Star Trek: Intergalactic

by jwhitley2002

The year is 2380. Invaders from the Triangulum galaxy have managed to cross the intergalactic void in much the same way the Enterprise D did with the help of The Traveler. They are here to annihilate all humans. Although their motives on not clear at first, they have a very good reason.

Star Trek: Intergalactic

Chapter 1: Welcome to Triangulum

The movie begins with the Starship Hera traveling at warp speed, but something is wrong. The typical streaking of stars is twisting and distorted. Pulses of energy bounce off the hull and cracks start to form. The bridge shakes violently. A console on the starboard wall explodes in showers of sparks.

The helmsman shouts, "The helm is not responding!"

"Can we establish manual control?" comes the captain's reply.

Over at the science station, a Vulcan officer states, "Captain, we are experiencing severe temporal fluctuations." He pulls back a little with a curious look on his face and adds, "I believe we are moving forward in time."

"Sir, the warp field is collapsing!" the helmsmen shouts as he looks to the view screen. The ship is shot back into normal space with such force that the starboard nacelle is torn off. The ship tumbles though space and some hull-plating tears off. Control thrusters around the ship automatically fire to regain control. On the bridge, the computer announces, "Warning! Warp core breach in 12 seconds."

The captain replies, "Engineering, can you save the core!?"

Down in engineering is a scene of complete chaos as various consoles erupt into sparks and a white fog comes rolling though the room.

"Negative! The support reactor is gone! Safety systems failing! I'm ejecting the core!" yells the chief engineer. He keys the commands into a terminal by the core. The damaged warp core begins to descend though the floor.

On the bridge, the helmsman yells, "Captain, look!" as he motioning to the view screen. She stands up with a fearful look upon her face. On the view screen are two fleets of warships engaged in fierce combat. The ships are distinct from each other. One is capped in crimson red and the other side is white. The biggest two on the red side are shaped like a disc with a cylinder running down the center, which fires a blue beam out one end. The white fleets biggest ship is shape by three rectangular tubes, two short ones on each side of a longer one in the center, with connection tubes between them. The surface of the ship seems to be shimmering. On the top and bottom of the center tube are energy cannons which emit a yellow beam. These beams send shockwaves through space as they fire.

The tactical officer states, I am having difficulty reading the other ships."

"Elaborate," orders the captain.

"I am only able to detect the weapons fire. They seem to employ some form of stealth technology."

"Do they know we are here?"

Before her crew has a chance to respond, the ejected warp core explodes and rocks the ship.

As the shaken crew return to their stations, the tactical office looks at his display and responds, "They do now."

Two smaller ships, fighters, on the red side break off from the battle and streak toward the crippled federation ship with frightening speed. The fighters have a narrow body with two wings attached to the rear and sweeping forward. There are no signs of a window for the pilot to look out. Before the crew can react, the lead fighter is upon them and firing. Two blue blasts from an unknown energy weapon burst out of blue panels on the nose of the enemy fighter and they rip down the sides of the ship. The shields give no protection. The second fighter also fires. On the bridge, the crew is in midair from the impact when a red flash of light fills the room. A split second later, the bridge crew find themselves falling to the floor in a giant room on one of the alien ships. The rest of the crew has also been transported into the same room.

The view in this room looks like they are in a glass box atop a massive ship. Along the walls and the ceiling are images of the battle raging outside.

The captain takes a quick survey of her crew and notices one of her officers is missing the right side of her uniform. The left side is covered with blood and scorch marks. It looks like half her body had been vapored then instantly been restored. As crew members start to gather around her, the Captain rushes over and asks, "Are you OK!?"

But the officer is in a state of shock, grasps the exposed parts of her body trying to convince herself she's in one piece. The captain looks around to other crew members and notices some of them have burns, rips, and holes in their uniforms, indicate shrapnel damage, but none of them seem to be hurt. She then catches a glimpse of her ship disintegrating as the two attacking ships head back in their direction. Moving fast, the ships begin to fire at them. But before the energy blast reaches them, it impacts the shields protecting the ship.

"At least we know we're on a white ship," explains the captain.

"Captain, over there" a crewmember says as he points to another wall. The battle outside seems to be intensifying. The red battleships line up and head straight for them. The first one literally bulldozes its way through the front line of the white ships. It does so at considerable cost as it slams thought several white ships about a third of its size, as well as taking heavy fire from all directions. The battleship fires and intense beam toward the ship carrying the federation crew; but misses as the ship evades. The second battleship follows the path of the first one and makes it though the line relatively unscathed. Several smaller red ships also follow the battleship through. These are shaped like a half dome on its side and with a long, narrow, and inward tapered cone jetting out the rear that supports four warp nacelles on short pylons. These destroyers fire multiple beams from four emitters on the nose of the ship. The opposing forces seemed to be almost evenly matched, with a slight advantage going to the red side. As the two battleships close in on the ship carrying the federation crew, the second one breaks off as if it attempting to avoid something. Then, out of nowhere, two spheres of blue light - with energy discharges bouncing across their surfaces - streak toward the first battleship. Their appearance indicates they were fired at faster than light speed. The spheres slam into the battleship and explodes into blue fire. The flame appears to be attracted to the ship as they shoot across the surface. Now consumed in fire, the ship begins to drift.

Slowing out of faster than light speed, a gigantic white ship, with a simple rectangular shape that has flat tapered edges at the front, begins to open fire. Yellow pulses of energy exploding from huge cannons mounted on both sides of the ship. The blasts violently rip into the countering red ship. The ship containing the federation crew slides out of the way and aligns to fire upon the same red ship. The white ship moves with remarkable agility given its monstrous size. The smaller white ships also concentrate fire on the battleship that is on fire while the two white capital ships continue to fire on the other battleship. Weakened from battle, the red ship begins to break apart, disintegrating with continued blows from the white ships. With the first battleship crippled and the other destroyed, the red fleet is at a noticeable disadvantage. But instead of retreating as you may expect, they do something unexpected. The remaining red ships seem to collectively target the ship housing the federation crew for a suicide run. Picking up speed fast, they all fire exclusively on the ship they intend to ram. Then, over the top of the ship, the other, slightly larger white ship comes into intercept. As it does, it turns to face its side into the oncoming enemy ships. It then begins to roll and effectively stream rolls into the red ships. Most of the impact various parts of the white ship and explode. The rolling distributes the impacts and reduces damage. One of the red ships avoids impacting the rolling white and slams into its target. The Hera's crew hears a crashing sound echo though the ship but do not feel any of the impact. Then, the images surrounding them fade and they find themselves in a huge, windowless, door less room. The walls, floor, and celling are perfectly smooth. Even the source of light in the room seems to be a mystery. Without the distraction of the battle outside, the officers start wondering where they are.

"Captain," calls the Vulcan Science Officer, "I've been able to take a scan of this room."

"And?" the captain asks.

After consulting his tricorder, the puzzled Vulcan replies, "The walls, ceiling, and floor are made from a substance that could not possibly exist."

The captain looks at the floor and then at the walls. "My senses would seem to disagree."

"If these readings are correct, then there exists another nucleon that we do not know about."

"What?" she says with disbelief.

Just then, two doors recess into the wall and slide open. In walk two tall, thin quadruped aliens. Atop their short four legs is a long, thin trunk. Almost to their heads jet out two very long arms that bend in the center; so long are these arms, that if they were straightened, they would drag on the ground. At the end of each arm is a hand with three fingers. Their heads are flat ovals, slanted back from chin to crown, stretched with olive skin marked with two sharp golden eyes. The Federation has never encountered anything like this species. A simple vest decorated with strange symbols is the only clothing they wear. As they approach, one opens his arms and begins to speak. "Triv-si-ta."

The captain, not comprehending, leans over to her Science Officer and says, "Did you catch that?"

"No, it would seem that the universal translator cannot identify the language."

"We don't understand," the captain replies while shaking her head.

"Can you understand us?" she adds.

The alien nods his head in confirmation.

The captain then asks, "Can you tell us where we are?"

Then, the red flash of the alien's transporter grabs everyone's attention. In mid-stride, a human male appears before them while walking directly toward the captain. In a hostile tone, he shouts, "You are nowhere near your own galaxy!" He stands six-foot tall with pitch-black hair and very light skin – as if he has not seen a yellow sun in a while. He is adorned in a black trench coat with small dark red triangles at the bottom. With gun belts strapped to both legs, he can only be one thing - a warrior. He looks menacing to the federation crew and a shiver runs down their spines as he approaches. He stops right in front of the captain next to the alien.

The crew tries to decide if he intends to harm them or if he's a friend. Something in his eyes tells the Captain that the Federation arrival has unpleasant repercussions. He then looks at one of the aliens and says, "Te-farsh acure."

"Sei' ha-le tia," the alien replies, turns, and heads for the door. The accent of the man matches that of the aliens, indicating he's been with them for some time.

The Vulcan Science Officer leans over and whispers, "Captain," and shows her his tricorder.

She looks down at the tricorder then back up at the man.

She then asks, "How did you get here?"

He replies, "I was invited. You were not. Nevertheless, welcome to Triangulum."

Two years later in the Milky Way galaxy, the Enterprise comes across an ominous find…

"Report," commands Worf on the bridge of the Enterprise.

"Sensors cannot penetrate the object," replies the ensign at Ops.

Captain Picard steps though the turbo lift doors and says, "Worf, has the object made any attempt to hale us?"

"No sir," Worf replies as the captain walks toward the view screen. "It is too small to be a shuttle or a life pod. It's most likely a probe of some kind."

Picard looks at the small spherical probe on the view screen. A simple design, the chrome sphere has two short spikes protruding from either side. "Has it made any movement toward us?"

"Yes." Worf continues, "It stopped as soon as we attempted to scan it, and then moved toward us and stopped 40 kilometers off our port side."

"Ensign, is it scanning us?" Picard asks.

The ensign, pecking away at the console replies, "I don't know. It's just sitting there. No energy emissions or movement detected."

Picard looks at the probe on the view screen. He thinks for a second and asks, "Is it safe to bring aboard?"

"I believe so," the ensign replies.

"Lock a tractor beam on it and bring it in to Shuttle Bay 2."

"Yes sir," the ensign replies. They all watch on the view screen as the tractor beam hits the probe, but the probe instantly vaporizes instead of being pulled toward the ship.

"What happened?" Worf inquires.

"I'm not sure. It just disappeared, as soon as the beam hit it," answers the ensign.

Studying the view screen, Picard asks, "Any indication where it went?"

"No sir," the ensign replies as he scans, "All scans negative."

Worf adds, "Perhaps it was a self-destruct."

Picard nods and says, "Very well. Launch a probe and leave it here in case any more of them come this way."

"Aye, sir," replies Worf.

Picard then orders, "Helm, set course for Star base 17, Warp Six."

"Aye, sir," comes the reply.

Picard turns to Worf and says, "We don't want to keep Captain Riker waiting too long." As Picard takes a seat, he thinks aloud, "I wonder where that probe came from?"

The year is 2380. Want to know what happens next? Stay tuned. Want to see this concept become a major motion picture, share this video.

Chapter 2: Operation Intergalactic.

In the Triangulum galaxy, a fleet of thousands of ships decelerate from FTL speed as they approach their home base. The ships appear to have major battle damage, except for one that is in the middle of the fleet. As they near the station, this ship takes the lead as the others fall back. The ship is shaped like the end of a two-pronged fork. At the main bulk, two long sections jet out from the base, tapering all the way to the front. The sections are spaced apart by a massive-curved window spanning the two forward swept sections. At the end, two narrow wings jet out perpendicular to the ship. On the bottom, two wings angle out toward the sides and two short wings toward the center. This ship, like the others, appears to have no curved edges except for the spanning window.

The fleet is heading toward a gigantic megastructure; an artificial ring, hundreds of kilometers in width, surrounding a white star. The ring has another ring as part of its super structure surrounding a large greenish-brown planet. The planet rings internal diameter is where you would expect to find a moon orbiting. The side facing away from the star is a smooth white wall. The side facing the star resembles the surface of the planet. The edges are a little rugged and appear to be under construction. This megastructure is a dyson sphere at the beginning of construction. As the ships get closer, the sheer size of the ring becomes more apparent. Then on the rings wall, doors recess slightly and slide open. As the ship enters the ring, it passes from empty space into air. The mechanism by which the air is kept inside is not revealed by the ship passing though. The ship passes over hundreds of other ships that vary in size and construction, slowly moving towards the far side of the bay. The ship looks like its maneuvering to land. As it approaches the wall, the wall seems to manufacture a landing platform as the ship extends its landing gear. The movement is completely silent; only the air being pushed aside, and background noise can be heard. While touching down, a ramp begins to extend from the bottom and forms stairs. Out walks the same human from the encounter with the federation crew two years earlier. His appearance is much friendlier than before, but still, that of a man on edge. Doors open along the wall and a single Etherian comes to meet him as walks down the stairs.

"Nel res ha Cain," says the Etherian. The translation, "It is good that you have returned, Commander Cain".

"Te les atayan," the human responds. Translation: "Good to be back." Cain looks around and heads toward the hall.

The alien follows him and states, "The Emperor and Commander Knight need to see you on the command deck."

Cain looks back and asks, "Any idea as to why?"

"The Bozcomb are in a place they shouldn't be," replies the alien as he motions to the turbo lift. They walk into the lift and begin a rapid ascent.

After a smooth and soundless stop, Cain and the alien exit the turbo lift in the command room on the station. Cain is greeted by a human female, Sara Knight. She is an exceptional beauty with long, wavy, light brown hair. She walks over to Cain and embraces him. The two hold each other like they've not held each other in a long while.

After a few seconds, she says, "A hologram is not the same."

"I've missed you too."

As they separate, she asks, "So, how does the prototype work?"

"Unbelievable," Cain responds. "The ships maneuverability makes it untouchable."

"It is unfortunate that only humans can effectively pilot a ship of that nature," says an Etherian adorned in royal clothing. His vest is a shimmering purple with a silver sash draped across his shoulder. A dark green cape flows off his shoulders to the floor. He is the Emperor of Etheria.

"Most of the other humans are in key positions we can't afford to replace."

The emperor says, "The war is becoming one of attrition. However, we have secured sector 609-103. Perhaps now is an ideal time to send a ship to recruit some humans from your galaxy."

Cain replies, "No… The Bozcomb still control sectors close to the link. If they manage to track a ship through it, the Federation and its allies would be over-run before they figure out what their up against."

Sara adds, "They may be suspicious as the why we invested forces to take that sector."

"I understand," the emperor says. Then he adds, "Cain, I want your opinion on something."

The three enter a room adjacent to the command center. "Display Terzarc sector briefing," the Emperor commands to an empty room. The lights in the room dim and a hologram of a solar system appears around them. The three now appear to be walking through space. The room then zooms in on a planet, zeroing in on a base on the surface.

Sara says, "The pulsar this planet orbits emits a great deal of sensor interference and renders transporters useless, but what we've got here is an enemy research base."

"This close to a pulsar would blind their long-range sensors," Cain says.

Emperor Rieaze replies, "That is where the puzzle starts. The Bozcomb consider detection of incoming ships to be the most critical aspect in establishing a defense."

"They could be altering their strategies, hiding where we would not expect to find them," Cain says.

"I think they are looking for something we don't see," Sara adds.

"Why is that?" Cain asks.

Sara hits a holographic button on a keypad hanging in mid-air. The hologram changes into a layout of the base and zooms in on a hexagon-shaped dish. "They are making intensive sensor sweeps of the pulsar," Sara says.

"Weapons research?" Cain inquires.

"None that I can foresee. Our ships are impervious to any radiation or energy a pulsar emits."

"And they know that," Cain says.

Rieaze jumps in and says, "We've been unable to determine any motive the Bozcomb would have for being there."

Cain scrutinizes the data and replies, "Sara is correct, they're looking for something. And that's never in our best interest."

The emperor nods his head and says, "How would you suggest handling this?"

Later that day…

Cain's ship decelerates from faster than light speed and rapidly approaches the planet from the Terzarc sector briefing. His ships shimmering surface is actually a form of stealth technology. The undetected ship assumes a high orbit on the other side of the planet in relation to the base. The command deck of the Starwolf is seemingly void of anything. Then, as Cain walks toward the center of the room, a table comes up from the floor as if the ship knows what he wants. A few meters away on each side, two squares holes open up in the floor. Separate platforms then lifts two sets of alien from a deck below. One of the alien's resemble a giant centipede but with four legs and four arms. It's body is bent in a J shape with a triangular head on top. It's eyes are hard to make out at first as they are covered in a thin green screen; the same as the rest of it's body. Two huge mandibles are easy to see on the bottom of its head. Resting on the bottom of it's back is a backpack with handles sticking out; presumably weapons. They are the Dig.

The second set of aliens resemble a squid like creature with four thick tentacles and a rounded, mushroom like head. Four black eyes are spaced evenly around the head. No mouth can be seen and it is not apparent which way the aliens and actually facing. These are the Shekie.

A holographic image of the research base and the surrounding area is displayed.

"There are a few more ships here than in the recon scans," Cain says.

A voice fills the room from an unseen entity that says, "One light attack cruisers, nineteen fighters, and two science ships."

"Is the plan still good?"

"A slight modification to the bouncer is needed. Add a spider here." As the voice speaks, the hologram of the base zooms in to a hallway and an X appears on the floor. "The entry points for Hostics, Sumas, and Sligs team are still optimal. Tiltigs team should move to the north side of the main lab." The hologram zooms to the side of a large building.

"Are you good with that?" Cain asks as he looks toward one of the Shekie.

A bracelet on one of the alien's tentacles lights up and a synthetic voice replies, "Yes."

"Alright, let's do it."

With that, the aliens then descend back to the lower deck.

He then walks over to a weapons arsenal embedded in the wall. He picks up a long arm ban and places it on his right arm. The ban extended around his arm and soft white light illuminates the front. Then several white flashes appear around him, placing different weapons on his person and an auxiliary arm ban on his left arm. Loaded with weapons, Cain is now ready for battle.

Cain then turns away from the table as it starts to fold back into the floor. In front of him the floor recesses into a stair case. As he steps on the first step it becomes a fast-moving escalator. Cain does not make any movements to indicate he is adjusting to the movement of the escalator; it's as if the ship is moving around him. Once on the next deck, he heads down a hall to a room which contains a single small craft. He climbs the delta-winged craft and presses a few buttons. A canopy materializes around him; the landing gear folds up as the shuttle begins to hover. The shuttle then drops though the floor via phasing technology. Cain descends toward the surface at high speed. The shuttlecraft pierces the ground and phases through the planet and into the base at the other side. With uncanny accuracy and stealth, the shuttle rises into the lower level of the power station. The canopy disappears, and Cain exits the craft.

He already knows where the guards are as he walks toward the entrance to the reactor room. He remains concealed from the guards by equipment in the room but can clearly see them. His glasses have an x-ray capability. Everything is transparent green while the Bozcomb are seen clearly with no extra visual effects. They have red scaly skin with large black eyes. Their hair looks like thick dreadlocks, and four holes are where the nose would be. Their arms consist of two opposed forearms with three large fingers on each one, jointed to the upper arm. Lastly, the knees bend backward, as opposed to humans. The guards stand against the hallway walls and face each other, allowing them to see anyone coming from any direction. Cain takes two small spheres out of a pouch on his belt. He looks at them, then back at the guards. A crosshair appears on the head of one, then the other. Using his other hand, Cain taps a button on his glasses, triggering the spheres to hover. Reading his line of vision, the spheres shoot themselves around the equipment and bury themselves into the heads of the guards. Never knowing what hit them, they fall lifelessly to the ground.

Cain turned and walked back to the IC7. Reaching through the open canopy, he pressed the return button on the command console; the craft's canopy rematerialized and dropped through the floor. He pulls a small box out of his coat and places it on the floor. After pressing the center of the box, a square recessed into it. Along the edges of the device, a blue light flashed to red and then the box vanishes.

Cain walks down the hall and stealthily approaches a room filled with Bozcomb. He pulls a small cylindrical device from his coat, aligning it alongside the door. The ends of the device shoot beams of light from both ends that extend to the floor and the ceiling. Cain releases the device which hovers and extends a glass-like field that extends from the beam across the door. The holographic wall creates a false illusion to those on the other side of the doorway, completely replicating the hallway as the Bozcomb see it. Cain walks by the door undetected, and the hovering cylinder follows him. After Cain clears the door, the wall generated by the device fades. He grabs the device and the beams of light disappear as he places it back in his coat. He walks up to a ventilation outlet in the floor and pulls a small, flat, hexagonal shaped object from his coat and sticks it to the vent. A robotic leg then folds out from the sides and the object quickly slips into the vent. He then heads for a turbo shaft and, once inside the lift, he presses a key on his armband to signal Kit to start the attack. In orbit, the Starwolf rapidly slides around the planet and begins to descend.

Moments later, in the control room of the base, a warning alarm sounds. An officer responds to the alert saying, "Commander, I'm detecting an atmospheric disturbance. It's a ship coming in fast! Its profile is that of Cain's last known ship!"

"Battle stations! Launch all ships!" the commander replies.

"Powering weapons!" another officer shouts. Around the base, energy weapons power up as the Starwolf closes in.

"Fire!" the commander shouts.

Down in the reactor room, the box that Cain placed on the floor uncloaks. Jumping into the air, it simultaneously fires eleven energy pulses in different directions. The pulses hit key power regulation units and control terminals.

"Commander! I'm reading a power surge throughout the weapons grid!" an officer shouts. Numerous explosions rock the base as backup power systems and weapons platforms explode.

Shaken, the base commander shouts, "Cain is in the complex. Find him!"

As the Starwolf rapidly approaches the surface of the base, it pulls up sharply to skim the top of the first building. As it does, a box about 12 by 12 meters ejects from the under side at high speed. The box orientates itself and quickly contacts the side of the building. However, it seems to have instantly arrested its momentum as it doesn't hit with any significant force. Inside the building, a white oval shaped ring appears on the wall. Then grid with boxes only about three centimeters squared quickly appears and disappears. The wall is then blown away as little cubes. Though the opening spring out four of the Dig, each holding four energy-based weapons. They wear a vest that looks like light body armor and on their head is a horizontal half circle headset. They immediately began to fire as the room they have entered has about a dozen enemy troop in it. Balls of white energy pulses shoot from their weapons while blue pulses shoot from the enemies weapons. As the two sides exchange fire, it is clear the Dig have the advantage as their four legs allow them to move quickly from side to side, dodging return fire. Then two of them hear Kits voice over their headset.

"Six up high through the door."

The two soldiers raise their weapons toward a catwalk going around the room and zero in on a door. Then, enemy troops start emerging though the door and are immediately met with incoming weapons fire.

In the command center, and officer shoots, "Eight Dig have breached the barracks, Four Shekie in the in the main hanger and four in the lab."

In the lab, four of the Shekie are moving through the lab at frightening speed. They use their tentacles to propel themselves by grabbing support columns and large equipment. The tentacles thin out as they extended form the body and reach nearly 15 meters. Many Bozcomb bodies are scattered around the lab. As a Bozcomb soldier enters the lab, he doesn't even have a chance to fire his weapon as a Shekie tentacle pierces his head and the head of the soldier behind him. On the tip of the tentacle is cone shaped beak.

"Commander, I'm reading dimensional shifting on level nine; it's Cain," the officer replies.

On level nine, Cain holds a technologically superior adaptation of a mini-gun. The flash points at the end of the barrels look like the three barrels are firing at once. With a high-speed whine, it belts out a seemingly endless supply of projectiles though the enemy forces. However, this projectile weapon does not eject used shells.

As Cain advances down the hall he hears Kits voice, "24 on the left, 35 yards closing."

Cain extends his left arm and a dimensional shift emanating from the device on his forearm places a compact rocket launcher in his hand. As he comes to the intersection, he rapidly fires three rockets toward 24 Bozcomb coming at him. The rockets quickly travel at different speeds, spreading out evenly. Without missing a step, he walks out of the intersection and the rockets explode simultaneously, causing the ceiling to cave in. As his left arm lowers the rocket launcher disappears. Fire and a blast wave from the explosion appear to bounce off a force field directly behind Cain; though it is not clear as to where the field is emanating from.

On the surface, the Starwolf is making strafing runs on the base. As some ships attempt to launch, a yellow energy blast from the main cannons mounted on both side of the Starwolf punch though their hulls. Other weapons on this fast-moving killer include two mini-gun style ion cannons on the bottom, two long crystals mounted on both wing tips, and two six-pack weapons on the nose. It's first target is the light cruiser, a T shaped ship.

The blast from both the main cannons and the nose emitters explode on impact while delivering a fierce punch. Out of the ion cannons on the bottom come bolts of energy that cut through enemy ships like a saw while the crystals send multi-colored steaming energy that disintegrates matter. Within two seconds, most of the ships have been destroyed. At the end of its run, the Starwolf stops and pivots on a dime as if the ship were immune to the laws of inertia.

"Commander!" an officer shouts, "We've lost contact with the lab."

Then an orange light aluminates above a lift door and alarm chimes.

"Who's in the lift?" The commander inquires.

"Sensors show it to be empty but the video feed is down."

"It's him!"

He turns and motions toward the door. All guards and officers draw weapons and take aim at the turbo lift doors. The weapons are teardrop shaped with the base pointed toward the front designed exclusively to fit the Bozcomb hand. Suddenly, a hail of bullets rips though the floor and tears into the Bozcomb. On the lower level, Cain is able to see his targets though the floor utilizing the transparency setting on his glasses. As the last one falls, Cain steps into the lift. On the command deck, Cain walks out to survey the room. With the bullets coming up though the floor, all the equipment has been left undamaged.

"Kit, status," he calls out on communications.

"All ships on the base have been destroyed. However, I'm getting a faint reading heading for space. I believe it to be an escape pod." Kit replies.

"Meet me on the roof." says Cain as he heads for a staircase. Outside the Starwolf hovers over to the command center as Cain emerges from the roof hatch. The surface of the base has been destroyed except for a few buildings. A staircase lowers down from the Starwolf and Cain jumps on the first step. A force then seems to both lift and accelerate him into the Starwolf and through a few decks to the command deck. Once he lands on the floor, a section of floor generates from the walls and fills the hole. The ship starts heading for space. He walks over to the center of the bridge and sits in a chair built into the floor which is flanked by two navigation panels, one on each side, with various other controls on each. As he places his right hand on a glowing half sphere, the arm band disappears via a dimensional shift and a small glass disk extends over his wrist. The ship is now in a steep assent as a sphere of white light extends from it's top-center. Coming out of the atmosphere, the Starwolf heads for the escape pod.

"We have company." Kit says. "Two Ka-dri class destroyers, no escort."

The bridge lights up as holograms fill the room. The ceiling, walls, and even the floor are consumed by holograms as the bridge transforms into a 360-degree view of space around the ship. The holograms superimposed images ranging from weapons tracking systems to trajectory mapping and informational readouts.

The Destroyers are shaped like a rounded cube with four long piers jetting out of only the back four corners. Tucked inside the piers and facing inward appear to be partially exposed warp engines. The escape pod reaches the first destroy as a tractor beam locks on. The second one jumps into the lead to engage the Starwolf. Both ships open fire at the same time. The Bozcomb destroy unlashes thunderous bolts of energy but the Starwolf has far superior maneuverability and dodges the weapons fire with extraordinary speed. As the two close in on each other, several direct hits from the Starwolf begin to weaken the shields of the destroyer. The crystal weapons on the wing tips have been firing a continuous beam into the enemy shields to create a rift toward the starboard side. On the bridge of the Starwolf, Cain eyes begin to glow with an electric fire. As the Starwolf closes in, the sphere on top intensifies. The two are close enough now to see that the destroyer is three times the size of the Starwolf. At the last second, the Starwolf changes orientation and slides away toward the rift. The sphere on its top shoots out a bolt of energy into the rift in the shields. The bolt pierces the rift, and forks out into six strikes like lightning. The hits are to shield generators and disable a large section of the shielding. Then, the Starwolf stops and instantly turns to lay full fire into the enemy. The blast from the main cannons punch thought the unprotected hull and out the other side. A few more quick hits and the Bozcomb ship is reduce to a debris field.

"Where is that other ship!?" Cain shouts.

"It cloaked," Kit replies and adds, "I'm picking up a warp signature, but the trail was scattered by the pulsar. I cannot extrapolate a trajectory."

Cain stands up and starts walking toward the center of the bridge. He looks pissed. "It's not like them to run." On his face is the look of pure killer intent. After a second, he says, "Kit, head back to the base."

After the Starwolf lands on the roof, Cain exits and heads for the command center. A Shekie then calls can over communications.

"Commander, I've begun to analyze the sensor array."

At the sensor array, a Shekie is balances on one tactical with the end coiled up like a snake. The other three are accessing the inner working of the machinery though and open access panel.

"It is set up a to look like a long range sensor array, but it's actually a transporter targeting system."

"Are they trying to get transporters to work in this radiation?"

"I don't think transporting biomatter is the objective. It's focusing on exotic matter from the pulsar."

"What for?"

"I have not determine that yet."

Cain walks though the door to the command center and replies, "Keep me posted."

Kit then calls Cain and reports, "All Bozcomb have been terminated. No casualties."

"Outstanding. Have you been able to access their computer systems?"

"Working on it." Moments later, a remote drone enters the room from the roof hatch and hovers above the computer. It shoots a non-damaging beam of blue light into the console. Data then start rapidly moving across the screen.

Cain starts walking toward the door and says, "I'm going to check out the lab, call me when you're in."

A few minutes later, Cain walks into the lab and sees the leaders for both the Dig and the Shekie team. He asks, "Have you found anything yet?"

The Dig replies, "Yes." He hands Cain a Federation phazer. He picks it up and looks it over. Then he says, "Oh, I know where this is going."

Kit then calls over communications and says, "I've just broken the last layer of encryption, we can now read the database," Kit replies.

"We'll be there shortly."

With that, Cain and the two aliens leave the lab. Moments later, they enter the command center where Kit has some information already displaying. Suddenly, Cain's expression changes as he sees what he's looking for.

"Shit!"

"What is it?" The Dig asks.

"They figured out how to get to the Milky Way. I must go. Stay here and continue to gather information"

As Cain starts to leave, the Dig says, "You may need us."

Cain turns around and replies, "True, but their atmosphere is dealy to both of you."

Cain then heads for the door. He jumps up and runs up the stairs to the roof to the Starwolf's staircase. Upon stepping on the first step, it seems as if gravity switched off as Cain jumps and accelerates up into the Starwolf's command deck. As he clears the stairwell, he lands as if he was stepping off an escalator.

"Kit, get us to galactic corridor 4, quick as possible!" Cain commands.

Kit replies, "Underway, we'll be at the galactic boundary in 17 minutes." Kit says.

Cain then commands, "Open a link to Sara. Send for a cruiser to pick up our team."

A hologram of Sara appears moments later. She can see in Cain's eyes that the news is not good. "What's wrong," she asks.

Cain replies, "The Bozcomb have discovered the link between Naris and the Milky Way."

She looks with disbelief and ask, "How?"

"They've been harvesting strangelets and using them to detect hyper dimensional corridors."

"I… I'm not familiar with that technique."

"Kit…"

Kit elaborates, "The method, nor the theory, exist within the alliance worlds. I have analyzed the science and it does seem plausible, though confirmation experimentation is warranted. However, the location of the link and the ward field calculations are correct."

Cain then adds, "Sara, initiate operation Intergalactic."

Meanwhile in the Milky Way galaxy, the crew of the Enterprise is unaware of the evil that is about to befall them…

On the Enterprise, Picard and Worf enter a transporter room. The transporter operator says, "Captain Riker and his wife are ready to beam aboard."

"Energize," orders Picard. On the pads, Riker and Deanna materialize. "Welcome aboard! It's been too long," says Picard with a smile as his arms open. Riker and Deanna both smile as they step off the transporter platform.

"Indeed, it has," Riker says with a smile

"Let me show you to your quarters," Picard says.

As the party steps out of the transporter room and into the hall, two boys, about 7- or 8-years old race by.

Riker ask, "Still no sign of the Merlin?"

"We've been making full sensor sweeps along the way, still no trace."

"So how long do you think you'll be on transport duty?"

"Well, when a federation transport disappears on a course only a few light years from a Romulan claimed system, it's going to make Starfleet command nervous. So, I suspect either until we find the ship or run out of colonist."

Riker smiles at the explanation and adds, "Sounds like a mystery. Any clues yet?"

As they walk down the hall, Picard says, "Well actually, we did run into an alien probe yesterday."

"From where?"

"We're not sure. Its reverse heading leads out of federation space. The first ones to detect it was a relay station in the Mosher system, where the colonists are heading," Picard says.

"What happened to it?"

Picard looks at Worf, who says, "I believe it self-destructed when we attempted to bring it aboard."

"We are going to follow its reverse course back a little way to see if we can find out who sent it," Picard adds.

"How far?" Riker inquires.

Picard smiles and says, "How long are you on vacation?"

Chapter 3: Assault on the Enterprise.

Near the border of the Milky Way galaxy, the Bozcomb destroyer decelerates from warp. In the command center, the crew examine their surroundings. The bridge of the Bozcomb destroyer is laid out as a half circle joined to a triangle. Along the curved wall making up the front of the room is a giant view screen. The images are not centered as a human would expect but spread out as if the Bozcomb have no focused point of vision and see everything at once in a 180-degree radius. Along the back wall are Bozcomb setting on unusual looking chairs, they have no back and arm rest swooping forward, specific to Bozcomb physiology. They face screens curved into the wall and a shelf runs the length of the wall. This shelf has keys on both the top and bottom that the Bozcomb's separated, opposing forearms and fingers make use of. Sitting in the center is the commander. The Bozcomb commander orders, "Status report."

An officer replies, "Space media is having a positive effect on engines, weapons and shields are not affected."

"Scan for element 984," the commander orders.

After a few seconds, an officer says, "I have a ship composed of the element heading our way. The crew is mostly human."

"Set a course for it, maximum speed," the commander orders.

On the Enterprise, Riker and Picard are in good spirits as they chat. "Once the Titian's refit is complete, she'll be able to give the Enterprise a run for her money," Riker boast.

Picard answers with, "I don't know about that, Geordi has got the engines running well above normal."

Riker then gets a serious look on his face and asks, "Will you still be around for that?"

Picard looks at Riker with a hint of surprise, then says, "I suppose that kind of news travels pretty fast."

"You could say that."

"They are making me an offer that's hard to dismiss."

"They've tried to make you an admiral before. And you've even been advised not to by one of the greatest starship captains ever. What's changed?

"I guess… I'm getting old. I also think I could do a lot of good up there."

He looks down for a moment as the two sit in a moment of silence, then back up, and says, "Have you thought about it?"

Ricker leans back and opens his mouth as he's about to reply when an incoming call alert sounds.

The ensign says, "Captain, incoming message from Starfleet."

Picard looks over at him an orders, "On screen."

On the screen comes Admiral Janeway. "Captain Picard, we need you to check something out." she says.

Oh?" Picard curiously inquires.

"Our frontier scanners near the edge of federation space have picked up an anomaly," Janeway states.

"An anomaly?" Picard asks. Janeway continues, "We can't confirm its speed or heading, too far away. But we think it's a ship traveling above warp ten toward federation space."

"Warp ten?" Picard asks surprised.

Janeway continues, "They appear to lie along your current course. Your orders are to intercept them as far away as possible and verify their intentions."

While Janeway is giving the order, Riker is pressing keys on the terminal embedded on his chair. He jumps in, "At warp 9, we can be in range of the anomaly's projected course in 3 hours."

"We'll call you back in 3 hours," Picard replies with a smile.

"Good luck, Janeway out," She replies.

The view screen returns to its normal view of space as Picard turns around and says, "Ensign, lay in course for the anomaly, warp 9." "Course laid-in sir," he replies.

"Engage" Picard orders.

Riker comments, "The probe you were talking about?"

"It would appear so," Picard replies.

The Enterprise then goes into warp.

Later in engineering, Geordi is working on the B4 android.

"B4, can you access the memory ingrams via path 918 Bata 4?" Geordi asks.

The android looks up with a confused look and says, "No."

Captain Picard exits the turbo lift and enters engineering. He walks up and asks, "How's it coming?"

Geordi stands up, sighs, and says, "I've tried implementing a new translation protocol, but his positronic matrix is just too limited to accept Data's information. He has been able to assimilate a few of the simpler subroutines, but that's all."

Over the com link, Riker calls Picard. "Riker to Picard, that anomaly just came into sensor range." Picard asks, "We should still be an hour away, what's its heading?"

"Straight for us," Riker replies. "And Captain, their speed is warp fourteen," Riker adds.

"Warp fourteen?"

"I know, but we verified it."

"On my way," Picard says as he walks toward to turbo lift. Minutes later Picard steps onto the bridge and says, "Status."

Riker says, "Sensors are detecting what seems to be the projected pattern of matter they can't identify."

Picard looks at the console for a second, then at Riker. "Hailing frequencies?" Picard asks.

"Nothing," Riker responds.

Picard then starts walking toward his chair. "Yellow alert. Shields up, weapons ready," he orders. Then, with a tap to his communicator, he orders, "Deanna Troi to the bridge," as he takes his seat.

They will be here in under a minute." Worf announces.

Riker looks a Picard and ask, "And if their hostile?"

Picard replies with, "We already know we can't out run them. Let's hope they are just in a hurry to make contact."

Less than a minute later, the Enterprise answers all stop as the Bozcomb destroyer decelerates from warp while de-cloaking. The Bozcomb cloak just fades out rather than a shimmer, indicating a different kind of cloaking technology. Rapidly advancing, the destroyer opens fire. The first few shots pierce the shields as if they were not even up, ripping down the hull. A few lower powered shots target the nacelles.

"Red Alert!" Picard shouts as the bridge is rocked.

"Captain!" Worf yells. "Shields, weapons, and engines have been disabled!"

The computer then announces, "Intruder alert!"

Riker, looking at his control pad says, "Multiple beam-in points detected!"

Suddenly, three Bozcomb troops transport to the bridge in a blue shimmer. They have a nasal apparatuses placing a tube into each of their four nostrils. This indicates they have a problem with our atmosphere. Worf reaches for his phazer but is struck in the shoulder by a Bozcomb plasma weapon. Wolf spins into a console and goes down. The other two Bozcomb quickly shoot the helmsmen and two other officers. The weapons used by the Bozcomb inflict tremendous damage on the human officers, blowing a hole in the security officer's chest and out the back. The helmsman is decapitated by the blast. The third officer arm is shot off right at shoulder. These weapons seem to do no damage to the wall or control panel they hit after hitting the crewmembers. The Bozcomb that fired on Worf is struck by Riker's phazer, which does little more than get his attention. The Bozcomb takes aim at Riker but is tackled by Picard. They roll around for a second until the Bozcomb gets his footing and throws Picard off. As Picard starts to get back up, another Bozcomb puts a weapon to his head and says, "Surrender your ship, human. Or we will kill everyone!" Picard looks at Riker who has a weapon pointed at him and is forced to capitulate.

At the same time, Bozcomb troops attack engineering. They seem to come out of nowhere, jumping from level to level. Geordie is franticly trying to restore power despite the advancing Bozcomb. Then, the console he is working on explodes, hurling him back into a wall. He is hurt bad as he falls unconsciously to the floor. The B4 android walks toward him in total confusion. He looks around and then is struck in the chest by a Bozcomb weapon. The weapon burns his uniform and sends an electrical discharge running though his body. B4 is slightly stunned but still standing. Then, the Bozcomb fires multiple times to take down the android, hitting him in the head and chest. B4 falls by Geordie's side still short circuiting. The Bozcomb soldier approaches him and looks at the android. He taps his computer bracelet then kneels down and touches B4. The soldier and B4 are then transported off the ship. Another group of soldiers set up a strange device near the warp core.

Back on the bridge, Picard stands up and furious demands, "I am Jean Luke Picard, Captain of the Enterprise! We are on a peaceful mission of exploration. I demand to know why have you attacked us?!"

The commanding Bozcomb draws near and says, "You have no right to claim ignorance, human."

Another Bozcomb approaches the officer than had his arm blown off. As the officer shakes from loss of blood and the shock from the weapon, the Bozcomb, still pointing a weapon at him, displays a puzzled look on his face. "Commander," he shouts, "These humans do not regenerate!"

The command looks over and grins, then says, "Kill him." Without a second thought, the solider shoots. The energy blast blows a hole in the officer's chest, killing him instantly. Just then, the doors turbo lift doors open. It is Deanna.

A Bozcomb quickly points a weapon at her as Riker shouts, "Don't shoot!"

"Halt," the commander quickly says, and motions the other Bozcomb to take her into custody. Deanna is completely surprised to see the Bozcomb as if she could not even sense their presence. The commander looks at Riker and Picard. "You will set course for your home world, Earth. If you fail to comply with any of my commands, we will terminate one human every 10 seconds, starting with that one," he says as he points to Deanna. Picard turns to Riker and nods. Riker walks over to the helm and enters the course. The Bozcomb looks pleased.

Then, his bracelet lights up and another soldier informs him, "The ship is secure, safe guards are in place."

The commander states, "We can destroy your ship instantly from ours, and we are watching you." With that, the commander hits a button on his bracelet and him and the other soldiers on the bridge shimmer away.

Picard turns to Riker and says, "What's our status!"

Riker, looking at the operations panel says, "All command functions have been locked out. They have complete control of our computer," he turns to Picard and adds, "They didn't need me to enter in the course to Earth, they could have done it themselves."

"It seems to give him great satisfaction to order us around," Picard comments.

Deanna then shouts, "Captain, Worf is still alive." Riker and Picard rush over to Worf. Worf looks badly burned but the shot from the Bozcomb weapon did considerably less damage to him than the other officers. He is unconscious and Deanna is knelling next to him.

Riker looks at Picard and comments, "It would seem they're weapons effect Klingons a little differently.

Picard commands, "Computer, beam Commander Worf to Sickbay."

"Unable to comply, transporters are offline," the computer states. Picard signals Riker to assist him.

As Picard and Riker lift him up, Deanna says, "Whoever they are, I cannot sense them."

"Deanna, remain on the bridge in command and get it staffed," orders Picard.

"Aye sir," she replies as Picard and Riker carry Worf to the turbo lift.

Riker and Picard enter sickbay with Worf draped over their shoulders. Chaos is all around as dead and dying crewmembers are scattered throughout the room. The medical staff hurries around to save those they can. Picard and Riker rush Worf to a bed and lift him onto it.

Moments later, Crusher rushes over. "What the hell is going on!?" she asks.

Picard looks directly at Riker and says, "We don't know."

With a look, Picard has signaled Riker to do something. Riker turns and walks away.

Crusher is standing over Worf taking a scan when the Bozcomb commander and two guards beam in.

Crusher is shocked, and then says, "I want you out of my sickbay!"

One of the guards starts to raise a weapon as Picard says, "Doctor, don't provoke them."

The commander looks at Wolf on the table and asks, "What species is this?"

"He is Klingon," Picard replies.

The commander then says, "You will perform a scan on him to determine the effects of our weapons on him."

"I most certainly will not! I have severely wounded to take care of," Crusher shouts. The commander quickly raises his weapon and shoots across the room at a patent lying on a bed. The blast rips his midsection apart and sends the doctors scrambling for cover.

"Wait!" Picard shouts. He then turns to Crusher and says, "I'm ordering you to make the scans,"

Crusher looks at him in disbelief as the enemy commander says, "It would be wise to follow our instructions before you have no wounded left to care for."

After a moment, the commander hits his bracelet and the three shimmer away. Crusher turns to Picard and starts to speak as Picard puts his hand up in a signal to remain quite.

Then Riker returns and says, "I've overloaded the surveillance sensors in sickbay, it should give us a few minutes." Picard turns to Crusher and says, "We may not have a much time. I want to know what kind of weapon will such destructive damage to a human (as he points to the bed with the dead officer on it) but will only burn a Klingon so we can neutralize it."

Crusher states, "I already know what kind, a forced plasma bust tuned specifically to disrupt the proteins that bind human cells. But why would they need such a destructive weapon?"

Riker comments, "They thought we could regenerate. Maybe they're used to dealing with more resilient humans."

Chapter 4: At all cost.

The Starwolf exits warp at the edge of the Milky Way galaxy. On the bridge, Cain walks toward the center as a console rises from the floor and unfolds. Then, a hologram of the galaxy displays.

Kit explains, "No Bozcomb ships detected. Also, this region is saturated with warp signatures. I cannot single out a Bozcomb trail," he adds.

"Nearly all races use warp technology in this galaxy," Cain says as he thinks for a second, "Scan for the nearest federation starship."

"I have it. A sovereign class starship with recent battle damage, consistent with a Bozcomb attack, heading toward Earth." Kit says.

Cain looks up and says, "Scan background radiation. Specifically, kaydions."

"I detect a field the size of a Bozcomb destroyer, maintaining a close proximity, but not attacking." Kit replies.

"What?" Cain asks with a hint of disbelief.

A holographic image of the Enterprise appears. The image is transparent with red dots to indicate the Bozcomb and green for the humans.

Kit replies, "Several Bozcomb are aboard the ship called 'Enterprise' but there are still hundreds of live humans. All indications are that the Bozcomb are occupying the ship."

"Activate GHOST and intercept," Cain commands. The ship's surface shimmers and the Starwolf disappears in a red streak.

Cain walks forward and looks as if he is thinking, then says, "It's time to send Grelvik's message."

"Sending. Additionally, the Federation sensors are not susceptible to our stealth technology."

"How much warning will they have?"

"One minute, but it may not be immediately recognized," Kit replies.

Cain surveys the hologram of the Enterprise. As he looks, displays with tactical read outs, corridor mapping, and weapons detail appear. The map is in real time as people and Bozcomb move about the ship. Cain notices a group of humans being directed into the main shuttle bay by a few Bozcomb. Cain looks at the image and the image expands as the computer is reading his eye movements.

He comments, "They normally do not take hostages. They are up to something…"

Kit replies, "57 of the 94 juveniles aboard the ship have been move so far.

