Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek or any of the characters created therein.

A/N 1: My sincere apologies for any spelling or grammar errors last time. The only one I caught was Mirista's name: at one point I have her down as Mirasta. Sorry about that, Mirista.

A/N 2: Each of the characters in this story is representative of something I particularly like or find important in the Star Trek universe. I told you about Sovak last time, this time: Vesta. I love the Andorians as they've been explored in the latest Trek incarnation, so of course I had to include one here!

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First Impression, Chapter 2: The Important Thing is, I'm Meeting New People

U.S.S. Temura

Unaware that another person had been doing the exact same thing only hours earlier, Captain Sovak sat back in his chair and calmly regarded the small viewscreen over his steepled fingers. The screen glowed brightly in his dimmed ready-room, personnel files dancing before his eyes as he assessed his new crewmembers. As he digested their background information, he tried to gain a sense of who they were as individuals and who they could become as a team. It was early for that, though.

The low level of light was punctuated by a few flickering candles and softly curving sculptures. Like most Vulcans, Sovak did not care for ostentatious display but did appreciate aesthetic furnishings and the effect they could have on people. Since few humanoids other than Vulcans were trained to ignore minor mental or physical discomforts, Sovak had found that creating a non-threatening atmosphere helped diffuse potentially stressful or confrontational situations before anyone even spoke. Given the function of this ship, it had seemed only logical to put this theory into practice. He had decided that this was still reasonable, so despite changes in many other areas of his ship his ready room, conference room, and many of the public areas of the ship maintained their comforting appearance. He was glad of this—or as glad as a Vulcan could be—because there had been a lot of changes as of late.

Starfleet had decided to re-define the mission of his ship; naturally a refit and new crew assignments had followed. After finishing its five-year mission as a diplomatic vessel Starfleet had decided that the Temura should now take a more active role in learning about and communicating with new cultures. She was now to be a First Contact vessel—the first in the fleet. As it had been explained to him by several ambassadors and Federation council members, the Temura's new mission would be twofold: to examine pre-warp humanoid cultures and to gather information on cultures with whom Starfleet was ready to initiate First Contact. His mind turned once more to his new personnel—how would they handle the diverse situations they were sure to encounter?

He flipped quickly through the files again, taking in the new manifest. Sovak had handpicked them all and had confidence in their abilities. His first officer had staunchly approved his captain's choices—comforting given the fact that Bohemir had a reputation for being startlingly honest. They would work.

Well, at this point they simply had too, as all the new assignments were now on board. Only one slot stood vacant: Field Engineer. This was a new position specially created to trouble-shoot for away teams and to develop technology solely for field use. It had to be someone with a knack for gadgetry and who wouldn't mind getting off the ship now and again. Well, actually, this person would be getting off the ship quite frequently. Sovak had someone in mind but had thus far been unable to locate…

His comm badge chirped.

"Bohemir to Captain Sovak." His first officer sounded tense—but that was most likely from trying to keep track of the Starbase 12 engineering crews running around the ship.

"Go ahead."

"There's an urgent transmission for you from Starfleet Headquarters."

Sovak touched the keypad in front of him, wiping the personnel files from the viewscreen.

"Put it through," he instructed Bohemir calmly. What Starfleet had in mind for him now, he would not attempt to guess.

-

Sovak took a moment to run his eyes around the conference table before getting started—this was the first time his new crew was gathered together. Starfleet was not allowing them any get-to-know-you time to get used to one another before sending them out. This first mission was going to test their ability to work as a team—and they had barely just met.

"I realize this is quite a bit more sudden than we had expected," he addressed his crew, "but it appears that Starfleet has a problem it would like us to attend to." Sovak activated a holographic viewer on the center of the table—the Temura's holotechnology was the most advanced in all of Starfleet—and sat back slightly in his chair. The viewer resolved into a spherical shape, clearly an M-class planet.

"Dukinar," Dr. Kincaide flatly identified the planet. "Correct," Sovak nodded. "I know you have all received profiles on the cultures nearing warp capability that Starfleet is preparing to make First Contact with so you should be familiar with the basic situation."

Minister Yale nodded. "Dukinar is only a few months away from making it's first manned warp flight. Less than a month ago unmanned remotely piloted shuttles broke the warp barrier, demonstrating that a humanoid could survive the experience. This space flight has been highly anticipated for many years by both the people of Dukinar and the Federation." There was a glimmer of empathy in her dark eyes. She had once been in a very similar situation and could well imagine their excitement and impatience for the next step in their exploration of the galaxy.

