“For whatever reason, they think we’re best served there.”  Captain Helena Dread picked at her dinner in the senior staff lounge, annoyed. Across from her, a less annoyed Captain Wren Walton enjoyed her sloppy joe sandwich.

“I’ve never been to Risa”, Walton said.  “All those years mentoring and working with command officers – never got the chance.”  She smiled half-heartedly at her fellow captain, “I never thought I’d hear someone say they got tired of Risa.”  She rolled her eyes as Dread snapped up her head, annoyance flickering to frustration.

“I didn’t say I was tired of Risa.  I just…don’t enjoy it the way I used to.”  She grumbled. “When I say it out loud, it sounds exactly the same.  Sometimes I hate you, Wren.”  The tired smile on her lips smoothed out her rough tone.

Walton returned the smile, “I’m just worried about whatever this Blackout is – I’ll find it hard to relax as we work to support the system.  We’re still no closer to understanding any of it.  The wild rumor theories are starting to take a dark turn.”  She added, “If you listen to that type of thing.  Which I don’t.”

Helena smirked, which Wren noted as unusual.  They had grown closer in the few weeks they’d been thrown together on this mission.  The captain of the Gagarin shrugged. “You can only rumor control so much.  This situation…is breaking most of the rules as it unfolds.”  She returned to her steak. “Whatever is causing it, I’m glad to have the Gagarin.”

Walton was thankful for it.  The Perseverance was capable but wouldn’t be much of a fighter if things got messy.  “There’s something to be said for having a trusty phaser at your side.”  She changed subjects. “How’s Sadie doing in her command training?”  She watched Helena’s face for a sign, but none came.

“She’s understanding the material.  I’m helping her with the application.”  She swirled a piece of her steak around the plate and sent it careening into the mashed potatoes.  “We’re a young crew.  They’re excited about Risa, which is probably why I’m more hostile towards it than usual.”  Dread gobbled down the last pieces of her steak.  She lamented, “It’s the hardest thing not knowing.  We’re in the dark, stumbling through more darkness with this thing, and nothing is turning up.”

Wren polished off the rest of her sandwich, snapping her pickle on the side in two.  “They tell you to accept the things you can’t control.  It’s good wisdom.  The problem is – usually we can make sense of the nonsense in pretty short order.  This time around, it’s an enduring mystery that refuses to be understood.” The uneasy feeling that had settled in the last week intensified, a quiet heat burning in her chest.  “When was the last time something like this didn’t make sense?”

They remained in a contemplative silence.  Dread sat up, her eyes alight with thought.  “The last time something like this didn’t make sense.”  She jumped up from the table and ran to grab a PADD, returning with a renewed look as she worked through a few searches, muttering as she went, “Mirror Universe, Borg…Underspace…other timelines…other universes…time travel…Section 31…The Q Continuum.”  She slid the PADD over, “Look, it’s as mad as they come…but that’s my list of the times when things didn’t make sense.”

Park shook her head. “Helena…I don’t know if it’s worth chasing any of these down. Someone, somewhere, has probably already disproven all of them.”  She frowned as she thought more, but before she could continue her thought, Dread answered.

“Look – we’ve got a few more days until we get to Risa.  The crew needs something to occupy their time. Running old scenarios with minor variable changes isn’t getting us anywhere.”  She added, slightly desperate, “This would help with the rumors and idle conversations.”

Wren looked back at the list.  There was enough there for plenty of research and investigation.  It would take time.  And it was time the crew needed to fill.  “You’re not wrong.  Let’s put it to our teams as a collaborative effort – each team will work with their opposite team on the other ship.”  She scrolled through the list. “Who knows.  We might even find an answer.”

Dread added, “Or two.”