We left Narrisal the moment Shahae's ship touched the deck. I was impatient and wanted to get underway as soon as possible. I waited for all the post-jump status reports to come through before exiting the bridge. I made my way towards a small hanger where Shahae should have docked. I entered the hanger and watched as she attempted to drag a large crate down the ramp. I couldn't help but laugh as I watched her struggle. She must have been too preoccupied to hear me enter, because she jumped when she heard me laugh.

"I though the men of your race believed in chivalry and politeness, especially when I came to helping a women with her luggage" Shahae said grumpily.

"We do. We also recognize good entertainment when we see it." I walked up the ram and lifted the crate. It was heavier than expected. I lugged it down the down the ramp and plopped it on the ground.

"Would you mind being a little more gentle with my possessions?" Shahae asked feigning irritation.

"It seems to me that I have discovered a universal truth about the female gender, they always over pack" I said teasingly. "Please tell me this is everything."

She grinned mischievously at me. "There are two more on board the ship that will need to be brought to my room as well."

I sighed and walked to a nearby supply closet. I extracted a length of rope and three square plates. Shahae watched with interest as I took two of the plates inside the ship. Apparently, Shahae didn't mess around when it came to packing. Just as she had said, there were two more crates inside. One was the same size as the one I carried down. The second was almost twice as big and I was positive it would be much heavier. Several exhausting minutes later, much to Shahae's surprise, I walked down the ramp with the two crates in tow. Each crate was hovering, thanks to the anti-gravity plates. The plates could be found in every hanger. It made shipping and receiving much simpler. I soon had the first crate airborne and I used the rope to lash all three together. Once I was convinced everything was secure, I escorted Shahae to her quarters.

I was utterly exhausted by the time we arrived. Some of the corridors we took were rarely used, and therefore narrower. Shahae found the whole thing rather amusing, much to my embarrassment. I guess it served as payback for my laughing at her earlier. I guided the crates to a nearby wall, the collapsed into a chair. "Remind me next time to put a limit on how much guests can bring."

"I figure I earned it after staying in this sparse room for as long as I have. We could be gone for a while, so I wanted to make my quarters comfortable. Once you see what I have in mind, you will agree that it was worth a little bit of work."

We spoke for a few more minutes before I excused myself. I went to my room to shower. I had finally taken residence in Admiral Jones' old quarters. It would take some getting used to. Several times already I had to stop myself from entering the wrong room. After a quick shower I was back on the bridge. The trip to the first anomaly would take about a day and a half. We could have almost cut that time in half, but we had to stop frequently to leave subspace sensors behind. Not only did it give us a better picture of what the Zrynt were up to, but it also allowed us to stay in contact with Narrisal. Dunamis was still under the influence of the subspace jammer inside the Teludan. Ships were sent back and forth from Narrisal to Dunamis on our behalf. It was an inefficient method of communication, but it was all we had at the moment.

The first several hours were calm and uneventful. Each jump put us on the outskirts of a star system. About five hours into the journey, we found our first Zrynt fleet. After close inspection, I realized that fleet was the wrong word. It was more of a scouting party. They stayed together as a group, never venturing far from a waiting subspace entry point.

"It seems to me that they are adapting to your tactics" Shahae said from behind me.

"Finally finished unpacking?"

"Almost. I'm waiting for a few things to be manufactured and delivered. It was a great idea to include the manufacturing plant inside the ship."

"Thanks. I do have to agree with you though. They aren't straying far at all." I took a moment to think about how we could use this to our advantage. A brilliant idea came to mind. "What if we took a page from their book?"

"What do you mean?" Shahae asked, confused.

"There was a time when you crowded around subspace tunnels like this. How did the Zrynt use that to their advantage?"

Understanding dawned on her. "I see what you are saying, but you don't have subspace drives on board."

"Not yet" I replied. "I agree with you, the on-board manufacturing plant will come in handy. You might have to wait a little while for whatever you ordered to be built."

The manufacturing plant was nothing more than a converted storage area. Large groups of nanites were on standby, waiting for the command to start building. Included in the room was an energy to matter converter. There were restrictions on what and how much could be built. Most of the energy was derived from the ship's armor, but when that wasn't enough to supply the process, it took from the ship's store of Galactum. It took two hours to build the subspace drive and attach it to an existing missile. Luckily for us, there was a nearby subspace entrance. It would take the bomb less than five minutes to reach its target. Once the bomb detonated, we would jump in and make sure nothing survived.

We sent the bomb on its way and watched time slowly move forward. "Weapon will reach target in ten seconds" Lt. Sanchez said.

"Activate the drives. As planned, we show up ten seconds after detonation." The moment we arrived, we were assaulted by the residual energy from the explosion. It took a moment for our sensors to adjust. "Track down any survivors" I ordered. The order was unnecessary as the whole bridge was busy doing just that.

"I'm tracking a single hostile who managed to survive the blast" one of the gunners called out. "They just left weapons range." Our attention was focused on the sole survivor. We quickly caught up and dispatched the Zrynt ship.

"Area clear of all hostile ships" Lt. Sanchez stated.

"Prepare for next jump. We'll let the Zrynt cleanup this mess."

The rest of the journey was uneventful. We arrived a day and a half after our departure from Narrisal. Apparently this wasn't a highly valued part of space. As we neared the anomaly, our sensors started picking up strange readings. We stopped a half a light year away from what had been estimated as the boundary for the anomaly. "Commence scanning. Let's see if there is anything of interest here."

After a few minutes, Lt. Haas walked up. "Admiral, something is wrong. I've never seen readings like this. Radiation levels are off the charts on second, then almost non-existent the next. There are massive gravitational fluctuations as well. If I didn't know any better, I'd say space is broken."

"Prep a probe for launch. I want a closer look at this 'broken' area of space." We jumped as close as we could and I gave the order to launch. I kept a close eye on the movement of the probe.

"Admiral, I think we should leave" Shahae said. "This area is obviously not habitable. Whatever has happened here has caused massive instability. I don't think we will survive if we enter."

"I have no plans on entering" I replied. "Whatever happened here isn't natural. Watch the path of the probe. It's getting pulled in multiple directions, almost at random. If I didn't know any better, I would say they are gravitational singularities."

"There are indeed black holes present" Lt. Haas said as she approached. "Thermal scans just came in." she brought up the scans on the display. There were a myriad of blues and reds spread across the screen. "The blue areas are active, healthy black holes. The red are the black holes experiencing entropy."

"Meaning they are bleeding off energy" I clarified.

"Correct. It explains the unusual energy and gravitational patters we have been seeing."

"Would it be safe for the Unity to travel through?"

"I would not recommend it. The probe is working its way through, but not without difficulty." Before she could clarify, the feed from the probe fell silent. "I take that back. The Unity is a much larger ship, and wouldn't be able to weave through the black holes like the probe did."

"Alright then. Set course for second anomaly."

"I think you are right about the origin of this region" Shahae said.

"What do you mean?"

"I just reviewed all the battles that we have record of, and I believe this is the site of a ancient battle."

"Are you saying that your people had the technology to create black holes?" I asked.

"I'm not sure if the technology was ours or not, but it would seem that we had the capability, although it is hard for me to fathom my people using it."

"A weapon like that could be devastating. It could be used to collapse healthy stars and annihilate entire planets." I paused to think. "Do you think the Zrynt might have this weapon?"

"I don't believe they do. We would have seen evidence of it by now if they had."

"If the technology wasn't yours, I would be interested in meeting a species that had mastered weaponry so well as to be able to create a weapon of that magnitude."