The USS Vallejo sat silently, its systems dark and lifeless. The corridors usually alive with Starfleet officers and the conversations of the day now lay in eerie stillness, the only light coming from the emergency floor lighting that barely flickered along the edges of the bulkheads. Bulkheads hung loose; the usual pulsing hum of the ship’s engines was replaced by an unsettling quiet. The crew was gone, and the ship was a ghost of itself.

On deck four, in transporter room one, a single console blinked to life, its soft amber glow the first sign of movement aboard the ship in hours. The faint blue shimmer of a transporter sequence illuminated the silent chamber, and in an instant, Anari and Vex materialized onto the pad. Both officers landed in a crouch, their phasers drawn, ready for immediate engagement. But instead of attackers, they were met with nothing but the sound of their own breathing.

Vex adjusted her stance, scanning the room with sharp, green-hued Orion eyes. “We’re alone” she whispered.

Anari moved quickly to the active console, fingers flying over the controls. “Ship’s on emergency power. No signs of the crew anywhere on sensors, and… we’re not in open space anymore.”

Vex frowned. “Then where the hell are we?”

Anari checked the limited sensor feed. “Attempting a passive scan, we don’t need to set off any alarms… We appear to be in a cavern… High concentrations of iron and magnesium silicates.” Anari tapped a few more controls, extending the scanner range. “We’re not alone, there are dozens of ships docked here… Breen, Romulan, Dominion, even a few Starfleet. Based on the technology built into the cavern I think this looks like an old Cardassian military depot, built into an asteroid. This place is a damn relic of every major conflict in the last century.”

Vex’s expression darkened. “The rest of the crew…?”

Anari shifted back to the console display. “Extending scan… There… two hundred eighty-seven life signs. They appear to be in a cargo bay or storage area. Reinforced walls, transport inhibitors active.” She turned to Vex. “They’re being held there.”

Vex walked over to the secondary console on the opposite side of the transporter room. Her fingers tapped the controls to life, calling up the ship’s diagnostic readouts. The flickering screen reflected on her green skin as the data poured in.

“The Vallejo’s not going anywhere,” she muttered, more to herself than to Anari. The damage was extensive, far worse than she had anticipated. “Warp core is offline, power grid failures and coolant leaks everywhere, impulse is down, shield generator severely damaged, multiple hull breaches, structural integrity at 35%…” She slammed her fist onto the console. “¡gisjacheh! The starboard nacelle is gone.”

Anari glanced at her, a flicker of disbelief in her gaze. “So, we’re stuck here?”

Vex nodded grimly. “Unless we find a way to fix the core or get external help, we’re not going anywhere.

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The Shuttle Sequoia followed the polarization trail left by the Vallejo for three hours, remaining alert for any threats. Cadet Ryan sat stiff-backed, checking and rechecking all sensor scans constantly. Lieutenant Amir had taken over the piloting so Ryan could focus on the barely detectable polarization patterns, hopefully navigating them to their ship.

On the shuttles console a red indicator started blinking, with a few taps Ryan saw the sensor data. “Commander look at this.”

Mehta put down his steaming cup of chai and peered over the Cadet’s shoulder. “We are approaching a nebula, it’s approximately 150,000 kilometers away. Reading multiple energy signatures and a small debris field.”

Ryan’s fingers flew across the console, honing in on the new readings. “The debris… It’s from the Vallejo. Parts of the nacelle… hull plating, and a torpedo launcher, completely torn apart.”

Mehta’s brow furrowed as he leaned in closer, examining the flickering data. “Anything else?”

Ryan’s face tightened. “Bodies. At least three confirmed. One human, one Bajoran… one other I can’t get a clear reading. There are signs of weapon fire, disruptor burns on some of the debris. Energy pattern looks like Dominion technology” His voice dropped, barely above a whisper. “This wasn’t just an accident. The ship was hit deliberately.”

Amir’s voice cut through their focus. “Gravitational eddies are increasing. Adjusting course to avoid being pulled in.”

Mehta stepped back slightly, arms crossed, eyes fixed on the screen. “Any sign of the main hull?”

Ryan scanned the readouts again. “Negative. No sign of the main hull or anything large enough to be the ship.”

Mehta inhaled deeply, “Tactical analysis Cadet?”

Ryan clenched his jaw, scanning the area further. “It looks like they went after the ship’s key systems… nacelles, weapons, anything that could make her a threat.”

