The victory celebration after the battle with the ancient robot-wasps was a short one. It mostly consisted of everyone taking a deep breath and then immediately starting to worry again. They had won the fight and secured the giant, star-sucking space-ring, which was great. But they had also rung the cosmic doorbell of a potentially very angry, very powerful, and unknown party. Not so great.
They were in the middle of a tense and worried meeting on the bridge, trying to figure out what to do next, when something very strange happened.
The space in the middle of the bridge, right next to the main command chair, began to shimmer. It was like the air itself was turning into heat haze. The crew members on the bridge took a nervous step back, their hands instinctively going to their sidearms.
