“Welcome aboard, commander.” Captain Scotto said as he shook the hand of his new Chief Engineer, fresh off reassignment. The young-ish officer returned the handshake with a firm nod of his head. “My pleasure, captain. I’m grateful that you were willing to take me on with such short notice.” The engineer said.

Lieutenant Commander Christopher Wellington had already pulled a full tour of duty on the USS Fitzgerald, but was eager to get back into action. He just so happened to be spending his mandated shore leave here at the colonies when disaster struck with the D’Ghor. Luckily, his family was not counted amongst the dead, but there was definitely a different feeling among the colonists.

Prior to the D’Ghor attack, the colonies were already dealing with a fungal problem in their crops causing widespread disaster when it came to being able to be self-sufficient. The Hunters made life worse, cutting the colonies off from supply routes and ruining whatever was left of unaffected plant life.

While the Devastator and her crew were instrumental in returning things to normal, the fungal mutations were still wreaking havoc on the colonies’ local food supply. Replicator rations were only going so far. With Task Force 93 command leaving the cluster, the Dev was left to try and mitigate the fungal problem or provide the colonists with a way out of the area.

Walking through the hallways away from the transporter room, Captain Scotto took the time to make idle conversation with his new officer. “As you can see, while the Dev may not be top of the line no longer, she still packs quite a wallop.” Scotto gestured to the walls and displays as he escorted the engineer to his new home in engineering. “We were sent out with the latest upgrades to holographic projection systems throughout the ship and of course the latest sensor and scientific packages. But, I’m sure you’re familiar with all this.” The captain said.

Wellington was a little uneasy around the new captain. He always wanted to be able to trust the guy in charge, but he needed to be able to make his own assessment of the man – he couldn’t go by what he had heard from others. “Absolutely, sir. Sixteen phaser arrays, twenty-four decks, seven diplomatic suites, five science labs, primary and secondary sickbays, emergency cruising speed of nine-point-nine-five.” He replied.

Scotto happily gruffed before adding, “Yeah, but only for thirty-six hours. What’s up with that?” He quipped.

The doors to engineering opened before them and the familiar hum of the warp core felt like a warm blanket over the body of Lt. Commander Wellington. “I’m sure we could make it to 40 if we really needed to, sir.” He quipped back before turning his attention to the cavernous engineering area.

Scotto clasped his hands together, “Well, commander, she’s all you—”

Before he could finish his thought, the screens all around them went dark and a slight beeping alarm began sounding – not loud like a red alert, but enough to make it clear something was not right.

A moment later, an Ω symbol appeared on the screens. Scotto’s heart skipped a beat. Wellington dropped his sack near a console and attempted to gain access. Nothing was working. Around the room other personnel were lifting their hands in the air to no avail. The chief engineer turned around to the captain with a perplexed look, “Sir, my access isn’t working. Perhaps—” Scotto raised his hand. “I will take care of this on the bridge.”

===

In the captain’s ready room, Charles shut down his computer display and rubbed his eyes. This was not the only instance of Omega. Reports were coming in all over the most secure Starfleet emergency channels – this shit was everywhere. Why? Unknown. Connected? Unclear. He read through the Omega Directive procedures three times. It was clear what his next moves had to be.

The chime to his ready room sounded. “Computer, unlock the doors to my ready room, authorization Scotto-two-nine-beta.” A positive chime and a muffled click indicated he could answer the door. “Come on in, he said aloud.”

His first officer, Commander Sera, appeared in the doorway. “I’m sensing that the next few minutes are going to make me wish I stayed in bed.” She said.

Charles felt the familiar pain in the back of his neck, shooting down his spine. He implicitly rubbed his neck, giving Sera the opportunity to chime in. She stepped forward to allow the doors to close behind her. “Chuck,” she said. The captain raised his free hand, “Don’t call me that. We don’t need to go down that road.” He stood up in defiance of the pain and took a breath.  Pulling down on his sleeves, he continued. “Assemble the senior staff in the briefing room. I will have further assignments there.”

===

“I cannot stress that even the little information I have provided should not be shared amongst your staff or junior officers. I will investigate the source of our sensor readings and then go from there. Report any unusual findings directly to me.” Scotto commanded from his standing position behind the chair at the head of the table.

Wellington raised his hand, “And the colonists? What are we supposed to tell them?”

“Nothing.” Scotto demanded. “We are moving them out of this area for their safety. The mercy ships will be able to take them out of the cluster.”

Another officer raised her hand. “And this specialized team? Why can’t we handle this on our own?”

Scotto rubbed his eyes. “Trust me, I would rather we just handle things ourselves, but, I am under very strict operational procedures. Once the team arrives, we will be free to focus on the why and now the how of why we are in this situation.”

