Mc Sorley had not been expecting this much trouble with walking through the sporadic gusts. She was having difficulty keeping her balance. The phaser rifle was hanging by her side, it moved awkwardly and threatened to drag her to the ground.

'Only a few more meters,' said Singh. He was already at the insect-like ship.

Mc Sorley leaned forward and caught hold of the edge of the vessel.

'The entrance is down here,' Singh had made his way to where the underside was. He walked into the darkness. Mc Sorley followed. She heard a whoosh, then a ramp descended from the belly of the downed ship.

'Ready?'

'Yes.' she answered.

Sia led the way into the vessel. 'Augustus can you hear me.'

'Loud and clear,' responded Ohlson.

'We are inside the ship,' he had his tricorder out and was sampling the atmosphere as well as probing the interior.

'Two dead over here,' said Mc Sorley, 'decompression by the look of it. One is a Vorta.'

'They lost their artificial gravity about the same time they had a hull breech, I'd say all were dead before they reached the surface.'

Mc Sorley found the Vorta's headpiece, she used her tricorder to download data from the device.

Singh found the main computer and tapped on its controls.

He read the results, then used his tricorder to translate.

'Anything?'

'Yes,' answered the engineer, 'weapons seem to be in one piece, transporters are working, life support is destroyed, as is navigation and engines. If this ship hadn't landed so hard they would have almost certainly had a warp core breech.'

'Why did landing hard prevent a breech?' asked Mc Sorley.

'The hull fraction lowered the temperature and the crash severed the power feeds and stopped the core overloading. It's in one piece still, although all the conduits and terminals have been trashed.'

'So it'll never fly again.'

'That's about it.'

The communication link with the Augustus ended.

'Can you restore the link with the away team?'

T'sella spoke from Engineering. 'Sir, the planetary inference won't allow the link to be made unless we move closer to them.'

'Okay continue to the second site.'

Tambecki was watching her console intently. 'It's dead ahead, fifty meters.'

'Can you identify the ship?'

'No. I have never seen a ship like this before, the database is drawing a blank too, although that might from a lack of clarity because of our position.'

They could all see the ship on the viewscreen. It was long, and slender, and apparently in one piece.'

'd'Amatsu and Colimo?'

'Yes sir,' answered d'Amatsu.

'Prepare to disembark, search the vessel, ascertain the status and salvage potential of the alien ship and then return to us as quickly as you can.'

'Will do.' And with that the duo entered the airlock. They waited until Tambecki had settled the craft gently alongside the object of interest.

'Go.'

They opened the hatch to the airlock and walked into the swirls and clouds. Visibility was relatively good, they saw the hull of the downed vessel almost straight away.

It was thin, looked to be as high as a Roman class ship, but many times longer.

Colimo was the first to reach it. He found a man-sized hole in the fuselage, from the singe marks around the hole he guessed phasers, or some similar blast weapon had caused the damage. He walked into the darkness and switched on the light that was strapped to his left arm. d'Amatsu was beside him as the beam cut through the dark.

The ship was little more than a tube, at least that was what it appeared to be from their point of view. Another smaller tube ran along its side, Colimo guessed this was a thruster engine of some kind.

The main tube was ribbed along the length, and the predominant colour was brown. Dust gathered around the hull breech.

'No bodies,' Colimo spoke for the benefit of those listening on the Augustus. 'The ship is built as a big corridor, we can't see to either of the ends, but we will be walking towards one of them.

By the height I'd say the users of this were a little taller than we are.' He started to the right. The light showed the ribbed sides. There were no apparent recesses or cabins, just the tubular structure. He wondered what had been the function of such a vessel.

It took them a few minutes of slow walking to reach the end. There was a door, a sliding door, and it was locked. 'I can't get in, the mechanism seems to be jammed.' Colimo was tapping at the console to the left of the door, it only had two buttons, large and with unknown hieroglyphs written on them. He tapped them again, nothing happened.

'We'll have to blast the door,' d'Amatsu waited to hear what response that would have.

'If that's what it takes,' answered Ohlson, 'do it.'

'I think I know what this is,' it was Colimo who spoke. d'Amatsu looked in his direction. The Chief was scanning the walls of the tube with his tricorder. 'There are traces of fossil fuels, a variety of them. I think this was part of an old tanker, the part that contained the fuel.'

On the Augustus, Ohlson glanced at Barret, check out the chief's hunch, and if he's right narrow down the race that built it. I would like to know what that vessel was doing prior to it crashing here.'

Ensign Barret tapped her console and started to do as she had been asked.

'Could be some derelict they used as target practice,' opined Smith.

'Yes, that's what I was thinking, but I'd still like it to be verified. I also want to know if there is anything of worth that we could salvage.'

'I have a match,' announced the ensign, 'it's a section of a hundred year old Cardassian liquid carrier. They used to transport fuel and drink.'

'So what is missing from what we have on the surface?' asked Ohlson.

'Command module, and major engines, that's why we didn't find a match we had no power signatures or command code prefixes to compare.'

Colimo put away the tricorder. 'Are you ready?'

d'Amatsu nodded.

It took four blasts of the phaser rifle before the door yielded.

When the air, or atmosphere, had cleared, they could see the interior of a section command module.

'That's what they called these small cabins,' Colimo was telling d'Amatsu, 'they had one man here whose duty it was to verify connection and separation of the container to the actual tug or transport vessel pulling it.'

d'Amatsu scanned the interior. It was small, a viewscreen, smaller than either man was used to was on the wall opposite the door. In front of them as they had entered, facing the viewscreen, were a seat and a console, that was the height of functionality on this piece of architecture. There was a small cupboard-like space to the left of the entrance door.

'That was where the person slept and toileted,' said Colimo as he watched d'Amatsu look around the room.

The Bolian placed his tricorder on the console and tapped a few times on the command interface. 'I'm downloading the database, it has probably been erased except for the last few moments. It should tell us what happened. Even if this was scrapped, they computer would be probably part of the obsolete hardware.'

'There seems to be nothing else on this ship to investigate.'

'He's right Captain,' said Colimo, 'I'd say we're done.' He picked up the tricorder and looked at the indicator. 'There is a few seconds of something here, I'd guess its the communications just before it crashed.'

