Odyssey Mission Logs 2

2:1 (Pursuit)
It has been four months since the battle against the Terran ship in the nebula. They had already crossed deep within unknown space but Captain Malcolm was pleased to report that a sense of community had fallen over the crew as each of them continued to perform to the best of their ability. Report to who he had not yet figured out yet. He must admit however, being so far from home for so long has not helped morale.

In the holodeck, Lieutenant Commander Paul Miller and Ensign Katie Staan continued their fencing training. At this point Paul had practiced enough that now he was capable of holding his own, even winning several rounds.

&quot;It&apos;s the new eye,&quot; Katie would excuse.

Approaching the end of their session, Lieutenant Charlie Marteez entered the holodeck.

&quot;Charlie what are you doing here?&quot; Katie asked pulling her helmet off and was visibly panting.

&quot;I just got off duty,&quot; Charlie said. &quot;Paul you ready?&quot;

&quot;Ready for what?&quot; Katie asked.

&quot;Me and Charlie have been doing movie nights.&quot; Paul explained.

&quot;Oh? Why didn&apos;t you two tell me and Sam?&quot;

&quot;I&apos;m sorry I didn&apos;t think you&apos;d mind,&quot; Paul said. Katie turned and gave him a look of surprise just as the room gently vibrated and the lights dimmed for a brief moment.

&quot;That&apos;s not good.&quot; Paul said as he made haste out of the room.

That disturbance was caused by the USS Odyssey dropping back into normal space. The shutters over the warp coil grills on the nacelles strudded to slowly slide open. The shutters over the port nacelle only opened a quarter of the way before jamming in place. Not allowing for the coils to link, the energy build up was forced to relieve itself through radiation, the least efficient form of heat transfer, especially in a vacuum. Being so inefficient, the energy build up resulted in the port nacelle grills overheating and this back fed through the system all the way to the quantum warp engine.

Steam and smoke poured out of the engineering lab as energy continued to feedback into the system.

&quot;Cut the power, shut down the warp core,&quot; Paul ordered as he entered Main Engineering. The tall cylinder containing the blue and white plasma ceased to pulsate and slowly turned grey. The warp coils stopped increasing in engery but remained incredibly hot.

&quot;Back up generators online, fire suppression systems are kicking in.&quot; Sam said monitoring the situation on a console.

&quot;What is going on?&quot; Captain Malcolm said as he strode into Main Engineering.

&quot;Captain the warp coil connection was interrupted when the quantum engine shut down sequence failed.&quot; Paul reported.

&quot;What caused it?&quot; Malcolm asked.

&quot;I don&apos;t know maybe it&apos;s because of you ignoring my warnings,&quot; Paul argued and Malcolm looked away. &quot;Captain we are pushing my engine too far. We can only sustain a Underspace bubble for a maximum of 18 hours before it becomes too unstable. That does not mean 20 hours of sustained flight. 18 hours.&quot;

&quot;Miller, we have five years to get to Sagittarius and find the source of that signal. Five years. That&apos;s the deadline I&apos;m concerned with. If we stop every time you tell us we won&apos;t make it for another 6 years, and the sacrifice this crew made would be for nothing.&quot;

&quot;All due respect captain, but if we carry on the way we are, we wouldn&apos;t reach it for another 60 years.&quot; Paul said.

&quot;How long will this take to repair?&quot; Malcolm asked, evidently frustrated at his chief engineer.

&quot;A-about a day, but we will need to keep the warp core offline while we make repairs to the nacelles.&quot; Paul said. &quot;But captain, in my opinion, this will keep happening until I don&apos;t think we could repair it any more. This is why we have safeguards.&quot;

&quot;Write me up a report,&quot; Malcolm said. &quot;Send it to me and I&apos;ll look it over.&quot;

Before Paul could respond, the captain disparted Engineering leaving the lieutenant and his officers quiet and concerned.

Paul and Charlie fitted themselves with spacesuits as they prepared for their space walk.

&quot;Sorry about cancelling movie night,&quot; Paul said. &quot;You didn&apos;t have to do this, I know you&apos;d just gotten off duty.&quot;

&quot;Nah it&apos;s okay,&quot; Charlie assured, putting his helmet on. &quot;I had nothing to do anyway.&quot;

The two walked onto a platform in the middle of the room. Charlie pressed a button on the rails and platform rose. Just as it seemed like they were about to be crushed by the ceiling, a hatch opened placing them within an airlock tube. The hatch sealed itself below them and then a second hatch unlocked and opened. They rose up onto the surface of the Odyssey&apos;s hull surrounded by the starry blackness of space.

The two held onto the railings to prevent them from floating away. Paul engaged the magnetic pads on the heal of his boots and stepped onto the surface the hull while Charlie instead chose to pull himself over the railings before engaging the magnetic boots still a good 3ft off the ground. They marched across the hull towards the nacelles.

Just as they approached the pylons, Paul looked over his shoulder and saw a figure approaching one of the windows close by. The figure waved and then moved back to whatever they were doing.

&quot;Workbee A to Miller, this is Staan.&quot; Katie&apos;s voice came over the comm as Paul and Charlie stood over the warp coils on the port nacelle. A small shuttlecraft exited the shuttlebay and flew over to the nacelle, forward lights and robotic arms engaged.

&quot;We read you Workbee A, what can you tell us of the damage?&quot; Paul said.

&quot;Severe warping of the durainium screens, the entire system for retracting the screens has been blown off.&quot;

&quot;Well if we can get that back online the screens should retract regardless,&quot; Charlie commented. &quot;The system is basically replicator technology after all.&quot;

Paul nodded and knelt down to remove a bulkhead on the nacelle. Underneath was a series of conduits and circuits scorched black.

&quot;Looks like the commad pr- the command processors has been damaged. That must be why the retraction system wouldn&apos;t respond.&quot; Paul said. &quot;I&apos;ll need to reroute the back up processes to bypass the damaged systems.&quot;

&quot;You know what won&apos;t matter if we don&apos;t repair the mechanism itself.&quot; Charlie pointed out. Paul nodded and Charlie stepped towards the edge surrounding the warp coil grills.

&quot;Be careful, those screens are still radiating at about 500 degrees kelvin.&quot; Katie reported.

&quot;Now ensign when am I not careful?&quot; Charlie said. He disengaged the magnetic boots and stepped off the edge, floating for a moment. He fired the space suits manuvering thrusters downwards enough to give him enough momentum to fall, but before he touched the screens he activated the magnetic palms on his gloves and grabbed the edge. Out from his backpack, he pulled a plasma torch and got to work.

Hours past and captain Malcolm had began to become inpatient with the repairs on the port nacelle. He sat in the captains chair reading over yesterday&apos;s report. The chief medical officer and his wife, Ellie Malcolm, had put in a request for a days worth of medical supply gathering in a near by system.

Just as Malcolm stood from his seat to head for the newly fitted bridge replicator, the proximity alarm sounded.

&quot;Captain, we are detecting a displacement in the quantum field,&quot; Reka reported.

&quot;On screen.&quot; Malcolm ordered.

The viewscreen displaced a section of space 300 million kilometres off their dorsal hull. A streak of blue lightning shot through the cosmos as a large vessel was dropped into the space in a flash of light.

&quot;Vessel identified as Federation, USS Rodney NX-208819.&quot; Riley reported.

&quot;It&apos;s admiral Galeb.&quot; Malcolm said. &quot;Red Alert. How long until they are in weapons range?&quot;

&quot;2 minutes, captain.&quot;

&quot;Fellas, bridge is ordering us back inside.&quot; Katie said. She piloted the workbee craft and provided the two on the nacelle with flood lights and using the arms to shift the larger bulkheads.

Paul looked up in relative to the Odyssey, there in the distance was a federation ship inbound.

&quot;Acknowledged,&quot; Paul said placing the bulkhead back where it belonged.

&quot;Wait!&quot; Charlie shouted, forgetting that there was no audible sound in space and he activated his comm. &quot;Wait, I&apos;m not done here.&quot;

&quot;How long will it take to finish?&quot;

&quot;Another hour at least.&quot;

&quot;Guys it doesn&apos;t look like we have that much time, I need to get the workbee back inside.&quot;

&quot;Go both of you get back inside, I&apos;ll finish here.&quot;

The platform lowered back inside as Paul removed his helmet. He headed towards the comm and removed the space suit piece by piece.

&quot;Captain, I&apos;m inside but Marteez is still on the na- the nacelle.&quot; Paul stammered.

&quot;What&apos;s he still doing out there?&quot; Malcolm asked over the comm.

&quot;He is still working on retracting the screens.&quot; Paul said.

&quot;Miller we need to jump to warp.&quot;

&quot;No, if you restart the warp coils you&apos;ll kill him.&quot;

On the bridge, Malcolm asked how long could they stay out of weapons range of they divert power to impulse engines.

&quot;Forty minutes but without the warp core active, we&apos;ll be pushing the reactors.&quot; Reece said.

&quot;Okay set a course in any direction, full impulse, keep then out of weapons range.&quot;

The Odyssey turned and engaged full impulse away from the inbound Rodney.

Paul and Katie entered Main Engineering. Officers continued to work overtime to repair the damaged systems. The two moved across engineering to a communications station and they linked to Charlie&apos;s helmet comm just as Sam moved over to them.

&quot;What happened?&quot; She said.

&quot;Charlie is still on the nacelle, he still needs an hour to rebuild the retraction mechanism, but without the warp core active, we will be in weapons range with the Rodney in forty minutes and we can&apos;t raise shields while he&apos;s out there, and if we go to warp, we&apos;ll kill him.&quot; Paul explained.

&quot;Thanks Paul, I&apos;m glad you have faith in me,&quot; Charlie said over the comm.

&quot;How are you hanging on out there?&quot; Sam asked.

&quot;Good, luckily there&apos;s no air resistance in space otherwise I would have been ripped apart already.&quot; Charlie said. &quot;I am moving onto repairing the dematerialisation sequence for the screens.&quot;

Katie placed her two fingers to her ear as a comm signal came in for her. She excused herself from the group and answered the message.

&quot;Ensign Staan, this is the captain,&quot; a voice confirmed.

&quot;Yes I read you,&quot; she responded.

&quot;The USS Rodney is increasing in speed faster that we expected, they are gaining on us and will be in weapons range in only 20 minutes if we don&apos;t change that.&quot; Malcolm said. &quot;I believe you specialised in the backup reactors fitted on this ship?&quot;

&quot;Yes I did bu-&quot;

&quot;I need you to give it more juice.&quot;

&quot;Captain, those are miniaturized fusion reactors, if we push them any further then we might damage the relays.&quot;

&quot;I don&apos;t want to damage the relays, I just want more juice. Can you do it?&quot;

&quot;Yes I can do it.&quot; Katie said giving it some thought.

&quot;Good you have 20 minutes before they get in weapons range.&quot;

&quot;But captain, Marteez is still out there.&quot;

&quot;Ensign I understand you are friends with the lieutenant, but Admiral Galeb is not responding to our hails. They are following protocol in case of a dangerous rogue element. If they catch up to us, they will destroy this ship and take whoever survives prisoner. So please. Don&apos;t make me make it an order.&quot;

&quot;Aye captain.&quot; Katie agreed.

The Odyssey pressed on through space. With the miniature fusion reactors that acted as the back up power generators fuelled the impulse engines but without the warp core active, the USS Rodney was quickly closing the gap.

Katie worked on increasing the reaction rate in each of the generators however any modifications threatened to compromise the relays ship wide. As a result she managed to reroute power from as many systems to the impulse and thrusters. Combining the two systems together increased the Odyssey to just below the Rodney&apos;s speed which bought them another half an hour which she hoped would be enough time for Charlie.

&quot;Ensign Staan to bridge, that&apos;s the best I can do,&quot; she said.

&quot;Good work ensign.&quot;

&quot;I will have to stay here to monitor the power output, it&apos;s not a stable supply.&quot;

&quot;Acknowledged.&quot;

Charlie continued his work on the nacelle. He slid a tray out and started working at the crystallized structures and the bio-neural gel pack linked into the structure. He glanced up and saw the USS Rodney shining in the distance as the brightest star.

&quot;Marteez, we need you to pay attention.&quot; Paul said over the comm in his helmet.

&quot;Yeah understood.&quot; He responded and he started the last stretch of the work.

&quot;The USS Rodney will be in weapons range in 2 minutes, captain.&quot; Riley reported.

Malcolm nodded and flicked a switch marked &apos;Main Engineering&apos; on the console fitted to the captains arm rest.

&quot;Malcolm to Miller, times up,&quot; Malcolm said. &quot;I need that nacelle back online.&quot;

&quot;Bare with us captain.&quot; Paul said over the comm.

On the nacelle, Charlie had just began to finish his work. He slid the tray back inside and the screen fitted to the side lit up. An orange light covered the surrounding bulkheads as Charlie looked up to see a phaser beam slam into the Odyssey&apos;s glowing impulse engines.

The force of the energy pushed Charlie sideways and he shouted in pain as his back scrapped against the still scorching screens.

&quot;Charlie are you okay?&quot; Sam&apos;s voice said in his ear. Charlie used the magnetic gloves to pull himself away from the screens.

&quot;I&apos;m fine,&quot; he said panting. &quot;You should have control over the retraction sequence.&quot;

&quot;Good now get yourself inside so we can raise shields.&quot; Sam said.

Another blast hit just below the port pylon, shaking the structure he so desperately clung on to.

Each section of the screens sequentially shone blue before disappearing one by one. At that moment, Charlie pulled himself up on to the hull just as another orange blasted it&apos;s way directly in front of where he ran. The bulkheads surrounding him detached from the hull leaving Charlie spinning helplessly as he watched the Odyssey shrink before him. There was nothing he could do, the magnetic locks or even the manuvering thrusters.

&quot;Can we get a transporter lock?&quot; Paul frantically asked as Charlie&apos;s signature slowly withdrew from the USS Odyssey. Sam ran across engineering to the transporter station. She fiddled about with the controls right before the room shook once more, the console she worked at exploded and she was knocked to the floor.

&quot;Medical teams to main engineering.&quot; Paul said lifting up Sam from the floor. &quot;Miller to bridge, we need a transporter lock on Marteez right away.&quot;

&quot;Negative, commander,&quot; Malcolm&apos;s voice said over the comm. &quot;We had to raise shields, we were taking too much damage.&quot;

Charlie used this thrusters to stabilise himself in the blackness of space. From inside his helmet, his calls for assistance where only met with static as he watched the orange beams being repelled from the ship by a blue hugging shield.

The Odyssey shrank from view before the nacelles shone bright and the ship zipped off to distant space at warp speed.

Charlie panicked, not thinking that captain Malcolm would ever leave one of his crew behind, he saw the looming mass known as the starship Rodney passed over him. He felt himself dematerialise as the structure of a transporter room formed around him. Two security officers in cold uniforms pointed their rifles directly where he now stood.

Sam sat in sickbay unconscious with burns from her face. Chief medical officer doctor Ellie Malcolm ran a dermal regenerator over her burns and reassured Paul and Katie that she will recover.

&quot;I should have been there,&quot; Katie said. &quot;If it wasn&apos;t for those reactors.&quot;

&quot;It wouldn&apos;t have changed anything.&quot; Paul said.

The captain entered the room and Katie fell silent at the sight of him. She crossed her arms and turned to the bed as Malcolm asked for a engineering status report.

&quot;How are we shaped up like?&quot; Malcolm asked.

&quot;Hull breaches on decks 5 through 8, internal sensors and transporters are down, wa- warp engines are functionally normally, thanks to lieutenant Marteez.&quot; Paul reported. Katie glanced over at him before returning her attention to Sam. &quot;Permission to speak freely, sir.&quot;

Malcolm nodded and Paul stepped forward, speaking quietly to not draw too much attention to themselves.

&quot;What the hell are you doing? Leaving Charlie behind? Is that the kind of captain you are now?&quot; Paul asked and Malcolm looked away frustrated.

&quot;Do not mistake my decision for pride in it,&quot; he responded. &quot;I had to choose between 1 life and 384 lives. I made that decision and I need all of you to carry out my orders, but do not think that I am comfortable with that decision.&quot;

Charlie sat in the sickbay onboard the USS Rodney. He was being given a physical by the ships doctor, James Coal, while the ships commander Admiral Galeb and first officer Rown addressed him at phaser-point.

&quot;Lieutenant Charles Marteez, Starfleet service number 984-592-115, you are under arrest in association to a traitor and for the murder of the crews of the USS Delaney.&quot; Galeb said.

&quot;Can you do this later, please?&quot; Doctor Coal said as he gave Charlie a oral scan.

&quot;I told you already, we were not responsible for what happened to the Delaney.&quot; Charlie said when Coal lowered his instruments.

&quot;Ah yes it was the incursion of an evil replica of the USS Odyssey from another universe.&quot; The admiral responded.

&quot;The ISS Odyssey.&quot; Charlie corrected and he was met with the admirals fury.

&quot;Do not answer me back, Lieutenant!&quot; he shouted. &quot;You think this wild story of evil clones and parallel universe&apos;s would justify the murder of hundreds. Your actions and attitude are a disgrace to that uniform. Once the doctor is finished with you, you will be sent to the brig until we intercept your ship.&quot;

Admiral Galeb and and Commander Rown walked down the corridor together. Dean Rown watched as more armed officers stood to one side to give way for their superior officers. Many of them looked uneasy and uncertain, any man could tell that they were not comfortable with firing on another Starfleet vessel, traitor or not, but the admiral did not seem to notice.

&quot;You believe him don&apos;t you?&quot; Galeb asked.

&quot;Was it obvious?&quot;

&quot;This is why you were demoted commander,&quot; Galeb said. &quot;You let your personal opinion and interpretation cloud your judgement.&quot;

&quot;I arrested two friends for espionage under my command.&quot;

&quot;And one of which turned out to be a murderous traitor who you let walk.&quot;

&quot;That is my decision, it is my ship-&quot; Rown said before Galeb interrupted.

&quot;Was.&quot; He said. &quot;Was your ship. And that is why it is not your decision now.&quot;

The admiral continued on his way as commander Rown resented those comments. He looked about the corridor, many of the crew still believed that his demotion was unjust at the start of the war. Marteez had told him his story of the ISS Odyssey and the Sagittarius signal and now, looking at the reaction of the admiral, was considering if it were true.

Doctor Coal completed his physical of Charlie and began to pack away his instruments. The captured lieutenant stood up and was being escorted out the medical bay by the security officer until the commander Rown intercepted them once reaching the door.

&quot;Crewman, you&apos;re dismissed.&quot; Rown said.

&quot;Sir, I&apos;m under orders to escort the prisoner to the brig.&quot; He explained in confusion.

&quot;I understand that but I&apos;ll take it from here.&quot; Rown said. The crewman reluctantly nodded and handed his rifle over to Rown as he departed the room. Rown glanced back into the medbay before and saw that Doctor Coal watching him just as he led the lieutenant out into the corridor. Did the doctor know what he was going to do? That was a question he would not concern himself with at the moment.

The two walked down the corridors together. They turned and cut across passages, soon Charlie estimated that he was taking them to the forward section of the secondary hull. Specifically if the Rodney is designed with the standard internal configuration of Starfleet, was to the forward torpedo launchers.

&quot;It was Charles, wasn&apos;t it?&quot; The commander asked quietly. Charlie nodded. &quot;Good. I want you swear to me that you are telling the truth.&quot;

&quot;It&apos;s all true, the Terrans, the signal, everything.&quot; Charlie answered. &quot;We have evidence on the Odyssey.&quot;

&quot;Very well but don&apos;t let me down.&quot; Rown said as he continued to lead Charlie through the ship. &quot;Because if you are lying to me then I will have no choice but to follow Starfleet&apos;s orders.&quot;

&quot;I understand.&quot;

The two entered the launch bays. Inside was stacks of photon, quantum and tricolbalt torpedoes, except for one. A photon torpedo casing was empty, split open and resting on a separate launch railings.

&quot;Okay, there&apos;s a combat drill in ten minutes, when that happens I&apos;ll launch you in this torpedo casing. The Odyssey should pick up the transponder as it passes by.&quot; Rown explained.

&quot;Wouldn&apos;t bridge detect it?&quot; Charlie asked as he climbed into the casing.

&quot;Don&apos;t worry, I still have much of the crew who still supports me.&quot; Rown said. Just as Charlie began to close the casing, Rown stopped him and handed him a padd. &quot;This is an analysis of how we tracked you, the quantum warp engine produces a specific faint subspace signature.&quot;

&quot;Got it,&quot; Charlie said, placing the padd in his uniform jacket. &quot;And thank you.&quot;

&quot;Don&apos;t mention it.&quot; Rown said as he closed the torpedo casing.

The Odyssey had kept within a lightyear of the Rodney. Keeping themselves outside the Rodney&apos;s sensor range but keeping them within their own. Miss Gillian called Malcolm to the bridge when they picked up a transponder signal not far from the Rodney&apos;s position.

Malcolm ordered the Odyssey to wait until the USS Rodney moved away.

&quot;Captain, the object appears to match the dimensions of a photon torpedo casing but I am detecting a lifesign inside.&quot; Reka reported.

&quot;What is it?&quot; Malcolm asked.

&quot;Human, male.&quot;

&quot;Lieutenant Marteez?&quot; Malcolm said. He stood from his captains chair and moved over to the science station.

&quot;It&apos;s possible.&quot; Reka said. The beaked alien looked over to his captain that stood next to him and Malcolm felt uncomfortable how close the beak came forward and the captain gently moved back to the walkway on the bridge.

&quot;Transport that lifesign to medbay,&quot; Malcolm said pointing a finger to Gillian. &quot;Warn Doctor Malcolm we have incoming.&quot;

Charlie was transported on board the Odyssey. Almost immediately Paul set up a engineering team to modify the quantum warp engine to mask the subspace signature and soon after made a jump to maximum Quantum Velocity out of the system leaving the USS Rodney in the dust.

Malcolm sat in his quarters and stared at his computer screen. If Starfleet was so determined to follow them that they would divert such an important carrier like the USS Rodney, Malcolm thought, then how many other ships would they send? Starfleet and the Federation have dozens of ships with experimental drives that are far beyond the maximum warp speed. The USS Wright, the USS Eros, and reportedly the new USS Enterprise 1701-F that was currently under construction were only three of the ships fitted with the Quantum Slip Stream drive. The USS Monash, the USS Tarla-Sul, and the USS Palatua fitted with Borg inspired Transwarp engines. And of course the USS Rodney with the Displacement-activated Spore Hub Drive. Not to mention at the launch of the USS Odyssey, at least three more Miller Classes had begun development: the USS Aquarius, the USS Star&apos;s Light, and the third unnamed vessel which one of the names that were being considered was the USS Richard Malcolm, but he would doubt that name would be approved after what happened.

Ellie stepped through the door into the quarters and greeted her husband sitting in the dark.

&quot;Come on you need some light in here,&quot; she said turning on the lights to at least mid brightness. &quot;Space is dim enough as it is.&quot; Malcolm squinted at the sight of the brightness, covering his eyes with his hands.

&quot;How is the lieutenant?&quot; Malcolm spoke dropping his hands onto the desk.

&quot;You mean Marteez? Yes the minimal life support in the torpedo casing caused some minor oxygen deprivation and the stress of the g-forces fractured a couple of bones but I patched him up. He should be good for duty in a couple of days.&quot; Ellie rattled off and she moved over towards the computer. She placed her arms around him from behind and saw Malcolm put on the fakest brief smile he could. He also had a blue mug of strong coffee next to the computer. Both signs she knew something was weighing on his mind. &quot;Rich, is something wrong?&quot;

Malcolm let out a brief sigh. &quot;El, did I make the right decision?&quot;

&quot;You mean how you left Marteez behind?&quot; Ellie asked and Malcolm nodded. She took a deep breath, and knelt down next to the chair Malcolm sat on. &quot;I don&apos;t know. I honestly don&apos;t. It wasn&apos;t Starfleet, but out here, if we have any hope to do this, then maybe we can&apos;t be all the time. But we still have to try.&quot;

Malcolm sat there for a moment and simply nodded.

&quot;Four months and it&apos;s just hit me.&quot;

&quot;What did?&quot; Ellie asked.

&quot;Nothing. I just have a feeling that the longer we are out here, the more I&apos;ll have to tell myself that.&quot;

2:2 (Slow Down, Fast Up)
The USS Odyssey was designed for a long range mission and the comfort of the crew was in mind. The ship did have a fairly small crew compared to it's size, with a length of just over 500 metres but only with a crew of 385 officers and enlisted personnel. Learning from the Galaxy classes, the comforts of space flight were contained to decks 9-11, containing such commodities such as rec rooms, lounges, the galleys, a salon, holodecks, gym, screening room and of course a bowling alley. Decks 1-8 and 12-21 were kept strictly professional use for the maintain and function of the ship. Bridge, brig, medical bays, deflector control, air locks, science labs, engineering labs and many more including the brig. Unfortunately this was where the ships helmsman, Anderson Reece, was kept behind a containment field in the brig as Captain Malcolm scolded him.

"I cannot believe what I'm seeing," Malcolm said angrily.

"Captain I can explain." Reece attempted before Malcom interrupted.

"One of my senior officers accused of assault against the chef."

"Him and I got into a disagreement, Alice is doesn't like meat but he refused to use protein replacements in-"

"So you threw a punch?" Malcolm asked.

"It was more like a push. Over a table." Reece explained.

"You are damn lucky, Mr Reece," Malcolm said. "Chef is not pressing charges, he said he admires a man who knows what he wants. But the real question is, why not just replicate it if you were so determined?"

"Alice doesn't like replicated food."

"Ah well I can understand that." Malcolm said dropping his angry tone.

"Can I go now then?" Reece asked coy like.

"Of course," Malcolm said waving his hand before heading out of the brig, turning to face Reece still in the cell. "After you have been processed through the appropriate release investigation, that should take no less than 26 hours."

"No wait wait!" Reece shouted as Malcolm slid the brig doors behind him.

Malcolm passed through the corridors on deck 11 returning to the galley. Soon after stepping out the turbolift, he heard a voice call after him.

"Captain!" She said, it was Lavivia, a Cardassian woman who was partnered with the Ambassador Kaden. The two stayed on the USS Odyssey after being debriefed on the situation over the Sagitarrius signal. They believed that her skills in temporal physics and astronomy, and his negotiation skills as an ambassador would be helpful to their mission but the past four months have been nothing but quiet despite the encounter with the USS Rodney. In response they worked together to set up a salon and shop for those off duty on deck 11.

"Ah what can I do for you?" He said continuing on his way.

"Kaden and I wanted to invite you and the doctor over one night for dinner."

"Oh?"

"It's the least we can do for allowing us to stay on board."

"No having you two on board is reward enough." Malcolm assured her, smiling and turning back to his path.

"Well thank you, you're too kind captain," Lavivia said. "But the truth is that being the only two Cardassian civilians on board, it's difficult to make friends."

"What about the salon?"

"I do get to interact with many people thanks to that but it's still difficult." She explained. "So how about it?"

"I'll talk to El but we should be able to arrange one night." Malcolm said. Lavivia smiled just as the comm beeped him Malcolm's ear. He tapped his ear twice and responded "Malcolm here."

"Captain we've just dropped out of quantum speed and we are picking up some highly unusual readings in a nearby star cluster." Reka said over the comm.

"Alright set a course, I'll be up in a couple of minutes." Malcolm said. He turned to Lavivia to say his farewell before continuing on his way to the galley.

The doors to the bridge slid open. Malcolm, now holding a mug of tea, stepped onto the bridge just as the Odyssey dropped out of warp 50 AU's from the border of star cluster. "Report." Malcolm said as he sat down in the central captains chair.

"The readings appear to be 37 Quark Stars in an unusual orbit of each other."

"Quark stars?" Malcolm asked.

"They are a highly unsual and rare hyperdense form of neutron stars. The federation had only ever came across one Quark star, never observed in such a cluster. I recommend we move closer for more detailed scans." Reka said.

"Ops how long until we can engage the quantum warp drive?" Malcolm asked.

"Should only take 12 hours for the field generators to re-align." Gillian said.

"You have 12 hours to take your scans commander," Malcolm said. "Helm, take us closer, one quarter impulse."

The USS Odyssey approached the cluster, taking care to keep far enough from the stars to avoid the gravity wells. Suddenly the entire crew felt the ship abruptly stop. The bridge officers lunged forward but many of the caught themselves on their stations and sets except the helmsman who slammed his head against the station.

"Medical teams to bridge. What the hell was that?" Malcolm said ad he ran across the bridge to the helm. "We are caught in a pocket gravity well." Reka reported and Malcolm sat himself in the helms station.

"It is pulling us in." Malcolm said. The Odyssey fell towards the cluster, traveling on a erratic path but one thing was clear, if they don't escape soon, they will impact one of the stars. "Firing ventral thrusters, increase power to structural integrity." Malcolm ordered.

"Structual integrity field not responding captain," Gillian reported as the Odyssey continued towards the Quark Star.

"Deploy armour." Malcolm ordered.

The bridge continued to shake as several bulkheads buckled under the stress. Formally black strips along the saucer now shone blue as large segments of armour stretched across the hull, hugging the windows and nacelles and encasing the entire ship. From bow to stern all ventral thrusters engaged, firing at full strength and the Odyssey rapidly decreased in speed. "Molecular armour at 90 percent. 80 percent. 70 percent. Armour holding at 65 percent." Gillian reported.

"We are stabilising near the edge of the cluster," Malcolm said. He tapped his ear twice and repeated his request for medical teams however he was met with silence. He repeated again and the comm remained silent.

There was a displacement in the mycelium network, with a crack of blue and white lightning that cut across space before the USS Rodney was dropped there where it was once not. They performed scans for any subspace disturbances that might indicate the Odyssey's quantum warp drive but they found nothing. Rown was quietly pleased that Charles Marteez was able to mask the signature, on the other hand, Galeb, unaware with what Rown had done, was nothing less than furious.

"It took us four months to trace their signature!" Galeb shouted, slamming his padd down onto the table and the glass cracked underneath. "But when we had them in our grasp, they escape! How did they figure out how we was tracing them?"

"Marteez must have downloaded our engineering files before he escaped." Rown said.

"I must say commander I do not believe that he could have overpowered someone like you."

"This just proved to me that I need to hit the gym more." Rown said, attempted to crack a smile but Galeb did not appreciate the attempt. Rown looked down before preparing himself to leave the admirals presence. "I'll increase security around our weapons systems and brig so this won't happen again, we should also rework our software access codes." Galeb sat there and simply stared at him. Rown met his eyes, uncertain on if he was suspicious of his first officer and secret relief struck him when Galeb nodded.

Rown exited the turbolift into the corridor deep within the ship itself. He put on a strong face for the crew, unsure about the prospect of hunting another federation starship so far from home. But this calm face was torn down when a voice came over the intercom. "Medical teams to the mess hall, Doctor Coal has collapsed." It said.

Reece was awoken from unconsciousness to the slight pricking sensation upon his cheek. One by one the hot shards of a melting bulkhead dropped in the tiniest pieces onto his face. He was quick to dart out from under the bulkhead and looked about the brig, putting his fingers to check the damage on his cheek. The lights struggled and flickered, the tables and chairs thrown across the room much like how Reece had been thrown against the bulkhead. The forcefield containing him was now inactive. Reece called down the corridor for anyone he could find as he stepped out of the brig. He tapped his ear twice to call for anyone to report in but what he was met with was a burning high pitched screech that felt as if it were to damage his ear drums. Luckily for him before his ears began to bleed he ripped the comm out of his ear and took a moment to think of what to do next. He was currently on deck 9, the same deck as the primary sickbay. It's a start.

"Is there anyway to pull away?" Malcolm asked Reka, his science officer. The two stood on other sides of the science station.

"Negative captain," Reka explained. He pointed towards his screen that displayed an analysis of the Quark Star. "An objects gravity is directly proportional to its mass. It is often considered that a neutron star is one of the densest form of matter as all that mass compressed into such a tight space that the neutrons are stacked together. It's been theorized that if a neutron star was massive enough then those neutrons would be compressed so much that even the quarks themselves are pressed together. Those levels of density and mass would exert a gravity that even full impulse couldn't break free."

"Can we jump to warp?" Malcolm enquired.

"Warp core is not responding."

"Well none of our systems seem to be responding for three hours now, even the turbolift. Nothing seems to be wrong on our end, everything below deck one seems to just not responding. Are you okay, commander?" Malcolm asked. He pointed towards a small stream of yellow blood coming out of his nostril above the beak like structure on Reka's face. Reka glanced his away from his captain and took a moment to wipe away the blood.

"Yes I'm fine captain." Reka reassured.

Reece looked about the sprawling corridors of the USS Odyssey. He kept having to turn around and find new and different paths to the sickbay as several sections had become impassable, bulkheads had collapsed and coolant was leaking. He approached the large glass doors of the sickbay. Crewmen and officers were rushed inside by the nurses to tend to their injuries.

"Lieutenant! There you are!" Doctor Ellie Malcolm called out as she saw him.

"Do you know what's happened to the ship?" Reece asked.

"The inertial dampeners must have failed, my staff have got their hands full dealing with concussions and broken bones from being thrown into bulkheads over the past three hours," Ellie explained. "Now come in and I'll deal with that head bruise." Ellie led Reece inside. She sat him down on one of the smaller secondary beds and from this corner Reece could see the many officers suffering from various head injuries, broken limbs and bones, or simply unnconcious.

"Any fatalities?" Reece asked solumely.

"Luckily not yet," Ellie said. "But there will be if that happens again." She ran a neural scanner over and around the bruise on his head. Reece soon swiped away her instruments as soon as the numbing subsided.

"I need to get to the bridge." Reece said, halted by the doctor.

"Good luck with that," Ellie said. "But we haven't had contact with bridge since this happened, and the turbolifts are stuck on the lower decks."

"Then I'll use the the Jefferies Tubes and climb my way up."

"You want to climb nine decks? Not with that injury." Ellie insisted.

"Okay then you come with me then." Reece said and Ellie looked about the sickbay.

"If you insist to go, I should go with you to monitor you." Ellie turned around and called over a nurse from the middle of the sickbay. "Nurse Cruford, you are in charge until I get back."

"Yes doctor." He responded.

"Computer, disable security protocol 13-J." Malcolm said aloud. He and another officer had pulled the turbolift doors open but found a solid armour blade behind it blocking their way out.

"Negative." The computer responded. "Disabling that security protocol will compromise structual integrity around the command bridge. External stress beyond safety limits to disable-"

"Alright I've got it." Malcolm said in frustration. Reka suddenly collapsed over his station and caught himself before falling to the floor. Malcolm picked up a medical tricorter, performing a scan of Reka's fallen head. "If I'm reading this right, your system is flooded with gamma rays." Malcolm said.

"It's to be expected being this close to the star." Reka explained exhausted. "It must be leaking though the shields."

"Qucese physiology is more susceptible to radiation damage." Malcolm told him solumely.

"How long?"

"I'm not sure, but it won't be long more of the crew begin to show signs."

Reece and Ellie moved through the corridors towards the main Jefferies Tube access. Ellie of course did not approve of Reece's insistence to return to the bridge. Simply reckless in his condition. Regardless it was worth humouring him for now for her own state of mind. But it was not her state of mind that she should have worried for. They worked together to remove the bulkhead cover, which was removed safely to the side. A long two person wide ladder rose in the centre of the tube before eventually branching off into horizontal paths in the guts of the ship. However seconds after placing a hand on the ladder Anderson Reece felt the weight and weakness of a dazed state, only prevented from falling by the grasp of Ellie from behind.

"I knew this was a bad idea." Ellie commented as she dragged him to lay upright away from the tube.

"No." Reece sighed. "I need to get up there doc, they could need our help." He brushed away Ellie's instruments forcing her to concede. In a typical situation, Ellie would not allow her patient who just almost collapsed to the floor climb nine decks worth but then she heard a noise emanating from the tube. The sound of hands grasping, shoes clanging against the metal ladder, and a distinctive voice. It was Lavivia, her grey hands was the first to appear then her scaled face as she pulled herself up.

"El!" She exclaimed in happiness. "I'm so glad you're okay." The two shared an embrace at the sight of each other and Ellie described the situation in sickbay not far from where they sat.

"... my staff have had their hands full for the past few hours." Ellie explained but was soon interrupted.

"Hours?" Lavivia asked. "It has only been thirty minutes at most."

Ellie looked puzzled. She reached into her uniform to her personal tricorter and slid it open simply to point out Lavivia's error. "The incident happened 1558, it's 1849 right now so that would make it three hours." She explained but Lavivia simply shook her head.

"I was worried this might happen." She said, revealing the time displayed on her own tricorter. Ellie compared the two, Lavivia's clearly showing 1624 hours. Each tricorter was linked to the ships on board atomic clock so there should be no differences between the two in this respect. But there were.

"What do you mean you thought this might happen?" Ellie asked curiously. "What is going on?"

"It's a long story." She responded.

Reka drifted in and out of consciousness as Gillian and Malcolm attempted to provide him with any such thing he would need. Water. Food. Comfort. Anything. But Reka's deteriorating health had a massive effect on the bridge officers. Riley had gone as far to break open the weapons locker, projecting a stream of hot red energy at the armour blade. Shouting in frustration before Malcolm ordered him to reel it back.

"A whole day! A whole damn day!" Riley shouted, throwing the phaser at the armour. Riley of course had not anticipated his own strength and sparks flew out of the phaser. "What about now?"

"No change." An officer sat at the operations station. It was unbelievable for the head of security. How much could that armour take? And who designed it to encase the bridge?

"He has a point." Jennifer said quietly as they attended to Reka.

"The lower decks have been silent for a day, if anyone is left then Paul and El must be." Malcolm assured her. "They will help us."

"You seem to be certain of that." Jennifer said.

"You have any reason not to be?" Malcolm asked her raising one eyebrow. The trust the captain placed in his people was unwavering even in the trials he currently faced, trapped inside a near impenetrable armour and hid science officer struggling more and more to hold on. "Jen?" A drop of blood had emerged from Jennifer's nostril almost as quickly as she did.

It was not a safe nor smart idea for Ellie and Lavivia to drag Reece up the jefferies tube. Each of them took turns to hold onto him as they pulled him up another deck. As they climbed, Lavivia explained the situation to the two. The external sensors form the observation lounge had told her that the ship was struggling to break free of the gravitational pull of a Quark star. She had theorized that the gravitational strength would cause time dilation on an extreme scale. She calculated that time would be perceived to be passing slower the lower decks you went. Lavivia demonstrated this when she pulled out her tricorder and dropped it. Reece and Ellie watched it fall, slowing as it dropped several decks before reaching a complete stop, suspended in the air.

"There's the same effect between us, you do sound lightly slower," said Lavivia.

"I thought you were just a stylist," said Ellie. "I feel like I've been underusing your skills."

"I studied temerporal mechanics in the Detapa Insitute of Technology on Cardassia." She responded. "I headed my own team before we came here but there is no room for civilian scientists on board."

"Why did you leave that then?"

"Whatever is out in Sagitarrius has to be more interesting then just sitting in boardrooms," said Lavivia.

"You sound like Richard." Ellie commented. "How do you feel?" Reece had halted in his climb grasping at the rungs. With a click, Ellie locked her tether in place and scanned Reece's bruise before shaking her head. "You think you can make it to the bridge?" Ellie asked and Reece simply responded with a certain 'no.' Ellie looked around the tube and saw the huge white number '7.' "Engineering is on deck 7, we can check on them in there," said Ellie.

Ellie and Lavivia had put their arms around Reece as they entered engineering and called out for help. Paul appeared from underneath the pulsating blue warp core and at first his face lit up but that was soon diminished when he saw the state Reece was in.

"How long had it been up here?" Said Lavivia.

"Nearly 26 hours." Stated Paul. "What is going on? We've had nearly no contact from the rest of the ship."

"We are currently trapped in the gravitational pull of a Quark star." Said Lavivia.

"Hang on that would cause extreme time dil-time dilation." Said Paul.

"Exactly," she said in response. "I have only experienced about forty minutes, and Ellie has three hours."

"That would explain why so many systems aren't responding." Said Paul before he drew his attention towards Ellie, who had lent Reece against the bulkhead. "Is he going to be alright?"

"With rest his head isn't that bad, but he can't make it to the bridge." Ellie explained. Paul then asked if Ellie could leave Reece's side for a moment and she told him it would be safe. Ellie was gestured to the other side of engineering where Ensign Staan lay against the bulkhead, pale and nose bleeding. Charlie moved aside to allow for the doctor to sit down and scanned her head.

"We were repairing the internal sensors when she just collapsed, we've been trying to make her comfortable since." Paul said. Ellie continued to scan with a look of confusion on her face.

"This wasn't caused by any injury like Lieutenant Reece was, her system is flooded with gamma radiation." Said Ellie.

"What could be causing that?" Charlie asked. "Lavivia said that we are near a Quark Star, those things project alot of gamma radiation out into space." Said Paul.

Ellie stood up and began to perform a scan on Paul now. "Have you been feeling headaches? Nausea? Fatigue?" Listed Ellie.

"Headaches and fatigue, yes. Nausea, no." Answered Paul.

"Your system is flooded as well." Ellie said closing her medical tricorder. "My guess is all of us have been exposed to enough radiation to kill us within a week if left untreated."

"You can treat us, right?" Sam said emerging form the corner. She had been helping Charlie look after Katie since she collapsed and was now confident in letting her rest.

"Of course, we've had treatments for radiation sickness and radiation poisoning for decades." Said Ellie. "In medbay I should be able to purge all our systems of gamma radiation and undo any DNA damage, but it would not matter the more we get exposed and could take too long to treat everyone on the upper decks without the turbolifts."

"Well those won't respond until we shut down the molecular armour..." Paul started to say before Charlie finished it for him.

"... And doing that would rip the ship apart under these stresses." Both Paul and Charlie shared a look with each other. It was good, Paul thought at least, that his team had made it their priority to learn the ins and outs of the Odyssey even in such unusual circumstances.

"What I'm most interested in however," said Ellie. "Is why me and Lavivia aren't showing any symptoms yet. Lieutenant Reece's were caused my head trauma, not radiation, but we are not showing any symptoms."

"The 'upper decks'." Lavivia said quietly. This did not stop everyone else to turn to her however. "Well you said you could not get to the upper decks in time, but even with the turbolifts offline you will be able to get to the lower decks in time." Everyone looked at her in confusion. "See you and I are not showing any symptoms because we have not been exposed to the radiation for as long."

"The time dilation." Said Paul. "That means that the bridge..."

"It means that the bridge will be almost untreatable levels." Said Ellie.

"We need to pull away from that star." Charlie stood up and moved across the engine room. "We can reroute helm control down here and drive us out ourselves."

"The thrusters are already at full power, if those aren't strong enough to escape then none of us could do it." Said Paul shaking his head.

"I could.." Reece now struggled to come to his feet, holding an ice bag to his forehead. "I could do it."

"To anyone still conscious, this is the captain." Malcolm had begun to transmit a message ship-wide. Not that he thought anyone would respond, but he thought it best now that the last of the his bridge officers had fallen unconscious and he himself struggled to stay awake. The bridge appeared to spin around him, there was a screeching ring in his ears, and even his skin had begun to hurt. If all those times listening to Ellie blather on about her patients during their early dates didn't go to waste, he knew it must be late stage radiation sickness. "I don't know if anyone is left." Malcolm said. "Of the bridge crew I am the only one left. Miss Gillian, Lieutenant Riley, Ensign Davies have all fallen unconscious, and Commander Reka is now in critical condition. Luckily no one has died yet but I have no doubt people will start dying. There is nothing more I can do. So i have sent out a priority one distress call on all known frequencies. Our only hope now is that the Rodney picks up the distress call and tractors us out. I suppose I'm leaving this message so they might find it and realise that we are on a mission to save the federation, not betray it. With that spore drive they could complete our mission in a matter of hours. "In truth, as I look back now, 5 months we've been out here, and the first anomaly we encounter has already ended it? I've allowed myself to become obsessed with getting to the source, so much that I would abandon one of our own. But now I realise that I would rather have been anywhere else then in command of this mission. I just want to go home. Before the Terrans. Before the war. Before everything, back home." Malcolm sat there looking at the arm of his chair, blood spilling out of his nose. A LCARs screen built into the arm, highlighted with silver in the chairs leather and wool. It's screen displayed the request to save the recording. Malcolm took a moment struggling to think. Cough and Malcolm stored the message in his personal files.

