A story:
Spoiler
Convoy duty is always boring. Especially when you're the third officer on one of the escortees rather than the escorters.
You sit morosely on the command chair of the Atlas, waiting away the interminable hours on your watch. From the corner of your eye, you can see the nav tech is already opening up a holonovel on her personal device. You really ought to do something about it, especially given how narrow the hyper straits are here, but your ennui is so great you can barely lift your head.
Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to review the cargo manifest for the 14th time. You start to reach for the console...
The wailing klaxons drive all lethargy from your brain. Everyone on the bridge jerks upright, and the sensor tech starts screaming. "Multiple contacts! Oh lord, there must be fifty – no, a hundred of them!
A gross exaggeration, you know. The plot you bring up on your screen can't be showing more than two dozen of the unknown contacts... not that that's much of a comfort. The convoy and its pitiful escort would just disappear into nothingness if the fleet surrounding you decides to cleanse you from the stars. But even worse than the force size mismatch is the way the icons flicker in and out on the display, like ghosts...
One more ship appears directly in front of the convoy, the computers identifying it as a Doom-class. Not a second later, the communication console warbles noisily. "Chief... they're hailing us..." the officer whispers, sweat trickling down his forehead.
"Answer it, you fool!"
He hastily punches a few keys. The transmission that follows is voice-only; you're not sure whether that's a good or bad sign. "THIS IS THE TERRITORY OF THE TRI-TACHYON CORPORATION," the creepy voice intones. "LEAVE NOW OR FACE THE CONSEQUENCES."
No sooner does the message end than the Doom, and all the other mysterious ships with it, disappear from the plot. Like they were never there. A few moments later, everyone on the bridge exhales as one.
The access hatch whirrs behind you, and half a dozen heads jerk up. Thank goodness! It's the captain.
"What's going on here?" he demands, not quite running up to your seat. You're not sure you know how (or want) to explain, but you try your best.
When you're done, the captain shakes his head. "That's impossible. The TTs were driven out of the Pegasus cluster during the Second AI War. They haven't been back since."
THEN WHO WAS COMM?
Spoiler
Cyber bullying.
(http://i.imgur.com/HjSKDvw.jpg)