In Engineering, Julia Pemberton had no knowledge of the danger approaching her at warp speed, too involved with the attempt to re-initialize the declining containment field surrounding the antimatter powering the Maverick’s engines, to worry about such incidental matters. As far as she was concerned, the battle outside was the purview of the bridge and the current state of the Maverick was hers.

Anti-matter was perhaps one of the most powerful sources of energy in existence, used to power nearly all warp ships in existence by the reaction caused when it came into contact with normal matter. Initial testing with anti-matter had been a catastrophic affair with whole stations where the research was being conducted destroyed into utter finality. Eventually, the powers that be learned anti-matter energy could be harnessed safely within magnetic confinement fields. Once the genie was returned to its bottle, more reasonable scientific work progressed.

When Alexandra Styles explained the collapse of the containment field was more of a threat than the Dominion fleet outside the ship, she was not exaggerating. Should the field collapse and the anti-matter come into contact with normal matter, even an atomic particle of it, the resounding explosion would not only obliterate the Maverick and the Jem’Hadar warships but quite conceivably tear a hole into subspace itself. Everyone on the engineering deck knew that and while Julia dispatched a crew to deal with the rest of the problems the Maverick was currently experiencing, it was the restructuring of the containment field that occupied most of her attention.

Julia remained poised over the controls regulating the containment field, working feverishly to key in the correct sequence as she saw the field strength on her terminal decreasing steadily. Once it dropped to below 15 percent, they would have warp core breach and with all the systems damaged at this time, there would be no way to eject the core into the vastness of space. In fact, there would be not much anyone could do but die. Julia had too much planned for her next vacation to let such an eventuality come about.

"Intensify the power output to the dilithium matrix!"

Chanu, her Assistant Chief Engineer, immediately let his fingers fly over his station as he attempted to comply with her order. Like herself, Chanu knew what was at stake if they failed in this undertaking. Across the Engineering Deck, their situation was prolific by all the repair crews working at the same pace they were, trying to manage the miracle that was expected by those on the bridge following the collision with the Jem’Hadar warship. There was no mistaking the urgency of the situation. Until warp power and phaser banks were online once again, the ship was effectively crippled. At this stage, the Maverick could neither run from its attackers nor protect itself when they finally converged upon the wounded starship.

"Field strength is starting to climb." Julia declared tautly, watching the readings on the screen indicating the containment field was beginning to repair itself. Chanu’s action of intensifying the power output had given her stabilization efforts the boost it needed to reconstruct the magnetic field. Julia watched the field surge upwards, moving out of the red danger zone and returning to the safer blue levels.

Glancing at the warp core, the heart of the Maverick was no longer pounding erratically, and the uncertain hum had returned to a definitive rhythm indicating its wellbeing. Julia could tell the state of her ship by the sounds it made and at the moment, she was hearing all the noises she equated to her ship becoming healthy again. Wiping the sweat and grime from her brow, her eyes scanned the length of the Engineering Deck and saw the damage caused in the aftermath of the collision with the Jem’Hadar ship. Beams had fallen to the floor, terminals were flashing intermittently with malfunction, and the emergency lights of a red alert still flared and then subsided at regular intervals.

"Alright," she looked up at her engineering crew, all attempting to put out the dozen brush fires ignited following the impact. "Lieutenant Chanu and I will attempt to bring the warp engines online. Lieutenants Biehn, Sanjeet and Ensign Revellos, I want you to get started on bringing back the phasers."

"Yes ma’am," came a relieved reply from the blond engineer as she and her two comrades hurried off to undertake the order they had just been given.

"Lieutenant," someone spoke up, she did not look to see who because the whole place was filled with shadows. "We have hull breaches on three decks. The hardware between here and the EPS relay has been damaged. Emergency force fields are not coming on."

That was serious. "Okay, Siobhan and Chang. Go seal off those breaches."

With instructions given to her Engineering Team who now hurried off to complete their assigned duties, Julia turned back to the station controlling the warp engines. She knew as soon as internal communications were re-established on the ship, the Captain would be calling for that very same purpose. She knew for a fact the bridge had not experienced the brunt of the collision but like the rest of the ship, the displacement from the impact was severe. She told herself not to think about Ezra, to keep her mind focused on what needed to be done. He was the Chief of Security and if anyone on this ship knew how to take care of himself, it was Ezra. She had to believe that or else her fears for him would be her undoing and the ship needed her too much for that at the moment.

Suddenly, she heard the slight shimmer of a transporter beam coming into play and Julia instinctively turned towards it. Although the sensor array had not been damaged in the collision, no one had been paying much attention to what was taking place beyond the walls of the ship. That was the bridge crew's job, not Engineering. However, as she saw what materialized on the floor of her deck, Julia knew what was happening outside was about to make itself felt very prolifically. She had heard about them but had not been in a situation to allow for a face to face confrontation.

There was no mistaking the four figures transporting into her Engineering Deck was undoubtedly a Jem’Hadar warrior.

"Chanu!" Julia turned to her deputy because he was closest to the weapons locker. "Break out the phasers!"

She had little or no time to react after that sentence before the Jem’Hadar reacted. The lead warrior raised his blaster to fire and with agility she did not know she had Julia leaped behind a console just before the blast turned the place, she was standing black from the shot. Landing hard onto her side, she felt the snap of bone and the petite redhead let out a sharp cry as she felt her arm break and saw the Jem’Hadar advancing into Engineering.

Chanu had reached the weapons locker and pulled out a phaser rifle. He glanced in her direction as he held another in his hands and slid towards her on the floor. That was the last thing he had time to do before the Jem’Hadar opened fire on him. The Cherokee Indian by birth immediately threw himself out of the way and rolled into an upright position before firing. The shot caught the enemy squarely in the chest, sending the warrior flying backward. The other Jem’Hadar immediately rose their weapon to shoot the officer who had taken the lives of one of their comrades. Across the engineering deck, the other members of the engineering staff had scattered.

"Don’t shoot!" Julia shouted as she saw where their fire would hit if they pulled the trigger on their weapons.

Julia dropped the gun and stepped forward, holding her arm in pain but refusing to let it interfere with what she had to do. She would not allow them to kill Chanu. She raised her uninjured arm as best she could and glanced at him, ordering the assistant chief engineer to do the same. She took a deep breath and proceeded forward, feeling her fear escalate as she approached the three very formidable looking warriors.

The Jem’Hadar was all about armor. The texture of their skin looked reptilian, but they were nothing so simple. Genetically engineered for the purpose of battle and nothing else, their bodies reflected the design in every way. They were big, sturdy looking creatures, with a dense skull with a crown of bony protrusions and of course, the trademark tubes that led from their necks to the pack slung over their shoulders. The tubes fed them the White stored in the compartments against their backs.

Two sets of weapons immediately turned their barrels at her, and Julia took a deep breath, holding her hands up as she attempted to convey a look of surrender. "Look, you can’t fire your weapons in here. You could hit the warp core," she glanced at the construct in the center of the deck. "It will destroy the entire ship. You too Chanu."

Chanu was reluctant to do that but saw that she had some plan in mind. He was not about to question her until he knew what exactly that was. As much as he might dislike the idea, he knew he also had to give up his weapon in order to convince the Jem’Hadar they did not have to shoot to protect themselves. The gun clattered noisily on the floor and Julia offered him a silent note of thanks as she continued her approach.

The Jem’Hadar was not stupid, and he knew that she was not lying. The ship had sustained grievous injuries by the collision with one of their own and the Founders had decreed the Maverick be returned to Dominion space intact. Damaging the warp core would also destroy the Maverick and to the Jem’Hadar, sworn servants of the Founders, this was not at all acceptable.

"You are the Chief Engineer?" One of them asked her.

"Yes," Julia replied, very conscious of those guns aimed in her direction. She would have no more firing in her Engineering deck, but neither was she prepared to turn her ship over to these men. "I am Chief Engineer Julia Pemberton. Tell me what you want to do, and I swear I’ll do it, just don’t hurt anybody."

Chanu stared at her, wondering what she was attempting to do because he knew her well enough to know Julia would never consciously cooperate with the enemy.

"You will disable main power." The Jem’Hadar repeated.

"I can’t," she answered shakily. "Shutting down main power might disrupt the magnetic containment field. The collision with your craft has damaged the autonomic controls of the antimatter core. We had to run it off main power to prevent a core breach. If we shut down main power, it will collapse the field and we will have antimatter exposure."

"This is an attempt at deception," the Jem’Hadar responded, his weapon dropping in order to make a more physical argument. "You will comply."

He slammed into the side of her head with a backhanded blow with enough force to send Julia sprawling in the direction she came. Although her cheeks flared in pain and she felt warm blood running thick rivulets down her nose while her broken arm screamed in protest, she was alert and mindful of what had to be done.

"Computer!" She shouted. "Erect Level 1 force field at Section 3, Grid 7 – Chief Engineer Pemberton - authorization code 221324!"

The eyes of the Jem’Hadar warrior who had struck her widened in anger as he realized how deep the deception she played on him really went. He had little time to do anything about it before the force field dropped its shimmering veil right in front of his eyes. He raised his weapon to fire but whatever escaped from the barrel of his phaser was harmlessly absorbed by the force field surrounding himself and his party.

Julia let out a sigh of relief as she staggered to her feet, her arm was crooked oddly, and her lips were slick with blood from the ooze coming from her nose. The Jem’Hadar was trying desperately to escape their confinement to no avail. Chanu immediately came towards her.

"Somebody, call security!" He sang up in the wake of confrontation. "Tell them we need help down here." With that Chanu turned back to Julia, "you need to get to Sickbay."

"Like hell I do," Julia snapped, wiping the blood from her nose and declaring. "I’ve got no time for Sick Bay. We need to get warp power online so we can get the hell out of here before more of their friends," she gestured at the Jem’Hadar, "come looking for them."

******

Nathan Jackson trusted no one to make their way to the bridge other than himself. When he had heard the sound of intruder alert sounding through his ship, he knew the safest place he could be at the moment was inside the confines of his sickbay. It was not as if there were not more than enough casualties within the place to warrant his continued presence but the call from the bridge had just enough ring of desperation about it to drag the Chief Medical Officer out into the open. As he hurried down the corridor immediately following his emergence from sickbay, the evidence of chaos was prolific indeed.

While it was difficult to keep appraised of the battle raging with the Dominion ever since the Jem’Hadar had engaged the Maverick, Nathan guessed they were holding their own to some extent. Those who were in Four Corners had seen the destruction of the Romulan ship and had reported that experience until the collision forced them to seek medical treatment. It did not take the doctor long to reach the turbo lifts and he knew he was fortunate indeed because the cry of the ship’s computer informing them on an intruder alert, could only mean the Jem’Hadar was on board the Maverick.

Stepping into the turbo lift, he felt some measure of gratitude knowing he made it unhindered and was none too glad to see the doors closing upon entering its confines. The corridor he just left was dimly lit with emergency lighting indicating whatever damage the Maverick incurred was severe. Emergency lighting usually appeared whenever the ship had lost main power. The floor of the ship was slightly tilted which meant they had lost attitude control and were most likely floating dead in space. Nathan suddenly felt a surge of concern, not only as a physician, for those in the bridge but a more personal fear his friends might have been injured.

True, he did not spend a lot of time on the bridge but the camaraderie that formed between the senior staff of the Maverick was something he felt most profoundly. From their weekly dinners together to their Friday night card games where it would end up being a standoff between Ezra and Alex, to the time he, Chris, Vin, and Buck had gotten drunk in that strange bar on Aldebraan. A small smile crossed Nathan's lips when he recalled the farce that had been that evening. It ended up with Mary Travis having to bail them out from the local constabulary because of an insult to a tribal elder involving two dancing girls and a bowl of jelly. Even now, Nathan found himself smirking as Chris tried to explain his way out of that one to Mary.

The humming of the turbo lift snapped him out of such jovial thoughts when it began to move and even the normally soothing sound of the transport seemed strained as it struggled to reach its destination. Nathan considered himself lucky he did not have to climb up something like fifteen decks to reach the bridge, having no fondness for Jeffreys tubes. Even the illumination inside the lift was dim and Nathan guessed the ship had to conserve power in any way to still continue to function.

