Synopsis: Ordered to return to the Delta Quadrant and make contact with the enigmatic aliens whose device transported the Kor a year earlier, the Hiroshima sets out from Starbase 157 powered by a new quantum slipstream drive – its destination, an uncharted nebula on the far side of Federation space called the Hexen Fields.
Disaster strikes when the Hiroshima, hoping to avoid the untested slipstream drive reacting adversely to the exotic particles and strange energies of the nebula, drops back into normal space in the Sa Deireadh star system. Immediately, a malfunction between the QSD core and the modified deflector dish starts emitting pulses to which the edge of the nebula reacts. Violently.
Attempts to deactivate the deflector and core fail, and the shields are useless. With wave after wave of destructive energy and high-charged particles ripping holes in the ship, crew members dying and the neighbouring star looming larger and larger as the Hiroshima struggles against its pull, Capt. Yearling has no option but to order the ship abandoned.
Most of the crew make it off the stricken ship aboard life pods, shuttles and runabouts. Many do not, and are lost when the ship disappears from view behind rampant solar flares, presumed destroyed. The survivors travel to a nearby planet to await rescue.
Their ship lost, the survivors await rescue on an uninhabited planet beyond the edge of Federation space. Help is on the way, but what then for the crew of the Hiroshima?
Image created by Nikki Dreamer.