(Author's note: the next couple of chapters are going to really closely mirror what you would've experienced playing "Beneath the Skin", a STO mission. I skipped over much of this sort of mission content in the past, but I really wanted Tw'eak to experience it herself since it'll be important for her story going forward. Still, sorry for the duplication.)

Rematerializing, Tw'eak found herself facing an Andorian who could have been a younger version of herself. The scarlet uniform, the pinched expression, the tight bun of hair behind a pair of keenly-angled antennae...

"Welcome aboard, Admiral. I'm Lieutenant Ralani sh'Thras, tactical officer."

Tw'eak smiled as she stepped off the transporter pad. "Nice to meet you."

"Same. It's an honour." Ralani waved a hand towards the nearest door. "The captain's expecting you."

"Thank you." Tw'eak stepped past Ralani and through the doorway, before realizing that the young lieutenant wasn't moving. "I can find my own way, I suppose."

"Sorry, ma'am - we were also-"

The transporter began its familiar whine, and Tw'eak watched as another individual materialized right where she had been a moment before. Yet this was a surprise more because of who it was than because of the transporter coming into use.

"Admiral?" Bianca said as she beamed in. Her face shone in the light of the transporter pad, and she stepped down to hug Tw'eak with a huge smile on her face. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Let's just say I was in the neighbourhood," Tw'eak said as she returned Bianca's embrace. "I'm more surprised that you're here."

"I was serving as a liaison officer on an Andorian ship when the Klingons showed up."

"Liaison?" Tw'eak gave a confused look. "But weren't you in command of-?"

"It's a long story."

"Right. Always is." Tw'eak indicated Ralani. "This is Lieutenant sh'Thras, tactical."

"Please, call me Ralani. It's so nice to meet you." Bianca shook the younger Andorian's hand. "Aurora speaks very highly of you."

"Thank you, Commander," Ralani replied, her antennae angling forwards in the Andorian equivalent of a blush. "Of course. She's your sister."

"So, how've you been?" Tw'eak asked as she and Bianca followed Ralani to a nearby turbolift.

The question seemed to fluster Bianca. "Busy," she said after a moment. "More busy than I'd like, the past few days. But it's good to see you."

"It's good to see you, too," Tw'eak replied as the turbolift doors closed.

As Tw'eak and Bianca came into the Minerva's main briefing room, Aurora came forward to meet them. Her tone and manner were formal, almost rigid, but her eyes were nearly swiveling in their sockets with excitement.

"Thank you both for coming aboard. It's a welcome sight."

Bianca gave her sister a brief hug. "Captain sh'Marois has provided me with all the information we have, so I'd like to begin the briefing if I can."

Aurora nodded to her sister, then glanced to Tw'eak. "Admiral?"

Tw'eak nodded. "It's what we're here for. Let's go."

"Oh - I should-" Aurora gestured towards a Bolian and a Vulcan standing next to their places at the briefing table. "These are Commander Tuxx, my first officer, and Science Officer Salik." She smiled. "My chief engineer will be joining us when she's available."

Both nodded towards Tw'eak. "Hello," she said warmly to each in turn.

"Admiral," Tuxx said. "It's an honour to meet you. What you did during the war... we're all still here because of you."

"Any commander's only as good as her crew," Tw'eak said in reply, looking to the duBois sisters. "And I was lucky to serve with the best."

"She's so nice," Aurora faux-whispered to her subordinates. "Anyway, go ahead, Bia." She shook her head quickly. "Commander duBois."

"Thank you, Captain," Bianca replied, emphasizing her sister's rank, at which Aurora rolled her eyes. "Here's what we know so far."

The viewscreen of the briefing room lit up as Bianca initialized the presentation. On the screen was visible the rift over Andoria, in scale and represented as a sort of seafoam green colour against the blue of the Andorian moon. "So, this. This is not like anything we've seen before. The rift was caused by the Mo'Kai superweapon, but the results of our scans from within the rift have been very intriguing. Specifically, a biological presence, with qualities not unlike those of fungi."

"Indeed?" Salik queried. "Most peculiar."

"Experts in astromycology being pretty uncommon, we were able to find some research files from the mid-23rd century that were able to help us - but only once we could access. Information on this stuff is practically a state secret."

