The sun rose once again starting another beautiful day on Earth. Admiral Rees walked across the grounds to his office in the northern part of the grounds. He preferred to walk across the gardens, particularly at the height of summer, to the transporter system.

He purposely took the longest route too, especially as it coincided with the route of a young Commander he had taken a shine too. He saw a lot of potential in her, and had taken her under his wing. She was assigned as aid to Admiral McConaghy who was the current ambassador to the Valarians. Rees was himself an ambassador once to the Daelan Monarchy, so he had a lot of advise to give to the Commander about Monarchical species.

This morning however, he must have missed her as she wasn't walking along her usual route. *Oh well* he thought to himself. *There's always tomorrow* He arrived in the main office complex. The officers on duty approached him and took his ID.

"Good morning Admiral" said the Lieutenant

"A fine morning it is Lieutenant. Have you had a good week off?"

"Yes. Thank you Admiral. If you haven't been to the Bahamas before, I suggest you go."

"Maybe when I retire" chuckled the old man.

"You're cleared for entry sir" said the Lieutenant as the computer confirmed his ID.

Rees stepped into the turbolift on the other side of reception and pressed the button to take him to his office. *Hmm, another gray hair....* he thought as he looked at himself in the mirror.

The turbolift quickly deposited him on the third floor in the east wing where it was just a short walk to his office.

What had seemed like just another day at the office earlier, now clearly wasn't going to be as routine as usual. He found two Admirals waiting for him outside his office. He had only worked with them once before... he knew what they were here for, and they didn't look like they were bringing good news.

"Michael, Sarah, what can I do for you both?" he asked.

"Daniel, if we could have a moment of your time. In your office...?" they asked

"Of course, come right in."

Rees led them into his office and offered them a seat and coffee, which they both accepted. Rees got himself a coffee and sat down behind his desk, facing the two concerned looking Admirals.

"Well, what is it you want to speak with me about?" he asked

"There's no point beating about the bush here Dan, the Astra has gone missing."

"You're not serious... there's no way!"

"Our worst fears have come in to reality Dan." Spoke up Sarah. "We lost contact with the Astra four days ago. We held on in the hope that we may hear from them again, but after four days, we can't hold out much hope I'm afraid."

Admiral Roberts pulled out a holographic emitter and placed it on Daniel's table. He switched it on and it began showing a rotating 3D image of the Alpha quadrant which then zoomed in on the Cardassian Union.

"The Astra was on track until four days ago. They had reached the far side of Cardassian territory and had begun their mission. This was the last transmission we received from them."

The alpha quadrant flickered out of view and was replaced by Commodore Cirillo.

[Command, all has gone well and we are now on the far side of the Cardassian Union. We have set a course for the Arlanis sector and are proceeding at best possible speed. We await further instructions from you - Cirillo out.]

"We can only assume that they never made it to the Arlanis sector. Something must have gone wrong on the way."

"Have command gone with our contingency plan?" asked Rees.

"No, they have deemed it to risky, especially with relations the way they are with the Cardassians."

"So what do we do now. We can't leave our crew or that ship out there!" snapped Rees. "You two surely can understand the importance of having that ship back and not letting it fall into the Cardassian's hands... or worse."

"We can't think of the worst case scenario right now Daniel. What we need to focus on is a way to get this ship back ourselves. If Command won't initiate the contingency plan, then we will have to do something ourselves!"

"You mean, rescue the crew ourselves?"

"We're not even sure if the crew are alive to start with, Dan. What we need to do is get people out there, get them out fast, and without them being noticed."

"And just how do you plan on doing that Sarah?"

"Mike and I have been thinking about this a lot. We know that you wanted nothing more to do with this project, but we have come to you as your the only one who can help us pull the necessary strings to get that ship back. Once it's back in Federation space, we will deal with it and you can finally wash your hands of it."

Daniel would have thought about it more extensively, if the chance to rid himself of this entire project hadn't been offered to him.

"What do I have to do?" he asked.

"Here's a list of things we need from you." Said Mike handing over a PADD of information. It's mostly things you can easily lay your hands upon without much suspicion, being in your position. The most important part though will be a crew. Pick them well, remember, to take part in this mission, they will need to be the best."

"I can have the ship and a commanding officer for you in a couple of days. As for the rest of the crew, the seniors in the academy graduate at the end of next week, I can assemble the crew then."

"From academy graduates?"

"What would you rather me do? Start reassigning people from Starships? I thought you wanted this to be as discrete as possible!"

"We will return in three days Dan. Have us a ship and a Captain by then, and we'll handle the rest."

"Deal."

The two visiting Admirals got up and left Rees's office.

"What a mess...." Rees said to himself once they had left. He had hoped that with the launch of the Astra, three months ago, that this would all be over and forgotten with for him, but now here he was in as deep as ever.

*Better get straight to work* he reasoned, as he switched on his comm. channel. "Ms. Wurstoff, get me the Commander of Utopia Planitia on subspace."