Layout of the USS Dawn Treader bridge reminded Yorkin of the ones which he saw in the technical manuals for the Intrepid- and Pathfinder-class, albeit with changes to the tactical and operations systems, which reflected the main purpose of the Dawn Treader – that of a warship. As the officers, regular and ad hoc ones, exited the turbolift, they proceeded directly to their respective posts. Lieutenant T'Val took the engineering controls, Lieutenant Fortune the tactical and Yorkin sat at the helm.

"Commander, disembark us and approach the transwarp gate.", said Commander Saadia Farah, ship's XO. Few more orders were given, but Yorkin learned to filter them out. His bridge service time in his entire career was little over three years, mostly at the helm or operations in the gamma shifts, but he didn't have any problems at following one voice at a particular time. The helm LCARS interface was designed intuitively and just a brief look at it was enough for a person to figure out how to drive.

"Aye, aye, Commander. Disembarking and approaching the gate, full thrusters.", Yorkin acknowledged the order. Being at the front of the bridge, just before the main viewer, handicapped him of opportunity to see what's going on. "Commander Farah would inform me anyhow, I suppose."

Dawn Treader was gliding through the emptiness of space that separated the main base of Starbase 381 from its peripheral installations, with the engines barely humming throughout the ship's hull structure. Several civilian cargo ships were leaving or arriving. USS Hunter was following behind.

"Commander, we are approaching the transwarp gate. Traffic control confirms we are clear to go.", Yorkin read his information display.

"Very good, set transwarp coordinates for Sector N-20.", said Commander Farah. "Lieutenant T'Val, propulsion status?"

"Working within optimal parameters, Commander! EPS conduits are in order."

"Mister Sinderion, once we clear the transwarp, direct us to Roosevelt's last known location and activate the slipstream drive. I want to get us there as soon as possible.", Farah continued directing orders. "Lieutenant Fortune, have the sensors ready for broad scanning."

Transwarp gate, consisting of a double-hexagon frame, activated itself. A cylindrical shaped form appeared, radiating blueish energy outwards from the hexagon. "It is just a bunch of tachyon eddies interacting with the coupled particle-antiparticle pairs in the vacuum of space. We see it blue or turquoise because of the false-colouring on the main viewer. The actual radiation is, actually, emitting in deep ultraviolet, almost X-ray region." Yorkin remembered the introduction lecture in engineering, given by Professor O'Brien in his well-known Irish accent. Blue or not, it reminded Yorkin of an old drainage sinkhole in the bathroom of his friend's cottage. And that sinkhole was about to suck them in…

"In five… four… three… two… one…", Yorkin counted down. As they entered through the gate, the entire ship shook a little. "We are in.", Yorkin reported and turned around to see his current superior. Commander Farah and Captain McAuliffe were sitting comfortably in their respective chairs and nodded in acknowledgment.

"Very good, Commander. Steady as she goes.", said the Captain.

—

Freighter was on the main viewer, obviously drifting in space, as if it's crew was gone. "Almost like that Celeste ship from Earth's legend.", Yorkin thought.

"Lt. Fortune, report!", said Captain McAuliffe.

"Distress beacon is still active, but other than that – nothing. She is dead in space, sir. Engines and shields offline, life support minimal. There is damage to the freighter's hull, but…", Fortune was reporting and suddenly stopped.

Captain McAuliffe turned around in his chair. "But, Lieutenant?"

"No debris, sir.", she finished her sentence after confirming her scans.

"And no life signs, too.", said Ensign Nissil, a young Caitian sitting at the science station.

"So… they are all dead or all kidnapped.", Yorkin concluded bluntly (and, perhaps, untacticaly), then turned around to Tactical, "But no debris? Was it scavenged by the attacker?"

"That would be consistent with the pattern of the Scourge.", Commander R'Rwo replied.

"Let's not jump to conclusions just yet.", said McAuliffe, hoping that Commander's implications were wrong. "Commander R'Rwo, assemble the MACO team, board the freighter and see what information you can extract from her computer core. If she was encountered by Roosevelt, it should be in the ship's logs."

—

Commander R'Rwo simply nodded and left the bridge behind. After few minutes Lieutenant Fortune reported: "They have beamed aboard."

As soon as the ionising effects of the blueish transporter beam faded and two silhouettes materialised onboard of the freighter, R'Rwo pulled out his tricorder and immediately began scanning his new surroundings. They beamed into, what seemed to be, one of the larger storage bays, filled with containers and packages of various sizes and shapes, from an elongated rectangular to the perfect cubes which were taller than Commander R'Rwo, in spite of his Caitian-beast size. Vriha t'Rylov also opened up a tricorder.

