—— Starbase 86, Operations —-

Commodore Ciffao Tharc studied Commander Olivia Carrillo and nodded satisfied at the last report from the commander’s away mission on the runabout Apollo. She picked up the western pulp novel, still printed on dead trees, and studied it before putting it back down.

“With Captain Cruz still on rest the USS Luna is ready for service,” the Commodore said, “And with these apertures opening up in Underspace we’re needing to study them. Between this and Fleet Day we’re stretched thin, so for now you’ll remain in command of the USS Luna, though I did try to find a new Captain for you.”

“Cruz is coming back right?” Carrillo asked.

Tharc nodded, “As far as I know. You however ship out tomorrow, to study Underspace and see what’s on the other side of one of the openings. Try not to blow the ship up again.”

Carrillo began to protest then nodded, “Yes Ma’am.”

“Dismissed,” Commodore Tharc said waving her hand at the commander.

—- Starbase 86, Personal Quarters —-

While the First Officer’s Quarters on the Luna were sizable, the shared accommodations on a starbase far outstripped them. Drying her hair after a shower with real water, Carrillo took a deep breath and checking on the time in New York, called her family. Communications with family back on Earth could get lost in the rigorous of duty, and she took what chances she got to call them on a starbase where the connection was more instant than just sending a message.

Her sister appeared on the screen, a young woman who worked in distributing social housing to families in New York, a job that was still required even all this time after moving beyond capitalism.

“Hey,” Olivia said to her sister, the younger Carrillo waving, “Is mom and dad around?”

Olivia’s sister yelled their names. She had been the twin of Carrillo’s brother whom she had had to kill during Fleet Day when he had been taken over by the Borg. It hurt to see a reminder of what she’d had to lose, what she’d had to do. Though she had not wanted it to Olivia had to admit that the memory of that day had driven her away from her sister, and if in a small way her family.

“Olivia’s calling,” her sister repeated shouting around the small New York residence that was packed with Carrillos.

“There you are,” her mother said entering the viewscreen, “Are you eating enough?”

“What is it? Who’s calling?” asked her father coming into view, “Oh it’s Olivia. How are you darling, have you eaten? I’m making steaks tonight.”

“That’s nice, I can’t come over I’m across the universe, Starbase 86, by the Klingon and Romulan borders,” Carrillo explained.

“What’s she saying?” her mother asked, “There’s Klingon hoarders? Why do they have so much stuff?”

“No that’s not,” Olivia began.

“We had Vulcan neighbors once, they were very polite,” Mrs. Carrillo said.

“I’m just…” Carrillo tried to interject.

“I like their robes,” her father said.

“Klingons don’t wear robes,” her mother said.

“No the Vulcans next door,” her father said, “They didn’t like my barbecuing through, I could never get them to eat my steaks.”

“They’re vegan dad,” Olivia’s sister said.

“I thought they were Vulcans,” her father said.

“She said Klingons,” her mother said.

“We never lived next to any Klingons,” her father said, “At least I think so. Do Klingons like steak?”

Realizing that the conversation might go on like this forever she described to blurt out her news and log off before they all got old. Looking for a break in the flow of the conversation she said quickly, “I’m getting married.”

This for a moment shut up the flurry of talking on the other end. Her father was the first to speak “Congratulations.”

“Thank you daddy,” Carrillo said.

“You’re getting married to a Klingon?” her mother asked.

“No mommy, to Lambert. Pierre you met him,” Carrillo said.

“I thought that was just a phase,” her mother said.

“A phase?”

“You’re young, you date someone French, it’s how the world works,” her mother pointed out.

Carrillo was not sure that was how the world worked, but she was glad to have gotten it out. She explained that they wanted to get married on Earth but it would be awhile before they could return. The USS Luna was meant to be exploring the underspace, and time on a Spacedock might be rare for the next little bit. But she’d be home as soon as possible, and no she did not have a wedding dress yet.

Finally she logged off and collapsed on the bed too tired to move.

—- Starbase 86, Docks —-

The USS Luna’s Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander Young nodded as Commander Carrillo approached, pointed out the the USS Luna which was getting a final panel installed by a worker bee craft as the crew began to board. Technically they had until the evening to get the craft started and moving, but Young liked to have everything ready before hand.

“We really leaving with the Captain?” Young asked, there had not been much of a mission brief for this given that it was basically go out and find stuff.

“Should be a milk run,” Carrillo said, “Go out, take some readings and log where underspace takes us. Basically they could have sent an Oberth-class to do this, but given that they’re stretched thin Starfleet’s calling on us.”

Young nodded, “Mission Pod will be updated later today to the sensor suite. Ready to take some readings.”

Carrillo nodded, “Alright, I’m going to go find my temporary First Officer and make sure she actually comes to the bridge this time.”

Young nodded, it was well known that as Chief Counsellor Lieutenant Yuhiro Kolem preferred to remain in her office to serving on the bridge. Despite the captain’s faith in the woman, Carrillo did not see her as being ready for a command role.

Still this was Captain Cruz’s ship and crew, Carrillo was just keeping the center seat warm for her.

—- USS Luna, Bridge —-

Commander Olivia Carrillo glanced at her Chief Flight Control Officer seated at comms and then to her right at the Chief Operations Officer, “Miss Tashai, please retract the gangway, and release docking clamps.”

The officer nodded and worked at that, finally after a minute indicating, “We’re free from the station ma’am.”

To the officer at the Conn Station she said, “Pr’Nor please set a course for the anomaly we’ll be investigating.”

“Course laid in,” the Vulcan said calmly.

“Warp six please. Engage,” Carrillo said, and the ship leapt out of the vicinity of the space dock and into open space. The crew could manage undocking themselves, and the only reason a captain, or a commander in this instance, needed to be there was for support. Captain Cruz had done a fine job in drilling the team, so much so that on uneventful missions like this Carrillo felt like a bit of dead weight.

“Open a channel to the full ship,” Carrillo said, and then once that was done by the communications officer she addressed the ship, “I know most of you know that Captain Cruz is on leave after her injury. I’ll be taking us out, to explore one of the entrances to the underspace that have popped up. While I’m not anticipating anything we don’t know what’s on the other end of the tunnel we’ll be entering. So we have to be ready for anything. This is a fantastic crew, and Cruz has trained us all well, we’ll get through this together, we just need to trust each other. Together we’re boldly going where the Federation had not gone before, but we’ll be alright, because we’re together.”

Signaling the communications officer Carrillo ended her speech, and after a look around the bridge decided to catch up on some of her paperwork that she had to do as first officer, “I’ll be in the captain’s ready room.”

After having sat down and begun crew evaluations, the door chime interrupted her. Signaling that the caller at the door should enter she saw her First Officer, normally the Third Officer, Chief Counsellor Yuhiro Kolem. The woman entered and Carrillo gestured to a chair across from her.

“How’d the speech go over, too sappy?” Carrillo asked.

The half-Betazoid Counsellor shook her head, “The crew liked it for the most part. Concern for the captain is high, they liked being assured that they’re capable. For a first captain’s speech it was pretty good.”

“I’m not a captain,” Carrillo said.

“Neither was Captain Cruz, but she stepped up for us when she had to, just like you’re doing. Starfleet needs captains, they’ve already offered you a posting haven’t they?” Kolem asked.

“An Excelsior II-class opened up, they tried to get me to go for it. I need more training, more experience, I’m not ready. Besides you don’t want me to leave, then you’re First Officer,” Carrillo said.

“Reading motivations is supposed to be my job not yours,” Kolem said, “But yes two years out of the Academy is too soon for me. I know Fleet Day fast tracked a lot of people, but I never had command on my career list. I just owe Captain Cruz, that’s why I’m 2XO.”

