The USS Stardust glided into orbit above an unnamed Class-M planet deep within the Shackleton Expanse, her hull catching the fractured light of a distant binary star. On sensors, the world appeared ordinary. It appeared to have a temperate atmosphere, mild weather, and abundant vegetation. Harper found herself wondering just exactly what this planet may be hiding.

“Geosynchronous orbit achieved, Captain,” reported Helmsman Hveir s’Lliehn from the helm, fingers sweeping across his console. “Stabilizing thrusters holding steady.”

Captain Harper Brooks regarded the planet on the main viewer, its cloud patterns sliding slowly beneath them. “Thank you, Lieutenant. Commander Sili, what are we looking at?”

At tactical, First Officer Sili’s antennae angled slightly forward. “Minimal energy emissions. I’m detecting a small fusion grid. It looks to be barely active. Life-signs are scattered through the settlement, but several read…unstable.”

“Unstable?” Harper asked.

“Intermittent,” Sili corrected. “There could be interference.”

Commander Piya Trihi lifted his gaze from the science station. “The life-sign fluctuations correspond with localized subspace disturbances. They are not natural ones.”

Harper folded her arms across her chest. “Environmental subspace distortion inside a stable Class-M system. That’s not standard at all.”

“No,” Piya said evenly, “but it is measurable.”

At the forward station, Communications Officer Hazel Whitlock’s console flickered with a sudden burst of static before a faint transmission began to cut through the noise. She frowned, fingers dancing across the controls to isolate the signal. “Captain, I’m picking up a distress call…it’s very weak,” she announced, glancing back toward Harper. “It’s originating from the planet’s surface. Coordinates are showing near the northern continent. The signal is extremely fragmented.”

Captain Harper stepped forward, resting a hand on the back of Hazel’s chair as the young officer worked to refine the transmission. Fragments of a voice broke through the interference, “….need…..assistance….power is….failing….survivors remain…..”

Hazel’s expression tightened. “It’s automated, but the modulation’s inconsistent…possibly manually reactivated. I can’t raise a live response.”

“Good work,” Harper said quietly. “Let’s see who is out there.”

As Hazel rerouted the signal to the main display, the faint carrier tone pulsed one more time before fading away into silence.

Commander Piya Trihi turned from the science station, his teal-tinted holographic displays reflecting in his eyes. “Captain, I’m detecting residual power signatures in the same area as the distress signal. It’s faint, but persistent. There are also irregular subspace fluctuations. Looks to be localized distortions.”

“Cause?” Harper asked, keeping her gaze fixed on the view of the planet projected across the viewscreen.

Trihi adjusted his instruments. “Uncertain. The readings are inconsistent with known atmospheric phenomena. With your permission, I’d like to send a probe down for a closer analysis.”

“Very well. Do it,” Harper replied.

At the helm. Helmsman Hveir gave a low whistle, leaning back slightly as he stabilized the orbit. “Those distortions are wreaking havoc with our thruster calibrations. I’m keeping her steady the best I can, but I wouldn’t recommend send a shuttle through that soup.”

“Noted,” Harper responded, her tone even but her mind already turning over possibilities. “Hold us steady the best you can.”

Behind them, the engineering console chirped as K’Raal, the young Klingon engineer, examined the sensor data that Chief Engineering Officer T”Penne had forwarded from Engineering. “Power fluctuations from the colony appear to be erratic, Captain. I can compensate for interference if we reinforce the signal bad from here, but the source is degraded. Their systems appear to be very old.”

“Estimated age?” T’Penne’s voice came calmly over the comm.

“Two, maybe three decades,” K’Raal replied. “No record of any Starfleet colonies in that timeframe.”

“That’s because there shouldn’t be one,” Harper murmured. She stepped toward the center of the bridge, crossing her arms. “Commander Trihi, I was surface scans focused on life signs. Let’s see what we’re dealing with before we put anyone at risk.”

Trihi’s fingers glided across his console. “Picking up faint readings…perhaps a dozen life signs, scattered throughout the settlement. Many appear weak….possibly malnourished or injured.”

From the rear of the bridge, Lieutenant Commander Redrol Roders, the ship’s Chief Medical Officer, leaned forward in concern. “If they are in that type of condition, they are going to need immediate medical attention. I’ll start prepping the away team’s medkits now.”

“Make sure Nurse Echo is with you,” Harper said. “Her empathic sense might give us an edge if communications break down.”

“Aye, Captain,” Redrol acknowledged.

Commander Ezra Brady stepped closer to the tactical console, his brow furrowing as he studied the sensor overlay. “If this colony’s unregistered, there’s a chance they don’t want to be found. We should proceed with caution.”

“Agreed,” Harper said. “You’ll lead the security detail when that time comes.”

“A brief nod. “Understood.”

The bridge fell into a measured rhythm with scanners whirring and systems adjusting.

Harper turned her attention to the main viewer, the image of the planet’s northern continent sharpening into view. Half-buried structures line the terrain, battered by years of neglect. A ghostly shimmer, like heat distortion, drifted across one of the larger buildings.

“Trihi?” Harper spoke.

“I see it, Captain,” the science officer replied, his voice lower now. “Localized subspace interference. It’s…oscillating, like an echo. I must say I have never seen anything quite like this before.”

Hazel frowned as she watched the distortion pulse across her display. “Almost looks like it’s breathing.”

For a moment, the bridge was silent. Then Harper straightened. “Commander Trihi, status of the probe?”

“Launching now,” Trihi replied. “Adjust telemetry for subspace distortion…though I can’t guarantee a stable descent.”

“Do what you can,” Harper said.

On the main viewer, the probe shot from the Stardust’s underbelly, it’s thrusters igniting in a flash of blue as it plunged toward the upper atmosphere. The ship rumbled faintly as Hveir fought to maintain position against the fluxing gravitational pull. 

“Orbit’s holding, but just barely,” Hveir called out. “That interference is thick as molasses.”

Static laced across the probe’s feed as it entered the cloud layer, gray turbulence swallowing the image. Trihi’s console chimed with warning tones. “Telemetry degrading.. Compensating for magnetic shear.”

For a moment, the picture cleared, revealing the colony: half-collapsed domes, broken solar arrays, and dark landing pads. Then, without warning, the feed spasmed and lines of static crawled like veins across the display.

“Gravitation spike,” K’Raal yelled out. “The probe’s instruments are getting hit from multiple vectors!”

Trihi worked quickly. “Something’s pushing back. The interference isn’t just ambient. It appears to be directed.”

The image flickered one last time, and a fraction of a second, something moved within the static. A dark ripple, almost like a shadow, started spreading outward from the colony’s center.

Then the feed went dead.

Silence. Complete and utter silence.

Trihi’s voice was steady but low. “Probe telemetry terminated at the source.”

Harper’s jaw tightened. “It didn’t fail. It was stopped.” No one spoke for a moment. Even the background hum of the bridge seemed subdued.

Finally, Harper said, “Download what’s left of the data. I want a full analysis before we risk a shuttle or transporter. Whatever’s down there doesn’t want to be found.”

Hazel glanced up from her console, voice quiet. “Captain….that last pulse. It matched the distress frequency.”

Harper’s eyes narrowed. “Meaning?”

“It came from the same location, Captain,” Hazel said. “As if the signal was answering itself.”

A long beat passed.

“Maintain orbit,” Harper ordered softly. “We’ll proceed once we know what we are walking into.”

Outside the viewport, lightning rippled through the planet’s clouds, briefly illuminating the surface below, and the faint, rhythmic shimmer that pulsed beneath it like a heartbeat.