“From your lips to the Great Bird’s ears,” Ashrafi said. He tilted his head, grinning wryly. “I came to Argelius to have a blast, but this isn’t the kind I had in mind.”

The captain chuckled. “You three are all enrolled in Starfleet Academy?”

Ashrafi nodded. “We start in the fall.”

“But you’re already friends?”

Kayros nodded. “We met at a three-week pre-Academy program on Alpha Centauri.”

Terrell nodded. There were various preparatory and affiliate programs offered on different worlds for aspiring Academy entrants, or for accepted cadets seeking a head start. Starfleet had demanding educational standards, and even commissioned officers were expected to continue studying and learning throughout their active service. Therefore, any additional learning that cadets chose to pursue beforehand was welcome and encouraged.

Terrell turned at the sound of the corridor door, which opened to admit Commander Chekov. “Captain, I have the analysis of the sensor readings from Orbital Control.”

“Have you been able to identify the phenomenon?”

Chekov hesitated. “Up to a point, sir. The outbursts appear to be… well, essentially, they are extremely large vacuum fluctuations.”

Ashrafi stared at him. “ ‘Wacuum fluctuations’? What the hell are those?”

“Oh, come on, Michael,” Kayros said. “Elementary quantum physics, remember? The Uncertainty Principle—energy can spontaneously be created as long as it’s destroyed in a brief enough time that it doesn’t unbalance the books.”

He stared at her blankly. “I’m a communications student, Zirani. I barely got through that course.”

The young Tiburonian frowned. “But that’s not supposed to show up on a macroscopic scale, beyond special cases like the Casimir effect.”

Chekov smiled at her. “Very good, miss. You’re right, as a rule. But it’s a matter of probability. There’s always the infinitesimal chance that a spontaneous quantum fluctuation could produce a massive amount of energy. It’s incredibly unlikely, but in a vast universe…”

Terrell stared at him. “I could buy that happening once, but this was numerous outbursts over hours.”

“I’m not saying it’s the answer for certain, sir. But it’s theoretically possible. The bursts appeared to have the gravimetric signature of quantum wormholes. A single burst of sufficient energy could churn the cosmic foam, so to speak, enough to cause spontaneous tunneling events, possibly a cascade of such wormholes. The energy arising in one spot could spill out through those wormholes, displaced around it in space and time, and those other bursts could produce a chain reaction, until it eventually died down.”

The captain crossed his arms. “So you think this was a one-time freak event. We don’t have to worry about it happening again.”

Chekov straightened. “I am not saying that, Captain. Russians always plan for the worst. And I cannot yet rule out the possibility that some outside influence triggered the event. But at the moment, we have no data to suggest that. And it is within the realm of possibility that it was a unique natural event.”