“Any idea what this is about, cap?” asked Commander Kerrigan.

“Not a clue,” Captain Vox shrugged as he took his seat at the head of the table. “But when Admiral Reyes calls and says to prepare for immediate departure, that’s what you do.” There was a deep sense of duty in his voice, not on account of rank, but their shared experience. Over Nasera, together they had fought the Lost Fleet; in the shadow of Wolf 359, together they had stopped the colonists of Beta Serpentis from summoning the Collective; and through the labyrinth, together they had navigated the turbulence of the Underspace. “How’re we looking for departure?”

“All staff taking leave on Archanis Station have been recalled,” Commander Kerrigan reported as the conference room door slid open. “And we’re at full readiness, prepared to get going… as soon as we know where we’re going.”

“And that’s something I can help with,” Fleet Admiral Allison Reyes declared as she stepped briskly into the briefing room. “We’re headed for Duraxis, a small colony three days’ journey from here that abuts the Klingon border.”

Behind her, two more officers filed in. One was an older gentleman unknown to them. Balding with a thick salt and pepper beard and a soft physique, he looked little like a Starfleet officer save for his teal uniform and the lieutenant commander pips on his collar. The second man, on the other hand, was known to all of them, the JAG prosecutor that had zealously pursued court martial proceedings against Captain Jake Lewis and Dr. Lisa Hall just a few months earlier. It’d been the talk of the ship for weeks, and he had few fans across the squadron.

“Why is JAG here?” Captain Vox asked warily. He had no love for Commander Robert Drake. In fact, he pretty much despised everything about him. Even though Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall had somehow escaped court martial, it was unforgivable to Captain Vox that Commander Drake had even tried them after all they had sacrificed on Nasera to see victory in the end.

“Because the rule of law remains a cornerstone of our society,” Commander Drake replied proudly, unphased by the captain’s tone. Few understood the importance of the work he did, but it wouldn’t stop him from doing it.

Before Captain Vox could snipe back, Admiral Reyes jumped in. “Since it seems you are already familiar with Commander Drake,” she said, directing a discerning glare at both officers before gesturing towards the other man that’d come aboard with her. “Let me take a moment to introduce Lieutenant Commander Linus Rhodes, a research fellow in cyberintelligence from the Advanced Science, Technology and Research Activity. Given recent developments, he will be equally important on our mission to Duraxis.”

“What sort of mission are we talking about, admiral?” Captain Vox asked curiously.

“Two weeks ago, Commodore Amit Agarwal and the Archanis detachment of the Fourth Fleet Corps of Engineers deployed to Duraxis on a mission to upgrade aging colonial infrastructure,” Admiral Reyes began. “From the start, they’ve been plagued with issues. A vocal minority has taken to the streets to protest their presence, and the Corps has struggled with equipment gone missing and new systems that have failed almost immediately after installation.”

“And we suspect sabotage?” Captain Vox asked, leaping to the obvious conclusion. “Wouldn’t be the first time…” The colonies of the Archanis Sector, neglected by the Federation for far too long, had developed a sense of independence and localism that caused them to look skeptically upon Starfleet’s now-renewed focus on the region.

“Yes, but we’re not hauling an Alita out there for some local rabble rousers,” Admiral Reyes elaborated. “The Pacific Palisades would be more than enough to handle that. No, tonight things just got a lot more complicated.”

Admiral Reyes walked up to a wall-mounted console in the center of the room and pulled up a recording. It started with a serene scene, the dome of a Corps-spec fusion reactor eclipsing the evening sun as it fell beneath the horizon. But then everything changed as a blue-white flash that momentarily blinded the camera, and then, when the camera came back into focus, they were greeted with a scene that could only be described as post-apocalyptic, a massive hole in the side of the facility’s superstructure and a massive conflagration burning on its perimeter.

“Those don’t do that,” observed Commander Vince Slade, the Chief Engineer of the Diligent. “They’re tough as nails, and pretty much bulletproof.”

“They shouldn’t, you are correct,” nodded Admiral Reyes. “But what you’re seeing is the result of the reactor team preventing a far worse catastrophe, a thermal runaway after the plasmas at the core of the reactor spiked over two hundred megakelvins.”

“How?” Commander Slade asked. That was a lot of heat, more than double standard operating practices if he recalled correctly, but fusion reactions didn’t just experience thermal runaways of their own accord. Instead, if something went wrong, they’d typically just fizzled out. It was one of their most endearing qualities, and the principal reason they were used over matter-antimatter annihilation or fission-based atom splitting for planetside facilities.

“That’s where Commander Rhodes comes in,” Admiral Reyes offered as she yielded the floor to the cyberintelligence researcher.

“Thank you, admiral,” Lieutenant Commander Rhodes nodded as he stepped forward. “Based on initial forensics by the team on the ground, we have strong reason to believe that this was the result of a sophisticated cyberattack designed to compromise the ICRH injectors and drive the reaction to energy levels where containment would fail.”

“You’re saying the reactor was made intentionally to go critical?” Commander Kerrigan asked. “Sure, the locals might be wary of us – wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen that – but if it had gone critical, would it not have killed more of them than of us?” That hardly seemed an effective way to protect your way of life.

