From the helm of the starship Minerva, Ensign Dorina Staunton offered an update. "We've arrived in the Andoria system, Captain. Dropping to impulse."

"Deploy fighters," Captain Aurora duBois replied. "Ready all decks."

The turbolift door opened, admitting Lieutenant Commander Narad Tuxx to the bridge. "Can't catch a shower without a crisis," he asked, fastening his uniform shut. "It's always something."

"You're just lucky not to have any hair to dry," Aurora quipped.

Her Bolian officer raised an eyebrow, then laughed. "I agree, it's a major advantage." He crossed over to the status board. "All fighters away."

"What do we have?"

The forward tactical board, to Aurora's right, displayed nine contacts, grouped roughly in pairs around blue dots on the map. "Closest targets are all Birds-of-Prey, I can't believe how old they are - my family freighter isn't that old and we've been in it for seven generations."

"Can we just..." Aurora gestured towards the tactical board.

"They must have - I think they were temporally displaced. There's no way they've been operational for centuries, like they'd have to be. Unless they were replica builds..."

"There are eight of them," her tactical officer, Ralani sh'Thras, indicated, always looking to cut through and deliver the facts.

"Yeah. And this." Tuxx highlighted a particular target, a brighter red. "This one's even older. It's Qugh class. The Klingons probably don't even have those in surplus depots any longer! But it's giving off a really weird type of energy - I'm having a hard time categorizing it. If we can get closer, I can get a better reading of it and sort it better."

"Get what you can. We'll try to get closer." Aurora took a moment. "I know this is our first chance to show what we can do, but let's be patient. Who are the other targets - the ones in blue?"

"Right - this one," Tuxx said, pointing to the green dot on the map. "That's the starship Hofmann. Survey ship, Somerville class. It's escorting the Lukari science vessel, here. The other three are Andorian defense ships. Old designs, thoroughly modernized." Tuxx was distracted again by some new information. "Hang on - look at that." His jaw hung open. "Turns out, so are the Klingons."

"Explain."

Tuxx shook his head, reaching out with his hand as a metaphorical starship. "The overall spaceframe, the design elements, they're all ancient, as old as the Federation, maybe older. But the engines, the weapons, the shields - they're all new. I don't know how they packed so much new tech in such an old ship." He shook his head again, this time with a look of admiration on his face. "I should be taking notes for my parents - they'd love this."

Aurora looked to Ralani. "Full power to weapons."

"Already there," Ralani replied.

Nodding, Aurora turned back to Tuxx. "Give fighters the general 'engage enemy' signal. They can sweep through, we'll follow them in."

"Signal sent... confirmed. I wish we could scan that main ship more closely."

"Negative," Ralani countered. "Weapons lock requires active sensors."

"So that's the Lukara," Aurora noted, indicating the target Tuxx wanted to scan.

"Lukara. And the Lukari." Tuxx chuckled. "And there's an Andorian ship called the Luthari." He gave his head another shake. "Tongue twister of a battle."

"All fighters report ready," Ralani said.

Aurora nodded to her Andorian tactical officer. "What can you tell me about the superweapon the Lukari mentioned?"

Ralani gave a quick shake of the head. "Not much."

"The energy signal we're getting must be related," Tuxx mused. "I don't know what else it could be. But it -there's got to be something there, right? We've got to be reading some sign of it - a housing, a targeting system, a barrel, even... we can't see any clear indication of what we're dealing with?"

"As I said," Ralani replied dryly. "Not much."

Aurora gave a quick smirk at her tactical officer's laconic responses. "Signal the attack. Prepare our point-defense phasers and ready the search-and-rescue teams in case we need them."

"Mo'kai bird-of-prey moving to intercept us," Ralani said.

"Signal fighters: Defend. Danger close."

