This story takes place during the last year of the Enterprises original 5 year mission.

Capt. Rajeed Bunyrathfatamantu, Buny as his shipmates called him. Was the captain of a Federation starship. No, not really. He was the captain of a beat up, old civilian freighter, that went by the unlikely name of "Daisy May". DM for short. But that wasn't quite true either. The ship was really a state of the art spy ship, with its own Romulan cloaking device, under the control of Section 31.

Buny was sitting is his darkened quarters staring at an unopened bottle of Romulan Ale. He was trying to decide whether to drink it or throw himself out an air lock. Needless to say, he was feeling very down on himself right now. Two days earlier, he had taken part in the assassination of the young, charismatic leader of the resurgent Nazi party on planet Ekos. He had had enough killing. Even killing a reprehensible person such as a Nazi leader tears away a part of your soul that can never be mended. Now all Buny wanted to do was save a life, and not have to kill to do it. Killing 5 to save 10, maybe a bargain, but not if your the one doing the killing.

The young man from a farm in India, had joined Starfleet to explore. But a penchant for following orders without question, and a belief that the ends justify the means, had lead to his being recruited into Section 31. Now, he wanted out and would do almost anything to leave the killing behind. He could just disappear, he had learned how to do that. Maybe to one of the more backward farm planets, no one would think to look for him there.

"Bridge to Capn. Buny." It was his 1st officer Lt. Bogers.

"What now?" Buny said.

"We have a new assignment, a deep space probe in sector 284 has encountered some sort of anomaly. Starfleet thinks it could be the mouth of a worm hole, possibly artificial in origin. The Enterprise has been dispatched to investigate, however, they are several days away. Adm. Marcus wants us there asap. Determine what is and if it is a threat to the Federation."

"Set course, maximum warp, lets go." Buny switched off the intercom without waiting for Bogers response. Why did I even give that order? he thought. I think Bogers runs the ship. He always is there reminding me what I'm supposed to do. Section 31 must remain in the shadows, a ghost, a rumor, he had said that many times.

Buny stood up, looked at the bottle of ale and said, "I'll save you for when I have something to celebrate." He put the bottle away and started for the bridge. Sounds like a simple assignment, maybe I won't have to kill half the galaxy.

New Arkansas Colony Rigel Kentarus 4, nine years after the 5 year

Dillon Baldwin, former Enterprise red shirt and now small cattle rancher on one of the few Federation colony's that still practiced that sort of thing, was inspecting his fence line. It was early summer, but the day was cold and blustery, one of the drawbacks to living on a planet with a temperamental, slightly variable star. His communicator beeped.

"Hey dad?" It was his seven year old son, Tommy. "There's a couple of guys on the porch want to see you, one say he's Adm. Kirk."

"Kirk? Well, let 'em in, tell 'em to have a seat. I'll be there in a minute."

Dillon spun around and felt a twinge of pain in his back. A reminder of what was almost a very bad day, years ago. He ran across the field, trying to dodge the cow patty's that dotted the pasture, not as agile as he once was, he wasn't quite successful.

He burst into the living room of his farm house, and there on the couch was Adm. Kirk and beside him...

"Buddy." Lt. Cmdr. Chris Albright, Kirks personal assistant and Dillon's former Enterprise roommate. The two men embraced as friends who haven't seen each other in ages.

"You look great," Chris said, he pushed back, "but, you smell like a farmer."

"Comes with the territory, and you look like a penguin. What was Starfleet thinking when they came up with that uniform?"

"Oh, some Admiral with nothing better to do came up with that." Kirk said. He shook Dillon's hand. "Great to see you again."

"Good to see you too Admiral."

"Your out of Starfleet, call me Jim."

"Yes sir, Jim."

"You got here just in time, this little fellow was pestering us with none stop questions."

Dillon placed both hands on his son's shoulders. "Future Starfleet officer here."

"I don't doubt it." Kirk said.

"Sir, uh Jim, what brings you out here, we're a bit off the beaten path."

"Well, we're returning to Earth from an inspection tour of Star Base three, we caught a ride on the U.S.S. Cherokee. I requested that the Captain swing by for a quick stop.

"More like pulled rank?" Dillon asked.

"Something like that. One of the few advantages of being an Admiral, people jump when you speak."

"I can imagine."captain.

"Well, this isn't totally a social call. There is something I need to talk to you about. In private, if you don't mind."

"Of course. Tommy, aren't you supposed to be doing your physics homework?"captain

"Aww.."

"Don't aww me." Dillon turned the boy towards a hallway and gave him a gentle push. "Now get to it." Dillon turned back to Kirk, "Well have a seat."