Reece stood behind a console in engineering as holograms rose out from the floor all around him. From there he could see the ship and the star surrounded by two concentric rings, one following the Odyssey, the other was lined with red and hugged the star. That was the kill zone, the point where the stars gravity will rip the ship apart despite the armour. Charlie had reported in that they now had warp and impulse power just as Sam finished setting up the holographic generators.

Ellie's voice came over the comm informing them that she was ready to treat the bridge officers as soon as they were away. "Remember if you feel nauseous take that hypospray immediately." Said Ellie.

"Yes I remember." Reece said securing the hypospray on the console. Reece placed his palms on the screen and after 5 seconds interactive control holograms rose out to chest and eye height.

"Armour holding at 60 percent." Said Paul.

"Okay I can work with that." Said Reece as he slid his hands onto the controls like a weightless translucent glove. "We've got one shot at this, drop ventral thrusters on my mark, standby on impulse and warp drive." All the engineers at all of their stations nodded. "Eject plasma out aft thermal vents." The map displayed the Odyssey's rear section, blue plasma vented out from the two large struts and just below the shuttlebay before being caught into the stars gravity. Like a stream the plasma fell into the star at an angle, circling half the equator before causing a giant eruption of white surface plasma. One by one, Reece gave the mark for the thrusters to be disengaged and the Odyssey was flipped bow first towards the star. The blue core behind them pulsated faster and faster, green specks swam inside the core and the red highlights shone brighter.

"Armour dropping to 50 percent." Reported Paul over the increasing wurl of the engine.

"Full power to the impulse drive, open the ram scoops." Said Reece. The Odyssey fell further and further towards the star, through the plasma trail. The plasma they had ejected had now had caused spurattic eruptions form the star, flares of hot, dense material, and the Odyssey flew right through them. And the Odyssey was picking up more and more speed. The nacelles scooped the material that fused with the dilithium and supercharged the warp coils that Paul hoped would give them enough power to escape. Reece held the controls in the position that'll gain them the most speed. The Odyssey now was rapidly approaching the kill zone, and at the very last moment and a flash of blue, the Odyssey had jumped to warp.

Rown entered the medical bay. On the far end bed lay sprawled under the sheets was Doctor Coal. Looking no less sickly than normal, but Rown immediately saw Coal was weak and tired.

"A visit is not necessary, captain." Coal said calmly.

"Why didn't you tell me the spore drive was having side effects?" Rown asked, ignoring that Coal just referred to him as 'captain.'

"You all read the report, extensive navigation of the mycelium network causes severe white matter build up in the human brain." Said Coal sharply. "How is it my fault that you ignored that."

"How long have you been having these side effects?" Rown asked straining the importance of the answer.

"Nearly four months." Said Coal.

"Four months?" Rown said in shock. He lent in and placed one hand on the bed sheets. "If you told us about this sooner we could have sorted out another officer to share the load, or even a full time replacement for you to monitor."

"No this is something I must do." Coal insisted.

"But why?"

"Because I know that the Odyssey are not the traitors we think." Said Coal quietly. "Whether that be these duplicates from another universe or what, I know that Ellie Malcolm, her captain, and all of that crew are not capable of slaughtering a ship full of people. And chasing them across the universe is meaningless."

"You have been changing the coordinates mid-jump, haven't you?" Rown had finally put two and two together. "Everytime we think we were on them you changed the coordinates to protect your friend."

Rown placed his weight back into his feet and turned away from Coal. "Doctor I think I would have done the same."

"You did do the same." Coal emphasised. "You gave Marteez a way to modify their engines to avoid our detection." Rown paused, unsure on how to act. He had spent the last few weeks ensuring no one was suspicious of him for giving away his we was tracing the Odyssey to Marteez. "So what now?" He asked. "You could tell the admiral. You could get some poor sod to get in that glass chamber and jump you to every system in the known universe to find the Odyssey." Coal suggested, it was not something Rown was considering. "But I know you won't. I trust and respect you enough to know that. And there aren't many people I can say that about. But you know why I know I can? Because you did not even flinch when I called you 'Captain'."

The Odyssey now sat comfortably three light years into empty space. With the time dilation no longer taking effect, and the armour disabled, the medical staff was able to treat the entire crew of radiation poisoning. Paul had insisted that they took a three day delay to their departure at Quantum Velocity until he had taken time to purge the warp coils of the exotic materials.

"Oh how has Ensign Staan been?" Lavivia asked. Malcolm and Ellie had taken Lavivia and Karen's offer of coming round for a night. Typically the two Cardassians would have the darkest and warmest quarters on the ship, but this night they put the temperature and lighting controls at the medium between Cardassian and human comfort.

"Yes she's recovered after I cleared her system." Said Ellie. "I told her what happened and all she could say was now long it would take to perform a full system clean out of any exotic elements."

"It's hard to imagine all that happened." Said Kaden. "Down in the lower decks only a good thirty seconds past after I climbed down."

"Thirty seconds, try four days." Said Malcolm. He dipped a piece of bread into the stew and took a bite, stopping at the slightly metallic taste. "Is this bread replicated?"

"Yes sorry captain, I know you don't like replicated food but it's all I could do in time." Lavivia assured him.

"No, no it's quite alright." Said Malcolm warmly.

"But yeah what was it like stuck on the bridge for that long?" Ellie asked her husband.

"It was... terrifying." Malcolm said, for a moment dropping the typically jokey attitude before changing the subject. "Does this mean I get my birthday a week earlier?" They laughed but Ellie saw what he was trying. Looking back on those days she could tell made him uncomfortable, in response gave a gesture for Malcolm to give the two the good news. Malcolm cleared his throat and placed a small box on the shared table. Kaden reached over and picked it up, unhooking the lock and lifted the lid so he and Lavivia could see. Inside was two small metal diamonds with flat faces and silver finishes. The Starfleet badge. "We've been talking and I've come to the conclusion that we've been ignoring you and the contribution you could bring to our mission." Malcolm explained. "Welcome to the crew." Kaden and Lavivia thanked him and they returned to their meal and conversation.

2:3 (Infobesity)
In light of recent events that these uncharted regions will be far more exotic than expected, the USS Odyssey now has been sending a scout ahead and mark safe coordinates. Over the last the jump, the Miller One had reported in that there was a system with an unusual energy signature only two light years out from the rendezvous. Paul was aware of their approach to the system, he even had been instructed to form an away team to go down to the fourth planet, an M-class. But he had put this to the back of his mind, far too preoccupied with his work to focus on that. He lay on his back, facing up with instruments scattered all around him with three translucent blue packs above him. Step by step he heard shoes walk across the metal floors approaching where he lay. The feet stopped right beside where Paul lay and down knelt Charlie.

"Sir, you realise we are about to enter the system right?" Said Charlie.

"We still have twenty minutes." Said Paul not removing his attention from the gel packs. "Remember that Quark Star radiation last week? Well the bio-neural packs were hit just as hard as us it turns out, deck 4 replicators are just not working."

"So the gel has the flu..." Charlie joked that just went over Paul's head.

"More like cancer." Said Paul. Charlie sighed, placing his hand on the top of the open bulkhead.

"Sir have you set up that away team?" Paul did not answer for a moment, just staring up at the gel packs, fiddling with the base wiring.

"I've been.... busy." Paul eventually said.

"Oh well luckily I took the liberty to set it up for you." Said Charlie. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a padd of a list of names. Paul pulled himself out from under the packs and took a look at the list. A science officer, two security officers, and three engineers including himself.

"Are you sure you wouldn't want to go yourself instead of me?" Said Paul, getting to his feet.

"Come on, its our first M-class we've found, you should go." Said Charlie. "I can watch things here." Paul smiled and moved away from the bulkhead. He took several steps before spinning on his heel. He tossed his scanner across the hall which was caught by Charlie, and turned back to the door.

"The away team has beamed down to the planet." Miss Gillian said to the captain.

"Very good, Commander have you located the origin of that energy signature?" Malcolm asked.

"Negative captain." Said Reka. "There is a great deal of interference from the inner system."

"Cause?" Asked Malcolm, spinning in his chair central to the bridge. Reka did not answer for a few moments, focusing on the screens surrounding him then shook his head.

"Unknown. Something is there but our sensors are unable to identify structure, composition, energy signature."

"You have an hour to identify otherwise we will send a shuttle to investigate." Said Malcolm and Reka nodded. "Miss Gillian, prepare an away team in the shuttle bay."

"Captain, I would like to suggest that this away team consists of Starforge crew." Gillian said.

"Surely we can use both Starfleet and Starforge together." Said Malcolm.

"Many of my people do not feel that way, and it will not help that the away team to the first M-class planet is all Starfleet won't help." Gillian said. Malcolm considered what she said for a moment then nodded.

The experience of a transporter beam is am unusual one. You cannot really compare it to anything else. Feeling your molecules dematerialise from one place to another. Some say they could feel the wind before the process even began. Some say that they can see two pictures merge together mid-transport. And some say that they never quite feel like they are all there. But Paul always felt like his stomach jolted upwards and back into place, sometimes this had caused some issues but fortunately he was able to hold it together this time.

"Oxygen-nitrogen based atmosphere. No airborne viruses or bacteria." Said Ensign Janvi, the away team science officer. "Its safe to breathe." Paul nodded and each member of the away team removed their environmental helmets.

Paul climbed the rockpile that covered the furthest wall that blocked their view of the structure the ship detected. The bright sun glazed against his synthetic eye as it adjusted to the light. Paul had seen destroyed cities before, the ancient ruins of Pompeii and the war memorial sight on Cardassia Prime, and at a glance this appeared to be the same. Any structure above two hundred feet had long since crumbled and wildlife had reclaimed this land. But the way the buildings had fallen, the scattered remains of civilisation and build up of mold and dirt suggested that the city was abandoned thousands of years ago at least, and this became more and more evident as they walked through the streets.

"They have left everything it seems." Janvi noted.

"Everything except any sort of computer system." Called out Crewman Francis from the doorway of one of the most stable looking buildings. He was accompanied by Crewman Willis, an over-excited young woman that Charlie Marteez knew would be interested in this mission. The two approached Paul and Janvi, Francis carried a small greyed metal shell infused with an organic compound.

"Basically it's these people's equivalent to a personal computer, but I cannot find any RAM or processors where they should be. This is the same for every other device I've checked. Almost like when they left they took as much memory and processing power as they they could carry."

"Why would they want to do that?" Paul asked. Suddenly Willis raised her hand before realising there was no need to.

"Yes well its most likely that they wanted that much processing power to invest it to... process information."

"Thank you Willis." Said Francis, putting her down.

"Finch to Miller." Paul heard over the comm. He tapped his ear twice and responded. "We are at the south arch of the capital building, you better come down to see this."

The Dragonfly shuttle had the most advanced shield generators of the six specialised shuttles the Odyssey was fitted with. And since Jennifer Gillian had taken her team into the inner world's of the system, close to the star, the shield technology it had would provide the best protection. "Firing probe." Said Jennifer, launching a short range probe from a ventral tube. The probe glided through space. Quickly shooting ahead of the Dragonfly, scanning as it flew.

"Ma'am, the probe has detected a large structure." Said Enfil, a srawny little man and the oldest member of the Starforge crew. His thin face almost stretched against the jaw and the whispy hair hung down below his chin.

"What planet is it on?" Jennifer asked.

"Not a planet," said Enfil. "The structure is surrounding the star."

Long silver tubes each hundreds of kilometres in diameter across encased the star. The rings slowly rotated around a central port. The huge structure was truly impressive.

"There." Jennifer said, pointing towards a stabilised docking ring. "We can dock there. Contact Odyssey that we are making our approach, inform them what is out here."

Paul arrived at the southern arch of the central spiral building. A shocking structure that pierced the blue clouds, three winding stone and metal tubes separated one third of the way down and arched across the cityscape. There stood Ensign Finch and Malenche gesturing for Paul's approach. "Over here!" They called.

"What is it, ensign?" Said Paul as he climbed the rockpile surrounding the base of the arch. Malenche pointed down a other side of a small wooden hut that acted as the edge to an encampment. Stones surrounded a central pile of charcoal that once must have shone brightly inblaze. Tracks in the dry dirt clearly indicated a creature or being of some kind on two legs must have left two hours ago. This was apparent to the analysis Paul's eye provided him, he had gotten so used to it in the months since the Terrans damaged his original eye so much that it had to be replaced and so it surprised him when he had to point these details to the away team. Finch took point as they followed the route the tracks lay down for them but they were halted at the sound of falling rocks and feet scrambling down the slopes. There on the west ridge not far from the away team was a tall red scaled creature, it's four crystaline eyes bulged at the sight of the Starfleet officers. Cautiously, the creature cocked it's head, staring at Paul as he slowly walked forward. The creature hopped down from it's ledge and raised itself to its full height, almost mirroring Paul's actions. "What do we do?" Willis whispered.

"Lower your weapons." Paul said softly, gesturing towards Finch and Malenche as he continued his slow approach to the creature. "Malenche, lower your rifle now." The creature stepped over the rocks but suddenly halted afraid of what was strapped to Paul's leg, his hand-phaser, almost like it recognised what it was. Slowly, Paul reached for the handle and unholstered his weapon, passing it over to Francis and presented his hands to show he was unarmed. The creature appeared to calm. It approached Paul, mirroring his arm stretched out until their hands were almost touching.

"Hello." Said Paul softly to the squinting alien. "My name is Paul Miller... Can you communicate with me?" In one swift move, the creatures hand grabbed Paul's arm. The scales glowed brightly along their cracks as an electric tension shot into Paul's body. The lieutenant commander found himself below the southern arch of the main spiral building that loomed over the city, but the city was not the abandoned relic that he had beamed down to, rather a thriving metropolis. Skyscrapers were woven into the landscape, like an enormous statue intersected with streets and roads and markets. A shock shook the archway, a sonic boom. Paul glanced up to the sky to the sound where he saw five large vessels rose into the sky, glowing a bright orange as they pushed out of the planet's atmosphere. The streets were completely deserted, this was the day the inhabitants evacuated. A soft wimper came from behind Paul, he spun around only to be greeted with the sight of two red scaled creatures huddled in embrace. They were a juvenile and adult, looking right through Paul as if he was not even there. Paul looked closely, and before the world around him folded away, he recognised the juvenile as the same one that stood in front of him in the encampment. Paul suddenly found himself with his back to the floor, Finch and Malenche had their rifles pointed straight out in a defensive stance as the alien was in panic.

"No drop your weapons now!" Paul ordered. "He means us no harm."

"With all due respect sir, it looks like it does." Malenche said as Paul shrugged to regain his footing. The creature was agitated. Standing it's ground against the phasers, arms outstretched and ready to strike. Malenche did not lower his weapon despite Paul's orders. He stared down at the creature, hovering on his heel ready to move at a moments notice. It all happened in seconds. The creature lashed out, ejecting some kind of toxin straight at Malenche. Malenche backed off quickly to avoid the spray. Before the creature could even think to respond, a blue stream leaped from the end of Malenche's rifle and the creature fell to the ground paralysed.

"No!" Paul called out. In frustration he grabbed Malenche's rifle off him and handed it over to Francis.

"It attacked me." Malenche defended himself.

"He was just trying to show me what happened." Paul said. "He was afraid."

They were not met with any alien crew when Jennifer's team bordered the star structure. Enfil reported that the technology on board appeared to be fully operational but it's purpose was unknown. Through the dark corridors they walked towards a strong energy signature ahead. The walls were lined with organic matter, pulsating along the lining past them to the signature a bright green. They put away their torches as the corridor opened up to a large atrium. The atrium walls were built up of pods surrounding a central pillar pulsating in light.

"All of the pods have lifeforms in them." Enfil reported. Jennifer moved towards the nearest pod and took a glance inside through the glass window. There was a red skinned scaled alien lent up against the interior wall with wires hooked up to their veins.

"Why do you think they are here?" Asked one of the Starforge away team. Jennifer removed her tricorder and scanned the nearest three pods.

"They are all neurally linked in some kind of central matrix." Said Enfil. One of their company called for attention, a small orb had emerged from seclusion and sweaped their stance with a blue light. The orb hummed and zipped past them to be concealed inside the central pillar. A hatch slid open, no taller than Jennifer herself, and the silver skeleton of a synthetic humanoid stepped out. Uncertain of the beings intentions, Jennifer allowed it to approach, gears wirled in its knee joints and its feet clanked against the metal floors.

Suddenly it halted unnaturally so, the glass points of light glanced about the group, and the metal jaw dropped and an unusually human voice echoed out. "Welcome visitors to the Cobaford Virtual Care Station." It said aloud. "However this station is authorised personnel only."

"We did not intend to trespass." Jennifer said cautiously.

"Sensors indicate a medium sized star-voyager vessel in high orbit of Cobafirise. ID unknown." It said.

"Yes the USS Odyssey." Jennifer said.

"Are you the leader of the USS Odyssey?"

"No but I do have the authority to speak on behalf."

"Irrelevant. My unit is only authorised to speak to the leader of undocumented groups. You and your accomplances are limited to this area and your own ship." The being no longer responded to any of the away team attempts of communication, going as far to not even acknowledge their existence as it strode to corners of the hall performing maintenance and analysis where needed.

Since its aggressive behaviour on the planet's surface, the creature was remained sedated in sickbay as they performed scans to identify the alien.

"Malenche and Willis said that the alien attacked him." Ellie said looking over the data in her office as Malcolm stood looking out the winedow into sickbay. Nurse Cruford monitored the sleeping alien, retrained and under a scanner, in the other room as Paul stood over the bio-bed.

"I kind of hoped our first contact with a new species would have gone differently." Said Malcolm solumely. "Scans told us that there was no lifeforms on the surface. We were just going to move in, look about for a bit, take a few pictures, and moved out. Not shooting the first intelligent lifeform we find."

"Malenche said it was self defence." Argued Ellie, looking up from her computer.

"He was reckless." Malcolm said, trying to lower the frustration in his voice. "He should have seen that the alien was responding to Paul's tactics and followed orders."

Ellie softy told him to calm down as she broke away from her work and moved across to the window. "This is something you couldn't have anticipated, Rich. It's not your fault. It was a bad situation that got out of hand, that's all."

Malcolm gave a slight nod and the two embraced for a moment. "Gillian's team has reported that they have discovered a giant structure surrounding this systems star with some kind of scrambler tech we can't detect, and now this happens." Malcolm said. "You know, a part of me just wanted this to be a simple class-m planetary survey we could load on Reka so you and I could spend the next few nights together, and not have to worry about engineering faults in the drive, the Federation hunting us down, or even the signal."

"That would have been nice." Said Ellie.

"But you're going to be fangirling about those medical reports from the scans of the alien for the next few weeks, aren't you?" Malcolm asked and Ellie gave a knowing smile and nod. "Oh I just can't wait to hear how the aliens dendritic cells vary from humans." He joked. The office buzzed for a moment and a voice came over the intercomm. "Bridge to Malcolm." It said and Malcolm tapped his left ear twice. "I'm here."

"Miss Gillians team wishes to speak to you, they say it's important."

"Patch them through." Malcolm said and now it was Jennifer's voice in this ear.

"Captain, we have made very brief contact with some kind of synthetic lifeform. It appears to be caring for countless of these pods with people inside them." She reported.

"Who are inside the pods?" Malcolm asked. "They have identified themselves as the Cobaford. They are the inhabitants of the M-class in this system." Gillian said.

"You mentioned a synthetic lifeform?" Said Malcolm.

"If you would even call it that, sir." Said Gillian. "An android or robot of some kind. It's caring for the Cobaford inside the pods but, captain, it's aware of Odyssey and it will only speak to its leader from now on."

"Alright give me a few moments to prepare." Malcolm said, holding his finger to his ear and then tapping it again to shut it off. "I have to go El, you can tell me all about the macrophages over lunch." He said to Ellie as he backed out of the door. The eyes of the restrained Cobaford flickered open. Panicked it attempted to move.

"It's okay, you're safe." Paul attempted to reassure. The crystalline eyes glanced about the room before resting on Paul.

"M-ul-la." It said, making it's own attempts to say Paul's name.

"Release the restraints." Said Paul.

"I can't do that." Said Nurse Cruford.

"Do it now." Paul now ordered. Nurse Cruford glanced over to Ellie who stood watching through her office window. She nodded and the nurse obeyed Paul's order. The Cobaford darted up to the head of the bed. Glancing about the room but once again rested on Paul.

"Mul-La." It said, pointing towards Paul.

"Miller." Paul softly corrected.

"Mul-La." It said. Slowly it pressed it's scaled hands against its own chest. "Ko-la."

The synthetic being moved from pod to pod in complete silence. Ignoring the team and only reacting when they moved out of bounds, guiding them back. Jennifer appeared back from the ship alone now, stepping to the edge of the synth's limit. It's large silver orbs containing it's pinprick eyes widened and it stepped to meet Jennifer. Jennifer tapped her left ear three times and held for a fourth. A light shone out from beneath her lobe and found a place directly in front of her and a fully three dimensional projection of captain Malcolm rose to form.

"Attention Cobaford guardian." Said Malcolm. "My name is Richard Malcolm, commander of the USS Odyssey and its crew, and I speak on behalf of the United Federation of Planets."

"Authorisation accepted." The guardian said. "Please identify your intentions in this system and station."

"I find it unfortunate that you are opposed to our presence." Malcolm explained. "You see, one of our organisations primary goals is scientific exploration, and our scouting shuttle detected unusual energy signatures coming from this system."

"These readings were coming from our sensor scramblers." It responded.

"Yes we are aware of that now." Said Malcolm attempting to remain polite.

"Your explanation for your presence in this system has therefore expired." It said bluntly. "Please make your departure immediately."

"Of course." Said Malcolm. "What do you want us to do with the Cobaford on board?"

A click came from the synthetic guardian's lower neck as it inquired for more information. "Explain."

"Our away team encountered a single alien on the capital city on the fourth planet, Cobafirise was it?" Malcolm said. "We identified the alien as Cobaford." The guardian cocked it's head once again in concern. When you would expect it to speak, the guardian instead turned and strode towards a control panel at the foot of one of the pods.

"What are you doing?" Jennifer called through her captain. The guardian did not respond as it interfaced with the console. One final jolt from the guardians arm into the console and with a hiss a single pod slid open and a Cobaford dressed in silver and red robes stumbled out. Before it could even open its crystalline eyes, the guardian grabbed the Cobafords arm and the slits between it's scaled glowed bright.

"I see." The Cobaford said certainly before turning to the group and the projection of the captain. His chipped lips appeared to attempt a smile "Greetings captain. My name is Rar, L-1 informs me that you have a Cobaford in your captive."

"Now I wouldn't say 'captive'." Malcolm promised. "But it attacked one of our officers and we unfortunately had to sedate it."

"In any case, I am grateful that you have located my son, now please return him to me." Rar said.

"Amazing." Nurse Cruford said astonished that the Cobaford had opened up so much to Paul.

"Kola?" Paul asked. "Is that your name?"

"Ko-la." It repeated, continuing to point at its own chest. "Ko-la safe?"

"Is Kola safe? Yes you are safe." Paul assured him.

"Kola huh-ome." Said Kola unsure of himself it seemed.

"You want to go home?" Paul asked. "I'm sure you will be able to go home soon."

"Yes you are right, Lieutenant." A voice called from the door, it was Malcolm entering the sickbay. "I just spoke to the leader of the Cobaford. Get him ready for departure, we are returning him to his people on the solar station."

"When?" Asked Paul.

"Our people are transporting Chancellor Rar now, they will arrive within the hour."

The Dragonfly slowed for its approach, the bay doors opened and the flight computer took over as the landing legs stretched. Paul, Malcolm and Nurse Cruford escorted the alien, who walked close to Paul, moving from behind and beside as the crossed the halls and corridors. The group entered the long shuttlebay and there sat at the foot of the Dragonfly was Chancellor Rar and Jennifer. The Cobaford leader perked up at the sight of Kola, raising to his feet.

"Son." He said softly. Kola hid behind Paul even with the sight of his father. "Kola please come to me." Kola stayed behind Paul who had began to notice his distress.

With a smile and a comforting arm, Paul attempted to guide him forward. "Go on, it's okay." Kola edged forward with Paul close behind. Rar left his arm outstretched as Kola approached who he claimed was his father. It was looking good. They had closed the gap slowly and with care, but as they were no more than an arms length away, Kola darted back behind Paul.

"Kola home." He repeated frantically. "Kola home, Kola home."

"No we are going home, son." Rar said. "I'm here to take you home."

To the surprise of Malcolm, Paul intervened more than just guiding Kola forward. "He doesn't mean with you. He wants to go back to the planet."

"This is outrageous." Rar shouted inside the captains ready room, Malcolm sitting at his desk recieving the chancellor's frustration. "Captain I am shocked that you would allow for one of your interiors to keep my son from me."

"Mister Miller neurally linked with your son on the planet's surface, he is under the impression that he is frightened of you, or even that you aren't his father." Malcolm explained, attempting to maintain some sort of calm. "And I would appreciate you not referring to my crew as 'inferiors,' I am just the captain, not an overlord. They simply need to follow my orders, but they are allowed to have opinions of their own."

"Regardless." Rar said. "You cannot allow him to prevent myself from being rejoined with my son."

"I'm afraid we cannot just hand over Kola to you without solid evidence now that he is refusing to meet you." Said Malcolm. "Now unless you are willing for a DNA test."

Rar sighed and pulled his right hand out of his long crimson coat. "It will be easier to show you." Malcolm looked hesitant, he doubted that he would even understand a neural link to communicate information and doubted even more if the chancellor would not attempt to compromise his ability to be captain. "It's quite safe, captain, I assure you." Rar said. Malcolm had not hidden the concern on his face very well. "It is a communication of ideas and memories. It can only influence someone as much as the spoken word."

Malcolm thought for a moment before eventually took the chancellor's arm and the slits between the scales glowed bright. The edges of his ready room began to fall out of focus until all but his own body dissolved into blackness. The room reconstructed itself around him, but it was not his ready room. The room had doubled in size, and his desk off to the corner had been replaced with a large wall-to-wall transparent display case. Inside the case was a two diamensional holographic landscape, red spots dotted the map and lines spiralling across the length. Malcolm recognised this as a battlemap.

"By targeting the Talous bases at coordinates 2-18, 2-21 and 2-29, we will effectively neutralise their ability to support their troops in a possible ground invasion." A Cobaford explained pointing to the map and Malcolm had suddenly become aware of the the other people in the room. The Cobaford that was the centre of attention stood in front of the display case. Yellow skinned but whose scales were much darker than the Chancellors had been, and wore a grey overjacket embroidered with sygils that suggested a life of military service. There were several more Cobaford viewing his presentation, some wore jackets similar to him though much less impressive, they were all nodding approvingly. Others were layered in bleached white uniforms and a crimson red sash across their chests, a patch on their arm red 'Cofal Research and Enginneering Division.' They all were shades of yellows and oranges and, Malcolm noticed, the only red skinned one was none other than Chancellor Rar himself.

"The strikes will have to be simultaneous." The chancellor said. "Talous will retaliate of course."

"Projections indicate that if they are allowed to build up forces along our border then casualties will escalate to up to 16 million lives on both sides." The general explained. "This way the casualties will be less than a quarter of that."

"We can't strike them unprovoked." Said one of the scientists, he was the palest and by far the shortest, almost human in complexion.

"Reports show that there is a large ground force being built up at coordinates 1-39, if we launch a preemptrive strike they will not have an air force to support their army, they will have no choice but to fall back." The general insisted.

"We are not at war with Talous yet and we are already planning for their destruction." A scientist said in disgust.

"We have been at war with Talous on and off for almost three hundred years." The general said. "Now I don't know what to do anymore, I've seen good men die over and over in vain. Our only option now if to cripple them at last."

"Gentlemen," the chancellor stepped in. "If no one else is going to suggest any alternatives then we would better move quickly before the invasion begins." "

Actually I think I do." Said the palest Cobaford scientist, stepping forth to the attention to the chancellor. He faced the display case as the general closed the map, and speaking the computer. "Open file Cobafrise VC 1-1-3." Suddenly the case lit up, first a solid blue then as the colours dissipated all remained was the schematics of the large structure around the Cobaford star.

The room began to dissolve once more, Malcolm fell into darkness, wondering if he would now be returned to his ready room, but instead found himself standing on a platform next to the chancellor overseeing a large crowd of Cobaford. There must of been hundreds in attendance, listening to Rar's speech. "For the first time in centuries, our two people's in the nation's of Talous and Colaf, now shall live in peace together." The chancellor said. "Together, as a species, inside the Virtual Care Facility we shall share thoughts and feelings, ideals and memories. We will be united, not by our nation's, but as one people, the Cobaford people." Then it happened...

In a blaze of heat and panic, the chancellor was thrown across the stage towards the crowd. The air filled with a thick grey smoke yet Malcolm stood unaffected by the blast. The smoke covered his eyes into blackness once again before a medical ward flickered into view.

"Rar I'm so happy you're okay." A female Cobaford said to the chancellor, she was as red as Rar himself. The chancellor lay blinking the lights. It was unusual. Each time Rar closed his eyes, the environment vanished and reappeared. Malcolm then suddenly remembered that this was Rar's memories; cannot recall memories you did not see.

"What's going to happen to the terrorists?" Rar asked quietly, he placed a large amount of contempt on the word 'terrorist.'

"The Talous forces have captured suspects for questioning." She responded. "Rar you must do something. Convince them to give them a fair trial."

"They tried to kill me, Jarvia." Said Rar. "They killed the Talous leader."

"These people are against the station, what it will do to them, what it will do to them as individuals?"

"Their personalities will be intact, we are merely allowing ourselves to express and share ideas in a safe environment." Said Rar. "It will be a neural link for our entire species. No more war. No more suffering at the hands of our differences."

"That's not the way they see it." Said the female Cobaford. "Twenty percent of our people voted against this, if you allowed them to live out their lives here as they wish to-"

"No, too many Cobaford have died due to us being apart. We do this together, or not at all." Rar lifted his right arm, fingers open and waiting for Jarvia to take it and join him. But she did not take it. She turned away from Rar and exited the room as the chancellor was left to close his palm. Frustrated and alone.

The room vanished into a black cloud and the darkness formed into dozens of Cobaford passing by him. He once again stood next to chancellor Rar. "This is the last group." Said the pale skinned Cobaford.

"Jarvia, get Kola inside." Malcolm heard Rar say, gesturing towards the ramp that led into a dropship. Large crowds past them by as the chancellor's partner held their child. She stood their uncertain and anxious, glancing from the large door to the dropship, to the chancellor, and back again. Just when it appeared like she was about to say something, to warn him, the air to the right of the crowd suddenly erupted in a blaze. The foundations were ripped from the it's base as the building collapsed and a thick black cloud enveloped the panicked crowd. The chancellor called for everyone to get inside. Guards escorted himself and the pale skinned scientist inside the safety of the ship. As the last Cobaford crossed the threshold, a orange skinned soldier pulled a large red lever and spoke into his radio.

Malcolm could not hear what he said but the lower ramp began to close infront of the crowd and filled the hallway with darkness. As Malcolm felt the environment dissolve for a final time, all he could hear over the confusion was Rar repeating "Jarvia! Kola! Where are they?"

Malcolm felt himself fall, back into his chair, but he did not move at all, as if this mind fell into his body. The chancellor sat opposite him with his head in his hands.

"I'm sorry, captain." Said the chancellor, raising to straighten his back. "I tried not to access your mind but it is difficult to ignore certain memories when it is at such the forefront of an individuals mind."

"What did you see?" Malcolm inquired.

"You are alone out here, wrongly accused and hunted." Rar said. "And you are desperate to prevent your home from being torn apart."

"Before the federation left our long-range sensors, we detected the USS Gregore firing upon a civilian cargo transport." Malcolm explained. "So you're right."

"If you return my child to me, captain," the chancellor said, "I will give you my L-1 unit. It's memory banks will be more useful to you than to me."

"So why did the chancellor not go back for them?" Ellie posed a question to the table. The crews senior staff all sat in the conference room.

"He believed that they were killed in the explosion." Malcolm explained as he sat at the end of the table. "Now I saw Kola there on the planet the day they abandoned it. But Miller said that it was at least a thousand years ago."

"Their physiology indicates that the Cobaford can live for hundreds, if not thousands of years ago." Said Ellie to Malcolm's nod.

"So when are we handing him over?" Jennifer interjected to Paul's opposition.

"H-hang on." Said Paul. "Kola does not seem to want to return to the chancellor."

"He might have been raised to resist to be returned to him," Jennifer justified. "Also imagine what information we could be given by going through with this?"

"Are w-we really considering trading a sentient being for an android?" Said Paul in shock.

"No we are reuniting family back together in return for a friend, assistance, starcharts and valuable information to help guide us." Jennifer said, emotion and frustration could be heard in her voice. "We have no friends out here, no safe harbour, no way out. I'm sorry but what these past few months have shown me is that we need help."

"Everyone, please." Malcolm jumped in, raising his hand out. "I have not made a decision yet."

"All I know, sir," said Paul, "is that when I linked with Kola and saw him the day they left, it did not look like the face of a child that was looking forward to joining him."

Malcolm placed his left hand on his chin, scratching his neck and staring up at the ceiling, before dropping it softly back to the glass and wood of the table. "Alright." Malcolm said. "Where is Kola? I am going to allow for Kola and Rar to choose."

"He's-he's in my quarters." Said Paul and he clarified against miss Gillians glance. "He felt safe with me and there I could modify the environmental controls to make him more comfortable without inconveniencing anyone in sickbay. Ellie nodded and turned back to Malcolm to confirm she authorised it.

"Alright I will tell the chancellor the good news." Said the captain standing from his seat.

Having informed Chancellor Rar of their decision, Captain Malcolm guided the chancellor through the corridors and halls of the Odyssey. After making a few turns, the two soon saw Paul standing in a door frame staring down at his shoes.

"Kola is inside." Paul muttered. Rar walked inside with no regard for Paul's position, he even gave him a glare of anger. As Malcolm too entered the room, first allowing Paul to move out of the way, he soon realised that he had never seen Paul's quarters. It was much smaller than his and Ellie's captains quarters, nearly half the size. And it was messy. An absolute tip of papers and padds, pens, wires and circuits.

However there seemed to be a purpose to each objects location, and strangely Malcolm did not doubt that Paul could find his way round this room with his eyes closed. And there, sitting on the bedside table through the dividing archway was Kola, who recoiled at the sight of Rar.

"Kola, please. It's quite alright." Rar assured. Kola glanced over at Paul, who simply nodded in hope that he will still trust Rar. The chancellor sat on the side of the bed and Kola cautiously cocked his head. "Son, please. Take my hand." Kola sat there staring at the chancellor's outstretched hand, eyes squinting but Malcolm noticed that the young Cobaford kept glancing towards Paul. Soon Kola slowly reached forward and grasped his father's arm. The slits between the scales glowed in sequence, the chancellor's first, then Kola's. It all took a matter of  seconds. The two shone bright before they broke embrace. Almost as soon as the lights stopped, Kola, for the first time either Malcolm or Paul saw, hugged his father. It was not the sort of hug you would give to a friend or to comfort someone in distress, but that special way only a parent and child would.

"Kola, where is your mother? Where is Jarvia?" The chancellor asked holding his son by the shoulders. Kola held out his hand once again, but not to link. He extended three fingers, the two longest and the shortest finger; the son, the mother and the father. With his other hand, Kola closed one of the longer fingers, the day Jarvia left with Kola, next after a short time he closed the second finger, leaving the shortest alone on his hand. Rar closed his eyes and simply nodded quietly.

It did not take much longer until Paul left his quarters and took over from Crewman Willis in engineering. He spent hours analysing and reanalysing the same scan data of the quantum engine. Jennifer Gillian along with several Starforge crewmen bring in the L-1 unit the Cobaford had given them. Out of the corner of his eye, Paul saw Charlie and Katie bickering to the right of warp core. Eventually Charlie crossed the hall, avoiding the Starforge engineers scanning the L-1 unit, taking a wide path towards Paul.

"Are you okay?" Charlie said cautiously waving.

"Yes, Marteez I'm fine." Said Paul, refusing to look up from his console.

"Because you've been looking at the same scan data for almost an hour now. You also do a face when you're upset about something." Said Charlie. Paul denied what he had said about his face but now he had become muc more conscious of his outgoing appearance. "Is this about this about the Cobaford situation?"

Paul took a long deep breath, closing his eyes he was well aware there wasn't much point lying to Charlie. "I can't understand people very well. I've always struggled it since I was a child. But when I linked with Kola, on the planet's surface, I felt an understanding of something I've never felt. I thought I knew what he wanted so seeing it turn out how it did, it showed me that I just misunderstood another one."

"I understand." Said Charlie. "You know they are departing for the station in ten minutes."

"It doesn't matter." Paul shook his head.

"No it does." Said Charlie. "So what if he made a different decision than what you wanted. But he trusts you, and whatever choice he made he  would want you to support him. That's what it means to be friends." Paul glanced up for just a second. He scratched his nose and then nodded towards Charlie before pulling away from the console.

"Again I would like to say I'm sorry about what happened with Jarvia." Said Malcolm as he escorted the chancellor and his son through the great chambers of the VC station. Paul had thankfully joined them but remained very quiet. Paul did not meet Rar's glares and avoided eye contact as much as he could.

"Yes I have spent so many years believing she was killed by those terrorists that day." The chancellor said solumely, approaching his pod. Two pods were left empty to unite the last of the Cobaford. "I did not see that she would help them in their attack on the dropship, and escape in the panic." The chancellor pulled himself into the pod, slipping his hands into two gauntlets and a helmet lowered over his head. The pod doors closed with a hiss. Malcolm glanced to his right and saw Paul embracing Kola before the pod doors closed to seal the last Cobaford inside.

2:4 (These Flood Waters Do Not Scare Me)
The doors slid opened to allow for Captain Oweye's entrance into Starfleet Command. In the past few months, Head Admiral Collins had been keeping a closer eye on Oweye's movements and actions because of his link to the declared outlaw Richard Malcolm. He had been denied patrols to the uncharted regions and the newly established Neutral Zone. However, despite for Oweye's protests against Collins taking credit for the new Neutral Zone and brushing Malcolm and Kadens influence to that particular agreement under the rug, he had began to feel Starfleet had begun to breath down his neck more and more.

Leaning on his hip high wooden walking stick, Oweye limped his way into the command centre. There, sitting around a briefing table, was Admiral Galeb, a man that stretched Oweye's patience more each meeting.

"Ah captain! How has your knee being treating you?" Admiral Collins said, putting on a false positive tone that Oweye identified immediately.

"These old bones have still got another decade in them at least." Said Oweye sitting at the foot of the table and tapping his knee with his walking stick. "No, its my nerves are just not as fast as they used to."

Collins gave a sympathetic smile but Galeb interjected as Oweye adjusted his tunic. "I'm sure you can get an implant for that."

"I am not going to extend a false sense of good health." Said Oweye, giving him a piece of his mind. "If I can't remain strong as nature intended then I would rather be weak. When I die, I will die on my own terms."

Galeb put his hands up in defence. "My apologies."

"Gentlemen, I have invited the good captain to discuss his latest report on the current state on civil unrest." The head admiral split the two apart before an argument would ensue.

"Of course," said Galeb, "captain, on stardate 52134.9 you filled a report where you spoke about civil unrest that you felt would destabilise the entire federation."

"Yes I warned that the destruction of the SS Quartermaster would damage confidence within the civilian population." Said Oweye. "There are those who are convinced Starfleet has become corrupt. Frankly I do not blame them."

"That ship entered an illegal shipping zone." The head admiral justified, ignoring Oweye's comment.

"That zone was established just days before the attack." Said Oweye. "It's possible they were not aware of the ban. But regardless of whether they were aware of the ban or not, since when do we mandate where and where not civilians conduct their business in Federation space?"

"The Kartha system is off limits for the time being to protect an endangered spacefairing creature we have recently become aware of." Admiral Galeb explained. Oweye could almost taste the lie under his breath.

"I would like to request permission to assess the situation in the Kartha system."

"Access denied, Captain." Collins immediately said, for a moment Oweye thought that the head admiral used a threatening tone.

"Admiral I must warn you that this level of secrecy, this disregard for the liberties of our people and lack of communication with the Federation council is what eventually led to the downfall of Section 31." Explained Oweye's position. "Do not let Starfleet make the same mistakes and suffer the same consequences."

"Alright captain you've made your point." Galeb said. "No I don't think I have." "Yes you have, captain." Collins interjected. "You are dismissed."

Oweye was astonished. There were of course rumours that Galeb had ties to Section 31, so he knew making comment at their expense would rile him up, but Oweye always believed that Collins one of the most reasonable man he ever met. But sitting there now, glaring at the head admiral, Oweye knew there was no point attempting to convince him. Reluctantly Oweye grabbed his walking stick strode out of the room, muttering to himself something foul as he overheard Galeb making a comment about his age, something Oweye just shook his head about.

Oweye returned to his ship, the USS Shinwari Gladiator Class, via transporter. It wasn't long before the starship exited the Sol system at warp speeds.

The USS Rodney remained in orbit of the great blue marble known as Earth. Rown awaited for the arrival of the ships commander, Admiral Galeb. This had become a reluctant tradition over the past few months. The airlock opened on its rail and to Rown's surprise, Head Admiral Collins walked along side Galeb.

"Admiral, this is Commander Dean Rown." Said Galeb and the two shook hands.

"Ah formerly captain of this starship, were you not?" Collins asked but Rown did not give him the gratitude of a response. Not that the Head Admiral noticed, of course. The two turned and began to walk through the corridors with Rown in tow. "How goes the search for Richard Malcolm?"

"We encountered him a few months ago, he seems to be heading deeper into the outer reaches of the Scutum-crux galactic arm." Galeb briefed the admiral.

"Where on earth do they think they are going? That's uncharted space."

"I believe I can answer that." Rown interjected. "Astrometics calculated that by following Scutum-crux, that would be the most efficient path to a spheroidal dwarf galaxy, Sagittarius."

"Why would he be heading out there?" Collins asked.

"With all due respect sir, but I thought it was obvious." Rown said. Collins certainly did notice this time, but let it slide after a moment. "The signal Paul Miller talked about, the motivation for the construction of the USS Odyssey?" Rown said.

"That signal was false." Collins said. "Simply a gamma ray burst interfering with our sensors. But you mentioned you calculated the path he would take? That could be mighty useful."

"Yes we can guess the most efficient path he might take but where he is on that path and where he is now is the difficult part."

"No worries, commander." Said Collins. "In the coming days, we will be able to pin point his exact location for the first time in months."

Captain Oweye stood up from his chair central to the Shinwari's bridge. Hands held behind his back, Oweye approached the helm station, minimising his limb. "How are we heading, Suhn?" Oweye asked the helmswoman.

"We are maintaining course." She reported. "But the USS Venator is shadowing us. They are maintaining a distance of 3.2 light years but they are definitely following."

"That's quite alright, lieutenant," said Oweye, "there's nothing suspicious with us, we are just on a pulsar survey." There was a rhythmic beeping arose from the science station near the rear of the bridge.

"Captain the pulsar is releasing massive amounts of radiation."

"How are our sensors?"

"Offline due to the interference." Suhn reported. Oweye paced up and down the bridge.

They waited for a good hour before the captain finally spoke. "That must have been long enough, the Venator must have crossed into the interference. Let's hope that the gift from our friend works." Oweye nodded towards the operations officer and returned to his captains chair. The lights around the bridge dimmed and flickered as the bulkheads groaned. Slowly the plates along the surface of the hull vanished from visual sight and detection. Both ships exited the field of interference from the pulsar and it was just now a matter of waiting and watching. "Status report." Oweye said after another hour.

