“Aye, when do we ever?” A hint of reluctance entered the engineer’s voice as he continued in a more hushed tone, his vocal timbre altering as though he were leaning in close to the audio pickup. “Sir… this is a cadet crew. We didn’t expect to demand this much from them when we set out. If it were a seasoned team…”

“Mister Scott. On any Starfleet mission, one must anticipate that unforeseen difficulties could arise. I would not have taken the Enterprise out with this crew aboard if my confidence in the cadets’ abilities had not been equal to my confidence in their instructors’ abilities.”

Again, Scott’s vocal timbre changed, this time commensurately with a straightened spine and a proud smile. “Aye, Captain. We’ll prove ourselves worthy of your faith, sir. Scott out.”

Spock noted similar sentiments on the faces of the bridge personnel as they glanced over their shoulders toward him. T’Lara was the exception, but even her hands had briefly slowed in their movements across the helm controls. “Attend to your posts,” he instructed.

As they complied, he opened a new channel on the command chair’s comm panel. “Bridge to communications lab. We are in-system, and a sizable vacuum flare is underway and less than two hours from engulfing Earth. I recommend alacrity.”

Uhura’s voice as she replied was calm and professional, but not without fatigue. “Acknowledged, Captain. We’re making progress. Shastri and I have reconstructed much of our work on Argelius, but even there, it took more than a day to perfect the calibrations.”

“Understood, but my ability to affect the pace of events is negligible.”

A pause. “Is Scotty’s verteron field ready to go?”

“Preparations are underway. I expect it to be in operation once we reach the field perimeter.”

“Sir, I think we need to get much closer than that. Jen was right about one thing: our chances of making contact are best if we’re as close as possible to the heart of the storm.”

Spock raised a brow, weighing the ramifications. “You understand the risks that would entail. The field would only diminish the microflares’ frequency and intensity within the ship. The interference to ship systems would also be considerable.”

“I understand, sir, but the closer our alignment with their transmission vector, the better the chance that they’ll read our reply.”

“Acknowledged, Commander. We shall proceed as you advise.”

“And we’ll redouble our efforts here. We’ll have something for you by the time we get there.”

“I trust that you shall. Spock out.”