“I know you have counsellor stuff, but as the First Officer I need you to check in with the departments. Get everyone to run a full diagnostic of their equipment before we arrive,” Carrillo said, “And be ready. Everyone should have departmental orders from Starfleet, but we don’t actually know what we’ll find, so while likely it’s just some interesting plants or something we’ve got to be ready for anything.”

“And your paperwork?” Kolem said gesturing to the crew evaluations.

“I’ll keep up on that for now” Carrillo said, “Just make sure we’re ready to go, things may have been broken during our repairs that we don’t want to overlook.”

Kolem nodded, “Will do, let me know what else I can do ma’am.”

—- USS Luna, Science Lab 6 —-

Lieutenant Setiv adjusted the lens on the probe and then shut the compartment door. She used the control panel to run a quick diagnostic and said, “The second probe is ready.”

Over at the replicator on the wall Lieutenant Junior Grade Sverin was creating the next probe casing. The probes would act as a series of data collection points that the Luna could leave behind and then collect on their way back. Nobody yet quite understood underspace and the more data that Starfleet was able to compile the more likelihood of discovering something that might be a key to understanding it.

The blue haired half Vulcan and half Human Keyana Mason entered and asked, “You all good?”

“Define good,” Setiv said, “We are operating at our duties at the anticipated pace of progression.”

Mason sighed, she always forgot how frustrating Vulcans were, even though her mother had been one. She had been raised human and was not about to ask for the definition of “ya’ll good.”

She tried another question, “You two need anything before we get there?”

Sverin seemed to consider the question, “We do not, at least not that can be provided by you. I anticipate that the replicators and waste management system can take care of all of our needs prior to arrival.”

The Assistant Chief Science Officer nodded, realizing that the Vulcan had taken what she’d asked and taken it too far but deciding not to correct him being obstinate which he was probably being on purpose. The two had been brought on board last mission to study the rifts and had stayed on now that they were returning to underspace.

“Right well let me know if you do need anything,” Mason said and left the lab.

—- USS Luna, Arboretum —-

Lieutenant Commander Gabriella Miller pulled at the weed that had grown up in the shade of the small oak tree. As a botanist she took the maintenance of the ship’s natural planet life in its arboretum very seriously.  Perhaps there were more vitally important things that she did as the ship’s Chief Science Officer, but it was the growing of plant life from all over the galaxy that was closest to her heart.

Chief Security Officer and her girlfriend Lieutenant Claudia Jara did not need the computer locator to find Miller. She was here on all most all of her free time, and if she was not in a science lab or asleep this is where she was.

“You want to do dinner?” Jara asked, giving a small wave as the entered to see her girlfriend digging in the soil with a small trowel in her hand. Miller, wearing gloves, yanked at another weed and once she had removed it from the dirt tossed it onto the small pile of weeds that she had started to build up on the stone pathway.

“I thought you were running security drills,” Miller said, crawling towards another clump of weeds that had sprung up since she had last tended to the planet life in there.

Jara offered a shrug, “We finished. So come on, we’ll get washed up and go get some food.”

Miller felt better while working with plants that she typically did with people. Not only that but on a mission like this where the brief was to mostly deal with the sciencing of interstellar phenomena she felt useless. She was a botanist and had only a basic knowledge of portals, and wormholes, and underspace. This, plants, was what she knew about.

Jara understood her girlfriend’s hesitation, and they had tried to talk about it but neither woman could quite say what they meant, or maybe what they meant to say was not what they needed to say. Jara had had a rough childhood, and saw Miller as a port in the storm, a calm woman who offered a degree of normalcy. She had never quite figured out what in turn she offered Miller though she seemed to like her well enough.

“Look there’s always going to be weeds,” Jara pointed out, “You’ll only be able to get them if you take care of yourself too. Come and get food, they’re not going to take your scientist’s license away just because we’re looking at portals for a few weeks.”

Miller sighed, took off her gloves and climbed back to her feet, brushing off her hands.

Jara approached and hugged her, “See you still have that scientist’s license.”

Miller sighed, “That was a pretty good line, but don’t be too proud of it.”

“Come on I told Pr’Nor and Tashai we’d meet them in the lounge,” Jara said.

—- USS Luna, Tranquility Base Lounge —-

The Vulcan and the El-Aurian were already there. With gamma shift on most of the department heads were off, and with at least a day to go until they reached the Triangle, they could relax a little. The Chief Operations Officer and the Chief Flight Control Officer were engaged in a public display of affection when the other couple entered. Miller was always surprised at how much Lieutenant Commander Tashai had managed to make the Vulcan come out of her naturally reserved shell and display affection.

“Get a room you two,” Jara joked sitting down, and signaling the bartender for two drinks.

Pr’Nor looked, not confused as such but indignant, “I have quarters.”

“It’s a human joke,” Miller pointed out.

“Humans get uncomfortable when they see two people displaying affection,” Tashai explained in a way that the Vulcan would get.

Pr’Nor looked quizzical, “Why would two women kissing make anyone else feel uncomfortable? Unless you are romantically involved in the activity, or those participating it has no logical affect on you.”

“You’d think right,” Jara said.

“Us humans, well we have a history of being really interested in what other people do,” Miller pointed out.

Tashai, who had lived through more than a little of humanity’s nonsense nodded, “They used to get really creepy about it. So, everyone excited to go through another portal?”

“It is not logical to be excited to go through a portal,” Pr’Nor said, “Likely we will simply find more unknown space, we have seen a great deal of that on this side of the portal.”

Miller collected her drink as a server brought over the beverages that Jara had signaled for. Jara took one that looks like it might be Romulan ale, but was definitely not Romulan ale.

“We should not have stopped at Earth,” Pr’Nor said, seriously though by now Tashai knew that she was pulling the others’ legs, “Humans are still not ready for First Contact.”

“Think how insufferable you Vulcans would be if we weren’t there to mix things up and make it interesting though,” Jara said, “You’d be like the Borg, just booming around the galaxy boring everyone to death.”

—- USS Luna, Sickbay 1 —-

The Romulan T’Rala Matthews ran diagnostics on the equipment, possibly for the third time. She’d been away for so long the crew had been assigned to a new ship, and her mentor and friend had passed on leaving her as the Chief Medical Officer on the USS Luna. Her assistant was a much younger human doctor, who despite being brilliant seemed to be lacking in bedside manner. And considering her last CMO had been a Vulcan that was quite a thing to say.

“You don’t need to do that you know,” said Doctor Elordi, “I ran checks on them weekly while you were gone.”

T’Rala shrugged, “Just something to do, since everyone is still healthy at the moment.”

“Like the ship?” Elordi asked, he had not been on the USS Seattle, and so had not had to deal with the somewhat cramped Rhode Island-class medical bay nor had he been on the world where the lost Romulans had been, and so had not had to practice medicine with little more than a crate of supplies in the woods.

“It’s nice, and big,” T’Rala said.

“I was on an Odyssey-class before this,” Elordi said, adding, “that’s big.”

T’Rala nodded, “This is big enough for me.”

—- USS Luna, First Officer’s Quarters —-

Commander Olivia Carrillo slipped into the bubbly water. Though not the most efficient way to get clean she had installed a bath in her bathroom to relax in, and after a day acting as the captain of the ship she felt that she was owed this, as if fate had given her permission to slip into a warm, relaxing bubble bath.

Lieutenant Pierre Lambert was already submerged in the water, with bubbles up to his chin. Lambert was not bothered by Carrillo’s more north eastern American modesty, though he had respected her initial desire to remain celebrate until after they had gotten married, an old fashioned desire that he did not quite understand. The Frenchman watched as his fiancé dipped into the warm water and submerged herself in bubbles.

“Your parents take the news well,” he asked as given how fast everything had happened with Captain Cruz being sent on leave after losing her leg, and Commander Carrillo being made acting commanding officer of the Luna they had not yet had time to talk.

“They excited,” Carrillo said leaning back, adding, “They like you.”

“I’m a likeable guy,” Lambert said, “It’s that 23rd century charm.”

