Forward movement. Always forward. One light year at a time. That had been his mantra ever since they’d found themselves stranded on the far side of the Beta Quadrant. It was the only way he’d ever get these crews home. But now they sat motionless, unable to advance. They were stuck. Neither the Serenity nor the Ingenuity could make warp. They’d activate the coils, but nothing would happen. Nothing useful at least. Subspace was closed to them, and for eight days straight, they’d hovered above an uninhabited, unnamed rock, making no progress at all. 

Commander Lee, the prodigious engineer in command of the Ingenuity, was all but living in the engineering bay with Lieutenant Raine, but they were stumped. So was Lieutenant Commander Will Sharpe back aboard the Serenity. The only one who seemed to be making any progress was Lieutenant Commander Sena, the former Tal’Shiar agent turned research fellow at the Advanced Science, Technology and Research Activity, but as to what exactly she was doing, Captain Lewis had no idea. Her work was nothing more than an incomprehensible pile of numbers and symbols to him – and unfortunately to the rest of the crew too. They’d left most of their science department back on the Polaris when they raced off into the Underspace, and the few they had, save for the Romulan, had perished in their fall from the Underspace. That meant Sena was on her own unless the engineers hit on a miracle by trial-and-error or unless somehow this phenomenon disappeared as spontaneously as it appeared.

“At least everyone’s getting a chance to stretch their legs,” smiled Elyssia Rel from across the dinner table in Captain Lewis’ table. It was not lost on her that he hadn’t so much as touched his hasperat, lost in the same spiral of thoughts that’d consumed him ever since their outing in boardshorts and bikinis had been interrupted. “I hear Irina’s taking an expedition out tomorrow morning to summit the planet’s northern peaks. Maybe it’d be good for you to…”

“I don’t want to hear it, Elyssia,” Lewis grumbled. He knew what she was doing, and he had no interest in it. He couldn’t leave. Not in the midst of this crisis.

“But you need to hear it,” Elyssia replied as she locked eyes with him. She could see the emotions boiling over within him, the feeling of helplessness against cosmic forces beyond his control. Even when they’d first realized they were stranded, it hadn’t been this bad. At that point, at least he’d had a plan. Set course and push for home. This anomaly with subspace itself had stripped that from him, and it was making him miserable. “There’s nothing you can do up here to actually help any of them. The last time you had to so much as scribble down the subspace field equations was during your science and engineering finals at the academy.”

She wasn’t wrong. He’d barely passed those exams too. He was no physicist, and he was no engineer. This wasn’t what he did. For a man used to being in complete control, this was completely beyond his control. And it irked the shit out of him.

“So make the most of it,” Elyssia encouraged, before trying another tact. “Plus, if you just sit here stewing, you’re gonna go soft around the middle. At least if Irina marches your ass up a few mountains, it’ll come back firmer for me.” She shot him a wink.

“The way you’re selling it, do I get the sense maybe you’re considering joining me, dearie?” Lewis asked, conceding that maybe it would be good to get out for a bit.

“Now that’s the attitude,” Elyssia laughed, happy to see him considering it. “But no, sub-zero temperatures and howling winds, perched thousands of feet atop an icy cliff somewhere, that’s more of a you and Irina thing.” Their chief security officer, Lieutenant Irina Tarasova, never shied away from an opportunity to push herself to the limits of fitness, just like the captain sitting across the table. “You could probably talk Ekkomas into going though. You know he’s always looking to show you up, old man.”

“Awww, but how do you know you wouldn’t enjoy it?” Captain Lewis frowned. He knew this wasn’t her cup of tea, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t have some fun with it. “I mean, when’s the last time you dug yourself an ice cave?”

“Sounds like a dream for you, but absolute misery for me,” Elyssia replied. “While you’re freezing your ass off on a five thousand meter peak, I’ll be lying on a beach, sipping on a mai-tai, soaking in the sun.”

“More sitting around doing nothing?” Captain Lewis teased. He’d gotten more than enough lazy beach time the other day. “Sounds delightful, but I think I’ll take my chances with Irina.”

“Well, when you get back, I’ve got a special little something I’ve been saving for the right moment,” Elyssia winked mischievously. “A little inspiration to ensure you eventually come back to me.” It was mostly a joke, but there was also a hidden truth beneath the surface. The reality, she knew, was that Lewis was prone to push it to the limits, safety be damned, even when it should have been just some casual recreation.

“Now that does sound delightful,” Lewis said as he eyed her lithe frame over. “In fact, before I go, how about you give me a little warm memory to hold onto for when the storm hits?”

“But don’t you want some dinner first?”

“I’m hungry, but not for food.”

They didn’t even make it to the bedroom before the clothes were off, their hands going to all those special little places they loved on each other’s bodies. Six months at this, and they knew exactly how to set each other off.

It didn’t last though. Not as long as either of them wanted. As Lewis buried his head between Elyssia’s legs, the door suddenly chimed.

“Bit busy,” Captain Lewis grumbled, his mouth not so much as leaving its place, the place that set her off like none other. “Come back later.” He had work to do, work more important than whatever was waiting for him out in the corridor beyond his quarters.

“Captain, it’s urgent,” replied Lieutenant Commander Sena over the intercom. “We need to talk. Now.” There was an urgency in her voice. This wasn’t a social call, and he knew her better than to believe she would just go away. Not if she felt it was important.

“Well, fuck,” Captain Lewis sighed, digging himself out of the sheets and scrambling around the bedroom to find some clothes. “Hold on. Just a minute.” It was the second time in a week that the Romulan had shown up at the wrong time, but at least the last time it’d just been them on a beach in boardshorts and bikinis.

Eventually, the captain found some gray sweatpants, pulling them up without bothering to tie them. He then pulled a black tank top over his head as he exited the bedroom, closing the frosted glass door behind him to conceal the beautiful Trill lying naked on his bed. 

Captain Lewis then turned towards the entryway, straightening his posture and trying to make it look like he hadn’t just been going to town on the ensign: “Enter.”

Lieutenant Commander Sena stepped through the door briskly, a PADD in her hands and a no-nonsense attitude on her face. She eyed the room perceptively, noting an unfinished dinner for two at the table, the untied strings of his sweatpants, the messiness of his hair, and the faint hint of moisture on his scruffy beard. She didn’t need her training as a former Tal’Shiar agent to infer what she’d interrupted.

“Sorry to bother, sir,” Lieutenant Commander Sena apologized, not really because she was, but because it was the thing people expected one to say in a moment like this. “But you needed to see this immediately.” She reached out her hand and passed him the PADD, trying at least to not touch his fingers as she did so. She could infer where those had almost certainly just been.

Captain Lewis looked down at the PADD, but as usual when it came to Sena’s work, it was all just gibberish to him. “Sena, you know I can’t read this shit. Just give it to me straight. What’s up?”

“The disturbance, sir,” Lieutenant Commander Sena explained. “It’s the Underspace.”

A pin could have been heard in the silence that followed. The captain just sort of stood there dumbfounded, staring at the PADD as if somehow he’d eventually see what she saw. 

“The Underspace?” Captain Lewis finally managed to get out, the implication of what she was insinuating immediately clear to him.

“Yes, it’s back,” Lieutenant Commander Sena nodded. “Don’t know how to access it yet, but all the math points to it being back and responsible, at least in part, for what’s happening now.”

That changed everything. The mountains would have to wait. Hell, even the sexy Trill in his bed would have to wait. The Underspace was what had brought them here in the first place, and if it was back, that meant they might have a way home.