Lieutenant Commander Annabeth Chase, Chief Science Officer, USS Athena

Stardate 2376.04

Location: Alpha Centauri Sector Block - Odyssey Class Dreadnought - USS Athena NCC-2103 - Deck 14 - Biochemistry lab

"Hand me the centrifuge, will you? The tag number is two-four-four-seven-three," Petty Officer Zia Rashid called over to Annabeth.

Annabeth knelt down in front of the strange crate and scanned over the package ID numbers until she found the right box and lifted it out of the crate. "How come this isn't finished jet?" Annabeth asked slightly annoyed. They had been underway now for nearly a week and for the third time Annabeth had been forced to report the Captain that she wasn't able to keep up with her responsibilities.

Sure, it wasn't actually her job to prepare her labs, it was the job of those that ran the labs to set them up. However, if they screwed up Annabeth would be the one having to answer to Percy.

"Because Engineering took till now to grant us a technician to help wire our equipment and certify it for use onboard the ship," the Egyptian-born female replied, sounding rather irritated.

"Hey, we have all hands full ourselves," Junior Lieutenant Thalia Grace complained from where she was kneeling in front of an opened hatch in the side of an electron microscope.

"Yeah, like what?" Annabeth challenged.

"Well, I spent this entire journey so far certifying Torpedos and forgive me but I think those have priority. In fact, my dear Kelphead of a cousin, the Captain, put us on it and Chief Beckendorf has been running us like mules while T'soni keeps on sending us recommendations on how to be more efficient!" Thalia ranted while Annabeth unpacked the centrifuge and secured it to one of the lab tables with clamps so it didn't go flying if Athena took evasive action or came under heavy fire. Then she stepped over to one of the tall, slim windows and glanced out.

There was literally nothing to see.

Then something changed and Annabeth turned around, confused. Thalia also got to her feet, looking slightly confused.

She had felt it too.

"What?" Zia asked.

"Don't you feel that?" Thalia asked.

Annabeth nodded. She had felt the slight pull of inertia and could feel the silent vibrations passing through the ship as the Reactors energy output rose.

"Hey, I think we just went to Flank speed," Annabeth said and palmed the wall to feel the mute hum.

Just then alarms started ringing and the main lighting dimmed as red, alert lights started blinking.

"All hands, general quarters!" T'soni's voice suddenly called out over the ship's intercom.

Thalia, Zia, and Annabeth looked at each other for a moment and then both Annabeth and Thalia ran to the open bulkhead and jumped through it. Thalia turned left, in the direction of the engine room while Annabeth turned in the other Direction for the turbo lifts and was nearly run over by a group of crew members, hurrying in the opposite direction of her.

Annabeth tore past crew members that were trying to get to their stations and civilians that were trying to get back to their quarters and finally punched the turbo lift button. Whatever the problem was, running through half of the ship and up fourteen decks would take way to long. The lift's door opened and she was surprised to see Percy Jackson, already standing in the lift.

"Sir, what's going on?"

"I do not know but I would like to find out," Percy replied.

"Deck 1, Bridge!" Percy ordered and the lift started moving.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Annabeth muttered as she impatiently tapped her foot.

"What could possibly go wrong?" Percy challenged her, obviously trying to sound upbeat but she could see how his eyebrows were scrunched up a bit. He was nervous.

The doors of the lift opened again and Annabeth followed on top the bridge.

"Report," Percy demanded and took over his captain's chair from Piper. T'soni was sitting at the tactical console and Leo too was sitting at his post.

Annabeth hurried over to the science station at the bridge's left and took over for Katie Gardner who hurriedly left the bridge.

"Captain, our tactical sensors are detecting a subspace anomaly. It could be a cloaked ship. It is gaining on us. I accelerated up to warp nine when we detected it, however, the sensor contact also raised it's velocity and is gaining on us," the Vulcan female replied.

Percy got up from his chair and hurried over to Annabeth, who was already running an analysis of the contact.

"Chase? What do you think?" Percy asked while he looked over her shoulder.

"I don't think that this is a ship of any kind, sir. Despite the appearances of the contact actively changing its velocity to keep up with us its speed has changed proportionately. It will still be exactly three minutes and thirty-two seconds until they overtake us. The time of intercept hasn't changed."

"Make an educated guess please Ms. Chase," Percy asked.

"Well, I think this might be a subspace fissure and it could be drawn to our ship's our power output."

"Recommendations?" Percy asked.

"Well, you could neutralize the traction by initiating a ship wide blackout while giving the anomaly some sort of a distraction. But we'll need something with a very high energy output," she replied instantaneously. If she was wrong they wouldn't have time to rub it in.

"Would quantum torpedoes on high yield settings do the trick?" Percy asked.

Annabeth studied the data, scrolling down the screen and crunched a few numbers. "It should," she finally agreed.

"Excellent! By the way, someone send a General Distress signal!" Percy ordered and returned to his chair and keyed in an order on the terminal in his armrest and a loud whistling rang out from the intercom and Percy's voice echoed through the ship.

"This is the Captain speaking. All hands, man Battle Stations!" he then ordered, his voice echoing through the ship.

"McLean, take over at Ops. T'soni, tell me when you are ready."

"Yes, sir. Aft Torpedo ramps are loading Quantum torpedos. We should be ready in ten seconds," T'soni reported, her voice cool and pleasant, while Piper relieved a duty officer at the Ops station.

"Mclean to Engine room, Beckendorf, prepare to vent all plasma from the nacelles and initiate emergency protocol Alpha-Victor-Two. On my mark," Piper spoke into an earpiece.

