"Report!" Miyachika said as she darted to her command chair from the turbolift.

"Gorn ship bearing one eight one mark four! Their weapons coming in hot."

"Bring us about," Miyachika said. "Intercept course. Let's try and keep them away from the Zhang He." She glanced at her communications officer. "Hail them, Lieutenant."

"No response, Captain."

Miyachika huffed. "Figures. Lock phasers and photon torpedoes."

"Locked."

"Fire!"

The blue beams struck the Gorn starboard side. The Constitution class ship swooped up and over the Gorn ship still firing phasers before slamming a few photon torpedoes into its hull. The Gorn fired back with its own disruptors. The bridge rocked from the impacts and sparks flew from consoles. Miyachika gripped the sides of her chair to keep herself from being thrown from it. The Miki Endo's weapons pounded away at the Gorn ship before it was able to get away by leaping into warp.

"They come in starting a fight and then they run off when they realize they can't win," Miyachika muttered.

"They must've thought they'd take us out too," Tarsi said. "And not expected to have a fight on their hands."

"Let's hope they think twice before they come back to start a fight," Miyachika said. The communication officer swung around in her chair informing Miyachika there was a hail coming from the Zhang He. "On screen."

"Captain," Kang said. "Thank you for your engineering crews. They really helped us out but I think we can handle it from here. We don't want to deprive you of your chief engineer in case you start fighting the Gorn again. We'll send over our sensor data just before we were attacked. We picked up strange readings but had no time to analyze them. They could be nothing."

"We'll take a look at them and let you know if we find anything. Miki Endo out." Holiday returned to the bridge just as Miyachika ordered the helmsman to take the ship closer to the debris of the Gorn ship.

Piece of the Gorn ship hung around each other as electrical discharges pulsed a bright yellow signifying its power source was still barely alive unlike its crew but even the power core would eventually succumb to death.

"Captain," she said. "Going along with the sensor readings from the Zhang He, I ran a deep scan analysis of the Gorn debris. The results are damned peculiar."

"Well don't keep them to yourself," Miyachika said.

"Gorn ships aren't the toughest ships out there but they do know a few things about hull plating. Whoever fired the shot knew exactly where to hit them."

Miyachika swiveled in her chair. "Is it pointing to the Romulans?"

"I'm scanning the hull for any trace elements and it looks to be from weapons grade plasma. Yes, I'd say it's the Romulans."

"Sir," Tarsi said. "The Gorn are coming back."

"Doesn't look like they're at full strength," Hunter said.

"If we continue fighting then it will result in someone getting destroyed and it won't be us," Miyachika said. "Open a channel."

"Channel open, sir."

"Gorn vessel. This is Captain Chiharu Miyachika of the Federation Starship Miki Endo. You attacked us once and we knocked you around a bit. There's no chance you'll survive another fight with us."

"They're responding, Captain."

"On screen."

The green skinned reptilian captain appeared on the screen. It spoke with a hiss, turning any word with a "th" sound into an "s" sound. "We thought we could share the space equally with the Federation. Your unprovoked attack against our research vessel tells me otherwise."

"Captain, right now we have data that shows Romulans attacked your ship."

"Do you think me a fool, Captain? I only see Federation ships, not Romulan."

"We'll send you the data now," Miyachika said motioning to Tenzing to send the data to the Gorn ship. The Gorn captain looked off to the side at the incoming data.

"Most convenient, Captain but not very convincing. Produce these Romulans that destroyed our research vessel or it is you that will pay for it."

Holiday came over to the captain's chair also getting the attention of the Gorn captain on the screen. "I've got an idea, sir. If we can generate a charged particle burst, we might be able to override their cloak."

"Make it happen."

Holiday rushed back to her console hitting various buttons and switches producing a multitude of sounds. The ship's deflector array sent out a shockwave in all directions. Three T'Liss Romulan Birds of Prey shimmered into existence as their ability to cloaks were disabled from the shockwave. The orange bird design on the underside of the ship clashed with the dull gray color scheme of the ship. Miyachika assumed the ship designers just threw colors together.

"Three Romulan Birds of Prey decloaking," Tenzing said.

"We're being hailed by the lead Romulan ship, sir."

"On screen."

The screen switched from the Romulan ships to a dark skinned female Romulan commander that looked like she had been in service for some time despite not having any gray in her tightly pulled back hair. Miyachika wondered if there were any real physical differences to tell them apart from Vulcans. Then she wondered if the Romulans ever considered training one of their operatives to act Vulcan and infiltrate the Federation. The idea of that made chills go down her spine.

"You're quite clever, Captain.

"And here comes the 'but'," Miyachika whispered to herself.

"We cannot allow you to tell anyone of our actions. All of your ships will be destroyed. It's really too bad. I would have liked to fight you in a real battle."

"First, you have crossed the neutral zone which is an act of war. Second, you Romulans really have to work on your compliments," Miyachika said standing up. "And don't be so sure of your capabilities. Tarsi, lock phasers and photon torpedoes."

"We have three fully powered ships compared to your two ships and one of them has a hull integrity of seventy-five percent. You won't win."

"Zhang He coming up alongside with weapons and shields operational," Tenzing whispered.

"Odds look even to me, if not in our favor," Miyachika said. She wasn't entirely sure if odds were in their favor or not but she wanted to try and make the Romulans back off if not make them second guess themselves. "Tarsi, fire!"