When the lift finally came to a stop, Nathan was shocked at the state of the bridge. He doubted anything he saw so far had shocked him as much as the sight of the central hub of the Maverick being in such a state. Not even the wounded he had seen in the sickbay had been able to take his breath away as seeing the bridge like this. Nathan could not explain why it was, but he could not deny it either.

"Nathan!" JD exclaimed. "Thank God you're here!" The young man immediately hurried towards the doctor and met him no sooner than Nathan managed to step out of the doorway leading to the bridge.

Everything on the bridge remained in a state of flux with JD attempting to contact any ship in the vicinity capable of helping them out of the situation they were presently embroiled. The senior officers on the ship were attempting to gain attitude control while Alex tried desperately to bring up the shields even though the effort was proving difficult with main power still offline. Ezra was trying to raise internal communications to no avail and was relying upon his com badge to coordinate some form of defense against the intruders who were on board the Maverick.

Mary, on the other hand, kept close to Buck, trying to force her knowledge of first aid to keep him alive even though they all knew that it was next to impossible. He needed the help of a real doctor, one who could tell that his left ventricle was damaged, and he was bleeding to death inside with an idea of how to stop it. Chris was seated on his command chair, attempting to raise anybody he could while Vin remained beneath the sensor grid, trying to get internal sensors to detect just how many Jem’Hadar were on board the Maverick.

"Did you see any Jem’Hadar?" Chris asked as Nathan made a beeline to Buck, more concerned about the first officer than offering any kind of report.

"No," Nathan answered quickly, barely registering the question as he came to a halt in front of Buck and dropped to his knees. Buck was unconscious and as Nathan examined the wound beneath the slick wet of his uniform, the healer decided it was just as well. Buck Wilmington was as close to dying as any man could be at this moment. The wound on his head was superficial but the one under his uniform was not. He deduced immediately the rough position of the wound to have done considerable damage to the big man's heart.

"I have to get him to Sick Bay," Nathan said after a moment. "I can't do anything for him here."

"We have no transporter control," Chris answered. "We'll have to carry him."

"I'll go with him Sir," JD volunteered immediately and Chris knew while Buck was in this condition, he was not going to get any sense out of the boy anyway. Besides, if the Jem’Hadar were smart, they were probably making their way to the bridge as the Maverick's senior officers discussed Buck Wilmington's fate.

"Alright," Chris nodded.

"Chris," Mary stood up and came to him. "I have to go find William." She felt guilty about abandoning him but with the enemy on the ship with them, she needed to see for herself that her son was safe. Besides, she was hardly needed here.

If Chris had heard that thought, he would have certainly told Mary he needed her, but he understood she had to go. If it were his child out there, Lord knows he would hardly waste time asking permission, he would already be running after Adam. She stayed with him on the bridge because she cared about him and to be there in this tense situation even though she could have gone to safety long before this. He loved her for it, but he also understood that with Mary, Billy would always come first, no matter how she felt about Chris.

"Go." He said firmly as JD and Nathan started to lift Buck off the ground. Mary met his gaze for a few seconds as things passed between their eyes that were laden with emotion. She did not want to go, and he could see she was torn between her feelings for him and her need to reach her son. Although there was no doubt in his mind, he would be the loser if he came between her and her child, Chris also understood how much she cared for him.

"Thank you." She whispered her eyes misty as she turned away from him, unable to continue the stare because it would only make her powerless to leave. Mary was almost grateful when Ezra's voice interrupted them.

"Captain, I cannot coordinate my people from up here. I need to join my security team. I will provide an escort to Doctor Jackson in bringing the Commander to sickbay. Then I am going to mount some kind of a defense before the Jem’Hadar reaches the saucer section and attempt to coerce you into handing over the ship by making hostages of the civilians."

"Alright," Chris nodded in understanding, not liking the idea of the civilians falling to that fate very much either. "I am going to stay here. The Jem’Hadar knows while I still have control of the bridge, they will not take the Maverick. I can set the ship for auto destruct from here, so they will be coming."

"Captain," Ezra looked at him not at all happy at that idea. Mary turned sharply to him as well, disliking it even less. "They will kill you before they allow you to do that."

"That's right," Chris answered, "I would say that we would be a motivating factor in coming to the bridge, don't you think?"

None of the senior staff found that remark at all comforting even though they were certain of what the Captain was attempting to accomplish by such actions. The Jem’Hadar knew Chris was the only obstacle left in gaining control of the Maverick and quite a formidable one at that if he could order the starship to self-destruct. He could also lock out computer control so nothing could be retrieved from its database, rendering the entire purpose of the Dominion's mission to this sector of space to find the White, a failure.

"We're staying with him." Vin declared, glancing at Alex who nodded at him with a faint smile of agreement. "No Cardy, no Jem’Hadar or goddamn anything else is getting into this bridge. They got to come through me first."

Chris threw the young man a smile and knew it too, that Vin would be at his side no matter how bad things got and they were going to get very bad indeed. Until the warp engines were back online, they were at the mercy of the Jem’Hadar ships and possibly the Cardassians too. "Get going Ezra," Chris ordered quietly. "The Dominion has too much leverage over us as it is. If they get to the saucer section, they'll use those people to force me to turn the ship over to them and I won't let that happen, under any circumstances."

Ezra nodded in understanding, perfectly aware of what Chris was trying to say to him. Turning over the ship to the Dominion would mean sentencing billions to die instead of the one thousand people on the Maverick. In a situation like this, it came down to simple numbers. The survival of the Federation was far more important than the lives of the Maverick's crew. If he were forced into it, he would not hesitate to make the decision required.

"Captain!" Alex called out. "I'm receiving a transmission from the Jem’Hadar ship."

Everyone went quiet as they stared at the science officer. It took a minute before Chris finally spoke. "What do they want?"

Alex swallowed thickly because even though the chances of it were remote, hearing it left the taste of ash in her mouth. "Our unconditional surrender."

The word hung in the air and though it had been spoken, no one could comment. All eyes were on the Captain because it was his thoughts that would make or break the situation. The enemy had called for surrender and justifiably so. The Maverick was in distress and no longer capable of fighting the battle against the enemies it had so spectacularly held off against, despite overwhelming odds. With their inability to flee thanks to the warp engines being offline and boarding parties beaming onto the Maverick, it felt like the great ship was bleeding from a thousand wounds and there was no way to staunch the flow. So, Chris Larabee made a decision.

If the Maverick was going to die, then she was taking everyone with her.

"Are we capable of transmitting?" Chris asked Alex a few seconds later.

"Yes," she nodded. "Short range is still effective."

"Good," Chris nodded and allowed his gaze to sweep across the faces around him as he came to his decision on what would be his answer to the enemy. "You can tell them to kiss my ass. The only way they're taking my ship is in a very small box because that's all that will be left of her when I turn her into radioactive dust. You tell them that if they don't get clear, they can join us because that's the only way we are surrendering."

"In those words?" Alex asked with a perfectly straight face.

"In those words," Chris replied and then added with a tone of voice that was absolutely menacing and not to be argued with at any costs. "No woman on board this ship is going to a Cardassian rape camp. Not while I'm their captain, not while I'm alive. Is that understood?"

He glared at all the men on the bridge and made it certain they understood what he meant by that statement. If anything were to happen to him, Chris would expect them to take the necessary steps to ensure such a fate did not fall upon any female on the ship. After what Alex had gone through, he was fairly certain no woman would endure such hell if they could be given an alternative, even one as final as death.

A silent note of agreement rippled through the bridge with everyone present accepting what he charged them to undertake should the situation deteriorate to that conclusion. A moment was all that was needed and, in all truth, all the time that they had. Chris crossed the floor of his damaged bridge, feeling a stab of blinding hatred for those who had brought his ship to this state and nestled himself in the command chair. He did not look at Mary because to look at her would only affect his judgment and at the moment, he had more than just her life to protect. He had a crew of almost a thousand people who were counting on him to save their lives and he was not done yet, not even now.

"Ezra, as soon as you get to the armory, I want weapons beamed in here. Emergency site to site transport should still be possible."

"You will have them even if I must bring them here myself." The security man said firmly and meant it. He was torn between his duty to his ship and his duty to the captain. However, Ezra knew he could rest easier with Alex and Vin's presence on the bridge with Chris. Alex, who was a specialist in combat and tactical training, was capable of holding her own against Klingons and Cardassians who did not use implantation devices. Meanwhile Vin, being a Vulcan with strength four times that of a human and more than a match for a Jem’Hadar had the same self-defense expertise with Alex and almost as much of an edge. Between them both, any Jem’Hadar attempting to break their ranks in order to reach the Captain was going to regret it.

Mary wanted to go to Chris, to tell him that she did not want to leave but her son was out there and unlike the captain, William could not defend himself and he needed his mother. Chris was avoiding looking at her and there was enough of an emotional bond between them for Mary to understand why. She could sense the conflict within him. His fierce desire to protect her was being assaulted by his need to defend his ship, to not think about just one life but a thousand. Such decisions were the reason why most starship captains did not marry, or more specifically could not marry. She wished they had the time for her to be able to allay his guilt at allowing her to go and tell him that she understood he was what he was, and she cared too much about him to ever try and come between him and his ship.

"Get going all of you!" Chris ordered because they had to leave while they still could. No doubt, Jem’Hadar boarding parties would be converging upon this location and Chris did not want them running into those approaching forces if it could be avoided. Buck needed to be in sickbay before he died here on the floor of the bridge, while Ezra needed to tend to the Jem’Hadar boarding parties roaming around his ship and Mary needed to be with her son.

When Alex's message was sent through the Jem’Hadar at their refusal to surrender, Chris was perfectly aware what they would do. He counted on it. If they were still of the belief they could take the ship with an armed assault, then they would be focusing their attention on reaching the bridge. As long as the Captain of the Maverick remained on the bridge, he was able to order the vessel to self-destruct and since the price for the Dominion seemed to be the Maverick, it was the one advantage Chris had in his arsenal.

"Take care," Mary said softly and Chris turned in her direction, to permit himself in that one brief instance to let her understand he did not do this lightly and he held her deeply in his soul, even if it was for the last hour of his life. They stared at each other for little more than a fleeting moment in time, where so much was conveyed about how they felt and the emotional bond between them was never stronger. However, a moment was all that they had before Mary blinked and turned away, her eyes glistening so brightly she had to get off the bridge before she started weeping.

"I will." He nodded slightly seeing in the emotion in her eyes as she turned to leave. "Go."

Chris turned away and faced front again. He did not look that way again until Nathan and JD carried Buck out of the shattered remains of his bridge and Ezra and Mary were gone.

******

When the alert sounded, Josiah was in the process of returning one of the children who also happened to be a patient, back to school. The young lady in question was the daughter of the new schoolteacher and was sent to see him because of her apparent difficulty in making friends. Her mother whom Josiah had never met felt that talking informally to a Counselor might aid her daughter in explaining the anxieties she had difficulty confiding to her parent. Much of the little girl’s difficulties Josiah found were no difficulties at all, but a preference to remain alone because she found no one she could really connect with.

It was not a crime to wish solitude even if it was somewhat unusual. Yet in talking at length with young Lilith King, Josiah found the child to be so reminiscent of his oldest daughter he immediately warmed to her and put down her behavior to an eccentricity of personality, not some deeply seeded psychosis. In fact, for a young girl her age, she was extremely focused on who she was, and Josiah wished some of his adult patients had such certainty of self.

They were almost to the school when the ship entered red alert and protocol required him to get out of the corridors. The most logical course was to continue onwards to the school because he was certain his young charge would prefer to be with her mother at a time like this, and he had no particular preference where he sat out the current crisis. They almost made it to that location when the bombardment started followed by the shock announcement to brace for impact. Struggling to the nearest room they could find, in this case, a storage room, Josiah and young Lilith sat out the battle until the aftermath of the ship’s collision with the enemy. Both stumbled out of the storage room and hurried to the school with Lilith becoming more afraid despite her brave attempt to hide it.

When they arrived at the schoolhouse, the Jem’Hadar was already there.

Josiah entered the room with Lilith and stopped short at the sight of five Jem’Hadar warriors, training guns on the schoolteacher who had placed herself between their weapons and her students. He had never met Audrey King before but when he entered the room, she saw her eyes flood with relief. At first, he thought it was from the appearance of her daughter, since it could not possibly be from the notion of his coming to liberate them. The idea was preposterous since there was one of him and five of them and he was unarmed. However, he soon realised she was glad to see another adult who could help her protect the children.

