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Star Trek Renegade - 1.12 Apex by J. Grey, copyright held by A.P. Atkinson

1.12 Apex - Part 1

"The future of history"

Captain Reader sat down heavily on the chair and beneath him it began to mould itself to his shape. It has been a long day preceded by many long days which seemed to be increasingly arduous as the years marched on. Proceeding those were things he didn't even like to think about any more. Every night when he closed his eyes his memories still played out and he was forced to live it again, the terrors he had seen that had cost him his ship and most of his crew. It had been many years ago and his career would have been over long before even if had not resigned his commission early.

"Please take your time." A young man sat down opposite, barely 35 with warm eyes that were framed by a face beset with signs of cold experience.

"That's right." A cruel smile flashed over his old lips as he glared at the man leaving no question of his annoyance. "This is my time, not yours."

"I'm aware of your status." The officer acceded. He was dressed in the current Starfleet uniform but with a very different symbol on the collar of his tunic. The insignia went beyond rank, this man could command a Starship or have an Admiral arrested. Captain Reader had once borne the same symbol on his own uniform, the sign of Starfleet intelligence. "Retired twenty four years ago to the Lunar colony of Hargov-4 in the Maros belt." He looked up with a smile. "I used to sit in a field in my father's farm staring up the moon. I knew then that there was nothing else I could do. I had to travel into space."

"The heart of an explorer." Reader smiled back. The officer nodded happily. "And the mind of a bureaucrat."

Captain Ishmael smiled at the old man's spite. "You were once me. You once served the Federation in exactly the way I am now."

"I never beamed anyone away against their will." Reader told him. "And I never claimed the heart of an explorer beat in my chest. I was a soldier, fighting for what I believed in."

"Well there's nothing much left to explore." The officer shrugged. "And beaming you here to assist us was a legal decision. Check your reserve activation clause some day."

"I have a home to go to." Captain Reader told him coldly. "Shall we get on with this?"

"I have something to say first." He told him, his expression softening as he took a deep breath as if something was deeply troubling him.

Captain Reader narrowed his eyes suspiciously and nodded for him to continue.

"I have read your record and am greatly impressed." He began earnestly. "Calling you here in this manner was my idea. I believe that you will rise to assist us with a problem because you're an honourable man and bound to do so." He paused for effect. "I short; you have my deepest respect."

"I won't thank you for your opinion." Reader smiled thinly. "I worked hard to achieve what I did and my reasons for doing so were my own."

"I have a problem." Captain Ishmael began with a sigh. "We have a problem."

"I imagined you did but I don't see how it has anything to do with me." He told him coldly, running his hand over his chest as a minor jolt of pain shot through his tired muscles and buried itself deep inside him, forgotten for now. "They're back, aren't they?" Reader said softly, his gaze lowering sadly to the ground.

Captain Ishmael looked up with a curious frown before suddenly realising what the old man would be referring to. He shook his head. "Nothing like that I'm relieved to say."

Reader slumped back in his chair with a bead of sweat tracing down his forehead. He nodded happily to himself. "You're relieved?" He said sarcastically.

"May I ask why you left Starfleet?" Captain Ishmael asked, fingering a thin transparent Padd with the buttons projected holographicaly above the smooth, empty surface. "It wasn't straight away. Apparently your decision to leave was made a week after your medical isolation and debriefing."

"That's right." Captain Reader nodded solemnly, rubbing the back of his right hand awkwardly as he turned to stare out of the transparency. "For a month they kept us in isolation. We had access to a holo-deck and everything else we needed but we had no contact with the outside world. They couldn't be sure we hadn't been infected. We all understood."

"During that time you made no mention of wishing to leave the service." The young officer shrugged, intrigued. "Your decision was made on the first day you returned to active duty."

"Yes." Captain Reader agreed, all signs of humour vanishing to be replaced by a troubled frown. "That was when I found out."

"About the losses to your crew?" Captain Ishmael guessed.

"No." Reader smiled but it was an empty gesture. "I already knew that my crew had been decimated by the…" He paused and his frown deepened. The word seemed to stick in his throat and his eyes glazed as the vivid image of his nightmares danced before him. "…The Necrodians."

"I'm sorry." He ventured, hanging his head and shaking his head in dismay. "I can't imagine what it must have been like."

"No you can't." Reader agreed, turning away from the transparency and back to the Starfleet officer. "It was when I found out about Girling and the others."

"Ah…" Captain Ishmael nodded in agreement.

"After that I just didn't see how I could go on." Captain Reader shrugged. "They became the living embodiment of the secret world I lived in. To me, to all of us they were a symbol of the battle against Section 31, against the darkness inside us all. When I heard…" He trailed off and merely shook his head. "It was just too much."

"We have a problem." The Captain told his predecessor with a wry glint in his eye.

"You said that." Reader smiled thinly. "Or my mind is finally going the way it should have gone twenty four years ago."

"We found something." The young officer raised his eyebrows and blew the air from his lungs, wondering to himself how to explain.

"If it was my life I'd like it back." Reader told him, grinning scornfully.

Captain Ishmael fixed him with an emotionless stare and then suddenly his eyes darted back to his desk. He reached down and took out a sealed black box which he placed on the top with a flourish. He took a deep breath and waved a hand over the box. "We found something." He repeated.

Captain Reader noticed the Starfleet Intelligence symbol on the lid of the secure case. In his time the box would have had a built-in micro-transporter and in the event of tampering it would attempt to transfer itself to a secure location or destroy itself with a Code-3 transport. Reader knew that the base he was on must be very close to the secure vaults on Earth or at least connected through a sub-space relay channel.

"What's in there?" Reader asked, his eyes fixed on the smooth, satin material as if staring itself might reveal its secrets if only he stared hard enough.

Captain Ishmael opened the seals and the lid dematerialised in a flickering blue blur of light. Inside was a padded holder and a cylindrical container. Reader leant forward and frowned at the container. It was old and dirty, beaten about and tatty, covered in the residue of many years of abuse.

"What is it?" He asked curiously.

Captain Ishmael lifted the cylinder out carefully, fingering the device as if it were delicate beyond compare. He held up the grey device for the old Captain to look at.

"You have got to be joking!" Reader sneered angrily. "You brought me here for that! An old message buoy?"

"A message buoy!" The young Iraqi officer agreed with a grin. "And you're right, it is very old."

"So?" Reader folded his arms over his chest in annoyance. "Just about every Federation ship ever built is equipped with those, they eject them any time there's a minor crisis with their records. There must be millions of them out there."

"Firstly this one is rather special." Captain Ishmael assured him with a smirk. "This one is charged with a very odd radiation. It's phased out of our normal space-time. We only just detected it and it took us three weeks to phase it back into our universe."

"I'm not impressed." Reader told him abruptly.

"We can't even guess how old it is because it's still phasing slightly." He continued. "We also don't know what ship it came from, the transponder code is for a ship we don't have in our records."

"I've been retired for twenty-four years." Reader growled at him. "There must be thousands of officers to whom this would be fascinating."

"If I told you that this one has the Section 31 prefixed UX-70666 number of the Corinthian scratched into the casing along with yours and Captain Graves name would that make it more fascinating?" The officer smiled broadly and raised a knowing eyebrow.

Reader snapped up, his arms uncrossed and his eyes widened. "It might pique my interest." He acceded.

Captain Ishmael reached over the desk to hand him the small drone. "There's definitely a message on it but it's encrypted." The old Captain reached out to take it.

"A message?" Reader stammered, a tear beginning to well up in his eye as he spoke. His hand recoiled away from the cylinder and he turned away. "I can't." He shook his head. "I can't go through this again."

"We can't open it without you." Captain Ishmael told him softly. "We want to know what's on there as much as I think you do."

"I don't know…" Reader shook his head and frowned, thoughts welling up uncontrollably in his mind.

"I have arranged a private holo-deck at your disposal." The young officer began. "You will have privacy to view the message on your own and all we ask is that you hand over the details to us afterwards to evaluate any threat and to record the historic events more clearly."

"I can view it privately?" Reader asked suspiciously, his arm beginning again to reach out tentatively to the cylinder.

"Of course." Captain Ishmael agreed with a curt nod. "What do you say?"

Captain Reader watched as the holo-deck doors slid closed behind him and locked. He turned to the small message cylinder that sat in the centre of the large chamber and took a deep breath.

"Computer!" He called out with an authoritative voice. "Give me a chair to sit in." He sat down heavily in the comfortable seat as it materialised behind him. He shook his head as he remembered the secret code that he'd once issued the Corinthian. It had never been officially recorded but had allowed them access to whatever supplies they needed. It would have made for an ideal encryption key that nobody else would have known.

"Reader." He began. "Access Gamma 201- 301- Omega."

"Interface established." The Computer told him softly in it's smooth female voice.

"What's in there?" He asked.

"Message contents, bridge recordings, crew logs, exterior monitoring logs, mission logs," the computer began listing the contents of the data.

"Arrange in chronological order." He instructed, cutting off the computer. "Extrapolate data and show records in real time."

"Confirmed." The computer told him with precise efficiency. Suddenly the holo-deck plunged into darkness and the image of the bridge of a highly advanced merchant vessel appeared before him in a flawless hologram.

"Can you take the log entries and arrange them in order to show what happened?" He asked as his eyes grew tight with the sadness of seeing his old friends.

"Program set." The computer confirmed.

"Begin." He ordered, his voice cracking with emotion as the ghosts that haunted him walked from his memory into reality and began to show him every detail that he'd spent the last twenty-four years hiding from.

He wiped a tear from his eye as the feelings began to overwhelm him and cursed himself for his stupidity. "You damn old fool." He muttered to himself, his voice cracking with nostalgic emotion as the story began.

"Displaying Wanderer 2 First officer's log. Time index 7324.5"

"It wasn't easy. Finding three small ships in the vastness of space is harder than most people would realise. In the end, they found us. They came to us as if they knew what we wanted. We'd killed one of them before and still they came to us with an open mind and willing to help. According to law they're fully sentient and protected. I don't agree. Too many sentient life-forms are only out for what they can get. The Furies might be self-aware but to consider them one amongst the other species of this galaxy is to sell them short. I feel they are unique!"

"I think they're behind us." Commander Morrow frowned at the readings on the console of the Wanderer. "I'm certainly detecting three Federation type Warp signatures in our wake and they're matching our warp factor and heading."

"Then they are behind us." Captain Graves shrugged hopefully with the distinct lack of concern his ignorance afforded him.

"Their Warp patterns are a little odd." Morrow told the Captain. "They're unusually powerful for their size but they're based on a very old system. They're also heavily shielded with armour and their tactical grid is very sophisticated so they're difficult to lock sensor onto."

"The Furies are an odd design." Graves commented absently with a listless shrug. "I'm just glad they're not firing on us."

"Me too." The Commander agreed with a slightly acrid glanced aimed at his Captain. "They definitely appear to be following. I guess they understood our request for help after all."

"So now the Corinthian, the Kra'lee, ourselves and the Furies will be there to make a stand against the Necrodians." Graves allowed himself an arrogant surge of pride at his success in locating the Furies and not getting anybody else hurt in the process.

"Do you seriously think it will be enough?" The Commander shuddered at the thought of the gigantic vessel that would soon stand against them if all went according to plan.

"I wish I knew." The Captain admitted grimly, thoughts of the battle ahead filling him with fear and excitement in equal measures.

"Crewman Patterson has completed the automation of the engineering department ahead of schedule." Morrow commented conversationally. "He says they can function down there now with only two people."

"That's good." The Captain agreed. "The Corinthian can replicate two type 9 shuttles with the deuterium we've collected. Now we've got the spare crew to operate them."

"It's not that simple though." The Commander turned to face the Captain. "We can't just put people into armed shuttles against a ship of that size. We're asking them to face almost certain death."

"So?" The Captain shrugged with a wry smirk.

"They won't be very happy with that." Morrow crossed his arms over his chest in annoyance.

"This is a fine crew." The Captain told him. "We've served together against Section 31, rammed a fleeing ship, faced down a Klingon cruiser and supported the Corinthian against a host of adversaries."

"Yes but…" The Commander began, a, little flustered.

"And now we're charged with the task of rescuing Captain Reader and the crew of the Olympus from an alien who could threaten the entire Federation." The Captain smiled assuredly. "I could ask for volunteers and fill two shuttles twice over from these people."

"I don't know..." The Commander frowned.

"Would you command a shuttle?" Graves raised an eyebrow knowingly. "Would you co-ordinate the attack if I asked you to?"

"Of course I would." He agreed.

"I know." The Captain nodded. "But I need you here, the Wanderer is going in after the Corinthian and the Kra'lee."

"I can't wait." The Commander shuddered. "At least in a shuttle I could get away from you. I think that would at least double my chances of survival."

"Displaying Corinthian Chief engineer's log. Time index 7328.2"

"When you have the time to catch up on the damage your Captain does you take it. That never made more sense than on this ship. I don't do what he tells me because he wears a number of silly gold things on his collar. I follow him because he's my friend. He makes as many mistakes as the rest of us but that's not what makes him special. He admits to his weakness and he does what he says he will. His sense of honour and devotion to his ideals is infectious. I never meant to stay on this ship but now… Now it's my ship too."

"I'm detecting something." Haldo Compz announced lazily. "Ten particles of stellar matter, three comets on long range sensors and a solar flare fifteen light years away but it's a very small one."

"Great." Blake grumbled from the command seat at the centre of the bridge of the Corinthian, running his hand over his face wearily.

"I am so bored." Haldo sighed and turned away from the instrument panel. "A trapped fox will gnaw off it's own feet to escape. I'd do the same if I could figure out what part of me to start eating."

"Anything would be fine…" Goruss Clogg told him flatly. "The only thing you use is your mouth."

"Does anybody want another cup of coffee?" Doctor Jones asked, gazing fixedly on the last cup, which he'd finished only a few minutes before. "I don't even usually drink coffee…"

"Not really." Haldo shook his head. "I wouldn't mind something happening, even something scary."

"It's funny…" Jones began with a slight smile fluttering across his lips. "When I came aboard I was terrified and have pretty much stayed that way ever since. I actually seem to be used to be scared out of my mind and now I seem to miss it."

"Well we know exactly where the ship is likely to emerge from warp, we just don't know exactly when." Blake shrugged. "So we wait."

"Well according to my extrapolation, it won't appear for another three days yet." Haldo added. "That's a hell of a lot of coffee, I'm not sure if my replicators are up to it."

"Actually I am detecting something." Doctor Jones raised an eyebrow. "A very faint electro-magnetic pulse has been flashing on my sensors every few minutes."

"Out here in space?" Haldo said sarcastically. "Who would ever have thought that?"

"Well you do something then?" Jones snapped back in irritation.

"We'd all like something to happen but let's just stay calm until something actually does." Captain Girling warned them firmly.

"Captain." Katherine sat up in surprise. "I'm detecting something."

"Really?" Haldo asked excitedly. "Thank god!"

"It's a hailing frequency but its power is boosted to the point where it's virtually as powerful as a warp field at the source!" She shook her head. "I've never seen anything quite like it."

"There's a message?" Blake frowned, rubbing his chin expectantly.

"There is…" She turned to face him with a worried expression. "It's on a Starfleet carrier wave and it appears that it's intended for you."

"Captain, I am detecting three vessels on long range sensors." Clogg warned from the tactical station. "Same source as this hailing frequency."

"The Necrodians?" Doctor Jones gasped fearfully, his eyes widening as he spoke and his faint smile returning.

"Starfleet." Clogg corrected. "They're emitting the standard Federation protocols."

"Put the message on the viewer." Blake said calmly with a curious frown.

The screen in the centre flashed to the view of a bridge of a Starship, beige and comfortable with instruments flashing dimly around. An officer stood before the Captains chair waiting to speak as the automated message played on the viewer.

"This is Captain Makarov of the Starship USS Darmajaya." He began. "We're looking for Commander Blake Girling aboard the Starfleet vessel, USS Corinthian. We know you're out there, Blake and we need you to respond. Please reply urgently."

"What do you make of that?" Haldo raised an eyebrow curiously.

"I'm definitely detecting three ships." Clogg reported. "A refitted Galaxy class, a Centaur and a Nova, all heading in roughly this direction at high warp."

"Perhaps they've come to help?" Katherine suggested. "The Klingons have been aware of the Necrodians for some time and we did send out a coded report to Starfleet command about them."

"I don't know." He shook his head. "It could easily be a trick."

"This is not Section 31's style." The Doctor told him. "They wouldn't send out three Starships to hunt for you like this. They like to hide, this is too overt. It doesn't feel right!"

"Can we hail them at this range?" Blake closed his eyes in contemplation.

"I think I can increase the power to the communications array." Katherine nodded thoughtfully, working things out quickly in her head. "Shall I open a channel?"

"Open." He nodded grimly, still harbouring significant doubts about the authenticity of the contact.

"This is Captain Blake Girling." He said. Suddenly the viewscreen flicked open to the bridge of the Darmajaya where Captain Makarov leapt from his chair in excitement.

"Captain Girling?" He smirked.

"I was given a field promotion when I took command of this ship." He nodded. "Unfortunately records of that were aboard the Olympus."

"We've been transmitting a call for you for three days now." The Captain sighed. "I was beginning to think you weren't really out here."

"How did you know that we were?" Blake frowned.

"We didn't." The Captain explained. "But we had reliable information that you would be and were hoping it was correct."

"What's this all about?" Blake asked finally.

"We have something of a problem." Makarov shrugged. "It appears likely that you're the best hope of fixing it as you've helped us out with it before."

"We're rather busy right now." He told him. "The vessel that destroyed the Olympus is due to drop from warp at this point in about three days."

"This won't wait for three days!" Captain Makarov told him firmly.

"I'm listening." Blake crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow in a furtive expression of interest.

"Please rendezvous with us." Makarov raised his hands in an open gesture. "You can get here in seconds with your Transwarp drive. We need to speak with you urgently."

The screen went blank as Blake halted the signal and turned to his officers. "Thoughts?" He asked with a shrug.

"I'd like to hear what they have to say." Haldo nodded. "They're Starfleet after all."

"What would happen if this was a trick to recapture the Corinthian?" Blake turned to his tactical officer.

"Against three ships?" Clogg sighed thoughtfully. "We could hurt them if we had to but they would severely outgun us, especially that refitted Galaxy class."

"You can't fire on Federation vessels!" Katherine exclaimed.

"I'll fire on Section 31, you can be sure of that!" Blake told her with a note of certainty. "Trim for Transwarp." He instructed. "It looks like we're going to pay them a visit."

"Displaying Darmajaya Captain's Log. Time Index 7328.9"

"We finally made contact with the Corinthian. Girling was everything I expected. He lacks experience but has learnt to be highly suspicious. Against all the odds he's surrounded himself with an efficient crew."

The Darmajaya dropped out of warp and came to a full stop at the rendezvous co-ordinates.

"Nothing sir." The science officer reported.

"I don't expect there will be." Captain Makarov told him. "They'll come in under cloak, we won't see them until they want us to."

"If they come." Commander Mica Arlon sneered at her terminal. "We don't know anything about that ship and its crew."

"The enemy of your enemy is your friend." Makarov told her with a smile, wagging an accusing finger at her in a playful scolding. "I'm not fond of the idea of a Renegade Section 31 prototype out there with an illegal cloaking device making arbitrary decisions that affect the whole Federation but Captain Reader believed in them and now so does Starfleet command."

"We have almost no tactical information about that ship!" Lieutenant Drax droned from the tactical station. "We would be poorly situated to mount a defence if they chose to attack us."

"Why would they?" The Captain turned to face the burly Trill officer. "Everything we know suggests the intentions of the Corinthian have always been benign."

"I'm detecting a hail." Drax told him. "They're requesting permission to come aboard."

"Granted." Makarov smiled.

Captain Blake Girling and Ensign Katherine Rogers materialised on the transporter platform aboard the upgraded Galaxy class Starship.

"Welcome to the Darmajaya ." Captain Makarov extended a hand in greeting.

"Thank you." Blake stepped forward and shook the officer's hand warmly, both men having firm grips while their eyes peered suspiciously at one another.

"If you'd like to come this way, I have a briefing prepared in the observation room." Makarov gestured to the door as he led them out of the transporter room. The heavy radiation-proof doors hissed open with a weak sigh as they approached.

"I'd like to make you aware of a few things." Blake told him as the entered the corridor and began their journey to the lounge behind the main bridge. "My ship is cloaked and shielded but I can still beam back aboard at any time."

"That won't be necessary." The Captain smirked. He was a distinguished man of Russian decent, powerfully built with a certain resilience inherited from his family. A crop of neatly styled grey hair covered his head and his steely blue eyes flashed around giving the impression that they saw more than there was to see. "I understand your hesitancy but I can assure you that Section 31 have no hand in our being here."

"I hope not." Blake flashed a glance at Katherine.

The observation lounge was spacious and gave an excellent view of the rear of the vessel with the gigantic nacelles, each larger than the Corinthian herself. Behind the massive, sprawling ship the Centaur class craft drifted silently by, a singular circular main hull with a pair of glowing nacelles jutting uneasily from her belly.

"We have a problem." Captain Makarov admitted with a sigh. "Two of our outer colonies have been raided recently by an unusual vessel."

"In addition to that, three Starbases have been attacked." The Commander added.

"And you're telling me that I'm the only person for this job?" Blake shrugged, highly unconvinced at the story so far.

"The vessel is a Section 31 ship." Makarov explained. "It's fast, powerful and aggressive." "A Scarab?" Katherine suggested, glancing back to Blake with a raised eyebrow.

Commander Arlon shook her head. "I'm familiar with that design, this is something we haven't seen before."

"Then how do you know that it's Section 31?" Blake asked.

"Four days ago the USS Apache was attacked and disabled in an attack that cost ten members of her crew their lives." Makarov began. "The Apache was on routine border patrols when she answered a distress call from a merchant ship. They spoke to the Captain of the vessel and got a good look at her once the cloaking device was disengaged."

"And?" Blake narrowed his eyes defensively.

"The ship was designated The Apex and is commanded by Captain Faruqui." The Commander told him.

"He was arrested!" Blake sneered, reeling back angrily. "We were forced to destroy his ship, the Violator, after he went rogue with it. He's a dangerous man!"

"It seems he is looking for revenge." Makarov told him. "He has been looking for information as to your whereabouts. It seems that Section 31 have equipped him with a new type of ship and have given him the resources to recapture or destroy the Corinthian."

"I don't believe this!" Katherine shook her head. "That man is dangerous, he's already proved that. Why would they let him loose?"

"That's probably what makes him the ideal man for the job." The Commander shrugged. "He hates you, he hates the Corinthian and will stop at nothing in his mission."

"I see." Blake sighed. "What do you propose?"

"The Apex is cloaked and can sustain warp 9.99 for much greater lengths of time than we can." The Captain explained. "We have been unsuccessful in our attempts to track her but you will undoubtedly have better luck."

"And the Necrodians?" Katherine asked.

"We'll face them." Captain Makarov replied grimly. "These three vessels have been sent as the first wave. At least seven more ships will join us over the next few days to mount a defence."

Blake looked over to his officer, his expression thoughtful. "What do you think?" He muttered.

"Would you like to know what I think?" Captain Makarov grinned.

"I suppose." Blake turned to him in interest.

"I think these orders came directly from Admiral Namura and you're a Starfleet Captain." He told him bluntly. "I think you had better get on with your job and let us do ours."

Captain Girling leant back in his chair thoughtfully, a slight smile fluttering across his lips. "I suppose I am." He agreed. "But there are conditions."

"A field-promoted acting Captain is making conditions about the orders of an Admiral?" Makarov said mockingly but with good humour.

"Five other vessels were going to join us at the co-ordinates where the Necrodian vessel was due to drop out of warp." Blake told them. "Three of them are self automated drones called Furies, another is a Klingon light attack ship and the last is the civilian vessel, the Wanderer."

"You have been busy." Captain Makarov looked impressed, if slightly dubious at the news of the motley entourage.

"We also have detailed scans of the ship and their shield frequencies." Katherine added with a wide grin.

"You have what?" The Commander asked, startled at the news. "How…?"

"If we go after the Apex and capture or disable it in time then I intend to return and lead the attack on the Necrodian ship." Blake told them.

"I have already been assigned to head up the fleet." Makarov folded his arms stubbornly.

"The Corinthian has a level of sophistication that you can't match." Blake explained. "And for some reason they backed off from us when we encountered them, they may see us as a threat."

"You're proposing to capture the Apex in less than three days then return to disable the ship ahead of our fleet?"

"I am." Blake nodded.

"If you can get back here in that time then I would be happy to have you on my team." The Captain shrugged. "But I have a condition of my own."

"I'm listening." Blake said defensively.

"After this is over you are under orders to return to Starfleet headquarters on Earth for a full review of your activities." The Captain told him.

"You intend to decommission my ship?" Blake scowled.

"I believe the intention is to formally register it as a Starfleet ship and to make your field promotion more permanent." He grinned back. "We received reports about you from Captain Reader before he was captured and have been made aware of some of your recent exploits by a merchant fleet who were very glad to encounter you."

"I see." Blake nodded thoughtfully. "I suppose I can do that."

"Displaying personal Log – Haldo Compz. Time index 7330.0"

"Here we go again. Blake is under the misguided opinion that we enjoy racing off on half-baked schemes to save the galaxy as we know it. Now we have to chase after yet another Section 31 prototype hell-bent on destruction. How many prototypes are out there and do they all want to fight us? It's like the wild west where every gunman has to prove himself. Every prototype seems to want to blast us out of space. I guess that means we're the best. I can live with that!"

"And you trust them?" Haldo grumbled.

"Even if it were Section 31 they are planning to have an entire fleet waiting for that ship." Blake shrugged to his engineer. "It's better than we could have hoped for alone."