The men settled back down, Chris was rubbing his chin, "Wait a sec. blue skin, white hair, little nubby antennae. Not much of a family resemblance there ol' buddy."

"Junea and I, well, it seems Andorians and Humans aren't compatible. We had to adopt. My daughter is human, she's with Junea in town."

"Well," Kirk said, taking over the conversation. "You remember the incident with the cube ship?"

"Oh very well." Dillon reached back and rubbed his back. "Everyday."

"Do you remember anymore of what happened to you that day?"

"No not really. I blasted a hole in the deck, one of those things grabbed my phaser rifle and pulled me down. I fell aways, landed on my back. The next thing I knew, I was in sick bay, with this horrible, swollen headed creature in the bed next to me."

"Hey, I resemble that creature." Chris said. "And let me tell you, being in sick bay with you wasn't much fun. I had one hell of a headache. All day, all I heard was, "nurse Chapel, I'm hungry, Nurse Chapel I'm cold."

"Oh, it wasn't that bad."

"Wasn't that good."

"Dillon." Kirk again steering the conversation back. "You once said you were examined by a civilian medic."

"Yes, but remember I thought I was about to die. I dismissed it as a dream or something."

"Well," Kirk said, and pulled a data pad out of a pocket. "Here's something for you to read, and remember your non disclosure agreement you signed when you left. This stays here between us. It took a lot of effort to get this report, but you have a right to know what happened to you."

"Of course." Dillon said. He took the pad and began reading.

"Ships log: For three days the Daisy May has remained cloaked and is pacing what we believe to be a Borg cube. The worm hole that brought it here had collapsed as it emerged. We await the arrival of Adm. Marcus and the dreadnaught."

Buny had just sat down in the DM's small galley for a bite to eat. Before he could take a bite, Bogers voice came over the ship's intercom: "Capt. to the bridge."

What now? He thought. He was under a lot of stress. He didn't believe this encounter was going to end well. He left the galley, sprinted down the short corridor and climbed the ladder to the bridge.

"SITREP." He called as he took his seat. But he didn't need one. On the forward view screen, a Constitution class vessel was caught in a tractor beam, it's phasers raked the Borg cube, but to no avail.

"It's the Enterprise." Bogers said. "She came up a moment ago and was immediately tractored."

Buny could see the ship shaking as she tried in vain to break free.

"We've got to help them." Buny said. "I'm not going to sit here and watch four hundred thirty beings assimilated by those creatures."

"There's nothing we can do. We don't have the fire power to go up against that thing." The 1st Officer said. "Hell, Marcus's dreadnaught will be no match for them."

"There's got to be something." Buny said as he rubbed his forhead with both palms.

On the screen, the Enterprise ceased fire, a moment later 4 photon torpedoes streaked away at point blank range. The explosions took out the tractor beam, but otherwise did minimal damage. The Enterprise drifted slowly away.

"Get out of here Kirk, go to warp." Buny mumbled under his breath. "Trevor," Buny said to the DM's science officer, "status of the Enterprise? Why aren't they going?"

The science officer was staring into his scanners. "Warp drive is out as well as impulse, the Enterprise is operating on emergency power only. The Borg cube is regenerating."

"How long?"

"I estimate twenty minutes."

"There's got to be something we can do?"

"There is one alternative." Bogers said. "Trevor, call up the Enterprise's prefix code."

"What are you doing?"

"Trevor transfer the code to my station."

"Bogers, what are you doing?" Buny was almost desperate now.

"I'm going to order the Enterprise to self destruct."

"Oh, no, no, no. We can't kill 430 beings."

"We have no choice. The damage to the Federation if the Borg assimilate that ship and crew, well, I don't even want to think about it." He now had the code and was entering the self destruct sequence. A moment later, it was ready. He stretched finger towards the button and looked at Buny.

"Awaiting your order."

Buny was shaking, Bogers was right, as always.

"No, I'll do it. It's my responsibility." Buny took two unsteady steps to the 1st Officers station. He stretched out his hand and laid a finger on the self destruct button. Buny wasn't sure what happened next. Bogers was laying face down on the deck. He rolled over, blood trickled from his nose. Buny stood with his phaser pointing square at his 1st Officers head.

"No I'm not killing anyone today." He deactivated the destruct and deleted the prefix code.

"Captain?" Trevor said.

"What?" Buny snapped.

"Transporter activity. Four people have just transported over to the Borg cube. Bio scan of the transporter shows one of them is Kirk".

"Great." Bogers said, "All the Borg needs is Kirk. They don't need the ship. And thanks to you, they'll get both."

