"Reign of Terror" Revisited

[Darth Wong]

Remember my barely-started "Reign of Terror" fanfic that went dormant about four years ago? I went back to it every now and then, retooling it a bit, and I had a few extra chapters that I wrote but never put on-line. I thought I might post the current version of it and see if people think it is still worth pursuing. Chapters 1 to 5 are the same as before, albeit with some rewriting here and there, and chapters 6 to 9 are new (although 9 was barely started).

Reign of Terror

Prologue

Earth, Three Years After The End of the Dominion War

Space is a dark, silent, and mostly empty place. But for the sensors of the Federation's most important space station, space also contains a wealth of tantalizing clues. Earth Spacedock's over-sized subspace ripple chambers could detect the passage of any particle, from an ordinary photon or electron to the extraordinarily elusive tachyon neutrino. Its incredibly sensitive and highly classified Bremsstrahlung detectors swept ion beams across avenues of approach, watching for the telltale braking radiation that would occur when they were shunted aside by a cloaked ship. Only a select few even knew of the existence of this technology.

The station also had a pair of top-of-the-line subspace radar systems, each one more expensive to construct than an entire Galaxy class starship. Both of them ran 24 hours a day, continuously sweeping their detection cones through carefully designed search patterns. At maximum power, these radar systems emitted pulses so powerful that they could damage unshielded ships and cause environmental disruptions on Earth. Naturally, Starfleet regulations stipulated that they could only be run at maximum power in extraordinary situations. They were running at maximum power now.

The radar operator, his nerves frayed by the state of high alert, suddenly snapped to attention as a warning light switched on. "Sir, we have a small object closing fast. Came out of nowhere, it's right on top of us-" His words were cut off by a muffled thump as the object crashed into the station's hull.

Admiral Kinney was still trying to overcome his surprise. Despite their best efforts, the object had appeared so close to the station that it had impacted before he could even give the order to raise shields. Damage control officers immediately located the impact site, and dispatched security details to investigate.

Ensign Peters was already running in the direction of the noise. He stopped with his squad outside one of the large equipment bays, and used his security override to open the sealed doors. Moving inside, he took stock of the situation. A gaping hole had been torn in the far wall, but the emergency forcefields had gone up, and he could see through the breach into space. At the opposite corner of the bay, there was another hole. He sprinted to it, with his men following suit. They could see into the next bay.

"Peters here." he said quietly into his comm-badge. "Looks like the object broke through the hull and through one interior wall. Emergency forcefields closed off the hull breach. There's something in the smoke ... wait, it looks like some kind of robotic jellyfish."

"Say again. Jellyfish?" came the reply.

"Jellyfish, sir. It's about two metres high, floating on some kind of antigrav. It's black, metallic, and has a large round body with several long spindly legs hanging down."

A muffled expletive could be faintly heard over the commbadge, followed by a clear order. "This is Admiral Kinney. Destroy the intruder immediately. Say again, destroy the intruder immediately. Use any means necessary."

Peters motioned to his men to move out and approach the intruder from several angles. They moved swiftly, and he raised his heavy phaser rifle. "Open fire!" he ordered. Six phaser beams struck the intruder, doing only minor damage to its armoured body. Peters was about to take a second shot, when the intruder abruptly exploded, scattering debris over the entire bay.

"Intruder neutralized, sir. We didn't do that much damage ... I think it might have self-destructed."

In the station bridge, Admiral Kinney turned to his communications officer. "Rodriguez, report!"

"It got off a transmission before it hit, sir. We were too late."

Kinney felt as if he has just been punched in the stomach. His chest felt constricted. He sat down with a heavy sigh. "Get me the President."

Rodriguez punched in the commands. The Starfleet logo filled the view-screen, followed by the face of President Markham.

Kinney wasted no time. "Mister President, we just detected and destroyed one of the alien probes. It's a safe bet that the marauder ship is headed this way."

President Markham looked drawn and haggard; the events of the past few weeks had clearly taken their toll. It was as if he had aged ten years during those few weeks. It seemed as if he had to summon a great effort to speak.

"Admiral, you know what this means. I trust you will do your best."

"Yes, sir. We knew this day would come. The fleet stands ready. We'll stop the marauder ship this time sir, or ..." the two men looked at each other through the view-screen, both knowing what was at stake. "Or we'll die trying."

[Darth Wong]

Chapter One

Five years earlier, in the Cardassian/Federation Demilitarized Zone

The small Maquis raider ship deftly slipped through a dense asteroid field, scouting for possible places to set up a hidden shelter. Its two pilots' easy banter belied the gravity of the situation. The Maquis were humans but they had few friends and many enemies. They had never forgiven the Federation for trading away their land in the peace treaty with Cardassia, and the Federation had never forgiven the Maquis for refusing to move. Now they were branded as outlaws by the Federation and alien terrorists by the Cardassians, and that meant they needed places to hide. Secret bases were the lifeblood of an insurgency, after all.

"How about that one?" Nitram asked, pointing at a large craggy asteroid straight ahead. He was a skinny, pale-skinned smuggler pilot with mysterious origins, who had joined the Maquis after leaving the notorious Orion crime syndicate. Nobody knew his first name. To everyone at home, he was simply "Nitram". He had a tendency to be bitter and cynical, no doubt a product of his checkered past.

"Nope." answered his copilot. "Not dense enough. I can scan through the whole damned thing on low power from here. A Cardie ship could probably see through it from a million klicks out. Try again." His name was William Andolsek, but most people simply called him Ando. He was a broad-shouldered man who had led a more comfortable life than Nitram ever had. He very nearly left the Maquis when they split with the Federation, but a man named Chakotay had talked him into staying, with inspiring and conveniently appropriate metaphors about American Native culture. Strangely, he could not remember any of those metaphors now, but their effect lingered.

"God damn it." Nitram muttered. "You find something wrong with every damned good-looking rock I find."

"You find rocks attractive?" Ando snickered.

"Smart-ass." Nitram grumbled. "You always have to-" he stopped in mid sentence. "Hey, check this one out." Nitram swung the ship hard right and toward an unusual looking asteroid far in the distance. "This one's only one or two klicks wide, but it's reading pretty massive."

Ando let out a long, slow whistle. "I take it back, my friend. You hit the jackpot. I don't know what the hell that asteroid is made of, but I can't scan a damned thing. Maybe it's uranium ore, eh? Let's get closer. See if we can get a clear visual."

The raider moved in closer to the asteroid, which was beginning to look disturbingly regular in shape. Nitram brought up a visual, and both men caught their breath. It was quite obviously a starship. Nitram almost fell over himself in his haste to reach the sensor station.

"That's no asteroid." he said softly.

"No shit, Sherlock. Did you figure that out all by yourself?" Ando retorted.

"Will you just shut the hell up and scan it?"

"I'm trying." Ando replied. "Its hull must be made of pure duranium or something. I can't scan through it. No power emanations, no warp signature, no impulse trail, no life signs, no weapons of any known design. Looks like some kind of derelict to me. But it's a big one. Roughly sixteen hundred metres long. No signs of damage ... I wonder what happened to it."

"I'd rather know where it came from. Never seen anything like it. I wonder how long it's been here."

Ando had no answer this time. They could see it with the naked eye now, and both men simply sat in their seats and stared silently at the mile-long, dagger-shaped vessel growing in the window.

Minutes later, the Maquis raider was flying in lazy circles around the darkened ship, so its pilots could inspect it from every angle.

"She's a monster, all right. You sure there's no weapons on this thing? She looks like a warship to me." Nitram asked.

"I told you, I got nothing. No weapons of any known design. No sensor signals, no tracking systems, nothing." Ando replied coolly.

"Oh yeah? Well then what are those?" Nitram asked, jabbing his finger toward a set of massive turrets with great tubular projections sticking out of them. Each turret was larger than their little ship.

Ando looked up at the heavy guns. "Huh. They do look like weapons, don't they?"

Nitram rolled his eyes. "You have a stunning grasp of the obvious, Ando."

"Wise ass." Ando growled. "If you keep that up-"

"Hey come on, no fair! You're twice my size!" Nitram put up his hands, grinning. "So what do you think? Should we try to board it?"

"Are you nuts? Just the two of us? We don't know what's in there, remember?"

"What's there to worry about? It's obviously a derelict. Have you got something better to do?" Nitram continued to press.

"And what if it's booby-trapped?" Ando retorted.

"Yeah sure. You think somebody built a mile-long ship with a hull that blocks sensors and then leaves it all the way out here where no one will find it, as an overpriced booby trap? What's the motive? Besides, where's your sense of adventure?"

"Where's your brain? I don't want to die for science, Nitram. For all you know, its crew was killed by a super-virus."

"We'll wear environmental suits and use full decon on the transporter." Nitram answered.

"We should call a survey team."

"A Federation survey team? You're a Maquis living in the demilitarized zone, remember? We are the survey team! If you let anybody know about this, the Cardies'll be the first to swoop in and take it. Is that what you want?"

"Well ..." Ando hedged.

"Listen," Nitram said, a hint of excitement creeping into his voice. "This might be the best thing that ever happened to the Maquis. This ship is completely alien. Doesn't match anything in the records. Who knows what technology is in there? Technology we could steal, sell to the highest bidder, get a better life for ourselves and our families, maybe make the Cardies think twice about hitting us ..."

"Okay, okay, I'm sold. But you can go first. Assuming you can find a way in, that is. I don't see a welcome mat."

"No problem. I'll bring us around to the topside superstructure and then we'll beam in through the windows. I'll set the computer to beam us back if we send a panic signal."

"Sounds like a plan." Ando said nervously. There was something about derelict ships that made his hair stand on end. A sense of death and forboding, as if something monstrous was waiting behind every dark portal.

The tiny ship pulled up to the larger vessel, so close that they could see through its bridge windows. Both men began putting on their environmental suits, running through the checklist, and each man picked up the largest phaser rifle he could find.

"Ready?" Nitram asked.

"Ready."

The familiar transport tingle began, and they soon found themselves on the other ship's cavernous, empty bridge. Their helmet lights shone through the darkness. Nitram pulled out his tricorder and began taking readings.

Meanwhile, Ando walked gingerly toward the nearest instrumentation pit, half-expecting to find himself staring into the hollowed-out eye sockets of long-dead corpses. He took a deep breath, stepped to the brink, shone his light down into the pit, and ...

Nothing.

The floors were spotless, the chairs were empty, and the instrument panels were clean. No bones, no clothes, no indication that anyone, human or otherwise, had ever occupied this bridge. His heart racing, he moved to the next pit. Also empty.

"Hey Nitram!" he called out, his voice sounding tinny through the transceiver. "They were roughly human-sized, judging from the chairs. But the whole bridge is empty. Are we moving in deeper, or are we going to waste time playing with the bridge computers?"

"I say we try to get the bridge computers working for an hour or so, and then if we can't, then we move in." Nitram was already down in one of the pits, poring over the controls.

"Good luck." Ando snorted. "A totally alien computer with no power, no language records in our database, from a species we've never met before, from places unknown, and you figure it'll take an hour to reverse-engineer their computers? Call me when you give up. I'm gonna sit down and try to relax." he marched toward what appeared to be the captain's chair, hoping it was a recliner. He plopped himself down in the seat, swiveled it around, and ... something happened.

A red light began to flash, a siren sounded, and a loud rumbling sound could be heard from deep within the bowels of the ship. Startled, he bolted up out of the chair as if he'd sat on a hotplate. He turned to see Nitram scrambling out of the pit, with a haste borne of fear.

"Ando, what the hell did you you do?"

"I didn't do anything!" Ando protested. "I just sat down in the big chair, and-" The two men both stopped, and looked at the captain's chair. ".. and I think I must have set something off."

[Darth Wong]

Chapter 2

Alien Ship, Bridge

As various bridge consoles began to come to life, Ando and Nitram both slowly backed away from the rear of the bridge, toward the observation windows.

"Well, maybe this is a good thing." Ando ventured nervously.

"I'm reading a massive energy spike!" Nitram said loudly, looking at his tricorder. "Ship's starting to warm up, life-support is coming on, the whole works. Look at those bridge consoles all lighting up."

"Well ... isn't that what we wanted?"

"Maybe. The way this ship is coming to life, I'm starting to wonder if you were onto something with that booby-trap idea."

Ando's eyes widened. "You know, Nitram ... maybe we should beam back."

Nitram looked back at him as the bridge lights flickered on. "Oh come on, I was just kidding. Mostly. If it were a booby trap, it could have just blown us up or something. This ship is generating way too much energy. It must have been hibernating or something."

Ando checked his own tricorder. "Well, at least it'll be comfortable when the ship kills us. Air's warming up and cycling. I'd say we can take our helmets off in a few minutes."

"Good." Nitram grunted, hopping down into one of the bays. The screens were lit up and active now, with various indicators and lights and displays showing all manner of information. "What the hell kind of language is this?" he muttered, pulling out his universal translator.

"Got something?" Ando leaned over the edge of the bay and looked down.

Nitram struggled with the universal translator for a few moments before answering. "Nothing. The UT's useless, Ando. I've seen some weird shit in my time, but this language must be totally alien. I'm not even getting fragments."

"So now what?"

"Well, why don't we go exploring? I was kind of hoping that the UT would be able to help us once we got things powered up, but it doesn't look that way. Maybe we can find some other clues deeper inside the ship."

"OK, let's go."

The two men walked down the corridor toward the bowels of the ship. They passed numerous doors along the way, some of which opened and some of which did not. With the lights on, the ship did not look nearly as foreboding as it did before, the hallways and doors not quite so menacing. But the vast emptiness of the ship was still eerily foreboding. The tension slowly rose, until Ando became visibly uncomfortable.

"You all right?" Nitram inquired solicitously.

"Yeah, fine." Ando lied. "Helmet's getting uncomfortable, that's all." He undid the seals and pulled off his helmet, tentatively sniffing the ship's air.

Nitram looked at him, noted that he was not passing out or turning green, and then grinned broadly. "Thanks for testing the air" he said, pulling off his own helmet. They continued walking in silence, looking in room after room. Some contained supplies, some led to what appeared to be equipment areas, all were devoid of life, or even bodies.

"Real ghost ship, eh?" Nitram asked.

"No kidding." Ando replied. "Doesn't it creep you out a little?"

"Not really. I almost got killed about a half-dozen times in the Orion Syndicate. I think it's left me emotionally dead or something. The only thing that gets a rise out of me nowadays is holo-porn."

Ando laughed, the tension briefly broken. "Hey, what was it like, being in the Orion Syndicate?"

"It was shit." Nitram muttered.

"Ummm ... care to elaborate?"

"Well, try to imagine that you're living in constant fear of being arrested. And not just by the Feds, but by some of the really nasty customers like the Klingons. And you can't exactly turn down the risky missions, or you'll end up on the shit list and you'll get your throat cut while you sleep."

"Nice. Why does anybody get into that racket in the first place?"

Nitram sighed. "It's hard to explain. They make you feel like you're a big man. They make you feel like you're a member of a big family. Especially at first, when they recruit you."

"Are you serious?" Ando snorted. "That makes it all worthwhile?"

"What the fuck would you know about it? You grew up with a mother, a father, a loving family ... if you grew up like me, you would understand." Nitram said, his expression darkening.

"Nitram ... sorry man, I didn't mean to ... you know, I-"

Nitram sighed heavily. "Don't worry about it. I'm the one who should be apologizing. I shouldn't have jumped on you like that."

Ando smiled. "Thanks, Nitram. I didn't mean to come off high and mighty ..."

Nitram grinned back. "You're a good man, Ando. I don't care what they say about you. In fact-" he stopped in mid-sentence as they walked past an open door which led into a cargo bay full of androids.

Ando let out a long, slow whistle. "Wow. Would you look at that!"

Both men ran into the room, pulses quickening. "They look like they're all powered down." Ando called out from the far end of the room. "Hey, do you think this might have been a race of sentient robots? Maybe this is the crew, in suspended animation."

There were rows upon rows of identical droids: tall, hulking bipedal units with thickly armoured bodies. At the end of the room were a handful of smaller, silver-shelled, much more fragile-looking units.

"Who knows?" Nitram mused, almost to himself. He used his hand phaser to cut open a control panel next to one of the droids' storage bays. "Maybe we can wake one of them up."

"Hey hey HEY, be careful!" Ando exclaimed, clearly alarmed. "You sure that's a good idea?" The gleaming droid stood easily head and shoulders above either of them. One of its arms ended in a pair of large cylindrical protrusions which looked suspiciously like weapons.

If Nitram heard the warning, he gave no sign of recognition. He was engrossed in his task now, and he discovered some wiring inside the panel which looked important. He crossed two of the wires, and there was a brilliant blue flash which temporarily clouded his vision.

"Nitram, seriously, I don't think this is a good idea ... whoa, you did something!" Ando exclaimed. "His eyes are lighting up!"

The Balmorran war droid, which had sat motionless for so long, abruptly powered on. It immediately stepped out of its storage alcove and stood to face the two men. While they chattered to each other in their incomprehensible language, it identified them as human, but without any recognizable rank insignia. It attempted to contact the ship's security network with an identification of the intruders, and waited patiently for instructions while one of the two humans moved closer, jabbering loudly and holding up what appeared to be a communicator.

"This ... is a universal translator" Nitram explained to the aloof android. "It can communicate using audio or visual impulses." He stepped back toward Ando, hoping for a response.

"Strong, silent type, eh?" Ando whispered.

"No shit." Nitram whispered back. The two men stared at the droid, and the droid stared back.

The android, meanwhile, timed out waiting for a response. The security stations appeared to be unmanned, so it went into standard intruder-defense mode. "UNIDENTIFIED INTRUDERS. SURRENDER AND LAY DOWN YOUR WEAPONS IMMEDIATELY." it barked in perfect Coruscant-accented Basic.

Instead of surrendering, the intruders seemed to become wildly excited at this warning, moving closer, chattering in their strange language, and holding up their odd communicator device. The droid moved to level 2. "YOU HAVE 15 SECONDS TO DROP YOUR WEAPONS." it intoned.

Still, they chattered to each other, holding up their communicator.

The droid raised its right arm and powered up its arm-blaster, pointing it directly at the two intruders. A targeting laser shone on the taller one's forehead. "YOU NOW HAVE 10 SECONDS." This time, the two intruders reacted in the expected manner, the looks on their faces changing instantly from excitement to naked fear.

"Uh, Nitram?" Ando said quietly, staring at the droid's raised arm with its stout barrel-like end.