"The Callister is not following us anymore," said Suhn, "they haven't a clue where we went."

"Good." Said Oweye. "Helm, you know where to take us."

Doctor Coal rested in his quarters on board the USS Rodney. Continuous jumps with the spore drive had taken a toll on him but with the correct medicine the white matter build up in his temporal lobe was reversible. But what it could not subside the pain he had begun to feel. Not physical pain, but mental. At first he was in awe of the sprawling length of the mycelium network and it's possibilities, but following the Odyssey further and further out was getting more difficult each time. As if the longer the distance travelled, the more of the universe was crammed inside his head. Far more than a mortal mind was designed to handle. He had attempted to hide the worst of it. He had read from reports they had salvaged from Section 31 told of the original testing of the spore drive. The USS Discovery, NCC-1031, a highly modified Crossfield-class science vanguard, and piloted by Lieutenant Paul Stamets. He also began to suffer grave effects from extended exposure to the mycelium network, particularly after the strain from the one-hundred and thirty-three microjumps he made during the battle of Pahvo. This information, however, Coal found useless. There was no way of knowing if he was suffering from the same affliction as Stamets, in fact, he was pretty sure that medicine could have sorted him out if Stamets had access to the same medical technology. Nevertheless, Coal hid the pain from the other doctors and nurses. He knew that if the admiral found out then they would drag some other poor sod into that glass chamber and make him do it for them. And that was something he could not just standby and allow.

Doctor Coal arose from his bed at the sound of his door chime. Rubbing his head, he tapped the control and the door slid open. It was Commander Rown.

"Doctor do you have a moment?" He asked and Coal nodded, gesturing inside as the door closed behind them.

"Do you want any tea?" Asked Coal, not expecting anything from Rown.

"No." Said Rown and Coal rolled his eyes as he waddled to the replicator. "I need to give Malcolm's crew some information."

"Malcolm's crew is on the Odyssey, thousands of light years away."

"Not all of them." Said Rown. Coal glanced behind himself towards the commander. Rown held out a small datachip. "It is vital they get this."

"Now do I find them?"

"Malcolm's old mentor. Jar Oweye."

The Cardassian-Federation border. This was once the staging ground for the most bloody conflicts in Federation history. Hundreds of ships destroyed. Billions of lives lost. But that was years ago, and now the guns are silent.

Captain Oweye and the starship Shinwari crossed that border under the stealth of the cloak. It was a lonely planet they approached, M-class, stormy climate, subterrienian development, but most importantly, unmarked. Perfect hiding place for nearly fifty Starforge and Starfleet officers who were being hunted in the Federation. From time to time, the Cardassian ship the Gullet would check up on the underground camp but more and more Oweye had become concerned Starfleet was catching up with them. Oweye along with lieutenant Suhn transported down to the camp. Naturally they were met with three rifles pointed directly at them. It had been too dangerous to send down a warning of their arrival.

"Ah captain we were not expecting you." Said a Starforge engineer, Connor Forest, dropping his rifle. Not long ago he worked with Paul Miller in developing his Quantum Warp drive, and now he controlled the security of the camp.

"It's quite alright Forest, you cannot be too careful." Oweye said but Forest walked past the captain. He held out his hand to Suhn and she took it gratefully.

Forest escorted the two through the encampment. There were engineers tinkering with the shield generators and cloaking projectors. There were medical doctors taking care of the wounded and sick. There were those still in Starfleet uniforms, and there were those, like Forest, who wore casual clothes. But there was something different about what Forest wore. There was a round embroidered patch on his left sleeve, a gold star with a large hammer above to a crimson background; the mark of Starforge.

"We had begun to get worried that we would not hear from you again, sir." Said Forest. "That report you posted. It's accurate but I don't think Starfleet wants to hear that right now."

"I can handle Collins and Galeb, do not worry." Said Oweye.

Forest smiled and said, "I believe you." They continued through the tunnels, taking a left, then a right, then another right until they reached a large open cave. Metal pillars stood up through the rock giving the cave five distinct sides. Each section was filled with makeshift control panels, each demonstrating a different vital function of the base. "We got worried a few days ago when the USS Callister made a routine scan of the local star cluster. They were off course for a few hours." Said Forest. "They came dangerously close to us, luckily the asteroid cloud around this system is too treacherous for just any ordinary Starfleet pilot."

Forest glanced over at Suhn once again and she smiled. "Thanks Connor." She said. "It's easy when you see the patterns."

A rhythmic beeping sounded in Oweye's ear. He rose his middle and forefingers and tapped his left ear twice. "Shinwari to Oweye." A voice said over the comm, it was his operations officer, Ensign Leeward. Oweye gave the standard response and the ensign continued. "We received an unmarked subspace message from a James Coal. I just decoded it and you'll want to see this."

"Send it down to the camp." Oweye said. Forest looked over his shoulder to the communications who nodded to say they had received it. Moments later, with a punch of a few buttons, a hologram emerged from the central display. A hush ran over the cavern. The dozens of refugees stared at the rotating hologram. It appeared to be a highly modified station; merely one hundred ft from bow to stern, a long cylinder made up the main body, capped on one end with a wide oval shape, and the other end built into with a hexagonal sensor node.

"What is it?" Forest asked.

"I've seen this design before." Said Oweye and everyone gave him their attention as he moved to the display. "It's a new subspace sensor and transmitter system. It was being tested in Deep Space Sixteen to spy on the Romulans."

"I thought DS16 was just an ore manufacturing facility." Forest said. "My team used to get regular shipments when building cargo transports."

"That was just part of it, a cover up" Oweye explained, "using an advanced system of micronodes across a lightyear, the system would give a procise, real-time data for tens of thousands of light years. The Voyager incident demonstrated the need for this kind of technology, but if this is used to find the Odyssey-"

"Then there will be nowhere captain Malcolm could hide." Suhn finished Oweye's sentence. She expected some scorn from him, she knew her captain never liked to be interrupted but instead Oweye gave her a sad, weary look. "Did the message give a location?"

It took a moment to get a response but soon the communications officer gave a response, "the system K-H1185."

"That's only 14 light years away," Suhn said bringing her attention to her captain. "Sir we need to go there. Take out the station before they can trace the Odyssey."

"What you are suggesting will be treason," Oweye pointed out coldly.

"We are already fugitives anyway," commented Forest folding his arms and as he lent against the display stand, "I'm coming with you."

"Connor you can't, these people need you here," Suhn said.

"They can look after themselves, many of us have friends on Odyssey." Said Forest. "The USS Rodney has three times the armaments of the Odyssey. They have been able to survive for this long by simple evasion, remove that and they wouldn't stand a chance."

"You two are forgetting that I have not agreed yet," Oweye said.

"Captain we cannot allow them to trace the Odyssey," Suhn said. For a moment she was uncertain of Oweye's response, he could always be stubborn in his opinions when his mind was made up. Then suddenly Oweye let out a long, weary breath before nodding to her.

Commander Rown left the mess hall at the admirals request. Galeb had called to discuss the latest combat plan against the Odyssey. It had been decided that the reason why Malcolm escaped was that they jumped 300 million kilometres out from the target. But that would be on the fault of the navigator, Doctor Coal. Rown entered a turbolift and it was only when the doors slid closed with a security officer and the ships tactical officer, Lieutenant Marh, behind him that he noticed they had followed him. Certainly it could have been a coincidence, but in order to have been ahead of suspicion by assuming coincidence. Rown glanced to left and right and saw that were both armed. Rown left the turbolift and sure enough they followed, always being careful to stay at least twenty paced behind Rown at all times. Rown could see there was no way to lose them in the corridors, they knew exactly where he was heading. Rown entered sickbay and there he saw it...

At least five men, phasers drawn, surrounding the medical ward. Doctor Coal was being forced to the floor by the most weedy man, the barrel of the hand-phaser being pushed into his temple. The door to the glass navigation chamber had swung open and Rown could see the admiral pressing his hand against the outside of the glass. Before Rown could even think of retreating, he felt two barrels being pressed into his back in the doorway.

"Come in, commander," Galeb said, "as you are aware that we are expecting a transmission from the Minerva satellite of the location of captain Malcolm and his crew of fugitives by the end of the day. But I have noticed a slight security concern that might interest you." Galeb moved across the to the side of the chamber and slid out a small console from the glass. "If we exclude all mycelium jumps from deep space to home, and of course the occasion we encountered the Odyssey, and then compensate for stellar drift," he said all this as he punched it into the console so a list of coordinates was projected onto the glass, "We see that every single jump we made in pursuit of the Odyssey had been marginally off course. How at first I believed the fault was in the computer, maybe for some reason it had not adjusted the coordinates for stellar drift." Galeb punched more information into the console and several more coordinates appeared. "But then I added back in the jumps we removed and we can see that those coordinates are correct." Galeb turned away from the console, and with scorn in his voice he approached Coal who stood on one knee and his hands on his head. "This, to me, is evidence enough that the fault is on Doctor James Coal. And when I came to our doctor here I found him sending out this." The admiral held out a small data rod, transparent and orange. It was the message Rown gave to Coal for the Shinwari crew. "Now Commander, what do you think about this situation?"

Rown paused for a moment. He could see Coal sweating as the phaser barrel pressed deeper into his temple. Would he actually kill the doctor? That was something he couldn't take the chance on. "I told the doctor to send a message out for me." Rown said. It was true but he wasn't going to tell him the whole truth. "As for the coordinates I would need more evidence to make a judgement of foul play on the doctors part."

Galeb nodded. "Oh of course. Commander can you tell me what is in this message?"

"I can't," said Rown.

"You can't?" Said Galeb in disbelief. "Commander, who am I?"

"Admiral David Galeb." Rown whispered, looking down at the floor.

"But who am I to you?"

"The Captain." Said Rown reluctantly.

"That's right." Galeb said stepping closer. "I am the captain of this ship, not you. You lost your chance on your first mission. You lost your prisoner, you allowed sabotage on your ship, and lost the lives of fifteen officers. So believe me when I say I will not allow for this to continue under my watch. That is a promise." Galeb unhooked a hand-phaser from his right thigh. Stretching his arm out to its full length, Galeb pointed the phaser directly at Coal's head. "Step into the chamber."

The Shinwari remained undercloak while performing detailed scans of the system K-H1185, home of the Minerva satellite. Forest arrived on the bridge with his analysis of the situation and began the briefing of his plan by casting a map of the entire system onto the viewscreen.

"Minerva relies on a network of thirteen micro sensor-nodes across the entire system." Forest explained, pointing to several yellow highlights on the map as he spoke. "Each one opens a variable transwarp subspace corridor for a brief moment to send back impressive scans of a range of just under one hundred thousand light years. It is a truly astounding piece of equipment."

"I don't need you to admire the technology, Mister Forest," said Oweye interrupting, "remember why we are here."

"Yes, sorry, I just can't help but fall in love." Said Forest for a second glancing to the helm before returning to the screen. "Luckily for us, each node requires a strict communication with each other. So I think if we expose one of them to enough graviton radiation then Minerva will register it as an incomplete sequence and attempt to start again. Kind of like knocking a holorecorder just before it takes the picture, the image is useless."

Oweye glanced over to his science officer who was mulling over his console. After doing the calculations in his head, the science officer looked up and said, "maths checks out, it's not a permanent solution but it could put them back at least a couple of months trying to figure out the problem. Then another three weeks to repair it."

Oweye looked forward again to the screen and placed his hands on his knees. "Okay but we are going to need to decloak to do this, as soon as Command notices a starship tampering with the nodes they will figure out the problem much sooner."

"That's the clever part," Forest pointed out, moving closer to the captains chair as he spoke, "in order to maximise Minerva's range, they had to gut their entire short range capabilities. So they cannot actually see us. But their environmental sensors will be able to identify us but the graviton radiation will mask us as natural interference. We decloak, fire a pulse from our deflector at one of the nodes, then recloak before any starships arrive."

Oweye looked about the bridge before returning to Forest. "Okay let's do it, helm set a course for the nearest node."

Coal looked anxious as he rose to his feet under the stress of the phasers pressing into his temple. Neither Coal nor Rown could clearly identify if there was a blue light on the phaser screen, that would indicate it was set to the lower stun settings, or a red light, which would mean it was set to kill. But either way neither of them could rely on Galeb's current mental state to be anything but unstable. Coal, hands raised behind his head, slowly approached the open glass chamber but halted when Rown spoke up.

"Wait," he said, "there is something I haven't told you." This certainly caught Galeb's attention. Coal had began to sweat again, what was Rown about to tell him? He thought. Surely he wouldn't tell him about what was in the message. "The sickness from navigating the mycelium network? It has been effecting Coal more than he is letting on."

"Is this true?" Asked the admiral as he turned to face Coal.

He thought for a moment before eventually the doctor simply said "No."

"It IS true," said Rown, pressing the issue but Coal wasn't going to bite. "He hasn't told you that because he wouldn't want anyone else to go through it. The doctor believes only he should do it."

"Commander this simply confirms my suspicions that the doctor purposely put us off course," said Galeb.

"Well can you blame him?" Rown asked. "Captain Malcolm reassigned 50 officers from the Rodney to the Odyssey when he was given command. Many on board used to be part of the crew. So you shouldn't except any of them to be eager to kill them."

Rown suddenly felt one of the barrels drop from his back. At the sound of the phaser being holstered, Rown glanced behind to see Lieutenant Marh standing firm.

"Marh! Return to your station!" Galeb shouted. For a moment Marh stood there, glancing to Rown, then to Galeb, and then to Rown again before quickly exiting the room. Rown saw that this had rocked Galeb up. He robbed the top of the phaser in his hair before letting out a long, deep breath.

"Okay doctor, you will get into that chamber and navigate us to the coordinates Minerva sends to us, or I will kill Commander Rown." The phaser now was pointed directly to Rown's chest. Galeb held the phaser slightly on its left, Rown noticed, clearly he was not used to this but there was no confusion on what setting it was on now, the light shone bright red reflecting in the admirals eyes. "Five seconds."

"Wait, admiral please." Coal said in panic.

"Four seconds."

"There are three hundred lives on that ship." Coal quickly said.

"Three seconds."

"They are innocent and you know it."

"Two seconds."

"Alright stop!" Coal called. "I'll do it."

To Rown's disbelief, Coal climbed his way into the chamber as the door closed behind him. Resting upright into the chair, two long needles  were inserted into his arms and it wasn't until then that Galeb lowered his phaser.

"I will tolerate this disobedience no further," said Galeb, "Commander come with me to the bridge."

The Shinwari delcoaked at the edge of the system. It's metallic hull became visible plate by plate from the deflector to the nacelles. Oweye gave the order to fire the deflector dish modification and a stream of golden energy pulsated across the front of the ship against the micronode. When the seconds turned into minutes, Forest seemed more and more concerned. Suhn was not used to seeing this panicked side to Forest.

Worried, she asked "what's wrong?" As Forest approached the science station.

"It shouldn't be taking this long," he said.

"It should be alright," Oweye said, "just give it some more time."

"No, no, no," Forest muttered to himself, glancing up and down from the science console's screen, "I was worried about this, the they've upgraded the nodes with shield generators."

"Increase output from the deflector," ordered Oweye quickly, "let's get it done." The golden energy pulsated faster. Waves upon waves struck the sensor node as the minutes dragged on. Soon a flash of blue light came from the console and Forest confirmed that the node was compromise. The bridge crew let out a long sigh of relief but not before Suhn delivered the bad news.

"We managed to take out the system but those generators stopped us from doing getting it done in time," Suhn said, "Minerva transmitted a set of coordinates to the USS Rodney."

Oweye lowered his head into his hands, for a moment he was silent before rising to feet, holding his hands together. "Reactivate the cloak," he ordered, "get us out of here, high warp."

Rown could see the smile across Admiral Galeb's face. He was proud of what he had done, Galeb had won and he wanted Rown to know it. They stood side by side in the turbolift in silence as the small room shot up through the ship. The doors slid open and the two stepped onto the bridge.

"Admiral on bridge!" The helm officer called as Galeb approached the captains chair in the centre of the room. "Sir we have received coordinates from Minerva and are now standing by to jump."

"Good," Galeb sat in the leather chair, "these are the results I expect from now on." Rown saw that Marh sat in the tactical station, not that Galeb had noticed nor cared, he was taking the most pleasure in calling for the Black Alert.

A small green mug materialised in the booth built into the bulkhead and captain Malcolm took hold of the cups handle. He took a sip from the scolding hot black liquid as the captain walked across the bridge.

"I swear I'm being serious," Jennifer said as she lent over Reece's station, "I saw crewman Myra and Yhosh hanging out together in the mess hall."

"I told you they were in love with each other." Reece commented.

"Oh someone in love?" Malcolm nosed in for a moment and Jennifer assured him it was nothing. The captain simply nodded as Gillian returned to her station.

"Helm how long until we can go to Quantum Velocity?"

"Only a few minutes, sir," Reece said and Malcolm acknowledged. Almost as soon as Reece finished his report, a beeping noise filled the bridge from the science station.

"Captain you are going to want to see this," Reka exclaimed. Malcolm took another sip from his cup, and by leaning on the captains chair he waved Reka to continue. "There is a displacement in the local quantum field."

Malcolm had almost choked on his drink. In surprise he tossed the cup down to the floor before quickly moving across the bridge. A panic filled the room, they all knew what it was. The USS Rodney.

"Helm get us out of here right now," Malcolm ordered with a definite sense of urgency. Reece prepared the ship for warp but this was in vain when the enormous starship dropped into normal space directly in front of the Odyssey. "Shields up, red alert!"

Before the alert could even begin to sound, a volley of red bolts and beams flew from the Rodney's forward saucer section and slammed into the Odysseys hull. Shot after shot impacted the nacelles, saucer section and the engineering section. This barrage continued for minutes, officers were knocked to the ground as bulkheads flew off their seals. Malcolm desperately gave out orders to "return fire" and "evasive manuvers" but all to little effect.

"Prepare tricolbalt torpedoes," said Galeb with glee, "target the Odyssey bridge, let us break that armoured shell of theirs." Rown could hear the admiral whispering to himself as he sat in the captains chair. Not much of it was audible over the sounds of the cannons firing from below, but he heard Galeb say, "you should have listened to me, Miller."

Rown must not have been the only one to hear it, as the Rodney suddenly ceased firing. Rown and Galeb glanced back to the tactical station and there stood Marh shaking his head silently.

"Why have you stopped firing?" Galeb shouted across the bridge.

"I've had enough of this." Marh spoke out.

"And I've had enough of this disobedience," the furious admiral rose to his feet. He looked like he was about to hit Marh but instead Galeb ordered him off the bridge. "Anyone else wants to disobey me speak now." As Marh left the bridge, every other bridge officer silently returned to their stations, but the weapons remained cold.

"Captain they've ceased firing," Gillian reported as she regained her balance. Sparks of white hot metal rained down over the bridge. "Why would they stop?"

"Lets not stick around to find out," said Malcolm, "Reece get us out of here, Quantum Velocity 1.2."

"That's almost our maximum speed." Said Reece.

"I know just do it." Reece complied, sliding himself over to the right side of the helm control and rolling forward the red control. Before another shot could be exchanged, the Odyssey zipped off into space at unimaginable speeds. The ship rocked and creeked under the damage that had been inflicted upon it. The captain flicked one of the switches on his arm rest and opened a ship-wide channel to request a damage report. But he was met with message that he did not want to here.

"We have a medical emergency in sickbay," a voice said over the comm. Gillian glanced over to the captains chair but, without thinking, Malcolm was already in the turbolift.

In panic, Malcolm strambed through the corridors of the ship. Pushing past engineers and climbing over fallen bulkheads, the captain soon approached the two wide glass doors to sickbay. There were white-shirt officers running in and out, but to Malcolm's relief, Ellie sat on a biobed with a dermal regenerator against a long cut down her face. Malcolm almost shoved past the nurses that assisted her and he placed his arms around Ellie.

"I'm so glad you're okay," Malcolm said, "I heard the medical emergency and I feared the worst."

"I'm okay but I wasn't the emergency." Ellie said glancing to her right.

Malcolm could not believe he hadn't noticed it before. Panels had been blown to the centre of the room, pipes and wires hung down from the ceiling. The metal bulkheads had bent and warped and there laying sprawled on the floor, staring at the ceiling with cold lifeless eyes. Nurse Cruford lay dead.

2:5 (And Then There Was One)
Nurse Cruford had been working under Doctor Malcolm for almost seven months now. He had been transferred to the Odyssey just after the conclusion of the Federation-Romulan war. A rising prodigy in Starfleet Medical, Cruford received a message that told him his request for a doctorate was all but accepted. His own medical team, his own ward and the chief doctor on a starship! It did not turn out the way. The day before he was ready to hand hid letter of resignation to Doctor Malcolm, there was the captains speech. He told them of the signal, the Terran Universe Odyssey, and the importance of the mission they were to undertake. The captain gave them all a chance to depart from the ship, to go with captain Oweye to a safe place to wait out the journey. But after a long night to think, he came to the conclusion that the sacrifice in this long journey was too important for the safety of those on Earth. Now, seven months on and on the day the Rodney ambushed them for the second time, unaware Cruford was simply taking care of the morning physicals.

"So Willis you're in perfect health, I would say," Cruford said with a smile and placing his padd on the tray rolled to his side, "as for that migraine caused by the pulsating of the warp core? Just try not to stare at it."

"Thanks doc," Willis said jumping off the biobed. Cruford returned to the tray when out of the corner of his eye, he saw the crewman halt just before reaching the doorway and down around.

"It's Tiphony by the way," she said, "crewman Tiphony Willis."

"Greg," Cruford responded.

"Do you, by any chance want to have lunch, together, with me," Willis rambled to Cruford's amusement.

"Yes sure, I just need to pack up here first."

"Great, I'll meet you there," Willis said and with a sweet smile, she exited sickbay. Smiling and whistling to himself, Cruford began to pack away his supplies from the tray into the various cupboards. Just as he placed the last pieces of scanning equipment, Doctor Malcolm poked her head out from her office.

"Nurse Cruford have you finished the bacterial scan of that algae we picked up last week?" The chief doctor asked.

"I'll have it completely by the end of the day," Cruford nodded. Doctor Malcolm simply waved it off as she told him to take as long as he needs. Before he could even respond however, the red alert sounded. Concerned, the doctor crossed the medbay to the comm system when the entire room shook and rumbled.

All departments reported casualties. A fire had begun in the sickbay and with a short blast from the fire suppression system, Cruford dealt with the fire as the first casualties were brought in by the other nurses. But then Cruford saw it. Doctor Malcolm didn't see it however, she had been preparing several hypospray and so was not aware what was happening right above her. A bulkhead had begun to warp, melting under the stress. A panel was thrown across the room, impacting the critical bulkhead and seconds before it fell, Cruford ran across the room and threw doctor Malcolm out of the way.

Long hot shards of metal came crashing down, a sharp blade sliced down the doctors face but that was not the worst injury. Cruford felt trapped on the floor, unable to move or see correctly but there was the unmistakable sight of a long sharp shard of bulk head sticking out his chest up into the air. His lungs filled with blood and Cruford struggled more and more to hold his eyes open. The last thing he experienced was a voice calling a medical emergency as his senses went numb and all the lights went dark...

The USS Odyssey continued to limp onwards at highspeeds for weeks after the ambush, the crew continued to work as admirably as they could after the loss of Nurse Cruford, and captain Malcolm was far too weary to make any stops to explore the area they dropped into and he was very strict in continuing at warp between Quantum Velocity jumps. Soon enough, and pushing the engines further than Paul would like, they had crossed almost a thousand light years in just ten days, but Malcolm was still not comfortable. The loss of Cruford had hit ship wide morale hard. Almost every officer knew him in one way or the other, but the turn out for his memorial was small. Only a few officers stood around the stasis chamber. It was decided best to do this so they could return the body to his family when they return. Malcolm spoke at the memorial, talked about how it was a tragic loss but they must carry on stronger than ever and not let his death be in vain. All that was left now was to lock his quarters, sealed in memory of the one place on this ship he called home...

"We can't keep going like this," Sam argued to annoyance to the group that had gathered in engineering. Down she slammed a blackened lump of metal on to the screen of the ship wide anaylsis table. The metal was a warped cylinder but the grooves and cut outs made it appeared more like a crown then anything else. Inside there was a series of miniature fans and the entire cylinder was capped with a mesh of metal wires and tiny plates that had been warped into unusual shapes. The distinct smell of rust and burn steel rushed up the group's noses. Sam removed the thick glove she used to carry the object and turned her attention to captain Malcolm who had his arms crossed. "Captain do you know what this is?"

Malcolm shook his head. He had taken a basic Engineering extension course in the academy but it had been years and he had to admit his engineering skills were worse than his medical knowledge.

"It's a CO2 scrubber," Sam explained, "It's job is to extract oxygen from the carbon dioxide we expell. Or at least it used to be. If we did not have redundancies or if we had not noticed it, excess carbon could have entered the life support, the replicators, could have even corrupted a warp coil since they are being stretched as it is. The truth is we need to stop for parts."

"We can't," Malcolm insisted, "the Rodney could ambush us again and this time we might not be so lucky."

"Captain, this isn't the first system to go down," Sam said, "by our luck it won't be the last. A starship is a finely tuned piece of technology, but the more we push the Odyssey, the more systems fail and the weaker she becomes, until we might not even be able to reach a Quantum Velocity if we continue, and then we will certainly not stand a chance."

Malcolm looked about the group, the faces of Paul, Marteez, Staan, Gillian and Riley stared back. Soon Riley was the only one to speak. "If we are ambushed again," he said, "it would be better to take the risk now then when the engine fails."

Malcolm looked to the ceiling in thought, his left hand had gone up to his cheek before it slowly moved down to his neck, scratching it gently as it went. "Alright," Malcolm reluctantly agreed, "but it is going to take time to scan for materials or traders for new parts. Maybe if we send the Miller One to scout ahead we could reduce the search time. It's not like we have starcharts."

"But what if we do." Gillian said thinking out loud, the entire group turned to face her. Without giving an explanation, she split from the table and crossed Engineering to one particular station. L-1, the android the Cobaford had given to them for returning their chancellor's son to them, lay dormant, wires and cables hooked into the small silver box attached to the two large spheres that harboured it's eyes. One by one the group followed her as Gillian approached the panel and with a tap of a few buttons, blue lights lit up on the android, is two metal spheres darting up and down before resting on both Malcolm and Gillian.

"L-1 we need to locate a suitable source of spare parts." Said Gillian.

"Specify parameters." The robotic voice clanged against the bulkheads around them. Sam and Paul both stepped forward and began to list the parts they needed. To Malcolm's dismay it was an extenive list.

"We don't even know if it's starcharts go out this far," Malcolm said once the two had finished their list.

"The starcharts stored in my databanks have been collected by explorers and traders for up to thirty-thousand light years from the Cobaford homeworld." The L-1 unit informed the captain.

"Thirty-thousand?" Gillian said in shock, "that could take up half way to Sagittarius. Why haven't you given us this before?"

"I would have presented all information in my databanks if requested." L-1 said. "But forcefully attempting to access the information will result in my files becoming sealed."

Gillian looked down at her feet, L-1 was fully aware of their attempt to decode his files. "Look, I'm sorry for trying to force our way into your banks but we do need you."

The two blue pin pricks suddenly began to dart around the room while a faint buzz could be heard. Then, almost as soon as it started, it ceased. The android rose from it's seat, using it's left arm to grasp the cables attached to its head and yanked them out, and with his right, L-1 placed it's hand onto the screen in front, turning it blue with a detailed view of the systems ahead.

"Items required cannot be found from one single trader." L-1 informed them. "The USS Odyssey would not have the reputation in this sector to negotiate such a deal. However I have arrived at a shortcut. An old trader of the Cobaford government, the Oux, reported that a convoy of supply ships was attacked by an unknown hostile less than one year ago. The attack happened only one day away from our present location, all required parts can be found there."

"If this attack happened a year ago," Ensign Staan asked, "then how could the Cobaford even be aware of it if they have been in the VC centre for a millennia?"

"More importantly why haven't the Oux returned to the scene?" Asked Riley.

"The Legion series such as myself handles negotiation and trade to maintain the VCV station. In this role a Legion unit will collect information and parts for the Cobaford society. New information. New ideas. New thoughts to be shared." L-1 explained. "As for why the Oux never returned, I have analysed this situation for months and the most satisfactory explanation is an irrational fear on the part of the Oux."

"An 'irrational fear'?" Malcolm asked.

"The last distress signal sent out from the convoy described the attacker," L-1 said, "a large spheriod ship, weapons that could drain shields in mere seconds, ruthless soldiers with unnatural strength and the become virtually invincible after any offensive action the Oux made. This description was designated 'fearful' for organic life in my databanks." Out of the corner of his eye, Malcolm saw Riley take a step forward. From L-1's description, they all knew what the attacker was. The Borg...

"No," Malcolm said certainly, "we will find another location."

"There are no other viable location within a suitable range." L-1 said cocking it's head.

"Captain it might be weeks before we find another source of parts." Gillian began to argue but Malcolm simply began to exit the room. Pushing past Sam and Paul, they all heard Malcolm mumbling "we will find another location."

Before the captain reached the turbolift, he overheard the security and tactical officer, Lieutenant Connor Riley approached from behind. Malcolm made an effort to appear like he was not trying to avoid Riley but the two stood shoulder to shoulder when the turbolift door opened. Riley followed the captain inside and both said "bridge" aloud. "So what's you're tactical assessment of our situation?" Malcolm said after a moment of silence.

"Well with our full arsenal of photons and tricolbalt torpedoes we could do some decent damage to a Borg Cube but I cannot guarantee that we'd win," Riley said, "how are shields are now, if the generators continue to deteriorate, even on regenerative frequencies they wouldn't hold for long. Thankfully albative armour has been proven to be effective against Borg weapons but we will have to drop it to fire."

"It shouldn't matter because we are staying far away from that convoy," Malcolm said.

"Sir I need to point out that L-1 said scavenging from the convoy is our best chance to get the parts we need," Riley said and stopped himself short of raising his voice when Malcolm repeated that they would find another source, "and how long will that be? Days? Weeks? Months? What if we find what we need but it's incompatible to our technology? What if we do find it compatible but the a trader asks too much. We have a chance here and now."

Malcolm glance ahead for a second before speaking, the turbolift taking it's time he noticed, "you know I expected this from Jen or El, at least they are my first officer and wife, but I didn't expect this from you."

The door slid open and the two stepped onto the bridge, Malcolm followed Riley over to his station as the lieutenant still had more to say, "Well go ask her yourself, we need these parts, and I'm sure I'm not the only one here who thinks that we are smart enough and strong enough to beat the Borg if they are even there."

Many of the bridge officers had now turned around, some of them nodding in agreement, but Malcolm had a counter. "Have any of you seen the Borg?" Malcolm asked the room, many of them looked down, some shook their heads quietly. "Of course. Many of you would be too young to remember, and even if you were, you would never have seen the cube from Earth last time they came. But I must have been about eight years old. News had just came in from the Typhon sector that the armada had engaged the cube. My father told my mother that we'd been safe but the further the fleet was pushed back the more worried I saw him become." For a moment, Riley saw Malcolm pause, staring off into the distance before returning to his tale, "you know that the Earth never moves in the sky, it's static as if it were watching over us even during the long nights. The entirety of Apollo City was built as if it was reaching into the sky towards Earth. It was a comfort for me. But on that day, the evacuation sirens sounded, they had told us to get to the nearest shuttle as fast as we could but all I could think about was that I couldn't see Earth for the first time in my life. That blue marble had vanished, and in its place was this huge black cube surrounded by the destroyed remains of our starships," he raised his finger and began to nod, "of course the cube was destroyed, but it took one stray shot from the battle to puncture the atmospheric dome. If it wasn't for the containment shield the entire population would have suffocated, and if it wasn't for sheer luck all of us here today would not be."

The room remained silent for what seemed like a long while. Malcolm sat down in the captains chair, only the recognisable hum of the Odyssey could be heard.

"Captain," Riley said finally breaking the silence, "none has seen the Borg in twenty years, and they haven't seen us. Personally I doubt the Borg ship is still even there but if they are, we have twenty years jump on them."

Sparks flew out of the science console, singed Reka's stubby fingers. The screens went dark and Reka cursed under his breath. Malcolm and Gillian shared a look before the captain took a deep breath and nodded.

"Alright we do desperately need those parts anyway," Malcolm said and a general sense of satisfaction washed over the bridge. "Helm alter our heading, what would be our ETA?"

"Sir at our present speed we should reach the convoy in 21 hours."

"Okay good, inform the crew I want hourly battle drills, put us on yellow alert for now."

As Malcolm had expected, the following day was filled with random battledrills every hour. No one got that much sleep if any, but everyone was far too alerted for speed even if they could. Miller's team worked on modifying the phaser emitters so they would automatically switch to a random frequency after each shot. This same treatment was given to the hand-phasers and the rifles, soon every crewman was armed. An engineering team led by Ensign Staan worked with the security team to install dampeners across the ship which one modified had proven effective in disrupting the bond between the Borg nanobots in the past. Doctor Malcolm had mustered up all of her medical staff, even enlisting the help from Kaden and Lavivia, giving crash courses on Borg assimilation, and handing out trauma kits. Why they would need trauma kits she did not know, she thought, when the Borg are not known for leaving wounded. With preparations made, all was left was to wait.

They approached the last known coordinates of the convoy, the outline of their consoles, doors and corridors blinking red, Malcolm ordered the armour deployed. Black strips along the hull glowed blue as long featureless plates hugged the Odyssey's hull until the entire ship was covered in the armour. As the ship dropped into normal space, sure enough the convoy was there.

"Perform a sweep of the area, scan for Borg activity," Malcolm ordered. There must have been upwards of forty ships in this convoy, each one a varied form of an arrow strapped to cargo hulls and containers. Almost all of the convoy featured melted bulkheads, cracked hulls, and some even snapped in two. But there, floating in the centre of the shattered fleet, was a large black sphere. The massive ship was an almost a perfect sphere, but a mess of plates and greeblies covered it's hull. But what had been previously unobserved on Borg Spheres was a silver armour that crossed the equator and and the polar shapes, something the Borg must have improved upon in recent years of assimilation.

"Prepare a tricolbalt torpedo," Malcolm said as the red alert blazed and the bridge crew scrambled into position, "drop the armour on my mark and then raise it again immediately."

"Captain wait," Reka interjected, "I am not detecting any activity from the Borg ship."

"That's not unusual when dealing with them," Malcolm said firmly as he held his hand up, holding to give the signal to Riley.

"This is different," said Reka, "I am reading absolutely no activity. Energy readings, weapons arrays, shields, communications, absolutely nothing."

Malcolm saw it staring through the viewscreen. The sphere appeared cold, floating freely instead of the efficiency of the Borg, typical glowing elements were now dark. Malcolm stood from his chair and the approached the viewscreen, almost an arms length away from it and pointed out a small arrow shape docked within an empty opening of the sphere.

"There, you see that? On the southern hemisphere, is that a Oux ship?" Malcolm asked. Reka looked down at his console before nodding to his captain.

"The configuration of the ship matches the rest of the convoy, and I am detecting little to no Borg activity on the vessel." "Why would the Borg stop? Why wouldn't they assimilate it?" Malcolm asked before abruptly heading towards the turbolift doors. "Have Doctor Malcolm and Chief Miller meet me in Transporter Room One along with a security team."

Malenche handed a rifle over to his captain. He offered both Doctor Malcolm and Chief Miller, but Paul just glared at him.

"No I'm alright ensign," Ellie said before anything could happen between the two.

"Are you sure, doctor?" Malenche said still holding out the phase rifle. "If we encounter any drones on board, I cannot guarantee your safety."

"If we encounter any drones," Ellie said, "then I'll be better use without a rifle in my way. I need to be free to help treat my patients quickly and easily. I'll be fine with just a hand-phaser." Malenche nodded and then placed the rifle back into the locker just underneath the transporter console.

The ensign secured his own rifle in his arm, allowing it to lean against his right shoulder. They all stepped onto the transporter pads and Malcolm quickly assessed the away team.

"Remember, the Borg appear to be dormant for now  but any activity from them, if they attack, you fall back. Open fire on them only as a last resort, give them as little chance to adapt as possible."

They all nodded before their captain told the operator "energise."

"Captain there was quite a bit of interference coming from the Oux vessel," said the Operator, staring at the group through the head visor covering his left eye, "I can cut through it with the transporter beam but only the medical tricorder will be useful over there."

"Why only the medical version?" Malcolm asked as Ellie smiled when she saw the rest of the group return their tricorders to their pockets.

"That one focuses on biological samples," the operator said, "the others would be useless scanning anything electrical because of the interference from Oux technology." Malcolm nodded and the operator pushed forward to energise six of the transporter pads while the away team felt themselves dematerialise.

Malcolm, Ellie, Paul, Malenche and two officers in Starforge security found themselves in the bowels of the ship. Lights flickered on and off and the air was cold and thin, the distinct smell like burnt wood lingered. The corridor was much taller and thinner than they anticipated, whoever or whatever built these must have been atleast nine feet tall. There was a fork in the paths ahead of them. All huddled up, the group stood almost single file before Malcolm gestured down the left corridor.

"Split up," Malcolm said, "locate any parts you need, what we can't scavenge from here we will collect from the other cargopods."

Paul along with the two Starforge security approached the left corridor as Malcolm, Ellie and Malenche walked single file down the right. Malcolm took point, having Malenche sweep their rear flank as Ellie remained between the two, using the faint beeps of her medical tricorder to guide the way. Ellie was not much taller than her husband, in fact she was pretty much a head shorter than him so she could not see ahead past Malcolm's shoulders. But as they pressed on, she began to wonder if she even wanted to see what was in front. They approached another fork in the corridors and Malcolm continued to lean right again until Ellie's tricorder beeped loudly and quickly.

"Hang on," she said, "there is a faint lifesign ahead to the left."

"Can you identify?" Malcolm asked, but Ellie just shook her head, "could be Borg."

"It could also be Oux," Ellie interjected, "we have no idea what their physiology is like."

Conceding that what she had just said was true, the three shuffled back along the ever thinner corridors and continued to the left hand. They must have only walked like this for a couple of minutes, they approach a fork in the corridors and Ellie guided them through, still blinded behind Malcolm. But suddenly after the third fork, Malcolm halted. The air had become suddenly warm, the hum of equipment could now be heard and a faint green light blinked slowly. Ellie could not see the source as Malcolm remained rooted to the floor. Ellie squeezed past in the tight space between Malcolm's shoulder and the bulkhead and there say a tall, thin creature at the portal of a mess of wires and black devices.

She knelt down in front of the alien creature, at a guess she would say it was a member of the Oux species. It appeared to be bipedal, or at least capable of walking on two legs if it was conscious. Ellie lifted and held it's arm, the semi-transparent skin was cold, hugging tight around the bone as if there was little to no flesh. One quick scan revealed that the Oux would not have needed flesh as their bones were hollow, tangled in with veins and a series of complex packets capable of creating an isolated vacuum to provide moment for the Oux without muscles. Then she saw what must have killed it.

It's veins were black, almost like wires, tangled up and down it's long body, but to the side of its head the wires all collided together into an eye piece. It split through the skin like it was grown from the inside, but what technology grows? Definitely Borg technology.

"Rich what do you think?" Ellie asked and Malcolm knelt down over the head. He took hold of it and ran his fingers over scratches along it's skin and around the black box that stuck out of its face. He had never seen Borg assimilation technology up close but he knew that it did not cause damage to the victim. Borg tech fused fesh, skin and metal as if they were one and the same. The perfect bonding of the synthetic and organic. Malcolm moved over to its right arm, long and thin though it was, they supported three powerful fingers, it's long nails covered in dry silver blood. Following the veins along the arms and chest, he found that they all originated from two small bumps on the Oux's neck, injection points.

"The Borg infected it with their nanoprobes," he said pointing to the two bumps, "then he ran, but that didn't stop the assimilation process. Panicked and in pain, he started scratching at the devices growing inside of him, trying to rip them out. Doing that he did not see the Borg infecting his ship, he tripped and fell." Malcolm gestured to the tangle of wires and devices, the Oux still one foot in the Borg-ified part of the ship.

"Then he must have died from the shock and trauma," Ellie nodded, "I honestly cannot blame him."

"How'd you figure all that out?" Malenche asked in surprise.

"I was Head of Security on board the Shinwari before I transferred to command, intelligence gathering is kind of my thing," Malcolm said, "plus it's not that difficult to figure out that the Borg had something to do with it."

Malenche nodded, yet continued to hold his finger on the trigger despite the little threat the corpse posed. Malcolm tapped his left ear once and spoke aloud, "Miller report."

A voice came out in all of there ears, it was Paul's, "Yes Richa- Captain, we have managed to locate at least half of what we need, but the further we go the more erratic the environmental controls become."

"That would be the Borg," Malcolm said, "keep your distance away from the far eastern quadrant." Paul acknowledged and Malcolm returned to the corpse.

"Now this has been remarkably well persevered," Malcolm pointed out, "could this have been the lifesign you detected?"

Ellie opened her tricorder and shook her head, "No the signature is coming from down there." She pointed down the corridor, through the tangled mess of devices and wires, the blinking green light and a faint ominous hum.

"Then it must be a Borg." Malcolm stated.

"But it could still be a living Oux, trapped with the Borg," said Ellie, before Malcolm could even intervene, she was on her feet and already taking on step into the arch in the corridor that segmented the Oux built ship and the Borg taken mess, holding her tricorder in her left hand and hand-phaser in right.

"Don't bring me along if you are going to have me leave someone who might need my help," she whispered to herself.

The humid air immediately hit her in the face, in an attempt to keep herself cool, Ellie pushed her hair back and allowing a single stream of air out of the side of her mouth as she cautiously stepped over the devices and cables until the corridor floor became clear of any mess a few steps in. The corridors opened up so two men could walk abreast with still room for the walls to be lined with alcoves, these upright pods the Borg use to regenerate their drones. Ellie could hear Malcolm entering the area, knocking into crates and devices as he went, but Ellie's attention was still on the lifesign. She knelt down to one leg, the lifesign was just underneath a large blown off bulkhead. Slowly, Malcolm and Ellie grasped either end of the bulkhead, and on the count of three they lifted, quickly shuffling it along to the side and there was the source Ellie's tricorder was making a huge deal about.

It was a Borg drone, pale as paper and covered in implants.

"El, move away from it," Malcolm said, quickly coming to his feet and raising his phaser.

"Wait," Ellie assured him, while continuing to look back and forth from the tricorder to the drone. "He's human."

"It's not human anymore," Malcolm said sternly.

"The Borg implants are offline," noted Ellie, pointing to the arm prosthetic and eye piece. "It's safe." Ellie slid her tricorder shut and for a moment she thought she heard the drone breathe. Carefully, Ellie placed her hand on the drones chest and lent in closer. She could hear the distinct sound of it breathing over Malcolm calling her to move away. Suddenly the drones eyelids lifted, those pale eyes darting around the room before dropping onto Ellie. It's arm reached out and grabbed Ellie by the shoulder and forcefully pulled her closer.

"El!" Malcolm shouted as the drone pulled her closer, Ellie tried to pull away but it was too strong.

"Save me." It whispered no louder than a breath. "Save..." The end of a rifle suddenly attacked the drone, impacting eye piece knocking it out cold. Ellie frantically moved backwards, lent against the bulkhead.

"Are you okay?" Malcolm asked, "you need to tell me if you're okay." Ellie grabbed her tricorder and shoved the sensor into her own temple, running up and down her own neck scanning for any sign of nanoprobes. The results came back and she assured Malcolm that she was not infected by the Borg.

"What did it say?" Malcolm asked. "He said 'save me,'" Ellie said. "Specifically 'Me,' singular, he's thinking like an individual."

"Are you sure that it's safe?" Asked Riley as Ensign Staan adjusted the dampeners to focus around a single biobed as the nurses prepared equipment.

"The captain and the doctor have assured me that it'll be safe," Katie said, "it is the only living thing in the entire convoy, hopefully we can use it to see what exactly happened over there. All I have to do is focus the dampeners so the drone cannot wake up and assimilate us all."

