Moon Trek Neo Episode One: Time

by erinwinking

Having proved their worth in less than ordinary situations, Captain Ranma Saotome takes command of a new special operations task force known as Neo. Ranma soon finds himself racing the clock in order to stop what very well could be the end of the Fed.

PRELUDE

The Ferengi home world was a damp, swamp like planet with little or no direct sunlight. It rained more than Seattle during El Nino. There were alligators, crocodiles, and swamp monsters to beat the farm. Moss grew on everything, including people if they stood still long enough.

Yes, it was indeed a dismal place to be hanging out.

But for some people it was home.

The Ferengi were one of the few capitalist societies left in this part of the galaxy. This was one of a few places that people like her could still be, and do what she loved.

Make money.

Nabiki Tendo sat in her throne like chair behind her desk as she looked over some of the paper work turned in from the modest trade business she ran; Tendo Intersystem Commerce Incorporated.

She didn't really care for what she saw in the reports. There were too many holes and latinum unaccounted for.

She was going to have to get answers.

She gave the PADD the once over one more time, then turned to a doorway.

"Gor!" She yelled.

A young Ferengi came running into the room and slid to a stop in front of Nabiki's desk. His face showed the fear he usually felt when Nabiki raised her voice.

"Yes Miss Tendo?"

"Who did the Romulus to Ferengi Outpost Six run last week?"

Gor quickly pulls a PADD out of his pocket and checks.

"It appears to have been Nard."

Nabiki nods. "Where is he now?"

"He should be at his house. His next run doesn't start for a few hours."

Nabiki nods again. "Thank you."

Gor nods and quickly scurried off to the next room, gleeful that his head was still attached. Nabiki hit some buttons on her computer. An older Ferengi with a silver sash appeared on the screen. He doesn't seem to be paying any attention to who has just come up on his communications system.

"This is Liquidator Hort." The Ferengi dryly stated without ever looking up.

"Yes sir, this is Nabiki Tendo."

The liquidator looked up and smiled.

"Miss Tendo. Rather early for my bribe, isn't it?"

Nabiki laughed. "No, not your bribe. But time for you to earn it."

The liquidator sat up; completely focused on the conversation.

Nabiki, coolly as always, leaned back. "It appears that I have a transport captain that is skimming profits."

The liquidator grinned and chortled. "A true Ferengi."

Nabiki chuckled. "Maybe so, but the problem is that he is skimming MY profits."

Nabiki threw the PADD down on her desk. It smashed into a million pieces. The liquidator jumped slightly at the sound of the shattering fiberglass, then nods.

"I'll take care of it." He stated, ending the communication.

Nabiki grinned and leaned back once more.

"Don't you feel bad about having people killed?" A soft female voice asked from behind Nabiki.

Nabiki turned and smiled at her.

"Good morning, Kasumi."

Kasumi Tendo nodded a greeting at Nabiki. She gave Nabiki a cup of tea and then took her own cup around the desk. Kasumi then sat down across from her sister.

"To answer your question-" Nabiki explained "-I don't ask to have them killed. What Hort does to rectify the situation is his business, not mine."

Kasumi sighed as she took another sip of her tea. She then passed Nabiki a PADD.

"What's this?" Nabiki asked.

"It's from Akane. She and Ranma finally got married."

Nabiki raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Kasumi nodded an acknowledgement. Nabiki read the PADD for a bit.

"And she didn't even think of inviting us?" Nabiki cynically asked.

"She says that it was a spur of the moment wedding. They didn't invite anyone. Just her, Ranma, and another ships Captain over subspace."

Nabiki nodded and continued to read.

"It says here that she is going to be our direction at Deep Space Nine here for a couple of days and she would like to see us."

Kasumi nodded another acknowledgement.

"I think it would be nice if we went."

Nabiki agreed. "GOR!"

Gor once again quickly scurried into the room, frightened as usual.

"Yes ma'am?"

"Do you think you can take care of things around here for a week while we go to Deep Space Nine?" Nabiki asked.

Gor nodded. "Yes ma'am!"

"We'll be leaving later today. And know that if I return and things are even the slightest bit askew, it'll be your big eared ass." Nabiki threatens, her gaze burning right into Gor.

Gor understood and nodded feverishly to make sure Nabiki knew that.

Nabiki stood and motioned for Kasumi to follow her. The two girls walk into Nabiki's room. Nabiki grabs a suitcase and starts to pack. Kasumi helps by neatly folding up Nabiki's clothes so that they will fit.

"I suppose you are already packed?" Nabiki asked.

Kasumi giggles and nods. "Yeah, I figured you would want to go, but I was planning on going either way."

Nabiki continued to grab clothes as she talks.

"I haven't seen my baby sister in years. What would make you think that I wouldn't want to go?"

"I know how you are." Kasumi replied, suspiciously eying a rather seductive lingerie set that Nabiki had handed her to pack. "Rule of Acquisition number six; 'Never allow family to stand in the way of opportunity.'"

Nabiki laughed. "Well there is really no new opportunity at this time, so it's all good." Nabiki tossed Kasumi one more item before closing and locking her closet. "Besides, that is their rule, not mine. I tend to think of family as opportunity."

Kasumi sighed as she loaded the final article of clothing into the suitcase.

Nabiki picked up the case and carried it out. The two ladies walk out into the main lobby of Nabiki's business. Nabiki looked to Gor.

"We will be at Deep Space Nine if you need me for anything."

Gor nodded and waved. "Have a safe trip."

Nabiki nodded as Kasumi waved back to Gor. The pair walked outside into the rain. Kasumi promptly opened up an umbrella to protect the pair on the walk out to the launching pad.

"Where is your suitcase?" Nabiki asked.

"Already loaded."

Nabiki chuckled. "So, you were going to take a company ship?"

Kasumi rolled her eyes. "Don't worry; I was going to take a cargo run as well."

Nabiki laughed. "That's my sister."

The pair continued to walk down the wet pathway to the silver cargo ship sitting on the launch pad. A Ferengi took Nabiki's suitcase and ran on board the ship, with Nabiki and Kasumi right behind him.

As the two girls are boarding the ship Nabiki stopped.

Kasumi noticed her sister and stops as well.

"Something wrong?"

Nabiki just shook her head.

"Gor is somewhat of an idiot. Do you mind if we make a quick stop on our way there?"

"No."

Nabiki nodded and pulled out a communicator. "Tendo to base."

"Yes ma'am?" Gor replied on the other end.

"We are going to take Vor'Gal's shipment with us. Have it loaded please."

"Yes ma'am." Gor obediently replied.

Nabiki closed her communicator and looked to her sister.

"Vor'Gal is just a few light years on the delta side of the Bajorian wormhole. It shouldn't take us but an extra two or three hours."

Kasumi nodded and continued into the ship. "I'll make us some tea."

Nabiki nodded in the general direction of her sister as she watched several Ferengi bring out large silver containers on anti-grav pads and begin loading them into the cargo ship.

"This shit is far too expensive for me not to deliver personally." Nabiki noted as she began to walk in after her sister.

In the cargo hold of the ship the Ferengi carefully stack the containers and lock them down in magnetic fields. On the top of each of the containers, in both Ferengi and Japanese is a stern warning.

Extremely Explosive.

* * * *

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" A giant mouse yelled at Ranma.

Ranma, in casual clothing, is sitting at a table with Akane, Serena, Lita and Gosnell around the table with him.

Ranma looked at the mouse and grins. The mouse placed a pizza on the table and bounded off.

Ranma narrowed his eyes and looks at Serena.

"Where are we again?"

Serena, who had already gotten a slice of pizza jammed into her mouth attempted to reply.

"Mucky Feeze."

Ranma continued to eye Serena as she quickly chewed and swallowed the slice. She took a big gulp of her beverage and attempted to explain herself again.

"Chuck E. Cheese."

Gosnell stared at the mouse as it attempted to do some sort of jig to quell a crying baby. Ranma sighed and grabbed a piece of pizza for himself.

"When you said you wanted to take us out for my birthday I assumed that we were going some where…" Ranma attempted to find the words, but Akane beat him to it.

"…More adult."

Serena began to flail her arms towards one side of the arcade filled room.

"BUT THEY HAVE SKEE-BALL!"

"What the hell is a skee-ball?" Gosnell asked, still watching the oversized rodent do his best to entertain several angry four year olds.

Serena paused for a moment, and then began to explain.

"You take the ball and throw it up a ramp. If you get it in the center hole you get fifty points, but if you miss you only get ten."

Serena gobbled down another slice and continued.

"Then you get a ticket for every hundred points!"

"Oh go to hell all of you." The mouse grumbled as it walked away, leaving the children crying. Gosnell's eyes followed the mouse across the room it took off its costumed head and threw it on the floor. Several other children nearby scream bloody murder at the giant mouse head rolling around next to them.

"So what do you do with the tickets?" Akane asked.

"Well you gather up enough and you can trade them in for cool things like a comb, or a zigly-straw or even a fake mustache!" Serena giggled.

"You could use a fake mustache, Ranma." Akane grinned.

The table laughed at Ranma. Ranma just groaned.

"I thought being picked on when it's your birthday wasn't allowed."

The table giggled some more. Akane leaned over and kisses Ranma. Ranma blushes and smiles.

"Hello, Captain." A female's voice drew Ranma away from his pizza.

Ranma looked up to see an attractive Bajorian woman standing next to their table. The woman is wearing a red Bajorian military uniform. She smiled as the light shines off of her ear jewelry.

Ranma smiled at her and stands.

"Colonel Kira." Ranma greets her.

Colonel Kira Nerys, the commanding officer of the joint Federation/Bajorian outpost Deep Space Nine, returned the smile.

"Happy birthday Captain and welcome to Deep Space Nine. I trust your stay here has thus far been enjoyable?"

A voice comes over the PA. "The animatronics show will begin in one minute."

"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Serena screams, grabbing a slice of pizza and darting into the room with the animatronic stage.

"Well, for some of us." Ranma chuckled.

Kira chuckled back and motioned for Ranma to sit back down. She then had a seat in Ranma's chair.

"I have to say, Captain, I am a little concerned." Kira grinned at Ranma. "I've heard rumors of the special new task force that you command. Is something amiss here?"

Ranma shook his head. "No, we don't have any 'official' business in this area. It's purely a personal trip."

Akane took over. "My sisters live on Frenginor. We are meeting them here, since our primary assignment is to make sure the Cardassians remember exactly where the border is."

Ranma eyes Akane. He hoped she was lying. He was under the impression his days of floating up and down the border running scans was over with.

Kira nods and stands up. "If there is anything you need while you are here, let me know."

Ranma stands, nods, and watches as Kira walks out of the restaurant.

Ranma sits back down and starts to work on another slice of pizza.

Gosnell looks to the Captain.

"How old are you again?"

* * * *

Raye creeps around a corner of a building and quickly slinks behind a pile of rocks. She pulls out a pair of binoculars and scans the top of a building about 400 meters from her.

"Where the hell is he?" She whispers to herself.

Raye stays behind the rocks and pulls a tricorder from a pocket on the leg of her jumpsuit.

Raye, dressed in the new Neo Special Operations Team jumpsuit, looked rather badass.

Raye's hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Her jumpsuit resembled those of a late twentieth century police SWAT team jumpsuit. All black, with dark red trim. Attached to her ear was an earpiece communicator/eyepiece. It began in her ear, curved around the outside of it, ending in front of her right eye. The eyepiece appeared clear from the outside, but the inside acted as a mini tricorder, giving her vital information including the name of the officer communicating with her.

On her collar were sown on black with red trim pips, showing her rank of commander. Covering her torso was a phase resistant, projectile resistant flak vest. The vest had several pockets on it for her to carry vital equipment.

Around her waist was a utility belt. On her right side was a holster that carried a new, Neo issued phase/projectile weapon. It resembled an AD 2004 semi-automatic gun more than it did a traditional Federation phaser.

On the left side of the belt was a holster for her full-sized tricorder which contained maps and other information too detailed to store in the mini one attached to her head.

On the back of the belt was a mini med-kit, several flexi-cuffs (those plastic handcuffs twenty first century police use in riots), and what appeared to be some sort of concussion or flash grenade.

Wrapped around her right thigh was another holster. In that was a more traditional looking Starfleet phaser. The only exception being that it was completely black. On her left thigh was another holster, except this one held mini-transport enhancers.

And of course she was wearing the traditional military style boots.

Yup. Rather badass indeed.

The name 'Shelton' appeared in her eye.

"Haven't you found me yet?" A mans voice whispers in her ear.

Raye grumbles and checks her tricorder again.

"When I play hide and seek with my nephew he usually finds me." The voice taunts.

Raye scowls and hits some buttons on the tricorder. It simply beeps at her in a non-compliant way.

"You'll never find me that way. I'm using a bio-jammer."

Raye raises an eyebrow. "Are you spying on me?" She whispers.

"Spying? Me?" The voice replies.

Raye pulls the grenade off of her belt. She hits some buttons on it. It chirps and a light starts to flash.

"Jam this." She grins as she throws the grenade into the open area between the rock and the building. After a couple of seconds the grenade explodes, sending large plumes of smoke into the air.

Raye takes this opportunity to run. She comes out from behind the rocks and starts to head to another debris pile closer to the building.

"Is that the best you've got?" The voice taunts.

Phaser fire erupts from one of the windows. The blasts hit about a half step behind Raye. She reaches the debris pile and slides behind it as the smoke begins to clear.

Raye sees what she is looking for. A small flashing box sits behind the debris pile. She picks it up, hits a few buttons, and the box ceases it's blinking.

She checks the tricorder again. This time it complies and shows her a biosign on the second floor of the building.

"Parker." She whispers.

"Yes ma'am?" A different male voice replies.

"Second floor, east. Cover fire."

"Aye."

Phaser fire erupts from the rock pile that Raye was once using as shelter. The person in the building fires back. Raye uses this as a chance to get through the front door of the building.

Once inside, Raye quickly checks her map. She starts heading towards the stairwell on the far end of the building. Once she reaches it, she checks the tricorder again and sees that the biosign has moved to the west end of the building.

"Stay still, dammit." She grumbles to herself. Checking her map she notices that there is no stairwell on that end of the building.

She grins as she slowly slinks up the staircase.

Once at the top she drops to the ground and starts to slither her way around the corner.

"GIVE IT UP!" She yells. "YOU'RE TRAPPED."

"SAYS YOU!" The man from earlier yells back. He quickly darts out of his hiding space and runs towards the window.

Raye pulls herself to her knees and fires at him.

But, it's too late.

Glass shatters as the man goes through the window.

"PARKER!" Raye yells.

"I see him!" Parker calls back.

Raye hops up and runs to the window to see her partner converge on the man. He quickly surrenders. Raye laughs.

"I forgot about you." The man says to Parker.

Parker grins and lowers his weapon.

The man, Lt. Commander Kirk Shelton looks up to Raye.

"Well played."

Raye smiles as she attaches her phase-rifle to the back of her vest.

"You should never underestimate the tactical prowess of this girl."

"I will never underestimate you again, Commander." He grins back.

Raye nods.

"Computer end program." Raye orders.

"NO COMMANDER!" Parker screams.

Neither Parker nor Shelton can watch as the scene reverts back to the plain old grid of the holodeck. Neither can watch as the buildings disappear.

Neither can watch as Raye plummets upon the floor below her disappearing.

Both flinch though with the distinct thud of Raye hitting the holodeck floor.

"Goddammit" Raye grumbles.

* * * *

Mina let out a groan as she watched the clock above the main viewer on the bridge of the USS Sisko. Sitting in the captain's chair she had the best seat in the house.

It could also be one of the most boring.

She hated being in command when nothing was going on. It was even worse when they were docked. First, there were only a few people on the bridge. One lieutenant manned the operations terminal. An ensign manned the engineering terminal, and another lieutenant manned the tactical station.

Second, the main viewer scenery sucked. Depending on her preference she could watch behind the ship. Nothing out there. Looking forward was a bit more appealing. There she could watch the planet Bajor slowly spin on its axis. Occasionally you could see the wormhole open as a ship proceeded through.

Unfortunately there was also a big, brown, Cardassian docking mooring right down the middle. The mooring, which was locked to one of the Sisko's forward airlocks really ruined what could be a picturesque shot.

Mina also had to get used to the new bridge. During the refit for the Sisko's current purpose, the bridge was replaced. As it used to look like the old, Galaxy class Enterprise bridge, the new one resembled the bridge you would see on Voyager.

First off, the captain's chair is no longer elevated above everyone else. Both the captain's chair and the first officer's chair are next to each other. There was a retractable display console separating the seats.

Next there was only one station directly in front of her. The helm station spread across in a slight curve. Mina hated this change most of all. More buttons for Ryouga to have to deal with means more chances for him getting them lost. Plus, even though she'd deny it forever; she missed sitting next to him.

On her left tucked away in the wall was the engineering station. Serena now spent most of her on duty time at this station, rather than main engineering. Right now just one ensign sat there, watching a display. On her right was the science station, also tucked away neatly in the wall.

Mina's job now was strictly operations, rather than the former operations/science position she held. Mina still didn't know how she felt about that. She was a true science geek at heart, but the thrill of being the operations manager and third in command was a lot of fun.

Directly behind her were the mission operations screens and the master situation display. Both mission operations screens were blank. The master situation display screen showed no activity. While docked the ship was receiving a majority of its power from the station. The warp core was offline. All weapons and shields were offline. Sensors were offline. The computer core was put to low power mode.

It was so quiet you could actually hear the air being pushed out the ventilation systems.

Behind her and to the left was one of the manned stations - the tactical station. The pretty young female lieutenant manning the station sat in her chair, looking almost as bored as Mina. Occasionally a panel chirped letting her know that someone either came on board through the airlock, or left.

The final station, behind her and to the right was the operations station. It was the most active station as the man there was required to monitor power levels, life support, and various other tedious things that made up the daily life of an operations officer.

Mina let out a sigh and slumped a bit in her chair, her red and black Starfleet uniform wrinkling slightly from the move. She eyed the clock for a moment.

*Ten more minutes.* She thought to herself. *Then some other chump can sit here and do nothing for eight hours.*

Mina's communicator chirped.

"Aino."

"Hey are you off work soon?" A familiar male voice on the other end asked.

"Yeah, ten minutes, why?"

* * * *

Ryouga groaned at the empty bar. Before calling Mina he had cursed the name of Gosnell for shutting the place down.

All for Ranma's birthday too.

Ranma wasn't that important! At least that was Ryouga's opinion on it all.

"The lounge is closed down. I wanted to see if you wanted to go onto the station with me. I've heard some good things about Quark's, a bar there."

"Sure." Mina replied. "Want me to meet you there?"

Ryouga shifted uncomfortably. "I'd really rather wait for you."

A chuckle comes across Ryouga's communicator. "I guess Deep Space Nine is a rather big station."

Ryouga nods, not really caring that Mina cannot see. "Meet you at the airlock in fifteen minutes?"

"Sure." Mina acknowledges. The communication is closed and Ryouga grins.

"You have girlfriend now?" A squeaky female voice asks.

Ryouga turns to see Shampoo standing in the doorway. Shampoo was dressed very casually, wearing only a short Chinese dress that really left little to the imagination.

"Uh, Commander. Hello." Ryouga nervously stuttered doing his damnedest to keep his eyes - up.

Shampoo walks into the lounge and quickly sizes up Ryouga. She grins at him. "Care for drink?"

"The lounge is closed." Ryouga notifies her.

Shampoo shrugs and walks around the bar. She quickly picks the lock on Gosnell's liquor cabinet and pulls out a bottle of Vodka. She then orders two glasses of orange juice from the replicator.

"Nothing ever really closed." She grins as she pours some of the vodka into the orange juice.

Shampoo hands one to Ryouga walks back around the bar. She takes a seat. Ryouga does likewise and sits next to her.

"Everyone finding love except Shampoo." She sighed.

Ryouga takes a sip of his drink and curiously eyes Shampoo.

"Don't you still have a thing for Ranma? I mean, I see you flirting with him all the time."

Shampoo sighs. "Ranma lost cause. Shampoo only play to mess with Akane." She sips her drink. "Do you still love Akane?"

Ryouga starts to choke on his drink. Shampoo watches with concern as Ryouga regains his composure.

"Love?" He stammers. Shampoo knew how he had felt for so many years. He knew that there was absolutely no point in trying to lie to her.

"I guess I do. But I guess she has made her decision."

Shampoo nods and takes another sip.

"You love Commander Aino?"

Again, Ryouga begins to cough and choke on his drink. He eventually pulls himself together and shyly looks away from Shampoo.

"I-I wouldn't call it love…" Ryouga pauses. "We're just friends. We like to hang out."

Shampoo nodded. "And have sex?"

Ryouga wasn't taking a drink, but his face turned a bright shade of red.

"What? Who? HUH?" Ryouga stammered. "Who told you that?"

"Shampoo can tell." She grinned. "Shampoo no dummy. I know how different you two act around each other."

"Different?" Ryouga pondered.

Shampoo slammed the rest of her drink. She stood, clumsily patted Ryouga on the back, and picked up the bottle of Vodka.

"Have fun at Quark's tonight." She giggled as she walked out of the bar, stealing Gosnell's vodka bottle in the process.

Ryouga finished his drink and stood. He walked to the doorway and began to head towards the airlock.

"How different?" He asked himself.

Ryouga reached the turbolift and hit the call button. After a moment the lift opens and he steps inside.

"Airlock." He orders.

"Please be more specific." The computer demands. "The U.S.S. Sisko has four airlocks."

Ryouga groans. "Do you do this just to annoy me?"

"Unknown query."

Ryouga sighs. "The airlock that is attached to the station."

The computer chirps. "Forward airlock two."

The lift begins to move down towards the location of the airlock. After a short trip the lift doors open.

Ryouga steps out and walks the short distance to the airlock. After a couple minutes of waiting Mina walks up and grins at him. Ryouga grins back.

"Hey." Mina says.

"Hey yourself!" Ryouga grins.

The pair stands at the airlock in silence for a moment. Mina is the first to break the silence.

"Shall we?"

Ryouga nods and motions for Mina to go in front of him.

"Ladies first." He grins.

Mina laughs and grabs Ryouga's arm.

"No need to disguise your lack of directional prowess as chivalry."

Ryouga blushes as Mina wraps her arm around Ryouga's.

"I won't lose you." She chuckles as the pair walk into the airlock and onto Deep Space Nine.

* * * *

"The shipment will be here soon, yeah?" A raspy voiced man asks another man who is simply staring out the window.

Through the window is a purple-green planet the ship the men are on is orbiting.

The second man looks at his partner and smiles. He walks over to the captain's chair on the bridge of his ship. The ship is darkly colored, with very few lights. Most of those are coming off of the bridge displays and soft lighting in the ceiling.

Both of the men are wearing dark blue military style uniforms. Both are also armed.

The second man has a seat in his chair. The first has a seat in the chair next to him and continues to wait for a response.

"Soon." The second man finally states. "According to the bill of lading the ship is leaving Frenginor now. It should be here in a little over a day."

"A DAY?" The first loudly asks.

Some of the other men manning stations on the bridge of the ship look back to see what all the commotion is about. The first man glares at them. They all resume their own work.

"You worry too much, T'Sol. We have plenty of time."

T'Sol groans. "The sixth fleet will not be out of Sol for long. We don't have as much time as you'd like to think we do."

The second man chuckles as he scratches the tip of one of his pointy ears.

"Old friend you haven't changed a bit. You are still as impatient as the first time I met you."

"Vor'Gal, this isn't the playground and we are not waiting for you to get off the swing." T'Sol leans into his friend.

"This is a military operation that we are launching. Timing is critical."

Vor'Gal grins and pats T'Sol on the shoulder.

"WE are not launching anything."

Vor'Gal stands up and walks to the view screen. He cups his hands behind his back as he looks at the planet 6000 kilometers below him.

"Human terrorists are launching a suicide strike again Vulcan interests; which will promptly be retaliated against by the Vulcan high Command."

Vor'Gal laughs madly as he walks back over to his seat.

"The days of the human occupation of Vulcan are over with! It's time to remind them who the superior species is!" Vor'Gal looks to T'Sol. "Time? My friend, the only ones who are going to have a problem with time are the Humans."

Vor'Gal stops laughing and begins to watch the star field on the ships view screen. His expression turns to a very narrow grin.

"Resistance is logical."

A COOL, SEMI PLAGIARIZED STAR TREK TYPE THEME SHOULD BE INSERTED HERE, THIS TIME ONE WITH WORDS LIKE ON ENTERPRISE! THAT SONG KICKS ARSE! WELL, IT DID BEFORE THEY CHANGED IT.

IT'S BEEN A LONG ROAD GETTING FROM DENNY'S TO HERE…

IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME BUT MY CHICKEN STRIPS ARE FINALLY NEAR…

I CAN TASTE THE CHANGE IN THE TEA RIGHT NOW

GOSNELL'S IN MY WAY

BUT HE'S NOT GOING TO KEEP ME DOWN NO MORE

NO I'M GONNA USE EQUAL

CAUSE I GOT LUNA TO MY RIGHT

GETTING THE EQUAL FOR ME

I'VE LUNA TO HELP ME

I CAN SWEETEN ANYTHING…

Space. Final frontier. Shampoo XO of starship Sisko. Starship mission: to go where no one go before, to kill Akane Tendo, and to have Ranma all to Shampoo - HEY THAT'S NOT HOW IT GOES! - WO AI NI!!!

CHAPTER ONE – MISSING

Captain's Log – Stardate 60519.2. It's finally happened. I have reached the age where birthdays are no longer fun. I spent the entire day watching a mouse caper around in a feeble attempt to make a group of Bajorian children laugh.

Ranma shuddered at the memories the mouse gave him. He shuddered again as the memories of the mouse singing him happy birthday resurfaced.

Ranma flushed the nightmarish thoughts out of his head and he looked back at his bed. Akane was laying on it, still fully dressed, sleeping away. Ranma smiled.

Akane and I are going back to the station later this evening for a more formal dinner. Her sisters will be here in a little under a day. It will be good to see them again. Looking forward to seeing if Kasumi will make some of her soufflés before she leaves.

Ranma scoffs to himself.

And not looking forward to seeing how much money Nabiki will manage to get out of me.

Ranma stands and removes his shirt. The increase in his muscle mass is very noticeable. The last few missions have given him quite the work out. He has also made a habit of getting back to the gym and working out on a daily basis, something that he had allowed to slip previously.

Ranma continued his log as he walked into the bathroom.

On a more professional note, I am still making an attempt to get used to my new ship. Technically it's the same ship but you'd be hard pressed to find something on board that hasn't changed. There have been so many changes that Starfleet even changed the class. It's made my bartender a bit sad, as he enjoyed having a ship class named after him, but he will get over it.

Commander Hino seems to be settling into her new position nicely. She has been running drills daily with her group. From what she has reported she has the Neo Special Operations Team running like clockwork.

As she should. Starfleet has given her every resource that she could possibly need, including devoting an entire four decks of the ship to her group.

Ranma takes off his pants and sets them on a clothes hamper. He walks to the shower and turns on the cold water faucet. After a couple of moments he checks it, to make sure it's cold enough and steps in.

Instantly Ranma converts to his female self. After wetting down her hair thoroughly she steps out. Female Ranma slides on a one piece sports swim suit as she finishes her log.

Once our personal time is complete here at Deep Space Nine we are scheduled to head back to Earth. Commander Hino's group is scheduled for some planetary training with the Earth Land Defense Forces. I have also scheduled Commander Kino's security forces to receive some upgraded infantry training as well.

Everything, operationally, is okay right now. Assuming Ryouga will be able to back us away from the station without causing major damage we should have no problems.

"End log." Ranma orders as she puts on a black bathrobe over her suit and picks up a towel.

The computer chirps and Ranma turns to Akane.

"Akane?" Ranma softly says.

Akane stirs slightly and turns towards Ranma's voice.

"Yeah?" She sleepily asks, without actually opening her eyes.

"I am going to go for a swim. I'll be back in about an hour."

"Okay." Akane replies as she drifts back off to sleep. Ranma smiles, walks over to his wife, and kisses her on the cheek.

Akane smiles in her sleep as Ranma walks out the door and into the hallway.

Ranma proceeds down the blah grey corridor of deck two.

Ranma didn't really care for all the grey the ship was coated in now. It was once a nice cream colored interior with the black computer consoles on the wall.

Now it was grey. The lighting wasn't all that great either. It was far dimmer than the lighting was before. All the lights were built into the walls towards the ceiling. The grey walls didn't provide for much reflection.

Ranma eyed the names on the doors as he walked by. Shampoo's quarters were only a section down from his. There were also the quarters of a few other bridge officers.

One of the changes Ranma liked.

His quarters were moved from deck four to deck two, making it much easier for him to get to the bridge quickly. He was also able to make back to his quarters quickly after a stressful day on the bridge. It was a win-win situation.

Ranma reached the turbolift and hit the call button. Usually he didn't have to wait long for a car to descend the one deck from the bridge to deck two, but this time he was stuck waiting for almost a minute.

Once the lift got there and the doors opened Ranma was greeted with a strong odor.

Vodka.

Shampoo giggled as she saw Ranma standing there waiting.

"Hiya Ranma!"

Ranma nodded at Shampoo. "Afternoon, Shampoo. How are you?"

Shampoo thought about this for a second.

"Shampoo okay." She sized Ranma up for a second and continued.

"Why Ranma a girl?"

Ranma groaned. He really disliked being in his female form.

"I am going swimming. Since it will turn me into a girl I just get it over with in the privacy of my own quarters." She explains.

"Ranma want company? Shampoo don't start work till 1400."

Ranma shifted uncomfortably.

"I am just going to work out, not really socialize. I wouldn't be much fun." She stated quietly. "Sorry."

Shampoo grinned. "Is okay, Ranma!" She steps off the lift and allows Ranma to get on.

"Happy birthday!"

Ranma smiles at her as the lift doors close.

"Thank you."

After the doors close Shampoo loses the smile she forced upon herself. She takes a moment, wipes some moisture out of her eye and walks towards her quarters.

"Deck 16, pool." Ranma tells the lift. It complies and begins it's both vertical and horizontal trip down to the Olympic sized pool near the deck 16 gym.

Ranma groaned with displeasure as looked at the interior of the grey turbolift car. She had three weeks to get used to the color of the ship, but he hadn't.

There were a lot of things he hadn't gotten used to yet. The new bridge, the total isolation of a group he was supposed to be the captain of, the fact that there was NOTHING for his ship to do unless it was needed for some mission.

He hated the old mission. Running up and down the Cardassian/Federation border but he hated doing nothing even more.

As far as he knew he didn't even have an area he was supposed to be patrolling while waiting for a mission.

He hated having too much time on his hands.

It was good for him though. He and Akane had gotten to spend a lot more quality time together. His boredom had him working out more often and getting himself into better shape.

