Star Trek

A stable wormhole permanently providing a shortcut between areas is almost unheard of-they normally open and close in seconds-so the one near Barzan II attracts several bidders until it is found to be normal and unpredictable. The Barzan side's entrance appears every 233 minutes (time scale unknown), due to radiation buildup in its accretion disc, and the visible burst is very brief. Opaque and spherical when viewed head-on and tenuously bluish, it has a black interior and a spinning glittering corridor; weaponry such as Ferengi missiles don't affect it. A primitive Barzan probe had revealed the other side as the Gamma quadrant, a century's travel away even at Warp 9, but Chief Engineer LaForge and Lieutenant Commander Data emerge to find themselves 200 light-years from that spot, in the Delta quadrant. When the unstable end departs, subatomic meson and lepton activity increases, as does gravitational acceleration.