The USS San Clemente slipped from warp, the stars coming to a crawl on the forward viewscreen as Relay Alpha came into view. A solitary hulk of metal covered in antennae, spinning slowly in the darkness. The dancing colours of the nebula behind reflecting of its bulkheads.

“one quarter impulse, captain” reported Kree, still with his hands at the controls. “coming into position, two thousand kilometres”.

“Confirmed,” Saell added, her dark eyes narrowed at the sensor readout from the relay. “there is definite damage to the outer hull and communications antennae, all seems consistent with micrometeoroid scarring. The relay’s stabilisers are compensating for the damage, all seems to be operating within parameters”

She turned toward Traven sat in the Captains chair, he was watching the screen to the front of him intently. “Excellent,” he replied “Let Korren know, the teams should get this one done in no time.”

Saell tapped her comm badge, still a little nervous to deal with Korren directly. She’d never really been on Bajor at the time of the occupation, and the whole crew had missed the Wars following, but she still wasn’t quite comfortable around the Cardassian engineer.

“Bridge to Bay two, initial scans reveal minor damage to the relay. Away teams are to stand by.”

Cargobay Two was alive with activity, Industrial replicators producing final replacement parts for Relay Alpha and sleds shifting into their final places. Rynka Korren walked through it like a conductor moving through an orchestra, her sharp eyes catching every misplaced piece of equipment and every cable that wasn’t stowed away efficiently.

“Team One with me,” she bellowed, tightening the straps of her EVA harness. “Paldor, Khol, Smith, you’re on the emitter housings. Team Two, Zoral, Gonzalez, T’Varis, Jenkins I need you to stabilise the power over there. It looks like she’s taken a beating, and we need to make sure that there’s no damage we haven’t seen. Team Three you’re floating on backup with the deck Chief, keep fabrication going down here; Brunak will bark if you need reinforcements.”

There was muffled comments across the assembled crew which quickly quieted as Rynka snapped her helmet into place and they realised that it was the time.

Ensign Zoral fumbled slightly helmet, his nerves were starting to show, flying a ship was fine but walking around outside? That wasn’t for him. Doctor Paldor was already sealed into her suit with a practiced calm, seeing the young Bolian struggle she reached over and clicked it straight. “Breathe, Ensign. No one expects you to be perfect out there, but they do expect you to be steady.”

“Yes, Doctor,” Zoral nodded, “thank you.”

Acknowledgement from the transporter crew that first away team was away prompted Traven, “on screen.” A moment later, on the main viewscreen, small figures pushed out into space, their suit lights shining brightly against the void.

Two workbees from the Mente left the cargo bay and moved toward the relay, arms cradling parts and spools of cabling.

The Captain stood, clasping his hands behind his back, “Ops, can you put the relay on split-screen,” he asked. A few taps later and the main view shifted. The left half showing the small figures of the away team as they latched onto the outside of the array. The other showing the battered relay in its entirety, its antenna drooping slightly, bend at around the mid point.

At the science station, Saell tracked telemetry closely, she’s been studying the relay’s scans intently since they’d gotten underway. “The Structure still reads as stable, sir. Radiation levels are well within tolerance.” giving smallest breath of relief. “Nothing unexpected, Captain.”

“A logical, simple repair.” Responded the first officer, reading the same data from the console attached to her chair.

Rynka tapped a button on her suit, engaging the gravity boots, as each came online they clamped onto the relay’s housing. The head’s up display in her helmet displayed the damage in overlays over the relays outer plating. She could see the structural weaknesses in some of the panels.

“Smith, cut those panels clear. Doc, can you assist?”

“Always,” Paldor said dryly, already anchoring herself. She glanced over toward Zoral, who was slow engage his boots. “Ensign, unless you want to float around while we do all the work you need to engage your boots.”

He flushed but corrected himself. “Right. Sorry.”

Rynka snorted. “Don’t apologize, Ensign. Just don’t make me fish you out of orbit.”

The teams worked on the repairs, hull plating coming free and damaged components removed and replaced with the pre fabricated parts carried by the workbees. As the final panels were put into place the indicator lights flickered back to life, pulsing a reassuring green.

“Alpha relay has just come back online,” Saell reported from the bridge, “Signal strength increasing, currently at ninety-two percent and climbing.”