"Yeah?"

The two men looked at each other.

"Run!" he hissed.

Nitram didn't move. He dropped his phaser rifle to the floor and stood frozen in place, seemingly hypnotized by the sight of the double-barreled gun pointing at him.

Ando looked to his right, and saw another door at the far end of the room. If I can just get into these rows of droids, I'll have some cover! he thought to himself. He knew Nitram couldn't move with that gun pointed at his head, so he made a split-second decision. He dove to his right, ducked into the next aisle, and sprinted for his life. The war droid immediately followed, roughly knocking Nitram to the ground with its dexterous arm and unleashing a hail of blaster bolts from other arm. Ando frantically wended his way through the rows of quiescent droids and ran for his life, using the droids as cover. The rapid-fire concussive chud-chud-chud sound of its bolts hitting the walls was deafening, with clouds of superheated metal exploding away from each hit.

He ran past a few aisles and then dove left into one of them, listening to the heavy clank-clank of the big droid's footsteps as it followed him. He ducked out past the end and ran down a few more rows until he reached the far end of the room. He stopped, turned to the right, and could see the open door.

I can make it! he thought. He started to run, but at the halfway point, a massive bipedal form lumbered into view at the end, blocking his path. It raised its arm, and Ando dove between two of the parked droids on the wall as the heavy blaster bolts blasted chunks out of the floor where he'd stood. He tried to go back the other way, but as soon as he stepped out from between the two droids, a hail of blaster bolts was unleashed in his direction, forcing him back.

Trapped! he thought to himself. The robot walked closer, its heavy feet clanking on the deck. Ando squeezed up against the wall between the two droids, frozen in terror. The clanking footsteps became louder, and had almost reached him. He closed his eyes and pressed against the wall, muscles straining as if he could push his way through it. He tensed, knowing the end was near.

"Hey, asshole!" a voice shouted out. It was Nitram, bloodied but alive, standing in the door and holding his phaser rifle. He pulled the trigger, and hit the droid square in the back of the head with a full-power shot. But the colour seemed to drain from his face when he saw that his shot left only a small scorch-mark on its armour. He back-pedaled frantically away from the door, just barely avoiding the red-hued hail of return fire.

"Ando!" he screamed as he scrambled to his feet. "The other door at the far side of the room! Get outta there!" He poked his head into the doorway and took another shot at the advancing droid, but to no avail. Again, it left only a singe-mark, and again, the war droid was completely unfazed and answered his fire with a hail of blaster bolts.

I don't believe this! he thought to himself. He fumbled with the controls until the familiar phaser overload sound started, and then he threw his rifle into the doorway and ran, back toward the bridge and safety. This had all seemed like such a good idea an hour ago.

He had gotten less than 30 metres away when the hulking droid stepped through the doorway. It ignored the curious noise emanating from the discarded weapon, stepping on it and raising its heavy blaster arm to take aim at the fleeing intruder. But before the first shot had left its barrel, the phaser rifle exploded beneath its foot.

The shock of the blast knocked Nitram off his feet, sending him sprawling to the deck. He twisted around to look behind him, and he could see smoke and flame shooting out the doorway.

Ando came stumbling out of the other exit and came over to help him. "Phaser ... overload?" he asked between breaths.

"Yeah." Nitram said with a hint of a smile. "I think I got him."

Ando pulled Nitram to his feet and was about to congratulate him, but his smile vanished when he saw a dark form moving through the smoke. His eyes widened in fear.

"Move!" he screamed, sprinting away. Nitram didn't need encouragement to follow.

The droid's left foot was heavily damaged, frayed wires and melted actuators turning it into a useless stump. It heavily favoured its undamaged leg, and limped forward clumsily toward the intruders. But its blaster arm was perfectly functional, and it raised that arm to fire.

The two men ducked around a corner and ran, blaster bolts exploding off the walls and showering them with debris.

"Haven't these people ever heard of a goddamned STUN SETTING?" Ando screamed. "Beam us out of here!"

"I already tried!" Nitram barked back, still running. He tapped his comm-badge again anyway, with no effect. "I don't think the signal's getting through! It's these walls! We've gotta get to the bridge!"

"With that thing chasing us?" Ando yelled back. They came to a four-way corridor intersection. "Which way?"

Nitram looked confused, but the sight of the limping war droid rounding the corner behind them forced his hand. "This way!" he shouted, throwing himself to the left. The storm of blaster bolts seemed to fill the air, and shrapnel exploded away from the walls once more. One burst was too close, and Nitram fell to the ground screaming. A glowing piece of shrapnel had passed through his leg just below the knee, tearing flesh and sinew. Flaps of crimson muscle tissue hung loosely from the wound, dripping blood.

Ando wordlessly ran back to help his friend, hoisting him to his feet over his cries of pain. "Come on!" he screamed, and tried to drag him along for the ride.

"Arrrrgghh ..." Niram gritted out between clenched teeth, his leg giving way beneath him.

The slide-clank, slide-clank limping footsteps of the war droid came closer and closer, and Nitram wordlessly removed his comm-badge, offering it up to Ando as the last gift of a dying man.

"Take it and get the fuck out of here." he gasped over his pain. "I'm done."

Ando ignored him and tried to pull him to his feet again, but Nitram would have none of it. He pushed Ando away and fell to the floor. He looked up at Ando's anguished face, and offered his comm-badge again. "Go on, dammit!"

Ando took the comm-badge, but couldn't bring himself to run. He looked frantically about for a weapon, an avenue of escape, anything to forestall the inevitable, and noticed thick, heavy metal plates protruding slightly from the walls just behind them. He looked up at the ceiling, and saw the track in which these plates were obviously designed to slide, and it immediately clicked into place. A blast door! he thought triumphantly, running toward a red wall plate and randomly punching buttons until the heavy plates began to slide shut.

Ando stared at the plates, as if he could force them to close more quickly through sheer force of will. The slide-clank, slide-clank footsteps of the war droid were very close now, and it came limping around the corner while the door was only half closed. It opened fire immediately, forcing Ando to take cover behind one of the moving plates. He took careful aim between the plates and fired a sharp-angle shot through the gap toward the wall-plate on the other side, hoping to keep the droid from re-opening the doors. The panel exploded in a shower of sparks, and the doors continued to close.

The droid continued to advance, but it was clear that it could not make up the ground quickly enough. It was less than five metres from the doors when they slid shut with a heavy thump. Ando allowed himself the luxury of a smile as the war droid fired its blaster uselessly at the blast door, producing only a muffled staccato thudding sound through the thick wall of metal.

"Thanks." Nitram said, still grimacing in pain.

"Hey, just remember," Ando grunted, tearing strips off his clothing to bind Nitram's leg, "this was all your idea!"

"Don't remind me." Nitram answered. He cried out in pain as Ando hoisted him to a standing position and began to half-drag, half-carry him toward the bridge.

It seemed an eternity. Ando's breath was ragged, and his mouth dry. Nitram was starting to see spots clouding his vision. But at the end of the long corridor was the bridge, and safety. They could see it now, tantalizingly close. Ando tapped Nitram's comm-badge, but there was still no effect.

"We're almost there, buddy. Just a bit more." he said, not sure whether he was trying to encourage Nitram or himself. The sound of his voice echoed off the reflective metal walls of the long corridor. With an extra surge of energy, they stumbled onto the bridge and collapsed. He tapped Nitram's comm-badge again, and ... nothing.

His heart began to beat faster, and he hit the comm-badge again. Again, nothing.

"That won't work, you know."

Ando froze at the sound of the smooth, calm voice coming from behind him. He began to raise his phaser rifle.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." the voice continued. "Drop your weapon."

Ando's shoulders slumped in defeat. He dropped his weapon, and slowly turned around to see a tall Cardassian flanked by two men, all armed.

"I am Gul Lucet, and I'd like to thank you for the generous gift of this scientific discovery." he said with a smile. "Imagine our surprise when we tracked you here, and discovered this!" he said, spreading his arms to motion at the enormity of the ship.

Ando cast a glance outside the window, and saw a Cardassian attack ship holding station behind his own. Crew's about thirty men, he thought to himself. Looking around the bridge, he noticed at least 20 Cardassians, mostly working in the instrument pits. He cursed himself for not noticing them until now. How long were they tracking our ship? he asked himself.

He turned back to Lucet and adopted a defiant posture. "This man needs medical attention." he said firmly, pointing at Nitram.

"All in good time, human. All in good time. First, there is the small matter of this ship, and how much you know about it."

"No." Ando said, his heart pounding. "I want a medic to work on him first."

Gul Lucet's expression was mild. "You are in no position to bargain, human. But very well. Medic!"

The Cardassian medic knelt at Nitram's side and inspected his leg. "What happened to him?"

"He had an accident." Ando replied evenly.

"Ah" the medic said, seemingly satisfied by that answer. He scanned the wound and continued speaking, as if to himself. "Accident of some kind, damage appears to have been caused by shrapnel. No known weapons signatures." He began gingerly working on the flayed muscle tissue, slowly putting Nitram's leg back together.

"Now," Lucet said, "what do you know about this ship?"

"About as much as you know." Ando replied. "It's a derelict, been here for a long time. We managed to set off some kind of automated startup sequence, and that's why we have power."

"And the crew?"

"No sign of them" he lied.

"I see. Well, I'm sure-" they were both interrupted by a bright flash. To their mutual shock and horror, the Cardassian ship had just exploded. Outside the bridge windows, a coruscating green bolt seemed to come up from out of nowhere and strike the Maquis Raider, destroying it too. They stared at the glowing debris for a moment, but there was almost nothing left.

Lucet turned back to face Ando, his face mottled with rage. "What did you do?" he screamed.

"Nothing!" Ando protested in a panicked voice. "Why do you think it was me? Do you think I would destroy my own ship?"

"Maybe." Lucet snarled. "Maybe you thought it would be better to trap us here than let us take this prize!"

"I didn't even know you were here!" Ando shot back.

Lucet started to speak, but stopped himself. "What's that noise?"

"What noise?" Ando asked. The Cardassian's ears were obviously better than his own, but he could soon hear a faint sound echoing down the long corridor. Drag-clank, drag-clank ...

[Darth Wong]

Chapter Three

Alien Ship, Bridge

The all-too-familiar sound of the hulking war droid's footsteps sent a cold chill down Ando's spine. The great ship, so recently a source of hope for the Maquis, now seemed to be imbued with an almost palpable malevolence, as if it was a trap designed to lure spacefarers to a grisly death. And who fired the weapons that destroyed the Cardassian ship and his own? Was it some kind of automated defense system coming on line? Had the murderous android awakened the crew? His dreams of glory and discovery were long forgotten, and his only hope now was to live another five minutes. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he hoped his wife and children would be able to get along without him.

His thoughts were interrupted when Lucet shoved him roughly against the metal wall. "Enough lies, human! Tell me what that is!" he snarled. "I know you're lying about the 'accident' your friend suffered. The truth!"

"It's an android." Ando said hurriedly. He knew the time for games was over. "Bipedal humanoid. Heavily armed."

Lucet wasn't sure whether to believe this human, but he'd been expecting something like this. A ship of this size and complexity must surely have automated defense systems, and he almost felt a sense of relief to know what they were and where they were coming from. He turned and barked orders to his men.

"Form a defensive position at the end of that hallway! Kinar and Dumon, watch the prisoner!"

The medic tending to Nitram continued to work on him, but stopped and reluctantly picked up his gun when Lucet glared at him. He quickly joined the others at the bottom of the stairs, readying their weapons and waiting for their attacker. To his horror, Ando realized that Lucet intended to make a stand.

"No, you don't understand!" he shouted, his voice rising in pitch. "It's armour-plated! That thing took a max-power phaser blast right in the head, didn't even slow it down!"

Lucet ran through his options in his mind. Only six of his men carried anything heavier than a standard-issue hand phaser, and if this human was to be believed, even the rifles would be useless. He turned to Ando. "What about explosives?"

Ando shook his head, his growing panic almost visible now. "We set a rifle on overload. Went off right underneath it. All it did was give it a limp, and it's not gonna fall for that twice! Are there any other exits out of the bridge? There's gotta be another way out of here!"

"None that we've found." Lucet replied evenly.

Ando looked frantically around the bridge for an escape route. Its layout was clean and simple: an oval observation deck, in which a pair of instrument bays were sunk beneath the deck on both sides of a central walkway. There were alcoves on both sides of the observation deck containing more equipment, and a foyer at the back, in which a short set of stairs led down to the main corridor. The foyer appeared to be a communications area, with consoles and some sort of pod that might have been designed for holographic communications. It was then that he noticed the door set into the side of the foyer.

"What's behind that door?" he asked.

"I don't know. It's locked." Lucet answered, clearly preoccupied with his men. Eight men were setting up in the corridor, four more on the stairs, and the rest in the foyer.

"What?" Ando raised his voice in incredulity. "That could be a turboshaft or an access tunnel for all we know!"

Lucet turned, crossed his arms over his chest and wore one of those infuriatingly smug Cardassian smiles that made Ando want to punch him in the mouth. "Well then, would you be so kind as to open it?"

"Give me a concussion charge."

Lucet snorted. "Do you take me for a fool? I'd rather take my chances in battle than trust you with a weapon. Why should I even believe you?"

Ando couldn't believe this. "I'm not making this up! I'm telling you, that thing will kill all of your men!"

"You two survived." he said simply. "And with all due respect, human, we're not a bunch of Maquis terrorists. We are trained Cardassian soldiers, and we-"

The war droid had just rounded the corner, and Lucet was interrupted in mid-sentence by the chud-chud-chud sound of its heavy auto-blaster. He turned to look toward his men, expecting to see them fighting a pitched battle with the attacker.

What he saw left him speechless. The hallway was choked with thick smoke, and chunks of glowing metal had been blown out of the walls and floor. Through the smoke, he could see his men, or what was left of them. More than half of them lay motionless on the deck. One man's chest had literally exploded, spraying blood and viscera all over the walls. Another man's head was cleanly blown free of his body, which now lay crumpled on the floor in a growing pool of blood. For a moment, he felt almost as if he was a passive observer, looking down at one of those horrendous worst-case scenarios they used to run through when he was in training to be an officer. Time seemed to move in slow motion.

Lucet staggered to the side in an effort to get out of the line of fire. The heat and flame triggered a loud alarm klaxon, and a set of blast doors began to close at the top of the stairs. The screams of wounded and dying men seemed to come from far away. He found himself cowering in the foyer, listening to them screaming instructions to each other. Their discipline broken by the seemingly unstoppable juggernaut marching toward them, they retreated in confusion, running past him as if he wasn't there. Nothing in their training had prepared them for an enemy who was immune to their weapons. They seemed panicked and rudderless, their eyes wide with fear.

He seemed paralyzed himself, and could only watch the blast doors close. The limping footsteps of the war droid grew closer, and he could hear it ascending the stairs, but the ponderous blast doors clamped shut with a heavy thump before it could reach the top.

Lucet allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief, and tried to compose himself. He began to walk out of the foyer and into the main bridge to calm his men, but they all froze at a distinct hissing sound behind him.

It was coming from the blast door. He rushed to the door and put his hand near it. He could feel the heat emanating from its surface, and he knew it was only a matter of time. His men stared at the door with looks of pure terror on their faces. Some of them were cowering in corners. He knew he had to do something quickly, and the human's idea about blasting through the locked door seemed as good an idea as any. "Ardum! Blow that side door!" he bellowed.

"Yes sir!" The young man named Ardum stiffened at the order, turned, and ran back to the foyer. With cool precision, he planted a specialized demolition explosive device against the door. The rest of the men looked at Lucet, awaiting his next order. The act of simply giving Ardum something to do seemed to have calmed them, but Lucet knew that they would all be dead soon if they couldn't blast through this door. Or worse yet, if they do blast through it, but it's a supply closet, he thought to himself.

The blast door was beginning to glow red now, the hissing sound becoming louder.

"Fire in the hole!" Ardum shouted, running for cover. The ensuing blast filled the foyer with smoke, but Lucet could see a gaping hole through the wreckage. He charged toward it himself, staring inside. It may have been alien, but he knew a turbolift when he saw one.

"Get in!" he shouted. The men needed no encouragement, and Ando followed behind them. The notion of killing the human or forcing him to stay behind flitted across Lucet's mind, but he ignored it and said nothing as Ando climbed through the hole in the door, dragging Nitram with him. The centre of the door was glowing yellow now, and molten metal was seeping to the floor.

Lucet climbed into the turbolift last. "Down." he said loudly. The turbolift did not respond. "Computer!" he barked. Still no response. "Emergency!" he shouted. Still nothing.

He turned to Ando, in the hopes that he would know the alien language. Ando pointed wordlessly at a set of buttons on a control panel at waist height, and Lucet tried to ignore his embarrassment as he began punching buttons. He made no attempt to interpret the alien language, and simply pushed buttons randomly in the hopes that one of them would do the trick.

A terrifyingly loud explosion nearly deafened him and all of the other men, and through the hole in the door, he could see a huge chunk of the blast door flying into the foyer. He's almost here! his mind screamed silently. But at that moment, the turbolift finally began to move. It shot downwards, away from danger, and Lucet's knees almost buckled from the relief.

He tried to compose himself, then he turned to his men in the confined quarters of the turbolift. Their faces betrayed that mix of elation and sadness that came with surviving a terrible defeat, and they were looking to him for confidence. There were only 8 of them left, 3 of whom were bleeding profusely. And my medic is laying in pieces on the bridge! he thought bitterly. But they were not out of danger yet, and he could scarcely afford the time to sentimentalize over their fallen comrades.

He cleared his throat and tried to sound confident. "All right men, we've lost our ship, and we can't count on a rescue. So we need to find some kind of communications gear. The bridge is now held by the enemy, but a ship this size must have more than one communication terminal. So we will search the ship for communications terminals and try to patch into one."

He turned to Ando. "Human, how many of these androids did you encounter?"

"That's the only one. We accidentally reactivated it. The rest are still inactive, as far as we know."

"Then who fired the shots that destroyed our ships? They came from another part of the ship!"

"I don't know." Ando replied flatly.

Lucet looked him in the eye. He felt himself to be a good judge of character, and he was pretty sure this human was telling the truth. "I don't suppose you have any plans for getting out of here, do you?" he asked sardonically.

