Captain's log, supplemental. Our initial intention, to join the Starfleet task force presently assembling over mol'Rihan, has been altered by necessity. The presence of the Borg anywhere within a thousand light-years of the heart of the Federation requires our intervention, with all of our might. This unexpected incursion will take all we have in order to stop them. I only hope it will prove to be enough.

The co-ordinates indicated a space not immediately within the gravitational effect of the star around which P'Jem orbited. The targets, however, were clearly marked on the sensors. A series of Borg vessels, ranging from probes to cubes, had emerged in a cloud of plasma and radiation, and held their position. Around them lay the wreckage of the Nebula-class starship Anderlecht and the Zephyr-class Citizen, as well as the debris from the explosion of the Galaxy-class Memphis and a few of the spheres and probes. Four other starships - the Defiant-class Mosquito, the Sovereign-class Algiers, the Stargazer-class Chagall and the Intrepid-class Forrest - were also engaging Borg targets. At the edge of this space, having just come out of warp, was the USS Bonaventure.

"Contacts ahead," Vesna reported from sensors.

"Steady on." Tw'eak turned to Morl. "Any response to our hails?"

"None, except from the Borg."

Tw'eak took a last look around her bridge at her assembled officers. "Give me ship-wide comms, Morl."

Morl tapped a few buttons then said, "Go ahead."

Tw'eak took a moment to compose her thoughts, then began. "This is the captain speaking. We are about to engage the Borg. For some of you, this is your first time facing them. For all of us, we hope it's for the last time. The Borg represent a threat to the Federation, to our homes and our loved ones, to our very civilization. I trust that each of you, whether you are Vulcan or Caitian, Rigelian or Pakled, Tellarite or human... you will hold in your hearts the memory of those for whom we are fighting. And in this way, we will all stand together against the unspeakable darkness that the Borg represent. Be quick at your stations; be clear in your orders; be ready for anything. Most of all, be without fear. Trust in this ship, in your crewmates, and in your abilities... and may none of them let you down. That is all." She nodded at Morl, who closed the intra-ship communications.

"Well said, ma'am," Lio'wan remarked.

"Yes, quite," T'uni added.

Morl stepped out from behind his station and presented Tw'eak and T'uni with hand phasers in belts. "Here, ma'am. All personnel have been issued with hand phasers that have been attuned with frequency remodulators."

Tw'eak had T'uni help her affix the holster to her belt, on her right side. "Thanks. Good precaution." She drew the phaser from its holster, checked its setting and battery, and aimed at a point just to Octavia's right. "I'd rather have a rifle if it comes to that, but it won't."

"We hope," Morl added. "I've posted additional security forces in sensitive areas. They will have rifles." Morl leaned in. "Special autocarbines from Task Force Omega, in fact."

"Excellent. Thank you, Morl."

Tw'eak looked around the room once again. All of her officers, whom she now noticed were wearing phasers at their hips, prepared their stations for the coming action. Octavia, however, seemed to be tilting nearly to the point of falling out of her chair. "I can- Captain." She turned to look at Tw'eak. "I can hear them."

Tw'eak gave Octavia a look of anxious expectation. "They're not overpowering you, I hope."

"Not at all. I knew this might happen, but to be honest I'm kind of relieved that I can. There are no secrets between Borg. I have access to their encrypted-level planning and discussion."

"What is their plan?"

"They are continuing with the plan regardless of resistance." Octavia turned back to her station, setting the viewscreen to focus on an empty region of space. "Here."

"What's there?" Lio'wan asked.

"I see nothing," Morl added.

"They are attempting to establish a subspace nexus. If they are successful, they will be able to utilize this nexus in order to link to a conduit through transwarp. In essence, they are attempting to break in behind the lines."

Tw'eak looked to Morl. "Notify Task Force Omega immediately. Admiral D'Vak must be informed."

"I'll try. We're starting to encounter Borg magnetic fields and subspace interference."

"Vesna?"

"The subspace interference is centralized in an area-" Vesna looked up at the screen and pointed. "Essentially, there."

"Okay. Let's hope that-"

"Two -make that three ships have just entered sensor range. They are the Lafayette, the Perseus and the Anaconda."

Tw'eak tapped her upper lip. "Two escorts and a light cruiser. Octavia, come here a second."

