Disclaimer: Okay, I know it's been a long time since my last update…but a whole lot's been happening for me lately. To make up for my absence, I'll be going on a little releasing spree within the next two weeks or so! Enough of my little rant, let's get this disclaimer outta' the way, shall we? I don't own Star Trek, or any characters or technologies therein, cannon or no, so DON'T SUE ME!

xxxxxXXXXxxxxx

"Patriarch, we've completed the transfer of all station operations! We now have full control of all of Sentok'Nor's systems," Reported one of the few Grigesquian soldiers on the station. Patriarch Xelmekrow stood at the edge of the room, watching with careful satisfaction as one of the many goals of final plan came one step closer to his reach. Stepping down from the doorway, Xelmekrow grinned manically at the master-control station which now belonged to him.

"Excellent...what is the status for the rest of the station?" He asked his soldier standing on the other side of the screen. The century's stature changed in the slightest, indicating that he was nervous.

"The situation here is...less then ideal. We may have control over all of the key systems, but many of the remaining Cardassian soldiers, as well as groups of the station's civilian inhabitants have refused to cooperate, and are holding themselves up in several key areas." Troublesome indeed; the Patriarch rubbed one of his clawed fingers against his chin as he thought of how best to deal with the situation.

"I've ordered some of our people to begin a system-wide purge of all of the effected areas. In fact they've started working on-"

"-Leave them be," Xelmekrow answered, cutting his own soldier off. The man on the other side of the screen started back in shock.

"Is that wise sir? Forgive me for speaking out of place, but aren't they a liability to the success of our mission?" Xelmekrow sneered as his annoyance surged through him, scaring the soldier on the other side.

"You're lucky I need you over there for the time being, or else I would have you removed!" Seeing the fear on his subordinates face, the patriarch felt a grin start to take control of his world. He could never tire of seeing that look; so many times he'd seen that look of terror, and yet, he felt so alive every time he saw it. "Of course they're a liability, but we need them to draw out the Raven...but for the time being, jam any and all radio and subspace transmissions in and out of the station." It took a moment, but eventually the soldier on the other side began to understand what he was getting at. If only it wasn't just a moment too long for his tastes.

"When I give the order, I want you to drop the dampening field." On the other side, he watched as the soldier opened his mouth, about to say something, but then quickly closed it and nodded.

"Understood Patriarch... Command, out." Xelmekrow grinned manically at his own thoughts, thinking of what was to come. Oh sure, this might not be the right Chief, but never the less, this should prove to be just as easily satisfying.

"This is the Chief's one weakness," He said to no one but himself in the empty room; "he can never resist a cry for help."

xxxxxXXXXxxxxx

"Crewman, how many LN-2 tanks do we have left?" Asked the chief as he examined the valve from a pulled piece of tubing; wiping away the carbon which had built up on the interior of the nozzle as he made his assessment of whether or not they could stand something as big as they were planning.

"Huh?" The crewman said with stunned disbelief, "Is that one empty already?" The crewman asked. The Chief stopped what he was doing to shoot the maintenance crewman a sharp confirming nod, only realizing how far his jaw was hanging open when the maintenance officer made a full turn away from the grappler system controls.

"It can't be; I just replaced that tank no more than an hour ago!" The crewman's face turned beat red as he continued his banter at how much trouble he went through to replace that last tank. The commander huffed in annoyance, partially at the seemingly never-ending-story the non-com behind him was reciting, but also at the prospect of what this latest revelation meant.

'Greaaaat...so now there's a leak somewhere in the system,' The Chief said inwardly to himself as he rubbed the side of his face in exhausted announced. He tried ignoring the fatigue which had been building up throughout the day as he turned back to the crewman, making note of the rank insignia on his shoulder: a grade four warrant officer, and tried to recall the crew roaster for this section.

"Crewman Bott, right?" The crewman nodded in acknowledgement, which The Chief would have found refreshing had he not been preoccupied by the growing list of repairs and modification that he still needed to make. "I'll take care of the problem here; you just go and get a spare tank out of storage." Bott eyed him suspiciously, ready to retort in his own annoyance, but after a moment-and a grave glair from the younger engineer- he gave a quick "Understood, sir," and left the room. Again The Chief huffed in annoyance as he went to work tracking down the problem.

