Extended this chapter with about a thousand words, so scroll down about two-thirds if you already have had a look at this chapter ;)

Captain Sulu entered the bridge of the USS Excelsior and found, to his relief, that commander Gars was back on duty and in command of the bridge until his return.

"Report" Sulu said as Gars got out of his chair and allowed the commanding officer the use of the captains seat.

"Lieutenant Angred reports that two shuttles have been deployed just now to try and retrieve the bodies of our crewmembers" Gars informed her senior officer. "Still no luck in finding a beam that could detonate the klingons tetryon-devices, I'm afraid. Engineering-teams are deployed outside and repairs are underway."

"Good" Sulu said as he studied the report given by Gars on a datapad. "And the klingons?"

"Still holding their current location" Gars said.

"What is Koloth up to?" Sulu thought to himself. "He knows he can't get to us. What could he be planning?"

"He needs to overcome the composition of these rings, sir" Gars said.

Sulu nodded. "Then we need a way to keep that composition intact."

XXX XXX

"Modulating an ion-stream, using a polarity-pulse, aimed at the Excelsior should counter the density of the rings."

Koloth studied the data provided by his ships Main Advisor, the klingon who was an expert in various sciences.

Bakula, as the Main Advisor was called, pointed at the screen and its graphs. "In less than thirty minutes, we will be able to launch a torpedo successfully at our enemy."

"Thirty minutes?" Korax was clearly not impressed. "That gives them plenty of time to counter your beam."

"If they discovered it" Bakula countered in turn. "Their scanners are destroyed. They are blind."

"You are suggesting that we shoot a blind and crippled old man?" Koloth said.

Bakula straightened his back in order to defend his position. "I am suggesting we destroy the data they have stolen, my lord."

In the end, Koloth nodded. "Good… Proceed." He then turned to his pilot. "Braga! Align our main scanners with the enemy ship!"

XXX XXX

Curzon Dax stood leaning against the bars of the holding-cell he was contained within. There were eight in total, and only one other held a prisoner; a nausicaan suffering from malnutrition after months of captivity. Two klingon guards played a board-game over by the heavy door that lead into the large room. As the door unexpectedly opened, the guards came to their feet, but soon enough returned to their game; the klingon who entered the room required no introduction and the guards realized they did best to not interfere. Dax was not sure what to do, or say, as the intimidating creature walked over to him.

"Curzon Dax" Kang said. "Kor says you are not like other Federation negotiators" he continued in the human language, also known as English. "You speak terran, do you not?" he then added.

"Yes" Dax eventually said as he gathered his wits. "Yes, I do."

"Good. The guards do not" Kang continued. "In fact, most klingons do not bother with learning the tongues of our enemies. I, however, find it useful."

Dax eyed the klingon. A klingon as famous as Koloth. "What can I help you with?" the trill then asked.

Kang eyed Curzon with a stern look in response to the question. "Why would I need your help?"

"Why else are you here? Talking to me?"

"Koloth said you believe romulans are plotting against us" Kang said, ignoring the question. "Why?"

"A trustworthy source" Dax explained.

"Can you prove that romulans are responsible?"

Dax nodded. "I believe I can. I believe there are romulans attached to the hull of the Gr'oth."

Kang stood in silence for a brief moment. "My ship would have detected them."

But Curzon shook his head. "I'm not so sure. The crew of the Excelsior only spotted them by blind luck. These romulans are crafty and not easily detected. Take another look" the trill then urged the klingon, "a real hard look at Koloths ship."

"I just might do that" Kang said and then headed for the exit.

"Just what are you doing in this part of space, Kang?" Curzon wondered and leaned up against the bars to get a glimpse of the famous warlord. "You are far away from home."

Kang stopped and, after some consideration, headed back to the imprisoned trill. "I happened to be in the region, raiding cardassian shipping."

"Huh" Dax said, nodding. "What a coincidence" he then said. "What a coincidence that you and Koloth happened to be in the area when the Excelsior was about to visit Korvat. You know something, Kang… What is it?"

