On the edge of sensor range for Starbase 241, a super cargo freighter crashes out of warp blaring a distress call and registering as the FTS Haversack (FTS = Federation Transport Ship). It wallows in space as it vents warp plasma, its hull streaked with the marks of disruptor fire. Several compartments are opened to the vacuum of space as it limps slowly towards Starbase 241 begging for help. Deep in the bowels of the ship, through metric tons of scanner shielding, five hundred souls sit in silence waiting.

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Dream stood there for moment letting out a deep sigh before turning to Ops. "OK, tell me the who, what, when, where, and whys now," shi said as shi made for the OPS center. "And Ensign, from now on, all comms are to be forwarded to OPS until further notice." Shi closed the comm without another word and without wasting a second said clearly, "All hands yellow alert."

Ensign Blakesly looked at the Lt. Commander respectfully, "Ma'am, this one is marked as a priority, that's why I comm'd you personally. It's the super freighter FTS Haversack. She's been missing for 8 months."

"What? Is it within visual range?" shi asked.

"Aye Ma'am, I'm not sure how it got this close without being spotted, it's on the edge of visual," reported the youthful Ensign.

"Open a channel; and someone look to see if that is the ship that's been missing," shi ordered. "And someone contact sector Commander Prurin."

"Aye Ma'am." Then Ensign flicked a few keys, "Comms open Ma'am."

"FTS Haversack this is Lt. Dreamspirit of Starbase 241, we are dispatching runabouts to your location, can you give any more information about your ship and crew status?" shi asked.

An automated message responds on repeat, "This is the FTS Haversack to anyone who can hear us. We have had a warp core breach. We are running on minimal reserves. To anyone who can hear my voice, send help please," and then it repeats again.

"Cut that off," shi ordered. "Put the ship on screen. Do scans read any life signs aboard?"

"Ma'am scans read bio signs... but no life signs..." reported the Ensign.

"Ensign, I am not an old lady, stop calling me Ma'am. Inform the runabout crews that it is unconfirmed that there is life left in her crew, proceed with caution, fix the breach and tow it back here." Shi stopped and added, "Did anyone send that message to Commander Prurin?"

"Yes Ma'am... I mean... Umm... Never mind..." the Ensign spoke into his headset for a minute, "Runabout crews loading ships now Ma'am. Commander Prurin was sent a notification."

"Ensign, if you know what's good for you, you won't mistakenly refer to the Commander Prurin as Ma'am when you speak with her."

Another ensign leaned over and whispered, "I heard that Commander Prurin ripped off an arm of an Ensign that said the wrong thing to her." Dreamspirit heard this and chuckled because shi knew what really happened, being that shi had been there.

The Ensign blanched slightly and nodded, "Yes, Ma... errr, Commander..." He listened to his headset for a minute, "Runabouts away Ma'am, ETA 8 minutes."

"Sir works just fine, Ensign." Shi turned to smile at him knowing shi was making this harder for him. "Ship doesn't look like it will fit in the internal dock. We'll have to use the outer docking ring." Shi turned to look at the screen showing the ship dotted in the middle of it. "Where have you been my pretty?" shi asked flatly and in a distrusting tone. "Take a look at the markings on the side of ship, does that look like weapons fire?" shi asked to the open air.

"Scans are inconclusive Ma..umm Sir.. There is definite damage in the engineering section though," he said as he listened to the headset. "Runabout on site... Reporting bio scans but no life signs. Most bio readings are on the bridge."

"Have a small team go to the bridge and check it, and I want their logs. Get the rest to work on that core. If we can bring it in on its own power that would great," shi ordered.

"Aye M... Sir..." he relayed the orders and listens intently. "One crew is on site on the bridge... It looks like the entire bridge crew succumbed to radiation from the core breach... Engineering crew reports they MIGHT be able to get auxiliaries online. Working on it now," he reported.

"I don't like this... Recall the Cheyenne. I want her back here yesterday," shi ordered sounding a little stressed now.

"Get comms up with the Plainview and get a status update from them. And send updates to Sector Command. Tell them what's going on and request a replacement ship for patrol," Dream barked out in a commanding tone of voice.

"Aye, Sir. Starbase 241 to the Cheyenne, recall... recall... recall. Return immediately to base. Best possible speed," he said putting the message on repeat and sent it off to the Cheyenne. "Starbase 241 to Plainview, what is your status?" He cocked his head to the side listening for a response and made notes, "M... Sir Plainview reports they are busy with refugee retrieval and will be a while. Cheyenne reports they are 5 hours out. Message away for replacements Sir..."

"Nothing else to do but sit and wait. Keep an open comm with the repair teams, what was the ship's trajectory? Where did it come from?" shi asked.

"It looks like it was trying to make it to us Ma.... Sir... Engineering team reports they can have impulse in an hour," he reported.

"Tell them good job, find out where that ship came from. And tell the team on the bridge too look and see if there are any morphs on board," shi said.

The ensign relayed the message and listened, "Mixed crew, Sir. They report the computers are locked and encrypted for some reason. They are going to need more processing power than they have on board to recover them."

