FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

For Dusty;

“Of my friend, I can only say this:

of all the souls I have encountered in my travels,

his was the most...

human."

It was late and Terri had arrived to find supper already prepared for her. She took her seat at the table in the family unit on Starbase 186. Jack had served her supper.

“What is this again?" Terri asked, after a few mouthfuls. “It's really good."

“It's tuna cheesy mac with peas," Land said, amused at her reaction. “This is like…fancy rations we used to mash together back home."

“Rations huh? Well it's really good!" Terri said, wolfing down another bite. “I think the little one likes it. Finally! We both can agree on something to eat." She sighed, swallowing and pouring herself some more tea.

“Thanks?" Land said with a confused smile, chuckling and shaking his head. “Well, we normally do take out, so I figured I'd cook for once."

“It's great Jonathan, it really is." Terri smiled at him. “After the day I had, I'm relieved I could just come home and put my feet up and let you take care of it."

“Well, I do try. I mean, I can't carry the baby, but I can do what I can to help," Jack said sitting back in his chair.

Terri smiled. “So, how did your day go?"

“Fara is running me ragged. We had to realign the plasma injectors." Land sighed, running his hands down his face. “I have been zapped enough in one day for an entire lifetime."

“Did it all get done?"

“Eventually," Land shrugged.

“You know, I'm really proud of you for trying to broaden your horizons." Terri drummed her fingers on the table, her tone becoming sadder as she continued. “I…I just wish I could have told you when…when I had the chance…."

Land smiled. “Well, you were right. What can I say?"

“Captain Lu, this is the bridge. Please respond." Lt. Baxter's voice echoed over her combadge.

Land smiled at her. “Looks like duty calls."

Terri returned the smile, but it was empty, just a mask to hide her real feelings. “Lu here, what is it? I'm trying to enjoy my supper."

“We are receiving a priority subspace message addressed to you. It's marked urgent."

Terri sighed, dabbed her muzzle with her napkin, and slowly got up. All she wanted was a moment's peace, have some supper, maybe read a book or watch a movie, and then hit the sack, but that would've been too easy. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and placed a hand over her abdomen, which was looking just a bit more bigger than it had the other day. The baby was wasting no time and it was getting harder to hide the fact she was pregnant.

“One moment please," she finally replied.

“Of course,sir."

“You gotta go?" Land asked.

Terri nodded, grabbed her command jacket off the back of her chair and performed a now all-to-familiar maneuver to put it on open, much like her old captain. “Yeah, I do. I'll see you later Jonathan. Computer. Arch and save program, close simulation."

“AFFIRMATIVE." The computer responded.

Their quarters disappeared and Land faded away along with the room, leaving only the faintly teal glowing grid of the holodeck and the whoosh of the doors parting in the yentryway.

“I'm on my way." Terri said, tapping her combadge as she walked through the doors and onto the lower decks of the Intrepid.

=======================

Lost in the Echo

Episode 22

IDP: 2001,2021,2022

By: Vakash Darkbane

Edited by: Saurex Conoway

======================

Terri strode out of the turbolift and onto the bridge of the Intrepid.

“So, is it just priority or an actual emergency?" Terri grumbled, walking down into the command pit and plopping into the command chair.

“Good old priority," Baxter replied above her.

“Very well, I'm here." Terri said, settling back in her chair. “Put it on screen."

The screen flickered and Terri found herself looking at the face of Captain Jayna De'Sol. Jayna looked different. She had cut her hair down to a neat crop and she'd look like she'd gained a bit of weight. Terri immediately straightened herself in her chair. She may as well look the part given that there was a superior on the screen.

“Captain, how can I assist you?" Terri asked.

“Commander Lu, I'm here to notify you that there has been a change in your orders. You will rendezvous with the Aether in the Icoris sector in three days. Is that possible?"

Terri frowned. “It is, but why the rush? We're due to disembark in the next few weeks, right?"

“I can't discuss this over open channels. Can you make the rendezvous or not?" Jayna explained, tapping her fingers patiently.

“Of course, Captain."

“Good. When you get here, we'll discuss things over dinner, my treat. See you then, Commander."

“Very good. Thank you, sir," Terri replied.

Jayna nodded and the channel closed.

Terri groaned and slumped back into her chair. She wanted to get back to Altaira and see if there'd been any change in Land's condition. At a minimum she needed to know how much longer she could hold out hope for him.

“So…looks like we'll be out a bit longer than?" Baxter said from above.

“Looks that way." Terri scowled. “Munro! Set a course for the Icoris sector, warp 7."

“Course plotted and laid in," Munro replied.

“Engage." Terri ordered. “Is there anything else I need to tend to or can you guys let me get some rest for once?"

“I'm planning on turning in when my shift ends in thirty minutes." Baxter replied, brushing off her superior officer's sour mood.

“Same for me," Munro said, stretching and yawning. “It's been a day and I am beat."

Terri nodded. “What about you Plex?"

“Captain, I plan to continue to go over the scans we took of the uninhabited world we passed a few days ago. I don't require as much rest as you or the others." She then paused and thought for a moment. “However, in your case, you should turn in."

“That's the plan," Terri said. She yawned and then stood up and stretched. Plex had already figured out that she was pregnant, but had agreed to keep it quiet. Strangely enough, in her unusual way, the Bem had become quite the reliable confidant.

“I am going to bed,," Terri said heading for the lift. She pointed directly at Baxter before she got on the lift. “No more calls."

Baxter chuckled. “I'll be sure to just take a message."

A few minutes later, Terri sat on her bed, holding the photo of her and Land that they had taken during one of their dates to an amusement park on the holodeck. The sight of Land's smile, the way he was holding her hand, the fact that Terri was clearly happy, all of it made those happy moments seem so far away. She traced the features of his face with her finger, attempting to remember all the happy moments she could, all before she ruined it.

Something furry brushed her hand. Terri glanced down and found Taber nuzzling her hand and meowing at her, his forepaws on her thigh looking at her expectantly.

“Well get up here," she said. The Taber cat did his usual clumsy scramble up onto her lap. “Yes I'm sad," Terri said as Taber mewed and purred, leaning into her and kneading her lap with his paws. “You can't make it go away by doing that, but you're helping." She said, scritching him between his ears as his tail lashed from side to side contentedly. She put the picture on her nightstand and lay back. Taber clambered onto her stomach–his favorite spot.

“It was so much easier when it was just us…" She sighed.

Taber sat up, giving her a clueless glare.

“I know…me and my men I keep bringing home." Terri said, “I only need you, but you are just a silly, fat, spoiled cat. You're a great friend and cuddler, but you can't do it all for me."

The cat mewed and licked his paw as he started grooming himself before settling down on her stomach.

“You know, if this kid gets any bigger you aren't going to be able to do that anymore." Terri smirked.

Taber ignored her for the most part, settling in for the night. Terri ordered the computer to dim the lights and tried to get as comfortable as she could. She tried to let go of all the stress she had built up, but the looming prospect of some unknown mission was not helping her relax. Things didn't seem to be getting any easier.

“Maybe it'll just be normal," Terri muttered to herself, eyes closed. “Just a patrol or something…it'll be fine."

* * *

Three Days Later

Terri materialized in the transporter room of the Aether and saw a security officer standing by the transporter controls.

“Welcome aboard, Commander." The female Altairian said cheerfully, smiling broadly. “Please, follow me."

Terri nodded and followed her out of the transporter room. No words were exchanged as they walked. Terri was grateful for the silence. It was hard enough trying to project confidence and calm when every day your stamina decreased a little more. The Altairian security officer stopped at a turbolift and called it.

“We have to go to the observation lounge," she explained, “the Captain is waiting for you there."

Terri nodded as the turbolift arrived and they stepped inside. A few decks later, they stepped out and the Altairian turned to her. “Through there, sir."

Terri nodded before she stepped through the door. “Thank you, Ensign."

The first thing she noticed as she stepped into the room was that the lights were a bit dimmer than the corridor outside. Once her eyes adjusted, she noticed there were two people in the room. They were seated at a conference table filled with food that smelled amazing.

“Glad you could make it, Commander." Terri heard Jayna say. “I believe you know my guest, so no introductions are needed."

Terri blinked a few times and finally her eyes adjusted. “Captain?!" Terri exclaimed.

Harry smiled at her. “It's been a while, Commander."

“What are you doing here? Where's the Raptor?"

“It's around," Harry said. “Sit. We have a lot to discuss."

Terri nodded awkwardly as she sat across from Harry at the table.

“How's your first command?" Harry asked.

“It's going well," Terri replied. “It's definitely busy."

“I'll bet," Harry said.

“How've you been?" Terri asked.

“Oh, it's been exciting, but I'll fill you in later. Everyone is well," Harry added quickly. “Lt. Perry is handling your post well. Lt. Rydel is definitely missing you, since she's had to take the share of your other duties with the ship's systems."

“She can handle it," Terri smiled.

“Since you're here, what type of wine would you like with your meal?" Jayna asked.

“Thank you, but I'd rather have any kind of fruit juice you have. It doesn't matter what kind." Terri said.

“Oh, I apologize." Jayna frowned confusedly. From what she'd researched, and what she'd prodded from Nikolai, she had assumed Terri would prefer something alcoholic. “I'll pick something appropriate then. Harry, do you want your usual?"

“Of course." Harry said.

Jayna nodded, tapped a comswitch on the table and spoke to a steward.

“So, why is the Raptor cloaked?" Terri asked, turning to Harry.

“Because we're not officially here," he said, sliding a datapad over to her. “Captain De'Sol wanted us to all have a face-to-face so we have a solid plan going forward. Take a moment and look over the orders."

Terri picked up the pad and looked over the information. The orders stated that the Intrepid and Aether were to do a border control, running deep scans to provide cover for the Raptor while it slipped over the border to investigate why the Prell had suddenly become hostile and attacked colonies and subspace transceiver stations. A digital map showed that a few listening posts had also gone dark in that area. Terri frowned as she read the details of the mission.

“This doesn't look good at all," she said, scrolling through the text. “I can see why we're being careful."

“I'm glad you see that, Commander," Jayna said. “This situation is very delicate. Admiral Leyton thinks that if we can make a good impression we might be able to convince the Prell to back off and avoid a conflict."

“I see," Terri mused. “So, we're out here on our own until the rest of them show up?"

“Unfortunately, yes," Jayna replied as the steward came in bringing their drinks. “Hopefully within the next 48 hours."

“Chances are the Raptor will be too far out to come to your rescue if something does go awry." Harry said, thanking the steward as his own glass was filled. “If it gets bad, run."

“The Intrepid is a good ship, but I don't think she'd be much of a match for the Prell," Terri noted. “Don't worry Captain, if it gets bad, we'll be gone."

Harry nodded as the steward filled the other two glasses on the table. “Then I propose a toast."

Jayna and Terri both raised their glass.

“Here's hoping for a successful mission and we all get home in one piece."

* * *

Fara had just stepped out of the shower when she heard an all too familiar whine of a transporter beam in her quarters, followed by a crash and some cursing. Fara wrapped a towel around herself and slid back the door. She found Nikolai rubbing his shin and muttering to himself. A small parcel–which he must have brought–was sitting on the same table that had reaped its vengeance on his shin.

"Nikolai?" Fara said, smiling through her confusion. “How did you get here?"

Nikolai looked up at her, also smiling. "What? No 'how are you' or 'what a nice surprise''? How do you live on this ship?" Nikolai grumbled as he navigated around the coffee table by the loveseat that was way too close for his liking. Everything about these quarters, and the rest of the Raptor for that matter, was too close together if he was being honest.

"Well, not being a big lummox is a help." Fara said, folding her arms, feeling almost certain that this wasn't some trick. "Jakar manages it, and he's as big as you. You still haven't answered my question, buster!"

"May I have a seat and I will explain." Nikolai said, still wincing with every other step.

Fara nodded, leaning against the head's door jam. Nikolai sat heavily on the loveseat, letting out a contented sigh before continuing.

"Our captains are debriefing the Intrepid's Commander," he said. “I was not required to attend, so I may or may not have bribed my sister to sneak me over here to see you."

"Isn't Captain De'sol going to have your hide if she finds out?" Fara asked.

"I'll die happy, my beloved vixen!" He said, grinning widely. "We have at least a few hours till then."

Fara tried to hide her smile as she blushed. She hated that his stupid, cheesy lines made her blush. If anyone else said that kind of stuff to her they'd have gotten a blackened eye.

"What's in the box?" She asked.

"A surprise, but it can wait," Nikolai said dismissively. "Open it when you feel like, but not just now."

"Well now I have to open it." She smirked, walking over to it and reaching for it.

Nikolai grabbed her wrist. Gently he pulled her around the table and onto his lap as the towel slid off her lithe form. Fara giggled and kissed him.

"You will have time enough for that later, my love." Nikolai whispered as he pulled her close.

* * *

“Danny!" Ensign Rosa shouted, snapping him out of his stupor.

“Huh! What?" He yelped, turning away from the view port in the Raptor's mess hall. In the void outside he could see the Intrepid and Aether floating a few thousand meters ahead of them.

“I asked you if you would care for some company. You look miserable." Ensign Rosa said, still holding her tray.

“I'm fine…but sure." Ensign Danny Kyle said. “I was just thinking."

Rosa sat down across from him. “Looked like you were thinking pretty hard. What's bugging you?"

“Nothing…don't worry about it." He sighed, stabbing at his food dejectedly.

“You got someone on the Intrepid, huh?" Rosa said, leaning forward. “I know that look. I have seen it on many faces. Come on, who is it?"

“It's nobody," he said, flushing under his fur. “It's not really your business anyway."

“Oh come on," Rosa said, giving him a gentle kick under the table. “You can tell me!"

“No, I can't. Just don't worry about it." Kyle snapped. “Look, I don't really want to go into my personal life with you, alright?"

“Ok, ok," Rosa said calmly. “It's just got to be tough, being so close and not being able to even send a message."

“Yes…it is," Kyle growled.

“So…if we're both here, who is flying this bucket?" Rosa asked, changing the subject.

“Some Bem, fresh out of the Academy. Her name is Kilo. We're her first assignment."

“Oh that poor woman," Rosa said.

Kyle chuckled. “She'll be fine. She's got four arms! Flying the Raptor can't be that hard for her."

“We have a lot of new faces on board." Rosa said. “I can't hardly walk the corridors without bumping into someone new lately. It used to be a lot different."

“I wouldn't know." Kyle shrugged. “I'm one of those new faces."

Rosa frowned, twirling her food on the plate. “Oh yeah, I guess you are."

“How long have you been on board?" Kyle asked.

“Me? Oh…wow…I guess it's been almost two years now." Rosa said, realizing how quickly the time had passed. “You missed a lot of the 'fun' stuff."

“Not my idea of fun."

“Oh fine…excluding the hijacking."

“I definitely wouldn't call that fun."

“Anytime you survive anything that happens around this damn ship, you should be grateful. A lot of people didn't," Rosa said, stabbing the air with her fork for emphasis. “The ship used to be a damn death trap, malfunctioning all the time, exploding. Hell, half the time I got a nasty shock when I used my sonic shower. A lot of that nonsense stopped after the layover and refit at Altaria. So, lucky for you, you have no idea what the ship used to be like." She took another bite, chewed, and swallowed. “Ask any of us old timers, like Rydel, Remmick, Knackt, Rivas, Phoenix, O'mara…we have a whole pile of stories."

“I may have ended up with some stories too. Hey, thanks for getting my mind off my troubles." Kyle said, smiling faintly.

“No problem," Rosa said, smiling. “We're crewmates. We gotta look out for each other."

* * *

Jakar looked over his station's readouts, perched like a gargoyle, alert for any sign of trouble on his boards. There was a slight power fluctuation in the phaser main line system. He ran a level one diagnostic and the computer seemed to be rather clueless on the situation. He ran a level three diagnostic and still got the same result. The computer insisted nothing was wrong.

“Damn," he muttered.

“Problem?" Commander Rivas asked from the Captain's chair.

“Maybe," Jakar grunted. “There's some sort of power fluctuation in the main grid that's causing a slight phase variance to our weapon systems."

“Do you think it could potentially be an issue later?"

Jakar gave him a knowing look.

Rivas hit his combadge. “Rivas to Engineering, Commander Jakar is telling me there are power fluctuations affecting his weapons. Can we get some answers please?"

“Kurtzman here," came the answer. “I just checked the main board. There are currently no fluctuations being reported by the main computer."

“Lieutenant? Are you telling me that my readouts are incorrect?" Jakar said, butting into the conversation.

“I'm telling you, Commander, as far as my consoles down here know there's no power fluctuations." Kurtzman said with a tone of patient annoyance before adding. “Sir."

“Where is Commander Phoenix?" Jakar asked. “We are heading into a potentially hostile situation. I don't want any failures of my weapon systems."

“She's currently off duty, sir," Kurtzman replied.

“Thank you, Lieutenant. That will be all." Rivas said, cutting off the channel. “We have several hours before we need to be worried. I wouldn't bother her right now."

“I'm bothered," Jakar grunted, hitting his combadge. “Jakar to Phoenix."

“COMMANDER PHOENIX IS NOT RECEIVING MESSAGES AT THIS TIME." The Computer replied.

Rivas chuckled. “Sorry buddy. That's not going to work. It'll have to wait unless it's an emergency."

“Computer, locate Commander Phoenix." Jakar snapped.

“COMMANDER PHOENIX IS IN HER QUARTERS."

Jakar logged off his console and straightened his uniform. “I don't wait."

“Your funeral," Rivas chuckled as Jakar headed for the door.

“I am not intimidated by her," Jakar said calmly over his shoulder as the doors parted for him.

“Oh you will be." Rivas smirked after Jakar passed through the bridge doors. “You will be."

It wasn't a long walk to Fara's quarters and Jakar arrived at her door shortly. He hit the chime door and waited stiffly.

“COMMANDER PHOENIX IS NOT ACCEPTING VISITORS AT THIS TIME." The Computer politely announced.

Jakar raised an eyebrow. He took a deep breath and tried to contain his burning lack of patience. He quickly raised a hand to her door and knocked as hard as he could three times.

“Commander? I need to speak with you immediately!" He said as loudly as he could, leaning slightly towards the door.

No response. He waited a few moments and then knocked the door three more times. He was about to announce himself again when the door swept open. There was a rather enraged, slightly exhausted and sweaty, Fara wearing a hastily thrown-on slip nighty that hadn't exactly managed to cover her below her waist. She stood in the doorway, both arms spread on the jam, eyes blazing, teeth bared.

“Jakar? WHAT. IN. THE. HELL! DO YOU WANT?!" She snarled, ears back. Her hair was a wild mane that framed her face, the vivid orange of her fur making her green eyes almost look luminescent with malice. Jakar winced as his nostrils caught a strange, heavy scent that abruptly informed him of what he had interrupted.

Jakar took a calculated step back, propelled by instinct.

“Um…Commander…there is a fluctuation in the…."

“THEN LET KURTZMAN, KNACKT, RYDEL OR ANY OF THE OTHERS DEAL WITH IT!!" Fara roared, stomping forward furiously and driving a finger into Jakar's chest, shoving him against the wall across the corridor.

Ensign Rosa and Kyle were returning from their break, rounding a corner of the corridor. Both of them froze when they saw the scene that was unfolding. Seeing an enraged, barely clothed Fara pinning Jakar to the wall while yelling in his face was enough for them both to turn around and leave quickly.

“What in the world was that?" Rosa panted.

“It looked like a dressed down…dressing down." Kyle said. “We can get to the bridge this way to avoid…whatever that was."

“Right!" Rosa said quickly jogging after him. “Hey, you've got a cool story now!"

“Not what I wanted," Kyle sighed.

“... and ANOTHER thing! They are ALL highly qualified individuals you can work with at any time. THEY can help solve your FUCKING problems! Don't you come down here, beat on my door, during my personal time, and expect ANY HELP! EVEN HARRY KNOWS THAT! I. WILL. KILL. YOU!"

“Uh…well…yes, sir. U-understood, sir." Jakar stammered. His mind was reeling. This woman was causing all of his instincts to scream at him to be anywhere but Deck 1 as if failing to leave meant instant death.

Fara, having a moment of self-consciousness, pulled down her nighty with her free hand to try and cover more as she continued to jab Jakar in the chest with the other. “I have a whole goddamn team of people that can help you if you have a problem you damn nut! BOTHER! THEM! Is that understood, Lieutenant Commander?!"

“Um…I just thought that…."