Octavia stood up from her station and moved quickly to the first officer's chair. "Yes?"

"The Borg, this plan of theirs... Can we stop them?"

"Based upon my analysis, if we can disrupt the subspace tunnel with a charged particle beam, within the next seven minutes, we may be able to prevent the Borg from completing their task. However, that will require us to make our way to the centre of their formation - a formidable task even for a starship at full strength."

Tw'eak looked to T'uni, who nodded. Tw'eak asked, "Captain Picard was once able to direct a fleet, using his knowledge of the Borg, in order to neutralize them more rapidly. Can you do the same?"

"I do not presently know if-" Octavia fluttered a bit as she heard more of the Borg's transmissions. "Actually, ma'am, I can. Easily."

"Morl - turn targeting over to Ops. Signal the fleet to form up on us and direct their telemetry at our selected target." Tw'eak smiled at her operations officer. "Lio'wan, launch shield repair units."

"Shield drones away... and operational."

Octavia returned to her chair and Tw'eak switched her chair's display from navigational to targeting. She watched as Octavia selected an area of seemingly little importance on the nearest Borg cube. Cutting beams and plasma bolts crossed on the viewscreen, but the Bonaventure went unharmed right through the centre of them. Since Octavia knew they were targeting her, she made evasive corrections and altered her headings rapidly. The Borg vessels seemed to be concentrating their fire upon the Bonaventure, as if they knew their time was short. This gave other ships, including some which had been damaged, an opportunity to get into formation behind the Bonaventure and synchronize their targeting plan.

"Several ships are too far away and at least one is breaking off," Morl notified the captain. "Most have reported back ready and are breaking off their attacks to join with ours."

"Octavia, you may fire when ready." Tw'eak turned to Morl. "Advise all ships to fire when we do."

"Aye aye."

The Bonaventure's forward phasers, and her fore torpedo banks, opened up. As one, six Federation starships opened fire on the same position from their respective angles. Within a matter of seconds, the Borg cube they had targeted began to buckle and implode. The Bonaventure led a formation of starships past the first, as Octavia swooned slightly in her chair, then input a second set of target co-ordinates.

Once again, the Bonaventure led the charge, its shield repair units having to now contribute a pulse of energy as the spheres and probes began to hone in on the lead ship of the formation. Directly behind them, not engaging in the fighting but providing shield power transfer to the Bonaventure, rose the Algiers for just long enough to pinch off a salvo of quantum torpedoes, devastating a sphere that was firing upon the Bonaventure. Another cube exploded as the fire from six Starfleet vessels formed a pyramid of death aimed straight at a lower quadrant of its hull. As the blast began, their captains fearful of the force of the shockwave, the Mosquito and Perseus broke formation to commence targeting the lesser craft. The Lafayette followed suit, picking off one of the probes just as it began to launch a torpedo towards the Bonaventure. The boxy probe's detonation also caused the torpedo to explode, leaving the Lafayette with its shields down on two sides, a plasma fire enveloping its starboard nacelle as it swept past.

"The Lafayette has been badly damaged by an exploding probe," Vesna reported.

"They'll have to look after themselves," Tw'eak noted grimly. The firing solution came in from Octavia yet again, and the starships in formation let fly with their barrages, pummelling a third cube and moving past as it exploded. This time a few of its plasma bolts struck home. "Status?" Tw'eak demanded.

Octavia half-turned her head. "That last Cube chose to self-destruct rather than be destroyed. It appears they know I'm listening, Captain."

"There are plasma fires across the front of the hull," Lio'wan advised. "I can't launch anything until they're out."

"O'Leary, ready the hazard emitters."

Chowalski turned to Tw'eak. "Ma'am?"

"Sorry, Chowalski. Hazard emitters, please."

Chowalski gave Tw'eak a smile and a wink. "No worries, ma'am, I can get those fires out." He tapped at his console and added, "Transferring power from auxiliary to shields as well."

"Good."

