Commander Rebecca Talon sat across from Captain Micah Fitzpatrick in his ready room with a cup of coffee in her hand.  So far the war with the Dominion had gone badly, and now the Denver was being dispatched with the rest of the Seventh Fleet to the Tyra System.

“What are the odds we get out of this alive, Captain Fitzpatrick said over his own coffee.

“I don’t suppose it’s zero, but I wouldn’t bet more than fifty-fifty,” Becca replied.

“You could have lied to an old man Number One.”

“Not exactly my style,”

“No, I suppose not.” He scratched his balding head and sighed.  “Did Milo and the kids make it home safely?”

Rebecca took a sip of her coffee before answering, and then set the mug down on the edge of her Captain’s desk.  “Yes he did.  He’s not happy how his foreman was running things so I got an earful over that.  Oh, Commander Kyo wanted me to thank you for lending that shuttle to get Jolie home too.”

The captain smiled, “Those three girls… The Denver is going to seem empty without them.”

Rebecca gave him a grim smile.  She knew exactly what he meant. Her quarters once felt too small, now seemed to big and empty. “I suppose you’ll just have to do without your ‘Captain’s Assistant’ from now on.”

Fitzpatrick let out a hearty laugh, “She was more of an un-assistant than anything. It was impossible to get any work done with all the questions, but completely worth it if you ask me.”

“That’s debatable,” Rebecca said with a smirk.

“It isn’t,” Micah assured her. Checking his chronometer he sighed.  “We should be approaching the Tyra System.”

Rebecca nodded, “I’ll check on the crew.”

“You do that. Batten down the hatches and furl the mains Number One.  I think this storm is going to be one hell of a blow.”

“Understood sir.”

A man and woman entered the bar and stopped at the entrance and scanned their surroundings.   The woman leaned into the man and said something to him, and they approached Jolie sitting at the bar.

The man sat down next to Joile while the woman hung back with her arms crossed in front of her.  “Whiskey, neat,” the man said as he settled into his seat.

He was in his early forties. He wore a beat-up grey cowboy hat now more tan than anything with the crown partially crushed from years of abuse.  There was a dark brown sweat stain where the crown met the brim, and a turkey feather was shoved into the brim.

He wore a dirty brown canvas duster over a button-up shirt and a pair of blue jeans and a pair of scuffed cowboy boots.  And after he sat the duster fell open to reveal an old-fashioned cowboy-type pistol sitting low on his hip in the gunfighter style. 

The woman was the opposite.   She was about his age but looked a good five to ten years younger than him. She was fashionable and would have fit in in New York or Paris with her sleek black sheath dress and black pumps with a modest heel.  There was a delicate necklace made of platinum around her neck with a chunk polished dilithium set into the pendant. 

The bartender set the whiskey before the man, but he didn’t touch it.  “Lieutenant Kyo,” he said without looking at her,  “A little birdie told me you’re looking for a home.  I’m rebuilding my team.”

Jolie heard the man speak to her, but she kept her head down, thinking about what she had done this time to be taken from another mission. Perhaps it was just her luck, or perhaps it was the curse that had followed her from Earth.

“Are you positive that I am the little birdie that you were notified of?” she inquired without looking at the man, as she remained immobile and mostly inside herself.

“Your parents served with my mom… well, step-mom.  I have a hole that needs filling.  My wife is pregnant and she probably shouldn’t be going on missions.  I’m Commander Ethan Talon, and this is my wife Lt. Commander Trinity Morris-Talon.  We run a small special operations team.  A lot of it is covert intelligence for SI, and other missions involve us doing things no normal Starfleet away team would even consider doing.”

Trinity relaxed and sat down on the other side of Jolie which raised her skirt up slightly to reveal a phaser pistol strapped to her calf. “It’s not standard Starfleet work.  You won’t get any medals, and you certainly won’t get a pat on the back for a job well done.  You’ll see the worst of sentient lifeforms,  and a good job means nobody knows you were involved.”

Jolie had seen everything that was going on around her even though she wasn’t moving. However, she was taken aback by the phaser that was strapped to the woman’s calf; this was not “Starfleet’s Standard” weapon location. She’d known the instant Ethan revealed that Trinity was pregnant by the way she held herself, even though she herself never had the chance to become a mother, yet.

When Ethan said she wouldn’t be recognized for being involved in things that could potentially improve things for the Federation, she tilted her head to look at him. When she gazed at him, her light brown eyes nearly appeared to have an amber ring around the iris. “Tell me more, Commander Talon,” she said, having recognized him for his last name.

Prior to the Dominion War, she was a kid aboard the USS Denver, which was commanded by Captain Rebecca Talon. Her father had been the ship’s XO, and her mother had been the ship’s botanist; both had been honored for their service to the Federation.

“That’s pretty much it. We make Hazard Teams look like they are playing dress-up,”  Trinity said. “Oh, uh…” she replied to the bartender,  “Synthohol dry martini.”

Ethan cleared his throat and dug into his breast pocket of his duster and set a black “half” pip on the bar in front of her   ” We don’t really follow rank, and as you can tell uniforms aren’t our go-to wardrobe choice, but if you accept I suppose you can pin that to your dress uniform.”

Looking down at the red uniform she wore, she smirked, and thought to herself, ‘Looks like I am going to need to go shopping.’ as the Commander laid the pip in front of her

Jolie picked up the black half-pip and it rolled into the center of her palm, “Well since I won’t be recognized for anything else at least my mother and father will see that I became Lieutenant Commander if nothing else,” she stated as she placed the black pip next to the two silver ones on her chest. “Where do I need to go and how long do I have?” She asked as she looked up from the black pip.

“Our ship is in orbit, and we have training on Vulcan slated for the end of the week,” Ethan said. “As my second in command, I expect you to lead by example.”

With a couple of nods, Jolie stood up, and offer her right hand.

Ethan took her hand in his massive paw and shook.

“I’ll see you in orbit Commander,” she stated as she shook the Commanders hand. Turning she looked at Trinity and with as gracious of a smile that she could muster smiled at the woman. “I hope that I see you again,” she stated, “if not then it has been a pleasure.”

“I’ll be around,” Trinity said with a smile.  “I’m just not going out on missions anymore.  Oh,” she started and dug through her purse and withdrew a PADD  handing it to Jolie.  “You probably want the specs on your new assignment.”

“The Pike isn’t your standard Aerie-class survey ship,” Ethan added  “Enhanced weapons and shields for one.” He leaned in close so no one else could hear, “And, a Narlin cloaking device.”

With the PADD in hand, she smiles, “Thank you, Commander.”

With that Jolie leaves the Commander and his wife at the bar, after she picks up the holo-pad that she always has one her, and nestles it under the PADD that was given to her.

Dressed in a desert uniform Ethan put the canteen to his lips and drank heavily from it. He was none too careful with his drinking and water ran down his chin and dribbled down down the front of his uniform.

“This is miserable,” Aimee said wiping sweat from her face.

“Aye, we Scots aren’t built for this bloody heat,” Dougal replied.

“And that’s why we’re here,” Ethan replied. “Stay hydrated and keep an eye out for surface water.”

The team was on a training mission on an even more remote part of Vulcan than was usual,  but this wasn’t the usual junior class cadets either.   They were supposedly the best of the best.

In this training scenario, there were no communications,  field rations had been damaged in the “crash” leaving them with limited water and even less food.  They didn’t even have tricorders, just to make things more difficult.  But, they had each other, their phasers. In the case of Ethan, he also had his six-gun strapped to his hip and a bowie knife hanging from the belt.

Ethan spotted Joile approaching from the north and he shuffled through the sand his boots sinking deep into the copper-red material. “Report commander?”

Jolie sat down on a knee and reached for her water pouch, taking a long draw from it. The sun had scorched her throat as she scouted ahead. “I spotted the remains of a wrecked outpost and probably a well,” she told Ethan after the water had slightly quenched her thirst.

She then reattached the pouch to her belt and gestured back the way she had come, “About half a kilometer north of our current position.”

“Once we secure water we can proceed to the objective,” Ethan replied.  “Okay, people let’s move out.”

Ethan lay flat on the sand with Jolie at his side with the outpost situated below them nearly an hour later.  The rest of the team sat out of sight behind them.  He studied the abandoned outpost looking for signs of life.

“I don’t know what Admiral Hathaway is going to throw at us this time.  It could be holograms or androids.  I do know they are Jem’hadar so I expect holograms.  Way easier to simulate their cloaking abilities, but it also limits where they can pop up, and this is a good place for an ambush.”

When she heard the name Jem’Hadar, Jolie muttered, “Fuck.” After removing her face from the scope of her rifle, she buried it in the warm sand. Her mouth made a soft groaning sound.

“Jem’Hadar, are you fucking kidding me?” she said softly as she turned to face the Commander, sand stuck to her face. Her voice was strained as if she were yelling but in hushed tones. Even if she was speaking in hushed tones, anyone within hearing distance could hear the hatred in her voice.

Even though it had been twenty-six years, Jolie could still hear her father and mother’s haunting tone of fear as they rushed her to a shuttle lent to them by the former Commanding Officer prior to the Denver being rushed into battle with the Jem’Hadar and the Dominion.

Ethan stared at her with an odd look on his face trying to understand her reaction.  Turning his attention back to the abandoned outpost he visually scanned it for any signs of movement.   They needed water, but it wasn’t time for doing something reckless.

“Relax Commander, it’s only a simulation… a highly realistic simulation designed to push us to our limits, but none if it’s real.” He let out a low chuckle, “We had a forest training a while back, and one of the new combat specialists soiled himself at the face of a robot Klingon raising a bat’leth and charging him. Needless to say, I washed him out of the team. In that scenario, they employed an EM dampening field.  With my pistol, I was the only one armed with a ranged weapon. Everyone else had to make do with improvised weapons.  Clubs,  rocks, or whatever they could take off the Klingons.”

Jolie was immediately embarrassed by her outburst. She usually kept her emotions close to her chest and didn’t let them show. Swallowing hard to try to relieve the dryness in her throat, she returned her gaze to the scope and looked down into the outpost, knowing she only had about a swallow left in her water pouch.

“You know, Commander, I could cheat this exercise with your knowledge of how these simulations tend to go,” she said, gently caressing the toggle on her scope but not activating the electroscope. “However, because this is as much a training for me as it is for the rest of us, I will need you to place your voice command over the electroscope function of my rifle until this training is over,” Jolie said as she moved away, on her belly, so Ethan could disable the function on her scope.

Ethan looked at her and frowned,  “A pistol isn’t exactly Starfleet issue.   But, it’s something I normally carry just in case.   Will the electroscope be something you’d normally have?  Is it something that would change the outcome here, but not in the field?  And to that end, we are already operating in a moral gray area.  We do some damned distasteful things at times.  I got to know your character is above reproach.  If I can’t trust you to do the right thing without me physically preventing you… well, you’re probably not a good fit for this team.”

Jolie closed her eyes as she felt what the Commander had just said and bellied up to the rifle and dismantled it. With her eyes, she answered him, “I have what it takes,” she states in a tone that was dark. She then slid down the side of the dune leaving the dismantled rifle behind.

Just before the dune shifted to the bottom she rolled onto her back and then kicked down with her heels and rolled backward onto her feet just as her back came into contact with one of the sides of one of the ruined buildings. Her hand reached down and retrieved her phaser. She looked up at where Ethan was still at the top of the dune. Had he been able to see her eyes he would have seen the devil inside of her.

Steeling herself she slowly squatted down and moved toward the edge of the ruined building and peeked it. Her eyes darted from building to building searching for any signs of movement. Keeping her eyes moving she reached to a small pouch that sat on her lower back and retrieved a small scanner and slid it into place over her right eye. As soon as it was in place she blinked twice activating the device, instantly her right eye was fed information about her surroundings. Normally this information would have been fed to her from the Pike as it circled in orbit or nearby, however, in these circumstances she was being fed information from a Vulcan satellite instead.

Without taking her eyes off of the simulated battlefield before her she signaled for Ethan and the rest of the team to follow her down.

