Ascent of Lies

Chapter 2

SIGMA. FUJITA COULD NOT get it out of her head. Somewhere, she felt like Anderson had betrayed her. Not in any backstabby, evil way, but it nonetheless felt like a betrayal. He was her First Officer, the second most important person on the entire ship; and he had managed to keep something as important as this from her. She had heard Anderson say it herself, he had been keeping an eye on her. In some way, Anderson and Paris had not fully trusted her. And Fujita had no idea why

Besides, Fujita felt like she had failed herself. She should have seen it; she should have seen something.

"Captain", a voice called Fujita out of her thoughts. "We're approaching the Damara-system", Ensign Stacy continued.

"Drop us out of warp", Fujita said, and she stood up. "Now let's see what we've got here." She looked at the view screen, where the star-streaked image of space at warp diminished into single small dots. Where do I start? Fujita thought. There was an infinity of space in front of her, and no single lead.

Fujita felt her First Officer's eyes pierce into her back and turned around. Yes, she was annoyed with him, but that did not mean she did not see him fit to perform his duties.

"Perform a level three scan", Fujita said, and Anderson nodded in agreement. A level three scan was a basic type of scan, meant to find any form of residual energy traces. The Captain did not expect to find anything, but it was always best to start at the beginning.

It was silent for a moment, then Chief Science Officer Aridiya Neriouix shook her head. "Nothing, Captain", she said.

Fujita drew a breath and let her mind wander. How could an entire ship disappear? She recalled Admiral Romanov's reports in her head. All the planets in the Damara-system had been scanned for transmissions and traces of shipwrecks. The results had come up negative. There were no residual ion traces, no warp trail. Everything seemed to point at that the Green had disappeared in thin air. However, that was not possible, of course.

"Neriouix, scan for any changes in density of the vacuum. I assume that all previous scans for debris have been thorough, but I want to be entirely sure."

The Chief Science Officer did as was asked, but again the scans had no result.

Fujita sighed. There did not seem to be many options left. But the Admiral was not about to give up. A ship had disappeared, and she would do everything in her power to get it back. Or to at least find it, in whatever shape it would be in.

---

A week had passed since the Starlight had entered the Damara-system, and Fujita and her crew had made no progress whatsoever. The Admiral walked the corridors toward the Bridge to start her morning shift. More than anything, she hoped they would find something today, whatever it would be. They were slowly running out of options.

Fujita entered the empty turbolift and instructed it to take her to the Bridge. After less than a minute, the doors slid open and revealed the familiar sight of the Starlight's command centre. Her eyes drifted toward the chair in the middle of the room, which seated her commanding officer from the night shift, Ensign Eric Franklin. She strolled toward him in a way more relaxed manner than she actually felt, and relieved the young man.

Fujita sat down in her chair, but as soon as she did, the ship rocked sharply to the right and she was thrown on the ground. "What was that?" the Admiral called out as soon as she got back onto her feet. She looked around and saw that most of her officers were scattered around on the floor, but no one seemed to be hurt.

"Us has been hit by a photon torpedo", Security Officer B.J. answered, his accented voice the ever paragon of peace.

"Tremeni, any ships in the vicinity?"