"So where do we start?" Haldo asked dejectedly. "At the Apex's last known co-ordinates?"

"Actually we've already started." Blake smiled. "I just dropped our cloaking device. We're visible!"

"Great!" Haldo muttered to himself. "You're trying to dismantle the ship again before we can even get her finished."

"Clogg, I'd like to see you in the briefing room." Blake gestured to his security officer. "Haldo, Doctor Jones, you too please."

The four of them took their seats around the table at the rear of the bridge.

"We don't know much about this ship." Blake began with a sigh. "We have a few records from the Apache but they don't give us much to go on."

"The Apache was a Nova class vessel refitted for border patrol." Clogg said thoughtfully as he read through the notes on the Padd. "They're tough little ships, the Apex must be quite well armed."

"The Phaser output is about a quarter of the energy of our cannon." Haldo furrowed his brow. "This ship was built to fight."

"This ship was built to fight us!" Blake corrected dryly. "She's also cloaked. Can we look at developing a way to detect her?"

"According to these readings the cloaking device looks like a standard type Romulan type unit." Doctor Jones nodded. "If it is then we should be able to spot it about three seconds before it decloaks and raises shields."

"I could work out a program that would automatically raise shields and fire weapons at that point." Haldo suggested. "It would give us a chance to hurt them before they hurt us."

"Do that." Blake nodded. "But set it up to lock weapons, not fire them. I'd like to retain discretion over the firing controls."

"I suppose." Haldo nodded with a shrug.

"What do you think?" Blake turned to Clogg who shrugged and dropped the Padd to the desk.

"It's an impressive vessel, unusual design." Clogg began. "It's not a match to us though unless it has something we haven't seen yet."

"Like what?" Haldo frowned.

"The Phasers and torpedoes are powerful but they have won't be enough to cripple this ship before we can damage them." Clogg surmised. "They might have a cannon capable of delivering more energy or some other advantage like superior targeting or an ability we hadn't thought of."

"Why didn't they come after us in a Scarab?" Blake ran his hand over his head. "A Scarab is closer to our abilities than this Apex. Why knowingly use an inferior vessel?"

"We're assuming they had a choice?" Haldo interjected.

"I'm sure that Captain Faruqui will answer these questions for us when we see him." Blake grimaced at the prospect. "And when that answer comes we had better be ready."

"Displaying Wanderer 2 Captain's log. Time index 7331.1"

"Racing along as usual. The Corinthian sits and waits while the warrior Captain of the Wanderer gathers the troops. This crew doesn't relish the prospect of facing that Necrodian ship. I can't say I blame them. There's not much honour to be found in getting blown to bits without a good fight. Especially if your remains end up as a crewman aboard the enemy ship."

"What do you mean, you can see them?" Captain Graves mocked his first officer.

"They're not cloaked. They're right there in Federation space in plain view." Commander Morrow pointed at the image of the Corinthian in the viewer where she held position at the rendezvous co-ordinates.

"Hail them." Graves stood up, frowning in confusion.

Captain Girling appeared in the viewer at the front of the bridge.

"I can see you." Graves told him.

"We're not cloaked." Blake said with a whimsical expression at Graves utter lack of comprehension.

"Why?" He stammered.

"Long story but we're moving off. We have work to do." Blake stood up as he spoke.

"You're leaving?" Commander Morrow cried out in surprise.

"We hope to be back in time to face the Necrodians." Blake assured them.

"No offence but we're no match to them without you." Graves shrugged. "They'll tear us to pieces. There's no honour in defeat borne from stupidity."

"Well you'll be joined by a fleet of at least 10 Starships." Blake smiled. "Will that help?"

"It will help." Graves nodded with a smile of relief. "Where the hell are you going?"

"I don't know yet." Blake admitted. "Apparently Captain Faruqui has escaped and been given a ship to destroy us with so we're hoping to find him first."

"And that's more important than the Necrodians?" Graves crossed his arms angrily.

"I have my orders." Blake sighed. "You're to report to Captain Makarov, he's heading up the fleet until I get back."

"I will." Graves agreed without commitment.

"I'll do my best to get back." Blake told him firmly. "You have my word. Girling out."

"A whole fleet." Captain Graves nodded to himself.

"Indeed." Commander Morrow agreed. "I think I'd rather have the Corinthian there instead."

"Me too."

"Displaying Doctor Harold Jones personal log. Time index 7332.9"

"I was asked to work out the course that this Apex ship had followed and look for patterns. It wasn't hard, they don't appear to be trying to hide. A fleet of Starfleet ships didn't sound like it was Section 31's style. This does. I think we're playing a very dangerous game but nobody is listening to me… as usual."

"The patterns of their attack follow a course." Doctor Jones pointed to a graphic on the wall display. "The first three raids seem to have been with the intention of obtaining resources and to find out trail."

Haldo rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You think that we could follow it back to where they began?"

"I do." The Doctor agreed. "There isn't much in the sector they appear to have started from but that's no surprise, Section 31 installations are usually in isolated regions."

"Are there any places that are likely to have a base?" Blake asked in interest.

"A few." The Doctor nodded. "There's nothing in the archives to suggest that there ever was anything there so wherever it was built would appear to be new."

"It's a good idea." Clogg shrugged. "But if we're looking for a ship why start in the place it's heading away from?"

"We could learn a lot about it, maybe what its intentions are." Haldo suggested. "We could be there in about 1.2 hours at Transwarp velocities. I haven't got anything better to do!"

"That's a long trip." Blake turned to his engineer. "What about the particle build-up?"

"I have an automatic purging system installed now." He replied hopefully. "I haven't tested it but projections show it should sort out the problem. We shouldn't have any trouble jumping back to Transwarp once we arrive."

"Hopefully…" Jones muttered from the science console.

"We'll cloak before we leave." Blake told them, his decision made. "When we arrive we'll remain at red alert with the nacelles retracted in case we have to make a run for it."

"It's a big sector." Haldo grimaced. "It could take a while to scan for this base!"

"By my calculations it would take a month to properly survey the area for a base, assuming it wasn't hidden; which of course it will be." Clogg shook his head.

"Not a big fan of this plan?" Haldo joked to the security officer.

"I do have a suggestion!" Doctor Jones told them with a grin.

"I was hoping one of you was going to say that!" Blake said with a sigh of relief.

"The race track we encountered last week was designed to be erected quickly and removed even faster." He explained. "They had a sophisticated sensor platform that the Section 31 ship was observing so I got a pretty good look at the specifications."

"I'm listening…" Blake told him with interest.

"It starts with a central probe that deploys self-replicating torpedoes which travel at high warp dropping off subspace relays." He explained. "The schematics are already in the replicator archive but will take a few hours to generate."

"You kept that quiet!" Haldo frowned at him.

"Well I don't want you having all the fun!" Jones grinned at the engineer. "You're not the only one who can come up with ridiculous suggestions should the need arise."

"Will it actually work?" Blake raised an eyebrow.

"I believe so." He nodded happily.

"Can we add a cloaking device to the matrix so that we can do this quietly?" Blake suggested hopefully.

"Not really." He shook his head. "There isn't enough power to run all the systems but the relays are very small and hard to detect. It's unlikely they'll see them unless they know to look for them."

"Then we'll have to move fast." Blake said finally. "Make a start on the probe, I'll set us up to Transwarp into the centre of the sector."

"Displaying Commander Mica Arlon personal log. Time index 7333.1"

"Girling's makeshift fleet troubles me greatly. Not only are these people unqualified they're dangerous. We have vessels that defy description mixing with Starfleet ships. I seem to be the only person who has a problem with any of this!"

"The Wanderer has acknowledged our hails and will rendezvous at the co-ordinates." Commander Arlon flung her Padd onto the Captains desk.

"I see." Captain Makarov replied with a wry smirk. "And you're not entirely happy with that?"

"It's as well armed as the Centaur class ship escorting us but has a crew of only seven people and none of them properly trained for this kind of action." She argued. "The vessel is under the command of a merchant Captain with no Starfleet experience."

"And yet they've been getting the job done." He told her firmly, quashing her argument. "They were ready to fight and die in an attempt to rescue the crew of the Olympus, don't you think that they deserve a little of our respect?"

"I have serious reservations about allowing them to join this fleet." She tapped her foot in weak annoyance as she managed to barely kept her temper under control.

"What about the Furies?" He picked up her Padd to look over the initial reports.

"I don't know where to start." She sneered. "They have no human crew aboard and are bristling with weapons. They're self-replicating and can even procreate apparently. According to the reviews they're to be considered artificial life-forms in their own right and fully sentient. They're protected by some amendments to Federation law made for some android officer who served in Starfleet apparently."

"You've never heard of Lieutenant Commander Data?" The Captain smiled wryly at his moderately irate first officer.

"What kind of a name is that?" She frowned.

"We can trust them?" Makarov shrugged, casting an eye back to his slightly bemused Commander. "The Furies?"

"Apparently their programming precludes them from harming a Federation citizen and they're designed with an in-built instinct to protect us." She admitted.

"Well then I'm glad to have them aboard." The Captain smiled at her. "I take it they have agreed to co-ordinate our efforts with them?"

"They appear to have agreed." She nodded. "They don't have the ability or desire to verbally interact but have gestured a willingness to assist."

"That will do for now." He glanced back at the Padd. "I will agree that the Wanderer is stretched a little thin."

"Yes Sir." She nodded.

"Hail them and offer a detachment of crew from among our ranks." He ordered. "I'm sure we can spare a few personnel to augment their staff."

"Yes Sir." She glowered at her Captain. "I'm sure we can..."

"Displaying Captain Blake Girling's personal log. Time index 7333.4"

"It's not always doom and gloom. Sometimes something happens that makes you realise what's really important…"

Katherine looked up from the communications panel with a raised eyebrow. "Message coming in from the fleet." She turned to Blake. "It says it's personal."

"Personal?" Blake looked mystified as he frowned curiously. "I don't know anyone in the fleet."

"It's from a Starfleet vessel." Katherine confirmed. "It's on an open channel. Directed for you."

"Transfer to my ready room." He shrugged, hoisting himself from the command seat and stepping towards the automatic door.

"I didn't think he had any friends." Haldo grinned towards Katherine who glowered after the Captain as he stepped into the privacy of his office.

"It's from a woman!" She exclaimed caustically.

"Well he was engaged once…" Haldo said thoughtfully. "Before he was killed."

Captain Girling opened the channel on the portable terminal on his desk. A familiar face flashed up before him causing a smile to instantly flutter across his lips. "I don't believe it." He said with a wide grin."

"I think that should be my line." The Vulcan officer raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "It's been a long time. Ten years I believe"

"Not for me." Blake shrugged. "I was dead then and don't remember anything during that time."

"You haven't changed a bit." Nerus told him, leaning forwards and narrowing her eyes as she peered at her monitor. "I'm a Commander now aboard the USS Pandora. I had to pull some strings to be allowed to communicate with you."

"When did you leave the Mirage?" He leant back in the chair comfortably, enjoying the slight discomfort on the face of the Vulcan officer he had served with aboard the old medical ship on which he'd died.

"After your death." She told him flatly. "The events were classified and I was assigned to another ship. I imagine they required my silence."

"How have you been?" He asked conversationally.

"I am perfectly adequate." She told him in a typically Vulcan monotone. "How are you?"

"I'm great." He told her earnestly. "I have a great ship, a great crew and now my old friends are looking me up. What could be better than that?"

"Were we friends?" Nerus asked with a slight sarcasm that she made a point of disguising in her tone.

"Well you contacted me so I guess we were." He told her.

"I suppose so." She agreed. "I look forward to seeing you again in person. I'm sure your experiences would make for an interesting story."

"I don't know about that!" he grinned at her. "Who would want to hear about my life? I'm sure people have better things to do."

"Displaying Corinthian Captain's log. Time index 7335.2"

"Life aboard my ship is more or less like a constant war. Boredom interspersed with sporadic activity and the constant threat of life-threatening violence. The crew seems accustomed to it now. I amazed how well this group have formed into a crew. We have myself with no proper training, a disgruntled medical officer who was considering resigning her commission, a psychotic tactical officer, a merchant engineer, a turncoat Section 31 scientist and two Federation Borg drones steering the ship but somehow these people have turned into a team and a team I'm proud of being a part of."

"Captain!" Haldo cried out. "Shields are up, the program has activated and locked onto a decloaking vessel."

"It matches the configuration of the Apex." Goruss Clogg warned.

"Firing." Blake stood up from his chair as the viewscreen flicked to the point of space where the vessel was beginning to appear. A Phaser beam surged out from the Corinthians side into the rippling blackness of the vessel as the cloaks melted away. The impact crackled violently as the beam cut into the rounded belly of the ship.

"We're lining up for the cannon." Clogg reported. "It's charged and ready."

In the viewer the vessel materialised. Her hull was gleaming along her flank, a short and squat little vessel with tucked in nacelles bristling with potent energy. The Phaser blast had done little damage but there was a black carbon score where the weapon had hit the attacking ship.

"Hail them." Blake barked. "Tell them to stand down."

"No response." Katherine scowled. "They're ignoring us."

"They're not quite ignoring us." Clogg frowned at his console. "They've launched a full spread of torpedoes."

"Evasive manoeuvres." Blake said as the ship banked hard to starboard. "Lock Phasers on the torpedoes, knock as many out as you can."

The Corinthian automatically targeted the blazing red weapons as they tore through space towards her. Beams lashed out at them engulfing three instantly in flames that then erupted in a plume of furious energy.

"Two got through." Clogg shook his head.

"One!" Haldo corrected. "The other missed us on the last turn."

The bridge lights dimmed as the impact of the torpedo lashed against the Corinthians shields.

"Return fire." Blake instructed with a note approaching regret that doing so seemed to be their only recourse. "Quantum torpedoes. Full spread."

Clogg launched the white-hot barrage of missiles from the firing binnacle in the ship's nose. The five torpedoes found their mark, ripping into the Apex as she turned hard away to protect herself. One skipped over the ridge of her shields but the other four exploded violently sending their destructive power directly to the target.

"Direct hit." Clogg reported. "Her shields are down to 32 percent, ours at still at 96. That's still a tough ship!"

"Hail them again." Blake instructed.

"Channel open!" Katherine smiled wryly in relief.

"This is Captain Blake Girling to the Captain Faruqui." He began. "Lower your shields and surrender. This is a battle you can't possibly win."

Captain Faruqui appeared in the viewer sitting at the heart of his bridge amidst the sombre lighting and dizzying array of instruments. "I didn't come here to surrender." He sneered quietly, clasping his hands calmly behind his back in a gesture of austere detachment.

"Did you come here to die?" Blake shook his head and pleaded with the renegade officer. "You can't take another round against this ship, you know that."

"We'll see." Faruqui shrugged in a controlled gesture of arrogance and stepped quietly from the side of his chair as his staff fussed around him. "Surrendering wasn't part of the deal. We're here to prove ourselves against you, to destroy you or capture you and that is what I intend to do."

"You've already failed to do that!" Blake insisted angrily. "The Corinthian is too advanced, you're not going to win and I don't want to kill you and your crew."

"Sir." Clogg interrupted from the rear. Katherine muted the speakers so that they could talk privately.

"Their shields are at 85 percent and the hull damage they sustained is repairing itself fast." He informed him.

"I'm detecting replicator signals all over the Apex." Haldo confirmed. "Their ablative armour must be self-generating and their shields harmonics are recalibrating."

"Regenerative shielding." Doctor Jones cried out. "It's not very reliable but it's been fitted to a few vessels."

"So this is a delay tactic." Blake growled as he turned back to the viewer. "Stand down, Captain Faruqui. I will disable your vessel if I have to."

"They're preparing to fire." Clogg warned.

Suddenly the main cannon in the nose of the Corinthian fired at the Apex. A massive stream of Phaser energy exploded out, cascading over the hull of the enemy.

"Her shields are down to 45 percent." Clogg grinned with satisfaction as the Apex listed away in the viewer, her shields crackling with arcing energy.

"Target her engines and weapons only. I don't want to hurt anyone over there." Blake ordered his tactical officer. "Fire."

Another blast of energy tore into the Apex, ripping into her belly across the ejection plates for the small warp-core. The glowing blue radiator vents along her engines flickered and sparked under the impact.

"She's still moving away." Clogg reported with surprise. "That was a direct hit to her warp-core supply conduits, she should be dead in the water."

"I'm detecting a shuttle-pod." Haldo frowned. "They dropped it off.

"A shuttle-pod?" Blake snapped around. "Life-forms or warheads?"

"One life-sign." Haldo nodded grimly. "Quite weak."

"They're firing." Clogg warned as the Apex fired a beam of energy at the shuttle-pod. The port nacelle erupted and glowed a furious blue as plasma began blasting through the shattered engine cowling.

"They're going to explode." Haldo warned.

"Beam them aboard." Blake instructed.

"I can't." Haldo said suddenly. "The shuttle has a rotating shield frequency. I can't isolate it to beam through."

"Keep trying." Blake snapped at him as watched the Apex flash white as she went to warp.

"Got them!" Haldo cried out triumphantly. "They're in sick bay. I erected force fields."

"Katherine." Blake nodded to his chief medical officer as she leapt up from her console to make her way to the sick bay.

"The Apex has cloaked." Doctor Jones shook his head solemnly. "I think it's safe to say they'll drop out of warp and make several course corrections to hid their trail. We've lost her."

"Start analysing the warp trail and particle wake." He ordered. "Find them again and do it quickly."

"I'm right on it." Haldo nodded.

"Let's go and meet our guest." Blake frowned at Katherine.

The dishevelled passenger of the small shuttlepod glanced nervously around the small sickbay as she felt her way around the force field that held her in place.

"Well look who it is!" Blake smiled humourlessly as he caught sight of her.

"Girling!" She cried out in surprise. "Blake Girling. What the hell am I doing here?"

"Captain Morrow." He shook his head at her. "The Captain of the Scarab class vessel, the USS Sphinx."

"My ship was destroyed." She scowled angrily back at him.

"What a shame." He grinned at her. "Mine's still fine. Not so much as a scratch."

"So I see." She glowered angrily back at him. "Is my brother still aboard?"

"He and Captain Graves are aboard their own vessel now." Katherine told her as she began a sweep of her body with the medical tricorder. "We still work together however to mop up the remains of Section 31. It's not usually very challenging"

"You failed." She sneered. "Section 31 just became even more covert but we're still out there."

"We realise that." Blake told her. "Are you going to tell us what happened? I hear you had a run-in with some Romulans after we left."

"I was reassigned to the last remaining Scarab after I returned to Federation space." She told them. "The Sphinx was lost but myself and most of the bridge crew escaped in the Captain's yacht."

"Not a very Starfleet thing to do." Katherine noted dryly. "You abandoned the crew?"

"How did you come to be aboard the Apex?" Blake frowned at her.

"Captain Faruqui destroyed my ship." She glowered back at him angrily.

"How?" Blake narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "The Apex doesn't appear to be a significant threat to a Scarab."

"That's what we thought!" She grumbled. "We were sent to find him when he first refused to answer orders to surrender the vessel."

"He stole the ship?" Katherine raised an eyebrow and cast a glance back to the Captain.

"It was assigned to him but his actions aboard her were not entirely what we had had in mind." She explained. "He tricked us. He agreed to hand over the vessel but when we beamed him aboard we found that he had somehow confused our sensors."

"What did you beam aboard?" Blake could not hide his amusement. "Don't tell me a torpedo materialised on your platform?"

"Yes." She grumbled dejectedly.

"No…" Katherine smirked. "That's the oldest trick in the book."

"Yes." She nodded stoically. "The bridge section was blown free. Not much else survived. He beamed me aboard and left what remained of my crew stranded."

"What a shame." Blake covered his mouth with his hand to mute his laughter.

"We almost destroyed him." Katherine told her mockingly. "We had to break off our pursuit to rescue you or would have had him easily."

"I doubt it." She glowered menacingly at her. "He was just playing with you. He made a half-hearted attack to gauge your systems abilities. He wants to know exactly what he's up against."

"So do we." Blake told her, fixing her with a more serious glare.

"I can't tell you much about the ship." She shrugged. "He would hardly have allowed me to be captured by you if I could."

"What can you tell me?" Blake asked, her statement seeming reasonable for the moment.

"I can tell you that the ship wasn't built by Section 31." A faint grin flashed cruelly over her lips.

"It has a Federation signature." Katherine frowned.

"It's a classified Starfleet project I believe." She appeared to relish sharing the information. "It was developed in secret and Section 31 officers were in control of some aspects of the operation but it isn't one of ours, we were just observing in secret."

"Who handed the ship over to Faruqui?" Katherine asked. "A known insane renegade who had already taken the Violator."

"I was not given that information!" Captain Morrow told her flatly. "I do agree it seems a very odd choice."

"Odd?" Blake yelled. "The fact that a Starship is being developed in secret is odd. That the prototype is handed over to him is insane."

"We don't know that it is the prototype." Captain Morrow reminded him.

"Then what is it?" Katherine shrugged.

"I know a couple of things which struck me as slightly unusual." Morrow smiled weakly before casting a wry glance at Captain Girling. "…Or insane if you prefer."

"You have my undivided attention." He smiled sarcastically at her.

"I was told that it was important to capture the Apex at any cost, even destroy it if I had to and yet it was the future of Starfleet ship design." She began. "When I began my tactical review I could find no solid specifications for the craft whatsoever and no record of its existence for more than two weeks before it was assigned to Captain Faruqui."

"So?" Blake frowned at her. "You people love your secrets, why would it surprise you that the records were restricted?"

"You don't understand…" She sneered happily at him. "This ship was assembled in under two weeks and before that time they had not made final the design."

"That's impossible!" Blake shook his head and frowned.

"It can take years to build a Starship, even a small one." Katherine added. "Designing one can take even longer. The Corinthian was just a test-bed for new technology but that took over six years to develop the design."

"Where was it built?" Blake stepped forward to the edge of the force-field that separated them.

"I can't tell you that." She almost laughed.

"You were sent to capture him." Blake pointed out. "You can look on this as passing on the baton if you like."

"I can't tell you where the ship was built!" She glowered at the Captain. "In case you had forgotten we don't play on the same team."

"You remember that electro-magnetic radiation I told you about?" Doctor Jones rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"No." Haldo told him. "And I don't really care."

"Well it seems that the pulses are quickening!" Jones continued.

"Is it the Apex?" Blake leant over his console as he returned to the bridge.

"I don't think so." Jones shook his head. "I can't discern the point of origin but it seems quite local to us."

"Could it possible help us to track the Apex?" Blake persisted dryly.

"I don't see how." He shook his head.

"Well then stop looking at it and get on working on the Apex's trail before I get angry." Blake told him with a smile that held little warmth. "Understand?"

"Yes sir." The scientist hung his head under the Captains annoyed glare.

"I think I have them." Haldo announced triumphantly. "I had a plan."

"Go on." The Captain turned to him with stunted interest.

"We hit them with a phaser blast before their shields were up." He explained, glancing over smugly to Doctor Jones. "We burnt their hull slightly and they left a trail of microscopic residue as they went to warp. Even though they were cloaked I think we can track them for a few light years but that should be enough to show us where they're heading."

"They were at full speed." Jones nodded in agreement. "They'd have had to go in a straight line all the way, they wouldn't be able to manoeuvre."

"If they dropped out of warp then we'll be able to detect the warp signature in normal space." Haldo grinned with utter self satisfaction.

"Make it so!" Blake nodded. "Let's get after that ship so we can get back in time to meet the Necrodians."

"That's right." Haldo grumbled. "Give us an incentive."

"Displaying Corinthian Chief medical officer's log. Time index 7335.8"

"Our guest was in good health. Her story bears out from the medical evidence I've found so far. Her stress levels are high and there is a slight compression to her spine typical of a bridge ejection if the Structural Integrity field wasn't fully operational. It's not her I'm concerned about. Even though I can't scan Blake thanks to his implants I know him well enough to know that something is bothering him."

"What if it's true?" Katherine suggested in the ready-room at the side of the bridge. "What if Captain Morrow wasn't lying?"

"She's Section 31." Blake argued sternly. "She wouldn't have told us the truth on general principal."

"But what she told us fits well into what we know." She reminded him as she leant forward across the ready-room desk.

"That's how it works." He sighed angrily. "They know how to spin a lie and make it look convincing."

"Alright." She leant back in her chair opposite. "What is Captain Faruqui doing? He's got a new Federation vessel and is acting in a way that will get him noticed and he's publicly out to get you. He's behaving very strangely."

"Me?" Blake smiled. "Why would he want to get me?"

"You humiliated him twice." She reminded him. "You disarmed him when you captured the Corinthian and you destroyed the Violator. Not only that but you did it in such a way that nobody died, it was a surgical strike both times, it made him look bad."

"Can I tell you something?" Blake picked up his glass absently and stared into the murky depths within it while his mind churned with thoughts.

"I would like to think so." She nodded hopefully.

"I never felt like I captured the Corinthian." He explained. "I never felt like it was a lump of metal out there for me to take or steal or even to take command of."

"How did it feel?" She asked.

"I once heard someone say that a famous sculptor believed that his art was already locked within a block of marble and he was just there to chip away the packaging." Blake told her, his eyes staring away into his thoughts. "I feel sometimes like she was always there, my destiny, just waiting for me patiently."

"It was just a coincidence." Katherine told him with a note of concern for his state of mind.

"Was it?" He smiled weakly.

"So where does Faruqui fit into all this?" She ventured, returning the conversation to the point.

"I don't know." He admitted as he dropped his glass to the table with a wry smirk. "I wish I did."

"He's out for revenge. Nothing else." She suggested forcefully.

"Am I any different?" Blake asked, scowling at his own thoughts.

"Of course." She told him firmly. "You know you are."

"He's out here to get me, I'm out here to get him." Blake began thoughtfully. "He hates me for what I stand for, I hate him for what he has become. There isn't anything between us but perspective."

