DISCLAIMER: Don't own, don't sue. Or, if you prefer, refer to my other wonderful disclaimers.

Anyway, I promise I'll have this chappy done today, I'm in a...good? mood right now. Which loosely translates as insanely sugarhigh Anij. But whatever. This chapter, well, right now at least, is being written about fifteen, no twenty minutes after the post of the previous chapter. Time elapsed since I last posted is not a reason to whine, though, as I've been working pretty hard around the clock since I love readers, Gene Roddenbury, Jadzia Dax, Ben Sisko, Jean-Luc Picard, Jonathan Archer, T'Pol, Deanna Troi, and all the other people! (blame the sugarhigh)

Also, for all people going like this: WDF? What's the command chain on this bloody ship!

Here you go, from highest ranking to lowest:

1. Commander (Equivalent to Federation Captain)

2. Sub-Commander (Fed. Commander)

3. Lieutenant Commander (same thing)

4. Lieutenant (same thing)

5. Junior Lieutenant (Fed. Ensign)

6.Centurion (Crewman, also known as Lower-Than-Dirt)

lol. So there ya have it.

Commence operations in the warp core after reading!

ENCOUNTER AT VIRGO III

Chalmed deBoer was bored out of her skull. Engineering had nothing going on in it, she had given her people a break because the warp cores were stable and the field was in-tune, weapons were charged and operational, and shields were at full. Going back to the point, she was bored. One of her subordinates in engineering walked back in, clearly also bored... He was Junior Lieutenant Ghret, a Cardassian she commanded. He had always annoyed her, though. She was Bajoran, he was Cardassian. Ever since Bajor's occupation, she had vowed to hate all Cardassians, like almost all other of her species.

"What do you want, Ghret?" she asked, fingering her nose ridges in frustration.

"Nothing at all, actually. I simply became bored and decided to drop in on Engineering since technically, I am on duty, Lieutenant," he said in a way-too-pleasant tone of voice. But then again, that was just Ghret for you, deBoer mused.

"Well you can become un-bored and find something to do around here," she stated matter-of-factly and a bit curtly, "since it's an empty engine room. I'm almost sure you can find something to--"

"Infirmary to deBoer," her combadge called to her before the end of her sentence did.

"deBoer here. What is it?"

"Doctor Kent wants to see you, if at all possible—you know, for your pregnancy check-up. Whenever you finish this shift."

"Actually, I'm not all that busy...if I could run by now that would be great," she answered honestly.

"See you in a few minutes then, Lieutenant Chalmed. Imfirmary out."

Groaning inwardly, she turned to Ghret again.

"Get the engineering crew back here, Lieutenant, please. I don't have time to argue about if that's proper etiquitte on Cardassia or not, just do it," she said. With that, she brusquely turned and left him standing there open-mouthed, staring at the back of the most typical reaction he would ever get from a Bajoran.

The sleek starship dropped out of orbit, allowing the light of the stars to bathe the hull in their glory as it swooped down into the orbit of Virgo III, nothing more than a bare planet with a few underground cities. As the Azrael swooped down into a low orbit to avoid detection, another starship dropped out of warp nearby, coming for the same reason. The Maquis. A plague to the Federation, a huge help to the Azrael and her crew.

The Federation starship moved into a high orbit, feeling the safety of being in Federation territory. Its numbered designation was NCC-1701-D. The USS Enterprise, commanded by Jean-Luc Picard.

"Status report?" the commander asked in an impatient tone.

"All systems operational, battle-ready. We have arrived at Virgo III," reported a young lieutenant.

"Excellent. Assemble an away team to meet with the Maquis for supplies. We have a treaty with them, so--" she was rudely cut off. Chalmed, standing in the back, sympathized with her for the moment.

"Sir, Federation vessel bearing designation NCC-1701 has entered orbit of Virgo III. Galaxy class vessel, commanded by--"

"Jean-Luc Picard. I know. It's the Enterprise." With that comment, a few gasps were elicited from the crew, as well as a storm of talking.

"Quiet!" she shouted, and when the talking just increased in decibels, she unholstered her phaser and fired at a random Lieutenant. When he fell with a Force Three stun, the bridge became very quiet. "Perhaps I should do that more often," she muttered, "It makes you hooligans quiet down..." Shaking her head, she continued, "try and avoid detection. We need to pick up a new crewmember here, he's our new transporter chief, what with Chief Kylian's death. He's a Terran, Cairteal Keanu. Apparently he's pretty good with finding shield envelopes to beam through as well... could come in handy later. Do I have an away team yet?" she demanded.

"Y-yes s-sir," muttered the newly-revived lieutenant. "Lieutenant Chalmed deBoer as lead, Centurions K'lara and Nadial Trite. Lieutenant Nadie Fal as lead security officer."

"Tell them to get down there, grab our Sub-Commander Keanu, and perhaps run away with a few more hopefuls. Now get the message out, go!" she cried in exasperation, contemplating shooting the poor officer again.

"They're on their way right now. Lieutenant deBoer..." he trailed off, not wanting to get shot for not getting everyone to the transporter room.

"I'm going, Junior. Promise," she grinned, walking off into the turbolift.

Hope was finally aboard again, and breathed a sigh of relief. She could go back to her post, and stop having to make life-or-death decisions for more than just herself. There was more to helping herself in life though, and it was a bit obvious to her.

"Jayvin to Hope."

"Hope here," she responded automatically to her combadge.

"Could you come to the senior staff lounge...please?"

Worried, she took a moment to respond. How had this gotten this bad? There wasn't any way it could have been...

"Yes. I'm on my way now."

Practically running out of the transporter room, she got to Jayvin as quickly as she could.

"Captain," Data remarked, "there appears to be a vessel with the same intent as our own in orbit."