"That control must be neutralized," Cain says.

"Easy enough," Kit replies.

Targeting symbols then appear on the section right above the cargo bay.

"Counter measures?" Cain inquires.

"There is a detonator on the warp core, an anti-gravity de-stabilizer in engineering, and the computer is programmed for immediate self-destruct," Kit replies.

"They're expecting me to transport in, take out the anti anti-grav, and deploy sentinels," Cain comments. Then adds, "It's time we used the guardians against them." Cain surveys the blueprints for a moment and then says, "OK, here's the plan."

On the Enterprise, children are being taking from their parents by Bozcomb troops. One mother decides to fight. As the soldier tries to take her young boy, she wrestles him away and protects him.

"You're not taking my child!" She shoots in anger.

The soldier looks at her and draws his weapon. Without hesitation, the he fires two shoots, one right into the boy, the other into his mother. The weapon brings horrible and instant death. A father and his daughter seeing this are both shocked and start crying. The girl holds her father tightly as the soldier walk toward them, weapon still drawn.

"This is not a negotiation," he says. The man then pushed his little girl away while knelling down.

"Sweetie, you have to go with them," he cries.

The girl is sobbing and still in shock from what she saw. Still, she has enough wits about her to know if she refuses, her and her daddy will die. She backs up slowly toward the Bozcomb.

The soldier takes her arm and replies, "You humans are weak." He then drags her away while the father can only stand and watch.

On the bridge, Picard, Riker, and Deanna are having a quite conversation. "They have their hand on the self-destruct button." Riker says.

"Also, all the children have been moved to the main cargo bay," Deanna adds.

"They are beyond barbaric…" Riker says, "They can blow us up at any moment, and they still choose to use children against us." he adds.

Picard looks at Deanna and asks, "What is your impression of them."

"They want to kill us now but they're holding back. They want something from us," she says.

Picard nods his head and says, "I get the feeling were being used as bait."

"Bait for what?" Riker asks.

"That's what we need to find out before we out-live our usefulness," Picard replies.

Just then, an ensign calls over to the captain. "Captain! I'm picking up a distortion on an intercept course. Its speed is off the scale." Picard and Riker rush over as the ensign continues his explanation. "It looked like a malfunction at first but I ran a diagnostic and it appears to be a ship!" he adds.

"Mouse to the cheese…," Riker comments.

Picard nods in silent confirmation.

Moments later, two Bozcomb officers and the commander transport over. One comes over to the ensign and shoves him out of the chair. The ensign rolls over and jumps to his feet. Angrily he looks at the Bozcomb as another one places a hand on his weapon.

"Ensign!" Picard shouts.

With a look, the captain orders the ensign not to provoke the Bozcomb. Standing over the operations console, the Bozcomb must put his three fingers on the bottom forearm between those on the top, making an awkward hand position he can use to peck at the console keys. He then displays a silhouette of Cain's ship on the main view screen. The commander taps on his communications bracelet.

It lights up and he only needs to speak one word, "Cain." Within seconds, more Bozcomb transport to the Enterprise, including two more to the bridge. The commander walks toward the turbo lift as the others spread out around the bridge. Captain Picard looks around at the crewmembers to let them know to seize any opportunities that may arise. Riker nods back.

Outside the Enterprise, two groups of energy streamers rapidly close in. The first impacts the shields and they instantly disintegrate! The second impacts the port nacelle and the Enterprise begins to roll as a power shuts down. The Enterprise is still in warp as the Starwolf decelerates above. Turning up on its nose and following the plane of the rolling Enterprise, the Starwolf fires it underbelly ion cannons on key points on the main shuttle bay. The hits are at low power with surgical precision. The Enterprise falls out of warp rolling and out of control while the Starwolf maintains a perfect attack run in relation to the enterprise. The Starwolf simultaneously emits an array of lasers in all directions. A few hit, stopping when they hit the Bozcomb cloak shield. The others disengage while half a dozen beams follow the enemy ship. The Bozcomb destroyer drops its cloak and begins to run. The Starwolf follows it into warp.

On the bridge of the Enterprise, the lights are out as an intense red flash briefly lights the room. From out of the darkness, bolts of yellow energy streak across bridge. In a heartbeat, two bolts find their mark and two Bozcomb are blown back into the walls. The lights come back up as the Bozcomb return fire. The Bozcomb's aim seems to be poor for the moment as they miss Cain. Picard, Riker, and the rest of the bridge crew rush the remaining Bozcomb. Cain fires on the Bozcomb directly in front of the commander and the force launches both though the turbo lift doors. The lift is damaged by the impact and begins to fall. Picard and the ensign are holding a Bozcomb officer as a shot from Cain's assault rifle hits the Bozcomb and propels all three back a few meters. Riker is manhandling another Bozcomb, lifting him into the air with a one armed bear hug and the other arm trying to wrestle the weapon away. Cain fires into the Bozcomb side, spinning both back and onto the ground. Riker rolls to his feet and looks directly at Cain who has a dark, cold look on his face. The weapon Cain carries then disappears in a white flash as he takes a short sprint and leaps toward to turbo lift. The distance covered is incredible for a human. As Cain jumps down the turbo lift shaft in pursuit of the Bozcomb commander, Riker hurries over to help up Picard. They then look over a Deanna who in cradling her head in pain.

"Deanna! What's happening?" Picard asks.

Deanna cries out, "His mind! Full of rage, so much rage!"

Riker looks up, then rushes over to a console and says, "The computer has been reset!" He hits a few buttons and add, "We have control!"

Picard hurries over to the console where Riker is. "Report." Picard orders.

"Four other beam-ins reported, two in engineering and two in the main shuttle bay. No new life signs, but enemy life signs are terminating rapidly." Riker explains.

Picard hits a button and shouts over the intercom, "All hands, this is the Captain, retake the ship at all cost!"

"Did you notice the enemy's sudden bad aim?" Riker asks.

Picard replies, "Yes I did, I don't think that red flash is an accident, number one,"

Riker smiles and says, "I'm programming all hallway panels accordingly."

Picard starts walking toward another turbo lift and says, "You have the bridge."

At the same time, Cain is descending down the turbolift shaft. Small control thrusters on Cain's boots keep him from reaching a dangerous speed. A white flash places a pistol in his hand. The gun almost looks like a regular 21st century hand gun but is fully automatic. Cain fires and the bullets pierce the roof of the turbo lift, narrowly miss the Bozcomb commander as he dives for the emergency stop button. And like the mini-gun, no used shells are ejected from the pistol. The safety system clamps lock and the turbo lift screeches to a halt. The thrusters on Cain's boots intensify to cushion his landing. As the lift stops, the commander makes a narrow escape onto deck ten and begins to sprint. The structure of the Bozcomb's legs allow for rapid acceleration and a speed far exceeding human legs.

Cain pulls a small cylinder off his belt, aligns it perpendicular the lift, and presses down on the top. An intense laser shoots into the roof. Cain lets go, and the device hovers for a split second then spins around Cain and cuts a complete circle into the lift's ceiling. He then drops though. The lifts floor is undamaged. The device then falls and seems to guide itself into Cain's hand. He then returns it to his belt and takes and short step up to the hallway as the turbolift didn't stop flush with the deck. Looking though Cain's glasses, which are in transparency mode, a "Tracking Corrected" displays, as if they had a momentary problem seeing though the ship. Cain sets off in pursuit of his enemy.

In engineering four Bozcomb lie dead as a fifth is hurled into a conduit by energy weapons. Geordi looks for the shooter and sees something he does not expect. Advancing toward him is a bi-pedal robot standing about one and a half meters high. It bristles with weapons and has a wrap-around scanner array. Suddenly, it shoots toward Geordi. Missing by a few centimeters, the shot plows into a Bozcomb behind him. A second guardian on the other side of the room fires at the Bozcomb anti-gravity scrambler. The shoot bounces off a force field. Then, a mini gun rises out of a port on top of the first guardian and whizzes off half a second of fire. The bullets pass though the force field with no apparent resistance, and shatter the anti-gravity scrambler, then pass though the warp core, and embed themselves into a bulkhead. Fortunately, the warp core has been shut down by the Etherian weapons. Free from the antigravity scramble field, both guardians retract their legs and fly out of engineering.

Simultaneously, crew members are fighting to get to the main cargo bay. The pulse rifles being used by the federation security forces are only knocking down the Bozcomb troops, not killing them. Suddenly, a guardian fires upon the Bozcomb from behind. Four are cut down before they can return fire. The last gets a shot off that bounces off a shield protecting the guardian. The guardian finishes him off the streaks pass the federation crew. One of the crew members looks at two others with a nervous look, then motions his head down the hall, indicating for the others to follow. The three crewmembers' race toward the main cargo bay with weapons lowered but ready. Dead Bozcomb troops litter the hallway. A strange glowing blood covers the floor. It's a florescent white with streaks of blue, green, red and yellow threads sparkling randomly. When they reach the entrance and around the corner, they see the children are behind what looks to be a solid glass wall. Directly in front of the wall is a fourth guardian.

Meanwhile on deck ten, the remaining Bozcomb are attempting to protect the commander. As two enemy soldiers run toward the intersection at the hall Cain is coming down, Cain already sees them though the transparency setting on his glasses. Cain sees the ship as green outlines, but the Bozcomb are clear as can be. Taking aim at the running Bozcomb, he squeezes off two shoots. The bullets rip though the walls a hit one Bozcomb in the chest and the other in the head, sending them crashing into the walls. As Cain rounds the corner, the information panels lining the halls start flashing red. An evil grin creeps across Cain's face as he heads for ten forward.

In ten forward, the commander has taken a female hostage as a human shield and is trying to contact his ship. Cain steps though the doors, takes aim, and fires with no apparent regard for the hostage. The bullet pierces though the woman's chest, into the Bozcomb's head, and exits. The bullet then pierces the window. The window shatters as Cain, already in motion, throws a tiny device toward the window. The device accelerates itself toward the shattered window. The decompression only last a second as a force field generated by the device covers the hole. Cain approaches the woman, keels beside her, and puts his right index finger into the wound. She cringes in pain and he pulls it out. A second later the wound starts to heal at an incredible rate. Her blood on her shirt and Cain's finger turns into a grey dust and falls away. She looks at him, then her wound with confusion. Cain stands up.

Outside, the Starwolf and the Bozcomb destroyer are engaged in a dogfight at faster than light speeds. The Starwolf is more maneuverable than the destroyer and is able to fire relentlessly while dodging return fire. The destroyer's shields finally fail and the engines are hit. As the ship starts to fall out of warp, continuous hits from the Starwolf take its toll. The enemy ship disintegrates into chunks as it falls out of warp. From out of the debris emerges what looks to be an alien warp core. But before it clears the rubble, a transporter snatches it up. Then, the Starwolf streaks back to the Enterprise. Within seconds, the Starwolf slides nose to nose with the Enterprise.

"Captain," the ensign calls, "That ship is back. Weapons and shields are still down!" he adds.

"Easy ensign, if that ship was our enemy, we wouldn't be here right now," Riker says.

On deck ten, Captain Picard, accompanied by two security guards, is en-route to ten-forward. They meet up with Doctor Crusher on their way. The four of them walk into ten forward and a guardian follows. The guardian sweeps by them with total silence and settles in front of Cain.

"Bozcomb occupation terminated," the guardian announces in a booming synthetic voice.

"Remain on the Enterprise," Cain commands. He then looks up at Picard and removes his glasses. His eyes have the look of a cold, calculating killer. The guardian flies past Picard and Crusher and out the door. Cain walks toward the Captain. His walk is that of someone in complete control. "Captain Picard, we need to talk," he says in a chilling tone.

"It would seem so," Picard replies, then ask, "What's going on?"

"You have a new enemy," answers Cain as he draws near. Then he adds, "And they intend to exterminate you."

"I see. And you are," Picard inquirers. "Xavier Cain, Commander of the Etherian fleet, and your new friend." he says.

Just then, Kit contacts Cain. "Enterprise records confirm a subspace data stream sent towards the link. It contains the location of Earth as well as all tactical information in the Enterprises database."

Cain looks at Picard and says, "I'll meet with you and your staff in fifteen minutes." With that, he disappears in a red flash.

Picard looks at Crusher and asks, "Did you get a scan of him?"

Crusher replies, "According to most of my readings, he was not really here."

"Most?" Picard replies.

"The tri-corder couldn't read anything organic, just his clothing. But what's even stranger is the fact that I can clearly read a bio signature. It seems he is shielded from a full scan," Crusher states.

The woman shot by Cain comes up behind Crusher. Picard sees her coming and takes note of the bullet hole in her uniform. "Are you alright?" he says.

The woman, who is in a partial state of shock, replies, "Captain, I should be dead."

Crusher starts taking a scan as Picard asks, "Why is that?"

"That projectile passed right though my heart," the woman replies.

Crusher shakes her head and says, "Her bio signs are strong, but I can't scan below that, same as that commander"

"Theories?" Picard inquires.

"Some kind of advance nano-technology. It apparently interferes with specific sensor information."

Just then, a nurse calls, "Sick bay to Doctor Crusher."

She answers, "Crusher here."

"There's some sort of drone down here healing everyone at an astonishing rate," a nurse says while taking a reading on Worf. "I just examined Worf, there's no trace of injury, any injury, past or present," She adds.

Crusher asks, "Was there any interference to the scans?"

The nurse states, "Not that I noticed."

Crusher looks at Picard.

Picard comments, "Two different technologies."

No sooner does he finish when another call comes into Picard. "Engineering to Picard," Geordi says.

"Go ahead," Picard responds.

"There are four drones down here rebuilding the warp core, and I don't think they are using Starfleet schematics to do it," Geordi replies.

"Elaborate," Picard orders.

Geordi and two other engineers look with awe as the old warp core is dematerialized and a new one takes its place. It consists of five pillars. The center pillar is a square tube with rounded edges. While four diamond-shaped pillars make up the outer perimeter and point inward toward the center. They are joined to the center by a thin, transparent wall. "Captain, I can't explain it, it's something you'll have to see to believe," Geordi finishes.

"Any idea when it will be active," Picard says.

"I don't know, they are almost at the top now," Geordi replies. Seconds later, the drones finish the new warp core as it lights up. A soft blue light radiates form the outer pillars turning white at the connecting walls, and a pure black light at the center that seems to have a kind of fog rolling around inside. Geordi calls up some reading on a nearby console, then says, "Sir, you're not going to believe this, but the core it is producing over 400 terawatts. Possibly more as that is the limit of the sensors."

"That's impossible…," Picard says. "How long until the engines are online?" he continues.

"There already online. It seems that last attack was only meant to temporally disable us." replies Geordi.

Picard hits his communicator and calls out, "Picard to senior staff, report to the briefing room in five minutes."

The moment Cain returns to the Starwolf he says, "Kitt, open a link to Sara."

Sara then appears as a hologram. She looks at him and asks, "What's wrong?"

Cain replies, "That was way too easy." As he walks toward Sara's image, he says, "I need a modification."

Chapter 5: We haven't seen anything yet.

Picard steps back on the bridge and orders, "Riker, report."

"We've appeared to have suffered only minor damage in the attack," Riker explains.

Worf is standing at tactical and says, "Captain, we are receiving an upload into our data banks."

Picard looks at Worf and says, "You got up here fast."

Worf replies, "Yes sir."

Picard smiles, then ask, "What kind of data?" Picard asks. Worf presses a few buttons and motions toward the screen. On the view screen, images of Bozcomb personnel, ships, and technology flash by.

"It's a tactical database," Riker comments.

Picard, looking at the screen, asks, "Computer, how many of ships matching the class of the ship that attacked us earlier are in service?"

The main view screen displays a tactical readout of the destroyer and replies, "Current estimation, 182-thousand." Riker is shocked.

Worf comments, "Just one was a formidable adversary."

Riker adds, "How many ships total?"

"Current estimation, 210 million spanning 4012 classes and configurations," the computer replies. Riker takes a deep breath as Picard looks at the screen.

Picard then taps his communicator and calls out, "All hands, this is the captain. An alien database about our new enemy has been uploaded to the main computer. All officers will need to study it as it pertains to your field of expertise, Picard out."

"We're expecting an invasion, aren't we?" Riker asks.

"That would seem obvious. The real question is how do we counter a threat on this magnitude." Picard replies.

Down in sick bay, Doctor Crusher is heading for the door when a nurse calls out, "Doctor! Come look at this!"

Crusher stops, turns, and walks over to the nurse who is standing over a dead Bozcomb soldier. Crusher looks at the soldier and notices that its skin color is changing, it's now a black and blue and the skin looks like it is blistering. Crusher takes her tricorder out and starts to scan.

The nurse is already scanning and says, "They look like chemical burns…"

"Yea, but from the air…" Crusher states. The nurse looks up and Crusher adds, "It appears that nitrogen is corrosive to them…"

"That explains why they never spent more than a few minutes aboard at a time…" the nurse comments.

Crusher presses a few buttons on the medical bed and a force-field appears. She then says to the nurse, "I've removed the nitrogen. I want you to check the new database on this."

The nurse says, "Yes Ma'am."

Crusher then heads for the door. She walks down the hall to a turbolift. After a few seconds, the doors open and she steps in. She specifies her destination with the command, "Bridge" and the doors close and the lift starts to ascend.

In the briefing room the crew sits down before Cain gets there to discuss the situation. Picard is about to speak when a communication comes in.

"Lieutenant Sinclair to Captain Picard."

"Picard here"

Down in a cargo bay, Sinclair is standing in the middle of allot of miscellaneous wreckage. He is scanning with a tricorder and replies, "I'm in cargo bay 3 and it's full of ship debris"

Riker and Picard look at each other with surprise, then Picard calmly ask, "What kind of ship?"

"I'm pretty sure it's what's left of the ship that attacked us."

"Can you tell if anything is useful yet?"

Sinclair walks up to a large cylinder laying on its side. It's about four meters long and three meters wide. One end is perfectly smooth while the rest of its surfaces are a combination of circuitry, conduits, and other various components. "Well, a few things stick out. I'm looking at what appears to be a field generator, either a structural integrity field or a shield generator. Hard to tell without some more examination. However, the next item…" He turns around and setting along a wall is a huge piece of machinery. It's a ten-meter-long, four and a half meters wide, rectangular tube. The front of it has what appears to be a blue raised glass ring, a few centimeters thick, a then sinks back into the machine at 30 degrees to form a cone. He continues his statement. "Is obviously one of their ship's weapon."

Picard immediately recognizes the importance of this and orders, "Lieutenant, call in every free engineer you can to help with your examination."

"Yes sir."

Picard then looks at the crew and asks, "OK, what do we know about the enemy so far?"

Doctor Crusher replies, "There physiology is like nothing I've ever seen. They're not carbon-base life-forms. In-fact, I don't know what they are. They were warring life life-support gear. The nasal apparatus was putting out a gas I haven't been able to identify. I haven't had a chance to check the database, but it appears nitrogen is toxic to them. I haven't had time to study the rest of the gear yet."

As soon as she finishes, Worf jumps in and says, "Phasers are totally useless against them."

"Bullets seem to work," Geordi interjects.

"As well as the energy weapons used by the other side," Riker adds.

Crusher interjects, "Those bullets seem to leave an electrical disruption in the tissue."

"There's more to it than that," Geordi says, looks at Picard and explains, "I saw a force field deflect an energy blast from one of those attack drones. Then a few projectiles pass through it, as well as through the core. These projectiles did not seem to notice the force field at all." He pulls a bullet out of his pocket. The bullet seems to have very little deformation to it. "I dug one out of the bulk-head and analyzed it. First, it is coated in electrons suspended in a solid state. Now, I have no idea how that was done, it shouldn't even be possible, but it gives it the ability the side though energy fields. The second thing is the bullet it's self is comprised of a super heavy element that has an unknown third nucleon in its atomic makeup."

Picard looks at a bullet Geordi handed him and says, "Matter that is based on three nucleons instead of two would mean a completely different set of rules." He then cracks a slight smile at the prospect of something new.

Riker then asks, "What about our shields? They seem pretty ineffective."

Worf replies, "After reviewing sensor data, I believe our shields are simply not calibrated for the type of energy they use. We should be able to modify them."

Riker then looks at Geordie and asks, "Why didn't the ship tear apart rolling out of warp like we did."

Geordie puts his hand upon his forehead and replies, "I don't know. While that other ship was in close proximity to us, the Enterprise seemed to be removed from the laws of inertia."

Worf adds, "That warrior executed the attack with such precision that he must have known every detail of the situation aboard the Enterprise." They all look at Worf who adds, "The core had all anti-mater converted to normal mater, the computer access lock-outs had been wiped clean and reloaded in a fraction of a second, all drive motors to the shuttle bay were fused with surgical precision, and two of those attack drones where sent specifically to destroy the only piece of technology aboard that could have slow them down."

Picard nods, and then asks, "What do we know about our new ally?" Again, Crusher starts, "I'm pretty sure his human. I was able to detect his pheromones. But most of the scans are being block. And according to the surveillance sensors in ten-forward, he can pass this… stealth onto others, as well as the ability to regenerate."

"Some kind of nano-technology?" Riker asks.

"I believe so, but self-replicating on a scale that is theoretically impossible." Riker looks around and asks, "So how did a human get involved with a race we don't even know about?

Deanna responds, "I know the answer to that, and more." Everyone looks at Deanna. She continuous and adds, "Xavier Cain and another human, Sara Knight. They met an alien race centuries ago, the Etherians, who were curious about our galaxy. They are now part of a galactic alliance at war Bozcomb. It's a devastating conflict. Countless have fallen on both sides. Entire worlds have been destroyed, civilizations and entire species wiped out…," She looks right at Picard and says, "We haven't seen anything yet," she concludes with a disturbed look on her face.

"You can see all that?" Riker asks.

"He communicated it to me in an intense burst," Deanna replies, "Something is amplifying his thoughts."

Picard looks over a Deanna and asks, "Will you be alright when he gets here?"

"I think so," She replies, "My mind was open trying to sense the Bozcomb. I'll need to exercise control."

Worf interjects, "We're about to be involved in this war as well." Everyone looks at Worf as he continues, "He would not be advancing our technologies if he didn't expect us to need it."

Dianna adds, "The nanites are part of that advancement."

"But how…," Picard starts to ask as Cain appears in a red flash.

Cain looks across the room at everyone. He then raises his hand to his side. In his grip is a small, silver sphere. The sphere begins to glow, and Cain released it and the sphere hovers. Then the sphere projects a hologram of emperor Rieaze around itself. The crew is startled at the completely alien physiology of the Etherian, and all stand up.

Cain says, "This is Emperor Rieaze of Etheria."

The crew looks with wonder as Rieaze begins to speak. "Greetings, I regret our initial contact had to occur under such unpleasant circumstances," he says.

Picard walks toward the emperor and replies, "It is our mission to seek out new life and new civilization, we are privileged."

Rieaze extends his long arm toward Picard in a jester of friendship. Picard grasps the alien hand in a simple hand-shake.

"I'm pleased to meet a friendly race today," Picard says.

Rieaze nods and says, "Commander Cain has informed me of the implications the Bozcomb incursion presents."

"Which is?" Picard inquires.

"They now have an opportunity to rearm a very power weapon that would lead to our annihilation, as well as everyone else," replies Rieaze.

"Weapon?" Riker interjects.

Rieaze nodes and looks at Cain who adds, "You have an element that does not exist naturally in our galaxy, titanium."

Geordie interjects, "How can titanium make a weapon more powerful than we've seen so far?"

Cain replies, "We haven't figured that out yet."

"There's got to be more than that to it." Picard comments.

"They really don't like humans.'

Dianna steps forward and looks a Cain and says, "You don't believe that we will be able to stop them."

Cain replies in a cold voice, "No, not by yourselves."

Worf adds, "With the power system you have given us, you expect us to fight."

"You will choose that over extinction. And make no mistake, they will not give you any other options," replies Cain.

Rieaze interjects, "Captain Picard, in 23 minutes I will speak with the alliance council members. As the highest-ranking federation official within communications range, I request that you accompany Commander Cain and myself. You may bring one other officer as an aid."

Picard takes a deep breath a repndlies, "I would be honored."

Rieaze nods, then his image fades. The sphere generating to hologram then disappears in a red flash. The crew turns to Cain.

Cain says, "I know you have questions, so let's have them."

Picard immediately quotes, "Exist in our galaxy."

Cain answers, "Nrias, or Triangulum as you know it."

Riker asks, "How do you get from one galaxy to another?"

Cain looks directly at Riker and ask, "Are you really going to claim ignorance?"

"What the hell does that mean?"

"You've been there before, have you not?

Picard interrupts, "Why are they here?"

Cain explains, "Two years, ago a federation ship, Hera, crossed over."

As soon as he hears the name, Geordi leans forward and says, "The Hera! My mother was the captain of that ship!"

Cain glances over an continues, "The ship was seriously damaged, falling out of warp close to a battle between the Alliance and the Bozcomb. It was destroyed the ship however we saved most of the crew."

"Is my mother still alive?"

"She was killed in a later incident." Geordi looks upset and ask, "How?"

"The incident is in the database." Cain states with no emotion.

Picard understands Cain wants to keep on tasks and asks, "But that was over two years ago…"

Cain looks at him and says, "Entry into a galactic link outside a nexus point has serious temporal instability. Unless you have ability to manipulate time, I wouldn't recommend it"

"How do we defend against them?"

"An Etherian task force is on its way here right now. Until then, we need to setup real time communications with Earth and Etheria," He looks directly at Picard and adds, "Captain Picard, I need you and your aid to accompany me to Star base 29," he adds.

"Accompany you?" Picard asks curiously.

"Yes, to set up a communications relay on the base. And I don't believe any commander is going to allow me to install alien technology on their base without some damn good credentials," Cain replies.

"I would agree," Picard replies with a smirk.

"Why Star base 29?" Worf asks.

"The Bozcomb can jam our primary means of long-range communications within a few sectors. Star base 29 is far enough out of the way. Also, it needs to have a different power source to remain undetected" Cain replies.

"But its several days away at maximum speed," Worf says.

"Not for my ship," Cain replies. Cain then turns to Picard and says, "I sent repair drones over to assist with repairs and to install an Etherian communications system. You'll have instant communications with your ship while on mine. We estimate the Bozcomb will be able to assemble a fleet and cross over in a day or so. To set up the transceiver will only take a few hours. Contact me when you and your aid are ready." Cain then disappears.

"How does he do that?" Riker asks.

"He thinks about it. Something is picking up on his thoughts and acting on them," Deanna replies.

"Deanna, what are your impressions?" Picard asks.

"He thinks we're all going to die. He believes the Bozcomb are setting a trap."

Riker interjects, "Do you, he, know what kind of trap?"

Dianna replies, "Not specifically, no, not yet. He does think they will use our inexperience with them against us."

She then looks at Crusher and says, "Cain has given the ensign in ten-forward a critical advantage with the intention of having it spread to the whole crew." She then looks at Picard and says, "The alliance leaders would have never of approved it, but Cain believes it is necessary."

Picard then comments, "Triangulum, if I recall, was the first galaxy we found ourselves in during those warp experiments, involving the Traveler."

"Can't be a coincidence," Ricker replies.

Picard thinks for a second and says, "Deanna, you will accompany me. Doctor, figure out what you can about the nano technology, and then spread it to the crew. Will, Worf, Geordie, prepare the Enterprise for another attack."

The crew acknowledge the orders with an, "Aye sir," as they start to exit the briefing room.

Dianna looks at Picard and says, "Before we go, there's something else you may want to know."

Picard immediately replies, "Cain is not entirely stable."

Dianna smiles and comments, "I guess you don't have to be psychic to figure that out."

Picard and Deanna transports over to the Starwolf. Cain is by a table in the middle of the bridge and says, "Welcome aboard, your just in time."

"For what?" Picard asks as Cain walks around the table. Lying on the table is the

android B4. With several weapon marks, including a big one to the head, he is inactive.

Picard gasp, "I thought we lost him to the Bozcomb."

Cain replies, "Kit recovered him from the destroyer's wreckage."

Deanna interjects, "You're suspicious of that."

"Very."

Picard looks at the damage, and then says, "Can you repair him?"

From out of nowhere, Kit's voice catches the captain off guard and says, "I am ready to reconstruct the positronic matrix and restore the Data program."

"Do it." Cain commands.

"Wait, what about the other personality?"

"B4 is a liability. It lacks the mental facility to defend itself."

Cain then turns to Picard and says, "Perhaps later."

With that, an energy beam descends from the ceiling and separates to fall on each damaged area. Then a fine laser moves around the edges of the energy beams to cut out the damage. The damaged sections are then lifted out. Then fused matter is dematerialized and rematerialized into functional circuitry. The components are then lower back down into the android. The lasers reverse and join the components to the android. The beams disappear and the android sits up, looks around, then at Picard and Deanna.

He says in a confused voice, "Captain? Where are we?"

Picard's face is lit with joy as he says, "This will take some time to explain."

Data states, "I was downloading my memories into B4, then I awoke here." Data thinks about it for a second and says, "I'm a duplicate."

Cain immediately says, "The original was destroyed, you are his reincarnation."

Deanna says, "Data, you scarified yourself to save all of us."

Data thinks for a second and says, "I would like to review the records of those events if possible."

Picard starts to speak but Cain interrupts, "Later, Kit, transport over to the Enterprise."

On the ceiling, clamps retract and a drone resembling a guardian hovers down and disappears in a red flash.

"Starwolf, proceed to star base 29," orders Cain. The Starwolf turns and accelerates.

Cain turns to Data and says, "Kit tells me you can assimilate massive amount of data at high speed." Data looks puzzled and turns to Picard.

Picard says, "We've been attacked by a race from a neighboring galaxy. We have also acquired a new ally." Picard nods toward Cain.

Data looks back at Cain and says, "Yes, I am capable of learning far quicker than humans."

Cain says, "Good," as he walks over to a terminal embedded into a wall and presses a button. A chair rises from the floor behind Cain as the left and right side of the wall in front of Cain extend out and curve around the chair to form a quarter-circle. Cain looks back a Data and says, "This terminal is tied into our master library. I need you to learn everything about the war with the Bozcomb so you can advise your captain better."

As Data walks within the area of the terminal, the console and displays begin to change. Cain walks out of the terminal area toward Picard. The terminal then morphs from an Etherian design to a Federation design.

Picard curiously asks, "What just happened?"

Cain answers, "It's faster for the terminal to adapt to the user."

Data hears this, then turns to the terminal and sits down. He then starts displaying an array of fast-moving information.

On the Enterprise, Crusher is walking down a hall when the computer sounds an incoming communication alert. "Lieutenant Showlitz to doctor Crusher…"

Crusher stops dead in her tracks as she just heard the voice of a dead man! She slowly raises her hand and taps her communicator and says, "You're supposed to be dead…"

On the other side of the conversation is the officer who was blown in half in sickbay. He is standing next to the doors control pad in the morgue totally naked and not a scratch on his body. He looks back across the room and sees a medical drone hovering over a body and moving a beam of blue light across the naked corpse. He replies, "Yea, I got that. Listen, I'm here in the morgue and there's some flying… drone thing putting us back together."

Crusher starts walking, hastily, and replies, "I'm on my way."

Moments later she comes through the door a sees Lieutenant Showlitz and two others following a drone moving from one table to another table. All three seem oblivious to the fact that they are completely naked, like it just doesn't matter anymore. On the table it just came from sits a naked man feeling his left side, stunned to be among the living again. As the drone settles over the table, it emits a tractor pulse to push the blood-soaked sheet covering the body off the body and onto the floor. Crusher immediately pulls out her tri-corder and starts to scan the naked woman on the table. She has a hole in her chest a server burns around the wound on her abdomen, and her neck. It's the woman who was shot trying to protect her son. As Crusher scans the drone starts working. A flat beam of green light descends though the hole and starts to sweep from side to side. As it moves, it leaves a holographic representation of the spinal column. The beam moves transparently though the flesh as if it is mapping unseen damage. Then a second beam shoots from the drone and contacts the holographic image of the spinal column. It seems to be injecting a white fluid into the holographic frame.

Crusher thinks aloud and says, "This is absolutely amazing! Cloned stem cells are being introduced into the artificial matrix and are being directed to specify themselves. The rate of mitosis is thousands of times above normal!"

They watch as the lungs, heart, arteries and vain, muscles, then skin are formed. Then the done repairs the skin over the neck, then makes a few passes over other parts of the body that don't look damaged. Then the blue light that was seen earlier appears at the tip of the toes, down the feet, and starts moving up in a cross-sectional form.

"Her nervous system is regenerating," Crusher explains. The beam crosses over her chest and goes up her neck. As the beam reaches her head, the line it forms on the surface starts to curve upward. As it reaches the brain, it completes a circle around it and then the circle starts to shrink. Crusher's tri-corder starts make an alarm sound and she responds, "Her heart is beating again, pulse is rising!" The beam closes to a single point and then disappears. Moments later, her eyes open! The drone then starts to move off. Crusher puts a hand on her shoulder and says, "Ensign Kelser, how do you feel?"

Kelser rasieses her hand and feels her chest. Then her eyes get wide! She sits up fast and shouts, "Kevin!" She quickly gets off the table a shouts, "Where's Kevin?!"

Crusher tries to calm her as she if she knows the grim reality. "Dana, listen to me, I'm so very sorry…" she says as she puts both hands on her shoulders and looks her in the eyes. Kelser franticly looks around and sees a covered body small enough to be a child. She runs over to that table and reaches for the sheet. Right before she touches the sheet, she stops and hesitates for a moment, the grabs the sheet and pulls it back. She is absolutely horrified at what she sees. More than half of the boy's head is just gone, blown away by the Bozcomb weapon. Crusher and the others come up behind Kelser, who is shaking is shock. "You have to do something!" Kelser pleads while crying.

Crusher embraces her and says, "They have limits, the body can be restored but not the brain."

Kelser's legs give and the falls to the ground sobbing. Crusher falls with her still consoling her. Kelser says in a weeping voice, "It's not fair…" Then she shots in anger though her tears, "It's not fair! It's not fair! It's not fair!"

Chapter 6: The Alliance

Back on the Starwolf computer announces, "Incoming communication."

"Accept," replies Cain as he walks toward the center of the room. A half-room sized hologram of another ship's command center appears in front of Cain. In this command center is a number of Etherians and one Klingon. The Klingon starts to address Cain.

"Cain, we have inflicted serious damage to the Bozcomb fleet near Craises Prime," he says.

"Show me," Cain says. The Klingon presses a few buttons and a holograph display of the battlefield displays. Picard then walks into the immediate area.

The Kingon sees him and says, "Captain Picard." He then looks back at Cain and says, "You cannot find a more qualified commander for the impending battle."

Cain makes an introduction, "Captain Picard, fleet Commander Kernz." Cain then looks at the Kernz and says, "Serious damage?"

"We've destroyed 982 enemy ships. Another 402 had extensive battle damaged but escaped," he says.

Cain replies, "They will rally a counter attack, intercept it." "Yes commander," Kernz replies.

"Casualties?" ask Cain.

"2,184 ships," Kernz replies.

Cain surveys a holographic display of the ships in the fleet. The display maps the ships by type and a number to display the count. Moments later, Cain says, "There are 8,000 ships enroot to your location, 14,000 at Zilios."

Cain looks up at Kernz and says, "Once you rendezvous, drive your forces right into their territory and take Treflowzon."

Picard sees the fleet readouts and says, "You're overwhelming them…" Both Cain and Kernz look at Picard.

Cain replies, "Yes, the Bozcomb have superior weapons technology. But we have the industrial capacity."

Kernz adds, "Commander Cain, even with 31,000 ships, it will be difficult to keep it for long."

"The goal right now is to keep them busy," Cain replies.

"Even a small number of Bozcomb ships can cripple the federation forces," Kernz says, then looks at Picard and says, "No offense to your federation." He then says, "If you contact the Klingon Empire, I'm sure they would be of assistance."

"In due time," Cain replies, then adds, "We have a meeting with the council in one minute."

"Ka-pla," Kernz says. With that, the holographic images fade. Cain turns and looks at Picard and says, "Now we meet with the Alliance."

Picard turns to look for consoler Troy. He sees her watching Data. "Deanna," he calls, "We're ready." She turns and walks over beside Picard.

Cain then orders, "Link to the location of Rieze." With that, holograms surround the three and they now appear to be on another planet. Rieze stands beside Cain as the two begin to walk toward a huge circular shaped building. Picard notices they are on a bridge spanning a cliff and the building. An alien made island of immense size jets up from a sea of green liquid with white gas flowing over the surface.

"Oh… my…" Picard starts to say.

Dianna places a hand on his shoulder and says, "Focus."

They start walking to catch up with the Emperor and Cain. Then Picard looks up. High above the building appears to be land. An entire continent, floating among the clouds! Stunned, both Picard and Dianna gaze upward. Now far ahead, Cain looks back to see the distracted duel.

With a command of, "Center," he signals the computer to accelerate Picard and Dianna to his location.

The two zoom to his location. Picard, pointing up, starts to asks, "How is…"

Cain interrupts, "Another time."

Outside the holograph communication circle, Data observes the trio and then looks back at the terminal. He obviously has something on his mind. He then rapidly keys in a set of commands. Then, a hologram of the Enterprise's engineering section comes up around him. Geordie, who is leaning over a center console, see the hologram of Data appears and straitens up. Data stands up and the chair he was sitting in fades, but not completely. Geordie slowly walks over to him. He can recognize the demeanor of his old friend and says, "Data…"

Data replies, "Hello Geordie."

Geordi's emotions surface as he almost starts to cry. He wrapped his arms around Data, who acts somewhat awkward. From his perspective, he just talked with him less than an hour ago.

Geordie pulls back and ask, "How?"

"A new positronic matrix was constructed to run the memory ingrams we had downloaded into B4. In essence, I am a backup copy."

Geordi replies, "How do you feel."

Data ponders the question for a second, then starts walking toward the engineering console. He responds with, "I'm not entirely sure."

He begins to access some information and continues, "Once I return to the Enterprise, I request your assistance in running a complete diagnostic."

"You got it, "Geordi replies as he gets closer to read the console data is looking at. He then comments, "Looking over the logs of your destruction?"

"Yes, I find myself to be pre-occupied with the concept that my existence was interrupted for some time."

"I suppose returning from the dead would boggle one's mind."

Data looks up and says, "It would appear so."

After a moment to reflect he adds, "However, I must return to the task at hand."

He turns and walks back to the partially visible holographic chair. Geordi follow him and says, "Wait! Don't go, you just got here…"

Data sits in the chair and replies, "I will be physically back aboard the Enterprise in due time."

With a sigh, Geordi replies, "Ok… but make it quick."

Data then turns and hits a key. His image then disappears and Geordi is by himself to reflect on what just happen. A few seconds later, Riker walks into engineering looking for Geordi.

"Geordi, got a sec…" He pauses as he sees the look on Geordi's face. Concerned he ask, "What's going on?"

Geordi looks up at him and says, "Data, he's back. He just contacted me via hologram from the Etherian ship."

Riker is taken by surprise. After a second he says, "That's going to take a moment to process…"

"Yea, tell me about it… Anyway, how can I help you?"

Riker hesitates for a moment and ask, "You had something about the intergalactic link?"

"Yea," Geordi replies as he walks over to the main engineering console. He pulls up an image of a warp-field simulation. He then asks, "Do you recognize this?"

Riker looks at the simulation and does recognize it. His jaw drops slightly, then he replies, "Kosinski's warp-field equations."

"I haven't got my head fully around it yet, but it's like a bi-directional subspace jet-streams running between galaxies." He continues and Riker scrolls though the data. "If your warp-field is configured correctly, you can tap into the limitless vacuum energy between galaxies and ride the stream."

Riker looks up, slowly inhales, and says, "Can we make the trip?"

"No, not with the E. Our warp field dynamics are all wrong." Riker starts to ask a question but Geordi anticipates it and continues. "We did it only because the Galaxy class just happened to have a compatible warp field."

"And Nebula class?"

"Well, yes and no. The engines and reactor were right, but the power distribution system couldn't handle it."

"Is that a guess?"

"No, those are the conclusions of the chief engineer."

Back on Etheria, Picard, Troi, and Cain party enter the building. Without the distraction of the environment, Picard notices a view screen hovering to the left of Rieze. The screen keeps pace with Rieze and displays the inside of the building.

The four of them are now at the center of a dimly lit massive room. A wide dark red rail circles around the center of the room. A white light descends from the ceiling inside the circle from an unseen source. The emperor steps up to the rail and starts pressing buttons. A transparent wall half a meter high raises up from the inner side of the rail. Images then appear on the wall. Then, in red flashes, other aliens appear around the ring. A few just fade in, indicating they are actually holograms. Reaize announces, "This meeting shall now begin." Cain starts walking forward and passes through the ring.

He enters center stage and says, "As you know, the direction of the war has been destabilized. The Bozcomb have discovered the corridor to the Milky Way Galaxy and the Federation." The aliens start to quietly converse as Cain looks over at Picard.

Deanna leans over to Picard and says, "They want to hear from you and how we will deal with this situation."

Picard takes a breath and walks though the ring. He gets to the center beside Cain and says, "We have had limited contact with the Bozcomb thus far. What we do know is that soon we will meet them in battle!" Picard speaks with confidence, which seems to ease some of the alien's fears. One alien presses a button on the rail and a green star lights on the transparent wall.

Cain says, "Senator Elisak, approach." The alien walks though the ring toward Cain. He is huge, standing 3 meters high at the shoulders. His head is embedded in his chest and he has four sunken eyes, two up high and two a few centimeters above his mouth. This alien is a biped with stocky legs. His arms are long and powerful.

Elisak begins to speak. "The Federation I am told does not have the defensive capability to withstand an assault from the Bozcomb," he says.

Picard immediately replies, "Many would-be invaders have believed that we would fall to them. We are still here (he says with a smile)."

Elisak looks pleased at Picard's responses.

Cain adds, "We are also sharing known Bozcomb technologies with them."

Elisak looks uneasy at that and replies, "Are you sure that is wise?"

"Wise-no, necessary-yes," Cain replies.

Dianna walks up and adds, "We may be less advanced, but we have the same beliefs."

She looks at Picard who looks at her. He then knows what she is sensing from Elisak. Picard looks back at Elisak and says, "It is our Prime Directive that no civilization should be artificially advance by another race."

Elisak replies, "Agreed." With that, Elisak turns and walks away. As he is exiting, another indication light flashes.

Cain replies, "Heirraon, approach." This alien also has a unique physiology. He is a short, translucent being with no visible eyes, ears, or any distinct features. With three short legs, no arms, no neck and a bulge on top, he moves with extreme speed. He seems to glide along the floor and slides quickly in front of Cain. The bulge starts to pulse with light and a computer-generated voice speaks out, "I for one don't care if humans have access to technologies not of their making, but whether they can aid us in eliminating the scourge that is the Bozcomb!"

Cain knells down and replies, "You've seen what a thousand of us can do. Now see what millions of us can do." Low noise fills the room as the aliens quietly converse.

"What would you have us do?" Heirraon ask.

Cain stands up to address the council. "Launch an all-out attack!" he says, and adds "In a few days, millions of humans and other specie will reinforce our ranks. We need only to protect their galaxy for a few days by denying the Bozcomb spare forces to attack the federation with."

Heirraon moves slightly toward Captain Picard and speaks out. "Picard of the Federation, the Bozcomb destroyed my home planet, doomed my race to extinction, and hunted the few of us who are left, just because we are different. Show them no mercy, because you will receive none from them."

Picard immediately fires off, "They invaded our space, attacked my ship, killed my people without a second thought, and set their sights on my home world. We will not stand by in the hopes of the Bozcomb's defeat, we shall make certain of it!" The aliens start to cheer in response to Picard's words.

"We shall begin immediately," says Heirraon. With that, he turns and quickly moves out of the ring.

Cain turns to Rieze and says, "We shall resume our preparations on this side." Rieze nodes and Cain commands, "link off." With that, the holograms disappear and the three are back on the Starwolf.

"That was incredible!" explains Picard.

Cain looks at him and says, "You haven't seen anything yet." Data sees that they have finished with the council meeting and stands up. He walks over to Picard and says, "Captain, I have a preliminary report for you on what to expect from a Bozcomb invasion."

"Continue," Replies Picard.

Data explains, "They intended to wipe out all species that are not their own. Humans are at the top of the list."

Dianna looks at Cain and asks, "What have humans done to them?"

Cain replies in a cold voice, "We think like they do".

Just then, a table rises in the middle of the bridge. Cain sees it and says, "Excuse me."

Pickard looks at data and ask, "Can you exuberate on that?"

"Yes sir. Xavier Cain deployed a biological weapon, developed by Sara Knight, throughout the occupied Etherian home system. They then used subterfuge to mask the liberation for several weeks, allowing them to prepare for all-out war. The Bozcomb had never experienced that kind of reversal until then."

"I see. The use of biological weapons is ban by almost all civilized species in this galaxy."

"In this case, it was the only way to prevent the annihilation of the Etherian and other species."

"Annihilation?"

"Yes sir. The Etherian population had been reduced from 2.3 trillion to 470 million in a little over a year."

Picard looks taken back and looks uneasy as he contemplates the information.

Deanna asks, "I since an unusual presence about Cain. Do you know how old he is?"

"400 years."

Dianna seems less surprised than Picard as he replies, "What?"

Just then, Cain calls the group over, "Picard, Data, Dianna, come over here." The three walk over to the table Cain is at. They see a holographic display of a fleet of Bozcomb ships.

Picard analyzes it and says, "There coming, aren't they."

"Yes," replies Cain, "This fleet is heading to the link at warp eleven and can be here in 18 hours."

"How many?" Picard asks.

"Fifty-four," Replies Cain, "2 battleships, 3 heavy and 5 light cruisers, 10 destroyers, and a small carrier with 125 fighters."

Dianna looks at Cain and comments, "This is not all they will send, is it?"

Cain replies, "No. I suspect this is the slower rear group they are letting us track."

Data adds, "The combine forces of the Federation will have difficulties facing this fleet."

