The spaceship drifted silently through space, lacking any particular destination. Around it was but a dark void lit by the light of distant stars. The majority of its passengers were asleep, excepting only the main crew who were tasked with keeping things running smoothly.
Up in the observation deck a woman sat with her feet up on a counter, eyes trained on the screen in front of her. She had a warm drink in one hand and she sipped lazily from it as her eyes flicked to the statistics strip of screen for the tenth time that minute. Her job was to monitor the equipment scanning the outside world, in case there was any sort of important signal from a nearby planet or space station.
At the moment the screen just showed space, and the buttons and dials on the adjacent control panel were showing no sign of anything at all.
So little was happening that the woman soon became bored, and, comforted by the warmth of her drink, her eyes slowly closed and she fell asleep.
Soon she woke to a persistent beeping sound. Springing out of her seat, she immediately rushed to the controls, easily understanding the code of flashing buttons and whirring disks. The screen now showed a distant planet, in a negative image. Suddenly realizing that there was a message waiting on a smaller, rectangular screen below the controls, the woman pressed the concurrent switch and her eyes widened as she read the words that appeared.
Her fingers came down on the call button on the communicator and it wasn't long before someone on the pilot deck answered.
"We noticed the alarm, what is it?" a voice barked at her from the other end.
"I'm not sure sir." The woman answered cautiously, her other hand searching the buttons on the communication controls before her. Running a verification check on the signal and its source quickly, she continued talking.
"Whatever it is, it means there's someone in trouble out there. And they need our help."
There was a reply of assent on the other side of the line and then a sharp order yelled at someone.
"Set course for the planet that signal's coming from, Brock! They need help ASAP!"
The ship's engine growled loudly as the spacecraft accelerated and then they shot off towards the planet, which was, in fact, at the edge of a planetary system known as Staarus to its inhabitants.
And that is how the trouble all began.