“Tell me again why I'm the one in here?” Trina grumbled.

“Once again, your stupid idea.  Therefore you're the one most likely to succeed.” came Sky's voice over the comms.

“I'd like to see the numbers on that.”

“Sure, how about when you get back?”

The Marduk edged ever closer to the unknown vessel, before stopping at a mere 3 meters away, close enough for the warp bubbles to merge, close enough even for a brave soul to jump from the Marduk and have a high chance of hitting the other vessel.

Not that anyone was jumping, per se.

Instead, Trina had suited up in the Captain's Yacht and would be launching herself forward in an attempt to connect with the unknown vessel.

“Launching in 3… 2…”

“Hold up Trina, they're dropping from warp.” Sky interrupted.  He skillfully manipulated the controls and brought the USS Marduk around to see where the small vessel had gone.

Desiree was the first to react when it came onscreen, even before Greystroke.  “What the-”

Sitting in front of the USS Marduk was the saucer section of a Galaxy class starship, blackened and burned with the cargo bay open.  They were just in time to catch a glimpse of the unknown vessel as it entered the cargo bay.

“Well, this just got interesting.” Sky commented as he picked up his glass of sioc.  This was going to be a longer day than they already thought it was.  “We'll follow protocol on this one.  First off, Olivet, contact Starfleet.  This is the kind of thing they'll want to know about.”

It didn't take long for the reply from Starfleet to come in.  What did come in was… disappointing… to say the least.  Sky brought the crew together to discuss it.  

“Starfleet isn't coming.  Apparently that backlog of messages in the system includes some pretty desperate stuff from yesterday.  There's a lot to unpack, but we'll get to that after this mission. The gist of it is, nobody's in any shape to be coming, and those who are are needed for more urgent missions.  Now, we need to get to work.  Vincent, what do we know about that derelict?”

“It took some work, but we've been able to make out the registry on the underside of the ship.  It's the USS Vetrarbrautin.  She was reported missing yesterday afternoon.”

Danielle had to interject.  “How did she go from a functioning Galaxy class to that in less than 24 hours?!?”  she pointed at the derelict, “She's barely capable of maintaining an atmosphere!”

Sky raised his hand in a pacifying gesture, “That's part of the problem.  Starfleet doesn't know.  Finding out has been added to our agenda here, and we no longer are visiting the squadron.  Vincent, how are we with the engines?” 

“She's in as tip top shape as we're going to get.  There's no way we'll be able to to that saucer though.”

“Good to know.  Desiree, I know you're somewhat medically trained, so until we get our doctor back, you're taking over the medbay.”

“Aye sir." Greystroke nodded as well, despite the fact that none of the rest of the crew could see him.

“Olivet, how's that Henshin repair going?”

“I have a semi-working model, but it won't take more than a single shot, and it'll burn out the only circuits I have left to work with.”

“Then here's the plan…” 

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thought I'd get to the finale for this mission here, but looks like the wait goes on…