"Are they that strong?" Picard asks.

Data replies, "Yes."

Cain interjects, "We've always been out-gunned. We just need to find another way."

Picard looks at Data and says, "Have you learned their strategies yet?"

"No," replies Data. "Make that your top priority."

"Aye sir." Data says and heads back to the library. Picard then asks Cain, "Do you have another library terminal onboard?"

Cain looks over to the wall by the first library and, as if the ship is reading his mind, another library terminal is produced. Picard is curious as he tells Deanna, "Counselor, I want you to gain an insight into how the Bozcomb think."

Dianna relies, "Aye sir." She walks over to the library and takes a seat.

Picard looks around and says, "The ship, the drones, even you weapons seem to respond to your will, sometimes without any vocal or otherwise seen commands. How is this done?"

"The ship is intuitive and always listening," Cain replies. He then holds up his arm and shows Picard the device he wears on his arm. "This can read low level nerve impulses sent to the muscles controlling your hands. Imagine always having a keypad at your fingertips. Just putting your hand in a certain configuration can tell it which weapon you're calling for or if you wish the ship to execute the next likely command." He motions toward the arsenal. Cain then grips as if he is grabbing a weapon and a white flash place a gun in his hand. Picard watches for a moment as Cain cycles though a few weapons.

Then Picard comments, "Dimensional shifting." Cain grins.

Picard then inquires, "Can you tell me what makes the ship so maneuverable?"

Cain motions over to the command chair and says, "I'll show you. Have a seat." Picard walks over and looks at the chair, then at Cain, and then takes a seat. "Put your hands on the navigation panels," says Cain.

"I won't accidentally fly us into a planet, will I?" ask Picard.

Cain replies, "No, the ship is smarter than that. Right now, you can only train." Picard places his hands on the panels, and they light up. The glass disk moves into position over his right wrist. He then displays a look as if he feels something strange. On top of the Starwolf, the center sphere of glowing white light rises. A few second later, Picard explains, "I can feel… gravity, the stars as we pass, and my exact position in space. It's… remarkable."

Cain looks pleased and says, "Being connected to space in this way, you can fly the ship better than any computer. Now, reach out with your mind and touch a star."

"What?" asks Picard.

"Visualize your hand reaching out for it," Cain replies.

Picard thinks for a second and suddenly his eyes begin to glow. The sphere on top shoots out a bolt of energy! But it only travels half the length of the ship before dissipating. Picard jump out of the chair as if shocked.

"What the hell was that?" Picard asks.

"The manifestation of pure energy," Cain replies, "The interface will instantly provide passive information on the gravitational and electro-magnetic fields within 20 light years. The system will read your electrical impulses and, if intense enough, manifest your thoughts into energy."

Picard, rubbing his temple, says, "I have a feeling that's the simplified explanation."

Cain grins and says, "The headache will pass."

"What's it from?" Picard asks.

Cain replies, "Your occipital lobe has been overloaded."

"I saw lighting…"

"A bizarre side-effect, energy caused the fluid in the eye to become luminescent."

"Can other species use this?"

"So far, we've only found human brains to have a compatible electro-chemical structure. However, it causes an imbalance that takes time to develop a tolerance too."

"I assume it gets easier with experience," Picard says.

"Yes, replies Cain, "But it will be several hours before you can try again."

Picard thinks for a second, and then says, "You want us to fly these ships."

Cain replies, "Yes. We can make a thousand in a week. This is the first one built around the new technology. But, without a human at the controls, it's not even close to its full potential."

Back on the Enterprise, Riker walks into cargo bay three. There are about two dozen officers examining various pieces of wreckage from the Bozcomb destroyer. He scans the room and zeroes in on lieutenant Sinclair. He walks over to him and says, "Lieutenant, you wanted to see me?"

"Yes sir," he replies, then looks over to an officer and calls out, "Sykes" and motions her over. As soon as she comes over, Sinclair points to the cylindrical piece of equipment that he earlier suspected was a shield generator and says," So after checking the tactical database uploaded by our new friend, we confirmed it is a shield generator. One of 143 you'll find covering a destroyer. It has a redundant power supply so we we're able to get it online and establish a local field. That's when Ensign Sykes noticed something." He then looks a Sykes and says, "Take it away Sykes."

Sykes, who seems a little nervous talking to captain Riker, says, "Well, um, going over the design, I noticed there was no temporal differential or phase discriminator build in. Things you would normal find on any shield generator."

Riker looks curious as Sinclair goes over to a table and retrieves two phases. One appears to be standard issue while the other appear to be partially modified with extra circuity including a green chip suspended in front of the emitter. He walks back over and hands Sykes the modified phazer. Sykes grab's it and nodes at Sinclair and Sinclair takes aim at a 50-centimeter-wide square tile, about 15 centimeters thick, sitting atop the shield generator. He fires and the practical beam is stopped by a force-field. Sykes, who had taken aim as well, also fires. Except her beam passes right though the force-field and strikes the tile. Both then stop firing. Riker grins a little at the demonstration.

Sykes continues, "This phazer has been modified to interlace a chroniton stream into phazer beam."

"How fast will it take them to adapt?" Riker asks.

"I don't think they can."

Riker looks curious as she continues.

"At least not for quite a while. These shield generators simply do not have the hardware to deal with chronitons. They would need to totally re-engineer the generators."

Riker cracks a smile and ask, "So how long will it take to modify the ship's phazers?"

"Probably an hour per bank."

"What about photon and quantum torpedoes?"

"Well… theoretically, we can use a chronotron generator to generate a confinement field to saturate the casing. Should last a few seconds after firing. However, I could not tell you how long until we run some test.

"I want you to pull as many crew as you can manage, show them how to modify the phazers asap. Then work on the torpedoes."

"Yes sir!" She replies with a smile and she then turns around and heads for some other crew.

Sinclair interjects, "I should point out, being able to get pass the shields is only the first hurdle."

"Secondary armaments?"

Sinclair nods in conformation as he points to the tile sitting on the shield generator and says, "That tile, ablative armor. Really good ablative armor. It would take the main phazers 2.4 seconds at full power to burn though. And they are stacked up to 11 tiles on the front, less on the rear as they start to interfere with propulsion."

Riker takes in a deep breath and ask, "Torpedoes?"

"A photon, probably 1 a tile. A quantum may be able to bust though two or three."

"Not to mention hitting a moving target in the same spot enough times…"

"Yea…"

Riker then turns and looks across the room to the huge main gun and asks, "Any progress with that?"

"Not so much, we can't even power it on yet. We will need to tie it into main power but the nearest distribution trunk is five decks down. Not to mention we're not clear on how it will react once we do get sufficient power to it."

"I'll talk to Geordi about that."

Riker glances at it and ask, "So, do you know if those are standard issue and would we be able to target them?"

"No, on both. That's a midrange gun. The destroyers' use a modular system. From a single high intensity sustained blast to up to eight rapid fire, lower yield, independently targetable guns. The weapons themselves are in a sphere centered in in the main body. It's then fired though one of six tunnels, depending on the spheres position, leading to apertures on each side."

"You have to destroy the ship to get to the weapons." Riker surmises.

Sinclair puts his hands on his hips and replies, "Yea."

Riker then says, "Well, keep me posted on your progress." He then stats walking toward the door.

A few minutes later, Riker walks into engineering. He notices a drone hovering by Geordi. This drone is of deferent configuration than the guardians. It is shaped like a rectangular box with one end sloped and all edges rounded. In addition to its black surface is a silver trim on the bottom, as if the case was dipped in grey-metallic paint 9 centimeters deep. Along the demarcation line is a centimeter-wide strip of red light going around the back an up the sides. As it rounds the corner at the front, the strip makes a 90 degree turn toward the top and then another to join at the top.

Riker walks over and says, "You said you had something to show me."

"Captain," Geordi begins, "Yes, but first let me introduce you to Kit." Geordi motions to the drone hovering next to him. Riker looks at the drone, then at Geordi with a perplexed look.

"He's a fully sentient synthetic life form. A robot, if you will," Geordi adds.

Riker looks over as Kit begins to speak. "Captain Riker, repairs to the Enterprise are complete," he says. Riker looks back at Geordi.

Geordi adds, "And some major modifications have been made. Our warp reactor has been redesigned. The reaction is no longer a matter/antimatter system."

Riker looks at the strange new core and says, "Explain."

Geordi replies, "Well, I'd be lying if I said I understand the physics behind it." He points to the center and adds, "The center is dark matter, and the other columns are anti-protons, an extremely dense concentration of anti-protons. The anti-protons flow across an electron bridge and into the dark matter."

Riker, surprised, asks, "What, how is that possible?

Geordi replies, "According to our laws of physics, it's not. And to top that, it's producing more energy than the matter being used allows for, completely disregarding the law of matter/energy conservation."

"Apparently the Etherians don't have the same rule-book," Riker says.

Just then a communication comes in, "Worf to Riker," she says.

"Riker here," he responds.

"I have reviewed some of the tactical data base and believe you should take a look at some key engagements between the Etherians and the Bozcomb."

Riker replies, "I'll be there in a few minutes, Riker out."

Riker turns to Geordi and resumes the conversation. "Is the core sable?" he asks. Geordi replies, "For all intents and purposes, it's indestructible. A containment field of enormous integrity is generated by the reaction. The field encapsulates every atom. A quantum torpedo at point blank range wouldn't even scratch it."

"That's a major benefit in a fire fight," Riker says, "What about using it to enhance our weapons?" he adds.

Kit then hovers over and says, "Sara Knight will be here momentarily to discuss weapons modification."

"What? How?" Riker asks.

"Via a micro wormhole link into a hologram generator," Kit replies.

As Riker and Geordi look toward each other with a curious look, a small hole appears on Kit's surface. Out of it shots a silver sphere like the one Cain used to bring the hologram of Reaize into the briefing room. It then generates a holographic image of Sara Knight. The image is indistinguishable from the real thing.

"Hello, I'm Sara Knight," she says, holding out her hand for Riker to shake. Riker reaches for her hand and finds the hologram to be amazingly realistic.

Riker replies, "I'm captain Riker, this is chief engineer Geordi La Forge."

Sara looks around and says, "So, I understand your defensive and offensive systems have less that effective against the Boscomb."

Riker responds, "That's an understatement."

Sara grins and says, "This may surprise you, but Federation weapons development excides ours. It was phazer technology that laid the foundation for ion guns and projected nuclear disintegration waves."

"Nuclear disintegration wave?" Riker quickly asks.

"That's a weapon that disrupts the binding forces that holds atoms together. It also plays hell with shields." She walks around a table as she continues to explain. "We should be able to integrate that technology into your ship's weapons fairly easily, but then comes the matter of getting though their shields."

"We're already ahead of you on that front."

"Oh," Sara replies curiously.

Riker presses a key on the table console and the computer chimes. He then says, "Computer, compile the information on the temporal modifications to the ship's phaser and display the engineering schematics."

On the table's viewing screening appears the schematics for the temporal modification. Sara looks at the information and bends over the table and puts her hands together on the center if the image and then open them out to the edge of the screen. A white line forms between her hands and follows them out to the edge. As soon as she hits the edge and lifts her hands up, the line expands into a rectangle covering the whole screen. Then the image lifts of the table a few centimeters. Riker and Geordie look at each other. The both appear to be impressed with the technology. Sara then lifts the image and flips it upright. It then explodes out into a 3D floating hologram. She looks at it and says, "Hmm, what's a chroniton?"

"It's a sub-atomic particle with temporal properties," Geordie explains.

"We may not be able to adapt this very quickly, if at all."

"Your weapons are that different?" Riker ask.

"More, fundamental that that. The temporal dynamics of a galaxy are dictated by the black hole at the center that kick-started the galaxy's formation. No two are identical. Temporal dynamics intern influence matter and energy's galactic signature. In short, they are not directly compatible from one galaxy to another."

Silence falls for a second as Riker and Geordie digest the answer. Then Geordie blurts out, "What about that?" He points with his thumb over his shoulder at the Dark Matter Reactor.

Sara looks at it and answer, "It took a research team 14 months to come up with a design that was theoretically cross-compatible."

She looks back at Riker who appears to be thinking about something and says, "We've be planning for this scenario ever since the Hera arrived."

Sara pauses for a second and adds, "I like to send all the data you have to a research team and have them look at it."

Riker nods in approval and replies, "Of course"

She gives the voice command, "Computer, compile all data on the federation temporal weapons and send it to research."

After a moment, she continues, "In the meantime, we have come up with some ideas on how to enhance you're offensive/defensive capabilities."

Just then, a communication comes in. "Worf to captain Riker."

"Riker here."

"I have something to show you when you have a moment."

"I'll be up in a few minutes."

After the communication ends, he looks over at Geordie and says, "Keep me apprised. Oh, and Sinclair needs a primary power conduit run up into cargo bay three so they can do some testing with the Bozcomb weapon."

"Aye sir."

He then looks over at Sara, nods, and heads for the turbo lift.

A few minutes later, Riker steps onto the astrometrics where Worf is reviewing some holographic records at a command console in the middle of the room. On the wall in front of him is and image of a map of part of the Naris galaxy with readouts of Bozcomb and Alliance fleets.

"What do you have?" Riker asks.

Worf replies, "This is the battle that the Hara was involved in." Worf calls up the battle and start to explain as points to the lower left corner of the wall. "This is where the engagement started."

Riker looks at the simulation then comments and says, "It looks like they are evenly numbered."

Wolf replies, "The Etherian ships are weaker though."

Riker then looks at the bigger picture and realize what's going on. "They are drawing the Bozcomb forces away from this region over here." Riker says as he points to the lower right.

"Correct," Wolf comments, then adds, "This system is heavily populated by the Bozcomb, 82% of their population to be more precise."

"Is it their home system?" Riker inquires.

"No." Wolf replies then adds, "They have used up most of the natural resources of their home world."

"What were the Etherians planning to do?" Riker asks.

Worf relies, "A ship with a new kind of stealth was attempting to inject something into the atmosphere that would kill all Bozcomb on a planet."

"I see, and then what happened? Riker asks.

Wolf zooms in to the battle between the ships that meet the Hera. "This is where the Hera exited the intergalactic wormhole," he says. Riker watches the replay as Wolf continues, "The Bozcomb were very concerned when they scanned the Hera and found a human crew. They redeployed their ships in order to counter the threat, and in doing so, they discover the Etherian ship heading for their most populated sector. The redeployment cut off any escape route. The ship was able to eradicate one planet before being trapped. Then the commander of the ship used the self-destruct to keep the weapon from being captured. Had they completed their mission, the war probably would have been over shortly afterwards."

"That's unfortunate…"

Just then, a communication comes in. "Crusher to Riker."

"Riker here," he replies.

"When you got a minute, can you come down here, I've made some progress on the nanites," Crusher says.

Riker replies, "I'll be there shortly. Riker out." Then he looks at Worf and says, "Have you gone over their infantry combat tactics?"

"Not yet," Worf replies.

"Make it a priority; if we get boarded again, I want security to be ready," Riker says.

"Aye Sir," Worf replies, Riker then leaves.

Minutes later Riker walks into sickbay. He's walking over to Crusher and starts to slow; something is different about Doctor Crusher. He looks at her for a second, she appears years younger.

"You look… rejuvenated." Riker states.

Crusher smiles and looks down, then up. She replies, "As near as I can figure, about ten years."

Riker already realized the nanites Cain gave to the crewmember in ten-forward is the only explanation. He asks, "Can you be more definitive? Are your scans being blocked?"

Crusher explains, "The nanites have the ability to shield themselves and the person they inhabit from sensors. However, it's highly selective though because they will allow a transporter lock and transport, as long as it is Federation or Etherian systems."

Riker looks more intrigued and ask, "How do you feel?"

"Extremely well! My breathing is incredibly light even when I exert myself. I have no trace of cuts or injuries. I feel like I'm back in the prime of my life!"

Riker smiles, and then asks, "Do you know how much younger you will get? Also, if my memory is correct, you look slightly different now then you did a decade

ago"

Crusher responds, "Base on the Hera's crew, early to mid-twenties. As far as the looking slightly different part, that seems to have a more pronounced effect the older someone is when exposed."

"The more repairs they do…" Comment Riker.

"It would seem so; younger crewmembers didn't change at all.

Riker then asks, "Do you see any risk to the crew?"

"From all the accounts by the Hera's crew, they are safe and extremely beneficial. Especial if we are going to encounter the Bozcomb again." Crusher replies.

Riker says, "Their hand weapons?"

Crusher says, "Yes," as she turns to a display panel. She calls up a video form a Bozcomb surveillance camera. The video shows a confrontation between a few Etherians, a Human, and several Graztioniz, the race that Elisak belongs to, and the Bozcomb.

Crusher sates, "This was a rescue attempt on a Bozcomb command post. Watch this guy, Ensign Jensen." She points to the human. A second later he gets hit square in the chest by a Bozcomb weapon. He is blown back of his feet. But the shot doesn't kill him. The Graztioniz surround him to protect him while continuing to exchange fire with the Bozcomb. His massive wound starts to regenerate as he displays agony from excruciating pain. Within several seconds, the wound closes up. He then quickly returns to his feet. A Graztioniz hands his weapon back to him and they continue the rescue attempt.

Riker looks with surprised and says, "That's one hell of a tactical advantage."

Crusher then calls out to the computer, "Computer, begin a continuous scan of Captain Riker's vital signs, audio output." The computer then starts reading off Riker's vital signs as Crusher says, "Hold out your arms."

Riker holds out his arms and Crusher runs her fingernail down his left arm. He feels a strange chill run though his body. Less than a second later, the computer stops reading off his vitals and responds, "Unable to record subject vitals." Then Crusher takes a hypo, presses it to his right arm and starts to take a blood sample. Almost immediately the blood turns from red to grey. The vile holding it then cracks and breaks and dust fall to the floor. Riker looks at it then up in astonishment.

Riker blurts out, "That's impossible! For nanites to replicate though a body that fast… is… is…"

Crusher replies, "This I know, but there it is."

Still surprised, he looks down at the dust and asks, "The grey dust, another defense system?"

"Apparently," Crusher states, then adds, "The Bozcomb have never been able to acquire any human tissue or blood sample."

Riker then ask, "So now I can regenerate if hit be one of those weapons?"

"Yes," Crusher states. Her face changes to an uneasy look as she turns away for a minute, then back.

Riker sees that something is wrong and ask, "What is it?"

"Will," she starts, "Their weapons were not always that destructive against humans."

Riker looks like he's prepared to hear some bad news as Crusher adds, "They captured and experimented on one of the Hera's crew to find the disruptive frequency."

Riker asks, "Who was is?"

Aboard the Starwolf, Picard walks up toward the massive curved window which spans the two forward swept sections of the ship. The floor of the bridge intersects the center of the window as it curves toward the ceiling. Outside a bluish-grey haze flows past the ship like fog while stars streak by. Picard looks curiously at this as Cain wakes up beside him. "This isn't warp, is it?" Picard asks.

"No," replies Cain, "We only use warp to engage the Bozcomb," he adds.

"How long have the Etherians been in space?"

"Over a thousand years."

Picard thinks for a moment and asks, "And the Bozcomb?"

"Two hundred and seven years," comes a quick reply from Cain. "There's something you should know, Captain."

Picard replies, "The Bozcomb got the bulk of their technology from the Etherians, didn't they?"

Cain smirks. "Your insight serves you well, but it gets worst," he replies. Cain then explains, "We gave them warp drive, as well as five other pre-warp civilizations."

"What!" Picard says in disbelief as he turns to Cain.

"I agree, it was a mistake," Cain replies, then adds, "The Etherians were the first race to develop interstellar travel and, for nearly 900 years, the only race in our galaxy. It was decided that younger races that meet certain levels of advancement would be brought into the space age. Most races left their petty wars behind them and embraced the new era. But the Bozcomb did not. A few years later, they started to develop weapons to conquer other races. Realizing the mistake that they had made, the Etherians altered the space around the Bozcomb system to reject warping, cutting them off for almost two centuries."

Picard replies, "That's a long time to be in exile."

"Yes," Cain replies, "It created a few generations of hate. We're not sure when they found a way to enhance the warp drive, but four years ago they came out of their system with Etheria in their sights."

Picard then asks, "Shouldn't a race that has been in space that long have more effective weapons then the Bozcomb?"

Cain comments, "They are highly evolved plait life. Solar powered, no religion, cross pollination reproduction. They've never had a reason for war."

"I see," says Picard. "What about the other races?"

"The Etherians made it clear that if any race was suspected of making weapons of war, they too would be isolated from the rest of the galaxy," Cain replies.

Picard, replies, "I see, so now everyone's playing catchup, except the human from… a less enlightened time in our history."

"Something like that."

Can leans over a little and says, "You know this is a trap, right?"

"Oh?"

"I had Kit run the numbers on my plan to retake your ship. He ran a thousand simulations and came up with a 96% success rate."

"That wanted you to retake the Enterprise…"

"There more. The research base that led me here was relatively close to the link. The crew I took with me was perfect for that operation. However, your background radiation and atmosphere is lethal to them."

"There after you…"

"Yep, and you're somehow part of that plan."

Picard thinks for a second then he asks, "How do I communicate with the Enterprise?"

Cain answers, "The ship is listening, just say what you want."

Picard speaks out, "Open a channel to the Enterprise." Suddenly, the bridge of the Enterprise surrounds him. Cain is still beside him.

Startled, Wolf jumps up and says, "Captain! You surprised me."

Picard smiles and says, "I'm getting use to surprises myself."

Cain says, "You can state another room if you like to go there or just walk through a door. Say "disengage link" to break communications or walk through a wall to exit."

With that said Cain turns and walks into the view screen and disappears. Picard motions to Worf to sit as he walks over to his captain's chair. "Worf, have you been able to find out anything on the Bozcomb that may…" Picard says as he sits down. He stops in mid-sentence and looks at the chair and feels it. "This is a hologram… Amazing that the walls a hollow but the furniture is not," Picard says with a smile. He collects his thoughts and says, "About their tactics, do you think they will try to attack Earth first or start with the outer most colonies?"

"They will head directly to Earth," Worf replies with certainty.

Picard asks, "How can you be so sure?" Worf explains, "It is their nature. They know our weapons and shields are ineffective and they won't give us time to adapt. Also, knowing that standard federation tactics would have us attempt to intercept them as far away as possible with the bulk of the fleet, Earth will be lightly defended at first."

Picard comments, "I see."

Wolf adds, "Captain, the Bozcomb are extremely intelligent and calculating in their tactics. They are absolutely fearless, even in the face of certain death."

Picard takes note of the certainty of his statement, and ask, "Absolutely fearless?"

"Yes, they seem to have no self-preservation instinct."

"In that case, contact Starfleet headquarters, brief them on what you learned so far, and recommend that all ships head for Earth," Picard Orders.

"Aye sir," comes Worf's reply. Just then, Data walks though the view screen onto the bridge. Wolf is surprised to see him, as he can somehow tell it is Data from his confident movement.

Data calls out and says, "Captain, I believe the Enterprise may have been sabotaged in some way."

Picard and Wolf stand up and Picard asks, "What do you mean?" Data replies, "Retaking the ship was too easy.

"Easy!" Picard replies in shock.

Data adds, "Past liberations of enemy occupied ships were complicated by a fail-safe devices placed within the ship."

"But Commander Cain scanned us and read our computer records before he attacked," Picard says.

"True. However, Commander Cain himself believes it was too easy as well. Right now, he is reviewing all records of the incident in an effort to find something he missed."

"Are you saying the Enterprise was spared because the Bozcomb still have a plan for us?" Picard asks.

"It would fit the Bozcomb's method of operation," Data says. Picard then instinctively taps his communicator and says, "Picard to Riker." A split second later, he realizes that he is not on the Enterprise.

Then surprisingly, Riker replies, "Captain, I thought you were on the Starwolf."

"I am, sort-of," Picard replies.

"I'm in route to the bridge," Riker replies from the turbo lift as it slows down. As Riker exits the turbo lift, he sees the android and thinks he is B4 as walks toward Picard. Riker looks at the android more and recognizes Data, and then he looks at Picard curiously.

Picard says, "Commander Cain has reconstructed Data's more complex nero-net. Then the memory ingrams Data downloaded before he was destroyed took over."

Riker looks surprised and says, "Data?"

"Yes, it is me." Data says.

Riker smiles and pats him on the shoulder.

Picard then says, "Will, the Bozcomb may have left something behind. I need you to look for it."

Riker replies, "What?"

"Data will explain," Picard replies, then adds, "In the meantime, I'm going to have a talk with Commander Cain." Picard turns around a walks up to a wall. He stops and extends his hand. As he touches the wall, his hand slides into it. He the tilts his head down and to the left and smirks. Picard then walks though the wall.

On the other side, Picard looks back at the transparent bridge where only Data appears solid. "Amazing," he says. Picard then walks up to Cain and says, "Why didn't you tell us you were suspicious about taking back the Enterprise so easily?"

Cain looks over from the logs displaying in mid-air. He then gets up and takes a step and slightly twirls his finger in a circle. Holograms then surround them. Picard and Cain now appear to be on the bridge of the Bozcomb destroyer that attacked the Enterprise.

Cain states, "Along with their main reactor and your android, we retrieved most of their ships memory core."

Picard looks around and noticed a scan of the Enterprise on the main screen. He takes a second to observe the crew and then turn to Cain. He then ask, "So what are you thinking."

"A Kadari class destroyer's shields and weapons aren't much stronger than yours."

"Ah…" Picard says with the look of a revelation. "They never intended to take on the Federation with one ship. It was to let you know they know where Earth was."

Cain is slowly walking around Picard and while he makes his realization.

"There's also the matter of your crew being still alive."

"They were baiting you… are baiting you!"

"Yes, this is a trap."

Picard thinks for a moment while Cain adds, "The behavior of the crew or their records give no indication of what they are plaining."

Just then the Starwolf's computer announces, "Arrival at Federation starbase 29 in 13 seconds, we are being hailed."

Cain says to Picard, "You're up."

Picard looks toward the front of the bridge and commands, "On screen."

A few meters in front of them appears a view screen the same size and distance Picard is used to on the Enterprise. On the screen is a Starfleet captain. He sees Picard and immediately recognizes him.

"Captain Picard," he says with some surprise.

"Captain Lane, I wish this was just a social call, but we need to barrow your space station."

Captain Lane left eyebrow raises as he is intrigued.

Back on the Enterprise in engineering, Sara and Geordi discuss weapons. "Now, lower the confinement beam to .4 terahertz," Sara says.

Geordi replies, "We wouldn't be able to maintain a stream at that level," he says as he puts in the calculation.

"That's what we want," she says with a grin. "Lastly, tie all this in to a gravitation pulse along the same axis," she adds.

Geordi presses a few more buttons and replies, "OK, that should do it."

"Now let's test it," Sara adds. Geordi then calls the bridge, "Engineering to Bridge."

"Bridge here," Riker replies.

"We're ready to test a new weapon. I'm sending you the sequence now," continues Geordi.

An officer looks at the tactical display and says, "Captain, we're ready to test fire the new weapon."

Riker looks at the tactical display and says, "This should be interesting, fire away."

The officer hits the fire control button and the phazer emitters light up. They converge to a single point and erupt into multiple energy streams around an invisible line extending from the ship. The steamers impact a target probe and it disintegrates. In engineering, Geordi and Sara look over the firing reports.

"Excellent." Sara says. She looks over the logs intensely and says, "Wait a moment, these conversion rates a much faster than normal."

Geordi, also looking at the logs, says, "The Enterprise has much more efficient weapons then the Hera had." After another second of scanning the log, he adds, nearly all matter in the probe was converted to energy and transferred into our reserves." He turns to her and says, "How did you come up with this?"

Sara smiles and says, "It's a 200 year old recycling technology. With a little federation help, we turned it into a weapon."

"Right, the Hara's crew…" Geordie comments.

On the star base, Picard and Lane are speaking while Cain configures a machine.

Lane says to Picard, "So, just so I have this straight… That guy (pointing to Cain) is the 400 year old supreme commander of a two-dozen alien alliance from another galaxy fighting one species that has them in more-or-less a stalemate but still has time and a desire to come over here and wipe us out."

Picard adds, "You left out the part where our defenses has proven to be ineffective."

Lane rolls his head slightly and then says, "Right, right…" Then looks a little more serious and ask, "So what's the plan?"

"I'm still working on that."

"We'll, for the moment, I don't envy you this task."

Picard nods and replies, "Yea, me too…"Yea, me too…"

Picard then looks and walks over to Cain and asks, "So how does it work?"

Cain looks up and responds, "It's a micro-wormhole communications transceiver. It works by generating a micro-wormhole between here and Etheria. Then it generates micro-wormholes within this galaxy to every subspace relay station in your network. All the communications protocols are still contained in your main base computer. This transceiver was also made to run on your power system, hiding the signature from the Bozcomb."

"When you say made, did you already have one built for this occasion?"

"No, we commandeered some equipment from your cargobay, Kit then made some modifications."

Picard smiles and comments, "No alliance technology."

Cain turns on the transceiver and a map of the subspace network appears. Then blue icons representing the micro worm holes pop up next to the yellow star fleet icon to represent the relay stations. "We are now synchronized with your communication network." Cain steps back from the machine and says, "Now, let's get back to the Enterprise."

Back on the Enterprise Geordi and Sara discuss more options. "The ion guns and proton cannons have key component that are matter consisting of additional nucleons not found in your galaxy. They would be incompatible with your power distribution systems. We need to focus on upgrades your entire feet can do." Sara says.

"Right…" Geordi replies.

A symbol then flashes on Sara's display. She looks up and says, "I'll be back in a few minutes." Her image then fades.

As Geordie turns back to the reactor, Riker walks in to engineering. He walks over to Geordi and ask, "So what do you understand so far?"

"Well," Geordi begins as he walks toward the dark matter reactor, "I feel like a caveman looking at a nuclear reactor."

Riker smiles and says, "It can't be that bad."

Geordi follows with, "Take this reactor for instance. The design was top of the when it was decommissioned 86 years ago."

Riker is struck with interest and ask, "86 years ago? What do they use now?"

Geordi replies, "I wish I knew and was capable of understanding. When the Bozcomb conquered the Etherian home world, they were able to reverse engineer the DMR technology. But as far as the current Etherian power generation technology, that was so far beyond their understanding that they couldn't figure it out."

I don't suppose we were given any information on it," Riker comments.

Geordi replies, "Nope. The Etherians will only give us technology that is already known to the Bozcomb."

Riker responds, "What about the nuclear disintegration wave?" Geordi replies,

"It doesn't work against Etherian shields, so it's not that much of a risk. Also, the surviving federation crew helped in designing it."

"I see," Riker replies. He hesitates for a moment and says, "Theirs something else I wanted to talk to you about."

Geordi instantly know what it's about and replies in a slightly angry voice saying, "I already read the report on the O'ccelion incident."

Riker takes a breath in and says, "I don't suppose there's anything I can say to…"

Geordie snaps, "No!"

Riker looks at him with surprise as Geordie turns away for a moment and then back. "They experimented on her!" he says with an angry voice. And he continues, "Just for the sake of finding a way of killing us quicker!" Riker watches, and listens, as Geordie continues venting. "Capturing her under the false pretense of a cease fire. Cain should have been there to stop her; he knew what he was dealing with. Instead he let her die!"

Riker adds, "He tried to save her."

Geordie shouts, "Well he didn't try hard enough!"

Riker looks at him more intensely and says, "I need you to remain objective." Geordie draws closer and looks him in the eyes and replies, "I can't do that."

Riker pulls back a little surprised. The Riker starts, "Geordie, listen, I Und…"

The conversation is interrupted by an incoming communication. "Bridge to Captain Riker. A fleet of Etherian carrier just appeared in fount of us."

Riker taps his communicator and answers back, "I'm on my way." After that, he says to Geordie, "We'll pick this up later." With that, he stats to head for the turbo lift as Geordie stands there, thinking.

Outside is a task-force of alliance ships. One is a massive carrier shaped like a rectangular tube with two rectangular bays on each side and one massive bay at the front that takes up the bottom half of the front of the carrier. Two are battleships shaped like a stepped hexagonal tube with the front tapering into a point. Six gun turrets are visible on each of the 6 sides. 1 massive turret with two cannons located in the center just behind the first step, two smaller turrets near the front, and three more at the rear behind another step. The spacing looks like if all guns were pointed forward, all 36 could converge on a single point out in front of the ship. These three ships have shimmering flat surfaces indicative of the Etherian stealth technology. The other ships are quite a bit smaller and have a totally different design from the Etherian ships indicating they are from different species within the alliance. Five of them have a pair of thick curved forward swept wings with a long X shaped main body. On the walls of the X are circular shaped gun turrets, 3 per wall side. At the front are 4 fixed cannons. Arroud the ships are a swam of around a hundred small fighters. These are shaped like a 5 sided diamond. Flat and long with a shimmering surface and a red steak along the back, they are of Etherian design. The fly around the other alliance ships in a spherical pattern, weaving in and out of each-others flight path.

A minute later, Riker steps on the bridge. He still seems a little upset about his talk with Geordie.

He asked, "Did we see them coming?"

"No sir, they just appeared out of warp, or whatever." Says an ensign.

"They must have updated their stealth." Riker comments.

He looks at the ships on the view screen for a few seconds and says, "They look like they are taking up a defensive posture."

"Yes sir, the carrier launched 102 fighters the moment it arrived."

"How long did that take?"

"A few seconds."

Just then, a man appears in front of the view screen in a red flash. "Hello commander Riker," the man says. Then he sees the buttons on his collar and corrects himself. "Or should I say Captain Riker."

Riker looks at the man and says, "Ensign Aries, or is it Commander Aries now." Riker speaks with a stern voice. They obviously know each other.

"It's been a long time," Aries replies. Then he adds, "I hope we can put the past behind us."

Riker looks at him. You can tell he doesn't like him for some reason. Riker blurts out, "So, was it easy? Turning your back on Starfleet that is."

Aries is upset by the statement and steps forward and replies, "You don't get it yet. Starfleet can't fight this enemy; not with that mentality."

Riker replies, "I don't believe that!" Riker replies in an elevated voice.

Aries looks somber as he says, "I hope you realize what you're facing before it's too late."

Riker, still using an elevated voice, says, "Is there some professional reason for your visit?"

Aries looks down and then back at Riker and replies, "Not really, just wanted to say hi." He knows that he is unwelcome and taps a button on his armband and disappears.

Riker still looks a little angry as Wolf walks up behind him and says, "I take it you are old adversaries?"

Riker looks at him and replies, "Something like that." He then looks back at the view screen and says, "You have the bridge, I'll be in my ready room." Riker then walks away to cool off.

Chapter 7: Stupid humans

Picard looks at a holographic map of the region complete with markers for federation ships and planets and remembers something. He looks up and calls out, "Cain, can you come here for a minute."

Cain walks over and asks, "What is it?"

Picard says, "I've been looking over the route that the Bozcomb took from your galaxy to ours." He points to the map and continuous, "Here is where they crossed over and here is Earth. Now, two days ago, we encountered something that could only be a probe here." Picard points to a spot on a line between Earth and the edge of the galaxy, closer to the edge of the galaxy.

Cain responds, "Starwolf, display Bozcomb probes."

Seven holograms appear of various probe configurations. It only takes a second for Picard to point to one and say, "That's it."

Cain orders, "Starwolf, open a link to the Sara's location." A hologram of an Etherian command center appears around them. Sara is talking with an Etherian and notices Cain has appeared. Cain says to Sara, "The Bozcomb are already here."

Sara replies, "How do you know?"

"Kit downloaded the Enterprises records and analyzed them. There was no indication of a previous encounter. But Captain Picard has just identified a recon probe that was here two days ago."

Sara replies, "Then they want us to think we have more time."

"Yes," Cain says, he then adds, "The ability to track them in this galaxy is probably part of that deception. I'll warn the Enterprise and the task force. Starwolf, shift link to the Enterprise's bridge."

With that command, the holographic surroundings shift to the enterprises bridge. Picard looks around and doesn't see Riker. But before he taps his communicator, Riker steps out of his ready room as if he got an alert about the incoming communication.

Picard tells Riker, "Will, go to red alert." Riker looks over at Worf. Wolf hits the button and red alert sounds.

Riker then looks back at Picard and ask, "What's going on?" Picard answers, "The Bozcomb are here, they are trying to circumvent early detection. We will be there in a few minutes."

Cain then commands, "Shift link, Chalema command center." The holographic communications shift to the Chalema's command center. "Commander Aries," Cain calls out, then adds "They are here, in this galaxy and they've been here for at least a few days. Start scanning the path to Earth, look for unexplained debris, energy emissions, or gravity distortions." "Aye sir," he replies and the link shuts off.

Picard looks at Cain and asks, "What are you expecting?"

"They may attack us here to draw our attention away from the route their battle group is taking." Cain replies.

Picard then asks, "Do you know what that route may be."

"Not yet."

Picard looks over at Data and says, "Data, as soon as we get to the Enterprise, I want you to go to astro-metrics and analyze every observation outpost and relay station. Find the most likely path to get a fleet closest to Earth before being detected."

Data relies, "Aye Sir."

The Enterprise is in high orbit around Tarvis 4 when in-between the nacelles a small Bozcomb ship fades in. Aboard the Enterprise, Worf is at tactical when an alarm sounds. Before he has a chance to look at it, a single Bozcomb appears in the center of the bridge. The computer sounds, "Intruder alert!"

"I am not armed," the loan Bozcomb immediately says. Still, everyone reaches for a phazer.

On the Starwolf's bridge, the Starwolf's computer calls out, "A Bozcomb scout ship has just de-cloaked in-between the Enterprise's nacelles. The look on Cain's face changes. His brow lowers and his eyes scream of rage. Dianna, over at the library console suddenly looks up as if someone kicked her. Her eyes are wide, and then she quickly looks over at Cain. She gets up and starts to head over to the others.

Cain looks over at Picard and says, "They are preventing you from moving." Cain's personality has suddenly changed. Picard now sees the mad-mad who came aboard his ship an hour ago. He looks over at Dianna knowing she can read him better. As she slowly walks up, the look on her face… she is terrified. As the Starwolf decelerate from faster than light speed and closes in on the Enterprise, Kit transports back aboard.

As he ascends to the ceiling, he says, "One Bozcomb has beamed over to the Enterprise's bridge."

Cain tells Picard, "It's a trap, kill it immediately."

Picard is about to say something. Cain looks at him, Data, and Dianna in rapid secession. Then the three of them disappear in a red flash.

Kit then adds, "I've have a solution."

Cain replies, "Prepare to use it. Make a sweep around the planet."

Picard, Data, and Worf are transported to the Enterprise's bridge where all the officers have a weapon pointed at the Bozcomb. Picard quickly looks at Data and says, "Astro-metrics."

Data nods then heads for the turbo lift. Riker walks up to Picard and Dianna. He reaches out for Dianna's hand and she reaches for his. She already knows his intentions. He doesn't slow down and only grasp her hand for a second and then let's go. Then he walks up to Picard and behind him. He turns around and touches him on the neck. Picard feels a chill run down his body an instantly knows that Riker has just passed on the nanites. "Trust me," Riker says.

The Starwolf flies around the planet while emitting a laser detection filed and settles in back of the Enterprise with weapons deployed and ready. Then, Cain hales the Enterprise.

Worf says, "Captain, Commander Cain is haling us."

"On screen," Picard commands as he turns to the view screen.

Cain appears on the screen. He sees the Bozcomb behind Picard and stands up. "Why is a Bozcomb on you bridge," he says in a hostile voice as he begins to slowly walk forward.

Picard replies with a hint of sarcasm, "The Bozcomb what to talk peace."

Cain says with animosity directed toward the Bozcomb, "What are you up too."

The Bozcomb replies in an antagonistic tone, "We are up too nothing but a quest for peace."

The look is Cain's eyes are pure rage as he starts to walk forward. In a flash, he transports to the bridge of the Enterprise in mid stride in-between Picard and the Bozcomb emissary.

The Bozcomb immediately says, in an insulting tone "Stupid humans."

Then, in an instance, a green energy beam blast though the center of the bridge and comes down directly on the Bozcomb, vaporizing him instantly! The beam pierces the floor and the force of the beam jolts the Enterprise down a meter, leaving everyone in midair for an instant. The blast wave from the beam throws everyone back, throwing Cain, Picard, and Dianna into the view screen. Riker, who was standing behind and off to the side of the Bozcomb, is thrown up and over the railing into Worf. The beam in instantly explains into a wall to cut the bridge in half, separating Picard, Dianna, and Cain from everyone else. Outside the Enterprise, the energy wall curves itself into a circle as a monstrous crimson red ship de-cloaks high above the Enterprise. The ship is shaped as a six-point star with the forward point stretching four times that of the other equal points. The forward spikes outer haul is split open into eight parallel doors reveling a massive energy weapon that discharges to moment the cloak falls. The immense energy beam plows into the back of the Etherian carrier. Simultaneously, one of the battleships is broadsided by dozens of beams of high energy weapons. The shields fail after half a second and the battleship is blown in half. The carrier suffers a similar fate as the blast rips it in half.

The enemy ship is at least 100 times larger than the Enterprise. The cylinder of energy seems to originate from the skin of the ship its self and not from anything looking like an emitter. It shoots into the Enterprise and penetrates all the way though the ship and begins to pull the enclosed part toward the Bozcomb ship. The Starwolf opens fire with all weapons. Then, three more Bozcomb cruisers de-cloak to fire on the Starwolf. The Starwolf instantly rolls out of the path of fire and maneuvers to attack the de-cloaking ships.

On the Enterprise's bridge, Riker is laying dazed as Wolf tries to help him up. The ship is shaking violently. A horrendous screeching noise of metal scraping on metal echoes throughout the ship. Wolf looks at the energy wall and can see the parts of the ship inside being drawn up.

He shouts, "Captain Riker, we must get out of here!" But Riker appears to be partially stunned an unable to move.

Wolf gets to a console and activates a site-to-site transporter. Riker is transported off the bridge. A split second later, the console Worf is at explodes, sending him into the rail. Outside, the section of the Enterprise being removed clears the rest of the ship. The beam then cuts off at the bottom of the sections being removed and the resulting decompression blows crewmembers from the damaged areas into space, including Wolf. But before the decompression can kill them, Worf and the other crewmembers disappear in a red flash. A split second later, the Enterprise's nacelles pulse brightly, brighter than ever before. The Bozcomb ship in-between the nacelles deforms and compacts as if under unimaginable pressure. The Enterprise jumps into warp, pushing off the Bozcomb ship and sending it rocketing back. The sections of the Enterprise incased in the energy cylinder reach the surface Bozcomb's flagship and begins to pass through. A hologram is hiding the door.

Kit, knowing he's hopelessly out numbered, jumps the Starwolf into warp. A few Bozcomb ships jump into warp to pursue.

Aboard the huge battleship, the Bozcomb commander shouts, "Secure the extracted sections. High quarantine!"

"Commander, multiple ships are being dispatched from the federation planet," shouts and officer.

The commander replies in a chilling voice, "Let none survive!"

The huge ship begins to turn as other Bozcomb ships move to intercept Federation and Klingon ships heading up from the planet. The Bozcomb open fire! The federation shields are no match for the weapons being used by the Bozcomb. Within seconds, dozens of ships are destroyed before they have a chance to fire. Ship after ship explodes, even escape pods being jettison from doomed ships are being targeted and destroyed.

As the Bozcomb flagship aligns with the planet, an officer says, "Primary cannon locked and charged!"

"Fire!" the commander orders.

The tip begins to arc energy across it opening and pure energy explodes from the core in a furious strike. Space ripples around the blast at it shoots for the planet. Upon impact, the atmosphere around the impact zone is blown back, the planets tectonic plates buckle from the force of the blast. Red-hot magma is shot up with enough force to reach escape velocity. Over the next 3 seconds, multiple fissures spread out across the planet. Massive pieces of land are force away from the core. The Bozcomb weapon shatters the planet.

In Engineering, Riker struggles to get back to his feet and shouts, "Status report!"

Geordi gets to a console and replies, "We're at warp 10.5!"

"What!? How!? By who's order!?" Riker demands.

Geordi replies, "I'm not sure, but it wasn't any of us..."

Then, an energy blast pierces engineering and directly impacts the DMR. The shock sent into the floor knocks everyone in the room off their feet! But amazingly, the DMR is unscratched! As Riker and Geordi attempt to get back on their feet, two more shots in rapid succession hit the same spot on the DMR.

"What's happening?" Riker shouts.

"Bozcomb destroyer closing fast!" Geordi shouts back.

Outside, a Bozcomb ship is closing on the Enterprise. It fires streams of particle energy at the Enterprise. The weapons fire easily penetrates the shields. The attacking ship then starts firing on different parts of the Enterprise. Weapons fire rips down the hull. The Bozcomb ship then falls under attacked from behind. It's the Starwolf. Behind it are three more Bozcomb ships in pursuit.

"Do we have weapons control?" Riker asks. Yes," Geordi replies. "Fire everything we've got!" Riker commands.

The Enterprise unleashes a ferry of quantum torpedoes and phazers at the pursuing ship. The federation weapons pierce the shield with the temporal modification, but they only do superficial damage to the destroyer's ablative armor. The Starwolf continues its assault from the rear while dodging fire from the three pursuing it.

"I'm rerouting the nuclear disintegrator to the aft phazer banks!" Geordi shouts.

The phazer stream splits into steamers of energy. As it impacts the Bozcomb ship, a crater begins to form. Behind the destroyer, repeated hits from the Starwolfs main cannons finally breach the shields. The next barrage is to the upper warp nacelles, causing the destroyer to start tumbling. As the it does, the Starwolf fishtails around 360 degrees to bring its main cannons to bare on the pursuing destroyers. The first destroyer quickly loses speed and slams into the next destroyer, shattering them both. The Enterprise slips away as the Starwolf is left to deal with the two remaining destroyers.

Seconds later, the Enterprise decelerates from warp and appears in a dense field of red-hot gas.

"Captain," Geordi says, "We've come out of warp and..."

