Hekate's Path

Chapter 3 – Through

Battlestar Galactica - Pilots Briefing Room 4 Portside

Opening one of the last remaining truly good bottles of Ambrosia left in existence, Adama poured six glasses two fingers deep with the amber liquid. After making sure everyone had a glass in front of them, he raised his own glass.

"To reunions."

They all raised their glasses and responded as one.

"So say we all!"

Cain downed her drink in one pull and then looked at the others to ensure she had their attention. She handed the piece of paper with the jump coordinates to Adama.

"That piece of paper with the coordinates on it was given to me by Hekate herself. She personally guided us here to you and wants us to embark together on a new life in a new place. No more running from the Cylons. No more useless and costly battles. We're meant to rule, and gods dammit, that's what we're going to do. As the ranking military official present, I'm invoking article forty five of the Colonial code relating to command of fleet movement. We are going to jump to those coordinates, ensure our security and only then, return authority to the civilian government … which I believe is you, Madame President."

She almost spat the title back at Roslin.

"Commander Adama, copy those coordinates by hand and then return the original to me."

Cain smiled.

"It is a holy relic that will remind us of our salvation in the years to come. We have a lot to do and only a little time left to do it. All civilians will be moved to civilian ships unless they are providing a critical service to the military. We jump in four hours. Adama, give me the paper back."

Cain left no room for discussion or argument. She got up out of her seat, retrieved the paper from Adama, and left the room while the rest sat muted by their shock at what she had just announce. Roslin finally found a small portion of her voice.

"Can she do that?"

Adama stood, straightened the coat of his dress uniform and responded.

"Yes. She most certainly can do that as the ranking military official. Colonel Tigh, have the coordinates entered into the FTL computer and validate them. Once they are validated, send them to the rest of the fleet. Also, non-essential civilian personnel are to be ferried to their civilian billets. Madame President, I think you and your staff should stay aboard Galactica. Alright people, let's get on it."

Battlestar Galactica – Port Flight Pod

Walking quickly through the corridors, Cain returned to her raptor to find her staff and crew ready for launch. Fisk waited by the side hatch for her.

"Admiral, a shuttle from Hekate's ship has landed aboard Pegasus. They say they have equipment they need to install and that they'll be staying with us for the jump."

Cain nodded and jumped up on the raptor's wing root and entered the open hatch.

"Let's get back home. We're bringing Galactica and this collection of space going garbage along with us. Once we settle in wherever we end up, we're going to have to reorganize … they have a blasted school teacher as President and Adama will have to be replaced. He can either retire or have an accident. I don't care which. But those two are not the people who should lead us in our new future."

She tapped the pilot on the shoulder.

"Get us the frak off this heap and let's get back to a proper ship."

Only a few minutes later the raptor left Galactica's flight pod and made the quick transition back to Pegasus.

As the raptor landed and was towed into the pressurized portion of the flight pod, Cain saw the raptor like vessel belonging to Hekate's ship and the tall crew members that worked around her. As she exited her raptor, one of those crew members strode over to Cain.

"Admiral Cain. I have instructions for from Hekate. My words are to be followed as though they were hers. We have a device we are installing now. This device must be activated the moment you complete your jump. It will deactivate itself when its time is over. While it is operating, you will not be able to jump as it will drain your FTL drive energy. You must remain at least fifty thousand kilometers from the rest of the fleet while the device is active. We will operate the device from your tertiary engineering space. You will not allow any member of your crew to enter that space under any circumstances. Do you understand these directions?"

Cain simply nodded and relayed the orders to the necessary officers.

Two hours later - Battlestar Galactica – CIC

"… frakking insane I tell you. Those coordinates are for a jump a dozen times longer than our computer can validate. As far as Gaeta can tell, they don't even exist within known space. Baltar looked at them, scratched his head and mumbled something about extra-universal something or other before he wandered away with a copy and then … "

Adama sighed.

"Enough Saul. A fleet admiral ordered the jump. We will make the jump. That's final. We only have two hours to secure the fleet and do this. I need you to focus on the tasks, not the impossibility."

Over the next one hundred eighteen minutes the last of the ferry flights returned to Galactica and the ship was secured for jump. Readiness checks were run on all the ships in the fleet. Pegasus had moved another fifty thousand kilometers closer to the strange ripple in space after ordering Adama to maintain his pre-jump position. The entire CIC crew was silent as they waited for their orders … Dee spoke up.

"Commander Adama, I have Pegasus Actual on the line."

"On speakers please, Dee."

"Galactica Actual, this is Pegasus Actual. Respond."