"You don't believe that?" She narrowed her eyes as she spoke. "You're doing what you believe is the right thing, what we all believe in."

"I'm not sure what I believe sometimes." He admitted. "Starfleet is building battleships now and fighting just about every species they encounter. It's not the Starfleet I remember any more; it's not the Starfleet I died to protect."

"Things change." She shrugged. "It's always been a dangerous galaxy to live in, we've had to arm ourselves from the very beginning."

"Perhaps we were just being naive before and are now just finding out way?" He suggested with a sigh. "Maybe violence is a part of human nature and we're destined always to return to it?"

"I believe you're right about that." She nodded. "But I also believe we have an in-built sense of right and wrong and what we choose to do is up to us. I don't think that war is ever an answer and I don't believe that Starfleet should have built the Defiant, the Violator, Apex or even the Corinthian."

"Well the Apex appears to be our most pressing concern." Blake gathered his thoughts and stood up. "Let's get to work."

"Displaying Wanderer 2 Captain's log. Time index 7335.9"

"The fleet is assembling and we're a part of it on an equal footing. After years of dropping off balls of jelly to spy on shipping lanes with the hope of catching Section 31 with their pants down we're finally where we all deserve to be."

Captain Graves watched through the three large observation windows at the front of the ship as another of the Starfleet vessels appeared to join them.

"We've rotated our shield frequencies to the parameters the Darmajaya requested us to." Commander Morrow told him as his eyes ran over the data on his Padd. "To their long range sensors the entire fleet should just look like a small pocket of ionised gas. It should be enough to fool the Necrodians into not changing course to avoid us straight away."

"So we're actually joining a Starfleet blockade on equal terms." The Captain grinned, unable and largely unwilling to disguise his enthusiasm.

"It appears so." Morrow sighed. "Despite the fact that we're actually just a merchant vessel."

"We're as well armed and equipped as a Nova class ship and I just saw one of those out there." Graves crossed his arms defensively. "The Wanderer is a good ship, they're lucky to have us."

"They seem to be aware of that." Commander Morrow replied. "We've proved ourselves a good ship and crew and they need all the help they can get against that Necrodian vessel."

"We won't let them down!" Captain Graves put his hand flat against the transparent aluminium window. The metal was cold to the touch beneath his skin and he smiled as he gazed out into space.

"We won't." Commander Morrow smiled behind him. "We're ready."

"I hope the Corinthian makes it back in time." The Captain turned suddenly, his face dropping the beaming grin that had been painted on since he had received his orders.

"Yeah." The Commander nodded in agreement. "I'd like them here too. We all would."

"Displaying Corinthian tactical officer's personal log. Time index 7336.2"

"Compz and Jones have been studying their records and charts and have another wild scheme that has almost no chance of working. The Captain appears more than happy to go along with their ridiculous scheme. Of course this could never happen on a real Starfleet vessel. The Captain would have real officers, not these people telling him what to do.

I watch them in their incompetence while they squabble against one another to show who's the cleverest. They annoy me, there's no denying that but serving on this ship has changed me even more than I'd like to admit. Maybe I'm stretched more due the Captain's lack of experience but I certainly feel more autonomous but even that isn't it. Jones walked by me this morning and put a cup of coffee on my console. To place a beverage on a monitor was a gross violation of protocol and to have one on the bridge was against regulations. He told me it looked like I could use it and then just went back to his station. That would never happen on a true Starfleet vessel either but I just can't imagine serving anywhere else.

Maybe it is the competition between them but their insane plans always seem to work out. Maybe it's the Captain's naivety that lets him make unusual choices and take advice from places no other Captain would look. Somehow this ship has become my home and I never saw it coming until someone brought me a cup of coffee just because it looked like I needed it."

"It's not a normal Starfleet installation." Doctor Jones told them as the officers sat around the briefing room table. "I've been through every classified base and construction facility and none could have produced the Apex. It has to be a new place."

"The Apex is quite small." Katherine said thoughtfully. "How big would a construction yard be to have built her? Perhaps she was built on a mobile structure like a ship?"

"No, it would still be very large. Apart from the construction scaffold it would need stores for the parts, docking ports for material delivery and habitat modules." Haldo frowned. "Certainly too big to hide easily."

"Why build a new facility at all?" Blake rubbed his chin. "What is so special about this ship?"

"I've been wondering that myself." Haldo nodded. "I've been going over and over the ships details and there is just nothing remarkable about it at all. It's an interesting design with some clever improvements over other ships but there's no radical new technology in her that should require a totally new approach to the construction."

"And yet the prototype was sent after the Corinthian?" Blake sighed. "It doesn't make much sense, does it?"

"Well I don't know where the Apex is heading." Doctor Jones told them. "Her course so far was designed to locate us."

"No." Blake said finally. "We're going to find where this ship was built."

"But Starfleet would have gone there first if the installation is one of theirs." Jones frowned. "We'd just be wasting time if we covered the same ground."

"Perhaps they weren't allowed to go there." Blake suggested. "It's a classified project after all."

"Well if they weren't then we wouldn't either." Clogg added. "We're all one big happy family now."

"But there's one big difference." Blake told him with a furtive grin. "I'm not going to ask for permission."

"One big happy family…" Clogg sighed.

"Displaying Corinthian Captain's log. Time index 7337.2"

"Here we go again…"

The Corinthian emerged from her Transwarp journey under cloak at the heart of the system.

"I'm ready." Doctor Jones announced happily with a sideways glance to Haldo.

"Clogg." Blake crossed his arms and stared out at the viewer. Endless stars filled the screen as space stretched on before him infinitely. Their task seemed hopeless, finding a base amidst the sprawling vastness of the Galaxy. "Deploy the beacon."

"It's away." Clogg confirmed.

"I've extrapolated the most likely positions of the base." Doctor Jones began, sending data to the navigational computer. "The detection grid will take a few hours to deploy and will keep expanding after that. Until then we should investigate the leads."

"Agreed." Captain Girling glanced down to the arm of his chair behind him where the information flashed up on a small monitor. "Where is the base most like to be?"

"Well that would depend!" Haldo scratched his head. "What is their priority likely to be?"

"Meaning?" Clogg frowned at the engineer curiously.

"Is security their first priority or is practicality?" Haldo explained. "If they've taken pains to hide the place properly then it would make it hard to get equipment delivered. If they are mass producing Starships then they'll need a good supply of parts."

"I'm detecting a starship!" Doctor Jones stood up excitedly, as the viewer flashed to the image of a vessel. A large cargo freighter was ambling through the sector at a low warp factor with a long train of utility modules trailing behind.

"Not security then…" Haldo smirked.

"Is there any other explanation for that ship being in this region?" Blake frowned.

"On the course they're heading they'll end up leaving Federation space altogether before they get anywhere interesting." Haldo grinned in satisfaction.

"On the path they're heading there are two possible sites!" Doctor Jones began. "The first would require a course correction but the second is a small moon that they'll reach in about four days at their present course and velocity."

"So they're in no rush…" Clogg scowled thoughtfully. "If they increased to Warp 6 they'd have been easier to detect due to the energy output. Maybe this is what we're looking for?"

"It's definitely a good lead." Blake agreed hesitantly. "Set course for the moon. Let's see what's there."

"Displaying Darmajaya Captain's log. Time index 7337.3"

"I have made a career in Starfleet over many years. During that time I have respected the chain of command but sometimes I wonder about the reasoning that goes on in the minds of my superiors."

Captain Makarov's face dropped its characteristic smile as he stood at the front of his bridge. "Oh… My… God…" He muttered to himself at the image in the viewer. The Kra'lee loomed ahead of the Starfleet engagement force, it's engines glowing deeply with the massive energy surging through her potent engines.

"More of Girling's friends!" Commander Arlon mused to herself with her arms clenched firmly behind her back.

"I was expecting a Bird of Prey." The Captain shook his head at the aggressive little ship before them. "I've never seen anything like that."

"Apparently it's new." The Commander raised her eyebrows as she read the report on her Padd. "Starfleet engineers were made available to the Klingons to help them upgrade their technology. The Kra'lee is the result."

"Starfleet helped make the Klingons more dangerous?" The Captain smiled and shook his head.

"The technology exchange was intended to strengthen our region of space against outside attack." She took a deep breath as she read the data. "It makes sense after our losses to the Borg and Dominion invasions. Even more so with the possibility of the Necrodian attack."

"Well whatever the reason, there it is." The Captain raised his hand toward the viewer to point at the vessel. "Open a hailing frequency."

Suddenly the image flashed to the bridge of the Kra'lee. Although Klingon at it's heart the technology was clearly advanced with logical, concise readouts bristling with pertinent data replacing the usual interior of a Klingon vessel that was covered with filth and dry blood.

"Captain Makarov?" The Klingon smirked showing off his slightly blunted teeth as he'd been too busy lately to find time to sharpen them.

"And you must be Kromm." The Captain smiled a greeting. "We were told to expect you."

"Captain Graves has explained the situation to us." The Klingon told him. "We are at your disposal."

"We're sending you a new frequency for your shields. It will help us to remain unseen from the Necrodians long range sensors." The Captain began. "We will also relay a tactical overlay of our plan of attack."

"Excellent." The Kromm nodded happily. "We have a cloaking device, I suggest you modify your plans to accommodate that."

The Captain smiled broadly and nodded.

"We also have three Paggran fighters in our cargo hold." He began. "Although rather antiquated their weapons and aggression in battle are somewhat frightening. They have agreed to assist us in the fight."

"Great…" Commander Arlon grumbled under her breath. "When do the Ferengi turn up?"

"I don't believe they're invited!" Kromm Said suddenly, surprising the Commander that her sarcastic comment had been overheard. "Perhaps they should have been, after all every race that lives here has a vested interest in defending our border from an aggressive alien species."

"I didn't intend any offence." Commander Arlon stammered nervously, glancing for support to her superior officer.

"I didn't take any." The Klingon shrugged. "I'm here to defend the honour and future of my kind. I happen to believe that the future lies along the same path as that of the Federation and that honour is best served by working together."

"Are you sure you're really Klingon?" The Captain ventured a joke.

"Quite sure." Kromm agreed. "There's more to being a Klingon than trying to destroy everything you can point a disrupter at. I tend to believe that that kind of behaviour is a poor attempt to over-compensate for other perceived weaknesses."

"Well I have to say that I'm very glad to have you on the team." Captain Makarov smirked, relieved that the Kra'lee appeared to be an asset to the fleet rather than the complication he had feared it might be.

"Thank you." The Klingon grinned. "Now just give me something to point my disrupters at and get out of my way!"

"Displaying Corinthian Captain's log. Time index 7338.5"

"The trip to the moon was very short. We travelled at conventional warp. Even with the particle purge system in operation I'm dubious about relying on it until it's proven. We may need to jump to Transwarp at any given moment and I want to be ready."

The moon was in orbit around a gas giant planet. It was almost as large as Earth but a deep red in colour and peppered with impact craters from many years of being pummelled by stellar artefacts attracted to the heavy gravity of the planet it was in orbit around.

"Anything?" Blake shrugged impatiently as Doctor Jones and Haldo raced against one another to be the first to discover a lead.

"I have something." Goruss Clogg grinned widely beneath the two fleshy tentacles that framed his mouth. The scientist scowled in annoyance at him. "I'm detecting a slight sub-space variance that could be caused by a holographic projection.

"A hologram…" Haldo smacked his palm onto his forehead in dismay at not thinking to check for one.

"Sometimes it's the simple things!" Blake grinned at the disgruntled engineer.

"He's right." Doctor Jones said in agreement. "There's a very simple holographic projection covering a crater big enough to be a small base. It's projecting out into space."

"The target?" Blake folded his arms expectantly.

"Nothing there." Haldo smiled. "It must be a facility hidden with a hologram in orbit."

"I'm really not detecting anything there…" Clogg shook his head. The energy is being sent up into space but there should be some fluctuation and I'm not detecting anything."

"I am." Doctor Jones said grimly. "Debris. Tiny trace amounts of the kinds of materials you'd expect to see in a construction rig."

"Debris?" Blake stepped forward with a growing sense of alarm. "Are you sure?"

"He's right." Haldo shook his head solemnly. "There's a residual charge of weapons fire. It's very faint but now I know what I'm looking for…"

"I want that hologram taken down." Blake turned angrily to the main viewer. "I'm not interested in subtlety. Get it down now, we need to see what's happened."

"I can tune the Phaser canon to an inverse frequency of a standard holographic signal." Haldo suggested. "It would overload the projectors instantly."

"Do it…" Blake commanded bluntly.

"Give me a second." Haldo craned over the controls and began making the modifications.

"The weapon energy is Federation." Doctor Jones said with a sorrowful shake of his head. "High powered Phaser. The Apex must have done this to cover her tracks."

"And as a classified project nobody bothered to come and check." Blake grumbled. "Secrets are a cage that the people who use them live inside of!"

"Ready!" Haldo snapped up from the console.

"Fire!" Blake said as the weapon lashed out at the surface.

With a flash of energy the hologram broke away and melted softly into nothing. It decayed away swiftly, flickering with arcing yellow flashes as the base was revealed beneath the projection of an artificial mountain.

The base was a circular installation like the saucer section of a large Starship embedded on the rust coloured surface of the planet. Around the perimeter tendrils of technology snaked out over the scarred surface of the alien world to various pieces of machinery and cylindrical shelters. In the centre a large emitter projector poked up into the stratosphere and had been projecting the protective hologram into space.

"Oh my god." Haldo shook his head, his eyes flicking reflexively away from the image on the viewer of the desolate Starfleet base. The surface of the structure was littered with holes drilled through it with a powerful Phaser.

"No life signs." Clogg reported calmly from his station.

"Is life support functioning?" Blake turned to the Doctor who stared at him with his mouth gaping open in surprise.

"You're beaming down?" He gasped.

"I'll take that as a yes!" Blake nodded. "Haldo, Katherine. You're with me."

Haldo stood up instantly and then frowned deeply as he realised how automatic his responses had become to instructions that risked his life.

"Clogg." The Captain sighed and turned to the tactical console. "I want you to keep monitoring for any sign of the Apex. They shouldn't have followed us here and shouldn't have been able to keep up but keep your eyes on the sensors."

"And if I see them?" Clogg frowned.

"You're authorised to use whatever force you feel is necessary to defend this ship." Blake scowled. "Disable them if you can."

"I understand." Clogg nodded in agreement, understanding the deeper implications of the orders.

"Clogg." Blake hesitated and turned back to his officer. "That's your old Captain out there. If you have any problems with my orders then I'll have you relieved and there won't be any negative comments in your records."

"This is my ship." Clogg smiled thinly. "I've never had any problem with any orders I've been given during my time aboard. You can trust me to continue to serve to the best of my abilities."

"More than good enough." Blake nodded.

The three emerged in the middle of a flickering blue light from the transporter beam aboard the wreckage of the installation. Katherine snapped open her medical tricorder and began a more detailed scan for life-signs while Haldo began taking readings with a specially modified Tricorder set to his own specifications.

Blake glanced around the damaged machinery and made his way gingerly through the tattered remnants to the central data core interface.

"It looks like a bridge." Haldo noted conversationally. "Not too old either, perhaps Ambassador class."

"It looks like the whole installation is a modified Ambassador saucer section." Blake frowned thoughtfully as he began trying to coax the computers back to life.

"That would certainly save a lot of time." Katherine added.

"The question is why they were in such a hurry." Haldo said grimly. "It's hardly Starfleet normal procedure to drop Starship parts onto a planetoid surface to serve as a base."

"Not really." Blake agreed. "Why not just leave a ship in orbit?"

"Energy." Haldo announced, dropping his tricorder to his side. "In orbit a ship would be using various systems to maintain itself. This way they can keep the energy signature low enough not to be easily detected and still have power to erect the hologram."

"There were thirty two permanent residents of the station." Blake announced as the information appeared on the only remaining monitor that appeared to function. "According to the logs, most of them were in the orbital construction yards when records ceased. Only one person was here in the control room."

"Found him!" Katherine called out grimly as she stood over the remains of the officer. "What's left of him."

Blake and Haldo exchanged glances before moving quickly to her side. "He died of plasma burns when the console exploded." She explained sadly. "He was at a communications panel so I think it's safe to assume he knew what was happening and was trying to call for help."

"We don't know that." Blake reminded her.

"Not a nice way to go." Haldo shook his head, his sad eyes fixed on the fallen Starfleet officer.

"There are three other people in the complex." Katherine read from the screen of her tricorder. "They all died in the same place." She held her Tricorder up to Haldo. He compared her reading to those he had taken.

"That's the power regulation plant." He shrugged and took a deep breath. "It took the heaviest damage in the attack."

"Why so few people?" Blake rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "How can you build a ship in two weeks with less personnel than it takes to fully staff it?"

"Maybe the ship's crew assisted in the construction?" Katherine suggested.

"I've never heard of that happening but it does make sense to have an experienced team on hand in the construction of their own ship." Haldo shrugged. "If they can build a vessel in two weeks then it might well become standard practice."

"The future of Starfleet design…" Katherine raised an eyebrow furtively as she remembered Captain Morrow's assertions.

"He knew exactly where to hit them." Blake turned to Haldo. "That means that Captain Faruqui was here long enough to become familiar with the base. He knew these people. He knew their names, he probably ate with them and saw them call their families."

"Now there's a cheery thought!" Haldo grimaced openly at the idea. "I've done some preliminary scans of the station and I can't find a lot of the things I expected to see."

"Like what?" Blake crossed his arms and leant back with interest for him to continue.

"There are no spare parts, no ship building equipment." Haldo shrugged. "They could have all been in orbit but the amount of debris suggests that whatever was up there had a low mass. I doubt they would have built all this just to construct one vessel!"

"A low mass doesn't bear out the idea that most of the station personnel was up there." Blake scowled. "To have supported that many people the construction yard must have had offices. Could they have really also stored the parts to build a ship?"

"No." Haldo said bluntly. "They couldn't. I don't understand it. This base is more like a station to test a ship than build one."

"Maybe that's what it was?" Katherine shrugged. "Could the parts of the ship be delivered here for assembly?"

"Maybe there's some critical new part of the design that means the final work has to be done at a special facility?" Haldo suggested thoughtfully.

"Well the Captain went to a lot of trouble to hide whatever it was." Blake said finally. "Upload the station logs to the Corinthian computer. We'll analyse them on the way."

"There is one other lead we have to investigate." Haldo grinned as realisation caught him.

"I'm listening." Blake glanced back at him hopefully.

"That ship heading this way!" He shrugged. "There's nothing here to show us what happened but that ship is coming to deliver another one."

Blake smiled.

"There it is again…" Doctor Jones waved his arm at the readout on his station. "A faint electro-magnetic pulse coming from our own hull. It doesn't make sense, it's radiating from us but not coming off of us. We're cloaked, nothing should be able to permeate out screens."

"You've been tracking this since before we arrived." Clogg shook his head. "It's nothing to do with this base, is it?"

"I suppose not." The Doctor sighed and turned away from the security officer in dismay.

"Then I suggest you report the problem to Haldo and when all this is over the engineering team can look into it." He told him bluntly. "For now keep monitoring for signs of the Apex."

"But the pulses are getting more frequent." The Doctor protested. "It must mean something!"

"Doctor!" Clogg snapped. "You have your orders."

"Who left you in charge?" He scowled, peering over to the burly officer like a scolded child.

"Displaying Darmajaya Captain's log. Time index 7338.6"

"In all the years I've been serving in the fleet I'm glad to say I've never been called upon to go to war. Happily all-out conflict is simply not something that happens very often. Only the Dominion had the same attitude to war as we did. The Cardassians attitude was much less aggressive, they fight like they're playing chess, small hits and runs, all about tactics and minimal losses. Few species have the same taste for destruction that Humans have. Even the Borg weren't interested in destroying us, only in fulfilling their ends.

But now I've been selected to begin a war or end one. The Necrodians have shown themselves to have a brutal attitude to conflict and I'm to face them. I can only hope I'm equal to the task but if I am does that make me more Human… or less?"

Captain Makarov sipped gingerly at his drink. It was foul beyond his wildest dreams but he was sure that if he drank it with enough frequency the flavour would grow on him. It was a herbal tea blend that had been popular in ancient china. His wife virtually forced him to drink it due to the health benefits but it was for personal reasons that he continued to drink it while away from her. For some reason all of the really great Captains had had their odd little quirks and he felt like he should best continue in that tradition. The man he admired most throughout history was the great Captain Jean Luc Picard who had himself once commanded a Galaxy class vessel. He was known to drink Earl Grey tea, a blend even more foul than the feted green herbal blend his wife insisted on. Other notable officer drank anything from Klingon Raktajino to normal Earth Coffee in huge quantities; like a Starfleet Captain who had recently been promoted to the rank of Admiral due largely to her stupidity; a wise political decision to put her somewhere they could keep a closer eye on her.

He was already an accomplished officer. Few officers in Starfleet climbed the ranks to become master of their own vessel but fewer still managed to take the centre seat on a Galaxy class Starship. Apart from a handful of other ships the Galaxy remained one of the most auspicious postings in the fleet and the dream and aspiration of all.

The door bleeped twice to signify that someone outside of his ready room sought an audience with their Captain. He pushed the tea to one side and swallowed hard to better remove the taste from his palate.

"Enter." He smiled.

The door slid instantly open as the Commander stepped through. Her face was severe as always it was but there was an extra element to her austere expression.

"What is it?" He frowned.

"We've detected the Necrodians on an intercept course." She said simply. "They have crossed our extreme long range sensor threshold. We expect them to fall within weapons range in seven hours if they maintain their present course."

"Right on queue." He hung his head. "Move the fleet to yellow alert and instigate last minute battle drills." He ordered sadly. "Warn the whole fleet to move to red alert at my signal and prepare to engage the enemy early in case they accelerate."

"Yes sir." She nodded and turned to leave.

"Mica." He called out as she stepped up to the automated entrance. She turned back. "Good luck to us all." He said softly.

"Yes Sir." She smiled back warmly.

"Displaying personal log Doctor Harold Jones. Time index 7338.8"

"Of all the members of this crew I'm the one they have the greatest right to hate. It's true I designed the Corinthian and was involved in the project to convert Borg technology into something we could use. I genuinely believed that what I was doing was for the good of all the Federation. It wasn't until I met the people who lived the lives I was touching that my eyes opened.

I work hard to put my past behind me and they seem to accept me more and more. I have nowhere else to go, that's true but even if I did I think I'd choose to stay here."

"According to the charts it's a class T heavy transport." Doctor Jones said conversationally as the Corinthian slunk anonymously alongside the freighter with her cloaks still engaged. "Light armament, good forward deflector grid. Big but nothing special, there are fourteen in service within the Federation."

"Can you scan the interior?" Blake stood up and stepped closer to the viewer, taking in every detail of the large ship.

"I can get a partial scan." The Doctor narrowed his eyes and frowned an apology. "The hull has multiple skins with power conduits running close to the outer surface. The cargo modules are also equipped with level 4 force-field projectors in case of dangerous cargo so the scans are being scattered."

"If you had to guess?" Clogg asked impatiently.

"It has parts of a ship on board." Jones shrugged. "Lots of parts."

"Then we have our answer." Katherine shrugged. "The base was just an assembly line."

"It looks that way." Blake frowned and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Wait a second!" The Doctor stood up suddenly. "Something just crossed our detector grid at the heart of the system." He looked up with a look of horror. "It's a cloaked ship."

"They're on to us." Clogg suggested. "The Apex must have tracked us here."

"If they know we're here then they'll know about this freighter." Captain Girling turned from the viewer and gestured with his thumb to the gigantic space ship.

"More loose ends for them to tie up?" Haldo frowned. "What are you going to do?"

"We will have to lure them away." Blake said without a moment of hesitation. "We can't allow them to attack another Federation vessel."

"Displaying Wanderer 2 Captain's log. Time index 7339.7"

"I'm half Klingon and ready for a fight with anyone. Winston says he doesn't even like to take shore leave with me any more because I get him into too much trouble. This is different, this time a lot of us aren't just going to wake up in a cell with a headache the next morning. This time a lot of us aren't going to walk away.

I have to admit that as the time draws in my enthusiasm for battle is diminishing rapidly."

The image of a silver mushroom shaped vessel floated over the briefing room table. Captain Graves stared at it, shaking his head periodically as the image rotated slowly around the horizontal axis.

"It's certainly big." Captain Makarov said finally, breaking the silence among the other Commanding officers sat around the Darmajaya's briefing lounge.

"Yes." Kromm agreed with a huff. "Do we have an exact measurement?"

"Isn't "big" enough?" Graves sneered at the Klingon.

"Five and a half kilometres in length." Commander Arlon told him. "Nearly four in diameter. The tail seems to house their version of a warp drive and it travels upwards instead of on a forwards plane like we do."

"We don't know much about the weapons systems except that they're powerful enough to have utterly destroyed the Olympus and surgically disabled the Resilient." Captain Makarov began. "We have reason to suspect that there are survivors from both of these attack still on board as someone was able to transmit the shield frequencies to us."

"Reader." Kromm said with absolute confidence.

"We'd all like to think so." Makarov nodded, choosing not to dampen his Klingon enthusiasm. "The problem is that we don't know where they are aboard."

"I assume we're having this meeting because you can't tell enough from the design of the ship to decide where to hit her to cripple it." Commander morrow raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

"I wish I had better news." The Captain sighed. "We've been going over what little we know but the simple answer is that the ship works on principals so utterly different to our own that we don't know how to stop it from going back to warp without simply doing as much damage as we possibly can and hoping to hit a vital function."

"And hoping not to hit our own people." Captain Graves caught the gist of the problem.

"We believe that the glowing centre is a power conversion system as well as the deflector." Commander Arlon added. "We believe it should be our principal target."