“You aren't here to think!" Fara barked, digging her finger into Jakar. “Now are you going to follow my fucking orders or do I need to drag you down to engineering with my bare, fucking, hands? I am so pissed at you right now that I'm pretty sure I could smash your face through one of the main coils just to watch you melt in the plasma stream!"

“Yes sir, no sir, thank you sir!" Jakar yelped, snapping to attention, eyes forwards–the stance of a cadet that knew the ass chewing they were getting would end when their superior was good and done with them.

“From NOW until the end of goddamn time," Fara hissed, “UNLESS we are at red alert, do NOT fucking bother me. EVER. Again. Is that understood, Lieutenant Commander?"

“Yes, sir!" Jakar barked.

Fara glared up into his eyes as she closed what little of a gap was left between them. She knew what he was doing, but she was satisfied she had made her point.

“Very good. Now, go away…now." She growled, teeth chattering a little as she ground them. She pointed in the direction of engineering. “Get out of my sight before I get my hands on something hard enough to make an impression on that thick skull of yours!"

Jakar nodded vigorously and dashed down the corridor. He could hear her doors hiss shut as he left, but he didn't hear the lock.

Jakar could feel a little tremor in his hands, but more than the adrenaline he could feel the embarrassment rolling through him. He'd seen Fara's temper unleashed on others, but being the target of it was another thing altogether. He heard her doors part again behind him and he started sprinting. A spanner missed him by a few inches and bounced off a bulkhead. It clattered to the ground just as he rounded the bend in the corridor.

“And don't come back!"

* * *

Later

Fara and Nikolai lay beside each other, naked and sated as he gently stroked her ears.

“I have to get back to my ship," Nikolai noted. “My time is almost up."

“I know." Fara cooed nipping at his chin. “So, what brought on this spur of the moment thing anyway?"

“Your answers are in that parcel my love," said Nikolai, sitting up and starting to pull on his uniform and boots. “Just open it when you are ready."

Fara sat on the bed, batting playfully at Nikolai's tail.

“But I wanna know now!" She pouted at the back of Nikokai's head.

Nikolai just smiled over his shoulder at her as he kept dressing. “I will have to shower when I get back. I regretfully won't be able to join you this time."

Fara continued pouting, but he knew she understood. “I know. We gotta be good little officers."

“We are good, as long as we don't get caught." Nikolai chuckled.

“Can you at least give me a little hint?" Fara said sweetly, leaning forward on her hands and fluttering her eyes at him. “Pleeeeeease?"

“It's…something we do for people we care about in our culture." Nikolai said. “I would appreciate it if you wait until we see each other again to tell me about it, call it a tradition."

“So it's a present?"

“A token."

“But I never get you anything," she whimpered as the thought crossed her mind. “I didn't think we were going to be all serious or…."

Nikolai turned, grabbed her paws and kissed them. As he leaned back Fara caught her breath. He gave her a gentle boop on the tip of her nose. “You don't need to get me anything Fara. You give yourself, your love, your time," he smirked. “And you share your bed with me. That's more than enough."

“That's so sweet of you," Fara said, smiling. “Fine, I'll behave, but only because it's you. I promise. No peeking, not till I'm ready."

Nikolai smiled and kissed her deeply before returning to finishing dressing. “I have to go now," he said as he pulled away. He glanced at the wall chronometer. He pulled on his tunic just as his combadge chirped.

“Brotha! Are you done over there? Times not on yer side!" Donnika Korova's voice said in hushed hurried tones over his combadge.

“Yes, I'm ready," Nikolai said quickly, looking around to make sure he had everything. “Beam me back to my quarters."

“Da, da, transport in ten seconds, standby," Donnika replied.

“Fara," Nikolai said, closing the channel, “I want you to know that I have never met anyone like you before. No one makes me happier than you. Never forget that."

Fara couldn't hold back her smile as she sat on the bed with tears welling up in her eyes.

“You make me very happy too," Fara said. She wanted to say more, but her words were getting tangled in her emotions and refused to come out. “You better get going."

“Farewell," Nikolai said, smiling as the transporter beam swept him away.

As suddenly as he had appeared, Nikolai was gone and Fara was alone again. She growled, pressing her hands to her face as she flopped backwards on her bed, tail flicking agitatedly. She was certain she should have said something more impressive before he left, but instead she had fumbled her chance like a teenager on her first date.

“Bad girl!" She sighed, gently swatting herself on the forehead.

* * *

Terri was stuffed. The dinner had been excellent as the three of them discussed the mission. Now they were just relaxing, listening to music being played from Jayna's old record player. Terri yawned, feeling a bit weary, and leaned back in her chair.

“I think the Commander has a point. We should probably call it a night and get underway." Jayna chuckled.

Harry checked the wall chronometer and nodded. “We have to stay on schedule, unfortunately."

“Thank you for the dinner, Captain. It was very kind of you." Terri said to Jayna.

“You are very welcome. I find it's best not to deal with dire matters on an empty stomach. Since you both need to be going, could you escort her to the transporter room Harry?" Jayna said.

“Of course. We can catch up a bit." Harry replied, standing up. “Commander, shall we?"

“Yes, of course," Terri said, slowly getting to her feet.

She followed Harry out of the room. At first he said nothing and she followed suit. After the first turn, Terri decided to start the conversation.

“How're Fara and Michelle doing?"

“They're fine. They both send their regards." Harry smiled.

“That's good. I haven't had any time to stay in touch," she sighed. “I've been missing both of them. It's been hard dealing with…everything…without good friends to talk to."

“It's lonely at the top," Harry said, “even when you have good people around you. Do you still like being in command?"

“I think so? Sometimes I don't think the kiddo enjoys it though," Terri replied. “I don't think it likes the stress it causes."

Harry chuckled. “I suppose not."

“Harry…can I ask you something?" Terri said.

“For you? Anything."

“I have put some serious thought into this…and I want you to be the godfather to my child." Terri said. “I think Jonathan would have liked that. If something ever happened to me…well… I don't really have any family to look after them."

“I'd be honored," Harry said.

Terri let out a breath. She quickly glanced around to make sure they were alone before she embraced him and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you! This really means a lot to me."

Harry grinned. “Don't mention it. I look forward to meeting them someday."

“I hope we all get that chance," Terri said nervously as they approached the doors of the transporter room. They passed through the doors and into the Aether's transporter room.

“I am looking forward to it." Harry said with a reassuring smile. “Good luck, Commander."

“You too, Captain." Terri said, putting on her best smile. “Happy hunting!"

“Lieutenant? Would you mind sending Commander Lu back to the Intrepid?" Harry asked the transporter operator.

“Of course, sir," The Cabarran male replied.

Terri stepped up onto the transporter pad. She looked back at Harry and smiled at him. She knew he didn't like long goodbyes.

Terri hit her combadge. “Commander Lu to Intrepid, prepare for ship-to-ship transport."

“Aye Commander, we're ready," Baxter replied.

Harry nodded to her, then turned to the transporter lieutenant.

“Energize," Harry ordered.

In a swirl of energy, Terri was whisked back to the Intrepid. Harry sighed as he walked up to the transporter pad.

“One moment, sir. I have to lock onto the subspace tracker." The Aether's transporter operator said, working busily at his console.

“No problem. It's not easy to lock onto a cloaked ship." Harry said, adjusting his uniform while he waited.

“Don't worry sir, I'll put you right on the pad. Let's hope the guy on your end is paying attention."

“I have nothing but the utmost faith in your abilities lieutenant," Harry said.

“Lock achieved," the operator said. “Energizing."

Harry arrived back on the Raptor and found Rivas waiting for him.

“So, how's Terri?" He asked without missing a beat.

“She's great," Harry said, stepping off the pad. He and Rivas walked out of the transporter room. “She sends her regards. Anything I need to know about?"

“Nothing…important," Rivas replied with an amused smirk. “We're just waiting to get underway."

“Well, since we have some time, I have a few things I need to take care of before we get buried in the action." Harry turned towards his ready room. “What's our eta to Starbase 85?"

“Three hours from here, at warp 5." Rivas replied.

Harry nodded. One problem with using the cloak was how much power it used. The strain made flying at higher warp speeds risky. “Well, Commander, I guess that will have to do. I'll leave getting underway in your more than capable hands."

Rivas' smirk widened as he nodded. “Yes, sir!"

Harry hit the lock button on his ready room door as he stepped inside. He took off his jacket and tossed it over the back of his chair before he went to the replicator.

“Cherry Fizz, glass, on ice," he ordered.

The computer made an acknowledgement beep and the beverage appeared in a swirl of light. Harry picked up the drink and walked over to his porthole. He felt the deck shudder slightly and watched the stars stretch, distort, and then become the familiar streaks of light that were all the evidence of the fact they were moving at warp. He watched the lights surge past, lost in his own thoughts. Usually he could anticipate what was ahead, but this time his senses felt dulled. He felt that, for once, they were truly embarking into the unknown. The uncertainty made his gut clench. He took a long sip of Cherry Fizz, hoping it would help settle the butterflies in his stomach.

* * *

The Next Morning

Fara had called all her engineering staff to engineering after a few hours of preening in front of her mirror. She was making sure everything looked all prim and proper for this little meeting. Occasionally her eyes darted to the small parcel on her coffee table, but it would have to wait. There were things, much more important things, that needed to be done. She had yet to formally introduce herself to her new recruits.

Tugging on her uniform to straighten it, Fara snarled at her own reflection, finishing with a self-satisfied smirk, the kind she had seen Rivas use. Harry had been right: she did look more intimidating in a command uniform. She had pulled her hair back into a neat ponytail, pulling her bangs out of the way too. With her green eyes and sharp, noble features now fully accented with her hair pulled back, she looked very intimidating. She had asked Harry if he could exempt the new engineering staff from the duty roster until the rendezvous so Fara had a chance to get everyone oriented. Harry took some persuading, but Fara argued that giving them time to get accustomed to the ship would help with the first day jitters.

She snatched her cane, which was hooked on the back of a chair beside her, and headed for the door. From there she headed down to Engineering. As she stepped through the door she was met by the dull din of conversation which was rapidly shushed.

Fara had to work to contain her smile. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. She walked up to the railing on the upper deck and looked down on the assembled crowd. She carefully made her way to one of the service ladders, hooked the cane around her shoulder and slid down to the deck. She landed well enough and her leg only smarted slightly from the impact. She kept herself as steady as she could as she let go of the ladder and quickly got her weight shifted off the injured leg.

“Good evening and thank you all for coming," she said. The fifteen new recruits were lined up in front of the warp core with her veteran staff along the port and starboard sides of the Engineering room. “I called you all here because, aside from the brief introduction our captain gave you all earlier, I wanted to speak to you on my own terms." She took a wide stance with her cane planted in front of her, making her look imposing while taking some weight off her leg. “Now, you can ask any of my existing staff and they will confirm this. When you are in this part of the ship, I'm your Captain. The rest of the ship is Captain Martinez's, this part is mine."

A quiet chuckle traveled through her veterans, but they kept it soft.

“Now, I have a few rules you will obey. If you don't know how something works, ask me or one of the senior staff. This is not a normal starship. If you were trained on a simulation of a production model, you may as well forget it. This is the original Predator Class ship. She's basically a fully operational prototype and there is nothing else like her in the Fleet. If you think you can improve something, bring the idea to me, Knackt, or Rydel and we'll consider it. If you think you can ask for forgiveness later, forget it! This ship has a habit of demanding flesh for those kinds of impulsive ideas. The Raptor will try to kill you." She slammed her cane on the deck for emphasis. “Do you understand?"

All of the fresh faces nodded. Fara could see some wide, terrified eyes in the mix. The only one that didn't seem phased was a tall Cabaran female. She looked taller than Jakar, had dark curly hair, and a strong smirk.

“Alright, blood curdling warnings aside, I am not a complete hardass. I simply expect all of you to do your jobs. Do them well and you'll become better engineers for it. I will warn you again, this ship is dangerous, even to her own crew. We've been through some pretty tough situations, but she pulls through, even if things go bad. Trust her, despite her fangs. The Raptor takes care of her own, just like I do. Are there any questions?"

A demure Cornerian female rabbit with cream colored fur raised her hand.

“Yes," Fara said, pointing with her cane before adding, “but for future reference just start talking if you have a question. Raising your hand in some places here can cost you that hand."

“I was trained on the production model," the Cornerian rabbit said. “Can I maybe get a reference file on this ship?"

“Of course you can, Ms….?"

“Reese, Commander."

Fara nodded. “Reese, got it. Knackt! Make sure she gets the updated version of our schematics."

“Got it!" Knackt said, taking a quick note on your data pad.

“For those he hasn't introduced himself to yet, that's Mr. Knackt. Him and Kurtzmen are my two leads down here. I know Knackt isn't a commissioned officer and doesn't have a rank, but he knows this ship better than anyone else. You pay him the same respect you would to Kurtzman. If you don't, Kurtzman will deal with you, isn't that right?"

Kurtzman nodded. “Knackt has a lot of experience, even taught me a few tricks. His methods can be sloppy though."

“It works, doesn't it?" Knackt chuckled.

Fara jumped in before anyone could add anything else. “Anything else, Ms. Reese?"

“No sir, thank you!"

“You'll do just fine," Fara said, making her way towards the line where the tall Cabaran female stood with her arms crossed, still smirking, her eyes following Fara's every move.

Fara stopped in front of her. “Who are you, recruit?"

“Boscht, sir. Ensign Claudia." She said looking down at Fara.

“You're a lot of woman, Ensign. How did you even get on board?" Fara asked dryly.

“I've learned to duck a lot, sir. Looks like it'll come in handy around here." Borscht said, her smirk turning into a smile.

“Bulkheads are easy to repair and we have top-notch medical staff for busted skulls. You had better be as good at ducking as you say." Fara said. “What brings you to my team?"

“I heard this was a small crew. I figured you all could use someone to look up too." Claudia replied, causing a ripple of giggles in the group.

“Cute," Fara said, pinning her ears back.

“That and I like a challenge."

“Is that so?" Fara said, arching an eyebrow. “Mr. Kurtsman? What is Ms. Boschts background?"

“Six years as a freighter engineer before entering the Academy. She spent her first year on the Banting, briefly served on the Fearless, transferred to the Neosho, Monitor, Albion, Kaiser." Kurtzman whistled. “Five transfers in under three years."

“Why is that?" Fara said, scowling and turning back to the Cabarran.

Claudia shrugged her massive shoulders. “Maybe I don't get on well with certain types. Is that a problem?"

“Only if you make it one," Fara said with a light growl in her voice.

“Then, sir," Claudia smiled sweetly, “we won't have any problems."

Fara's poker face cracked a little, releasing a small smile. She couldn't help it. She really liked this one.

“You like a challenge?" Fara asked with a wry grin. “Knackt? Didn't you mention earlier that Number 2 needed a good rubdown?"

“Yep, I sure did boss lady."

“Oh you are in for a treat, Ensign," Fara grinned. “You're coming with me once we're dismissed."

Claudia's smirk faltered, replaced by confusion, but she nodded. “Of course, sir."

“Good. You've worked freighters so you shouldn't mind some dirty work." Fara turned back before moving on to the next person in line. He was obviously a fresh cadet, with yellow and orange beads in his spines. He made her think of Harry.

“You got a name?" She asked.

“Muniz, Cadet Carlos!" He said eagerly before adding. “Sir!"

Fara chuckled. “Relax, Cadet! You can save that kind of ass kissing for the ship Captain. So, did you request to be here or were you assigned?" Fara could guess, but she wanted to hear it from him. The others had obviously seen some action while Cadet Carlos practically stank of Academy protocol.

"I asked to be here…ma'am!"

“Spare me the ma'am crap." Fara smirked. “What spark of madness inspired that decision?"

“My last year of the Academy I read the reports on the exploits of this ship." Cadet Carlos replied almost giddily. “I wanted to be where the action is!"

“Oh you'll get plenty of action," Fara said with a wan smile.

“Bridge to Commander Phoenix," Lt. Perry's voice suddenly cut in.

Fara sighed and taped her combadge. “Yes, what is it?"

“Commander O'mara reports that the Number 2 secondary power plant is fluctuating. This could cause problems with the cloaking device. Get someone on it."

“I'm aware it needs servicing," Fara replied, “we're working on it."

“Commander Rivas has informed me that if the problem persists, he will notify the Captain. He recommends that you expedite addressing the problem."

“I'll take care of it!" Fara snapped, hitting her combadge and closing the channel. “The rest of the pleasantries will have to wait. I want to at least get a name from each of you before we run into any serious situations. Please see your appropriate department heads for instructions on your duty assignments in the meantime. Dismissed! Except you, Claudia." She pointed her cane at the Cabarran. “You're with me. Shall we go take a look at the Number 2 power plant?"

“Right behind you, sir," Claudia said as she followed Fara deeper into the ship.

* * *

“Oh Doctor Okan!" Fara said, syrup dripping off every syllable as she entered sickbay with Claudia in tow. “It's that time again!"

Doctor Okan came out of an adjacent room with a wide grin. “Oh, goody! Which one is it this time?"

“Number two!" Fara said with a smile.

“I'll go get the compound. One moment please," Okan said, walking past her and disappearing down a narrow gangway that descended down into the lower part of sickbay.

“So…what exactly are we doing?" Claudia asked.

“You'll see. I normally handle this wonderful duty by myself, but with my bum leg it's a bit too much to lug around a seventy lb keg of material." Fara replied. “I figured someone with your unique stature could help me out."

“What? Are you putting me on a menial task?" Claudia said, a bit annoyed.

“Oh, by no means! No! It's very important. I just needed someone who likes getting their hands dirty." Fara said. “You said you liked challenges."

“All right…fine," Claudia said, one eyebrow raised. “Then tell me what it is."

“Oh no," Fara chuckled, “it'll be more fun for me when you figure it out."

Suddenly a plastic keg materialized on a counter top not too far from them.

“Ah! There it is." Fara said. “Ensign, would you kindly go pick that up while I sign for it?"

Cluadia walked over and lifted the keg onto her shoulder, curling her arm around it. She could hear something slosh around inside. Whatever it was, it seemed almost solid, but the sloshing made it seem like a liquid. Perhaps it was a lubricant of some kind, but she wasn't aware of any components on a starship that used such a runny lubricant. They heard Okan's boots coming back up the gangway with a datapad.

“There you go Chief, one eight gallon container organic nutrient compound," Okan said, handing her the datapad.

Fara took it and signed it with a thumbprint. “A pleasure as always, Doctor. I promise we won't have too much fun with it."

“Very droll, Chief." Okan said with zero amusement. “Anything else?"

“Nope! Unless you want to join us in the fun?" Fara grinned wickedly.

“I'll pass, thank you," Okan said, retrieving the datapad he had set down. “That task is hardly what I would consider 'fun'."

Several minutes later, Fara and Claudia had made their way to Deck 3. They were heading for one of the alcoves where the Raptor's more suspect parts were kept–dubbed the “chamber of horrors" by the engineers.

“We're here," Fara said, walking over to the security door and typing in her authorisation code.

“Commander?"

“Chief will do."

“Chief," Claudia continued, shifting the barrel's weight on her shoulder. “I still have no idea what we're doing."

“I'll explain it. You might not want to inhale when I open the door," Fara said, hitting the button to open it on the control panel.

As it opened a pungent smell and a blast of heat washed over them.

Fara gagged a little bit. “Whoo! It is ripe this time!"

“What in the hell is that smell?!" Claudia said, trying to fan away the miasma spilling out into the hallway.

“That's what we're here to deal with," Fara said, reaching into her lab coat pocket and taking out a small container of petroleum jelly, opening it, and smearing some on her snout. She quickly reached up and dabbed some under Claudia's nose as well. “Let's go," she said, screwing the cap back on the petroleum jelly and stepping inside.

The room had several terminals showing red among the strange green ambient glow of the device in the center of the room. A strange throbbing sound permeated the room, accompanying the smell.

“There's a pair of gloves in the locker," Fara said, pointing to a storage trunk in the wall. “Grab them. I gotta get this panel off. Go ahead and pop that container open once you get the gloves." Fara instructed taking a tool out of her pocket and quickly starting to undo several bolts on the equipment.

Claudia found the gloves and put them on then pried the lid off. Inside the container was something mostly clear. The goo was pungent enough to punch its way through the other things trying to assault her senses in that room.

“Yuck! What is this stuff?"

“It's an organic compound. Let's leave it at that," Fara grunted as she removed the panel and set it to the side. “Now, lug that stuff over here and try not to spill it on the floor."

