Prelude

The Lietinna streaked through the darkness of space with ripples of compressed light flashing behind it as it maintained HLT. Archer stood behind the command console of the bridge as he took in the marvelous image of light streaking across the view screen.

This was his first command and regardless of the incredible events that led him here and the thorny events to come, he couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and pride well up within him. He who is the son of a farmer sailing through the stars as the captain of a spaceship.

Archer took a deep breath to calm himself as he couldn't allow his bridge crew to wonder why he was standing around in silence as he spoke:

"Ops. What is the distance to destination?"

Klimt immediately spoke up without pause:

"Approximately 7 Lumins Sir."

Archer paused for a second as he contemplated the distance between Lumiere in the Aurora system and their destination of Cosmic in the Orionis System. A passenger liner would take about 2 days to get on account of the numerous stops even though they are also capable of HLT.

Fortunately, the Lietinna is a type 2 ship capable of traveling at a max speed of 1.25 LPH and without the typical stops of a passenger liner can make the trek in less than 6 hours. Archer, however, was in no rush so after a moment of contemplation, he spoke up:

"Helm, set our speed to 1. Comms, contact the Tame and the Romme and notify them that we've set off and our ETA."

"Yes sir." Intoned the comms officer.

Archer then proceeded to wait for the speed adjustment before turning to Peters beside him and speaking:

"Peters, after you're done with the order. Set up shifts for the crew to start at T-2 hours from destination, until then, they are free unless you need them for something."

Without waiting for Peters to respond, he turned front and spoke:

"Klimt, take command. I'll be in my quarters."

He immediately turned away from the console and walked out of the bridge and to his quarters located right next to it. It has been about 10 hours since he got on the LNS Tame, and he has been awake for 18 so exhaustion was creeping up on him causing him to decide to get some rest as they cruised to their destination.

Six hours later, Archer was roused by the sound of the alarm he set before he passed out. He still felt the exhaustion from his long day and his bed left a lot to be desired as far as comfort went.

He sat up in bed while still wearing his uniform as he stared at the gray walls of his quarters without much thought. He just stared, before he slowly remembered where he was. He couldn't help but sigh as he stood off the side of the bed slowly before heading to the bathroom to freshen up.

A few minutes later, Archer looked at himself in his somewhat wrinkly uniform as water dripper off his black hair. He stared at his reflection in silence as if trying to read his own thoughts before straightening himself and heading for the door.

"Captain on the Bridge."

Klimt who was sitting at the command console announced loudly as she stood from Archer's chair. Archer proceeded to lethargically take his seat while speaking:

"Report."

"Yes sir. No major deviations to report, we're making our way to LNS Martil's last known location. We had to adjust course slightly to avoid an impassable cluster of asteroids as we entered the Orionis System."

"What's our ETA?"

"An hour Sir."

"Great. Did we hear back from the Tame and the Romme?"

Archer asked as he opened his individual monitor while transferring Klimt's to her own console. Klimt who was standing next to him. She immediately responded:

"Yes sir. The LNS Tame is an hour behind us. No response from the Romme."

Archer frowned as he wondered why there is no response from the Romme. Typically, there is an inherent delay in messages sent long distance as they are bounced between different communication nodes until the intended recipient is found, but 6 hours is an unusually long time not to respond.

Archer immediately pulled up the 7th Fleet's dispatch information to see where the Romme was last headed. Apparently the LNS Romme was dispatched two days ago to planet Luminis of the Aurora system for a routine scouting run.

This meant that it was the closest to the Orionis system. Archer immediately felt something was off as he turned his head to Klimt and spoke with a serious tone as the lethargic feeling evaporated from his body:

"Alert wing command that the Romme is not responding. Also, run a wide spectrum scan of our surroundings, we're within a Lumin of the Martil's last known location, let's see if we can pick something up."

"Yes sir."

Klimt spoke as she walked fast to her station. Archer looked for a second through the Romme's dispatch notes before closing it out and staring ahead as Klimt inputted the scans. Most navy ships are equipped with varying sets of equipment including such as spectrographs, and detectors, which allow it to observe and analyze light in various wavelengths for long range scanning.

Archer saw the scan inputs populate on a corner of his console with color codes for various objects and astronomical bodies. His attention was initially on the sea of dots representing the asteroid belt past the solar system but was diverted by a signal that all officers are familiar with causing his face to harden. Klimt immediately spoke up with a sense of urgency in her voice:

"Sir. Concentrated proton energy within 0.13 Lumins. Someone fighting nearby."

Archer was not unfamiliar with the scan results and was able to identify them as proton weapons being fired by ships. He felt his chest tighten as a possibility dawned on him, but he had no time to sit and contemplate, he looked Klimt and the bridge crew who were similarly looking at him and spoke:

"Helm, set course for the signal, max speed."

"Yes sir. We'll be there in 7 minutes."

"Engineering, bring anti-proton shields online. Tactical, all weapons are hot, please man all the cannons and prepare for contact."

""Yes sir""

Archer pressed a few buttons on the command console causing it to split in two as his chair moved forward giving him an interrupted view of the bridge and viewing screen.

"Comms, open all hail channels. We need to figure out who is fighting. The proton energy from the scans is too heavy for it to be just two ships in a skirmish."

'Yes sir. All hail channels open, no messages found. There might be scramblers being used."

Archer was starting to feel that this whole situation was weird. He contemplated not rushing in and maybe waiting for the Tame which was nearby, but based on the proton energy concentration, his mission being to find a specific ship and the lack of communication from the Romme, he felt that time was not on his side. If that was the Romme being caught in a fight, not rendering aid in a timely manner will be a major offense and will undoubtedly lead to his court martial.

"Send a message to the Tame and let them know of the situation. We'll proceed to the conflict zone and ascertain the situation for ourselves…."

"Sir, multiple ships incoming on an intercept course. 10 minutes to contact."

Before Archer could even finish his words, Klimt's panicked voice sounded out. Archer immediately turned his head to his left condole panel only to see three red dots moving to his ship's indicator.

They seemed to be within 0.2 Lumins but in the opposite direction from the conflict zone. The fact that the scans didn't pick them indicated that they were neither firing their weapons nor in high lumin travel which was not a good sign. It meant that they were aware of the conflict near them but were uninterested in rendering aid until the Lietinna showed.

Archer contemplated the situation at hand for a quick second before deciding on how to proceed.

"Maintain course for the conflict zone. We have a 4 to 5 minutes head start on them, we'll drop in on the action, see what we're dealing with and then fall back if necessary. Helm, drop us out of HLT within firing range, we have no time to waste on approach maneuvers."

""Yes sir""

Archer leaned on his arm rest with his arm on his face as he contemplated the chain of events and their implications.

The Matril loses contact for a day. 3 ships are dispatched from the nearest wing and the closest ship also becomes unreachable and now there is a skirmish up ahead and unidentified ships on their tail. If he didn't know better, he would think that this was a planned ambush to lure them. Following the threads of thoughts moving within his mind and remembering his last conversation with Lt. Commander Naimes, Archer felt that these sets of events are interconnected and are pointing at a maelstrom greater than himself that was gradually pulling him in.