Dark, narrow corridors. Cold, unfinished metal. Strange, alien glyphs. Exploration and discovery were not part of its job. The Manasa class had a singular purpose: to destroy the enemy. But now they would turn it upon its makers, a trojan horse to slip past the Vaadwaur and deal a heavy blow upon them.

The prisoner sitting in the Serenity‘s brig had given them the route they’d need to follow to reach their target, along with the protocols they’d need to use when they arrived in order to avoid drawing attention to themselves. He’d been quite helpful. Not that he’d had a choice. The captain and the Romulan had seen to it through unscrupulous methods, and neither saw anything wrong with what they had done to compel his candor. 

Lieutenant Commander Ekkomas Eidran was still on the fence about what they had done though. The captain and the Romulan had called it ‘enhanced interrogation’ and assured him that it was necessary, that the ends justified the means, but how far could you go in your quest to defeat the enemy before you became the very thing you were fighting? 

The Serenity‘s first officer would have to confront that eventually, but for now, it was neither here nor there. Right now, all that mattered was getting the rickety gunboat moving. They had a deadline to meet if this mission was going to be successful.

The Betazoid drew to a stop at the engine bay, a strange, utilitarian compartment with exposed conduit and cabling, a far cry from the pristine interiors of a Starfleet vessel. He looked around for a moment, and then he found what he was looking for, a lieutenant junior grade in yellow bent over what looked like a plasma coupler. “How are we looking, lieutenant?”

Lieutenant J.G. Delaney Brewster, her hands covered in soot and her face smeared with grease, looked up. “All’s a-go, sir,” she answered as she wiped her soiled hands on her uniform. “This barge is pretty much just a bunch of big cannons strapped to an oversized engine. Makes it pretty simple to fix up, nothing like all that fancy stuff we pack our modern beauties with. It’s honestly a bit refreshing. Reminds me a bit of those junkers I worked on in my youth.”

“Those junkers had cannons on them?”

“The borderlands is a different sorta place, sir,” Lieutenant J.G. Brewster chuckled. As she hopped from world to world, she had volunteered her skills at the local spaceport in order to put food on the table for her and her mom. Some days, her clients were miners and merchants, but other days, they were smugglers and pirates. “You get quite a diversity of things that come through your hangar doors, and you learn not to ask too many questions.”

“I see…” Lieutenant Commander Eidran nodded, but really, he didn’t. Truthfully, what did he know? He’d grown up on Betazed with a supportive family and all the creature comforts that life in the core of the Federation had offered. From there, he’d gone straight to Starfleet Academy, and then it’d been just a couple quick hops right into the first officer’s chair. “I guess if we’re good here, I’ll head over to the bridge. About time we get underway”

Except, of course, he had no idea where the bridge was.

“It’s that way, sir,” Lieutenant J.G. Brewster pointed with a smile, watching him as he left. She liked their young first officer. Sure, he was a bit green, but it was endearing. His other traits, supportive and sharp, made a good complement to their cold hawk of a commanding officer.

After a few wrong turns, Lieutenant Commander Eidran eventually found himself on the bridge. Not that one could really even call it that. It was just a cold, cramped, utilitarian space, a far cry from the wide, sweeping command center of a modern Starfleet ship, really just a glorified cockpit with a couple extra seats. 

On the displays littered across the bridge were alien symbols and glyphs, completely illegible to him. At the conn though, Petty Officer Priyanka Dhawan sat calmly working, looking just as comfortable as she did when she was at the helm of a Starfleet shuttle.

“Can you actually read that stuff, Priya?” Lieutenant Commander Eidran asked curiously.

“Enough to get us from here to there,” Petty Officer Dhawan assured him. “I’ve stolen corvettes more alien than this.” Where the lieutenant in the engine bay had fixed up alien ships to put food on the table, Priya Dhawan had paid the bills as a smuggler and thief up until life had caught up with her. “The controls, honestly, are very intuitive and intentional, designed with purpose. ASDB could learn a thing or two from the Vaadwaur.”

For the second time in as many minutes, Lieutenant Commander Eidran was reminded of how Captain Lewis had designed their Hazard Team. He had not picked officers with perfect pedigrees and blemish-free records. Instead, he had prioritized those with color and worldly experience, the sort who wouldn’t balk when things wandered beyond normal operating parameters. And now he understood why. First the engineer, and now the pilot, neither seemed the slightest bit phased that they, a skeleton crew at best, were about to fly a banged up alien gunship through the turbulent Underspace to blow up a critical piece of Vaadwaur infrastructure that lay beyond the galactic disk.

“Ingenuity has recalled all its worker bees,” came a voice behind him as Lieutenant Commander Sena stepped onto the bridge. “Hull damage has been repaired to a degree that it shouldn’t be detectable unless they look too closely.” The Manasa had gotten banged up in the duel with her people, and they’d had to cover up all the battle scars lest the Vaadwaur realize something was amok when they tore out of the Underspace.

“How close is too close?” Lieutenant Commander Eidran asked warily.

“Commander, we’re just another uninteresting escort on a defense augmentation assignment,” Lieutenant Commander Sena pointed out. “When was the last time you did a hull composite scan of a Norway or a Grissom that arrived off your bow?”

“I suppose…” He was doing a lot of supposing in this early morning hour, and he didn’t really like it. The actual mission, beaming aboard the enemy array and planting explosives to blow it up, was straightforward enough, but everything around it was a bit less comfortable. “Where are we at with embarkations?”

“All accounted for,” Lieutenant Commander Sena reported as she climbed into the jumpseat next to Petty Officer Dhawan. “You were the last to arrive, and as your people say, it’s time to get this show on the road.” They had a long journey ahead of them, and it was time to get to it. All the timings had to be precise for this mission to succeed, and the Manasa wouldn’t cover the distance quite as quickly as the Serenity and the Ingenuity would.

“Alright,” Lieutenant Commander Eidran nodded as he took a seat at the center of the small bridge. “Notify Serenity and Ingenuity of our intent to depart.”

Aboard the Ingenuity, Commander Cora Lee lay sleeping in her bed. But only slightly, that restless sort of sleep when you knew what was coming, and your brain wouldn’t let you turn off. Her combadge chirped, and instantly, her eyes opened. “Commander Lee,” she said as she tapped her combadge, already knowing who it was and what it was about. “Go ahead.”

“Ma’am, bridge here. Sorry to disturb you, but you asked to be notified when the away team was about to depart. We just received confirmation. They’re ready to get underway. Anything you want me to say?”

“No, just clear them for departure and wish them well,” she said as she swung her legs out of the bed and rose to her feet. There was nothing to be said, but she at least wanted to see them off. She knew the challenge that lay before them.

“Affirmative ma’am. Have a good night. Bridge out.”

She made her way to the couch beneath the wide sweeping window that looked out over the bow, watching as the engines of the Manasa came to life, a bright halogen blue as the ship began to move. The assault escort lumbered forward, back towards the aperture that had borne them into this graveyard four days prior.

“Godspeed, my love,” she whispered under her breath.

And then it was gone.