The air, heavy with ozone and nitrogen, crackled around the bald man as he crossed the knoll of tall brown grass. The grass seemed like a stream, flowing in the wind, save the few spots where the bolts from the overly common plasma storms seared the ground. The man was Jean-Luc Picard, dressed in a simple tan jumpsuit with a red collar and several odd insignia, including a patch on the left sleeve near the top featuring a blue-green planet with a red 'Z' carved into it. Picard ran as the plasma storm about him gained fury, a bolt crashing behind him, knocking him on the ground. He forced himself up and got back up to speed. The ozone burned his lungs, but he soldered on toward the bunker he saw in the distance. A bolt crashed in his path, but he avoided it. The storm prevented his craft from landing close, but he knew this was important. That the Enterprise was involved. For this reason alone he had to run. Nechiev wasn't the kind you want to make wait for you. He had to run. No matter how much he said it to himself, the brining of his lungs was intense. He wasn't going to make it. Another bolt crashed, this time close. Picard hit the ground hard. How far was he from the bunker? A meter? Twenty? A hundred? He had no idea. He didn't care, odds are he'd never rise again. No, he couldn't admit defeat!

"Commander Picard?" A woman with lengthy brown hair and eyes an emerald green helped Picard to his feet. He had fallen half a meter at most from the bunker.

"Commander Sarah Winters of the Enterprise, I presume." Picard staggered into the bunker, deeply inhaling the filtered air.

"Drink this, Commander," Winters presented him with a small vial of blue liquid, "It will help with the pain in your lungs."

Picard quickly drank it. It tasted disgusting, but the pain started fading almost instantly. "Thank you."

Winters right hand rose next to her head, angled slightly away, "Hail Zeon."

Picard tried to emulate it, "That the new salute?"

"The old one was too... Federation." Winters replied.

"The new one isn't much of an advancement." Picard walked into the turbolift before them. "Is Marshal Nechiev here?"

"Yes. She came with us on the Enterprise from her pulmonary negotiations with the Cardassians at Terok Nor." Winters entered the lift as well, "Broadcast room."

"Broadcast?" Picard asked.

"Well, the Federation has declared us in rebellion, Marshal Nechiev, Marshal Paris, and Grand Marshal Archer have opted to do the same." Winters nodded as the lift coasted up the mountain.

Picard looked out on the torn landscape.

"Not quite as you remember it?" Winters asked.

"The storms were never this bad." Picard relpied.

"Well, with the Marshals focused on war, and the Federation's neglect we really don't have leadership to work on reversing the conditions. Besides, as sad as it sounds, I think Archer wants to use this poor planet as a martyr, a golden cause, a cry of revenge."

"You're saying we've gone from a neglecting leadership to an insane leadership?" Picard sighed.

The doors slid apart revealing a corridor deep into the mountainside as Winters replied, "Archer has, thanks to pressure by the other Marshals, vowed to focus all efforts on restoring the world once the war is over, but who knows how long that'll be? The Federation won't just give us our freedom out here. Not sitting on that pretty little world so far away."

"Politics of a rebellious nation are confusing." Picard smiled. He walked for a moment in silence and came to another door, which slid aside to reveal a room full of computer terminals and a sizable number of people in suits similar to those Picard and Winters wore. At the front of the room, three people wore gray suits with red collars and shining gold trim. One, a blonde, approached Picard. "Jean-Luc."

"Marshal Nechiev. You called me here?" Picard nodded to her.

"Yes. We go live in a few minutes with our announcement of rebellion to all Federation subspace channels. Afterward I plan to go to Terok Nor and have Gul Dukat sign a treaty. I want you to command the Enterprise on that mission." Nechiev turned to walk to the other Marshals by the podium at the front of the room.

"Thank you ma'am!" Picard nodded.

"And Commander" Nechiev paused, "Welcome to Earth."