"That isn't really the reason you've called this meeting though, is it?" The big Klingon said with a wry smile.

"No." He hung his head sadly. "I have some news for all of you." He looked up from the report to the expectant faces of the Captains of each ship in the fleet. "Starfleet has made policy on this issue and has forwarded orders for me to relay to the fleet."

"This doesn't sound good." Commander Morrow frowned, suspecting what was coming next.

"Starfleet nor the Klingon Empire is in a strong position to defend our borders after the losses we have incurred from the Dominion war and the Borg invasions." He began. "Our planetary defences are stretched to breaking point and we simply cannot risk that ship breaking through our lines. Stopping that ship is the number one priority. Rescuing our people is a secondary consideration. Nothing is more important that preventing that vessel from entering further into our territory."

"As a Klingon that is not just understood, it is an accepted way of life." Kromm smiled supportively. "You will not be disappointed with our performance."

"For those of us that don't ram other ships for fun?" Morrow grumbled the question while the other officers began shifting uneasily in their seats. "Could we have the literal translation?"

"We don't matter." Captain Graves told him softly. "If we have to die to stop that ship then that's what we do."

"I see…" Morrow shook his head and sighed heavily.

"Is that a problem?" Captain Makarov asked without accusation.

"I knew that." He began. "I knew that this would likely be my last day alive but to hear it out loud is another thing. To hear it sent from Starfleet just brings all my nightmares to life."

"My nightmares are all alive already and walking the corridors of that ship." Kromm told him. "If it's any consolation you won't be the first to die. I can assure you of that."

"Considering the risk of capture we have one more order from head quarters to follow." The Captain began again. He handed out Padds to the officers around the briefing tables. "You are all to set your vessels to self-destruct in either the event that all internal life-signs cease or if the vessel loses control for more than ten seconds."

"A wise precaution!" Kromm agreed. "I had already instigated my own protocols aboard my ship but I can extend the time to ten seconds."

"Displaying Corinthian Captain's log. Time index 7339.8"

"Well, we have a plan. The monitoring system was meant to be taken down just as quickly as it was put up. If this works I need to cripple the Apex as quickly as possible and lock onto Captain Faruqui. If I can beam him off the ship then I hope to be able to bring the Apex down quickly, before she can hurt the freighter or before she ends up hurting herself."

"Emit the feedback pulse!" Blake ordered. Doctor Jones duly complied and a high frequency signal was sent from the Corinthian into the network of sensor relays that had automatically deployed. The ones at the centre began to erupt in a flash sending signals up the lines for the others to follow suit. The Corinthian sensors lit up with the image or thousands of relays vanishing in small electrical explosions.

"The cloaking device on the Apex is failing!" Haldo cried out triumphantly. "The energy from the network has over-loaded it."

"Are we in firing range?" Blake asked, already setting the cannon to discharge just the right amount of energy.

"Ready!" Clogg agreed. A blast shot out and smashed into the cloaking device coils at the Apex's nose. It erupted instantly in a fiery ball of torn metal. A second beam lashed out at the Apex's exposed nacelle while the ship struggled to raise her shields. The beam caught the central hub at the front of the engine and the energy stuttered throughout the vessel as it banked away firing her own Phasers.

"Open hailing frequencies." Blake ordered as he stepped up to the viewer.

"Channel open." Ensign Rogers confirmed as the image of the Apex bridge appeared before them.

"Stand down!" Blake told Captain Faruqui angrily. "It's over."

"I don't think so." He sneered back as his officers began to compensate for the damage. He drew his finger over his throat and the signal cut immediately.

"He doesn't want to talk!" Katherine shook her head, unable to communicate further with the enemy vessel.

"They're charging weapons." Clogg warned.

Blake sighed and shook his head solemnly. "Fire." He commanded. "Weapons and engines only."

The Corinthian released several fine beams of crackling energy that licked across the shields of the Apex as they began to rise to full power. The nacelles flashed and dulled as they drew more energy to their defences. She returned a lacklustre attack with a streak of Phaser power that exploded harmlessly over the Corinthian.

A final beam lashed out and caught the Apex in the side of the primary hull. A panel exploded instantly her main power conduit that fed energy to the weapons exploded sending a plume of flame lashing out from her crippled side.

The Apex drifted helplessly, rolling over as her thrusters remained inert and unable to correct her. Yellow and orange light flickered angrily beneath her damaged hull as the repair systems struggled to raise force-fields and protect the ship from the ravages of vacuum. A final beam fired out from the Apex, weak and hopeless. It crackled over the Corinthian's shields harmlessly.

"That was their last reserves. Weapons are now inactive." Clogg reported calmly, hanging his head in regret. Firing on the Federation vessel had brought him no satisfaction in his work.

"Good work." Blake told him encouragingly. He turned to Katherine. "Open a channel. Instruct them to surrender and offer whatever assistance they require to maintain life-support."

"They're firing!" Clogg snapped up suddenly in surprise. "A torpedo…"

Blake turned in surprise to his security officer. "Lock Phaser onto it."

"It's not aimed at us!" Clogg frowned curiously and ran his fingers quickly over the diagnostic panel. His frown deepened as he looked back up to his Captain. "I've lost it!"

"It cloaked." Haldo reported. "That was no ordinary torpedo, they've refitted it with a cloaking device."

"Where?" Blake turned back to Clogg.

"They've fired at the cargo ship." He growled angrily. "At warp speed it should hit the target in twenty three minutes."

"They're hailing us." Katherine called out.

Blake nodded at her and the image of the Apex bridge appeared again on the viewer.

"I imagine you'll be leaving us?" Captain Faruqui grinned at his foe.

"You're firing on an innocent Federation transport." Blake pleaded, hoping to recover some shred of decency in the renegade Captain. "Deactivate the weapon, please!"

"I'll be gone by the time you get back!" Faruqui continued unabated, turning away and clasping his hands thoughtfully behind his back before continuing. "I'll be coming after you again though. I won't stop until your ship is destroyed."

"Is that all you care about?" Blake scowled. "You've gone from a Starfleet officer to a sociopath maniac working for the enemy you once fought to stop! How can you now be taking orders from Section 31? What happened to you?"

"The clock is ticking." Faruqui told him darkly with a cruel smile. "I'm focusing a sub-space scattering beam at the ship, you won't be able to contact them unless you're within transporter range. You'd better hurry!"

The image on the screen vanished as Blake turned away. "Transwarp now!" He ordered.

The Corinthian exploded from her Transwarp journey in sight of the mammoth cruiser. It was a huge vessel with a narrow forward hull and a long modular spine stretching back with rows of cargo modules.

"Hail them!" Blake instructed softly, his mind locked into the sensor array, scanning for any sign of the cloaked torpedo.

"They're responding." Katherine quickly flicked the image up on the viewer.

The Captain of the merchant cruiser stood up and stepped forwards with a puzzled expression as he shrugged to himself. "Hello." He began, smiling awkwardly. "Can I help you."

"A torpedo has been fired at your vessel." Captain Girling warned. "It's cloaked and you won't be able to detect it."

"What?" His smile vanished instantly to be replaced with a frown of deepening concern while his bridge was quickly plunged into muted silence. "Who would fire on us?"

"What is your crew compliment?" Clogg called out as he scanned the vessels tactical abilities and found them inadequate.

"We have a crew of 109." The Captain shook his head, rubbing his temples nervously. "We're only carrying cargo, no passengers."

"Mute…" Blake turned from the viewer to his crew. "What are their chances?"

"Poor." Clogg admitted with a sigh. "They're tactical grid is very weak. A direct torpedo strike to the mid-engine section would knock out their shields entirely and possibly overload their warp core. They should have been running with an escort but it looks like Starfleet didn't want to draw attention to them."

"Blake, we can't let them abandon the ship." Katherine added. "Their life boats couldn't reconnect to the ship and they couldn't get out of range if the warp core exploded. We'll have to beam them here."

"109 people?" Doctor Jones sneered. "Where would we put them?"

"There's a seat right next to me that doesn't appear to have anything useful in it." Haldo offered, glaring at the Doctor evenly with a crooked smile.

"We'll consider that as a last resort." Blake rubbed his chin and glanced back at the image on the viewer.

"If they dumped their cargo we could vaporise it with our cannon." Haldo suggested. "The debris particles would show the path of an approaching torpedo to about 5 kilometres. Maybe 6."

"Would that give us enough time to shoot down a torpedo?" Blake frowned at the dubious plan.

"I couldn't react that fast!" Clogg shook his head. "I could set up a program that would automatically fire though."

"Do it." Blake instructed optimistically as he turned to the viewer. "I have some instructions for you and your crew!"

"We'll happily follow your orders!" The Captain assured him nervously, only too happy to comply.

"I need you to eject your entire cargo into space." Blake told them firmly. "Then raise your shields to maximum and move your crew to the most secure parts of your vessel."

"It would help their chances if they disconnected their core." Haldo suggested.

"Can you keep your shields up without your warp-core?" Blake turned back to the merchant Captain.

"For an hour or so…" He shrugged his reply. "Less if we're attacked."

"That will do!" Blake nodded.

"The program is set!" Clogg looked up from his console. "We'll automatically target any torpedo entering the region."

"They're ejecting their cargo." Katherine told them as the huge boxes arranged around the vessel fired explosive bolts and released their loads to drift out into space.

"Wait a second." Doctor Jones frowned from his science console. "Those aren't parts for an Apex type ship."

"What then?" Clogg asked with sudden interest.

"Junk." Jones cocked his head to one side and frowned thoughtfully. "Parts from dozens of old ships, just junk."

"It's a decoy or a trap." Clogg said angrily.

"Maybe not." Blake said thoughtfully. "…But there's still over a hundred people over there for us to protect so we hold our ground."

"Firing cycle locked in." Clogg told them. "I've set the energy discharge to blast the debris as far out from the ship as possible while keeping it dense enough to spot the torpedo. I think I might be able to give us about 6 kilometres."

"Fire." Blake nodded.

Clouds of parts flooded out of the gaping cargo boxes that ran along the massive Federation freighter. The Corinthian fired a beam of energy from the cannon in her nose and the cloud of twisted wreckage began to erupt in furious blasts that vaporised the debris into microscopic particles.

"Displaying Darmajaya Captain's log. Time index 7333.9"

"The battle drills went rather well. We're as ready as we can be. The battle-bridge is fully manned and the connection bolts are fitted with explosive charges. We can perform an emergency separation no matter what damage we take now. That was the Commander's idea. She's been an excellent officer but I think I'll be losing her soon. She's ready to take a ship of her own and we both know it. I have enjoyed working with her but it's been a bit of a strain having my daughter-in-law as my first officer.

I toured the ship. The crew seems optimistic. There's a general air that we're going to beat them easily. I certainly don't know where that comes from but morale is high so I'm hardly complaining."

"Red alert…" Captain Makarov ordered grimly.

"Red alert!" The Commander repeated. "Shields to maximum, charge weapons. All crew to battle stations."

"The fleet has responded." Lieutenant Drax added to the sporadic melee of efficient activity around the bridge of the huge vessel. "All ships are going to full tactical alert."

"At the front of the vessel is the deflector array." The Commander began loudly enough for all officers to hear. "We believe that a concerted attack on that point will stop the Necrodians from returning to warp. We have their shield frequencies and target co-ordinates have been sent to the fleet."

"Without doubt they'll adjust their shield frequencies when they realise what advantage we have." The Captain stood up from his chair slowly and dominated his bridge, his words plunging the officers to silence as they gave him their full and undivided attention. "We need to hit them hard and fast to stop them from fleeing. Once we trap them here we need to begin scanning the vessel for our people. We all know what we have to do."

"Sub-space eddies are increasing." The systems officer reported. "They'll emerge from warp in ten seconds."

"Good luck everyone." The Captain smiled emptily as his heart leapt in his chest and his body flooded with adrenaline. "Lock weapons…"

The seconds dragged by as the officers watched empty space on the main viewer. A pair of lights danced back and forth at the base of the image projection screen as the countdown continued in silence. Suddenly a white flash exploded in the centre of the viewer.

"Fire torpedoes." Makarov ordered coldly. "Full spread."

"Displaying Wanderer 2 Captain's log. Time index 7334.0"

"We've received all the data that the Darmajaya could send us. We're fully staffed, our weapons have all had a diagnostic scan by the engineering team, the shields have had a full test, the engines have been protected with a class 4 force field and I've had a gigantic glass of Scotch. We're ready!"

"Fire torpedoes." Captain Graves grinned as the warp effect melted away from the enemy ship. The image of the Necrodian vessel hung huge on the Wanderer's viewer. It looked hopelessly vast, dwarfing the Galaxy class ship that was heading up their fleet. The craft was old and worn. Vast areas of darkness streaked across the smooth metallic hull and the central engine area glowed a deep, burning yellow, crackling with power.

"Torpedoes away." Commander Morrow agreed as the viewer lit up with the image of seven glowing red missiles hurtling through space at the alien vessel. "Phasers locked. Firing at the hub."

"Did I tell you to fire?" Graves frowned suddenly.

"The fleet is under standing instructions to fire everything at the hub." The Commander reminded him as a flickering orange beam cut out from the forward weapons array at the upper tip of the ships saucer.

In the distance the gigantic vessel seemed to be reeling under the massive onslaught of angry weapons from a dozen sources each unleashing their power.

"Move us in closer." Graves said with a lop-sided smirk. "And fire at will."

"Closer?" Morrow snapped round to the Captain. "Are you mad? The Kra'lee is leading the first wave once we have word from the USS Darmajaya."

"I think we should be attacking…" The Captain frowned to himself thoughtlessly.

"I think we should wait for word from the command ship." The Commander surreptitiously began locking the Captain out of the controls in readiness for his next stupid comment.

"You know what your problem is…" Graves smirked at his old friend. "You have no sense of adventure."

"You know what your problem is?" Morrow countered, turning to the Captain. "You just don't have enough left to live for!"

"You may be right." He nodded in agreement with a wistful glimmer in his old eyes. "But we finally have something worth dying for and there's nobody I'd rather have along side me."

"I need to be more careful choosing my friends in future." Morrow smiled and turned to the viewer. The Necrodian vessel lashed out with a particle weapon and caught the Kra'lee on her port wing. The shields arced angrily under the violent assault and she broke off her attack run firing another stream of burning torpedoes into the gargantuan vessel as she retreated to lick her wounds. "Maybe now is not the best time to be worrying about the future."

"Today is a good day…" Graves smiled. "Increase to maximum Impulse. Lock weapons on anything on that ship that looks important and engage!"

"Displaying Corinthian tactical officer's log. Time index 7334.2"

"The program set into the computer was totally autonomous. No organic species could have reacted fast enough to an incoming torpedo with only 6 kilometres to lock weapons onto it. The Corinthian can do it but only just. I'm only projecting a 60 percent chance of success."

"Got it!" Clogg nodded in relief. "The torpedo hadn't armed the anti-matter, the shields took the blast, there shouldn't be any casualties."

"Now all we have to do is find the Apex." Haldo sighed. "Again."

"Any ideas?" Katherine breathed out heavily. "Hang on, we're being hailed."

"Hailed?" Blake turned to her and raised an eyebrow as he wondered why she would think that unusual. "The merchants?"

"No." She shook her head grimly. "The Apex."

"On screen." He instructed, turning to the imaging system as the Apex bridge flashed up on the central panel.

"Well done." Captain Faruqui goaded. "A very inventive solution."

"Thank you." Blake replied coldly, his temper swelling inside him as he battled to maintain his composure.

"You did me quite a lot of damage." Faruqui sighed, looking around at the few officers engaged in repairs. "I'm back under cloak and well clear of you now."

"I imagine we'll be seeing you again?" Blake sneered angrily at his enemy.

"I think you can count on that." Faruqui agreed. "I haven't finished with you yet. Not by a long way."

"Me too." Blake assured him.

"Until then." The screen flashed off, the image replaced by the empty cargo vessel drifting in space helplessly.

"I'm detecting a warp-core breach." Clogg frowned. "Twenty-one light years from our position."

"The Apex?" Katherine frowned, attempting to lock the transceiver array on the communications frequency. "No sign of it."

"My god." Haldo shook his head regretfully. "I guess we did more damage than we thought."

"I know my job!" Clogg scowled at the engineer. "I didn't cause that."

"Someone did!" Blake said thoughtfully.

"Blake…" Katherine looked up from the communications channel. "The fleet…"

"The fleet?" He asked, stepping over to her quickly.

"They've engaged the Necrodians." Her eyebrows pitched up in an expression of hopelessness.

"How long at Transwarp?" He turned to Haldo.

"An hour." If I really push her I can do it in 30 minutes but it would over-load the purge system, we wouldn't be able to Transwarp for another ten hours."

"Transwarp now!" He instructed. "I have someone I need to talk to in the mean time."

Blake turned to leave the bridge and turned back to Doctor Jones. "Scan the base's records. Go over your own readings. I want to know everything about the residual weapons charge you detected."

"Ok!" He nodded with an expression that he found the orders confusing.

"At least one problem has solved itself." Haldo quipped. "Good riddance I say."

"There but for the grace of god goes I!" Blake told him sadly as he left.

"Displaying Blake Girling personal log. Time index 7334.3"

"None of this added up but I think I've figured out enough of it to make a guess at what Section 31 have been up to. My temper is still under control but only barely. I've never felt the same as before my body was riddled with implants. The anger fills me, I can hardly control it but just this once I'm not going to try. There was at least one person on board that knew more than me and she's going to regret playing her part."

Captain Girling stepped into the medical bay and the doors slid shut behind him as if making a point of their own.

"Captain!" The Section 31 officer barely looked up from the single bio-bed where she languished behind a force-field that locked her in.

"The Apex was destroyed." He told her flatly.

"I knew you could do it." She shrugged, a wry smile on her cruel lips. "There was never any doubt in my mind."

"I didn't do anything." He told her, stepping forwards closer to the force field. The invisible screen suddenly vanished with a vague flicker of light and he was free to touch her.

Captain Morrow stood up in alarm and stepped reflexively away from him as he slowly stalked closer.

"You killed him, didn't you?" He said accusingly.

"From here?" She raised her hands as she quickly discarded his suggestion.

"Section 31. You killed him. You caused his Warp-Core breach." Blake told her. "But you did more than that, didn't you?"

"I don't know what you mean…" She stammered, her eyes locking onto his furious gaze that never once faltered as it bore into her.

"You had the base destroyed as well. You had Starfleet officers killed." He continued.

"I don't know what you think you know." She told him nervously, sensing in him the fury that broiled beneath the surface.

"You never intended to capture the Corinthian." Blake told her coldly. "You knew the Apex wasn't up to it. You sent him out here to die. You set him up to fail."

"I wasn't involved." She shook her head. "I told you the truth."

"But you didn't tell me that it was a test." Blake stepped up a few inches from her, her body was pressed up against the wall. "Did you know that my mind is connected to my ship? Did you know I can control all the systems with a thought?"

"Yes." She whispered in fear.

"I could cut life-support around you or I could beam you off my ship one square inch at a time." He told her coldly, his anger lighting his eyes.

"It was a test." She acceded weakly, her voice cracking. "We needed to test the Apex in the real world.

"So you sent her out to fight for real." Blake growled at her through gritted teeth. He shook his head in disgust. The room filled with a low hum as the transporters began to lock on to their target.

"No wait…" The Captain pressed herself still harder against the bulkhead in fear.

"Why me?" Blake asked as the humming grew louder.

"It was Faruqui." She stammered awkwardly. "We couldn't send the Apex after an alien. We couldn't provoke another species and we couldn't risk the Apex falling into the hands of our enemies. We knew that Faruqui would happily go after you and that you'd kill him. We knew you'd wipe out any trace of him. We knew the Apex couldn't beat you but we could at least see how well she performed. He wasn't just expendable, he was a liability and we needed to be rid of him."

"But I didn't destroy it." Girling sneered angrily at her.

"No…" She admitted, her eyes flashing round the narrow bay looking for signs of the transporter signal bearing down on her, waiting for the technology to take the first bite out of her.

"Why?" He asked, his head slowly moving menacingly towards her.

"I don't know." She stammered fearfully. "I really don't."

He silently glowered into her eyes. "I don't know." She continued. "The Apex was different. It was special in some way. They didn't know if it would work. I don't know anything more than that. Everything else I told you was true."

"Because of your secrets and lies the crew of the construction yard is dead." Blake began scolding her angrily. "Because of you the crew of the Apex died without ever knowing why. Because of you the fleet has engaged the Necrodians without me."

"I'm just doing my job!" She insisted weakly as the hum of the transporter continued growing in pitch.

"Your lies have cost you your ship." Blake told her, stepping back and relaxing slightly. "Your lies have cost you your career."

"And what about your career?" She glanced about the bay in a way that approached panic. "What will Starfleet do when they hear about this?"

Suddenly the door over-ride triggered and the hatch slid open. Blake turned to see Katherine step into her sick-bay.

"What the hell is going on?" She demanded in annoyance. After a cursory glance around she reached out and scooped up a sample jar filled with a thick grey liquid. "Blake, turn off the speakers, they're going to break my beakers if this noise continues."

Instantly the hum vanished from the bay and Blake smiled back at her. "Sorry." He said simply.

"What?" Captain Morrow gasped, reaching out for something to lean against, her heart pounding in her chest.

Captain Girling stopped to wink at her as he left.

"Displaying Darmajaya Captain's battle log. Time index 7334.4"

"They quickly adapted to our Phasers. It seemed that their shields worked in a different way to ours. According to the engineers they had all the properties of a solid object. Our advantage didn't last long and certainly not long enough."

The Darmajaya raced across the shimmering silver surface of the Necrodian vessel, lashing out with her Phasers. Suddenly a huge hole erupted on the vessels hull, spewing plating out into space and revealing a vast gaping orifice big enough to swallow any Starfleet vessel.

"I've found them!" The Commander cried out in triumph. "I've found over two hundred distinct humanoid life signs aboard the ship."

"Can we lock our transporters onto them?" The Captain jumped up from his seat excitedly.

"We'll have to drop our shields as we make a pass." The Commander said thoughtfully, shaking her head reflexively, not relishing the prospect. "We could call another vessel to draw fire for us."

Makarov winced at the screen as another Necrodian energy weapon tore into a small Oberth class ship, rocking it from its course with the violence of the blast. "We won't last long without our shields." He said thoughtfully.

"Incoming hail from the Corinthian!" The security officer said in surprise. "They will emerge from Transwarp in twenty seconds and are offering to assist."

"Wait…" The Captain said, raising his fore finger as an idea flashed into his head. "That ship can transport through our shields. They could beam our people up and send them straight on to us."

The Commander's expression remained impassive as she simply shrugged non-committally at the idea.

"Open a channel." The Captain grinned. "This is going to work!"

The Darmajaya banked hard as the Corinthian cut in under her belly, the pair moving in close to the enemy vessel. The USS Kelly, a small but heavily armed Oberth class vessel came in from behind to draw fire and clear a path over the surface of the huge craft. The Galaxy class vessel blasted out with her ventral Phasers and the energy danced over the metallic hull of the alien vessel.

The Corinthian shot out from under the huge Starfleet vessel and let out a shot from her nose cannon, the Phaser beam exploding through the weakened hull.

"Displaying personal log Haldo Compz. Time index 7334.8"

"About to emerge from Transwarp. My modifications are in place but I doubt they'll hold. Blake is going to send us in on yet another insane mission but the ship can handle it. If that man was in command of any other Starfleet vessel we'd all be long dead by now but he's not. This is the finest ship ever built and I'm the proud engineer. I know I moan about them but I'm also proud to serve with these people. I'd never admit it but even Jones has grown on me."

"I've got the co-ordinates of 209 humanoid life signs." Haldo grinned excitedly. "I'm beaming them up through the USS Darmajaya shields now!"

"Something is happening!" Doctor Jones warned, frowning deeply and rubbing his forehead anxiously.

"Go on!" Blake barked at him, his attention locked on manoeuvring the little ship through the volleys of beams that were blasting out at them.

"That signal I've been monitoring." He explained. "The signal has been increasing in frequency and now it's virtually a constant buzz."

"Will you shut up about that damn signal!" Haldo told him in annoyance as his console flashed down the number of remaining Starfleet officers left aboard the alien ship.

"Something is going to happen…" The Doctor protested. "Won't someone listen to me?"

"No!" Blake told him angrily as the ship banked hard, a beam of energy missing her nacelle by only a few metres and grazing hard against her powerful shields.

"Displaying Darmajaya Captain's battle log. Time index 7334.9"

"I knew it would work…"

"Got them all!" The Commander exclaimed in triumph, an emotion mirrored around the bridge. "They did it! All of the people we detected aboard are now in medical isolation in the cargo bay."

"I guess the Corinthian has proved herself." The Captain grinned at her knowingly. "I knew she would…"

"I suppose it has." She narrowed her eyes at him, annoyed at herself for lowering her defences.

"Sir!" The security officer pointed to the viewer with a sense of urgency. The Corinthian flashed in a brilliant white light, engulfed in a burning effervescent glow.

"What the?" The Captain murmured to himself helplessly as he could only watch as the light melted away.

"They're gone." The Commander said softly.

"No trace of the Corinthian…" The security chief agreed solemnly. "No debris, no energy wave, nothing."

"What did they hit her with?" The Commander shook her head. "What has that kind of power?"

"Move the fleet away." The Captain barked, grabbing hold of his thoughts and dragging them back to the fight. "Concentrate fire on the hub as we move back."

The Necrodian vessel drifted without propulsion as the Starfleet vessels moved away, lashing out with their rear weapons as they retreated.

"The Wanderer is requesting information about the Corinthian." The Commander closed her eyes sadly. "They want to know where their friends are."

"They're dead." The Captain shook his head sadly. "Open a channel to the fleet. I have an announcement to make."