"Who are they?" Picard asked, a bit curious, a bit worried.

"Unknown, sir. Configuration is unknown, though I beleive that Commander LaForge may recognize it better. If I am not mistaken, it is the Braveheart, one of the many projects from the Delta Arm fleetyard. It was stolen two years, three months, four hours--"

"Mr. Data, thank you, that is quite enough. The vessel was comandeered by...?" he asked, assured that Data would know.

"Unknown, sir, as the tale appears to go, the security systems and much else was knocked out due to internal influence," he completed cleanly.

"Raise shields and hail them. We can find out for ourselves. Mr. Crusher, if you could," he indicated that Wes was to raise the other ship, the so-called 'Braveheart'. At the same time, he wondered if they were hostile or friendly.

"We're being hailed," reported a random officer at the comm station.

"The Enterprise..." she murmured. "By whom?" she demanded.

"The Enterprise, sir."

"Answer it. Be ready to fire phasers and raise shields."

A moment later, the starscape was replaced with the face of Jean-Luc Picard.

"This is Captain Picard of the Enterprise. You have been found in violation of Federation space with an unknown identification," the older man demanded, but without glancing over to Enaren, she felt his voice in her mind.

The Enterprise has a Betazoid at their disposal. Careful of her—Deanna Troi can be very formidable. Don't let your emotions—or me—show clearly to her. He's not demanding so much as...questioning. He's curious as to who stole the ship from the Delta Arm. You can use this as a diversion...Ask him for a meeting. On his ship. It shows trust.

"Captain Picard, this is Commander Jayvin Belar of the Azrael here. We're both here for the same thing, we both already know this.." she drawled quietly, absently playing with her hair. "If you'd like to work out a temporary deal of some sort, I'll meet with you, even on your ship if you wish."

Way to go, Commander. Believe it or not, he's rather surprised, though he shouldn't be... he's thinking about accepting.

"That sounds reasonable, how about one aide each? Dinner is always an excellent time for talk and diplomacy."

"Always agreed," she said in a friendly and outgoing manner. "Dinner it is then. What time is your ship on?" she asked, referring to the ship's clock.

"Almost dinner, actually. Our transporter room will be standing by. Enterprise out."

The viewscreen winked out.

"Tapel, I want you to come with me. We can distract them long enough for our transporter chief, can't we?"

"Indeed we can, Commander. Let's go," he said.

"Hope, you have the bridge." Stepping into the turbolift, she suddenly began to fall into one of her states.

I can control it, I can control it, I have to control this... she willed herself. Failing dismally, she ran to the nearest secure room, leaving a confused first officer behind for his own good.

"Belar to Hope..." she muttered, beginning to fight Tapis from unleashing herself.

"Hope here, what is it, Commander?"

"I need you...now..."

"I'm on my way, where are you?"

"Ask...the computer...Belar out."

She threw off her combadge in a rage, frustrated. Why did this always happen when she couldn't afford it? Why? She swept her hand around in exasperation, destroying an Andorian vase and starting to lose her personal battle.

"Tapis..." she groaned in anger, hating her other side.

The last thing she remembered was the crash, she didn't even see Hope run in as Tapis took control.

Hope flew into the room in a hurry, realizing at the last second that these were Jayvin's quarters. What she did realize was that Enaren was behind her. Another second--too late, of course.

"What...Commander?" Enaren was stunned and even scared at what he saw. From the shattered vase, there was blood running down her left hand, and an evil glint in her eye.

Shoving him aside, Hope stepped between him and an inscenced Tapis-Jayvin.

"Enaren...leave before you see any more...or get hurt..." she whispered.

"Get hurt? That's insane..." trailing off, he didn't realize why she would hurt him...then he felt it. That billowing rage, the angry fury. This wasn't, couldn't be, and shouldn't be his commander... He moved just in time as his leader charged him, trying to do nothing but cause him bodily harm. Under other circumstances, he could have brushed it off, thought that she needed a punching bag, but this...this was different. He watched from the sidelines as Hope grabbed the girl and only succeeded in being thrown across the room. "She's strong..." he whispered to himself, trying to send calmness to her shattered mind and dismally failing.

"Hope! Are you all right?" Instead of responding, she tried to tell him to move, once again too late. Tapis, in Jayvin's body, came flying at him, trying to get to his throat to stop his breathing. There was no way...he was stronger than she. He knew this, but was defied as he too was tossed as a rag doll might be.

Suddenly Hope jumped up and grabbed Jayvin, throwing her to the floor without a care. Nevermind that on any other ship, she would be court-martialed for this. Hope used her own strength this time to hold the teenager down, straddling her waist as she did so. Moving herself in such a manner as to cause at least a few lustful feelings, Hope ran a hand across Jay's smooth skin on her neck, then moved slightly downward.

"Hope!" Enaren barked, angered and confused. First they were fighting, now they were making out...? He felt like he had been decieved and thrust into a lover's quarrel.

Pulling up to breathe, she explained hurredly.

"Jayvin's MPD. This isn't Jayvin...not really...this is Tapis...and this is the only way to calm her. Go to Picard...take someone else with you. Now go. You really don't want to see this, Enaren..." she breathlessly explained, coming down to satiate Tapis in exchange for Jayvin's soul.

Good enough for a day, two chapters. Anyway, I'll finish the climax here when I get home and start on my third for the day. I posted the last chapter...ummm...three hours ago. Hmm. Well, two hours plus a Wendy's Frosty and an insane sibling (younger brother, will be referred to as Pika-chan).

Hah.

And Open Office didn't crash at all. It's a miracle. Thank the plot bunnies and the power of the nearest deity. Hehehehehe...

Talk to you later, in the form of story.

-Anij Jinn