"Hmm...Let's see. The hydraulic pressurizes have been putting out a steady pressure reading, so it has to be somewhere in the-" A pair of hands covered his eyes before he could finish tracing the lines. For a split second his body tensed as he subconsciously entered his defensive mode, but then decided to wait a few seconds for his intruder to identify themselves. When he didn't hear a voice telling him to either keep quiet, nor another hand or two trying to restrain him, he decided that it was probably alright to relax a little.

As he'd suspected, his intruder said what he'd guessed what was going on: "-Guess who." They said in a familiar, high-pitched and comforting voice. Gently, The Chief let himself relax as he felt the playful smile in the voice.

"Sasqua," He said. "I though I told you to help Velmon make the modifications to his ship." She giggled as she pulled her hands away, restoring Feek's sight. Turning around to face her, he was greeted by her warm smile, which he had always found comforting.

She let out an amused giggle as she said: "Bingo on all accounts." Feek rubbed the side of his face as she continued her cheerful banter, deciding it best not to press the issue of how the work for their plan was progressing at the moment. Partially because of the secret that their 'Guest' had told him about was still resonating through his mind, and that made him uneasy.

"I wanted to run something by you; Doctor Velmon's shuttle uses an isolinear-based data transmission network...It's similar to an optical network, except it uses photons to carry electrical data transmission instead of using a converter to encode then decode the data before and after transmission, so my question is this: if we were to install a transmission converter in the shuttle, then wouldn't it increase the chances of the shuttle surviving when we begin the final part of the operation?" The question was straight-foreword, and it made a lot of sense...after all, they only needed to deactivate the stations shields in order to complete their plan, but he'd already considered all of this, and even in retrospect with a second opinion, he still could only come to the same conclusion. [1]

"The thought had crossed my mind, and yes, it does seem like a good idea at first glance-"

"-Then why do we need to add something like a tauon particle generator to their weapons systems? Why not just adapt their existing technology?" Asked Sasqua, cutting off The Chief before he could finish. Rolling his eyes in annoyance, Feek reached for the UV sensor in his tool kit. [2]

"Because if this is going to have any chance of working, then we'll need to make it look like we've found a way to integrate our technology with theirs!" He spat out in annoyance. Finally finding his sensor, he immediately went to work scanning the lines, looking for any kind of unique disturbances in the atmosphere.

Then something dawned on him... "Was that the only thing you wanted to talk to me about, Miss. Dove?" Sasqua snickered lightly at the question. The Chief stopped running his test, as he turned back to the warrant officer behind him.

"Okay, you got me," She said as she began to rub the ring on her smallest finger; an old habit that she'd had for the longest time. "I also wanted to see you." Something inside the Chief made him feel somewhat lighter her saying this, so he let himself relax just a little; but looking into her face forced a surge of fear to strike his heart, as images that he wished he could forget began playing over again in his mind's eye. Pain struck his scarred hand, as an image of a blood-soaked floor plastered itself over the world. The image was gone in an instant, but the pain and fear that it enticed remained.

"Markus?" Asked Sasqua in a worried tone. She locked her gaze with his for a brief moment, before The Chief broke the connection and turned back to the open alcove.

"I've been thinking...maybe, when we get back to our Earth, you should go back to Jrenkoba's..." His heart skipped a beat as the words left his mouth. He tried to steel himself as best he could, but weather or not that was the case, he just didn't know. He busied himself with trying to find the leak again, but he just couldn't concentrate.

Sasqua laughed behind him. "Ha ha ha...Is this some kind of a joke, Markus?" She asked. Looking into the polished metal of the bulkhead, he saw both of their reflections; but more than that, he saw the worry hidden behind her smile. He could feel his heart breaking, just as it had so many times before in the past-only this time, it was him who was causing the pain. "I've always said that we'd need to work on that sense of humor, but now it looks like I've still got my work cut-out for-"

"-I'm not joking Sasqua!" He snapped. Feek did everything he could to reign in his temper as he tried to calm himself, but when his outburst was met with only silence, he just couldn't help himself from turning turn half way back to his friend.

