Toward Familiar Stars

[Captain Halloway 0]

Captain Thomas Halloway passed through the ready room doors and into the bridge of the Sovereign-class starship Yorktown.

 

"Leaving grid 10 for grid 11," Lieutenant Sabrina Tracey advised her captain from the helm.

 

Halloway nodded an acknowledgement as he continued his path toward the tactical station. He stopped, took a breath, and ran a hand through his dark hair. "What is it, Seiji?" he asked his exec, who was hunched over the station.

 

Commander Fujimoto rubbed his neck, gesturing for the communications specialist to put something on the display. "We've been trying to clean up the signal," he replied. "It's not quite a distress call, but we picked up a coded transmission saying Sky Harbor was under attack."

 

Halloway leaned in. "Breen?" he wondered aloud. Yorktown had been given a long-term assignment to patrol the entirety of their border, looking to make some kind of contact with the enigmatic race. After months with no observation, no sensor trace, or return communication, their ship had finally been ordered to cross into Breen space. The mystery had only deepened.

 

They'd found Breen colonies, not just abandoned, but looking like unspoiled wilderness. They'd found a Breen encampment on one agricultural world where outlying buildings stood devoid of life, but whose center looked as if it had been erased - filled in with a circle of grassy hills and grazing animals. They'd found a slave camp whose prisoners claimed their captors had simply boarded their ship and left.

 

It was, in fact, this last lead they were still pursuing. In eight months, the small privateering ship was the only sign of Breen life they'd glimpsed. They'd ignored all hailing attempts, fleeing into the asteroid field Yorktown was methodically searching.

 

Fujimoto shook his head. "Nothing about the Breen," he reported. "Unknown hostiles."

 

Halloway let out a breath through his teeth as his jaw clenched. He glanced at the viewsceen, overlaid with their search grid. Answering the call meant leaving behind the only sign of Breen life they'd encountered yet on this mission.

 

Yorktown had ventured a full sector into Breen space. It would take days to close the distance to Sky Harbor. But here, on the other side of Cardassian space from the Federation border, there would be few ships capable of coming to the starbase's aid. He had little choice, even if they got there long after the battle was over.

 

"Sabrina, lay in a course toward Aegis and engage maximum warp," he ordered decisively.

 

The starship Yorktown turned as its master willed, leaping away from mystery and toward more familiar stars.

Edited January 16, 2010 by Captain Halloway