He had gotten to spend some time in engineering with Lt. Devall and learn a lot about the new engines and about cloaking technology. He was upset that the Sisko wasn't equipped with one but he understood why.

The Treaty of Algeron forbids cloaking devices on Federation ships. It was only recently that the treaty was changed to allow for cloaking devices on ships traveling in the Gamma Quadrant. Starfleet apparently assumed no mission would ever be there for the Sisko.

The lift finally comes to a stop and the doors open. Ranma walks out and down the hall to a set of large doors. She walks in to find the pool empty.

She sighs at the gray walls and sets her robe down on a chair. She picks up a towel and places it next to the pool. Ranma inhales deeply, dives in, and proceeds to fiercely swim lap after lap.

* * * *

"It doesn't seem to be broken, Commander." A medic in sickbay informs Raye. "How did you hurt it?"

Raye groaned. "I fell. About 4 meters."

The medic nods and continues to run scans on Raye's swollen ankle. Raye looks up to Shelton who just stands and grins at her.

"What?" She asks.

"I didn't say a word." Shelton grins.

Raye groans. The sickbay doors slide open and a young woman walks in. She is wearing the NSO uniform that both Raye and Shelton are wearing. She marched right up to Shelton and Raye and stands at full attention.

Raye nods at her. "At ease, chief."

Chief Warrant Officer Kio Yuki loosens her stance slightly.

"Lieutenant Dowis wanted me to bring you the results of Bravo team's hostage recovery drill." Yuki states, her nervousness apparent in her voice.

Shelton watches the exchange as Yuki walks over and hands Raye a PADD. Yuki then quickly backpedals to where she was and stands, her hands gripped together behind her back.

Raye takes a moment to read the report. Once she is finished she slowly sets the PADD down next to her. She inhales deeply and slowly looks up to Shelton.

"They're all dead." Raye states.

"The hostages?" Shelton asks.

"No, everyone." Raye looks to Yuki. "The hostages, the hostage takers, Bravo Team. All of them. Blown to bits. Would you like to explain to me how this happened?"

Yuki looks at Shelton for just a second before being scolded.

"I DIDN'T SAY TELL COMMANDER SHELTON!" Raye yells. A couple of the medics in sickbay look to watch the exchange.

"I'm sorry, Commander." Yuki softly replies, her eyes quickly returning their focus on Raye.

"What happened?" Raye asks again.

"One of the hostage takers drew his weapon on us. We shot him, but he was wearing an explosive vest. It exploded and destroyed the building." Yuki explained, doing her very best to keep her shame from coming out in her voice.

"Why did you shoot someone wearing an explosive vest in the chest?" Raye asked.

"We didn't know he was wearing one, ma'am." Yuki explained. Raye fumed.

"No one scanned him?"

Yuki knew she was being backed into a corner. She paused for a moment. The pause seemed to infuriate Raye even more.

"ANSWER ME!" She yelled.

Shelton eyed Raye with concern. He knew better than to intervene, but he also knew that Raye had the young warrant officer scared out of her wits.

Yuki backed up a bit upon being yelled at. She tightened her stance and continued her explanation.

"Sergeant Simpson was told to scan him. I assumed that if he had something like that on he would have told me."

Raye shook her head.

"You assumed." Raye hopped off the bed, ignoring the protest of the medic who was still scanning her foot. Raye hobbled over and came to within a half foot of Yuki.

"You can't fucking assume out there. You are in charge of that team. YOU are responsible for the death of the hostages and your team. If you can't handle something like a god damned simulation how do ever expect to be able to handle yourself in a real situation where the program does not end and you stay dead?"

Raye didn't want an answer to that. Not that it mattered. Yuki didn't have one to give her anyway. Raye moved closer to Yuki to finish. Raye's voice was quiet, yet stern as she stood nose to nose in front of the young soldier.

"I want you to rerun this simulation until you can do it perfectly. I don't want to see you or anyone else in Bravo team out of that holodeck until then. I don't care if it takes you a fucking week. Do you understand me, Chief?"

"Yes ma'am." Yuki softly replies.

"I'm sorry, what?" Raye asks.

"YES MA'AM." Yuki replies much louder.

"Dismissed."

Yuki nods, quickly turns around and exits sickbay.

Raye groans. The medic walks over to her.

"If you are done belittling your troops would you mind if I finish fixing your ankle?" He asks.

Raye grumbles at him and hobbles back to the bed. She tries to hop onto it but puts too much force on her hurt ankle.

"Shit." She groans.

"Here." Shelton states as he walks over to her. He helps her hop onto the bed. The medic resumes his work as Shelton looks at Raye.

"Was that necessary?" he asks her.

"Don't question me, Commander." Raye dryly states.

"With all due respect, Commander, I doubt very much you would have made me your second in command if you never wanted to be questioned."

Shelton was right. Raye knew from his service record that he was not one to stay quiet when he thought something was not right. Raye wanted someone who agree with her when she planned something right, but also question her when she planned something wrong.

"She got her entire team killed." Raye said. She sat up slightly but the medic treating her pushed her back down flat onto the bed.

"What should I have done?" Raye continued while staring at the overhead lighting. "Tough cookies, better luck next time?"

"She made a mistake. One that she will not make again. That's what these simulations are for. To make mistakes."

Raye sighed.

"We can't afford mistakes."

Shelton looks down at Raye's ankle. Raye sits back up and notices this. She sighs as the medic once again shoves her back to the bed.

"Fine, point taken. What do you suggest?"

Shelton leans over Raye. "Work with her. Obviously her fighting skills are superb. Why else would you have chosen her to be on the team?" Shelton stands upright and starts to walk towards the door. "You need to make sure she knows she's a leader. And only a leader herself can mold another leader."

Shelton walks out of sickbay. Raye sits up and looks towards the door.

She hates it when other people are right.

The medic shoves her back down onto the exam table.

* * * *

"A 'screwdriver' for the gentleman and a beer for the lady." A Ferengi says as he places the drinks in front of their respective owners.

Ryouga applies his thumbprint to a pad the Ferengi hands him. Once the bill is paid the Ferengi scampers off to wait on the next table.

"How was your day?" Ryouga asks.

Mina takes a sip of her beer and groans.

"Boring. There is absolutely nothing to do while in command when a ship is docked. I look forward to the Captain coming back on duty so I can go back to operations."

Ryouga took a sip of his drink.

"I thought you liked being in command."

Mina nods. "When there is something going on. Being in charge of sitting around simply means you do the most sitting around."

"Well don't feel bad." Ryouga smiled. "There isn't much piloting for me to do while docked."

"How do you like that new helm console?"

Ryouga laughs. "It's so long I get lost from one end to the other."

Mina laughs as well. He may not have a sense of direction but at least he's got a sense of humor. One of the qualities of Ryouga's that Mina has come to enjoy.

"Seriously though," Ryouga continued. "It's not as complicated as it looks. It's actually less so. Instead of having to switch from screen to screen all I have to do is slide a bit."

Mina nods. "Operations is like that now as well."

Ryouga takes another swig of his swill. "Another nice thing is I don't have Ranma sitting above me in his throne like chair."

Mina takes a second to look at Ryouga as he finishes his drink and motions for the waiter to come back.

"You honestly don't like him, do you?"

Ryouga tells his order to the waiter and turns back to Mina.

"He's a cocky, arrogant jerk. He treats Akane like she was something he stepped on. She could do so much better than him."

Mina slowly nurses her beer.

"Like you?"

Ryouga signs for his drink and starts to drink it before he realized exactly what Mina said.

"ME?" Ryouga begins to blush. "Maybe once."

Mina continues to nurse.

"I understand what that is like. Loving someone who doesn't love you back."

Ryouga gave Mina a soft look. She didn't really notice though.

"It's hard to let go." She continued. "But you have to. Even if you don't want to, you have to."

Ryouga just continued to look at Mina. She looks up finally and smiles.

"Would you get me another beer please? I'll be back in a moment."

Ryouga nods as Mina stands and walks away.

"So let me get this right…" A man says as he sits down in Mina's seat.

"HEY! THIS SPOT IS TAKEN!" Ryouga bellows. He then notices the man's rank insignia. "Sorry, Lieutenant."

Lt. Jeff Fuchs, the Sisko's new chief councilor, grins. "No problem. I'm Lt. Fuchs, the ships councilor. I'd like to help, but I need to make sure I have everything straight."

Ryouga isn't quite sure how to respond, but before he has a choice Jeff continues.

"You're in love with Akane Tendo, who is Akane Saotome now, and you hate Ranma Saotome because she chose him over you."

Ryouga attempts to butt in but Jeff continues.

"Now, even though you were madly in love with Akane you never told her because you were embarrassed about the fact that you turn into a little black piggy."

"How did-" Ryouga gasps.

"I'm Betazoid." Jeff clarifies without pause. "Any who, now you want to try and start a relationship with Mina Aino but still, for some reason, think that you would be betraying Akane Tendo, who is now Akane Saotome, even though she doesn't know how you feel and doesn't have those feelings for you."

"She might have feelings for me." Ryouga interjects.

"That's why she married Ranma?" Jeff asks.

"NO! She married him because her father and his father made an arrangement."

Jeff laughs. "Son, this is the 24th century. That kind of stuff doesn't matter anymore! Besides, we've gone three stories without sticking to anything even closely related to the original story lines, why would we start now?"

Suddenly a dart comes out of no where and jabs Jeff in the back. Jeff pulls the dart out and turns towards a dart board where a fat man with a shaved head and a goatee is standing.

"Hey, sorry about that! Damn dart just got away from me!" The fat man apologizes.

"Yeah, okay." Jeff grumbles, tossing him back the dart.

Jeff turns back to Ryouga.

"Akane made her choice. You have to accept that, like it or lump it. If you don't, nothing more than meaningless, albeit great, sex will be all you have."

Ryouga enjoyed the great sex with Mina but he did want more. The pair got along very well. They made great friends. But could he ever really get over Akane?

"You'll have to." Jeff smiled as he stood up.

"STOP READING MY MIND!" Ryouga screamed.

Jeff just laughed as he passed Mina. "Commander." He greeted her.

Mina nods to Jeff as he walks away giggling. She comes and takes her seat.

"What was that all about?" She questions.

"Just someone giving me some advise."

"Advise? What about?"

Ryouga inhales deeply. He then reaches his hand across the table and takes Mina's.

"Just advise."

Mina smiles as she holds Ryouga's hand back.

* * * *

18:31.

Shampoo's head was pounding and this evening just wasn't going fast enough. She didn't fully understand why she even needed to be on the bridge. It's not like they were going anywhere or going to do something.

No, they were just sitting.

It wasn't even sitting! They were attached to the station, orbiting the planet and spinning with it.

They were hanging.

Shampoo sighed. The purple haired beauty had far too many things going on in her head. Currently the strongest one was her hangover. But the other things were placing a close second.

As much as she would deny it, she still wasn't over the loss of Mousse. He was indeed very important to her, yet she still treated him poorly. That made his death even worse.

Then, not more than three days later, Ranma had left her. He hadn't died, but he might as well have. He killed her that was for sure. His secret marriage to Akane was a stake that was driven right through Shampoo's heart.

While her Amazon law required her to marry Ranma, it was no longer about that. Shampoo had genuinely fallen in love with him. But no matter what she did, he constantly tried to push her away. She couldn't understand it. She would have been the perfect wife. Obedient. Cheerful. A master cook. An excellent lover. She was everything Akane wasn't.

While she had grown to accept the marriage, she would never be happy with it. She would like nothing better then to shove Akane into a torpedo tube and send her on an endless voyage through space, but she couldn't. Not just because of the obvious legal ramifications, but because Ranma loved Akane.

And Shampoo loved Ranma to much to put him through the same pain she'd had been put through.

It was a conundrum she had grown tired of.

18:33.

Shampoo took a look around the Sisko's new bridge. She liked the new look. She had a thing for grey. Plus it really seemed more like the battle ship it was now.

Shampoo, a warrior, felt right at home.

A young enlisted man walks up to where Shampoo is and snaps to attention.

"The security reports from 1400 – 1800 ma'am." He informs her.

Shampoo takes the PADD and nods to the man. He returns the nod and walks off.

She looks down and begins to glance over everything. Most of it was just reports of people coming and going. She makes a note of both Ranma and Akane leaving the ship at 1755. She notes that there were several Bajorian tourists detained after being found on board.

The tourists were released after it was determined that they were just curious. Having a ship named after their emissary was drawing the Bajorian's on board like flies.

Shampoo continues to peruse the report and notes that Ryouga and Mina returned to the ship at 1541. She chuckles silently.

*Why she pick Ryouga?* She thinks to herself. *Maybe she like to hear him say oink-oink when they together?*

Shampoo laughs out loud at her own joke. A couple of the other bridge people look at her, but she doesn't notice. She simply places the PADD into the center console and leans back.

It was obvious that Shampoo's mind was not what it used to be. Far from it even. Shampoo could be diabolical, resourceful and just plain smart.

Now though...

Her mind only thought of very few things. When it was able to think at all that is.

She had begun to drink far more then she ever did before. Since docking at DS9, she had probably spent a majority of her off duty time, and probably a good chunk of her on duty time, drunk.

She was restless the remainder of the time. It was impossible for her to drink while she was on the bridge. Occasionally she would wander off under the guise of using the restroom, but she would actually just return to her quarters and have a quick drink.

She knew it was clouding her thinking and her judgment, but what does that matter? They were docked. The extent of any decisions she would have to make would be to allow resources to be diverted for tests.

Some of the other bridge crew was noticing her change. Some of them had been on the ship since it first departed, but others had just joined after the refit.

The ones that had been around constantly asked her how she was doing, or if she needed anything. They hesitated in bringing anything specific up because Shampoo was an angry drunk. The new ones just avoided her as much as possible. They wanted to bring up their concerns with the Captain, but being new they didn't want to make any waves. Even some of the older crew members wanted to say something, but didn't.

In Shampoo's mind though, she was fine. She didn't get lost, so she was one up on Ryouga. She never tripped on her own hair, so she was ahead of Serena. And, in her opinion, she wasn't a psychopath, so she was better than Raye.

18:40.

Shampoo wanted to attack the clock sitting above the main viewer. It seemed to be mocking her. Every time the colon blinked it she could hear it say 'Three more hours!'

It was starting to really fucking bug her.

She needed to go for a walk.

Shampoo stands and turns to the operations officer.

"I be back in a bit. You have bridge."

The operations man nods, but remains where he is. Shampoo moves towards the turbolift and gets in.

The woman manning the security station turns towards operations and gives him a look.

The concern in her face was not missed by the operations officer.

"I know. Just let it go."

She looks at him for a moment longer as he goes back to his duties. The security officer moves back to a small terminal in the back of the enclave where security was stationed. She begins to type a message.

TO: Saotome, Ranma (CPT)

FROM: Jansen, Amanda (LJG)

RE: CDR Shampoo

((PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL))

Captain –

Please keep this message in the strictest confidence. I would like to issue my concerns regarding Commander Shampoo. I know several other of the bridge officers won't voice their concerns because the care for the commander and don't want her to get into any trouble. But however I feel that because I care for her, I must.

Recent events have gotten to her. She has become very easily distracted and I believe that she is drinking while on duty. Surely you have noticed how much she has been drinking while off duty.

I do believe that you should attempt to talk to her about what is bothering her. I also believe that if her drinking is not gotten under control immediately, it will be necessary to relieve her from duty.

The safety and security of the ship must remain our number one priority and I do not feel that it can be maintained while our executive officer is in the current state of alcoholism she is in right now.

Thank you for your time.

Lt. Amanda Jansen.

Amanda sighs, and hits a button. The letter is saved into her draft folder.

*Maybe it won't come to this...* She hopes as she turns her chair around to watch the tactical display.

* * * *

Happiness wasn't something that came easily for Akane. She had grown up without a mother. She came across as a strong, confident woman, but underneath it all she knew that she was a sad person.

Her father had tried to force a marriage down her throat. That didn't make her happy. She thought that no one in the world cared what she thought or how she felt. It made her angry.

She had been constantly attacked when she was younger. People feeling that if they could forcefully get past her physical and emotional barriers they would have her. She lived in fear of that eventually happening to her.

But as she leaned against Ranma's chest while the two slowly swayed to the music playing in the Bajorian restaurant they were in, she made an admission to her self. One she never thought she would make.

She was happy. Truly, one hundred percent happy.

Her life had made a turn for the better. She had a great job and got to work with some great people. Except Shampoo, she conceded. But that was neither here nor there. She had gotten married, but not because she was forced to.

Because she wanted to.

When the two first met things were different. Never in a million years would she have thought she would actually enjoy being married to Ranma. They fought constantly. He was always insulting her. He was nothing but a perverted, disgusting jerk.

But that changed. She began to get to know the real Ranma. The man who risked his life on countless occasions to save her. The only man who truly acted as if he cared about her.

They still fought from time to time. But it wasn't anything that couldn't be fixed. Both had learned to do something that neither of them could do before.

Admit fault.

They were both very stubborn. It took a lot of work and courage, but they had both learned that when it was necessary they would have to suck it up and just say it.

I'm sorry.

Ranma looked down at his wife as the music ended. Akane returned the look and they both engaged in a passionate kiss.

Yeah, it was love alright. Ranma was too easily embarrassed to do such a thing in public otherwise. But the intoxication that being with Akane gave him pushed his fears and inhibitions aside.

It was the same for Akane. The fear of people seeing them and judging them went out the airlock when she was with him. She didn't care. Not one bit. She loved this man and there was no one who was going to make her feel silly for that.

Once the pair has completed their act, Ranma took Akane's hand and led her back to the table where they were seated.

After they were seated, the waitress returned to them.

"Anything else I can get for you two?" She asked.

"Want anything else, Akane?" Ranma looked to his wife.

Akane shook her head. "No, I'm fine."

Ranma returned his attention to the waitress. "No, just the check."

The waitress grinned.

"Compliments of the house. Happy birthday, Captain."

Ranma smiled. He was his father's son alright. The thought of a free meal just tickled him pink.

"Thank you." Ranma stated.

The waitress continued to grin and walked off. Ranma looked to Akane who was finishing off her glass of wine.

"Shall we go?"

Akane nodded. Ranma stood and being the chivalrous man that he was, helped Akane out of her seat.

Akane was wearing a tight, low cut black cocktail dress. The dress perfectly showed off her figure. From her pert breasts down past her trim waist. The dress draped perfectly around her soft buttocks and clung nicely to her long silky legs.

Ranma wondered how he ever could have called her 'uncute'.

Ranma's features were more hidden within his loose suit. Even though, Akane had no problem locking her eyes on his broad shoulders and well toned chest.

Both knew that they were sizing each other up. And both loved it.

Ranma and Akane walked from the restaurant, arm in arm, down the promenade. Through the hideously brown corridors of the station to a turbolift. Once in the lift, Ranma ordered it to proceed to airlock seventeen, where the Sisko was docked.

They wouldn't make it though.

It wasn't long before the desire inside the two boiled and had to be released.

It started with a deep look into each others eyes. Akane's, a dark fiery brown. Ranma's, a piercing blue.

"Computer, hold." Ranma ordered.

The lift shuddered to a stop as Ranma backed Akane against the wall of the lift. Ranma just continued to stare into Akane's eyes.

"R-Ranma…" Akane stammered.

"I can't believe I waited so long." Ranma quietly stated. "You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen."

Akane blushed slightly. "R-Ranma…"

Ranma began to kiss Akane passionately, when a sound he began to realize only chirped when he didn't wanted it to, began to waft from his jacket pocket. The pig-tailed Captain ignored it for a moment till Akane pushed him away.

"Shouldn't you answer that?" She quietly asked.

Ranma slowly pulled the gold Starfleet communicator out of his pocket, looked at it, and without uttering a word, slammed it against the port side of the Cardassian turbolift.

"Tonight is about us." Ranma whispered, moving back in towards Akane as the few sparking remains of his communicator died out.

"He's not answering, Commander." Lt. Jansen informed Shampoo.

Shampoo could care less. The clock read 21:55. She was off in five minutes.

"Send email. It not that important."

The tall redhead nods and types away.

"Constable Odo." A Bajorian security officer stands and turns towards the station chief of security.

"Yes, what is it?" He asks without looking up.

"Turbolift 32-Bravo has been stopped for the past 15 minutes between decks."

Odo stands and walks over to the security officer's terminal and reads the display.

"Is it stuck?"

The security officer hits some buttons and shakes his head.

"No. It appears to have been manually held."

Odo nods. "Activate the security camera."

The officer complies. Both turn white at the scene before them.

"Oh my." Odo notes.

Another security officer walking by notices the scene out of the corner of his eye. He stops, backpedals and begins to watch.

"Should I…" The officer starts to ask.

Odo cuts him off and shakes his head. "No, I will talk to him later. We were told to give the Sisko crew VIP treatment. So I suppose we can let this slide."

Odo starts to walk off. "This time."

The officer nods and resumes watching.

"Turn that off." Odo orders from across the room.

The officer groans, but does as he's told. The second gawker also groans and resumes his duties.

After several passion drenched minutes, Akane wrapped her arms around her lover and held him to her. The pair stayed in that position for about ten more minutes, the lift occasionally, impatiently reminding them that it had places to go.

"Ranma." Akane stated softly.

Ranma opened his eyes and looked at Akane. Her hair was a mess. Her makeup was smeared. Her eyes were only partially open.

"Yeah."

Akane just smiled.

Ranma kissed her and stood up. He assisted her up and helped to gather their clothes. Once they were dressed again Ranma sighed.

"I wish I had more birthdays." He mused.

Akane chuckled.

"Computer, continue." Ranma ordered.

Upon reaching their quarters Akane headed towards the shower. Ranma moved to his terminal on his desk and noticed that he had an email.

Ranma opened it up.

TO: Saotome, Ranma (CPT)

FROM: Jansen, Amanda (LJG)

RE: Message from TICI Nerima

Captain –

Nabiki Tendo, Captain of the TICI Nerima wanted us to advise you that they would be delayed due to some business. They stated it shouldn't take more than an additional six hours and that they should be here by 03:00. They'd like to meet you and Commander Saotome at 10:00 for breakfast on the station.

Ranma grinned. He was pleased that Nabiki hadn't changed any. She was never one to not pass up an opportunity, even if it meant a slight inconvenience for others.

It didn't matter though. They weren't required to be back at Earth for two days. There was plenty of time.

Ranma walked over to the door of the bathroom.

"Hey Akane?"

"Yeah?" She called out from the shower.

"Your sisters are running behind. They want to meet tomorrow at ten hundred for breakfast."

"Okay." She replied.

Ranma started to walk back over to his desk when Akane called after him.

"Hey Ranma?"

"Yeah?"

"There's a spot I just can't get to. Can you come and help me?"

Ranma grinned. Akane can be so dirty when she wants to be.

Ranma walked to the bathroom and slid the door shut behind him.

* * * *

The large silver ship streaks to a slow crawl about 60 au from Deep Space Nine. The perimeter of DS9's traffic control.

Nabiki leans back in her chair as the Ferengi pilot calls DS9 for authorization to enter its space.

"Deep Space Nine, This is the Tendo Intersystem Commerce cargo ship 'Nerima', requesting permission to enter your space."

The communication system crackles. "Nerima, this is DS9 flight operations, what is your destination?"

The Ferengi checks something on his terminal. "System F-21AD in the delta quadrant."

"Standby please." The radio responds. The Ferengi looks confused and turns to Nabiki.

"Don't worry." Nabiki states, answering the Ferengi's unasked question. "There is a trade embargo against Dominion aligned systems. They are just checking our destination in their databanks. F-21AD is unaligned, so we will have no problem."

The Ferengi nods and turns back to his computer. The radio begins to speak again.

"Nerima, you have clearance to proceed through DS9 space to the wormhole. Be advised though there is still some Jem Hadar activity in the delta quadrant. Ships have been known to be attacked by fringe groups that don't want to believe the war is over. We are uploading a map to you and suggest you take the course recommended on the map."

The computer chirps to advise them that an upload as been received. The voice on the radio continues.

"Because you are not a Federation ship we are unable to assign you an escort. Be careful and please notify us prior to reentering the wormhole. Do you have an approximate time you will be spending in the delta quadrant?"

"Ten hours." Nabiki states loud enough for the radio to hear her.

"Roger that. If you will be delayed, please advise, DS9 out." The voice concludes.

The Ferengi brings the ship to full impulse and heads towards the location of the wormhole. Kasumi looks at her sister with concern.

"This person couldn't have met you in a safer location?" She asks.

Nabiki chuckles and turns to Kasumi. "Our ships have been into the Delta Quadrant dozens of times, all without incident. The only Jem Hadar attacks have been on Federation ships that were moving through Dominion territory. We'll be light years from that."

The look of concern doesn't leave Kasumi's face.

"We're delivering explosives to a mining company that is mining on F-21AD. They don't have cargo ships this large to make it in one trip."

Nabiki grins and turns back towards the window as the ship creeps through the sky towards the wormhole. "Besides, they are making it VERY worth our while."

Kasumi sighs. She has faith in Nabiki but still thinks her lust for money overrides her judgment at times.

The ship eventually reaches the outer perimeter of the wormhole, causing it to open. Both the Ferengi and Nabiki continue concentrating on the road ahead, but Kasumi stares wide eyed.

Kasumi has never seen the wormhole before, much less this close up. The brilliant colors illuminate her awestruck face.

"It's beautiful." Kasumi states.

Nabiki nods. "That it is, sis. That it is."

The ride through the wormhole lasts about three minutes. After exiting the other side the Ferengi gets to work plotting the advised course sent to them by DS9.

"Just go straight." Nabiki orders.

The Ferengi pauses for a moment, and then complies, setting a straight course from where they are to F-21AD. Before he can engage the engines a Sovereign class starship comes swooping down out on no where and parks in front of them.

"We're being hailed." The Ferengi advises as the computer begins to chirp.

"Open a channel." Nabiki orders.

"This is the USS Columbia." A female voice on the other end advises them. "Please advise your ship name and destination."

Nabiki stands and walks to the window to get a good look at this ship.

"This is the TICI cargo ship Nerima. We are en route to F-21AD."

There is a pause. "Can you advise the purpose of your cargo?"

Nabiki groans. "No."

"Ma'am." The voice continues. "This is currently a volatile area. I need you to advise the intended use of your cargo before we can allow you to pass."

Nabiki slaps the console she was leaning on. "Under what jurisdiction?"

The look of concern increases on Kasumi's face as she watches the exchange between the faceless person on the Federation ship and her sister.

"This and the surrounding systems are under the control of Alpha Occupational Authority, under the terms of the cease fire between the Alpha Quadrant Coalition and the Dominion. You are carrying extremely dangerous explosives. Under that authority we can detain and seize your ship and cargo if you do not cooperate." The voice explains.

Nabiki sighs and surrenders. "Vor'Gal Mining Corporation is operating on F-21AD. They ordered these explosives from the Romulans. I'm just delivering them. I don't know what they are going to do with them, but I would assume they are for mining."

Another pause. After a few moments the Federation ship begins to move away.

"Thank you for your cooperation. For future reference, any cargo that is embargoed against the Dominion will receive this kind of scrutiny. Columbia out."

The communication ends. Nabiki looks at her Ferengi pilot.

"Go."
The Ferengi nods and engages the engines. Nabiki returns to her seat. Kasumi watches her sister for bit before Nabiki turns to her.

"What?"

Kasumi shakes her head. "Nothing. Just don't think you need to always be so confrontational."

Nabiki rolls her eyes and continues to watch the stars shoot by.

After about three and a half hours of near total silence the Nerima drops to impulse. About seventy million kilometers away a blue and brown planet, similar to Earth shines. The large cargo ship begins to creep towards it at half impulse.

"Will we be landing?" The Ferengi pilot asks Nabiki.

"No. We'll meet Vor'Gal in orbit and once payment is received transport the cargo down."

The Ferengi nods and begins the procedures for standard orbit. After a few seconds the communications panel begins to chirp. The Ferengi acknowledges it and calls back to Nabiki, without ever taking his eyes off the controls.

"Vor'Gal." He states.

Nabiki nods and hits a button on her console.

"This is the TICI transport ship Nerima."

Vor'Gal's voice pipes up on the other end. "Greetings. Thank you for the prompt delivery. I assume the Federation gave you no problems getting here?"

Nabiki laughs. "Nothing I couldn't handle."

Vor'Gal returns the laugh. "Well, I assume you are going to require payment prior to lowering your shields?"

"You assume correctly." Nabiki replies smugly.

Some time passes and the Nerima's computer chirps. The Ferengi looks at the console and reports to his boss.

"Eight million bars of latinum have been transferred into the corporate account."

Nabiki smiles and turns to Kasumi. Kasumi has a look of shock on her face.

"Oh my." Is all she manages to mutter. Nabiki turns back towards the window as Vor'Gal's ship approaches the Nerima. Nabiki smirks. "Damn right 'oh my'."

Nabiki looks to the Ferengi. "Lower the shields." She orders.

He complies.

Nabiki waits for the explosives to disappear.

They don't.

Instead ten figures appear on the bridge of the ship. All armed. They quickly swoop down on the trio and detain them.

"What the hell are you doing?" Nabiki demands.

One of the boarding party says something into his communicator in Vulcan. Shortly there after Vor'Gal and T'Sol transport onto the bridge.

"Hello." Vor'Gal grins. "I want to congratulate you. You are all going to be a part of the ejection of the occupation forces from Vulcan!"

"What are you talking about?" Nabiki glares.

"Oh, there is no need to get into details now." Vor'Gal explains. "All you need to do is cooperate."

T'Sol walks over to the control console. The guards holding the Ferengi move. T'Sol draws his weapon and fires at the Ferengi, killing him instantly.

T'Sol moves in and takes a seat at the console.

"Course to the wormhole set." T'Sol explains.

"Good." Vor'Gal acknowledges. "I'll be back on the Ek'Skil. We'll cloak and be right behind you."

T'Sol nods and Vor'Gal, along with two of the boarding party vanish. T'Sol turns to Nabiki and Kasumi.

"Here is the deal. You don't do anything a hostage shouldn't do, you won't be harmed. Otherwise you will be killed, starting with her." T'Sol points to Kasumi.

"Look." Nabiki growls. "You want the explosives and the ships, take them. There's no reason to kidnap us."

"Sure there is." T'Sol states. "If we get found out, we need some sort of bargaining chip. And you, my dears, are them."

T'Sol begins to turn back to the console, but notices the dead Ferengi on the floor. He looks to one of the guards.

"Get rid of that."

The guard nods and drags the lifeless pilot off the bridge and towards an airlock. The other guards force Kasumi and Nabiki next to each other and move them back into the cargo bay where they are left to sit next to one of the cargo containers.

Kasumi leans into Nabiki.

"Won't Akane-"

Nabiki shushes her sister and gives her a reassuring nod.

