It had been nearly two weeks since Erin had spent a stressful four nights sheltering in the basement of some building on Glaina Prime.  The Crazy Horse had settled in to a routine of  shuttling survivors around and providing aide to stranded ships in the wake of the century storm.

Nothing had compared to their first mission and seeing the utter destruction of an entire colony.   But, they had saved almost everyone, and that was something.   Seeing relieved smiles of reunited loved ones made the hardships worthwhile.

They were returning to Starbase Bravo with the USS Shōkaku, a Sovereign-class starship in tow.  Not exactly the most auspicious homecoming for a ship of her stature,  but it was better than being left stranded out there in the black.

“Captain Tanaka thanks us for the tow and says they have it from here,” Diego Garza announced from the tactical station.

“Very well,” Erin stated, “release tractor beam.”

“Commander we are being hailed by Bravo Fleet Command,” Operations announced.

Erin stood from the center captain’s chair, “I’ll take it in the ready room.” She was in the captain’s ready room for only ten minutes or so before she came striding out, “Senior staff to the observation lounge.”

There was a mermer of concern as the gathered officers followed the acting captain into the observation lounge, and took their seats around the table.  

Erin slid into the captain’s chair at the head of the table and waited for Doctor T’lar and Marcus to make it up from the lower decks.  When they too had finally joined the staff Erin entered commands into the computer and the holo-emitters embedded into the table showing six starships.   “Ladies and Gentlemen Bravo Fleet has several starships missing in action including the USS Challenger  and USS Herecles.  Fleet Command is dispatching us to search for the Herecles and the Zebulon Pike who were both on the edge of the storm doing research on the rifts created by the storm.”

Erin entered commands and all of the missing ships except for two fell away.  An Argonaut-class and a considerably smaller Raven-class ship slowly spun on the Y-axis.

“The Herecles is under the command of the Trill Captain Vausees Vax.  The Zebulon Pike is under the command of Commander Ethan Talon.”

“Any indication as to what happened to those ships?” Lieutenant Marcus Washington asked.

“Long range scans conducted by the USS Gettysburg of the area have no indication of a matter/antimatter explosion nor debris,” Erin replied.  “Nor were there any distress calls made by either ship.”

“I served under Vax several years ago,” Lieutenant Diego Garza responded.  “She’s a good officer.  It would have had to be a sudden event for her not to send out something.”

Erin nodded and brought up a star chart of the last known positions of the two ships, only half a light year apart. “We will proceed to their last known coordinates and conduct a full survey.   Hopefully we can get some positive answers… or just answers in general.  Doctor T’lar I would prepare for survivors, but since we aren’t picking up any beacons from escape pods I don’t expect we will find any.”

“A reasonable assumption,” the Vulcan replied.

“All right people let’s get to work. Dismissed.”