Carrillo splashed him, “Shush, just let me lay here until I fall asleep.”

“You’re not supposed to fall asleep in the bath, you’ll drown,” Lambert pointed out.

“Carry me back to bed once I’m asleep,” Carrillo replied.

“You excited your own command, even if temporarily,” Lambert asked.

“I like being a First Officer, having someone else make the hard calls,” Carrillo said, “I’m not ready for this.”

Lambert shrugged, “I doubt anyone is ready for it. You just have to do what you’re best at, and you’d good at this.”

Closing her eyes, Olivia Carrillo wondered if that would be enough.

—- USS Luna, Bridge —-

“In two hours we enter underspace,” Commander Carrillo said, “We don’t know where we’re going so we need to be ready for anything. Science department launch what probes you want to now.”

Miller nodded turning to her science console and sending word to the team to fire off any probes they had to go into the spatial anomaly now. A few moments later the USS Luna’s mission pod fired off a large device into the portal. Carrillo glanced around the bridge, confident that everyone knew their jobs, and nodded mostly to herself. They were ready, and it was only wanting to wait for the first readings from the probe that they were waiting. No use coming out the other side of underspace into a sun.

During the two hours Carrillo took to reading mission reports from other Starfleet ships on her PADD to familiarize herself with some of the possibilities that lay beyond on the other side of the anomaly. It was like dozens of wormholes suddenly opening up, and while just one had altered the fabric of the universe as they knew it, nobody knew what this many was going to do. If one of these portals lead to an unfriendly rival like the Dominion then they could be pushed to another devastating war. If multiple portals lead to malevolent forces, then Starfleet may cease to exist.

Setting the PADD down she glanced at tactical, “Time?”

Jara nodded, “It’s been two hours ma’am.”

“Lieutenant Pr’Nor, take us in, half impulse,” Carrillo said watching the screen from the captain’s chair in the centre of the bridge.

Slowly the anomaly grew closer and then vanished as they entered it. While the crew did not feel it the USS Luna suddenly began to travel many times faster than the top warp speed of the ship. Pulled along they were no longer in the space they knew, and instead were rocketing towards something new.

“We’re launching our next probe now,” Miller reported, as the probe was fired from the mission pod.

“Well we’ve boldly gone, now let’s see what that gets us,” Carrillo said.

—- USS Luna, Holodeck 3 —-

Lieutenant Junior Grade William Hume collapsed on the sand next to his fellow security officer Lieutenant Junior Grade Rosa Flores who was attempting to sunbath under the simulated sun which gave off the right kind of light to suntan with. She huffed loudly, “You’re getting water on me.”

“Well we’re at a beach what do you want?” Hume asked, as Flores turned around to properly and uniformly tan on her back.

There was a splash about a hundred yards away as Lieutenant Yi Zhang dove into the water, splashing Lieutenant Akane Sone one of the ship’s stellar cartographers as he did. Wiping water from her face she swam over to the shower of the beach and got out of the water sitting on a towel next to Flores.

“You excited by all the new space stuff we’ll see,” Hume asked.

“You mean stellar cartography stuff? Sure, but it’s all space stuff,” Sone said.

“Things fall into two categories for security, stuff they can punch and space stuff,” said Zhang as he took exited the simulated ocean.

Hume was quiet and just smirked at the thought that life was that simple. Maybe it was, at least as a Lower Decker, he went where he was told and did what he was told and sometimes he got to play the hero but most of the time he just made up the numbers. An extra body on away missions or doing physical work for the more senior officers.

Lieutenant Yi Zhang, who had joked that his own job in Operations was mostly supervising boxes as they were moved from one end of the ship and back noticed the faraway look to Hume and sighed, “Don’t tell me you’re having more big thoughts.”

“No I’m just thinking,” Hume said, not quite about to explain what it was he was thinking about. That had been one of the great things about dating a half-Betazoid councellor she could tell what he was thinking without him having to find words for it. But he’d mucked that one up.

His actual girlfriend Lieutenant Rosa Flores shook her head ruefully and turned over to sit up. She knew Hume could be moody at times, alternating between outgoing and alive with periods of quiet introspection. She was never quite sure how to react to those, how to encourage him to express himself.

Usually something active got his mind off of it, so she stood up and tugged on his hand, “Come on let’s swim.”

Knowing her was being off and moody Hume nodded, the Vancouver-ite standing, and allowing himself to be pulled towards the simulated ocean.

—- USS Luna, Bridge —-

“Commander, we’re exiting underspace,” at the stellar cartography conn Lieutenant Akane Sone had washed up from her beach time and donned her uniform. As they exited and space around them returned to normal she began to examine the stars around them, trying to place them.

“Any idea where we are,” asked Lieutenant Kolem, acting-First Officer.

“Just a moment,” Sone said, “Checking databases now.”

Commander Olivia Carrillo glanced at the Stellar Cartography officer and waited, the USS Luna was moving away from the portal, scanning things and automatically taking in sensor readings. There was no inhabited planets as of yet.

The computer  chimed in with a communication from the larger stellar cartography lab, and Lieutenant Scchhttt’aaakkk. His chirps were translated, “Commander we in the delta quadrant, our positioning looks like what the USS Voyager reported as being  the Devore Imperium.”

At the tactical conn Lieutenant Claudia Jara said, “Captain two ships heading our way, both match what we have in our databanks as patrol ships for the Devore Imperium. They’ve seen us.”

“Time to intercept?” Carrillo asked.

“Two hours,” Jara said.

“Okay we have one hour, then I want all department heads in the ready room to report on who or what the Devore Imperium is,” Carrillo said, glancing at Kolem and heading into the captain’s office to start reading Voyager’s logs.

—- USS Luna, Bridge —-

“Onscreen,” Commander Olivia Carrillo said, watching as the now three Devore Imperium ships were replaced by the image of a man in a black uniform. He looked pleasant enough, though given the files they had read from Voyager Carrillo knew that they were unlikely to get along. The Imperium had an issue with telepaths and the Luna had too many telepaths to hide in a transporter buffer, and that had already been done by Voyager so the Imperium was unlikely to fall for the same trick twice.

“I am Chief Inspector Gladius of the Devore Imperium, state your name and nature of your entering our space,” the man said in a clipped and official tone.

“I am Commander Olivia Carrillo of the Starfleet vessel USS Luna,” Carrillo said, “We were exploring and came across your space. We apologize and will return to our own shortly.”

“Of course, first though we will be boarding your ship for inspection,” Gladius said, “As I’m sure you’re familiar with from the ship Voyager.”

“I’m sorry we currently have a radiation leak on board it would not be safe for your inspectors,” Carrillo said, returning to the center seat in the bridge.

“Lower your shields for boarding,” he demanded.

Carrillo turned her back to the screen making a gesture that meant that tactical should cut off the feed. She knew what Voyager had noted the consequences for not submitting to the inspection where, and she did not think that the Devore Imperium who had finally discovered their trick of hiding their telepaths in the transporter buffer would work again. They had discussed a few other options, such as hiding the telepathic crew members in the captain’s yhatch but they all had required their enemies to be dumb and at least from Voyager’s records Commander Carrillo realized that she was taking a risk if she underestimated them.

Not that she was not taking a risk now, not that she was not taking a risk now. They had run tactical analysis of the situation and while the USS Luna was a bit more rugged than Voyager, it was not so much of an upgrade that they could defeat the Devore Imperium.

“Warp nine point nine seven five,” Carrillo ordered, as the ship rocked as the warships opened phaser fire. The USS Luna leaped forward, entering warp and taking off running. The screen changed to show a broader view of the action, with the Devore Imperium’s ships falling back slowly as they reached their own maximum warp.

“We are out of phaser range,” Lieutenant Jara said at tactical, “Slowly increasing our lead, they’re hitting warp nine point five.”

Tapping her commbade she said, “Bridge of engineering, Young how long can you give me at top speed?”

