Encounter With The Unicorn

"Bring us in over the southeast quadrant, Lieutenant." The captain studied the monitor at his side, tapping his finger against the image of the planet displayed.

"Setting in approach vector."

The rocket's engines flared, the vectored thrust pushing the vessel into the correct trajectory to achieve orbit around the seemingly verdant planet ahead.

"Captain, I'm detecting a sensor signal near the second moon. It's an active ping." The communications officer at the console adjusted several knobs, a concerned expression on her face.

"Put it on my screen."

The image of the planet on the captain's monitor tightened its view, focusing in on a distant glint that quickly grew into the shape of a rocket. At its prow was an enormous star-drive, a sharp structure over half the total length of the rocket.

The comms officer whispered, her voice clear over the stillness of the bridge, "It's The Unicorn."

The captain shot to his feet, "Flank speed. Bring the thermal batteries online. Target its engines. Fire! Fire!"

A klaxon erupted throughout the vessel, its crew scrambling to battle stations. The rocket lurched as it's engines were opened up, the sublimation drive throwing out a long stream of neon thrust. There was activity aboard The Unicorn, too. The oversized star-drive glowed, a halo of brilliant light encircling it.

The comms officer called out, again, "It's powering up its star-drive!"

The captain: "Where's it getting the power!?"

The distant rocket shuddered, a bright lance of energy erupting from the spire of it's star drive. The beam stuck into the empty void of space and reached through to an unknown distant point, tugging on it, bending space, and producing a tunnel through which The Unicorn might circumvent an otherwise impossible journey. It's own sublimation drive surged, pushing it into the wormhole which closed around behind it. Gravitation distortions remained, electric blue lines that formed characteristic patterns marking where the wormhole had opened. They would fade in a few hours time.

The bridge crew all looked at one another, at a loss for what to do. The helmsman asked, "Captain, orders?"

The captain: "I want a probe on that moon. Prepare a shuttle. We're going down to that planet. We're not leaving until we find out why The Unicorn was here."

He pointed at the science offer, a tall Hale by the name of Lieutenant Marrow and then at the comms officer, Lieutenant Patel, a digger with more years aboard rockets than most of the bridge crew put together. "You two, I want every part of that encounter analyzed by the time I get back. You will tell me everything that vessel is capable of."

Turning back to his monitor and studying the burning blue residue of The Unicorn's wormhole, "And you're going to tell me where it went."

The comms officer responded, "All encounters with that rocket are to be reported to the ESC."

The captain nodded, "I'll be in my quarters. You have the con. Let me know when that shuttle's ready."