Mehta let out a sharp breath. “Whoever did this knew what they were doing. They didn’t want the Vallejo to escape, but they didn’t finish her off either. There’s no sign of her main hull, it’s possible she wasn’t completely destroyed.”

Amir adjusted the shuttle’s course, avoiding the edge of the nebula’s gravitational pull. “We can’t get any closer without risking being pulled into one of these eddies. We need to tread carefully.”

Ryan’s eyes flicked to the console as another sensor reading popped up. He adjusted the sensor focus, tracking the new signal. “Wait… there’s something else. I’m picking up an impulse wake… three actually, faint but definitely there. They’re heading into the nebula.”

Mehta straightened, glancing at Ryan. “Impulse wake? You think the Vallejo escaped through here?”

Ryan’s brow furrowed. “It’s possible. It could be the Vallejo trying to get away after the attack. But…” His voice trailed off as he examined the data further. “The energy levels are low, and the trajectory seems a bit… erratic. Almost like she was struggling.”

Amir leaned over his shoulder, narrowing his eyes. “Could they have been disabled and towed in? The wake seems too erratic for one ship.”

Ryan hesitated, considering the possibility. “It’s possible I guess, the question is who and why.”

Mehta looked from the screen to the swirling nebula, his mind working through the options. He nodded slowly, his voice quiet but resolute. “We’re not getting any clearer answers by waiting. If there’s a chance the Vallejo escaped, or if we can track whoever did this, we need to follow that wake.”

Amir gave a sharp nod, already making the necessary adjustments to the shuttle’s heading. “We’ll proceed carefully. The nebula’s interference is thick, but if there’s a trail, we can follow it.”

Ryan’s hands tightened on the controls as the shuttle veered toward the impulse wake, his mind racing. “If this is a trap, we need to be ready.”

Mehta looked out into the swirling colors of the nebula, his eyes narrowing. “Prepare for anything, Cadet. If we’re not careful, this training cruise of yours could be our last mission.”

__________________________________

Vex and Anari moved cautiously through the darkened, deserted corridors, the ship’s emergency lighting casting long shadows on the walls. Their footsteps echoed in the eerie silence as they discussed their next steps.

Vex let out a frustrated sigh, her eyes scanning the passage ahead. “We’ve got two options: we either try to fix the ship and get it moving again, or we stay hidden and try to send a distress signal. Problem is, with just the two of us there is no way we can repair this level of damage.”

Anari nodded, tapping away at a console outside the transporter room. “I don’t think fixing the ship is an option. Not unless we can pull off a miracle. Power’s still down, the core’s offline, and we’re floating in this damn cavern with no idea who or what’s controlling this place.”

Before Vex could respond, the ship’s scanners pinged, cutting through the tension in the air. Both of them turned instinctively to face the console, their eyes narrowing as new data poured in.

“Incoming,” Anari muttered, fingers flying over the console. “Drones. At least thirty-five of them. Heading straight for us.”

Vex’s eyes widened in alarm. “They’re not just scanning—those drones are here to repair the ship. But if they’re here to fix this wreck, that means they’re expecting us to be gone for a while.”

A soft beep echoed from the console, and Anari adjusted the view, bringing up images of the drones. “They’re Cardassian design. Of course they are.”

Anari paused, considering their options. “We need to move… now. Just detected multiple transporter signals… They’ve got teams coming aboard, too. We have to be somewhere they won’t find us, somewhere they’ll never think to look.”

Vex nodded. “Deck ten. The storage lockers there. It’s isolated, and the area’s close enough to the auxiliary power systems that we might be able to tap into them if we need to.”

Anari brought up a schematic of the ship, checking the nearby access routes. “Okay, we’ll need to bypass the main routes to avoid running into patrols. The last thing we need is a Cardassian team finding us before we can get that SOS out.”

Vex raised an eyebrow. “You’re thinking we’ll be able to send a signal through all this interference?”

Anari turned to her, determination in her eyes. “It won’t be easy. But if we can get to the secondary communications relay, I can encode an SOS that’s masked enough to avoid detection. It won’t be perfect, but it’s our best shot.”

Vex grabbed her arm gently, a rare moment of seriousness in her usually playful demeanor. “And if we don’t make it?”

Anari’s gaze softened, but there was no hesitation in her voice. “We’ll make it. But if we don’t, at least the message will go out. Someone will find us.”

The sound of clanging metal and faint voices echoed from the corridor, signaling the arrival of Cardassian repair teams.

Vex and Anari shared a quick, silent look. Then, with a final nod, they disappeared into the shadows, moving quickly toward deck ten.