Renu Tol was attending one of the many parties that were going on within Starbase Bravo when the horror struck the feed coming from Earth. He was still in his dress uniform when he quickly made his way down to one of the many ships that had the fleet formation mode installed. He had put a call out to anyone who could assist him in checking to see if there had been any security breaches. They would start at the Susan B. Anthony before moving to the others.

Upon arrival he noticed two officers as well as a few other engineers that answered the request, “Thank you for coming so quickly,” Renu said looking at a young Ensign and Lieutenant Commander both in yellow. “I am sure you all seen what we all seen,” he stated.

“I caught an FNN feed on the transport here, something about ships attacking Sol Station?” Jaso said, quickly falling into step with the group. “I had my doubts about this new fleet formation mode,” he grumbled. 

Ethan looked up from his console as Commander Tol entered the room and stood to attention, “Deputy Director Tol. Sir, what’s going on?” He asked. He was just about to come off duty when he heard about some kind of incident and the station being put on high alert. He didn’t know what was happening or what their new mission might be, but he was ready to help in any way that he could. 

Looking at the young ensign before walking to a console and pulling up the feed. “This is what is going on,” he pointed to the screen while looking at Ethan.

Ethan couldn’t believe what he was watching on the monitor, looking up at Commander Tol with a horrified look of disbelief. 

“I have,” Mads replied. She’d been intending to head to one of the parties but had been delayed when one of the transport schedules had had a hiccup and she’d had to replan it on the fly. She hadn’t been paying attention to the Frontier Day broadcast, not until the proverbial hand hit the fan. Then like everyone else, she’d watched the screen with mounting horror.

“I’m not much of an engineer,” she admitted. “But I can lock systems down with the best of them. What do you need?”

“We need to inspect the ships that have that fleet formation mode installed on them starting with the Susan B. Anthony, we need to know if they have been compromised in any way. We don’t want to be the next catastrophe to take place,” Tol replied looking at both.

“Commander Mads that would be great if you could lock down the systems of each ship starting with this one.” Tol ordered, “Let me know if you find anything out of the ordinary.” Tol added trying to cover any bases they can into figuring out if these ships have been compromised.

Mads offered a tight smile, but not one of amusement. Instead, it was filled with grim determination. “Will do. I suggest we keep comms open between this group.”

“Good idea,” Tol replied.

“Ethan and Jaso you both will come with me and help me inspect the system of the ship specifically that has to deal with the fleet formation mode,” Tol said looking at him.

“Understood sir,” Jaso said with a nod. He’d barely arrived and was already being thrown into chaos. The crisis was quickly becoming his modus operandi. 

Ethan looked to Jaso, then back to Commander Tol, and nodded, “Aye, sir.”

“Any questions?” Tol asked looking at the three of them.

“Should we anticipate conflict along the way?” Jaso didn’t typically carry a weapon on duty, but there were a lot of X factors. “We don’t know how many crew members are involved in this plot.”

“That’s a good point,” Ethan said, nodding as he heard Jaso ask his question, “bringing phasers might not be a bad idea. Who knows if we’re next.”

“Good point, there should be a weapons locker right next to the entrance to the Susan B. Anthony we can grab one. Though I do recommend the stun setting,” Renu replied. “If there isn’t anything else I suggest we get going, let’s stick together as we can do everything we need from engineering,” Renu said as they began to make their way to grab a phaser before heading onto the ship.

After a few moments of walking making sure everything was secure, they made it to engineering, walking over to one of the consoles. “Mads go ahead and lock down systems except what we need down here in engineering,” Renu replied before looking back at the other two.

But it didn’t. The lock-out went smoothly and she looked up to see where Tol was.

“All locked down,” she said in a quiet voice as she moved to stand next to him. “Just the engineering systems you’re working on are live.”

“Thank you Mads,” Renu said with a smile before turning to the others.

“Jaso run a level ten diagnostic on all systems,” Renu ordered. “That should be able to detect any abnormalities,” Renu said unless the systems were tampered with, and whoever did it probably wouldn’t detect anything that way.

Nodding, Jaso shouldered his rifle. Whenever he carried a rifle, he hoped it was never used. Still, it was comforting to have walked into this situation.

“Ensign, we will check out the fleet formation mode system manually while the diagnostic is being run,” Renu ordered.

“Aye, Commander,” Ethan said, eager to get started. 

Once they had their orders each set off to different parts of engineering to begin their work which would take a while to complete. They hoped that everything would check out, then other ships would need to be checked as well to ensure that they won’t suffer the same fate that the Sol system was facing right now. 

The console Jaso was working at finished, breaking the quiet. “Diagnostic complete. The computer didn’t find anything important,” he paused to look at the results. “The port Bussard collector is running 3.5 cycles behind the starboard one. They should get that fixed. It could be the-” He pause to look at the faces in the room. “But nothing’s wrong with the fleet formation mode.”

Ethan nodded, still looking at his console as he spoke, “Agreed, I’ve been looking over the line code for the formation system and haven’t been able to identify any faults with the system that could cause what we’ve seen at Earth. It all seems to check out.” He looked up to Tol confused. 

“I am getting the same thing,” Renu said with a sigh. “Well this ship is secure and isn’t in danger,” he added before looking at the three of them. “I suggest we do the same for the USS Exeter and the USS Hippocrates as those two also have the fleet formation mode installed on them.” Renu looked at the three of them.

Mads nodded. “Sounds like a plan. I’ll breathe a little easier when all these ships are locked down.” The events from Sol Sector hadn’t made for easy watching, that was for sure. “Which should we tackle first?”

“Perhaps we should split up,” Jaso said. “We can work faster, but keep an open commlink in case we run into trouble.”

“Probably a good idea,” Renu replied as they began to exit the ship. “Mads go with Jaso, Hale you’re with me,” Renu replied as they went off in their separate directions to two separate ships. His mind racing at the situation that was playing out on Earth, in the back of his mind he hoped they wouldn’t be the next victim.