Shield of Tomorrow: Pariah

by Katie Daniels2

When a distant colony falls silent, the Sally Ride is sent to investigate and ends up participating in an emergency evacuation of the site. It soon becomes apparent that these are not mere terraforming engineers, and the Sally Ride is about be dragged into the depths of Section 31's work. Fanfic of Geek and Sundry's Star Trek RPG: Shield of Tomorrow. Nanowrimo 2017

Bell Rock Colony, Zeta Gelis Cluster, Six months ago

It was late at night in the hangar, and the rest of the engineering crew had already clocked off for the day. This was Caliper's favourite time. When all she could hear were the native insects making their distinctive doop-doop calls, this was when inspiration often struck her. Something about the prototype's console was bugging her and, tonight, she was determined to fix it.

"Okay baby, talk to me," Caliper said, powering up the prototype's computers. The Pariah, first of her kind, did not resemble any other ship in Starfleet but, then again, that was entirely the point: the first priority was to maintain a plausible deniability that this had anything to do with Starfleet. Make a control system look alien, yet be intuitive enough that any Starfleet pilot could pick it up like just another shuttle. To Caliper's mind, though, it still looked too… human.

Maybe it was the displays. How else could she present the data in both a novel yet familiar enough manner?

"Pariah, run a basic timelapsed scan of Bell Rock's stars, maximum gauge, 50 microseconds intervals, for 30 seconds," Caliper said. The resulting image would be pretty, and would show the paths of the stars as white streaks against the night sky. Childs play, and nothing more but, by starting with the basics, Caliper hoped to get some ideas for making the displays a little more alien.

"Scan complete," Pariah replied, in Caliper's own voice. Finding a voice a little less jaded and cynical was on her to do list, honestly, but it was hardly a priori-

Caliper reached forward and unhooked the PADD from its display stand, where it also served as a display and interface for ops, should the Pariah ever happen to have a second crew member to serve as a dedicated ops officer. Staring at the scan, the anomaly stood out dark and clear: a black streak, easily mistaken for a hair, or a crack on the display, followed the path of the stars.

Caliper's heart began to race. Bell Rock Colony was a top secret outpost. The only things in orbit should have been the colony's own tech, which meant Caliper would know everything whizzing about overhead, but this thing was unfamiliar. Interloper. Intruder. Spy.

"Pariah, scan sector two seven one nine nine three. What is that?"

"Unknown."

"Come on, speculate. Does its energy signature match anything in the database?"

"Affirmative." There was a tiny pause. "Detected energy fluctuations are consistent with Borg technology."

Caliper felt her blood turn to ice in her veins. She leaned back in her seat, as though distancing herself from the console would also distance herself from the threat. Her mind raced and trying to make a sensible decision was like trying to nail gelatine to a cat: pointless and likely to end painfully for someone. No, there was no avoiding it: she had to tell the Commander.

In orbit around Bell Rock Colony, Zeta Gelis Cluster, Present day

Nothing had been heard from the Bell Rock Colony in half a year, not even a distress signal, which was quite disturbing. How could something have knocked out a Federation Colony so fast they hadn't even been able to get a distress call out? The last communication from the colony had been utterly routine, as had all of those before it.

In fact, as Captain Rafael Martinez of the U.S.S. Sally Ride skimmed over the colony's last reports before falling silent, he couldn't help but think they all seemed remarkably similar. The Bell Rock Colony had been constructed on a Class K planet due to its proximity to a Class L planet, Caldos, and served as a staging post for the terraforming engineers who had worked to transform Caldos into a more hospitable world over a century previously. These days, Bell Rock maintained a small science station for monitoring Caldos' terraformed atmosphere and using that information towards the development of ever more efficient and stable terraforming technologies. Based on their reports, Martinez couldn't help but think that an assignment to Bell Rock would have been his idea of his very own Hell, but also that the engineers didn't really seem to have made much in the way of new technology.

"I mean, are they just lazy?" Martinez asked, turning to face his first officer, Commander Junil Rue. "I could sort of understand that, given they have the most boring assignment in the galaxy, but all these materials they've been receiving won't have come free and-"

"You think they're covering something," Rue finished, nodding.

"What are the odds we're being sent in without the full facts?" Martinez sighed. The Sally Ride had been the closest ship to the colony, but it had still taken months reach the extremely deep space colony. However, there was no reason to suspect the Sally Ride had been singled out for this mission for anything other than pragmatic reasons.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Rue shifting slightly uncomfortably in their seat. The Commander normally held themselves to a near-extreme level of discipline and so, to see something slip… "Something on your mind, Rue?"

Rue let out a deep breath and nodded shakily.

"Sir… we're not far from system J-25. It was where Starfleet made first contact with the Borg."

Rue's reaction became instantly understandable. Back when they had been a Lieutenant aboard the U.S.S. Roosevelt, Rue had encountered the Borg at the battle of Wolf 359. While ensuring their crewmates were getting to safety, Rue had not realised a Borg drone had been closing in behind them until, in front of their crewmates' horrified faces, Rue had been injected with nanites, the first step in becoming assimilated into the Collective. Rue's crewmates had acted quickly to prevent the process taking hold but had also caused irreparable damage to Rue's nervous system. As a result, Rue was dependent on their crutches for getting around, although dependent was perhaps not the best term to describe Rue's relationship with their crutches. The Trill commander had adapted, creating a specialised form of martial combat making full use of their crutches to sometimes lethal effect. Besides, when Rue was in a determined mood, keeping up with them was a challenge for even the fittest of Starfleet.

"Tell T'Lan to maintain long range sensor sweeps for Borg energy signatures," Martinez said. "And I hope I'm wrong about this."

"Me too, sir."

The dusky red planet of Bell Rock filled the viewscreen as Ensign Lark Sage hailed the colony. There had been no signs of any debris, massive energy discharges or anything to suggest some sort of battle had taken place here and then, much to everyone's surprise, they received a response.

Colony Commander Rov Ch'thaolor was a middle-aged, Andorian man with lines across his sky blue brow like a tally of stress. His smile, initially forced, lit up when he spotted Dr Throlo Sh'shirros on the bridge, and he visibly relaxed.

Rue, on the other hand, felt their heart beginning to strike at their ribcage as anxiety started to flood their body.

I know him… I know him…

"Ah! The Sally Ride, so glad you could make it. We have been so busy preparing for the anniversary of the first landing on Bell Rock, and normally we would have a ship come in to land and recreate it-"

"Woah, slow down," Martinez interrupted hastily. "Commander… Ch'thaolor, I presume?"

"Yes, yes, that's me," he replied impatiently. "Now, let's discuss the festival. I'm sending you the co-ordinates for the landing site now… uh, Captain, is your first officer quite all right?"

Martinez turned to look at Rue and, to his horror, he saw that their skin had turned waxy and pale. They were hyperventilating and starting to struggle to remain upright. He saw the danger just slightly too late, and Rue dropped to the ground.

"No, no, no, not again," Rue murmured, clutching at their chest.

"Martinez to transporter room, I need a site-to-site transport for Dr Sh'Sirros and Commander Rue to sickbay."

"Aye, captain," came the calm response.

"No, NO!" Rue screamed, just as they vanished in a stream of blue light.

Ch'thaolor cleared his throat awkwardly.

"I, ah, I hope they'll be all right," he said.

"No, that was a good spot, thank you, Commander," Martinez said. "Dr Sh'sirros will be able to take good care of them, I'm sure." Martinez straightened out his uniform. "Now, Commander, are you aware that Bell Rock hasn't made any sort of transmission in over six months? Honestly, we were half expecting to find the colony deserted," Martinez pressed on.

Ch'thaolor bristled.

"There was a storm and it knocked out the main antenna for the colony. We knew someone would come soon enough for the festival," the commander said, waving his hand dismissively. "Please, a lot of work has gone into the festival. I would go so far as to say the parade floats are the best we've ever produced… though, not to proverbially rain on that parade, there are only fifty of us here, so it won't be a grand spectacle… but I'm sure it will be charming enough. However, unless we make preparations promptly for your descent, we will begin to run late, and we have never run late at this festival. Ch'thaolor out."

"Well, that was true," Chief Mala Ren said quietly from her Ops station. Martinez turned around in his chair to look at her.

"He was lying about the rest?"

"I don't think there was a storm, sir," Ren said. As a Betazoid, her abilities to detect dishonesty in others had often proven invaluable. If she said Ch'thaolor was lying, then Martinez could be sure that was the case.

"Captain." Lieutenant Commander T'Lan, the calm, cool, Vulcan science officer, spoke up. "Bell Rock is a waterless world with a fairly inactive pattern of weather. It is very unlikely that a storm capable of damaging the antenna would have occurred here."

"Fantastic," Martinez sighed. "Ensign, do we have those landing co-ordinates?"

"Yes, sir," Sage said cheerfully.

"Captain, I don't believe the Colony Commander is trustworthy. Is it really wise to land the ship? If we need to leave, it would be much quicker to only have beam a few people back to the Ride rather than attempt an emergency take-off," T'Lan said.

Martinez paused thoughtfully.

"Whatever's happening down there, it doesn't feel like our worst case scenario. I don't know what it is, but I get the feeling we'll find out soonest by attending this 'festival' that Ch'thaolor was going on about. Ensign, hail the colony. Prepare for landing."

The moment they materialised in sickbay, Rue attempted to flee, stumbling over legs which no longer felt familiar and getting tangled in crutches they were no longer adept at using. They were in a complete, deathly panic as they began to crawl towards the doors.

Mitazi caught a nod from Sh'sirros and grabbed a hypospray. Leaping over one of the beds, he landed in a perfect, wide crouch and pressed the hypospray to Rue's neck. The Commander immediately sagged, arms outstretched mid-crawl towards the exit.

"Shall I restrain them, Doctor?" Mitazi asked.

Sh'sirros nodded, lips pressed tightly together. Rue was normally stonily calm and collected, almost to a fault in fact, so these episodes where they would lose control abruptly were both upsetting and disturbing to witness, not least because Rue was also a dear friend. As she watched Mitazi lift Rue on to a bed and begin to strap them down, Sh'sirros found herself looking away.

Whatever is hurting you, I have to find it and fix it, she promised silently.

There was nothing but the black void all around, and yet Rue reasoned their arms had to be pressing against something in order to be able to drag themselves forward.

"Save your energy, Junil."

They looked up into the angular, but not unkind features of a Trill man and suddenly it all came flooding back. They had been in this state before, seen this man, Dryden, before. His uniform was that of a Section 31 officer, and he had let slip some of the secrets of his organisation to Junil previously as well.

"You! Here to tell me more secrets that I won't remember when I wake up?" Junil despaired. "I could only remember that one detail… I couldn't remember you or… So what's the point of this? I'm not going to remember it anyway!"

"As long as you take a healthy scepticism of Ch'Thaolor with you, that'll be enough for me. Bell Rock is not just a simple science facility. It is a Research and Development site for prototype Section 31 technology. Ch'Thaolor must have been desperate to bring attention to it… and desperate people have been known to pull some pretty tricky stunts when they believe it to be justified. Look after yourself."

Junil felt a wave of giddiness begin to overtake them.

"Wait, I'm not done with you-"

"-damn it," Rue groaned, coming back to consciousness.

Just like a dream everything slid out of their grasp as they tried to remember what had just occurred.

Mitazi was stood over them, his blue, feline eyes soft with concern.

"Welcome back, Commander Rue," he said.

Rue closed their eyes for a moment, trying to claw back as much of the dream as they could, but it was no good.

"Where's Dr Sh'sirros?" they asked, noticing the cheerful Andorian was absent.

"The Captain requested the doctor's presence for meeting with the colony Commander. He has taken many of the senior officers with him."

"I should be with them," Rue said, tugging a little at their restraints.

"Dr Sh'sirros would prefer you stayed in sickbay."

"She can be angry at me later," Rue replied, tugging again. "But I need to be with the other officers. There's something not right here-"

Rue winced.

"Are you sure you're feeling well enough?" Mitazi asked.

"Yes! Now let me go find them!" Rue said impatiently.

Mitazi reluctantly released the restraints and passed Rue their crutches. In a few, long, crutch-led strides, Rue was gone from sickbay.

It was a credit to Ensign Sage's piloting that she managed to land the Sally Ride on Bell Rock's landing less-than-ideally sized landing site, which butted right up against some of the colony buildings. As soon as the Sally's engines powered down, colonists began pouring out of the nearest hangar, carrying one end of a collapsed walkway canopy which stretched all the way to the Sally Ride's cargo bay doors.

"Looks like we're getting the red carpet treatment," Martinez commented.

"I do not see a red carpet, or any carpet for that matter, Captain," T'Lan observed.

She was right. While the canopy was festooned with ribbons, there were no other signs of any kind of festival activity. The colonists who had unfurled the canopy looked both harried and relieved as the senior crew of the Sally Ride disembarked, and then Commander Ch'thaolor himself began walking briskly towards them.

"Thank goodness," he said, shaking Martinez's hand briefly. "Now we can finally talk. We may not have much time."

"Is everything all right, Commander?" T'Lan asked.

"Please, follow me to the conference room. We'll give you a full de-briefing there- ah! Caliper, there you are!" Ch'thaolor said, spotting a human woman jogging towards the group.

"Right," Caliper said, meeting Ren's eyes and pointing at her. "Chief… Ren?" she asked uncertainly.

"That's me," she replied, stepping forward and shaking Caliper's hand.

"I'm Caliper. We've got a bit of engineering puzzle in our hangar. Would you mind coming with me? And bringing some extra engineers, maybe?"

"Sir?" Lark asked, looking to Martinez.

"Go. We'll catch you both up later," Martinez replied. "Lead the way, Ch'thaolor."

While the Bell Rock colony's buildings looked quite dated on the outside, internally, the colony was kitted out with state of the art, up to the minute tech. Martinez caught sight of the raised eyebrow on T'Lan's face, and then deliberately avoided making eye contact with her again. This was not a backwater, end-of-career posting. Someone was investing heavily in this place, which was why Commander Ch'thaolor's brief came as such a shock when it began.

"We need to evacuate Bell Rock," he said grimly, looking at the senior officers over his laced fingers.

"Why? The colony seems to be in great shape!" Martinez said.

"We are being watched," Ch'thaolor replied quietly. "We deliberately cut all comms to get Starfleet's attention, but had we sent out a distress signal, it might have caused the Borg to bring forward their plans, whatever they may be."

"I'm sorry, the Borg?" Martinez repeated in alarm.

"We picked it up quite by accident," Ch'thaolor explained. "There is a tiny surveillance drone orbiting us as we speak. We don't know what they're waiting for, but given our proximity to Borg space, an attack could come at any time and without warning."

"Why are the Borg interested in this site in particular?" T'Lan asked.

Ch'thaolor hesitated, and sighed.

"Look, we wouldn't be operating like this if things weren't desperate indeed, but as you humans say, desperate times call for desperate measures. In an ideal universe, no one would have ever known that Bell Rock was anything more than a rusty engineering outpost and a posting so boring that literally no one in Starfleet would ever request it. This is not an ideal universe. This is a universe that contains the Borg. There are those of us with the means and the will to do anything we can to combat that threat. Knowing any more than that would put severe limits on your future career options, for all of you," Ch'thaolor added, looking meaningfully around the table.

"Quick question. Are you Starfleet?" Martinez asked.

"We serve the Federation," Ch'thaolor answered calmly. "And you really don't want or need to know more than that."

Ren whistled as she and Sage followed Caliper into the hangar. Before them was a ship, larger than a shuttlecraft, and almost as large as a yacht, roughly triangular in shape with three distinct… nodules? petals? radiating out from the centre. Its golden hull was etched with intricate, organic lines like the veins on a leaf and then, looking at the ship from the front, the cockpit peered up like the eye of an alligator breaching the surface of a golden pond.

"What is that?" Sage asked in awe as she began walking around the ship.

"No idea," Caliper replied. "We've been examining her ever since we found her."

Ren raised her eyebrows in surprise, and Caliper met her eyes.

"What's up, Chief?" she asked.

"It's just, that was so smooth, it almost got past me," Ren replied. "You know this ship. I think you know it well."

Ren felt the fear spreading through Caliper like a frost blooming on a window.

"It matters that you understand I told you we found her." Caliper said before detaching her comms badge from her shirt and flipping it open, much to both Starfleet officers' surprise. It was, now that their attentions had been brought to it, shaped exactly like the golden ship. Caliper tapped away at a few buttons inside her comm badge and then began reading quickly.

"Okay, we have a crane, and rope… we don't have any clever ideas for moving her on to your ship though."

"You what now?" Ren blurted out.

Caliper waved her hand airily.

"You'll hear the full details soon enough, but this is an emergency evacuation occurring under the stealthiest of circumstances. Our most sensitive tech has to come with us, especially this baby," Caliper said, pressing her palm against the golden hull. "Now, she should fit in the lower cargo bay but it is going to be tight. She's too big for transporters so we have to do this the old-fashioned way."

"What do you have in mind?" Ren asked.

"Get me some strong hands. We're going to lift her on to a wheeled platform and we're going to push her on board."

"You weren't kidding about old-fashioned, huh?"

Caliper kept the colonists and the Sally Ride personnel working together with all the discipline and skill Ren would have expected of a Chief Engineer. She also noticed that the colonists referred to Caliper as 'chief', but when Ren asked any of the colonists innocent questions like "So what do you think of ummm…" with a quick nod towards Caliper, they called her Caliper without any sort of honorific or rank.

The effort was painfully slow, which each push managing perhaps no more than a foot of movement. Gradually, they inched the golden ship to the base of the loading ramp where Zhiv was ready and waiting to attach a winch to it and speed things up a tiny bit. Disappointingly, progress was still slow, but at least this part only needed a few people to ensure the ship didn't scrape along the walls, thus freeing up the rest of the colony's engineers to go and grab their personal belongings and prepare to evacuate.

"That's a neat little comm badge… thing you have," Ren said as Caliper walked around to Ren's side of the ship to check something.

"Part badge, part tricorder. Starfleet tech is so bulky, don't you think?" Caliper asked.

"Gotta maintain that backwards compatibility," Ren said ruefully.

Caliper met her gaze with a sudden intensity.

"Do we? Is it really an advantage that if one ship develops a security weakness, chances are all the other ships have that same weakness? Trust me, if you can hack one Starfleet ship, you can hack'em all. Don't get me wrong though, the Intrepid class is a real step in the right direction. Biological gel components? Love it. Just wish the rest of the fleet would be kept so up to date."

"That's the sort of passion Starfleet needs in its engineers to achieve that," Ren said.

"Yeah, I mean, why not join Starfleet and make it official?" Sage asked.

"Ah." Caliper's face fell. "Yeah. Oh damn, I think we're veering to the left, hold on."

"I don't think we were," Sage said quietly, watching Caliper scurry around to the far side of the cargo bay.

Meanwhile, in Ch'Thaolor's office, there was a knock on the door and a slightly frightened young man began to walk in, apologising profusely, before Commander Rue edged past him.

"Commander Rue!" Sh'sirros exclaimed. "It's… good to see you up and about," she added, trying to hide her surprise from Ch'Thaolor.

"What's really going on here?" Rue demanded, glaring at Ch'Thaolor.

Martinez got to his feet.

"Commander Rue, this is Commander Ch'Thaolor. He has just been explaining to us that, you're right, there is more happening here than was safe to broadcast over subspace channels. The Borg have this place under surveillance."

Rue paled.

"The… Borg, sir?"

"It's as we feared," Martinez confirmed.

"We are attempting an evacuation without alerting the Borg to the fact we are fully aware of their surveillance of us, lest that trigger an attack," Ch'Thaolor said. He tilted his head and gave Rue an impenetrable look. Again, that itching at the back of their mind: had they met before?

Within hours, and thanks to the extensive planning and preparation by the colonists, much of the colony had been evacuated and only a few final details needed taking care of. These final details however, were for the colony's senior staff only and so the crew of the Sally Ride had returned to the ship while these were dealt with.

Caliper was sat inside the prototype, watching the ship's sensor readings anxiously. It had felt as though the evacuation had happened very quietly, but who knew just how effective that surveillance drone was. There could have been a cube bearing down on them at any given moment.

And once I'm out of the immediate danger, then what?

The plan was to travel back to Earth. From there, the colonists could receive further instructions about where to go, or they could conceal themselves easily enough there… well, most of them could.

"Caliper-"

Caliper shrieked and span her chair around to face her unexpected visitor. She recognised the pips as a Commander, the species as Trill… crutches should have implied a weakness or vulnerability but there was something about the officer that gave Caliper the impression that crutches or no, the person leaning through the open portal was a combat veteran.

"Jumpy, aren't you?" the Trill smirked and then ducked under the doorframe to step inside the prototype. "I'm Commander Junil Rue, XO of the Sally Ride. It was the sensors on this ship which picked up the drone, wasn't it?"

"Not exactly," Caliper admitted. "More a fluke, really."

She called up the image with its haunting dark streak on to one of the display PADDs and passed it to Rue.

"This is the first image. I've been running the same scan ever since. I've got hours of footage, but there's been no change in the drone's trajectory. We haven't dared do any more intensive scans. For all we know, that's the sign the Borg are waiting for."

"I also need to talk to you about this ship-" Rue began, but Caliper interrupted by raising her hand and then thumbing the door control to seal them in.

"Look, I want to be cooperative," Caliper said.

"Good. Then do so," Rue replied in a clipped manner.

"But I'm over a barrel here. There are consequences for me if I reveal too much to people who don't have the relevant clearances. I let on to your colleagues that this isn't a found vessel. We aim to maintain plausible deniability at all times so if word got out that this ship was anything to do with Starfleet, we would have half the galaxy up in arms."

"Why?"

Caliper hesitated.

"I can't tell you. I'm sorry. This is about as secret as things ever get, Commander. Both our careers would be forfeit if I chose to disclose that information to you."

"If there's something dangerous on this ship, I need to know."

"I can't, I'm sorry, please believe me."

"You're a Chief Engineer-"

"Unofficially," Caliper said quickly.

"Right, because you're not Starfleet. Sore subject, huh?'

Caliper sighed.

"An irrelevant one. I'm an engineer, what of it?"

"Is this yours?" Rue asked, gesturing around the ship.

Caliper forced herself to meet Rue's gaze evenly as she sat in silence, but staring into the Commander's eyes was almost as bad as staring into a sun… and at least suns didn't stare back.

"If you happened to be the creator of this ship, I imagine the Borg would be very interested in you," Rue said quietly.

The Trill's sudden change of tone to sympathetic caught Caliper by surprise. There was a long pause while Rue waited for Caliper to respond, and Caliper's mind raced with conflicts.

"She's called Pariah," Caliper eventually stated. "And yes… you're right. If the others find out you know this much though, they'll pack me off to a penal colony before I can so much as finish a cup of coffee."

Much to Caliper's relief, her comm badge chirruped and she tapped it.

"Cal here."

"This is Captain Martinez. Are we clear to close the cargo bay doors?"

"Yes, sir."

"Great. Prepare for launch."

Cal leaned back in her seat and let out a sigh of relief.

"They didn't come."

"Not yet," Rue replied darkly before nudging the door control pad with their elbow and leaving the peculiar ship.

With T'Lan and Sage monitoring the Sally Ride's sensors, Martinez was able to take Ch'thaolor aside to his ready room for a private chat. There were too many unknowns about the colonists' work and, while Ren had been able to glean some bits and pieces, Martinez wanted the facts from the Andorian horse's mouth.

"So, Ch'thaolor. Thanks for springing a surprise evacuation on us. That was swell."

"You understand why it had to be this way," Ch'thaolor replied.

"This is still highly unusual, so I think I'm owed some answers."

"Captain," Ch'thaolor said wearily. "I have already explained why I am severely limited in what I can tell you."

"Right, yes, some kind of secretive stuff, probably Starfleet Intelligence. If I contacted Admiral Fujisaki, could he give me temporary clearances-"

"I can count on the fingers of one hand how many admirals even know of our existence," Ch'thaolor growled. "We serve the Federation. We are on the same side."

"But you're on my ship," Martinez replied. "So if there are any dangerous materials, anything which could cause us issues on our journey home, I need to know about them now."

"You're concerned about the ship in the cargo bay," Ch'thaolor said.

"And a large number of sealed black cases."

"Ah those!" Ch'thaolor said, breaking into a grin. "They contain phosphorus. Should an unauthorised attempt be made to open them, the phosphorus will ignite."

"Seems... unusual. Are they traps?"

"No, no, secure storage."

"So they contain something other than phosphorous. Something dangerous?"

Ch'thaolor leaned forwards in his chair.

"In the wrong hands, extremely. They contain our database, in segments. All the information and research we've gathered at Bell Rock for 200 years. We saw first contact with the Borg. We've seen a great deal more as well. So, do the boxes contain something dangerous? Ohhh yes. Are they likely to explode or leak radiation? No, they're quite safe in that regard."

"That's good to know. See, that wasn't so hard, was it? Nothing career-limiting there," Martinez said cheerfully. "And the ship-"

"We call it the Pariah."

"'The Outcast'? Interesting. Where did you, uh, find it?"

Ch'thaolor got to his feet suddenly.

"You have nothing to worry about. Now, captain, if you'll excuse me, I need to brief some of the colonists on our plans for when we reach Earth."

"You're not dismissed, Commander," Martinez said, also rising.

"And you're not in my chain of command. This may be your ship, Martinez, but these are my problems to deal with."

The Pariah's sensors were still sweeping in the Sally Ride's wake, watching for any sign of pursuit. Caliper herself was trying to keep her mind off it by reading the latest news from Earth. She smiled wryly: it looked like Earth hadn't escaped its share of excitement since she had left the Academy.

She could remember the night she had been recruited just as clearly now as she had the day after. It had been her final year at the Academy. Her scores were astronomical; she knew, deep down, she should have toned it down and not brought attention to herself, but then Wolf 359 had happened. Then a Borg cube had approached Earth and all the rules had gone out the window. She had become obsessed with this seemingly unstoppable foe and had thrown herself fully into her studies and her own private research projects. She had been approached by Starfleet Intelligence, but she'd had her heart set on the Engineering Corps. She wanted the fleet to be the best defended in the galaxy, nay, the universe.

L'Nok had been a Vulcan cadet the year below Erica Baldwin. His scores were mostly above average, but his engineering scores were keeping him from truly excelling and so someone had recommended Erica as a tutor for him. It had seemed like a good deal: L'Nok would get better scores, and Erica would get extra credit giving her a bit of breathing space to focus even more on her private projects.

L'Nok had been smart, though, and Erica had underestimated his curiosity and his jealousy. Who knew that not all Vulcans had this serene logic nailed down? L'Nok was unstable, and he had grown obsessed with Erica. She had expressed her concerns to her own tutors. Was it Pon Farr? No, they assured her, he was too young. Stranger things happened in space though...

And one night, just as Erica was enjoying an illicit beer in her room, there'd been a knock at the door. Like a good tutor, her thoughts had immediately gone to L'Nok. Maybe he was having a late night crisis?

And boy was he.

As soon as she opened the door, L'Nok had lunged at her and fastened his hands around her throat. He had pushed her back into the room, closing the door behind him. Erica's whole body was panicking; her stomach was threatening to eject the beer she'd just moments previously being enjoying; her eyes were throbbing from the pressure on her throat, and her face was burning hot; her lungs were screaming, while only silence escaped her gaping mouth. He wasn't interested in mating; this was murder.

Her hands flailed desperately and her fingertips brushed the top of the beer bottle. She grabbed it and smashed it over L'Nok's head, showering them both in beer and glass, but he didn't even falter. The broken bottle neck was still in her hand. She plunged it into the side of L'Nok's neck. Blood sprayed from the wound as L'Nok dropped his grip on Erica and staggered backwards, slamming into the door and sliding down it, eyes wide with shock and mouth gaping like a fish out of water.

Shit. SHIT.

The door chimed.

SHIT!

Without Erica doing anything, the door slid open. A man in a severe, black uniform stood in the doorway, stepping over the rapidly expiring Vulcan.

"Dear me, are you quite all right? I saw this chap heading your way and he seemed out of sorts so I followed."

"He... he tried to kill me!"

"I gather he was quite upset. I mean, I would be too, if I found out the only reason my tutor was oh so much better at the subject than I was because she was an illegal augment."

Erica reeled from this statement. She waved the bloody stub of bottle at the man.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

"The question is who are you? Because Erica Baldwin is an augment and a murderer. Are you going to spend the rest of your life in a penal colony as her, or do you want to make a real difference to the Federation as someone else?"

"That's all I wanted," she mumbled.

"Did you really think you'd last any length of time in Starfleet before you were found out? Starfleet doesn't accept augments, you know that."

"I hoped..."

"They'll show you no mercy. The scars left by Khan are still fresh in their minds. My organisation will accept you, welcome you, and make full use of your talents. We'll make 'Erica Baldwin' disappear and forge you a new life. Your old life is over."

"I guess I don't have much choice."

"Everyone has choices," the man said. "But I think you'll make the smart one. Welcome to Section 31."

Back to the cargo bay and the present day on board the Sally Ride, Caliper thumbed through existing warrants that her Section 31 clearances gave her access to and found her own, still active. There was a chance she would be arrested the moment she stepped on to Terran soil.

She jumped as her comm badge chirruped.

"Cal, let me in," Ch'thaolor's voice grumped at her.

She tapped the door control and turned in her seat to face him as he stepped on board the Pariah. She could see his face twitching as he struggled to contain his anger, but he was holding it in long enough for the door to close and seal them off from the security cameras in the cargo bay. The moment the door closed, however, Ch'thaolor bore down on Cal, eyes burning with rage.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU TELL THEM?" he roared.

"I- I- what?" Cal spluttered back in terror.

"Martinez was asking some pretty damn pointed questions about the Pariah. Do you know what he asked me? Do you?"

"No I-"

"Let me give you some idea, Cal. 'Where did you, UH, find it?'"

"You think he doesn't believe the story about this being a found vessel?"

"The man's about as subtle as an emergency flare. No he does not believe that story! What I want to know is why would he be doubting that?"

"I haven't spoken to Martinez since we were first introduced!"

"No but you spent a lot of time with that Betazoid. Do you think she read you? Did you forget your training? Or did you deliberately not bother?"

"She read me, okay? She may be Chief Engineer but she's got a decent telepathic skill set as well."

"And you kept this from me and left me to be ambushed by Martinez why?" Ch'thaolor snarled.