Across the hull, the Borg plasma bolts showered down across space. Rather than directly targeting anything, the Borg were trying a new tactic, firing a scattered volley of plasma across space in the hopes of hitting the Bonaventure and the other ships in the formation Octavia led. This made it harder to evade the targets, although the cutting beams and Borg torpedoes had little success using this method. Two of the spheres which were engaging the Bonaventure found themselves engaged in turn by the escort formation led by the Mosquito, and they were rapidly destroyed. The Algiers accounted for another two probes, still tightly focused on sustaining their shields as well as those of the Bonaventure. As the plasma rained down, the Bonaventure's hull began to glow a bright green as a tachyomagnetic field began to emanate across its surface, polarizing and neutralizing the plasma's energy as it contacted the hull. For a few moments, at least, the Bonaventure was immune to the effects of the plasma fires, and the last of them was snuffed out.

"Launching shield drones," Lio'wan snarled with satisfaction.

"Nice work, Chowalski," Tw'eak acknowledged.

"Two cubes on an intercept course!" Morl shouted. "Range, seventeen thousand kilometres!"

"Evasive maneuvers, pattern Lambda-nine!"

"Aye!" Chowalski replied from the conn. The Bonaventure coasted as he cut the main thrusters and turned the ship hard over to port, then pushed to full impulse. "We can't outrun them, ma'am."

"No, but we can continue locking up targets for everyone else." Tw'eak turned to Morl. "Order the fleet to engage their own targets."

"General engagement, aye."

Tw'eak looked at each of her officers in turn as she called their names. "On my mark - Chowalski, I want hard over to port, and Morl, mask our energy field. Vesna, that'll mean no active scanning for thirty seconds. Lio'wan, have our shield drones proceed to our starboard side, and prepare to launch some new ones. That'll mean you'll be on your own to boost the shields, Stral - get them equally distributed as soon as you can. Octavia, you okay?"

"I did not believe the Borg were capable of such desperation. They are quite prepared to sacrifice themselves to complete this mission."

"Good thing we're quite prepared to stop them." Tw'eak looked around. "Ready?"

All of her officers nodded in the affirmative. Morl's voice was a sombre reminder of their mission. "The Chagall has been destroyed."

"Let's do this, then. On my mark. Three - two - one - mark!"

The Borg cubes slowed as the Bonaventure seemingly disappeared from their sensors. As the shield drones separated from their main ship, continuing on a pre-programmed course, the cubes, pestered by Starfleet vessels the whole way, found themselves firing their cutting beams and tractor beams into empty space. A plasma energy bolt fluttered towards the shield repair units, detonating and destroying all of them in the process. From the far facing of the cube furthest from this explosion, the Bonaventure re-appeared.

"Targeting both cubes," Octavia acknowledged.

"Fire at will," Tw'eak ordered.

Morl nodded. "Signaling fleet."

First one, then the other, began to course with greenish-blue flames as their internal mechanisms were overcome and their energy transfer matrix destroyed utterly. The unfortunate USS Anaconda attempted to maneuver a path between the explosions, only to be absorbed and destroyed by a shockwave from each. The same shockwave catapulted the Bonaventure to port, throwing it off course.

"Best speed, Chowalski. Get us to that rupture point."

"On our way," the helmsman acknowledged.

"Time, Octavia?"

Octavia turned her head, grimacing.

"Ma'am? Something just came up on sensors," Chowalski stated with alarm.

"That's not your job," Morl sneered.

Chowalski turned his head. "Navigational sensors. There's an obstacle, roughly rectangular, almost twenty kilometres by one by one. It's huge and it just popped in there."

Octavia spun around in her chair. "The Borg were successful in opening a subspace rift in the Alpha Quadrant. This vessel is currently holding it open."

"Vessel?" Chowalski said, bewildered. "That thing's bigger than Earth Spacedock!"

"Nevertheless, it is imperative that we destroy it."

"Before how long?" Tw'eak asked.

"Uncertain. Borg reinforcements may arrive at any time. However, the subspace nexus is not yet stabilized at this end. Our target has been tunneling through subspace to create the nexus, but it has yet to fully complete its task."

"We destroy the ship and we seal the tunnel," Tw'eak mused. "Right?"

"Precisely, Captain."

"That ship is launching probes," Morl declared. "Smaller ones. Powerful."

T'uni tapped Tw'eak on the leg. "It may not be wise to engage such a vessel at our current strength. We know the Borg are aware of our advantage. They will be focusing on us."

Tw'eak shook her head. "You heard what Octavia said. If we don't hit them now, we may never stop them."

