“Where are we?” Captain Lewis asked as he stared at the backside of the two Keldon cruisers they’d followed through the aperture. In the distance, backlit by a bright nebula, he could see the silhouette of a large platform.

“We’re rimward of Dreon, on the edge of the Rolor Nebula,” Lieutenant Gadsen reported with a tinge of surprise in his voice. Just two hours ago, they’d been in the Archanis Sector on the opposite side of Federation space. Since then, they’d visited the territory of the Romulan Free State, and now made their way to the coreward flank of the Cardassian Union. This would have been quite an exciting new reality if it wasn’t for the two warships sitting directly ahead.

The Thomar Expanse, Captain Lewis knew, was a key area of interest for Task Force 47, and the pathfinders of the Fourth Fleet had deployed infrastructure to support their operations in the remote region. He didn’t know the exact layout of those assets, but he hoped they reached this far. “Are we within range of our subspace relay network?”

“Yes sir,” Lieutenant Gadsen confirmed.

“Send a flash to Polaris,” Captain Lewis ordered. “Alert them to our situation.” It wouldn’t help with the immediate problem, but it was best that at least someone knew where they’d ended up and what they’d found.

As Lieutenant Gadsen connected to the network and sent the message, Lieutenant Tarasova reported the next problem. “Sir, the Cardassians just lit us up with their targeting sensors,” the Chief Tactical Officer said, her tone laced with urgency. “And are coming about to engage!”

“Of course they are,” Captain Lewis chuckled. He wasn’t particularly concerned, all things considered. Sure, he didn’t want to start an interstellar incident, but in a fair fight, the Serenity and the Ingenuity, decades more advanced than their Cardassian counterparts, would have the upper hand. “Before we say hello, can you tell me what that platform off in the distance is?”

“It appears to be some sort of weapons platform, Cardassian in origin,” Lieutenant Tarasova reported as she reviewed the telemetry. “I’m detecting over two dozen torpedo launchers and enough ablative armor to hold off a small assault wing. Maybe it’s to secure this aperture?”

That could present a problem, Captain Lewis recognized, but only if they were within reach of its arsenal. “Back us off so we’re out of range of the platform and let the Cardassians come to us.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t worry about that sir. They’re coming, sir, and they’re coming fast!” Lieutenant Tarasova warned as the Cardassians accelerated to full impulse on her scopes. “Their weapons are charged, and their shields are at full.”

Still, Captain Lewis wasn’t particularly concerned. The Serenity and the Ingenuity had already raised their own shields and charged their own weapons, so it was only natural the Cardassians would do the same. Plus, when it came to the Cardassians, this was just sort of how you said hello. “Hail them.”

“No need. They’re hailing us.”

“On screen.”

The Cardassian commander that appeared on the display was a big, burly man wearing the uniform of the Central Command’s forces and bearing the rank of Gul.

“State your purpose, Starfleet.”

“I was about to say the same to you,” Captain Lewis replied, not yielding in the slightest to the aggressive tone of the Gul. “By treaty, the Thomar Expanse is neutral territory, and we have as much right to passage as you.”

“This matter does not concern you. Leave. Now.”

“Look, maybe we got off on the wrong foot,” Captain Lewis softened his tone. “Let’s start again, at the beginning.” The Cardassian just stared at him coldly. “I am Captain Jake Lewis of the Federation starship Serenity. We were investigating the sudden occurrence of a curious subspace phenomenon we discovered in the Beta Quadrant when we found ourselves here.”

“You don’t know me, Captain, but let me warn you that I don’t take well to lies.”

“What do you mean, sir?” When you didn’t know how much your opponent knew, a question was a better way to dodge an accusation, Captain Lewis knew, than a denial. And in this case, it was definitely the right choice as the Gul knew far more than he’d let on.

“You’ve been following us for the last half hour through no less than a dozen branches of the Underspace network. At any point during that time, you could have chosen to go your own separate way. But you didn’t. You followed us to this place.”

Captain Lewis’ face didn’t betray his surprise. He was too trained for that. But inwardly, he was stunned. The Serenity and the Ingenuity had been holding position on the furthest periphery of their own sensor range. The Cardassians, with decades-delayed technology as a result of the tatters they’d been left in following the War, should not have been able to spot them against the Underspace’s background radiation. Not at the distance they’d been maintaining. “We were only following you because we were lost, and you seemed to know where you were going.”

“Well, you’re not lost now, are you?”

“No, I suppose not,” Captain Lewis shrugged. “But how we came to be in the Thomar Expanse, I’m still more than a bit surprised.”

“Are you? Are you, really?”

“Well, yes, we are,” Captain Lewis nodded. He knew though that he wouldn’t be able to play it off completely, given that the Cardassian had used Starfleet’s name for the subspace corridors, so he went for a middle ground explanation. “Until recently, we believed the Underspace was a phenomenon unique to the Delta Quadrant. When we stumbled upon what appeared to be an aperture in the Beta Quadrant, we went to investigate. It was a complete surprise to us though that we emerged here.” And that was true.

“I wouldn’t worry about being surprised much longer.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is that you should turn around and go home, Starfleet. And maybe, so you don’t get lost along the way, why don’t you just use that little warp drive of yours to make the trip back to the Beta Quadrant? Leave dealing with the Underspace to us.”

“It’s going to take a bit of time for us to repair our systems from the trip,” Captain Lewis lied. He wanted some time to observe them. “We’ve suffered some damage to our EPS distribution…”

“Well, repair it quickly, and then move along.”

Without another word, the Cardassian Gul cut the channel.