Ethan swore under his breath.  He turned to the others.  “Aimee you provide covering fire from up here.  Dougal flank the building to the north.  I’ll try to keep them off, Jolie.”

Dougal smirked,  “Aye sir.” The big Scotsman didn’t enjoy killing,  but he did love to fight.  These simulated training missions were a guilty pleasure of his.

Dougal shuffled low to the dune staying out of sight while Ethan crested over the ridge, and slid down it in the same way Jolie had. A glance back, and he could see the barrel of Aimee’s phaser rifle poking out over the edge of the sand.

He closed the gap between them just as a Jem’hadar soldier dropped his shroud raising his weapon on Ethan.  A phaser beam from Aimee’s rifle dropped the holographic enemy and he fell with a heavy thud to the ground.  Then as if on cue three more soldiers appeared Ethan shot one with his phaser,  but the other hit him directly in the chest. As he fell to the ground and consciousness faded he fired once more striking a second enemy.  Aimee obligingly took out the third.

Jolie saw the Jem’Hadar materialize from her scanner and turned to look back to the team, just in time to see Ethan take the hit squarely in the chest. Sudden anger flooded her system as she rushed to his side; once his momentum faded. Placing two fingers on the side of his neck she felt a pulse, all the while keeping her eyes and head moving.

The hairs on the back of her neck suddenly stood up and she twisted her body to avoid an incoming attack. Landing on her back she let loose several shots from her phaser ending the attacker’s life. It was then that she realized that she had inadvertently awoken the hornet’s nest so to speak. 

Jem’Hadar could be seen dropping their shrouds left, right, and in front of her. Inside her mind, she knew that she was done with the team but she was going to do her best to keep the Commander as safe as she could. After all, she knew that his wife would kill her should he not make it back. Without thinking she began to send phaser bolt after phaser bolt into the holographic images of the Jem’Hadar, yelling at the same time as adrenaline courses through her body.

Dogal had succeeded in flanking the outpost, and with quick efficiency, he had managed to eliminate the two sentries without being spotted.  Suddenly phaser fire erupted around the far side of the outpost and could see someone, presumably Aimee firing at enemies he couldn’t see.

“Aw bloody hell.  The wee bisom kicked the hornet’s nest,” Dougal muttered to himself.

Dougal had the element of surprise,  but he also knew the whole bloody thing had gone ‘cock-up’.  “Oh, bloody hell!” He growled,  and then shouted at the top of his lungs he shouted his Clay’s battle cry, “Creagan an fhithich!”

Dougal had shot three before they could even react to him, but he was quickly enveloped by four attackers who had abandoned their energy weapons in favor of the bladed kar’takin.  He fought them off valiantly with his phaser rifle and he even got a shot off taking one of them down.  Eventually they knocked his feet out from under him and one buried the blade deep into his chest.

On top of the sand dune Aimee was frantically firing at anything that moved that wasn’t part of her team, but she was drawing a lot of attention to herself.   Remaining stationary in a battle was one of the cardinal sins of a sniper…

But, she wasn’t a sniper. She was a doctor,”  Aimee thought as she heard the distinctive sound of a shroud being dropped,  and before she could react there was blackness.

Jolie watched as her teammates dropped like flies around her and her anger rose even further. Suddenly the sound that any person behind a phaser does not want to hear is the sudden discharge of energy. Her eyes darted to the side of the phaser and saw a red flashing light; an indication of a depleted energy pack. Tossing her phaser to the ground she looked about. It was then that she realized that she had royally fucked up and had gotten her entire team killed. However, she knew that she still had breath in her lungs and squared off at and charged at an incoming Jem’Hadar soldier. Slamming her shoulder into the soldier she felt the sudden burning as her shoulder dislocated. The pain seared her insides as she tried to spin around the wall of a humanoid, but failed as another pain joined her shoulder, this time from the back of her head. Just before she blacked out from being struck she witnessed a figure standing up next to a now kneeling Aimee and then the red hue of the Vulcan sands.

A sigh left her lungs as she lay there in defeat.

Commander Rebecca Talon sat in the captain’s chair her legs crossed and a cup of coffee cradled in her hands.  On the view screen ships of the Seventh Fleet surrounded them as they crossed the expanse of space.

“Commander,” the operations chief said from her console.  “The Tokyo is experiencing trouble with their warp drive and they are falling out of formation.”

“Understood,” Rebecca said dismissively,  but internally she was screaming.  The Dominion wasn’t a pushover and this was already going to be a tough mission without losing ships before they even encountered the Jem’hadar.   “Helm adjust course to fill in the gaps.”

“Aye Commander. Adjusting course” Stephens said from the helm.  Losing a ship before the fight is not something they can afford to do.

“Commander Kyo,” she said looking back at him. “Are the repairs to the targeting sensors complete?”

“I’m afraid not, Commander,” Cheon said dishearteningly. “I am currently at sixty-seven percent, and I do not have an estimate from engineering as to when the remaining thirty-three percent will be completed.”

It had been over seven hours since Cheon had asked aid from the hulk of a man in engineering, but even that work appeared to be too much for him and the entire engineering crew on duty at the time.

“With your permission, Commander,” he said, standing near his console, “I’ll go check what’s taking them so long.”

“Mr. Stephens,” Rebecca started setting her coffee down. “What’s the ETA to the Tyra System?”  They had to be getting close.

“15 minutes Commander”

“Mister Kyo, that’s how long you have. With or without targeting sensors I need you here on the bridge.”

Cheon nodded and stepped away from the console, pressing a button on his console to summon his relief crewmen. With barely fifteen minutes to get the targeting sensors online, he knew he had to move at a breakneck pace that no one had ever seen before.

 As soon as he entered Denver’s engineering bay, he went in search of the chief engineer. He motioned for the hulk of a man to come over when he spotted him.

 “Update report, Chief,” Cheon said as he drew out a PADD and displayed the current specifications for the weapons array, specifically the targeting sensors.

The chief also took out a PADD and flicked the current issues over while looking at Cheon.

 “As you can see, Commander, we’re having trouble integrating the new sensors with the weapons array,” the chief said, moving over next to Cheon.

Cheon sighed as he laid the PADD down, and an engineering crewman walked up with a data-sleeve and handed it to him. After putting on the sleeve, he followed the chief over to an open panel in the engineering bay, where they both entered the depths of Denver’s main EPS grid. After a few moments, the chief came to a halt near the new sensors and handed Cheon a sensor tool.

Cheon smiled as he demonstrated the problem and how to integrate the new sensors with the chief. The chief’s expression fell into a frown when he realized how simple the integration was. Cheon laid a hand on the chief’s huge shoulders and remarked, “No worry chief,” as he slid the sensor tool back into its case, “anyone could have missed it. You wouldn’t believe how many trivial issues I missed when I was an engineer before switching to security,” he said with a smirk on his lips. “Finish here and get ready for what comes next.”

Cheon re-entered the bridge with only minutes to spare and relieved his relief, “I’ll take it from here,” he stated, and was received with a nod. “Commander, you should have full weapons by now.”

“Thank you Cheon,” she said appreciatively.  Pressing the intercom button on the armrest, “Bridge to Captain Fitzpatrick.  We’re approaching the Trya System.”

Rebecca stood and slid over to the XO’s seat.  She could feel the tension in her gut as they approached the inevitable.

Captain Fitzpatrick stepped out of his ready room, the lights of the bridge shining off his bald head.  “Report people.”

Cheon looked over at the Captain, “Captain, weapons reports all go,” he said as his eyes returned to look at the console that was before him.

Stephens is rapidly pushing buttons on his console. “Captain. We are maintaining course and formation with the fleet.” Stephens pushes a few more buttons. “Dropping out of warp in… 3…2…1”

Rebecca sat rigidly in her seat.  This was probably the second worst moment of battle.  That moment where you must overcome your fear of death.  Once in battle you didn’t have time to think, and of course afterwards the terror had subsided,   it you were left with grief and loss. Assuming you survived anyway. She said a silent prayer to Saint Michael before commending her soul to God.

“Red Alert.  Charge weapons to full and load torpedo bays,” Fitzpatrick ordered.

“Sensors are picking up twenty-eight Galor-class warships,” Operations announced.

“Just Cardassians?” Rebecca asked surprised.

“That’s correct.”

‘That doesn’t seem right.’ Cheon thought to himself as he widened the sensors to maximum on his console. After his initial scans, he looked over the logs and then scanned once more. 

“I can concur with the scans, I am only showing Cardassians as well,” he stated, “However my gut is telling me something is a miss.”

“Something is always amiss when the Cardassians are involved” Stephens interjected.

“After the shellacking, we’ve been getting as of late they might be getting overconfident,” Fitzpatrick replied.

“Receiving orders from the T’met.  We are to take a flanking attack heading 021 mark 51.” Operations said reading the encoded text message sent from Admiral Morin aboard the T’met.

“Helm, adjust course.  Tactical fire when ready,” Fitzpatrick ordered.

“Aye Captain. Adjusting course” Stephens replies as he brings the Denver into heading 021 mark 51 as instructed. Attack formation was always his favorite part of flying.

On the viewscreen, a pair of Galor-class ships loomed menacingly,  with a nearby molecular cloud providing a backdrop of red.

“Mr. Kyo,” Rebecca said looking up from her data terminal, “Target the engines of the lead Cardassian ship.  Its shields are weakend along their aft dorsal plain.”

“Attack pattern: Theta-One, and then navigate at your discretion Mr. Stephens,” Fitzpatrick added.

“Aye Captain,” Stephens says diving into the attack pattern and then positions the Denver to give Cheon the best line of attack. “Give ’em Hell Cheon”

“Attack pattern: Theta-One, Aye Captain,” Cheon replied as his fingers flew over the tactical console. This was where he shined the most. Granted he knew Denver’s internals like most of the engineering crew but fighting, well let’s just say that he channeled his inner warrior spirit into the Denver when she was needed the most.

As the phasers hit their mark behind the aft dorsal sending up several small explosions, the Cardassian ship’s engines sputtered for a moment before flaming out. The nose of the ship dipped as the ship lost control.

“Captain, recommend defense package Delta-Beta Two,” Cheon stated as he looked up at the viewscreen and the remaining ship turned its nose to face the Denver; protecting its aft dorsal plane, having witnessed the lead ship being struck there.

Suddenly three warp signatures appeared on Cheon’s scanners.

“Incoming warp signatures, Captain!” Cheon yelled out as he looked up in time to see three more ships emerge from warp; two Galor-class ships and a single Jem’Hadar Battle Cruiser.

Rebecca looked over at the captain, “This is going to get interesting.”

“Evasive maneuvers Epsilon-beta-two,” Fitzpatrick announced as the ship shook under enemy fire. “Damage report.”

“Shields are holding,  minimal damage, ”  Rebecca responded.

“Evasive maneuvers Aye” Stephens reports as he puts the Denver through a series of maneuvers designed to lessen the damage taken.

Cheon locked onto the Galor class ships and unleashed hell. Phasers and Photon torpedoes impacted the shields of the Cardassian ships as he issued the orders from his console. Explosions and flaring shields filled the viewscreen as the Denver performed the ordered maneuvers.

Suddenly the Dominion Battle Cruiser brought to bear its weapons and targeted the Denver. Cheon gripped the side of his console at the same time yelled out, “Incoming!”

The entire ship bucked and tossed as the Dominion ship’s phasers impacted squarely into the shields of the  Denver, followed closely by several torpedoes; most of which missed their target.

“Captain, I…” Cheon began to speak but was cut off as the Dominion Battle Cruiser suddenly warped away, followed by the two remaining Cardassian Galor’s.

This confused Cheon who looked down at his console at the retreating icons of their adversary.

“This is not how we know the Dominion to operate,” Rebecca said.

“Could be that they couldn’t win and they decided to retreat to fight another day,” Fitzpatrick replied thoughtfully.

“In that case, they will be back,” Rebecca replied.

“That is a certainty,” the captain replied.  “Stand down to yellow alert. Mr. Kyo status of the fleet?”

Cheon acknowledged the order given by his Captain and with a flick of the wrist placed the Denver into the requested alert.

