“How are you doing mom?”

Looking up from the bio bed she was lying down on, Najra Reyas pushed herself up onto her elbows as her daughter approached her. “All the better for seeing you.” She answered as the EMH continued to treat her for the few cuts and bruises she had sustained from her expedition. 

Smiling at seeing her mother in one bit, Reyas nodded with approval. “Once we’ve got you back up and on your feet again, we can talk some more. In the meantime, we were going to head further into the nebula to pick up your other teammates but I’ve just spoken to a runabout that responded to a distress call and it turns out it was from your team. They’re all fine and your ship is being towed to Starbase Four right away. We’re now heading to rendezvous with the Odyssey. You’ll see the others when we return to the station.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Najra took hold of her daughter’s hand as she held back tears. “Thank you Karyn, I definitely thought we weren’t going to make it. Make sure you thank James for me as well.”

Holding back an expression at the mention of her husband’s name, Karyn just nodded once at her mother. “You should rest and when you’re up for it, then we can have something to eat together.”

Noticing her daughter’s change in tone and subject being so uncharacteristic like her, Najra sat up straight on the bed and looked at her. “Karyn, what’s going on with James and you?”

Signalling for the EMH to give them some privacy, the small sickbay on the Telemachus was the same size as those found on the Defiant-class of ships. Only four bio beds existed and the room was almost cramped with the amount of people in it. She wasn’t prepared to talk about her marital problems here for others to hear. “Nothing for you to worry about.” She said, placing a reassuring hand on her mother’s arm. “Please rest mom.”

Before her mother could say anything, two other Starfleet officers approached them. Noticing them out of the corner of her eye, Reyas changed her expression to one of more formality. “Tierra, Abbej, are you both okay?”

Tierra, who was acting first officer for this mission and chief engineer, looked to her wife and indicated for her to pass the PADD that Abbej had in her hands towards Karyn. “Ma’am, long range sensors have picked up something quite disturbing.”

Taking the PADD into her own hands, Karyn looked down at them. She looked back up at Abbej, “Are you certain?”

Abbej nodded solemnly. “The last known location of the Odyssey now registers a huge antimatter/matter explosion taking place a short while ago. Further analysis confirms that this took place straight after a large chronokinetic surge took place. There’s no way the ship could have survived either. I’m so sorry Karyn.” 

The Boslic assistant chief science officer stepped forward to comfort her superior but was met by two arms going up to stop her. “No, that can’t be. There must be some hull fragments, or something else that we’ve missed.”

Tierra and Abbej looked at one another before looking back at her. Tierra spoke up, her role as first officer now taking effect. “We can only be certain if we approach the area ourselves. However the amount of chronitons, tachyons that are saturating the area along the huge subspace instabilities in the area caused by the rifts and ion storms makes it almost impossible to safely navigate. We’d be risking losing the Telemachus.” 

Realising she may have just lost everything on the Odyssey, Karyn took a step back and found her mother’s arms wrapping around her shoulders from behind. She had heard everything and knowing she was there to comfort her at the sudden realisation that the Odyssey was lost with all hands, including her sons and James rocked her hard. A mix sense of guilt, anger and sadness washed over her. Pushing back the tears, she knew she had to keep everything professional. “Lieutenant, set a course for the last known location of the Odyssey and get me Admiral Bennet on subspace, right away.” She ordered before raising one hand to stop either of her two most senior officers saying anything else. “There may be escape pods that may need our help.” She looked at both women with a strong intent. “That’s an order. Go now.”

Noticing they couldn’t change her mind for now, both women nodded and exited the sickbay. As they left, Karyn turned around and looked at her mother. “They’re not gone mom, I just know it.”

Pulling her in for a closer hug, Najar nodded. “I know you can sense the boys, but you can’t be certain. It might be something else”

“I know, but I’ve gotta trust my instincts on this.” Karyn reaffirmed. The El-Aurian sixth sense as such was a secretive one. Not many El-Aurians shared with outsiders what they could sense. It wasn’t a telepath, it was just a feeling of knowing what was right and what was wrong.  “I can sense Alfie, Henri and Theo, but something isn’t quite right.”

“Then go my dear, find my grandsons.” Najar insisted as she placed a motherly kiss on her daughter’s forehead and encouraged her to leave to return to the bridge of her ship.