She walked back towards the command chairs, pausing before sitting in the executive officer’s chair. “Computer, locate Captain Keacen.”

“Captain Keacen beamed to Deep Space 17 at 0601.”

“Ok.” Isabella inhaled and let out a deep breath. “Let’s not interrupt him. He is likely caught up in whatever response is being cooked up. Let’s focus on getting the ship ready. Send out a recall notice; have all senior staff beam directly to the Bridge if they are off ship. Everyone else operates on emergency recall protocols.”

Maria nodded, grateful to have a distraction. “Aye, ma’am.”

“Broska to Main Engineering.”

“Engineering here, ma’am.”

“Bring ship to full power. Prepare for possible immediate departure.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Within moments the lights on the Bridge went to full lighting, consoles powered up across the bridge, flashing the Starfleet logo for a few moments as they booted up. She heard the tell-tell whine of the transporter moments before the shimmering curtain of blue appeared.

Aakon looked around for a moment, eyes adjusting to the light. “I see you already got the show on the road. Good work, Izzy.”

“Captain, what’s going on? Maria’s picking up possible Underspace apertures on long range sensors and..”

Aakon raised his hand to interrupt her. “As best as we can tell right now it’s a Vaadwaur. Details are minimal but DS17 is picking up numerous ships across the Frontier.”

“The Vaadwaur?” Maria’s voice was laced with surprise. “That species Janeway woke up in the Delta Quadrant?”

“That is the one. If anyone was going to pry Underspace open again, it’d be them.” Keacen took his seat next to Isabella.

“I really wish that women would have just pointed Voyager towards Earth and left everyone else alone.” Maria muttered just quiet enough that nobody else picked up on it.

“Are we looking at a full scale invasion?”

Aakon paused for a moment; it wasn’t an answer he had. “Too early to tell. It’s pretty safe to assume that they aren’t just showing up out here and I would guess other areas would be harder hit; the edge of Federation space isn’t exactly the most strategic target.”

The whine of the transporter filled the Bridge again as both K’Vevka and Talnot arrived in a curtain of blue light. 

“What in the world is going on?” K’Vevka took her seat at the ops console. “It’s organized chaos over there.”

Talnot sat down to the right of her. “First time I’ve been on Starbase when it went to alert status. Can’t say I care for it.”

“I’ll give everyone the run down once we’re all here but the short story is the Vaadwaur have invaded the sector.”

Talnot turned to face Aakon and Isabella, a puzzled look on his face. “The Underspace aliens?”

“That would be the ones.” Isabella muttered as she brought up a small MSD on the console built into her chair. “They’re mad about something.”

“Underspace did get destroyed, I’d be pissed too.” Talnot turned back around, focusing on the start up cycle for the impulse engines.

The two turbolift doors at the back of the bridge hissed open, officers emptying out onto the bridge to take up stations across the bridge. Rutledge worked his way through the mass of officers to get to the tactical station. 

“Sorry about the delay. I slept through my alarm.” He quickly logged into the console. “What’s going on?”

Maria glanced over at Jackson, a grin on her face. Sensing that it was not the time nor the place to make an offhand remark at him supposedly ‘sleeping through his alarms” she turned back to her console. “Seems we have a small problem with the Vaadwaur.”

“It’s more than a small problem.” There was an edge to Aakon’s voice that most of the senior staff wasn’t familiar with. He tapped a small blue button on the console built into his chair. A soft whistle echoed through the ship.

“All hands, this is the Captain. I will keep this short and to the point. The sector is under siege by a species called the Vaadwaur. We have limited information about the rest of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants due to the Backout but we have to assume the rest of the Federation is under siege or shortly will be; we can assume our allies across the quadrants are also facing their own troubles. WIth so little information to go on, we have been charged with protecting Federation assets in the area as best we can. I know this is frightening; war does not come naturally to us. We seek to discover what lies just beyond our reach, not destroy what lies at our feet. Do your duties in the excellent capacity I know all of you are capable of. Your department heads will be in touch with what comes next. I have faith in all of you; together we will stand against the storm that lies ahead. Kacen out.”

A quiet had settled over the Bridge as the gravity of the situation began to sink in. 

Isabella cleared her throat. “I think I speak for all of us when I say: we’re ready. What are your orders, Captain?”

Aarkon tapped a few commands into his console. “I’m sending a destination to your console Talnot. Chart a course.”

Talnot pulled up the destination and let out a soft whistle. “That’s pretty deep into the Expanse.” He watched as the computer drew a fairly direct line to the border of the expanse before it turned into a winding path through the various anomalies. He tapped a few buttons, shifting the path in a few areas to what he thought was a better route. “Course laid in. It’ll get pretty tough the further we get into the Expanse and we’ll be limited to warp 4 in some spots because of some subspace instability but we’ll get there.”

“Very good. You’re clear to use maximum warp, engage when ready.”

“Aye sir, maximum warp.” 

The Gagarin class ship slowly pulled out of orbit around DS17; joining the multiple other ships doing the same as everyone received their emergency orders. With a flash of blue light from the nacelles the ship lept to warp.