"well it took a year and a half but we finally have our defenses fully up and running"
"indeed we do admiral man did those attacks slow us down"
"I know and as far as I know war hasn't even been officially declared yet"
"well it will be soon if not by Romulus than by Starfleet"
"OK Lt. you know that we don't just declare war without good reason"
"why not we declared war on the borg didn't we?"
"yes we did but they attacked us first"
"and what about the Dominion?"
"same as the borg and we now have a truce if not exactly a peace treaty with them"
"you win admiral, you win"
well suddenly the proximity alarms went off
"identify the source"
"Romulan warbirds decloaking off the starboard bow of the USS MENELANT"
"I see tell the rest of our five ship fleet to get ready for more attacks"
"they're ready admiral and are just waiting for your orders"
"tell them that each commanding officer on board the ship is to give the orders I'll observe and tell them what to do if things get too hot for them to handle"
"right"
well with Jewel's crew they were already fighting without waiting for orders well sort of at the moment they were just finishing the preparations needed for battle
"ensign keep scanning for cloaked ships we can't let any get through our barriers again with the cloaks"
"on it captain"
"captain sonic phasers are ready at your discretion"
"in that case fire on the closest warbird attacking the Menelant"
"yes sir"
well a few hours into the fighting they actually disable a Romulan warbird and two Klingons three Vulcans and five Starfleet officers captured the ship for Starfleet and about twenty minutes later they called a retreat
"they're gone admiral"
"for now Lt. tell the engineers that I want that bird functioning by six months we'll take it to DS9 so that we can report in"
"yes sir"
and so the engineers quickly got a shift schedule going that if you weren't repairing the base you were working on the ship and if you weren't working on the ship you were sleeping and with that schedule in place they got the vessel almost completely repaired in five and a half months and Jewel asked for volunteers to go to DS9 which she knew would take two week even at warp five due to the fact that they didn't want to get there too quickly so they would drop out of warp when it would take them about a week at impulse.
"hey admiral we're at the one week spot"
"very well drop to full impulse and keep an eye out for trouble"
"will do sir"
and so they just drop their speed and get ready for a long journey knowing that no matter what they do they would have to be wary of both Romulan warbirds and DS9 defense systems once they reach they're destination seeing as how they were in a stolen Romulan vessel
"sir we may have to go to warp again"
"what for? I thought my instructions of arriving at the two year anniversary were clear"
"they were sir but there have been some minor complications plus we're coming up on some Romulan vessels"
"try and shake them Lt. if you can't do so without disabling the time table than I'll consider going to warp for now lets make sure that they don't know what's going on for now and lets see if we can't make them think that this ship is still theirs they can't know we're going to DS9 for help"
"we'll try admiral but I suspect that the other vessels told the Romulan empire that this is a captured vessel"
"well try and lose them Lt. we have to get in contact with Starfleet so that we can coordinate plans again"
"with pleasure admiral"
and so communications are cut and finally Jewel gets good news
"hey admiral we're there"
"good I'll be on the bridge soon" she cuts communications and leaves her quarters
well she goes to the bridge and gives her orders
"hail them guys lets see if we can't get them to listen to us"
"once the Klingons are finished I will sir you know how that goes"
"all too well ensign OK let's wait until they're finished than we'll contact them"
and so finally they were able to talk to Sisko sort of
well two years had passed since the loss of the JEWEL anyone on DS9 was battle weary and battle worn as even the civilians had been forced to learn how to fight sine DS9 was almost constantly invaded and the officers were getting faster but no one was could beat the sole survivor of the JEWEL in weapons speed due to his extensive training with both of his weapons. In OPS the alarms sounded…again
"chief this had better not be a false alarm or a populated area"
"negative sir it's two Klingon warbirds decloaking they have the routine supply room this month"
"tell them to dock and get the supplies in the cargo bay I'm going to tell Quark his food supply is here"
"it's still hard to believe he changed to actually cooking the food so that we have more power to shields and weapons"
"well he has and he told me recently that if the food didn't come soon he'd be down to the rations he synthesized for emergencies before he shut of the replicators"
and so the routine gets back to normal until a Romulan warbird show up
"captain we have a Romulan warbird in our space"
"take it out before reinforcements arrive you know only the JEWEL knew how to fight this"
"on it sir"
surprisingly it doesn't work and then they receive an audio transmission
"DS9 this is admiral Jewel on board a stolen Romulan warbird cease fire"
well those in OPS don't believe the transmission and continues shooting until it's disabled a few minutes later thy hear the distinct sound of a Romulan teleportation but once it's finished they see three Starfleet officers a Klingon and one of the Vulcans that had been in another cell and then Jewel speaks up
"as I said it's a stolen Romulan vessel captain oh and by the way station 185 is free again has been about two years now but since communication is still down we had to tell you personally"
"well it's good to see you alive admiral" said Sisko "your Lt. is probably at Quarks right now if you want to get him"
"thank you captain"
and so Jewel sees her Lt. again for the first time in years and once he believed her it was a tearful reunion. A few days later those that had left were back with the Lt. and three Starfleet vessels and one Klingon warbird and then everyone gets ready for a long war.