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which displayed the image of the small, seemingly orphaned Gralafi. Even from this distance, the captain was able to note the amalgam of grays and browns denoting the planetoid’s surface, with only slight splashes of greens indicating sparse vegetation in various, isolated regions.Considering there were no other destinations that seemed to present themselves, he ordered, “Take us to a standard orbit, T’Vrel. Let’s park while we figure out what’s what.”
    “Acknowledged,” the helm officer replied, her fingers playing across her console as she entered the necessary commands.
    So, what exactly is what? The thought rattled around in Arens’s mind as he contemplated the past few minutes. Everything had seemed fine as T’Vrel maneuvered the Huang Zhong into the rift on a course toward Gralafi. The first indications that something might be wrong had come within seconds of entering the energy field, as Boma picked up distortions from inside the rift even as the ship made the transit through the barrier. The alarms from engineering seemed to start mere heartbeats after that, with the chief engineer, Master Chief Petty Officer Christine Rideout, contacting the bridge and advising Arens of fluctuations in the warp engines. Things had only proceeded to go downhill from there.
    Looking about the bridge and seeing that the rest of his officers had already returned their attention to their respective stations and duties, Arens asked, “Commander Hebert, how are we? Is everybody okay?”
    “We’re good to go in that department, sir,” April Hebert replied from where she stood at one of the workstations along the bridge’s starboard bulkhead. “Everyone accounted for, and no injuries to speak of.”
    Arens nodded at the report. “Small favors, but I’ll take them. Turning his attention to Rzaelir Zihl du Molidin, who had taken a seat at the unmanned console next to Hebert, he asked, “Advisor, are you all right?”
    Zihl said, “Yes, Captain. Thank you. I am happy to hear your crew suffered no injuries.”
    “Just our lucky day, I guess,” Arens said before looking again to Hebert. “Did you manage to get off the distress signal?”
    “For the most part,” the first officer answered. “There was some disruption as we passed through the rift, and the last part of the transmission was cut off, but most of it got through, along with the sensor packet. The Enterprise was already on its way here, so they’ll likely still be the first ship to respond. They were four days away at last report. Assuming they accelerate to maximum warp, that’ll put them here in just shy of twenty-five hours.”
    “If I know Jim Kirk,” Arens countered, “he’ll milk every last bit of speed from his ship’s engines to get here as fast as he can. Until then, though, we’re on our own.”
    T’Vrel called out from the helm station, “We have assumed a standard orbit above the planetoid, Captain.”
    Nodding at the report, Arens said, “Thanks, Lieutenant. All right, now that things have settled down for the moment, I’d like to know how we got to this point. Advisor Zihl, have your people ever encountered anything like what happened to us when we passed through the rift?”
    Zihl rose from her seat, and the captain saw her expression contort into something approximating a frown. “No, Captain. At least, not so far as is publicly known. I have been through the Pass many times myself, and I have never experienced or witnessed anything like that.”
    “Okay,” Arens said, not liking that answer but seeing little to be accomplished from beating the topic to death when other, more pressing matters demanded his attention. “We’ll put a pin in that for now, but I’d like you to ask your government leaders about it when we get a chance.”Turning toward the center of the bridge, he added, “Mister Boma, did our sensors pick up anything?”
    Sitting at his workstation, the science officer replied, “Judging by these readings we