Ando tried to calm himself and clear his thoughts. He had to make an argument for his own usefulness, or for all he knew, the Cardassian would kill them both right here, right now. "Nitram here is a linguistics expert. He's the only chance we have to figure out how to use any of this alien technology."

Lucet smiled one of those oily, insincere smiles that Ando had come to expect from a Cardassian. "So, it would appear that we're partners, aren't we?"

Ando nodded, but the other Cardassians, bloodied and battered, were staring at him with looks of pure hate. He knew what they were thinking. He had unleashed the android, he was responsible for the deaths of their comrades and perhaps the destruction of their ship. If he could not curry favour with their leader, these men would kill him in a heartbeat. He looked down, tried to avoid eye contact with them.

The turbolift continued to move, with its cargo of uneasy passengers, deeper into the bowels of the ship.

________________________________________


Star System HR51

On a not-so-distant hidden Maquis colony known only by the cryptic codename "HR51", Natalie Andolsek brushed her long brown hair aside and stirred a pot of soup. It was homemade chicken noodle soup, the kids' favourite. No replicator could produce the same flavour, and her kids could always tell the difference.

She knew her husband was out there somewhere, searching for a place to hide if things went sour. She still had trouble accepting that this was their life now: contingency plans, secret codes, hidden bases, booby traps. And the children somehow adapted. They would solemnly nod their heads when told that they might have to leave their homes and go to a secret place in the sky to hide from the bad people. This was the only life they knew.

It had all seemed so promising once. The prospect of a new life, away from the Federation. But now, she lay awake at night wishing she could go back in time, reverse the decision, stay on Earth. All of the stifling, suffocating conformity didn't seem quite so bad in retrospect. Not when compared to the fear of what would happen to them now. She looked out the window at the boys playing in the yard. She tried to picture them frolicking on the green fields of Earth, and wiped away a tear welling up in her eye. Ando always seemed so confident that things would turn out for the best, but she had trouble sharing that confidence at times. She couldn't help but wonder if her kids would ever get the chance to grow up.

The jarring sound of the comm console invaded her reverie, and she absent-mindedly turned to look at the console. It was Dalton. He was a heavyset man who was always a favourite with the kids whenever he came by, because he had never entirely seemed to grow up. He was fond of practical jokes and he often wore an infectious smile, but not now. His expression was grim, and her heart instantly sank. This was the face of a man bearing terrible news.

"Rob? What is it?" she asked nervously.

"I don't know how to tell you this, so I'll just come straight out. Ando- I mean Bill ... he missed his last check-in."

She felt as if she'd just been kicked in the stomach. "Does that mean he's ... he's ..." she couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence.

"We're not writing him off." he said emphatically. "He might have had an engine failure, or a comm system problem. You know how old some of these ships are. We're getting a search team ready now."

She knew he'd say that even if he was certain that they were dead. "Dalton, please tell me the truth. Do you think he's alive?"

His grim expression did not change. "We didn't pick up any distress calls. If he was attacked, he would have gotten a call out. I'm sure they're both fine. Keep your hopes up, and with any luck, we'll bring him back in a few days. Okay?"

She nodded, and tried to look brave as the view-screen flickered out. She maintained her posture and calmly set the soup to simmer on the stove. She sat down at the kitchen table, and began to cry.

Over at the colony's command centre, Dalton turned around to face Wilson, his second in command. Wilson was a tall, lanky former Starfleet officer who was old enough to have seen combat in the first Cardassian war. The two of them were sometimes referred to as "Rob and Rob" because they shared the same first name. "All right, we've got room for twelve. Get Wilkens, Vympel, Typho, Eleas, Coyote, Stravo, Lars, Mackey, Frank, and Sheppard." One nice thing about being in the Maquis was that you could use any moniker you wanted, and nobody asked too many questions.

"Sheppard, sir?" Wilson asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, Sheppard. I know what you're going to say, but he can shoot straight, which is more than I can say for most of the people we've got. Besides, I don't think he'd let us take any of his heavy weapons without taking him too."

"Sir, I can outshoot him with my eyes closed." Wilson retorted. "He's dangerously unstable and you know it."

"Yes, but there's only one of you, and we've got to work with what we have. Coyote's a damned bounty hunter, for chrissakes! But we're all Maquis here."

"Sir, I'm not turning my back on Shep." Wilson grumbled.

"Then he can walk point. You are taking him and that is the end of the matter. Carry on." Dalton replied.

"OK boss." Wilson saluted and went off to get the men.

________________________________________


Cardassia Prime

"That's correct, sir. Gul Lucet has gone missing. There's no beacon, no distress call, no response on the transponder." Gul Tain reported.

Legate Dinon shifted in his chair. "Are the Maquis responsible?"

"Unknown, sir. We need to send in a search team to investigate."

Dinon's expression grew irritable. "Then why are you wasting time talking to me? Send in your search team and get back to me when you have something to report!" he slammed his fist down on the console button and cut off the connection.

At the other end of the transmission, Gul Tain leaned back and smiled. Dinon obviously knew nothing about the derelict, which meant that operational security was intact. This could be the opportunity he'd been waiting for. His career up till now was a joke. Like Lucet, he was a once promising officer whose career had been left to wither and die in the pointless defense of worthless, insignificant Cardassian colonies in the demilitarized zone. There was no future here, only the grinding monotony of an endless low-level border dispute.

But if the report sent by Lucet was anything to go on, he'd found something incredible. A mile-long derelict warship built by an advanced civilization! There was nothing like it in any of the historical records, so it was either unspeakably ancient or it had come from a great distance. Either way, his only fear was that Lucet would somehow take this prize and try to claim it for himself, and as the hours had passed without a check-in, he grew more and more certain that this was the case.

He opened a channel to his second in command. "Assemble a team. We're going after Lucet."

________________________________________


USS Hornet, docked at Deep Space Nine

Captain Sorresso walked briskly into his ready room. Top-priority messages from Starfleet HQ were not common, and he straightened his uniform before opening the channel. The view-screen flickered on to show the familiar face of Admiral Pablo Sanchez. He wasted no time with pleasantries and got right down to business.

"Damien, you are no doubt aware that we've been discreetly monitoring comm traffic in the Cardassian DMZ for quite some time."

"Yes sir."

"We've recently intercepted some troubling messages. It appears that a Cardassian attack ship has gone missing. I'm sending you their last known co-ordinates now."

"And how does that affect us, sir?"

"Before the ship disappeared, it transmitted an encrypted message to base. The master key was one that we've had possession of for quite some time, and we were able to crack it. They were tracking a Maquis scout and they ran into a derelict ship."

"Again, Admiral, how does that affect us?" Sorresso asked, his brow furrowing.

"It's a sixteen hundred metre long warship. Doesn't fit any known design. Nothing remotely like it in the database or the historical record. The Cardassians seem very interested in its technology. And its hull is impervious to sensors."

Sorresso leaned forward in his chair, already knowing what he would be asked to do. "And you want us to take it before they can, sir?"

"Officially, no. As you know, we can't move warships into the DMZ. But unofficially, if this vessel contains valuable technology and the Cardassians get to it before we can ..." the admiral's voice trailed off.

"Understood, Admiral. Sorresso out."

He swivelled his chair around and tapped his commbadge. "Number One, we're about to suffer a navigational problem."

"Captain?" came the quizzical response.

"We're going into the DMZ."

[Darth Wong]

Chapter Four

Alien Ship, Turbolift

Ando gingerly redressed Nitram's wounds in the cramped quarters of the turbolift, carefully avoiding the gaze of the Cardassians. Nitram was slowly regaining consciousness.

"Arrrrgghhh ..." Nitram groaned painfully, shifting position. "What's going on?"

"Well, we got away from the robot, but you passed out when we got to the bridge. That's when we got captured." Ando replied.

Nitram tried to sit up, looked around the turbolift for a few seconds at their Cardassian escort, and then slumped back to the floor. "Oh for chrissakes. Cardies? You got us captured by Cardies?"

"Sorry." Ando replied with an apologetic grimace.

"I take a nap and you get us captured by Cardies ..." Nitram grumbled. "Where the hell are we?"

Lucet interrupted. "You are in my custody, human. And you would be wise to show some respect."

Nitram rolled his eyes but said nothing. If Lucet noticed the gesture, he didn't seem to care.

"Anyway, both of our ships were destroyed by some kind of weapons fire from the ship-" Ando continued.

Nitram's eyes widened. "This ship's weapons are active?!?"

"Yeah, so we're stuck here." Ando replied. "The Cardassians are looking for a way off the ship. A shuttle bay, a communications console to call for help, anything."

"And you haven't been much help, human" one of the Cardassians interjected.

Ando ignored his glare. "So far, it's just empty levels and locked doors. Most places don't even seem to have lighting. Lucet ordered his men to skip all the way down to the lower decks. I guess he got tired of going through these levels one by one".

Nitram looked through the jagged hole in the door, mesmerized by the sight of the turboshaft walls rushing by. Each level passed, dark hallways followed by the solid metal of deck plates, faster and faster until they began to blur together. And then, just as it seemed to reach top speed, it began slowing down again. But something had changed. The rushing darkness was now flecked with lights, streaking up as the turbolift rushed down. The lights were obviously on in these lower levels, and he had nightmarish visions that any one of these floors might be full of homicidal war machines.

"What about that psychotic robot?" he asked.

"We barely got away from it. It was breaking through the blast doors into the bridge when we got out."

"So ... it's still after us?" Nitram's shoulders slumped. "Oh, this just gets better and better ..."

One of the Cardassians knelt down and shoved his disruptor pistol in Nitram's face. "Yes, human. And that thing killed a lot of my friends thanks to you! You're lucky I don't-"

"That's enough, soldier." Lucet said quietly, but firmly. The chastened Cardassian immediately returned to a standing position. "Count yourself lucky that we have some use for you. Otherwise, you'd be laying in pieces on the bridge right next to our fallen comrades."

Nitram groaned heavily. "I shoulda stayed in bed this morning."

"Shut up, human." Lucet growled, looking down at him. At that moment, the lift stopped. The corridor outside was empty and well-lit, but there was something else. There was sound echoing down the corridor, and it was not the dull thrumming sound that could be heard throughout the ship, but something more irregular, more distinct.

"There's someone here." Ardum said quietly.

Lucet nodded, and pointed to Ando. "All right human, you're coming with us. Ardum, stay here with his friend." he said, pointing to Nitram. "We'll stay in contact. If we miss a check-in, kill him."

Ando opened his mouth to object, but he knew it would be a waste of breath. This was Lucet's way of ensuring Ando's compliance, and it was precisely the sort of thing that a Cardassian would do. Lucet motioned him out, and he obeyed. He turned to stop just outside the door and looked back at Nitram, who smiled weakly. Both of them knew that their immediate prospects were bleak, to say the least.

________________________________________


The Maquis Raider "Starlight"

Dalton's small ship slipped through space like a wraith, moving from shadow to shadow. They'd arrived at the last known location of their missing comrades an hour ago, but Dalton's refusal to use active sensor scans was slowing down the search. The Maquis had learned the hard way that the transmissions of active sensors are a beacon, like the proverbial flashlight in the dark. So they slowly, methodically nosed through the asteroid field, searching for their missing men with nothing but short-range passive sensors and luck to guide them.

"Captain, I think you might want to have a look at this."

Dalton came up from the rear of the ship to talk to Vympel at the pilot's area. "Whatcha got?"

"Still no sign of our lost raider, but I'm picking up a Gaylord." Vympel replied. He was young and inexperienced, but he was one of the better Maquis pilots nevertheless.

Dalton glared at him. "A what?"

Vympel cleared his throat uncomfortably under Dalton's gaze. He'd forgotten about his distaste for off-colour nicknames. "Ahem. Sorry, sir. A Cardassian Galor-class cruiser."

"That's better."

"Anyway, he came in fast, so his warp signature was clear as a bell. And he's already blasting out scanning beams at high power. Looks like he's pretty hot to find whatever he's looking for, sir."

Dalton stared at the tactical display. "Can he see us?"

"No sir. We can track him as long as he keeps his active sensors going, but we're outside of detection range."

Dalton looked thoughtful. "We had them searching for possible base locations out here because it's so isolated. Nothing of value to either side, and certainly nothing worth sending a Galor-class cruiser. So why is it here? They wouldn't send a Galor-class cruiser just to track down two men!"

"Damned if I know why, Captain. Want to put some space between us and him? We won't last long against a Gaylord- er, Galor, sir."

"No, just keep your distance and shadow him. We're not giving up that easily. We'll use the asteroids for cover."

"Aye sir." Vympel's manner was nonchalant, but he knew the stakes had just been raised considerably. This region of space was desolate even by the standards of the Cardassian DMZ, so they were expecting a small Cardassian attack ship at most. The training of Cardassia's conscript starfleet was widely known to be among the poorest in the Alpha Quadrant, and this fact, more than anything, had given the Maquis a lease on life. But the vessel on their scopes was a full-blown warship, nearly 400 metres long with 300 crewmen. Regardless of their training, it would be suicide to challenge a Galor-class cuiser, and both men knew it.

________________________________________


Alien Ship, Lower Decks

After wandering the hallways for more than ten minutes without encountering anyone, Ando was starting to grow fatigued of the tension. Each time they came to a new intersection or a new room, he tensed up, expecting to hear the familiar chud-chud-chud sound of heavy weapons.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw one of the men stop to stare out a window, his mouth hanging open. Ando went to look, and caught his breath. It was an observation area just off the main corridor, and below them was a gigantic, cavernous room. It was dominated by a huge, bulbous armoured structure, and around it he could see androids. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of them in an almost dizzying variety, marching to and fro around its base and on dozens of levels above and below his own. Many of them were clearly maintenance robots, working on various pieces of equipment and not even appearing to notice anything else around them.

"Look at the size of that thing." one of the men muttered. "You could fit a small starship inside it."

"Must be the main reactor." Lucet said. "Look at all of the piping leading in and out of it. It's fully armoured, too. Very nice."

Ando stared at it. Catwalks and ladders wound around its leviathan mass, and huge pipes ran along the walls of the reactor chamber. A man could easily walk around inside those pipes, Ando mused. Unlike the transparent plasma conduits he knew, these pipes appeared to be as heavily armoured as the reactor, and for that matter, the rest of the ship. The entire vessel seemed to have been designed with the intent to use as much heavy metal as possible. It struck him as downright wasteful of resources, but it certainly conveyed an impression of solidity.

"So what do you make of it, human?" Lucet's voice came from behind him.

"Ummm, it looks like that android wasn't the only thing we woke up."

"Thank you for your brilliant insight, human. With such great powers of perception, is it any wonder that your kind has forged a superpower out of Vulcan hand-me-downs?" Lucet asked, to the sound of snickers from the other Cardassians.

Ando had grown tired of being constantly berated, and his anger flared. He glared directly at Lucet with fire in his eyes. "And yet our kind has soundly beaten yours every time we've ever had a stand-up fight, haven't we? So what does that say about you?"

One of Lucet's men moved to strike him, but Lucet stayed his hand with a gesture. "Such impudence from one whose life I hold in my hands!" he remarked with a smile. "I am impressed, human. There may be hope for your species yet."

Ando cast a glance at the other Cardassians, but Lucet seemed to be the only one who found this amusing. He ignored the rest of them and fixed his gaze on Lucet. "Gul Lucet, I suggest that we capture one of the smaller, weaker androids and interrogate it."

"And what happens when one of its bigger brothers comes looking for it, human?" one of the men snarled. "You whittle down our numbers some more? That's what you're hoping for, isn't it? You don't-"

"Shut up!" Lucet hissed. "Someone's coming!"

Sure enough, the light click-clack click-clack sound of a lone android's feet could be heard at the end of the hall. They all saw a gleaming silver-hued humanoid robot turn the corner, and froze. It was much smaller than the hulking war droid they'd encountered before, and it appeared to be unarmed. The android saw them too, and immediately began running away. Or at least, trying to. But the best it could manage was a hurried walk.

"Stop him!" Lucet ordered. "Before he can call for reinforcements!"

All of the Cardassians immediately opened fire. The gawky android was promptly hit in the legs and collapsed in midstride, its arms and legs awkwardly flailing on the deckplates with an insubstantial clatter.

"Hold your fire! I think we have our prisoner."

________________________________________


Cardassian Galor-Class Starship "Alkesh"

Gul Tain shifted uneasily in his chair. As a political appointee with a minimum of military training, he was unaccustomed to commanding a starship, never mind a Galor-class cruiser, and he tried not to let it show.

"Gul, we have the derelict ship on our scanners."

"Excellent. Hold position and try to scan for Lucet's ship."

"Gul, I'm picking up traces of tritanium and duranium composite fragments. Scanning ..." he said, working the controls, "it's a match. Cardassian alloy. Looks like Lucet's ship was destroyed, sir."

"The Maquis destroyed his ship?" Tain asked in surprise.

"Negative, sir. I'm getting some very strange readings from the debris. Doesn't match anything in the database. Definitely not any kind of weapons fire we've ever encountered. And I'm picking up debris from the Maquis ship too."

"How?" Tain asked with a combination of relief and fear. The idea of an ancient derelict ship was at once both intoxicating and frightening. Cardassian novelists routinely wrote horror stories about ancient, malevolent spirits being awakened on derelict starships, and while he tried to dismiss the idea as superstitious nonsense, it would not go away.

"Unknown sir, but I'm getting some strange power readings from that derelict, and they're ramping up exponentially."

The hairs on the back of Tain's neck stood on end. "Is it powering up weapons? Propulsion?" he asked nervously. It was quite obvious now why Lucet hadn't reported in, and if they had awoken something on that ship ...

The young crewman worked the controls without success. "I can't tell, sir. The readings don't match anything in the database. If I got in closer, maybe I could get a better-"

"No!" Tain almost shouted. He may not have been experienced in starship command, but every instinct screamed that they were in terrible danger. "Battle stations! Evasive maneuvers, now!"

The young crewman immediately complied, and the ship began to go into pre-programmed maneuvers. He turned to speak. "Sir, we're well out of range, and there's no sign that-" he began, only to stop in mid-sentence as the entire view-screen lit up with a flash. A large asteroid near their position was struck by a green bolt of coruscating energy and exploded into a brilliant flare of superheated gas.

"Helmsman, get us out of here NOW! RIGHT NOW!!" Tain screamed in a strident, high-pitched tone, all pretense at decorum lost.

Alkesh's engines flared to full intensity, and the warship turned to flee from the slowly awakening and no longer derelict alien ship.

