“Whuh– What do you think it is, captain?” asked Lieutenant Aneasa.  The trepidation in her voice was made all the more evident by the way she lurked in the doorway, not quite entering, but not stepping back into the corridor either.

The crew lounge had been otherwise empty, aside from Captain Jeffrey Holmgren and his burdensome thoughts.  The illumination was down to fifty percent, which made the LCARS panel across the compartment look all the brighter.  He could see Aneasa staring at the communication waveform scrolling across the display, as distorted as it was by signal interference.

“You can’t ask me that,” Holmgren replied with the gentlest sardonic twist to his inflection.  He shook his head at her with a repressed smile and then he returned his attention to a PADD in his grasp.  His manipulation of its sensor controls reflected in changes to communication waveform on the display.

Playfully, Holmgren said, “I’m not really here, remember?  This is a training mission.  The cadets are in command of the Exeter.  Not me.”

“Yes, well… technically,” Aneasa said.  The way she emphasised that word came across as reluctance.  “Turn out from cadets has been rather low.  Given crew shortages across the fleet after Frontier Day, many of our cadets and Exeter crew members have been assigned to new ships.  We’ve had to recruit volunteers from all over Starbase Bravo to staff key positions in their absence…”

Shaking his head, Holmgren added, “In any event, they don’t need the starbase’s chief science officer looking over their shoulders.”  –He swept a hand at the Paulson Nebula’s swirling red and purple stellar dust and gasses out the viewports– “I only came for the scenery.”

“I wouldn’t ask in any official capacity,” Aneasa said.  “The thing is… there’s a bet.  We’re taking wagers on the origins of the mysterious sig–“

“A wager?  Isn’t the thrill of mystery enough for you all?” Holmgren asked in mock outrage.  “The entire purpose of this training mission is to study the effect the Paulson Nebula has on comms technology.  We suspect that not only did its stellar mass interfere with the Borg assimilation broadcast from Jupiter, but the nebula’s spatial anomalies may have protected Starbase Bravo from the Borg’s subspace transmissions.  

“If the nebula is interfering with another communication today,” Holmgren excitedly said, “then this is the perfect opportunity for experimentation!”

Aneasa remarked, “I only bring it up because I bet on the signal being Romulan.  Free State specifically.”

“Oh… Oh no,” Holmgren muttered.  He stabbed at his PADD with his index finger.  The waveform on the screen spun in the opposite direction as several of the gaps began to fill in.

“What?  Wait, what?” Aneasa asked.  “Did I lose the bet?”

“I think I recognise it,” Holmgren said at a whisper.  “It looks– it looks like a homing beacon…

“And I think its origin is Borg.”