Claudia drug the cask over until she could see what was inside the panel. What she saw horrified her to her core. The only utterance that escaped her sounded like a strangled gurgle as she tried to process the bizarre amalgam of flesh and technology she was looking at. It was a strange piller that slowly turned, throbbing and pulsing as it twisted.

“Yep…I know, it's pretty gross," Fara said, “but we need it. Dump that stuff in there and smear it all over that column. The quicker you do this, the sooner it's over with."

“Y-y-you do this?" Claudia asked as she poured the slimy contents into the reservoir at the bottom of the small chamber.

“Oh yeah, about once a month," Fara said grimly, “look, I'll help you. I don't want you to think I'm asking you to do something I wouldn't." She hobbled over to the locker and grabbed another pair of gloves.

Claudia, still revolted, smiled just a little as she continued to smear the goo.

Fara slipped the gloves over her paws with a snap. “Ok, let's get this over with. Do you like beer, liquor, wine?"

“Why are you asking now?" Claudia chuckled.

“Because we're gonna need a drink when we're done and I have some of the hard stuff in my quarters." Fara smiled, squatting, dipping her hand in the muck, and rubbing it on the bizarre device.

“After this? Anything in the liquor category," Claudia said, following Fara's example.

“Good choice."

* * *

Captain's Log Stardate 348104.30

By using our cloaking device, we are about to arrive at Starbase 85. The Aether and Intrepid are beginning their diversionary actions and, hopefully, that will draw the Prell's attention away from us if they happen to be in the area. I am not sure what we'll find when we get there, but something about this whole situation seems oddly familiar…and it makes my skin crawl.

Harry arrived on the bridge. “Ensign, what's our status?" He asked, walking over to the con and looking at the monitor.

“We'll be arriving at the Kalyndra system in the next few minutes, sir," Ensign Kyle reported.

“Commander O'mara? Is there any activity ahead of us in the Kalyndra system, subspace traffic, anything?"

“Negative, Captain," O'mara replied, peering into her sensor scope. “Nothing on long range sensors…no ships, no subspace activity."

Harry heard Rivas walk up beside him. “That's very unusual."

“I know." Harry frowned. “Lt. Perry? Are the subspace relays still in place for the Kalyndra system?"

“I can check, sir," Perry replied.

“Entering the Kalyndra system now, dropping out of warp," Kyle reported, pulling back on the throttle controls. “Engaging impulse drive."

“I don't like this. I don't like this at all," Harry muttered under his breath. “Lieutenant, do you have anything to report on the relays?" He snapped a bit too harshly.

“Yes. The primary realy for the Kalyndra system is still operational," Perry replied. “However, there is just no transmission activity on it. There's several million terraquads of data ready for transmission for the Starbase, but it's just sitting in the relay's memory banks."

“It's like they've disappeared," Rivas mused darkly.

Harry nodded. “And there is no distress signal or any messages pending for transmission?"

“No sir," Perry replied.

“Mr. Kyle, proceed as planned and take us into orbit around Kalyndra 3 as soon as possible," Harry said, heading for the Captain's chair and sitting down.

Rivas walked over towards his station and stopped at the Captain's chair.

“You doing ok Harry? You seem a bit off," he said quietly.

“I'm fine, Don," Harry replied. “Something about all this is all too familiar."

“Captain," O'mara suddenly exclaimed, startling both of them. “I've got something on the sensors! Debris of some kind."

Harry frowned. “Debris? Something from a ship?"

“No…" O'mara replied, staring into her scope. “I'm registering structures composed of ferrocrete and duranium, some others as well, a few vehicles…"

Harry was back on his feet. “On screen!"

O'mara cast the sensor view over to the viewer, but all it showed were dark shapes floating amongst the stars in the background.

“Magnify!" Harry barked.

“Magnification to max," O'mara replied.

On the Raptor's main viewer, the objects were now clearly visible. What they saw were homes, hover cars, buildings shrouded in clouds of personal effects, tools, landscaping and what looked like remains of infrastructure–pipes, roadways, sidewalks, and such. It was as if an entire city had been vomited out into space.

“What in the hell?" Rivas exclaimed. “The Prell have never done anything like that before!"

“No…they don't. Not even the Urtheans eject stuff like that." Harry said, his voice wavering a bit.

Rivas regarded Harry for a moment, taking note of how shaky Harry's hands had become.“Sir? Are you alright?" Harry's eye was twitching, his breathing becoming shallow and tight. “Harry? Harry!"

Harry jerked a little as he turned to him. “Huh?"

“Is there something you aren't telling me, sir?" Rivas asked, holding Harry's slightly glazed gaze.

“No…I'm fine. It's just a feeling," Harry said, clenching his fists. “Nothing more."

“Captain, we are now entering orbit," Kyle reported.

Harry quickly spun to face O'mara. “Commander, what do you have on sensors?"

O'mara looked in her scope and quickly toggled the view to the viewer. The image changed. The screen was filled with an orbital view of a rather large crater on the planet's surface.

“Captain…I'm sorry but…that was Starbase 85."

“Jakar, O'mara, with me. We're going down there. You have the con Commander Rivas," Harry said, striding towards the aft port doors of the bridge with Jakar in tow.

O'mara shared a worried glance with Rivas, who gave her a reassuring nod in return. She followed the other two out with no falling feathers left behind.

* * *

“I think you are gonna do just fine here." Fara smiled as she poured Claudia a glass and handed it to her.

“Thanks. I thought you were just stringing me along at first," Claudia admitted as she took the glass.

“Oh no, of course not! I wanted you to get the full experience, let you see this ship's rather ugly 'normal' and, believe me, nothing is worse than what we just did," Fara said. She sat down on the couch beside Claudia and put her feet up on her coffee table. “Well, except…I suppose dying could be worse."

“That's any job honey," Claudia chuckled.

“Right?" Fara grinned as they clinked their glasses. “So, you really want to know what that stuff was?"

“I have my suspicions, but yes, I would like to know," Claudia said.

Fara motioned her closer and Cluadia tilted her head down. Fara whispered into her ear. Claudia's face crumpled with disgust. “REALLY?"

“Well…not exactly, but it may as well be." Fara shrugged. “Can you think of anything else that would work better?"

“That's totally disgusting!"

“Hey, I didn't design it. A bunch of weird, cyborg aliens did. I just maintain the thing." Fara chuckled. “Now, let's toss these drinks back so I can go back to burying it and you can forget it."

* * *

Meanwhile, on the Surface of Kalyndra III.

Harry, Jakar and O'mara materialized on Kalyndra 3, each of them armed with a phaser rifle.

Harry slowly walked towards the edge of the crater. He stepped up onto the rough, crumbling soil and stone of the rim and stared down into the chasm. The hole was several miles across. The bottom was was so far away it was easy for Harry to hold up his thumb and cover it. All of it made it seem as if the starbase had been scooped out of the ground by a giant hand. Harry heard O'mara's tricorder trilling behind him as he lowered his arm again while Jakar kept watch.

“Strange," Jakar muttered, “no carbonization on the rim…no signs of weapons damage."

Harry grunted, his eyes picking the crater apart, unwillingly admitting to himself that Jakar had a point.

“I can confirm that. There is a lack of any evidence of orbital weapons, at least any that we know of," O'mara said, closing her tricorder. “The Starbase, the colony around it…it's just… g-g-gone…."

“Captain, from what I know of the Prell, the place should be heavily irradiated. Their plasma weaponry, especially their ship-to-surface armaments, are highly radioactive." Jakar said behind him. “What could have done this?"

“Believe me," Harry said, his spine clenching as he slowly shook his head, “you don't…."

“Rivas to Martinez," came a voice from Harry's combadge.

“Martinez here," Harry said, hitting his combadge, seeming to snap out of his sudden horror for a moment.

“We need to beam you out immediately," Rivas reported. “A Prell warbird has just entered the system and is heading right for us."

“Very well. We got what we needed down here. Beam us up," Harry said, stepping away from the edge of the crater.

The alert klaxons were blaring as they returned to the bridge and Rivas got out of the con. Harry noticed Fara wasn't on the bridge. He hoped, for her sake, she was in Engineering.

“Report Commander," Harry said, hopping up into the Captain's chair.

“They are heading straight for Kalyndra three," Rivas reported, “their weapons are not armed."

“Good. We're going to keep an eye on them and see what they do," Harry said, leaning forward in his chair and interlacing his fingers.

“What did you find down there?" Rivas asked, just loud enough for Harry to hear.

“Whatever did this isn't the Prell, but I fear it's something much worse," Harry replied, staring straight at the viewer. “Jakar, can you cut that damn noise? Switch to visual alerts only."

“Aye, sir," Jakar grunted, quickly muting the klaxon.

“Thank you," Harry sighed.

“Care to share what you think it is with the rest of the class?" Rivas asked, still keeping his voice low.

Harry glared at him and then returned his stare straight ahead. “Only when I feel it's necessary. This situation is stressful enough and I don't want to be unintentionally making it worse."

“The Prell warbird has entered orbit, sir," Jakar reported.

“Very well. Helm, keep our distance," Harry ordered.

“Aye, sir," Kyle replied.

On screen, the massive silvery predatory bird-like form of the Prell warship pulled over them and took its place in orbit.

“What are they doing?" Harry inquired of O'mara, keeping his eyes on the screen.

“They are scanning the crater, as well as the debris cloud," O'mara reported. She looked into her sensor scope. “They've deployed teams to the surface."

“Hardly the actions of a conqueror," Harry said darkly.

“I will admit, their behavior does seem to indicate curiosity more than hostility," Rivas said.

Harry nodded. “Lt. Perry, if possible, would you be able to deliver a data packet for transmission to the subspace relay so we can let the Aether and Intrepid know what we found and have them relay it to Fleet Admin without blowing our cover?"

“Possibly," Lt. Perry replied hesitantly. “It would be difficult, but I might be able to?"

“We've got a lot of people on this ship to help you figure it out," Harry said, “I'm sure you can find help. Hop to it, Lieutenant."

“Yes, sir," Lt. Perry said, getting up and leaving the bridge.

Harry inwardly sighed. Sometimes he really missed having Terri around. He saw Rivas in his peripherals. He could almost smell the tinge of doubt Rivas was projecting at the moment. Harry put on his best poker face and leaned back in his chair. It didn't matter what he was feeling. If his fear seeped into the rest of the command chain, the entire ship would fall apart. That was not something he could allow to happen.

* * *

Terri exited a turbolift and made her way towards the Intrepid's holodeck. So far, it appeared their little ruse was working. They'd been picking up Prell vessels tracking them, but they were staying on their side of the border. It had made for an overly tense day, not knowing if they were going to be attacked or not. She needed to dive back into the comfort of her self-created fantasy and forget about the tension for a while.

“Captain," she heard Lt. Plex's voice as she rounded the corner. Plex was waiting by the holodeck.

“What are you doing here?" Terri asked.

“You said you would be in your ready room," Plex said disapprovingly.

“I changed my mind," Terri said.

“Indeed," Plex said, raising a brow. “Captain, if I may, you have logged over 20 plus hours a week in the holodeck consistently for the last few weeks. This is time you should be using to rest, all things considered. I am concerned for your wellbeing."

“I go in there to relax," Terri said calmly, emphasizing each word.

“What is it, the simulation I mean? If I may ask?"

“A meditation program," Terri lied.

“One that you designed?" Plex probed further, unmoving, keeping one set of arms behind her and the other folded over her chest.

“Of course," Terri said idly, “there's nothing wrong about that."

“There are over five thousand distinct meditation programs, each designed by Starfleet Medical Administrations. If you desire to meditate, you should use one of those."

Terri gritted her teeth, but tried to keep her composure. “I am fine with what I am doing. Now, do you need something else or can I go have my time?"

“As you wish, sir," Plex said, “I will pass my concerns on to our chief medical officer. They should be aware of anything that may lead to a problem. I wanted to make sure you knew. Try to relax, sir. We need you."

With that, Plex nodded, walked past Terri and around the bend in the corridor. Terri, teeth still gritted so hard it was starting to hurt her jaw. How dare she? It wasn't her business to know what Terri was doing in the holodeck. Perhaps, yes, she was spending a concerning amount of time in the holodeck, but it was still under the recommended limit. She was trying to manage herself. It was just easy to go back to how things were, to leave her grief and pain behind…if only for a few hours at a time.

Terri jabbed her finger hard into the door controls and slipped through the double doors of the holodeck. She quickly loaded her program and locked the door. Before she got pregnant, it was easy to run from the pain. There were recreational drugs, alcohol, various paramores or a mix of all the above. It was different now. When it was just her own health, she didn't care. Now that she was bearing a life within her–one that she treasured and loved–she didn't want to do anything to endanger it.

The computer announced the program was loaded. The simulated family quarters on Starbase 186 materialized before her. Jack was sitting on the couch, playing his game console. He paused the game and stood up to greet her.

“Hey you! How was your day?"

Terri smiled as she forced herself to push away reality and become lost in the echo of what might have been. “Oh…it's been a hell of a day Jonathan."

“You look tired," he said, walking up to her and embracing her.

Terri breathed in his simulated scent. She had programmed that detail into the matrix. It had been tricky, but she managed it. She let out a contented sigh and held onto him after he'd ended the embrace.

“Wow…um…it must have been a bad one." Jack chuckled, running his hand along her face, under her spines, brushing her ear. “Look, I got off late too. Wanna do takeout tonight?"

Terri nodded enthusiastically. “I really don't want to go anywhere," she said, burying her face in his shoulder and tearing up slightly. “I just want to be here with you."

“Hey, hey! No tears. You're home now, leave it out there, yeah?" Jack said, trying to comfort her.

Terri nodded, sniffling and wiping her eyes. “Pizza would be fine."

“You got it!" Jack said happily. “Veggie or Meat?"

“Veggie."

Jack's face sank into an almost comical pout. “Can I at least get some bacon bits on it?"

Terri giggled. “Sure! On your half though. Don't forget to order it this time. Look, I need to get off my feet. Can you take care of it?"

“Yes ma'am!" Jack said with a salute.

Terri sat down on the couch, kicked her boots off, laid back, and sighed. Maybe Plex was right to be concerned. Maybe this was turning into an addiction. If it was, she didn't care. At least, in the holodeck, she could find some solace.

In the background, she could hear Jack placing the order. She couldn't help but smile as she heard him whisper, almost conspiratorially, that he wanted bacon bits on half of the pizza. Addiction or not, this was what she wanted.

* * *

“Captain?" Perry's voice crashed into Harry's thoughts. He blinked and looked at her.

“Yes?"

“I talked to Lt. Rydel," Perry said, “I've got the packet ready for transmission."

“Good job. I hope you learned a trick or two from her," Harry said, smiling.

“It was a bit more complicated than I thought," Perry admitted, “but I took plenty of notes."

“Take your station. We can't break orbit yet as we're waiting to see what our friends are doing," Harry said, turning his attention back to the monitor.

Perry nodded and hurried back to the communications station.

“O'mara, any change?" Harry asked

“They've got several teams down there investigating the crater," O'mara reported. “They seem to be just as curious about what happened as we are."

“It would be nice if they would move on," Rivas growled.

“I agree. We're losing time. We need to see if the same thing has happened on their side, but we can't break orbit without being detected with them being so close," Harry muttered. “Commander Rivas, did Fara ever get Number 2 taken care of?"

“Yes, she did," Don replied.

Harry nodded. At least that was one concern he didn't have to worry about.

“Captain, they're retrieving their away teams," O'mara spoke up.

“About damn time," Harry groused. “Helm, as soon as they break orbit, swing us by that subspace relay so we can transmit our message. Jakar, get a track on that vessel's course and we'll follow them."

“Aye, sir," Jakar replied.

Harry felt his hand tapping the edge of his chair's arm. He glanced down, afraid of what he knew he would find. His hand was shaking uncontrollably. In a moment, his mind began to wander to an earlier time…a time when all this was all too familiar….

Back to his last days on the Phoenix….

"We'll be arriving at Iridor Prime in a few minutes." Harry heard the Cabaran navigator–Ensign Sikes–reported as he entered the bridge and took his place at the Engineering terminal. The red alert lights were still flashing, although the klaxxon had been silenced. Alert situations had always made him tense. The flashing lights were bad enough. The sound was just torture.

"Glad you could join us, Chief," Commander Tara Torres said, noting his nervousness.

“I would have been here sooner, but the containment beam needed adjustment. Apologies, sir," Harry said. He called up the master systems display and eyeballed his engines carefully, hoping he had fixed the problem.

The Phoenix was an old ship and she always had problems. Her problems were his problems. Everytime he resolved something, she'd present another to him. At least his promotion to Chief Engineer had been anything but monotonous.

“When it comes to this ship, Harry, if you are on top of it, it makes me feel a lot better." Tara smiled at him. “Lieutenant Decima, any luck trying to raise the colony?"

“Negative, Commander. I'm still trying on all frequencies," the Bem Communications Officer replied.

"It could be the Prell, you know. We're only five light years from this system. I've heard that many ships passing through this region disappear and aren't heard from again." Harry mused, quickly making sure the plasma injectors were functioning properly.

"Those are unconfirmed rumors, Chief," Tara chuckled. “I'm sure they probably think the same thing about us."

"Well, they did engage the Federation in a war 15 years ago," Harry said evenly.

"And since then there hasn't been more than a peep from them since," Tara replied. “I think you are worrying too much."

“Well, you would know. It comes with this job." Harry smirked at her.

“Touche."

"We're closing on the system…dropping out of warp. Going to impulse," Ensign Sikes spoke up.

"Good. Tactical, scan the area for any vessels. Communications, keep hailing the colony."

"Aye, sir!"

On the screen, a small, dark world at the end of the solar system passed by on the screen as the Phoenix entered the system. Tara stood up out of the command chair and walked over to the con, standing beside it. "Set course for the fourth planet of the system," she said, "Captain Tinga to the bridge."

Within a few moments, they arrived at the planet just as the Captain entered the bridge. He was a middle aged echidna with red fur and narrow, suspicious eyes. "Status report."

"We are still receiving no reply to our hailing attempts. We assume their transmitters are damaged or destroyed. We've scanned the area for any hostels, but haven't detected any yet."

"Take us into orbit, Mr. Sikes," he said as Decima came over to him and handed him a datapad.

“Lt. Lantry, anything on the sensors yet?" Tinga asked the tactical officer.

“Nothing yet," the Avian replied. “If there had been, you would have been the first to know."

“Damn peculiar, all of it," Captain Tinga growled, skimming the information on the datapad. “Raise the shields, just in case. If there is something out there I don't want them getting the drop on us." Tinga leaned back and mused silently as Iridor Prime grew large in the viewer. After a few moments, Sikes announced that they had achieved orbit.

Tara stood over next to the science station, watching the science officer work, curious as anyone to know what was going on.

“I don't believe it," the female Altarian Lt. Vera gasped. “Commander…you are seeing this too…right?"

Tara blinked, her jaw moving, but no sound was coming out.

“What has you two so worried over there?" Tinga inquired.

"Sir…I've scanned the planet…and I'm not picking up any signs of the settlement at all. It's just plain gone…just a giant crater where it once was."

"Put it on screen," Tinga ordered.

On the screen, the image flickered as it magnified on the location of the settlement. Instead of a settlement, there was a large crater. The viewer was slowly panning around the edges of the crater. Roads that used to lead to the settlement were now dead ends. Fractions of fields remained, hovering on the edge of the brink. More than that, there was nothing, just a city-sized hole in the ground.

"It's gone…completely gone," Tara mused.

"Any signs of survivors, remaining equipment, structures, anything?" Tinga asked

"None sir," Vera replied quickly, running multiple scans.

"Captain," Tara said, “may I request an away team to beam down to the site and search for any survivors that might be down there?"

Tinga nodded, still glaring at the screen. "Granted."

"Harry, Lantry, Vera, you're with me," Tara said, heading for the turbolift. "Bridge to sickbay, prepare a medical team and meet us in Transporter Room 3."

Harry logged off his station and gave her an incredulous look as he followed her into the turbolift.

“Commander," he said respectfully as the doors closed and Tara told the computer to take them to the Transporter Rooms. “I think I would be more useful up here."

“Harry, you can't always hide on the ship," Tara said with a faint smile. “We're not detecting anything hostile at the moment, plus I could use your eye on a tricorder to help Vera figure out what went on down there." She gave him a full smile. “Besides, I still owe you for saving my butt back on Algion. I can't do anything to save your life if you stay up here all the time."

Vera and Lantry chuckled at that. Harry threw a quick glare at them.

“Believe me, I've had my fill of adventure long before I joined Starfleet," he grumbled. “I like being in Engineering. At least there the surprises are somewhat predictable."

