“Status of the runabouts.” Clara Myers gripped the arms of her chair as the Galaxy rocked to port then starboard as the inertia dampers struggled to compensate for the gravametic waves slamming into the ship. 

“Communications are down but I'm still showing them inside the Underspace tunnel with us.” Brex frantically tried to maintain the computer link with Runabouts to give them a real-time feed of navigational data as Galaxy had taken the lead in the tunnel but as the seconds ticked on it was getting more and more difficult to do so. 

“Have you found us an exit, Mr. Conklin?”

Alex groaned as the ship lurched again and sent his stomach into his throat. “Not yet. The apertures are collapsing rapidly; as soon as I find one it closes off. I don't even know where we are going, this is an entirely different tunnel system. The one we are in won't last much longer; If I don't find an exit aperture we'll be thrown out into normal space when this tunnel collapses.”

“Lieutenant Brex, have engineering divert all power not allocated to life support to the SIF and shield grid.”

Brex nodded, his free hand imputing commands as quickly as he could. “Aye, ma'am.”

“Captain, the Runabouts are still falling further behind us.” Erith spoke up from the conn station. “I still don't know of any way to slow us down or speed them up.”

“Mr. Conklin, I need an off ramp and I need one now.”

“I'm trying Captain!” Frustration laced the man's voice. The apertures and, possibly Underspace itself, were collapsing, rapidly, and he had no idea if the tunnels he was sending them down were taking them closer to home or deeper into unexplored space. He grunted in frustration as two of the smaller tunnels they were approaching collapsed, locking off another two exit points. None of it made sense. This wasn't supposed to be possible. 

Sparks erupted from an unmanned console on the starboard wall, the ship violently rocking to port.

Ereth struggled to right the ship, his console an angry array of red lights that wouldn't let him do much. “I'm losing helm control, the corridor has narrowed too much.” 

“Shields are at 88%. Any further shrinkage of the corridor will result in direct contact; the shields will not last long.” T'Keu paused for a moment to check the readings. “Sheilds would last roughly 93 seconds if we made direct contact with the corridor.”

Clara let out a huff of air. “Alex, I could use some good news right about now.”

Conklin, sadly, could offer none. “The corridors ahead that are stable enough aren't large enough for the Galaxy to fit though. We're going to have to ride this out. I could try and emit a resonance pulse to try and shove us out of the corridor before it destabilizes. Won't be great but it's better than being in here when the corridor collapses.”

Brex spoke up. “I don't think the runabouts will be able to withstand that with how unstable everything is; they would take severe damage.”

“Damn it.” Muttered Clara. If the Ruanbouts wouldn't survive being shoved out, they certainly wouldn't survive the corridor collapsing and there was no way to get them back to the safety of the shuttle bay. “Commander, you mentioned that there are upcoming corridors that we are too large to fit though, correct?”

Alex held on for dear life as the ship rocked again, eyes closed tight until the ship stabilized. “Yes, three total. All of them lead to exit points.”

“Lieutenant, transmit nav data to the Runabouts that would send them down one of the corridors.”

Brex turned to face Clara, a distressed expression on his face. “We have no idea where they will end up. Given the nature of Underspace, it could be hundreds of lightyears away for our exit point.”

She was well aware of that fact but lost was better than dead. “I'm aware of that. We'll find them, I promise. Transmit the data.”

Brex nodded. “Aye.”

It took seconds for then Runbouts to receive the data. Clara watched the small screen in the chair of her arm, two small blips following the large blip that represented that Galaxy. It only took moments for the upcoming tunnels to come into view and for the ship to glide past them; the two small blips diverted into one of the tunnels, moving them out of harm's way.

“Captain, the apertures will collapse in 83 seconds. Perhaps even the corridor itself.”

“Commander, will the sensors be able to see when the Runabouts exit the corridor?”

Alex shook his head, strands of blonde hair coming down over his eyes. “No, but the best estimate was 31 seconds after they entered the corridor. They should already be clear.”

“All hands brace for deceleration.” She steadied herself in her seat. “Emit the resonance pulse, Commander.”