CHAPTER TWO – NOISE

The USS Columbia slowly moved across the sky about a trillion kilometers from the opening of the wormhole. They had a good system of patrolling worked out with the Steamrunner class USS Sarasota.

When a ship came through the wormhole, the Saratoga would scan it. If it contained anything that shouldn't be entering Dominion Space, then the Columbia would do a quick, short range warp and land practically on top of the target ship.

Two other ships, The USS Jacksonville and the USS Spock, both Intrepid class, were within five minutes in case they needed back up.

Part of the Alpha Occupational Authority's job was to make sure that items that could allow the Dominion to rebuild their fleet didn't make it that far.

Which is why Stephen Mitchell, the Captain of the Columbia, was concerned when the ship the Nerima met near F-21AD vanished off long range sensors.

It could have been an accident with the explosives that the Nerima was carrying. But if that were the case, why didn't she signal a distress call?

Had they been attacked? Again, Mitchell didn't put much weight into that theory as a distress call should have been issued. Plus no other ships had appeared on long range sensors. Who would have attacked them?

The most disturbing thought was that it was a ship capable of cloaking that the Nerima had met up with. Mitchell knew of no mining corporations that had cloaking technology. It seemed rather pointless to cloak a mining ship.

"What the hell is going on over there?" Mitchell grumbled to himself.

The answer was not available to him at the moment though. The Columbia couldn't leave her assigned patrol to investigate. They had requested the USS Defiant to come from DS9 to assist, but she was still fifteen or so minutes out.

The two Intrepid class ships were of no help either. They both were required to stay in their assigned areas.

So Mitchell could do nothing but stare at the long range sensor display on the ships main viewer.

After right about fifteen minutes the event horizon on the wormhole opened and the USS Defiant emerged. She immediately hailed the Columbia.

"Mitchell here."

"Yes Captain, how can we be of assistance?" The unnamed female voice on the Defiant's end of the communication asked.

"F-21AD. I need you to head over there and investigate the disappearance of a ship. There were two and now there is one."

"Sure thing, sir." She replied. "What do you want to do with the one ship?"

Mitchell pondered this for a moment.

"Detain it, but be careful. It may still be carrying several thousand tons of hydroxide sulfate. If it explodes near you not even that little workhorse of a battleship you have will make it out in one piece."

"Understood. Anything specific we are looking for?"

Mitchell narrowed his gaze at the long range sensor display.

"A cloaked ship."

"Roger that, Defiant out."

The communication closed and the Defiant turned to face her destination. Right as the Defiant streaked off towards F-21AD the sensor display began to chirp.

"They've gone to warp!" The tactical officer exclaimed.

"God damn it." Mitchell groaned. "Headed this way?"

The tactical officer nodded as Mitchell returned to the Captain's chair.

"Helm, get us in front of the event horizon."

The helm officer began to comply as Mitchell turned to his weapons officer.

"Hail the Sarasota, have them take a position below the event horizon. Tell them NOT to fire." Mitchell turned back towards the screen. "Unless I give the word."

"Aye." The tactical officer complied.

Mitchell shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Red alert. Shields to full. Arm phasers and quantum torpedoes."

The red alert klaxons sounded and the shields hummed to life as the sleek dull silver ship streaked across the sky for a couple of seconds, stopping within a few thousand kilometers of the wormhole.

The Sarasota also followed her orders and took a position about fifteen hundred kilometers below the Columbia.

"Hail DS9. Stop inbound traffic." Mitchell ordered.

The tactical officer complied and responded.

"Done sir. The Defiant is now hailing us. They want to know if we want them to come back."

"No." Mitchell stated. "Tell them to continue to their destination and see if they can find any clues of what happened to the second ship."

"Aye." He replied.

"ETA one minute." The operations officer chimed in.

The two intrepid class assault ships warped in moments later. One appeared on the Columbia's main viewer.

"Where do you want us?" The senior officer on the Spock asked.

"Take up positions at 1-4-3 mark 2-3 and 0-8-2 mark 2-3." Mitchell ordered. "Do not engage the ship without my authorization."

"Roger that." He replied. The view screen returned to the view of the empty star field.

"Thirty seconds." Ops stated.

Mitchell nodded and waited. Watching for the ship to appear in his sights.

"Fifteen seconds…"

Mitchell continued to watch.

"Ten."

Watching…

"Five."

There she was.

On the bridge of the Nerima T'Sol was in total shock. He pulls out his communicator.

"Vor'Gal, they've got the wormhole blockaded."

"RAM THEM!" Vor'Gal screamed back.

"What are you nuts?" T'Sol replied calmly. "This is a transport ship! We'll be ripped to shreds; till the hydroxide goes off. Then what's left will be blown to bits."

"Fine." Vor'Gal groaned. "We'll do it. Just hold your course."

"Okay." T'Sol replied, closing his communicator.

The Nerima was about 100,000 kilometers from the bigger Columbia blocking the entrance to the wormhole. He sighed and throttled up the cargo ship to full impulse.

On Vor'Gal's ship the bridge crew began to brace for impact.

"When you hit him, try to steer away from the wormhole. That ship MUST get through."

The helmsman nods as he lays the preverbal pedal to the metal.

"They're going to ram us?" Mitchell questioned as he stood. The ship was still about thirty seconds from contact but was barreling right towards them.

"They'll be ripped apart." The tactical officer stated.

"Forward shields to-" Mitchell began to say but was interrupted by a frantic operations officer.

"PROXIMITY ALARM – FORWARD –" He couldn't finish.

The cloaked Vulcan vessel rammed full impulse into the bow of the Columbia. The cloak began to fail as the two ships exchanged paint. If sound could travel through space it would have made a shrill, worse than fingernails on a chalk board, screech. Pieces of metal from both ships went flying in every direction, with the Columbia taking most of the damage. The Ek'Skil, Vor'Gal's ship, driving her nose into the top of the Columbia.

The thrusters on the nose of the Ek'Skil fired, pushing the front of the larger ship down and into the Columbia.

Crew members on the Columbia went flying. Sparks began to shoot from displays and the lights began to flutter. Mitchell was thrown to the deck. The helm officer was knocked out of his seat. The operations officer managed to hold on despite being tossed around like a rag roll. He tried like hell to read what his display was telling him.

"SECOND VESSEL! LOSING CLOAK! TWICE THE MASS OF US!"

Mitchell tried to pull himself up but the shaking of the ship was very strong. The inertia stabilizers couldn't handle the load the Ek'Skil ship was putting on the Columbia. On the bridge they could hear the metal supports in the hull beginning to bend and break.

"LOCK PHASERS!" Mitchell screamed.

"I CAN'T GET A LOCK!" The tactical officer replied after pulling himself back up to his station.

"BEST GUESS!" Mitchell yelled back. He turned to the helmsman who had gotten back into his seat. "PUSH BACK! KEEP THAT WORMHOLE BLOCKED!"

The helmsman tried to comply but the larger ship was overpowering the Columbia.

"Structural integrity down to 30 percent!" Ops stated. "The outer hull is beginning to buckle!"

The tactical officer had begun to shoot at the partially cloaked ship, making one or two hits, but missing for the most part.

The two intrepid class ships swooped in and began to fire at the Vulcan vessel but were unable to get locks. They were guessing as well, but it wasn't working; neither ship wanting to fire torpedoes in fear of hitting the Columbia.

The Vulcan ship was managing to hold her cloak for the most part; keeping the four Starfleet ships from getting a lock. Her shields continued to hold keeping the damage from the few shots that did hit from doing any damage. The Ek'Skil continued to push on, her impulse engines at full power, her navigational thrusters firing with ease; shoving the Columbia farther and farther away from the wormhole.

The Saratoga also blindly fired at the partially visible ship, both phasers and torpedoes, but was unsuccessful at hitting her. Some torpedoes zipped by the Nerima, missing it by meters.

"TEN PERCENT!" Ops screamed. "IF WE DON'T BACK AWAY WE'RE GOING TO BREECH!"

"Mother fuck!" Mitchell growled. "FULL REVERSE!"

Helm complied and the badly damaged Columbia began to back away quickly, a horrible crunching sound echoing through the ship as the front end of the Ek'Skil was pulled from her hull.

With the pressure on the shields no longer there, the Ek'Skil regained her cloak right as the Nerima shot into the wormhole. Just prior to the event horizon closing a brilliant flash of light was seen.

"PURSUIT COURSE." Mitchell angrily ordered.

"No good sir." The helmsman whimpered. "We toasted nearly every single plasma relay. Warp and impulse engines are out."

"SHIT!" Mitchell yelled. "Send one of the support ships."

The tactical officer relayed his Captain's orders to the intrepid class ships. Both shot off towards the event horizon of the wormhole.

But it didn't open.

"What the hell?" Mitchell asked no one in particular.

"If I am reading this right," a rattled operations officer states, "they detonated some of the hydroxide sulfate in the wormhole, destabilizing it."

"Permanently?" Mitchell gasped. The last thing he wanted was to spend the next hundred or so years flying home in a crippled ship.

"I don't think so." He replied. "There have been worse explosions than that in the wormhole."

"Damn it." Mitchell swore. He rarely swore but he was pissed.

The wormhole suddenly opened for the two support ships. Both proceeded in and after the Nerima and the mystery ship.

"Well that's a relief." Ops mused.

Mitchell grunted an agreement. "Damage report?"

Ops took a moment to check his terminal. "Multiple injuries, most of them minor but some serious. No word on any fatalities. Our engines are offline. Shields are dead. Major outer hull damage on the bow, but we don't appear to have any inner hull breaches. We'll have to have a D-A-T to go out there and see exactly how bad it is."

"Can we return to DS9?"

Ops shook his head. "I wouldn't risk the turbulent nature of the wormhole till we assess how bad the hull damage is. Especially without shields."

Mitchell nods and slinks into his seat. "Did you get a scan of that cloaked ship?"

Ops shakes his head again. "A partial one when her cloak was fluctuating, but nothing solid."

*Shit.* Mitchell thought. "Get me Starfleet."

On the Alpha side of the wormhole, several small Bajorian assault ships were poised, facing the event horizon. Waiting for whatever it was to emerge.

Then it did. The cargo ship shot from the wormhole like a bullet. It then began to align itself for warp.

On the Nerima T'Sol ignored repeated orders from the fighters to stand down. He ignored orders from DS9 to stand down. He almost ignored his communicator, but a bellowing Vor'Gal changed his mind.

"T'SOL!"

"What?" He dryly replied while setting the ships course.

"You're not going straight there, right?"

T'Sol rolled his eyes. "I'm plotting the course you gave me. Don't worry."

"Okay." Vor'Gal replied. "Meet you at checkpoint delta."

"Right." T'Sol stated, closing his communicator.

"Again – TCIC Nerima – Stand down or prepare to be fired upon."

T'Sol just chuckled as the ship shot off.

Nabiki and Kasumi, tied together on the floor just watched the stars begin to streak by through the window with concern.

One Bajorian fighter is nearly hit as the Nerima streaks off into the distance. Within a few seconds the wormhole opens again and the USS Spock and the USS Jacksonville come out.

On board the Jacksonville the Captain looks over the sensor data.

"Two warp signatures." He states.

His ops officer looks up to him.

"Yes sir. One from the cloaked ship and one from the cargo ship, but the trails have been masked to both look like Klingon signatures."

"So we don't know which ship is which then?" The captain asks.

"No." Ops replies dryly. He looks to another panel. "The Spock is hailing us."

"On screen." The captain orders as he turns to face his counterpart on board the Spock.

"Well?" He asks.

The Jacksonville's captain sighs. "I guess we take one trail, you take the other."

The other captain nods. "We have pursuit authorization?"

The Jacksonville captain shrugs. "I wasn't told not to."

"Good enough." The Spock captain states just before ending the communication. The Spock quickly does an about face and darts off in the direction of one trail.

"Follow the other trail." The Jacksonville captain orders his helm officer. He complies and the Jacksonville shoots off in the opposite direction.

* * * *

"How are we supposed to stop him without shooting him?" Sergeant Anthony Schaefer whispered into his headset.

Kio groaned. She wasn't sure herself. The last six attempts ended in the death of the hostages, her team, or both.

She was tired. Tired and pissed off. She wasn't angry with Raye screaming at her. No, she was angry with herself. Angry because she couldn't complete the relatively simple task that she had been assigned.

She's done hostage rescue before. She was part of a Federation peace keeping team assigned to a planet that had just ended a 176 year civil war. Hostages were taken all the time there and all the time her team had stormed in and rescued them.

It was a simple task.

"Chief?"

Kio turned and looked at Anthony. She then looked up at the entrance to the room with the hostage taker and the three hostages. She sighed.

"Mike?" Kio whispers.

Sergeant Michael Simpson quietly responds.

"Yes ma'am?"

"Do you have line on him at all?"

"Yes, problem is though if I drop him, he's going to let go of that detonator. And the minute he releases pressure on it the bomb will go off."

Kio shakes her head and looks to Anthony.

"I don't know what to do."

Anthony looks away and leans against a wall. "Kobayashi Maru Two."

Kio scowled at Anthony. She didn't care for that. A no win scenario. Her brain began to kick into overdrive. She was trained that there was no such thing as a no win scenario. She knew there was a way out of this. She just didn't know what it was.

Or did she?

"Tony, what's the frequency of the detonator?"

Anthony pulls out his tricorder and scans.

"Five point three six gigahertz."

"So it's transmitting now?"

Anthony nods, understanding what Kio was planning.

"If I set the tricorder to transmit at the same frequency as the detonator, there will be no interruption when he releases it."

Anthony follows Kio's unstated orders and readies the tricorder. Once that is complete he nods to Kio.

"Okay, Mike. On my mark-" Kio inhales deeply and prepares to storm the room.

A few seconds pass.

"Now."

The sound of a phaser firing is heard along with a muffled scream. Kio kicks the door open and rushes into the room, her phaser rifle drawn. She spies a man in the corner drawing his gun. She fires. The man drops.

The man with the bomb falls to the ground; the detonator falling from his grasp. Kio closes her eyes as it hits the ground.

*KLINK*

Kio looks to the detonator as it hits the ground and bounces once. It rolls around on the ground for a moment before becoming perfectly still.

The relief in Kio's exhale could be heard for miles.

Kio immediately returns her attention to the hostages and begins to attend to them as Anthony moves in to diffuse the bomb.

Michael moves in as well, keeping guard while the two others complete their tasks.

Once the hostages are free another man, dressed the same as the assault team, walks in.

He's all smiles.

"About damn time."

The trio stand at attention as Lieutenant Clay Dowis greets them. The holographic hostages run from the scene, flailing their arms and screaming bloody murder. Clay eyes them worriedly for a moment, but then returns his gaze to his troops.

"At ease."

The enlisted officers relax their stances a bit as the Lieutenant addresses them.

"I am glad you figured out that not all things are resolved by moving in and shooting everything." Clay motions for the group to follow him. They do and exit the building.

Once out into an open area, Clay continues.

"A tactical advantage is obtained not through superior numbers, or overwhelming fire power, but through smarter thinking." Clay taps his temple, and resumes his speech.

"Chief Yuki, this is especially important for you to understand, as the leader of this team. I was worried when you said that you didn't think you would be able to figure out what to do.

"That kind of negative thinking is what will give the enemy the advantage, regardless of how badly we out number them."

"Yes sir." Kio acknowledges.

"Sergeants Simpson and Schaefer, you're dismissed." Clay orders.

Mike and Anthony simultaneously reply with "Yes sir!" and walk out of the holodeck. Kio continues to stand in front of Lt. Dowis.

"End program." Clay orders the computer. It chirps and complies, returning the room to grey and black grid. Clay returns his attention to Kio.

"What made you think of that, Chief?" Clay asks.

"Sir, I was considering having Sergeant Simpson shoot the transmitter, but realized that it would still terminate the link with the bomb, detonating it. That's when it hit me, sir."

Clay nods. "Right. Your mind was thinking of a solution that involved weapons. You demonstrated the ability to think of other tactical solutions, which is good, but it wasn't your first choice. That's bad."

"Yes sir." Kio answers.

"We're not infantry. It's not about shooting first, asking questions later." Clay continues. "We're a special tactics team. Sometimes shooting everything is the right answer, sometimes not. You need to remember the sometimes not, and act on those instincts."

Kio nods. "Yes sir."

Clay nods back, walks over to Kio and places a hand on her shoulder. He smiles. "Dismissed."

Kio returns a forced smile and walks out of the holodeck. Once out, and the doors are closed, she loses the smile. She turns to the wall next to her and punches it.

Kio groans to herself and checks her watch. 0254. Kio heads down the corridor to the turbolift, hitting the call button once she reaches it. The lift immediately opens and Kio steps in.

"Deck B." She orders the lift towards her quarters, not wanting to even bother returning her gear to the locker rooms.

The lift quickly jets up one deck to B deck. The doors open and she walks down the dimly lit hallway and to her quarters.

Kio opens the door. Her quarters were small. Not as small as the other enlistee's quarters, but small.

Kio removes her weapons and sets them on the table. She then removes the protective vest and throws it to the floor. She looks at it for a minute before moving into her bathroom.

Kio unzips the black jumpsuit she's wearing and steps out of it. She takes a moment to look at herself in the mirror.

Kio is a young Japanese woman, twenty-seven years old. She's a bit taller than Ranma as a girl, about 164 centimeters. Her complexion is a bit tan, but not to dark. Her grandmother was Caucasian so the lightness in her skin shows. Kio's hair is medium length, reaching to the middle of her back. She keeps it in a tight braided pony tail, not to dissimilar of Ranma when she is working.

Kio is well fit. She's been in Starfleet for 9 years – all in the Land Defense Forces; Starfleet's version of the army. For the last three though she had been assigned to a special peace keeping operation in a division comparable to the Army Rangers of our time.

Kio wasn't exactly 'stacked', but she didn't complain. Her breasts were just the right size for her small frame. She had often joked that having bigger breasts would have gotten her killed as the ability to hug the ground was important in infantry operations.

Kio walked into the small bedroom of her quarters. On a nightstand near her bed was a picture of a man. The man in the picture was dressed in a green Starfleet Land Defense Force uniform. In the frame, next to the picture was a patch showing his assignment to Vulcan. Below that was his communicator and a medal. Next to that in a sealed glass box was a wedding ring.

Kio spent a moment looking at the picture, some moisture coming to her eyes.

"I still think you over estimated me." She said to the picture. The picture simply looked back at her with the same smug grin that he always had when he had his picture taken. The grin Kio constantly scolded him for.

But tonight she forgave him for that grin. It was all she had left.

Kio sighed, wiped the tears from her eyes and moved back into the main area of her quarters. She stepped over and left her jumpsuit on the floor, not caring that seem to make her room appear to be in disarray. Kio moves over to her dresser and finds a pair of gym shorts. She quickly pulls them on and locates a black t-shirt with the Starfleet logo on the breast and in big white letters on the back, NSO.

Kio puts that on, finds some gym shoes and puts them on. She walks over to her corner desk and grabs her standard uniform communicator. She places that over the logo on her shirt. She then moves to the door. Before stepping to the sensor that would open the dark, grey doors she pauses. She turns and looks at the medal of valor certificate and medal hanging on her wall.

"For outstanding leadership." She reads aloud.

Kio scoffs at herself and heads out the door and back to the turbolift.

Once there she orders the lift to take her to deck 16, down to the main gym. She disliked the gym given to the NSO team. It was too small for her liking. Plus she knew at this time of night the other gym would be empty.

The ride seemed to take forever. The lift not only had to advance 19 decks downward, but it had to navigate horizontally quite a ways. It did manage to reach its destination uninterrupted though, which couldn't have made Kio happier. Of all nights where she didn't want to have to converse with someone, tonight was the night.

Kio jogs down the corridor to the gym. She walks in and as she hoped, it was empty. Kio heads straight for the half kilometer track and begins to run.

Kio keeps running until the clock in the gym reads 0500.

* * * *

In Tokyo, Genma lay sleeping in his bed. His wife, Nodoka snuggled up next to him.

Both were sleeping quietly. It was 23:14 and both had just gone to bed about a half hour ago. Both had quickly drifted off to sleep and were in deep REM.

The sleep wouldn't last long though. Genma's communicator began to chirp.

Genma stirred slightly, yet continued to sleep. Nodoka woke up though and began to shake her husband.

"Husband. Wake up."

"Muhhh." Genma mumbled.

The communicator chirped again.

"Husband." Nodoka said, more sternly. "Wake up."

"Muhhhhhhhh." He mumbled once again.

Before the communicator could chirp again a blue glow began to appear in the Saotome's bedroom.

"GENMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" A squeaky voice screeched.

Genma was completely awake now. As a matter of fact he was up and backed into the corner. Happosai had a way of getting Genma up that his wife couldn't match.

"M-M-M-Master!" Genma stammered. "Err – I mean Admiral. What's up?"

"ME!!!!!!" Happosai bellowed. "Get dressed. We have work."

Genma groaned. "But it's night time!"

"Oh." Happosai quietly said. "You'd rather wait till it was light out?"

"Yeah." Genma meekly nodded.

"No problem." Happosai stated. He reached into his mini Starfleet uniform and pulled out a ball. He lit the fuse and threw it at Genma.

"HAPPO FIRE BURST!!!!!!!" He screams.

***KABOOM!***

The room exploded in a flash of light that somehow only managed to toast Genma.

"How's that?" Happosai smirked.

Genma, burnt to a crisp just nodded. "Just got to get dressed." He stated before collapsing to the ground.

* * * *

"SNORT!" Ranma, well, snorts as he turns slightly in bed.

The sleep emitted noise was loud enough to wake up Akane. She sits up and groggily looks at her husband.

"Gurble farp." He mumbles. Akane raises an eyebrow.

"No, Shampoo… Don't touch that…" He mumbles slightly more coherently; unfortunately for him.

Akane promptly pulls her hammer from where ever it is that she keeps it and clocks Ranma right upside the head. She then shoves him to the floor.

"WHAT'D YOU DO THAT FOR?" Ranma bellows from the Sisko's deck while rubbing the welt that was protruding from the top of his head.

Akane turns over and faces the opposite way, towards the window.

"Dreaming about Shampoo, huh? Well you can dream all you want from the couch." She explains, drifting off to sleep.

"Shampoo?" Ranma attempts to recollect. He remembers Shampoo being in one of his dreams, but he didn't think it was anything he should be wholloped over.

He looks down.

Or was it?

Ranma decides that he would make sure Akane was deep in REM before moving back into the bed. He pulls himself to his feet and moves out into the couple's living room.

Ranma eyes the clock.

0513.

Would be time for him to get up shortly anyway, Ranma thinks to himself.

Ranma figures it would be best to get a jump on things so he heads to the bathroom, doing all his business and grooming, and walks back out.

He quickly puts on his uniform when his communicator begins to chirp.

"Saotome here." He states.

"Sorry to bother you sir." A bridge officer on the other end apologizes. "But we have a priority one message for you from Starfleet."

"Patch it through to my quarters please." Ranma asks.

The bridge officer complies and within a few seconds Genma appears on the screen.

Genma looks like he had just gotten up himself. But that isn't what was bothering Ranma. It was the look of concern that is rarely seen on the old man.

"Hey pop." Ranma acknowledges. "What gets you up so early?"

Genma inhales deeply and begins.

"We have a situation, son." Genma takes a sip of coffee and continues. "A cargo ship carrying seventy three thousand metric tons of hydroxide sulfate was reported going on a delivery through the delta quadrant. It was scheduled to drop off the shipment to a mining corporation at F-21AD. Instead, the ship returned to the wormhole, fully loaded and with five more people on board than it did when it came in.

"The ship ignored a Federation blockade at the wormhole and proceeded through." Genma pauses just long enough to take another sip. "With the help of a cloaked ship that critically damaged the USS Columbia.

"Both ships then bypassed DS9 traffic control and multiple Bajorian fighters. Based on the plasma trails, they warped off in two different directions, one that puts them on a heading towards Earth. The other towards Klingon space.

"Two ships plotted pursuit courses. One has not caught up with the cargo ship. The other may be right on the ass of the cloaked ship, but would never know.

"The USS Defiant went to F-21AD to investigate. They found that there was no mining taking place on F-21AD. They also located a Ferengi's body floating in space, identified to be the pilot of the cargo ship."

Genma takes another sip and finishes.

"Ranma, it's imperative that this ship does NOT reach Earth loaded with that kind of explosives. Neither pursuit ship would be able to withstand the explosion that would result from the destruction of the cargo ship. They have been instructed not to engage."

Ranma nods. "Okay. What's the ships top speed?"

"Warp five."

Ranma nods again. "No sweat, pop. We can easily catch up to them, and stop them."

Genma takes another sip before clearing his throat.

"There is a complication."

Ranma raises an eyebrow.

"The ship is owned by Tendo Intersystem Commerce. And according to their offices, Nabiki and Kasumi are on board."

Ranma's heart dropped. He remembered the email. They would be delayed for business. What kind of business did they have with all those explosives on board? That didn't matter now. What did matter is that his job got a lot harder in more ways than one.

"Does Mister Tendo know?" Ranma softly asked.

"Nothing is confirmed yet." Genma responded. "But they have a three hour head start on you, and we aren't certain that they are heading for Earth. But if they are…" Genma trails off. His son nods.

"I understand."

Genma shook his head. "I don't really think you do. A quarter of the explosives on there could destroy a city the size of Tokyo. The whole batch could almost destroy an entire continent."

Genma took a deep breath.

"Do what you can to get the-" Genma paused, thought for the word and then continued. "-innocents on that ship back. But your primary mission is to stop it."

Ranma nodded.

"You also need to understand that if that ship does enter Klingon space, they won't attempt a rescue first. They will simply destroy it."

Ranma nodded again.

"Admiral Larson will be contacting you later as we get more information. As soon as you can get underway, set a course back for here." Genma stated as he terminated the transmission.

Ranma sighed and walked back into his bedroom. He looked at his wife. She was beautiful to him regardless of the odd positions she slept in.

He knew most of the beauty came from within.

He knew the death of her sisters would kill that beauty.

He knew he couldn't let that happen.

Ranma kissed Akane and walked out of his quarters and headed towards the turbolift. He hits his communicator.

"Saotome to bridge."

"Yes sir?"

"Awake the senior officers and have them come to the bridge immediately. Also, begin priority undocking procedures. We're leaving as soon as possible."

"Aye sir."

Ranma groaned as he hit the call button for the turbolift. The lift arrived quickly and he stepped on board.

"Deck one."

The lift complied and quickly shot upwards the one deck. Ranma could hear the ship starting to come to life. The computer core was loading up to full power. The engines were turning on. The navigational systems were coming on line along with the sensors.

No more peace and quiet for now.

* * * *

Ryouga and Mina were sound asleep in Mina's bed. Ryouga with his left arm wrapped around Mina, snuggled close to her.

The sudden chirping of Mina's communicator woke her quickly though. She normally was a deep sleeper, but she had become trained to the sound of her communicator. It was like the shrillest of alarm clocks.

Mina slightly grumbled as she pulled away from Ryouga. Ryouga, still asleep, noticed her moving and pulled himself over to where she had moved to.

Mina smiled at that, as she clumsily grabbed her communicator from the dresser top.

"Aino here." She groggily acknowledged.

"Commander, you are needed on the bridge immediately." A voice told her.

"What's wrong?" She asked, slightly more awake.

"I don't have details. The captain is just ordering all senior officers to the bridge."

"Okay." Mina replied. "Don't bother calling Lt. Hibiki. I'll get him."

"Oooooooooo!" The voice taunted.

"Oh fuck off." Mina groused. The voice simply chuckled as she terminated the communication. Mina slides her feet off the bed and sits up. The closer she got to being completely awake, the more she noticed the sounds.

Sounds she hadn't heard in a couple of weeks.

The sounds of the ship.

Mina looks out the windows across her bed. She notices a blue glow coming from aft.

"We're departing." She acknowledges to herself.

Mina turns to Ryouga and begins to shake him.

"Ryouga. Wake up."

Ryouga grumbles. "It's not seven o'clock."

Mina rolls her eyes, grabs a glass of water sitting atop her dresser and pours it on Ryouga.

"BWEEEEEEEEEEE!" A very awake P-Chan screams. Mina chuckles, but then turns serious.

"Something is going on. They need us on the bridge right away."

Ryouga looks at Mina and nods. The little piggy then jumps from the bed and heads into the bathroom.

"BWEEEEEEEEE!" Ryouga hollers again.

Mina stands and walks into the bathroom. She laughs at Ryouga's sudden remembrance that there aren't water showers in the future for the most part.

Mina walks back out and to her replicator.

"Water, eighteen degrees."

The replicator complies and the water appears. Mina takes it and douses P-Chan with it. Soon, Ryouga stands before her.

"You know, simply shaking me would have sufficed." Ryouga explains.

Mina smiles. Ryouga laughs.

"What?" Mina asks.

"Oh, I just can't be mad at you when you're naked." Ryouga grins.

Mina blushes. "That's fine. Just stop pointing at me."

Ryouga looks at his hands. "I'm not point-" Ryouga's face turns red.

"Oh."

Mina chuckles and begins to walk away.

"Hurry up. We need to get going."

* * * *

"Come on Raye!" A handsome young man calls to Raye as she sits up on her beach towel.

Raye nods and stands. She takes a moment to take in the scenery. It's a beautiful summer day. The sand on the beach is beautifully white. The water is an awesome shade of blue. Not as blue as the sky though with not a cloud in sight.

Raye begins to run across the beach towards her gentleman caller. He playfully motions for her to join him near the water. She runs up to him and embraces him. They hug for a moment.

"I'm so happy." He tells her.

Raye smiles and looks at him. "I am too."

"I love you, Raye Hino." He says to her, peering deep into her dark brown eyes.

"I love you too – uh…" Raye is unsure of the man's name.

"My name isn't important. What is important is that I want to make love to you, here on the beach." He informs her.

The pair slink to the sand, still embraced. They begin to kiss. Passionately and deeply. They roll a bit back and forth in the sand as the man runs his hands up and down Raye's tanned, toned body.

The man reaches around and unties Raye's top, allowing it to slide off of her.

He begins to kiss her neck. Raye moans with pleasure as he moves his kisses and nibbles downward and downward.

The man firmly grabs Raye's breast and moves his lips down to her nipple.

Suddenly, a bird flies in and lands next to the pair.

"CHIRP CHIRP." The bird screeches.

"A bird?" The man gags. "Well, I'm turned off now."

The man stands and walks away, leaving a topless Raye to sit there and look at the bird.

"CHIRP CHIRP." The bird once again screeches.

Something about the bird concerned Raye. This wasn't a normal bird chirp. It was more, computerish, than it should be.

"CHIRP CHIRP."

"Damn bird, shut up!" Raye orders.

"CHIRP CHIRP!"