“Indeed,” confirmed Admiral Reyes. “Based on our calculations, the blast radius would have leveled every structure within a dozen kilometers, and the death toll would have numbered in the tens of thousands.”

“Is it possible that these saboteurs didn’t understand what they were doing?” asked Lieutenant Commander Kehlani Koh. The Chief Security Officer had seen, more than once, how a slightly subversive plan could take on a life of its own and transform into something far more than its conceivers originally envisioned.

“Oh no,” Lieutenant Commander Rhodes shook his head grimly. “Whoever planted this virus knew exactly what it was going to do.”

“How do you figure?” Captain Vox jumped back in. He was on the same page as his Chief Security Officer. To go from protests and light sabotage to straight up suicide made no sense.

“Reactor control systems are completely isolated from the wider network for security reasons,” Lieutenant Commander Rhodes explained. “To pull this off, the threat actor had to be sophisticated enough to bypass our physical security, and more than that, they had to possess the competency to modify a complex piece of malware, one of extraplanetary origin, to target the injectors in a very specific way – one that would indicate they knew exactly what they were doing.”

“You said extraplanetary?” asked Captain Vox. Localist movements rarely embraced means from beyond their own world. It sort of went against the entire philosophy. 

“Yes, the malware did not originate on Duraxis,” explained Lieutenant Commander Rhodes. “It is of Borg origin.”

A pin drop could have been heard in the silence that followed.

“And this is why we’re making, with all due haste, for Duraxis,” Admiral Reyes jumped back in. “Our mission will be threefold. First, we will reinforce the diplomatic and security mission of the Pacific Palisades, which is struggling to make progress.”

“Struggling to make progress?” scoffed Commander Drake. “They’ve straight up bungled the whole thing and now have got what is tantamount to an all-out riot on their hands.” He’d read the reports from the California class utility cruiser already. The second rate captain and misfit crew of the Pacific Palisades had done nothing whatsoever to effectively manage the situation on the ground, and he had no faith they’d do any better going forward.

“Yes, and we’ll look to smooth that over,” Admiral Reyes nodded calmly. She was unwilling to rake Captain Saito and his staff across the coals in such a public setting, although privately, she too was very disappointed with what she’d read of their proceedings to date.

“What’s the situation with local law enforcement?” Lieutenant Commander Koh asked.

“Unsympathetic with an election coming up next week,” Admiral Reyes sighed. “Plus, they’ve lived the same life as those around them. We will have to play nice, but I wouldn’t put my faith in them.”

“And what’s our current security posture on the surface?” Lieutenant Commander Koh continued.

“There’ve been sporadic protests against Starfleet’s presence ever since the Palisades arrived, but now, following the explosion, reports suggest it’s turning violent – or, at least near violent,” Admiral Reyes explained. “Lieutenant Commander Rivera, their Chief Security Officer, has deployed his team, almost to the last man, to the reactor facility to maintain its security.”

“We’ll be prepared to re-enforce the moment we arrive,” Lieutenant Commander Koh assured the admiral.

“Very good,” Admiral Reyes acknowledged before returning to the objectives at hand. “Beyond securing our presence, our second objective will be forensics.” She turned towards the specialist from the Advanced Science, Technology and Research Activity. “Lieutenant Commander Rhodes, once we arrive, you will assume responsibility for that from the Corps team. You have subject matter expertise that even Captain Westmoreland and Commodore Agarwal do not.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Lieutenant Commander Rhodes nodded. “I assume I can continue to leverage them as needed though?” He had no reason to suspect them of malpractice or malfeasance, given the presence of the Borg malware, and everything he’d read of suggested that, as opposed to the crew of the Pacific Palisades, the Corps team was highly competent.

“Of course,” agreed Admiral Reyes. She too had no reason to suspect Commodore Agarwal or any of his team. She then turned towards Commander Drake. “And as for our final objective, we will investigate and apprehend those responsible for the proliferation of this Borg technology.”

“And anyone else that has committed other crimes against the Federation,” Commander Drake added. If the reports of stolen equipment and sabotaged installations were accurate, he intended to bring back home all who were responsible for any of it.

“Within reason,” Admiral Reyes cautioned. “As long as it does not undermine our other objectives.” She was fully aware that, in order to stabilize relations with the colony, they might have to look past some of the petty stuff. But not the Borg virus. Whoever was responsible for that, they weren’t leaving Duraxis until that person, or those people, were in custody.

Commander Drake knew better than to argue, for now, so he switched gears. “If you don’t mind, I’m also going to send Chief Morrey to embed with the locals.” The gregarious investigator could talk his way into any clique, and more than a few times, he’d ferreted out perpetrators long before conventional means even got close.

“I’m good with that,” Admiral Reyes nodded. “As I understand it, the Palisades has an intel officer who already knows the place and can facilitate.” The very thorough humint report from Ensign Alessa Elara, and the accompanying operation, was pretty much the only thing Admiral Reyes had read out of the Duraxis mission that seemed even reasonably successful so far.

“I’ll let him know.”

“Alright, then if there’s anything else,” Admiral Reyes said as she turned to address the whole table. “It’s a three day pull to Duraxis, so let’s get this show on the road. We can work out the finer details en route.”

And hopefully nothing else would happen on Duraxis before then.