“Please, please, please tell me we have eyes on them,” Tikva said as she stepped out of her ready room, hot on the heels of Gabrielle’s summons that ‘something was up’ around the planet of Qal.

“Managed to sneak another two probes in close enough for visuals,” Gabrielle said as she handed the ceremonial keys to the captain. “Makes four separate views,” she clarified as all of them were brought up on the viewscreen, cutting it into quarters.

Two segments were focused clearly on a brighter smudge of light against the speckling of dots that made up the universe. A third was dominated by a blue-green orb, with more smudges of light in the foreground. The last had a vantage point of the Southern Conglomerate station with the sun at its back and significantly closer, casting it in surprising detail, but still hard to make any real detail out.

“Zoom it in,” Gabrielle said, looking to the science station and one of her juniors, who complied and brought all four images into crystal clarity, snapping them into focus and capturing all of the details they could with the advanced optics present on the Starfleet survey probes.

The Southern Conglomerate’s spacecraft, which they had managed to deduce was named Nimma after catching stray radio communications, was reminiscent of so many early warp-capable craft. Needle-like in rough approximation, it was a step above Earth’s own Pheonix, but only just. The white-painted hull was only decorated by a single green cheatline, broken by the extended arms that held the primitive warp nacelles away from the main body of the craft.

“They extended their nacelle pylons just a few minutes ago and our closest probe is reading an increased neutrino count that would coincide with a fusion reactor being started up.” Gabrielle’s giddiness was a pale comparison to Tikva’s own.

“See, see,” Tikva said from the middle of the bridge beside Gabrielle, waving a hand at the viewscreen. “Proper starship design right there. Two nacelles.” She waved Gabrielle’s confusion away at the statement. “Never mind, a conversation I was having with myself a while back.”

“Two versus four nacelles?” Gabrielle asked.

“I’ve always been partial to circular nacelles myself,” Samantha Michaels piped up from Ops.

“Please do not get her started,” Adelinde Gantzmann said from Tactical. “Please.”

“Any decent scans of the Nimma to give us an idea of what they might get up to?” Tikva asked.

The Engineering station, normally occupied by a junior in the department most shifts, was instead occupied by Ra’s second, Gérard Maxwell. News had spread and the bridge was starting to look like those who could pull rank for front-row seats had done so. “Just in case they do have a subspace scanner somewhere, we didn’t want to give the game up, but we did a sneak in a short active scan of their ship. Warp one point three, maybe point four. Nothing higher than that though unless they want to be walking home.”

“Breaking the warp speed barrier is one way to win their race to Xemis, that’s for sure.” Tikva stepped up behind the helm, peered over T’Val’s shoulder and nodded to herself. “Fifteen minutes at warp one to get there, declare victory, turn around and head home.”

“Assuming of course that the Conglomerate are heading for Xemis,” T’Val stated.

“Well yes,” Tikva replied immediately, then stopped, turned to Gabrielle with a questioning look, then to Gérard. “Wait, could they have enough fuel on board?”

“More than enough,” he answered without hesitation. “We are currently sitting at six light hours from Qal and they have enough fuel for,” he paused to recheck his scans, “twenty hours with a few assumptions on what their fusion reactor can do.”

“Mission Control to Nimma, be advised we’re about to go live with our transmissions. The Administrator would like to remind you that we are going global with this one.” Thaph Xol’s reassuring and calm tone could have been describing the end of the world and made it sound comforting and with just enough authority behind it to reassure listeners that everything was going to be alright.

“Understood Control,” Rejach answered.

The Nimma had departed its berth only a few hours ago, slowly expanding its orbit until it’d risen far enough away from Qal that all the models agreed would be safe for them to engage the Cush-drive. All of their pre-flights had been completed, everything was blue across the board and all that had been left was to condition the nacelles before flight, a process rapidly coming to a head.

“I am so glad we’re up here and not down there right now,” Pas Jel said from their seat at the rear of the small command module. “It must be a full-on media frenzy right now.”

