The Voice of the Echo

Posted on 29 Nov 2025 @ 11:20pm by Ensign Mira Quinn

393 words; about a 2 minute read

=/\= Science Lab =/\=

Mira glanced absentmindedly at her “nebula in a jar", displayed on a shelf above her console. The colorful gases were swirling about lazily.

She had brought it into the science lab meaning to scan it — but she never got around to it, and the truth was, she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to.

Vel was most probably right: it was a science experiment anyone could make at home.

So why ruin the magic?

On the other hand, she had all of Starfleet’s latest technology at her fingertips. Her field was astrophysical phenomena. Wouldn’t it look odd if she refused to scan it at all?

Sighing, she turned back to her console.

Sorvak wanted her to examine the fading harmonic “echo” inside the displaced region. It might simply be natural decay… or it might be interacting with some unknown particulate medium — something that could also be affecting the displaced pocket itself.

The mini-probes were still transmitting data on the harmonic echo, and she was checking for predictable decay patterns and which frequency bands were disappearing first.

She could barely detect any change in the harmonic echo now. Though this made sense as rate of fading didn't seem very high. If she gave it a few more hours, she might be able to see more of a change and be able to run more scans on the telemetry the probes were sending back. Something to revisit tomorrow.

Ops had asked for an audible-spectrum render of the harmonic echo, so Mira queued the conversion. Before sending it along, she played it herself, curious how it sounded. She had only ever looked at waveforms until now.

A soft, haunting tone filled the lab.

A few people turned their heads, searching for the source.

Mira tapped the console to silence the playback, then sent it to Ops as requested.

About to shut down her console for the day, she glanced up at her jar — and froze.

The suspended gases inside were now tightening into a faint vortex.

Weird. She'd never seen it do that before.

Magic or no magic, that deserved a tricorder.

She scanned the jar.

Ionized micro-particles.
Trace nebular gases.
Charged dust compounds.

So the shopkeeper hadn’t lied.

It really was nebula matter.

And it had just reacted…to a fading harmonic echo from an impossible pocket of displaced space.

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