Chapter Eight
One week earlier...
Captain Sandra Gates walked out onto the bridge of the Antarctic and was greeted by the senior officer of the night shift.
"Good morning Captain, all systems are functioning perfectly. We dropped out of warp for an hour last night make minor course corrections around a rogue comet, stellar sciences got some good readings off it, other then that we are presently on course and all systems are functioning normally." the officer said handing her some padds.
"Thank you Lieutenant, have a good rest, see you tonight." she said with a nod.
"Ma'am." he said, returning the nod and walked off the bridge with the rest of the night shift. Sandra started to look over the padds as she took the captains chair. It would be six hours till they reached the Yaxanaar system at warp five where they were to perform a standard astronomical survey of the unexplored region. Well, this is going to be another boring mission. Sometimes I miss the war. Things were simpler then. She thought to her self.
"I hope you don't think that all the time." Her Betazoid first officer said as he sat down in the chair next to her.
"Reading my thoughts again?" She said with a wry smile on her face.
"Captain, I'm hurt. I only caught the last part though, surface thoughts are hard to ignore." Commander Raymond Ikar said.
"I was only thinking on how boring this assignment is going to be."
"Well, the Antarctic is a science vessel..."
"I know, I know." she said, cutting him off, who was then cut off herself by an alarm coming from the operations station. "Report." Sandra ordered.
"I don't know ma'am, readings are erratic. One moment, I read a large explosion in a system we passed, and then it disappeared. The explosion had a tachyon signature." the young ensign responded. Sandra looked at her first officer then turned to the helm.
"Change course to the source of the explosion, and increase speed to warp eight." she ordered. "Commander, notify Starfleet command of our situ..." Before she could finish her sentence, the entire ship was enveloped by a blinding white light.
Present day
Jonathan Renolds was sitting on the bridge looking over reports, looking up every now and then at the view screen at the beautiful vista of Risa.
"Captain, we're receiving a communiqué from Starfleet command." reported ensign Golden.
"I'll take it in my office, patch it through." He ordered as he got up and walked down towards the double doors of his office and sat down behind his desk and activated his desktop terminal.
"Ah, Admiral Herikawa, how are you Koishi?" Jon asked as he greeted his superior, a Woman in her early forties of Japanese decent.
"Just fine Captain, unfortunately, one of our science vessels isn't. The USS Antarctic disappeared en route to the Yaxanaar system. Deep space observation is showing strange sensor readings in a near by system about six hours out from their destination. That was about a week ago. We think they might have headed in that direction."
"The Antarctic? That's Sandra's ship, right?" he asked.
"Yes it is, you're the closest ship in the region, and I'm assigning the Divination to search for her. We're sending you the relevant data now. I'm sorry about cutting your crew's shore leave short. Good luck Captain. Starfleet out." Admiral Koishi Herikawa said as her face was replaced by the insignia of Starfleet Command. Jon sat back in his chair and let out a sigh, then walked back onto the bridge.
"Peter, start contacting the crew who are on the surface. I'm afraid shore leave has been cancelled. Once the rest of the senior staff is aboard, have them report to observation." he ordered as he sat back down in the captain's chair.
"Aye, sir." Peter responded.