Lieutenant Junior Grade Cam Solari felt a chill run through him as the sensors on his Apsara-class fighter lit up again. Sunshine was leaking—or at least, that’s what the readouts said. The screens flashed with warnings, yet when he glanced out the cockpit, there was nothing to see. No vapor trails, no glistening crystals forming in the wake of a faulty fuel line or engine malfunction. Just the stars, calm and infinite.

He ran a hand through his short-cropped hair, frustration rising. The systems had been glitching for days, persistent little blips in the data that couldn’t be ignored. But no one else seemed worried. The engineers at his regular flight deck didn’t even bat an eye when he mentioned it. They ran a quick diagnostic, shrugged, and dismissed it as a fluke in the system—nothing that warranted further investigation.

But Cam knew his ship. Sunshine had been with him for months, and he trusted her like he trusted his own breath. If something was wrong, he would feel it. He felt it now. It was a subtle thing, a nagging sense that there was something beneath the surface, hidden from view.

That’s why he was here, walking through the bustling corridors on the other side of the Starbase, the hum of machinery and chatter filling the air around him. Engineers in greasy jumpsuits, petty officers with their ever-watchful eyes, and civilians—faces blurred together in the crowd.

He scanned the sea of people, his gaze sharp, searching. There weren’t many Orions around in this part of the base, and green skin stood out like a flare in the dark. He spotted her almost immediately—Lieutenant Commander Venaa, or “Vee” as he called her.

She was standing near a cluster of engineers, a PADD in her hand, eyes fixed on the screen as her fingers flicked rapidly over the surface. Her brow furrowed in concentration, the tip of her ear twitching slightly as she absorbed the data. The crowd parted around her like water flowing around a rock, as if they instinctively knew not to disturb the woman who could fix anything.

Cam approached, his boots making soft, deliberate steps on the metal flooring. His hand clenched at his side, heart beating a little faster now. He wasn’t the type to waste time.

Without any preamble, he spoke, his voice cutting through the low murmur of the Starbase. “Vee, I need your help.”

Vee had indeed been intently focused on the view of a detailed schematic of junctions forty-nine through one-hundred and twenty. For several days, she and a dedicated team manually recalibrated power flows and scrubbed regulators to correct several hot spots that had developed in power flows across the Starbase. It had been rather gruelling and very much a manual process – it was a good thing she enjoyed getting her hands dirty.

Thankfully, this project was near completion – there was only one hot spot left, and she had spent the past hour or so tracing back the work they had completed to see what was missed or if this last hot spot was unrelated to the rest.

“You and the rest of the thousands of people on this wonderful Starbase we call home,” Vee replied deadpan without looking away from the display in front of her. A few seconds of silence passed before her brain had fully come to the realization that it was Cam’s voice.

Vee broke her concentration and turned her head softly to meet the Lieutenant’s gaze. Her eyes seemed to glimmer with a slight sparkle, and instead of being annoyed and gruff about the interruption, she was pleased to see the man.

“Now Camden. Something must be amiss if you came all the way down here in person to tell me that you need help,” Vee grinned as she used his full name, something she did now and then as her way of throwing a joke his way. She rather liked his full name, actually, and felt that calling him Cam didn’t quite do him justice.

He sighed, shaking his head as he handed her the PADD. The screen flickered to life, displaying lines of data, system logs, and error reports. Vee’s eyes flicked over them, sharp and focused.

“Venaa, It’s Sunshine,” he said, crossing his arms. “The system keeps flagging a leak, but there’s nothing—no trails, no crystallization. Visually, it’s clean.” His fingers tapped against his bicep, restless energy thrumming beneath his skin. “I’ve run checks, diagnostics, everything I could think of. But the line engineers? They don’t see a problem.” His jaw tightened for a brief moment before he exhaled.

Vee’s eyes fell to the PADD’s contents immediately after Cam handed it to her. Her eyes dashed back and forth rapidly, and her fingers scrolled through the content. It only took a few moments for her to consume the logs, a pace almost android-like but only a reflection of her experience in such things now.

“Have you checked the thermal lines? The components on this model of ship have been known to occasionally develop microfractures at the regulator junctions. Rare, but it can happen.” Vee finally broke her concentration on the PADD and looked back up at Cam.

Cam’s grin flickered to life, the kind that always meant trouble. He shifted his weight, tilting his head just enough to make his amusement obvious.

“First thing I checked,” he said, his voice light but edged with satisfaction.

Vee’s fingers paused over the screen. Cam caught the faintest twitch of her brow. He pressed on.

“Ran the diagnostics—twice. Didn’t trust the readouts, so I went in myself.” He made a small gesture with his hands, mimicking the careful work of a manual inspection. “Even checked the backups. Everything came up clean.”

He leaned in just slightly, watching her closely. “So? What else you got?”

The Engineer grinned. “Yeah. I should have known you’d think of that on your own.” She glanced back down at the PADD and braced her opposite hand against her hip. If she were to take what was on the PADD at first and even second glance, she understood why his concerns had been dismissed by others on her team. Experience had taught her over the years, though, that a pilot knew when something wasn’t right with their craft. They had a sense which was rarely incorrect.

“Shall we go take a look at her in person?” Vee asked, concluding that there was nothing else on this PADD that was going to help bring light to the situation.

Cam stepped aside with a slight smirk, extending his arm in an exaggerated flourish. His fingers flicked toward the path ahead, a playful glint in his eyes. “After you.”