“What the hell? Where did they go? The Cardassian’s and Dominion never run like that. That battle cruiser would have been the turning point of this battle for them.” Stephens just kinda lets all of his thoughts out at once.

“Relax Lieutenant,” Rebecca said.  “They’ll be back.   I need you to be ready for their return.”

-Warship Valdora-

Gul Eilrak of the Cardassian Ninth Order snarled at the screen as he watched the Federation ships as they warped into the Tyra System.  The ships there were quickly overrun.  With their lines broken and scattered he ordered their retreat. 

Yeris, the Vorta assigned to him looked at the display with a curious expression.   With her hands behind her back, she watched as their forces left the system. 

“That’s not how it’s supposed to go,” she said.

Eilrak poured himself a glass of kanar, downed it in one gulp, and then refilled the glass. “No, it isn’t, ” he agreed.

“Perhaps if you hadn’t sent the Order to raid the Landry System this wouldn’t have happened,” the Vorta said in her infuriating calm diplomatic tone.  

Eilrak scowled, drained his glass again of the thick black alcoholic drink. He was envisioning wrapping his fingers around the Vorta’s neck and strangling the life from it. Dimly he wondered what Gul Dukat would do to him if he betrayed their ally.

But, it was Dukat that scared him. He knew Dukat’s history,  and thus his weakness for Bajorans.  Especially for a certain Bajoran Major on that old station of his.  No, it wasn’t Dukat that scared him.  It was that damned female changeling.

“I am reassembling the fleet.  The Federation only has 112 ships.  We’ll push back into the system with our combined fleet of 248 and crush them. But, I told you the Landry System would leave the Tyra System vulnerable, and if you want access to the Sona and the white you need that system.   You got greedy.”

The Vorta stared at Gul Eilrak, and after a tense moment, she nodded and then gave him one of those infernal fake smiles, “Yes, of course.  Forgive me. I am not a military strategist.”

That was the understatement of the century, he thought to himself. 

He turned and left the conference room without so much as a comment to her admission, and walked onto the Valdora‘s bridge. “Notify the Order and set course for Tyra. Maximum warp.”

“Maximum warp, aye sir,” the helmsman said.

The soldiers suddenly stopped their attack frozen in mid-motion,  held there by a seemingly invisible force. Then they faded away as a group of Starfleet officers materialized from inside a transporter beam.

They split up and started to revive Ethan’s team. As they assemble before a Vulcan wearing the four pips of a captain he spoke bluntly,  “Commander your entire team was wiped out.   You and Lieutenant MacDonald are dead, and Commander Kyo and Dr. Sandoval are prisoners of the Dominion.”

Ethan stiffened, “Yes sir. I failed to identify the ambush, and to plan the assault accordingly.”

“That much is obvious,” the Vulcan replied. “Return to your ship.  We will have your evaluation by the end of the day.”

Ethan nodded, “Yes sir.”

The Vulcan and his team disappeared into a transporter beam.  Ethan sighed and tapped his combadge. “Talon to Zebulon Pike. Four to beam up.”

“One moment sir,” came the chief engineer’s voice.  And then they were all in the cramped compartment that served as their transporter room.

Noticing Jolie was clutching her arm, “Report to sickbay and let Dr. Sandoval take a look at you. If you are up to it,” he added looking at Aimee who, compared to the whole team, looked a little less worse for wear.  Getting “killed” in these training sessions was supposed to be painful and uncomfortable. “I suppose the EMH can handle it.”

“No, I’m good,” Aimee lied.  “Come on Commander,” Aimee said heading down the corridor.

“Ms. Kyo, when you’re done meet me in my quarters will you?

Jolie looked at Aimee after acknowledging the Commander.

-25 minutes later, Captain’s Quarters-

Ethan sat at the tiny desk that had been provided to him to use filling out his after-action report.  He had changed out of his uniform and was wearing a pair of blue jeans, cowboy boots, and a button-up teal shirt.

He had just poured an ample amount of Scotch into his glass when the door chimed.   “Enter.”

Ethan didn’t look up from his reports when Jolie entered. After a tense moment or two, he spoke without turning to her.  His voice was conversational and even friendly,” How’s your shoulder?  They don’t pull any punches in these simulations. They’ll do everything up to killing you.  I had a rookie lose an entire leg once.  He quit, which is just as well.  He chose the New Zealand penal colony over us.”

“I’ll live,” she said as she rotated her newly mended shoulder. She stood there, her back against the wall, waiting for the shoe to drop, however, before it did she spoke up, “Commander I appreciate that you took the entire blame, as any commanding officer should, but I made the mistake and charged in. I am a big girl and can take the lumps along with the bruises,” she stated as she continued to look down at the floor before her feet.

Ethan chuckled and picked up a clean glass and filled it with whiskey before handing it to Jolie. “Well, I very well couldn’t tell them the truth.  I’d look like a bad leader without unit discipline; with you acting on your own.”

Jolie continued to stand there, against the wall, as she held the glass of whiskey and looked at its amber hues. She knew he was correct, “I see your point,” she stated as the liquid swirled in the glass.

“Look, these training missions are here for us to make mistakes so in the field we don’t repeat them,” Ethan said.  His tone was conversational still. “Here the consequences are short-term. So, what did you learn today?”

Jolie walked over placed the glass down and took a seat. “Too much to list.”

A sigh then left her lips as she rested her head on the back of the chair and looked up at the ceiling, “One if you have an edge keep it to yourself unless it benefits the unit as a whole, and second I should have been looking at the ruins when I was sliding down that dune on my back,” she stated. She would never admit that her action to jump down, or rather slide down, that dune before her fellow members, let alone Ethan had given the order, was reckless.

Tilting her head back to look Ethan in the eyes, “If I might be so bold,” she stated, “If you have advanced knowledge about how the sims are run, Commander, might I suggest keeping out the parts of how they may be built. Such as holos or androids.”

“They only tell me the objective, and who the enemy is.  I inferred that they were holograms because of the cloaking abilities.  They usually run holograms,  but holo emitters are a limiting factor.”

He drained his cup and refilled it, “And you missed two very big points.  Don’t jump into the middle of a situation like that,” he started.  His voice remained conversational,  but there was an edge to his tone that indicated he meant business. “I was leading that mission, not you. It was reckless and foolish. That was your first mistake.”

Jolie felt the bite from his tone and knew that even though his voice was deceptive he was giving her an ass chewing for her mistakes in training.

His tone relaxed again, “And secondly; you failed to know your enemy. ” He shuffled through his desk and pulled out a sketch pad and a pencil.  He flipped the book open to a blank page and drew a quick map of the outpost with a soldier’s eye for the lay of the land. “The Jem’hadar’s greatest strength is also their greatest weakness. The use of their shrouds makes them predictable.” He handed her the pad, “Mark where you think they were.”

Jolie took the pad from Ethan and placed down on the rough outline of the outpost exactly where each Jem’Hadar soldier had been prior to her accent down the dune.

“With all due respect Commander, if anyone on this ship knows the Jem’Hadar, it is me, and you would know that if you read my file,” she stated as she set the now rendered outpost back on the desk. It even showed a few places that he had actually not accounted for, where three enemy soldiers had been, one of which had been the one that had struck him down. “Also Commander, there were two Vorta in the central building,” she stated as she leaned back into the chair and returned her attention to the amber-hued whiskey that still sat on Ethan’s desk.

He pulled down a PADD, and his fingers danced over the controls.   Bringing up a map of the exercise in question which showed the actual locations of the Jem’Hadar. She was off on one or two, but as a whole, they both had been correct.

He sighed and shook his head. “So you walked into an ambush with your eyes wide open?  We didn’t need to defeat all of them. We just needed water.”  He tapped his index and middle finger at the two Jem’Hadar Dougal taken out at the rear of the outpost. “Eliminate them without setting off the alarm and we had a free path to the well. You’re a hammer I get it, but not every problem is a nail that needs to be pounded into submission.  On this team, we don’t generally operate in overwhelming force.  Stealth and guile are our allies.”

Jolie understood where he was coming from. After all from what she understood about ‘covert units’ is that they were small units that has skillsets that were unique to each person.

“Stealth and guile,” she repeated as she continued to focus on the whiskey that sat still remained on Ethan’s desk, “I do not know how to be stealthy. Guile well I did get your attention just now, knowing the locations of the Jem’Hadar.”

“That you did, and there’s a place for a hammer in every toolbox, but let’s see if we can add a multi-tool to yours.”

“What do you have in mind?” she asked, her focus was still on the amber-hued whiskey that sat on Ethan’s desk.

“Nothing in particular,” he said. “But, you have enough zeal to lead your own team someday.  Go get cleaned up.   We’ll discuss this more later.  Tomorrow we head for Terra Alpha to drop Trinity off.  She’s going to be our new handler.”

Jolie nodded and stood up. As she turned to leave she paused for a moment and gazed back at the Whiskey that Ethan had poured her when she had arrived. Reaching down she picked up the now room temperature liquor and brought it up to her nose. Taking a single sniff she placed the glass back on his desk.

“Commander,” she said in a sobering tone, “when I have earned that drink pour me another until then keep this very glass and its contents on your back shelf as a reminder of this occasion,” she stated, “And when I have earned it then I will take this from you,” she finished as she carefully slid the glass toward him as she about-faced and headed for the door to his office.

Ethan stared at the glass with regret. It was a shame to waste good whiskey,  and it was a very good whiskey.  Sighing he opened a cupboard above the desk and slid it between a Louis L’Amour novel and an original copy of “Where the Red Fern Grows”. He slammed the cupboard closed with a thunk of finality.

Crewman Aoife Mckenzie hated EVA suits, even if it wasn’t on the outside of the hull.  She was inside someone’s quarters on deck 5. To whom those quarters belonged to neither mattered nor did she care.

She scanned the exterior bulkhead with a tricorder. Approaching the area of the breech she holstered the tricorder and set her tool kit down.  Opening it she removed a tool and started removing the inner paneling and stripping insulation away from the bulkhead exposing the inner structural beams and the outer hull skin.

And there it was.  The crack ran perpendicular to the deck nearly forty centimeters long. It was a stress fracture caused from damage to the inertial dampening and structural integrity systems.  Ordinarily the repair would have been done on the outside of the hull, but considering dropping out of warp was out of the question at the moment here she was.

Using a laser drill she drilled into the thick tritanium with a laser drill at both ends of the crack.  This would stop it from spreading any farther. It was slow tedious process since the material was designed to be resistant to energy weapons, but eventually she completed the process. 

Exchanging her laser drill for a welder she carefully filled the void in the crack with molten material.  A scan with a tricorder confirmed that it was a good weld.

Next she extracted a piece of titanium plate, and cut it down to completely cover the damage.  A tack weld held the doubler plate in place while she welded the four sided perimeter to the inside of of the hull plate.

“Computer release emergency force fields on this deck.”The computer beeped in her earpiece and the emergency force field buzzed out of existence allowing atmosphere to return to these quarters.  She made a quick scan to verify that it was holding pressure before pulling off her EVA helmet.   Once free of the claustrophobic apparatus she went about reassembling the inner insulation and bulkhead paneling. 

A soft tone of a monitor on a sickbed strummed out as it monitored the life signs of Commanded Cheon Kyo. Standing next to the bed was his wife Seong, worry registered in her eyes as she stood there looking at the sleeping form of her husband.

‘Come back to me my beloved,’ she said in her mind and in their native tongue.

Suddenly a hand was felt on her shoulder and she spun around to face a now startled nurse. With a lift of her hand so calmed the young woman, “Easy, Ensign,” she said as she realized what had happened, “you startled me as much as I startled you,” she informed the young nurse.

“Dr. Kyo I think you need some rest,” the nurse stated as she brought out a tricorder to confirm her suspicions of the Doctor’s condition. She then slowly moved over to Seong’s side and showed her the results.

A sigh left the doctor’s mouth as she turned and looked at her husband, “Let me know the moment he wakes up,” she ordered.

The nurse nodded her head as Seong left the medical bay heading for their quarters, which had been lucky enough to have survived the attack from the Dominions assault on the Denver. As she stood in the only operational lift her thoughts drifted back to their daughter, Jolie, and how mere hours ago she had been on board and laughing and playing with the other children.