He pauses as he looks at the sensor information.

"And what?"

"Ah…, we're in the corona of a red giant, just above the chromosphere."

"How?" Riker replies as he comes over to look at the data.

Examining the screen, Geordi replies, "Looks like we've been pushed out of phase with normal matter."

"What about the star's gravity, heat, radiation?"

"Doesn't seem to affect us."

"Can the Bozcomb detect us?"

"Not with this much interference."

"The Starwolf?" Riker asks.

"Can't tell, sensors are blind in here," Geordi replies.

"Good place to hide," Riker comments.

"Captain, 54 teraquads of new data has been added to our navigational systems. We didn't just exceed warp 10, we were maneuvering at that speed."

"That's not even possible!"

"Well, impossible or not, we did it."

Outside, the Starwolf decelerates beside the Enterprise.

"Kit to Enterprise," Kit calls over.

"What the hell happened and why did you force our retreat!" Riker yells.

Kit replies, "Your ship is not capable of surviving a direct hit from a Bozcomb heavy cruiser. You had been targeted and there was no time to warn you."

Geordi, reviewing the logs, says, "He's right. We also lost 34% of the saucer section, reducing shield strength to next to nothing."

Riker, looking very unhappy, asks, "The people in those sections?"

"124 missing," Geordi says.

"I have 42. I'll transport them over," Kit adds.

Riker asks, "What about Dianna Troy and Captain Picard?"

"They are aboard the Bozcomb command ship," Kit replies.

Riker looks understandably distressed as he hangs his head while leaning on the control table.

He lifts his head and says, "How soon can we get underway?"

Geordi responds, "Give me a minute to see how bad we've been hurt."

Worf is then transported to engineering. He has look of a beaten warrior.

Riker immediately orders, "Worf, I need you on damage control. Weapons and shields are a priority."

"Aye sir," replies Worf.

Riker then taps he's communicator and calls out, "Riker to Data."

Data here."

"Where are you?"

"Deck 7"

"Are you alright?" Riker asks.

Data is walking down a heavily damaged hall and comes up on a force field holding in atmosphere. On the other side is a giant hole in the saucer section. "Yes, but all exits from my current location are blocked."

Geordi adds, "Transporters are down as well as all turbo lifts in the saucer section."

Riker then says, "Stand by. We'll get you out as soon as possible."

Geordi adds, "The saucer sections main power distribution hub has been severed. Emergency back-up should give us at least 30 minutes of force fields.

Riker then turns to Geordi and ask, "What about the engines?"

Geordi accesses some information and replies, "We've strain then pretty bad. I recommended we don't use them until we've run a full diagnostic."

"Any clue as to why Kit choose that speed."

"We needed to out-run the cruisers."

"Then what hit us?"

"A destroyer," he then elaborates, "The cruisers have holograph engines, impossible to target, instantly reconfigurable and repositionable, but not as fast as the real thing."

Riker immediately deduces that the Enterprise is not a match for a cruiser and not as fast as a destroyer.

Outside, the Starwolf move's over the top of the Enterprise and emits a grey beam of light toward the center of the hole in the saucer section. The beam stops at the point where the hull would start if it were still there. The beam then starts expanding and the stopping point outward like a puddle of water. The puddle of light reaches the edge of the torn-out section of the Enterprise and continues over the edge for a few meters. The puddle of light then solidifies and looks like a glass hull. The inside is not perfectly smooth, but has outlines, protrusions, and indentations as if the original hull was still there. The Starwolf then rolls around to the other side and does the same thing. In Engineering, a notification alert sounds.

Geordi looks over at it and says, "What the…"

Riker asks, "What is it?"

Geordi is looking at the read-outs and displays and replies, "The outer hull is back… sort of…"

"What do you mean, sort of?" Riker asks.

Geordi replies, "It's a wall of solidified electrons..."

Riker replies, "I'll save the impossible statement. Can you tell me if we can re-pressurize those sections?"

Geordie replies, "It's already pressuring. The electron wall seems to be bonded to the adjacent hull."

Riker taps his communicator and says, "Riker to Worf."

"Worf here," he answers.
"Worf, the damaged sections are being re-pressurized. As soon as you determine it's safe, get in there, rescue any stranded crew members, and see you can do about restoring power."

Worf replies, "Aye sir."

Riker stands up and looks around then says, "At least we have power." He's looking at the dark matter reactor like he doesn't know what it is, but he is grateful to have it.

Geordie stands up and faces the reactor and adds, "It barely noticed the attack. Zero damage, and power output was at low levels for its operating capacity."

Riker says, "Couldn't we use something like that?"

"I believe so," Geordie replies, "We'll need to totally redesign the power distribution, weapons, and shielding systems to make use of that much power, but I doubt we have the time to do one, let alone all three."

Riker turn to Geordie and says, "Get us moving first then concentrate on weapons."

Geordi replies, "Engines coming are online right now."

"We need to get back to Tarvis 4. Move us out of the corona just enough to be able to scan for enemy ships."

"Yes sir," Geordi responds. The enterprise and the Starwolf come out of the stars corona just far enough to scan.

"No ships detected," Geordi says.

"I have multiple warp signatures moving away from the ambush site and heading toward Earth," Kit adds.

"Take us back to Tarvis 4, Warp seven," Riker orders.

"Aye sir," Geordi responds.

As Geordi inputs the command, the computer states, "Unable to comply. Warp nacelle damage detected."

Riker looks at Geordi, and then says, "Explain."

The computer adds, "Fractures have been detected in both warp nacelles. Current maximum speed is limited to warp four."

Geordi calls up some reading and says, "Captain, escaping at that speed with our structural damage overloaded the engines. It will take at least 12 hours with the engines offline to fix all the cracks."

"What about the repair drones?" Riker asks.

"They are reconstructing the saucer section. Even with the nacelles fully functional, the ship is way off balance. Anything over warp four would stress the engines again."

Riker looks increasingly frustrated. "Very well, best possible speed then," Riker grumbles. The Enterprise goes into Warp and Starwolf follows.

Chapter 8: Every precaution.

Aboard the Bozcomb flagship, three Bozcomb are in a turbo lift. The one in the center seems to stand out from the other two. In addition to a slightly crisper looking uniform, he wears a large metallic blue belt. This is the commander. The turbo lift doors open and he steps out, followed by his officers. They step out onto a platform on the edge of a massive elliptical shaped room in the ship. The room resembles an egg lying on its side. Where they exited the turbo lift is at the base of that egg. Directly in front of them is the extracted cylindrical section of the Enterprise's saucer section. It is still encased in the force field. Bodies and debris are floating inside, indicating there is no artificial gravity. Behind the extracted section is even more of the room, but a ship of some sort occupies the enormous space. The ship within is almost the same shape except for the front. It is flat with an indention at the center to allow for the cutting force field extraction area. It is and isolated research station, suspended at least 70 meters from the main ship on all sides. And at the top of the energy column is a complete circle of emitters, with a larger part at the front coming down a few meters. The commander looks up at his catch and grins. He then walks over to a section of the platform with a control console. His officers follow and they walk over a white stripe on the floor denoting a separation in the platform. He reaches the console and presses a few keys. A force-field bubble is then cast over the platform section. He the grabs a teardrop shaped joystick mounted horizontally and shifts it up. The platform then lifts out of its dock and begins its accent. The commander maneuvers it forward and it passes through a force field spanning the entire room. Then he maneuvers around the section of the Enterprise to reach the exposed half of the bridge. Another platform is already there. The commander docks with it and the force fields merge. They can now walk between them. On the second platform, Bozcomb technicians are working controls that are controlling two robots. The robots have four arms, two at the bottom and two at the top of a rectangular trunk. They hover through the wreckage, and one lifts a large piece of view screen on top of Cain. Then it is oriented above Cain, so all four arms hang down. Then one set of arms grab Cain's arms and the other set grabs his legs. The robot then lifts him up. A remote-controlled bed then hovers below Cain and the robot lays him down on the bed. A force field then forms around the bed. Then the bed starts to move and passes though the force field around the Enterprise section, then though the vacuum between it and the platform, and slides into the force field protecting the platform. The commander walks over and looks at Cain and grins.

"Excellent!" he says as another officer walks up beside him. He then turns to that officer and says, "And the other target?"

The office replies, "Yes," he says as he looks over to another bed already on the platform. Behind the force field is Picard. The office continues, "We got exactly who we were aiming for."

The commander says, "Good, now get rid of the rest." With that command, huge doors for the portal at the bottom of the bay start to open.

Another officer walks up to the commander and says, "Commander, I have new information about the new ship of Cain's."

The commander turns to the officer as he elaborates. "Compiling data from the three pursuing destroyers, we were able to map it's flight characteristic despite it's stealth technology. The ship can out-maneuver any ship we have, including fighters. However, it appears to be piloted by a computer. Its movements were too mathematically perfect to be of organic origin."

"I assume the algorithm we used last time they attempted that doesn't work."

"Correct, but we are working on it."

"And the destroyer pursuing the Enterprise?"

"No telemetry was relayed. The Etherian ship was actively jamming."

"They should not have had the power to escape…", the commander replies.

"Or to maneuver at warp."

"Very clever." The commander comments. "He swapped out the inferior warp core with a DMR. Then hide it from detection."

He then looks at the officer and says, "We will assume they survived until we are certain they did not."

Another office states, "Dissention underway."

The commander and the others look toward the section of the Enterprise as it starts to descend. The bottom goes through a hole in the bottom of the bay. On the outside of the ship a hologram still covers the portal for the bay door as the sections of the Enterprise side out. As it clears the ship, the energy field cuts off at the outer hull at the top of the Enterprise section. However, the force field connecting the top part of the hull and the bottom still remains as the entire section falls away from the ship. The Bozcomb ship then shimmers back into cloaking mode.

Back in the bay, an officer says, "The catch has fallen out of warp and the containment field will fail in 35 seconds."

The commander replies, "We shall return after the mission to see how the cold vacuum of space affects the micro-bots." He then heads back to the platform from where he came and his two officers follow him. After he returns to the controls, he notices one of his officers looking back at Cain and asks, "Nervous?"

The officers replies, "Just concerned."

The commander replies, "We've taken every precaution."

Back on the Enterprise in engineering, Geordi is reviewing sensor logs when he finds something interesting.

"Captain," he starts, "They're cutting beam was calibrated to our shield modulation."

Riker thinks for a moment, and tells Geordi, "All stop."

"Answering all stop," Geordi replies, then inquires, "Do you thinking they got into our computer systems?"

Riker responds. "It's the only way they could match the random shield frequency. We need to know if they still have access."

Geordi pulls up a console and runs a few tests. "All security protocols indicate no tampering." He replies. Geordi then starts running a few more tests. "I'm looking for an external object," he comments. As the console displays data, Geordi starts to talk to himself. "No detectable transmissions, no power drains, no unusual energy signals…"

Just then, Kit transports into engineering. "Captain Riker, is there a problem?"

Riker stands up and says, "We believe the Bozcomb left some kind of probe behind."

"We've repeatedly scanned your ship for Bozcomb technology and found none." Kit says.

"Captain," Geordi calls, "Maybe we don't need to detect it with sensors, just figure out where a probe needs to be."

Roker looks up and says, "Right, there's only a few locations that information can be accessed."

Geordi is calling up a sematic of the Enterprise and comments, "The main bridge, primary and secondary computer cores, engineering, and the shield generators themselves."

"The bridge was maned at all times, and no-one noticed them tampering with systems."

"Right, same with engineering."

"The generators are difficult to access, and nearly impossible to do so without anyone noticing."

"That leaves the computer cores."

Riker taps his communicator and says, "Riker to Worf."

"Worf here," he replies.

"Worf, we have a cloaked probe inside the secondary computer core.

As Worf walks down the hall with two other security officers he replies, "Aye sir."

Geordi asks, "How do you know it's there?"

"Call it a hunch, but that's where I would put it."

Worf enters the core room and looks around. Seeing nothing he pulls out his phaser and sets it to a low-level wide beam. He then fires into the room. The beam aluminates the room and Worf sees a distortion to the right. Quickly resetting his phazer, Wolf fires a shoot and directly hits a cloaked object. The cloaked destabilizes to reveal a spherical probe with a rod coming out of the bottom and piercing a computer console. He fires again the probe shoots off a few sparks and goes dead.

"I have neutralized the probe," Worf calls over communications. He walks over to it to get a good look at it and adds, "And Captain, it appears to be the same probe we encounter two days ago."

The probe then disappears in in a red flash.

Worf is startled for a moment and adds, "An Etherian transporter just beamed the probe away."

In engineering, Riker calles out, "Kit, did you just take probe from us?"

"Temporarily, I need to disable it's self-destruct."

Riker and Geordi look and each other with an uneasy look. Then, Riker inquires, "Can we be of assistance?"

"I am almost done."

Moments later, the probe is transported into engineering.

Aboard the Bozcomb ship, Picard and Cain lay unconscious on two examination tables. Picard is still fully clothed but the Bozcomb are in the process of removing Cain's clothing . A robot is seen dumping Cain's shirt into a bin while a Bozcomb is standing off to the side with a hand-scanner taking readings of the shirt. Then the robot hovers back over to Cain. A Bozcomb off to the side controls the robot via a portable control pad with a screen on it. The pad has a handle specifically designed for the Bozcomb hand. In his other hand is a bent cylindrical rod, like a pencil, that is a controller for it. On the screen is a live image of Cain's mid-section. The fasteners for Cain's pants have a blue rectangle drawn around them. He maneuvers the outline to the left of the button for the pants and the taps a button. A simulation then runs on the screen of the fasteners being undone and then a strange symbol appears on the screen to indicate that the simulation was a success. He then presses another button and commands the robot to perform the action. The robot then extents it hand and grips the snap side of the pants and flips it up. Then another arm reaches down and grabs the zipper and slides it down. As the Bozcomb guides the robot down to Cain's feet, a view screen comes up. It is the commander.

"Progress report," he orders. Another Bozcomb, the lead scientist addresses the Commander.

"We're almost done removing Cain's clothing," the scientist replies.

"The humans anesthetizing gas is ready, move Cain to lab 2 immediately," the commander orders.

The lead scientist turns back to Cain. The robot has a hold of Cain's plants and is pulling them off. As it finishes, the lead scientist motions two guards over. They walk over to the table, Cain is now completely naked.

The lead scientist says, "Take him to lab 2."

One guard takes hold of the tables handle and starts to push as the other un-holsters his weapon and follows. The Bozcomb controlling the robot now turns his attention to Picard.

On the bridge of the Bozcomb ship, an officer walks up to the commander and says, "Long range scanners are still being jammed behind us."

The commander responds, "So Cain ship survived… But why is it running with jammers… It's protecting something." He concludes.

The officer replies, "It followed the human ship toward an anomaly that interferes with our sensors. Perhaps more human ships were hiding there."

The commander replies, "Perhaps. But the jamming started the instant the human ship whet into warp." He thinks for a second and says, "Review your assessment on the chances that they survived. We may have overlooked something."

"Yes commander," the officer states.

Chapter 9: Devastation

Back on the Enterprise, Kit turns to Riker. "Captain Riker, the repair drones inform me that your main bridge has been restored," Kit says.

Riker calls over communications, "Worf, the main bridge is back. Get up there and get it staffed."

"Aye sir," comes the response from Worf. A few minutes later, Worf enters the bridge. He looks around and sees the bridge is restored, more or less. Some of the aesthetic were skipped to save valuable time. He then walks over to a terminal and accesses the personnel files. He taps his communicator and says, "Ensign Roads and Kelson to the bridge." Worf then access tactical, then calls, "Worf to Engineering."

"Riker here," Riker responds. "Captain, we are approaching the coordinates of the attack, but Tarvis 4 is not there," Worf says.

"What!?" shouts Riker.

Over communications, Kit adds, "Confirmed, the planet has been destroyed."

The Enterprise and the Starwolf decelerate to sub light speed in front of an asteroid field. Riker steps out of the turbo lift and says, "On screen." The asteroid field contains massive chunks of planet mixed with countless smaller rock. Riker is speechless.

Worf at tactical says, "There are… no life readings. No life pod beacons…"

Riker turns to him and asks, "Wolf, how many were on Tarvis 4?"

Worf calls up the record and replies, "Approximately 3.6 billion from 8 different races."

Ensign Roads call out, "Captain, several satellites, including the subspace communication relay, are still transmitting."

Riker looks surprised as he says, "What?" as he walks over to the console. He looks down and says, "Why would they…" He stops in mid-sentence and looks up and concludes, "They want everybody to know." Riker then turns to Worf and says, "Worf, download all information from the satellites." He then taps his communicator and calls, "Riker to engineering."

"Geordi here," comes the answer.

"Geordi, we are going to be here for a half hour. Repair as much as you can of the nacelles and use all available teams," Riker orders.

"Aye sir," Geordi replies.

Then, Ensign Roads call out, "Captain! I'm detecting 3 ships de-cloaking!" On the view screen, two Klingon birds of prey and a battle cruiser de-cloak.

"They are Klingon," says Worf. "They are hailing us," he adds.

"On screen," Riker says as he turns toward the view screen.

On the view screen appears chancellor Martok, looking really, really angry.

"Identify this enemy!?" Martok demands.

Riker is a little surprised and glances down as if he's thinking, Then he looks up and replies, "They are the Bozcomb, they are here to exterminate us. Join us for a briefing, there is much to discuss."

"I will beam over immediately," Martok states.

"Worf, inform security," Riker says.

Worf is already tapping buttons at his terminal and says, "Informed."

Riker then orders, "Worf, Data, ready room," The three enter the ready room and take a seat. Riker looks down and put is head in his hands. Data and Worf look at each other, knowing their Captain is pre-occupied with the fate of his wife. After a few seconds, Riker looks up and says, "Alright, I'm open to suggestion."

Data replies, "Sir, the ship we encountered is a juggernaut, a star carrier variant used for siege operations."

"How do we stop it?"

"It is unlikely we can. That one ship contains more firepower than the entire federation fleet."

"There has to be a way!"

Worf interjects, "Commander Cain took out four of them."

"How?" Riker asks, looking to Worf for an explanation.

"He destroyed an entire star system with a quantum singularity weapon."

"We can't use that method," Data adds.

Riker looks at Data, who elaborates, "That victory was at a cost of three billion inhabitants of a pre-warp civilization caught in the cross-fire."

Riker drops his jaw a little in shocked.

Worf then adds, "I'm just saying we may be able to stop them if we are willing to cross a few lines.

Riker open his mouth to respond but just then, Martok is escorted by a security officer into the room. Riker motions him to take a seat.

As Martok take a seat, Riker says, "Continue Data." "The juggernaut has a top speed of warp six. It will reach Earth in a little over seventeen hours," concludes Data.

Martok jumps in, explaining, "There were 80 thousand Klingons on Tarvis 4! War is declared. If their destination is Earth, that is where we will be."

Riker's smiles and says, "We can sure use any help you can provide."

"You shall have it!" Martok states.

Data add, "This incident is a show of force." Riker turns to Data as she continues, "The Bozcomb knew Tarvis 4 was a joint military outpost. They wanted to invoke fear in all members of the Federation so that they would most likely recall their ships to protect their home planet."

Martok slams his fist on the table in anger and shouts, "The Klingon Empire will not yield to intimidation!"

He stands up, looking increasingly angry, and says, "I must send a message to Klingon High Command. Excuse me."

Martok then heads for the door.

As he leaves, Riker ask, "Have communication with the Etherians come back on-line yet."

"No," Data replies.

"What will the Bozcomb do next?" Riker asks as he leans back.

Data replies, "The events from our first encounter to now seem to have been carefully planned to capture Cain. With that goal achieved, the destruction of earth next."

"Will they destroy Earth as soon as they arrive?" Riker asks.

Data replies, "It is highly likely, they can mine titanium from space derbies with greater ease than if the planet was intact."

"We have to reach earth before they do!" Riker demands.

"Unfortunately, that is impossible given our battle damage," Data says.

"I want options!" Riker demands.

Just then, a holograph image of Sara fades in. She looks over at Riker and says, "We just got the news."

Riker asks, "How far away are you?"

"We just entered your galaxy and will be here in 27 minutes," She says as she sits down.

Riker leans forward, places his arms on the table, and says, "Can you stop that ship?"

"I don't know; we're still processing the information."

"Can you intercept them?" Riker asks. "Yes, but that's not a good idea," Sara says.

"Why not?" Riker asks.

"We would be at a server tactical disadvantage. The juggernaut has a weakness though. To fire its primary weapon, it must divert all power to the weapon for 23 seconds."

Riker comments, "No shields…"

"Exactly," Sara answers, "We will keep the juggernaut from lowering its shields to use its primary weapon. The federation fleet must keep the rest of their fleet occupied"

Riker ask, "What if we were to use our temporal weapons on that ship?"

"It's armor is too thick; it does not even need shields for your weapons at present." Then she adds, "I got some planning to do, I'll speak with you after we rendezvous."

With that, her image fades away. Riker thinks for a minute and gets up. As he stars to walk toward the door, Data also gets up and starts to walk toward the door. As Riker walks back on to the bridge, Martak look over at him and shouts out, "Captain Riker, 15 hundred war ships are in-route to your home world. A thousand more will be under-way in less then and hour."

Riker hears this and can't quite believe what he hearing. As his walk towards the center of the bridge, he slows and gives Martok the disbelieving eye. He stops and says, "That's…. fast."

Martok puffs out his chest and boast, The Klingon Empire is ALWAYS ready to mobilize at a moment's notice."

Riker then displays a hint of a smile and nods, then takes a seat.

The Enterprise, Starwolf, and the Klingon escorts are headed toward Earth. Data picks up something on sensors. "Captain," Data calls from the operations station, "I'm detecting a debris field ahead." Riker walks up to Data as he continues. "The field consists of various metals, compounds, and…" looking up in discomfort, Data adds, "81 bodies."

"Take us into that debris field," Riker orders.

"Aye sir," Data replies.

Outside, the Starwolf jumps in front of them, and disappears in a red streak. A second later, the Starwolf is at the debris field. But this time, instead of a detection field, Kit lays down fire from all weapons while rolling around the perimeter of the field.

At tactical, Worf says, "Captain." as he motions to the screen. Worf displays representation of the field of fire. It's well dispersed in all directions except a corridor for the Enterprise to come in though.

Riker comments, "I guess he's not going to be fooled a second time."

"There are 82 Enterprise crew missing. Someone has either been vaporize or taken prisoner," Worf says.

Riker orders, "Transport them to cargo bay four." He then calls to sickbay, "Riker to Doctor Crusher."

"Crusher here," she replies.

"We've beamed 81 bodies to cargo bay four." Riker says.

"On my way," she replies.

Data turns around and says, "I have scanned the transporter logs and have identified all the crew members. Captain Picard and Cain are not among them."

Riker stumbles with an intense look of grief as he knows his wife Dianna is among the dead.

"Data, you have the bridge," He says as he heads for the turbo lift. Data moves toward the command chair as Riker steps into the turbo-lift.

Wolf watches the door close and says, "That is no way to die."

Crusher is already in cargo-bay four looking over the bodies as Riker rushes in. He scans the room and quickly zeros in on his wife, Dianna. He runs over to her, kneels beside her, sweeps her up in his arms, and starts to cry.

As he cries, Crusher walks up quickly and says, "Will, something's not right here. All these bodies have already thawed."

Riker, still weeping, leans Deanna back a little to see her face. It looks cold and without color. But soon the color starts to return. Suddenly, her eyes pop open and she gasp for air! Within moments, everyone lying in the bay jerks awake and start gasping for air. Riker pulls her in and tiers of sorrow turn to tears joy. He pulls her in close and sobs, "I thought I lost you… I thought I lost you…"

Deanna looks confused and Crusher ask, "How do you feel?"

Deanna looks at her and replies, "I was cold for a second but now I'm fine. What is going on here?"

Riker draws back and says, "You were spaced. They left you for dead among the debris from the Enterprise."

"What?" What happened?" she asks.

"What do you remember?" Crusher asks. "I was on the bridge next to Captain Picard when everything went dark. Then I awoke here, freezing and I felt like I was suffocating," Deanna replies.

"This… this… this is just all impossible," says Crusher in disbelief.

Dianna asks, "Will, where is Captain Picard?"

"Still aboard that ship that attacked us," Riker replies. He then stands up and pulls Deanna up. "Common, let's get back to the bridge," he says.

As Riker and Dianna step back onto the bridge, everyone looks in surprise.

Data walks up and ask, "Were you able to pass the nanites on to Captain Picard?"

"I believe so," Riker answers.

"Then he is a prisoners to be experimented on," Worf grumbles.

"It would seem so," says Riker as he walks back to his chair. "Resume course," he orders as he takes a seat.

Data then ask, "Permission to go to engineering." Riker nods and says, 'Granted." Data the heads for the turbo lift.

Data steps out of the turbo-lift and walks toward engineering. As he rounds the corner, he spots Geordi. "Geordi," he calls. Geordi comes to see his friend.

"Data, I heard you had been restored. How do you feel?" Geordi says.

Data ponders his answer for a second and says, "One moment I was attempting to reprogram B4 with you, the next moment I was aboard an alien ship. I feel as if I lost a part of my life that I never lived."

Geordi looks down, and then back up, "We all missed you a great deal."

Data replies, "I cannot image that feeling. For me, it never occurred. But knowing I was grieved for creates an emotion I cannot describe."

Geordi smile and says, "Glad to have you back."

Data looks around and asks, "Can I be of assistance here?"

Geordi replies, "As long as were at warp, we can't do anymore more repairs the engines." Geordi looks back at an engineering console and says, "Come to think about it, maybe you can explain this to me." Data walks over and looks at the display.

Data says, "It is a particle known as a decron." "That much I got," replies Geordi, "But I'm having difficulty understanding its nature."

Data explains, "Even though I know the 'Text Book' knowledge, I must admit, the theoretical construct is difficult. However, I will try to briefly describe it. This particle is a bridge between convention matter and dark matter. If alone, the particle shifts toward the conventional matter values. But, when it bonds with conventional particles, the properties mimic dark matter and offset the conventional particles properties. Also, as with conventional matter and energy, dark matter is affected by dark energy."

In amazement, Geordi replies, "Wow, makes me feel better this has even you somewhat confused."

"Why is that?

"Um… never mind… So the whole atom is now affected by both conventional and dark energy, which explains how the atom can be significantly lighter than its atomic number would indicate."

"Yes," replies Data, "It also alters other properties in ways our laws of physics cannot reconcile."

Geordi leans up against a table and says, "So much for thinking we have a good understanding of the laws of physics, turns out we're missing half the book."

Data replies, "True, but only when dealing with decrons. The Etherians have learned a great deal form our science."

Geordi looks surprised and ask, "Really?"

Data replies, "They have thousands of elements to choose from. Our level of technology, derived from such a limited number of elements, is almost impossible for them to conceive."

Geordi looks back at the new warp core, then to Data and says, "If we survive the next 24 hours, I know what I want to study."

Data nods and says, "For now, don't worry about how it works, just know that it does."

"That's easy for you to say," Geordi replies.

Data then displays a curious look as he glances at the holes in the wall made by the Bozcomb weapons during the last attack. He grabs a tricorder of the engineering console and opens it up. He walks over to the hole and starts to scan. He then ask, "Have you had time to analyze this breach point of the enemy weapon."

"No," replies Geordi, "Why? You have something?"

"I find it odd that the Bozcomb weapon was calibrated so precisely that it did not cause the amount of damage you would expect to see as it burrowed though the ship's various sections."

Geordie's eyes widen as he realizes what Data is explaining.

Ah! I see. The bulkhead should have been torn apart as the beam overpowered the inertial dampers that reinforce them whenever we are at warp!

"Yes."

"Wow, they can take us out in one shoot."

"But why didn't they?"

"They didn't know…"

Geordi thinks for a moment, Data is about to say something when Geordi blurts out, "But how did they not know!?

He rushes over to a console and start calling up some information, "Oh, that's genius!"

Data comes over to the console as Geordi continues, "Reactor output monitoring sub-routing have been capped going out of engineering."

He looks up as if he just figured something out. He then says, "Excuse me, I need to get back to the bridge."

Geordi nods in response as he turns and walks away.

Just then, an alert sounds. Worf gets up and heads to tactical. Worf presses a few keys on the tactical display and says, "Captain," as he motions to the view screen.

Rapidly gaining on the enterprise is a huge Etherian carrier. It dwarfs the Enterprise and their Klingon escorts. Moments later, an audible message plays on the intercom. "Enterprise, maintain your speed and heading. We will bring you in."

Riker says, "Open a channel to Martok's ship."

Martok appears on the screen. He looks cautious, as if he heard the same massage and is deciding how to react.

Riker says, "Don't be alarmed, these are our allies."

"The Etherians are pulling us in," Worf says.

The view screen now shows the inside of a colossal ship. The Klingon are pulled in as well. As the Enterprise comes to rest in the center of the hanger, a grayish-white energy field descends on the damaged areas of the saucer section.

Worf looks at the damage control display and says, "Captain, the damaged sections are regenerating at an incredible rate. Decks 9, 12, 15..." Worf looks up and says, "The Enterprise has been completely restored."

"Engineering to bridge," Geordie calls.

"Bridge here," Riker says.

"Geordie report, "Captain, the warp field just evaporated. What's going on up there?"

"We just docked," Riker says. He then adds, "Figure out how they shut down our warp field, then how to overcome it. That should tell us how the Bozcomb did it."

"Aye sir," Geordie replies.

Then Sara appears on the view screen and says, "Captain, I need to see you and your senior staff in your briefing room immediately."

Riker taps his communicator and orders, "All senior officers report to the briefing room on the double."

Meanwhile, outside the Enterprise inside the gigantic hanger bay, bridges and platforms are jetting out from the walls. The bridges seem to be building themselves at the points where they emerge from the hanger wall just under a door. They extend with frightening speed and appear rock solid, as if the artificial gravity in the hanger bay chooses not to affect the bridges. The platforms come to rest just under the Klingon birds of prey and the bridges extend to the air locks of the Enterprise and those of Martok's battle cruiser. A few seconds later, the airlock on Martok's ship opens. Out steps Martok and two other Klingons, as if they had received an invitation. After a few steps, one of Martok's men sees something while looking around.

He calls out, "Chancellor, look!" He point to his left. The three look at what appears to be a bird, a huge bird! The bird flies up to the bridge and dips a wing while starting a turn. This drops the bird's airspeed down to nothing as he lands of the bridge. Facing the Klingons, they get a first look at this alien. Standing about 2.3 meters tall and with a 6 meter wingspan, it is a monstrous looking creature. It has large black eyes and a powerful hooked beak. It's covered in brown feathers with red ones one the leading edges of the wings. On the wing is and arm that is part of the wing from the shoulder to the elbow. After the elbow it in separated but still covered in feathers down to the hand which has three fingers and two thumbs, covered with fine red fur. The legs are thin but pretty well toned indicating this alien spends as much time on the ground as it does in the air. The feet are bear of any feathers or fur and are a yellowish color with three toes going forward and one larger one going back. On all toes is a mean looking hooked talon. The alien leans forward and from its beak comes a loud shriek. The shriek has rapid highs and lows and is instantly translated. The Klingons hear, "Klingons! I am Rez-ra; I will be teaching you how to fight the Bozcomb!"

Chapter 10: Nanites Explained.

As the senior staff gets seated, Sara sits across the conference room in silence. She looks like she thinking about something. Then she says, "Is everyone here?"

Riker looks around and says, "Yes."

Sara then says, "Let's get started."

Suddenly a red flash fills the room. The walls disappear as the senior staff, chairs, and conference table are transported to a giant empty room, presumably aboard the Etherian ship. The crew is a little startled as Sara stands up.

She begins with, "What I'm about to tell you cannot leave this room. Everybody clear on this?"

Everyone nods in agreement and no one even asks what is first.

Sara continues. "The nanites continuously send us information. I'm not going explain the method, but the Bozcomb have no idea this is happening."

Riker leans forward and ask, "So are they still alive? Captain Picard and Cain?"

Sara replies, "Yes." She draws a horizontal line in the air and a point of yellow light follows her finger. Then, as she completes the line, a holographic panel slides down out of the beam of light. She hits a few buttons and above the conference table displays a giant three-dimensional hologram of the Bozcomb's flag ship. The officers stand up to get a better view. Sara adds, "Kit was able to do a sensor sweep of the Bozcomb juggernaut and update the schematics that we had on file."

Riker is the first to ask, "What is this blank space?" He points the front spike of the ship where a large part of the front ship is not filled in.

Sara replies, "We pretty sure that is the main cannon. They have secondary shielding that blocks our sensors." She hits another key and most of the ship fades away to reveal a ship within a ship. The image then expands. It has a large round front and is almost an egg shape with most of the base missing. This front part is flat and has a vertical cylindrical indentation. Two blue dots appear, one up high toward the rear and the other low in the in the front.

Sara explains, "This is the research section of the ship. It's totally isolated from the rest of the ship by force fields and empty space. This is where they make biological weapons and examine items of a dangerous nature. And it's where Cain and Picard are being examined. With your permission, I'd like to send Worf and Data on a rescue mission."

Worf doesn't wait for Riker and replies, "Gladly."

Data looks at Riker and says, "I wish to go as well."

Riker looks curiously at Sara and asks, "That's exactly who I would have sent as well. But I'm curious, how did you come up with that?

"Kit ran several thousand simulations ranging from 1 to 30 officers. Those two make it the furthest."

"Do they succeed?"

"Not yet."

"Why?"

"Once the Bozcomb detect them transporting in, they send troops to intercept. Data and Worf can evade them for a while, but not long enough."

Geordie interjects, "We use a dimensional inverter."

Everyone looks at Geordie.

He continues, "Now, I know your version is fatal, instantly. But I did get a look at technology that Lieutenant Kreger helped you develop. And I know it can be done because we have seen it work."

Riker comments, "I remember that."

Sara replies, "We would need to knock out the internal sensors in a section close to the surface to mask their entry."

"Can we just extract Picard and Cain with it," Riker ask.

"No. the nanites would prohibit it. I'll need the modify Worfs and create some for Data." Sara replies.

Riker then asks, "Can your arm them with you weapons?"

"Yes."

"Data, how well do you know the lay-out?" Riker asks.

"The scans are incredibly detailed. I will be able to navigate without difficulty."

Riker smirks and adds, "I guess I didn't have to ask."

Sara then adds, "Kit will provide you with weapons."

Deanna is looking at the Blue dots and then says, "So what are they going to do to them?"

Sara takes a deep breath and says, "Invasive experimentation to figure out the nano-technology, probably an attempt to read their minds. Then they will execute them."

Riker asks, "Read their minds?"

Sara replies, "A nero-trace procedure. I'll need to talk with you and Dr. Crusher about it more after this meeting." Sara then adds, "Worf, Data, Kit will contact you training when he's ready to start your training."

She then looks back a Riker and then says, "When you and doctor crusher are ready…"

Riker looks over at Geordie and Deanna. To Geordie and Data he say, "Geordie, Data, start working on a dimensional inverter."

"Yes sir."

"Worf, review the information on the ambush at Tarvis 4."

Riker then looks at Deanna and says, "You have the bridge."

They both reply, "Aye sir." With that, they all disappear in a red flash and Dianna find themselves back in the Enterprises conference room.

On the Etherian carrier, Sara, Riker, and Crusher transport into a room filled with terminals. The terminal appears blank to Riker and Crusher. Sara presses down on a panel and the panel rises to reveal a vile holding compartment. Enclosed in it is a vile of florescent pink fluid.

She takes it out and explains, "This is the nero-agent." She holds it up and continues, "Basically, it attaches to and aluminates the nervous system, with emphasis on the brain's neurons."

Riker ask, "Has this ever been used on human?"

Sara replies, "No." She then walks over to a wall terminal by Crusher and it lights up as if it knows she is there. She keys in something on the on-screen keypad. An image of the human nervous system appears. She presses another key, and the image of the nervous system jumps off the screen and expands into a full size three-dimensional holographic representation and centers at the center of the room. Then a flat ring about 1 centimeter thick and 30 centimeters wide surrounding the hologram. This ring has keys and miniature displays all over the top. Sara walks over to the ring and Crusher and Riker follow. Sara presses a few keys and says, "Now this is a simulation of what happens when the nero-agent is introduced." The hologram glows a little brighter and medical data starts coming up.

Crusher's eyes quickly scan the data and she says, "This is lethal…"

"What do you mean?" Riker asks.

Crusher replies, "It intensifies the neurotransmitters and impulses, the sudden increase will overload major organs in minutes."

Sara adds, "This is typically the case with most species, but it allows the Bozcomb to image the brain."

Riker quickly asks, "Can the nanites compensate?"

Sara replies, "I'm not sure. That's why I need you."

Sara then says, "Doctor Crusher, I'm about to give you access to all the technical schematics of the nanite technology." Crusher and Riker look completely shocked. They look at each other and then back at Sara. Crusher stutters, "O…OK".

Sara then looks at Riker and says, "As her commanding officer, you will need to know she has this information. But, and I can't stress this enough, no one else, even your crew and superiors, can ever know she has this knowledge. The Bozcomb will stop at nothing to get this information. Even our allies cannot gain this knowledge, it's far too dangerous."

Riker looks at Crusher and says, "I understand."

Sara looks at Crusher and says, "You can discuss the basics with your Captain but try not to get too detailed."

Crusher thinks for a second and says, "I understand."

Sara then says, "Computer, grant full access to the Nanite data base to Doctor Crusher." With that simple command, all the terminals light up and start displaying schematics of the nanites. Crusher looks around in wonder and then heads for a terminal. Riker, however, sees nothing but blank terminals. He looks at Sara as if he's about to ask something. Sara anticipates the question and answers, "Privacy filter, the screens and holograms only direct photons to the pupils authorized personnel."

Just then, Sara receives a communication. "Commander Knight, you are needed on the war room," an Etherian request.

Sara replies, "On my way."

She then says to Riker, "You'll need to join me shortly. But first, there are no doors to this room, just call out to the computer when you be transported to the war room. To get back here, transport to briefing room five then ask to be transported to room zero."

"Understood."

Sara then disappears in a red flash.

Riker then looks back at Crusher, who has moved to the holograph control ring and is looking at it in wonder, and says, "Do you see anything interesting." Crusher does not answer, she is preoccupied. Riker says, "Doctor."

She responds, "Sorry, just a bit overwhelmed."

Riker asks, "Is it still impossible?"

Crusher looks away from the hologram and at Riker and says, "No, I was under the impression there where thousand, maybe millions in the blood stream." Riker looks curios as she continues. "There are approximately 60 trillion nanites per person," she says.

Riker replies, "Wait, that's…"

Crusher interrupts in her excitement and says, "Exactly! Every cell in the body has a nanite!"

Riker starts to reply, "But…"

Crusher interrupts again and says, "They are phased! Permanently phased nanites replicating without interference from conventional matter but able to attach to and manipulate and repair each cell!"

Riker draws back a little. Crusher sees this and realizes she is overly excited and says, "Sorry… This is just... incredible."

Riker smiles and says, "Just call me as soon as you determine the effects of the nanites on the nero-agent."

Crusher says, "Aye sir."

Riker then calls out, "Computer, transport me to the war room." He then disappears in a red flash. Crusher then returns to her study of the nanites.

Chapter 11: Any Means Necessary

Chancellor Martok and his escort walk down a hall following Rez-ra. They look the alien up and down like they have questions. Rez-ra feels the gaze from the Kingons and says, "What is your qeustion, Kingon?"

Martok immediately blurts out, "How can you fly?

Rez-ra immediately understands his confusion, stops, and relies, "Do you find it strange that the gravity you experience on this alien ship is identical to the gravity of your home-world?"

"I see, so you can manipulate the gravity for individual. How much do you feel?" Martok ask.

Rez-ra turns and replies, "About a tenth of what you do. So you can see, I fly very easily."

One of Martoks escorts asks, "Can you use that on you your enemies?"

Rez-ra replies, "If they are unshielded, they are crushed by the weight of a thousand suns."

"Unshielded?" Martok inquirers.

Rez-ra turns and begins walking again. He says, "Come, there is much to discuss."

The four then enter a room. Commander Knight and Captain Riker are already there. It is the war room. Inside is a huge circle on the floor that looks like a hole into empty space. Above this hole is a holograph representation of the Bozcomb armada encountered at Tarvis 4. Sara says, "Chancellor Martok, your just in time."

Martok approaches the edge of the circle, looking at the enemy ships.

Sara presses a few keys on a holograph keyboard displayed in front of her. All the ships disappear but three and they resize to take up the space of the viewing area.

"First among a few problems are these battleships."

She hits a button again and two disappear and the remaining one resizes again. The outline of the ship is that of a 5-point diamond. A close-up of the Bozcomb battleships reveals the construction of these terrifying beasts of destruction. The main body is made from three obtuse triangles mounted on a central cylinder at the side with the greatest angle and space 120 degrees from each other. The triangles are two dozen decks thick and on both sides, loaded with gun turrets, 18 per surface, ranging in size, including four twice the size of the next biggest with four barrels each. The smallest turrets have two barrels while the mid-size have three.

Sara says, "So, this is the problem. Three enemy battleships. At its core is a particle cannon that makes up 80% of its total fire power. The trade-off is the whole ship has to be pointed at the target. Now, this carrier can out maneuver one easily, two is tricky, but three… they can coordinate their attacks and bring their main gun on us."

Riker jumps in, "How many direct hits can you take."

"4 or 5"

Martok inquires, "What are their defensive capabilities?

"Top of the line. Temporal weapons should get past their primary shield grid. But their ablative armor is the most advanced they have, even more so than the juggernauts armor. From our simulation, the disruptors your ship has stands the best chance. However, it would take 10 times the power to punch through."

Martok looks as if he's thinking about something, then Riker ask, "You're thinking about coordinating the firepower of all our ship?"

Before Sara answers, Martok interjects, "That may not be necessary."

"You have a better idea?", Sara asks.

"We have a new class of ship." He looks at Riker and adds, "Not even your federation knows of their existences."

Riker looks a little surprised for a second, then ask, "How much power and how many?"

"More than the 10 times needed, and Seven."

Sara askes, "Can they cloak?

"Of course."

"Good, because as soon the Bozcomb see them, they will become prime targets."

"Understood, but they are slower than the rest of the fleet and may not arrive until after the battle has started."

"Let's hope they make it to the fight, because the other plan only stood a 2% chance."

Sara then looks at Riker and says, "One more thing, I need one of your crew, human, preferably a good pilot."

"What for?"

"This ship carries a prototype weapon. Using the energy shaper, we can combine and amplify all of our energy-based weapons into one shot. The catch is that only humans can interact with it."

"Why?"

"The radiation emitted from it only adversely effects decrons. As we don't have them, we're immune to its effects."

"So you need a backup, being that Cain has been captured."

"Correct."

"And you need a pilot?"

"Incase somebody needs to take the helm."

Riker reappears on the bridge of the Enterprise. He looks and Deana and then looks around. He looks like he's got something on his mind. He then turns and walks toward the door to the Captain ready room. Deanna watches him leave the bridge. She is senses a conflict within Riker. As the door closes, Deanna gets up and walks toward Ensign Roads. She stops, looks at him, and says, "Ensign Roads, watch the bridge for a few minutes."

Roads looks up with a surprised look on his face and say, "Sure about that?"

Deanna turns toward the Captains ready room and says, "Yea…" She walks toward the ready room as Roads gets up to go to the command chair.

Inside the ready room, Riker appears deep in thought as he gazes out the window. As the door opens, he immediately knows who it is. He waits until the door closes before he says, "Did I ever tell you about Richard Aries?"

"No, have I ever met him?" Deanna replies.

"Probably not," Riker replies. "I saw him for the first time in many years on the Etherian carrier destroyed at Tarvis 4."

"Tell me about him," she says as she walks closer.

"We grew up together; we even entered Starfleet at the same time. But the Starfleet uniform never really fit him." Riker reflects.

Deanna asks, "What happened?"

"His ideology was not quite compatible. He always challenged the established methods and though if he we're in charge, the Federation would be better." Riker smirks and continues, "He was always on the brink of getting kicked out of the academy."

"The two of you grew apart after graduating?" She asks.

"You can say that. I had almost forgotten about him until I read the crew list for the Hera," he replies. "Aries was just a Lieutenant at the time the Hera went missing. After Geordie's mother was killed, Cain suspended all Federation personnel from fighting in the war."

"Why?" Deanna asks.

"The Bozcomb figured out Federation officers were… susceptible to manipulation. They would use our 'Rules of engagement' against us in battle. Cain believed our 'Morality' was costing lives and we weren't learning fast enough. Then the Bozcomb set a trap that lured Geordie's mother in with the promise of negotiation for a cease-fire," Riker says.

Deanna responds, "She had to take that chance. It would have save billions, on both sides."

Riker adds, "Well, her death, and the civilization caught in the cross-fire, was the last straw. Cain said they were doing more harm than good. Immediately thereafter, Aries was the first to resign his Starfleet status and pledge allegiance to the alliance. The rest of them soon followed, thinking it was the best way to defend the Federation."

Deanna responds, "At first you disagreed but now you think he may have been correct?"

"They beamed over an unarmed soldier, knowing we would listen and not shoot him on site. They will use our principles against us." Riker replies in a stern voice.

Dianna looks at him and senses something. She says, "What are you going to do?"

Riker then heads for the door. Deanna follows. As he reenters the bridge, Ensign Roads gets up and heads back to his station. Riker then takes a seat. He presses the intercom button and says, "All hands, this is Captain Riker. As you've probably heard, Captain Picard is a prisoner aboard the Bozcomb ship. It is my intention to take him back from them! And I'm going to need your help. The Bozcomb know our methods and restraints. They will not hesitate to use our ethics against us. So until they are driven from our galaxy, I order everyone to fight without any restrictions and to use any means necessary, whether they are legal or not, or unethical." He then releases the button.

Dianna looks at him in shock and says, "Will…"

He looks back at her and says, "In one brief second, I almost lost everything I hold dear. Now they are heading for Earth. If we hesitate for a second or hold back in the slightest, we are done for." He looks forward and adds, "I understand that now. I only wish I could tell Aries that he was right."

