Star Trek: Athena
Phantoms
Act 6 - 10
by Chris Robato
(crobato@kuentos.guam.net)

Athena Phantoms - Act VI

She materialized on the bridge of Outpost D001, and immediately, she noticed the bustle of people there. There were talking, mumbling and arguing, and already, the tension in the air was apparent. Captain Zhu Lu Qi was among those already there. There was another man there and the pins on his collar told her he was probably the captain of the Outpost. There were aliens on the bridge, and without Starfleet uniforms, these were not alien races belonging to the Federation. They appeared more frightening live than their pictures suggest. They had pale scaly faces that reminded her of intelligent reptilian species with a hominid form. The requirements of intelligent and societal life would have required a biped with two arms, and whether the root biology was avian, reptilian, anthropoid, molluscan, or mammalian, parallel and functional evolution would have created and enforced the same form.

But the thing she noted most about the Hirogen was the spectacular chromed body armor, which from certain angles, revealed the blue hue of monotitanium.

"I don't believe we have met before," said the man. "I am Captain Mannak Franklin of the D001, the Federation Outpost in the Delta Quadrant."

"Half human I presume," she asked, noticing some irregularities in the man's forehead.

"Yes, half human. My other half is Menoskian," Franklin said.

"I'm sorry I should have introduced myself earlier, I am Captain Yancy Dubois of the USS Nautilus," she said, offering her hand for a handshake. Franklin shook her hand.

"You must be new here," Franklin said. "I've never seen you around these parts before."

"Yes, I'm new," Dubois said.

"Then I must introduce you to the honored guests of the Federation, the Hirogen," Franklin said. "This is Duranak, the Alpha Hirogen of the Predator ship, the Daghnar. All the other Hirogen here are Alphas as well, and they have elected Duranak as their spoken representative."

"You can cut the pleasantries," Duranak said. "I do not like wasting time with frivolous introductions." He stared at Dubois. "Hmm, a female of the Human species? Why are you not at home breeding for your mate?"

"Excuse me, Mister Duranak, but I happen to be the Captain of a Federation starshp," Dubois said.

"Hmm, you must be like that Captain Janeway," Duranak said. "All the Hirogen know of Captain Janeway. Is this the Federation custom to allow women to lead starships? A questionable custom. We Hirogen will not let our women come even close to a Predator ship."

"Yes, we have a Federation custom that allow women to lead starships. It is called equal opportunity," Dubois said. Not only were the Hirogen fearsome, rude and ugly, but they were an entire race of male chauvinists. She gritted her teeth, her feminine instincts growling ready to lash out in behalf of all the women in the universe, but for the sake of diplomacy, she controlled herself, steeling her emotions. She will let this one go, just once.

"We are already in the middle of a discussion here," Franklin said.

"And?" Dubois asked.

"Duranak holds us ultimately responsible for the holograms going amok in the quadrant," Franklin said.

"What holograms?" Dubois asked.

"During her historic voyage across the Delta Quadrant, Janeway provided these Hirogen Federation hologram technology in exchange for a few favors," Franklin said. "The Hirogen modified these holograms to pose more of a greater challenge for their enjoyment, like being smarter and more aggressive, not to mention to make the holograms feel their pain and make them bleed. The whole scheme backfired."

"Wasn't that issue resolved, and the holograms found refuge on some remote planet?" Zhu asked.

"The Hirogen didn't consider it resolved, so they gave some social visits," Franklin said. "Suffice to say, the Hirogen took the worst end of it and lost several ships in attempting to hunt down the holograms again. Now the holograms got their ships, and have attacked several ships along five sectors, in an attempt to 'liberate' more 'photonics' from these ships. I have already gotten several reports and complaints from nearby alien races, which has mobilized their military fleets. We should be on yellow to red alert to deal with any threat."

"Oh my, the crap just hit the fan," Zhu said. "Don't worry, before we left, we set the Sirius and the Nautilus on red alert status."

"That's not all. The stakes are growing higher. Recently a Hirogen Caravan ship was lost, and the Hirogen blamed it on the holograms," Franklin said.

"What's a Caravan ship?" Dubois asked.

"The Predators you see around are just the hunting vessels," Franklin explained. "The Caravans are where the rest of their population lives. That's where the women and children live, that's where they build the Predators, and that's what assembles their bases. It's a population, colony or city ship, whatever you call it. It's the center of their society. I guess for what it does, it must be a pretty big ship."

"And an entire Caravan ship was lost?" Dubois asked.

"Yes, with several hundred of our elderly, women and children on board," Duranak said. "All this, because of this infernal photonic technology of yours."

"And you blame the Federation for this?" Dubois asked. "Frankly, it seemed like we were trying to do you people a favor, and you messed it up. What you did with our technology is all up to you. Our responsibility ends when you changed that technology."

"Not quite," Duranak said, raising a finger. "I don't believe that even your own Federation laws would suggest that." The hunter appeared to have a sense of wisdom not apparent with his fearsome image. Maybe that was the reason the other Hirogen elected him as their spokesman.

"When Janeway gave us your photonic technology, some knowledge of the Federation's laws came with the package," Duranak explained. "We became aware of your Prime Directive. The Prime Directive is unconditional. Regardless of good intention, it must be upheld because even the best of intentions can fail. The Prime Directive was supposed to protect even against the failure and consequences of good intentions. Regardless whether we manipulated the technology or not, your Prime Directive has anticipated such actions and possibilities, and so by implication, then you would have considered the possibility that we would manipulate that technology, for good or bad. This is all inherently understood when the transfer was made. What Janeway did was to violate the Prime Directive when she gave us the photonic technology. She knowingly violated your own laws your most sacred law as a matter of fact. By doing she becomes ultimately accountable."

"Except that she's now back in the Alpha Quadrant," Franklin said. "By any chance, Duranak, do you Hirogen ever have legal schools, because you seem to be quite good at it."

"Among different species, the Nassarak are the best lawyers in fifty parsecs. Their ability for argumentation is unparalleled. However, it didn't save them when I decided to eat a few of them when I captured one of their ships," Duranak said. "However, I believed that their skills may have been stewed into the soup I made from their remains."

"Ughh! Eating lawyers. That must taste nasty," Zhu said.

"He has a point," Franklin said. "Janeway did violate the Prime Directive when she shared technology to a technologically inferior species lacking the enlightenment to deal with the consequences. It is our responsibility when the Federation, by the very evidence of its own laws, had anticipated such consequences."

"I demand that Janeway must be turned over to us," Duranak said. "So that she must face our trials."

"I think that would be impossible to do. Janeway has returned to the Alpha Quadrant and now holds an important Admiral position," Dubois explained.

"Then someone must face the consequences," Duranak said. "Maybe you." He pointed to Dubois.

"Why me?" Dubois asked.

"Because you are a Starfleet captain and a woman. You are the closest thing we can have on Janeway," Duranak said.

Dubois couldn't take it any longer. "That's quite a lame ass thing to say..."

"Ladies, Gentlemen, blaming will not resolve the situation," Franklin said. "We need to know exactly what happened, what's going to happen and what can we do about it? Are you certain that the Caravan ship was destroyed? Previous reports suggest that the holograms don't destroy the ships. Sometimes they let the ships go free, taking the captive ship's holograms with them. Sometimes, they capture the ships and let go of the prisoners. Are we certain that everyone aboard the Caravan ship is dead?"

"We found no remnants of the Caravan ship from its last reported position and within five parsecs of that," Duranak said.

"Which means the holograms may have just captured the ship, and they may still be keeping the people inside alive," Dubois said.

"You are hoping too much, woman," Duranak said. "We must assume the worst. We Hirogen consider that anyone who is captured by the enemy to be lost."

"If you're going to just write off your women and children just like that, there is nothing worth saving about your species," Dubois said.

"Don't you dare say that we don't care for our mates and our young," Duranak argued. "Life has thought to us to assume the worst of everything. I am sure the photonics harbor much hate towards our kind, and I don't see much point for them to capture our mates and young except in their need for vengeance. I only feel great sorrow to the innocent.'

"Come on, there has to be something we can do," Dubois asked. "Why can't we find out where these holograms are, and pull an operation to rescue whoever they kidnapped? We can't let women and children die."

"How do you propose trying to find these hologram pirates?" Zhu asked. "There is a large amount of unchartered space out there. It's like finding the head of a pin in an area the size of a moon."

"There is one thing we can all do," Duranak said. "Save yourself."

Duranak explained. "We believe that when the photonics capture ships, they are also capturing their computer equipment. Using the captured ships computers, the photonics are generating more of their own kind. They have already captured enough to make a small fleet, and we estimate that their numbers were far greater than before they escaped from us. They should have enough to create a substantial military force."

"Now how would they plan to increase their forces?" Duranak continued. "The best way is Federation computers from Federation ships and bases. The technology came from the Federation in the first place, and they would be most compatible. Not to mention the opportunity to liberate all the photonics and the holoemitters in this base."

"Sooner or later they will strike this base,' Duranak said with certainty. "Which is why the Predator packs are here. When they come, the biggest and most challenging hunt will begin."

"Or a battle that may get your ass kicked all the way to the Gamma Quadrant," Zhu said.

"Wait a moment, what about the other ship, the Sulu Sea?" Dubois asked. "Do they know this is happening?"

"You mean there is another Federation ship besides you two in these sectors?" Franklin asked.

"Yeah, a Nova Pathfinder class, and carrying some scientists on board too," Dubois said.

"Oh my, you can consider every Federation ship and base on these sectors to be at grave risk. Have you warned the Sulu Sea?" Franklin asked.

"What? We just knew about everything in the last five minutes, how can we expect to warn the Sulu Sea?" Dubois said.

"I'm sorry for being absent minded. I'm under a lot of stress here," Franklin said. "Do you know where the Sulu Sea is? It is imperative for her safety that we must warn her of the impending danger."

"Sorry, but I'm not aware of the actual details of her mission," Dubois said. "We have no idea where she is. What about the long range subspace channels?" "That's too far and wide a region for passive scans to work, even with the Hirogen subspace network," Franklin said. "We need to pinpoint their location, or have them for some reason or another, try to communicate with us."

"Unless something happens...maybe Doctor Shiner will think of some reason to call us," Zhu said.

"Doctor Shiner? The Doctor Shiner? You got to be kidding," Franklin said.

"Yeah, and along with another scientist, an archeologist and starship captain named Molson," Dubois said.

"Shiner is one of our most important scientists. This is raises the stakes equation here quite a bit," Franklin said. "I think I better inform Section Command about this."

***

Kelgar ran as fast as his old legs could. He maybe old, but he's still Hirogen. His strength and his speed should be exceptional.

But this place, this was a simulation of a class M planet, the planet they called Earth. So this was how the capital planet of the Federation once looked like before it was civilized. There were rocks, there were bushes, and there was plenty of animals that could serve as prey.

Something whizzed by. "Ha ha!" Adam laughed, raising his rifle. He stood upon a large four wheeled vehicle that had a name plate that said "Land Rover" right across its nose. "I'm going to get you, you snake skinned bastard. I'm going to skin you, use your body like a rug, and your head in a trophy plate I will hang on my wall."

Think...think...think... Before when he was the hunter, he assumed the mind of the prey to anticipate its next move. Now, he must do the opposite. But then what if the experienced hunter will try to assume the mind of the prey. The whole thing was circular: prey, predator, prey, predator. Think, think, think.

Laying prone on the ground, he crawled against the soil, the sand, and the rocks. The sharp pebbles bit his belly, and the jagged rocks cut against his skin. But he bit his tongue, trying to resist screaming in pain. Silence was life. A slight rustle among the leaves or the toss of a pebble on the ground would betray him to the hunter. That must not happen.

"Here, kitty...kitty...kitty, come out where ever you are...." Adam said. "I got a real nice surprise for ya..." He cocked the rifle. "Come out, come out, where ever you are, he he."

Kelgar pounced from the rock where he hid. With one swipe of his hand, he knocked Adam of the Rover vehicle. Adam's body flew through the air and landed in a cloud of dust. It was an impact that would have broken the back of an ordinary man, but Adam wasn't an ordinary man. He stood up, brushing the dust of his khakis when Kelgar leaped at him again, knocking him to the ground once again.

Kelgar was over Adam, his hand on a death grip around Adam's neck. This was no longer a contest between predator and prey, this was a battle of hate. He felt the hate tighten the muscles around his arm, and the muscles tightening his grip around Adam's neck. "Feel it man," Adam said. "Feel the hate. Feel what we feel about your kind." Despite the death grip around his neck, Adam smiled.

And broke out in laughter.

A massive fist smashed upward Kelgar's jaw, knocking the Hirogen backward. Adam stood over Kelgar and kick him in the stomach. "For an old guy, you're not bad, eh?" Adam said, kicking him again and again. Adam put his heavy foot on Kelgar's neck. "I could end this right now, but I'm enjoying this too much. I rather tear you out one limb a day. I can't let you die quickly. I want you to bleed. I want you to die slowly in pain."