Cain's voice carried no hint of patience.

"This is Galactica Actual."

"Adama … all fleet captains … start your jump clocks on my mark … MARK!"

Throughout the fleet, the countdown started.

"FIVE … FOUR … THREE … TWO … ONE … JUMP!"

The familiar and intense wave of displacement made its way through all the people on all the ships as the entire population of humanity of slightly more than fifty thousand left the universe.

Oberth class science vessel USS Sandra Earle - In the BETA quadrant 2 light years beyond the most core ward border of known Federation Space

"Captain's Log – Stardate 236905.20: Captain th'Zarath reporting.

We are now in standard day 174 of observations of what is currently being called by my mostly Human crew, the 'Who would park a spatial anomaly way the hell out here' temporal-spatial rift. I fully understand their frustration as we've amassed no new distinct data for nearly 3 standard months. We are, by strict reading of our orders, destined to remain on station another 6 standard days before we begin the nearly 240 day journey back to Starbase 761. Upon our return, we will have been away for nearly 660 standard days.

Ship's status:

All ship's systems are functioning well within nominal operating parameters.

Captain Erib th'Zarath, USS Sandra Earle reporting.

End Log."

With her log complete, th'Zarath rose from her command chair and stepped across her small bridge to the primary science station where the Vulcan science officer, Lt. Commander Sho'Katlan was reviewing general scans of the anomaly. th'Zarath's antennae twitched forward … something had changed in the past few minutes.

"Are we seeing a slight increase in chronotrons with a quantum flux?" th'Zarath asked.

The Vulcan looked carefully at the readings in front of her to make sure there wasn't some mistake in sensor reading interpretation.

"Previously, there were no chronotrons noted … but yes, we now see distinct emissions consistent with chronotrons bearing a quantum signature foreign to our universe. This would suggest that this anomaly extends beyond our quantum reality and perhaps into another temporal realm. There is a consistent 2% increase per standard minute in density and volume of emissions."

Suddenly the small Oberth class shook once and went dark. Emergency lighting came on after a few seconds.

"Status report!" ordered th'Zarath as she moved quickly to her command chair.

The operations officer worked for a few moments to bring his console to life.

"Internal and external sensors are offline. I'm reporting from the last captured logs. There was a massive spatial disturbance … not from the anomaly but from something that interacted with the anomaly. Main power is offline. The warp core shut down. Both fusion reactors have shutdown. We are on battery power only. Impulse engines are offline. We have minimum thruster control. We have limited life support. We can't raise shields or polarize hull plating. Internal and subspace comm systems are not functioning."

Being this far off the beaten path and without main systems was not good. The captain quickly prioritized her actions.

"Copy the log to a subspace distress probe and add a standard ship in distress message. Launch it when ready. Somebody look out a window … I need to know what's happening out there. Get power back online. I need an update on status in 5 minutes and then every 20 minutes until further notice."

Five minutes passed while the crew worked to understand and resolve the problem with no change in status. Another twenty minutes passed without any change. Suddenly a loud metallic "clang" was heard through the hull of the ship.

"Somebody look out a window! What's happening out there?"

25 minutes post jump - Battlestar Pegasus – holding station 50 km from USS Sandra Earle

Admiral Helena Cain watched the DRADIS screens as the two Raptors that had deposited the two forced boarding airlocks on the tiny ship they discovered just as they jumped into this space put some distance between them and the strange ship. She ordered Adama in Galactica to guard the fleet some 50,000 kilometers away.

"Sitrep!" she ordered.

Col. Jack Fisk stepped up.

"The boarding airlocks have achieved a positive seal against the hull. The delivery raptors have cleared. The two assault raptors are standing by with 12 marines in each. We can set off the shaped charges to blow through the hull anytime you order. After that, it will take less than 2 minutes for the raptors to lock on to our airlocks and begin boarding that ship in force. We have our Mark VII Vipers flying CAP. Galactica has her Mark II's flying CAP around the fleet. The crew from Hekate is still in tertiary engineering running that thing they installed. We don't have power for main engines, main weapons or FTL while that thing is turned on."

Fisk knew Cain didn't give a frak what Adama did with the fleet as long as he stayed out of the way. She would deal with him, the so called President and their rag tag fleet later.

"Blow through their hull and get our marines aboard. I want whatever is worth taking on that ship ... FTL components, CO2 scrubbers … whatever we can use. Take whoever survives the boarding prisoner and get Lt. Thorne and his team to work on interrogating them."