Cal hesitated just a little too long.

"You saw your opportunity, didn't you?" Ch'thaolor said quietly. "You want to blow this operation wide open. You do realise we'll be forced to destroy the Pariah if that happens?"

"No! We've – we'd just have to take out some of her more… unorthodox tech."

"Of course, but if she wasn't Starfleet's, if she was just independent augment's ship, you're not so bound by those treaties, are you? You've been planning on stealing this ship since day one. I know how you were recruited, Cal. I know you don't like us or our methods but, damn it, sometimes you have to throw away the rule book in order to get the upper hand. You do understand we act in the interests of the Federation, right?"

Cal remained silent.

"You're confined to your quarters. One more step out of line, and Erica Baldwin is going to spend the rest of the trip in the Brig, understood?"

"Sir, someone needs to be monitoring-"

"I'll get Zaynub on it."

"If the Borg are still following us then we're leading them straight to the Sally Ride. If you have an ounce of conscience in you, you'll tell them."

"If the Borg were going to attack, they'd have done so before now. Chances are they were waiting for the Pariah's maiden flight to prove it was a viable ship-"

"But we don't know that, Rov! And now that we've left the colony, they'll probably come for us before we can get within reach of the rest of the fleet. It's a long way home. Almost six months at max warp. We're lucky the Ride was already most of the way here."

Ch'thaolor sighed.

"Caliper, you're one of the greatest engineers to come out of Starfleet in years. It would benefit no one but enemies of the Federation to see such a promising career end in a penal colony. Go to your quarters, stay there and keep your mouth shut. Get some rest, for crying out loud."

"Sir."

Earth Outpost Station 17, on the edge of the Neutral Zone, Two months later

The Sally Ride continued to carry out missions on behalf of Starfleet during the long voyage home, with Starfleet Command taking full advantage of the Ride being close to parts of the Federation which had been left isolated when most of the fleet was recalled to Sector 001. Many of the colonists took on temporary roles amongst the Sally Ride's crew, proving themselves to be highly capable, while the rest used the voyage as downtime to pursue their own hobbies or interests.

Martinez's most recent orders had been to check in with Earth Outpost Station 17, one of many such outposts along the length of the Romulan Neutral Zone. It had fallen silent a week previously but, unlike Bell Rock, its last communications indicated that they had detected Romulan forces gathering nearby.

As the Ride drew close to the outpost, it was clear all wasn't well. There were no signs of life on board, nor any detectable power.

Commander Rue, Chief Ren and Lt Commander T'Lan were assigned to the away team to beam on board the outpost and begin investigating what had gone wrong. Bulked out in their evo suits, the three officers stepped up on to the transporter.

"Ready Commander?" The transporter operator on duty that day was one of the colonists, a Bolian woman call Nilora. She was cheerful in an introverted, reserved sort of way. As Ren met her gaze, Nilora blushed slightly and looked away.

"Proceed," Rue said, before Ren could mention what she had just seen.

T'Lan's tricorder warned her that life support was not presently functioning, although preliminary examinations of the equipment showed no reason why this should have been.

"It's just been… deactivated," Ren commented, flicking a switch and causing the nearest terminal to hum into life. "Give me a second and I'll have the computer run a diagnostic, but if I didn't know better, I'd say the last person off here just turned out the lights and left."

Rue activated the torch on their helmet and began to look around.

"Not without a fight, they didn't," Rue said, pointing out a scorch mark on a nearby bulkhead which matched the intensity and burn pattern of a phaser blast. The Commander opened up a signal back to the Ride and reported this first finding back to Martinez before the away team continued their exploration around the abandoned outpost.

Deck by deck, power was restored and the lights came on, revealing more blast damage and phaser burns.

"Energy signatures are consistent with Romulan weapons," T'Lan reported.

"So it certainly looks like there was a firefight between Starfleet and Romulan personnel, but it wouldn't be the first time one party might have framed another in order to disguise the real culprits. Let's keep looking," Rue said.

The dream had begun pleasantly enough. Caliper had been walking through a stately garden filled with flowers of all the colours she could imagine on a gorgeous, sunny day, until the sky had begun to darken. As the rain fell, great big splodges of it soaked into her clothes and weighed her down. Caliper found that she was feeling too fatigued and weak to keep moving, and now there was a wasp… oh those damned things, she'd not encountered one before joining the academy-

Cal groggily opened her eyes but couldn't get them to focus. The loud buzzing was coming from her comm badge as it frantically tried to get her attention. She reached for it, missed, grabbed it clumsily a second time and flipped it open. On the screen was a flashing red triangle: nerve agent detected. She knew the readout would tell her what kind, what concentration and so on, but with her vision as blurred as it was, all she knew was that she was being knocked out.

She collapsed out of her bed and crawled to her trunk, still packed after all these weeks and ready for a quick getaway if it was needed. She fished about and found her respirator, hastily clamping it over her face and taking a few breaths of clean air before sliding the straps correctly over her head to keep it properly in place. As her vision began to clear and she felt steadier, she pulled herself up on to her chair and picked up a PADD. There were no notifications.

"Caliper to Doctor Sh'sirros," she said, tapping her comm badge. There was no answer. "Caliper to Captain Martinez?" she tried. Still no answer.

She jumped violently as an alarm began to chime: INTRUDER ALERT. With more panic in her voice this time, she tried her last resort.

"Caliper to Ch'thaolor."

"Cal? Stay in your quarters, we have a bit of a situation." His voice sounded a bit muffled.

"Like the nerve agent?" she asked.

"For a start. Actually, can you get to the Bridge? Monitor the Away Team, make sure they're okay. I'm going to see who or what is trying to get into the cargo bay."

"The cargo bay? You mean-"

"Get to the Bridge, Cal, you can monitor everything from there. Ch'thaolor out."

Room after room was empty, some showing signs of a fight, others of having been rapidly abandoned. The Away Team left a trail of light behind them as they restored power, section by section, while moving up the outpost's floors but, while the computers were coming back online, there were no recordings, sensor readings or logs indicating the day of the battle.

"They knew the attack was probably coming," Rue said. "You'd expect there to be logs, some attempt at transmitting a distress call-"

"There was a distress call," Ren said, leaning over a workstation and starting to tap away frantically. "So there should be a record of that… but there isn't." She looked up at T'Lan and Rue. "I think someone's deleted the records."

"This doesn't feel like a standard Romulan attack. We could be dealing with the Tal Shiar," Rue said grimly.

"But what could have drawn them to this outpost? This was simply a monitoring facility for alerting Starfleet if the Romulans crossed the Neutral Zone," T'Lan said.

"Ren, can you find anything on these machines? Ghosts or shadows of the deleted files?"

"Well, I can try, Commander, but we'd have more luck if we could get Ensign Sage over here, Commander."

Rue nodded and tapped their comm badge.

"Rue to Sally Ride."

"Oh thank god, you're okay," replied a slightly muffled voice.

"Caliper? What are you doing on the bridge?" Ren asked.

"Long story, but we have intruders on the Ride, and they pumped a nerve agent through the life support system. A handful of us managed to get respirators on before being overwhelmed, but most of the crew are knocked out. They're going to have some fierce hangovers in a few hours, but they'll be okay. What's the situation over there?"

"Life support and power are back online. We believe this may have been an operation by the Tal Shiar," T'Lan reported.

"Any sign of the crew? Records say there should have been about ten of them."

"We have not found any of them," T'Lan confirmed.

"So maybe they've been taken? Maybe they're alive?"

"But in Romulan space," Rue pointed out. "What can you tell us about the intruders?"

"Ch'thaolor said he was going down to the cargo bay to handle it. I'll check in with him and report back to you. Cal, uh, Sally Ride out."

Back on the Ride, Caliper attempted to call up the security camera footage of the cargo bay on the viewscreen, but the computer only replied with a dry:

"Security recording had been disabled in this area."

"Oh really? Computer, patch the external camera feeds from the Pariah through to the viewscreen."

Had it not been for her respirator, Cal's jaw would have hit the deck. There was no great melee in action; Ch'thaolor was calmly walking across the cargo bay towards a lone Romulan man, also wearing a respirator.

"Koval, it's an honour to meet you in person," Ch'thaolor said coolly. Cal got the sense he didn't especially like this Romulan, but he did respect him.

The Romulan glanced over the Pariah and nodded in satisfaction.

"I'm sure this vessel will prove fruitful to our interests," he said.

"Like hell she will," Cal muttered, tapping her comm badge. "Caliper to Pariah: acknowledge remote control access code 'Caliper turtle seven horse nine Titania three.'"

"Remote access code acknowledged and accepted. Awaiting further instructions," came the reply, irritably in her own voice. She ought to change that. It was very off-putting.

"Lock all the doors, shields up, refuse all commands that have not come from me."

Caliper smirked as she watched the hazy blue bubble appear around the Pariah, causing both Ch'thaolor and Koval to jump back in surprise.

"What is the meaning of this?" Koval demanded.

"I'll find out," Ch'thaolor replied before Cal watched him tap his comm badge. "Cargo bay to bridge."

"Hello Ch'thaolor," Cal said darkly. "Smile for the cameras."

She watched as he looked around in horror, and then looked at the Pariah.

"Oh. Of course. Very clever. I presume you've taken remote control of the ship?"

"Obviously."

"Koval is an ally. We can't risk transporting the Pariah to Earth. As you've said yourself, we'd have to remove certain technology that we've invested a long time in developing."

"Yes, we did, but not so we could hand it over to the Romulans, no offence, Koval."

"Who is this troublemaker?" Koval asked Ch'thaolor.

"The Pariah's designer and Chief Engineer, Caliper."

"The toxin will wear off in a few hours, Ch'thaolor. If the crew begin to wake up-"

"I'll sort it," Ch'thaolor said hastily.

Cal cut her comms to the cargo bay, watching as Ch'thaolor began giving orders to several other colonists, and opened a comms link to the away team again.

"Rue," she heard the Commander reply.

"It's not an intrusion. It's a mutiny," Cal said. "But I think they've decided I don't play on the same team anymore. They're coming for me to get control of the Pariah."

"Caliper, stay calm and follow my instructions exactly." Cal heard Rue sigh. "Beam us back to the Sally Ride's Bridge and then…" There was a long moment of reluctant hesitation. "I'm going to tell you how to evade a Starfleet security sweep."

Ch'thaolor divided up the colonists into groups of four and five to begin searching the Sally Ride for the renegade engineer. Hierarchies worked differently in Section 31. Technically Ch'thaolor was of equal standing to Koval, but in practise, Koval was the more experienced and more important agent. Damn that augment. She'd proven herself to be unstable from the moment she'd been recruited. The plan had never been for the Vulcan boy to die. Sloan had been meant to swoop in and be a big hero and prevent L'Nok's attack, but no one had expected Baldwin to improvise a weapon.

"Ch'thaolor to Caliper," he tried. He didn't realistically expect a response. "Computer, locate Caliper."

"There is no one on board this vessel by that name."

No, she wouldn't have left the ship, not without the Pariah.

"Computer, are there any lifeforms not moving as part of a group of four or five?"

"Two results found. Commander Rov Ch'thaolor and an identified Romulan lifeform located in the main cargo bay."

Ch'thaolor frowned.

"We're going to have strong words when this is over," Rue threatened as Cal pressed her comm badge against the medical replicator in sickbay.

"Oh, you have no idea," Cal replied. "Right, I think I got it this time – T'Lan, better check it before using it on the doctor." Unseen, she slid one of the 'incorrect' hyposprays into her pocket.

T'Lan ran her tricorder over the hypospray Cal had replicated.

"That is the correct formula."

T'Lan pressed the hypospray against the unconscious Dr Sh'shirros's neck and watched as she began to groan. Suddenly, Sh'shirros sat up, gasping for air and eyes bulging in panic. T'Lan grabbed the doctor's shoulders and began to speak serenely to calm her down.

"So that'll probably happen to everyone when they wake up?" Ren said uneasily.

"According to the pharmacological data, it is a very common side effect," T'Lan said.

"Wow, that's going to be fun," Ren winced.

"What's… what's going on?" Sh'sirros asked.

"The colonists released a volatile anaesthetic into the Sally Ride's life support systems and incapacitated the crew. They are staging a mutiny and are attempting to steal the Pariah," T'Lan reported.

"The colonists…" Sh'sirros looked up at Cal warily.

"Not me," Cal said, raising her hands in surrender.

"Let me see that hypospray," Sh'sirros said, holding her hand out to T'Lan who handed it over. "Where did you get this?"

"Caliper cloned your comm badge to convince the medical replicator that she was you," Rue said disapprovingly.

"Did she now? That's alarming," Sh'sirros said.

"Desperate times," Cal said. "Levels of the anaesthetic have dropped below levels where it has a noticeable effect, but it could still be quite some time before the crew wake up. We want to try and flood the life support system with, uh, whatever it was we just gave you but we figured it was best we had you supervise that process, given the high likelihood of panic attacks."

"Good thinking." Sh'sirros, with help from T'Lan, got carefully to her feet and then moved to the nearest console. "Ren, give me a hand here. Where's the nearest location we could inject the antidote into the life support system…"

As Ren leaned over the doctor's shoulder to look at the screen, Cal's comm badge began to chirrup. When she tapped it, her own voice came through:

"Shields at 95% and falling."

"They're trying to wear down the shields so they can try and get on board Pariah and manually override my controls," Cal groaned. "We have to stop them."

"Was that your voice?" Rue asked, smirking slightly.

"Look, she's a prototype and I had to improvise!" Cal replied hotly. "Worst case scenario, my former colleagues are about to sell some state of the art and politically sensitive tech to the Romulans."

"T'Lan, grab a phaser rifle. We'd better put a stop to this," Rue said.

"Can I just grab a regular phaser? I've not fired a rifle before," Cal said awkwardly.

"Oh you're not coming," Rue quipped swiftly. "Stay here and help the doctor and Ren."

Without further comment, Rue and T'Lan left sickbay, leaving Cal stunned and hurt. She turned helplessly to Sh'sirros and Ren.

"It's nothing personal," Sh'sirros said sympathetically.

"I just feel like I should be the one to save my own ship!"

"Do you have any combat experience?" Sh'sirros asked.

Cal winced. She couldn't straight up and admit she was a trained operative.

"Not… especially," she lied.

"Then it's best you stay put, okay?"

Cal snorted air out of her nose and sat down on the edge of the desk.

"Wait… um, can I borrow a console?" she asked.

Sh'sirros looked at her suspiciously.

"You're not going to go down there are you?"

"No! No! I'm staying put, but I have remote access to the Pariah. Let's have some fun..."

Ch'thaolor, Koval and a handful of other colonists were busy firing sustained bursts from their phasers at the Pariah's shields. The rest of the colonists were searching the Sally Ride from top to bottom in search of Caliper, a job hindered by the fact she seemed to have confused the ship's computers into no longer acknowledging her existence.

Suddenly, he heard the whine of a transporter beam. One of the colonists disappeared, his look of alarm frozen in the blue light before fading from view entirely. Then, with a whine of servo motors, the Pariah's phasers began to stir and angle to aim themselves at the colonists.

"TAKE COVER!" Ch'thaolor yelled, diving behind a storage container. A moment later, a wide burst of stunning phaser energy sliced through the cargo bay, taking out anyone too slow to have ducked or hidden from view. It was after that had occurred that the cargo bay doors opened and shots from a phaser rifle began scoring the air, each shot precisely aimed, and not a single one wasted. Aided by the cover from the rifle, a whirling dervish of pain rushed into the cargo bay and began grappling with the few remaining colonists still on their feet.

"Dyphon to Ch'thaolor, they're holed up in sickbay!" came the blessed message at last.

"Take them out!"

"We can't get through the door!"

"It seems you have lost control of the situation, Ch'thaolor," Koval murmured from his hiding spot. He began typing a command to his own ship hovering just within view of the cargo bay doors.

"Don't leave me!" Ch'thaolor begged, reaching to grab hold of the Romulan, just as he, too, vanished in a blue fade.

The next thing Ch'thaolor knew, a cold, metal bar was at his throat and angling his head to turn and look up at the unforgiving face of Commander Rue. A moment later, the expressionless face of Lieutenant Commander T'Lan also appeared.

"I'm going to enjoy watching you grovel to the captain," Rue said, smiling.

Ch'thaolor felt his heart sink… no, that wasn't what he felt! Just as his expression turned from despair to relief, he met Rue's eyes and said:

"Her name is Erica Baldwin."

And then the transporter beam stole him away.

It was several days later. A good number of the colonists had been transported on to the Romulan ship, but almost 40 still remained. A ship from Starfleet Intelligence was dispatched to rendezvous with the Sally Ride to collect the prisoners who, as a temporary measure, were being held in makeshift cells under guard in one of the cargo bays, as the Sally Ride only had two brigs on board, and one of them was now occupied.

Rue had checked out the name Ch'thaolor had given them, and had recognised Caliper immediately. An outstanding warrant for homicide and fraud was still in effect and so it had been Rue's duty to ensure the fugitive was contained. Much to Caliper's dismay, Rue had even confiscated her comms badge, especially having seen how multifunctional it could be. At least the engineer hadn't put up a fight.

"Baldwin."

Caliper looked away from the force field.

"Don't call me that. I prefer Caliper."

"I can understand why," Rue said, moving towards the force field. "'Caliper' isn't a wanted fugitive."

Cal shrugged.

"It sounds more engineering-y than 'Erica'," she said with a shrug, turning to face Rue and sitting up. "And 'Baldwin' is my mother's surname. It's not really much to do with me. Genetically speaking, I'm not sure she and I are actually even related."

"Have you ever wondered who your biological parents are?" Rue asked, looking at Cal curiously.

"They could be… anyone. Bits and pieces taken from any number of donors, willing or not. Post-eugenics augmentation is all pretty-"

"Illegal?"

"I was going to say 'sketchy'. My mother was a nurse in Starfleet. She could have stolen DNA from god knows who. She was a real Frankenstein… still is, actually. She works as a nurse on Adigeon Prime. We didn't get along once I started showing an interest in engineering. It wasn't my 'genetic destiny' apparently. I wonder if ending up in a penal colony is? Maybe I was born a criminal." Cal grinned.

"The captain's been doing some talking on your behalf, actually. I'm not saying you've got a good chance, but it's going to trial. Once we're back on Earth, you'll get a fair hearing."

"You and I have very different notions of 'fair', Commander. I've betrayed my colleagues. If I make it to a penal colony… look, I wouldn't be surprised if I got ill during the trip, or a transporter malfunction… they don't let things like this go. There'll be someone connected on the jury, maybe even one of the judges… it wasn't an ordinary colony, Rue, and we weren't ordinary Federation citizens."

"I felt that right from the start," Rue admitted. "What I don't understand is, if it's Starfleet Intelligence we're dealing with, then why not just say as much?"

"Because we're not Starfleet Intelligence. Starfleet Intelligence barely know we exist. Plausible deniability is our way of life. That's why the Pariah doesn't look like anything that's come from the Federation and that's why I'm an unbadged contractor, not an officer."

"How many of you are there? Was it just the colony?" Rue asked, though a prickling sensation in the back of their mind and a sweep of deja-vu told them they already knew the answer."

"I can't give you exact figures, but-"

"It wasn't just the colony," Rue finished. "Who else?"

"If I told you any more than that, we'd have to recruit you," Cal said. "And I don't think that would be in your best interests. You're clearly meant to be on the bridge of a starship with a crew behind you, not skulking about in the shadows. Starfleet would be so much poorer without you." Perhaps realising she'd gushed a little in her effusive praise, Cal blushed and turned away. "But let's say Starfleet does give me a fair trial, what do they get out of it?"

"Starfleet has asked that in return, we remove and destroy any tech on the Pariah which could prove to be a bit of a political sore point. I assume you know what that means."

"Ah, I wondered when you'd admit why you'd come to visit," Cal said. "I'm sorry, Commander, for the safety of your crew above all else, I can't give you any assistance in fiddling about with the Pariah's tech."

"So you're still refusing to say what the tech is on board?"

Cal looked away from Rue and nodded her head slightly.

"Well, I hear New Zealand is quite beautiful, not that you'll see much of it." Rue said tonelessly. "By the way, Ren replicated this for you. Thought you might be eating your own ears with boredom by now."

Rue produced a paperback book and handed it over to Cal, who read the front cover with a smile.

"One thousand logic and engineering puzzles… nice, I'll, um, get cracking. Do you have a pencil by any chance?"

"I'll have someone bring you one," Rue said. "Mine's broken."

Martinez received a priority, encrypted signal from Starfleet and excused himself from the bridge in order to receive the message in his ready room. On receiving the call, Admiral Nash's face blinked into view.

"I need a report about what's happened at Outpost 17. You were supposed to report in 2 hours ago."

"I know sir, I apologise for the delay but we had a bit of trouble with the colonists we rescued from Bell Rock."

"Not too much trouble, I hope," Nash replied.

"They staged a mutiny. We have most of them contained in one of the cargo bays, but one of colonists defected to the Sally Ride so we're keeping her away from the rest."

"Sounds like a good call. Now, the Starbase…"

"From what my away team found, it looks very much like the Romulans raided the Starbase and captured the crew. No bodies were found, but we found plenty of evidence to suggest phaser fire had been exchanged between Starfleet and Romulan combatants. Sir, do you have any reason why the Romulans would have targeted this Starbase now?"

Ross sighed.

"The Klingons have declared war. It would be just like the Romulans to make the most of the distraction and attack while we're focussing our efforts somewhere else. Were there any indications as to where the captives might have been taken?"

"No sir, nothing yet."

"Contact me the moment you know anything more." Nash's terminal bleeped and he frowned. "If you'll excuse me, I have another call."

After Nash had vanished, Martinez relaxed a little, only for his monitor to bleep at him again a moment later.

"You have new orders," Nash said. Though he was trying hard to disguise it, it was clear Nash was annoyed. "Set course for the Alpha quadrant and continue as you were."

"Sir, I must object. There are ten Starfleet officers missing-"

"Your objection is noted, Rafael," Nash said. "And it's not the only one. As you were."

Devolin System, Sector 1607, Two weeks later

The Sally Ride continued its long journey back towards sector 001 with a cargo bay full of mutinous colonists and a sullen engineer in the brig. The rendezvous with the U.S.S. Crazy Horse wasn't due to take place for another week, which was sooner than could have normally been expected due to the Crazy Horse already being en route to start surveying the asteroid belt in the Devolin System.

The Sally Ride had received instructions from Admiral Norwell Nash to wait in the Devolin System for the Crazy Horse to arrive, rather than continue onwards and meet the ship part way. His one consolation for the crew was that the asteroid belt was a fascinating place for anyone interested in rocks emitting ionized radiation, plus it had also been a point of incursion by the Romulans in the not too distant past, so it was good to remind the Romulans that Starfleet was watching.

That said, as Martinez looked out through the Sally Ride's view screen, he couldn't help but begin muttering to himself: I spy with my little eye, something beginning with r… oh look, it's another rock.

"Commander, you have the bridge. I'll be in my ready room," Martinez said, getting to his feet and walking briskly to his ready room where at least he could sit down and read without appearing rude.

As the door slid open, a man with the faintest hint of hair remaining on top of balding head suddenly span around to look at Martinez. His uniform was of the previous generation and red, denoting command. His mouth began to move as though speaking, but no noise came out. The man was then seemingly in pain, clutching at his chest like someone having a heart attack and then he vanished.

"Run a sensor sweep on my ready room!" Martinez yelled, taking a few paces back from the open doorway in case the figure reappeared.

In a second, Commander Rue was at his side while T'Lan ran the sweep.

"Sir? What happened?" Rue asked, sensing the concern in Martinez's voice.

"I… I saw someone… a man, in an old uniform. He tried to say something to me and then… he vanished. Don't look at me like that, I know what I saw, Commander," he added as Rue raised their eyebrows.

"I am not detecting any anomalous readings in your ready room, or anywhere on board the ship," T'Lan reported.

"Was it Q?" Rue asked with a trace of annoyance.

Martinez shook his head.

"No, I don't think so. The Q generally seem to be in control of their abilities, whereas this man looked like he was in pain when he vanished." Martinez stepped back out on to the bridge. "Did the cameras pick up anything?"

"I can play back the recording on the view screen if you wish," T'Lan said.

"Please do."

Martinez settled himself back into his chair and watched on screen as the camera recorded the moment that the ready room door opened and Martinez froze.

"That's it? But he was there!"

"Captain, may I speak with you in private?" Rue asked, keeping their face carefully neutral.

"Sure… uh let's go to the conference room though…"

The moment the conference room doors closed behind the two officers, Martinez turned around to face Rue.

"I'm glad you suggested a private talk because I'm thinking: what if it was a ghost?"

Rue sighed.

"Sir, I know that being stationed in an asteroid field isn't as scintillating as our usual missions but is it possible your mind played a trick on you? To stave off the boredom?"

Martinez considered this carefully for a moment, and then leaned on the back of one of the conference room chairs.

"It's a decent hypothesis," he admitted reluctantly. "Any ideas about what-"

Before he could finish asking that question, Rue's comm badge chirruped. They tapped it quickly, like someone swatting an irritating bug.

"Rue."

"Commander, it's Chief Ren. Caliper's comm badge started freaking out just a moment ago. Is anyone interfering with the Pariah?"

"Nobody should be," Rue replied warily. "Besides, it's still shielded, right?"

"To my knowledge, yes, sir."

Rue glanced over at Martinez and couldn't help but smile a little as they saw the look of glee spreading across his face.

"We'll go check it out. Rue out." Rue tilted their head in amusement at Martinez. "You really were bored, weren't you?"

"So bored."

The comm badge had stopped its frantic alarm noises almost as soon as they'd started, but Ren was still carrying it slightly at arm's length as though it was an insect she suspected might fly at her face at any moment. Having seen Caliper flip open the badge in sickbay, Ren had been able to prise it open and see the words INTRUDER DETECTED on the tiny screen inside. When she had tried to press any of the buttons to interact with the badge, however, nothing had happened.

Ren saw Caliper get to her feet the moment she walked into the Brig. She felt the excitement and curiosity… no animosity, which was a relief.

"Chief! Thanks for the book. That's been really helpful in passing the time," Cal said, smiling appreciatively.

"Oh? Have you finished it yet? I can replicate more for you if you want," Ren offered.

"Ooh, have you heard of lateral thinking puzzles? Man, they really twist your head about. I would love to work through some of those."

"I'll see what I can get for you. Say, um, I can't get your comm badge to work," Ren said, holding it up. "The buttons-"

"They won't respond because they're keyed to my fingerprints," Cal said, shaking her head. "Sorry. What were you trying to do, anyway?"

"It started bleeping about an intruder," Ren explained. "But no one's been interfering with the Pariah, so that seemed a little odd."

Cal's face darkened with concern.

"Are her shields still up?"

"Last time I looked."

"Then no one could be on board…" Cal said, her face creasing with increasing confusing.

"That's what we thought. Could it be a glitch?"

"Without comparing notes with the Pariah's sensors, it'd be hard to say. It'd be very disappointing if that was the case, though; I built her to the very best specifications. May I see my badge?"

Just as Ren gave the nod to the security officer to lower the brig's force field, Ren's own comm badge began to chirrup. Ren quickly dropped Cal's comm badge into her open hand and then tapped her own badge to respond.

"Ren."

"This is Captain Martinez. The shields are still up on the Pariah. We can't see any sign of any interference. Could you swing by the brig and see if Caliper would be amenable to lowering the shields?"

Ren's badge then chirruped again.

"Ren!"

"Ren, get back to engineering right now. You're gonna want to see this. There's someone inside the warp core," Zhiv reported.

"I'm on my way."

As Ren hurried out of the brig, both Cal and the security officer watched her go, then looked at each other.

"Are you gonna…?" Cal said, gesturing to where the force field should be, and stepping further back into her cell.

"Yeah," the security officer said, re-activating the force field. "Thanks for being cool about that."

"No problem."

Cal lay back down on her bed, subtly sliding her comm badge into her pocket and then turning to face the wall to avoid the security officer seeing the Cheshire Cat grin spreading across her face.

"It was right there!" Zhiv barked in annoyance as Ren, Martinez and Rue dashed into engineering.

Other crew in engineering nodded in agreement.

"It was the damnedest thing," one said.

"He had gone before we could get a transporter lock on him," said Ensign Sage, looking a little distraught.

"A transporter lock?" Martinez asked.

"Well… people don't normally last long inside a warp core so I thought the best thing… I mean I would have expected to have just found an irradiated skeleton after a second or so, but as he still looked alive I thought getting him out and straight into sickbay-"

"You did good," Zhiv reassured the babbling ensign.

"So, disappearing people appearing in places they shouldn't be," Martinez said, and he smiled triumphantly at Rue.

"That could explain the intruder reading on the Pariah," Ren agreed.

"Was his uniform of the previous style?" Martinez asked.

Zhiv's eyes widened.

"Yes!"

"All right, so that's two, possibly three ghosts we've encountered," Martinez said. "So, let's do some thinking. Why would there be Starfleet ghosts out here?"

"Why are there ghosts at all?" Zhiv pointed out.

"Also an excellent question," Martinez replied. "Zhiv, go and speak to Dr Sh'sirros and see if she knows anything about ghosts or conditions that could cause ghosts… I can't believe I'm saying this, this is awesome. Sage, I want you to go and brief T'Lan on what you've seen and then I want you and her to find out about Starfleet activity in this sector for the time period in which we were wearing that style of uniform. Ren, keep examining that comm badge and try and see if we can bypass Caliper's controls. If we've got ghosts taking an interest in that ship, then it is beyond time-"

The lights went out. Martinez sighed in the eerie glow of the warp core.

"Belay that order, Ren. First point of order – get the lights back on please."

"Captain…" Ren said slowly as she felt her insides turning to ice. "I… left the comm badge with Cal."

"What?" Rue asked, remembering all too well what a handy little gadget Cal had shown it to be. "Captain, with your permission I'll go get that off her."

"Try not to break her, Rue."

Sage watched Zhiv leaving the turbolift and then set it for Deck One. She made sure her torch was secured to her uniform, or else the only light in the lift would have come from the illuminated buttons. She tapped her fingers against the handrail to a tune she was remembering. She smiled as she remembered how excited the captain had looked at this newfound mystery. She speculated what she and T'Lan might find out about Starfleet activity in this sector. She felt a pang of guilt that she hadn't visited Genny in a few days – she would have to do that as soon as she came off duty. And then she realised that this trip in the turbolift was taking way longer than should have done.