Kang studied the trill, his features stern and hard as rock. "Koloth believes he was sent here by the chancellor, to convince Korvat colony to allow us to use the system as a staging-point for attacks on the Federation and the Cardassian Empire. In truth, it was the Lord of War who gave the order."

"Chang?" Dax said, knowing fully well who the man was. "The commanding officer of all klingon fleets and armies… That doesn't surprise me."

"It should" Kang countered and took a step closer to the prisoner. "If Chang had nothing to hide, he would have given the order himself. But my contacts in the High Council informs me that Chang has for some time used his influence to persuade the chancellor into adopting the plans for Korvat, making them his own. That is not how klingons act, not if one wish to secure honor and glory for ones house and name."

"So you suspect… What?"

Kang glanced at the guards to make sure they did not listen in on the conversation, and since they were too busy with their board-game, he ignored them. "I took my ship here since I suspected that Chang was up to something. Now I find Koloth almost destroying the Excelsior, and a Federation ambassador claiming the romulans are behind it all. The Lord of War has pushed for open conflict with the Federation for several years now, but have always been foiled in the High Council by chancellor Gorkon."

Dax nodded as he listened to the information. "Gorkon favors internal strife between the houses, in order to maintain the peace with neighboring powers in the galaxy. It keeps the peace, but also provides klingon warriors with experience."

Kang nodded as well, and included a faint smile. "Kor has instructed you well, I hear. Yes, that is Gorkons policy, one I happen to support. Chang, on the other hand, wants a war that will give him full control over all klingon forces. A war that will earn him enough honor and glory to claim the position of chancellor himself."

Dax realized the dire situation such events would place the galaxy in. "Are you saying that Chang is working with the romulans?"

Kang allowed a slow nod of his head. "The romulans will give Chang the war he wants, and the romulans gain a klingon chancellor they can control."

XXX XXX

Emelie woke up and found herself strapped to a chair. A single bright light in the ceiling was aimed at her and it felt like it nearly blinded her. Eventually, she could make out three figures in the room; two cardassians, armed with phaser-rifles, and a bald humanoid. As her eyes adjusted some more, the bald humanoid soon turned into a romulan.

D'jalel.

"Lieutenant Emelie Marcus-Kirk" D'jalel said and started to move in a circle around the chair Emelie was constrained to. "Starfleet Intelligence" the romulan commander continued, "on a mission to discover romulan activity in the Korvat system… I am impressed, for I was under the impression that this mission was a need-to-know operation conducted by the Tal Shiar without any inquisitive senators meddling in our affairs." The female romulan, face covered in tattoos, leaned in close to the human female. "Could it be that the Tal Shiar has a leak?" D'jalel then straightened her back and began pacing again. "Of course not" she said, speaking to herself, "the obvious leak is within the cardassian organization. I suppose we must reconsider this co-operation. But enough of that for now… What do you know?"

Emelie said nothing, she merely focused on a spot on the wall in front of her and tried to ignore the romulan as best she could.

"How did you find us?" D'jalel asked, as ever walking in a circle around Emelie and the chair. "Who is your contact? What do you know?" But she got no response from her prisoner, a fact that made D'jalel smile. "You do understand that this will not be pleasant, surely."

Emelie knew, she knew all too well, and steeled herself for the interrogation. D'jalel placed herself directly in front of the young human woman and removed the gloves from her hands. The romulan felt the leather between her fingers for a brief moment before placing the gloves to the side.

"You must be aware of the common ancestry of the romulans and the vulcans?" D'jalel then said and studied Emelie, while stroking her hands together. Then, she placed her fingers against the skull of her captive, pressing hard into the skin of the human, so much so that Emelie groaned from the pain of the pressure. Then, with great concentration, D'jalel spoke. "My mind… To your mind…"

And Emelie cried out with pain as her subconscious was being invaded.

XXX XXX

Lieutenant commander Karalga and ensign Tuvok returned to the bridge with quite some haste. As they entered, commander Gars instantly briefed them on the situation.

"The klingons are dispersing the cloud-cover. It is only a matter of time before they will be able to open fore on us."