USS Sandra Earle

Only a half dozen civilian scientists were stationed in the cargo bay where their equipment had been stored and installed. With them were four Starfleet technicians. None had the slightest chance of survival when the airlock doors from both the port and starboard locks came blasting into the center of the cargo bay. Those not killed outright by the heavy doors flying inward were killed by the concussion of the explosion. Among the dead were a Vulcan scientist and her young child.

The two assault raptors quickly connected to the docking rings deposited earlier and broke the seals letting the 24 marines board the small white ship in force. They found everyone in the immediate area quite dead and reported in to the Pegasus.

Battlestar Pegasus

Cain took in the report that Fisk relayed from the boarding marines and thought about it. No resistance. The ship was clearly in some sort of disrepair despite its extreme cleanliness. There were odd looking casualties among its passengers and crew in the first compartment. She hit the transmit button and spoke into her headset.

"Boarding party: This is Pegasus Actual. Proceed forward and capture their CIC. If anyone resists, lethal force is authorized."

USS Sandra Earle – Cargo Bay

Colonial Marine Gunnery Sargent Micah Jacoby motioned to his marines. They moved in a direction that felt to him like forward through the small ship. As they came to a corridor, they were confronted by a member of the ship's crew. He had some sort of handgun.

"All of you! Stop right there!"

The man raised his weapon. Four of Jacoby's marines each fired a 3 round burst at the man. He was dead before he hit the floor.

The marines continued throughout the ship. They captured only a few as they progressed toward the bow of the ship. None were captured uninjured. They killed more … some simply because they could.

1000 km from the USS Sandra Earle's bow

Lt. Zeno 'Jammer' Tsamis' was flying CAP for Pegasus when he spotted the small missile like object accelerating away from the strange, small ship. He signaled his flight partner Lt. Zandra 'Pistol' Loannidis to follow and they chased after the probe.

He watched the two single seat fighters alter course and move to intercept the probe launched by the Federation science ship. The probe was powered only by its reaction control motors. The impulse and warp drives were rendered powerless by the field erected by the device on the Battlestar Pegasus given to Cain by the last surviving Lord of Kobol when the ships from the other reality arrived. He realized that the probe would be destroyed before the message could be delivered to Starfleet. He took less than a perceivable moment to confer with the Continuum before appearing in space next to the probe and waving it past the Null zone created when the colonials appeared in this space. Satisfied once the probe leapt to warp, he departed.

Jammer and Pistol were momentarily blinded by a sudden flash of light. Once their vision cleared, they saw no sign of the probe. Their Dradis screens showed nothing. A bit puzzled, they returned to their patrol pattern.

140 light years further toward the rim - Starbase 761

The massive station was busier today than normal with a Klingon Vor'cha class cruiser and Ko'than class troop carrier docked inside along with the usual assortment of Federation and other allied ships. The habitat section of the station now had hundreds of Klingons wandering about with Starfleet personnel. All in all, it was lively yet peaceful.

Commodore T'Remberale oversaw the chaos in serenity. Though she would have denied it if confronted, she enjoyed the days when the station was alive with activity. She checked in with each of the command crew on duty ensuring that the station ran efficiently when her communications officer called for her attention.

Ensign Elnora Labarre had an almost panicked look on her face. The young human was typical for her species and age in that she'd not yet developed the veneer of control that came with age and experience. But she was known for her technical skill and efficiency.

"Yes Ms. Labarre?" T'Remberale wanted to give the young woman the opportunity to deliver the information in her own way.

"Commodore, I've picked up an auto distress probe coming into range. Message indicates that USS Sandra Earle is in distress … logs attached."

"Please put it up, Ms. Labarre."

The data from the logs displayed on the multifunction screen. Telemetry, sensor readings, ship's status all clearly noted. The message was clear enough. Something had caused the small ship to lose all power and that there was something external to the ship's systems at play. T'Remberale thought for just a moment before issuing orders to her assembled command staff.

"I need to know what ships are in range of the Earle's last known coordinates and time to intercept. What ships do we have here that can be sent? Call Captain Koral and Colonel M'ord to my office please. Perhaps our Klingon allies can assist."

With that, she went into her office. She realized that ships dispatched from the station would take no less than 180 days to reach Sandra Earle's location. She hoped (illogical, she scolded herself) that her crew would find a ship that could be there sooner. Her comm badge signaled for her attention.

"Yes, Ms. Labarre?"

"Ma'am, I have Enterprise responding to our requests."

T'Remebrale knew Enterprise was operating in the region but was unsure of exactly where since the ship was not operating under her command structure.

