"Never got around to it?"

"Not really. I never liked the idea of being in a tin can surrounded by vacuum."

María knocked on the casing. "Don't worry. This 'tin can' can take a beating. We'll be okay."

"Does everyone come up here?" asked Kelly.

"Ensign Mayweather does it the most, but a lot of us do. It's like being in the womb," replied María.

"Is this your first time in space?" asked Annie.

"It is, actually."

"This is normal?"

"All ships have it," said María. "Put your hands on the sides of the hatch and push up."

Kelly did so. She soon found herself weightless and floating. She flayed around like a puppet, before hitting the ceiling.

"It takes some practice," said Annie.

María Socorro looked up at her. "Ah, Ms. Wright. Come on up."

Kelly looked around. "What is this?"

Annie Naiman floated around. "It's called the sweet spot. Between the AG generator and the bow plating, the gravity cancels out."

By the way, you might be wondering since "Amanda Cole" isn't a very Arab name. Well, a friend of mine told me that Arab resistance fighters use nom de guerres. Her childhood best friend in Florida was named Amanda Cole, and when she was killed by space pirates, she adopted her name in the MACOs.

A strange silence went through the ship.

"We are heading home. At Warp 5, we should arrive in a month. I will pass more information as we receive it."

People started to simply look at each other.

"What the fuck?" said Annie.

Everyone hanged on each word.

"What we do know is that Earth has been devastated. A weapon was fired that cut a swath from Florida to Venezuela. Early casualties are as high as one million, and it is expected to rise. I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that we’ve reversed course."

Suddenly, a whistle sounded on the comm.

"This is the Captain. A few hours ago, I was informed by Starfleet Command that Earth has been attacked by an alien probe. We do not know who it was, or where it came from, or the motivation behind this action."

"Sir, the reactor is continuing to function normally. Johann reset the injectors, the field is stable."

Trip didn't look up. "Good."

She momentarily looked around, seeing everyone at their stations. "Commander, what's going on?"

"I can't say, Ensign."

"Look, clearly it's important. I'm just saying it's big and the Captain needs to decide how to tell us," said Matthews.

In engineering, María Socorro checked the system display on the warp reactor. She went over to the chief engineer's station.

"I'm telling you guys, we've pissed off the Klingons one too many times," said Duncan Walsh. "Next they're gonna invade Earth with everything they've got."

"Just shoot them when they come at us with their swords," retorted Ravi Chandra.

"The last time we were heading for Earth, we thought we blew up a colony. We're in deep space. What did we do?" asked Annie Naiman.

"Maybe the government decided to be stupid," said Jamal Edwards as he cleaned his wire glasses.

"What's everyone saying?" Melissa asked.

In the mess hall, it was chaos. Everyone was talking over each other, trying to figure it out.

Chief Matthews whistled, getting their attention. "You're all forgetting something. The Captain will tell us when he's ready."