The answer came as Lieutenant Commander Young replied, “Thirty-five hours give or take. Then we’ll need at least a few hours to cool down and do some maintenance.”

Carrillo nodded, “Okay, so we’ll run this way for about a day, then loop back to the entrance of the portal. Try to loose them though a gas cloud, or something. Stellar cartography, look around for something for us to hide in. We may have speed on them, but I don’t want to start a war if I can avoid it.”

—- USS Luna, Gymnasium —-

While the USS Luna was on the run, there was not a lot to be done. Tactical and strategic operations were examining what they knew about the threat vessels and running simulations on their various options, all while engineering was doing its best to ensure the wheels did not fly off the ship, a curious expression given that they did not have wheels.

Feeling pointless until the options were presented and she could pick the least bad one, Olivia Carrillo was drenched in her own sweat running in a simulation of New York’s Central Park on one of the treadmills that the Luna had in her gymnasium. It was an attempt to wear herself out so that she could get some much needed sleep before the senior staff presented their ideas for what they should do but it seemed impossible to take her mind off the problem.

There was a hiss of the door to the rest of the ship opening, as someone else entered the gym. Carrillo ignored it for now, until a voice spoke up that she recognized as Lieutenant Pierre Lambert, her fiancé.

“You in there dear?” he asked.

“Computer end session,” Carrillo said and the ground stopped moving beneath her feet and the trees of Central Park vanished, replaced with a clear glass wall which opened up.

“There you are,” Lambert said, “Are you alright chere?”

Carrillo stepped out of the treadmill and grabbed a towel which she used to mop some of the sweat from her brown. She nodded, not wanting to let on that she was trying to keep the ship from being seized and the telepaths on her crew including the acting first officer, from being carted off to reeducation camps. Lambert for his part was in his duty uniform, about to take his shift on the bridge.

“I’m sticky and wet,” Carrillo objected as he hugged her, risking his clean uniform.

“And smell bad,” Lambert joked kissing her forehead. He slid his hands down her body to her waist, and smiled, “But it’s nice. We should work out together.”

“Get your mind of the gutter Lieutenant,” Carrillo said returning the hug, it was nice to feel him against her, large and strong even though she outranked him there was a feeling of safety as much as it was illusionary that he brought.

“It is your mind that is in the gutter, I did not say anything forward,” Lambert protested.

“Get to the bridge,” Carrillo said slapping his bottom to rusher him out.

“Just as long as you know, you’re doing well. We all know there is no easy answer and you’re taking the best course for everyone,” Lambert said and then left, the door hissing open and then closed as he went to the bridge to fly the fleeing ship.

—- USS Luna, Chief Counsellor’s Office —-

Lieutenant Yuhiro Kolem sat across from her acting-Chief Counsellor Lieutenant Junior Grade Torma. The woman had taken on that title when Kolem had been made acting-First Officer, and now had been unable to juggle both jobs duties. Torma was her counsellor anyway so the soft smile that the woman offered was not unknown to Kolem.

“So the Devore Imperium,” Torma said, “How are you doing with us being pursued by them.”

“I don’t like being chased if that’s what you mean,” Kolem said.

“Well it’s more than that though isn’t it? You’re the First Officer now, and the Imperium is chasing us because you telepaths. If it wasn’t for telepaths, we’d have submitted to their search,” Torma said.

“You’re suggesting I’m to blame?” asked Kolem.

“No, I’m not suggesting anything, just an observation. Do you feel you’re to blame?” Torma asked, digging at the negative feelings Kolem might have around the situation the USS Lunafound itself in.

The half-Betazoid frowned in displeasure at her Gideon Assistant Chief Counsellor but understood the line of questioning. Kolem did not blame herself but she could see that someone else in her position might have. She sighed relaxing and backing off her fight or flight instincts.

“The only ones responsible for the situation we’re in now is the Devore Imperium and their distrust of those with telepathic abilities,” Kolem said.

Torma nodded, “Good, as long as you keep that in mind. This isn’t your fault, and it’s not anyone’s fault but the people who hate you without knowing you.”

—- USS Luna, Main Engineering —-

“It’s holding up,” said Lieutenant Murf. The trouble was that if the warp drive started to fail due to being pushed to the limit, it would not give them much notice. They had maybe ten more hours until they’d been running for a day and a half, and all of the training and manuals that they’d been given on how to run a Luna-class ship said that this was as far as you could push the engine like this.

Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander James Young made an unconvinced sound as he stood next to her gazing up at the warp chamber. Their last mission the ship had gotten beat to hell, and it looked like they were verging on doing that again. He wanted a nice mission of just labeling types of weird alien rocks or something, not racing a foreign military to save their own crew.

“At least it’s not the Borg,” he muttered, mostly for himself. On his last ship the USS Seattle, he’d lost all power after trying to run from the Borg. He’d managed to get it working again but they’d come close to the Borg cube catching them.

Lieutenant Junior Grade Kv’skrkks came over with a PADD of readings on the warp core. He looked like an ancient earth Velociraptor and more so as he grinned, “It’s holding up.”

Taking the PADD from his claw Young looked over the readings, finding that the warp core was holding up. The problem was it was not as if they had a destination, or a safe haven that they were aiming for. It was not a state that could hold indefinitely but for now it was working. The larger problem was they had no final destination, they were just running for the sake of not having another plan. Though as a senior officer Young knew better than to let on to the rest of the crew about his own trepidation.

—- USS Luna, Captain’s Ready Room —-

To the side of the main bridge sat the Captain’s Ready Room, currently being used by the acting captain, and normal first officer Commander Olivia Carrillo. She sat at the desk, the Devore Imperium’s ships dropping back further but the USS Luna at the edge of where they could reasonably trust their warp engines to hit their maximum warp speed. Soon they’d have to slow, and their pursuers would begin to makeup ground.

The door chimed.

“Come,” Carrillo said sipping the herbal tea that the replicator had made for her. She’d slept fitfully the night before and had been tempted by something with a little more caffeine but had worried that this might make her feel jittery when she needed to be in control.

The door slid open and Lieutenant Yuhiro Kolem entered. The Chief Counsellor was also the acting first officer, and as a telepath had a great deal of skin in the game. It was her, and the other telepaths aboard the ship, that had caused the Luna to run.

“How’s the crew,” Carrillo asked, worried that this was stressing them out. It was straining her and she had gotten to take most of the previous day off to relax and prepare for this moment and all the tense moments to come.

“They’re holding up, they trust you,” Kolem said.

Carrillo had only been the first officer aboard the Luna for a few months, so she did not blame the crew if they had doubts. Certainly she had doubts about her own ability, and had been much more comfortable with Captain Adriana Cruz aboard the ship as the real commanding officer.

“They trust you more than you seem to,” Kolem said, sensing the doubt that played at the edges of Carrillo’s mind.

“Do you ever wonder if this is all a mistake?” Carrillo asked, gesturing out her window to the stars streaking past them.

“Space exploration?” Kolem asked taking a seat across the desk from Carrillo.

“No, this underspace,” Carrillo said, “Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, basically everyone, we started exploring and taking small steps out into the unknown. Baby steps, as it were. Suddenly we can go anywhere and the universe if suddenly not much bigger than our own solar system.”

Kolem shrugged, “We’ve tried before, slipstream drives and other ways of speeding up. This is just that, times a million.”

“Maybe, but those haven’t worked. The Excelsior worked as a ship, but not a slipstream ship. This renders territory and borders ineffective. What if we’d popped out in front of ten Borg Cubes that now could enter the Triangle in a few minutes? One Cube decimated a fleet, ten would crush us. What’s to stop the Klingons finding a tunnel to the Sol System, or to Vulcan?”

