“Governor. There is a Federation starship coming to our assistance, some ship called the Pathfinder. More help is coming behind them.” Governor Lanon’s administrative assistant passed him a tablet device along with her verbal report. The Governor’s suite had several other of his leaders sitting with him, all of which eyed him intently as he reviewed the report that had just been passed to him. 

“Thank you.” Lanon replied, dismissing his assistant with a wave of his hand. He nodded a few more times to himself as he took in the contents of the report at a fast read through. “Another two hundred cases in the Ka’velh district have been reported.” He threw down the report and sighed. His body posture appeared very much defeated. 

“Lanon. You called the Federation for help? That is not what we agreed upon.” The voice of his deputy governor, Jenke, broke the silence of the room. His tone was angered and frustrated. 

“And just what did you expect me to do, Jenke? I tried calling for help from your friends, and we were met with nothing but silence. Our people are dying from whatever this is that is going around in the thousands. They are looking to me to fix this.” Lanon’s reply was equally as frustrated in tone. 

“This will bear consequences on our trade deals with the Orions, Lanon. They were clear that one of our best attributes for trade was the fact we were not involved with starfleet or the federation,” Jenke shook his head, stood up and growled to himself as he exited the governor’s suite. 

“Trade deals be damned. We won’t have a colony left at this rate to trade. We’ll all be dead without the federation’s help.” Lanon replied to the void despite Jenke’s exit.

“What do you mean that message got through to the Federation? I thought you said you had the communication jammers taken care of.. This… You incompetent fool!” A large Orion figured male, dominating in stature, unholstered his disrupter and aimed it at a much smaller middle aged male subordinate. 

The helpless communications officer waved his hands and pleaded in desperation for his life, but to no avail. His agonizing screams could be heard across the command deck as his boss fired the disruptor at him and his body was slowly and agonizingly vaporized. 

“Anyone else want to fuck things up today?” The Orion boss groaned, holstered his disrupter, and resumed his seat in the command chair of his vessel. 

“Get in touch with the extraction facility on Ni’lan. Tell them to wipe as much as they can and get the hell out of there. They’ve got fifteen hours. If they’re not back and on board – they get left behind. We cannot afford to be caught up in this mess now that Starfleet is rearing its ugly head. This deal with the Hulan people has gone straight to shit.” 

“Orions?” Kqinara raised a brow at the report from her chief of security and second officer. 

B’Timo, Tahn and she were seated in her ready room, sharing a pot of coffee and moving through some departmental reports while discussing their current situation. The Pathfinder was less than nine hours away from Ni’lan, and the crew rallied together as best as they could for what would be a much larger medical intervention than they were designed to handle. 

“I wasn’t sure of it myself. We had to verify the scans several times. They do not want to be found based on their positioning. We only identified them by chance, given what our sensors are capable of. I wanted to get a wholesome understanding of the space and sector we were entering.” Tahn’s proactiveness had uncovered a large class Orion vessel, holding orbit of a class y-planet several systems adjacent to Ni’lan. 

The planet, under most circumstances, would have deflected most scanners due to some unstable pocket emissions of thermionic radiation. Pathfinder’s advanced sensory capacity had incidentally found it. It was certainly not an orbit a vessel would maintain without some desire to be missed. 

“Not who I was expecting to run into out here. Should we be concerned?” Kqinara asked them both.

“They’re not known to have strong trade or crime routes out in these remote sectors. Based on data from starfleet intelligence, I’m leaning towards low risk here. I’d bet there’s something amiss though.” B’Timo’s soft and deep voice replied and shared what little he could come up with. His own experiences with the Orion in his career had been limited, but what intersections he did have were not innocent on their part.

“We will need to be on alert then. Keep an eye on the vessel as best as can.” Kqinara ordered and took another sip of her coffee before repositioning some in her chair. “How is Doctor Caade making along with his preparations?” 

“We worked with him to recruit another eighteen personnel from other departments, with basic medic training, to assist the medical team. Mass replication of medical equipment and disaster supplies has been happening too.” B’Timo answered. 

“Make sure folks are getting some rest, you two. Things will get very hectic here shortly and will be so until our backup comes. I’ll check in with Doctor Caade before I go off duty. I’m sure he’s stressed and feeling the weight of our situation more than any of us.” Kqinara took a deep breath, grounding herself, and let her officers continue with their reports.