It had been a full fifteen minutes after her initial comm-request that Captain Knight finally emerged from his Ready Room. T'Senishra was moderately concerned; after all, Dade hadn't made eye contact with her when he finished speaking with the Captain, and that usually meant SIC matters.

Knight steeled his composure after leaving his Ready Room. He didn't have to like his new orders, but he had a job to do nonetheless. After a moment of lingering by the Helm station, Knight seated himself in his Command Chair. He glanced at his first officer. "Report."

"We are now one minute away from the Osbourne's last known coordinates," T'Senishra informed Knight, "We are encountering heavy sensor interference and as of yet are unable to determine the position of the Osbourne."

Knight nodded, satisfied with the status report. "Drop us out of warp and proceed on thrusters only--Mr. Iv'Oor, come to all stop when we are approximately 150,000 kilometers from anomaly," Knight ordered. He turned back to his first officer. "First, who is the Captain of the Osbourne?"

"Fordall, Sir. Captain Richard Fordall," answered T'Senishra, slightly taken aback by the Captain's unfamiliarity with the mission. She had expected him to study the data from Starfleet Command at least briefly.

"Fordall, huh," commented Knight, "I think I owe him some medical supplies."

T'Senishra raised an eyebrow. "Sir?"

"Pay it no mind, First. Just something from my Maquis days." Knight quickly stopped himself from remembering old ghosts and concentrated on the task at hand.

"We are at all stop, Captain," informed Iv'Oor.

"Thank you, Mr. Iv'Oor," replied Knight, "What do we know about this anomaly so far?"

"I've corrected sensors to give us a better reading, and so far this appears to be some sort of spatial interphase anomaly," reported Nicot.

"And for those of us who don't know?" asked Knight.

"A spatial interphase anomaly is a time-space phenomenon in which two or more dimensional planes briefly overlap and connect," said T'Senishra simply. "They are not a common phenomena and can often be quite hazardous."

"Any sign of the Osbourne?"

"I can't tell at this range Sir," replied Nicot, "I still don't even have clear readings on the size of the anomaly. I've never seen anything generate feedback like this for sensor equipment before."

"Should I move us in closer?" asked Iv'Oor.

"No, we might get caught in it." Knight glanced back at the Mission Ops station where Lt. Perevoz sat idly. "Mr. Perevoz, launch a Class-IV probe and guide it closer to the anomaly."

Perevoz perked up at finally having a meaningful duty. "Aye aye Sir." She tapped at the Mission Ops console and inputted the appropriate commands. "Probe away; entering contact with the anomaly...now." She ran a quick diagnostic. "All systems green, Sir. The probe is relaying information."

"Understood. Keep an eye on it." Knight paused for a moment so that Nicot could interpret the data. "Any improvement, Mr. Nicot?"

Nicot typed in a few further commands hesitantly before responding, "Indeed." He stopped.

Knight waited patiently for Nicot to continue his report, but when he failed to do so, he began to get irritated. "Commander..."

"Sorry Sir," Nicot apologized, hearing the emotion creeping into the Captain's voice. "I've been triple checking the scans, and it appears that there are two starships trapped in the anomaly--not just the Osbourne--and I'm fairly certain the ship is Starfleet."

"What!?" exclaimed Knight. The whole reason the Phantom was here was because they were deemed the closest ship to respond. Now it turns out someone got here faster? "First thing's first. Status of the Osbourne."

"I've pinpointed the Osbourne's location," Rojc reported. "She's at the far outside edge of the anomaly. Heavy damage--looks like only her backups are functioning."

"Hail her."

A severely distorted image appeared on the viewscreen, before Nicot promptly accounted for the bad connection. Captain Richard Fordall came to become visible.

"This is the USS Phantom; we're here to render our assistance. How bad is it over there, Osbourne?"

Fordall took a moment to respond as he recognized the Captain of the Phantom--he was the Maquis son-of-a-bitch who led a raid on the Osbourne's medical supplies a few years back. He scowled. "The Osbourne is in bad shape, Captain Knight." Fordall paused as a conduit exploded somewhere behind him.

Knight winced. Fordall had recognized him after all.

"We were moving in closer to investigate some strange readings when our instruments began to overload. We have casualties, including my first officer," Fordall continued, "My Chief Engineer tells me we've got maybe two hours before the ship starts losing critical systems."

