Chapter 18: "All or Nothing"

=/\= - =/\=

The moment Arhea had disappeared into the lift, Boris Michaev ascended the two platforms to the central control. He whirled around at the steps and laughed down at Commodore Greco's feeble aim.

"Sorry, Commodore," he grinned, "but I have more important things to worry about than exchanging futile fire fights with you." He was sure Greco would be dead very soon.

He waved his phaser in the air dramatically and then holstered it. His grin grew when Greco shot at him again, but this time the absorption mechanisms that Terrh had built into the control platform's perimeter deflected the energy blast.

Michaev's scornful laughter rang through the ship. "You just keep on doing that... Hydra," he called down with sarcasm, "seems like you lost some of your perfect aim in your old age." Another cackle and he rushed to the control console.

A few taps of his fingers and his eyes scanned over the information from the Lagga's sensors. It didn't look very promising. Its shields were buckling under the assault of the Klingons, despite their fleet's situation being rather precarious, too.

He unleashed a barrage of torpedoes from the mining vessel on the battling ships outside. Perhaps he could give those who tried to keep the Lagga in one piece a helping hand. Watching, Michaev was satisfied that his volley had done some damage, even disabled one of the Klingon ships. But the power to the shields was still draining and getting dangerously low. He had to get the Lagga out of here.

His eyes jumped to the sensor readings about the temporal rift formation. It was well on the way. Massive power fluctuations appeared on the screen from beyond the planet and just at the inside edge of the asteroid field. The corners of his mouth lifted in a sinister smirk. The Founders wouldn't know what would hit them.

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A couple of levels below, Arhea stepped from the lift and scanned her surroundings carefully. It was much dimmer here than up above where the control center was located. Green lights only illuminated this area sparesely. From somewhere below, smoke rose and impeded visual observation even further.

But her keen hearing picked up the sound of a scuffle up ahead. She slowly moved closer to the fight, Temba's disrupter at ready. This was a less than ideal situation. With her visual impairment she had to be very cautious about shooting at anyone, lest she wanted to hit and kill the wrong person.

As she drew closer, she could hear a grunt and caught the sight of someone being flung to the right, then landing with a thud on the platform.

"Hold it," she demanded, gripping the disruptor tighter and aiming it into the dim fogginess, "or I'll shoot!"

A second figure popped out of the smoke to her left. "Arhea! It's me. Timir."

"Timir," she breathed a sight of relieve and moved toward him, "thank the elements."

"No!" The other figured jumped to his feet. "Don't listen to him. I'm Timir."

Arhea froze. In the green lighting, she could make out at least the top half of both figures. Her heart rate jumped up. They both looked like Timir. But... who was the real one?

=/\=

"You're lying!" The person on the right rushed the one on the left and they began grappling with each other again. "I'm Timir! Arhea, don't listen to him."

"He's trying to deceive you!" the other one warned, grunting under the strain of the struggle.

"Don't believe him," the first one admonished.

For what seemed endless seconds, Arhea watched the men wrestle, each one urging her not to listen to the other. Then, suddenly, she turned her weapon on one of them and fired.

The energy beam lanced out. The man yelled out in pain, teetered back, and then fell off the edge of the platform to one just below.

She rushed to the side of the platform and stared down. As the unharmed man stepped to her side, she could barely make out the body below in the green tinted smoke. It was sprawled on the hard surface. Within seconds, it morphed and changed into Temba. She exhaled.

"Well," Timir noted, staring down, "I suppose that's that."

Arhea looked up at him, "You're welcome."

Timir chuckled lightly in embarrassment. "Sorry. Thank you. I'm glad that's him down there, and not me." He gave her a light smile, followed by a quizzical look. "How did you know which one of us to shoot?"

"It became pretty clear," she remarked with a shrug, "He didn't get the accent right." She turned and started walking back to the lift.

=/\= - =/\=

"Commander," the Tactical Officer reported on the Paladin's main section's bridge, "most of the Klingon ships are crippled or destroyed."

"Keep focusing on the Tal'Shiar ships," T'Luz commanded.

"Sir," the Science Officer called out, "there's a spacial rift forming on the edge of the asteroid belt. It's... huge!"

"Spacial rift?" The Vulcan Commander looked at the young man with utter surprise.

