When the Yamato dropped out of warp at their rendezvous point, Solaris had been expecting to find three starships waiting for their arrival. Instead her view screen was empty. Her eyes flicked to the helm.

“Helm, these are the correct coordinates, yes?” she asked, leaning forward in her chair. The helm officer on duty tapped his console, and nodded.

“Yes, ma’am. These are the coordinates we sent to the Callisto.” he responded, double checking just to be sure. Solaris frowned, looking to her XO for a moment, sharing a concerned look.

“Perhaps we’re just early, Captain.” she said, only half believing it. Solaris nodded.

“Guess we should settle in and wait. If we are early… it shouldn’t be by all that much time.”

Sol leaned back in her chair, watching the view screen. The bridge fell into a contemplative silence, each officer tending to their duties as they waited. Sol drummed her fingers on the arm rest of her chair, not liking the possibilities she was imagining. She looked up as a console chimed behind her, craning her neck to get a look at it. It was their communications station and the officer there was concentrated on the screen in front of them.

“Captain, message from the U.S.S. Givens, they report that they and the Callisto have been recalled on other matters. They send their apologies for missing the rendezvous.” the officer reported. Sol let out a breath and nodded.

“Send back an acknowledgement, and wish them a safe journey. Helm… lay in a reverse course, and take us back to our initial position… looks like we’ll be on our own after all.” she commented, frowning. She didn’t like the idea of strolling into that sector with no real way of communicating outside of it, or even seeing where they were really going, but the Yamato was a strong ship. Her crew were professionals. They could handle it. The question was if their Captain could.

“Course laid in, Captain.”

“Warp 6. Engage.” she ordered. The helm officer tapped in the commands and Sol’s eyes fixated on the view screen as the ship arced around and accelerated up to warp speed, disappearing into subspace with a brilliant flash. Sol stood.

“Commander…” she said, gesturing toward the rear of the bridge, where the holotable sat. “join me for a moment.” she added. Amaya stood and followed the Captain to the holotable. Solaris called up the prior scans of the sector they were getting ready to explore. Hey eyes studied the data, or lack there of on the display.

“I’m open to ideas, Commander.” she said quietly. “This is the first look into the unknown we’re going to be getting here.” she added. Amaya nodded.

“It isn’t quite what either of us were expecting…  exploring a sector takes time, even when we have full sensor capability… but we can’t even see what we’re getting into here.” she agreed.

“Yes having another ship would have been ideal… but that isn’t the hand the universe has dealt us… so now how can we best handle this?” Sol asked. Amaya thought for a moment.

“What about send out our runabouts and shuttles?” she asked. “We could cover significantly more ground that way.” she pointed out. Sol chewed her bottom lip for a moment.

“And risk being cut off from them…” she pointed out. She crossed her arms, tapping a finger on her elbow. “Wait… we have a flight of four Valkyrie fighters, right?” she asked. Amaya nodded.

“Ok… we wont send the shuttles out, they would be too vulnerable, but we can send the Solo and Kuryakin out with a pair of Valkyries each…” she paused, overlaying the Yamato on the holographic display in front of them. “Based on our own sensor readings and the limited returns we got from our probes… if we set them out at one hundred kilometers we should be able to remain in contact with them, and still spread our sensor net a bit wider…” she said. Amaya considered the plan for a moment.

“That might be the best we can do, given the situation. I’ll make sure the two runabouts are equipped for reconnaissance, give us as much of an edge as we can muster.” she commented. “Should get us a bit more sensor range out of them.” she added. Sol nodded.

“Good… see to it then, Commander. You have…” Sol paused, calling up their estimated travel time. “Four hours and thirty-two minutes.” she added.

“Aye, Captain. They’ll be ready.” Amaya confirmed, turning to leave the bridge. She tapped her commbadge as she headed for the turbolift.

“Crichton to T’liss. Gather an engineering team and meet me in shuttle bay one. We have some modifications to make.” she said. Sol grinned, watching the other woman disappear into a turbolift before returning to the command chair to watch the stars streak by for the next four hours.

Sol glanced at the chrono as the Yamato continued to cut its way through subspace toward its destination. Thirty minutes. That was how long they had until they reached the edge of the sector that was shrouded in distortions. The teams in the shuttle bays were working hard to finish the modifications to the ship’s pair of runabouts, and the pilots of the Valkyries were no doubt performing their own final checks. She looked up at the sound of the turbolift doors opening.

“Captain–”

“Cutting it a bit close, aren’t we Commander?” Sol asked with a grin.

“Yes, ma’am. Commander T’liss is very exacting.” Amaya replied, leaning against the railing that surrounded the command chairs. Sol laughed.

“She is that. I often wonder if she was always that way, and her time with the Borg simply strengthened it.” she said. “Then they’ll be ready by the time we arrive?” she asked. Amaya nodded, stepping down the ramp to stand in front of the Captain.

“Yes. She says both the Solo and the Kuryakin will be ready by the time we arrive. The Valkyries are fully armed and ready to deploy with them.” the XO reported. Sol nodded.

“Good, good. Have our Valkyrie pilots come up with a name for their flight?” she asked. Amaya shrugged.

“I didn’t ask… wasn’t exactly high on my list when I was in the shuttle bay. I can find out if you like?”

Solaris shook her head.

“No it’s not important… I’m sure we’ll find out once we arrive.” she said. Amaya nodded and moved to take a seat in her chair.

“We should be seeing the sector on sensors soon, right?” she asked. Solaris nodded, tapping in a few commands on her control pad. The view screen switched to a display of the approaching sector.

“Was it too much to hope that something had changed in the time it took us to get back here?” she asked. Sol chuckled.

“It’s been my experience, Commander, that the universe does not like to make things that easy. Though, I suppose if it did, there would be no reason for us to be out here, putting our noses where they almost assuredly don’t belong.” Sol commented, shaking her head. She wondered just when she had gotten the exploration bug. It hadn’t been long ago she had just been content with being an intelligence officer. Now here she was about to step into her first real unknown. No briefing. No dossiers. Just the unknown. Part of her was terrified, but another part wanted to peel away the distortions like pulling a blanket off, and see just what laid underneath the surface. That was an intoxicating feeling. One she hoped wouldn’t get any of them killed. She sat back watching the sensor readouts on the view screen, the shrouded area growing ever closer. Her eyes flicked to the chrono again. Twenty-minutes.