The Underspace had resurfaced. At last, they had a way home. But their triumphant return would have to wait a little longer. That mysterious armada racing the labyrinth looked fitted for war, and he couldn’t just let them pass on by. So he gave the order and off they went, the Serenity and Ingenuity abandoning track for home, stalking their prey through the corridors of the labyrinth.

“Any idea where they’re taking us, Sena?” Captain Lewis asked. Typically, such a question would be directed towards the helmsman, but in this situation, Lieutenant Selik would have no idea. It was all he could do to avoid bouncing them off the hyper-energetic walls of the Underspace, while their science officer was the one most equipped to offer any semblance of an understanding as to where these corridors might lead.

“If you gave me a couple days, I might be able to project the topology of these novel corridors atop the spacetime mani…” Lieutenant Commander Sena began to say, but suddenly, her eyes darted to a new reading on her display. “But actually, it looks like we’re going to find out far sooner than that.”

“Why do you say that?” Captain Lewis furled his brow.

“Because those ships we were tracking just disappeared from our scopes,” Lieutenant Commander Sena explained. “And I am detecting energy readings consistent with an Underspace aperture up ahead.”

“How long until we reach the aperture?” Captain Lewis asked warily. He hadn’t exactly thought this part through when he’d ordered them to pursue those warships. It wasn’t as if they could just about-face in the Underspace, and that meant, in some probably not long enough time from now, they were going to tear out of the Underspace in the middle of who knew where, face-to-face with whomever it was they’d been following.

“At present velocity, one minute and forty five seconds, sir,” Lieutenant Selik reported. Given the powerful sensor suite aboard their scout variant of the Duderstadt class cruiser, they’d at least been able to maintain some distance. But not a lot. Not enough that the armada would have yet wandered far enough astray that they wouldn’t notice the pair of Starfleet vessels when they popped out.

“Slow us up, Mister Selik,” Captain Lewis ordered. “Buy us as much time as you can.”

“Much of the ship’s velocity comes from the eddies and currents themselves, sir, but I will do what I can within the confines of the Underspace’s physical properties,” the Vulcan nodded as he went to work manipulating thrust, taking some steam off their rapid race towards the exit. “Set new estimated time of arrival at four minutes two zero seconds.”

A timer appeared on the forward viewer, counting down ominously from 4 minutes and 20 seconds.

Better than nothing, Captain Lewis thought to himself. That would at least give a little bit of time for the armada to wander off. Maybe. But it was also just as possible they’d be popping into the middle of a major base of operations or something for whomever these people were.

They really had no idea. 

All they really knew at present was that the armada they were following included starfighters belonging to an ancient militant civilization, one that’d exerted their supremacy across large swaths of the Delta Quadrant many centuries ago. That, and the fact the armada was packing some serious heat, enough firepower to erase even a reasonable size carrier group from existence if they wanted.

Aware of the risk, there was really only one option. “Red alert. All hands, battlestations.”

The lights dimmed and a red underglow overtook the bridge.

Lieutenant Commander Ekkomas Eidran, the ship’s young executive officer, leaned over and whispered to the captain. “Hopefully this is all a big nothingburger, or a tense but uneventful first or second contact situation.” This might turn out to be their first run-in with the Vaadwaur since Voyager made contact nearly three decades prior, or it could be first contact with someone who had commandeered what was left of their technology.

“Possible, but if you’re wrong, I don’t intend for us to get caught with our pants down,” Captain Lewis countered. It was simply his way. He wasn’t an open palms sort of guy. Especially when flying headlong into what was clearly a fleet of warships with unknown intentions. “Irina, bring shields to full and weapons on standby…” He looked over at his executive officer. Maybe the kid was right. “But do not fire unless fired upon. This may still just be a first or second contact situation.”

“Shields, weapons, aye,” Lieutenant Tarasova nodded. “But don’t fire first.” She could do that. No need to start a war. But she’d keep her finger on the trigger, just in case.

“Mister Selik, if things get hot, be ready to about-face and retreat straight back into the Underspace,” Captain Lewis added. He had no idea how fast those ships were that might be waiting for them on the other side, but he knew how fast their Duderstadt and the Pathfinder were. If that armada had hostile intent, the best option for the Serenity and the Ingenuity might be to turn tail and run.

“Understood, sir,” Lieutenant Selik acknowledged. It was a logical request.

Meanwhile, the clock continued to tick down, the minutes falling away, and then the seconds, until at last they were at the moment of truth.

0:05…

0:04…

0:03…

0:02…

0:01…

0:00.

The Serenity and the Ingenuity tore out of the aperture, their crews ready to meet whatever waited for them on the other side. What was waiting on the other side, though, was anything but what they had expected. 

There were no ships to follow, nor to call, nor to shoot.

In fact, there was nothing but debris.