Kolem shrugged, “I find it’s best not to worry about what the natural world does, and just figure out how you can respond. Do we stop mapping these out of fear of what we find? The Cardassians, the Klingons, the Romulans, they’re all mapping them. I’m sure the Devore Imperium is doing it. I’m sure the Borg are doing it.”

“So map away?” Carrillo asked, “That’s how we ended up right in the middle of an unfriendly empire running for our lives.”

Kolem shrugged, “Maybe it would have been better with a ship prepared for meeting the Devore Imperium, no Vulcans no Betazoids. But that’s not who we are, our diversity has always made us stronger, and now we can share that with them. Though perhaps not at this moment, since they seem hell bent in sending us all to camps.”

“Do you know about La Malinche,” Carrillo asked.

“It’s an Excelsior II-class isn’t it?” Kolem answered, questioningly, unsure if she had that right.

“Yes, but it was also a person. A woman in what’s now Mexico that Cortez had as a guide and interpreter. I wrote a report about her in high school. The Europeans came to the New World, and this woman helped them, but not that she had a choice. As a child she was given to them as a gift, she bore their children, she helped them settle the New Word and destroyed the old ways,” Carrillo said, “Captain Cruz, myself, were descendants of women of that time, aboriginal women who were given to the Europeans by their tribes to curry favor and to birth a new race. Later La Malinche was blamed for the fall of the old ways, for the victory of the Spanish and other conquerors. They did not have a Prime Directive guiding them, they simply wiped away what had come before.”

Kolem nodded, “And how many cultures are about to be wiped away now?”

Carrillo nodded, “The Federation might have learned from all the times the native peoples of our worlds were displaced and destroyed but the Romulans haven’t, the Klingons haven’t, I don’t think the Bajorans would say the Cardassians have learned.”

“What happened to La Malinche?” asked Kolem, doubting it was going to be a good result.

“She had Cortés’ first born son, and birthed a new race,” Carrillo said, “But in Mexico they still use her name to mean something like a disloyal compatriot. Even though none of what happened was in her control or her choice.”

The pair were quiet each lost in their own thoughts then Kolem shrugged, “Again I find it’s not helpful to worry about every decision that has to be made all at once. I’m sure Starfleet is thinking about things like that, and all you need to worry about is yourself and your crew. We can come better prepared the next time, but for now we have one important job, to get back to the Triangle without letting the Devore Imperium jail the crew.”

“Sorry,” Carrillo said, “I did a lot of thinking last night, and didn’t reach any conclusions. I don’t know that we can reverse the discovery of underspace any more than the Spanish could undiscover the new world. If it hadn’t been them, well the French and English have their own empires and blood on their hands. But you’re right, this isn’t the time for a lesson on Earth’s colonial past.”

“I enjoyed it,” Kolem said, “Our previous captain, Hawthorne, he found all that stuff romantic and fun. He liked old ships, and probably thought that discovering the new world was a good that had no downside for anyone.”

Carrillo nodded, it was easy for white men who looked like the pictures in the history books to see all of history as a long parade of progress because they were never the ones in the background whose land was being stolen, or whose family was being stuffed into ships and sent to slave away in the newly discovered country. It was not racism, it was just missing out on the full picture and needing to have that extra bit explained.

The truth was, Carrillo admitted, that perhaps the underspace would be the greatest boon in the history of the Federation. Or more likely it would allow them to do what they naturally were inclined to do anyway, the Klingons would have new worlds to conquer, the Romulans would find new slave worlds, and the Cardassians would rebuild their empire. Perhaps peace would reign in Federation space because everyone was so busy doing what they wanted to do on the other side of the universe.

“Do you think this plan will work?” Carrillo said, standing and walking to the window in Cruz’s office and looking out.

“I think it’s a dumb plan, and that just might work,” Kolem said, “Not that we have any better plans.”

Carrillo nodded, “Set it up, I want to pull the trigger in an hour.”

“I need to talk to Pr’Nor, get flight control ready to go,” Kolem said standing as well. She paused at the door and looked back at the young Commander, “Ma’am, you’ve got this.”

Carrillo smiled, “Thank you Number One.”

The two acting officers smiled at that, neither quite comfortable in their role, but neither having a choice in the matter. It was far too late for second guessing now.

—- USS Luna, Bridge —-

“Pr’Nor, are we ready?” Commander Olivia Carrillo asked the Luna’s Chief Flight Control Officer.

The Vulcan nodded, “Lieutenant Junior Grade Thomas Winfield has completed all the needed programming.”

Commander Carrillo nodded then gave the orders needed to set their plan into motion. “Drop out of warp, full stop and launch the shuttles.”

The star field on the main view screen stopped moving, as the ship came to a full stop. Then two batches of shuttles launched both batches traveling in a group and each group moving away in a different direction. They waited a moment, the at the tactical conn Chief Security Officer Lieutenant Jara said, “The Devore Imperium ships have split into three groups, two are tracking the shuttles.”

“How many are on course for the Luna?” asked Carrillo.

“Two ships,” Jara confirmed.

“How long until they get here?”

Jara answered, “Four hours.”

Tapping the controls on the central chair Carrillo opened a channel to the main engine room, “Mister Young you have four hours to do any maintenance you need, then we’ll need top speed again.”

The permanently concerned voice of Chief Engineer James Young came through, “I’ll make that happen.”

—- USS Luna, Main Shuttle Bay —-

Lieutenant Akane Sone watched as the last shuttle left the shuttle bay. It was only runabouts left now, and the bay seemed suddenly cavernous and empty. All the shuttle craft winked out of existence as they hit warp, leaving the Luna sitting motionless in the Delta Quadrant.

“How far will they make it?” she asked, having helped program the shuttles’ flight computers. She had set the courses but had not done the math as to how long before the Devore Imperium warships would overtake them.

James Winfield shrugged, wandering the suddenly mostly vacant shuttle bay, “With your charting and some luck they’ll make it.”

“I hope they make it,” Sone said.

“You could play football in here, all this room,” Winfield said.

“You could play football in the holodeck,” Sone said.

Winfield waved that suggestion away, “It’s not the same, this is real space. I grew up on a starbase, real space is valuable. Holographic tricks aren’t quite the same. Put two goals up, and there you go.”

“Well have a football game if we survive,” Sone said watching Winfield mime kick a goal.

“Maybe I will,” Winfield said.

“I’ve got to get back to the stellar cartography lab,” Sone said, “We’re in new space, we should be recording this.”

—- USS Luna, Main Engineering —-

Lieutenant Murf was up in the Jefferies Tube, shouting down at historian Lieutenant Jacob Siegel who she’d pulled into helping her because everyone else in the department was busy.

“Hand me the wrench,” Murf said shooting her hand out of the tube and reaching down the ladder.

Siegel eyed the pile of tools on the console and grabbed what he thought was a wrench. He was a historian and not an engineer though he’d written a paper on Eli Whitney who had invented a type of cotton gin in the United States in 1793. The entire engineering section was a buzz of activity as everyone attempted to get the engines in order before their next sprint at top speed.

“Got it in one,” Murf called out, “You’ll be Chief Engineer in no time.”

Siegel highly doubted that. He was not sure how he’d come to be friends or whatever they were, with Murf. The last mission seemed to have been the moment, but he knew very little about her. She was a Lanthanite so it was impossible to guess her age, though if she were a human he’d have guessed late twenties or early thirties. As a Lanthanite however she might be older than even Tashai the Chief Operations Officer who was older than Starfleet.

“Okay give me the thing that looks like a glass tube with a nozzle at the end,” Murf called, handing back the wrench.

Taking the wrench Siegel found the tool and handed it up. She’d been right to describe it, as he’d have had no idea what it was called.

A few moments later she handed it back, though inside the tube was now a black sludge that she’d extracted from something. A moment later she popped out of the Jefferies Tube and closed the hatch.

“Perfect thanks for your help,” Murf said, adding, “I’ve got to go recalibrate the warp core’s central processing unit.”