________________________________________


Maquis Raider "Starlight"

"Oh shit," Vympel blurted out. "The Cardies turned around and they're comin' right for us!"

"Hide behind that rock and go cold." Dalton ordered calmly, pointing at the largest asteroid in range.

"Aye sir," Vympel said, fingers flying over the controls. The diminutive raider slipped deftly out of sight, whipping dangerously close to the asteroid before he punched the retro-thrusters and brought it to a safe but jarring stop. He immediately began shutting down systems, bringing the ship to an emergency cold-stop. Lights winked out, the familiar hum of the warp core went silent, and the small ship went dark. It was always a risky maneuver to shut a ship down that quickly, but Maquis pilots knew the drill by heart.

"Cut it that close again and I'll have you on waste recycling for a week, hotshot." Dalton grumbled. It was a calculated risk to "go cold". It took five minutes to start even the smallest warp core back up again, even if they pushed every safety regulation to the limit. If the enemy spotted them, they'd be helpless.

"Sorry, boss. But I don't think they spotted us."

Dalton's visage was pensive. "We'll see."

________________________________________


Alien Ship, Lower Decks

Ando and the Cardassians turned their heads at the muffled thump, the latest of many.

"What was that?" Ando asked.

"Ask him", Lucet grunted, pointing at the android. Its dismembered but miraculously still-conscious torso had been dragged into the turbolift.

"Well?" Lucet asked the android, holding the translator in its face. "What was that?" The android chattered back, but the translator was silent.

"Forget it," Ando said wearily. "We tried that before, and their language is nowhere in the database. Not even fragments. Translator's useless. Maybe Nitram can figure it out." he said, redressing Nitram's wounds.

"Hey, I'm no language expert-" Nitram began, and Ando froze. He glared at Nitram to shut up and prayed Lucet hadn't noticed.

"Well well well," Lucet began sardonically, "it looks like you lied to us about your friend's abilities. It would appear we have no real use for you two at all, do we?"

At a motion from Lucet, one of his men drew his weapon and pointed it at Ando's head.

"Wait," Nitram protested. "I'm a system hacker, and you need that too."

"I already have a computer expert, so it looks like you two are dead weight. Give me one reason to waste my limited manpower watching you."

No one had noticed how the android's gaze was fixed on Ando and Nitram. No one had noticed the low-volume sounds it was making as it tested certain vowels and consonants against the language it was hearing. But when it began to speak in perfect English, everyone noticed.

"Humans!" it said. "Well, I never thought I'd see another human again! It took a moment to retrieve your language from the database. It's quite obscure, of course-"

Lucet whirled around, his jaw hanging open in disbelief. "You ... speak their language?"

"Why yes! As a Kuat Drive Yards customer liaison protocol droid, I am fluent in over six million forms of communication. The base terms and syntactical rules for this language are very obscure and are really retained only for historical purposes, but it appears that it is still in use around this part of the galaxy. Quite fascinating, if I do say so myself. Now if you could re-attach my legs ..."

One of the other Cardassians grabbed Ando and shoved him against a wall. "I thought you said you didn't know who these people were, human!" he snarled.

"I don't!" he protested.

"You LIE!" the Cardassian screamed, drawing his pistol and roughly jamming its barrel against Ando's cheekbone.

"Let him go. That's an order." Lucet said quietly. "So the android knows Earth language. That hardly means anything. So do hundreds of alien species throughout the galaxy. Now tell me android, what kind of ship is this?"

The android straightened its head to look directly at him. "Why sir, everyone in the galaxy can surely recognize an Imperial star destroyer on sight!"

"Star destroyer, eh? So it is a warship. What are its tactical capabilities?"

"Sir, I'm afraid that information is classified. Unless you have level 3 security clearance-"

"Where did it come from?"

The android had no facial expressions, but Lucet could swear that it was smirking at him. "Sir, if you are accepting delivery of this starship as a duly authorized representative of Moff Disra's third expeditionary force, you should already know that."

"And how would I prove that I'm a member of that force?"

"Imperial identity code, sir. But I highly doubt you have it, since Moff Disra's third expeditionary force has human officers."

All eyes immediately moved to Ando and Nitram. "Well, human," Lucet began, "it looks like we're partners again." he said with the most insincere smile Ando had ever seen. Lucet seemed to enjoy toying with them.

Ando ignored him and addressed the droid. "What kind of code?"

"Perhaps if you re-attach my legs in less than 48 hours, I can help you." the droid answered.

"What's so important about 48 hours?" Lucet asked.

"The ship has been in a hibernation state for a considerable period of time, and it will take 48 hours for the main reactor to go on-line."

"And then what?" the two men asked in unison.

"We will regain full control of internal and external sensor and security systems, as well as shields, propulsion, and all weapons."

"Ha!" Lucet snorted. "You're lying, robot. The weapons are already on-line. Our ship was destroyed by them. And unless I miss my guess, that sound we just heard was more weapons fire."

"It would appear that one turret was manually activated. In violation of the cold-start procedure, I might add. Most improper! But I don't think you understand-"

It was Ando's turn to interrupt. "And what happens if we can't prove our identity before then?"

"Then you will be identified as intruders when the main computer goes on-line and activates the security droids." the droid replied calmly.

"And what will happen then?"

"Well sir, obviously ... you will be terminated." it answered, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

[Darth Wong]

Chapter Five

Maquis Raider "Starlight"

T - 48 hours

Dalton and Vympel watched silently as Alkesh flashed by their hiding spot.

"He didn't see us." Vympel reported in an obviously relieved tone of voice.

From the back, Wilson and Sheppard crowded up toward the front. Wilson was a tall, lanky combat veteran who mentored some of the younger men, while Sheppard was a boyish-looking young man with a history of disciplinary problems, but whose connections to the Orion crime syndicate were instrumental in procuring weapons for the colony.

"I hate just sitting here." Sheppard complained. "We should have loaded up a torpedo. Let 'em have it as soon as they pass."

"For what?" Wilson retorted. "To knock a few points off their shields and then have 'em turn around and vapourize us?"

"OK, then we load up some Omega torps." Shep said, grinning widely.

Wilson's expression betrayed exasperation. "Shep, in case you hadn't noticed, the Omega torp-"

"That's enough, you two." Dalton gruffly interrupted. From their vantage point, they watched Alkesh continuing to flee, with the occasional green bolt flashing in its general direction. Vympel started moving to the tactical station to track the fleeing ship, when the ship was suddenly jolted by a tremendous impact. Everyone was sent flying and the ship tumbled end over end, flung like a toy, as if it had been struck by a great hammer. Unbenownst to them, one of the blasts had struck a glancing blow off the far side of the asteroid. Dalton felt himself flying up into the roof, and then being flung just as abruptly toward the back of the ship, only to slam into a bench with a sickening crack. The world seemed to explode into light and sound, and then everything faded into darkness and silence.

He awoke with a start, and looked around in a daze. He couldn't tell if he'd been out for minutes, hours, or seconds. Blood was oozing from a wound on his head, he couldn't tell where. It was in his eyes, and he couldn't see. He tried to wipe his eyes clear, but could only make out vague shapes moving around. A loud hissing sound announced the loss of atmosphere to space through a crack somewhere in the fuselage, and the hull-breach alarm was blaring stridently.

"Vympel!" Dalton shouted. There was no answer. "Anybody! We're venting! Get the emergency forcefields up!"

"Sir, Vympel's down!" Wilson shouted over the noise. He tried to access the control panel, but it was dark. He kicked open the access panel and fumbled with the restart, but to no avail. "Shit!" he screamed, slamming his fist against the panel in frustration. "System's dead! Ahh, to hell with it- that seam can't be too big or we'd all be dead already. I'm gonna try to find it and weld it, sir!" he said, stepping toward the back of the ship with his tricorder in hand.

Dalton tried to help, and struggled valiantly to his feet. But an excruciating pain shot through his leg the instant he tried to put weight on it, and he crumpled to the floor. He heard Wilson shouting instructions, and he could also hear someone screaming. As he slipped out of consciousness once more, he realized the screaming was his own.

________________________________________


Alien Ship, Lower Decks

Lucet held the protocol droid by the neck, angrily spitting out words like venom. "How do we stop it? TELL ME!"

"Stop what, sir?" the droid asked innocently.

"The countdown, you idiot!" Lucet hissed, trying to squeeze the droid's neck harder but with no effect. "How do we stop the countdown?"

"I'm afraid I can't help you until my mobility is restored, sir." the droid responded calmly.

Lucet's grip on its neck did not seem to cause it the slightest discomfort, and he was beginning to feel rather foolish, so he relented. "Is there a self-destruct we can activate?"

"No sir."

"Is there any way to get off this ship?" Lucet said slowly, enunciating clearly as if for emphasis.

"No sir, not without security clearance."

"What if we try to cause as much damage as possible? Is there a way to slow down this start-up process?" Lucet's voice grew more strident.

"Sir, if you cause any kind of significant damage, the computer will automatically change the start-up sequence, and the security droids will be activated early." the droid replied calmly.

"How do I know you're not lying?"

"You do not. But I assure you that you will discover the accuracy of my statements soon enough, sir. If you would reattach my legs, I could possibly try to help you use one of the communications terminals in order to call for help. I am a protocol droid, sir."

"We don't KNOW how to reattach your legs!"

"If you like, I can give your men instructions on the procedure, sir." the droid replied without missing a beat. "I believe I may be able to communicate to them in your native language, if you would prefer. From what I have overheard, it has rather predictable syntactical patterns, and many of the root elements are already in my database."

"Fine. FINE!" Lucet growled, feeling vaguely insulted by the android's evaluation of the Cardassian language. "We'll reattach your legs, and then you will help us find a communication terminal and get off this ship. But don't try any tricks or I'll pull you apart piece by piece." He leaned in close to the droid's face. "Do we understand each other?" he said.

"Perfectly, sir." the droid replied in its infuriatingly calm voice.

Lucet gestured to his men to begin working.

________________________________________


Maquis Raider "Starlight"

T - 45 hours

Dalton heard voices in his head, and tried to wake himself from a nightmare about being trapped on a burning ship.

"Captain?" it was Wilson's voice.

He opened his eyes to see Wilson and several other crew-members hovering over him. He groaned and tried to move.

"Take it easy sir, you broke your leg and split your head open pretty good. Stravo's trying to fuse the bone."

"Uhhhhhh ..." Dalton groaned. "Report." he said hoarsely.

"The asteroid shifted, sir. Must have gotten hit by something on the far side. Smacked into us pretty hard and sent us flying. We sealed the hull breach but warp drive is out and I don't think we'll be able to field-repair it. There's a lot of other damage too; to make a long story short, we have no warp core, no weapons, no shields, and no impulse power. That gaylord is still hanging around. He ran until the derelict stopped firing at him, then he stopped, and now I don't think he knows what to do. He's holding station a few million klicks away."

"How long was I out?"

"About 3 hours, sir."

"Casualties?"

"Mostly bumps and bruises, sir. A couple of the other guys broke a few bones and we're patching 'em up. Vympel's got a concussion, he's still out but Stravo says he'll be OK. But Lars ... he broke his neck."

"Is he ...?"

"He's dead, sir." Wilson answered in a flat tone of voice.

Dalton closed his eyes, and couldn't help but wish this were all just a bad dream. "Understood." he said quietly. He tried to steel himself, to make himself seem authoritative and confident in front of the crew. "OK, forget the core, forget weapons, forget shields. We run off the battery for now. Our first priority is to get propulsion. Any kind of propulsion. I don't care if you give me full impulse, half impulse, or a thruster and a pair of oars. Get on it."

"OK, boss."

Dalton watched them work for a while and then laid back and tried to rest, shifting his leg into a less painful position. He couldn't help but reflect that this was as bleak a situation as he had ever encountered in his time with the Maquis.

________________________________________


Alien Ship, Lower Decks

T - 43 hours

"Sir, your translator devices should all be able to interpret the necessary languages now." the protocol droid said, handing a Cardassian universal translator to Lucet.

"Excellent. You just bought yourself another hour of life. Now show us how to use this comm panel."

The android walked stiffly on its damaged but workable legs to the communications panel and activated it. The view-screen lit up and displayed some cryptic messages in an alien language.

"What's that?" Ando asked.

"The computer is saying that it cannot locate any compatible transceivers." the droid answered, seemingly befuddled. "Oh my," it exclaimed, "I apologize sir, but I forgot to input those peculiar communication protocols you described earlier! I will endeavour to solve the problem."

"Hurry up, android. I don't have all day." Lucet grumbled.

After a few minutes of adjustment and reprogramming, the droid was able to send a Cardassian hailing signal. Much to Lucet's relief, Gul Tain's face appeared on the view-screen.

"Lucet? If this is your idea of a joke ..."

"What joke?" Lucet said, taken aback.

"You fired on my ship! I don't know how you managed to seize control of that vessel, but it belongs to the people of Cardassia. If you are planning to take it for yourself-"

"You don't understand-" Lucet tried to interject.

"Understand what? That you tried to kill me just now?"

"Just shut up and listen to me! I'm not in control of the ship! You have to get us out of here now!"

"You're not in control?"

"I'm not in control! The ship is controlled by androids!"

"Then ... why did it fire on us?" Tain asked slowly, his brain seemingly unable to process this information.

"It's the androids! They've got at least one weapons array working, and I think they'll shoot at anything that looks hostile. I already told you, I'm not in control of the ship!" Lucet spluttered, frustrated by Tain's apparent stupidity. "We have 43 hours before this ship goes on-line, and I don't know what it will do. We have to destroy it before that happens. Call for reinforcements immediately and get us out of here!"

"All right, I'll see what I can do in 43 hours. But it's too dangerous to approach the ship right now, Lucet. Unless you can disable its weapon systems, you're on your own. Tain out." he answered. The view-screen darkened, and was replaced by a diagram of the ship. Lucet moved to turn away but something caught his eye, and he looked carefully at the diagram. Most of it was blacked out, except for a region near the bottom of the ship, one at the bridge, and a lonely bright dot in the midst of the superstructure.

"Android, what is this diagram?"

"Oh, nothing interesting, sir. Just the locations of active communications terminals on the ship."

"These ones down here at the bottom, that's where we are now, correct?"

"Correct, sir."

"And this spot up here at the top?" he said, pointing his finger. "That's the bridge, correct?"

"Also correct, sir."

"And what's this last one? This bright spot in the middle of nowhere?"

"Sir, that would be the Captain's quarters, of course." the droid replied snappily, apparently unaware of Lucet's interest.

Lucet's eyed widened, and he and his men exchanged glances. The potential importance of the captain's quarters did not need to be said aloud.

He immediately turned back to the android. "Take us there. Now."

"If you insist, sir."

Lucet gestured at two of his men. "You two stay here, guard the prisoners and wait for our signal. The rest, come with me."

"Wait," Ando said. "You might need our help."

"Why?" Lucet was in no mood to play games with Ando now. "Your friend there is wounded. He can't travel."

"You heard the android. He knows humans, and he was expecting human officers. Don't you think there's a chance that whoever's up there might react better to a human?"

"Yes, perhaps." Lucet said with a barely perceptible smile. Despite his loathing for humans, he couldn't help but be impressed by this man's ability to think clearly under stress. "Very well, you come with us. I'll leave two men here to guard your friend, and we'll check in when we get to the comm panel in the captain's quarters. Let's go."

________________________________________


Maquis Raider "Starlight"

T - 42 hours

"We've got maneuvering thrusters, sir." Wilson reported. "Manual on/off control only."

"That's it?" Dalton replied.

"Best we could do, sir." Wilson said apologetically. Makeshift wiring connected the ship's working thrusters to control buttons at the front of the ship, and parts of the ship's instrumentation had been cannibalized to make it possible. Dalton looked around, and thought to himself that the ship looked like hell. He couldn't help but feel a swell of pride that his men had somehow been able to scavenge anything useful from this wreck.

"All right, good work. How about sensors and navigation?"

"Nothing, sir. We've only got part of the computer core up, so we're stuck with optical and infrared. I can get you a nice view of that alien ship, but that's it."

"Anything else?"

"Comm system's working, sir. We even managed to pick up a transmission between the Cardies. Open data stream; looks like they managed to commandeer the comm system on the alien ship but luckily for us, they couldn't set up encryption. Anyway, it looks like the ship is controlled by androids and there's some kind of countdown until everything comes on-line. 42 hours left, and the Cardies are scared as hell of what it's going to do when that happens, so they want to get out of there."

"OK, let's move around this rock so we can get a look at that ship."

"No need, sir." Wilson punched the controls, and the ship promptly appeared on his tactical display. "We've already got a line of sight."

"Shit, they can see us?"

"Yes sir. The impact knocked us into the open. They don't seem to care, though. Must be our cold engines. We look like debris."

"Heh heh." Dalton tried to laugh. "Wilson, we are debris." He tried to struggle to his feet, but felt a hand on his shoulder pushing him back down. It was Stravo, wearing a look of concern on his face.

"Sir, I'm sorry but you've suffered a head injury." Stravo said, leaning in closer to inspect the gash on his head and scanning him with his medical tricorder. "You need to stay off your feet for a while, sir."

Dalton grudgingly sat back down on the floor and leaned back against the wall of the ship so that Stravo could continue to work. He tried to see what he could see from his vantage point.

"Wilson, can you get IR?"

"Yes sir." One of the bridge console displays presently showed an infrared view of the ship.

"What do you see?"

"Sir, it looks warm enough to support a habitable atmosphere inside. And there's a huge heat bloom in the middle of its belly. Must be the main reactor."

In the back of the ship, Sheppard fidgeted restlessly. The near-destruction of the ship and the death of a fellow crew-mate had severely shaken the young man's confidence, and he was having difficulty focusing. His cocksure airs had vanished, to be replaced by fear and uncertainty. Without technical training on the Raider, he was not qualified to help out with the repair work, and he found himself simply sitting next to Lars' body and staring at it.

"We're fucked, aren't we?" he mumbled to no one in particular.

"We're not fucked until I say we're fucked, soldier." Dalton growled. "And you don't see me breakin' out any lube, do you?"

"No sir." Sheppard replied, with a trace of a smile. It was much as could be hoped for, and the young man's melancholy expression did seem to brighten. He got up on his feet as if shaking off cobwebs, walked toward the front and took a look down at Wilson's infrared display. "What's this dot?" he asked, pointing toward a hot spot on the superstructure.

