Damion powered up the systems on his R-type fighter. He looked to a display at his side. It confirmed the formation of a transwarp conduit. "The Borg. If she gets killed... it's her fault." He sealed his helmet and pulled away from Voyager. He accelerated to warp still under cloak. The single person craft topped warp nine in a second and continued to accelerate. The proximity sensors registered something following him. A Borg Sphere. "I must have pulled it from the human ship." A torpedo struck the right wing, and the ship's armor was completely unaffected.

"Let's see how well the backfire capability works at warp." With only a mental command the battle systems activated. A greenish field appeared over the hull for only a split second. When the Sphere fired several more shots Damion retaliated. A single torpedo was fired from the bottom of the ship, and the Sphere was destroyed on contact.

Damion set the hyperdrive systems and the leading edges of the fighter glowed red as space itself was torn open. Within minutes the fighter emerged in the presence of Mobius Battle Station. The massive station dwarfed the hundreds of ships circling it.

Damion opened the station's military traffic channel. "Mobius Station, this is Tigercat leader requesting vector for landing and docking." Damion waited for several minutes.

"Tigercat, the traffic ways are congested, please form in military flight pattern until something opens."

"Hrmm, how long?"

"Maybe twenty minutes, we have more than a thousand landing craft coming in from Anthules colony."

"What happened there?"

"The Borg."

"I see. Alright." The autopilot kept the craft in formation for well over an hour. Damion had almost fallen asleep in the cockpit before he was finally cleared.

"Tigercat, approach vector 346/879, landing strip 89."

Damion yawned and stretched out. "About time." Damion set the autopilot with the correct data. It was fully capable of landing and docking itself. Once that was complete, Damion shut down the fighter's systems. Sure that the fighter was locked down, he grabbed his sword and jump from the cockpit. Landing fifteen meters below, he looked down the rows of fighters stationed there. Eighty thousand fighters, and his was unique. It was a prototype of a new line of combat fighter built to fight the Borg.

Damion stepped into the translift. "Deck 123450." The station had more than 320,000 decks. Damion leaned back against the wall. He was very tall, eight and a half feet. Being very muscular, he was built for combat. His hair was braided down to his waist. The white flight suit he wore conformed to his body, and his Space Force insignia was pinned to the front. A deep scar ran from his left eyebrow to the right side of his nose.

After about ten minutes the lift stopped. He looked to the deck number; it wasn't his. The lift opened and Lisa was standing there. Holographic displays occupied all points of her vision. She was going through massive numbers of reports and schematics simultaneously. Looking up she saw Damion and smiled. Lisa was almost a full foot shorter than Damion, something common to Mobeans. She had deep gray eyes, also a common feature. Being thin, her white uniform conformed to her well-defined muscles. Although well built, she was relatively weak for a Mobean. Lisa was the lead engineer and an advanced weapons developer.

"Hi Damion, how are you? Your mission go well? Deck 236000."

Damion just sighed deeply.

"You're not in a good mood are you... well, I guess you never are."

"Your new cloaking device is screwed up."

"Really? What do you mean?"

"The cloak gave out on the human ship."

"Oh, that's not right. I hope no one saw you." Damion grunted.

"Well give me the PMOS and I'll see what's wrong with it." Damion unclipped the computer from his wrist and gave it to her.
"Hmm, it should be perfect."

"It should be, shouldn't it?"

"Um... well... grrr."

"I hope the R-type actually works, once it gets produced."

"Oh about that, I've given the authorization for the R-1 to go into full production immediately."

"Are you serious? Already?"

"Uh-huh. The production lines are being reconfigured now. In two hours they'll start producing R-1s full scale. We already finished one, it's yours."

"What about the prototype?"

"Going to be scraped for materials. I'm also working on building a new assault rifle."

"It isn't going to blow up is it?"

"Not you... I hope."

"Great."

"I would never do anything to try and harm you, Damion." She folded her hands behind her back and smiled girlishly. Damion groaned loudly. She tilted her head and her smile widened.

"What? Something bothering you?"

"Yes. Why won't you just LEAVE ME ALONE!" Damion had gone into a combat stance, and Lisa fell back against the wall. She was frightened deeply. Damion had never raised his voice to her before.

"I... I'm... sorry, but Damion I..."

"Just stop there." The lift stopped and the doors opened. "I don't want anything to happen to you, too many people die because of me." Damion walked down the hall. Lisa stood back against the wall and watched Damion walk away.
Damion entered his quarters, which were fairly basic. He set his sword's scabbard on his table, then took his flight suit off. Stepping into the bathroom, he ran cold water over his face.

"Why won't Lisa leave me alone?" he muttered to himself, pulling his shirt and boots off. Damion stepped into his bedroom. He sat down on his bed and pulled his ponytail out. For a moment, he sat there thinking about Lisa. He lay down and closed his eyes. After a long while, he fell asleep.

Damion woke up the next morning and took his shower. He ate and checked the station news report. The only major event was that Anthules Colony was completely destroyed by the Borg. He put on his flight suit and grabbed the sword. As he left he thought he had forgotten something. Then he saw his wife's pendant on the table. Focusing on the pendent, it flew to his hand. He put it around his neck and left the room. Damion entered the fighter bay and found Lisa waiting for him.

"Here's the PMOS, it should work correctly now."

"It better." He started to walk away.

"Damion?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry about yesterday."

Damion walked to his fighter. The production model wasn't much different than the prototype. He powered up the systems and left the station. Then, he set the hyperdrive for Voyager's location.