Kree leaned back in his chair at the helm and un-folded his arms, smiling like he’d brought it back online himself. “Not bad for our first try.”

Relay Bravo was less than six hours warp away. The Mente dropped smoothly out of warp, the hull caught the faint light from a nearby star. The main viewscreen on the Bridge framed Relay Bravo, it looked to be in slightly worse shape than Alpha, hull plating missing and floating nearby, antenna missing.

Traven gestured toward the screen clicking a bottom on the left arm of his command chair “Traven to Korren, we’ve arrived at Relay Bravo, you know the drill. Let’s keep it sharp.”

The away teams worked, worked faster this time. The smoothness of the first relay’s maintenance going well had given them confidence in one another. Even Zoral moved with a little less stiffness as he worked with his team.

Inside sickbay, Rebecca Thorne tracked the suit telemetry of each member of the away team from the console. “Heart rates elevated but nothing alarming.” She said to no one in particular.

On the bridge, Korren’s voice came calm over comms, “We’re bringing auxiliary core back online now.”

A moment later, the science console registered the Relay blinking back into life. Saell’s studied the readout and turned with a smile, “Signal restored. Eighty-eight percent and stabilising. That’s another one in the net.”

Sh’rol grunted in what could have been approval but no one could really tell, being Andorian his antennae sometimes gave away his moods but no one could be sure. “Drills will continue every four hours regardless.”

Kree, tapped his console, keeping the vessel stable and gave out a sigh. “You know, some of us would like to sleep.”

“Sleep is earned,” the Andorian replied flatly.

The laughter on the bridge was brief but genuine.

Relay Charlie loomed on the viewscreen ahead around 5 hours later, they hadn’t arrived yet but the crew we’re already prepping their final fix of this rotation.

“Onscreen,” Traven ordered.

This one looked different even at long range, an ugly slant to its superstructure, the antenna array was bent almost double that of Relay’s Alpha and Bravo. As the vessel approached the relay, the scars became more evident, they looked different to the debris strikes of micrometeoroids, instead they were long, straight grooves in the hull plating.

Saell was tapping the console in front of her, “Captain… those patterns are not consistent with micrometeoroid damage. Linear scarring, clustered impacts, thermal pitting.” Her voice dropped. “It looks more deliberate.”

“weapons fire?” Traven asked quietly.

T’Lenar raised an eyebrow. “Premature Captain, but the probability favours intent as opposed to random damage we’ve seen prior.”

Traven tapped the comm, “Korren, the damage to Relay Charlie is more extensive, initial scans show possible deliberate damage”

Her reply was a little sharper than before. “Understood, we’ll investigate.”

The teams materialised as before, immediately engaging their suits. Zoral checked his tricorder readouts twice. “Commander, I’m reading Radiation spikes inside the housing. They seem contained but we didn’t see this on the other relays

Dr. Pador responded before Korren had chance “Keep your exposure time minimal, we don’t know what caused this and I don’t fancy scraping off the radiation of you!”

Zoral’s voice cracked in everyone’s ears. “are we sure this is safe?”

Korren’s answer was straight to the point but with a steady tone. “It’s as safe as your team makes it, Ensign. Trust your training. Trust each other.”

Korren traced the nearest scar, light crawling over edges, it looked like it had been melted.

Che tapped her combadge, “Captain, this wasn’t nature,” she said grimly. “Somebody cooked this relay.”

“Can it be fixed?” Traven replied.

“We can fix anything, but this won’t be as quick as the last two”

Zoral was kneeling nearby, his tricorder actively scanning. “The energy residue matches phased particle emissions. They don’t look to be strong enough for weapon fire, but, they weren’t made but micrometeoroids either.”

Back on the bridge, Saell’s scans suddenly resulted in a alarm. “Captain! There’s a power surge in the auxiliary core, it’s building fast.”

Korren was reading the same on her tricorder “Teams, brace!” she shouted as though the comms wouldn’t work. The relay pulsed, light flashing across every visor. The workbees spun off course and the comms burst into static.

The viewcreen flashed white, “Contact!” Sh’rol barked, no phased by the sudden flash of light in front of him. “Unidentified signal, it’s emerging from the relay’s far side, it’s moving toward the away teams!”

Traven’s hands tightened on the chair while trying to see something….. anything in the viewscreen.

“Red alert. All hands, brace for company.”