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"COMMANDER RIVAS REPORT TO OPS AT 0700 HOURS." The station's computer roared.

Don growled and forced his eyes open only because the computer had turned on all the lights. O'mara lay with her head on his chest, groggily stirring as well.

"Ok, I gotta get up if you want me to shut the computer off," Rivas reminded her with a slight shake.

O'mara muttered something and rolled off him, pulling a pillow over her head to block out the computer's alarm.

He got up and hit the acknowledgement button on his desk, sliding into the chair behind it. He brought up his personal terminal.

"I'm not even on active duty yet! What could be so goddamn important...."

He trailed off as he read the message.

O'mara, now awake despite her best efforts, was now sitting up in the bed with a sheet clutched over her chest.

"What is it?" She asked, seeing the look of shock and bewilderment on Don's face.

"That alert we heard last night on the holodeck...."

"Yeah? What about it? It's not like that's unusual around here," O'marasaid, flicking a few loose feathers off the bedspread.

"Someone stole the Raptor, kidnapped the Captain, Fara, Jakar, Knackt, and a few others."

"They what?" O'mara squawked, failing to process the sheer madness of that statement. "How?!"

"I guess I'll find out," he said, glancing at the wall chronometer and seeing he had about thirty minutes to get ready. "I am going to need to be awake for this. Do you mind making some breakfast?"

"I got you covered," O'mara said, heading straight for the kitchen. "Just get cleaned up and ready."

=========================

Besieged

FOTR EPISODE 19

IDP 2020, 2021

By: Vakash Darkbane

Edited By: Saurex Conoway

=========================

Earlier

Knackt was sweating in the tight confines of the maintenance tube as he finished patching into the main computer with his rigger kit. Even though he was a bit on the small side, the more compact parts of the ship could get pretty cramped.

"Alright, you stubborn bucket of bolts, show daddy what's goin' on," he said, opening up the security protocols.

The first camera he accessed was the bridge. The two junior officers appeared to be held there against their will by a Cornerian geko and bear. Ensign Rosa appeared to be piloting the vessel. A jackal and feline were heading for the brig. After flicking through several cameras, he found Harry and Fara in one of the brig cells. He made a mental note to harass Fara with questions about why her little date was with the Captain. Finally, he found Jakar and Sonya stuck in the forward torpedo bay. Now that he knew where everyone was, he tried to get control of the ship's systems. Whoever had hacked into the system knew what they were doing. If anything was going to be done, it was going to have to be done from the core itself. He unhooked his rig and headed towards the torpedo bay. That was closer and he would need help if they were going to get the ship back.

"Well, guess it's my turn to be a hero," Knackt grinned to himself as he wiggled through the maintenance tube.

* * *

The door to the brig parted. Holtz and Owens stepped inside. Harry was leaning against the opposite wall of the cell. He stood up straight when the door opened. Fara lifted her head, glancing at the newcomers like they were an irregular readout on a terminal. She had taken to lounging on the bunk and sighed, rolling her eyes as she sat up.

"Who are you? What is the meaning of all this?" Harry demanded.

"Commander, you will have all your answers in good time. For the moment, we need to borrow Ms. Phoenix," he said, motioning for Fara to step forward. "Now, Commander, if you'll both put your hands on the wall at the back of the cell and follow instructions, no one will get hurt."

Fara looked at Harry worriedly and he grunted. "Do it."

Reluctantly, they both complied. Harry looked over his shoulder and saw that Holtz had his blaster trained on them, finger gently pressed against the trigger.

Owens approached Fara, grabbing her roughly by the wrist and turning her around. She pulled Fara's arms behind her back and used zip cuffs to bind her wrists together. Fara growled, causing Owens to roll her eyes.

"Spare me," the feline grinned, flicking the back of Fara's ear. "You're an engineer and a feddy. I kill softies like you for fun."

"See? We're already all friends here," Holtz said, activating the force field as Owens drug Fara out of the cell. "Keep up the cooperation and you'll both be fine."

Fara looked Harry right in his eyes. He could tell she was scared and he tried to reassure her silently.

"If you want the command codes, we don't plan on giving them to you," he said, glaring at Holtz.

"As expected, Commander," Holtz smiled. "You may regret that later."

* * *

Ops, Captain Stiles' office, Starbase 186

"I only have one question about this whole mess," Rivas said. "Why wasn't I informed sooner?"

"Because we were busy trying to figure out how to resolve the situation without getting the station blown up. You had your notifications shut off and you didn't have your combadge." Stiles said flatly with no trace of amusement.

Rivas just nodded. "So what's the plan to get them and the ship back?"

