The Yamato dropped out of warp right back where it had started its journey to meet the Callisto. The edge of a sector filled with sensor distortions. As the ship slowed to a stop, the helm officer turned to face Solaris.

“Now approaching sector 21905, Captain. Engines answering all stop.”

Sol nodded quietly, studying the view screen. The space in front of them looked normal to the naked eye, but on their sensors, it was just covered in fog. She sighed inwardly, standing.

“Mr. Soren, give our runabouts and valkyries clearance to launch. Have them take up positions  off our forward port and starboard quarters.” she ordered.

“Yes, ma’am.” the Bajoran operations officer replied, tapping out a series of commands on his console. There were several confirmation beeps as Sol returned her attention to the view screen, where a pair of Danube-class runabouts and four Valkyrie fighters soon appeared. Sol reached down and tapped a control on the armrest of her chair. Soon the bridge’s comm system crackled to life as they listened into the Valkyrie’s communications.

“Spectre two, Spectre four, cover the Solo. Three, on me, we’ll take the Kuryakin.” the pilot, clearly the flight leader, ordered.

“Two acknowledged.”

“Three, on your wing, leader.”

“Four copies, covering Solo.”

Sol listened intently, watching as the four Valkyries split up into pairs, each taking escort positions around their assigned runabouts. She tapped another control, silencing the communications again.

“Helm, chart a search pattern and transmit it to the runabouts.” she ordered. The helm officer nodded smartly, and turned their head to look at Soren, conferring with him as they came up with a proper search pattern. The nodded back and forth a few times before seeming to agree on the proper course to chart. The helm officer tapped in commands, both laying in the search pattern and transmitting it to their runabouts.

“Search pattern laid in. Estimated time to complete is five days and eighteen hours.” she reported.

“That long?” Sol asked with a frown. She knew a Galaxy-class could effectively scan a single sector per day.

“Yes ma’am. Sensor distortions are significantly hampering our sensor resolution. If we hadn’t deployed our runabouts it would be double that time, minimum.” the helm officer reported. The Captain nodded.

“Very well, begin the pattern.” she said, returning to her seat. She looked back at her tactical officer.

“With our sensors so limited how much warning will we have if there’s someone else in here poking around… or worse someone itching for a fight?” she asked.

“Accounting for our runabout and fighter screen? Maybe a few minutes of time… once we know about them however, I can engage with manual targeting until our targeting scanners can properly acquire them.” she reported. Sol was really liking this less and less.

“Right… take us to yellow alert, Rukia… lets not get jumped with our proverbial pants down…” Sol said, returning her view back to the view screen as the ship and her escorts got underway. She leaned back in her chair as the bridge was cast in a faint yellow glow, a soft chime announcing that the ships alert status had changed to ‘Yellow Alert’.

“I guess this is what being an explorer is about, huh?” she asked, speaking to no one in particular. Her XO looked over.

“Yes ma’am. Its not as glorious as history makes it out to be.” she commented. “Sometimes its just boredom and risk.” she added. Sol laughed. Boredom and risk. Two things she positively detested.

“You’re not wrong, Commander.” she replied. She watched space through the view screen, casually resting her chin on her fist.

“What do you think is causing all this? Surely it cant be a naturally occurring phenomenon…” she commented. Amaya shrugged.

“I’ve never seen anything like it…” she said quietly. Amaya looked down at the console she had next to her chair, tapping a few commands into it. “I mean… Ive heard of sensor distortions… even ones that covered some solar systems… but never an entire sector of space and not this severe.” she continued, looking at the information that was scrolling on it. The trill officer behind them leaned over her console, peering down at her superior officers.

“One of my previous hosts experienced something like this…” she began. Sol twisted slightly in her seat to look back at Rukia.

“Really?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. Rukia nodded.

“And entire sector of space, nearly fully obscured from sensors. Spent days exploring it… longer than we’ll have to.” she continued.

“Did they ever find anything?” Amaya asked, similarly looking up at the trill woman. Rukia shrugged, shaking her head.

“No… sensors weren’t as good at the time… after about a week they gave up and left… sure they had found some interesting planets and even a whole field of asteroids… but never what had been causing the distortions.” she said with a frown. Sol frowned as well.

“Well maybe we’ll be luckier than they were…” she said. “I sure wouldn’t want to leave here without knowing what was the cause of all this. It would be rather anticlimactic…” Her XO nodded in agreeance.

“Yes, it would. I’m sure we’ll find something out there Captain…” she said.

“Maybe even something to rival what the last Yamato found…” Rukia commented. Sol looked back at the tactical officer again. She had read the stories of the past ships named Yamato. The first two ships hadn’t been all that impressive. The first ship had been lost in 2276, just up and vanished. The second had served a relatively normal career. The third however, had been the sister ship of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, and was credited with discovering the lost home world of the Iconian Empire. Which would have been an amazing discovery, had it not also resulted in the loss of that Yamato and the near loss of the Enterprise as well.

“Well hopefully… our experience goes a little better than that Yamato’s.” Sol commented, gently rapping on the wood of the tactical console behind her. “We don’t want our careers to end before they start…” she said. Rukia nodded.

“Right… I sort of forgot what happened to that ship.” she admitted, chuckling nervously. Sol laughed.

“Happens to the best of us, Commander.” she commented. She looked to Amaya.

“You have the bridge, Commander… and the first watch… I’ll relieve you in eight hours… unless we find something before then.”

“Aye Captain.” the XO replied as the Captain stood. She was tired, and needed some rest. Her thoughts drifted monetarily to the ships the had been due to rendezvous with, hoping everything had worked out. She pushed those thoughts from her mind and made her way to the turbolift. She palmed the call button and waited for the lift to arrive, stepping in when it did.

“Deck five.” she called, leaning against the back wall. She would get some rest, and be back on the bridge before long.