Buny sat down in his command chair. "We're giving Kirk a chance, he's resourceful, I'm sure he's got a plan. Trevor, monitor them, I want to know everything they do over there."

For several tense minutes the crew of the DM listened as Trevor described what was going on. A state of the art spy ship made it as if the ywere with Kirk and his team.

"Kirk has requested his chief engineer to beam over with some piece of equipment. There's the transporter, it's the chief engineer and" Trevor shook his head in disbelief, "enough anti-matter to blow up half a planet."

"What?" Buny said. "The only way he could get that much anti-matter would be to extract it from his warp core. He hasn't had time to do that."

"Maybe Kirk had it under his bed." Bogers said.

Buny ignored him. Trevor continued his narration.

"Two people have just beamed back. Now a new signal, I think it's a countdown. The Borg are converging on the away team. Phaser fire. Explosions. One of the team has just fallen through the deck several levels."

Buny yelled to the transporter chief, "Beam that man aboard, now."

Trevor continued, "Phaser fire has ceased, two have beamed back." But Trevor didn't need to describe what happened next. The cube exploded into a million pieces.

"Chief, did you get that man?"

"He's here." The transporter chief responded. "He's hurt really bad."

Buny looked at the helmsman, who was also the only qualified medic on the DM, "Mackster. get down there. See what you can do."

On the view screen, the Enterprise pitched and yawed from the shock wave.

"Trevor, status of the Enterprise?"

"Their shields came up and took most of the shock wave."

Macster entered the DM's transporter room. An Enterprise red shirt lay on the pad. Mackster knelt beside him and ran a medical tricorder over him.

"Who...are...you?"

"Don't try to speak." Mackster drew a hypo from his med kit, placed it against the mans shoulder. The red shirts eyes fluttered closed.

"Mackster to bridge, Capn. he's got a broken back, I've done all I can."

"Chief, lock on to a transporter pad on the Enterprise and beam him over."

On the bridge, Buny stood over the science station. Enterprise com traffic was coming through the speakers. Damage reports and minor injuries were being reported. Then there was the loud and clear voice of Leonard McCoy.

"He's dead Jim." No, Buny thought, we've lost one. Then in the background there was a weak voice, "I ain't dead."

"Bones, what the blazes is going on down there?" It was Kirks voice.

"It's Albrights head, It's harder than I thought, and what the hell, Baldwin just appeared on the pad. And he's alive."

"Ahahaha," Buny laughed. "Did you hear that Bogers? They got their men back, their alive. We did it and we stayed safely in the shadows, a whisper, a rumor, just another deep space mystery, one of many the Enterprise has encountered."

"I intend to report this in full to Adm. Marcus." Bogers glared at Buny.

"Go right ahead, in fact, if you want, I'll hand deliver it to the Adm. myself."

Buny went to the rear of the bridge, and slid down the ladder. For the first time in years he felt good about himself.

Dillon looked up from the pad.

"You mean I owe my life to..."

"An organization that doesn't exist." Kirk snatched the pad back from Dillon.

"We all owe our lives to that Captain, and we don't even know his name." Chris said.

"Well, I hate to drop bombshells and go, but I did promise we wouldn't be here long."

Kirk lead the way out to the middle of Dillon's front yard, Chris took his position beside the Admiral. Kirk drew his communicator.

"Wait a sec." Chris said, "hey buddy, all those little black piles out in the field, is that what I think it is?"

Baldwin, standing on his front porch, said, "Yep."

"And do you just, like, walk around out there?"

Dillon rocked back on his heels and looked down at his dirty boots.

"Oh my god, Admiral, we need to get to sick bay asap. There's no telling what kind of horrible disease's we've contracted, just standing here." Chris placed a hand on his forehead. "I can feel a fever coming on now."

"Jim, can find something for him to do?" Dillon asked.

"Oh, I've got plenty for him to do." Kirk flipped open his communicator, "Kirk to Cherokee, two to beam up."

A moment later the two men were swept away by the transporter beam.

Dillon stood and stared at the empty spot in his yard, where a moment earlier two very important people from his past had been standing. A past that seemed as distant and surreal as the existence of Section31.

"Mr. Dillyon."

Dillon looked up. It was Rajeed, the rather odd indian man who lived down the road. He was sitting on his bicycle and leaning over Dillon's fence.

"Did I see Starfleets in your yard?"

"Yes, Rajeed, you saw Starfleet officers in my yard."

"Oh, you better beware, Mr. Dillyon, them Starfleets is into everything. Especially that Kirk. He's a crafty one I tell you. Well, I need to go, tell Junea I stopped by to say hello"

As Dillon watched Rajeed ride away, he thought, "Can today get any stranger."