"Engine room standing by," Piper then reported.

"I am ready as well Captain," T'soni also announced.

"For what it's worth, I am also ready," Annabeth said, her eyes glued to the screen. Then, nearly out of happened Annabeth aimed every available sensor in the direction of the anomaly. If everything when right the nerds in her Astrophysics department and the nerds back at Starfleet would be crawling over the data.

"Very well. Valdez, bring us to Impulse speed," Percy ordered.

"Aye sir," Leo replied and a moment late the Athena dropped out of warp and the view screen was filled with star filled image of space.

"Switch to aft camera B-3 and put it on screen!" Percy ordered.

The image on the large view screen at the front of the bridge switched to a backward view.

Annabeth tore her gaze away from her terminal and stared at the view screen and gasped slightly. Once again the fissure's relative velocity had changed with theirs but now she could see the glowing blue vortex that spanned hundreds of kilometers in diameter. If they weren't in trouble Annabeth could have spent hours just staring at it and then scan it for another few hours. But her spectrometers were showing a very distinctive blue shift in the spectrum of light. That meant it was coming closer, fast.

"Captain, I can now confirm that this is a subspace fissure. Range is less than a thousand kilometers, closing fast. It will overtake us in thirty seconds. What happens then I can only guess but I promise you it won't be good," Annabeth reported.

"Okay, Chase. T'soni! Empty your Torpedo tubes! Valdez, Mclean, stand by to do your part."

"Aye, sir, firing five Torpedos," T'soni announced and pressed a button on her console. A moment later Annabeth saw five brilliant blue balls of light, heading off in the direction like beads, sliding down a length string.

"Helm, take evasive action to port. Mclean, get ready," Percy then ordered and a moment later the entire ship lurched to the side as Leo followed the orders.

"Mclean, now!" Percy called.

"Aye aye, sir. Stand by, three, two, one."

A moment later Annabeth's console, along with every workstation and light in the bridge cut out, bathing them in perfect darkness.

A moment later a shockwave hit the ship, knocking Annabeth clean over her chair and sent her soaring through the room, spinning wildly. Annabeth screamed in alarm. Her outstretched hand crashed into something hard, turning her cry of fear into one of pain. Finally, her side made contact with some sort of plate, arresting her movement and knocking the air from her lungs.

"Is everyone alright?" she heard Percy call. He sounded very close all of the sudden.

"Yes," Annabeth gasped.

The artificial gravity field had gown down as well.

"Just Peachy Captain!" Piper yelled. "It looks like our Quantum Torpedos detonated. Did anyone else think of grabbing a flashlight before I disconnected every power system on the ship, including life support and emergency lighting?" Piper asked also pretty close by.

A moment later a bright beam of light cut through the perfect darkness and Annabeth saw that Commander Shey T'soni was holding the lamp and had turned around in her seat.

"Does anyone know if it worked?" one of the crew members at the back of the bridge asked, sounding panicked.

"Fuck!" Annabeth gasped, realizing her error.

"Pardon me, I didn't get that?" Percy asked.

"Well, sir. We might have powered down our systems but we did that after we changed our heading," Annabeth reported.

"You are saying commander?" the Captain asked and T'soni flashed the light over at them and Annabeth realized that she had crashed into the back of Percy's captain chair. Percy also noticed her, grabbed her arm and pulled her around so she was hovering next to him.

Apparently, she was the only one who had been thrown through the bridge, because everyone else had deployed their automatic harnesses, that had effectively buckled them to their chairs. Everyone but her of course.

"Our impulse drive will have left an Ionized particle trail. That and we have a still active Aquarius-class escort with active warp core docked in our back," the Vulcan announced, apparently the only one able to keep up with her trail of thoughts.

"What are you saying?" Leo asked from the chair, his voice unnaturally high-pitched and filled with fear.

Percy and Annabeth met gazes and suddenly something cold settled in the pit of her stomach. The air filled with static, letting her hair stand on end.

"Brace for impact!" Percy yelled and grabbed Annabeth and pulled her into a tight embrace in an attempt to secure her.

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Cadet Hazel Levesque, Crew Member

Stardate 2376.04

Location: Alpha Centauri Sector Block - Aquarius-class escort - USS Midsummer Night (Docked with USS Athena) - Deck 1 - Cockpit

"Cadet, can you hear me?" a female voice yelled at her. A bright light blinded her, even through her closed eyelids. Someone grabbed her jaw and turned her head to the side.

Hazel's eyes snapped open and she found herself staring up into the face of her commanding officer, Commander Reyna Ramírez-Arellano. The attractive, and young Latin American female was in a rough shape. She was bleeding from a gash in her eyebrow and her black hair, normally tied up in a high ponytail, was now sticking off in all directions.

"Commander?" Hazel asked disoriented. She smelled smoke and it was dark, save some flickering lights.

"Come on Cadet. Pull yourself together! Now!"

The woman grabbed her arm and sat her up. Hazel looked around. She was still in the Cockpit. "What happened," Hazel asked confused.

"We were hit by a subspace anomaly. Come on, you need to help me reach someone on Athena. The emergency bulkheads sealed when they cut the power so we can't get back on board," Reyna said and pulled her to her feet.

"Man the pilot's station and power up the impulse thrusters Cadet while I try to reach the captain. Athena is dead in space and maybe we can help," Reyna told her.

"Yes, Ma'am," Hazel replied.

This is it for now.

I hope you enjoyed yourself. Please vote or Review.

Winter Wolf over and out.