Before he even realized it, she reached her out-stretched hand and placed it on his shoulder, "All the more reason why I can't just let you do this on your own." He could hear the granite in her voice. The rock-solidness which she only uses when she unleashed her protective side. "I'm your foster sister Markus, there's no way-"

He cut her off; "No Sasqua! You are my sister; my only family! There's no reason for you to get any more involved in this than you already are!" The Chief's voice felt horse from his outburst, but it didn't matter to him, because no sooner had he finished, than did he see her rearing herself for a comeback, so, he continued before she could.

"How could I let you? Even if we do survive long enough to make it back to our Earth, what then?" He clenched his jaw as he fought back his own grief. "...Chances are, the same people who tried to destroy the Raven will try again, and then-" He calmed himself down, as turned back to the alcove, "...and then, they'll come after me, and anyone who I'm close to!" The Chief growled out the last part of the sentence, not wanting to say it. To him, saying it felt like acknowledging something horrible, but this was something that just couldn't be ignored. Staring at the UV sensor in his hand, the engineer couldn't bring himself to just start the test again. In the silence that followed, a warm, and wet feeling began to spread through his chest. He had braced himself for it when this all began, but that didn't help the pain that accompanied it.

The Chief said inwardly, 'But that's not the whole truth...' No, there was so much more that he wanted to say. 'There are so many things that you just don't know; that I keep hidden. So much of my past that's shrouded in darkness, even to me. My dreams; my nightmares...things that I can just never tell you. But, it doesn't end there...there's also the fact that now, I'm also your commanding officer, and that means one day, I may have to send you on a fools errand and know that you may not-' He had to steel himself once again, as another wave of sickly moisture soaked through his chest. '...I just don't want to lose you...not like them. Not again!' A moment of silence hung in the air; behind him, Sasqua remained quiet. Even as she got up to leave, she made no noise-not even the clicking of her boots sounded, or perhaps, simply didn't register to The Chief, he wasn't really sure.

Then she stopped, just before she would have reached the door. "I don't care, Markus...I'm still not going anywhere. You always try to protect everyone at once, but you always forget about yourself. I'm staying, regardless of what happens." The Chief snapped back to the maintenance engineer behind him in shock; eyeing her carefully as she turned a sideways glance back to the commander.

He asked; "What?" But he never received an answer. Instead, he watched as Sasqua hit the door control, and pulled the latch. Staring at the door as it swung free, Feek felt himself fall back into his Riviera of isolation.

Fear bunging the oil in his chest until it nearly disappeared, he muttered; "Shit."

xxxxxXXXXxxxxx

'...Dammit Markus! Why do you always have to be like that?' Sasqua asked inwardly asked herself as she made her way through the deck five corridors. It had been some time since she had spoken with her little brother; there were times when it seemed like the time-gap between their conversations was decades. Sure, they may have only been foster siblings, but that was beside the point!

"...He always was one to stand his ground." Said a sudden voice. The maintenance officer stopped dead in her tracks, recognizing the owner of the voice. Without neither a moment's hesitation, nor prompting, lieutenant Z'Quaz stepped out from the open doorway to one of the Raven's few empty crew quarters. The alien woman stood there, leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed, and grinning wanly as she continued; "That little engineer of ours. Though, I wouldn't expect anything less from him...or more for that matter."

Annoyed by the lavender woman, Sasqua asked; "What are you doing here?" Z'Quaz chuckled lightly at the question before walking out from her place in the door way.

"Walk with me Miss Dove," she said with all of the bemusement dying away from her voice, leaving only its serious undertones. Deciding not to wait for the auspicious woman, Sasqua began forging ahead. To her annoyance, the Air force second lieutenant fell quickly into since with her brisk step. They walked in silence, with only the quick thudding of their boots against the deck as the only sound to occupy their minds.

After several seconds of silence, the lavender woman spoke up; "I've been looking over your systems-they're very impressive for a people who haven't even broken the light-barrier yet." Dove felt her cheek twitch in annoyance.

"Yeah well, this ship was supposed to be our test-bed for that...not that we'll ever get to do that now." She spat out. Z'Quaz only let out a slight chuckle as a reply, much to her annoyance.

"I've also had a glance at your non-combat systems; they're very imaginative, even for someone like The Chief." Sasqua stopped mid-step as she heard those words. The lieutenant however, continued on for a few more meters before following suit with a quick stop of her own.

She half-snarled at their guest, but still tried to keep her voice down as she said; "Just what the hell are you getting at, lieutenant?" The wan grin that lay across the other woman's angled face died just a little.