As the door to the Kyo residency opened she peered into the darkness that now covered every inch of the space and she suddenly felt alone and fearful that she was about to become a widow.

“Commander Kyo,” came a very familiar voice.

Turning about, Seong came face to face with her head nurse who had a medical kit with her. She knew what was in the kit and nodded allowing the nurse to enter her home. “Mild sedative?” she asked the nurse.

The nurse nodded as she loaded the sedative into a hypospray, “Doctor’s orders,” the nurse stated, realizing that at the moment she was in command of the medical team.

Laying back on the bed that she shared nightly with her husband she placed a hand on the nurses when she felt the cool touch of the barrel. She looked up at her, “Make sure that nothing happens to my husband and come wake me the moment he wakes.”

The nurse replied with a nod and pulled the trigger on the hypospray, injecting the sedative into Seong’s neck. A drowsy feeling almost instantly took over Seong’s mind and her vision slowly blurred before her eyes slowly closed and darkness overtook her.

As she slept she was terrorized with dreams of a funeral that was soaked in rain. As she stood there she looked about and tried to see who was missing, rain flowing down her face soaking her uniform. She didn’t see her husband and fear was introduced into the dream. Fear that her husband was the one in the casket that stood suspended over the dark hole below it. As she was about to run to the casket she realized that the man that was speaking at the podium was her husband and that their XO was sporting a shiny new pip on her chest.

-medical bay-

Cheon slowly opened his eyes, his vision was blurry as he lay on the bed. Turning his head he looked around the room or at least tried to look around.

In a horse voice, he called out, “Hello.”

A nurse came into view and smiled before she could turn to execute the order that Seong had given her a hand was placed on her forearm. “How long was she awake?” he asked the nurse who was shocked at the movement.

Confusion registered on the young woman’s face as she looked at the commander, “ Commander Kyo, err, your wife had not left your side since the moment that you were emergency beamed to sickbay,” the nurse replied as she looked at the strong hand that was attached to her forearm, “We had to sedate her in your room when her condition became critical.”

“Did she order you to wake her?” He asked the nurse, who nodded in response.

“Don’t,” he replied as he looked at the young woman.

“Sir, with all due respect I must report to her that you are awake,” she stated as she looked at Cheon.

Cheon shook his head, “I am ordering you to let her sleep.” He knew his wife all too well to know that she had been awake for nearly 36 hours straight prior to the attack; packing their daughter’s personal effects for the shuttle ride back home.

After a few minutes, Cheon stood in front of a mirror. A butterfly bandage was over his right eye as he flattened his uniform. Against the outbursts from the nurse and several aids, Cheon had insisted that he was fine and had dressed into his uniform so that he could meet with the Captain.

Standing outside of the lift that would take him to the bridge he contemplated if this was indeed a good choice in the matter. Unbeknownst to him, his wife was in fact in the conference room.

The station was a hub of excitement as aliens from all walks of life pushed their way through the heaving mass of pedestrians as they moved from shop to shop and to the airlock or residential sections of the station. It was chaos but ordered chaos like a beehive. Lady Audren Swiftblade was one of those beings heaving along the promenade. Despite her imposing 1.9 meter stature and long silvery hair; she oddly enough didn’t stick out like she did when she was on a Starfleet ship.  Here she was just another alien being moving about in the crowd.

Audren was a Hylon, a smaller subspecies to the Narlins.  Her home planet was tucked away in uncharted space near the Cardassian Empire.  Well, uncharted to the Federation.  It was after all her home and well known to her people. She reached into her silken robes and felt the comforting bump of a Narlin disruptor pistol on her hip.  She did not know if this station was a dangerous place, but there were a lot of cultures coming together here and sometimes the smallest spark could set off a deadly chain of events.

“Who are we meeting again?” Audren asked her companion.

Jolie stood next to Audren as they stood just outside of the airlock. She looked up at Audren when she heard the Hylon speak to her, “A Lieutenant Junior Grade Stephens, Adam Stephens,” she stated as she turned her wrist over and looked at the man’s profile on the data-sleeve that she was wearing on her right wrist.

“So what kind of wayward misfit did the Commander choose this time?” She asked half-joking, but it was true, most of the crew on the Pike had washed out or walked away from normal life in the fleet. She herself found that she didn’t really fit in in the Federation, and home was little too… Who am I kidding? She admitted to herself, Home is a miserable hellscape.  This is paradise, praise Narla. Being a “spook”, as Ethan called it, wasn’t as “glamourous as the James Bond films made it out to be”. Whoever or whatever James Bond is, she thought inwardly. With that said she was pretty sure Ethan Talon loved this work despite what he said.

Looking down at the sleeve she read the information that she had on the Lieutenant, “From his personnel profile, it seems that Commander Ethan has chosen an officer that could be best described as a model officer,” she stated as she continued to his history. “Hell I don’t even know why someone of his caliber would even want to join a bunch of “ghosts” like us.” she finished as she looked up spotting the man that they were after.

Adam had made it to StarBase Bravo 2 weeks ago. He had just finished a tour of duty on the USS Baton Rouge and had been reassigned to Task Force 93 of the Bravo Fleet. He is waiting on a position assignment here and is currently enjoying a meal in a bar on the promenade.

The odd duo finally spotted Adam sitting alone eating a meal.  Audren nodded to Jolie and they approached him.  The elven-like alien towered over Adam in his seated position in her formal robes.  “Junior Lieutenant Adam Stephens? May we join you?”

“Yes of course” Adam replies, motioning for them to take a seat. “You must be Audren and Jolie,” he says.

Audren gave Jolie a raised eyebrow and sat. “We are,” she replied cautiously.  “Though if we were on my planet the proper address would be Lady Audren or Countess Verona.” She shrugged,  “but here… Audren will do.”

Jolie took the conveniently empty seat on the other side of him. As she took the seat she flourished the tail of the duster that she wore and a pair of slightly modified phasers were seen resting on her lower back as well as one on her thigh. On her lower back also say several small pouches, one of which she reached into and retrieved a device that connected to the data sleeve, which she used to continue looking over the Lieutenant’s personnel profile.

“Tell me, Mister Stephens, why would a top-notch officer such as yourself be looking to,” she paused as she took a look around the room, discreetly, to make sure that no federation officers were close enough to hear her, “end your career in any official capacity?” she asked as she kept her eyes down.

A Klingon bartender came over and set a wine glass down. She thanked him in a Klingon fashion and the bartender grinned and departed. Taking up the glass she took a sip as she waited for the Lieutenant to answer her.

“Because I am honestly tired of the model officer thing. My brothers are model officers, my parents are model officers. Their parents were model officers and so were their parents. Honestly, I think it’s time for a Stephens to do something different.”

“Fair enough for me,” Audren said with a smirk.

Keeping her voice low, Jolie continued, “Do you think you can do things that would otherwise be considered unbecoming of an officer if that opportunity presented itself?” she asked him. “As well as not being recognized for deeds that we have done to better the Federation, and in doing so know that someone else would get the credit for it? After all, once you accept this task you will basically cease to exist in any official capacity. Outside of anything within the confines of the law, so to speak. And the only person that you would need to answer to is our Commander.”

“Been a soldier most of my life.  This team is different,  but you make it what you want to make it.  I’ve known the Commander a long time and his step-mom even longer.  He’s a good man.  He expects a high level from you, but won’t hold mistakes against you.”

“I can follow orders, but also know when to question them. I firmly believe that the Federation can’t always handle things in the way that they need to be handled.  Some one needs to handle it. If we can be the ones to do what needs to be done then I am more than willing to do it.”

“Welcome to the team, Audren said with a grin.  “Get your gear and meet us in shuttle bay five.”  Audren stood with Jolie.  She nodded to the team XO and then to Stephens, and they were gone.

Rebecca paced the bridge, and Captain Fitzpatrick sat calmly going over engineering reports at his center seat.  It had been two hours since the initial contact and the Seventh Fleet had settled into defensive positions.

Cheon kept his attention glued to the tactical console and maintained a vigilant routine of scans of the area around Denver. He was so focused on the task at hand that he did not realize that someone was standing next to him.

“Cheon are you alright?” Stephens asks.  “We have them on the run for now. Relax buddy”

Cheon briefly gave Stephens a glance. A glance that said volumes, “Have you ever seen a Cardie ever run from a fight?” he asked the helmsman as his eyes returned to the console, “I haven’t, so that tells me that they will be back and very shortly.”

“And we will be ready for them. We are here in force. This isn’t just a small skirmish.” Stephens replies.

“I’m reading a massive warp signature bearing 091 mark 270,” Operations announced in alarm.  “A mixture of Cardassian and Dominion.”

“Red Alert!” Fitzpatrick announced sitting bolt upright in his seat.

Rebecca took up position next to Cheon so she could use the tactical console to monitor the whole battlefield.

“Captain I recommend attack pattern Beta-4-7” Stephens says keying his console up for just that.

“You do that Mr. Stephens,” Fitzpatrick replied.

Rebecca groaned as her fingers danced over the controls.  She gave Cheon a sidelong glance,  “I am reading 175 Cardassian ships, and they appear to be lead by the Valdora, flagship of the Ninth Order.  There’s also another seventy-three Dominion ships including fighters and battlecruisers.”  She swallowed. There was no way they could win this, and the Dominion had flanked them cutting off retreat. “Captain the enemy fleet is encircling us. We are surrounded.” She wondered if this was how Custer felt when he realized he was in trouble too.

“Commander, broaden your scans three sectors out. You will find an even more disheartening scene,” Cheon stated as he flicked his findings over to her console. A second and third wave of Cardassian and Dominion ships were moments away from entering into the battle.

Stephens sent the Denver through a series of maneuvers that were impressive for a ship of her size. He was doing his best to avoid the Cardassian phaser fire and the super destructive Dominion polaron beams, while at the same time giving Cheon as many openings as he could to return fire.

“Mister Stephens, evasive pattern beta-4-1 and if you would also be so kind as to hit the proverbial brakes after you are leveled out,” Cheon said as he flicked over what he was seeing to a navigation console next to the helmsmen as well as the armrest of the Captain. The computer had analyzed a possible opening in the ‘blockade’ that the Cardassian and Dominion forces had formed around the fleet.

“Aye evasive pattern beta-4-1” Stephens echod putting the Denver through another defensive pattern right before bringing the ship to a standstill.

“The Hamburg,  Cheongju, Quetzalcoatl, and Armstrong have been destroyed.  Five more Federation ships are heavily damaged.  Admiral Morin’s flagship is venting drive plasma and is taking heavy fire,” Rebecca reported her fingers dancing over the console.

The Denver took another series of enemy weapons fire that shook the whole ship.  One of the science stations at the back of the bridge exploded in a shower of sparks. Lights flickered and then returned to normal.

“Damage report,” Fitzpatrick shouted over the noise.

“Shields at 52%.  Hull breeches on decks 12 and 15.  Casualties are coming in from all around the ship,” Operations reported.

Cheon had managed to destroy several of the attacking ships before his console was rendered useless by feedback from one of the impacting enemy torpedoes that had managed to slip through the weakened shields. The last thing Cheon remembered was the feeling of being weightless before his body came to a rest on the deck.

“Helm get us out of here!” Fitzpatrick shouted as the hull creaked and groaned under another impact.

Ignoring what was happening around him to his friends and crewmates Stephens punched in a series of commands that would take them threw the opening in the blockade that the computer had found. “Working on it. Just keep them off of us for a few more seconds.”

Rebecca was as Cheon’s side feeling for a pulse.  It was there, light and irregular. “Bridge to sickbay: medical emergency.”

She wanted to remain at Cheon’s side, but their making it out of here alive no longer rested on his shoulders.   She found a functional science station at the back of the bridge and transferred tactical control to that location.

“Targeting sensors and aft torpedo launchers are off-line,” she reported.   She saw a window of opportunity and fired a full burst at a Jem’hadar fighter and it exploded in a ball of flame.

Stephens brought the Denver to the opening in the blockade and pinched it, jumping to warp 5 immediately to get them out of the grey.

“We’re being pursued,” Rebecca announced.