"Hold!" The Jem’Hadar shouted at him before he even had a chance to think of retreat, not that he would anyway.

"I’m unarmed." Josiah offered, unwilling to take any provocative action that would result in them opening fire in a room full of children. Audrey’s class was for the under tens and he could see the terror in their faces as they were fully versed in what a Jem’Hadar was.

"Your rank?" The warrior demanded, taking Josiah’s formidable bulk into account despite the uniform indicating he was clearly not a command officer.

"Lieutenant Commander Josiah Sanchez, ship’s counselor." Josiah said gingerly, his grip still on Lilith who wanted to go to her mother but was not about to just yet.

"Counselor." The warrior snorted in derision. "Jem’Hadar warriors do not need nursemaids on board."

The action was meant to goad him into reacting but Josiah, who had dealt with mental patients with far more hostility than this genetically engineered creation, shrugged the remark off easily. If this Jem’Hadar meant to shoot him, well that was well and good, but he was not going to give the man an excuse to do so.

"I am here for the children." He glanced at the young girl wishing nothing but to be at her mother’s side.

"We do not endanger our children by taking them on board warships." He said arrogantly, unimpressed that his attempt to goad Josiah into acting had failed.

"Do you also harm them?" Audrey demanded.

"If we must." The warrior spoke indicating clearly that he was in contempt of this particular group. Facing Josiah again, he waved the Counselor and his youthful companion to join the others by the barrel of his gun. "You will do well not to give us any trouble." He remarked as an additional warning.

Josiah moved briskly towards Audrey and the other children, who were huddled together in the playroom of the school facility occupied by her class. Lilith immediately ran into her mother’s arms and Josiah had the opportunity to examine Mrs. King closely as he found himself next to her. She was a little over forty he estimated, with dark auburn hair and just enough experience in her age to indicate her vintage. She was still very attractive, and she gazed at Lilith with blue eyes Josiah found himself thinking looked very much like Ayla, his deceased wife.

"Is everyone alright?" Josiah asked her, the circumstances not allowing for proper introductions to be made.

"Yes," she nodded, still shaken by what was happening but managing to remain calm so as to not frighten the children in the room. "They’ve been threatening but not deliberately malicious."

"Good," Josiah said with a sigh of relief. Little was known about the Jem’Hadar except that they were foot soldiers of the Dominion and were genetically engineered to be dependent on the substance Ketracel White.

"Do you know what’s happened?" Audrey asked, hoping that he might have some intelligence on what was taking place on board the Maverick at this time. "Have we been captured?"

"I don’t think so." Josiah shook his head. "I didn’t see anything like that, but I do know we took a serious beating. However, I don’t think they have control of the bridge yet..."

"Silence!" The leader barked again, not wishing that subject to be clarified because the lack of knowledge was intimidation in itself.

Suddenly the fearful tension in the air between captors and captives were broken when the sound of phaser fire came alive in the outside corridor. Judging by the voices both human and Jem’Hadar being traded intermittently between the shooting, Josiah estimated that the Maverick’s security officers were attempting to deal with the boarding parties scattered across the ship.

"Stay where you are!" The leader of the Jem’Hadar troop ordered as he saw the humans under guard reacting to the situation outside. Once he was certain they were subdued, he turned to his companions.

"Go aside and evaluate the situation." He ordered. "See if you are needed. I will stand guard with Crix and keep an eye on our captives. We may need them for hostages."

Josiah stiffened at that suggestion and saw Audrey's eyes darkened with dismay at the thought of the Jem’Hadar using any of them as bargaining tools. However, with two Jem’Hadar still remaining in position, he could not make a move against them yet. Not with the children in easy range of their fire should they decide to fight back.

For the moment, Josiah would have to bide his time.

******

"Watch out Mary!" Ezra shouted as he retreated behind the wall.

Mary was not listening. The protocol officer was a woman possessed when she learnt that one of the boarding parties had taken possession of the schoolroom, in particular, the class where her young son was presently waiting out the current crisis. Despite Ezra's attempts to convince her to let him and his security team handle it, Mary would not be denied. She had taken a phaser for herself and insisted on accompanying them despite his efforts to persuade her otherwise. He supposed he never really had a chance of convincing her, not when it was her son in danger.

Mary pulled back; seemingly unafraid of the phaser blast impacting on the wall near her. The air was thickening with the stench of burnt metal and fibers, but she could only see one thing before her and that was her son. The Jem’Hadar had taken position in the corridor utilized by the Maverick's school for its younger crewmen. With the exception of the Cardassians, no other race in the Alpha Quadrant considered children as hostage material. The Romulans declared themselves more civilized then that and the Klingons felt it was just plain dishonorable. The Jem’Hadar obviously threw their vote in with the Cardassian way of doing things.

There were at least a dozen Jem’Hadar soldiers in the corridor and almost as much Starfleet security officers. Either side was exchanging shots and Mary could not tell through the streaks of energy whizzing from one end of the corridor to the other, who was winning. She glanced at Ezra who was dragging one of his fallen officers to safety and immediately sought to provide him with cover. Firing into the thickest concentration of Jem’Hadar soldiers, she provided enough suppressing fire to allow the security chief to scramble into the corridor where one of his men had been shot but remained alive even though he was severely injured.

Behind her, Lieutenant Katovit also added his fire to her own and together they managed to create enough of an opening for Ezra to slowly pull back the injured member of his security team back to safety. The body was a dead weight and yet Ezra refused to give up and Mary had to admire the determination on the man's face as he dragged his burden out of the kill zone, and into the safety of the corner turn of the corridor.

"Is he alive?" Mary asked crawling to his side as he let the officer go and pulled back to the wall himself. For a moment Mary did not understand why he was grimacing in pain until she saw the black stain on his side.

"Ezra!" Mary exclaimed. "You're hurt!"

"It is not severe." He replied, even though the tension in his jaw said differently. "I trust you will not overreact and make some exclamation that I ought to be going to sick bay?" He gave her a look which clearly stated that she might as well save whatever she was going to say regarding his condition because it was going to be just as ignored as his advice to her about letting them retrieve Billy for her.

"No, I won't," she shrugged deciding she could not force him to obey when she had refused him. "But are you sure you can manage?"

"My dear lady," Ezra replied. "I will not do anything as inconvenient as dying before those vermin are removed from the ship. Rest assured, I will manage."

Mary glanced past the corridor and saw Katovit and the rest of the security team forcing back the Jem’Hadar contingent further and further up the corridor. Across the ship, it was more or less the same. Despite the fact the Jem’Hadar boarding parties were beaming on board the Maverick, the crew of the starship was putting up one hell of a defense. Most of the Jem’Hadar boarding effort seemed concentrated on the saucer section of the ship making separation, even if the Maverick had been capable, virtually impossible. However, since emerging from the bridge, Ezra had activated every security measure he could think of, utilizing every trick from erecting force fields to transmitting portable disruption beams to keep more Jem’Hadar soldiers from beaming on board. Some of it worked and some of it did not. In any case, he was buying the Captain valuable time with each desperate effort.

Forcing back the pain he felt in his side, Ezra saw Mary tending to the injured man he just dragged out of the fight and quickly moved to reinsert himself into the battle raging in the corridor nearby. He emerged to see Katovit and the handful of security officers forcing back the Jem’Hadar. Bodies littered the corridor and Ezra's stomach hollowed seeing not all of them were Jem’Hadar. Some were his own people and he could tell by the way they were lying on the deck, trying to save them was a wasted effort. They were gone.

Suddenly, a voice called out amongst the shooting whose words chilled his insides the minute he understood its content. This was what he had been afraid of when he first realised there were Jem’Hadar attempting to reach the school. He accompanied Mary here not simply because her son was here, there were other sons across the entire ship so he could not allow himself to act anything but impersonally, but mostly because he knew children were very effective hostages. No sooner than the Jem’Hadar’s words had echoed through the corridor, the firing ceased.

As Ezra emerged into the hallway, he noted the number of bodies on the carpeted floor and realised his team had been very successful in attempting to remove the Jem’Hadar threat invading this section of the ship. He counted almost a dozen warriors on the ground and realised unfortunately, despite the grisly scene of death, their number was incomplete, and the remainder of the boarding party had taken the last resort to come out of this alive, not to mention take control of the situation.

He saw a Jem’Hadar warrior emerging into the hallway, unafraid of the firepower of the security forces waiting to gun him down. He did not have to fear, Ezra thought to himself as he saw the situation unfold.

"Hold your fire!" Ezra announced, although it was a redundant gesture. No one was firing. Not while the Jem’Hadar was holding up young William by the neck. The child's feet were dangling off the floor and the strength of the Jem’Hadar was such that he was being held suspended by his throat. William's arms were wrapped tight around the Jem’Hadar's thick arm and the child was struggling not too choke.

"Mary." Ezra called out; wanting William to see his mother was here even though Ezra could not vouch for Mary's state of mind when she saw what he did.

"What is it?" Mary looked over her shoulder and felt her heart stop when she saw the expression in his eyes. Almost terrified, she forced her legs to work, to go to Ezra's call even though instinct had told her that something awful was lying in wait for her. Mary could see all that in his eyes and hoped she was strong enough to endure what was written so grimly on his features.

Mary's eyes widened when she saw her son.

"Billy!" She exclaimed, being so horrified by the sight of her son in the grip of the Jem’Hadar that for a moment she forgot herself. Mary took a step forward when suddenly Ezra spoke sharply.

"Mary, stay absolutely still!"

She froze in her tracks and stared in anguish at her son, almost willing to risk trying to reach him before the Jem’Hadar could shoot her but knew that it was not her life she worried about, it was her son's. The Jem’Hadar could snap his neck before she even took two steps forward and so she remained where she was, shaking with fear and desperation, wanting to reach her son but frustrated because doing so could kill him.

"Drop your weapons!"

"That is not going to happen." Ezra said firmly.

"I think it is." The Jem’Hadar responded confidently, tightening his grip around Billy's throat, forcing the other security officers to withdraw, lowering their weapons but not quite prepared to relinquish them just yet. The child started to choke, making raspy sounds as he struggled to breathe.

"Billy!" Mary cried out again. "Please! He's just a baby!"

"Then you should not have him on a warship." The Jem’Hadar said coldly. "Battle lines are no place for children. You bring them on board a warship and you make them casualties, just as your child is now."

Ezra swore under his breath. He knew the minute he ordered his security team to drop their weapons this Jem’Hadar was going to open fire on all of them. If young William did survive that, it would hardly be a blessing since his mother and the rest of them would be dead. Nevertheless, Ezra was not about to let the Jem’Hadar strangle a six-year-old before their shocked eyes. There was not enough common sense in the universe for him to let that happen. God help him.

"We will not drop our weapons," Ezra tried one last gamble, hoping it would work even though the odds of it were slim. If this were a game of cards, he would not even bother with a stake; the odds were that slim. "We will allow you safe passage out of the immediate vicinity."

"NO!" The Jem’Hadar snarled. "You will drop your weapons, or I will snap this child's neck in front of his mother. That is all the negotiation that I will permit on this matter!"

Mary blinked thinking very fast what she ought to do. She knew as well as Ezra capitulating to the enemy's demands may save her son, but they would be condemning everyone else here to death. She thought about what Chris would do. How he would handle the situation. Chris always said that when there was nothing left to lose, there was nothing wrong with taking a chance, no matter how insane it was. If Ezra heard the thought, Mary was certain he would agree with her.

"Ezra," she whispered softly enough for only the security chief to hear. "Fire when you get the chance."

"What?" He blinked, not believing what he had heard for a second.

"You heard me," she repeated herself. Hopefully, the Jem’Hadar would mistake her lowered voice as an entreaty to Ezra to submit to his demands. "When you have the opportunity, kill this son of a bitch."

She met his gaze with a look that was pure lioness before facing the Jem’Hadar and her son again. William's eyes were fixed on hers and Mary took a deep breath and spoke out loud. "Billy, don't be afraid. Mother is here, mother is gonna make sure nothing happens to you."

"Mother." The child started to weep. The sound cut through Mary's heart, but she told herself to be strong.

"Billy, you must be brave. Like your father was brave. Remember how he told you the story of itcha kaiduk lachnor?"

William's eyes widened.

"Itcha kaiduk lachnor." Mary repeated herself because he was scared to do what she had just commanded. He was not old enough but not so young that he was not capable of what she was asking.

