The Simulation Begins

When all of Cadet Decatur's questions had been answered, Captain Vincent turned to face the far wall of the room, as he'd done hundreds of times before.

"Computer, run program Kobayashi Maru Simulation 2," he ordered.

The empty room disappeared and was replaced by the bridge of an Intrepid Class starship. A bridge crew appeared around Josh and the cadet, but appeared frozen in place. Josh moved to a position just behind the Captain's chair and eyed the anomaly that had appeared on the viewscreen.

Turning to Cadet Decatur he said, "As I stated earlier, this is your ship, the USS Renegade, with which you are exploring the edges of the galaxy. The program is currently paused, so take a minute to familiarize yourself with the bridge and when you're ready, take your seat and order the program to resume. Good luck, Captain."

Stephanie looked around the bridge, remembering it’s layout from her earlier training and nodded again. She took the few steps to stand next to the captains chair. She looked briefly at the holographic Vulcan sitting in the XO’s chair and then to Captain Vincent. “Thank you, Sir.” She said before turning and sitting in the center chair daintily at first as if trying it on for size. She rested in it and stared at the frozen screen displaying the spatial anomaly.  She then tapped her command console on the captains chair to confirm that they were indeed where Captain Vincent had said, in neutral space near the edge of the Galaxy.

After another deep breath she figured now or never. “Geronimo….” She whispered under her breath before she spoke up, “Computer, Begin.” The conn officer reported being within sensor range of the anomaly. She acknowledged the report with orders, “Helm bring us to a full stop. Science, report.”

"It's some kind of dust cloud, sir," the Bolian science officer reported. "I can't get very specific readings; there are some metallic particles that are scrambling our long range sensors. If we move into the cloud, I think that we should be able to get more precise scans."

"Captain, we don't even know what's in there," the Tellarite tactical officer interjected. "We shouldn't go in without further scans."

"Well sir, it is our mission to explore the unknown, and I think this qualifies," added the Vulcan XO as he pointed at the blue cloud shimmering on the viewscreen. "What are your orders?"

 Stephanie focused on the  view screen for a moment as her bridge officers gave suggestions. As soon as her XO finished his question she tapped her comm badge. "Bridge to engineering."

After a moment she received a reply from the chief engineer, "Engineering here, Captain."

"We have an anomaly ahead with some metallic sensor interference.  Can you boost power to the lateral array for me?" she wasn't sure if it would work but she knew that without knowing what was in the anomaly she would potentially risk the ship by blindly flying into it. "Helm maneuver us  for optimal sensor gain from the lateral array. Comm, keep the channel to engineering open. Science, prepare to run full analysis."

"Aye Captain," replied the Chief Engineer. "Just give me a few seconds to reroute the necessary power." After nearly a minute, his voice came over the combadge once again, "All done sir. Give it a try now."

"We're in position to use the lateral array now too sir," added the helmsman.

"The readings are coming in a little more clearly now," the science officer reported. "I still can't identify the metallic substance, but I am picking up a larger reading. It looks like it could be a ship, but it doesn't match any known configurations. It is drifting through the cloud without power."

Stephanie leaned forward in her chair, "magnify the view screen." She took a moment trying to make out the shadowy mass inside the dust cloud. "any signs of radiation in the cloud?"

The viewscreen zoomed in on the ship, revealing a vessel similar in size to the Renegade, but much less sleek. It was a giant blob of metal, seemingly put together with no thought towards its shape. It was tilted and spinning aimlessly.

"No signs of radiation sir," replied the science officer. "I'm not reading any harmful particles."

"Open a channel." Stephanie ordered as she stood up. She started talking after looking to her comm officer to verify that she was transmitting, "This is Captain Stephanie Decatur of the Federation Starship Renegade, we are reading a loss of power on you're vessel. Do you require assistance?"  She paused waiting but not really expecting a response.

After waiting for several seconds, the comm officer reported, "Captain, we're not receiving any response. Either there's nobody home or our signal isn't getting through the cloud's interference."

She  sighed, "Engineering can I get anymore gain from the lateral array?" she was already walking around the railing to the science station to double check the sensor readings for herself. She was calm on the outside, inside she was a bundle of nerves. To her there wasn't much worse than being in the dark like this, especially with a professor she aspired to impress evaluating her. "We need to know what we are looking at up here." 

"No sir," came the response from Engineering. "This is as good as it's going to get."

"All Senior staff in  the  conference room in five minutes." She said as she tapped the science console sending the data to the display in the conference room before heading to the fore starboard doors into the conference room. She took the few minutes before her   department heads entered to go over what little data the scans had on the anomaly.