"The Falcon has been dispatched. She's a new vessel, same class as the Raptor, literally just rolled off the assembly line a week ago. She's got a new crew, a young Captain. They've been dispatched to assist in getting the Raptor back. Starfleet would like you to supervise the operation since you have the most knowledge of the Raptor."

"I'm being returned to active duty?"

Stiles nodded. "I know you are still recovering from your injuries, but you're the only one qualified for this operation."

Rivas smiled. "Well, it worked out anyway. Harry wanted me back in the field. I guess it's just happening a bit sooner than either of us thought."

"You will be the ranking officer on that ship. Lieutenant Rayna-Ka is the acting captain," Stiles said. "It may rankle her a bit, but Fleet HQ wants you in command."

"I think if anyone can be empathetic to her position, it would be myself," Rivas said. The irony of the situation was not lost on him. "Is there anything else?"

"Yes. They want Lieutenant O'mara, Remmick, and Rydel along as well, to assist with the recovery or destruction of the vessel."

"Understood," Rivas said. "Do we have any idea who took it?"

"We have some information on them. They are a dissident group called the Patriots of Lylat. They cropped up a few years after we made first-contact and started the recovery effort on Corneria." Stiles explained, handing him a datapad. "Their leader is Theodore Holtz. Apparently he's a descendent of one of the families that used to run Corneria."

Rivas looked at the image on the datapad. He couldn't help but think he'd seen the visage of the jackal around the station from time to time. He read over his record. Holtz was a graduate of the Cornerian Space Force Academy, transferred to Cornerian Intelligence for five years until it's disbandment when it became a member world.

Rivas frowned. "So, what is their beef with the Confederation?"

"They have publicly stated that we are preventing Corneria from recovering. The sad fact is it's the remnants of the old guard that are trying to push back against the recovery. I am sure you are more than familiar with this," Stiles said.

"Unfortunately, yes," Rivas said. "I recall Admiral Kramer musing that if allowed, he would have beamed the whole Cornerian Administratum to the brig of his ship and dumped them all on a colony world, just to help speed things along quicker."

Stiles grinned. "I assure you, he wasn't the first to think that. However, the Confederation's strategy of gentle persuasion has failed. Rather recently, Commander Martinez was dispatched to deliver them an ultimatum to either meet our expectations or they would be removed from power. I'm not surprised that he became a target."

Rivas shook his head. Why anyone would want to go back to how things used to be was way beyond him. Even after the Lylat Wars, the strife continued. By the time the echidnas had shown up, the whole damn system was on the verge of collapse. Any progress the Cornerian people had made on their own had ground to a halt. The Cornerian Administratum was just a collection of old nobility, old-guard military commanders and, in his opinion, morons.

Rivas was there the day of first-contact. He recalled how relieved he felt when he saw the gleaming silvery hull of the Gideon out of the viewport of the Excalibur's bridge. This glorious, shining vessel, teaming with technology years ahead of their own, only offered friendship and help. More ships followed, bringing aid, food, building materials, medicine, everything needed to repair a world. All they only asked for was friendship, cultural exchange, and cooperation. To this day, nothing more had been asked. Rivas couldn't understand why anyone would be so opposed to that.

"How long until the Falcon arrives?" Rivas asked.

"Three hours," Stiles replied.

"Then I'd better get packed," Rivas said as he slowly stood. "I'll get the rest of the team assembled."

"Best of luck, Commander. I do not envy your task," Stiles sighed. "Try to bring our people back, the whole ship if you can."

"I'll do my best, sir," Rivas nodded.

* * *

Fara was shoved into Engineering. The feline yanked the bindings off. Fara glared at her. She reckoned if she could get that blaster away from her, she might be able to get the best of her. It was just the two of them at the moment.

"So, what are we here for?" Fara asked, rubbing her wrists.

"You are to recalibrate the warp engines so we can survive taking a little trip into the Badlands," Owens said, keeping a level gaze and steady aim on her.

"The Badlands?" Fara frowned. "Why are we going there?"

"Questions can be fatal," Owens said, motioning with her hand phaser. "Get to work."

"Fine, but this is gonna take--"

"You have 30 minutes," Owens grinned. "Get it done, or I'll start shooting off the bits you don't need to do your job. Now you have 29 minutes and 40 seconds. Work."

* * *

"Ugh! Luv, we're gettin' nowhere fast," Sonya noted, wiping sweat from her brow.

"I will have to admit, this is taking way longer than I expected," Jakar grumbled, sitting down and panting.

They had been working at the hatch for an hour and it had refused to budge, despite their best efforts.

"I'm not old enough to be this tired! The one time neither one of us has a hand phaser," Jakar grumbled.