He nodded quickly as only a child could and the Jem’Hadar could sense something was wrong. "Silence!" He roared at Mary, jarring her into looking at him and forcing her to curb her instructions.

Ezra's brow wrinkled in confusion because he had no idea what Mary was saying to her son, but the boy stopped struggling immediately and closed his eyes. His grip on the Jem’Hadar strengthened but this time there was no fear on his face, just concentration.

Mary chanted the words under her breath, certain that William was reciting them as well.

My mind to your mind. My thoughts to your thoughts.

William continued his tight grip and his face contorted into an expression of focus that soon began to have effect when the Jem’Hadar warrior holding him suddenly staggered forward. His eyes clamped shut as if disorientated and William began to swing in his uncertain grasp.

"GET OUT OF MY MIND!" He screamed and dropped the child.

"Billy stay down!" Mary ordered as the child landed on all fours. She dropped to her knees as Ezra saw the opening and used it. Before she even touched the deck, the security chief had opened fire. The phaser blast impacted the Jem’Hadar warrior in the chest, sending him flying backwards. Mary was on her feet and running towards her son before the enemy even hit the floor. William scrambled to his feet and immediately ran into her embrace.

"I did it!" He exclaimed with surprise as well as relief. "I did it, mother!"

"Yes, you did," Mary said embracing her son tightly, tears running down her cheeks as she continued to hold him.

Suddenly, the door opened, and a Jem’Hadar warrior came flying out of the doorway. He crashed to a stop on the opposite wall before doubling over in a heap with just as much aplomb as his dead comrade behind him. Mary grabbed William and pulled him away from the scene as Ezra and his security officers closed in, prepared to deal with whatever threat emerged from that open doorway.

Josiah emerged into the corridor into a sea of startled faces and saw them staring at him. Self-consciously the Counselor looked at them suspiciously before asking. "What?"

JD Dunne wondered where Casey had gotten during the battle, for she was scarce ever since red alert was sounded. When he arrived at Sickbay, having accompanied Nathan Jackson to the place, helping the doctor carry their injured First Officer to receive medical treatment, he found the Captain’s Yeoman already there. At first, he thought she was injured, and alarm spread through him like wildfire. However, it became very apparent while she was helping other crewmen to examination tables and by the manner, she was retrieving objects and assisting the other junior doctors under Nathan’s command, her capacity in the place was not as a patient.

"Oh yeah," Nathan noticed JD’s surprise following their entrance into Sickbay. "Casey has been helping us out ever since the casualties started coming in. Seems she has some first aid training and with the number of injured people we got coming in, I had good use for her."

"I never knew." He mused as he and Nathan helped Buck to the nearest examination table. Buck’s color was pale and the bleeding that concerned Nathan so much had not stopped during their journey here. The First Officer’s breathing was shallow, and JD found himself facing the unimaginable prospect of anything happening to Buck Wilmington.

Ever since he came on board, Buck had taken the frightened young ensign under his wing, mentoring him, keeping an eye on him and not to mention filling up those empty spaces JD was certain would never be filled when his mother died. Olivia Dunne passed away shortly before JD had graduated and for a boy whose entire sense of family was that strong, determined woman who raised him on her own, it felt like the universe drained of its color at her demise. Although it terrified him beyond belief to learn newly promoted Captain Chris Larabee had asked for him as a member of the bridge crew, not to mention the senior staff, Buck Wilmington was waiting for him when he arrived.

"Maria!" Nathan motioned one of his staff forward once Buck was on the examination table. "I need some help here!" Without missing a beat, he turned to JD who was still hovering. The young man was still distracted by Buck’s condition to consider anything else. Unfortunately, Nathan needed room to work if he was going to save their first officer.

Casey caught sight of JD across the room and when she made eye contact with Nathan, realized why the doctor was staring her way so intently. She left what she was doing after delegating the duty to someone else and quickly approached JD and Nathan. As the young woman hurried towards the ensign, she felt a flood of relief knowing he was all right and then saw the reason why he was so anxious, when she realized Buck Wilmington was on the table waiting for treatment.

"JD!" Casey exclaimed happily upon approach. "You’re all right!" She wrapped her arms around him in a heartfelt embrace.

"I’m fine." He said quickly returning the hug but still too wracked with worry about Buck to appreciate it properly. "Buck’s not though."

"Well come away from there," she said hastily entwining her fingers with his before towing him away from Nathan. "You’re only going to get in the way and Nathan needs to work."

"But..." He started to protest.

"Please JD," Nathan replied, glancing over his shoulder to lend weight to Casey’s statement. "I’ll let you know the minute we’re done but for right now, I need to get started and I can’t do it with you hanging about."

JD looked at Casey and saw he was outnumbered and had no choice to comply with this advice since he worried enough about Buck, to not wish to be a hindrance to the help he needed at this time.

"Thanks, Nathan," JD said withdrawing from the scene and allowing Casey to lead him away.

She took him out of the Sickbay to the quiet corridor outside so they could have a moment alone. JD seemed somewhat shell-shocked and considering what he must have seen on the bridge, Casey could not blame him. Thanks to the damage to the ship, communication was in disarray and no one really knew anything for certain except there were Jem’Hadar on board the Maverick and the starship had taken heavy damage in what seemed to most like a collision.

"Is the Captain alright?" She bombarded him with questions as soon as they were alone. Such intelligence was meager at the moment and she felt inordinately concerned for the man for whom she worked so closely. "What happened? We heard the red alert and then the crash! Have we been captured or something?"

"No," JD shook his head quickly, forcing himself to concentrate on her questions instead of thinking about Buck. Suddenly, he had the idea that was what Casey was attempting to do anyway and found a surge of warmth filled his insides for her and he felt a little guilty he had not been more grateful she had come away from all the injured. "The Captain’s fine. A Jem’Hadar ship rammed us. They don’t have us yet but we’re in bad shape." There was no reason to lie to her on that point, not when the lights in the corridor were flickering erratically and the ship was tilted at an odd angle, indicating the severity of the damage.

"Oh no." Casey shuddered thinking they might soon all be captives of Cardassians. Being Bajoran, Casey knew just how brutal they could be. The Cardassian annexation of Bajor was one of the greatest injustices of modern times. Like the forced occupation by the Indonesians of Timor in the late twentieth century, the Cardassians were ruthless with the civilian population and quelled the resistance to their presence with callous savagery. Her parents died smuggling her out of Bajor and if not for Admiral Wells, she would have spent her life in a refugee camp.

"Don’t worry," JD said with some measure of confidence in Chris Larabee. "The Captain won’t let that happen."

"I hope so." She sighed.

"If anyone can do it," JD reassured her, "it’s the Captain." He leaned forward to kiss her when suddenly the sound of phaser fire broke out.

"Casey get to Sick Bay!" He ordered and saw a group of Starfleet officers running towards them, one was carrying injured crewmen with severe burns from what was obviously a phaser.

"But…" Casey started to protest.

"NOW!" He barked, not wishing to repeat himself. She nodded blindly and hurried back into Sickbay, casting anxious glances over her shoulder as she did so.

JD hurried to the officers coming forward and recognized one of them as being Lieutenant Richmond of stellar cartography. The lieutenant was armed and upon seeing JD, immediately retrieved the weapon tucked in her injured companion's belt and shoved the weapon at the youth.

"What’s happening?" JD asked.

"We’ve got Jem’Hadar coming right at us, that’s what!" Charlotte responded. "I need help holding them back. We can’t let them take Sickbay. We overheard them talking while we were making our way out of the boarded areas and they’re trying to take as many hostages as they can to use against the bridge."

"That makes sense," JD replied taking the weapon immediately. "The Captain threatened to blow the ship if they don’t withdraw."

Charlotte nodded wearily and wiped the sweat from her brow. "The rest of you get MacNeill to Sick Bay. Ensign, come with me." She ordered as she retreated up the corridor once again while the others proceeded forward.

JD was not about to argue. He knew she was a competent officer and had spent time on the front lines of the Dominion War to know what she was doing.

"We have to hold them off as long as we can," Charlotte responded as JD was checking the phaser, she gave him. "A security team is on its way but until then, it’s just you and me."

JD did not like the sound of those odds, but he supposed he could take comfort in one fact as he and Charlotte positioned themselves along the corridor and prepared to face God only knew what when it came at them.

At least he was not worrying about Buck anymore.

******

"How long until we have warp power?" Chris demanded from his command chair once he managed to get in contact with Engineering. Understandably, restoring warp power had proved a little difficult because of the trouble Engineering was having with the Jem’Hadar warriors who attempted to gain control of the deck.

"I’m almost there!" Julia Pemberton responded sounding as if she was walking when she made that declaration. He could hear her breathing hard as she hurried across the deck, shouting orders at her personnel and also took note of the added strain he knew was not just exhaustion and urgency to complete the task at hand.

"Lieutenant," Chris found himself asking. "Are you all right?"

"Just a little-broken arm." She grunted as she continued working. "Nothing that can’t wait. We’ve restored main power and we’re initializing up the shield generator. You should have shields and sensors in two minutes."

"Good," Chris commented and wondered what agony the woman must be enduring in order to complete the repairs. "Julia, you’re doing outstanding work and it is important that we get things going but take it easy. You’re more valuable to me in one piece than in several broken ones."

"Thank you, Sir." She said obviously affected by his gratitude. "But I need to keep working. We’re dead in the water unless we do."

Unfortunately, he could not disagree with her on that point and so he merely answered quietly. "Understood. Bridge out." Chris replied and turned his attention to the other two officers on deck.

Alex was working diligently under the sensor panel, trying to restore full sensors. At the moment, they had little idea what was going on in the rest of the ship, being able to communicate only through their com badges and that made it virtually impossible to gain any kind of perspective on the urgency of the situation. Vin on the other hand, was performing similar repairs on the helm and navigation stations, which bore the brunt of the damage to the bridge when the view screen had shattered. Both of them had phaser rifles close at hand in case of danger. Chris himself glanced at the phaser on his belt expecting trouble because eventually they would have company, it was just a matter of time.

From the sporadic reports they received, the Jem’Hadar had been unsuccessfully trying to capture hostages in order to barter for their release with the Captain. To Chris’s s utmost pride, the Maverick’s crew had put up such a show of resistance even the Klingons would be impressed. No one was allowing themselves to be taken by the enemy which meant that as the alternatives for negotiation were cut off at every juncture, the Dominion would be forced to resort to one last act to regain control of the situation.

The doors to the turbo lift had been sealed but Chris knew it was pointless, nonetheless. With their shields down, the enemy could simply transport a dozen armed men onto the bridge without any difficulty. Chris was poised for that moment because he knew it was coming. Even though the Maverick’s shields would be raised in two minutes or less, Chris knew it was during this limbo period of time that an attack was coming. If the Maverick raised its shields and attained warp power once again, the battle would resume, and time was not on the enemy’s side.

By now, the distress signal that JD had managed to send would have reached Deep Space Five and every starship in the sector would be aware of their troubles even if they were not in range of being of any help to the Maverick. Even if the Maverick was destroyed, Starfleet would still hunt down the convoy of ships that had dared to penetrate so deeply into Federation space. Chris was certain that the Dominion had not expected their engagement with the Maverick to have lasted as long as it had. In truth, neither had Chris. He had kept his ship alive by almost flying her apart by the seat of his pants and even he knew she was alive only on borrowed time.

"How are we doing?" Chris asked out loud.

"I’ve repaired the sensor grid," Alex declared emerging from underneath the console, dusting herself off as she stood upright. "When Engineering puts them online, we should be able to have almost complete usage."

"Hold onto that thought," Chris said with a smile, pleased some things were looking optimistic.

"That and a few others." She mused enigmatically. Now, she thought silently to herself, time to engage in some personal projects.

"What about you Vin?" Chris turned to the Officer of the Con. The Vulcan was sliding a cracked panel into place after rewiring a couple of bypass circuits to do the job of those fried when the collision had caused a spike in the power grid.

"Ditto." The Vulcan responded automatically. He slid into his chair once more and immediately started tapping the console before he was rewarded with readings that indicated the warp engines were starting to power up.

"We’ve got warp power online in four minutes." Vin looked over his shoulder with a grin. "I’m making a course heading that will put us on the fastest route to the Vikaris Quasar."