Sulu was next to speak. "And when that happens, we will have no shields to protect us. I need counter-measures and now."

The two science officers sat down by their stations and studied the meager results of the ships still intact sensors.

"An increase in ionization" Karalga concluded. "Which disperses the particles of the rings. But I see nothing to indicate that the klingons are responsible."

Sulu was not satisfied with that answer. "Are you telling me a natural event is by random chance giving the klingons exactly what they need?"

Tuvok was inclined to agree with the captain. "I see no reason why this should be caused naturally, not with limited senors. I believe this is a deliberate attack by the klingons."

"What ever the case" Karalga said as she flipped some switches to redirect the focus of some sensor-alignments, "we need to counter the effect."

"I believe I can detect a pulse, slowly increasing ionization in the rings" Tuvok said and both Gars and Sulu joined the vulcan by his station. "The pulse is transmitting at a four second interval, dismantling particle-density with each burst."

"A polarity-pulse!" Karalga could not help but smile as she solved part of the riddle.

"Indeed, lieutenant commander" Tuvok said as he gave the kaitian a glance over the shoulder before turning his attention back to his workstation. "Which means the klingons are most likely relying on a modulated ion-stream, projected by their main sensor-dish."

"Can we counter it?" Sulu inquired and looked between the kaitian and the vulcan.

Karalga purred as she started working her dials, keys and switches. "Yes, captain, we can. The klingons may be blocking all subspace transmissions, but that does not mean we can't transmit using our subspace-antennas."

Tuvok filled in. "If charged with theta-radiation, via the Hewitt-inverters, subspace-antennas can be used to create a low-yield quantum-field. A field that effectively nullifies the effects of any modulated polarity-pulse."

"The klingons will disperse much of the rings above us" Karalga explained, "but our field will maintain enough density to effectively shield us from attack."

Both science officers suddenly left their seats and headed for the turbolifts.

"Where the hell are you two going?" Sulu wondered.

As the two science officers stepped into the waiting turbolift, Tuvok addressed the captain. "Sir, please have lieutenant commander Shrav join us at the dorsal subspace-antenna cluster. And inform him to bring the tools required to shut down the cooling-system and hook up the Hewitt-inverters with the radiation-filters. Make sure he brings five type six fulgers and enough tryon-locks to keep the subspace manifolds secure."

The turbolift-doors shut and the kaitian and the vulcan were gone. Sulu turned to his executive officer, who looked just as confused has he did.

"You heard the ensign" Sulu said and then returned to his captains chair.

Gars retrieved her commlink and activated it. "Lieutenant commander Shrav, this is commander Gars. We have a… we have a problem."

XXX XXX

Bakula snarled and growled with frustration, eventually slamming his station with both hands as the readings it provided him with was anything but satisfactory.

The Weapons Master of the IKS Gr'oth shook his head. "They have countered the beam" he said as he studied his scans of the target. "Our torpedoes will detonate roughly six kellicams from the Excelsior. Beyond that point, the density of the rings remains intact."

"A low-yield quantum-field" Bakula said, turning to face Koloth and Korax. "They have created a quantum-field to counter our pulse."

Korax frowned. "Like I said. We gave them too much time. I say we go down with boarding-craft and attack them head on!"

"Noble and glorious" Koloth admitted, sitting in his seat on the bridge of the battleship. "But easily countered. It will be a glorious death, for sure, but it will accomplish little in preventing Hikaru from escaping with our data-flies."

"I might have a suggestion, my lord."

Turning, all klingons aimed their attention at the ships Master Technician, an aging klingon with gray hair and beard, his face covered with the scars of fire and radiation.

XXX XXX

Kang was walking down a corridor of the IKS Gr'oth when his commlink sounded. He made sure he was alone before he activated the device secured to his left arm.

"Yes, Mogh?"

"Lord Koloth" the voice of his first officer said over the commlink. "You instructed to inform you the moment we discovered anything out of the ordinary."

"And?"

On the IKS HaH'vat, Kangs personal battleship that hovered a mile or so to port of IKS Gr'oth, the vessels second in command, First of Warriors, Mogh straightened his back as he now ignored the readings provided by the ships scanners.