"I'LL CHIRP YOU!"

Raye dives and attacks the bird.

THUMP!

Raye groans as she hits the floor of her quarters.

Her communicator chirps a fifth time.

"Shit!" She murmurs, pulling herself to her knees and grabbing the communicator.

"Hino."

"Commander, I am sorry to bother you but you are needed on the bridge immediately." The voice tells her.

Raye almost starts to question the voice, but she then notices the ship is making more noise than it should, considering they were docked.

"On my way." She responds, ending the communication.

Raye quickly grabs her Starfleet uniform and puts it on over the gym shorts, t-shirt combo she had been sleeping in. She knew there would be plenty of time for a shower later.

She quickly runs a brush through her hair and pulls it back into the ponytail she wore it in when she didn't have the time to groom it properly. She then grabs her communicator and heads to the turbolift.

* * * *

Shampoo's quarters were dark. She had been keeping the blinds on her window closed as it just so happened her quarters were near one of the Sisko's running lights.

While this light wasn't activated, its green glow was forever etched into her mind. She hated it. She kept her windows blocked off out of habit and wasn't going to change just because they were docked.

There was a light in her quarters though. A purple 'night-light' that she left on to make sure she didn't trip over anything in a rush to get up quickly.

A sudden rattle awoke Shampoo from her slumber. She was a light sleeper. Amazon life trains you to be as such.

She rubs her eyes and slowly sits up. She looks over to her clock.

0521.

Shampoo sighs and begins to lie back down. She doesn't go on duty till 0800. No point in getting up this early.

Before her head can return to the pillow she hears another rumble.

Shampoo's hearing was superb. It was rumored that she could hear an alignment variance in the plasma injectors. No one doubted the rumor since no one quite knew what a variance sounded like. It wasn't the most studied field in Federation Engineering Science.

Shampoo slides out of bed and walks over towards her dresser.

"Lights, thirty percent." She orders.

The room lights turn on, albeit dimly. The lighting accentuating Shampoo's perfect Amazon body. The bra and panty set Shampoo wore left little to the imagination. The lighting gave her body a very sensual feel to it. Shampoo pauses for a moment in front of her mirror and acknowledges this.

"How Ranma choose Akane over this?" She asks herself. She sighs, shrugs and moves to her dresser and picks up her communicator.

She prepares to activate it and call the bridge when it chirps at her.

"Shampoo here."

"Commander, I'm sorry to bother you but the Captain wants all the senior officers on the bridge immediately." The voice informs her.

"On the way." She responds.

Shampoo walks to her closest. "Lights full."

The lights went to their full illumination, causing Shampoo's irises to constrict slightly. The sudden jolt of light gave her some what of a headache. Mostly because of the small hangover she had.

Shampoo quickly dresses herself and heads out into the hallway and towards the turbolift.

* * * *

"…So then the idiot gets plastered and tells this girl, 'I love you!'" Gosnell explains.

Lita, who is sitting at the bar of the lounge nursing a Mountain Dew stares at him bug-eyed.

"AT HER WEDDING?" She exclaims.

Gosnell turns his attention from the glasses he was washing to Lita.

"Uh huh. Right in front of her new husband no less."

Lita chuckles. "That must have been a sight."

Gosnell nods. "Yup. I think he was lucky that he didn't get his ass kicked. Not only from the husband, but from the girl!"

Lita nods. "Yeah, but I am sure the embarrassment of getting drunk and confessing your love at the woman you loves wedding was punishment enough."

Gosnell agrees and returns to his dishes. Lita takes in another sip.

"What ever happened to this guy anyway?" Lita ponders.

"Last I heard he was working for the Federation Press Corps as a photographer. Does some writing on the side." Gosnell explains.

Lita nods and continues to nurse her drink. Lita was always up with the crack of dawn. She usually spent the morning time before her shift chatting with Gosnell as he got the lounge ready for the 0600 breakfast rush.

Lita stands and walks over to the window. She looks out at the former Cardassian station floating above the ship. She followed the docking mooring down and to the front of the Sisko where it was attached to an airlock.

"Damn what an ugly station." Lita says. Gosnell looks up and nods in agreement.

"I've never been a fan of Cardassian architecture." He acknowledges.

Lita was about to turn around and walk away when the ship started to hum. She suddenly notices a blue glow reflecting off the brown mooring. She takes a closer look.

"The deflector dish has been turned on." She states.

There is no answer because Gosnell had walked away for a moment. It didn't matter. He knows about as much as a cat does when it comes to the operations of the ship.

Lita's communicator chirps.

"Gosnell." Lita states.

"WHAT?" Gosnell calls from across the room.

"NOT YOU!" She yells back.

Gosnell groans and resumes his work. The voice on the other end explains the situation.

"Commander, sorry to bother you but you are needed on the bridge immediately."

"Are we leaving?" Lita asks as she begins to head for the door.

"I don't have any details, ma'am, but I do believe so."

"On my way." Lita acknowledges. She turns to Gosnell as she walks out the door.

"Gotta work. See ya later babe!"

Gosnell pokes his head up from where he was scraping gum from underneath one of the tables.

"Bye!" He calls after her.

* * * *

Serena was DEAD asleep in her quarters. Her communicator had chirped about fifty times before her doorbell rang.

She continued to sleep.

Knocking on the door is heard. Less knocking, more pounding. An officer with quarters near hers sticks his head out his door.

"Quiet!" He scolds to the two security officers sent to fetch Serena.

The security guards just wave him back into his quarters and pound again.

"Commander Tsukino! Are you okay in there?"

No answer. The second guard speaks up.

"You need to answer us or we will have to force entry!"

Still nothing.

The first guard hits his communicator.

"Vall to security. Please release the lock on officer's quarters 4-061." He instructs.

"Aye." A voice responds.

The door chirps and the lock releases. The guards draw their weapons, not knowing what they might find on the inside. The second guard hits the release button and the door opens.

They cautiously take a step in.

"Lights!" One guard whispers. The lights in the rooms go on. Everything seems to be in order. The guards need to make sure though and quickly slink to a closet. They open the door and clear it.

The guards quickly move to small hallway between the living area and Serena's bedroom. They notice nothing out of the ordinary.

They look and see Serena sleeping soundly in her bed.

"Is she dead?" Guard two asks.

Guard one walks over and pokes her.

"Muhhhhhhhh…" Serena blubbers.

Guard one rolls his eyes and holsters his weapon. Guard two follows suit.

The first guard begins to shake Serena.

"Commander, please wake up."

Serena starts to come too. She rolls over towards where the guard is. She opens her eyes slightly.

"Hi." She sleepily murmurs.

Serena then starts to doze off again, but it doesn't last long.

Serena's eyes go wide open.

"!!!" She screams at the top of her lungs, causing both of the guards to dive for cover.

"BURGLARS!" She screams again. She quickly tries to hop out of bed but simply trips on her blanket and lands face down, butt up on the floor next to her bed, the top of her bunny pajamas falling over her head.

The first guard quickly stands and moves over to Serena.

"No, ma'am. We're with ships security. You weren't answering your communicator so they sent us down here to make sure you were okay."

Serena's eyes move to the officers boots.

"Security, eh?" She asks.

"Yes ma'am." The second guard replies.

"Well then." Serena states, remaining where she is. "Job well done. I will be okay now."

The security guards look at each other. The first guard speaks.

"You are needed on the bridge as soon as possible."

"Understood." Serena grunts. The guards turn and walk out of her quarters.

Serena does a roll to the side and places her self right side up again. She looks to her clock.

0529.

"Why would they be calling this early?" She pondered as she stood and moved herself towards her closet.

CHAPTER THREE – PURSUIT

"There is an intrepid class Federation starship closing in on us." The security officer of the Ek'Skil relayed to Vor'Gal.

"Can they see us?" Vor'Gal asked.

"No." The security officer scoffed. "They are just blindly following our plasma trail."

Vor'Gal scoffed as well.

"Just like those stupid humans to go flying off without any plan."

Vor'Gal stands and walks over to the security station to take a look at the readout.

The USS Spock was about thirty light-years behind them traveling at warp nine.

The Ek'Skil, trying to arrive at their destination the same time as the hijacked Nerima was traveling at Warp five.

At that rate the USS Spock would over take them in just a couple minutes.

The Ek'Skil's communication system chirps. Vor'Gal looks to his communication officer.

"It's T'Sol." The officer states.

"Put him up."

The channel opened and T'Sol beings to speak.

"Vor'Gal, we have a Federation ship tailing us. They are a few light years away though."

Vor'Gal nods, despite T'Sol's inability to see him.

"Do you think they will engage you?"

"I don't know. It would be unwise if they did though. It's just an intrepid class and probably would be seriously damaged, if not destroyed, by the hydroxide sulfate explosion."

"Right. See any other ships around?"

A pause.

"There's a defiant class ship on long range, ahead of us." T'Sol replies. "I think they are expecting us to head to Earth. But they are ahead of our turn."

Vor'Gal nods again. Neither the defiant or intrepid class ships would survive the explosion of the Nerima. Vor'Gal knew the Federation wasn't stupid. It wouldn't risk two ship and two civilians before determining their intent.

At least he hoped that was the case.

"Continue on. If they begin to engage you let me know. We'll head that way to assist."

"Okay. T'Sol out."

The channel closed and Vor'Gal went back to the security station. The Spock was almost right on top of them. They would pass, but then realize the warp trail was behind them. It wouldn't take to long to figure out about where they were.

"Drop out of warp. Disengage cloak." Vor'Gal ordered.

The Spock was at full battle readiness. Her bridge was dark with only blue and red lights overhead. Her Captain sat on the edge of his seat while her ops officer carefully read the display.

The tactical officer also watched his displays carefully, waiting for something he could lock on to.

A sensor blip, a fluctuation, anything.

In old naval combat it wasn't that hard to find a target that you could not see. You could just listen. Listen for the rudder squeaking or the propeller spinning. If you had good equipment you could even listen for someone sneezing or a pen clanking to the deck.

That didn't work in space though. Hiding was a lot easier now. Everything was about sensor readouts. If you could mask yourself from them, you could pretty much hide in plain sight.

And that is exactly what the Ek'Skil was doing right now. The Spock was able to follow her, but not much else.

They had just recently learned that it was the cloaked ship they were following. The Jacksonville had informed them that they had an eye on the hijacked vessel.

What worried the Captain of the Spock though was that they may end up passing the cloaked vessel and then lose her trail.

That almost happened.

"Captain." The operations officer said.

The Captain looked to him.

"We've lost the trail. I think we've passed them."

"All stop. Set up a tachyon field."

The operations officer began to comply, but the field would not be necessary.

"They're decloaking!" The security officer states.

"Where?"

"Behind us, seven hundred and eight AU."

"Go." The captain ordered the helmsman.

She complied and the Spock quickly warped on top of the Ek'Skil.

The entire crew could only gasp. The Ek'Skil was at least fifty times bigger than they were. It almost seemed that they could fit into her cargo bay.

"Hail them." The captain order.

The operations man complied but shook his head.

"No response."

"Open a channel then."

"Open!"

The captain stood.

"This is Captain Alexander Yeltsin of the Federation starship the USS Spock. You are wanted for violating A-O-A regulations and for assault on Federation vessels. Stand down and prepare to be boarded."

"He's got balls." One of the crewmen on the Ek'Skil joked.

Vor'Gal chuckled. "The USS Spock, eh? This could almost be ironic."

Vor'Gal turned to his weapons officer.

"Kill them."

The weapons man nodded and began.

The Ek'Skil's phaser cannons opened up and began to pound on the shields of the Spock.

"SHIELDS HOLDING AT 80%!" Ops screamed.

Yeltsin nodded. "Defensive pattern Omega Three." He told the helmsman. "Return fire." He ordered the tactical officer.

Both officers complied and the Spock shot off, maneuvering around the Ek'Skil in hopes of staying out of the line of sight of the phase cannons.

Her phasers began to burn against the Ek'Skils shields.

"Shields holding." The Vulcan weapons officer informed Vor'Gal. "Their shields are down to 60%."

Vor'Gal just nodded and watched the smaller ship get rocked.

Captain Yeltsin fell from his seat as the Spock was rattled by blasts from the larger ships cannons.

"SHIELDS AT 30%!" Ops screamed.

"DEFENSIVE PATTERN GAMMA SIX!" Yeltsin ordered.

The helmsman complied.

It wouldn't be much help.

Within seconds the blue glow surrounding the Spock was gone. The phase cannons began to burn holes into the hull of the Spock.

"SHIELDS DOWN!" Ops yelled as a panel near him exploded.

The lights on the bridge fluttered out and were replaced by the dim emergency lighting. The helm control went dead.

"HULL BREACHES!" Ops screamed.

There was nothing else to say. There was nothing else that could be done. There was no more time. All Yeltsin could do was simply look at the screen and say a quick prayer as several torpedoes barreled towards them.

The torpedoes impacted the Spock in different places, but all at the same time.

Vor'Gal leaned back in his chair and grinned as the once sleek, gray ship instantly became a blinding ball of light, soon to be replaced by open space and some, but not much, debris.

"Re-engage the cloak and resume course." Vor'Gal dryly ordered.

* * * *

The USS Jacksonville slowed to warp five as it came to within a half light year of the Nerima. On her bridge her Captain, Douglas Park eyed the view screen; attempting to size up his target.

"Weapons?" Park asked.

"Minimal defensive weapons." The tactical officer replied.

"But that's not what we should be worried about." He continued. "The explosives on that ship would rip us to shreds, even at this distance."

Park nodded. "That's why we are just to follow them and keep an eye on where they go."

Park stood and walked up to the operations station.

"Contact Starfleet. Set up a link and feed them our telemetry." Park ordered.

The operations officer complied and began to send the vital information to Starfleet.

* * * *

Ranma took his first step onto the bridge for the first time in over two days. He deeply inhaled the recycled air and took in the smell of the purifier that wasn't really noticed elsewhere on the ship.

The turbolift doors closed behind him. The on-duty bridge crew all turned to him, awaiting their orders.

Operations was the first place Ranma turned to.

"How long until we can undock?"

The man standing in the operations enclave responded. "Well, we could undock now. But unfortunately we won't be ready for flight for another twenty minutes."

Ranma turned to the engineering station as the engineer on duty there began to speak.

"The engines are performing an emergency cold start which will bypass most of the normal cold start procedures, but it still takes about thirty minutes to get us flight ready."

Ranma nodded to the engineer and turned back to operations as his terminal began to chirp madly.

"Admiral Larson on subspace." Ops stated.

"In my ready room please." Ranma stated as we walked towards his office. Just prior to going through the doorway he paused and turned to the tactical officer.

"Lieutenant, get the weapons ready and set us to battle stations as soon as we undock."

"Aye." The lieutenant acknowledged as he began to get the torpedo bays warmed up and the phaser banks charged.

Ranma stepped into his office and had a seat behind his desk. He hit a button on his terminal and the face of Admiral Scott Larson appeared in front of him. Admiral Larson was an older man with a grey goatee and grey hair. He wore wire rimmed glasses that sat on the tip of his nose.

Overshadowing the Admirals features though was the look on his face. It was a look that bobbled somewhere between fright and concern.

"Good morning, Admiral." Ranma greeted him.

Larson returned the greeting. "Good morning, Captain. How soon can you be underway?"

"Thirty minutes, sir."

"Good. Once you have undocked hail the USS Jacksonville. They are following and will be able to relay you telemetry so that you can zero in on the targets current position."

Ranma grimaced. He didn't care to think of Nabiki and Kasumi as a target. But this was a military ship and that was, cold or not, a military term.

"Pops told me about a cloaked ship. Do you have any information on that?" Ranma asked.

"A little." The Admiral sighed. "The USS Spock caught up with it and engaged it." Larson paused for a moment before continuing. "They were destroyed in the conflict. The Spock did manage to get some scans beforehand though. The ship design is not one we have seen before, but the composition identified it as Romulan. However there were mostly Vulcan bio-signs on board."

A look of frustration came across the older mans face. "Of course the Romulans deny any knowledge of this ship or its purpose, but because of the fact they have a cloaking device, we know there is some involvement.

"The ship is very large as well. Based on scans it's almost as big as a Romulan Warbird." Larson shook his head and the look of concern reappeared on his face. "Ranma, it almost pushed right through the Sovereign class Columbia like it was tin foil. Her damage is so severe that she's going to have to limp back to DS9 and be repaired there.

"According to retrieved sensor data, the Spock was destroyed within minutes of engaging them. It's – it's a ship whose damage inflicting capabilities rival the Borg."

Ranma nodded. "Do you want us to engage this ship?"

Larson inhaled deeply. "No. But you may have to. We can only assume that they are en route to intercept the Nerima.

"Ranma, I know this is going to be tough for you. I know who is on that ship. But here is what needs to happen."

Ranma sits up and nods.

"First, you need to stop the Nerima. Then you are authorized to dispatch your NSO teams to attempt to regain control of the ship and rescue the hostages. You will then be required to secure the ship until armed transports and escort ships arrive and take possession of the explosives."

Ranma acknowledges this. "Aye."

"There is more. As we both know things rarely go as they are supposed to. As your father told you, stopping that ship from reaching its target is your number one priority. I want very much for you to be able to save your sisters in law, but if necessary, I am ordering you to destroy that ship, explosives, hostage takers and hostages in all."

Ranma softly nodded. He had no intention of letting Nabiki and Kasumi die today. Especially by his hand.

"If you come into contact with the second vessel, you are weapons free and authorized to engage it, but I would recommend waiting for assistance if at all possible. The sixth fleet is heading back to Sol to set up a perimeter. They will be able to assist." Larson finished.

"Yes sir."

"I'll get back to you later when I get some more details." Larson stated. "Larson out."

The screen went black and the UFP logo appeared. Ranma continued to stare at it for a moment. Not only did he have to stop this ship without destroying it, he would have to stop it before it reached Sol. The sixth fleet would not attempt a rescue before destroying the Nerima.

Ranma sighed and stood. He began to walk to his door to inform his crew of what was happening.

On the bridge of the Sisko, Raye was the first of the awoken to arrive, She looked to the security station.

"What's up?" She asked.

The security officer looked to her and simply shrugged.

Raye was about to scream bloody murder when Ranma walked out onto the bridge.

"Commander." He stated.

Raye turned to him. "Yes sir?"

"Please join me in the conference room." He stated as he walked towards the room. He called back to the security officer as he walked.

"Please send the others there when they arrive."

"Aye."

Ranma actually paused before entering. "Also – If Akane comes up here, don't allow her in." Ranma walked into the room without waiting for an acknowledgement.

The security officer had a look of confusion on his face, but complied.

"Aye."

Ranma motioned for Raye to have a seat at the gigantic grey table. Raye complied and looked up at her commanding officer.

"Is your team ready?" Ranma asked her rather bluntly.

Raye paused for a moment. "Yes."

Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Why the hesitation?"

Raye sighed. "The leader of Bravo team still needs some…" She thought back to what Shelton had told her. "Leadership training."

Ranma walked over to the window and looked out at the hideous brown monstrosity gripping onto the front of his ship.

"Well you have about five hours to teach her."

Ryouga and Mina were the next two to walk onto the bridge. Ryouga took a look around and began to notice the changes. Things he hadn't seen over the last couple of days.

First off, his helm terminal was turned on. There was still no one sitting there but the flat touch screens that made up his console were lit up. Some buttons and lights were blinking gently.

Mina also made note of the changes and turned to the operations officer.

"Commander." He acknowledges. "The Captain is waiting for you two in the conference room."

Mina and Ryouga both nodded and began to walk to the room. The security officer, who had woken Mina from her slumber, made kissey noises as they pair walked by. Ryouga, being as dense as a box of rocks, didn't notice but Mina did and burned a dark sneer into the man's eyes.

"Sorry Commander." He giggled as she and her lover walked into the conference room.

Ranma nodded to all of them and motioned for them to have a seat. Ranma had already began to fill Raye in on the specifics of the recovery operation that they were going to attempt.

The specifics that he wasn't going to tell anyone else.

"We'll finish after the meeting, Commander." Ranma informed Raye. She nodded as Ranma turned to Ryouga and Mina.

"As soon as the others get here we'll start."

Shampoo, Lita and Serena somehow managed to all be on the same turbolift as it took them to the bridge. They were all pretty quiet on the ride up. Shampoo and Serena quiet because they were both still half asleep. Lita quiet because she really wasn't any good at elevator conversation.

Once the lift arrived on the bridge the trio filed out. They all took a moment to look around at the activity. The operations officer then cleared his throat and the three girls turned to him.

"Good Morning, Commanders." He greeted. "The Captain is waiting for you in the conference room."

They all nodded and silently wandered into the meeting.

Ranma nodded to them as they came in and motioned for them to have a seat. Ranma looked as he was about to start, but Ryouga thought someone was missing.

"Ranma, where's Akane?"

Ranma, not sure whether he was more annoyed by Ryouga's lack of respect for his rank or his noseiness, glowered.

"She won't be joining us for this meeting. Medical will have no activity in this mission."

Raye eyed her Captain softly. He had told her and she knew that he was lying. But she said nothing and turned to shoot a look at Ryouga. But someone had beat her too it.

Mina was burning a hole into the back of Ryouga's head with the glare she was giving him. Ryouga didn't notice, or didn't acknowledge it and simply began to listen to Ranma; accepting his explanation for Akane's absence.

"As you may have guessed, we are departing earlier than normal." They all realized this and acknowledged with a nod.

"A cargo ship containing several thousand metric tons of weapons grade explosives has been hijacked by possible terrorist looking to attack Earth."

The group murmured in disbelief. Ranma went on to explain about the blockade run. He explained about the cloaked ship and the destruction of the USS Spock. He explained to his senior staff what the plan was and what they were going to need to do.

He gave them every single detail except one. He didn't tell them who the ship belonged to and who was on board that ship. He would not risk Akane finding out that her sisters were in such danger.

Fifteen minutes later he completed his briefing and asked; "Any questions?"

No one raised their hands.

"Dismissed." Ranma stated. The group, Raye excluded, stood and walked out of the room to take their positions on the bridge. They had a lot of work to do and the ship would be flight ready within ten minutes.

Once the doors closed behind everyone, Ranma stood. He turned to Raye and frowned. "Raye. This will be the first mission for your team, and it very well could be the most important."

Ranma walked over to the window and looked out again. Raye stood and walked over next to him.

"I give you my word." Raye said, without looking to Ranma. "I will bring your sister in-laws back alive and kicking."

Ranma turned to Raye and gave her a weak smile.

"I know you will. Hopefully we should be able to catch up with them in five hours. You will need to be ready to depart by 10:30."

Raye nodded. "Yes sir."

Ranma turned back to the window. "Dismissed."

Raye ran off, hitting her communicator. "Hino to Shelton. Get everyone to the NSO briefing room immediately."

"Yes ma'am." A sleepy Shelton replied.

Serena looked to her display screen. All the little indicators on it were lit a nice healthy green. No red, no yellow; not even the mysterious aqua. All green. She smiled and turned to the Captain's chair.

"We're ready." She states.

Ranma nods and turns to Shampoo.

"Let's go."

Shampoo nods and stands. She walks up to right behind Ryouga, as she always does when they need to dock, undock, or just maneuver through tight spaces.

"Request docking clearance." She called over her shoulder to Mina.

Mina sent the message to DS9 operations. They quickly replied.

"We're clear."

Shampoo turned her attention to Ryouga as Ranma began to speak to Mina.

"Have you gotten telemetry from the Jacksonville yet?" Ranma asked her.

Mina nodded in acknowledgement. Ranma turned back to watch Shampoo and Ryouga.

"Release docking latches." Shampoo ordered.

Ryouga hit some buttons and a shudder went though the ship as the metal claws that kept the Sisko attached to the station disengaged and retracted into the ship.

"Back us off, 250 K-P-H, thrusters only." Shampoo ordered.

Ryouga slid down his panel a foot or so and fired up the thrusters. The ship then began to slowly back away from the station.

"Good." Shampoo stated as she watched the display on Ryouga's terminal. Rather quickly it showed that they were backed off 10 kilometers. Far outside even Ryouga's margin of error.

"Okay, port thrusters."

Ryouga complied and hit the corresponding navigational controls. The thrusters on the port side of the ship fired, causing the ship to turn to the right. Once the ship was facing away from the station Shampoo smiled and gave Ryouga a pat on the shoulder.

Ryouga resisted the urge to jump into the air with a loud 'Woo hoo!'. He quietly waited for the course to be ordered.

Shampoo turned to Mina.

"Course?"

Mina studied the telemetry for a moment.

"3-2-9 mark 3-4 should put us on them in five hours, six minutes." She replied.

Shampoo turned to Ryouga. Ryouga was one step ahead of her and had the course plugged in.

"Maximum speed." Ranma order from his seat.

"Aye." Ryouga responded. He entered the speed into his computer.

"Engage." Shampoo ordered.

Ryouga reached down and hit the largest of the button on his terminal.

Outside the ship made some minor adjustments to it's alignment. The warp engines glowed a bright blue for just a moment. Then with a flash, it was gone.

* * * *

Akane yawned as she slowly sat up in bed. She took a quick look at the clock.

0642.

She grumbled. It was still early. She wasn't planning on going into sickbay until 0900. She could snooze for another half hour.

She layed back down and pulled the comforter over her body. She rolled over and snuggled up against a pillow next to the wall. She grinned as she started to dose off, watching the stars zip by in the window.

"Wait a minute." She said to the empty room.

Akane sat back up and rubbed her eyes to make sure she was seeing things right. There was no Bajor out the window. There was no hideous brown station there. There were stars.

They were at warp.

Akane sat up and got out of bed. She looked around a bit, but couldn't seem to find her communicator.

She grumbled and walked to the closest. She grabbed a robe and walked out into their living room and over to the communications panel next to the door.

"Saotome to bridge." She said while hitting the intercom button.

"Yes Commander?" Mina replied on the other end.

"Why are we at warp?"

"We were needed for an emergency mission. Do you want to talk to the Captain?"

"No." Akane sighed. "I'll come see him in a while."

"Okay. Anything else I can do for you?" Mina asked.

"No, thanks." Akane sighed as she ended the communication.

She was bummed. Akane hadn't seen her sisters in years and was looking very forward to seeing them.

*I'll just contact them a little later on. See if we can work something else out.* She thought to herself and she went back into the bedroom to begin grooming herself for work.

* * * *

"Now that I have explained the background of this mission, are there any questions?" Raye asked the room.

No one raised their hands.

Raye nodded in approval.

"Okay. Now for the nuts and bolts." She said as she turned towards a blue print of the Nerima.

"These schematics of the ship have been loaded into the holodeck." Raye explained. "We'll have a couple of hours to run some simulations to try out different plans of attack. We need to remember the two main objectives in this mission. First and foremost, we must disable the ship. This will be Alpha team's objective. Bravo team, your primary objective will be to rescue the hostages.

"We don't know where on the ship they are being held. We do know that there are two hostages and six hostiles. There are also a lot of weapons grade explosives on that ship. It might be rigged to take everything out as a last chance suicide mission.

"Then of course there are the unknowns. Like where the cloaked ship went. As far as we know it could be flying right on top of them right now. So we should expect to have to engage more hostiles."

Raye sighed and turned to the group.

"This will be our first mission. Not only do the lives of the hostages depend on us, but the lives of those at the terrorists target as well. And right now it appears their target is Earth."

Raye sat down and Commander Shelton and Lieutenant Dowis stood. Shelton was the first to speak.

"Once we secure the ship the Sisko will transport over security personnel to take over control of the explosives. We will need to make sure any booby traps are taken care of as well. One member of Charlie team will be put with both Alpha and Bravo teams. One member of Delta team will also be placed with Alpha and Bravo teams to deal with injuries and the like."

Lt. Dowis began to speak.

"These are larger groups than I know you are used to dealing with, but I know everyone here can handle it. You are the best of the best."

Everyone in the room nodded in humble self glory. Raye stood back up.

"Alright, everyone suit up and be in the holodeck in five minutes."

The room all stood and started to move to the exit.

"Chief Yuki." Raye called.

Both Kio and Shelton turned around. Raye looked to Shelton and gave him a look. Shelton grudging accepted the look and walked out with the others. Raye motioned for Kio to sit back down.

She did and Raye sat in front of her.

"Chief, I'm sorry I raised my voice with you yesterday." Raye stated.

"With all do respect, Commander." Kio said. "It's not your place to apologize. I messed up, I got what was coming to me."

Kio looked away for a moment.

"I did some thinking last night."

Raye cocked her head slightly as Kio continued.

"I think you should put one of the officers in charge of Bravo team. Or maybe promote Sergeant Simpson…" Kio trailed off as she noticed Raye was shaking her head in disgust.

"What happened to you, Chief?" Raye asked.

Kio was taken aback by this question.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand."

Raye stood and walked to her desk. She grabbed a PADD and returned to where Kio remained seated.

"Platoon leader, 142nd Airborne; Starfleet Land Defense Corps. You have theater medals for being in the Ticonderoga offensive. The DC-41F offensive. Three peacekeeping operations. You led the retaking of the Federation Embassy on Telsa Two from the Maquis. You were promoted three ranks in six months!"

Raye looked to Kio.

"Why don't you think you can do this? This is nothing compared to what you've done."

"That was different." Kio dryly stated. "Leading people into a preplanned operation with very few variables is a lot easier than this."

Kio looked away again. "Besides, I don't know if I can go through getting someone killed again."

The look on Raye's face softened a bit.

"I was married." Kio continued. "He was a Warrant Officer, different platoon though. We had quite the insurgency on DC-41F. His platoon's leader had been killed so our CO had us merged.

We were clearing a Ketracel White factory. I ordered him and a few of his men to go one way, and we went the other."

Kio began to tear up. "I sent them right into an ambush. They were all shot dead."

Kio wipes her face and looks to Raye.

"That's why I requested the Sisko. So I wouldn't have to order anyone else to their death. I would just follow orders and shoot whoever I'm told to."

Kio sighed. Raye looked at her for a moment.

"Chief – Kio. This –" She held up the PADD. "You're leadership – something you've been cited for numerous times cannot just be turned off. And I don't believe for a minute you'd be content just shooting people. You knew you'd be a team leader when you accepted this position."

"I thought I could do it." Kio meekly replied.

"Why don't you think that now?"

"It took us twelve fucking hours to run that simulation." Kio growled. She then looked to Raye. "I'm sorry, ma'am."

Raye shook her head, not really concerned about Kio's profanity.

"So? Do you know how many times I took and failed the test for my promotion to Commander? Six."

"It's not the same."

"Sure it is. I learned something new every time I took that test, and I assumed you learned something new every time you ran the simulation."

Kio nodded.

"The only thing you couldn't learn," Raye smiled. "You already know."

Kio simply nodded again.

"I can't replace you right now anyway. Your team knows you. They have been trained to follow you and to work with you. If I were to pull you now, right before a mission, it could do a lot more harm than good.