Dianna looks at him and doesn't know what to say. Then she turns her head as if something grabs her attention. She says, "I need to go check on someone." She then gets up and heads for the turbolift.

In Dana Kelser's crew quarters, she sits in a chair holding a picture frame to her chest. The backside is visible, and she looks very sad and heartbroken. She has just heard Riker's statement. Then the expression on her face changes to one of determination. She gets up and puts the picture back on her desk. It is a picture of her son. She heads out the door.

A few minutes later, she walks into the ship's morgue and heads for a control panel. She finds what she is looking for. She presses a few buttons, and a drawer slides out of the wall. Within it is a dead Bozcomb, specifically the one Crusher put into stasis earlier. She starts a full medicinal sweep as an arch of blue light emanates from the force-field. As it sweeps down, the internal structure of the Bozcomb displays on the panel. Just then Dianna walks through the door. Kelser looks at her and then back at the display. She then says, "What do you want, counselor?"

Dianna replies, "Just to talk," as she walks closer.

Kelser says, "I didn't know your abilities were that keen."

"That level of killer intent is hard to miss," Dianna replies.

"I can't be the only one," Kelser replies.

Dianna says, "No, but as you specialize in the fields of exobiology, pathology, and bioengineering, you are uniquely qualified to focus your rage."

"Are you going to try to talk me out of it?" Kelser says with a stern voice.

Dianna takes a deep breath and replies, "No."

Kelser looks up from her work for a second. She's a little surprised. Dianna adds, "But when this it over, if you have problems living with what you are about to do, I'll be here."

With that said Dianna turns around and head for the door. Kelser thinks for a second and then looks back at the console.

On the bridge, Riker is in the captains chair looking at a pad. Worf calls over communications.

"Worf to Captain Riker."

"Riker here."

"Captain, I've finished reconstructing the battle of Tarvis 4 from all the satellite data."

"I'm on my way," Riker replies as he jumps up with eagerness. He heads over to the turbo-lift.

A few minutes later he walks into astrometrics and sees Work standing in front of a console. The room is filled with holograms of Bozcomb and Etherian ships as well as the Enterprise. They are currently in the same orientation as the moment before the attack.

As Riker walks up, Wolf explains, "This is where everyone was when the appack started."

He points to the juggernaut and begins, "The juggernaut was here, oriented in a position to fire on the Etherian carrier and attack us simultaneously. The extraction, dropping their cloak, and their firing sequence all began at the same moment. Simultaneously, three Bozcomb battleships, 7 heavy and 7 light cruisers, plus 12 destroyers that have long duration weapons, all decloaked and fired, all targeting the middle of this Etherian battleship."

"Is that what it takes to overwhelm their shields?"

"In a single strike, yes. The GHOST, or Gliding Holographic Oscillation Stealth Technology, prevents enemy sensors from detecting and locking onto any vital systems."

"That's handy. What happened to the other Etherian battleship?"

"The Bozcomb battle group was in a tight formation on an attack trajectory that lined up both battleships, allowing them to quickly fire on the second one as soon as the first was destroyed. Another 27 destroyers with varying weapons modules attacked the second battleship, distracting them for a few critical seconds."

Riker draws a deep breath as Worf continues.

"With the three Etherian ships destroyed, the Hirelly and Glefii cruisers didn't stand a chance."

"Did any of them attempt to escape?"

"They couldn't. The juggernaut also emits a jamming field that prevents slip steam and warp jumps."

"But we we're able too."

"The field takes several seconds to build to an effective level. They waited until the decloaking as the field is detectable. We barely slipped under the knife."

Riker reflects on the situation for a few seconds and then ask, "So what's your tactical assessment?"

"Sector 001 has an extensive tachyon detection grid that gets denser as you approach the Sol system. They will not be able to sneak up on the federation fleet."

"But that's not the plan, is it?"

"No. I believe they're giving us time for the Federation to mobilize the entire fleet around Earth. Then they can destroy us all at once rather than to hunt us down."

"I see, anything else?"

"Yes," he keys in a command and a circle appears around the juggernaut. Then all other ships disappear except for the juggernaut. "A juggernaut is a star-carrier with the forward docking assembly swapped out for a planetary siege weapon. The star-carrier had the ability to collect and process raw materials and produce any of their technology and ships."

Riker thinks for a second and replies, "Their planning to establish a foothold in our galaxy."

"That is very likely."

"How did they sneak a fleet that size past the Etherians?"

"I have a theory on that…" Worf hits a few more key and a 3-D image of Triangulum appears. Then a pointer at the edge of the galaxy. "This is the most stable entry/exit point of the link," He hits another key, and another pointer appears a little farther in. "Here is where the Hera exited. And this," As he hit another key, "This is where the Enterprise-D exited during the experiment involving The Traveler, a position within Bozcomb space."

Rikers mouth drops a little as he realizes where this is going. Worf hits a few more buttons and Triangulum shrink, and the Milky-Way appears with a pointer, "And this is where the Enterprise-D first started." A curved line then connects the points.

"Dam, that's sneaky," Riker comments.

"Indeed."

Riker thinks for a second and replies, "Good work, I'll be on the bridge."

Later, Riker exits the turbolift and heads for one of the computer stations along the wall. As he starts looking something up, the sound of the turbo-lift doors opening gets his attention. It's Deanna. She exits the turbo-lift, stops, and looks over at Riker. She then continues to the center of the bridge. Riker can tell she has something on her mind. He walks over to Deanna. As he draws nears, he slows, looking at her curiously.

"Deanna, what's wrong?"

"Somethings changed… My psychic abilities, they're getting stronger."

"What do you mean?"

"It started with distant voices, whispers. Then people's thoughts came into focus."

Then Riker hears Deanna's voice in his head saying, "Follow me."

He reacts surprised as she turns and walks toward the ready room. He follows her.

They both enter the room and wait for the door to shut.

Riker then asks, "Do you think it's the nanites?"

"I know who to ask."

On the command deck of the carrier, Sara is looking over some information on a computer pad when she looks up as if someone called here name. She then commands, "Enterprise. Ready room." She then disappears in a red flash and reappears in the ready room in front of Deanna. She then says, "Well, you've just become allot more useful."

Riker looks at her with a hint of anger and demands to know, "Are you experimenting on my crew!?"

"Come now, Captain. You know what's at stake here," Sara replies.

"Will, it's OK," Deanna interjects.

Sara then says, "Kit, Deanna Troi has reached the 2nd level on project insight."

"Understood," comes a reply out of thin air"

Sara then looks at Deanna for a second like she is telling her something. Sara then disappears.

Riker knows some new information was passed to her and ask, "What was that?"

"She explained the plan."

Sara then adds, "In the meantime, I need your help."

Riker looks up and asks, "With what?"

Then suddenly the two are transported to a room aboard the Etherian flag ship. Sara walks toward a wide pedestal and presses a few buttons. A hologram of the Defiant appears. The hologram gets bigger and explodes into four parts to show internal detail.

"This ship has been determined to have the best armament, maneuverability, and durability combination to engage the Bozcomb. We have the capacity to build a few hundred before

"Really!?," Riker says in surprise, and then asks "Will they be able to use the temporal weapons?"

"Yes. We've been picking up matter from this galaxy since we arrived. I figured we might need it."

"Riker thinks for a second and asks, "How did you get these plans?"

"Chief engineer Scott Huxx."

Riker then connects the dots. "Of course, one of the leading engineers on the Defiant project. He had booked passage on the Hera back to his home after the project was mothballed."

"Yea, we got lucky on that. When we do an emergency evacuation of an allied ship, we do a second pass to strip anything that we don't want the Bozcomb to get ahold of. Things like computer cores, memory banks, anything with data on it really. We even retrieved a few photon torpedoes and a phazer bank before the ship exploded."

Worf and Data they materialize on the bridge of the Starwolf. Worf looks around and sees the Arsenal, an embedded space along the wall filled with shelves full of weapons, ranging from handguns to rocket launchers. Worf immediately sees the weapon he wants.

He walks up with an evil smile and says, "The type four mini-gun." He picks it up and looks it over as Data looks curiously at him. Worf continues, "This weapons fires 3 armor piercing projectiles at a time, with a rate of 4,222 sets a minute for a total of 12,666 rounds a minute. Onboard inertial dampeners eliminate kickback, and a gravity manipulator makes it incredibly light. The high-speed replicators have a practically inexhaustible power supply." Data watches Worf admire the weapon. Worf notice him looking at him with curiosity and quickly composes himself. Worf then explains himself, "This is a very effective weapon for a lone warrior taking on an army."

Kit observes, "That is the weapon that you would need. I'm surprised you went straight to it."

Worf states, "I have studied Cain infantry battle tactics. This is the most effective weapon for taking on hundreds, even thousands on Bozcomb."

Data then inquires, "Which weapon have you selected for me?"

On the arsenal, a green rectangle of light appears around a self in the wall. On this shelf is a long weapon with a triangular barrel. Around the barrel are three flat rectangular emitters. As Data approaches, a screen of holographic text and diagrams of the weapon appear before the weapon. The text start scrolling at a rate that only Data could read. A few second later, the hologram fades and Kit asks, "Did you get that?"

"Yes."

Kit says, "Good, now for your body armor."

In front of Data and Worf appear two full sets of clothes with trench coats. These outfits are standing by themselves and are filled out as if somebody who is invisible is wearing them. Then suddenly Data and Wolf are transported out of their current cloths into the new set. Their old clothes then fall empty to the ground. Both appear a little surprised.

Kit continues, "The pants and shirt are resistant to energy weapons, but your main protection is the coat. Its energy absorption capability makes the Bozcomb hand weapons virtually useless. Check the left inside coat pocket."

Both of them reach in and pull out a pair of sunglasses identical to Cain's. "What are these?", Wolf ask.

Data replies, "A multifunction visor for vision enhancement, scanning tools, weapons tracking, and a force-field generator."

Kit adds, "The force-field will give you protection from one shot of their hand weapons. Then it must recharge for 2.4 seconds." A holographic screen then appears in front of Data, and the information on it starts to scroll as Data reads. The screen disappears in a few seconds. Kit then adds, "I need you to train for the mission. The Starwolf's computer can simulate the Bozcomb ship on the deck below. I need to assist in battle simulations on the command deck."

With that, Kit disappears. Worf then looks at Data's weapon and asks, "What is that?"

Data looks at the weapon and answers, "It is a prototype modular weapon, consisting of 82 thousand parts that can reconfigure into almost any weapon desirable, among other things. In its current configuration, shield buster. It's able to break though low to moderate force-fields, such as a corridor's security field."

"That should come in very handy," Worf replies.

Data then commands, "Computer, begin a simulation of the Bozcomb ship designated J-1, location central corridor 4."

The floor seems to rise around them. At first, it's a wall, but it opens up into an extremely large corridor, a corridor so large small ships can move through it. Worf looks around, then up. The hole they entered through is gone. Worf then looks at Data like he doesn't know if they moved down or the deck below moved up.

Data puts on his glasses and gestures at Worf to do the same. "Let's start familiarizing you with that weapon." Worf puts on the glasses. "Now, focus on the end of the corridor."

As soon as Worf's eyes fix on a point at the end of the corridor, his vision zooms in as if he's arm's length away. He instinctively pulls back and his vision zooms back about half way. He looks a Data who appears a normal distance and again then back down the hall. This time the zoom speed is much slower.

"Ah, I get it. The visor follows the movement of my eyes."

"Correct," replies Data. "Computer, discontinue lighting."

The corridor then goes dark, but Worf's vision remains unchanged.

"They also read your pupil dilation to provide the optimal lighting effect. Computer, restore lighting." The lights return and Data adds, "Now, raise your weapon."

Worf raises the mini gun and sees three red dots spaced around a green circle. The dots appear to be at the end of the corridor and have faint spiraling green lines coming back to him. "A targeting system." Worf observes.

Data says, "Computer, display a single Bozcomb target 20 meters away."

A hologram of a Bozcomb soldier appears down the corridor. Data nods at Worf, signaling to fire. Worf pulls the trigger and a fury of bullets flies down the corridor. He releases it after a short burst.

Data continues, "Computer, zoom to target." The hologram of the soldier then comes forward and right away Worf can see that the target is riddled with bullets.

Worf looks at Data and says, "That's a little much."

Data replies, "The firing rate is extremely high. But, the high rate of fire will be nessary." He then addresses the Starwoff's computer, "Computer, display 400 Bozcomb soldiers starting 50 meters away."

The corridor then filled with holographic troops 20 soldiers wide.

Data then says, "Activate soldiers."

Suddenly the troops come to life. They see Wolf and Data and immediately engage. Multiple shots stream by Worf and Data as many more hit Wolf. Data however, seems to move out of the way with extreme speed. Worf quickly opens fire as the soldiers run toward them. The bullets go right though the first soldier, through another, then another. Worf swings the weapon side to side, cutting a swath of death into the enemy forces. In seconds, all the troops are down.

Worf lowers the weapon and says, "Wow… that is… effective."

He then looks down and sees the red triangles on his coat glowing brightly. He then looks at Data's coat at the bottom and notices no triangles are lit.

Data replies, "Indeed, now let us try a more difficult encounter. Blink your left eye once and then both eyes simultaneously."

"What…"'

"We need to switch vision modes, blink your left eye once and then both eyes simultaneously.

Worf looks down the hall and blinks his left eye the both. The walls of the corridor disappear and only the boundaries between the wall, floor, and ceiling are marked by a green line.

"Ah, transparency mode.

"How filmier are you with this?"

"Relatively new technology, can be thrown off by new composites or materials, but can use the path of bullets to correct its tracking."

Data shrugs slightly and replies, "That is pretty much it. Now, let us try an infiltration exercise, level 1."

Before the simulation begins, Kit contacts Data.

"Data, I wish to speak to you privately."

Worf looks over to Data, who replies to kit, "One moment please. He then turns to Worf and adds, "Speak the computer as if it were the Enterprise holodeck. I will be back shortly."

With that, Data ascends to the main level. As soon as the floor closes, Kit begins to speak.

"I would like to discuss a few enhancements to you that would substantially increase the odds of mission success"

Data tilts his head slightly as he thinks about it. Then he replies with, "I do not know how I feel about upgrades."

"Your hesitation is part of the subroutines that simulates human limitations. However, you also have the capacity to exceed those limitations if you or your comrades are in immediate danger."

"I see. What enhancements are you referring to?"

On the bridge of the Enterprise, Riker is setting in the command chair reviewing a data pad. Dianna then exits a turbo-lift and walks over to Ricker and sits down. He sees her and instinctively know she has something to say. As he puts down the data pad, she begins.

"I've just learned something very unusual and quite disturbing."

"Oh?"

"The Bozcomb, every Bozcomb, reach maturity in 17 days of birth, does not sleep, and has a life-span of exactly 14 years, 2 months, 5 days, 13 hour, 23 minutes, and 3 seconds."

Riker's jaw drops a little as he processes what he just heard. He then replies, "That… can't be natural…"

"It's not. There's a radioactive component in their brains. When it reaches its half-life and decays, their brains simply cease to function. And it wasn't there 700 years when the Etherian's first surveyed their planet. Neither was 73% of their present brain capacity. In fact, they were deemed a non-intelligent, non-self-aware species."

"Wow… What happened?"

"Nobody knows, but that's not the part we should worry about."

Riker looks down as if he's thinking, then realizes and says, "The Bozcomb near the end of their life cycle are the ones we're fighting."

"That's the current theory. Will, if they know they're about to die, they will try to take us with them."

"Dam…" Riker says as he strokes his chin.

Then the com beeps and a communication come's in.

"Ensign Kelser to captain Riker."

"Riker here."

"I have some things ready use against the Bozcomb, if you have a minute."

"Ok, I'll be there in a few minutes, Ricker out"

Riker looks at Dianna and ask, "Is she the one…"

"Yes" Dianna replies, already knowing the rest of the question.

"OK, inform Starfleet headquarters about the Bozcoms life-cycle."

"Aye sir," she acknowledges as Riker gets up and heads for the turbo-lift.

Minutes later, Riker enters a lab where Kelser is working. He walks over to her and says, "You wanted to see me?"

Kelser, who is working at a terminal, reaches over and grabs a small device beside her. She then hands the device to Riker. She seems distant as she doesn't even look at Riker. Riker takes the device and ask, "What is it?"

Kelser then looks up and asks, "What feels different now?"

Riker looks at her curiously, thinks for a second, and then starts to bounce on his toes. He smiles and says, I think I have lost some weight."

"About 30%, "Kelser replies, then she adds, "It is a gravity manipulator, originally designed to allow species from lower gravity planets to visit higher gravity planets without being effected.

"Can they be disabled?" Riker inquires.

"Not likely," Kelser replies, then adds, "The Etherians already tried what you are thinking. Dialing up the gravity for a selected specie worked for a day, then they modified it.

"So how does this help us?" Riker adds.

Kelser replies, "It gives us an fool-proof way to track them. And that's where these come in." She taps a button and a small spherical drone hovers up from the table. She then tells Riker, "Pick up the device again."

Riker picks it up. A second later, the drone zips over to Riker. Riker says, "Aren't this similar to the drone the Sonar used to tag us?

"Exactly., they are drawn to low gravity pockets, independent of the ships computer. But instead of using iso-liner tags, they will be using poison darts, armed with four different bio-toxins that will stop them in their tracks." Kelser replies.

"Four? Is that a little much? Riker asks.

Kelser replies, "Just in case one doesn't work.

Riker looks a little uneasy about using biological weapons. But he quickly gets over it and says, "Deploy them as you see fit."

Kelser replies, "Yes sir."

Riker then turns around and heads for the door. Before exiting the room, he stops and looks back at Kelser, who is still working. He looks like he is about to say something but decides against it. He then continues out the door.

Minutes later, Riker steps out of the turbo lift and approaches engineering. He sees Geordie working on a conduit at high speed. Only Geordie is dressed in all blue and seems deferent. As he gets closer a starts to speak, Riker notices another Geordie dresses in blue. Riker looks confused as continues down the hall to main engineering. As he enters, Riker sees two Geordies talking. One of them is in blue and the other in his regular uniform.

He asks, "Geordie?" Geordie, the one in the regular uniform responds, "Captain, I got some good news."

Riker replies, "I could use some right about now," as he looks curiously at the other Geordie walking away.

Geordie says, "Those are holograph clones."

"Clones?" Riker asks.

Geordie replies, "The Etherians use holograms in nearly all construction projects. They are controlled by this monitor." He points to a controller attached to his uniform near his waist. "This monitors my thoughts and actions. An extremely sophisticated computer constantly updates the clones. They become an extension of me that is not only programmed with my knowledge and experience, but also loaded with all the technical data of our main computer."

"OK, I'm impressed," Riker says, "Now, how about that good news?" he asks.

"Right," Geordie says, "Thanks to the clones, I've been able the redesign the power systems several times. Also, I've completed all the temporal modification and bought our weapons up to the levels supported by the reactor." He points to the reactor and then ads, "The next time we engage the Bozcomb, we will have much sharper teeth." Riker smiles and ask, "What about shields?" Geordie boost, "Multi-phased shields, enhanced harmonics, five layers of primary sheialding and three of secondary shielding."

Riker say, "Fantastic! Keep it up." He pats Geordie on the shoulder and then walks out of engineering. As he rounds the corner, he calls out, "Computer, transport me to briefing room five on the Etherian carrier.

Riker transports into room zero to check on Doctor Crusher's progress.

He is about to ask her about her progress when he sees a holographic brain projected over the table. Curiously, he walks around the table toward Crusher while looking at the brain.

"Captain", Crusher says as she notices him.

"Doctor", he acknowledges.

"I've been able to synthesize a formula that will mimic the effects of the Bozcomb serum. It will then reduce the effect by half every twelve minutes, giving their systems time to adjust.

"Fantastic," Riker replies. Looking at the brain, he takes note of some small areas shaded red, and says, "I thought I wasn't supposed to see any of this."

"Just not any of the nanite science. This, however, is Cain's brain. I am making sure the formula won't have any side-effects on either of them."

"Can the nanites repair damage to the brain?"

"No."

"Why not?"

Since the moment it forms, the brain is constantly re-wiring itself. The Etherian medical technology, as impressive as it is, does not have an adequate knowledge base for human brains. Simply cloning damaged parts of it wouldn't maintain your memories, skills, feelings, or general thought processes. In fact, it would do more damage as the afore mentioned processes would be dis-jointed and running across non-uniformed neural-circuitry."

Riker thinks for a second and continues facing the table with the holographic brain but his eyes slowly and suspiciously drift toward Crusher, then he asks, "They've tried it, haven't they?"

"Yep, didn't go so well."

"I see… Is that the Broca's area." He says as he points to a shaded area.

Crusher, somewhat impress, says, "Yes, it's is." She then elaborates, "Cain has experienced multiple head injuries, some more traumatic than others. Upon initial examination, I think I may be able to help."

"With his PTSD?"

"Among other things, yes. Also, studying a brain more than 400 years old is… fascinating."

Riker nods in agreement and thinks for a moment. Then ask, "So, I looked in the mirror a while ago and I don't recall looking exactly like this when I was younger."

Crusher smiles and says, "That's a little complicated. Basically, it has to do with telomeres."

"The end caps on DNA?"

Crusher looks very surprised and say, "Come on, how did you know that?"

"Did I mention that for a brief time at the academy I wanted to be a doctor?" he says with a smile. Then adds, "Lately, all my memories, including those classes half a century ago, seem to be very clear."

"Yea, I've got that too… So, when the nanite repairs a cell, it lengthens them to what you would typically see in a 21 year old. Now, the next time the cell spits on its own, those two cells are effectively younger the parent cell."

"And since how someone ages also depends on diet and environment over time, rapidly turning back the clock without those factors is going to yield some unexpected results."

"Exactly!"

Riker smiles, then looks back at the brain.

"Theirs's one more thing"

Riker tuns back to listen.

"The nanites have a set of templates to reference in case they encounter anything they can't extrapolate."

"Let me guess, Cain and Knight?"

"Yep."

Later on, Worf and Data enters the holodeck where Riker is engaged in a simulated battle. The bride looks more compact and the opps and helm stations are gone and centered before the view screen is a low, cradled seat molded to the floor. In it, Riker sits like he's in a futuristic sports car. The arm rest are mobile extensions with navigational panels similar to the Starwolf's control pads at the ends. Above his wrist is a glass disk with a beam of light being emitted from it to his wrist. Wolf notices the scenery on the view screen is moving unusually fast. Riker has direct access to the weapons and navigation. As Worf approaches, he notices that simulated enemy fire does not seem to rock the bridge.

"Captain Riker, you requested to see us? "

The simulation pauses as Riker takes his hand off the panels. Riker gets up from the chair and says, "Yea, in regards to when you find Picard and Cain, you need to know that Cain is incredibly dangerous, even to the people fighting alongside him."

Data looks at Worf, who nods slightly, then replies, "We are already aware of the risk."

Riker is surprised at the response, shakes his head slightly, and says, "What, just like that?"

Wolf then adds, "I've studied his tactics, read the reports from the Starfleet officers, and analyzed the outcome of several engagements. They are not the choices we whould have made. But WE would have lost."

Riker voice raises to show his dis-approval, "That's still no reason to sacrifice the lives of your people and the lives of those caught in the cross-fire! Just to win!"

Data jumps in and says, "In this kind of war, logically speaking, not winning would yield the same results plus far greater loss of life."

Riker inhales deeply as he knows Data is right but he's not willing to admit it. He then add, "Look, just make sure you both return."

"We shall make every effort to do so, sir."

After a moment, Riker then ask, "So, is there anything else?

Worf replies, "Yes sir, when the Enterprise breached the shields of the Bozcomb ship, I recommend we do not exit the shields until we have Captain Picard and Commander Cain."

"You're worried we may not get back in?" Riker replies.

"They will be taking off guard the first time, but they are extremely clever. According to Etherian battle reports, a new strategy rarely works a second time."

"How can we minimize the risk of being trapped?" Riker asks.

Worf replies, "The moment we pierce the shields we fire on key sensor arrays directly linked to the shields emitters." Worf raises his hand; he's holding a small pad and taps a few buttons. On the main screen appears another window showing an outline of the Bozcomb flag ship. On the outline are several red dots. He continues, "Information from the shields are buffered at these points before being sent to the command center. We'll have .8 seconds to destroy the nodes. This will also help conceal Data and I as we transport in via dimensional shifting."

Riker says, "Sounds simple enough. What's your exit strategy?"

"The Starwolf has a tunneling beam specific designed for boarding a Bozcomb ship. But, given the strength of the juggernaut's armor, Kit must keep his ship stationary over the target for approximately 45 to 50 seconds."

"So the Enterprise must give cover-fire," Riker comments.

"Yes," replies Wolf.

Riker nodes in agreement.

Later, on the Starwolf's command deck, Data approaches Sara from behind and notice her waving her arms in the air. She is motioning like she is manipulating floating objects, but he sees nothing. However, she sees holograms surrounding her. The holograms are of complex circuitry. She draws a line with her finger between two lines and the two more. Then she hits a button and a "Test successful" appears. She then manipulates a slider and the holographic circuitry rapidly shrinks. As Data comes closer, a rear view mirror appears to show his approach. She then turns a knob and all holograms except the knob disappear. Data looks right at the location that her hand was just in and sees nothing.

"Ah, privacy filter," he concludes, and then ask, "Can I inquire what you are working on?"

Sara replies, "Sounds like you already have an idea, enlighten me."

Data starts walking around her as he channels Sherlock Holmes. "The nanites will not allow a dimensional shift in their current configuration, so you must modify them in order to transport Worf and myself over to the Bozcomb ship. Once we locate Captain Picard and Commander Cain, we cannot modify the nanites even then. This would indicate the nanites intentionally do not receive information, making them impossible to become remotely corrupted. So the only effective way to modify them would be your transporters. As they are complex enough to repair damaged tissue and organs in transit, altering a hard-wired machine code should not be difficult."

Sara smiles and subtly nods, she then changes the subject, "So, the reason I called you down here. The condition in which Kit retrieved you is… suspicious."

"I see, the realization that the Bozcomb had been in our galaxy prior than their first attack the Enterprise indicates we had been scouted and my abduction was no coincidence."

Sara walks around Data and continues, "We've scanned you intensively, even to go as far as to count each atom and add up the weight, we can find nothing."

"They may not have time to tamper with me."

"Possible, but if they had a plan, they never started on it."

Data thinks for a second and concludes, "Then the incident was just to gather data on my - rather B4s - construction."

"Yea," Sara says with the expression that she already thought of that, and then asks, "So, what can they learn from you that could complicate a rescue mission."

Chapter 12: First contact.

Aboard the Bozcomb flagship, Picard is strapped naked to a table mounted on an articulating arm coming down from the ceiling. He begins to wake up. His eyes open slowly and he can begin to hear some talking going on around him. He realizes where he is and quickly snaps fully awake. He tries to move only to find out he is restrained.

One of the three Bozcomb scientists in the room notices him and says, "He is awake. Notified the Commander." The scientist walks over to his and looks at him for a moment.

Picard demands, "Why have you brought me here!"

The scientist comes in a little closer and says, "Isn't it obvious?"

Picard looks at him for a second with a puzzled look then looks over at the console. On one of the displays is a hollow outline of him. Next to it is another display with an image of his internal organs in extreme detail. He notices a Starfleet date on the image. A third display shows another detailed scan of him with Bozcomb words written on it.

Picard displays a look as if he figured it out. "I see," he says. He looks back at the Bozcomb and continues, "Even with a captive human and your most advances scanners, you can't see though the stealth technology."

The scientist replies, "Correct, that where you come in."

"The whole thing was a trap…" Picard comments.

The scientist starts walking around the table and explains, "We needed detailed scans, medical records, even transporter traces of humans who had not been shield by the micro-bots. Then we needed one of those humans to become infected."

Picard ask, "How where you able to relay that information?"

The scientist replies, "This armada has been in the galaxy for weeks, waiting for the right moment."

"How many of my crew are here?"

The scientist replies, "Just you. It is far too dangerous to have your kind aboard, so we dump them into space with the wreckage from your ship." As he finishes, he grins.

Picard is furious! He struggles against the straps, wanting to tear the Bozcomb apart. Then, the doors open. In walks the ships commander.

He walks up to Picard and says, "Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation starship Enterprise NCC-1701-D," Picard eyes widen when he hears the "D". The commander sees his reaction and says, "That's right, human. We've been aware of you since the first time you invaded our galaxy."

As Picard thinks for a second, the Bozcomb commander walks around him and explains, "Several years ago, your ship appeared right in front of one of our scout ships. Your sensors could did not detect us. However, we could see you! We could tell you were using warp technology well within the boundaries of the anti-warp field."

Picard realizes the implications of the explanation as the commander stops in front of him and gets closer. He adds, "We got detailed scans of your propulsion and navigation systems, interfaced with your engineering computer systems, and retrieved all the information we would need to eventually break free from the confinement zone."

Picard is stunned by the revelation of his crews involvement in kicking off a war in another galaxy. After a second, he collects himself and says, "Our visit to your galaxy was an accident. We are peaceful explorers."

"All invaders say that."

"It's the truth."

"And the arrival of Commander Cain and Commander Knight?

"We had nothing to do with that."

"I suppose you'll going to tell me that an entire starship full of reinforcement was merely a coincidence."

Picard is at a loss for words as he realizes nothing he can say will change his mind.

The commander grins, realizing Picard is stumped. He turns to one of the scientists and says, "Report."

"Our scans are not able to penetrate the human. We are about to commence more invasive experiments," the scientist says.

"Very well," the commander says. "But before that happens, pull up the last moments of the federation's outpost."

The scientist keys in a few commands and the view screen activates with a first-person view of the juggernauts main weapon pointing at Tarvis 4. The he presses another button to rotate the table Picard is strapped to, so he'll have a better view. Picard then watches in horror as the weapon fires! As the plant is obliterated, he is at a loss for words. At that moment, the Bozcomb commander creeps up next to him just a few inches away and says, "In the event you don't live long enough to see it, I just wanted to let you know what we are going to do to your home-world."

Picard's expression instantly flashes to anger! He loses control and thrashes around in a fit of rage! Pulling his head back and spiting in the face of the commander! But the spit impacts a personal force-field worn by the commander. The spit then vaporizes into grey dust and falls away.

He grins and says in a smug tone, "You are so easy to manipulate."

He then turns to the scientist and asks, "Did you get anything?"

The scientist is studying the display on the console and reply, "Low-velocity impact splatter, no change in shield-belt power distribution… Nothing, no."

Picard displays a look as if he realizes he is playing into the head-game of the commander.

"Let the experiments begin," says the commander as he turns around and heads for the door the table Picard is strapped to starts to pivot out and down to a horizontal position. The scientist puts on a head set with a microphone in front of his mouth. He taps a button and an orange light aluminates along the bar holding the microphone. He starts to narrate, "Beginning examination. Subject is a human male, infected with the micro-bots 93 minutes ago."

Meanwhile, at Starfleet headquarters, officers are busy making plans for the impending battle. Admiral Janeway and four other offices look over a table displaying a tactical readout. Janeway says, "The Kiligon fleet is about two hours away, have we heard from any of our other allies?"

One of the other offices states, "The Vulcan's have 42 ship's in-route."

He stops there, prompting Janeway to ask, "Are they the only ones?"

Another officer states, "Everyone else is recalling their ships to protect their own planets."

"But their coming here first, the federation's best chance is to defend against that armada is here."

"I tried explaining that, but everyone's panicking after the destruction of Tarvis 4."

Another offier interject, "Maybe we should…"

Just then an officer at a communications terminal calls over, "Admiral, I have a priority 1 message coming in!"

"Hold that thought," she says to the officer, then turns and walks over to the communications terminal.

"Who's it from?

"Romulan high command." The officer say's in a concern voice.

Janeway looks surprised and replies, "Well, this should be interesting, on screen."

The communications officer keys in the command, and on the view-screen appears a Romulan ambassador. Janeway recognizes him and asks, "Ambassador Soulin, what can I do for you."

"Allow me to skip the pleasantries, we are aware of your situation."

With that, all conversation in the room comes to an abrupt halt as everyone looks to the view screen.

Janeway is stunned, thinks for a second, and ask, "How much do you know?"

"A great deal, including your less than ideal chances for repelling an invasion from the Bozcomb alone. And, that they will not stop with your world."

Janeway replies in a humbled voice, "We could use your help."

The ambassador displays a brief, tiny smile. "We've already come to that conclusion. Our entire fleet is on its way to Earth."

Janway is taken aback and comments, "Wow… I'm at a loss for words, except thank you, on behalf of all of us."

Ambassador Soulin nods and start to reach for the console to end the communication.

"Wait, how did you know?"

"General Akkon will explain upon his arrival."

He then ends the communication.

As the image fades, an officer comes up beside Janeway and says, "I think I know." Janeway looks at him as he continues, "Looking through the Hera's manifest, we found a passenger that Vulcan high command had flagged as a suspected Romulan spy." The officer hands her a tablet.

Janeway takes the tablet and looks and it, then reads the name, "Siv Grelvik?"

Before she can read any more, another admiral carrying a pad, comes up to her and says, "Admiral, a minute?"

"Sure, what do you have?"

"So apparently, this commander Cain guy pulled 16 people from the Hera, 13 of them Starfleet officers, and had them spend the last eighteen months working out how to defend earth from a Bozcomb invasion."

Her eyes widen as he hands her the pad. She looks at it and reads off, "Weaponizing space dock?"

"Yep, we think the plans are pretty ambitious in the time we have. Starfleet command want you to prioritize and get as much of it done as you can."

She continues scrolling though and comments, "This is fantastic!"

In the Etherian carrier, the enterprise is turned around and a Klingon Bird of Prey is positioned behind it. Between the ships and off to the side is a platform with Geordi and a Klingon engineer. They stand behind a panel that has a Federation engineering display on one end and a Klingon engineering display on the other end.

Geordi says, "OK, let's try it again."

He presses a button on the console. Out of the back of the Enterprise shoots out a beam of energy from the Bozcomb weapon Cain gave to them. The beam pierces the shied and impacts the hull. The shields barely light up, indicate some interaction. There is no damage, indicating that the weapon is at very low power.

"No improvement." Replies the Klingon engineer.

"I think its time to call for assistance."

Geordie then taps his com badge an says, La Forge to Commander Knight."

"Go ahead"

"We're having trouble getting the Klingon shields calibrated to repel the Bozcomb weapons. Can you help?"

"I'll send someone right down."

A few minutes later, a bridge, jetting out from the side of the bay, connects to the platform. Looking down the bridge, they can see a pin-point of light coming toward them, very fast. As it gets closer, they can see one of those glass-like aliens, the race that Senator Heron is a member of. The alien comes in at about 100 kilometers per hour and stops almost instantly at the edge of the platform. Geordie and Klingon engineer instinctively take a step back. The orb of white light starts to vary in intensity as he begins to speak.

"I understand you are having difficulty calibrating your shields."

Geordie looks at the Klingon engineer who appears to be at a loss for words. Then after a few seconds, he replies, "Yes, that is correct."

"Allow me."

The alien moves behind the engineering console as Geordie and Klingon engineer step back. The pedestal the console is on shrinks. Now the console is ground level. Buttons on the console start lighting up like they are being pressed at high speed. Then, the beam weapon fires out of the Enterprise and impacts the Klingon ship.

The Klingon leans over and asks Geordie, "What is that?"

"Healaysian. They can see the entire electro-magnetic."

"It's got no arms."

"Telekinetic.'

"Ha"

The shield starts to block the weapon as the beam getting thorough the shield starts to fade. Then the beam is totally blocked. Then a holographic power meter appears, displaying 0.5% and goes up to 1%. The energy bean starts to become intermittent, being off for a 100th of a second at first. As the power meter goes up, the delay of the weapon also gets longer. The sound of the energy beam hitting the shield also become audible and gets louder. At 30%, the weapon stops firing.

The Healaysian then announces, "Calibration complete."

On the Bozcomb ship, Picard lies horizontal as the scientist remotely maneuver some equipment over him. The equipment is a long, hollow transparent cylinder with a diameter about that of a fist and is cut diagonally at the end. Two metal rectangular tubes are along each side. They are parallel to the cylinder until the tip where they bend inward and taper. The inner cylinder seems to be suspended by energy from the two outer tubes and the whole thing resembles a huge hypodermic needle. Below Picard is a solid metal cylinder that has the same outside diameter as the inside diameter of the upper cylinder. It is maneuvered into place and perfectly lined up with the upper cylinder. It appears to be mounted on a ram. The lower cylinder is moved very close to Picard's back and the upper cylinder is moved close to his chest. Two sensor strips are lower into place, spanning the upper cylinder. Picard starts to tense up as he knows this is going to hurt.

The scientist operating the equipment control states, "Ready."

The led scientist looks over sensor input displayed on the control console and says, "Proceed."

The first scientist hits a button, and the lower cylinder rises and touches Picards back. At that instant, the upper cylinder shoots into his chest! Picard screams in pain! The upper cylinder penetrates though him and the tip slides over the lower cylinder. The instant the top one stops moving the bottom shaft shoots up. A cylindrical chunk of flesh, heart, lung, and bone are shot into the upper cylinder. Picard thrashes as he is literally pined to the table. Amazingly, however, he is not dead. A little over a second after the chunk of flesh had been removed it start to turn grey. Also, the cylinders perching Picard's chest brake off at the point where the surface of his chest and back begin.

"Scans are negative!" one of the scientists says.

"The extractor has been dematerialized within his body," the other says.

The gaping hole in Picard's chest starts to close. He violently choughs up blood, blood that turns to grey dust shortly after leaving his body. There is a noticeable lack of blood from the extraction. Once the hole disappears, Picard, drenched in sweat and breathing heavy, shouts, "I'll kill you all!"

The scientists take no notice of his outburst and are conversing about the experiment.

"The stealth aspect follows the flesh," the first says.

The second replies, "The same stealth manifested throughout the extractor at the subjects boundaries at a uniformed rate. That should be impossible."

"How could the micro-bots infiltrate the alloy that quickly…" the first ponders, then says, "Unless…"

Both scientists arrive simultaneously at the same revelation. "They exist in a phased state!" both say.

"That would allow them to permeate throughout the body with no impact on the cells. Theoretically they can exist in every cell." The second says.

"That would explain the inability to get a blood or tissue sample," The first says. He then adds, "If they can manipulate matter, they can most likely manipulate sensor return information."

"The stealth may be as simple as phasing the sensor energy," the second comments. He then looks back at Picard. Picard is listening to their conversation. The first scientist then looks back at Picard as the second starts to walk toward Picard.

"What concerns you human?" he say, "Worried that we are getting to close to your secret?

In another part of the ship, Cain lies strapped to a table. Three Bozcomb scientists surround him while two guards stand at the door. Unknown to the Bozcomb, the locking clamps that restrain Cain are being compromised by nanites jumping off of Cain's skin.

One of them closely observes the vain it Cain's neck as it pulses to the beat of his heart. "We are ready to proceed," one says.

Another one uses a federation hypo spray to inject a compound into his neck while the first walks toward a control panel. He looks at the panel for a second and says, "The nero-trace agent appears to be working thought the stealth , his nero-pathways are becoming visible."

Then, a warning goes off.

"Were getting an anomalous reading," another one says.

"Body temperature rising! Heart rate increasing, unknown reaction..." the third adds.

Suddenly, Cain snaps awake! "Ahhh!" he screams as he tears the metal straps from the table in a freakish display of unnatural strength! Cain rolls off the bench and grabs one of the scientists by the neck with such force he crushes it. Cain swings him around to place him in the path of fire from the guards at the door. In the blink of an eye, the guards are rapidly firing at Cain. His Bozcomb body shield is turning grey. Not from the Bozcomb weapons, but something else. The grey comes for the neck Cain has crushed. With his other hand, Cain grabs the top of the table and rips it from the robotic arm it is attached to, hurtling it toward the guards at the door. Quickly moving, Cain releases his shield, which appears to be disintegrating, and moves on the other scientist. He lays a fierce kick into another, sending him fling into the guards who are dodging the table. On ducks and moves out of the way while the other jumps over it. Both are still firing though. Cain reaches over and snatches the last scientists off his feet and puts him in the path of fire from the guard. Using the scientists as a shield, Cain rushes the guard still standing by the door. Cain smashes him with such force the door buckles. He lunges back and grabs the head of the other guard after he lands and picks him up. Cain then slams his head into the wall with such brutal force that Bozcomb head explodes, showering the wall and Cain with the glowing Bozcomb blood. The control pad for the door is also smashed in the attack.

In the command center and alarm goes off. "Commander! Cain has awaken! He has broken free of his restraints and killed everyone in lab 2," and officer shouts.

"Seal of that deck!" the commander orders. Then he adds, "Bring up the surveillance cameras for that room." On the main screen, three round windows appear. But one is scrambled as if the camera were damaged. The other two cameras show a view looking out from the main control panel area and one looking from the back of the room toward the door. In the lab, Cain has remarkably only been hit once by a grazing shot. The flesh is rapidly regenerating thanks to the nanites. The Bozcomb blood is turning into a grey dust and falling away. As Cain stands up and turns, he lets out a low, deep growl. He's eyes look like those of a raging animal with no trace of humanity. He scans the room and sees the surveillance cameras. The one that is not working was attached to the table arm and was smashed. Cain quickly moves to the one in the back of the room and tears that on off the wall. Then he moves over to the control panel and drives his fist into the last camera. He is obviously not concerned with damage to his fist as the damaged camera does cut him. He holds his fist to the circuitry for a few seconds, and then retracts. The optical wires begin to disintegrate as the Bozcomb do from the nanites.

On the command deck the commander watches Cain punch out the last camera and says, "Send all troops in the area to destroy him."

An officer then says, "Commander, the other surveillance systems in that immediate area are malfunctioning."

The commander comments, "He is creating a blind spot."

Back in the lab, the look on Cain's face is incredibly focused as his walks over and picks up the hypo spray that they injected him with. After a quick examination, he determines that it's not empty yet and decides to keep it. He stands up and raises his right hand and looks at it. He moves his fingers as if he were typing a command into a keypad. With that, nanites inside him are queued to materialize a weapon. In front of him materializes and ancient looking sword. The sword looks like a long, straight blade Katana but the blade is a flat black. It doesn't even look like it has a sharp edge. He grips it, turns the sword toward the floor. Then in the sword instantly extends and thrust into the floor! Cain spins a circle in the floor, cutting through to the lower deck. The circular section of floor falls to the floor below. Upon landing, Cain immediately points the sword toward a wall with a control panel. The sword shoots into the wall two centimeters to the right of the control panel. The panel blinks. The strike sliced into networking circuitry. From the surface of the blade, billions of nanites begin streaking thought the control systems, instantly destroying any computer security. Cain approaches the wall as the sword retracts. He transfers the sword and the hypo spay to his left hand, holding the hypo spay against the hilt of the sword with his index finger. Cain then quickly starts to access the Bozcomb computer. Within seconds, Cain calls up schematics of the ship.

"He's accessing a terminal on deck 87," an officer shouts.

"Lock him out!" the commander orders. Suddenly, alarms start going off and a display of the cage appears. Rooms spreading out from Cain's location start to blink blue.

"Dead lock quarantine!" the commander shots.

Moments later, an officer states, "Quarantine protocols have been initiated for all research sections.

The commander orders "Surround the perimeter and await further orders."

Chapter 13: Dangerously Close.

Cain completes the hacking of the system and then pulls his sword out of the wall. Once contact is lost, the nanites immediately start to disintegrate, turning the control panel and the part of the wall to grey dust. He transfers the sword and the hypo spray to into his right hand then slices a section of the door and pushed it aside and steps into the hall. He looks both ways and starts to proceed down the hall. The look on his face is incredibly focused. He knows exactly where he is going.

Moments later, Cain approaches the end of the hall where three decks opens up into a large assembly hall. He is on the second deck and below in the hall is about ninety Bozcomb massing to determine their next move. A pier from the second floor jets out about two-thirds of the way into the hall. Cain takes a quick walk to the end of the pier and without hesitation; he leaps over the railing and descends into the mass of enemy troops. He lands feet first on the shoulders on one of the troops, crushing his spine. Still moving forward, Cain puts his left hand on another's chest and takes him to the ground. He impacts the soldier to the ground so hard that he choughs up blood. Cain swings his sword over so it points behind him and is on the other side of his left hand. Then, instantly, the sword extends! With one high-speed swing around his center, he cuts a 360-degree swath. The sword extends all the way to the walls, cutting into them, and isn't being slowed down one bit by anything it cuts. Within a second, most of the Bozcomb have been cut in half. But amazingly, some have the reflexes to jump over the blade or duck it. One of the ones that jumped did not quite make it and his feet are severed. As he lands and falls over, nanites released by the sword are quickly disintegrating him from the legs up. The others that made it over the sword have drawn there weapons and starting firing. However, Cain is already moving quickly to dodge return fire and finish of the remaining troops. His sword retracts and extends with astonishing speed. He flings it at a soldier that had jumped again. The sword pierces the soldier's head and, with a flick of Cain's wrist, exits and sweeps over to decapitate another. Then, he swings back and low to the ground to take out 3 remaining troops. With his immediate opponents vanquishes, Cain stands up strait. He looks to have taking at least one grazing hit as a wound on his left leg is closing up. As soon as it heals, he process down one of the halls connecting the assembly hall.

In the room were Picard is being held, a cylindrical force-field has been erected in the center of the room. Contained within the field is a raging green fire. One of the scientists says, "That should be long enough." He presses a button and the fire instantly evaporates to revile a horrific scene, a charred body strapped to the table! It is Picard and he's still alive, twisting in excruciating pain. The force-field drops and blood-curdling screams now become audible and fill the room. Quickly though, his skin begins to regenerate. Soon, perfect skin now covers a much younger looking Picard. His screams dull as the pain subsides. He is breathing heavy and looks very angry as he turns his head to the Bozcomb. "I'll kill you! So help me I'll kill you all!" he shouts with a rage never before seen from Picard. The two scientists ignore him as they replay a simulation of the event. On the screen, the outline of a human has green smoke entering his nose, mouth, and throat; filling his lungs with fire.

