Nechayev merely smiled slyly. "I think I know where he might be going. He'll know we'll have the transporters, so he'll try to return to the shuttle bay."
"Or maybe that's what he wants you to believe," Sam added, more than happy to play devil's advocate.
The admiral glared at Sam. "You may not have to cooperate, but stay out of my way." She tapped her badge. "Nechayev to transporter room. This is what I want you to do..."
~ * ~
As they descended in the turbolift, Circe looked to Apollo. "What was going on up there."
He clearly looked troubled. "Nechayev. That bitch is part of Section 31. And she's turned Sam and my crew against me." He leaned back against the wall to think.
"I can't believe that," Circe said. "Sam would never turn against you. Maybe she was ordered not to do anything."
He shook his head. "I don't know. What I do know is this ship isn't as safe as I thought it would be."
Circe bowed her head for an instant. "So now what? Back to the shuttle bay?"
"That's one of the first places they'll look, along with the transporter rooms. For now, let's just head back to the runabout."
They exited the turbolift and only went a short distance before two security men confront them. "Admiral, sir, you need to come with us."
Apollo thought fast. "Have you been given any reason why I should be detained?"
They looked at each other. "Only that Admiral Nechayev ordered for you to be..."
"And you never thought to question why she would have a starship commander's own crew apprehend him?"
As he suspected, their loyalty for him was making them waver. Circe decided to help out. "Sheenan, Bradshaw, if he was as guilty as Nechayev says he is, wouldn't you think I'd be taking him to the brig myself?"
They put their phasers away. "You have a point there, Chief," they said. Suddenly, the decision was taken off their hands when they were stunned from behind. Nechayev came walking up, phaser in hand.
Apollo put Circe and Anna behind him. Despite the brightness of the corridor lighting, they could see his aura flare. "Why the hell are you doing this, Nechayev? Payback because I trounced your boys on Centaurus?"
"Partly. I also have information that you don't have. If you knew what I did, you'd cooperate."
"Well then, why don't you tell me what I need to know?" Apollo asked. Just then, Sam came running around the bend... she stopped short when she saw what was going on.
Nechayev looked at them. "I'm afraid I can't. If you put Anna into custody, we can talk."
"Anna?!" Apollo was stunned. "What the hell does Section 31 want with Anna? No, I don't care. She's under my protection, and no Starfleet wannabes are going to have her."
Nechayev slowly shook her head. "You just don't know who you're dealing with, do you." She moved her phaser to the left a few inches. "Now, surrender, or I'll shoot your wife."
"Oh that is just so petty."
"Maybe, but I will shoot her."
Apollo thought. He may have been able to protect Circe and Anna, but not all three. He slumped in defeat. Nechayev nodded. "Good. That's about the smartest thing you've done..." She didn't finish her sentence. She moved forward to take Apollo into custody, when Apollo did the only thing he felt possible. He slugged Nechayev.
She landed flat on her back, out cold. He turned and looked at Sam. "I'm sorry," he said. Apollo took Anna by the arm and turned to Circe. "Stay here with Sam. I'm taking Anna out of here." He started running down the corridor.
Sam called after him. "Apollo, they won't let you near the transporters, or the shuttlebay!"
In her mind, he told her, :I'm not going to either of them.: She was left there to puzzle it over.
It wasn't long before Admiral Nechayev came to in Sickbay. She was looking up at Sam, Circe, and Kellara. It took only a moment for her to remember what happened. "That son of a bitch! I'm going to personally skin him alive."
"I don't think you're going to go anywhere, Admiral," said Sam. "You threatened to shoot a Starfleet officer, and I'm not talking about Admiral Racer. You're going to stay there for a while."
Nechayev chuckled. "I'm still in command here. Unless you wish to share Racer's fate, you'll follow orders."
Sam looked to Kellara. "I think she's still delirious. What do you think?"
"It's possible. If he hit her hard enough to knock her out, she might have a concussion. I think she should be kept sedated."
"Now wait just a..." Nechayev's protest was cut off as with the hiss of a hypospray she slumped into unconsciousness.
Sam breathed a sigh of relief. Circe shook her head. "It's not over yet. He still has to get Anna to safety."
"Yes, but where can he go, when he's not safe on his own ship?" Kellara said.
Sam leaned against the next biobed and thought aloud. "The transporters are covered, the shuttlebays were blocked... where could he go? Where could he go...."
She stood straight up. The thought hit her just as the comm system chirped. She responded. "Racer here."
"Captain," came a report from the bridge. "I think you should know that..."
~ * ~
The captain's yacht released from its moorings in its berth on the underside of the saucer section. The nacelles unfurled away from the fuselage, and the ship shot away at warp. "Thank you, Sam," Apollo said quietly.
"I can't believe we actually got away with this," Anna exclaimed.
"Most of the time, the captain's yacht isn't used. So it just sits at the bottom of the saucer, waiting to be used. And maybe it's that complacence that allowed us access to it." He sighed. "It'll teach me to ensure this area is covered in the future as well." He stood and began pacing. When that didn't help, he went to the replicator in back and ordered a raktajino. He took a swig and swirled the liquid around in the mug.
Apollo went through three raktajinos before he decided that the only thing he could do is just turn around and return to the Highlander. "Anna, we..." Suddenly, he detected the telltale sound of the engines dropping them out of warp. He headed up to the pilot's station. "Anna, what happened? What's wrong?"
Anna turned and smiled. "Nothing's wrong. We're here."