"Well, it's not like we'd planned on gettin' hijacked," Sonya chuckled. "So, even if you'd been carryin', you'd've seriously risked blowin' a hole in a room full of torpedoes?"

Jakar sighed. "No."

The lights on that hatch changed from red to green and the hatch slid open.

"Good thing the rat's got your back or you'd both be screwed, eh?" Knackt said, crawling out of the hatch, grinning like an idiot.

Jakar grinned, standing up as Knackt brushed himself off.

"For once," Jakar said, "I am glad to see you."

"Eh, I could have worse company in this mess," Knackt said. "Gimme a moment."

He went over to an ODN access point and disabled the sensors in the torpedo bay.

"Alright, so what's the plan?" He asked as he worked.

"Get us to the armory," Jakar said. "We will figure it out from there."

"Alright, but I hope you like crawling. They got most of the doors locked down, but they weren't able to seal off the tubes."

"How many of them are there?" Jakar asked.

"I dunno. I think four of them, maybe more," Knackt said. "We should probably get moving before they try to figure out what's going on."

"Don't 'ave to tell me twice," Sonya said, crawling into the tube. "Come on!"

* * *

Harry paced the cell. Just from his little chat with the jackal, he'd already surmised why he was captured. If they wanted to unlock all of the Raptor's capabilities, they needed both him and Fara's codes. Normally, this was done as soon as they logged into their consoles and then the computer automatically logged them off when they left. He knew, probably for the most part, Fara and he were safe until the pirates got what they wanted. Rosa and Kyle, however, didn't have that luxury.

He had to find a way out of the brig. Once out, he would need to find some way of impeding the hijackers.

Something on his arm was stinging. Irritated, Harry scratched at his arm. As he did, he realized what had been there.

He went over and picked the transporter tags up off the floor. They were fairly straightforward devices. There was a tiny power cell, a small transponder and then all the bits required to make the tag fireable from a weapon. If he removed the needles, it might be possible to reconfigure the circuit. With the power cells, he could overload the field. He hit the button for the small stool, sat down, worked the needles off, and started removing the transmitters from the cells.

"This would be so much easier with tools," Harry sighed as he fumbled with the pieces.

* * *

The Raptor's Bridge

"Ms. Rosa was it?" Holtz asked sweetly, stepping up behind her.

"Y-y-yeah," she gulped.

"Once we arrive at the coordinates I provided you, I want you to flash the running lights in this sequence." He handed her a piece of paper. "I would suggest you not try anything. Your friend back there could still die, if you put me in a bad mood."

Ensign Rosa looked the paper over. It had been ages since she had seen paper, let alone handwriting. The writing on this paper was actually very good and the instructions on the sequence of the lights were very easy to understand.

"I'll do as you ask," she muttered.

"Good. Keep in mind, of all our cargo, you and your friend are the least useful. I suggest you keep giving us reasons to let you live." Holtz growled in her ear before going back to the Captain's chair.

* * *

Fara worked quickly, making the necessary adjustments to the engines for a flight into the Badlands. If they were going to get out of this, and if the ship got that far, she wanted to make sure they got home. Although her captor wasn't smart enough to tell, she was secretly tweaking the plasma injectors. The small adjustments would cause the system to go overpressure, forcing them to drop out of warp. Once all hell broke loose, all she had to do was deal with the kitty cat.

"Five minutes, Ms. Phoenix," Owens hissed from the shadows by the door. "You had better have that modification completed."

"It will be! Just finishing it up now," Fara said, keeping her best poker face going. She was going to teach these jerks for ruining her evening...and messing with her ship.

"It'd better work right," Owen purred. "If not...I think I'll take your nose off first...maybe a few fingers. Then you can try again."

* * *

Raptor, Main Armory

The armory maintenance hatch popped open. Sonya Jax climbed out, followed by Jakar and Knackt.

"I was expectin' some aerobics later tonight, but this wasn't what I was lookin' forward to," she joked, helping them out.

Jakar smirked at her. "I'll put you through your paces later."

He went over to the lockers and started to put in his codes.

"So, what do we do now?" Knackt asked.

"Sonya and I can handle it from here," Jakar said, tossing her a phaser rifle and grabbing one for himself. "You need to do what you can to get the ship back under our control," Jakar said, tossing Knackt a hand phaser.

"Ah, so, Knackt, get in the damn tunnels! Solve our problems!" Knackt said, catching the phaser and sticking his tongue out.

"You are the best at what you do," Jakar grunted.

"Feh! Alright! Alright! I'm goin'," Knackt sighed, rolling his eyes and clipping the hand phaser to his belt before climbing back into the hatch.

