Aurora Center lay ruined against black space, a gray shroud covering its once blue surface, orange fireballs randomly piercing the pall. Like an explosion the Tomcat warped into the area and approached the dying planet. Captain Thornburg sat nervously in the captain's seat, and though his years of command gave him a calm, collected exterior, his first officer saw right through it. "We'll find her, Shawn."
The Captain just shot him a blank look and stood up. "Jeff, are there survivors?"
"I'm reading 124 life signs on the side furthest from the initial blast. Captain, a Federation research station is housing almost 80 of them, and the rest are scattered around the main land mass. Only 37 of them appear to be injured."
The Captain's heart leapt into his throat. "Thornburg to Yerian. Are you prepared for 37 patients?"
The doctor's voice came back, "Yes, Captain. I'm prepared for 137 patients. Doncha ken?"
"Good. Thornburg to San Miguel. Let's begin transporting survivors, injured first."
Transporter Chief Haylee San Miguel acknowledged. "Aye, Captain. Transporting directly to sickbay."
"Jeff, how long until the December arrives?"
"The U.S.S. December will arrive in four minutes and fifteen seconds. Admiral Uhrlaub sends orders to collect survivors from the other four planets."
"Send confirmation. How long until we get everybody up here?"
"Getting the last batch now, Captain," said Haylee.
"That was quick. Is Catherine Lim among them?"
"Captain, none of the Federation personnel have that name, and there are 40 individuals without communicators, so I cannot say."
The Captain stood in silence for a few moments. "Attention all personnel. This is Captain Shawn Thornburg. If Catherine Lim is on board, please respond."
There was no response.
"Doctor Yerian, is Catherine Lim in sickbay?"
"Captain, all of my patients have been identified, and Catherine Lim is not among them."
Shawn's heart dropped and his pulse quickened. Without a word he darted to the turbolift. Every eye on the bridge followed him in wonderment, and just before the doors shut, the Captain said, "Chuck, you have the bridge. Go get those other survivors."
"Captain! Where are you—" Chester looked up. "Crowe to Thornburg. Where do you think you're going?" He heard no response. "Captain, where are you going?" Still no response. "Shawn!"
Eventually the Captain's voice came back, "I'm going to get her, Chuck. If you try to stop me I'll have you removed from duty."
"Captain . . ."
"You'd do the same for Zee."
Chester sighed. "Aye, Captain." He turned to the helm. "Set course for Syrora."
"Course set, sir."
Jeffrey responded to the beeps on his console. "Sir, an unscheduled shuttle is leaving the shuttlebay."
"It's the Captain. Let him go."
"Aye, sir. The U.S.S. December has just arrived."
"Let the Admiral know the Captain's status. Helm, let's go. Warp 1."
A lone shuttle flew from the rear of the Tomcat just as the huge ship slipped into warp. The U.S.S. December looked formidable from the shuttle's cockpit as it entered orbit. Admiral Uhrlaub's voice sounded over the shuttle's speakers. "Shawn, I want you to explain to me how what you're doing is not considered abandonment."
"Rudy, I don't have to explain anything. You know that I'm ensuring that the Tomcat's sensors are indeed not damaged and that the survivor count they provided is accurate."
"Shawn, a ship's captain is not the person for that job—and this is certainly not the time!"
"You can put it in your official report. Start reversing the damage. Don't worry about me."
"Shawn, I want to see Catherine alive, too, but this is too brash! You are ordered to return to—"
The December's security officer interrupted the Admiral. "We've been cut off, Admiral."The shuttle continued toward the planet's gray atmosphere like a juggernaut, and the Captain's conviction continued to be absolute: Catherine would be home very soon.
"Admiral, the shuttle has reached the surface," said the December's security chief.
"Thank you. Uhrlaub to engineering . . ."
A gruff voice came over the comm system. "Engineering here."
"Will the reversal operation affect living beings on the surface of the planet?"
"Not if we're far enough away from them. We need to get to the initial blast point to use the procedure, and there probably won't be anything living there at this point."
"Thank you. Helm, move us into geo-synchronous orbit above the Suundel blast point." The Admiral turned to Lieutenant Wade Burgan, who was standing with two of the defected Suundel officers on the bridge. "Lieutenant Burgan, please escort the Suundel officers to engineering to begin the reversal procedure, and do remember to thank them for their help."
"Aye, Admiral. In their culture, however, the act of helping is thanks enough, and thanking them any more is an insult."
"Understood, Lieutenant. Proceed."
The December took orbit above a great burning circle on the surface of the gray planet, and Captain Thornburg could barely make out its shape through the grayness of the upper atmosphere; the shuttle was bucking in the turbulent air, though, so he needed to give his attention to the controls. In no time, the shuttle was on the ground and the Captain was out and on his way into the Federation outpost, tricorder in hand. "Catherine has to be in there," he thought to himself. "Maybe she's just in a shielded containment area. I have to hope." He jogged up the sweeping steps in front of the main building and pried open the front doors. Once inside the enormous main hall, he started calling Catherine's name, but only an echo returned. His tricorder showed nothing near, so he started toward the nearest turbolift. A sound stopped him: a footstep echoed throughout the hall. Again the Captain scanned the area with his tricorder and again it showed nothing, so he just walked to where he thought the footstep originated. But as soon as he turned the nearest corner, the back of his head started throbbing and his vision began going blurry—he knew he had been hit from behind. Just before he lost consciousness, he felt the distinct tingle of a transporter beam and saw the world around him disintegrate into blackness.
