Captain's log, stardate 99110.2 - We are on station in the Hromi Sector. Our sensor sweeps are ongoing, but so far it's been pretty quiet. As is always the case for a captain on these sorts of missions, I don't think it will be for very much longer.

The bridge of the USS Bonaventure was indistinct from hundreds of others Tw'eak had seen, and served upon, during her time in Starfleet. Still, what made this one different wasn't the shade of the carpets, nor the contours or layout of the various workstations. It was hers. Well, perhaps not in the possessive sense - it was her responsibility, certainly, but to imply that it belonged to her was a reversal of polarity. She belonged to it, to the ship she commanded and the crew she relied upon to make that ship what it was.

To her right along the wall were the engineering and science stations, with the flight deck station directly next to her command chair. On the left side of the bridge, extending behind her, were auxiliary and shield distribution stations, along with a tactical station to her immediate left. Just in front of that was a seat typically reserved for T'uni, currently empty, with the unoccupied first officer's chair to her right. And before her, between herself and the viewscreen, sat Octavia at the operations console, and Ensign Nolan O'Leary, her helmsman. The light in the room was an ambient blue, the overall movements of her officers expedient, but without anxiety. The flight board showed that the runabouts were moving in patrol formation, holding a combat perimeter as per standard procedures. Tw'eak looked the other way, to see the tactical display and full-size multi-systems display both showing the situation as normal.

Just then her eye caught a flutter of red in the corner of the tactical display, and her sensors officer, a young Bolian lieutenant named Birmal Dazz, spoke in her soprano tone. "Captain, I'm reading weapons fire around a ship roughly... ten thousand kilometres to starboard, let's say two o'clock?"

"Can we get a fix on what's going on?"

"Trying to, ma'am, but there's a bit of static flutter, maybe a gas pocket or a tachyon field between us and the target."

She turned to her flight officer, a tall auburn-furred Caitian called Lieutenant Lio'wan. "Order Alpha Flight to move in close - yellow alert, passive scans, don't draw any attention."

"Yes, ma'am," came Lio'wan's burly voice in reply.

Once again, Dazz spoke up. "Target appears to be under attack by two - no, make that three adversary craft. Trying to make out what they are, I don't know why I can't get a clear reading yet."

"Helm, increase to full impulse." She turned to her tactical officer, Lieutenant Morl, a Tellarite. Morl stood considerably shorter than Shep Clark had, but he was engaged by his console. "See if you can hail them, Morl. Make challenge - warn them off."

"Aye aye. Attempting to hail them..." Morl tapped at his console. "No response."

"Yellow alert." She stood and walked towards the helm. "Take us in, but be prepared to take evasive action at a moment's notice."

"Aye," O'Leary replied. "Full impulse towards vessel under attack."

Tw'eak turned at the sound of Lio'wan's slightly panicked voice. "Alpha Flight reports that there's a field of tricobalt mines ahead." He tapped his console. "They're holding off. Do you want them to engage the mines?"

"Negative. Order them to withdraw behind us. We'll punch through." She turned to Morl. "Ready the point-defense."

"Point-defense online and ready."

"As soon as we're within range, initiate point-defense program."

The upgraded Akira-class starship approached the minefield, the Yellowstone-class runabouts parting their formation to allow it to pass. As they did, they rapidly turned upon their positions and tightened their formation again, pursuing their mothership towards the mines. As they did, a series of small, precise phaser beams sprang forth from the Bonaventure's arrays and beam banks, detonating the tricobalt mines with a savage display of explosive force. None of the smaller ships, or the Bonaventure, were adversely affected.

"Report," Tw'eak commanded.

"No damage to hull or ship's systems," Octavia reported. "Shields holding."

"Dazz?"

The Bolian nodded. "I'm starting to see them more clearly now, ma'am, and it makes sense. Passive sensor blocking from the attacking ships - they're Hirogen heavy escorts."

"Hirogen?" Tw'eak was surprised. "They're from the Delta Quadrant. What are they doing here?"

"I don't know, ma'am, but I've also gotten a reading on the ship they're attacking. It's a Breen vessel."

Tw'eak stood up at her full height. "This is damned peculiar."

The turbolift opened, admitting her first officer, Commander Tucker Sharpe, onto the bridge. He walked over towards his commanding officer with a look of concern on his face to match Tw'eak's. "I just checked in with Doc Ellington - sickbay's ready. What's going on?"

"There's a Breen ship being attacked by Hirogen."

Sharpe looked disbelievingly at Tw'eak. "You're kidding me." He glanced at the viewscreen for a moment, then asked, "Is this a simulation?"

"No drill," Tw'eak responded. "I was just saying... neither of them really have any right to be here."

"I know - one's not usually seen out this far, and the other's from the Delta Quadrant."

