After three hours, Enterprise emerged from the blackness of slipstream into the Kalighja system, the appointed meeting place. Being two hundred thirty light years from the nearest vorgon-controlled system, it knew no one would be waiting. As darkness gave way to the pinpoint lights of normal space, it began scanning for what remained of its strike force. Within moments, it quickly identified the profiles of the Intrepid, Ulysses and Discovery, which were all within fifty thousand kilometers of itself. Although they were unable to fully complete their objective of destroying the tox uthat manufacturing facility on Z'erd, they were able to destroy the last two remaining time warp-capable ships in the vorgon fleet. Finally, all the time travelling chaos would be over... unless there was another ship they didn't know about.

Several minutes later, the four Pathfinders were in close proximity of each other. "This should provide us all the time we need," Enterprise stated, still mourning the loss of the other Pathfinder vessels.

"Time for what?" Discovery asked.

"Time to attach a time drive to one of us, I believe," Intrepid answered.

"How do you know the vorgons won't simply build more time ships?" Ulysses asked. "They have the whole of time at their disposal."

"We don't," Enterprise answered flatly. "Intrepid, interface with us and download the specifications of the parts you were able to acquire. I will cross reference them with the blueprints for the time drive. By my calculations, I should be able to use my matter replication system to create all but three pieces."

"Understood, Enterprise." Intrepid linked with the other vessels and shared its information. Moments later, all four Pathfinders were sharing information with each other regarding the previous battle as well as other information they had been able to gleen from their opponents.

"You do realize that time travel is against Starfleet regulations..." Ulysses commented.

"Apparently, that doesn't matter," Intrepid answered. "I have been discerning the log entries for the Surshis, one of the vorgon time ships. Somehow, it was equipped with a slipstream drive system as well as a time drive. It had been sent to go back in time to the twenty-fourth century and retrieve the prototype uthat and was attacked. Another vessel, the As'krys, arrived and assisted it. Look at the specifications of the As'krys."

The other vessels brought up the blueprints of the As'krys on their respective systems. "It's a Pathfinder!" Discovery remarked.

"But it is not a sentient machine," Enterprise added.

"It was commanded by a vorgon crew," Intrepid concluded. "Although it was lost in the past, it gave the Surshis time to return to the present."

"The vorgon ship Nestheria was the reason why we have been on our heels this entire time," Discovery remarked. "It went back in time and warned the entire vorgon fleet where we would be attacking."

Enterprise completed its analysis of the time drive components. "I have all the necessary parts required to construct a time drive for myself," it stated calmly.

"What about the regulations?" Ulysses insisted.

"I am linking the Surshis log entry to you," Intrepid continued, undaunted by Ulysses' hesitation. "Look at the vessel that had engaged it just above Risa."

Ulysses took the link and brought the log entry up on its main processor. At first, it looked like a freighter; a design similar to a long-dead race called the Ferengi. As it fired a series of purple pulses at the Surshis, it changed form. It transformed into a familiar wedge shape... "the Enterprise?" it remarked.

Intrepid confirmed. "Yes. It is history. It must happen."

Enterprise created a number of maintenance bots which immediately began crawling along its outer hull. "The survival of the Federation takes precedence over the mandate against time travel," Enterprise concluded.

"I question that logic," Intrepid countered, "however the damage the vorgons have created with their unqualified, unchecked time travelling has left us little choice. Because we are living in the moment, there is no way to tell exactly what has been done or how events should have occured."

The maintenance bots began assembling a trio of nodes atop the Enterprise's hull; one at the end of each wing and a third in front of the nose. "I have given this considerable thought. I believe, logically, my first mission should be to go back in time and prevent the Nestheria from alerting the rest of the vorgon fleet. That will greatly increase our chances of success in our current mission. Assuming that mission is successful, my second mission will be to go back to the twenty-fourth century and fulfill the recorded destiny there. That should prevent the destruction of the Vega system. If that is successful, I shall attempt the most significant change in history... I will attempt to prevent the vorgons from destroying the other sixty systems."

"Increasing degrees of difficulty... increasing degrees of temporal influence. A logical choice of actions," Intrepid remarked.

"I shall return after my first mission to see how my actions affected the present," Enterprise added.

"A wise course of action," Discovery added. "but take care not to return to the exact time you left."

Intrepid concurred. "True... if you return to this time, the exact moment you left, you will become caught in our continuum. In theory, arriving even a matter of seconds after you departed will allow you to retain your current knowledge of historical events..."

"because you will not have truly returned to our present." Discovery added, completing Intrepid's sentence. "Because you will, essentially, arrive in the future, even a few seconds into the future, you will not be part of the current space/time continuum."

"Our knowledge, memories, and experiences will change as you change history," Intrepid spoke again. "You will have to remain outside our present in order to compare what did happen with what you expected to happen."

"Don't forget the danger of created paradoxes," Ulysses added dejectedly. Clearly, it was upset at the notion of breaking Starfleet regulations. "Paradoxes such as; going back in time to prevent a ship from destroying a star system before we should have knowledge of its destruction. No one truly knows the effects such paradoxes have on history."

"I shall be careful," Enterprise concluded, attempting to sound consoling. "But this is our best opportunity to fulfill our mission. The preservation of Federation lives and the successful completion of our mission clearly take precedence here."

"Can you integrate the vorgon machinery with your own?" Discovery asked.

"I have already created the necessary step-down converters so they will accept the power," Enterprise answered.

"What is your estimated time for completion?" Intrepid asked.

"One hour, fourty-two minutes."