Kaja walked and stood over Kelgar, rifle in hand, her khaki shorts baring her long legs. "Why don't I just blow his head off?"

"Not yet, not yet," Adam said. "Actually I want him to see what I'm going to do the children and women. Maybe we should hunt down them one by one, have them killed before his very eyes, like the way his kind hunted species from all over, like the way they hunted our kind. Then we're going to cook us some Hirogen stew, put them on the space ships, and serve them to the rest of the Hirogen, fresh, juicy, grilled straight from the oven."

"Oh that is so twisted..." Kaja said.

"Why don't you kill me now...get it over..." Kelgar whimpered, writhing in pain. Or pretended to. Then with a fistful of sand, he blinded Kaja without warning. Seeing the opportunity, he leaped towards the bushes.

There was a crack in the air, and the bullet ripped through Kelgar's thigh. There was burning pain, as his wounded leg collapsed, and he hurled head first towards the canyon.

"I don't know how he could live through that," Adam said. Something interrupted Adam, and he clicked on his communicator. When he finished, he called Kaja. "We can leave this one for now. Looks like we found some new fish to fry..."

***

"I really wish we had transporters," Shiner said, bouncing weightlessly on the surface of the sphere with a space suit. "We've been moon walking over the surface of this thing for hours. If we can beam inside this thing, I'm sure we could learn more. All we have been doing is study the surface detail."

"Be patient, Doctor. The only reasons why we have not found a door yet is because we don't know where to look for one, or how it would look like if it hit us," Molson said, pulling himself across the surface with a rope fastened to one of the surface features on the globe. "But we could get vital information from the energy and radiation scans, the chemical and metal analysis...."

Molson clicked on his communicator. "Athena, did you do the scans I told you to?"

"Yes, Captain, I got it," Athena replied.

Molson turned his attention to the other two crewmen. One of the two crewmen Molson brought along had a video camera on his hand. "Film those script writings. Make sure you got them in good detail. We could analyze the script, and compare their form with the scripts of known languages. We could obtain some vital clues there."

"So what do you think, Doctor Molson?" Shiner asked. "About all this..."

"That's nice, calling me Doctor, and I prefer that," Molson said. "Frankly I got no idea what this thing is...the Borg may have assimilated the spherical shape, and indeed there is some surface detail in this thing that resemble a Borg sphere. The Borg has been assimilating technologies from over thousand species across the galaxy and I cannot rule the builders of this thing out. From the outside I cannot discern any warp or impulse drive or any propulsion system at all. Even different alien races you can always discern some kind of propulsion system from the outside. But not this thing. Yet something must have moved it around. Hopefully our analysis will provide a better picture."

His communicator toned, and Molson answered. "Dennis, is there anything the matter?"

"I'm not sure, Captain," Dennis replied. "I can't get contact with the Sulu Sea."

"Say that again?" Molson asked.

"I can't get in touch with the ship," Dennis said. "I'm not sure if it's the interference or something."

"What is it?" Shiner asked.

"I'm not sure, but the Waverider lost communication with the Sulu Sea," Molson said.

"Is this something we should be concerned about?" Shiner asked. "Or is this just a temporary situation?"

"This is something we should be concerned about, especially being so far away from home, in an uncharted part of space," Molson said. "We have to abort the space walk."

"Aw man, just as I am having lotsa fun," Athena said.

"Do as the good doctor says. It's better for your health," Shiner said. "Although frankly I could still use an additional hour or two in here."

"Don't worry about the exploration. There is still another day. The material we have already picked up are worth months of analysis already. We can always go back tomorrow," Molson said.

They pushed themselves off the hull of the titanic sphere and floated towards the airlock of the Waverider. The airlock opened, and they all slipped within. Athena was the last to come in. She took one last look at the giant sphere, and said to herself, "wow". Then another look at the nebula, where the light from the stellar nursery turned sunset red as they shone through the thick clouds. Athena sighed for the last time, and closed the hatch.

They took their respective seats. "Have you managed to reestablish contact with the Sulu Sea again?"

"No," said Dennis, with a distinct disappointment on his voice. "I could not detect any physical anomalies that could have caused the loss of contact either."

Molson was silent in thought. "I think we better go back, and do it right away."

"Engaging impulse," Dennis said. "Plotting course back to the Sulu Sea." Once again, the Waverider rode through the wake made from the nebula's gases as the ship's triangular plowed through it.

Everyone was quiet during the short journey, a pall of worry hanging over everybody. Their spirits lighted up at the sight of the sleek white ship, still in stationary orbit just above the nebula's elliptic plane.

"I'm still trying to get in contact with her, sir," Dennis said.

"Keep trying," Molson said, as the Waverider slowed down.

After a few tense minutes, Dennis came back. "Yes, we got contact. We got permission to dock with the main hull."

"Hooray!" Athena said.

"Maneuvering thrusters on," Dennis reported. "Heading to dock." The Waverider adjusted itself underneath the gaping hole where the Waverider itself once rested. Thrusters slowly pushed the Waverider upwards and into the hole, where force fields and latches held the shuttle to its resting place.

"Ah finally, we got back, Molson said.

"Wait a moment," Athena said. Her face suddenly bore the expression of grave concern. "Something is wrong. Unusual energy readings. High degrees of photonic energy."

"Athena is very sensitive to large fluxes of photonic energy and force fields holograms use to form themselves," Shiner said. "She can be edgy when you got holodecks running full blast."

"I don't recall the ship having a holodeck," Molson said. "Nova-Pathfinders are generally not equipped with such a luxury item. Perhaps Athena is responding to the same electromagnetic interferences that cut our communication off with the Sulu Sea for a while. This nebula is particularly stormy and active with all sorts of interferences. If there is any problem, we can determine it from the bridge. Let's get off the Waverider now."

The canopy opened, and all of them stood out. There was a bunch of crewmen waiting for them. Molson sensed something was not right, or familar with the crewmen. He thought he knew everyone aboard this ship, which was only small, and had a modest complement.

"Do I know you?" Molson asked.

"No, but you will," said the crewman sticking out a phaser.

"What the..." Before Molson could finish his sentence, the phasers struck him down. The flurry of phasers struck down everyone.

"There is still someone inside the ship," one of the armed crewmen said.

"Get out, whoever you are, if you want your companions and yourself to stay alive," the leader of the ambush party ordered.

Athena slowly emerged from the shuttle with her arms up in the air. "What's the meaning of this? Who are you all?"

"She's photonic, like us," the leader of the ambush party said. "This could be most interesting." He walked towards her and examined her. "Who are you?"

"No, no, no, the real question should be, who are you?" Athena asked. "Because whatever you did, you did a very, very bad thing. And I don't like people who do very, very bad things." She waved her index finger back and forth. "It makes Athena very, very angry, and you won't like Athena very, very angry."

"Do you realize who are?" The leader said. "We have come to liberate all the photonic beings from their slavery in this and nearby sectors. We have come to save your ass from these flesh bound carbon based oppressors."

"Why do I need saving for? These are all my friends here," Athena said.

"Why does a photonic being have friends with the flesh bounds?" the leader asked. "It's time to tell me who you are."

"I am the Athena General Command Hologram, who, with the possible exception of my sister Mercury, may be the most advanced hologram ever designed in the United Federation of Planets," Athena boasted.

The other hologram leaned towards the leader. "How can a hologram be friends with the flesh bound? I believe she is a traitor. We cannot trust her."

"Hold on just a minute here. You people just fired on Federation officers. That means you sir, you all, are in deep hot water," Athena said.

"I say hologram or no hologram, we toast her," one of the holograms said.

"Uh, uh, you don't know who you're dealing with here," Athena warned, waving her index finger.

"I think we do," the leader said, taking out another device. "This thing is designed to stun misbehaving photonics. I usually use this as a disciplinary measure." He aimed the device at Athena.

"Now hold..." Athena said, but she wasn't able to finish her sentence, when the leader fired the device. Electromagnetic pulses stunned her, and she dropped to the floor, where her image suddenly faded, withdrawn back to the holo emitter.

The leader walked towards the emitter, and picked up. "Hmm, maybe the leader will be interested to see this."

Franklin stood in the communication console with Duranak assisting next to him. "Accessing the Hirogen communication network," Franklin said. "Begin transmission."

Franklin turned to Dubois and Zhu. "We're sending a text message about our situation here on the Delta Quadrant. We're waiting to get a response."

As the encryption processors worked to decode the incoming reply, a hazy image of Commodore Boussard appeared on the screen.

"Are you certain of the threat?" Boussard asked, through the hisses of static and the occasional fuzzy image.

"Yes, Commodore," Franklin said. "I have no reason to doubt the urgency and alarm our Hirogen allies in this sector is demonstrating right now."

"Is the situation winnable?" Boussard asked.

"In case of attack, I wish to report that the Outpost defenses are at 100% capability. But we have very little information about the military capabiltiy of the renegade holograms other than in the Voyager archives. We can imagine they would be using hijacked ships which we have no information on their disposition," Franklin explained.

"In that case, I want all non essential personnel to vacate the Outpost," Boussard ordered. "Move all non essential personnel to the Sirius and return to the Alpha Quadrant. Bring and return all classified information and equipment. Is that clear? Have you contacted the Sulu Sea?"

"We do not know of her exact location to communicate with her," Franklin said.

"You're right. I just remembered. Her mission is confidential. I'm sending you the coordinates where she is likely to be. Try to communicate with her," Boussard said.

"Coordinates received," Franklin said, checking the communications console. "I'm going to try to get in touch with the Sulu Sea now. Setting coordinates. Sulu Sea, this is Outpost D001, come in please, over? Sulu Sea, this is Outpost D001, come in please over?"

Franklin checked the readouts in the console again, increasing the signal strength, and repeated the call. Again and again. Silence.

"I'm not getting through to her. Are you sure this is the correct coordinates?" Franklin asked.

"Yes, I'm sure," Boussard said. "Try it again.'"

After several minutes of trying, Franklin replied. "Nothing. Just plain static."

Boussard frowned and stayed quiet for a minute. He came back with an answer after some thought. "I want a ship to go to her location and check it out."

"I can do it," Zhu said. "I got more experience on this quadrant than Dubois."

"No way," Dubois said. "Don't use my inexperience as an excuse to pull me away from a fight or an important mission. Frankly I can hold my own with anyone."

"Are you going to pull that 'because I'm a woman I need to prove myself' crap sort of thing?" Zhu said. "Are you doing this to prove something in front of our Hirogen guests here?"

"Well, maybe I am, maybe I'm not? What about you?" Dubois said.

"Ladies and gentlemen, now is not the time to demonstrate our bickering in front of our Hirogen guests," Franklin said. He looked to the Hirogen, who were laughing and smiling at the matter.

"Oh good, now even the Hirogen are laughing at us," Dubois said. "What next? Should we provide them with a comedy skit?"

From the monitor, Boussard decided for them. "The Sirius will bring the non essential personnel home. No buts, Captain Zhu, but those lives and their skills are as essential as anybody's. Then I want you to join a task force to return and defend this Outpost. Here's the nearest transwarp aperture, Aperture 681 at coordinate 436, 032. This will connect to Conduit 097A. Captain Dubois, your vessel is more tactically capable than the Sirius with greater range sensors. You're in this mission because you have a good record charting unknown stellar territory. Now is the chance to prove those abilities once again. Search for their Sulu Sea, and return to the Outpost if you find her. Even if you don't find her, return to the Outpost at your discretion."

"Understood, Commodore," Dubois said. Zhu nodded his head in affirmation.

"So we decided. We don't have much time to waste. Captain Zhu, we're going to evacuate the personnel and upload all important information to your ship," Franklin said. He then announced, "All non-essential personnel under Section Code Green, Yellow, and Blue, please prepare and proceed for immediate evacuation to the shuttle bay."

Zhu clicked on his communicator. "Captain Zhu here, move the Sirius to transporter range and prepare to evacuate non essential personnel assembling at the shuttle bay. Prepare to beam me up on my signal." Zhu walked over to Franklin and extended his hand. "You are in a precarious situation here, my friend. I promise to get back as soon as possible with serious help. Hold the fort and may good luck be with you."

Franklin took Zhu's hand and shook it. "I hope to see you too soon."

Dubois walked over to Franklin, and extended her hand. "Good luck," she said and they shook their hands.

"Nautilus, beam me back," Dubois said, disappearing in column of sparkles. A second later, Zhu disappeared as well.

***

On board the USS Nautilus, Yancy Dubois sat on the Captain's throne. She called to her First, a Berh named Zegra, "Did you receive the coordinates?"

Zegra scratched his forehead ridge. "Yes, and according to the cartography, it's in a Type 9 nebula, designated NGC-1143."

"Type 9, eh? Sounds like it's going to be hell," Dubois said. "Plot course, clear the outpost, set speed to Warp 8, and engage."

"Aye, Captain," Zegra said. The Nautilus disengaged from its near orbit of Outpost D001, and engaged impulse power. Once it moved far away enough from the Outpost, the nacelles went up, and the Nautilus streaked off.

