The SS Woodes Rogers, Solaris Combat Class, responding to a distress call from the supply ship, SS Gagarin, bound for the new colony on Zhelud, dropped from subspace into a deathtrap.

The small spaceship bucked and rolled from the force of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), tossing the flight deck crew in their seats, and throwing Communications Officer Jurgen to the floor, breaking his wrist.

The ship's alarms blared as the pilot's control panel shut down.

"General quarters, red alert," Captain Jessamyn Bookers voice filled the flight deck. She placed the nail file she used to tighten the loose screws on her chair. "All areas, report."

"Captain, autopilot is down. Manual overdrive operating," said the First Pilot.

More reports reached the flight deck. Most of the ship was on manual operation. The great warp engines were idling.

Jurgen drew deep breaths as he used his good arm to steady himself as he returned to his seat. He rested his broken arm carefully on the control board.

Senior Navigator Bela Depar shoved the pencil she had been sketching with into her afro, its usual spot. She took charge of the navigation center from her assistant, and scanned the readout. Numbers turned into calculations turned into answers in seconds.

"Captain, we're in an anomaly around Star N5798. The coordinates we were given by the Gagarin led us here." She checked another readout. "This whole system is affected by the anomaly."

"Yes," said Bookers. The ship stabilized somewhat as the pilot took manual command of the helm. Two off-duty pilots ran onto the deck and the First Pilot directed them to help with manual controls. The ship stabilized somewhat, but still rolled and shook. "Lieutenant McCord, how is the ship's control working?"

"Auto is off and I cannot restart. Manual override only."

"Jurgen, call the Washington and inform them they cannot follow us here."

"Yes, Captain," he replied. His good hand tapped a message and sent it to the Washington. He spoke into the commlink. "Washington, mayday, SS Woodes Rogers reporting. Mayday. Cancel arrival at Star N5798. Do not, repeat, do not transport to N5798. The entire system is an anomaly of CMEs." He listened, then repeated the message. He typed one-handed into the communications keyboard.

"Captain."

"Yes, Jurgens?"

"Subspace communications are down. No verbal contact, no written transmissions available. The CMEs are disrupting all external transmissions." He pulled up a screen. "We're receiving a distorted distress signal from the Gagarin, though."

"Keep trying to reach the Washington, Jurgens."

"Aye, aye, Captain."

The Assistant Helmsman opened a viewscreen of the space around the ship. A battered and broken corsair class ship tossed and turned.

"That's a pirate ship," said the pilot. "The Gagarin is maybe two thousand times bigger."

"The corsair is sending the distress call," said Jurgens. "Not strong enough to transmit outside this system now. Decoy message.

"Might be Arcturan pirates." said the pilot. "Too broken to tell." The decoy ship rolled over and over in a strong plasma burst that rocked the Woodes Rogers.

There was a brief silence. "When is the Washington scheduled to arrive?" Bookers asked.

"Eleven minutes before they enter subspace. Three minutes to arrival," said the Executive Officer.

"Lieutenant, what operations are available for our ship to warp to subspace?"

The pilot said, "None without the drive and destination calculations. I'd have to enter them manually. Stardrive is affected by the CMEs and will not give true results.

"How long do we have, XO?" the captain asked.

"The anomaly will shut us down in nine minutes, twenty-eight seconds."

The crew on the flight deck was silent. The Woodes Rogers had nine minutes, twenty-eight seconds to termination. When the battle starship Washington arrived at N5798 the anomaly would destroy the battleship along with its crew of 5000.

Bela pulled the pencil from her afro. "On it. Captain, where do you want to take the ship?"

"N2291, where the Washington is."

Everyone but Jurgens looked at the stocky old woman who was renowned in Starfleet for her ability to calculate equations as accurately as Stardrive, and, some thought, as fast as her pencil could write.

"Pilot, give me the current warp commands."

"Warp 7."

"The star coordinates and subspace degree?"

The pilot read off a string of numbers.

Bela nodded and her pencil scratched over her sketchpad as she calculated the commands that would warp the ship into subspace if she worked them out in time.

The crew waited for Bela to finish. Her pencil flew over the paper. With a faint click the point broke and flipped onto the floor.

Bela looked at the broken point. "I don't have another pencil here."

The XO grabbed the pencil from her and broke the edges away. He looked around and his eyes settled on the captain's nail file.

"Your nail file, Captain." He held out his hand.

"My nail file?" the captain asked, and handed the small metal file to him.

The XO nodded and began rubbing the file against the broken point of the pencil. He lifted the pencil to check the point. He scraped the file against the point a few more times, and gave the roughly sharpened pencil to Bela.

She examined the point, nodded, and resumed her calculations.

Seconds turned into minutes turned into three minutes, eleven seconds to termination.

Bela put her pencil in her afro. "Pilot," she said. "Navigation commands." She spoke her calculations. The pilot entered them. She gave another command. The pilot entered it. She gave the last command The Pilot Control Panels lit up.

"How much time, XO?" Bookers asked."

"One minute, fifty-nine seconds."

"Captain," the pilot said, "plasma bursts are holding us here."

Bela checked some numbers on her console. "Plasma bursts will pause in approximately one minute."

"Can you give a specific time?"

She shook her head, "No, Ma'am. Anomalies are irregular. There could be a pause between...forty-one seconds and one minute, twelve seconds, but I can't predict irregularities."

Forty-one seconds passed. More seconds passed noiselessly until Bookers began to count, "ten, nine, eight," when the ship stabilized and flew steadily through the star system.

The pilot launched the departure commands. The ship trembled as Stardrive opened and put the ship into the entry warp.

"Captain," said Jurgens, "the Washington received our mayday and will wait at Star 2291 for further reports."

The captain sighed as the Washington and its crew were safe.

"Engage Stardrive warp."