'Okay, return to the Augustus and we'll go and get the others.' Ohlson nodded to Tambecki. 'As soon as they are inside get us to the Jem'Hadar ship. We'll investigate the third derelict later.'

Mc Sorley was behind a bulkhead near the Bridge. She was hunkering down trying to be as quiet as she could, Singh was nowhere to be seen, the last she knew he had been examining the exterior of the vessel, to ascertain whether the weapons were salvageable or trashed. She hoped he was all right, she gripped her phaser rifle a little tighter.

Two minutes earlier, she had heard a noise, it was metallic and she had turned to find out the cause of the sound. She had thought Singh was coming back.

Into the mouth of the doorway had fallen two shadows, and neither belonged to Lieutenant Sia Singh. She had hid behind this bulkhead and waited. Since then the duo had came in and looked around, fortunately they had not scanned the interior of the ship for life. Then they had concentrated on one of the panels on the Bridge. Deborah had risked a look, as she had suspected they were Jem'Hadar, and for some reason they were interested in the navigation console. Both carried short rifles, and looked very dangerous. She knew she could take them in a surprise attack, but she wanted to know how many more of them there were, and where was Sia?

Sia was wondering where the Commander was.

He had taken advantage of an improvement in visibility, he would have guessed it had increased to thirty meters.

He was standing behind a large boulder sheltering from the gusts of wind and trying to hail the Augustus before it arrived, and landed smack between two Jem'Hadar attack cruisers.

He had been on the vessel's port side examining the front of the weapons, they had appeared to be undamaged from the crash, when he had heard the first of the two ships land meters from the wreck.

He had taken cover. The party did not seem to expect anyone else to be here, they had not scanned or even checked the crash site for intruders. Four Jem'Hadar soldiers had traveled to the ship, two had gone inside, the other two had placed themselves in the entrance. They all carried rifles.

Sia tapped his combadge again. 'Augustus come in, you really want to hear what I have to tell you.'

Nothing.

He gripped his phaser rifle and waited.

Mc Sorley checked the time, if all were going as planned the Augustus would be due back any minute. She thought about a plan, she had to assume that Sia was fine, if he had been killed or captured then these Jem'Hadar would hardly be as relaxed. So he was not too far away and waiting. But while the engineer may be fine for the time being, the Augustus was heading straight back to the Dominion vessel that had brought these, and whoever else was outside. She had to warn Ohlson and the rest. She tapped her combadge, she was directly behind the Jem'Hadar, her rifle was pointing in their direction.

Outside, from his place of concealment, Sia was doing the same. 'Augustus, come in please.'

There was a low crackle, then... 'Augustus here, what's the situation?'

He checked that the conversation was unheard by the two at the entrance to the crashed ship. 'Two Jem'Hadar ships have set down alongside the other, we are separated, I am outside while Commander Mc Sorley is inside, so far we have not been detected.'

The tension on the Bridge had risen as Sia made his report. 'Can you remain out of sight?'

Mc Sorley was inching away from the two soldiers, when her combadge sounded. 'Two Jem'Hadar ships have set down alongside the other, we are separated, I am outside while Commander Mc Sorley is inside, so far we have not been detected.'

Sia's voice was low, but not low enough to go unheard by the Dominion soldiers. They turned, one diving to the right while the other moved to the left.

Mc Sorley fired as Ohlson asked his question. The blast from her phaser rifle darted at the one going to the right, it caught him in the chest and sent a cascade of sparks around the falling body.

She dived back behind the bulkhead and tapped her badge. 'They know we're here.'

Ohlson didn't ask for any elaboration. 'Red Alert, shields up, power the weapons.'

Colimo had the shields up seconds after the order had been given. Kausler was poised at the weapons.

'Bring us in Ben.'

Sia had caught what Mc Sorley had said, he raised his rifle and blasted the two guards with a wide beam. The blast hit both and sent them to the ground. He rapidly narrowed the beam and fired at the two Jem'Hadar soldiers as they attempted to rise. He caught one full in the face, he collapsed back again, but Sia only hit the second in the arm. Then he was behind cover.

'Commander are you all right?'

A pause. 'Yes, there were two that I know of here, now there's one...' the sound of a disrupter blast striking close to the speaker interrupted the conversation momentarily, 'but give me time.' Another sound, this time a phaser's distinctive hiss. 'All clear, do you know what else is here?'

'One dead, one wounded just outside the door, so far the others in the two ships have not appeared.'

Mc Sorley thought, from her memory and the time she had served in Intelligence she dredged up the information that the attack cruisers carried forty-two personnel, or soldiers, and a Vorta. So there were two ships, eighty-four soldiers and two Vorta, they had killed three and injured one, only eighty-one and the Vorta to go. The mathematics done, she started to walk to the doorway.

Sia was watching the ships, they seemed to be apparently oblivious to what had happened on the planet's surface. He heard a noise, then he saw the door to the ship nearest him open, down the ramp ran eight Jem'Hadar, and they headed to the crash site and Mc Sorley. So, he thought, now they know.

He started to move to tap his badge and make the report, but a gust of wind knocked him back against the rock. He fell awkwardly, and only kept the rifle because its strap stayed around his arm.

He jumped up, and then realized that there had been no gust, what had knocked him down had been the blast of close range phasers as the Augustus had arrived.

Ohlson eyed the screen, he could make out only a little of what was out there. The Augustus had swooped between the two Jem'Hadar vessels and settled there. Phasers had sought out and demolished the one nearest seconds before the Roman class ship landed, the falling debris buffeted everyone on board. The ship that had been destroyed had been the one sending out a search party to the crash. The eight soldiers that had been on the exit ramp were dead. They had been vaporized.

The second ship was hit and shuddered as the phasers sliced into the exposed hull. Neither vessel had their shields raised. Ohlson had no intention of giving them time to do so.

The vessel was rocked as punctures appeared along the hull and where the Bridge was sited.

'Life signs?'

Tambecki corrected the pitching and tossing that the blasts were causing. Barret was scanning the two wrecks. 'None, that last blast ruptured the hull in Engineering and the Bridge. They are all dead.

'That one isn't.' Smith was watching the viewscreen. It showed lines of disrupter fire coming from a rock near the original crash. There was an answering blast from off the screen and to the left, then another blast struck the source of the attack, it came from the edge of the downed Jem'Hadar craft.