"But do we have to bring it on board?" Riley asked uncertain of the current situation as Katie moved from one projector to the other.

"Weren't you the one confident that we'd be fine against the Borg, sir," Katie commented.

"I didn't mean bring one on board," Riley said sending her an unappreciative look, "there are stories of one Borg getting on board putting the entire ship in danger. I'm just looking out for the safety of the ship, and the ship will be safer with any Borg outside. There we can fight them, we have proven effective defences and weapons that can push them back, but in here I don't think so."

For a moment Katie stammered, unable to make a comment about what he just said before confirming that she had finished her work. Riley tapped his ear twice and told the transporter room that they were ready. Several beams of light appeared in the room, a wirl shone brightly as the Captain, Ensign Malenche, and Doctor Malcolm materialised in the room with the Borg drone now lying on the biobed. Ellie almost immediately went to work, with the nurses providing her with sanitary gloves and various pieces of equipment she needed to remove the Borg implants.

Malcolm remained back, sitting in Ellie's office in the corner of the medbay, viewing the operation from behind a pane of transparent aluminium. Once the minutes formed into hours, Malcolm began to glance around his wife's work place. Although they shared quarters together, Malcolm had intended for them to maintain a somewhat professional relationship during shifts, something he knew he failed at constantly but Malcolm realised that he had not paid attention to how Ellie might have dealt with this in her professional environment.

Starfleet regulations did not permit much personalisation in terms of uniform or work space, but over the past eight months he saw more and more of the crew combining their personal and professional lives together. Jewlery, slight alterations to uniforms and even photographs of loved ones they left behind in their work space. And as expected Ellie had done the same. The room still maintained the typical light grey Malcolm internally mocked Starfleet as their favourite colour with outlines and highlights with silver's and black. But as the room moved further from the door the more cosy the office became, with a wood oak desk and a large soft leather chair behind it.

To the left of desk sat a large dresser, each draw with an organised contents. Each one filled with padds, jewlery, ear-rings, hair clips, a brush, but most interestingly Malcolm found that Ellie had stored in the widest and deepest draw of them all, a large pile of paper-written notes. On top of the pile, facing upwards was a small padd with the single name "PAUL" in orange writing across its surface. These papers were about the size of a typical padd but from top to bottom they were covered in tiny scribblings and scruffy writing, small ink drawings littered the paper. There was enough papers here to fill four large folders, describing new ways to improve the replicator filtration system, the deflector dish to become more effective, ways to make the Quantum Warp drive more efficient to achieve even higher environmental settings to make the non-humanoid crewmen more comfortable.

At the very bottom there lay very early design sketches for a starship. Although the drawing was quick and brief, the floor plan was enough information so Malcolm could see how the extensive this starship would have accommodated for hundreds, if not thousands of unique species with different biomes, specialisations with a central atrium and several different bridges all working together as one, and at its heart was Paul's engine. There were Starfleet ships that did accommodate for non-humanoid lifeforms, of course, such as the Poseidon class, an entire series of ships dedicated for an aquatic crew, but for the most part ships were almost entirely one species. But this class would allow for countless numbers of species to work in harmony as if the environmental factors wasn't even an issue.

In small letters at the top of the paper wrote "USS Odyssey- A Federation Starship for the Future." Is this what Paul had originally planned for the Odyssey? Malcolm knew that Admiral Galeb had his fingers in the project and the tensions with the Romulans had redirected priorities, but he had no idea the final ship was THAT far from the original plan.

The captain tapped his left ear twice to open up a channel to Paul to ask him about this, but when his voice responded overthe comm, Malcolm found himself rethinking if Paul would like him to talk about it. After all, Paul has never been the most open person in the galaxy and he clearly just shared these thoughts of his with Ellie and no one else, so he might not appreciate Malcolm going through his notes like that.

"Have you finished collecting the parts from the convoy yet, Paul?" Malcolm quickly thought could be a reasonable question to ask.

"Yes we have found- we have located all the parts we needed and enough spares to supply us for at least another year," Paul said over the comm.

"That's good work, Paul," Malcolm responded, "transport aboard once you've finished loading the parts and supplies so we can get underway."

The comm line closed and Malcolm once again stepped towards the transparent screen that looked over the operation. Ellie had just removed the eye piece, the prosthetic arm and some of the smaller implants that once littered the drones body. Ellie then turned to the window and gestured for Malcolm to come back into sickbay. They were ready to speak to the drone.

As Malcolm entered the room, the drone slowly raised to a sitting position, causing Malcolm the halt his pace. For a moment, he saw Ellie stare at him and flinch, at first confused then Malcolm realised he was standing in the same spot Nurse Cruford died on, the ceiling bulkhead only just recently been replaced.

"Where am I?" The drone said to everyone's surprise.

After a moment of silence, Malcolm finally answered, "You're on board the United Federation Starship Odyssey, NX-208805."

"Federation? You are all human like me?" The drone asked before rubbing his forehead with the only organic hand he had left. "It's so quiet now."

"Yes you were assimilated into the Borg Collective but something happened on the Oux ship that separated you from the hive mind," Ellie tried to make sound reassuring, "can you remember what happened?"

"No, all I can remember is fragments, emotions, it was so crowded then and so silent and cold now," the drone explained, "I'm sorry."

"That's alright," Ellie said, "do you have a name? Any family?"

"It's difficult to remember now," the drone said but after many moments and attempts to speak he finally remembered, "Nicolas, yes it's coming back to me now, I believe my name was Nicolas Cruford," Malcolm and Ellie shared a look as the drone chuckled, "I had a brother who wanted to join Starfleet, he was only six when my cargo ship was attacked. You must be the captain, what is the current stardate?"

"52082.1," Malcolm said carefully.

"August 2400," Nicolas said, "nearly twenty years. He must be a man by now, perhaps you knew him, Gregory Cruford?" Ellie looked down at her shoes and Nicolas began to get anxious when no one answered him, Malcolm even glanced back to the spot he once stood.

"Lieutenant Gregory Cruford served on board this ship under Doctor Malcolm here for eight months as one of our finest medical staff," said Malcolm solumely.

"What happened? Where is he now?" Asked Nicolas, his smile was slowly disappearing.

"He was killed in action nearly three weeks ago." Malcolm told him. Nicolas rubbed his forehead before gasping the stump that was once his Borg prosthetic arm and making a quiet low moan. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, Captain, I'm fine, it is just alot to take in," Nicolas said, "I was part of the Borg not long ago and now you're telling me after 20 years I missed my brother by weeks. Yes I would like to rest of you don't mind."

They all nodded and left him to lay back down on the biobed as Malcolm and Ellie began to whisper amongst each other. "Greg never told me he had a brother who was assimilated into the Borg," Ellie commented.

"He was young when it happened, I'm sure he just didn't want to bring back those memories," Malcolm said, "plus it is not exactly the best thing you would want to advertise in friendly conversation."

"I scanned distinct Oux DNA on Nicolas from the body we found, I would like to bring it on board," Ellie suggested, "I have a feeling whatever happened to him that's where I'd find the answers."

Malcolm nodded. "Well whatever he may say now, he's still a threat."

"I will have Malenche posted here on watch," Ridley said, "at the first sign of trouble he will be taken out."

Uneasy about remaining this close to a Borg Sphere, dormant or not, so as the last of the supplies were being secured, the Odyssey engaged at low Quantum Velocity. Hours past and the crew was finally able to rest despite the alert still sounding yellow. Ellie slept in her office as they kept Nicolas under suvalience and sedation. Leaving the refresher after a long night, Ellie could feel the ship shake as they passed back into normal space. Almost as soon as the door slid to a close, Ellie almost fell to her knees.

Past the insignificant shake from the engines, the corridor twisted and turned, the entire ship seemed to spin around but none of the passing offices noticed. Ellie crossed the corridor as her vision faded in and out, and she stumbled from one side to another. The sides of the bulkheads refused to focus as a tall figure stood in front of a shining light at the end of the corridor.

Pale skin and rugged hair, the figures white uniform stained with crimson red blood gushing out of a large gash right down his chest. It was nurse Cruford.

Ellie tried to call out but simply could not find the words. The shadowy figure turned and began at a furious pace down the corridor, compelling Ellie to follow behind. They walked through the passageways crisscrossing the ships layout, Ellie did not know if the corridors were deserted or she simply didn't notice as they passed by but either way Ellie's entire attention was locked on Cruford.

The figure increased its pace to almost a dash, running until finally passing right through the wide glass doors of sickbay as if they were open. Ellie crashed through the doors just as they slid apart to allow her in and the weight over here suddenly lifted.

"Are you alright commander?" Asked the nurse on duty in the medical bay.

"Yes I'm fine," she said glancing from bulkhead to bulkhead in confusion. "Calahad you can go off duty if you want. I will take over if you want."

The nurse nodded and quickly packed away her equipment. Ellie looked behind herself and saw Malenche stood in the corner, rifle in hand and leaning up against the wall as now the nurse left the room. Moving closer to the sedated Nicolas, Ellie felt the weight drop back over her. Almost collapsing over a tray, to the ignorance of Malenche being distracted by the sudden blazing red alert and that the drone now sat upright despite the sedation.

"Where did it come from?" Malcolm asked impatiently as the bridge scrambled to position.

"Unknown sir," Reece reported, "they must have followed us from the convoy with a transwarp conduit." The doors to the turbolift slid open and a panicked Riley ran over to the tactical station a few feet to the rear left of Malcolm's chair.

"What's going on?" He called out.

"We have a single Borg Sphere that matches the one we found in the convoy approaching at high warp," Malcolm said catching up to speed. A feeling of dread washed over Riley as he realised this could be his fault. He was the one who insisted they went to the convoy. "Helm can we outrun them?"

"Negative sir, the Sphere's velocity already exceeds our maximum factor and still rising."

"Load two tricolbalt mines," Malcolm ordered, "we might not be able to outrun them but we can at least fight back." Riley worked at his console before nodding to the captain to signal that they were ready. "Fire."

Two bright blue objects shot out from the Odyssey's rear launcher, soaring through subspace for a couple of minutes before detonating directly in front of sphere. The large ship disappeared behind the blinding light from the mines, sensors were thrown off for seconds but just as a sigh of relief could be heard on the bridge, the Borg Sphere simply passed right through. The explosion would have created massive subspace disturbances that should have shattered the Borg's warp field. But it had no effect. Malcolm realised that the Borg must be after the drone in sickbay, scrambled to the comm line and gave the order. Malenche's voice came through on the other end. "Captain, we have a serious problem."

Malenche told the captain what had happened. The red alert sounded and then suddenly Nicolas had risen to his feet. He had been sedated and therefore shouldn't have been able to wake up but there is stood. Malenche said he charged his rifle and ordered him to get back on the biobed but Nicolas did not respond. Without even blinking, Nicolas quickly stepped towards Malenche, forcing him to open fire. The powerful bright red stream impacted the drones chest, or at least it was supposed to. The beam dissipated inches from it's chest, blocked by a green wall that hugged it's skin. Nicolas halted all the same.

Panicking, Malenche shouted down at him as he stood just outside the dampening field but suddenly he felt an unnaturally strong force impact his temple, knocking him to the ground. Malenche looked back up and there stood Ellie, cold and uncomfortably still, holding the book end of a large hypospray, now small tight Borg implant splitting out of her skin around her eyes, ears and cheek. Before either Nicolas or Ellie could move, Malenche dashed for it, almost slamming into the glass doors and punching the small keypad to seal the room as he held in the corridor.

Hearing this, Malcolm remained silent, staring down the corridor where the glass doors stood sealed. Through the transparency, he could see shapes and figures move within sickbay. "I'm sorry I wish I could have done more," Malenche said as he finish his tale.

"You couldn't have done any more," Jennifer assured him, "getting out of there when you did  was the best decision you could have made." She glanced over at the captain who was still leaning against the bulkhead remaining silent, all he did was nod before voices came down the corridor.

"What's happening?" Paul said walking at an incredible pace, "What's going on?" Malcolm, for the first time since hearing Malenche's report, pushed himself off the bulkhead and placed his hands in the way of Paul's path.

"You should be at your station, we are at red alert," Malcolm said.

"Marteez is looking after everything for me," Paul explained, "Where is Ellie? I heard something was wrong." Paul still tried to move past Malcolm but he grasped his arm, preventing him from moving much further than arms length. But he could still see down the corridor. Behind the two transparent doors, the figure of Ellie had walked up to the glass, staring out before returning to whatever they were doing, the implants now much larger and almost completely enveloping her left eye. Paul took a step back and slowly turned to Malcolm.

"I will fix this," Malcolm told him, "we still have time before the sphere is in range, I promise I will keep your sister safe." Paul stared at Malcolm for a moment, a mixture of shock, anger and sadness in his eyes, before slowly moving back behind his captain again. Malcolm turned to Malenche and Jennifer and spoke quietly as Paul walked away, "set up a perimeter, find a way to save them, I'll be on the bridge."

Images flashed before Ellie's eyes. She felt trapped, unable to move yet her limbs moved for her. Ellie could feel the nanoprobes building and twisting inside her and she could not scream out in pain, as she was forced to reattach the implants to Nicolas' drone body. Thoughts and feelings became more and more erratic and distant, if she forced herself she could retain memories, even drift in and out of some.

Voices began to flood her mind, overwhelming her as the sickbay around her drained of all colour and contrast. Soon she found herself surrounded with a void in her mind.

"Why do you resist?" The voice echoed in the void, "resistance is futile." Slowly a figure emerged, at first she though it was Nurse Curford but then she saw blue eyes instead of his once brown, the figure was much taller than the nurse but maintained the same frame and chin line.

"Nicolas?" She asked, assuming this was him just without all of the implants and disfigurement the Borg had done to him. Although he did not look like a Borg, he still stood and spoke with the same cold efficiency. Ellie ran her fingers over her eyes and felt no implants either, coming to the conclusion that none of this was real.

"Nicolas is an irrelevant designation," he said, "this unit's designation is Two of Seven. You will not fail to answer our query, why do you resist?"

"The fact that you asked that shows that you'd never understand why," Ellie said glancing around at the void around her, "how is this even possible?"

Nicolas stood there perfectly still, a posture that would break the back of any normal man, eyes were darting from side to side before resting on the space to Ellie's left. A room emerged from the darkness, it was a cell, Ellie saw herself strapped to a chair with the Romulan General L'Rol standing over her. A year ago, Ellie was captured by the Romulans during the war, for weeks L'Rol had her hooked into a mental probe. Physiological warfare for his own ends, L'Rol intended her to help him decrypt the Sagittarius signal and later the destruction of the Odyssey. The pain and anguish came flooding back.

"You resisted then, you resisted now," Nicolas said, "weeks your mind was assaulted, you must have developed a defence against it, and so my attempts would pale in comparison. More forceful methods are required." A wave of pain washed over Ellie, like an unbareable weight was pressing on her shoulders as she fell to her knees. Memories she did not recognise flashed once again before her ideas, then she realised, they were Nicolas'.

"You just said 'my attempts'," Ellie realised, pulling herself up as the initial pain subsided, "just like you did on the Oux ship. That does not sound like a Borg."

"This unit lacked the power to assimilate a whole ship from the transport," Nicolas justified, "a strategy was devised to gain access to your ship. I exploited humanity's known affection for assisting the weak and powerless."

"There, you did it again, 'I'," Ellie pointed out, Nicolas had now become defensive at her comments, "What happened to you?"

"This unit is defective," Nicolas said, "it will be rectified once we reunite with the Collective." But his mind was now open to Ellie, to her right, the corridor on board the Oux transport, where the Borg had taken over, formed from the darkness. A figurement of Two of Seven attacked a fleeing Oux, holding him steady and injecting it with nanoprobes. Almost as soon as the tubes made contact, the drone froze in place, as if an electric current was passing through him and was grounded into the floor. Ellie felt very pleased with herself and smiled.

"The Oux have a very unusual nervous system," she said triumphantly, "instead of electronic shock through nerve cells to muscles, they send subspace disturbance into many micropackets of air to create a vacuum. So when you attempted to assimilate them, it compromised your organic components and starving your mechanical. The new subspace disturbance spread to the entire sphere, didn't it? That's why the Sphere was shut down." Ellie rose to her feet and Nicolas took one step back, "you needed to get a drone away from the interference, send a signal back to the Sphere so they can update the software, reactivate." Without another word, Nicolas disappeared into the black. The feeling of triumph slowly vanished within Ellie as she felt the darkness slowly kept in.

Captain Malcolm sat silently staring out of the window behind his desk. From the view of his ready room, he could look over the sprawling hull of the Odyssey, the impulse engines glowing the distance, the two large squared nacelles tailing off into the distance as the stars zipped by at furious speeds. The stars all converged where the great black Sphere slowly approached. Standing behind Malcolm's chair was his first officer Miss Gillian, Ensign Malenche and Leuitenant Riley, all standing as Malcolm read the padd they had handed to him. The plan Malenche had suggested involved using the structural integrity forcefields and bulkheads to create a path from the sickbay to the nearest airlock, flushing them both out into space. "No," Malcolm said bluntly.

"Captain, I don't like it either but the Sphere is tracing them," Gillian justified. "It's not going to happen," Malcolm responded and Gillian backed down,

"I told you to find a way to save Ellie not kill her."

Malenche stepped up despite this and asked his captain for permission to speak freely. Malcolm nodded. "Earlier you told me that if that drone made any wrong moved I was to kill it. Put the safety of the ship over its life. But why now are you putting the entire ship in danger for them?"

"The drone has El," Malcolm explained, "our priority is to protect our crew from the Borg. All of our crew, and that includes Doctor Malcolm."

"Doctor Malcolm is a drone now!" Malenche shouted in frustration before lowering his voice again, "whoever it is now, that drone is not the woman you married anymore. The Borg would not hesitate to assimilate us all if we for one moment attempted to humanize them."

To both Jennifer's and Riley's surprise, their captain did not raise his voice. Maintaining a calm and quiet voice, he addressed the ensigns comments but there was still a subconscious frustration the two could hear. "You're right, Ensign, the Borg would never humanize us," he said, "but if we don't even try to save our own from them then how can we call ourselves better? I don't believe I would ever forgive myself if I atleast didn't try."

"With all due respect captain, I believe you are placing your personal feelings ahead of the ship," Malenche said, "if it was anyone else I don't think you would be doing the same."

"Alright ensign, I have heard your case, you are dismissed. Leuitenant what do you suggest?" Malcolm said addressing his head of security and tactical officer as Ensign Malenche left the room.

"Well the Sphere would be in weapons range within the hour, and they will relentlessly case us as long as the drone is in range, who have appeared to have transformed a medical scanner into a long range transmitter," Riley said, "so it seems that our only choice is to fight or to kill the drones, both of them. Sever this ships connection to the Collective."

Malcolm nodded slowly. "Then we fight." He said. Jennifer and Riley glanced over at each before returning to their captain in shock. "What was it that you said, lieutenant? We are smart enough and strong enough to fight and win if we have to."

"Captain the Borg took those tricolbalt mines like they were nothing, they should have knocked them out from warp but they had no effect." Riley explained.

"Have security teams on every deck and evacuate non-essential personell to deck 2, set up a level ten forcefield there to be safe." Malcolm listed off several orders and Jennifer took a note of them, it was difficult to catch all of it as he spoke far too quickly before ending on something that concerned her, "I will lead the defensive line around sickbay. If we are boarded, that's where they will head there first."

"Richard, with the armour deployed the bridge will be the safest place to be, you'd be vulnerable down there." Jennifer said.

"I know, but Ellie is in grave danger and it's my responsibility to protect her," Malcolm said, he rose to his feet and started to the door, "besides, I have my first officer in charge while I'm gone." Jennifer gave him a sad smile and Malcolm gestured for Riley to come with him.

Malcolm opened the small weapons locker located to the rear of the bridge. From it he pulled two standard phaser rifles and set each one to a rotating frequency. Malcolm handed the second rifle to Riley who took it cautiously and they both stepped into the turbolift.

"Alright," Malcolm let a quick breath out, Jennifer had just taken her place on the captains chair and Malcolm wondered if it would be the last time he ever saw that chair. Before he could finish wondering, Malcolm forced himself to give the order, "Deploy armour."

The lights dimmed and the entire bridge in front of him was bathed in the red blinking lights of the alert. A deep rumble could be heard overhead, no doubt the generators were glowing blue and plates of armour materialised over the hull of the ship. Soon the door frame of the turbolift shone the same blue as three large grey plates of armour overlapped each other before sealing the entrance to the bridge. The noises of work stations and the blaze of the alarm was silenced. Malcolm turned from the doorway and stood along side Riley in the turbolift.

"Deck Nine," he spoke in a loud clear voice.

"Warning," came a reply from the computer, "this turbolift cannot return to the bridge, whilst molecular armour is deployed, once departed. According to security protocol 13-J."

"Understood," Malcolm said and the wirl of the turbolift could be heard around them. The two officers stood there in silence for about half a minute before Malcolm realised that Riley was shaking. He glanced up at Riley's face and saw that his eyes were too closed as if in a panic.

"This is my fault, I'm sorry," Riley said quietly.

"What? What is your fault?" Malcolm asked but he felt he already knew the answer.

"This whole situation," he said, "I just wanted to get the supplies we needed, I never intended any of this to happen."

Malcolm remained silent for a few moments before turning to his tactical officer, "That doesn't matter anymore, you're afraid, aren't you?" Malcolm said, Riley nodded, "good, because look at me I'm terrified. Malenche is right, I'm not thinking straight, I'm being emotional. All I know is that El is in trouble and if we don't stop the Borg, then who will? We all chose to be here on this mission to stop the Sagittarius signal from hurting our home, this is the same situation. Because if the scared and frightened don't stand up to beings like the Borg or whoever is in Sagittarius, then no one will. And when people like us make a stand, we become the brave ones and we make them afraid, buddy. So, will you help me?" Malcolm asked, holding out his hand. Riley looked at his captain for a moment before taking hold and smiling.

"There is still a delay of  1.7 seconds between dropping the armour, and weapons and shields becoming available," Charlie Marteez called out, handing a padd to the panicking engineers, "Miller wants that down to less than a second, come on people."

In Paul's absence, Charlie was placed in charge, Katie Staan knew that but she had been on the lookout for Miller as the red alert continued to blaze. She had come to expect this disappearing act Paul sometimes pulled but never there was work to be done and certainly not in a crisis. Katie asked around and eventually got Sam to tell her that she saw Paul enter one of the engineering labs before the final alert sounded  It was not unusual for him to be found in one of the labs, the drive he invented and the four of them, Paul, Katie, Charlie and Sam, worked to stabilise over a year ago. But after looking through each one of them, she found that they were all empty, even his drive room was devoid of people, but she did find was that one of the labs was locked. Glancing up at the door and the label that marked it as "software security and analysis." Katie found that her access code was denied, so with a small jank, the door padd detached from the bulkhead. After a couple of second of fiddling with the wiring, the door slid open on itself.

The lab was a small room, each of the four corners were rounded to almost to a cylindrical  curve. In the centre of the room there built up one single console with Paul standing behind it. He took one glance up to Katie and shook his head.

"You should be at your station, we are at red alert," he said.

"So should you be, right?" Katie said giving him a quiet smile.

"I put Charlie in charge," said Paul.

"That might be fine when is just getting off duty for our fencing lessons but not when we have the Borg baring down on us, you know that," said Katie but she could see Paul attempting to avoid eye contact with her, "is this about what's happened to your sister?"

Katie shuffled around and followed Paul's eyeline down to the console. Across the screen was an analysis of an inference software comparison with his own custom made software.

"Paul, what's this?" Katie asked as Paul moved around the console awkwardly.

"The Borg stopped when attacking the Oux transport," Paul said under his breath, barely audible so Katie had to move forward to hear, "but not only that, they shut down. I'm guessing that it must have something to do with the frequency of the subspace disturbance Ellie told me about, it's the Oux equivalent to a nerve system."

"Okay but what does that have to do with this?" Asked Katie.

"I think I can replicate it," said Paul, finally raising his head to make eye contact. To Katie's surprise, Paul was tapping his middle and forefingers against the side of the metal console frame, and there was a slight confident smirk he only ever saw him make once he beat her at fencing, or whenever he was hanging out with Charlie. "Just a more limited version, of course, but hopefully enough to free Ellie from them. The Collective shouldn't be able to trace her then."

"Paul that's brilliant," Katie said widening her eyes, "but what about the drone? Nick, was his name?" Paul dropped his head again, shuffling back around to the console tapping an orange circle on its screen. A small device materialised on top of the central stand, Paul took it and inserted it into his jacket pocket. "Paul, what about him?"

Paul sighed. "I need the Borg to find one of them. I need them to find what they are tracing and hopefully they will leave Ellie alone."

"You're going to sacrifice him?" Said Katie. The room shaked and rumbled. Katie glanced up to the ceiling and quickly made for the door. "The Borg, they must have caught up with us," she said.

Katie halted when she saw that Paul had not moved from the console.

"I have to help her." He said, there was a sort of sad sincerity in his voice. Katie thought for a moment before finally coming through for him.

"Alright what do you need?"

"I need you to reconfigure a site-to-site transport so the bridge can't trace it," Paul said. The room shaked once again.

Great green blasts came soaring out of the Sphere and impacted the Odyssey's rear engines. These were the energy dampening weapons the Borg utilised to drain shields of opposing ships. To little effect against the Odyssey's armour. Jennifer ordered them to return fire, the armour dropped, and in a flurry of red and orange light, they unloaded their full arsenal of phasers. An array of explosions crossed the Sphere's surface. The wave of relief that washed over the bridge was soon drained as the Sphere continued with no damage taken from the barrage.

The only advantage Jennifer Gillian felt they had was their armour, which was raised up again, but even that did not take long for the Borg to adapt to it. The officers on the bridge lurched forward as a tractor beam took hold of them. Cutting beams carved into the armour as the tractor beam crushed the hull around the engines, forcing the Odyssey to fall out of warp. The Borg followed them. Holding the Odyssey still as they boarded the ship at deck nine.

At least ten security officers surrounded the three corridors leading to sickbay. Riley held the left and right corridors with three officers each, however Malcolm had set up barricades down the centre corridor, pulling off bulkheads and four officers standing behind him. To his surprise, he heard a familiar voice call for him from behind their lines. It was a short, stocky built man, grey skin and lined with scales. He was holding a phaser rifle very awkwardly as if he had never held one in his life, and he sat down next to the captain. "

Kaden you should be on deck 2, it's not safe for you here," Malcolm said. Another rumble came from the bulkheads around him.

"Lavivia said the same thing," said Kaden, "but I owe this to you."

"Excuse me?" Malcolm asked in surprise.

"When the war started, you could have kept me in the dark. I was your prisoner. But you didn't," said Kaden, "you let me contact my family, probably even saved her life. So I want to do the same for you." Malcolm smiled and thanked him. "What are friends for, hey?" Said Kaden before a shout came from behind calling 'transporter signal detected!'

Malcolm and Kaden both readied their weapons from behind the bulkheads. Down the dark corridor, three green energy pillars appeared, and walking at a furious pace, the drones marched towards them. Malcolm squeezed the trigger and two long red bolts leaped from the rifle and slammed into the drones chests. With sparks flying off the Borg, they fell to the ground. Seconds later, two more drones appeared from green pillars of light. Once again, Malcolm squeezed the trigger, this time joined by Kaden.

But when the phaser streams hit drones chests, they dissipated inches from it behind a wall of green. Malcolm quickly came to his feet, backing up but still maintaining the fixed aim of his rifle on the drones. He glanced towards two signal dampeners they had set up and gestured for Kaden to follow him back. "Ready to activate!"

Malcolm shouted to the ensign behind him. The drones continued to march forward, stepping over the barricade and the dampeners wirled to life as the captain shouted "now!" The blinking lights of the Borg implants shut down, and with a clang the drones hit the floor. A sound of phaser fire could be heard from the other two corridors, Malcolm spun round but unable to see round the corner, he could only identify the red lights coming from the phasers. Before he could even think, more green pillars shone from behind the barricade and three more drones marched from it.

Then immediately following that, the lights from the downed drones lit up again and they rose to their feet.

"We need more security around sickbay!" Malcolm shouted into his comm, quickly tapping his ear twice, as now eight drones began their march to their defensive line. Malcolm pressed the setting button on the small screen of the phaser rifle, setting it to the strongest frequency. The brightest bolt of red and white zoomed through the air and impacted a Borg drone, dissapearing behind a green energy wall. Squeezing the trigger and holding it resulted in a long stream pulsating against the Borg's shield. Tens of seconds Malcolm held the stream for as the drone slowly edged towards him. Eventually the phaser energy broke through the shield and the drone flew back through the air to the bulkhead. Glancing around, Malcolm looked back to Kaden who had resorted to using the butt of the rifle as a club, knocking the drones backwards. They were both pulled back as an ensign tossed a small ballistic explosive into the crowd of drones, knocking them all back in a blast of heat and shrapnel.

Katie had done what Paul had asked, after pulling a few favours, they had managed to reconfigure a site-to-site transporter than would not set off the bridge's sensors. This being done, Paul materialised in Ellie's office. The room was warm and dark, as the Borg must have tapped into the environmental systems to make it perfect for them. A green light shadowed what was once a bright clean room. The diagnostic table had been completely transformed, large sharp black pieces of metal reaching upwards as the entire structure projected a very organic humming noise, reminding Paul that of a frog's croaks.

Paul removed the device from his jacket pocket and it blinked to life in his hand. He was ready. Paul tapped the release button for the door and the man that was once Nicolas turned immediately to the doorway. Paul had hoped that he could do this quietly without attracting their attention but now he could see that the drone was unrelenting. Marching across sickbay towards him, Paul quickly put his hands forward and shouted, "Wait!" To Paul's surprise, the drone suddenly halted, staring blankly at him almost twitching in a way like something was holding him back.

He glanced to his right and saw Ellie standing there frozen looking unnaturally pale and rigid. Almost immediately after Paul took a step towards Ellie, the drone forced a step forward. A single step. Paul retreated back behind the door of the office. In panic, Paul quickly began to talk aloud.

"Your name was Nicolas, wasn't it?" Paul did not know what he was attempting to do. Appeal to his humanity? Probably wouldn't work for a Borg. Buying time? "I suppose the Borg has given you a designation. But listen please. I know that you feel a need to return to the Collective, and I can understand that, twenty years being so connected to so many and then you are one again. Believe me I understand. Up until a year ago I felt completely alone and now I would not give up this for the world. But before that, you know what helped me through all those years before anyone else? Ellie Miller did, my sister." Paul pressed his head against the door as he spoke now, "so I understand you want to return to the Collective, you're not wrong about wanting to be a part of something again. But please if there is anything left of humanity in you, you have to understand why I can't let you take her."

"Why have you stopped me?" Asked Nicolas reappearing from the darkness inside Ellie's mind.

Ellie smiled. "There you are again." Ellie had heard everything Paul was saying. For a moment his voice had pulled her back into her own eyes again.

Nicolas closed his eyes, almost in frustration. "Why are you stopping us?" He repeated.

"Do you know who he is?"

"He is irrelevant once we rejoin the Collective," Nicolas said, "whoever he is, he should be happy you will join us, you will all join us."

"Paul Miller," said Ellie, "before you shown me of a memory from a year ago, but go further forward from there and see what you find." Nicolas froze, his eyes spinning very fast until finally resting to Ellie's left. The interior of a shuttle craft emerged from the darkness. Paul formed kneeling in front of a rigid and silent Ellie holding a small cylindrical detonator. A week after the Romulan General L'Rol had brainwashed her, and the Odyssey had come to rescue her, the general had influenced Ellie in attempt to destroy the ship. But Paul had pulled her through it. The memory echoed throughout the blackness.

"You remember what you said to me?" The memory of Paul said, "You said you would never let anything hurt me, and if you've forgotten about that, then go right ahead." The figments vanished again.

"Do you understand yet?" Ellie asked. "You think that because you keep referring to yourself as an individual as a problem, it's not. The Collective is not the only way to be strong. When individuals are together, we are capable of incredible selfless sacrifice for each other and it's that connection to those we are separated from is what makes us strong. If we all though the same- all acted the same- then we, as a collective, become stagnant and incapable of improvement." Nicolas attempted to move away. Ellie took a step forward and grasped his arm. "Do you want to see how your brother died?" She asked. For the first time that she had seen Nicolas in her minds eye that she felt that she had genuinely saw him. Nicolas slowly turned and nodded quietly.

A large hall formed around them, they were in sickbay. Sparks was falling around them as they watched the past conflict with the USS Rodney. Wounded were being wheeled into sickbay, and doctors and nurses remained at their posts doing their duty. The figment of Ellie's past stood in the centre of the room, preparing several hyposprays and calling out orders. Suddenly, fire began to fall from above the figure as the memory of Cruford leaped in the way, knocking her out of the fall of the debris. Ellie shut her eyes tight when she heard the shard of bulkhead impact Cruford. Reluctantly she opened her eyes and saw Nicolas stood there watching his own blood brother dropping cold. "You are not alone, you know?" Ellie said quietly.

Ellie attempted to reach towards Nicolas before they were all engulfed in a high-pitched sound. Ellie clapped her hands over her ears but it was impossible to drown it out. She felt that it may have been Nicolas but he too could feel the pain too. Nicolas faded into the darkness and Ellie was pulled back into her own eyes.

Paul had used these few moments of distraction. He attached the device to one of the implant ports across Ellie's face. Paul dragged Ellie's body through the door of the office. Sliding the door shut, Paul propped Ellie up against the bulkhead as he watched through the screen of transparent aluminium. The glass doors opened and a single drone stepped in. The fighting outside in the corridor still dragged on but Paul guess that one must have slipped Malcolm's defensive line. The Borg scanned the room before resting on Nicolas, frozen and still twitching in the centre of the room. One glance, one tap of the drones arm, and the two disappeared into a green pillars.

Malcolm scrambled to his feet. The Borg continuing to advance, having quickly adapted to every frequency he could throw at them, Malcolm had now resorted to using the rifle as a club to knock them out of the way. Wack. Malcolm's rifle impacted an the lower right side of the drones head. Wack. Another right to the throat. But the third never landed. The Borg caught the end of Malcolm's rifle, crushed it and threw it right to one side. Malcolm backed right up, leaning right to the bulk head he had no where else to go.

The drone advanced, arm outstretched and all of Malcolm's fears of the Borg since that day he saw the Borg Cube block out the Earth from the surface of Apollo City came flooding back to him. They engage the Borg: they adapt and become stronger. They retreat: they adapt and become stronger. They are assimilated: they adapt and become stronger. But as the Borg reached out, it suddenly stopped.

All of them did. Frozen in their place before it slowly retracted it's arm. The drone stared at Malcolm, the seconds felt like hours looking down those cold eyes, and then they simply vanished. Vanished into green light. Malcolm tapped his left ear feeling as if he was unable to breathe.

"Malcolm to bridge, report."

"Captain the Sphere has disengaged it's tractor beam and is pulling away," Jennifer Gillians voice came over the comm.

"But why would they stop?-" then it hit him, they were only tracing Ellie and Nicolas. Glancing towards the sickbay, he saw the glass doors open. One drone must have slipped by. Malcolm dashed through the doors, scanning the room with his eyes. He ignored the heat or humidity as he began to panic, he could not find Ellie. Malcolm shouted her name.

He felt Kaden follow him in. Malcolm moved through the wires and heat and still no sign of Ellie. Then he realised, there was one part he did not check, the office! Malcolm darted across the room and almost punched the door release. The doors slid open and there was Paul and Ellie sitting up against the bulkhead. Safe.

For the second time that day Malcolm found himself sitting quietly staring out of the window behind his desk in the ready room. The Borg might have left but the damage they inflicted on the crew and the ship could still be felt. Paul regretted to report that it would take at least three days to repair the warp engines working round the clock and pulling double duty. In the meantime Leuitenant Marteez had set about getting the armour back online but for now he had no luck. The electronic ring of the door chimed. Malcolm spun his chair round back to the desk slowly but still keeping his eyes out the window when he said, "come in."

Jennifer stepped inside, holding a padd. Her face and voice sounded like there was a forced calm in it when she spoke. "Full damage report for you Captain," she said, placing the padd on the desk, "we have a bull breach on deck fifteen but Miller says he will send a team to repair it before the end of the day, it's the armour that's the problem, it wasn't designed to crumple and it'll take along time before we can restore the plates, and whatever the Borg did has compromised the structural integrity of the starboard pylon so no high warp speeds for at least a week." Jennifer attempted a smile but it did not convince Malcolm very much. "Most of the damage can be repaired with the supplies we have onboard, luckily. You don't blame Miller for what happened to Nicolas, do you? He had no other choice."

"It wasn't Starfleet, that's for sure," Malcolm said quietly, "he sacrificed an innocent man to a lifetime trapped in the Collective to save someone he was personally close to, Starfleet would have found another way, but hell, we are Public Enemy number one according to Starfleet anyway. But no I don't blame him, because it's exactly what I would have done."

"How's she doing anyway?"

"El? She started stirring about an hour ago, Nurse Calahad has removed the implants, they didn't get to full assimilation so she'd be strong again in a few days."

Malcolm though that was all but Jennifer stayed with one more question, "Richard, is there something else bothering you?" She must have noticed the look on his face that now Malcolm had become very subconscious of and he turned to the window again.

"Twenty years we've had to develop Borg-killing weapons," he said, "this isn't Wolf 359, every ship we build now have got the Borg in mind as a threat. Frequency modulators, nonoprobe dampeners, molecular armour. But when it came down to it, it was all for nothing. We threw everything at them, and we were so little a threat to them that they just left once they completed their goal."

"If that's now strong a Sphere is, I dread to think what would happen if we encounter a Cube."

"Yeah," Malcolm agreed solumely, "I dread to think what would happen if one turned its eye to Earth again."

2:7 (Lost Memories)
Squinting his tired brown eyes in the sunlight cutting through the wood thatch roof above, a man rose from the bed which he rested. When the man tried to think back in his mind and he found nothing. Looking about, he tried to find anything that gave him a clue where he was or even who he was. He was had just awoken on a small bed of hay, kept warm from the cool breeze under an inchy and rather poorly sewn blanket. He appeared to be in a barn, but he did not recognise it, he did not recognise any of it. The barn door opened on its latch and a young woman stepped in. She looked similar to him, two eyes, two arms and legs, hair, a mouth and nose, but she had purple and green scales running down her neck, and instead of ears there were two slits. As soon as she saw that he was awake, a smile came across her face from ear to ear.

"I'm glad you're awake, Malko," she said.

"Malko?" He asked uncertain, "is that my name?"

"That's what you said, but you'd just came out of a terrible crash at the time," she said, "I'm Annqua by the way."

"I don't remember anything," said Malko placing his head in his hands.

"That's understandable," said Annqua, "and I'm sorry about the clothes, but your others were burnt."

Malko looked down at his body. The clothes he was wearing felt too baggy on himself, he had to fold the cuffs of the sleeves up to three quarters of the way up his arms, and tighten the string round his waist enough to his trousers would hold up correctly. Annqua reached over to the corner of the barn and placed a large crate on the bed.

"What's all this?" Malko said as he removed the wooden lid.

"We hoped that you would tell us," said Annqua, "these were just some of the things found with you." Laying on top of the pile inside the crate was a burnt and chard black jacket. If it wasn't so torn up it would fit Malko quite comfortably. The jacket was split between two colours, a jet black, and a crimson red on the shoulders. These colours were separated with lines of golden piping that ran around the shoulders and down the chest to split off into a high collar. Putting this to one side, the bottom of the crate was filled with small devices, some of them Malko recognised and some of them he didn't. A small L-shaped metallic structure, it's shorter end wrapped in a sort of comfortable leather and the longer end capped with two holes, one larger than the other with the smallest hole sitting on top; a rectangular box that lit up and buzzed to life once slid open, revealing a glass display of all sorts of information, numbers and graphs; an unusually shaped object, slightly flexible but coiled in on itself, Malko thought this could probably fit over his ear. But the object he found most attracted to was a silver shield-like object that could fit in the palm of his hand. The front shone bright where the sunlight gleemed off it's surface. Etched into the back in small black writing said, "Capt. Richard Ellis Malcolm, Serial Number 2219-1842, USS Odyssey, NCC-208805."

"Do you have any idea what it means?" Asked Annqua leaning over him as Malko read it aloud.

"I am not sure," he said running his fingers over the surface of the writing, "you said that its understandable what's happened to me, what did you mean?"

Far across the quadrants of space and near the opposing edge of the galaxy, Ensign Suhn of the USS Shinwari sat upright in her seat of the mess hall. The hussle and bussle of the room around her clanged with the sound of people eating and chatting away. It had been nearly three months since the Shinwari sabotaged the Minerva navigation station, and they were bound to have repaired it by now. The Captain, Jar Oweye, must have understood that, Suhn thought, but she could not understand why her father seemingly was doing nothing about it. For now, Oweye had simply ordered that they remain on the edge of a hydrogen nebula just outside federation space, and that all communication traffic was strictly controlled by him. Connor Forest sat down opposite to her carrying two steaming cups of coffee and pushed one over to her.

Forest was allowed free roam of the Shinwari since Minerva despite being an enormous security risk. Although he was not a member of Starfleet, he was registered as one of the many Starforge personell on board the USS Odyssey at the time of the attack on the USS Delaney and therefore considered a criminal. Captain Oweye had taken every precaution to make sure that it was not discovered onboard the ship, going by the name of Shaun Leeward, brother to the operations officer and Oweye's personal carer in his older age.

"What do you reckon Oweye is planning?" Forest asked.

"I'm not sure," she said lightly blowing on the surface of the coffee and taking a sip, "he's talked to the senior staff about it but he won't admit it to me, dad has never been particularly transparent."

"Well it wouldn't matter if the Rodney destroyed the Odyssey," Forest said. Suhn shot him a look and to all of their surprise, an older man stepped to the base of the table, lraning his full weight on a thin wooden cane, seemingly almost immediately took command of the conversation.

"You know how I know the Rodney stands no chance against the USS Odyssey," Captain Oweye said, "Captain Richard Malcolm. When he was commissioned under me, he helmed many missions. After he transferred to the command program, I found him playing and replaying the Kobayashi Maru simulation. It was unbeatable but he did not give up, believing there was a way to improve, to win against the odds. Trust me, Forest, there is no better man I would have chosen for such a mission."

Forest put his hands up in defeat but Suhn stood up out of her seat. "What are we going to do then? The Minerva satellite, if it isn't operational yet then it soon will be." Oweye did not give her an answer, he simply nodded towards the window as suddenly the proximity alert sounded. Three starships dropped out of warp. The USS Delaney, USS Sao Paulo, and the the USS Pheonix had arrived.

Annaqua escorted Malko through the small village which the barn he had awakened in was at least half a mile from the boarder of. They walked through the grass streets separating the square wooden cottages and markets. All around the town was a round three miles of fertile land which they grew all manner of crops, fruit and herded cattle Malko certainly did not recognise. The town, more like a large village really, was inhabited by a diverse group of creatures and people of various shapes and sizes. Annqua explained that they all arrived at the village the same way, "falling from the sky" she called it, but none of them could remember where they came from. The first to arrive was a man who called himself 'Frist', the oldest of them all, he founded the village from what Annqua told him. She was found washed up ashore after a blazing object fell from the sky and caused a wave that nearly washed away the town market. Malko came down in the largest ship of them all, many of them were only found in one-man pods or small ships, but not Malko. They expected to find at least ten or twenty people inside but they found only one piloting a large shuttle craft that slammed into the South fields in a blaze and light that woke the entire town up.

"There was one more thing that we found with you," Annqua said, placing the crate containing reaching from her left pocket, she presented a small golden ring. This was something Malko definitely recognised. The band slipped seamlessly onto his finger. "What does it mean?" She asked as Malko stared at it in his hand. What did it mean? He felt like this had great importance to him at some point but he couldn't quite put his finger on what.

"I can't remember," he said quietly, "but thank you anyway."