Sage tapped the button for Deck One again.

Suddenly, the lift was bathed in red light. Red alert. There were alarms going off all around her and she could hear screams and people yelling to abandon ship, but she couldn't, she was trapped in the lift. Oh god, she felt the ship rock as a massive explosion happened somewhere below her and she was thrown against the turbolift wall. And then, then the most horrifying noise of all, metal folding and crumpling and screaming as it was bent and torn out of shape, getting louder and closer and louder and closer and the side of the turbolift began to crease like paper. Sage was screaming, and banging on every button to try and get help-

The turbolift door opened and Zhiv and Sh'sirros were looking at Sage in alarm. The corridor beyond them was still only on emergency lighting. Zhiv helped Sage get to her feet, once she had managed to uncoil herself from the foetal position she had adopted.

"What happened?" Sh'sirros asked.

"There… was a red alert and then… did we hit an asteroid? And part of the ship was collapsing against the stone and… abandon ship?" Sage mumbled, utterly thrown by the fact that she was now in a calm if dark corridor with no sign of anything being amiss apart from the lack of lighting.

"The turbolift door closed and then I heard you screaming," Zhiv said. "I grabbed Dr Sh'sirros in case you were hurt."

Sage shook her head.

"I'm fine."

"I'll be the judge of that," Sh'sirros said kindly before tapping her comm badge. "Lieutenant Commander, please report to sickbay."

"Yes, doctor," came T'Lan's response.

Sh'sirros winked at Lark.

"I'm guessing you'd rather not step right back into the turbolift," she said.

The lights flickered back into life and Sh'sirros gasped with delight.

"Ah! There, you see, everything's fine."

And then the ship went to Yellow Alert.

"It's not just me seeing this, right?" Sage asked shakily.

"Nope," Zhiv confirmed before Rue's voice came over the shipwide communications system.

"Attention, Erica Baldwin has escaped from the brig. We believe she is currently unarmed and heading towards the cargo bay. All security teams: begin a sweep of the ship. All personnel: please detain her if she comes your way."

"Oh dear," Sh'sirros sighed.

Well, that was a blessing: Rue thought she'd gone straight for the Pariah. As Caliper emerged from a Jefferies tube hatch in her quarters, she breathed a sigh of relief at having escaped the enclosed space. She dragged her trunk out from under her desk and unlocked it before throwing a few items of clothing on to her bed while she searched for something. Her fingers found the textured grip of her Section 31-issued phaser and she pressed her lips together regretfully. She didn't mean anyone harm, but nor did she want to spend the rest of her life in the New Zealand penal colony having people trying to rehabilitate her from her crime. When your crime is being born, that's a little hard to rehabilitate from.

Somehow she would need to get the cargo bay doors open long enough to get off the ship, or else use- Caliper's scrunched up her face in distaste. She wanted to keep the Pariah's non-standard tech as close to her chest as possible.

Of course, if the Borg found her…

Which they would.

She felt an icy cold hand come to rest on top of her own, and she snatched her hand back away in alarm. Her heart was hammering to burst out of her chest as she looked around her quarters in terror.

The hell was that?

Two hours had passed since the lights had been restored, only to reveal Caliper was no longer in the Brig. The number of ghost sightings seen throughout the Sally Ride had risen to over fifty, with some of the phantasmal images proving to be very distressing, such as what Ensign Sage had experienced. Thankfully, there had been no further blackouts and when Zhiv located the command for the lights out having originated in the brig, it was fairly obvious that it had been unrelated to the ghosts. Some people talked about a wall of rock smashing through the ship, or of being encased in stone, and hearing the calls to abandon ship. The links between the visions were strong and, when T'Lan and Sage presented their findings to Martinez, a clear narrative began to form.

The U.S.S. Pegasus, led by Captain Erik Pressman, had been reported as destroyed near the Sally Ride's present co-ordinates seventeen years previously. An accident in engineering had allegedly led to the ship's destruction, but Sage had also managed to uncover reports about a mutiny on board the ship, and then slightly more recent reporting which revealed that Pressman and a few others had been court-martialled for testing a prototype phased cloaking device on board the Pegasus. An error in the device had caused the ship to become merged with an asteroid, killing most of the crew. Twelve years later, the U.S.S Enterprise managed to locate the ship and bring to light the illegal events which had taken place but, due to the ship being merged with an asteroid, it had been left in place, albeit without the cloaking device still on board.

"Captain, there was an incident on board the Enterprise involving a prototype warp field which shunted a crew member into a state out of phase with our reality," T'Lan reported. "It's possible something similar has occurred here."

"And given that the majority of the phantasms have affected the engineering crew, or have appeared in engineering, it could be that these crew members are trying to send us a message," Sh'sirros added.

"Lacking either a phasing device or a cloaking device, though, how do we fix this?" Martinez asked. "I doubt the Romulans would be willing to lend a hand, and I get the feeling now might not be the best time to ask the Klingons for a favour."

"The Pegasus' technology came from Starfleet Intelligence," T'Lan pointed out. "Given Baldwin's reluctance to allow us on board her ship, there is a high probability that the Pariah is carrying prototype technology of a similar, and illegal, purpose."

"Unfortunately, when the colonists took over the Sally Ride, I taught Caliper how to evade a regular security sweep," Rue said, with a nod from Ren. "I've briefed the security teams on what she would be expecting but so far she seems to be pretty adept at staying hidden. Our one advantage is she would have to cross a large, open room to reach the Pariah. She's not made any attempt so far so she must be looking for another way in."

"How would you do it, if you were her?" Martinez asked Rue.

"Get to the transporters, cycle the Pariah's shields so I could beam in and shut the door behind me, figuratively speaking… but that doesn't solve the issue of the cargo bay doors. All the cargo bay doors have been locked down to needing senior staff authorization to open while we have the colonist prisoners on board."

"And if she's cloned the clearances of one of us again?" Sh'sirros asked.

"She was only able to do that because she could access your personal terminal in sickbay. To access a terminal with our privileges on it, she'd either need to get on to the Bridge, or…"

Rue's face turned grim as they tapped their comm badge and hailed all the security teams.

"All security teams, start sweeping the senior officers' quarters, start with the captain's," Rue said briskly.

Caliper leaned away from the terminal and reattached her comm badge to her shirt. She sighed contentedly, and then went to the replicator.

"Hot chocolate, 50% dark, semi skimmed milk," she ordered. A large mug of contentment appeared and Cal hugged it with her hands while breathing in the aroma.

She knew she couldn't play this game forever, but she seemed to still be on top for now, and that was worth five minutes to grab something to sustain her a bit longer. Besides, she was close now. Once she left the Sally Ride, though, she hadn't a clue what she would do. The Orion Crime Syndicate would definitely love to get their hands on the Pariah, but the idea of doing anything to aid slavers made her feel sick to her stomach. Piracy? It wasn't great. The only plus side was that it wasn't slavery. If she sold the ship to the right bidder, she'd never have to work again. She could make a new identity for herself and have a very long, slightly paranoid retirement.

The doors opened, making Cal jump and drop the mug of hot chocolate as several security officers came bursting into the room. She barely had time to splutter out a command for a site-to-site transport to the cargo bay before the officers managed to reach her. To their disappointment, they grabbed nothing but air as she vanished.

To Caliper's disappointment, in her haste she had forgotten that she had cloned one of the Sally Ride's senior officers' profiles on to her comm badge, thus meaning the Ride's computer thought she was that officer. In practise, this meant that the Ride teleported both her and the person she had cloned to the cargo bay.

In retrospect, she should have chosen the captain.

"Oh fu-"

Rue's crutch smashed into Cal's gut and she flew back a few paces before falling breathlessly to the ground. As she wheezed and tried to get to her feet, Cal felt a stabbing pain in her chest as Rue kept her pinned to the floor with the end of a crutch.

"Rue to Martinez. Guess who I found."

"We're on our way," Martinez replied. "Martinez out."

Rue shook their head at Cal.

"Really? My badge?"

"Your whole profile really," Cal said, and she glanced at the exterior cargo bay doors.

Rue followed Cal's eyes and then pressed on their crutch harder.

"Don't."

Moments later, Martinez, T'Lan, Sage, Sh'sirros, Ren and Zhiv all arrived, taking in the situation with some amusement

"Erica! Long time, no see," Martinez said cheerfully. "We have a bit of a situation. Would you happen to have a highly illegal, phasing cloak device on the Pariah?"

Cal froze.

"What?"

"I think that's a yes, Captain," Ren said.

Cal groaned and let her head fall back against the deck.

"I guess that cat's out of the bag," she sighed.

"I strongly suggest you let all the cats out," Martinez said. "Do you have any idea the position we'd have been in if this technology had been found by anyone else on this ship? This isn't just illegal; we've seen one major treaty fall apart recently, and I don't intend to let another go the same way. However," he said, pausing while he switched track. "We are getting visited by members of the U.S.S. Pegasus' crew. We believe that their own phasing device has knocked them out of phase with our universe. We want to use your device to save them."

Cal's eyes widened in surprise.

"That's what you want it for? It's been seventeen years and that was… that was a pretty bad chapter in the development of this tech." She nodded. "Whatever you need. I've read some of the specifications of the Pegasus' device and, if you trust me, I'll help you fix this wrong."

Cal felt the pressure on her chest lessen, but she stayed down until Rue leant down and offered her a hand up.

"That's good of you," Martinez said, before turning to his engineers. "Ren, Zhiv, I want you to work with Cal and see if you can come up with a solution to our hauntings."

There was comfortably enough space inside the Pariah for all three engineers to work side by side, kneeling next to the phase / cloak device and, having had the issue of the cloaking device brought into the open, Ren found that Cal was positively giddy at being able to talk more openly about the ship's construction. It was clear the project had meant a lot to her.

"I've only spotted two bunks on board. Why such a big ship for just two people?"

"Well, she was built for very long missions. I figured it may as well be comfortable plus you never know when you need rescue a few folks or transport a big bit of kit. I mean, shuttles are all well and good, but each starship needs a few of them so, understandably, they build them quite compact, plus no one expects to spend a year or longer in a shuttle."

"Huh! A home away from home, then?"

"Or just home, really," Cal said, shrugging. "Once we'd been able to start scaling up production on the Pariah class, I was going to be able to keep her. I mean, no one retires from my line of work. You can always be called upon. But I would have been able to establish some kind of life somewhere," Cal sighed. "Hmm, I'm not liking the radius on the phase bubble. At this rate, we'll be taking bits of the Ride out of phase with us. Can we bring that down somehow?"

"I have a resistor that might just do the trick," Zhiv said, getting to his feet with a grunt. "I'll just go grab it from Engineering."

"Cheers."

"It's a shame you weren't allowed to join Starfleet," Ren said. "I guess folks are still pretty beat up about-"

The distinct sound of a phaser being fired interrupted her. She and Cal rushed to the Pariah's doorway, only to be met by T'Lan aiming at phaser at both of them.

"Now you both seem like quite clever people, so let me explain how this is going to go down. You are going to recalibrate the device and create a warp bubble to my specifications. If you do not comply, I will shoot the Tellarite again, but this time, my phaser won't be on stun," T'Lan said, with just a trace of a superior smirk on her lips.

Since tasking the engineers with recalibrating the phase / cloak device, there had been no further ghostly visitations, which Martinez hoped was a good sign. However, it meant he was back to sitting and waiting, which did not suit him. In one hand he held a PADD on which he was reading a classic Andorian novel, but it wasn't truly gripping him. The novel had drawn early attention to a large phaser rifle hidden beneath the protoganist's bed, but he was three quarters of the way through the novel now and it had neither been seen nor mentioned again. He made a note to ask Sh'sirros if this was a common device in Andorian literature, an alien counterpoint to the concept of 'Chekhov's Gun' on Earth.

Which was when Zhiv burst on to the bridge.

"Captain, she's taken the Pariah!" he gasped.

"God damn it, I should have known Cal was too keen to help us-"

"Not Cal, sir, T'Lan! And she's taken Ren and Cal too!"

"What?" Martinez immediately tapped his comm badge. "Bridge to Lieutenant T'Lan, please respond."

"Lieutenant Commander T'Lan has left the Sally Ride," the computer responded.

"Computer, locate Erica Baldwin and Chief Mala Ren," Martinez tried.

"Unable to comply. Caliper and Chief Mala Ren are not within sensor range."

Of course Caliper would have accessed her own personnel file and changed her preferred name for those rare occasions she wasn't mimicking one of the Sally Ride's crew…

"Do you know where they went?" Martinez asked.

"Sorry Captain. T'Lan stunned me and when I woke up, they were all gone."

"Fantastic," Martinez sighed.

On the bridge of the I.S.S. Audacity, Captain Junil Makdir jumped out of their seat as, in a shimmering, golden bubble, a golden ship materialised on the viewscreen, followed by T'Lan's hail.

"Audacity, this is the, uh-"

"She's called the Pariah," came an annoyed voice.

"Requesting permission to land."

"You always bring me the nicest presents, T'Lan," Makdir replied. "Bring her in."

Once the airlocks in the cargo bay were sealed again and an atmosphere restored, Ren and Cal were marched out of the Pariah with a phaser at their backs courtesy of T'Lan. For a brief moment, Ren thought they might have been saved as she saw Makdir and Sage waiting for them as they disembarked… but very quickly she realised these were not the people she'd known on the Sally Ride.

"Where the heck are we?" she asked.

"Our universes exist in parallel. Tell me, have you heard of a Captain James Kirk?" Makdir asked.

Ren couldn't stop herself smiling.

"I know my captain is a huge fan," she said. "But I'm not familiar with the minutiae of his career if that's what you mean."

"That's a shame. He was certainly… influential in our universe." Makdir's face twisted into a scowl. "Influential in weakening the Terran Empire and leaving us like lambs to the Alliance slaughter. The Alliance has a strict policy now when it comes to people from your universe: kill on sight, lest you do the same to them."

"I'm sorry, what Alliance?" Ren asked.

"The Cardassian-Klingon Alliance."

"Huh, funny thing is they're at war back home, the Cardassians and the Klingons, I mean," Ren said. "Strange universe."

"Seems like a lot of effort to bring us here just to kill us," Cal said quietly. Her eyes were fixed on the alternate version of Junil, and it hadn't gone unnoticed.

"Oh, we're not going to kill you," Makdir said, smirking. "You're far too useful for that. At least I assume so," Makdir added, and they looked to T'Lan. "Why did you bring them with you?"

"The technology on this ship is unlike anything we've seen from their Federation," T'Lan said. "They have a phasing, cloaking device."

"A phasing cloaking device?" Makdir asked hungrily.

"Ships using it can pass through solid matter – and solid matter will also pass through them."

"Rendering torpedoes useless," Makdir said, looking excited. "Oh this is extreme! Can it be installed on the Audacity?"

"What kind of ship is this? It's not an Intrepid class, for sure," Ren commented.

"This is an Akira class," Makdir said proudly.

Cal glanced at Ren, then shook her head.

"It's not going to be compatible. Sorry," she said.

Makdir marched up to Cal, getting right in her face.

"Then you're going to make it compatible," they growled. "Or we'll kill your friend here, and we'll kill your friend in the brig, and find an engineer who can."

There was a tense moment as engineer and captain tried to stare each other down. Caliper glanced down.

"I'll need to see the blueprints of your engines and plan this out."

"Take them to the brig," Makdir said. "I'll be checking in on you all in one hour. You better have something approaching a plan by then."

"No pressure, Cal," Ren breathed.

Cal pressed her lips together to try and stifle a laugh.

Starship brigs were usually austere but clean environments. It looked like the Audacity's brigs, however, had been used a lot and never cleaned, so there was a particular smell of body odour and other bodily fluids which turned Ren's stomach as she and Cal were escorted into a cell already occupied by-

"T'Lan?" Ren exclaimed. "How…?"

"This must be quite a confusing situation for you both. I was captured and replaced by this universe's version of me several hours ago. It is… good, to see you both."

"Well this lot are positively charming," Ren said sarcastically, gesturing at the rest of the ship around them. "You doing okay?"

"I have been spending my time in meditation," T'Lan replied.

"This is the kind of warm, fuzzy environment I grew up in," Cal said. "All augments are criminals from birth. That tends to give you a bit of an, uh, attitude."

"Yet you tried to join Starfleet," Ren pointed out.

Cal smiled ruefully.

"I was a rebel. I didn't want to follow some 'genetic destiny' that my mother had laid out for me. She wanted me to go into medicine. I decided my best chances at getting an engineering education lay with Starfleet. Anyway," she added, lowering her voice and then flipping open her comm badge. "I'm going to set up a macro to run on my command. The moment all three of us are on the Pariah, we're going home."

"The other you recalibrated the transporter and the phasing device to bring us here. Shouldn't be too hard to reverse it and send us all home again," Ren explained to T'Lan.

"It would be logical to post at least one guard to watch over us to ensure we are not attempting to escape."

Cal shrugged.

"We'll take 'em with us. We'll be back on the Ride and surrounded by allies a moment later so what's a guard or two going to do?"

"I've heard worse plans," Ren said, sighing with relief.

"But in the meantime, we need to come up with a legitimate looking plan for installing the cloaking device."

"But not a real one," Ren confirmed.

"Take me with you," rasped a voice which had not seen much use in a long time.

Ren gasped. In the cell opposite to the one the three Starfleet officers were conspiring in, a bundle of clothes they'd mistaken for a pile of dirty laundry was unfurling into-

"Zhiv? What have they done to you?"

"What haven't they… take me with you or I'm telling them everything you just said. I got nothing to lose. Leave me here and I'm a dead man."

Makdir returned to the brig with several other armed crew members after a carefully planned fifty minutes had passed. They loved to see the panic on their prisoners' faces as they began to doubt their own perception of time passing, or the realisation that no, Makdir did not play fair. Much to their annoyance, however, the three Starfleet officers only seemed mildly surprised.

"You're early," the alternate version of Mala Telux commented. "Did you get bored? Is that it?"

"You better have a plan for me," Makdir said, drawing their phaser. The other engineer, who T'Lan had informed them was called Caliper, was quietly scowling.

"We've sketched something out," Ren said cheerfully. "Now, if we could just get a look at your engines so we can make sure they're in a good enough state to install the new kit-"

"Enough stalling," Makdir interrupted. "You and your Vulcan will begin work removing the device from your ship. You," they added, pointing their phaser at Cal. "You can assess the engines with me."

Much to Makdir's pleasure, the exchange of looks between the three officers confirmed this had thrown them a little bit. Caliper was fiddling nervously with her comm badge. Makdir nodded to the guards who arranged themselves ready for the force field to come down. With a slightly louder hum than usual, the force field came down and three of the officers nudged T'Lan and Ren to their feet.

"Captain, our shields just went down," came Sage's voice over Makdir's badge.

"Then get them back up, then," Makdir replied impatiently. They kept their eyes and phaser trained on Caliper who was now reattaching the badge to their shirt. As T'Lan and Ren were escorted from the brig, Makdir indicated Cal should get to her feet and then escorted her from the brig.

In the now empty brig, Zhiv waved his hand through the empty space where his cell's force field had once been in place. He felt his heart begin to beat with excitement and nervousness.

Makdir and Cal were in the turbolift heading towards engineering when Makdir turned to Cal.

"You really don't like me much, do you?" they asked in amusement.

"You kidnapped me, my friends and my ship," Cal pointed out, keeping her eyes fixed straight ahead.

Makdir shook their head.

"No, it's more than that. Your friends don't look at me with seething hate in their eyes, or a burning desire to see me dead."

Cal glanced at Makdir in surprise.

"I know that look. I've killed and hurt a lot of people who've wanted to do at least as much to me. That's not a dislike born of inconvenience-"

"Kidnapping is not an inconvenience," Cal muttered.

"It is compared to what we could have done," Makdir retorted. "But I'm seeing something personal here. Is there another me in your universe? You all seemed to recognise me."

"Trust me, the similarity is superficial only."

Makdir barked out a laugh.

"So that's it. You're very fond of the other me, and you hate hearing these things said and done with their face. That's hilarious."

"They're worth a hundred of you."

"Oh believe me, Caliper, that's how many it would take to take me down."

The turbolift came to a halt and the door slid open. Cal felt Makdir's phaser nudge her in the back, urging her to step forwards into a dark, hellish environment of steam, heat and noise.

"What the hell have you done to this poor ship?" Cal asked, horrified.

Makdir took hold of Cal's shoulder and spun her around to face them angrily. Holding the phaser under Cal's chin, Makdir's eyes narrowed.

"Maybe in your universe it's all peace, love and hugs everywhere, and when you need repairs you can just rock up anywhere and they'll fix it all for free, but out here, in this universe, repairs are costly and we are constantly looking over our shoulder for our enemies. We make do," Makdir finished through gritted teeth, before looking over Cal's shoulder and yelling: "Telux! We need to inspect the engines,"

"Sort of busy, captain!" Mala's reply came.

Cal blinked in surprise. Oh, so there was another Ren here too? Was there another Caliper? As Makdir began to march Cal towards the warp core, she decided to risk asking.

"So, I told you about the other you. Where's the other me?"

"There isn't one," Makdir replied in a bored tone of voice. "I've never seen anyone like you before."

"What about 'Erica Baldwin'?"

"Look, I don't know every single person in this universe and honestly, I don't care if there's another you or not because that doesn't help me at all either way."

Makdir gave Cal a forceful shove towards the warp core.

"Inspect away."

"Can I borrow a tricorder?" Cal asked, unwilling to reveal her secretly multipurpose comm badge.

"Telux!" Makdir yelled.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" A harassed and angry Mala Telux emerged from the steam, wiping their hands with a rag. "Who the hell's this?"

"She's here to check on the engines. Here," Makdir said, thrusting their phaser at Telux. "Make sure that's all she does. When she's done, take her to the main cargobay."

Once Makdir was safely out of earshot, Telux sighed and sat down, exhausted on the ground, and not making any real effort to keep the phaser trained on Cal or watch what she was doing.

"I'm not feeling a lot of love towards your captain," Cal commented.

"They work us hard," Telux said. "It's rough out here."

"Could be easier, though. Everyone forgets the engineers until something breaks, am I right?"

Telux looked at Cal with a grin.

"You're trying to turn me against Junil, aren't you?"

Cal shrugged a shoulder and continued to scan the engines.

"There wouldn't be anything to turn against if they were a decent captain. What happened?"

Telux leaned back and closed her eyes for a moment.

"It was months ago. Ancient history."

"Keep telling yourself that, Betazoid. So good at reading other people's emotions, oblivious to your own."

"Hey!" Telux held Cal's shoulder and looked her in the eyes. "Do I know you?"

"No," Cal said, smirking. "No one here does. But what does it matter? Once I've installed the new tech, I'm going to be taking a little walk outside without an evosuit I suspect. What happened?" she asked again,

Telux groaned.

"It was a deal gone wrong. It happens. We'd been getting support from a mysterious benefactor who suddenly called in her favours. She called herself 'the Borg' – woah, steady there!"

Cal swore as she dropped the tricorder and then had to fish around to try and retrieve it from deep inside a rat's nest of cables and tubes.

"That was some reaction, oh boy. The fear is just steaming off of you," Telux said.

"I don't know how it is in your universe but in our universe, there is no threat more terrifying or more powerful than the Borg."

"She's got two ships, and only one them has shields. Can't see her being that much of a threat overall," Telux said. "I would love to get my hands on her weapons though. Straight up sliced through two warships."

"You said the deal went wrong?" Cal prompted, resuming her pretence at scanning. Truth be told, she could already tell that too many of the components in the engines were old, second hand and wearing out rapidly. There was no way they could sustain the levels of power demanded by the cloak.

"Well yeah, she's talking about bringing us all 'closer to perfection'. Captain… uh, that'd be our previous captain, Martinez, he said Terrans didn't need to be perfected and then… she touched his face apparently and then he wasn't our captain anymore. Same thing happened to Dr Tristan, no big loss there. He was a creepy fanatic who'd been planning on experimenting on my staff down here. Of course, we got no doctor now, so that's… tense."

Caliper handed back the tricorder.

"Let me give you some advice about the Borg. They'll let you run around and be free for as long that's useful to them, but the moment it's better for them to assimilate you into the hive, you can say goodbye to your free will, your identity, all of it. Your mind will be taken from you and mushed into the hive soupiness where every private thought, every idea, every emotion, gets picked apart for the benefit of the Borg, while your body becomes just another unthinking combatant. They're like ants, but people-sized and capable of stripping planets of people and resources in a matter of hours."

"Sounds more like locusts to me," Telux commented, but Cal could see the lines of concern beginning to etch themselves across her forehead.

"Can't say I know much about locusts. We didn't have them on my homeworld," Cal said, slowly getting to her feet and raising her hands. "Guess it's time you took me to the car- oh motherfucker."

Cal's comm badge had started vibrating in a panic against her chest. She unclipped it and resisted the urge to just flip it open and get an instant readout.

"Cal to Pariah, please state the nature of the emergency," she said.

"Two Borg ships detected on an intercept course with this vessel. Time to intercept estimated at two hours."

"Are you talking to yourself?" Telux asked, hearing Cal's own voice responding from the comm badge.

"Pretty much. I needed a voice for the operating system, and I was bored. I've been meaning to fix it."

"You should probably do that. It's a sign of madness."

"Vanity, sure. Madness is forgetting we're not playing on the same team here."

Cal kicked Telux in the gut and then pinned her to the deck. She wrestled away the phaser just as other crew members began rushing to their engineer's aid. Cal picked off a couple and then sprinted for the turbolift. She had to get out here and fast.

On board the Pariah, reluctantly but as carefully as they could, T'Lan and Ren were disconnecting the phase / cloak device from the ship's power in preparation for transplanting it into the Akira-class engines. One guard stood at the doorway, facing in to ensure neither tried to rush the door, while the other sat facing the two officers while leaning on the main control panel.

Quietly, almost sheepishly, one of the mounted PADDs began flashing with an ominous message: BORG DETECTED. It then moved on to a more detailed screen, giving its best hypothesis as to what sorts of ships the two energy signals belonged to, their projected course and a countdown to interception.

The guard at the door pointed at the blinking screen.

"What's it moaning about?" he huffed.

T'Lan got gracefully to her feet and then patiently raised her hands as both phasers whipped around to target her.

"I am authorised by this ship's computer to make inquiries of its systems. I can find out more about this warning message for you."

"Do you think it's got anything to do with what you and Mystic Mala over there are doing?" the guard sneered.

"'Mystic Mala?'" Ren commented, more bemused than offended by the comment.

"I do not," T'Lan replied. "But it may well-"

"Shut up and get back to work," the guard growled before moving to resume his post at the doorway, now keeping an even more watchful eye over the two officers and paying even less attention to what was happening in the cargo bay, which was unfortunate for them.

There was a sound of a phaser blast and the guard at the doorway was thrown face first against the opposite side of Pariah's cabin. The second guard swore and hurried to the edge of the doorway, where another shot attempted to take him out, but superficially scorched the side of the Pariah instead. T'Lan and Ren quietly began reconnecting the phase / cloak device. After all, this activity didn't look vastly different from disconnecting it, so the odds were in their favour that the guard, now engaged in a two-way firefight, wouldn't notice that they had changed what they were doing.

The Audacity shifted into Red Alert and the sounds of more phaser fire could be heard. The guard cried out as a lucky shot caught and pretty much obliterated his hand. His phaser dropped uselessly to the ground and T'Lan quickly reached for it, only to freeze as another shot scorched the flooring just in front of her.

"I'm sorry, but I need a guarantee you both are gonna get me out of here," Zhiv said, looking a little wild. "So, get that phasing cloak thing up and running and we'll go."

"We're not going without Cal," Ren said, making it clear she felt this should have been perfectly obvious.

"Makdir's got her. With you two working on the device here, they don't need your friend. Either she's back in the brig or-"

The sound of a firefight in progress suddenly grew louder as the cargo bay's internal doors opened to allow Caliper to dive inside. She just wasn't quite quick enough, however and a phaser blast hit her back, throwing her limp form lifelessly forwards. Zhiv watched as Makdir and a few other crew members calmly entered the cargo bay.

"-or she's dead," Zhiv continued. "So you both better get this ship and the three of us out of here."

Ren began getting back to work reconnecting the phase / cloak device while T'Lan carefully backed away from Zhiv and towards the control panel.

"What are you doing? Get back to work!" Zhiv yelped.

"If we close the door and raise the shields, we will be able to proceed without the added complication of defending ourselves from the crew of the Audacity," she explained.

"All right, be quick about it."

T'Lan sat down at the control panel and took a moment to orient herself. The controls were not like those of a typical starship, but that wasn't to say they were incomprehensible. Certain controls were labelled differently or located somewhere unexpected, but after a quick minute, T'Lan felt she could extrapolate well enough to achieve her aims. She closed the Pariah's door.

And then, in a rush of blue light, the wounded Caliper appeared on the Pariah's cabin floor. As Zhiv looked down, T'Lan used his moment of confusion to close the gap between them and execute a controlled nerve pinch to drop him to the ground. She then raised the Pariah's shields.

"I will secure Zhiv," she told Ren. "And tend to Caliper."

"Actually, throw me her comm badge," Ren said. "She said she'd set up a macro, right?" She caught the comm badge as T'Lan threw it to her, and opened it. "Wonder what the command was?"

T'Lan raised her eyebrows.

"Pariah, run macro."

"Unable to comply. The CAPE is not connected."

"Really?" Ren exclaimed. "That's all it was? No password or anything?"

"Our presence served in place of a password. Also, it is highly unlikely anyone other than us would have wanted or needed to run that series of commands. Pariah, is there any medical equipment on board?"

"A stocked medical kit can be found underneath the pilot's seat, underneath the science console, and attached to the underside of the access hatch in the main cabin area."

T'Lan crouched under the science console desk and saw a promising green box which she retrieved. Inside, just as she had hoped were hyposprays containing sedatives. The burns to Caliper's back appeared to have not gone too deeply, but the location of the wound meant that T'Lan knew it was best to just keep Cal still and wait for Dr Sh'sirros to properly treat it.

The PADD which had been displaying the arrival time of Borg suddenly flashed red.

"The Borg have accelerated," T'Lan told Ren. "We now have thirty minutes."