"That will do for now." Chris nodded in approval. Retreating to the Quasar would give the Maverick adequate time to lick its wounds and wait for reinforcements. The turbulence surrounding the spatial body would make them virtually undetectable to the enemy sensors. Chris did not like the idea of running from a fight, but he liked losing his entire crew and his ship even less, just because he was too stubborn to make the decision to save it. Pride was one thing. Stupidity was another.

"You think Lemar and the Vorta made it off the warbird?" Vin asked.

"I would almost guarantee it," Chris replied. "Neither of them seem the kind who hold to the belief that the Captain goes down with the ship. I would say both of them beamed to the Cardassian ship before we blew the warbird to hell."

Vin glanced at Alex, wondering how she felt about her hated enemy making his escape. However, she did not make any comment. The science officer was not looking at him and barely heard the conversation. He noticed her concentration focused on the communication array, in particular the station utilized to send encrypted messages and decoding alien frequencies and wondered what she was working on there. According to the readings on his console, communications was nominal as was the sensor grid. There was no reason for her to be focusing her repair efforts on that particular system and made a mental note to ask her about it later.

A shrill sound tore through the bridge and the trio of officers looked up. Chris glanced at the controls on his command chair and saw that one of the enemy ships was trying to contact them. Chris decided there was no reason why he should not hear what they had to say. Perhaps, he would even gain some time.

"This is Captain Larabee."

"This is Fanaian." The Vorta’s smooth voice responded even though his image could not be seen.

"How nice to see you’re still with us," Chris said with a hint of satisfaction.

"Your attempt at humor is ill-advised Captain," Fanaian's voice was terse. "Gul Lemar and I managed to transport off the Tasmeem before it was destroyed."

"Yeah," Chris frowned, disliking the whole act of abandoning one’s crew in that way because it reeked of cowardice. "I guess you’re not as expendable as your crew."

"The Jem'Hadar know their place in the scheme of things." Fanaian snorted but feeling the heat a little since he would no doubt be surrounded with those same Jem’Hadar when Chris made that declaration.

"You mean as cannon fodder," the Captain said derisively, hoping that those in question were hearing everything he said.

"You waste time by this effort," Fanaian barked impatiently. "I give you one last opportunity to surrender."

"Sorry," Chris replied without having to think twice about it. He nodded at Vin who offered the same unspoken message to Alex. All three bridge officers reached for their weapons. It was time.

"If you want this ship Fanaian, I’m afraid you’re going to have to come and get her." Chris knew the challenge he was offering was a gauntlet about to be picked up but there was no avoiding it really. The Vorta knew as well as he did the moment they went into warp; their chances of escaping would become a real possibility. The only preventative measure left to the Dominion was to end the battle by taking the bridge and kill him. Because even if they managed to fill the Maverick with hundreds of Jem’Hadar warriors, Chris still had the power to deny them their prize.

No more than a second had passed following that statement when all of a sudden, the space in front of the command chair shimmered with color. In the two seconds it would take for transport to be complete, Chris jumped out of his command chair as Jem’Hadar warriors were transported onto their bridge. There were three simultaneous transports at once and Chris counted no less than nine warriors on the bridge. Thanks to the two-second delay between transport and materialization, Vin and Alex had moved into position and started shooting.

The number of nine soon dwindled to seven.

Chris leaped out of the way as soon as the shooting started and took the necessary precautions he could not make until this absolute moment. "Computer – initiate complete mainframe lockout, access permitted only to Chief Engineer Pemberton, to be verified by code."

The dulcet tones of the computer responded in kind. "Authorization?"

"Larabee, Captain!" Chris shouted rolling onto his knees and firing into the Jem’Hadar approaching him as everything on the bridge went to hell. "Authorization code – Nimrod. Initiate lock down now!"

"Mainframe lock out initiated by Captain Christopher Larabee of the USS Maverick, verification by voice pattern recognition and authorization code. Non-restrictive access permitted to Lieutenant Julia Catherine Pemberton, Chief Engineer." The computer confirmed his order. Unless he authorized it, even if they killed him, the Dominion would not be able to access the data they launched this entire campaign to obtain.

A Jem’Hadar was attempting to rush Chris when Vin intercepted the warrior in a full body slam, with every ounce of Vulcan strength behind the impact. The warrior almost sailed across the bridge and toppled into the thick of the Jem’Hadar forces attempting to converge upon Alex. Chris turned just in time to see another warrior about to fire on his Vulcan helmsman, realizing perhaps no effort to subdue the Captain would succeed unless they removed the formidable Officer of the Con from the picture.

"Vin! Get down!" Chris shouted as Vin was trading blows with one of the warriors running loose on his bridge.

The Vulcan pivoted his head enough to see the danger and immediately dropped to his knees as he felt the bolt of energy scream overhead, taking the advantage of the sudden shift in position to throw a fist into the lower half of his opponent. The Jem’Hadar brought up his knee and connected with Vin’s jaw, jarring him backward before advancing upon him for the kill. Knowing Chris was taking care of the Jem’Hadar who had attempted to shoot him, Vin struck out his foot and slammed into the knee of the warrior on approach. His focused his kick and felt something give way under the ball of his heel before rolling aside quickly as the Jem’Hadar warrior toppled over in his direction.

In the meantime, Chris had effectively dispatched the armed Jem’Hadar who had almost ended Vin’s life with one shot. He saw Alex fighting two of them off and hurried across the bridge when he saw one of them lock an arm around her throat. He had not taken more than two steps when he saw her kick out, using the solid obstruction of the warrior in front of her to propel her backward, slamming herself and the assailant behind her into a console. Surprising the warrior who had her in a chokehold, Alex stabbed her elbow forcefully into his sternum and swung around to throw a left and right at the enemy’s face. The second warrior advanced upon her, preparing to grab her from behind when she lashed out in a back kick that met the soft tissue of the Jem’Hadar’s gut and then whirled around just as expertly to slam her palm into the warrior’s neck.

Chris saw her initial opponent at the console screen starting to get up and closed the space between them in a matter of seconds. Kicking the Jem’Hadar in the side as he prepared to launch himself at Alex, Chris felt bones shatter as the Jem’Hadar turned around to face the direction of the new attacker. Despite sustaining severe injuries, the Jem’Hadar were capable of maintaining combat effectiveness with almost 70 per cent of their bodies injured. Only the warriors Vin was dispatching stayed down because his Vulcan strength was enough to deliver the damage needed to penetrate their thick armored skin.

Throwing a succession of punches into the enemy’s face, Chris focused his blows to break bones, knowing this was the only way to keep them from launching another attack. He kept throwing punches, holding back nothing until the Jem’Hadar remained on the floor, unmoving. Chris immediately turned to Alex and saw she had done the same. One warrior was at her feet as she jumped onto the floor of the command chair just in time to land on a Jem’Hadar warrior preparing to shoot Vin.

Vin hardly noticed the danger and was in the process of flipping a Jem’Hadar soldier onto his back and towards a sharp protrusion of glass left from the shattered viewer. His opponent groaned in pain, having little time to do much else as the length of glass slice through his insides like butter, cleaving his heart in two with little warning. Obviously, the Jem’Hadar had only encountered Vulcans who were disciplined with the tenets of logic and had never seen one that was just plain pissed. Chris saw Alex running to Vin’s side, offering her help as she fought off the dwindling number of opponents left on the floor. She pulled the Jem’Hadar who was holding the Vulcan’s arm and preventing him from finishing off the comrade with whom Vin was wrestling.

Wrenching him off Vin, Alex delivered a powerful front kick to the Jem’Hadar’s ribs, snapping bones with all the force she could muster to send the broken splinters slicing through organs. Chris saw another third and final warrior recovering enough to realize there was only three of them left and his two companions were seconds away from defeat. The warrior staggered to his feet and aimed the barrel of his gun at Alex’s direction, aiming for the center of her back when Chris decided he would get there first. Shooting from the hip, the Captain did not think twice as he fired the phaser in his hands and watched the amber beam envelope Alex’s would-be executioner before he convulsed and fell to the floor in an unruly heap.

Alex paused long enough to realize what the Captain had done before she delivered another side kick to her combatant’s sternum which connected with a loud squelch as a rib cage was broken and lungs were punctured. She dropped to the floor from the force of the kick and watched as Vin brought down his elbow on the last Jem’Hadar’s neck. The enemy went down quickly and did not get up again as he lay at Vin’s feet.

For a minute, no one said anything as they surveyed the grisly scene before them. This did not look like the bridge of a starship meant for exploration; it looked like a war zone. Alex was breathing hard, Vin was staring at both Chris and her, ensuring the people he cared about most in the world was safe and Chris was just damned proud of both of them. Suddenly, the moment was broken when Julia’s voice spoke up.

"Captain, the warp engines are online!"

The three officers looked at each other blankly before making a mad dash for their respective stations on the bridge. Chris slid into the command chair; Alex hurried to the station normally occupied by Ezra Standish while Vin returned to his position at the con. Breathing hard and aware their time was limited, Chris was almost panting when he spoke out.

"Computer, disengage mainframe lock out - Captain Chris Larabee, verification code Nimrod!"

"Verification code accepted," the computer responded. "Mainframe lockout disengaged."

"Raise shields!" Chris ordered without waiting for the computer to finish speaking. Alex immediately let her fingers fly, complying with the order with more speed than she thought she was humanly capable of managing.

Hot on the heels of his command to raise the shields to keep any more Jem’Hadar warriors from beaming onto the Maverick, Chris turned to Vin and barked an equally important order and the one that would most likely save them. "Vin get us out of here!"

"We're on our way!" Vin exclaimed and following that statement, the Maverick surged forward in a burst of power as its propulsion systems fired. Chris could feel the gentle throbbing of the warp engines as the ship streaked out of its present position. Escaping the two Jem’Hadar ships that were reeling from surprise by the Maverick's sudden departure.

"Jem’Hadar ships in pursuit!" Alex responded automatically, watching the screen on Ezra's console since the viewer was destroyed in the attack.

"Full speed ahead!" Chris ordered. "Get us to the Vikaris Quasar as fast as you can!"

"Captain," Alex's voice suddenly spoke and it was no longer euphoric or jubilant. The sudden change in tone made Chris swivel around in his chair and face her. The expression in her eyes was black and Chris had this sinking feeling they had escaped nothing.

"Four Jem’Hadar vessels just de-cloaked and are proceeding to intercept."

"What!" Vin exclaimed.

"Reserves. "Chris groaned inwardly. "They had FUCKING reserves!"

"We can outrun them." Vin declared refusing to give up hope no matter how much the odds had shifted out of balance, leaving them the loser, again.

"They're spreading out and setting up a kill zone." She paused as she collected her thoughts and continued with her report. "We're caught in the middle Captain. The Cardassian warships are also closing in. We've got nine ships converging on our position. We don't have the power to shift to maximum warp to outrun them."

Chris faced front again, not believing this. He could not believe this, but he knew Alex was not exaggerating. For a moment, there was another pregnant pause as Chris tried to think of what to do. The ship was caught in amber and he knew it. In fact, they all did. There were no options left. He could continue attempting to break the blockade, most likely destroying his ship in the process or he could surrender. Somehow, the second alternative was no better. There was a third option left to him and it was one he loathed to take but avenues were being cut off and they were becoming more and more trapped by the second.

Closing his eyes, he could not find the strength to respond. He would rather die than have to do this, but he had no choice. He hoped Mary, wherever she was on the ship would forgive him. Chris supposed if there was some consolation in all this, she would never know what happened until it was all over.

And then nothing would matter.

"Computer." Chris let out a heavy sigh. "Initiate self-destruct."

Neither Vin nor Alex showed any surprise at his instruction. "Self-destruct initiated, command officer’s verification code required." The computer said tonelessly, completely indifferent to the situation.

"Captain Chris Larabee. Command authorization code - Nimrod."

"Voice pattern recognition accepted."

Chris looked at Alex who swallowed the bile of defeat away and took a deep breath before she spoke too. "Lieutenant Commander Alexandra Styles. Command authorization code - Phoenix."

"Voice pattern recognition accepted. Self-destruct initiated. 4.59 seconds......4.58 seconds......."

"I guess that's it," Chris responded easing back into his chair. Neither Alex nor Vin had ever seen Chris Larabee so defeated.

"You did everything you could, Chris," Vin responded softly, not afraid to die and taking solace in the fact he was with the two people in the universe he cared most about when it happened. It was something at least.

