As soon as the Sting Ray was safely aboard, Stephen quickly turned to Ensign Bristol, Warlord's primary navigator. "Mr. Bristol, get us back to Cardassia Prime... emergency speed."
"Course already laid in, Sir." Tyler announced.
"Engage." Kirk ordered, pointing at the viewscreen. The stars streaked around the viewscreen as though caught in an invisible tornado. As the streaking of the stars slowed, they elongated into long white, yellow, and red lines. As they continued to stretch, a bright light formed in the middle of the screen. With a flash, the light vanished and the stars resumed their pinpoint shapes, flying off the sides of the screen with incredible speed. Commander Kirk turned to Colonel Prichard, who was already standing to leave. "Heading off to check your men?"
Prichard nodded. "Yep. I suppose I'll have some questions to answer before this is all over." He headed towards the turbolift doors as everyone watched. As the colonel approached the doors, they slid open silently. He turned back around. "If you need anyone else slugged, just give me a holler," he said with a smile and a wink. The doors slid closed behind him.
Kirk blinked several times staring at the turbolift doors. "There's something you don't hear very often on a starship," he said, letting out another sigh. A few members of the bridge crew chuckled nervously, not sure if they should be relaxing their guard.
The other turbolift door opened and Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Tom Kelly, stepped out. "Hey, everyone... what's going on?" He asked in his trademark Australian accent. He had watched the battle from a screen in the engineering main diagnostics room. Frustrated that his ship had received several damaging shots without any form of return fire, Tom took it upon himself to head to the bridge to find out why.
"I'll catch you up in a sec, Tom," Kirk said, sitting back down in the captain's seat. Tom headed for his auxiliary engineering station opposite the system analysis console. Stephen turned to partly face Elaine's position. "Elaine, try to contact our delegation."
"Aye, Sir," she said obediently. She turned around and began pressing buttons. By now, she was beginning to agree with the commander. This was obviously a ploy of some kind. As she put her earpiece in and began the all-hail, part of her knew it was in vein.
Kirk turned to T'Nia. "T'Nia, keep the aft weapons charged. We might get company on the way back."
Looking calmly over her shoulder, she nodded. "Understood, Sir." With several console commands, four torpedo tubes and eight phaser arrays took general aim behind them.
"Kenyon," Commander Richards had been watching Kirk like a hawk since Bolerov was 'incapacitated'. "Throw out tachyon bursts at irregular intervals. If someone's following us, I want to know."
"You got it, Commander." Richards turned around and began the sequence that would generate a burst of tachyon waves that would surround the ship for several thousand kilometers.
"Tyler," Kirk began again, turning back to front. "How long till we reach Cardassia?"
Tyler tapped his console four times. "Thirty-one minutes, Commander."
Kirk nodded. "Okay, I'm heading to the ready room for a few minutes. Tom come with me and I'll catch you up. Richards, you have the bridge. If anything happens, contact me." Kirk stood up and headed for the ready room with Tom following closely behind.
"You got it, Sir." Kenyon replied. Somehow, he wasn't quite as thrilled about being in charge as he once was.