"Halt program!" Captain Reader cried out, leaping from his chair in a way that belied his years. He shook his head, wiping his hand over his eyes to clear the tears that blurred his vision "Thank you…" He gasped through his laboured breaths. "Thank you all for what you did for us."

The holodeck image remained motionless. The outdated vision of Captain Makarov as a young officer stood before him.

"There's nothing left to see." He wiped his arm over his eyes, choking back the tears that rolled down his cheeks.

"There is thirteen hours of footage remaining." The computer told him coldly.

"I don't need to see old images of my friends dying." He sneered at the automated voice. "They died… That's all I need to know. There is nothing else."

"Thirteen hours of footage remains in real time." The computer insisted.

"What?" He spun around to the frozen images. "The crew continued to record data for another thirteen hours?"

"Confirmed."

Captain Reader sat awkwardly back down on the seat, his jaw open in surprise. "But they died…" He said finally. The computer failed to reply.

"Cancel commentary. Continue with real-time playback… Show me what the hell happened next!"

 

1.12 Apex - Part 2

"The history of the future"

"Corinthian's chief engineer's log…" Haldo began as he stared thoughtfully out into space, his mind distracted by his troubled ruminations. He sighed heavily to himself and wearily rested his head on his upturned palm.

"Corinthian!" She asked scornfully. "The Corinthian is still the ship that brought down the galaxy; I don't care what you say."

"She's my ship." Haldo snapped defensively, thumping his fist down hard on the metallic console. "Now leave me alone to record my log. We don't have much longer to go."

"You had better be quick." She told him with a note of satisfaction. "You're right. We're almost there. Weapons are fully charged and soon your old ship and crew are going to be dead. I'm just pleased I'll be there to see it."

"I can't believe it's come to this." Haldo frowned thoughtfully; losing himself momentarily in the thoughts that churned around his mind. "Blake must have a plan with a good chance of success. He wouldn't just destroy the ship for no reason."

"Wouldn't he?" She sneered. "We're talking about the man who destroyed the galaxy…"

"Don't be ridiculous." Haldo shook his head and scowled back at her. "You're all just angry and looking for someone to blame. None of this was Blake's fault. He didn't know…" He looked back out into space wistfully. The stars were almost invisible, muted by the swirling clouds of burning gas that had stained the black canvas of the galaxy like the blood of the innocent who had died in the fires. "None of us did…" He whispered to himself. "How could we?"

"Record your log." She told him with a humourless chuckle at the foolishness of doing so. "In a few hours there'll be nobody left alive anywhere to read it anywhere in the galaxy."

"That's not the point." Haldo grumbled, leaning back to the controls to resume the recording. "Stardate unknown." He continued with a shrug. "It all started when the Necrodians hit us with a weapon. We didn't know what was happening at first, we assumed it was what had hurt us so badly."

He closed his eyes as the memory pricked at his senses before he continued with his recording.

The light subsided away around the ship, energy lashed over her hull, permeating her systems and stealing her strength as the Corinthian listed helplessly in space.

The instruments around the bridge flashed intermittently as smashed power conduits arced angrily, sparking and spitting fire through damaged panels. Acrid smoke coiled from the consoles filling the control room with a burning odour that replaced the sterile feel of the normally fresh recycled air.

"Report!" Blake barked to the crew, his head already pounding with simulated pain from the damage to his ship.

"My console is dead." Haldo cried back over the noise of the self-repair equipment as it patched up the damage and struggled to prevent further failures.

"External sensors are off-line." Goruss Clogg shook his head in frustration. "Most systems are. I can't tell what's happening."

"What the hell did they hit us with?" Blake said rhetorically and turned to the viewer that danced with a flickering wall of static.

"I've never seen a weapon like it." Jones agreed. "The power was simply off the scale, I can't even begin to guess what it was."

"My console is coming back." Haldo hit it again with his balled fist as it flickered listlessly to life. "Main power if off-line. Shields, weapons, Warp, Impulse, cloak and main computer are simply not functional right now."

"What is working?" Blake turned to him angrily.

"There are sporadic power spikes from the laundry stores!" Haldo shrugged. "We could throw wet towels at them?"

"Helpful." Blake muttered in frustrated annoyance through angrily gritted teeth.

"Something's happening." Clogg looked up in surprise. "Some radiation surges from somewhere aboard the ship. I can't locate sources without the internal sensors."

Haldo stood up and snapped open his Tricorder before waving it about. "He's right." He agreed nervously. "Very odd readings. Sub-space field energy, cohesive photons… I don't like this!"

"Transporters of some kind?" Katherine guessed.

"Whatever it is, it's heading this way." Jones shuddered as the symbols on his Tricorder told him things he really didn't want to know.

"Arm yourselves." Blake ordered as he took his personal Phaser that was secured to the arm of the command chair. Clogg did not require a second telling; the others similarly drew weapons and glanced around awkwardly waiting for something to happen.

"Did I ever mention I'm a pacifist?" Haldo frowned, glancing down to the Phaser in his shaking hand while his heart thumped nervously in his chest. "I've only fired a Phaser once before and that was at a holographic games arcade."

"Three metres and closing." Clogg warned, raising his weapon towards the approaching signals.

"I wasn't very good at it." Haldo continued awkwardly. "I shot Winston in the foot twice and myself in the arm."

"How the hell did you manage to shoot yourself in the arm?" Clogg frowned curiously.

"Did I mention I'm not very good?" Haldo smiled without humour.

"Have you ever wondered what a Necrodian looks like?" Jones breathed out heavily, his eyes wide in fear.

"I think you're about to find out…" Blake told him firmly as his Tricorder flashed up an emergency proximity signal.

Two glowing green objects suddenly appeared on the bridge. The stepped through the bulkhead wall, their outlines glimmering as they glided effortlessly though the metal wall. They glowed a dull green from their bodies as they stopped to glare emotionlessly around the damaged bridge. Their skeleton seemed to permeate dully through their pulsating skin and their eyes flashed and danced with an inner fire. One raised his arm and a bolt of energy lashed out around the bridge.

The attack was met with a barrage of Phaser blasts most of which hit their targets, except Haldo's which caused still more damage to the bulkhead wall behind the alien creatures.

The arc of energy lashed out to Blake, catching him on the chest and throwing him backwards while his personal shields crackled brightly beneath the beam, his weapon dropping to the ground to clatter softly over the unfinished floor plates. The crew focused their beams on the alien that had fired and it slowly turned to glance around at the crew without concern for their weapons as if it knew they could do it no harm.

Haldo shook his head scornfully and discarded his weapon to the floor, mumbling about how he knew that being armed was a waste of time. The aliens both reached out and placed their outstretched palms onto a control panel. The consoles began to flicker and dim as the aliens glowered about at the helpless crew.

Haldo leapt up from beneath the engineering console with a flexible power conduit in his hand. He slammed it into the open panel before him that fed information to the displays. The raw energy crackled through the touch-sensors and shimmered over the aliens. They turned to face Haldo but already they were beginning to fade as the blue arcs of energy raced through their bodies.

"What the hell was that?" Haldo cried out as the creatures vanished. "Don't tell me they were Necrodians?"

"They certainly weren't what I was expecting." Blake agreed as he hoisted himself up from the raised platform around the viewer where the alien weapon had thrown him. His uniform smouldered and a black scorch-mark was burnt into his left side. Katherine grabbed his arm and gently helped him to his feet. "I've been shot a number of times, nothing has hurt like that through my shields before."

"They weren't aiming at us." Katherine added, slightly confused. "They acted like they were looking for something."

"The computer is back online!" Haldo shouted. "Something is happening to it."

"What now?" Blake sighed wearily, the pain in his head had dulled to be replaced by a more angry pain in his chest. His heart fluttered under his ribs as he breathed and his body felt weak and powerless.

"A new stream of information is invading our key systems." Clogg guessed from the erratic readings on his security display. "There's been an invasion into our processor core."

"It's a program." Doctor Jones growled angrily as he struggled to lock out the virus. "It's rewriting out key functions. I can't stop it."

"Try." Blake said with a note of urgency.

"Too late." Jones shook his head. "Whatever those things were they must have implanted something."

Captain Blake Girling closed his eyes grimly, waiting to see how things could get any worse.

"Shields are back!" Clogg said in surprise.

"They're not shields…" Haldo frowned at his console. "They're a totally different frequency and pulsating at a range I've never seen before."

"Whatever they are they're being emitted through our shield channels." Clogg told him.

"What the hell is going on?" Blake glanced around the bridge. All around him the self-repair equipment was sealing the damage so fast he could see it with his naked eyes. In his mind he could feel the strength returning to the ship as conduits snaked out setting replicator webs to create replacement parts.

"I have main power…" Haldo said in confusion. "The Warp core is fully active. Plasma is back to the nacelles, propulsion is coming back online."

"I've never seen the Corinthian repair herself so quickly." Doctor Jones looked up with a haphazard smile fluttering over his lips. "Sensors are coming back online now and exceeding their normal ranges."

"Scan for the Necrodian ship!" Blake ordered, turning quickly to the viewscreen as the static wall began to melt away.

"Oh dear…" Haldo frowned darkly as his expression went far beyond concern.

"What?" Blake turned back, suddenly alarmed by Haldo's dire tone.

"Blake… the Necrodians aren't out there." Haldo said softly as he struggled to get the screen working properly.

"Oh my god…" Jones gasped at the readings.

"I'm detecting a fleet of ships bearing down on us." Haldo swallowed fearfully.

Blake turned back to the massive holographic viewer as the image swam into view. Before them were countless Starships that seemed to stretch on as far as could be seen into the distance. There were Federation and alien all standing side by side, holding position around the Corinthian with weapons bearing down on her aggressively.

"I'm detecting 8,567 ships." Haldo said, shaking his head in exasperation. "About half are Federation, some are shuttles, some are alien ships that aren't on any of our recognition tables."

"I'm reading 7,941 weapons locks." Clogg told the Captain with an irritating note of calmness to his voice. "Shall I raise shields fully and lock weapons?"

Blake scowled at his tactical officer and shook his head in frustration. "Hail them."

"They're hailing us." Katherine told him. "Nearly all of them. I can't isolate any single frequency through this much com-traffic."

"What the hell is going on?" Blake stared at the massive fleet as he frowned at himself, lost in contemplation at what might be happening.

"We're not where we were." Haldo told them. "I can't identify this region on any star-charts, this place doesn't officially exist according to Starfleet maps."

"The communication has stopped." Katherine sat up suddenly in surprise. "We're receiving instructions."

"On screen…" Blake told her. Suddenly the image flashed up before them. A plain, featureless room with a plain holoraphic representation of a man appeared on the screen before them.

"Welcome." It said with a smile. "Please under no circumstances attempt to lower your shields…"

"With eight thousand weapons pointing at us?" Haldo quipped nervously. "Dropping our shields would be about as smart as pulling up your trouser zip without looking first!"

Suddenly a beam of light exploded onto the bridge and slowly melted away into the form of a human standing at the front, glaring menacingly around. The man was dressed in a dark uniform, worn at the edges, faded and well used. He was human with eastern features and glowered with menace at Blake.

"I am Captain Anok." He told him. "So you are Captain Girling?"

"That's right." He nodded, noting the angry expression of the intruder. "Who are you? What the hell is going on here?"

"Good question." The Captain stepped forward and peered aggressively through narrowing eyes while the holographic instructions continued behind them, now largely ignored. "Where do I even start to answer something like that?"

"Who are you?" Clogg suggested. "What is this fleet?"

"This fleet is your legacy." The Captain smiled cruelly back at him. "You helped to create this."

"We did?" Blake shrugged curiously. "How? Why?"

"This is the resistance." The Captain continued, gesturing to the myriad vessels in the viewer. "This fleet is all that stands between individuality and slavery."

"Slavery from who?" Haldo asked. "The Federation? The Necrodians?"

"Necrodians?" The Captain smirked with an odd expression of amusement. "Hardly…"

"Then who?" Blake frowned.

"Borg…" He sneered at Girling angrily. "Slavery from your old friend, Borg."

"The Borg?" Haldo shrugged. "We've defeated their attacks twice. They're not even in the Alpha quadrant."

"There is no Alpha quadrant." The Captain told him bluntly, shaking his head sadly. "There's no Federation either any more. There's no Earth, there's no Starfleet and in a few days time there'll be no Humans either."

"What are you talking about?" Blake scowled in growing annoyance.

"We brought you here from your time." The Captain sighed. "You've come forward around two centuries to see what you've done."

"You've said that before!" Girling shook his head in disbelief. "How have we done anything to contribute to something like what you're describing?"

"You existed!" Captain Anok told him scornfully. "That was all you had to do. You drifted around in this abomination causing untold damage to history until you finally caused this!"

"This can't be right!" Haldo stood up from his console. "You brought us here, that must have changed the future history."

"No!" The Captain told his firmly. "We removed you at precisely the moment you disappeared from history. You were believed destroyed by the ship you were attacking. We didn't change anything by bringing you here."

"We haven't done anything!" Blake insisted. "We followed Starfleet principals and laws at all times. We had no involvement with the Borg whatsoever. We couldn't have caused this."

The Captain smirked with a certain satisfaction at the crew's obvious discomfort. "And now you see a measure of the horror of your actions." He began softly. "We have fought for our very existence in the shadow of the Corinthian. You are recorded as the greatest enemy the galaxy has ever known."

"If you could bring us through time, why didn't you just destroy us earlier, before the events that caused this could happen?" Clogg ventured.

"That's a good question!" The Captain replied. "And it deserves an answer!"

The crew glanced at one another as the intruder watched their expressions carefully. "I'm beaming back to my vessel! I'm sending a crewman over to watch you. You'll follow us precisely or be destroyed."

"I'm sure that's true." Captain Girling looked at the fleet beyond the viewer.

"Where are we going?" Katherine asked.

"We have to meet someone." He told her evasively with a cruel grin. "You'll find out."

The fleet began to break up. Across the seemingly endless mass of ancient machinery Impulse and Warp drives flashed to life and the ships departed on their courses with the Corinthian led away by a battered Starfleet vessel and flanked by two other ships who kept their weapons trained on her at all times.

"I am Commander Baker." She said, her hands clasped firmly behind her back as she spoke with some assumed authority to the Corinthian crew. "I am here to watch you and to make sure you don't violate any of our rules, most of which are here for your protection!"

"Our protection from you?" Girling hissed angrily at her. She was a slim woman with greying hair and severe features with piercing eyes that flashed around nervously, betraying her confident facade.

"We downloaded a virus to your systems." She ignored his comment and continued speaking as if the bridge were hers. "It has reconfigured your systems to allow this ship to survive here. It has rotated your shields to a modulation that not only offers us some protection from Borg but keeps us hidden from their sensors for the most part."

"For the most part?" Clogg asked almost before she'd finished speaking.

"Borg is everywhere." She replied coldly with an acrid glance at the Captain. "It controls most of the galaxy now but there are minor pockets of space where we can hide or travel without attracting too much attention."

"You're very vague!" Haldo noted grimly. "Not a lot of hope here?"

"None!" She frowned. "Borg don't make too much effort to track us because it doesn't have to. It will find us all eventually and assimilate us to become part of it."

"You didn't need to send those things!" Blake told her coldly. "They could have killed us."

"Those things?" She shook her head with a smirk on her face. "Those things were Borg projections. Our virus set your shields to stop them from beaming their subspace holograms on board."

"That makes sense!" Haldo told Blake softly with a raised eyebrow.

"Subspace holograms?" Clogg asked with interest.

"Borg is not what it was in your time." She told the security chief. "They're not some race of drones with unconscious desires to return to individuality. Here there is only Borg. One mind, one body, one consciousness and one over-riding will to absorb all things that remain."

"So there's a base of operations?" Clogg rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"There is Borg." She shrugged as if finding their lack of comprehension puzzling. "There is a central massive structure at the heart of the galaxy from where they control everything. It can disconnect parts of it to operate as ships when there is need to but it remains a single mind. The subspace holograms are a residual physical echo of their form that they can project anywhere in three dimensional space, they replaced the concept of drones a century ago."

"Fascinating…" Haldo rubbed his chin thoughtfully and scratched his ear.

"Where are you taking us?" Captain Girling glowered fixedly at the Commander.

"We have to see a being who is better equipped to explain." She turned to him with a certain coldness in her eye.

"A being?" Katherine shrugged. "You evasiveness is a little melodramatic, isn't it?"

"It has no name we can conceive of." She stared at the Starfleet officer in annoyance. "It has chosen to help us in our struggle against becoming Borg."

"Blake!" Haldo called out suddenly. "I need to check the upgrades to my engines. I could use your help down there."

Blake knew full well that Haldo only tolerated other people's presence on the ship grudgingly and to invite somebody else into his engine bay was almost unheard of.

He stood up from the central chair with an intrigued frown and followed his engineer while the Commander blustered slightly at his departure. "Katherine, you have the bridge!"

"What's going on?" Blake asked as the turbolift doors slid open to the engineering alcove with the central power plexus throbbing away with a snaking arc of energy running through its heart.

"I need to tell you something!" He told the Captain with a troubled expression. "I didn't stop running scans on the fleet but I kept our energy carrier waves low. With the state these ships are in I doubt they could have noticed us."

"What did you see?" Blake leant back against a control panel with his undivided attention focused on Haldo.

"Firstly the stars!" Haldo shrugged. "If we're roughly 200 years in the future then I should be able to extrapolate our position but the stars are all out of alignment."

"What could cause that?" Blake's eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

"Gravity." Haldo shrugged. "Something huge must be affecting the gravitational effects of the entire galaxy. If the Borg have a central station then it must be vast. My guess is it would have to be ten times the width of our solar system to cause the kind of effect we're seeing."

"That's impossible!" Blake waved his hand to dismiss the suggestion and allowed himself a smirk.

"Nothing much else could exhibit the mass effect." Haldo wasn't smirking. His face was totally serious and the smile instantly vanished from the Captain's face.

"You mean it?" Blake scowled. "You believe there's a structure over ten times the size of our home system?"

"The clouds are interfering with my scans so I can't confirm it but the maths would seem to bear out my hypothesis." Haldo nodded. "However…"

"However?" Blake groaned, leaning back on the panel wearily.

"I've detected two other things in the fleet that might interest you, and not necessarily in a good way." Haldo hung his head slightly and shrugged.

Blake nodded for him to continue as he noted the feeling that this was how things had conspired once more against him to get worse.

"We were once sent out to rescue a race who had been experimenting with a Warp drive that malfunctioned." Haldo began. "We tractored the ship away from a Cardassian destroyer while under cloak."

"I remember." Blake nodded.

"Well we were attacked by an odd vessel that hurt us badly." Haldo continued coldly. "I've detected three other ships of the same configuration in the fleet so far."

"I see!" Blake rubbed his chin. "Two hundred years is a long time, a lot could have happened."

"I've also detected thirteen mushroom-shaped vessels exhibiting the same Warp-signature as the Necrodian ship!" Haldo told him. "I guess it was a busy couple of centuries?"

Blake turned to stare at the Corinthian's power source. He watched for a moment as the arcing blue bolt of pure energy roared from the emitter pad at the base into the receiver at the top through a transparent sphere.

"If the Borg have annexed the entire Galaxy then whoever was left would band together." He surmised rhetorically.

"There's Klingon, Romulan, Kazon, Tholian, Breen, Ferengi and even Vulcans out there." Haldo agreed. "It's a bit of a stretch to see the Necrodians. They came into our space and simply attacked everything they saw."

"They didn't attack us." Blake scowled, turning back to Haldo. "They backed away from us the first time they saw us."

Haldo frowned thoughtfully. "Perhaps they didn't know what to make of us? This ship is rather odd."

"They had already attacked Klingon ships and the Resilient." Blake shook his head. "None of this makes any sense. We have more questions than answers as usual!"

"Welcome to Starfleet!" Haldo quipped weakly.

Blake looked down to the control panel. He ran his fingers gently over the smooth surface of the interface thoughtfully. He gazed at the ventral schematic of his ship for a moment. "What shape are we in?" He said finally. "If we need to fight, can we?"

"We're more than a match for most of this fleet!" Haldo nodded. "It's safe to assume that the virus has upgraded the power to the weapons so we should be able to match even that ship that attacked us. More than a couple of them and we're in poor shape to defend ourselves."

"I want scanners running at full capacity!" Blake snapped round suddenly and issued an order. "I want all sensors to penetrate these clouds."

"You want to think our way out of this?" Haldo nodded thoughtfully.

"I want to get out of this." Blake agreed. "I don't care if I have to think, eat or dig my way out with my bare hands. If we've really been brought to the future then we need to get home and put things right before any of this happens."

"Wouldn't that be a violation of the Prime Directive?" Haldo frowned.

"Well if we were in the present talking about the future then I think we'd be alright." Blake said hopefully. "I doubt many people would object to us saving the entire galaxy from the Borg."

"Rogers to Girling…" The Com signal suddenly spoke from his badge.

"We've arrived!" Blake shuddered as he spoke. His fingers brushed against the gold emblem. "On my way!"

Katherine stared fixedly at the image on the viewer as the Corinthian followed the beaten up USS Interdictor into a dense blue nebula.

"Sensors are a waste of time!" Doctor Jones told them redundantly. "I can't detect out further than a hundred kilometres."

"I think that's the point!" Clogg muttered to himself as the image of the virtually derelict battle cruiser slunk deeper into the pulsating cloud. She was a heavily upgraded Miranda type vessel with a pair of under-slung nacelles and a larger weapons array. Few had been built but during the development of the Miranda, Starfleet had flirted briefly with adaptations of the basic frame to test the abilities of the design and it had proved to be excellent.

"We can't see out." The Commander agreed. "And Borg can't see in. This is the heart of the resistance."

Blake and Haldo stepped onto the bridge, each heading for their posts as they did so.

"You have a base here?" Katherine asked, standing up from the command chair as Blake approached.

"We do!" The Commander agreed with a glance towards the Captain as he stepped closer to the viewer.

"Something's happening." Blake glanced towards her.

"What?" She scowled back at him suspiciously, reaching reflexively for the communicator pad on her arm to speak with her ship.

"Sensors are reading movement!" Haldo agreed.

"A ship heading this way." Jones nodded. "Quite small, quite fast."

"We're detecting nothing." She frowned. "Are you sure?"

"Particle wake." Blake told her grimly. "We have some tricks of our own. Clogg, track it and program a Phaser cannon sequence just in case."

"No!" She cried out, stepping in front of the Captain. "Don't fire!"

Suddenly a ship emerged from the clouds. A long and narrow machine pulsating with yellow energy along its beige metallic hull from the front of which two blades protruded at a stark downwards angle. It banked towards the ships and fired a pulse of flickering energy at the lead vessel, the USS Interdictor.

The bolts connected with her upgraded shields which lit up angrily in her defence. The two ships behind the Corinthian shot forwards. One was a boxy beige commercial vessel and the other was a small Federation transport ship.

"Return fire!" Blake ordered forcefully as the attacking vessel lined up to fire on the two ships that sprung forward in defence of their lead.

"No!" The Commander insisted forcefully, pressing buttons on her communicator. "Don't fire!"

Clogg's hand hovered over the control panel as he cast a glance to his Captain. Blake looked forwards to the view screen. The attacking ship was arcing towards them through the flaming debris of the commercial vessel that had proved no match for her weapons and the Interdictor was turning to bring her main weapons to bear.

Blake nodded to his tactical officer. A beam of energy lashed out from the cannon in the nose.

"No!" Commander Baker screamed out in panic as she watched with wide eyed horror.

The Federation vessel slammed hard into the Corinthian's beam and stopped it from hitting the attacking vessel. Her shields flashed silently in space, the ship erupting with damage and spewing flaming hull panels as emergency ejection plates fired free to vent plasma from her crippled tactical array.

Blake turned in stunned silence as the Interdictor began an attack run on the little ship.

"What did you do?" He cried out angrily, stepping towards the officer.

"What I had to!" She shouted back, trembling nervously as she glanced at the battle being waged beyond the ship.

"We could have killed the crew of that ship!" Blake pointed to the Federation vessel that was tumbling out of control deeper into the nebula. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Photons!" She swallowed hard. "Fire photons…"

Blake glowered at her angrily and nodded for Clogg to follow her suggestion. The screen lit up instantly with the angry red light of a dozen flaming torpedoes as they streaked towards their target. The small ship buffeted from the impacts and was finished by the Interdictor's main weapons.

"Plot a course to retrieve that ship!" Blake instructed, ignoring the Commander. "We need to tractor it back before it disappears from our sensors."

"My ship will handle the rescue!" She told him weakly.

"Shut up!" Blake shouted at her with a suddenness and aggression that sent her reeling back in shock and plunged the bridge crew into silence. "You have some explaining to do." He told her more calmly. She swallowed nervously and glanced around at the accusing faces that glowered back.

"We couldn't let you fire the cannon." She shrugged, her eyes glazing over as she stepped nervously away.

"Why?" He stepped forwards towards her.

"Borg never saw it." She told him. "It was experimental, there's a chance that Borg haven't adapted to it yet, we may be able to copy the frequency into the upgrade virus and use it against them. If we fire it now before we have a chance to adapt it then they'll develop a defence."

"That makes sense." Haldo told him softly to try and calm the Captain.

"And that was worth risking the lives of a the crew of that ship for?" Katherine shook her head in dismay.

"This isn't your world!" The Commander cried out, her voice cracking with emotion. "We know we're going to die. We know that our lives will end in an unspeakable agony that will stretch on for eternity if and when Borg catches us. We'd all rather die than have that happen to us. We live day by day, struggling to survive long enough to see tomorrow." She clapped her hand to her forehead and struggled to compose herself. "The future to us is a convoy drifting through what's left of space fleeing from Borg sensors, eating stale ration packs, breathing acrid air and drinking poisoned water."

"That ship wasn't Borg." Blake persisted, his voice still more calm than before.