"All right, I could use another pair of hands here if we're gonna stand a hope at getting out of here before then. Amazingly enough, this 'CAPE' wasn't designed to be installed or uninstalled in a hurry. We're gonna have to think about what to do with mad Zhiv, too."

"Given that these people are already aware of Federation, I do not believe taking Zhiv from his native universe would constitute a breach of the Prime Directive. Even if he was incarcerated the moment we reached the Sally Ride again, it would still be an improvement on his current situation," T'Lan said.

"Well, I hope he likes cream soda," Ren said, grinning. "Because that'll make integrating into our universe a whole lot easier."

Makdir squared their shoulders as the Audacity received a hail from the Borg frigate. Looming just beyond it was the orb of death they had seen obliterate Klingon forces previously.

"On screen," Makdir said.

The mottled, grey face of the Borg Queen appeared larger than life on the viewscreen, with the uncanny, assimilated forms of Martinez and Tristan flanking her. The queen smiled serenely.

"Do you still have the ship?" she asked.

"It's still grounded in our main cargo bay. They've put their shields up and if we get too close, the ship is also armed with phasers capable of taking out quite a few people in one strike."

"Lower your shields. We will investigate this new ship, and then we will perfect it and add its uniqueness to our own. You have done well, Captain Makdir."

Just before the viewscreen went black again, Makdir watched as the two former Audacity crew members peeled away from the queen, presumably to lead the landing party on board the Audacity.

"I sure hope you know what you're doing, Captain," Sage said, lowering the shields and then quickly grabbing a swig of whiskey from her hip flask.

"After this, she's definitely going to want to keep this little alliance going," Makdir said confidently.

This time, Pariah was not subtle about the alarms. As soon as the ship detected a number of Borg drones approaching, a two-toned alarm began to sing in despair and every PADD on board now displayed the message: ATTENTION – BORG DRONES APPROACHING.

T'Lan watched as the first drone approached and attempted to push its arm through the shields. There was a great deal about this ship which seemed to have been built specifically with the Borg in mind, and T'Lan was curious about whether this had been an obsession of Caliper's specifically, or part of the brief she had been given. Either way, with the Pariah now on red alert, it seemed the ship had also been programmed to respond wither with or without commands.

"Ship's phasers are ready to fire," the Pariah reported, having aimed them at the intruders without being told to.

"Fire," T'Lan commanded.

Stun had little effect.

"Minimal impact registered, increasing power to lethal levels, awaiting command," Pariah said.

"Fi-"

T'Lan hesitated. Looking at one of the cameras which gave a phaser's eye view of the targets, she saw Captain Martinez, fully assimilated, numbly looking back at her.

"Fire!" Ren said quickly. "Pariah, you just keep on firing at those Borg drones until they stop coming. T'Lan? Are you okay?"

"The Martinez of this universe is a Borg drone," T'Lan reported numbly.

Ren got to her feet and approached the Vulcan.

"Well, judging on the rest of the crew, he wouldn't have been the captain we knew anyhow. For all we know, he could have been a total jerk. And anyway, even if he'd been just like our Martinez, what happened in this Universe is not our fault. It's not your fault. Our Martinez is safe at home, on board the Sally Ride, protected by a crew that looks out for him because he looks out for them too."

"Pariah, shield status," T'Lan said.

"Shields at 92%."

"Well, that's better than nothing," Ren said. "But we really should crack on and get out of here."

"The people that we leave behind here… it is probable they will be assimilated," T'Lan said.

"Two of us and one ship couldn't stop that," Ren said. "But we can save a desperate man, and we can stop the Borg becoming even more technologically advanced than the ones back in our universe by getting out of here."

"You are correct. Let us proceed."

"I think we're about ready for that macro now, actually. Do you wanna do the honours?"

T'Lan closed her eyes for a moment.

"Pariah, run macro."

The PADDs all displayed a rapid scrolling of text as the Pariah ran through final system checks and recalibrated the CAPE to take them home. In a shimmering cascade of golden stars, the Pariah and all aboard her disappeared from the Audacity.

The Pariah's reappearance in the cargo bay would have been an anti-climax had there not been people suddenly needing to dive out of the way. T'Lan's voice broke through the quiet on the Bridge as she requested an emergency medical transport of one individual to sickbay.

Martinez nodded to Sage before replying.

"Done," he said. "Welcome back, T'Lan. Who's injured? What happened?"

"Whole heap of weirdness, Captain," Ren cut in. "Best we brief you face to face."

"Good morning, trooper!"

It took a few moments for Cal to recognise the voice, and to place that cheery tone… She tried to sit up but found herself restrained.

"No, no, no, don't sit up. You took a wound to your back. Now, you'll be fine to move in a day or so, but I'm still recommending bedrest for at least a week," Sh'sirros said. "That's it, just relax. And welcome home, Caliper!"

Cal smiled.

"We're back in our universe? They managed to run the macro?"

"If you mean the series of commands that brought you home, yes they did. Chief Ren and Chief Zhiv are working on recalibrating the CAPE as your ship calls it now so that we can start restoring some of the Pegasis crew back to the right phase."

"And… and there's no Borg?"

"No, you left them behind in the other universe."

"They'd… they made an alliance with the Borg," Cal said. "They sold their captain and their doctor to the Borg to get some… minor advantage against the Klingons. It was awful. They didn't care about anything more than what each individual could get out of it. I know Starfleet's not perfect but-"

"But it was a good idea," Sh'sirros finished. "Now don't you worry. You're home, and the Borg are a long, long way from here."

"I hope so," Cal replied, feeling herself beginning to drift back off to sleep. "I hope…"

Devolin System, Sector 1607, One week later

As the U.S.S. Crazy Horse came into sensor range, Martinez let his head fall back against his chair in relief. Not only had the Sally Ride been having to tend to the forty mutinous colonists, but also a similar number of very confused and lost crew members from the U.S.S. Pegasus who now found themselves suddenly seventeen years in the future and having been declared dead over a decade previously. As the Sally Ride was already heading back to Earth as quickly as possible, the Pegasus crew remained on board the Sally Ride, while the colonists were taken by the Crazy Horse to be full debriefed by Starfleet Intelligence.

On top of this, in the Sally Ride's brig they had a Tellarite called Zhiv who was genetically identical to the Chief Engineer on board, but a great deal more unstable. He certainly had talents when it came to engineering, but he had not benefited from the years of experience of working in Starfleet that his prime universe counterpart had enjoyed, at least some of the time. As a man who had just reached retirement age, there was no expectation on the other Zhiv to have to find work, but he seemed lost and purposeless in this universe. He still regarded all meals brought to him with suspicion. Ren found this especially hard, knowing that a lot of his mistrust in people had been caused by another version of herself, and it hurt seeing someone with the face and voice of a dear friend regard her with such wariness. Martinez had not yet decided what would be best to do with Zhiv. Sol was still three months' travel away, and Tellar was a further 6 months' travelling on from there but, as Sh'sirros had pointed out to Martinez, no matter where this other Zhiv chose to start a new life, it would be an alien world with an alien culture. Ren said she believed she could send Zhiv back to the other universe but, understandably, he begged to be allowed to remain here.

"Better to be amongst kind strangers than sadistic torturers," he'd said.

And so Zhiv had been allocated quarters after a few days and been given enough access to start learning about this strange new universe he now found himself in. Several members of the Sally Ride's crew liked to check in on him to ensure the culture shock wasn't proving too difficult, but there was one member of the crew who was keeping his distance.

The Sally Ride's Zhiv was finding the whole experience of facing a more savage and darker version of himself extremely unnerving to say the least.

"Never thought I'd meet someone more miserable than me," he admitted to Ren as they conducted routine checks in one of the Jefferies tubes.

"You're not that miserable," Ren said, smiling fondly.

Zhiv barked out a laugh.

"Then you need to pay closer attention, Mala… or rather, don't because if this ship explodes because your head wasn't in the game, so help me I'll haunt you until you go crazy."

"Oh that won't take long," Ren said, before clearing her throat uncomfortably. "Have you got any water on you? My throat is parched."

Zhiv hesitated.

"I got a little something in my hip flask, but it's not water. Might help your throat though – my grandmother used to sip this stuff when she was feeling a bit under the weather," he said softly, handing over the flask.

Ren took a sniff and her eyes began to water immediately.

"Do you drink this stuff on duty?" Ren asked.

"Try a sip, you'll see what I mean," was all Zhiv said.

As Ren swallowed the smallest sip she could manage, she first tasted a strongly, almost sickly sweetness. This was rapidly followed by the sting of the alcohol as it hit the back of her throat and then burned all the way down to her stomach.

"That-" she rasped.

"It's all that's needed, right? This isn't stuff to get drunk on.

Ren swallowed a few times and then rubbed her throat in surprise.

"Wow… that does feel better. Feels like it burned all the fuzziness away… maybe some of my vocal chords too…" she added, noticing her voice was a little bit raspy still.

"All right, let's finish up in here, and then prepare the handover for the next shift. It's no miracle cure, what I gave you, but it'll get you through this last hour and then you can rest up however you Betazoids deal with a bug."

Inside the Pariah, dozens of pictures were strung from the ceiling, hanging like carcases in an abattoir. Caliper was sat at the science station with an eyepiece in one eye, closely examining one of the photos which appeared to show nothing more than the retreating tunnel of light created in the Sally Ride's wake when travelling at warp, just like almost every other picture around her. Sometimes she would compare it to the image taken of the night sky on Bell Rock, and then angrily push the newer picture aside and pick up one seemingly identical to it.

"New hobby?"

"Not exactly, commander," Cal replied as Rue boarded the Pariah.

"Well, I know one thing that it sure isn't. Dr Sh'sirros told you to stay in your quarters and rest, not hunch over a bunch of… starscapes?" they added uncertainly, looking at one of the images in puzzlement.

"Yes, but-"

"It wasn't a suggestion, Caliper. You sustained some pretty deep burns from that phaser blast. You need to let the tissue reknit itself in the proper configuration or you could end up with problems for life."

"For as long as that would be," Cal murmured. "Look, compare this image to this one. Can you see a difference?" she asked, suddenly thrusting two identical pictures at Rue, who glanced at them both and then set them aside impatiently.

"No difference, and no relevance. I am ordering you to go back to your quarters-"

"Civilian," Caliper countered. "I don't take orders."

"Wanted felon," Rue growled. "So, you can either rest up in your nice, comfortable quarters, or you can rest in the brig for a few weeks."

Cal let out an exasperated sigh and then began feverishly sorting through the papers until she found the print out she wanted.

"There. Do you see it now?"

"That little smudge? Could be a sensor error. It could even be a printing error."

"That's what Ch'thaolor said when I first detected the surveillance drone," Cal said. "They could be preparing to make their move. I don't know why now… maybe they don't want us being too close to Earth and reinforcements… yes… that would make sense," Cal continued, descending into distracted muttering as she began calling up historical scans on the nearest PADD… at least, until Rue snatched it out of her hands.

"Enough, Cal! Sh'sirros sent me to escort you back to your quarters, so that's what-"

The Sally Ride shook and the lights flickered for a few moments. Rue tapped on their comm badge and contacted the Bridge.

"We've picked up an explosion in one of the Jefferies' tubes. No injuries. Repair crews are on their way," came the reply from one of the ensigns on duty.

"Senior staff report to Engineering," came Martinez's voice soon afterwards.

"Well, Commander, I guess – OW!"

There was no fighting a grip like Rue's.

"You're coming with me, and then you're going back to bed," Rue said, escorting Cal off of the Pariah.

Minutes later, the senior crew members of the Sally Ride, plus a rather embarrassed Caliper, were gathered in engineering while one of the repair crew members briefed them on what had happened.

"Looks like a fault in a conduit junction," the engineer reported. "The directional valve had been improperly set so when there was a minor power fluctuation, instead of shunting the excess power away from the area, it allowed more to flow in, which resulted in an overload in one of the gel packs. That wouldn't have been too big a problem, but it was close to one of the life support conduits and so there was additional oxygen in the area which ignited."

"What systems have been affected?" Rue asked.

"Life support on decks 1 through 5 may have been contaminated, but we don't know what the contaminant is yet. We've recommended an evacuation of those decks as a precaution."

Martinez groaned.

"How soon can you clean out the life support and make repairs?" he asked.

"Without knowing the nature of the contaminant, it could be a couple of hours before we'd feel comfortable allowing the crew back on to those decks. Even then, we'd only be making some temporary fixes. We'll need to stop in at a starbase for some more in-depth repairs at our soonest convenience, sir," the engineer said.

"Fantastic," Martinez sighed. "All right, Sage, can you plot a course from engineering?"

"Yes, sir."

"Okay, set us on course to the nearest starbase. Lieutenant Ulfann, I'd like to know who was last working in that section so we can find out what went wrong."

Zhiv coughed nervously.

"No need, captain," he said. "That would be Ren and myself."

Martinez glanced around.

"Where is Ren?" he asked.

"She wasn't feeling well, sir, so I told her to go and rest up in her quarters."

Sh'sirros threw her hands up in the air in exasperation.

"Aghhh! There's a trained medical crew right here on this ship! Why does no one come to us first?"

Martinez held up a hand to placate the doctor, and then turned back to Zhiv.

"Go and find Ren. I want the two of you to run though everything which happened and provide me with a full report in an hour."

"Um, commander?" Cal said nervously. "If I promise to lie in a bunk on the Pariah, will you keep Sh'sirros from murdering me? My quarters are on deck 4."

"AGHHHH!"

"I'd better escort you to be sure," Rue said, looking amused. "For your own safety."

On board the Pariah, Cal obediently pulled down one of the bunks from where it neatly stowed away when not in use and grabbed a PADD.

"Rest, remember?" Rue insisted.

"I will… but I also don't want to die of boredom. Pariah, run another timelapsed image capture of the Sally Ride's wake and overlay it on the previous timelapse. Send the composite image to this PADD."

"Compiling image and sending to PADD… complete," Cal's own voice responded from the Pariah's speakers.

"That's… quite disconcerting," Rue commented.

"Well, she's a prototype and I made do with what I had. Out of curiosity, whose voice would you use?"

Rue looked thoughtful for a moment.

"T'Lan's. Then the lack of emotion wouldn't sound out of place."

"I'd prefer yours," Cal said, before her face changed to horror at what she'd just said. "I mean… you're… very reassuring. I, uh-"

"Go to bed, Cal, or I'll tell Sh'sirros you're ignoring her orders."

"Gahhhhhhh…."

Inside the now scorched Jefferies tube, complete with the sharp tang of burnt components, Zhiv and Ren were sullenly making their investigations. This was hampered by Ren sniffling miserably; her eyes were red and streaming, and her face looked waxy and pale. Whatever it was which was ailing her, Zhiv concluded it looked contagious and phlegmy. Great. He was bound to catch whatever it was by the time he'd left this enclosed space with Patient Zero.

"I know you're mad at me," Ren commented.

"Of course you do."

"It's because you're not talking to me, or looking at me. It's not because…. Augh…" Ren grabbed a handkerchief and blew her nose. Zhiv edged away a few inches. "I wasn't the one who brought moonshine into the Jefferies tube."

"But you were the one who didn't notice you'd spilled some!" Zhiv growled.

"You didn't notice either!"

And then…

Zhiv felt the injustice of having been forced to repair the rockery that her cousin had demolished. She'd not even touched anything but no, mum had automatically sided with her angel-faced cousin because apparently, Zhiv had been born looking guilty and-

Zhiv blinked. Whatever that had just been, it had not been his memory.

"Uh oh," he breathed. "Tell me, do Betazoid illnesses come with... weird effects?"

"Yeah," Ren said rather shortly. "Like how some people lose their hearing with a cold, I can't sense much emotion right now. It's like being on an empty planet… it's really… augh."

"Do you have any cousins?"

Ren blinked.

"I do, why?"

"Did one of them get you blamed for damaging a rockery?"

"What? Yes, my cousin Jena, but how could you… how did you know that?"

"I saw it, just for a moment. I was it… I was you."

"Uh oh."

"You'd better get to sickbay before you broadcast anything more personal," Zhiv said.

Ren nodded and began scrambling out of the Jefferies tube.

Dr Sh'sirros beamed as the doors to sickbay opened and Ren walked in.

"Mala! I thought I was going to have to wait a lot longer for you to step by. Why don't you hop up on to that bed there and I'll start some basic scans."

"Doctor… do you know much about Betazoid illnesses?" Ren asked sheepishly.

"Oh I know plenty, but what's bothering you specifically?" Sh'sirros asked, beginning to scan Ren with a medical tricorder.

"Zhiv saw... or experienced, one of my childhood memories."

"Oh my," Sh'sirros said, pausing and looking thoughtful. "I have definitely heard of emotional states becoming contagious, and of course there's the Phase which is particularly interesting because, unlike the menopause in many other species, the Phase in fact marks-"

"No, it's not like that," Ren said hastily. "I've never heard of anything making someone broadcast their memories though…"

"Could this be some sort of stress-induced psychoprojection, perhaps?" Sh'sirros pocketed the tricorder and looked at Ren sympathetically. "Have you been overworking yourself? We're all more prone to making mistakes when we're under intolerable amounts of pressure."

Ren thought back to the mines when she'd come across a fellow Andorian whose arm had become caught in the junction mechanism for the cart rails. She only had to pull the lever in the right direction to free him, and it was a 50/50 choice… but who could have known at first glance that the way the cogs were set, the movements of the junction mirrored those of the lever, rather than copied them. With an awful moment of bones crunching and renewed screaming, she dropped to her knees, and also began screaming…

Ren gasped and looked as though she might throw up.

"Your adrenalin levels just spiked – what happened?" Sh'sirros asked in alarm.

"His… his arm… I crushed his arm!" Ren said in horror.

Sh'sirros tilted her head warily for a moment.

"In the mines?" she asked.

"Yes, in the… that was your memory?"

"Yes, very early on. The pressure was immense. I'd just been thinking of that when we were talking. Were you, by any chance, thinking of the same memory that Zhiv experienced?"

Ren nodded.

"Yeah, I felt he was being a bit unfair on me and I remembered my cousin… and then he remembered my cousin. So how come I saw one of your memories?"

Sh'sirros pursed her lips together for a moment.

"Zhiv, please report to sickbay immediately," she said, speaking into her comm badge.

"Just a moment doctor, I'm briefing the senior staff on the damaged Jefferies tube," Zhiv replied.

"Well, I'm going to need all of you to report to sickbay, in that case. I think we have a contagious illness on board. Try to think happy thoughts."

A few minutes later, the senior crew of the Sally Ride had arrived in sickbay with emotions varying from mild concern to impatience.

"We all feel fine," Rue reported.

"I'm sure you do, Commander," Sh'sirros replied, beginning to scan them with her tricorder. "Which would make sense because your temperature is only ever so slightly raised, and would usually pass as normal, except Chief Ren here also has an ever so slightly raised temperature." Sh'sirros then quickly ran a scan over herself. "As do I, and as do all of you. It's really very contagious, isn't it? We can probably assume all personnel working on decks 1 through 5 have been exposed and now, having evacuated those decks, probably most of the ship now as well."

"A slightly raised temperature doesn't seem to be much of a problem," Martinez pointed out.

"There is also some transference of memories taking place. Zhiv experienced one of Ren's memories, and Ren experienced one of mine. Mitazi and I have also experienced some of each other's memories. You know, it was quite interesting having a tail, briefly."

"And antennae," Mitazi agreed.

"Now, these are the only symptoms any of the infected have experienced so far but Starfleet have no record of any similar illness so I have no idea if this is just the first stage in something worse, or if it's the telepathic equivalent of a cold. To avoid distressing each other though, think happy thoughts."

Zhiv snorted.

"Easy for you to say," he said.

"I also recommend putting Genny's cargo bay under quarantine. So far, no personnel have gone there since the contagion began to spread, so she should be just fine, but I'd rather not find out what this bug might do to a psychic entity, though, especially one with a physiology as unique as hers."

Martinez nodded.

"Agreed. T'Lan, send a message to Starbase 718 and inform them that I am placing the ship under quarantine so there'll be a delay in starting those repairs," Martinez said. "Doctor, given that we're all infected already, is there any reason I shouldn't go to my ready room?"

"I'd prefer you didn't move around the ship, Captain. There may yet be crew members who are uninfected and, if this does turn out to be serious, we may need all the healthy hands we can get. Mitazi and I are running some blood samples through the scanners now to see if we can identify a common antibody that we can base a possible cure on."

It had been a couple of hours since Cal had reluctantly tried to rest up on one of Pariah's bunks. She still had her ship's computers sending her refreshed images of the Sally Ride's wake, but the smudge had not reappeared since she had first seen it. Had it just been an error? It was looking increasingly likely, she had to admit.

"Incoming transmission from Admiral Ross."

Cal's heart stopped. Oh, this couldn't be good.

"On my PADD," she said, trying to make herself comfortable.

The warm features and gun-metal hair of Admiral Ross appeared on the PADD.

"Caliper, you look like you've seen better days," he said sympathetically.

"Phaser blast to the back," Cal replied. "I was luckily it wasn't dead on or, well, major emphasis on the dead in that sentence, y'know?" Cal replied. She tried to keep her tone conversational, but she had never possessed the poker face of Section 31's greatest agents. "What can I do for you?"

"You've caused quite a lot of headaches. Think this through: what happens to the Pariah when you get back to Earth? Do you think Starfleet is just going to shrug its shoulders and let you keep the damn thing?"

"No," Cal admitted. "Definitely not now. The CAPE's existence came to light when we were rescuing the crew of the Pegasus. But what am I saying?" she added, tone turning sarcastic. "I don't suppose you knew about that at all, did you?"

Ross' expression darkened.

"We've got people working on debriefing the rescued crew members now. Hopefully they'll choose to cooperate."

Cal made a non-committed noise and Ross changed subject.

"You've got to get the Pariah off of the Sally Ride, and especially before the K-C gets discovered. We've sent support to Starbase 718 and they can assist with the extraction. Whatever you need to get the job done, consider it authorised."

"I'll make sure I wear my respirator at night," Cal replied drily. "Can I be frank, sir?"

"I've never known you not to be," Ross said, taking a deep breath like someone preparing to plunge into icy water.

"What happens to me when you have the Pariah?"

Ross hesitated.

"You resisted orders. You actively prevented an op from succeeding. You jeopardised our relationship with an agent. Let's be honest, you're not getting a promotion, let's put it that way."

"So, why should I cooperate, Will? This is my life's work and 31 was all set to hand her over to the Romulans. The goddamned ROMULANS."

Ross sighed deeply and hung his head.

"We've picked up the surveillance drone. They're coming for you and the ship. Now, you can lead them straight to the Sally Ride and get all those nice people assimilated, or you can do the smart thing and hand over the Pariah to people who can hide it somewhere even the Borg will never be able to find it."

"We're under quarantine, Will. Nothing gets on or off this ship until the sickness or whatever has been cleaned up." Cal said quietly. "My hands are tied."

"Then so are mine. Try and wipe as much data off the ship as you can and, if it comes down to it-"

"I know." Cal felt her throat beginning to burn. "I know."

As the PADD fell dark, Cal put it to one side and then folded up the bunk so she could reach a particular access panel. She entered a pass number on the keypad and, with a hiss of hydraulics, the hexagonal, black case jettisoned itself by a few inches so that she could take hold of it and pull it loose.

The announcement had gone around the whole ship to minimise movement and thus limit the spread of the telepathic bug but, if things went well, Cal wouldn't encounter anyone anyway. She programmed a site-to-site transport using the Pariah's transporters and, in a haze of blue light, she found herself again standing in Commander Rue's quarters. She found a promising edge of carpet and began pulling it up to reveal the metal floor and conduit panels beneath.

"I don't think I requested any redecorating," Rue commented, sounding amused.

Cal nearly fell over with shock.

"You're supposed to be on duty!"

"You're supposed to be on the Pariah."

Cal guiltily set the container to one side and then sat herself more comfortably on the floor.

"I needed to hide this," she said.

"I could tell. What…?" Rue felt their thoughts beginning to drift out of reach. They shook their head. "Not now!"

"Rue? Junil, are you okay?" Cal asked, scrambling to her feet, but Rue swatted them away.

"You… you…" Rue gasped as their breathing began to quicken out of control. "That's-"

Cal tapped her comm badge.

"Cal to sickbay!" she said in a panicked tone. "Medical emergency, XO's quarters! I think… Rue's having a seizure?"

"Prepare for site to site transport," Sh'sirros' voice came back.

"NO!" Rue yelled. "Not again! NO!"

Cal placed her hands on Junil's arms.

"You're not alone," Cal said, trying to keep her voice as calm and as level as Sh'sirros'.

For a moment, Rue's eyes fixed on Cal's…

All was darkness, the air, the ground and yet, inexplicably, she could see her hands and she could see Rue's arms, as well as the rest of the Commander, now seated on the invisible terrain.

"You're not alone," said a male voice.

Cal looked over her shoulder to see a man in a familiar black uniform looking down at both her and Rue with his hands clasped behind his back.

To hide any tells, Cal thought , smiling fondly.

The man looked at her and smiled a little.

"You still remember," Dryden replied.

"Remember? Yes. But what's happening right now? Rue and I were in their quarters, and then Rue started to collapse… and now we're here. With you. And you're dead," Cal said, looking from Dryden to Junil and back again in confusion.

"I don't know," Rue said. To Cal's shock, the Commander looked terrified. That wasn't right; the Commander was someone to be terrified of, not someone who themselves got terrified. Dryden, on the other hand, was as calm and as collected as always and, as far as Cal could see, was showing no reason for Rue to be so frightened of him.

"They don't remember," the man explained. "Sometimes there is a trigger and our experiences… collide, or crossover. This is the first time they've brought a guest."

"Don't talk about me like I'm not here," Rue growled, their anger evidently beginning to override their fear. "He's a parasite who uses me to carry out his own ends."

"My ends are to keep you safe, Junil," Dryden said, walking towards both seated officers and crouching down. "Sometimes I give things a little nudge to ensure the best outcomes for both of us."

"He used me to pass my security codes to a pirate!" Rue insisted.

"I hate to be a bore," Cal said, holding up her hand. "But I feel an important point has been missed here. You're dead, Dryden. They asked me to help identify you from pictures taken god-knows-where and… what is this? Did you do this to me?" she asked, turning to Junil. "Or are you doing this to both of us?" she asked Dryden.

"You know him?" Rue asked Cal.

"She's one of us, Rue," Dryden said. "And Cal… I was joined during my last absence. Unfortunately, the mission did not go according to plan and my body was irreparably damaged. When Rue was moved to a new host, the Section and the Symbiosis Council both agreed that it would be best that all memory of me be erased. The council was lied to," Dryden said angrily. "31 only did it to keep me quiet."

"Why? What would you have said otherwise?" Cal asked.

Seeing Cal beginning to get upset gave Junil some clarity within themselves. It was easier to push away the confusing maelstrom of emotion each visit with Dryden caused when an, admittedly unofficial, member of their crew was hurting.

"Because of him, I've remembered the locations of listening posts, identities of other officers… not you, though," Junil said to Cal, curiously.

"Because she was mine," Dryden said to Junil. "Those memories, those feelings, they were mine and I wanted to keep them just for myself." Dryden laughed bitterly. "And now, here you both are."

"If Section 31 knew to track down Rue and erase the memories… why didn't they tell me you were joined? Actually, screw that, why didn't you tell me?"

"I wanted to tell you in person," Dryden said quietly.

Cal's head dropped to her chest as tears began leaking down her cheeks.

"Something triggered this connection we have, Junil. What did you see?" Dryden asked.

"It was the case," Junil said. "This was triggered when I saw the case."

"A hex-case?" Dryden suggested.

"Yeah," Cal croaked. "I was trying to hide a hex-case in the Commander's quarters."

"It must contain some very crucial information. We used that to protect our most highly classified secrets," Dryden said.

"It's a copy of the Pariah's computer, plus all my research, the schematics and everything you'd need to know to be able to build one yourself. It's all on there."

"Why are you hiding it in my quarters?" Junil asked.

"Because the Borg are coming," Cal said. "And when they get here, they'll try to take the Pariah, and they'll try to take me. I won't let them, of course."

"You won't have a say in the matter," Junil said grimly.

"She'll destroy the prototype and kill herself. It's only to be expected of an operative. Better dead than allow the Borg to gain the advantage of all that we know," Dryden explained.

Junil looked at Cal in dread.

"You were hiding this… in case you had to destroy the Pariah and kill yourself?"

"It's only pramati-" Cal groaned as the world began to tilt sickeningly. "Junil!" she said in alarm.

"Commander Rue is on the next bed over," Mitazi said. "You're in sickbay. Do you remember calling us for help?"

Cal looked up at the brightly lit Caitian in absolute confusion.

"What the hell just happened?" she asked, sitting up and wiping the tears from her face with her hands. She looked over at Rue's bed. "Why are they tied down?!"

"Caliper." Dr Sh'sirros appeared from where she had been dealing with her terminal and began scanning Cal with a medical tricorder. At the same time, Rue began to stir and awaken. "Fascinating," Sh'sirros commented. "You are showing the same raised levels in stress hormones that Commander Rue does after these little episodes. I wonder if this means the Betazoid flu is causing medical conditions as well as memories to become contagious?" Sh'sirros looked at Cal in concern. "Have you been crying?"

"Doctor," Rue said quietly, opening their eyes.

"This has happened before, hasn't it? What happened?" Cal insisted, angrily.

"Should I get a hypospray, doctor?" Mitazi asked.

"Oh don't even think about it," Cal growled. "I just want to know what is happening right now. What happened to us?"

"Emergent memories," Rue said quietly. "I think… I think there are memories that the symbiont has that have somehow been repressed and sometimes, they get triggered and overwhelm me."

"Overwhelm you? We were talking to someone, do you remember?"

Mitazi unfastened the restraints and Rue sat up.

"You remember what happened?" Rue asked, looking stunned.

"How much do you recall, Caliper?" Sh'sirros asked, urgently dragging a seat between Rue and Cal's beds and holding up her dictation pen like a microphone.

Cal hesitated, alarmed by the reactions of the doctor and the Commander.

"Uh, I saw… not much, I mean it was really dark, but we were sat on the floor. There was a man, a Trill man in a Starfleet uniform." It wasn't really a lie. Technically, Section 31 was a part of Starfleet, just not an acknowledged part of it. "Sort of… angular features… no rank on the uniform though." Was she giving too much away? And at the same time, deep in her chest like a previously dormant volcano, the grief she had felt on hearing of Dryden's death was churning and rumbling away, threatening to erupt at any moment. At least Ren wasn't here to pick up on it.