"You say you don't want to send them to their deaths, then don't. Go over there with them. Lead them, and then bring them, and the hostages back."

Raye stood and motioned for Kio to stand as well. She did.

"I know you can do it. You just need to know that."

Kio still wasn't sure but she did know that she wasn't going to allow her team to get killed. If she was going to have to go over there she was going to do it right and bring them all back.

"After we're done, if you still want to talk about leaving Neo, we'll talk then."

Kio nodded.

"Dismissed."

Kio nodded once more and headed out the door. Raye looked to the ground.

"I know you're over there."

Shelton popped out from his hiding place.

"I was looking for my contact."

Raye rolled her eyes.

"Let's go."

* * * *

Ranma stood next to Lita at her terminal, watching her run a quick simulation.

"Now, as I have never dealt with EMP torpedoes before, I can only assume that this simulation is accurate." She explained to Ranma.

"So their shields should be down for about how long?"

Lita looked to her boss and shrugged.

"Long enough for transport?" Ranma asked.

Again, Lita simply shrugged.

"They shouldn't be able to recover too quickly as that would seem to make the point of EMP torpedoes pointless." Lita looked up to Ryouga.

"But then there is the other danger."

Ranma nodded. "Run it again and see if it can give you some sort of average on how long the shields will be down."

"Aye." Lita replied as Ranma walked down to Ryouga.

"Hey buddy." He said to Ryouga.

Ryouga turned his chair around to face his nemesis.

"Ranma."

"Ryouga, you're looking good today."

Ryouga raised an eyebrow.

"Look, it's very important that you match the speed of that ship perfectly. I really don't want to beam our rescue teams into open space."

Ryouga scowled.

"I'm not incompetent."

Ranma grinned.

"I know, I know. I am just making sure everyone is on the same page."

"All things will be taken care of." Ryouga stated and he returned his attention to his station.

Ranma sighed and looked back to Shampoo. She was fidgeting.

"Are you okay?" Ranma asked her.

Shampoo nodded. "Just ancy."

Ranma nodded.

The doors to the turbolift hissed open and Akane walked onto the bridge.

"Ranma, do you mind if I use your office?" Akane asked.

"Not at all." Ranma smiled as he returned to his seat.

"Thanks. My office doesn't have subspace access."

"Who ya calling?" Ranma asked as Akane walked towards his ready room.

"My sisters. Just want to see if they can wait for us to get back to DS9."

Ranma nodded. "Okay."

*Her sisters?* His brain asked.

"SHIT!" Ranma yelled as his ready room door closed.

Ranma leapt from his seat and bolted across the bridge. He quickly opened the doors and found Akane sitting at his desk.

"Akane wait."

Akane looked up. "What?"

Ranma sighed. He knew he wouldn't be able to keep this from her for long. His whole life revolved around not causing her any pain, but now he would be forced to.

"Come here please." Ranma sat on his couch and patted the cushion next to him.

Akane was a bit confused, but she complied. Once she was seated next to Ranma, he inhaled deeply.

Ranma took both of Akane's hands and held them tightly.

"Akane." This was hard. Even harder than when Ranma asked her to marry him. This was the hardest thing that Ranma was going to have to do.

"Akane, the ship we are chasing down belongs to Nabiki's company."

Akane's expression sobered slightly. She was afraid that she knew exactly where this conversation is going.

"Both Nabiki and Kasumi are on board and have been taken hostage."

Ranma felt Akane grip his hands tightly. He saw tears begin to form in her eyes. Ranma felt tears begin to welt in his eyes as well.

"Are-are-they okay?" Akane stuttered.

"I don't know." Ranma softly replied.

Tears began to stream down Akane's face. Ranma pulled her close to him and held her tightly as she cried on his shoulder.

It seemed like an eternity as Ranma held Akane and watcher her sob. The pain that Akane was in ripped through his heart. The longer Akane sobbed the more the pain changed to anger. Anger at whoever did this to her.

Akane sniffled.

"What are you going to do."

Ranma looked into Akane's deep brown eyes. The whites of her eyes red from crying. The tears still streaming down her face.

"I'm going to get them back and then I am going to kill the people who did this." Ranma said, quietly but the anger was obvious in his voice and his words.

"I want to go." Akane said.

Ranma shook his head.

"No." He stated. "The Neo team will bring them back. You will be needed here to take care of them when they get back."

Ranma leaned back and pulled Akane close to him. He kissed her forehead as she continued to weep on his chest.

So many emotions flowed through Ranma as he held Akane for the next hour. Anger and hate for the people who were responsible for this. Love for his wife. Pity for the position she had been placed in.

Ranma would not let this go unpunished.

*CHIRP CHIRP*

Ranma looked to Akane who had stopped crying, but continued to allow herself to be held by Ranma. She adjusted slightly so that he could reach his communicator.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Captain." Mina's voice stated. "We're thirty minutes out and we have the transport ship and the Jacksonville on long range."

"Very good. I'll be there in a moment."

Ranma ended the communication and looked to Akane. She understood and sat up.

Ranma held her hand for a bit longer though.

"You can stay up here if you'd like."

Akane nodded. "I'd like that."

Ranma stood. Akane remained seated though.

"I'm going to stay in here for a while."

Ranma nodded and proceeded to the door. Just before it opening he turned back to Akane.

"I promise that I will get them back here."

Akane smiled as Ranma proceeded onto the bridge.

She knew he would. Ranma doesn't break promises.

Ranma walked out onto the bridge. He looked at the viewscreen but the starfield was the only thing on there.

"Not in visual yet?" Ranma asked.

"No sir." Lita replied.

Ranma acknowledged this and walked to his chair. He looked next to him to converse with Shampoo; but she wasn't there.

"Where's Commander Shampoo?" Ranma asked.

Mina looked up from her terminal.

"She said she needed to go to the restroom, but that was twenty minutes ago."

Ranma pondered this for a moment.

"Captain." A female called from the security station. Ranma turned and say Lt. Jansen standing there, working with Lita.

"Yes, Lt?"

"May I speak with you privately?" She asked.

Ranma nodded and motioned for the conference room.

insert nifty Star Trek doorbell sound here

"Who is it?" Shampoo called out.

"Ranma." Ranma replied.

Shampoo scrambled to get rid of the empty glasses littering her living room table.

"One moment!" She called out as she tried to give herself the appearance that she had just gotten out of the bathroom.

Once she felt that she was ready she walked to the door. Standing there was Ranma and Lt. Fuchs. Ranma looked over Shampoo's shoulder and then to Shampoo.

"May we come in?" Ranma asked.

Shampoo uncomfortably nodded and escorted the two men in. Jeff started to look around the room, sizing up the challenge he was up against. The place was not a mess, but it wasn't neat.

He looked at Shampoo as she sat down in a chair as Ranma sat down on the couch. Jeff looked into Shampoo's mind.

What he saw concerned him. He saw pain. Lots and lots of pain. He saw angst and contempt. He saw far too many negative emotions. The worst thing he saw though was the artificial wall Shampoo had tried to build to hold those emotions back.

A wall struggling to stand.

"Shampoo, is everything okay?" Ranma asked as Jeff sat down next to him.

"Yes. Shampoo fine." She lied.

"I was just concerned. They told me you went to use the restroom over forty minutes ago."

Shampoo stammered for a moment.

"I think Shampoo have flu." She lied again.

Jeff watched with concern as Ranma leaned forward.

"Why do you think you can lie to me?"

Shampoo stammered again. She had no idea that she was that transparent.

"I'm sorry I didn't see it before." Ranma leaned back again. "I've talked to some people and putting it together with my own personal observations, I think you have an alcohol addiction."

Shampoo scoffed. "Don't be absurd."

Ranma reached his arm behind the cushion he was leaning against and pulled out a bottle. The bottle was labeled "Titan Vodka Corporation" and with magic marker "Gosnell's stash! Don't steal!"

"So Shampoo like to drink. Big deal."

Ranma sighed.

"It is a big deal. Not just because it's obviously affecting your job, but because it's hurting you and the people who care about you."

"No one care about Shampoo."

Ranma sat back up.

"A lot of people care about you, Shampoo. Your co-workers care for you. Your family cares for you. I care for you."

Shampoo chuckled cynically. "Ranma no love Shampoo."

"Just because he doesn't love you doesn't mean he doesn't care about you, Commander." Jeff piped up. "He very well could have sent security down to escort you to my office. But instead he is taking time out from one of the most important missions in his life to try and help you."

Shampoo lowered her head.

"Shampoo." Ranma said as he went over to her chair and kneeled down in front of her. He took her hand. "I know how tough things have been for you. I know how much Moose meant to you. I know how much I hurt you by marrying Akane and I know what you went through during your abduction.

"I also know that this isn't the way to deal with things. I know you can't do it alone. Lt. Fuchs is going to help you through this from a professional stand point."

Ranma squeezed Shampoo's hand.

"And I am going to help you from a personal stand point."

Shampoo looked up at Ranma. The look in his eyes was genuine. He truly did care for Shampoo and she could see it.

"I can't stop." Shampoo whispered, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"That's nuts, Shampoo." Ranma softly stated. "You can do whatever you want. You are one of the strongest people I have ever met. It pains me to see you like this."

Shampoo was sobbing now.

"Weak." She cried.

Ranma hated to cut this short but they would soon be approaching the Nerima.

"Shampoo, you're off duty until you can get this resolved." Shampoo looked up to him to protest.

"You need time. Time to clear your head."

Shampoo sighed.

"I have to go now, but as soon as we get this done with I'll come back and we'll talk, okay?"

Shampoo nodded.

Ranma stood up. Shampoo stood as well to walk him out. She was surprised though when Ranma grabbed her and hugged her. She returned the hug as more tears began to form.

"Ranma." She sniffled.

"You can do it, Shampoo. I have faith in you."

Shampoo let go of Ranma and he walked off and out of the room. Shampoo turns to the other man.

"You shrink?"

Jeff laughs. "I guess I am."

Shampoo sighed.

"So what do we do?"

Jeff smiled. "We can talk. I can help you better if I know what's going on up there." Jeff points to his head.

Shampoo grimaced. This was going to take a while.

"You mind if Shampoo changes first?"

Jeff shook his head as Shampoo walked into her bedroom to change into civilian clothing.

Ranma returned to the bridge and looked around. Mina was standing at operations with another ops officer.

"Commander Aino."

Mina looked up. "Sir?"

"I need you to assume the Executive Officer position till further notice."

Ryouga raised an eyebrow. *What happened to Shampoo?*

Lita also pondered this, and turned to Lt. Jansen.

*I'll explain later* She mouthed to Lita.

Mina nodded. "Aye." She turned to her assistant. "You're in charge over here then. You may want to get Beckley up here."

Her assistant nodded as Mina walked out of her cubby hole and sat down in the XO's seat.

"Comfy." She noted.

Ranma noticed the puzzled looks of the bridge crew.

"Commander Shampoo has been relieved of duty to deal with an illness. She will be fine. There is to be no speculation or gossip about this. Those of you who are friends with her can discuss it with her after we're done."

The entire bridge crew replied "Aye."

The Bajoran operations officer, Lt. Kaii, spoke up.

"Five minutes to intercept; in visual range."

Ranma nodded. "On screen."

Instantly, the large tanker shaped ship, the TCIC Nerima appeared on the viewer. Also in the viewer was the USS Jacksonville – about 1/20th the size of the transport ship.

Ranma was awestruck. *If that thing is full of explosives, how can anything survive?*

Ranma didn't plan on testing the Sisko's hull against the explosive nature of that ship. If all else fails they would just fire at it and flee. Seems like the best chance of survival.

But that was worst case. He didn't want to have to think about that too much. First things first.

He hit his communicator.

"Saotome to Hino."

"Yes sir." Raye's voice replied.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes sir." She replied.

"Okay. We're two from intercept. Your team needs to be on the pads because we don't know how long we'll have their shields down."

"Yes sir." Raye responded.

Ranma ended the communication as Akane walked out of Ranma's ready room. Ranma looked up to her.

She smiled at him and walked down to where he was. Ranma hit a button on his terminal and a retractable bench came out to his left. Akane sat down there and watched the view screen.

"Thirty seconds." Kaii said.

Ranma smiled to her and stood.

"Ryouga, match speed." Ranma lost his smile.

"Red alert. Prepare to assault."

CHAPTER FOUR – ASSAULT

"We're about twenty minutes to intercept." The operations officer on the Ek'Skil reported to Vor'Gal.

"What about the Federation ship?" Vor'Gal asked, not turning away from the view screen.

The Ek'Skil was cruising at warp 9.3, her maximum speed. Normally a cloaked ship cannot top warp five, but the Ek'Skil was no ordinary ship.

She was the most advanced of the Romulan prototype Talon class attack cruisers. Ships designed to be used against the Dominion. But now with the Dominion threat gone, they were made available for testing to the highest ranking Romulan military officials.

Vor'Gal was one of those. He sure wasn't anymore. As soon as the Romulan Senate became aware of his 'use' of the ship he would no longer be welcome in their ranks.

He wouldn't even be welcome in their territory unless it was in a prisoner convoy.

Vor'Gal didn't worry about that though. He had no interest in returning to Romulus. He and his ship would be leading the Vulcan's in their revolt against the humans.

At least that was the plan.

Even though he was only half Vulcan, his mother had taught him a lot about his heritage from that side of the family. She had taught him about the history between Vulcan and Earth. About how that even though the Vulcan's were the first with warp speed, the humans claimed the rights to colonizing the galaxy.

The Vulcan's were the one with all the advancements and technology but the human's controlled the Federation.

The humans had to have their hands held in ever venture they took into space – yet they regarded themselves as the superiors in galaxy, pushing both their moral and economic policies on every planet they found.

After all the Vulcan's did, the humans still had control of the Quadrant – including Vulcan.

So he'd been told.

Vor'Gal had no reason to doubt his mother. She didn't seem to have any motive to spread lies. He had several run insh the humans himself and every time they appeared just as smug and egocentrical as his mother had said.

He felt sorry for the innocents that were about to give their lives for the cause, but in every war there must be martyrs.

"The larger ship will be overtaking T'Sol's ship in three minutes."

Vor'Gal groaned. He knew the Federation wouldn't launch an all out assault against the ship. They were too controlled by their emotions to simply kill his hostages. They would try and launch a rescue.

And that was all the time he needed.

"Can we get anymore speed?"

The operations officer shook his head.

"No sir. We're barely holding our cloak as it is. Sorry."

Vor'Gal nodded.

"It's okay. We've got more than enough time."

* * * *

T'Sol wasn't as calm as Vor'Gal was.

T'Sol could clearly see the Federation ship nearly on top of him. While he wasn't expecting an all out assault, he was still nervous.

Nabiki and Kasumi were still sitting in the corner of the bridge. They had been tied together and their hands were restrained. They had both remained quiet and as a reward were not gagged.

Nabiki had remained calm as well. As far as she knew they were simply being held for ransom. This thought kept her positive, as positive as you can be in this situation, knowing that it would be bad business to kill you hostages.

Kasumi seemed relatively calm, but she was still worried. Kasumi had far too many thoughts about what was going to happen to them racing through her mind.

The way the guards kept eyeing them was troubling. She feared that they may be in for a fate worse than death.

Kasumi became even more worried when Nabiki began to talk.

"T'Sol, right?" Nabiki asked.

T'Sol nodded, while keeping one eye on the window, the other on long range scanners.

"Yeah, that's right."

Nabiki shifted a bit. A guard eyed her, but did nothing.

"What faction are you with?"

T'Sol turned in his seat to look towards the pair.

"What faction?"

"I assume you are Romulan."

T'Sol grinned. "You assume wrong, young lady. I and my mates here are Vulcan."

Nabiki raised an eyebrow. "A Vulcan criminal?"

T'Sol scoffed at the accusation.

"I'm not a criminal." He turned back around in his seat.

Nabiki narrowed her gaze. "You took my sister and me hostage. You killed my pilot. You've hijacked my ship. That sounds pretty criminal to me."

T'Sol motioned for one of the guards to take his place and went over to Nabiki. He squatted down to look her in the eye.

"Many revolutionaries were considered criminals by their enemies." He stated. "In your own history the British considered the American colonists criminals. History seems to have vindicated them."

"Well, it's not my history." Nabiki countered. "I'm of Japanese decent."

T'Sol chuckled. "Humans are humans."

"So what is your story?" Nabiki asked.

"Trying to buy some time, eh?" T'Sol grinned. "Waiting for your rescue?"

"No." Nabiki said dryly. "I'm just wanting to see if history will really vindicate you as you say."

T'Sol had some respect for this human. She obviously wasn't afraid to speak her mind. She didn't seem to fear him either. He liked that in a woman.

He briefly considered keeping her for himself.

"My story is long." T'Sol said, as he stood and walked back over to the pilot's seat.

"Vor'Gal is the leader of a Vulcan resistance group known as Abrupik Tehnaya. Roughly translated it means Dominating Resistance." T'Sol retook his seat and continued talking as he checked the sensor array.

"While the Vulcan's have led the way in space exploration, diplomacy, and tactically, the humans have put us in the back seat. Forcing us to play second string, as it were, to them.

"To use an analogy from your world, you wouldn't expect Bach to play backup to some no name concert pianist, right?"

Nabiki didn't respond. T'Sol continued.

"It's time to retake our place in the Quadrant as the superior, dominate race."

Nabiki eyed T'Sol for a moment. "How do you plan on doing that?"

T'Sol's face showed no expression as he spoke.

"We're going to start a war between Earth and Vulcan."

"Oh my." Kasumi quipped.

Nabiki grew worrisome, but she refused to let it show.

"And you plan on doing that how?"

T'Sol grinned. "That's really not your concern. All you need to know is that your names will forever be etched in history as the human murders of tens of thousands of Vulcans."

Kasumi let out a little gasp. Nabiki could no longer hide the concern she was feeling now.

"Now." T'Sol stated. "You two will need to be placed in a safe place. Things are about to get a little messy here."

He motioned to a guard who moved over to the two sisters. Several others joined him as they forced them to their feet. The pair was unbound and stunned immediately.

"Shouldn't we just kill them?" One of the guards groaned.

"Don't be so emotional." T'Sol scolded. "If we kill them now, who are we going to threaten to kill if we're attacked?"

The guard groaned as the other started to drag Kasumi and Nabiki back into the cargo hold.

T'Sol turned to the remaining guard on the bridge.

"The transport inhibitors are in place?"

The guard nodded. "Their transporters are probably powerful enough to get them in, but they won't be able to leave."

T'Sol grinned once more. "Seal the bridge. I think we will be having guests shortly."

The guard nodded and closed the hatch sealing off the bridge from the rest of the ship. He then went to work using his phaser as a welding torch to permanently seal the door closed.

* * * *

Ranma watched the view intently as the Nerima grew larger and larger in his viewer. Ryouga, well actually the computer, was slowing the Sisko to match the Nerima's speed. They were still going slightly faster, to make sure they got within weapons and transporter range.

The bridge was dark. The red lights were slowly pulsating. As in battle situations on this ship there were two people manning every station. Some were having quiet, official conversations, but more the most part the only noise on the bridge came from the chirp of the panels and the air vents softly blowing O2 on to the deck.

Ranma looked to Mina. She was intently eyeing the center console, waiting for the little green light to come on, indicating they were within weapons range.

She occasionally looked up to Ryouga. Ranma was unsure if this was because of their relationship or because she wanted to make sure he kept them on course. Ranma best figured that this was a question that did not need pondering right now.

Ranma then looked to his left. To Akane.

She looked terrible. She had been crying for twenty plus minutes in his ready room. Now she was on the bridge, looking at the ship that held her two sisters. A ship that had been hijacked. A ship that could very well end up being their tomb.

Akane didn't want to think like that. She remembered Ranma's promise, and Ranma *never* broke a promise to her.

Still though, it was damn hard for her to not just break down and cry right there.

She looked to Ranma and noticed him looking at her; softly and sadly.

He softly whispered to her.

"Are you going to be okay up here?"

Akane nodded, not really knowing if she was lying or if she would be okay.

Ranma turned back to the main viewer. He couldn't stand watching her that sad. It caused him great pain. He wanted nothing more than to remove her from the bridge. But her couldn't. She wanted to be up her and he would be damned if he was going to cause her even more pain, just to alleviate some of his.

The red reflection from the computer terminal on Mina's face silently switched to green. She looked up at Ranma.

"In range."

Ranma inhaled deeply.

It begins.

"EMP torpedoes armed?" He asked to Lita.

Lita, who was wearing a Starfleet combat jacket in preparation for leading the second wave of troops onto the Nerima, nodded.

"Aye."

Ranma paused for a moment.

*They won't hurt the ship.* He reminded himself.

He hoped to God that he wasn't lying to himself again.

"Fire."

Every forward torpedo tube on the Sisko spewed torpedoes at the Nerima. These EMP torpedoes, torpedoes with no explosive yield, glowed a bright blue.

"Five seconds." Lita stated.

It was the longest five seconds in Ranma's life. The torpedoes seemed to crawl towards the Nerima.

Finally they impacted the shields.

The shielding around the Nerima glowed brightly before the glow finally fizzled out. Ranma turned to the operations officer.

"Status?" Ranma demanded more than asked.

"Their shields are down to 54 percent." He replied.

"Second volley." Ranma ordered. "Fire when ready."

Lita silently complied. The discharge was heard and the view screen glowed a bright blue as the torpedoes once again crawled to their target.

They impacted again in a bright blue glow that once again fizzled out quickly.

Ranma turned to operations again who didn't need to be prompted this time.

"Shields down."

Ranma looked to Ryouga. "Hold speed."

Ryouga complied and locked the Sisko into a matching speed with the Nerima.

Ranma then hit his communicator.

"Saotome to Hino. Go."

Raye, fully dressed in her NSO uniform looked to the transporter chief. "Energize." She ordered him.

The chief hit some buttons and did the little slider thing. Raye and the rest of Alpha team disappeared into pretty blue sparkles.

Kio looked to her group. "Let's go." She said, a little nervous.

Anthony looked at her once they were on the pad.

"You know, Chief. At warp transport is very dangerous. If we survive this, we should easily survive the assault."

Kio simply glared at him as Bravo team vanished.

"How they hell did they knock down our shields so quickly?" The guard on the bridge asked T'Sol.

T'Sol wasn't sure of that himself. Not only had the managed to completely knock down the shields in under thirty seconds, but they didn't do so much as an ounce of damage to the ship.

"Don't worry about that." T'Sol growled. "Just get that hatch sealed."

"I'm going as fast as I can." He stated. The guard had only gotten a third of the hatch welded shut when they were attacked. His only solace was that if it took him this long to weld it shut is that it would take them even longer to get it open.

The command console chirped. T'Sol looked at it.

"We've been boarded." T'Sol grabbed his communicator.

"T'Sol to Val. We have company, section eighteen. Five humans."

"Got it." Val replied.

The command console chirped once again.

"Five more, section seven. Four humans and an Antarian." T'Sol informed his faceless soldier.

"We'll take care of them."

T'Sol closed his communicator and looked down at the sensor array.

"Time for step two." He told himself.

Ryouga looked at his console which began to flash at him.

"They're changing course." He informed everyone.

"Stay with them." Ranma ordered.

"We're locked onto them. Anywhere they go, we go." Ryouga smugly replied.

Ranma grumbled at Ryouga's attitude. As soon as all was well he was going to have to take Ryouga down to the holodeck and kick his ass a few times.

For now though he was content on him just not getting them lost.

"What's our heading now?" Ranma asked operations.

"2 – 2 – 7 mark 0." He stated with confusion in his voice. "They aren't heading towards anything."

"I see." Ranma responded. He really didn't but at least they weren't headed towards Earth anymore.

"Inform Starfleet." Mina piped up. She turned to Ranma. "They will probably want to reposition the sixth fleet."

Ranma nodded.

Akane looked over to Ranma. "Sixth fleet?"

Ranma took in a deep breath. "In case we fail."

Akane's eyes started to moisten. Ranma reached over and grabbed her hand. He held it tenderly, caressing it softly.

"We WON'T fail."

For some reason, and he didn't know why, but Ryouga's battle aura started to glow. He decided to keep his attention on the road ahead, instead of turning around to see what got his sixth sense tingling.

Raye and her group materialized in between two containers stored in the cargo bay. The group all raised their weapons and looked around. Raye hit some buttons on her eye piece and a display appeared in her eye showing her the immediate area.

"It's clear." She whispered.

Shelton was the first to nod and start to move the team towards the aft of the ship. Their destination was the engine room.

Lt. Parker pulled out his larger tricorder and began to scan the room. He grumbled when he saw what the readout was telling him.

"Commander, this place has been laced with transport inhibitors. Probably an anti-theft system. We won't be able to beam out unless we get them shut down."

Raye nodded. "Can we do that from the engine room?"

"Probably not. We'll most likely have to find a junction box or an EPS conduit." Parker acknowledged.

"Well one thing at a time." Raye stated.

The five slowly crept through the ship, crouching low and barely making a sound. Every few meters they would reach an open area of the bay, and have to stop, check for hostiles, and move on.

Raye silently hoped they wouldn't have to get into a fire fight here. Even though the containers that contained the explosives were very strong, she didn't want to think of what would happen if one were to be breached.

Raye stopped her thinking and came to a halt. She put up her arm, ordering the remainder of her group to stop.

She watched the two little yellow dots in her visor blink and move in their direction. Shelton and Parker also lowered their visors and honed in on the incoming targets.

Kio's team wasn't anywhere near as lucky as Raye's team was. Not more than thirty seconds after they beamed in they were engaged in a firefight against three people who appeared to be Vulcans.

A quick scan of their now dead bodies confirmed that they were indeed Vulcans.

"Why would Vulcans hijack a transport ship?" The medic, Ensign Yayo pondered.

"Doesn't seem logical to me." The explosives expert, Colonel Xiang quipped.

The team shared a quiet laugh while Kio determined their search pattern.

"We should probably head to the bridge and start there. There seems to be some kind of sensor dampening in here, so it looks like our tricorders are going to be limited to about ten meters." Kio explained.

The group nodded and took up positions. They slowly and cautiously proceeded up the side of the ship until they reached the bulkhead separating the bridge from the cargo area of the ship.

Kio quickly scanned.

"Two." She quietly stated. She moved to make an attempt to open the door when she noticed something.

A smell.

"Does anyone else smell something burning?"

The rest of the group all nodded and acknowledged that they two smelt the burning smell.

Kio feared she knew what it was. She's encountered a similar situation elsewhere.

She quickly hit the door release button.

It buzzed at her.

"Shit." She growled. "I think they've welded it shut."

Kio looked to Schaefer.

"Is there another way in?"

Schaefer looked at his tricorder with the Nerima's schematics on it.

"Yeah, but it would require us going outside."

"Damn." Kio replied.

A plasma blast impacted the wall above their heads. The group all takes their positions and prepares to return fire.

Alpha Team arrived at the engine room in just minutes, encountering little resistance. This concerned Raye. It meant that all the resistance was in the front of the ship.

Right where she had sent Bravo Team.

Shelton quickly managed to release the seal to the engine room. Once inside, Raye, Parker and the explosives tech that they had brought with them, Sergeant Mitch Anderson, took positions to guard Shelton's work.

"Don't damage them too badly." Raye commented to Shelton. "I am sure Starfleet isn't going to want to have to tow this thing back to Earth."

Shelton nodded.

"I'm just going to fuse some coils to get us stopped, disconnect the link with the bridge to keep us stopped, and of course get rid of the dilithium."

"Good." Raye remarked.

T'Sol wished he knew what the hell was going on back there.

The same thing that kept the Sisko from simply beaming them all on off the Nerima was the same thing that kept him from being able to use internal sensors. He was able to do a short scan and see that there were five people right outside of the bridge, but as of yet none of them had made an attempt to get on the bridge.

Occasionally he heard a thump on the wall, possibly a shot hitting the wall, or better yet a human slumping against it.

T'Sol was busy pondering what could be going on out there when he noticed a red indicator on his terminal.

Warp engine control had been severed.

"Uh oh." He mumbled.

The second Vulcan on the bridge walked over to him.

"What's wrong?"

T'Sol pointed to the indicator. "I think we're about to stop."

Before the second Vulcan could reply, T'Sol's premonition came to fruition. The stars outside of the main window dropped from their streaks to simply holding still.

T'Sol attempted to restart the warp engines to little avail. The computer simply grunted at him with each non executable command.

T'Sol found little solace in the fact that the navigational thrusters were still functional. Until Vor'Gal could get here and help him, they were mostly motionless.

"Call Vor'Gal." T'Sol demanded as he tried to regain his course using navigational thrusters.

"Tell him to hurry."

The Captain of the Jacksonville ordered them to drop out of warp as soon as they saw the Nerima lose speed.

"They are trying to continue on their course using navigational thrusters." The operations officer stated.

The Captain couldn't help but chuckle. "It'll take them years to get anywhere at that speed."

None the less, he couldn't make it easy for them to get going again.

"Use the tractor beam." He ordered. "Keep them aligned away from their destination. If they get warp back I don't want them just shooting off."

The helms man and operations officers acknowledged the order and began to push the Nerima around.

Shelton smiled at his success. He closed and sealed the door to the engine room. "They won't be going anywhere for a while."

WHAM!

The ship shook violently and they all fell to the ground.

"What the hell was that?" Raye asked.

No one knew.

Parker pulled himself up and started to look at his ship schematics.

"The inhibitors must be isolated somewhere in the cargo bay." He stated.

Shelton had failed to find anything that would control them in the engine room, and Kio had reported in that the door to the bridge had been welded shut. That left only one option.

Parker found a Jefferies tube in section seven of the cargo bay. Even if there wasn't a control box in there he would at least be able to reroute the power flow, disabling the inhibitors in that section at the least.

Raye nodded and began to lead her team down the artificial corridor that was formed between stacks of cargo containers.

WHAM!

The ship shook violently again and once again the entire team fell to the ground.

Unfortunately for one member, they weren't the only thing that fell.

A stack of smaller metal containers that were next to them tumbled over.

Most of them fell and impacted the deck harmlessly, albeit loudly. Two, however, fell and landed on Lt. Parker.

Parker groaned loudly as he felt pain rush up from his ankle. Shelton and Raye rushed over quickly to Parkers aid. The combat medic assigned to them, Ensign Gabe Masters, also rushed over. He began to run scans on Parker's foot.

"It's broken." He replied.

Shots suddenly rang out as two Vulcans who had heard the commotion came rushing over to them. Raye and Masters quickly started to drag Parker behind some of the still standing containers as Shelton and Anderson took up fighting stances and returned fire.

"Can you fuse it?" Raye asked Masters.

"There are several breaks and about a dozen micro-fractures." Masters replied. "I can splint it and give him some pain killers."