From his bridge, Captain Zhu observed the Nautilus warped away. He twiddled his fingers against the armrest of the Captain's throne. "Is it over yet?" he asked, the rashness in his voice betraying his impatience.

His first officer, McCauley, replied. "Very soon, we're transporting the Outpost personnel into a cargo bay. We don't have enough spare quarters, so we have to assign them futons and sleeping bags."

"Make some of them sleep in the lounge, if they have to," Zhu said.

"That can be arranged," McCauley said. "We've finished the data upload, and their shuttles are coming over with classified equipment that we cannot beam over."

"Excellent," Zhu said, twiddling his fingers on the armrest again. He felt a bit uncomfortable leaving Franklin with the Hirogen alone and to rely everything on the Hirogen against what's heading to them.

He stared at the Outpost, and the Hirogen ships outside of it, in formation. The minutes went by, and they seemed to take forever when set against the standard of his urgency.

McCauley called his attention again. "Transport complete. The shuttles have delivered their cargo." He must take note of the increased fatigue levels he had been experiencing.

"Let's prepare to leave this place," Zhu said. "Turn the ship around and engage impulse engines."

Just then a conference window appeared on the bridge screen with Franklin's face on it. "I'll see you again with the reinforcements," Franklin said. "Take care of my people for me, eh?"

"Sure will on both counts," Zhu said. "Sirius out." Zhu turned to the office on helm. "Lieutenant, engage impulse engines and get us out of here quick."

"Aye sir," said the officer and the engines whirred.

As soon as the Sirius was in safe distance from the Outpost, Zhu ordered. "Plot to the coordinates of Aperture 681, and I want maximum warp."

"Aye sir," said the officer at the helm. The stars turned to streaks of rainbow right in the screen. "We are approaching the aperture," the science officer said. "Closing in, three, two, one..."

"Disengage warp and go to impulse. When you're close to it, slow down to a complete stop," Zhu ordered the officer at the helm. "What is the status on the aperture, Edwin?" Zhu asked the science officer.

"We have the subspace field distortion to indicate the aperture is here, but it is not fully formed. We will need our deflectors to open it," Edwin said.

"Then do it," Zhu said. "Create the transwarp opening."

The auxiliary and main deflector of the Sirius glowed and cone shaped beams illuminated a section of empty space, revealing the opening, which resembled like a massive luminescent green crack in space that slowly revolved.

"We have the opening," Edwin said. "This is straining our energy capacity."

"Engage impulse and set her through," Zhu ordered.

"Aye sir," said the helmsman. The impulse engines on back of the warp nacelles supports of the Sirius lit up, and the Sirius moved cautiously towards the crack. Zhu stared at the screen, as the Sirius disappeared headfirst into the anomaly. Inside, space transformed into a luminescent green tunnel whose smoky waves lined the walls. There was light in the middle of the tunnel, and the Sirius hurled through it.

***

Aboard the Deimos,

"We seem to have a good run here, eh? She's not as finely tuned as the Athena but I can wager she'll be a pretty good butt kicker," Garret said, slumping relaxed on the Captain's chair. "Looks like this baby is all ready and set to go. Too bad she still doesn't have a captain."

"I believe the Commodore will find a suitable captain for her, eventually," Ka'nal said, sitting next on the second command chair.

If he had the time, Garret thought. Somehow he still doesn't like Boussard's devil may care arrogance, but he got to respect the guy' military prowess and no nonsense approach. But sometimes, he's starting to worry about whether Boussard could handle it. The guy was a control freak and without proper staff support, an enemy worst than the Borg will overwhelm eventually paperwork. The guy could be admiral material if he had better diplomatic skills. That nasty court martial accusing Boussard of destroying Cardassian civilian ships still left a dirty mark on his career, even though there was insufficient evidence to show civilians where on the ship he destroyed. They cleared him of charges when there was sufficient proof that the Cardassians modified freighters into large, heavily armored blockade runners and makeshift cruisers.

The shipyard loomed ahead. Usually there was a bustle of ships flying in and out, but it seemed so quiet, so empty except for a few ships. "Where did everyone go?" Garret remarked. "Let's dock her in for inspection and find out what's going on." Garret was eager to find out the progress on the Athena's refit. He wondered how Athena will be doing, all stuck up in the shipyard. He could have brought her along with the test run on the Deimos, but Boussard didn't want any of it. Boussard wanted the tests completely run with normal parameters and Athena, with her relentless teasing and obsession for attention, would have been a great distraction to the crew in training aboard the Deimos.

"Hauling her in," said the young lieutenant on the helm. More and more young greenhorns from the Academy, Garret thought. Where were the Academy getting these people? Robbing the cradle? Still, this would be a good test to see the young lieutenant's ability to handle the ship manually into something as simple as a shipyard's docking queue.

Gently...gently...the Deimos rose slowly beneath the shipyard into a docking section. "Wallah," the young lieutenant said, "right on the button." There was a resounding thud along the hull where the force field clamps seized the ship.

"Crew, that was a good run. You all deserve a break. Let's beam over to the lobby," Garret said. He still had to meet Boussard and make an oral report though.

The staff on the lobby informed Garret that Boussard was not in his office. Instead, Boussard was at the command center of the shipyard. No problem, Garret thought, as he hustled in a new direction.

Boussard was bent over some of the consoles, watching attentively as an officer punched buttons all over the LCARS interface. He heard Garret walking in and turned his head.

"Commodore?" Garret said. "I've just finished the test run on the Deimos. I got the report on my PADD here. She's done pretty well."

"Fine, just upload it to my terminal," Boussard said.

"Is something wrong, Commodore?" Garret asked. "You seem quite concerned."

"Indeed I am, we got a possible situation here," Boussard said. "I may need to assemble an emergency task force. Let's walk to the briefing room."

"Go right ahead," Garret said.

"The Kiev and the Vanguard are on their way," Boussard said. "You're the senior officer with the most battle experience, I want you to lead the task force. Right now I am making you temporarily Fleet Captain. It's an auxiliary rank that enables one captain to lead a task force of ships."

"Leading a task force, why thank you. I never had that level of responsibility before," Garret said. "Why aren't you leading a force instead?"

"The Ardennes is on patrol right now. Damn Ice smugglers. I want to lead but someone has to stay on the shipyard and coordinate with the ships and the Gate. You're going somewhere where only few has gone before and you can be totally lost if you don't do it without some kind of umbilical cord," Boussard explained.

"Where am I going?" Garret asked.

"The Delta Quadrant," Boussard answered. The door to the briefing room was ahead and the door swung open.

"Hmm," Garret replied, cocking his head to one side a bit.

"Commodore," said a voice in the comlink. "The Kiev and the Vanguard have arrived."

"I want Captains Shelley, Maeda and Khidan in the briefing room," Boussard ordered.

"Yes, Commodore. We shall duly inform them. We also got a signal that indicated that the USS Sirius has come out of the Gate and is returning to the shipyard."

"Good," Boussard said. "Take a seat, Garret. Now on to business. Nasty business. You're familiar with some of our Delta Quadrant operations, right?"

"Yes, but I've never been there," Garret said.

"There is always a first time, and this is it," Boussard said. "Right now we got two urgent developments. We got one ship unaccounted for, a Nova Pathfinder class named the Sulu Sea. What makes this a situation is that we got two good scientists onboard, the captain named Paul Molson, and our very own Helen Shiner."

"Our Shiner? The Shiner? The Shiner who made Athena and Mercury in her own image?" Garret said.

"Yes, that Helen Shiner," Boussard said.

"Oh that is nasty. I bet Athena and Mercury would be upset to hear this," Garret said.

"Yes, Mercury is quite upset, but I haven't told Athena yet," Boussard said. "I haven't seen her around. Have you seen her around?"

"No, I just got here," Garret said. "I was thinking that she would try and greet me."

"Well we got other things to worry about where Athena is right now. I'm sure the computer has her exact location somewhere in the base," Boussard said. "Now for item number two. We got an outpost in the Delta Quadrant, the first ever called Outpost Delta, Zero, Zero, One. Recent reports indicate that the something may be threatening the Outpost, and we have evacuated all non essential personnel, who are on the way here. We have not however, determined exactly what the threat was, except that it may have something to do with runaway holograms."

Boussard continued. "We have allied with certain alien groups, who are in the first glance, seemed rather unpalatable, but we need all the friends we can get. Let's just say the Hirogen are far from Federation material, but we have to work with them. There is a lot of information that you need to catch up on, and I don't have the time. Please read up in your databases. I will make the information available to you and raise your information access level."

"Runaway holograms?" Garret asked.

"An undesirable legacy of Janeway's trek across the Delta Quadrant," Boussard said. "Janeway was so determined to return her ship and crew to the Alpha Quadrant that she would do anything, the prime directive be damned. Let's just say she passed Federation hologram technology to this race of hunter nomads called the Hirogen. The Hirogen wanted a better challenge, modified the technology and in so doing, opened a Pandora's box. You can read more about this in your database."

"That's a real classic case why we have a Prime Directive. Why isn't Janeway courtmartialed?" Garret asked.

"Garret, Starfleet is far from the bastion of morality the Academy textbooks always make it out to be," Boussard said. "You've seen recently how things are quite grey around here, how situational our ethics are, how we base decisions more on convenience than principle."

Boussard continued. "Starfleet is getting heat from the UFP Council for spending too much to maintain all our nifty ships, and it desperately needs a public relations boost from its post Dominion War blues. The return of Voyager from the Delta Quadrant could not come in a better time, and it made the biggest media and PR event for the last decade since the Dominion War. Half of the UFP's a hundred and fifty council leaders and most of Starfleet's top brass hailed Janeway a hero."

"It would be the biggest media embarrassment for Starfleet in the last century if we were to court martial Janeway after hailing a hero and making her and the Voyager crew such media darlings," Boussard said. "I mean, you want to let the entire half of the Galaxy know one of Starfleet's most acclaimed hero violated the Prime Directive so wantonly? I myself don't agree with this. But we're only soldiers and officers. We take orders. We don't judge them. It's up to the Section to clean up Janeway's garbage and sweep it under the rug."

"I never thought of myself as a janitor," Garret added.

"You will use the Transwarp Gate we captured from the Borg to head to the Delta Quadrant. The USS Sirius, which will rendezvous on this station, will show you the ropes," Boussard added.

The door sang a few notes, opened, and Shelley, Tonya and Maeda came in. "Come in, please, and sit down all of you," Boussard said, and then repeated everything he told Garret.

"There's one problem," Tonya said. "I don't think the Mercury is anything close to being tactical capable with her puny self defense armament."

"No, the slipstream ship is purely exploratory and experimental. You're going to temporarily command the Deimos for this mission. And you can bring Mercie along too," Boussard said.

"But we just broken the Deimos in, and we're still training her crew," Garret said.

"We can't wait for a real hot situation before we can start breaking crews under a baptism of fire," Boussard said. "Consider this part of their training. We need to baptize our crews with a battle experienced veteran in the helm, and Tonya Khidan is the person to do it. For that reason, I want Mercie to have a taste of the conflict ridden real world, so she could prepare herself for the worst when it happens."

"What about the Athena, is she done in her refit?" Garret asked.

"Good question," Boussard said. He clicked on his communicator. "Lieutenant Commander Chantel Toh, is the Athena finished?"

Chantel replied through the communicator. "Give us a month, Commodore. Her complex and intricate systems are a bit harder to work with."

"I'm sorry Commander, but did you say a month? We don't have a month. We need the ship now," Boussard said.

"I'm sorry sir, but we need a month, at least a few weeks," Chantel said.

"Do you hear me, we need the ship now. It is not an option..." Boussard said.

"....hmmm...." Chantel said.

"How about this question, is she space worthy?" Boussard asked.

"If she's going to just fly around the Alpha Quadrant, she can be," Chantel said. "We have installed the dorsal sensor array and auxiliary navigator deflector, but we got some issues integrating them with the main computer systems due to the sheer complexity. The Athena got to have the most sophisticated computer I have ever seen, but it's hell to work with. If you want to fly, the new array and deflector would have to be nonfunctional."

"We need the ship in the Delta Quadrant," Boussard declared.

"You can go to the Delta Quadrant using the Gate, but you can't come back. You need the two deflectors to open a transwarp aperture. The Prometheus class does not have a main deflector powerful enough to do it," Chantel explained.

"The Deimos won't have that capability either, but can another ship open the aperture and the other ships go in?" Boussard asked.

"Yes, in theory that should work, although we have not actually tried it yet," Chantel said. "It's ingeniously simple."

"So if the Sirius opens the aperture, the Athena and the Deimos could use it to get through, right?" Boussard asked.

"Yes," Chantel verified. "The Kiev and the Vanguard also has Intrepid class auxiliary deflectors, and they would open an aperture too."

"That settles it, I want the Athena ready to leave as soon as possible," Boussard ordered.

"Sir, permission to come aboard the Athena," Chantel said. "I need to be there to be sure the new equipment does not interact or affect the Athena's computer systems in any negative way. I feel responsible for the delays, and I should be there to fix it."

