“There are several matches within the rimward space.”  Sadie Fowler sat back in her chair.  She’d taken over a conference room to run the various teams helping her search for where Vocast may have come from or been created.  The three science ensigns across from her were bleary-eyed.  The clock had just passed 2200.

“Chief – we’ve done all we can tonight.  We’ve got four definitive matches – plenty for the night teams to tackle.”  Fowler frowned, and the ensign protested, “We do have to be up for the morning shift.”

She waved them off, and they nodded in thanks.  She chewed on her bottom lip.  They were right.  There was only so much time in the day.  If they were all going to be able to face the next day functionally, sleep needed to move up the priority list.  Sadie stood and headed out the door.

“Lieutenant Fowler.”

She sat upright in her bed.  The voice had been right in her ear.  She waited, glancing at the block. 0300.  The communication channel at her bedside remained red, closed.  Sadie lay back down, curling into the requisite ball as her mind drifted back into dreams and sleep.

“Lieutenant Fowler.”

This time, she jumped out of bed, a short scream flying from her lips. “What the hell is going on?” she asked no one in particular. Silence stared back at her, taunting her. “I’m losing my mind,” she muttered.

“Lieutenant Fowler.”

She jumped and held back another scream.  Her mind caught up with the voice.  She recognized it.  “Vocast?”

“You search for my birthplace.”

Sadie didn’t reply immediately.  How did Vocast know this?  She was in another quadrant!

“We share a unique connection, Lieutenant Fowler.  We are both orphans.”

“How are you in my head?  Why are you in my head?”  Her heart rate was accelerating, and she was having trouble catching her breath.  What was happening?  Was this a nightmare?  A hallucination?

“I do not know how.  Why…I believe you are close to finding a piece of the puzzle of my and my sisters’ existence.  Through you, I can feel…a connection.  It is closer than it has ever been.  Perhaps in our connection as orphans, something has bridged the gap between our two people in a way I have never experienced…outside of my sisters.” 

“This is…is weird, Vocast.”

“As one of your Starfleet captains was fond of saying, ‘Weird is part of the job.’  My existence and that of my sisters is a curiosity.  That I am feeling a connection to…something near you…is worthy of exploration.  Are you not explorers?”

Sadie sensed a passive aggressiveness slipping into the generally neutral-toned Vocast’s voice. She replied with a light bite,  “We are, thank you very much.”  She considered her options. Attempting to ignore the powerful being in Vocast, which now included a voice transmitting over quadrants, could put her into sickbay or worse.  “Look, if all we’re going to be using is your feeling and the strength of the connection, we’re going to have to some wandering with me as the sensor.”

“This is accurate.”

Fowler let out a long sigh, “I’m going to need to wake the captain.”

“Fowler, if this is a sick practical joke, I swear I will exact revenge swiftly and painfully.”  Captain Helena Dread stood at the door to her quarters in a bright pink fluffy bathrobe, hair barely controlled and a look of death plastered across her tired face.  “Switly and painfully.”

Sadie shook her head, “I wish that were the case.  Vocast loudly protests your threat of violence on me, in case you were wondering.”

Helena gestured her in, “Let’s get this over with.”

They soon sat at her long dinner table, sipping at fresh coffee the CO had brewed.  Fowler finished explaining her side.  Dread took a long pull from her mug, the flavor and aroma shaking loose the sleep.  “We’re going to have to play the old game of hot and cold to find this place she has a connection with?  Fontana is going to laugh at me; I know it.”  She leaned back in her chair and tapped her badge, “Captain to the bridge – wake up Lieutenant Prentice and have him at the helm as soon as possible.  Get me whoever’s awake at Montana Station as well.”  She turned back to Fowler, “How are you doing?”

“Me?  I’m scared shitless, captain.  Vocast is confident, strong, and ready to find whatever she’s connecting to out there.  I don’t like having someone else in my head.  No offense, Vocast.”  Fowler’s face reddened with embarrassment.

“Nobody could ever accuse you of dishonesty, Lieutenant Fowler.  Does Vocast promise to get out of your head when we find…whatever she’s looking for?”  She watched as the science chief cocked her head to the side, listening.  A look of concern and fear swept over the young officer’s face.  Dread filled in the blanks, “She doesn’t know if she can…does she.”

Fowler blinked back tears as her mind began to grapple with her situation, “Scared shitless remains my predicament, captain.  Neither of us knows what comes next.”  Sadie took a deep breath, working to wrestle her developing feelings under control.  “I can handle this for now.  Vocast tells me she will help me through this, but…she’s a 1,000-year-old creature who’s mostly played with the Dominion at the best of times.  I may require Mont…Commander Ford’s assistance.”

Dread stood from her stool, “I’ll wake him up, too.  I’ve got a spare shower and a Quartermaster replicator.  I’m not sure you being alone for long is a good idea, Sadie.”

Fowler nodded quietly and followed her captain’s directions to the spare bathroom.  Dread watched the door close.  The mystery continued, she grumbled.