"Some kind of gun turret." Wilson replied. "Here, if we switch to visual and zoom in, you can see it pretty clearly." he said, his hands flying over the controls.

"Must be what they were shooting at the Gaylord with." Sheppard commented, beginning to feel more at ease with something other than death to occupy him. Wilson nodded in agreement.

Dalton heard the nickname but was too tired to berate anyone over it. "How many of these turrets do they have?"

Wilson panned around the ship with his display unit, and let out a long, slow whistle. "Sir, these things ... shit, they're everywhere. They must have a hundred of 'em. And they're the small ones! There's a bank of huge turrets flanking their topside superstructure, I don't even want to think about what kind of firepower they're carrying. No doubt about it sir, this thing was built for war."

"And it goes active in 42 hours." Dalton muttered. "I wonder what it'll do first."

"The Cardies are pretty sure it'll go on a rampage, sir. They want to call in reinforcements and destroy it before that happens."

"Amen to that." Sheppard muttered under his breath.

"Typical Cardassian mentality." Dalton snorted. "How do we know these androids won't be interested in negotiation?"

"Sir, that thing was built to negotiate with guns, not words." Wilson answered flatly.

"But only one of those guns is on-line." Dalton retorted. "The rest are all cold, and it looks to me like if we just move a bit more to the right, the ship's superstructure will get between us and the hot gun. Then we can approach the ship."

"Approach the ship?" Wilson asked incredulously. "Sir, won't they just fire up another turret?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. And we don't know how long it takes them to do that. Remember, the Cardies said the ship isn't on-line yet. If it's only partially functional, they might not be able to fire up more than one gun. And their sensors are probably just partial like everything else. If we go to full burn on the thrusters and then coast the rest of the way, they might not even notice us." Dalton replied.

"Sir, are you serious?" Wilson asked.

"Have you got any better ideas? Remember, we used thrusters in plain sight of it once before without drawing any fire." Dalton said.

Sheppard laughed fatalistically. "Things can't get any worse, can they? I say we might as well go for it. Take our chances with the aliens."

Wilson looked from Sheppard to Dalton and sighed heavily. "I hate to agree with our resident loose cannon here, but at least the aliens will probably kill us quickly. That's more than I can say for the Cardies, sir."

"Stravo?" Dalton asked.

Stravo kept working while he answered. "Sir, all I know is that I have to make sure you don't get a brain hemorrhage."

"OK, get everybody up here for a board meeting." Dalton said. He never could bring himself to call these crew consultations "conferences", as was customary when he was in Starfleet, so he had taken to using the old 20th century business term "board meetings". He'd brought that habit to the Maquis, and it seemed to have caught on.

"Board meeting!" Wilson stood up and barked toward the back of the ship. "Bring your own donut!"

The other men dropped their work and filtered toward the front of the ship so that Dalton could address them.

"OK men, here's the deal." Dalton began. "There's an alien ship in front of us, there's Cardies behind us, and our warp drive is history so there's nothing but a slow death in every other direction. We have only two real choices: surrender to the Cardies or try to board that ship and hope we can negotiate or commandeer it. The Cardies will probably kill us. The ship ahead is full of androids who just tried to kill the Cardies, and who might try to kill us too. So what do you say, gentlemen? Everyone in favour of surrendering to the Cardies, say aye." He was met with deafening silence. "Nay it is then. We go for it. All right Wilson, bring us in."

Wilson moved to get into the pilot's seat, but not before Vympel stirred from his spot beside Dalton on the floor. "I- I can handle it, sir." he mumbled groggily, shaking off Stravo's ministrations and trying to sit up.

"You've got a concussion, pilot." Dalton said firmly. "Stay down and let Stravo work on it. That's an order."

Vympel slumped back to the floor, and Wilson dropped himself back into the pilot's seat. He jabbed at the controls, and the ship was roughly nudged and bumped each time the thrusters fired. This was not like normal flight at all; it felt more like being a soccer ball and getting kicked across a field. But it got the job done even if it had to be done in fits and spurts, and they were soon coasting in the direction of the alien ship.

"What do you think?" Dalton asked. "Are they doing anything?"

"No change in their status, sir. If they saw us, they don't care."

"Good. Let's hope it stays that way." He turned around to address the crew. "Cross your fingers, gentlemen. We're in Sir Isaac Newton's hands now." He turned back to the cockpit window and said a silent prayer as their battered little ship coasted silently toward the alien behemoth ahead.

________________________________________


Alien Ship, Crew Quarters

Lucet and his men walked down the corridor lined with doors. Most of them were pristine, but as they approached their destination, the pattern began to change. They could see pockmarks in the walls, and bits of debris laying on the deck. They walked farther, and began to see bloodstains on the floor and walls.

"Looks like a firefight, sir." one of the men piped up, checking his tricorder. "No life-signs, but I'm picking up some organic matter ahead."

Lucet nodded and then turned to the android. "What happened here, android?"

"I'm afraid I don't know, sir. Droids are normally not permitted here."

They continued to walk on. The signs of a firefight became more obvious, and they could see that one of the doors had been blown apart by weapons fire. The tension level immediately skyrocketed and they moved to the door, one man bursting into the room with his weapon up.

"Report!" Lucet hissed.

"Sir ... I think you'd ... better come see this." came the reply.

Lucet and the others moved to the doorway and peered inside. It was a medium-sized room, with a bunk and some shelves and a desk. But their eyes were drawn inexorably to the sight of an apparently human body on the floor, laying in a pool of blood. It was a male, perhaps in his 40s. His features were fine and his hair was brown. He had been eviscerated by what appeared to be an energy weapon of some sort, his abdomen torn open and its innards splayed out in all directions.

Ando immediately began to scan the body with his tricorder, and was hesitant to report his findings.

"Well?" Lucet asked impatiently.

"He's human, Lucet. Pretty well preserved too."

"How long has he been here?"

"Impossible to say. The ship was too cold for his body to decay. All I can tell you is that he must have been dead for at least a few weeks before the ship went cold and the body froze up."

"What happened here?" Lucet asked, speaking to no one in particular. "Are there any other rooms open?"

"Just one, sir." one man reported from outside in the hallway. "The one at the end. Door looks blown open, but from the inside."

Lucet came out into the hallway immediately. "Android, is that one the captain's quarters?"

"Why yes it is." the droid replied brightly. "May I go now?"

"No." Lucet answered brusquely, shoving him towards the end of the hallway in front of him. "Let's go." he said, motioning to his men. One of them roughly pulled Ando away from the body they'd found and dragged him along. The group moved to the wrecked door and burst into the room.

Ando peered around the room, which was in total chaos. Trinkets and various pieces of technology lay strewn about the floor, the desk had been dragged to the centre of the room and turned on its side, and there were innumerable pockmarks in the walls, floor, and ceiling. Several weapons lay on the floor which Lucet's men immediately began to inspect, and there were bloodstains, but there was no body.

"Over here!" one of the men called out, motioning the others to a doorway leading to a second room. Ando and several others rushed to the doorway and saw through into what was obviously the captain's bedroom. There was a large bed, pictures and holographic displays of what appeared to be the captain's family, and the captain himself, sprawled over the bed with half of his skull missing. His brains had been largely evacuated, with blood and viscera sprayed onto the walls. There was a pistol in his right hand, and the wound appeared to have been self-inflicted.

"Holy shit ..." Ando whispered. "What the hell happened here?"

"I was hoping you could tell me, human." Lucet muttered under his breath. His air of superiority was gone, and he was clearly feeling rattled by this discovery. Something had killed these men, and his fervent desire to get off this ship was slowly becoming desperation. There was an almost palpable sense of menace in the air. He cast a glance at his men, and they all showed the same unease in their eyes that he felt.

"What's this?" Ando said as an object in the captain's left hand caught his eye. It was a small palm-sized object with a switch on one side. He gingerly pried it from the dead man's hand and pressed the button. The device immediately projected a holographic image of the captain himself, briefly startling both Ando and Lucet. All of the other men stopped what they were doing to look at the image of the ship's long-dead captain.

"It's here! It's here!!" the ghostly image of the captain said, his face contorted with anguish. "I tried to stop it. Tried to fight it. But it's here. I don't know if anyone's ever going to find this. I don't know where it took my ship. The men ... my men ... they ... " he said, and then he broke down in tears, sobbing.

Ando and Lucet shared looks of alarm as the holographic image continued to weep, tears streaming down his cheeks. "You can't kill it ..." he whimpered. "It won't die ... it gets into your head, and ..." Suddenly, the image of the long-dead captain seemed to stiffen with resolve, and he faced the camera. "I'm putting the ship into hibernation. Perhaps ... perhaps the Emperor will find us someday. Perhaps He has the power to kill it. But ... it is too late for me." he said. "What I do now, I do for the Empire! Long live the Emperor!" he shouted, saluting smartly and then putting a pistol into his own mouth. There was a flash of light, and the projection ended.

There was a stunned silence in the room. And suddenly, Ando felt very, very cold.

[Darth Wong]

Chapter Six

Cardassian Ship "Alkesh"

"Gul Tain ...", the junior sensor operator began excitedly.

"Yes? What is it?"

"I have located a Maquis spacecraft attempting to approach the alien vessel on inertia, sir!"

"Where?"

"Approximately three point nine million kilometres ahead, sir. Current velocity is 30 kilometres per second. At that rate, they'll reach the alien ship in roughly twelve hours." He brought up a tactical display on-screen. Alkesh was the orange triangle at its centre, and three quarters of the way between them and the mile-long dagger-shaped starship was indeed a tiny human vessel, drifting slowly toward the alien hulk.

"Why aren't they being shot at?"

"Perhaps it hasn't identified them as a threat because they're powered down and coasting, sir."

"So we can do the same thing. How much of a head-start do they have?"

"The ship is damaged, and trailing debris, sir." the young officer replied. "From the trail, It looks like it was damaged near this asteroid," he said, highlighting one of the larger rocks on the view-screen. "He apparently used thrusters to push off, and he's been coasting toward the alien ship for roughly four hours."

"Do you mean it's been sitting there for four hours and it took you this long to find it?" Tain asked incredulously. "You're lucky I don't court-martial you for incompetence, fool." If there was one thing he'd learned in his rise through the administration, it was that you should never waste an opportunity to remind people who is in command. "Now let me see it. I haven't got all day." he ordered gruffly.

"Aye sir." the young man responded curtly, as he tried to conceal his reaction to this undeserved rebuke. A high-zoom image of the damaged Maquis Raider promptly appeared on the main viewer.

"Be grateful that you have me as a commanding officer. I will overlook your incompetence for now, but a lesser commander might have written you up for this mistake." Tain said with an exaggerated gesture of magnanimity. "These humans are clever, aren't they? But not as clever as Gul Tain!"

He turned to his XO. "Send two shuttles to pursue. Tell them to coast in at a higher velocity than the humans, in order to cut the travel time down. Their orders are to capture the humans and then seize control of the alien ship, in the name of Cardassia! Once I capture the humans and the alien ship, I expect I will be receiving my promotion to Ligate shortly. Wouldn't you agree, Duman?"

"Yes, Gul Tain." Duman fought down his desire to openly question Tain's fitness for command and moved to carry out the order. Of all the fates that could befall a man in the Cardassian military, it occurred to him that perhaps serving under a political appointee was the worst fate of all. Small wonder Gul Lucet disliked Tain so openly.

________________________________________


Alien Ship, Captain's Quarters

T - 26 hours

"Any luck?" Lucet asked. He rubbed his temples wearily.

"No sir." one of the men replied, working on the console buried in the surface of the dead captain's overturned desk. "Irreparable. Just like all the others." Indeed, every computer console in the room had been shattered or melted through by weapons fire. Whether the captain had accidentally shot them all in his frenzied defense of his quarters or whether he had deliberately destroyed them in some fit of madness would perhaps forever remain a mystery, although the methodical thoroughness of the destruction suggested the latter. But either way, they had run into a dead end.

The dead Captain's quarters had been completely overturned by now, every drawer pulled out and anything that looked remotely like a computer terminal or data-pad analyzed. The same had been done in the other officers' quarters they'd found. The men were all tired, bleary-eyed and tense. For the last 16 hours straight, they'd been combing the area for clues, disassembling and attempting to repair alien computer technology, and even searching through clothing drawers, without success. Some of the men desperately re-checked areas they'd already checked three or four times before, in the vain hope that somehow, they'd find something new this time.

The countdown to the ship's re-activation kept them all on-edge. The thought of an army of those walking robotic killing machines waking up and marching through the ship was disturbing enough on its own, but the thought that some alien presence had annihilated the ship's former crew despite these formidable defenses was simply too terrifying to even consider. To a man, they simply banished the thought from their minds.

Lucet felt the weight of despair upon him, even if he could not reveal his weakness in front of the men. All of his hopes had come crashing down around him in these metal-lined rooms. Even the weapons they'd found discarded on the ground appeared to be useless, their ammunition spent. The dead Captain had apparently used his last remaining shot to kill himself. It's not fair! Lucet thought bitterly to himself. He'd been a good commander. He'd followed the book to the letter, done everything that he was supposed to do. He'd shadowed the humans patiently, never revealing himself until they found what they were looking for. He boarded this ship without incident. He took Maquis prisoners without bloodshed. This should have been his moment of glory. He should be proudly delivering his prize to Central Command right now. Instead, the prize he'd taken turned out to be a ticking time bomb, and his prisoners nothing more than talkative baggage.

"All right, that's it. We're leaving." he announced with finality. "This was a complete waste of time, we've already used up half the deadline, and I'm not spending another minute on this ship." motioning to his men to pack up and leave. "It's bad enough that we have some kind of psychotic war machine hunting us, but it's quite obvious that the Captain of this ship destroyed any information that we could have used to commandeer the ship. And besides ..." he paused, considering his words. "I'm not going to risk further exposure to whatever killed these men."

"You must be joking." Ando replied evenly, standing up from where he had been examining some debris on the floor. No one noticed the small, jagged piece of metal he'd liberated from the remains of a smashed terminal and surreptitiously concealed in his pocket. "The Captain killed himself. He obviously went insane. You don't seriously believe in this superstitious nonsense about an evil presence floating around in this ship, do you?"

"Something made the captain barricade himself in his own quarters. Something made him waste all of his ammunition shooting at the walls. Something made him kill himself."

"Space psychosis, probably caused by isolation." Ando replied evenly.

"I have seen enough strange things out there not to dismiss this so lightly, human." He paused, looking intensely annoyed at himself. "And why am I even debating this with you at all? You are my prisoner! There is no discussion, and no debate! We are leaving, human. Whatever we're looking for, we're not going to find it in these quarters." His men busily packed up their equipment and weapons, looking visibly relieved to be leaving.

The hair on the back of Ando's neck stood on end. He wouldn't admit it to Lucet, but he felt it too. Something icy-cold, malevolent, exploring around the periphery of his consciousness, as if it were looking for a way in. He knew what Cardassians did to prisoners and he didn't want Lucet to deliver him to Cardassian Central Command, but he didn't want to stay here either. Still, he mused to himself, I'd rather take my chances here than on Cardassia Prime. At least here I'll probably get a quick and painless death.

"But we still have 26 hours left!" he protested, still vainly trying to make his case.

"What did I just tell you, human?" Lucet snapped. "This is not a debate! We're going back to collect the men we left down below, and then we're going to find a way to escape this damned-"

He stopped in mid-sentence, and turned to the droid. "Wait a minute," he began slowly, "Android, does this ship have escape pods?"

"Of course, sir." the droid replied. "Escape pods are standard equipment on all multi-passenger Kuat Drive Yards starships. Even low-end civilian models such as the-"

Lucet cut the droid off in mid-sentence by striking it in the chest. It clattered to the ground, falling amidst the flotsam and jetsam of the dead captain's quarters. "You said there was no way to leave the ship! You lied to me!"

"Oh dear, I forgot!" the droid spluttered.

"You ... forgot?" Lucet sneered. "How does an android forget?"

"It did not occur to me that you would want to use the escape pods rather than leaving on a shuttle, sir. I assure you, I had no intention-"

"Shut up, android!" Lucet growled. "I would shoot you where you stand, but you are more valuable to us alive than dead. We're going to retrieve the men we left down below, and then we're going to board these escape pods you forgot to tell us about. Is that clear?"

"Perfectly clear, sir." the droid answered, awkwardly pulling itself back up to its feet.

"Good. We go now."

"Very well, sir." the droid replied smartly. "This way." he said, walking out the door. Lucet followed, along with his men, one of whom roughly forced Ando forward by jabbing the end of his rifle into the small of his back.

They marched in silence toward the turbolift for several minutes, when Lucet abruptly froze in mid-step. At his hand signal, the group stopped with him.

They fell silent, and Ando could hear it. Drag-clank ... drag-clank ... the familiar sound of the alien war machine echoed down the hallways. This is like one of those awful twentieth century horror movies, Ando thought to himself. The monster is always just one step behind you ...

"This just isn't fair." Lucet grumbled beneath his breath, momentarily allowing a look of despair to creep into his expression. Almost immediately, he caught himself, stiffened, and spoke in a firm, clear tone, feigning confidence. "Android, is there another way out of here?"

"Why yes, that corridor leads to another turbolift." the gleaming android replied, pointing down the hallway to an intersection. "If you turn left at that intersection, you can-"

Lucet didn't need any more explanation. "Move!" he said sharply, and his men sprinted for the intersection, taking Ando with them. Ardum tried to drag the android along, but the android's pitifully slow running gait slowed him down. He eventually became frustrated and picked it up in a fireman's carry, slinging him over his left shoulder while holding his rifle in his right hand. He ran toward the intersection as fast as he could, his pulse pounding in his ears and his adrenalin surging.

He rounded the corner and lost his footing as he tried to turn left. He tried to scramble to his feet and pick up the protocol droid again when he saw the hulking war droid step into view behind him. One of its feet was still mangled, and as if in slow-motion, he saw it raising its massive gun arm to fire.

With lightning reflexes, the young Cardassian soldier dropped the android and raised his rifle. His reactions were honed by his harsh Cardassian training and they were as quick as any flesh and blood man could manage. But they weren't quick enough.

Lucet and his men heard the phaser blast, followed almost immediately by the horrible chud-chud-chud sound of the hulking war droid's arm cannon. The crimson bolts of energy vapourized great burning pits out of Ardum's chest, and he had only time enough for a brutally truncated, gurgling scream before collapsing to the deck.