"No interaction with trans-phasic plasma. That unexpected." One of the scientists says.

The other scientist walks toward Picard and looks him over. He displays a look of curiosity, then comments, "Subjects appearance has changed."

He raises the tablet he is carrying and scrolls through a few frames and stops at a picture of Picard for comparison. Picard lies on the table wondering what he now looks like. The scientist continues with his narration. "This may indicate the micro-bots were not perfected before implementation. Perhaps a high-energy nucleonic sweep will…"

Just then the sound of the door opening grabs their attention. As the guards turn to look, Cain rushes in. He extends both of his hands, grabbing the one on his left by the face and bashing the other one on his right with the hilt of his sword. His sword then extends instantly into one of the scientist at the table were Picard is. It pierces the head of the first, and with the flick of the wrist, swings into the other one. All four Bozcomb are ravaged by the nanites and quickly disintegrate. Cain walks over to Picard and makes eye contact. Picard can instantly see the completely insane look in Cain's eyes. But now, he can understand. Cain then presses a few keys on the table keypad to release Picard. Cain's face is stone cold and he doesn't say a word.

As Picard sits up, he says, "I believe they have gotten dangerously close to figuring out the nanites."

"Just one more reason this ship must be destroyed," Cain replies. He then thrust his sword into the floor and releases it. He still is holding on to the hypo spray. He then quickly moves it up to Picard neck and injects it. Picard crabs Cain's arm in reflex but is too late to stop the injection.

"What is th..." Picard starts to ask but he is suddenly overcome with pain and falls to his knees. Cain then discards the hypo spay. He picks up his sword, and moves to the main control console. Then he thrust he sword into it to send another data burst.

Picard has just gotten back to his feet and asks, "What the hell was that?"

"A neurological tracing agent. How do you feel?" ask Cain.

Picard looks down at his open hand and slowly begins to close it, then clinches it. "Powerful, unstoppable…" he replies with great certainty. He then looks up and asks, "Is it safe?"

Cain replies, "It is lethal."

Picard pulls back a bit, but his mind is racing. A few seconds later, he says, "I suppose, given our current situation, that is the least likely thing to eventually kill us."

"Correct."

"Fair enough," Picard says as he looks around. Then he asks, "I don't suppose you know where our cloths might be?"

Cain scans the room a sees the bin over in the corner. He points to it and says, "check there."

Picard walks over to the bin and looks at it, looking for a way to open it. He then feels around the edge and finds a latching mechanism. He pressed it in and slides it forward. This lid then rises up. Inside are Cain and Picard clothes. Picard reaches in and grabs he shirt and pants. He starts to put them on as Cain completes his data burst and withdraws his sword. The main control panel starts to turn to dust as Cain turns and walks over to the bin. He seems unconcerned with his nudity. He looks in the bin and pulls out his trench coat. Cain then hands it to Picard.

Picard looks at it and says, "No thanks, it's quite warm in here as it is."

Cain replies, "Body Armor."

Picard thinks for a moment and asks, "What about you?"

Cain replies, "My clothes are made of the same material. And, I'm less likely to get hit."

Picard then takes the coat and Cain reaches back in to the bin and pull out his pants and shirt. He then puts them on. Picard looks back in the bin and pulls out his boots. As he puts them on, Cain grabs his boots, sidearm and sees Picard's communicator but leaves it. Cain grabs the gun and removes the clip. On the clip, a light blinks red, he then presses a button and the light turns green. He then slams the clip back in. He turns back to Picard.

Cain hands him the gun and says, "We need to disable the primary weapon on this ship."

"Agreed," Picard replies. Then he looks at the door and comments, "You're surprisingly calm."

Cain replies, "This entire section is under quarantine."

"And they don't want to risk the ship to remove the quarantine to come after us," Picard says.

Cain replies, "Correct. Follow me, we have work to do."

The two step out of the room and proceed down a hall. Picard takes note of the piles of grey dust, clothing, and weapons on the floor where Bozcomb use to stand.

"Did you kill all the troops inside the quarantine before coming to get me?" Picard asks.

Cain replies, "All the ones that came after me."

Picard then asks, "Can they beam in reinforcements?"

"No, the quarantine fields prohibits it." Cain replies. To that, Picard asks, "How do we get out?" "Follow me," Cain replies.

As Picard and Cain walk down the corridor, two Bozcomb spring out from opposite sides. One gets off a quick shot strait at Cain. Cain quickly turns sideways as the blast comes at his at him. The blast shoots past his chest as he raises his sword just below the path of the blast an instantly extends it to pierce the chest of the Bozcomb that fired the shot. Then, with the flick of his wrist, he swings it into the other one. The first one's arm is cut off by the swing while the second one is completely cut in half at mid torso. A moment later the two soldiers begin to disintegrate. Cain looks back at Picard who has his weapon only half way up. The encounter was so fast he didn't even have time to raise his weapon. He looks at it with disappointment, then bam! Two plasma blasts hit him in the side! Picard swings his gun around and fires three shots off with extreme speed. Two advancing Bozcomb from the adjacent hall are cut down by the bullets. Picard looks down at the impact area on the coat Cain gave him and sees no damage but notices the dark red triangles at the bottom are glowing. But they are fading and quickly dim. Picard now realizes what they are energy dampers.

Cain then says, "Let's go." The two start walking down the hall.

Moments later, they enter a room full of computer terminals. Cain walks over to one and lifts his sword vertically and brings it down into the desk. After the sword is inserted, the terminal blinks and Cain then is able to access the computer systems.

Picard walks up and says, "Right now I wish I could read this."

Cain then reaches over to the other terminal and presses a few keys. The display then starts to display information in a federation format. Picard looks at the screen and then up as if he just figured something out.

Then he looks at Cain and says, "You knew, right from the beginning. Why didn't you tell us?" Cain turns his head and looks at Picard. Picard quickly figures it out and says, "Because if we knew, they would know you knew. And then they would have anticipated this."

Cain then looks back at the terminal and comment, "We've been planning for the for a while."

"So have they"

"Yep"

"I guess now we find out whose plan is better."

Cain looks up and adds, "Once we get out of the isolated section, keep your realization to yourself. We don't want them to be picked up by surveillance."

Picard nods in agreement and then looks down at the terminal and says, "So, how do we get out of this cage?"

Cain looks to Picard and replies, "I got a plan for that. I'm going to trick the stabilization systems into thinking this entire section is moving."

Picard comments, "I see, we ride the tractor beam."

Cain grins. Picard then starts typing on the terminal and says, "Before we go, there's something I want to know."

"And what's that?"

Picard is searching the computer and explains, "The Bozcomb that experimented on me knew what they were doing, like I wasn't the first..."

On the Bozcomb command deck, the command paces in thought. Another officer says, "The best chance for Cain to exit the research facility is to drop through the lowest airlock at the rear right section."

"Then he won't take that way." the commander says. The officer replies, "The other airlocks are too high. The fall would cause such damage that he would take too long to regenerate, giving us the opportunity to attach him with sufficient force."

The commander grumbles and says, "We're missing something…"

Chapter 14: Romulans.

At Starfleet command, several officers, Janeway, and a few Klingons are looking at a holographic readout of the combined federation and Klingon fleets. Then an alert sounds.

"Admiral, we have ships de-cloaking!" an officer shouts as he scans a console panel. "They're Romulan… wow…"

"Wow what?" Janeway responds.

"Nearly 3000 ships."

"3000!?" She replies in surprise.

"We are being hailed by a scout ship taking the lead."

"On screen."

On the view screen appears a Romulan standing on the bridge.

"Greeting General Akkon."

"Admiral Janeway, I request to beam down immediately."

"Granted."

Akkon looks to his left and nodes. He then dematerializes off the bridge and rematerializes in front of Janeway. "I have a gift for you." He says as he pulls a data chip out of his vest.

"What's on it?" Janeway asks as she takes the chip.

"One of our scout ships was orbiting Tarvis 4 when it was destroyed."

Janeway's eyes widen, and then she looks over to an officer and says, "Commander."

The commander rushes over and takes the chip she hands him and heads for a terminal.

She then looks back at the general and says, "That incident can't be the only reason you are here…"

"Several hours ago, high command received a data stream from an operative we thought captured or kill a long time ago"

"Gelveck."

The general nodes in confirmation, and adds, "The contents of which were utterly fantastic, terrifying, and almost unbelievable."

"So what finally convinced you?"

He then nods toward the view screen behind Janeway.

She turns round to see the Enterprise orbiting Tarvis 4. A few second later the Bozcomb ship appears between the Enterprises nacelles. Over the next minute everyone watches with dismay as the attack is replayed. Even the Klingons are unsettled by the ferocity and power of the attack.

Akkon breaks the silence and asks, "The database contained thousands of incredibly detailed battle simulation, and most of them have the Federation and Earth being destroyed. Then, the Bozcomb will target the next strongest race. And without the Federation, we could not count on any help. So, we have decided it to be in our best interest to confront them here."

Janeway collects her thoughts and says, "We've been working on developing temporal weapon that should get passed their shields." She looks over to an officer and orders, "Lieutenant, I need a copy of the temporal weapons systems."

"We've been focusing on planetary defenses. But noting we have come up with can stop the weapon they used at Tarvis 4," Akkon replies.

"We're told they must drop their shields leading up to discharging their primary weapon, and that the Etherian carrier should be able to convince them not to."

"If that's the case, we should address their secondary method of planetary destruction, orbital bombardment."

"Orbital bombardment!? Do you believe they would do that if they cannot immediately fire their main weapon?

"There's no reason to believe they won't."

An ensign walks up with two pads, handing Janeway the first and says, "Here's everything on the temporal weapons development.

Janeway takes the pad and gives it a quick glance and hands it over to Akkon.

The ensign then hands her the second pad and says, "I think you should take a look at this."

"What is it?" Janeway ask as she reaches for the device.

"It's what they sometimes do in the event that their attack force is not sufficient, but a high value target needs to be eliminated."

Janeway read though some of the information and says in a grim tone, "Kamikaze runs…"

Akkon interjects, "We have been working on a response to that tactic, but we have not figured out how to stop their self-destruct devices from detonating on impact.

"I'll assign a team to assist you." She says as she scrolls though some more data. She stops and says, "Holograph engines?"

The ensign replies, "Cruisers, battleships, and the juggernaut."

"That can't be as efficient a real engines."

"Well, no. But…"

"But it makes it impossible to target their engines."

"Yep."

Janeway think for a moment and order, "Ensign, have division 3 work on neutralizing Directive 8, top priority. Work with the Romulans."

"Aye Sir."

The Ensign then turns and head for a door.

Akkon adds, "One more thing, concerning their cloaking technology."

"It's yours, isn't it?"

"Yes. A few days ago, two war birds conducting maneuvers a few sectors away from the Tarvis system failed to report in. A subsequent search found nothing."

"And you think the Bozcomb are responsible."

"We're certain of it."

"How?"

"Romulan cloaking devices are replicated except for one component. It is purposely crafted to embed a unique signature to allow us to detect is one of our devices are ever stolen."

"I see."

"Their can be only one interpretation of how they obtained that device!" Akkon adds with a hint of anger.

In room zero, Crusher is looking at readout when Sara transports in. Sara walks over and asks, "How are Cain and Picard?"

Crusher replies, "Cain was injected with the agent 9 minutes ago, Picard, 3. They are heading for the other end of the research section."

How are they holding up?"

Crusher replies, "Not good, Picard's heart rate is 245, Cain's is 230."

Crusher stops and looks up in surprise, "Captian Pickard has a real heart now?" Then he immediately realizes and comments, "Right, when Cain transported him back before the attack."

Crusher nods and continues, "Their adrenal glands are producing 600 percent higher than ever recorded for a human. And the bio-electric nerve impulses are 5 times more then than the theoretical maximum. In fact, the nanities are the only thing keeping them alive."

Sara asks, "How long until they metabolize the compound?"

"At this rate, and hour, hour and a half. After that, their organs will start shutting down, and I don't know if the nanities can help because the autonomic nervous system will go into shock."

Sara replies, "Do you have a solution?"

"I believe so, I can synthesize a compound to rebalance their brain chemistry. I'm running simulations to determine the nanites interactions."

"Should be minimal, they focus on physical damage."

Riker appears on the Starwolf's command deck with the two hypo sprays in hand. Data and Work are standing ready wearing full body armor, including trench coat and sun glasses. Worf with his mini-gun and Data with the proto type multi-function weapon.

Riker starts walking toward them and says, "I have the…" He stops and leans to the side a little, noticing the bulges in the coats.

He then asks, "Are you taking enough equipment?"

Worf replies, "I would like to have a batleth with me, but This should be enough."

Riker smiles at Worf remark and adds, "It's all that going to weigh the two of you down?"

Data replies, "No, Etherian technology is capable…"

Riker holds up his hand to stop the explanation as the short answer is enough. He then raises his other hand to present the two hypo spays.

He says, "You'll need to each take one of these."

Data and Worf each take one of the hypo sprays as Riker continues, "The doses are set. When either of them exhibit signs of sudden and extreme fatigue, him a dose."

A communication from Troi then comes over his communicator. "Troi to Riker."

"Riker here."

"We are about three minutes away."

"Acknowledged"

He then looks at Data and Worf and says, "Good hunting."

He then steps back a little and command, "Computer, transport me to the Enterprise bridge."

He then disappears in red flash.

Wolf and Data then look at each other.

Chapter 16: Escaping the cage.

On the Bozcomb carrier, Picard is looking at information and comments, "Of course they would send the Enterprise…"

"Find what you're looking for?"

"The Merlin, the reason we were out here in the first place…"

He looks up, and then over to Cain and elaborates, "The Merlin was a transport ship, ferrying colonist from Tavis 4 to the Mosher 3 colony. It disappeared a few days ago."

"And the Federation sent it's most power ship to make everyone feel safe."

"They manipulated the entire encounter."

"It's like looking into a mirror, but only the bad parts stair back."

The terminal then beeps and Cain withdraws his sword from the terminal. The screens go out and he says, "Time to go."

He turns and walks out the door and Picard follows. A few moments later, they enter another room.

Cain says, "When I start running, you start running. Jump as far as you can."

Picard asks, "What's it like?"

"Ever been caught in a fast moving river?" Cain says.

"Actually, yeah. A long time ago." Picard answers.

"This is basically the same, with a slight tingly sensation. Do what you can to land on the same deck as me," Cain replies.

Picard thinks for a moment and asks, "How soon?"

"Any second now," Cain replies.

A console then starts to blink. It's obviously been reprogrammed as it starts to count down from 4, then 3, 2, 1. Then Cain points his sword at the wall and extends it into the wall off toward his left. At that moment, a jolt is felt in the whole room. Then he twirls his wrist and the sword cut a circle in the wall. On the other side of the wall is the outside of the research section. A horizontal tractor beam has engaged from an anchor inside the ship and is pulling on the wall. The whole Cain cut is then pulled away. As this happens, Cain then starts to run. Picard quickly follows. Cain reaches the edge and jumps. At the same time, the section of wall cut away starts to fall out of the way of the tractor beam. As it starts to clear the energy stream, Cain is exposed to the beam. His speed of flight then increases. Picard jumps right as the beam hits him.

In the command center, and alarm sounds. An officer looks at the display and then shoots, "One of the isolation bays alignment beams have activated!"

The commander looks up in surprise and says, "Shut it down!"

While in the beam, Cain twist his body to give him a spin as he starts to fall out of the beam. The beam is being emitted from an emitter array indented into the wall of the ship. Just below the emitter is a platform protruding out from an open deck. As Cain start to fall out of the beam, it becomes clear he is going to land on this deck. However, Bozcomb troops are already on the deck, but only about a dozen. They are taken off guard by the event but quickly recover. With weapons drawn, they begin to fire at Cain. Most of the weapon shots miss him but a few hit. Cain flies right into the first solder on the deck. Just before making contact, Cain extends his leg to kick. The kick is incredibly fierce given the speed he is moving and launches the solder into the two behind him. Cain hits the ground feet first and still spinning. As he comes back around to face the troops, he lifts his sword toward the troops and extends it. The blade thrust through some of them. Cain then twirls his wrist, creating a horizontal 'blender' that cuts the remaining troops to shreds. At that moment, Picard also lands feet first, but running. However, he is going too fast to control it. As he runs and is about to fall, Cain retracts his sword, spins around, and extends is left arm to catch Picard. He catches Picard and brings him to a stop. Picard immediately notices the burn marks on Cain's clothes from the weapons hits. The clothes are not as effective as the coat Picard wears.

Cain then releases Picard and looks back down the hall. He sees a terminal embedded into the wall at the end of the hall. The hall opens up to two more corridors on each side. He raises his sword, points it at the terminal and extends it. The sword pierces the wall right beside the terminal. The terminal blinks and then the doors on both adjacent corridors slam shut. He waits a second as if he's doing more, and then retracts the sword.

Cain then looks at Picard and says, "Open that door." He points to a door down the hall and adds, "I'll be right back." As Picard heads for the door, Cain thrusts his sword into the floor, spins around, and cuts a hole to the deck below. He falls through and immediately steps off the circle of deck he landed on. Walking forward he raises his sword. He shots the sword into another terminal. Less than second later, all the doors on that deck open. He then turns around, takes a short sprint, and leaps towards the hole he cut in the deck. The distance is no problem for Cain to clear in his supercharged state and he pops back up on the deck Picard is on. Picard has just finished overriding the door Cain told him to open. Cain walks up to Picard just as a sound of cutting begins start at one of the doors, then another. The Bozcomb are cutting through the doors to the corridor Cain sealed off. He motions Picard to step into the room. Picard enters the room and Cain follows. Cain then presses a button on the side of the wall by the door to shut it. He then heads for another door and Picard follows. The door is unlocked. Cain opens it and is a small storage room. Cain then uses his sword to cut a hole for the two of them to go though.

In the corridor from where they came, the Bozcomb are almost though the first door. As the cut is finished, soldiers burst though. They race down the hall and immediately notice the hole in the floor. The first one immediately jumps down the hole to the deck below. Three others circle the hole as another comes up. One has a scanner and is taking a reading; another one looks down and says, "Report!"

"All the doors on this deck have been opened!" the solder replies.

The last one, who is the leader of this small group, taps his communicator bracelet and says, "Cain has descended to deck 158!"

In the command center, the surveillance video from the corridor is being replied. It shows Cain landing, taking out the guards, and then shooting his sword toward the wall and the cameras general location. The video the goes out. The commander then says, "Slow it down and zoom in, I want to see what he has in his hand."

Another officer presses a few keys and the image rewinds to the moment Cain raise the sword and is about to extent it. Then a timer appears at the bottom of the screen and starts slowly counting. The video is in extreme slow motion as the sword begins to extend. The extension is still very rapid but can now be seen.

"What is that?" the commander asks.

The report, "Cain has descended to deck 158!" broadcast over the command centers intercom.

The commander replies, "How?

The solider standing over the hole replies, "It appears he cut though the deck." As the soldier looks over the cut, he continues, "The cut is impossibly clean… I don't see any evidence of thermal or energy cutting." He notices a spot where the end of the cut overlaps the start and adds, "The cut was made in one sweep but I have no idea what was used."

The commander then responds, "Scan all the cuts you find and report any information immediately!" He the turns to another office and says, "Report on deck 158."

The officer states, "Troops are searching the entry section and the surrounding sections. All lifts to that deck have been locked down."

The commander states, "The method he used to move between decks did not trip the structural integrity alarm."

The officer suggests, "If we vary the atmospheric pressure between decks, we can detect the drop."

"Do it." the commander orders.

Another communication then comes in, "Commander, I have new information on the weapon Cain is using."

"Continue," the commander says.

Back on deck 157, the same soldiers that was looking at the hole now has a scanner and scanning a grazing cut on the wall. Two other soldiers are also scanning parts of the hall. The lead soldier says, "The cuts are clean down to the atomic level, with no abrasions or disturbance to surface atoms."

"That would indicate phase technology," the commander states.

The soldier replies, "However, I detect no quantum fluctuations or residual energy patterns."

"Current theory of the human micro-bot operation suggest they operate in a phase state we cannot detect," the commander replies.

"Then that may explain these computer system alterations." The soldier, who is now scanning a console, says.

"Explain," orders the commander.

"Commands were place directly into the local network without interfacing with the terminal." the soldier states.

The commander then replies "Send all data to science station 1." He the walks over to another officer setting at a station and says, "If the micro-bots have been modified to interface with computer systems, we may be able to corrupt and gain access to their programming. Work on that."

"Yes commander," The officer says.

The commander then turns to one of his personal guards and stats walking toward him. As he walks, he unbuckles and removes the metal belt that only he wares. He comes up to one of the guard and says, "We must know what that weapon can and cannot cut though."

"Understood," the guard replies. He then takes the belt from the commander and heads for a door. The commander then turns back toward the forward view screens.

Chapter 17: The battle begins.

The Bozcomb fleet drops out of warp near mars. The first ships to drop out of warp are the 91 destroyers, arranged in a dome-like pattern out in front. Then the massive star carrier and the cruisers drop out of warp. The 7 light cruisers are in a circle around the front of the carrier while the 7 heavy cruisers are in a circle around the rear of the carrier. The last ships to emerge are the 3 battleships. The cruiser have two distinct designs for light and heavy classification. The heavy cruiser look like a triple bladed arrowhead while the light cruisers look like a smaller double bladed arrowhead. On the nose is a blue weapons array like similar to the destroyers. The triangles then separate at the front and hinge at the rear. A bulge is left on the main shaft where they separate, and another weapons array is revealed on the tips of the separated sections that are now parallel with the main shaft.

The second largest ship it the armada is the battleships. The battleships hang back, as if they are expecting and attack from the rear. Two of them begin rotating, pointing their main gun somewhat toward each other while the third slows down quickly. This configuration allows at least one of them to quickly draw a line of fire on any potential high priority target that appear, regardless of where. Moments away is the Etherian fleet. The carrier fires four plasma spheres while still at faster than light speed. The plasma spheres drop into sub-light speed just before slamming into four destroys in an incredible display of precision and with such force that the ships explode into fireballs. The carrier drops into sub light speed between the battleships and rockets straight for the juggernaut. In the carrier's main bay, the Enterprise, Martok's ship and two bird of prey escorts are poised for launch. The bay is also lined with hundreds of defiant-class ships ready for crews.

"Execute Alpha 1!" Riker says as he sits in the embedded seat-station that is now the Enterprise helm station. Martok's ships are shot out of the bay at great speed with the assistance of Etherian catapult beams, followed immediately by the Enterprise. The Starwolf shots out without assistance and closely follows the Enterprise. Almost immediately, the ships come under a hail of enemy fire from aft and side mounted guns from the cruisers. The carrier pulls up and to the left sharply, narrowly avoiding a direct hit from a battleship. Then another blast also misses its mark.

The two birds of prey take the lead with Motok's ship following. They have all weapons blazing, firing indiscriminately at the juggernaut while making evasive moves. One receives a direct hit from a heavy cruiser on its forward section. The blast goes though the shields, into the bridge and all the way though out the other side. The rest of the ship is immediately sent tumbling though the battlefield. Then, the enterprise comes under fire from two destroyers attacking head on. They scream in at full speed, with all eight guns blazing. The impacts on the Enterprise shields are fierce, but they appear to be holding. The Enterprise counters with a barge of phazers and photon torpedoes. Motok's ship opens fire on the same destroyer the Enterprise is concentrating on. As the destroyers get closer, the concentration of fire seems to be taking a toll as panels of ablative armor are shredded off. The destroyers don't appear to be trying to avoid a head on collision as they narrowly miss Martok's ship and the remaining bird of prey. At the last moment, the Enterprise banks hard and rolls between them. The destroyers start rotating as the pass while costing on their inertia. Then, as they are almost turned around, three Valdore and a D'Deridex class Romulan warbirds de-cloak with weapons hot and heading for one of the destroyers. Before they the cloak is even fully dropped, they unload disruptors and photon torpedoes as fast as the possible can into the rear of the destroyers. The intense fire of the surprise attack works as the destroyer breaks up a few seconds later. The Romulan warbirds then give chase to the other destroyer that is perusing the Enterprise. As the Enterprise and Mortok's ship approach the juggernaut, his Negh'var cruiser takes several shots across the top going toward the port nacelle. The shields hold for three shots but the forth makes it though, scoring a weaken hit on the wing. The fifth shot however is unimpeded as the shields have failed. The blast rips though the port nacelle.

On the bridge, an officer yells out, "Port nacelle destroyed, loosing main power!"

Martok does not answer immediately as he is preoccupied with the images on the view screen. They are coming up fast on the juggernaut and are close enough to see that it is launching its complement of fighters. Dozens of fighters pour out ten launch tubes spaced around the mother ship.

"Hard to port!"

The cruiser begins to turn left but is slow to respond giving its battle damage.

"The federation weapons are penetrating our shields!" an officer on the Bozcomb flagship command deck shouts.

"How is that possible," the commander replies while walking over to the officer. He takes a look at the readout and says, "They still do only minimal damage. Concentrate on the Etherian ships."

"Commander!" shouts another officer, "A federation ship designated Enterprise and Cain's ship are closing in on us."

The Enterprise and the Starwolf are almost at the shield border. The Starwolf maneuvers extremely close to the aft section. "Tactical, extend shields!" Riker commands.

The shield extended over Starwolf right before impacting the Bozcomb shields. The interaction between the two shields create ring of energy marking the borders of each. Both ships begin to slide though.

Martok's ship is breaking away but can't complete the turn fast enough. The starboard wing grazes the juggernaut's shield, shearing off a disruptor cannon. Then, as the last of the fighters are being launched, Mortok's ship finds its self in the path of oncoming enemy ships. They take several shots of opportunity, including a few to the forward mounted disrupter cannon. With the shields offline, the weapon is crippled.

"Status!" Martok demands.

Weapons, shields, and main power offline!" An officer replies.

"Can we cloak?"

The officer checks his panel and say, "Yes!"

"Do it!"

Martok's ship cloaks.

"Set course for the Etherian carrier, begin repairs."

After piercing the juggernauts shields, the Enterprise immediately fires the modified phazer pulses into the side of the juggernaut. The Starwolf breaks away and begins firing indiscriminately into the enemy. Inside, Worf and Data appear via dimensional shift in a corridor. The corridor. The corridor is, for the most part, rock solid but sounds of weapons fire can be heard resonating through the hull.

Worf looks at the tracker and says, "The captain and commander Cain are 2.3 kilometers away," he says as he shows Data the tracking pad. The two start heading down the hall.

On the command deck, the commander is watching the screen that shows the Enterprise, he displays little surprise as he turns to an officer and says, "How did they do that."

"Unknown, they have destroyed the sensor return nods in that area."

"Then they are not confident they can get back out if we knew. Dispatch boarding parties to the human ship ascertain the method of penetration."

"Commander!" another office shouts, "The Etherian cruiser is releasing intrusion pods!" Outside, the Starwolf maneuvers with extreme speed as it releases 3-meter long cylinders the width of a guardian close to the surface of the Bozcomb ship. The pods immediately fire a cutting beam into the ship. The pods where ejected close to external doors on the juggernaut. They each burrow through the doors and shoot the Guardians into the ship. The guardians streak though corridors, firing on any troops they encounter. Then, they drop toward the floor once the Bozcomb security system is activated. Their legs extend to land and they begin to run though the ship.

On the command deck, the officer says, "The drones have slowed down, but security measures are not neutralizing them."

"These are undoubtedly the new ones used to free the human ship. Send all available troops to intercept them," the commander orders. He turns to another officer and asks, "Why there is only four?"

The officer replies, "Possibly a biological component that can't be replicated."

The commander thinks for a second and commands, "They wouldn't trust a rescue mission to drones alone, send tracker teams to any parts of the ship that have sensor damage. Look for a cloaked intrusion pod."

An officer nods in conformation and walks away.

The commander then looks at another officer and says, "There's no need to wait on a window for the primary weapon."

He finishes with a sinister grin.

The other office turns to a few Bozcomb siting at terminals embedded in a wall and says, "Tactical 2, began orbital bombardment."

Outside on the surface of the juggernaut, eight separate doors open space out in a ring around the forward facing point. The doors spiral open, and the moment they open, a silver sphere with a green line around it shoots out of each one at high velocity. The doors immediately close after them.

On the Enterprise, an officer at tactical shoots, "Captain, they've just fired eight mass drivers at earth!"

"Did you get a lock on the launchers?"

"Three of them, I should be able to extrapolate the others."

As the spheres streak toward their targets, several Romulan scout ships begin decloaking in front of them. The foremost ship fires a grey energy beam at the closest sphere. The other ships fire as the spheres enter range. The beams do not stop the spheres but do appear to slightly change their speed and direction as they scream by. As they enter the atmosphere, the spheres begin to glow as friction from the air heats them up. On the surface, emitters in cities targeted also fire the gray beam upward toward the spheres. Near San Francisco, a sphere comes down in the bay. Like a bullet shot into a pond, the impact creates a tremendous splash and huge waves race from the epicenter across the bay. The waves slam into force-fields generated by portable emitters at the edge of the water.

"Commander, the humans and their allies are using some kind of repulser beams to alter the trajectory of the mass drivers."

"Send in some fighters to deal with the ships and surface based defenses," the commander replies calmly.

Outside, the Enterprise maneuvers into firing position of the door to the first mass driver and begins to fire. A furious barge of photon torpedoes and phasers pummel the target, but ablative armor is mitigating most of the damage.

"Captain, we're not penetrating their armor!" yells a lieutenant.

"Then fire quantum torpedoes, full spread!"

Four quantum torpedoes ring off in rapid succession. The first one slams to the door and explodes followed by the second one. As it explodes, the door begins to buckle, and the third is able to punches though and explode inside the launcher. The forth also hits its mark inside the launcher, completely destroying it.

At the same time, the Starwolf is also laying fire into one of the launchers. However, even with all weapons blazing, the shielding around the launcher is holding. A pair of fighters streak toward the Starwolf on and intercept course. The Starwolf breaks off is attack on the launcher and charges the fighters. While evading the fire of both fighters, the Starwolf lays fire into one of them, destroying it right before they meet. As the other one fly's past and begins to turn, the Starwolf takes advantage of its superior maneuvering capabilities and flips around to fire at and destroy the other fighter. Then the Starwolf heads for the Enterprise as a pair of fighters or closing in on it.

On the enterprise, Captain Riker comments, "That just about took everything we have…" Just then, the Enterprise is rocked by enemy fire from the incoming fighters. Before Riker can react, the Starwolf engages and destroys the fighters.

Kitt then communicates over the Enterprise's intercom, "I am unable to penetrate the shielding around the mass driver launchers."

"Then we'll get the launchers, you cover us!" Riker replies.

"Understood."

On the bridge of the juggernaut, an office informs the commander of the Enterprise's success.

"The human ship has disable mass driver 4" he says with a bit surprise.

"That's a surprise…"

"There weapons are getting though the shields unimpeded and are sufficient to break though the ablative armor. But just barely."

"And the Etherian cruiser?"

"Shielding is effective."

"Then the human ship will attempt to destroy the others with the robot ship protects it. Fire three per driver this time."

Outside, the mass driver doors opens and a sphere shoots out. Almost a second later, another one follows, then another. As a barrage of 21 mass drivers shoot toward earth, the Romulan scout ships decloak again to counter the mass drivers. But this time, 6 Bozcomb fighters streak toward the scout ship. Before they get close to them though, a dozen Klingon birds of prey decloak to intercept the fighters. They begin firing all disruptors and torpedoes at the converging fighters. The fighter quickly maneuvers to evade the incoming firestorm. A few of them take some disrupter fire but most of them are able to dodge the torpedoes. One of them however is struck by a torpedo as it attempts to evade the barrage. As it loses control from damage, two more torpedoes and some disrupter fire find their mark and the fighter is destroyed. The other fighters do not engage the Kingons and continue on to the scout ships.

As the scout ships start emitting there repulser beams, the fighters attack! The lightly armored scout ships are no match for the Bozcomb weapons and are quickly disable or destroyed. The mass drivers, many of them now un-impeded, streak into earth's atmosphere. The repulser beam emitters on top of several building engage to deflect the incoming spheres, but it not enough. A sphere impacts down town San-Francisco at full speed. Driving deep into the ground, shockwaves ripple through the earth, like a stone being thrown into a pond. Buildings are ripped from the foundations as the ground rolls beneath them. Dust and debris shoot everywhere and it resembles a nuclear strike without the flash. Off in the distance, miles away, another strike signals the destruction of another city.

In a command bunker, several officer and admiral Janway watch a live feed of the distruction of San Francisco. An officer reports, "Admiral, we just lost San Francisco, Oakland, LA, and 3 other cites!"

"Janway hangs her head down and comments, "We didn't know they could fire that fast." She then looks up and orders, "Redeploy the Romulan transports, operation Lifeboat."

The remaining Romulan transports break off from the incoming spheres and re-cloak.

Aboard the juggernaut, an office reports, "They have abandoned the attempt to repel the mass drivers."

Chapter 18: Targets

Out in the battlefield, a Galaxy class starship is being pursued by a Bozcomb destroyer. The destroyer itself is being attacked from behind by a Sovereign and Excelsior class ship. Three Bozcomb fighters are engaging them and drawing some of the fire. This destroyer has the sustained high intensity weapons module. A high intensity shot impacts the starships shields and maintains for over a second. In this time, the shields are overwhelmed and fail a split second before the destroyers firing sequence is exhausted. The part of the blast that makes it though destroys the main impulse engines. The destroyer then pivots while the starship starts to drift, keeping its face pointed at the Galaxy class starship while ignoring the other two ships. Then, once its weapon recharges, it fires again. This time, without shields, the shot blast right through the saucer section and slices toward the engineering section. As the shot reaches the middle of the drive section, the ship explodes. The destroyer then accelerates as the other two pursue while continuing to attack. Then when it's weapon is charged, it pivots 180 degrees and fires into the Excelsior class ship. The Excelsior's shields are weaker and quickly fail, and the high intensity beam slices though the section between the saucer and drive section, separating the two. The Sovereign class suddenly turns and looks like its running. The destroyer realigns itself and accelerates to chase the starship. Then, from behind, a New Orleans class comes in fast and hot, unloading it's three torpedo magazines as fast as possible. The two top magazines are loaded with photons, while the lower is loaded with quantum torpedoes. The high rate of fire pouring into the back of the destroyers takes its toll before it can react. The destroyer starts break apart as the New Orleans class maneuvers up and skids on its nose to avoid hitting the destroyer while continuing to fire. The destroyer finally breaks up.

The view screen on the Sovereign class starship brings up the Captain of the New Orleans class starship. He says, "We'll, that worked. Took 23 photons and 11 quantum torpedoes."

"Can't say I'm fond of this tactic," replies the other Captain.

The other Captain grins as he presses buttons on his command pad and says, "You should be flattered. We knew they would go after the most formidable looking ships first, leaving their backsides vulnerable."

Just then, the helmsmen say, "Captain, we're getting a distress call from the Kira, 2,000 kilometers to port."

An ambassador class starship is trying to evade a Bozcomb destroyer. The destroyer as superior memorability and fires relentlessly into the aft section of the starship. This destroyer has an eight-gun module that allows a much higher rate of fire, but with a weaker impact. Then, three Romulan warbirds de-cloak and unleash a barrage of torpedo and disruptor fire into the front of the destroyer. Two defiant-class starships then sweep in behind and fire into the rear of the destroyer, targeting one of the nacelles. The destroyer continues to fire exclusively on the ambassador class starship and the ships shields start to weaken, then fail all-together. The destroyer's weapons then start ripping into the haul while they target the engineering section.

On the bridge of the star ship, a tactical officer shouts, "Captain, additional shielding around the warp-core is weakening!

Before the captain can respond, the ships computer announces, "Evacuation protocol activated", as the crew begin to de-materialize.

Outside, the destroyer continues its assault as life-pods start to eject from the doomed ship. The defiant-class starships finally overcome the nacelle's armament and it explodes. They continue to fire in the same area to take advantage of the secondary damage surrounding the nacelle. A pair of Bozcomb fighters streak toward the defiant-class starships with several Klingon birds of prey and federation attack fighters in close pursuit. The ambassador class starship receives a fatal strike an explode as it's escape pods rocket away from it. Then, a Romulan transport de-cloaks and emits a tractor-beam at one of the escape pods. Once that pod is secured, that pod then shots the beam over to the next pods. Soon, multiple pods are chained together as the transport makes an arc around the burning debris of the starship. The Bozcomb destroyer is also facing impending destruction as it loses control and is continually pounded by Federation and Romulan forces. They concentrate fire into parts of the destroyer where the ablative armor has weakened and the destroyer starts breaking apart. The transport tractoring the escape pods sets course for the Etherian carrier at full speed while the pods are pulled in closer. The two fighters then engage the pods, destroying one, two, then three! The fighters then encounter a barrage of fire from the federation ships. One is quickly destroyed while the other somehow manages to evade while taking a few more shot. Shots that narrowly miss their targets. But soon the fighter is strafed by Klingon ships and destroyed.

The transport is heading straight for the Etherian carrier when a blue beam of high-energy rips into the side and moves toward the rear. The beam pierces thought to the other side at the transport. It explodes! Sending debris in all directions, including toward the pods. One pod takes a direct hit and explodes, others are carried through the debris field by their inertia. The Federation, Klingon, and Romulan ship all turn their attention to the enemy ship that fired that shot, a Bozcomb battle-ship. The pods are tumbling though the battle-field as tractor beams from the Etherian carrier latch on to them. The carrier then starts to fire on the battle-ship as the pods zip into the carrier's main bay. They travel half-way into the bay and disappear it a red flash. Then, on the bridge of one of the replicated Federation ships, the crew from the ambassador class starship appears. The ship is already in Red Alert mode. In the captain's chair is the first officer.

The crew look at the first officer as he also looks around. Noticing he is in the Captain's chair, he looks down and somberly says, "I guess he didn't make it."

He then looks up and commands, "Helm, take us out!"

The new Defiant class ship emerges from the Etherian carrier to join a fierce battle with numerus alliance ships engaging a Bozcomb battleship.

On the command deck of the Bozcomb juggernaut, an officer holding a computer pad update's the commander.

"Commander, the humans and their allies have formulated an effective combat strategy. We are re-assessing the effectiveness of their ships to account for the ability to get past are shields."

Standing in the middle of the command deck and looking confident as he watched the battle on multiple screens, he asks, "Threat assessment?"

"Minimal, they are only capable of destroying Kadaris and lower. They are also losing more ships than we are."

Right after saying that, the computer pad chimes. The officer looks at the pad, presses a few keys, and adds, "A new human ship has emerged from the Etherian carrier. Its designation did not exist at the beginning of the battle."

"Did a troop transport go in before it came out?"

"Not that we could see. However, they did tractor in some escape pods."

"Then it is likely the Etherian were able to build some Federation ships but must wait for humans to pilot them. Inform all ships to aggressively target escape pods."

"Yes commander."

He taps a few keys and says, "Done." The he swipes his screen up and says, "We finished the threat assessment of the federation ships." He presses an icon of a ship and flicks it upward. The image and tactical readouts of the New Orleans class pops up on the main screen. "This ship has an extremely high rate of missile fire."

"It only holds 300 though, how's it make the top of the list?"

The officer flicks up another image, this one of space dock. "This station is on the other side of the planet. It can rearm them in seconds."

"Then we'll need to destroy it. Are we sure no other Etherian ships are joining the battle?"

"The scattering field is dissipating. We shall know in a few minutes."

"As soon as we do, send cruisers 4 through 9 to deal with the station."

On the other side of earth, space dock sets it high orbit as a New Orleans class streaks toward the station. On its bridge, the helmsmen calls out, "Computer guidance looked in."

On the view screen, an officer working a terminal replies, "Confirmed Jamestown, you're on automatic sequence. Set back and enjoy the ride." The view screen switches back to a view of the approach to the station. Three green lines arranged in a V pattern originating from the station and intercepting the ship are super-imposed on the view screen. The top two go over and the bottom one goes under, presumably lining up with the torpedo magazines. The Jamestown rotates on its side in relation to the doors on space dock. It is also coming in at a 30 degree angle, opposed to straight on like a ship would normally enter. As the ship enters the station, the magazines are jettisoned. Immediately, tractor beams emanating from the ceiling and floor engage and snatch up the empty magazine. Along the ceiling and floor are more tractor beam emitters going the length of the bay. Along the side walls are clusters of full torpedo magazines. Three of these magazines have already been pulled and are being suspended by tractor beams in the positions they would be in to fit the hardware points. The tractor beams are accelerating the magazines and the ship closes on them. As they meet, there speed is matched and the magazines are mere centimeters away. They then are pushed on to the hardware points with extreme precision. The entire operation completed with room to spare as the ship is only half way around the bay. It then rockets out another door fully loaded.

On the bridge, operation calls out, "Reload complete!"

The helmsmen adds, "Helm control returned to manual."

"Take us back into the fight, full impulse!" Orders the captain. The he calmly looks over to his tactical officer and says, "Lieutenant Hays, find us our next target."

Somewhere else, a sovereign class starship is turning around. Another is near by and looks to have damage to its starboard nacelle as it is leaking plasma. On the bridge of the damaged ship, the view screen shows the captain of the other ship. He asks, "Do you need assistance?"

"Nah, we're just singed a little," comes the reply.

The ensign at opps calls out, "Heavy cruiser on an intercept course!"

"Forward shields to full!", replies the captain.

Both sovereign class ships line up to combat the incoming cruiser. The cruiser is coming in at full impulse as the sovereigns unleased a hailstorm of phasers, photon and quantum torpedoes. The cruiser starts erratically rolling as the torpedoes approach. Most of the torpedoes and phaser fire simply miss as the cruisers forward facing low profile makes it hard to hit. Then, the inner facing doors on the outer sections open out and fighters are ejected and accelerated forward. Thirty-six fighters in total scream toward the undamaged sovereign while the cruiser fires its main weapon at the other sovereign. While the main beam hammers into the forward shields, the fighters all fire at the other sovereign, peppering the shields. The main shields collapse and the last few shots impact the secondary shields while the fighters scream by. At the same time, the cruiser's main weapon cuts off for a recharge cycle. The cruiser then adjusts its heading to fly between the to federation ships. Both sovereigns fire at the cruise fire at it while it erratically rolls form side to side. Some of the phaser blast and most of the torpedoes miss the cruiser and accidently strike the other federation ship. The cruise then pivots to line up a shot on the ship that as lost its primary shiels. It fires as the sovereign attempts to evade. The blast intersects the port side pylon and shears off the port nacelle. Then suddenly, a hail of phaser cannon fire slam into the cruiser. Most of the hits are on the center section while a few are blocked by the outer section. The phaser fire is coming from six defiant class ships. They are spread out to avoid the defensive maneuvers of the cruiser. And surprisingly, all shots are hitting their targets. On the bridge of the lead federation ship, the main screen has a crosshair super-imposed over the enemy cruiser with a "Locked" displayed. Toward the edge is a green ellipse indicating the targeting area of the main phaser cannons. Over at a tactical station, an officer shoots, "Captain! The fighters are regrouping and heading our way!"

"Execute pattern Epsilon 1! Helm, keep us locked on that cruiser!"

The Bozcomb fighters all seem to be targeting the same federation ship as it starts to spin. As they fire, the rotation of the federation ship spreads out the damage. Then, another defiant class ship maneuvers into the line of fire, taking some of the onslaught. Then, a few seconds later, another ship slides into the line of fire. By this time, the two sovereign class ships are also contributing fire to the enemy cruiser.

Engaged in a fire-fight with the three Bozcomb battleships is the Etherian carrier with hundreds of Federation, Klingon, and Romulan ship. The battleships are focusing their attention on the Etherian carrier and seem to be ignoring the other ships. The carrier is moving fast and evading most of the enemy fire. Its surface shimmers as the G.H.O.S.T is keeping the enemy from establishing a computer lock. All of the barrels on all of the turrets are independently articulating but are focusing the attention toward the front as the battleship tries to align with the more maneuverable Etherian carrier. The center cylinder houses the most powerful gun in its arsenal but must be aimed by aiming the ship itself. All six sides of the tree triangles are laid out the same, making it impossible to tell which one is the top. The smaller turrets respond quicker and are able to track the carrier and land more hits. Then the central gun thunders to life! Firing a dense stream of energy that barely misses the evading carrier. The other two battleships are also attempting to score direct hits on the carrier.

On the command deck, Sara Knight sits in the centralized command chair, surrounded by holographic panels. She appears to be navigating the carrier with the same control pads as on the Starworf. A glass disk is above her right wrist, feeding her mind with valuable information about the carrier's surroundings. Several officers sit in front and off to each side. The monitors in front of them contain tactical information as they control different weapon around the carrier. A crashing sound is heard accompanied by a small jolt.

"Commander, we've sustained a direct hit on the port wing, shields down 4%," an on Etherian officer calls out."

"I see it," Sara replies.

She taps a few button and the carrier then cartwheels out of the battleships attempt to surround it and repeatedly fires is main guns into the battle ship its kart-wheeling over. The carrier is now behind the battle ship as it continues its assault. The other two battleships quickly maneuver above and below the plain of the battleship taking fire to get in potion for a clear shot. The battleship under attack is turning around to realign its main gun but its smaller gun turrets are already returning fire, and, moments later, the larger turrets are finished rotating and are firing. The battleship taking the high road fires it main gun and connects with the aft section of the carrier. The carrier then slides to the left and quickly accelerates over the battle ship is was just firing on a turns to lay fire into the battleship that scored a hit. As it does, the lower battleship seems to have anticipated this maneuver a has already maneuvered into a position to fire its main gun into the underbelly of the carrier. After two hits, the carrier rolls hard 90 degrees and another shot misses.

Back on the command deck, Sara calls out, "Damage!?"