“So you’re done with me?” Siegel asked, wanting to retreat into his quiet and solitary lab.

“I could make up more excuses to see you,” Murf said, “Unless you actually thought that I didn’t have a way to carry tools up a ladder.”

Siegel looked and felt puzzled, “So what am I doing here?”

“I like your company, and you need to get out more,” Murf said. She patted Siegel on the shoulder, “Plus I have a crush on you.”

“I’m umm, I’m flattered but I’m actually,” Siegel started to explain.

“Gay yes, I know so that’s why I just have to hang out with you and not partake in…” Murf explained, “well other activities.”

“You’re an odd person,” Siegel said honestly.

Murf nodded, “Probably. All the best people are though, so that doesn’t bother me. Try as you might to be normal you’re odd to Mister Siegel.”
 

—-USS Luna, Bridge —-

“The Devore Imperium are hailing us,” Lieutenant Jara said at the tactical conn, “We’ll be in range of their transporters in two minutes.”

“Raise shields,” Commander Carrillo said, “and put them on screen.”

The Inspector appeared in his leather uniform, looking sour. He was clearly annoyed at the chase that the USS Luna had lead him on, he was a man used to having people bend to his authority.

“Let me guess Commander you’re okay with us boarding to inspect your ship now,” he said, “With the shuttles you released well away from your ship.”

Carrillo shook her head, “No, those were empty. Rigged to explode in about two minutes. I’d let any boarding teams you sent aboard know that so there’s no injuries. But, there’s a lot fewer of you here now.”

The Inspector cursed something that was not translated by the universal translator and cut the communication short clearly to warn his other ships. At the stellar cartography console Lieutenant Sone said, “Commander all shuttles have exploded as planned.”

“Alright, prepare to scrap,” Carrillo said, “Weapons hot, arm photon torpedoes. Aim for their propulsion systems.”

The USS Luna shook as the two remaining Devore Imperium vessels opened fire, their shots absorbed by the shield. Not having fired first Carrillo felt justified in giving the order.

“Pr’Nor, evasive pattern sigma alpha, Jara open fire,” Carrillo said sitting down and strapping herself into the captain’s chair in the center of the bridge. She opened a ship wide comm channel and announced, “We’re entering combat, brace for impacts.”

“Firing fore torpedos and phasers,” Jara said as her fingers danced across the LCARS controls and streaks of light shot out from the ship, hitting one then the next enemy ship. The Lunadove, while it was hard to imagine something so large being agile, it dipped below the two ships, firing behind it, torpedoes streaking out and hitting the impulse engines on the Imperium ships.

“Bring us around for another run,” Carrillo said, “We want to ensure they can’t follow us.”

“Target one’s engines are disabled,” Jara reported.

The ship shook again, and Carrillo was thankful for the restraints on the captain’s chair that kept her from rolling out onto the bridge. The other crew who were sitting down had all engaged them.

The Luna spun, pivoting and firing targeting the rear of the two ships. Most of their attacks were absorbed by shields, but a few torpedoes made it through impacting on the main vessel’s warp engines.

“Warp engines for both ships now offline,” Jara reported.

“Okay Pr’Nor, give me everything we have now,” Carrillo said, “Maximum warp.”

Both threat vessels vanished as the Luna leapt to warp, heading back the way they’d come, towards the underspace portal to the Triangle. Back to familiar space.

“Alright everyone, take a breath, we’ve bought ourselves a few hours,” Carrillo said, “I want status updates in twenty hours.”
 

—- USS Luna, Tranquility Base Lounge —-

Lieutenant Diya Acharya sat down next to Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander James Young who looked tired. He was almost always constantly tired, given the fact that more than any other his department was constantly called upon to perform the miracles that helped the ship survive.

“You look exhausted,” Acharya said.

“I am exhausted,” Young said, “But I wanted to talk with you. About stuff…”

“Ohh, ominous,” Acharya teased.

“Look I’m good at engines, not people. You’re good with people, not engines,” Young said.

“This could go in any direction couldn’t it?” she teased some more.

Young shifted awkwardly, “My point being is that it takes me awhile to realize things, and even then I don’t know what I realize. Or something. What I’m trying to say is that visa vie your umm ultimatum, and our status I kind of want to…”

Rolling her eyes and his awkward verbosity Acharya leaned forward and kissed his lips, putting her hands on the side of his face as she deepened the kiss. Young seemed startled then relaxed into it, returning the kiss.

When it ended he seemed short of breath, “I had more planned to say.”

“I know, sometimes it’s not about giving a pretty speech, but showing that you mean what you’re saying,” the Chief Diplomatic Officer said, “So no speech, just show me what you want.”

Young nodded, “Okay, umm, finish your drink. Come to my quarters. I’ll show you.”

“Now that Lieutenant Commander is getting somewhere,” Acharya said, draining her glass and letting him lead her out of the lounge and down the hall to the Chief Engineering Officer’s quarters.

—- USS Luna, Stellar Cartography Lab —-

Astrometrics Officer Lieutenant Eshita Das nodded at Assistant Chief Astrometrics Officer Lieutenant Akane Sone. The two women were busy interpreting the data that the USS Luna had been collecting, a significant amount more on the past few missions than they’d managed to collect before. The Luna had a robust section dedicated to the study, since it so often went where no one had gone before, but with underspace now that was increasing. The last two missions they’d found themselves where no Starfleet vessel had been before, all in a matter or hours.

It was an exciting time to be assigned to the Luna, Das reflected. It seemed like rather than patrolling space lanes the universe had opened up now, and they’d be going off to far flung regions of space. Given that Das had only been off of the planet Earth a few times in the past, and never out of the Sol system, this time on the Luna was exciting.

If there was confusion about Stellar Cartography and Astrometrics outside of the department, and there was, the fact was that inside they understood quite well what each of their duties were. Stellar Cartography offered immediate and actionable data to the captain (or in this case commander) and charted the stars. Astrometrics dug deeper into questions of what was going on out there. About what they were seeing and what it was that they were likely to encounter. If Stellar Cartography asked and answered “What’s around us” then Astrometrics asked and answered “What’s over there next mountain.”

Right now with the ship at maximum warp they were running like a Klingon from a tribble and not stopping to ask what they might find. While there was still plenty of data being collected, their roles were much more narrow in a fight of flight situation like the Luna found itself in at the moment.

“So you get up to anything this week?” Sone asked, though they were running the Luna at full speed the crew still socialized and while they had not had away teams, or shore leave she was interested in knowing how Das was getting on socially. She woman seemed to have workaholic tendencies, and though she was not her supervisor she wanted to make sure that everyone was getting enough R&R on top of their shifts.

“Hmm,” Das said dodging the question as she studied a map of a section of space that they’d come through shortly after arriving in the Delta Quadrant from the Triangle. A gaseous anomaly had blocked their scans leaving more of that area of space blacked out on their maps.

Das pulled up the map on a larger wall mounted screen, “What do you think that is?”

“If we had more time we could check it out, but it could be anything,” Sone said.

“Awful good place to hide ships,” suggested Das, “If we bombard it with something we can scan like neutrons then we could get a ‘sonar’ like image.”

“We could reallocate some of the resources for the main deflector dish,” Sone said, “I’d need to get Lieutenant Scchhttt’aaakkk’s approval,” Sone said, “But it’s worth a look.”

—- USS Luna, Tranquility Base Lounge —-

Doctor Thomas Elordi spotted the Indian woman across the bar. He remembered her from the physical exam that he’d done on her back at Starbase 86 when she come aboard, but other than in passing he’d not had occasion to see her since. He found that mostly people avoid medical bay unless they had reason to be there, and so he spent most of his time with the nurses and the Chief Medical Officer T’Rala.

“May I sit here?” he asked, gesturing to one of the many open seats at her table.

Das looked up and then at the seats, setting down the PADD that she had been reading, while it would be at least another hour before their scans provided any usable data she was reading what could block long range sensors like that.

