Gracefully and elegantly, the Telemachus dropped out of warp and gradually halted. Before, it was a planet that appeared to have a massive chunk of it ripped from its belly. Countless rocks now orbited around, but the one thing that stood out the most was the constant glow of the crimson crystals that lay within almost every inch of every rock. 

“That is a lot of blood dilithium,” Lieutenant Jines muttered from the front station beside Lieutenant Marova. 

The Hekaran woman nodded in agreement with her colleague. “I’m not surprised the Devore wanted to desperately mine here.”

Standing up from the captain’s chair, McCallister wandered over to his acting first officer (for this mission)  and chief science officer. “Corella, how much dilithium is there?” He asked her as he stood behind her chair at the science station.

“Plenty to keep the entire Federation powered for the next century or so,” She answered. “Scans indicate that the subspace tear is at the centre where the planet ripped itself apart.”

“Continue scans to determine how the tear appeared,” McCallister ordered before walking back to the bridge’s centre. “Marova, keep our distance. I don’t want our warp core attracting the subspace tear’s attention.”

“Aye, sir,” 

“Dec, is the probe ready?” McCallister asked next.

Jines looked over his shoulder. “All prepared and ready to go on your order, captain.”

“Get a targeting solution ready, lieutenant. The sooner we finish this off, the quicker we get back to the Odyssey.”

“Sir,” Banfield announced, “scans are complete, and I can confirm the usage of a subspace weapon to crack open this planet.”

“Damn, the Devore have subspace weapons,” McCallister uttered. 

“Actually, sir, I don’t think it’s the Devore, but they may have helped towards the tear being created,” Banfield reported.

“Explain,” McCallister said as he returned to stand behind Banfield.

Banfield pulled up the scans onto a floating holographic display and started to point out her reasons why she didn’t think the Devore were behind the subspace tear. “I’m detecting countless amounts of debris in this region that is older than the explosion itself. I can’t determine who the debris belongs to. Still, this system’s amount of subspace radiation is off the charts. A good number of it is older than the explosion we recorded before this mess happened.”

“Meaning what?” McCallister requested. 

“My theory is that system is a testing ground for subspace weapons; based upon the debris, I would say this place is used to destroy old ships or unmanned probes,” Banfield expressed. “It’s most likely when the initial subspace wave happened that caused the sudden appearance of blood dilithium; the amount of subspace radiation attracted large quantities of the crystals to form on this planet.”

“Thus attracting the attention of the Devore,” Jines added.

“Most likely,” Banfield confirmed. “Then, when they arrived and started to mine the planet, they probably attracted a subspace weapon or two as I’m detecting the remnants of gravimetric distortions, probably created from the subspace warheads as they emerge from subspace.”

“Mix all of that together, and we get one big bang?” Marova guessed.

“Precisely,” Banfield confirmed. “The debris in the area is not of Devore origin.”

“However fascinating this is, are we safe to proceed with launching our modified probe?” McCallister asked. 

“Yes, sir,” Banfield answered. “The conditions seem almost identical to our earlier test on that subspace vacuole. However, I recommend we move away when we fire the probe at our best possible speed to avoid being dragged in. The amount of gravimetric energy that subspace tear could cause as it sucks up the crystals will be difficult for the Telemachus to handle.”

“You heard the commander, Marova, go to full impulse the moment Decter launches that probe,” McCallister ordered as he sat back down in his chair. 

A proximity alarm then went off. McCallister sighed before Banfield spoke up. 

“It’s the Devore Squadron; they’re less than five minutes away. We need to do this now.” She announced.

“Fire the probe and get us out of range,” McCallister commanded. 

Obeying his orders, Jines fired the probes, and Marova immediately pushed the ship’s impulse engines to full power. The vessel flew from the planet, and the subspace tear. The probe hurtled towards the tear before it vanished within it. A second later, the tear almost appeared to change colour and pulsate as it started to pull the dilithium towards it. Like a powerful cyclone, everything was sucked towards it.

“It’s working. I’m detecting that almost seventy-eight per cent of the blood dilithium crystal has been removed.” Banfield reported. “At this rate, the crystals will be returned to subspace in less than thirty seconds.”

Marova then spoke up. “I’m also detecting blood dilithium crystals from across the region being pulled towards the tear. Sir, I suggest we jump to warp now before any large fragment hits us.”

“And the squadron?” McCallister asked.

Looking at her readings one more time, just as the ship started to rumble under the external pressure, Marova smirked after seeing what the sensors were showing. “The squadron has altered course; they’re heading back to Devore territory at their highest speed.”

“Excellent,” McCallister said with a grin before ordering the Telemachus to head into warp.

“Captain, long-range sensors are detecting several Federation ships nearby; one of them is the Saratoga.” proclaimed Jines.

Hearing that news, McCallister told Jines to hail the Saratoga immediately and to put the call into his small ready room. He had a favour to ask a fellow Starfleet captain.