“Harry, you can't let one narrow scrape make you timid," Tara said, quickly looking at Vera. “Algion was like, what, my tenth?"

Vera snoted, still smiling. “At least!"

“Twelfth by my count," Lantry noted.

“See? I'm still here. I must be good luck, so you'll be fine," Tara said confidently as the doors opened and they headed across the corridor to the Transporter Rooms.

* * *

Harry's thoughts snapped back to the present. With a glare, and some concentrated effort, he forced his hand into a clenched fist. He tried to focus on that fist, taking hold of what felt like he could control in the moment. “Look alive people. We've got a long haul ahead of us."

He could feel eyes on him and glanced over his right shoulder. Rivas' stare couldn't hide his doubt. Harry unclenched his fist. He realized Rivas must have seen Harry's little flashback.

"Commander Rivas, I will be in my ready room if you need me," he said, quickly getting up and heading off the bridge.

"Of course, Captain," Rivas said, watching him go.

O'mara glanced at Rivas and raised an eyebrow. Rivas' hackles were sticking straight out.

“Commander?" She asked levelly. “Is there something wrong?"

“More…amiss." He frowned at the doors through which Harry had disappeared. “Does something seem a bit off with the Captain?"

“Maybe a little? If he were an Avian, he would be molting up a storm right now." O'mara smiled. “I've never really seen him so on edge before."

“Me neither," Rivas said, drumming his fingers on the back of the Captain's chair. “Somethings wrong. He knows what it is…the thing that scooped the Starbase off the surface…and he's not telling us."

“If it bothers you that much, sir," Jakar grunted, “perhaps you should go speak with him."

“I think I will, Jakar," Rivas said. “O'mara you have the con."

As Rivas left, Michelle gingerly climbed up into the con as Ensign Rosa arrived to take Rivas' station. She noticed that Perry and Kyle were looking around nervously. The mood on the bridge had soured and now it was her problem. The only one it didn't seem to affect was Jakar, who had returned to talking to someone in engineering about phaser array modifications over the com.

“Alright, we all have our jobs to do," O'mara said as confidently as she could. "Helm, what is our ETA to the relay?"

"Five minutes, Commander." Danny replied, refocusing on the task at hand.

"Lt. Perry, be ready to initiate the transmission as soon as we're close enough to do it discreetly."

"Yes, sir," Perry said with a small nod, checking her station, making sure she was ready to go.

"Ensign Rosa, since you just got here, please help Jakar keep an eye out. He's going to be busy tracking the Prell warship."

"Aye, Commander," Rosa replied crisply.

Michelle sat back in the chair, giving her head a little shake to annoyedly shed a few molted feathers off. She glared at the offending plumage as it gently floated to the floor. She was trying her best, dammit all! But, even with her concentrated effort, she couldn't fool her own body.

* * *

Harry's thoughts plowed back into the past as he entered his ready room.

Several hours had passed since they returned from the surface. Harry now sat in the ship board lounge, drinking a Cherry Fizz, staring out at the stars as they streaked by. He was trying to relax. Currently, the Phoenix was following an ionization trail that led away from the planet. They were hoping to find the culprits behind the attack.

What he saw on the planet really bothered him. The notion that four thousand people had been going about their everyday lives, never expecting anything to happen to them, only to be torn from their world and taken to…well one could only imagine. He was starting to ponder why anyone would traverse space when the risk was so high. What were they doing out here in the first place? More importantly, why was he out here?

That, as it turned out, was a stupid question to ask himself. He furrowed his brows as he took a drink. The first thing that came to mind was that he wanted to be out here. He'd worked hard to be out here. This was his career, his duty. He wasn't about to let a case of the jitters make him lose focus.

Just as he started picking away at his own motivations, looking for plot holes in his own logic, a form blotted out the star-field, then took a seat in front of him.

"Hey, how are you holding up?" Tara asked. She was dressed in her off duty attire as she settled into her seat.

"I'm…doing better," he replied, setting his drink down.

Tara smiled. “Ah, the old reliable Fizz. At least you aren't self medicating with something harder."

“I'm fine."Harry shrugged and smiled slightly at her.

"I know you better than that. You look totally shell shocked," Tara said, interlacing her fingers and leaning forward on the table.

She was right, she did know him. Their relationship hadn't started on the best of terms either.

When Harry had first come onboard, he'd found her overbearing, pushy, and a bit obnoxious. However, as time went on, they warmed up to each other. Things heated up even more after that, finding themselves as unexpected lovers. Their tryst lasted until Captain Tinga had put his foot down on inter-crew relationships. For now, at least while they were on the Phoenix, friendship was as close as they could get.

“Fine…it got to me, alright? All those people…just gone," Harry said, shaking his head slowly.

“If it makes you feel any better, you aren't the only one who is shaken." Tara sighed, letting some of her own stress show on her forehead. "Everything just gone like that? But, Harry? Don't dwell on it. The universe is not a forgiving place. If you dwell on that, it will eat you up inside out. If you want to be a commander some day, you gotta learn to deal with it."

"Well, at the moment, I can't just 'deal with it' okay?" He snapped, slightly annoyed even though he knew Tara was trying to help.

Tara sighed like she was winding up to say something supportive, but she was cut off by the screech of the klaxons. The lights went red as the ship suddenly went into red alert.

"Red alert! All bridge officers report to stations immediately!" Decima's voice came over the com.

Tara jumped to her feet. “Duty calls Harry. Let's go!"

* * *

Harry was jared from his thoughts as his door chime sounded.

“Come in," Harry said.

The doors parted and Rivas had stepped inside.

“What can I do for you, Commander?" Harry asked.

"Captain, permission to speak freely?" Rivas asked as he approached Harry's desk.

"Granted," Harry said.

"Mind telling me what the hell is going on? You've been lapsing since you got back from planetside. Then I look over and I see you doing something I've seen old veterans doing on their bad days. Care to explain?"

Harry opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a bottle of Alterian whiskey, two tumblers, and an ice bucket. “Sit down, Don."

“Sir?" Rivas' confusion was only slightly dampened by the smile the sight of whisky brought to his face.

“I said, sit," Harry said with the ghost of a smile, “don't make me order it."

“Alright…I'm game," Rivas said, sitting down across from him.

Harry poured them each two fingers and handed Rivas a glass. After taking a sip, Harry leaned back, tapping his glass on the desk.

Don decided to risk a small bit of sarcasm. “I didn't think you drank anything but fizzy water, sir."

The risk was rewarded with a chuckle from Harry. “I drink what the situation warrants. Never too much though. A swig of this will do the trick." Harry sighed, finally letting his glass come to rest on the desk. “Just enough to take the edge off."

“I'm honored you let me in on the occasion, sir," Don said.

Harry's eyes remained fixed on a distant point. “What do you know about the Borg?"

“Not much, the reports are hard to get a hold of," Rivas admitted. “I know they are dangerous, some sort of cybernetic humanoid. Apparently it's where our ship gets its more interesting traits from, but that's about as much as they let me know. Why? Is there something you know that I don't?"

Harry stared hard at his drink sloshing it about slowly. “A lot actually, more than I care to go into."

Don took a drink from his own tumbler. “So, what can you go into?"

“When you are growing up, you are always told there are no such things as monsters. These…things…they're monsters…real ones. They're a hivemind society. When they find something they want, they take it…especially people. They take everything you are and throw it away so they can assimilate what they want into their collective." Harry downed the remainder of his glass. “There's a reason they are designated a Class 1 threat."

Except for the distant thunder of the ship's engines, it was silent. The ice shifted in the bucket and Rivas shifted in his seat, trying to read Harry. The Captain's face was a wall with nothing written on it.

“How do you know this?" Rivas asked.

“Because they took my Captain…and they made him into one of them." Harry's hand started shaking and cracks appeared in the wall…a twitch of the eye, a slight clench of his jaw. “The logs state he was in command at the battle of Mirrodor Prime, but he wasn't. Commander Torress was."

“Oh…I see," Don said, taking a huge swig from his glass and immediately recoiling from the sting. “Honestly, the Gideon got there just as the cube exploded. Other than rescue and salvage operations, I have nothing to go on other than the official reports."

“Don't feel too bad. Until recently, I thought I remembered things accurately, but…." Harry shook his head, setting his glass gingerly on the desk. “I think some things are being hauled into the light."

“Sir?"

“Remember when I told you that Amelia did something to me?" Harry asked. “She got inside my head…she made me experience something?"

Rivas nodded slowly. “Yes, I do recall that."

“I don't think it was my imagination, what I saw when she did that," Harry said darkly. “I think it was something I forced myself to forget…something I buried."

“Fuck! I mean…sorry, sir," Don said with a gulp, suddenly wishing his glass wasn't empty. “So…you really experienced that?"

“That's still a theory," Harry said dismissively. “However, what I know for certain is that what we saw on Kalyndra is exactly what those monsters do."

“And yet none of this is in the official reports," Don said slowly. His mind was grimly arriving at a conclusion he didn't like.

“I know. Fara probably knows some of it, Jakar knows some of it too," Harry said. “Now you know too."

Suddenly a com chime sounded and Harry toggled a button on his desk. “Yes, Commander, what is it?"

“Lt. Perry reports the data has been transmitted. Jakar managed to keep a lock on the Prell vessel and we're underway following it." O'mara reported.

“Very good, Commander. I will be back on the bridge shortly. Carry on," Harry said, closing the channel. “Now you see why I didn't want to discuss this in the open." Harry gave Rivas a slight smile. “If I'd revealed this out there, the entire bridge would be covered in feathers."

Rivas chuckled, setting his glass on the desk. “I don't blame you for avoiding that. Michelle handles things a lot better when she doesn't see them coming."

Harry was about to respond when his chime went off.

“Feerraaah to Martinezz." Fara's voice slurred over the com.

Harry frowned, at the clear slur in her voice. “Yes Chief? What is it?"

“Isss done." There was a hiccup and then Fara continued. “Number two iss good to go!"

“Fara…are you drunk?"

“What? No! Who say–says–said I'm drunk?" Fara replied indignantly.

Harry put his face in the palms of both his hands and shook his head. “Go to Doctor Okan, get a Soberall now before I have Jakar toss your ass in the brig. Then report to the bridge, immediately."

“Hmmph! Killjoy," Fara mumbled. “Alright! I'm goin'!"

She closed the channel.

“You probably should put her in the brig, sir. She is violating protocol," Rivas said before he noticed Harry was now gently banging his forehead against his desk. “The regulations are very specific about being intoxicated on duty after all."

“She couldn't even make it one week," Harry muttered, running his hands through his spines.

“Well, to be honest, sir, are you really surprised?" Rivas grinned. “Most of us didn't even give her a day."

Harry muttered something indistinguishable then sat up. “I suppose not. However, I don't exactly see anyone volunteering to go down there and do that disgusting job in the Chamber of Horrors, so I'm willing to give her a little leeway, as long as she's sober once she reaches the bridge."

“I think you go too easy on her sometimes," said Rivas, “but that's just my opinion, Captain."

“You know as well as I do you can only push her so far," Harry said, getting up, grabbing the two empty glasses, setting them in the replicator and disintegrating them before stowing the bottle back in the desk. “Besides, we're bending the rules ourselves at the moment."

“I suppose we are, sir, but I won't tell if you won't." Rivas smirked. “Captain's discretion and all that."

“Indeed," Harry said with a smile. “Go on ahead. I'll be back up in a little bit. Oh, and brush any stray feathers off the chair when you get there?"

“Yes sir," Rivas said with a nod as he left.

Harry sighed and leaned back in his seat, drumming his fingers slowly across the desk's surface. He knew he could trust Rivas to not cause a panic on the ship. More than that, Don had a right to know what was going on as First Officer.

Suddenly, Harry felt a sharp pain as his finger snagged on something. He looked at his finger, expecting a cut, but his finger was undamaged. Looking down at his desk, he noticed a piece of glass was missing from his console's control panel, which was embedded in the desk's face.

The little empty space his finger had found seemed to loom large as he started at it. Something about it was sucking him in. Suddenly, a similar shape appeared in his mind. Brow crinkling, he glanced under his desk to see if the missing piece was on the floor. How long had the damage been there? Surely he should have seen it if it was there before. There was nothing on the floor. Sitting up, Harry quickly pulled open the small drawer and rummaged around inside. Maybe he had found it earlier and shoved it in there? A damaged panel seemed like something he would have reported, or at least kept the pieces of.

The only thing he found was the small piece of plasteel glass that he'd found on the beach on Termia. Somehow it had escaped from the little tin he kept it in. He lifted the little fragment out of the drawer and regarded it for a moment. His heart started to race. He could feel his breath going shallow. The longer he started, the more the little shard demanded that he recognize it.

The piece was just the right shape to fit in the hole on the panel.

Lightheaded and trembling, his breath rattling in his chest, he pushed himself to move his hand towards the mini-chasm on his desk. The shard slid in perfectly. Without warning, the display lit up as the plasteel made contact and the long dormant circuit was completed. The numbers lined up perfectly. There was no mistaking it. What he had always assumed was a 35 on the fragment was actually an 85…the missing member of the display he didn't even know could light up. It brightly stated:

USS RAPTOR NCC 38565

The com chime sounded and Harry nearly jumped out of his skin.

“Captain to the Bridge!" Rivas suddenly announced.

Harry took a quick breath to steady himself before he replied. “I'm on my way," Harry said, quickly getting out of his chair and fleeing the ready room.

Harry arrived on the bridge and glanced to his right to find Fara had done as she was told. She was looking a bit groggy and slapping her face gently, trying to expedite the effects of the Soberall. He glared at her as he passed. She stuck her tongue out at him in defiance.

“Captain, Lt. Perry detected a distress call from a nearby Prell colony, our friend out there has altered course to respond, we're matching course." Rivas reported getting out of the Captain's chair and taking his station at Ops.

“Any idea where we're heading?" Harry asked.

“It's in Prell space. We have yet to chart it," O'mara replied.

“Right, stupid question," Harry said, feeling a bit silly. Damint! Get your shit together! He growled internally. “Lieutenant Perry, what's the nature of the distress call?" Harry asked as he took his place in the Captain's chair.

“They claim they're under attack, but they aren't very specific. The signal keeps cutting out." Perry responded. “It was very short, just a brief call for help and then nothing."

“Helm, ETA?"

Kyle glanced at a screen. “Thirty minutes at warp 8."

Suddenly, on the viewer, the Prell ship began to pull ahead through warp space.

“The Prell vessel has increased velocity to warp 9.5," Jakar announced.

Harry whistled nervously. It wasn't very comforting to know that those frightful ships could overtake them. “Ok…we'll just stay on their tail as best we can then."

“Harry?" Fara spoke up.

“Yes Chief?"

“If you need speed, I can get us to warp nine," Fara said confidently with a bit of haggardness. She was coping with the effects of the Soberall. “If we cut life support to non-essential areas and reroute the power to the structural integrity field, we can push to warp nine. It'll be a little bit of a rough ride, but she can take it."

Harry nodded. “How long will it take?"

“I can make the modifications to the warp field from here. I just need authorization."

“Make it happen, Chief."

Fara nodded and quickly went to work. After a few moments she looked up. “It's done. Put the hammer down when you're ready."

“You heard the Chief Mr. Kyle, warp 9!" Harry ordered.

“Aye, sir," Kyle responded.

The deck shuddered a bit and the lights flickered. Harry glanced at Fara.

“It's fine, nothing to worry about…I think," she said. Suddenly an overhead conduit shorted out, raining sparks down on the bridge. Harry's glance was quickly becoming a concerned glare. Fara turned in her station and furiously started working while barking orders down to Engineering.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the Intrepid

“Bridge to Commander Lu," Plex's voice said over her combadge.

Terri groggily opened her eyes. She'd fallen asleep cuddled up with the holographic Land.

“Yes! What is it?" She growled, tapping her combadge.

“Prell warships have been detected on long range sensors. We need you up here immediately."

“Understood," Terri said, getting up.

“Gotta go again?" Jack asked groggily, yawning and stretching.

Terri nodded. “I'll see you in a bit. They need me on the bridge."

“Knock 'em dead babe!" Land said with a smile.

“I always do," Terri smiled before leaving.

Plex got up out of the Conn and took her station as Terri arrived on the bridge.

“Status of those warships please," Terri asked as she took her seat.

“Three Prell warships are closing to match a parallel course at high warp to ours on their side of the border," Baxter reported.

“Relax and focus. This is nothing unusual for them." Terri said.

“I'm not a fan of their speed," Baxter said.

“Does the Aether see them?"

Baxter checked her console again. “Yes, they are hailing them."

“Plex, just keep running your scans. Munro, fly casually," Terri ordered.

“Commander, should I raise the shields…just in case they start shooting?" Baxter asked.

Terri shook her head. “Negative. We need to act like we're a science ship doing its job, nothing more. Let Captain De'sol handle it."

“The Prell ships have brought their weapons online and the Aether is raising their shields."

“Do the same Baxter," said Terri. “Munro, plot a course to get us out of here."

“Incoming message from Captain De'Sol," Baxter replied.

“On screen."

“They are not in the mood to talk and they're making a direct line for us. You had better make yourself scarce." Jayna said on the screen, bracing as a weapons volley struck her vessel's shields. “We'll cover you. Rendezvous at the Orso system."

“Understood," Terri said. “Ensign Munro, set course for the Orso system, maximum warp!"

As the three Prell ships closed on them, the Intrepid jumped to warp. The Aether soon followed, firing a few parting shots at the Prell to get them to break off their pursuit.

* * *

“Captain, we are approaching the coordinates of the distress signal," Kyle reported.

“Match their deceleration as best you can," Harry said. “I don't want to collide with that ship out there."

“Aye, sir," Kyle replied, bringing the ship out of warp flight.

Suddenly, something struck the Raptor and several proximity alarms went off.

“What the hell did we hit?" Harry barked as the Raptor rolled laterally into a sharp dive and another object struck the hull.

“Debris! Looks like the remains of several Prell warships!" Rivas shouted over the cacophony of alarms.

“Fara! Make sure the cloaking device is holding!" Harry snapped as he felt the ship juke violently again. Harry opened his mouth to fire off an order to Ensign Kyle, but paused. For a fleeting moment Kyle wasn't in the pilot seat. Land was sitting there. Harry blinked and realized it was Ensign Kyle's posture that had conjured the illusion. The young echidna had the same rigid shoulders, the same tilt of the head, a very similar fluid motion in his arms as he manipulated the controls. Biting his tongue just a bit, Harry decided to let Ensign Kyle follow his gut.

“We've got power fluctuations all over the board Harry," Fara reported. “I'm not sure if we're still cloaked or not…I'm going to have to get down there and see what's going on!"

“Go!" Harry snapped.

Fara started to move, but the ship shifted violently again. She fell into the command chair, but Harry was able to catch her before she hit the floor. She gave him a grateful look and then quickly made her way to the door.

“Mister Kyle, I appreciate your skill, but if you could find a safe spot to park it would be greatly appreciated!" Harry shouted.

Kyle merely nodded and suddenly the ship lurched to a stop. “All stop…sir!" Kyle panted, hands shaking a little as he loosened his arms at last.

“Jakar, I need to see what's going on out there!"

“One moment," Jakar grunted, trying to keep his eyes on the cloaking devices' wavering functionality. “On screen," he finally reported.

The screen was filled with the burning, shattered remains of at least a dozen Prell ships. Many of them looked like they had been cut to pieces and tossed aside. It didn't take much reasoning to figure out what they had collided with as they observed the debris field around them now.

Harry glared at the screen. “Where's the ship we were following?"

“About seven thousand kilometers off port, astern," Jakar reported.

“It looks like they caught something in the wrong spot," said Rivas as he watched his sensors. “They must have suffered a direct hit at high velocity. Our sensors are showing massive power fluctuations all over their vessel."

“Any chance they spotted us?" Harry asked.

“I'd be surprised if they did," Rivas replied. “It looks like whatever they hit struck pretty close to their bridge. I think they're more preoccupied with that at the moment, if they're even still alive."

Harry hit his com. “Bridge to Phoenix, what's the status of the cloaking device?"

“It's still functioning, but we're going to have to do some repairs to the power relays. We're on it." Fara replied.

“O'mara, can you scan for a phased ionization trail," Harry suddenly said, looking over to her.

O'mara looked at him with a quizzical expression. “Aye, sir…but why? That's highly unusual."

“Just trust me on this, please," Harry said.

O'mara nodded and got to work doing as she was asked.

“What do we do about the ship out there?" Rivas asked.

