Parker gathered the primary senior staff in the conference room and began to debrief them on the situation she had just received from the captain. Her mood was hesitant. She tried to bring her way of dealing with this to the table, but the past few days had made interactions difficult. She started giving orders to the crew.

“The USS Sheffield has contacted us with an urgent request. First, let me tell you what I know about what’s been happening around us now.”

The senior staff shifted in their seats; there was silence, and apprehension prevailed.

“The Vaadwaur have been running multiple attacks in the area; why, we do not know, but they have the advantage of using the subspace corridors, which in turn is causing problems. Ships have been lost, and they have been disappearing without a trace or giving us any way to track them; the blackout is causing distress to ships, and we only seem to have limited local communications between a few fleet members, the USS Sheffield being one of them.”

Parker had started to feel like she was losing control of the situation; the sense of being lost and alone tried her, and the training she had undergone, pulling herself together, allowed her to continue without giving too much away.

“Local sensors have picked up a Vaadwaur ship close, the data has been received from the USS Sheffield, and we have been requested to try and flush them out.”

“Flush out…” Sarah had said, this time with concern in her voice.

Eliza had started to feel the apprehension around her coming from the crew. She was not accustomed to it, as all previous interactions were relatively simple. Most missions we have been on have been straightforward, full-contact, or well-defined. This one, she knew, was very different.

“Correct, we have limited information on what is going on, but all I know is that the caption wants an update on how we can do this with minimal impact on the ship.”

T’Praal sat in silence, trying to assess what contribution she could make. She had been asked to attend the meeting; she was a Junior in the ranks and knew her skill set would be helpful here. “Do we have a location where we think the ship is now?” she asked.

“Yes,” replied Eliza, “we were given coordinates just beyond the local nebula we passed; scans reveal they are hiding somewhere.”

Twenty minutes had departed while the team deliberated options involving deception, attacks, or scare tactics, but one stood out.

Eliza recapped, “Okay, the proposed solution will be to send an automated shuttle with simulated life signs on board to the area. When sensors indicate an attack, this should be enough to bring the Sheffield and the Burbank within reach to place a tractor beam.”

Sarah nodded in agreement with the others and said, “This seems the only safe way of getting them out; at least we won’t be placing either ship in danger, and we can play it slightly safe.”

“Safe…” Eliza thought to herself, “None of this is safe. If it were my decision, I wouldn’t propose the bait unless we had additional contact with the fleet.”

The room stood to attention, and the participants returned to their posts to brief their department teams. Eliza collated everything she needed to present back to Captain Reilly as best she could, and she left the conference room, heading for the captions-ready room.