“On screen,” the captain ordered.

Rebecca called up the the aft view on the viewscreen.   A Dominion battlecruiser flanked on either side by a pair of Galor-class warships and two dozen fighters was closing in.

“Helm maximum warp!”

“Aye Captain. Maximum warp: Stephens says as he increases the speed to Warp 9.4 ”Lets get out of here”

“How many ships made it out?”

“Thirteen,” Rebecca replied.  “The Chancellorsville and Bunkerhill are badly damaged.”

Just as she said that their Dominion pursuers closed in on the two stricken ships and destroyed them.  Rebecca stood mouth agape.   Almost 1,000 Starfleet officers were killed in cold blood.  They were retreating.

Rebecca kneeled next to Cheon her hand on his chest.  She had no idea if he could hear her, but she spoke, “Dr. Kyo will be here.”

Seong heard the emergency call-out but she was not prepared to see who was being beamed to medical. As soon as the beam ceased and Cheon came into view Seong almost lost it, and she might have had her medical training not kicked in and taken over. Swiftly she began to sound out orders.

Anticipating the captain’s request operations gave a summarized damage report, “Hull breaches on decks 2, 5, 6,7, 10, 11, 15, and 22.  Emergency force fields are in place.  Dorsal shields are inoperable, and ventral shields are at fifteen percent.  Starboard impulse engine is destroyed,  and there are EPS power disruptions all over the ship.”

“Bridge to Engineering.  We’re going to have to make repairs on the fly. We’re being pursued.”

Burkely was already in high gear before the order was given and he replied back that they were already on it. Once more deep in Denver’s bowels he was repairing blowing EPS conduits and rerouting power through circuits that normally would not have been used for what they were being requested to do.

“Engineering to Bridge. Captain, I can not give you the impulse engine without dropping out of warp. I can have the dorsal shields up but only at 25%. I have all of the crews that are not here with me assisting with damage control. Engineering out,” he stated as he stinted a conduit from the backup life support into the dorsal shielding.

-Conference Room, Next Day-

Rebecca was exhausted.  They were still being pursued by the Dominion ships, but there was a hope that they would turn back once they crossed Federation lines.

She looked down at her grimey hands and absently tried and subsequently failed to rub them clean.  Her uniform was black with soot and Cheon’s blood.

Systems were slowly coming back on line, but there were still issues,  and now a new issue was cropping up.  The warp core wasn’t designed to be ran at high warp for this long. This was causing a litany of problems including EPS power surges sometimes undoing engineering’s hard work.

Rebecca leaned over her coffee trying to stay awake.   The adrenaline of battle long since faded.

“Okay people report,” Fitzpatrick announced walking into the conference room.

Burkely stood against the wall in the conference room, normally he would have taken a seat in those god awfully small chairs that surrounded the conference table but he was still in an EVA suit as he had been hands-on with helping a damage control team prior to hearing the call that he was needed by the Captain.

“Most of the minor stress fractures have been repaired,” he stated, “however, decks 5 through 7 have a nasty hole from a spicy quantum torpedo. That will take a better part of the week to repair.” He said as he looked down at the PADD he had. “I was able to get the dorsal shields up to 56%, however, I would recommend not having that section of shielding absorbing any direct impacts from the Dominions torpedoes as I am having difficulty in keeping them above or at that percentage.” Looking up from the PADD a sigh left his lips, “Without dropping out of warp I can not start nor give an estimate on the starboard impulse engine as the starboard EPS grid is fried and…” his voice trailed off as he stated that the starboard engine pylon was inaccessible.

The captain nodded, “Helm report?”

“Captain we can only maintain warp 9.4 for another 3 hours before we have to drop to warp 5 in order to avoid engine troubles. Burkley has enough on his plate without me overloading the engines.

Fitzpatrick sighed, “Do what you can.  Beg, borrow and steal whatever power you need to maintain current speed.  That includes life support.”

“Aye”

The captain turned his gaze on Dr. Kyo.  He had put this one off to the last.  Dreading an already terrible answer,  “Casualty report.”

Seogn was about to reply to the Captain when a soft chime announced that someone was outside the door of the conference room and then the door slid as Cheon stood there. Tears flooded her eyes as she looked at her husband. Returning her attention to the Captain she replied, 28 missing and can only be presumed as casualties as the computer states that they had been in the gaping wound on the Denver, Captain.”

“Mr. Lovecroft, Commander Talon and I are trained engineers.   The two of us will be lending a hand to your department. Mr. Stephens,  with Commander Kyo in sickbay you will be in command while the XO and I are making repairs.”

“That will not be necessary, Captain,” Cheon stated from the door, “I could use another pair of eyes on the bridge while the Captain, the XO, and Commander Lovecroft are other wise indisposed of with the repairs of the Denver.”

“Can you work in engineering ?” Fitzpatrick asked Cheon?

A sigh left Cheon’s lips as his shoulders slouched, “Any other time I would love to, Captain, however, I am not fully sure if I am capable and think it best if I did not.”

“Okay people let’s get to work.  We’re in survival mode and this damaged ship is our lifeline,” stated the Captain

Burkely stood in the center of Engineering, the glow of the warp core reflected off his chiseled frame as he stood there. His eyes looked into everyone’s eyes; including his Commanding Officers’.

“As some of you may have noticed we have a couple of additional people here,” he stated as his muscular arm motioned towards Captain Fitzpatrick and Commander Talon. “They are here to render aid in getting the Denver patched up so please use them as you see fit within reason.

He then looked at both of them and nodded. “Damage Control team three, take Captain Fitzpatrick and head to deck 5 and continue with the removal of the damaged sections there.”

A young Lieutenant nodded and turned to the Captain, “Sir, if you will follow me to the locker room to suit up.”

The captain nodded, “Lead the way Lieutenant.”

Burkely nodded as he returned his attention to Commander Talon and Crewmen Aoife McKenzie as he stepped away from the group and toward them. “I think the three of us will tackle decks 6 and 7,” he stated as he looked at the two of them.

Rebecca nodded, “Deck 6 first?”

Aoife snapped to attention,  “Yes sir.”

Burkely shook his head. “I was thinking 7 first as it has the least amount of damage and shouldn’t take us all that long to prep for. Deck 6 is smack dab in the middle of all of the carnage and is going to take all hands from the damage control teams to prep it for the welding and fabrication of hull pieces.”

“That makes sense,” Rebecca agreed.

It then hit him, “Captain, would you be so kind as to inform the Lieutenant, that when you two have finished with deck 5 to move to deck 6 and the rest of us will meet you all there.”

Micah nodded, “Absolutely Commander.” The captain was actually excited about this.  It had been a long time since he had gotten his hands dirty.

Burkely turned back to Commander Talon and Crewman Mckenzie, “Shall we,” he stated as his muscular arm motioned towards the locker room and the EVA suits.

“It’s been a long time since a donned an EVA suit,” Rebecca replied. She took a moment and realized it was at the Academy.

“It’s like riding a bike,” Aoife said with a frown. “An uncomfortable,  and claustrophobic bike.”

Burkely could not help but chuckle at the crewmen’s description of the EVA suits, “I used to feel that way as well crewman, but after logging nearly 15,000 hours in total in every conceivable form of EVA suits that the federation has I have grown accustomed to them and consider them as a second skin these days,” he stated as he pulled the torso shell over his head and turned to help the Commander with her’s.

-Later-

Captain Micah Fitzpatrick sighed.  He had been up for nearly forty hours and his eyelids were heavy.  He stared at the damaged EPS conduit.  The burning plasma had burned through the bulkhead and charred the area around it.  The smell of burned plastics and fabric still lingered heavily in the area.

Flow to this conduit had already been shut off and he kneeled down and pulled on the panel that covered the inner workings of the ship. It refused to budge. This repair was needed in order to bring the structural integrity systems to full power in this section.

In frustration, he kicked the panel several times until it started to shift and move under the onslaught.  This time when he pulled on it the panel came away from the bulkhead with a grinding of metal on metal.

Micah tossed the damaged panel to the side with a clatter. Pulling out a tricorder he scanned the conduit which had ruptured in several key places.  There was no repairing the conduit. A replacement was the only option.

Using a laser cutter he sliced through the conduit on either side of the damage,  and set the now severed meter long piece off to the side.  He slid sleeves over both of the now severed ends poking out of the wall.

The ship shook and shuddered with a flickering of lights followed by the red alert klaxons blaring.

“Captain,” came the voice of his operations officer over his combadge.  “There’s an EPS overload in your section.  You need to get out of there now!”

As if the computer understood the conversation it interrupted with its own announcement.  “Warning EPS overload: Deck 5, Section 23 through 31.  Structural failure in 90 seconds. Emergency evacuation of Deck 5 recommended.”

“Understood Lieutenant,” Fitzpatrick said as he ran down the corridor ushering officers to turbolifts and Jefferies Tubes.

There was another shake from the ship as the overheated warp core sent out surges along the EPS power grid.  Something exploded and the ceiling came crashing down in its already weakened state.

Dodging falling beams Micah fell to the deck elbows first. He growled as pain shot up his arms.  He crawled over the debris and was about to make a dash for a Jefferies Tube when the shout of a crewman stopped him.

“Captain!” He shouted eyes wide in terror.  A beam had fallen on him pinning him to the deck.

Micah hesitated and then rushed to the crewman’s side, and horror dawned on him as the computer made a third warning announcement.

“Warning EPS overload: Deck 5, Section 23 through 31.  Structural failure fifteen seconds. Emergency evacuation of Deck 5 recommended.”

Micah turned and ran from the pinned crewman who wailed in pain and terror, “Captain!”

“Warning EPS overload: Deck 5, Section 23 through 31.  Structural failure in ten seconds.”

Micah was almost to safety

“9… 8… 7… 6…”

Just a few more steps, but even though he told himself that he knew he wasn’t going to make it.

“5… 4… 3… 2…”

-Bridge-

The operations officer was staring down at her display, “Deck 5, Sections 23 to 31 are gone and exposed to space.  Structural integrity is down to ten percent,  and the warp core is shutting down to prevent a breach.”

“Dominion ships are closing in,” a very young Ensign reported from tactical, his eyes wide in horror.  “Two Jem’Hadar fighters are breaking formation and are on an intercept course.”

-Deck 7-

Rebecca has finished up a relay when the whole ship shook violently sending her into the bulkhead in front of her and falling into an ungainly pile on top of Crewman Mckenzie.

Burkely tossed the remains of a charred panel that was twice his size to the side and slid a replacement in its place. He was about to place a plasma torch on it when he felt the flooring under him shift and the sound of an explosion. He turned his head in time to see the others with him in a pile on the floor as his knees buckled. Gathering himself off the floor he rushed to their sides and knelt. “Does someone want to take a wild guess as to what that…” he was cut off as the intercom activated and the voice of the operations officer came over, “Commander Talon please report to the bridge immediately.”

Burkely looked at Rebecca and then helped up his crewman. “After you Commander,” he stated.

It was then that he spotted the Jem’Hadar ships in space and wrapped both of his massive arms around the ladies and lept through the open door, just moments before it exploded.

“Jem’Hadar!” He yelled as he lay there between the two of them. He coughed several times and groaned as the wind had been knocked out of him.

Three crewmen that had been down the hall came to their aid helping Rebecca and McKenzie to their feet. As Burkley rolled onto his hands and knees he accepted the hand from the Lieutenant that had been with the Captain. It was then that he realized something was seriously wrong. He turned to look at Rebecca and knew then that she was now in Command.

Coughing a couple more times he pointed to the nearest Jefferies Tube, “Go.”

Much of the Pike’s crew sat around the big circular table of the ship’s mess hall. The quarters were too cramped to have a replicator in each room trying to eat sitting in a bunk wasn’t exactly comfortable so they often shared meals together, or their off time in general.

Dougal MacDonald was sitting next to Aimee and they exchanged loving glances at each other and playfully bump each other’s shoulders.  They were both changed into civilian garb.  Ethan didn’t require or encourage uniforms while on duty.  On more than one occasion Dougal fancied their merry band if misfits as pirates. Of course logically he knew that he or anyone else on the ship shared piratical dispositions, but it was a romantic thought.