Three of Lucet's men turned at the sound of Ardum's scream and ran back to help. "No, leave him! No!" Lucet shouted, but it was too late. As all three entered the intersection, they were caught by a single burst of automatic fire from the war machine's over-sized arm cannon. They perished almost instantly, with ghastly wounds that left flesh and sinew and intestines flapping loosely from their shattered bodies as they fell to the deck. Ando, Lucet, and his two remaining men did not hesitate now. They ran, with no thought of anything but survival.

________________________________________


Maquis Raider "Starlight"

"Uh oh." Wilson muttered with a calmness that belied the urgency of the situation. They had seen the cavernous opening in the bottom of the ship, correctly guessing that a docking bay or two lay within. But their approach was too fast. Wilson punched the retro-thruster controls, but the retro-thrusters had leaked most of their fuel on the approach and could manage only a few pitiful spurts before shutting down. The metallic behemoth loomed ahead, the docking bay in the side of its underside cavity looking like a very small target now.

"Sir, recommend you prepare for crash landing!" he said urgently. Dalton and the rest of the surviving crew wasted no time following this advice, and hurriedly buckled themselves in.

"HANG ON!!" Dalton shouted seconds before impact. The battered raider careened into the docking bay, crashing into the wall with the distinctive shriek of buckling metal. It fell to the deck with a deafening clang, bounced up onto its side from momentum, and teetered there for what seemed like an eternity before tipping over and crashing heavily on its roof. Dalton looked up at the roof of his ship and saw the hull crack open.

He knew what would happen now: the air would rush out of the ship, his lungs would evacuate, and he would asphyxiate. In mere seconds, his vision would cloud to blackness and he would lose consciousness, and then he would die. He closed his eyes and prepared for the inevitable ... and nothing happened. He opened one eye, looked at the hole in the roof, and saw the deck of the alien ship. There was no explosive decompression. He was still alive.

Painfully, gingerly, he unbuckled himself from his chair, dangling upside down, and lowered himself to the docking bay floor. "Everybody OK?" he called out.

"Shep here. I'm OK." Sheppard grunted from above, still strapped in his seat.

"Sir, Wilson here. I'm OK too. Looks like everybody made it too, boss." he said, unbuckling himself and dropping to the deck beside Dalton.

One by one, they all checked in: Wilkens, Vympel, Typho, Eleas, Coyote, Stravo, Mackey, and Frank. So far, they had only one mission casualty, and Dalton could only hope that it would stay that way.

"Well, it looks like Starlight kept us alive one last time." he said, looking up at the twisted wreck. "She was a good ship," he said wistfully, patting the hull. He paused for a moment, then looked around the large docking bay. One side was open to space, the atmosphere obviously contained by a forcefield. The other side obviously led into the ship. "But we've got a job to do. Get everybody ready to move."

"Yes sir." Wilson answered crisply. "You heard the Captain, get your gear!"

The men obeyed, gathering up weapons and equipment from the wreckage as quickly as they could.

"How's the leg, sir?" Stravo inquired.

"It feels good as new." Dalton lied. Stravo's field med-kit devices repaired the broken bone, but not the injured muscles and tendons around it. Each step sent a fresh wave of pain shooting up his leg, but he could work through it. "How about Vympel?"

"He's still got a concussion, sir. He's not going to be very mobile for a while."

Dalton nodded and knelt next to Vympel, who was sitting on the deck by the wrecked ship, cradling his phaser rifle in his lap. "You OK?"

"I'm all right, sir. I can keep up." he answered bravely.

"Good. But I need you here. See if you can figure out how to fly any of those alien ships." he ordered, pointing at the collection of gleaming shuttles, gunships, and transports which sat on the deck of the cavernous docking bay. "Sheppard!"

Sheppard came loping over. "Yeah Captain?"

"You stay behind and assist Vympel. If you see any Cardies, you know what to do."

Sheppard held his rifle high. "Yes sir. No Cardie's getting past me, sir."

The corners of Vympel's mouth crinkled into a smile. "I'll try to keep Shep from wetting himself, sir."

"Blow me." Sheppard shot back.

Dalton suppressed a smile and turned to the others. "All right, move out!"

________________________________________


Alien Ship, Crew Quarters

Ando, Lucet, and his remaining men stumbled into the turbolift, panting from exhaustion and terror. Lucet frantically pressed buttons and they breathed a collective sigh of relief when the turbolift doors finally slid shut. Their escape might have been cause for celebration, but they had lost the protocol android, and they'd left the bodies of four comrades behind. The atmosphere of fatalistic despair was overwhelming. One of Lucet's two surviving men cowered in the corner of the turbolift, clutching his rifle with a white-knuckled grip and staring wild-eyed at the door as if he expected the war droid to burst through it at any moment.

Lucet cleared his throat. "All right men, we lost our android so we have to find the escape pods on our own."

"And just how do you plan to do that? Ask for directions?" Ando asked skeptically.

Lucet turned to Ando with a smile, and then abruptly struck him with his right hand. Ando was taken completely by surprise, and barely reacted before Lucet's fist slammed into the side of his face, knocking him to the deck in a heap. When he fell, Lucet kicked him for good measure.

"Four of my men just died, human!" he snarled. "Your next insolent remark will be your last. Do you understand?"

Ando said nothing. Blood oozed from his lip, and the left side of his face felt numb. He cursed inwardly at his lack of verbal self-control. This isn't one of those twentieth century movies where the good guys wisecrack and never die, you idiot, he thought to himself. "Yes, Gul Lucet." he said quietly. Time was running out. He had to seize the next opportunity to escape.

[Darth Wong]

Chapter Seven

Alien Ship, Lower Decks

Elsewhere on the ship, Dalton and his men moved stealthily through the wide corridors. They stuck to the portions of the ship which were well-lit, reasoning that any occupants would be found here.

Abruptly, Wilson threw up his hand and the squad stopped, pressing against the walls. Dalton motioned for Wilson to move back towards him.

"Whatcha got?" he whispered.

"Three life-signs around the next corner, 30 metres away. One human, two Cardies, sir." Wilson whispered back.

Dalton considered the situation for a moment. "They have a hostage. If they knew we were here, they would be trying to contact us. So this means we have the element of surprise. Take 'em down. I want prisoners" he whispered.

Wilson smiled. "Two hogtied Cardies coming right up, sir." He removed his bulky equipment backpack to cut down on the noise, switched his phaser to a wide-beam stun setting and quietly crept toward the corner. The rest of the squad stayed back but readied themselves to assist in case it all went wrong. But they were not needed. He dove around the corner, fired a single burst, and then stood up to examine his handiwork.

________________________________________


Not too far away, the remains of Lucet's squad moved quickly through the wide corridors of the ship to rendezvous with the men he'd left behind to guard Nitram. But they stopped when Lucet abruptly froze in mid-step, listening for something. The thought of their robotic stalker was ever-present, and the men all tensed. But it was not the robot this time; it was the distinctive sound of a Federation phaser rifle being discharged. And now he could faintly hear voices in the distance.

He signaled to his men, and they continued cautiously forward. As they did, he noticed that the voices abruptly fell silent, which meant that they knew he was here. He signaled again, and his men moved carefully, quietly toward the next junction. They were approaching the rendezvous, and it was obvious that the humans had taken the position and were waiting for him.

The thought of a prisoner exchange flashed through his mind, but he dismissed it as quickly as it came. The Maquis were unpredictable. Some of them lived by the Federation code even now that their Federation had all but abandoned them, but others had adopted the mentality of the Bajoran terrorists and would coldly sacrifice their comrades in order to kill a Cardassian. He could not afford to take the chance. And with the robot undoubtedly still searching for them, they had no time for games or stand-offs anyway. They could only go forward, without hesitation.

He peeked around the corner to get a clear shot at the rendezvous point, and was greeted with a hail of phaser fire. He fired back immediately, the air quickly filling with glowing orange beams of energy lancing back and forth down the corridor. Both sides were cautious, barely peeking around cover to fire. The corridor echoed with the characteristic hissing sound of phaser beams burning pathways through the air.

At that moment, with both of Lucet's men distracted by the heat and noise of the engagement, Ando made his move. His heart was pumping so hard that he could hear the blood rushing in his ears, and with the small metal "shiv" he had pocketed in the captain's quarters, he viciously stabbed one of the Lucet's two remaining men in the neck. The soldier fell back against the wall, his eyes wide in shock. Ando seized his rifle from his still-twitching hands, turning to fire point-blank at the second man, hitting him in the chest before he could react.

"Freeze! Lower your weapon!" he screamed at Lucet, his hands shaking from the adrenalin. The Cardassian officer obeyed, slowly lowering his weapon to the deck and standing up with his hands folded behind his head. He turned around to look at Ando, and his eyes surveyed the scene. Both of his two remaining men lay dead, one from a phaser wound to the chest and the other from a gushing neck wound. When he finally spoke, it was slowly and deliberately, between gritted teeth. "It appears that I underestimated you, human. I won't make that mistake again."

Ando kept the rifle pointed at Lucet's head. His pulse pounded in his ears and his hands were still shaking, ever so imperceptibly, from the adrenalin coursing through his veins. He tried to think of a witticism, but decided not to bother. "Move!" he said, gesturing with the rifle.

________________________________________


In the docking bay, Vympel sat at the controls of an Imperial Lambda-class shuttle. Before him was a bewildering array of controls, lights, and displays, none of which looked remotely familiar. Worse yet, the entire panel was dark, and he couldn't even figure out how to switch it on, if indeed the ship had any power at all. He had resorted to randomly pressing buttons and throwing switches, to no avail.

"Hey, maybe it's just out of fuel. For all you know, it's been here since the Bronze Age." Sheppard said from the back of the ship.

"Hmmph. Maybe. Well, at least it looks nice from the outside." Vympel muttered irritably. He continued to randomly push buttons until he was startled by a loud bang from the back of the ship. He jumped up out of his chair, only to nearly lose his balance and fall down again from the rush of blood and the sudden pounding in his skull. He leaned against the chair to steady himself and then looked up at Sheppard, who had badly damaged the stock of his rifle trying to bash a panel in.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Shep answered. "I'm trying to open up this panel. I don't see any conduits running to it. I think it's just a locker." He continued to bash the panel with the butt of his rifle, while Vympel stood by with a bemused look on his face. He was about to make a dismissive remark when Sheppard finally got fed up, set his rifle to a short-range cutting beam, and began trying to cut his way through.

"Shep, back off, goddammit! You're gonna destroy whatever's in there!" he shouted. He walked up and reached for the rifle, intending to snatch it away, but Sheppard cut off the beam before he could reach it. There was a look of triumph on his face, and Vympel looked down at the panel. Sure enough, Sheppard had burned through the lock.

Sheppard greedily pried open the dented panel and looked inside. "Jackpot!" he said, his eyes gleaming.

________________________________________


"We're all going to die, you know." Lucet said sardonically. His hands were tied behind his back, but he had lost none of his characteristic arrogance. If anything, now that he was relieved of the burden of command he had actually become more arrogant. Nitram and the two men Lucet had left behind to guard him were still unconscious, and Ando toyed with the idea of torturing his men in order to take some of the wind out of Lucet's sails. But he dismissed the idea almost as quickly as it came, and was somewhat alarmed that he would even consider it. Would I really do that? he asked himself. No, of course not. Only Cardassians would do something like that.

Dalton turned to glare at Lucet. "Shut up, Cardie." he barked impatiently.

"Or what?" Lucet asked with a mocking tone in his voice. "Are you going to shoot me now? You don't have what it takes to kill a prisoner in cold blood, human."

"Who says I won't do it?" Dalton retorted, pointing his phaser rifle at Lucet's head.

Lucet turned away and looked at Ando, pointedly ignoring Dalton. "You know, on Cardassia we would not even be having this conversation. Do you know how we treat prisoners on Cardassia?"

Ando ignored him, so Lucet continued. "First, we deprive them of food and water. Then, we surgically implant a sub-dermal pain inducer. Quite a wonderful little piece of technology, you know. It's really rather fascinating how such a small device can cause such excruciating pain. Rest assured, any information that you possess will become ours in short order once you have been properly broken. In fact-" Lucet's voice trailed off into silence.

"What's the matter, cat got your tongue?" Dalton quipped.

The expression on Lucet's face had changed from bemusement to fear. "It's coming. I hear it."

"Oh shit ..." Ando said. "We've gotta get out of here right now!"

"OK, back to the docking bay, on the double!" Dalton ordered. It was the only logical place to make a stand. If Ando's reports could be believed, this robot was powerful and heavily armoured, perhaps even shielded. But it was not indestructible, and they'd successfully damaged it with a phaser overload. Their best chance was to use the equipment and starships in the docking bay as cover and hit it with everything they had at once, just as it came through the door.

"Sir, what about the prisoners?" Wilson asked. Lucet could run despite having his hands tied. But they already had to carry Nitram, and the idea of having to drag three unconscious men all the way to the docking bay was not an appealing one.

Dalton knew what a Federation officer would do. He would order his men to carry both of the unconscious Cardassians with them. But he was not a Federation officer.

"Leave them behind." he ordered.

"Sir?"

"I can't risk the safety of my men for a couple of wounded Cardies. We're already carrying Nitram, we can't afford to carry them too."

"Then you will leave me with them." Lucet announced loudly.

"No. You're coming with us, or I'm gonna shoot you right now." Dalton said coldly. He had his principles, but he had no time for this.

"Then shoot me. I will not leave my men." Lucet answered with a steely glare.

Dalton stared back for a moment, and then shrugged. On some level, he had to respect Lucet's refusal to leave his men. "Fine. It's your funeral." he said, tossing a knife to the floor. "Maybe you can cut your bonds before it gets here. Good luck." He left with the rest of the team and didn't look back.

________________________________________


Cardassian Ship "Alkesh"

"Sir, I have an incoming communication from Central Command."

"Classified?" Tain asked absent-mindedly while drumming his fingers on the armrest of his chair. The seemingly interminable wait for his shuttles to reach the alien vessel had become rather tedious, and he knew there were better things that someone of his stature could be doing.

"Yes sir."

"I'll take it in my quarters." Tain replied. "The XO has the conn."

He marched swiftly to his quarters and activated his view-screen. After the retina-scan and password were entered, the visage of Legate Dinon flashed up on the viewer.

Tain stood immediately stiffened and stood ramrod-straight. "Legate Dinon, to what do I owe the honour of this-"

"Spare me the pleasantries, Tain." Dinon interrupted. "It has come to my attention that you have diverted every ship under your direct command to a remote area of your territory. Would you care to explain why?"

"Legate," Tain stammered while trying to remain calm, "I did not realize that you would take an interest in the security affairs of a minor territory such as mine. If I had known, I would have kept you informed of all-"

"Tain!" Dinon interrupted again, more sternly this time. "Your family may have powerful connections in the Central Command, but I assure you that keeping secrets from me and misappropriating Cardassian fleet resources for undisclosed reasons can have serious consequences. What is going on out there?"

Tain thought of continuing his subterfuge, but decided against it. The stakes were too high now.

"Legate, I have-" he corrected himself, deciding against continued deception. "I mean, Gul Lucet has discovered an alien derelict ship in an asteroid field in the demilitarized zone, sector six."

"And this warrants the diversion of every ship under your command?"

"Legate, the ship appeared to be a derelict but it is apparently controlled by androids, who were awakened during Lucet's boarding operation. The alien vessel is re-initializing itself and I have been told that it will become fully operational within another day. Its technology is of unknown origin. It has already captured Lucet, destroyed his ship, and fired at my cruiser. I have ordered all my ships into the area to destroy the vessel before it can become fully active."

Legate Dinon's expression grew hesitant, and Gul Tain could see his eyes darting to the side. The reason soon became clear, as a Vorta stepped into view. She had the characteristic pale skin and short dark hair of all Vorta.

"Gul Tain, I would like to introduce you to Belath." Dinon said with only a trace of reluctance. As you know, we have recently allied with the Dominion, who are aiding in the defense of our borders against Federation and Klingon aggression. Belath is the new Vorta overseer for this sector." Legate Dinon said, with an air of deference that startled Tain. Weren't these new Dominion allies supposed to be equal partners? Why should a Legate show such deference to a mere Dominion lackey? What had happened here? He made a mental note to contact his uncle on Cardassia Prime at the first opportunity.

"Greetings, Gul Tain" purred Belath. "We are dispatching several Jem'Hadar vessels to your location. Do not take any further actions until they arrive and assume control of the situation. Is that understood?"

Tain pointedly looked at Legate Dinon rather than the female Vorta. The Dominion's genetically engineered Jem'Hadar soldiers had a notorious reputation, and he didn't like the idea of these Jem'Hadar commandeering his operation. "Legate, are these the orders of the Cardassian Central Command?" He put special emphasis on the word "Cardassian".

Legate Dinon wore a pained expression, but it vanished almost immediately, to be replaced by a broad smile. "Of course. The Dominion are our new partners, and we have all agreed that this will be a joint operation, under the command of Belath. You are to follow her orders for the duration of the mission. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir." Gul Tain said. "Crystal clear." He may not have been a particularly good naval officer, but Tain knew politics, and something was wrong here. He had his misgivings about this "alliance" with the Dominion ever since it had been announced, but he never expected something like this. The benefits of the treaty for Cardassia were obvious: it would have a powerful new ally against the Federation and the Klingons. But what did the Dominion stand to gain?

Tain had a disquieting feeling that the Dominion had intended from the beginning to absorb Cardassia into their own empire, and that the treaty wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. If they defeated the Federation and Klingons as promised, they might well end up taking over the entire quadrant, Cardassia included.

He thought about the situation at length, and then stood up and walked back onto the bridge to address his XO. "Duman, we have been ordered to take no further action. We are to hold position here and await the arrival of a Dominion overseer who will assume control of the situation."

"A Dominion overseer?"

"That's right. A Dominion overseer. A female Vorta, by the name of Belath. This is now a joint Dominion and Cardassian operation, by which Central Command apparently means that the Dominion makes the decisions, and we obey them."

"I ... see." Duman replied. He knew what Tain was thinking, and for once, he agreed. This situation did not look good at all. "What about the two shuttles we sent? They're about to land on the alien ship."

Tain thought about that for a moment. "She ordered me not to take any further action. I ordered those shuttles to board the alien ship hours ago, so technically, that is not a further action." He leaned back in his chair and smiled. He may have been put under the command of Dominion overseers, but that didn't mean he couldn't interpret semantics.

