It had been a few weeks now since contact was lost with Starfleet, Fourth Fleet Command, Deep Space 17 and practically all other emplacements throughout the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. The blackout, they had determined, was not an isolated issue, merchant ships that had docked at Hecate reporting some strange new limitation with subspace.

Sazra looked at the report that her Chief Engineer had compiled and shrugged. This blackout had impact on various regions in different stages. No communication with much of the area, and limited and static-laden for the rest, and nothing beyond impulse beyond the local area. The  thing that worried Sazra most was the Gemini. She should have arrived at Deep Space 17 by now, but no dice.

“Operations to Captain Kobahl,” a voice echoed over her badge.

Her overthinking mind, full of worry and panic, came to a sudden halt as she looked up. “Kobahl here, what’s wrong?”

“We are able to get a tenuous connection through to Archanis Station. Do you wish to connect?”

She stood up. “Put them through to my office, and stabilize the connection as much as possible.” Sazra saw the flickering connection getting shaped in front of her. It took a bit of time to stabilize, but Sazra moved to the front of her desk as Vice Admiral Alex Grayson appeared on the street. “Admiral, it is good to see a friendly face after weeks of being disconnected! This is Fleet Captain Kobahl of Hecate Station. Can you read me?”

“You’re very faint, but yes, yes I can hear you captain – and sort of see you even,” smiled Vice Admiral Grayson, a look of relief present on his face. It had been far too long since a call like this had been made, a month since the Blackout had come, cutting them off from anyone beyond their local sector group. Captain David Dawson and the wizards down in the Advanced Science, Technology and Research Activity’s lab had been working non-stop on trying to overcome the effects, and while this was a point-to-point transmission his research chief cautioned could not be replicated beyond more broadly to other areas, a link to anyone was better than a link to no one. “What is your status? I assume the same subspace blackout we’re contending with has effected you as well?”

Leaning against her desk, crossing her arms letting a sigh out of relief, Sazra nodded slowly. “Things have been hectic here. We have been dealing with this blackout for some time now. From the stories that merchants tell us and what some of the squadron have informed, limited communication and in various stages of limit to no travel in certain regions with warp.” She blinks a bit thinking about it. “But Hecate Station and the region of Grim Wall to Betreka Nebula, at least, have not been affected by the limitations. What is your status, admiral?”

“We’re completely enveloped in the anomaly,” Vice Admiral Grayson replied. “Everything spinward and rimward of the Elgatis Belt and everything coreward and trailing of the Briar Patch is unknown to us… everything except, as of now, you.” Captain Dawson had explained that the reason this connection worked had something to do with the astrophysical properties and alignment of the Archanis and Betreka Nebulae, but the fineries of the technobabble were loaded on the aged admiral. ”Have you been able to reach Fourth Fleet Command? All our attempts thus far have failed.”

She shook her head in disappointment. “I have been unable to contact anyone at distance. Not Fourth Fleet Command, nor Task Force 17 , let alone even my own ships in the field.” Sazra had the Gemini out near Deep Space 17, and their silence bothered her the most . The USS Tornado‘s location was also unknown. “I just manage to get a grip on Hecate Station, but now I am blind on what is happening in the field or anything in my surroundings.” She took a deep breath. “Admiral, I am worried that if we continue this path… the worst kind of possibilities might become true.” She refers to elements of groups, people, or governments making ill use of this.

“The blackout both creates a precarious situation and a layer of insulation,” Vice Admiral Grayson offered pensively, trying to calm his colleague’s nerves. “Those who may wish to capitalize on this are as limited as we are.” Still, he knew that it was only a small consolation. Both their stations lay within borderland regions rife with local interests who stood to gain from what Starfleet lost, and they both abutted an empire with whom tensions had been brewing ever since the rise of Toral.

It did help to call Sazra down slightly, and then it hit her. The limitations are what they made of it, Sazra looked at the flickering image of Grayson. “Admiral, I feel we need to improve communication and visibility of the region. We can’t be so blind, especially with our neighbors so unpredictable in their current state of affairs.” The Klingons were top of mind for her, as were the raiders and profiteers that they’d struggled with since the winter. She pushed herself off the desk. “I propose that we line ourselves the old fashion way, a network of satellites that makes it possible for us to communicate more clear, but also be able to reach out those in the region that need help. I can send USS Himalaya, my engineering specialist can lead this endeavor. What do you think Admiral?”

“If one had proposed this even five minutes ago, I’d have been reticent,” Vice Admiral Grayson admitted. “But the fact that this link between us even possible, it suggests that, at least along the alignment with the Archanis and Betreka nebulae, the blackout effect may not be as comprehensive as we first believed.” Captain Dawson had urged him to send a ship out that way earlier, but given their failed attempts to penetrate the blackout along other vectors, he’d held back, preferring to maintain a strong presence around Archanis Station for exactly the same concerns that Fleet Captain Kobahl had enunciated. “I will send a team aboard the Pacific Palisades to give it a shot, and I suggest you do the same. If we are right, we might at least be able to connect whatever isolated cells lie between our two stations.”

“Exactly,” Sazra agreed with the admiral almost immediately. “If we can expand our network, we be able to provide help faster and maybe reconnect to any workable array out there that can get us back in touch with Starfleet.” A wish she would get fulfilled right now, quite badly. She exhaled a deep breath. “Let us get to… Admiral?” But no dice. The link had dropped. “Admiral can you hear me?”

The reality, as Vice Admiral Grayson confirmed as he reviewed the starchart from his office, was that the galaxy was not stationary. It moved, and with its movement, even slight, the exact alignment they had used to establish the link across the peturbations in subspace had faltered. That didn’t mean there wasn’t something to be done here though. He just hoped that Fleet Captain Kobahl, even with the dropped link, stayed the course too. He tapped his combadge. “Captain Saito, Commodore Agarwal, report to my ready room.” It was time to give the Pacific Palisades something to do.