Dougal picked up a bottle of the finest Scottish whiskey that could be had and refilled everyone’s cups. Except for Audren’s. Hers was still full, as she didn’t drink alcohol.  “So, there I was,” he started with his thick Highland accent, “Mindin’ me own business when the lass just jumps up and Leeroy Jenkins’ the outpost.”

“Leeroy Jenkins?” Audrin asked confused. “What is that?”

Dougal laughed, “I dinnae ken where the wee expression came from, but it’s someone that causes everything to go to bloody ruin. She got me killed I tell ye that much lass.”

“And me captured by the Dominion,” Aimee added.

“To a bloody good first outing. If ye are gonna mess things up, mess it up so it cannae be undone.” He raised his glass, “To Commander Kyo!” There were laughs in response to this and everyone toasted Jolie.  This wasn’t the first time a training mission had gone awry and no one really minded.  It was all part of the process.

“To Commander Kyo!” Adam echos. Their most recent training exercise had been one hell of a disaster, but everyone had made it out, and everyone had fun. The Zebulon Pike was different, way different, than anything Adam had grown up around. Standard Federation protocol just didnt exist here. It  was nice compared to how Adam had grown up. His parents and his brothers had all been Starfleet regulars. Adam had decided that it was time for a change when he joined the Pike.

“Okay lad,” Dougal said leveling his gaze on Adam.  “I’ll make ye a deal.  You tell a story of mucking up a training exercise, and I’ll tell ye of mine.”

Trinity rolled her eyes, “Dougal leave the kid alone.”

“It’s a tradition,” Dougal protested. “It keeps us humble.”

“Babe, the only thing keeping you humble is your fake modesty,” Aimee teased and the other laughed.

“Aye, and ye can keep yer opinions to yerself ya wee bisom.”

Aimee faked offense to this,  “I didn’t leave a Luna-class starship and a promising medical career to be called a bisom.”

“Aye, you are and a sassanach too.”

“I’m not English!”

Dougal laughed and drained his Scotch and refilled his glass and everyone else’s that were low.  “Aye, you are no an English lassie, but ye are an outlander.”

Aimee gave up, “Pig headed Scot.”

“Aye, I am,” he agreed. “Now, Stephens it’s yer turn to tell a story lad.”

“Well one time when I was a cadet at the Academy, we were on a training missions where 4 squads were in runabouts having a skirmish. I made a miscalculation and overloaded our forward phaser banks. The feedback friend my station and locked me on my rear. Needless to say we lost the competition that day”

“Bloody model officer,” Dougal teased.

“That’s not a bad thing Dougal,” Trinity admonished.

“Aye it is when yer hanging out with us misfits.”

“You misfits need some kinda regulation and level head or you will get yourselves killed”

Everyone laughed at that. “The lad can hold his own, I’ll give him that aye,” said still laughing.

“To our newest member,” Aimee said raising her glass. This time even Audren picked up her Scotch in a toast.  “To Adam, may he slay the dragons, and rescue all the damsels,” Aimee continued.

“To Adam!”

Adam raises his glass and then downs his drink in one go. “To the Pike”

The Pike was at warp heading for Terra Alpha Colony. The steady hum of the engines carrying the ship through time and space was almost therapeutic. 

Aimee Sandoval sat across Dougal in the mess hall, and for once they were the only ones present with the others either asleep in their quarters or on duty.  Not that that this ship required a full crew to run it. 

She picked up her toast which was smeared with  strawberry jam and bit into it with a crunch. “Any plans for today?”

Dougal swallowed his oatmeal before speaking.  With a shrug of his shoulders he responded,  “Nay lass. Stephens has the tactical watch aye. I was thinking of going to the gym an’ doing some dead lifts.”

Aimee smiled coyly, “Does that mean I have you all to myself?”

Dougal ran his spoon through his porridge before speaking,  “Aye, I suppose it does.”

“Good,” Aimee said with satisfaction and she leaned across the table and kissed him on the lips.

Aimee rolled over in her bunk and wrapped her arm over Dougal’s bare chest and hour later.  Leaning in, she kissed him on the cheek.  His eyes were closed, but he let out a deep rumble of a chuckle.

“I dinnae think this is going to build too many muscles, but I ken this was a workout.”

“Count it as a cardio day,” Aimee suggested. 

“That it was lass. That it was.”  He opened one eye to look at her.  “Ye have the prettiest green eyes.”

Aimee blushed, “Thank you I suppose.”

There was silence for several moments,  both just enjoying the company of the other.  There was something to just living in the moment. 

“I love you,” Dougal said suddenly. 

Aimee’s head shot up from his chest uncertain she’d even heard him correctly at first.  After a moment of getting her thoughts together she smiled,  melted into him. “I love you too you pig headed Scot.”

Dougal laughed,  “Ye couldn’t resist the insult could you?”

“What could I say?  It was low hanging fruit.”

“Aye it is, but I love you for it mo chridhe.”

“What is that word?” Aimee asked as she tried to repeat it butchered the Gaelic badly. 

Dougal laughed, “Mo chridhe. It means my ‘my heart’.” Aimee smiled at that and the fell into each other’s arms for a second round of passion.

Rebecca stepped from the chaos of the lower decks to the chaos of a command center in crisis. The bridge was hardly recognizable now bathed in shadows broken by the flashing red alert beacons.  Half the consoles were dead, and wires and conduit hung from the shattered remains of the ceiling.

“Where’s the captain?” She demanded.

“His last known position was on Deck 5. We aren’t reading his combadge, ” the operations officer replied.

Rebecca didn’t waste time, “Helm, evasive action Kirk-Epsilon-Five.  Tactical fire at targets of opportunity.”

“Aye Commander,” Stephens said putting the ship into action dodging incoming weapons fire as best as possible.

Cheon moved over one of the remanding consoles that were active and transfer the tactical systems to it. The monitor flickered every so often as if it were struggling to maintain a constant power supply to it. “This is going to be harder than I thought,” he said out loud, a hand came down on his shoulder and he looked to see his wife on the bridge. She had a smile on her face and he knew then and there that things were going to be all right. He nodded to her and returned his attention to the console, “Commander, I do not have port and starboard controls of the weapons,” he stated as tried once more to move the targeting array left and right. “I will need assistance from helms.”

“I will do my best to give you every clear shot I can Cheon”

The fighters closed in and as they closed in range they lashed out with their energy weapons shaking the already battered ship. “Minimal damage to ventral shielding,” Ops announced.

Small mercies,  Rebecca thought to herself.  She trusted Thomas to pilot the ship better than she could strategize. “Mr. Stephens keep them off our backs the best you can. Ops is there anything near here? Gas giant? Nebula?”  They needed to disappear off the Jem’Hadar’s radar.

“There’s a class three nebula bearing 181 mark 25,” Ops reported.

“Thomas, did you get that?”

“Aye commander. I see the nebula. It would be a good place to throw them off our tracks”

“Belay that,” Cheon yelled as he spun around and placed a hand on Rebecca’s shoulder. “That nebula is behind us, which means we would be heading further away from Federation space. Not that I think that the Jem’Hadar gives to shits about that.”

Reaching up he tapped his combadge, “Mister Lovecroft how much time do you need to get that impulse engine to at a minimum of let us say 35%?”

Burkely heard Cheon and did some rough estimating in his head. “Three minutes,” he yelled out.

A smile crossed Cheon’s busted lips, and he gave a gentle squeeze to Rebecca’s shoulder, “Captain follow me.”

Moving with a renewed purpose he lead Rebecca to a table that was part of strategic operations. Bringing up the current situation he pointed out that they were only 3 sectors away from the nearest Federation-controlled area, and then he showed how the Jem’Hadar and the Cardassians were gaining on them.

“If we drop our warp core here,” he pointed on the table, “and wait for our pursuers to get to here,” just outside of the cores signature, “the blast should be enough to vaporize them and end the threat to us.”

“If we blow up the core that eliminates the Jem’Hadar,  but creates a new problem. We are stranded decades from Federation space at impulse.  We’re hoping that the Federation will come and rescue us before a Dominion patrol blows us to bits, and my money is Starfleet  thinks we’re dead.”

The ship shuddered again, this time more violently.   A console overloaded sending debris and sparks everywhere.

“The only problem then is if our impulse engines can get us to here,” he taps on the table where the nearest satellite was stationed. “and outrun the shock wave that the core is going to produce, and prey to go that we survive that a Federation ship finds us before another Dominion patrol finds us.”

“It’s a good plan Cheon,  just not a good plan for us now.  Once we enter the nebula we can make repairs, and get back to Starbase 75. I have way more trust in this crew than I do in a hypothetical rescue that we can’t even call for because it would draw the Dominion down on us.”

Cheon gritted his teeth behind a closed as he looked at the option that Rebecca wanted to use. The nebula was definitely closer but it was also further away from the Federation. Resigning for now he nodded.

While the Commander and Cheon were talking Thomas had transferred tactical to his station and was keeping busy both flying the ship and returning fire at the enemy vessels. “Just my 2 cents Ma’am and Sir losing the warp core is the last thing we want to do right now. With impulse at 35%, there is no way we would outrun the explosion before we were overtaken by the Dominion”

“Get us to the nebula,” Rebecca ordered.  “Give it everything we got.”

“Main power is offline.  We’ve sustained major damage to the port nacelle and we’re trailing drive plasma,” Operations reported.   “Rerouting emergency power to aft shields.”

“Rerouting all other power that we can spare to the engines. Getting us into that nebula.”

-Engineering-

Lovecroft swore up and down as coolant began to flow from around the core, “Everyone, evacuate!” he yelled as he moved over to a console and began to punch in commands trying to reroute the coolant into exhaust ports.

“Bridge to Engineering,” Cheon said knowing that only two possibilities were happening.

“Little busy Commander,” Lovecroft replied, “We have a major coolant leak that I am attempting to reroute.”

-Bridge-

“Captain,” Cheon’s voice was smooth as silk as he spoke.

“Impulse engines are failing,” Ops called out as another system failed under the attack.

Rebecca was gripping the armrests of the captain’s chair.  Turning back to Cheon she nodded.  They were out of options. “Prepare to detonate to the core.  Eject at your earliest convenience, Mr. Cheon.  Ops route everything you have to aft shields.  Take it from life support if you have to.”

A sudden calm came over Cheon and he place his hand on Rebecca’s shoulder once more. “Don’t worry I have a feeling that the Denver will survive.”

She nodded, “Well, I guess if we don’t we won’t have much time to worry about it.”

-Engineering-

Cheon exited out of the Jefferys Tube just outside of Engineering and rushed to Burkely. Sweat shined on his skin as he looked at the Chief Engineer, “Remind me to file a complaint to Starfleet about the location of the Jeffery Tubes locations,” he jokingly stated as both men began to enter in their command codes for the ejection of the core.

Lovecroft shook his head, “If we make it out of this alive I plan on doing more than that, Sir,” he stated as he entered the last part of his command code into the computer.

There was a sudden flash and the central part of the engineering bay suddenly became shielded as the bottom half of the Denver split open and the central column of mater and anti-mater slipped away.

Reaching up he tapped his combadge, “Now Mister Stephens, punch it and give it all we have.”

Turning back to Burkely, “Commander let us give him all the power we can,” Cheon stated as he removed a panel from the wall, Burkely nodded, and the two of them began stinting everything toward the impulse engines, hoping and praying that it was enough.

-Bridge-

Rebecca sat back in her chair and braced for all hell to be unleashed. Thumbing the all-call she spoke,  “All hands this is your first officer,  brace for impact.”

“Routing all power to engines” Stephens announced as he attempted to get the Denver out of the blast radius.

“Do what you can,” Rebecca ordered.   “Use RCS thrusters too.”

The explosion was something Rebecca had never experienced.   It seemed like she could feel it to her bones.  Then there was the sickening feeling of falling as Denver nosed over and started to tumble out of control.   The operations panel exploded and the blonde operations officer fell lifeless to the deck her body lying with unnatural limpness.

