“Short-range sensors are activating.”  Sadie Fowler called out as she sat up in her chair.  The updated scans as the Douglas had flown through the far reaches of the Gamma Quadrant had failed to clarify what was at the end of the mysterious signal.  Her curiosity was tempered by the unknown.

Commander Charlie Hargraves sat in the center seat, his eyes watching the screen. Being placed as interim Executive officer was not on his career goals list.  He asked, “What do we have?”  He hoped it was just space junk or something else that wouldn’t threaten them.

Fowler watched the results. This far out in the Gamma Quadrant, there were no records of what was waiting for them.  It was exhilarating for a science officer like her but a nightmare for anyone else.  Several alert alarms sounded on stations across the bridge, “We’re picking up…at least two unknown craft and one known craft.  All disabled or in lower power mode.”  She clicked through the readings as a louder alarm sounded, “One is confirmed as the ship carrying Pandora Crawford.”

Hargreaves stabbed at the chair arm, “Red Alert – captain to the bridge.”  He stood from the chair when Captain Halsey left his ready room.  The lights shifted to the dull ruby and Charlie gave him a report, stepping to the right chair, where he felt slightly safer.  Not completely.  Just enough.

The CO kept it simple, “Tactical – they a threat?”

Ensign Athena was poring over the data and answered as best as she could, “On Pandora’s ship – they’re not.  On the other two unknown vessels…I don’t know.  Their complexity vastly differs from anything I or the computer have seen.  As best as I can tell, without deeper investigation – they’re not an immediate threat.  We’re well within range of Pandora’s ship, and they’re not moving a muscle.  If the other two are as good or better than we are at this – they’d have shown us they’d seen us.”

Halsey sat down in his chair, “She landed in the Gamma and then vanished from our sensors…is it possible she went through that same aperture and took off running…and ran right into…whoever that is?”

Catari answered from her standing console behind him, “She’s smart when she knows the field.  She’s had that advantage ever since she marched back on the board…but this time, she’s got no frame of reference, and by the time she figured out where she was…”

Hargreaves chuckled at the irony, “It was too late.  She was in flight or fight mode – she chose flight and ended up in a fight anyway.  Looking at our limited data on her ship, she gave as good as she got.  Although, could be another one of her traps.”  He hadn’t enjoyed reading her profile, as they all had been required in case she drifted back through the mystic myst she had faded into.

It was Halsey’s turn to consider the question, “She’s capable of convincing plenty of our enemies to join her common cause against us.”  He rubbed his right hand on his chin, contemplating.  “To Ensign Catari’s and Commander Hargreaves’s point – she no good without background.  History.  Leverage.  That’s what makes her the most dangerous back home.  Mr. Prentice, hold our intercept course but remain on Red Alert.  Ensign Athena – we’re going to need security teams for internal defense and external security for an away team or two.  We have about an hour until we arrive…and must prepare as much as possible, even the impossible.”

“Arriving.”  Prentice floated the Douglas into play, plotting several escape vectors as ordered.  The Gamma Quadrant, in his estimation, was worse than the Delta.  They knew plenty about the galaxy and the players.  Voyager had jumpstarted that journal, and plenty after had continued to test the limits of the known.  The Gamma was an empty space of Dominion threats that hung behind curtains of paranoia and suspicions.

Halsey stared at the familiar ship in the middle, battered and bruised.  The other two were confusing.  They were circular in nature, the edges marked with jagged crags of what looked like weapons.  A scattering of small protrusions across the top and bottom of the circular ship suggested sections or stations of the vessel, and a series of boxy-looking attachments on either side were probably engines, he posited.  They were unmoving, and no lights showing from any part of the newcomer’s ships.  “Status of Crawford’s ship?”

Fowler took the question as their tactical chief was currently organizing the security teams.  “The Patra’s Downfall is running on auxiliary power – but trending towards emergency battery power within the hour.  I have twenty life signs – all in various stages of injury.  I have Pandra Crawford on the ship’s bridge – her vitals are trending critical, Captain.”  She answered the curious look on his face before he asked it, “Sensors are showing her ship contains materials and composition that prevent transport from within.  There is a shuttle bay that can be accessed.”

The CO sighed, “She’s a bad guy, alright.  Lieutenant Tir – assemble an away team with Doctor Reid and officers from Ensign Athena’s groupings.  Take a shuttle and a shuttle escort with a backup team just in case they’re needed.  We’ll do what we can on this end to figure out all we can about the new kids in the galaxy.”