"Understood, Captain. We'll move to beam over engineering crews immediately."

As much as he didn't care to say it, Fordall responded, "Thank you for your help. Osbo--"

Knight stood up. "One last thing, Captain. What can you tell us about the other Starfleet rescue vessel?"

Fordall blinked. "As far as I'm aware, you are the first Starfleet vessel to make contact with us since we began investigating the anomaly."

"We're not completely sure, but we seem to have detected a Federation ship deeper in the anomaly. We assumed they were apart of the rescue operation and had gotten caught in the phenomena as well."

Fordall shook his head. "I don't know what to tell you Captain, other than the strange readings we were getting were deeper in the anomaly. I'm relaying our sensor logs--what's left of them--to you."

Knight managed an appreciative smile. "Thank you Captain. We'll be in range soon. Phantom out." The image of Captain Fordall blinked out; replaced by the fuzzy view of the Osbourne.

Knight clasped Iv'Oor's shoulder. "When we're in range of the Osbourne, tell Commander Guitarrez and Doctor Arona to start beaming teams over."

"Acknowledged," she nodded.

He again glanced back at Perevoz who seemed to have become bored with the probe, not that he could blame her. "Mr. Perevoz, please coordinate the repair operation from the Osbourne."

Perevoz looked up and smiled at the Captain. "Right away Sir." She stood and briskly left the Bridge for Transporter Room 1.

Knight whirled around to T'Senishra.

T'Senishra needed no further cue. "The position of the abnormality the Osbourne was inspecting correlates with the current position of the unknown vessel."

This certainly piqued Knight's curiosity. "Put the unknown onscreen."

After a moment of flickering static, a fuzzy image of a ship appeared. A few seconds more and Nicot had cleaned it up. The sight was unexpected to say the least.

"That's a Constitution-class vessel!" Iv'Oor exclaimed.

"Confirmed," reported Rojc, taken aback by the discovery. "Transponder reads USS Defiant NCC-1764."

"Defiant?" questioned Knight rhetorically. He knew enough of his history to know that ship had been lost over one-hundred years prior to some kind of anomaly--but that was quite a few sectors away. "Mr. Nicot, is it possible for us to beam to the Defiant?"

"I believe so, Sir. But I wouldn't recommend it, with all the interference."

Knight only needed to hear that it was possible. "Start a power transfer to the Defiant. First, take an away team consisting of an Engineering crew, Doctor Arona, and Commander Nicot and beam over. Make sure everyone is wearing transporter armbands and take pattern enhancers with you."

T'Senishra nodded respectfully and left the Bridge with Nicot following.

"Mr. Rojc, dispatch a message to Starfleet Command informing them of our progress and our...find," ordered Knight.

Rojc noticed a slight error in the communications array and realigned the subspace antenna. The system cleared and all seemed to be fine. "Message sent Captain."

"Phantom to Defiant, status report Commander."

T'Senishra and her team surveyed the old starship's transporter room as the transport cycle completed. The apparent systems failure had left the ship well preserved in the vacuum. Her gaze fell on a corpse lying behind the transporter control console; perhaps a little too well preserved. She tapped her comm-badge. "Transport successful, Captain. The power transfer seems to have restored the environmental systems."

"Acknowledged. What's it like over there?"

"...Eerie," replied the Vulcan. She scolded herself for allowing that slip and composed herself. "The ship appears to be intact and well preserved; the Defiant's crew appear to be in the early to mid stages of decay."

T'Senishra glanced at Arona, who looked up from her tricorder and shook her head. "Nothing Captain. Request permission to beam over another team to collect the Defiant's crew for proper burial."

"Granted. Proceed with caution, First. Phantom out."

T'Senishra turned to the officers accompanying her. "Lieutenant Hersch--take your team and begin a complete survey of the Defiant's systems from Main Engineering; conduct any repairs you see necessary for the salvage operation."

"Understood Commander," replied the lead Engineering officer. He and his men picked up their equipment and prodded out of the transporter room.

"Doctor, when the next team beams aboard, instruct them to begin collecting the remains of the Defiant's crew and move them to the cargo bays." She paused as the new team beamed aboard.

"There are wounded on the Osbourne! I could be of more assistance there!" protest Arona.