There was a rumbling sound, it reverberated throughout the craft, Singh was pitched sidelong towards a rock as the tremors shook the surface.

The planet's seismic spasm had done little to put Mc Sorley's aim off, she fired again, the Dominion soldier crumpled against the rock he had used to lever himself upright.

'All clear,' it was Mc Sorley's voice.

'Where's the lieutenant?' asked Ohlson.

'Here, about ten meters off the port side and heading home.' He stood up, picked up his fallen rifle, and checked for injury and damage, he could see nothing.

'Both of you get back as quickly as possible, Ensign T'sella?'

'Yes, Captain,' came the disembodied voice from Engineering. 'Did they get any messages off about what happened?'

'No, I would doubt that they could have sent anything out of this atmosphere.'

'Good, prepare for departure.'

'They are boarding now,' Benko was releasing the door locks and watched as her console told her Mc Sorley and Singh had deposited themselves inside the airlock, then they were inside the ship.

Another tremor, slight compared to the first, rocked the Augustus.

'Take us out of here Lieutenant.'

Tambecki was on the controls, the Augustus reared off the planet's surface turned a little to one side and then half-impulse power pushed the vessel away from the debris and evidence of a raider.

'What happened there Lieutenant Smith?'

'The blasts of the battle, they have caused some surface tension in the planet's mantle. Its very thin here Captain, less than thirty meters from the start of a fault line, that's what separates us from a volcanic eruption.'

Ohlson took in what Smith had told him, he turned to Benko. 'One hundred kilometers should do it, halt us and keep your eyes peeled. Lieutenant Tambecki, you have the Bridge.

Away team.'

'Yes sir,' Mc Sorley's voice sounded over the communications system. She was out of breath from her run.

'Meet me in the briefing room, Smith, Singh, and Colimo, you're with me.' With that Ohlson stood and walked off the Bridge.

Those named followed.

They were all sitting around the table when Mc Sorley and Singh arrived.

'Right I want to know what we have at our disposal, I want to know what we can salvage, and how long it'll take to have it integrated with the Augustus.' Ohlson waited.

'You know the state the Augustus is in,' Singh took a seat, 'we can fight and we can be in optimal condition inside two hours.

The Gaunt can give us phaser banks and torpedoes, and perhaps a few energy cells. It is in good condition.

The Jem'Hadar ship can also give us weapons and perhaps a Dominion communicator, maybe even a few codes, but little else.'

'We did recover some communications from the ship, it might tell us what they knew of our attack.'

'You,' he addressed Mc Sorley, 'find out what was in these communications.' He turned to the Bolian. 'What of the Cardassian ship?'

Colimo was shaking his head. 'Nothing worth a trip back, it looks from the read-outs that it was scrapped in target practice, there's nothing of worth to be got from it.'

Ohlson was thinking. 'Could the Cardassian be made spaceworthy?'

Singh looked at the captain. 'Eh, yes I suppose it could,' he was looking at a data padd containing the scans that d'Amatsu and Colimo had made of the ship. 'They concentrated their target practice on its engine housing and weapons', or where its weapons would have been if it had been armed, I could replace an impulse drive from the Jem'Hadar ships, but,' he added, 'it would have no weapons, no shields and a minimal of life support.'

'Could the Jem'Hadar weapons and shields be converted to give the ship some defense?'

Singh was thinking about that. He nodded. 'The disrupters wouldn't be compatible, there's just no place to put them. As for the shields, I'm not sure they'd do much good against phasers, but they would protect it against space debris.

There is one problem, if you want to travel any distance in the Cardassian derelict.'

'What's that?' asked the captain.

'There is no deflector dish, the ship would be destroyed at any warp speed. Space dust and rocks would hammer into its hull like cannon.'

Ohlson waved that point away. 'We'll sort that out later, now I want the ship readied for space, it's the only thing big enough in these parts to convey the prisoners home.'

'What of the Gaunt?' asked the first officer.

'What about it?' Singh was leaning forward.

'Can it be used as a second assault ship?'

'Yes, it can be repaired in a few hours, but if you are planning on using the Gaunt and the Cardassian ship then you may find two problems. One, it'll take a bit longer than originally envisaged to salvage and use parts from the downed Dominion craft to augment the two federation and one Cardassian ship, if we can find enough spare parts.'

'You mentioned a second problem,' pointed out Ohlson.

'Yes,' Sia paused before continuing, 'it'll be hard to crew the three ships, it may even be impossible.'

'Lieutenant Smith, just how unstable is the planet, is there going to be any more aftershocks?'

'The planet is thin in spots, we're near one of those spots, if anything happened there would be resultant volcanic activity, perhaps a full-bodied eruption. As for aftershocks,' he shrugged, 'I would be guessing, and it wouldn't even be an educated guess.'

Ohlson stood to indicate that the meeting was over. 'We'll worry about that later, for now I want you,' he said pointing to Singh, 'and d'Amatsu to repair the Cardassian ship from the Jem'Hadar ship, then work on us and the Gaunt.. We need everything to be ready in only a few hours. Those Jem'Hadar will be missed, and even with the two we destroyed they still outnumber us hereabouts.'

They moved back to their stations.

Mc Sorley linked up with Ohlson. 'Do you know who will be assigned to the other vessels yet?'

'No, I want you to assign the crews.'

She nodded. 'Where would you like me, the Cardassian ship or the Gaunt?'

'The Cardassian, if we succeed it'll be there that the prisoners are transported, and we'll need a ranking officer there to make the prisoners believe what is happening, if we can get them.'

She agreed. 'I suggest Sia take the Gaunt, he can captain, while T'sella can do Tactical, and Colimo can take the conn.'

'Agreed.'

'I'd like Ben with me.'

Ohlson thought about that. 'Agreed, Barret can take the conn here, she has the exams it's about time she had the practice. Kausler stays here she knows the weapons better than anyone does, and Smith can take ops. d'Amatsu can be your engineer, you may need someone who knows what Sia and he has jury-rigged together.

That's four on the Augustus, three on the Gaunt, and three on the transporter vessel.'

'It'd be enough to get everything moving, but it doesn't allow us to take casualties.' Mc Sorley pondered this. 'If we utilize some of the freed prisoners as we get them it may take the pressure off.'