"That'll be fine." Parker groaned.

Raye looked down at him. "Are you going to be okay to continue?"

"Well I'm certainly not going to just lie here and wait for something else to fall on me, Commander." Parker jibed in response.

Raye smiled.

"Fair enough then." She turned to the medic. "Patch him up the best you can."

The medic nodded as Raye hurried off to help her partners fight off the bad guys. Parker looked up to the medic as he went to work on his ankle.

"What have you got, doc?"

The medic quickly went to his med kit and pulled out a hypo. He then selected a cartridge and inserted it into the device.

"Nothing interesting. Just some good old fashioned morphine."

Masters injected it into Parker's neck. Within just a few moments Parker began to grin.

"If anyone ever bashes old fashioned medicine again, I'm going to slap them."

Both Parker and the medic shared a laugh as Masters went back to work on Parker's injured foot.

* * * *

Ranma watched the Nerima float adrift in front of him. Who ever was piloting the ship was trying to get it to move using it's maneuvering thrusters, but the Jacksonville and her tractor beam was having none of that.

While the Nerima was much bigger than the little Intrepid class vessel, her slow and cumbersome maneuvers were easily countered by the nimble Jacksonville. If the Nerima were to bank left, the Jacksonville would quickly zip to the right side and fire the tractor beam, holding it in place till the thruster stop firing.

It was like watching a kitten toy with a much larger, but slower tom cat.

The analogy made Ranma's skin crawl. He was already on the edge of his seat waiting for the NSO teams to deactivate the transport inhibitors. Once that was done he could just lock on to everyone on the ship and beam them over.

Sort out the good guys from the bad guys once they were on board.

Right now though he was stuck simply watching and waiting.

It had been almost twenty minutes from the time the teams had beamed over. While Alpha team had gotten to the engine room and disengaged the engines, Bravo team still hadn't located Nabiki and Kasumi.

He hoped that there were simply sensor dampeners in place, rather than there being no life signs for them to find.

Akane hadn't said anything for a while either. She watched the viewer intently mostly, occasionally glancing over to Ranma.

Ranma always caught on to this and flashed a reassuring smile at her. Akane didn't really know how sincere the smile was; his charm always being able to hide any other emotions he might be feeling. But in a way she didn't really care. She had faith in Ranma keeping his promise.

She had no choice.

Lita was also getting ancy at her station. She wanted to get over there. She had some of the most talented security officers in Starfleet. It seemed like they were going to waste simply camping out in the transporter rooms waiting.

That wasn't the only reason though. She wouldn't admit it out loud, but she really wanted to shoot some bad guys. She was a warrior, and warriors don't like to be kept idle.

Mina wringed her hands and continued to watch her sensor display. Outside of the three ships it was empty. They were in the middle of nowhere - literally. It was at least a dozen light years in each direction to the nearest system.

Of course that was a good thing. They wouldn't want a civilian ship coming into the middle of this battle. Especially if the cloaked ship showed back up.

"Oh shit." Mina thought out loud.

The entire bridge crew looked to her. Mina blushed slightly and turned to Ranma.

"The cloaked ship. We have no clue where it is."

Ranma shook his head.

"How could I forget about them?" He grumbled.

Ranma stood and turned to Lita.

"Prepare to deploy the tachyon mines."

Lita nodded. "Aye."

Within seconds, Lita acknowledged that the mines were loaded in the torpedo launchers.

"Deploy them in a 2,000 kilometer radius around us." Ranma ordered.

Lita complied. Outside of the Sisko all four bays lit up a bright purple. What appeared to be torpedoes exploded out of the bays. But unlike torpedoes they did not fly on a straight course to their target. Each mine was programmed with its destination. They all took off in separate directions as a high rate of speed.

Once they reached their place in the circular fence around the ships, the purpleish glow faded out. They were now almost camouflaged with the dark sky.

The operations terminal chirped and the young Bajoran reported to his captain.

"The mines are in place and armed."

Ranma nodded. "Commander, set the phasers on auto lock. If they get a blip I want them locked and firing before they have a chance to move."

"Yes sir." Lita replied as she entered the commands into the weapons computer.

Ranma turned back to the view screen to continue watching the Jacksonville toy with the Nerima.

* * * *

Raye was getting frustrated with falling down. She wasn't sure what was going on outside but something was knocking the ship around.

And it was pissing her off.

She would hear what sounded like a thruster firing and then WHAM! The ship would lurch one direction or the other and the entire team would fall down.

Parker was tired of it too. His foot was starting to really bother him again, making it hard enough to walk as it was.

WHAM!

Most of Alpha team hit the deck. Shelton managed to just be thrown into a cargo container.

The container stacked on that one sounded like it shifted a bit. This did not go unnoticed.

"Shouldn't these things be more securely latched down?" Shelton asked.

Raye pulled herself back to her feet. "If they fall over, they aren't going to blow. And people aren't supposed to be back here."

"That will be little comfort to my mother if one of these God damned things squishes me." Shelton grumbled in response.

Sergeant Anderson stopped and looked at an access panel. He quickly checked his tricorder and confirmed what he thought. He spun around to face Raye.

"Commander, the conduit under here controls this section's inhibitors. We can disengage them, but we will have to get everyone to this section to beam out." He informed her.

Raye nodded. "Get to it then."

"Yes ma'am." He answered. He motioned for Parker. "Sir, can you help me?"

Parker nodded and turned to Ensign Masters. "If you hear me scream, get that morphine in there stat!" Parker had a grin.

Masters chuckled. "Yes sir."

WHAM!

The group all fell. The top container shifted again and was hanging off its base by a good half meter. Shelton eyed it as he climbed to his feet.

"That's the first thing we beam out of here." He stated.

Raye wasn't going to disagree with him.

* * * *

Kio was getting quite upset. A firefight is not the best time for people to be knocked on their asses. Her only solace laid in the fact that the people shooting at them were also being knocked around.

Simpson looked up at the platform where one such person had been just a moment ago. He allowed his eye to focus in on his eyepiece and found where there was once a strong life sign, there was now a weak one eleven meters below it.

"Well, one down." He mused.

Kio grinned as she ducked back behind a console. They had made their way to the bridge only to find that the access to it had been welded shut.

To make matters even worse, they still hadn't located the hostages. The transport inhibitors were acting as makeshift sensor dampeners, lowering the range of their equipment to just a few meters.

One of the Vulcan's fired at them again from a different position from where he was before. The shot managed to hit Schaefer in the arm.

"Shit!" He yelled as he dropped his weapon.

Kio fired several shots in the direction of the Vulcan forcing him to duck behind a container. She backed up slightly, trying to do a better job of shielding Anthony and Ensign Yayo who was tending to his wound.

"You okay, Tony?" Simpson asked.

Schaefer nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

Yayo disagreed though.

"He's got a serious fourth degree plasma burn on his arm. Some of his bicep muscle has been damaged."

"Move him back and behind that container." Kio ordered.

Anthony shook his head as a couple more shots from a different Vulcan hit the wall behind them.

"I'm okay. I can still shoot."

Kio fired at the Vulcan forcing him into hiding. She never turned to Schaefer.

"God damn it Sergeant, do I what I said."

Anthony looked at Kio coolly, but did what she ordered. He quickly moved back behind the container with the Antarian medic right behind him.

A third Vulcan popped up from his hiding place and fired at the group. Simpson returned fire on him, striking him in the head. The Vulcan tumbled over backwards.

Simpson didn't have to check his tricorder to know what happened to him. They were not operating with their phase rifles set to stun.

One of the remaining two Vulcans fired on the group. Kio had to shift her position a bit to avoid being hit. She quickly returned fire, but missed.

"This is getting us no where." Kio commented. Both Simpson and the young corporal nodded in agreement.

"Will a phase grenade damage the containers?" Kio asked, turning to Corporal Xiang.

"No ma'am." He replied.

Kio grinned. "Cover me." She stated.

Both men nodded and raised their weapons. As soon as one of the Vulcans appeared they opened fire at him. Kio stood to a crouch and flung her stun grenade at the Vulcan's position. She then took off running in the same direction.

The grenade exploded as soon as it hit the deck. A scream came from behind two of the containers. Kio headed quickly in the direction. She reached the corner and peeked around. On the ground was one of the Vulcans.

Across the way was squatted the second one. As far as she could tell, that Vulcan hadn't seen her yet. Her suspicions were confirmed as the Vulcan stood, and fired in the direction of her teammates. He then ducked back down.

Kio slowly went to her knees and activated the scope on her rifle. As soon as the Vulcan redirected his attention to where he thought she was, she would attack.

Kio lowered her self to the ground as low as she could get. Most of her body should be obscured by the stunned Vulcan a mere two meters in front of her.

She slinked around the corner and took aim.

The Vulcan stood and prepared to fire.

Kio got his head in the sights.

WHAM!

The ship shook violently as Kio fired. Her shot missed badly not only because of the gun being shook, but because the Vulcan was also thrown to the ground.

He did notice the shot hit the container above him.

Kio quickly tried to take aim again.

She fired.

The Vulcan fired.

Time seemed to slow as the two bursts of energy passed each other on the way to their targets. Kio's the trademark red of Starfleet weaponry. The Vulcan's, a green blob of plasma energy.

The discharge from Kio's weapon struck the Vulcan. He didn't even have time to scream as the energy from the blast shot through his body frying every nerve, every synapse in his brain, freezing his heart and lungs.

The force of the shot knocked his lifeless body back four meters and he hit the ground with a thump.

Kio's eyes went wide as the plasma blast impacted her dead center on her chest.

She was able to scream as the heat and pain from the impact slammed her into the cold steel behind her. Her head snapped back and hit the wall with tremendous force.

Kio slowly slumped to the ground, unconscious.

"Chief!" Simpson screamed over the communications system.

After a couple of seconds with no reply, Simpson stood, took aim and began to side step in the direction that Kio went. Colonel Xiang took up a stance too.

"Ensign!" Simpson called.

The teams medic came out from where she was treating Schaefer. She looked back down at him.

"Stay here."

"Yes ma'am." Schaefer replied reluctantly.

The three slowly made their way over to Kio. Both Simpson and Xiang took up protective stances as Yayo ran some scans. She also pulled on Kio's shirt and put her hand down, feeling her chest.

Saying she looked relieved when she pulled her hand back out and the only thing on it was sweat would be an understatement.

Yayo checked her tricorder again and scanned Kio's head. She then turned to report to Simpson.

"It appears that her protective vest absorbed the shot. The force of it though knocked her against the wall where she struck her head, and that's what knocked her out."

Simpson sighed in relief.

"Will she be okay?"

Yayo gave her tricorder one more once over and nodded.

"Yes. She doesn't appear to have a concussion."

Simpson nodded. "Let's get her back over to where Tony is."

Xiang kept his weapon raised as Simpson and Yayo began to carefully drag Kio back to their position. Once there, Yayo pulled a hypo from her kit. She injected it and Kio began to regain conciseness.

Kio slowly put her hand to the back of her head and groaned.

"Ahhh." She murmured in pain.

Yayo placed a new cartridge into her hypo and injected it into Kio. The pain killer seemed to have its desired effect, quickly. The look of discomfort on Kio's face softened.

Mike moved over next to her.

"How you feelin', chief?"

Kio groaned. "I'm fine." She slowly moved to her feet, but stumbled a bit and fell to her knees. "I just need a second. We need to find the hostages."

Mike looked at her with concern.

"You sure you're okay to continue?"

Kio nodded.

"Okay." Mike said with little certainty in his voice. He then walked off and retook his position.

"So." Schaefer said. "I get a scratch on the arm and I'm out, but you get winged in the head and you can still play, eh?" He chuckled.

Kio didn't chuckle back. Instead she just turned to him with a stern look on her face.

Anthony didn't understand the look. It's not one he had ever gotten from her before. They'd been working together for years, yet something was different this time.

His snide remarks and well timed one liners usually cheered her up and made her think better. But not this time. Right now it looked like she was going to hit him.

Something was very different.

Anthony looked to the deck.

"I'm sorry chief."

Kio wiped a tear out of her eye and exhaled deeply.

She was very informal with him. Hearing him call her chief, especially in the tone he used cut right into her.

"No, Tony. I'm sorry." She said softly.

Schaefer looked up at her as she continued to talk.

"Commander Hino told me I have to be a leader. And part of that is not letting my troops get hurt – any more than they already have."

Anthony started to say something, but nothing came out.

"I'm supposed to be a leader, yet here I am with us stuck against this damned wall. I allowed you to get shot and stupidly allowed myself to get shot as well."

Kio leaned up against the wall and kicked the container in front of them.

"How the hell am I supposed to keep you guys alive when I can't even keep myself safe?"

"Chief…" Anthony started.

Kio didn't turn to him. Anthony was not one to be ignored though. He grabbed her arm and tugged till she turned to him.

"Kio, you are a leader. You're our leader, and a damned good one at that. And you know this." Anthony paused. "Nick felt the same way I do."

"I KILLED HIM." Kio yelled. Anthony was slightly taken aback by her raised voice, but continued on.

"The Gem'Hadar killed him. No one knew about that ambush. Not you, not them, not command. No one."

Anthony scooted a bit closer to Kio and looked dead into her eyes.

"If we all die on this mission, will you blame the Captain for sending us over here? Or Commander Hino? Or whatever Admiral ordered this mission?"

"Of course not." Kio stated.

"Of course not." Anthony repeated. "This is our job. This is what we do. We protect the Federation, and if we have to give up our lives doing it, then so be it.

"I have no intention of dying today. But if I do, my spirit will hold no ill will towards you for it. Because I know that you did what leaders do. You led us, into this mission the best you could, and you made the decisions that you felt were best for us.

"You know how I am. I'm not going to follow some idiot around without second guessing them. I have never second guessed a decision you have made. And I know I never will. I came to the Sisko with you because I trust you to make the right decisions for me – for us."

Kio took in a couple of deep breaths and closed her eyes. A few moments later she opened them and nodded.

"Let's go."

Kio quickly stood and helped Anthony to his feet. She looked at his bandaged arm.

"Can you still shoot?"

Anthony grinned and flashed the victory sign. "Try and stop me."

* * * *

The Ek'Skil slowed to impulse about 15,000 kilometers from the Nerima. Vor'Gal looked at the view screen with interest.

There were only three ships there.

The Nerima of course, a small Intrepid class ship and what appeared to be an Akira class ship.

"That's it?" One of the bridge officers said, summarizing what Vor'Gal was thinking.

"It would appear that the two previous engagements didn't teach them anything." Vor'Gal grinned. "Just like the humans to be so arrogant."

Some of the Vulcans on the bridge laughed in agreement. The officer operating the communications terminal piped up.

"T'Sol for you, sir."

Vor'Gal nodded. "On screen."

T'Sol's face appeared on screen. He had a slight cut on his forehead.

"What happened to you?" Vor'Gal asked.

"This?" T'Sol pointed to his cut. "It's nothing. The inertial dampener on this blasted rust bucket is useless."

Vor'Gal nodded in understanding.

"I need some engineers and more security. We've been boarded and they managed to disable the engines. I've sealed the bridge and if I beam out to the engine room I won't be able to get back in."

"Right." Vor'Gal replied. He looked down at his helmsman. "Get us within transporter range. Have a couple of engineers meet a squad of officers in the transporter room."

The helmsman complied and the ship began to move towards the Nerima.

"Everything else okay?"

"I have no idea, old friend." T'Sol honestly replied. "To keep them from being able to beam out I'd had to sacrifice internal sensors." T'Sol chucks his thumb at the door behind him.

"Past that door I have no idea what's going on."

"Understood." Vor'Gal stated. "We'll be within transporter range in a few moments. I'll beam them directly to the engine room. Once you're mobile again, head directly there."

"You don't think they'll be able to intercept?"

Vor'Gal grinned. "They're bringing you a present as well."

T'Sol grinned this time. "What's that?"

"Speed."

T'Sol nodded. "See you later then?"

Vor'Gal nodded.

"Later."

The channel closed and the image of the Nerima growing closer reappeared. Vor'Gal returned to his seat.

"Thirty seconds to range." Someone on the bridge informed anyone who wanted to know.

Vor'Gal tapped his fingers as he waited. He eyed the Sisko curiously. Surely they didn't think that one Akira class cruiser could fare any better against them than their flagship, a Sovereign class, did.

Something about that bugged him. He needed to make sure.

"Can you run a passive scan without being detected?"

The operations officer looked at his panel. "Yes sir."

"Do it."

The officer complied and some of the details about the Sisko appeared on Vor'Gal's screen.

He looked at them intently for a couple of seconds. His time in the Romulan military had gotten him familiar with every type of ship in the Federation. From just the base stats that the scan had gotten them he saw this was no ordinary Akira class.

She appeared to be covered in Ablative Armor. Only Defiant class ships are supposed to have it covering their entire hull. She had four torpedo launchers – one more than she was supposed to.

And then there was her transponder.

NX-95077.

NX.

An experimental class.

She was indeed no normal Akira class ship.

Vor'Gal was jarred out of his thought process by a blinding explosion on the viewer.

The tactical officer and operations officer both began to scream.

"TACHYON EXPLOSION!" Ops yelled.

"THEY'VE LOCKED WEAPONS!" Tactical yelled.

*No. Not an ordinary ship at all.* He pondered as the Sisko's phasers began to hit his ship.

"Drop cloak, shields to full, return fire and continue towards T'Sol's ship." Vor'Gal ordered.

Ordinary or not, he was planning on blowing them out of the sky.

* * * *

"Tachyon discharge, 0-9-2 mark 2-3." Kaii stated as his terminal began to chirp at him.

Ranma stood and turned to him as Lita began to speak.

"We have a lock. Phasers firing." She stated.

Ranma turned to Lita. Kaii began to speak again.

"Ship decloaking."

Ranma turned back to the viewer. "On screen."

Kaii put the ship on the viewer as it finished the decloaking process. The ship was huge, taking up a big chuck of the view screen. The Sisko's phasers continued to strike the ship.

"Incoming." Lita stated as a volley of torpedoes came from the Ek'Skil.

The torpedoes impacted the Sisko, causing her to shake violently.

"Shields holding, 89 percent." Kaii stated.

"Defensive pattern Omega Six." Ranma ordered, returning to his seat. "Load EMP torpedoes and fire when ready. Order the Jacksonville to a safe distance."

Another volley of torpedoes rocked the Sisko. Her new, improved shields were holding – using some of the energy discharged from the incoming torpedoes to recharge themselves.

Lita quickly got the EMP torpedoes loaded and fired them as Ryouga began to move the ship.

The Sisko, once sitting at a stop, quickly started making irregular orbits around the Ek'Skil in an attempt to keep phasers from hitting her – and torpedoes to miss.

The bright blue EMP torpedoes impacted the Ek'Skil, causing the same bright glow to fizzle effect they had done on the Nerima.

However the Romulan shields weren't as weak as the cargo ships were and managed to hold at 90 percent.

"EMP torpedoes?" Vor'Gal mused. "The Romulan Senate will not be happy when they find out the Federation has been hiding technology from them."

Vor'Gal noticed the Jacksonville moving away from the scene as the Sisko continued to zap her shields with her phasers.

"Target that ship." Vor'Gal pointed.

The tactical officer complied.

"They're targeting the Jacksonville." Kaii stated.

Mina stood. "Put us between them."

Ryouga took over manual control of the ship and jerked it towards the Jacksonville.

Ranma, along with everyone else, nearly fell over. Ranma decided to ignore this and quickly stood. He turned to Kaii.

"Get them out of her NOW." He growled.

A volley of torpedoes shot from the Ek'Skil. This volley though wasn't headed towards the Sisko.

The Sisko swooped down in the Ek'Skils path, the torpedoes missing her by meters. They approached the Jacksonville with great speed.

And suddenly the Jacksonville was gone.

The torpedoes continued on their path. Their target having basically disappeared, they had no where to go.

The torpedoes continued on, eventually detonating on their own, damaging nothing.

"They've warped out." Kaii notified Ranma.

Ranma nodded as his current first officer got into her role.

"Lt. Offensive pattern Gamma Nine. Commander, full spread of quantum torpedoes."

Both officers followed their orders. Ranma took note of how Mina stepped up and executed a command. Just like a first officer should do.

"Captain, the ship is heading towards the Nerima, but they haven't targeted her."

Ranma heard the sigh of relief come from Akane, but forced himself to not get distracted.

"Come on Raye." Mina said under her breath.

"We're in range." An Ek'Skil officer informed Vor'Gal.

"Send them over, and then destroy that damned ship."

"Aye."

"They've transported ten more people over." Kaii informed Ranma as the ship got rocked by another volley of torpedoes.

"Inform Commander Hino." Ranma ordered. "What's our status?"

The second operations officer chimed in. "Shields at 54 percent."

"And them?" Mina asked.

"Shields holding at 54 percent."

"Commander." Ranma said towards Lita.

Lita, who was switching from one panel to the next nodded.

"I'm on it sir."

The Ek'Skil came about and fired all it's phasers at the Sisko. The smaller ship darted around the Ek'Skil, causing some of the shots to miss. The Sisko swung around in a fluid motion, a motion that only the preprogrammed computer could execute, and came up underneath the Ek'Skil.

As she cruised under the Romulan ship's belly all dorsal phaser banks fired, each one targeting her ventral shield emitters. The Sisko then nosed up, almost tauntingly zipping past the front of the ship.

Her aft torpedo bay lit up, sending five quantum torpedoes slamming into the Ek'Skil's forward shields.

The Ek'Skill tried to keep her phasers on target but was having a hard time. Most of her torpedoes were hitting, but were not causing the damage that Vor'Gal expected.

The Ek'Skil was also having problems keeping up with the Sisko. Size does have its advantages, but it was a tremendous hindrance in dog fighting. The Ek'Skil couldn't turn or adjust her pitch and yaw fast enough to keep the Sisko in front of them.

It would be wrong to say the Sisko wasn't taking damage. The explosive power of the torpedoes was making its way through the shields, but not to the extent if her shields were down.

One set of emitters had overloaded, forcing the Sisko to revert to her standard shielding on one of the most sensitive areas of the ship.

Forward dorsal.

The bridge.

"Keep them below us." Ranma ordered Ryouga.

Ryouga tried to comply, but maneuvering in tight spaces was not his strong point. As the Sisko streaked underneath the Ek'Skil he wasn't able to roll the ship properly, causing it to veer off her programmed course.

A dozen or so torpedoes hit the Sisko, several striking the top of the ship.

"We're losing shields." Kaii stated. "Thirteen percent!"

"What about them?" Ranma asked.

Kaii shook his head. "23 percent."

"Damn it." Ranma cursed. Mina turned to Lita.

"Target quantum torpedoes to hit their emitters."

It took Lita a few moments to program the weapons. Once she was complete she stated as much.

"FIRE!" Ranma yelled as another volley of torpedoes hit them.

Lita hit a button and every launcher on the Sisko jettisoned a torpedo. Twenty silver streaks shot off in different directions at first, but then altered their course.

"What are they shooting at?" Vor'Gal pondered when he saw the torpedoes spread out, some heading away from him.

It suddenly came to him though when they began to shift direction. The torpedoes began to pair up. Ten sets of bright silver streaks heading right towards him.

Right towards the Ek'Skil's ten shield emitters.

Each pair of torpedoes impacted perfectly. The Ek'Skil's shields glowed brightly, and then faded out.

Ranma narrowed his gaze at the larger ship on his viewer.

"Their shields are down." Kaii stated happily.

Ranma never turned or adjusted his gaze at all.

"Destroy them." He ordered.

Mina had never heard such anger in Ranma's voice before. This wasn't just an enemy ship that they were fighting. For some reason, this seemed personal.

Mina looked the Captain over. The look on his face reinforced her theory. The cold gaze in his eyes. Not an ounce of sorrow or compassion for the people about to die on that ship.

This was the fourth battle that they had been in together and though she was never looking at him from this angle, she was sure that he had never reacted this way before.

Her eyes slightly shifted to Akane.

Maybe she did understand now. Akane had the same cold gaze in her eyes. The same feeling of contempt for their faceless enemy. The same hatred.

The thought of these two normally compassionate people with such hate in their hearts sent a chill down her spine. While now was not the time, nor the place, she would have to find out what caused their hearts to become stone.

The Sisko began to rip into the Ek'Skil with every piece of weaponry they had on board. The phasers pounded the engines and weapon banks. Torpedoes slammed into her, tearing her hull to shreds.

Panels and walls on the bridge of the Ek'Skil began to explode, shooting fire and sparks onto crewmen. The only lighting now came from the fire burning where the helm station used to be.

With the view screen out, Vor'Gal couldn't see the Sisko anymore. He couldn't see the torpedoes and phasers pounding his once proud ship; the devices that would soon be the cause of his death.

He didn't fear death. Fear was one of the emotions he had chosen to repress. He did allow his sense of humor to roam free though.

It's good that he did too. Otherwise he wouldn't have found the irony in his current situation.

He had always seen humans as smug, egotistical beings with an over inflated sense of superiority.

As it turns out, his own sense of superiority caused him to not take the Sisko as a serious threat. The result?

He would have to ponder that in the afterlife. As an enormous fireball engulfed the bridge it was plainly clear. Right now he was out of time.

* * * *

"Roger that. Hino out." Raye ended the communication with Lt. Kaii aboard the Sisko. She turned to Simpson.

"The hijacker's accomplices have just transported ten more people on board."

"Great." Shelton dryly stated. "Do we go get them?"

Raye checked her tricorder. "No. There isn't time. If they come to us, we'll take care of them. But right now we need to get this inhibitor down."

Shelton nodded as he scanned the room visually. He looked to the cargo container that was pushed a good two meters off the side of the one holding it. Luckily what ever was shaking the ship seemed to have stopped, so for now it appeared to be secure.

He still planned to transport it out into space as soon as he could.

Raye started to speak into her headset.

"Hino to Yuki."

"Go ahead." Kio responded.

"Any luck yet?"

Kio groaned. "No ma'am. We've got about eighty percent of the ship searched. We do think we've eliminated all the resistance though."

"Ten more have beamed aboard. Watch for them. Once you have found the hostages, head for section seven. We think that's the only area where we'll be able to beam out of."

"Aye." Kio replied.

"Have you ruled out the bridge?" Raye asked.

"We can't. We are unable to get a good scan because of the inhibitors. We think there are two life forms in there, but we can't get a good enough read to see if they are human or not."

Kio could hear Raye sigh. "Finish your search and meet us back here. We'll figure out what we'll do from there."

"Yes ma'am." Kio replied.

Raye closed the channel with a "Hino out". Kio grumbled softly to herself. She knew it would take the better part of a half hour to cut her way into the bridge. There were no turbolifts on this shift and there didn't seem to be any other access points except for the main door.

Kio continued to scan as bravo team slowly walked around the cargo containers. They only ran into one other Vulcan, who was quickly taken down.

After about ten more minutes of searching they reached where they started. They'd found nothing. No hostages anywhere.

"They've got to be on the bridge." Kio grumbled.

"I don't know." Simpson replied. "We can assume one is the pilot. They other is moving around and I don't think they'd allow either of the hostages that kind of freedom."

Kio had to agree with that logic.

So where could the hostages be?

"Hino to Bravo Team. Start moving back this way. We've nearly got the inhibitors down and we will only have a short window to get out of here."

"Aye." They all responded.

The group cautiously began to head towards Section Seven. Kio softly cursed at her self the whole way.

"There's got to be something we're missing." She mumbled.

"Chief, we've searched this whole ship." Simpson reminded her.

"I know, I know." She replied, looking around. "But they didn't just disappear."

After a short walk the five came around a corner to where Raye and her group were standing. Raye was sticking her head into the junction tube where Parker and Anderson were.

"How much longer?" She asked.

"Any second now." Parker's voice replied.

Within a few seconds Raye's tricorder began to chirp. She opened it and scanned the readings.

"It's down. Looks like we knocked down the entire cargo bay." She noted.

Parker slides out of the hole, quickly followed by Anderson.

As the enlisted crewmen help the pair out of their workspace, Shelton looks back up to the cargo container that's been giving him chills.

"Time to go." He told it.

Shelton pulled out a small silver box from one of his cargo pockets. He then chucked it up against the container. The magnetic constraints on the device locked onto the container and it became stuck.

Shelton looked at his tricorder. He hits some buttons and the device – his personal transporter – begins to glow.

The cargo container dematerializes as it's beamed out into space.

Kio watches the large metal box disappear.

Then it hits her.

"Of course!" She exclaims to herself.

"What?" Raye asks.

Kio begins to run off. "The containers. I'll be right back."

Raye starts to take off after her. "CHIEF YUKI! GET BACK HERE!"

Kio ignores Raye as she runs around a corner.

"Damn it." Raye swears. She runs a quick scan with her tricorder.

"I'm able to get a better scan now. It appears that all the hostiles are still back in engineering."

"Trying to get the engines working again?" Shelton asks.

"Probably." Raye says, starting to walk off.

"Where are you going?" Shelton calls after her.

"I'm going to go fetch my Chief Warrant Officer." Raye grumbled in reply.

Shelton sighed.

"Shelton to Sisko."

* * * *

The two Vulcan engineers were busy working on the Nerima's engines. The humans had managed to sabotage them pretty bad, but they left them intact.

It's just like the humans to only do something half-assed so they wouldn't have more work to do later.

One of the Vulcans, an older man, was repairing the damage done. The second, a young woman, was occupied installing a devise into the plasma injectors.

The remaining eight were standing guard, ready to blast the first round eared person who walked into their sights.

The young woman was the first to finish. She wiped her brow and slid out of the small confines she was forced to work in. She went to a panel and powered up the device she just installed. A sly grin crept across her face as the device turned on and lights on it began to pulsate.

The older man stopped his work for a moment to look at her.

"All done?"

"Yup." She smiled.

"Well done." He stated, turning back to his work. "If you want to get the coils retuned we should be done shortly."

The young woman smiled at her elder and get to work on the task at hand.

After about ten minutes had past the elder engineer closed the dilithium chamber and sealed it. He turned to his younger counterpart to see how she was doing.

She hit some more buttons on the engineering terminal and it chirped. She turned to the man and grinned.

"Ready to roll."

The man nodded and pulled out his communicator.

"Barak to T'Sol."

* * * *

T'Sol and his companion on the bridge could only watch in horror as the Ek'Skil was pounded by the Sisko. T'Sol lowered his head as the final volley of quantum torpedoes collided with her.

He said a quick Vulcan prayer of safe passage for his friend as the Ek'Skil is engulfed by a massive explosion.

He looked up and watched what was left of the ship spark for a moment. The sparks soon fizzled out to nothing. T'Sol inhaled deeply and turned to his assistant.

"We still have a mission to do."

The second Vulcan simply nodded.

"Barak to T'Sol." His communicator chirped.

T'Sol picked it up and answered.

"Yes?"