"We got any armor in these lockers, luv?" Sonya asked.

"Of course we do. We have everything we need," Jakar grinned, opening another locker, revealing the black security armor.

Sonya grinned wickedly. "S'what I always wanted! That's what I love about ya! Ya know how tah show a girl a good time." She kissed him on the cheek and grabbed a suit of armor.

* * *

Harry had gotten the transponders in the transporter tags to function again. He had managed to get the transmitter to put power through the needles. He had changed the impedance just enough that the Raptor's transporter should automatically try to lock onto them. The overload was going to wreck the holding cell's emitters and blast whoever was on the other side. He hoped he could find some way to warn Fara if she came back.

* * *

"What is our E.T.A. helm?" Holtz asked.

"25 minutes at our current speed," Rosa replied.

Holtz grabbed his comlink. "Owens? Are those modifications to our engines done yet?"

Owens grinned at her wrist. There were only a few seconds left before she c ould start clipping.

"Modifications are complete you nut! You happy now?" Fara snapped, turning around with her hands up.

Kursk entered Engineering.

"Good job foxy," Owens growled, "guess you get to keep your fingers. Kursk, you're here. Great. I was getting tired of babysitting."

Fara glared at the boar. She had chastised him a few times when she caught him rummaging around on the Raptor, claiming he was looking for parts. She thought he was just some bothersome incompetent that worked on the station.

"I know you," Fara said. "I thought there was something dirty about you!"

"Hah! Well, if you'd dug a little harder, maybe you wouldn't be in the position you are in right now," Kursk laughed.

Fara's ears perked as she heard the tell-tale ping of a computer error system.

"Yeah...what a horrible situation," Fara said, grinning ear to ear.

"PLASMA PRESSURE AT 6,000 PSI. PLASMA SYSTEM IS OVER REGULATION PRESSURE. VENTING DRIVE PLASMA. ALL HANDS, BRACE FOR SUDDEN DECELERATION."

The ship suddenly came to a drastic stop, sending the Boar and Cat tumbling across the deck. Fara dove, rolled with the movement, coming to her feet and bolting out the door. She was thankful for all that training Jakar had given her in the self-defense class. The other two were cursing her as the door slid shut behind her. She spotted a locker, grabbed a tool kit out of it and made a run for the bowls of the ship, using an e-lock release to disappear into the service tubes.

"Still have all my fingers, bitch!" She yelled back down the corridor before she ducked into the tube.

* * *

"Holtz to Kursk. Care to explain just what in the hell is going on down there?" Holtz demanded, picking himself up off the floor.

"The damn vixen pulled a fast one on us! Looks like she caused a plasma interlock in the drive engines!"

"Deal with her!!" Holtz hissed.

"I can't. She got away!!!"

"Then you fix the engines and send Owens to find her...NOW!" Holtz roared.

"Yeah, yeah, keep yer shirt on," the boar said before shutting off the comlink.

"What the hell is a plasma interlock? Explain!" Holtz demanded of Rosa.

Ensign Rosa didn't know either. She just stammered in response. Holtz drew his weapon and aimed it at her.

"Remember," he growled, "what I told you about being useful?"

"I don't know what it is! It has something to do with the drive systems...I think," Rosa sputtered.

"It's when plasma flow is impeded due to a massive pressure spike. The computer will automatically purge the nacelles of drive plasma, which brings a starship to a sudden stop," Kyle spoke up.

Holtz rounded on him. "How big of a problem is this?"

"The entire system has to be purged. If you had an engineer, he'd know that." Kyle said, glaring.

"How long does this purge thing take?"

"One to two hours."

"And you know this why?"

"I study the ships I fly, but I'm not an engineer, if that's what you're wondering. I just know what it is that, and doesn't mean I know how to fix it," Kyle said. "She wouldn't know either. We're helmsmen, not grease monkeys."

Holtz growled and looked over at Kurowski. "Contact the Vespira! Tell them there's been a change in plans. See if they have an engineer who knows something about Confederation warp drives."

"Right away," the gecko nodded.

"Brunt?"

The bear grunted, waiting for orders.

"Go deal with the others that are on the ship. If you spot the vixen, we need her alive, but she doesn't need to be walking."

"Right, crack skulls, engineer has to be breathing," he shrugged as he lumbered off the bridge.

"You! Kyle was it?" Holtz said, undoing the young echidna's bindings and hoisting him to his feet. "Come with me to the brig to see your captain. Let's move! Kurowski, lock the door behind me and get those internal sensors back up so we can find her."