Ohlson was shaking his head. 'No, we can't use any of the outsiders.'

'Outsiders?'

'Yes, we still don't know where the traitor, or traitors are, and when we start moving the prisoners out of the camp we won't have the luxury to check everyone or to vet them. We're on our own, if one ship takes casualties then we abandon it and transport the people to one of the other ships.'

Mc Sorley nodded. 'I'll go and ensure Sia is ready.' She left the captain and headed to Engineering.

On the Bridge, Ohlson walked to the captain's chair. He looked at it, he wasn't sure whether or not he liked the job, not just yet anyway. He sat down. 'Lieutenant Tambecki, take us back to the Jem'Hadar ship. Set us down close and Ensign Barret keep an eye on the sensors I don't wish to be surprised by any unannounced visitors.

Alex?'

Alex Smith turned to look quizzically at Ohlson. 'Yes sir?'

'I want a plan to use phasers, explosives or whatever it takes to detonate the planet at the site of the Jem'Hadar ships.

I want it to look like a geological occurrence has killed all of them and destroyed the ships.'

Smith was shaking his head. 'Metallurgical analysis will betray that weapons' fire was used.'

Ohlson was shaking his head too. 'It doesn't have to be cast iron, all I want is something to give them, and give us some time before they realize that something is very wrong.

I need a natural disaster, started by us.'

'I'll get right on it.' With that he bowed over his console and started to work on the problem that the captain had given him.

Ten minutes later, they were at the site of the trio of downed Jem'Hadar.

Benko Tambecki landed the Augustus on the spot from where they had launched their attack the last occasion they were here.

The ship didn't even jolt as it touched down.

'Bridge to Lieutenants Singh and d'Amatsu are you ready?'

'Yes sir,' in the airlock Singh was just finishing off checking d'Amatsu's pack, 'we're ready to depart on your instructions.'

'Very good, go and get whatever you'll need for the Cardassian ship, and keep the communications open. We'll be right here waiting.'

The airlock controls only took a few seconds to expel the air and equalize the pressure, then they were out.

The gusts had lessened, and they made good time getting from the Augustus to the ramp leading into the Dominion craft. They passed the bodies of the two who had guarded the entrance.

'You get the shield generator, and I'll get the control systems.'

d'Amatsu nodded and left Singh. The Indian went to the Bridge and straight to the console that controlled shields and weapons.

It took Sia fifteen minutes to remove the inner workings of the panel that controlled the system and another five to get it to the Augustus. He left it in the airlock and returned to assist Mico. He found him in the remains of Engineering, half the compartment was missing, probably still orbiting the planet.

Mico was almost finished. They had to manhandle the crate-sized object out of Engineering and to the Augustus. 'Did you find out why that Jem'Hadar team had returned to the wreck for in the first place?'

Sia strained as they reached an awkward spot, a group of rocks made the carrying more difficult in the gusts than it should be. 'Yes, it was in superb condition, I can only assume that it was sensible salvage. It was nothing of great interest to us, no intelligence or sensor data.' They were past the rocks.

'Still no transporters?' Mico was getting red in the face as they lugged the box into the swirls of light cloud.

'Not with us doing all these odd jobs, T'sella is working on it, she's been working almost non-stop since we lost them. I hope they'll be ready be the time we have to unload.

They were.

After getting the pieces on board, the Augustus swiftly rose from the surface, banked to one side and headed off to the Cardassian ship.

'They are operational,' was how the Vulcan announced the return of the transporters.

Ohlson smiled, things were starting to come together.

'I think I have a way to cover our tracks.' Smith sat by his console, he looked grim and tired.

'What is it?' asked Ohlson.

'If we can ignite one of the downed Dominion ships' nacelles, the resulting explosion should trigger enough background ground shifting to increase the radiation locally, it may even cause a volcanic fissure. Either way, it'll destroy the site and make it impossible to betray that we were there and that phasers were fired. If we use a small seismic probe that should be enough to trigger the nacelle.'

Ohlson smiled, another part of the plan was taking shape.

'Captain?'

It was Singh who spoke from Engineering.

'What is it Sia?'

'Before the site is destroyed, there is something I would like to remove from one of the ships.'

'What's that?'

'One of the nacelles.'

'Why?'

'With the transporters working, I think I can attach it to the Cardassian ship.'

'But,' said Mc Sorley, 'isn't it to have impulse engines, and isn't it impossible for it to go over warp without the deflector dish.'

'Well, I wasn't thinking of using it as an engine.'

Ohlson looked to his first officer she shook her head.

'Then as what?'

'A torpedo.'

Mc Sorley was thinking. 'Even without a payload, if a warp nacelle hit something it could do a lot of damage. Plasma from the nacelle would be corrosive as well as volatile.'

Sia heard her over the open communicator. 'I was thinking of the big Dominion ship.'

'Good idea, Sia we'll see what we can do when we return there.'

'We're approaching the site of the Cardassian derelict.' Tambecki was watching the controls and guiding the ship to as close to the Cardassian as possible. Which was close, they landed less than ten meters from the entrance.

'Okay Sia, are you and Mico in your environment suits?'

'Yes.'

'All right transport over to the derelict with the shield generator and controls be as quick as you can. We've been lucky so far not bumping into any more patrols.'

From Engineering came the engineer's voice. 'Two to beam over, energize.'

It was Kausler on Tactical who initiated the transportation.

In the Cardassian cabin Sia Singh, Mico d'Amatsu and the equipment to reconnect the engine and to install and operate the shields materialized.

They quickly went about their tasks, Sia installed the controls in what had been the Cardassian's living quarters, he made two seats for the crew.

Mico took the generator to the tube they had traveled along and placed it near the rear of the ship. All that remained was for the duo to connect the shields to work via the ship's sensor array. It would not be as efficient as it might have been but it was much better than nothing. If they could not find any sensor array, they had the equipment with them to jury-rig some crude but workable modules.

Then they set about providing the ship with internal atmosphere and gravity.

They took half an hour.

'I can't believe we have much more time,' said Ohlson.

'How will we know that everything is still in place,' asked Barret, 'they might have moved the prisoners on to the bigger ship. Or even moved ships, in or out of the sector.'

The same thought had crossed Ohlson's mind too. 'We won't Ensign, but I do intend to find that out prior to us charging to the rescue.'

