"There was a transmission that originated somewhere around here. Spock's doing some scans with Uhura to try and pinpoint the disturbance. We were heading toward Makus III with a shipment of medical supplies picked up at the last StarBase we were sent to."

The one where they got into that nifty bar fight even. But that wasn't IN the StarBase, Jim would have been recognized there. Which isn't always a bad thing.

"Either it's an anomaly in the radiation coming from one of the nebula nearby, or there's something out here. Either way I figured it wouldn't take long to drop out of warp and let them poke around. PLus it means I can show you guys this."