"Put them through please."

The view screen shimmered into life and displayed the image of Captain Jean Luc Picard.

"Thank you for responding Captain."

"Not at all, Commodore. How may we assist?"

T'Remebrale explained the situation and provided Picard with the probe recordings and data. She accepted that Enterprise would arrive on station in less than 4 standard days. She also realized that if the situation were dire enough for Captain th'Zarath to launch her distress probe, 4 days would be far too long to wait for assistance. There was one other ship she knew of within this region of space, also not under her authority, that could make it the Sandra Earle far sooner than Enterprise. She entered codes into her console.

"Ms. Labarre, I've sent you a frequency and coordinates. Please send a directed hail to Captain Ron Cole of the USS Vesta. Include in the hail that it concerns Erib th'Zarath.

Empty expanse of the Beta Quadrant

A symbol lit up on the Operations console. Commander Richard Luger reviewed the incoming hail.

"Captain, we have a hail coming in from Starbase 761 as a high priority. It's marked as coming from Commodore T'Remberale and addressed to you personally with a note that it concerns Erib th'Zarath."

Cole looked up at hearing Captain th'Zarath's given name.

"Open a channel and send it directly to my ready room."

With that, the Captain vacated his command chair and headed directly to his ready room.

Captain's Ready Room – USS Vesta

Cole sat at his desk and hit the comm unit in the desk top. The holo emitters displayed Commodore T'Remberale standing on the other side of his desk.

"Commodore," Cole acknowledged.

"Ron," she began "Erib and her ship are in trouble. She sent out a distress probe. She never would have done that unless she was in real trouble. How quickly can you be here at Starbase 761?"

Ron entered in the required coordinates and responded.

"At maximum warp, 5.43 days."

T'Remebrale shook her head.

"No, Captain. How quickly utilizing your QSD?"

Ron blanched a bit at the mention of the still highly classified Quantum Slip Stream drive installed on Vesta. He and his crew were in this virtually untraveled area in the Beta quadrant testing the new drive by taking 200 light year sprints and gathering data on the drive's performance and on the Quantum Slipstream environment itself. But he realized that the Commodore was being unusually forceful in her request. She and Erib were close. Ron was a good friend of both. He cleared his throat, his eyes were hard.

"I can be there in less than 20 minutes, Commodore."

"Please do so. I know you only have a limited amount of ordinance and crew onboard. So by coming here you will be able to fully equipped and staffed to carry out a rescue or recovery mission."

T'Remebrale looked as concerned as a Vulcan could.

"Please hurry Ron. I'm worried."

That was enough to get Ron out of his seat and rushing for the bridge. He came out of his ready room quickly and went directly to the Ops console. His executive officer wondered what would have his captain looking so bothered. He knew it was bad with the next order.

"We're going to Starbase 761. Set a course. We're using the QSD … full power run please. Engage when ready."

NCC 1701-E USS Enterprise

Only minutes before, Picard had given the order to head to the coordinates given by Commodore T'Remebrale. Enterprise was a maximum warp running toward the USS Sandra Earle's last known location. Now he sat in his ready room trying to understand what sort of situation he could find himself in by studying the probe logs and recordings. The readings from the anomaly seemed to have suddenly changed shortly before the systems on the Sandra Earle went offline. There was also something in the very brief and incomplete diagnostic log which made no sense to him. He was just about to call for Commander La Forge...

"Just now noticing that, mon Capitaine?"

Picard didn't even look up from the padd in his hands. He knew who was there.

"What have you done now, Q?"

"Not much this time, Picard. But perhaps too much."

His voice was firm, calm and had no trace of humor. Picard looked up to see Q sitting on his ready room sofa wearing very plain, civilian clothing instead of the Admiral's uniform which he usually wore to mock Picard. Q actually looked a bit concerned.

"You have something to tell me, Q? What is it?"

Q thought about his answer a moment. This, in and of itself worried Picard.

"There is very little I can tell you, Captain. We have our own code of non-interference."

Picard did what he could to stifle bitter laughter as Q continued.

"But it does concern an elder race of another reality and the two species under their … supervision. It involves another Starfleet captain who may act more harshly than these other elders would prefer. It also doesn't allow you to control the situation. You are to be merely a guide and witness this time. Use what you've learned dealing with the Continuum in your dealings with these others. Oh and … "

Q smiled warmly which actually scared Picard.

"… hurry. You don't want to be late for this one."

With that, Q flashed out of existence.