'How?' asked Mc Sorley, she had turned in her seat at helm to see Ohlson's face.

He smiled. 'That is a problem I would like you to solve for me, number one.'

Mc Sorley made a blowing sound and turned to look out of the viewscreen, she wondered if she could think up a way of learning more from outside the protective cover that was this planet's atmosphere. 'How much time do you think we have?'

'Hours.'

Mc Sorley, Ohlson and Barret turned to look at Smith.

'Hours, and only a few,' he repeated.

'How do you come to that estimation?' Gretchen Kausler had been working on the calibration of the new weapons and automating several routine, and some not so routine, attack patterns into the main console. She did not, as a rule, indulge in idle conversation. The others wondered why she had chosen this topic to speak up on.

Smith did not seem awed by having gotten a question from the taciturn weapons' officer. 'I've been looking at what this atmosphere, the acidic parts mostly, are doing to our hull and sensor arrays..' He paused then continued. 'The hull is fine, but the warp nacelles are being corroded faster then the rest, within hours, and I'd estimate three, perhaps four, the corrosion will lead to plasma leaks, and inevitably explosions.'

'Well,' said Kausler returning her attention to the state of alert of the tactical station, 'I did ask.'

'Three hours?' Mc Sorley was looking at the medic.

'He's correct,' put in Barret, 'I've just checked his results.

The scientific result says three point six five hours, plus or minus point three.' She shrugged as she saw the others looking at her. 'What?'

'An estimate does not have to be so precise Ensign.' Ohlson was back to pondering his next move.

Barret looked embarrassed.

'Three hours, hmm, well it isn't as if we've a choice.' Ohlson had came to a decision. 'Okay, then we'll have to rush the repairs to the other vessels.

Sia,' he addressed the engineer, 'come back to the Augustus with Mister d'Amatsu. We'll hurry and salvage the last of the equipment from the Dominion craft and then leave you two here while we get the Gaunt ready.'

'We're ready to return now sir,' said Sia.

'Beam them back then.'

Benko Tambecki did so. 'Get us to the Jem'Hadar ship, as fast as you can lieutenant.'

Benko checked her console to ensure that the transportation was complete and the duo where in Engineering. Satisfied, she tapped her console and the ship banked ten degrees and then flew to the rendezvous with the crashed ships. She guided the ship over the now familiar terrain and reached their destination inside ten minutes.

'Lieutenants Singh and d'Amatsu ready for departure,' Mc Sorley was checking the area outside the Augustus to ensure that the environment had not became even more inhospitable than usual, it hadn't.

'Good luck Sia,' Ohlson was leaning forward, 'be quick, and keep the communication link open.'

The engineers were out of their ship and alongside the nacelle that had become the center of their interest. Sia had brought a small torch that could cut through just about any metal, it took them fifteen minutes, and the nacelle was free from its host ship.

Ten more minutes and several sections of the engines and some paneling had been isolated and transported over to the Augustus.

He had already cleared the means of transporting the nacelle with the captain.

They were all on board the Augustus. as it hovered twenty meters off the ground.

'Engage the tractor beam.'

Mc Sorley engaged the device. She was monitoring the console as she did so. A confinement beam kept what plasma there was in place, the last thing they needed was a major plasma leak to increase the potential for unwanted explosions.

The beam swept from the Roman class vessel and surrounded the free nacelle. The large piece of metal tubing started to lift.

'Take us to the Cardassian.'

Tambecki flexed her shoulders and set her controls. The Augustus swung slowly to one side, then the nacelle followed. The ship rose in the air, the low-level clouds fought to engulf the invader. Below them the piece of machinery moved as if attached to the Augustus by invisible strings.

They were clear of the ground, and any known obstacles. Tambecki started to speed up the ship, they moved rapidly into the twisting chaos that passed for weather on the planet.

To Smith they seemed to be barreling along blindly in a suicidal rate of velocity, but they made it to the Cardassian in fifteen minutes.

'Put us down to the Cardassian as close as possible.'

The lieutenant took up Ohlson's instruction.

'Shouldn't we give it a proper name, it seems rather redundant to keep referring to it as 'the Cardassian'?

Ohlson looked at Barret. 'Good idea Ensign, okay then christen it!'

'Me?'

The captain nodded. 'Why not you.'

She thought for a moment. 'If the enemy hears us, why not let them think its another Roman class Starfleet vessel. It might give them pause for thought.'

'True,' added Benko, 'especially that we suspect one of the enemy used to be a friend.'

'The Caesar!'

'Okay, Lieutenants Singh and d'Amatsu, prepare to disembark to the Caesar.'

'Lieutenant Tambecki, put the nacelle down near the ship and wait for any instructions that the away team will give.'

'Aye sir.'

Ten minutes passed before the engineer and his assistant had all the material they required where they wanted. The nacelle was moved into the hull of the now U.S.S Caesar. They put it at the rear and shielded it from where the freed prisoners would be housed. The duo of engineers checked the atmosphere, they had reconnected and supplied the original environment control system.

The air was humid.

'It's hot, are the controls broken?' d'Amatsu was unsure of what to do with the strange array of chips that greeted him as he removed the paneling of the environmental controls. 'How should I repair this?'

'You don't,' answered the Indian, 'put the panel back, the temperature and humidity is perfectly normal - if you're a Cardassian. It's easy fixed.

Computer?'

The computer responded in a male Cardassian voice full of confidence and authority. 'Yes.'

'Lower the ambient temperature ten degrees Kelvin and the humidity to ten percent.'

There was a mechanical whirl and then the room became cooler.

'Much better,' purred d'Amatsu, 'what do we do now?'

'Report back than the Caesar has environment, weapons, and power.'

'I hear you Mister Singh, congratulations to you both.' Ohlson was rubbing his hands together. 'Gentlemen prepare for transportation, we've another ship to ready.'

'I'd like to speak to you sir.'

Ohlson looked at Mc Sorley, she had just returned from some business away from the Bridge, Ensign T'sella accompanied her.

'Lieutenant Tambecki, you have the Bridge.'

They walked to the briefing room.

'I've reviewed the communications logs from the downed Jem'Hadar ship with Ensign T'sella.'

Ohlson waited.

'It was one of the two that the Cicero hit.