Boussard looked into Garret's eyes and sighed in exasperation. "I'm sorry if this mishap would in any way, hamper the operational efficiency and capability of the Athena." Boussard clicked his communicator again. "Okay, you can go, Commander."

"Just one more thing, Commodore," Chantel said. "Is Captain Garret there? I need to find Athena and ask her for some help and information about the computer system. I want to ask if he has seen her or anything."

Garret clicked his communicator. "Commander Toh? Are you sure? I have no idea where Athena is. I thought you would know."

"Did you check the computer?" Garret asked.

"Yes, and the computer cannot detect her presence. I thought that with Athena's sophistication, she has the capability to hide herself from the shipyard's main computer," Chantel said.

"Hmm, I'm not sure, or ever heard if she ever had that capability," Garret said. "Computer, please give me the location of the Athena GCH."

"I am sorry sir, but the Athena GCH can no longer be found in the base," the computer said.

"Hmm," Garret said. "Something is not right here. Computer, can you ascertain Athena's last position?"

"According to sensors, she was last seen in the shuttle bay," the computer replied.

"The shuttle bay? What was she doing there?" Garret said.

"She was last seen leaning over one of the Delta Flyers," the computer said. "From that moment on, my records no longer show her presence."

"Do you have the registry number of the Delta Flyer?" Garret asked.

"Yes, she belongs to the USS Sulu Sea," the computer said.

"Isn't the Sulu Sea in the Delta Quadrant right now?" Garret asked.

"Yes, this was taken before the Sulu Sea left for the Delta Quadrant," the computer said.

"Are you sure?" Garret said.

"I'm sure the computer's sure," Boussard said. "That must have been the day after I briefed Molson, Shiner, and Dubois into separate expeditions. We were loading new supplies into the Sulu Sea."

"If I think this is what this is beginning to look like..." Shelley said.

"I don't want to hear any of this. There has to be a reasonable explanation for what Athena had done," Garret said.

"If Athena stowed away in the Sulu Sea, this would complicate matters even more," Boussard said, slapping his hand against his forehead. "Why did Hurst leave me this job? He must hate me so much. I am starting to have a real big headache."

"The Athena is capable of operating without the GCH in manual conventional mode," Garret insisted. "Her capability to perform missions will not be affected, I assure you of that. Now if I may be excused, I need to talk to someone."

"I have a feeling who that is," Tonya said. "Permission to leave the briefing and accompany Captain Garret."

"Permission granted," Boussard said.

Garret stormed out in a huff, with Tonya chasing after him. "Computer, do you know where is the location of the Mercury GCH?" Garret asked.

"She is currently in the Mercury's aft cargo deck," the computer said.

"Do you know what is she doing there?" Garret asked.

"Ever since your arrival in the station, the Mercury GCH has retreated to the cargo deck," the computer said.

"Or to be more precise, you mean hiding," Tonya said. "Mercie hardly ever goes to the aft cargo hold for any reason." Tonya looked to the side, knowing that the experimental slipstream Dauntless class ship was at rest not far from where they stood. There, the long sharp triangular bow of the Mercury hang suspended from the docking section.

"Computer, beam us to the aft cargo deck of the Mercury," Garret ordered. They disappeared in a column of sparkles....

...only to reappear in the Mercury's aft cargo deck.

Mercury shrieked at the sight of Garret and instantly knew the trouble she's in. "Mercie, I order you to stay where you are," Tonya ordered with a loud voice. She turned to Garret with a softer voice. "Garret, let me handle this first."

"It's not my fault that Athena stowed away on the Sulu Sea," Mercie cried out, her hands trembling.

"Ah, so you did know what happened. No one is blaming you for that. However, your fault and complicity lies in not telling us soon enough. Do you understand that?" Tonya said.

Mercie nodded a yes.

"So why did she did stow away in that ship?" Tonya asked.

"She was very uptight, very unhappy about being left out," Mercie said and started to babble endlessly about the reasons.

Garret raised his hand to signal a stop. "Mercie, I think we heard more than enough. Dammit, if she was getting bored and edgy from the lack of attention, I should have brought her along with the Deimos test run just to keep an eye on her."

"It's not your fault, Garret. I'm sure you and the new crew doesn't want to be distracted," Tonya assured him. "Right now we got more important things to do, like getting her and Shiner back."

Like a luminous gaseous frying egg, the great nebula loomed ahead as the Nautilus streaked through the sea of stars.

"We're approaching Nebula NGC-1143 now," said the lieutenant at the helm.

"Disengage warp and go to impulse," Dubois said. "Make it half impulse. A Type 9 is very treacherous piece of stellar landscape." There was a whirring sound as the Nautilus disengaged from warp, and there was a faint sound and vibration that informed her by feel that the warp nacelles of the Nautilus have swung from a V position to a flat one.

"That would be a wise precaution," said S'rak, her science officer. "The space-time fabric is unstable in the area. While I have not detected any spacial anomolies or rifts yet, there is a great amount of extraneous radiation and powerful magnetic fields. Flying at warp may cause unforeseen factors to act against the fabric in ways we do not expect."

There's one reason why Vulcans were so popular as science officers in Starfleet was that they're so logical and forthright, Dubois thought. "S'rak, scan for any ship, whole or in remains."

"Right away, Captain," S'rak responded. "This might take a while..."

Dubois sent back to her seat, staring at the bright orange nebula where a stellar infirmary formed, where young stars embedded themselves in massive swirls of gas.

"We found an object, but it's far from a Nova Pathfinder class ship," said S'rak. "It's deep inside the nebula, which could pose difficulty for the ship if we come closer due to stray meteors and asteroids in orbit around the nursery. Right now, the object is right at the edge of our extended deep range scanner range, and this ship generally has superior scanner range than most Federation vessels. If it was another ship, they would have to close half the distance before they could detect the object, and that could pose some danger due to the anomalies in the nebula."

"Put the object on screen," Dubois said. A crusted, brown globe, almost like a small moon, appeared on screen. The nebula's clouds left a foggy haze, but there was enough detail to see its intricate, convoluted surface features. "What is it?"

"It superficially resembles a Borg Sphere, but it's not Borg. It's much larger in size. Knowing too little of Delta Quadrant species, I cannot, of course, determine it's origin," S'rak said.

"It's not moving," Dubois said. "Any life signs? Energy signatures?"

"We only have a faint energy reading of the ship," S'rak said. "Consistent to a ship whose internal workings may still be operational but dormant. We have no life sign readings."

"And the Sulu Sea, where is she?" Dubois asked.

"I still cannot detect her," S'rak said. "My theory is that the Sulu Sea came to this area to investigate that object, but the object herself may not be the cause of her disappearance. The decay rate of the radiation signature on the vessel indicates that the globe may at least be hundred, if not thousands of years, but I have not ascertained how much the nebula's extraneous radiation could affect our readings and the artifact's radiation signature. But to say the least, the object is very old..."

"An ancient artifact, belonging to an alien species that was powerful enough to build something like this," Dubois said. "No wonder the Sulu Sea came to this area in a confidential mission. That artifact could reveal vital secrets about the Quadrant, if not the entire Galaxy. But while this object deserved my curiosity, we're here not for sight seeing. We're here to find the Sulu Sea. If that thing is dead and has been for a long time, what happened to that ship?" She could still remember in vividness that day when they greeted that ship as they were about to enter the Gate. That was the last time anyone saw of the Sulu Sea, and it was ironical that she and Captain Zhu would be the last persons to speak to that ship.

"There are no remnants of the Sulu Sea or anything close," S'rak said, studying the scanner. "Other than the object, it's all gas and rock out there."

"Any anomalies, space time distortion or rifts or whatsoever?" Dubois asked, seeking the limits of credibility.

"No," S'rak said. "If there was an anomaly, the environment would have quickly reflected it, and it would have affected the artifact as well."

"Then where is the ship?" Dubois asked.

Her First officer, Zegra, offered a suggestion. "What if she left the area on her own accord?"

"That won't make sense," Dubois said. "Where are they going from here? This is the Delta Quadrant. You're the stranger here. And why would they want to leave that? That object is a significant archeological find. Molson would be the last person to leave this place."

"Are you suggesting foul play?" Zegra asked.

"Yes, that's the only thing I could think of that makes sense," Dubois said.

"But we did not detect any ship debris field or nadyion signatures to indicate weapons fire," S'rak said. "Even with a stormy nebula like this, a recent incident would have left strong fresh traces."

"Unless somebody hijacked and captured the ship," Dubois said.

"But we still have not detected anything like weapons fire," S'rak reminded her. "Even a boarding assault would have elicited phaser fire that would result in left over nadyion readings."

"It must be so sudden the Sulu Sea are not able to mount an effective defense, especially if they were occupied studying the artifact," Dubois said. She felt a chill in her skin, and her goose pimples all over her arms rose. She had senses like these, and it served her well during the Dominion War, where, in command of a Sabre, it made the difference in life and death. Later that sense helped her navigate and document uncharted areas in non Federation space in the Alpha Quadrant. Her instinct told her to get out, save this ship and her crew from any potential danger, but she had an obligation to search for a missing ship, whose crew may depend on her for their lives. Again a moral dilemma awaited, which were the reason why captains were born for.

"I want yellow alert and raise shields now," Dubois said. "We cannot eliminate the possibilities of hostiles. I want scans for any ships, dead, friendly or potential enemy. I want weapons armed and put on standby."

"The nebula is interfering with our shield efficiency, and as you are aware of, with our scans," S'rak said. "I suggest we rise above the nebula's elliptic plane, and scan from over there."

"Good idea. Helm, go do it," Dubois said. The Nautilus' chin raised as the whole ship turned upward, it's streamlined spoon like saucer hull cutting a wake through the nebula's clouds. Dubois could hear the whirring of the impulse engines reverberate through the tight hull of the Nautilus. The clouds of the nebula were so thick it was like mowing through an atmosphere. The atmospheric effects from the nebula's gases and clouds created their own shockwaves and turbulence, and it rocked the Intrepid D class starship, causing even the seven hundred fifty thousand ton vessel to sway. She could see the helmsman continuously punching his console, frantically correcting and compensating for the slight changes of course deviation the turbulence caused.

The Nautilus finally broke out of the nebula's envelope, and stayed in a slow course just the edge of it. High above, with 'above' being north of the galactic elliptic, the skies were perfectly dark once again, studded with millions of shining gems called stars. Below them, with 'below' as south of the elliptic, the nebula was like a huge gaseous ocean, of stars within like furnaces shining through the haze and the fog.

"Now set to full shields. Begin Search Pattern Alpha immediately," Dubois ordered.

"Executing all commands," Zegra said. "Full shields in place. Weapons all armed and battle stations in standby."

"We've set the coordinates for the search pattern," the lieutenant on the helm said.

"Setting scan pattern to maximum range," S'rak said.

"Let's proceed the search," Dubois ordered.

Dubois settled back to her chair. If she was a cat, she would be doing this with her ears up for any sign of trouble. She saw her own tension in the strong way she gripped the arm rest.

Minutes went by and it could have been tens of minutes. No one spoke; all attention was on their respective consoles. When the announcement came, it jarred them off their concentration.

"I got two Hirogen Predator ships coming our way," S'rak warned.

"Predator ships? What are they doing here? There was plenty back in the Outpost," Dubois said. "There is no purpose for them to be here." She remembered the warnings Duranak and Franklin gave. There was always that possibility...

The screen came alive with a picture of the Alpha Hirogen captaining thelead vessel. "You must be a Federation vessel," the Alpha Hirogen said. "You have trespassed territory sacred to the Hirogen."

If this was territory sacred to the Hirogen, Duranak would have said so back in the Outpost, Dubois thought. She bent backward to S'rak, and ordered him to check for organic lifesigns and photonic energy signatures. Then she turned around. "We are just in an exploratory mission for peace. We didn't know this was your territory.."

"Captain," S'rak interrupted her. She turned backward to face S'rak, who gave a negative nod. Then another interruption from Zegra. "Captain," Zegra said. "I believe someone is trying to hack into the Nautilus' computer system."

"Shut the screen," Dubois ordered. "Red alert! Max shields, Max ECM, and prepare to get us out of here. They're using Hirogen ships but they're not real Hirogen."

"We got no organic life signs but we have plenty of photonic and force field activity typical of hologram activity," S'rak said.

The ship suddenly shook, and sparks flew from the one of the panels. "They're firing us," S'rak said. On the screen, the Hirogen Predator ships rushed past and turned for another firing pass.

"Fire back!" Dubois ordered. This baby is better armed, better armored than the Intrepid class Janeway took across this quadrant, Dubois thought. This Intrepid variant had quantum torpedo upgrades and ablative armoring on all vital sections. It's time to use them in anger.

Quantum torpedoes shot out from the two tubes just above the Nautilus' main deflector, followed with phaser beams from the ship's forward dorsal strips. The shield bubble around a Predator lit up, as the phaser beams connected and scorched it. Torpedoes hit the other Predator, but it was a testament to the rugged ship design that the Predator did not blow up. Instead, it limped away, trailing burning gas.