* * *

Starbase 186

Rivas, O'mara, Rydel, and Rimmick stepped off the transporter pad. They were all taken aback at just how different the Falcon's interior was. Everything was sleeker and a lot less rugged.

A red-furred female echidna with blonde hair was waiting for them.

"Commander Rivas, welcome aboard," Rayna said flatly, obviously less than enthused by the situation.

"Captain, we have a lot to go over and not a lot of time," Rivas said. "I am not here to usurp your command structure. This will be a brief shift until this crisis is resolved. I'll expect you to carry out your duties as my exec only in relation to the crew and keep me apprised of the technological updates of this vessel."

Rayna seemed to relax a little. "Gladly," she said as she nodded to a female Altairan at the transporter controls. "Cerina, escort our guests to their quarters."

"Yes, sir," The Altairian replied. "If you would all follow me," she said to O'mara, Rydel, and Remmick.

Rivas waited until they left. He shifted his weight and the annoying whine of their servos accented it.

"I want to be frank and off the record with you," he said.

"Sure," Rayna-Ka replied.

"I fully understand how you feel. My first command was supposed to be the Raptor. The man that promised it to me pulled it right out from under me." He paused, watching the information sink in. "Right now we have a very dangerous ship out there that can match even your own with its capabilities. I know how it works and how we can stop it and that's more important. Is that understood?"

"Absolutely Commander," Rayna smiled. "This is already going better than I thought it would."

"Excellent," Rivas said. "I'm glad we can see eye to eye on the matter."

"I'll just have to get used to standing," she chuckled.

"What does that mean?"

"You'll have to see the bridge. I'll show you and give you a rundown about the Falcon. Come along, Commander, she's a lot different than the Raptor, I'm sure."

* * *

Harry, despite being bounced off the bulkhead repeatedly by the forcefield, had managed to get the device in place. He quickly glanced up to make sure it was still there. When the computer had announced the emergency stop, he figured Fara had made her move. He only hoped she'd managed to get away. He hadn't liked the look of the cat. She didn't strike him as the most stable person in space.

The doors to the brig opened. He stiffened, ready to spring his trap. He saw the jackal had returned, however; this time he had Ensign Kyle with him.

"Problem?" Harry asked with mock concern.

"Yes. Your Engineer seems to have thrown a possibly literal wrench into our plans," Holtz growled. "So, I am going to give you one chance. You call her back or I kill him."

He kicked the back of Kyle's knee, forcing him down. With a fistfull of hair in one hand, Holtz pressed the barrel of his blaster into Kyle's temple. Kyle stared straight ahead.

"You don't have to do that," Harry said, raising his hands instinctively. "I'll tell Fara to stand down, but I need a combadge to do it. You sort of caught me when I don't have one."

"Use his!" Holtz demanded, shaking Kyle.

"I can't. They don't work that way," Harry said, trying to placate Holtz. The jackal was riled and Harry wasn't sure how stable his trigger finger would be. "Each badge is keyed to its user. It won't respond to me."

"Fine! He goes in there, you come out here. Get against the wall!"

"Alright...just don't hurt him," Harry said, putting his hands against the edge of the cell. This wasn't going as planned, but he had to work with what he got. At a minimum Ensign Kyle would be relatively safe.

Holtz deactivated the forcefield. "Now, go in there and do as he does. Once he has his hands against the wall, you come out Martinez."

"Sure," Harry said.

Kyle did as told. Harry walked out with his hands up. As soon as he passed the threshold, Holtz activated the forcefield again. Harry heard the hum of a transporter and hit the deck. Suddenly a transporter beam connected with the brig's forefield. There was an explosion as the entire system overloaded. Holtz was thrown against the bulkhead, causing him to drop the weapon.

The room was filled with smoke and Harry couldn't find the blaster in the debris covering the floor.

"Ensign Kyle," he called into the smoke, "If you are still with us I suggest you follow me out of here!"

"Aye, sir!" Kyle said, coughing and following Harry's voice. "Now what's the plan," he asked as they slipped into the corridor.

"We take the ship back. Come on, follow me," Harry said, booking it down the hall. "How many are there?"

"Five that I know of, but there may be more soon. They were talking about a rendezvous with another ship."

"When it rains it pours," Harry growled

"Sir?"

"Don't worry, Ensign," Harry puffed. "The longer you're a part of the crew, the more you'll get used to this. This way!"

* * *

Fara stopped crawling at a junction, pulled out a tricorder, and scanned to see where everyone was. The brig was empty except for one lifeform that seemed to be unconscious. Two were moving through Deck 2 towards Deck 3. Someone was on Deck 3 heading towards the torpedo bay, as well as two others, which she figured were the pig and the cat. There were two more in the armory and another was moving rather quickly through the maintenance tubes towards the computer core. She tried to get a lock on the figure wriggling towards the core. From its size, she figured it had to be Knackt. He said he was working on something on the ship prior to her date. It was going to be quite the crawl to get over that way, but she felt safer not going at it alone.

