Star Trek Augustus: Parallax Incident Book One: Navis Mortum

Chapter One

"Play it again."
Captain Rachel King sat ramrod straight in her command chair as stars whizzed past the viewscreen. Her thick Australian accent reverberated across the otherwise silent command deck of the New Orleans-Class Cruiser, USS Augustus. The only other sound she heard was the reverberating thrum of overtaxed warp engines, vibrating the deck beneath her. Her order seemed to unnerve her bridge crew before they complied.

"This is an automated distress call, sentient biosigns on the USS 2-5-7-9-6-5-8 have reached a negligible level. -Unless overridden, this message signifies the total loss of crew, co-ordinates follow. This message repeats."
Rachel shuddered before making the motion to silence the dispassionate automated female voice. The message hadn't changed since they had first picked it up. The Augustus' main computer had identified the prefix code as belonging to the USS Concordia, an Excelsior-Class Cruiser. Like the Augustus, the Concordia was patrolling the newly established Cardassian Demilitarized Zone. In her forty plus years in Starfleet, she had only heard this particular message once before. It meant that the entire crew was dead or the ship otherwise abandoned. On the border, neither option was ideal.
"Has there been any update from Starfleet about what the Concordia was up to?" Rachel asked, turning to the tactical station.
The middle-aged Vulcan manning it shook his head, "Not yet, Captain, we are still awaiting response from the Gorkon, with more detailed information, because of the time delay it may still be some time."
Rachel shook her head, she didn't like the situation. The Augustus was heading into a potentially dangerous encounter with little to no background information.

The tall statuesque woman seated to Rachel's right looked up from the small console beside her, towards the twin consoles at the front of the bridge. "Ensign Lefter, what's our ETA?"
Jonas Lefter at conn looked up from performing a minute course correction, "Ma'am at our current velocity we will reach the coordinates listed in the transmission in roughly four hours, but of course that isn't to say that the Concordia will be there when we arrive."
The captain nodded, "If she was as close to the border as we were, there is a chance the Concordia may drift across the DMZ. That is of course assuming she still has drive power."
Her executive officer looked back at her captain. The thin feathered plumes over scarlet eyes fluttered inquisitively, "Do you suspect the Cardassians may be involved? Or the Marquis?"
Rachel shrugged, "At this point, Lyra, with so little information in front of us, I'm not omitting any possibility. Ships just don't go silent anymore."
Commander Lyra Urquan nodded before turning to Tactical. "Are there any Cardassian ships on long range sensors?"
The Vulcan looked down at his display, "There has not been an increase of Cardassian traffic in this sector that would indicate any assets have crossed the border."
"Keep us at Yellow Alert, Lieutenant Sovan," Rachel ordered before standing, "Ex, you have the bridge."
"Aye ma'am," Lyra replied before taking the now vacant command chair as Rachel proceeded to her day cabin.

When the door closed behind the captain, she forced herself to release the breath she had been unwittingly holding in. Looking to the long narrow viewport that formed part of her day cabins external wall, she took stock of the tiny streaks of light that streaked past her ship. She shook her head, those same blips of light where the reason why the Augustus was in the sector to begin with. To enforce the terms of the treaty between the Federation and the Cardassian Union. She also knew that part of their orders where to investigate all shipping in the area to track down Marquis activity, she didn't feel particularly happy with the mandate.

Taking a seat at her desk, she activated her terminal, even with the unknown fate of the Concordia, the day-to- day running of the Augustus still needed attention. Bringing up the latest batch of departmental status reports, she tried to process the information they contained.
After several minutes, Rachel rubbed the bridge of her nose as the information was not making sense to her. Reclining her chair, she heard the doorchime to her day cabin sound. "Come," she called. The doors parted to reveal a young woman wearing a dark red and grey uniform. The four black bars on her red collar denoted her as a Starfleet Midshipman.
"Alex, am I glad to see you," Rachel commented as her Yeoman approached carrying a large steaming cup of coffee.
Midshipman Alex Simmons smiled as she placed the cup on Rachel's desk, before straightening the grey uniform jacket. "I thought you might need this considering what is going on," she remarked, before standing opposite the captain's desk.
Rachel smiled before picking up the cup and taking a long sip. "I missed you these past three years, Midshipman, no one was around to cater to my every need and sense when I needed coffee."

Alex laughed slightly, she had started her Starfleet career as a Petty Officer on the Augustus. Now, three years later, she was a Midshipman and soon about to embark on her cadet cruise to qualify for graduation. As she had no surviving family, at the end of the Academy year, she had returned to the one place she felt was home. "Well, ma'am, I'm only here for a couple more weeks, I'm meant to meet the USS Yeager at the end of the month for my cadet cruise."
Rachel felt a pang of remorse, because of their history, the Augustus wasn't able to host Alex for her year-long assignment. "You are going to be a fine officer, Midshipman."
"Thank you ma'am, is it true what their saying?"
"What are they saying?"
Alex paused slightly before replying, "That the Marquis are actually deep cover agents of the Federation and the Concordia got caught out trying to supply them, that's why her crew went missing."

Rachel raised an eyebrow, it was indeed an interesting hypothesis, "That is highly unlikely, Alex, now as a future officer you should know how dangerous rumours can be," she remarked before taking a sip of coffee.
The young midshipman clasped her hands behind her back, "I understand, ma'am, apologies."
Rachel waved the apology aside, "We must always remember that the crew of the Concordia are Starfleet personnel, and we must put aside any potential theories or bias that may contaminate the investigation into their disappearance."
Alex nodded slightly, "Good advice, ma'am."
The captain smiled, while she had ever since she was a cadet wanted to find a Marie Celeste, a ghost ship full of treasures. That was before she had encountered the Trevellian early in her career. "That will be all Alex." She could hear Alex's bootheels click together as she came to attention before turning and leaving the cabin.