Grakar and Korax arrived at the Klingon ship that was onboard the pirate ship. The boarding ramp was still closed so they did not believe Heegat had gotten into the ship. Grakar had met Heegat when they first got onto the ship, but he had escaped. "Heegat is a coward," Grakar said as they looked around the ship.

"Where would he go?" Korax wondered.

"It is a large ship." Grakar stopped a moment. "The Vulcan said there are others in the Brig. What better place to hide than among the prisoners, and then he will be transferred with the rest?"

"Ah. He may be a coward, but he is also sneaky."

"Perhaps we should go and secure all the prisoners."

"That is a good idea."

Grakar took out his communicator. "Captain Kirk," he said.

"Kirk here," Jim answered.

"I believe we know the location of our runaway Nausicaan."

"Where?"

"We think he has joined the prisoners in the Brig."

Jim was silent a moment. "That's good thinking," he said. "Are you at the Brig?"

"Not yet. We intend to secure those prisoners."

Jim tried not to laugh at that. "That's a good idea."

"We wouldn't want any of them to have long bladed knives."

Jim had never thought of a Klingon having a sense of humor. "Yeah. They don't need anything like that. We'll keep trying to get this ship going."

"Do not worry."

Scotty had gotten the chips back in the right place, and he was investigating the warp drive and the engines. "This thing is amazing," he said to Spock. "This rotating thing makes power."

"I see," Spock replied. "Do you still believe it will take two hours to get it operational again?"

"Most likely. It has to power up. After all, it's a large ship, Laddy…I mean, Commander."

"We should work on the shields then. I do not believe we can stay here in the Neutral Zone without having trouble."

"I'll get to work on that now."

On the Enterprise, Uhura had tried to reach Jim and the others but had not gotten a response. "What would the captain want us to do?" she asked.

"He'd want us to stay right here, I'm sure," Bones replied. He hated not knowing what was going on. "I guess since we haven't received any distress calls, maybe they're okay."

"Unless the captain calls us, we're supposed to stay right here," Sulu reminded them. "I'm sure he'll let us know when they start moving. John, are you detecting any ships?"

John shook his head. "Nothing," he said. "No transmissions either except from the outpost, and they haven't detected anything."

"Maybe that's a good sign. At least they're not being attacked."

Grakar and Korax made their way to the Brig, which was in the back part of the ship. "Suppose he has recruited some help in there?" Korax asked.

"I do not believe any prisoners would want to help their captor," Grakar replied. "But we will be cautious."

"He could have supplied them with weapons."

"Not a wise move."

"He may have promised them freedom."

"Perhaps, but he will not have freedom for long himself."

Grakar looked at the controls on the door that went into the Brig. He drew his bat'leth as did Korax, and then pressed the button to open the door. The frightened looks on the faces of the prisoners at seeing Klingons come in was enough to tell them that they would not be facing a fight. The prisoners were still in cuffs.

Grakar looked at all the prisoners, and his gaze fell on one in particular which had a hood over his face, and kept his head down. "You!" Grakar yelled. The being did not move.

Grakar moved over to the being keeping his bat'leth ready, because he remembered that long blade that Heegat had brandished. "Stand up," Grakar said.

"Why?" the being asked.

"Do you question me?"

Suddenly, the being, which was Heegat, drew out that long-bladed knife at the same time that he jumped to his feet. However, Grakar had been expecting that, and avoided getting impaled on the knife.

Heegat knew exactly how to get out of the prison area through a secret hatch at the other end of the room, and he did just that. Grakar and Korax just stood there as they had been surprised at how fast Heegat moved. Grakar did not like that he had escaped them again, but he would have to tell Captain Kirk.

Jim answered the communicator and Grakar told him that Heegat had escaped through a secret hatch, and he could hear that Grakar was not happy about it. "He can't get off the ship," Jim said. "So he'll have to show up eventually."

"I apologize for letting him escape," Grakar replied. "It was a failure."

"Well, it happens. We'll keep an eye out for him on the scanners. We just have to make sure he doesn't get to any of the controls."

"We will find him."