"I know that you're the one who designed the grappler-control systems, lieutenant...and," she looked away, just for a second, but the crewwoman understood why. It was so obvious, that now she wondered why she hadn't seen it before.

"...Integrated something extra when they were installed." Her head fell in shame. This ship was her little brothers; the work of not only his lifetime, but of another man long in his past. A memory made its way to the surface, and suddenly she was standing not before second lieutenant Z'Quaz on the USS Raven, but another human; an old man on Earth. With the ashes of their old home still smoldering behind him. The old man's lips moved, but no sound came out of them. There needn't be any in the first place, because she already knew what those silent words were. Suddenly, she felt something touch her shoulders, and the image began to slowly melt away, giving back in to reality, and oddly enough, the old man whom she had made her promise to, seemed to recede perfectly into the image of their guest. Z'Quaz stood there, smiling a somehow knowing grin at her as she was allowed to return to the present.

"This ship," the lieutenant began, motioning with her free hand with a sweeping arch around the empty corridor, "is a ship full of pain-filled nightmares and haunting memories. I don't care how you come to terms with your fears so long as you don't end up hurting the ones you love the most." Those words, they were exactly the same as the old man's so long ago. When she looked into them, Sasqua felt her shame as it melted away before her gaze. Then the lieutenant did something that was completely unexpected; turned around, and began heading back from were she came, and disappeared.

xxxxxXXXXxxxxx

The viewports were dark, almost black; they were currently above the night side of the planet, so not even the stars were visible. Farlind heaved a sigh and looked away. It was almost too painful to keep his eyes on the blackness of the void below his office, so he hit the switch on his desk that was closest to the wall and the shutters began to close. As the metallic covers receded over the clear surface of the reinforced glass, the beeping of his door sounded.

Not giving it a second thought, he called out, "Come in." The steel door slid open, revealing the one it had so quietly hid, although, it came as no surprise to him; he had called for her after all. But still, it would be a little nice every now and then if she could at least humor him.

"Captain Farlind." She said with an impish grin. Something inside returned the calling, but still managed to keep some seriousness in his visage. He admired her for that; she'd obviously had a lot of practice in mastering it.

Grinning, he motioned to one of the chairs sitting beside his desk. "Won't you have a seat?" She returned the gesture, and wrinkled her brow playfully as she sat down. He shot a quick glance into her eyes to see if he could find anything in them he could use, but it was her who got there first.

"You're not convinced the Chief's plan will work, are you?" He was growing to like her; she was good...just as good as him in fact. His grin started to widen as he pulled exactly what he wanted from her gaze without so much trouble. Granted, he'd been prepared to search far and deep for what he needed, but she was pushing everything he needed to know to the forefront of her consciousness.

"Perceptive," he chuckled out; "No, I'm not." The playfulness in his tone began to temper as he continued: "There's something about it that bothers me." He leaned himself against his desk, his hands clasped so his chin could rest in them. Z'Quaz however, didn't seem phased by it. No, in fact, she seemed somehow understanding.

"It shouldn't," she said sweetly; "Markus is a brilliant engineer, but you should already know that." Of course he did; the very thought of doubting him made his skin crawl. He liked being able to trust people, but he wouldn't be sitting here right now if he just simply let himself trust everyone he came across.

"I've found more booby-traps in the ships systems," she said, bringing his train of thought to a screeching halt. He looked at her with a something of a mix between amazement, and horror. But by the time he noticed the look on her face, he started to feel a small, rare hint of impatience wiggling its ugly head in. He was trying to keep his crew safe, and not to mention alive, while she just stood there, grinning the cat that ate the canary!

"Don't worry Farlind, I've already taken the liberty of clearing the majority of them out of the systems...but there's a few more that will take a little more work to get ride of."

xxxxxXXXXxxxxx

The Chief looked at the felled guards on the floor; their blood, pooling below them. His eyes grew wide, as he realized that they were still alive, and he was the one who'd done this to them.

Shaking his head in fearful disbelief, he muttered; "No-" This couldn't be true; why would he do such a thing! Then he remembered it, the reason why, and he collapsed. His throat burning with acid as he gagged on bile that he could feel trying to force its why up through his wind-pipe.