We got some tactical data from them on their orders prior to our arrival.'

'Can you put it on the screen?'

'No, they have this habit of keeping it for the eyes and ears of the Vorta alone. Here's what we got.

They knew the names and weaponry of the four ships that arrived. Even had the crew lists. They had the general coordinates.' She paused. 'Which is a bit of a puzzle. If they only used the coordinates that they had received then they would have missed us.

Somehow the information was updated just before we arrived.'

T'sella continued. 'There was a damaged section in the recovered files, so I can't tell you where that extra data came from.'

The two fell silent. 'Was there more?'

Mc Sorley looked at T'sella.

The Vulcan spoke again. 'We have reason to believe that the U.S.S. Hawaii survived the attack in which its crew was captured.'

'Elaborate.'

'The data included a sensor sweep of this complete region. It has given us a good schematic of the prison and its power supply. It also gave us a record of a ship, smaller than the battleship and situated on this planet.'

'Here, but wouldn't the atmosphere destroy it?'

'Eventually,' agreed the Vulcan, 'but one of the readings suggests that the Dominion have used their shields to conceal it.'

'Why? What condition is it in?'

Mc Sorley shrugged. 'We don't know either of the answers to those questions. We do have the coordinates but little else.

There is no identification of the traitor, but they, the ship, was told to target only the Gaunt, and the Cicero. We know that command came from the battleship.' She paused again as she told of the last nugget of information that they recovered. 'They were specifically told to ignore the Shoeman.'

'Well,' said Ohlson, 'that may go some way to explain why we aren't tripping over all those Jem'Hadar patrols. They must have less general patrol routes than we had originally thought. Hell, they have a great prize to protect.'

'They could recover a lot of useful intelligence from the Hawaii, technological as well as sensory.'

Ohlson nodded agreement. 'But, that would not explain why they are hiding it.

Okay, there is little we can do about the Hawaii at this stage. Let's get back to getting the Gaunt spaceworthy.'

The meeting was over.

Fifteen minutes later, they were touching down alongside the Gaunt. In the airlock Lieutenant Commander Mc Sorley, Lieutenants Singh and d'Amatsu, and Ensign T'sella waited the all clear to proceed to the stricken vessel. They all knew their assignments and how important it was to get the work done in time.

As they waited Singh turned to Mc Sorley. 'Have you got a way for us to gather intelligence on the penal colony and the Dominion ships?'

She shook her head. 'No, not yet.' She had little time to sit down quietly and think about how they could get that data. She was aware that the communications link was an open one, and the crew where waiting to hear anything they could construe as optimistic news. 'But, I'm working on it.'

Sia smiled, beside him d'Amatsu nodded too. She wondered just how they where going to do the impossible, fly into sensor range and return, without raising any Dominion eyebrows.

Her brow creased in thought, did the Dominion personnel have eyebrows? Then another thought struck her. 'Captain?'

'Yes number one?'

'I think I do have a way of getting the information.'

On the Bridge Ohlson smiled. 'Tell me all about it on your return.'

The away teams scrambled the short distance from the Augustus to the Gaunt. Sia and d'Amatsu commenced repairs on the hull, some breeches were sealed with plating from the internal bulkheads, and two others were patched with improvised forcefields. One corridor was sealed at both ends as it had a three meter slash along it length and repairs would take too long.

Mc Sorley initialized the control systems, she also replaced a fuel cell from the Gaunt's own stores that had been burnt out in the crash.

T'sella had checked the internal and external sensors, then calibrated the communications so they were on the same frequency as the Augustus.

Outside the four cleared as much of the debris as they could from against the hull of the Gaunt, then they turned their attention to the deflector disk.

'It's gone,' Sia was standing swaying in the eddies that buffeted the four, 'there isn't enough left to rig up a partial deflector.'

Mc Sorley sighed. 'Do you hear that Captain?'

'We hear you loud and clear.'

'There you have it, the Gaunt, and the Caesar have no warp capabilities.'

'We'll make do Commander, now return it the Augustus, it's time we heard your method for gathering intelligence, and then it'll be time to visit the last derelict before we allocate the crews.'

'Give me a report on each craft, outlining weapons, top speed, and defense mechanisms.'

Sia Singh started. 'The Augustus, we have full weapons, including phasers and photon torpedoes, we have sixteen Starfleet issue and six Jem'Hadar. We have warp power, and full transporters, and shielding. We are in optimal condition.

'The Gaunt has phasers, and torpedoes. We can get to full impulse, cannot go to warp for the same reason as the Caesar, neither have functioning deflector disks, The Gaunt also has transporters, and the shields are fully repaired too.

The Caesar,' he paused as if he liked the sound of the new ship to the armada, 'has one phaser bank, no torpedoes, except for the nacelle that we adopted. It, the nacelle has a short range and little accuracy, but may do against a static target. It can be transported away from the ship and then aimed.

The Caesar also has a transporter, but only one, it can transport one person at a time, they were only meant to hold one pilot, and it has shields. It can reach full impulse too.'

'Good,' said the captain, 'good.

Take your places, we're going to visit the last derelict. Perhaps we can get a deflector dish and some added weaponry.'

Twenty-one minutes later, the Augustus was hovering over the site of the last detected crash.

'It is the Cicero, there's no doubt about that,' reported Barret. She was reading the computer's sensor readings. 'I can put a graphical display on the screen for you, planetary ionization is relatively low here.'

'Do it.' Ohlson was rubbing his chin as he watched the screen show a fog free landscape and the outlines of the debris.

'What a mess,' murmured Tambecki.

Mc Sorley agreed.

The ship had broken into five pieces. The largest was the bridge section. It had ended up ploughing a furrow nearly half a kilometer long through the sandy surface of the planet. The nose of the bridge section was completely buried under the pile of earth that had gathered in the crash.

'Is there any hull integrity at all?'

Barret tapped her console and searched for an answer. 'Yes, the Bridge itself is still in one piece.' She tapped again. 'The crash did not defeat the hull and shields, it appears that the inertial dampers collapsed. That would have caused a sudden stop to throw anyone still alive on the bridge against the hull at great speed. No one could survive that.'

'Sia put on the environment suit, beam over to the Cicero and see if you can find anything in the logs and computer that could help us.'

'Yes sir.'

