Not even the soft hum of Destiny’s systems could fill the silence of the ready room. The room was quiet, but not the kind of silence that brought peace. It was the silence that settled after a door slammed shut—the absence of a presence that Captain Patterson didn’t know she depended on until it vanished. It was like the sudden hush after a storm, a vacuum left behind when the current slips away.

Half-turned in her chair, Patterson stared out the large viewport, which offered an unbroken view of the region of space they now called their temporary home. The cluster of protostars and pulsars illuminated brightly against the hulls of the squadron. The light shimmered in slow pulses, casting moving shadows across her desk—like the heartbeat of something unseen watching them from beyond the void. It was eerie at first, but now had become a comfort. 

Patterson’s fingers traced the rim of a cooling mug of tea, its faint scent barely reaching her over the quiet of her own thoughts. Stacks of PADDS surrounded her desk, each filled with analyses and reports detailing what had happened to them three months ago. Though chaotic to an outsider, the mess was organised in Patterson’s mind. Each one of them held a clue to the mystery she was trying to uncover. However, their detail didn’t point her in the right direction, so Patterson had to pause for now and give over to the view she had gotten used to over the last twelve weeks. The stars beyond seemed farther away than ever, veiled behind the thick uncertainty that clung to her like a shadow gravity.

Captain Zack Marshall-Bennet was gone.

Her mentor, her commanding officer, and her friend had vanished during their last mission. Everything had gone sideways in ways no one could have predicted. One moment, he had been there, and then he was transformed. Altered by forces none of them fully understood. And then, like a shadow at dusk, he was gone. No trace. No clue. Nothing but a haunting warning, like a lighthouse glimpsed through fog: 

“The darkness is coming.” 

A final flare before being pulled beneath the tide.

Patterson had replayed those words a thousand times in her head, each echo landing heavier than the last. She had heard the worry in his voice, the clarity of purpose laced with something deeper. Concern? Insight? Was it a warning? He then somehow used the Nacene technology that had transformed him, pulled the entire squadron away from their previous locations, and dropped them all in this one place. The same place they had been at for over three months now. None of it made sense. There appeared to be no clue as to why Bennet had done this. Was he trying to hide them from something? Or place them in a location where their talents were needed? What did he know that they didn’t? 

The ready room door chimed.

“Enter,” Patterson called softly, straightening and brushing an errant lock of hair behind her ear.

The doors slid open with their usual hiss, revealing Commander Pharah Zh’vohless, Destiny’s new first officer. The Andorian woman was poised and confident, a calm presence who had slid into her role with precision and grace since transferring from the Themis. Two PADDs rested in Pharah’s hand, and a faint, respectful smile was on her face. A former science officer who had joined the command track a couple of years ago, she was more than eager to accept Patterson’s offer to join the Destiny. Moving from being one of the senior officers of the watch for the large Ross-class ship to becoming Patterson’s first officer appeared to be a calm transition for the Andorian. 

“Captain,” Pharah began, stepping forward. “I’ve got an update on the quantum slipstream drive construction.”

Patterson nodded, motioning for her to continue. 

“Alesyo reports we’re ahead of schedule,” Pharah said, handing over one of the PADDs. “We should be finished by this time tomorrow, barring any surprises.”

“That’s good news,” Patterson replied, eyes flicking over the data. Patterson knew the Destiny would be the first ship in the squadron to undergo trials for the new QSDs being installed. Being the class designed to be the testbed for it, Patterson knew that Commodore McCallister would be expecting a lot from the Destiny’s crew in leading their efforts. To hear that Alesyo was ahead was a godsend in Patterson’s mind. 

Pharah continued, clearly prepared for a thorough briefing. She referred to the other PADD in her hands. Though she spoke with practiced confidence, Patterson had noticed how Pharah sometimes tapped her thumb against her PADD in quiet moments—a subconscious rhythm she’d likely picked up pacing the long corridors of the Themis’s science wing. There was a precise kind of curiosity to her that hadn’t been tempered by command protocol yet. “Wilson and Johren oversaw the first benomite crystal extraction. The operation went off without incident. We used the holograms, the exocomps, and that first batch of activated A-five hundred androids from the Odyssey. They performed exactly as projected—adaptive, efficient, and safe.”

