Commodore Sawwo gripped the arms of his command chair nervously. His snow-white eyes danced around the bridge of the mercenary starship Tae'kara in anticipation. For what was still unknown. The Commodore braced himself for bad news and held her breath for good news. And the nebula that filled his ship's viewscreen wasn't helping to calm her down.

The bleak red eyes of Commander Wedkot lay mesmerized on a small console, frantically scanning the information flooding onto it. Sawwo look into the corners of those eyes, watching their reflection of the light from the console.

Then, they suddenly twinkled with excitement. "I'm in!" Wedkot called.

Sawwo exhaled a breath she'd been holding in. "Good. What's it say?" She held her breath again.

"Damn it!" Wedkot shouted immediately. "The Enterprise's signal got through to Starbase 23."

Sawwo pounded his right fist on the armrest. The Beldin hissed angrily.

"StarFleet has dispatched a ship to investigate," Wedkot continued. "It's the U.S.S....Ka....," he voice trailed off. Wedkot leaned in and squinted at the console, his mouth open in a "o" that changed shape constantly as he tried to pronounce the ship's name. "The U.S.S.........Kaughlin. I think that's how that's pronounced." His eyes continued scanning the console. "It's a Galaxy-class starship. Very well armed. Eight phaser banks, and a full compliment of–"

Sawwo rolled his eyes in disgust. "Save me your warnings, Till," he interrupted. "I need to think." His eyes darted in all directions, a pet peeve of his when he was worried. StarFleet was making this first job very difficult. Sawwo's client was waiting, and the Commodore still had a few days to complete his job and get his payment. But at the rate this mission was going, getting to his rendevous on time was proving to be more arduous by the hour. The Enterprise had been hard enough to deal with. The damned ship had all but disabled the Tae'kara's warp engines, that is before the Tae'kara cut the mighty ship's main power and left it adrift. An idea for these new circumstances was already in his head, but there was a thirty-seventy chance that it would work.

Nevertheless. "Sawwo to Brix."

A moment. "Brix here," a frustrated female voice responded. "Shut up you two!" she shouted to the other people near her down in engineering.

"What part's do you need again?"

Brix groaned irritably. "I need one hundred kilograms of warp plasma, two plasma injectors to control that warp plasma, and three warp coils."

"Is that it?" Sawwo asked.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Would a Galaxy-class Federation starship have all that on board it?"

"Yeah. It should. Why?" Brix repeated.

Sawwo forced a small smile onto his face. At least it's worth trying. "StarFleet has sent a ship out here to investigate the disappearance of the Enterprise," he explained. "It's a Galaxy starship called the" Sawwo hesitated as he tried to remember the name of the ship. Then it hit him. "Kaughlin. It'll be here in a few hours. I was thinking we could get the parts from it."

"Attack a Galaxy-class starship?" Brix exclaimed. "You're kidding right?"

Sawwo glared at the com device. "No, I'm not."

"A Galaxy-class starship, Sawwo?" the engineer said in disbelief. "We're no match for that. They'd pick us off in two shots!"

Sawwo moaned in aggravation. His pride and hope in his idea was steadily declining. As much as he wanted to shoot his Androssi engineer, the woman was right. Still, he persisted. "We'd only need to get three shots off. Two to disable their engines, one to disable their shields. We then beam a boarding party over, led by you, to get the parts we need." Sawwo could just feel Brix's refusal.

"Forget it!" she said immediately. "There are over three hundred security personnel on that ship. We'd never stand a chance. Uh-uh."

Sawwo growled. "I don't remember asking you 'yes' or 'no.' I'm ordering you to board the Kaughlin, Brix."

"No!" she shouted defiantly. "You're crazy! I have a choice whether I want to risk my life, Sawwo, and I choose–!"

"This isn't a democracy," Sawwo cut him off. "You're going. That's final. Sawwo out." He switched the com panel off. His breathing had heightened to a hiss out his nostrils. He caught Wedkot staring at him.

"What are you looking at, big nose?" Sawwo snapped at the Tellarite. "Do you have an objection too?"

Wedkot snorted. "No. I was just admiring your leadership skills."

Sawwo growled. "Do you have a problem with my 'leadership skills' Mr. Wedkot?"

Wedkot turned away from him. "I just said no."

Sawwo should have shot him right then and there. He should have shot Brix weeks ago. By now, most of his crew should've been shot dead for insubordination. But Sawwo was just starting out as a mercenary, and he was getting paid big for this first transport job. And the Tae'kara was running on what would be considered a skeleton crew, so everyone on board was a valuable asset, no matter how rebellious they were. Sawwo still wanted to shoot them though.

"Good!" the Beldin spat at Wedkot. "Then I order you to get me a schematic of the Kaughlin. Floor plans, engine schematics, hull details, essential systems and their locations, everything!" He shifted right in his seat. "Helm, plot an intercept course to the Enterprise, full impulse and go."

The Ekosian helmsman hesitated, then proceeded to plot a course.

Sawwo knew Brix's and Wedkot's warnings about the Kaughlin had definite validation. Attacking a Galaxy-class ship was no laughing matter. The only way to bring a ship like that down was to surprise it, for the Tae'kara was no where near as powerful as a fully- armed Federation starship like the Kaughlin. A direct attack would never work. But Sawwo already had a plan formulating in his mind about how to get what he wanted, but he would need a few more things to put his plan into action.

"We need to borrow a few things from our old friend Picard." He paused. "One last thing, Mr. Wedkot. Open a secure channel to the Employer as soon as they will allow it."