Captain’s Log Supplemental. It's been a little under 24 hours since we left the Avalon system. Who knew the galactic south was so far away? The ship and its crew are handling well. With everything that's happened in the past few weeks, I'm a bit surprised at this.

“Commander Nitus report to the bridge immediately,” the internal communications array called out to her. The half-Romulan stood from her desk and made the short venture to the bridge.

“Report,” Nitus said urgently as she walked to the command center.

“Commander, we've detected several shuttles and runabouts leaving the Deblin colony,” Arva said as he looked between Nitus and his console.

‘The Deblin colony,’ she thought to herself. ‘What could have happened to them that they are retreating.’

“Do we have their trajectory?” Nitus asked Arva.

“Yes, ma'am. We can be there in less than 20 minutes if we go at maximum warp,” Enzo said, turning his chair to face her.

“We have to go help them. We must find out what's happened,” Nitus whispered to the half-Vulcan standing beside her.

“You're right, Commander. If they are fleeing from the place of our mission it is only logical for us to find out what's happened,” T'Soni said in agreement with Nitus before turning to Enzo.

“Commander, if I may?” Alessa spoke up causing everyone to shift their focus from Enzo to her.

“Yes, counselor,” Nitus said.

“I think I speak for everyone when I say we need to go get those people,” she said as everyone on the bridge simply nodded in agreement, “If they are fleeing from where we have been assigned by command then it would only be right for us to investigate what caused them to flee. For all we know there could be an attack on the colony.” 

“I agree with Alessa, Commander,” Arva said with his Betazoid colleague, “We can't go into a potentially hostile environment without at least some background information.”

Nitus nodded in acknowledgment of all of their points, she then looked to T’Soni.

“Waiting on you, Commander,” T’Soni said simply looking at Nitus.

“Enzo, lay in an intercept course,” Nitus said to him, “Alert shuttle bay 1 and security were about to have some company.”

“Intercept course laid in,” Enzo said as he waited for the word from his Commander.

“Hit it,” Nitus said simply as they warped off into the void. ‘Here goes nothing,’ she said to herself as she sat down.

[12 minutes later]

The Paramount dropped out of warp directly in front of a trio of shuttles and two runabouts.

Its engines hum as it smoothly transitions from warp to real space. The sudden appearance casts a shadow over the smaller vessels, their pilots having been taken by surprise quickly adjust course to avoid collision.

“Report,” Nitus says as she walks onto the bridge from the turbolift. The viewscreen changes to display the shuttle and the runabouts just in front of the ship.

“They all seem to have taken damage. The runabouts appear to have been hit with… plasma… weaponry,” Arva says as the rest of the bridge falls into silence.

“Hail them,” Nitus says as she walks over to the science station.

“Channel open.”

“This is Commander Nitus of the USS Paramount, do you require any assistance?”

The comms come to life with a large amount of static as a voice comes through distorted, “Yes… commander…we...” the voice spoke before going out. 

“Did we lose comms?” Nitus asks Tiala.

“Their comm array seems to have taken damage,” Arva says as Nitus walks back over to her chair.

Nitus stood in front of her chair looking out of the viewport, T'Soni walked up to stand up beside her.

“We should bring them aboard Commander,” she said in a hushed tone looking out of the viewport alongside Nitus.

“I know but there is a risk, Number One.”

“There will always be a risk, Commander.”

“Lock tractor beam and bring them aboard. Number One, Mr. Zolath, Ms. Reno follow me, Mr. D’Antonio you have the conn,” Nitus said as she turned and walked to a turbolift with the rest of them following close behind.

The doors to the shuttlebay open and they walk into the room. The three shuttles and the runabout occupants had already disembarked.

Nitus followed by the rest of the group walks over to the refugees.

“Hello,” Nitus said as she stopped in front of the group, “I'm Commander Nitus, this is my executive officer Lieutenant Commander T’Soni, chief of security Lieutenant Zolath, and chief counselor Lieutenant Reno.”

“Greetings, Commander. And thank you for the rescue,” one of them said as he stepped forward, who appeared to be the senior of the group.

“My name is Josh Francis,” he said as he turned to introduce the others but Nitus interrupted him.

“I'm sorry it's protocol for you to be questioned before we can continue. I hope you understand,” Nitus said, looking sad.

“Of course,” the elder gentleman said as he looked around nervously at the shuttlebay.

“If you will please follow Lieutenant Zolath.”

“Right this way,” Arva said as he turned and led them out of the shuttlebay.

The group of refugees gathered their belongings off of the floor and left the bay.

Nitus turned to face Alessa, “Did you pick up anything?” she asked her Betazoid subordinate.

“Yes, some felt calm as if they were unaffected by their situation. Some felt shocked, which would be expected, but Josh had a sense of guilt as if he had been lying,” she said as she looked at Nitus trying to remember anything else that she could.

“So nothing good,” Nitus jokes.

“It would appear so.”

“Keep an eye on them for me, Alessa.”

“Yes, Commander. Of course.”

“They're hiding something, and until we can figure out what it is. No one on board is safe,” she said to her as she turned and walked out of the shuttlebay.