“The situation, we’re not allowed to know about?” Wellington asked.

Scotto stared down his new officer. “Let’s leave the attitudes behind as we move forward on our new mission. I hope that there will be a sufficient resolution to satisfy our curiosities. In the meantime, let’s keep the colonists safe, and get them evacuated as quickly as possible.”

“Ma’am, if you just follow the officer in front of you, I promise you will be taken care just as soon as we can gather enough people for the transporter, we don’t want to waste any room.” Commander Sera was quarterbacking the evacuation of Federation colonists on Meronia IV. Most folks were happily compliant with the immediate evacuation order, while others were being entitled pricks. “I don’t understand why we can’t just be moved to another place on the planet!” One of the colonists shouted as they hustled by the commander.

Shaking her head while looking back down at the PADD, the Andorian officer relayed another command to the Devastator that they were almost ready for another mass transport. Nearby, the Dev’s new chief engineer was diligently making modifications to a pattern enhancer. “She’s got a point.” Wellington said just loud enough so Commander Sera could hear.

Her antennae curled as she looked up from the PADD. “We’re not here to reason with these people, commander. We’re just here to carry out our orders and make sure everyone stays safe.” Placing the device under her arm, she turned to the engineer. “I assume you’ve never encountered this directive before?” She asked.

Wellington replaced the cover on the shaft of the enhancer and wiped his hands on his knees before standing up to face the first officer. “No, can’t say that I have. Seems awfully fishy to me.” He said. “To move all these people without giving them so much as a timeline for their return seems a little against protocol to me.” Wellington continued. He could sense that the commander was going to have a sassy response so he decided to break the tension with a question. “Have you encountered this before?” He asked.

Sera winced, “Not exactly. I still don’t know all the details, but I have heard rumors from some buddies of mine who’ve made it to command. From what I understand, we are doing these people a favor. They don’t want to be anywhere near here if we’re encountering whatever it is we’re encountering.”

Before they could continue the conversation, there was some gasping and shouting coming from just beyond the end of the line. It seemed that a colonist had collapsed. Sera and Wellington were motioned over by medical personnel at the scene. The collapsed colonist was alive, but severely injured. “Doctor?” Commander Sera asked.

Scanning the colonist with a medial tricorder, the doctor looked astonished. “It doesn’t make any sense, commander. This colonist is suffering from a severe form of radiation poisoning – subspace radiation.” Sera stood up and instinctively backed away from the colonist and doctor. Tapping her commbadge, she spoke, “Sera to Devastator. We’re going to need a few more medical teams and a few science officers right away.”

“Forty-nine percent above tolerance. That’s how much radiation she was exposed to.” Captain Scotto with a flick of his hand produced the images of the scientist they found on Meronia IV, exposed to subspace radiation. He had brought it up to show the Romulan just what kind of damage was inflicted on her, and countless others as a result of their actions. “Nearly an entire continent of good land reduced to the production of garbage because you were too curious.” Scotto walked slowly around the table, trying to bring to bear the devastation that these Romulans caused.

He softened the tone of his voice. “So I’ll ask again, which faction are you working for?”

The Romulan prisoner was distraught in tears. “No one, I swear.” He continued to weep looking up at the Captain. “What do I need to do to convince you of this?” He asked through the emotion.

Charles stared him down sternly before swiping away the holographic display. He took the PADD off the table and walked towards the cargo bay exit. The familiar ca-lunk sound behind him indicating the doors closed interrupted the conversation of the officers just outside the cargo bay. The captain handed over the PADD to the Starfleet Intelligence Team lead and sighed. “I believe him.” Scotto said. “I don’t think he or his team were acting at the behest of any form of Romulan government, no matter which of the three you try to pin this on. Our investigation has come to the conclusion that these were just some scientists who got a little too close to the sun.”

The commodore in charge of the intelligence team turned away from the display in the hallway where they had been watching. “While I don’t want to concur with your assessment, I have no choice but to agree. We’ll have our security team take him and his accomplices back to base for further debriefing and then we’ll have to decide how to handle a judicial proceeding, but that shouldn’t be your concern anymore.” The commodore sighed. “I suppose, the fact that this is connected to Omega is purely coincidental, not necessarily malicious. They didn’t realize just what they were working with. Regardless, they were trying to inflict destruction on Federation citizens, property, and personnel. That in itself will be enough to make a case. Good job, captain.”

As the team began to break up, Captain Scotto had to ask. “So, what about Omega?”

“The cleanup team is on the surface now, but, because of the slow destabilization, this area is going to be useless for the foreseeable future. We’re not sure why it was here, or how it got here. But, I wish we would have been able to find it first.” The commodore replied.