“I suppose,” she said shrugging as if she did not care either way, “I’m just reading.”

“Something interesting I hope,” Elordi said as he sat with his drink.

“Doctor Brewer’s thesis on interference in long range sensors,” Lieutenant Eshita Das answered.

Dr. Elordi nodded, “I haven’t read anything that interesting since the Academy.”

Das made a sound, and looked back at her PADD taking a drink of her tea. Elordi stood and got food from the replicator and sat down with a bowl of ramen noodles in broth and a pair of chopsticks. Not wanting ton interrupt her work flow he said nothing, but he slurped his noodles a bit distracting Das and causing her to put her PADD down and eye him.

“Sorry I’m not good with chopsticks,” he apologized.

“It’s fine, the Japanese slurp their noodles, I was stationed in Tokyo for a few years before the Luna,” Das said explaining, “So you a doctor first or a Starfleet Officer first?”

Elordi shrugged, “I don’t know if I understand the distinction.”

“Being in Starfleet, getting on a ship like the Luna, that was my goal,” Das said, “Astrometrics was just a way to get to that goal, and I turned out to be good at it. Some people know they want to be doctors and then end up going into the fleet just to pursue that, other people know they want to be in the fleet then they find that being a doctor is their way in.”

“My parents were both doctors,” Elordi said, “I was a doctor first I guess. But this way I can do that and talk to beautiful women in the lounge too.”

Das snorted, “That line ever work for you?”

Elordi shrugged, “I don’t know did it?”

“You like Bollywood?” Das asked.

“I don’t know what that is?” Elordi admitted.

“Old movies, dancing singing,” Das explained moving both of her hands.

“You mean Hollywood?” the doctor asked.

“No,” Das said, “I don’t actually mean Hollywood.”

“Sorry, not a clue,” Elordi said.

Das rolled her eyes, “Lieutenant Acharya and myself are going to start doing some Bollywood inspired exercises. We’re both from India. She’s bringing the Chief Engineer…”

“Lieutenant Commander Young,” Elordi said.

“Sure, him,” Das said, “Come workout with us.”

“Like a date?” the doctor asked confused.

“I have some readings to go over, holodeck 2 in two hours,” Das said standing taking her PADD with her. She did not answer the doctor’s lingering question.

—- USS Luna, Holodeck 2 —-

Doctor Elordi was grateful to see Lieutenant Commander James Young the Luna’s Chief Engineer seemed to have as little idea about Bollywood dancing as he did. For however graceful the two women were following the steps that the holographic instructor gave them, the men were clumsy and after Young poked himself in the eye with a stick he was meant to spin around they had to take a break as Elordi examined him.

“This is not going well is it?” Elordi asked as Young followed his finger with his eyes.

“What I wouldn’t give for a warp core emergency right now,” Young joked.

“See I was hoping you’d need surgery,” the doctor grinned and stood, “He’s fine. I think he needs some more of that jumping.”

Das rolled her eyes, “I should have invited that Orion woman.”

“Crewman Vanuoma Vedda,” Elordi said, he had the advantage of knowing pretty much everyone on the ship, since he was in charge of their entry medical exams. It also helped being a doctor, and familiar with your patients.

Das shrugged, “Orions know how to dance, you two are just kind of flailing about stabbing each other.”

Lieutenant Acharya snorted a laugh. She was enjoying having a second Indian woman on the ship. As much as human culture seemed like a monolithic thing to other races in reality it remained quite diverse, though Starfleet had a tendency to assume that all humanity lived in San Francisco within walking distance of the Academy. While they likely would not have been friends back in India, here on the Luna they were growing close.

“Computer replay beginner course 1A,” Acharya said, ever the diplomat she wanted the men to feel as if they were making progress.

A handsome man in loose fitting garments appeared, “Welcome to introduction to historic dance in the Indian Cinema.”

“He’d retired now,” Das observed.

“What the hologram retired?” Elordi asked.

“No the dancer who they based the hologram on,” Das said, “Keep up this time.”

“Raise your hands parallel with your head and step forwards like this,” the hologram said, moving gracefully. The women followed suit and the men managed not to stab themselves this time. However as the lesson progressed Elordi fell doing a complicated step.

“I’m okay,” he assured everyone.

Das helped him to his feet, reaching down, “I think we should start more complicated, if this isn’t working.”

“Young almost died at this level,” Elordi observed.

“I did not,” Young protested.

“But neither of you have seen actual dancing. We’re just stepping about and waving our hands. Computer, end program and start program Bollywood 23 Das,” Lieutenant Das ordered.

The dance instructor vanished as did the mats and other bits of the dance studio were they had been learning, replaced by a temple and stairs that looked hard if one fell. A dozen men and women in loose fitting clothing were on the steps.

“We’re supposed to be having a workout and all we’ve done is watch you two fall over,” Acharya observed.

“You two sit down,” Das ordered though obviously the Lieutenant Commander outranked everyone else there, “Diya, let’s dance.”

“I thought you’d never ask Eshita,” Acharya said.

Doctor Elordi did not know much about dancing, and even less about Bollywood, but it seemed to him that when he tried it it was as if his arms and legs were separate things that he had to control. He was good at surgery and the fine movements there, but once on the dance floor he had to think about each motion he took, and could barely keep one limb from colliding with the other. The two Lieutenants were, however, capable to motion that he was pretty sure was impossible for a human though since they were both human he knew it was not. Their arms moved in patterns and stances that they seemed to have already memorized and their legs followed the complicated steps of the holographic people behind them. Dozens of people, mostly computer generated, dancing in unison as if they were one organism.

“No wonder we almost died,” Young said under his breath, though the doctor nodded along in sympathy and understanding.

When it was done the two women were covered in sweat. They might not have been perfect at the dance, unlike the computer dancers, but they had certainly managed better than either of their male compatriots.

Acharya guided Young to his feet, “Come on we’ll get you washed up.”

Young kissed her, “You’re getting sweat all over my uniform.”

“You don’t need to be back in engineering for a bit,” Acharya said, heading for the door to the hallway.

The pair disappeared down the hall and towards the Chief Engineer’s quarters. Doctor Elordi looked at Lieutenant Das, “So that was fun.”

“I have scans to read,” Das said, letting him know that she was not going to get affectionate with him the way that Acharya was with her boyfriend.

“Okay, cool. I have umm, doctor stuff,” Doctor Elordi said, “Dinner maybe.”

“We’ll see,” Das said ending the program and heading towards her lab still in the loose fitting clothing that she’d been dancing in.

—- USS Luna, Captain’s Ready Room —-

“Lieutenant Das has found something,” said her section chief Chief Science Officer Gabriella Miller. The discovery had to go through three different people before she had been able to present it to the captain, or in this case Commander Carrillo.

Carrillo nodded, making a welcome gesture to the officer that she’d never met, “Lieutenant Das what did you find?”

“We have this blind spot, which we didn’t see past when she raced past here the first time,” she said gesturing to the region of space they were about to pass though, “Likely it’s stellar gas, magnetized and interfering with our scanners. I did a closer look. Radiated the area of space with neutrons. And we have a ‘sonar’ type image. Seeing the way that Earth bats do.”

“Okay, I follow the science I guess,” Carrillo said, “What do we have.”

“Ten Devore Imperium warships,” Das said, showing the images they’d gathered.

“Ten?” Carrillo said alarmed, they’d handled two but that had been a run and gun exercise.

“They likely know it’s a dead spot, and given how we’ve disabled their previous ships…” Das began.

“They gathered a fleet here to intercept us,” Carrillo said, “As a demonstration not to resist.”

The Commander swore, “How long until we get there?”

Miller shrugged, “At current speed we have ten hours. They will need to move out in front of us, so maybe more like eight.”

“Okay, alert all departments, I need options in six hours,” Carrillo said, adding, “Good job Das.”

