving children who will ignore me, but yes I doubt it will pose too much of a problem.” Stukov said, trying his best to ignore his own draw to the psionic wave outside.

  “Good, then be on standby in case I need you, but for now leave me to my thoughts.” Kerrigan said to Stukov before he nodded and left the room.

  It was strange there were so few times Kerrigan was left alone since she became the Queen of Blades. Even now she was not truly alone, she could feel the presence of several drones she tasked to work nearby as well as the Leviathan itself. She could even feel Stukov slowly getting further away, but that was it. There was nothing greater, she had never before felt so cut off from the rest of the Swarm. It was almost like she was Human again, her thoughts being her own and not the will of the swarm. It felt… cold… lonely. Something about what has the Leviathan caught was definitely affecting her too, but what truly made it weird was that it was not actually psionic in nature, just something similar. Whatever it was, it seemed to have a death grip on the Leviathan and had no intention of letting go until it achieved its objective.

  “Intention huh?” Kerrigan said to herself as she mulled over the scenario. That was the strangest part, she felt some kind of will behind what was pulling them, it felt like a natural phenomenon but it also was full of intent. Whatever it was she knew there was nothing she could do at this juncture, so with that thought she left the chamber and resumed her walk around the vessel.

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  “I believe I may have a solution for you, Artanis.” Karax said heading up to Artanis, a small crystal floating above his hand.

  “I am relieved to hear you say that Karax. I was beginning to believe that we might remain trapped in this spatial corridor for the rest of time.” Artanis said to Karax honestly.

  “It appears not so.” Karax responded. “The team of phase-smiths you tasked to get the Spear of Adun out of this… spatial anomaly, has come to the conclusion that our destination is not far.”

  “Our… Destination?” Artanis said now more confused than before.

  “Yes sir, I looked over the data myself, we are most certainly heading somewhere.”

  “Then pray tell just where are we going?” Artanis said, concerned, but glad that there seems to be some kind of information he has now.

  “That's just it sir, we are not sure. It does not appear to be anywhere in the Korpulu sector, or even, if I were to venture a guess, anywhere in our universe.” Karax said both excited by the prospect of them leaving the confines of their universe but understanding of Artanis’ position. There was a short pause before Artanis spoke up again.

  “Tell the phase-smiths that if they cannot get us out of this psionic bubble then they need to at least tell me exactly where we will end up.” Artanis said, still flummoxed by the knowledge that they are leaving not only the Koprulu sector behind but the entire universe. It seems far beyond the power of even the Xel'naga. But for now all he could do is wait and hope that the phase-smiths would bring him news soon.

  “I’ll get right on it sir.” Karax said excitedly as he headed off quickly to get back to work.

  “I knew it was a mistake to come aboard your little Protoss get-together.” Alarak said with a snide remark, having heard every word of Karax’s report. “I should have left your little club as soon as our objectives were met. I wouldn’t have to deal with such drivel if I were back on Slayn.”

  “However our objectives are not yet met, Alarak.” Artanis said to him sharply. “Amon still roams free and although we have freed most of the protoss from his command and assembled the greatest fleet since our golden age nothing is over until he is dealt with.”

  “And look where that got us. Trapped. Lost. And leaving the universe behind us.” Alarak said as he strided up to Artanis. “Perhaps if we were under my leadership as I suggested we would not be in this predicament at all.”

  “Enough.” Talandar said, stepping in. “I shall not permit you to insult Artanis any further.” Talandar placed himself directly in front of Artanis to block Alarak’s advance.

  “Or what? You’re going to fight me? Ha. Don’t make me laugh.” Alarak said, seeming ready for a fight. “You and your purifier friends can just hide away in your coding while the Tal'darim do the real fighting.” Artanis, wanting to end this before it gets bigger, stepped in.

  “That is enough. Is it not evident that in a situation such as this it is more prudent to come together to face the unknown together rather than fighting apart? The Daelaam, the Purifiers, the Nerazim, and the Tal’Darim have all come together for this, there is no reason for infighting now.” Artanis said, looking at a representative of each Protoss as he does. Alarak just scoffed and backed off.

  “Fine, I’ll play your little game for now, Artanis. But know this.” Alarak said, looking Artanis dead in the eyes. “The Tal’Darim will not stand idly by as you continue to stack failure upon failure. Being as magnanimous as I am I shall let this one slide, but there shall be no more freebies.” Having finished what he wanted to say Alarak walked off leaving everyone else on the bridge behind. Artanis just sighs to himself. He understood Alarak’s position all too well. It was, in a way, his fault that they were in this situation, and as the Highlord of the Tal’Darim Alarak had a responsibility to his people, as did he to his. But he also knew that such bickering between factions was what created the divides in the first place and that it had no place in a crisis such as this. However just as he was thinking these thoughts he got a transmission from Karax.

  “Sir, I believe we are coming up to our destination.” Karax said now even more excited than he was previously, despite his attempts to seem otherwise. “Have you figured out where we are yet?” Artanis responded quickly.

  “Unfortunately we will not know where we are until we have arrived at our destination. But if I were to speculate I would guess that we are no longer in our universe as I originally suspected.” Karax’s words radiated deeply within Artanis. The gravity of the problem hit him full force.

  “Well then.” Artanis began as he looked over to Selendis who had just finished giving orders to some templar. “Let us hope we are not immediately met in battle when we leave the Psionic field. But if we are, we shall meet them in kind.” Artanis then turned around to look out the front viewer and saw what looked to be the exit to a wormhole open up, in the distance he saw a blue planet he did not recognize as well as a space station of an odd design greeting them not far away. A quick glance at the readout in front of him told him that the station was shielded and armed, heavily.

  “Templar… Ready for battle.”