"they're not back and it's the deadline" said the captain of the FERREGUTE worried about them knowing how hard it would be to survive this long playing sole decoy having been forced to do that themselves about two years before Jewel and her crew came home
"very well as of 2240 hundred hours the crew of the USS JEWEL is…"
"wait captain" said O'Brian "there's a shuttle coming into sensor range now"
it was the scouter from the Jewel
"is there a place for them to land chief?"
"yes sir landing pad c"
"direct them to it"
in the shuttle craft the Lt. saw his directions "why didn't I hail? oh yeah they attacked me and destroyed communications I hope the JEWEL is OK"
once he docked he went to the Promenaed and then ran to the nearest turbolift almost knocking down Odo a few minutes later he reached OPS
"captain Admiral Jewel said the rest of the crew should be here in three hours I was sent ahead to tell you"
"thanks for informing me"
as it turned out though they wouldn't have to wait three hours the Romulan Empire declared the destruction of the USS JEWEL two and a half hours after the Lt. arrived
"we have destroyed the ship that played decoy so that the others could escape know this we will get the rest of the ships that tried the pathetic excuse of a rescue fleet"
the transmission ends and the group is silent for a few minutes
"where do I go now? my crew is dead"
"you'll serve with me Lt. on the ENTERPRISE" said Picard wanting to do something for Jewel
Janeway speaks up "hate to tell you captain but you have no ship"
"not entirely true Admiral" he taps his comm. badge "Mr. Data run system repair programs A-F and then tell me about how long it will take to do the rest of the repairs" he ends his talk with Data "in the meantime Admiral I think we need some new plans if we're to free the Federation and the others that are being oppressed"
two hours later Data finally reports back
"captain it will take a total of twenty-three hours eleven minutes to do the rest of the repairs if we are not attacked in that time period"
"then get started Data and see if you can't lower the repair time we need to be fully operational as soon as possible"
"aye captain"
well everyone continues planning and at the fifteen hour mark Data reports back in
"captain the repairs will be completed in two hours I would suggest that you and everyone else still up planning get some rest"
"very well Mr. Data Picard out"
and so that's exactly what the planning group does
Jewel wakes up with a huge headache and she looks around and doesn't see any of her crew but does see what she could only guess where her fellow prisoners. Suddenly the door opens to reveal ambassador Spock plus the other occupants woke up at the sound of the door and the Romulans shove Spock into the room…hard and Jewel runs up to him
"ambassador Spock are you OK?"
"I shall be fine"
she glares at the guards before they leave and then one of the Klingon prisoners speak up
"give me five minutes alone with those two and they will be dead"
a Starfleet officer speak up
"oh give it a rest Malgrok you've been saying that since you got here and it hasn't happened yet"
"I don't see you doing anything John"
"you know full well I can't fight them"
Jewel instantly sees his rank
"why can't you Lt?, I know full well you're trained to fight in the academy" replied Jewel angry that he wasn't willing to fight
"look I don't know who you think you are but you have no clue what they've done to me"
"you're right I don't know that they've done to you but I do know this you were trained to treat your superiors better and since I have the rank of Admiral I'd say that puts me in charge of the officers here in this room and all the officers here wherever here is"
that makes all the officers look up at her in shock
"you're an Admiral?"
"yes I am now than why don't you explain how things work here and we'll go from there"
and so they talk until she's taken to the interrogation room
"I hope you don't expect a rescue because we told Starfleet we destroyed your ship now answer the questions and we might let you live on Romulus with full freedom"
well Jewel doesn't cooperate with him which actually makes the interrogator mad enough to severely beat her an hour after he began he was finished and sent her back to her cell and the others were shocked at how beat up she was
"Admiral are you OK?" asked one of the ensigns that were with some of the higher ranked officers
but she doesn't answer as she was beat into unconsciousness a few days later Bashir is shoved into the room and he is positively shocked to see Jewel
"admiral you're supposed to be dead"
"nope just captured and interrogated, now how did they get you?"
"on my way back from delivering emergency medical supplies to one of the few free Federation outposts"
"well I don't know about anyone else but I'd say it's time to escape this prison and take back this station for Starfleet"
"how do you know it's a Federation outpost" asked a Lt.
