“The Adak is requesting clearance to break orbit,” reported the communications officer. “Reports 4,419 embarcations at final.” Just like the naval cutter to bear the name four centuries prior, the Federation merchant ship had responded to a mayday when it mattered most, clearing the deck for every last passenger she could squeeze aboard.

“Can you remind me of her captain’s name again?” Admiral Reyes asked as she pulled away from the Polaris‘ main science station, where she’d been reviewing the latest atmospheric telemetry with Dr. al-Qadir. The particle physicist was playing geophysicist while Dr. Sh’vot was down on the surface helping Commodore Agarwal and Commander Lee identify heat-resistant strata within the planet’s crust.

“It’s Kinn Maalirsh of the Tellarite Merchant Marine,” reported the communications officer.

“Very good,” Admiral Reyes nodded, coming to a stop in the center of the command island. “Get him on the horn, please.” She felt an enormous debt to Kinn Maalirsh, and to each of the others that had embraced the proud tradition of the mariner and responded to a fellow ship in need.

After a short delay, a beefy Tellarite freighter captain appeared in the center of the bridge’s main display. “Admiral, we are prepared to make best speed for…” Captain Maalirsh announced as he tried to recall the name of the obscure system his navigator had just charted a course to. “Vega Pyronis.”

“Captain Maalirsh, let me extend my sincerest gratitude to you for your assistance here today,” Admiral Reyes offered as she set her right hand over her heart. She meant it with every ounce of her being. “Because of you and your crew, over four thousand will go on to a new life beyond this dying world.” She understood what it had cost them too. Without asking for any form of remuneration, they’d jettisoned every last liter of dolamide and every last ounce of duridium to make room for as many passengers as they could pack into their carbo bays, storage tanks, maintenance shafts and utility corridors.

“If we really punch it, I’m looking to make it at least thirteen thousand before the week is out!” Captain Maalirsh declared proudly as he puffed his chest out, almost as if competing with himself over just how many he could save.

The surprise was evident on the Admiral’s face. Captain Maalirsh had not, until this moment, discussed any more than a single trip of refugees, but his intentions were now clear. This would be his first trip, but not his last.

“What?” Captain Maalirsh chortled. “You think I dumped all that valuable cargo for just one load? At our best speed, Vega Pyronis is twenty out, a couple to debark everyone, and then twenty back, so figure we’ll be back for lunch, the day after tomorrow!” If they rode the subspace eddies just right, they might even make breakfast.

“I am at a loss for words…” Admiral Reyes said graciously. “But thank you”

“Just have the next group ready to load upon our return! Adak out!”

The line dropped, and they watched as the Adak lumbered forward, first at impulse as it pulled away from the squadron and then to warp as it leapt forth towards new shores. The 4,419 souls aboard the Adak, plus another 6,384 aboard the other two civilian vessels that had left Vespara earlier in the morning, they would be the first to break ground on the uninhabited class-M planet in the Vega Pyronis system that the councilors had selected as their new home.

“If only there were more like him,” Captain Devreux remarked from her side. “And it’s rare for me to say that about an enterprising Tellarite huckster.” It was shocking, really, how the captains of these freighters and passenger liners had so willingly given themselves to the cause of Vespara Prime. It was only unfortunate that more hadn’t come, and that Starfleet had not been able to rally more of its own ships to their cause.

“It is a proud tradition of the mariner, one that stretches back to days of the high seas, the moral obligation to help a fellow seafarer in need,” Admiral Reyes smiled. “And thank god too, as the latest update from Command laid out, in no uncertain terms, that this is a galaxy-spanning situation that goes far beyond Vespara and the Archanis Sector.” And that meant Polaris Squadron shouldn’t expect much help, save for the USS Pacific Palisades and the small contingent of civilian ships that had responded to her call.

“But Allison, are we even sure this relates to that?” Captain Devreux asked.

“Not conclusively, no,” Admiral Reyes shook her head. Dr. Lockwood’s team had been pouring over the data down in the lab, but they hadn’t found anything to definitively link the situation in the Vespara system with the reports of Underspace apertures forming across the quadrant. “But it’d be an incredible coincidence if this relativistic phenomenon that materialized out of nowhere was completely unrelated to all those other co-occurrent relativistic phenomena that have also materialized out of the blue.”

For a moment, they pondered that thought. The nature of the Underspace, with its gravitational and subspace implications, was simply too close to their present situation to ignore. Still, it wasn’t exactly the same, and even if they managed to connect this situation to the broader crisis, would it actually help them? Or would it all just be an academic exercise? 

Unless it stopped Vespara Prime from falling into its star, it didn’t really matter, and, as opposed to those hypotheticals, that very real and very tangible catastrophe was where Admiral Reyes’ mind quickly returned. “Dr. al-Qadir,” she asked as she returned to the present. “You got that update for me yet on the stability of the climate control system?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Dr. al-Qadir nodded. “Solar intensity has increased by 10.8% so far, but instead of the 7.5 kelvin increase you would expect in a natural system, mean surface temperature has increased by only 1.7 kelvins.”

The system was clearly doing its thing, and it was performing better than Dr. Sh’vot had originally forecast when he’d designed the system that they’d hastily fabricated and deployed from the Diligent‘s small craft facilities. Admiral Reyes thus made the obvious logical leap: “Does the efficacy of the system, as presently measured, at all change our forecast as to when surface temperature will exceed livable levels?”

“Unfortunately not, ma’am,” Dr. al-Qadir frowned. “Solar intensity will increase on a radical curve as planetary distance continues to decay. At 0.9x mean radial distance, solar intensity will be 123% of Prime normal, and by 0.85x, the anticipated radial distance on day eleven, solar intensity will be at such levels as to overwhelm the system.” That day was now only six days away, and at that point, the surface of Vespara Prime would become unlivable.

It would all hinge, then, on whether or not the new plan from the engineers would bear fruit. “Do we have any updates from the surface?” Admiral Reyes was well aware that if Commodore Agarwal and Commander Lee’s new plan didn’t net out, they’d be back to their earlier plan that would see four million perish – plus whatever the delays of this detour had cost them. Still, the new plan to dig the environmental shelters right into the crust had its merits, and she was optimistic it might accelerate the number of colonists they could shield from the sweltering sun.

“The latest update from Lee, about an hour ago, was that the Corps drilling teams had just broken ground at the first candidate site,” Captain Devreux replied. He could see the impatience on her face. “It’s going to take time, Allison. We’ve got to let them do their thing.”

He was right, she knew. Adding to the pressure that Amit Agarwal and Cora Lee were facing by calling for more updates would do nothing to help. The duo knew the stakes as well as anyone, and there were no people more qualified than those two to try to engineer the impossible.

Suddenly, Admiral Reyes’ combadge chirped.

“Reyes! I need you in the lab!”

It was Dr. Luke Lockwood, the head of ASTRA’s Astrophysics and Exotic Sciences unit, and as usual, his call lacked all the formalism one would expect of a Starfleet officer. Of course, he was hardly a Starfleet officer, and Admiral Reyes didn’t care one bit. She hadn’t picked him for his officer qualities. She’d picked him because he was an astrophysics prodigy.

“Now! And bring al-Qadir!”

Dr. Lockwood’s tone said it all. He’d figured something out. 

“We’ll be right there,” Admiral Reyes replied over her combadge, already halfway across the bridge. Dr. al-Qadir followed tight on her heels. “Gerard, you have the bridge.”