“And the Administrator will be weaving their charm through the lot of it,” Zihaz Gin replied. “Weren’t there going to be representatives of the Pact and Kinship present at Misson Control for this?”

“Yes,” Rejach answered. “And I’ve already seen some of their commentary about this. Late launch, no point in doing this, face-saving exercise.” Rejach turned to face Gin with a smile, catching Jel’s attention too. “Sounds like no one has any idea at all what we’re about to do.”

“We’re about to make history and only because somehow the Conglomerate managed to keep the single best secret in modern history.” Gin’s smile was broad and accompanied by a satisfied head nod.

“No, not the Conglomerate. SoCoSA.” Jel’s clarification was warranted. “We all managed to keep a secret from our countryfolk for four years. We did the –“ A chirp from the console next to them cut them off, Jel’s attention shifting instantly to it. “We’re primed and ready for activation.”

“Mission Control to Nimma,” Xol’s voice came over the comms once more. “We’re reading you blue and blue for flight. Confirm?”

“Confirmed, Mission Control,” Rejach answered. The question was being asked because the dignitaries were on site now, sitting in the gallery behind Mission Control back on the ground. Speeches had likely been said now or were still in the process of it, but now the real theatrics could commence. “Permission to begin field activation?”

Rejach wouldn’t have traded anything to be on the ground right now, in the gallery, or elsewhere on Qal with the lead scientists of the Pact or Kinship. But they were certainly interested to know what their faces all looked like just then as the question was asked. ‘What field? What are they up to?’ The questions and confusion would have been palpable.

They’d have to settle for watching the news later because right now, history was in the process of being made.

“Granted Nimma. T minus fifty for drive activation.”

“You heard them,” Rejach said to Gin and Jel. “Let’s get going.”

“Ma’am,” the junior science officer blurted after their console had chirped for their attention. Gabrielle had taken no time at all to step over, peer over the young man’s shoulder, then stood and turned to her fellows, grin on her face.

“Subspace field detected at one hundred milli-cochranes and rising.”

“Come on,” Tikva said as she looked at the multiple images of the alien ship on the viewscreen, urging them on. “Come on!”

“Four hundred milli-cochranes,” Gabrielle announced.

“I’ll give them warp one point two,” Gérard declared from his station.

“You’re on,” Sam countered. “Two-five,” she said, upping the ante. “Captain?”

It took Tikva a moment to respond as her brain needed to process that someone had asked for her. “One point seven,” she answered. “T’Val?”

“I don’t see the point in betting on the success of a primitive warp vessel,” she answered with typical Vulcan stoicism. “If they manage to break the warp barrier on their first try that would be an achievement in itself.”

“Nine hundred milli-cochranes,” Gabrielle announced finally.

The bridge went silent.

“Field flux is at nine hundred Cush,” Jel said.

“We’re already accelerating away from Qal. We’re…we’re faster than anyone has gone already,” Gin said from the pilot’s seat.

“…three…two…one.” Xol’s countdown from the surface reached its end.

Rejach took in one deep breath, potentially their last, then reached forward with a single finger for a blinking green button before them that simply read ‘Engage’.

“Here’s hoping,” they said, then pressed it.

“Warp one point two six and holding steady,” Sam declared after a few spontaneous whoops and cheers for the enterprising little alien starship.

“God damn that must be a rush!” Tikva said excitedly.

The images on the viewscreen were gone, the Nimma having disappeared in a flash of light as it rapidly approached and then crossed over the lightspeed barrier into warp flight. Instead, there was now a plot, with the planet Qal on one side and Xemis on the other, a faint red line between them with a prospective course for the Nimma to take.

Only the dark blue line of her course wasn’t following that red line at all, cutting away from it rapidly, the distance between expectation and reality growing with each moment. As those on the bridge noticed, silence descended once more.

“Well,” Tikva said after a handful of seconds, nodding happily. “Guess that settles the question of did we get spotted or not.” She turned on the spot to catch everyone’s attention. “Let’s get ready to make a proper show it when they get here folks.”