"Hey that's okay if you don't, none of us do but we have each other now." They continued to walk through the streets until they arrived at the market. Stalls of food and goods wrapped around the base of a tall tree, much higher than any other building in the village, this must have been the heart of the town.

They approached a small vendors stall with flecks of blue paint pealing off it's old wooden surface. The stand was manned by two tall feathered operators who appeared to be from the same species. Ones feathers was a brilliant golden shade that almost gleaned in the setting sun. The other however was a deep bluish grey that almost seemed dull in comparison.

"Ah hello Annqua!" Said the golden one.

"What can we do for you?" Asked the blue one.

"Sky, Talon, this is Malko, our new arrival."

"And these must be his things," the blue one said, grasping the crate with four strong crawls and Malko guessed he was called Talon, "from what's inside here we could give you a thousand credits for the lot."

"Can I keep one object?" Malko asked curiously, still rubbing the ring in his middle and forefingers.

"Malko it's better if you forget that life," said Annqua, "you have already but holding onto these things will just stop you from moving on."

"If you believed that then you wouldn't have given me this back," Malko said holding out the ring.

Annqua looked over at the two and Sky nodded. "He can if he wants." He said.

Malko began rummaging through the crate until he removed the small upside-down shield from the box. "It's just a piece of metal," Talon commented.

"I don't think so," said Malko, "I feel like it has more meaning behind it. A symbol perhaps."

"Come on, it's getting dark," Annqua said, "you can stay at mine for the night."

Oweye sat at the head of the table, the captains of the three ships sat around him. Captain Gregory Ward of the USS Delaney to his right quietly muttering and twitching slightly. Captain Seniqua Dawn of the USS Phoenix and Captain Samuel Jewel of the USS Sao Paulo sitting to his right chatting and chuckling to each other before Oweye stood up, leaning against wooden conference table.

"Captains, as you may be aware, since the destruction of the SS Quartermaster, civil liberties have been trampled on more and more," Oweye said, "those civilians Starfleet has sworn to protect are evidently no longer our priority, and I firmly believe this will be the greatest threat to Federation security since the Dominion."

"Yes we have all read your report," said Gregory.

"And many of us happen to agree with his assessment," said Captain Dawn shooting him a look.

"But what you might not know is why members of the Starfleet Council now act this way," Oweye said, "there is an unknown threat to us. A signal of unknown origins projected from deep space and beyond the edge of our galaxy."

"The Sagitarrius signal?" Asked Jewel, "I am aware that Starfleet Intelligence declared that to be a prolonged gamma ray burst that interfered with our sensors."

"That's why the Odyssey attacked the Vulcan science station at the edge of our territory, because it was about to reveal that it was all just interference," said Ward firmly.

"Mister Ward I-" Ensign Suhn, who had previously been standing near the back along with Forest, now attempted to speak before Ward cut her off.

"If we weren't in the area at the time, then I dread to think what it would have been like if the Odyssey managed to cover it up," Ward continued despite Suhn's insistence to speak, "still at the cost of many of my crew, they slaughtered all non-human or alien officers relentlessly, I have no idea what could have motivated that crew to commit to barbarism, frankly I don't care. Possibly to justify the development of the Miller Class? And then  why target only non-humans? A poor attempt to blame their actions on the fanciful notion of a classified alternate Federation from another universe. Regardless the only thing that lets me sleep at night after seeing those things is that they are on the run and hunted down like the monsters they are."

Ward stopped. Barely catching a breath and now glanced around at the staring faces of the captains around him. Suhn opened her mouth to correct him but Oweye held out his hand to hush her.

"Captain, I do not believe I could understand what you have gone through," said Oweye, "but I have evidence that the Sagitarrius signal, and the actions of the USS Odyssey are not what they seem." Captain Ward snorted, but to Oweye's gratitude, Jewel and Dawn both lent forward. "The attack on the USS Delaney and the Vulcan science station was indeed carried out by the alternate version from another universe who was acting under orders by the Terran Empire whose existence was kept classified to not cause a panic or distress from the civilian population. It was a decision I disagreed with but it is difficult to argue that people would act if they discovered any loved ones they have lost could be found in this universe. Nevertheless, the Terrans are a twisted imperium who managed to send a ship over the diamensional boundaries as a scout for a much larger invasion."

"Well why aren't we preparing for the invasion? Does this have anything to do with the way Starfleet Command are acting?" Asked Jewel.

"I do wish that were true," said Oweye, "certainly it would be a simpler conflict to come. No, the ISS Odyssey was defeated in an engagement between the USS Shinwari and the USS Odyssey at nebula K-21E and the invasion was halted. Which brings us to the Sagitarrius signal-"

"No!" Screamed Ward, slamming his hands against the table in a fit of fury. He had been becoming more and more agitated as Oweye spoke and now he clearly had enough. Ward stormed out of the room before anyone could follow.

"You mentioned a coming conflict," said Dawn, "what did you mean?" Oweye did not answer. Slowly he moved out of the room leaving the captains sitting.

Annqua had been kind enough to allow Malko to spend the night sleeping on her couch. As the sun rose giving the sky the a brilliant shade of orange, Malko followed Annqua over the hills at the edges of the town before crossing the fruit fields to the south. Stepping past the fence to the fields, the crash sight was then visible. It was indeed a large ship, at least twenty people could fit inside fairly comfortably. Dirt had been turned up and the head of the ship was buried underneath a mound of soil. At the door of the ship, there stood an older man, must have been late seventy years old, but Annqua smiled and embraced him as they met.

"Malko, this is Frist, he started the town," she said. Frist smiled and held out his hand to shake Malko's.

"Good to meet you lad, I hope you are settling in okay," Frist said, "but I am going to have to take Annqua from you for a few minutes, dear I have something to tell you."

"Of course," said Annqua, "Malko you enter the ship without me, I'll just be a minute." The two walked away, chatting as the talked, loud enough so Malko could hear that they were talking, but not loud enough to make out what they were saying.

Malko climbed up the step ladder on the side of the ship and stepped inside. He found himself in a small corridor, to his right there were doors to rooms with bunks, a small storage area and a third room with a glowing, pulsating blue cylinder stretching from floor to ceiling. There was also a set of steps pushing downwards into even more of the same. To his left, there was the cockpit. A large room that expanded all the way to the nose of the ship buried in the earth. Consoles wrapped around four seats, the rear two extended high above the front in reach of a second set of controls. On the rear wall of the cockpit there was a small golden bronze plack, reading "USS Miller, NX-208804, Project Odysseus: Miller One." Malko sat in the forward lower seat, running his fingers along the surface of the console in from of him. But as his skin touched the cold screen, the entire ship appeared to come to life. Lights and sounds making him jump back.

"What's going on?" He said in shock.

"Voice print recognised," an unnatural voice echoed from no particular direction from all around him, "welcome aboard captain."

"Who are you?" Malko asked quickly.

"Negative. The voice you are hearing is a onboard audio interference with the computer for the convenience of the crew."

"Well who am I?" Malko asked.

"You are Captain Richard Ellis Malcolm, born 2365 at Apollo City on Lunar, Sol." The voice stated. "Joined Starfleet in 2382 and commissioned to command the USS Odyssey in 2399. Once decorated for bravery at the Battle of J-51L. Decoration later retracted."

"Why can't I remember anything?" Malko asked himself, placing his head in his hands, not realising he was still talking to the computer.

"Unable to identify, scans have been disrupted by a field of neural interference encompassing the entire planet."

"Do you know where it is coming from?"

The screen to the right changed from a graph of non-descript charts and information, to a map. The ship appeared to have scanned the entire local area, the hills, the fields, the town, but deep within the mountain range to the west, the map presented a blinking red light at the mouth of a cave.

"You got it working!" Annqua said in excitement, pulling herself into the ship and Malko retracted from peering at the screen, "have you found anything out?"

"No, not yet," Malko lied. Annqua mouthed the sound 'oh' and nodded. "What did Frist want to talk to you about?"

"Hm? Oh yes, that," Annqua said sitting on the seat directly next to Malko, "Sky has gone missing in the mountains. They were out foraging for food in the western forests, him and Talon. He must have ventured too far over the warning boundary and gotten lost. Talon hasn't seen him since." The mountains? That must have been a coincidence.

"Does this happen alot?" He asked.

"Not often," she responded quietly, "but still too often. Every once in a while someone splits off from a group or wonders up to the mountains. We all know it's too dangerous but still some go anyway."

Malko had nothing to say. All he could go is lean back against the chair in silence. He could tell her about the point the ship had detected as possibly the source of their memory loss. And he certainly could not tell her now Sky had gone missing or she would go up into the mountains and could get lost too.

Oweye entered the small room. In the corner sat Captain Ward, his face hidden in shadow behind his computer screen. "I may have to apologise captain for my behaviour at last night's meeting," Ward said, "it was unprofessional but my point still stands. Unsound theories do not dissuade me from what I have seen with my own eyes."

"I can prove it," said Oweye, stepping forward, "you are free to analyse the evidence yourself, the files are there."

"Please don't try this again, I will not waste my time-"

"Taking time to at least look at the evidence is never a waste, I myself would rather know I'm wrong than think I'm right. Civil liberties are being trampled on more and more within our boarders. My ship recently detected a distress call from another civilian ship being fired upon for violating the restricted zone around the Kartha system." Oweye tapped his ear three times and spoke in a loud, clear voice, "Open audio file 211-gamma."

A small beep sounded and then, projected from Oweye's comm, a distress call echoed throughout the room, "this is the SS Yellow Runner, we are transporting vital medical supplies and rations for Colony Marian, do not fire, I repeat, do not fire-" the signal was cut off.

"If we do not act soon, prove to our people that Starfleet is still their protector and will not impose laws that stop them from delivering vital supplies, then we will lose their confidence, and could be faced with a civil war. I need help to stop this."

Eventually Ward nodded carefully. "Alright I will look over the evidence."

Returning to the village, it did not take long before Malko had set up a search group, despite Frist's objections, to look for Sky. Still not told anyone about the possible connection the source in the mountains, Malko was limited to only the forest, he was not confident he could venture into the mountains and make sure no one got lost along the way. The entire group stuck together in one long line through the forest, each one was always in eyeshot of another.

"Thank you for doing this," Talon said as they walked through the forest next to Malko, "I know that you just met him yesterday so there is no reason for you to be here."

"He let me keep that symbol, despite Frist's policy of disconnecting from our pasts," Malko commented, stepping over the weeds and nettles covering the forest floor, "I owe him a favour for that."

"Did you figure out what that meant?" Talon asked. Looking through the files onboard his crashed ship, he identified it as a badge, a symbol for an organisation called Starfleet, but he simply shook his head as the knowledge of this was no closer to returning his memory. "For as long as I can remember Sky has been there for me," Talon continued, "we were found together. I was in chains when I woke up, I had no memory of what happened. A fire had broken out and after calling for help, he came to free me. I could have been a prisoner or a slave but in that moment it did not matter and we both lived." Talon returned to his spot in the search, leaving him in silence.

The search continued for several more hours with no luck, as the sun began to touch the horizon, many of the group returned to their beds from the request of Frist until eventually even Talon abandoned the search for the night with a low heart, saying he may try again tomorrow.

Frustrated, Malko ran back to the crash site and into his ship. He must find out more about himself, maybe then he can muster up enough courage to find the source of their memory loss and possibly find Sky. After some convincing and figuring out the exact correct words to use, another display changed from nonsense information to footage and Malko suddenly found himself staring at his own face. But with much tidier hair, shaved to a stubble at the sides and long on the top flowing to one side. He was also clean shaven, something Malko had not thought of while he had been in the town and therefore had started to grow out a bit. Noticeably he was wearing the black and red jacket from the crate, here not chared into pieces and the small upside-down shield was attached to the upper left side of his chest.

"Odyssey," he said, "this is Miller One, preparing for Quantum Warp jump now."

"Captain, you really don't have to do this," a female voice said to him off screen, possibly from another part of the ship or he was talking to someone on 'Odyssey', "we can just get another crewman to Janvi on this while he's sick."

"Nah it'll be fun," he responded with a smile, "it'll be like camping."

"I just think that with L-1's starcharts there's no need for a scout anymore," the voice explained.

"Those starcharts are mainly focused on trade routes, territories, and the most populated world's, there is hardly anything on there about about science. I go on ahead while the Odyssey's engines are cooling down, see what's what, and if there's nothing there then you come pick me up, and if there is then either Reka or El have a field day." There was a silence for a couple of moment, enough for himself in the screen to slowly begin to smile. "Alright at least take one of us with you. It could be dangerous."

"Not going to happen, Jen," he said, "see you tomorrow."

The screen cut to black. Had he really gone off on his own? Malko needed to find out more, he pressed the button for the next recording. For a second the chair the camera was facing was empty, music was playing in the background before the space was filled with himself carrying a small bowl of what he couldn't quite remember.

"You know," he said, mouth full of the stuff, "after three hours I began to think that this would be kind of boring, but then I found a portable gelato machine in storage." The man laughed as he took another spoon full. "ensign Janvi, I love you man, but if you're going to come down with Tarkalian Fever, and you don't want me to use your gelato machine then make sure you take it out of storage-"

Malko checked the recording and it read that it lasted for another three hours. Not seeing the point to most of this, he skipped forward. The man in the recording had finally finished the bowl.

"I mean if I did let them come along, it would probably Leuitenant T'Zara, and she's got the social skills of a brick wall. Anyone from the science department is kind of..." He looked to one side as if trying to think of what to say, "socially awkward?"

Malko skipped forward a bit more, once stopped, music was booming around the cockpit in the footage. And it wasn't even good music, sung in a language that was clearly not easy on the ears. The man in the footage want longer sitting, but instead leaning on his hand that was grasping the head of the chair. He clearly looked uncomfortable at the sound of the music.

"Klingon Opera." He called it. "Literally half of the music Janvi owns is Klingon-bloody-Opera. Are you trying to kill me, ensign? I think I might actually send out a priority one distress call if I have to keep listening to Klingon-bloody-Opera."

Malko skipped forward again until he finally found something that interested him. The man was at the controls, like he was now flying the ship.

"There's going to be a comet on our starboard side in a few seconds," he said, "comprised of iron, copper and a dilithium deposit. Could he useful so I'm dropping back into normal space, if there's nothing there then I've still got five hours before the main drive needs cool down."

The ship appeared to rumble around him for a second, before the cockpit in the footage lit up read and a voice echoed "Federation USS Rodney identified."

"Yes I can see that."

"Warning, target has raised shields and powering weapons." An explosion rocked the cockpit in the footage. Flames knocked his chair forward, engulfing his right shoulder and he screamed in pain.

"Computer engage Quantum Drive!" He shouted, clutching his shoulder. "Warning, action not adviced. Quantum Drive stabilizers are damaged."

"Just do it!" The cockpit shaked and for a moment the footage remained silent. The alert blazed again as the computer warned him that they were about to drop back into normal space again as the engines overloaded.

"There's an M-class planet directly ahead," he said to himself, taking the controls once more, "send a distress signal, I'm going to bring us in on a shallow angle tangent to the atmosphere. It'll be rough but cause the least damage on re-entry. Three, two, one..."

The footage went black. He must have crashed soon after, lost his memories, and now here he sat in the cockpit, watching over footage to attempt to figure out what kind of man he once was. Not sure what he had found, Malko knew know that he had to go to that source if he wanted to know more, and at the same time there was a chance he could save Sky.

"As you can see, the signal we have detected from Sagitarrius-" captain Oweye spoke to Jewel and Dawn before he was interrupted by the door chime. "Enter" he said.

The door slid open and Ward stepped in, rubbing his hands quietly. He cleared his throat. "I have looked over the evidence from the Shinwari's database, and I would like to hear more." A rare treat Suhn saw her father smile. Oweye had always been a father, and this once one of the only times she had ever seen him pleased. About anything.

"Very good, very good," he said, "please sit down. Now, as I was saying, the Sagittarius, we've discovered, resembles similar to that of the Romulan mental probes, but with several differences. For instance the signal does not seem interested in probing the mind, but instead influencing it. Our ally in the Romulan Empire has reported that those exposed to a decrypted form of the signal for a long enough period they become erratic and sometimes violent. Each of them however report seeing the siloette of a shadow, standing in the corner of the room, calling to them. And if they answer the shadow's call, something about them changes and they are now feel a deep compelling desire to do it's bidding. They may act like they once did, they may talk like they once did, but they aren't truly anymore."

"And you believe that members of the Starfleet Council have been..." Dawn paused for a moment to think of a better word, "infected by this?"

"I do," Oweye responded, "I have worked with Will Collins for nearly 50 years, I backed him for Head Admiral when Ross stepped down. Believe me when I say that the man in charge of Starfleet is not the same man I knew."

"Well we just need to make sure that no one else is exposed to the decrypted version," Jewel suggested, "we could even begin to expand Starfleet phycological training with these mental attacks in mind."

"Well that's where we run into the danger," Oweye said, "the Sagittarius signal is decoding itself. Little by little. Analysis shows it will be completed within as soon as five years, and at that stage it will possibly be unstoppable. As for phycological training, I don't believe that there is any training that could block it."

"Why?" Asked Jewel, "what happens if one does not answer the shadow's call?"

"They..." Oweye began to say before Forest suddenly spoke.

"They die. All brain functions," he made a 'pt' noise with his mouth, "stopped. But that's why the Odyssey is key."

"I thought I recognised you," Ward said standing up in his seat and brought himself right in front of Forest, "you were there that day. With the rest of them, killing my crew."

"Gregory please remember what the evidence implies, you read it yourself," Oweye spoke out in a firm and loud voice.

"It's alright, Jar," Ward said, staring directly into Forests eyes, "I see it now. It's the eyes. These haven't the cruelty of those I saw on him that day. The brutality of a killer."

To Forest's relief, Ward sat back down at the table. "Thank you, but Mr Forest is correct," Oweye commented, "the only way to shut down this signal is from it's source, that's where the Odyssey is going. Being the only ship that can reach Sagittarius in time that is not deep in Collins and Galeb's hands, captain Malcolm has taken this mission. We have been out of contact for nearly a year and we predict that they must be a third of the way through their journey by now. But with Starfleet hunting them, I've been attempting to help where I can, and with the civil unrest, protests and deaths, I can no longer do this alone. But know this, if you agree to join me then it will be undoubtedly treason." Oweye looked about the room.

"I'll join you." Jewel confirmed, he nodded.

"And me too." Said Dawn. They turned to Ward who was sitting quietly, tapping the table fast he appeared to be thinking. Eventually he gave them a short nod.

"Very good, spread the word to any captain or commander you can trust. We fight to protect our people."

Malko knew when he began to approach from the right direction. A feeling of dread washed over him every step he took. The forest suddenly stopped and Malko was met by a tall cliff stretching far in both directions. After following the cliff face South, running his hand along the rock as he went, he felt something strange. The rock along the cliff face felt hollow for a brief moment. Almost like sponge, giving way as he pressed into it. The section appeared to be three feet wide by eight feet tall, a doorway. Certain this was what he was looking for, Malko placed his hands against the rock and pushed with his full weight.

The rock gave way and Malko found himself face down in a dark cave. Wires wrapped themselves around the walls as he was led to a large opening. Consoles were placed around in a half circle and there in the centre appeared to be a cryogenic tube. Inside; a golden humanoid bird. Sky. On the table in the centre of the room, there was the L-shaped device, that was in his crate, Malko was found with. Grasping the shorter leather side, the device blinked into life, a small red light flickered behind the barrel. Malko knew what this was: a weapon. From the shadow's emerged a man. Without hesitation, Malko pointed the weapon forward, the barrel facing towards the man. To his surprise, there stood Frist, looking weak and ancient in the light.

"You shouldn't remember how to use that," Frist said quietly.

"You want to bet?" Malko asked, "I reckon I could figure it out. What is all this?"

"Malko please-"

"That's not my name and you know it," he said furiously, "now answer the question."

"It's a neural graft, blocks the individuals ability to access certain long-term memories," explained Frist.

"So the memories are still there?" Malko said, "it can be resorted."

"Yes."

"Why would you do this?"

Frist closed his eyes, lowered his hands to his side's. "The galaxy is a unfair place." Malko glanced at him in confusion so Frist expanded his point. "I see you have become close to Annqua, but did you know that on her homeworld she would have been stoned for speaking out of line. Sky, here, is part of a genus believed to be superior than the rest. When we found them, Talon was his servant, a slave, locked in chains."

"So you wiped our memories to what? Remove prejudice?"

"Oh no don't think I accuse any of them of any bigotry themselves," Frist said quickly, "no no, my graft was so I could free them from the conditioning they have suffered through since birth. In a way I freed two from chains the day we found Sky and Talon."

"So why have to kidnapped Sky?" Malko asked.

"The graft isn't perfect, every once in a while the mind finds a way to fight it. Yours has been particularly difficult but we were safe from your memories returning. Unfortunately Sky's memories would soon resurface, it would wreak havoc in the village seeing their friend turn into that savage he once was, particularly for Talon. Ordinarily the graft programs the villagers to stay away from the mountains with an immense feeling of dread, but to lure anyone here it was just a matter of flicking a switch."

"This is backwards," Malko said, "We learn from our mistakes, we don't repeat them. Sky would not turn against his friends just because he could now remember. We learn from our experiences and our past, and if we hide from it or deny it, then we are doomed to make the same mistakes over and over just packaged differently."

"I wish that were true, Malko, I truly do."

"No you don't. You don't because you don't want to face if you were wrong, and so you wouldn't even give them a choice." Malko moved the barrel of the phaser towards a series of open wiring. Destroying it could shut down the neural graft and restore everyone's memories, Malko hoped.

"No wait please, I can give you back your memories, to can go back to where you came from, just don't destroy it."

Malko looked between Frist and the set of wires, then to the phaser, and pulled the trigger. There it all came flooding back. The Odyssey. The mission to Sagittarius. Everything.

Now Captain Malcolm carried Sky unconscious across the forest with Frist in tow. They crossed the fruit fields to the south until they reached the edge of the town itself. Walking through the streets, people were in a confused haze.

At the sight of Sky, Talon ran. But by the look on Frist's face, he did not expect him to run towards Sky. Wrapping his feathered arms around his friend, Sky at first held him back, staring at Talon before embracing him all the same. Malcolm and Frist continued to walk around the town until they reached the market, only to see the townsfolk helping each other.

"I can't believe what I'm seeing," said Frist, "but now they have their memories back. This shouldn't be happening."

"'Treat others the way you shall like to be treated'," Malcolm said, "It was an important saying in many of the old Earth religions. You shown them a better way to live, and now with knowledge of how things once where, it's their choice on where to go next."

"That sounds overly optimistic," Frist comments.

"Oh yes it is," Malcolm said, "there will always be individuals or entire races out there who you just cannot reason with, I've met some of them. But never doubt the average persons ability to help each other out."

Flanked by five heavily armed security officers, Head Admiral Collins entered the situation room at Starfleet Command on Earth. Red lights blazed as three other commanding admirals surrounded the central holo-table.

"What's the situation?" Collins asked.

"Our Minerva satellite has been attacked," said one of admirals.

"What? By who? Romulans?" Collins asked.

"No sir," responded another, "one of our own. Identified as the USS Phoenix NCC-195001. Reports say that they dropped out of warp and with three photon torpedoes, destroyed the satellite before the defences could respond. We have sent Captain Roda to track her down but the Phoenix has significantly more advanced warp capabilities."

"Other ships have turned off their transponders, sir," a third admiral reported, "the USS Sao Paulo, Delaney, and Shinwari, we can no longer track them."

Then Collins saw him. The shadow. Stood still in the corner of the room. A sight he had not seen for months. Collins calmly asked his admirals to leave the room and they all shuffled out.

"I thought my actions were what you wanted," Collins said, "Why do you show yourself to me now?" The shadow did not speak. Simply stood there staring at the admiral as he began to feel nervous. "They might have destroyed the Minerva, but I have full confidence Galeb will destroy the Odyssey long before they could pose a threat to your people. And construction of the Subspace Sling will not be compromised, I will personally make sure Kartha is secure."

"We should hope so, William, for your sake," the shadow said, it's voice booming within Collins' mind. "But we do not share your confidence. Galeb is losing support on his own ship day by day, and now we hear that their is an uprising within your own ranks. Deal with this situation soon, William."

"I will, I promise you," Collins said quietly, "I will have every ship available to track down these four vessels. They will be brought to justice. Any civilian unrest will be cracked down on, I will make sure of it."

"No you are thinking of dealing with this too broadly," the shadow said, "think more personal. Cut off the head."

"Captain Richard Malcolm."

"No, he has been isolated for so long now, this is disconnected in a way, a friend or colleague of his. Tell me, William, who might that be?"

Collins glanced over at the holo-table, reminding himself that the USS Shinwari was one of the ships that had gone off the grid.

"Jar Oweye."

The last flecks of light flickered out from behind the horizon as Annqua approached the crash site. A small bonfire was set up near the door of the ship as Malcolm sat within its bubble of warmth. "Hello Malko," Annqua said as she stood a fair twenty feet from him.

"You know that's not my name," he said politely, "It's Malcolm."

"Oh," she said with a nod, "can I call you Malko anyway?"

Malcolm smiled. "Of course. Come, sit down."

Slowly she approached and sat down just out of arms length of him. "I'm sorry," Annqua said, "It's difficult for me now."

"Nothing's changed from yesterday for the world."

"I know, but suddenly I have a lifetimes worth of memories telling me otherwise," Annqua said, eventually she turned and saw Malcolm was wearing the small metal ring on his third finger. "Did you figure out what that was?"

"Yes it's a marriage ring," Malcolm said and he immediately saw Annqua's confusion, "It's a connection you make with another person. Sort of like a promise you make with each other that you will share the rest of your life together."

Annqua nodded. "We just use a system of dowries. But it must be someone truly special for that." "She is," Malcolm said rubbing his finger against the ring, "so what's next?"

"Well we have made plans to expand the town, build a couple of new houses and vendors, also an expedition past the mountains, Talon hopes we could discover new plants or types of stones."

"I'll look forward to it."

"You're staying?" Annqua asked in surprise.

"Well I'm no engineer so I don't think I could ever get the Miller One flying again, even if I did, I would have no where to go," Malcolm said, "the transmitter isn't that damaged but the Odyssey is most likely long out of range."

"I'm sorry." Annqua said. She shuffled around the fire, placing her hand around his shoulder.

They sat together, staring at the flames and embers rising into the deep blue night sky. They sat like this for what felt to Malcolm like an hour listening to the static of the transmitter from within the ships cockpit. Soon the static began to take form, and a voice began to break through. It must be the Odyssey trying to contact him. Quickly coming to his feet, Malcolm surprised Annqua as she nearly fell backwards. Malcolm scrambled up the ladder and leaped into the leather chairs as he punched the transmitter controls up.

"Hello?" Malcolm said.

A voice came over the comm. Distorted by the static but it was distinctly Jennifer Gillian's voice. "Captain? Is that you?"

"Yes Jen, it's me, I didn't think you were still in range."

"We wouldn't leave you behind, captain," she said, "I have someone in the transporter room who has been worried about you. Locking into your coordinates now."

A pillar of light appeared and from it Ellie appeared. Malcolm rushed out of the ship, down the ladder and into each other's arms. They talked for a few minutes, Malcolm told her what had happened on the planet and Ellie caught him up on the events on the ship.

"Right we need to go," Ellie said, "I'm holding up a team of engineers who want to get the Miller One up and running again so we can be on our way."

"Annqua come with us," Malcolm said, "I'm sure you'd fit in well on the ship."

Annqua smiled. "No I can't. Unlike you I've got nowhere else to go, but we are all happy here."

"I don't even know what your actual name is."

"That's alright," Annqua said, "now go with her. You're needed elsewhere, captain."

"Doctor Malcolm to Odyssey, two to beam up." Ellie said into the comm.

"Wish me luck," Malcolm asked.

Annqua did not answer, which made his smile fade away as he disappeared into the bright pillar of light.

2:8 (United Starship Odyssey: Assassination and Mutiny Prt1)
On the frozen moon of Andoria, deep under it's inhospitable surface, Head Admiral Collins was being escorted through the halls of ice, past cell after cell until the guard stopped at the mouth of one on the right.

"Cell block 12-A, Seteirous Penvil." The guard said as he wiped his card and the cell door slowly swung open under is own power.

"Leave us." Said Collins and the guard complied. The admiral stepped inside. It was a small room, the walls bare and frozen. Collins could see his own breath in the air as the cold crept through his long woolen coat. Without it, the environment would be unbareable for Collins, but perfect for an Andorian.

"What do you want?" Penvil asked, hunched in the corner of the cell.

Collins revealed a small padd from the pocket of his coat and read aloud from it. "Leuitenant Seteirous Penvil, charged with espionage and passing critical information to a hostile government and conspiracy to frame then commander Richard Malcolm of sabotaging the USS Rodney to allow for a foreign General to escape. Arrested on stardate 51982.7 by then captain Dean Rown and sentenced with life incarceration in a medium security prison."

"I know the charges and the sentence," Penvil said, "but I'm no traitor. Benjamin Sisko was the traitor, he betrayed everything we stand for as an organisation and as a result the blood of every Romulan who died in the Dominion War is on our hands."

"I agree with you, Penvil," Collins lied, "I do believe that you truly had the federation's best interests at heart. So what if a few ships or a station had to be destroyed to assure that? But little did you know that Richard Malcolm would then go onto commit terrible acts and now those close to him threaten to tear this Federation apart."

"But what do you want from me?" Penvil asked, "take out Malcolm?"

"No of course not," Collins said, "we are already have plans to deal with him. Admiral Galeb has been ordered to deal with Rown and Malcolm soon. Who we need you do deal with is the one driving civilians into dangerous hands, captain Jar Oweye. Kill him and we will deal with Rown and Malcolm for you."

"I can't do what you ask while I'm in here," Said Penvil.

Collins handed him the pad. "Take this, all information about guard rotations and map layouts of this complex are on here. Hidden inside is a prototype personal forcefield generator, it should protect you from phaser energy but not physical attacks, you understand? Kill Oweye for me, and I will pardon you." Collins returned to his feet and straightened his back. He approached the door and scanned the card against the reader as the cell sealed itself again.

Deep in space, on board the USS Rodney, Commander Rown finished his morning coffee. Over the past couple of months, Rown could feel the distrust growing between the crew, especially between himself and the admiral. The mess hall was eerie, no one had entered the room after him and everyone was silent, taking the smallest of sips from their drink. Cautiously, Rown stood up and began to walk down the divisions in the tables, but before he could reach the door, an officer cut him off. He was tall, with dark hair and dark skin, a single golden line cut through the black uniform. If was ensign Mavakov from the engineering department. Rown glanced behind him and saw another officer standing behind him.

"Gentlemen," Rown said optimistically, "I would like to pass through if you don't mind." Mavakov did not answer. Rown was getting nervous. Quickly he made a run for it, leaping over the table to the right. Then, whack. Rown felt a tremendous force impact the back of his head and he blacked out.

Doctor Coal was called to the sickbay. There had been a fight in the mess hall and the commander was gravely injured. Marh explained the situation to the doctor. If he had not turned up in time, Rown would have surely died from internal bleeding.

"Galeb is getting confident he can deal with Rown," Coal said, "this ship is on a knife's edge and he thinks he is ready to tip it over onto his side. We need to work fast. Tell the security office, the science department, the engineers, anyone who will listen to you: Admiral Galeb ordered this attack, no matter what he says." Marh nodded and broken off from the biobed where Rown lay. He crossed the room but before Marh reached the door, it slid open and so stepped in Admiral Galeb followed by one security officer, Lieutenant Dan Cilia.

"Ah, Doctor, I hope you are doing well," Galeb said. Marh moved past the two, staring down at Cilia. He had taken Marh's rank and responsibilities as the chief tactical officer ever since he refused to fire upon the Odyssey. Marh did not act on this frustration and quickly headed down the corridors.

"Admiral," Coal acknowledged.

"Bad business this is," Galeb said.

"It does not have to be."

"I suppose you heard that there was a fight in the mess hall, I'm sorry but I am going to have to take the commander for questioning in the brig," said the admiral, "Mavakov said he started the fight."

"You can't," Coal said, "not now at least. I need to monitor his recovery."

Galeb looked frustrated. "I need to take him to the brig."

"You can, sir, when he has recovered."

"How long?" Asked the admiral.

"At least eight hours." Said Coal. Galeb immediately turned, striding fast out of the room. As the admiral passed down the corridor, Coal called after Cilia.

"Dan, if you ever trusted me," he said, "don't let him manipulate you."

Invictous V. Terrestrial colony with a population of five thousand. A market of medical supplies and work across the sector, and therefore effected the hardest when the illegal warp zone around the Kartha system shut down several trading lines and shipping zones and Starfleet's random searches making civilian supply ships go missing.

At one time, the average man may not have been particularly wealthy, but enough to make an honest living bettering the community, but over the past year everyone who considers themselves 'middle-rung' had been forced to go to food banks and hand-outs just to survive. And even that had begun to fall low on supplies. Suhn and Forest found themselves passing the security of the supply depot. Several transport shuttles were being kept in a lower dock, intel told them.

There was a snitch in the Invictous V security force, a young man by the name of Sean Averson who had become tired of the way his fellow Starfleet officers treated the civilian population. With his help, Suhn and Forest entered one of the supply shuttles and prepared to take off.

"Alright I better be getting back before they notice I'm gone," Averson said. "Thank you, Sean, for doing this," Suhn said.

"Just get this shuttle to the people," said Averson, "but remember that many of us aren't happy about this. But we are still Starfleet."

Suhn and Forest nodded. The ensign shut the door behind him as Suhn sat behind the pilot seat. Forest flicked the engine online and slowly they took off. Out of the window, red stripes began to glow and flickered on and off as the alarm blazed. The shuttle was already half way to the colony before Starfleet could even respond. But when they did the officers found their tractor beams were offline. Forest pointed down to the colony and told Suhn to set down just outside the market. A crowd had begun to gather. The cold, hungry or sick gratefully took the crates of supplies Forest handed out. Two pillars of light appeared and security officers brandishing phase rifles pushed through the crowd.

"Stop, put your hands up and surrender the supplies," the officers shouted. Forest and Suhn slowly rose their hands, there was no way they could retreat fast enough before they fired.

"I would not stop them, lads," a voice came from the crowd. From it walked a tall pale old man with grey hair and an supremely clean Starfleet crimson uniform with a golden trim, armed with only the wooden cane he lent on to help him walk. It was Suhn's father, Captain Oweye.

"You're Jar Oweye." Said one of the officers.

"That I am, son," he responded.

"The traitor working with that murderer Malcolm," said the officer, bringing his phaser right up to point at the captain. The crowd backed off but Oweye stood unflinching. No he did not back down.

Captain Oweye simply tapped his left ear twice and spoke aloud clearly. "Oweye to Leeward, deactivate cloak." The entire sky darken above them. A large ship emerged from invisibility, the USS Shinwari. It's wide saucer and two long nacelles tapered back. At the sight of the starship directly overhead, filling the sky, the two officers dropped their phasers to the ground. "Now if you want to take these supplies off these people, you won't be arguing with me or them, you will be arguing with her," Oweye said pointing to the sky.

"We are just following orders," they said, "the admiral wants them redirected to the Kartha system."

"Why?" Asked Oweye, "what's in the Kartha system that's so important that you'd place a high security blockade around the system, why take the supplies from our colonies?"

"We don't have high enough clearance to know."

Oweye nodded. "Thank you, gentlemen. You two can go now."

"Aren't you going to kill us?" One of the officers asked.

"No of course not," Oweye said, "I just needed a message: these supplies are for the people, if William wants these supplies, he has to reveal what is in the Kartha system and I will consider if it is worth it to transfer them away from these people. And despite what he might have told you, we are not the traitors to Starfleet. Now go." The two officers turned and ran. Taking his weight off the cane, Oweye walked forward, limping to his daughter as Forest continued passing out crates to the crowd.

"Impressive but you were cutting it a bit close," Suhn said.

"It was Leewards idea," Oweye said, "felt it would give the best impression."

"Well it did." Suhn said.

"You two have it down here. I'm going to head up to the ship, the cold is beginning to freeze my bones."

Oweye transported up to the USS Shinwari. He sat silently in his quarters, a dark blue hue flooded the room from the sky around the ship. William Collins and Jar Oweye first met nearly 50 years previous in 2352, they were both young men then, but Oweye was starting his final year in the Academy as Collins entered his first. But of course Collins was always the one who wanted to go fast up the ladder. This was clear to Oweye when they were both assigned to the USS Spirit, he was content where he was but Collins was eager for promotion. Oweye never allowed them to promote him to admiral, he believed you should never let them take you out of the captains chair, the only place where you can make a change. But ten years prior when Head Admiral Ross stepped down and retired, Oweye backed Collins rise, calling him the best choice out of all of Starfleet. But now, he thought, they headed on two separate sides of a conflict. Oweye anticipated Collins would be desperate to strike against him quick and severely. He knew that his strike against him would be the biggest push for his movement to finally kick off. Their work would be fruitless without it.

"Captain, could you please come up to the bridge," Leewards voice came from over the comm. Oweye acknowledged and moved across the room, pulling a wooden draw out from the corner dresser. Inside was a single golden necklace. Attached to it was a silver mold of a heart with the letter 'S' etched into it's surface. Oweye held it for a moment then grabbed his cane and began to make his way to the bridge.

"Captain on bridge!" An officer called as Oweye entered the bridge and took his place.

"What's going on?" Oweye asked.

"We have a Federation warp signature coming our way," Leeward reported, "USS Cornwall, Belleraphon class."

"They could be coming to join us?"

"I wouldn't count on it."

"You're right," Oweye said, "hail lieutenant Suhn Oweye and mister Connor Forest." Leeward nodded and Forest's voice came over the comm in acknowledgement. "We have a starship coming inbound, I need you to pack up down there and get back."

"We hear you, captain," Forest said, "we will just be a few minutes."

"Don't take too long." Oweye said.

"The Cornwall has dropped out of warp," Leeward said.

"Hail them."

"No response," Leeward shook his head. The entire bridge knocked and rumbled violently. The ships tactical officer reported that the Cornwall had opened fire.

"Shinwari to surface, we need to raise shields so you will be unable to transport up," Oweye said, "take the shuttle." He heard no response and glanced over at Leeward.

"They are in the shuttle," he said. A second rumble shook the bridge.

"Minimal damage, captain, but that last hit knocked us off centre," the helm reported, "we are drifting sixteen degrees towards the surface."

"Fire ventral thrusters, right us quickly," Oweye ordered, "are the away team safe?" Leeward nodded, Suhn and Forest were in the shuttlebay. Oweye ordered to escape orbit and engage high warp. "Bridge to shuttlebay," Oweye said.

"We are safe down here captain," Suhn's voice came over the comm, "but we have a guest with us."

"Who?"

A second voice spoke, one Oweye did not recognise. "Hello captain, my name is Seteirous Penvil, I request political asylum."

Rown's eyes blinked open. Pain spread from his head to toe as he lay on his back sprawled on a biobed. He lent up on the bed rest, pushed the cushion up and slowly sighed. "Lay back down, quickly," Coal whispered, pushing him carefully, "I don't have time, but whatever happens, pretend to be asleep." Rown complied. When his eyes closed, Rown heard the door open and several men entered sickbay.

"Eight hours you said," the distinct voice of Admiral Galeb sounded, "it has been ten."

"Well the injuries he sustained are much worse than I realised," Doctor Coal said.

"He started a fight in the mess hall," Galeb said, "Ensign Mavakov is pressing charges." "I don't believe that the commander started the fight, he has too much respect for this crew."

"Obviously not enough."

"Look at the injuries, this was a beating not a fight," Coal said, frustration beginning to rise in his voice.

"Doctor," the admiral said, "I must take him, and you will step aside." Rown did not hear Coal answer, but he felt himself being placed on a stretcher. He did as Coal told him and remained still as Rown was taken out of the sickbay.

"He's ex-starfleet," Leeward said, "arrested for passing information to the Romulans during the war, was sentenced to the North Andorian Penitentiary Complex and escaped a couple of days ago using a stolen advanced personal forcefield."

"Where would he get such a technology?" Oweye asked.

"He stole it from a prison guard," Leeward said, handing his captain a small metal disk. Oweye gestured for Penvil to be brought in. Stepping inside, the ragged Andorian stood several feet away from the captain and first officer with two security officers flanking his shoulders.

"Thank you for letting me onboard, captain," Penvil said.

"Here take this," Oweye said, leaning forward and handing Penvil the metal disk which he used to escape, "as a show of good faith. I'd admit, Mister Penvil, that despite your conspiracy against the federation in times of war, you would definitely be of great help to us."

"I only conspired against the federation because it was an unjust conflict and I wanted to end it before it turned into all out war. Which, might I add, a few months after I was arrested, it did." Penvil said. "But after I heard about your movement, I knew that I needed to join you."

Oweye nodded. "That's true enough." He rose to his feet, reaching his hand out for Penvil to take. "I would be happy welcome you to the fight."

"Thank you." Penvil said beaming. Oweye gestured again and the security officers led him out.

As the captain sat down, Leeward looked at him in concern. "Jar are you sure that's wise?" He said.

"Penvil was part of security in Starfleet Command itself," Oweye said, "he voluntarily transferred himself to chief of security on the USS Rodney. He knows things that could he useful."

"That's all well and good but he attempted to frame Richard and Ellie Malcolm for conspiracy," Leeward said, "don't you think he might still have some resentment over that."

"I admit it's a risk," Oweye said calmly, "but there is danger in every move we make, and I am making this one. That settled, what about the transmission? Are we on schedule?"

"Yes," said Leeward, "Mister Forest is working with Bulstrum in engineering and they should have modified the beacon ready by the end of the day. The whole of the federation will hear us."

"That's if they would even listen."

"Jar, no matter what has happened these past weeks, you are still one of the most respected captains in the federation, they will listen," Leeward said.

Commander Leeward had entered the mess hall appearing very distressed. He only ordered a small coffee from the replicator and sat himself in the corner facing the window and the stars stretching off into the blackness. Before he had even a chance to take his first sip, Lieutenant Suhn had sat down in front of him. "Is their something wrong, sir?" Suhn asked.

"Of course not, Lieutenant," Leeward said, dismissing her.

"Come on, Phil," Suhn said, "How long have we known each other? There is something wrong. Is it about giving Penvil asylum?"

Leeward sighed. "It's about your father, I think he is making a mistake."

"When was the last time that happened?" Suhn said jokingly.

"Penvil could have a personal reason to work against us," Leeward pointed out, "Will Riley, Richard Malcolm, Dean Rown, James Coal, all of them were responsible for his arrest, I don't believe he wouldn't want some kind of revenge for that."

"Starfleet officers aren't trained to seek revenge," Suhn said.

"But he's not Starfleet any more." Leeward said shaking his head. "I don't like this, but I can't prove anything and there's no arguing with the captain once he's made up his mind. But that's not all: your father, he's acting like he knows something that the rest of us don't."

"He always acts like that."

"No, it's is different." Leeward said finishing his coffee.

The black alert sounded. The once well lit sickbay turned dark and crisp clean glass doors opened with a hiss. With the command to activate the spore drive coming in over the comm, the doctor stepped inside and hooked himself to the navigation chamber. Two devices stretched out and injected into his arms, and as his mind went to the coordinates of the next jump, Coal noticed that none of the spores had not been released into the chamber. The computer counted down and still no spores. Three. Two. One.

The jump hit him harder than any before. The full force of the stress placed on him as Coal fell forwards and his hands grasping his forehead. The entire ship turned, rocked and shook violently all at once.

"Sickbay to bridge," Coal said tapping his left ear once, "what's happening?"

"Many departments are no longer responding," a voice from the bridge said, "we are not sure, stand by." The sickbay doors slid open and Marh stepped in with five officers, all armed with phaser rifles and hand phasers.

"Marh, I assume this was you." Coal said, bring himself some dignity.

"I spread the word like you said," Marh said handing him a hand phaser, "and when they saw commander Rown being taken to the brig on a stretcher and still unconscious, the admirals cruelty is now obvious to everyone."

"Good, we need to take advantage of this before the bridge can react." Coal said, "quickly to the brig."

