Michael led Tallie to the ready room and sat her down. “Can I get you something to drink?” he was trying to do anything to relax her that he could. She was visibly distressed and he had never seen her that way in the past year he had worked with her. 

Tallie smiled “No, Captain I am ok. I just had something happen that I need to talk to you about. I don’t know if it’s connected, but I need to get it off my chest.” 

Michael nodded and sat down activating the privacy setting for his ready room, as he did the windows were dimmed, the door was locked, and the system did not allow anyone to chime at the door. He had only used it once, but this seemed to call for it. “Alright Tallie, what’s going on? I have never seen you under such stress?”

Tallie started fidgeting with her hands as she tried to find the words “So before I came to the bridge I had taken your advice to sleep and well it didn’t go great I had a nightmare one where I don’t want to rehash the finer points of all I saw, but what I did see was the whole crew dead. When I found you…you were almost dead but you were clutching a PADD that had a symbol. I’d truly never seen it before, but now I researched it and I need to show you.” She grabbed the PADD she had and handed it to him. 

Michael took the PADD and saw the symbol immediately he froze. He knew that symbol, but what did it mean? “I can’t say what the dream means, but thank you for bringing this to my attention. We will definitely proceed with caution from now on.”

Tallie looked at him “So could this be a problem?”

Michael paused “This changes the approach to this mission. We need to stay on our feet, but for now, let’s keep this between us. I don’t want to incite panic in the crew. At least not if it’s just a weird coincidence.”

Tallie nodded “Understood, Sir. Thank you for always listening.”

Michael smiled “I will be here at any point you need me.”

Tallie nodded and stood up. It was time for her to actually get some reports “Can I be dismissed, Sir? I need to catch up on paperwork for the ship.” 

Michael nodded and watched Tallie walk out. ‘If what she showed me was the truth this could get complicated very fast.’

Michael tapped his fingers on his desk impatient for some update in regards to what was going on. His mind flashed to fifteen minutes earlier “What do you mean the computer can’t identify the vessel?” The reply was long and convoluted, but suffice it to say the nebula was making the sensors haywire. He was surprised the ship was still functioning with all the excuses the teams had thrown at him. He rubbed his temples as the thrum of the ship’s systems seemed to calm his anxiousness. After the conversation with Tallie, he couldn’t help but be cautious. 

A chime at the door interrupted his stewing as the door whooshed open he saw an unexpected face. His assistant chief engineer Blade. It was rare to even see Blade out of engineering; he practically lived there. When he did come out of hibernation it usually was severe. Michael stood up to greet the Lieutenant. “Blade, how can I help you? It’s rare to see you out and about. Is everything ok?” 

The Swedish man smirked “Of course, I figured maybe I should come check in given the scuttlebutt I’ve heard regarding where we are and what’s going on. Is there anything I can do to help?” the man asked in a slightly different manner than usual. It was like Blade knew that the issues that had befell the Neptune were important and they needed to be resolved if at all possible. 

Michael shook his head “It seems as though we are not going to be able to get any closer to the ships that we discovered upon our arrival. The nebula is volatile and could harm them or us. It’s not a chance I’m willing to take, especially not knowing the unknown variables.” 

Blade thought for a minute “There is the possibility of recalibrating the shields to the same atmosphere of the nebula, but I’d need more information on the nebula’s composition and I can’t guarantee that the shield’s integrity would hold for extended periods of time. This could be a long and drawn out process to make it there and back on multiple occasions.”

Michael had to admit that Blade was resourceful though most engineers wouldn’t dare to even try such a crazy maneuver, but his record spoke for itself. “Alright, let’s look into it, but if there is any indication of danger that we cannot mitigate we will not move further with this plan is that understood?”

Blade gave a solitary nod “Of course, Captain.”

Michael tapped his comm badge “Commander Kra’vaak, please report to my ready room immediately.” 

Kra’vaak acknowledged and headed for the ready room, though he was unsure as to the request he always complied. After Michael saved his brother’s life as well as his own he could never repay the man, but their friendship seemed to help both of them. He made it to the ready room and seeing Lieutenant Kristofsen was a surprise. “Blade, this is a surprise. Captain, I am reporting as ordered, though seeing Blade here I feel like you need my assistance.”

Michael nodded “I need you to prepare a probe to the specifications of the Lieutenant here. This is important so please follow his instructions.” 

Orders like this were not something to question if Michael gave instructions to follow others Kra’vaak knew that he needed to do exactly as the Captain requested. “As you order, Sir.”