“We can't do anything about them. Even if we were to help them, they probably would take it the wrong way and open fire. We have to stay out of sight." Harry muttered.

Rivas lowered his voice so only Harry could hear him again. “Do you think that what did this…."

“I'll know when O'mara finds what I'm looking for," Harry said in an equally low tone

“Sir?" O'mara spoke up. “I found it. There is a phased ionization trail leading away from here on a course of 98 mark 350. How did you know that would be there, sir?"

Harry sighed, nodding slowly. "As soon as we can get underway, we need to follow that trail. Commander O'mara, transfer that course to the helm. Mister Kyle–"

"Belay that! Both of you!" Rivas barked. Harry turned on Rivas, glaring.

"Sir, our orders were to ascertain what was causing the disturbance. I believe we have what we came for," Rivas said standing his ground. "We need to return to Confederation space, not follow some trail deeper into hostile space, risking making this situation worse."

"You are right, Commander," Harry said, relenting after a moment of thought. "O'mara, log your findings and a best estimate on the direction of that trail. Once that's done, compile everything and send it to me. I need to get a report ready for Stafleet."

"Yes, sir. I'll do the best I can," O'mara replied.

Harry tapped in the coordinates for their rendezvous with the task force and sent them to the helm. "Mister Kyle, when she's done, best possible speed to the coordinates I just sent you."

"Aye, sir," Kyle replied.

Harry stood and smoothed out his uniform. “You have the con, Commander," he said to Rivas. “If anything requires my attention, I'll be in my ready room."

“Of course, sir," Rivas said.

O'mara waited until Harry had left and turned to Rivas. “So? Are you going to let me in on what's going on or do I have to figure it out on my own?" She asked quietly.

“Let's keep things on a need-to-know basis, Commander," Rivas said. “I know enough to fill you in later."

“Ah…one of those things. Got it," O'mara replied.

* * *

Harry leaned against the viewport in his ready room. He needed somewhere to think, to breathe, to reflect. He stared hard out at the stars hoping the universe would grant him some sort of mercy to this miserable day. He found himself hoping his eye's didn't see something akin to “abandon all hope" jaggedly scratched, in his own handwriting, into the glass. The idea, however, did make him smirk to himself just a little.

Worse than anything else on his mind was the knowledge that they were out there…somewhere. That simple concept made his skin crawl. It was all happening again…the ionization trail, the destruction of the Prell like they were nothing, a species who were on even footing, if not slightly better, than their own technology.

Were the Borg stronger now? Was there more than just one ship? One cube, alone, had destroyed several Confederation ships and three Keldryian Cruisers. If there was more than one cube….

To many questions, to many unknowns, and he hated every bit of it.

Harry's door chime sounded, causing him to flinch.

“Come in!"

The doors parted and Fara stepped inside.

“You're doing the viewport thing again? I can come back later," Fara said, starting to turn back.

“No, no," Harry said, turning to face her and straightening his uniform. “What is it, Fara?"

Fara, instead of taking the seat in front of his desk, sat on the edge of his desk. “Remind me to buy the Dock Crew of Starbase Altairia a really nice meal next time we swing by. They do some damn fine work! I have checked everything and despite the collision and the taxing of the engines, the Raptor is doing just fine."

“So you have nothing to report?"

“Nope! Just some minor damage, paint mostly, oh, and we had to install a hull patch on the lower starboard side of the saucer." Fara shrugged. “I've heard you've been a bit on edge. Care to let me in?"

Harry thought about it for a second and sighed. “If anyone needs to know what's going on, you do."

“Oh? You've got my attention."

“I believe the Borg are out there, in this sector."

“Really?" Fara yelped, her ears drooping as she shuddered. “Well…I assumed it would work…we're using their own tricks against them after all. However, beyond simulations, this hybrid tech we're playing with here? No one knows how well this stuff is gonna do against them. I mean, we know it works on Urthrean ships…if nothing else."

“I understand that, Chief. In your time working with the Raptor's stolen techn, have you learned anything that could be done to disable their technology in case that fails?"

“A few things here and there." Fara shrugged. “I know a few tricks to shut our stuff off in a pinch, but I'm sure it could be applied against them."

“Can you get with Jakar and see what you two can come up with?"

“Sure."

“Excellent. Now, about earlier. I'm well aware of your little post-maintenance 'ritual' but you rarely go overboard with it. Care to explain what happened?" Harry asked, trying to be patient. The fact that she had sat on his desk was her little way of trying to goad him. It was having the desired effect.

Fara flushed with embarrassment. “Yeah…about that. I took one of the newbies with me to do the 'feeding' and we sort of hit it off. Ensign Bosch, in fact. We just started talking and the booze kept flowing and I lost track of what I was doing. I'm sorry. I know it was a big faux-paz. I won't do it again."

Harry blinked. “Wait…did you…did you just apologize?"

“You heard me," Fara smirked. “I'm not going to repeat my mistake."

“I think the biggest mistake you made was trying to keep up with a Cabarran," Harry said, tapping the side of his head. “Especially that one. She could probably drink Jakar under the table."

“I doubt that. That old grouch drinks stuff I could clean engine parts with." Fara chuckled as she hopped off his desk. “I suppose I should get back to work."

Harry nodded.

“Are you going to come out and join us or ruminate?" Fara asked over her shoulder as the doors parted for her.

“I'll be out in a bit. I just have a lot on my mind right now," Harry said with a slight smile. “Working through it."

“Don't work on it too long. People may start to talk," Fara said, passing through the ready room doors. “I'll try to come up with something to knock your socks off."

Taking a deep breath, he dove back into his memories, trying to recall anything that might help them with the upcoming confrontation.

* * *

The Phoenix had been following the ionization trial, but more disturbingly they had been following a trail of debris as well. Vehicles, buildings, machinery, chunks of rock, all pieces of civilization that had been discarded by whatever had taken the colony.

Harry stood at his post on the bridge, keeping an eye on the ship's engines, trying to keep his mind off the morbid images on the viewer a few moments before. He looked around the bridge. Everyone else seemed to be minding their own business. Vera, the Altairian Science Officer, seemed in a good mood despite the morbidity of the situation. It wasn't the first time he'd seen her like this. He sometimes envied her enthusiasm for hurtling through the unknown.

“Captain, I have something on long range sensors!" Vera suddenly spoke up. “It appears to be a cubical hull composed of…unknown materials and…it's immense. It's a little over three kilometers on every side."

“Three kilometers?" Tara whistled. “That's impressive."

“Indeed," Tinga said. “Are we close enough to get a visual?"

“Yes, a moment please, sir," Vera said, working her controls.

“Captain, we'll be intercepting the unidentified vessel in about thirty seconds." Sikes said over his shoulder.

“Very well, Ensign. Bring us out of warp about 100,000 kilometers from the cube and we'll proceed on impulse."

“Aye, sir."

The Phoenix dropped out of warp and proceeded slowly towards the cubical vessel looming before them.

“Anything Lieutenant Vera?" Tinga asked.

"The vessel seems to be inoperable at the moment. Although I'm not detecting any damage on their hull. I'm detecting no power source either. It must be powered down." Vera glanced down at her readings again. “There's a debris cloud around the vessel. It appears to be composed of raw materials used in our buildings along with metric tons of minerals from the planet's surface. Those minerals in a pulverized form though…they're just floating there. My god…this thing has its own gravity well!"

"Looks like we've found our culprits," Tara mused.

“Indeed," Tinga grunted. “I wonder what, or who, they are."

“Captain, they're clearly hostile. If they destroyed the colony, we should dispatch them while we have the opportunity." Tara spoke up.

“In most cases I would agree with you Commander," Tinga said, drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair, “but we don't know anything about this species. This is still a first contact situation with a new species. Perhaps they are just curious about us…though their methods are quite barbaric." He turned back to Vera. “Scan their vessel again. Are our colonists on board it?"

“Working on it now, Captain," Vera said, setting to work.

On the screen, the massive vessel loomed ever larger, until its hull was plainly visible. It was a bizarre, twisting amalgamation of pipes, conduits, vents, ports, and large, interlocking hull plates. The configuration was like a living explosion, seeming to interweave into itself, deep into an interior. All of it glowed an eerie green. The design made Harry almost nauseous, everything about the situation…all of it made his skin crawl.

“I'm sorry Captain…lifesigns are sporadic…I can't really get a lock on anything in there." Vera reported.

“Very peculiar," Tinga said with a small frown. “So, they're just sitting there, doing nothing, no shields, no weapons? This is very strange indeed. You're sure they're doing nothing?"

“Nothing that I can detect."

“Tara, take a security detail over there and see if you can't find any of our people. Keep an open com and we'll keep a transporter lock on you at all times." Tinga ordered.

“Aye, sir," Tara replied.

Harry was glad that this time there was no way Tara could drag him along on that adventure. Besides, the core was showing a slight variance in the plasma injection system he wasn't liking. “Captain, permission to leave the bridge? My instruments are showing a bit of a problem with the plasma injectors. I would rather get on top of that as soon as possible."

“Permission granted," said Tinga, his eyes never leaving the screen.

Harry hurried over to the turbolift and boarded it with Tara and Lantry.

“Engineering," Harry said and the lift computer would log his stop in the cue. “Be careful over there," he said to Tara as the doors slid shut.

“Thanks." Tara smiled. “I'll come back in one piece, just to annoy you." The lift stopped at Deck 2 and she and Lantry exited, heading to the transporter room. The doors closed and the lift went down one more deck.

Harry stared at his reflection in the viewport. Then what happened? He furrowed his brow, trying to force his mind to recall what was next. There was nothing there…just fragments of faint echoes that rang like shattered glass. The Borg attacked the Phoenix…Captain Tinga was taken…it was all smokey, hazy, like a cloud in the wind. There was a jolt, the deflector lance burning through the void, the Borg cube suddenly cracked open, there was a mad scramble, too much noise, something was burning, pain coated everything like syrup. The ship…she was dying. Tara was injured…badly. Everything else was corrupted, drifting and whirling around like silt in a blender.

His jaw clenched as the ghosts of the memories fled even further. This day, the entire situation, was really starting to piss him off. The impending threat of the Borg and the Prell, the mystery of the piece of his ship on terminal, and someone…or something…had deliberately altered his memories. His thoughts drifted back to specific events in the recent past. Something the Coyote said drifted to the surface:

“You normally don't feel fear…do you?"

There was something else, something Amiella had asked him:

“Ah…so there is something you fear…something you've forgotten? Let's have a look at that."

It was right after that she had seen something, something so terrible that it momentarily broke her. Just what the hell was going in his headspace that these others were seeing? More importantly, why wasn't he aware of it?

Fara looked up from her work with Jakar. They both paused, mid-conversation, as Harry entered the bridge and asked for a status update from the helm. She was glad he took her advice, although he looked like the last place he wanted to be was alone with his own thoughts. In fact, something in his eyes looked unsettled. He was hiding it, but she could see it in his posture.

“I would suggest we both go down and conduct an inspection before we use our little surprise." Jakar concluded as he glared at the readouts. “Those weapons have never been used and I don't think either of us want the lower decks shredded."

“No, we don't. Go ahead. I'll be after you in a bit," Fara said.

Jakar nodded, logged off his console and left the bridge.

“Everything okay, Skipper?" Fara asked as she walked over to Harry.

“I'm fine," Harry said dismissively, making a quick log on his terminal.

“I'm kidnapping Jakar so we can work on that little surprise I promised."

“Great. You should take care of it," he said flatly without looking up. Fara scowled at him. She didn't appreciate being blown off. Harry felt the glare and slowly brought his eyes up to meet hers. “Do you need anything, Chief?"

She put her hands on her hips. “I don't know. Do you need something, Captain?"

He sighed. “No. Just…don't bug me. You have something you need to be doing, so go do it."

Fara stuck her tongue out at him before she stormed off the bridge. If she could have slammed the bridge doors, she would have. Harry went back to his log. He'd deal with Fara later. There were more pressing things at hand than a tiny act of insubordination.

* * *

The Orso System, Present Day

The Aether and the Intrepid rendezvoused near the Class M colony world, several light years from the Prell border. The Aether had to make a few repairs, so they were making the best of their time while they waited on the task force.

“...all in all, we've had much worse, Commander. But thank you for your concern," Jayna said on Terri's monitor.

“Any word from the taskforce or the Raptor yet?" Terri asked.

Jayna shook her head. “Sorry, no word from either. It's just us out here for now, playing the waiting game. I'm relieved that the Prell didn't pursue us. It seemed like they were more interested in seeing what we'd do than hunting us down."

"They went after you instead of the softer target," Terri added.

Jayna nodded. “Indeed. If they really wanted to destroy you, they could have done so instead of giving the Aether a nice little jostle."

"Maybe they are just as much in the dark as we are." Terri mused.

"Could be," Jayna said with a smile, “but I doubt they'd be willing to admit that."

“So now what?" Terri asked.

“We wait until we hear from the taskforce or Captain Martinez," Jayna said, drumming her fingers on her desk. “I know, it's not the most glamorous course of action, but welcome to the less glamorous aspects of command. I suggest you make the best of the downtime, but don't get too comfortable."

“I suppose I could catch up on some reading," Terri said. “It's been a bit since I cracked open a book."

“Sounds like a plan. You reading anything good?" Jayna asked.

Terri flushed a little. “It's not exactly a classic…that's all I'm at liberty to say, sir."

De'sol grinned. “Ah…well enjoy then. I have some paperwork I need to catch up on. Whatever your book is, I'm sure it's way more entertaining." Suddenly she looked off camera. “One moment." She hit the mute button as she spoke to someone off screen before she unmued it.

“Well, I've got some good news," Jayna said, looking relieved. “The Raptor is on its way here. They just crossed the border and the task force is going to be here in a few hours."

“Finally," Terri said, letting out a long breath.

“No kidding." Jayna chuckled. “It's about time this whole mess is starting to straighten out. At least we know one of our boys has their shit together."

“Not naming names?" Terri said slyly.

“Of course not! Besides, neither of us doubted him either," Jayna said with a wink. “I've got some things that just came up that I need to attend to. I'll see you at the debriefing, Commander. De'Sol out."

* * *

Shortly after the Raptor arrived, they received a transmission that the rest of the task force would be arriving within the hour. Once they had all arrived, all Commanding officers were summoned to the Akira for a debriefing over the Raptor's findings on their scouting mission. Harry had gotten right to the point, first explaining what they found and what he believed was behind the attacks along the Prell/Confederation border. However, the very mention of the Borg brought an unearthly chill to the room.

“And…you are certain of this, Captain?" La'Crosse finally asked, his voice breaking through the concerned silence.

“I've never been more certain of anything. I've provided you with the evidence. It's all the same signs we had the last time. We'd be fools to ignore them!"

“Nobody is questioning the severity of your revelation, Captain," Commodore Striker snapped. “It's just the logistics of dealing with the threat are a bit…daunting."

“Just over fifty ships and three Keldryian Cruisers couldn't stop them," Admiral Leyton muttered. “A lucky shot from you, Captain Martinez, brought them down last time. No offense to your skill as an officer, but no one gets that lucky twice."

“I'm well aware of that, sir, but we didn't have the Raptor last time either and, no offense, but we are all well aware of what it can do," Harry said firmly.

Quietly muffled utterances went around the room. Some sounded almost like chuckles.

“Indeed," Leyton said coldly, glaring at Harry.

Suddenly, a light lit up on Leyton's end of the table. “Yes, what is it? I was asked that we not be disturbed."

“I'm sorry, Admiral," his communication officer said apologetically, “but we've just received a distress call from Starbase 53. They are under attack from the Prell and are requesting immediate assistance."

“Put it through," Leyton said.

“Attention any–vessels…we are under–Prell–warships! Shields–ing–won't be able to–"

The channel suddenly cut out.

“I'm sorry, Admiral, something is jamming the transmission at the source," the communications officer said.

“Red alert. Meeting adjourned." Leyton commanded as he snapped to his feet. “Return to your ships, maintain open com channels at all times. It looks like we might be dealing with two major threats all at once. Let's get to work."

Each captain quickly beamed back to their ships. Harry barely had any time to exchange anything, but a glance before the meeting with Jayna and a reassuring smile as he beamed away. He knew she could tell he was troubled and wanted to help him, but duty took precedence. Within a few moments the small fleet was underway.

* * *

On the Intrepid, Terri had arrived back on board. The ship was underway, but Terri headed to her quarters. She wasn't needed on the bridge yet. She'd already given her orders as she stepped off the transporter pad, but she had something important she needed to do. She sprinted to her quarters as the klaxons and flashers signaled the ship's current status.

In the corner of her quarters sat a rather expensive pet carrier, one that had all the amenities and support of an escape pod scaled down to a pet carrier. The item was considered a luxury, even for a captain. It was also very expensive. But, she was more than happy to spend the sizable amount of credits to make sure her Taber would be safe if things went poorly. It took up a good chunk of her living area on the Intrepid, but she didn't need much living space after living on the Raptor.

She called out for Taber after grabbing a few of treats and he, as gullible for a snack as ever, chirped and scurried out from his hiding place under her bed. She gave him the treat and quickly stuffed his ample self into the carrier. He protested, tried to scratch and claw, but she got him in it. “I know you don't like it there, but you'll thank me if you end up in the void," Terri said, activating the life support features.

The animal gave her the big eyed look reserved for when it was trying to get its way. She just smiled at him.

“You'll be fine. I'll get you out when this is over, okay? You got all the food and water, and a litter cleaner in there, and enough room to play and move around. You will be fine," she said. She added mentally: Not to mention, an emergency transporter to get you free of the ship, a subspace beacon, and all the bells and whistles. God…you're better protected than I am.

The cat seemed to sigh and sat on the padded flooring. He mewed at her, his ears flat back against his head. She shook her head and quickly activated the computer to play soothing music.

“I gotta go," she said, leaving her quarters quickly.

* * *

“Martinez, I want you leading the attack alongside the Osprey and Eagle," Leyton ordered on the Raptor's screen. “Find their lead ship and disable it. If we bloody their nose they may back off."

“Understood. One bloody nose coming up, sir," Harry replied.

Leyton looked less than amused as he closed the channel.

“Jakar," Harry said, “activate attack mode so we can be ready for this."

Jakar grunted and put in the appropriate commands. The ship's lights shifted to their usual dull green hew and the sound of the ablative armor could be heard deploying across the hull.

“Aye, sir. E.T.A. to Starbase 53 is twelve minutes at current speed," Jakar reported.

“Understood," Harry said, opening a ship-to-ship to the Eagle and Osprey via his console. A splitscreen of the female Altairian Commander, Ivanova, and male Cornerian Coyote, Lafayette, opened up on the main viewer. “Commanders, when we make an attack run, I need you keeping formation with the Raptor. As soon as the Prell realize what we're doing, they'll start shooting. If you can keep them off us we can focus on putting an end to this as quickly as possible."

“Do not worry, Keptain. Ze Eagle vill 'ave your back," Commander Ivanova said with a stern nod.

“This is hardly my first rodeo, sir. We've been dealing with Paraxenos for the last few years in our old ship before we got this little beauty. It's gonna be a hell of a fight." Lafayette said confidently with a crooked grin. “I've been itching to try this thing in the field since we got done training for it."

“An I am no stranger to zee Prell. I am vise to most of zer tricks." Ivanova stated. “Little do zey know, I 'ave a whole book of my own!"

“Glad to hear that, but let's focus more on working together and getting out of this alive," Harry said levelly. “Any questions?"

“Lead the way and we'll follow, sir," said Lafayette and Ivanova nodded in agreement.

“Martinez out," he said, closing the channel.

Harry always hated this wait while they were trying to charge into battle, but unfortunately the vast distances were being covered as fast as they could be. He heard the port aft doors open and spotted Fara sliding into her station.

“How are those engines looking, Chief?"

“Surprisingly good. I just got done running a diagnostic," Fara said matter of factly, her usual charm absent from the comment. “I see we got our dancing shoes on. Whose toes are we stomping on?"

“The Prell," Harry said, getting up to stretch. “Commander Rivas? How's the rest of the ship?"

“Looking good as she has lately," Rivas said, quickly perusing his ops board. “Last fight I was in, I had to call the shots. It'll be fun helping Jakar out for once."

Jakar made an amused grunt behind him.

Rivas turned in his seat. “You just wish you could cover our back and shoot our target just as effectively, so knock it off!"

“Manning the phaser strips is hardly a difficult task. You just point and click," Jakar said without looking up from his console.

“I run the tractor and cutting beams. You don't do it all, Commander," Rivas chided him jovially.