“He was certainly a social butterfly,” frowned Lieutenant Commander Eidran.

“Lieutenant Gadsen,” Captain Lewis said, ignoring his Executive Officer’s offhand remark. There were more important things to which they needed to attend, and quickly too. “Fumble up power distribution a bit so if our friend over there scans us, I’m not caught in a lie.”

“Aye sir.”

To no one in particular, Captain Lewis then asked the next obvious question: “Any ideas what he meant by what he said?”

“Actually, yes,” Lieutenant Commander Sena jumped in from the science station. “As you were talking, I conducted some broad spectrum scans of the platform, and while Lieutenant Tarasova is correct that it is heavily fortified, its purpose is not ultimately to secure the aperture.”

“Oh?” Captain Lewis asked curiously. “What’s it for then?” He’d sort of just accepted Lieutenant Tarasova’s explanation at face value. It had made a good deal of sense that if the Underspace corridors reached into their territory, the Cardassians would look to secure them with brute force. That was just sort of how they did things.

“It’s for manipulating it.”

“Seriously?” Captain Lewis asked as he furled his brow. If she’d said that about her forebears, sure, he would have bought it, but this was the Cardassians they were talking about.

The Romulan nodded.

“How the fuck is everyone so far ahead of us?” Captain Lewis sighed. Neither the Klingons, nor the Cardassians, were the pinnacle of scientific progress. What made it even more curious was that the Federation was the only power, as far as he knew, that had any prior experience with the Underspace, and yet these two neighbors of theirs, neither of whom emphasized science and exploration near to the degree Starfleet did, were somehow both far ahead of them. 

“Aboard that platform, I’m detecting generators, coils and emitters capable of producing and manipulating tetryon flows,” explained Lieutenant Commander Sena. “It’s not all that dissimilar to what we saw aboard the Qul’val when the Klingons helped us stabilize the aperture in the corona of the Vesparan star.”

“Yes, except this aperture is already stable,” Captain Lewis pointed out. “So why go through the effort of building a platform to manipulate…” But his voice trailed off as he flashed back to the conversation he’d just had with the Gul. “Wait, what was it that he said? That we shouldn’t worry about it much longer? Is it possible that they’re looking not to take the apertures by force, but rather they’re looking to control or collapse it with science?”

“It’s certainly possible,” Lieutenant Commander Sena confirmed. “Although I can’t tell you if the platform is meant to control it, collapse it, or do something else altogether. All I know for sure is that they’re not content to let it exist in its natural state.”

“Regardless of their specific motives, I think we need to call our new friend back,” Captain Lewis smiled deviously. “And offer to assist them in their cause.”

Lieutenant Commander Sena looked very much displeased by the idea. “You sure, Captain?” It wasn’t that she liked the notion of the Underspace though. It was just that she remembered the last time an agency she was with had partnered with the Cardassians. The Battle of the Omarion Nebula had decimated the Tal’Shiar, and she was loath to repeat that experience.

“Think about it, Sena,” Captain Lewis persisted in his point. “The galaxy would be a better place if borders continued to exist and travel continued to be limited, as it was up until a couple weeks ago, by warp speed. If the Cardassians have the technology to control or collapse the apertures, I’d rather see us be party to their plan.”

“Umm, sir,” interrupted Lieutenant Gadsen. “There’s something you should be aware of… When I connected to the subspace network to send the flash to Polaris, I picked up an incoming fleet-wide dispatch from Command.”

“And?” Captain Lewis asked. Those dispatches were usually pretty mundane.

“Basically the opposite of what you just said,” Lieutenant Gadsen frowned. “The Fourth Fleet is ordered to chart the extent of the Underspace that has become accessible to the Federation, and to protect and preserve Starfleet’s continued access to it.”

“Protect and preserve?” Captain Lewis scoffed. “Idiots.” How did they not see it like he did? Why were they treating it like some great frontier to explore? Hadn’t they learned their lesson with the Bajoran wormhole? This would be like that, but worse. Far worse. It wouldn’t be one enemy this time. It would be all of them. And through dozens, or hundreds, of apertures rather than one.

“What are we going to do?” Lieutenant Commander Eidran asked.

“We’re going to call the Gul back, as I already said,” Captain Lewis replied. “And we’re going to offer our assistance.” The orders they’d received changed nothing in his mind. Command wasn’t out here with them. They were bureaucrats behind desks in the safety of their offices.

“But our orders,” Lieutenant Commander Eidran objected. It wasn’t that he disagreed completely with the Captain’s perspective, but they had just received orders, and if the Cardassians were trying to manipulate the Underspace, they needed to stop them, not to assist them.

“Commander, right now, we have only a hunch about the Cardassian intentions,” Captain Lewis insisted firmly, making it clear this was not up for debate. “And even if we wanted to stop them, what would our pair of mid size cruisers do against whatever they’re cooking up? If we’re right, this won’t be the only platform in play, nor the only ships.”

Lieutenant Commander Eidran didn’t have an answer for that.

“Lieutenant Gadsen, send a follow up to Admiral Reyes, informing her of our intent,” Captain Lewis ordered. “And then get the Gul back on the horn.” He looked back over at his Executive Officer to make sure the Betazoid understood. “We will observe the Cardassians and relay our findings back, but we won’t make the final call. We’ll leave that to those who can see more of the battlespace than us.” But by that, he didn’t mean Command. They’d already proven their ineptitude with the whole Frontier Day fiasco. He simply meant that, when the time came, he’d leave the final decision to Admiral Reyes.