A small, sustained tremor ran through the Wells.

From where he was leaning over the Sciences station, Grigor Eisenberg-Sloane frowned and looked to the side to see if anyone else had noticed the shake. T’press continued on regarding the makeup of this section of the Azure Nebula without giving any indication she had felt it. Off to the side at the tactical console, Litra Beyr tapped away at her console. She too gave no indication she’d felt a tremor in the ship.

“One moment.” Grigor held up a finger to pause T’press and turned to the front of the bridge. “Helm, Ops, everything looking good?”

From his position at the conn, Clayton Powell frowned and tapped a few controls to review the past several minutes of flight logs. Swiveling in his chair, he looked over the tactical rail back to Grigor. “Nothing to report, Captain.”

Beside him, at Ops, Zinn also tapped a few controls and turned to confirm the assessment. “Everything’s clear here.”

Grigor sighed and leaned against the bulkhead. He closed his eyes and tapped his commbadge. “Bridge to Engineering. What was that?”

“Nothing to worry about, Captain. Little shiver in the warp field and it took the system as e second to catch up.” Angelina Marteli’s voice filtered through the local bridge speaker. A bit too brightly for Grigor’s taste.

“None of the systems up here noticed it. You sure it was just a field shiver?”

T’press was now turned to look at Grigor, an expression of pensive curiosity just barely noticeable through her Vulcan stoicism. If they hadn’t been working together for nearly a decade now, Grigor wouldn’t have noticed it when he opened his eyes again. Motioning silently to her, then her console, he signaled the Chief Science Officer to run a system diagnostic and re-check sensor logs.

Marteli’s voice dampened only a bit when she responded. “Positive. It’s that damned third nacelle. Keeping the harmonics of one pair balanced is simple, having to keep three functional pairs balanced is a nightmare. They never should have brought the Niagaras out of mothballs.”

“I’ll be sure to mention that to the Engineering Corps next time I get a chance,” Grigor responded with dry flatness.

The science console beeped and T’press scrolled through the results. Three entries were highlighted and once selected, a diagram showing the ship in relation to the Azure Nebula came up, followed by a series of waves intersecting along its course of travel. Not being a career scientist, Grigor was only able to parse the high level of what was going on. “Marteli, T’press is sending down a sensor log. Cross-check with that shiver’s timing, will you? Looks like something with the local subspace harmonics.”

“There was an intersection of several subspace waveforms along our path. The timing of them created a resonance with our warp field.” T’press touched several more controls with fluid grace and the waveforms expanded and overlaid with each other and the ship’s field signature. “Fascinating. Individually, each waveform is unremarkable and would have passed unnoticed. All three converged in one spot: our location at the time. Either a staggering coincidence or a targeted event.”

“Always sending me the good stuff, T’press. I agree, that roadbump was a bit too convenient to be random.”

Grigor tapped the bulkhead. “Run those waveforms. I want to know if it was a knock, a message, or God’s sense of humor on a boring supply run. Don’t you give me that look. If it’s possible it’s just a coincidence, I want that checked. Might be some nebula reaction thing that you’ll be able to write a paper on.”

Turning from the science station, he moved out and around the tactical rail to sit in the center chair. “Helm, bring us about and take us back. Give me a hundred thousand kilometers clearance once we’re back. Science, is that enough?”

“One hundred and seventy-five would be advisable.”

“You heard her. Hundred and seventy-five it is. Ops, systems check, please. Tactical, shields on standby. Engineering, you’ve got…” Looking down at the arm control, Grigor checked their course and timing. “…two minutes to make sure a more sustained bump won’t cause any damage.”

A brief round of acknowledgements from around the bridge and all stations busied themselves with their orders. Another benefit of having a staff that had worked together for a long period of time across different intelligence assignments: there was a certain kind of instinctive trust and sense of the others that had developed. It frustrated the rest of the crew from time to time that so little communication was used between the senior staff as they moved through situations at a brisk clip, as well as the tendency to attribute unusual circumstances to deliberate action rather than natural events. But it had saved the ship pain several times.

Two minutes later the hum of the ship shifted pitch as the Wells dropped out of warp and moved closer to where the bump happened. Grigor peered at the viewscreen as though a bright sign might appear with an arrow saying ‘this way to the culprits.’ As usual, he was disappointed but the lack of such an apparition.

“Subspace is clear of the waveforms.” T’press reported after another moment. Similar echoes of normal status echoed from around the bridge in turn.

“Anything on that analysis?”

“Only that the three waveforms appear to have been calculated to interfere with the inherent instability of our particular warp field configuration. Otherwise, there is no discernable pattern to it.”

A small, sustained tremor ran through the Wells.

This time, multiple consoles signaled at once. Marteli’s cut through. “Engineering to Bridge. Shiver’s back and it’s holding steady now. Nondestructive interference with the warp field. Enough to shake us, not enough to actually hurt anything.”

Grigor nodded to himself. Things were starting to add up in his mind.

“Shields up, sir?” Litra asked from right behind him.

“Not yet. Science, can you locate where it’s coming from?”

“Yes, Captain. Now that the effect is sustained, I am able to track it. Coherent, directed signal originating from within the nebula. Sending coordinates to helm.”

Powell touched several controls. An overhead tactical view of the nebula, the Wells, and the route to the origin of the waveforms displayed. “Half a light-year inside the nebula near some dense gas pockets. Shouldn’t have any navigational issues.”

“Anything on sensors?”

T’press briefly hesitated before answering. “Uncertain. I can confirm the signal originates there, but am unable to establish anything beyond stellar gasses. As a class 11 nebula, the Azure Nebula interferes with most sensors. There are no listed objects of note in this area, however.”

A pregnant pause descended on the bridge. The tremor continued. At last, Grigor made his decision and nodded. “Yellow alert, shields up. Science, give me all the information you can as we head in. Ops, I want to know if any of our systems so much as sneezes. Engineering, secure main power systems and verify auxiliary power system integrity. Helm, take us in, nice and easy.”

Of course, nice and easy meant warp travel at this distance. A short burst of speed, but still a potentially hazardous one, given the unreliability of sensors once into the nebula proper. Space is big and even in a nebula there’s not much risk of hitting something at random while travelling. But when sensors aren’t able to pick up potential hazards until it’s nearly too late, it’s never a bad thing to be cautious.

Into the nebula the Wells sailed. The tremor stopped the moment the warp burst began as the ship moved out of the interference spot, but Grigor was sure it’d reappear once they arrived at their destination, which they did, and it did. A giant blob of gas that might have become a solar system at some point before stellar circumstance interfered. Small bulges where gas had coalesced at one point, only to stop and begin to dissipate once more. And floating near one of the gas blobs: a drifting Acamarian ship, its triangular profile extensively modified with odd shapes and devices.

“Incoming transmission from the Acamarian ship,” Zinn announced.

“On screen.” Grigor was quite curious to learn why this heavily modified ship was adrift in the nebula.

A staticky image flicked onto the viewscreen. It wasn’t a recognizable bridge. Likely an auxiliary control area or lab. The only person in view was a severe-looking Acamarian man in a plain tunic. His hair was disheveled and it looked like he hadn’t slept in a long time. “Good, you noticed the pulse! I was getting worried. I wish I had time to explain, but I really don’t. You must destroy this ship immediately!”