“Hey, Jordan.”

Lieutenant Jordan Reid looked up and smiled, “Phillips!  Come in.”  Lieutenant Matthew Phillips stepped into her office in sickbay and shook her offered hand.  She said, “Take a seat.  What can I do for you?”

“I wanted to say thank you for the advice you gave me back in March.  I ended up putting myself out there…and ended up here.”

Jordan tapped off her PADD.  He wasn’t here for the small talk.  She recalled that Phillips was pretty terrible at it.  She asked, “And how has here been?”

He raised his eyebrows, curious.  “I thought you weren’t interested in counseling-type things.”

Her face blushed for a brief moment, “You remember a lot of things, Phillips.”  Reid explained, “Captain Walton recently told me I was meant for bigger things.  She thought Ambrose made me an XO for a reason.  That my future might be closer to the center chair.”

Phillips replied, “I don’t disagree.”  She cocked her head to the side.  He said, “There were a lot of reasons why I left the Erigone at the end.  You weren’t one of them.”  He shrugged, “Like you said – we choose the path that leads to our destiny.  You being here instead of the Douglas…that could mean the universe of difference.”

Reid let a quiet smile slip through, “Well, here’s to the journey of…”

Suddenly, red alert klaxons rang out.  Phillips jumped up and took off for the bridge.  Jordan exited her office, glancing at her deputy chief, “Let me find out what’s happening.  Standby.”  She stalked out of sick bay and made her way to the bridge.  They had been ordered to continue their survey work in the rimward.  She caught the operations chief at the turbolift and slid beside him, “Any ideas?”

He shook his head quickly, “As far as I know, it was harmless nebulas today.”  He added, “The rimward has a habit of surprising us.”  The door to the bridge flew open. Matthew quickly made for his station, replacing the junior officer who had held it in his absence.

Jordan surveyed a chaotic bridge. Lieutenant Hazel Wallaker stood at the screen at the rear of the command center, where the science department had been assigned The Vestibule. She adjusted the markers on the board as the officers in her group reported what they knew as the sensors returned data. In the center stood Captain Wren Walton, hands on hips, staring at the unfurling nebula on the screen, “That wasn’t normal behavior.”  

Commander Park walked out of The Vestibule, her face tight.  “We need to pull back, Wren.  That nebula has enough raw power emanating from it to tear us in two.”  Suddenly, the ship shuddered, and the deck beneath them vibrated.

Walton ordered, “Helm, full reverse!”  

Lieutenant Griffin Maddy at the helm repeated, “Full reverse, aye!” The Pathfinder class starship threw itself backward, and the rumbling beneath their feet slowed until it faded.  Phillips reported light damage reports were coming in.

Maddy turned in his flight control chair, a concerned look filling his face, “Captain…whatever that is – it was trying to hold onto us – I could feel the helm fighting me as we pulled back.”  He hadn’t liked that sensation of competing with someone…or something else out there.  The engines of the Perseverance were powerful in their own right.

Wren turned to Park, “Find out what the hell that was.  Maintain Red Alert.”  She turned and noticed Jordan standing just outside the turbolift doors, “Lieutenant Reid – welcome to the bridge.”  She offered her to the left to her left, and the doctor accepted the invitation.  She explained this was their fourth nebula of the day and the first in this sector.  Everything had been going according to plan and process when they’d switched to a spectrum imaging scan.  “The energy readings spiked – you think it was loud when you walked in?  Every klaxon you can imagine sounded when the sensors picked it up.”  She accepted a PADD from a science officer, read the data, and handed it over to Reid, “Take a look at that – look familiar?”

Jordan read through the sensor readings, befuddled, “That…that is as near to impossible as you can get.”  She rechecked it, “That nebula has…biological readings?”

“It could be why it woke up when we started our spectrum imaging scan.  It’s a pretty harmless check if you’re a space phenomenon…but if you’re something else…, you could be sensitive to it.”  Wren turned to The Vestibule, “Park – wasn’t there a report of some interference or storm or something a few sectors over at the Mason Colony?”

Commander Park stepped back from the shoulder she was looking over as she thought back through the past week’s events.  “Mason Colony…they experienced an unusual shift in weather patterns and climate for three days – sun in the tundra, snow on their beaches.  That was a week ago.”  She frowned, “You don’t think…this is connected?”

Walton mused, “Stranger things have happened.  And they usually do out here in the rimward.”  She asked, “How much history do we have on this nebula?”

Park stepped out from The Vestibule, PADD in hand.  “It was cataloged in 2398 by a science team at the tail end of their mission.  Nothing since.”

Reid filled in the blanks as she stared incredulously at her CO, “You…you think it moved?!”

“I think it knew enough to come back when we headed this way.  If we showed up and it wasn’t here – we’d ask questions – and start looking around.  Did they run a spectrum imaging scan in 2398?”  

Park scrolled through the report they had filed.  She scoffed, “No, no, they did not.  They limited their scans.  Idiots.”

Jordan spoke up as she glanced at the screen, “I suppose the question is now – how is it capable of what it does?  Hiding in plain sight…and then moving around when no one’s watching.”  She shook her head in disbelief, “You always wonder how Kirk, Picard, or even Janeway managed to find the fascinating scientific cases somehow.  I suppose this time it’s our turn.”

Walton agreed.  “It’s why this ship exists.  Partner up with Wallaker and the science department.  How alive and conscious it is – we will have to tread carefully.”  She repeated it while mostly looking at Wallaker in The Vestibule, “Carefully.”