"Keep me posted I'll be in my office. If Commander Prurin calls, send it to my office please." Dreamspirit walked to hir office and started working on the report to both Fleet and Corps command.

"Aye Sir," responded the Ensign and then he went back to listening in on the headset. A few minutes passed and the comms chirped, "Commander, I have Commander Prurin on the comms."

"Patch it though," shi requested turning on hir office screens.

"This is Commander Prurin, to whom am I speaking?" a scarred Rakshani asked bluntly from Dream's comm screen.

"Lt. Commander Dreamspirit, I have a bit of a problem. Both stations escorts are out of range. One I just recalled won't be here for 5 hours and the second is dealing with a recovery that popped up out of blue. Suddenly our missing ship the Haversack just dropped on my doorstep and something about its timing is...Too perfect," shi stated. "Crew seems to have died of radiation from the core. Not sure about rest of the crew but bridge crew is mixed morph and human. Sir, I request assistance. I feel like something is wrong about the timing of this."

There was silence for a minute. "Are you telling me that because you can't schedule correctly, you need my help? Do you have any idea how many pirate raiders we are chasing down right now, Lieutenant Commander?" she asked emphasizing Dream's lower rank.

"Only stating that we are spread thin Sir, and the station's mission is to help any ship in need in her range. I have followed that mission to the letter, but something about this ship dropping in is..." shi trailed off suspiciously. "I need another ship to replace my other ships that are on patrol, until search and rescue operations are complete. We are not outfitted with enough ships to keep this station safe as well as to patrol and do search and rescue. I am working with what I have at my disposal Sir, but this is a science station above all else. We just can't handle two SARs at once," Dream explained as respectfully as shi could.

Prurin purred dangerously. "You science types should learn how to manage your military assets then shouldn't you? It is not MY fault you don't understand tactics," she sniffed. "I can release the Astor and two runabouts and consider yourself lucky that I do that much. I recommend you brush up on military procedures Lieutenant Commander. They will be there in 3 and a half hours. Prurin out." And with that the comms click off.

Dreamspirit sighed. "I think she forgot how tight the assets we have are," shi muttered to hirself. "So much for the 'Ask me for anything' speech." Dreamspirit got up from hir desk and got a fresh cuppa tea and made hir way to OPS. "Ensign, update?"

"Sir, the Haversack is on her way to the station... ETA 28 minutes," he reported.

"Once Haversack is docked, go to code blue. I want the halls clear for medical and repair crews. I am going to make my way down to medical and see what I can do help," shi stated. "Forward all message to me from our escorts and if Commander Prurin calls back, notify me immediately," Dream said somberly as shi made hir way to the lift, deciding to make a detour to check on Max.

"Aye Sir, I'll keep you informed," he replied.

Dreamspirit stood in front of the docking bay medical staff setting up a field morgue just this side of the airlock. Security team stood on either side of the airlock entryway.

"OK, after security gives the all clear we'll move in and start removing the..." Shi paused for moment, "crew." We'll bring them here before taking them to the station morgue. That's why it's much colder in here. This will be where we'll be tagging and bagging. I don't want to use the transporters because of the radiation that was messing with our scans. Everyone should be inoculated for the radiation by now, if not, then you should get inoculated now before the ship is docked."

There were few murmurs around the bay as everyone got ready. The sounds of the docking clamps were loud as they started to move into position locking the ship into place with a dull clunk. Red lights appeared over the airlock as the airlock cycled. The lights turned green and the doors opened. The stations alert status lights were still signaling a steady blue, throwing odd shadows over the faces of the assembled crews. The security team turned into the airlock and began their way into the ship. A few minutes passed before the security team gave the all-clear and the first medical team with a mix of morphs and humans, 10 in total, led by Tim, a human male, moved in to start clearing up the first section of the ship so that they could start evacuating the dead crew. Dreamspirit signaled a medical team to stand by. As the first medical team moved in they found a morph sitting on the ground, its back against the corridor with its head lolling downward towards the ground with a lifeless stare. The team gently rolled out a stretcher, and with gentle reverence, loaded the dead morph and wheeled it away quietly. The rest of the medical team started to move forward.

The air on the ship was very stale, not a single breath had disturbed it in what seemed like a long time and many of the emergency lights were malfunctioning giving the corridor an eerie aspect. Some of the lights looked to have been shot out by weapons fire and the scorch marks on the walls seemed to confirm that. There were smears of blood here and there and the lingering smell of death lent a charnel house wreak to the ship...

Tim, the leader of the group said, "God it smells in here. I hope no one forgot their flashlights, you may need them in some sections."

Deep in the hold of the ship, under multiple layers of shielding, one individual stood in the middle of many others and nodded a signal to another holding a small computer hooked into the ship's computer relay system.

Dreamspirit padded over to the first recovered crew member of the ship. Seeing a clear shot to the chest, Dream sighed as shi started to look over the readings from the scanners and started to make a numbered list for the body count. Tapping her combadge shi ordered two more teams of medical staff to enter the ship and start further recovery. Security teams and medical teams came and went carrying bodies and exploring the furthermost corners of the ship looking for bodies to recover.