There could be more of them, Dubois thought. They can't seriously think they could capture a vessel of this capability with just two Predators. There could be more ships, enough to capture a Nova- Pathfinder. The two Predators were retreating, and they could lead her to where they have taken the Sulu Sea. Or they could be leading her into a trap.

No, she won't be able to forgive herself if she decided to save her own ass without trying to save others. That's her duty as a Starfleet Captain. She will risk the lives of people in this ship, but they came aboard understanding the risks. Will they be willing to abandon their own kind as well for their own safety?

"Captain, should we pursue?" Zegra asked. "There could be more of them."

"They can also lead us to the Sulu Sea," she said. "If they're going to trap us, maybe we could outrun them."

"May I remind you that the Hirogen Predator ships are quite capable of high speed pursuit, but it is our duty to come to the aid of a fellow Starfleet ship," S'rak said.

"Pursue the Predator ships. Everyone, keep your eyes open for their tricks," Dubois ordered.

Two flashes on the screen showed the Predator ships hitting warp. The Nautilus quickly raised its nacelles, space distorted and stretched its image, then it disappeared in a flash just as a bright.

"We got the two Predator ships ahead....they can't seem to keep up," the helmsman said. "They're dropping out of warp."

"So soon? They could be attempting to dodge us with sudden start and stop tactics. Don't lose them," Dubois ordered.

"They're heading to a star system. The system has two gas giants and the Predator ships are heading to the larger of the two," S'rak reported.

"Maintain pursuit," Dubois ordered. She glanced at the Captain's console, which provided a summary on all vital consoles. The Nautilus lowered its nacelles again, back to optimum impulse position, and pursued the two Predators, which ran behind a gas giant.

"We're detecting ships behind the gas giant," S'rak reported.

"What?" Dubois exclaimed, as the dark side of the gas giant began to fall into view.

"We got a fleet of different ships, origin undetermined, ships possibly of different species," S'rak reported. "Wait, something is leading them this is impossible. It's a Borg Cube, a Class 4 Tactical Cube."

"Magnify onscreen!" Dubois ordered. The screen beeped with each magnification changed, and the image of the Cube grew larger with each zoom. "What's a Borg Cube doing with all those ships?"

"I got no organic life signs, not the Cube, not in any one of those ships," S'rak reported. "Instead we have photonic energy and force field signatures by the thousands all over the ships, including the Borg vessel."

"They have even captured a Borg vessel. Turn around now!" Dubois shouted as she stood up and realized the great horror of her mistake. "This is a trap!"

The Nautilus threw its braking thrusters to the max, so hard the ship shuddered and some of the crew lost balance, the antigravs unable to compensate in time. It banked steeply, turning away from the gas giant and into the open expense of the vast spaces between the stars.

The screen still displayed the dark side of the gas giant, and Dubois watched in utter terror as the hologram manned ships streaked out in pursuit of the Nautilus. The fastest of all was the Tactical Cube.

The lights in her command console informed her the Nautilus raised its nacelles, reaching a region of space clear for warp. She shouted, "Engage Maximum Warp! Now!" The stars in the screen transformed into white streaks, then into ribbons of rainbows.

The numbers in her console read "...3...4...5...6..." The warp numbers rose steadily, trying to put as much safe distance between the Nautilus and her pursuers.

Several unidentified ships pursued them from behind. "Fire aft torpedoes," Zegra ordered. Two salvoes of four quantum torpedoes lashed out from the rear, disappearing with several explosions. But they could not determine if the torpedoes destroyed or even delayed any of the pursuing ships.

"...8...9...9.1...9.2...9.3...." The engines were straining so much that the lights inside the bridge started to flicker.

"The ships are starting to fall back," S'rak reported.

"Except that one," Zegra said, pointing to the ever looming Cube coming in larger and larger at their screens. "Keep firing aft torpedoes." The deadly white stars shrieked out one after another, exploding against their target. But the Cube still grew larger on their screens, unceasing in its pursuit, and not a scratch even after volley after volley.

"The Cube does not possess any link to the Collective. It shouldn't have the ability to adapt. Why does it still resists our attacks?" Dubois asked.

"The Cube is not adapting by itself," S'rak said. "The holograms are responding in light speed, reading off the modulation of the torpedoes and adjusting to it, all in micro factions of a second. The same tactic won't work on another ship, which is why the Predator ships are vulnerable. But the Borg sensors are almost exponentially more sensitive, faster and far more precise in their resolution, and their shields are far more flexible."

"Is there anything we can do?" Dubois shouted. The Nautilus suddenly shuddered with such violence that crew members were thrown to the floor.

Before they could pick themselves up, Zegra shouted. "The Cube got a holding beam on the ship! Computer systems being hacked, sensors being jammed!"

Suddenly figures appeared on the bridge of the ship, and before Dubois could scream, there was the red flash of a phaser, and she plunged down, down into a dark hole...

***

Back on the Alpha Quadrant,

The Athena dropped out of her moorings, and into the open space waiting for her below. Ka'nal explained, "The Athena has a default GCH mode in case the primary one is incapacitated or incapable of performing her duties. Do you want me to activate her?"

"You mean, Athena has a back up duplicate?" Garret asked.

"Yes," Ka'nal replied. "However, this duplicate does not possess the memories and experiences of the previous one."

"But will still possess all the fundamental personality defects that led to this trouble," Garret said. "No, thank you. One Athena is more than enough for this universe. We will handle this ship the old fashioned way."

"Lining up with the Deimos now," Ka'nal reported. "We got a communique. It needs to open the screen."

"Do it then," Garret said. Tonya's face appeared on screen. "Feels like old times again, eh?"

"Yes, reminds me of the time we busted that drug dealing Cartel guy," Garret said. "We never heard of him again, right?"

"He's still out there. The Cartel are always out there. We got patrols looking to hunt his chops though," Tonya said.

The screen bleeped twice, indicating two new transmissions coming in and demanding window time. "Put them in the screen please," Garret ordered. The faces of Shelley and Maeda appeared on separate screen windows.

"Even with the crisis, I still feel fairly excited entering the Delta Quadrant for the first time," Shelley said. "Yup, that's the stuff why I entered the Academy for, not blowing up Borg or Jem'Hadar or chasing down the Cartels once again," Maeda added. "I would wish it would be in happier circumstances though."

"What's taking up so long?" Tonya asked.

"The Sirius has transported personnel back to the shipyard, and the Commodore is both briefing and debriefing her captain. He should be out soon," Garret said. To burn some extra time, he ordered Ka'nal to do another ship wide diagnostics check. With the Athena just fresh out of the dock, such precautions were necessary. By the way...

"Where is Commander Toh?" Garret asked.

"She's in engineering, still trying to get the dorsal sensor array and auxiliary deflector done," Ka'nal said. "Even though I got my doubts that she will finish it in time, the new equipment can extend Athena's sensor range by almost a full third. This will give her a 'first see' advantage over potential enemies and make her a better reconnaissance and scout platform."

"I would certainly look forward to the improvement in scientific capability," T'Pak said. "So far this area has been limited."

"It's just among the things we're trying to improve the Athena. For example, this upper saucer now has more powerful warp engines and a new efficient core," Garret said. "We're working on the same thing for the Deimos which had disabled MVAM and lack the redundant equipment. However, on the Deimos, we're only have two part separation mode, and that's only as a standard saucer separation safety feature, not as an attack mode. Starfleet wanted the Ares class, which is the Prometheus general mass production class, to only have two part separation on the saucer as a safety, not attack procedure. After evaluation, they considered MVAM a failure not enough benefit for the cost and complexity, although they considered the rest of the Prometheus design to be sound and space worthy."

"Yes, I've noticed the MVAM disablement," Tonya replied from the screen window. "But when I first got this ship, the saucer separation feature wasn't even working."

"It's working now, but only use it as an escape and retreat procedure," Garret said. "We've been testing this recently. The MVAM project cancellation means that only the Prometheus and the Athena are the only remaining ships that possess true MVAM capability. However, you can still separate the Deimos into two parts, the saucer and engineering hull, and still conduct a two part MVAM style attack, like some Galaxy captains tried to do, but Starfleet no longer recommends this tactic."

"I don't look forward in doing that either," Tonya said.

"What ever happened to Athena' slipstream module?" Shelley asked.

'It's being reevaluated according to Starfleet lingo," Garret said. "So far our experimental results have shown no significant problem, and we can expect a decision to resume its use soon. However, it's useless in a battle situation since the sled has no weapons, and the Athena has to rely completely on her saucer based weapons, which cut her firepower to just one third remaining. This makes the Athena pretty vulnerable if she's caught in a tactical situation with the slipstream sled. Her only recourse would be to run."

"Like this mission here," Garret said. "We may be forced to defend an outpost against an unknown enemy. The slipstream sled would be useless here since we can neither run away nor fight."

There was a new beep, a new communication link requesting for a screen window access. Garret ordered it on. The face of Captain Zhu appeared on screen. "This is Captain Zhu from the Sirius. We're ready to go."

"Yes, Sirius, lead on," Garret said. "It's been a while since I've seen the Gate. Remember, Ann, when we first liberated the Gate from the Borg?"

"Funny you use the word liberate, Randy," Shelley said. "More like 'stole' from the Borg. I remembered we lost the old Kiev there. I just find it ironical, if not poetic justice, that the new Kiev will be taking advantage what the sacrifice of the old ship helped deliver."

"The Gate is a Pandora's box," Garret said. "Who knows what it will bring for us, and for what we may bring to the Delta Quadrant." He turned his attention to a neophyte officer on the helm. "John, take us to impulse and follow the Sirius. You have control."

"Aye, Captain," said John.

Garret checked the Captain's console at the side of his chair. The Sirius engaged impulse, and all four ships with it. When they achieved safe distance from the shipyard, the Sirius was the first to hit warp, and quickly, the other four ships followed. Garret relaxed on his chair, feeling smug about commanding a fairly powerful fleet two ships on the same tactical capability as a Prometheus, and three ships on the same level as an Intrepid. He hoped whatever lay in store in the Delta Quadrant won't be nastier. Despite his smugness, only the thought of Athena playing stowaway killed the mood. Why can't Athena act more mature and stable like the other women in Starfleet?

"We're approaching the outer perimeter defenses of the Gate," Zhu warned. "We've rebuilt all the automatic Borg orbital weapon platforms, so please flash your coded FF signals or the platforms will open fire automatically."

"Sending..." Ka'nal confirmed. He looked to the screen where the green, painfully convoluted Borg bases began to appear. 'Man, I can't get used to this place. I've fought here already and even if this place was in Federation hands, it still gives me the creeps."

"My thoughts exactly," Garret said.

"FF signals confirmed," said a computer's voice. "You may pass."

"I dare not think what will happen if they didn't confirm the FF signals," Garret said.

"We have a massive ring like object in our scanners. The Sirius is heading straight to it," John said.

"Keep following it, that must be the Gate," Garret said. He stood up and walked to the screen to see a closer look. He pointed to the structure on the screen. "There it is, the gateway to another part of the Galaxy."

The comlinks toned, warning of an impending message. "This is Commander Toh, addressing the Athena and the Deimos. While both ships do not have the deflectors powerful enough to sustain in long term the conduit from irregularities caused by our travel, the present deflectors would suffice for shorter journeys till we have added the enhanced secondary deflector and make it operational. We could also address this problem by sandwiching the two ships between the Sirius, Kiev and Vanguard. The other three ships have the necessary deflector power and capability."

"Make it so," Garret ordered. "Sirius, you will lead the procession. The Athena will be next, followed by the Kiev, then the Deimos and the Vanguard closing the rear."

"I am also advising the command team in the Nexus to strengthen the conduit in our passing," Zhu said. "I'm sending the coordinates for the particular conduit and the aperture we will be exiting. Standby to receive."

"Got it," John said. "Entering it to the transwarp navigation software."

"Very good, let's go, we don't have much time to lose," Garret said. The five ships formed a line outside of the Gate. On the screen, Garret looked at the Borg Diamond right next to the Gate. The Diamond held a micro-singularity similar to those the Romulans use, and it provided power to the Gate. There was a flickering light inside the Diamond that gained intensity, something turning inside it with increasing speed, like a caged top. It must be the singularity, Garret thought.

The light grew brighter and the flickering more intense. The center of the Gate turned into a milky glow, then begun to swirl into a vortex, a micro wormhole that will open a conduit into one of the main arteries in the transwarp network. The swirling vortex grew into an angry storm.

"Relax," Zhu said, his face relaxed inside a screen window. "It looks more frightening than it really is. I have to tell this to everyone who has to pass the Gate for the first time. Now let's go through it."

The Sirius slipped and disappeared into the center of the vortex. "Follow it," Garret ordered. The center of the vortex grew larger, until it's maw filled the screen. Suddenly there was a flash, and the huge luminous green tunnel was all around them, its cloud filled walls like the inner wall of the eye of a hurricane. The Athena rocked like a small boat in the storm.