"We have detected two signals of matter-transfers, close together, extracted from somewhere beneath the rings and pulled directly towards Korvat" Mogh informed his lord and master. "Point of origin can not be determined and we are having difficulties in locating where the signals have rematerialized. Mass of the signals suggests two humanoids, possibly wearing spacesuits, or maybe even heavy armor. We are certain that the Excelsior is not the point of origin."

"Find out where those signals rematerialized" Kangs voice sounded through the intercom on the bridge.

"At once, my lord" Mogh said and gave the ships Main Advisor an indicating nod to proceed with their lords command.

XXX XXX

Returning to solid form, wearing Tal Shiar stealth-suits, the two romulan agents sighed with relief of being out of harms way as they removed their helmets on the cardassian transporter-pad. Both smiled as they saw Toldol greeting them along with the cardassians operating the transporter.

"Lena, Vreno" Toldol said and helped his comrades down from the pad.

"I am sorry, sub-commander" Vreno, the male of the two, said. "The explosive did not detonate as intended. The Excelsior had trapped vast amounts of epsilon-radiation within their deflector-field which damaged the detonator-sequence."

"Do not concern yourself with that now, centurion" Toldol assured the two agents. "There is still a high probability that the mission will be a success. There are two klingon cruisers in the system, which will undoubtedly force the Excelsior to run and head back to the Federation."

XXX XXX

"Our officers, that were shot by the unknown figures that escaped us, were shot by serrated harpoons of klingon manufacture" Eckenwald informed the rest of the senior staff in the Excelsiors briefing-room. "There was even klingon DNA found on the harpoons."

"No traces of any romulan DNA in the pod either." Karalga was next to speak.

"And it is impossible to get any information from the computers in the pod" Shrav added.

Lieutenant commander Atl sighed and shook his head. "So all evidence points to klingons."

"Which is illogical" Tuvok said, having been asked to join the senior staff-meeting. "Klingons would not need such an elaborate plot to find a reason to openly attack a Starfleet vessel. We are, after all, in neutral space and that has proven quite adequate enough, on many occasions, for klingons to engage Federation ships in battle."

Sulu got up on his feet and began pacing, walking behind each chair around the table in turn. "It all leaves us with little choice" he then said, "We are running out of options and we can not engage two klingon warships. If Starfleet does not arrive with reinforcements within twelve hours, I will give the order to return to Federation space."

"It will start a war, sir" Shrav pointed out.

"No news from Dax?" Eckenwald wondered.

"None" Gars informed and then shrugged her shoulders and looked at the captain. "I believe we should consider him killed in action, from this point on. There is no use of basing our decisions on the off-chance that Dax is alive and capable of convincing the klingons from not killing us all."

"Agreed" Sulu said with a heavy sigh. "Twelve hours, ladies and gentlemen. In twelve hours, we run the gauntlet… and hopefully avoid a war."

"If preventing war is our chief concern" Tuvok said, "we have the option to self-destruct."

The conclusion had everyone turn to the vulcan in utter disbelief.

Tuvok explained his reasoning. "If the Excelsior is destroyed, with all hands onboard, the klingons will likely be satisfied that their stolen data has been destroyed as well and that it will not end up in Federation hands. It would effectively prevent any chance for war."

Sulu sat down and aimed stern eyes at the ensign. "I will not kill this crew simply to conform with vulcan logic."

"Then we will have to accept the fact that our actions will most likely start a war" Tuvok said, his voice cold and to the point. "A war that will see millions dead on both sides. If the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, then it is a viable option to sacrifice the five-hundred crewmembers of the USS Excelsior in order to save untold millions of innocent lives."

"He has a point" Eckenwald cut in.

Gars frowned. "I don't agree."

"Nor do I" lieutenant Angred, the tellarite, said and sided with the commander.

"We should consider it" Atl said, voicing his opinion.

The mood in the room turned cold as tension increased. They all understood what was at stake and that the consequences for the actions, what ever the outcome, would be dire.