Lieutenant Sia Singh was on board what remained of the Cicero's Bridge inside five minutes, he refrained from close examination of the broken bodies that littered the room, instead he concentrated on recovering as much data as he could coax from the badly damaged consoles.

The job done he returned rapidly to the Augustus.

The ship was speeding back to the Gaunt.

Ohlson was reviewing the logs. They had downloaded ten partials all were useless. But they had got one complete entry. It belonged to the captain. Everyone was on the Bridge. Marcus started the recording.

'Captain's log. Emergency entry, it's a trap,' Fessler's voice sounded strained and surprised, 'the Shoeman is refusing to acknowledge hails and has flown straight past two flights of Dominion assault ships and headed to the prison. We think they've signaled to them somehow.

We repelled that attack but have suffered casualties and damage.'

There was a pause.

'Another three ships have targeted us. We got one good sweep of the prison, at least that bit was true. Damaged their shield generators.

We also detected phaser fire inside the Shoeman, someone or something has taken control of that ship. The Gaunt is down, we found an ion trail leading to the Demon, I think they sought shielding in the atmosphere.

We still can't raise the Augustus... can only assume that they have fallen into the trap too.

God help us.

Prepare torpedoes.'

The log entry ended.

'It didn't even retain the communications they had with us.' Sia turned off the recording

'Well,' said Mc Sorley, 'at least it confirms that it was the Shoeman that acted as a Judas goat and led us into the trap.'

Ohlson sighed. 'Pity it doesn't add any light as to who did that leading.'

'Nothing in that to alter our plans? asked Mc Sorley.

'No, on the contrary. It would appear that the reason the prison has no shields is that the Cicero removed them. That will assist us in our task.' Ohlson fixed his jacket that did not need fixing. 'Right then here are the crew allocations, bear in mind that the Augustus is the flagship, Lieutenant Mc Sorley is taking the Caesar, Lieutenants Tambecki and d'Amatsu will be her back up crew. Your job will be to retrieve, and house the prisoners.

The Gaunt will be captained by Lieutenant Singh, he will have T'sella, and Colimo as his crew.

On the Augustus, Smith will be on ops, Barret has the conn, and Kausler is on tactical.'

He waited as each digested their roles. 'There is one more thing you should know. The recovered Dominion data have informed us that the Hawaii may be in one piece.

It is being hid on this planet, on the far side, well away from where our sensors on entering the system would have detected it. That seems to be one of the reasons why there are so many Jem'Hadar on the planet.

For the time being at least we will be ignoring the Hawaii. We have another job to do.' He turned to Mc Sorley. 'Okay Commander, what was the plan?'

She smiled. 'We tractor one of the hulls of the downed Jem'Hadar to outside the atmosphere, keeping as far below it as we can while maintaining contact. We get our scan from the Dominion craft's own sensor array, then we release it.

Even if it is detected they will only see a badly damaged ship, one of their own, heading to its death. They are aware that the planet interferes with communications, and they know they have lost ships here, if they see a wounded ship they will assume it was damaged and tried to gain escape velocity. When it crashes again they will not be unduly alarmed, even if they send some ships to investigate. If they detect our sensor scan they will assume it originates from their own people.'

Ohlson turned to T'sella. 'Can you adapt the Dominion sensors so they can do the scan and relay it to us without betraying our position?'

The Vulcan thought about it. 'Yes, we can hold the Jem'Hadar at a range of fifty meters, if we stay below the limit of the atmospheric disturbances and retreat before any investigating craft near us then we can do as the Commander suggests. We can even make the sensor sweep appear to be a failed attempt at opening a communications link.'

Ohlson nodded his approval. 'Good idea Ensign.

And Commander, I knew you'd do it.'

'Then you knew more then I did.'

He laughed. 'Lieutenant Smith, how are we doing for time?'

Alex Smith looked back at the chronometer on his console. 'We have another hour, and we'd still be within safety margins.'

'Good, then let's commence the reassignments to the other craft.'

The first to go was the new crew of the Gaunt.

They materialized on the Bridge.

'I will check Engineering, reroute the commands to the Tactical station. I will give you a report as soon as I can.' With that T'sella walked off the Bridge and towards the Engine room.

The Bolian strode purposively to the conn. He started tapping the console. The previous visitors had left the computer on-line, so he had little to do to verify that the ship was ready. 'Everything seems ready from here.'

Sia nodded. He took his seat in the captain's chair.

It felt odd that this was his first command, it felt like he was sitting in a deadman's chair. He put the thought out of his head. 'Hail the Augustus.'

Colimo did as he was instructed.

Ohlson's face appeared on the viewscreen. 'Captain Singh.'

Sia liked the sound of that, he also appreciated that Ohlson had no need to give him the title, other than a sign of respect. 'We are awaiting a report from Engineering, then we will be ready to follow you.'

Ohlson nodded. 'Contact me when you know more.'

The viewscreen blurred then changed to show the ubiquitous clouds that shrouded the planet.

'I have rerouted the transporters to the conn.' The blue-faced Bolian turned in his chair to look at the captain. 'I think we're ready.'

At that moment T'sella walked into the Bridge. 'Engineering controls have been rerouted to the Bridge.'

Sia tugged at his tunic. 'Notify the Augustus that we are ready.'

Colimo tapped his console, he waited a few seconds. 'Augustus is taking off.'

'Follow them, match their speed, and keep a kilometer behind them.'

'They have lifted off the surface, they are a kilometer behind us.' Barret made her report and thought about home.

The next stop was the site of the battle with the Dominion ships. There were not enough of them intact to salvage data or materials. The new fleet spent five minutes as they initially deposited a seismic charge alongside one of the derelicts.

That task completed, Ohlson gave the order to use the tractor beam on the most intact of the trio of wrecks. It was the one Sia and Mc Sorley had been investigating.

'Tractor beam on,' reported Ben.

The ship shuddered slightly as the forces pulling the wreck tugged at the Augustus itself. 'More power to the engines.'

Tambecki pushed the engines a little more and then both craft were airbourne and stable.

'Nice work Lieutenant, now take us to the Caesar.'

They arrived at the Caesar without incident.

'The Caesar is one kilometer ahead,' said Tambecki.

'Take us to two hundred meters off the Card...' he paused, 'the Caesar.'

The ship moved into a static holding position.

