Orange light flashed next to O'Brien's station in Ops. Harper appeared half a meter off the deck and landed with a thump, losing his balance and falling over.
"Seamus!?" O'Brien yelped. He helped the other engineer up. "How'd you get-"
O'Brien's console beeped for attention. He consulted the readouts. "There's a ship appearing in a halo orbit around the station." He touched a control in time to see a huge, sleek, sliver vehicle ripple into existence in the space near the station. "Is that the *Andromeda?*"
"Yeah!" Harper said. "How'd she get here?"
"How should I know?" More readouts commanded O'Brien's attention. "We just lost the data link to the *Andromeda.* EM and subspace communication are all-"
"Miles!" Harper pointed.
O'Brien looked at the main screen. The *Defiant* was floating towards the *Andromeda,* as orange lightening began to flash between them.
"That can not be good," Harper moaned.
"No argument. And we've got another distortion wave leaving Bajor. Looks even bigger than the last one."
"Oh, crap."
The screen view shifted towards the orange wave, accelerating towards them, but they could see lightening crackle congeal behind it into a squadron of …. Harper thought they were Nietzschean ships, but the engines looked wrong, and they all had long necks ending in bulbous pods at their prows.
"Double crap," Harper said.
O'Brien checked his console. "I. F. F. reads them as Klingonean attack cruisers. What the hell's a Klingonean?"
"How should I know-Oh, triple crap!"
O'Brien looked at the big screen. The distortion wave touched the *Andromeda* and the *Defiant.* They had enough time to witness the two ships ripple and melt together, becoming something slightly smaller than the *Andromeda,* basically the same shape but with an elliptical main hell and nacelles in its out runners, when the orange light washed over ops…
…. Brien O'Harper blinked and shook his head. The tall, lanky human, with curly blonde hair, touched the cybernetic implant on his right temple. Not for the first time he was the only human in Eureka Deep Space's Ops center, all the other positions held by Ferengi.
O'Harper forced himself to turn away from the main screen and the image of the *Androzia Defiant* and check his readouts. No surprises there - the Ferengi trading post was surrounded by Klingonean attack cruisers.
"Klingnoean bastards," he growled. "Congratulations, Tyworthelss, ya cought us with out pants down. Hope you break your arm patting yourself on the back."