On board the da Vinci, Captain Gold paced the length of the rear of the bridge back and forth in such a way you would have thought he had worn a hole in the floor. There had been no word from the away team in some time.

“Sir, I think you should take a look at this.” Tev interrupted his routine in midstep.

Tev had been spending a great deal of time with Shabalala at tactical, poring over the various readouts from his scans.

“What do you have, Tev?” Stepping up to the station, Gold could see from the look on Shabalala’s face that the Tellarite officer had been putting the young lieutenant through the paces. He appeared grateful to see his captain approach.

“I think we may have the source of the energy drain, sir,” Tev said matter-of-factly.

“You do? Where?”

“Well, based on how the surges took place and the concentration of—”

Gold held out a hand to halt the lecture. “Tev, I’m sure this is fascinating and I look forward to reading it in your report, but all I need to know right now is where.”

Tev appeared somewhat taken aback for just a brief second. He then turned and pointed at the monitor in front of him. “Based on our scans, we believe it is occurring here, in the lagoon area. We have not been able to pinpoint the exact location as of yet.”

“Very good. Nice work, the two of you. Any word yet from the away team?”

Shabalala shook his head. “No, sir. There was another surge just a short while ago and the region experienced a power loss.”

“Sir, there is something else,” Tev said. “The peninsula region cannot handle much more of this strain. Based on models I’ve been developing, I predict that another shutdown of the weather grid system in that area will be catastrophic.”

Steeling himself for one of Tev’s long-winded lectures, but suspecting that this time he’d need to hear the whole thing, Gold prompted, “How do you mean?”

“In order to maintain such consistent weather year-round, the control grid creates a constant low pressure system, thus essentially warding off any climactic disturbances. Now that the grid has been shut on and off, it’s been allowing those disturbances to build in intensity. The higher-pressure systems that cause these storms are becoming stronger than the grid can defend against. Eventually, the grid will become useless, especially in its weakened state.”

Gold let out a low whistle. “All right, Tev, I want you to take a couple of tricorders and combadges and beam down to the away team’s last known position. I would imagine their equipment has been rendered useless.”

Tev straightened himself. “Yes, sir.”

“Give Commander Gomez the information regarding the weather situation as well.”

“Aye, sir.”

Tev stood there for a moment, as if waiting for something else.

“Well, go, Tev. Timing is important here.” Gold made a little shooing motion with his hands.

Tev left the bridge quietly. Gold sighed and gave Shabalala a look as if to say, “No, you may not comment on Tev.” The tactical officer returned to his scans, hiding a smile.

The captain turned away and walked back to his chair. He settled and wondered how centuries ago, when humanity first set out to explore the stars, all they had was one another on board those cramped vessels.

In the present day, commanding officers were always playing a juggling act, between accepting the cold logic of a Vulcan to the warrior mentality of a Klingon to the in-your-face directness of a Tellarite.

“Captain.” Shabalala drew his attention to the matter at hand once again. “I’m picking up a large energy reading approaching Risa.”

“Large?” Gold repeated.

Shabalala nodded. “Yes, sir. And it appears to be similar to the energy readings I’m detecting from the lagoon below.”

Gold rubbed his temples and frowned. “Great, more feeders to join the party.”

“This won’t be a party, sir,” Shabalala said. “This reading measures forty AU’s in diameter, enough to envelop the entire planet and drain it completely.”

Gold closed his eyes. “It just keeps getting better and better.” He opened them again. “Shabalala, I want to alert Director Tonais of the situation, have him prepare for a possible evacuation. Then contact Starfleet Command and have them send us anything that can help.”

“Sir, the energy masses will be in the system in less than two hours. There aren’t any Starfleet ships in the area.”

“Well, there are a number of ships in orbit right now. They’ll just have to do their part. Tev should be planetside by now. Contact his away team and have them beamed directly to the lagoon.”

“Aye, sir.”

Gold rose from his seat and stepped up behind the conn officer. “Wong, plot an intercept course with those energy masses. Prepare to break orbit and take her to warp five.”

“Aye, sir. Course plotted and laid in,” Wong said as he tapped the commands into his console.

Gold stepped back and settled into his chair. “I hope you have a name ready for your yacht, Wong. We’re going to need it to help in the rescue operations.”

Wong smiled. “Well, if they have to go, some of them will go in style.”

“The away team has been transported to the lagoon, Captain,” Shabalala called out. “Chief Hawkins has returned with a slight phaser wound.”

Won’t he ever learn to duck? Gold mused to himself. Aloud, he said, “Engage, Wong.”