Jakar shrugged.

Harry smiled. “I'm not even going to ask. I'm confident our weapons are ready to go."

“Of course," Jakar said with a smirk.

Harry heard the chime from the helm, indicating they were almost at their destination. He quickly took his seat.

“How many ships do we have out there Jakar?" He asked.

“Two Prell warbirds, half a dozen Shrikes, and two interceptors," Jakar grunted.

“Pick one of the warbirds. One of them has to be the one calling the shots," Harry said, settling into his chair.

“I have a lock on the Warbird closest to the Starbase," Jakar announced.

“Target their weapons and drive systems. Prepare to fire on my mark." Harry ordered.. “Alright, Mr. Kyle, get us as close as we can and be ready to work your magic."

“Aye, sir," Kyle said, reaching up to the acceleration lever. “Dropping out of warp…now."

The Raptor dropped out of warp space with the Osprey and Eagle close behind them.

“FIRE!" Harry barked.

A stream of photonic missiles belched forth from the Raptor's forward launchers and slammed into the Warbird's shields. The Raptor quickly closed the distance as its sister ships split off to engage the Shrikes that were trying to intercept them. Kyle made the Raptor bob and weave around the Warbirds as they tried to return fire. The Raptor quickly broke off, allowing Rivas to send a cutting beam through the weakened shields of the Warbird, piercing the hull and tearing through the primary plasma conduit.

Drive plasma was venting into space from the Warbird as its power waivered. The Raptor swung back around and Jakar expertly peppered the Warbird's weapon systems with well placed torpedoes. The other Warbird broke off its attack on the Starbase and started after the Raptor, but as it launched forward, a barrage of torpedoes slammed into its shields. The Aether dropped out of warp and started unleashing phaser barrages at the smaller Shrikes that were trying to flip around to respond to the new threat.

The Fortuna, Monitor, Akira and Intrepid sat back a few thousand kilometers, taking defensive positions, covering the Starbase.

Harry watched on screen as they quickly dropped in behind three Shrikes that were attacking the Aether as it tried to evade them. The Raptor's cutting beam sliced the wing off one Shrike and Jakar managed to disable another with several phaser bursts, causing the third Shrike to back off. Meanwhile, Harry spied the Eagle and the Osprey giving the still functioning Prell Warbird a run for its money.

Hurry up Leyton! Harry thought to himself, scowling. Put that damn beak of yours to use and get them to break off their attack!

“Captain," Rivas spoke up.

“Yes?"

“We've got more Prell ships entering the system. They are decloaking…looks like five more Warbirds and all their little friends," Rivas replied.

“Great!" Harry said without any joy in his voice. “What good is a damn show if your opponent is looking for a fight! Mr. Kyle! Intercept those Warbirds! Jakar, Rivas! Disable those things once we're close enough."

The Raptor blasted towards the new arrivals as the Osprey and Eagle formed up on its flanks. The other ships of the taskforce moved to protect and assist the damaged Starbase.

You wanted me to give them a bloody nose. Harry thought to himself. I'm going to do more than that now. I'm going to give them a reason to stop.

“Ms. Perry, hail those ships and tell them to break off their attack," Harry ordered.

Suddenly, the three ships unleashed a barrage of fire against the Raptor's shields and its sister ships.

“Transmission sent. I think that was their answer, sir," Perry replied.

“Attack Pattern Martinez Theta three…execute," Harry ordered.

The Raptor accelerated forward, rolling under the barrages and charging the middle of the three Warbirds. Jakar modulated the shields to provide an efficient ram. The maneuver shoved through the larger ship's shields and gouged it open. Several shots from phaser strips hit home doing severe damage to the Warbird before breaking out the other side of the shield bubble, causing severe power disruptions to the larger vessel. With a parting shot from the aft torpedo launcher, the Raptor broke away from the now highly damaged Warbird.

"Dammit, Harry I wish you wouldn't do that!!" Fara hissed as she desperately tried to reroute power to tamp down the power surges throughout the grid. A few conduits overhead vomited up sparks in protest and a low hue of smoke filled the air. “I got disruptions all over the power grid dammit!"

“I wanted to make a point," Harry said as they swung back around. A Prell energy blast shook the ship.

“Well you definitely got their attention!" Fara snapped.

“Captain, I have to agree with Chief Fara. We haven't quite yet perfected that maneuver. Our shield grid is damaged. We'll only have 85% on the shields, once the attack mode disengages," Jakar added.

The Raptor shook as the Warbird's escorts managed to get a few successful shots at the Raptor before they found themselves tangled in the maelstrom of weapons fire from its sister ships. O'mara cursed as she struggled to keep the adaptive shielding in line to mitigate the damage, however, that little maneuver had taken its toll on those systems as well.

On the screen, photonic missiles ripped into and disabled the remaining vessels they had attacked as targeted cutting beams sheared off the Warbird's weapon arrays. The Warbird–gushing plasma, atmosphere, and anything not bolted to the interior–cut abruptly to port. It streaked away, disappearing in a flash with whatever warp power it had available.

Harry noted that the Prell apparently had more sense than the Urthreans when it came to seeing what small ships with teeth could do.

"Our target is withdrawing and the other two are moving to intercept us," Jakar grunted before adding, "The Eagle and Osprey have engaged."

"Bring us around. We need to do what we can to help the rest of the task force!" Harry ordered. "How much time do we have before we have to disengage the attack mode?"

"That's…apparently no longer an issue," Fara reported in a slightly confused tone. “Apparently the Altairians fixed that limitation while we were getting the refit."

Harry gave her an incredulous look.

"Don't give me that look," Fara snapped. “I literally just found out while going over these readouts! This is news to me too!"

“More incoming Prell ships!" Jakar announced as Harry sighed and turned forwards again. “Sensors detecting an additional five Warbirds and a dozen or more Shrieks!"

Great. This is turning into a damn disaster! Harry thought.

Meanwhile, the Monitor, Akira and Intrepid had moved up to cover the Starbase while the Fortuna joined the fray. The situation was deteriorating. The Starbase's power core was showing signs of melting down. The three ships were trying to evacuate the Starbase's crew as fast as possible via transporters and a few shuttles.

Terri was relieved that it was a small observation Starbase. There was only a compliment of three hundred down there that needed saving. This job would be much easier than evacuating Starbase 186, given its monster sized population.

Her thoughts were interrupted as two Shrikes strafed her ship, then disappeared under the Akira's concentrated phaser bursts. On the viewer she could see a constant dance of lights as weapons fire was exchanged, explosions bubbled up through the void, and shields flared against incoming assaults.

“Captain, the base's core is going critical! We need to get clear," Plex said coolly from her station. “The Monitor and Akira are already moving off."

“Noted," Terri said. “Baxter? How many people left on the station?"

“We just got the last dozen!" Baxter replied.

“Helm, any course and heading. Get us clear!" Terri barked. “Maximum impulse!"

“Aye!" Munro replied

“Radiation spike! The core's shield has failed…the fuel rods are exposed! They're going now." Plex reported.

The Intrepid pulled away from the Starbase as cracks of energy began to spread out along Starbase's hull. The structure expanded slowly outward like a grotesque balloon before disappearing in a flash of brilliant nuclear fire and plasma, sending a shockwave outward. Terri braced herself as the force hit the Intrepid's shields. The ship's systems protested with alarms and warnings blared. Terri could smell an electrical fire as the power flickered.

“Shields at 75%, attempting to reroute power," Baxter reported. Suddenly the ship bucked as weapons fire slammed into their ship. Apparently their lagging behind was being taken advantage of by a few Shrikes.

The Intrepid's deck bucked as its shields were hammered repeatedly. Terri choked out the order to return fire, but the noise was so loud she wasn't sure she had been heard. The screen was filled with a swarm of Shrikes. Something overhead exploded and rained sparks down from the ceiling.

“Munro! Get us out of here!" She shouted.

“I am trying, sir, but we're surrounded!"

“Shields at 35% and falling fast!" Baxter said, cursing as she patted out a fire on the sleeve of her uniform.

Suddenly, the pounding ceased. On screen, the Shrieks disappeared under a furious volley of green and red beams. The Raptor swept past, shooing off the remaining Shrikes.

Suddenly, Admiral Leyton's image appeared on the screen. “Intrepid! You're done. I order you to head to Starbase 100, best speed."

Terri noticed that the Akira's bridge seemed to be full of smoke and fire as well, but he was way above her in the Command chain. She was in no position to argue. “Understood. We'll–"

“Captain, I hate to interrupt, but something massive is warping into our space! We won't be able to leave until after it arrives…the distortions are too brutal," Baxter said.

“What is she going on about?" Leyton demanded, his eyes bulging as he looked up and over his shoulder at his own tactical officer.

“Details, Baxter! We don't have time for vagaries," Terri said tersely.

“It's a cubical object…over 3 kilometers on each side. It's…massive!" Baxter said, sounding a bit intimidated.

Terri leapt to her feet. No…it couldn't be…not now…not here!

Suddenly, the massive vessel–dwarfing all others–filled her viewer and that of all the other ships as well. It emerged from warp in the middle of the battle, causing several of the Prell warships to crash into its armored, interlaced nightmarish pipework of a surface. The Aether narrowly avoided the same fate, dipping off to the side at the last moment.

Harry's breath caught as his worst nightmare materialized before him. It was as enormous as he remembered, inky black marked with gold and gray, its hull plating creating a latticework of nonsensical patterns. Every fiber of his body screamed that he needed to flee, but he knew he couldn't. This time, he couldn't run. This time, he had to be strong.

A general broadcast suddenly cut onto all vessel's com channels. It sounded like a cacophony of thousands, if not millions, of monotone voices. They were all speaking in unison, a morbid choir echoing through the void:

“We are the Borg.

Lower your shields and surrender your vessels.

We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own.

Your cultures will adapt to serve us.

Resistance is–"

The channel was abruptly cut off. On everyone's screens, two bright green and widened beams lanced out from the Raptor's underside and sliced deep into the cube. They started to cut across the cube, cutting up its hull. They moved quickly as the Raptor lifted its bow, angling like a surgeon's skilled hands. The beams crisscrossed the cube, burrowing into it from mirdif to top edge. It was almost comical from afar, as if a gnat had attacked a cube of cheese with a super heated knife.

Captain Harry Martinez had thrown the first punch.

“Fara! I'd love to see your ace in the hole right about now," Harry said, hoping to keep the advantage of surprise.

Fara nodded. “Jakar! Now!"

Jakar typed in a few quick commands, the hint of a smirk on his face as he completed the sequence.

On both sides of the Raptor, beneath the photonic missile launchers, the single phaser housings started to shift, folding out of the way as another set of weapons began to deploy, resembling some sort of strange cannon-like device. Once fully extended, these previously hidden armaments started to rapidly belch forth a stream of small objects, accelerated at the speed of light. The cube's hull was raked by the steams of projectiles. Explosions flared up all along its surface as the Raptor emptied its deadly payload directly into the wounds it had already opened.

Explosions roared throughout the interior of the cube. Its green interior lighting flickered as it took the brunt of the onslaught from the Raptor.

“Attention Borg vessel," Harry said over the open com channel, “your incursion into Confederation space is a hostile and direct threat. Withdraw immediately or you will be destroyed."

The Raptor shuddered as the cube locked a tractor beam directly onto them.

“I think that means no," Rivas noted calmly.

Harry nodded at O'mara, then barked his next order. “Now! Kyle! Jakar!"

O'mara worked quickly as the Raptor's adaptive shielding computers flared back to life, repelling the tractor beam. The Raptor rolled laterally just as the Borg ship's cutting beam reached out for it. The G-diffuser distortion caused by the roll deflected the cutter and the Raptor hammered away on the cube's shields with its photonic missiles, continuing the roll along the equator of the cube, firing like mad.

Finally, after recovering from the shock of what they'd all just witnessed, Admiral Leyton ordered all Confederation ships to open fire on the cube. The Prell followed suit after a few seconds, doubtlessly more angry about the interruption in their battle by this intruder than anything else.

The cube had raised shields and was fending off the assault from the Prell, with a majority of the damage being dealt by the starships whose crews knew to rotate their weapons frequencies to negate the cube's ability to adapt to their energy weapon fire. The cube fired a constant stream of photonic missiles, lashing out with cutting beams at the smaller vessels swarming around it, flies to be swatted away. Despite this assault, the Raptor seemed to be the cube's primary concern. Its main focus seemed to be on crippling or destroying the Raptor. This strange little ship had managed to do massive harm in a short time using their own methods against them. It was the biggest threat and it needed to be neutralized.

Deep within the cube, a cubical holographic display spun among the central nexus of drones that handled the tactical functions of the ship. These anthropomorphic hominids, consisting of several species, were surprisingly adaptaptable. They had taken their first encounter and already learned from it. Their weapons were proving effective, their tactics unconventional, their defenses repelling their own attacks with varied effectiveness. The Prell were not a threat. They were ineffective. Three Warbirds were targeted and quickly dispatched with concentrated cutting beams. The collective kept its attention on the small, black armored ship.

Streams of photonic missiles were sent after the small ship. Beams in a multitude of colors were targeted against this unusual foe, trying to find a way to break the abnormal subspace distortion the rapidly rolling vessel's unique field generated. This technology would have to be acquired. It was very, very useful.

The machine-like hive mind quickly analyzed the transmission from the vessel and the individual that sent it:

SPECIES: 9847

DESIGNATION: TERMIAN

INDIVIDUAL IDENTIFIED AS HARRY MARTINEZ, OMEGA PRIORITY

INDIVIDUAL IS UNSUITABLE FOR ASSIMILATION AND WILL BE EXTERMINATED ONCE VESSEL HAS BEEN CAPTURED AND ASSIMILATED.

The cube reached out to the collective, to the hive of billions of minds of networked drones acting as one. In a matter of nanoseconds, a solution presented itself. A subspace variance to their weapons would be able to penetrate the Raptor's defenses. Its weapons were quickly adapted and deployed. Within seconds of the initial query, the work was complete and a purple beam with a slight yellow haze around it arched out into the void. The beam struck the small vessel, shearing through its port nacelle mid roll.

The bridge exploded in a shower of sparks. Everyone was thrown from their seats as the ship's engines screamed like a wounded animal. The Raptor yawed rapidly to starboard, careening almost out of control for a brief moment before it slowly slid to a stop in a cloud of shattered ablative armor.

Fara her way crawled back to her station. She couldn't see out of her left eye due to blood from lacerations across the top of her head. Curiously she reached up, her hand shaking. Her left ear felt as if it was on fire and her left arm felt like it had been filled with knives. Whether her ear was gone or not, she couldn't tell. She hoisted herself into her smoldering seat and scanned her systems. There was a plasma imbalance building in the core. Several of the warp coils had ruptured in the port side. She didn't have time to report anything to anyone. If nothing was done about this the ship would explode. She quickly cut off the plasma transfer conduit to the port nacelle. As soon as she was certain the ship wouldn't spontaneously erupt, she took as deep a breath as she could.

“Port warp nacelle is offline. Rerouting all power to the starboard engine!" She rasped.

The ship shuddered again as another Borg tractor beam locked onto them.

“Main…computer…offline," O'mara gurgled, clutching her stomach. Her breathing was rapid. Blue blood was soaking into her uniform. She was shaking, feathers drifting off of her in all directions.

“I got it Michelle," Fara gasped, painfully aware that it was hard to breathe as she hit her combadge. “Jenna! Get off your ass, if you're still alive…our core is down."

“I'm working on it, Cheif!" Jenna Rydel's voice crackled over the speaker.

Rivas stumbled over to O'mara's side. This time he was the lucky one. He had a few scrapes and a slightly bloody nose.

“Commander, move your arm…please," Rivas said, gently resting his hands on O'mara's arm.

She did slightly, but her blood started to pulse from the wound. O'mara whimpered and pressed her arm back to the wound. Rivas helped her keep pressure on it and hit his combadge with his free hand. “Sickbay, we need emergency medical teams to the bridge. We have multiple wounded."

“You and literally everywhere else," Okan said coolly. “Standby please. We will be there shortly."

Suddenly, the computers and control surfaces on the Raptor's bridge came back to life.

Rivas knelt close to her. “Stay calm. Stay with me, Michelle." He leaned close, pressing his forehead to the side of her head. “Don't leave me here…not like this."

O'mara nodded, stifling a small sob. She wanted to cry out from the pain, but she was pretty sure the strain would only hasten her death. She could already feel a cold darkness creeping into the edges of her mind.

“Fara!" Fara heard her name and turned to look. She instantly regretted it. Harry looked almost as bad as she felt, but he was still standing, still holding himself like he was in command. His face was covered in soot and cuts and bruises and his tunic was partially shredded and burned.

“What do we got left?" He asked, trying to clear his head, wearily leaning on her console and shaking his head viciously. As his vision cleared he noticed a good chunk of one of Fara's ears had been torn rather viciously.

“We have one engine…I…I need help with the rest. It's hard to think…or breathe," Fara said, coughing, realizing that it was a broken rib that was giving her throuble.

“Captain! We are being boarded. Incoming transporter traffic!" Jakar announced from his station.

“All Decks, intruder alert!" Harry said, slapping his combadge. “Modulate phaser frequencies, improvise, do whatever you have to keep them away. Do NOT let them near any critical systems!"

Suddenly, two columns of green haze appeared on the bridge among the gloom of smoke and dust. The first one disappeared in a whine of phaser fire and an explosion of vaporized flesh and cybernetic components. The second one stood its ground, deploying a personal force shield that rebuffed Jakar's phaser fire. The second figure was a pale humanoid cyborg with a red eye piece. A beam from that eye swept over each of the bridge members. The being raised its one mechanical arm, twitching with a variety of servos and manipulators. It started heading towards the science station.

Harry glanced around. There was a piece of durainium conduit on the ground and he grabbed it. “Re-modulate, now!" He roared.

Fara reached into her pocket with her good hand and grabbed her sonic screwdriver, tweaking it as quickly as she could. The Borg drone walked over to the science console, stepping over Kyle's unconscious form as if he were discarded rubbish. Rivas stood, placing himself between the oncoming monster, but he flopped down onto the deck after a blow across the muzzle from the mechanical arm.

The being pivoted to O'mara, but it wasn't looking at her. It raised its arm to plunge it into her console when Harry brought the duranium conduit down hard onto the arm, crumpling it. Sparks sprang from the manipulator arm as the probe stopped functioning. The drone looked at him with what could be mistaken for annoyance, then took a swing at Harry. Harry dodged the lumbering blow and put his full force into the swing to the back of the drone's head. The maneuver nearly sent him to the floor as well. He staggered realizing his balance was not what it was. The being staggered forward onto Fara's station, damaged and sputtering a weird green fluid.

Suddenly Fara put her weight on her bad arm to pin the thing's head down.

“Don't fuck with my ship, you albino shit head!" She snarled, jamming the sonic screwdriver into what she assumed was a data port in the side of its head. The screwdriver made a high pitched whine in response. The drone contorted like it was trying to scream, but no sound came out of its mouth as its entire body convulsed and erupted in sparks. When its non-mechanical eye rolled up into its head, it ceased to move. Fara slumped back in her seat and watched the dead drone collapse to the deck.

“This sucks," Fara gasped, glaring at the corpse.

“Bridge! This is Ensign Jax! We gotta whole mess of 'em on Deck 3! We need reinforcements! Now!" Sonya pleaded over the com.

Harry looked up to see Jakar already striding towards the doors, hitting his combadge as he went and calling his teams.

“Fara to Knackt…Fara to Kurtzman," Fara said, trying to hail her staff on her own combadge.

“What's our situation?" Harry asked as he helped Rivas to his feet. The wolf had a mangled snout, but otherwise he looked unharmed. Rivas shook his head, trying to clear the stars he was seeing.

“I'm alright. Do your captain thing," he said, waving Harry off. He stumbled over to his console to check his readouts.

“Harry? I can't raise anyone in engineering," Fara said with a slight tremor in her tone.

“Our ships are trying to break the tractor hold, but the Borg have adapted already," Rivas said, spitting out a mouthful of blood before continuing. “They are trying to bring us inside, multiple intruder alerts and…"

“Knackt to bridge!" The rat's voice suddenly cut in.

“Yes! Knackt! What is it?" Fara said as Harry tried to open his mouth to respond.

Knackt coughed, leaning against the wall, trying to catch his breath as Ensign Boshct dropped Reese and Muniz in a pile outside engineering. She was also coughing harshly.