To the naked eye, there wasn't anything particularly special about this sector of space. It was black. There were dots of stars hundreds of lightyears in the distance. That was pretty much it. If you happened to have subspace sensors then it was easy to see that this sector of space wasn't quite as calm as it appeared.

In a flash of light, a Galaxy Class vessel erupted from subspace, breaking thrusters firing en-mass to try and slow the ship. On the bridge, multiple officers let out a sigh of relief as most of them managed to stay in their seats, except for Lieutenant Commander T'Keu. Her chair at the tactical arch was far less robust than the rest of the chairs on the bridge; an oversite nobody doubted she would correct as soon as she could."

Clara coughed, smoke from burnt out consoles choking the air. “Report!”

Brex pulled up the MSD report on his console, the list of damages flying by quickly. “SIF at 73%, shields at 54%. No structural damage was reported and all major systems are still online.”

Clara brushed the dust and light debris off her uniform top. “I'll take it. Where are we, Mr. Conklin?”

“Astrometric sensors recalibrating now.” He watched as the star chart appeared on his console, the word working pulsing over it. In seconds a Starfleet Delta appeared. “Got it. Looks like we're in the Alpha Quadrant, pretty deep in Cardassian space but I don't think we're anywhere critical.”

The bridge staff let out a collective sigh of relief. “I'll take it. Any signs of the Runabouts.”

Alex expanded the long-range sensors to their max but saw nothing matching a Federation signature. “No.” he replied, his voice small, almost defeated. “And I'm not picking up any Underspace apertures. At bare minimum we don't have access to the network now, at worst, much of the network has collapsed entirely.”

Clara nodded. “Noted. We'll find them, I assure you of that. Commander Demar and the rest of the senior staff are capable officers and will do everything they can to get back home.”

“Captain, I am picking up three Cardassian cruisers dropping out of warp.” T'Keu adjusted herself in her seat. “Weapons are online but the shields are still compromised.” It went unsaid that while a single Cardassian cruiser, or even two of them, were not much of a threat to a ship the size of the Galaxy, three of them could go toe to toe with her.

Clara rubbed her eyes, sighing. “Let's hope they aren't in the mood to fight. Hail them.”

The viewscreen shifted from a view of space to the view of a less than thrilled Cardassian Gul. “This is Gul Remnek of the Cardassian Fifth Order. You are ordered to return to Federation space immediately; the CUS Moteri will escort you to the border. You will not deviate from the course provided.”

Clara stood, not bothering to put a smile on her face. “A pleasure to meet you, Gul Remnek. I am Captain Clara Myers of the Federation starship Galaxy. We arrived here via a sunspace corridor that collapsed and -”

“We are aware of how you arrived here.” Remnek interrupted her. “The Cardassian Union has done what your Federation did not have the strength to do and brought stability to not only the Union but the quadrants and closed the network. In the name of peace, we will allow you to leave our space without consequences.” The lilted way he spoke the word ‘peace’ indicated he wanted nothing of the sort but was at least satisfied with gloating.

Clara froze. Was it true? Did they really manage to seal off or even collapse part of the Underspace network? He had no reason to lie about it; it's not like the Galaxy had the tactical advantage in this situation. A less than genuine smile crossed her face. “Thank you, Gul. Keeping the peace with our neighbors is of utmost importance to the Federation. I must ask, however, that we be allowed to search for our missing crew members. They were in two Runabouts behind us and had to leave the network at a different spot. I'm sure you'd agree that if your crew was missing, you'd ask to do the same.”

The man's face turned even more sour. “A Cardassian crew would not have gotten themselves lost. Your request is denied. If they are found they will be returned; the Detapa Council has ordered all lost travelers to be returned home if found. You are in the sovereign territory of the Cardassian Union; I suggest you take our offer of peace.”

The line cut out, sending the viewscreen back to the view of the Keldon Class ship flanked by two Galor Class ships.

Clara returned to her seat. “As soon as we have the route from the Cardassian, lay in a course and engage at whatever speed they want.” A tone of defeat filtered into her voice.