"It's not just Borg that are after us." She sighed, rubbing her eyes.

"You still have some explaining to do!" Blake told her with a shallow smile. He turned to Katherine. "Send a message to the Interdictor. Offer them any assistance in repairs." She nodded and began opening a channel.

"Cardassian." The Commander said softly with a frown as she struggled against her feelings. "You called them Cardassians."

"I'm listening." Blake told her firmly as he stepped closer as if admonishing a child.

"I only know stories." She looked up with her red, sorrowful eyes. "Borg didn't understand why Humans and other species resisted assimilation so fiercely. They assimilated a few Cardassians and noted their psychological makeup. They ended up making a pact. The Cardassians agreed to allow themselves to be partially assimilated so long as they retained their individuality. That suited Borg because they wanted them to come up with plans to conquer the Alpha quadrant and so they formed an alliance. They're all connected now, Borg hears their thoughts but allows them their independence so long as they follow instructions."

"That makes sense." Haldo noted grimly. "I've known some Cardassians, they'd make a deal with the devil to save their own skins."

"Sounds like they did just that." Katherine said coldly.

"While you're being honest, maybe you'd like to tell us why we were brought here?" Blake suggested.

"You are the reason that the Alpha quadrant fell to Borg." She looked up at him, remembering her anger. "You're the reason that we have to live like this!"

Captain Anok shook his head in dismay. His bridge was even more of a mess than it usually was. A support beam lay fallen from the roof with power conduits strewn all round it. Floor plates had been laid over it some time ago to stop the crew from tripping over it on their way to one of only two turbo-lift shafts that still functioned on board the ancient vessel. Maintenance had been reduced on board the ship to the point where only systems vital to the continued functioning of the vessel would receive any attention whatsoever.

Crewmen slept in bunks at their posts while their colleagues worked around them both to save time in an emergency and because three complete decks were uninhabitable due to damage from continued attacks so the vessel struggled to support even her skeleton crew.

"The port nacelle is offline." The chief engineer reported dryly. "There are plasma leaks from the core. Main weapons are dead too now."

"Call for backup!" The Captain sighed. "There's no more ships here with the ability to defend themselves. Get at least two more."

"I doubt Red-squad can spare any more." Lieutenant Crowe said with a deep frown on his young face. "They're stretched pretty thin as it is."

"We'll be back in time to join them before the attack." The Captain assured him.

"They've agreed to send two vessels." The communications officer called out from the damaged console. "WP23 and a Tholian cruiser are on their way. They should arrive within the hour."

"Excellent!" He smirked. "That should be enough while we're in here."

"The Corinthian is offering assistance!" The officer said in surprise.

"Ignore them!" The Captain sneered in disgust.

"Sir…" The young Lieutenant craned over the communications console excitedly. "They're offering medical supplies and food rations as well!"

"I said ignore them!" The Captain snapped, slamming his fist down onto the side of his chair.

"Yes sir." The officer hung his head disappointedly.

Captain Anok looked over to the young man with a deep frown. He turned around to the other expectant faces looking back hopefully at him. "Tell them to beam the supplies aboard." He acceded reluctantly to the relief of his crew.

"They have rejected our offer of assistance with repairs." Katherine shrugged without surprise. "They're transmitting co-ordinates for the supplies now."

"How bad is it?" Blake turned to the Commander.

"Bad!" She sighed. "We don't eat properly, rations are scarce. The replicators are busy generating spares to keep our ships together. We have a pool of resources for the ships too badly damaged to support themselves but it's never enough. The Starfleet ships that are left control the fleet and Klingons guard the perimeters. The commercial or inferior ships help each other as best they can."

Katherine snapped open her Tricorder and waved it over the length of the Commanders body. She glanced back objectionably and stepped away from the instrument in fear.

"Borderline malnutrition." Katherine began, shaking her head. "She has several minor infections and mild radiation poisoning too."

"I didn't give you permission to scan me!" She said angrily.

"Well you're on my ship now!" Blake told her firmly. "Replicating the supplies for the Interdictor is going to take us a while. In the mean time you're to get a meal and report to sick-bay for treatment."

"I am not leaving the bridge." The Commander narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"You have your orders." Blake smiled thinly at her. "Mr. Clogg, would you escort this woman to a replicator so she can follow them?"

"Repairs are complete!" Lieutenant Crowe reported from the helm control that had long since been adapted to cover a much wider mission parameter.

"I seriously doubt that!" Captain Anok grumbled to himself humourlessly.

"Well the nacelle is responding to the plasma feed and the weapons should be nominal in less than twenty minutes." The lieutenant corrected himself. "We can get under way at least."

"Well I'll settle for that!" The Captain grinned. "Instruct the Corinthian to follow us to the base."

"They're confirming out request and are under way with us." The communications officer reported.

"How much more can she take?" The Captain stood up and glanced around his tattered bridge. The ship had been in service for decades and decommissioned for decades longer than that before being pressed back into service for the resistance fleet. Her day had long since passed and yet here she was serving as the command vessel for the resistance fleet.

"Not much!" The Lieutenant agreed. "The structure is falling apart. She's not going to last more than a few more weeks at most. The integrity field generators are shot and backups are nearly fused. We'd be dead now if the Corinthian hadn't fired those torpedoes."

The Captain scowled at him angrily but said nothing. "A few weeks is more than enough." He told them all aloud. "If she lasts that long she'll outlive all of us!"

"Blake!" Haldo pointed to the viewer. The magnification was set to maximum and Haldo had managed to clear up some of the image. Swimming into view was the base of the resistance.

"Oh my God!" Blake stood up in surprise and stared at the familiar image that swam towards him through the murky nebula gasses.

"That's where we're going!" Commander Baker told him. The unmistakable image of the clawed pylon reached out through the charged clouds, grey and brown metals, smashed and damaged but still utterly Cardassian in design.

"That's Deep Space 9!" Doctor Jones confirmed from the scanners. "Or at least what's left of it. More than a third of the station is absent."

"I'm detecting residual sub-space field energy." Haldo hung his head. "This is no nebula, is it?"

"There are stories!" The Commander shrugged. "There was a conduit here, some kind of hole in space. When it was destroyed this nebula was all that was left."

"This is the wreckage of the Wormhole." Haldo shook his head scornfully. "That would mean that Bajor is gone too. There are no planets in here, only particles of rock. It must have been utterly wiped out."

"Most planets are!" She turned to the engineer with a shrug. "The matter can usually be recycled into Borg."

"Incoming message!" Katherine told him as she dragged her attention to the gloomy spectre of the remains of the station that somehow looked like dead bones being bleached by a desert sun.

"On screen." Blake ordered in dismay.

The image of Captain Anok appeared on the screen amidst the wreckage of his control room. "We've transmitted the co-ordinates." He began. "You are to beam to them immediately. I will meet you there."

"I'll bring two officers with me!" Blake told him, nodding in agreement.

"No!" He snapped angrily. "Just you!"

Blake glanced back up to the screen coldly to be met by the angry glare of his fellow Captain. "Alright." He agreed with a reserved nod.

"Commander Baker will remain in charge of your vessel." He told them. "You will remain in position."

"Sir…" The Commander stepped forward to protest.

"Captain Anok out." He snapped as the transmission abruptly ceased.

"I guess we play along!" Girling glared at the Commander as he drew his Phaser from the arm of the command chair.

"For what it's worth…" She began. "I have some doubts about the stories I heard. We were brought up hearing about the accursed Corinthian and the evil crew. I think most of it was probably an exaggeration."

"Thanks." He smirked sarcastically as he dropped the weapon to the holder on his belt. "Haldo, make sure I have a ship to come back to!"

"I always do." Haldo grinned back. "Have fun."

Captain Anok was already waiting as Blake materialised in the transporter beam. He glanced quickly around the station. The lighting was dim and the panelling was unfamiliar. Armoured plates had been welded to the floor and walls and new equipment ran the length of the corridor that looked makeshift and assembled poorly from salvaged parts.

"Hello again." The Captain scowled. "This is our base."

"DS9." Blake nodded, hardly listening. "I was here once. It was Christmas and my crew needed a break. We came here to unwind."

"You were here before?" The Captain raised an eyebrow.

"It was full of people, full of life." He agreed. "It was like you didn't have to go out and explore the galaxy, it all came here to visit you. There was everything here, every species."

"I hear it used to be a Federation outpost." The Captain nodded, trying to sound like he had no interest.

"It was…" He agreed simply.

"I'll take you to meet the being who has helped us!" The Captain gestured with an outstretched palm for Blake to head off. He complied and the two began on their way.

"I have questions." Blake told him conversationally as they stepped along the quiet corridor. "A lot of things don't make sense to us."

"Nothing makes sense." The Captain smirked to himself. "We fight every day in the hope of dying. It's not the world you left behind."

"Why do you think we are to blame for the Borg taking over the Alpha quadrant?" Blake asked.

"Because you are…" He told him coldly. "The Corinthian technology was integrated into every other new ship after your disappearance. The Corinthian was declared a success by the authorities and new vessels were built based upon her. Your ships was hailed as a hero and the influence was easily accepted into Federation technology. When Borg came the defences we'd designed turned against us. Our ships were easy to assimilate and our technology was useful to our enemies. Without realising it we had played into their hands. They took everything we had away from us and there was virtually nothing we could do to resist them."

"And that's my fault?" Blake shook his head.

"You're the Corinthian." The Captain scowled. "We have to blame someone."

"But we disappeared at the time when you brought us here." Blake began. "The man who designed the Corinthian was on board and the technology was kept secret so how did it get out into normal Starfleet channels?"
"Maybe you should ask who I'm taking you to see?" The Captain stopped in his tracks and turned to glower at Girling.

"What is it?" He asked finally, the man's eyes boring coldly into his.

"You'll find out!"

"I'm detecting something!" Haldo grinned and glanced toward Doctor Jones.

"Damn!" The Doctor grumbled as his upgraded sensors hadn't beaten Haldo's. "You win! Looks like I'll get the next coffee."

"What is it?" Katherine stood up and stepped to the rear of the bridge.

"A communication frequency. Someone is hailing with a long-range beam directed this way." Haldo announced, grinning still more at the Doctor.

"No!" The Commander frowned and rubbed the back of her neck in exasperation. "Borg could hear it."

"We're being hailed from your ship!" Katherine added, glancing to the Commander.

She pressed her communicator pad and turned away from the others. "Go ahead!" She said with a lowered voice.

"Can you tell if they're aiming the signal at us, the base or the Interdictor?" Katherine asked, leaning over the guard-rail.

"No he can't…" Jones smirked. "There's still too much interference."

"We have another problem!" Commander Baker interjected, rubbing her temples thoughtfully. "One of our escort ships is on fire!"

"On fire?" Haldo frowned and glanced a troubled expression to Katherine who returned his dubious glare.

"WP23." She nodded. "It's an unmanned vessel and there's nobody available to fix it. I'm going to have to go over myself and try to help out."

"I could go!" Haldo smirked. "It would be interesting to go aboard a vessel from my own future."

"It gets worse!" The Commander sighed wearily. "We need to send a ship to find out who's hailing us but the Tholians are refusing to abandon their post without express orders from the Captain!"

"Those troublesome Tholians!" Haldo grinned and drew his engineering away-pack from the console. "I can patch up the ship and take it to investigate this signal. I can make repairs en-route!"

"I'm not happy about this!" Katherine scowled at him. "I doubt the Captain would approve either."

"It is my observation that Captain Girling is happy to take any opportunity to banish Haldo from the bridge." Clogg observed stoically, earning himself an acrid glare from the lanky engineer.

"I don't know…" The Commander glanced from Katherine to Haldo thoughtfully, clearly troubled.

"How long have you been a Commander?" Katherine asked softly.

"Two weeks." She frowned deeply back to the Lieutenant. "Almost two weeks."

"I suppose it's redundant to ask if Captain Anok is really a Captain?" Clogg shook his head dubiously.

"He is." She turned and spat her answer defensively. "He's one of the last full officers of the Federation defence force."

"Alright…" Katherine took a deep breath and stepped away from the rail. "Haldo, beam yourself to the ship but I want reports every 10 minutes."

"I'm on my way!" He grinned happily.

Haldo materialised in a flickering beam of blue light. He glanced around the gloomy interior of the vessel with disappointment. The internal structure was a mess of exposed power conduits and brashly assembled panelling.

"What a piece of junk…" He smiled humourlessly to himself as he began searching for the source of the fire.

"What?" A voice called out from nowhere as the ambient lighting seemed to rise slightly. Haldo frowned curiously and glanced around with interest.

"Who said that?" He called out. "I'm not going to hurt you, I'm an engineer. I'm here to help."

"An engineer?" The voice called out with an edge of sarcasm. "Just what I need."

"Well this ship's on fire." Haldo shrugged as a lop-sided grin formed on his face. "You need something, this old bucket looks like it's held together with tape, dirt and a prayer!"

"Bucket?" It cried out in annoyance.

"Look, come out and help me." He suggested as he returned his attention to the Tricorder and began making his way to the fire.

"Nice to see you were fully briefed before you were sent over here." The voice seemed to sigh to itself.

"What does that mean?" He asked as he made his way along the poorly lit corridor towards the damaged area.

"Welcome to WP23." The voice said.

"Wait…" Haldo lowered the Tricorder to his side and grinned to himself. "You're telling me that you are the ship? I'm talking to a ship?"

"I'm talking to a creature that has two less chromosomes than a chimp, how ridiculous do you think I feel?" The ship retorted.

"We need to patch you up and get under way." Haldo explained with a wry grin. "There's a ship coming this way making enough noise to attract a lot of unwanted attention."

"I see it." She agreed. "I can make two thirds hyper-impulse while you patch me up."

"Hyper-impulse?" Haldo laughed out loud. "When the Borg attacked did they assimilate everyone with a sense of proportion first?"

"Hyper-impulse is a proven technology…" She scowled scornfully at him. "It accelerates me up to Warp five with three intermeshed Warp-fields that allow me to manoeuvre at Warp speed."

"Well make your best speed for now!" Haldo told her. "Do you know what's caused this fire?"

"Normally I could repair it myself." She told him with a note of regret. "I'm not quite the ship I used to be."

"None of us are getting any younger…" He quipped and then realised he was bantering with a ship and shook his head, laughing at himself as he did.

"My entire hull is latticed with a web of replicator strings." She began. "They are a series of micro projectors that can repair damage. There was a feedback in my web and I've lost a section. I can't regenerate without it."

"Well I can manually cut off the energy feed and stop the fire." Haldo suggested. "I can take some of these webs from another section and replace enough of it to help you repair the rest yourself?"

"I suppose…" The ship grumbled.

"Won't that work?" Haldo shrugged.

"It's not that…" She cringed. "I've just never had a crew before, I've never had another being tampering with my delicate and sophisticated circuitry since I became sentient."

"No offence intended…" He began with a smirk. "…But you look about as delicate and sophisticated as a sledge hammer to the back of the skull."

"No offence intended?" The ship grumbled at him. "What sort of thing would you say if you did want to hurt my feelings?"

"Ask Doctor Jones sometime." Haldo quipped as he knelt down at the damaged section of plating where a small plasma fire was glowing angrily behind the bulkhead wall. "What kind of ship are you anyway?"

"I'm WP23!" The ship replied simply. "Don't tell me you've not heard of me? I'm one of the most famous ships in the fleet."

"Well I'm not from around here." Haldo told her as the fire spluttered out.

"I was once a racer." She began proudly. "Long before I became sentient I was part of the Doranian endurance competitions and won five times in a row."

"I've heard of them!" Haldo grinned to himself, remembering the races all too well.

"Well I was originally a commercial freighter but my computer core and warp coils came from a captured Danube class Runabout." She told him. "Some group were spying on the races for some reason and I was captured and turned into a contestant five years later after an extensive refit."

"Really?" Haldo raised an eyebrow. "A captured Runabout? From Section 31?"

"Yeah!" She agreed happily. "Of course all this was long before I was sentient."

"Of course." He shrugged sarcastically as he inserted a silvery string of replicator modules into the damaged section.

"My mid section was replaced with a larger and permanent hull and I had a new warp-core fitted from an Oberth class." She continued. "A whole new arrangement of Warp-coils were fitted and load of new stuff. I didn't win the first time out but after a few more upgrades I was the best ship out there!"

Captain Blake Girling stepped into the cold, dark chamber and behind him the door slid shut hesitantly, pushed manually closed by Captain Anok.

"Hello…" He called out into the large chamber, his voice echoing around the endless metallic bay. Suddenly the darkness cracked open as the first tendrils of blue light felt their way through from nowhere spilling a sickly luminescence around the bay.

"Welcome Girling." A voice croaked out from the darkness as if bouncing around the far extremities of the room but coming from nowhere. The blue light grew as Girling watched, transfixed by the spectacle. The blue light pieced through the centre of the room and a gigantic blue sphere began to emanate into the universe from nowhere.

"You wanted to see me…" Blake gasped as familiarity began to gnaw at him of the alien looking thing before him.

"Oh yes." It agreed.

"What are you?" He shook his head in wonder.

"I am of the last of my kind." It spoke more evenly as the glowing blue orb throbbed away in front of him. "I am of the Prophets. Before that I am the Seer and once I am the Light and the Weaver of vision."

"I've heard of you." Girling admitted. "You inhabited the wormhole that was here."

"Borg came." It agreed, shimmering uneasily as it spoke.

"You had me brought here…" Blake told the alien. "But we've met before, haven't we?"

"Yes." It hissed, its words trailing off into silence.

"It was months ago." Blake began, his memory sharp. "We were attacked by an alien vessel and you intercepted it."

"Not I." It told him. "One of my kind is sent to fix time. There is no return for it."

"What is going on?" Blake shrugged. "Why did you bring the Corinthian here?"

"The Corinthian is vanishing from time." The orb told him. "We have a low powered temporal shifter at the disposal of the fleet, it is barely able to move objects as large as ships through time but we use it to remove you from history at the moment of the Necrodian attack."

"Why?" Blake insisted.

"We have to." It spoke coldly, its hiss rasping through the stale air. "Our shifter is temporally inclined here. It will only move things to and from this place."

"We have seen several more of the kind of ship that attacked us in this fleet." Blake said. "Why were we attacked in the past? Did you send a ship back to destroy us?"

"It is complicated." The orb explained. "You encounter a vessel, lost in time and space and you assist it to return home."

Blake nodded and allowed the alien to continue. "That vessel returns to the distant past and then arrives safely at it's home. With them a member of your crew who has a cybernetic implant and your technology that transfers brain patterns from one to another. Their own people have witnessed the technology aboard your ship and are now able to see their own feeble vessel in a new light. They embark on a quest to improve themselves which eventually is an obsession amongst their kind."

"What happened?" Blake frowned as a faint tendril of dread began to creep up his spine.

"They are Borg." It said simply. "Their path leads them here and you help to reveal it to them."

"No…" He gasped; stepping involuntarily back in horror as the full realisation hit him.

"The fleet does not know this." The orb told him, pulsating gently. "Borg technology exists in your vessel and that technology is the downfall of the Federation. They hate you for that and that alone. Revealing more to them would be superfluous."

"I helped to create the Borg?" Blake shook his head, refusing to accept what he was hearing.

"The vessel that attacks you is a Ches'kaa cruiser." The Oracle told him. "It attempts to prevent the return of the prototype vessel in the hope of averting their creation. When it fails one of my kind will remove the Ches'kaa to prevent further corruption to the time-line. Borg are inevitable in this galaxy. Eventually one race will grow in power as is the nature of the universe. Borg simply seek perfection, would it be worse if the Klingons, the Breen, the Tholians, the Romulans or the Ches'kaa became the dominant race? Humanoids are naturally combative and race to find technology to defend themselves. Borg is the final expression of that. Borg or something exactly like them exist in all other universes eventually where Humanoids hold sway."

"Things could be worse?" Blake gasped.

"There is hope." The Orb explained. "The fleet is attacking Borg. They may yet succeed."

"You're in good shape!" Haldo snapped shut his modified Tricorder and wiped his hands on the legs of his uniform as he stood up from the bulkhead wall. "Are we under way?"

"We're heading for the approaching ship!" She told him. "I can't make Transwarp in this nebula and don't want to exceed Warp 4 as the sensors are so poor in here. We could end up colliding with a lump of rock or another ship."

"How many ships are hiding in here?" Haldo stepped into the control room. It was narrow and functional with little thought given to aesthetics.

"Hardly any." She told him. "The Federation made their last stand here though. At the outskirts are the wreckage of the fleet and occasionally we encounter some debris in here."

"I see." Haldo frowned; the thought of a dead fleet floating around the nebula sent chills through him.

"We're not allowed to scavenge it for parts or recycle it for the replicators." She explained. "There is too much Borg technology in there. We could end up killing ourselves by happening across something we didn't understand. We had to use ancient vessels built before the Corinthian infested the fleet."

"How much did technology change in the last 200 years?" Haldo asked conversationally as he packed away his tools.

"From what you remember things changed a lot." She began earnestly. "A lot of our abilities were lost in the Borg invasions. I'm one of the few remaining vessels with any advanced technology."

"Really?" He added. "What are you capable of?"

"I can make Warp 14." She told him proudly. "Even the big refitted Galaxies could only make 13."

"Did they re-scale the Warp chart again?" He smirked; slamming shut his toolbox and stowing it under the controls.

"No!" She told him angrily, her voice snapping. "Anything after maximum achievable Warp speed of 9.999 is Transwarp 1. We just delve into a lower subspace domain. I can get to level 4 which makes me nearly twice as fast as your Corinthian."

"We didn't have a very good grasp of the Transwarp capabilities of my ship." Haldo admitted, turning a chair around to lower himself into. "It seems weird talking to a ship. You don't have a face. I feel rude speaking to you and not looking at you."

"Well just look where I always look!" She told him. "Out into space. Out into the endless realm of possibilities where anything can happen. Borg could die tomorrow or we could discover a new universe to live in. Out here anything can happen."

Haldo looked out into the glowing blue nebula at the heart of a new future he'd never imagined in his darkest nightmares. "I guess you're right." He said grimly. "Anything can happen."

Blake walked out of the bay, his face ashen white and his head lowered to the floor as his mind reeled from what he'd heard.

"Well?" The Captain asked, standing up suddenly as soon as he saw him. "What did it tell you?"

"You're attacking the Borg?" Blake turned his head slowly to face him. "You're taking the whole fleet to attack the Borg?"

"We intend to do that." He nodded with a cold note of certainty on his face, his expression one of determination.

"Have you ever seen the Borg central installation?" Blake shook his head sadly. "We calculate it's ten times the width of Earth's solar system. That's an unthinkable size, you wouldn't have a hope of surviving."

Captain Anok frowned at him. "We don't believe it's wider than two thousand kilometres!" He said softly, his mind rattling over calculations in his head. "Borg is widely spread out and highly decentralised."

"Then why attack a central core?" Blake frowned as still more parts of the puzzle refused to fit into place.

"Because it's the largest known concentration of Borg." He replied with a shrug. "We believe that destroying it could cause a feedback through it that could disable or destroy Borg everywhere."

"Simply because the Orb told you?" Blake turned fully to face him, his eyebrows pitching down as anger began to take hold of him. "It's suicide and you know it."

"Suicide?" Captain Anok glowered back at him. "Borg is made from a cluster of technology and biological components. In your day it was a collective of drones, people with a group intelligence who had been augmented with implants. Now there is only Borg. It harvests whatever parts are available to grow and sustain itself. It will tear our living bodies apart while we can do nothing but endure the agony. Then it will rip our brains from our skulls and slowly integrate them into itself. We will feel our consciousness being subverted while Borg fills our thoughts and robs us of our identity and then we will helplessly serve as part of it spending an eternity in pain while we become a part of our own demise."

"And you're willing to die rather than face the potential horror of living?" Blake gazed into the Captain's eyes, seeing something in him he'd missed before and finding a further measure of understanding of their plight.

"Wouldn't you?" He asked softly. "Maybe we have no choice… We have only old ships taken from museums and scrap-yards against an enemy that has destroyed the culture of the entire galaxy and we know that we have little hope. What we have is ourselves and every man, woman and entity in this fleet would happily die for a chance to strike back, even if it's a futile gesture. It's the only thing we have left."

"You've survived this long." Blake argued.

"We've survived but we'll never live again." He agreed darkly. "We make small attacks on the outskirts of Borg. We pick at its toes like insects fighting a lion. I doubt it even notices us any more."

Blake looked back at the bay, remembering his own part in the creation of the nightmare these people lived in.

"I'm going back to my ship." He said weakly. "I'm going back to the Corinthian. Apparently I have things to do."

"What the hell did they do to you?" Katherine gasped as the dishevelled form of Captain Girling materialised on the bridge. "You look terrible."

"I had some bad news!" He told her grimly as he made his way to the centre chair. "Very bad in fact."

"It shows." She frowned, stepping up to him and ignoring her post. "What's going on?"

"I wish I knew." He shook his head and sighed heavily to himself. "I wish I knew."

"Did you see the this entity?" Doctor Jones called out in interest. "What was it?"

"I saw it." Blake told him without looking back. "It's a Prophet. One of the entities that lived in the Bajoran Wormhole."

"What did it say to you?" Katherine asked softly. Blake looked up to the expectant faces around him waiting for his revelation. He shook his head wearily, closing his eyes as he struggled to marshal his thoughts.

"Borg technology was slowly integrated into the fleet after being copied from this ship." He began slowly. "It was meant to harden them against attack but when the Borg came it just made them easier to assimilate. Their ships were lost quickly before the Federation erected new electronic counter measures against them."

"The virus!" Baker agreed with a nod. "It's been refined but it's essentially the same program that Starfleet gave out in the Borg invasion. It was under development to be a shield for the entire quadrant against another invasion but there wasn't time to perfect it."

"It was too late by then." Blake continued. "The fleet made a last stand against them but by then they had already taken heavy losses. There was nothing they could do."

