Surrounded by the silent dark of the abandoned Kazon ship, Chief Science Officer Yuulik was reminded how much she used to enjoy zero-gravity training. The universe shrunk down to a pinpoint, and she was finally alone with her expansive thoughts.

The snug fit of the environmental suit was like a hug to her nervous system—without any of the messy emotional attachments. Pausing for her mag boots to connect to the deck meant she could walk at a pace of her own choosing. The best part was the autonomy to turn her communications transceiver on and off. Make the bleating all shut up.

On this day, Yuulik was approaching a computer core in the depths of a derelict Predator-class carrier. That meant she didn’t have the luxury of covering her ears. With no reactor to power the vessel, the only light source came from the headlamp on Yuulik’s environmental suit and those of her away team: First Officer Calumn, Operations Chief Nune, Security Officer Jurij and Doctor Nelli. Given that Nelli’s body plan wasn’t even vaguely humanoid, they wore a life support belt instead with a personal forcefield.

As if Captain Taes was whispering right in Yuulik’s ear, she said, “Report?” from the relative comfort of Constellation’s bridge.

“Based on the tachyon decay,” Yuulik said, interpreting the readings on her tricorder, “I guarantee this ship has been lost in Understpace for decades.”

“Before all the apertures were opened last year?” Taes asked. Silently, Yuulik agreed that that would be the simplest explanation for how a Kazon carrier would have entered Underspace.

But what Yuulik said was, “Didn’t you hear me, captain? I said decades ago. The Turei always warned us that we would become a ghost ship like this if we invaded Underspace without their supervision.”

Two metres ahead of Yuulik, Nune was crouched beside a hexagonal tower they had deduced to be the computer core. He looked up from the micro field generator he was wiring to the tower’s base. When he looked at her, the bright light from his headlamp momentarily dazzled her eyes. Yuulik blinked hard several times. He stunned her, just like his impersonal responses had done to her in the observation lounge that morning.

“Could the Turei have ejected these broken vessels from Underspace?” Nune asked over their comms.

“Or a natural process? A cyclical cleansing of Underspace?” Nelli proposed. With bright spots across her vision, Yuulik couldn’t see where Nelli had lumbered off to.

Until her vision returned to normal, Yuulik tried to remember: when was the last time Nune had offered to help her solve a mystery? Four months ago? His brief sprint of inspiration for refining the programming of her failed A500 synth, Addie? When was the last time Nune had mentioned his failing relationship with Laken? Three months ago? Were those two even still dating?

Commander Calumn’s measured cadence came over her helmet comms. He sounded even more confident than Yuulik had been a moment ago, and Yuulik had been bluffing her way through half her affectation.

“Our orders from command are to forge alliances. We need friends who can repel the Vaadwaur Supremacy. The Kazon will be apoplectic about the Vaadwaur ransacking one of their ships and encroaching on their territory,” Calumn said. Stepping into Yuulik’s field of vision, Calumn clapped Nune on the shoulder and took one of the wires to plug it into another insert higher on the computer core.

Calumn bottom-lined it for them, saying, “So that means it was the Vaadwaur who attacked the Kazon. That is the fact now. Repeat it. Remember it. You’ll be surprised how quickly it becomes your own personal truth.”

From her moral high tower of Constellation, Taes hemmed and hawed, murmuring, “I don’t– I’m not sure if that’s exactly–”

A light flickered on Yuulik’s gauntlet. As she considered it, she saw Nune was attempting to open a private communications channel with her. He made no visible attempt to catch Yuulik’s attention. To all other eyes around the darkened compartment, Nune was securing the adaptive interface link to the computer core.

By the time Taes started talking about integrity and the prime directive, Yuulik muted the group channel. With another stab at her gauntlet, she accepted Nune’s private hail.

“Yuulik, what happened in the observation lounge,” he asked. And still, he didn’t look up from his ministrations. “What was that?”

“It was nothing,” Yuulik responded, and she looked right at him. “It was fine. We’re on an away mission, dummy.”

Nune huffed in the way people often did when they said her name. Annoyed.

“That wasn’t nothing,” he said. “Don’t tell Kellin or Elbon, but you’re my best friend! What did I do, Yuulik?”

“You did nothing. You said nothing,” Yuulik spat. She saw the spittle hit her face plate. “You don’t talk to me the way you used to. I miss you! At our current rate, we’re on track to have only seventy-four more meaningful conversations in our joint life-span.”

“Don’t do that,” Nune said, quieter. “Don’t shut me out and then say you miss me.”

“Seventy-four!” Yuulik shrieked and slapped her gauntlet like she was putting out a fire, closing the channel.