"That seems strange. Why?" Tw'eak asked.

"We don't really know, but Admiral Quinn himself had to sign off on their release. He only agreed due to events in this system - and even then, we're all expected to treat all events in-system as being classified at the same level."

"Good luck enforcing that," Tuxx quipped. "They're not going to be able to fully restrict civilian traffic, and the most they'll manage is to make people more curious about all of this."

"I don't disagree," Tw'eak replied, "but we can do the usual, avoiding confirmation of what's happened, or put up a plausible counter-story."

Bianca pulled up a personnel file. "We were able to create a holographic simulation of a science officer from that time, a Lieutenant Paul Stamets, the author of the research. Our speculation is that something must have gone catastrophically wrong, for it to be completely off-limits like this. And based on our understanding of the subject matter, you can probably understand why."

She pulled up another graphic, this one of the interior of the rift. "The science team on the Hofmann believes that this rift opens onto a quantum-level mycelial thread growing interdimensionally."

"How is that possible?" Salik asked.

"We don't know. But somehow, this fungus exists as a portal into other planes of existence."

"That's preposterous," Tuxx declared with a dismissive wave of the hand. "There's no way that's accurate."

"And yet that's what the sensors tell us," Bianca replied. "I'm just providing their data. You're not wrong, but at the same time... these are the facts we're working with at the moment." She opened another graphic, this one - Tw'eak couldn't quite make out. A neural network? A map of the mycelial growth? Some variety of other connected image? "This is what our expert referred to as, 'the Network'. It's a subspace realm connecting all other quantum realities, including our universe. The Network contains the roots of a certain type of fungus, which can be manipulated - I should say, put to use - in order to gain access. At one point, Starfleet was attempting to create a drive system that utilized this Network as its navigation system." Bianca turned to look at her sister. "The fact that we've never heard of it suggests they were less than successful."

"Seems like it," Aurora replied.

The door opened and admitted a tall, slender Rigelian.

"May I introduce Lieutenant Commander Yett, my chief engineer."

"I'm sorry I'm late," Yett offered in reply. "I'll just find my seat."

Tw'eak nodded, then turned back to Bianca. "So the Klingons are... trying to engage with this mycelial network?"

"That's the short version. But there's more. As part of their opening of this rift, the Klingons also sent multiple space probes into it. The Mo'Kai superweapon was intended to disrupt a specific part of the Network. That disruption in turn damages the corresponding section of our universe - with damage radiating outwards on a scale of magnitude. If the Mo'Kai matriarch carries on doing this, we could be looking at an order of destruction greater than anything even the Borg or Iconians could hope to master - because it would mean destructive force, emanating from the rift, at the quantum level."

"So how do we stop that?" Tw'eak asked.

"The simple answer is, don't let it happen again. Ever, anywhere. Take control of the weapon, shut it down and never use it again. That... doesn't help Andoria, though. But we're pretty sure we can - there are localized sources of radiation, of a type unique to 23rd century Klingon technology, within the rift. And based on our simulations, we should be able to go in and find out."

"I'll ready the shuttles," Tuxx said quickly, rising.

Bianca raised a hand. "We won't need them," she said. "We can beam down."

This caused some heads to turn. "You mean - in there?" Aurora sounded horrified at the prospect.

"There are solid platforms within the rift, and we're pretty sure the atmosphere is hospitable to life. We should be able to beam down there, and beam back as we require. We'll be bringing along the lieutenant, as well."

"The expert guy? But isn't he long dead?"

"The starship Discovery was reported lost with all hands in 2256, Stamets included. We were able to use the holodeck to reconstruct a version of him with his knowledge and personality intact, and house it within a mobile emitter. He'll be accompanying the away team on this trip."

"And so will I," Tw'eak ventured.

"Admiral," Ralani protested. "We have no assurances of your safety in there."

"I wouldn't ask anyone else to take this kind of risk. Andoria depends on it."

"As chief of security, any risk you take, I take." Ralani was adamant.

Tw'eak nodded. "Alright, join the party."

"I'm coming, too," Bianca chimed in. "It could be a major scientific breakthrough. I don't want to miss it."

"Wait. Bia." Aurora stood up. "You can't."

"Are you ordering me not to, 'rora?"