"simple I've been observing my surroundings so you up to it?"
everyone was and with careful planning and execution they take back the station in two hours
"I know declare this place a Federation outpost again" said Jewel once they had command of the command center and everyone cheered at that
"what's next admiral?" asked the captain of the station
"check all the systems then get a message to DS9 which is currently Starfleet headquarters"
"yes sir"
well it turned out that a lot of systems were messed up and it would take a while to take care of as they were under constant attack plus Jewel's crew used their skills to detect some officers that went cloaked after an accident in engineering while repairing the power core
well a few weeks later the group was working on basic defense systems when they were attacked by the Romulans
"hey admiral we're under attack"
"get what you can online and if possible see if we can't get any ships out of dock we can not afford to lose this station"
"yes ma'am"
and so they battle for several minutes and then the Romulans retreat
"they're gone admiral"
"well they won't be for long I have a feeling that what we've just seen is just a prelude to an actual war I don't know when it will actually start but we have to be ready for it"
and so six months after they freed the station they actually got some good news
"hey admiral we have something of a defense system up and running"
"that's excellent ensign keep up the good work"
"hey admiral some of the techies are wondering how fast you want the ships to actually be out of dock unless repairs are needed"
"I want them up by the time this station has been free for a year we can't afford for this station to be defenseless for long"
"I'll let them know then"
well suddenly there was yet another attack
"hey admiral they're back"
"this is the third time this week get them off our backs guys we need to finish repairs especially communications after all Starfleet needs to know that a captured station has been freed"
"yes sir"
"hey admiral just before they left while you were busy elsewhere they threatened they be back with a stronger force and that the time will come when Starfleet and Romulus will be at war"
"just see about getting those systems up commander we need to get this place functional again I have a feeling this might be a pivotal point for Starfleet once they know this station is now under Starfleet control again"
"I'm on it admiral but it's a little hard to get the power regulated well enough for us to do continuous repairs"
"see if you can shunt power from an unneeded system and we'll work from there"
"I'll try sir but I'm making no promises"
"I know all I'm asking is for your best"
"hey admiral guess what I've discovered today"
"what James and make it quick you know we don't have a lot of time"
"fresh meat it looks like this place has been infested with some creature from Romulus a creature that's edible to humans"
"nice how hard is it to catch?"
"with a bow and arrow not too hard anything else and it could take a while"
"understood keep at it James and tell the others on our crew that they're on hunting duty when not on repair duty or on a rest shift"
"will do admiral"
and so they continue to repair and fight until finally they reach the one year mark
"well we survived a year on our own guys congratulations however this does not mean we can slack off we still have a lot of work ahead of us"
well with the one year mark passed they went on to see if they couldn't make it to year two
"hey ensign how are the repairs going?"
"not to bad Lt. but there are some areas that are troubling me"
"like what? maybe I can help"
"I don't know sir after all I don't want you to get mixed up in my problems"
"OK it looks like you haven't been around those that serve with admiral Jewel long enough if someone looks troubled we try and help them period so snap out of it and tell me what's wrong"
"it's the power converter sir I'm having trouble adjusting it to our needs"
"hm maybe I can help I know a thing or two about power converters kind of had to so that we could survive"
"if you're sure about it"
"I'm positive ensign"
"than thanks Lt."
and so for the next five hours the ensign and Lt. worked on the power converter until the Lt. decided it was time for a break
"OK ensign we're leaving this as is for now"
"but why?"
"simple we're both too exhausted to think about this right now"
"I don't feel exhausted"
"you miss understand me we're not physically exhausted we're mentally exhausted basically we can't exactly add up our numbers right now in a way that makes since"
"guess you're right we do need a break besides I'm actually a bit hungry"
"than lets go eat"
and so they go to the dining hall there and take a break meanwhile Jewel was in an office and very busy too busy to get a bite to eat in fact
"admiral you have to eat something before you pass out from hunger"
"sorry commander but that's not possible there's too much that we need to do so that we can not only contact a Federation outpost but also keep this base defended"
"I know that but if the commanding officer doesn't take the occasional break then they'll collapse and everyone else will panic or do you want me to get your doctor up here to relieve you?"
"OK commander that's a low blow you know that unless absolutely necessary the doctor won't relieve me of duty after my crew has been forced to pull double even triple shifts since this all began over nine years ago"
"that was when you were in the Delta Quadrant you're in the Alpha Quadrant now why don't you drop what you trained your bodies to do?"
"it's simple really you actually said it our bodies are trained to handle long shifts so we adjust automatically"
"fine be that way but just so you know I saw a Lt. of yours taking an ensign to a meal not five minutes ago and they were talking about what they could do about the power converter once they had a break for a meal"
"OK I'll admit that I have enforced break rules for certain things and if anyone is working on one problem for a certain amount of time they are to take a break before they fry their brains"
"you win admiral just make sure you're also taking breaks from being the commanding officer"
"I will in about five hours I've been at this for two and a half days now I need the break"
"good at least you're giving your body a rest how long is the break"
"I'm not allowed back in here for the next three days unless there's an emergency meeting taking place that needs all commanding officers"
"that's a good idea I think that if you were in here before than you would be tempted to go back to work"
"you're right about that"
well they reached the year and a half mark and celebrated by getting the last of the ships in dock orbiting the station ready to defend it at all costs