USS Sandra Earle – emergency access passage below the bridge

Sgt. Jacoby's strike team waited silently behind him. The access hatch above him had two types of controls just like the others they had encountered. There was a shiny glass-like black panel that was dark and dead. He ignored that. The other control was a red manual pull handle behind a small door in the ceiling. He opened the door, pulled the handle and raised the hatch only a few centimeters to look into the space above. He saw what had to be members of the ship's crew moving around. The chair in the center of the room rotated toward him. The THING in that chair had blue skin and antennae … and it saw him. It shouted out orders that he could not understand. The crew started moving toward the hatch. Jacoby tossed out two grenades and slammed the hatch shut. He heard the muffled sounds of both grenades going off only a fraction of a second apart. Then there was silence. He waited a few extra moments before re-opening the hatch.

The marines climbed through the hatch in the floor and saw that the damage done to the structure of the room was minimal. However the damage done to the "people" in the room was horrific. Several were torn apart by the blasts and shrapnel from the grenades. Those that survived were badly injured. The blue thing staggered toward the marines with a weird bladed object in its hand. Jacoby shot it in the upper thigh twice with his sidearm shattering its thigh bone. The blue thing went down hard. He pistol whipped it into unconsciousness.

"I think that thing's in charge here." Jacoby explained to his troops. "The admiral wants a few for Thorne to interrogate."

Battlestar Pegasus - CIC

Jack Fisk listened intently through his headset to the report from Sgt. Jacoby and ordered him to have the prisoners transferred to Pegasus immediately. He then stepped over to Admiral Cain who was reviewing some of the data being transmitted from her troops on the white ship. She turned to Fisk.

"Well Jack? What did we get? What do we know?"

Fisk paused a moment to gather his thoughts.

"Jacoby's team captured 12 from the ship. They terminated another 48 or so as they made their way to their CIC. Most of the 12 are injured. Some of them are not human or like any Cylon we've ever encountered. The one that seems to be in charge over there is …"

Fisk paused …

"Is what, Colonel?" the admiral demanded.

"Blue, ma'am … blue with antennae on its head. It's also been shot but it's alive."

Cain looked like she didn't believe what she was being told.

"Blue? Fine. Get it to Thorne right away."

Fisk was concerned wondering if she didn't hear that it had been shot.

"Not to the medical bay?"

"No … interrogate it. We only give aid to our own kind. We wouldn't fix a broken or damaged Cylon would we?"

Cain turned back toward the DRADIS screen and watched as one of the Raptors disengaged from the small ship and turned back toward Pegasus.

"What else did we get, Jack? Was there anything even remotely useful?"

Fisk looked to the list he created when talking to Jacoby and started running it down for Cain.

"Sgt. Jacoby reports that the controls of the ship all appear to be on touch screens. But that the screens themselves are turned off or dead like the rest of that ship. He can't find an "on" switch. Anything that might indicate what things do can't be understood by anyone over there now. They don't use anything that resembles any written language we can identify. The power appears to be very low level and there's no indication of an FTL drive. But they must have FTL if they're way out here. The ship is too small to be a generational ship. We captured what look to be hand weapons, but they don't do anything at all. No CO2 scrubbers that we can see … just basically household items from crew quarters … but nothing truly useful. Not even any food besides a bowl of fruit on a table in one of the cabins."

Cain looked disappointed. This could have been a huge waste of time and now she had these weird … they had to be Cylons of some sort … coming to her ship as prisoners. But Fisk wasn't done …

"Oh and President Roslin has called over half a dozen times wanting to know what we're doing over here."

"Frakking school teacher wants me to explain myself? Frak her! I'll contact her if I decide I have nothing better to do! Go down to the flight pod and make sure the prisoners are secured. Put the blue thing in the same brig section as the other Cylon we have Thorne working on."

Fisk snapped to attention, saluted and turned on his heel.

Cain left the CIC to the Officer of the Deck, Lt. Shaw and retreated to her quarters. Along the way, she absent mindedly returned salutes from various crew members and closed the hatch behind her once arriving in her quarters. She removed her uniform jacket and stood silently in thought in her trousers and undershirt.

The operation to board the small ship had gone very easily. But she was disturbed that there was no useful technology or equipment over there. Every other ship she had boarded had something that was useful. Even if the FTL drives on some were junk, there were always scrubbers, food stuffs, tylium … something of use. So far, they'd found what had to be Cylons and a few pieces of fruit.