They entered the brig with their phasers out. The one security officer on duty raised his hands in panic. "Don't shoot!" He said, "I've never liked the admiral, I swear." The security officer lowered the forcefield to Rown's cell.

"Doctor what's going on?" Rown asked.

"It's time, Dean," Coal said, "we can wait no longer. Engineering is on strike and most of security is on our side."

Rown took one of the rifles. "Alright but set your phasers to stun, no one is dying."

"What about the admiral?" Marh asked.

"I will deal with him," Rown said, "Doctor you're with me, I'm gonna take Galeb alive."

Leeward pressed the door chime out in the corridor. After waiting a couple of moments, Penvil opened the door to his new quarters, looking as if he was placing something within his inside jacket pocket. "Commander, what's this visit for?" Penvil asked.

"The transmission is about to begin," he responded, "the captain wants you there as well." "But I'm new I would not have expected to be included."

"Neither would I," Leeward said, "but the captain wants you there, he wouldn't say why."

"Yes of course I'd be happy to be included," Penvil said as he smiled.

Before Penvil moved past, Leeward slammed his hand against the door frame. His arm cutting across Penvil's path. "The captain might trust you, but I don't. Remember that. If you're lying, I will find out and I will throw you out of an airlock." Penvil nodded and waited for Leeward to drop his arm before moving on.

Oweye waited as all of those shuffled down the corridor. Past walked Suhn with Forest at her side until Oweye called his daughter over to him. Suhn turned to Forest and told him to go on ahead before walking over to Oweye. "I'm glad for you and Mister Forest," Oweye said.

"Yes Connor and I are doing well," Suhn smiled, "It's difficult sometimes for him to know his ship is out there being chased, but he's happy to help out here."

"I'm glad," Oweye said. Then he held out his hand towards Suhn. "Here." Oweye handed his daughter the small golden necklace. Suhn took it gratefully, turning it over in her hands and running her finger over the etched 's' on its surface.

"This was your mother's," Oweye said, "ever since she died, you've been so good to me. You didn't have to transfer to my ship to look after me-"

"Dad I wanted to." Suhn insisted.

"But there was no need," Oweye said, "yet you did it anyway. That is a level of kindness I have ever met in your mother, and I am so proud you remind me of her." Suhn paused for a moment. Seeing her father say these things upset her and then Leewards concern for Oweye's safety came creeping in the back of her mind.

"What is this about?" Suhn asked, her voice breaking slightly. Oweye smiled and looked her in the eye.

"You and I never had closure before your mother died. I'm old, Suhn, I don't want you to go through that again."

"What do you mean?" Suhn asked desperately, "what is going to happen?"

A voice sounded down the corridor. "Would Captain Oweye please report to the bridge, the transmission is about to begin." Without answering, Oweye turned from Suhn and began walking down the corridor to the turbolift.

There was little resistance when Rown and Coal climbed the decks to the bridge. The sounds of phaser fire echoed down the corridor as the red alert blazed. The commander and the ships doctor moved quietly up the jeffries tubes to avoid detection. Rown knew that if the bridge detected him, Galeb would surely have him trapped behind a forcefield and their advance would be meaningless. Rown held onto the bars of the ladder leaving his free hand to prepare the release mechanism. Coal climbed up the ladder until he was on the same rungs as Rown and he could see his face through the bars. They had reached the highest the jeffries tubes would go, they were about to enter the bridge.

"Ready?" Rown asked and the doctor gave him a confident nod. Rown pulled the release lever and a hatch to their left opened with a hiss. Admiral Galeb was barking out orders left and right. Rown and Coal swung in from the ladder and the first blue bolt leapt across the bridge, a hairs breadth from Galeb's ear, as the doctor pulled the trigger.

The firefight was short. Before Rown could swing the rifle off his shoulder and into his arms, Galeb had already hidden himself behind the captains chair. Rown redirected his aim. Blue bolts from Rown's rifle impacted the helmsman, science officer and operations, as Coal dealt with the engineering and communications officers. From behind his chair, Galeb quickly tapped against the interface on the arm of his chair and a forcefield formed around Rown and Coal. All who were left standing was the tactical officer Cilia, Galeb himself, and Rown and Coal.

"You two," Galeb said gloating as he pulled himself up, "I expected Rown would not go down quietly, but I could never have known you two would commit mutiny."

"You ordered the attack on my life, unlawfully arrested me," Rown pointed out, "I'm simply here to put a stop to you. The Rodney and her crew have had enough of you."

"Excuse me?" Galeb said, moving closer to the forcefield, "who sits in that chair? I am the captain."

"You don't deserve that chair," Coal said.

"No," Galeb shook his head, "this is far beyond your distrust of me. I warned Paul Miller a long time ago to not go down this path, following the trail to Sagittarius. I have seen the Source of the signal, and believe me, what I'm doing will be a mercy compared to what they will be faced with at the end. A mercy for all of us."

"So you admit it," said Rown, "the Sagittarius signal is real. There is someone out there."

"Not that it matters to you," Galeb said. "Cilia, access the environmental controls within the forcefield and lower the oxygen pressure to zero."

"But that'll kill them sir," Cilia said.

"They are mutineers, just do it." Galeb said. Coal glanced over at Cilia and pleaded with him.

"Dan, please."

Galeb did not look back. 'Overconfidence', if Doctor Coal could sum the admiral up in a word. A single blue bolt of energy crossed the room and slammed into Galeb's back and he crumpled to the floor. Cilia had fired the shot. Stunned himself with his actions, he had stunned the admiral, rightfully it took a moment until Cilia finally lowered the forcefield. Doctor Coal thanked him. Rown tapped a button on the interface of the captains chair and spoke aloud. "Bridge to all decks, this is 'Captain' Dean Rown. The ship is ours."

Forest emerged from under the communications console near the front of the Shinwari's bridge. Wires and cables spewing out from it's innards as he crossed the bridge to Oweye standing central in the room. His senior staff, alongside Penvil, Captain Ward, Dawn and Jewel, Commander Leeward and Suhn all stood around the edges of the bridge.

"The transmission will start in thirty seconds," Forest, "simply talk to the screen as if we are hailing someone, because hopefully that's exactly what we will be doing to every receiver in the Federation."

"Thank you, Mister Forest," Oweye nodded.

To his surprise, Oweye held out his hand. Forest took it and returned to the crowd behind the captain. Oweye glanced around the bridge, the faces of his crew greeted him. His eyes moved down to the captains chair below him. He looked at it for a moment then returned to face forward to the bridge. On the screen, the countdown had begun, the final five seconds. Four. Three. Two. One.

Oweye took a deep breath and began to speak, clear and strong. "Ladies, Gentlemen and others of the United Federation of Planets. My name is Captain Jar Oweye and I speak to you today with great conviction and knowledge. I am aware of what Starfleet has told you; that Richard Malcolm was a murderer of nearly one hundred people on board a starship and Vulcan scientists, but yet here stands the captain of the USS Delaney with us; that I am a traitor threatening the security of the Federation citizens, and yet we provided food and supplies for federation's citizens on Invictous V, supplies stolen by Starfleet. You would rightfully have questions. The answers Starfleet would give you are simple and easy, but the truth is never so. All information I have collected can be found within this subspace transmission. Look into the files. Do your research on your own terms and you will see what Starfleet is doing. Analyse all the information and we must act quickly to prevent the slow dismantling of what we have built." And then it happened. A loud red blast soar across the bridge, the energy crashing into Captain Oweye's back.

There was a slight hissing sound from the wound as Oweye turned, his face pale and his eyes wide open. The Captain stood there staring towards Penvil holding a phaser out. Leeward moved quickly to the weapons locker at the back of the bridge, pushing through the crowd of officers. The locker was hanging open and the commander grabbed a hand phaser and opened fire on Penvil. The blue energy dissipated inches from Penvil's chest as the forcefield activated. Suhn stared at Oweye as his eyes slowly turned to face his daughter. He stayed standing despite the pain of the phaser blast burning through the flesh around the wound, but his strength soon failed. Falling back over his heels, Captain Oweye fell. But he never hit the floor. Suhn sprinted forward, cradling her father in her hands as Oweye panted quickly.

"It's okay, I have you," Suhn said quietly. She glanced back and the crowd had already taken hold of Penvil as Leeward wrestled to take the personal shield device off him. Oweye wheezed. Suhn looked around and called for medical attention, the ships doctor ran across the bridge with his medical tricorder out.

"Severe burns, disintergration of spinal tissue, major internal bleeding," the doctor said, "he got the full blast."

"But you can save him, right?" Suhn asked with tears running down her face. The doctor simply shook his head. Oweye was twitching slightly as he attempted to hold Suhn's hand. He stared deep into her eyes before finally even they dropped cold.

"No, no, no," Suhn repeated in panic. Forest had reached out to her shoulders and slowly brought Suhn to her feet.

"Suhn he's dead, there's nothing more we can do," he said softly. A small device flew across the room as Penvil's personal forcefield failed. The ex-lieutenant, now assassin, was held to the ground with commander Leeward holding a phaser to his temple set to kill. "We are still live," Forest said pulling away from Suhn, "I'll shut the transmission off."

The transmission, Suhn thought. This was going to the the moment where they could push past the propaganda and reveal the truth. But now they had just presented her father's death across the entire alpha quadrant. If they end it now, what Oweye hoped for would be destroyed. And now even Leeward looked like he was about to kill Penvil in front of everyone.

"Commander stop!" Suhn shouted. "Connor keep the transmission going."

"He killed Jar," Leeward said angrily, staring at a helpless Penvil down with a phaser. "Why do you care? He deserves to die."

"I know, but that's not what he would have wanted, and it's exactly what Collins wants us to do." Leeward sighed and closed his eyes. Eventually he looked like he was going to lower the phaser but instead tossed it with full force at the bulkhead. Suhn lowered herself to where Oweye's body lay and gently closed his eyes with her fingers. She then stood tall where her father once stood and, just like Oweye did, took a deep breath and spoke: "My name is Suhn Oweye, the last living relative of the man who was just murdered by Collins agents. Starfleet would have you believe we are the violent criminals, but their Head Admiral sent an assassin after once a dear friend, someone he once trusted, without any remorse. That's not right. So please remember this: we have every right to kill his assassin, but I refuse to lower ourselves to his barbarity, and we will act on what Jar Oweye would have wanted. Remember that."

The transmission shut off.

2:9 (United Starship Odyssey: Friendship and Rivalry Prt2)
The blue alert sounded in the Odyssey's shuttle bay. The Dragonfly came crashing in through the forcefield holding back the vacuum of space. The lower two nacelles scrapped against the bulkhead, pulling off the paint as the tractor beams pulled the shuttle to a safe stop. Ensigns Katie Staan and Sam Jervis approached the shuttle cautiously, tricorders extended scanning the interior with at least six Starforge engineers behind.

Sam stepped up the ladder and grasped the release latch. The hatch felt unusually heavy as she pulled the latch down but almost as soon as it was in the unlock position, the hatch flung open. A wave of a thick, guillotine like fluid of all manner of colours came rushing out of the open space, spilling all other the flight deck. Two figures where pulled through the open hatch along with the fluid, knocking Sam off the ladder as they fell.

Once seemingly the entire internal volume of the shuttle had poured out over them, the two figures pulled themselves up. They were both wearing hazmat suits and were covered in the strange fluid until they both removed their helmets. It was Lieutenant Charles Marteez and Lieutenant Commander Paul Miller.

"Computer cancel yellow alert," Katie said and the yellow lights ceased blinking into it's standard display. The two looked tired, placing their hands on their knees and panting for air, but they glanced at each other and began to laugh.

"You know you were supposed to bring back a couple of samples, not half of the bloody structure." Sam said wiping the fluid off with her sleeves.

"We did get a sample," Charlie said pointing all around the flight deck floor. Katie crossed her arms, clearly not amused by Charlie's joke.

"As soon as we entered the structure, this fluid began to pour in," Paul said.

"What about the shields?" Katie asked, "the Dragonfly has the most advanced deflector of all our shuttles."

"The pressure must have been too much," Paul explained, "it pushed through the shields and flooded the compartment. But we managed to get some sensor data from inside; it's huge, at least one hundred lightyears across, like a nebula made of a fluid."

"That's not all, we also detected trace deposits of duranium." Charlie said.

"Duranium?" Katie said, "But that's used in the construction of starships."

"I know but these seemed to just be cubes of duranium. We couldn't get close enough to do any proper scans." Charlie said. Then he noticed that Paul quickly pulled himself to the side, unzipping his hazmat suit. "Paul are you alright?"

Paul shook his head. His eyes were closed and it looked like he was about to vomit. He was having another one of his attacks. These happened sporadically in his life, something he had dealt with since he was a child.

"Paul take a breath," Charlie said, "just go get a shower, we'll be in the mess hall until next shift."

Paul nodded before starting to stride across the shuttlebay leaving the Starforge crew to clean up the mess.

The Odyssey sat a safe distance from the fluid nebula. Results from Paul and Charlie's mission into the nebula were still being analysed, but that did not stop Ellie from taking a padd of information to dinner in the mess hall. Malcolm sat, bored with his fist under his chin.

"Our best analysis still can't tell if it's one creature or trillions of microbes or if it's even alive at all." Ellie said, tapping the padd's screen. "Each cell is built like a tank, but they are all linked together in this protofluid. It's boiling point is incredibly low so it can hold it's liquid state even in a vacuum. It also seems to have some sort of chameleon properties, almost like a Changeling. It's really fascinating."

Malcolm hummed to himself and took a sip out of his drink. The captain glanced around the mess hall as Ellie continued to talk about the data. His eyes rolled over the room until they were drawn to a man standing at the replicator, due to him not wearing a Starfleet uniform, he must be Starforge. The man was clearly very frustrated at the replicator, shouting something about the rations and that he had hardly even had anything.

The man hit the bulkhead with the palm of his hand before striding out of the room, giving Malcolm a glare that made him look back to his own drink.

"Someone didn't know about the changes to the replicator rations," Ellie said, she must have noticed Malcolm watching the man.

"I haven't had any issues with them," Malcolm commented taking another sip.

"You don't eat replicated food," Ellie said, "even that drink was made in the galley."

"It all tastes like protein anyway," Malcolm said quickly.

Ellie waved to the door of the mess hall to a figure entering the room. Malcolm looked over and saw Commander Reka approaching the table.

"Good morning captain," Reka said.

Malcolm nodded. "Reka I noticed you called in sick yesterday, is there something wrong?"

"No I'm doing great, but I do have something to inform you about," Reka said, pausing for a second, "I have already told Dr Malcolm and Miss Gillian. I am having a child."

"I confirmed the test last night," Ellie smiled.

"Well that's fantastic, Reka," Malcolm said, "who is the mother?"

"It doesn't quite work like that," Reka said awkwardly. He looked about the room, opened the jacket of the uniform and raised the undershirt to reveal the bare scales underneath. Just below his left ribs was a piece of stretched red flesh, like a swollen rash. Reka must be carrying the baby.

"I didn't realise," Malcolm said.

Reka lowered his undershirt. "It's all well and fine. Quciee young have a gestration period of eighteen months, but we don't show any symptoms until nearly a year in."

"So that means-" Malcolm started to say before Reka finished his sentence.

"It means that the father is still on the homeworld nearly thirty thousand light years away," Reka said.

Malcolm stood up and shook his head. "I'm sorry, Reka, if there's anything I can do..."

A voice came over the comm. "Would Captain Malcolm please report to the bridge."

"Aknowledged." Malcolm said tapping his left ear before returning to Reka, "take as much time off as you need, and if you need anything just contact me." Malcolm moved away from the table and left the room for the bridge.

"It's a distress call," Miss Jennifer Gillian said to Malcolm as they stood at the back of the bridge. A rotating holographic projection of the fluid nebula between them and a single red light blinking just under the surface.

"Why didn't we detect it earlier?" Malcolm asked.

"We don't know," she said, "maybe it was transmitting on a different frequency until now? Or maybe the nebula has properties that interfere with the transmitter? Either way it's there now. Our tractor beam should be enough to pull it out."

"Well distress call or not, we can't risk what happened to the Dragonfly happening to the Odyssey as well, now can we?" Malcolm said.

"Actually I think we can pull them out without entering the nebula," Reece said, "the analysis shows that it's used to very low temperatures, if we use our thrusters at low power, the heat from them might be enough to encourage the fluid to move out of the way without hurting it."

"Are you sure it'll work?"

"Even plants grow towards light," Reece said, "if it's alive then it'll move away from arm and towards a beneficial position."

"Okay let's do this then." Malcolm said and they all moved to their stations on the bridge.

Reece pressed several buttons on the interface with the helm and the Odyssey began to move. Small bursts of blue light shifted the ship towards the nebula. The Odyssey flipped so it's ventral side was facing the nebula and the ship slowly lowered itself. As expected, the heat from the plasma approached the fluid and the fluid shifted out of the way. Seemingly miles upon miles moved in a ring around the ship until finally Gillian confirmed they had a tractor lock.

"Okay good, Reece pull us up." Malcolm said. The ventral thrusters engaged at full power as a blue beam reached into the fluid. The two ships rose but the bridge groaned under the strain. "Lieutenant, please don't pull the ship apart."

"I'm sorry captain," Reece said, "we almost have it out of the fluid."

"Captain, I'm reading a positive ID on the ship," Gillian reported looking up from her station.

"On screen." Malcolm ordered.

The viewscreen changed. No longer displaying the space directly in front of the ship, but now the view down the ventral hull. A ship that had projected the distress call was now being dragged out of the nebula. The fluid was distorting the ship but slowly the design of the ship became clear. A primary hull in the shape of a saucer; underneath a deflector dish with a single needle sticking out; two rectangular nacelles attached to a secondary hull with struts, each nacelle tipped with three red bussard collectors.

"It's federation," Gillian said. Malcolm stood up from his chair, watching the screen closely. The ship drifted forward as more of the ship became clear. The front of the saucer extended forward like a scoop over a smaller secondary deflector. Attached to the top of the neck was a specialised engineering pod. The ship appeared to be an identical copy of the Odyssey, but scrawled on its hull was the letters 'USS Neptune' and underneath the numbers 'NCC-208808.'

"The sensors are identifying it as a Miller class," Gillian commented, "but I worked at Starforge, only one was built."

"Red alert." Malcolm said. The lights in the bridge switched suddenly to a dark blinking red. "Lieutenant, how long until the Quantum Drive is ready?"

"At least another ten hours, captain." Reece responded.

"Disengage the tractor beam, raise shields." Malcolm said.

"Captain, they are hailing us." Gillian said.

"What? Why would Starfleet do that?" Malcolm asked before nodding to the screen, "on screen."

The screen switched to static but a female voice cut through. "Odyssey... still require assis-... please-..." It said. Malcolm recognised that voice. The picture cleared up and on the display was a small build brown haired woman.

"Sue?" Malcolm said in surprise. He indeed knew who the captain was, "Suzanne Hepchapper?" The crew around him stared at their captain.

"Good to see you, Rich," Hepchapper said, "now can you please help us out, we don't have enough power to pull us up."

"Yes sure," Malcolm nodded, "re-engage the tractor beam."

"But sir..." Reece said.

"It's okay, Lieutenant, we aren't going to attack you." Hepchapper assured him. After Gillian glanced between Reece and the captain, she gave in and a blue beam was projected out of the Odyssey's deflector.

The USS Odyssey and Neptune sat in safe orbit aroud the fluid nebula. Hepchapper had told them that new evidence supporting their story had come to light and now the Neptune, a newly built Miller class, was sent to assist the Odyssey. Malcolm had believed her, but with no way to confirm her story, much of the few were on edge with another federation ship so close by, as a result Malcolm told Hepchapper that they had to keep a phaser lock on the Neptune for special assurance.

"You don't really believe this, do you?" Reece asked picking up his plate from the replicator. He sat down with Miss Gillian and Riley in the mess hall as the two were unsure on what they thought. "I mean I've never even heard of this Captain Hepchapper, and you said Starforge had a contract to only build one Miller Class, didn't you Jen."

Gillian looked uncertain. "I was just a representative; HR department, customer satisfaction, a rep for engineers in meetings, that sort of thing. But I think I remember hearing about Starforge negotiations with Starfleet to extend our contract to build three more ships; the Aquarius, the Star's Light, and a third unnamed ship. It's possible that the third was the Neptune."

"I still don't like this," said Reece.

"Same with me," said Riley.

"I'm afraid we just have to trust the Captain on this," Gillian said.

Riley nodded. "I'm open to that. I trusted him when I was shot on that Romulan station, and I pulled through okay thanks to him despite how unsure I was." Riley looked over to the replicator and saw that there was no queue waiting. He stood from the table and took the steps towards it.

Soon after standing next to the replicator, Riley was approached by a short thin older man. It was Enfil, one of the oldest member of the crew and working with Starforge.

"Excuse me sir, I don't mean to intrude on you but I have no more daily rations," Enfil said politely.

Riley looked between the replicator and Enfil and smiled. "Of course what's it you want to order?"

"Red pepper quiche and goats cheese," he said.

Riley repeated the order and he handed the plate that materialised to Enfil. The skinny man smiled and thanked Riley before returning to his table.

Riley turned back to the replicator. "Raktajino, hot."

"Warning," a computerised voice sounded from the replicator, "you have expired your daily allowance of replicator rations."

Riley mumbled to himself before returning to the table. Gillian saw his frustration but said nothing, instead waving over Reka when she saw him enter the room. Reka took a seat at the table just as Riley sat down again. A small device was attached to the side of Reka's neck, a sensor monitoring his condition.

"Reka you planning a baby shower?" She asked.

"I hadn't thought about it," Reka responded.

"Oh come now you need a baby shower," Gillian said, "when is it due anyway?"

"Doctor Malcolm said about five months," he answered.

"Commander I just had a thought," Reece said, "and if you don't mind me asking, but there are female Quico..." Reka nodded and Reece continued, "you're a 'he' right? But you mentioned that the father is on the homeworld?"

"I am a 'he,' that's what I chose," that's all Reka would say.

"Are you excited for the baby?" Gillian asked.

"Of course," Reka said with the best hint his face could produce a smile, "Quico culture is based in acquiring knowledge, what better feeling could there be than to know now I can pass on what I have learnt to another."

They all quietly nodded.

Malcolm sat in Hepchapper's ready room on board the USS Neptune. It was unusually bare from wall to wall and was laid out in a identical fashion to his own on the Odyssey however Malcolm remained preoccupied with getting used to the feeling of sitting on the other side of the desk to notice.

"The Terran version of the Odyssey was discovered a couple of months ago," Hepchapper said, "it took us a while to figure out that it meant, but thanks to your friend Oweye, the charges against the Odyssey have been dropped. The Neptune was sent soon after as it was the only Miller class which had completed construction; except the Odyssey of course. I contacted Admiral Galeb of the news as soon as we were in range to call off the hunt on you."

"So that's that then." Malcolm said.

"That's that," Hepchapper repeated, "you're in the clear now, Rich, you can go home if you want."

"You know I can't yet," Macolm said, "I've a job to do, and my crew and I have gone through so much to just turn around."

"You won't have to, Starfleet sent us to assist you," she said, "I have to admit, Rich, you've got an impressive ship."

"The Neptune will prove herself soon enough."

"Maybe, maybe not, but you faced down a Borg Sphere," Hepchapper said leaning forward. Malcolm looked at her in confusion, they had not yet reported they were attacked by a Borg Sphere weeks ago to any member of the Neptune's crew. Hepchapper saw this and quickly explained herself, "we sent a recon forward some time ago to scout out safe jump points and we detected the battle on long range scanners."

"Why didn't you arrive sooner if you're scout was only one jump away?" Malcolm asked.

"Well unfortunately the Quantum Warp drive onboard the Neptune had began to develop faults, navigation became near impossible with is why we ended up in the nebula." Hepchapper explained. "Unfortunately the fluid must have done far more damage than we realised because our drive is damaged."

"Luckily for you then, Sue," Malcolm pointed, "because on board the Odyssey we have the inventor of that particular engine himself and I'm sure he'd love to assist in any repairs you need. Lieutenant Miller would also appreciate taking a look at the improvements you have made."

"That is not necessary," Hepchapper said, but Malcolm insisted. Hepchapper cautiously agreed. "You know Richard, I would really like a tour of the Odyssey. The lay out is basically the same to the Neptune but I need proof that you're actually in charge of a star ship."

"Sometimes so do I," Malcolm said coming to his feet, "I will make the preparations, transport over in about half an hour."

The time past and Malcolm awaited Hepchapper's arrival in the transporter room. Gillian stood at his side as three pillars of light as Hepchapper appeared flanked by two men, one Vulcan in a white uniform and the other human in crimson red.

"Welcome aboard captain," Malcolm said, "this is my first officer Miss Jennifer Gillian." Gillian shook her hand.

"'Captain,' I still have to get used to that," Hepchapper said, "this is my first officer commander David Lock, and my chief of medicine doctor T'Nal. You shouldn't mind if Lock here takes a look around on his own, he promised to not interfere with departments."

"Of course he can," Malcolm said.

They all shook hands and Malcolm gestured out the door. They followed him down the corridor as they exited the transporter room. As they turned a corner, they heard the sound of someone running and a voice calling out go them.

"Rich wait up!" It was Ellie, coming to a walk as she arrived along side Malcolm.

"Ah so you must be Elena," Hepchapper said.

"'Ellie' is fine," she responded.

"You know, Richard never told me he had a sister," Hepchapper said before Malcolm quickly corrected her.

"Oh no we aren't related, we are partners," Malcolm said, "it isn't specific on the file because it could be seen as a conflict of interests."

"It wouldn't be the only time he's failed to mention some details," Ellie commented, "Rich can I talk to you for a second?"

Malcolm nodded. "Of course. Jen just show them to the messhall."

The party separated as Hepchapper and T'Nal were led off leaving Malcolm and Ellie behind.

"El what's this about?" Malcolm asked.

"'What's this about?'" Ellie repeated, "Rich there are people talking, and all I want to know is who she is to you. Because the file says you two grew up together and yet in eight years you've hardly mentioned her."

"Please we will talk about this later," Malcolm tried to assure her, "later."

"Excuse me, I hope I am not interrupting," T'Nal said to the two's surprise. He must have headed back from the group without anyone noticing.

"Not at all," Malcolm said, "what can I do for you?"

T'Nal turned to face Ellie without even noticing the captain. "Doctor I believe it would be more appropriate to have a tour of your medical facilities as much as captain Hepchapper seems interested in the social areas."

"Erm- sure, of course," Ellie said, "come this way."

Ellie glared at Malcolm as she led doctor T'Nal down the corridor.

"Later." He mouthed.

"So here we are then," Ellie said as they entered the sickbay through the wide transparent doors. "This is the primary sickbay. Odyssey was built with four sickbays; this one, one at the forward section of the saucer, one near the rear shuttlebay, and a small clinic on deck 11 but we decided since the size of the ship compared with the crew then we would only use two of them. Saves on power then as well."

T'Nal nodded slightly, as if he hadn't been paying that much attention. "How many patients can this medical centre hold?"

"At maximum capacity? About 20 but that can be doubled if we use the stretchers." Ellie counted.

"If you decrease the space between the biobeds by one and a quarter inches then you will able to place another bed at the end of each row." T'Nal commented. "Now I suppose you have a mark-4 Emergency Medical Hologram."

"A mark-3 actually." Ellie corrected.

T'Nal just made a simple clicking noise with his tongue shaking his head. "Outdated technology. Lack of supplies and low capacity. The skirt variant of the uniform is not one for the head of a department. I am surprised honestly that anyone is treated in a place like this. Your office is just through there?" T'Nal gestured towards her office door.

Ellie nodded and mouthed something under her breath as soon as T'Nal turned his back.

Sparks flew as Charlie Marteez attempted to burn through the thick metal grey plates of the warped nano-molecular armour from their battle with the Borg Sphere. He held the burn for a solid sixty seconds before removing the laser away. To his disappointment, the plate went from a dull orange to a cold solid grey. Undamaged.

"No luck?" Katie asked as she moved from behind a console. Charlie shook his head and jumped down from the railings the armour plates sat. "We'll get it eventually."

"What we need is a molecular laser cutter," Sam said. "That armour is built to withstand a full barrage of Borg, Romulan and Dominion payloads."

"The Borg broke through it," Charlie said. "But she's right, there's no way that these cutters could."

The door slid open and Paul entered the room with a smile on his face.

"Paul, did you ask about the molecular laser cutter?" Sam asked.

Paul's face dropped and he glanced around the room. "Sorry I forgot to ask, with all this with the Neptune coming up."

Sam scoffed quietly.

"They have made some modifications to my engine design," Paul said. "Somehow they can achieve up to Quantum Velocity 3.4, well over twice our top speed, and then they can sustain that for nearly 30 hours."

"So what they need us for, they could reach Sagitarrius in a matter of months, why are they just hanging around?" Charlie asked.

"Well they have trouble with navigation," Paul said, "so on their last jump they slammed right into the fluid nebula. It flooded their bussard collectors and warp coils, and now they need me to help repair their quantum engine. Anyone want to go with me to the Neptune?"

"I'm sorry Paul but I need to work on these blades of armour," Charlie said, "if I don't soon then we don't be able to activate the armour."

Paul glanced over to Sam and Katie. "How about you two?"

Katie appeared like she was about to speak but Sam butted in- "you want us to go over to the Neptune? Has everyone forgotten about the last year of on the run?" She said, Paul looked at her quietly. "The Sagittarius signal, we know, can influence people, how do we know that this isn't some sort of trap?" Sam was speaking loudly, not quite shouting but loud enough Charlie could see it was making Paul uncomfortable.

"Sam please just don't," Charlie defended.

"No I'm serious," Sam retorted, "Who says that Starfleet is no longer hunting us? They are. Starfleet. They killed Gregory Cruford, need I remind you."

"That's unfair-" Charlie said but Paul spoke up.

"Sam I want to believe they are telling the truth," he said. "I have to. None of us can carry on like this for much longer; no friends; no allies. I'm going over there to see what I can do to help, Katie are you coming over?"

Katie shook her head. "I'm sorry but I agree with Sam. If you need help then you can take L-1 over."

"No," Paul said, "I'll be fine on my own."

The lieutenant commander turned and began to make his way out of the room. As the door slid closed, Katie glanced over to where L-1 sat. Powered down and wires protruding out of the back of his head, he had formed a small alcove of his own in the corner of engineering.

"Why would he go on his own?" Katie asked as Sam moved back behind the control panel.

"Paul is still upset about Koba," Charlie said.

The door chimed as the captain crossed his quarters. He opened the door, and there stood Hepchapper who immediately stretched her arms out and embraced Malcolm.

"Sorry I'm late," Hepchapper said. Malcolm had invited her for dinner in his quarters, Ellie stood next to the table as he assured Hepchapper inside.

"No it's fine," Malcolm said.

Hepchapper took one look at the table and glanced around uncertain. The table, which normally was just enough to fit two people, was covered in plates of food with just enough space for sharing plates.

"What's all this?" Hepchapper asked in a sort of happy-surprised way. "I hope I wasn't such a hassle to the chef."

"There was no hassle for him," Malcolm said. "Its all replicated."

Hepchapper and Ellie both looked at him shocked. "But Richard I thought you hated replicated food."

"I do," Malcolm said, "but you like it and I hadn't used any of my replicator rations and I thought this was good enough time as any."

The three all sat down at the table and began tucking in, taking food from the middle of the table onto their own smaller table. Ellie and Hepchapper began to eat, and Malcolm noticeably took less.

"So how do you two know each other?" Ellie asked. Malcolm gave her a quiet look of annoyance.

"Sue and I attended the same school together on Apollo City," Malcolm explained reluctantly before Hepchapper opened her mouth. "And..." Malcolm paused.

"And what?" Ellie asked curiously.

"And sort of, kinda, dated each other when we were teenagers," Malcolm said.

"'Sort of, kinda'?" Ellie asked.

"Richard has always had a way with words, hasn't he?" Hepchapper said sarcastically.

"We broke it off before we went to Academy," Malcolm continued. "It seemed like the best thing to do. We hardly spent anytime together anyway, she lived on the southern module, and I grew up on the western module."

Hepchapper nodded.

"So how long have you two been together?" Hepchapper asked after she took another bite.

"Eight years now," Ellie said, "And not once did he mention you."

"Oh come on I must have mentioned her at some point."

Ellie shook her head. Frustration at Malcolm had slowly crept up on her but only now had it began to boil over.

"Well I'm sorry I didn't," Malcolm argued. "It never really came up."

Ellie had to get out of there. She stood up and quickly came up with an excuse. "I'm sorry, I just remembered nurse Calahad needed me in sickbay."

She stormed out of the room and Malcolm called after her.

"Ellie wait!" Malcolm called after her as the two strode down the corridor.

"Don't say anything, captain," Ellie said. "You two can talk about your old times together since you don't want to talk to me about it." Ellie was entering the turbolift as Malcolm caught up with her.

"That's not what I meant," Malcolm said.

"Well you've had eight years to mean something else." Ellie said as she closed the door in front of Malcolm's face.

Paul shook the hand of a tall thin man as he entered an engineering lab. He called himself Cyrus Young, the chief engineer on board the Neptune. Paul walked around the cylindrical room, much like the one on the Odyssey, consoles lining the walls all facing inwards- facing a central pillar- metal tubes closing in on themselves like a cage. The Quantum Velocity Warp engine. His engine. Optimised beyond his original design.

"You haven't modified the casing," Paul commented staring up and down it's design.

"Yes it was simpler to maintain the case form as the Miller class is tuned for it," Young said. "Redesigning it would require redesigning the entire engineer pod."

Paul nodded. "Fair enough."

"Right let's get started then," Young said. Paul moved over to the diagnostic console and began running over the analysis.

"Nothing seems to be coming up on the sensors." Paul said glancing between the screen and the casing. The console bleeped loudly as Paul double checked the results. "The suspension matrix, the energy feedback loop, nothing seems to be wrong. I better open it up and have a look."

From his golden overcoat, Paul pulled out a small silver cylindrical device. He knelt down, placing the device against the four corners of the bulkhead and a plate of metal dropped off. Paul examined the innards of the engine.

After a few moments, Paul noticed something odd; every wire, board, tube or piece of circuitry as in the exact same place they were on the Odyssey. As if someone had built an identical copy from schematics. No modifications or improvements that would suggest the design was changed in any way. Right before Paul could say anything about it, a thud impacted the back of Paul's head and everything dropped into blackness.

Commander Reka was called to sickbay. Walking through the wide glass doors, he asked what was wrong as he saw the look of concern on Ellie's face.

"Commander can you sit down please?" Ellie asked politely and Reka quietly nodded and planted himself down on the nearest biobed.

"What's this about doctor?" Reka asked inquisitively.

"Something came up," Ellie tried to explain, her voice noticeably hiding something behind it, "as I was overlooking the data from today's report on your condition, I noticed something."

"What's wrong?" Reka asked, beginning to panic slightly.

"Remember when we encountered the Quark Star, we were all dosed with significant amounts of gamma radiation," Ellie said, "I purged the crew of all the radiation but Quico biology is different. There's a lot Starfleet Medical still doesn't understand-"

"What are you saying?" Reka demanded. Ellie sighed."The ambient radiation poisoning left after the purge was circulated through your system and was eventually absorbed into the infant. I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do, it's already too far gone."

The news hit Reka like a ton of bricks. But the commander still tried his best to maintain his composure to Ellie's surprise.

"Is that all?" Reka asked.

"Yes, that's all," Ellie said quietly, gesturing to the door to indicate it was okay for him to go.

Without even hesitating, Reka rose from the bed and exited the sickbay quickly. It was not until Reka was a good way down the corridor before the news fully sank in. Anger, self loathing, guilt at himself bubbled up, eventually releasing in one massive spurt of emotion. His fist impacted the bulkhead and the clang echoed down the corridor.

Grasping his sore fist, Reka fell to the floor in his own tears. From behind his hands, two Starfleet boots were placed in his eyeline.

"Excuse me," a mans voice said, "are you alright?" The figure knelt down so his face was in front of Reka's.

Reka did not recognise this man, but he noticed he was wearing a crimson uniform and three silver bars were attached to his right breast pocket signifying that he was a commander.

"Commander David Lock," he said politely reaching out his hand for Reka to take. "I'm from the Neptune."

"Commander Reka," he responded. Using the hand Lock had given him, Reka pulled himself up to a standing.

"Ah of course," Lock said. "Might I ask, commander, what were you doing down there?"

Reka reluctantly agreed as he gestured for them to start walking down the corridor, he did not feel comfortable talking about this so close to the sickbay.

As they were some distance from the two glass doors of the medical centre and was now approaching the turbolift, Reka opened up to the Neptune's commander. After Reka had finished explaining the situation to him, Lock nodded cautiously.

"Ah I see, I am so sorry," Lock said. "Its always difficult losing a child."

"It's my fault, I convinced the captain to head into that star field," Reka said. "I thought all this time that no one had gotten hurt..."

Lock shook his head. "No, no, you cannot blame yourself for this. Its a terrible thing and I dont understand what you must be going through but it is not your fault. You had no idea that going into that star field would cause this." There was a moment of silence as they waited for the turbolift. "Tell me commander, what's your feelings about captain Malcolm? I hear he placed a civilian as first officer over you."

"That was his choice," Reka explained. "It was a way for him to unite the Starfleet officers and the Starforge personnel. Starforge does, after all, take up the majority of the crew."

"Yes but do you believe it was the right decision?" Asked Lock.

"It doesn't matter what I think." Reka said.

"I think it does," Lock said, "I've spoken to much of the crew over the last hour and many, Starforge especially, seem to lack confidence in captain Malcolm."

"He just hasn't managed to prove himself as a leader since the war, quite often he puts himself across as a friend rather than a captain," Reka said. "It's only a matter of time."

"If you say so," Lock said. "But if you ask me, he does not receive the same level of admiration that Captain Hepchapper does from me and my crew, and one of his first decisions that demonstrated this was overlooking you for the First Officer position. Just think, maybe a tragity like this would not have happened under Quico management? Just food for thought." Lock and Reka both stepped into the turbolift in silence, leaving the commander to think of what Lock had said.

Captain Suzanne Hepchapper opened the door to her ready room as Ellie pressed the door chime. The captain appeared surprised, and even Ellie herself was unsure of what she intended to do, especially after storming out of the dinner a few hours ago. Nevertheless, Ellie asked politely if she could enter. Hepchapper nodded and the two took a seat either side of the desk.

"What is the meaning of this pleasure?" Hepchapper asked cautiously smiling. "I'm sorry for leaving dinner like I did," Ellie apologised, "I just got flustered, but recent developments have put things into perspective." She explained but Hepchapper just put her hand out in a quick interrupting gesture.

"It's alright, Doctor, it's quite alright," Hepchapper said. "I was surprised Richard hadn't mentioned me."

"Well the job has always gotten in the way of our marriage," Ellie commented. She rubbed the back of her neck and smiled. "Which is funny because plenty have always thought it was the other way round."

Hepchapper laughed and the two women went quiet for a few moments. Ellie watched Hepchapper slowly cautiously closed the computer screen on her desk, and the thought that the captain did not want Ellie to see what was on it crept on to the back of her head.

"So, you and Rich grew up together on Apollo City," Ellie said trying to move past that feeling. "What was that like?"

"Well, as Richard said, I was raised in the Southern Module so him and I couldn't spend as much time together as we would have liked."

"Is the Southern Module nicer than the Western?" Ellie asked and Hepchapper simply shrugged. Ellie as beginning to feel like Hepchapper was very difficult to get anything personal out of, but she continued on her own nevertheless, "I only went to the western module once, it was a visit to Rich's parents; Lunar is quite beautiful, don't you think?"

Hepchapper nodded but she didn't really speak.

"Tell me something about it, I am thinking of visiting again once this is all over. Maybe you could come with us and show us around your home town?" Ellie said, almost prying for something.

"Well the Southern Module was half a mile from Central, connected by a hyporail track with each module built around a hub-"

Ellie interrupted her comments. "No, those are just facts. What about something personal?"

"I'm sorry I don't understand," Hepchapper said.

"I've heard how Richard has talked about growing up in Apollo City; how he feels about being called a 'Lunar Schooner'; what it was like the first time he felt a full 1g gravity when he arrived in San Francisco; how the tallest structures in Apollo City were built like they were pointing to Earth in the sky and how Earth remained un-moving. Things that only someone who grew up their would know, not what the archives would tell you."

"Elena please," Hepchapper said but the doctor quickly rose to her feet.

"You're lying, this is some sort of trick," Ellie said as the realisation hit her. "From Starfleet or from someone else." She tapped her ear twice to call for help from the Odyssey but was only met with static.

Hepchapper closed her eyes and shoot her head in disappointment. "I hoped to minimise the amount of officers I removed from the Odyssey."

Two security officers dressed in crimson red stepped inside. Ellie grabbed anything from the desk, a small cylindrical device, probably a piece of engineering equipment reached her hand. Striking with significant strength, the cylinder impacted the face of the officer to her right. What she saw afterwards shocked her. The flesh was heavily displaced almost like it was melted on. But the flesh was inhuman, slowly blending itself to a black fluid with all manner colours flecked within it, the same fluid from the nebula.

"Captain, we need to talk," Jennifer said as she entered the ready room. Malcolm did not expect her entrance and he dropped the report he was overveiwing as his first officer sat down in front of him. "These replicator rations are simply too harsh."

Malcolm commented that he had been hearing this since he gave the order. "The rations are directly tied to duty, if anyone wants more rations then they can easily apply for new duties."

"Except it's not that simple," Gillian said. "I have many reports from Starforge personnel that when they put their name down, they are guaranteed to be overlooked by the Starfleet departmental heads for officers of lesser ability from their own teams."

"Well that's understandable," Malcolm commented. "People often choose to work with those they are familiar with."

"But do you know that the rations earnt for the duties isn't even enough?" Gillian reported. "Not only have I seen Mister Enfil essentially beg for other people's rations, but also once Lieutenant Riley had provided what he asked for, your chief of security no longer had enough rations for himself."

Malcolm put his hand up. "This is a serious issue, I understand that, but until we find another source of dilithium we haven't the energy to increase rations. On the other hand, I will talk to the department heads about this, Starfleet and Starforge will be placed on equal footing."

"Thank you, captain," Gillian nodded. A voice came in over the comm, it was a communications officer as it hailed for the two. "Captain, ma'am, you both are required on the bridge."

Malcolm quickly rose from his seat and passed through the door into the bridge.

"What is it?" He asked as he approached communications.

"There is a transmission coming from the Neptune, sir," the officer said, "one way only but it's being broadcast shipwide."

"On screen."

A recording of Captain Hepchapper sitting behind her desk appeared on the bridge viewscreen, catching everyone's attention. "Starfleet officers and Starforge personnel alike," she said, "my name is captain Suzanne Hepchapper from the USS Neptune. Many of you are aware of us, some of you have even discussed your concerns to my second in command, but now I speak to you directly. For these many months, your captain has asked you to go on this perilous journey with him, and time and time again he has recklessly forgotten the sacrifice many of you made for this ship. Continually he has cut replicator rations whilst he himself remains unaffected, overlooking officers for promotions, placed his own personal feelings ahead of the safety of the crew. Is it at all right that his wife serves as the chief of medical? Or that her brother remains the chief engineer despite psychoanalysis have deemed him unfit for a leadership role. You have crossed the galaxy, suffered, and even survived an attack from the Borg. And what has he showed you in return? Nothing. Now I understand much of the crew still has respect for Captain Malcolm, and I admire that, but to them I present you with this..."

As the transmission loaded the new footage, there was a temporary pause in the message where Malcolm took advantage to ask if it could be blocked. The communications officer simply shook his head.

Suddenly, the viewscreen switched to footage of Malcolm himself. Old footage. From the scarring of the skin, it appeared to be when they were trapped in the gravitational well of the Quark starfield.

"In truth, as I look back now," Malcolm in the footage began to say, "five months we've been out here, and the first anomaly we encounter has already ended it. I've allowed myself to become obsessed with getting to the source, so much that I would abandon one of our own. But now I realise that I would rather have been anywhere else then in command of this mission. I just want to go home. Before the Terrans. Before the war. Before everything, back home." The transmission cut.

