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He watched her work for a few more moments, then she pulled her earpiece out. “Hello, Doctor,” she said.

A number of message lights were still blinking. “Don’t you need to answer those?” McCoy asked.

“Part of being a good communications officer is knowing when not to answer,” she said, gesturing at the few lights that were still on, all of them amber. “I handled everything important. Those are low-priority.”

He smiled. “What’s the situation up here? We didn’t hear anything down in sickbay.”

“We’ve encountered a spatial distortion,” replied Uhura. “‘Run aground’ is what Lieutenant Rodriguez said. Subspace is too rough and unstable here for the ship to move through.”

McCoy spared a glance at the science station, where Rodriguez was writing notes on a data slate as he peered into the scope. “What about the shuttles?” he asked. “They didn’t hit this, did they?”

Uhura shook her head. “The captain reported that they reached Mu Arigulon early this morning with no problem.”

“Yet two days away, and we hit… something.” McCoy gestured vaguely toward the viewscreen, though this section of space looked no different than any other. The deck vibrated beneath him, but this time the sensation was barely noticeable.

“Gotcha!” Sulu’s triumphant cry drew McCoy’s eye back to the helm console, where the lieutenant was standing up. “She’s all yours, Lieutenant Rahda.”

The woman obligingly took her seat back. “All systems normal,” she reported. “We are maintaining position, one-point-oh-five light-years away from Mu Arigulon.”

“Situation report,” ordered Sulu as he settled back into the command chair, turning to face Rodriguez.

The lieutenant picked up his slate, peering at his notes. “The ship hit a spatial distortion,” he said. “A bump in space-time. It’s not been previously charted in this sector.”

“How large?” asked Sulu.

Rodriguez tapped on the slate nervously. “I’m not sure. I don’t detect anything other than what we just cleared—but then, we didn’t detect the distortion until we hit it. It’s very subtle.”

“It didn’t feel very subtle to me,” McCoy muttered to Uhura.

“Warp six was probably too fast under the circumstances,” said Sulu. He turned his chair to face Uhura. “Lieutenant?”

“Intraship’s functioning again, sir. Some static on the subspace channels, but that’s normal for this sector,” she said.

“Send a transmission to the shuttles, reporting what’s happened here. Advise that we are continuing toward Mu Ari at a reduced rate.” Uhura nodded and placed her earpiece back in position. Sulu turned his attention to McCoy for the first time. “Crew status, Doctor?”

“No casualties apart from a sprained ankle,” McCoy replied. “This ship’s had rougher rides.”

“That’s for sure,” said Sulu, turning to face the officer at the engineering subsystems station. His baby face made him look like he was fresh out of the Academy. “Damage report, Ensign Harper?”

“Nothing substantial,” the young man said. “There was that shipwide power outage when we first hit the distortion. Lieutenant DeSalle is investigating it right now. Other than that, all systems are now normal.”

Sulu nodded and turned back to face the viewscreen. “What speed would you recommend, Rodriguez?”

The science officer scribbled some calculations on his slate and checked the scope. “Warp four.”

Leaning forward, Sulu clapped his hands together. “Lay in a course for Mu Arigulon at warp four, Lieutenant Farrell.”

The navigator did as ordered. “ETA is five days, twenty-three hours, sir.”

“Take us forward, Lieutenant Rahda,” Sulu said. “Slow acceleration.”

As the ship began to hum with the power of the warp engines, McCoy moved forward to place his hands on the railing that circled the center of the bridge, leaning down over the command chair. “Listen,” he began, “are we going to… ‘run aground’ again?”

Sulu looked up and smiled. “Relax, Doctor. Everything should be fine. We’ll see it coming this time.” He seemed at ease, but McCoy didn’t buy his casual attitude. The helmsman