Apollo shook his head. "Her pursuers are still out there. And we don't even know who they are or why they're chasing her. We don't even know who she is that they'd be chasing her. All we know is they're serious enough that they're not above killing her."
"But why? Why do they want to go through that trouble?"
Apollo shook his head. "I don't know. But she does. Somehow we have to find out what she knows."
Circe nodded. "I agree. And we also must find out who she is... there must have been some people out that night, yet they are only concerned with her."
They broke off their conversation, though Apollo was entirely unsure why, when they saw Sam return with Anna. "You look a lot better now than you did when we brought you in," he said. She smiled lightly at him, blushing a little, as she sat down next to Circe. Sam took the seat next to Apollo. "So, what say we get something to eat here," he suggested.
They ordered their meals and exchanged a light banter while they ate. Sam and Circe for the most part ganged up on the admiral, teasing him mercilessly. To his credit, though, Apollo gave as good as he got. The whole time, Anna sat and observed the trio. She could catch the flirtatious tone in Circe's voice, but stronger still was the impression she got from the other two. When Apollo and Sam jibed at each other, she picked subtler, more intimate tones. As they looked directly into each other's eyes, she couldn't tell much from Apollo's expression, naturally... however, the look in Sam's eyes told Anna an altogether different story.
The conversation lasted well through the meal, and when they just sat there nursing cups of coffee, when there was a noticeable lull, Anna said, "You two are really close to each other, aren't you."
Apollo was taken a little aback by such a personal question, but Sam merely smiled. "Yes, we are. You seem very observant. I noticed you didn't say much while we talked."
Anna nodded. "There's a very deep connection between you two."
It was Apollo's turn to blush a little. "Sam is my anchor. I don't know what I'd do without her, and I'd do anything, and I have gone to extraordinary lengths, to make sure I don't have to find out." Sam gently took his hand at the compliment.
"Though I have to say sometimes their behavior greatly compels me to suck on a lemon," Circe interjected. The mere image of that brought them to laughter. Anna noticed, though, that the Security Chief's comment was very appropriate... there was more acid in that comment than any of them thought.
Apollo looked outside and noticed from the position of the larger of three suns that they spent a good deal of time there. His expression grew serious. "Anna, I need to ask you something. I need to know why you were being chased... what was so important that your friend paid with his life to protect you?"
His stern tone brought the fear back in her. "I... I can't tell you."
"Why? Why can't you tell us, Anna?"
"If they were to find out I told someone..."
"If who were to find out, Anna? Who are you running from?" Apollo was getting frustrated.
"I can't..."
"We can't help you if you can't cooperate with us!"
"Apollo!" Sam snapped, gripping his arm firmly to indicate he should back off. Just then, the chirping of their commbadges interrupted them.
Apollo slapped his first. "Racer here."
"Admiral," came Scotty's voice over the comm system, "we're picking up some disturbing traffic over the Spaceport's comm traffic. It seems that a ship has launched without getting clearance."
Apollo looked grim. "Have you tried hailing them?"
"Aye. No luck. They're ignoring every attempt to communicate." Silence for a moment. "They've broken orbit. What should we do?"
Apollo stood there, thinking. Sam and Circe both looked to him to see what he'd say next. Normally, this would be an internal matter. However, he remembered that as the Highlander approached Centaurus, they found theirs was the only warp-capable ship in orbit.
After a single nod from him, Sam tapped her badge. "Scotty, I'm coming up. As soon as I'm there, lay in an intercept course and engage." She looked at the admiral.
"I'll stay here and ensure Anna is safe," he said. "Get going."
"Admiral, I'm going to remain here as well," Circe said.
Apollo looked at first as though he was going to protest, but instead he acknowledged her decision. "Good hunting, Captain," he told Sam.
She smiled and moved away a couple of steps. "Highlander, lock on to my signal and beam me up. Energize." Sam was bathed in light, and she disappeared.
Circe turned to both Apollo and Anna. "Our next step is to get Anna here somewhere that will allow us to plan our next moves."
Apollo nodded, then smiled. "I believe I know of just such a place. Come on." As one, they rose from their table and left the restaurant.
One of the patrons, sitting nearby, gave up pretending to read a padd in front of him, and moved to follow the trio.
~ * ~
Sam materialized on one of the transporter pads. As soon as she did, she made a beeline for the door. "Racer to bridge," she said, "I'm aboard. Get underway."
As soon as she entered the bridge, she knew they were indeed heading after the ship by the familiar streaks on the viewscreen left by stars during warp travel. Scotty got up from the Command chair as she approached it and headed for the engineering station in the aft section of the bridge. "As soon as she saw us leave orbit, th' little beastie went to warp. We're following now, but she has some powerful engines. It's takin' some effort just to keep up with her."
"Steady as she goes," she said, taking her seat. "Have they made any attempt at contacting us or anyone else since we started our pursuit?"
"None that we could detect," he replied.
She nodded. "Go to yell..."
"Captain," Lieutenant Gouma, at Ops, called out. "I think they're breaking up. There's some debris being left behind the ship."
