A/N - Again, so sorry this took so long! For some reason I had real trouble writing this chapter. But, I think I'm happy with it now, so onwards! Thanks to everyone reading!

Disclaimer - I do not own anything to do with NCIS.

Kinoan raised his eyebrows slightly, an expression all the more striking with his three eyes, as Timothy groaned. "You think they will want to fight?" He guessed.

Timothy nodded.

"Perhaps they should be allowed to." Kinoan said after a few moments silence. Timothy's head snapped up and he stared at his friend in disbelief.

"No way."

"Timothy, if they really want to join you cannot stop them." Kinoan pointed out. This was true enough; while Timothy could allocate roles and make the final decisions about deployments, he could not dictate who could and could not sign up. "All three have experience of combat in some form."

"They are civillians and it is our duty to protect them." Timothy shot back. "Throwing them into a war they cannot possibly understand is not the answer."

"They stopped being civillians the moment they arrived on this station."

"That was hardly their choice." Timothy jumped to his feet again and began pacing around the tiny room in frustration. "We can't force people into service because they were abducted from their homeworld."

"And we won't be." Kinoan said, as calmly as ever. "This talk is purely hypothetical. The decision to fight or not will be left to your friends."

"I will not put them in danger, Kinoan, not if I can help it."

"They are already in danger." Kinoan sat forward in his seat and grabbed Timothy's arm, halting his pacing. "We face an enemy we cannot fathom. An enemy capable of almost knocking this station from its orbit and capable of penetrating our defences enough to lift six humans from planet Earth. We are facing our darkest night, old friend, and nothing is safe."

Timothy stared at him for a few long moments, mind desperately searching for a way out. He couldn't quite explain to himself why he was so determined to keep his team-mates as far away from this war as was possible. After all, it wasn't as if they never faced danger. Every time they left the Navy Yard they knew there was a chance one of them would not be coming back.

But they seemed so fragile now, so small, almost like porcelain dolls he was afraid of breaking. The reality of galactic warfare was very far from anything they had experienced on Earth. The stakes were far higher, for one; wide-scale war impacted on the very fabric of the universe, warping the nature of space and time and soldiers were sometimes lost in this maelstrom. Soldiers and ships, even whole planets sometimes, dropped out of the universe during war.

It was a phenomenon no one really understood and so no one spoke of it. There were whispers, of course, old legends told to newbies in basic training to scare them senseless. Old soldiers spoke of the Void, the emptiness between stars, the reason why travel between galaxies was rarely attempted. Such vast distances could break any mind.

"If I may offer a suggestion," Kinoan interrupted Timothy's thoughts; Timothy started slightly. "If they wish to fight, sign them over to Captain Mason."

Timothy laughed slightly, involuntarily. "Harriet won't take newbies."

"Captain Mason will do whatever you tell her to." Kinoan said firmly. "You are her General and she respects that, no matter her attitude."

"Gibbs is too old to go into basic training." Timothy began, still coming up with counter arguments even as he accepted the sensibility of Kinoan's suggestion. If there was anyone who could protect his friends once they completed the four-month basic training course, it was Harriet. Her unit was usually assigned the most dangerous missions but almost always returned with full numbers.

Kinoan interrupted. "Agent Gibbs was a Marine sniper, I believe?" He barely waited for Timothy's nod before continuing. "Then we specialise him immediately, bypassing the need for training. Use the time to acclimatise him to our weapons. Snipers usually stay put for long periods of time to guard base camps, so the role is less physically demanding."

Timothy stared at his friend, lost for words. Kinoan's plan was too well thought out to be spontaneous, but this wasn't much of a surprise. Timothy had to admit that, if they hadn't been discussing his friends, the plan was pretty much exactly what he would have suggested.

"Do you trust Captain Mason?" Kinoan asked quietly.

"That's not as simple as it seems." Timothy said with a sigh. Kinoan had, once again, hit the nail on the head. Everything now came down to whether or not he trusted Harriet, a woman who made him feel unexplainably ill even after all these years.

"When it comes down to it," Kinoan pressed. "In a battle, when it really matters, do you trust Captain Mason with your life?"

"Yes." Timothy said eventually. "I trust her to have my back."

The atmosphere in the office, when Timothy and Kinoan finally returned, was thick and tense. Harriet stood at the door, her hand on her weapon, glaring at the six occupants.

"The civilians," she spat the moment Timothy walked in. "Are being difficult."