Michael looked at both men “Dismissed, I expect an update in an hour.” Michael watched the two men leave then realized he needed to update the Fleet Captain on the current state of affairs. He wasn’t used to having to report to someone quite like this. He did admit the Fleet Captain was competent and her knowledge was unmatched; it showed why she had been promoted to this position. He tapped his comm badge “Ryder to Tomuya, can you come to my ready room when you have a moment.” 

Mero was in the new quarters that had been made specifically for her on the Neptune. It wasn’t the Ritz-Carlton, but it would do. She was looking through sector reports when she heard the call from Ryder. It was the first time he had called for her and she was wondering what it could be about. They had a rocky start when she came on the ship, but she had been trying to smooth that over. She acknowledged the message and headed for his ready room. 

Upon arrival she could tell something was on his mind “Is everything ok?” she said as she took a seat. 

Michael didn’t gesture, he stood up and started walking around the room “We are trying to ascertain the information on how to traverse the nebula and the team is launching a probe to get that information, but I think we could have much bigger problems.” 

Mero looked at him puzzled. “What do you mean?” she didn’t know how else to respond. He was obviously stressed about something that she had no idea or an indication of what it was. Only a few hours ago he was calm and looked like he was ready for anything. 

Michael stopped for a moment and handed her the PADD in his hand. As she took the PADD her face turned pale and she looked back at Michael “What…why…why is this being shown to me?”

Michael proceeded to explain the situation and what had happened an hour prior. Through the update, Mero stayed calm and collected trying to figure out just what it all meant. She wasn’t sure but this was an omen if ever she saw one. “I agree with the statement of being cautious, but let’s not spread panic on the ship. If this is an issue let’s make sure it’s true first.”

Michael nodded “I agree, but I just wanted to make sure that you were well aware of any action or information before it occurs. While I am not used to having someone over me I am trying to acclimate in the best way possible. We had a rough start and I want to make sure that this arrangement stays successful for as long as it can.”

Mero smiled; it was the one thing she had hoped for. Michael was one of the best officers she had worked with in such a small amount of time. His understanding of his job made him the person she chose to be her Division XO. It helped that he had been the CO of the Neptune. “It is new for both of us, but I think this is going to be a successful partnership.”

Michael nodded and was about to speak when a voice came over the comm badge “Captain, can you report to the bridge we are ready for you.” He acknowledged and looked at Mero who nodded and they proceeded to the bridge for an update. 

“Captain on the bridge” was the announcement as Mero and Michael entered the bridge. The bridge crew had shifted but Blade, Xiao, Kra’vaak, and Tallie were all present on the bridge. The main crew had been told to get some rest since they had been on duty for over 20 hrs. 

Michael looked over at Blade “Please tell me you have good news.” Blade nodded “I am happy to say that your trust in me has not been misplaced. I was able to change the shields’ harmonics and frequencies to traverse the nebula; however, we will only be able to stay in the nebula 40 minutes at a time if we don’t want severe damage to the ship. I also deduced that comms to the other ships would only be possible if we were about 75 meters from the ships. This poses another problem though because the apertures could cause the ship to be sucked into the unknown.” 

Xiao spoke up at this point “Sir, I was able to discover these apertures are being created from the Underspace. Usually, we do not see this happen it seems a rare occurrence and from reports, these are occurring around the Fourth Fleet. If we approach those apertures we need to be extremely careful. The anchor point seems to be the strongest, but if we close the points around it we could potentially close it.”

Michael listened closely with Mero also paying close attention; this whole situation was something they didn’t normally encounter, but the nebula added another issue as well. “This is interesting, have we figured out who these ships belong to?” 

Kra’vaak cleared his throat “I think I know, but I’m not sure that any of us want to hear the answer. In fact, this is probably the most unprecedented thing to ever happen. These ships come from the Delta Quadrant. My only explanation is that they traveled through Underspace. The truth is we need to now proceed with extreme caution.”

Michael looked at the bridge crew and his stomach churned as he had a feeling of who Kra’vaak was going to say who inhabited the ships. “OK, you’ve given us all the information except who it is. So I guess I’ll ask the question we have all been wondering. Who is it?”

Kra’vaak swallowed and spoke “The ships belong to beings of the Vidiian Sodality. While I cannot say if these are the vidiians cured of the phage I recommend we exercise extreme caution from this point on.” 

Tallie heard the words and almost got sick. ‘This is my nightmare coming to pass before my eyes.’ She looked at the crew who looked like they had heard the worst news possible. She wasn’t sure what was going to happen next, but this was not the news any of them wanted to hear. 

To be continued…