Now…

A lone bouy floats in the velvet void of space. It bears the markings of Starfleet, with a serial designator placing it to the USS Rubidoux. A technological breadcrumb. Left behind for others to find. More than that, a marker or chronicle so that others might know the fate of the Rubidoux. The USS Raleigh cruised along a slow but steady 1/4 impulse. The rhythmic strobing of the data bouy slowly drawing the ship in. The Rubi had failed to report in even after the blackout lifted. A ship was immediately dispatched to get a bead on their position. The search began at Thalora. It didn’t take long to track a disjointed warp trail leading away from the world. It appeared the Rubidoux was taking the path of least resistance deeper into the sector. In short order the data bouy popped up on long range sensors. In five minutes it was beamed aboard cargo bay 1 where a forensics team was already setting up a work space. The bouy was plugged into a data port and turned on. As expected it was a little beaten up but most of the log quality was solid and stable. The science officer in charge of recovery tapped his combadge.

“Sir, it’s good. We’re waiting for you.”

Captain Fallon was there as fast as he could get there.

“Put it on.”

They keyed the holographic projectors and the cargo bay swirled in light and photons before it became the Rubidoux’s ready room. Captain Tiberius Rain sat at his desk. A determined expression worn on his features.

“Captain’s Log. Stardate 2402.04.03.1743.21

The crew are calling V Day. The day the Vaadwaur invaded. In all our speculation and guessing, we couldn’t have imagined our enemy would have been a footnote mention in Voyager’s logs. In retrospect, it all makes sense. The familiarity with Subspace. “Underspace” as a means of control and transit. It has all the hallmarks of their history. None of this popped up initially because we’d lost our contact to the fleet database. Thankfully, Danny usually keeps an archived backup for research and data collection purposes. 

We’ve been “warp skipping” as Lt. Thorne’s taken to calling it. Making micro jumps with the warp drive to get any kind of progress on traversal. It’s taken longer, but we’re covering ground well enough. Danny’s been an immense help. From charting the thickness of the subspace anomalies to hypothesizing how they might be broadcasting the interference. He’s even working with Chief Dex on a prototype of his GN Drive. It’ll be a slapdash job, but it should do for us in a pinch. 

Our preparations have come along as well as they can. We’ve harvested more raw resources than some shipyards I’m guessing. I know Chief Dex down in engineering has had her teams working around the clock. Building, hardening, and running diagnostics and maintenance on everything they can get to. Which is good, because the storm is ready to break. It’s on our door step. Just around the corner. 

Jel’kan’s assembled his Hazard Team and begun their drills. They’re still gelling together, but they show promise. Under his watch they’ll be ready to handle anything. Which is exactly what we’ll need because the Vaadwaur have moved in force. Near as I can tell we’re the only starfleet ship in this system. We’re about 10 light years from Thalora. No communication from the rest of the task force, or the fleet for that matter still. Which means my standing orders remain in effect. We protect who we can. Find a way to stop the interference. And confront the Vaadwaur when possible. 

They’ve drawn the darkness over our eyes. But the Rubidoux will bring light back to the section of space one lightyear at a time. Only time will tell what the cost will be. ~ End Log.”

Tib closed his desktop terminal down and made his way onto the bridge.

“How long till contact?”

“5 more minutes.” Vossk replied at the science station.

“Alright, let’s go to red alert. They sent their message. Let’s send ours.”

A ship loomed into the image. One of the smaller Vaadwaur attack ships. 30 meters long, they were like oversized fighters weighing in at a corvette’s tonnage. His old man would have something to say about calling something that big a fighter. But he was an old dog that way. Times had changed apparently. It was in a casual warp posture but dropped out to reposition as soon as it saw the Rubidoux bearing down on it. As it banked about, it opened fire.

“Thank you.” Tib said grimly.

“Sir?” Lorena questioned quietly.

“Be kind of awkward to charge in guns blazing if they were just bluffing.”

“So you called their bluff ?”

He nodded, returning his gaze to the main screen. The recording flickered as the ship took several hits. Jel’kan called out damage numbers to their shield percentage and Tib ordered a return fire. The Rubidoux’s weapon turned space red around them. Photon torpedos and phaser arrays alike ignited like angry particle vipers lashing out at the Vaadwaur ship.

Multiple impacts to the enemy ship crippled its shields but the ship plunged into Underspace a few light years distant after a short chase.

“Mark this position. We might need it again later and it gives us a better idea of where their subspace spider holes are.”

“Spider holes?” Jel’kan asked.

“Yeah, back on earth a family of arachnids evolved to dig holes in the ground and ambush prey from them.”

Jel’kan pondered that. “I like them already.”

“Mr. Vossk, tell me you’ve got some good data for me?”

“Only what I could observe. The ship we attacked had a minimal crew. I would estimate it is little more than a presence vessel. We won’t find any command material on one of those.”

”Mr Vossk thinks we need to up our fishing game. So let’s find us a bigger fish. Miss Thorne, set a course please. Best possible speed.”

Course laid in sir.”

“Punch it.”

The recording ended. Fallon folded his arms. Tiberius knew he was cut off. But he refused to sit out the fight. He was taking it to the Vaadwaur.

“What are you up to Tib.”

the Science officer got a confirmatory chirp out of the bouy.

”Got another log ready, sir. Shall I play it?”

“Please.”

They needed to figure out what happened to Rain and the Rubidoux. And every minute counted.