"Seven more ships just arrived," Morl noted with relief. "Four escorts, two of them Prometheus class escorts, and another heavy escort carrier, the Ranger. Two assault cruisers, the Majestic and the Musashi."

Tw'eak's eyes opened wide and her antennae tilted inwards. "The Majestic?" She turned to T'uni and whispered, "Dashii is on that ship."

Lio'wan broke the captain's silent staredown of her counselor. "Shield repair units are back in place. Shield power rising."

"Shields at eighty-two percent," Stral noted.

"Ask the Ranger to form up with us and provide us cover while Octavia acquires targets for the fleet." Tw'eak raised her arm. "Maybe one of those cruisers can cover us, too." She pointed to the only Majestic-class starship in the system as it came into view on the screen, just ahead. "That one. Hail them, Morl."

"Aye aye."

Lio'wan chuckled to himself. "Indeed."

Tw'eak looked over at her flight officer. "Lio'wan?"

"Nothing, ma'am. Should I scramble Alpha Flight?"

"Yes, please. Bring in those repair units. Morl?" She turned to her tactical officer. "Ask the Ma- uh, the cruiser to extend its shields and support us. Advise them we're not quite in our usual fighting form."

"Will do."

The escorts broke into two formations, each concentrating around the leadership of one of the powerful Prometheus-class escorts. One, the Swiftsure, took its group (which included the Mosquito) on a strafing run across the nearest side of the massive Borg vessel, while the other, the Iroquois, maneuvered to engage the probes which were providing regeneration to the main craft, and locking its targets in shield-draining tractor beams. The Algiers led the way as the rest of the starships in the formation moved to more closely engage the Borg vessel, while the Ranger and Majestic came into a tight formation with the Bonaventure.

Tw'eak noticed her acting first officer sitting very still, staring at the viewscreen. "Octavia? What do you have?" she wondered.

She shook her head. "Nothing. I have no signal at all, nothing to -it's like they've gone silent."

"Maybe they have."

"At least, where you can hear them," Lio'wan added. He tapped one of his large feline ears.

"Another frequency?"

"I may not be able to attune my implants to alternate frequencies," Octavia noted. "I've never really tried. But let's see." She tilted over her console, in some pain, her jaw hanging open for a moment. "I have them now, again."

"Anything to target?"

"No, ma'am. But we have to engage them. I have an indication of time. They will be able to discharge a directed verteron pulse sufficiently large to pierce into subspace in approximately four minutes, thirty-eight seconds." She turned to Tw'eak. "The effects would most likely cause our warp field coils to-"

Tw'eak turned to her tactical officer, not letting Octavia finish. She knew what kinds of effects a break in subspace would have upon her vessel and the surrounding space. "Morl, tell the fleet - focus all attacks on nearest side. They must restrict fire to one side only. If we can weaken their shields in one spot maybe we can get a shot at their hull more easily, create another soft spot for Octavia to find."

"The fleet is engaging," Morl advised.

"Good. Us, too - let's do this."

"The captain of the Forrest on channel, ma'am."

"Audio only. I want to see what's going on."

"Bonaventure, this is Captain Oln of the Forrest. My science officers think that if we can get our ship close enough, we can shut the subspace rift."

Tw'eak sat back, her antennae standing straight up. "Can you explain, Forrest?"

"We've detected a large verteron pulse generation chamber becoming active onboard the main Borg vessel out there. If we can get close enough to the firing chamber, we can utilize our main deflector to target the generator with a subnucleonic beam."

"Would that stop the pulse from generating?"

Captain Oln stuttered for a moment, before explaining in a patronizing tone. "It would shut down the generator. Completely."

Tw'eak looked to Octavia, who nodded several times rapidly, approving the idea. "Morl, signal the Majestic to cover the Forrest. Have the Ranger stay with us." She nodded to Chowalski. "Form up on the Forrest." Turning to Lio'wan she added, "get the shield drones to cover the Forrest instead."

"No need," Lio'wan replied. "They're at full strength."

"And their weapons have scarcely been fired," Morl added. "It's like they've been-"

"Like they've been doing what a science vessel should," Tw'eak interjected. "Staying out of the fight and looking for unorthodox ways to turn the battle." She smiled slightly. "Our chance, gentlemen." She looked to Morl first. "Signal the rest of the fleet to maintain general engagement, but to draw the attention of those probes." She then turned her head to Lio'wan. "At the first sign of trouble I want you to launch every last runabout you have. I don't care if they're crewed by singleton pilots - I want them to fly around and do whatever they can to make a mess."