"And this is somehow our fault?" Clogg breathed out heavily as he spoke. "They blame us because our ship was the first with Borg technology?"

Blake turned to face him and nodded slowly in agreement. "Actually it gets rather worse than that."

Katherine frowned as she watched Blake's expression darkening, a foreboding look settled on his face and he seemed to sink visibly under the weight of the news.

"This is apparently not public knowledge…" He began, looking up at the guest officer. "Can I consider your lips sealed on anything you hear here?"

She nodded, her curiosity outweighing her duty to her original mandate.

"We encountered a vessel some months ago. A small Warp-powered ship that had got itself lost." He began, waiting for a sign that the crew remembered. Katherine adopted a quizzical expression as he continued. "We rescued that ship and it was sent home, we helped them fix their technology and one of our own crewmen went with them."

"So what?" Doctor Jones shrugged.

"So we sent them back thousands of years through time to their home." Blake told him. "They evolved over thousands of generations into the Borg once they'd tasted a glimpse of us. We showed them the path to follow."

"Oh… my… god…" Katherine staggered back in horror, her hand reflexively moving up to cover her mouth as her jaw gaped open in surprise. "One had brain damage. I linked their neural patterns together to stabilise him."

"And our crewman had a prosthetic arm!" Clogg added, his hand rubbing his temples in exasperation.

"What have we done?" Katherine shook her head, lost in contemplation.

"We've doomed the entire galaxy!" Blake told her with a note of certainty.

"You didn't know." Baker reminded them, her palms rising as she spoke. "It sounds like you were only trying to help!"

"That won't bring back the tens of thousands of civilisations, worlds and cultures that have been annihilated because of our interference." Blake replied coldly.

"What did the Orb want us to do?" Clogg stood up straight and shook off his feelings as he asked his question.

"Destroy the ship!" Blake told him. "We're to take the Corinthian to some quiet part of space and self-destruct her."

"You can't be serious." Katherine gasped. "Suicide?"

He nodded weakly. "It seems the thing to do. I'm going to have to cloak the ship and slink away. The Oracle gave me the co-ordinates to head to where we won't cause any more damage to anybody. There's a debris field in the outskirts of this nebula where Borg sensors can't penetrate and the Fleet won't go."

"Perhaps we would be more useful in attacking the Borg central complex?" Clogg suggested.

"That structure is over 10 times the width of Earth's solar system." Blake reminded him. "Any attack on that would be futile. Even the wreckage of the ship or the energy from the explosion could be useful to the Borg. It's best if we do this the way we're told to."

"I'm detecting a small ship on long range sensors." WP23 called out cheerfully. Haldo looked up with sudden interest from the control panels. They were metallic with small displays set into them, not at all like Starfleet of his era.

"How far?" He asked.

"Another half an hour at most." She told him.

"I was looking at your controls." Haldo began conversationally. "They seem quite out of date even for my time."

"They were replaced years ago." She began. "The touch pads were too easy to assimilate. Borg could send their nano-probes straight through them. My panels are armoured duralium, nothing much can get through there. Most of the technology in the fleet is ancient compared to what you're used to but it works and we don't have much choice but to use it!"

Haldo nodded to himself in agreement. "What about your name? WP23, was that your old racing designation?"

"No!" She replied with a cheeriness he hadn't expected. "It stands for Wolf-Pack 23."

"What's that then?" He smirked, realising that he'd found something she had been dying to tell him all about. "When Borg came to our borders Starfleet made a final stand at Bajor. They knew it stood little chance of stopping the invasion but it would at least slow them down while they evacuated Earth. Most of the ships were the modern types installed with the protective virus but they knew they'd all be easy to assimilate. By then Starfleet had a new plan, they took 39 ships from the museums that would be very difficult for Borg to take over and installed the artificial intelligence equipment. We were assigned to cover the evacuation and were named in honour of the Wolf 359 fleet that first engaged Borg."

Haldo shook his head, a deep frown settling on his forehead. "Evacuating Earth!" He said rhetorically to himself, deeply troubled at the very notion.

"My positronic computer installed the replicator web throughout the hull of the ship. I made the necessary modifications as I grew to sentience. I'm almost impossible to assimilate now!" She told him proudly.

"And you never had a crew?" He sat up in the slightly uncomfortable chair at the side of the cockpit. He'd ignored the two front seats for the more inviting post at the engineering station.

"Luckily not!" She almost seemed to be smiling when she spoke. "Apparently there's some spikes in my software so I have to obey the commands of a ranking officer if one comes aboard. I rather enjoy my independence though."

"Don't we all." He smiled back. "Now what about that ship?"

"Well it's small and is heading directly for us." She began. "I would say it's Antarian but it's a rather odd ship. I've never seen one quite like it."

"Can we hail them yet?" Haldo rubbed his chin while the recognition tables flashed on the displays around him, showing off her mental processes like he was inside her mind and viewing her thoughts.

Captain Girling stood at the front of the bridge. In the viewer the image of the USS Interdictor floated before them. Once a powerful and daunting vessel now she was reduced to little more then scrap, holding together against all reason by a determined crew.

"You're not going to tell them?" Katherine asked softly, gazing out at the dilapidated warship and the remains of DS9 behind her.

"No." He shook his head. "We'll cloak and slink away quietly, just as we were told to do."

"What about our guest?" She gestured to the Commander behind them.

"She's coming along for the ride." He told her. "I'll eject her out of range of the blast in an escape pod or give her a shuttle. I don't want her alerting the fleet. If they try and salvage this ship then the whole fleet could end up making themselves even easier to assimilate."

"So we're really doing this?" She sighed. "We're really going to die?"

"We don't have a choice." Blake stared fixedly at the monitor. "Because of our actions most of the galaxy has been wiped out. If we stay we're giving the Borg an opportunity to destroy everything that's left. This isn't suicide, it's a sacrifice."

"Is there nothing else we can do?" She shrugged. "Nothing we can do to help these people?"

"Yes." He nodded grimly. "Destroy the ship!"

"Clogg!" Blake turned away suddenly to his tactical officer. "Have you got Haldo on long range sensors?"

"Yes." He nodded. "Barely but I've got a lock."

"I want you to download our mission logs." Blake began as he turned back to Katherine. "Hail him. I need to send him a message."

"I doubt it will work through all this interference." Katherine shrugged apologetically. "We could fire a message drone towards him with a recording?"

"Make it so…" Blake nodded thoughtfully. "And then we have a job to do!"

"Hail them!" Haldo stood up and stepped up to the massive transparent aluminium window. They had dropped out of Warp to meet the other vessel. It was a small ship with space for no more than four people, bulbous and odd looking with protruding appendages from the rear.

"They're hailing us!" WP23 told him.

"Can you put them on a screen somewhere?" Haldo shrugged, glancing around the dizzying array or instruments and switches all around him. Behind the cockpit the bulkhead lit up and projected a hologram of the inside of the vessel. "How's that?" She asked sarcastically.

"I'm Haldo Compz." He began as he peered into the gloomy little craft. It was arranged with four seats spaciously laid out around a central control panel. The ship had only two occupants and a young woman stood up with a beaming smile.

"I know who you are!" She said. "We met about 80 years ago!"

"Allarn?" Haldo smirked, shaking his head as he remembered her familiar face.

"That's right…" She grinned excitedly. "It's good to see you!"

"80 years?" He shook his head curiously. "We've come forward through time about two centuries."

"I don't really bother with linear time any more." She scolded, waving her hand dismissively. "I gave up trying to follow it about a decade ago; give or take a few hundred years. Can you beam me over, we need to talk?"

"Can we?" Haldo turned back from the rear bulkhead.

"Can we?" The ship repeated sarcastically. "I can transport them with molecular conversion, I can phase-shift them through dimensions or match their quantum harmonics and warp them here through sub-space."

"We'll beam you straight over!" Haldo shook his head, smiling wryly at the ship's enthusiasm for showing off which fell only slightly short of his own.

"Just me!" She told him pointing to her travelling companion. "Mr. GI needs to stay here and watch my ship."

The Corinthian suddenly moved. She banked instantly to port as the cloaking field rose to cover her departure. As she melted away from view she changed course and heading, doubling back to avoid any incoming weapons.

"Well now we're committed." Doctor Jones said fearfully.

"Nobody fired." Clogg looked up from the tactical controls. "We completely caught them off-guard."

"I guess they weren't expecting us to run out on them." Blake sighed. "Course and heading is set?"

"It is!" Katherine confirmed. "We're on our way."

"The final voyage of the Corinthian!" Blake mused grimly to himself. "I never thought it would end like this."

"The Interdictor is hailing us!" Katherine said sadly. "They're not very happy over there!"

"I can hardly blame them for that!" Blake scowled at himself. "We're not too thrilled over here either."

"Maintain silence?" She asked knowingly.

Blake nodded back his reply. "As far as they know we're just vanishing again."

"What about me?" The Commander asked, leaning uneasily on the rail around the bridge.

"You can't ever tell your people about us!" Blake began with a heavy breath to clear his mind. "I'm planning on dropping you off with in a shuttle when we're safely out of detection range." He stared at her for a moment with a wry smile. "Unless you'd like to come along and die with us?"

She shook her head and lowered her eyes from his gaze.

"I've launched the message buoy." Katherine told him. "It's on its way to Haldo."

"Everything is on it?" Blake turned to her as he spoke. He already knew it was and needn't have asked.

"Everything." She agreed.

"I'll be in my ready-room." Blake said finally with a sigh.

"Damn them!" Captain Anok cried out, slamming his fist down hard on the edge of his chair.

"I can't detect anything!" The officer called out. "The Corinthian has completely vanished!"

"He's cloaked it." The Captain scowled into the viewer. The blue haze of the nebula glowed back at him and in its depths lurked the ship he despised so intently.

"Sir!" The officer turned back to the Captain. "The fleet?"

"Set course." He agreed, lifting himself from his chair to pace angrily about the bridge. "Let the Corinthian rot in here. We don't have time to search for them."

"They're massing at the rendezvous co-ordinates." The young man tapped a few buttons and a computer generated grid appeared on the viewer. "They're expecting us, sir."

"Full impulse until we leave the nebula." He instructed. "Then best Warp factor we can manage. We have a war to fight!"

"Welcome aboard!" Haldo raised his hand to greet Allarn as she materialised in a flash aboard the ship.

"Thanks!" She shook his hand warmly. "I was hoping to find you. I've come a long way."

"I don't understand?" Haldo sat at his chosen position at the engineering panel and gestured to another chair for her to sit herself in. She duly complied before continuing.

"I was travelling about a hundred years from now and detected a trans-temporal distortion wave." She began matter-of-factly. "In case you don't know what that is it's what happens when a change in the past occurs and effects the present. I can detect those changes and my ship is shielded against them so I watched what was happening as they're usually quite interesting. I watched one once and before that Humans only had four fingers."

"Time changed?" Haldo shook his head and frowned curiously.

"It changed a lot!" She agreed with a knowing smile. "None of this had actually happened where I was. Borg were still largely confined to the Delta quadrant and hadn't expended for nearly a century. The Alpha and Beta quadrant races had developed a sub-space field that caused a resonance to build up against their nano-probes and destroy their programming. Any Borg encountering the field simply ceased to function, they couldn't get close again after that."

"Really?" Haldo's frown deepened.

"Yes!" She agreed happily. "My husband is 30 million years in the future at the moment and he hadn't heard anything about this change either."

"30 million years?" Haldo gasped in surprise. "What's he doing there?"

"Decorating." She shrugged. "We bought a holiday home there. It's nice and quiet, the nearest corporal neighbours are 567 thousand light years away."

Haldo remained silent. His head slowly traced back and forth while he tried to decide if she was playing games with him or not.

"Anyway…" She continued. "I re-calibrated my ship to surf the temporal distortion back to the source and it brought me here."

"But this is all natural!" Haldo rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "The only time travel incident was the Corinthian being brought here but she was meant to vanish at that moment anyway. It was recorded in history."

"Of course it was!" She grinned and began tapping her foot as she waited with a gloating expression of superiority.

"…But of course if history changed then we'd only experience the new timeline." Haldo sighed at his own stupidity.

"Take your time!" She smirked.

"So bringing the Corinthian forwards through time has actually caused this?" Haldo guessed. "The Borg invasion, the destruction of the Federation? This was all caused by one ship travelling through time?"

"No!" She shook her head in exasperation. "Sometimes I forget how complicated this all is to a linear species not used to time travel."

Haldo glowered at her in annoyance while he waited for her to continue.

"It wasn't just cause and effect." She began. "The Corinthian was an important part of the equation but not the only part!"

"So what the hell is going on?" Haldo cried out.

Captain Girling sat on the edge of his desk. He held a Padd in his hand and displayed the schematic of his ship. He gazed at her unusual lines. She was indeed a unique vessel and had become a very important part of him.

A chime at the door roused his mind back to reality.

"Enter!" He called out, discarding the Padd to the stark metallic desk as he stood up.

The door slid open with a characteristic hiss as Katherine walked in.

"Hi." He nodded to her, gesturing to a chair for her to sit down. "Problem?"

"Problem?" She smirked. "We're all going to be dead in about an hour. Where would you like me to start?"

"Did you add a note?" Blake asked, lowering himself with a sigh to the seat behind the counter as two glasses materialised between them.

"To the message buoy?" She shrugged. "No. I have nobody left to say anything to. Everyone I care about is already here. 13 hours of mission logs will say anything we need to say to everyone else."

"I didn't leave a note either." He agreed, taking the glass from the desk. "Scotch!" He announced. "To Haldo!"

"To Haldo." She agreed, sipping at the fiery brown liquor. Her face contorted slightly as the flavour lit up her palette. "You know who did send a personal message?" Blake shook his head. "Doctor Jones!" She smiled. "He sent a short note to Haldo. I didn't read it but I think it shows that those two were closer than either of them would like to admit."

"As if we didn't know that already!" Blake smirked.

"I guess we were all closer than we'd admit to." She ventured, toying absently with her glass.

"We certainly were." He nodded in agreement.

"I have something I'd like to say…" She took a deep breath as she began. Blake looked up, waiting for her to continue. "It looks like we're all going to die and I wouldn't want to go without telling you something that's been on my mind for a long time."

"Go on…" Blake encouraged her.

"Clogg to Captain Girling." The Com badge chirped suddenly, shattering the moment.

"Girling here." He sighed to himself. "Can this wait?"

"I think you need to see this!" Clogg insisted.

"On my way…" He said finally. Blake looked up to Katherine who appeared disappointed. "Duty calls." She smiled weakly.

Haldo scanned through Allarn's notes from her ship's computer with a raised eyebrow. "This is incredibly complicated." He said finally, giving up on discerning what he was looking for.

"There's a lot of history there." She agreed. "Most of it has never happened now."

"So what was meant to happen?" He shrugged. "What would have happened if we'd never been brought to the future?"

"I don't really know." She admitted. "I wasn't there. I do know that the Necrodians were not what you thought they were. Where I've come from they ended up being granted refugee status by the Federation."

"What?" Haldo waved his hand at the ridiculous suggestion. "They attacked us the moment they arrived in our space."

"I don't have all the answers!" She rubbed her temples. "All I do know is that a divergence was caused when the Corinthian was brought here but reversing it won't be enough to fix the damage."

"So you're arguing that the Corinthian was not the cause of the failure of Starfleet's defences?" WP23 sneered at the suggestion.

"Yes!" She agreed. She looked back at Haldo, blinking widely. "Who said that?"

"The ship." Haldo grinned. "Haven't you ever been aboard a talking ship before?"

"Of course." Allarn smirked. "My second husband was a talking ship but his family didn't think I was good enough for him."

"They make a good point!" WP23 goaded.

"Ok…" Haldo held up Allarn's reference files. "We have answers but no idea what questions to ask!"

"We have 20 trillion compressed isoquads of raw data to sift through." She agreed. "We need to find the Corinthian and start narrowing down the search parameters."

"We need to join the fleet!" WP23 protested. "We have a job to do!"

"Which is?" Haldo shrugged.

"We're amassing the fleet for one big push against the central Borg complex." She told him. "It's our last chance and I'm not going to be sat here listening to you two flirting when there's work to be done."

"So you actually married a talking ship?" Haldo quipped to Allarn.

She nodded her head and took a deep breath. "If this ship won't help us then we'll take mine." She told Haldo.

"We might have better luck if you'd help us." Haldo told WP23, attempting to flatter her ego. "You're an impressive ship."

"No." She said firmly.

"If you help us then none of this might ever have happened." Allarn told her. "None of this was meant to. Where I've come from Borg were no threat to the Alpha quadrant for at least another century after this."

"So then I'd never exist?" WP23 said stoically. "Enticing options so far."

"I could give you our temporal shielding." Allarn offered. "It would protect you from local changes in the timeline the same way my ship is shielded."

"I still have work to do." She grumbled objectionably.

"If you join us then you'd be saving the lives of everyone in the fleet as well as those of all the people who died in the invasion." Haldo told her. "Wasn't your mission to protect the lives of the inhabitants of Earth? Well here's your chance to do it."

"I was definitely happier without a crew!" She told them in meek irritation. "Give me the temporal shields and let's get on with this."

"Oh my god…" Blake muttered to himself as the image on the viewer filled his mind. He was transported back to his day aboard the Mercy fleet Starship, Mirage. They had dropped out of Warp at Wolf 359 and seen the devastation the Borg had left in their wake. Now, over two centuries later he was seeing the same thing again. Beyond the ship was the graveyard of dozens of broken vessels. The ships sent to slow down the invasion had been torn apart, scattered out before the Corinthian as she skulked respectfully through the silent wrecks.

"28 vessels." Doctor Jones said softly. "No escape pods, no shuttles."

"They couldn't have stood a chance." Katherine agreed, her eyes flicking from one smashed hulk to the next.

"Only three of the ships out there are on our recognition tables." Clogg added, making his usual and highly efficient tactical review. "There's the saucer of a Galaxy class and the remains of an Akira and Sovereign.

"Everything else is new?" Blake frowned at the vessels as they slowly picked their way through the debris. His eyes locked onto a gigantic ship ahead of them. It had an unusual configuration with a long domed upper hull and massive round Bussard collectors either side of an engineering deck. "These ships look vaguely familiar!" He ventured, turning to the officers around him.

"They look like the Apex!" Katherine agreed. "The future of Starfleet design, wasn't it?"

"So the Apex was put into mass production after all?" Blake dug his balled fist into his sides as he thought to himself.

"Blake!" Doctor Jones said in surprise. "I've found something very odd about those ships!"

"I'm listening…" He turned to the errant scientist.

"I couldn't get very good scans of the Apex because her shields and stealth fields were up but these ships I can scan easily." The Doctor began excitedly. "I'm seeing some very odd things."

"Me too." Clogg agreed. "The hulls do indeed have a Borg style signature in the structure of their particles. The Apex may have had it too."

"It's not just that though" .The Doctor rubbed his chin thoughtfully and his eyes lit up with inspiration. "I know what was special about the Apex!" He said finally with a bright grin.

"Go on…" Blake told him, the others in expectant silence.

"There's an unusual residual charge on the hull particles." He explained. "There's only one thing that could explain it. They've been replicated."

"Well most hull material is replicated." Blake shrugged. "What's so special about this?"

"Not the material." The Doctor enthused. "To see this kind of effect the entire ships must have been replicated."

"That's impossible." Clogg sneered at him. "You can't replicate a whole ship."

"Wait!" Blake raised a finger to the security officer. "The Apex was built in two weeks. It was a small, simplified design that they needed to test because there was something radically odd about it."

"And they were transporting junk in the cargo ship!" Katherine added. "Spare parts to be loaded into a replicator matrix."

"It would explain a lot!" Blake nodded his head. "Good work, Doctor."

"So what does this mean?" Clogg glowered at the wreckage out in space beyond them. "We can replicate an entire shuttle. Did they take that ability from the Corinthian somehow?"

"I don't see how they could…" Blake said thoughtfully. "We were docked at Earth once but we maintained the highest security. Nobody unauthorised came near this ship. We also left Haldo aboard which is like having a pack of rabid dogs guarding the engine room."

"Well the hulls show Borg technology signatures." The Doctor began, relishing his position in Haldo's absence. "Somebody must have got the technology from us somehow. They certainly didn't get it from the base the Corinthian was built at, that was completely destroyed."

"So what does this mean?" Clogg said, eager to cut through the supposition and deal with only facts.

"I don't know." Blake admitted. "But it doesn't change anything either. We still need to scuttle the ship."

WP23 surrounded herself with the trans-temporal field. With it in place any changes to history would have no effect on her as she was slightly phased out of her normal place in the temporal fabric of the universe.

"So what happened to the Necrodians?" Haldo said, pacing the length of the narrow control room.

"After the encounter with them Starfleet met four more of their city-ships." WP23 began. "The first ship was utterly destroyed. After the Corinthian vanished it was believed she had been hit with a weapon. The fleet changed their tactics with the intention of annihilating the vessel before it was able to use it again. The other four were attacked on sight. One more was destroyed, the others fled into deep space and were never heard from again until we assembled the fleet."

"So where does that leave us?" Allarn asked with a sigh. "Before the changes the Necrodians were allowed to inhabit a world near the Federation/Romulan border where everyone could keep an eye on them."

"So if the Corinthian hadn't vanished then the Necrodian vessel would have been brought to a surrender and not destroyed?" Haldo suggested.

"Could be." Allarn agreed. "I don't have good records of that time. I can't be sure."

"Well they weren't meant to be destroyed." Haldo said stubbornly, growing impatient. "So why were they?"

"You mean that someone came up with the idea of destroying the Necrodians to change history?" She rubbed her chin and narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "Interesting idea but hardly Borg's style."

"What about Cardassian?" WP23 suggested. "They're aligned with Borg. They're a scheming group of dangerous deviants…"

"How about it?" Haldo looked at the time-surfing alien with a raised eyebrow. "If Borg wanted to take over the galaxy would they come up with this to change time?"

"No." She shook her head. "Something is still missing. Borg couldn't have known about the changes to the timeline unless they'd already seen them in the future and they had no technology to allow them to do it."

Haldo hung his head and sighed wearily.

"This is all too complex!" Allarn groaned. "Somebody that can see time in a non-linear way must have orchestrated this. Borg just couldn't have come up with a plan this sophisticated two centuries ago. It doesn't make sense."

"Haldo!" WP23 called out. "I'm detecting something."

"What?" He gasped. "A ship?"

"No." She said curiously. "Something very small but it's heading this way and emitting an intermittent signal."

"I'm detecting something." Doctor Jones frowned.

"Confirmed." Clogg agreed. "We're being followed by a cloaked vessel."

"I've been watching the particle wake." The Doctor explained. "Nobody off this bridge knows we've learnt to use it as a means of detecting cloaked vehicles so I've been able to spot them."

"Anybody in your fleet capable of cloaking themselves?" Blake turned to their guest officer.

"No!" She shook her head enthusiastically. "Klingon and Romulan type cloaks are not much use against Borg so we stopped using them altogether to conserve power."

"Then who?" Blake sneered back at the viewer as the image flashed to the rear of the ship.

"If I had to guess…" Clogg smiled to the others. "It matches the configuration of the Cardassian ship."

"What a surprise." Blake smiled. He turned from the viewers to the crew. "I have to die when the ship is destroyed." He began. "I have to remove all Borg technology and my body is full of it. I was planning to let everyone else go in a shuttle if they would chose to live here."

"Go where?" Doctor Jones shrugged.

"Well the ship is going to be destroyed but I don't see a significant difference in self destructing her or being destroyed in a fight with a Cardassian ship." Blake smiled and turned back to the viewer.

"I'd never have left." Katherine said firmly.

"I'd rather die here than take my chances out there." Jones agreed with a shudder. "At least I'd die with my friends.

"You don't even need to ask!" Clogg said simply.

"Shields up!" Blake commanded. "Red alert. Lock weapons!"

"A message buoy." Haldo frowned. "It's from the Corinthian."

"What's on it?" Allarn asked with interest as Haldo waved his Tricorder around the cylindrical object they'd beamed aboard.

"About 43 hours of logs and a holographic data-stream." He said, snapping his instrument shut. "WP23, can you play the message?"

"Can I play the message?" She said sarcastically as the holographic image flashed onto the rear bulkhead.

Suddenly the bridge of the Corinthian appeared with Captain Girling stood before the centre chair. "Hello Haldo!" He said with a shrug. "We've sent you the last logs of the Corinthian from the moment we were sent after the Apex until now. We've been given instructions by the being assisting the fleet. It seems we were largely responsible for the existence of the Borg and have no choice but to scuttle the ship. We need to destroy her so that no Borg technology exists that might further damage the survivors of the Borg invasion." Blake paused for a moment as he gathered his thoughts. "I'm ordering you not to get involved any further with the Corinthian. I want you to take our records and keep them so that one day we can show that no matter how things worked out we always intended to do the right thing. The message contains records of the 13 hours we've been here and a further copy of all data recorded from the point we were assigned to track the Apex."

"Oh no…" Haldo sighed weakly. "They're going to destroy the ship!"

"We might still have time!" Allarn said with a strong sense of urgency. "We need to find them and fast!"

The binnacle at the base of the ship's nose erupted in fire as a full spread of quantum torpedoes blasted out. The burning white weapons arced to the rear of the ship in a tight turn and tore through space at their target.

"Movement!" Clogg grinned as the torpedoes began erupting over the target area. "We caught them off guard though."

"Ten direct hits!" Doctor Jones cried out triumphantly. "A ship is uncloaking."

"Weapons lock…" Katherine warned. "I'm detecting their sensors."

The Cardassian vessel appeared in space, her shields all but crippled and her systems damaged. Carbon scoring was visible over the damaged hull and the glowing engine radiators stuttered sporadically.

