Kyou and her growing away team pushed up the hill eliminating the Klingon forces as they progressed. The fighting became more fierce and brutal the closer they got to their objective. One group of Orions flanked them coming from behind a nearby building and that skirmish resulted in hand to hand combat. Zofchak sent a squad up the highest hill to take out the grounded Bird of Prey to prevent the Klingons from leaving. Lieutenant Allensworth led that squad with an isomagnetic disintegrator in hand. She had been waiting for some time to use that on something.

"I'd like to keep B'Vat alive if possible," Kyou said. "I know that will be easier said than done."

A disruptor blast struck the ground next to her and Zoe. "Yep, no problem at all, sir."

"We have more people than they do and once we destroy their Bird of Prey then they'll be trapped here."

"How will we know if Ava destroys the ship?" Suddenly, there was a ground shaking explosion at the top of the hill. "Nevermind."

Allensworth's voice came through Kyou's commbadge. "Allensworth to Zofchak, the ship is destroyed."

"Oh we heard. Nice job, Lieutenant. We'll rendezvous at the embassy building."

The two teams continued to fight through the seemingly never ending Klingon forces. Ava's group came down the hill and met Kyou's group at the patio in front of the embassy building. There were still a large number of Klingons outside the building that made it impossible to enter for the moment.

"Why are there so many of them? This isn't normal," Ava said.

"It's like their only purpose is to stall us. They're not trying to overwhelm us."

The Ops console emitted a series of rapid beeping. The replacement at the console read out the sensor dialogue and her eyes widened. "Sir! A Klingon Vor'cha class ship is decloaking off the starboard bow."

Xi'Rin looked up at the screen. "What?" On the view screen the turquoise blue ship shimmered into existence. It faced away from the Enterprise not taking any threatening stances which confused Xi'Rin further. "What is it doing?"

"It's beaming someone from the surface."

"They must be rescuing its ground forces. Lock weapons on the ship and fire."

"They're warping away."

Xi'Rin watched the ship speed away with a sudden flash of light signaling it entered warp speed.

"They couldn't have beamed all of their forces up that quickly. How many Klingons are still on the planet?"

"Forty-seven, sir. Who did they beam out? And why would they just leave the rest of their troops behind?"

Kyou's group was nearing the embassy. They were almost finished with the opposing soldiers. She felt her combadge vibrate followed by Xi'Rin's voice.

"Xi'Rin to Captain Zofchak."

She tapped it. "Go ahead."

"Sir, a Klingon ship just warped in, beamed someone out and then warped away."

Kyou let out a frustrated sigh in her head. She fired a phaser beam into the face of an Orion out of frustration, essentially clotheslining him. "Damn. I'll bet they beamed out B'Vat and left the soldiers to delay our pursuit. Find their warp signature and once we finish things up here we'll follow them. Zofchak out."

The battle didn't last much longer. Kyou surveyed the aftermath on both sides. A few officers walked around the dead KDF soldiers with tricorders making sure they were dead. Kyou had no interest in taking prisoners and she had a respect for Klingon culture. While they were the enemy she understood their views on being prisoners. She wanted to help maintain their honor by letting them die in battle.

Kyou cautiously led a smaller team inside the embassy. While there were no Klingons in any of the rooms, there were an abundance of bodies of Federation diplomats. Their white dress uniforms either had disruptor burn marks or had open wounds that were consistent with bat'leth blades. No one was spared, even the two receptionists were killed. One person Kyou didn't find was Miral Paris.

Ava approached her captain as she turned over another body of Starfleet personnel. "Sir, there is no sign of Lieutenant Paris."

"She must've been taken by B'Vat."

"But why though?"

"Other than the fact of her being part Klingon I have no idea." She looked around at the bodies. "Let's get back to the ship and try and find the ship that took her."

Ava turned and walked out of the room to organize the away team. Kyou stepped into an adjacent room. Suddenly, she felt her thigh vibrating. The Tesseract Communication Receiver, given to her by her future self, was triggered by something in the room. She pulled it from her pocket and looked it over wondering how to get it to stop vibrating so profusely. As she cautiously stepped deeper into the room, phaser in one hand and receiver in the other, the receiver began to beep. The beeping got faster with each step until she was standing in front of a locker that was as tall as her.

She opened it to find a console with a glowing blue circular object surrounded by some reflective gold alloy floating above it. Using the receiver she scanned the console. Suddenly, a holographic image of her future self appeared next to her.

"I see you found your first Iconian device. The alloys used in this device are normally only found in the Delta Quadrant. We know the Iconians have gateways that allow them to go anywhere they wish. It's reasonable to assume the Iconians have had influence in the Delta Quadrant as well."

Kyou was about to ask a question but then remembered it was only one way communication. The information given about alloys being from the Delta Quadrant had no meaning to her for the moment. However, she understood gathering the information now would be beneficial to the upcoming war with the Iconians her future self mentioned.

Kyou, followed by those of her command crew that were on the away team, stepped onto the bridge from the port side turbolift. "Report."

Xi'Rin stood up from the command chair. "Other than the one Klingon ship, there have been no other Klingon ships in the system."

"Have you been able to track the ship?"

"Yes, sir. It's currently on course for the Gateway System in the Khitomer Sector."

"Is B'Vat planning to use the Guardian of Forever?"

"If he is then what does Lieutenant Paris have to do with it?" Grandon asked.

Kyou's stomach turned in ways she didn't like. "I don't know. In any case, we have to stop him. Helm, set a course for the Gateway System. Maximum warp."