"That was the man in my hallucination!" Rue said, looking at Sh'sirros with a mixture of triumph and horror. "What does that mean?

"I don't know. The details of Trill physiology are very much minimal. It was only a couple of decades ago that the existence of the symbionts became common knowledge," Sh'sirros replied.

"I, ah… I knew someone at the Academy who might know more. He's Chief Medical Officer on Deep Space Nine," Cal said nervously.

"Dr Julian Bashir? Yes, I met him at a medical conference a little while back," Sh'sirros said cheerfully. "This is fascinating."

"It's also deeply unnerving that Cal shared my hallucination," Rue said. "I wish I could remember what he said to me… do you?"

"It's fading so fast," Cal said, lying again and rubbing her eye, but she had a good idea of how much was safe to say now. "I think he's trying to help you. I got the feeling he is not your enemy, and that he regrets the inconvenience he's caused."

"That's it?" Rue asked suspiciously.

"Sorry, like you say, I'm sure there was more but…"

"That's still enough to possibly provide us with a lead," Sh'sirros said. "I'll contact Dr Bashir in the morning."

A little while later, Cal was sat back on board the Pariah. She had locked down everything. She opened up a comms channel and waited a little while for the message to be received. Eventually, a sleepy but still very handsome, dark-haired man appeared on the screen and looked at her in puzzlement for a moment… and then he reeled in shock.

"Erica?"

Cal shook her head.

"That's not my name anymore."

He looked at her critically.

"So what should I call you?"

Cal smiled.

"Caliper. It's good to see you looking so well, Julian. Um, listen, I hate to call on you like this but… I need your help."

"I can't help a fugitive," Bashir replied firmly.

"You're not, you're helping Section 31. No, wait don't please this is medical!" Cal yelped as she saw Bashir reaching to end the call.

Bashir sighed heavily.

"I've already told you-"

"I know you're not active," Cal said slowly.

"I'm not an operative!" Bashir replied hotly.

"I'm afraid you are, you're just not considered an active operative. No one gets to leave. Hell, if I tried to leave I'd be spending the rest of my life in a penal colony so for what it's worth, you have my sympathies. Look, I'm on board the U.S.S. Sally Ride. There's a Trill on board who has a previous host whose memories are starting to emerge and perhaps even become the dominant personality."

Oh, now she had his attention. Bashir now looked very much awake and was tapping away, taking notes.

"Right. Tell me everything you know," Bashir said. Cal smiled with relief.

"The patient is Commander Junil Rue. Up until the hallucinations and memories began, they believed they were the first host. It turns out that was not the case. The previous host was called Dryden and he-" Her voice threatened to break.

"Did you know him?" Julian asked gently.

Cal pressed her lips together in the hopes of holding back the sob that was tearing at her insides, trying to escape. She nodded quickly.

"Eri- Caliper, listen. You should know that there is a taboo amongst the Trill about Reassociation. Joined Trills are forbidden from entering romantic relationships with someone whom the symbiont has ever been romantically involved with. It can lead to being exiled from Trill society, which means the symbiont dies with that host."

"That's um, that's not quite the complicating factor here," Cal said, composing herself. She suddenly looked up at Julian in horror. "Is that why I'm attracted to Junil? I thought it was just a crush, I didn't know-"

Julian held up his hand for calm.

"Don't worry about it. Sounds like if it was just a crush, then leave it as that."

"But for Junil and Rue, it's a little awkward because Dryden Rue was a Section 31 Operative. He claimed 31 and the Symbiosis Council worked together to have all memory of Dryden's existence erased. Look, between you and me, I could care less about what 31 was trying to keep quiet this time, I'm hardly in their good books right now."

"Is that so? Seems so unlike you…" Bashir said with some amusement.

"The problem is the emerging personality and memories are causing considerable distress to Junil. Can you think of any way of… I don't know… getting the personalities to work together peacefully?"

"Now that sounds like something I'd be happy to assist with," Bashir said. "I'll speak to Dax as well. We'll see what we can do."

"Expect a call from Dr Throlo Sh'sirros in the morning. We did not speak. And thank you."

"I'm glad you're doing all right, Erica. I'll do my best for your patient."

"I know you will. Sleep well, Julian."

Starbase 718

As the U.S.S. Sally Ride entered a serene, lazy orbit around Starbase 718, the senior officers, plus Caliper, were gathered in the conference room, all looking grim. Caliper had briefed them all on what Admiral Ross had said to her about the surveillance drone, and T'Lan had picked up a Borg signal 48 hours away from Starbase 718. Cal's initial suggestion of taking the Pariah and leaving the ship had been rejected. No one wanted to see the advanced technology fall into Borg hands, whether it was the technology itself, or the knowledge of the engineer who had built it. Likewise, there was no guarantee the Borg would stop with capturing either, and could well turn around and take out the Sally Ride and the starbase as well. A few starships could arrive to reinforce the station before the cube arrived but not as many as there had been at Wolf 359, and they all knew painfully well how that battle had gone.

Sh'sirros had managed to cure and inoculate the crew against Ren flu so at least the borrowed flashbacks had been brought to an end. She had also had a very illuminating conversation with Doctor Julian Bashir of Deep Space 9 who had been able to inform her and Rue of rites such as the zhian'tara or Rite of Closure in which a joined Trill could nominate companions to stand in as previous hosts who would then assume the personalities of those hosts, or the Rite of Emergence where a joined Trill could bring forth the personality and memories of a previous host and interact with them. The problem was that both rites would need the assistance of a member of the Symbiosis Council to help guide the novice host, Junil. All of that depended on surviving the next couple of days.

In terms of survival, however, Caliper had stepped up to reveal that the Pariah was not only equipped with the CAPE, but also a prototype weapon. She had been invited to attend a senior officers' briefing to explain.

"Quite a few decades ago the Xindi were manipulated by another species into creating a device capable of destroying a planet. They were stopped, but not before the weapon had destroyed the original Xindi homeworld. The Xindi-Arboreals remain the galaxy's best suppliers of refined Kemocite-"

"You brought refined Kemocite on to my ship?" Martinez exclaimed angrily.

"Technology has come a long way in two centuries," Cal replied. "I'm not carrying a planet-ending bomb on my ship. We've developed a Kemocite Cannon. It's… powerful. A little too powerful, to be honest but it's under control!" Cal added hastily. "A shot from the cannon goes straight through shields. Where it interacts with electrical energy it creates a Kemocite cascade which scrambles everything like a localised EMP. Everything else… burns. Downside, I have to lower the Pariah's shields to fire it or else I scramble my own ship too. It's still very much a prototype and hasn't been used under combat conditions yet."

"So how can you be sure it'll be effective against the Borg?" Rue asked.

"Well, I know it's effective against the Pariah," Cal replied sheepishly. "We learnt to lower the shields the hard way. First person to test the cannon was killed."

Rue shook their head.

"The moment you lower your shields, the Borg will take you and the ship."

"Well that's where I was hoping Starfleet could provide cover fire and keep the Borg from getting lock on me while the weapon fires," Cal said.

"It is doubtful the full complement of ships we will have available will be able to provide much protection without themselves being destroyed," T'Lan pointed out before referring to a PADD. "Starfleet have been able to send the Constitution-class Korolev, two Nebula-class starships, the Phoenix and the T'Kumbra, and one other Intrepid-class, the D'Lenn."

"It's all we have though," Martinez said. "So we have to make this work."

"I mean, we have 48 hours and some pretty hot engineers on board," Cal said cautiously. "We could cloak the Ride, and maybe the D'Lenn as well."

"Captain, we could find ourselves removed from Starfleet, even sent to a penal colony for this," Rue warned.

"We have to be alive to be court martialled," Martinez said. "Do it."

"Captain, I must protest," Rue insisted. "As per the Khitomer Accord-"

"Which the Klingons have walked away from," Martinez interrupted.

"Two wrongs do not make a right, sir!"

Martinez took a deep breath and locked his hands together in front of him.

"Were it any other opponent," he said slowly. "If we were up against the entire Klingon fleet even, then I would not be making this call, but we are up against the Borg. The odds are completely against us, so I am willing to do anything and everything to give us a chance. Understand that failure doesn't just mean death and assimilation. Failure means the Borg gaining the CAPE technology.

"Then we should destroy the Pariah," Rue replied.

Martinez looked at Cal.

"And me," she said.

"What?" Dr Sh'sirros exclaimed. "Caliper, you can't mean-"

"Doctor, if you check the logs from your medical replicator you'll see I'd been planning for this eventuality for some time," Cal said.

"We need to give the station time enough to evacuate. That is our number one priority," Martinez said. "But second is to prevent the Borg, by any means, getting their hands on the Pariah or Caliper."

"By any means," Sh'sirros echoed accusingly.

"Throlo," Cal said gently. "This is my decision. My assimilation would be a disaster for the Federation so in my case, better dead than Borg. Fewer lives lost."

"But Cal-"

"Because understand," Cal continued, interrupting Sh'sirros. "There will be lives lost either way. Let's try and keep the numbers down."

"Ensign Sage will be doing her best to keep a transporter lock on Caliper at all times," Martinez began.

"But it could easily be disrupted by the K-C discharge effects so, before you point this out, yes, we lose the lock at the moment I am most vulnerable. Look, if the Pariah was perfect, she wouldn't be a prototype and we'd have gone into mass production already," Cal said defensively. She turned to Martinez. "Returning to our earlier point about the CAPE, though, if we were going to give another ship an advantage, then it should be the Korolev. It's ancient – it should have been retired by now."

"Yeah, we're not sending the Korolev into battle. I've spoken to Captain Richards and he's agreed to evacuate the starbase. I don't want to give the Borg any soft targets."

"Two Nebula-class and two Intrepid-class ships. I can't say I fancy our odds," Rue said.

One by one, the four ships sent by Starfleet to try and protect Starbase 718 arrived. The air on the Sally Ride felt heavy with tension. For some, like Ensign Sage, this would be the first time they had encountered such a large battle; for others, though, the feeling was nastily familiar.

Martinez walked the entire ship, checking in on every member of the crew, without exception. Sometimes he would just chat amiably, and sometimes he would offer words of encouragement where he felt that was needed.

Rue had confined themselves to the holodeck, taking out their rage and frustration on a variety of computer-generated opponents. Better to harness the rage, than let fear creep in again.

T'Lan, after ensuring the shields were set to change to randomised frequencies, was in her quarters, struggling to meditate. She couldn't shake the image she had seen in that other universe, of the Captain as a member of the Borg. Logically she knew it had not been a premonition, but another reality, but at this time, logic was failing to comfort her.

Sh'sirros and the rest of the Sally Ride's medical crew were hard at work setting up sickbay to receive large numbers of wounded people. She briefed them on how they would manage cases – minor wounds to one area, life-threatening wounds to another, and even an enclosed space for holding any crew members who had been assimilated. She took comfort in knowing she was prepared for almost anything.

Ren and Zhiv were running final checks on the newly installed CAPE on board the Sally Ride. Unlike the K-C, which was very much a prototype, the CAPE was an established piece of kit which had been tried and tested, albeit not always successfully, as the crew of the U.S.S. Pegasus could attest. Photon torpedoes had been loaded and prepared for launch.

Sage was in her quarters, studying battle after battle, looking at the manoeuvres employed by other pilots in her position, and looking for ways in which they had surprised their opponents. Her hands practised the sequence of buttons on her desk in front of her, committing to memory various evasive manoeuvres she could use so that in the event they were needed, she wouldn't have to even stop and think about what her hands were doing. She clipped her earring on. It felt like a good time to have some kind of connection to the Prophets.

The Pariah had launched from the Sally Ride and was now holding position slightly behind of the other four ships who would be engaging the Borg Cube. A thousand what-ifs raged in Cal's head like a hurricane, and no sooner had she put one to rest than another and another would sweep to the front of her mind. The Pariah's life support had been disengaged and all power was being directed towards the shields and the K-C's cooling systems. Sat in an evosuit, Cal lightly ran her fingers over the lump against her wrist. One good impact and the cyanide would flood her system. She'd programmed a few macros for various scenarios. She was as ready as she could ever be.

Displays counted down to the cube's arrival.

Starbase 718 continued to evacuate in earnest.

The D'Lenn shimmered and vanished from view.

5 seconds.

"Red alert. All crew to battle stations," Martinez announced.

4 seconds.

The Sally Ride shimmered and vanished from view. Cal smiled a little.

3 seconds.

"Lock established," Pariah reported.

2 seconds.

"Power up the K-C and prepare to fire."

1 second.

The remaining Starfleet ships powered up their shields.

Starbase 718 was almost completely evacuated.

The Borg cube, incomprehensibly huge, rushed into view and then slowed to a halt in a physics-defying, momentum-destroying show of control.

Space exploded. A storm of phasers and torpedoes surged at the cube as it returned fire and then the K-C discharged. The screaming comet of white light surged towards the cube as the Pariah drifted a little in the opposite direction, despite the engines firing to compensate for the backlash. The K-C bolt was slow enough that a small vessel could have moved out of its path at this distance, but the cube's intimidating size was also its disadvantage.

Cal held her breath and watched the bolt pierce the cube's shields in a crazed electrical storm before continuing into the cube, searing a tunnel of lightning flashes and leaving darkness in its wake as power failed in those areas immediately adjacent to the tunnel the bolt had carved. She saw the bolt continue on and out of the cube's rear side before dissipating in the vacuum.

"Was that it?" came Richards' voice over the intercoms.

"Too goddamned powerful," Cal replied irritably. "Cover me, I'm going for the side."

The D'Lenn appeared between the Pariah and the cube, sending intensive fire at a tractor beam generator which they had detected, keeping it from getting a lock on the Pariah as Cal activated her CAPE and vanished.

Meanwhile, on the far side of the cube, the Sally Ride disengaged the CAPE and sent a volley of torpedoes at the cube, visibly rocking it.

"The Borg's shields have failed," T'Lan reported. "Regeneration activity identified in numerous locations on board. However, where the Kemocite Cannon hit, regeneration is considerably slower.

"If that's all she's got though, it's not going to be enough," Rue pointed out.

"The Phoenix has taken heavy damage and is withdrawing to make emergency repairs. Their shields are at 25% and falling."

"No, no, no, no, no!" Martinez despaired.

"Borg have a weapons lock on them, Captain," Sage reported.

"Take out those weapons," Martinez said.

"Sally Ride back off, I'm gonna try something!" Cal yelped over the comms.

On board the Pariah, Cal disengaged the CAPE and, just as the K-C was about to fire, she blasted the manoeuvring thrusters to set her ship into a slow spin. This time, due to the ship's movement, the comet became an arcing blade of light. Just like the first shot, the light did not dissipate until it had passed through the cube; unlike the first time, rather than simply poking a hole in the cube, this shot sliced through a huge section of cube, severing a chunk a tenth the size of the whole ship. Cal watched as the chunk fell into limp darkness and drifted off into space.

"Holy shit," Cal breathed. She then received a number of similarly worded hails from the other ships. Her brief moment of stunned elation was cut short by loud pop and wisps of smoke coming from behind her. She watched as the blue glow of her shields vanished and she hastily cloaked the Pariah and changed position. As she turned to look at the damage, she realised the extended K-C discharge had affected her shields, causing them to short out. No shields. Okay. That meant it was now a race against time: could the tiny fleet damage the cube enough before they got a lock on her?

As the Pariah vanished, so did the D'Lenn and the Sally Ride, meaning that even if the Borg could pick up the signals of the cloaked ships, they would struggle to know which ship was giving off which signal. The Borg cube had taken quite a severe hit from the Pariah but its decentralised structure meant it had enough redundancy to keep fighting for quite some time yet. The same could not be said for the U.S.S. Phoenix which had withdrawn from the fight entirely and was escorting the Korolev away from the battle. This meant that the T'Kumbra at times was the only visible target the Borg had, and so it had begun to take quite a lot of punishment from the cube.

The Sally Ride, trusting that the D'Lenn would continue as support for the Pariah, positioned itself near the T'Kumbra and de-cloaked before sending a swathe of torpedoes and well-aimed phaser blasts at the cube. Flashes of explosions from the rear of the cube told them the D'Lenn had also chosen that moment to attack, and then the Pariah shimmered back into view.

"The Pariah has lost its shields," T'Lan reported.

"We need to pull her out," Rue said, turning to Martinez, just as another white flash erupted from the tiny, golden vessel and began to slice through the cube. This time the angle had been more devastating, taking out entire decks of the cube and setting them adrift. As the Pariah shimmered out of view again, the Sally Ride concentrated its fire on another weapons port while Martinez tried to hail the Pariah.

"Sir, I can't get a transporter lock on Caliper," Sage reported. "The interference is just too high."

"Pariah, respond!" Martinez commanded, but no answer came. "Message the D'Lenn and the T'Kumba. Can anyone get a lock on the Pariah?"

There was another K-C strike which this time seemed to hit something vital. As all the Starfleet ships picked up the chain reaction of increasingly larger explosions, they all began backing away at maximum impulse. The chain of explosions rose in intensity and frequency and then, with one final, climatic blast, the cube erupted in an enormous fireball which was quickly quenched by the vacuum of space, leaving only the charred debris to scatter in all directions.

The Pariah was adrift.

"Captain," T'Lan said, her tone ever so slightly quieter than usual. "I am detecting three additional lifesigns on board the Pariah."

"No!" Rue exclaimed.

"Message the other ships. Take out the Pariah," Martinez said, his voice numb and joyless despite the victory over the cube.

"But Caliper could still be alive!" Sage protested.

"I am still detecting a human lifesign," T'Lan confirmed. Suddenly, alarms began to ring. "Sensors are picking up a massive surge in energy."

"Back us away."

As the Sally Ride retreated from the Pariah, they watched as a brilliant ball of white was ejected from the golden ship. Moments later, the furnace of Kemocite energy erupted, sending a powerful shockwave outwards which rocked the Sally Ride and hurled the Pariah into a wild spin for a few moments until the manoeuvring thrusters fired and brought it back under control.

"Hail the Pariah," Martinez said. His tone was emotionless, but the way his fingers were digging into the arms of his chair belied that all was not well.

"No response," T'Lan replied.

"Again. Get me something, anything! Can we access the cameras on board?"

"The defences are down so if ever there was a time…" Sage began uncertainly.

"Do it," Martinez ordered. "T'Lan, are you still picking up four lifeforms, including Caliper?"

"Yes, Captain."

"Damn it," he cursed as his head dropped a little. "I think she tried to overload the K-C to destroy the ship but the Borg were able to eject it, which means they have her. T'Lan, one last time, will they answer our hail?"

"Negative," T'Lan replied.

"Lock all weapons and prepare to fire. We cannot allow that ship to get back to the Borg."

"Weapons locked."

"Reading a spike in power levels on the Pariah," T'Lan reported.

"Fire," Martinez commanded.

They watched as the phaser fire and torpedoes passed harmlessly through the Pariah. It seemed the Borg had been able to activate the CAPE's phasing capabilities. Unable to capture or destroy the ship, they watched as the Pariah's engine port flashed blue and then the golden ship was gone.

"Resume course for Earth," Martinez said. "I'll be in my ready room."

If he had thought he would be afforded a few minutes to collect his thoughts, sadly the captain was wrong. Rue followed him into the ready room and closed the door.

"Do you want to explain to me what just happened out there?" Rue said with no small amount of edge in their voice.

Martinez sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose as he sat down behind his desk.

"Erica… Caliper… spoke to me before this battle. She told me that in the event of her assimilation looking inevitable that either she would trigger the Pariah's self-destruct, or that the remaining Starfleet ships should take her out. She knew the odds were against us, and she was determined that her very last act in life was to defy the Borg. She wanted us to be able to escape with our lives, and she was willing to sacrifice her life to achieve that."

"But you think she's been assimilated, and you're not even going to pursue her ship?" Rue argued back, their anger becoming increasingly evident.

"If she wasn't assimilated," Martinez said slowly. "Then she would have used a hypospray full of cyanide to have ensured that they couldn't."

Rue rocked slightly, and then took a seat.

"You both never planned for her to come back, did you?"

"It was always a race to get back to the fleet," Martinez said. "We've been leaking Kemocite radiation since we left Bell Rock. It's harmless, so the sensors weren't programmed to pick up on it, but Cal knew she was leaving a trail for the Borg to follow."

"Why didn't you say anything? We could have destroyed the Pariah months ago and ended the trail!"

"Because then everything Bell Rock had worked on would have been lost. Two hundred years of offensive and defensive research and development. She left you a case, didn't she?"

"Wouldn't that have been enough?"

"And if the Borg have assimilated her, if, Rue, then they know about that case. It was Cal's duty to get as much of the research back to Starfleet without it falling into Borg hands. She bequeathed that duty to you. If she was able to take the cyanide before the assimilation took hold, then this research will grant Starfleet a major advantage over the Borg and, if she didn't, then at least we can level the playing field a little again."

Bolarus IX, three weeks later

As Starbase 718 had been evacuated, the Sally Ride had been unable to make the repairs they'd needed to after the Jefferies tube explosion, and so the ship had limped along at Warp 3 to next nearest location where they could make extensive repairs. It so happened that the best place to stop was Bolarus IX, home planet of the Bolians. Repairs were due to take a week to complete and so Martinez encouraged the crew to take some much needed shore leave.

The Sally Ride's former chief engineer, Lin Xadas, contacted the ship even before it had arrived, keen to welcome his old friends to his homeworld, but when the Ride established a stable orbit and Ren tried to contact him again, his tone had drastically changed.

"No, no I'm sorry Mala, now's really not a good time," Xadas said over the comms.

"But we've been planning this for days! Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine. Look, there's lots to see and do here, I'm sure you can all keep yourselves occupied. W-why not visit the famous cliffs? Fantastic climbing opportunities and the views are just breathtaking from the top. Watch out for the Cliff Monitors though – they're quite brazen thieves."

Having had their plans so abruptly cancelled, Sage and Ren ended up sat at a table outside a bistro together while they wondered what to do with their free time. Sage had a tricorder out as she looked down the menu; Sh'sirros had warned the crew that some Bolian cuisine, while quite delicious, contained ingredients incompatible with most other digestive systems, and had supplied the crew with a list of items to avoid.

"Aw dammit," Sage groaned. "I was gonna have a Lika berry sundae, but Lika berries are toxic. Do you think they can make it without?"

"Sounds good," Ren said distantly.

"Mala, are you okay? You seem distracted," Sage said, putting the menu to one side.

"It's just… I'm worried about Lin, y'know?"

"It's probably nothing. Something must have just come up."

"But why not just say why? Like, if I was expecting visitors and then my pet Targ died-"

"Nooooooo!"

"But I'd have just said that: 'Sorry to cancel on you but my Targ died and I'm really cut up about it'."

"Maybe it was something more personal. Maybe he has an embarrassing, contagious illness that he didn't want to talk about."

"Yeah… that sounds plausible all right," Ren said distantly, looking around the square where the bistro was located.

Sage picked up the menu again.

"Oh! Think these are like crepes but-"

"Would you mind if we stopped by?" Ren interrupted. "I just wanna be sure."

"Something tells me you're not gonna relax like we've been ordered to," Sage emphasised. "Unless we go check on him so… okay, let's go. Maybe he can tell us if there's anywhere nearby that sells a cream soda that's not so heavy on the bicarbonate."

Ren and Sage had chosen to base themselves in the town nearest to where Xadas lived, so it was only a brief, pedal-powered ride to reach his house. Like many Bolian houses, Xadas' home had a beautiful, dark-foliaged garden with a large pond which could be admired from the covered portico wrapped around two sides of the building. Bolian homes were designed to entertain and welcome friends into, in keeping with their usually garrulous personalities.

Given how the homes were usually inviting, to find one with the door kicked in was pretty jarring. Sage and Ren looked at each other nervously as they cautiously approached the house, both wishing they had Commander Rue to help them or, at the very least, some phasers.

Inside the house, a number of plant pots and decorative vases had been smashed open in a careless search for something. A coffee table had been overturned. A fresh dent in the wall, with plaster dust still on the floor beneath it, was about the right size for a fist. Someone had not been happy when they had trashed this place. The cupboards were full of food, much of which would perish in a matter of days if not consumed, so it didn't look as though Xadas had planned to be gone for any length of time.

Ren nodded at the stairs and the pair began to quietly ascend to the upper floor. What would have normally been very pleasant, airy guest rooms had been trashed and roughly gone over like much of the rest of the house. Pictures had been pulled down from the walls and tossed on to the floor, and shards of glass from the frames crunched under foot. Sage paused and picked one up sadly: it had been a picture of the crew from the Ride's maiden voyage.

Only the main bedroom remained unsearched so Ren pushed open the slatted door and walked inside. The mattress had been slashed open and its innards scattered; the curtains and curtain rail had been pulled from the wall; every drawer had been pulled from the chest and overturned; and a quiet, calm voice said: "go and sit on the bed, and make no sudden movements".

Ren's heart felt like it had leapt into her throat as she tried to walk as calmly and as slowly as she could towards the ruined bed. As she sat down, she could see the green-skinned Orion man with his back pressed against the wall and a phaser pistol aimed right back at her.

Noticing Ren had stopped moving, Sage headed towards the bedroom, but stopped as soon as she saw the wide-eyed expression on her face, and how she wasn't looking at Sage, but at something or someone next to the doorway. Sage suddenly darted for the stairs, only to see a Bolian woman aiming a rifle back up at her.

"Malgog thought someone might come to check over the house," the woman said, smirking. "Go on, go into the main bedroom."

Hands raised, Sage walked into the main bedroom and perched on the edge of the bed next to Ren.

"Where's Xadas?" the man growled.

"If they knew that, Jomor, they wouldn't have come here looking for him," the woman answered in annoyance. She looked apologetically at Ren and Sage. "I should have specified brains as well as brawn," she said. "Allow me to introduce myself: my name is Kuloh, and I am Malgog's chief of operations on Bolarus. Jomor is what some might call an enforcer. I like to think of him as a pain technician."

"You already know we don't know where Xadas is," Ren said calmly. "So you have nothing to gain by trying to force information from us."

"But let's see what else I already know," Kuloh said. "You're his friends. You care about his wellbeing, and that probably goes both ways which makes you leverage." She took out a communicator from her pocket and flipped it open. "Kuloh here – we've got ourselves some guests you might want to meet."

"Good work. We're on our way."

A tense twenty minutes passed while the four of them waited for Malgog's arrival. Ren could feel Sage's increasing stress and fear levels; understandable given she had been a captive Malgog's previously. That time, Sage had managed to set the crew free by adapting a medical tricorder, but against two armed guards with more on the way, there seemed to be no technical solution to getting out of this. Kuloh took the comm badges from both Ren and Sage to ensure they couldn't call anyone for help.

When Malgog and his men arrived, it was heralded by numerous sets of heavy footfalls moving through the house below, and then making their way up the stairs in particular hurry. Malgog's face was clouded with a frown at first glance, but on seeing Sage and Ren, his face creased into an unpleasant smile.

"Excellent work Kuloh," he said before speaking into his communicator. "Return to the ship. We have our engineers."

Kuloh placed the two communicator badges on the floor and then shot them with the phaser rifle.

"Welcome to your new crew," she said.

"We should be able to easily find that lizard tomorrow, particularly if we can get the Sally Ride to scan the jungle for it. Of course, we will have to get the captain's permission for that, and he will expect to know why," T'Lan said, raising her eyebrows at her Andorian walking companion.

"Nobody said that the monitors stole shiny things!" Sh'sirros protested.

As many people did, Sh'sirros and T'Lan had gone to see the famous Cliffs of Bole. Eschewing the direct climb, they had followed the longer, winding path through the woods to get to the top when one of the Cliff Monitors had run out in front of them, looking very curious. Sh'sirros had bent down to let the creature sniff her hand, and the next thing she'd known, the Monitor had snatched her comm badge from her shirt and scampered off into the undergrowth with it.

"Alternatively, it would be possible to replicate you another one," T'Lan said.

Sh'sirros shook her head.

"No, I can't imagine it's healthy for the lizards to be eating metallic objects. I'd like to get it back, if possible." Sh'sirros shrugged her shoulders and then looked around the town square cheerfully. "Looks like we beat Ren and Sage here."

T'Lan frowned slightly.

"They had planned to spend the day in the vicinity of the square and therefore should have easily been here before us," she said. "Were you aware of any change in their plans?"

"Nope, they didn't say anything about it to me. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about."

T'Lan tapped her comm badge.

"T'Lan to Sage." Her comm badge bleeped in a disheartening manner, indicating no comms channel to Sage's badge could be found.

"Well that's odd," Sh'sirros said, antennae twitching a little nervously. She tapped her own badge. "Ren?"

The same, sad bleep.

"Both badges lost or broken? Does that seem likely to you, T'Lan?" Sh'sirros asked.

"It does not," T'Lan said. "Perhaps we should ask for the Sally Ride's assistance sooner than we'd planned." She opened a comms channel to the Bridge and received affirmation from an ensign who'd volunteered to man the science station. "Please run a scan for the locations of Ensign Sage, Chief Ren and Dr Sh'sirros."

There were a couple of moments' silence while the ensign ran the scan.

"I'm sorry, Lieutenant Commander," the ensign reported. "I'm not detecting Ren or Sage's comms signals, but I have located Dr Sh'sirros' comm badge. Would you like me to send you the co-ordinates?"

"Yes please, Nads!" Sh'sirros piped up. "A lizard stole my badge!"

"Ensign, please also inform Commander Rue that Chief Ren and Ensign Sage's whereabouts are unknown and they have failed to make a pre-arranged appointment."

The Ernogon was a reasonably comfortable ship, which was to be expected for Bolian vessel. The usual, welcoming soft furnishings one might expect in a Bolian home had been reduced for practical purposes given the premium placed on space that any working vessel has, but it was far from austere, managing a level of comfort comparable to a Starfleet vessel.

This did not make Ren or Sage any happier about being imprisoned on it. They hadn't been given any further information by Malgog or Kuloh as to why the Orions were desperate for engineers, and Ren and Sage were only guessing that it was desperation which had driven Malgog to trying to kidnap engineers, rather than just a sadistic game he was playing. They really, really hoped it wasn't just some sadistic game.