"You gave them one hell of a fight Captain," Alex answered, just as emotionally. Turning to Vin, she spoke in a tone complete with authority. "Lieutenant, stand at attention."

Vin grasped her meaning and immediately stood up. The Maverick was automated enough to be able to stand his absence from the controls for a few seconds. Both he and Alex stood at attention before Chris.

"It has been an honor and a privilege to serve with you, Sir," Alex said from her station, while Vin nodded his agreement from where he was.

Overhead the computer continued its vocal countdown. "2.27, 2.26...."

Chris swallowed hard, feeling the same heavy emotions. "Thank you." He almost whispered. "I'm sorry I couldn't do any better for you."

Vin was about to respond when suddenly, a soft beeping noise was heard from Alex's station.

"What now?" Chris grumbled. "The entire Dominion Fleet?"

"No!" Alex exclaimed, scarcely able to believe what she was seeing before her. "I am picking up two, no make that three ships on an intercept course. Captain, they're ours!"

"What?" Chris just about jumped in his chair. "Three ships," Alex continued as the readings before her became more specific. "Two are Starfleet warp signatures and the third is Klingon!"

"Klingon?" Vin exclaimed confused.

Chris was not sure of anything, but he had to gamble Alex was right about what she was seeing on the sensors and this was not being an illusion perpetrated by the enemy to trick them. Whether it was or not, it would take more than the time left according to the auto-destruct sequence for them to sort it ought. They had less than a minute left before there would be nothing for those ships, if they did indeed exist, to rescue if he did not act now.

"Computer, terminate self-destruct," Chris said hastily and offered his authorization code as quickly as possible. Alex did the same thing and the final ending they envisioned only seconds ago evaporated with a short but completely indifferent response by the computer that the protocol had been disengaged.

"The Cardassians and the Dominion are breaking off!" Alex announced. "Captain, they are withdrawing."

Somehow Chris was not surprised. It was one thing to take on a heavily damaged starship, but the odds were a little more even and less certain in the Dominion's favor when they had to take on an additional three ships as well. "Cowards," Chris whispered under his breath. "Do we have an identification on the three ships?" Chris inquired, wishing to know to whom he ought to be grateful for saving their lives.

"Not yet," Alex replied. "Sensors are still a little sluggish from the party we just had."

"Vin, bring the ship about and move to intercept."

"Glad to Sir," Vin looked over his shoulder long enough to flash Chris and Alex a happy smile.

"The lead ship is hailing us," Alex announced with a smile just as radiant, not just for Vin but also for her Captain, not to mention the little surprise gift she left for Lemar. Perhaps the day was not going to end on such a sour note after all.

"Put them through," Chris said coolly, never thinking he could be so relieved to have anyone pull his fat out of the fire as the Captains of those three vessels had. He made a mental note to buy whoever was at the other end of this hailing frequency a drink at Four Corners when things had settled down.

"Captain Larabee." A familiar voice responded over the com system that almost made Chris fall out of his chair. Chris recognized the voice immediately and looked up with damn near awe on his face.

"This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Enterprise. May we be of assistance?"

With the arrival of the Enterprise, the Venture and the Klingon ship called C’boath, the battle was more or less over. The Dominion, taking the arrival of the reinforcements as a sign of things to come, chose to depart while they still could. The six Jem’Hadar ships departed while the three Cardassian vessels limped along behind them, tail tucked neatly between their legs because none of them were prepared to face the Federation's flagship in battle. After the spectacular defense put up by the Maverick, the Dominion was not about to risk further humiliation by attempting to take on the legendary USS Enterprise. Especially when it was supported by the Venture captained by Raphael Castille one of the more wolverine commanders on the current front lines, not to mention the Klingon bird of prey, upon which no comment was truly required.

For the first few hours after the arrival of the reinforcements, the communications between the captains were mostly done via hailing frequencies. The Maverick had taken heavy damage and the Enterprise offered to assist with the repairs it would require for the galaxy class starship to make it to the nearest star base for repairs. Crew transfers from ship to ship at this point was restricted mostly to Engineering staff and medical personnel. There were many injured on board and there were still Jem’Hadar prisoners remaining, having been contained by Ezra's security team and left behind by the ships when the Dominion retreated.

Still the fact the Dominion had gone did not change the situation as it stood; the Maverick was still unable to defend itself properly after the substantial beating it had taken from those ten ships. Thus, the Venture and the C’boath kept a vigil over the surrounding space as the repairs were conducted. Several hours after he almost destroyed his ship instead of allowing her to fall into enemy hands, Chris Larabee found himself pacing nervously at the only undamaged transporter pad left, waiting for his contemporaries to arrive. Despite the fact he was a starship captain and had no reason to be such, Chris was extremely nervous.

"Captain," Alex sighed and she waited with him. "Try to show a little dignity, would you?"

Chris stopped pacing and gave her a dark look before noting Transporter Chief Rain was stifling a snigger. "Very funny." He glared and returned to a more casual position next to her.

He knew he was being nervous for no reason. After all, he knew Raphael from his Academy days and the Klingon commander was like any other he had come across in his time, brutally honest and coarse as the day was long with a hair-trigger temper. However, among their number was also the captain of the Enterprise. Jean Luc Picard was coming aboard his ship and Chris was not so jaded that he could not feel anxiety at that meeting. This was Picard, the first man to make contact with the Borg, who secured the treaties between the Federation and the Gorn, this man had literally saved the Federation a dozen times over and Chris could not deny he was struck with a little case of hero worship.

"Captain, " Transporter Chief Rain spoke up. The tall, exotic looking woman, who also happened to be a Trill, tended to look upon her crewmates with bemusement as she was doing so to him now, announced Captain Castille of the Venture was awaiting transport.

"Bring him aboard," Chris responded.

His order prompted the low hum of the transporter and the next thing he knew, a shimmer of color appeared on the pad long enough to coalesce into the definitive shape of a man. It took a few seconds until the form of Raphael Castille fully materialized before them and like the frame of a picture, frozen and then set in motion, the process was soon completed, and he was staring in their direction.

"Chris Larabee," Raphael broke into a wide grin. "How long has it been compadre?"

"I don't know," Chris returned his smile with a warm handshake, knowing between old friends like this, the usual aloof gestures would not be enough. "How long has it been since I had to peel you off the floor of that bar in San Francisco?"

"About as long as it took for me to talk you out of going out on the date set by Buck Wilmington. Where is that skirt chaser anyway?" Raphael looked around the room and noted that the Maverick's first officer was absent.

"He's been hurt," Chris said somberly. "When our bridge went up, he took the worst of it."

Raphael's mood shrunk into a frown. "Is he going to be alright?"

"He's going to be fine," Chris answered, having recalled the conversation with Nathan a short time ago before their arrival in this room. "Raphael, this is my Science Officer and temporary exec while Buck is recovering, Lieutenant Commander Styles."

"Please to meet you, Sir," Alex said with a smile as Raphael looked in her direction briefly and managed, in those few seconds, to convey to the science officer he had something discreet to discuss with her captain. Alex immediately excused herself and went to assist Rain.

"Chris," Raphael said quietly. "I was sorry to hear about Sarah and Adam. I was on a deep space mission when I heard the news. I wished I could have been there for you."

Chris shrugged, having dealt with that particular hurt a long time ago even though remembering always sent a shard of pain through him, no matter how hard he tried not to let it affect him. "It's okay Raphael. I wasn't really there myself, not in spirit anyway."

Both men nodded in unspoken understanding and Chris decided a change of subject is definitely in order. "I'm assuming part of this trip so far out of your way has to do with a certain lady bartender that serves on board?"

"Yeah," Raphael grinned, happy to leave the somber subject behind him as well. "If you don't mind, I'll catch up with you later. I haven't seen Inez since she signed up on the Maverick."

"You could have her posted to the Venture." Chris pointed out.

"Not a chance in hell compadre." Raphael retorted. "I don't want her on the front lines with me. I can deal with death on a daily basis, but I can't do my job is I have to worry about her too."

It was a sentiment Chris understood all too well; indeed, any captain would have. "I understand. We'll meet up later. Last I heard she was in Four Corners. Ship to ship communication is still down so she may not know that you're on board."

"I get to surprise her." Raphael grinned as he started towards the door. "What could be better?"

"Captain Picard standing by to transport," Alex informed him once Raphael had gone.

Chris almost jumped out of his skin, being disarmed by his reunion with Raphael long enough to remember Picard was about to come on board.

"How do I look?" Chris turned nervously to Alex as he began straightening his uniform and running his fingers through his hair. Something about being in Jean Luc Picard's presence warranted such behavior.

Alex rolled her eyes in disbelief but nonetheless found herself straightening his collar anyway before responding. "The model of a starship commander, Lieutenant?" She glanced at Rain. "Initiate transport."

"Hey, I wasn't ready!" He grumbled.

Alex wondered how Mary put up with him.

Anything she was about to say was cut short when the shimmering began on the transporter pad. The tall, slender form of Captain Jean Luc Picard materialized before him and it took a few seconds for Chris to get accustomed to seeing the man before he was able to force himself to react.

"Captain...Captain Picard." Why was he stammering? "Welcome on board the Enterprise... I mean the Maverick."

Oh, real smooth Larabee, Chris thought to himself following that impeccable delivery.

Alex tried not to shake her head.

If Picard noticed his stumbling, the man certainly did not show it. Instead, the legendary commander extended his hand towards Chris in a handshake. "Thank you, Captain Larabee, it's a pleasure to be here. I admit I would have like to have seen the Maverick under better circumstances, but I must commend you did admirably under the conditions."

"Thank you, Sir," Chris found himself swallowing visibly at the man. "The truth is, if you and the other ships had not arrived when you did, it could have ended very differently."

Their gazes held for a second and Picard understood completely what Chris was trying to say, not to mention he was honest enough to admit the help was needed and appreciated, a rare thing with captains. Picard had come across enough men in his time who had egos the size of Class 9 gas giants to know such modesty was rare and to be valued. "We make our careers by what we accomplish by the skin of our teeth Chris, I think you fared better than most and please call me Jean Luc."

"I wouldn't feel comfortable about that," Chris said honestly. "By all means call me Chris but to me, you're always going to the captain who always managed to beat the odds and I'm still too awed by all that to be on a first name basis."

Picard was pleasantly surprised and decided that he would like this Captain Larabee very much, enough perhaps to even call him a friend. "Actually, I have been wanting to meet you and make some thanks myself Chris."

"Why?" Chris asked automatically and suddenly had an idea what JD must go through around him. He reminded himself from now on, he was going to try and show as much consideration as Picard was doing for him.

"You were one of the commanders who chose to follow me during our last battle with the Borg even though I did not have command of the fleet. You could have been severely reprimanded if the attack failed and Earth would have fallen to the Borg. It is quiet something to me you and those like you, chose to follow me into that battle on a faith alone."

Chris did not know what to say. Following Picard into that fight gained him his captaincy and yet the man was here, thanking him. It was almost too much to take and yet he knew he had to answer. "You were the Captain of the Enterprise. I couldn't expect to do anything else."

"I've been told that before." He chuckled and then let his gaze move over the transporter room before remarking. "I miss the last Enterprise you know," Picard mused. "Perhaps it takes time to get used to a sovereign class Enterprise, but I always liked her better when she was a galaxy class ship. She had character."

Chris could understand all too well and he knew no matter what ships came and went in the future, he would always have a special place in his heart for the Maverick. Suddenly, he realized he was being rude and immediately introduced Alex and Rain to Picard.

"I believe you are the reason the Klingon ship is here Commander Styles," Picard said to Alex after the introduction was made.

"Me?" Alex stared at him blankly. "I don't understand."

"Captain, the C’boath has signaled its readiness to transport. Two to beam over." Rain broke in at that point.

"Go ahead," Chris ordered as he was listening to Picard explaining things to Alex and Rain immediately went about activating the transporter pad, filling the room with that familiar hum as they spoke.

"The Enterprise was already on its way to intercept the Maverick as per Starfleet's orders when we were told to rendezvous with the C’boath to pick up a passenger. When your distress signal reached us, the commander of the C’boath felt it would be a much more interesting assignment to lend assistance in a combat situation instead of just ferrying passengers from one destination to the other." Picard sighed as this was the eccentricities of Klingon behavior needing no further explanation.

"You said it had something to do with me...." Alex asked again.

