“Here’s what we were able to get, sirs.”  Sadie Fowler sat at her station with her current CO, Captain Fontana, standing beside her on one side and her former CO, Ambrose Harris, on the other.  The new CO had asked her to pull every bit of scanning details from their encounters with the SS Heru and the Palasa Transport Group.  

Fontana stared at the data as it streamed across the monitors and console, “Ensign Fowler, you said the weapons you detected were more than should be on this class of ship – explain.”

She tapped at her console, nervously working the words in her mind before she spoke them.  She had talked with Juliet, the chief counselor, about her nervousness.  They’d come up with a way for her to gather her words in the split seconds she had between question and answer.  “Most ships in this sector have to travel through The Badlands.  It’s a tricky thing with a trained Starfleet crew, but we’ve done a lot of work on ship’s systems.  Looking at what they had attached to their hulls…those kinds of weaponry options would need to be stowed below and powered down to ensure the transports had all the power available to make the journey, never mind the risk to the equipment.”  She tapped the console again, “They also came from within Cardassian space, which isn’t odd on the surface, but if you examine the weapons configuration…,” she nodded to the screen, “…those weapons are not standard.  We weren’t able to get as close a look as I’d have liked but given what we know and what we can suppose…those are Cardassian weapons on an independent transport.”

Fontana kept his stare while he frowned, “Percentage of accuracy on the supposition, ensign?”  Harris kept his mouth closed.  He may have been back on the bridge, but he was still outranked by Fontana.  Calling him out on the bridge wasn’t something he was about to experiment with or gamely attempt to see what it caught when he tossed it out.

Sadie nearly choked but counted her breathing for three seconds as she tapped at her console, ostensibly to run a report or something.  The truth was it was a stalling tactic to wrestle her anxiety into a closet and slam the door for a precious few seconds while she answered, “75%, sir.”

The captain turned and stepped away from Fowler and gestured for Harris to join him, “I’m not confident in those numbers, Commander.”

Ambrose, for once, agreed with him. “I’m not either, sir.  The thing here is…something’s up.  Those weapons having a strong resemblance to Cardassian blueprints is a little out of the normal.  Normally the transport companies will build their own or source their equipment through multiple groups or organizations – they can’t afford to line the ships with the Cardassian’s systems…or anyone’s for that matter.  Starfleet mentioned that there was some suspicion about something more than just random pirate attacks.”

Fontana quietly considered his first officer’s words.  “You think we’ll see the Heru and her group again?”

Harris shrugged, “It’s a best guess.  We’d need to get more information on what is happening out here.  They know we’re here, and they’re aware we’re not afraid to show our cards…they’re not stupid.  They’ll try and find out why the Edinburgh is really here…and try and stay out of our way.  She’s a ship that can give as good as she takes.”

The CO turned to Fowler, “What’s the nearest colony to us?”

Sadie keyed in the search terms, “Dozaria system, captain.  One colony on a livable planet with a mixed biome, two suns, a moon, and three planets.  Last reports have the colony at over 1,000 Cardassians.”

Fontana returned his attention to Harris, “We might have to do this your way, detective.  Ensign Prentice set us a course to the Dozaria System, maximum warp.  Commander Harris put together an away team…we need to find out what they know about our friends.”

Ambrose gave a nod and sat down in the station next to Fowler, who side-eyed him as he worked to pull rosters, “Welcome back, Commander.”

He smiled quietly, “Good to be back.  I need your best science officer on the ground.  Scrappy.  A little scary.”

She looked at her roster quickly, “Ensign Alanna Menzie.  She’s got a good mind for science but fists for security.”

Harris raised his eyebrow, “I’ll take her.” He stood and gave her a tap on the shoulder, “Keep looking, Ensign…we’ve got a mystery on our hands.”  He stepped away and was in the turbolift before she could say much, so she returned to her station.  They would be closing in on Dozaria Prime…and they would need her eyes and ears.