Then came the secondary explosions that could only be the Jem’Hadar fighters being ripped apart.  That Shockwave hit nearly as hard as the first.  For some reason, she wondered if this was what it was like to ride a barrel over Niagara Falls.

More flashes and pops from overloaded consoles and EPS conduits and the bridge fell silent and dark.  There wasn’t even emergency lighting.  There was a silence she didn’t even know was possible.  And then she became aware of a sensation of weightlessness.

The shock wave was….different. That is the only way Thomas could explain it. There was no sound from the explosion. It was just silence. Then the Denver started exploding.  Ops blew up killing the pretty blonde there… ah the missed opportunities there…All of these thoughts were going through his mind as the helm overloaded, luckily he was able to react early enough that he was not actually touching the station when it exploded. Thomas still finds himself being propelled backward through the air as the gravity failed.  Luckily he was alive.

The ship was tumbling stern over the bow with a slight roll to starboard.  Inertia was carrying the badly damaged ship along towards the nebula that they were heading for. The saucer was dark, but there were still lights on in the more protected drive section.

-Engineering-

Cheon placed a hand on Aoife’s shoulder moments before being tossed as the shockwave hit Denver. He watched as if time seemed to slow down. Every spark and piece of metal that was in the engineering bay looked all the more vivid and out of place as he soar through the air. Moments later time sped back up and he ended up on his back a few feet away.

He could not help but laugh as that had caught him off guard. “On of a bitch,” he groaned out as he rolled onto his stomach and shook his head, “Did anyone see the registration of that ship that just ran me over?” he said in a jokingly tone as he sat on his knee.

Reaching up he tapped his combadge and realized that all power was down. “Chief!” Cheon yelled as he suddenly felt weightlessness followed by gravity and then weightlessness. He then put it together that the ship was tumbling.

Lovecroft was looking down at Aoife when she suddenly for a moment began to float, it was then that he realized that Cheon was yelling toward him. Grabbing the crewmen he pulled her to him as he instinctively grabbed a railing. “Crewmen,” he said in an authoritative tone as he took her hand and placed it on the railing, “Don’t move.”

“I don’t plan on it sir,” her face was pale from shock

“Commander,” Lovecroft yelled as he moved to Cheon.

Cheon looked over at Lovecroft as he remained kneeling. Lovecroft helped the Commander to his feet, “Chief we’re tumbling,” Cheon stated as his feet reconnected with the decking. “Plus I can’t seem to connect with the bridge.”

“Go,” Lovecroft stated, “I’ll see what I can do from down here.”

“Life support is down in the saucer section,” Aoife said staring down at the console in front of her. “Commander there might not be anyone left alive up there. I recommend transferring command control down here. ”She entered commands bringing up navigational control. “Impulse engines and inertial dampers offline. Attempting to stabilize the ship by firing RCS thrusters.”

With the inertial dampers offline when she fired the RCS thrusters in an attempt to right the ship she was flung head over heels over the console and slammed unceremoniously into the far bulkhead.  “I didn’t account for inertia,  but at least they weren’t tumbling anymore,” she muttered softly and then blacked out.

Aoife woke later.  How long she had been out she hadn’t the foggiest clue, but gravity generators had been restored.  She clutched her right arm to her body, as she sat against the isolation door that separated the reaction chamber from engineering. Everything hurt, and she couldn’t tell if she was blind in her right eye or if blood was just preventing her from seeing.  Her head pounded, and her stomach felt like it wanted to be inside out.

Why is the tactical officer here? She wondered dimly. Did he say adrift? That doesn’t make any sense we have a warp core. Life support is offline in the saucer?  How did that happen? That seemed to clear her head a little bit.  She was still a little out of it, but the events of the last few moments were falling into place.

Aoife struggled to her feet and staggered to the master situation table. “we need to rescue any survivors in the saucer section.  Do we have transporters to beam the crew? If not, perhaps we could land a shuttle pod inside of Cargo Bay 5 and connect the pod’s fusion reactors to the cargo bay’s transporter.”

Lovecroft placed one of his massive hand’s on Aoife’s shoulders, “One step at a time, crewman,” he said. “First we need to find out if there are any survivors, and then come up with a plan, and since you thought of it, I would like you to lead the team that finds out,” he stated as a smile crossed over his lips, re-opening his busted lip. “Oh and Crewmen, you might need this,” he reached into the sleeve pocket of his torn uniform and pulls out a new insignia that has three chevron’s,” You’re now my ACEO,” he stated as he tossed the insignia badge to her, “That is unless you don’t want it Petty Officer First Class McKenzie.” He cocked his head to the side and raised his left eyebrow up in a challenging gesture.

She looked at it, and tossed it back, “Keep it warm for me when I’ve actually earned it sir.  Internal sensors are shot, and a deck-by-deck survey in EVA suits would take too long.  How about we kill two birds with one stone.  I’ll launch a shuttlepod from Shuttlebay 2 and use the shuttle’s sensors to scan for life signs.  If there’s no one alive I can just return to the shuttlebay.  If there are survivors I can proceed directly to Cargo Bay 5.”

Lovecroft caught the badge and grinned, he thought to himself, ‘Oh you have already earned this, you just now need to realize it.’ He slid the badge back into the sleeve pocket and nodded, “It’s here when you want it. Now sync your combadge to mine and keep it open, dismissed.”

-Shuttlepod Tyson-

Aoife couldn’t believe the damage that the Denver had taken. There was a gaping hole following along the  length to deck 5 on the port side of the saucer.  The weapons pod was broken and ripped open in several places and all along the hull there was carbon scoring from directed energy weapons. 

Several life pods had already been launched. Thumbing the comm system on her panel she hailed them, “Escape pods, this is Crewman Mckenzie aboard a shuttlepod.  The engineering section is stable.  Dock there and report to Commander Lovecroft in main engineering to assist in damage control.”

She didn’t get a response,  but she didn’t expect one either. Bringing up the sensor array she scanned the saucer.   She was reading over four-hundred life signs trapped, and would soon die as they froze to death or succumbed to hypoxia. She notified Lovecroft that there were survivors and gave a full report on damages to the ship.

Aoife turned the tiny shuttle and headed for one of the larger cargo bays located in the engineering hull.  As she approached the doors she entered the commands to open the bay doors and was pleasantly surprised  that they actually opened without protest.  The bay wasn’t meant to land a shuttle so there were no tractor beams to guide it in, but with some careful piloting she guided the shuttle inside and set it down not far from the transporter control station.

“Commander,  I’ve landed in Cargo Bay 5,” she reported as she powered down the engines and pushed open the gull wing door and stepped out onto the deck. She pressed  a button on the terminal which closed the bay doors. “Okay, Mckenzie time to get the transporter working,” she said to herself. 

-Bridge-

Rebecca stared down at the mess of conduit and exposed wires with a hand beacon trying to restore any power to the bridge.  It was starting to get cold on the bridge and the air was beginning to get stale. The last thing she wanted to do was abandon ship after all they had been through,  but that was increasingly looking like their only option. 

Suddenly there was the familiar tingle of a transporter beam, and then the sensation of gravity as she materialized inside one of the cargo bays.  They were still on the Denver, but there was power here.   They had a chance now.

Crewman Aoife Mckenzie yawned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.  The ship was a mess no doubt about it, and they had a long road of repairs ahead of them, especially with the saucer section being completely uninhabitable. But one thing wasn’t their problem.  Deck 5 was beyond their ability to repair and that was one less thing to do.

As for herself… She was alive and upright.   That was about all the good she could say about the situation.  She had a rather deep cut over her right eye.  It wasn’t bleeding,  but it stung something fierce,  and she was pretty sure her right collar bone was broken.  She had fashioned a sling using the outer part of her uniform jacket,  and without it the pain was unbearable.

The coffee pot was boiling cheerfully on top of the survival camp stove.  She filled two cups with the black-brown liquid and approached Lt. Commander Lovecroft. He was hunched over a console and looked as tired as she felt. “Here you go, sir.”

Burkely accepted the mug from Aoife and took a hard draw from it, “Thank your crewman.”

Looking around he pulled out a flask, not that it really mattered much, and tipped its contents into the mug. He looked at Aoife and offered her the flask.

“It will help with the pain, and dull the senses some,” he stated as he continued to hold the flask out for her.

Aoife took the liquor sniffed it, and dumped it into her own cup, “I spent two years at the Academy before the war started,” she said, “My eighteen-year-old self would have never in her wildest dreams expected to be in a war let alone stranded on a half-dead ship stranded light-years from home.”

She absently handed the flask back to Burkely and sighed,  “When the war broke out I thought it was my duty to leave the Academy and enlist. We were needed now, not in two years right? I can’t help but wonder if that was a mistake now.”

Burkely slipped the flask back into the inside of his uniform before taking a sip of the spiked coffee. “You know I taught at the Academy,” he stated. He knew he needed to get her thinking about something else, rather than their current situation, for a moment.

She sipped the coffee and for a long moment, she didn’t say anything she just stared down at the dark liquid.  She didn’t like cream or sugar in it.  “You think they will get help?  Commander Cheon and Lieutenant Stephens I mean.  If I know some of the crew there’s already a pool on them making it to call for help and not getting caught by the Dominion.”

Burkely sat there in silence with her. He thought about their chances, both Cheon and Stephens, “If I know Cheon like I do, he didn’t become the Chief Tactical and Security Officer for his charming good looks alone. He is a tactician and one of the most fearless officers I know,” he stated as he looked up at McKenzie, “Trust me they will make it out and if I find out that someone bet against them I personally will make sure that those crew members are reduced in rank and placed in the brig for a month.” His voice was cold as he stated that. 

“This crew has enough on their mind than betting on the odds,” he said as he downed the rest of the now room-temperature coffee.

“Yes sir,” she said.  “You should get some sleep. We already have Commander Talon refusing to leave the battle bridge.  The chain of command needs to still function.  With Commander Kyo off the ship, I think that makes you the second in command.  The damage will still be here in the morning.”

Burkely looked at Aoife for a moment, “Crewmen, you do realize that you just had a bonified brainfart,” he stated as she kept his eyes locked on her’s “After all if it wasn’t for the fact that I value your opinions and wisdom I would have just reprimanded you for that comment, but alas you are correct. A little downtime couldn’t hurt and since I am acting XO I will be needed on the battle bridge more than here which means that you are now acting CEO,” he stated as he patted his sleeve pocket where he had tucked in her badge. He knew she still needed to believe that she earned the promotion and he would give her that time unless circumstances dictated otherwise.

“Brain fart sir?  I don’t believe so.” She frowned looking into her coffee.  “But, are you familiar with the phrase,  ‘physician, heal thyself? You are good to no one dead on your feet, and we need you.  I just graduated from basic a few months ago. I’m not leading an engineering department, let alone coordinating repairs of this magnitude.”

Leaning in close he whispered, “McKenzie, take a hard look around what’s left of Engineering,” he stated as he did the same. Most of what was left of his department were crewmen such as herself. However, none of them had the courage to do what she had done during her academy time, her two years’ worth of time. He knew that about his team, and though he valued each and every one of them, he knew that if push came to shove none of them would step up and take initiative like she had and come up with a plan to do something about their dire situation and the dire situation of the crew.

She shrugged,  “It just seemed logical to suggest that course. Anyone would have came up with it. I was just at the right place at the right time.”

“That is all that it takes sometimes, crewmen,” Lovecroft stated as he turned to exit. He stopped and looked over his shoulder. “Think about what I said just now crewmen.”

Aoife nodded, “I will.”

They were filthy tired and sore. Rebecca was moving solely on adrenaline as she picked through the emergency ration she was eating on the battle bridge.

Lt. Commander Cheon Kyo was at her side, and Lieutenant Thomas Stephens sat at the helm, though at the moment there was nothing to pilot.

The viewscreen was on showing static from the interference created by the nebula which swirled in purple clouds beyond.

Her brain was mush,  but they were alive. At least for the time being.  “Cheon,” she started.  “We need to get help. You think you and Thomas could make it to the main shuttle bay to get to the runabout?” Power had failed in the saucer section when the core had exploded leaving that entire part of the ship without life support, artificial gravity, and anything else.  “You’ll probably need a portable generator to open the door unless you want to just use phasers and cut through it.”