Twenty eight minutes after hailing USS Vesta - Starbase 761

T'Remebrale had ordered all traffic cleared from the outer traffic marker all the way into the station. She wanted nothing to delay Vesta from docking. Nobody on the station had ever seen a ship arrive from slipstream. Many assumed a dramatic event. They were disappointed when Vesta actually appeared. She just … appeared from nothingness at the outer marker and made her way serenely toward the station at just under one quarter impulse.

The Commodore looked toward Labarre at the communications console just as Vesta hailed. Captain Cole appeared on the large main communications viewer above Labarre's workstation.

"Starbase 761, this is Captain Ronald Cole commanding USS Vesta requesting docking instructions."

T'Remebrale stepped into the range of the viewer.

"Captain, welcome to Starbase 761. Please proceed directly to the space dock doors which are now opening to accommodate you. You will be directed to pier 6. If you would please come to my office as soon as your vessel is secured, it would be appreciated."

Cole simply nodded and replied, "Of course Commodore. We should be docked within 20 minutes and I'll come directly to you."

The captain sat in his command chair overseeing the approach and entry. As his ship approached the pier 6, he turned the ship over to his exec, Commander Luger, so that he could meet with the Commodore. As he entered the turbo lift at the rear of the bridge, he took note of the multiple workbees standing by at the pier.

Starbase 761 – Commodore T'Remebrale's office

The yeoman sitting at the desk in the reception area of the command office rose as Cole entered the room.

"Sir, the Commodore is waiting for you. Please go right in."

He didn't sit until the door had closed behind the captain.

T'Remebrale was at the replicator console. Ron smelled the plomek broth steaming in the cup as the commodore removed it from the replicator.

"Hello Ron. Would you like something while we meet?"

The commodore's informal demeanor was not new to Cole. He had known her for many years and considered her a close friend. But the relationship was now a bit strained.

"No thank you. I was hoping you could tell me what we know and what's being asked of me, ma'am."

T'Remebrale looked up at his fairly formal tone before responding.

"Ron, I recognize that by contacting you and asking you here I have likely run afoul of several regulations concerned classified technology and its application. But I also recognize that by virtue of that same classified technology, you and your ship are likely the only possibility that aid can be rendered to Erib and her ship in a reasonable amount of time. I contacted Picard on Enterprise before reaching out to you. He will not be on station for nearly four standard days. You, even with the detour here to supply your ship, will be there in a matter of hours.

Since contacting you and Picard, I have had my science and engineering sections review the logs from the Sandra Earle's distress probe. There are some fascinating and important findings."

She handed him a padd.

"In short, space-time changed in that specific region. We don't have this information from prior to the probe's launch. We also have no readings from the probe itself until one millisecond prior to it going to warp. These readings show us a null subspace sphere of roughly forty thousand kilometers centered on the Sandra Earle of very odd properties … I apologize. We have yet to define the properties of this sphere in enough detail to even describe it. But if pressed, I would venture that the sphere is nearly transphasic in nature."

Cole glanced at the padd and then back at the commodore.

"So, I should plan on exiting slipstream well outside that sphere … but what else? You look as though you suspect something that your logic can't account for … seriously, what are you thinking but not saying?"

T'Remebrale clasped her hands together with her index fingers extended and brought them to her chin.

"Ron, I cannot say why I think this. But I … feel … that Erib's ship has been attacked and that she and her crew are in danger."

Cole knew of the close link between the Commodore and Sandra Earle's captain. He had always thought that it was psychic in some way.

"Ok, I'll keep in mind that we might have hostile forces involved. But who could put up a transphasic field that alters space-time?"

T'Remebrale thought for a moment and mentally eliminated elder races one by one until she came to the Q. But nothing in their understanding of the Q suggested that they'd act this way. It was too complicated and actually beneath them to manipulate a region of space this way. They were far more powerful than what appeared to be happening.

"I do not know, Ron. But you will need to be prepared for anything. To that end, we are providing your ship a full Sovereign II class load out of torpedoes … 400 photon, 100 quantum and 50 transphasic. We are also sending along our squad of 16 MACO's and have been offered 85 members of the Klingon Imperial Special Forces. They are under the command of Colonel M'ord. He would be directly under your command while aboard your ship. If you don't need them for combat operations, they will be helpful simply as skilled and disciplined extra hands."

Troops … Klingon troops … Cole realized now more than ever the level of worry the Commodore demonstrated. For a Vulcan to be this close to real worry, the situation was serious and close to that Vulcan's soul. He was silent for a moment.

"How long to load out Vesta?"

"The ordinance crews will be finished in less than a standard hour. We have redirected all of our cargo transporters for this effort."