"Chief, are you okay?" He heard someone behind him ask. He looked behind him to see commander Shelotskov standing there; his uniform stained with blood...his own blood. No, the engineer wasn't alright.

"I'm sorry commander...I'm so-" He tried to apologize, but then he dropped whatever was in his hands without even realizing it: the weapon he'd just used. He stared at it as soon as he'd caught sight of it, and he felt as if all of his strength had abandoned him as he stared at the rusted thing.

"...I've seen this weapon before!" Muttered the Chief. "It's the one he used, all those years ago!"

The darkness swirled around him like a storm. Turning back to Shelotskov, The Chief grabbed hold of his arm. "...No!" He shouted; "What ever you do, don't let go!" The commander looked at him in the eye, his own calm and serene as if he knew something that The Chief didn't.

"Let me go Chief...I'm needed here."

Feek snorted as he shot up. He looked down at the surface he'd been laying on; it was a desk. He looked around the room to make sure that's where he really was; he was sitting in the chief engineer's main office on the Raven. Sighing partially in relief, the youth leaned back in the chair...he'd must have fallen asleep while reviewing some of the repair logs and maintenance reports. Mentally, he slapped himself for letting himself get so bad. He's working himself to the point of exhaustion...again. How long had he been awake anyway? Forty hours, or was it forty-three...he couldn't even remember. He rubbed the sides of head, trying to focus his tired mind. He still had too many preparations he needed to finish before they could begin with the operation. Sitting foreword, he activated the terminal sitting to the side of the desk.

"Let's see...how much still needs to be...fin...ished..." He gawked at the screen, not believing everything it was showing him. He ran a quick diagnostic, just to make sure that it wasn't a malfunction like the rest of the things on this ship, but when that turned up nothing, the young engineer started to think that he might still be sleeping.

"I can't be, can I?" He asked himself. Almost immediately he began to look around the room to try and find something that looked out of place; anything that might indicate that this was nothing but his subconscious trying to tell him some sort of fantasy that something in his mind was making up, but when he found nothing, he huffed to himself with frustration. He eyed the edge of his desk, thinking back to all of the times that he'd ever dreamed.

"...I wonder," he said aloud. With a single, swift motion, he slammed the side of his hand onto the metal surface of the structure.

"FUCK!" He shouted as he cradled the now sore limb as strings of obscenities streamed from his mouth. "Well Chief, that was a fucking brilliant idea, wasn't it!" Oh, he was pissed; first at him self for thinking of doing something so damn stupid, then at his judgment for thinking that it was a good idea in the first place. What the hell was he thinking?

Nursing his swelling hand, he glanced back at the screen, now relatively willing to accept what it said as true. "Holy shit," he cussed partially in pain, "just how long was I asleep?" If this list was right, then more or less all of the modifications he'd ordered had been made, and the crew was already well underway with completing repairs. Sure, if the regular alpha-shift crew were all still alive, then they might have gotten this far, but for all rights and purposes, it should have taken at least a another five hours with all of the junior staff, and maintenance personnel they had filling those positions. There was also the fact that they were all working without the schematics from the main-computer, and thus, were working from his own half-finished blue-prints. Then he remembered a certain guest on board...

"...That's right, she knows me better then almost anyone else on board this ship...it makes sense that she would be able to figure-out how to work my systems." She'd been amazed at how much as more advanced the Raven was compared to her own vessel, but she'd also had the benefit of working several other types of technologies from at least half a dozen other species...maybe even more, he didn't know. But the one thing that he did understand was that with this, they could get their plan under way sooner rather then later. He glanced down at the paper-work and half-finished schematics on his desk. He'd been in the middle of making them more legible for the crew to read and easier for them to understand. Granted, he hated using his personal collection like this, but if it could help save their lives and get them home, then he was willing to bite his tongue. Turning back to a small safe he'd brought on board, he reached in through it's open door, and pulled out a small box sitting on its bottom shelf. The box itself was light, despite the heavy look of the wood it was made of.

Gently, he placed his hand on the simple lock keeping the box sealed. "I wish stronger then this. I'm sorry...I'm sorry; I wish I wasn't such a coward," he whispered.