The transmission ended, and Jim thought Heegat would be in serious trouble if Grakar found him again. He had heard the menace in his voice. Klingons did not like to be outwitted or beaten in a fight.

"If I was that Heegat, I'd keep myself in those tunnels," Solan remarked. "He's liable to end up on the wrong end of a bat'leth."

"Maybe we can take him prisoner and find out who all's involved in this," Jim replied.

"You better not let Grakar find him then."

"Maybe I should help them. I'm not doing any good standing here anyway. You let me know if anything happens."

"I will."

Jim looked at Kor. "Just stay here and help Solan if anyone shows up," Jim said.

Kor slapped his fist across his chest and nodded. Jim nodded as well and ran off the Bridge. He was thinking…where would Heegat go if he wanted to cause them trouble? He wished they had someone around who knew more about that ship, but he would have to rely on Scotty. He took out his communicator. "Scotty."

"Yes sir," Scotty answered. "Still more than an hour, Sir."

"I know. If Heegat wanted to cause us trouble, where would he go besides where you are?"

Scotty considered that. "I don't know much about the layout of this ship, Sir, but I have been studying a schematic of the ship, and there is a central computer core. If he wanted to try and delay the ship getting started, he could do it there."

"Send that schematic to me. There are two Klingons there with you guys, right?"

"Yes sir."

"Have them stay there, and have Spock meet me at the central computer core."

"Aye, Captain."

Jim started running as he was pulling up the schematic of the ship on his tricorder. He could see where the central computer core was, and it was under the area he was in now. The big ship…for lack of a better name, had corridors that wound around to the lower levels rather than having turbo lifts. The Enterprise was basically the same way. One could get where they were going without taking a turbo lift, although it took much longer. He thought the Nausicaans were fast since Heegat managed to evade the Klingons twice.

As Jim neared the area where the main computer core was, he drew his blaster. The corridor he was now in was dark, and he wondered if Heegat had cut the power there. None of the other corridors had been dark. He took out his communicator again. "Spock," he said quietly as he stopped for a moment.

"Yes Captain," Spock answered.

"Where are you?"

"I am in the corridor at the back of the main computer core."

"Is it dark?"

"Yes."

"I think Heegat has cut the power to the lights down here. Are Nausicaans nocturnal?"

"I do not know."

"Be careful."

Jim put his communicator away and turned the light on that he had around his wrist. He would not go into this without seeing where he was going, and he hoped he would see Heegat before he was rushing at him with that long blade. It was so quiet in that corridor, he could hear nothing but his own breathing, and he was plenty nervous. He moved on down the corridor slowly, and he realized it was rather warm in there as well. He thought that might be from the computer core.

Jim finally came to a fork in the corridor. He looked both ways but did not see anything. He had a feeling that this was where Heegat had departed to so he moved to the right. He moved on to the next junction in the tunnel, which only had a fork to the left. He stopped at the corner, and then looked around the corner, and was incredibly startled as Spock was there at the corner as well. Jim thought he looked just a little startled.

"I did not see anything, Captain," Spock said quietly.

"Neither did I," Jim replied. "But something's going on down here."

"I believe you are correct. However, we must be cautious since we are very close to the computer core. He could irradiate us."

"Not without irradiating himself."

"Unless he has some way of doing it without being in the same place."

"If he messes that thing up, we might not be able to get this ship out of here."

"That is true, but if we are irradiated, we will not get it out of here anyway."

"Don't you think our suits would protect us?"

"I am not sure."

"Let's get moving and see if we can find him."

Jim took his communicator out again. "Mister Scott," he said quietly.

"Yes Captain," Scotty answered.

"Scan this area around the computer core and see if you're picking up any life signs down here. You shouldn't be able to see Mister Spock and me."

Scotty did the scan. "The core is creating interference, Captain. I'm not getting anything around the area directly outside it."

"We're not far from it now. Stand by."

Jim and Spock moved on down the next corridor which would go into the main area. They assumed that the computer core would be contained as the one on the Enterprise was. However, when they arrived, they were surprised to see that this ship did not have a computer core like the one on the Enterprise, although it was still generating heat. "What is this?" Jim asked.