“We had to evacuate engineering. Our robo-zombie friends tried to invade it. I got everyone out I could and flooded the deck with coolant. We…uh…lost a few people, Captain. Sorry…." Knackt shuddered. Some of the crewmen had been injected by tubelets that sent them collapsing to the ground, gasping and clutching at their skin as gray filaments coarsed through their flesh, strange apparatuses burst from them like cybernetic boils.

“Is there any way we can get both engines back up and running?" Harry asked.

“We're down to one, period. I can't raise the dead." Knakct coughed harshly. “Kurtzman is taking care of getting the coolant loaded from the reserves. Damage control teams, or what's left of 'em, are doing their best."

“They need to do better than that or we're going to be pulled inside that cube!" Harry said matter of factly.

“Aye! I'll see what we can do." Knackt cursed under his breath. “I knew it! We're all gonna die."

Knackt heard footsteps approaching and looked up, seeing some medical technicians running up to them.

“Come on Boscht! We got work to do!" Knackt barked to Boscht. She glared at him, but nodded solemnly, wiping some ash and soot off her face with her sleeve.

Meanwhile, on Deck 3, Jakar was loaded down with a bandolier of ammo and some recent arrivals to the armory to deal with 'special' intruders strapped to his back.

“Jakar, do we have the intruders dealt with, yes or no?" Harry's voice came in over his combadge.

“The marines are dealing with the intruders. I'm on Deck 3 rallying my team as we speak." Jakar replied.

Sonya and two of the security personnel left of her team were retreating from the Borg who were steadily, and purposefully, marching down the hall towards them. Their phasers were ineffective, forcefields were ignored. They were trying to get to the emergency bulkheads, but she wasn't even sure if that would stop them.

They were cut off from the marines as more drones beamed aboard. Based on the decreased sound of weapons fire, the marines were not doing well. They had switched to projectile weapons once the Borg had adapted their personal shields to phaser fire. Apparently they didn't have shields for solid ammunition. She was hoping they could run into one of the five squads the others had broken into. However, no one was answering their calls.

Everything was looking hopeless when Jakar burst around a corner with a bulky breech loading weapon in hand, already cramming a fresh batch of shells into it before snapping it closed. He had at least four additional weapons of a similar design strapped to his back on a bandolier. Sonya and the two cremen ran past as Jakar leveled the weapon at the oncoming Borg. The five drones stopped and raised their manipulator arms at him, the strange eye lasers on the sides of their heads scanning him.

“You will be assimilated." One of the drones said.

Jarkar raised an eyebrow as he grinned. “No."

He fired. The weapon let out a roar that stabbed at Sonya's ears. She cursed, covering her ears and turning her head as a storm of solid projectiles blew through the drones, leaving them in pieces on the floor.

Jakar hefted the gun to his shoulder at parade rest and nodded at his work. The drone's remaining pieces were twitching a little as they lost power, surrounded by pools of green fluid and bile splattered across the floors and walls. There was an arm here, half a leg there, one of the drones had been torn in half at the gut. There was also an extensive amount of damage to the Raptor's sparse decor.

“Stars an' Nebula's luv! Jus' what th' hells that thing supposed to be?" Sonya marveled.

“Our version of an ancient Urthean deck gun," Jakar said with an unabated smirk. “Each of you, take one. These bastards are getting wise to our phaser frequencies. We've got limited shells, so make every single shot count. If you aren't killing two with each shot I'll be really disappointed. Understood?"

“Aye, sir," Sonya nodded, taking one of the guns off Jakar's back.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the Aether

“The Borg ship still has the Raptor," Nikolai reported. “The phaser rotation is getting less effective."

Jayna braced herself as another cutting beam tried to breach their shields. The Aether bucked under the onslaught, but held together.

“We need to shut that beam down. I have an idea," Jayna said with a smile. “Nikolai, can you fly a shuttle remotely?"

“Of course! I can do that from here," Nikolai said, not following her train of thought.

“How about ten?"

“I…suppose? It wouldn't be too hard," Nikolai said, quickly modifying a program on his control console. “What are you planning to do, Captain?" Nikolai asked.

“I've got a crazy idea that just might work." Jayna smirked. “Donnika? Can we get antimatter warheads placed on each of the shuttles?"

“Da, I suppose? But, vat would be ze purpose of zat?"

“Can we do it or not?" Jayna said, turning to look at her.

“Da, we can. It wouldn't take that long."

“Good! Get on it!" Jayna ordered.

“I still don't know what you are planning." Nikolai said, shaking his head in confusion while quickly bringing up the remote consoles and trying to chain the shuttle commands together so each shuttle would behave like a member of a swarm.

“We're going to take that tractor beam out, just trust me on this." Jayna said. “It'll make sense when you see it in action."

* * *

Medical teams arrived on the bridge and were tending to the wounded. Kyle was beamed away, as well as O'mara. On the screen, a giant orifice of an airlock yawned before them as the Raptor was slowly being drawn towards it.

Harry swept over to the helm. “Fara, can we get away with one engine?"

“She's giving you all she can on one engine, sir," she said shrilly. Doctor Okan was removing what shrapnel he could from her arm and mending the damage as best he could.

“I apologize, Commander. I would administer more anesthetic, but your blood pressure is dangerously low." Doctor Okan said sympathetically. “I will try to minimize the pain as much as I can. Your wounds are not as fatal as they appear. You will need to stay here until I can administer better treatment."

Fara bit her lip and nodded as nurse Twila tended to the wound on her head, tried to mend her shredded ear and wiped the blood out of her eye.

“I've got fire control back!" Rivas yelped suddenly.

“Target that tractor beam and fire!" Harry bellowed.

The Raptor fired everything it had, but the targeting computer had been damaged. Beams swung wildly across the face of the cube, cutting irregular gashes across the Borg ship, but not penetrating. Phasers missed the emitter and torpedoes crashed into the cubes surface, leaving an irregular field of craters along it.

Rivas cursed and slapped his computer console. “Damnit! I'm sorry Captain…targeting computer's down. She's just swinging blind now."

“You tried, Commander, that's all any of us can do right now," Harry said, firing the impulse engines, trying to get some more inertia to fight the beam that had its death grip on them.

Suddenly the Aether came into view with all her shuttles in front of her like an armada of desktop models. The shuttles rapidly accelerated as the Aether pulled hard to starboard. The shuttles slammed into the Borg's shields, one after the other, and exploded brightly, burning holes in the Borg's defensive field. The Aether fired through the breaches, striking and destroying the emitter holding the Raptor.

The Borg had anticipated some sort of rescue effort. Another beam latched on to the Raptor before it could attempt to hobble away. The Aether's shields were peppered with a volley of photonic missiles from the cube.

Janyna and Nikolai braced themselves under the onslaught. This was something they had felt before, although this was much worse.

“Incoming projectiles!" Her tactical officer reported.

From some hidden launcher onboard the cube, a torpedo shot forth at blinding speed and slammed into the Aether's port engine nacelle. The nacelle sputtered and exploded, rattling the entire ship as it was thrown into a violent spiral.

Another torpedo streaked towards the Fortuna, striking its saucer. The brand new vessel went spinning out of control as it's lights went dark. Two more torpedoes rushed out from the cube, one hitting the Monitor's primary hull as it made a run. The other struck the deflector dish of the Akira.

The Eagle and Osprey had been spared for the moment, but they quickly moved to draw whatever attention they could away from the larger ships. For now it looked like they were the last two of the task force that were still operable. The Prell had suffered heavy losses, and even though more Warbirds seemed to have arrived and were attacking, they didn't seem to be doing much more than pestering the cube.

Terri knew what her orders were before the cube showed up, but that had changed everything. She could run, yes…she had been ordered to…but this fight wasn't going well. She could see that. The Raptor had done a hell of a lot of damage, but it had been taken out of the fight. She didn't know how bad they were hurt. The com channels were a mess of panicked voices and hurriedly issued commands from Leyton or Striker, both of whom had seemingly lost all control of the situation.

“Captain, our orders are to retreat to Starbase 100," Plex said levelly.

“I know what they are, Lieutenant, thank you," Terri said, trying to decide the best course of action to take.

She had another idea. She wasn't sure if it was going to work, but she was willing to take one more risk. Risk was part of the game, was it not?

Terri quickly started typing on her console. “Lt. Plex, I need you to modify our main subspace transmission array to the following specifications. Do it quickly."

“Yes, sir," Plex said, a bit confused, looking at the instructions she was being sent. “What do you have in mind?"

“Baxter, reroute any auxiliary power we have to the shields." Terri continued unphased. “Mister Munroe, prepare to make a run."

“Captain," Lt. Plex began, “our orders are–"

“I know what our orders are!" Terri snapped. “And now you have yours. Carry them out, Lieutenant!"

The Intrepid began to move through the chaos of sweeping and striking Prell ships, dipping through the return fire from the cube, tumbling along like a drunken ballerina that knew exactly where she wanted to go. The cube seemed to be ignoring them. Terri imagined that their damage made them seem like less of a threat. They would need to take advantage of that fact if at all possible.

“Captain, are you sure this is going to work?" Plex asked, as calm as ever even though she was gripping her console tightly.

“A Niadic Subspace pulse is what we use to disrupt the little buggers that crop up on the Raptor from time to time," Terri said confidently. “We can't do much in this tub fire-power wise, but we have a subspace array second to none and I know how to use it. I can't imagine one of their ships would take kindly to a bigger burst fired directly at them."

“We may also burn out all our communications equipment," Plex noted.

“I am well aware of that, Lieutenant," Terri said nervously, gripping her armrests, “but I'm not going to let that thing take off with our former shipmates. Are you?"

“It is not logical to take an unnecessary risk; however, I can appreciate your sentiment, Captain." Plex said, allowing a small smile. “The modifications to the subspace array are ready."

“Bridge to Engineering! Reroute all power to the subspace array on my mark," Terri said as Munro moved the Intrepid ever closer to the massive, scarred cube. The constant barrages were finally taking a toll on the behemoth vessel. It now resembled a three dimensional “U", the center part filled with wreckage that was twirling in the void, fighting the pull of its former ship but unable to escape.

“Captain, we're in position," Munro grunted.

“Mark!" Terri barked.

From the concave indentation in the front of the Intrepid's saucer, a flash of blue energy lanced out through the kilometers of space ahead of it and struck the cube. The effect was almost immediate. The energy from the beam started to surge all across the vessel, racing along any exposed surfaces like snakes and vanishing into any junction it could find. The tractor beam that held the Raptor faded out and the green inner glow began to flicker like a neon sign in the final stages of its life.

The Aether, Monitor, Fortuna, Eagle and Osprey unloaded everything they had left at the cube. Volley after volley of photon torpedoes and phaser fire, followed by an unending rain from the Prell vessels, poured down on their mutual enemy. Its shields flared, weakened, but it wasn't dead yet. The crumbling cube managed one final act of retribution: a cutting beam shot out and struck the Intrepid below its bridge, slicing down into its engineering section before it blinked out of being.

For Terri everything suddenly went black.

The Intrepid shuttered. Explosions rippled along its hull as its light flickered. She started listing hard to port as warp plasma oozed out into space.

As the barrage on the cube continued, the Raptor tried to move free of the chaos. The cube's attempts to fend off its attackers became weaker, more fruitless, the desperate acts of a dying animal and not the calculated strikes of a controlled entity. Desperately it clawed at the Raptor, but Harry was deftly evading it. The Raptor, however, wasn't doing much more than gracefully limping. She was hurt, badly. Despite his coaxing, she was done.

“It's okay, girl…just keep moving a little longer," Harry whispered, keeping the acceleration lever forward and giving the con an affectionate pat. “You are a good soldier and I'm proud of you. Just a few moments more and we can go home."

She had done the thing she was meant to do. But, in her trial, she was found wanting. Death was not inevitable; she would live to see another day if Harry could help it. He would get her back and they would try again, prepare more, and be ready for the next time.

As if the Borg had heard his own thoughts, another tractor beam managed to get a lock on the Raptor. However, as it did, a solitary Prell Warbird appeared, decloaking on the viewer, bearing the scar of a collision across its forward hull. It fired its weapons, destroying the emitter. The tractor beam disappeared.

All the other Prell vessels began to break away, taking parting shots with their rear weapon arrays as they did so. The battered Warbird flew past the Raptor, a scarred warrior with one final grudge to settle. It settled into an attack run and fired a single projectile. The solid object glimmered silver, twinkingly almost maliciously as it tumbled towards the flickering remains of the cube.

The Confederation vessels were slower to react, but started to break off their attacks as their commanding officers realized what was happening. The Prell had deployed a weapon, and whatever it was, they didn't want to be there when it went off.

The projectile vanished into the shadow of the Borg cube. For an instant, space and time seemed to ripple, deforming everything they touched. All of the energy was suddenly sucked back, dragging everything that had failed to escape towards its epicenter.

Harry looked at his instruments, frowning as he tried to keep up with the readouts. His jaw dropped, weighted with astonishment and horror. Whatever that device had been, as soon as it struck the surface of the Borg ship, it had formed a small artificial singularity. Everything was now being sucked into the new hole in space. The Raptor's single engine strained against the gravity well as Harry wrangled the controls.

* * *

Terri was moving, but it wasn't her own body. Something was handling her.

“What…what's…where?" She groaned as her vision blurred and a rush of pain flooded her senses.

“Be quiet, Captain. We must abandon ship," Plex said, coolly strapping her into the escape pod. “The warp core is leaking plasma and an antimatter breech is inevitable."

“Get…the…the…."

“We are evacuating everyone we can, Captain, I have seen to it," Plex said, brushing Terri's hair out of her eyes as she finished adjusting the harnesses. Terri's eyes darted around the pod with her. She noticed that it was filled with five civilians that they had rescued and Ensign Monroe.

“Not enough…" She wheezed as she weakly tugged on the harnesses. “People…need to get the people…off…first…"

She felt a hypo spray on her neck and her urge to struggle wavered.

“I'm sorry about this, Captain. We are giving our places to civilians and wounded. You don't have that choice." Plex's smile was broken by her pained eyes. She gently touched Terri's abdomen. “You have a civilian on board. You have a concussion and severe lacerations. Your child is fortunately unharmed. Live long and live well, Terri-Lu. This is my first, and last, act of insubordination. My apologies. Ensign, get these people to safety." Plex said, directing the order at Munro.

“Aye, sir," Munro said glumly.

With that, Plex stepped back and closed the hatch.

Terri locked eyes with her and kept them locked even until she couldn't see them as they rushed further and further away from the crippled Intrepid. The Intrepid was just the size of a fist when it exploded, disappearing into light and glittering debris, consumed by the un-controlled collision of matter and antimatter.

She wanted to scream, to cry, but she couldn't. The anesthesia she'd been injected with kept her calm, but it couldn't stop the tears from coming as she watched her ship, her friends, her crew, all of them reduced to shimmering dust.

The Raptor was slowly pulling away from the vortex of gravity that was consuming the Borg cube. The cube itself was trying desperately to flee, but part of it had already been consumed by the center of the growing anomalous maw of the gravitational beast bent on consuming the dead, the dying, and everything else.

“All ships report in!" Leyton's voice came over the com channel.

“Monitor clear, badly damaged," Striker's voice came in.

“Fortuna is clear," La'crosse replied. “Where's the Intrepid?"

“It's been destroyed," Leyton said horsley. “The escape pods are clear of the distortion though".

“Eagle and Osprey are clearI!" Commander Ivanova reported.

“We're on the edge of it, but we have enough power to pull out," Harry replied, struggling with the controls. “Fara, I need more power to the engines."

“You've got all this bucket can muster mister," Fara growled tiredly as Okan and Twila continued patching her up.

The single warp engine of the Raptor cried out as the stars slowly crept past, mocking their attempt to escape the doom pulling on them.

“This is the Aether," Jayna De'Sol's voice said solemnly over the com. “We can't escape the gravity well. It's dragging us in."

“Raptor? Can you get a tractor on them?" Leyton asked.

Harry turned to Fara who quickly looked over her readings. He watched, gut tensing, as she read them over again, biting her lip. Her ears drooped as she shook her head, unwilling to look at him.

Harry cried out to her. “Come on Fara! Give me something I can work with!"

“We can't! Not…not without being pulled in too…I'm sorry!" Fara choked.

Harry snarled, grinding his teeth as he turned back to the helm. “Negative, Admiral. We're barely clearing ourselves with one engine."

“Understood Raptor."

“Captain, priority message from the Aether," Perry said.

“On screen," Harry ordered.

Jayna appeared on screen, smiling softly when she spotted him at the helm. Nikolai could be seen beside her, giving orders although his audio was muted.

“Looks like you have your hands full," Jayna said.

“You have no idea," Harry said, re-calibrating the warp field to correct for another surge in gravimetric force. “Jayna, can you eject and detonate your core? The blast might be enough to push you clear."

“Not without destroying or crippling your ship in the process," she said. “I've got one of the two best engineers in the quadrant beside me, remember? There isn't much you can suggest he hasn't."

Jayna braced herself as something exploded behind her. She shouted something that got lost in the static, pointing as a crewman raced to put out the fire.

“Look…we…we don't have long," Jayna said, her composure fracturing for an instant. “We're going wherever that cubes' going…and nothing is going to stop it. You are going to be alone now…and you are going to be furious and sad…but listen to me, Harry. Don't let this change you. Promise me, alright?" Her smile faltered, her tears betraying her sorrow. “Don't be a man. Be a starship Captain."

“What's the point, huh?! We're supposed to be capable of anything! Anything dammit!" Harry growled, quickly adjusting for the next distortion as the Raptor continued its sluggish climb out of the all consuming vortex. “I can save you! I'll find a way!"

“Stop it! Listen to me! I'm not asking for a promise now. I'm giving you a direct order," Jayna said, flinching as her ship screamed in protest around, the crew scrambling to do what they could to find a way out of their predicament. “Do not insult my memory! No revenge! We die…." She swallowed hard, wiping at her eyes with her tattered sleeve. “We die and no one else will suffer for it. Is that understood, Captain?"

Harry's jaw clenched in defiance of the sting in his eyes. “And what about me?"

Jayna's smile was as beautiful as ever. “If I could do something about that I would. I guess we're both going to have to be brave."

Harry looked down, trying to hide his tears. He looked up, bracing to say something, anything to make her change her mind. She cut him off as he tried to open his mouth.

“Everything you could ever say, I already know. Let it…let me…go." The channel went hazy for a moment and then blinked back into view. Jayna was there, sitting in the midst of fire and smoke, Nikolai still visible over her shoulder working away, trying to find a miracle among the chaos. “Godspeed, Captain Martinez," Jayna said, saluting and smiling through her tears, “and good luck!"

With that, the channel cut out.

* * *

On the Bridge of the Aether

“Captain…we can't do any more. If we push the engines any further, we'll blow," Nikolai said.

“I know, Nikolai," Jayna said, slumping in her seat as the sight of Harry's agonized face blinked off the screen. “I know."

“What do we do now?" Nikolai asked.

“Helm…on my mark, cut the engines," Jayna said quietly. “Donnika reroute whatever we got left into structural integrity and the shields."

“Da…understood…Keptain." Donnika said from the engineering station, her voice betraying her fear.

“A chance, Captain?" Nikolai said, looking over at her.

Another conduit exploded overhead and the lights of the bridge faded. Jayna looked strangely at peace as the sparks danced around her, bathing her face a somber glow, making her green eyes sparkle in the gloom. He felt her hand grab his tightly and he put his other over her's. She did the same and smiled at him.

“A hope, my dear friend," she muttered into the growing darkness. “Hope is all we got left."

Nikolai nodded solemnly. “Then hope we shall…my Captain."

“Helm? Mark." Jayna ordered and closed her eyes, not knowing what was coming next.

* * *

Harry watched, jaw set, eyes blazing as the Aether's remaining engine suddenly went dark. It tumbled, end over end, into the anomaly just behind the Borg cube, as it crumbled and collapsed into the singularity. As soon anything that had been in the field crossed the event horizon of the anomaly, it disappeared like a missing shadow. The cube, the Aether, the debris from most of the battle, multiple crippled Prell vessels, all of it…gone.

The Raptor suddenly broke into warp space, leaving a trail of plasma and debris in its wake. Fara's wail of agony tore through the bridge. Her limit had been ultimately surpassed, wringing an expression of pain and loss out of her.

Harry sat with his hands on the console, trying to stifle his own pain. He felt a paw on his shoulder.

“Captain…" Rivas saïd quietly, “Ensign Rosa is here to man the con. Perhaps you should…perhaps you should get Fara and yourself to sickbay…sir."