The Raptor was going to be out of commission for a few hours until they got the plasma interlock dealt with, so she at least didn't have to hurry. She sighed, noticing her blouse and slacks were already being shredded by all the crawling she was doing.

"Ah well, if we don't die, I'll get a new one," she said to herself before heading off.

* * *

The Falcon was way different than the Raptor in almost every regard. It lacked the alien components or the weaponry, however; it still had the ablative armor and a supercharged phaser cannon that remained retracted into the hull during normal space flight. It still had the basic design of the Raptor, but was sleeker and more refined.

Rivas smiled to himself. He couldn't help thinking that Fara wouldn't feel a small bit of pride that someone had taken her idea and improved upon it. It also had that new ship smell to it, something the Raptor had never had. Rivas chalked that up to the fact that the Raptor was rebuilt out of a hulk, although Fara would often criticize him for being superstitious.

The bridge had two levels and was even smaller than the Raptor's. Con and Ops were forward of the captain's chair, in the lower level. Science, Communications, Engineering, and an auxiliary station were full wall consoles in the rear. There were two secondary consoles to either side of the Captain's chair. The one to the right appeared to be Tactical.

"I take it you approve, Commander?" Lt. Ka asked.

"It's...different, I'll give it that," Rivas said.

"Attention!" Rayna said, getting her crew's attention, "this is Commander Rivas. He will be in command for the remainder of this mission. I ask you to pay him the same respect that you pay me. I will be serving as an Executive Officer during his tenure here. He knows what we are dealing with and what the Raptor is capable of, so I suggest you follow his orders to the letter."

"Yes sir!" They all responded in unison.

Rivas looked at the bridge crew. They were all a bunch of kids, Ensigns and Junior Lieutenants mostly. None of them looked like they hadn't even seen combat.

"I see we have already gotten underway," he said slowly. "We will need to have a senior staff meeting with my people and you before we intercept the Raptor. I expect you all to be there in 10 minutes so you can grasp what exactly we are dealing with."

The Falcon's crew nodded. He leaned towards Rayna and quietly asked, "I take it the conference room is located forward of the bridge?"

"More or less," Rayna responded amused.

"Good. Thank you," Rivas said, sitting in the command chair and trying to quickly get familiar with the controls on the flip-up panels on the armrest. "Mind giving me a quick run-through on these? They're usually over here," Rivas said, motioning to the sides

"Sure," Rayna said, walking over and showing him the layout of the panels.

* * *

Harry had managed to find an E-lock release. He had Kyle keep a lookout while he worked the door for the armory. They already had to duck the large ursine, Brunt, who passed by the area on his way back towards the aft part of the ship.

"Almost got it," Harry said, getting the E-lock to sit properly. "Here, help me with the door."

Kyle nodded and they forced it slowly open. The room wasn't illuminated, which was odd, but Harry didn't think about it as he entered. He was promptly grabbed and thrown to the floor with Kyle behind him.

"Keep your hands where we can see them," A muffled voice said over a speaker.

The lights snapped on and Harry turned to see two figures in combat armor.

"Smeg! It's the Skipper!" One of them yelped. Harry thought he recognized a feminine voice.

"Apologies, Commander, we thought you were the hijackers," Jakar said, a bit embarrassed as he flipped his visor up.

"Think nothing of it. I'm glad to see you here," Harry said as Jakar hauled him to his feet. "This is Ensign Danny Kyle, he's new to the crew. Ensign, this is my Tactical officer, Jakar."

"Charmed," Danny grumbled, getting up and brushing himself off.

"Have you seen Fara?" Harry asked.

"Negative. We were getting ready to move out when you started messing with the door. Knackt is making his way to the computer core. He should be there by now. I'm assuming that sudden stop was Fara's doing?"

"More than likely," Harry replied. "So, I see you took my idea."

"There're plenty of weapons here sir, so help yourself," Jakar said.

"Don't mind if I do. Also, remind me to requisition more armor when we get back to the starbase," Harry said, opening a weapons locker.

"I will make it my priority," Jakar replied.

* * *

The Vespira dropped out of warp and approached the Raptor. While it was a well worn Cornerian Assault Carrier, the Vespira still had some usable life in it. It hailed them as soon as it appeared.

On the bridge, Korowaski answered the call and instructed them to dock, disembark, and to bring weapons to deal with the current situation.

