On the bridge, Captain Saffiya Nassar was feeling a little tense, and hoped that her crew either didn’t notice, or didn’t care, or felt just as nervous. She had sent an away team over to the civilian vessel they didn’t even have a name for, and could not do much more than waiting for preliminary reports on the situation on board. That the vessel hadn’t responded to their communication attempts was worrying, but no one wanted to jump to conclusions just yet.

She glanced at Frisco, who would probably have loved to cover the medical aspect but had to leave it to t’Rehu.

Sienna caught her captain’s eyes.  She had been feeling a creeping worry since they’d arrived.  While she was content, for the moment, to chalk it up to nerves, her gut hadn’t served her wrong in the past.  There were plenty of studies about how nerves, stress, and anxiety were a perfect storm for an officer’s failure to perform important duties when situations escalated.  It was why they’d trained them so hard in the academy and why, after Frontier Day, they had gone through more scenarios to improve their ability to handle the challenges.  She balanced her emotions carefully, “I don’t like it.”

Interrupted in her train of thought, Saffiya turned to Silveira. “What is it, Lieutenant?” she asked.

Sil appeared calm as he tapped in the Tactical console. It wasn’t his first time on bridge duty, but he couldn’t help himself to be a little excited. The Valkyrie was an amazing ship. But he kept his head in his task. He had the mysterious civilian vessel in range, and kept scanning for anything out of the ordinary. He raised his eyebrow when the tactical sensors displayed an anomaly. Double checking them before he spoke, his forehead was wrinkled when he had confirmation and raised his head to the Captain, right at the moment she had noticed him. “Captain I am registering subspace distortions across the ship.”

“Subspace distortions such as the ones that occurred before the apertures opened?”, she frowned, hoping very much that the answer was no. One subspace adventure per career was more than enough. Silveira probably realized because he had been there, too.

“Unknown at this point, Captain. They vary in size, but my sensors aren’t exactly calibrated for those kinds of details.”

Tactical sensors could target almost anything, from the size of a PADD on the surface of a planet to the biggest asteroid. But what they had in precision, they lacked in detail.

Sienna slipped out of her chair and moved to a station at the edge of the bridge where she worked the console, and she reported, “Recalibrating and retasking some of our sensors, captain.”  The screen’s data was adjusted.  The XO’s eyes widened, “Captain – those aren’t your run-of-the-mill distortions – the reason why the computer can’t make sense of them is because the readings aren’t making sense.”  She put the data on overlay on the screen, “We’re going to need better eyes, captain.”

“Get me Lorra up here, I want her to take a look.”, Saffiya decided. She would have preferred Hina – not because she doubted Lorra, but because she knew Hina quite well – but remembered that she had sent the woman to the civilian vessel.

Sienna grappled with the data as she waited for the better eyes.  She continued to retask and refocus the sensors, “Captain – despite not understanding the data, the computer models suggest a 75% chance these distortions are going to grow.  Rate and speed variables are too wide to settle on with any certainty.”

Moments later, Niala glided onto the bridge. Her steps were light but deliberate, and Jaxom was close behind. The low hum of the ship’s systems mingled with the rapid beeping of consoles, and the muted tension of the crew was palpable. Her eyes swept over the flashing lights, busy hands, and tightly pressed lips, before locking onto the Captain.

Niala’s lips curved slightly as she approached, her voice cutting through the controlled chaos. “Looks like you could use our expertise, Captain?”

“Pretty much.” Nassar nodded, motioning for her to assay the readout with the preliminary results.

Sil frowned. He was fighting with himself, there wasn’t exactly a threat, but the cautious part of him would prefer they raised their alert status and call back the away team. Thankfully he wasn’t the Captain, still, he wondered if he should say something out loud. “Perhaps… Maybe… We could raise our alert status, Captain. Just to be on the safe side?”

Saffiya’s face turned a little pale and then took on a red tinge. She had tried very hard not to think about what had happened on the Cupertino and had essentially forgotten that Silveira had been present to witness it. Now reminded of both these facts, she couldn’t do much more than set her feelings aside and, after once more exchanging glances with Frisco, gave a nod.

Sienna watched the captain’s face blanch at first and then bloom. In the limited downtime she had, she read the files on Cupertino. Once they had this matter in hand, she would need to find out how her captain was dealing with the events in her rearview.

The Captain took a deep breath “No, I am not exactly happy with the situation, especially not since we have an away team on the other vessel. How many of these distortions do we have inside, or in close proximity to, the Valkyrie? And is it affecting our systems at all?”

“The sensors are a bit scrambled,” Niala muttered, her fingers moving rapidly over the console. Lines of static and jagged waves danced across her screen, flickering unpredictably. Her brow furrowed as she leaned in, trying to decipher the chaotic stream of data.

“But I don’t think the question is ‘how many,’ Captain.” She paused, the faint glow of the monitor reflecting in her eyes. “I believe the question should be – ‘how big is it?’”

She glanced over at Lieutenant Nadir, her voice cutting through the hum of the bridge. “Ensign, can you confirm?”

The young man by the science console gave a nod.

Sil understood the Captain’s position and as the other finished checking in he stood quietly, looking at the registered distortions.

“Ensign Kalis to Security.”

Sil raised an eyebrow and quickly replied to the Comline.

“Lieutenant Silveira here.”

“We have a situation down at Valhalla, we could use some support.”

Once more, Nassar and Frisco exchanged a look.

Sienna felt something tug at her insides.  A warning?  A feeling?  She wasn’t sure.  “Sounds like an XO and a CMO gig.  I can take point.”  In her head, she began to work through the possibilities.

“Good call; take Silveira and Lorra along and keep us in the loop.”

Sil nodded and called for relief to his station, stepping up as his replacement arrived.

He wondered what would was the problem that would require Security at the Valhalla.

Frisco headed for the turbolift with the two, “We’ll update you as soon we get a handle on…whatever it is going on down there.”  She stepped into the turbolift and counted down from thirty as the doors closed.  Something felt off, and it was no longer a lingering suspicion.  Whatever was going on at Valhalla, it probably wouldn’t be a simple argument.