________________________________________


Jem'Hadar Battle Cruiser

"Kalan'Adar, this is Belath. You are to hold position until I arrive, and then you are to take me to sector six of the Cardassian/Federation DMZ. Maximum warp."

"We stand ready to receive you." Kalan'Adar responded. Kalan'Adar was an experienced Jem'Hadar commander, and Jem'Hadar did not tolerate inaction well. He reflected that this business of Cardassian rebuilding had taxed his patience to near the breaking point. If it were not for the soothing effect of the Ketracel White drugs that all Jem'Hadar used to calm their nerves, his crew might well have mutinied by now.

"Instruct the crew to prepare for a hostile vessel recovery operation. Our new Cardassian allies have discovered a powerful ship of unknown origin, and we intend to take it by force."

"As you command." Kalan'Adar said, trying to keep his excitement from affecting his stoic expression. "We stand ready. Ready to die for the glory of the Founders!" He looked around the bridge, and he knew what the others were thinking. At last, it was time. They would show these puny Cardassians and soft humans how true warriors could fight.

________________________________________


USS Hornet

Captain Sorresso leaned back in his chair, his hands folded behind his head. "Captain's Log, Stardate 50566.8. The Hornet has been holding station near a fascinating discovery: an ancient derelict starship, apparently of human origin although we have no idea how that is possible. The Cardassian starship Alkesh is also in the vicinity, but we've managed to use our superior sensor range to avoid detection. Congratulations are in order for whoever designed the new DLQ-88 sensor package."

Transmissions between the derelict vessel and Alkesh have revealed that the ship will become active in less than twenty six hours, and the Cardassians are convinced that it is a major threat. They have called in reinforcements to destroy the ship. These reinforcements will arrive in approximately three hours. These reinforcements will include a Dominion battle cruiser, which should give us an excellent opportunity to observe one of these vessels in action. The intelligence-gathering potential is high.

Captain Sorresso took a deep breath and continued. "Complicating matters is the presence of Maquis on the ship, as well as an unknown number of Cardassians. Therefore, I must now make a difficult decision. I can destroy Alkesh and attempt to capture the ship myself before Cardassian reinforcements arrive, or I can stay hidden and continue to observe."

He stroked his chin and pondered for a moment, staring absent-mindedly at the picture of the long, dagger-shaped alien vessel that appeared on his view-screen. "Since intact capture is highly unlikely, I conclude that my objective must be to ensure that no useful technology is recovered from the wreckage after the Cardassians destroy the derelict. Since we have time, I intend to move off at low speed to avoid detection, and then contact Starfleet Command for further instructions."

He sat back in his chair, replaying his monologue in his mind when his communicator beeped. "Yes?"

"Captain, we're picking up a civilian distress call."

"From whom?"

"It's a Maquis colony, codenamed HR51. They're under attack, sir."

________________________________________


Maquis Colony HR51

Natalie Andolsek clutched her children to her side as they made their way up the winding path to the mountain shelters. This colony had successfully avoided some of the more violent actions that had characterized Maquis/Cardassian relations in recent years, and they had grown a bit complacent. But that complacency disappeared when they detected two Jem'Hadar attack ships approaching the colony.

These Jem'Hadar were far more aggressive than the Cardassians had ever been; they had swept aside the colony's orbital defense drones with contemptuous ease, and were already strafing the colony from the air. It was even rumoured that their foot soldiers could become invisible.

She looked back with sadness at the colony, which was already in flames. Thick black smoke curled into the sky from where their community used to be. Her house was back there, along with far too many personal mementos, and a few brave souls who had decided to man the defense guns to buy the rest of the settlers time to escape.

She saw a phaser beam lance into the sky, striking one of the small Jem'Hadar attack ships and flaring against its shields. One of the other ships immediately targeted the source of the beam, and fired torpedoes. She saw the bright flashes and turned away. It was more than thirty seconds before she could hear the thundering sound of the explosions.

She choked back tears of regret. For years, the Federation had been telling them to move. "Leave the disputed territory" they said. "Your land is not worth your lives." It sounded cowardly and unprincipled, next to all of that high-minded Maquis talk about standing for ideals and not letting others take what they had spent years to build. But if she had taken that advice, she and her children would be sitting in a comfortable Federation colony right now.

What were we thinking? she asked herself bitterly. She was painfully aware that their pride could very well mean the deaths of her children now, and it all seemed so stupid now. It was so easy to keep telling herself that everything would turn out OK, and that anyone who said otherwise was an "alarmist". If only she had listened! She kept trudging forward, and stole a glance at the sky. Her husband was up there somewhere. I hope you're OK, Bill. Wherever you are.

[Darth Wong]

Chapter Eight

Alien Ship, Port Docking Bay

T - 24 hours

"We salvaged two isomags from the wreckage of Starlight, sir." Sheppard reported. "I also recovered some alien weapons from one of the ships, but I'm not sure how to use 'em. I don't even know how to load 'em."

The isomags, or isomagnetic disintegrators, were a shoulder-fired weapon that resembled a grenade launcher. They fired a small missile with an anti-gravity unit which made it glow in flight, and an inertial guidance system to ensure a nearly perfectly straight flight path, even over long distances. The missile packed much more of an explosive punch than phasers, which was convenient since this battledroid could be damaged by explosions. Ando had proven that once already.

"All right, forget the alien weapons." Dalton replied, still out of breath from running back to the docking bay. "Wilson, you and Shep each take an isomag and find cover on the flanks. The rest of us will set up behind the wreckage of Starlight and open fire as soon as he shows up. We'll draw him out into the middle of the docking bay, and set up a kill zone."

"Yes sir." Wilson replied smartly.

"And Wilson ..." Dalton began.

"Yes sir?"

"Don't miss."

"We won't, sir." he smiled, nodded at Sheppard, and sprinted off to take position behind one of the alien shuttlecraft. Sheppard ran off in the other direction, and the rest went with Dalton.

There they waited. Minutes passed, but they felt like hours. The damaged war droid seemed to move at a snail's pace, and it seemed as if its limping footsteps had been echoing down the hallway forever. It was close. Ando's nerves were frayed, his hands were shaking, and his mouth was dry.

"How long is it going to take for that gimpy son of a bitch to show up?" he asked.

"He'll be here soon enough." Dalton replied, peering over the remains of a bulkhead. "Try to relax."

"Relax? How am I supposed to relax when-"

"There he is!" Dalton shouted, raising his weapon and firing a short burst. The others began to do the same, taking turns popping up and firing at the war droid from their various positions around the wrecked ship. The war droid predictably responded with a hail of blaster bolts, but Dalton's men were careful never to expose themselves for long.

The war droid had identified its targets by now, and continued lumbering down the hallway toward the docking bay.

Target identification: 11 infrared signatures. Species: human. 10 unique identifications. 1 target obscured and laying prone, possibly injured. 1 identification matches 1 of 2 intruders encountered in storage bay at timestamp 0000D0. Target threat assessment: small-arms fire only, beam weapons rating: damage class 0.63, based on feedback data from primary armour cooling system. Insufficient to penetrate armour. Beam weapons have explosive detonation mode: damage class 1.21, based on damage from prior combat incident at timestamp 00CAF8. Tactical analysis: targets clustered deep in docking bay 02, using damaged spacecraft of unknown design for cover. Direct line of sight to targets can be achieved by moving 5 metres into docking bay at bearing 350 from entranceway. Warning: 92% probability of flanking ambush based on similar threat configurations in combat database. Scan accordingly.[/code]
"Keep fire on him!" Dalton shouted. A steady staccato pattern of phaser blasts struck the hulking droid, which seemed to shake them off like a gentle rain. It moved into the docking bay exactly as expected.

"Come on ..." Dalton muttered to himself. "Take the bait ..."

The war droid stopped just short of the door, and Dalton's heart sank. Oh shit ... he thought to himself. The droid stuck its head through the door and quickly scanned left and right. Wilson was hiding inside one of the alien spacecraft and waiting for the signal, but Sheppard, in his eagerness, could not resist peering around the corner that he was using for cover. The droid immediately locked onto him and raised its arm to fire. The heavy chud-chud-chud sound of its fully automatic blaster cannon echoed throughout the docking bay.

"I'm pinned down!" Sheppard screamed, diving to the floor. Red-hot glowing debris scattered from the blaster impact points, showering over him and burning his skin.

"Shit! Hit him with everything you got!" Dalton shouted. His men immediately unleashed a hail of rapid-fire shots from their phaser rifles. The blasts struck the war droid's thick armour all around its head and torso, creating showers of sparks that almost obscured its body at times, but the war droid ignored them. It had already identified Sheppard's isomag as probably being superior to their phaser rifles, and was zeroing in on its target.

At that moment, Wilson slid down the loading ramp of the alien shuttlecraft he was hiding in, slung the isomag to his shoulder, took quick aim, and fired off a round. It struck the droid squarely in the back and exploded, buckling its armour plate inwards. The droid staggered, stopped, and turned around. It continued to ignore Dalton and his men, and it fired a hail of blaster bolts in Wilson's direction as he scrambled back up the landing ramp into the shuttle. "Shep! Hit it now!" he screamed.

Sheppard hastily brushed off the burning debris, scrambled to his feet, and hoisted the isomag to his shoulder. He sighted down the barrel and fired, but his hands were shaking and the round narrowly missed to the left. Disgusted with himself, he ducked back down behind cover and reloaded, his hands working with a speed borne of endless practice.

The war droid fired one more flurry of blasts at the shuttlecraft Wilson was hiding in, and then began to turn back toward Sheppard. Its gun-hand swung around just as Sheppard brought up his own isomag to fire again. He saw the gun arm as if it was moving in slow-motion, but his own finger was already squeezing the trigger of his isomag. The weapon spit out a glowing round which leapt across the gap between him and the war droid in a split-second, crashing directly right into its chest.

The explosive round created a concussive shockwave which shattered an actuator assembly in its hip, and the droid found itself losing control of its right leg. The leg gave out completely, and the droid fell to the deck. Dalton let out a whooping cry of triumph, but the droid was still moving, struggling to raise itself on its arms. "Hit it again! Hit it again!" he shouted.

Wilson rolled down the landing ramp of the shuttle and fired another round, this one striking the droid squarely in the head. The side of its head buckled inwards, and sparks shot out in all directions. It fell to the deck, moving no more. Green fluid seeped out of its head and spilled onto the deck-plates. Wilson and Sheppard hurriedly reloaded their isomags, neither man entirely willing to believe that it was dead.

"Wilkie, check it out." Dalton ordered.

"Yes sir." Wilkens responded, approaching the war droid warily. Sheppard and Wilson both covered him with their isomags as he neared the unmoving machine, ready to blast it again at the first sign of movement. He scanned it with his tricorder from close range, his heart pounding. He made sure to pay special attention to the slowly cooling blaster arm.

"Power readings dropping fast sir, almost down to zero." he reported with a relieved look on his face. He waited a few more seconds. "We're clear!"

"YES!" Sheppard hollered, whooping and slapping Wilson on the back. He swaggered up to the motionless droid. "How'd you like that? Huh? Not so tough now, are ya?"

"I don't think he can hear you, Shep." Dalton said with a smile. "Everybody OK?"

"Everybody looks OK, boss." Wilson answered.

Dalton let out a long breath and leaned back, exhausted, against what was left of Starlight. They took it out without suffering any casualties; he couldn't have asked for a better outcome than that. Those isomags were worth every credit, he thought to himself.

Wilson inspected his isomag. "Sir, we've only got two isomag rounds left. If we run into another one of those things ..."

"We're dead. I know." Dalton replied. "Well, at least we have another 24 hours to figure something out before everything starts up."

"Yeah, that's ... " Wilson began, then hesitated. "Uhhh, sir?"

"What?"

"Boss, you might want to look behind you. The other docking bay."

Dalton turned around and looked behind Starlight. Behind it was the mouth of the docking bay, where a forcefield held the air against the vacuum of space. Outside, he could see the great cavity in the underside of this alien vessel, and on the other side of the cavity, another identical docking bay. And inside that other docking bay, he could see a pair of Cardassian shuttles debarking their crews.

"Wonderful. Just wonderful." Dalton said, reloading his phaser and doing a quick head-count of the Cardassians. "I count at least forty men. They must have had 'em crammed in there like sardines."

"Those shuttles are warp-capable, sir." Wilson said. "We could use 'em to get out of here. All we have to do is get around those Cardies. Maybe we could try to draw them off and then double back around to that docking bay, sir."

"Not a bad plan, but we don't even know the layout of this ship. With our luck we'll end up backing ourselves into a dead end somewhere."

"Sir," Ando piped up. "We left an android back in crew quarters that knows our language and also knows the layout of this ship. If we go back there ..."

"We can grab the android and have an advantage. Good idea. Show us the way, Ando. And Shep ..."

"Yeah, boss?"

"Grab some of those alien weapons and bring 'em with us. They might come in handy."

________________________________________


USS Hornet

Captain Sorresso wore a pained expression as he sat in his ready room. "Admiral Sanchez, we're no longer receiving the distress call from the Maquis colony on Hotel Romeo Five One. In light of the Dominion comm traffic coming from that area, we can only assume that the colony is under attack by Dominion forces."

"You are not to take any action against Dominion forces at this time." Admiral Sanchez replied coolly.

"Admiral, there are thousands of civilians on that colony."

"You have your orders, Captain. You are to take no action against Dominion forces at this time."

"Sir, with all due respect, Starfleet regulations require that we answer distress calls."

"Only if it is practical to do so, and assuming you do not have a maximum-priority directive which overrides this regulation. You have one now. You are to continue gathering data on Dominion capabilities, particularly the tactical capabilities of this Dominion battle cruiser which will be arriving at your location. You are not to take any offensive action unless you have credible evidence that the Dominion is about to successfully acquire valuable technology from the alien vessel. And just to make this perfectly clear, you are not to leave your location to assist the Maquis colony on Hotel Romeo Five One."

"Understood, sir. Permission to speak frankly, sir."

"Go on."

"Unless you're sending someone else to Hotel Romeo Five One, you're sentencing thousands of civilians to die."

"Captain, the stakes are higher than you realize. You must not reveal this information to anyone else, but we have credible intel that the Dominion already has enough ships in the quadrant to be a serious threat to both the Federation and the Klingons. There's a full-scale war coming, and your mission takes ultimate priority over everything else, never mind some rebel colony in the DMZ. Gather intel on the capabilities of their battle cruisers, and deny them access to any alien technology if necessary. The security of the Federation is at stake. All other standing orders are rescinded for the duration of this mission, is that clear?"

"Yes sir." Captain Sorresso replied. "Crystal clear."

The screen went blank. Captain Sorresso got up and stared out the windows, pacing back and forth. He had heard the rumours, but Starfleet Command was keeping its information very close to the vest this time. If the Dominion had enough military power to simultaneously challenge both the Federation and the Klingons, the situation was indeed much worse than he'd been led to believe. Too bad about those poor Maquis on HR51.

________________________________________


Maquis Colony HR51

Ota'Klan sat on the bridge of his small Jem'Hadar attack ship and looked at the burning colony with a mixture of satisfaction and disappointment. The humans had put up such pitiful resistance that the victory seemed empty. He would gladly die in battle for the glory of the Founders, but this was not battle. It was more like pest control. He opened his comm channel to contact Kalan'Adar's battle cruiser.

"Kalan'Adar, I report that the first phase of the operation is complete. The human colony has been destroyed, although some survivors may have been evacuated to the nearby dilithium mines in the mountains. Our ships sustained minimal damage, and no losses."

"Excellent, Ota'Klan." Kalan'Adar replied. "The Vorta Belath has conveyed the Will of the Founders to me. We are to divert to a mission of the highest priority, so I will not be arriving as scheduled. You are to pacify the surrounding areas yourself, and secure the area until my ship arrives."

"Understood."

"How much resistance do you anticipate?"

"It is difficult to say. There are large deposits of magnesite mixed with the dilithium ores in those mountains, and they are interfering with our sensors. We are ... having difficulty determining how much of the colony population was evacuated."

"Remember, Ota'Klan, the Dominion needs those dilithium mines intact. You must not destroy them with bombardment, so the survivors must be eliminated on foot."

"These humans are more like prey than warriors. We will destroy them easily." Ota'Klan replied confidently.

Kalan'Adar was pleased by the junior officer's eagerness, but not by his overconfidence. It stank of inexperience. "Beware, Ota'Klan. Tunnel warfare is highly dangerous, even against lesser opponents like these humans. And your attack ships can deploy only two dozen men."

"My warriors will not fail." Ota'Klan replied stubbornly. "When you arrive, not one of these cowardly humans will remain! Glory to the Founders!" Ota'Klan said with pride.

"Glory to the Founders." Kalan'Adar replied, his own chest swelling with pride. He had said those words far more times than he could count, and it felt good each and every time. He wondered how these unbelievers could function. What drove them to fight? What did they live for? They did not see themselves as living vessels for the Will of the Founders. Instead, their entire society existed simply to meander through time, exploring its environment and perpetuating itself like an endless insect colony.

There was no higher purpose, no divine inspiration. And without divine guidance, what were they? The answer was clear: they were nothing more than a glorified fungus, an infection to be cleared away. If they would not recognize the purpose of life and submit to the Will of the Founders, then their lives served no purpose at all. And he, Kalan'Adar, would be the instrument of their extermination. Nothing could please him more.

If he had cared to examine his own thoughts, he would have wondered why the words "Glory to the Founders" so easily washed away his misgivings about Ota'Klan's overconfidence. But Jem'Hadar did not do such things. Once their psychological triggers were pulled, they generally acted according to programming. Not that they could be blamed for this; after all, they were built that way.

________________________________________


Alien Ship, Crew Quarters

Ando was the first to spot the damaged protocol droid, still lying amidst the burned and scattered body parts of four Cardassians at the junction of two corridors. He ran to the fallen droid and scooped it up. Its legs had been damaged in the cross-fire when the war droid had blasted the Cardassians, but it was still conscious.

The droid looked up at him and despite the lack of expression on its face, Ando could have sworn that it looked relieved. "Sir, you survived! What happened to the non-humans who were holding you captive?"

"They were killed. My friends came to rescue me and we finished them off." Ando replied, waving at the rest of the group. Dalton nodded to Ando to keep talking to the droid. "But the Cardassians landed about forty more men in the starboard docking bay, and they're probably fanning out into the ship right now. We need a way to get around them so we can commandeer their shuttles."