Malcolm looked round and saw that much of the crew was staring at him. The captain thought back to when the footage was made, he had saved it to his personal files. But how could Hepchapper have access to it? Malcolm thought back, the only time she would have had the chance to take it must have been the brief minutes he left her alone in his quarters to catch up with Ellie. That means she knew exactly what to look for.

"Reece, when is the quantum engines ready?" Malcolm said uncertain.

"Still another hour, sir," Reece said, a bitterness stung within his voice. Malcolm looked out at the Neptune, a feeling of resentment built up inside of himself, until finally he turned to Riley.

"Lieutenant, prepare weapons, target the Neptunes engines." He said.

"You have to be joking," Gillian interjected.

"They have declared their intentions against us," Malcolm said, "they betrayed us."

"You mean she betrayed you." Gillian said. Malcolm didn't answer. "What did you expect anyway? Both Miller and Ellie are on the Neptune."

"What?" Malcolm asked.

The operations station signalled loudly for their attention. Gillian moved over and reported that Hepchapper was preparing to beam over.

"Have a security team meet me in transporter room." Malcolm ordered.

Malcolm felt the eyes of his crew staring at him as he crossed the corridor. The security team he had requested was nowhere insight. Only Riley who had followed him from the bridge was at his side.

Six pillars of light formed on the transporter pads. Hepchapper and five Neptune security officers formed in front of Malcolm as he stood waiting in transporter room one.

"Sue what do you think you are doing?" Malcolm almost shouted.

"Captain, at the request of many of your crew, I am taking command of the Odyssey," Hepchapper said.

"You can't simply do that." Stated Malcolm.

"I can according to Starfleet Regulation 19," Hepchapper said.

"You can't quote me Starfleet Regulation," Malcolm snorted, "we are so far out into space, none of that matters out here."

"You say that and you still wear that badge," Hepchapper commented, "and that uniform?"

Malcolm paused for a moment. He stepped forward as panic and anger grew with within him. Speaking quietly, Malcolm pleaded with Hepchapper to stop this.

"I want to say I will regret doing this," Hepchapper said. "But that would be a lie."

The feeling of anxiety and anger overwhelmed Malcolm. He spun round and grabbed the handphaser out of Riley's holster. Hepchapper didn't even flinch as Malcolm pointed the phaser right at her head, even despite every security officers reacting.

"You wouldn't." Hepchapper said.

Malcolm felt uncertain holding the phaser. "I genuinely don't know."

"Captain, stop this." Malcolm heard Riley say from behind.

The door slid open and the sight of Commander Reka temporarily took Malcolm off balance. He looked sad and even ashamed. His eyes told Malcolm what he had done, allowing Hepchapper to highjack the Odyssey's comm system to transmit that message. Before he could restablish his thoughts, Malcolm felt a electric energy pass through his body as he dropped to the floor.

"He's coming around," a woman's voice said. Malcolm had begun to stir, jumping awake as he felt a hand slapping his face. He opened his eyes and was met with the sight of a short haired woman, taking a couple of moments to recognise her as Ellie.

Malcolm sat up, to his right, Paul lent against the wall. "Malcolm to Odyssey." He said tapping his left ear twice but was only met with static.

"I've tried to contact the Odyssey already," Ellie said.

"There is a damp-dampening field set up around this room." Paul mentioned.

"How long have I been out?" Malcolm asked. Paul mentioned he wasn't sure but Ellie said it must have been at least an hour.

Malcolm scanned the room with his eyes, four projectors were fitted to the walls, and a small rectangular window was on the far side wall. Malcolm rose to his feet, staring out of the window. In the distance, the Odyssey sat blinking against the stars, oddly alone in space.

"This feels bad." Malcolm said slowly.

The Odyssey's red tipped nacelles turned to a bright white light. Plates formed over the warpcoils as a bubble surrounded the ship. Suddenly the Odyssey ripped forward at incredible speed, leaving Malcolm's sight long behind, trapped with their ship flying away.

2:10 (United Starship Odyssey: The Gulnest Stratagem Prt3)
Paul Miller was in panic. Seeing the Odyssey abandoning them like that had set off his anxiety attacks to maximum. His head in his hands, Paul felt like he was about to throw up as Ellie tried to calm him down.

Malcolm was desperately trying to find a way out of the small confined room. A loose bulkhead, a Jeffriestube hatch, anything. There was no door, only the window and four projectors fitted to each wall.

"It's going to be okay, Paul," Ellie said quietly. "Just try to take your mind off it, like what is this room."

Paul took a moment. He kept shaking but slowly he swallowed and began to speculate. "Those four devices, they are holoprojectors. The ceiling, those are perception modifiers and replication units. This is a holodeck."

"Why would they put us in a holodeck and not a cell?" Malcolm asked but Paul simply shook his head.

"Both of us just woke up in here." Ellie said. "But how did we even get in here? Where is this?"

"Hang on, look at this." Malcolm said. He found a seam in the wall."Paul do you think there would be an access panel behind this?"

Paul nodded. "But I'm gonna need a magnetic decompiler to get it off. I had one on me but I must have dropped it when I was knocked out."

Then Ellie had an idea. Much earlier she had picked up a small cylindrical device in Hepchapper's ready room. She checked her pockets and sure enough, there it was.

"You mean this?" Ellie asked holding the metal device out.

Paul smiled and took the device, crossing the room towards Malcolm. He placed the decompiler against the four edges of the seam, and then with a hiss, the bulkhead dropped off the wall.

"Good man, Paul," Malcolm smiled, yet the sight of no Odyssey in the small window quietly haunted him.

The Odyssey had been changing course since they went on ahead from the Neptune. It seemed every fifteen minutes or so, Captain Hepchapper placed a new set of coordinates for Reece to follow. She claimed to the crew that the Neptune had detected another distress signal far across the surface of the fluid nebula, but no one in the crew had heard this distress call. Not Reece, or Gillian or Reka. Regardless of this, the one thing they knew for sure was that the distress call was leading them further and further away from the Neptune and their former captain.

Gillian in particular had been met with a certain level of hostility from Hepchapper for her presence on the bridge. Once she returned from refreshing herself, Gillian found the door to the bridge blocked by a security officer.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but the command bridge is authorised personnel only," he said placing his arm across her chest.

"But I am authorised," Gillian commented.

"When you was under Captain Malcolm, you were," the officer said. "But you are no longer the First Officer."

"Well who is replacing me?" She asked. "Commander Reka."

Gillian looked around the bridge, the captain's chair was empty and many of the officers awkwardly avoided eye contact. Reece and Riley turned around all the same watching what was happening.

"Riley can you please talk to him?" Gillian pleaded after noticing him leaning over his console.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but he came over with Hepchapper from the Neptune," Riley responded. "He only takes orders from her."

Gillian sighed deeply before turning on her heel. She slammed the button to the turbolift as the door slid closed behind her.

Malcolm, Ellie and Paul shivered quietly in the cold room. Their breath was visible in the air as the temperature since the Odyssey departed had dropped rapidly. Paul continued to fiddle with the projector, his fingers sore and building to a deep red. Malcolm cupped his hands together and blew warm air into them before shoving them back into his pockets.

"Are we sure we can't fix the environmental controls?" Malcolm asked.

"I can't access them from in here," Paul said. "Why would they be doing this?" Malcolm asked rhetorically. "Even the air is getting thin."

"I don't think anyone is doing this." Paul tapped a makeshift screen he had made at the rear of the projector and a floating hologram appeared in the centre of the air. It was a slightly rectangular cube, plates lined it's surface as each side had what appeared to be an engine attached.

"Paul what are we looking at?" Ellie said as the three rose to their feet.

Paul touched the screen once more and a display of information appeared alongside the hologram.

"When I was looking for a way out of here like jefferies tube access or transporter control, instead I noticed something strange." Paul commented. "None of this technology seems to be Starfleet, but there is a complete copy of the Odyssey's entire database. At a guess, this seems to be the same duranium cubes Marteez and I detected when we took the Dragonfly into the nebula." Paul quickly snapped his fingers as something came to him. "The engine design was identical to the one on the Odyssey. When the Dragonfly flooded they must have collected the information from the shuttles computer and sent it back in order to replicate and later fool us."

"Paul, slow down, I don't get it," Malcolm said, "where is the Neptune then?"

"Tha-that is the Neptune." Paul stated pointing at the small floating hologram. "This is a holoship, designed to project an environment, not only on the inside but the outside as well. They would only nee-need to simulate one or two rooms, the crew could also all be just holograms. There probably was only ten people who were actually real to sell the illusion."

"So Hepchapper and the others are, what?" Malcolm asked. "Aliens who lived in the nebula?"

"No I don't think they are from the nebula," Ellie interrupted. "When I was captured, I hit one of the guards that grabbed me. It was as if his flesh was not real, displacing itself like the fluid was attempting to hold a shape. The fluid is not really a liquid, it's a Super Critical Fluid made up of trillions of individual cells which could theoretically appear however it wished. I said myself that the fluid has chameleon like qualities."

"Well why take the form of Suzanne?" Malcolm asked.

"They must have known you would have trusted her," Ellie answered. "If they had access to our database then it was just a matter of filling in a couple of blanks and we would have no way to verify."

Malcolm glanced between the two. "Hang on, so you're saying that an alien space liquid has disguised itself as my ex to take over my ship." Both Ellie and Paul nodded. Malcolm retreated back to the window. "She knew exactly where to hit us; taking the form of Suzanne to distance each other; disguising the ship as a Miller class to draw Paul out; a recording of me admitting I didn't want to come." Malcolm turned turned from the window to face the two. "We're done, it's over. You'se has a chance of going back, but I just can't."

"Wait what about the mission?" Ellie asked. Malcolm shook his head. "I'm done. Starforge all hate me, and now even Reka turned on me."

"You can't just give up."

"I can, you can either come with me to some planet far away from Starfleet or that damn signal and hope that we can live full lives together, or you can go back to the Odyssey. But whatever you pick, I'm out, I can't help anymore." Malcolm said. Ellie didn't know what to say to him. She simply stared frustrated at him. Malcolm muttered to himself, "Oweye gave me this chance once, I'm taking this now," and turned to Paul. "We picked up a distress call from this holoship, so there must be a long range transponder on board. I need you to send out a distress call on a Starfleet frequency. The Rodney is our best chance of getting off this ship, do lets hope we've caught them at a good time."

Paul glanced to Ellie who was clearly very upset over what had happened, nodded, and then turned to get to work.

T'Nal had replaced Doctor Malcolm as chief of Medical on board the USS Odyssey for the time being. He had told everyone that Ellie was simply was engrossed in a scientific project she could only perform on the Neptune.

As a result, Reka was required to attend appointments with T'Nal so he could monitor his body and the eventual removal of the perished infant. When the last injection from the hypospray, a thought crossed Reka's mind. The normal datastream of information usually sent down by Ellie had gone silent as the science labs were no longer receiving information about the fluid from the nebula. Curious about this, the commander spoke his mind.

"Well commander it's quite simple," T'Nal said. "The reason why you are no longer receiving results from my experiments on the Gulnest protofluid is because I am bit performing any experiments."

"Gulnest?" Reka asked.

T'Nal visibly paused. "While the USS Neptune was trapped in the nebula, I and the chief of science named it the Gulnest. In short it means 'the one homogenous whole.' Considering it's nature it seemed appropriate."

"Alright if you don't want to perform the tests then surely someone on my team could do it for you," Reka explained.

"That would be quite impossible."

"Why?" Reka asked.

"Because the captain ordered me to eject the canisters out of an airlock before we began our jumps," T'Nal said.

"What?" Reka exclaimed. "That nebula is one of the most fascinating discoveries we've made all year. We were so close to finding out so much about it; where did it come from? How can it hold it's form? What is inside?"

"Be careful now, commander;" T'Nal warned him, almost coming across as a threat. "It was that eagerness that led to the death of you're infant."

This shocked Reka. In disbelief of what was just said, he rose to his feet. Being careful not to present the Vulcan with any level of emotion, Reka simply asked if they were finished. T'Nal nodded and leaving the wide glass doors behind, Reka stormed out of sickbay.

Thoughts the doctor implanted in his head rattled around, turning a left, then a right, then a left agai, Reka has no true idea where he was heading. Suddenly as Reka approached a cross junction in the corridor, Jennifer Gillian emerged from around the corner right ahead of him. She looked crossed until Gillian spotted him. Reka knew that the only reason why he was now in the position of First Officer was because Hepchapper took it from her, and rathering the inevitable encounter to happen later than sooner, Reka double backed.

"Commander! Commander!" Reka could hear Gillian call for him but he would not respond, continuing on his way and evading that conversation for a bit longer.

The Odyssey plowed ahead through the subspace tunnel, streaks of energy blasted the ship, but it was all deflected or disintegrated by a clear bubble surrounding the ship. In its wake, wave-like forms rippled through space.

The bright white bassard collectors began to crackle and malfunction. The sabotage was timed between the sensor update from one microsecond to another, so no one on the engineering staff was aware of the fault until the entire ship lurched forward, spinning as the bubble began to become more and more unsustainable.

Charlie Marteez rushed into engineering as the alert blazed. Engineers were scrambling to figure out what has happening as Charlie fell onto the diagnostic console. The warp core was unaffected, no risk of a breach there even before the containment field was raised. No, the problem was with the Quantum drive. Charlie glanced over to L-1's alcove and saw it was not where it usually sat pulled into the network.

As the Odyssey slipped more and more out of its own bubble, Marteez called over a couple of engineers and rushed to the door of the drive room. He placed his access code into the panel and the door slid open allowing a wall of steam and smoke to start blowing out. Through the haze, Charlie identified L-1 towering over the drive casing as it sparked and cluttered. It's left arm was pulled into the console.

"Disconnect it now!" Marteez called over the deafening whirling sound as he climbed for the opposite console.

Stability was approaching critical. If the Odyssey is exposed to the firewall while re-entering normal space without the protection of the shield bubble, then it could leave them stranded for weeks. Even if they were able to repair the engines at all. Three engineers approached L-1's towering frame to shut it down, but yet the synthetic being was strong and uncaring. One by one they were all tossed aside, forcing Charlie to hop over the console. Before he could reach the shut down override, L-1 grasped his neck with its cold metal hand.

"Why are you doing this?" He struggled to speak.

But he never received an answer. Instead L-1 released him as it shut down, a blue energy overloading it's circuitry and collapsing to the ground. Through the steam, Charlie could see Katie Staan standing in the doorway, arm outstretched pointing a handphaser. Running his neck and coughing, Charlie inputted his override and began working on restoring engine stability.

"Who can explain to me why none of you noticed a seven foot robot enter a vital engineering lab?" Charlie shouted in frustration to the entire engineering crew once his work was done and he was confident the engine was safe.

Under the captain's orders, L-1's deactivated frame was being removed from main engineering on a zero-g trolley. It was being moved down to a secureable cargobay on deck 20. In the crowd watching the transfer tale place in the corridor, Marteez saw Gillian hiding near the back.

"Ma'am, I need access to L-1's memory core," he said pushing through the crowd. "Hopefully I should be able to figure out why it did this."

"You're gonna have to talk to someone else, lieutenant," Gillian said. "I no longer have any authority."

"What? Why?" Charlie asked in disbelief.

"Because I'm not Starfleet," Gillian said. "Hepchapper didn't want me on the bridge but when it came down to kicking me off, she wasn't even there."

"What is to this ship, Gillian?" Charlie asked rhetorically.

"I don't know," she responded. "But one thing I do know is that although I'm not the First Officer anymore, people still come to me about their problems, and believe me when I say that many have already begun to see through Hepchappers words."

Charlie quietly nodded. "I wish Miller was here if I'm being honest."

Suddenly Gillian had an idea. "You know what lieutenant? I do believe that the Acting-Chief engineer would have authority to inspect the contents of any cargo bay, especially if it were deemed dangerous. Come with me."

They had expected the USS Rodney to jump to their coordinates as soon as they received it. After all, hunting them down, Malcolm thought, was the main goal of their mission for the past year. The overwhelming cruiser pulled in the small cube with its blue tractor beams, and the entire room shook as they set down in the landing bay. What Malcolm, Paul and Ellie had not expected was to see the faces of Dean Rown, dressed in a newly minted Captain's uniform, and Doctor James Coal standing beside him. No Galeb insight. Malcolm assumed that he would want to be here to gloat or to saviour the moment.

"Captain Richard Malcolm," Rown called out beaming. "Welcome aboard to the USS Rodney." He raised his hand out for Malcolm to take.

As the five walked through the corridors, Rown explained what had been going on over the past year. He explained the reported effects of the signal on individuals of power in the federation; Head Admiral Collins actions to the civilian population; the nationwide food and supply shortage. In return, Ellie told them what had happened on the Odyssey that resulted in their current situation.

"... But I had no idea things had gotten so bad," finished Ellie.

"Which is why, Commander, it is vitally important that we get you three back to the Odyssey." Rown said.

"No, not me." Malcolm said.

Rown looked puzzled.

"He's giving up." Paul interrupted. Malcolm turned to him and gave him a deadly look.

"Well that's very unfortunate," Rown commented.

"Hey, at least Jar is taking action," Malcolm attempted to change the subject.

Rown halted, and turned to Malcolm. "I'm sorry, but Captain Jar Oweye was assassinated a short time ago."

There was a deathly silence as he took a moment to have this importation sink in.

"Who did it?" He asked.

"Seteirous Penvil," Rown said. They both knew that name. The Starfleet officer they apprehended passing Federation secrets to the Romulans during the war. "He killed him during a transmission declaring his intentions. His sacrifice had the opposite effect they wanted and we have now managed to marshal at least sixty ships to our side, including the USS Rodney."

"That's not enough," Paul estimated. "You would need at least three hundred to match Starfleet."

"We understand that, Commander," Rown said. "That is why it is vitally important your mission succeeds, with or without Malcolm."

Malcolm looked down but stayed true on his belief. Luckily for him, attention was almost immediately diverted to Ellie.

"We are on track to shut down the signal long within time," Ellie said. "But even if we do, it sounds like many are already too far gone. Exposure to the signal, there doesn't seem to be any way back from that."

"That is why I am glad you're here, doctor," Coal said as they began walking again.

If Ellie had memorized the layout of the Rodney correctly from her short time on board, they were being led to the medical bay. And sure enough, the two wide glass doors came into view. As they entered, Ellie was surprised on how much it had changed. She remembered the Rodney as cold, dark and dispassionate. A place you worked, not a place you lived or loved. But now, the entire ship was far more inviting somehow. Perhaps it was simply that Ellie had not been on another Starfleet ship in over a year. Doctor Coal ushered her forward. Ellie passed Captain Rown and saw what Coal was looking at.

Laying there, strapped down to the biobed and suspended in a stasis field, Admiral Galeb rested. His skin as pale as she remembered, however there were a series of bruising around the face and down the arms.

"Soon after we retook the ship, he began to deteriorate. He became violent and paranoid about the smallest thing. For his own safety, I brought him here but then many of his brain functions just started to deteriorate. I had to place him in a stasis field to save his life." Doctor Coal explained to the group.

"Why didn't you let him die?" Paul said bluntly. They all turned to him in surprise as he was not one to say such things. "That man has stood in the way of this mission since day one. He has hunted us across the galaxy. He threatened to destroy the Odyssey, and lock both of you up. I'm just for once saying what we all are thinking."

"That might be true, Commander, but whatever he has done I will not be an accessory to murder," Rown interrupted.

"Try saying that after a year in deep space with him trying to kill you," Malcolm said, but Ellie was starting to believe neither of them truly meant what they were saying.

"Paul's technically right," Ellie stated. "He did do all those things. But I'm going to help."

"Thank you doctor," Coal said.

In the messhall of the Odyssey, Charlie Marteez filled up an entire table with tools and equipment. With one hand he fed himself, and the other he was attempting to access the memory core of L-1, leaving no room to pay attention to his surroundings.

"Isn't it against the rules for you to literally bring work to the messhall?" Sam said suddenly causing Charlie to jump. She sat down with her tray on the one side of the table that was clean.

"It turns out as Acting-chief, I can basically do whatever I want," Charlie said raising his dirty hands.

"What you working on anyway?" Sam asked.

"Well something made L-1 act like this," Charlie said, "Gillian and I have been monitoring its programming since it came onto the ship and nothing indicated it was going to be a threat. So I think if I can access it's memory core then i can figure out its rationality, but every time I make any headway, I get locked out again."

"It's Cobaford technology," Sam said. "If there's one thing they are good at is their memory security."

Charlie looked across the room. To his right, three officers transferred over from the Neptune were sitting at a table gorging themselves on food as if they had never eaten before. Turkey, bacon, mashed potato, duck, ham, and once they were finished they got up to head to the replicator for more.

A wirey old man was positioned In front of the replicator. It was Mr Enfil, the oldest member of the crew by far, but something seemed wrong. He was attempting to use the replicator, yet he was simply met with the same message over and over.

"Warning," it said. "You have expired your daily allowance of replicator rations."

Eventually, the completely flustered Enfil turned to see the two large Neptune officers who stared at him frustrated.

Smiling, Enfil spoke. "I apologise gentlemen, I do not mean to intrude but would one of you fine officers be kind enough to allow me to borrow some rations, please?"

The two men scoffed. "Move out the way old man," said the tallest as they pushed past Enfil, causing him to fall to his knee in pain.

"There was no need for that," Enfil said, shattered after yelping in pain.

The two men laughed again. One turned to the replicator while the other one looked like he was going to strike Enfil. Before anything could happen, Charlie leaped to his feet and placed himself between the two.

"Stand down ensign," Charlie said. The Neptune officers towered over him yet he stood his ground. The entire messhall was watching to see what would happen next, and it did not take long before the nearest one shoved Charlie to the floor. To their surprise, nearly half the room stood up in protest. The two stared at so many Starfleet and Starforge, soon they broke under the pressure.

"You know what man, he's not worth it, let's go," the one by the replicator said. He togged at his uniform and the who backed away, exiting the messhall sheepishly. It must have been at least five minutes before people began to calm back down, Charlie and Enfil helped each other to their feet.

Charlie had provided what Enfil had wanted from the replicator. After he had watched Enfil finish his dinner, Charlie collected all of his equipment into his arms and carried them out of messhall. Sam had gotten off duty after eating her lunch so Charlie simply walked back to main engineering with Enfil along side him.

"Are you sure you would not like me to carry some of that, lieutenant?" Enfil asked politely.

"No, no, I've got this," Charlie said.

Enfil sat at his own station in main engineering as Charlie dropped the contents of his arms in a small pile next to L-1's alcove. When they first found out that they were receiving L-1 onto the Odyssey, the Cobaford had sent them designs to build the alcove.

It was simply a seat with cables and wires to hook L-1's neural interface while providing power, Charlie thought. He sat himself in the metal chair. The wires, Charlie noticed, were hanging just above his own head. While L-1 was sitting here, those wires would be locked into the back of its head. Then the idea hit Charlie.

Charlie rushed over to Enfil who was working quietly on some diagnostic work. Panting, Charlie quickly asked the doddering old man if he remembered if L-1 at any point communicated telepathically with the Cobaford Chancellor on the Matrioshka Brain.

"Oh yes, yes I believe so," Enfil nodded.

"Thank you," Charlie said. He turned away and tapped his left ear twice. "Cargo, I need you to bring the L-1 frame back to Main Engineering," he spoke aloud.

Charlie Marteez half expected that his request would be denied by the bridge, but his worries were proved to be unfounded. Fifteen minutes later, the tall silvery frame was wheeled in followed shortly by Katie Staan and Miss Gillian.

"What's this, lieutenant?" Gillian asked. L-1 was being lifted into the metal seat and the cables reattached to the cables.

"The Cobaford have latent telepathic abilities," Charlie explained. "Now while it was on the Matrioshka Brain, L-1 was able to communicate information to the Chancellor using their abilities. I think the reason why I can't access it's memory core is because I'm interfacing with it wrong."

"You're planning to hook yours and L-1's minds together to access it's memory core?" Gillian asked uncertain.

"Something like that." Then Charlie turned to Katie. "Did you bring what I asked for?" He asked.

Katie held up what looked like a flimsy helmet, sensors attached all over where the wearers skalp would be and three smaller sensors designed to attach to the side of the forehead, temple, and chin. Wires wrapped around connecting to an arm band with more sensors attached.

"A neural interface modified for human/Cobaford cross use," Katie said. Charlie and Katie swapped devices as he gave her the small cylinder that was the memory core.

Gillian watched as Katie reintergrated the memory core into L-1's head casing. Charlie removed his uniform jacket revealing just the short sleeved black undershirt underneath. He placed the neural interface over his head and attached each of the sensors to their calibrated locations on his skalp. Then, Charlie strapped arm band onto his right forearm, the group of engineers fell silent as Charlie activated the interface. Initially nothing happened. Uncertain, Charlie knelt in front of L-1's cold frame. Using his right hand, Charlie took hold of L-1's arm and after a couple of seconds, a small light spread down the robots arm.

Suddenly, the engineering around Charlie dissolved into darkness. A synthetic voice echoed in the cold, and then Charlie felt as if he were looking down on the entire ship layout of the Odyssey.

"Warning, command codes have been transferred to unidentified alien lifeforms." It said. "No Starfleet confirmation. Conclusion: threat to Starship security."

Charlie's vision began to focus on multiple locations across the entire ship. What L-1 identified as 'unauthorised alien lifeforms' had infiltrated the ship. Two on the bridge, three in the messhall, and two in sickbay. Seven overall.

Charlie felt himself being pulled back to Main Engineering. The neural interface spluttered out and he quickly pulled it off his head.

"So what did you see?" Gillian asked after a moment of silence.

Several medical trays were wheeled into the Rodney's sickbay. Ellie told them where to place them as she tied up her hair in a bun. Doctor Coal was adjusting the sensor nodes over the admirals head.

"Remember, when we deactivate the stasis field, his brain functions will deteriorate quickly," Coal said.

"So just try to keep up," Ellie said with a smile. A moment went by, then Ellie unexpectedly thanked Coal. "Captain Rown told me what it was like for you over the past few months. That you had to use the spore drive to chase us but you never once believed the lie about us."

"I knew you didn't kill those people," Coal said. "But there was one moment, the ambush from a few months ago. The admiral was holding Rown and I at gun point, I had a choice: die, or let the Odyssey die."

"That's not your fault," Ellie said, subtly glancing down towards the unconcious Galeb.

"Did anyone get hurt?"

Ellie shook her head. Of course there was one casualty: Nurse Greg Cruford. He had died saving her life from falling debris during the battle. But Ellie felt to guilty to tell Coal of this. Clearly the decision alone weighed heavily on his mind, and she did not want to add to that. Besides, Ellie knew who was truly to blame.

Ellie moved closer to Coal and wrapped her arms around him. "You're one of the best officers I know, don't let anyone else tell you otherwise." She pulled away and turned her attention back to Admiral Galeb. "Right so lets get started then."

Coal nodded. They both moved closer to the biobed. After a brief countdown, Coal deactivated the stasis field and Galeb immediately started to convulse.

Black lines began to appear underneath his skin. Ellie scanned the admiral and her tricorder told her that alkali levels in his blood was rising dramatically.

"Hold him down," Ellie gestured. Coal put his hands on Galeb's chest and forehead to restrain his movement. Ellie placed her fore and middle fingers on his neck. She measured his pulse, counting up to ten and calculated that it was well over four-hundred beats per minute. She moved over to his legs and the two did the same. This time she calculated it to be less than fifty beats or minute.

"His body is trying to over expose the brain with alkali, we need about 20cc of a cardiovascular stimulant, that should equal out his bpm for a while." Ellie said. "It won't save his life but it should buy us more time."

The bridge of the Shinwari was displayed on Malcolm's screen. Captain Oweye was speaking to the quadrant but Malcolm was preoccupied with watching Penvil like a hawk.

"The answers Starfleet would give you are simple and easy, but the truth is never so." Oweye said. Penvil slipped behind the crowd. "All information I have collected can be found within this subspace transmission. Look into the files." People where fixed on Oweye but not Penvil. No one seemed to notice Penvil unhook the weapon crate at the back of the bridge. "Do your research on your own terms and you will see what Starfleet is doing." Penvil clicked a small disk and a blue shield formed around him. "Analyse all the information and we must act quickly to prevent the slow dismantling of what we have built." Then Penvil acted. Pushing through the crowd, Penvil raised the phaser and fired. A red energy blast leaped across the bridge, slamming into the old captain's back.

Malcolm closed his eyes. Before he reopened them, Malcolm turned off the small padd and placed it face down on the table. He looked around the messhall quietly from his corner table. Rown had allowed him to walk the Rodney freely. There was some strange looks he had received from average members of the crew, but so far no one had approached him about it. Malcolm had redressed himself already, he replicated some civilian clothes much like the ones he wore while he had lost his memory as Malko.

Malcolm was deep in thought, so when Paul turned up at his table, he jumped in surprise. Something Malcolm still could not get used to was his brother-in-law's new abrasive side after spending a year on board the Odyssey.

"Do you mind if I sit down?" Paul asked.

Malcolm nodded.

"Elena and Doctor Coal have started to help the admiral," Paul said as he sat down. "Are you okay?"

He nodded again. "Yes I'm fine, erm..." Malcolm paused for a moment as if he was trying to figure out what to say next. "I just needed to find out if what people were saying about Oweye was true." He said.

"An-and what did you find?"

"That they were true," Malcolm commented. "Ex-lieutenant Penvil was turned into an assassin by Collins. But the way I see it there is only one reason why they would target Jar in particular: to get at me. And now when I look around, seeing the amount of people willing to stick up for the Odyssey, all I can think is who would be next? You, El, Riley, Jen, Reece, even after what he's done, what about Reka? How many more after that? Especially now I've seen how quickly and easily Hepchapper turned my friends against me." Malcolm sighed quietly. "Why am I even telling you this anyway, you won't understand."

Paul didn't respond. It didn't look like he was ever going to say anything but his response surprised Malcolm. "You know I think I do understand. That's good that you think like that. It just seems to be normal to be scared of loss. That's human nature. It's good and healthy. I understand this because I'm scared too. Every day. But if I told you what kind of stuff that scares me, you wouldn't understand and think I'm being just silly."

"What do you mean?" Malcolm asked.

"You're scared of losing people close to you," Paul commented. "To me the scariest things can be if I w-wake up late for my shift; it can be someone saying 'no' when I ask for something; or to not know what to say when talking face-to-face. I sometimes can spend hours or days figuring out what to say but when the moment comes, I just lock up. I just have no idea what to say, or what to do, or how to be. But I don't want to disappoint people so I fight through it. I push through for my friends. And sometimes it becomes too much but because I made it to a certain point, I know I can rely on them to to help me back up again. None of us are alone, but it's our own choices that can decide what happens."

Malcolm bowed his head. Then, gave a small laugh.

"You realise a year ago it would have been me giving you that speech?" Malcolm added.

Paul smiled.

Captain Rown approached the medical bay, he wanted to see if progress, if at all, was being made. No sooner than he entered the room, he almost walked right into a nurse rushing from storeroom to bulkhead.

"The grey matter virus is targeting all brain function," Doctor Coal said over the riving of the admiral. A nurse handed him a small hypospray. "I'm attempting to guide his white blood cells but they aren't responding properly," Coal added as he injected the second spray into his neck. "I don't get it, it's almost as if the body is willing to die."

Ellie was scanning Galeb the whole time. It seemed to be true, the virus was attacking grey matter in his brain, preventing functions from activating as they should. In fact, more and more brain functions were fighting against the treatments. Their best hope, she decided, was to stun them to buy more time.

"Nurse I need a surgical proton therapy array," Ellie said but the nurse simply shook her head.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but we don't have one on-board," she responded. "And who knows how long it will take to replicate one?"

"Well them someone get me a phaser then," Ellie ordered.

The nurse looked weary. But soon looked over at the struggling admiral and gave a quick nod before running out the room into the corridor.

Captain Rown stood closer, taking the place of the nurse to help hold him down. Galeb started to speak as they waited for the nurse to return. Well, more like a combination of muttering and shouting.

"It's my fault- it's my fault! I had to obey!" Galeb said his eyes darting around above him. "He was angry at me, you have no idea what he's like."

The nurse scuttled back in and handed Ellie the hand phaser. Rown watched as she set to its lowest frequency and aimed the phaser at Galebs head.

"You realise even at low power, the phaser is at a much higher frequency than the therapy array," Coal said. "It could kill him."

"I just need to make sure I don't miss then," Ellie said. Then she fired. Instead of the typical red stream projecting out of the phaser tip, it was instead a dull orange. Spreading out as if it refused to hold it's shape, engulfing the admirals entire head.

Galeb stopped moving. Quickly reaching for a tricorter, Ellie scanned him and saw that he had completely flatlined.

"Get the defibrillators now," she said and again the nurse rushed into the storeroom.

Doctor Coal removed his undershirt and began to press down hard on his chest. Again and again he pushed. The nurse rushed back inside and placed four small devices over his chest and two on the sides of his temples. Coal and the rest of the group moved from the body as he nodded to the nurse.

"Clear," she said. A charge spread through Galeb's body. The nurse glanced over to Ellie for confirmation but she shook her head. He was still flatlining. "Clear," the nurse said again as Galeb's body lurched again.

"Wait that's it," Ellie said as her tricorter began to beep once again. "I have a heartbeat. Brain functions are returning to normal. No sign of the virus."

A sigh of relief washed over the group.

"The flatlining must have signalled to the virus that it had succeeded," Coal said. "With no heartbeat and failing brain functions, there was no need for its existence anymore and it must have starved itself."

"However you did it, well done you two," Rown said gratefully.

A request for for Lieutenant Charles Marteez and Miss Jennifer Gillian to report to the captain's ready room. There must be something she needed to talk to them about, which was fine, as they had something they wanted to talk to her about. The two stepped out of turbolift, they were guided through the bridge by a security officer and once again Riley and Reece glanced back to watch them.

Hepchapper was sitting behind the desk, refusing to look up from her computer monitor until the door slid closed behind them.

"Lieutenant, might've you want to contact me first before you actively betray my orders," Hepchapper said coldly.

Charlie gave a small laugh.

"Amused lieutenant?" She responded.

"Honestly I'm surprised you even know what a smile is," Charlie said.

Hepchapper did not give him the pleasure of a response and instead moved right back to business. "Why did you remove the L-1 unit from the cargobay without discussing it with me first?" She asked.

"It was my idea, captain," Jennifer explained. "The lieutenant and I believed we could find out why L-1 attempted to sabotage the ship if we accessed it's memory."

"Well what did you find?" She pried.

"Nothing, ma'am," Jennifer replied. "Must have just been a malfunction."

Charlie turned to her in surprise. They both knew the truth; Hepchapper was not as she seemed to be but he was interrupted with a quick glance from Jennifer and a voice came over the comm.

"Captain we are approaching the coordinates of the distress call," Reece said. "ETA is less than a minute."

"Thank you, leuitenant," Hepchapper said as she rose to her feet. "The both of you are confined to quarters, I need to deal with this."

The three of them existed the room, stepping right onto the bridge. Charlie and Jennifer didn't however remove themselves from it, watching Hepchapper take her place in the captain's chair as Reece reported again.

"ETA is ten seconds," he said.

Hepchapper nodded.

The seconds ticked by until finally the Odyssey dropped back into normal space, and the members of the bridge saw what they were heading towards for so long.

The fluid nebula had lost it's distinctive flecks of colour, instead covered in black metal veins spreading across it's surface. The structure built upon itself slowly until reaching upwards into space, like tendrils, before connecting to an enormous rectangular ship.

"What the hell is that?" Charlie said aloud.

"Won't someone get those two off my bridge," Hepchapper insisted, pointing Jennifer and Charlie, yet no one seemed to be in too much awe of the sight on the screen.

"The main structure is nine-kilometres by three-kilometres by three-kilometres." Riley reported. "It doesn't seem to be one single vessel but rather three hooked together."

"I don't care about what it is," Hepchapper ordered in frustration. "I want to target that thong and fire."

But instead of following through with her request, Riley remained silent until his station signalled for his attention. "I have a ID on the vessel: it is the Borg."

A hush washed over the bridge. It was a while before anyone truly did anything despite Hepchapper becoming increasingly more frustrated.

One of the sections decoupled itself from the main body. The enormous black cube held itself for a second before making a direct intercept with the Odyssey.

"We are being hailed by the Cube," ops said.

The hail filled the bridge. The sound it made was unlike any other; one thousand voices speaking as one. "We have scanned for vessel and it's armaments. We have identified your defensive capabilities as being unable to withstand us. However, your biological and technological distinctiveness will be beneficial to us. You will join us. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."

"They will enter weapons range in thirty seconds," Riley reported.

"Prepare weapons," Hepchapper ordered.

"There's no way we will be able to fight our way out of this, we are a fly compared to that thing," Reece interjected.

"Lieutenant, follow my orders," Hepchapper said.

Reece paused for a second, glancing from the screen to the captain and back again. He nodded, and soon the bridge began to blaze it's red alert status.

A green blast fired from the Cube, soaring through space and slamming into the Odyssey. The blast rocked the entire ship and many of the bridge crew was knocked to the floor.

"Fire now!" Hepchapper shouted.

Two blue torpedoes impacted the Cubes surface followed by several red streams of phaser energy.

"No damage captain," Riley reported.

"Helm, bank us to starboard," Hepchapper ordered. "Tactical, fire again."

The Odyssey exposed it's lower belly to the Cube. However before it could defend itself, several green plasma blasts slammed along it's ventral hull. Causing massive damage, secondary explosions spread through out the entire ship.

"We have hull breaches on deck four, five and twenty-five to twenty-six," Riley said. "Ventral shields and weapons are down."

"We need to return fire, lieutenant!" Hepchapper shouted.

"Stop!" Jennifer stepped in. Hepchapper glanced at her with a deathly stare, but Gillian just pushed past her. "Reece, evasive manoeuvres alpha-J."

He nodded and the Odyssey managed to avoid the next couple of shots fired at them. Hepchapper tried to step in but Gillian soon cut her off again.

"Evacuate the damaged decks. Can we jump to quantum velocity?" She asked.

"Yes but not for long," Reece reported.

"Do it."

Reece moved over to the tactile end of the helm and quickly imputted the correct protocols before sliding forward the central red roller. The Odyssey lurched forward to safety leaving the Cube long behind.

Finally, Hepchapper was able to reassert control over the bridge. "Thank you but your assistance was not necessary, now will you finally remove yourself and lieutenant Marteez of this bridge?" She said.

Gillian looked between the captain and Marteez, and then gave a small nod. However, before the two even reached the turbolift, the entire lurched to the side. The Odyssey dropped back into normal space again.

"What's going on?" Jennifer asked as she pulled herself to her feet. "Are we under attack?"

"No, I pulled us out." Reece said. He flicked several more switches and the low yet distinctive hum from the engines powered down.

"What are you doing?" Hepchapper asked.

"I want answers, now."

Captain Rown sat around his conference table with this senior staff and his guests. A holomap floated inches above the table as they discussed the plan to retake the Odyssey, however there was one man who was noticeably absent from the meeting: Richard Malcolm.

"With help from Lieutenant Miller, we have remodified the sensors in order to detect the distinctive energy signature the Odyssey's quantum engine emits," Rown said.

"I thought you gave Charles Marteez a way to change the Odyssey's energy signature?" Doctor Coal asked.

"Well we did, but my engine causes specific ripples in subspace," Paul explained. "Its very subtle but you can find it if you know what you're looking for."

"Fifteen minutes ago, we detected a massive surge that would indicate the Odyssey's presence." Rown said. "Unfortunately that means, Doctor, we will need you to hop us over there is we want any hope of reaching them in time."

Coal nodded.

"There would still be the issue of actually dealing with the Odyssey," Rown pointed out. "Putting aside the alien presence in command, as far as the crew is concerned, this ship is still the enemy. Honestly I wouldn't blame them from what Doctor Malcolm and Lieutenant Miller have told me."

"The Rodney is still far superior to the Odyssey in terms of tactical capabilities," Commander Marh said.

"We can't just attack the Odyssey," Ellie interjected.

"I agree, we can't risk hurting anyone," Rown said. "But I would not expect the crew to allow us to just hail them. It's a case of first having to hold them down before they will listen."

"How do you expect us to do that?" Marh asked?

"We could use the prefix code." A voice said from the doorway. The group around the conference table turned and saw it was Malcolm. Compared to his attire from the messhall, he was now dressed in his cleanest uniform, clearly freshly synthesized. Malcolm smiled and took his place at the table next to Ellie. "What? I knew shaving would make me look better but I didn't expect to get results like this." He added holding his hands up.

"I'm glad you could join us, captain," Rown said.

"Thank you, captain," Malcolm said. "But yes, lieutenant, hopefully if Hepchapper hasn't changed it, we should be able to use the Odyssey's prefix code. It's unlikely she has because it's not commonly known."

"You're right, sir, I have no idea what that is," Marh commented.

"Exactly, that's how you know the secret works," Malcolm tapped his nose.

"Every Starfleet vessel comes with a 'prefix code'," Rown explained. "It's a simple code unique to each ship that, when transmitted, temporarily disables the ships shields, weapons and warp capability."

"Once transmitted, I can transport directly to the bridge and I will just have to try to explain what happened," Malcolm said.

"I'm going with you," Ellie said.

"Me too," Paul added. "They wou- they would be more likely to believe us if the three of us were there."

Malcolm and the rest all nodded in agreement.

"Right then, alert the crew and let's get started." Rown ordered as he dismissed the meeting.

Doctor Coal was escorted back to the medical bay with Captain Rown at his side. Coal was silent even as they stood in the turbolift waiting for the doors to slide open. It wasn't until they were approaching the medical bay before he finally asked the doctor what was wrong.

"Oh it's nothing Dean," Coal assured him.

"It doesn't look like nothing," he said shaking his head.

Coal paused as they entered the medical bay, staring blankly at the glass navigation chamber looming over the room.

"Recently, I've just been reading the declassified files on why this technology was abandoned in the first place," Coal said. "Just the idea that Section 31 was using it for over a hundred years in secret, the damage they must have inflicted, it's just disgusting."

"I understand that, Doctor," Rown said. "But unfortunately our hands are tied. I promise that you will not have to use it much longer."

Coal nodded. "That's not all. Every jump I make it's becoming harder and harder. The strain is increasing."

"Have you checked yourself, just in case?" Rown asked, folding his arms.

"Yes I have gone through several scans but I've found nothing," Coal explained. "It's probably just frequency of use."

Rown nodded. "Okay I need to get back to the bridge, you alright down here?"

"Yes."

"Good," Rown said turning to the door. "We'll tell you when to jump."

Ellie caught up with Malcolm as he walked through the corridors. He smiled and put his arm around her.

"What changed your mind, Rich?" Ellie asked. "You were so certain in just turning away."

"You can't get rid of me that easily," Malcolm joked.

"I'm being serious," Ellie said.

"Paul happened." Malcolm stated. "He basically explained to me; 'hey, we all have loss and fear, so there's no point in all wallowing in that. Get up, stop feeling bad about yourself and get back to work...' Obviously I'm paraphrasing."

"That doesn't sound like him," Ellie said.

The lights down the corridor turned dark. The computer sounded the Black Alert and the two rushed into the transporter room. Paul awaited them inside and it was not long until the room began to shake and the Red Alert was declared.

"Transporter room to bridge," Malcolm said tapping his left ear twice. "What's going on?" The room rocked again.

"We jumped and the Odyssey immediately began to fire. They are not responding to our hails." Rown said.

"I didn't expect they would," Malcolm commented. "Prepare to transmit the prefix code."

Malcolm moved over to the weapons locker, took one look at the phaser rifles and then grabbed three handphasers.

"Are you sure we are going to need them?" Ellie asked as she was handed a phaser.

"No but we need to take out Hepchapper," Malcolm said. "Stun her, aim for her, but don't shoot at any one else."