"Well apparently, their passenger was coming to see you." Picard smile gesturing to the transporter pad where the commander of the Klingon ship and another more familiar figure appeared in front of them.

Alex did not speak, and she vaguely heard the Klingon commander striding forward, uttering some greeting towards her before he joined Picard and Chris. In the background, she heard Commander Kavroth telling Chris how the crew of the C’boath envied the Maverick for the glorious battle that must have been fought before the arrival of reinforcements from the Federation and its allies.

Alex could only see the woman before her.

It had almost been three years since she had been on Qo'noS and seeing Kellien before her was more than enough to take Alex's breath away. She could hear Chris ushering the other captains and Rain out of the room in order to offer her some privacy, but it was all a blur. Kellien stood before her, tall and matriarchal, wearing the leather coverings of a Klingon woman and looking as if she could wipe the floor with any human foolish enough to challenge her. Her long auburn hair had grayed a little, but it still reminded Alex of a lion's mane as it had done when she was a child, falling asleep in that strong woman's embrace.

"What are you doing here?"

"I received a communication from your ship's counselor saying that I was needed." Kellien stepped off the transporter pad. She stood the same height as Alex and watched her foster daughter closely.

Josiah. Alex thought to herself, only Josiah would have the audacity or for that matter, the insight to do that. A thousand emotions ran through her as she saw Kellien coming towards her. The events of the last few days came crashing down on her with the appearance of the one person who was able to instill in her the need to go on after her discharge from Starfleet Medical, in the aftermath of what happened to her. Lord only knew what Alex would have done if she had been left to her own devices. When she left the care of doctors and counselors, she was so traumatized by her experience in that Cardassian prison she could have killed herself like so many others before her. Too ashamed to go home to her father whom Alex still could not face, she instead went to the only other person who might be able to help her.

Kellien had saved her in more ways than Alex could count.

"It is good to see you," Alex whispered softly, the emotions inside her threatening to break her in half.

"How have you been?" Kellien asked, aware Alex was nearing the threshold of just how much she could take. "I worry about you."

Alex blinked, trying to stop the tears and took a step closer to the woman. "He was here, on this ship."

Kellien nodded trying to keep her stiff upper lip but starting to succumb to the moment as well. "I know."

"I wanted to kill him."

"You had every right to," Kellien answered. "But you placed the lives of those around you before the need for the vengeance. You acted honorably."

"I did not," Alex shook her head, not about to accept her praise, not after what she did before the Dominion fleet left. Her hands were bloodied even if she had not done the killing herself. "I had my vengeance. They just don't know yet."

"Then honor is doubly satisfied, and I do not care about that p'takh. You are the daughter I never had, the child who so easily filled my heart from the moment you entered it. You have done nothing to be ashamed of and you have survived. I am proud of you." Kellien said softly.

Alex crossed the space between them and stood poised for a few seconds in front of Kellien before she finally placed her head on the woman's shoulder and allowed the woman to embrace her in her comforting arms. Alex had no idea what tomorrow would bring but for the moment, all she wanted to do was be held by the closest thing in the world she had to a mother.

******

Lemar knew something was wrong when he was summoned abruptly to the bridge of the lead Dominion ship. As it was, he had been attempting to limit his dealings with the Vorta ever since they were forced to run from the Maverick like frightened children. Who knew one galaxy class ship could have mounted such a formidable defense when fighting off an entire of phalanx of Jem’Hadar warships? Of course, it probably had most to do with the fact the Dominion had seriously underestimated Captain Chris Larabee and how determined he would be to keep his ship. Lemar who had been in close proximity to the man had to give the Captain credit where it was due.

The man's ruthlessness was almost Cardassian in its nature.

Fanaian had been in a foul mood ever since they were forced to beam off the bridge of the Tasmeem prior to its destruction onto one of the nearby Cardassian ships, wounded in the battle. Later on, they transported to the Jem’Hadar ships for reasons of safety once the battle was lost and retreat was in order. Lemar guessed the reason for Fanaian's mood had much to do with the fact that once they returned to Dominion territory, he would have to give his masters, the Founders, a very good reason for the failure of this mission. Lemar did not wish to be in his shoes for that particular meeting as the Founders were not known for their tolerance of mistakes, especially one on this scale.

When he arrived on the bridge, however, he noted that Fanaian had taken center seat and seemed in very good humor. This in itself was unusual considering what they had just been through but for some reason, Lemar felt a chill of something cold running down his spine upon seeing the man's mood. It was a feeling he could not quite define but it nagged at him, nonetheless, remaining vaguely in the backdrop of his mind, awaiting its time.

"Lemar," Fanaian said with a smile. "I am glad you are able to join us."

"You seem in good spirits today." The Cardassian said as he paused in front of the command chair where Fanaian was seated and presenting himself like a king presiding over his court. Lemar looked around and noticed two Jem’Hadar guards moving to flank the door and wondered what that was all about.

"I am, I am," Fanaian replied exuberantly. "I have been in a terrible melancholy you know." He said with an exaggerated frown of dismay. "After our defeat at the hands of the Maverick, the complete failure of our mission, who could blame me?"

"Yes," Lemar nodded, unable to swallow away the nagging feeling pressing insistently against his spine the more Fanaian continued to exude this positive outlook. "The situation was unfortunate. However, I suppose in all things one must accept the failures along with the successes."

"How true," the Vorta nodded in agreement. "However, I must confess to feeling a little trepidation in reporting to the Founders we had failed them. One does not tell a god one is not equal to the task he has set you."

Lemar had his own opinions about the deification of the Founders but chose to keep them silent. "I take it this good mood is because you have found a way out of your problem."

"How perceptive of you," Fanaian grinned wider. "I have found my solution indeed."

"Well," Lemar leaned against the command chair. "I am agog with anticipation."

Fanaian looked at Lemar slyly and then answered. "You should be. You are the instrument of my deliverance."

Lemar blinked. "Me?"

"Yes," Fanaian gushed deliberately. "It came as a complete surprise to me as well, but it was like a revelation. Apparently, before the Tasmeem was destroyed an encrypted message was sent to you from the Maverick."

"From the Maverick?" Lemar exclaimed bewildered. "Why?"

"That's what we wondered," Fanaian looked around at his Jem’Hadar companions who were keeping a very sharp eye on Lemar right at this moment. "However, upon decrypting it and let me tell you, whoever sent it was most determined only you should have access to it, we understood everything."

That nagging feeling was now screaming in his ear and Lemar felt the iciness expand from his spine to encompass the rest of him. "Understood what?"

"Understand how Larabee was able to disengage the shields on three Cardassian warships. It appeared you provided him with the shield frequency." Lemar said as casually as he might be reporting that the ship's systems were all nominal, not accusing Lemar of nothing less than treason.

"What!" Lemar cried out horrified, suddenly feeling the sands of his life starting to drain rapidly. "What possible reason would I have to aid the Federation?"

"To save the life of your lover of course," Fanaian answered smoothly.

This was getting more preposterous by the minute and Lemar was starting to feel his head swim with disorientation at being bombarded by so many untruths. "I do not have a lover on the Maverick!"

"Of course you do," the Vorta replied looking at him hard. "Her name is Lieutenant Commander Alexandra Styles and in what she thought was her last message to you, she told you not to mourn for her and it is not your fault that you were unable to save the Maverick. At first, I thought that this was ludicrous until I checked the records and discovered she was your prisoner once, wasn't she?"

"Yes..." Lemar said meekly, understanding the trap Styles so neatly created for him.

"A prisoner who escaped just as you escaped. From a maximum-security military outpost, she managed to obliterate off the face of the planetoid it was situated upon, to hide her escape and your act of treason!" Fanaian adding more and more evidence to support Alex's plan with each word he spoke.

"You cannot possibly believe any of this is true!"

"In truth," Fanaian looked at him and replied. "No, I don't actually."

"Then you believe me," Lemar asked, unable to imagine how his life now rested in this Vorta's hands and his belief in Lemar's innocence.

"Absolutely." The Vorta answered. "However, that does you little good."

Lemar stared at him.

"You see Gul Lemar," Fanaian rose to his feet. "What I believe is inconsequential. When I take this to the Founders and inform them this mission failed because I had a traitor in my ranks who sold us out in order to save the life of his lover, they will believe it. They will believe it because of your previous dealings with Commander Styles and the fact ten warships were incapable of taking one galaxy class starship without help. They will understand I failed because of these mitigating circumstances."

"You can't do this!" Lemar roared and took a step towards the deceitful Vorta. He made no more than two steps forward before he was stopped by Jem’Hadar warriors who quickly removed his weapon and had him in their unwavering grip before he even knew what was happening. Fanaian returned to his chair once again and faced the struggling Cardassian.

"I will deny it!" Lemar screamed desperately. "You'll never get away with this! When I tell the Founders..."

"You will never see the Founders to make that rebuttal," Fanaian said sharply and then looked at the Jem’Hadar beside Lemar. "Space him."

"NO!!!!!!!!!" Lemar shouted in his ear.

Fanaian let out a sigh as the Cardassian was dragged away screaming, before staring at the view screen before him. He could still hear Lemar's screams down the corridor and down towards the main airlock.

"Odious creature," Fanaian said with an expression of disgust to no one in particular. "The Cardassians will make anyone a Gul."

The Jem’Hadar soldier at the controls of the ship said nothing in response for it was not expected or required for that matter. He maintained his gaze on the controls and the view screen before him, wavering only when he noted the indicator on his console of someone opening an airlock.

Captain's Logs Stardate 14.25.02

The repairs on the Maverick continue swiftly aided in part by the Engineering staff from the Enterprise led by Commander Geordie La Forge. Captain Picard has been extremely generous in crew assignments to the Maverick although I am starting to suspect that is due to the fond memories, they have of Enterprise D and working on a galaxy class starship. We have also transferred all our Jem’Hadar prisoners to the Enterprise as she will be heading back to the front lines where the prisoner of war exchanges can be negotiated. Intelligence reports from Cardassian Prime indicate Gul Lemar never made it home with the rest of the Dominion task force sent to take the Maverick. I can only assume he must have been blamed for their failure in this instance. In either case, I do not mourn for him and was rather surprised by how stoically the news was taken by Lieutenant Commander Styles.

She seems to be holding up well and I have to say a contributing factor to this would be the arrival of her foster mother Kellien from the C’boath. Even though the lady remained on board for only two days, her presence added greatly to the wellbeing of our science officer. There has been no cause for concern regarding the commander's behavior and she spent much of Kellien's visit in the lady's company along with Vin Tanner. Commander Wilmington seems to be recovering nicely and although he has been discharged from sick bay, has been placed on sick leave for the next week, but to hear him complain, one would think Nathan Jackson had drummed him out of the service altogether.

For myself, I am immensely proud of the way the Maverick handled itself during this crisis and while there are still things to settle in many quarters, I feel these are just the details left over in the wake of what has happened. Whether or not there is a planet in the Frontier that has tri nucleic fungi may now be a moot point. I have been told there is a very good reason why Captain Castille made this special trip to the sector see his fiancée. According to Picard, Captain Benjamin Sisko of Deep Space Nine is presently amassing the largest fleet in the history of the alpha quadrant to launch an all-out attack against the Dominion. The battle will be decisive and will end the Dominion threat once and for all. We have been ordered to return to the nearest starbase for repairs to our damaged upper pylon in order to join the battle that will take place over the skies of Cardassia Prime."

******

The problem with androids is the fact that they did not blink.

Humans blinked. Cardassians tended to smooth the ridges of their brow. Andorians got a nervous twitch in their antenna while Pakleds were so dumb it did not matter what gestures they did or did not produce; it was almost routine beating them. Klingons sat stoned faced, offering no expression but still very illuminating. Romulans always bluffed but androids? Androids did not blink and what was more infuriating, is that they also had the best poker faces, with the exception of Vulcans, that Ezra Standish had ever seen.

"No discards Mr. Data?" Ezra Standish asked as he stared across the felt covered table inside his quarters where he was presently playing an intense game of poker with some members of the Enterprise, including a very skilled though disgustingly modest third officer who just happened to be an android.

"No thank you, Commander Standish." Data said politely, glancing at his cards once again even though it was a redundant gesture. What he had seen of them when they were first handed to him was imprinted in his positronic brain. There was no need to keep his eye on them because there was no chance of his forgetting. Besides, he did not wish to take too much attention away from his observations of the man Commander Riker called the best damn poker player in Starfleet. "These will do."