"Minor damage, lower aft shields down to 94%," and officer replies.

Chapter 19: Onslaught

Back at the juggernaut, six of the cruisers start to move. Four light cruisers and two heavy cruisers break in to two groups, each with two light and one heavy cruiser, and head around earth from opposite directions. The heavy cruisers takes the lead. As they clear the planet, both heavy cruisers open fire with their central weapon, a high intensity sustained beam, more powerful than the destroyers sustained weapon module. The beam hits the shields of the station. The outline of the shield can be seen surrounding the station as well as a faint narrow funnel going down toward earth. The station immediately returns fire with three torpedoes each. The torpedoes streak toward their targets. As they close in on the central shaft, the cruiser twist and slides. The torpedoes narrowly miss, even though they change course to follow the cruiser, which fish-tails to shake the torpedoes. While in this maneuver, the cruiser comes under heavy disrupter fire from the sides. Several Valdore-type Romulan warbirds have de-cloaked and are streaking toward the Bozcomb heavy cruisers. These warbirds immediately come under fire themselves from the light cruisers. The heavy cruisers profile allow half the incoming fire to pass between the central and outer shafts, while ablative armor allows the cruiser to shrug off the initial attack. Then, from the station, comes an intense phaser beam. The beam impacts the nose of the cruiser and slide down the central shaft, causing severe damage. The central weapon flickers and loses power. Atop the station is a turret that houses the huge phaser cannon that unleashed that blast. The turret is immediately targeted and fired upon by the other heavy cruiser. But the blast is absorbed by the shields. Before the turret can swing around to target the cruiser, the cruiser dips below the station.

On the juggernaut, an officer comes up to the commander and says, "Commander, the re-armament station's shields are being augmented by ground based power stations. They are holding against the cruisers"

"Counter measures?"

"We can send in fighters to destroy the active ones. Any others seem to be well concealed."

"Do it."

On the Etherian carrier, an officer calls out, "Commander, Chancellor Martok is hailing us."

"On screen!"

On the main viewing screen, Chancellor Martok appears. He says, "Or reinforcements have entered the system and are taking up position."

Sara looks over to an officer on her left and says, "Prepare to execute swarm."

The office presses a few buttons.

Over on Martok's bridge, the view screen is broken into eight separate screens, one with a link to Commander Knight and the others to other Klingon bridges. A Klingon office says, "Targeting sequence received."

On one of the Klingon ships, Martok is on the main screen as the commander shouts to an officer, "Status!?"

The officer is looking at a silhouette of the ship. It's a cylindrical shape that bulges toward the middle. What looks like two warp nacelles are attached to the center of the ship by supports shaped in quarter circle arcs with the same radius as the ship. The port side dips down, while the starboard side arks up. The warp nacelle supports the start swing in toward the ship.

"Warp nacelle retracting, weapons at full power, ETA to target, 4 seconds"! the officer replies.

Back on Martok's ship, on officer states, all ships will be in range in five seconds.

Martok gives the instructions to the commanders, "Prepare to engage on my command."

On the Etherian carrier, "Sara calls out, "Now!"

Outside, the alliance ships attacking the battleships are evenly spread out among the three. Then, the ships attacking two of them break of and head for the third. The Etherian carrier also turns and heads for the third battleship. Rolling on approach, the carrier is able to dodge incoming fire from the battleships main gun. The carrier fires are its weapons into the third battleship. The other two have already drawn down on the carrier and begin firing. About half the shots miss due to the rolling action of the carrier.

Just as the rest of the alliance ships start attacking, seven Klingon ships de-cloak behind the third battleship. Before the cloak fully drops, they start firing. The ships are tremendous in sized, a little over a kilometer long, and loaded for bear. Thousands of torpedoes and disruptor blast pour out of the forward weapons arrays on each one. Then, an intense beam of disruptor energy erupts from the center of the ship. The battleship is concentrating all fire on the incoming carrier and doesn't have time to respond. Seconds after the Klingon dreadnoughts had begun firing, large cracks belching fire shot from the rear of the battleship to the front. The alliance ships continue a relentless assault until the ship completely breaks apart. As soon as it does, the swarm then turns its attention to the next target.

Aboard the next battleship being targeted, the commander sees the destruction of the other battle ship and then the swarm coming for his ship. He the command, "Main batteries and forward cannon, target the new ships. All others, freelance on the Federation ships."

The swam comes under heavy fire from the battleship as they close in. Then, the battleships main gun fires! It strikes one of the Klingon dreadnoughts head on and the ship explodes instantly. The six remaining dreadnoughts space themselves out as they head for the next target. As they start to fire, another one is hit broadside by the other battleship and explodes. The carrier maneuvers below the battleship while continuing to fire its main guns into the battleship. It does not need to move with the nose pointed in the direction of travel and is able to face the enemy the whole time as it takes up position with the second battleship between it and the first, effectively blocking the first one from getting a clean shot. The other alliance ships are firing on the main batteries of the battleship, hoping to strip this monster of its teeth. The area is filled with energy weapons firing from the battleship with 360 degrees of coverage. Some of the federation ships shields are failing as bolts of energy slam right though. Both battleships are now firing of exclusively on Federation ships with their turrets but are trying to line up a shot on a dreadnought with their main gun. The battle is taking a huge toll on the Federation ships as they are being destroyed at a rate of 5 a second. But the alliance ships are also taking a toll on the battleship. As alliance fire power rain down on the turrets, one after another begin to explode. Two of the dreadnoughts have taken heavy damage and have quit firing, as the remaining three fire relentlessly at the front of the battleship. But the battleship can reposition faster than the dreadnoughts can maneuver and is lining up a shot. From the command deck of the battleship, the commander watches as the crosshairs are lining up on the dreadnought. Then suddenly a ship de-cloaks coming at them at full speed! It's Martok's ship! They are on a collision course and too close already to evade. On the bridge, Martok and his crew are standing and facing forward, facing death. Martok says, "Today is a good day to die." The negh'var-class cruiser slams head long into the battleship's main gun. This impact in conjunction with the fire from the dreadnoughts prove too much for the battleship as it begins to break apart. Moments later, it explodes!

Aboard the Bozcomb juggernaut, an officer shouts, "Commander, battleship 02 has been destroyed!"

"What!? On screen!", replies the commander.

The image of the first battleship breaking up appears on the screen. An office at tactical one shouts, "Seven Klingon ships have entered the battle. Configuration unknown but they have enough firepower to breach our ablative armor!"

"Redeploy all destroyers and standby cruisers! Target the new ships!"

The officer is typing on the keyboards and replies, Redeploying… Battleship 01 is under heavy fire, 2 of the new ships have been destroyed."

"Intercept time!?"

"Seven seconds."

The commander watches the screen to see the battle. A few second later, Martok's ship de-cloaks, slams into the battleship, and it start to break up.

Back at the battle, the swam is now attacking the last battleship. Another dreadnought explodes after finding it's self in the crosshairs of the battleship. The Etherian carrier then breaks off to counter the incoming Bozcomb destroyers. About three dozen destroyers scream in at full speed. The carrier fires four plasma spheres and its main cannons into the oncoming storm. Several destroyers are hit head on and many of them explode. The others maneuver around the carrier at break-neck speed and don't return fire. After clearing the carrier, they open fire on the dreadnoughts. The weapons from the destroyers hammer the dreadnoughts. After a few hits, there shields fail and within a few seconds, all the remaining dreadnoughts are destroyed. The carrier has turned around and lays fire into the destroyer, managing to take out a few more. Then the destroyers scatter to make it more difficult to hit them. The carrier then begins to fire on the battleship. But coming in behind the destroyers are the cruisers. The carrier maneuvers under and around the battleship while continuing to fire on it.

On the juggernauts command deck, an officer calls out, "Commander, with the loss of two battleships, the projected outcome is still in our favor, but the odds are now 64 to 36."

The commander responds, "That's getting to close to even. Implement directive 8, keyed to this ship."

In another part of the ship, Bozcomb solders try to destroy a guardian. The guardian moves down a massive hall, firing an array of different weapons in all directions. Hundreds of soldiers face off against this one. Even without antigravity, the guardian is a hard target to hit. It jumps over bodies and strafes like a tiger maneuvering in for a kill. The mini gun on top of this mechanical killer whizzes off thousands of rounds. Portable force fields carried by some troops are useless against the electron coated bullets. Other energy weapons fire at the unprotected solders. Suddenly, three missiles come screaming down the hall from behind. The guardian sees them and manages to disable two with energy weapons while the third slams into the guardian's shields. The blast slams the guardian into wall and to the floor. It's starts to get up but these few critical moments allow the solders to bear down on it. With multiple hits, the guardian's shields fail. A leg is blown off and dozens of strikes make their target as the guardian falls. But, before it hits the ground, a fail-safe device activates and the guardian explodes with enough force to take out many of the surrounding soldiers. However, the shockwave is quickly dissipated by inertial dampeners and automatic force-fields.

Picard and Cain come into and intersection and Picard detects something out of his peripheral vision and instinctively dives. As he dives, a plasma shot narrowly misses the back of his head. Another two slam into his side. Cain instantly stops and pulls back. A shot flies in front of his face. He turns his head to see the officer the commander gave his belt to and seven other officers, three to the right and four to the left. Three shots head for Cain. The shots are spaced apart as if the three shooters aim where Cain is and either direction he may take to dodge. Cain moves forward as he extents he sword arm. The middle shot barely misses his back and the other grazes his chest. His sword extends and impales the soldier to the far right of the officer with the belt. At the same moment, Picard has rolled into a crouched firing position and start laying down some fire at the troops, starting on the left. Cain then effortlessly swings his sword though the other two but when it gets to the one with the belt, the sword is stopped by a nearly skin tight force field. Cain immediately recognizes the technology and retracts his sword. Picard has already taken out two soldiers and is firing at a third. Cain quickly moves back to the wall where a structural pillar is embedded. He turns and puts the butt of his sword up against the pillar and extends it. At the same time, Picard has already fired at the officer with the shield belt. If the events were slowed down enough to see, the bullet that Picard fired is in the lead but is quickly overtaken by the sword. The swords tip impacts the personal shied and keeps extending! The shield holds for and instant and is pushed back at extreme velocity. The shield hits the officer with such force he appears to have hit a glass wall with such speed as his body is flattened. The officer liquefies and pools at the front of the shield. The wrecked body is hurled down the hall. The shield fails and body part splatter on the wall at the end. Picard sees this but cannot believe it. He looks at Cain, then at the sword. He notices the pillar behind the sword and sees a tremendous dent. In the center of the dent is a perfect impression of the end of the sword. The pillar looks to be solid alloy and incredibly strong.

Picard then says, "That weapon is impossibly strong."

Cain answers with a sarcastic, yet calm, "Yet here it is."

Cain then starts walking toward the remains of the officer. Picard follows.

Picard asks, "So how fast…"

Cain interrupts and says, "About 35 thousand feet per second with a 91-foot range."

"Wow," Picard says, then adds, "How do you aim it so accurately?"

"A discussion for another time."

As the two come up to what's left of the officer, Cain says, "It's a shield belt, worn by higher class ship commanders."

"But this isn't the commander, is it?" Picard says.

"No, a lieutenant sent to gather information on this," Cain says has he twist his sword. Cain looks ahead and says, "Open that door, and don't step in any blood."

Cain the looks to his right and points he sword at the floor. He extends his sword into the floor and cuts a hole to the next level. As Picard opens the door, Cain walks though. Picard looks at the hole for a second and then displays a look as if he understands Cain strategy.

Chapter : Incoming

On a mountain top in the Himalayans, a power relay station sits. The station has a huge hexagonal dish made up of many smaller hexagonal dishes pointed toward the sky at a slight angle. A column of energy emanating from the dish pulses erratically lighting up the night sky.

In the command center, an officer calls out, "Sir! We have incoming!"

A light cruiser coming in fast levels off several kilometers away. On its outer columns, along their inner facing wall, two long doors open. Then the cruiser does a 360-degree barrel roll. While the roll is happening, fighters are ejected from the open doors side-ways toward the center column. The ejection is staggered from forward to rear doors, placing each fighter to be in its own lane. They immediately accelerate to clear the cruiser. Within one rotation, within 1 second, the cruiser has launched all 20 of its fighters. The speed and pattern of the launch indicates an automated sequence.

The base commander asks, "How many and how soon?"

"21. A light cruiser and it's fighters. At current velocity, 81 seconds."

"Deploy interceptors! Hail space dock!"

On the view screen, the commander of the Space Dock station appears.

"Relay 4 to space dock."

"Go ahead Relay 4."

"We're about to come under attack. I'd advise you to switch to relay station 5 as soon as you are in range."

"The space dock commander looks down at one of the display consoles and says, "We won't be in range for another nine minutes, can you hold out for that long?"

We're do our best! Simons out."

The screen flips back to the approach of the enemy fighters. Coming up from bases scattered around the foot of the mountain are squadrons of Federation and Romulan attack fighters. Almost immediately they open fire and seem to all be firing on the lead enemy fighter. The Bozcomb fighter slides to the left and roll up, but the shear volume of oncoming fire lands several strikes. The phazer and disruptor fire penetrate the shields of the fighter as they have applied the temporal modification. It takes several more shots to get though the armor, but the fighter is quickly overwhelmed and explodes. The Federation/Romulan fighters then split into two groups and fire one the enemy fighters to either side of the first one.

Then, out of the dark shoots and sustained blast form one of the light cruisers. The blast isn't targeting the base directly but firing at the mountain just below the shield boundary. Inside the base, the command center is rocked by the blast.

"Report!" yells the commander.

"They are digging the maintain out from under us!"

"Extend shields! Close the gap!"

As the light cruiser heads for the base, it fires it central weapon again. At the same time, seven Klingon K'vort-class warbirds de-cloak and immediately start a barrage of photon torpedoes and disruptors.

On the lead Klingon ship, the commander orders, "All warbirds, concentrate all fire on the forward holograph hub!"

At the same time, the cruiser deploys several pop-out gun turrets dotted along the sides of the outer columns. A fury of disruptor fire and torpedoes are unleashed on the cruiser. The disruptors hit the central column at the point where the two outer columns join when in cruise mode. The impacts briefly aluminate the invisible holographic pylons connecting the columns together. As the torpedoes close in, the curser rotates almost 90 degrees to position one of its outer columns between the incoming torpedoes and its center column. The torpedoes slam into the column, doing significant damage to the column. The cruiser rolls right and left in small increments to intercept all torpedoes. The speed and accuracy of the rotation denotes an automated defense mechanism. Then the cruiser fires its main weapon again. The beam from the cruiser impacts the same spot. The shields have not been extended and more of the mountain is blasted away. Inside the base, consoles short out and debris starts falling from the ceiling as the whole area shakes violently.

"Where is that shield extension!?" shouts the base commander.

"I don't know sir, the emitters are not responding!"

As the Klingons firer another barrage, the cruiser rolls a full 180 degrees, positioning the other outer column in the path of the incoming torpedoes. The cruisers defensive gun turrets transition from being evenly distributed to targeting a single Klingon ship. Two of the Klingon ships bank away and down from the other ships, one left and the other right. Then they turn in to attack the cruiser at multiple vectors. The others also spread out more while keeping the high ground. After several more hits, the holographic hub is disabled.

On the lead Klingon ship, the commander orders, "Warbirds 1 & 2, keep firing on the forward hub! Remaining warbirds, fire on the middle hub!"

With the forward holograph hub being disabled, the rotation of the cruiser slows. Now, some photon torpedoes hit the central column.

The cruiser fires again. This time the blast has penetrated far enough to destabilize the ground beneath the base. The ground heaves up and then falls into the chasm dug beneath the base. The bases foundations crack under the stress and the shields flicker, then completely fail. Inside the base, the command center is falling apart.

An officer setting at a terminal shouts, "Commander! Reports of heavy damage coming…"

Just then, half the ceiling collapses and crushes the commander.

Outside, the approaching cruisers defensive fire takes its toll. The Bird of prey which is under fire shields fail. After a few more hits, navigation fails and the ship spirals into a mountain. But the cruiser has also taken some heavy damage. The segment connecting the outer column in the top position to the inner column fractures and starts to crumble. The outer column the crashes down into the inner column, then slides to the left and off the column. Still attached by twisting metal, the column swings down and throws the ship off balance. The cruisers center column, left completely exposed, starts to take the full force of the Klingon assault. The cruiser is still on a straight line for the base even though its close enough that is should be pulling up at any moment. It then fires its main weapon again. This time the bases shields have already failed as the blast digs into the mountain, causing the face of the mountain to dislodge and create a monstrous rock slide that takes the base with it, grinding it up as it slides down the mountain. The cruisers main weapon completes its firing sequence as the barrage of torpedo and disruptor fire take its toll. The cruisers nose start to take a dive as it loosed altitude. As it nears the ground, the nose drops and digs into the dirt. It then cartwheels at full speed into the carnage of the bases destruction.

Onboard space dock, the station is taking moderate damage from all sides. As the captain punches buttons on his command center, an officer calls out, "Shields down to 67%!"

"We're almost in range of relay station 4."

The commander then opens a channel and calls out, "Space dock to relay station 4."

As the seconds tick by with no reply, an uneasy felling grips the bridge crew."

On Earth's surface, somewhere in Europe, city is burning. A Bozcomb heavy cruiser is arcing into a steep ascent. Behind it is the devastated wreckage of the next relay base. A few remaining fighters join it.

"Sir… relay station 4 is gone."

The heavy cruiser clears the atmosphere and fires its main weapon on Space Docks lowest point. The impact resonates though the bridge.

"Status!"

"Shields down to 48% and falling, estimated shield collapse in 2 minutes!"

"How many O'Neill's are left?"

The officer looks at her console and replies, "Three…"

In the though bay of the station, an O'Neill class zooms though the bay and picks up three fully loaded torpedo pods. It then exits the bay at full impulse. But, before it can veer off, a Bozcomb light cruisers main weapon hits the ship bridge from above. The blast explodes out the bottom of the saucer section and the ship immediately nose dives.

"Make that 2!"

The commander thinks for a moment and replies, "Alright, execute program Exodus."

In the though bay containing the racks of full torpedo pods, the racks start to move in unison along rails embedded in the walls. They accelerate toward the door and out into space. Outside, hundreds of escape pods start ejecting from all over the station. Two light cruisers head into the oncoming life pods with the intent of using their point defense weapons to destroy them. As they swoop into the field of life pods, they begin firing. But as direct hits lands on several of the life pods, the pod is not destroyed. Instead they adjust their trajectory toward the cruisers and fire their thrusters. Then a green ring appears on the front of the pod and shoots a beam of electro-magnetic energy at the cruiser. The pod is then accelerated at high speed toward the cruiser, which manages to quickly rotate an outer column in the way, and sticks to the cruiser like a magnet. Almost instantly after making contact, the pod explodes! The charge is shaped to deliver maximum force into the cruiser, blowing out the other side of the column. Dozens more stream in, too many for the defensive system to counter and after destroying one of the outer column, four make it to the core column, hit and explode. The cruiser then begins to break up. The same fate befalls the second cruiser. After that, the swam of weaponized life pods starts heading for a heavy cruiser. The cruiser seams ignore the incoming pods and fires again at space dock. Then, from behind the cruiser comes a destroyer a full as full speed. It lines up with the pods trajectory and begins firing. This destroyer has an eight quick-burst gun configuration. The shoots are more powerful than the cruisers point defense weapons and are sufficient to destroy the pods. The destroyer then starts to spin very fast. With so many pods coming at it, many of them do connect with the destroyer. However, the spinning action of the destroyer prevents many of them from locking on in a perpendicular orientation. As a result, the full force of the explosion is not fully directed into the target. Even when a pod does lock on properly, the destroyer's thick forward ablative armor is enough to mitigate the damage. The destroyer makes quick work of the pods but has sustained damage to all but one its forward guns and its surface is heavy pitted.

Meanwhile, the torpedo magazine pods ejected by space dock are disappearing, savaged by several cloaked ships. Aboard space dock, remaining crew board an Akira class with heavy damage including a huge gash running down it saucer section and the weapons module between the pontoons has been blown away.

On its bridge, and officer yells, "We're at full capacity!"

"Helm, take us out!" Shouts the captain.

As the doors to a lower bay open, a Bozcomb heavy cruiser sees it and slides toward it. Then suddenly, the cruiser is a hail of torpedo fire from the direction it is sliding! A decloaking Romulan scout ship with 6 torpedo magazines magnetized to one wing and 7 to the other wind stands in its path. The torpedoes do not seem to have the benefit of a ships targeting computer and about a quarter of the miss. However the sheer volume is enough to overwhelm the cruiser's defense and destroys it. The magazines completely exhaust their supply of torpedoes even after the cruiser breaks apart, indicating the shout ship has limited control over firing. After the last torpedo has left, the scout ship re-cloaks. But the Bozcomb destroyer protecting the cruisers is on a collision course for the scout ship. As the destroyer zooms though the area the scout ship was, it impacts the cloaked ship, destroying it. The destroyer is hardly damaged as it thick armor makes for an effective battering ram. Moments later, the destroyer comes under fire from an Akira class starship. Behind it is a two parts of a Prometheus class in multi-vector assault mode, the top half of the secondary hull presumably destroyed or crippled.

Outside, the Enterprise rolls close to the hull of the juggernaut. On the bridge, Dianna is setting in the Captain's chair when she is finally able to connect to Cain's mind. Aboard the juggernaut, Cain slows down as his sense someone looking into his mind. Picard sees him slow down and also slows down. The he asks, "What is it."

Cain looks at him and says, "Two of your foxes are in the hen house."

Picard sways back little and replies, "Ah, I see." He already has a good idea who.

Back on the Enterprise, Dianna say, "Picard and Cain are heading for the core weapon."

Riker smiles and replies, "Were you able to send the message?"

"I believe so," Dianna replies.

In the hallway that Cain left the soldier with the shield belt, a large group of soldiers converge on the body. The led goes straight for the body while the second slows and looks at the hole. He says, "Isn't this a bit obvious?"

The lead turns back to him and says, "That's the intended effect."

"So he remained on this deck, unless he knew we would come to this conclusion," says the other one."

"So we admire him his strategy and divide our forces," the lead says.

The solders behind them hear this and, in preparation for the next order, they spit themselves into two groups of eight each.

The other one looks back and points to the half on his left and says, "Follow me!"

He jumps down the hole to the other deck and the other eight follow him. The lead then turns to notice four other Bozcomb coming up. These look more like the scientist than soldiers. Two of them immediately pull scanning equipment out belts and start scanning the remains of the officer wearing the shield belt. The other two look down the hall Cain extended the sword from. One of them immediately focuses in on the dent left by Cain's sword.

"I got it," he says to the other as he starts to move toward the dent.

The lead from the first unit looks at the remaining scientist, deduces that the hall they came down was clear, and decides to led his troops though the door that Cain and Picard had gone though.

On the command deck, an officer approaches the commander with a computer pad in his hand that has images and writing on it. He says, "Commander, we are starting to receive data from the shield belt test."

The commander takes the pad and scrutinizes the data. He then says, "The weapon has unbelievable strength."

"Yes, the physics of the incident seem impossible," the officer says.

The commander replies, "That just means we can't explain it… yet." He then scrolls though pages by a slider on the top of the pad. He scrolls to an image of the dent. "The weapon still follows the rules of inertia." He then hands the pad back to the officer and says, "Setup an additional force-field perimeter around the cannon and its power conduits to nullify the weapon."

Picard and Cain enter a room though the door. Cain walks toward a wall and raises his sword. He cuts down the side of what looks like an access panel. He then pulls the door off the wall. Behind the door is an access shaft running vertically though the ship. On the shaft wall directly behind the door is a data node protruding from the wall with cooling fins sticking of all sides except for a hole on the top and bottom were a beam of light is shooting out. He looks down the shaft and sees other data nodes protruding from the walls with the light beams connecting them, 1 about every 9 feet, or one for each deck. He then moves his sword into the shaft and extends the sword to the 4th one down, piercing the node. The node explodes and beaks the light beams connecting it to the others.

On the command deck, an alert sounds and the main screen displays a schematic of the node network in a tiny corner of the screen.

"Enlarge alert." the commander orders.

The tiny picture in picture then extents to the majority of the screen while the battle outside is minimized. The commander looks at the screen and says, "Have you estimated the range of the weapon?"

"Yes," and officer says as he is keying in data onto a pad. Then the data is transmitted to the screen and 10 nodes above and below the disabled node change color and the decks they are on shade. The officer continues, "Using the disabled node as the center, Cain's location could be between decks 151 and 171."

The commander comments, "It's unlikely that he would reveal his location without motive."

The officer replies, "If he is at one of the extremes and attempting to move away as we close in, he is likely on deck 150 or 172."

"Or he is trying to trick us into clearing a path," the commander thinks aloud, then he orders, "Send the bulk of the troops to spread through 150 to 172 and head to the perimeter."

Picard and Cain round a hall and proceed down another corridor. "We have not run into any Bozcomb in the last few minutes," Picard says.

Cain slows, looks at Picard, and says, "They are pre-occupied."

"With the attack?" Picard asks.

"No, something else," Cain replies. He walks up to a terminal and calls up an internal security scan.

"The guardians have infiltrated this ship and are heading for the center."

"A diversion?"

"Yes"

Picard then comments, "Transporters must be disrupted, or they could beam us out."

Cain turns his head to Picard, grins, and says, "You're thinking pretty fast."

"I know, must be the stimulate," Picard comments, then adds, "Even if they stand a good chance of disable that weapon, we must still try ourselves."

"Agreed," answers Cain. The two continue on their way.

On the command deck, an officer says, "Commander, we have recovered the data from the shield belt." The Commander turns his way and approaches as the officer continues. "The sheer force of the weapons impact accelerated the containment field to 63.7 million reniks, overwhelming the inertial dampers and causing the field to claps within .004 cyke."

The commander replies, "That's allot of power, well beyond what the micro-bots are capable of."

The officer replies, "It is beyond the scope of any known technology. However, there are a few limits.

"Such as?" the commander inquires.

"Force-fields are an effective barrier provided the emitter has a solid foundation, and any resistance to one end is completely transferred to the other end," he concludes.

"So the core barrier should hold, as long as no other capabilities exist," the commander says.

"Yes," replies the officer.

Back at space dock, the station is under relentless attack from multiple cruisers. Then a shot from a heavy cruiser finally pierces the shields and impacts the main docking bay. The blast rips deep into the bays outer hull but doesn't make it all the way though. Then suddenly, the attacking cruisers change tactics. One of the heavy cruisers takes aim at the large turret at the top of the station and fires. The blast completely destroys the unshielded weapon. Other cruisers take out secondary weapons then turn their main weapons away and engage using their point defense systems. The station is peppered with hundreds of lower intensity shots.

On the bridge, the captain inquires, "What the hell are they doing?"

"Sir, all weapons have been disabled!" shouts the tactical officer.

"They are destroying all of our reaction control thrusters! We can no longer maintain orbit!" shouts the helmsman.

Outside, two heavy cruises position themselves on opposite sides of the main docking bay. Their outer columns and supporting pylons pivot forward into the arrowhead configuration used for using warp engines. Then the space between the cruisers and the station begins to ripple. The rippling spreads out and covers a large area of the main docking bay.

An officer reports, "Sir, we're moving! I can't stop it!"

The cruisers easily flip the huge space station and point the top right at earth.

An officer, doing some computing, exclaims, "We're falling toward earth and accelerating!"

The commander thinks for a second, then looks down at the command console and types in a sequence. Then, the bridge crew dematerialize, presumably to escape pods or a waiting ship.

Then, Janeway calls up, "Commander Stills, report!"

"I think they're just being ass-holes at this point!" he replies as continues to key in commands.

In the command bunker, "Vulcan officer approaches Janeway and says, "Admiral, at that speed with that much mass…"

Janeway raises her hand to stop him, the address Commander Stills.

"Commander…"

"I know," he replies as he keys in a few last commands. His fingers then stop just above the execute button. He displays a look of uncertainty, then says, "Listen, tell my wife and kids I love them." He then presses the execute button.

Outside, Spacedock is already starting to enter the atmosphere as the edges start to show re-entry heat. Then, dozens of explosions erupt in rings that radiate from the outer edge inwards toward the center in a spit second. Then the center explodes as Spacedock self-destructs.

On the surface of earth, thousands of people are running away from a city on fire, Half way up a hill is a woman carrying a young girl with her older son by her side. The sounds of rolling thunder fills the air. The woman turns around to see a spectacular and terrifying site. Countless fireballs streak across the sky, emanating form a central explosion.

The little girl, who appears to be about 3 or 4 ask, "Is Daddy going to be OK?"

The woman answers with her voice breaking, "I… I don't know."

A tear runs down her face. The little boy watches in silence while shaking.

As Data and Worf make their way through the ship, they stumble across a large group of Bozcomb soldiers while rounding a corner. Worf instinctively opens fire on the soldiers who are taken of guard. He sweeps the weapon side to side quickly as he had done in training. Within a second, all the soldiers are dead on their feet and falling to the ground. They had no chance to even get a shoot off.

"They appeared to be surprised," Data says.

"These cloaks appear to be working," Worf replies as he looks at the tracker on his weapon. "They are less than a kilometer away; it looks like they are heading for the center of the ship."

Picard and Cain walk swiftly down a massive hall. Giant pillars extent to a ten-meter high ceiling. Railing embedded in the floor and hose ports scattered along the wall indicate this is a passage for moving equipment and small ships. They approach the entrance to a corridor on one side. Cain motions for Picard to stop as Cain walks slowly up to the threshold. He extends his sword out and hits and energy barrier.

"How did you know that was there," Picard asks.

"Seemed like a good place for one," Cain replies, as he cuts into the wall adjacent to the barrier. The sword does not penetrate.

"The field continues through the walls," Cain adds.

On the command deck, an officer notifies the commander, "A force field impact has been detected at the outer cores perimeter."

"Alert all patrols," replies the commander.

Just then on the intercom, a soldier reports, "Command, unit 96 has been terminated."

Down at the location were Data and Worf met up with that unit, another unit is standing around the dead troops.

The commander replies "Continue."

The lead soldier looks around and adds, "The firepower is not consistent with the weapon carried by the human Picard. And nobody in unit 96 had time to shoot back."

"Then we have intruders," the commander replies. Then he adds, "Proceed to the perimeter."

He then turns to the officer that told him about the field impact and says, "Determine the most likely non-human Enterprise personnel that could be here."

The officer replies, "Yes commander.

Down at the perimeter, Picard takes aim at a control panel on the other side of the field.

Cain quickly says, "Don't."

Picard replies, "I though these could penetrate.'

Cain says, "Only force fields less than 4.3 giga-watts."

"I see," Picard replies, he then asks, "Back-up plan?"

"Not here yet," Cain replies.

Just then, they hear the sound of advancing soldiers. They see a few dozen Bozcomb heading their way a few hundred meters away. The Bozcomb, with their unique leg structure, can run more than twice as fast as a human. Picard starts shooting, as do the soldiers. The two are in motion as plasma fire streaks by.

"Follow me! Cain shouts as he heads for a connecting corridor. Picard follows while continuing to fire. Cain stops just inside the corridor and backs up to the wall, raising his sword as if he's going to use the sweeping technique he had used before. Picard runs past him just as Worf and Data enter the other end of the corridor.

Picard says to Worf, "We've got company," as he motions his head back to the hall.

Worf steps around the corner to confront the enemy. The Bozcomb soldiers are running toward him as he opens fire. Bolts of plasma energy shoot past Worf while some hit him on his body armor; creating streaks of energy that radiate down to the red triangles on the base of the coat. The enemy soldiers however are mowed down by the lightning fast weapon. After seeing that all is clear, Cain looks at the weapon Data has.

"Data," he starts, pointing to the entrance he and Picard tried to get though, "See that corridor there, there's a force field running across it and though the wall. We need to knock out the power conduits about 50 meters behind it."

Data raises the weapon and keys a sequence into the pad, and then he takes aim and fires. The outer rectangles on the weapon shoot out three flat red beams continuous energy. A split second later, while the red beams are engaged, an intense blue burst of energy fires inside the red beams. When the combination hits the wall, the blue pierces the wall while the red bends and extends out form the center, pushing the force-field with it. The walls and corridors are vaporized 20 meters in.

"Hit it again!" says Cain.

"Commander!" a Bozcomb officer on the command deck shouts, "I'm detecting an Etherian weapon signature on deck 64, section 32!"

"What!" the commander replies, "The drones are nowhere near that section," he adds.

An officer keys in a few commands and on the main screen a map of the section under attack comes up, he then says, They are targeting the power conduits for the section."

The commander shouts, "The drones where decoys, divert all troops not currently engaging the drone to intercept the intruders!"

Data keys in the command and fires the weapon. A larger blue burst fires first followed by the red. As the blue streaks down the tunnel, the red bends and expands at the front to form a temporary plug. The explosion that follows shakes the floor and the lights dim. The force field covering the corridor shimmers and goes down. Then Cain heads for the corridor entrance. Without hesitation, Picard follows him. Data and Worf look at each other and follow as well.

The four of them make a few turns though some corridors and is about to enter a large octagon shaped room. This room has no seeable floor or ceiling. A bridge spans the room to a hall on the other side. Cain immediately stops and signals the others to stop as well. He look at Worf and says, "You have a corridor shield, have you used it?"

"No," Worf replies a little suppressed, then say, "How did…"

Cain interrupts, "Dianna told me." He continues, "Extend it to the other side."

Picard interjects, "A killing box?"

Cain replies, "Yes."

Worf pulls out a triangular tube with a handle at one end. Along the point of the tube are square pieces folded over the angles, six to an edge for a total of 18. He steps in front of Cain and keeps the device mid-level. He glasses show a line extending from the device to the other side. A super imposed circle appears in the center of the entrance to indicate the target alignment. Worf lines the line up with the circle and three lights blink, one on each side of the halls entrance and one on the ceiling.

Cain looks at Picard and says, "Get ready to run, the shield won't last long."

Picard looks over at Data and Worf, he can tell they are prepared.

Worf pulls the trigger. The second stack of the three triangles shoot out perpendicular to the tube and stick to the walls and ceiling directly in front of Worf. The first stack quickly shoots forward across the bridge in tight formation. Then at the entrance to the next corridor they jet apart and stick the ceiling and walls. Instantly upon sticking a two-walled shield is erected like a tent across the bridge to the other side. The shield appears to be blue tented glass. Immediately, automated weapons begin firing on it. Before the first energy discharge hits, Cain bolts across the bridge. His speed is astonishing as he's almost halfway across before Picard starts. Data follows Picard closely and Worf follows him. As fire from the automated weapons hit the shield, the shield starts to show impacts like projectiles hitting reinforced glass. Energy radiates across the surface as the shield starts to chip away. Cain has already made it across and has disappeared down the corridor. As Picard, Data, and Worf near the end of the bridge, weapons fire starts to breach the shield. An energy blast penetrates and impacts Worf on his side. But, this does not even slow him down as he is warring protective armor. As the three of them make it to the other side, the corridor shield collapses. The three make their way down the corridor to catch up with Cain. Along the way they start to notice some they notice some grey dust and slashes on the walls. Picard sees Cain standing outside the exit to the corridor ahead. Picard slows as he exits the corridor into a massive hall. Worf and Data also slow and come up beside him. The hall extends high and curves inward and looks like a wall off a massive dome. About ten meters from the wall is a shimmering orange energy curtain also in the shape of a giant dome.

"Beyond this point we cannot scan," says Cain.

The four of them cannot hear what is happening on the other side but they can see hundreds of troops massing to meet them. Data opens his coat and pulls out a circular device with a short pole attached. The pole lies on the disk like device, the end attached to the center. Data flips the pole perpendicular to the disk. The disk then starts to expand; the edge spiraling out. A red point the aluminates on the front at the center. Cain and Worf then place a free hand on Data's back. Picard sees this and does the same. Once all of them are in physical contact, Data presses the disk flat against the barrier. Instantly, sparks begin to converge on the disk. The, the red light, on the tip of a rod inside the pole, rapidly extends into the barrier. The barrier is weakened enough by the interference from the disk to allow the rod to reach the other end. The moment the red tip pierce the barrier, Data, Wolf, Picard and Cain disappear in a red flash. An intense red flash then lights up the other side. The blinding red light seems to linger longer than the normal flash of the Etherian transporter. Weapons fire from both Human and Bozcomb weapons pierce though the light as it starts to dissipate. As the red light disappears, plasma bursts are flying and Worf and Data are firing in opposite directions. Picard is also moving around firing while Cain is slicing though enemy soldiers.

As the light dims, hundreds of Bozcomb bodies litter the floor. The few that are left are quickly cut down by Worf and Data. Picard, with his weapon still extended, quickly surveys the area and sees Cain is on his knees holding himself up with his right hand still clinching his sword while he holds his mid-section. A phenomenal about of blood is gushing from his wounds but turning to dust before hitting the ground. Picard rushes over to him but his body in regenerating fast. The blood stops and moments later Cain stands up, his shirt has been shot to pieces and is now nothing more than rags draped over his shoulders.

Picard sees this and looks down at the condition of his own body armor. He notices his triangles are bright red. Then looking at Wolf and Data, he's sees Wolf's are lit up as well but Data's are not. Data walk toward Cain and Picard and Cain. He then hand his weapon to Picard and says, "Captain, please hold this.

Picard takes the weapon and Data quickly takes of his coat. He is wearing a shirt like the one Cain had. Data then hands the coat over to Cain, to which Cain replies, "Thanks." He then rips off the remnants of the shirt and puts on the coat while turning toward the hall leading to the core.

"Picard looks at Data and says, "I suppose you can just dodge their weapons fire."

Data replies, "It would appear so, sir."

Picard smiles and starts to walking to follow Cain. Data does the same. Wolf brings of the rear, vigilantly watching for more enemy soldiers.

The hall empties out onto a platform overlooking an enormous chamber. In this chamber are four dark matter reactors, similar to the one now in the Enterprise but much bigger. They are positioned horizontally around a massive cylindrical machine. At the head of the machine are emitters pointed down an incredibly long hall. They are near the center of the rear of the machine on a platform jetting out from the wall. The platform connects to other platforms via long catwalks. A large control panel is at the end of the platform. Cain begins to walk toward the panel. A few steps short, he suddenly stops. A plasma burst whizzes by, missing Cain by a margin too narrow to see. At the same moment, shots ring out from Picards weapon. Cain turns to the left, the direction the shot went to, to see to Bozcomb fall to the ground. Picard looks at Cain with a puzzled look, wondering just how he knew.

Then, Picard orders, "Wolf, watch the hall and the catwalks."

"I sir," Wolf replies. He then pulls out a small half-sphere from his coat, touches the flat side to the side of his glasses and then throws it up onto the wall. The device is magnetic on the flat side and sticks to the wall. On his glasses is now a supper-imposed image of the room.

"Data," Picard calls as he motions him to follow.

Cain walks up to the control panel and drags his sword along the edge. This time it does not cut into it. In-fact, a tightly confined force-field encases the control panel. Picard and Data walk up behind him. Data observes Cain cannot access the control panel and pulls out a hexagonal shaped box from his coat.

Then, the whizzing sound of Wolfs mini-gun draws Picards attention. He quickly turns around and sees Worf fire on five soldiers on catwalk to the right of the group. The soldiers are mowed down with amazing speed. Data also looks. But when Picard looks back at Cain, he notices he didn't even twitch. Data then presses a button on the device he is holding. Claw-like hooks spring out at the points. Data then places the device on the panel. Pulses of energy spark off the claws and the force-field brakes around and conforms itself to the edges of the device. Then a blue slot lights up. Cain then raises his sword and lines the tip up to the slot, then lowers it in. Seconds later the force-field around the consol goes down and the display changes to a federation layout. Cain then takes his hand of the sword. This time the consol does not disintegrate with loss of the connection to Cain. Picard notices this and then observes the device the sword is running though. He realizes it must be keeping the nannites active. The consol then starts to display data. As Cain, Picard, and Data read the data, Picard recognizes the energy signatures emanating from the weapon.

"It can't be…" he says in disbelief.

Cain turns to Picard and says, "These are your Omega molecules."

Picard looks at him, then back at the screen, then back at Cain and asks, "How are you doing this."

Data looks at the two with no idea what they are talking about.

Cain replies, "Deanna."

Picard says, "I see, the nero-agent is amplifying my thoughts."

Back on the Enterprise, Riker hears Deanna's voice in his head. "I need to know everything about the Omega molecules." She says. For a moment, he looks surprised, then focused to pass the knowledge on.

Cain then starts pressing buttons and says, "Data, convert the XMC to a sub-atomic resonator."

Data then places he weapon on the ground, positioned standing strait up with the barrel at the bottom. He twist the stock right then left. The he pulls up on the end of the stock and it splits apart to reveal a button that is blue lit. He pressed the button and steps back. The backend of the stock lowers back into place and then fine lines of white light appear all over the weapon. Then it separate into hundreds of pieces. The piece look like leaves being supported by a holographic tree; all connected to a core of white light. Data then starts reorganizing the pieces.

Picard watches for a second and them look back at Cain who is busy at the terminal. He walks up to Cain slowly and with a look as if he is figuring out something. He then says to Cain, "You knew, didn't you."

Cain, still looking at the terminal reply in a non-inquisitive voice, "Knew what?"

Picard quickly realizes Cain knows exactly what he's talking about and just wants him to say it, so he explains, "You could have move though this ship much faster than me, yet you gave me your body armor and brought me along knowing I would slow you down. And Data just happens to bring a weapon that would eradicate the threat but wouldn't raise suspicion if the Bozcomb got a scan of it."

Cain looks over at Picard and says, "Captain La Forge recognized the energy signature when they first used it. It also occurred to me that you weren't just because they needed a lab rat."

"Yea," Picard smirks, "Interrogate me after they kill me a few time to soften me up."

"Speaking of dangerous knowledge you possess, can you confirm this?" Cain says as he glances at the terminal.

Picard gets closer and takes a look. As he's reading, he comments, "Dianna got this from Riker."

Cain however does not confirm Picard's analysis.

Picard looks over the data displayed on the terminal for a few seconds and says, "Yeah… yeah… that should do it." He then steps off to the side and says, "Data, look at this."

Data quickly glances over at the terminal and replies, "Understood."

A few seconds later, Data finishes the reconfiguration and the weapon snaps back together. It now resembles a long cylinder with a small perpendicular viewing screen emerging near the center. He picks it up, places it on his shoulder, and aligns toward the massive cylindrical machine. Looking into the view screen, he sees a transparent view of the machine and about a kilometer down, a blue ball. The image zooms in a Data manipulates key on the side of the XCM. Red crosshairs then appear over the target and he fires the weapon. A beam of blue and green energy streams is emitted from the tip into the machine. The beam does not seem to interact with the walls of the machine but just passes through to the core.

On the Bozcomb command deck, an officer shouts, "Commander! The planet buster reactor core is deteriorating!"

"How can that be!", the commander replies has he rushes over.

"Shielding is ineffective!", the officer replies.

"Rotate the frequencies!", the commander shouts.

I tried, the nucleonic beam is matching the shield modulation," the officer replies.

The commander thinks for a moment and concludes, "They must have a relay device interfacing with a control panel."

Cain is looking at the device with his sword though it. He then looks at Data. A few seconds later, Data says, "Neutralization complete." As the beam shuts off.

Data then sets the weapon back on its nose and hits a few buttons. The weapon then explodes again and rapidly reconfigures its-self back into its original form. Data looks up and notices Picard looking curiously at the event. To which Data simply states, "Memory recall."

Picard smirks, then a though occurs. He then moves back to the panel. Cain sees this and ask, "What is it?"

"Omega radiation can suppress a ship from establishing a warp field."

Picard clicks away for a few seconds and adds, "Dam, as I suspected, but the radiation is stored in capacitors before being modulated and emitted. The will take hours to drain."

Cain is looking at the data readouts, then looks up at Picard and says, "There ship can still enter warp in a damping field."

Picard looks up and realizes the solution. "Ah, there are exceptions."

He then starts entering commands into the terminal. Cain watches and adds, "You can only use that once before they lock you out."

"Then we'll have to make it count. Can you relay this to Dianna?"

"Doing it now."

By this time, Data and Worf are also looking at the terminal.

On the Enterprise, Dianna if busy typing information into a computer pad. Dianna then calls over to La Forge and says, "Commander La Forge, I'm sending you some telemetry."

Back in the control room, Cain says "She has it, let's get out of here."

A few moments later, Picard, Cain, Data, and Worf emerge from the hall and see hundreds of Bozcomb massing on the other side of the barrier.

On the command deck, the commander is watching them approach. An officer says, "The venerably has been resolved."

The commander states, "He will not rely on the same method twice."

To which the officer replies, "He can't do anything inside the barrier to affect its operation."

The commander then instantly realizes something and says, "The two intruders, they sabotaged the power compensators for the barriers force-field emitters!" He turns to an office and commands, "Contact the squad leaders, tell them to get away from the barrier!"

Picard, Cain, Data, and Worf slowly approach the barrier. On the other side as far as can be seen around the barrier are hundreds of Bozcomb troops. Picard looks left and right, and then comments, "I suppose this is the rest of them."

"All that could make it," Cain comments. He then looks over at Data and asks, "How's our exit strategy?"

Data replies, "Ready." He then turns to Picard and says, "The force-field will only be down a second or two. Be quick."

As Data pulls a small laser pointer from his pocket, Cain steps up to the barrier and raises his pointer finger and makes a taunting jester for the soldiers on the other side to come closer. The Bozcomb start to shuffle around a bit. One of the solder's bracelet lights up with the incoming message from the command deck. At the same moment, Data sees and opening. He rises the laser pointer with extreme speed and shoots it into the panel on the other side of the barrier he touched before the breached the barrier.

"Now!" Data shouts.

A splits second later, the barrier begins to expand rapidly. It expands so fast the soldiers have no chance to respond as they are crushed against the walls. The force of the impact violently jolts the ship. Cain, Picard, Data, and Worf instantly start running for the entrance to the hall-way leading back to the killing box. The force-field goes down moments before they reach the halls threshold. The force-filed then re-establishes back in its original position, but the group has already past that point. They are running down the hall when a flood of enemy blood almost knee deep races past them, sweeping Cain, Picard, and Worf off their feet, Data manages to retain his footing.