"Of course they are." Timothy muttered under his breath, feeling very tired all of a sudden. He sank into a chair and looked at his team-mates warily. They were all watching him intently as Kinoan silently returned to his seat behind the grand desk.

"We cannot risk returning you to Earth." Timothy announced after a moment's silence. "You were specifically targeted by our enemies and if you return to the planet there is a chance they will try again. We can protect you better onboard the Orbiter."

"We won't just sit here in this ... this ... place," Gibbs stared around the room for a second or so, at a loss for words. The office was fairly regular by a human's standards, which just made Kinoan stand out even more and Gibbs' eyes came to rest on the old alien more than once. "Doing nothing if there's a war going on, McGee."

Timothy was expecting this retort but his heart still dropped a little. He opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by a furious Harriet.

"You will address General McGee by his full title, civilian." She hissed. Clearly something had happened between the two, both stubborn and used to being listened to, while Timothy had been absent.

Gibbs glared right back at her but made no reply.

"Harriet, sit down." Timothy said wearily. "These people are my friends. I don't expect you to do nothing, Gibbs." This last was addressed to the man Timothy was still half-tempted to call "boss".

"Ducky and Palmer," Timothy nodded at the pair. "Can work down on the Medical Deck under Doctor Gorcheva. Apparently autopsies are performed on occasion but if work is slow I'm sure you will have little difficultly in treating live patients as well."

The authority had returned to Timothy's voice; he sat a little straighter in his chair. Palmer nodded, wide-eyed, still in shock. Ducky was a lot calmer than his assistant but also nodded agreement, though he fixed Timothy with a level, searching gaze.

Timothy looked at Abby. "We don't have a forensic science department I'm afraid, Abbs, but I think you'll enjoy working in the Radio room."

Abby looked curious. "What's that?"

"Communications centre. The technology is a lot more advanced than you're used to but, given time and a good teacher, I think you'll get the hang of it." Timothy tried to sound enthusiastic, for the truth was that Abby was unlikely to fully grasp the technology.

"I think Leah Chesel and Varigandi would be a wise choice for tutors." Kinoan offered. The NCIS team stared at him for several seconds longer than was necessary. Timothy couldn't suppress an eye-roll; they were going to have to get over this very quickly. Kinoan was far from the most striking alien they would encounter onboard the Orbiter, much less beyond.

"I agree." Timothy nodded. He was just glad that Abby, Palmer and Ducky were not raising any objections to his plans so far. He turned to look at Gibbs, Ziva and Tony again who wore identical expressions of determination.

"I'm not staying here to do some menial job, McGee." Gibbs glanced at Harriet as he spoke; she snarled but made no response. "If there's going to be a war, I want to fight."

"Me too." Ziva and Tony spoke almost at the same time.

"I guessed you'd say that." Timothy sighed, got to his feet and looked at the three of them levelly. "I don't like it but I'm willing to give you a chance. But it will be on my terms. You either do as I say or I will stick you all in the canteen until the war is over."

A few tense moments passed but Timothy's stare didn't waver and, eventually, Gibbs, Ziva and Tony nodded agreement.

"Ziva and Tony, you will enter four months of basic training and if you successfully complete the course you will be allowed to fight. Gibbs, you are too old for that route-"

Gibbs tried to interrupt. Timothy held up a hand and fixed him with a glare to rival his own. The older man fell silent again.

"You cannot enter training, but your skill as a sniper will be useful to us. You will spent those four months adapting to our advanced weaponry and the fighting techniques our sniper units use. There is no negotiation here. If you do not want to do this, then you will be working in the canteen."

Timothy felt an uncomfortable kind of triumph when none of the three raised any objections. They looked back at him, frowning slightly and obviously not entirely pleased but remained silent.

Timothy glanced across at Harriet, wondering whether to tell her now that, in four months time, she would be getting a small unit of newbies to watch over. He decided it was probably best to break that news in private.

"All right." Timothy said gruffly. "We'll start the process right now. Get you identification papers and then take you down to the Decks you'll be working on."

Everyone stood to leave, including Kinoan and Harriet. Timothy had just pulled the door open when Gibbs spoke.

His voice was very different now; heavy and distorted, almost robotic. He stood stock still in the centre of the room, staring straight ahead with sightless eyes, glazed over and dead.

The voice and the words it spoke sent a cold shiver down Timothy's spine and a sudden jolt of fear rose from the pit of his stomach.

"The Void approaches."