"God," Julia Pemberton declared from Ezra's right, her arm still in a sling as she watched the standoff between human and android. She had been played out long ago, but she could not help remaining behind and watch the game. Although she was technically supposed to be cheering for Ezra because of their relationship, Julia could not help wondering if Mr. Data who had been assisting her in Engineering the past few days, was capable of playing Ezra. Just the possibility of their security chief being beaten by this pseudo-human was too delicious to imagine. "He's even more than polite than you are."

"Is that not the proper way to behave?" Data inquired, not wishing to offend.

"Of course, it is," Nathan said fascinated by this automaton who was so much like a human despite his outer covering it was really quite uncanny. In the few days Nathan had gotten to know the android, Nathan found him to be far more human than any of the flesh and blood specimens he had met in his lifetime. "It's just you manage to sound sincere when you do it and not like you're about to move in for the kill."

"I take umbrage at that," Ezra said with a look of mock hurt on his face. "I always managed to sound sincere when I go in for the kill." He broke out into a dimpled smile.

"Face it, Ezra," Will Riker laughed. "These people know you too well."

"You are just annoyed Mr. Riker because I have all your money." Ezra threw him a satisfied smirk.

"Commander Standish," Data's voice suddenly interrupted the two old friends. "Are you engaging Commander Riker in such banter as a ploy to avoid laying down your cards as I have called your hand?"

A ripple of laughter rang throughout the room, not to mention whistles and hoots from the gallery.

"Ezra, I do believe he is calling you out." Nathan declared, unable to keep from laughing out loud at the whole situation and partaking of the amusement shared by everyone in the room.

"Mr. Data," Ezra looked at the android. "Is that what you were intending to do?"

"No Commander," Data said with that perfectly expressionless face, the one that did not blink. "I am merely attempting to prevent you from stalling for time. You have raised the stakes and I have met the challenge; I wish to see your cards."

"Never let it be said that I am unresponsive to polite requests," Ezra remarked as he lay his cards down on the table, near the considerable pile of chips in the middle.

"Very nice." Riker whistled seeing the four aces that stared up at everyone.

Ezra looked at Data and responded. "Mr. Data, can you rise to that challenge?"

Data nodded shortly. "I think I can." His answer stunned Ezra somewhat and made the security chief anxious as he proceeded to lay his cards downs for the others to see. Suddenly, Ezra had a bad feeling that he was going to ......wait a minute!

"That is two pair!" Ezra declared. The game had been focused on the two of them with stakes being risen to an obscene amount of credits for a lousy two pair! It was beyond Ezra's comprehension.

"Yes." Data answered with complete innocence. "Congratulations Commander Standish. That was well played."

"Well played?" Ezra balked. "You had two pair! Are you telling you were bluffing me?"

By now everyone in the room was reduced to hysterics as they saw the bewildered expression on Ezra's face. Nobody bluffed Ezra Standish. It was a cardinal rule. When that happened, expect weather forecasts to report in that hell freezing over.

"I could not beat you." Data replied with that same polite voice. "Commander Riker told me that before we began playing. However, he did mention you seemed to enjoy the game more when you were engaged in a bluff. I thought you would be pleased."

Ezra gave Riker who look who was wearing the same smirk he had given the first officer of the Enterprise a minute ago. "You have no shame, Commander Riker."

"Yeah but like you said, you have all my money."

Ezra could only glare as he heard their continued laughter.

******

"What does she see in him?" Buck Wilmington complained as he saw Inez and Captain Castille sharing a romantic dinner at a table overlooking the window inside Four Corners.

"Well he's a captain," Mary remarked staring in the same direction Buck was. She and JD Dunne were attempting to keep Buck company since the first office was just miserable since being taken off active duty for his injuries. After having Buck stroll onto the bridge numerous times for no good reason, Chris ordered Mary to keep Buck distracted since the chore was already driving poor JD Dunne to distraction. Buck's need to be in the thick of things was more than a young ensign could hold back and Chris decided a more experienced hand was necessary.

"So what?" Buck shrugged. "There's nothing great about being Captain. You just get to sit in the big chair." Then he looked at Mary and snorted. "Oh, look who I'm talking to about this. You're just as bad."

"Buck!" JD said mortified that he could speak to her that way, even in jest.

Mary, however, was not at all offended. In fact, she had a good return to his remark. "Well," she flashed a little smile at JD and then turned to Buck who was still staring longingly at Inez's direction and convincing everyone at the table his feeling for Inez was not as typical as he might have them believe. "It has to do with those captain's bars."

Buck turned to her. "Really?"

"Oh yes," Mary said with an exaggerated bat of her eyes and misty pout to her full lips. "Something about those extra pips on the collar just turns me on so much. Why how you can just settle for a first officer after that.? It would be like slumming." She ended that statement with a wicked gleam in her eye as JD started to laugh.

"I bet you think you're real funny." Buck gave her a look. "I thought Vulcan wives weren't supposed to have a sense of humor."

"I'm not Vulcan." Mary winked in his direction when suddenly the door slid open and an extraordinarily beautiful woman with sultry features and a magnificent mane of dark hair walked into the room. She was paused and studied the place for anyone she knew before drifting towards the bar and pulling herself a seat.

"Hold the phone!" Buck exclaimed, spotting her immediately. "If Inez wants a captain that's fine with me." Buck declared, leaving no mystery as to where he was going when he got to his feet and started walking towards her. "I just sighted land in the horizon."

"Buck," Mary spoke up as he started towards her. "You know how to really get her interested?"

"You know her?" Buck glanced at the beauty who had ordered herself some chocolate ice cream and was now consuming it. Now he knew for a fact women substituted chocolate for another other basic need, which meant he was in a great deal of luck.

"Yes, I do," Mary said with a completely straight face. "Just keep thinking to yourself how you want nothing but to show her a thousand and one pleasures. I guarantee you; she'll fall into your arms."

"You're kidding me," Buck retorted with obvious disbelief.

"I'm not," she insisted. "Just keep that thought in your head right up to the second you speak to her. She'll sense it and respond. Trust me, that woman likes a man who knows what he wants."

"Alright." Buck grinned and decided it was worth a shot. Leaving their table, he started swaggering to the lady in question, oozing typical Buck Wilmington charm.

JD waited until he was gone and then asked. "Isn't that Counselor Deanna Troi of the Enterprise?"

"Yes." Mary taking a sip of her coffee while wearing a look of pure innocence on her face.

JD thought so and then had to ask further. "Isn't she telepathic?"

Mary grinned. "Yes."

"So, if he thinks that.... oh!" JD stared at her and started to laugh. "Ma'am that's cruel."

Mary met his gaze and smiled. "Yes, it is."

JD turned his eyes eager to feast in the carnage that was to be Buck's introduction to Deanna Troi and muttered to himself. "It’s no wonder you go for the Captain, the first officer is just no match for you."

******

Josiah Sanchez and Chris Larabee had been giving each other wide berths since this entire situation with Gul Lemar emerged, particularly with the conflict created thanks to their differing opinions on how Alexandra Styles should be handled. Although things turned out for the best, it was clear their friendship had reached something of a crossroads. Chris knew for them to continue serving together on board the Maverick, boundaries had to be set, and lines drawn so each man understood where one's bounds began and the other ended.

Instead of waiting for Josiah to come to see him, Chris decided it was best if he made the conciliatory gesture. He knew he had hurt Josiah's feelings when he refused to take Alex off duty, but he still believed as he had believed then, he had made the right decision. Keeping Alex on duty had saved their lives because she had inadvertently discovered the deception Gul Lemar had been attempting to perpetrate upon them. Had it not been for her timely alert, the Maverick would have been caught by surprise and Chris did not even want to imagine what would have happened if his ship had been taken. Not just to Alex but to all of them.

"Am I interrupting?" Chris asked politely as he peered into Josiah's office in the Counselor's suites on the same deck as the Sick Bay.

Josiah who was going over some crew fitness reports in light of their recent battle immediately looked up and found himself surprised by the Captain's sudden appearance. Then again, Chris had the ability to do that like no other man he had ever known. "Sure." He nodded and put down the data pad in his hand.

Chris walked into the room and seated himself in the chair before the Counselor's desk just as Josiah pulled himself out of it and went to the shelf where he kept his stock of Romulan Ale. Extracting the bottle and two glasses from its place there, he poured them both a drink. Neither man said anything as Josiah handed Chris a glass and returned to his seat nursing his own.

"Are we the most stubborn people in the world or is this how it usually happens between Captains and their Counselors?" He broke the silence finally.

"I like to go with the second option actually," Chris said with a smile as he heard the exhale from Josiah indicating there were no hostility remaining between them, just unresolved issues that needed discussing. "People say I'm stubborn but I refuse to believe it."

Josiah laughed softly and then responded. "Chris, I'm sorry I pushed so hard with Alex."

"Don't apologize," Chris said automatically. "I'm glad you did what you did Josiah. It shows me what an exceptional healer you are. You put her life before anything else and that is how it should be. I'm not holding it against you that you took an opposing view to mine, it just makes me glad to know if I ever was in the same place, you'll be there to help me just as resolutely as you were able to help her."

"When I read that report about all those suicides," Josiah responded softly, touched by the depth of feeling Chris had just conveyed and felt once again the warm glow of friendship and paternal affection he had for the man. "I just reacted. I thought about all those lives destroyed. All those women who took their lives for something that was not even their fault and then to see Alex, so tortured inside, I just could not stand that happening to her. I was trying to protect her, not realizing sometimes you don't protect someone by keeping them wrapped up safe, you do it by letting them face the demons and giving them the chance to fight back."

"I was where she was once Josiah," Chris confessed reluctantly. "When Sarah and Adam died, I was ready to walk off the edge of a cliff if I thought the pain would go away. It was Buck who reminded me there were things worth fighting for and though I damn near drove him to kill me himself, he stood by me and made sure I kept remembering that. He made me put all that rage and hurt into someplace where it could work for me and here I am, Captain of this ship. I had to believe I could do the same for Alex."

"Well, it worked" Josiah commented, taking another sip of his glass of ale. "She actually came to see me, you know."

Chris’s eyes widened in surprise. "Will wonders never cease?"

"It was mostly to thank me for getting Kellien here, but she stayed around long enough to say a little something about how she felt and that's a hell of an improvement for someone who used to do anything to avoid talking to me."

"So how is she doing?" Chris asked, knowing Josiah would tell him as much as possible without breaking doctor-patient confidentiality.

"Better," Josiah said with a smile of pleasure at being able to report that much to his captain. "Says she had problems sleeping but not anymore."

"Not anymore?" Chris looked at him. "What does that mean?"

Josiah could only shake his head in confusion since he had no idea himself.

******

Vin Tanner savored the scent of her long hair in his lungs, trying to decide if the intoxicating smell was wildflower or apple. He wondered how she managed to get her hair smelling like that before deciding it was just one of those things women seemed to manage so easily while men smelled like ordinary soap. Wildflower or apple, he continued to wonder for a few more seconds as his arms lay draped over her waist while she lay asleep on his bed. After everything that happened, Alex asked if she could sleep with him for a while since she was unable to do so alone without waking up screaming.

After a while, he gave up pondering the question and chose instead to nuzzle his cheek closer against that heavenly cascade of jet-black hair, spilling onto the pillow and her back. He felt a surge of pleasure feeling the silken strands against his skin and the action of taking a deep breath of her, only forced a soft sigh from Alex's lips as she snuggled closer to him. She had been asleep for some time now, not at all plagued by the nightmares that so blighted her sleep, she could only get through the night with heavy neural suppressors. Strangely enough, her slumber with him had been nothing but peaceful.

Vin wished he could see her face at this moment but decided to do that he would have to let go of her and Vin never ever wanted to let go of Alex. Vin was enjoying holding her in his arms, feeling her body spooning up against him in a gesture that was terribly intimate yet not at all sexual. Vin did not know how if this was proper or not, sharing a bed like this but he knew that while it lasted, he was going to enjoy every second of it. Perhaps one day there would be more but for the time being, this was enough. Vin would be there for Alex for as long as she needed until she felt safe enough to be without him, though he wished that day would never come, for he would always need her.

As she lay with his arms wrapped around her, Vin could only stare at the stars outside his window and hoped wherever she was, her dreams were as beautiful as this.

THE END

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