Garion was walking from the Waverider to the fireside with a container of supplies. Sriarr was poking a stick into their fire absentmindedly. Then a flight of strange ships screamed overhead, flying fast towards the city. 

“Holy hell!” Shouted Sriarr, standing suddenly as his ears instinctively laid back against his skull. “What was that?”

“I don’t know.” replied Garion, setting his armload down and watching the ships raze the city, firing bolts of energy at one of the skyscrapers. The bolts hit, but there was no falling debris, or even shattered windows. “But they don’t look like they’re doing a lot of damage.” 

“Maybe they don’t want to bring buildings down.” said the Doctor thoughtfully, “Maybe they just want to scare people.”

“Why?” asked Garion. “Why would they attack a city if they didn’t want to destroy it? Also, did you see those ships? I’ve never seen anything like those.”

“Definitely not Cardassian.” confirmed Sriarr, “Or Ferengi, or Klingon. And I don’t know. Let’s get back to the ship.” He stood up, reaching for a large bucket of water to extinguish the fire.  They hurried to collect their supplies, and got back into the Waverider. They punched in the planetary coordinates where they set down the Leif Erikson, and took off.

Garion tapped some buttons on the console to send a message. “Crew of the USS Leif Erikson, can you hear me? This is Lieutenant Beckett. Come in please.” but the message was met with silence. “Not surprising.” he said, “Comms are always the first thing to go.” 

“Heads up” Sriarr said from the ops station. “Looks like one or two of the ships spotted us. Do you still remember how to fly this thing?” 

“Of course I do,” replied Garion, tapping even more buttons on the console, and throttling up the engines. “It’s like riding a bike.” The ship shook slightly as a volley from the attacking fighters hit the shields, and Sriarr’s hands snapped down to grip the sides of his seat tightly. 

“You’ve never ridden a bike!” Sriarr said through gritted teeth. 

“Oh yea” said Garion thoughtfully, and a sly smile spread across his face as he turned the waverider sharply upwards in a large loop, circling back around behind the enemy ships. He fired the forward phasers, and hit one of the ships, but it was absorbed by the shield. The pair of enemy ships split up, and Garion pulled the stick sharply to stay on one of them. He fired another volley, and it hit the shields again. The waverider took another shot from behind as the second ship wheeled around. 

“That’s not good.” Sriarr said. “I think we made them mad.” 

“No shit.” Garion retorted, weaving the waverider left and right to avoid taking any more hits. He pulled the triggers again, and this time one of the bolts made it through, slamming into the rear of the ship and one of its engines started to smoke. “There we go.” he said, pulling back the throttle suddenly, letting the other ship speed past him, then slamming the throttle forward again, increasing the ship’s speed to keep pace. The first ship was getting lower and lower, lilting heavily to one side apparently unable to maintain altitude. Black smoke was billowing out of the engine now, and Garion could see flames curling up from underneath the ship. Eventually, it crashed into the ground, and the remaining combatants left it behind. 

“We should turn back towards the city.” Sriarr said to Garion’s back, “If it hasn’t found the ship, I don’t want to lead it there.”

“Good call.” shouted Garion over his shoulder, banking the craft suddenly and heading back towards the miniscule skyline. “Are they following us?” 

His question was answered quickly though, as the ship took another couple of hits from the alien attacker. Warning lights flashed on the console. “Shields can’t take much more of those!” Sriarr called out, transferring power to the shield generators. Garion looped back round again, managing to get back behind them, and firing another couple of phaser bursts at the back of the alien ship. It dodged them, trying to pull back around, but Garion managed to stay behind it. The alien ship then shot straight upwards, Garion gritted his teeth, and urged the waverider to follow. Up into the clouds they went, but when Garion and Sriarr popped out the other side, the alien ship was gone. 

“Damn.” Sriarr muttered as Garion brought the waverider to heel, hovering above the clouds hoping to catch a glimpse of the other ship, but they didn’t. After a few minutes, Sriarr let out a deep sigh. “Well, he must have run off. Let’s stay above the clouds for now, and head back to the Erikson. Maybe we can figure out how they are scrambling comms”. They turned and sped off towards the ship, checking periodically to make sure they weren’t being followed. 

“I wonder how the rest of the crew is doing.” Garion said after a few minutes, dipping the ship back below the clouds and bringing the USS Leif Erikson into view, resting impressively on the soft grass of a valley floor, nestled between two tall mountain ridges. Garion dropped the waverider low, skimming the ground as they approached before spinning the ship around to dock back into the underside of the saucer. The waverider scraped the ground a little as he positioned it, and Sriarr scoffed. 

“You were a pilot once, no?” he asked, incredulously as the docking clamps grabbed the small vessel and pulled it neatly back into its perch. 

“Shut up.” Garion chuckled, standing up out of the pilot’s seat. “Next time we’ll bring Ezra, okay?” The pair left the waverider, and headed straight for the bridge. The civilian scientists were still working hard on sifting the data they collected from the supernova, and the enlisted crew were enjoying the break, pursuing various hobbies and interests. They stopped off at Ezra’s quarters, where they found him at his terminal looking pensive. 

“Hey Ezra,” said Garion, following the Doctor into the room,  “We’ve got an issue, and I think we’ll need your help. Have you got a minute?”  

“Comms are down.” Ezra said flatly, “Yea, I know. I’ve been waiting for a reply from my girlfriend, but it hasn’t come through.” 

“Is that the engineer from the Foxhound you met last year? The Vulcan girl?” Sriarr asked gently.

“Yea, T’Luni. We write to each other once a week, and yesterday was supposed to be the day that her letter arrived, but it never came.”

“Very un-like any Vulcan I’ve ever known.” Garion said, rubbing his chin. “We can’t get a hold of anyone in Stardust City. There is some kind of invasion going on. Can you help us try to figure out where the jammer signal is coming from?” 

Ezra started working on his terminal determinedly, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Garion sat, and Sriarr paced the room, waiting tensely as Ezra worked. Minutes felt like hours, but finally, Ezra sighed deeply, slumping back into his chair and covering his eyes with his hand. Garion leaned forward in his chair, and Sriarr turned to look at Ezra. “Anything?” he asked. 

“I can’t find anything.” Ezra replied, a defeated tone in his voice. “What’s worse, I can’t even get a scan of the area. There is something out there, and it is working really hard to make sure we can’t see it, or talk to anyone. I’ve sent several subspace messages, including one to DS12, but I only get silence back.”