Dazz interrupted "Sirs, one of the Hirogen escorts is breaking off its attack. It's laid in an intercept course."

"Any other minefields or anything else between us and them?"

"No, ma'am."

Morl spoke from behind his display "Their weapons are fully powered. Their shields are weakened but steady at about sixty-five percent."

"Try hailing them again."

Morl tapped his workstation, and the familiar chime of an open hailing frequency rang out. After a few seconds, he shook his head.

"Red alert." She looked to Lio'wan. "Order Alpha Flight to engage. Launch Charlie and Delta when ready." She didn't wait for Lio'wan to acknowledge before turning to her shield distribution officer, a young Vulcan called Ensign Stral. "I want you to keep close eye on those shield facings. They'll probably be using tetryon weapons - you know what that means." Stral nodded, and she turned to O'Leary. "All right, bore in on them - stay at full impulse until we've had a chance to get past them. We'll let the fighters keep this one busy while we move towards the Breen vessel."

"And what if the Breen vessel opens fire on us?" Morl asked.

"It's a fair question," Sharpe added. "They could be just as unhappy to see us."

"It's a chance we'll have to take," Tw'eak replied as she turned to walk back towards her command chair. "They're shooting at the Hirogen for now. If that changes, so will our tactics."

"Here they come," Dazz said quickly as a bolt of bright blue tetryon weapons fire lit up the viewscreen. The impact followed, and the ship rocked slightly from side to side. Tw'eak had just sat down when the first burst struck, and she looked up towards Stral, who was busy re-distributing the shield energy to compensate.

"Shields are at seventy percent," Octavia reported. "No damage to hull or systems."

"Morl, return fire. Phasers only - let's save our torpedoes for the other two. Full spread once we're in range. Let's draw them onto us."

The high-pitched report of the phasers firing was audible, matched with a sound effect from the console as Morl opened fire. The Hirogen attacker sped towards them on the viewscreen, then disappeared from view as the Bonaventure swept past. She turned towards Lio'wan, who gave her a quick nod as confirmation that he was managing his tasks. "Flights Charlie and Delta are now launching and engaging Alpha target."

"Good." She looked up moments later as a shudder in the deck and a notifiying sound from Morl's console indicated that a full spread of quantum torpedoes was launched at both targets before them. One of the Hirogen ships initiated a quick maneuver, attempting to evade the torpedoes, while the other seemed oblivious to their launch. Tucker Sharpe returned to his chair beside her as the torpedoes struck the less speedy of the two, and the impact caused the ship to ignite into an explosion, rolling as one of its warp nacelles burst from the impact. The other of the two opened fire on the Bonaventure with its tetryon energy weapons, the blast rocking the ship only slightly. "What happened, Morl?"

"We caught that one ship with its shields most of the way down. The Breen ship did that, we just..."

"We got lucky." Tw'eak smiled. "Status of our other two targets?"

"Alpha is keeping its target busy, with Charlie and Delta supporting," Lio'wan reported.

"The other target is evasive, possibly trying to disengage from combat," Morl added.

"Do we let them go, or should we stay on them?" her first officer asked

Tw'eak looked at the viewscreen, her eyes narrowing. "Morl, hail the Breen ship. Advise them of who we are, and ask if they require any assistance."

"Aye."

"O'Leary, turn as if in pursuit, keep our fore weapons on them, but if they're fleeing, let them go." She turned to Sharpe. "If they're going, they're too few and too small to make it all the way back to the Delta Quadrant on their own."

"Suppose they're not. Maybe they're just scouts for a larger force."

"If they're like the Hirogen I've read about? Probably. But we can't engage any larger force as it is - best to report this whole incident to Starfleet before we go running off after them."

"Captain, I'm getting a response to our hails," Morl stated.

"On screen."

The interior of the Breen ship was a pale yellow, almost amber colour. At first glance, this was not what Tw'eak had expected the interior of a Breen cruiser to look like. But she recognized, at the edge of the screen, the distinct shape of what appeared to be a thermal distribution unit. Puzzled, she stood up. "This is Captain Twaiheak Sh'abbas of the Federation starship Bonaventure." She looked at Sharpe, confused by the empty viewscreen. Sharpe shrugged and shook his head. "Do you require assistance?"

She watched the viewscreen intently and nearly fell over as a Caitian pounced into view. His fur a bright orange, wearing a jaunty blue coat with golden epaulettes while his right eye only remained concealed beneath what appeared to be a black fabric patch attached to a band which ran around his head, he looked nothing like a Breen warrior. Tw'eak heard Lio'wan give a low rumbling growl at the sight of him.

"That depends," said the Caitian. "Be ye friend or foe?"

Tw'eak was unimpressed. "We just engaged a swarm of Hirogen vessels that were attacking you."

"To what purpose, I ask ye?"

"Figure it out."