'We are two hundred meters off the port bow.'

Ohlson nodded. 'Lieutenant Commander Mc Sorley, Lieutenants Tambecki and d'Amatsu, prepare for disembarking.

Lieutenant Smith take ops, Ensign Barret you have the conn.'

The officers shifted their positions. Ohlson noted that the crew was developing a team spirit. Mc Sorley smiled as Smith moved into her chair. He whispered a good luck to her. She nodded at him.

Barret was sitting nervously looking at the helm controls. 'Keep an eye on the power usage for the tractor beam, that'll be the first to tell you if you've a problem towing the Jem'Hadar ship.'

Barret nodded and glanced towards the control indicator.

Benko patted her shoulder. 'It's a piece of cake Ensign, you'll do fine.'

The younger of the women smiled nervously at the other. 'I hope so Lieutenant, if it isn't as well as not looking good on my record, it might mean a stay at a Dominion penal colony.'

Tambecki laughed. 'If you do, then I'll teach you poker, it'll help past the time.'

Barret smiled back.

Benko got serious. 'Just concentrate on the temperature.'

'What?'

'When I get nervous I just look up the temperature outside the ship.'

Barret looked quizzically at Tambecki.

'It takes my mind of whatever is making me nervy, and besides that I always wanted to be a meteorologist.'

'You did?'

She nodded. 'That was my first posting on Mars, Environmental Control Unit.' She shrugged. 'But it was not to last.

See you soon.' She walked to the side of the Bridge they were using as a focal point for the transporters.

'Good luck people.' Ohlson waited until the trio was in position. 'Beam them to the Caesar Lieutenant Smith.'

'Aye aye Captain.' He initialized the transportation. The hum of the procedure died. He checked his console. 'They are on board the Caesar.'

'They have beamed across the commander and the lieutenants.'

Sia looked at the two that made up his crew. He had a good team, a full crew complement it was not. But they were more than efficient, he wondered what the details of Ohlson's plan was. No doubt they would be informed in due course. 'Keep our position, and watch those sensors, this would not be the time to be interrupted by the Dominion patrols.'

Mc Sorley had gone straight into captain mode. 'Tambecki, check the helm, familiarize yourself with the controls.

d'Amatsu, when we get within transporter range of the penal colony you'll have to pull our folk out of there post haste, check that you are up to par with Cardassian transporters.'

'Aye aye, Lieutenant Commander,' responded d'Amatsu. He paused before continuing, then he added, 'aye, aye Captain.'

Mc Sorley said nothing, but she smiled.

Tambecki was smiling too. 'That means I'm either the first or the second officer, not bad, not bad at all.' She was seated and concentrating on the controls. They looked easy enough to manipulate, if basic. Ah well, she imagined old sea dogs from earth's more romantic sailing ship days would have considered the Caesar a rust bucket, still it was their rust bucket and it was Benko's job to navigate and move this rust bucket to where it was supposed to go. She tapped the console, the environmental controls blinked. She slapped the panel, the blinking stopped. The readouts indicated that all was well. 'We're ready at this end, Captain.'

Mc Sorley nodded and a lock of red hair slipped from its place behind her right ear. She fixed the errant strand and took her place behind Benko.

'Transporters ready.' d'Amatsu had positioned himself in the adjoining section to the Bridge.

'Open a link to the Augustus.'

Tambecki did as she had been asked. 'It's open.'

'Augustus, U.S.S. Caesar here, ready to depart on your instructions.'

On the Augustus, Ohlson listened as his first officer gave her report. 'Caesar, take up position three kilometers to the rear of the Gaunt, and stay in that formation until we get to one kilometer of the ionosphere, acknowledge then maintain radio silence until contacted.'

'Caesar acknowledges,' answered Mc Sorley.

'Gaunt acknowledges,' Sia was tugging at his tunic.

'Ensign Barret, take us to a position one kilometer below the ionosphere, half impulse.'

Hope Barret tapped the console, the engines hummed a little louder. She watched with great care as the indicators showed that the ship and its Dominion passenger rose gently until it was at the captain's declared velocity, then she watched the attitude controls, she was about to calculate the height where the ionosphere was. It was her first time piloting a starship, she had flow simulations, but the knowledge of the power that a tap of your fingertip can direct... She smiled. She could get to like this job.

'One three nine kilometers is the desired height,' said Smith from ops.

Barret nodded that she had received the information and then guided the Augustus to one hundred and thirty-nine kilometers above the surface of the planet. She tapped her console until she saw the whereabouts of the rest of the ragtag fleet, and then she calculated where the penal colony was to them. 'We are in position Captain.' She reckoned they were on the side of the planet facing the penal colony, they were on line with the planet's tropics. The supposed position of the Hawaii was only a thousand kilometers away, but this was as near to it as they would get.

She watched her console. 'So too are the others.'

'Do the sensors tell us anything of the penal colony?'

'No sir, we'd have to go out of the ionosphere to get anything.' Barret was eyeing the controls for any sign of Jem'Hadar.

'Open a communication link to the others.'

She did.

'The Augustus is moving fifty kilometers south of here and closer to the penal colony.' Ohlson was reading his own console. 'We will be rising above the interference and scanning from the Jem'Hadar, if we are detected, which is all but a certainty, they will come to us.

Once we have made our scan and returned to below the ionosphere we will jettison the Jem'Hadar derelict, and send the data we recover to both your vessels. Use it to formulate a route to the colony and attack.

Sia will spearhead the assault. The object is threefold; to transmit a priority one distress message to Starfleet; to destroy any defenses you may encounter at the prison; and allow the prisoners to be transported to the Caesar, which will have followed the Gaunt. But, Commander Mc Sorley you can take the initiative if the Gaunt is delayed and you see no resistance.' He paused. 'If you cannot retrieve the prisoners then make your escape to the coordinates given for the rendezvous with the Osprey.

I suggest at that point all survivors regroup on the Gaunt, but the final decision will be made by whoever is the ranking officer.' He tactfully left out the word 'surviving'.

'When we defeat the investigating ships then we will join you in the attack, and or the escape.

It is of the utmost importance that word is given to Starfleet that the Dominion have a large fleet in this region and they have a plan to use this sector. Make your transmission as soon as you clear the ionosphere.

Good luck,' he concluded.