"Open the door," Holtz barked over the commlink. Korowaski complied and the jackal entered with Brunt. Holtz was rubbing his head.

"What happened to you?" Korowaski asked.

"The Captain got away! Now the whole lot of them, save for her," he pointed at Rosa, "are running all over the ship."

"Well," Korowaski shrugged, "that will change soon. We are preparing to dock with the Vespira."

"Excellent," Holtz said. "That will give us some sorely needed numbers! Maybe this won't be a complete fuck up after all? Are you anywhere close to getting the eternal sensors up so we can find our hostages?"

"I've been working on it. Yes, before you ask, these things take time without being in direct interface with the core," Korowski replied.

* * *

Fara arrived in the computer core and opened the hatchway.

"Knackt!" She whispered as loudly as she dared. "You in here?"

"Yeah, over here," he hissed back.

She looked through the gloom and found his small form hunched over an open trunk.

"What are you getting ready to do?" Fara asked as she crept over to where he was working.

"Taking out the internal sensors. Their boy up there is trying to get them up and running, but I have other ideas." Knackt grinned, pulling out a row of optical chips and stuffing them into his pockets. "That should do it. I take it you did the sudden stop earlier?"

"You know it," Fara smiled.

"I can wreck the whole ship from here if you want me to," Knackt said.

"Take out the targeting sensors, leave the rest."

"Already way ahead of ya," Knackt chuckled, motioning to a pile of wires and chips that were heavily damaged.

"Savage... but good job," Fara said. "I think we've done enough. Let's clear out before they come looking for us."

"Won't get no argument from me," Knackt said, closing the equipment trunk.

The ship shook violently and the sound of an airlock connecting echoed through the core room.

"Oh shit! That is not good." Fara said, glancing up towards the sound.

"Sounds like the party just got more interesting," Knackt sighed as he packed up his tools.

* * *

Harry, Kyle, Jakar and Jenna ducked down in the maintenance tube as the airlock opened. They caught a brief glimpse of the Vespira as 50 or more heavily armed and armored troops stormed onto the ship. They scattered to various doors and disappeared as quickly as they appeared.

"What's the plan, sir?" Kyle asked as they broke cover and hurried towards the shuttle bay.

"I want you and Ensign Rosa off this ship," Harry said. "I'm afraid that mad man may use her as a hostage or kill her. Take the Talon, lock onto her combadge, use the emergency transporter to get her on the Talon as well, and then both of you go get help."

"Won't you stand a better chance of retaking the ship if we help?" Kyle asked. He looked a little nervous.

"Perhaps, but they want Chief Phoenix and myself specifically," Harry said. "I'll be damned if I'll let them take my ship or hurt my crew!"

"Understood sir," Kyle replied as they walked down the gangway to the shuttle bay.

Jakar and Sonya quickly climbed up to the main shuttle control room as Harry ran with Ensign Kyle to open the Talon's rear hatch. Once Kyle was inside, he walked over to the shuttle's mag lock assembly and began to disengage the clamps that held the Talon in place. An alarm sounded as Jakar triggered the containment force field and began to open the shuttle bay doors.

Harry knew they only had a few moments before everyone on the vessel knew what they were up to. He quickly motioned to Danny through the Talon's cockpit window to get the lead out on getting the shuttle mobile.

The young echidna gave him a thumbs-up. The shuttle's repulsors fired, lifting it off the deck. Harry was about to breathe a sigh of relief when the shuttle bay gangway opened up and three armed individuals led by the feline named Owens came through.

Harry fired a few shots in their direction from his phaser rifle, sending them diving for cover while he did the same. He would try to make his way over to the gangway ladder. From above, Jakar and Sonya had already started raining shots down on the intruders.

Kyle, seeing the storm of phaser and blaster fire outside, quickly gunned the Talon's engines. The Talon flew out the bay doors.

"Don't shoot the brown echidna! We need him!" Owens yelled over the drone of the departing shuttle.

Harry smirked as crouched behind a crate near the ladder. That only affirmed what he had thought earlier. The only safe ones were him and Fara. Thinking of that, he had an idea.

"Jakar! Get out of here! More of them will just keep coming!"

"What about you sir?" Jakar called back, turning and blasting a figure that emerged from the side entrance. They screamed, toppled over the railing, and crashed onto the deck.

"What about me? I gave you an order lieutenant!" Harry shouted, sprinting for a side door that led out of the shuttle bay.

"Fall back to section J 26," Jakar said over his helmet comlink to Sonya.

Sonya nodded and disappeared through a different side door on the open deck. Jakar quickly followed as more hijackers came pouring onto the upper deck.

