Though sitting on the bridge was boring, Pierce had to appreciate it because it meant that he wasn't needed in Sick Bay. And if he wasn't needed in Sick Bay, it meant there were no patients to treat, which in turn meant that there were few to no injured or sick.

And that was always a welcomed reality.

But, babysitting the bridge while they headed towards Canopus Station once again. It was hard to believe they had been distracted by the Durrighash ship less than 48 hours ago. To Pierce, it felt like a month. But now that all the surviving Durrighash had been patched up and the whole Potter crew were rested up, they were on their way once again.

There were no casualties, owing to the Durrighash's aversion to killing, which also explained why their enemies had so easily slaughtered them. A quick look at the reptilians' security cameras and a search of the Potter database had shown that they had been attacked by the Reka, a bird-like species that were forced to serve something called The Myriad, which Pierce didn't quite understand. He was going to have to do some research on them. Why they had attacked was still a mystery as no Myriad had ever turned up after them.

But, that was a mystery for another day. Today's mystery consisted mainly of 'how long until another distress call distracts us?'

A beeping behind him roused him from his reverie. "Report!" he called, bracing for the worst.

"We're detecting subspace distortions," said the Ops tech, "that are emanating from a large cluster of unidentifiable life-signs. The biological markers suggested an unknown race of cosmozoans."

"Cosmozoans," repeated Pierce. His knowledge of them was limited to the fact that they were creatures who lived in space rather than on planets. "Are they in our path? Do we need to alter our course? Wait. We should take scans first," he added, remembering their orders to scan everything and note the location for science vessels to study.

"Nothing in our path," Sekhem offered from the helm. "I can manage to avoid any fuggin' roadkill on the first try, you know."

"Yeah, yeah," replied Pierce. "Take us in a bit closer for scans and then we can slip past them."

"One cosmozoan clusterfuck coming up!" Sekhem dropped out of warp and set a new vector. "On approach to the source of the subspace distortions at full impulse."

"Don't get too close; I'd rather not annoy them," replied Pierce. "Prepare to take scans," he added to the officer at the science station.

Jack adjusted his console's sensors and frowned. "I'm getting some bizarre readings," he announced. "It's as if our sensors are being reflected back at us."

“Reflected?” repeated Pierce, curious as to what natural phenomenon could cause that. “Like the cosmosoans are reflecting them back? Or something in front of or behind them?”

"Maybe a shield or force field of some kind," Jack said. "All I know is my sensors are showing us only in reverse. I'm unable to determine their weaponry or if those assumed weapons are armed." He looked over his shoulder at the science officer. "Are you able to get anything off your scans?"

Lieutenant Marisol Espinosa frowned at her consol. "Little blips," she replied, "almost like the sensors are getting through for a second here or there. It seems like there are several large masses of the cosmozoans. I'm detecting masses about... it's hard to say. Two and half meters long? Maybe three?" She frowned as another blip came through. "It's..." she trailed off and her face paled. "Wait... Wait... I think... Is each cosmozoan that big? But that's massive! How could they...? I mean, I know huge cosmozoans exist, but most of them are tiny- microscopic, even. I never thought I'd see..." she trailed off, trying to capture more of the blips to form a more cohesive picture of them.

TAG ANY

OOC: Anybody who would like to play bridge officers, feel free. We've got a pilot and security (Peth and Devlin respectively) but other than that, I think it's wide open.

Ooc 2: just adding Anjou, nothing new. :)