"Here??" Apollo looked out the viewport, at the sensor readings. "We're in the middle of nowhere. What are you talking about?"
"Not exactly nowhere."
Apollo checked the sensor readings again. There were no systems in the area. It's not what's here, though, it's where we are. Why would she... He ended his speculation when he saw a Romulan warbird decloak in front of him. The readouts showed another one behind them. "What the?" As he turned to question Anna, something solid slammed into him. He struck the bulkhead behind him hard and slid to the floor. Groggily, he shook his head to clear it. As his vision cleared, he saw Anna's arm, which had grossly stretched and enlarged to attack him, retract back to "normal." The arm had also taken on a shiny, orange liquid consistency.
Anna watched him as he rose, then raised an eyebrow. "You don't look so surprised."
He grunted as he got to his feet. "That you're a changeling? Should I be?"
She snorted. "When did you figure it out?"
"Shortly after I left you in your hiding place. I returned to the park, and found a tree covered in sap... the very same tree I leaned against when I arrived on Centaurus. It was the very tree you were hiding in."
Anna chuckled. "So a tree had sap."
He shook his head. "And your people call us 'solids' simple. None of the other trees had sap in them. I had felt the sap, and it wasn't as gummy as I expected. Fortunately, I didn't have to analyze it to know what it was. One time when I was aboard Deep Space Nine, I encountered a Founder in his liquid form. The liquid I felt was similar to him. I surmise that you might've been injured in your escape from Section 31 when you climbed that tree."
She smiled. "Very astute."
"There were other things, small things, that I noticed that made me suspicious as well. For instance, when we were in the hangar, the security agents should have been able to scan the interior of the runabout and find you, regardless of where you hid. Unless you shapeshifted to become a part of the equipment." He continued pacing, regardless of the threat both inside and outside the yacht. "What I'm curious about, is why you're not incapacitated by the disease that's affecting the rest of the Founders. I take it you're not part of the Great Link."
She nodded. "That's right. I'm not. Why do you think they sent off all those young Changelings all over the galaxy?"
"Their story was to explore the galaxy..." Apollo had a thought. "However, it would also make sense for them to spread out their people, just in case they came up against anything so debilitating as the disease. That way without changelings in the Great Link, the Founders still have people unaffected."
Anna nodded in confirmation. "They never realized they would catch such a severe plague. But they sent us out to explore, to learn, and to return in time. If we didn't get back before some tragedy befell them..." She shrugged. "Our race will survive."
Apollo nodded, and jerked a thumb toward the viewport. "Why the warbird? Are they truly Romulans?"
"Oh yes. The commanders aboard are changelings, but the crew is loyal to them. Once I'm aboard, they will return through the neutral zone back to Romulan space. I suppose I should thank you. Now I can not only do that, but I can also present them with one of the most important men in the Federation."
His eye narrowed and glared at her. "You know what I can do. What makes you think I won't present the Federation with a working Romulan warbird?"
She gestured out to the ship hovering off their bow. "Despite what you may think of my importance, they have orders to destroy this vessel. I doubt even you could survive that."
"That may be true, but can you say the same about the importance of two warbirds?"
She didn't understand what he was talking about, until her control board started chiming. She touched a control, and her eyes widened, as the Highlander decloaked outside the perimeter set up by the warbirds. And it wasn't alone... three Klingon cruisers - two Vor'cha destroyers and a Neg'vhar heavy cruiser - appeared with the Federation starship. As she looked incredulously at the new arrivals, Apollo leaned against his console and nonchalantly raised the shields on the yacht. "You didn't really think my ship would just simply let me go without following me, did you?"
Anna's mouth opened and closed without saying anything. "Your ship, I can understand. But where did the Klingon vessels come from?"
"I'd have to say that was Nechayev's doing. She must have expected trouble, and came prepared." He then looked at Anna with a devilish gleam. "Or perhaps they feel that's what it would take to subdue me." He grinned evilly.
The commpanel chirped. Apollo expected it to be Nechayev or Sam, but was surprised to find one of the warbird commanders appear on the screen. "We must leave now if we hope to escape."
"Those ships won't let you leave with me," Apollo interjected. "If you intend to escape, you'd better let me go."
At that moment, another transmission broke in. "Attention Romulan warbirds and captain's yacht. This is Captain Racer of the USS Highlander. You are ordered to power down your weapons and defenses and surrender, or we will destroy you. Comply."
Anna looked torn. Finally she made a decision. "This won't be our last meeting. Our paths will cross again." Before Apollo could react, her left arm turned into a giant tentacle. It wrapped around him. It threw him to the rear of the yacht, while her right arm elongated and dropped the shields. As soon as she did that, Apollo leapt to his feet. Just as they started to cloak, Apollo targeted them and fired microtorpedoes toward them. As their shields were down, the torpedoes raced to there targets and struck with surgical precision, hitting just where they would cause the most crippling damage. The warbirds winked back into existence, dead in space.
Three forms materialized on the yacht, all armed. Sam went up to Apollo. "Are you all right?"
He nodded, and noticed that Circe and another security guard, apparently one of the new ones, for he couldn't bring her name to mind, was with her. He tabbed a control on his commpanel. "Racer to Highlander. The warbirds should be powerless. You're free to take them under tow." As he cut the transmission, the two Vor'cha cruisers took the warbirds and started heading back. Apollo looked to Sam. "I... take it this is where you're supposed to tell me I'm under arrest for collaborating with the enemy."
Though she didn't say anything, the tears in her eyes told Apollo all he needed to know. "It'll be all right," he told her.