"I mean - but - "

"She does have a point," Tw'eak observed. "You outrank her." She made an emphatic wave of her hand. "Not that I couldn't override your orders, of course."

"You wouldn't." Aurora shot Tw'eak a wounded look.

"No. You're the captain. But at the same time, she's not under your command the way you were both once under mine. And she's right - this could make her career."

"Or re-make it," Bianca added.

Aurora's eyes darted from Tw'eak to her sister. "I - I just don't want anything to happen - to any of you."

Tw'eak nodded. "I'm trying not to make one of those 'admiral' faces right now."

"You kinda are anyway," Bianca said quietly. She then straightened her tunic as Tw'eak gave her a withering glance. "Uh, ma'am. As we expect, ma'am."

"You people are nuts," Commander Tuxx said with a shake of the head.

Lieutenant Commander Yett raised a hand. "May I make a suggestion?"

Tw'eak made an encouraging gesture towards Yett. "Yes, of course, Commander."

"I'd like to come along as well - or at least, have someone from engineering, if you're not okay with me going, Captain."

"Can I ask why?" Aurora inquired.

"The radiation that your briefing described. One of my ...it's been a while since I was an undergraduate, but I wrote a paper on a type of radiation called hargh'peng radiation. The radiation on the graph shows signs of the same sort and I think I see it being employed here." Yett turned to Tw'eak. "Whatever's emitting it down there, I'd like to see how it interacts with this Network."

"Doesn't hurt to have two experts along," Tw'eak replied. She then caught Aurora's eye. "With your permission, of course."

"That's quite an away team," Tuxx noted. "All senior officers - plus a walking archive of our research on this Network. That's a lot to fall into the wrong hands."

"There's no one else down there," Bianca countered.

"No one we know of," Tuxx replied. "This is all one great big threat vector and we're beaming people down right on top of it."

Aurora looked at Tuxx. His opposition was not giving her a good feeling about any of this. "They're gonna be okay..." Her eyes rose towards Ralani. "...right?"

"You have my word, Captain," Ralani said emphatically.

Bianca pointed to the screen. "We've taken high-resolution scans and there are no life forms down there that we'd recognize - no Klingons, certainly."

"They have cloaking devices, Commander," Tuxx responded impatiently.

"A cloaking device emits a trace amount of radiation of its own," Yett interrupted. "Against the background of space it's faint enough to be undetectable, but down there, in that? It'd stand out - and sensor scans like this would show it really clearly."

Tuxx shook his head. "I still don't like this."

"Your concerns are noted," Tw'eak replied tersely. She turned to Ralani. "Now, if you'll show me to your armory, I'd like to see what you have."

"We're pretty comprehensively stocked, ma'am," Ralani said, her voice proud. "I'll show you what we've got - hopefully it'll measure up to what you're used to having available."

As Tw'eak and Ralani left, Yett rose from his seat to follow. Aurora made a quick dash over to her sister, who was still tracing the contours of the Network with her eyes. "Bia."

"Hm?"

"You'll be careful."

Bianca waited until Tuxx left the briefing room, then dropped her guard and hugged her sister. "Look, I don't know what I'm doing, okay?"

"You don't? You sounded pretty certain to me."

"Well, of course I did. But that doesn't mean that I am." She chuckled. "God, 'rora, you're never going to make it as a captain if you can't fake the confidence thing."

"No, I can - I just... do a better job when my sister's not volunteering for the hard jobs." Aurora glared at the door. "Tuxx just makes me nervous."

"Oh, he's an ass. You can handle him."

"No, I mean - he's got a point." Aurora waved a hand at the map. "It's all this... huge unknown thing."

"We've got our scans. We've got Stamets. He can navigate the Network."

"A hologram - from two hundred years ago."

"A hundred and fifty," Bianca corrected.

"Whatever - they didn't have holograms then, that's all I'm saying."

Bianca smiled at Aurora. "I'll call at the first sign of trouble for an emergency beam-out. I promise."

Aurora clutched onto her sister - not so much to hug her as not wanting to let her go. "You be careful, damnit."

"I will." She laughed softly. "I don't want you to have to be the one who tells Mom that something happened to me."

Aurora squeezed her tighter. "Oh GOD! I hadn't thought of that!"