"Lock the Phaser cannon!" Blake ordered.

"No!" The Commander insisted.

"It's a little late to think about integrating it into an attack on the Borg." Blake told her with a weak smile. The ship rocked slightly as a low-energy weapons blast cut into her shields.

"No damage." Clogg frowned. "We must have really hurt them, that blast wouldn't have worried a shuttle."

"It looks like all our old tricks are new again!" Blake smirked. "Can you disable them with a photon torpedo?"

"I think I could disable them with a hand-Phaser." Clogg smiled.

"Why were they following us?" Katherine stood up from communications controls.

"What?" Blake turned to her in surprise.

"Why follow us? Why not attack?" She shrugged.

"We do appear to outgun them." Clogg suggested. "Cardassians have never provoked anyone unless very certain of a victory."

"But why watch us?" Katherine raised her palms upwards. "Why keep an eye on us? How did they even know we were here?"

"Borg sensors are totally useless in here." The Commander shrugged.

"They couldn't." Blake agreed, casting a worried glance at the viewer where the damaged ship hung in space. "Nobody knew we were here. Nobody except the Prophet that sent us."

"Scan that ship!" Blake said to the Doctor who began at once probing the alien vessel with the Corinthian's potent sensors.

"What am I looking for?" He frowned. "Wait!" He said suddenly, interrupting himself. "I think I found it."

"What?" Blake grinned knowingly as he stared at the enemy ship. "Let me guess… Virtually identical to our own ship?"

"What does this mean?" The Doctor frowned.

"It means something much bigger is going on here than we thought." Blake told him.

"They're regenerating." Clogg warned. "They're going to be a threat again soon."

"No they're not!" Blake told him angrily. "Disable them with torpedoes."

The weapons raced to their target, erupting mercilessly over the ship's hull. The flickering lights died out altogether and the ship drifted lifelessly in space.

"How many Cardassians are likely to be aboard?" Blake turned to the Commander.

"I don't know." She shrugged. "Maybe 12, possibly more. You're not thinking about going over there?"

"I am!" He told her firmly. "A lot of answers could be over there on that ship!"

"I could try to download their logs!" Jones suggested as he attempted to establish a link to their systems.

"They don't have logs." Commander Baker said. "Everything is sent directly to Borg. Nothing is stored on the ship itself."

"Borg drones have a storage chip of every order they received from the collective." Clogg rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Perhaps we could bring one here and extract it?"

"There no longer is a collective." Baker said, shaking her head.

"Well then it's a good job we're not talking about Borg." Blake reminded them. "The Cardassians might still have that technology."

"You can't go over there!" The Commander insisted.

"Continue scans." Blake ordered. He turned to look at her. "If we don't find anything then I'll have no other choice."

"Necrodians!" Haldo announced in triumph as he found some records of them in Allarn's files.

"What does it say?" She edged towards him with interest, craning her neck to read over his shoulder.

"Oh dear!" Haldo said as his face dropped. "This isn't good at all!"

"What?" WP23 called out. "Download the files to me so I can see them too!"

"They weren't our enemy…" Haldo looked up from the Padd, his eyes closing reflexively as his heart sunk. "They came to the Alpha quadrant looking for sanctuary from their enemy."

"Who was their enemy?" Allarn grabbed the Padd from him and began reading the files for herself. "They were destroyed, their race had been all but wiped out. They created a virus capable of being encoded with their genetic material and intelligence."

"So they weren't a race of beings?" WP23 asked curiously. "They were a virus by the time they met the Federation?"

"The virus was a liquid capable of animating dead tissue." Haldo told her softly. "The virus had their entire culture and intelligence encoded into it as memories. It was a single entity telepathically connected to all other traces of the virus. Each "Necrodian" was a part of the virus like a gigantic organic body."

"Clever!" Allarn agreed with a sigh. "So what's the problem with that?"

"Read on…" Haldo told her, hanging his head slightly.

"Ok…" She agreed, looking at him with a measure of concern in her expression. "What exactly am I looking for?"

"Their enemy!" Haldo told her. "It kind of makes all the pieces fit together."

"Oh my god!" She gasped. "If that is true then it means…"

"I know what it means!" Haldo told her, cutting off her speech. "That's the difference. That's what the change was that set the difference between the normal timeline you were in and this one that has been altered by time-travel."

"This wouldn't work unless…" She cut herself off again as realisation dawned on her. "I don't believe this."

"What?" WP23 cried out, infuriated by her non-inclusion.

"Definitely?" Blake asked, staring motionlessly out into space through the viewer. The Cardassian ship drifted aimlessly before them and beyond that the wreckage of the fleet, destroyed by their hopeless encounter with the Borg fleet.

"Yes!" Doctor Jones nodded in agreement. "I'm certain. I've completed a very detailed scan and the technology is virtually identical. There's no way that the Corinthian was ever based on pure Borg technology."

"I just don't believe this!" Clogg muttered angrily, rubbing his temples. "How could this happen?"

"The Borg scout." Ensign Rogers surmised. "It was encountered by the medical fleet sent to look for survivors after the Wolf 359 invasion. We assumed that it was Borg. It looked Borg, it had Borg technology in it and had capabilities we'd never seen beyond them."

"But then we'd never seen a Cardassian augmented with Borg technology back then." Blake said scornfully.

"So the scout was especially built to give to us?" Jones shook his head. "Why would these Borg and Cardassian allies want to help us?"

Blake pointed out to the destroyed fleet. "Because of that!" He told them. "They wanted to make us easier to assimilate by making our technology more like theirs."

"They deliberately built a scout ship for us?" Clogg shook his head.

"I doubt that." Blake said thoughtfully. "I imagine it was an old ship that they gave to the Cardassians to help them increase their technology. The idea probably occurred to them that if using the scout would make them more like the Borg then maybe they should give the same type of ship to us."

"But we didn't use it to make us more like them!" Jones insisted forcefully. "The Corinthian never had her technology studied. The captured equipment stayed aboard her, all the Scarabs were destroyed, nothing was left!"

"The derelict vessel!" Katherine said suddenly as realisation dawned.

Blake turned to her with interest as another piece of the puzzle slotted into place. "We found a gigantic ancient Borg ship that Section 31 had found first!" Katherine reminded them.

"It was nothing more than a giant replicator." Doctor Jones groaned. "The Pulsar had already transmitted their findings back before we arrived."

"It was an ancient vessel." Clogg raised an eyebrow thoughtfully. "Maybe Section 31 used the technology to evolve the Apex?"

"It makes sense." Blake frowned.

"So the Corinthian was never directly responsible for any of this?" Clogg suggested hopefully. "If the Pulsar took the technology and sent it back to Section 31 then the Apex would have happened anyway, even if the Corinthian had never existed."

"And the Prophet would have known that!" Blake added as he turned away from the monitor.

"Where could Blake have gone?" Haldo stood up and banged his fist down hard onto the console. "We have to find him and fast!"

"He could have gone anywhere to self-destruct the ship." Allarn raised her eyebrow thoughtfully with a shrug.

"Well presumably he'd have wanted to stay out of the way and not blow up anything else along with him?" WP23 suggested. "There really aren't many places left he could do that!"

"What do you mean?" Haldo snapped around suddenly."

"Borg is everywhere." She told him. "If he started out from the base then there would only have really been the wasteland. It's high in radiation from the collapse of the wormhole, Borg can't see into it but we don't go there because it's like an old graveyard of crippled ships."

"Set course!" Haldo instructed. "Go to maximum warp!"

"In open space I can make Warp 14. We can be there in three minutes." WP23 announced somewhat smugly.

"Fast little ship!" Allarn commented dryly.

"Little?" She grumbled.

"The fleet were making one last final attack on the Borg central base!" Clogg said as the crew huddled around the briefing table at the rear of the Corinthian's bridge. He pointed to a holographic display floating above the smooth black surface. "We can safely assume that it's also a trap!"

"The fleet can't possibly be a threat to an installation that's ten times the width of our solar system." Katherine said with a shake of the head. "Nothing could."

"They're not going there to destroy the installation." Blake replied with an angry sigh. "They're going there to be destroyed. This is a quick and easy way to finish off the last of the resistance."

"But why?" Katherine leant back to the bulkhead wall in exasperation. "The fleet is finished. It's no threat to the Borg."

"They're tying up loose ends." Clogg said thoughtfully. "They're taking us out of the equation and destroying the last few ships that resist them. If I had to guess I'd say they we're about to do something big!"

"Like what?" Doctor Jones rubbed his temples.

"From a tactical standpoint it sounds to me like they've finished their preparations and are now going ahead with something." Clogg shrugged.

"Wait!" Blake said suddenly, his eye widening in surprise.

"What?" Katherine sprung back to his side. "What's happening?"

"Haldo." Blake frowned. "He's hailing us."

"On screen!" Captain Girling instructed as the crew rushed to their stations around the bridge. Haldo's face appeared in the centre viewer instantly and he sighed in obvious relief.

"We've found you!" He smiled. "We can't see you. Are you cloaked?"

"I thought I gave you your orders." Blake smiled thinly his reply.

"I'm not Starfleet." Haldo reminded him. "I'm just your friend, Blake. You can ask but you can't tell me what to do."

"Don't I know it." The Captain agreed with a nod.

"I have some important things to tell you!" Haldo insisted. "Please halt the countdown on the self-destruct until I can explain."

"Well…" Blake smiled at his engineer. "I haven't actually begun the countdown just yet."

"Great!" Haldo grinned. "I've found some things out about the Necrodians that you really need to hear!"

Blake nodded for him to continue. "They were running from their old enemy." Haldo began excitedly. "Time has been changed radically from what was meant to happen. The Necrodians were a dying race and turned their memories into an infectious virus that was only meant to attack dead tissue. It was their hope that something of their culture and technology would survive when everything else was dead. It mutated over a couple of centuries to be able to kill living tissue as it was designed to be able to adapt and survive."

"Fascinating." Blake said sarcastically. "And this is meant to not make me want to blow myself up?"

"But something really important happened!" Haldo smirked knowingly. "The enemy that had slaughtered their race was the Borg!" Haldo waited for a moment while the revelation dawned on the crew before proceeding. "They knew that an Alpha quadrant species were aligned with the Borg but didn't know it was the Cardassians. When they detected the Corinthian they presumed it was the Federation that was working with their enemy and attempted to withdraw and protect themselves. After the fight with the Resilient they tried to find evidence of the Borg, that was why they were locked in a search pattern!"

"My god!" Doctor Jones gasped. "That all makes a lot of sense."

"When the Corinthian vanished the fleet assumed we were destroyed by a weapon." Haldo told them. "They destroyed the Necrodian city-ship but in the normal time-line the Corinthian helped to disable the ship and all this was discovered. In the normal time line the fight was seen as a mistake and the Necrodians were granted asylum and set up a colony."

Blake stepped backward reflexively and breathed out while his mind raced. "I can hardly believe it." He said weakly.

"Necrodian technology helped the Federation to strengthen the borders. They developed a sub-space field that disrupted Borg nano-probes and caused them to be disabled instantly whenever they tried to enter our space." Haldo told them with increasing excitement. "The Borg never attacked again."

"So they changed history." Katherine shook her head. "I can't believe such a small thing can make such a big difference to history."

"And only one thing could have known." Blake said. "Only one being could have seen through time in a non-linear way and planned all this with such intricacy."

"A Prophet!" Haldo smiled proudly. "The Borg probably assimilated at least one of the Wormhole aliens. They used that ability to plot the take-over of the entire galaxy. We think they're planning to move Borg back through time to assimilate the past until they haven't just assimilated space but all of time as well."

"But what can we do?" Blake shrugged. "We can't travel back through time to put things right. We're trapped here and the fleet are about to attack the central core. It's a trap, they'll all be destroyed."

"I have someone here who might have a few ideas about that!" Haldo raised his palm to gesture to the other passenger. Allarn stepped into view and waved happily to the crew.

"Great!" Blake smiled half-heartedly. "Every sentient being in the galaxy has been wiped out and somehow you managed to survive."

"I thought you'd be pleased to see me!" She quipped sarcastically. "If you're not now then you certainly will be when I tell you what I have in mind."

"I need to beam her over." Haldo interjected. "She thinks she has a plan."

"A plan to change history?" Blake narrowed his eyes.

"I have a theory." She nodded.

"I'm listening." Blake folded his arms over his chest.

"The central core is so large that the gravitational effect is pulling all the stars in this region about?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. Blake nodded in agreement. "I think that's impossible." She grinned.

"End recording!" Haldo said as he slumped back in the chair. "How long now?"

"Not long at all." She said happily. "We'll engage the fleet in about seven minutes. The Corinthian should be there by then too."

"Great!" Haldo shuddered. "And then it's all over for us."

"It certainly looks that way!" WP23 agreed. "I noticed you forgot to mention that we were ordered to take the entire message logs out of here and keep them safe for whoever might read them in the future."

"Orders." Haldo rolled his eyes.

"We're meant to drop off the record logs into space for future generations, not chase the Corinthian while she makes a suicide run."

"You don't seem too concerned about our imminent death." Haldo said conversationally as the stars streaked soundlessly by.

"I'm several centuries old." She began with a note of amusement. "I'm old and tired. My hyper-impulse module is virtually worn out, my secondary computer core is so old it misfires so that some days I can't remember where I am and my hull is holding together with force fields where the metal is so corroded it's flaking off. I'll welcome the end when it comes."

"I won't." Haldo admitted. "My kind was halfway across the galaxy and I wanted to find them one day. I hoped I'd live long enough to watch some of my friends die."

"I'm sure you'll hold out another seven minutes!" She told him dryly.

"I can't ask any of you to come along with me!" Blake began from the front of the bridge. "I have to do this, none of you have to join me."

"Finished!" Allarn called out happily from Haldo's engineering console. "I've added the temporal shielding matrix to your energy emitters. It's the same thing that temporal investigation ships have to protect them from changes in the time-line."

"Will it work?" Clogg asked dryly.

"The chances of us finding out are virtually non-existent." She admitted. "To give us a better chance I've upgraded every system as best I can and set the frequency from Blake's personal Phaser into the cannon. Borg will have never seen either so we'll have a chance for a few shots if we need them."

"A few shots?" Blake repeated her words curiously. "Is that it?"

"If we're lucky!" She agreed with a smile. "I do tend to be."

"I'm ready here too." Doctor Jones added. "I've flooded every compartment with deuterium and anti-matter. It'll certainly make a big bang but even a huge explosion will barely make a dent on the Borg here."

"Trust me!" Allarn told him. "I know what I'm doing."

"You'd better!" Clogg told her accusingly.

"We'll be there in a few minutes." Blake called out. "Now is the time for all of you to decide what you want to do."

Commander Baker stepped forward to the Captain's side. "This was always my fight." She insisted. "If you think I'll let you drop me off in a shuttle while everyone I know goes to make a final stand against Borg then you don't know me at all."

"It's been a pleasure to serve on this ship." Clogg added, not looking up from his console. "I'd rather die here than live anywhere else without you all."

"I built this ship!" Jones said softly. "I did it to better mankind but for a while I saw a future that could have easily been caused by my own short-sightedness. My place is here, putting right what almost went wrong!"

Katherine smiled warmly up at him from the communications console. "You will insult me if you even ask!" She told him.

"Red alert." He said, turning to the viewer and taking his seat in the centre of the bridge. "We're going to give the Borg something they'll find much harder to digest than a fleet of Apex type ships!"

Captain Anok hand clenched the edge of his seat as the viewer showed the stars spiralling past. His knuckles were almost white as the bridge sat in silence apart from the few systems that still functioned bleeping their status to the frightened crew.

"Drop to Impulse for attack." He instructed. With a flash the viewer displayed the mammoth structure of the Borg installation before them as the fleet began to emerge around them, punching their way into normal space and streaking towards the target.

"My god!" Lieutenant Crowe said in horror. "Look at the size of that thing!"

"Weapons range?" The Captain's eye widened fearfully as the mass of glowing pipe-work filled the viewer.

"Ten seconds." The tactical officer reported. "Shields at maximum, all tubes loaded and ready. Phasers changed."

"Sir!" The helm officer said with alarm. "The first ships have engaged Borg."

Waves of ancient vessels flooded over the maze of technology, energy beams streaking out from every ship. Green blasts of weapons fire blazed out from the installation at them as huge chunks of glowing Borg technology broke away to engage the small vessels. An old Oberth class ship delivered a blazing salvo of torpedoes into the station just before a beam tore easily though her saucer, ripping easily through it like it were made of unshielded paper.

"They're tearing us apart!" Captain Anok muttered. "Fire at will. Hard to starboard, fire ventral Phasers and come about. Instruct Red squad to follow us in."

"Only twenty eight ships in Red squad still remain!" The communications officer announced as the ship lurched violently, her inertial dampers failing momentarily. A weapon struck the ship, the light dimmed instantly before a conduit shattered behind them spilling flaming chunks of debris and a shower of sparks over the rear consoles.

Beyond the USS Interdictor the Borg vessels were followed by the small Cardassian ships who fired indiscriminately into the attacking vessels.

"We can't take much more!" The young officer cried out as his console lights flashed intermittently. "Phasers are down. I'm losing impulse and Warp is gone!"

"Ramming speed!" The Captain ordered. "At least we can hurt it on our way out. It's better than being harvested!"

"Yes sir." The helm officer glanced behind him in terror as his finger obeyed his Captain's command, entering the course for the ship to automatically follow.

"Sir!" A voice cried out from the rear of the bridge. "Another ship is coming in. Dropping cloaks!"

"More Cardassians?" He barked helplessly.

"No sir!" The young woman called out with premature optimism mixed in with equal parts of surprise. "I don't believe it. It's…"

The Corinthian exploded from her short Transwarp journey with her nacelles retracted behind her. She tore through space at full sub-light speed attracting the attention of several Borg interceptors. A huge random lump of Borg technology moved in directly ahead of her, wider than a Galaxy class ship and three times the height, glowing angrily as it probed the small ship with its sensors. Without changing course the Corinthian ploughed straight into the alien vessel, ripping through decking, shredding through conduits and exploded though the other side of the stricken machinery that floated helplessly in space behind the dauntless Starfleet ship.

"Shields down by five percent!" Clogg reported with surprise as he turned to Allarn. "I don't know what you did to this ship but I'm certainly glad you did it."

Blake sat rigid in his chair, his eyes glassy and unseeing as he gazed blindly towards the viewer. His mind was locked into the controls of his ship and she responded instantly to his thoughts.

"You were right!" Jones cried out with relief. "That station is barely a fraction the size we thought it was!"

"So what does that mean?" Clogg asked as the viewer lit up with blazing weapons fire that they somehow kept avoiding.

"It means that the whole station is built around an artificially expanded black hole!" She grinned back to the tactical officer. "It means that they're using a sub-space field to enlarge and control a natural singularity and convert the frequency to turn it into a portal to the past."

"It seems impossible!" Jones grinned with the first slim possibility of success that had presented itself to them since they'd arrived. "They're turning a black-hole into a portal to send themselves back into the very beginnings of history?"

"That's right." She agreed. "They've already begun with small trips to send the temporal slingshot here. That's how they brought the Corinthian here, sent the Scout back for you to discover it and made all the other tiny changes to the timeline that were necessary to create this portal."

"And if we destroy it?" Clogg asked, his frown deepening as a crooked smile flashed cruelly over his lips.

"I've set the anti-matter explosion to be rooted through your transmitter array." She nodded in agreement. "The blast will send out the same field that Starfleet used in the correct timeline to keep the Borg out through the entire region of space like a gigantic radio transmitter. It will collapse the Borg in this region and they'll lose control of the singularity. They won't be able to send back any more Borg through history and we should be free to restore everything to the way it should have been."

"Except this ship!" Katherine sighed.

"Yes!" Allarn agreed. "My friend still has my ship. He should be able to surf the blast back and inform Starfleet command about the Necrodians. We should be able to stop the destruction of their vessel that way. The result should be the same."

"Clogg!" Blake called out from his chair. "Quantum torpedoes at your discretion. Fire at will!"

"It's about time!" He smiled in agreement as flaming bolts began surging from the nose of the ship.

The Corinthian banked to her side and blasted her way through a pair of Borg interceptors converging on her as she made her way closer to the heart of the installation. She rounded the closest one and flew barely inches away from her enemy's surface. The second of the two fired and missed, the energy crackling over the other Borg machinery sending a blast of arcing power from the conduits.

The Corinthian stretched out her nacelles and cut through the outer surface of the base. She twisted her way through the opening left by the parts of Borg that had detached to stop her. She suddenly appeared in an opening. It was vast and machinery stretched into the distance, feeding energy into a gigantic rift in space and time.

"Prepare to self-destruct." Blake warned his crew, the outside of the ship still filling his reality as torpedoes raced from the firing binnacle and Phasers tore into the structure around him.

Katherine put her hand on his shoulder but he never felt it. All he felt was his rage, his anger towards the Borg and his desire for revenge.

"Goodbye." He said simply as the ship flew into the tube that stretched into the singularity.

The explosion stretched out instantly, rippling into the pipe, disrupting the power and creating a blast that was hotter than the core of the sun.

"Got them!" WP23 cried out in triumph as the dishevelled forms materialised in her rear bay. "I got 6 life forms from the ship and their main computer."

"6?" Haldo frowned as the blast erupted furiously behind them.

"I'm sorry." She said dolefully. "I was beaming out through the blast, the signal degraded too quickly. I got as much as I could."

"Who didn't make it?" Haldo frowned fearfully. "There were ten people on that ship including my two engineers and Allarn."

"We have other problems right now." She reminded him as the black hole before them had begun to fold in on itself without the Borg technology pulling it open. "It doesn't look like any of us are going to make it."

"But who?" Haldo turned away from the engineering controls. "I have to know."

"We're heading directly into the heart of the singularity!" She told him. "If your calculations are correct it should seal up just as we cross the eye. It should vanish just before we're sucked into the central gravity well."

"I have to know" Haldo repeated, jumping out of the seat and making his way to the rear of the ship. "Stay on this course. You have the bridge!"

The rear door slid open as Haldo ran into the bay. All faces turned up to see him in surprise. He looked with relief from face to face at the survivors. Katherine stood up and ran her hands over her chest and down, breathing heavily, hardly able to believe she was still alive.

"What are you doing here?" She gasped. "What happened?"

"Just a little bit more of not doing as I was told." He grinned. Behind her was Blake, he was kneeling on the floor, his hands wrapped around his head as pain ravaged his brain from the destruction of the Corinthian. Katherine turned and realised more of her reality as the shock of surviving the blast began to subside. She knelt down beside him quickly to see what she could do to help. Behind them Clogg raised himself to his feet and reached out a hand to help Allarn to hers. "Well done." He grinned at her. "Very well done."

"Commander Baker!" Haldo nodded to the fleet officer who stared back at him blankly, her mouth open wordlessly in shock. Haldo looked to the rear of the bay where a single remaining body rolled over to sit up. Ensign Dawson who had been assigned to engineering looked back at him, his mouth curling upwards in relief.

"Doctor Jones?" Haldo whispered weakly to himself.

Katherine looked up to Haldo, her eyes filled with regret for the loss of their friends, the Doctor and the two other Starfleet officers who had been resurrected with Blake by the modified Borg technology. "I'm sorry." She said weakly.

"It's ok." He told her, turning from her eyes to wipe at his own with the back of his hand. "He was just a Section 31 scientist. He probably deserved it." He sniffed hard and blinked away the tears welling up in his eyes.

"I know you don't mean that!" She said softly.

"Haldo to the bridge!" WP23 insisted. "Now!"

Haldo flopped down in his engineering chair as the others filtered in behind him. "We're nearly at the eye!" She reported. "The signal is working and Borg is too badly damaged, they haven't attempted to stop us but three other vessels are following us in. My shields are focused at the rear and we're riding the shockwave, I guess they're doing the same."

"Who?" Blake said weakly lowering himself into the chair at the head of the compartment.

"One Cardassian." She began. "Allarn's vessel and some other alien ship, it registers as a Coo'gral."

"Will we outrun the blast?" Haldo looked at the monitor at his station and gulped nervously.

"I hope so!" She agreed. "But by my calculations the eye might still be functioning."

"We'll be crushed by the gravity in there if the Borg technology isn't still compensating for it." Allarn exclaimed in annoyance. "I still had three payments left to make on my ship!"

"That's the least of our troubles." WP23 told her. "It's still functioning as a temporal portal. We could end up anywhere! Billions of years before there's any technology or after everything in the Universe is long since dead and gone."

"No such thing in either case." Allarn smiled.

"We can't turn around." Blake groaned, rubbing his temples, his head still throbbing dully and his mind still foggy from having the ship and computer wrenched from his consciousness.

"You can't give orders around here!" The ship told him angrily. "You're Blake Girling!"

"He's also a Captain!" Haldo told her. "You're programmed to obey the commands of any ranking officer that you allow aboard."

"Oh no…" She gasped in abject horror. "You're right."

"Head straight into the eye!" Blake told the ship. "We've been through worse, we'll make it."

"When have we been through worse?" Haldo grumbled. "We're heading into a collapsing black-hole that's been converted to a temporal portal into pre-history while behind us the remains of our ship is destroying the Borg complex with the largest anti-matter explosion ever recorded, the main blast of which is heading straight for us.

"Maybe in the future maybe in the past!" Allarn added cheerfully. "That's what I love about time-travel, it's so wonderfully unpredictable."

"Hold on!" Blake warned the crew as the tiny ship headed ever closer to the gaping temporal orifice. "It looks like we're going in!"

Haldo pressed a few buttons and the message buoy streaked out from the launch tube into the orifice. "Some day somebody might read it." He shrugged as the windows lit up around him with the exploding station.

"Good luck to us all! Whenever we end up!"

 

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	Last modified: 28 Mar 2026  http://fiction.ex-astris-scientia.org/renegade_apex.htm