As she reconnected to the away team’s comms channel, Nelli said, “This isn’t a Kazon ship.”

“Don’t call me dumb,” Yuulik protested.

“Pardon me?” Nelli replied. “Was there interference in the signal?”

“This looks exactly like a Kazon ship,” Yuulik protested some more.

“That is because it is exactly like a Kazon ship,” Nelli said. The meaning behind her choice of emphasis was unclear, given the monotone speech pattern of their vocoder. “From the skeletal remains I located… I need further examination to reach clarity. Cross-checking with Constellation’s computer found too many inconsistencies with the Kazon. With sixty-two percent reliability, the remains are–”

Nelli’s voice was drowned out over the open comms channel by the red alert klaxon sounding on Constellation’s bridge.

“Away team, First Maje Vuldu has caught up with us, and he’s not alone,” Taes warned them. “Five raiders and two carriers have dropped out of warp. One just launched a shuttle, heading in your direction.”

Gruffly, Jurij cut in, “All right, everyone move away from the exterior hull. No last looks. No one mores. No complaints. Just move.”

Jurij was already in motion. Yuulik couldn’t even discern from what shadow he had sprung from. Timed with each of his proclamations, Jurij grabbed Nelli, Nune, and Yuulik between his three arms and dragged them towards an open doorframe. Without a clear view of the compartment or her team members, Yuulik was disoriented and dizzy from the sudden movement.

Yuulik considered running; she really thought about it; she wanted to do it. But the lock-and-release of her mag boots made it nigh impossible. Running to keep up with Jurij felt like running through the ocean. Nune also put his arm around her, pulling her along with the extra centimetres his legs allowed. She hardly knew which way lay safety without them dragging her along.

“We can’t miss this opportunity,” Taes said over the comms. Her timbre was formal, and Yuulik could hear a hitch in her breathing. It usually happened when Taes thought with her fourth pip rather than her years of scientific training.

Taes gave the order: “Cooperate with the Kazon. We’ve transmitted our sensor readings to every ship. We’ll negotiate to persuade them those abandoned ships had nothing to do with Starfleet. They were catapulted out of Underspace. Do what you can to convince them the Vaadwaur are our common enemy.”

And then Taes asked, “What?” to a bridge officer whose voice wasn’t quite picked up by the receiver. “What do you mean they’re not on course with a shuttle bay?”

Yuulik only saw a glimpse of the impact through her peripheral vision.  The piercing nose of the shuttle smashed through the outer hull, and became wedged halfway into the large computer centre. Without artificial gravity to fight against or atmosphere to convey the sound of the crash, it was underwhelming. It hardly seemed worth the awkward running.

Nune must have felt the same. Despite the pointed shuttle that had smashed through the outer hull, Nune was power-walking back to the equipment he’d left attached to the computer core. Yuulik followed after him. She snapped her tricorder into its indenture on her suit and then clicked off the safety on her phaser pistol.

Catching up with Nune, Yuulik quickly assessed the readouts on the adaptive interface link.

“Why is this so slow?” Yuulik blurted at Nune over the comms. “Is this a mark four? We have mark elevens in the cargo bay!”

Nune swiped at the controls and replied, “We can’t risk them getting their hands the mark elevens.”

Them started jumping out of the shuttle’s forward hatch in pressure suits: one Kazon and then two and then six. Each of them raised their weapons, tracking every member of the Starfleet away mission.

Yuulik heard a chime in her ear as one of the Kazon hailed them. She regretted opening the channel.

“Stop what you’re doing!” the Kazon shouted.

“Eat glass, you ungrateful parasite!” Yuulik shouted right back at him over the comms. “This broken-down wreck bested you, so we’re trying to discover where it came from.”

Nune slowly stood from his crouch over the equipment, rising to his full height. He assumed a squared-off posture, hovering his hand over his phaser. Yuulik matched Nune’s power stance to the best of her ability as Jurij and Calumn slowly, very slowly, edged in to flank them. Nelli remained out of sight.

“Yeah! Jerk!” Nune growled over the comms, seemingly following her lead. “We want to help you! Find out who’s coming for you!”

The group of Kazon continued to track the movement of the away team, keeping their emitters aimed at each one of them. None of Kazon said anything for an excruciating ten seconds. One Kazon twitched, and Jurij’s three arms twitched back.

“You can repair the navigational computer?” the lead Kazon asked.

Nune stepped in front of Calumn, snapping, “That’s what I just fuckin’ said, isn’t it?”

The lead Kazon lowered his phaser.

“You may proceed. Slowly.”

Yuulik tapped the field generator with the toe of her boot.

“Uh, slowly is guaranteed.”