"You'll be the one doing the figuring, madam - figuring out how to recover after the impact of a Breen energy drain!"

"I... who are you, anyway?"

"I am the captain of the Swordfish, as we call this here, our vessel. Ye may call me Selkirk Rex, pirate king of the stars!"

"Pirate?" Tw'eak sat up in her chair. "You're not serious."

"Aye. For it takes a pirate to catch pirates, madam! And 'tis my hearty crew's mission - to commit acts of piracy against slavers, privateers and freebooters alike in the name of freedom!"

"I'm not sure I understand. You're engaging in acts of piracy-"

"Aye."

"-against Federation citizens-"

"Enh, mostly Orions and Romulans."

"-against Orions and Romulans, using a Breen ship-"

"Hmph, Breen ship -those Orions stole it from them. We stole it back. Haven't seen any Breen to give it back to. Fair is fair."

Tw'eak closed her eyes and shook her head. "And how have you not all been killed yet?"

"Well, I..." The Caitian pondered for a moment, then grinned broadly. "We're finer pirates than they, is all!"

"Well." She gave a quick look towards Morl, and tapped her neck. At her signal, Morl muted the channel. Tw'eak turned towards Sharpe. "We just saved a crazy person."

"I don't know what to say," Sharpe replied. "Committing piracy is against Federation law, and Starfleet regulations, but this isn't quite the same as that."

Dazz took the opportunity to provide an update. "The Hirogen ships are well gone by now, ma'am. Just a blur on sensors because of their jamming fields."

"Recall all flights, Lio'wan. Launch Echo Flight to provide combat recon. Wide arc, report back on any sensory anomalies that could be the Hirogen returning."

"Aye," Lio'wan said in reply, his voice still resonant with disgust.

"Open channel, Morl." A quick couple blip noises, and the channel opened again. "Captain Rex..."

"Selkirk. Rex is me title. As pirate king, y'see."

"I... understand." Tw'eak felt herself growing impatient. "Are you in need of any support, or repairs?"

"Well, to be honest, if ye have any Breen onboard, we could use a quick look at our life support, but other'n that, a pirate will never say die!"

Tw'eak noticed Octavia giving a quick glance back over her shoulder, incredulous, as she continued. "Let me offer this, then. Allow me the, um, privilege of parley with you, captain to captain, while a damage control team from my ship takes a look at the life support, and whatever else you may need."

Sharpe sat bolt upright. "Captain, what are you-"

Tw'eak silenced him with a raised hand, then stood. "I will come along in order to personally vouch for my people's conduct. If they do anything more than they're asked, or offend your crew in any way, I shall willingly become your prisoner."

The entire bridge crew stared intently at Tw'eak. At least a couple jaws were dangling. "Can we discuss this, ma'am?" Sharpe asked.

Tw'eak turned towards her first officer and spoke quickly and quietly. "We need to earn his trust. At the first sign of trouble I signal for a quick beam-out."

Lio'wan, whose Caitian hearing was better than most humanoids, spoke before Sharpe could get a word in. "Impossible, ma'am."

Tw'eak looked up at her flight deck officer. "What?"

"Sensor scans from Delta Flight indicate that there are several overlapping transporter inhibiters set up across multiple decks. In fact, they'd have to turn one off to let you beam over."

Tw'eak straightened up, realizing her error. Whatever impatience she had felt was being rapidly replaced by a sincere dread. She turned back towards the screen, struggling to hold her antennae and facial expression impassively, to see the face of Selkirk Rex was beaming brightly. "I accept your terms! We shall permit your boarding on your conditions immediately!"

"We'll be right over. Bonaventure out." As the screen blinked out, Tw'eak collapsed into her command chair.

"Somehow I don't think this one's in the command staff handbook," Sharpe said softly.

Tw'eak stood again, composing herself. "You're on watch until we get back. Octavia, signal the engine room. Have them send a damage control party to Transporter Room Two immediately."

"Aye, ma'am," Octavia replied, then leapt out of her chair. "Requesting permission to join the damage control team."

Before Tw'eak could respond, she heard her first officer say, "granted." Tw'eak turned to see Sharpe sliding into the command chair. "And I will override you if you say anything. She's going with you. If anything goes wrong over there I know she can short-circuit those inhibitors and probably do a thousand other things to their systems in order for us to mount an effective rescue."

"The commander is correct," Octavia confirmed with a slight smile.

"All right," Tw'eak conceded, "join the party." She then looked to Sharpe and added, "have Doc Ellington send Zed to meet us. They might have wounded over there."

"Won't adding a medic be against the terms of the arrangement?" Morl added.

Tw'eak took a quick look towards the Tellarite, realizing his point. "It's a risk I'm willing to take." She turned to Octavia, nodded her head towards the turbolift, and headed towards it. "You have the bridge, Sharpe."