Both officers confirmed. Octavia rolled slightly to the right in her chair, then straightened up and half-turned. "Captain..."

Tw'eak tilted slightly to try to meet Octavia's gaze. "What is it?"

"They see the Forrest. They... they don't have many weapons back there, not like in front, because of the verterons. All probes are being ordered to engage and destroy."

"We'll see to it that they never get a chance." She turned to Morl again. "Change of orders - get the fleet to target just the mothership. Octavia, is there a co-ordinate set you can give us which would get their attention?"

"The vessel appears to be purpose-built to create subspace rifts. However, its power distribution nodes in this section appear to be fluctuating." She tapped a tactical display of the craft on her screen. The co-ordinates for that area of the Borg vessel were then made available to Morl, who added them to his next fleet-wide transmission.

"See if we can't divide their focus," Tw'eak said to Morl.

"The fleet is acknowledging... and engaging on those co-ordinates."

"Good."

"I've got one flight of nineteen Yellowstones launching now," Lio'wan stated.

"Anything they can do. Tractor beams, phasers, anything that'll stop those probes from-"

The Bonaventure rocked as it was struck by a series of plasma beams.

"Nice to know they haven't forgotten us," Chowalski punned. "It's been a while."

"Just keep those hazard emitters-"

"On it, Captain."

"The Forrest on comms again, ma'am."

"Let's hear it, Morl."

The fairly androgynous voice of Captain Oln sounded once again through the Bonaventure's bridge. "Once we're in position we will require about ten seconds to ready and deploy the subnucleonic beam. Our targeting will need to be precise with the beam."

"If you miss..." Tw'eak inquired.

"It will take us a couple of minutes to try again."

"Octavia?"

"The pulse will be ready to deploy in two minutes, thirteen seconds."

"Did you get that, Captain?"

Captain Oln was silent for a moment. "Then we'll have to make it count. Forrest out."

The group of starships clustered defensively around USS Forrest as it maneuvered into position, coming to a full stop about twenty kilometres down the centre-line of the immense Borg vessel. That ship's weapons were nearly missing from this location, and a relatively minimal defensive effort was being offered from this vantage point towards the Starfleet formation. Down a long shaft at least five kilometres long, the glowing green of the verteron pulse generator could be clearly discerned. Using the shaft the same way a gun uses a barrel, the pulse would then pierce the veil separating subspace from the normal continuum. The Forrest, however, had other plans. It moved into position, synchronizing its centre-line with that of the Borg ship, and began to close the distance and improve its odds of hitting the generator with its subnucleonic beam with the first shot.

"Five probes on intercept with the Forrest," Morl noted.

"Flight has one - make that two probes in tractor. They're-" On the screen, the probes could clearly be seen to detonate. Lio'wan gasped slightly, then reported, "That's four runabouts down."

"Three probes remaining," Morl reminded Tw'eak. "Their shields are being augmented by their mothership."

"Majestic is engaging two of them - as is Ranger," Octavia observed.

"Target that third one, then."

As a few plasma bolts from the Borg vessel found it, causing its shields and hull to dance with the fire and energy, the deflector dish of the Forrest began to glow with a blue-and-amber light display as the subnucleonic beam readied to fire. Once again, the Intrepid-class science vessel came to a halt. As it did, from above and beside it, three starships each moved past on full thrusters to engage their selected targets. The Majestic's weapons slammed into one; the Ranger's runabouts trapped a second in their tractor beams before their mothership finished it off. Both fought back, firing first on the Forrest, then on their aggressors, as they exploded in a fireball of plasma and debris. The third barreled on through, seemingly rising in speed to full impulse.

"They're on a collision course!" Octavia screamed.

"Get us in front!" Tw'eak ordered. "Full shield, front!"