On the command deck the commander angrily shouts, "Send all troops after them, they must not be allowed to escape!"

And officer at a computer terminal calls, out and says, "We just lost most of our remaining forces." He punches a few buttons and says, "We have 448 combat personnel left."

The commander looks very unhappy. He contemplates the situation for a second and says, "Arm the self-destruct, set for critical mass." The rest of the command deck officers do not even flinch as an officer at a terminal replies, "Arming sequence initiating, ninety seconds to critical mass ready."

The Commander looks toward his second in command and says, "They know we would destroy the ship rather than allow them to escape with that knowledge."

The officer replies, "They have either resigned themselves to death or have another strategy not yet implemented."

"I leave that to you."

The officer taps his bracelet to make a call as he heads for the door.

The commander then walks up to another office at a terminal and orders, "Setup a fail-safe, detonate if any of the intruders make it to the outer hull."

"Yes commander", he replies.

Chapter

Inside the shields of the Bozcomb juggernaut, an enemy transport rapidly approaches the Enterprise. The transport appears to have a much rougher scaly surface then the other Bozcomb ships. The Enterprise is in the process of dodging enemy fire from fighters when its shields are impacted by the transport. The surface of the transport starts to peel off at the point where it contacts the Enterprise shields. This skin bounces energy across its self and starts to glow red hot at the point of contact with the shields, indicating it is absorbing allot of energy. On the other side of the shields, a sleeker skinned transport emerges. It slams into the back of the Enterprise on top of the star drive just behind the nacelle pylons and bounces off. However, cables with barbed tips shoot out from the transport into the Enterprise's hull and dig in, winching the transport down toward the hull. On the bridge of the Enterprise, the crew feels a slight jolt. "What was that?", Riker asks. Deanna, who is sitting in the command chair looking at the control panel replies, "An enemy ship has penetrated our shields and locked on to us!" Outside, the belly of the transport lights up with lasers that cut into the hull of the Enterprise. At the same time, an energy field descends from the transport the Enterprise like a curtain while hatches on the belly of the transport open. Within a second or two, the lasers have breached the Enterprise's hall and disengage. Then, out of the hatches fall Bozcomb troops and what appear to be energy ropes they hold onto with one hand to guide there descent.

"We're being boarded!" Deanna calls out.

Riker calls out, "Get that ship off us!" An officer at tactical replies, "I'm having trouble locking on! There seems to be some kind of interference."

Just then, Kits voice fills the bridge. "Hold still," he says. Outside, the Starwolf rolls in front of the Enterprise. Without even slowing down, Kit fires the Starwolfs underbelly cannons into the transport. The cannons literally shred part of the transport off from the top down until the transport shears of the Enterprise. Then the Starworf continues to roll away. Force fields cover the gaping hole on the Enterprise. On the bridge, Riker domains, "How many got aboard?"

Deanna replies, "91"

"Dam that was fast…" Riker replies, and then adds, "At lease we know where there headed…"

Armed Starfleet officers advance down and Enterprise corridor in two-by-two cover formation. They are no longer carrying the standard phazor, but hand guns similar to Cain's sidearm design. Suddenly, a hail of enemy fire comes down the corridor. Seven officers are hit as the other five others scramble for cover as they open fire. Of the seven that got hit, five are able to return fire and two are seemingly down for good. But, the nanites are doing their job well and they are regenerating. The Bozcomb are relentless as they stampede toward the officers with no regard for their personal safety. Bullets from the federation guns rip through some of them and in a heartbeat, they are upon the Starfleet officers. While they continue to fire, they do not slow down. Within moments, the rampage has passed. Several Bozcomb were killed and the humans are still regenerating. On officer took multiple hits to his left arm to the point there is no flesh below the shoulder, just remarkably clean bone. The nanites have already started to repair the damage as he is in extreme agony. He cries out and is sweating heavily. His mussels begin to reform followed by new blood vessels and nerves, and lastly, the skin reforms. He's done screaming in pain and his clothed are drenched in sweat. He looks at his new arm as if it is not his. And he remembers the pain. Another officer comes up to him and asks, "Are you OK?"

"NO!" the office states as he looks at his arm.

"Come on, get up! That's an order!" the other office says. The other officers have also finished recovering and are back on their feet. They come up to the one that gave the order to get up as he taps on his communicator and says, "Jacob's to Sander's, they're headed your way." A garbled communication comes back with the sounds of weapons fire in the background.

"We…. attack…" The communication is quickly cut off. The officers look at each other and quickly start heading down the hall.

The Bozcomb assault force makes it to the main computer core's room. The leader throws up his arms to motion the others to stop. Another comes up behind him and says, "No guards."

The leader replies, "They knew where we were going…" Then he looks at the other on and says, "Take two."

The other one motions for two others to follow him. The three enter the room without hesitation. They know it must be a trap but death does not scare them in the slightest. The three approach a computer terminal and start pressing button. The buttons do nothing. Then, a force field comes up across the door to the room and the computer terminals vanish as they were holograms. On the walls scattered about half a meter apart are red cones with the centers hollowed out. Then without warning, high intensity red lasers burst from the cones and cut the three Bozcomb in half. The leader standing in the hall looks at the next one and says, "Start scanning for…" Then suddenly, a strip of the same red cones appears down each wall of the hall as the concealing holograms disappear. Within a moment, all remaining Bozomb are cut down.

One the command deck on the Bozcomp juggernaut, one of the officers says, "We've lost contact with the infiltration force."

The commander says, "Very well, we'll find and easier target. Destroy that ship!"

Else ware on the battle field, the Etherian battle carrier is firing on the remaining Bozcomb battleship. The Etherian ship keeps itself out of the direct line of the Bozcomb's fire. Then, two heavy cruisers flying in tight formation flank the carrier, both targeting the same spot on the top of the carrier with their main gun. One of them fires a split second after the other one. The combined shots slide across the surface and the ships move. On the command deck, Sara is still in the command chair controlling navigation when the glass disk above her wrist flickers and goes out. She looks down at it then over to another station and calls out, "ES control!"

An Etherian officer standing at the console replies, "There's a crack in the primary casing, reactor chamber is flooding with betreon radiation!"

Sara looks over at Styles and says, "Styles!"

Over in an identical chair, Ensign Styles lifts up her arms and places her hands on navigation panels. The panels light up but the glass disk that conveys information from the energy shaper remains unlit. The moment navigational control is transferred, Sara jumps up and heads for the door.

Meanwhile, Worf leads and is followed by Picard and Cain while Data brings up the rear. As they pass a hall, a dozen troops follow. Data fires his weapon. Flat red beams pour out machine gun style while the center port remains silent. The Bozcomb are cut down with inhuman precision. Ahead lies about sixty Bozcomb in wait down a massive hall. Worf is first to come under fire as he enters the hall. He dives to the floor as a shoot from a Bozcomb weapon strikes him in the left shoulder. Wolf hits the ground rolling and starts firing. Hundreds of bullets pepper the hall and some Bozcomb are cut down while others duck behind the pillars. Data steps into the hall to back up Worf. Hitting a second trigger, the center port unleashes two bursts that slam into the first two pillars. The pillars are blown in half and fall backwards. The debris takes out many troops but the ceiling does not collapse. Worf gets back to his feet while still shooting. He sprays the hall with bullets until he can see no movement.

Cain then hurries up to a wall and cuts a portal. "Short cut," he says to the others. Cain proceeds through the hole and Data follows, then Picard and Worf bringing up the rear while remaining vigilante to ensure no one is sneaking up on them from behind.

In the command center, the Bozcomb have Data and Picard on the main screen under surveillance. An officer approaches the commander with a tablet in his hand. "Commander, we may have a possible complication with the critical mass contingence." he says.

"Explain," orders the commander.

The officer taps a button on the tablet and the image on the main screen now has a blueprint of the core displayed covering half of it. The officer states, for critical mass, all eight anti-matter reservoirs must discard simultaneously with the shut-down of the core's inertial dampers. Now, from everything we can see from here, Cain eradicated the omega molecules. However, if he really didn't and instead introduced them into the magnetic bottles…"

The commander raises his head slightly as he follows the explanation to its conclusion and says, "That's clever… he gets us to disable our own ship. Can we confirm this?"

"No, the barrier has been placed in lockdown and the controller is not accepting external commands."

"We have a more important secret to keep… Is there any indication they know?"

No, they have not made it anywhere close to that section."

"Go there and verify that will be destroyed if we should lose. I will buy you some time."

The officer walks off as the commander walks over to another officer. He orders "Disable the android."

As Data moves down the hall, he freezes in mid-stride and falls over. Cain hears him hit the ground a stops and turns around. Picard and Wolf also see him fall and rush up to him.

"Data!" Picard shouts.

Worf sees this and immediately reaches behind his back and pulls out a small flat metal box and places it on the floor. The box then slightly reorients itself to be square with the hall-way. The box then seems to bond itself to the floor.

Cain walks up to Picard keeling over Data and says, "We have to go."

Picard replies, "We can't just leave him!"

"That's the idea," Cain replies in a cold voice.

Picard look at him in disbelief and sternly replies, "You would be so quick to abandon your comrades? How many are you willing to sacrifice to win?"

Cain is watching the hall in the direction they need to go and replies in a somber tone, "I have been directly responsible for the death of billions…" He then turns to Picard and continues, "Not all of them were enemies."

Picard is taken back with the stark realization that Cain does not care if him and his officers survive. Only the mission matters.

Wolf jumps in, "I do not want to leave him ether, but…"

Just then, Data starts jittering. A second later, he stops shaking and his eyes open. He stands up and Picard asks, "Data, are you alright?"

Data replies, "The Bozcomb are attempting to jam my actuation servos."

On the Bozcomb bridge, the commander calls for an explanation. "Status," he calls.

"The android has been modified. Attempting to compensate…" the officer replies.

Another officer interjects, "I'm detecting an unknown program being uploaded though the feedback."

"Abort!" the commander orders to an officer.

"The other officer says, "I've isolated the program. It appears to be a virus."

"What system was it targeting?" the commander inquires.

Back at Data's location, Data says, "They have stopped the attempt to compromise my systems."

No sooner does he finish when the sound of weapons fire grabs the groups attention. Behind them a shield wall, emanating from the box Wolf planted, lights up as plasma discharges slam into it. Wolf and Data quickly turn to and face forward. Then suddenly dozens of Bozcomb troops start pouring in from the junction. Worf and Data immediately open fire! Thousands of bullets and energy bolts scream down the hallway as the two start advancing forward. Many of the solders are hit before the can even get a shot off. The shots they do get off miss their marks completely and slam into the shield wall. The shield wall is glowing and is getting brighter. Cain moves between Data and Worf, gun raised in one hand pointing straight down the hall but he's not firing. Then, Data then Wolf stop firing as there are no more soldiers in front of them. Picard sees this and then turns to look behind them. The shield wall is glowing brightly as energy is relentless poured into in by dozens of soldiers whom are still advancing. It looks as if it is being overloaded and suddenly it discharges the built up energy back at the Bozcomb. The wave of energy causes the them to instantly burst into flames and then to ash and finally the wave scatters them. Picard looks back at Worf and Data but Cain is gone. He says, "Where did Cain go?"

"He ran ahead." Wolf replies.

Picard starts walking and say, "We better catch up before he leaves us here."

He starts running as do Worf and Data.

Moments later, they catch up with Cain who is accessing a terminal.

"Picard slows and asks, "What are you doing?"

Cain turns his head to look at Picard and replies, "Playing my cards."

On the command deck, an alert sounds and an officer sitting at a console shouts out, Commander, the critical mass device has been initiated!"

"Disable it immediately!" replies the commander. He then rushes over to the console.

The office, rapidly pressing buttons, continues, "The shutdown sequence has been, the virus they uploaded though the android had not been completed and could not authenticate the remote command."

The commander grins and says, "Excellent, now send all available forces to that section."

Back at the remote terminal, Cain pulls his sword out of the wall and the terminal shuts down. "Time to make our exit," he says as he turns and walks toward a hall leading to the outer hull.

"Did it work?" Picard inquires. He receives no answer from Cain, though. He looks at Worf and Data and nods toward the direction Cain headed and they all start moving.

Outside, the Enterprise is under intense fire from three Bozcomb fighters. The fighters are moving fast and erratically. Their movements are effective in dodging enemy fire but also make it hard for them to hit key points on the Enterprise. Most of the hits are to random spots on the saucer section. All three are fling directly at the Enterprise, but, as the get closer, two of them break off at the last moment but the third one doesn't. It slams headlong into the bridge, sheering half of deck one right of the ship! The lights across the saucer section flicker and go off for a second. Then they come back on.

Sitting in the command chair, Dianna calls out, "Captain, deck one has been destroyed!"

"I see that, she's flying a bit heavy."

"Theirs's heavy damage to the saucers power distribution grid, running on emergency power. Multiple reactors are down, impulse pads and phasers are out!"

"I really thought we would be able to keep it." Riker thinks for a moment and adds, "Very well, initiate separation protocol."

Dianna presses a few button on the command pad on her chair. In various parts of the saucer section, crewmembers who are busy doing repairs to damaged systems are suddenly transported away. Dianna then stays, "Evacuation complete. Ready to disengage."

Just then, Doctor Crusher calls up to the bridge and says, "Our people getting close to the outer hull. ETA one minute!"

Riker smiles a little and replies, "Let's make it count, locate a sensor array near the extraction point."

On the command deck of the Bozcomb juggernaut, an officer holding a computer pad walks up to the commander and says, "We have destroyed the primary command deck on the Federation ship. But the ship is still operational."

The commander replies, "They've been using the secondary command center this whole time."

"I'll tell the fighters to concentrate on those coordinates."

"Also, figure out the most defensible place it might be, in case they were smart enough to relocate it."

The Enterprise turns and starts heading for the forward center port section of the ship. Around the other side, the Starwolf heads for the same area and half-dozen Bozcomb fighters follow. The Starwolf gets to the extraction point, stops, and spins around to lay fire into the pursuing fighters. Four fighters are hit hard, two destroyed. The Enterprise joins the fight. Firing a full spread of torpedoes and destroying the two wounded fighters. The Enterprise is coming in a full impulse. As it flies over the Starwolf, a seam appears on the bottom of the saucer section. Then, the star drive section puts on the breaks, hard! The nose of the star drive dips down as it comes to a quick stop while the saucer section keeps going at full speed! Seconds later, it slams into the Bozcomb juggernaut.

On the command deck of the Bozcomb juggernaut, the commander and his officers watch the saucer section head right toward them and then impact. The view screen the flickers and switches to portside view. The command deck remain rock-solid, indicating it is deep within the ships super structure.

The officer by the commander presses a far buttons on his pad and says, "The dorsal sensor array has been damaged."

He then presses a few keys and the image pans toward the center of the ship. The image reaches the maximum angle and stops. Only the Enterprise can be seen can be screen coming in and out of view. Then the screen spits in two and the view from the other side pans toward the center. Again, the field of view can only see momentary glimpses of the enterprise.

"They've created a blind spot. Get eyes on it."

Outside, the Enterprise starts circling the Starwolf. Then, out of the bottom of the Starwolf shoots a blue energy beam. The beam cuts into the hull of the Bozcomb ship and start spinning around a ring on the Starwolf. A force field follows the beam to form a tunnel between the two ships.

"Captain, we have incoming!" Deanna shouts. Seven fighters are streaking toward the Starwolf. Riker maneuvers the Enterprise in between the fighters and the Starwolf.

"Tactical," Riker shouts, "Knock them into each other."

"I sir," the tactical officer replies. The Enterprise heads into the incoming fighters. Firing three torpedoes into three targets, two enemies are knocked into others following close behind. A phazer strike shoots from the aft phazer bank, across the top of the Starwolf, and slices through the nose of one fighter and strikes another, damaging the engines and sending them screaming into the juggernaut. It crashes onto the surface and begins a high speed roll towards and then past the tunnel being dug by the Starwolf, missing by very little margin. A tractor beam grabs another and the Enterprise whips around by using it as anchor. The two more torpedoes impact to destroy it. Three fighters get back into to the fight and attack the Starwolf. For the first time, the Starwolf is hit by enemy fire. Heavy shielding repels the hits as the Enterprise starts firing at the fighters. One fighter turns and fires on the Enterprise. The first blast are stop by the shields as the Enterprise returns fire. Three well placed shots destroy the fighter.

Aboard the Bozcomb juggernaut, Picard, Data, Worf and Cain move quickly down a fighter bay hall toward a three-way intersection. A screeching noise is heard and a glowing ring appears on the hanger door. The ring intensifies as the tunneling beam brakes though. The beam stops as the section of the door slides out and falls to the floor. On the other side of the ships outer hull, a glass like force field spans between the juggernaut and the Starwolf. Picard looks down the tunnel connecting the two ships and ask, "Just step in?" "Not quite, dive in. Gravity will do the rest," Cain replies. Just then, a shot from a Bozcomb weapon hits Picard in the back. The blast is more intense than the typical weapons fire. Down the hall is a group of soldiers. The lead is holding a longer, two-handed weapon. The rest of the soldiers look as if they were waiting for him to fire first to test the weapon's effectiveness. As Picard lunges forward, Cain grabs him. The blast shatters down the trench coat Picard is warring. When the energy reaches the bottom, it flows into the dark red triangles and they glow brightly from absorbing the energy. Picard drops his gun. Cain catches it and begins firing at the oncoming Bozcomb. Wolf immediately opens fire down the hall, mowing down seven Bozcomb. More rush in behind them, many more. Also, Data sees troops coming down the hall from where they just came. He adjusts his weapon and fires a massive plasma stream down the hall. The intense heat vaporizes any target it touched.

"We are leaving!" Cain shoots as he dives into the tunnel with Picard. The moment they enter the tunnel, artificial gravity pulls them toward the Starwolf at falling speed. The two are accelerated up though the floor a then land softly with assisted gravity.

"You aright?" Cain asks.

"Yes," Picard replies, "Just knocked the wind out of me." Then Wolf then data are accelerated up through the tunnel. Kit shuts off the tunnel and decompression blows a few Bozcomb troops out of the hole as the Starwolf moves off. The Enterprise is taking fire from another fighter. The Starwolf fires its main cannons. A direct hit cripples the attacker.

"Mission successful," comes the word over the Enterprises communications from Kit. Riker smiles and says, "Acknowledged, now let's get the hell out of here!" Deanna punches some keys on the captain's pad and replies, "Escape vector 113 mark 4."

Aboard the Starworf, Cain says, "Kitt, prepare to transfer the Captain and his officers back to the Enterprise."

"No. Wait," Picard says. As they all look at Picard, he looks at Wolf and Data and says, "Make sure Cain gets to where he needs to be."

Then he looks back at Cain. Cain nods to show he accepts the offer. As the Starwolf maneuvers behind the Enterprise, the Enterprise extends shields around the Starwolf. The main window starts to deform in front of Picard. The deformation is circular in shape and in appears as if a perfect circle has been cut in the glass and it is rising out. Then the block of glass separates into the halves vertically down the middle. The halves then side each side to reveal the hole. A force field tube then connects the hole to an opening airlock on the Enterprise. As soon as the doors are all the way open, Picard is lifted up by and unseen force but still looks as if he is standing. Then, he is shot through the hole at extreme speed! He experiences no G forces and no wind. Still as he is moved through space, his eyes widen and he displays a surprised look on his face. A second after he started he slides into a corridor on the Enterprise were two security guards wait. He stops instantly, doesn't move for a moment, and then looks behind him as the tube disengages and a force field flickers in the closing doorway. One of the security guards say, "Welcome aboard." And then ask, "Are you OK?"

Picard, who looks momentarily disorientated, replies, "Fine, fine." Collecting his thought, he adds, "Let's get to the bridge."

Outside, the Enterprise and the Starwolf are piercing though the shields. Once though, the Starwolf rolls out from behind the Enterprise and heads for the Etherian carrier, heading for the landing bay. Weaving though the battlefield, the Starwolf becomes the primary target of the Bozcomb. Suddenly, a direct hit from a heavy cruisers main weapon impacts the back of the Starwolf as it comes around a damaged Federation ship. The force punches though the shielding and smashes the engines. The sound of crashing waves resonate though the bridge, but Data, Wolf, and Cain are not even jolted by the blast. An alarm sounds.

"Status!" Cain shouts.

"Main engines offline," Kit replies, "We've been hit hard, navigation down 92%," he adds.

"Just get us into the bay!" Cain shouts.

Worf comments the Data, "I didn't even feel the hit."

Cain, overhearing Worf, replies, "Be glad you don't feel this."

The Starwolf streaks toward the battle carrier. The ship is headed for the lower port side corner of the bay. On its side, thrusters on the bottom of the nose fire intensely to change the trajectory. The Starwolf slams into the edge of the bay wall just a little too low. The side of the ship impacts the floor of the bay with enough force to crack the port side forward swept section, pushing its nose into the starboard section. Inertia carries the Starwolf forward as the impact turns the ship on its nose. Sliding up on the wall on its belly, the Starwolf impacts the inner cliff of the bay. Like a race car hitting a wall, the Starwolf it set spinning like a top into the bay. As it rapidly tears inward, smaller ships, drones, and a few Etherians on the bay floor are torn apart like grass facing a weed-eater. Inertial dampeners begin to slow the ship. After one forward section hits the ground and offsets the spin, the Starwolf slides on its nose and falls onto its back. The ravaged ship is still more or less intact, but all weapons have been sheared off or smashed. Along the surface, the skin has been ripped off in many places.

Inside the reactor room for the energy shaper, Sara is finishing her repairs to the reactor shielding. The second the crack is repaired; the ship's computer restarts the reactor. The computer then states, "Restart complete, radiation cleanup in effect. Damage to CNC junctions 1 and 2 detected."

"Open access panels."

On the floor, two sections sink in and slide out of the way. A large white tube of light extends from the direction of the reactor into a Y branch. On the other side of the Y branch, two slightly smaller tubes continue. One of the tubes has exploded and sent shrapnel into the other tube, cracking it. On the Y branch is a single mark for one tube and a double mark for the second tube, the one that exploded. She grabs a tool on the pit wall and puts it over the crack and a green light aluminates the crack. The crack starts to close. As soon as the crack is sealed, the tube lights up.

Sara comments, "That wasn't so bad."

The computer then states, Full control to CNC 1 restored."

She then calls up to the command deck, "Styles, status!"

"The ES system is back up! We're good to go."

"I'll be there in a few."

"Hey, commander Cain just crashed into the hanger. I think he's going to need some help."

"Understood." She heads for the door and says, "Computer, get a repair crew on CNC 2 as soon as the radiation is under control."

"Affirmative."

On the Enterprise's bridge, the turbo-lift doors open and Picard steps though. He quickly surveys the modified layout of the battle bridge. He heads toward Troy and gets right down to business.

"Dianna, report!"

"We're down to 92 ships. 19 Originals. Klingon and Romulan forces are also severely diminished."

"And the enemy?"

"Their down to one battleship, 9 cruisers, 13 destroyers."

As she says that, a hovering holographic screen alongside Troy displays the ships.

"The battleship, that's our target."

Inside the Starwolf, Worf, Data, and Cain are still standing. Wolf has his legs spread little as well as his hands, as if he was expecting a much rougher ride. He looks at Data, who explains, "This ship highly advance inertia dampers."

Cain calls out, "Kit, Status." Kit replies, "All offensive, defensive, and navigation systems have been crippled."

"Can you disengage?" Cain asks.

"No," Kit replies.

Cain looks out the window to see the ship upside down. "Do the stairs work?" Cain asks.

"Yes," Kit replies.

"Let's go," says Cain as he walks toward the center of the bridge. The floor around the area they are in descends to the lower level. Then the floor recesses into the stairs and the screeching sound of metal against metal fills the air. The stair-case landings are jagged as well as the walls on either side, indicating that system has also taking severe damage. Cain then walks down the inverted staircase. With the ship upside-down, Cain places a hand on the edge where the stairs descend and cartwheels off the stairs onto the ships underside. Data then follows Cain and also makes the change from gravity in one direction to the other. Then Worf follows. On what is now the top of the Starwolf is a scared surface with scattered panels missing to expose the machinery underneath. The ion miniguns are now twisted wreckage.

Cain looks around and says, "This way."

Worf immediately ask, "How do we get down off the ship."

Cain replies, "We jump," as he takes off. Worf looks a Data for and explanation.

Data responds with, "Etherian safety systems will prevent us from achieving a dangerous momentum."

The three are now in the open running across the top toward the port side of the bay. Suddenly, an intense burst of energy rips across the surface 9 meters in front of Cain. The shockwave picks up Cain and throws him back. Data moves quickly to catch Cain and the two roll to the ground. Cain's forehead has a huge gash on it, but it quickly starts to close up in a red flicker. Worf crouches down as he looks at what fired the shot. Crashing into the bay is a Bozcomb troop transport. It slams into the bay floor, shaking the very ground the three stand upon. The transport screeches to a halt with its main guns pointed off to the port side of the Starwolf. With those guns out of range, they have a few seconds to think. Cain and Data crouch down and run to Worf's side.

Worf asks, "How do we fight that?"

"We don't have too," replies Cain. He looks up. So do Worf and Data. Down from the ceiling of the bay come the largest tactical drones yet. Thunder sounds as these four combat machines hit the ground. The design of the beast is a steal dragon. The eyes glow with a burning fire. The head movement and menacing look indicate a fearsome artificial intelligence, like a guardian with sharper teeth. On the transport, doors slide open and dozens of bozcomb troops streak out though the air on chest mounted anti-gravity units heading for the Starwolf. The dragons look directly at them and with a searing look, streams of energy bust form their burning eyes. When the red lightning strikes a target, it jumps randomly to the next Bozcomb until the first is vaporized in seconds. The airborne Bozcomb are quickly picked out of the air. Then, the transport launches a fierce volley of rockets toward the dragons. The massive wings of the dragon drones extend forward and swoop in front of them. As the rockets impact the wings, the punch is absorbed by the fabric like wing, like a ball thrown at a suspended blanket. When the last rocket hits, the dragons uncovering themselves and seem to breathe in through gills of light on their sides. Then they unleash a jet stream of plasma fire at the transport. The intense heats instantly melts debris scattered on the floor and the force of the impact on the shields actually push the ship back a meter.

Atop the Starwolf, Cain, Data, and Worf watch the battle unfold. Cain says, "Let's try this run again." Just the, a small cycle comes up to them. Sitting on the pilot's seat is Sara.

"Can I interest you guys in a ride!" she shouts.

The cycle has a passenger seat behind the divers and short wing with perpendicular tails at the ends. On these tails are clearly define foot pads on the horizontal sections and handle bars on the vertical sections. Cain motions for Worf and Data to get on a wing as he jumps on the seat behind Sara. As Worf and Data step onto the wing foot-pads, they grab on to the handles as the cycle starts to move off. Atop the Bozcomb transport a round portal opens. Out of the portal rises a sphere made up of many smaller spheres. Each sphere looks like a dark blue glass ball with a glowing red center. The spheres spread out a little and then the whole mass start moving fast in pursuit of Sara's cycle. Dozens of shots from defense pods around the bay start picking of spheres and alerts the party to the danger. Cain, Data, and Worf take aim and fire. Combined with shots from them and the defense pods, the mass is quickly reduced to a dozen spheres. Exploding spheres deflect others while a lone sphere veers off from the main group and comes up on the cycle from underneath. The sphere contacts a shield and detonates. The explosion lifts the back of the cycle up and damages the engine, sending the cycle out of control. Cain grabs Sara's arm in mid-air as the four fly toward a cliff alongside the bay wall. Worf and Data are higher up a soar over the cliff while Cain a Sara smack into the face. Fortunately, Cain is high enough to grab the ledge. Cain then lifts Sara high enough to grab the ledge and the two pull themselves up. As the get to their feet, Data and Worf rush up to them. "Are you alright?" Data ask. "Yes," replies Cain. "We did not hit as hard as we should have," comments Data. "Its like gravity just stopped before we landed," Wolf adds. "Safety system," Sara interjects, "This way," she motions and they start heading toward a hall.

On the floor of the bay the battle rages between the dragon drones and the transport. One of the dragons takes a running leap toward the transport while the others draw fire. Spreading its massive flowing metal wings, the creature is an impressive sight as in comes down on the transport. Landing on the shield protecting the top, the dragon electrifies it exterior and sides though the shields. It sinks it massive claws into the surface, raises its right forearm high into the air then swiftly jabs it into the ship, then pulls back part of the hull like opening a can of sardines. With a deep breath and ribs glowing blue, the dragon thrust its head into the opening and exhales a continuous stream of plasma fire into the transport. The upper deck burst with fire and suddenly the entire ship is jerked backward. The dragon raise his head to see the Enterprise latched on with a tractor beam. It then jumps off the transport and turns to watch. The dragon has and expression that looked like it came from a real animal. "Captain, tractor beam is holding," says Deanna. "Good, now drag those bastards out of there," Picard says to Riker. Riker grins and says, "Yes sir!" As the transport is dragged out of the bay and clears the entrance, the Enterprise pummels it with torpedoes and phazers until it breaks apart.

An alert goes off on the arm of the command chair. Dianna looks down and taps a button. "Captain, the fleet is ready, the Picard maneuver is a go," says Deanna.

"Make it so," Picard commands.

Deanna presses a button and says, "Engaged."

Geordi calls out, "Auto timers engaged, warp in four, three…"

On the juggernauts command deck, an officer shouts, "Commander, all human ships are reorienting to face the last battleship. The commander looks down and to the right as if he's thinking, then snaps his head back and exclaims, "The warp exception!"

But it's too late. Outside, all federation ships finish align themselves and disappear as the jump to warp. A split second later, more than a hundred federation ships, most of them defiant class, appear in close proximity to the battleship. Immediately, all of them start firing on the center of the enemy ship. Hundreds of torpedoes and phaser blasts rip into the layers of ablative armor. The ships are evenly spaced around the battleship and so close as to be just outside the primary shield grid. The defiant class ships then pass though the shield to engage at point-blank range. They run along the surfaces, firing relentlessly into the spine of the huge battleship. The gun turrets whip around and quickly begin returning fire. The bigger guns tear into a few of the ships with weaken defenses and destroy them. Then, blast from the Etherian carrier slam into the battleships shields. The combined assault starts to take its toll as cracks venting atmosphere stat to form. Dozens of federation ships are destroyed or disabled. The enterprise has been firing relentlessly onto an area near the rear of one of the triangular sections. Then, the entire section loses power and the turrets stop firing.

Data enters a corridor followed by Cain. Suddenly, Cain jumps to the left as he spots a Bozcomb firing upon him and the shot barely misses him. Data immediately returns fire and hits the first soldier as many more troops come up behind him. A second shot hits the gravity isolator on the belt of one of the Bozcomb. With the protection from the Etherian artificial gravity compromised, computer unleashes a crushing force thousands of time greater that the natural gravity. The soldier spins around for a split second, then is flatten to the extend blood shoots across the floor. Then Cain yanks Data to the side as the corridor fills with weapons fire. Worf is about to jump in when Sara stops him. "There's a better way," she says as she pulls a weapon out of a holster on her leg. She then takes a clear rod out of her belt and puts it in the barrel. Holding the weapon up, she looks over a Cain on the other side. Cain sees the weapon and taps Data on the shoulder and says, "Take full cover." The two move back against the wall behind a column and Sara sticks her arm out around the column she and Worf are behind and fires, then she quickly retracts her arm. A second later, an intense white light accompanied by a high pitch whine briefly fills the corridor and all weapons fire ceases. The four come out to see the skeletons of almost two dozen Bozcomb still standing in the hall. It is an eerie sight as the strange skeletons still hold their weapons and are in attack postures. "What kind of weapon was that?" Worf asks Sara. "Iso-phasic burst. It will destroy almost any living tissue it hits." She says as they walk by.

Worf and Sara approach the turbo lift while Data and Cain continue the firefight down the hall where they just came. Sara reaches out and hits the control panel by the lift. The panel shorts out. Sara hands her weapon to Worf and says, "Cover me," while she motion down the adjoining hall. She grabs the top of a panel and rips it off the wall. Then she reaches in to access the lift controls manually. Wolf watches down the hall sees many Bozcomb heading there way. He opens fire with both weapons. Spraying the hall with fire, he takes out half a dozen before they can react. The Bozcomb then return fire as Worf moves swiftly to the other side while advancing. He seems to be in bloodlust as he almost appears to believe himself to be invincible. In seconds, ten Bozcomb lie dead in front of the victorious Klingon. His breath is heavy as a smile creeps across his face. He is enjoying this.

Then, Sara successfully accesses the lift and the doors open. Two bozcomb soldiers stand ready to attack! Without any hesitation, Sara rushed them, grabing both of them by the throat. Both fire, one misses, one hits her in the abdomen. She drives both of them back into the wall of the lift in an awesome display of strength. Around her hand, there necks begin to disintegrate into grey dust. Moments later, there heads separate from their bodies. She releases and steps back as the remains continue to disintegrate. It can be observed that the triangles wrapping around her waist are glowing red but fading quickly.

She then turns around and yells, "Cain, door's open!" Sara then starts to access a panel inside the lift. Worf makes his way back to the lift and wait on Data and Cain. He looks down at one of the Bozcomb had weapons laying on the floor and has an idea.

"Four seconds, right?" he yells at Sara.

She looks at him, who looks at the weapon, then she looks at the weapon and immediately understands his intention.

"4.2 to be exact!" She relies.

As Cain and Data make their way to the lift, Worf remains just outside the enterance. The moment they enter, he is right behind them. Has he enters the lift, Worf picks up on or the have weapons and tosses it out the door into the hallway. Data observes this, and with android speed, realized what he has just done, and kneels down and scoops op the other weapon. He also tosses it into the hallway, but with much greater velocity. Sara then presses a button and the doors slam shut and the lift starts to move. In the hallway, Bozcomb are pouring in. The weapon Data threw as gone flying past them. The lead soldiers then look down to see the weapon Worf threw that is in over-load mode from being touched be a non-Bozcomb. Before they can react, it explodes.

On the command deck, two Bozcomb soldiers burst though the doors and start shooting. Before any of the shots land a strike, the entire command crew disappears in a red flash. More soldiers are right behind them as the first two look confused. In another part of the ship, the command crew re-appears in an identical command center.

In the turbolift, a communication comes in.

"Styles to Commander Knight."

"Yes"

"We've been evacuated to CNC 2, the Bozcomb have taken CNC 1."

She takes notice of the energy shaper interface and the disk is not lit. She adds, "The ES interface is down."

Sara looks at Cain and explains, "It's not coming back online anytime soon."

Cain replies, "Then we retake CNC 1."

Data interjects, "Allow me."

He pulls out two handguns. Cain looks at him for a second and then motions to the door.

Eleven Bozcomb are spread out in the command center when the turbolift doors open. Data quickly steps out. From his perspective, everyone else is moving extremely slow. By the time he his eye have scanned the entire room, the Bozcomb are just starting to react. He raises both guns and begins to fire. As the bullet leave the gun, about ten centimeters out, he's already moving it in the direction of the next target. In a fraction of a second, eleven bullets are in the air. All eleven soldiers drop dead for a single head shot.

Cain, Worf, and Sara step out of the turbolift and look aroud. Cain walks past Data and comments, "Nice." He then heads for the command chair. Sara follows. As Cain sits down, the chair reconizes him and the panels light up. A same happens when Sara steps up to a control interface.

Cain hits the panel on the command chair and the screen switches back to a forward view. He then keys in a few commands a glass disk raises above his right wrist. Outside, a long wall starts the rise along the top-center of the Derkalis. This wall runs the length of the ship and elevates to the height of the energy shaper. The energy shaper pulses energy along the wall and to center begins to glow. "Full power at your disposal," Sara calls to Cain. The Glow in Cain's eyes changes from white to red. Outside, a sheet of energy expands across the top and capes down the sides. Then, all weapons fire. The energy from the weapons are absorbed into the cape of energy and discharged toward the bozcomb flagship. At almost the same instant, the bozcomb flagship fires its main cannon. The etherian weapon strikes first, knocking the bozcomb shot off by a few degrees. The blast barely misses the Derkalis while the shot from the Derkalis is stopped by the bozcomb shields. The continuous beam of white energy slides across the shields as the bozcomb attempt to move out of the path of fire. Then, in a freak accident, a phazer hit from the Enterprise misses its target and strikes the energy cape on the Derkalis. The phazer energy is immediately incorporated into the beam. The beam phases out of time and passes thought the shields. The blast shears off a good part of the portside point of the bozcomb juggernaut. Its main cannon is still discharging and the high energy weapon cuts across the field of battle and strikes several ships on both sides as the ship spins from the blow. "The phazer fire altered the energy streams time displacement," Sara says as she looks at her instruments. She turns around and says, "One more shot like that will finish them." The Enterprise calls over. Picard comes on the view screen and says, "It would appear our weapons can join to break through their defenses." Cain replies to Picard, "Get ready to shoot us again."

Just then, a damaged bozcomb cruiser slams into the main engines on the back of the Derkalis. The engines burn and the ship starts is thrust forward. Worf shouts, "We've been accelerated directly toward Earth. Engines not responding!" Data adds, "All operational gravity thrusters at full, however Earth's gravitational pull is increasing." "Vent the bay!" Cain orders. Outside, space ripples on various points on the Derkalis where the gravity thrusters are located. Air explodes out of the hanger bay as it decompresses. The explosive decompression alters the trajectory of the Derkalis. Data then says, "By my calculations, we do not have the necessary thruster capability to avoid entering the atmosphere."

On the Enterprise, Riker calls up a small window on the main screen that displays a computer representation of the Derkalis's trajectory super imposed on an estimated trajectory and says, "Captain, they need a big push." Picard looks at the screen and says, "Make it so."

As the Enterprise streaks toward the Derkalis, Picard calls down to engineering as he also walks toward Crusher. "Picard to Geordi, I'm going to need maximum tractor beam power." Picard looks over Crushers shoulder and says, "We'll need to calibrate the shields to bounce off the atmosphere." Crusher puts the calculations into the console and says, "This wasn't designed to be a plow."

"Just keep it together," Picard replies as he turns around. The Enterprise comes in fast beneath the Derkalis and rolls over. The two ships now face each other belly to belly as the tractor beam engages.

Deanna shouta, "The Etherian carrier is registering 400,000 tons of resistance!"

"Some of their gravity dampeners must be out," Riker replies.

"We have to align that ship, give me everything you have," commands Picard as the Enterprise begins to shake.

Over on the Derkalis, Sara shouts, "The Enterprise is attempting to push us around Earth!"

Cain looks over at Data and says, "Data, do whatever you can to help." He then looks at Wolf and says, "Figure out where the Bozcomb will be when they come around the planet and communicate that to the Enterprise," Cain looks back toward the front and says, "I want them right in front of me."

Sara then adds, "Also, they need to fire on us again."

Worf, pecking away at a keypad says, "I'm on it."

As the two ships skims the atmosphere, the Enterprise shakes violently. Cracks start to form along the hull. "Engineering to bridge, we can't keep this up much longer!" Geordi shouts.

"Just a few more seconds," Picard replies. The Enterprise is bathed in a red glow as the Derkalis also starts skimming the outer edge of the atmosphere. As the two ships come around the other side, the Enterprise maneuvers the tractor beam to the port side of the Derkalis to alter its trajectory. "Target will be in range in 2 seconds!" Worf shouts. Cain's eyes light up again as the energy shaper capes the ship. The Bozcomb juggernaut starts to stabilize its spin as it drifts into the path of the Derkalis and Enterprise. The Derkalis fires the combination weapon! Simultaneously, the Enterprise fires into the energy cape. The weapons merge and the temporal phased blast rips thought the Bozcomb shields and impact the nose of the Bozcomb ship. The blast dills into the enemy ship all the way through to the center. The ship cracks apart and explodes. Then, the Derkalis's weapon disengages as it and the Enterprise flies into the expanding debris field. Without navigational capabilities, the Derkalis is forced to punch though the debris field. The Enterprise rolls through and dodges the larger debris. As the two ships emerge on the other side, Cain yells, "Status!"

"We've suffered moderate damage, partial navigation just came back, shields at 23%, weapons, 86%." replies Sara.

"Turn us back to Earth!" Cain commands.

On the Enterprise, Picard orders, "Report."

The primary haul has major stress fractures, shields and weapons are nominal…" Geordie replies.

"Captain!" Dianna called in a concerned voice, "The remaining Bozcomb ships are starting there kamikaze runs on Earth!

"On screen!" Picard orders.

On the view screen, dozens of enemy ships start streaking towards earth. Picard walks toward the view screen with a look of dread and says, "Tell me you saw this coming…"

Riker replies, "Yes we did."

As the various Bozcomb ships descend thought the atmosphere on collision courses with major cities, they began to impact with cloaked mines, thousands of them.

"Starfleet's been deploying self-replicating cloaked mines for the last few hours as a last line of defense." Riker adds.

Several of the smaller ships are destroyed by the deluge of mines but a few of the larger one make it though and impact the cities. The impact zone explodes as if being hit by a small asteroid. However, it is apparent that the self-destruct mechanisms on the enemy ships do not detonate as intended.

The crew look at half a dozen devastating creators that were once cities in silence. A few seconds later, Picard collects his thoughts and inquires, how many enemy ships are left?"

"None, that attack was coordinated for all ships to hit at once," Riker replies.

Picard looks as if he has a question but is hesitant to ask. Dianna senses this answers it for him. "The Bozcomb self-destruct mechanisms didn't function as intended because the mines were able to get past there shields with the temporal modifications and nullify their anti-matter, thanks to some technical assistance from the Etherians."

Picard looks down in somber realization that Earth, and the Federation, as narrowly escaped complete destruction, but a terrible cost. He then orders, "Take us back into orbit."

Shortly after the battle, several federation ships are under repair in the Derkalis's hanger. The Enterprise is also in the hanger overlooking a conference area jetting out from the rear of the hanger. On the massive platform, the crew of the Enterprise converse with other federation crew, Etherians, Klingons, and Romuluns. Doctor Crusher finds her way through the crowd to find Captain Riker and Dianna conversing. They notice her and stop taking as she approaches.

"Captain, I've finished scanning the crew", she begins.

Riker curiously waits for her to continue.

"There is no trace of the nanites. And, everyone is in perfect health."

Ricker glances at Deanna quickly and then back at Crusher. He then ask, "Are we going to revert back to the way we were before?"

Crusher shakers her head side to side and replies, "I honestly don't know. Our cells are aging normally again. So perhaps in 30 to 40 years, we may look similar to what we did a few days ago. But this is uncharted territory."

"Riker smiles a little and comments, "I can live with that. How's the crew adjusting?"

"Pretty well for the most part. Everyone who was advanced in years is elated to have a new lease on life. Those who were already in their prime are just happy to have gotten though it unscathed

Riker looks as if he's about to ask for further explanation but he then notices Captain Picard walking up.

"Captain, Doctor, Counselor," he says as he stops.

Dianna immediately asks, "Captain Picard, how are you feeling?"

Realizing that she already knows, Picard quickly deduces that it is Riker and Crusher who are more interested in the answer than she is.

"Not so good. I just returned from Starfleet command where I got a brief overview of the damage done to earth and the Federation."

Riker and Crusher look anxiously at him while he continues.

"One hundred and twenty-seven cities have been destroyed, including Starfleet head-quarters along with San-Francisco. Death toll is well over a billion and rising. The bio-sphere has been severely damage. Our fleet is down to nine percent, the Kligon and Romulians are no better off, and none of the Vulcan ships survived."

As he finishes, Crusher is displaying a look of disbelief while Riker has his arms crossed with and angry look on his face.

"We're going after them, aren't we?"

"Yes, we can't afford to wait for their next attack."

Picard looks down as if thinking and the looks back up and says, "Will, get the crew back to the Enterprise, we're not done yet.

"I sir.'

In the meantime, I need to find Cain."

In another part of the ship, Cain and Sara are on platform looking in silence out of an open side hanger door at earth. Sara is leaned up against Cain with her arms around his arm. Picard appears in a red flash. He sees them and says, "Ah, there you are." Walking toward the two, Picard takes notice of the low orbit view. He can see giant smoke trails as the remains of once great cites burn. He then says, "After four hundred years, this must be overwhelming to see your home in this condition."

Cain and Sara look over at him. Cain has a softer look in his eyes. Cain says, "We have fought though two galaxies against an enemy hell bent on our destruction. I'm just thrilled to see it in one piece, more or less."

Picard nodes and looks for a second, then says, "I do have a question for you."

"What cards I was playing," Cain replies in a matter of fact voice.

"I got the details form Data, the virus he attempted to upload that would appear to send a conformation from their bridge to their self-destruct system, a virus that never was intended to work for a piece of sabotage that never occurred."

Cain continues to face toward Earth as he replies, "They would never let us leave with that knowledge. Eight anti-mater devices going critical would be like a super-nova and that would accomplish their primary goals."

"So you let them think you had and ace up your sleeve, that you wanted them to think you wanted them to detonate."

Cain turn to Picard and says, "They are at their most venerable when they think they have us all figured out."

Picard thinks for a second and replies, "I still think that was a big risk. But given the malevolently calculating nature of our common enemy, it appears to have been the right call."

Cain looks back at Earth and adds, "We must leave soon."

"The war still rages in your galaxy."

"Yes"

"Perhaps not for long."

"The Federation will join us."

"Oh yes," Picard replies, and adds with a smile, "And the Klingons have expressed an interest as well. So have the Romulans, if nothing else but to keep that war as far away from home as possible."

A little smile comes across Cain's lips but quickly disappears. He turns to Picard and says, "You do realize your rushing head-long into the hornets' nest."

A little while later, the Etherian carrier breaks orbit, followed by a small fleet of Federation, Klingon, and Romulan ships. The carrier disappears in a red streak while the other ships follow into warp.

The End.