Four massive ships fly through the interstellar void, each roughly cylindrical in shape though bristling with sensors, panels, docked shuttles, and attached modules. It has been generations since they were first built, and each one bears marks, scars, and repaired patches built up one after another onto their thick hulls. Behind them they trail water in a way that would, to most observers, look like a problem.
Within, the sensors begin flashing red alerts. They've picked up something unusual from out of the otherwise empty space around them. The navigational team is roused. They begin to run for their stations.
There is only about twelve seconds between the sensors picking up the anomaly and it arriving. Sudden blackness, a shudder. The lights and anti-gravity flicker for just a moment before coming back online.
The ships are all fine but the stars around them have changed.