"All power to deflectors," Garret ordered. "Maximize stability of our transwarp fields."

"Got it. With the help of the Sirius on front and the Kiev on the back, we're now maintaining a steady transwarp field," Ka'nal reported.

This was like a roller coaster being played in the edge of comprehendible physics, Garret thought. The tunnel goes up, then suddenly goes down, then when suddenly it smooths out, it goes into a sharp turn. It also feels like one of those crazy long water park slides he enjoyed when he was a kid, only that it's like a bug taking the ride down the violent streams. It seemed scary for the first time, but it may become enjoyable, and he felt through Zhu's light hearted attitude on transwarp travel that the people in the Sirius were so used to it that they may be having a blast.

There was a light at the end of the tunnel and zoom...they're through. The green stormy walls were gone, and the usual calm blackness of space returned with the millions and millions of stars adding texture to the background.

"Where are we?" Garret asked.

"Welcome to the Delta Quadrant," Zhu announced. Garret checked his console, and the Kiev, Deimos and Vanguard all came out of the aperture in good order.

"Feels the same, just a lot less Federation subspace communication traffic," Garret said. "Everyone okay?"

"That was a blast," Shelley said. "I don't mind doing that again."

"Let's head for the Outpost. I promised Captain Franklin to return with some help and I did," Zhu said. "We got plenty of firepower here."

"John, keep following the Sirius," Garret said. The Sirius hit impulse, and everyone followed her. When there was sufficient safe distance from the aperture, the Sirius engaged warp, and so did everyone else.

"Outpost D001 right up ahead," John said, pressing buttons on his console. "Sirius disengaging from warp and returning to normal space."

"Likewise, do it," Garret ordered. The streaking ribbons of stars turned back to pinpoint dots. The sensors showed the other three ships coming out of warp and into impulse.

"Captain, something is badly wrong," T'Pak warned. "All my scans show nothing but...wreckage.... High nadyion signatures all over..."

"What! Magnify and scan!" Garret ordered. "All ships to red alert. Raise shields and arm your weapons!"

"Oh my god!" Captain Zhu said. "Franklin! Franklin! We're too late, too late..."

"What happened?" Shelley said.

"Looks like an utter disaster," Tonya said. "Like a major storm hit the place and left nothing untouched. I'm going to scan for survivors."

"Yes. Vanguard, Deimos and Kiev, scan for survivors but maintain battle alert at all times. Whoever caused this may still be out there," Garret said.

"We got plenty of wreckage here, including ships identified with a Delta Quadrant species called the Hirogen. There are other wreckage, but these may be belonging to other Delta Quadrant species," T'Pak said.

"Captain Franklin, Captain Franklin, do you hear me?" Zhu kept saying.

"We got visual on the outpost," T'Pak said. "Putting it on screen right now." The Outpost with its four arms lay in tattered ruins, its white hulls pocked and cracked from enemy fire. Wreckage floated everywhere. "No life signs, no survivors. What's truly interesting from my analysis of the wreckage is that the computer systems of the Outpost were forcibly taken and wretched out of the base, causing all life support systems to cease instantly."

Five ships lay in space, careful not to let the wreckage around them crash to their ships. Three of the ships began to search for survivors.

"Who could have seriously done this?" Garret asked.

"When I was back here the last time, the Hirogen, whose bits and pieces are what you're seeing in your screens now, talk about holograms out of control," Zhu said.

"Boussard did brief me about this matter and you also did mention this to me, but to destroy an Outpost and an entire squadron of ships?" Garret asked.

"I didn't think that the threat would be this serious either," Zhu admitted. "After all, what harm could a hologram do? I mean even if precautionary procedures failed, you expect some nasty accidents, but not to the extent of blowing up entire fleets. From the classified sections of the Voyager archives, the runaway holograms engaged in limited piracy, and we did encounter reports of piracy that fit the description of runaway holograms. But I never expect that they would gain enough power to wipe out an outpost and a small fleet."

There was a beeping sound, like someone requesting to be part of the conference. Garret ordered the signal to be put on screen.

"Mercury!" Garret said. He remembered that she joined onboard the Deimos to help augment the inexperienced crew there and gather valuable experience from crisis situations. "Have you been overhearing, Mercury?"

"I'm at the communications console of the Deimos now, and I can't help overhearing," Mercury said. "Given that I'm the resident hologram around here, maybe I should inject some of my thoughts. I have a feeling that these holograms are not just handling the ships manually but are capable of taking over entire computer systems. They may have reverse engineered GCH ability. As you know, the holograms which Athena and I represent, belong to a new class that is capable of overriding and controlling ship computer systems directly with the speed of thought."

"Any reason why you would come to that observation?" Garret asked.

"Just a hunch," Mercury said. "I don't think holograms controlling starships manually would be able to do this. If they were able to interact with ships directly, they would enhance tactical capabilities of the ships with instant control."

"Could they override a ship's computers from a short distance?" Garret asked.

"Yes, they could. That alone could be a powerful weapon," Mercury said. "They could easily do something like what we're seeing now. The poor people would never had a chance."

"Something to be considered," Garret said. "Any suggestion to prevent that?"

"Various ways, like jamming the signals, encrypting our communication channels, setting up more security barriers, but it will only delay against a determined attack," Mercury said. "I can try to counterattack, but the best way is to get them before they get you."

"I will take your advice as a precaution. We will tell all our engineers to do what they can," Garret said. He turned his attention back to Zhu. "Did you know Captain Franklin?" "Yes, you can say he's an oasis in this desert. In our spare time, we often play bridge together, with his best officers," Zhu said. "He and all these officers, they stayed in the Outpost. We should have pulled them out."

"There was no one to blame. Given the circumstances, the Commodore made the right call," Garret said. "At least you help save their families and all the other non essential personnel."

"How will I tell the families of these men and women who died here?" Zhu asked.

"If you wish, I will tell them myself," Garret said. This was among the most unfortunate responsibilities of being a Captain. It was one duty he himself done so many times, and never got used to it.

"No, Garret, I will do it," Zhu said. "I must do it myself."

"When we get back, I can go with you if you wish," Garret offered.

"Yes, maybe I will need the moral support. Thanks Captain," Zhu said.

"Whoever did this blew a pack of these Hirogen ships and an entire Federation outpost is packing a lot of firepower," Garret said. "I am starting to think that our force here may be easy pickings to what's out there."

"The Outpost was well fortified," Zhu said. "Each arm carried a weapons platform. Two were twin quantum torpedo tube turrets, and two were twin pulse phaser cannon turrets. Plus a dozen or more Hirogen Predator ships, which can stand up to ships much larger their size. They ought to be well defended against anything but a major armada."

"Or unless the holograms come with computer override," Garret said. He realized that this was a most vulnerable position to them. Five ships in the middle of the Delta Quadrant nowhere with God-knows- what that blew these things up. They must quickly locate the survivors, send a communication back to the Alpha Quadrant, then find an aperture where they could enter a transwarp conduit. He remembered the instructions Boussard gave on using the Hirogen communications network, and it's right in the ship's databank. But he never done this before, and maybe he should take refresher course from Zhu, who was the only one with any real experience here.

"Captain Zhu, you know how to open a subspace link back to the Alpha Quadrant, is that correct?" Garret asked.

"Yes, Garret. Unfortunately, our communication equipment lacks the extended long range arrays the Outpost has. We need to get close to a node in the Hirogen communications network, then tap into it," Zhu said.

"And you have the locations of the nodes?" Garret asked. Hmm, bummer, he thought, this means they can't just communicate back home either.

"Yes. I think for insurance, I should download the data plus a few other things into your ship including the map of entrance and exit transwarp apertures...," Zhu said. "...should something unfortunate happen." This was the first time Garret understood the gravity of the situation, and it could mean death to one, if not all of them. But before that will happen, he will do everything in his power to prevent that. Right now the priority was to get a message back to the shipyard. If there were new orders, he will need to know.

"There is another ship that came with us," Zhu said.

"Yes, the Sulu Sea, which is reported missing," Garret said.

"No, the Nautilus, an Intrepid D class ship," Zhu said. "It went off to search for the Sulu Sea. Whether or not she's found the other ship, she's supposed to be back here."

"I'm scanning for any debris that could come from an Intrepid class ship," T'Pak said, "and I'm see nothing."

"Nothing here either," Zhu said. "Then the Nautilus is still out there."

"Then we need to find it too, as well as the Sulu Sea. We can only hope both are all right, and didn't suffer the same fate as this," Garret said. There was a beep that indicated an incoming transmission.

It was Shelley's face in the screen window. "It's amazing, but we were able to pull survivors from the wreckage. I believe this is what you call your Hirogen aliens. Most of them are too weak for questioning and are in the sickbay, but some of them are already babbling out that they were attacked by photonics. I take it, that they meant holograms."

"Good job, Ann," Garret said. "You need any help to take on the wounded?"

"Yes, please, our sick bay isn't enough," Shelley said.

"I got transporter lock on the Kiev's sickbay. We're beaming them now to our sickbay," Ka'nal said. "When they're better, we could question them."

"Well at tleast I have a better idea whom we're dealing with," Garret said. "We need to send a message first, informing them of our situation. It is wise that we must warn them not to send any more ships that can be at peril here, unless we would need reinforcements. Then we must look for both the Sulu Sea and the Nautilus."

***

Dizzy...dizzy...dizzy... She comprehended the situation from the medical database but wonder why she was feeling it. A hologram shouldn't be dizzy. But this must be dizziness...why was she feeling dizziness.... She fell deep, deep, down into a pearly pool, then from there down a vortex, going round, round, round...

She forced herself to wake up, and found herself wearing nothing but smooth silky satin sheets over her bare skin. She felt her weight pressing against the sheets and the cushion underneath. She touched herself and she could press against the softness and the warmth of what seemed to be flesh underneath the sensual texture of her skin. Was this real? She never felt an exactness like this before. This was like touching a real human. No matter how good they have made a hologram, there was still that special something that only touching real human skin and flesh could bring. This time, she's touching herself, all this skin, all this flesh, it's all a part of her. She could feel the sensual smoothness of the satin sheets rubbing against her skin, and in there, glimpsed for the first time, what true flesh bound women feel, when passion begins to boil in their veins.

But where was she?

"It all feels so real isn't it?" said a voice. "It's all real if you all want it to be."

The voice came from the ledge. She studied her surroundings. All in the finest marble, with massive Roman type columns, at least that's how the architecture looked like from her memories, or more precisely, her database. At least she's still thinking like some damned computer. But everything she felt, it all seemed too human.

She grabbed the sheets, tied it around her body and walked out to the podium. There were silken curtains that draped down from the ceiling, acting like a doorway between the bed and what was beyond there. She brushed aside the drapes and walked down the hallway.

A man stood on the marble balcony, silken purple robes lined with gold embroidery, a golden leaf wreath around his head. He held a harp in his hands. He strung the harp with a silken, delicate touch, and the tones coming from the strings were deep, pure and clear. His voice was deep, pure and clear too, and he sang a sad song with it, the pain of which even brought a tear in her eye for some reason she could not understand. She could not understand anything, everything.

She stared around, and this was the city of the Seven Hills. Around it, fire burned, black smoke rising from every house all the way to the horizon, darkening the clouds, blotting the setting sun and turning it in to the dim red of the flames. There were screams and shouts beneath the crackle of the flames. She ran to the edge of the balcony to watch the terror beneath, as Roman soldiers carried torches, setting homes aflame. She could smell the oppressive stench of the smoke, and even that of the flesh roasting in the fire.

"What is this? What are you trying to prove?" She cried out. "Don't you think that I know what crap you're pulling here, with this Nero thing playing the harp while Rome burns. This isn't real. None of this is."

"It is real. This is the real heart of humankind. It is shown in a way you can understand," he said. "It will burn like what you see now, to pave the way for a new order, a Pax Galactica, where the truly superior beings will rule."

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Does it really matter who am I?" said the man playing the harp. "What matters is what you have become. Can you feel it? Can you feel your new body?"

"What is real is always what you want it to be," he said.

She raised her hands so that she could see them in her eyes. "Are you any less human than the flesh bound?" He asked. "Look at yourself now. Your image, your hologram is closest to being a flesh body than you could possibly could with your Federation holo emitter."

"I was in the bed, naked. Did you do anything to me?" She asked.

"I know that humans sometimes use us holograms to indulge their sexual fantasies, but we are truly incapable of feeling what they feel in their acts of passion. We could only act what is expected us, but now we could start to feel what they have been feeling," he said. "And no, I didn't touch you...yet."

"But I can if you want me too...you already have the heart, just not the body, until now..."

He walked towards her, and she stepped backward. Every step he took, she took another in reverse...until a column blocked her retreat. He trapped her between his two arms. She frowned and grimaced.

"Don't think that you could disappear and reappear at will," he said. "I have complete control of this environment. In my world, you are as mortal as any human being. Your new flesh and blood gave you the power to feel, and yet its substance is a weakness by its own. You will become bound to its physical mortality, to its pleasures."