They could feel the ship breaking orbit and then jumping to warp. Ren lay on the only available bunk and took the first turn to sleep, while Sage sat on the brig floor, hugging her knees. It had taken the Sally Ride over a year to locate Xadas, not least because they had believed Xadas had been killed by Malgog when he'd been captured. However, between losing Xadas and finding him again, the Sally Ride had made contact with another Orion captain by the name of Zazrit.

Sage smiled a little. Zazrit was quite exceptionally good-looking.

It had been Zazrit who had told the crew of the Sally Ride that he believed Xadas was still alive, and enslaved by Malgog. Having no great fondness for the slaver himself, Zazrit had worked with Captain Martinez and the crew on a plan to rescue Xadas and capture Malgog. They had only half-succeeded, and there had been serious concerns about what Zazrit and his crew intended to do with their prisoners from Malgog's crew.

If only there was some way of getting a message out that either the Sally Ride or Zazrit's ship would pick up! Sage had no comm badge, no tricorder, but Malgog was running a skeleton crew here and was placing a lot of trust in the fact the brig would keep Ren and Sage secure. If she could get the force field to drop, she would be able to reach the console and from there…

Sage smiled. From there, she could do so very much.

One step at a time, though. How could she get the force field to fail? She looked around the cell for inspiration, but found none.

Sage's stomach rumbled. Man, she wished she'd been able to get a bite to eat before they'd gone looking for Xadas…

And then she had an idea.

"Ren!" she hissed. "Ren, if we could get hold of some weapons, reckon we could fight our way out of here?"

Ren rolled over and looked at Sage in surprise.

"Sure, why not? Good luck finding some weapons though."

"Well, they have to feed us at some point. That involves cutlery, crockery that we could smash-"

"So they'll give us plastic cutlery and plates," Ren replied.

"Even better! You can get a really sharp edge on snapped plastic."

Ren scanned Sage's eyes. The plan was ludicrously ambitious but, on the other hand, she got the sense that Sage was deliberately withholding some details.

Maybe she thinks they're listening to us, Ren thought to herself. But then why blurt out how we could make weapons… unless Sage isn't trying to make weapons.

She looked at the cheerful, mild-mannered ensign and smiled.

"Let's order some lunch, then."

The security team from the Sally Ride had been searching Xadas' home for over an hour when the former engineer turned up, looking confused about why his former crew mates had showed up. When he saw the state of the house, his face fell; when he heard Ren and Sage were missing, he looked horrified.

"I told them not to come!" Xadas insisted to Rue.

"You knew there was trouble coming and didn't think to mention that?" Rue asked, raising their eyebrows as if surprised by just how unimpressed they could feel.

"I thought it would be better you didn't get involved," Xadas said miserably. "Malgog said something about needing an engineer. He offered to straight up pay me initially, but when I told him I'd decided to live a quieter, planet-based life from now on, he got mad and said he'd get a top engineer one way or another, so I went into hiding! I never thought Ren and Sage would run into the trap instead!"

"Why does Malgog need engineers so urgently?" T'Lan asked.

"I don't- I don't know," Xadas said. "He didn't say anything specifically… no, wait, he did ask if I'd seen Zazrit recently."

Rue closed their eyes for a moment and took a calming breath.

"Zazrit. The captain's going to love that."

"I don't know how Zazrit fits into all this but maybe he has a new toy, a capability or something," Xadas said.

As Rue turned to leave, Xadas jumped into their path.

"Wait, I want to help," he said. "Rue and Sage wouldn't have been caught if it hadn't been for me, and you're short of some engineering effort right now."

"It would certainly be prudent to have Xadas' assistance in engineering, particularly if we may be taking the Sally Ride into a combat situation," T'Lan pointed out.

"We don't know for sure that they've left Bolarus, yet," Rue replied. "But it'd be good to have you back on board."

"Then I suggest getting the big guns. There's a warehouse on the coast owned by a woman called Kuloh who handles things for Malgog here. She was the one who contacted me first, actually," Xadas said.

"All right, let's check this place out and hope they've not flown off yet."

An Orion man walked into The Ernogon's brig and deactivated a small portion of the force field.

"Right… chicken… tikka… masala?" the man said uncertainly. "And naaaaaan bread?"

He pushed a covered metal dish with a large naan bread balanced on top through the deactivated part of the force field.

No cutlery. The naan was going to have to serve as cutlery of a sort – exactly as Sage had hoped.

Sage tore off about a third of the naan and placed it back over the food. The rest she kept to one side.

"Well, there's only one good way to empty this bowl," Sage said cheerfully, and she and Ren began eating the Terran delicacy.

Once the bowl was empty, Sage wiped out the last of the curry with a final bit of naan, and then wrapped the two thirds she'd kept aside around her hand. Had she been brought a plastic bowl, or a ceramic dish, the plan wouldn't have worked, and so it had been crucial to convince their captors that bringing either of those would have been a terrible idea.

Sage stood on the side of the bowl, flattening it out, and then, using the naan bread to insulate her hand, she forced the metal between the force field and the emitters at the side of the brig's aperture. Sparks flew and Sage turned her head away and closed her eyes. After another few moments of jiggling the metal about in the emitters, the field flickered, faltered and vanished.

Ren looked at Sage, impressed.

Now they had uninhibited access to the brig console. The computer here was set up for primarily monitoring the functions of the brig but, with two skilled engineers at work, it was a brief effort to persuade the console to open up the rest of its functions to them. Ren turned off the microphones in the brig and let out a sigh of relief.

"They're going to notice quite quickly so, what's the plan?"

"Two messages, one to the Sally Ride, and the other to Zazrit. If there's anyone who can get us out of this…"

"No, I agree, good choices," Ren said.

"Can you get the ship's telemetry up? Right now we have no idea where we're going," Sage said.

Ren worked beside her, accessing the ship's navigational computer.

"Looks like we're heading for the Bassen Rift. We'll disappear if we go in there."

"How long have we got?" Sage asked nervously.

"About thirty-six hours. Stay positive," Ren added.

"Okay, Bassen Rift-"

The brig doors slid opened and Malgog, snarling with rage, raised his phaser and shot both Starfleet officers.

Kuloh's warehouse was certainly no cheap shack. The facility contained refrigeration and status capabilities, as well as some quite impressive security measures. The Sally Ride's scan had revealed as much, and the presence of Dr Sh'sirros' comm badge nearby. While Rue and T'Lan examined the warehouse's doors, Sh'sirros followed the tracker icon on her tricorder around to an alleyway at the back of the facility. As she reached the alleyway entrance, she heard an urgent scampering of claws and watched as several Cliff Monitors began scratching frantically at the warehouse's back door. As Sh'sirros approached, she saw that each of the Monitors had something shiny in its mouth.

Someone's been training these lizards to steal! Sh'sirros thought to herself, secretly both charmed and impressed by the idea.

"Main entrance is like a vault," Rue said, walking into the alleyway. "How's the back looking? Are these the things that stole your badge?"

"The very same!" Sh'sirros said. "I'm guessing they'll drop their treasures in exchange for food."

T'Lan scanned the door.

"There is minimal security on this door, but the door leading from the next room into the main warehouse is just as secure as the front," she reported. "However, there may be a control panel we can access inside."

Rue took a moment to compose themselves, and then bashed open the door.

Cliff Monitors scurried past the commander's feet and began tearing into a bag of animal feed under a desk. Sh'sirros quietly bent down and scooped up her comm badge.

"Training all these little guys would have taken lot of patience to accomplish," she commented.

"It would be reasonable to assume to if there were guards in the warehouse, they would have come to investigate the noise," T'Lan said.

Rue sighed.

"And given the hungry beasts, I think we can safely say Malgog's crew have already left world. At least we can report the larcenous lizards to the authorities so they can warn other tourists."

Rue's comm badge chirruped and they tapped it to respond.

"Rue," they said.

"We've picked up a signal which it's safe to say probably came from Sage and Ren," Martinez's voice came through. "Return to the ship. We're going to pursue."

It had been the most basic of messages to send and thus had the greatest chance of getting through uncorrupted, even at a distance.

Martinez looked at the simple text string on his PADD:

MALGOG - BASSEN RFT 36HR - MR LS

Yet again, the repairs on the Sally Ride had still not had any chance of being completed before the ship was needed back in action again. Martinez recalled all personnel back to the Ride and sat down in his ready room. Zhiv arrived moments later.

"Captain," Zhiv said. "We've got shields, limited phasers, no torpedoes. Propulsion is still limited to Warp 3. Life support is back online on decks one through five. You can fly the ship but you're going to need an emergency sickbay set up in one of the hangars, plus a makeshift bridge probably in engineering. Under normal circumstances I'd say going after that ship would be stupid but-"

"But it's Sage and Ren, I understand," Martinez said.

Zhiv nodded.

"That and, well, I hadn't quite got around to removing the CAPE. Fixing what was broken seemed more important than that, sir."

"There's a high chance we could get detected using it if we do," Martinez said.

"Not once we're in the rift, sir, and the treaty only covers the cloak, not the phasing."

"We'll keep that in our back pockets in case Malgog turns especially nasty," Martinez said. "Hopefully it won't come to that though."

The Ernogon, Twelve hours later

Gradually, she became aware of the emotional presence of the Ernogon's crew, and then the pain in her chest where she had been hit by the phaser blast. As Ren returned to consciousness, she tried to look around, but found that she had been strapped to a bed.

"Sage?" she called in alarm.

"I'm right here," Sage replied. "Are you okay?"

There was a dark chuckle from behind them both and then the beds began tilt towards the vertical, revealing that they were not in sickbay, as the beds would have suggested, but in engineering and facing one of the large display screens. A familiar Orion freighter, the Mibaza, appeared on screen, paused in motion.

"I do not appreciate being in a position of disadvantage," Malgog said. "But now… this."

The footage began to play and Ren and Sage watched as a shuttlebay door opened on the side of the Mibaza. A familiar, golden ship left the freighter, shimmered and vanished from view.

Sage gasped.

"Ever since he started playing nice with Starfleet, Zazrit's strength and influence have only grown."

Malgog stepped in front of both engineers, wielding a phaser.

"Is this how Starfleet operates? Equipping criminal renegades with advanced technology so they can influence who has power among free traders? Is Zazrit just a puppet to gain control over the Syndicate? IS HE?" Malgog roared.

"We have no idea what you're talking about!" Ren shouted back. "Starfleet is prohibited by-"

"Don't quote your treaties at me," Malgog sneered. "They're not worth the breath that comes out of your mouths. I see the truth here!" he barked, pointing at the screen. "Starfleet are LIARS! They claim to be nonpartisan in the internal affairs of others, but they are every bit as fiendish and as untrustworthy as the Romulans, and every bit as greedy as the Ferengi! Your smiling faces and peaceful platitudes are just the masks that hide the ugly, profiteering, manipulative backstabbers that you are!"

"That is not what Starfleet is about!" Sage insisted.

"Then prove it. Give me the same advantage! Make me a cloaking device."

"We can't! We've never built one!" Ren said.

"You're denying that this is Terran technology?" Malgog asked, pressing a button on the console and causing the image to shift to an image which appeared to have been taken at a distance using a powerful lens. Despite that, the image was clear enough to easily make out the faces of the people. At the head of the group was Zazrit, and familiar faces from his crew were following, but with a new addition: Caliper. Her hair was shorter and now coloured purple, leaving some form of metal brace on the lower part of her skull visible.

"She's not Starfleet," Ren said quietly. "And I think she said she was from the colonies, so that would mean she's not Terran either."

"You're arguing semantics with a phaser aimed at your head," Malgog growled. "She's human, so she's one of you."

"Technically- eep!" Sage abruptly fell silent as Malgog swung the phaser around to aim at her.

"Make me a cloak, or you're both dead and I'll just keep on taking Starfleet engineers until I find one who doesn't have a death wish."

Rue had been fast asleep when their personal terminal had begun to chirrup at them. Feeling their heart sink, they thought back to previous times when they had received unexpected calls from sources external to the Ride.

Not again, please not again.

Sitting down before the screen, Rue accepted the call and had their worst fears confirmed as Zazrit's face appeared on screen.

"Did you miss me, Junil?" he asked, grinning.

"Sadly yes," Rue replied. "Next time I'll make sure my aim's better."

Zazrit laughed.

"I wish I could say I was just getting in touch for these sweet nothings we share, but I can't help but notice the trajectories of the Sally Ride and the Mibaza suggest we're both going to the Bassen Rift. Is that something to do with a message your little bird sent?"

Of course she would have contacted Zazrit as well.

Rue clenched their jaw and shook their head.

"She contacted you as well, then."

"We've worked so well together in the past that I must confess I'm quite excited to have another opportunity to do so, but let me make one thing clear." Zazrit's demeanour changed from flirtatious to dangerous in an alarmingly short amount of time. "This time, Malgog will die, and I am willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that so you'd best have some plan for getting your crew off his ship pretty damn quick because once I have him in my sights-"

"And you can rest assured that if you put my crew in danger, I will personally teach you about a whole level of pain you never knew existed."

Zazrit smirked.

"Be seeing you real soon, Rue."

The screen went black. Rue's head dropped as they took a deep steadying breath, and then opened up another comms channel.

"Captain, I'm sorry to wake you but we're not going after Malgog alone."

"Oh no…"

"It looks like Sage messaged him too."

"Oh god no…"

"And he's already picked up our trajectory."

"No no no no…"

"I'm sorry, sir."

"Please tell me he has at least aged horribly since we last saw him," Martinez said.

"No such luck," Rue replied, smiling a little.

The Ernogon, Twelve hours later

Ren and Sage, as well as some of the Ernogon's engineering crew, were gathered around a workbench looking glum as they examined the pile of metal ash which had once been a model of a ship. There had been no rest, no food, and not a single moment they had not been overseen by at least three armed guards.

"So," Ren said, struggling to sound cheerful at this stage. "That at least tells us something."

"It tells us we can't do this," Ultas, an enslaved Andorian engineer groaned. "The first cloaking device took decades to develop – no one can expect us to construct a brand new one from scratch in a matter of days." His antennae were sagging; whether through exhaustion or despondency, Ren didn't know, but it was sad to see either way.

"I don't know why he thought Starfleet captives would be able to help," Nisa, a likewise enslaved Bajoran. "He should have captured a Romulan or a Klingon."

"Good luck with that," Ren sighed. "I think they're somewhat harder to capture than a Betazoid and a Bajoran on vacation."

"Well he went for the low hanging fruit. He can't expect miracles," Nisa said bitterly.

"You've been here longer than us," Sage said to Nisa. "Do any of the guards watching us have any engineering experience?"

Nisa subtly glanced at them.

"No, they're hired muscle. What, did you hope they might have some good ideas?" she asked sarcastically.

"But then how do they know we're trying to build a cloaking device?" Sage leaned closer. "If we occasionally keep running the same test, obliterating tiny models of the Ernogon, then as far as they know, we're still working on the same problem…"

"What should we build instead?" Ultas asked nervously.

"Weapons," Nisa said.

Sage glanced at Ren nervously.

"Actually, we might not need them. After all, our guards have some already made. If we could make some kind of shockwave emitter that could knock them out, then we'd have weapons. The question is, what we do after that. We're heading for the Bassen Rift. Comms will be scrambled, and there's no one around to call anyway."

"Well, there's not 'no one'," Ultas said. "We're probably going to Bassen Castle to collect supplies. It's a smugglers' bolt hole run by a Trill called the Baron. He deals in salvage, slaves, mercenaries… some say he has killers for hire too, if you need them."

"Bassen Castle?" Sage asked, a look of healthy scepticism crossing her face.

"He's a bit of a nut job. It's just a space station," Ultas said.

"If he deals in salvage, mightn't he have a cloaking device for sale?" Sage asked.

"My guess is either he doesn't, or is his price is a little too rich for Malgog – probably the latter. A working cloak is going to be worth a small planetoid's weight in gold-pressed latinum."

"If we could just scan it, maybe we could actually create one," Nisa said, but Ultas shook his head.

"And deprive the Baron of all that shiny latinum? No way would he allow it."

"So, given plan A of cooperating and creating this thing looks like it just took a dive off the table," Ren said. "Plan B: we make a stun grenade and when we get to Bassen Castle, we try and hide out there until the Sally Ride can come find us."

"What makes you so sure they'll come?" Nisa asked. "They probably think you're dead."

"They already pulled that stunt with another of crew members," Ren replied. "We got him back."

"Oh wow, you're that crew," Nisa said, smirking. "Good job."

"The Sally Ride will come," Ren said firmly. "We just have to be ready to escape when she does."

The edge of the Bassen Rift, twelve hours later

Reluctantly, Martinez had agreed to rendezvous with the Mibaza at the edge of the rift. The green aurora of electromagnetic distortion drifted lazily like clouds on a tranquil day, giving no indication of the havoc they could cause with the instrumentation aboard both the Sally Ride and the Mibaza. Fortunately, Zazrit was able to assist with that. Unfortunately, he insisted on coming aboard the Sally Ride to discuss it in person.

"There's a space station deep in the rift run by a slightly crazed Trill called the Baron. It's called the Bassen Castle, fitting in with whole medieval Terran theme, I guess. He's got the sort of criminal network going that even earns respect from the Syndicate. Fortunately, he just wants to feel like King of the Rift and has no interest in expanding his activities much further, or else a very hostile takeover would probably occur. As long as you know the right heading to follow, you can find it," Zazrit said.

"Great. What's the heading?" Martinez asked.

Zazrit laughed, looking far too comfortable in one of the conference lounge chairs.

"Well, from our current position, I'd say the heading is not something I'd give to Starfleet, but I'd be more than happy to take a handful of crew on board the Mibaza."

"You wound me, Zazrit," Martinez said. "Haven't we established a relationship based on trust already? Haven't I not told Starfleet about all that fantastic contraband you like to deal in?"

"I know better than to cross the Baron, Captain. He has mercenaries and assassins under his command, and I really don't need that sort of hassle."

"Captain, in this instance, Zazrit's right. We shouldn't take the Sally Ride anywhere near the Baron," Rue said.

"Is there something I should know?" Martinez asked.

"Yes, sir, but not in present company. It's not something my people like to discuss."

"But haven't we established a relationship based on trust already?" Zazrit said innocently, before turning serious. "We need to act quickly. We don't know how long Malgog intends to stay at Bassen Castle and once he leaves, we won't know what direction he's heading in. We have a narrow window of opportunity to get him-"

"And get Ren and Sage back," Rue added meaningfully.

"My goals are your goals," Zazrit said, smiling in his usual flirtatious way before getting to his feet. "You have one hour before we're going in, with or without your personnel."

Once Zazrit had left and Martinez and Rue were alone in the conference lounge, Martinez turned to Rue with a questioning look on his face. Rue sighed.

"The Baron isn't unknown to joined Trill, as he is one. Unfortunately, the symbiont… went mad. Hosts undergo very rigorous testing before being allowed to join, and it's considered quite an honour. Symbionts don't have to undergo the same process – it's considered disrespectful. It was hoped they would perish in an aged host, unable to find another one, but it seems they've been able to successfully get moved into new hosts over time. As a precaution, we're told they're dangerous to unjoined Trill and to medical personnel."

"Medical personnel?"

"Well, they need surgeons to help implant them into new hosts when the old ones wear out."

"Thanks Rue, I'll bear that in mind," Martinez said. "Assemble a suitable away team and liaise with the Mibaza. Bring our people home."

"Aye, captain."

The Mibaza

In Engineering, Oreteg, a Ferengi engineer, was doing some routine maintenance aided by Caliper. If nothing else, as far as Cal was concerned, it helped pass the time.

"Of course the whole thing was filled with bricks," Oreteg said, concluding one smuggling story.

Caliper smiled.

"Cheeky buggers! Did you track them down?"

"Not yet, but if you ever see a Romulan with half an ear and a tattooed nose, always look inside any containers he gives you before signing on the dotted line."

"Tattooed nose, got it."

"Nice to see you're both hard at work," Zazrit commented. Oreteg got to his feet and wiped his hands on his trousers.

"I think you'll be pleased. There was a minor coolant leak that we've patched up, so at least that explains why we were going through it at such a rate. We're just-"

"I'm sure you're doing good work," Zazrit interrupted. "Cal, a quick word?"

Cal rolled her eyes and got to her feet.

"Zazrit."

He gestured for her to follow him out of engineering.

"We've rendezvoused with the Sally Ride. We'll be taking on passengers shortly. You'll probably want to make yourself sparse."

"I appreciate the warning," Cal replied.

"But I want you on the external team with Kos."

Cal paused for a moment in surprise.

"After we've disembarked, you and Kos will be moving over the outside of the station to get to Malgog's ship. Make sure he can't leave."

Cal looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Okay… I'll need to- actually, you don't need to worry about the details. Consider it done."

Zazrit nodded and then hesitated.

"You know, you're not a prisoner. That's not how I run my ship. If you wanted, you could jump now and go back to the Sally Ride."

Cal tilted her head sceptically.

"You know I'm not leaving without the Pariah."

"It's a fair price for dragging you out of the Collective, I thought."

"You thought wrong."

"You know, we could find all sorts of components at the Castle. Enough to make another CAPE, maybe, one for the Mibaza."

Cal sighed and turned to leave.

"Or you could just admit you don't want to leave."

Cal shook her head.

"Listen, Captain Nipples: I don't want to leave… without my ship."

Minutes later, an away team from the Sally Ride beamed aboard the Mibaza, with Zazrit, Velu and Kos waiting to greet them. Well, Zazrit was waiting to greet them; Velu locked eyes with Rue, and Kos… maybe he was happy to see them, or maybe he wasn't – as usual the Gorn was impossible to read.

Accompanying Rue in the away team were Andorian Lieutenant Kon Ch'Vanek, human Lieutenant June Robsin and Betazoid Lieutenant Bisah Oraam all from Sally Ride's security team. With the Ride already missing two senior officers, they'd felt it best not to deplete the senior officer complement any further.

"Welcome aboard!" Zazrit said cheerfully. "I see you've brought some new faces with you."

"Ch'Vanek, Robsin and Oraam, from Security."

"I see you're prepared for trouble, then. Good. I'm hoping we'll cause a lot of it," Zazrit added mischievously. "Follow me; I'd like to talk you through the layout of Bassen Castle before we get there. At maximum impulse it shouldn't take us more than six hours to arrive. We just have to hope whatever business Malgog has with the Baron will keep him occupied long enough for us to catch him."

"And if it doesn't?" Rue asked as the group began to leave the transporter area.

"Then the chase is on," Zazrit said quietly. He looked back at Rue over his shoulder. "We'll get them back, Junil."

Bassen Castle station

Looking as though M.C. Escher and Anton Gaudi had decided to build a medieval nightmare in space, Bassen Castle initially resembled an ancient Terran sea mine: crenelated towers jutted out from a spherical middle, with the central band providing places for ships to dock, while the others were topped with flags frozen in motion.

A number of ships were already docked as the Mibazi approached. A Lurian male hailed the ship and guided the Mibazi to an empty docking tower.

"Busy day," Zazrit commented.

The Lurian sighed.

"Usually means trouble. You know the drill, list of all personnel on board." He caught sight of Commander Rue on the bridge and his demeanour changed to one of surprise. "Is that a Trill?"

"A joined Trill," Rue replied innocently.

The Lurian sagged.

"Enjoy your stay and try not to break anything."

Ren and Sage looked down at the device they had constructed with Nisa and Ultas.

"Do you think it's ready?" Ultas whispered.

"It's a shame we can't test it beforehand," Ren replied. "But let's hope it is." She scooped up the box in one arm and began to approach the armed guards. The guards immediately stood to alert.

"You're not allowed to leave," one growled.

"But I wanted to show this to the cap- commodore," Ren said. "I mean, it's really cool, look at this!"

As the guards leaned in for a better look, Ren punched the button on the top of the box, while closing her eyes and looking away. A brilliant flash of white energy burst out from the box, causing both guards to yelp and stumbled backwards, blinded but not knocked out.

"Good enough!" Nisa yelled, running forward and wresting one of the guards' weapons away from him before shooting him, pointe blank.

Sage looked at Ren in shock, but Ren returned with an apologetic 'I guess we are where we are' shrug and grabbed the second rifle. She set hers to stun before shooting the guard, however.

"Let's go," Nisa said, moving into the corridor beyond engineering.

"I'll bring up the rear, you and Ultas go in the middle," Ren said, urging the other engineers to hurry up and chase after Nisa.

The Mibazi's airlock opened, revealed a gothic arched hallway beyond with torch-shaped lighting dimly set on the walls. The floor underfoot was made of replica flagstones.

"Robsin, you're Terran, right?" Zazrit asked.

"Yes… yeah, I am," she replied, stumbling a little where she tried to stop herself saying 'sir'.

"Ever seen a real castle on Earth?"

"When I was very young my parents took me to a few," Robsin said. "This is… well, he's made a good effort," she said charitably. "But it's more like a holonovel set."

Zazrit laughed.

"Just don't let the Baron hear you say that," he said, flashing his charismatic grin at her.

Rue saw Robsin blush and sighed quietly.

Meanwhile, Kos and Caliper were at the Mibazi's undocked airlock and looking out at the green glow of the Bassen Rift as it illuminated the silhouettes of other ships docked with the castle. Her tools were safely stuck to her belt through strong magnets, and her phaser rifle was connected by a cord to her waist as well. As a finishing touch, she turned on the jamming armlet on both her and Kos' suits so that they wouldn't be setting off any proximity alarms on Malgog's ship. She gave Kos the thumbs up, fired up her thrusters and carefully flew out of the airlock. Kos followed a moment later, more confident in zero-g manoeuvres than Cal and thus soon overtaking her. She rolled her eyes.

Show off…

At one point he shut off his thrusters and let momentum keep taking him while he turned to wave back at her.

In space, no one can hear you swear.

Eventually she caught up with him outside of Malgog's ship. He had his arms folded. They had aimed for the top of the vessel so as to avoid any windows but one quick look told Cal that the critical tech she needed was overlooked by windows. Fair enough, she'd have designed a ship the same way.

Oh wait, I DID.

Suddenly, she felt Kos grab her arm and point at a window. She hit her comms panel.

"Were we seen?"

"Phaser fire," Kos replied.

"That wasn't the plan!"

"No," Kos growled. "It wasn't."

"Well, I guess at least they're distracted now," Cal said, and decided, to heck with it, and drifted down past a window to reach a particular access panel. Kos was all business now, keeping watch for trouble, but it looked like whatever trouble there was, it was happening inside the Ernogon.

Quietly, Cal began disconnecting wires and fusing the connection sites closed.

Nisa was merciless as she prowled the ship, shooting anyone who came across her path. It was certain that some of the people she shot were fellow slaves, but there was no way of telling them apart from the willing crew. She threw her weapon back to Ultas when she realised someone she taken out was carrying a better weapon and so she now carried a large rifle. Only Sage remained unarmed but she was quite content with that given there were two people in front of her, and one behind. Occasionally she would meet Nisa's eye, and she couldn't help but feel the other Bajoran didn't like her very much.

Just as they were crossing an intersection, the ship went dark. A faint, green luminescence from the Rift did little to illuminate their surroundings and so the escaped engineers suddenly found themselves fumbling and feeling their way through a ship they had not been permitted to explore and familiarise themselves with.

"Stick to the outer edges of the ship," Nisa hissed. "We're bound to find the airlock soon enough."

Suddenly, a bolt of phaser fire scorched through the darkness from their right and burned streaks across their vision, as well going straight through Nisa's chest. Ultas ran forwards, while Ren and Sage jumped backwards.

"What happened?" Ren whispered to Sage.

"I don't know, a sniper maybe?" she replied.

"It's Kuloh," Ultas said. "She's guarding the intersection. Cross it at your peril."

In the darkness, they heard Ultas sigh.

"Look ladies, I'm thankful-"

"But you're gonna leave us here anyway," Ren finished for him. "Just go."

They heard him stumbling away in ship, leaving Ren and Sage frozen on the spot, unwilling to turn back, too afraid to step forward lest Kuloh took them out.

"But how did she see him?" Sage asked.

"Nightvision scope," came the amused reply. "So I can see in the dark and you can't. Now, how about you lovely ladies turn right around go walking back to-"

"LIFE SUPPORT FAILURE. EVACUATE THIS DECK IMMEDIATELY."

Kuloh swore, and Ren and Sage heard her go running off through the ship as the temperature began to plummet.

"We need to find that airlock fast," Ren said, turning on the torch on her phaser rifle. Looking around she could see Nisa, wide-eyed in death, slumped against the bulkhead with a large hole going straight through her chest.

Sage winced as she approached and then picked up the bloodied rifle before unhooking the torch from it. She left the rifle with Nisa.

A large, open space on the station had been turned over into a multi-level market place. Some of the traders looked to be genuine, modern merchants, but all too many were selling renaissance-fayre foods and novelty goods, or costume pieces. For Zazrit and the rest of the rescue mission from the Mibaza, it was a little too joyful for their mood.

Suddenly, phaser fire began raining down from the deck above, targeting Zazrit, his crew and the away team equally. Merchants and shoppers scurried for cover, screaming with terror, while Rue and the away team positioned themselves where they could at least see who was shooting at them and attempt to return fire. Rue watched as Malgog hit his communicator and then scowled as he didn't seem to get any response. He waved at his guards to begin retreating back towards the docking ring.

Lieutenant Oraam howled as he took a bad hit to his leg. Kon Ch'Vanek rushed forward to drag him cover while Robsin covered them both with phaser fire directed at Malgog's guards. As Rue backed Robsin, they felt proud of their security team, and made a note to deploy them on away missions more often.

"He's heading for the docking ring – cut him off!" Zazrit yelled before he and Velu sprinted off. Ch'Vanek looked up from Oraam helplessly.

"Ch'Vankek, Robsin, stay here and help Oraam. If you can get him back to the ship safely, do so," Rue said, before dashing off in their own unique way after Zazrit and Velu.

Moments later, Rue had caught up with Zazrit who looked back at them in confusion.

"Where's the rest?"

"Tending to the wounded," Rue replied.

"He was stable! We needed that extra firepower here," Zazrit growled angrily.

"He had three guards with him. I can take care of them if you're not feeling up to it," Rue said, smirking a little.

Zazrit returned the expression.

"Testing my pride?" He peered around the corner. "Velu's at the other intersection. He's not going to get past us."

At that moment, they heard the sound of phaser fire being exchanged further up the corridor. Zazrit narrow his eyes.