"Yes, sir. I believe it's being generated by the Romulan mining ship." He glanced up at her. "We need to get out of here, sir. We won't be able to withstand the gravitational pull."

A brief moment of contemplating, then T'Luz ordered, "Helm, take us closer to the mining vessel. Tactical, see what you can do to drop their shields."

"Their shields are almost depleted," the Tactical Officer replied. "A few more phaser shots should do it."

"Then, get it done." T'Luz's eyes settled on the viewscreen as the mining ship drew closer. "Inform Commander Edmundson and Lieutenant Armello to give us cover from the Tal'Shiar ships."

=/\=

Within seconds, the Paladin's main section had whipped around the still ongoing skirmish between a couple of Klingon ships, Hvaid's small bunch, and the Tal'Shiar vessels. A few well placed phaser hits, and the rest of the mining vessel's shield power went down.

"Their shields are down," the Tactical Officer reported.

"Locate the assault team and beam them out," T'Luz instructed.

As she watched the scene on the screen, awaiting confirmation that they had retrieved the five-person assault team, a small craft burst from the aft of the mining ship and headed around the far side of the planet. It appeared to be the Romulan shuttle that Timir and Temba had taken to Talvath II earlier in the day.

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"Wait, wait wait." Timir slipped past Arhea and barred her way to the lift door. "You shot him because he 'didn't get the accent right'?"

"Correct."

"Well that... I... " he stammered, "what if you had been wrong?"

"I wasn't," she replied evenly.

"But..."

"What?" She cocked her head. "I'm Romulan. You don't think I can tell your accent from anyone else's?" A smile crept up on her face. "It's pretty unique."

"I..." He sighed. How could he argue with that? If anyone would be able to tell the differences between regional dialects, it would be a native Romulan. And Arhea did know him pretty well by now.

Before he could say anything more, the mining vessel rocked so badly that it almost knocked him off his feet. He stumbled backward and hit the lift door button. The doors opened. They both staggered into the lift, barely able to keep themselves on their feet. More tremmors followed as they hung onto one another.

"We need to get back up to Tony," Arhea reminded between shocks. She reached for the control panel and prompted the lift to go upwards.

A jolt. It began moving, but then suddenly stopped. The sparse lights flickered. Then darkness enveloped them. Again, she pushed the panel. Nothing.

"Damn," she breathed. "I think ship power just took a nosedive."

Once more the ship rocked. She stumbled. Timir caught her in his arms. His closeness felt good. It calmed her rattled nerves despite all that was going on around them.

"The ship is falling apart," she muttered in a low tone. "I don't know if we'll make it out of here alive."

He softly rubbed his cheek against hers. A whisper into her ear, "Then I'm happy you're with me. If I have to die, I'm glad I'm dying in the company of the woman I love."

She turned her head toward his. Despite the darkness, she felt she could see him as clear as daylight. Her lips brushed his. "I'm glad you're here, too."

The rocking and jolting faded into the background as he pulled her into a passionate kiss.

=/\= - =/\=

A burst of energy lit up space in the inner circle of the Talvath system as the spacial rift opened. It was followed by an enormous gravitational pull. A pull so strong it was irresistible.

Explosions of ships being sucked into the massive fissure and breaking apart flashed in short intervals outside, while inside the Lagga explosions ripped through the ship as power junctions and conduits overloaded. The rumbling and shaking became more and more intense, until is suddenly stopped and everything seemed to stretch into one direction, as if the ship was made out of rubber and was being pulled to maximum tautness. But it was only an illusion.

The disorienting sensation only lasted for a fraction of a second, then the huge ship lurched forward and was sucked into the temporal rift.

=/\=

By then, the ships that were still intact made a run for it. Though it wasn't easy. The gravitational pull of the rift was overwhelming. But it was each one for themselves. Even the three sections of the Paladin didn't communicate with one another.

As they struggled to escape, consoles blew out everywhere from the strain on the power sources. But on they pushed. There was no looking back. It was run or die.

Somewhere behind the fleeing ships, the Lagga entered the rift, consumed by its pull just like part of the asteroid belt and any vessel unable to move away.

=/\=

At the rift's threshold, the Romulan mining vessel burst apart.

The huge explosion was followed by a massive shockwave that ripped through the Talvath system with devastating consequences...