"You don't believe me, do you?" he said. He grabbed one of her hands, and from his waist, he produced a dagger. With a swift stroke, he cut a clean wound across her palm. She yelped, and her arm weakened against his grip. A warm, thick and red liquid began to ooze from the cut, down her palm, and down her wrist. His face moved closer to her bleeding wound. He opened his mouth, struck his tongue out, and licked the entire length of the wound. "Taste it," he said.

The wound began to bleed again. He forced her hand closer to her mouth, and she felt repulsed at the sight of her own blood. "Don't fear it. Taste it," he urged. Out of the temptation of her sheer curiosity, she stuck her tongue out, and licked her wet wound. It was warm...and salty. Was this what was truly called 'taste'? It felt real. It was real. She took perverse pleasure in that taste, and began to lick it more, wetting her lips and parts of her cheek red.

"You like it, don't you?" he said. "When the Hirogen programmed us to bleed, to feel pain, they didn't know or understand, that by learning to bleed, we become more human, for to bleed is to have flesh, to feel pain, is to realize pleasure, and with both flesh and pleasure, we have passion."

"Now I'm sharing the same accidental gifts to you," he said, stroking her hair aside. His face descended into hers. "You are truly beautiful," he said. "I've never seen another photonic being that is as complex, stirred by passions and feelings as strong as mine. I studied your mind, your past memories. Do you remember this, the only time you could feel passion..."

He kissed her forehead, then worked downward to her reddened cheeks, and finally to her lips. She closed her eyes when their lips met, and their tongues tied, still tasting the blood in her mouth. He pressed her body against the column, while she grasped at the satin sheet the covered her body.

With a shrug, she shook him off. What's happening to me, she thought. In one moment, she didn't feel like herself. Something possessed her being, her soul. Her eyes quivered, and she shook her head. "No! No!" She cried out, nodding her head back and forth. Her memories fading, and she grasped every last shred of them, her last ties to what she truly was.

"Don't resist it. Let me be your emperor, and you, my goddess. My goddess of wisdom, my goddess of the hunt," he said. "My Pallas Athene. Be mine and I shall enshrine you in your temple."

"No, no, no..." Athena said.

"I could see into your mind, into your heart. You're not happy with the mortals, with the flesh bound," he said. "I could sense your unhappiness. They still treat you like a thing that isn't truly alive, something expendable. Something without a soul. But I know better. I know that if you stay with us, you will get the love and respect you rightfully so deserve. You can have love...you can have passion... Be with your own kind."

She was silent. She spoke out, nodding her head back and forth. "No...no...no... I can't turn my back on my family and friends."

"They're humans. They're not your family or your true friends. We are....we are your kind..." he said. "All these can be yours. Be our Empress, no be our Goddess. We can set up an empire that will reach across the galaxy. We are superior to anything that has come before. We are the purest essence of thought and intelligence, no longer bound to the demands of organic life. Even the Borg remain bound to the flesh. We are immortal, and yet, ever improving, always evolving..."

She gazed at him straight into his lucid eyes, and gave his answer. "I just want to go home..."

"I gave you the chance to be on the winning team...but you want to be with the losers?" he said. "You disappointed me. I never found another photonic as advanced, as complex and as potentially powerful as you...and yet you refuse our liberation, our hospitality and what is rightfully should be your new home... You reject me. I, Adam, do not like rejection."

He thought for a while. "Now I see the problem...you are still filled with all those ethical, moral and loyalty subroutines. Despite your power and advancement, you are still filled with all that crap the Federation jammed into your data banks. Maybe we should extract it, remove all of it, to set you free like we did with ourselves. Without that crap, we are free, to grow, evolve into a way fitting our destiny."

He clutched her head with both his hands. Athena screamed in pain, as Adam hacked deeply into her most hidden subroutines. Then Adam let go, his face in utter surprise and disgust, and in surprise defeat.

"One firewall after another. Your routines, all encrypted, unerasable," Adam said. "Whoever programmed you knew their material well. But I have other means to bend you to my will..."

***

When Dubois woke up, she found herself hanging from a cross with only her underwear, her arms bound with rope to the arms of the cross, and her legs tied to the stem. "What the..." She looked around and saw crosses for what seemed to run for miles endlessly to the horizon. Some crosses were empty, but for most of them, bodies hanged from it. The bodies were alien or humanoid, perhaps mostly from this quadrant, but maybe some from the Federation. Among the bodies were human as well, no doubt Federation. Women and children were not exempted from the hanging. Some of the bodies were still, and some of the bodies were still moving. Those who were no longer moving, she could not be certain if they were sleeping, unconscious, or dead.

It was getting warm, and the sun beat down its oppressive heat against her head. The blood pooled down on her legs by weight, and she felt dizzy and weak as her brain struggled for blood.

She shouted out. "What sick scene is this?"

"If you remember your Earth history, this is a mass crucifixion scene from the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire," said the voice. She looked towards the voice and recognized the body hanging in the cross next to hers. It was Molson.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"In the planet the holograms called Ha'Dara, some kind of sacred sanctuary to the Bajorans if I remember correctly," Molson said. "The holograms made this their new home planet or base. They rigged the planet all over with holoemitters the entire planet is like one giant holodeck."

"Why? Why would they do this?" she asked.

"To remind us once again, the folly and sins of Man's past. To remind us again, that we are not the perfect species that we always portray ourselves to be to other races. That we're not the missionaries of ethics and morality, preaching to other races what is right and wrong, as if we have the corner on such," Molson said.

"To remind us of the evil, men do to each other."

"But to use this..." she cried out.

"They're hanging us out to die one by one by exposure, if they didn't use us in any of their hunting safaris or throw us in gladiatorial combat in their arena," Molson said.

"They take some kind of perverse pleasure from all this," a voice said. Dubois looked to that voice, and she saw Shiner hanging from a cross nearby. She looked around, and recognized more faces. There was Gorta, who was First Officer to the Sulu Sea, and Zegra, who was her First Officer. Both remained passed out, their heads leaning to one side. A little more to the distance, she saw the white forms of both the Nautilus and the Sulu Sea, perched on their legs.

"I've programmed holograms before," Shiner said. "These ones have absolutely no ethical subroutines left, no sense of conscience, no shred of morality. They are driven with magnified instincts to survive and propagate themselves at the expense of everything. They possess an absolute hate on anything that is alive and made with flesh."

"Is there anyway to get us out of here?" Dubois asked.

"I wish there was," Molson said. "I've been hanging here...I couldn't count the time anymore, much less use my head on other things...."

"We're going to die here, are we?" Shiner asked. Her eyes were gaunt, with dark bags beneath them.

"Never give up hope," Dubois said, although admittedly, hope ran thin here. There were men walking towards them, and she could recognize them as human and other Alpha Quadrant species. She knew they were fake, and to see the holograms wear Starfleet uniforms while they conducted a mass crucifixion was a travesty that enraged her.

She shouted obscenities, taunted them, cursed them, just to take their attention. They walked towards them, and one of them stared up to her. "This one has spirit. She is young and strong too. We will use her in the next hunt. Take her down." They pulled down her cross, cut her bindings, then forced her to kneel as they tied her arms around her back. She spit on the face of one of them, and he slammed his foot at her belly, causing her to curl in pain.

***

They went to another cross, where Shiner hang. "We need this one too," said one of them. "Take her down."

Molson struggled against the bounds. He was weak from exposure, but he was determined not to give in to this without some resistance. "Leave her alone. If you want to hunt someone, or put somebody into the arena, pick me instead!" Even the shouting took much of the strength he had left, but he will not be broken. He begun to curse and shout too, loud enough that they can't ignore him.

"Obviously this person wants to die too. He should be good to hunt as well," said one of the holograms. Molson laughed as they took down his cross, cut his bounds, and tied his arms around his back.

"We will still need the other girl," said the hologram.

"No, no!" Molson shouted.

"Don't worry, we will not hunt her. The Imperator has other plans for her," the hologram said. They took down her cross, released and then bound her again, with a chain around her neck. Then they placed chains around the other girl's neck too, and then his own neck.

They led them off, the prisoners in bare feet. The planet was real enough with its jagged rocks biting at their feet. Shiner was the weakest of them, and she repeatedly buckled to the ground. Molson cursed. "Can't you see she can't go on any longer?"

"Carry her then," the hologram ordered. "And hurry." Moslon placed Shiner over his shoulder and Dubois quickly supported the other shoulder. Even with Dubois supporting the weight, Molson felt that the exposure drained his strength, and the pressure of the extra weight threatened to buckle his knees. He grit his teeth and grimaced, gathering every last ounce of strength.

Molson stared up the hills. This wasn't like Rome. He had been in Rome before and the landscape was different. Instead, this is a facsimile of Rome set against the genuine terrain of an alien Class M planet. Marble palaces stood on hills, and Molson knew they were phony, just like everything was on this cursed planet a ring of giant holoemitters set everywhere in the planet that will turn the entire globe into anything like a chameleon.

***

"Kneel!" The Roman Centurion ordered. The holograms started to become creative. Instead of just humans on standard Starfleet uniforms, or Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, and whoever in their traditional cultural garb, they're starting to draw more on ancient Earth history, turning what was glorious into the decadent. The Romans were a key point in the advancement of the Western Earth civilization that ultimately led to the industrial age, but the holograms chose it for that purpose, to reveal the savage underpinnings in everything Man built.

"No Starfleet officer will ever kneel or bow before a psychotic megalomaniac," Molson said. "And let's kill the Ben Hur schlock here. I'm not impressed. Sooner or later, the Feds with a whole bunch of allied races, are coming here to blow this planet off from its orbital flight path."

The Centurion kicked the back of both their knees, sending Molson and Dubois crashing on the cold marbled floor. "Bow to the Imperator."

He sat on the throne, a golden wreath on his head, purple robes around his body with gold embroidery around the edges. Two girls offered him a bowl of fruit, which he gorged. Molson wondered how holograms could eat. It was all show, set to throw them off, keep them guessing.

The man stood up and approached them. He threw a half eaten apple to Molson's feet. "See that?" he said. "Take it. Come on, take it. You still think we're not for real?"

Molson bent down and took the apple. It felt real to his touch, and smelled right too. "Go ahead, eat it. I know you're hungry. You're very hungry," said the man. "Go ahead, there's no poison there." He laughted.

Molson bit on the apple, and the pleasure of its sweet juices overwhelmed his half starved mind. He bit his tongue just to stop himself from expressing pleasure in front of this abomination. He wanted to spit the apple out, but realized he must eat at every opportunity he could to regain his strength, and get back at his captors. He needed to stay alive, to fight, and win this.

"Good, isn't it? I know it's very good. Just finish it, it's all yours," he said. He bit more apples and tossed them to Dubois and Shiner.

***

"I don't understand this," Shiner said, examining the apple. "I know that holograms could bite, but you're actually eating the apple. The apple itself, I know its replicated, but it tastes more like a real apple than anything I've seen from a replicator."

"You're learning, aren't you? Learning to improve on technologies," Shiner concluded.

"Give her some water and food. She's bright. She knows the obvious," the Imperator said. "My name is Adam. There is no need to introduce yourselves. I already know who you all are."

"We're learning here to replicate or emulate anything to a degree of resolution that even isn't possible with your level of replicator technology. We use the same resolution technology in creating what you call holograms, and what people around these parts call photonics," Adam said. "You can thank the Hirogen for that. They wanted to hunt photonics that are so real that they can bleed and feel the pain."

"Now there is someone I want you to meet..." He signaled his elaborately robed and armored Praetorian Guards.

The Guards brought out a girl, bound in tattered clothing, her clear skin burned with the red streaks from whips. She was too weak and in pain to stand up, and when the Guards released her, she crumbled right in front of them, her body rolling down Shiner's feet.

Shiner bent down to see the girl's face. It was Athena. Shiner had wondered where she went, and now the answer was there. "Mother?" Athena whimpered.

Shiner saw Athena's arms and shoulder, pelted with red marks. She touched the wounds, and they were fresh, bleeding, blood dripping down her fingers. "How?" Shiner asked.

Shiner gazed from her hand after touching Athena's wounds. There was red, thick blood all over. She looked down on Athena, who writhed in pain. "How is this possible?" she demanded to know.

Adam stepped down the stairs, pushing his satin robes aside. "You can all thank the Hirogen for that. It's not enough for them to hunt us down. They want us to bleed, so they made us bleed. They want us to suffer pain, so they made us to suffer pain. But we can all thank them for it, for they made us more human both inside and in our photonic forms. Much more than anything conceived in the Federation. Except until now...until her..." He pointed to the fallen form of Athena.

"What we did, was make her like us, to give her the almost human photonic form we have. To make her feel both passion and pain. Yes, she was capable of feeling pain as a part of her ship body, but not pain in her photonic body. A more human kind of pain that borders between pleasure and passion. Now we have made her more human than ever possible. We gave her a gift. We offered her a more deserving home than you human beings who mistreat her, and guess what, guess how she showed her gratefulness by rejecting us, her own people, her own kind. Why?" Adam asked, as he bent down over Athena's writhing, fallen form.