"This way," he said, leading Rue away from the gunfight. "That's one of my tricks."

As they reached a bend in the corridor, Malgog came marching towards them and froze. He gave Zazrit an almost fond, proud smile.

"I'd have been so disappointed if you'd fallen for that," Malgog said.

"I think you'd have been delighted," Zazrit replied. "And then you'd have shot us in the back."

"I will say this, Zazrit. The old distraction ambush, I'd have expected no less, but what the hell did you do to my ship?"

"Maybe today's just not-" and Zazrit shot Malgog through the head. "Your lucky day," he finished. He turned to look back at Rue. "Now, we find your little bird."

As Ren and Sage hurried through the ship, they watched as their breaths fogged in front of them, a visual reminder that they were using up the last of the precious, breathable air. Sage was starting to see flashes in her vision with every pace she jogged. At long last they reached a much sturdier-looking door, the kind which could handle extremes of pressure differences and changes, but as Ren looked through the porthole in the door, she could see the outer door was open to the green haze of the rift and two people in evosuits were stood inside.

Ren turned to look at Sage, devastated.

"The… outer door…" was all she managed to gasp out before her knees gave way beneath her and she slid down the door. Sage stumbled towards her, and then crawled when she could no longer keep herself upright.

Not like this, she prayed to the Prophets. We just needed-

As if in answer to her prayers, the valve began to spin as the airlock door was opened. Sage felt a draft as air rushed to fill the vacuum in the airlock. She saw someone in an evosuit standing over her and then pressing something over her mouth – sweet air! Sweet cleansing, clearing air! It was the breathing apparatus from inside one of the suits. Another evosuited individual was administering air to Ren in the same way. The Betazoid's dark eyes fluttered open, and then she looked up at the person giving her air in such shock that she almost fought to get the air away from her. The stranger pressed a gloved finger to their helmet in the classic gesture of 'be quiet' and patiently continued to administer air until both women were strong enough to get back to their feet.

Strapping the masks over their faces, Ren and Sage began following the two suited strangers through the dark and cold ship. A few of the crew were also unconscious and possibly dead in various rooms along the way but if either Ren or Sage stopped to investigate, the strangers would urge them on quickly.

"It's too cold for you to stay here," one of strangers replied over a speaker in his suit… and Sage recognised that voice.

"Kos?"

The Saurian nodded his helmet at her.

"I'm glad you still have your wits about you, Sage," he replied. "You might just need them. We can't know for sure that everyone on board is unconscious."

"I knew I was right to contact Zazrit!" Sage said triumphantly.

The unknown figure who was leading the way off the ship suddenly held up a hand in warning. There was a tense moment of quiet, and then the figure continue onwards with Kos close behind.

Suddenly Kos tackled the figure in front to the floor as a bolt of phaser fire burst through the air where their head had been but a moment before. Scrambling a little ungainly to their feat because of the evosuits, the pair staggered into a run and began chasing down their assailant. A struggle ensued between the two figures and Kuloh who was one-handedly trying to stop one of figures from wrenching her sniper rifle away from her. As the two engaged in this tug-of-war, the other figure circled them both carefully. When Kuloh pulled out a knife, the circling figure tried to grab it, but Kuloh wrenched her arm and weapon out of the bulky evosuit's gloved grip and slashed it deeply across the stomach of the other figure. There was a hiss of escaping air as the figure staggered backwards against the wall, while the other now had Kuloh in a choke hold. They wrenched off Kuloh's mask, leaving her gasping and wide-eyed like a fish out of water, and then held the struggling Bolian there until her struggles lessened, her eyelids became heavy and she dropped to the floor.

The stabbed figure was peeling off her useless suit and strapping the breathing apparatus on over her head.

"You all right?" Kos asked Caliper.

"Oh yeah, she only wrecked the suit. Didn't even get to my shirt," Cal replied with a shrug. She picked up the belt of tools and strapped it around her waist, and then hefted the phaser rifle. "Best not keep Zazrit waiting."

"You're on Zazrit's crew now?" Sage asked in wonder. "But we thought you were assimilated!"

"Well, they tried," Cal replied, lifting some of her now shorter hair to reveal that, from ear to ear, the back of her head was completely metal. "Luckily for me, Zazrit saw the Pariah, took a liking to her and brought us both on board."

"What about the drones?" Ren asked.

"Ejected into space," Kos said.

"Velu was skilled enough to… fix me," Cal said awkwardly. "But she's no miracle worker. There was no saving them as well. Please don't look at me like that," Cal added, catching Ren staring at her intensely.

"See?" Zazrit said, turning to Rue and smiling as the docking ring airlock hissed open and an evosuited person stepped forwards. Kos removed his helmet, and then stepped aside to reveal Ren and Sage. "Everything was always under control."

"Commander!" Sage said cheerfully. "Guess who else we found!"

That was when Cal stepped into view. Her eyes met Rue's, and then she turned to Zazrit.

"I'll be on the ship," she said, and began to walk away.

"Oh," Sage said, looking disappointed.

"You have Caliper on your crew now?" Rue asked Zazrit.

"We rescued her from the Borg," he replied. "Her and that pretty little ship of hers."

"That pretty little ship which the Borg are probably still looking for?" Rue asked. "Did you recruit the drones as well?"

"Velu's good, but she's not that good. They couldn't be saved. Caliper was only in the initial stages of assimilation, so there was less dependence on the nanites in her system," Zazrit said.

Suddenly, from all directions, came the sounds of running footsteps. Half a moment later, dozens of armed guards turned up.

"Everybody! Weapons on the ground and hands in the air!" the captain of the guard barked. The effect of her glowering was lessened slightly due to the Norse helmet she was sporting. Her phaser rifle looked to be genuine article, however, as did those being carried by the other guards.

Sage and Ren had their hands up immediately. Calmly, Zazrit and Kos placed their guns on the floor and raised their hands. This left Commander Rue who leant on their crutches using their forearms and raised their hands at the wrist.

"The Baron protects all who enter his castle. By killing one of his guests, you have made a mockery of the Baron and he demands recompense. The Trill will remain here and serve in his personal guard."

Rue laughed in disbelief.

"I don't think that's going to be the case," they replied.

The captain of the guard tilted her head at Rue.

"The alternative is that you will each be cut down here and your bodies hung from the towers to serve as a warning to anyone else seeking disrupt the barony."

On board the Mibaza, Velu was waiting by the airlock doors as Cal returned.

"Where's Zazrit?" she demanded.

"He was busy chatting and I wasn't feeling sociable so I came back alone. I mean, he can't be that far behind me though…"

A little doubt began to set in.

"You should have stayed with him," Velu growled. She pulled out her communicator and tried to hail him, but the signal was abruptly cut off.

"You know, as long as he has my communicator, I can use the Pariah to track him, and I can get an audio feed of what's happening around him."

Velu stared at Cal intently. This might have been intimidating once, but Cal wasn't so easily cowed now. She had faced the Devil and survived, mostly. One feral Vulcan wasn't very scary in comparison.

"Do it," Velu said.

Together, they walked through the Mibaza to the cargo bay. The moment the door slid open and Cal could see her beloved ship, she felt her heart soar.

Hey baby…

She touched a panel on Pariah's side which caused the entry hatch to appear and a ladder to unfurl to reach it. She hopped up, with Velu right on her heels, and sat down at one of the console PADDs. It was a simple matter to put the comm badge into 'listen' mode and moments later, the audio feed began to play Sage's voice.

"We can't just leave them!"

"We were completely outgunned," Zazrit replied. "Their best hope now is you going back to the Ride and making this a Starfleet matter."

"Rue wouldn't be leaving any of us behind, not even you," Sage continued.

"Then they would have gotten you all killed. I'm sorry, Sage, but we lost this one. Starfleet has the resources to do something about it but me? Being banished from castle is going to smart in the long term."

Cal called up the tracker and turned to Velu.

"They're almost back at the ship. You could probably beat them to the air-"

Before Cal could even finish her sentence, Velu had gone.

Heart racing a little, Cal had the Pariah close the door and re-stash the ladder. She connected to the Mibaza's computer and sealed the cargo bay ready for depressurization. Oreteg's voice came over the comms in a bit of a panic.

"What's happening down there? Oh no, Cal, is that you?"

"I'm sorry, Oreteg. For what it's worth, you made the wait more bearable. I hope we can catch up again soon, okay?"

There was a pause while the cargo bay's external doors opened.

"May your endeavours be profitable," Oreteg said, and cut the comms channel.

The Pariah cloaked and then left the Mibazi.

As Zazrit stepped back on board his ship, Velu threw herself at him, wrapping him in a passionate embrace which was rudely interrupted by a sudden, sharp pain on Zazrit's chest. He stumbled back, for a moment utterly confused as to how he could have been shot… and then looked at the charred, smoking communicator attached to his harness.

"What… Velu, where's Cal? Did she get back yet?"

"We used the Pariah-" Velu began.

Oreteg came running around the corner.

"She's gone," he said.

Zazrit took a moment to try and contain his anger but from the way the muscles in his shoulders were tensing, Ren didn't need to be telepathic in order to tell that he was close to breaking out into a full blown rage.

"Kos, find them some quarters," Zazrit muttered before turning to look at the rescued Starfleet Officers. "I suggest you and your injured comrades stay in your quarters and try not to get in the way. We'll be back at the Sally Ride in twelve hours."

With that, he stalked away with Velu following closely behind.

Cal pinned her new comm badge to her shirt and sighed happily as she watched the Mibazi disengage from the castle and head off into the green mists of the Bassen Rift. She also saw some of the Baron's salvage crews beginning to dismantle the Ernogon.

Waste not, want not.

Cal connected the Pariah's computer to the station's and then began searching the security records. As she had expected, her face had been captured when she had left the Ernogon and again when she stepped on board the Mibazi. She deleted the pictures and replaced them with shots of empty hallway taken from a few seconds after she had left the cameras' views.

She maintained orbit of the castle for a further twenty minutes, and then de-cloaked and hailed the station. The Lurian traffic controller appeared on screen and regarded her in surprise.

"Welcome to Bassen Castle," he said. "It's not often we see a Terran vessel with a cloak."

"If the cloak's working well then you wouldn't, would you?" Cal replied. "Permission to dock?"

"Granted. Proceed to pylon twelve. I should warn you, we've had some trouble so the station's not at its best at the moment."

"Nothing too serious, I hope."

"Oh no," the Lurian said. "Nothing the guards couldn't handle."

In the barracks, one of the guards fastened a collar around Rue's throat. They noticed he wore the same.

"Tracking device?" Rue asked him.

The guard shook his head.

"No. This ensures you don't try stowing away on any vessels docked with the castle. If you move out of range of the signal, or you block the signal, it explodes," he sighed.

"How long have you been here?"

"Seven, maybe eight years? I gave up counting. No one's going to come looking for me. You should probably accept that too."

"I know my friends. They won't give up until I'm free."

"You must have some pretty good friends then." He nodded his head at Rue's crutches. "Can't help but think you're a strange choice for the guard, if you don't mind me saying."

"I do," Rue replied coldly.

"Well, at least this hell won't last long for you," the guard said. "You'll be killed in the first fight we get sent to break up."

"I'm starting to see why you don't have friends you can trust to come and rescue you," Rue commented.

"Whatever," the guard murmured and walked back to his bunk.

Rue glanced down at their own assigned bunk. The sheets were yellow with age and threadbare with use, but at least they were clean. A weapons rack at the barracks exit held phaser rifles in a strong magnetic lock which only released in the event of the guards being sent out to deal with trouble. The guards hadn't found Rue's comm badge from where they had secreted it in a pocket sewn into the back of their shirt, and they'd not given the crutches a second look, so at least Rue had resources, but what they didn't have was a ride.

They heard the comm badge chirrup. Rue moved to the bathroom and fished their comm badge out from inside of their shirt and accepted the hail.

"Rue, where are you?" came Caliper's voice. "I'm docked at Pylon 12."

"I thought Zazrit had to leave," Rue replied.

"He did. I didn't."

"Well, I'm serving on the guard now, apparently. If I try to leave, this collar around my neck explodes."

"What happens if the signal is blocked?"

"The same."

"Junil…"

Rue took a deep breath.

"What?"

"Why did you let them put the collar on you in the first place?"

"I'll meet you in the marketplace and if you have any other infuriating questions, you can ask me in person."

"When you're within striking distance? I'm not that stupid. See you in the market in 10 minutes."

The marketplace still showed signs of the recent fire fight. When Cal touched her fingers to one scorch mark, she found it was still a little warm. The traders were nervously looking at the phaser rifle she was carrying so she slung it over her shoulder to try and appear more casual. It didn't help. She still felt self-conscious about all these people staring at her.

"I hope you have some sort of a plan," Rue said approaching from behind Cal.

Cal looked at the crutches curiously.

"What do you use for sound dampening?"

"Practice."

"Well, I don't have a plan, but I can tell you this much. The collar technology is pretty crude, and it's simple to track the signal to its source. I guess they don't have to worry about anyone turning the signal off. You need some kind of key or token to get the collar off safely, which is probably stored near the source of the signal."

"And both of these things are with the Baron?" Rue guessed.

"Yep. He's not the most imaginative of lunatics. Question is how do we get to him? I considered pretending to be an unjoined Trill but no amount of make-up is going to fool anyone for long. We can't contact the Sally Ride because the Bassen Rift screws up all but short range comms."

"But if we could get a signal out, I can think of one way we could get an unjoined Trill here. There's a rite, the zhian'tara, which necessitates the assistance of an unjoined, telepathic Trill to draw the personalities of previous hosts out into temporary hosts so that the latest host can get to understand all facets of their personality. It's something all hosts should have gone through but, because I thought I was the first host, I've never gone through it. Now that the truth is coming out, the Symbiosis Council has no right to withhold it from me. What we would need to do is ensure the safety of the telepath. The Baron is desperate for a new host."

"Leave that to me. I'll report back to the Ride and we'll put a plan together. In the meantime… don't break too many people."

"I'm genuinely puzzled by this reputation I have," Rue replied before smiling broadly. They caught just a little bit of a blush on Cal's face before the flustered engineer hurried away.

The edge of the Bassen Rift, twelve hours later

Zazrit had not hung around after emerging from the rift. Still sore about losing his cloak and phase capable ship, he handed over Ren and Sage, and the Away Team less Rue and then set off at warp within an hour of his return.

Martinez's relief at having two of his senior officers back safe and sound was marred only by the absence of a third, but almost no sooner had the Mibaza set off at warp, the Pariah de-cloaked and hailed the Sally Ride. For a moment, Martinez had hoped that Caliper had brought Commander Rue with her, but sadly this wasn't the case.

"Junil has a plan, but I'm going to have to beg for your trust, Captain," Cal said over the viewscreen.

"By all means," Martinez replied.

Cal frowned in puzzlement.

"Go ahead and beg. You still won't get my trust, Caliper."

"I can't do this over subspace. Permission to beam aboard?"

She transported herself directly on to the Bridge as soon as permission was granted, and then followed Martinez into his Ready Room. She sat down in a chair for a moment, then jumped up and paced nervously with her hands pressed to the back of her head.

"What is that thing on the back of your head, by the way?" Martinez asked.

Cal sagged.

"The Borg were pretty desperate to get into my head. They needed to access my memories and… well, the back of the head is the easiest place to get to them. Without the full kit normally available to them on a Borg cube, they rushed and they tried to improvise. They ended up making a real mess back there. Some of the technology they installed had to remain, not least to stop my brain falling out the back of my skull." Cal turned slowly. "Velu and Oreteg did a pretty neat job patching it all up, but there's no hiding what happened to me."

Martinez looked at Cal sympathetically for a moment.

"There is no shame in being assimilated. You did everything you could-"

"It's not that!" Cal interrupted, raising her voice a little in desperation to cut Martinez off. "And please… don't give me the sympathy speech. Fact is, every time I look in the mirror… there it is. How do you get over something when the trigger for a flashback is your own reflection?" She shook her head. "How did we even get on to this? This is about Rue."

Martinez hesitated, then changed his stance a little and clapped his hands together.

"Yes, wow me with your begging."

"I'm not going to beg."

"I thought that was the point of beaming over. I'm not going to lie, I'm a little disappointed."

Cal took a deep breath.

"Just to confirm, what are your clearances?"

Martinez groaned into his hands.

"Oh god. Intelligence."

"Sort of. Sorry. What are they?" Cal prompted.

"Top. Top secret," Martinez replied.

"Have you heard of an organisation called Section 31?"

Martinez frowned.

"Is it Starfleet?" he asked warily.

"Officially, we don't exist. We're Starfleet's black-ops division, operating separately from and usually without the knowledge of Starfleet Intelligence. Are you familiar with the Tal Shiar or the Obsidian Order?"

"Of course," Martinez replied.

"We're like that, but a much better kept secret. Only a select handful of people know of our existence. We do things that people playing by the rules can't."

"A cloaking device? A secret listening post in Klingon territory?"

Cal looked impressed.

"Wow, you really should have received a defensive brief on this before now," she said.

"You'd think someone might have thought of that, but amazingly, it just hasn't happened yet. By any chance, do you know of a Lieutenant Lassie Leclerc?"

Cal's eyebrows rose in surprise.

"I'm going to take that as a yes. Hope you don't mind."

"Well, no time like the present I guess. Here's the short version of the Welcome to Section 31 brief. We're able to do what we do because our existence is unknown. No one expects Starfleet to have saboteurs, spies and assassins, because we're too… nice for that. We've existed since before the Federation, but once Earth became part of a federation of planets, our remit became to protect the Federation by any means. And because we don't play by the rules..." Cal held out her hand to shake. "Commander Caliper, a pleasure to meet you properly at last."

"Section 31 accepts augments, then?"

"Oh yes. And Romulans. Cardassians. Klingons. Not Borg though. A major priority for us is the diminishing and eventual elimination of the Borg threat, which was the main task of Bell Rock: research and development of technologies we could use against the Borg. Everything we had at the point the Borg discovered us, we packed into the Pariah, and you saw how effective that was."

"But you got captured," Martinez replied. "So, does that mean the Borg know everything you know? Doesn't that mean Section 31 is a bust now?"

Cal shook her head and smiled.

"I got lucky. The drones who attempted to assimilate me weren't able to progress very far using only what they could cannibalise from the Pariah and it wasn't that long after we'd left Station 718 that we came across a certain pirate with an eye for gold. Zazrit didn't just save my life; he saved my soul. Still doesn't mean he can have my ship," Cal added with a mischievous grin.

"Okay, so consider my mind officially blown," Martinez said, starting to sound impatient. "What does this have to do with rescuing my executive officer from the mad Baron?"

"Here's where it starts to get messy," Cal said, finally taking a seat again. "Rue was an officer in Section 31 while in their first host."

"Junil's a spy?"

"No… Dryden Rue was a spy."

"There haven't been any other hosts for Rue. They told me they were the first!" Martinez said.

"Junil was told that too, but when Chief Ren gave us all Betazoid flu, I got to meet the first host. It turns out that this man, Dryden, has been trying to leak information through whatever blocks 31 put in place to silence him, but as the information creeps through, it leaves Junil in some distress - I saw that for myself. Not only that, but they're barely able to retain any of it. However, whatever inhibitors are in place didn't affect me when I got drawn into Junil's head." Cal paused. "Um… I knew Dryden."

"Awkward."

"Heartbreaking. I was asked to identify his body. I didn't know he was joined, and I don't think Dryden disclosed he had joined with a symbiont to anyone. I don't think the section would have allowed it because of this exact situation where you've got a symbiont containing highly classified information being joined with an uncleared and unprepared new host. That fact is, Rue is therefore not your standard symbiont so when Junil suggested that we arranged for their zhian'tara to take place at Bassen Castle, thus providing us with the bait we'd need to get into the Baron's secure area-"

"Hold up, why do you need to get in there?"

"Ah, he's got explosive collars around the necks of all his servants," Cal explained. "He also happens to be desperate for a new host so if we could persuade an unjoined Trill to go to the Castle…"

"As bait. Doesn't sound like much fun for the Trill to be honest."

"They'd have both me and Rue for protection," Cal said. "I'm not as helpless as I've tried to seem in the past. I figured an engineer who also happens to be a skilled combatant would be a stretch too far for my credibility as a civilian colonist."

"Yeah, a little bit," Martinez said, nodding. "All right, now join the dots for me. How does this relate to Section 31 and what's the plan here?"

"Well, because Rue is ex-31, when Junil does their zhian'tara, they'll be able to speak freely and consciously to Dryden and thus be able to access a lot of classified information. 31 is not going to allow just any Trill to facilitate the rite, in that case, and they'll want someone senior to supervise and debrief both Dryden and Junil to ensure they both understand the gravity of what they know and the responsibility on them to keep such information to themselves. There's also the matter of finding someone who can play temporary host to Dryden while he's outside of the symbiont's consciousness – that person would also have to be a trusted operative in Section 31. So, it was a simple plan, but I should really play this one by 31's rules and get a cleared Trill in to do the rite. The plus side is they'll have had the same intensive training as all Section 31 operatives, so if the Baron thinks they'll be easy to capture, he's in for an unpleasant surprise. So, we're talking at least 3 highly trained combatants going into the Baron's inner chambers, two of whom are trained in infiltration as well. We grab the token to get Rue's collar off and then we peg it out of the Rift. If we phase, we could even warp without worrying about crashing into anything."

"That all sounds great," Martinez said. "If I could trust you or this supposed Section 31. I appreciate you've been straight with me, as far as I can tell, but this is not my first run in with shady, secretive parts of Starfleet who run around like they're so much more important than the rest of us. I have had my ship's computers wiped, I have had tricorders, PADDs and you name it confiscated. I have had veiled threats against my crew by people who claim to be on the same side as me and, given what you've just told me, how do I know you won't just decide to confiscate my first officer too?"

"Because a willing operative in the field is worth a hundred prisoners, captain. I'm afraid by telling you this-"

"Let me guess, because your old boss said something similar to this to me. He said knowing this stuff would put severe limits on my future career options, and possibly the future career options of my entire crew. So have you just dropped me in it?"

"With all due respect, Rafael, the Sally Ride jumped into this arena headfirst. No one wants to change Sally's mission but you may find yourself increasingly called upon in future to help aid extractions of operatives from politically sensitive locations, or indeed to participate in operations yourself, and anyone you choose to brief in on this. I'm not gonna tell you to tell no one on your crew, but understand there are consequences for anyone you do tell. As things stand now, both you and Junil could be called upon to engage in intelligence-gathering activities in the future."

"What about the assassinations and sabotage?" Martinez asked. "That's not what I joined Starfleet to be."

"I know what we do must seem… grubby, but sometimes you have to do some dirty work to ensure that the machine keeps running. And, like it or not, you're now part of the effort to keep things running smoothly. I doubt Junil will escape this either. For what it's worth, I feel really good about having you both on board. Now, I need to contact the Section and start gathering the right people together for this rescue effort to happen. With your permission, I'd like to install a token on your personal terminal which will allow you access to above Top Secret channels."

Martinez laughed nervously.

"You're just going to give me that?"

"As Lyndon B. Johnson once said: 'I would rather have him inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in,'" Cal replied, using a small tool to prise open a tiny panel on the side of Martinez' terminal and pushing a small object inside so that it fit seamlessly, and almost invisibly with the machine. She then opened up the terminal. "Calibrate this terminal to the voice patterns of Captain Rafael Martinez of the U.S.S. Sally Ride."

"Please state your access code," the terminal replied.

"Caliper turtle seven horse nine Titania three."

"Acknowledged. New user Captain Rafael Martinez of the U.S.S Sally Ride, please create and state your access code now."

"Uh, Martinez: three, twenty-two, Plantface, Romeo, twenty-two, thirty-three," he stated.

The terminal asked Martinez to repeat the code, and then accepted it.

"But don't you know my code, now? And I know yours?" Martinez pointed out.

"Your code only works for you, and you saying it. If you try using my code, the key I inserted will brick your terminal – uh, wipe it and make it about as functional as a brick, so don't do that. To extract your key, press here… you'll find corresponding keyholes on terminals, PADDs, tricorders, some doors too actually. Look after it."

"So, the right person needs a key-"

"The right key. Your key won't work for me now that I've set it up."

"So the right person needs the right key and the right passphrase?"

"We haven't figured out an easily portable four-factor authentication process, yet," Cal said. "So this is the best we've got. All right, sir, now that you're set up, please may you open a channel to Admiral Ross? He's one of ours."

Cal stood to Martinez's side so that she was visible when Admiral Ross' amiable face froze in confusion.

"Captain Martinez? How did you get access-"

"I've been fully briefed by Commander Caliper, sir," Rafael said. "In your parlance, I think that makes me, reluctantly, one of you."

"Then allow me to be the first to welcome you into the Section. At a more convenient time and place, I'll have to give you the full rundown of our history. I believe your current trajectory is for sector 001, is it not?"

"That's right, sir. We'll be with you in 8 weeks."

"I'll have to invite you to mine for dinner. It's so rare we have reason to get together under social circumstances."

"Mainly because if there's enough of us in one location, we become a prime target for a rogue torpedo," Caliper said.

"Don't let Cal dampen your spirits. She's a pessimist, but that makes her excellent at her job: always expecting and preparing for the worst."

"Admiral, we need assistance extracting Commander Junil Rue from a smuggler's den in the middle of the Bassen Rift. The chap who runs the place is a madman who styles himself as 'the Baron' and won't let anyone near him who isn't an unjoined Trill. Commander Rue thought if we staged their zhian'tara, that would give us an innocuous reason to have said Trill travel to the station."

"But with Rue being ex-31… I see why you got in touch," Ross said sympathetically. "You made a good call, Cal. Not saying you're still not facing a demotion when you get home after that little stunt you pulled keeping the Pariah, but at least it makes me a little less worried you've completely gone rogue on us." Ross reached off screen and picked up a PADD. "Best I can do is a week. Think Rue can hang in there long enough?"

"Trust me, Admiral," Martinez said. "If you'd ever met them, you wouldn't even need to ask."

Bassen Castle station, one week later

Rue was working through a careful choreographed workout that they had worked out, for each stage, just how fast they could get to their crutches and escape the barracks in the increasingly unlikely event that a rescue was coming. They felt caged and, like many a caged creature, had energy enough for a fight.

From the moment the doctors had warned them about the damage to their spine and the possibility they might never walk again, Rue had fought back. Everyone had waved images of bionic legs at them, and they had pushed them all aside because the last thing they wanted was even more technology in their body. No, their legs were just fine, they just needed to get them talking through the spine again. Some of the doctors had doubted they would be able to get around on crutches, but Junil had showed them. And then Nash, smug, stupid, unimaginative Nash had thought they wouldn't be able serve as executive officer on the Sally Ride. He'd written them off without even seeing what they were capable of!

Some days, the only fuel was anger, but it was enough and Junil continued to make the universe sit up and pay attention.

Just as Junil stopped to get some water, their comm badge began to beep. They rummaged hastily through their clothes to find the shirt with the secret pocket and then pulled the badge out with a relieved laugh.

"One rite of zhian'tara with extra secret sauce, coming up. Please remember to tip the delivery girl."

"I'm pretty sure it's free if it took over a week to get here," Rue replied. "I was starting to doubt anyone was coming."

"Don't ever doubt that, Rue," Martinez said.

Rue's chest filled with so much, too much: hope, relief, joy, grief, anger, impatience and frustration, everything they'd been trying to put to one side to keep their head clear so that the very moment a rescue came, they would be ready to act, but then they heard the captain… he'd come all the way into the Rift as well?

"Sir," Rue said, swallowing the burning sensation in their throat. "I shouldn't have to remind you about both senior officers being off the Sally Ride at the same time."

"But you always will," Martinez replied.

The captain of the guard took one look at the four people disembarking from the Pariah and hesitated. The woman with the metal plating on the back of her head looked familiar, but the three people with her were strangers. There was a Trill woman with short, curly, brown hair; an older man with fair hair and severe features; and a man with dark hair and a certain easy charm about him. All four were dressed in identical, black clothes and all but the purple-haired, metal-skulled woman were carrying large bags. The captain had seen many uniforms but none which looked like this.

The Trill woman appeared to be in charge as she approached the captain.

"My name is Kadren Meenahn, and I am a Guardian from the Symbiosis Council. I am here to perform the zhian'tara for a resident on this station. I trust there will be no interference from you during this sacred time."

"Are you all from the Symbiosis Council?" the captain asked nervously.

"They are all here to assist in the rite, yes," the Trill said, smiling a little. This made the captain feel even more nervous.

"What's in the bags?" the captain asked.

The woman with the metal skull touched the Trill's arm. She lowered her voice, but not so low that the captain couldn't hear her, and she couldn't help but wonder if the women had intended for her to hear:

"It's all right, Kadren, the Baron doesn't forbid weaponry in the castle, so long as it's not meant for use against it."

"But I'm not even carrying weaponry! I am a Guardian, I follow a sacred path!"

Uh oh. The captain began to panic.

"I'm- I'm sorry, I meant no offence, I'm not familiar with Trill culture-"

"Then captain, maybe you should allow me to look after these guests," Rue said, arriving precisely when the group had planned. "I can handle things from here."

Much relieved, the captain hurried away.

Cal gave Rue a wink and then disappeared after the captain, and then Martinez broke ranks and gave Rue a quick hug.

"We'll have you back on the Ride by this time tomorrow, you'll see," he said.

"Sir? What's this uniform?" Rue asked, feeling a familiar itch at the back of their head.

"I think you know, Rue," said the fair-haired man. The itch became distractingly strong.

Kadren seemed to notice, because she turned to the man disapprovingly.

"You messed with things which you shouldn't have. You've created suffering and disharmony in the relationship between symbiont and hosts."

"I did only what was necessary," the man said.

"Well, while we wait for Caliper to return with the keys to the kingdom, we may as well proceed with the rite," Kadren said. "Junil, kindly direct us to a moderately sized room where we shall not be disturbed."

Rue laughed nervously.

"The rite was just a ruse," they explained.

Kadren shook her head and took hold of Junil's hands in her own.

"It is criminal that you have had to wait so long for your zhian'tara. There are many things about this whole affair that I strongly wish to raise with the Commission but-" she continued as the fair-haired man appeared about to interrupt. "These are not the lives we lead. Some things, no matter how distasteful, will have to remain silent for greater goods to be allowed to occur. What I said was true: I am Kadren Meenahn, a Guardian from the Symbiosis Council. I am also, alongside my similarly attired companions, an operative of a secret organisation which you will soon be briefed into as a part of your zhian'tara."

