“Lieutenant. We are working on the data from team two. Looks like they may be right though. The data seems to correlate to known lost fleet operations.”

“Good, good.”

“Lieutenant, we may have something here.” an ensign in engineering gold said from another group.

Zhaishi made her way over to the group. “What have you got?”

“Well, we are still trying to make sense of the data but we think there might be some information on the station itself.” The engineer spoke as they pulled up the lines of data on the table’s main console showing the Lieutenant. “Basic schematics and plans. One interesting piece we have been able to glean so far is that they had always known that they could not bring a full station with them. It looks like they had schematics for expansion.”

“And?”

“Well, it would explain some things. It looks like it was always their plan to hit industrial centers first and bring them under their control so that they could use them to build.”

“One piece we have figured out though, is they took the power core with them along with all other vital systems.”

Zhaishi spent the next several minutes with the engineering team going over the data with them.

————————————————————–

“Captain, the Aztec is reporting that their away team is back onboard. They are heading toward their mission debriefing with Lieutenants Zhaishi and Scamandrius, who are transporting over to the Aztec as we speak.”

“Thank you, Sustram, any news from our away teams?” Aryanna asked as she took a seat in the center chair.

Yes ma’am. Team 1 is heading back to the Dragon as we speak. According to their latest reports, team two will be staying a bit longer at their location.”

Aryanna looked at the main view screen as they slowly circled the area of what remained of the station. “Comms, open a channel with Lieutenant Spufylk.”

“Channel open, captain.”

“Lieutenant Spufylk, Captain Rigras. What is your status?”

“Captain, we have found what looks to be several rooms that Lieutenant Scamandrius and his section believe to be a possible operations control hub. So logically, they have asked us to investigate further.

“Very well. Keep Lieutenant Sustram informed. ”

“Will do, captain”

Aryanna looked over at Skagath and Meadow who were looking at the holo display from tactical. “Getting anywhere with the information coming from team two?”

“It seems to be mostly what we already knew up to the battle at Farpoint, though as the intelligence brain trust goes over it I’m sure they will find more, lass,” Skagath said as he looked at the data.

“Captain…”

Aryanna looked at Meadow with a raised eyebrow, knowing that she only would use the rank if it were something of importance that she wanted to convey.

“They were definitely in a rush, we can tell that from what they left. It is what they did not leave behind that has us puzzled. It looks to me like they left just enough breadcrumbs for us to know what they had been up to but not what was next. So much of the information has been redacted, it’s just not there.” Meadow said as she looked over at the captain.

“Would you expect anything less? I would think that it is what we would do if we were faced with the same circumstances.

Meadow nodded “It makes sense from a certain standpoint. However, why leave the station for us to find, even if it is in pieces? Why not just destroy the station?

“Now that is the question, isn’t it? Why leave this here for us to find? They must have known we would come looking. Unless…”

Meadow looked at the main view screen and then over toward the now empty intelligence console. “We were supposed to find it.”

“Smoke and mirrors, they wanted us to find this. If we are right, they probably thought it would have been sooner.

“Comms open a direct channel to Lieutenants Scamandrius and Zhaishi.”

“Channel open, ma’am”

“Sorry to disturb you lieutenant but we have been discussing the matter on this side as well and something suddenly dawned on us. What if this station was nothing but a ruse? “

“A what?”

“A fake, something to draw us away from what was going on. We just came a little later than they had thought we would.”

“Hmm, it’s a thought. Would make a good way to tie up a ship or two. Would also make a good ambush site.”

“I’m willing to bet this was originally done to tie up a ship or two before or during the battle at Farpoint.”

“If that was the case I doubt we will find anything of much use here, it would make sense for them to have left some crumbs but nothing of substantial use. What has team two come up with?”

“Nothing new as of this point, I’m considering calling them back.”

“If I may make a recommendation captain, let them finish. You never know what may have been left behind accidentally or what slipped through the cracks.”

“I will take it under advisement. Dragon out.”

————————————————————————–

“Captains log,

“It has been seventy-two hours since we have found the remains of the lost fleet station. We have been investigating several possible avenues of information that have been left behind.

We have come to think that this station was left in its current state on purpose. That purpose as of this time is unknown; we have our thoughts as to its purpose.

We are currently on our way back to Farpoint station to brief the region’s task force leadership on our findings. The Aztec departed roughly twelve hours ahead of the Dragon and is currently making its way back towards the Thomar Expanse after a planned brief stop at Deep Space Nine.”

Aryanna looked out her viewing panel and reached for her now cold cup of coffee, taking a sip and grimacing as she stood and made her way toward her ready room’s replicator. Placing the cup on the replicator’s pad and watching it dissolve into the system she looked around the room and wondered.

Wondered about the lost fleet’s intentions, what were they up to? What was their end goal? Hitting a preprogrammed button on the replicator, she took the glass of water back to her desk and she took her seat as the room’s chime sounded.

“Enter”

She watched as Meadow entered the room followed by Lieutenants Scamndrius and Zhaishi.

“We just finished going through the data that we found, captain. I believe our assessment is correct. This station was a ruse. We are not sure if that was its original intended purpose or not. If it were my guess, I would say not. I think we, bravo fleet, reacted faster than they thought we would. Oh, they knew that eventually, Star fleet would react but they thought that by then they along with their Breen counterparts would have made the region unstable. “Scamandrius said as he placed a PADD on the captain’s desk before taking a seat.

Taking a seat opposite Scamandrius, Zhaishi let out a sigh as she shook her head. “I would recommend that the local task force send out an investigations team of their own to take over from where we left off. I stated as much in the report.,” She pointed at the PADD on the captain’s desk. “Looking at the data from an engineering standpoint I would say that the station was more than likely abandoned sometime around the lost fleet’s move toward Farpoint.

“Guess they figured either way that things went the station would no longer be needed. If things went their way they gained Farpoint and if not they knew that they would no longer be able to operate in the Deneb region.” Aryanna finished for Zhaishi as she picked up the PADD and started to read the report.

“That’s what we think,” Zhaishi stated

“We sent the intelligence to both Farpoint and Star fleet, though I doubt they will find more than we did. It seems like they did a good job of leaving only what they wanted us to find. Though maybe they can piece it together with other bits to fill in the holes.” Scamandrius shrugged his broad shoulders. “We have a good setup here on the Dragon, probably amongst the best in the fleet, and we receive priority message traffic from Star fleet but even with that said we are a forward deployed ship and there is some information that they will just not send out even over encrypted communications.” 

“We understand, lieutenant. You did the best you could but as you said sometimes Star Fleet likes to hold their cards close to their chest.” Aryanna said as she put the PADD down and took a sip from the glass.

“Looks like we should be arriving at Farpoint in roughly twenty-four hours, Lieutenant Scamandrius and Lieutenant Zhaishi, I would like you both there for the mission debrief. Until then you are free to return to your assigned duties. Meadow, please stay a moment, I would like to go over the report and get your thoughts on a few other things.