Sali stretched a bit after she extricated herself from the bed. She was not sure how it happened, but she attributed it to the fact that this ship was tiny and there was not much to do. It certainly had solved her boredom though. Not bothering to look around she headed for the bathroom, so that she could wash off the sticky on her. After that, she could go look for her dirty clothes and put them in the machine to be washed. Given the time she did not have long before the others would start getting up for their shifts.

She sighed when the thought of shifts came up. They were on their fourth week of a scouting mission. LPCs were fine ships, but they were tiny. The cramped conditions took some getting used to, but she had gotten used to them. Last night’s activities had helped with the boredom but she really wanted to get back to the Enterprise. She was dreaming of just one night of being able to enjoy the amenities. Not that it was going to happen anytime soon.

She dismissed that line of thought and stepped into the bathroom. Turning on the shower, she stepped in and proceeded to start her boring daily routine. Although today there were a couple of changes. Namely the result of last night’s group activity. She pushed the thoughts aside and enjoyed her shower. She slipped out just as a couple of other young crew women entered to take their own. Passing them, she gave the pair a brief acknowledgment before heading into the main room.

This time she looked around, a few people were still sleeping. Some of them sharing beds or tangled together. She picked a path through the strown items and articles of clothing for her own locker. Selecting a fresh uniform she slipped into it and then sighed. It was time to find last night’s uniform. She knew it was somewhere in the room. At least she didn’t have any underwear to worry about. Sali still had a hard time feeling comfortable wearing underwear after so many years without it.

Thankfully it did not take her long to find it, and put it in to be washed. She was making sure her hair was regulation when her rather underdressed captain came up to her. Sayuri had proven to be a good captain, and she rather liked the woman. She blushed a bit as she remembered what they had been doing last night, and Sayuri seemed a little flushed herself. While Sali tried not to look at the goods she had on display. After last night, she was not sure what the dynamic would be.

Sayuri tried to take an authoritative posture, but given her current state of dress the effect was rather amusing. Sali had to suppress the urge to laugh or comment on the effect. After a moment the captain spoke, “I see you are about ready. Riko mentioned that she wanted a diagnostic done on the main engines. I want you to go ahead and start that as soon as you get to the bridge.”

Unsure of what to do, she simply replied “Aye, Captain.”

Leaving the cramped central hallway, Sali closed the hatch behind her. One of the nightwatch greeted her as she closed it. She returned a smile and exchanged a couple of words before heading for her station. The marine and pilot manning the helm looked a little tired, and with barely any words exchanged they traded places. Sali immediately started doing the diagnostic for Riko and Sayuri. It was a simple thing, and before long the computer was analyzing the engines.

With that done, she decided to go ahead and review last night’s sensor logs. Not much else to do anyway with the helm on automatic. The logs proved to be rather uninteresting however. Not that she had expected much. This sector of space had a higher than average particle density, a few scattered small nebulas but not much else. Star systems were a little rare around here. The nearest system to their current position was nearly fourteen lightyears away, and based on the readings it was not much of a system. The only planet in the habitable zone was a gas giant with a few barren moons. One of them did appear habitable, but it was reading as a frozen wasteland. Not surprising given its position in the system but it was a nice moon. With a mass nearly twice that of Earth, but a much higher composition of heavy minerals. The result was that it had a diameter a little smaller than Earth’s but heavier gravity. Average surface temperatures at the equator varied from -7 to 10 degrees C depending on the region. Surface ice covered much of the planet with a few small, and very cold oceans near the equator.

The planet-sized moon was their target for this scouting mission. Not the original target mind you, but it was the current target. Why the fleet had an interest in this moon was beyond her. She didn’t even know why the scout target had been changed. She had heard a few things, but nothing concrete. She didn’t put much faith in rumors though.

Sali paused when the hatch at the rear of the bridge opened. She glanced briefly and noted the entry of Ensign Steele, the ship’s weapons officer. Then she turned back to the logs and noticed a note she hadn’t read yet. It seems that last night the long-range scanners had detected a single Cylovan ship at 027 hours. It was still on long-range sensors, barely. It was on a course that would take it into space uncharted by Refuge vessels, but intel suspected that at least three Cylovan capital worlds were in that sector. That sector had been the original target of their mission. Their assignment was to find a route to the sector, identify targets of interest, and assess local Cylovan strength.