When he awoke, his head was still throbbing and he could barely see, but as he soon realized, the latter was because the room he was in was almost pitch black. Except for the soft glow of an oddly shaped ring of light a few meters away, there was no other light around him. He began to feel around him; at first all he could feel was a cold metal floor, but immediately he found himself squeezing something soft and fleshy and a warm hand grabbed his wrist and squeezed painfully tight. A female voice boomed,"Don't ever touch me there again or you'll lose this hand!"
He was startled and confused, so he relied on protocol and said,"I'm Captain Shawn Thornburg of the U.S.S. Tomcat. I mean you no harm. Please let go of my wrist and tell me who you are and where this is."
Immediately the hand released its death grip and the voice replied,"Captain Thornburg, I am Commander Julara Nofsinger of the Aurora Center outpost. I apologize for my reaction, sir, but you grabbed my . . . somewhere you shouldn't have grabbed."
"I apologize, Commander, but I can't see in this room. Where are we?"
"I don't know for sure, Captain, but I believe we're in the brig of the Suundel ship that attacked the planet. There are 52 of us in here."
"Are you all from the outpost?"
"Affirmative, Captain."
His heart jumped. "Is Catherine Lim in here?"
"Affirmative. She's sleeping near the forcefield emitters."
No sooner did Julara finish her sentence than the Captain was on his way over to Catherine. As soon as he reached her, he threw his arms around her and began kissing her cheek until she awoke. "Catherine, wake up. Catherine . . . "
She began to stir slowly, but once her eyes focused on the Catpain's face, she jumped up and hugged him tightly. "Oh, Shawn, I'm so glad you're here! I've been so worried." She buried her face in his shoulder and started sobbing.
"It's okay, Catherine. I'm here now. It's okay."
Julara walked slowly over to them and said to the Captain,"I'm sorry to interrupt, sir, but we've all been up for at least twenty hours, so we should really be resting."
"Right, Commander. I'll still be here when you wake up, Catherine. Right now I need to think."
"Alright, Shawn. I love you. Don't go anywhere." She smiled and almost as quickly as she had awakened, she fell back asleep.
"Commander Nofsinger, I'm going to start searching for a way out of here. If you're the highest ranking officer here besides me, can I count on you to be my acting First Officer?"
"Aye, Captain."
"Good. Now you should keep resting as well. The next move is theirs."
Julara returned to her spot while the Captain began examining what he could in the dim light. He didn't have his tricorder, phaser, or communicator, so he was going to have to improvise. He needed to gather information about his captors, and much of that would happen when the other prisoners awakened, but he might be able to get a jump on the process. He looked as far down the hall as possible in both ways, but all he could see was the dim light of other force field emitters reflecting against the opposing wall. He looked around him and found no panels, no creases, no lines of any kind, just the solid metallic substance that made up the curved walls and floors of the brig. He tapped the force field with his finger and immediately his entire right arm was sore—these force fields were made for holding prisoners at all costs short of death. He figured that might come in handy at some point. At that moment he heard footsteps approaching, so he looked down the hallway again and saw two figures approaching. Their cloaks were the first things he could see because they were stark white, then he could see their faces—they were definitely Suundel. They approached the force field and started speaking to the Captain, but he couldn't understand them. After repeating the same phrase a few times, they started becoming visibly angry. Soon, they aimed their elegant pistols right at the Captain and lowered the force field, taking him out of the cell and raising the force field behind them. They led the Captain down the hall at gunpoint to what looked like a transporter pad, then pushed him onto it. As soon as he was on the pad, the Captain saw the two Suundel disappear and be replaced by dozens, all dressed much more extravagantly and armed much more impressively. The room he was now in was mostly bright white, but with lines of brownish orange lining all of the walls in elegant patterns. The layout of the room clearly indicated a command function—the bridge—and the Suundel officer sitting in the center chair was obviously in command. It was this officer who spoke first, but again the Captain could not understand the language; instead of remaining quiet, he decided to voice his opinion, whether they could understand him or not.
"I am Captain Shawn Thornburg of the Federation Starship Tomcat. You have brought us here against our wills; you have committed an act of war against the Federation by your actions in the Aurora system; and you have performed an act of betrayal against your own people. Explain your actions."
The Suundel commander spoke to some of the officers around him and then motioned to the nearest wall. An image of the December materialized. This was obviously their viewscreen. The December was firing a beam at the surface of a planet that must have been Aurora Center, but in a few minutes, when an explosion erupted from the planet's surface, the December cut the beam and left orbit at warp speed. Soon the explosion grew, and in just a matter of seconds the entire planet was engulfed in fire. The Captain watched in horror as Aurora Center broke apart, flaming pieces floating away and the molten core oozing out into space. The viewscreen cut out and the Suundel commander issued several orders to the officers around him. Two officers approached the Captain and forced him back onto the transporter pad, and immediately he was back with the two prison guards. For the rest of the night, the Captain couldn't get the image out of his mind; he kept imagining planets like Earth and Vulcan meeting the same fate; the Federation being crippled and at the mercy of this unknown race. But then he thought about the Borg and how the Federation managed to beat them back—the most ruthless and unstoppable race in the galaxy—and he knew that somehow the Federation and Starfleet would find a way. They would win.