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The Sao Palo, having seen the ship cloak and disappear, could only imagine the heavily crippled ship was heading out to cut her losses. It would not fire its weapons. There had been enough damage to ships on both sides. Captain Griffon would hail the Claymore.

"The hostile ship has ceased hostilities and left the area. I suggest we get moving as we're already behind schedule on our scientific mission."

The USS Bonaventure and the SS Claymore streak through space at warp 6. Captain Marcus orders a scan of the surrounding space for cloaked vessels as a precaution against surprise attacks. After the scan comes up empty he orders the helm to alter their course to allow for maximum coverage of the Bonaventure in case of surprise attack. He then leaves standing orders to do regular sweeps for cloaked vessels as he leaves the bridge as the next shift arrives on the bridge.

Captain Marcus is once again on the bridge of the Claymore as the time comes for another sweep for cloaked vessels. He acknowledges the tactical officer's report of the beginning of the scan and waits for the results. The tactical officer reports yet another negative scan and George Marcus gives thanks that this mission is turning out less eventful than the last two, even if it does mean having to endure boredom. George Marcus then begins going through some reports regarding crew morale and decides that the crew needs a vacation after this mission. After finishing the reports he then checks to make sure that the Bonaventure is still in position and waits for his shift to end.

The Claymore and the Sau Paulo streak through space enroute for DS12, the Claymore at yellow alert as the two ships approach the area where the Claymore had detected a possible cloaked vessel while en-route to Hepheastus. Captain Marcus orders a scan of the surrounding space for cloaked vessels and waits for the results. This time the scans some up negative, but George Marcus decides not to take any chances and leaves the ship at yellow alert but has shields put on standby. He then checks in with the captain of the Sau Paulo and has him move his ship slightly in front of the Claymore as a precaution against surprise attacks. He then checks on some reports form Engineering regarding warp-core effiecency and enters standing orders to continue the sensor sweeps.

George Marcus relieves the officer in charge of the bridge as his shift begins and notices that it is time for another sensor sweep. He orders the tactical officer to begin the sweep as he takes the command chair. The tactical officer reports that the scan comes up negative and George relaxes slightly in his chair. He then begins reading some reports from the engineering department about ways to increase the warp drives effiecency back to normal and possibly improve it a couple of percentage points. He notices that the maintenance requires a shutdown of the warp drive so he writes up a reply stating that the adjustments will have to wait till arrival at DS12 and files it in the computer flagged for the chief engineer's attention. He then moves on to other ship's business.

The USS Surak and the SS Claymore and SS Gladius cruise through space towards Hepheastus at warp 6, the three ships in a V-formation with the Gladius and Claymore behind the Surak, the Gladius slightly above and the Claymore slightly below the Surak's flight path. George Marcus orders his ships to have their shields on standby and recommends that the Surak does the same, he also orders all of his ships' weapons placed on standby. He then confers with Susan onboard the Gladius and they arrange their crew's duty rosters so that at least one experienced crew member is on the bridge during each shift. He also orders regular active scan of the surrounding space, at least 4 per shift on each vessel, with the scans staggered so that the the Gladius executes their scan an hour after the Claymore's. He also sets up a schedule so that each of his two ships has their crew drill in procedures to repell boarders and in procedures for boarding a hostile ship every other month, with the schedules for each ship again staggered. He then goes to his ready-room and goes over battle tactics involving three allied craft and at least one hostile.

George Marcus is in his ready room when his science officer notifies him that they are passing through a region of higher gas and dust concentration then usual.
"How much Higher than usual?" He asks him as he walks onto the bridge.
The science officer turns to him and replies, "High enough to either be the edges of a nebula or a star systems Oort cloud. However, there is no star in the immediate vicinity."
George sits down in the command chair and thinks for a minute. "Might also be the remains of some ancient nova," He says. "Mark it in the sensor logs of the area, we will do a more in depth scan on the way back through."
"Aye, sir." His science officer replies as he carries out the order.