“That’s excellent,” Patterson murmured, accepting the report and setting the PADD down beside her tea. “No radiation leaks?”

“None detected,” Pharah said with confidence. “In fact, we may be able to extract more crystals than originally thought. Commander Wilson is coordinating with the team from the Odyssey over it. Alongside that, I’ve got Lieutenants Chaoi and D’Varnee running through a series of holographic simulations ahead of our first test flight.”

Patterson gave a slight nod, absorbing the details with mechanical precision. Then, silence fell again, and Pharah lingered.

“Captain,” she asked gently after a pause, “is everything alright?”

Patterson gave a small smile and nodded as she picked up her mug. “Of course.”

But Pharah didn’t move. Her antennae twitched slightly. She took a breath, clearly weighing her next words. “With all due respect, I’ve noticed that ever since your return from the briefing with Commodore McCallister, you’ve been distracted by something else. I’m assuming he has told everyone that once we leave this area then we won’t be returning. Which makes me think that you don’t have much time left trying to figure out why Captain Bennet brought us here.”

Patterson exhaled slowly, setting the mug down again. The ceramic clinked softly against the desk. “It’s precisely that,” she admitted. “I can’t let it go. He was here and then was taken from us. I know the commodore wants us to move on, but I can’t. Not yet.”

Turning slightly, Patterson gestured toward her desk screen, which currently displayed a paused set of Bennet’s final appearance on the Destiny. Her fingers hovered over the controls as if the next answer might spring from a flick of a button. 

“I keep going over these logs before Zack left us,” she said quietly. “The last ones recorded while… while he was changing, and I’m trying to see if I missed something. Some clue. Anything. And I can’t stop thinking about his last words about some kind of darkness coming. What did he mean? Why did he send us here? Why now? Are we at the end of something or the beginning? Is he hiding us from something? Is this place meant to be a safe harbour, or are we about to hit a storm front?”

Pharah moved to the chair opposite her and sat with quiet grace. Her posture was attentive and open but not intrusive.

“I know it sounds ridiculous,” Patterson went on. “It’s not rational. It’s not Starfleet. But if I can unlock the reason why, then us being here would mean something. I could go to the commodore with something.”

“Are those the only reasons, ma’am?” Pharah asked.

Patterson sighed and shook her head before admitting the whole truth. “I need to believe there was a reason. That Zack wasn’t just lost.” She paused, then glanced at the display. The last log entry blinked silently. Waiting.

“It’s more than just the words,” Patterson continued. “It’s the way he said them. Like he knew something, like he saw something he couldn’t explain in that moment of his transformation. And instead of leaving us breadcrumbs, he gave us a destination. This place.”

There was more silence.

Patterson looked at her new first officer. “You must think I sound mad.”

“Not at all, ma’am,” Pharah said at last. “You sound like someone who lost someone important and wants to understand why. That’s not silly. It’s understandable, especially with how Captain Bennet left the ship. Perhaps we should look more at our surroundings. See if anything stands out from this cluster we’ve been sheltering in.”

Patterson gave a shaky sigh of relief. She was pleased that Pharah understood her. “You’ve been a steady hand, Pharah. I appreciate everything you’ve done since coming aboard. I know it hasn’t been easy for you stepping into this mess. I don’t know how to thank you.”

The compliment caught Pharah off guard. Her antennae dipped forward, and she smiled warmly. “It’s been my pleasure, Captain and thank you for saying that. It means a lot.” She paused with a genuine smile.

Patterson didn’t say anything more. Her hand hovered over the screen controls again, but she didn’t press them. She didn’t look at Pharah, not right away. Her eyes were still on the paused log, on Zack’s frozen expression, half-lit in static and fading light.

Pharah didn’t react immediately but watched her captain deal with this heartbreak before her. Her antennae dipped low, then curled slightly—a subtle Andorian sign of withheld emotion. She shifted in her seat as if she might speak but didn’t. Instead, she let the silence hold, respectful but heavy. Then finally, she said, “Would you like another pair of eyes on those logs?”

Patterson nodded slowly at her first officer before her eyes returned to the screen. “Yes, I would like that very much.”

They leaned in together, the glow of the display illuminating their faces with a cool blue hue. Patterson was determined to find something; perhaps Pharah could assist. She didn’t know, but she needed to try.