"It is obviously a new form of computer core that does not require it to be housed," Spock said.

"It's not radioactive?"

"Apparently not, or we would now be fried."

"Okay then…"

Jim and Spock noticed a console that had a counter on it. They hurried over to it. SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED. Jim looked at Spock, not sure what to say. The counter had five minutes on it. "Can we stop it?" Jim asked.

"Captain, I do not believe we have the time to try," Spock replied.

Jim grabbed his communicator as they were running to get back to the deck. "Everyone evacuate!" Jim yelled. "The ship is set to self-destruct! Get to the ship!"

Solan jumped up from the helm and looked at Kor. "Let's go!" Solan said.

Scotty and the two Klingons with him hurried from the control room, and Grakar and Korax were already almost to the ship. They got there first and got the boarding ramp down. They ran to the front to get the ship ready for flight.

Jim and Spock arrived at the ship at almost the same time as Solan and Scotty, and the others with them. They all ran into the ship. "We have to get those prisoners!" Jim yelled.

"We are working on that," Grakar said. "We are locked onto them."

They transported the prisoners to their Brig, and then lifted the ship off the deck. The Klingon ship got out just in time as the pirate ship exploded. However, the wave from the destruction caused their ship to spin and flip over, but it was not damaged.

Jim pulled his helmet off as he was feeling a little claustrophobic and almost gasping for air. "That was close," he said.

"How did you discover that it was on self destruct?" Solan asked.

"We saw the console with five minutes on it." Jim rubbed his face. "So much for getting that ship and studying it."

"At least it is no longer a threat to the galaxy," Spock pointed out. "That was our primary goal. We did learn much about the ship."

"Yeah. That computer core. It was like nothing I've ever seen."

"I have never seen technology like they had either, Captain."

"I guess we may never know where they got it from either."

"It is logical to believe that they did not create it on their own. They most likely took it from some ship that they captured, or made the beings create it for them."

"Either way, it's destroyed now."

"I'm just glad we're not floating particles out there in the Neutral Zone," Solan remarked. "We could have been, you know."

"Don't remind me," Jim said.

Jim went to the Bridge. "I need to contact the Enterprise and let them know what happened," he said.

"We will hail them, Captain," Grakar replied. He looked at Jim. "Our mission was a failure. I hope that you will not see this failure as a cause to reject the peace treaty."

"It wasn't your fault. We just didn't expect that. I'll be glad to have you guys for allies. We couldn't have gotten control of that ship without you."

"But we lost it because we allowed Heegat to escape and destroy the ship."

"Well, you know, none of us found him, so that wasn't all your fault either. We just have to move on. He just knew where he was going and we were in new territory. He had the advantage."

"I suppose you could see it that way, but Klingons do not accept failure easily."

"Don't see it as a failure, but a learning experience. We learned some stuff about that ship, and we stopped it. They won't be kidnapping and stealing with that ship anymore."

Grakar considered that. "Acceptable."

Korax sat in the co-pilot's seat. "Do you believe Heegat blew himself up?" he asked.

"I don't know," Jim replied. "This ship was the only one that survived, and it's funny, there were no other ships there."

"I also find that odd," Spock said. "Unless there was another area in the ship where they kept ships that had been stripped of their value."

"A junk yard somewhere in the galaxy like Qualor Two. They must have dumped the ships they captured somewhere."

"That could have even been in Romulan space. It is unlikely that we will ever find such a dump."

"Your optimism staggers me, Spock."

Solan snickered at that. "He's starting to sound like Doctor McCoy."

"Well, he does stay around him a lot," Jim remarked.

"The Enterprise is answering," Grakar said.

Jim looked at the screen, and Mister Sulu appeared. "Mister Sulu, how's the ship?" Jim asked.

"It's fine, Sir," Sulu answered. "Did you get the pirate ship?"

"No. It's a long story. We're all okay, but we had to abandon the ship. I'll tell you guys about it when we get there."

"Yes sir."

"Kirk out."

The transmission ended, and Jim just sat there. He wondered what Admiral Winston would say about this failed mission. They had not expected Heegat to put the ship on self-destruct. It was over and done now though, and they could do nothing to change it.