"The engines are online again. The enhancement is also installed. You should easily get warp 8.8, but no farther than the target, otherwise the ship will loose all structural integrity and fly apart."

"Understood." T'Sol replied.

"Do you want us to stay here or return to the Ek'Skil?"

T'Sol lowered his head. "The Ek'Skil has been destroyed."

Barak didn't reply for a moment.

"Understood."

T'Sol closed the channel and began to plot his course.

*Screw the plan. We're going straight there.* He told himself.

One of the computers on the aft of the bridge chirped. T'Sol's assistant went to see what the problem was.

"The transport inhibitors in the cargo bay have been disengaged." He stated. "They've transported one of the cargo containers off."

T'Sol didn't reply. He simply made a slight adjustment to his course and hit engage.

"The inhibitors are down." Kaii stated.

"Get us over there." Ranma ordered.

Ryouga began moving the ship towards the Nerima. About ten kilometers from the ship something materialized. It was a cargo container.

"Why are they transporting those off of there?" Mina queried.

Ranma didn't know. He really didn't care either. There was only one thing on his mind.

"Commander." Ranma turned to Lita. "Get a security detail to the cargo bay." He turned to Kaii. "As soon as we are within range transport everyone off that ship."

Both Kaii and Lita complied. Lita turned the security station over to Lt. Jansen and headed down to the cargo bay herself.

In a few seconds they were within transporter range. Kaii did as he was ordered and transported everyone he could.

"Sir, there were two on the bridge I couldn't get a lock on. Vulcans. We have ten Vulcans and nine humans in the cargo bay."

"Nine?" Ranma asked.

"Chief Yuki!" Raye called out.

She ran a quick scan, but she wasn't showing up in them.

Raye was royally pissed off now. If this girl didn't want to be in charge of Bravo team any more that would be more problem. She was going to be lucky if she didn't end up on janitorial duty.

Raye turned the corner around one of the cargo containers and screeched to a halt.

On the floor were several glass containers holding what she could only assume was the hydroxide sulfate. Raye tip-toed around them and found one of the metal containers had the protective covering that secured the open button sealed open.

Raye hit the button. The air tight seal opened and Kio was inside, running scans.

"What the hell are you doing?" Raye demanded.

"I'm running a scan to determine the shielding level of these containers. If we get the tricorders to compensate for them we should be able to see if the hostages are sealed inside." Yuki explained while continuing to run her scans.

"Damn it, Chief." Raye grumbled. She wanted to continue to be mad at her, but she couldn't. She was doing what Raye wanted her to do all along. Show some leadership. She had taken it upon her self to figure out the best way to rescue the hostages, even though they were running out of time.

"What have you found?" Raye asked her, in a more relaxed tone.

"I think I will have it here in a second. I just need to be sealed in here to get an accurate scan."

Kio reached out and pulled the latch shut.

Raye grumbled, but waited patiently.

But not for long.

She felt it coming.

"NO!" She screamed as she dematerialized.

After a few seconds the hatch opened again and Kio hopped out.

"I've got it."

Kio looked around.

"Commander?"

Kio ran a scan.

She was alone.

She hit her communicator.

"Yuki to Sisko."

There was no response and she knew why.

She could feel it in the movement of the ship.

They were at warp.

A phase rifle greeted Raye when she materialized in cargo bay two. Raye jumped slightly but was soon grabbed by a Sisko security officer who yanked her behind the other security officers.

All of the NSO team members received the same fate.

The ten Vulcans on the other hand.

"DROP YOUR WEAPONS!" One of the guards yelled.

The Vulcans, outnumbered five to one, complied and dropped what weapons they had.

"HANDS UP!" The guard ordered.

The Vulcans complied and were quickly detained by Sisko security personnel.

A medic made an attempt to check on Raye but was simply shoved for his troubles. Raye bolted straight out the cargo bay door and towards the turbolift.

She activated her communicator as she walked.

"Hino to bridge."

"Go ahead." Kaii said.

Ranma watched the screen. The ship was turning.

"THEY'RE GOING TO WARP!" The second operations officer yelled.

Mina stood. She turned to Ranma. "We need to…"

Ranma turned to security. "Were the hostages in the nine?"

The ship cumbersomely and slowly aligned its self.

"Captain!" Mina exclaimed again.

"No sir." Lt. Jansen replied.

Ranma turned back to the screen. He looked at Akane. Akane was holding her head in her hands – silently crying.

Ranma looked to the screen again.

"CAPTAIN!" Mina screamed one last time.

"Warp field is generating!" Ops number two stated.

"RANMA!" Mina stared at him.

Ranma couldn't move. He couldn't – he couldn't do it.

Mina spun around. "FIRE! EVERYTHING!" She yelled at Jansen.

Jansen fired. Torpedoes and phasers shot towards the ship.

But it was gone.

Nothing left but its metaphorical dust.

Ranma looked to Akane, who was looking back at him – her eyes red and wet.

Ranma couldn't stand anymore. He dropped to his knees and stared at the blank screen.

Mina could barely recognize this man. Just minutes ago he ordered the death of several dozen Vulcans. Now – now he looked like a poor little child who just learned of the death of a parent.

"Captain." She stated softly.

"Sir, Commander Hino reports that Chief Yuki was still on board the Nerima."

Ranma didn't reply.

"Sir…" Ops number two stated. "I'm scanning life signs in that container that was beamed overboard."

Ranma slowly turned his head towards the operations station.

"Human?"

Ops ran a more detailed scan.

"Yes. Two."

"Beam it directly to sickbay." Ranma quietly said.

Mina turned to Jansen. "Get security down there."

Jansen complied and dispatched the security officers. Akane turned to Ranma.

"I have-" Ranma only nodded in reply.

There was an uncomfortable silence for a few moments. Finally Ranma pulled himself back to his feet.

"Set a pursuit course. Maximum warp." Ranma softy ordered Ryouga.

Ryouga did as he was told. Ranma started to move towards his ready room.

"Let me know when we catch them." Ranma stated.

Mina began to follow Ranma.

"Sir, can I talk to you for a moment?"

Ranma just walked into his office.

"No."

CHAPTER FIVE – DESTINATION

The large silver container had materialized in the middle of sickbay scaring the living wits out of half the staff. The doctors and medics in the room looked at it for a moment. It was covered in ice.

One of the medics made the mistake of touching it. He jerked his hand back.

"COLD!" He exclaimed.

"Probably why it's covered in ice." Another added.

The first looked at him with a 'well duh' look on his face.

The medics continued to check out the mystery container for a few moments. Some tried to scan it, but their tricorders weren't able to scan through the protective shielding.

Soon it didn't matter as they had a new distraction to look at.

Sickbay's doors slid open and fifteen armed security officers came rushing in. The officers all moved the medics against the walls of sickbay. They then took up defensive positions around the container.

Akane rushed in a few moments later. She attempted to run up to the container but was grabbed and held back by one of the officers.

"Let me go." Akane ordered.

"I'm sorry ma'am." The officer replied, moving Akane over to where the other medics were at. "We don't know who or what is in there. We need to make sure it's safe first."

Akane didn't like it, but she stayed put for the time being.

One of the guards up close to the container moved in and ran a quick scan on the control panel.

"It's fused." He reported.

Another nodded and opened up a case he was carrying. He pulled out a small container of putty like material. He then lined the perimeter of the opening with it.

"You can't blow it open!" Akane protested. "You'll kill them!"

The guard finished his work and backed up.

"No, I won't." He replied to Akane.

The guard set down his phaser rifle and pulled out his smaller type II phaser. He took aim and fired, hitting the tip of the putty ring.

The putty then began to fizzle.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" He yelled. All the guards that were closest to the container ducked and covered.

BOOM! The putty ignited and caused a small, controlled explosion. Sickbay began to fill with smoke as the guards moved up close. One managed to slip his fingers in the small space between the hatch of the container and the container itself. He pulled.

The hatch of the container pulled off.

The guards aimed their rifles.

"Nabiki and Kasumi Tendo?" The lead guard asked.

Nabiki weakly nodded. The guards lowered there weapons and looked over to the medics.

"Better get over here." The lead guard stated.

The medics rushed over and quickly pulled Nabiki and Kasumi from the container. They were both weak and shivering. Outside of that though, they looked no worse for the wear.

Akane rushed over to the bio bed Kasumi was being loaded onto. Kasumi smiled when she saw her sister.

"Hello Akane." She softly said.

Akane had tears running down her face.

"K-Kasumi." She grabbed her sister and embraced her. After a few moments she pulled away and turned to the other bio bed.

She walked over and grabbed Nabiki's hand.

Nabiki looked up and grinned.

"Hey sis."

Akane continued to cry as she grabbed Nabiki tight and hugged her. She didn't want to let go. She never wanted something like this to happen again.

"Are you two okay?" Akane finally asked.

Nabiki weakly chuckled. "I will be as long as the insurance on the ship is paid up."

Akane laughed as well. She looked to one of the doctors running a scan on Nabiki.

"Well?" Akane asked him.

"They're very dehydrated. They are also suffering from minor hypothermia. If that container hadn't been airtight, they would have frozen to death."

Akane nodded and walked over to the medicine storage. She pulled out two hypospray cartridges and moves back to her sisters. She inserts one into a hypo and injects Nabiki.

"This will help re-hydrate you." She said in between sobs.

Akane moved over and was about to inject Kasumi when one of the doctors took the spray away from her.

"We can handle this, Commander." He stated. "I am sure you'd rather be their sister right now, not their doctor."

Akane smiled and nodded. She walked over to Kasumi and took her hand.

"I knew you'd come and get us." Kasumi grinned.

Akane grinned. "Ranma saved you."

* * * *

"You let them get away?" Admiral Larson nearly screamed.

Ranma was still not himself yet. The whole ordeal had left him shaken. Nothing had ever been able to do this too him, and he had been through a lot.

Not just in his life before Starfleet. In his career on starships he had looked death square in the face more than once. Each time he had walked away the victor, even if it had been a close call.

The thought of him dying didn't bother him.

It was the thought of her.

He had allowed his emotions to cloud his judgment. He knew damned well that he should have fired on the ship, regardless of whether or not Kasumi and Nabiki were on board.

He hadn't and now many more could be killed.

But he didn't know them – their death's wouldn't have hurt Akane, and some how, at the time, that justified not ordering the Nerima destroyed.

Ranma tried to pull his head out of the dark clouds hanging over him and respond to the admiral.

"We're pursuing them now. We'd have overtaken them already, but they seem to have modified their engines." Ranma stated. He tried to swallow the lump in his throat. "They're heading to Vulcan at warp 8.78."

"How long?"

Ranma looked at a PADD Kaii had brought him.

"Six minutes till they reach Vulcan." Ranma paused, and reluctantly finished. "Six minutes till we are within weapons range."

Larson shook his head and put his head in his hands.

"I gave you a direct order to destroy that ship."

Ranma gulped again. "I wasn't sure if the hostages-"

Larson wouldn't let him finish.

"THE HOSTAGES WERE NOT THE PRIORITY."

Larson inhaled deeply and regained his composure. "The sixth fleet in en route, but they won't be there for twenty minutes. I have the Vulcan's scrambling as many ships as they can, but most of their battleships are with the sixth fleet.

"Captain, I will be perfectly blunt with you. If that ship completes its mission, there will be hell to pay. Starfleet command will hold YOU directly responsible for every dead Vulcan."

Ranma nodded, but didn't say anything.

"Have Commander Shampoo debrief the hostages right now." Larson further ordered.

"Sir, Commander Shampoo has been relieved from duty." Ranma softly stated.

"WHAT?" Larson yelled again. "WHY?"

Ranma looked towards his window, then back to Larson. "It's a long story sir, but Commander Aino is acting XO."

Larson threw his hands up in frustration. As days went this could certifiably be his very worst. "Well whatever. Have her do it."

"Yes sir." Ranma nodded. He paused for a moment and then continued.

"I said I would stop that ship and I will."

Larson just shook his head. "You'd better; otherwise your career is over."

Larson closed the communication. Ranma just looked at the screen for a moment, and then stood. He looked at the glass frame that contained his medal of valor medal from his last mission.

Ranma picked it up, looked at it for a moment longer, and then threw it against the wall.

The frame smashed into hundreds of pieces. Ranma clenched his fists and walked out onto the bridge.

"Commander." He said as he saw Raye standing next to Mina. Raye marched right up to him.

"Sir, Chief Yuki is still on board the target ship."

Ranma cocked his head. "Is she alive?"

"She was when I was beamed off."

"Why wasn't she transported as well?"

"She was inside one of the containers." Raye explained. "She was attempting to adjust the tricorders so that they could scan the through them. She was trying to find the hostages.

"I assume that the transporters scanners couldn't pick her up because the containers were shielded."

Ranma was ready to pull his hair out.

"Time to intercept?" He asked.

"Two minutes." Kaii replied.

"Can we get any more speed?"

Serena popped her head out of her cubbyhole.

"We're barely maintaining the speed we have. If we push the engines any more they could overload."

Ranma inhaled deeply. He looked up to Mina. "Admiral Larson wants you to debrief the hostages."

Raye looked to Mina, and then to Ranma.

"Sir, I can do it. Mina's place is on the bridge right now."

Ranma looked at them both, and then nodded to Raye.

Raye turned and began to go to the turbolift. Ranma called out after her.

"I will do everything I can to get her back."

Raye smiled and nodded as the lift doors closed.

* * * *

T'Sol looked to the second Vulcan on the bridge of the Nerima and smiled.

"Two more minutes and we will have completed our mission, Valen."

"The Federation ship is still in pursuit, but they won't over take us in time. There are about thirty other Federation and Vulcan ships on an intercept course, but they won't make it in time." Valen stated.

"How about around the planet?"

Valen looked at his panel. "Three frigates, but I doubt very much they will be able to follow us into the atmosphere."

T'Sol grinned. "Success is assured."

Valen nodded somewhat half heartedly while keeping his eyes on the security panel.

"What is it?"

Valen looked up. "They left a human female behind."

T'Sol raised an eyebrow in typical Vulcan style. He then walked up next to his friend.

"What do you think she's up to?" Valen pondered.

T'Sol scratched his head. "It doesn't really matter anymore."

Valen turned to T'Sol. "You do realize that she is probably armed and could very easily detonate the explosives before we reach the planet."

T'Sol did realize this. He didn't really think that a human of all races would be selfless enough to kill themselves just to stop them. But then again, humans were emotional and unpredictable. Anything could happen.

"I guess we need to go and kill her before she gets the chance." T'Sol stated.

Valen looked to the helm control.

"Once we beam out there we can't get back in here."

"Don't worry about it, friend. We'll drop out of warp well within the planet's gravity well. The ship will drop down on its own."

Valen nodded at T'Sol's explanation and grabbed his plasma rifle. He and T'Sol walked over to a transport station in the corner of the bridge and beamed the pair back into the cargo bay.

Kio grumbled a low grumble. She had now scanned all forty nine cargo containers and not a single one of them had life signs in them.

This could only mean one thing. Either the hostages had already been rescued – or they were dead.

Either way it really didn't seem to matter anymore. The ship was at warp and headed for her destination. Kio had no idea where that was; for that fact she had no idea where she was.

What she did know though was that she still had a mission to do. She was going to have to stop the ship. While shutting down the engines would not work; she had found that engine room had now been sealed off like the bridge was; it would still be a relatively easy task.

All that would be necessary was to detonate one container of the explosives. The remaining containers would rupture and detonate sending the ship in a million different directions.

Kio walked back to the front of the ship and looked at the transparent aluminum containers holding the silver liquid. It looked some what like mercury.

She picked up the container and jiggled it a bit. It sloshed around like mercury as well, with a very metallic flow.

She was amazed. The container only held about 10 kilos of the liquid, yet it was enough to destroy a large building.

She had a hard time imagining how anyone could think this would be used for mining.

Kio sighed and set the container down on the ground. She walked over and picked up the other three containers – one at a time, and carried them over to where the first one was set.

Kio carefully lined them up. She was going to put one shot through them with her hybrid pistol. The phased charged projective would go through all four containers, igniting the liquid explosives.

The containers would explode with such force that all the other containers would be blown open – their contents igniting.

Destroying the ship.

Once Kio had completed her alignment she sat down against the wall, on the floor. She snapped the strap holding the pistol in its holster. She pulled the gun out and took aim.

Her finger approached the trigger.

Shaking.

Sweating.

She closed her eyes. She whispered to herself.

"Nick. I'm coming."

Suddenly Kio felt a burning in her arm. She slowly turned to see T'Sol standing ten meters from her, his phaser looking down on her.

"What the hell are you thinking?" T'Sol asked as Kio dropped her gun, and grabbed her arm in pain.

Valen quickly swooped in and kicked the gun away. He then kicked Kio, hard, in the stomach. He pointed his phaser at her.

Kio looked up to T'Sol and spat some blood that had made its way into her mouth.

"I won't let you do whatever your doing." She grumbled.

T'Sol let out a boisterous laugh as he walked over to Kio. He squatted down to the ground to look at her closely.

Kio refused to make eye contact with T'Sol. She simply eyed the explosives as the Vulcan taunted her.

"Say what you want about humans, but on some level you have to admire their tenacity. She doesn't even know what we're doing and yet she's bound to stop us."

"I have orders." Kio softly responded.

"Orders?" T'Sol stood. "Orders from the ship that abandoned you?" T'Sol began to pace around Kio.

"You know, they had the chance to destroy us. But they chose not to. Either because of you, or because of the hostages, someone on that ship allowed their emotions to override good judgment."

T'Sol smiled as he walked towards the explosives.

"And because of that, thousands are going to die and the Vulcans will declare war on the Federation."

Kio looked up at T'Sol. The look on her face was somewhere between anger and confusion.

"Within five minutes we will drop out of warp within 60 kilometers of Vulcan. The ship will then plummet to the surface. Upon contact the ship will explode and thousands of my people will be martyred. In the end though, the Vulcan people will once again be strong and no longer forced to serve as dogs; following in the shadows of humans."

Kio shook her head, as she pulled herself to her feet. Valen moved closer to her, his phaser pointed right at her.

"You're insane. How will THAT start a war?"

"Typical that you know nothing about my people." T'Sol stated. "While we are logical, and we repress our emotions; we won't be scorned. It will be obvious that a human ship carried out a terrorist attack. As an added bonus they will hear of the great Federation ship that allowed this to happen by not destroying us when they had the chance."

"The Sisko WILL stop you." Kio defiantly growled.

"The Sisko? Your ship is too far behind. We'll be out of warp for at least thirty seconds before they arrive. By then we'll already be in the atmosphere." T'Sol explained.

T'Sol laughed somewhat maniacally. Kio growled at him and dove at him.

T'Sol was knocked to the floor. Kio took her elbow and hit him square in the nose, smashing it, causing green blood to spurt out. T'Sol dropped his weapon. It clanged on the deck and Kio dove at it.

She made it about two meters before she felt a burning sensation pulse through her back. She collapsed and looked up at Valen who once again was standing over her with his phaser to bear.

Kio groaned in pain and frustration as she attempted to pull herself up to her knees.

T'Sol covered his nose and stood. He promptly went over and kicked Kio. Hard. She screamed as T'Sol's foot smashed across her face. She screamed again as T'Sol, with a look of rage never before seen on a Vulcan, kicked her in her stomach.

T'Sol reached down and pulled Kio to her feet by her hair. He then effortlessly flung her ten meters down the cargo bay.

Kio screamed upon slamming into the cold metal deck. She slid to a stop and whimpered in pain as she lay on the deck. T'Sol began to move towards her. Tears came to her eyes as T'Sol once again pulled her up and threw her farther down the bay. Kio slammed into the cargo containers and slid to the deck, like a rag doll being thrown into a wall.

T'Sol looked back to Valen as the pair felt the ship drop out of warp. T'Sol gave Valen a nod. Valen pulled the trigger on his phaser. The blast struck Kio dead center in her chest. She let out a muffled scream.

The two Vulcans then moved to the front of the cargo bay. They both sat down and inhaled deeply.

With the last threat dead they decided they would spend their last few moments in meditation.

However they under estimated Kio and the equipment she was wearing. They didn't hear Kio groan as the ship began to rumble as it entered the atmosphere of Vulcan.

Kio slowly pulled herself to her knees. She felt the rumbling of the ship. She knew what was happening outside. Part of her wanted to just lie down and allow death to come.

But this part of her wasn't the strongest part.

*I have faith in you.* The voices of all the people who had told her that echoed through her head. She wouldn't – no she couldn't allow all those people to feel like fools because she had let them down.

She still had some time. Detonating the ship in the atmosphere could still kill many people, but not as many as detonation into a highly populated area.

Kio stumbled to her feet and quickly moved down the corridor. The two Vulcans were in deep meditation. The sound of her movement couldn't compete with the rumbling of the ship moving into the upper atmosphere.

Kio spied the clear containers. They had all fallen over and were rolling around. She knew she didn't have time to set them back up. She would need another way to detonate all four at once.

She realized that she still had her type one phaser. She quickly picked up the containers and placed the in the corner. She hit some buttons on her phaser and set it down next to the containers.

She then sat down, closed her eyes and cried.

The display on the phaser began to blink.

*OVERLOAD*

"THEY'RE STILL AT WARP!" Kaii screamed.

"They want to avoid any resistance." Ranma noted. "They will probably come out of warp on top of the planet."

"Ryouga keep us in warp as long as possible." Mina ordered.

Ryouga nodded and kept an eye on the console.

35 seconds and they would be in weapons range.

Unfortunately it was only 20 seconds to Vulcan.

"THEY'VE DROP OUT!" Kaii screamed. "54 KILOMETERS FROM THE ATMOSPHERE."

Ranma stood. "MATCH RYOUGA!"

"RANGE?" Mina asked.

"Ten seconds." Lita replied

"Anyone else have them in range?" Ranma asked.

"No. They've entered the atmosphere." Kaii responded.

The Sisko dropped out of warp. They could see the Nerima begin to glow as it entered the atmosphere.

"FIRE!" Ranma screamed.

Lita hit the button on her terminal. It buzzed at her.

"I can't lock!" Lita replied.

Ranma ran down to Ryouga. "FOLLOW THEM! FULL IMPULSE!"

"Into the atmosphere?!" Ryouga screeched.

"YES! CATCH THAT FUCKING SHIP!" Ranma yelled back.

Ryouga hit the impulse engines and the Sisko zipped into Vulcan's atmosphere.

"Lita?" Mina asked.

"I can't lock. Get me within 10,000 meters and I won't need a lock."

Ranma stared at the ship as alarms began to sound.

"FORWARD HULL TEMP 2,000 DEGREES!" Kaii stated.

"Forward shields to maximum." Mina ordered.

The second operations officer piped up. "I have one human bio-sign on board."

Lita spoke at the same time. "Five more seconds."

Ranma looked to both. Everything got dead quiet. The ship was shaking violently, alarms were sounding, people were screeching, but Ranma couldn't hear any of it.

He couldn't let the person who had tried to save Akane's sisters; the person, who had in the process saved Akane, die like this.

"Beam her aboard." Ranma ordered.

Everyone stopped speaking. Mina looked to him. "If we lower the shields-"

Ranma turned to Kaii. "BEAM HER ABOARD NOW!"

Kaii nodded and began the process.

The shields dropped and even more alarms went off. Ducts and panels exploded. Ranma turned to Lita.

"Fire." He dryly stated.

Lita fired one torpedo.

The torpedo sailed out of the Sisko's forward tube, and went right past the Nerima.

"AGAIN!" Ranma ordered.

It became unnecessary as Kaii screamed.

"THE SHIP IS EXPLODING!"

"PULL UP!!" Mina screamed to Ryouga.

"VENTRAL HULL PLATING FAILING! ARMOR IS GONE!"

An enormous explosion hit the Sisko dead on. The Sisko was assisted out of the Vulcan atmosphere by the explosion.

The Sisko's nacelles are blown clean off their moorings. The ventral side of the ship has pieces of hull blown off of it. Debris was blown from the Sisko.

Main power on the ship died as explosions could be felt rocking the ship. One of the now detached nacelles exploded, rocking the Sisko back in the direction of the planet.

"HULL BREACHES!" Kaii screamed.

"Did we get her?" Ranma asked.

No one answered him.

Ryouga finally managed to get the Sisko under control and pulled her into orbit. Several Vulcan ships swooped in on her.

"DAMAGE?" Mina yelled.

"The Vulcan's are hailing us." The second ops officer stated.

"Did we get her?" Ranma asked again.

"Multiple hull breaches." Kaii stated.

"Saotome to Sick-Bay." Ranma stated into his communicator.

"They want to know if we need assistance."

Mina turned and saw Ranma talking into his communicator. She then turned and saw a damage control team using an extinguisher to put out a fire. She looked to port side of the bridge as she saw a support beam dangling and eventually falling to the deck. She turned behind them and looked at the master situation display. The entire bottom six decks of the ship were flashing red. The rest of the ship was solid red, orange or yellow.

The nacelles didn't even show up on the display. They were colored black.

"Yeah, we do." Mina replied.

Kio kept crying as she watched the overload display on her phaser blink faster and faster and faster. She blinked once, and the phaser detonated.

A white flash of light over came her. She closed her eyes, ready to accept her fate.

When she opened her eyes, she assumed she was dead. She became disappointed when she realized that heaven looked an awful lot like transporter room two.

Kio was knocked off the pad as the Sisko was rocked violently. The ship was rocked again and she was thrown into a wall. She closed her eyes and slid to the floor.

"Chief?" A male voice asked her.

Kio opened her eyes slightly and saw the transporter chief, Chief Malcolm, standing over her.

"Wha?" She whimpered. She had heard about Chief Malcolm. If he was here she must have been in hell. It didn't really seem fair; all that she had done for humanity she still ended up with eternal damnation.

"Malcolm to Sick-Bay. I need EMT's in transporter room two immediately."

"Where am I?" Kio managed to whimper.

Malcolm went to his knees next to her and began to scan her with a tricorder. He shuddered when he saw the results. She was in bad shape.

"Chief, you're back on the Sisko."

Kio looked up at Malcolm. Tears began to fall down her face. Malcolm reached out to her. She accepted his embrace. She cried profusely in his arms until a pair of medical officers came in.

One the planet below people looked up at the amazing flash of light in the sky. Behind the flash was a red glowing streak. The streak continued to approach the ground.

Inside the Vulcan Ground Defense Center, a military officer stood and turned to his superiors.

"The ship has been destroyed." He informed them.

The Vulcan in charge almost showed emotion as he sighed in relief. Another Vulcan stood and began to yell.

"WE HAVE AN INCOMING TORPEDO!"

"Shoot it down." The lead officer ordered.

On the ground, in the middle of a desert, the ground opened up and a phase cannon came out. It spun around and took aim at the streak as it came hurting towards the ground.

The cannons fired.

They missed.

The torpedo slammed into the ground six kilometers from a small village. The massive explosion flattened everything within 10 kilometers.

Including the village.

CHAPTER SIX – RESOLUTION

Lita stood in shock next to the Vulcan military official. She was down on the planet with a team of about fifty of the Sisko's Marine complement. They were going through the rubble that once was the Let'theiri Village.

Vulcan emergency crews were still fighting fires while the marines checked the rubble. Occasionally one would call out and several others would run over.

So far they have found sixteen survivors and two dead. That left twenty six unaccounted for.

"I can't believe I did this." Lita stated.

The Vulcan official, Commander Sir'nus turned to her.

"You didn't do this."

"Yeah, I did." She stated. "I fired the torpedo."

"Maybe so." He stated as he turned and looked at the crater that was caused by the torpedo's impact. "But you did it in an attempt to save many more lives. It was the logical thing to do."

Lita shook her head. "There could be almost thirty dead because of that."

"And there could have been thirty thousand dead if you hadn't."

Lita took little solace in that.

"Besides." Sir'nus said. "It's a holy week for the people of this village. I think most of the ones we cannot find are at the temple several kilometers north of here."

Lita hoped that was the case. She smiled as she watched her marines pull an older man out of the rubble of his house. He was able to stand under his own power. It looked like he was going to be okay.

"I still don't understand why I missed. We were less than 10,000 meters from them."

Sir'nus raised an eyebrow. "Our upper atmosphere is very rough. Without a lock it wouldn't be hard for the winds to throw off the trajectory of the torpedo."

Lita nodded and began to walk towards a group of marines to help them search. Sir'nus stood and surveyed the damage for another few seconds before following suit.

* * * *

Ranma sat in the conference room looking out the window. The view wasn't all that great. The Sisko had been moved to the Vulcan ship yard orbiting Vulcan's second moon. Ranma could only see the giant metal arms holding the ship in place.

It really didn't matter though. In less than a minute Ranma would be in the second worse position that he had been in this week - the receiving end of Admiral Larson.

Nothing had gone well on this mission.

Ranma knew it. Ranma also knew what he had done that was wrong. Even though it wasn't wrong to him, it did violate his mission protocol and he would be reprimanded for it.

The conference room doors opened and Admiral Larson walked in. He was followed by Genma and an unknown Vulcan female admiral.

Ranma stood. The three Admirals took their seats across from Ranma. Ranma sat down and looked to his father.

Genma seemed to silently tell Ranma that he understood what Ranma did, and that he wouldn't judge him on it.

Ranma felt some comfort that at least his father supported him.

"Good afternoon, Captain." Larson said.

"Afternoon, Sir." Ranma replied.

"This is Admiral Vocheck." Larson stated, motioning towards the Vulcan. "She's in command of the Federation Land Defense Corps assigned to Vulcan."

Ranma turned to her and nodded a greeting. She returned his greeting with a nod of her own and a partial smile.

"I apologize for making you wait." Larson continued. "But your report was very thorough and took me a while to read."

Ranma nodded. "I wanted to make sure you had all the information before the debriefing."

Larson nodded. "Thank you."

There was a short pause before Larson continued.

"We have several problems that we need to discuss. The biggest one being your disregard for the primary objective of the mission.

"The result of that is four dead Vulcan's and unknown damage to the planet's weather cycles. The explosion in the troposphere has already had some effect, causing rain where there isn't usually any rain. There have been cases of some flash flooding. The LDC is going to be busy evacuating these areas for a while."

Larson hung his head for a moment.

"This really is my fault. I should have known that no matter how good someone is putting them in an emotional situation like this would have caused more harm than good."

"No, sir." Ranma stated. "You are not to blame. I thought I could do the mission. I had a shot to destroy the ship, and I didn't. I broke down and I screwed up. The worst thing about it all is that I believe that I have damaged the faith you had in me."

Larson looked up at Ranma. He did admire his honor. He wasn't one to allow the buck to be passed. If it was his fault he took it like a man.

"How I feel about you right now is irrelevant." Larson glumly stated. "What does matter is that the members of the Federation council are calling for your termination."

Ranma felt a lump build up in his throat.

"I understand."

"I'm not going to terminate you." Larson added.

