Now he was really mad: not only had he been abducted, held against his will, and forced to watch the destruction of a planet, but this was the second time this trip he'd been knocked out and awakened somewhere strange. Thankfully he no longer felt the effects of Suundel artificial gravity (as advanced as their technology was, their artificial gravity was almost nauseating, as he had discovered in the brig), so he guessed he was no longer on the Suundel ship. Was he on a planet? If so, which?

The room he was in was no bigger than a brig on the Tomcat, which meant it was barely big enough for three people. The Captain was thankful that there were only two in there with him, one of whom, to his surprise and joy, was Catherine, who was still sleeping on the floor beside him; the other person was a man he didn't recognize. He thought he might have seen his face among the prisoners on the ship, but he couldn't be sure. He reached over and gave Catherine a gentle shove, which made her groggily rise to a sitting position and look blankly around the room. "Where am I?" Her voice was coarse from the dry, hot air around them.

"Catherine, I don't know where we are, but I think we're off the Suundel ship. How do you feel?"

She groaned. "Like carp."

"Like carp? Don't you mean crap?"

"No, I mean carp."

"That sounds like something Lynn would say."

"Who? Oh, Dr. Yerian? Yeah, it must have rubbed off on me when I was aboard the Tomcat. I didn't see her much, but she's quite infectious anyway."

"I'll give her that. Catherine, do you recognize this man?" He gestured to the other prisoner.

"Yeah, that's Ensign Jorge Ramos. He was with us in the hangar."

"Good. Let's wake him up." The Captain reached over and shook the man's shoulder, which made him open his eyes. He slowly rose to a sitting position, and, like Shawn and Catherine, was still groggy from whatever put them to sleep in the first place.

"Where—? Who—? I can barely see anything," he said after rubbing his eyes.

The Captain said, "We don't actually know where we are, Ensign, but we want to figure that out. All we know is that we're probably not on the Suundel ship anymore."

"Oh, Captain, I didn't realize that was you. Hello, Catherine. Captain, I'm Ensign Jorge Ramos."

"Catherine introduced us while you were sleeping. Ensign Ramos, the first order of business is to figure out exactly where we are, and the second is to get out, if possible. Let's get to work."

"Aye, Captain." Jorge stood up and looked out the small window in the rounded metal door of their cell. "Captain, come look at this."

The Captain stood and looked out the window with him. The world around them was sun-drenched, and there were Suundel guards everywhere, marching between structures that were obviously of Suundel design. He knew they had to be in a military complex. In the distance, he could see a large spire stretching to the sky, and around it was a sprawling city. He knew immediately he was on the Suundel homeworld. "Ensign, we're on Saanth."

"Saanth, Captain?"

"My linguistics specialist on the Tomcat broke the language barrier between the races, and I had the pleasure of reading some of his initial translations of their databanks."

"And that would have been one of the first things they had him translate," Catherine added. "Makes sense."

"But what doesn't make sense is why we're here. Why on earth would the Suundel bring anyone to their homeworld? Of what strategic advantage could it be?"

"Speculation, Captain," Jorge added. "Perhaps the Suundel ships do not carry the proper interrogation facilities. If they are an assassin race, it makes sense that they would gather information before their assassination attempt."

"But they've had five years to gather information. That's how long we've been in contact."

"Perhaps, Shawn, the years of contact have not been fruitful," Catherine said.

"When the Tomcat intercepted the rogue Suundel ship, they shared more information with us in seven days than we have collected on any other race in seven years—and we couldn't even communicate! I have absolutely no reason to believe five years of contact were unfruitful."

Catherine retorted, "I read the records, too. Nowhere in there did it say we had any contact other than minor skirmishes, which were mostly the result of unprovoked attacks by the Suundel. Any contact longer than that was ruined by the inexperienced captains of non-Starfleet vessels. It is very likely that those five years were wasted, and it's probably due in large part to this militant rogue sect that has taken over Saanth."

"You're probably right, Catherine, but there's no use in arguing about it. For now, let's just search for a way out of here. If we can escape, then we might avert whatever fate they have in store for us, and there's probably a transport around here we can commandeer."

The Captain was about to get his chance, for marching toward their cell was a squad of Suundel guards. One of them opened the door and motioned for everyone to exit the cell. Escorted by this small squad, Shawn, Catherine, and Jorge marched toward a large building in the center of the complex. "What awaits us can't be good," the Captain thought. "If they're collecting information, then it's probably by interrogation or torture. Let's hope there's an obvious route of escape."

But whatever awaited them, they marched steadily toward it . . . at gunpoint.

"It's all over, Commander. The last planet has been stabilized." Admiral Uhrlaub's face was displayed on the viewscreen in front of Commander Crowe.

"Admiral, that's great news, but I can't bring myself to smile," said Chuck.

"I know, Chuck. Captain Thornburg's foolhardy rush to save Catherine was . . . was . . . "

"Probably his end. Is there any chance at all he made it off the planet?"

"We couldn't get a lock on him before we had to leave. It's like he wasn't even there. His communicator signal was gone before the outpost even crumbled."

"Then I have to believe he's still alive. There couldn't have been enough interference generated by the planet to completely block out his signal. Not while he was inside a Federation outpost."

"That's probably true, but it's good not to get your hopes up too much. We'll scan the area one last time. The planet didn't explode, it simply fell apart, so at the very least you should be able to retrieve your shuttle. But the mission at hand is to return the survivors and the Suundel officers to Starbase 718. We can't do anything else in this sector."

"Aye, Admiral. Helm, set course for the last known position of Aurora Center. Warp 2. Engage."

The Tomcat slipped into warp, followed closely by the December. When they reached Aurora Center, which now looked like a clump of misshapen asteroids, the Tomcat found its shuttle, which had simply floated off the planet's surface when it lost gravity, and transported it into the shuttlebay. After a full sensor sweep of the area, both ships slipped back into warp and left the dead world.

Chuck knew in his heart of hearts that the Captain was still alive, but there was nothing he could do. He had always wanted to become the captain of the Tomcat, but not like this. There was just something not right about it, like the position didn't want him yet; but whatever the case, he decided he would make the best of it, and carry out his duty to the best of his ability.