Cheon swallowed the last of his rations down with what was left of his water. A sigh left his lips as that idea had been on his mind prior to them turning about to head for the nebula after the core had vaporized the Dominion patrol that had been harassing them.

“Aye, Captain. Though I think the portable generator should be used to keep you and the rest of the crew alive for as long they can. We will cut the hanger doors open with the runabout’s phasers and make haste to that satellite I had indicated and with any luck see you in a few days.”

“I have every confidence in Commander Lovecroft,” Rebecca said.   “We’re hidden in the nebula so a passing patrol isn’t going to see us.  Especially with our power signature so low, I would imagine auxiliary power will be restored in a day or so.  Cheon if that satellite doesn’t pan out head to Starbase 75.  We’re going to need more than a runabout to get us out of this mess, and that’s where the fleet was supposed to rendezvous. The Fifth Fleet is due there in a few days.  They were supposed to relieve us from the front lines.”

“I am sure we can make it. Though it won’t be a pleasant trip.”

“It’s not going to be pleasant here sleeping in corridors and cargo bays,  and eating emergency rations,” She said holding up the offending ration in illustration. “Cheon, I think you should plan on leaving tomorrow.   Hopefully, the Dominion fleet will have returned to Tyra, or had a run-in with a Federation border patrol and isn’t in a position to mess with you.”

-Next Day, Cargo Bay 5-

Aoife Mckenzie stood at the cargo bay transporter controls where a Type-15 shuttlepod sat wired into the system adding power and computer processing and memory to a transporter system that otherwise wouldn’t function severed from the main computer and a ship operating on emergency power.

Commander Talon stood with a pair of EVA-clad officers speaking with them.  “Good luck gentlemen, ” Rebecca announced.  “I wish I could say weren’t all depending on you, but we are. If it were me before exiting the nebula I’d cut power and use inertia to exit just in case there’s a fleet of Dominion ships waiting on you. With any luck, they think we’re all dead and they have gone about their business.”

“Yeah the runabout is pretty badly damaged, combat is one the last things I want to do with it. ” Stephens says.

“Let’s hope it didn’t get banged around so badly in the shuttle bay,” Rebecca replied,  “however, regardless you are no match for one Jem’Hadar ship let alone a fleet?”

“Agreed. I am more concerned with being able to run away fast enough”

“Hopefully they gave up and have moved on, but in case they haven’t that’s why I’m sending you Mr. Stephens.  We’ll need our best pilot for this mission and that’s you.”  She turned to Cheon and extended a hand, “Good luck my friend.”

Cheon took Rebecca’s hand in his and gave it a firm shake before he departed for the cargo bay. “I will be back with aid, Captain,” he promised her.

Rebecca didn’t wait for them to start their journey.  She had a ship to put back together and drawing this goodbye out any longer only delayed their rescue.  She turned and walked out of the cargo bay leaving the two officers to their own devices. 

-Class five Nebula-

Stephens and Cheon had taken a runabout from the Denver. One of the only auxiliary craft that survived the explosion of the warp core. The runabout was pretty banged up, but it was flying. 

“Mister Stephens in thirty seconds cut power,” Cheon stated as the runabout’s sensors stated that they were very near the edge of the nebula’s edge. He then looked up as stars could be seen starting to penetrate the walls of the nebula. 

“Cutting power Sir,” Stephens says as he brings the runabouts power offline, putting the ship in a standby mode. 

As the nose of the runabout pierced the edge of the nebula, carried by the forward inertia that the shuttle’s engines had moments ago provided, Cheon could see the cold inky darkness of space. Looking down at the console and its passive scans he could see no indication that any ship, Federation or Dominion, was close by.

Flicking the tactical map from the console over to Stephens’ navigational console he nodded to the man. “Let’s hope that no one sees us and that we are able to use that satellite.”

-Open space-

Stephens pulls the tactical map up on his console at the same time he brings the ship’s power back online and pushes the ship the rest of the way out of the nebula. He plots a course for the satellite and heads there at maximum speed. “What do you think our chances of survival are? Or more accurately our chances of bringing help back to the Denver in time?” 

Cheon looked at Stephens for a moment before he returned his attention to the console before him, “Right now we just need to keep our wits about us as we make our way to that satellite, other than that current task at hand nothing else matters. Remember our survival is the survival of the Denver and our friends and family onboard,” he stated as he looked at the passive scanners.

“Rotate port by three degrees,” Cheon said as the scanner indicated a single Jem’Hadar fighter just out of range of their shuttles signature.

“Rotating port by three degrees. I see the fighter on the scanner” Thomas said as he adjusted the heading of their runabout. “Let’s continue on our current course and keep an eye on them”

Cheon nodded his head at Stephen’s suggestion, “Yeah, let’s stay on this heading for a few.”

***

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to them the Jem’Hadar had in fact seen their shuttle signature but was under orders to not engage and destroy but to pursue at an undetectable distance and report back any Federation targets, whether they are outpost or ship.

“This is Avaza’yat, scout fighter to control, Federation heading to a possible target in sector 275.”

-Satellite-

A single Jem’Hadar Battlecruiser dropped out of warp and scanned the sector indicated by the scout fighter. A signal pinged on their scanners and three quantum torpedoes were launched. A few seconds later three explosions could be seen. Not sticking around the Battle Cruiser jumped back into warp and was gone.

Stephens drops the runabout out of warp at the coordinates for the satellite and begins looking around. “Mother f…” Stephens trails off as he sees the debris where the satellite should have been. “So what now? Do we try to find a starship?”

Cheon wipes a hand over his face in frustration and brings up the star chart. As he looks it over he shakes his head. “Even if we had a fully functional runabout, it would take us at least two days to get to the nearest Federation-controlled sector and then if our luck were to hold out maybe another day after that to contact an allied or Federation ship.”

Cheon studied the chart as he tried to figure out their next move, “Stephens, move us in closer to the debris and cut all power so that we blend into the debris field. I need to figure out our next move as to where we are going to go.”

Stephens pulls the runabout into the middle of the debris and powers the ship down. He pulls out his PADD with the star charts and patrol charts on it and starts looking it over. After a few minutes, he says “Sir look here” and points to a spot on the chart the next sector over. “The USS Los Angeles will be here in an hour. If we push it I can have us there at the same time, though I don’t know that the runabout will do much running about after that push.” He says with a chuckle.  “They should be there on a long-range patrol. We can make contact with them.”

Cheon brought up what Stephens had brought up. He nodded to the suggestion and plotted the course. As he did he noticed that it ran very close to a scouted-out location that had the potential of holding either Jem’Hadar or even Cardassian patrol ships.

“Stephens, just a pointer that sector has a location that our scouts have designated as a potential location for the Dominion to lay an ambush. I would like for you to push up to that point and then slow. I understand that we need to push that sector but we also need to be careful not to get caught in an unknown Dominion patrol in that sector,” Cheon stated as he flicked the plotted course over to Stephens, PADD.

“Agreed. I would want to run into a Jem’Hadar ambush on a good day in one of these, much less in the shape we are in right now.” Thomas says as he brings the runabout back up to full power and heads towards the next sector. He sets the scanners to run on the widest band possible and takes them to maximum warp. “Let’s hope we get there in time.”

-Runabout Mialoss-

As soon as they were in communication range Thomas alerts Cheon. “Commander we are in communication range of the Los Angeles if you want to alert them ahead of time”

Cheon nodded to Stephens as his hands began to flow over the controls on the console. As soon as the comm’s were open he began to identify themselves, “USS Los Angeles, this is Runabout Mialoss from the USS Denver, Commander Kyo speaking, please respond.”

He hoped that they would be heard soon by the Federation ship that was supposed to be in this sector. He also knew that by broadcasting he was giving away his position to any Dominion patrols that were in the area, but at this point, he had no choice. After a few minutes, he retransmitted the same message again.

Suddenly the runabout’s scanners came to life and zeroed in on a Dominion icon. Cheon turned his head and looked at Thomas, “I hope you still have some fancy flying left in you Lieutenant,” he said as he motioned to the operations console that showed the incoming Jem’Hadar fighters, two fighters.

“A pilot always has an extra trick up their sleeve,” Thomas said, bringing the fighters up on the viewscreen.  “Permission to fly freely sir?” As he says this Thomas is already keying in a series of commands to make the runabout fly in a way that makes it much more difficult to hit. “We have already been spotted. I recommend we boost power to communications to increase comm range.”

Cheon knew that Thomas was going to go ahead with what he had already planned before he had gotten permission, which he was glad for. “Do what you have to do, Mister Stephens, just keep those fighters off of our backs for a few minutes if you are able to. I have a feeling that our friends will be coming to our aid shortly,” he stated as he began to reroute power to the runabout’s engines. 

Thomas pushed a button on his console and the runabout went through a series of preconfigured maneuvers narrowly dodging the opening volley of polaron beams from the Jem’Hadar fighters. They weren’t as lucky with the second volley, taking a blast aft dorsal shields. “Shields holding at 75%” Thomas reported adjusting flight pattern slightly to avoid the third volley from the Jem’Hadar. 

As if on cue a flash on the operations console came to life with the icon of the Federation. Not wasting time, Cheon tapped the icon and hailed the ship. “USS Los Angeles, this is the runabout Mialoss, from the Federation ship USS Denver, we could use some assistance with a couple of Jem’Hadar fighters that have queried us.”

The operations console switched to the face of the Los Angeles’ Captain, “We hear you Mialoss, and are en route. Change course to bearing 146 and we will intercept you there. Los Angeles out.”

The console changed back and Cheon looked at Thomas, “You heard the heading Lieutenant.”

“Aye Commander, adjusting course,” Thomas said as he adjusted the runabouts heading. He continued to dodge incoming fire as best as he could, taking 2 more hits. “Shields at 25%” Thomas updated  “Dropping out of warp,” Thomas said as they pulled into the range of the Los Angeles. The Manticore class vessel was able to make quick work of the enemy fighters.

Cheon leaned back as he watched the Jem’Hadar try and retreat only to see them explode in a spectacular show of flames and exploding debris. As the last fight exploded the operations console once more changed to the Captain of the Los Angeles, “Commander, I hope you can explain why you are far from your ship,” the captain asked. 

Cheon nodded to the captain. “I and the Lieutenant here are on a task to find help for our ship, which is currently stranded in a class five nebula about ten light-years from here,” he said as he sent the data to the Los Angeles’ operations officer.

The captain nodded, “I think it would be best for your runabout to dock in our main hangar so that we can take you back to your ship and offer what assistance that we can.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Cheon said as he looked over at Thomas. “Make your way to their hangar. So that we can return to our ship.”

Thomas limps the runabout into the hanger. That last blast from the Jem’hadar had all but crippled the impulse engines. “I am glad we were able to make it here just in time” Thomas comments to Cheon.

-Two Weeks Later-

After two weeks of hard work, the ship was starting to feel at home again with power recently restored to the saucer section. Rebecca even got a few hours of sleep in her quarters last night, and the bridge was back together more or less. Even the replicators were working again.

“We’re being hailed, ” Ensign Devon Grey announced, nearly jumping out of the operations position  “It’s Commander Kyo.”

They had to be nearly on top of them while still in the nebula. “On Screen.”

Cheon grinned as he looked at Rebecca. “I hope that you held down the fort Captain,” he said as another person came into view.

“Commander Talon, I am the Captain of the USS Los Angeles, and I am sorry to hear about your Captain and my condolences on the loss. All I can say as of right now is that you have done a job well done on keeping your ship intact for the most part.”

“You are a sight for sore eyes Captain,” Rebecca said walked to the center of the bridge to stand between the helm and operations consoles. “Thank you sir.”

“With your permission, Commander Talon, I would like to send over my engineering crew to help in getting your ship back up and running and then escort you back to Federation space,” the Captain said as they looked at Rebecca. “I am certain that you would like your Chief Security and Tactical officer, as well as your helms officer,” the Captain stated as she looked over her shoulder at Cheon, who had a grin on his lips.

“Permission granted.  We got replicators working a few days ago.  Prepare for a dinner in their and your honor. Denver out.”