"Ok, Commodore. Have the MACO's and Klingons meet me at the staging area for pier 6 in ninety standard minutes with all their gear. Upload anything your teams have discovered to my executive officer. He will disseminate it appropriately from there. I plan to leave within two standard hours… with your permission, of course."

Both officers stood at attention.

"Thank you Captain Cole. You are dismissed."

Not a word was said as Cole turned on his heel and exited the office.

USS Enterprise – 3.5 days out from USS Sandra Earle

Picard sat alone in one of the conference rooms aboard Enterprise. He had decided to assemble the most talented officers aboard to review the data he had received from Commodore T'Remebrale. He had been studying the record captured by the distress probe launched by USS Sandra Earle just as its warp drive had been suddenly restored. The millisecond of captured data had revealed something he did not fully understand. He needed to consult with his talented core staff.

"What puzzles you, mon Capitaine?"

Q sat in a chair directly opposite Picard. Again, he was not extravagantly dressed.

Jean Luc decided just let his usual mistrust of Q go for a while.

"This … field detected by the probe just as its warp drive came online …"

"You're welcome, Picard."

"Ah, so you do have something to do with this then …"

"I ensured the probe exited the field intact and functioning. That is all I've done."

Picard looked at Q questioningly.

"Let's assume that's true for the moment. The field seems to have a defined border. Extrapolating from the readings, it would appear to be spherical and have a quantum signature which is not native to our universe."

Q smiled.

"You're getting there, Jean Luc … please go on."

"These facts, coupled with your seemingly benevolent involvement lead me to believe that we are dealing with a … a more advanced entity or entities external to our quantum reality."

Q began to wonder if his early involvement had encouraged human intellectual evolution a bit too quickly. Picard made that leap far more quickly than he should. He put the thought aside for a time when the Continuum could fully consider this question and the ramifications of its answer.

"Yes and no Picard. But you've gotten the gist of it when you say that there is a higher order life form involved. You, alone among all of your kind, have experience in dealing with this kind of entity. You alone understand the caution that is required. Know also, that what you are about to encounter are not of the Q, or even the Organians or any other of the elder races humanity has been involved with. They care not for your kind, Jean Luc … but only for those they've shepherded or rather, manipulated. To them, you and your kind are a dangerous obstacle to be overcome. Your level of technology and understand, as pathetic as it really is, threatens them. You are closer to being their equals than they've ever encountered.

Also, Picard, it is important for you to know two things. You will not arrive first. A more aggressive representative of your kind who is heavily armed and actually capable of defeating these entities will arrive and engage them before you do. "

Picard suddenly wondered who could arrive before Enterprise when Q continued.

"Second, while the quantity is paltry, it does represent the last remnant of a race so closely related to yours that they might as well be your brothers … there are 50 thousand lives, some not so innocent, relying on your guidance and experience. Without you, they die in cold space.

So, how about a cup of that Earl Grey tea you're so fond of … I'd like to try it."

Battlestar Pegasus – Brig

Thorne had each prisoner stripped and placed in a separate cell to ensure they couldn't communicate with each other effectively. Fisk ordered that the prisoners that appeared human have their injuries attended to in their cells in contradiction to the admiral's orders in order to keep them intact for questioning. The ones that didn't appear human were just thrown into their cells. As the admiral had stated, they didn't fix broken Cylons. The blue one that Jacoby had identified as being in charge was placed in a cell near the blonde Cylon that had been near the admiral for so long before the attack on the shipyard. This one's damaged leg had not been treated since it clearly wasn't human and perhaps the damage could be used as leverage against it.

th'Zarath woke up as she was roughly thrown on the ground. She found herself naked, battered and still had the untreated wound on her leg. She realized immediately that she would not be able to stand since the bones in her upper thigh were shattered. Careful not to move to abruptly and cause more injury, she looked around. She was in a cell of some sort with clear walls made of a thick transparent material interlaced with metallic bracing. th'Zarath became aware of humans outside the cell watching her. She decided to try and communicate and called out in Federation Standard.

"I am Captain Erib th'Zarath. I represent the United Federation of Planets. What have you done with my crew? I require medical attention."

The three humans just stared at her. Two were dressed in what appeared to be black combat gear. The third, a shorter bald human, wore a black uniform with insignia she didn't recognize. He was the one who spoke through an intercom device on the exterior cell wall near what appeared to be the door.