Brex turned to face her. “Is there anything we can do to push them to let us search?”

Clara shook her head. “We can't outgun them, the Treaty of Bajor has been meaningless for years, and they have a point: we're in their backyard. Any aggressive action we take is tantamount to war.”

Brex silently tuned back towards his console as Erith's console chimed.

“I have the route. It's a pretty straight shot to Federation space at Warp 8. Should get us to the border in about three days.”

“Then, by all means, Ensign, take us to Warp 8.”

Clara leaned back in her read room chair, she held a cup of coffee that had long since gone cold as she gazed out the window. She'd darkened it slightly to block the bright blue light of being at warp. They'd arrive at the border in just under 48 hours and which point they'd head to Starbase 72 to get patched up and be debriefed. She'd gotten some info once they linked back into the Federation comm network but there were still lots of unknowns.

The doors slid open as Commander Alex Conklin walked into the room; taking advantage of knowing the fact that Myers rarely set her door to ‘office’ mode unless she was in a meeting. He sat down in the chair without a word. 

She turned to face him and it didn't take much to see the stress of the last several days had taken its toll. She saw the lines on his face and his normally bright blue eyes had seemingly dulled. His bright blonde hair, normally hanging at shoulder length, had been put up in a rushed bun.

“Do you think we'll find them?” 

Clara placed her coffee cup on the desk. “I do. When we get back to Starbase 72 we'll be able to upload the scans and mapping of the parts of the network we went through. Hopefully, another ship was in that area of Underspace at some point and if they exited anywhere near where the Runabouts did, we can narrow down our search.”

He shifted in his seat, shoulders drooping as he let go of some of the stress he'd been holding. “I hope we find a match. If not, and they are in Cardassian space, do you trust them to hand them back over?”

Clara sighed. “I think so. The Detapa Council has little appetite for war and while they could theoretically just take them prisoner and claim they never found them, my understanding is that when the apertures all collapsed, people raced through the network to escape and ended up in lots of places they were not supposed to; there are many eyes on the Cardassians and every other government we have diplomatic relations with. They can't get away with much.”

Alex shifted again in the seat, moving his right leg up to sit on it. Clara had known him long enough to recognize his tell tell ‘I am still stressed out’ sign. 

“Hopefully they aren't in some far flung part of the quadrant. I know they are trained officers and Geden is an experienced leader, even if he won't admit it, but those Runabouts can only get you so far.”

Calling Demar by his first name hadn't gone unnoticed by Clara. She knew they had standing appointments for a working lunch and over the last few weeks of shakedown Demar had gotten more comfortable in his role, though he still had a ways to go. What also hadn't gone unnoticed was the fact that Alex had taken a liking to the Trill, even if he hadn't realized that himself quite yet. She was loathe to poke at that right now, but, it was one way to redirect him away from worrying. 

“You and the Commander seem to be.” She paused to consider her words. “Working well together.”

A small crossed his face for a brief moment. She wasn't sure if that was an unconscious action or not.

“It was pretty rough in the beginning but he's relaxing a bit; opening up. He's still really closed off a lot but there are bits and pieces of personality peaking though; there a good man underneath that standoffishness.”

“Sounds like you're well on your way to a good friendship.”

 “Yeah.” He said softly. Another quick smile crossed Alex's face before being interrupted by a long yawn. 

She leaned forward, placing a hand on the arm that was resting on the desk. “Get some rest, Alex. Nothing much is going to change until we reach 72.”

He gave Clara a lopsided smile. “Is that an order from my Cpatain or a request from my friend?”

She took a sip of her coffee, peering at him over the rim. “Both, Commander.”

He chucked, standing up. “Aye, aye ma'am.” He turned and began to walk out.

“Commander.” She said, stopping him. “I don't leave people behind, you know that. We'll find them, I promise.”

He gave her a soft smile before turning around and leaving.

She turned back to gazing out the window. She knew he didn't completely believe her; she didn't even quite believe it herself.