Astrometrics Lab, USS Truckee

Lieutenant Commander Bishop sat hunched over his console. His back ached, his uniform was rumpled and sweaty, and he was tired. He’d been in Astrometrics for the past 8 hours, with Commander Aldiib standing over his shoulder for almost the entirety. After Captain Beardsly had attempted to contact Starfleet Command, and failed, they’d tried heading home. Unfortunately, they hadn’t made it very far…

8 hours earlier, USS Truckee bridge

“Engage.”

With the course already plotted, the helmsman activated the warp drive. The stars on the viewscreen stretched and smeared as the ship jumped away from the site of their botched rescue. They were headed towards the nearest starbase, as their attempt to report the mishap had failed.

“Alright, well… You have the bridge, XO.” Marcus stood and was about to head for the turbolift.

“Captain, I’m picking up some unexpected readings ahead” Bishop reported before the captain had even taken a step. “Subspace distortions of some kind. Sensors are not configured for this, I need a moment-”

Unfortunately, Bishop didn’t get his moment. The ship lurched violently, and several of the bridge crew were thrown from their post for a second time that shift. Alarms blared, as the circumstances automatically set yellow alert.

“Report!” Captain Beardsly demanded from the floor.

“Engineering to bridge, we’ve dropped out of warp! The warp bubble just collapsed! Only had about three seconds of warning. Investigating the cause now, I’ll report further as soon as I have something. All I can tell you right now is I don’t think it’s a problem with ship’s systems. Everything was fine, until it wasn’t. No major damage to report.” Lieutenant Rakes’ voice called out over the bridge speakers, with the sound of shouting and alarms filling in the background noise.

“Very well. Commander Bishop, you mentioned subspace? Get those sensors aligned, because a coincidence seems awfully unlikely right now.” Marcus took a moment to check his chair console. Nobody else had volunteered any information yet. With an experienced crew, that would mean there was nothing else to report at that time, but he wanted to check ship’s status himself.

Commander Aldiib broke the silence. “Reports coming in from all decks. Minor injuries, minor damage. Inertial dampeners are strained – as one might expect – but still operational. Repair crews already on route.”

Marcus nodded, acknowledging. What the hell is going on?

Astrometrics Lab, present time

William Bishop sat back in his chair and wiped his brow. He took a moment to think about his day, silently cursing his luck. Their rescue attempt had gone bad. Not only did he immediately get the blame for the disaster, but he then couldn’t even explain what had happened. Fortunately, sensor logs had cleared him of fault. His shift had been about to end, and he’d been looking forward to heading back to his quarters, relaxing with a nice glass of apple juice and a stack of the latest scientific publications on astrophysical breakthroughs, when they’d been ripped out of warp due to unknown reasons. Suddenly, his entire off-duty rotation had been eaten up here, trying to figure out what was going on out there.

“Focus please, Mr. Bishop.” Commander Aldiib’s voice brought William back to the present. “Let us recap our findings, and then you may rest. I will report our findings to the captain.”

“Yes sir. Thank you.” Bishop tapped at the controls, and the 3D rendering of their sector of space zoomed out. “This is the Ba’ku system, here” he gestured at the center of the map, “and of course the Briar Patch” he indicated the haze surrounding the system. “We are currently just outside the system. The distress call brought us nearby, but not into the Briar Patch.” A green dot indicated the Truckee‘s position.

“We have no communication outside the system, and of course, due to the nature of the Ba’ku, and the Briar Patch, no communications in-system either. This barrier…” Bishop paused as a red cross-hatching began to envelope the system on the map, “represents some kind of breakdown in subspace. Harmonic oscillations of unknown origin are preventing subspace communications, as well as preventing warp travel. According to Engineering, we have no way of maintaining a warp bubble, but that is outside my expertise.”

Peldun Aldiib nodded, but did not interrupt, so Bishop continued. “We would have to traverse the system to map the subspace interference, but based on what we can see, I believe the entire Ba’ku system is isolated by this barrier. There are no other Federation vessels scheduled to be here, nor have we seen anyone else. The closest starbase is in the Deneb sector, but at sublight speed…” Bishop didn’t finish the sentence. They’d never make it there. He’d read a report once about a crippled ship – he’d forgotten which – that had been forced to push their impulse engines to .99c to reach a star system. It had taken months for them, and years for the rest of the galaxy. Bishop shook his head. Despite being an astrophysicist, relativity hurt his head. It wasn’t important now anyway.

“Very well, Commander. You are dismissed. Good work here.” Peldun applauded his work, despite the grim results. “I will be removing you from the bridge duty roster for the time being. It is not a punishment; I believe your expertise will be more valuable here. We need to know more about this subspace phenomenon. Your next duty shift, and following shifts for the time being, will be in the astrometrics lab, at 0800.”

Peldun remained in the lab after William had left. He stared at the sector map, willing it to tell him more. To reveal a secret. To his surprise, it did.

A new dot blinked into existence, on the edge of the system, approximately pi/4 radians around the perimeter. Curious. Peldun stepped closer to the console and zoomed in. A ship configuration he was unfamiliar with.

“Computer, identify this vessel.”

“Vessel configuration is consistent with Vaadwaur design.” the computer announced without emotion.

Peldun Aldiib blinked once in surprise.

“Huh.”