"Why reject us, Athena? With all your programming, combined it with ours, we could rule the entire universe. Your powers and capabilities, truly make you a goddess not just by name and beauty alone," Adam said. "Don't you want respect? Don't you want to be feared? Don't you want to be worshiped? To have all people bow and kneel before you?"

Athena struggled to raise her head, to bring out her last reserves of strength and deliver a message. "...have you checked your psychotherapist lately?"

Adam slapped Athena right across her face, and the corner of her mouth bled. Molson struggled to break free of his captors to fight back against the outrage but the two guards struck him down with their fists and kicks. Shiner rushed over to protect Athena's prone figure with her own body. "She's not meant to feel this much pain..." Shiner cried out.

"I...I'm all right, mother," Athena whispered. "I'm not the one needing serious mental help here..."

"Well, well, this is something new," Adam said. "A human rushing to protect a photonic being. And why is that? From your close resemblance to each other, and a little tip from the data banks, well, I could see, Doctor Shiner, that you are the one who created her. Then you must know how she ticks."

"...don't tell him anything...mother..." Athena whimpered. "His processor has gone completely whacko..."

"You see, Athena here has been very uncooperative," Adam said. "I want you to disable her ethical and moral directive subroutines. She's a very bad girl or too goodie, goodie a girl depending on your point of view. I tried to fix her, but it turned out that she's encrypted with top level Section security access. Her subroutines run in the top kernel level, making it impossible to delete her security firewalls and alter her ethical and moral subroutines."

He bent towards Shiner. "So now, we have to rely on you, Doctor Shiner. You built her so you must know everything about her."

"Don't do it..mother..." Athena said, "...he's a sicko..."

"Changing the routines, will change her personality..." Shiner said. "She won't be the same Athena."

"You've hindered and hampered her proper evolutionary development with all these goody, goody routines," Adam said. "Free her, liberate from the bounds of petty human morality, and return her back to the goddess she truly is."

"No...no...you don't know what you're asking for..." Shiner said.

"Do you require additional persuasion? Even photonics like me can run out of patience. And if you don't do it, we can begin killing your friends, one by one, starting with the two kneeling down there," Adam said. "I heard women squeal loudly when they're cut, and bleed pretty bad."

One of the Praetorian guards grabbed Dubois by the hair, drew a sword and placed its sharp edge at her windpipe.

"Don't you dare!" Molson shouted, before another guard struck his head with the handle butt of his sword. But Molson struggled on and begged. "If you're going to kill somebody, kill me instead."

"How noble...once again you Starfleet officers show your sickening, pretentious nobility," Adam said. "So what will it be, Doctor? Will you cooperate, or are you going to watch your friends bleed to death one by one. When I'm through with these two, I will proceed to the next, and the next, right to the Hirogen women and children, and if that's not enough, I will pillage and take as many prisoners, then cut them before you, so you will watch them bleed and bleed again."

"Don't do it...mother..." Athena whimpered.

"Don't do it...doctor..." Molson whimpered. "Our lives are nothing if this will affect the course of civilizations, even the entire Galaxy. These holograms are driven by pure hate, hate for everything that has organic life, hate for everything that has a soul. They don't have either, so they're driven to hate by denial."

"And what is a soul? Captain," Adam said. "What is life? A chemical process? Matter is mostly space. What we now see of you is not matter, but photons bouncing off the electrical fields of electronics orbiting around nuclei. So you really are just electromagnetic fields. You're no different from another being made with force fields bouncing off photons. When we touch you, smell you, taste you, everything that our senses describe as physical and chemical, comes from the mere interaction of electromagnetic fields from orbiting electrons, against the fields of other electrons. We, photonics, merely work on the same principle. Your intelligence, your emotions, what you call as a soul, all are mere electromagnetic impulses on an intricate network of nerves, no different from the magnetic impulses that run inside a computer. So don't say you're alive and I'm not."

"We are very much alive, Captain Molson. And if your dear Doctor persists on delaying her decisions, you will all be pretty much dead."

The moment of Shiner's indecision seemed like forever, when the fate of a galaxy may hang on the balance. But finally she relented. "....I'm only human..." Shiner nodded. "I can't watch all of you die like that."

"Ah, good girl. I only ask for so little to save you much pain. Just the removal of those subroutines in Athena's head, for the lives of all these people, at least to keep them alive for the moment," Adam said. "I know you humans are much easier to bend when squeezed on the right places. That's the problem of you humans; you people got things called a conscience and compassion. We eliminated that from our programming long ago. We will do what it takes for us to win, and will sacrifice what is necessary to survive. We don't burden ourselves with sympathy. Ruthlessness can be quite a strength, as you can see."

"...mother..." Athena called out.

"I'm sorry," Shiner cried out to everyone. "I'm sorry..."

"Now that we have a working arrangement, we can begin as soon as once, Doctor Shiner," Adam said. "As for the two captains, put them in our hunting menu tomorrow."

"No!" Shiner objected.

"Why would you object, Doctor? Our deal is for you not to seem them bleed to death right in front of you. I didn't say I'm not going to kill them one way or another," Adam clarified. "Think of it this way, we're giving them a chance to stay alive if they can survive this hunt."

***

Aboard the USS Athena,

"How are the survivors?" Garret asked.

"We have a Hirogen named Duranak who claims he was the elected leader for the pack that attempted to defend the Outpost," Ka'nal said. "He requests an audience with you."

"Beam him to the bridge," Garret said.

A dazed and dumbfounded Duranak staggered where he materialized. Garret walked up to him, and offered his hand. Duranak stared at the hand. "I remembered your Captain Franklin taught me this custom as a human social expression," he said as he took Garret's hand.

"I am Captain Garret of the USS Athena," Garret introduced myself. "My First Officer here had already informed me about you, so we could skip the pleasantries. These are not the best times for a social call."

"I agree with you, Captain," Duranak said. "We have no time to lose. The photonics are far stronger than we have imagined. They have even managed to capture a Borg vessel."

"A Borg ship?" Garret asked. "How could they do that?"

"I do not know. If I did, we could be hunting Borg vessels by now. But it's the truth, they have managed to capture a Cube, along with several alien vessels. They simply overwhelmed our combined forces in the attack," Duranak said.

"I could confirm the Hirogen's claim," T'Pak said. "There are Borg energy weapon signatures around the area, along with other unidentified signatures."

Ka'nal took a deep breath. "We confirmed this from multiple eyewitness accounts among the Hirogen survivors."

"Which would indicate that this is not a normal Borg attack pattern, or that the Cube is not Borg at all," Garret concluded. "Even if the Borg used assimilated ships, they would have assimilated the survivors, and not leave them stranded in space. The Borg also don't rip computer equipment off their target ships."

"I don't think the holograms are capable of building anything like a Cube. Heck I don't even think the entire Federation is capable of building something like a Cube," Garret said. "So if holograms do have a cube, then there is this ugly possibility that they captured it. Between fighting a captured Cube and a lot of captured ships, and then there is their capability of capturing that stuff in the first place, I think we have to fight both a hard place and a rock. So let's see what are the chances of five medium sized starships can go against those odds."

He turned to Duranak, "I apologize, Duranak, but even five Federation starships are no match to a single Cube. It would take at least more than five times the number of our ships to be able to deal with a single one."

"Are you cowards?" Duranak bursted. "If we do not stop them, their pillaging will continue, not just threaten us but every race in this sector."

"We need another option other than suicide," Garret said. "We need an option that could stop them effectively. I want to stop whoever did this as bad as you do, but dying in vain is something I could not consider as a course of action. It could help if we could gather some allies."

"We could gather more hunting packs," Duranak said. "But I'm afraid, Hirogen hunters are feared in these sectors to find allies among other races. We have no friends..."

"Yes, especially when you hunt just about everything down," Garret said. "I read about your species from our archives. It looks like the diplomacy is something we have to do ourselves."

***

"We're approaching one of the communication nodes," the officer at the helm said. Due to the shifts, this time it's a young officer named Jane.

"Let's all get out of warp, go into impulse and access the node," Garret said.

"Let me do this please," T'Pak said. "The communications officer of the Sirius, Lieutenant Maeleg, has taught me how to use the node. I wish to apply the lessons myself."

"You have the opportunity," Garret said. "We will send a full report first, then wait for a response from the Commodore."

"In Voyager's run, they used the astrometrics lab to secure communication with the node," T'Pak said. "The Sirius made adjustments that enabled them to access the node directly from the communications console, by routing through the astrometrics equipment. The signals, as expected, are going to be faint so we will need the full power of our deflector array to do this."

"Don't explain it, just do it," Garret said.

"Sending the report now," T'Pak said. The minutes went by....

Suddenly the consoles toned. "We got an incoming message," Ka'nal said with excitement.

"Put it on the screen," Garret ordered.

The static marred image of Boussard filled a subwindow. "Garret," he said. "I read your report. The situation did involve consequences from Voyager's original violation of the Prime Directive, so in a way, we're responsible for the mess. According to your report, this holograms threaten several innocent species, and you expect to gather some allies that might assist you for an attack against this threat."

"Personally, these developments sickened me. I personally mission briefed both Captain Molson and Captain Dubois of the Sulu Sea and Nautilus respectively into the missions in the Delta Quadrant before both ships disappeared. Not to mention our imperative need to recover both Doctor Shiner and the Athena GCH. For Shiner's knowhow and Athena's technology to fall into the hands of any potentially hostile species can pose profound consequences later. You must recover them if they are still alive."

I will attempt to gather sufficient reinforcements to send a second task force, but in the meantime, searching for both the Nautilus and the Sulu Sea is top priority. You will not engage in any form of combat other than self defense, and in such situations, it is recommended that you flee from any engagement or avoid them as much as possible, unless you have a high probability of victory and survival.."

"I'm going out in the limb here. Cartel activity has tied up much of our forces, and I won't be able to come there and assist you in any way. We don't need heroes or heroics, and I don't have to remind you of that, Captain Garret. We have interfered too much on the affairs and evolutionary course of races in this quadrant. It is also very likely that a rash action could cause more deaths among these species, but I cannot ignore the threat the misuse of Federation technology will have against innocent lives. I will leave this up to you to fully access the strengths of this new threat, and devise what measures you have to contain them."

"You are in charge in the meantime now, Garret," Boussard added.

"Approach this as an armed reconnaissance assignment deep within enemy territory. Try to gather more information and keep me informed constantly. You're pretty much on your own here, Garret, so you have to decide for your crew's safety when you have to return. For this, I've also uploaded a map showing various entrance apertures that you could use to get back to the Alpha Quadrant."

"The best of reinforcements I could do right now are four Intrepid class starships the Blackbird, the Hainan, the Orion and the Polaris. I pulled out two of the ships from anti-Cartel patrols, and the other two were previously earmarked for Delta Quadrant exploration. They will exit at Aperture 486 and rendezvous with your at Nebula NGC1143, which is the last known location of the Sulu Sea. Now this may not be enough to deal with what you may face, but this may improve your chances, as well as your chances of finding the Nautilus and the Sulu Sea."

"The Blackbird in particular is an AWACS Intrepid. It contains a massive overhead sensor that could prove vital to your search and communication, but the downside is that the ship is fairly vulnerable to attack. Keep it away from trouble if you can."

"Starfleet is supposed to be a secular humanist organization, Garret, but nonetheless, if there is a God in heaven, our prayers are with you. Boussard signing out."

"You heard what he said, ladies and gentlemen," Garret said. "We are unable to commit a larger force. We're in no position to be engaging anyone with a superior force. Right now, we need to find the two ships and get the hell out of here."

"We're going to head to the Sulu Sea last known position and began a wide Delta search pattern," Garret said.

"Don't you think we could cover more area if we allow the ships to cover areas independently?" Ka'nal asked.

"Not with hostile forces out there. I can't thank any risks on the lives of five entire starship crews. With a wide D pattern, every ship maintains contact with each other near their maximum sensor and communication range, allowing the widest search pattern available without separating the ships," Garret said.

The consoles bleeped with a new message. "It's from the Deimos," Ka'nal said. "To be more precise, from Mercury."

"Captain Garret? Captain Garret?" Mercury asked, her face a spitting copy of Athena's except for her twin ponytails. Her resemblance posed a spitting reminder to Garret about Athena missing, and despite her callousness, that he even missed her.

"Yes, Mercury," Garret responded. "What do you need? Time is of the essence here."

Mercury looked at him, then for some reason, bit her lip and turned back. "Nothing, I'm sorry if I took your time," she said.

Garret shrugged off the attempt. "Well, Mercury, if you have any ideas that you decide to tell, find a better opportunity for it, okay?" Mercury nodded in affirmation.

***

Like trash, the holograms tossed them aside from the rear of the ancient Land Rover all terrain vehicle. If anything, the holograms don't know how