The Borg probe hammered through space, in a last-ditch effort to ram the Forrest with its hull. Its velocity made any evasive maneuver an impossibility. The Bonaventure rose, yawing and turning to fill the space ahead of the probe. Desperate to protect the Forrest with its own hull, the forward shield glowed as it was boosted and augmented with all available energy. The torpedoes that the Bonaventure fired had little effect, bursting against the probe's shields, one missed torpedo re-acquiring the main Borg vessel and blasting it instead. For its part, the Forrest had in the meantime aligned its deflector, and a subnucleonic beam emanated forth towards the verteron pulse generator. The beam hit its target, the science vessel had been successful, and the verterons dissipated as their generator began a lengthy cooldown process. The Borg, collectively, had failed.

But the probe had not. Relentless, it did not break off despite the uselessness of its kamikaze action. And as it struck the Bonaventure's forward shield, it splintered its hull against it, half-obliterated by the energy which struck it like a blade across its forward section. At the same time, having given all it could, if not more, the Bonaventure's shield collapsed, leaving a sizeable pair of chunks of Borg probe still bearing in at high speed towards the unprotected hull. Defensive armour and structural integrity fields screamed and twisted with the impact One part of the remains of the probe slashed down the dorsal section of the hull, leaving a long and jagged laceration along the length of the starboard hull section. The other, however, struck directly into the leading edge of the saucer on the port side, blasting through deck after deck before it, too, twisted and tore apart into two pieces. Nearly a third of its saucer section shorn away, the port warp nacelle support was also damaged by one piece of the probe as it smashed against it, bending and buckling the nacelle support to an angle no longer symmetrical, without tearing the nacelle from the ship. The stricken nacelle, now pointing almost at a thirty-degree angle away from the centre-line, no longer glowed brightly but fell dead along with the rest of the engine and power systems as emergency shutdown engaged.

In front of the wreckage of the Bonaventure, the Forrest and Ranger moved to continue to engage the main Borg vessel, while the Majestic moved to assist the Bonaventure, placing its massive Sovereign-class form between the stricken vessel and the Borg adversaries in a broadside angle. Immediately shuttles launched from the Majestic on search-and-rescue missions, some of them roping wayward lifepods with their tractor beams, while bigger runabouts moved into position to commence emergency transport of survivors from within the stricken hull.

On the bridge of the Bonaventure, Tw'eak had been thrown from her chair. A series of lacerations and bruises across her face stung as she touched them, trying to get herself to her feet but finding it impossible. At her side, suddenly, appeared a pair of large boots. It was Lio'wan, hoisting her into his arms and carrying her to the turbolift. She could see there, assembled ahead of her, Octavia, Chowalski and Stral, all in varying states of injury or concern. Lio'wan called out, "GO!" to someone at another turbolift before stepping in, his captain in his arms. Moments after, Tw'eak saw the bridge of the Bonaventure for what she assumed was the last time, and felt a hollow sense of heartbreak. So this, she thought to herself, is what it feels like to lose a command.

The turbolift opened a deck below, and Tw'eak found herself being carried into a lifepod. Lio'wan held her gently in his arms, and she found herself curling in like a child, nestling her head in his great chest, resting upon his right shoulder. She had difficulty moving her legs, and they had dangled against his left arm, her boots occasionally striking a bulkhead or doorway as they passed. Rather than strap her in separately, Lio'wan simply held her there, bracing himself against the force of the lifepod's separation from the Bonaventure, while around them, other officers from the bridge sat harnessed in place.

It was a desolate feeling, Tw'eak found, losing a command. The idea of it, the loss of command, extended beyond the Bonaventure's twisted hulk. She had no idea who was dead or alive. Even the idea of who was on the small deck of the lifepod with her, bound in place by their own seating, was unknown to her. Tw'eak could tell, using her antennae, by her distinctive bio-electric signal, that Octavia had made it out, but that was the only familiar sign. She wondered what other officers in the turbolift had joined them on the lifepod. She looked up at Lio'wan. "The others?" she asked quietly.

Lio'wan's face, itself cut in at least one place along his muzzle, shook his head, his eyes anxious. After a moment, he said, "I don't know." He had misinterpreted her question to be a general inquiry as to who else had survived, rather than to be about those on the lifepod.

Appreciative, Tw'eak reached up with her right arm and patted him on the uncut side of his face. "Thank you," she whispered.

