The premise was simple enough… I haven't written anything good in a year. I was sitting at my desk doing nothing (as always) and came to the realization that I needed to do something to jump-start myself back into writing. I need to finish all of my current stories, but I feel in order to do that I need to write a new one. Instead of the current fashion of my writing, incremental updates over time, I'm going to write an entire story in one day from start to finish. The plan is not to leave my computer until it's posted on . Let's get started, shall we? *Edit… it took me four days. But I did it, none the less =] Enjoy!

One – Fifty-Two Years after Nemisis
USS Alpha Sinlari
NCC-8414-925-B
Delta Kimos star system - Gamma Quadrant

Captain Anton Contreras was listening to his breath as he ran. It was heavy… concentrated… controlled. He was trying desperately not to stop and collapse onto the ground in a fit of gasps for he had been pushing himself too hard. He knew he couldn't keep it up much longer but conditioning his heart the old fashion way was something that he cared about. Fitness in general was something that a lot of Starfleet Captains let slide once they reached the rank and he was determined not to let that happen to him.

The running track gave way into a squishy bounce as he ran… something he appreciated immensely. He knew that his endurance probably wouldn't have held up thus far without the professional grade track. That, and nobody was around to watch him suffer in the private holosuite. Anton always enjoyed running alone, but lifting with company.

"I'm such a weird person." The thought crept into his head which caused him to laugh. The laughter was painful so he slowed to a walk. "That's enough exercise anyway." He said to himself as he wiped the sweat off his face and tried to normalize his after-work out panting.

"Bridge to Contreras." Anton smiled at the familiar voice as it filled the air around him. It was Ensign Troy Del Rio, the communication officer. Troy was the only person on board that pronounced his last name correctly.

"Go ahead, Troy."

"Captain we are receiving a long-range hail from the Galacon. It's urgent." Ensign Del Rio had a hint of fear in his voice that Anton had not noticed before. He stopped walking and nodded.

"Understood, standby Bridge, Anton out. Computer end program and beam me to the bridge."

Captain Contreras blinked and found himself standing in the middle of the command center of the Alpha Sinlari. He wiped more sweat off of his face and turned around to Del Rio. "Put them up." He said quickly and caught a glance at his first officer, Rebecca Bensing. She had a neutral expression on her face that didn't reveal much. He shrugged her off mentally and eyed the viewer. The bridge of the Galacon flicked up before his eyes. Captain Jonathan Schwer immediately came into view.

"Captain Schwer, my communications officer says it was urgent?" Anton asked as he crossed his arms.

"Captain Contreras… we received a distress call from Starfleet Command a few hours ago." Anton raised his eyebrows when Jonathan stopped talking.

"From Starfleet Command? What was the problem?"

"We still don't know. It was an automated message… it's gone now. They're all gone now."

Anton studied his face. Jonathan was a young captain like Anton they were both in their early thirties. He didn't really know the man personally but the more he stared into his eyes he could see there wasn't much behind them. He looked almost dead inside.

"What do you mean they're all gone now?"

"We responded to the distress call… we jumped into the sector… and it's all gone."

"Could you please clarify?" Anton heard the annoyance in his first officers voice as she stepped up behind him and ask the question.

"Sector 001 is gone. Earth, Mars, Saturn, the sun… it's all gone. The entire sector is just gone."

"Jesus Christ." Anton whispered. "We are coming to assist, standby Galacon. Alpha Sinlari out." He walked down to the helms station. "Jump us to the Galacons location now." He turned to his first and second officers. "Rebecca, Tyler, meet me in transporter room two in ten minutes."

--

The Alpha Sinlari jumped back into normal space with ease and took cruising position next to the Galacon. Moments later Captain Contreras and his first and second officers materialized in a transporter room aboard the Galacon. Captain Schewer and his first officer stood to greet them.

"Captain." Jonathan nodded at him and lead point exiting the room . Anton fell in step beside him. "We collected all the sensor data we could and then jumped back out of the system. I wanted to raise as many ships as I could and inform them of the situation. Given your vessils specialized sensor cluster you were the first I contacted."

"How many ships responded to the initial distress call?" Anton asked as all the officers entered a turbolift.

"Observation Lounge." Jonathan said quickly to the turbloift controller. "We were the only one. It doesn't make any sense, there are hundreds of ships located within range of the distress call and yet mine was the only ship to arrive back home." They paused when the lift came to a halt and everyone exited to the observation lounge.

"Did you try to contact anybody when you arrived and nobody was there?" Captain Contreras asked as he and his crew sat down to face the sensor display while Captain Schwer approached the screen.

"Of course we did. I sent out a broadcast hail to any ship in range. Nobody answered… " Schwer replied as he punched a button on the display. A starchart appeared on the monitor. "Problem is that long range sensors detect Starfleet ships throughout all the surrounding systems." Anton stood up and approached the screen.

"This makes no sense. Can you show me the sensor readings you collected at sector 001?"

Captain Schwer nodded and changed the screen. Anton studied the readings in silence for a minute… he was equally as confused. "There is no gravimetric distortions, no tachyon or croniton residuals. It's just empty space."

"Exactly." Schwer replied with a stone cold face. Anton swiveled on his heel to face his first and second officers.

"Rebecca, Tyler? Anything to contribute?" Both of them just stared blankly at him lost in thought. "I'll take that as a no." Anton turned back to Captain Schwer. "I want to jump the Alpha Sinlari back to sector 001 and run some more detailed scans. Would you be okay with investigating some of the closer ships that are showing up on sensors and determine why they are not responding to hails?"

"Yeah… we can handle that." Schwer said slowly. Anton shook his head… "The man is destroyed inside. I'm going to have to be careful to not let that happen to my crew." "We'll show ourselves out. How about we rendezvous back here in four hours?"

"Agreed." Schwer nodded at him. Anton ushered his officers out of the room and they walked slowly back to the transporter room. He looked at them both and could see their attention was drifting. He could tell it was time for a quick pep-talk.

"Commanders." He said quickly as he stopped in the middle of the corridor. They looked up at him in question. "I understand that you both have connections on earth. We all do, but for us to do our jobs and find out just what the hell happened, we all need to be at one hundred percent. Can I count on you both to stay alert and push your thoughts aside for the next four hours?"

"Yes sir." Rebecca nodded. He turned to Tyler Parcell.

"Of course sir." Commander Parcell nodded his head slowly.

"Excellent then." They walked in silence the rest of the way to the transporter room, and back to the bridge of their ship. Anton noticed the streak on the viewscreen as he entered the room. The Galacon had just warped away. "I want all sensors recording from this point on. Helm, lay in a course to Sector 001… maximum warp. Engage."