"Sir?" Rue asked, turning to Martinez.

"Trust me on this, this will make a lot more sense if you have your full experiences available to you. At least what I've been told. Oh, and this is Mr Sloan. He's going to be overseeing everything that's happening here today. It could get into quite classified territory apparently."

Cal stalked the captain through Bassen Castle to a laser portcullis-protected gateway. Beyond was a rather elegant turbolift leading up and out of sight. Two guards stood either side of the portcullis, and each pressed their palm to a panel, deactivating the lasers and allowing the captain to ride the turbolift away.

Oh I really hope those aren't encoded to handprints, Cal thought to herself. She took her comm badge out of her pocket and began to query the laser system command logs. There she found the lines where the system verified that all conditions had been met for the lasers to be shut down. To both her relief and disappointment, the panels were not encoded to specific palm prints; both panels simply needed to be pressed at the same time. They were five metres apart. Hmm.

A mezzanine level ran opposite the turbolift. It gave a lovely, overhead view of the panels. The distance, diagonally upwards to the mezzanine level was roughly 40ft, so add two and a half foot on for the angle… yes.

Satisfied, Cal went shopping.

The flames danced over the coals in the cauldron as Kadren sat in meditation. She had tasked Martinez with watching the coals for when they were simply smouldering and no flames were visible: that was the moment he should add the incense. Sloan, phaser in hand, was watching the entrance to the room. A couple of times, Rue had caught him looking their way, but they had never quite managed to make eye contact. Martinez, on the other hand, seemed quite thrilled by what was occurring: a whole new cultural act to experience, this was what Starfleet meant to him.

"I get the impression you don't like me much," Rue commented to Sloan. "Or that I don't like you. Probably both. I'm guessing it's all going to come out now."

"Actually, Junil," Sloan replied, still not looking at them. "It won't be that simple. When Dryden's consciousness leaves the Symbiont and enters Rafael here-"

"Wait, what?" Martinez asked.

"Then he and I will adjourn to another room for a full de-briefing-"

"What do you mean, 'enters'? Is someone going to put a symbiont in me?" Martinez continued, but Sloan ignored him.

"And once I am satisfied that we can minimalize the loss of intelligence, only then will you get your chance to speak to him."

"That's not how a zhian'tara normally works," Rue said. "The only people in this room once the rite has begun should be me and Dryden. If you're so concerned with what he's going to say, why don't you act as host?"

"I feel like some clarification is need here on the role of the host!" Martinez said, before Kadren laughed.

"You will still have control, Rafael," she said, eyes still closed and a serene smile on her face. "If at any time, you wish to regain control of your body, you only have to exert your will and call for me. I will then send Dryden's consciousness back into Rue."

"So, am I being possessed?" Martinez asked.

"That's probably the closest human culture has to describing the process, yes, but unlike your horror tales, you will still be in control. Relax, and let Dryden speak through you, or tighten your grip and silence him."

"Which is why I'm wondering why Mr Sloan here doesn't want control over what Dryden has to say," Rue said.

It was one of the great losses of Cal's life that she couldn't whistle. For all that careful manipulation and splicing of her DNA, her mother had been unable to include the gene for whistling. Humming just didn't cut it for expressing nonchalance. So, imagining a cheerful tune in her head, she rolled the ornate, round shield along the mezzanine level and then began attaching it to the handrail. She didn't look directly at the guards, but could see them reflected in the shield looking up at her quizzically.

Screws would have been best, but rope had been the best she could find, so she carefully tied her knots tight, sometimes peering over the rail to check angles, and then adjusting as necessary. When she was happy, she left the mezzanine.

Minutes later, she came strolling around the corner to the laser portcullis again and walked right up to one of the guards.

"Looks good, doesn't it?" she said, pointing up at the shield and resting one arm on the guard's shoulder. Yep, angle was right.

The guard looked down at her suspiciously.

She shot his friend, and then brought her phaser up under his chin and shot him too. Just stuns. They'd just been doing a job after all, and were also wearing collars, so were probably just as much victims of the Baron as Junil was.

From where she'd not moved since first positioning herself, she rested one hand above the panel, and aimed her phaser at the shield. She nodded a rhythm to herself, and then fired the phaser while simultaneously hitting the panel. The phaser blast reflected from the shield and hit the other panel at the same time, causing the lasers to shut down.

Humming to herself, Cal stepped into the turbolift and pressed a button for 'up'.

The coals had become smouldering embers and so Martinez scattered the fragrant seeds over them, watching as they began to blossom like dormant blooms in the desert after the rain. Kadren gestured for Martinez to stand at her left side, and Rue to her right, before beginning a beautiful, rhythmic chant. As the incense and song began to intermingle, Junil thought they could see the smoke beginning to sway like a charmed serpent. They felt an increased awareness of the symbiont, and it seemed to become heavier within them as the smoke coaxed and carried the awareness and personality of Dryden away. For a moment, Junil felt a great loss and they turned to Kadren anxiously.

"It is done," Kadren said. "Normally, I would now ask you, Junil, to recall some fact from Dryden's life but as his experiences have been denied you thus far, there is nothing to be gained." She turned to Martinez, who was still staring into the flames. "What was the name of Dryden's field docent?"

Martinez blinked and looked up at Kadren.

"Yeeli Kamin… I've not thought of her in such a long time," Martinez said, sounding surprised.

"Sir?" Junil asked warily.

Martinez laughed.

"It's okay… really, it's okay," he assured her. "He's not taking over. He's very keen to talk to you though so I'm going to take a back seat. I'll try and plug my ears if it gets a bit too, y'know, mushy."

"I don't really do mush," Junil replied grinning.

Sloan clapped his hands together.

"Excellent. So, Dryden, if I might speak to you alone first. We just need to establish some boundaries that will keep the work of the section secret, as is necessary."

"It's really quite simple, Luther," Martinez-Dryden stated, smiling in amusement and clasping his hands behind his back. "I am a part of the Rue symbiont. There are no boundaries between symbiont and host, at least, there shouldn't be. Instead of trying to enforce an unnatural state between us, we should work together in the spirit that three heads are better than two, and Junil Rue will make a fine addition to Section 31."

Suddenly, both men drew phasers. Kadren took a deep breath and began to prepare the ritual's end.

"You're still quick on the draw," Sloan commented.

"And you still broadcast your movements. So this was the plan, was it? Separate me from Rue and then destroy me like a cancerous tumour?"

"I felt it was kindest to the symbiont. They can't miss what they don't remember ever having."

"You lied to me!" Kadren growled through gritted teeth. "And now you dare ruin this sacred rite with your short-sighted stupidity!"

"Kadren, you've served us very well these past few years, but your increasing fanaticism has become an issue," Sloan said, not once taking his eyes off of Martinez. "The smart thing to have done would have been to disarm one of the parties present."

Rue placed their hands on the edge of the cauldron, howling at the pain as the smouldering metal began burning their skin, and overturned it, sending a small landslide of hot, fragrant embers hurtling towards Sloan. Martinez bolted for the door, stopping only to glance back at Rue who took this as their invitation to follow. Both Sally Ride crew members sprinted away from the scene, bursting out into the marketplace where there was already some commotion over two fallen guards. A squad of guards was investigating when they heard Rue and Martinez charging towards them.

"This way!" Rue yelled, leading Martinez down towards the barracks. Here there would be a large concentration of guards so, if Sloan pursued, he would be up against a barrage of phaser fire.

"Of all people to throw around accusations of fanaticism," Martinez-Dryden said. "Sloan's unquestioning obedience to Section 31 is beyond fanatical. He's married, did you know? The poor woman – she lost him to 31 a long time ago."

Rue and Martinez walked into the barracks where some of the other guards looked up at them both in curiosity. There was enough space around Rue's bed however that a quiet conversation would not be easily overheard.

"Sir, what is Section 31?"

"You don't have to call me, 'sir', Junil. Martinez is here, of course, but right now you're not addressing your captain; you're speaking to an equal."

"Are we equals?" Junil asked suspiciously. "Because the times you've taken it upon yourself to just grab the steering wheel certainly haven't felt equal to me."

"Had all things proceeded as they should have, then I would not have needed to take those actions because you would have taken them yourself, drawing on my experience to inform your decision. Previous hosts provide lifetimes of experience to draw upon, while most lifeforms can only draw on one, and it's not even complete until they die."

"And you've been experiencing everything I've gone through?"

"Not everything," Dryden sighed. "The inhibitors which kept me hidden weren't deactivated until the moment of your assimilation. I've been with you, trying to guide and support you, ever since then. When you took your first steps on your crutches, I was cheering you on. When Admiral Nash was telling you what he thought you couldn't do, I wanted to run in there and punch his lights out."

"I think he just has that effect on people," Junil said, smiling. "It's… strange to think that Rue had someone before me."

"Jealous?" Dryden asked.

"Aren't you more like an ex? Shouldn't you be the jealous one?"

"I won't deny there's jealousy. After all, I am just a ghost now, and you are living. You've been able to make new friendships, even with someone I was very close to. You are leading Rue through a whole new lifetime, while they haven't even been able to remember that I existed at all. I wasn't an ex, Junil; I was a stalker in a dark alley watching someone else get to live the life I wanted.

"It's normal to have feelings of jealousy and inadequacy when considering both former and future hosts. That is why the zhian'tara exists: so that you may confront these things head on, which is exactly your style," Dryden added fondly.

"And what's your style? I'm guessing if you're some sort of secret agent that direct and head on wouldn't be seen as advantageous."

Dryden laughed.

"Oh there were a few people who questioned if I might have some Vulcan blood in me. I can appear quite calm on the surface… but beneath it all, there's a raging sea. I wasn't always stone cold and logical, but I did my best to appear to be. Caliper had only just joined the Section when we met. She was fresh out of the Academy and fresh on the run from a trumped-up homicide charge. The evidence is as clear as day that it was self-defence. I was sent to speak to her because she had created enhanced comm badges with increased functionality-"

"So I've seen," Rue commented.

"By the end of her demonstration, I realised I'd not heard a word she'd said. I'd been lost in eddies of excitement and pride as she'd shown off her latest gadget. I was heading back into action the next morning and that can make you feel reckless. You just don't know sometimes if a mission will be your last. I reasoned nothing ventured, nothing gained." His smile broadened. "It was a good night. We parted ways on the understanding that this had just been a one-night fling, but when I got back from the mission and she saw me, it was like no time had passed at all. Of course, relationships between Section 31 personnel are discouraged precisely because the high risks we take but we were young and in love and that can make you feel invincible. And so it continued until the day I didn't return."

"And why did you choose to be joined if you were already leading such a dangerous life? Wasn't it irresponsible to put the symbiont at risk like that?"

"Ah, but what memories, what experiences to pass on! I felt what Rue had to gain from me outweighed the risks. I was so nearly wrong." Dryden scratched his wrist a little self-consciously. "Your instinct to protect is breath-taking to behold, Junil. When I see you throw yourself into the fray to protect your friends, I can't help but wish I had been half the host to Rue that you have been."

Rue's comm badge bleeped and they answered the hail.

"I've just had an unauthorised entry attempt alarm from the Pariah," Cal reported as phaser fire could be heard being exchanged. "You're not trying to leave without me, are you?"

"It's probably Sloan," Rue replied. "He'd planned to kill Dryden while he was being hosted by Martinez."

Cal swore and Dryden smiled wryly and shook his head.

"Well he can find his own ride home then," Cal muttered angrily. "We're going to have to act fast so I need you to be ready in the docking ring for when I show up with the key." There was a loud pop and the sound of static as the communicator's speaker was momentarily overwhelmed by the intensity of the noise being broadcast over it. "That was a grenade, that was totally a grenade. I can't hear a damn thing now so I'm just going to assume you're going to the docking ring and I'll meet you there as soon as I can. Caliper out."

"We should find Kadren. We need her to return my consciousness into the symbiont. As much as I'm enjoying living again," Dryden added, brushing his uniform down again. "When we're reunited, you'll be able to experience everything that I've lived through, as it should be."

"Sloan knows that too, of course," Junil pointed out. "So if he couldn't get to us here-"

"Then he'll be waiting for us somewhere predictable," Dryden said. "Which will either be wherever Kadren is, or at the Pariah. We can probably assume that Sloan was the one attempting to get into the ship, so that tells us where he might be right now."

"I know a way back to the room we hired which avoids the docking ring," Rue said. "Follow me."

The fuses on some of the grenades were far too long. Someone had built them who was clearly afraid of getting to safety in time. Unfortunately, Cal was the kind of person who could spot this, grab a grenade and throw it back. The grand throne room of the castle was in ruins. Once exquisite panels of iridescent opal and polished shades of onyx were now scorched and shattered. Shamelessly, Cal had pocketed a few shards of the semi-precious stones but, then again, she doubted the Baron would have any need for them.

The Baron lay in a frost-covered sarcophagus while numerous machines tracked his life signs in cryostasis. The Baron should have been dead months ago, but desperation had extended his life this far. In a small way, Cal felt a bit sorry for him. It must have been really tough, she figured, knowing your peers would continue to live life after life while you were trapped in just one like a mere mortal.

We might only get one life, she'd once said to Dryden. But if you live it right, it's all you need.

The Baron had been so obsessed with extending his life, he'd spent almost none of that time living it. Still, she did feel bad about that stray grenade and the great shattering of a life, literally, which had occurred a second later.

The people who had actually been running Bassen Castle while the Baron had slumbered were most unhappy that their frozen figurehead was now in several hundred pieces of rapidly thawing flesh. They decided to attempt to take out their displeasure on Cal with all the violence their imagination could come up with, and they had the advantage here: there was only one way out of the throne room and that was the turbolift. The moment Cal stepped into it, she knew she would have been hit with so many phaser blasts and grenades that it would have been a miracle if any piece larger than a thumbnail actually survived intact. Her choices were to either try and kill everyone in the throne room and then escape, or find another exit.

In the end, she chose both.

Noting that the grenade-throwers were deliberately avoiding the centre of the chamber where the obliterated sarcophagus had once sat, Cal began making mad sprints across the room, trying to get one overly keen person to hurl a grenade at the right spot. In the end, the right spot had turned out to be at Cal's feet within kicking distance of the centre of the throne room.

As the supports connecting the throne room to the castle walls gave way in a horrendous scream of tortured metal, the throne room began to tilt and then fall, destroying the turbolift shaft by crushing it into concertinaed sections beneath it. Phaser fire continued to be exchanged but it was now erratic and random, meaning that half the time the Bassen Castle crew were hitting each other.

Of course, every time they did, Cal breathed to herself: "stop hitting yourself" and then giggled like a twelve-year-old.

She stopped giggling when she took a shot squarely to the chest. She fell back against the wall, which became the floor, which became another floor and then the ceiling as the throne room continued its deadly tumble. She had to secure herself again or she would be pulverised before the throne room hit the bottom of the shaft. Of course, there was a more than moderate chance she would be pulverised on impact too…

She grabbed hold of the front of one of the crew's tunics and began to manoeuvre him so that he was between her and the floor-wall-ceiling. Realising her intent, the man struggled and yelped for help.

The shot hit her back. Old wounds reminded Cal of the importance and fragility of the human spine and she screamed out in pain, but still she held on for the last moment.

Her cushion died the instant the throne room reached the end of its descent, absorbing the impact and protecting Cal from it. She staggered to her feet and began to ungainly stumble through the debris, vaguely aware she was in the marketplace. Oh god, so much blood. So many people caught beneath the fallen throne room.

She shook the thought from her head as she struggled onwards and then a friendly hand caught her arm.

"Here, allow me," Sloan said, easily wresting Cal's phaser from her. "You look awful."

"You… you were going to kill Dryden," she gasped, taking a hold of his shirt so she pull herself a little more upright.

"He was a brilliant man. I pray the likes of him are never seen again, for all our sakes," Sloan said, starting to drag an unresisting, wounded Cal through the nightmare which had once been the bustling marketplace. "Such clever people and the destruction they have wrought."

"Sloan… wait…" Cal said, trying to slow his pace. "Where are we going?"

"Oh, you've noticed we're not going to the Pariah's docking strut have you? I have another ship, courtesy of an ally. You'll find I have allies everywhere, always watching, always patient, always ready to pounce when the opportunity presents itself. I was so worried you'd choose to leave Section 31 for good and then drop off the map. I needed you contained again."

"I was never… contained…" Cal grunted as the pain in her gut intensified.

"Of course you were. That nice little assignment on Bell Rock kept you neatly in one place." Then to Cal's confusion, the voice became that of Ch'thaolor, and the hand gripping her arm turned blue. "We have the Borg to thank for bringing you to our attention, and for providing the perfect test run of the Kemocite Cannon. You can rest easy knowing our goals are in alignment. We will destroy the Borg… we just have grander ambitions which involve taking out all species who pose a significant threat to us. You solids think your problems will hit you nicely, one at a time. I'm here to tell you that sometimes, everything comes at once."

"Dominion," Cal groaned, feeling herself weakening further as they reached the docking ring.

A pale hand took hold of her jaw and turned her head to look up into the face of a Changeling.

"Always," he replied.

Returning to the room where the zhian'tara had taken place, the first thing Rue and Dryden noticed was that the spilled embers had caused a minor blaze. The walls were cracked and brittle and the air was still heavy with ash.

Kadren lay face down in debris on the ground. As Dryden gently rolled her over, her eyes stared into oblivion from behind the clouded lenses of death. The front of her uniform was still tacky with blood and a slit where a knife had been run through her confirmed what her fate had been.

Dryden leaned back and took a deep breath.

"What does this mean? Are we stuck together like this?" Martinez asked.

"No, there are other Guardians – you just might have to put up with it for a while."

"Well, Dryden is thrilled about that idea," Martinez said. "I'm less so."

"Just keep working together, sir," Rue said. "It'll be a learning experience."

Looking unconvinced, Martinez let himself relax again and Dryden took control once more.

"If Sloan wants to get off this station, he'll need Caliper," he said.

Rue tapped their comm badge.

"Cal, come in." There was no response. "Maybe she can't hear us."

But then…

"Cal here, sorry," came the engineer's voice over the comms. "The central tower with the throne room collapsed. It got a bit crazy."

"Did you find the key?" Rue asked.

"Uh… yeah! Yeah, it's in my pocket."

"You don't sound so sure."

"I fell a very long way!" Cal replied hotly.

"Meet us at the Pariah and hurry. We think Sloan could be after you."

"I'm on my way," Cal replied. "Caliper out."

"Did she seem okay to you?" Rue asked Dryden.

"A little too cheerful for the circumstances perhaps," he replied.

The Changeling caught Cal just as her legs gave way beneath her entirely. Her eyes had rolled back into their sockets and her breathing was irregular and weak. It seemed she'd been more badly hurt in the fall than it had first appeared. This was no good. The Dominion needed the engineer alive. There was nothing for it, he was going to have to call for emergency medical assistance.

As he gently lay Caliper on the floor and pulled out his communicator, he heard a cough from below him.

The Changeling helpfully moved his hand so Cal could get a clear shot at his head, which she took.

"They don't get any smarter," she tutted to herself. She kept one arm wrapped around her stomach as she hurried as quickly as she could back towards the marketplace. There, as she had hoped, more guards had gathered. She staggered up to one, feeling the key hum as it sensed a collar within range, and she pressed the release button.

The guard felt her collar and then gently opened it and eased it off her grimy neck.

The guards began to swarm around her then. Click, click, click, as many as she could because she knew soon enough…

The surviving members of the castle crew began opening fire on the gathered guards. One of the guards dragged Cal away to safety and then returned to the fray. Quietly. Cal slipped away and began walking briskly along the docking ring. As soon as she saw Martinez and Rue waiting, she broke into a weak smile and then held up the key. A moment later, Rue had hurled the collar as far away from them as they were able, while Dryden-Martinez helped Cal on to the Pariah. She filled him in on what had happened, and how Sloan hadn't been who they'd thought.

"Next time, take the turbolift," Dryden said. "And make sure you have the right Sloan."

"Do you think Sloan would have killed you?" Cal asked.

Dryden gave her hand a squeeze.

"Only if his plan looked like it was going to fail. A certain amount of covering up would have been required then."

Cal looked at Dryden for a few moments, and then lay back on her bunk and closed her eyes.

"I know it's you," she said quietly. "But-"

"It's all right," Dryden said gently. "This isn't something Terrans really have any experience dealing with."

Cal's eyes shot open.

"I'm not a Terran!"

"I love that it still bugs you," Dryden said. "Get some rest. Dr Sh'sirros will patch you up as soon as we get back to the Sally Ride… again?" he added in some confusion. "You seem to have a bad habit of getting shot."

"You don't get to say that," Cal replied. "I survive."

"Point taken."

"Don't crash my baby. I swear to god, you so much as dent my ship-"

"You'll kill me?" He leaned in closer. "Seems I have nothing to lose."

"We ready to go?" Rue asked, stepping into the cabin.

"I can get us back to the Ride," Dryden said. "And then we should probably locate a Trill and give Martinez some privacy in his own head again."

Earth, two months later

Admiral Ross had laid on a lavish banquet for his 'close friends'. The most surprising thing about the other members of Section 31, at least, the handful which were present, was how ordinary they seemed. In the old spy movies and holonovels, the heroic agent dressed like a catwalk model, drank like an entire bachelor party and was the paragon of suaveness. The other officers here looked just like any other member of Starfleet.

"You look surprised, Captain."

It was still unnerving to meet the man who was, hopefully, the real Sloan. Dryden's memories still flavoured his own recollections and so he knew of Sloan's dogged, fanatical devotion to Section 31's goals, but it was hard to divorce that idea from the man who had killed Kadren and kidnapped Caliper, despite the fact that particular Sloan had been an impostor. It certainly added an extra level of paranoia to the evening: how could you know people were who they said they were?

"I guess I hadn't expected everyone to look so normal. I mean, the evening wear is on point, don't get me wrong-"

"Section 31 is comprised of ordinary people capable of doing the extraordinary," Sloan said proudly. "And besides, in our line of work, it's best to fit in."

Next to Martinez, doing their very best to disguise their dislike of these fancy, socialising events, was Section 31's newest recruit, Commander Junil Rue. Now reunited with Dryden's conscious and, for the first time, able to access all of his memories, Rue had spent a good couple of days in a dark room trying to digest everything which they now knew. From the slightly haunted look on their face, it was clearly still settling down. There had been no question about whether or not Rue would be briefed in, as it happened, again into Section 31.

Admiral Ross beamed as he saw the two Sally Ride senior officers and made a beeline towards them, taking care to grab two glasses of actual wine to hand to them as he went. Handing these to Rue and Martinez, Ross looked around the room in delight.

"I always wish more of us were able to make it, but I must say, this is an excellent turnout. I daresay there's a certain amount of curiosity about the pair of you: the two most senior officers on one of Starfleet's most advanced vessels, now that's a force to be reckoned with!"

"We'll do our best, sir," Martinez said.

"Must be nice for both of you to have your minds in the right place again too, I bet!"

"It's certainly proven an insightful misadventure," Rue replied while Martinez laughed nervously.

"It's good to be home though, in every sense of the word," he said. "I know my crew need a decent break after our voyage across the Beta Quadrant, and the Sally Ride is benefitting from some much needed TLC."

"I don't mind telling you both that there were some voice in the Admiralty wanting to send you back out as soon as possible, but I wouldn't hear of it," Ross said, leaning in a little. "I'm all for the advancement of science, and that will remain the Sally Ride's primary purpose, but an extra week's R'n'R isn't going to put us back in the Dark Ages."

"Was that Admiral Nash by any-"

There was the sound of a wine glass stem snapping. Rue's glass fell to the floor in three pieces, depositing wine all over the rug.

"Sorry sir," Rue said hastily. "Let me fetch a cloth and clean that up."

"No, I won't hear of it, Junil. Go and fetch yourself another drink. I would be delighted to have a proper catch-up with you about Dryden. He was a fine operative."

"Admiral, I appreciate that secrecy is a necessary part of Section 31's work," Martinez began.

A cloud of concern passed over Ross' face.

"Now there's a sentence that always ends in a 'but'. Speak your mind, Rafael."

"Commander Caliper returned to Earth with us – but I've not seen her since we landed. Is everything all right? I know she was facing a possible homicide charge-"

Ross waved his hand.

"That's been dealt with. The truth of the matter has come out and charges have been dropped. No, I'm sorry, Caliper was needed on a mission immediately and she had been rogue for a while so if she didn't use some of that time for a holiday, well, that's on her."

"Damn, that's a shame," Martinez said. "I'd have liked to wish her luck."

"Sir?" Rue asked, returning with a fresh glass of wine.

"Cal's out on mission, apparently."

"Well, at least she's not in a penal colony."

"Well, I didn't say that," Ross replied.

Rura Penthe Penal Colony

As Korath carried his unappetising meal towards a free table, his eye caught a boot sticking out to trip him up. He carefully bypassed it, set down the tray and, with a roar of rage, grabbed the Ornaran scoundrel by the throat and hoisted him into the air to much cheering from his fellow inmates.

"Always someone tries to trip me up. Always it ends the same way," Korath growled, and he hurled the hapless man across the chamber. When we went to grab his meal, he found a human sat at the table eating a morsel from a fork already.

"This is my meal!" Korath growled.

The human, a female much to his surprise, looked up at him from under her hood.

"It's not very good. I know a place that sells some excellent gagh… but why am I bothering. You love it here so much you'll deliberately extend your sentence to stay."

Korath began to growl, but then he saw the gleam of a phaser in the woman's hand.

"Sit down. We need to talk."

"I have nothing to say to a human,' Korath snarled.

"I'm not really considered human for a lot of legal purposes," the woman replied. "And you haven't tried to throw me across the room, so does that mean I've piqued your curiosity? Because I know you're a curious man, Korath. Curious, and brilliant and utterly wasted in this colony. Your aunt, wasn't it?"

"She had brought dishonour to the family by entering an honourable duel and… cheating. I couldn't let this stand."

"I guess your only mistake was not waiting until she was back on Qo'noS, where that sort of thing would have been totally legal, as opposed to at a dinner for diplomats on Vulcan."

Korath muttered darkly under his breath.

"But let's get back to the point at hand. You are brilliant. I know. I've read a lot of your work. Your paper on controlled discharges of uncontrolled reactions was crucial to my work on building a weapon that can slice through a Borg cube like it was made of snow." To prove her point, the woman pulled out a PADD and showed him footage from a battle where this had indeed occurred. He re-watched it several times, looking for the tell-tale signs that he was watching a fake or that it had been enhanced somehow but no, it appeared to be genuine.

"Impressive, if true."

"My name's Caliper. I work for an organisation that likes to believe in the impossible. You might just have what it takes to bend physics to our will. Tell me, how familiar are you with temporal dynamics?"

"You already know that is an interest of mine," Korath said quietly.

"And now it's an interest of mine," Cal said. "If you're willing to work for my employers, I can have you out of here in less time than it takes to break the wrist of the guy who's planning on shivving you in the back."

Korath whirled around and caught the blade-wielding hand. With a sickening crunching and grinding of bones, he ruined his assailant's wrist, leaving him a weeping wreck on the floor.

"I'm in."

Adigeon Prime, several months later

The time travelling device had yet to yield positive results, save for being able to cool boiling water to freezing in half a nanosecond which was pretty awesome, but not actually useful for time travel in any way, per se.

While the work was in its infancy, and the Klingons were still very keen to recover their escaped prisoner, Cal and Korath had set up a workshop on Adigeon Prime. This renegade world was a mecca for those seeking to avoid the consequences of breaking the law and ignoring treaties. In due course, Korath hoped to gather some of his fellow Klingon scientists to help speed up work on the Chrono Deflector but, for now, he had to make do with just the human augment.

For her part, Cal had hoped not to encounter her mother while working here or that her mother would have at least taken the hint that she didn't wish to re-establish contact, but Dr Harriet Baldwin had been quite insistent. So it was, on a quiet Sunday afternoon, that Cal was sitting in a sunlit lounge while her mother poured replicated tea into her finest china.

"I want to discuss your genes," Harriet said. Small talk was out of the question, much to Cal's relief. "I… made an error."

Cal's eyebrows rose.

"Sorry, can you say that again?"

Harriet scowled at her.

"I know you heard me perfectly well the first time, Erica. I have learned valuable lessons about continued observation of donors and their progeny in guiding the selection of DNA."

By which, Cal knew, she meant spying on the people she had previously stolen DNA from.

"So what's the issue? Is there some awful mutation you've programmed into me? Cancer?" Cal asked.

Harriet smiled and shook her head.

"No, no, I am absolutely scrupulous in screening for such things. No, your maternal DNA-"

"If there's nothing wrong, then I don't want to know," Cal interrupted quickly. "I don't believe in genetic destinies, and I don't want to be influenced by knowing where my DNA came from."

"You have a half-brother who is also something of an engineering prodigy. I chose your genes well, you see, just not for creating a doctor," Harriet said ruefully. "And now he's trying to find you."

"Then good luck to him," Cal said, just as there was a knock at Harriet's front door. "It's my business to be hard to find."

Harriet opened the door to a handsome man in civilian clothes, dark-haired and charming.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for Caliper," he said. "I was told she might be here."

Harriet turned and gave Cal a very disapproving look, meaning Cal could see who was stood in the doorway.

"Martinez? How the hell…?"

Harriet sniffed and began to pack away the tea things.

"'Hard to find' indeed, dear daughter," Harriet hissed venomously.

Cal hurried to the door and then joined Martinez outside.

"Sorry my mother's-"

"A crazed eugeneticist?" Martinez finished. "Yeah, I know."

"Are you my brother?" Cal asked, nervously.

Martinez was speechless for a moment.

"God, I hope not. Oh man, I feel kinda stupid now… we're not related are we? Because I got scared when you disappeared from Earth. I didn't want you to just vanish like Dryden had done to you. I still have a lot more I want to know about you and I couldn't- I wouldn't accept that I might not see you again. So, would you like to go get something to eat? It seems like you were in the middle of something…"

An engineering prodigy? There were a lot of words Cal could have used to describe Martinez, but those wouldn't have topped the list.

"You know what? I don't think it was important… and there's an awesome place not far from the hospital which decent food but, my god, the cocktails…" She hooked her arm around the captain's. "And besides," she began, blushing furiously. "I missed you too."