"Debris?" she said puzzled. Her eyes suddenly widened in shock. "Red Alert!! Shields up! Evasive maneuvers now! Prepare for..."
An explosion rocked the ship. The crew barely managed to hang on to their posts, but a second explosion rocked them the other way. Sam was propelled out of her seat, coming up hard against the back of the Ops chair. Gouma was thrown over his console, coming to a rest under the viewscreen. Scotty bounced of the Tactical station and fell against the bridge railing. He landed hard on the deck. Other people were in similar stages of displacement.
When the violence settled, Sam eased up off the floor. She was smart to stay down when she hit the floor, and not attempt to get up while they were still being shaken... that would have increased her chances of getting injured. She grunted. "Status report."
Lieutenant Brikowski at Con checked his controls. "We only suffered minor damage... the shields went up just in time, though they're down to 87%."
"Good." She noticed they must have been blown out of warp. "Scotty, how are our engines?" When she received no response, she looked behind her seat. "Scotty?" Upon seeing his inert form on the deck, she cried, "Bridge to Sickbay. Medical emergency! One to beam directly to..."
"Captain, the transporters are out," said a tall, lanky person at Tactical.
"Damn." She got fully to her feet and held the small of her back as she straightened painfully. "Doctor, you'll need to..."
"This is Sickbay, Kellara here," came Sam's reply. "I heard. I'm sending a team up to help you."
"Thanks. Bridge out." Sam turned to Gouma, who was just returning to his post. "Can we still catch up with the ship?"
He looked briefly at his readings, then shook his head. "It was touch and go just keeping up with them, sir. I doubt we'll have much of a chance now."
She nodded and sat back in her chair, staring vacantly at the screen. "Set a course back towards Centaurus. Engage at warp three." The crew looked at her silently for a moment, then silently carried out their orders. The Highlander spun back towards the way it came and shot into warp. As they traveled, a medical team entered the bridge, picked up the fallen engineer, and took him back to Sickbay. For another couple of moments, Sam merely sat quietly gazing through steepled fingers. Suddenly, she said, "All stop."
The crew was caught off-guard, but did as she asked. Sam sat forward, and with her eyes narrowed to slits, she said, "This should be far enough. Reverse course again, and engage our cloaking device."
The lanky person at Tactical, Lieutenant Commander Benton, spoke up. "Sir, is that wise? I mean, since the war ended, the Treaty of Algeron has been reinstated."
"I'm well aware of that, Commander," she replied. "But I want that ship."
Benton smiled slyly. "Aye sir." At the touch of his controls, the bridge lighting was replaced with more subdued blue lights, as the ship disappeared by wrapping a light-refracting field of energy about itself.
"Let's resume the chase, shall we? Maximum warp." As the familiar sight reappeared on the screen, Sam muttered, "Now, they probably made a course change at right angles to their course, shortly after witnessing what they did to us, traveled a bit, then changed course again."
Benton was puzzled. "Captain, how do you know that?"
She merely glanced behind her, in his direction. "Because that's what I would have done."
Sure enough, Gouma said, "According to the ship's warp signature, they made a course change here."
"Follow it," Sam replied. "And mirror any further course change they may have made." She got up and headed for the lift. "I'm going to check on Scotty."
~ * ~
Dr. Kellara met her just inside the Sickbay doors, runnign a medical scanner over her. "Now Captain, before you ask, Scotty is just fine. A bump on the head, slight laceration, but I've taken care of both of them." As she spoke, Scotty sat up on the biobed.
Sam moved around the centaur and headed toward him. She wasn't fast enough to prevent Kellara from injecting her with a hypospray. She turned and glared at the doctor, who shrugged. "You suffered a minor injury to your lower back. That's was for the pain. Now if you'll hold still, I can treat you. You won't even have to hop up onto a bed." She gave the captain a sarcastic smile. Sam made a face but didn't protest. She couldn't help but notice that Sickbay was over half full of patients with some degree of injury or another.
"Dinnae worry about me, lass," Scotty said, managing a slight grin, "muh head's bounced off worse."
"Oh, I wasn't worried about that," Sam said, smiling. "I was more concerned about what Apollo will say when he sees the huge dent you put in the bridge railing."
They both shared a laugh. Kellara scowled, wondering was so funny about someone knocking themselves out on the bridge. "Is the ship out of the chase?" Scotty asked.
She shook her head. "We backtracked a little to give whoever we're chasing a false sense of security... make them believe we've given up. Then we cloaked and resumed our pursuit."
He smiled at her with that twinkle in his eye. "Ah lass... ye've been hangin' around the Admiral too much."
Sam shrugged. "Gotta use what works, ya know? Hard to keep from using his tactics when they help the most. But don't worry, no one's going to knock my ship around and get away with it. Hurry back to duty." She turned to go.
"Your ship, eh? Sounds like you've really taken a liking to this gal," Scotty said to her back.
She paused, but continued out the doors. As she was walking through the corridors to return to the bridge, it struck her that what Scotty said was right. For some reason, that made her feel uneasy.