In front of the Minerva, at least three of the venerable raiders were maneuvering to get in the onrushing carrier's direction. The nearest opened fire with its cannons, bolts of bright green energy tearing through the space in between. A deft bit of maneuvering by Staunton caused an overshoot - perhaps this ship was more nimble than Aurora had given credit - while Ralani brought the forward phaser beam banks to full power. They tore through the frontal shields of the bird-of-prey, and the fighters accompanying their mothership opened up with their phaser cannons and micro-photon torpedoes. The effect was immediate, knocking out the bird-of-prey and sending it spinning out of control.

A brief re-alignment of its trajectory put Minerva into a firing solution on the second target, and the next set of phaser and micro-photon fire issued forth from the ship and its smaller escorts. This bird-of-prey managed to strike Minerva amidships with a volley of six or seven bolts of disruptor fire, but its shields held, slightly weakened, while the Starfleet vessel was able to disable another bird-of-prey. From beyond the third, one of the Andorian ships intervened, turning that bird-of-prey's attention towards it, while Minerva came for its aft quarter. The ship's weapons tore through first its shields, then its impulse engines, and the small Klingon vessel detonated in a fury.

Aurora gave a nod to Ralani. "Nicely done."

Ralani smiled serenely, her antennae up and bright. It was her first 'kill' as a tactical officer, and it clearly meant a great deal to her.

"Target the Lukara next," she ordered. "All in."

The Qugh-class warship hung in space, its hideous, gnarled appearance causing Aurora's lip to curl, repulsed by what she saw on the viewscreen.

"There's an energy surge," Tuxx noted. "It's the same type as before - centralized on the forward quarter."

"They're going to fire," Aurora realized. "Helm - evasive. Fighters, too."

On the command deck of the Timshel, Bianca watched the Jupiter-class carrier close the range with the Lukara, a ship twice its size. It was reassuring to see a Starfleet vessel arrive in-system. Timshel and her sisters couldn't do this alone. The Andorian vessel was likewise moving towards the Klingon ship as well, and its weapon systems were ready. Bianca fixed her targeting lock onto the main Klingon ship, the Lukara, and its devastating main weapon.

"Let's get in there," Commander Shonem urged.

"Ready to fire," she replied from her side of the weapons console.

"The Lukara," th'Marin said flatly. "Its weapon is building to detonation."

"Are we targeted?"

"Hard to tell, looks like they're targeting-" th'Marin looked up, his eyes and antennae widening. "Andoria!"

Shonem's teeth ground together. "Not today, Mo'Kai. Helm - emergency power to engines. Get us in range."

From the operations console, Officer Linar made a slight noise of protest. "I just put all the power we have into the weapons."

Shonem directed his response not to Linar, but to th'Marin. "Torpedo lock?"

"You know it."

Bianca crossed over, no longer needed at the phaser console, to help Linar. "Let me see if I can get a little more from auxiliary power. I know a few tricks."

"Thanks," Linar acknowledged.

Bianca quickly selected a few systems - transporters, lateral sensors, even the lighting - and shunted their power reserves towards the thrusters. Survival was paramount, and in a ship this size, speed was survival. She knew th'Marin would put a torpedo spread across Lukara's bow, rather than just risk missing a single shot. Hopefully that would be enough to knock out the slow-charging Klingon weapon before Andoria could come to harm.

"Fire as soon as we get in range."

"Almost there - firing!"

But so were the Klingons. Lukara's weapon discharged its deadly blue beam just as the torpedoes from Timshel burst upon its nose. The weapon's fire did not strike Andoria itself. Whether this was intentional, or a result of the torpedoes' explosion, was not clear. But the weapon tore a vast rift open between Andoria and the gas giant it orbited, igniting a cerulean scar, hanging open as though the fabric of space-time had itself been rent asunder.