The lifepod shuddered, and Lio'wan bounced, as something interfered with its flight. Tw'eak could hear the tapping of an interface by someone's hand, probably Octavia's, and the loud clang of the lifepod coming to rest. Once again, Lio'wan reacted by bracing his weight to better support his captain's, as the deck of the lifepod changed its angle slightly and came to rest. The exterior door opened, revealing the rather large interior of the main shuttlebay of the Majestic. They had been rescued, and as Tw'eak looked up, she could see the mooring beams of the Majestic reining in another cluster of lifepods just like hers, their triangular forms marked yellow and black on their underside. A few runabouts were also coming in to land, their mothership no longer capable of receiving them.

Lio'wan stood up and took her to the first medical team he could find. He did not wait for the others, and in fact cut right across the path of a lifepod which was being brought in to land, reckless in his need to get his captain to safety. "Medic!" he bellowed. "I need a medic here!"

One of the nurses, a human female, came over. "Can I help?"

"This is Captain Sh'abbas. Get her to sickbay. If Doc Ellington or Lieutenant Didaggo made it out, advise them of where she is." He lowered Tw'eak gently onto a grav-gurney, and turned back towards the nearest runabout. "I'm going to organize the flights from here," Lio'wan told his captain. "See if I can't get a search-and-rescue effort co-ordinated, just do something."

Tw'eak reached out once again and took his hand, a massive, muscular and furry hand nothing like her petite, comparatively delicate right hand. "Thank you," she repeated. He had saved her life. It was more than she knew how to repay. But, it occurred to her, she would have plenty of time to think about it. The bio-gurney started to move, and as she looked around she began, in her mind, to count her ranking officers. She spotted Morl as soon as the bed moved, as he was visible once the nurse no longer obscured her view. She also recognized the faces of Vesna, Stral and Chowalski as she scanned the crowd, and could hear Octavia's voice, asking to be taken to the bridge. That was most of her bridge crew accounted for- including, of course, Lio'wan. But no sign of T'uni, or of anyone from any other deck of the ship. She worried about Doc, and although she spotted a number of engineering officers, could not make out any of her senior engineering staff.

As she was being moved out of the shuttlebay, she was suddenly conscious of someone calling to her. She looked to her other side to see T'uni emerge from a knot of medical personnel about ten metres away, her hair disheveled, her uniform slightly burned. She stepped forward, straightened herself up, and walked silently beside her captain as she moved towards the corridor.

"You okay?" Tw'eak asked her, shouting in order to be heard over the noise of grav lifts, runabout engines and a thousand conversations at once.

"I believe so," T'uni responded after a moment. "I must accompany you to sickbay."

"Are you injured?"

"No, but the ranking medical officer will require an update on your condition."

"The ship?"

"Adrift." They passed through a doorway, out of the shuttlebay at last. The noise level returned to such that conversation was possible once again. "It would appear that the emergency shutdown sequence was successful. However, I am uncertain as to the tactical situation around us."

Behind the bio-gurney, a Bolian orderly spoke up. "Oh, that big Borg ship went back the way it came. It's gone. But your ship's wrecked. At least three pieces."

Tw'eak looked up at T'uni, who was offering a withering stare of her own at the orderly. "May I inquire as to how an orderly has such sophisticated understanding of our tactical disposition?"

The bio-gurney came to a halt as the Bolian recognized the lieutenant-commander's rank on T'uni's collar. "Uh... well... me and the guys, down in the ward, we've got a monitor we use to figure out how many casualties we're getting. Doc Pleshette said we might have to use all the shuttlebays as wards. Lotta wrecked ships, lotta people going to need treatment." T'uni persisted in her stare, and the Bolian protested, nervously, "Honest! That's all I know." The stare did not fade, and the Bolian added, "Okay, fine. Me and Ensign Stradwick, we were mucking with the controls a little. We wanted to watch what happened out there!"

"That would constitute a violation of Starfleet protocol-"

"T'uni..." Tw'eak said, raising a hand. "It's more than anyone else knows around here. Let it go."

"Very well... Captain." Defeated, T'uni arched an eyebrow and broke eye contact abruptly, continuing to walk down the corridor.

"That was your ship out there, eh?" the Bolian said after a minute.

"Yeah," Tw'eak replied. "Quite a ship."

"Bet she was some prettier before, am I right?"

Before T'uni could wheel around on her orderly yet again, Tw'eak let out a forced laugh, and said, "Yeah, you could say that." The turbolift at the end of the corridor admitted them, and they made their way to sickbay.