The individual with the palm computer entered a couple of commands breaking into the central computer network of the station and after a little work, isolated the relays for their section and punched in a command. The lights went out. The bay's lights went dark. It only took a few seconds before the backup emergency lights flickered to life and the Blue Alert status started to flash again. Dream tapped hir combadge and asked for OPS to give an update. The request went unanswered and Dream tried again tapping hir combadge and requesting an update. Dream looked to the others for a moment then said, "The station may be under attack. Everyone be ready and keep doing your jobs."

Dream moved away from the medical tables and over to the airlock where an Ensign was standing. "Ensign, you're our runner now. Go in the ship and tell them comms are down for whatever reason and to just keep doing what they are doing. I'll get a few more runners to replace you once you're done. Remember to get to all medical teams and security teams and the 3 teams that originally boarded the ship, the one on bridge, and two in main engineering. Go, and hurry," shi said as shi tapped his back.

The individual with the palm computer entered another series of commands closing the emergency bulkhead doors to the docking ring in a thunder of metal on metal. Watching the screens in the shielded compartment, the group noted who was going where on the ship and when they got close enough, a group got ready at the door, weapons drawn. When the door rumbled open, there were lights and a low sound. The lead individual motioned to everyone and small glowing green lights came on the exterior of helmets illuminating their low light vision as they broke into groups and started taking down each Federation group one at a time.

After some time, Dream looked at the air lock expecting hir first runner to be back already after the allotted time. Another alarm suddenly sounded as the bulkhead door started to drop and Dream yelled, "Get out GO! GO! GO!" Everyone made their way quickly to the entry way. Only 7 of them were able to get out before the door closed and sealed the way out. That was when Dream realized the threat wasn't outside as shi looked down the airlock into the ship. Shi started to panic slightly and turned to face one of the emergency weapon lockers. Shi ran to it and opened it. There were only 5 hand phasers inside, but shi quickly handed them to the closest people to hir.

"Take two bodies off those tables and flip them, we can use them for cover," shi ordered and the staff jumped to action as shi aimed hir phaser at the airlock.

The group arranged themselves like the well-oiled troops they were and moved from their hidy hole towards the door to the airlock. Once in range of the airlock, the leader motioned to the one with the palm computer and knelt waiting. The tech started to tap away on the computer as the rest of the crew turned on the filter masks in their helmets. Slowly, a cloud of thick gas enveloped them from behind and started to billow out into the docking ring quickly filling up the room. One after one, the Federation crew slumped to the ground unconscious.

Dream noticed a sickly-sweet smell and recognized it right away. "Oh no! Don't breathe deeply! Try and fight the sleep!" shi yelled keeping hir eyes on the airlock hearing one of them pass out as shi turned to look back to air lock. "Someone replace him!" shi ordered hearing others hit the deck. Shi too started to feel the effects of the gas. "Stay awake!" shi said more to hirself at this point than anyone else. Trying to breath shallowly shi watched the airlock as hir vision started to tunnel.

The leader looked at another person beside him who pulled out a scanner and watched it. Seeing a couple more awake beings, the leader made an over the shoulder motion and over his shoulder flew two small round objects with blinking lights. The small orbs flew through the air and instead of bouncing, adhered to the deck plates. They start to rapidly flicker before exploding in flashes of incredibly bright lights and noise.

Dream barely had time to noticed something flying out of the airlock. Seconds later, white light and deafening sound overtook hir and shi fell to the ground rapidly losing consciousness.

The group of people walked out from the airlock casually. The leader signaled one group to cover the entryways and another group to round up the downed Feds. More people in matching red armor came out of the ship spreading out. The leader walked around looking at the unconscious Fleet personnel and one could almost sense the sneer behind the helmet as he randomly kicks morphs as he walked by and coming to the chakat, lifted a boot putting it forcefully on hir leg breaking the bones there and then sneered out words full of hate. "Filthy genetic freaks." The leader sauntered away ordering his men around to their assigned duties.

The leader signaled his crew to start moving the unconscious crew out of the docking ring and into the compartments of the ship. They moved the morph species into special slave restraints and locked the humans in a holding container in the belly of the beast. The Commander then went off to supervise things leaving Dream behind an overturned table alone to be the last to be removed.

Dream awoke feeling a horrible pain in hir leg and ears. As shi lay there, shi looked around seeing everyone that was around hir gone. Breathing heavily, shi wondered what happened and how long shi had been out. Looking around, shi noticed that all of the phasers were gone. Slowly shi tried to get up, but a wave of dizziness washes over hir as the gas was still in effect. Shi knew shi had to escape, but the gas was making it very hard to concentrate and then suddenly, the crawl spaces came to hir mind. Getting though those would take hours with a broken leg and this splitting headache she had. With a grunt of pain and a quiet whimper, shi made hir way to the other side of the bay. Not seeing any guards or any force whatsoever, shi made hir way to the crawlspace latch and dragged hirself in and started hir way out of the docking bay in a slow, painful crawl.