Ranma felt the lump being pushed away by cautious optimism.

"I've had to consider several things. First, there has to be a consequence for what's happened here. A consequence for allowing the Nerima to get as far as it did.

"And of course a consequence for the massive damaged caused to your ship. I've talked to Commander Aino and several other officers on the bridge at the time, but I want to hear it from you."

Larson looked right at Ranma.

"Why did you lower the ship's shields in the atmosphere?"

There was no way out of this one. No way to sugar coat the thought process behind his reasoning. Nothing to do but just be a blunt as possible.

"Sir, Chief Warrant Officer Kio Yuki was still onboard the Nerima. She was not retrieved when we beamed back the rest of the team because she was in one of the containers. She was working on a way to scan through the containers so that they could find the hostages.

"Commander Hino also said we may have been able to use the results of that to transport the explosives out of the ship."

Ranma paused, took a deep breath, and continued.

"After all she had done – all she was doing – I just couldn't let her die."

"Even though it could have cost the lives of over three hundred people on board the Sisko?"

Ranma had no answer for that.

Larson looked at his PADD. "There is something else. You relieved your first officer from duty in the middle of a mission. Do you honestly think this was a good idea?"

Ranma shifted uncomfortably. "Commander Shampoo was sick."

Larson raised an eyebrow. "Would you care to elaborate?"

"No sir. It's a personal medical matter and I have no right attempting to explain it to you. What I can tell you is that it was seriously affecting her job. Enough so that I had multiple officers come to me with concerns about it." Ranma explained.

"Very well. I'll speak with her later." Larson stated as he began to go over his PADD some more.

"Here is what is going to happen, Captain. Starfleet Command is assembling an investigation committee to look into everything that happened surrounding this incident. While I have no plans on terminating you, I will most likely have to go with what ever the committee recommends."

"I understand."

"But for now, you're relieved of command till the investigation is complete."

"Admiral." Genma spoke up for the first time.

"Genma, I know he's your son, but like I said, there has to be consequences." Larson said, slowly turning to the elder Saotome.

"I understand that." Genma stated. "I just want to make sure that you take into account that everything my son has done has been honorable. Everything he has done has been morally right, even though it may not have been right for the mission.

"He was also able to destroy the other ship which could have been a huge threat to security in the region."

Genma looked to Ranma, then back to Larson. "He's a good officer and a good person. You know this. I just want you to take that into consideration when the investigating committee hands you a recommendation."

"I have to concur." Admiral Vocheck piped up. "I've read his service record. And while I would agree with you that he allowed his emotions to get in the way of the mission, he didn't do anything that he did not think was the right thing to do."

Both Larson and Ranma were in shock. It's not a common occurrence that a Vulcan comes to the defense of a human – especially considering that Ranma's emotions almost dealt a huge blow to her home world.

Larson nodded. "We should have the results in a couple of weeks. But until then, I must insist that Captain Saotome is relieved of command."

Genma was about to protest again, but Ranma stopped him.

"I agree, Admiral." Ranma stated. He hit his communicator.

"Saotome to Aino."

"Aino here." Mina's voice replied.

"Please come into the conference room."

"Aye." She replied.

Ranma sighed. "Commander Shampoo is not ready to resume her job yet." He stated. "Commander Aino is ready for this."

Larson nodded as Mina walked into the room.

"Admirals." She nodded.

"Commander." Ranma stated. "Computer, transfer command codes to Lt. Commander Mina Aino – authorization 3-4-2-6-Alpha-Echo-Charlie 9."

"Codes transferred." The computer responded.

Mina looked dumbfounded. "What's going on?"

Ranma stood. "I've been relieved of command while an investigation is conducted. It's your ship now."

Mina wasn't sure what to say. She wanted her own ship, but not this way.

She turned to Admiral Larson. "Sir, I don't think this is necessary."

"Commander." Ranma said. "It's okay."

Mina grudgingly accepted what Ranma said. "Shouldn't command go to Commander Shampoo?"

"Shampoo is sick." Ranma sadly stated. "It's going to be a while before she can come back on duty."

Mina nodded.

Ranma turned to Larson.

"Sir, I am sorry for the position I put you in." Ranma then turned to Vocheck. "And I am sorry for almost putting you in an even worse situation."

Vocheck simply smiled in acceptance to his apology. Larson stood.

"As soon as I get the results I will be contacting you."

"Yes sir." Ranma replied.

Larson and Vocheck stood. The said goodbye to both Ranma and Mina and left the room. Genma stood and looked to Mina.

"Would you give us a moment please, Commander." Genma asked.

"Yes sir." Mina replied and left the room.

"Thank you." Ranma said to his father. "And I am sorry that I let you down."

Genma shook his head. "Son, you didn't let me down. Regardless of what we say and do to each other, I am very proud of you. You constantly do things to make me even more proud of you.

"And no matter what, you are my son. Ranma Saotome. A man among men."

Genma grabbed his son and gave him a huge hug. Ranma returned the hug and smiled.

"I have some free time. You going to be able to stick around?"

Genma smiled, but shook his head. "No, I have to return to Earth. But I will be in touch."

Ranma nodded and Genma walked out of the room.

Ranma then walked over to the windows and looked out. After a few moments he sighed and left the room.

* * * *

Nifty Star Trek Door Bell Sound

Nabiki looked up from the PADD she was reading.

"Come in." She stated.

The doors slid open and Akane walked in. She smiled at her sister.

"How you feeling?" Akane asked.

"I'm good. Still having some problems sleeping though."

Akane reached into her pocket and pulled out a hypospray and six cartridges. She set them on the table.

"This will help you get to sleep. When you run out and you are still having problems sleeping, let me know and I can get you something else."

Nabiki set down the PADD and looked at the cartridges. She then looked up to Akane and sighed.

"I think it's going to be a long time before I am going to be able to sleep well again."

Akane nodded. She had been kidnapped enough to understand exactly what Nabiki was going through. She put her hand on her sister's shoulder.

Kasumi walked into the room and smiled at Akane.

"I thought I heard your voice." She grinned.

Akane walked over and hugged Kasumi.

Things were very strange. Kasumi seemed to be as calm as a rock. She hadn't had any problem sleeping. She still had her cheerful demeanor. She seemed just like normal.

Nabiki, on the other hand, was not. She was having problems sleeping and when she could sleep she was waking up from nightmares. She was far quieter and not as cynical.

She didn't even seem to be that concerned about getting back to her business.

Akane was worried about her.

"I hear that we won't be going anywhere anytime soon." Nabiki said. Akane nodded.

"Yeah, we don't have any engines right now."

"They were damaged in the explosion?" Kasumi asked.

Akane somewhat chuckled. "They were blown clean off."

Nabiki raised an eyebrow, but then returned to her reading.

"Good. I'm in no hurry to get back to Frenginor anyway."

Kasumi could also see the change in her sister. It was worrying her too. But Nabiki was a very private person. Trying to get her to talk about what she was going through would be a long, difficult task.

Insert nifty Star Trek Doorbell Sound Here

Kasumi turned to the door.

"Who is it?"

"Ranma." The voice called from the other side of the door.

"Come in." Kasumi called back.

Ranma walked in and was met by looks of shock.

Ranma was wearing his red silk Chinese shirt and black pants. Ranma shrugged off the looks and smiled.

"Since you didn't get a chance to have breakfast with us at DS9, I was thinking we could go now?"

Nabiki set down the PADD and stood.

"Thank you, Ranma. But I think I am going to try and get some sleep." Nabiki smiled at her brother in law. She walked up to him and gave him a hug. Ranma returned the embrace as Nabiki kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you." She softly said.

Nabiki pulled away from Ranma and looked at the pair.

"You are the most adorable couple in all the Federation." She smiled. "Let's plan on something tomorrow, if you've got time."

Ranma nodded. He had all the time in the world right now. Nabiki hugged Akane and grabbed one of the hypos. She then walked into the sleeping area of the living quarters. Kasumi watched her with concern, and then turned to Ranma and Akane.

"I really better stay with her."

Ranma and Akane nodded in understanding. Kasumi smiled and walked into the room after Nabiki.

Ranma grabbed Akane's arm and started to lead her out.

"Shall we?"

Akane just nodded as Ranma led her out of the deck three guest quarters and down the corridor. They arrived at the turbolift and stepped in.

Akane couldn't take it anymore and finally had to ask.

"Why aren't you dressed?"

Ranma looked down at her.

"Computer, pause." He ordered. The computer complied and halted the lift.

"I've been suspended from duty until an investigation is complete."

"WHAT?" Akane screamed.

"It's okay." Ranma said.

"No, it's not." Akane fumed. "You saved two lives and stopped those ships! They don't have the right!"

Ranma shook his head.

"I did the wrong thing, Akane. When we had the chance back there with the Nerima – after the NSO teams had returned. I should have destroyed that ship." Ranma's voice was breaking slightly.

Akane looked at Ranma sadly. "But you didn't know if Nabiki and Kasumi were safe."

Ranma nodded. "I know. And because of that I froze."

Ranma walked to the wall of the lift and slid to the floor. He held his knees and continued.

"My job was to destroy that ship and make sure it didn't complete its mission even if it meant losing Nabiki and Kasumi.

"But I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill them and it could have meant the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Vulcans."

Akane looked at Ranma with an emotion that she rarely felt for him. Pity.

"And then again I let my emotions get in the way of good judgment again. I lowered the shields in the atmosphere and could have killed all of us."

Ranma was on the verge of tears as he continued.

"All because of you." He stated as a tear came streaming down his face.

"Me?" Akane asked.

"I love you so much, Akane. All that matters to me is that you are safe. That I protect you from anything that might hurt you, physically and emotionally."

"R-Ranma." Akane stuttered, nearly crying herself.

"I just don't think I can do that and my job."

Akane stared at Ranma. *What is he saying?* she thought.

"I think I am going to resign."

"Ranma, no." Akane stated, dropping to her knees next to Ranma. The emotions in her conflicted. She was upset that Ranma would throw his career away for her, but also relieved that he chose her.

"Ranma, I am strong. I can handle some pain. Yes, it will hurt for a while, but like all pain it will eventually go away."

"I don't want to see you hurting at all." Ranma said, staring into Akane's dark eyes.

"Then don't quit. You don't understand how much it will hurt me to know that you gave up on this – on everything – just because of me."

Akane grabbed Ranma and held him in an embrace.

"All you have worked for, all you have done." Akane paused. "All we've done. Don't throw it away."

Ranma looked to Akane. The pair kissed for a good minute. Once they were done they stood, adjusted themselves, continued on their way to the mess hall.

* * * *

"Good job, Lieutenant." Mina grinned.

Ryouga grinned back. "Thank you, 'Captain'."

The pair giggled for a moment. Ryouga lay resting his head on Mina's stomach, using his finger to gently play with her belly button. Mina giggled some more.

"Stop that!" Mina playfully swatted at his hand. "I'm ticklish."

Ryouga raised an eyebrow. "Are you now?"

Mina screamed as Ryouga began to tickle her all over. The couple laughed and played for a while. After a few moments though Ryouga stopped and rolled over in Mina's bed. He looked to the ceiling and sighed.

"What's wrong?" Mina asked.

Ryouga turned slightly too look at Mina.

"I have a problem."

Mina looked back at him.

"What is it?"

Ryouga took in a deep breath.

"I think I'm falling in love with you."

Mina smiled. She really wasn't that shocked. She had noticed that since the two of them had returned from DS9 Ryouga was acting different. He was being more affectionate. He was trying to spend more time with her – and not just for sex.

"That's sweet." Mina stated.

Ryouga sat up, a look of shock splattered on his face.

"That's sweet?" He asked.

Mina sat up too and looked to him.

"Yes."

Ryouga shook his head. This was not the response that he was hoping for.

"That's a bit open ended, don't you think?" Ryouga asked.

Mina looked at him a bit confused.

"What? Do you want me to tell you that I am falling in love with you too?"

Ryouga nodded. "That would be ideal, yeah."

Mina sighed and leaned back against the head of the bed. "I can't tell you that."

Ryouga whimpered.

"Ryouga, I don't know if I am falling in love with you. I mean, honestly, we don't really even know each other. Besides, we have a really good thing right now. I don't know if it would be such a good idea to bring emotions into it."

Ryouga's eyes went wide. "Good thing?" He asked. "So I am to ever be nothing more than a booty call?"

"What?" Mina asked. "Booty call? No! You're more important to me than that, and I like spending time with you. But I just don't know if I am ready to fall in love with you."

Ryouga nodded and slid out of the bed. He quickly got dressed over Mina's objections.

"Where are you going?" She asked him.

"I just have things I need to get done." He lied. Once he was dressed he walked over and kissed her on the cheek.

"Give me a call later if you want." He told her.

Mina nodded and watched him walk out of the room. She heard the door slide open and closed.

"Damn it." She grumbled.

Ryouga walked down the hall way and into the turbolift.

"Lounge." He ordered.

The lift began to move and Ryouga began to shake away the tears that were trying to form in his eyes.

"Damn it." He cursed.

* * * *

Kio giggled slightly as she read the letter from her mother. Her mother had such a strange sense of humor. It was nice though. No matter what happened, no matter how glum her mood was, if she had a letter from her mother she knew she would be laughing soon.

A doctor walked up to the sickbay bed that Kio was lying on and looked at her vitals. He smiled at Kio who was still busy reading and giggling.

"Glad to see you're feeling better." The doctor said.

Kio looked up at him, and set the PADD down.

"Not really." She told him. "Every time I laugh it hurts like hell. But it's not something I can control. My mother thinks she's the next Jerry Seinfeld."

The doctor smiled at her.

"Your blood pressure seems to have stabilized. I would venture to say that at this rate we should be able to get you out of here within a week."

"Well that's good." Kio acknowledged.

The doctor squeezed her shoulder in a loving, doctor-ish way and walked off to another patient.

Kio resumed her reading when the sickbay doors opened. In walked Schaefer, Simpson and Raye. They all smiled at Kio. Raye walked over to speak with the doctor as Schaefer and Simpson walked to Kio's bed.

Simpson was carrying some flowers and Schaefer was carrying some balloons. On the balloons it said 'Get Well Soon!'.

"Hi guys." Kio smiled.

Both Schaefer and Simpson smiled and hugged Kio. Schaefer hugged her a little too hard and Kio grunted.

"Oh, sorry Kio." Schaefer apologized.

Kio smiled. "It's okay. If I'm going to get hurt, I can't think of a better way."

The trio chatted for a while, as Raye watched and smiled. This continued for about ten minutes. Finally, Schaefer remembered that Raye was with them and wrapped up their conversation.

"We should get going. We'll be back to see you later though." Schaefer told Kio.

Kio smiled. Simpson gave her another hug. So did Schaefer. When he leaned over to hug her though, Kio leaned up and kissed him on the cheek.

"Tony, thanks." She said softly.

Schaefer ran his hand though Kio's hair and smiled at her.

"I'll be back."

Kio nodded and the two men walked out. Raye stepped up to Kio and smiled at her.

"How are you feeling, Chief?" She asked.

Kio smiled. "Like hell, ma'am."

Raye nodded and pulled up a stool so that she could sit next to Kio.

"I just wanted to tell you that I'm very proud of what you did." Raye started. "When we fired on the ship, we missed. If you hadn't caused that explosion it would be very likely that several hundred thousand Vulcans would have been killed."

Kio nodded. "I just wish someone would have told me that Commander Shelton had beamed the hostages off before I climbed into that container."

Raye chuckled. "What are the odds?"

Kio chuckled in return, but groaned as the pain in her midsection shot through her.

"You okay?" Raye asked, concerned.

"Yeah. Just have some problems in there right now." Kio said, pointing to her abdomen. "But it's slowly healing."

"Yeah." Raye agreed. "The doctor said that you might get to leave within the week and return to duty in a month or so."

Kio's face went neutral. "Yeah, about that."

Raye's face also shifted expressions. She really did want Kio to stay on the team. But she knew that she already wanted to leave, and the last situation that Kio was in would probably be a big help in making that decision.

"You know how I said that I didn't want to be in NSO anymore?"

Raye nodded.

"I'd appreciate it if you would disregard that."

Raye smiled. "I was really hoping that you would make that decision."

Kio nodded. "Things are bigger than me. I still don't know if I really am team leader material, but I want to stay in the group."

"Chief, I will admit that I had some concerns about your leadership when we started out. But now, after seeing you in action in a real situation I have no doubt that you are a leader. The only thing we need to do is to get you to see that."

Raye stood and gave Kio a hug.

"Hopefully over the next month you will be able to see what I see, because I really don't want to lose you as either a team member or a team leader."

Kio nodded at Raye.

"Get better soon." Raye said as she turned and walked away.

Kio sighed and lied down completely in the bed. She watched the light above her for about fifteen minutes before she drifted off to sleep.

* * * *

"KI-YA!" Shampoo screamed as her foot impacted the ninja she was fighting. The ninja fell to the ground, dead.

The computer chirped. "All enemies terminated."

Shampoo grinned. "Computer, what time is it?"

"15:22." The computer informed her.

"Hiya." Shampoo grunted. She hit her communicator.

"Shampoo to Lt. Fuchs."

"Go ahead, Commander." Fuchs replied.

"Shampoo running late. Will be there in about 15 minutes."

"Okay, see you then."

Shampoo closed the communication.

"Computer, end program."

The holodeck reverted to the black and grey grid as Shampoo walked out. She walked down the corridor and into a turbolift.

"Deck two."

The lift complied and began to take her up to her quarters. Once she arrived at deck two she quickly walked down the corridor and into her room.

Shampoo looked around. The place was cleaner than it had been, but could still use some work. Lt. Fuchs had told her not to worry about that now. He had told her that anything that causes her stress was to be ignored.

Shampoo, being a neat freak, was stressed by the dirty room. But she ignored it to the best of her ability.

Shampoo quickly disrobed and jumped into the shower. She spent a couple of minutes in there cleaning herself. She had spent the last four hours in the holodeck killing ninjas. It was quite the work out.

It was good for her though. When she was fighting, real hand to hand combat, it got her back into the mindset that she was in before she joined Starfleet. Before she came aboard the ship. Before Ranma left her. Before Mousse had died.

She hadn't had a drink in a week. There were times when it was very tough for her, especially when she was by herself.

But those times were few and far between.

Several of the Sisko's bridge officers had been coming to her quarters to visit her. Lt. Jansen had taken her down to Vulcan a couple of times to show her the sights. They had gone to some restaurants and Shampoo was beginning to develop a taste for Vulcan food.

Lt. Jansen had been her rock.

Once Shampoo had gotten dressed she quickly headed down to her scheduled appointment with Lt. Fuchs. She was a little surprised when she got there and found Lt. Jansen with Lt. Fuchs.

"Nihao Amanda." Shampoo smiled. "Should Shampoo come back later?"

Jeff shook his head.

"Lt. Jansen is here because she wanted to tell you something."

Shampoo sat down on the couch. She looked to Lt. Jansen.

"Shampoo, I need you to know something." Amanda looked very nervous. Shampoo was very concerned. The last thing she needed was for her best friend to tell her that she was dying.

"I am the one who pushed Captain Saotome into relieving you from duty. I am the one who told him everything about your problem."

Shampoo's heart dropped. A flood of emotions rushed through her like a raging river though a paper mache dam.

Pain. Betrayal. Anger. Gratitude. Love.

Gratitude? Love? What the hell?

It hit Shampoo hard. While ratting her out to the Captain seemed like a betrayal of trust on the surface, Shampoo realized that what Amanda did was not an act of treason. It was an act of compassion.

Shampoo acknowledged that she was sick, and Amanda's forcing of Ranma's hand forced her to get help.

Shampoo stood and looked to Amanda.

Amanda was on the verge of tears. She could see the hurt and betrayal in Shampoo's eyes.

"I'm sorry." Amanda said.

Shampoo shook her head and grabbed Amanda. She pulled her close in a tight embrace.

"Awww!" Fuchs mused.

"No be sorry, Amanda." Shampoo cried. "You helped Shampoo."

Shampoo sobbed a bit more before correcting her statement.

"You saved me."

Amanda held Shampoo as well. Both women cried as the held each other. A tear even came to Jeff's eye.

Jeff realized this is why he loved this job. He got to help people with their problems, and bring them closer together.

He just hoped that he had done the same for Ryouga and Mina.

* * * *

*Captain's Personal Log – Stardate 60604.1 – It's been a little over four weeks since this whole ordeal started. Today I get to find out how it ends.

The ship has been repaired for the most part. There is still another months worth of internal work that needs to be done on the engines, but the new nacelles have been attached.

The total causality count on the planet has been finalized at six, with five of them being fatalities. I just thank God every day that most of the people in that village were on a pilgrimage otherwise things would have been a lot worse.

We are also very lucky that the effects on the planets weather patterns were only temporary and that the Vulcan authorities and the LDC were able to keep the population in the affected areas safe.

I have personally visited the families of everyone killed on the planet. And while I have faced no hostility towards me, I know deep down they blame and resent me for the deaths of their loved ones. I don't blame them one bit for that.*

Ranma sighed as he took in what he just recorded. After pausing for a few moments of reflection, he continued.

*Both Kasumi and Nabiki will be departing in a couple of days. I was in shock when Akane told me that Nabiki was selling off her company. They both plan on returning with Mr. Tendo to California V.

Chief Warrant Officer Yuki has almost completely recovered from her injuries. She was given a citation from Starfleet Command and the Vulcan High Command. The rest of the NSO team has been issued citations from Starfleet Command as well.

Commander Aino has been handling command well. I know that if I am removed from duty permanently that the ship will be in good hands until Commander Shampoo resumes her duties.

Speaking of which, Shampoo has done very well according to Lt. Fuchs. She had a relapse a couple of weeks ago, but for the most part has gone without drinking. Lt. Fuchs says that he will probably clear her for duty within the month, if she doesn't have another relapse.

She and Lt. Jansen have gotten very close and I am sure that is a big reason why she's done so well.

I have felt bad for Shampoo. She didn't really have any friends on this ship, and while I and Akane try to be her friend, there will always be the feelings and hostility towards myself and Akane that would keep a healthy relationship from developing.*

Ranma looked up as Akane walked into the room. She smiled at him and pointed to her wrist to inform Ranma that it was time for them to go.

Ranma nodded and began to finish up.

*As I record what could very well be my last log entry I find myself not worried, not scared, but sad. This ship has been my life for the past eight months.

While it started out as what seemed like a bad joke, I have grown attached to her. To everyone crew member on board.

And while I hope that Starfleet will allow me to remain her Captain, I will walk away with no regrets because I know that this ship, with me as her leader, have made a difference in the universe for the better.*

"End recording." Ranma stated.

The computer chirped and Ranma stood. He was wearing his formal dress uniform. He looked to Akane, who was also in her dress whites.

"Shall we?"

Akane nodded; a tear in her eye.

She was amazed at how much this ship and this assignment had changed Ranma. Eight months ago he was his old self. Insensitive. Tactless. Just a jerk.

But now he was a compassionate leader. Some one who cared for everyone on board his ship, as much as he cared for himself.

He was an even more honorable warrior, one who would sacrifice himself to save others that he didn't even know.

And he was a husband. A loving, caring husband.

The pair walked out of their quarters and into the turbolift.

"Deck one." Ranma ordered.

The lift quickly took them up one deck to the bridge. Ranma and Akane stepped out and paused. Ranma looked around, smiling at everyone who made eye contact with him.

Mina stood from the captain's seat. She looked at him and smiled.

"Captain."

Ranma nodded to her.

"Commander. I want you to take care of her." Ranma stated, softly.

Mina looked at him with a soft look.

"She's your ship sir. I'm just babysitting."

Ranma smiled and he and Akane walked into the conference room.

Already seated inside were Admiral Larson, Genma, and Admiral Vocheck. Also there were another human man in formal civilian clothes, a Vulcan dressed as if he was in the Vulcan High Command, and a female human in Starfleet clothes. She had the rank of Captain.

"Captain." Larson said as he stood. He looked to Akane. "Commander, this is a private meeting."

"Admiral." Ranma objected. "This could very well mark the end of my career. I humbly request that my wife be with me."

Larson nodded and looked to the group.

"Any objections?"

The group all shook their heads.

"Very well. Have a seat please."

Ranma and Akane sat down at the table, across from the group.

"Captain, you know Admiral Vocheck. Next to her is Captain Felicity O'Connor with Starfleet Internal Affairs. Next to her is Zack Young, head of the investigation committee and a member of the Federation Council, and finally Salek, head of interplanetary relations from the Vulcan High Command."

Ranma greeted all of them.

Captain O'Connor was the first to speak.

"Captain, it should be noted that your service record was taken into consideration in our investigation. Both Starfleet Command and the Federation Council hold you in the highest regard."

"Thank you." Ranma said.

"However, we cannot allow your good work to cloud our investigation into an extreme breech of protocol."

O'Connor turned to Young, and he began to talk.

"Captain, because it is obvious, by your own admission even, that you allowed your personal feeling dictate your actions – even though the lives of thousands were at risk – the committee has no choice to recommend that you be removed from command and reduced in rank to Lt. Commander."

O'Connor began to speak.

"Because of the high regard that you are held in, the Federation Council overwhelmingly voted to not have you discharged from service."

Ranma nodded.

Salek began to speak. "The Vulcan High Command wanted a more severe punishment because of the damaged caused by the errant torpedo as well. However the military asked us to reject that recommendation."

Ranma raised an eyebrow as Salek continued.

"They state that it was their inability to shoot down the torpedo that caused it to impact the surface, and that the Sisko's intentions were not to cause damage and death."

Salek seemed irritated at what he was saying. Salek didn't agree with the position of the High Command, but how he felt was moot at this point.

"Because of that, we are asking the Federation to not take the torpedo damage into consideration when passing on judgment."

"Duly noted." Young stated as he began to enter some things into his PADD. He worked on it for a bit.

"I'm sending a message to the other committee members to see what their ruling will be."

The group all waited for what seemed like an eternity. After what was actually five minutes, young spoke up again.

"Taking into consideration the position of the Vulcan High Command, the following disciplinary measure is recommended."

Ranma held his breath. Akane grabbed his hand under the table and held it tightly.

"The recommendation of the investigating committee is that Captain Ranma Saotome be relieved of command of the USS Benjamin Sisko and that he be demoted in rank to that of Commander."

Akane squeezed Ranma's hand. Ranma's heart shuddered. He really didn't realize how much the though of losing his ship would hurt him.

But it did. It hurt a lot.

But as he felt Akane's hand holding his, he realized that he lost it for her. He lost it saving her.

He realized that he had no regrets.

He realized that he would do it again without a second thought.

"Thank you." Larson stated. The admiral stood up and walked to the window. He looked out into the Vulcan shipyard as he began to talk.

"I've been thinking about this day over the past month. I've been thinking about what I would have to do. I've read the reports a thousand times and every time I see the same thing."

Larson turned around and looked at Ranma and Akane.

"I'm sorry, Captain. But I am going to have to follow the recommendation of the committee."

Ranma lowered his head for a moment. His mind replayed everything that had happened to him since assuming command of the Sisko. Everything that he had been through.

And now, just like that, it was all being taken away from him.

Ranma refused to allow the others in the room to see how he felt. He raised his head up, and looked at each of them; a neutral expression drawn on his face.

Ranma inhaled deeply as he looked to his father. Genma looked saddened by the events unfolding in front of him. Ranma's look though ordered his father to not feel sorry for him.

Worse had happened and he would be okay.

Ranma looked to Admiral Larson.

"I understand sir."

"I have decided that you will remain on the Sisko." Larson continued. "You will assume the role of her executive officer, effective immediately. Upon being cleared for duty, Commander Shampoo will assume command of the ship."

Larson walked back to his seat and sat down.

"In the meantime, Captain Karin Walker will assume command of the ship."

Ranma nodded softly.

Akane was close to tears when she finally decided to speak.

"Admiral."

Larson looked up at Akane. Ranma looked to her as well.

"Yes, Commander?"

"You really should reconsider. Ranma has done more for this ship, and hell, for Starfleet in the past six months than most officers do in their entire careers. To just – destroy – everything he's worked for like this is wrong!"

Young leaned forward about to speak, but Captain O'Connor stopped him. Larson eyed Akane for a moment.

"Commander." He stated. "I am not blind to the accomplishments of Captain Saotome. In fact I was the most vocal supporter of him to the committee. But you have to understand what he did could have killed thousands. There needs to be consequences."

"But-" Akane began to protest. She was cut of by Ranma squeezing her hand and turning to her.

"He's right." Ranma stated.

"Ranma." Akane whispered.

Ranma inhaled deeply once again and turned back to the group.

"Is there anything else?" Ranma asked.

"No." Larson stated.

Ranma nodded and forced a weak smile. He stood up, as did Akane.

"Thank you, Admiral." Ranma said to Larson.

Larson nodded, not really thinking he should be thanked for anything.

Ranma turned and began to walk away, but stopped after just a few steps. He turned back to the table.

Ranma reached up to his collar and pulled one of the four solid pips off his uniform. He placed it on the table.

Ranma looked at it for a moment, before turning, taking Akane's hand, and walking out of the conference room.

Within moments of walking out, Ranma was ambushed by Mina.

"Well?" She asked.

Ranma sighed and said nothing. Mina worriedly looked at Ranma. She then noticed something different about his uniform.

One.

Two.

Three.

There was no fourth pip on his collar. She lowered her head.

"I'm sorry, sir."

Ranma shook his head and patted Mina on the shoulder.

"It's alright. It was a fair and just punishment."

Mina shook her head.

"Who's…?" She stammered.

"You are until Captain Walker arrives. And then she will only be in command until Shampoo is cleared for duty."

Mina nodded. Ranma smiled at her.

"Everything will be fine."

Ranma again patted her on the shoulder. He then took Akane's hand and the pair walked onto the waiting turbolift.

Back in the conference room the group was gathering their things when Young turned to Larson.

"By the way, when are you going to schedule Commander Saotome's court martial?"

Larson turned to Young with a look of shock on his face. Genma also turned to Young with pretty much the same expression.

"Court martial?" Larson asked. "The recommendation said nothing about a court martial."

Young shook his head. "Not for the incident with the Nerima. But for the bombing of the Vulcan village."

"That was an accident." Genma growled, moving towards Young.

Larson quickly slid between the angry admiral and Young.

"The Vulcan's said that we shouldn't hold Ranma accountable for that." Larson protested.

Salek looked up from his gathering.

"The military said that. The Vulcan High Command fully expects Commander Saotome to be reprimanded for his role in the deaths of six Vulcan citizens."

Young nodded in agreement with his Vulcan counterpart.

"So you can either schedule it with the JAG officer or I can do it."

Larson shook his head.

"You don't have the authority to do that."

Young laughed as he began to walk towards the doorway.

"When it comes to keeping the Vulcans happy, I have the authority to do anything I want."

To Be Continued