Erriiieee "Cho to Feek: Chief, are you there?" Sounded the voice of his acting assistant over the ships intercom. It seems strange to him; the more he hear her call him chief, the more it feels so natural to him, but not in the sense that he felt that things should be like this. Actually, its the opposite; to him, it feels like he shouldn't be here...that he should have listened to his superiors and left the ship before it was ready to leave orbit. He grinned to himself as he reached for the comm-controls on his desk; he loved screwing with fate...

"I'm here ensign, whadda'ya need?"

"We've completed basic repairs, and finished making the necessary modifications to the tactical and drive systems. We're ready to go when you are." His grin began to fade as he thought about what they were about to do. If this hair-brained plan of his worked, then the entire station of Sentok'Nor would be destroyed, taking many of its inhabitants with it while they slipped safely though the dimensional rift-gate. All this just to get home...

'No' he thought to himself, 'its to stop Xel and any other Grigesque from reeking any more havoc across the stars.' The familiar dense ball in the pit of his stomach reappeared, as it had so many times before, but he ignored it as he forced himself to look back over at the small wooden box sitting on the other side of the room.

"Understood. Ready all of the engineering safety systems on stand-bye, code beta-blue. I'll tell the captain; Feek out." He closed the channel with the flick of a button, not waiting for his assistant to acknowledge her understanding. Reaching out for the box, he touched the smooth surface of it's dark wooden exterior. Remembering the reason why he'd brought it on board, he gently picked it up, and placed it back on it's shelf in the safe.

As he turned back to his desk, he grabbed his "Show time."

xxxxxXXXXxxxxx

"Ma'am, we've managed to isolate environmental controls for our people, but that's it," said one of the Cardassian officers from one of the work-consoles in the station's ore-processing facility. A woman standing at the edge of the room turned away from the person she'd been talking to, and faced the old man behind her.

"Well its better then nothing," She answered. "How many of our people have survived?" The Cardassian looked away, and growled under his breath at the question. I didn't like where this was heading...this is far too familiar for me not to do anything to about.

Just as the older man was about to answer the younger woman's question, I cut in, saying: "I'm sorry, but there are more important things that we should be worrying about;" I give each a warning glance as I continue "...such as how to stop the Patriarch." The pair look at each other, but what they did only served to reignite my old suspicions as the younger woman grinned as the older officer cocked his head away with a "che".

"Oh don't worry," she began, "I've got a plan to stop him." Saying that, she turned to her second in command. "Laget, prepare the escape pods-"

"So that's your plan?" Run away, and never come back! What's to stop them from blasting our ships from out of the sky once we launch?" From what I'd learned of them since they rescued me from that lift shaft, she'd been working on a resistance plan to depose of the Grigesque since they first got here. And after all she'd done to stop them, this was what they're hidden ace! The woman turned back to face me, and now she was laughing with that same insanely maniacal glint in her eyes that I'd seen not too long ago.

"Hmhmhm, silly human...when did I ever say that we were leaving...?" The glint faded, and I watched as a hint of sadness tried to force it's way through the surface, but she held it back.

I shook my head in confusion, saying: "What do you mean?" Her softer features twitched...apparently, I'd hit a rather sore spot with her. I watched as she pushed her fear back, and at the same time, allowed a dangerous look of anger through.

"The Grigesque must pay for what they've done...after all, I am half human." The hatred in her eyes was almost intoxicating. After seeing their recordings of what had happened below on the Earth, I couldn't really say that I couldn't disagree with her fury-I even shared in some of it-but this was her home world...she didn't just want to stop these people, she wanted them to hurt. She turned around and began making her way out of their make-shift command-center, but I had to keep her here; I have to ensure that she won't, at the very least, get us all killed seeking out her revenge.

"Wait!" I shout; she turns just before she can leave the bay, so I continue: "You never told me you're name." She grinned at the question, but she didn't waste any time answering it.

"Ziyal...My name commander Shelotskov, is Ziyal."

xxxxxXXXXxxxxx

[1] What Sasqua is talking about here, is basic network-transmission conversion methods, basically, how someone would use a specialized adapter for different types of data-transmission mediums. (i.e. communication between an optical, or light-based cable and a more traditional electrical or copper-cable (the same kind as most people use in their homes).

[2] A tauon is a very heavy version of an electron particle, with a reversed charge of about 1/2 of an electron, so it makes for a very base to convert two different technologies that use different computational systems.