"Doctor, please allow me to finish," T'Senishra persisted. "After you have that task underway, begin an investigation into the deaths of these people." T'Senishra took another brief look at the corpse behind the transporter control console. "The Starship Enterprise's report was unclear--try to learn as much as you can from onboard the Defiant. Notify me when you've reached an end to your investigation."

Arona scowled but did not press the matter further. "Yes Ma'am."

T'Senishra looked up at Nicot who was at the transporter control console, either not bothered by the corpse at his feet or successfully hiding his disgust. "Commander Nicot, please accompany me to the Bridge."

"...And we've now fully restored secondary systems, Captain. Commander Guitarrez tells me it will be at least another two hours before main power comes back on-line," summed up Perevoz from the Osbourne, "Though she says it would help if we could tractor the ship away from the anomaly's edge."

"Tell Commander Guitarrez to make all possible haste, Lieutenant," responded Knight. "We'll see what we can do about pulling the Osbourne away from the anomaly. Phantom out."

Knight turned to Rojc. "Tractor Beam?"

Rojc shook his head. "Not at this range. We need another good fifteen thousand kilometers."

"Mr. Iv'Oor--bring us into position."

"Aye Sir," confirmed the Andorian, "Though that will put us right on the edge of the anomaly."

"Ease us in carefully, then Lieutenant. Do your best to keep us from going no further than the edge--I don't trust this anomaly."

"Would you get off my case? I know how to do my job!" growled the Caitan Ensign Sto'cha at the Osbourne's Captain.

"Look, you're re-aligning the secondary ODN matrix all wrong." Fordall threw up his hands in defeat and looked around. "Where is your superior officer?"

Sto'cha growled softly and tapped her comm-badge. "Sto'cha to Guitarrez--Captain Fordall is...bothering me again."

There was a sigh on the other end of the comm-link. "Understood. I'll be right there."

Fordall scowled indignantly at the rude Ensign before him. "This is my damn ship and you'll repair it the right way." He grabbed Lieutenant Nooven, his Chief Engineer as he passed by. "Tell her Nooven--she's doing this all wrong."

Nooven uncharacteristically glared at Fordall. "I'm busy. Figure it out yourself."

At this point, Guitarrez walked up and noticed the odd behavior. "Gentlemen--calm yourselves."

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TELLING ME WHAT TO DO ON MY SHIP!?!" bellowed Fordall. He lunged at her.

Guitarrez's eyes widened at Fordall's irrational behavior as she sidestepped his lunge. She quickly tapped her comm-badge. "Guitarrez to Lieutenant Calloway--medical emergency in Main Engineering--main ODN routing station."

There was an extended pause. "We're on our way."

"We're in position to engage the tractor beam now," reported Iv'Oor. "I only barely managed to keep us from being pulled into the anomaly," she added.

Knight smirked. "Good work, Lieutenant. Mr. Rojc, the tractor beam."

Rojc inputted the appropriate commands and the beam engaged--only it didn't find its target. He grunted and set to work rectifying the problem.

Knight frowned as he watched the tractor beam engage, only to seemingly go through the Osbourne. "Commander?" he asked quizzically.

Rojc frowned as it became increasingly obvious by the sound of his console that his efforts were having no effect. "I don't know how to explain it, Sir. The Osbourne's there--but...not."

Knight jerked his head towards the OPS Station. "Mr. Senel, report!"

The Vulcan wore an uncharacteristically dazed look as he surveyed the data at his station. "The anomaly is undergoing some kind of flux. Interference levels are rising."

"Beam the away team off the Defiant immediately."

Senel inputted a few commands and checked on the result. "I am unable to establish a lock--the interference is disrupting transporter function."

Knight's attention turned away from his officers on the Defiant as he noticed the image of the Osbourne on the viewscreen begin to glow. "What the--?" He paused for a brief moment as he took in what was happening. "Mr. Iv'Oor, back us off now! Full impulse!"

Iv'Oor quickly entered the new course and engaged it. The ship lurched violently.

"The tractor beam won't disengage! I don't know what it's locked onto, but we can't break free," reported Rojc with growing alarm.

"We're being pulled deeper into the anomaly!" added Iv'Oor.

"Red alert!" Knight ordered as he tapped his comm-badge. "All hands--secure stations and brace for impact!"

Meanwhile outside the Phantom, both the Osbourne and derelict Defiant had fully disappeared from sight. The Phantom too began to glow a mysterious green and within a matter of moments, it too disappeared.