Paul nodded as he held the phaser behind his back. The three stepped onto different transporter pads and Malcolm spoke onto the comm.

"Transmit, and energise," Malcolm said.

The Federation Prefix Code was designed to ensure a safe end to any rouge Starfleet ship. This code was difficult to acquire, of course, and the captain of that unique ship was the only officer who was automatically aware of what the code of their ship was. Other officers from other ships would have to jump through hoops to receive the code for another ship. Usually the prefix code was randomised again every year however luckily for them, Rown had the captain of the Odyssey on hand and the Odyssey was off the Federations network for nearly a year.

Even without the prefix code, the Rodney outmatches the Odyssey tactically in almost every way. However, luckily for the Odyssey, the Rodney was not looking for a fight.

With shields and weapon now offline, Malcolm, Ellie and Paul dematerialised from the transporter room and rematerialised on the Odyssey bridge. To their surprise, Malcolm did not find Hepchapper in the captain's chair, but instead Gillian. Despite this realisation however, their reaction versus expectation caused a single blue shot leaped from their phasers and stunned Gillian in the chair.

(2:11) United Starship Odyssey: The Battle of Collective
Jennifer Gillian held a bag of ice against her forehead and kept shaking her head as Malcolm was making a fuss about his mistake.

"I'm really sorry," Malcolm apologised.

"No it's alright, we really should have answered the hails," Jennifer said.

"You were thinking of the crew," Malcolm justified. "I just expected to see Hepchapper in that chair. I wasn't thinking."

The two walked across the ready room and Jennifer sat down at the desk. Instead of sitting down behind the desk like he expected, Jennifer sat in front of the desk in one of the guest seats. Malcolm glanced at her then cautiously sat in his chair behind the desk.

"Don't worry about the crew, we will explain to then what's been happening," Gillian said. "Judging by their opinion of her, many of them will be glad to have you back."

The two explained to each other what their experiences over the last couple of days. With all that they were able to piece together what had happened, filling in the gaps of each others information.

"The Borg are attempting to assimilate the nebula," Malcolm stated.

"It seems so," Jennifer said. "That might be why Hepchapper took this ship. Maybe she hoped we could defeat them."

"Maybe," Malcolm said. "Call a briefing, Rown too."

It didn't take long before the senior staff began to enter the conference room. Malcolm watched awkwardly as Paul and Ellie sat down to the right of the captain's place; Jennifer, Riley and Reece sat to the left; Captain Rown at the far end. After ten minutes it became clear that one was not going to attend with a single empty seat to the left of Paul; Commander Reka.

Malcolm took a deep breath from the corner of the room. Each of the senior staff was watching him refraining from sitting at the top of the table. It was time to address them with or without Reka.

"We are a group of people who recently have fallen under hard times," Malcolm began to speak, his arms firmly folded but with a slight intimidated look. "We have been forced to turn on each other. Forced to fight each other using our own tears and angers against each other. But now it is up to us to come together and say 'no.' We like to think we are part of a huge unchangable system, that we have to change for it, but instead we change it." Malcolm looked about the room. "I am truly sorry for anything I have done, you know what, you have every right to walk out that door or to kick me off this ship."

There was a moment of silence over the group. After a while Jennifer looked up to say something.

"You're right," she said. "But for all your faults, I still think you try to do the right thing. Even when you stunned me."

"No need to ask me," Reece said. "I never really had an issue, especially judging by the alternative."

"Yeah I trust you, but maybe ease up on the replicator rations." Riley said.

Malcolm smiled. He turned across the table to Paul who nodded quietly.

Ellie also joined in, raising her hands. "I kind of have to, I believe it was one of my vows." She said.

Malcolm glanced towards the empty seat, looking away before many people around the table. At the bottom of the table, there was Captain Rown.

"Well captain," he said aloud, gesturing for Malcolm to sit. "You better take a seat."

Malcolm nodded and slowly planted himself at the head of the table. "Now that is over," he said, "we better get onto business, Number One?"

"Right yes," Jennifer said removing a small padd from under the long table, and with a small flick of her hand, she used it to cast a hologram between them. It revealed the scene Hepchapper had brought them to. A great Borg structure constructed from three large Cube, reaching onto the fluid nebula turning it to black. Rown lent forward.

"I had no idea the Borg had come out this far," Rown said.

"Yes," Malcolm nodded, "a few months ago we encountered a Sphere, we just barely got away. There was this big chance and a half freed Borg, it was a whole thing."

"Our theory is that the Borg are attempting to assimilate the nebula," Jennifer said. " Why, we cannot be sure."

"Well the individual cells of the protofluid the nebula is made up of are unlike I've ever seen." Ellie pointed out. "Their structure would make them nearly unkillable."

"You think the Borg are looking for a way to improve their nanotech?" Malcolm asked.

"It's possible," Ellie said. "I mean they must know that Starfleet has the technology to disrupt the bonds between the nanoprobes, and even reverse the effects of assimilation."

"Well in that case, we have no choice," Rown said. "We have to help."

"Even after she started a mutiny?" Riley jumped in.

"If the Borg render our dampening technology useless, they could cause untold destruction across the quadrant, even the galaxy." Rown said.

"Rown's right." Malcolm said. "It would be too dangerous to let the Borg acquire this information. They could destroy us all."

"We would need tactical scans of that structure for a start," Riley said, "the ones I took weren't consice enough to identify any weaknesses, if there are any to begin with."

"And I would need a sample of the protofluid in order to test my theory before we go flying into danger," Ellie pointed out.

"Looking for us we have someone who might be able to give us those two exact things," Malcolm said.

Captain Rown, Malcolm and Ellie each followed the number one down to the brig of the ship. Ellie had brought with her a small medical kit containing a empty hypospray, a painkiller, and some clear glass test tubes. Along their path they crossed the eyes of several crewmen, many of them seemingly more surprised at the sight of Malcolm than Rown aboard it seemed.

They entered the brig and passed in between a set of containment cells before they reached the two on the far end. In one lay T'Nal and five Neptune security officers, still and silent across the benches. In the one to the left sat captain Hepchapper, or at least the creature taking her form.

"Are you here to free us?" She asked quietly.

Malcolm shook his head. "We are here to ask you a few questions. To start simply; who are you?"

"We call ourselves the Gulnest." Hepchapper said. "We are many and yet we are one. When we encountered your shuttle, we were curious to see that you are very much the same, made up of trillions of cells all working together but yet you are each separate."

"So you're a hive mind," Ellie said.

"Aren't you?" Hepchapper asked. "But simply within a much smaller structure?"

"What about the Borg? If we are to help you we are going to need information about what they are doing." Jennifer said.

"Just under two of your Earth years, we encountered a probe," Hepchapper said. "Soon after their ships arrived and began to attack us. Torture us and exploiting our weaknesses. They were unlike anything we had ever seen. When analysed our shuttle and it's database, we saw that you had already once fought them before. A strategy was devised to use your ship and it's weapons to strike them back on a second front. It seems we were wrong."

Rown pulled Malcolm aside away from the group. "What do you think?" He asked.

"I'm not sure. I think I believe her." Malcolm said. "Would you mind if I talk to her on my own?"

"Yes of course," Rown said. "The doctor will still need her samples still."

Malcolm nodded as Rown took everyone out of the brig. Malcolm took one of the glass tubes and the empty hypospray from Ellie before she left. Once the door slid closed, it took another minute or so before Malcolm did anything. Eventually he turned towards the replicator and a small tray of warm buttered breadcakes appeared.

"Hungry?" He asked.

Hepchapper shook her head "The Gulnest do not store new energy and nutrients the same way you do. But we do have to admit that the sensation of eating is an enjoyable one."

"Well I'm not going to eat them, now am I?" Malcolm said. "It all just tastes like protein and carbohydrates to me."

"But that's exactly what 'real' food is," Hepchapper said.

"I know, but as you said the experience of eating should be an enjoyable one," Malcolm clarified, "and replicated food just isn't. Everyone else seems to be fine, I suppose they are just used to it."

"Apollo City had regular shipments of replicators for the new houses," Hepchapper said.

"See, El said to me that you were thinking much like a computer," Malcolm said. "So you have none of Sue's memories?"

She bowed her head. "No, we learned what we could from your shuttles computer and constructed this body from her file."

"I must have been blind," Malcolm said getting frustrated at her but most importantly himself. "Why her?"

"It had to be someone we knew you would easily trust." She responded.

"You could have just asked," Malcolm said shaking his head.

"We were going to," she promised. "But your file described you as 'phycologically unreliable in combat against the Borg'."

Malcolm didn't say anything. Tapping the padd to the left of the cells lowered the forcefield and he stepped inside, still holding the tray which he placed down on the bench. Malcolm loaded the hypospray with a clear empty tube and, with Hepchappers permission, he extracted a sample of the colourful fluid she and the nebula was made up from.

"You know, the more I think about it, the more I realise what a terrible duplicate you are," Malcolm said. "There was a small spot she had on her face, right here," he pointed to a spot just above his upper lip, "She was incredibly self-conscious of it, always talked about getting it lasered off but she never did. But what she did do was have it digitally removed from all images of herself she had access to. Her hands were also covered in blue paint, everyday I saw her there was always even the smallest stain. You want to know why?"

Hepchapper nodded.

"There was a wall near the back of her garden, from it you would see the Earth in the sky high above Apollo City." Explained Malcolm. "So she would paint the skyline and every morning would repaint it because of how the planet changed each day. There are some things you cannot read in a file, which is why I'm going to help you."

The Odyssey had agreed to help the Gulnest in their retaliation against the Borg. Not only to help protect them, but also to insure that the Borg do not gain the insight to advance their nanotechnology far beyond Starfleet's ability to reverse or prevent the process of assimilation.

It didn't take long for the crew of the Rodney to agree either. Last time they had fought the Borg, the Odyssey was almost destroyed with little damage caused to the Sphere. But this time was different; Head Tactical officer on-board the Rodney Lieutenant Marh worked closely with Riley to calculate a new strategy, analysing the information given to them by Hepchapper.

Ellie had spent the last couple of hours testing and scanning the Gulnest protofluid sample Malcolm had provided. Now being aware of it's sentience, she was far more mindful of not hurting them during the experiments.

The wide glass doors slid open and Ellie could hear voices coming from the corridor. She looked around to see Paul and Marteez shaking hands.

"Anyway it's good to see you Paul," Marteez said.

"You too," Paul smiled and the two broke off from each other. Paul entered the room, raising his hand to give a slight awkward wave. "Hello," he said.

"Hiya Paul," Ellie responded. "What's this about?"

"Nothing, I just needed to get the sickbay ready for when we install the dampeners." Paul said, she could not help but notice that he was constantly looking back to the rear biobed. On it lay the resting Admiral Galeb.

"Doctor Coal and I decided that it would be better for him to heal on the Odyssey," Ellie explained. "What was that with you and Lieutenant Marteez?"

"He was just telling me that the Rodney had sent over a mark-2 molecular laser cutter," Paul said. "Hopefully we can repair the armour in time for the battle."

"And he was calling you 'Paul'?" Ellie pointed out. "Not 'sir' or 'commander' or chief'?"

"He's my friend," Paul said blankly.

Ellie smiled and turned back to her work.

"So what have you found?" Paul asked moving over to her side.

"Well I've been testing the Gulnest cells along side a Borg nanoprobes," explained Ellie. "I noticed that at 39 degrees Celsius, the Gulnest cells become docile, but at freezing or below, they seem to gain their full strength. They can actually fight off the nanoprobes."

"Where did you get Borg nanotech?" Paul asked.

Ellie paused. She didn't answer.

"Richard ordered the Borg technology to be destroyed." He said.

Ellie closed her eyes. A pain had began to spread, feeling as if there was a vein popping out of her head. It had been coming on and off for the last couple of hours.

"Elena?"

"After we removed the implants from my body and most of the nanoprobes, some that we could not purge began to replicate again." Ellie said holding her forehead. "I ordered nurse Calahad to stay quiet about this, they have been dormant for months. I think the proximity has woke them up but I can keep them at bay for now."

"Have you told Richard about this?" Paul asked.

"No, he will just worry," Ellie responded. "I need to get on with my work, but whatever you do, please don't tell Rich about this."

Paul nodded quietly, taking note of the stern look on her face.

As a show of good faith and part of their cooperation, one of the Rodney's largest guns, the phaser rail gun, was removed and fittered to the dorsal hull on the Odyssey. The entire process had taken several hours and the engineers were still rewiring power output to compensate for this weapon even when the two were giving their final briefing of the tactical plan.

"We hope that the rail gun will be effective against the Borg," Riley said. "They are untested against the Borg, and the randomised frequency of the energy and physical combination of this weapon would at least make it difficult for the Borg to adapt."

"If they are not effective then we can always fall back on the transphasic torpedoes on the USS Rodney." Marh pointed out.

"The Odyssey doesn't have the modifications needed to fire those torpedoes," Malcolm pointed out.

"Yes, I'm afraid if the rail gun fails, the Odyssey will have to rely on her molecular armour which should be mostly repaired within the hour," Marh commented.

"So what's the plan gentlemen?" Asked Captain Rown.

"As far as we could see, the Borg cannot detect the Odyssey when it drops out of Quantum Velocity, and that we will use to our advantage." Riley said.

"The Rodney is approaching the Borg structure," Reece reported. "They will drop out of warp in forty seconds."

"Red Alert," Malcolm ordered. "Prepare engines for Quantum Velocity. Broadcast shipwide."

Jennifer nodded and opened a channel.

"Remember what we are fighting for, now is the time to be strong, go be brave," Malcolm said. The red alert blazed in the background. "Helm, let's go."

"Aye aye sir," Reece responded.

The bussards turned bright white as metal plates formed down the warp coils. The computer had been programmed to drop out after eleven seconds of high speed. The Odyssey then, they calculated, would be dropping out right above the nebula. The bridge sat on edge for a moment, waiting to see if the Borg had noticed, and sure enough a cube was dispatched to engage the Rodney.

"Bridge to transporter room one, you're clear to go," Malcolm said. "Tactical, prepare to engage armour plating at a moments notice if the Borg come after us."

Ellie placed the hand phaser behind her back. Six security officers joined her on the transporter pads along with Lieutenant Marteez. Before the transporter operator could energise, Paul barged in looking panicked and flustered.

"Elena you can't go," he said.

Ellie stepped off the pad. "Paul I need to."

"Get nurse Calahad to go."

"If something goes wrong over there, they'll need me," Ellie insisted. "We need to destroy the Borg's research before it's too late."

"You know why you can't go." Paul said.

Ellie didn't answer but Paul could see in her eyes that there was no use arguing with her.

"Fine but I'm going with you," Paul said.

"No, we need you here," Ellie responded.

"Do any of you actually know what a Borg data conduit looks like?" Paul asked the group.

"Do you?" Ellie asked in surprise.

Paul didn't give an answer, instead just shook his head. Charlie stepped off the pad to speak up.

"Don't worry Paul, I'll look after her," he said.

"Good that's settled then." Ellie said turning away and stepping back into the transporter pad.

Charlie could see that Paul was still uncomforble with this.

"I promise, Paul." Charlie assured him.

Before he said anything, Paul moved in and hugged Charlie before letting him step back onto the pad. Paul stood aside as Ellie nodded towards the transporter operator.

"Energizing." The operator said. Eight beams of light formed across the transporter as the away team dematerialised.

The heat and humidity from the tight Borg corridors immediately hit Ellie. It was an environmental situation she once experienced on the on the Oux ship, but it was something she was not comfortable with even now. The corridors were erie silent, flooded in green light, Leuitenant Riley and a couple of the security officers took point while the rest guarded the rear of the group.

Marteez pointed forward as he opened his tricorter. The faint beeping guided their path. With each one, small white dots began to appear in Ellie's eyeline. Speckles filled the edges of her sight, she quickly tried to push them aside by blinking hard.

"Doctor are you alright?" A brown haired ensign asked.

"Yes I'm good, ensign," she responded, rubbing her forehead. "I think it must just be the heat."

Eventually they came to a left hand turn and was met face to face with the first of many Borg drones. It's skin was pale white, deep black veins. A large robotic device was placed over its left eye, and one of his arms was replaced with a prominent prosthetic attachment. The drone was dormant. It stood silently in its alcove and it was not the only one. Less than two paces head was another alcove with another drone dormant inside. Then another and then another. Alcoves lined along both sides of the corridor. One appeared to be human, another Vulcan, and another Klingon. Many more from countless species, some of them Ellie recognised, some of them she didn't.

"Don't shoot," Ellie said quietly. "If you do then they will see us as a threat."

"She's right," Charlie said. "But we need to head this way." He pointed down the corridor.

Riley nodded. "We have thirty minutes until the Odyssey starts firing on the structure, let's go."

The group began slowly to push forward, still following the faint beeping from Charlie's tricorter. One drone after another, Ellie glanced up at each one. They were all nearly identical. Wires and cables wrapped around themselves as nearly their whole torso was covered on devices and implants fused to their skin.

The white dots began to reappear in her sight once again. She rubbed her eyes until they passed away. Ellie looked up and something shocked her. The drones were replaced with reflections of herself. Beings who looked identical to Ellie. Each one stared at herself blankly. Yet as quickly as they appeared, they vanished in the blink of an eye, back to simply Borg drones.

They were half way down the corridor before Riley began to notice something disturbing. Several of the disks of green energy had began to dim. Many of the attachments on the drones prosthetics began go spin and hum. The drones were waking up.

"Everyone, run!" Riley ordered. They were trapped in a tight space with awakening drones all around them. All they could do was run forward.

The pale heads were turning, and some even began to reach forward or step out of their alcove. Charlie shoved past one drone and the group turned to a right hand corner, but instead of another corridor they were faced with a deadend.

"Form up," Riley ordered and the security took positions to fire.

A pain spread through Ellie's head once again. Charlie asked what was wrong but all she could here was a thousand voices speaking inside her head.

"One Federation tactical carrier and one Federation long-range vessel detected. Transfer auxiliary processors to section 2-2-1-0 junction 3-2-4." It said.

"Wait don't shoot," Ellie said.

The shadows coming from the drones could now be seen from around the corner. Riley looked back at the doctor in confusion as his men prepared to fire.

"Are you mad?" He asked.

"Just trust me."

Riley gave a apprehensive nod. The drones were now insight, but instead of turning towards them, they simply continued to march straight ahead. There was another minute before anyone breathed. Riley turned to Ellie in confusion.

"They weren't after us, they were just transferring drones to another section of the ship." Ellie said.

"How did you know?" He asked.

"No one else heard that voice?" Ellie asked. She looked around the group and was only met with shaking heads.

Charlie opened his tricorter again and pointed forward. "This way." He whispered.

As the Odyssey remained hidden below the Borg structure, the Rodney continued to engage the first Cube. The typical phasers were doing no damage but as expected the rail guns were able to cause quick destruction along it's surface hull.

Watching from the bridge of the Odyssey, Malcolm saw the battle progress. Malcolm nodded towards Jennifer and a open channel was established to the other Starfleet ship.

"Odyssey to Rodney, it looks like you need some help over there," Malcolm said aloud. "We are moving in."

"No Odyssey, stay were you are," Rown's filled the bridge. "The away team on the structure needs you ready."

The channel closed.

The battle against the cube was not progressing well. Multiple green blasts slammed against the Rodney's shields, and the Rodney was causing little damage in response. A wide tractor beam was projected holding the Rodney in place. Cutting beams and torpedoes impacted the ship, Malcolm could see the shields begin to fail so then he quickly turned to Jennifer sitting behind the operations station.

"How is the away team?" He asked.

"They are approaching the data core now, the Borg could notice them any moment." Jennifer reported.

Malcolm considered his options for a minute and then nodded. "Alright the Rodney needs our help. We can't just sit here."

"Sir what about Ellie and the others?" Jennifer asked.

"I know, but I'm not going to sit here and watch them die." Malcolm said.

Jennifer nodded and the captain turned to helm.

"Reece, prepare a straithing run across the cube, one-half impulse. Keep our dorsal side facing them." Malcolm ordered. "Tactical, make the most out of our new toy, will you? Target that tractor array, take their attention away from the Rodney then run like hell. Don't be afraid to use the armour, but remember I want to be able to transport the away team up at a moments notice. Got it?"

The bridge crew in unison responded with "Aye sir," and Reece got to work. The impulse engines roared into being as the entire ship slid forward.

The Rodney was taking heavily damage, shields dropped from seventy percent to under thirty in seconds and it continued to drop. Before the defences breached, the Odyssey swooped inbetween the two ships, taking shots along the cubes surface. The green tractor beam disengaged and the cube turned away from the Rodney as the Odyssey banked hard to port.

Several black strips along the Odyssey's hull turned glowing blue and grey plates formed hugging the ships body. Green torpedoes slammed against the armour plating and the Odyssey was knocked spinning.

"Armour plating down to fifty four percent and falling," the tactical officer reported.

"On my mark, drop the armour and fire full spread on the cube, then duck us back to transporter range of the away team." Ordered Malcolm. "Mark."

The Odyssey made a full turn, the armour disassembled itself and four red shots were fired. Each one made impact against it's hull, before the Odyssey banked hard to starboard away. In this time of destruction, the Rodney had gotten some of its most critically damaged systems back online and had began to trail behind the Odyssey guarding it's rear flank. The Borg Cube followed, the black gaggered metal bent and reformed itself, the ship was literally healing itself.

Lieutenant Marteez continued to guide them through the dark corridors of the Borg station until they entered a wide open cylindrical room. There were no alcoves but instead five large pillars stretched towards each other on the ceiling. In the centre of the room was a black diamond console, green energy pulsated within.

"There it is, the primary data conduit," Charlie said. "The Borg utilise the drones collective minds to process information, basically controlling everything through the power of thought. This is just a way of compiling that data so it can be transmitted to the rest of the Collective." He explained while gesturing to the five pillars.

"Hopefully they haven't updated yet," Riley said. "Otherwise we would already be too late."

"Doctor are you alright?" Marteez asked, commenting on Ellie's dazed look on her face.

Things were not alright. Streams of green light appeared to flow towards the central conduit. Whispers and voices eminated from it as she moved closer to the device.

"Does anyone else hear those voices?" She asked.

The group looked at each other.

"There are no voices, doctor," Riley said.

But Ellie could indeed hear them. Hundreds of voices, thousands, whispering to each other or all together. She could not tell. Reaching out with one hand, Ellie approached the conduit. The black metal was cold against the ring on her finger, but it felt searing on her skin. The whispers became almost like shouting in her mind as information and data flooded in. Ellie was blown back against the bulkhead while images flashed through her mind.

"Doctor!" Charlie called out as he ran over to her.

The pain had returned to her mind. So had the white dots.

"I'm fine," she said rubbing her eyes as she attempted to come to her feet. Flashes of Cubes and Drones filled her mind. Strategies, tactics, information about thousands of races across the galaxy and plans for their assimilation. But one thing stuck out her mind. Even her thinking about it made a holographic screen to appear in the room hovering above the ground.

"What is that?" Charlie asked. Ellie looked up at the screen.

"It looks like a battle map," Riley said staring up at it. Then he pointed towards what looked like three star constellation. "That is the Ventrus trinary system. And there; Orion's Sword. Both of those systems are near the edge of federation space."

"It's a plan for an invasion of the Federation." Ellie stated. Riley and Charlie looked back at her. "They plan to go through with this as soon as they have upgraded the nanoprobes."

"We need to destroy this device then," Riley said. Quickly he raised his phaser rifle, primed to it's highest setting, he fired and a bright red and white energy beam leaped across the room. However instead of destroying the device, the energy beam impacted a green wall inches from its surface.

A voice, made up of thousands of sounds, spoke within Ellie's mind once again. "Hostiles detected. Deploy prototype."

In the corner of the room, the grating on the floor slid away and an alcove rose. Within the alcove stood a drone, but it was not a typical Borg drone. Red and blue veins had spread behind it's pale skin. It's eyes were black with multiple flecks of colour swam inside it, much like the protofluid in the nebula. But Ellie recognised the drone, or at least why the drone used to be.

"Nicolas?" She asked in surprise.

Nicolas had been captured by the Borg last time they had met. The Sphere that was following them was only interested in retrieving their drone, and she had often worried about what had become of Nicolas after their encounter.

Riley raised his phaser again, but the drone quickly tossed him to one side, knocking down the security officers in the process. Grabbing Ellie by the neck, she could hear the drones thoughts as loud as if it was speaking.

"Do you at least recognise me?" Ellie was struggling to breath.

Without a second thought, the drone tossed her aside as it did to Riley. The drone turned its attention to Charlie Marteez, holding it's arm out ready to deploy it's tubules as the panicked engineer backed against the bulkhead.

"Wait!" Ellie shouted. To Marteez's surprise, the drone froze in it's place. It turned its head silently towards Ellie, the voices she could hear had become more succinct and clear.

"How can you access our Collective mind?" It asked coldly, speaking not with its mouth, but with its mind. "We sensed ourself within you, but faint and weak."

"Months ago you attempted to assimilate me," Ellie responded. "We destroyed much of it but some of the nanoprobes remained in my blood stream."

"Soon your technology will no longer be able to evade our perfection," the drone said. "Resistance is futile."

"Don't you remember anything from then?" Ellie asked. "We freed you. Shown you what you were. Your brother? Gregory Cruford."

"You are attempting to reach a humanity that no longer exists," the drone said. "The Collective remembers everything. In a way we live forever."

"Nicolas please, just try to remember," Ellie tried to plead with him. "Just look at what they have done to you."

"This drone serves a great purpose that will spread our perfection across all being."

"And I feel sorry for you for that." Ellie said.

"You should not feel sorrow," the drone said. "You would rejoice, as you will all join us."

A pain unlike anything she had ever felt before spread through her body. Ellie crumpled to the floor as she could see the veins beneath her skin turn black and the flesh around it spread slowly to grey. The voices began to speak in unison as one, and even her own minds voice began to follow it.

Just before Ellie felt as if she was going to completely black out, the drone was knocked off balance. It had seemed that Riley had hit the drone in the back of its head with his rifle. Riley pressed his attack, being careful not to touch the drone with any of his exposed skin, he shoved it back. The drone stumbled what must have been halfway across the room.

Riley raised his rifle again, targeting the alcove behind the drone and fired. The destruction exposed high voltage flowing through the cables, and with one final charge, Riley shoved the drone directly into the live wires. The drone convulsed as the boots spread through its organic components, burning the flesh until at last the body dropped to the floor, stiff as a bone. The smell of burning meat filled the room.

Charlie checked on Ellie on the floor. The pain had subsided and the spread of black veins slowed to a halt. She told him she was fine for the time being but she had to get back to the Odyssey as soon as possible.

"Lieutenant, we need that thing destroyed," Riley said.

Charlie nodded. He rose to his feet and quickly glanced over to the drones stiff body. "Are you sure it's dead?" He asked.

"It smells like it," Riley commented.

"More will come," Ellie said rubbing her forehead. "Drones will start to sweep this section, we need to go."

"Alright," Charlie whispered to himself. "Pass me a spacial charge."

An ensign rummaged through a small bag and handed Charlie a silver detonator. Pulling the bulkhead off the diamond conduit, Marteez began to wire the detonator into the system.

"We have hostiles approaching," one of the security officers called.

Three drones had begun to leave their alcoves beyond the corridor and the Starfleet officers formed a defensive line at the room entrance. Energy streams shot from the tips of their rifles, falling harmlessly against green shields that hugged the drones skin.

"We need to go, now." Riley insisted.

"One second." Said Charlie.

The Odyssey swooped back around the Borg station, passing between the tendrals reaching towards the nebula as the Cube persued them.

"The away team is hailing us, sir," Jennifer reported. "They are ready for transport."

A green blast narrowly missed the Odyssey bow as it pulled sharply to port.

"Alright, contact the Rodney," Malcolm ordered, "tell them to watch our backs as we transport our people up."

"Sir if we are hit while the armour is down then that could cause massive damage," the officer manning the tactical station reported.

"It is something we just have to risk," Malcolm said. "Helm get us back in range, drop the armour and get our people out of there as soon as we are ready."

The Odyssey came about just as the cube shifted it's attention to the Rodney. The Borg must have timed it perfectly; as soon as the armour dropped, a green energy blast came from the station itself, slamming into the Odyssey's dorsal hull and ripping through several decks on the saucer. This was soon followed with a barrage of torpedoes targeting the Odyssey that completely knocked the vessel off it's axis.

"Damage report!" Malcolm shouted.

"We have hull breaches on decks three, four and five, reports of fires and heavy damage on decks nine and ten." Jennifer reported. "Short-range sensors, comms and environmental systems are offline."

"Raising shields," tactical said. "Molecular armour and weapons are out."

Bright blue thrusters fired along the ships hull, halting the Odyssey to a full stop.

"What about the away team?" Malcolm asked.

"Transport was complete," Jennifer said. "But without comms we cannot confirm if it was a success or if the data core was destroyed."

"Alright, tell them I am on my way down there," Malcolm said pulling his way off his chair. "Jen, you have command."

Malcolm ran out of the turbolift doors at they slid open. Bulkheads and conduits had been blown off, steam and fire filled many passageways but the captain slowly made his way towards the transporter room. As he approached the doorway, a group of gold shirts were lifting debris away from the door to the transporter. Paul was part of the group; Malcolm joined them in helping to remove the debris.

"What happened?" Malcolm asked.

"The corridor collapsed from the damage," Paul said.

They pulled away more and more debris until finally they could hear the group on the other side.

"Is everyone alright?" Malcolm shouted, passing a warped bulkhead over to an engineer to his right.

"Yes we are all here," Ellie's voice came from behind the wall of metal and rubble.

"That's good to hear," Malcolm said. "Comms are out, we need to know if the data core was taken out."

"I set the detonator for ten seconds," Marteez reported. "But drones were swarming the room when we transported out. There is a chance they deactivated it before it went off."

Malcolm turned and whispered to himself as the corridor shook once again. "Well there's no way we can confirm that." He said.

"What about the sensors?" Paul asked placing a shattered piece of metal on the floor away from the pile.

Malcolm shook his head. "Taken out along with comms."

"If I could get to deflector control I could attempt to fix the sensors," Paul suggested. "But I'm going to need help clearing out any debris."

"I need to check on Hepchapper anyway," Malcolm said and he gestured forward. The two left the engineers to finish clearing the damage just as the corridor shook once again.

Paul and Malcolm slowly made their way down to deck nine. Doctors were treating the injured and panels had fallen off their place. Taking one right turn made them come face-to-face with a breach in the hull. It looked as if the entire wall had been ripped out, exposing it to the vacuum of space. The emergency shields were holding and through the haze, the battle raging in outside was plainly visible.

Eventually they had come across a wide open room near the front of the ship. Running down the centre of the room was a large cylindrical shape gently angled down into the floor. This was the control room of the primary deflector. Sparks were falling from the ceiling and there was a loud hissing sound coming from the central column. Paul moved over an exposed panel and began to get to work.

Malcolm looked around the room. The floor shook beneath them and the muted sounds of explosions could be heard in the distance; The Odyssey was taking heavy injury fighting this battle. A part of Malcolm was concerned about just how much damage she had taken, but another was proud she had lasted this long.

"You've got this right?" Malcolm asked.

Paul nodded.

"Once you've got the sensors back online, get to work on the internal comms," Malcolm said before turning to exit the room at a pace.

It didn't take long for Malcolm to find his way through the corridors towards the brig. Placing his security code in, the doors slid open to a flood of smoke pouring against his face.

A fire had erupted in the corner of the room, it spread halfway across the containment cells, and although the fire and smoke could not cross the forcefield; the heat certainly did. Hepchapper and the others were hugging the wall within their cells.

"Computer engage fire suppression protocol three-one-one," Malcolm ordered. The computer quickly responded, a white foam was sprayed on the fire and it was soon snuffed out. Malcolm disengaged the forcefields and helped the Gulnest people out of the cells.

"Come on, I'm taking you to the nearest airlock," Malcolm said.

"Why are you doing this?" Hepchapper asked, looking about the brig. "This is a battle you are clearly losing."

"It's just who we are," Malcolm said. "We aren't soldiers but we don't run from a fight."

Malcolm led the group through the damaged corridors inside the Odyssey. Taking a left, then a right, then a right again, they soon arrived at the airlock. The group stepped inside the airlock but Hepchapper stayed in front of Malcolm.

"You need to go," Malcolm said. The ship rocked to one side.

"I just need to say, thank you for what you are doing," Hepchapper said. "And I am sorry."

"That's completely alright; you were just trying to help your people." Malcolm said.

"Sue- the real Suzanne Hepchapper must have been lucky," Hepchapper said.

"True me, I was the lucky one," Malcolm smiled.

Hepchapper stepped inside the airlock and Malcolm slid the heavy glass door closed. Reaching over to the control panel, Malcolm depressurised the airlock and the aid was sucked out of the room. Malcolm watched as the rear door opened, exposing the Gulnest inside to open space. One by one, the Gulnest returned to their natural state and the fluid creatures flew into space towards their nebula home.

Malcolm and Riley retook their places back on the bridge. Paul's voice called up soon after just as the Rodney and the Odyssey had pulled back to regroup.

"Commander I see you have comms back online," Malcolm stated.

"Yes sir, I am having trouble sending the sensor readings back up to you but from this end it seems the data core has been successfully destroyed," Paul said from deflector control. "The data stream should be heading up to you now."

Malcolm looked over at his number one and Jennifer nodded in response.

"I can confirm that, Captain," she said. "The Borg are moving to repair the section."

"We can't let that happen," Malcolm said. He spun in his chair to face the tactical station. "Riley would you please target those tendrils with the rail gun, let's see if we can give the Gulnest some help in breaking free."

"I'm sorry sir but the phaser rail gun is not responding," Riley said, shaking his head. "There must be too much damage."

"Captain the Rodney is hailing us." Jennifer reported.

"On screen."

Captain Rown appeared over the viewscreen, the bridge behind him looked even more battered and charred than the one behind Malcolm. A fresh new scar ran horizontally across his forehead.

"Richard, the Borg Cube doesn't appear to be chasing us now, is the data core destroyed?" He asked.

"Yes our reports say it has been destroyed," Malcolm said. "But they must be holding back until the damage has been repaired. We must not be a high enough priority."

"The Gulnest can deal with this from here," Rown said. "It's time for us to go before more lives are lost."

"Those tendrils are not only still feeding on the Gulnest, but also preventing them from attacking," Malcolm said. "We need to take them out first."

"What do you suggest?"

"Weapons are down on our side but the Rodney still has those transphasic torpedoes," said Malcolm and Rown nodded. "If we make ourselves look like a biggest target, the Rodney should be able to get past and destroy those tendrils."

"It's crazy," said Rown. "But hell I don't have a better plan, good luck Odyssey."

The hail ended. Malcolm looked around the bridge and each of his crew gave him a nod.

"Helm it's time for some fancy flying." He said. "Prepare to power up the Quantum engine."

"Aye, aye," Reece pushed forward the controls and the impulse engines roared into life once again.

By all means, the Rodney should be a priority target for the Borg; it had superior tactical weapons, a larger crew, and more current information about the Federation. But when the Odyssey's bussards turned bright white, and the ship prepared for Quantum Velocity, the unique power signature made the Odyssey a tempting target. And sure enough the Borg took the bait.

As the Odyssey passed near the Cube, a green tractor beam was projected, holding the ship in its place. The Rodney soared past unimpeded, and Malcolm watched from his bridge as several bright blue torpedoes were fired, cutting right through the tendrils that connected the Borg to the Gulnest.

"Shields are dropping." Riley said as the entire room shook consistently and the bulkheads groaned. "Sixty percent; fifty percent." He added.

For a moment or two, nothing happened. The tendrils were severed and were soon found falling into the nebula.

"Twenty percent; ten percent; shields are falling." Riley said.

Suddenly, as fast as the last of the tendrils disappeared, the nebula burst into light and colour. Not only that, but the nebula began to move. Flowing through space, the Gulnest were actually enveloping the area of space. As the fluid touched the station and the cube, they were both absorbed and crushed under the enormous mass of the Gulnest collective. The Odyssey and the Rodney, however, were pushed long out of the way. They found themselves drifting some distance away from the site as the nebula began to receed once again. No sign of Borg activity anywhere.

It took days before the two ships felt like they could relax. The first job to get back to was to restore the ships exterior hull, using the industrial replicators to form great plates of trilithium and duranium. Main Engineering had never been so busy. Officers passing out equipment and EVA suits.

Paul had spent the last hour checking on his engine, analysing the conduits and so far nothing looked out if place or unstable, he thought. Leaving the engineering lab, the pulsating blue warp core towered over the lab. To his right, Paul saw Charlie Marteez standing over a control panel, working to reroute power flow back to environmental systems.

"Oh hi Paul," Charlie nodded as he approached the console.

"I'm glad you're okay," Paul commented.

"Yeah it got pretty close back there."

Paul moved closer to his side. "I want to thank you for stepping in like that," he said. "Promising to help my sister even when you didn't have to."

"I wish I was able to do more," Charlie said.

"You did enough," Paul said. "I've never had a friend like you."

Charlie looked modest, but Paul moved in and embraced him.

"Are you comfortable?" Jennifer said, sitting down in front the captains desk. The sight of repair crews along the ships hull plainly visible through the window behind Malcolm.

"I am now," Malcolm said. "Still concerned that so many were so easily persuaded by Hepchapper. Certainly makes one reconsider how you command the crew. How is Reka anyway?"

"I tried talking to him but he just won't listen, it seems. Can't say I blame him." Jennifer said. "One more thing." She handed a small padd over to the captain. "It was something the Rodney had taken from home, it was addressed to you."

The padd was a small silver box, inscribed on the back was the words; "The last will and testament of Jar Oweye, 2326-2400."

"Thank you," Malcolm said.

The corridors were filled with clean up crews and engineers consulting repairs on the ship. Many sections were completely sealed off, so progress through the ship took the longest route, but eventually Malcolm made it to the holodeck. This room had been closed off for months due to its extreme power requirements, but Malcolm felt this occasion warranted exception.

Inputting his security code, the two great doors pulled themselves open and the captain stepped inside. Malcolm tapped the activation switch and casted the data into the room around him with a flick of his wrist.

A transparent human body appeared in the centre of a circle that had formed on the floor. After a couple of seconds, the hologram solidified. Jar Oweye now stood before him. He looked healthy; for a hologram of a dead man, his wooden cane he often used to walk still acted as a third leg for him.

"Richard, if you have received this, and this hologram is activated then it surely means that I am dead." The hologram said.

Malcolm nodded. "Penvil killed you. They were trying to get to me through my friends."

"I expected for a long time that William will come after me," Oweye said. "It does not matter than they were trying to get to you. What matters is that they didn't, and those who died gave them for what they believed. I am not afraid of death, never have. If I listened to my doctors then I would only middle-aged by now. But even now I am gone, I am immensely proud of you and what you can achieve."

"I can't," Malcolm said shaking his head. "I wasn't ready to become captain, so many hated me for the mistakes I made. You should have gone in my place."

"No one ever is ready," Oweye said. "I would be surprised if any of us didn't fail the first couple of times. We learn from that and become better as people. After all those years as my first officer, I thought I taught you that: do not be like me, or Dean, or any of those who come before or who will come after. Find the best in all of us, But remember that what makes you different, what makes you unique, is what makes you Richard Malcolm. That is what makes you a Captain."

Oweye unfurled the leather strap around his wrist and presented the wooden cane across his hands.

"Look at this," he said. "Its nothing special, just oak wood casing with a steel rod core, but it allows me to walk. When my knee finally gave out, doctors told me if I wasn't going to allow them to operate then I would have to place my leg in a metal cast. I chose this. Instead of something that gave me the strength to walk, this uses my own strength so I can stand and walk." Oweye held it out. "Take it."

Uncertain, Malcolm glanced down at the wooden cane, taking hold of it with one hand. It was oddly cold to the touch and surprisingly light. Oweye let go and smiled, lines around his mouth and eyes wrinkled.

"Goodbye," Oweye said.

A faint beep came from the small padd and Jar Oweye vanished from sight as the testament ended. Malcolm noticed that he had been crying without even realising it. Wiping away the watering with the sleeve of his uniform, Malcolm held the wooden cane in his right hand. It was a little bit too short for him but he soon noticed that it was slowly warming up in his palms.

Stepping out of holodeck, Malcolm looked down the corridor and saw a short beaked alien turn a corner out of sight. It must have been Reka. Still grasping the wooden cane in his right hand, Malcolm came to a jog in order to catch up.

Turning a corner, Malcolm found himself entering a large open section, the ships torpedo launch tubes lining the wall. Reka stood next to the third rail along, he placed a small canister down and readied the launch procedure. He glanced upward and paused in fright at the sight of Malcolm.

"It's alright, Commander," Malcolm said raising his hands. "I just want to talk."

Reka nodded slowly.

"Is that what I think it is?" Malcolm asked, pointing towards the small canister. It was a silver cylinder, on it's side there was a transparent rectangle displaying a red ball of organic matter.

Reka nodded. "Doctor Malcolm had it removed this morning. I just feel like I need to give it a proper burial." He closed his big black eyes. "I am sorry for what I did, captain. They targeted me, and used this against me when I was at my most vulnerable."

"It's alright," Malcolm said. "I don't blame you."

Malcolm stepped forward the console and activated the final launch procedures.

"I didn't want to admit I made a mistake, I just couldn't once I realised, and even then it had gone too far," Reka said. "Sir, do you know the Quico Passing?"

"I believe so," Malcolm said. "That's the poem Quiceese recite when a family member dies, right?"

Reka nodded.

"I read about it in the report when first contact with your people happened," Malcolm said. "I think I know the words if my memory is right."

Moved across towards the panels, standing next to the captain and behind the launch tube, Reka pressed the central blue circle and the launch began. Reka bowed his head and Malcolm did the same as the small canister was lifted into the launch tube by robotic hands.

"The stars give us knowledge," the two both began to say in unison. "The stars give us a story. We took from them and now we give back. All the stars and constellations, give them strength. And now we hope one day we can join the Passed beyond our sadness and grief, for now and forever more."

Fired as a tiny bright light, the canister shot out from the Odyssey. As it joined the rest of the stars, it became fainter and fainter until it was vanished from sight."

The idea came from Paul and Charlie. If the two ships are linked together, the hull preparation and the energy field could be shared between the Rodney and the Odyssey. They believed that if this was the case, once Doctor Coal made the jump, both ships could be immediately transported to the source of the signal.

Reece coordinated with the helms officer on-board the Rodney to dock the two ships together as one. Doctor Coal got the signal to step inside the navigation cube. Black Alert was declared.

A computerised voice began to count down from ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. The chamber filled with blue spores. Five. Four. Three. The coordinates came into his mind. Two. One.

Flashes and images of the galaxy passed by his mind. Somethings he had never seen before. The ship shook around him as his mind eventually came to Sagittarius. An unknown region of space; fleets of city ships; a great ring; finally coming to the remote planet projecting the signal. But as Coal felt them approaching it, the entire ship was thrown off course, far back as an explosion knocked Coal out of consciousness

The bridge crew of the Odyssey climbed back into their places. Power had been briefly knocked offline as the lights flickered and an automatic yellow alert triggered.

"What just happened?" Malcolm asked as he scrambled back onto the captains chair.

"I'm not sure, sir," Reece said. "Navigation is rebooting."

"Sir, the Rodney is gone." Riley reported.

"What? Where is it?" Malcolm asked. "Could they have left us behind?"

"Negative sir," Reece said. "Navigation detected that we were within one hundred light years from the coordinates of the source. Whatever happened must have deflected us back somehow. Probably some kind of defence."

"Well where are we then? And what about the Rodney?"

"According to starcharts we are just over ten thousand light years away from the Gulnest nebula." Reece reported. "As for the Rodney, where ever the are, they are long out of sensor range."

"Richard you need to see this," Jennifer commented. "The Sagittarius signal, something has happened."

"What do you mean?"

"On screen." Jennifer said.

Malcolm stood up from his seat and approached the large front viewscreen on the bridge. Everyone had stopped. A new star had appeared in the sky in front of them. The signal blinked visibly now, it's light reaching tens of thousands of lightyears out into space.