The readings of the ship indicated that it was a Cylovan scout ship, nothing to be worried about. Cylovan scouts were weak, with poor armor and terrible weapons. A single LPC was more than a match for one measly Cylovan scout ship. Turning away from the ship, she turned back to the readings on the moon. Designated Draxus Nine, it was not much to look at. At least until she noted an oddity.

An unusual reading had been logged coming from the moon. She checked the diagnostic and notes. There was plenty of processing power, and it seems the night crew had missed the reading. A few quick keystrokes on her computer interface, and the computer was running an analysis on the sensor reading from the moon in addition to the diagnostic.

The computer beeped and presented the results of its analysis just moments before Captain Sayuri entered the bridge. She was looking over those results when the captain walked in. The Captain noticed her attention was on the results as she took her own station from the nightwatch commander.

“Results already?”

She looked back, “Not yet sir. The diagnostics will take a couple of hours to complete. We picked up an odd sensor reading from Draxus Nine last night. I had the computer analyze that as well. The reading appears to have been a Cylovan energy signature, specifically a standard starship grade heavy Cylovan disruptor beam weapon. The kind typically found mounted on Cylovan cruisers. No cruiser or ship of any kind for that matter had been detected near the moon. It looks like we just found evidence of a Cylovan presence on the moon.”

Sayuri leaned forward a bit, and said, “Interesting. That does leave a few questions. Why are they hiding their presence there, and what were they shooting at?”

“At this range, it would be hard to discern why, sir.”

“Focus a few more sensors that way, and keep scanning. Stay discreet though. I want as much information as we can get before we enter the system.”

She acknowledged the order and accessed the sensors. Following the order, she gave new instructions to the computer. Almost immediately those sensors were refocused, and low-level active scanning began. There was a slight risk of their location being revealed, but she felt it was minimal. Now it was just a waiting game.

Sali shifted slightly in her seat, as her hands flew over the controls. A few hours had passed since her shift had begun. They had been mostly uneventful. The diagnostic had found that the engines were in need of a slight recalibration. The core was slightly out of alignment. It was easy enough to fix, and Riko had already completed that repair.

She finished inputting her commands, and reported, “Course plotted and laid in, sir.”

The captain leaned forward slightly, and ordered, “Make the jump, warp 4.7”

“Aye, sir. Initiating warp jump. Warp factor 4.7. ETA 6.85 days,” responded Sali with a sigh. The ship could go faster, but she guessed the captain wanted to take her time. Another boring week with nothing to do. It could be worse though, so she decided not to complain.

Meanwhile, on the Enterprise, Countryman sat down at his desk heavily. With a sigh, he turned on the screen and considered the problem. He had just come back from breaking up an orgy and gently interrogating the participants. Along with talking with a few doctors afterward. Not something he would have normally bothered with. In the communal living areas there tends to be one, about twice a week. That however is between consenting adults.

This one was a little different. Technically the individuals involved were consenting as well. They were young and a number of them had seen their parents do it, so out of curiosity they had held one. Several actually that had become apparent after talking to them. The question is, what is he to do when a bunch of underaged individuals had been engaging in orgies? Especially when about half the girls involved had been tested positive for pregnancy. Personally he thought they were a little young for that, but lately, young boys and girls seemed to mature in that area more quickly than they used to. That thought made him want to check something.

A few keystrokes later, and he was reading a few medical reports to be sure. What he found indicated a definite trend towards people hitting puberty at younger ages more often. There were even a couple of outliers that were alarmingly young. Maybe he should have been keeping up with the medical journals as well. Even if they were not exactly his area of expertise, besides he was not too old to learn a new specialty.

Closing the reports, he composed himself. Checked the list of caught individuals, and called the first parent. Legally there was not much he could do, beyond informing the parents. Let them decided what to do with their naughty children. He could already see the headaches. By fleet law, children were the responsibility of the parent, and the parent had full control of their children. The state had no right to interfere unless they were breaking the law. The real headache he saw coming was the current fleet stance on abortion forbids it, but this was a circumstance they had never planned for nor expected. Little did he realize that this was the first sign of an even bigger headache in the making and a mixed blessing. What he did realize were a few of the immediate problems, and that he was going to be having some long discussions with fleet doctors and the council on this matter.