The long range sensor lab was a laboratory in Starfleet Academy in the alternate reality.
In 2258, Cadet Nyota Uhura was tracking star systems in the long range sensor lab, whereupon she picked up an emergency transmission from a Klingon prison planet, indicating an armada of 47 Klingon ships had been destroyed.
When she returned from the lab to her quarters, she surprised her roommate, Gaila, who had been under the impression that Uhura was going to spend all night there. As Gaila had been "entertaining" James T. Kirk, who was now hiding under her bed, she asked Uhura if she planned to return to the lab. A suspicious Uhura located mouth breather Kirk and ordered him out. Trying and failing to make a graceful exit, the deshabille Kirk quipped, "I think the fact that you picked up a transmission is very interesting."
It was later determined that the ships mentioned in this transmission were destroyed by the Romulan mining vessel Narada, a piece of information which proved critical in the USS Enterprise's subsequent battle against the ship. (Star Trek)