"Μπορείτε βρίσκονται επί του Battlestar Pegasus κάτω από την εντολή του ναυάρχου Helena Cain. Θα απαντήσει σε όλες τις ερωτήσεις που απευθύνονται σε σας. Οποιαδήποτε απόπειρα διαφυγής ή τις πράξεις εναντίον μας, θα πρέπει να τιμωρηθούν. Είμαι υπολοχαγός Alastair Thorne. Θα συμμορφωθεί με όλες τις οδηγίες μου."

The language sounded like something she had heard on Earth once very long ago. But without a functioning Universal Translator, she had no idea what he was saying other than the word "Battlestar," the word Pegasus, and the names Alastair Thorne and Helena Cain. None of this meant much to her. She pointed at the man and asked,

"Thorne?"

He pointed at himself and replied,

"Το όνομά μου είναι Thorne."

Thorne motioned to one of the guards to open the door to the cell. All three stepped inside with two having their weapons trained on th'Zarath. For a moment she thought that they might take her to get medical treatment. But then the one named Thorne kicked her hard right on her wounded leg. She cried out as the pain was literally blinding.

th'Zarath became aware again as she felt herself lifted off the ground. At some point a table had been brought into the room. One guard was grasping each of her wrists and they dragged her to the table and pushed her face down on it down. They fastened her wrists to cuffs bolted to the table and tied her ankles to the table legs forcing her into a position where she was bent over the table. She tried to struggle against the restraints but it was no use. In her injured state, having lost a rather large quantity of blood from the gunshot wound, she lacked the strength. She was aware of the humans staring at her naked, restrained body.

"Ποια είναι η γνώμη σας;" one of the guards said. It sounded like a question

"Δεν είναι ανθρώπινα. Αλλά είναι κτισμένο σαν ένα αρκετά από αυτό που μπορώ να δω," said the other guard.

"Εμείς frakked την ξανθιά σκύλα Κύλωνα πολύ καλή. Ας δούμε πώς αυτό παίρνει ένα σκληρό frakking," Thorne said.

The two guards moved to each side of her with weapons casually held while Thorne stepped behind her. th'Zarath heard the fastenings of his uniform trousers being undone and realized what was about to happen. She breathed slowly and deeply and began to focus on the meditative techniques shown to her by T'Remebrale to allow her to mentally leave this space before this barbarity truly started.

Starbase 761 – Commodore T'Remebrale's quarters

Sitting on the floor in a lotus-like position with a candle in front of her, T'Remebrale breathed slowly and rhythmically approaching that inner calm that meditation usually brought her when her eyes suddenly opened. The Vulcan woman briefly cried out in rage and pain. Tears formed in her eyes. The violation crossed through many light years instantly and she knew what her k'hat'n'dlawa was enduring. Recovering her composure quickly, she rose to her feet, cast off her meditation cloak, and stepped to her desk to contact her command center.

Labarre responded to the comm signal from the Commodore's office.

"Ensign Labarre here. How may I help you, Commodore?"

"Ms. Labarre, please contact Commander Mestral. I will need him to command the station for me. Also, please get a message to Captain Cole of the Vesta. I will be coming aboard shortly."

T'Remebrale disconnected before Labarre could respond to the orders.

One light hour from USS Sandra Earle and Battlestar Pegasus

"This does not bode well for you, Hekate. These primitives you've championed are committing acts which the civilizations of this reality will not take kindly to. You run a very high risk of them being extinguished before they even realize you've placed them somewhere they can be protected from your other children. Other than to warn you of the danger you are exposing your children to, we will not interfere. Two forces we've kept from warring are now allied. Together they will be more than your equal, Kobolian."

Hekate turned from the view of the fleet to face the non-corporeal creature.

"As you will learn, Organian, the Lords of Kobol are supreme and we and our children will take our proper places as the leaders of this universe. You will leave us now. We tire of your dire warnings."

The Organian took physical form … that of a human.

"I will leave you to your delusions, Hekate. But you have been warned. Our encounter here will be shared with the other elders of this reality. They will not be pleased by your actions. But, as we do with all less mature races, we will allow this to be settled by you and your equals. Before you object, they are your equals … perhaps even your betters."

With that, the Organian simply faded from view.

Hekate turned to her command crew of direct descendants of the original humans who'd lived on Kobol.

"We must be ready to destroy the native upstarts. Charge the plasma cannons and ready all weapons for immediate use."

Invisible to DRADIS on both Battlestars, the various ships of the fleet and to the multitude of Vipers and Raptors, the ten kilometer long ancient ship moved further from the ships it had brought into this universe and began patrolling the area so that it could intercept any ships that might interfere with her plans.

A/N: Text translated into Greek brought to you by Google Translate. Blame them if it's wrong.