"Oh dear!" the droid exclaimed, clearly alarmed. "There are forty non-humans attempting to take control of the ship?"

"Yeah, that's what I just said. Now can you find us a way to get around them and into that docking bay? Air ducts or access tunnels or hidden passages or something?"

"I am afraid that will be impossible, sir." the droid exclaimed. "All Kuat Drive Yards products have pest and intruder elimination systems in the air ducts, and all entryways are clearly marked."

Ando slumped visibly, his hopes dashed. "Is there any other way to deal with them?"

The droid's expression almost seemed to brighten, even though its face remained immobile. "Of course, sir! All we need is a system access terminal, and we can instruct the ship's computer to activate the security droids immediately. They should be able to capture or eliminate these intruders quite easily. This quick start feature was designed for the possibility of a security breach at a Kuat Drive Yards shipyard and has been built into all Kuat Drive Yards products ever since-"

"Yeah yeah, but won't they come after us, too?"

"None of your friends have an Imperial identity code?"

"None that we know of." Dalton replied sardonically.

"Oh dear ..." somehow, the droid was able to look crestfallen.

"This guy is starting to piss me off." grumbled Sheppard. "OK Mister Robot, where do we get an Imperial identity code?"

"Imperial identity codes are issued to ranking officers by the Imperial command hierarchy. Kuat Drive Yards does not issue these codes. I am afraid it is impossible for me to give you an Imperial identity code."

At this, Ando's shoulders slumped visibly, and the entire group grew quiet. He shouldn't have gotten the group's hopes up with this entire line of questioning. He already knew it wouldn't work, but there was a part of human nature that made people keep going back to the well, as if this time, the answer would be different.

Dalton eventually broke the silence. "This is a complete waste of time." he said quietly. "It sounded like a good idea, but we're going nowhere. Anybody got any other ideas?"

"Well ..." Sheppard volunteered cautiously, "there is another option."

"Oh yeah? And what's that?" Dalton asked, folding his arms.

"Well sir, we can't stop the countdown and we can't sneak around the Cardies, so we take the direct route. We kill 'em all, then take their shuttles."

Dalton could only chuckle. It was exactly the sort of thing he expected a belligerent young man like Sheppard to say, especially after the euphoria of taking down the war droid in the docking bay.

"You know boss, it's not as crazy as it sounds." Wilson piped up. "There are forty of them, and thirteen of us. Eleven if you don't count Nitram and Vympel due to injury. That's almost four to one odds, but if the Cardie commander is as overconfident as they usually are, he'll spread his men out looking for us. We already know communicators don't work at any appreciable range inside this ship because of the interference and blockages, so those scattered groups of men won't be able to co-ordinate effectively. There's a pretty good chance we can take 'em piecemeal."

Dalton stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Huh. I'll be damned, but I think I'm sold on this plan. Anyone got any better ideas?" He looked at his men, and they shook their heads no.

"All right then." Dalton said, more loudly this time. He could feel the energy in the group now; they had a growing sense of direction and purpose. "Let's go hunt Cardies."

[Darth Wong]

I had initially posted this as a partial chapter, but I just posted the finished version so I'm going back to edit this post:

________________________________________


Chapter Nine

Maquis Colony HR51

Ota'Klan stood proudly before his men on the sandy dirt ground of HR51, with the mountains at his back. "I am First Ota'Klan, and I am dead. As of this moment, we are all dead. We go into battle to reclaim our lives. This, we do gladly, for we are Jem'Hadar. Remember: Victory is Life."

"Victory is Life." his men chanted in unison.

As his signal, they activated their shroud ability and began to march up the winding road, in single file. Each of the attack ships in orbit had carried 12 men and one First. Only one man had been left on each ship, so that each ship's First could beam down with 11 men. That added up a total of 24 Jem'Hadar warriors, against an unknown number of humans. Poor odds at best, but the enemy was only human, and he was Jem'Hadar.

The other team was advancing toward an entrance on the eastern side of the tunnel network, while his team would enter from the western side. He smiled at the thought of how the humans would be trapped between them.

________________________________________


Fifteen hundred metres ahead, Marina watched the Jem'Hadar unit through her binoculars and saw them disappear. Looks like that rumour about their cloaking ability was true, she thought to herself. Her own camouflage was considerably less sophisticated: she was looking through a small hole in the rock wall that was camouflaged by vegetation. But it was no less effective for that. The magnesite ore all around her scrambled the Jem'Hadar sensor reflections, making them useless. Not that they would use them while cloaked anyway.

She switched her binoculars to infrared mode and breathed a sigh of relief: the Jem'Hadar could disappear from the naked eye, but they couldn't hide their body heat. Their bodies and even their footprints on the ground were still visible. She could even see faint wisps trailing behind them: the warm air they exhaled as they breathed.

Her grip tightened on her phaser rifle but she thought better of it. She had little confidence that she could hit them from this range, and if she missed, she would only give away her location. Besides, the Jem'Hadar were about to run into the first line of defense.

________________________________________


Ota'Klan marched at the back of the group. His eyes, genetically engineered for limited infrared, allowed his men to see each other, if just barely. It was enough for them to maintain their formation. He was expecting an uneventful advance to the entrance of the Maquis dilithium mines, and he started running over the scenarios of how he would begin the intrusion. He expected the humans to be hiding deep in the tunnel network, which would require a complex search pattern. The first step would be to map out the tunnel network.

At that moment, an explosion ripped through the head of the formation, knocking Ota'Klan to the ground with the air blast. He lay on the ground groaning in pain, his ears ringing. He struggled to his knees and tried to take stock of his men. His vision was blurry and there was a lot of dust in the air, but he could see several others in much the same condition as himself. He squinted and tried to make his eyes focus, and then he saw a severed leg lying on the ground. And a hand. And something else that looked like it might be part of a face. He had seen such horrors before, but they were usually enemies of the Dominion, not fellow Jem'Hadar.

"Who still lives?" he croaked, staggering to his feet where he stood, swaying unsteadily. Four of his men responded. Two others lay unconscious on the ground, and the rest could not be accounted for. At least, not as whole beings. He stumbled to the unconscious men with the intent of inspecting them for injuries, but as he drew closer, he saw that it was pointless. Their bodies, while not torn to pieces, were nonetheless riddled with shrapnel. If they were not dead already, they soon would be. Out of his eleven-man crew, seven had been killed in an instant.

"What kind of coward fights this way?" he snarled, gaining strength. The Jem'Hadar were no strangers to the use of mines and traps, but there was a protocol. A mine should be powerful enough to kill one and only one man, to terrorize the enemy. The idea of using such a cowardly device to wipe out large numbers of men at a time was against all the rules of war that Ota'Klan understood.

"First Ota'Klan, it was some kind of explosive device." one of his surviving men reported the obvious, pulling out his scanner and switching it on. "Residue analysis indicates that it used ... a primitive chemical explosive compound, composed of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen." he said with disbelief. Ota'Klan noticed that the man was bleeding from his left leg, but to his credit, he was ignoring the injury.

"Trigger?"

"Impossible to tell, now that it has already been detonated."

Ota'Klan shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs. He was still disoriented from the effects of the explosion, and it was difficult to think clearly. "Continue. Spread out, avoid clustering together. Use your scanners on burst mode. The humans will be able to track us if we use them, but we will be able to detect any more traps."

"Perhaps we should wait for reinforcements." one of the men objected.

"Your cowardice disgusts me." Ota'Klan growled. "These humans only prove their own weakness with these tactics. The other team expects us to attack from the west, while they attack from the east!"

The other man thought of a retort, but said nothing. More than half of their team had been killed by a single attack; how did they even know the other team was still alive? But he also knew that it was their duty to die for the glory of the Founders if need be. The sight of Jem'Hadar retreating from battle would only hearten the enemies of the Dominion, and this could not be tolerated. The very idea was against all natural law.

He bowed his head with contrition. "I have shown weakness in the face of the enemy, First Ota'Klan. I have failed in my duty to the Founders. My life is forfeit."

"Yes. It is." Ota'Klan drew his knife and slit the man's throat, then watched him crumple to the ground. It annoyed him intensely to reduce his team to only three men, but it had to be done. Cowardice before the enemies of the Dominion could only be punished with death.

"We advance!" he barked, and his three remaining men obeyed.

________________________________________


Alien Ship, Lower Decks

T - 20 hours

"Two maintenance droids near the stage three port side coolant pumps just reported sighting unidentified biologicals." the android replied, working the communications console. "They are moving this way."

"How close, Tin Man?" Dalton asked. The android had proven invaluable, relaying reports from other droids that were filtering into the system. In the back of his mind, he wondered just how much of the system was operational at this point. How long would it be, before the ship's built-in security robots would come after them?

"They should be entering that junction soon, sir." the android replied, pointing to his right.

"Coyote, booby-trap that junction."

"Gotcha, boss." the younger man responded, sprinting to the junction and planting a small charge. It didn't look like much: a small box, laying next to the corner. But it was more than powerful enough to get the job done.

The entire team sprinted away, but not so far away that they wouldn't hear the explosion.

________________________________________


"Team One, report." Renako ordered. "Team One, can you read me?" There was no answer.

"Must be the interference." his second in command remarked.

"They should have checked in twenty minutes ago." Renako retorted. "Team One, report. Team One, can you read me?"

There was still no answer. Renako thumbed his communicator irritably. "Team Two, can you read me? Team Two, report."

"Team Two reporting." came the reply, much to Renako's relief. "No sign of the humans."

Renako thought about that for a moment. His men were well trained. There was no conceivable reason why they would be twenty minutes late to report, unless they had been killed or captured. But who did it? The humans, or someone else? He had no way of knowing, and silently cursed Tain for sending him on this fool's errand. How would they take control of a ship that they did not know how to operate? Were they supposed to use common crewmen to understand an alien language and reverse engineer alien technology? In less than a day? He shook his head.

"Change of plan. All teams, if you can read me, all personnel are to return to the docking bay immediately."

"Sir, we can't take this ship if we stay in the docking bay." his second-in-command remarked.

"I know." Renako said grimly. In his mind, he was already composing the explanation he would give to Tain.

________________________________________


"Looks like the jig is up, boss." Wilson said quietly. They had all heard the order over the Cardassian communicator they had recovered from the bodies.

"Damn." Dalton muttered. "We took out 6 men, that means they have 34 left. And they're all hunkering down in the docking bay. It will be impossible to take them in a frontal assault."

"Sir, we don't know that they're planning to make a stand there. They might be planning to just leave."

Dalton sighed heavily. "So much for our chances of getting out of here in one piece. And how the hell are they even communicating? I thought you said they couldn't."

"Sorry sir." Wilson replied sheepishly. "Damn Cardies are smarter than I thought. They dropped communicators as they moved. Programmed 'em to act as relays, to extend their comm range."

"Well shit. Any other bright ideas?"

"You know, we haven't spent much time checking out the guns and other equipment on this ship." Sheppard volunteered.

"Again with the guns?" Vympel moaned, rolling his eyes.

"Why not? There's another way into that docking bay."

"What are you talking about? You heard what Tin Man said. No hidden entrances."

"Yeah, but they won't be watching the biggest entrance: the opening to space. We could go back to our ship, grab some EV suits, and then space-jump from the port side docking bay to the starboard docking bay. If we're careful, they won't even see us coming, because they'll be expecting us to come through the corridors. Some of us could approach them from the corridors and draw their attention ..."

"Well, I'll give you points for creativity," Dalton interjected, "except we didn't bring any EV suits with us. And you know about the drop in combat efficiency when you put one of those suits on anyway."

Wilson looked at Sheppard's crestfallen expression; to be fair to the young man, it was a rather creative idea. And then he had an idea of his own. "Sir, we know the ship was originally designed for a humanoid crew. There's a good chance that they have their own EV suits."

"This is a pretty interesting idea ..." Dalton said thoughtfully. "First we'd have to find these suits, figure out how to use them ..."

"Sirs, if I may ..." the droid spoke up.

"Yes?"

"In addition to its combat droid complement, this vessel has a large number of Imperial stormtrooper armour suits on board. This was just one of the value-added upgrades offered to Moff Disra in his bulk purchase agreement. And I am fully capable of providing instructions on the use of basic infantry equipment."

"Stormtrooper armour?" Dalton asked, raising an eyebrow.

________________________________________


Maquis Colony HR51

Ota'Klan carefully picked his way up the slope, continuing to approach the entrance to the Maquis tunnel network. It had been slow going, but the cautious approach had prevented any more losses. Their scanner bursts had allowed them to spot more than a dozen of the primitive explosive devices. In spite of himself, he grudgingly felt a certain admiration for their cleverness; they had employed every kind of passive trigger from vibration to pressure, and even a hair-thin tripwire that he almost triggered with his foot. All jury-rigged with primitive equipment, all able to function without a subspace signature to easily pick up on scanners, and all deadly enough to kill anyone in the blast radius. These humans did not fight like Klingons, but their guile and improvisational ability concerned him deeply. He would have to report this to his superiors. If he survived.

The entrance was within sight now, and he could see feel his pulse quickening. He knew that this was foolish instinct: he was becoming eager for action now that the objective was so close, but in that eagerness lay carelessness. He held up his hand in a rather exaggerated gesture, and signaled his men to stop. The exaggerated gesture was necessary because of his cloak: the weak infrared perception of Jem'Hadar allowed them to see each other while cloaked, but just barely.

Four hundred metres ahead, still hiding in her perch, Marina peered through her infrared scope, saw the ghostly outline of the lead Jem'Hadar making the exaggerated hand gesture, and saw the others obey. Must be the officer, she thought to herself. She took careful aim, steadied her breathing, and took the shot.

The thin sniper beam burned a hole through Ota'Klan's head before his brain could process any sensation of pain. The intense heat from the beam rapidly boiled the water in his tissues to steam, and the pressure caused his skull to explode, spraying bits of flesh, bone, and brain tissue in every direction. His lifeless body fell to the ground like a rag doll.

The other three Jem'Hadar immediately and instinctively rolled to the side and unleashed a hail of fire in the direction from where the shot had come, but Marina was already ducking down. Without their leader, they could rely only on their Jem'Hadar skills and instincts, and all of those instincts told them to charge. They decloaked, unleashed a mighty battle cry, and charged headlong toward the entrance, screaming and firing from the hip as they ran.

Unfortunately, they did not see the land mines which had been scattered over the approach to the tunnel entrance by the retreating Maquis, and as they sprinted into the minefield, they disappeared in clouds of soil and blood. Marina looked up again, and from her high vantage point she could see the three mangled bodies of the dead Jem'Hadar, laying face down in the dirt. Farther back, she could see their commander's body sprawled on its back, his gruesomely evacuated skull split open to the air.

"Western entrance clear." she reported into her voicebox. The primitive box was connected to a network of equally primitive copper wires and was hardly the sort of sophisticated system that the Federation would use, but it worked. It also had the benefit of being immune to interference and blockages, and not producing any emissions that could be tracked.

"Good to hear, Marina. We just took down another team approaching the eastern entrance. Looks like they were trying to pin us in."

"They'll have to do better than that!" she replied with a grin. So far, this had been surprisingly easy. But the smile faded from her face as she looked into the sky. More Jem'Hadar ships had arrived. A lot more.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Oh god damn this is great, Mike. You've succeeded in imitating, in a nonetheless unique story, the taut flair with which we were all struck when watching Aliens. Please, please continue it.

[Singular Intellect]

Fucking awesome! I love it.

Been waiting for a long time for you to update this one...will you be able to more regularily update it?

[Soontir C'boath]

I was interested then and I still am now about who the star destroyer will be use by and what it will do. More would be awesome.

[Master_Baerne]

Delightful. Please write more.

[Darth Raptor]

I find the mystery of the derelict Star Destroyer most compelling, but the character-driven story is quite interesting too. I'll definitely keep reading if you'll keep writing.

FYI: There's a minor blooper in Chapter Seven where Gul Tain confers with Central Command in the privacy of his quarters only to discuss the conversation with a naval officer immediately thereafter back on the bridge- as if he took the message there. It's a bit incongruous.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Great stuff Mike, I was always hoping you'd continue it.

[Darth Ruinus]

Nice, I've always liked Reign of Terror, and always hoped you would continue it. Please do.

[MKSheppard]

Fucking awesome. But you made me a bit too headstrong. Make up for it by having me figure out how to use an E-11!

[Vympel]

Holy shit, I completely forgot about this fanfic. Awesome.

[Coalition]

It has returned.

I wonder if the Maquis could pull an end run by having the ship scan for any Imperial signatures. If none exist, then as the highest ranking humans they become Imperial Command, and can issue themselves Imperial Command codes. Probably not though.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

It has returned.

I wonder if the Maquis could pull an end run by having the ship scan for any Imperial signatures. If none exist, then as the highest ranking humans they become Imperial Command, and can issue themselves Imperial Command codes. Probably not though.

Somehow I don't think a story this taut is going to have a quick and melodramatically happy ending. The only way anyone is getting out of this alive is the way Ellen Ripley got off the Nostromo, I bet. Rig a torpedo off one of the Cardy assault shuttles next to the reactor and then punch out on an escape pod.

I mean, what the fucking shit might wake up along with the ship? It isn't going to be pretty, that's for sure. This can only get worse.

[Edward Yee]

This is full of AWESOME and WELCOME BACK. *Had forgotten about this too*

[Ace Pace]

Quite nice. Fast, tense pace. Feels like I could be watching it in a cinema somewhere. Hope you continue it, though I have to say that for now, the marquis colony angle is not exactly connected to anything except to show that Starfleet considers this odd vessel more important than lives.

[Themightytom]

I'm pretty excited because the last ntime mike wrote this is sparked a fanficc rennissiance. One thing I like about this site is it has a generally higher quality than other sites, but it has seemed slow lately, I hope this is the kickoff for a enw season.

I was loving the gimpy battle droid, it had the feeling of a Rotweiler in a junkyard. call it a stupid dog when its not around, but if it comes around the corner your in deep shit.

Also you made me dislike the Cardassians. I never gave a crap in watching star trek, they were always a little too ovver the top, but when forty of them landed in a shuttle I was KIND of wishing the maquis would take ovver the ship. but of course that would lead nowhere so I can see why you aren't doing that. looking forward to the next few chapters!

[Darth Raptor]

It's clear from the prologue that neither the Cardassians nor the Maquis will inherit the ship, as I'm sure both parties know where Earth is. It will almost certainly end up in the hands/claws/tentacles of whatever killed the original crew.