“What the hell am I looking at?” Captain Lewis asked as he stared at a debris field that had to be at least several thousand kilometers in diameter. Whoever they’d been following, and whatever had been on the other side waiting for them, it was all gone.

“A graveyard,” Lieutenant Commander Sena offered grimly without further elaboration.

“I am detecting a mix of duranium, tritanium, polydeutonic alloys, and other materials consistent with starship debris,” Lieutenant Greg Gadsen filled in the blanks. “Compositional mix indicates two parties were present, one unidentified, presumably the armada we were following, and the other… Romulan.”

Captain Lewis looked over his shoulder at Lieutenant Commander Sena, their resident Romulan. That’s when he noticed the grief-stricken look on her face, an unusual response for the usually stoic operator-turned-scientist.

“These were my brethren, captain,”  Lieutenant Commander Sena explained darkly. “My brethren that gave their lives for… for what, I’m not sure.”

Captain Lewis asked the obvious next question: “Where are we?”

“We are deep within the territory of the Romulan Free State.” Lieutenant Commander Sena knew this place well. She’d been here many times, long ago in better times.

“Captain,” Lieutenant Gadsen chimed back in. “Something else that’s curious. While I’m detecting some evidence of energy discharge, I’m not detecting enough to explain damage of this scale.” Also, this was all too fast, and in a battle, there was usually a victor, a ship that fired the last shot. Here, there was not a single ship left standing on either side.

“So what caused this then?” Captain Lewis inquired. “That armada was only four and a half minutes ahead of us. If this was a battle with your people, it should not have ended so quickly… or decisively.” He’d never known the Romulans to just roll over and die. They were a skillful and cunning adversary, and if someone had managed to do this to them, that worried him deeply.

“I’m detecting a tremendous amount of gravimetric decay,” Lieutenant Gadsen explained. “Not enough to cause any issues for us now, but if I had to hazard a guess, I’d almost surmise this might have been caused by the implosion of the artificial quantum singularity at the core of one of the Romulan ships.”

“This wasn’t a battle, captain,” Lieutenant Commander Sena elaborated. “It was a suicide.”

For a moment, there was only silence on the bridge.

“Excuse me?” Captain Lewis finally asked. “How do you know?” He had a many choice words he might use to describe the Romulans, but suicidal was not among them. “Is it possible they took on too much damage and lost containment of their core?”

“There are safeguards to prevent that,” Lieutenant Commander Sena replied firmly. She was absolutely certain they had not lost containment as a result of some battle damage. Hell, you could practically drop a Valdore into the center of a sun, and still containment would not be lost. It was a basic principle of how they designed their ships, and it had been for generations.

“A mistake then?” Captain Lewis posited.

“Romulans do not make such mistakes.”

“Then what?”

“The constituency and concentration of Romulan-origin debris suggests there were only a pair of Valdores present in the local vicinity,” Lieutenant Commander Sena offered. She was more familiar with this stuff than the Starfleet operations officer was. “Given the size and armaments of the enemy armada we observed, I would hypothesize that the unit commander determined this was the only solution to achieve victory.”

Lieutenant Commander Ekkomas Eidran could feel in her emotions that she was fully confident in her assessment, but there was still something that bothered him about her conclusion. “What would make them so desperate? There are other ways. They could have retreated and then returned with a larger force to retake the place. What the hell is even out here to protect?”

“There’s not much out here now,” Lieutenant Commander Sena replied. “But until a few minutes ago, there used to be a Tal Shiar base just off our port.” There was no harm in disclosing that now. Not since the base had been completely erased from existence by the implosion.

“I still don’t get it…” Captain Lewis said. “I mean, who were these people that would make your people take such desperate action and do it so quickly?” 

“That I don’t know…” Lieutenant Commander Sena replied, her eyes growing dark. “But I intend to find out, and when I do, we’re going to kill every last one of them.”

A bold statement, and not a very Starfleet one, but no one dared to disagree in that moment, some like Lieutenant Commander Eidran out of respect for what she had to be feeling, and others like Captain Lewis because they actually agreed with her.

In that moment, regardless of what camp one fell into though, there was something that each and every one of them now recognized. They had a new enemy.

Too bad they still had no idea who their enemy actually was.

“I say we start with this one,” Lieutenant Tarasova chimed in, not clarifying whether she meant to interrogate or to kill, as she zoomed the screen in on a Vaadwaur assault escort. “Structural integrity compromised, life support on its final legs, but I’m detecting one lifesign.”

“Tractor the escort and have the pilot brought in for questioning,” Captain Lewis ordered as he turned for the turbolift. He’d conduct the interrogation personally. “Sena, why don’t you join me?” He could afford her that grace, the same he’d want if their roles were reversed.

“Gladly, captain,” Lieutenant Commander Sena nodded as she turned to follow.