After arriving at the distress signal, the crew of the Bakersfield settled in for a day of interpreting the signal. The signal was degraded, but it wasn’t the same as last time, which meant they had lost valuable information since heading to Thalor V. Simon keyed on the padd to bring up the distress signal, which was degraded by signal degradation and time. Simon asked 2B, “Can you fix this signal degradation and see what is going on with the scans around the distress signal?”

2B said, “Sir, that would take some time, and I will get right on it.” She keyed on her science station and brought up the signal. On the screen was nothing but a jumbled signal and lines of code. The code was being rewritten by 2B to help unjumble the signal. It took longer than expected. Every time she got closer, the signal became more jumbled up more. She keyed in other signal subroutines, and it didn’t work, but came closer. She started to key the padd and told Sam to help her. “Sam, I need help with the signal.”

“2B not now, maybe when I get more processing power to spare. Found a similar signal in a nebula we passed on the way here,” said Sam. 2B hammered her fists against her station. She knew Sam worked on it and found out where the signal led.

“Sam, tell Simon where the signal leads so we can plan for what is coming up,” said 2B. Sam knew already that 2B could tell Simon, but was making her do some of the work. So at Simon’s chair, she put the destination of the two flare nebula just outside of the Shackleton Expanse. So now Simon knew.

Simon looked at his command chair and saw that their next destination was the two-flare nebula. They decided to look where the nebula was from their current position in relation to the Framheim Station, compared to the nebula’s position where to triangulate how long it was going to take to get there once they returned the Klingons to the station and see about getting underway to the nebula. Sam tractored the signal device, by doing it since an artificial intelligence; as the main computer can do anything, a computer that is hooked throughout the ship on all systems. “Simon, distress signal device in cargo bay d. I also locked out the Klingons from all functions except survival needs and oxygen before we left Thalor V.”

Simon had a perplexed look on his face. Do the implants that he and Aurora have more function than communicating with each other, as the outpost had said before they left? “Thank you, Sam, just remember the Klingons are our guests intill we reach Framheim Station, so we can drop them off. Just be careful about taking initiative, okay,” Simon said. As Bakersfield approached the coordinates, Simon was going to tell Aurora time for shore leave is at the station. She didn’t take it last time, and Simon was going to have her take it. This was a good mission, but Starfleet Command needs our data on Thalor V.