"that was for coming here unscathed" said the one that punched Jewel, as he was angry at the commanding officer of the ship not minding the fact that he punched an Admiral
"and the kick was for either bribing the Romulans or managing to completely avoid battle while the rest of us suffered"
just then Jewel's comm. Badge went off
"this is Jewel go ahead"
"admiral the Enterprise and Voyager have just arrived it looks like the Enterprise is out of commission the port nacelle is heavily damaged the starboard nacelle also looks damaged according to sensor readings they not only have emergency force fields in place but they're running on minimal life support Voyager is towing her but they also have some decent damage looks like they have no weapons basic shields and the port nacelle is running at half efficiency"
"thank you Lt. is there anything else I should know of ?"
"yes sir it looks like we took more damage than initially thought until further notice we're down to warp two plus we have no special shielding and absolutely no weapons"
"not even basic torpedoes or phasers?"
"nothing no weapons means no weapons sir"
Jewel just sighs at that "understood Lt. I want us back up to full operational status ASAP if that means people are on double shift than they're on double shift Jewel out"
She turns to James
"James I need you to oversee the repairs I'll go solo for this one"
"yes sir"
and so James heads back to the ship and Jewel turns to the nearest captain
"where's the meeting being held?"
"in the conference room in half an hour um how man ships attacked you?"
"about ten warbirds after the initial attackers got backup"
"wow and I thought the most that attacked anyone ship was three how long were they on you before you retreated?"
"twenty minutes and trust me we had to fight not only to keep our shields up but to escape the barrage of attacks we were up against"
and so half an hour later they were in the conference room and Sisko starts the meeting
"OK we're in a pretty bad situation right now, according to reports the Romulans have taken over Vulcan and the Klingon empire, colonel Kira is trying to keep the Cardassian empire afloat we've lost at least twenty-three ships and their crew and our flagship is out of commission I'm open to any suggestions right now no matter how crazy they are"
"what about attacking them at their home planet?" asked a Lt. of the Ashlend having tried to fight the Romulans near the border
well that sparked a huge argument which everyone but Jewel took part of as she was thinking over all the information she currently had and still needed twenty-five minutes into the argument she speaks up in a calm manner
"how many ships are still operational?"
her calm voice silences the others and then one of the MELBOURNE survivors speak up
"what good will knowing that do?"
"could someone just answer please?"
"including your ship and VOYAGER there are twelve ships actually capable of doing anything but both need extensive repairs so we only have ten"
"does that include the DEFIANT?"
"yes it does"
she taps her comm. badge "James about how much longer will the repairs take?"
"if nobody stops to eat a quick bite another twelve hours"
"and for VOYAGER?"
"let me ask"
five minutes later she gets a reply
"if they keep up their pace about four hours they got shield and weapons back and they're working on the nacelle now"
"is there anything wrong with the ship that can wait?"
"for the Romulans we don't need specialized shielding or weapons and we can manage with warp five for a bit"
"if we just do regulation shielding and weapons and get up to warp five how long will that take?"
"about five hours considering how much we've already done"
"do it I want to be ready in seven hours is that clear?"
"yes sir"
"Admiral what are you planning?" asked Picard wondering if his former ensign was about to do something crazy
"Captain Sisko what's the nearest location from here that we can take back with just twelve ships?"
"starbase 237 why?"
"because in seven hours we leave the station and start fighting back beginning with that station and then we work our way from there"
"but how do you know our plan will work?"
"I don't which is why we're going to have to work together"
the rest think about it weighing the pros and cons
"all right I'm with you but we need an actual attack plan first"
and so two hours later they had a pretty decent plan in place
"OK if this doesn't work we do an immediate retreat and come back here and if need be I'll play decoy"
"how long should we wait before declaring you dead?"
"twelve hours if my ship isn't back in twelve hours we're gone unless I send a messenger here than wait as long as they tell you before declaring us dead"
unfortunately the attack plan doesn't work but the decoy pan works the two ships follow Jewel and leave the rest alone twelve hours after the last ship arrived they had waited long enough