Bianca would not learn of that until later, however. The beam fired by Lukara's primary weapon had also sliced through the onrushing Timshel and severed its starboard wing almost at its root. The bridge was instantly a cascade of shrapnel and sparks. Bianca felt herself tumble hard towards the port bulkhead, the console in front of her slipping from her grasp. She twisted and fell against it, her back crunched into the deck, her neck and shoulders angling upwards. It was an awkward angle, made worse by her having to break Linar's fall as the operations officer crashed into her. Bianca and Linar gave each other a quick look of concern. The deck rumbled, then another flash of sparks ensued. As Linar tried to steady herself on the console to get up, another sharp rocking motion threw her to her knees. Bianca steadied herself and put the deck beneath her feet once again.

"You okay?" Bianca asked.

"Yeah, I - Uzaveh's name." Linar reached outwards towards the center of the command deck. "Commander!"

But Commander Shonem couldn't hear her. The tactical console, where Bianca had been standing not ten seconds before, had been completely destroyed, and its debris had killed both Shonem and his executive officer, th'Marin. Forward, the helm officer was getting to his feet, slowly, and Linar checked on the sensors officer, who was holding her head to keep it from bleeding. A laceration on her cheek was visible, but the one she held, on her forehead, was far worse.

"He's dead," Linar noted. "They both are." She looked over the tactical console. "And this is - this is hopeless."

Bianca gritted her teeth and pulled herself up to the operations console. The console's design was new to her, but she pulled up a main systems display easily enough. There were hull breaches all over the ship, EPS conduit ruptures in several key locations... shields and weapons were both offline. So were internal comms, it seemed. Sensors showed the impulse and warp engines were still online, but any damage to them, and the safety of the crew in the rest of the ship, was impossible to tell based on this display.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Linar asked.

Bianca took a deep breath. She looked at the two officers seated in front of her. "Helm - what's our speed?"

"We're - um..." The helm officer worked his controls. "About one-quarter impulse, but we're spinning out of control. Starboard thrusters are gone."

Bianca looked back at her console. "Let's work on that. Bring us to a stop - use emergency thrusters only, not the mains. We've got plasma leaks all over, and the structural integrity field's probably barely holding it all together."

"What can I do?" the sensors officer asked softly.

"You're alright?"

"I'll manage," she replied.

Bianca gave a quick nod of acknowledgment. "See if you can get comms working, get a distress call out."

"Let me," Linar said, recovering herself. "That's my station anyway."

"Sure." Bianca stepped aside, looking back to the sensors officer. "Maybe you can use lateral or passive sensors. Scan for rescue, for enemy, just let us know who's out there."

"On it," came the reply.

Bianca stepped forward, putting her hand on the helm officer's shoulder. "How about you? You alright?"

"I'm..." The helm officer's eyes fell on his commander's shattered body.

"Hey. Look at me." Bianca put herself in the helm officer's line of sight. "My name's Bianca duBois."

"You're - you're from Starfleet."

"That's right." She looked about. "Is there a first aid station up here?" She nodded at the sensors officer. "We should look to that cut."

The sensors officer gestured towards a small door beneath a wall console. "Over there."

Bianca opened up the compartment and found a medical tricorder and an autosuture kit. She took the dermal regenerator to the smaller cuts on the sensor officer's face.

"Thank you."

"Rishla," the sensors officer said after a moment. "He's Kulim."

Bianca nodded. "Sorry we weren't introduced sooner - there wasn't time." She was careful to stand in front of them, keeping their eyes away from the scene of carnage at the aft end of the command deck. She scanned Rishla's wound with the medical tricorder. "Looks like it's just a deep cut. It'll close right up." She took the autosuture device and sealed the wound. "I had first aid training my first year of the Academy. I still remember most of it, lucky enough. There. How about you, Kulim?"

"I'm really fine. Thanks."

"Linar? You okay?"

Linar merely nodded.

"I've corrected our spin," Kulim noted. "We're at all stop. Zero velocity in all directions."

"Good job. That was fast." She gave Kulim a brief smile before looking up at Linar. "Any luck with comms?"

"Looks like our main array was compromised by the attack. I can't raise anyone."

"Alright. I'd like to suggest we abandon ship."

Both Kulim and Rishla looked at each other. Kulim's antennae drooped in shame.

