Starfleet told us there were no adventures to be had out here near The Vast, and that has been consistently shown to be untrue. So it was with some concern that I approached their actual “adventure” into it, an exploratory session that could lead us deep into territory previously unexplored by Starfleet and her allies.
We were tasked with a scientific exploration directed by the famed scientist Professor Demetreo, who had pieced together a method for navigating the Vast’s anomalous regions via a map, derived from an incognito stay among the Mentella, a pre-warp civilization on the edge of the Vast, and learning their unchanging oral histories. With this map, we were able to navigate through to their legendary Home of the Gods — though it was not without incident.
During our journey at warp, our warp field touched briefly on the portion of the Vast which defies expected behavior, causing it to “twitch.” A field lanced through the ship, resulting in visions for members of the crew who found themselves on the other side of that energy barrier which passed through the Stalwart. For myself, I saw a vision of our Klingon friend, Kraddock; he was holding a Bat’leth and said, “We are all guilty.”
When we arrived at the planet, we discovered a completely dead ecosystem, with no signs of life. A single energy source remained, which we investigated. We found a single remnant of the previous Althosian civilization, apparently this was their homeworld of the Althosian Empire, Teradane. It was the final record of a humanoid scientist, whose family lived in that world. She used her final moments to record for posterity the early warp technology and — more amazingly — the method for navigating in The Vast. She simply wanted future visitors to be able to navigate safely, avoid disaster, and know that her life mattered.