Harry stared, bleary eyed as a mixture of tears and blood smeared the console under his hands.

“Of course, Commander…." Harry said, trying to wipe his eyes with the sleeve of his tunic, only to realize it was missing. He stood up. “You have the con. I…um…I'll just…ah…."

“You're going to sickbay." Rivas said sternly, steering Harry by the arm. “With Fara, sir."

Harry nodded, starting to move under his own power again. He reached over and squeezed Rivas' shoulder. It dawned on him what was going on. He was being relieved of command–informally–and Rivas was allowing him to keep his dignity.

“Yes…I am," Harry said, straightening the tatters of his uniform.

He walked over to Fara and tried to kindly pick her up. She fought him, slapped his arms away weakly, sobbing hysterically. He moved even slower, careful to avoid her injuries and not aggravate his own. Right now, Fara did not need a captain. She needed no one to tell her what to do or where to go. So he waited a moment, pausing until she finally locked eyes with him.

“Come on Fara," he whispered, gently taking her uninjured arm and standing, bringing her up with him. “We're done here."

She buried her face in his chest, crying and trembling fiercely. Harry let her cry as he maneuvered himself towards the turbolift. Their awkward waltz was conducted in the midst of Fara's sobbing as she clung to Harry, ignorant of his own tears. He would not cry, not now, not when there was still someone left who needed him to be strong.

The aft port side doors opened. Jakar was there, battered and bleeding, but alive.

“Captain, the intruders have been routed…." His eyes met Harry's and he trailed off, the sight of shell-shock making him take stock of the situation more closely. He glanced at Fara, who was trembling and sobbing uncontrollably. His normal scowl softened into something Harry had never seen before: sympathy. “Sirs," Jakar said mutedly, “you have my deepest condolences."

“Thank you," Harry said as Fara began to wail again into his shoulder. “Return to your station, Jakar."

Jakar nodded, stepped around them and onto the bridge.

Harry continued to guide Fara clumsily towards the turbolift. He was running out of energy and Fara kept staggering, lost in a world of pain. However before they got there, she fainted. He caught her up in his arms, snarling as the strain threatened to overwhelm him.

“It's ok Fara…I got you. You cry for both of us for now," he said, brushing her blood stained blonde hair out of her face. “I'll carry you for now."

* * *

Captain's Log Stardate 348104.33

After a few days of repairs and a joint effort to rescue survivors, the Prell have finally requested formal talks about the events of the last few days. Both sides had their losses. The Prell lost several ships to the Borg and us, but in the interest of having a mutual enemy, they are wanting to finally come to the table and have a face to face with us for the first time since our recorded dealings with them. The talks will be held on Kalyndra III, since it's the closest to the border and technically neither side has a presence there.

Harry and Commander Rivas stood in their dress whites, along with the other Captains and their firsts, along with a security detail just to maintain the peace. A table had been set up near the crater of the missing colony, with enough to seat both delegations. In the distance, the Prell beamed down with their escorts. Their lithe forms were covered in chrome armor and with crimson visored helmets. Their escorts carried equally chromed, strange halbreads that seemed to be a sort of an energy weapon. The weapons were held at a sort of parade grip, with banners fluttering off the haft of every other polearm. They took a similar stance to their own security behind their delegates

“Gentlemen, I am Admiral Leyton of Starfleet Command. On behalf of the Confederation we wish to express our gratitude for this opportunity to–"

“We will only speak to your greatest warrior, the one who dealt swift retribution to the Cube Ship. The one who single handedly damaged two of our most advanced vessels!" The Prell's helmet speakers shrieked as it pointed at Leyton. “We do not speak to Starfleet bureaucrats!"

Leyton's beak twitched as well as the lids around his eyes. “Very well…Captain Martinez. They wish to speak to you."

“Which of you is the Martinez?!" The leader shrieked.

“I am," Harry said, stepping forward.

“Come to the table! We will speak to you, and you only. Others may be council!"

“Alright," Harry said, taking Leyton's place at the center of the table, trying not to wince at the metallic shrieks generated by the tone the Prell's helmets produced. He could feel Leyton's eyes burning into his back, accompanied by the bemused murmurings of his peers behind him.

“Now, we shall sit," the leader of the Prell declared, even though they remained standing.

Out of decorum, Harry took the cue that he should do the same as everyone else sat down at the table. The Prell leader reached up behind his head and touched something behind his helmet. The armor's seal cracked, allowing his suit's atmosphere to escape. He touched another release, the crimson visored helmet flipped down, and he removed it. This gesture seemed to unnerve his companions, but they kept their composure. Harry's own people looked on in awe. No one had ever seen a Prell outside their armor.

The face underneath was more shocking only because it was familiar, but with more primal angular features. It looked almost like an Avian, bulky enough to be classified as male, except its plumage was brightly colored, its eyes were irisless pools of black.

“I am Praet Tamalak, of the Prell Empire, leader of the First Fleet. It is an Honor to meet you," he said, setting the helmet on the table.

“Captain Harry Martinez of the Confederation," Harry replied. “I hope that we can make some progress between our peoples beyond exchanging information on what happened over the last few days."

Tamalak nodded and then took his seat, followed by Harry.

“These…Borg…as they call themselves," Tamalak said. “From our readings of your vessel's weapons systems, we can safely assume you have encountered them before."

“Personally, this is my second time, but you are correct in your assumption." Harry admitted. Harry heard Leyton make some disgruntled sound and cringed slightly. If anyone at the table could start a fight, it would be Leyton and his arrogant beak.

“Tell that fer'ak that we are well aware of the incident five years ago and he should keep his beak shut," Tamalak said tersely, addressing Harry and not Leyton at his side. “In fact, he is dismissed. He is not needed here."

“Now listen here," Leyton barked, his temper boiling up to the surface as he leapt to his feet. Harry didn't move. No one reacted, except Tamalak's guards, who brought their weapons to bear, prompting the Confederation security officers to draw their phasers.

“Admiral, with all due respect, sir, I suggest you return to the Akira, at the behest of our guests." Harry said, keeping his eyes locked on Tamalak, who showed nothing but cold, collected calculation. “If you wish to provide counsel, you can do so through Commodore Striker."

Leyton molted a few feathers as he shook with rage. Slowly he backed away from the table, keeping his talons in view. When he was even with the security officers, he tapped his combadge. “Leyton to Akira, one to beam up." He glared at Harry. “Do not screw this up Martinez or I will have your hide!"

“I am doing my best, sir," Harry said without turning to acknowledge him.

The Prell guards returned to their parade rest in one swift, smooth action and the Starfleet security did so at a slightly less organized pace.

Tamalak allowed himself an amused, slightly dark chuckle. “Ahh, our distant relatives the Aviani. Once we shared the same world, but that is a story for another time, not to be told here. I'm sure they have, in their shame, neglected to tell their closest allies."

“I'm sure it's quite revealing," Harry smiled, “but, yes, for another time."

“Indeed." Tamalak nodded leaning back in his chair. “In the interest of a more…beneficial…relationship between our two empires, I wish to exchange information on this threat: the Borg. Compare notes, as your people are known to say."

Harry looked over at Commodore Striker, who nodded.

“All within reason, of course," Harry said.

Tamalak leaned forward and his beak formed what could be called a sly smile. “Certainly."

“May we see yours first? We can have our information down here in a few moments," Harry said. Commodore Striker quietly spoke to his combadge requesting a datapad to be sent down with the information.

Tamalak snapped his talons and one of his subordinates handed him a datapad, which he slid across to Harry, who handed it to Striker. Even if the Prell wanted to talk to him, he still had to follow the chain of command. “Thank you for being so forward with your findings."

“Being as we are at a potential precipice between our two empires, I wish to not bog things down."

“I can appreciate that sentiment," Harry said with a slight smile.

Striker handed off the Prell datapad to an officer as he was handed the datapad with the Confederation's data on it. He handed the datapad to Harry. “Here you go, Captain."

“Thank you, Commodore," Harry said gratefully before sliding the datapad over to Tamalak, who started to read it immediately.

Harry sat back, settling into his best poker face as he relaxed. When he'd woken up this morning he hadn't expected to end up heading negotiations, but it didn't look like he had much of a choice in the matter.

The three hours slowly became more relaxed as Tamalak read, asked questions, and compared data. Harry did his best to keep up with the questions, backed up by the rest of the delegates. By the end of it he was sweating profusely, wishing he could take the formal uniform off and be done with all of this.

“Well, this has all been…enlightening…to say the least," Tamalak said as he and Harry walked up to the beam down sight with the others behind.

“I just hope some good can come out of all this," Harry said.

“Perhaps. That is for those who write the histories to decide." Tamalak smirked, smoothing his bright plumage. The black pools of his eyes looked out over the crater that formerly housed a planetary starbase. “It seems that if we allow these Borg to have it their way, our efforts will be rather pointless, will they not?"

“Let's hope that's not the case," Harry muttered.

“Indeed," Tamalk said making a gesture to his escort before putting on his armored gloves. His retinue walked up to the pad with him. The Starfleet personnel stood at attention, seeing them off.

“Oh? Captain? One more thing," Tamalk said with a mirthful look.

“What is it, Praet?" Harry asked.

Tamalak put his helmet on, sealed it, and the strange electronic shriek to his voice came back.

“Tell your Confederation that we are back…and we are watching. Farewell."

He touched a panel on his armor and the Prell were all beamed back to their ships.

As the Prell disappeared in a haze of transporter beams, their ships moved out of orbit and cloaked. It was in the hands of the diplomats now, but for the moment there would be tentative peace again between the Confederation and Prell.

“Good job, Captain," Striker said, slapping him on the shoulder. “How's it feel to be part of history?"

Harry unzipped his dress tunic before tugging a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbing at the sweat on his brow. “Quite frankly, sir, I'm sick of it."

Striker chuckled. “Perhaps you'll grow to appreciate it some day."

“Maybe. If you'll excuse me." Harry sighed heavily, removing his white dress tunic and hanging it on his arm. “I need to return to what's left of my ship."

“Of course, Captain. We can handle the rest from here."

Rivas and Harry rematerialised on the Raptor's transporter pad a few moments later.

“Welcome back gentlemen," Transporter Chief O'bren said cheerfully.

“Thanks, Chief." Harry replied. “Don, would you mind taking command 'till we get home?" Harry sighed wearily. “I have some things I need to tend to and, frankly, I'm exhausted."

“Of course, sir," Rivas nodded, stepping down and heading for the bridge.

Harry stepped down from the Raptor's transporter pad feeling heavy with grief, stress and duty.

“Captain, if I may?" O'bren said, offering to take his dress jacket.

“Thanks," Harry said, handing him the jacket and then stretching a bit.

“No problem at all, sir," O'bren said with a nod.

Harry made his way to sickbay. The journey seemed like it took way longer than it should have. He eventually arrived at the double doors with frosted plasteel window glass with the caduceus embossed on them. They parted to let him through. The ward was quite full. The shuttle bay and a cargo bay had been converted to hold the overflow of survivors from the Starbase and battle. Sickbay had been delegated for Starfleet officers that still needed treatment and could not yet be returned to duty. Harry walked among his crew, giving encouragement, talking to them. Being the Captain they all looked up too, bringing some comfort to each of them, despite the burning emptiness he felt inside. He had to endure. He had to give them hope. That was easier said than done when he had none left for himself.

Ensign Kyle was still in the ICU, but O'mara was resting in a biobed set beside Terri-Lu, who was also dozing quietly on one side. Her face was bandaged and her arm was in a sling. Her Taber cat was curled up on her stomach, perched with its legs tucked under it, ears back, unmoving, and peering menacingly at anything that drew near. Apparently Doctor Okan saw some merit in having the animal brought here, otherwise it'd still be in its pod. On the other side, Fara was inert, held down by heavy medical sedation.

Once the others had been tended to, Harry made his way to them. They all had stories to tell, either an injury from the battle or a narrow miss dealing with the brief boarding incursion by the Borg Drones. Harry's burden had already pushed him to his limit. By the time he got to his former and current officers, he wasn't sure how much more he could take.

O'mara put the datapad down, she was reading, and smiled up at him. “Captain…." She said wearily.

“How are you doing Commander?" He asked.

“I guess I'm a member of the club now. I got ripped across my abdomen pretty good," she said, taking another breath. “Doctor Okan got me patched up and in a few days I'll be back to duty."

“You take all the time you need." Harry smiled at her. “I don't want you back to work until you feel like you can handle it and not because you feel obligated to, understood? You have plenty of leave saved up. Use it, please."

O'mara smiled at him. “Of course, Captain. Thank you. Is Fara ok?" She asked, worriedly peering over at her. “She's been out since I woke up from the operation."

“We…lost the Aether," Harry said.

“Oh no." O'mara sank back into her bio bed, several feathers molting off her head. “Oh…poor Fara!" As if trying to change the subject, she turned her attention to Terri. “Why's Terri here? I thought she was on the Intrepid?"

“She was. It was lost as well. Her crew put her on an escape pod before it was destroyed." Harry replied.

“Oh…oh my…and I thought I got it bad!" O'mara said glumly, her face pulling down into a pitiful frown. “Why'd they…do that, though? She wouldn't have taken a seat from a civilian."

“I think…I know what happened," Harry said, sitting on the edge of the bed, “but I will leave that for her to tell you. If you could, I know you three were close. I think they'll both need you."

“I don't think that will be a problem, sir," O'mara said with a faint smile.

"Captain…?" Terri asked tiredly, her eyes fluttering open. "Where am I?"

"You're aboard the Raptor and we're heading home," Harry said.

"The Intrepid…my ship," she said, trying to sit up, but Harry gently pushed her back down.

Taber hissed in protest, but grumpily moved to a position on the bio bed closer to Terri's feet.

"Just rest for now," Harry said.

Terri sighed, her sudden surge of energy subsiding as the painkillers she had in her system forced her back down.

Okan was suddenly at her side, scanning her. “She's as stubborn as you are, Captain. Unfortunately, she needs to stop trying to fight it and just rest." He scanned Harry as well and scowled. “Captain, I suggest you do the same. You should wrap this up."

“You heard the Doctor, Number One. I can't countermand that order," Harry said, squeezing Terri's hand.

Terri nodded drowsily, a small smile on her face for just a moment before she drifted back into a deep sleep.

* * *

The battle had been won. The Borg had been stopped…for now. They would return. It wasn't a question of if, but when.

Now was a time to mend, heal, and move forward. It was hard to do at first. Time marched on. Days soon became weeks, weeks drifted into a month. Everyday was a chore. Each following day was more laborious than the last.

Harry would wake, tend to his duties on Starbase 186, which were mainly anything Stiles would delegate to him. Harry was fine with this. Busy work was better than no work. As word spread throughout the quadrant, everything had suddenly become quiet. Harry hoped it would stay that way for a bit.

The Raptor was in its drydock being repaired and refitted while the Falcon was left to tend to its former duties. The warp coils in the Raptor's port nacelle were gone, leaving almost the entire nacelle to be rebuilt. The core needed to be overhauled and refitted yet again. Harry had lost count of which overhaul they were on now. He made a mental note to ask Fara how many times the core had been rebuilt when he got the chance.

Harry would tend to a daily brief patiently, put up with hearing Kurtzman, Rydel, Remmick, Knackt and a new crewman Bosch argue about how to proceed about repairs. He sometimes wondered who would win if they would come to blows. Although, if he were to bet credits, he was pretty sure Knackt and Bosch would probably be the last two standing, probably just screaming at each other in the end until Knackt got frustrated and walked away.

The whole process was about the only part of his day that brought him any joy. Watching the five of them bickering, trying to fill the void that Fara's absence was leaving in engineering, it made the ship feel less empty.

He'd exercise, run a good four mile lap around the habitat area of the Starbase. He noticed that he was starting to look a bit more fit than he ever had, but what did it matter? He didn't have anyone that would appreciate it. Well, Okan would be off his case to watch his diet, but that was about it.

All of it, from the spectating to the exercise, was just a way to stop feeling the emptiness inside him.

He tried to work on his model ships, but it had become a pointless process of breaking a model out, setting up his tools, staring at it for almost thirty minutes, then giving up, putting it away and reading a book.

Reading did help. It got his mind off his situation. It was nice to sit back and be a casual observer to other people's problems, to watch them struggle with their own challenges. He had gotten back into reading an epic fantasy series he liked when he was a kid. Often he found he'd lose hours of his day reading, until it was time to check on Fara.

He met Terri and O'mara leaving her quarters just as he arrived, just like he did everyday.

“Any change yet?" He asked.

“No," O'mara said sadly.

“We can't get through to her. We try to talk to her like we're just there to visit and she just keeps staring at the wall." Terri said. She was now starting to really show her pregnancy. She had requested leave from active duty. She looked tired and a bit puffy.

“So, no change huh?" Harry sulked.

O'mara sighed. “Just in where she sits."

“I wish I could help her." Terri grumbled, glaring back at the door. “I know what she's going through, but I don't know if anything I say is getting through."

“I'm sure she appreciates us all coming to see her," Harry said. “She doesn't need to be alone."

Terri and O'mara nodded.

“Good luck, Harry," Terri said as they headed down the corridor.

"Thanks," Harry said, hitting the door chime. “Fara? It's me, Harry. I'm coming in."

No reply, but there never was. The door was unlocked and since she wasn't talking, he entered.

Every visit was the same. Harry could tell she was eating, at least taking care of her basic needs. She was at least wearing a different set of sleepwear everyday. Her hair was unkempt and wild, but it still seemed like she had been washing it, although lazilly. He noticed Terri and O'mara had put her recent pile of discarded garments in the hamper and done some straightening up for her.

He'd talk to her, but she'd just sit with her knees drawn up to her muzzle, staring straight ahead, totally unresponsive. At first Harry had found it hard to talk to her. Sometimes it was about happenings on the Starbase, other times the status of the ship. He'd tell her about amusing things he'd see in the promenade. It had been almost a week and he was trying to reach through the bubble she'd put herself in.

“...I know what you are feeling Fara…trust me." Harry said sadly. “I…loved Jayna, deeply, truly. I really wanted to be with her for the rest of my life and…now she's gone. You aren't alone in your pain. I'm hurting too. Just…please…talk to me."

Fara just rocked slightly. Her muzzle twitched, but she just returned to staring at the wall of her darkened quarters again.

Harry sighed. “Okay, well I'm going to keep bothering you until you speak to me." He got up to leave. “I'll see you tomorrow."

“Don't," Fara croaked as the doors parted for him to leave. “Please…."

Harry turned. Fara was now sitting on the couch normally. He stepped back and let the doors shut behind him. Slowly, he walked back over to her.

“Ok…I'm here."

“Sit by me."

Harry did so, not sure what to do.

“I feel like something physically ripped my heart out of my chest," she said quietly, her voice cracking. “Now…there is nothing there…except pain. Is that…normal?"

“Grief affects everyone differently, Fara. However, I felt that way once long ago."

“When?"

“When my mother died."

Fara was quiet for a moment. “What do you feel now?"

“Just…empty." Harry sighed. “Like I'm a shell, a ghost that lost the thing tying it to the world."

“This is worse than anything I've experienced," she said, her voice wavering. “I feel so alone!"

“You are not alone," Harry said. “Your friends are here for you. I'm here for you." He put0 his arm about her shoulders. She tensed, but she allowed it. “I care about you, and I'm worried sick about you."

“You just want your damn ship fixed," Fara muttered darkly, folding her ears back.

“No. Not this time," he said reassuringly. “Look, I've lost too many close friends lately. I'm not going to lose you to yourself."

“I don't think you can save me…not this time," Fara whispered, wrapping her arms around herself.

Harry gave her a cocky smile. “Just try and stop me."

Fara laughed hollowly, a harsh yet weak sound, but a laugh nonetheless. She then went into a coughing fit, interrupting the laugh. She grabbed her tissues and scurried to the privy. It was quite the process as she cleared her throat, then chugged a glass of water. Returning to the couch, she tossed the tissue box to Harry, who caught it, and then sat beside him.

“You really haven't been doing this just to get me back to work on the ship?" She asked, locking eyes with him.

“The ship can wait. Getting you repaired takes priority." Harry shrugged. “You can go back when you are good and ready."

“Thanks." Fara smiled. She leaned back and rested her head on his shoulder. “So…what do we do now?" She asked sullenly, looking up at him, her thoughts moving to the small unopened gift from Nikolai that was sitting on her dresser in her bedroom. “How do we move past this?"

Harry took a deep breath and leaned back on her couch, looking up at the ceiling.

“The only thing we can do," Harry said solemnly. “We live."

The End