"I don't actually have any real authority here," Bianca continued, "as I'm not in the chain of command. But we've done what we can. I don't know if you know the term, 'sitting duck'..."

Linar came forward, standing between Rishla and Kulim. "We're Andorians. We're defending Andoria. We'd rather stay and fight."

Bianca bit her tongue rather than laugh. She understood how they felt. "I know how you feel. It wasn't that long ago that I was on a starship, defending my homeworld - from the Iconians. But on a ship this badly damaged... unless you plan on getting out and throwing rocks, there's no real hope of doing much more from here."

There was an awkward moment as Linar looked at the floor. "It's just... hard to leave like this."

"I understand." Bianca looked from Linar, to Rishla, and then to Kulim. "I know nobody wanted this outcome, hardly expected it... but the Klingons didn't really ask if anyone was ready." She leaned forwards. "The Starfleet ship. What's its name?"

Rishla looked over her console. "There's... one's called the Hofmann."

"That's the name." She tapped her commbadge and spoke the name of the ship with the Andorian captain. "Attention starship Hofmann. Come in please."

"This is the Hofmann," came the reply. "Who am I speaking with?"

"This is Starfleet Commander Bianca duBois, on board the Andorian starship Timshel. We've sustained heavy damage here. We are abandoning ship and require emergency beam-out of all personnel."

There was a brief interval that felt like an eternity before the reply. "We read you, Commander. Stand by for emergency beam-out."

Bianca nodded. "Appreciate it, Hofmann. Out." She tapped her commbadge again.

Linar returned to her console. "I'll sound the evacuation signal."

A loud triple-boom of a klaxon sounded. Bianca stepped beside Linar, while Rishla and Kulim rose from their consoles. Moments later, the transporter beam took them far from the scene of destruction aboard the Timshel, and they materialized within the relatively bright and sterile confines of the Hofmann's transporter room.

The Andorian captain stood waiting. "I'm Captain sh'Marois." She took a step forward. "Is Commander Shonem-?"

Bianca looked to Linar, who responded to the question. "The commander didn't make it, ma'am. I'm sorry."

"As am I." She looked to Bianca. "You must be Commander duBois."

"It was the lack of antennae that gave it away, right?" Bianca joked. "We've had quite a day. This is Timshel's ranking officer, Linar, the sensors officer, Rishla, and the helm officer, Kulim." Bianca felt Linar wilt at the mention of being the ranking - meaning, surviving - officer.

"Welcome aboard," Captain sh'Marois said to the three Andorian officers. She gestured to a Vulcan officer just behind her. "This is Doctor T'Mar, one of my medical officers. She can see to any wounds you may have."

"I think we're fine for that," Linar responded. "But thank you. Our ship-?"

"We'll be able to get everyone out. The starship Minerva is assisting with evacuations now that the Klingons have cleared out of the system."

"Minerva." Bianca guffawed. "Really."

"Is there a problem?"

"Not at all," Bianca said with a smile. "I know her captain."

"What about the homeworld?" Kulim asked, exasperated.

"When last we had sensors," Rashla explained, "it appeared the Klingons were targeting Andoria."

"I know," Captain sh'Marois replied. "There's a rift hanging open out there and we don't know what's on the other side. My team is looking for solutions but until we find something, we're all in danger here, as is our homeworld." She looked to Bianca. "If you don't mind, we could use your help."

Bianca gave a firm nod. "I'll do whatever I can."

Linar gestured to her crew. "Anything we can offer, just ask, Captain."

Sh'marois nodded appreciatively. "I would expect no less from the pride of the Imperial Guard." This revived the spirits of the three other Andorians.

The intercom chirped. "Bridge to sh'Marois."

The captain tapped her commbadge. "Go ahead."

"Captain Kuumaarke of the Lukari ship is hoping to speak to you."

"I'll be right there." sh'Marois gave a firm look. "I'll have someone come down for you once we've figured it all out upstairs." Then she turned and was gone.