—- USS Luna, Briefing Room 1 —-

The Strategic Operations Officer gestured to the screen on the wall showing the ten Devore Imperium warships that had removed themselves from the gaseous cloud and were now blocking access to the underspace portal that the USS Luna had used to travel to the Delta Quadrant in.

“It is likely that they discovered the portal shortly after our arrival and realizing that we would eventually look to double back, have decided to block it,” Lieutenant Eleanor Dorian said.

“Why?” Commander Olivia Carrillo asked, “Why not just let us go. We’re out off their hair in less than a day.”

“A ship that refused to bow to their laws, and allow the boarding and inspection,” Dorian said, “However distasteful we find their rules, if they don’t enforce them others will push back too.”

“Okay what’s the tactical options?” Carrillo asked.

The way that Chief Security Officer Lieutenant Claudia Jara inhaled as if breathing through her teeth suggested that it was bad, “Well against two ships we reasonably could win. Against three we might survive. Four maybe. Ten, short of showing up with a Borg Cube we don’t stand a chance.”

Acting First Officer Yuhiro Kolem studied the screen, “Can we dodge?”

Dorian shook her head, “They have us on scanners, and are readjusting to our movements. We’d need a cloaking device.”

Carrillo turned to her Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander James Young, “We have industrial replicators can we build a cloaking device?”

He made a face, “A cloaking device isn’t something you can just build, even if we ignore all treaties in place with the Romulans.”

“If we turn and run the other way,” Carrillo asked.

“Let’s say seventeen years through normal space to get back home,” Lieutenant Akane Sone from Stellar Cartography said.

Carrillo sighed, “Did anyone bring me options, or are you all armed with problems?”

Chief Intelligence Officer Jake Dornall had been silent through most of the meeting and finally gestured to the gaseous cloud, “What’s that cloud made of?”

Dorian looked down at her PADD, “Various things, zinc, metals, hydrogen”

“We have a mostly empty cargo bay now that we don’t have shuttles,” Dornall said referring to the shuttles that the Luna had blown up as a distraction, a ploy that had worked at the time. He leaned forward in his chair, “Can we collect just the hydrogen in a big the size of our hanger?”

All eyes turned to Chief Engineer James Young who shrugged, “I could rig something up.”

“Who’d heard of the earth ship Hindenburg?” Dornall asked, to mostly blank stares.

“The Devore Imperium ships will be shielded against hydrogen,” Carrillo said, “Even the first warp capable Starfleet vessels were able to withstand that.”

Dornall pointed at the screen, “Look at that patten of enemy ships. They’re careful and they’ve planned for us. They want order and control, we need chaos. We put a quantum torpedo through a big bag of hydrogen and suddenly they don’t know what’s going on. We aren’t going to destroy them but if we have a chance of slipping through it’s with chaos.”

Carrillo nodded, “Okay, well that’s a terrible plans. But seeing as we have nothing else Young start working on that with Dornall. I want us ready.”

—- USS Luna, Bridge —-

Commander Carrillo glanced at her acting First Officer Yuhiro Kolem and took a breath, “Well here going nothing.”

“At least we know they won’t have telepaths on their ship,” Kolem joked.

“Open hailing frequencies,” Carrillo said and soon another Inspector in another dark leather uniform was frowning at her from one of the Devore Imperium ships. Carrillo looked as harried as she felt, and had made her hair disheveled on purpose. Both her and her entire bridge crew had donned charred uniforms as if they’d been fighting fires.

“Prepare to stop and we will seize your vessels for an assault on our ships,” the Inspector said.

“We can’t stop, our warp core is damaged, if we stop we will explode,” Carrillo said trying to sound panicked, which was easy given what was going to happen next, “There’s a gateway to the Beta Quadrant that we came through, we need to get through it before it goes critical,” she said.

The Inspector cut the transmission.

“They’re scanning us,” Jara at tactical said, “They’ve noticed the radiation leak that engineering has staged. He’d hailing us again.”

“Follow our lead vessel, stay an assigned distance away, any closer we will open fire,” the Inspector said.

Carrillo nodded, and Jara cut the transmission. Carrillo glanced at the officer at the Engineering console, “Have Young release the gas bag. Soon as it’s out of the ship fire two quantum torpedoes. Everyone hold on, all ship announcement. Brace brace.”

The explosion was significant, two quantum torpedoes detonated at their aft hitting the large silicone bag of hydrogen gas that they collected. It ignited, bathing the Luna in flames and then the Luna hit the lead Devore Imperium ship head on.

Visually it looked as if the Starfleet ship had burst into flames and then exploded taking the lead ship with it. Carrillo felt herself lurching forward, restrained by the belt on her seat but then the seat gave way and she flew forward still buckled in. There was the terrible sound of metal being crushed as the ships collided. The lights flickered and emergency lights took their place.

“Injuries reported all across the ship, the Imperium ships are pulling back,” Jara reported as she got up from the floor where she’d landed.

Carrillo unbuckled herself from her seat which had flown to the front of the bridge, “Warp?”

“We have warp,” Jara said.

“Shields up, starting firing everything and everything,” Carrillo said, “And Pr’Nor take us home.”

Devore Imperium ships had just seen the Starfleet ship burst into flames and take out their own ship, and were backing away hastily from what was meant to be left. Then suddenly out of the rubble came blue streaks of light as quantum torpedoes were fired. Ships backing away collided with other ships and suddenly there was no one in charge of the large enemy force.

“The forward lounge is gone,” Jara reported, “Massive damage to the hull section’s fore. All areas had been evacuated as you ordered, no deaths.”

“We needed to drink less anyway,” Carrillo joked.

“Primary threat vessel is disabled, three others damaged, we’re through the blockade,” Jara said, “Warping now, but the remaining six ships are pursuing.”

The Luna rocked as phaser fire hit its shields. At comm Jara said, “Shields offline.”

The ship rocked again, and unhelpfully Jara said, “Propulsion systems offline. We’re dead in the water.”

Using her commbadge Carrillo called Engineering, “Young how long until I can go fast again?”

“An hour?” replied Chief Engineer James Young unsure given that the ship was still shaking with phaser fire and a lot of things were currently on fire in engineering.

“That’s about fifty nine minutes too long,” Carrillo said, she turned to Jara, “Prepare to be boarded.”

“Commander I’m getting four ships declocking,” Jara said, “It’s a three Klingon Mat’Ha class ships and one Bortasqu‘-class dreadnought. Holy shit that thing’s big. Sorry Ma’am.”

“What are they doing?” Carrillo asked, unsure if this was good news or bad.

“They’ve engaged the Devore Imperium ships,” Jara said, “Two are destroyed the other two are fleeing.”

Carrillo took a breath, “Okay, hail the Klingon ship.”

A Klingon male with unruly hair and a fevered look in his eyes answered, “Starfleet do you contest ownership of this territory?”

“No,” Carrillo said.

Satisfied the Klingon nodded, “We claim it in the name of our house and the Empire.”

“I think the Devore Imperium lay ownership, but you know I’m not worried to much about that right now,” Carrillo said.

“It will be a glorious struggle. Did you just ram their ship, and blow yours up?” he asked interested.

“Yes, basically,” Carrillo said.

“What a bad idea. I love it. You fight like a true warrior, always ready to go to Stovokor,” the Klingon laughed.

“Look my Captain has a lot of wine, do you want it?” Carrillo asked.

“Because you killed him?” the Klingon asked.

Carrillo shook her head, “No sent her to have surgery. But she owes me, and she can get more. I think our transporters still work, we’ll beam over what we have that wasn’t broken in the crash. For your timely intervention.”

The Klingon nodded, “May I have the honor of killing you myself one day.”

When the screen went dark Carrillo sighed, “Miss Tashai, get all the wine from Captain Cruz’s ready room and quarters and send it to the bridge of the Klingons. The big ship. Soon as we can go home, let’s go home.”