R'Rwo pressed his combadge. "Away team to Dawn Treader, this is R'Rwo. Initial scans show no life signs.", he said and looked around, "Some of the cargo seems to have fallen out of place, perhaps due to the ship's engagement. We are proceeding to the bridge."

"Very good, Commander, keep the channel open.", Captain McAuliffe could be heard.

"Commander R'Rwo, see if you can tap into the freighter's navigational logs. I can establish a link from here and confirm if Roosevelt also responded to freighter's distress calls.", said Lieutenant Fortune over the comm.

"Acknowledged.", R'Rwo replied and moved forward, There was still a breathable atmosphere so R'Rwo raised his visor and approached the door panel. As he overrode the controls, t'Rylov went into defensive posture, using the cargo as the blockade. "Not that it would matter against the Scourge.", he thought to himself. The cargo bay door barely opened halfway when they heard a strong, clunky sound. The door opening was wide enough for two to pass through comfortably.

"Looks like vessel power is really low.", said t'Rylov. R'Rwo nodded.

As they exited the cargo bay and into the main corridor, their senses of sight and smell were overwhelmed by the scenery in front of them. A dozen of humanoid corpses were lying around, all over the corridor as if someone randomly beamed them onboard. Nearest to them were obviously defiled in an unusual way. Their skin seemed to have been removed up to the point where the fibril structure of muscle tissue could be seen, dissected with a surgical precision. Few metres away, several corpses were lying on the floor, completely dismembered.

One was even disembowelled. Only a chest bone husk was left.

"By the Elements, this is an anatomy class gone wild ", t'Rylov commented, "Bulkheads are literally painted in blood."

R'Rwo said nothing. Battle-hardened as he was, he simply waved towards the bridge. As they proceeded through the corridor, scenery did not change much, but R'Rwo would swear no two bodies were defiled in the same way, as if from each individual a certain set of organs or body parts was taken. "More like an anatomy experiment.", he commented.

—

Meanwhile, on the Dawn Treader's bridge, the atmosphere was quiet but unsettling. What had two MACOs reported did not leave much room for casual chatting or comments. It seemed everyone tried to focus on their consoles, not thinking of what the MACOs actually experienced. Silence was broken by t'Rylov' voice over the comm.

"Dawn Treader, we have access to the freighter logs. Ready for ship-to-ship file transfer."

"Ready to accept the data, away team." said Lieutenant Fortune. She tapped on her console. "File transfer in progress, Captain."

"Dawn Treader, we will proceed with the sweep once I deactivate the distress beacon. I guess no ship should be lured again."

"Alright, we will analyse the navigational logs." said McAuliffe, stood up from his chair and approached the main tactical console, where Lieutenant Fortune was situated. "What can you give me, Lieutenant?"

"One moment, sir.", Fortune replied and tapped her console. "Logs are somewhat fragmented, but it seems that the freighter was approached by at least three vessels. According to the IFF signatures, one of them was definitely Roosevelt."

Captain McAuliffe knocked twice on the supporting bulkhead of the console. "First catch of the day. What about the other two?"

"Unknown. Freighter's sensors couldn't detail it out, from what I see. Roosevelt hailed the freighter at least four times..." Fortune suddenly paused.

McAuliffe glanced at her. "And?"

"That's all, sir."

"Can you at least retrieve Roosevelt's movement, Lieutenant?", asked Commander Farah.

"Yes, ma'am. I am patching it to the helm, Mr. Sinderion."

At the mention of his name, Yorkin tilted. His thoughts had drifted away to one of his earliest reconnaissance missions in the Delta Quadrant, shortly after Jenolan Dyson Sphere was discovered. "Aye, receiving the trajectory. It is leading to an uncharted nebula which borders sectors N-20 and M-20."

"Why would they…?", Farah began asking, but was interrupted by Lt. Fortune's console beeping.

"Two contacts approaching at high warp, sir. If readings are correct, it is the other two ships encountered by the freighter. And there is power fluctuation.", said Lt. Fortune.

"Away team, you better hurry up, we've got company, " said Farah, then she turned to young Caitian, "Ensign Nissil, run a metallurgical scan."

"This is the away team, we read you. As per Doctor's request, we would like to beam aboard one of the more preserved bodies for post-mortem. Be ready to beam us directly to sickbay.", R'Rwo's voice could be heard.

McAuliffe returned his chair. "Lt. T'Val, how's the slipstream drive?"

"Still recharging, sir.", T'Val replied.

"Ensign?", Farah asked briefly.

"Ma'am, you won't like this. I'm reading various degrees of neutronium alloy.", Nissil repiled.

"Neutronium alloy?!", Yorkin said.

"Scourge.", McAuliffe and Farah replied instantly, followed by McAuliffe's order. "Away team, get the hell out of there."

Suddenly, on the main viewer, two vessels, looking as deformed skeletons rather than ships, emerged from the warp.