Sovak was more prosaic. "Their position between the Klingon and Romulan Empires is tactically sensitive. Starfleet has had observers on the planet for a number of years now, preparing for this First Contact. It had been expected that this First Contact would go well…"

"'Had'?" asked Kincaide. She had known Sovak for 12 years and had no problem interrupting his thoughts. The Vulcan, likewise, did not miss a beat.

"Two nights ago one of our anthropology units reported strange energy surges in Tula, the capital city of the southern continent." The holographic sphere began to rotate slowly, a large red dot on the southern continent revealing the location of the city in question.

"Further investigation revealed that the surges were unauthorized transporter beams. None of the science stations reported any transporter activity. Contact has been made with everyone Starfleet had on the surface, so all of our people are where they are supposed to be and none of them appear to be responsible for this. Once this had been determined the location of the beams were pinpointed." The holograph turned into a 2 dimensional map of the city, a series of small red dots indicating where transporter signatures had been found. Examination of the law enforcement logs in Tula have revealed that several people were reported as missing either that night or the next morning. Two witnesses claimed to have seen someone literally disappear before their very eyes."

"How many were taken?" asked Mirista, looking stricken. "And by whom?"

"Thirteen were taken altogether. Beamed off the planet to we know not where," Bohemir supplied. "As for who…the transporter signatures were odd. A similar transporter pattern has been found on two other worlds, both worlds that have only acquired warp drive within the past two years. Around a dozen people were taken from each of those worlds as well."

"For what purpose? What use could anyone from these worlds be to kidnappers off-world?" Una asked.

Vesta spoke up. "There have been reports of ships being attacked in various areas—usually areas with some sort of natural astronomical phenomena that hinder sensor range—throughout the Beta Quadrant for almost a year now. I have a friend in Starfleet intelligent, we trade notes," she shrugged to her companions questioning looks. Sovak motioned for her to continue.

"I don't know if these pirates are the same as the ones who attacked Dukinar, but Starfleet Intelligence thinks there is a roving black market—possibly several—operating somewhere in the quadrant."

"A black market?" Kincaide asked. "Marketing…people?" The doctor was disgusted at the concept of trading lives for profit.
"People, goods, ships, parts—I imagine that they market almost anything," Vesta confirmed. As a security officer she was less shaken by the humanoid capacity for cruelty and greed.

"Defying a Federation mandate against slavery and trading in a quadrant monitored by us, the Klingons, and the Romulans." Bohemir wondered at their bravado.

The captain nodded at the Andorian. "Yes, Lt. Vesta, you are correct in your assumption. Starfleet Intelligence thinks the Dukin and those missing from the other two planets have been taken for the express purpose of sale on this 'black market.' By taking people from planets that have just acquired warp drive they skirt the issue of directly violating the Prime Directive while preying on peoples unequipped to defend themselves from such an attack."

"Cowardice!" Vesta scowled.

"Yes," Sovak continued. "But smart. Technically, once a planet in Federation space has reached warp capability and we have initiated First Contact, non-Federation cultures have the right to interact with them. The penalty for kidnapping is still there, but it carries a less severe punishment."

Bohemir nodded. "With Dukinar they got sloppy. They must have assumed that the early shuttles were manned and that we had made First Contact by now. Lazy on their part."

"We have ten days to locate the missing Dukin and return them to their planet before they make manned warp flight and before our scheduled First Contact. Since one of the men taken was the head engineer of their warp program it just may be that they will not make warp flight unless we can find him and return him," Sovak told them. "After ten days the Federation will approach the Councilor of Dukinar and inform him of the situation. Regardless of the success of our mission, the Dukin will be informed about their missing people. The Diplomatic Corps and Starfleet Security have made it clear, however, that they would much rather have the Dukin in hand before this is done."

Already the minds around the table were out of the abstract and into the practical, on the trail of the missing Dukin.

"If they were that sloppy with the transporter there's a good change they were with the ship too. We might be able to find a warp residue," Japel was configuring the sensors to the task in his mind.

Arima, silent to this point, finally spoke. "Our new propulsion specialist can assist you with that," he told Japel. "We might be able to get some more information about their transporter if we run a spectral analysis on the energy signals recorded by the science stations."

"We should also plot the other kidnappings and the known raids on ships throughout the Beta Quadrant, see if there's some sort of pattern there," Vesta said, "and then do a little more searching on nearby worlds for "unexplained disappearances" or descriptions of transporter-like activity. I have a hard time believing that these raiders only just started doing this."

Sovak was clearly pleased that his new crew was so quick to take appropriate actions. "Excellent. We'll arrive at Dukinar in just under 24 hours. Commander, I want you and Lt. Magis to go to the surface and find out what you can from the Dukin about what happened that night. Every clue will help." He stood up, indicating that the meeting was over, and his officers followed suit.