Owens watched Harry dive through the door and quickly followed after him.

"Kill them! The Commander is mine!" She shouted at her men.

Owens paused at the edge of the door as it opened and surprisingly no fire came through. She quickly grabbed at her belt and removed two small smoke grenades. She tossed them inside and pulled the hood up on her outfit, sealing it and turning on the HUD visor built into it. With the hood closed no one could see her licking her chops as she drew her vibroblades.

Cautiously, Owens moved forward, looking for the glow of body heat being picked up by the visor. She didn't see anything. Despite her best effort, she grinned as she realized she had made a mistake. The blow came down near the base of her skull. Harry had climbed up on top of one of the deflector generators and dropped on her from above, tearing the hood open as one of her vibroblades went clattering off into the gloom.

"Oh...you're good," she growled.

* * *

Kyle set the shuttle to pass over the bridge. He scrambled up to the ops console and locked onto Rosa's combadge. He knew he only had a few moments to get her and get the shields up. He was right in the line of fire for both the Vespira and Raptor. If someone realized what he was doing he wasn't going to last more than a few seconds.

* * *

"Where is that shuttle? What is it doing?!" Holtz demanded.

"I'm not sure yet," Kurowski replied. He frowned. "The shuttle is right above the bridge currently."

"Blast it out of the sky!" Holtz ordered.

Kurowski activated the phasers and tried to lock onto the shuttle. He started cursing, hammering furiously on the controls.

"TARGETING SYSTEM IS OFFLINE. MANUAL TARGETING ONLY," the computer responded calmly.

Kurowski hissed as he ground his teeth. He quickly brought up the manual targeting controls.

The hum of a transporter pickup pulsed through the bridge. Ensign Rosa disappeared in a swirl of transporter energy.

"Damn it!" Holtz roared.

* * *

"Danny?" Rosa gasped, spotting him as she materialized aboard the Talon.

"Yeah! I just did that!"

She ran up and embraced him. "I'm glad you're ok!"

"Me too! Gotta cut this short though! Take ops. I gotta get us out of here" Danny said blushing as he nudged her towards the console.

"All over it," Rosa replied, taking the seat.

The Talon shook as a crimson beam lanced dangerously close to it. There was a hail of turbo laser barrages from the Vesperia as well.

"Engaging shields!" Rosa said, getting the Talon's shields up.

"Hang on! I'm going to try to get us clear for warp," Danny said, easing the ship forward.

Another bolt came dangerously close, causing the Talon to shudder again.

"I don't want to rush you, but they are getting a lot closer!" Rosa noted.

"I know! I know!" Kyle replied, activating the warp drive once the sensors said they were clear.

A phaser bolt struck the back of the craft. Sparks ricocheted around the cabin as the Talon's standard shields strained under the shot. They hurtled through warp space, out of control and severely damaged.

* * *

"Did you destroy them?" Holtz asked as the shuttle vanished from the scanners.

"I don't think so, but they won't get far," Kurowski said. "That hit did a lot of damage. They'll either lose power or life support...or both. Let's hope for both."

Holtz harrumphed. "We'll be long gone by the time they find help, if they get that far. What about the others?"

"There's a skirmish on Deck 5. Owens is down there, but I haven't heard from her yet."

"At least someone competent is down there. I want them all captured, if possible, but...whatever! Just make sure everyone knows not to kill Commander Martinez or Fara Phoenix! If they die I'll throw whoever killed them out an airlock!"

* * *

Owens staggered. She wasn't 100% sure how she had gotten away from the Captain, but he was a decent grappler. She produced a dagger that was in her boot and threw it at Harry. Harry tried to dodge, but it sunk into his arm. Running on adrenaline, Harry rushed her and planted a kick right across her jaw, hard enough her head bounced off the deck and she lay silent.

"Damnit!" Harry growled, touching the knife then deciding to leave it.

He ran over, locked the door and activated the air circulation to clear the smoke out. Harry searched the unconscious feline only to find way more bladed weapons than any sane person would be carrying. He found her blaster and checked its charge. Using cable from a maintenance locker, he tied her up. Gritting his teeth, he wrenched the knife from his arm. He bound his wound with some clean rags he found in a storage locker. He wanted to take the time to remove the feline's other weapons, but he didn't know how long Jakar could keep the others occupied.

Hopefully Kyle was able to get Rosa and get away, but now Harry was separated from Jakar and Jax, who were probably keeping the rest of the hijackers busy. He needed to find Fara, if possible. He was worried about her. She wasn't much of a fighter and the ship was now swarming with the equivalent of trained soldiers.

Harry flexed his fingers and winced in pain. The dagger had done some damage. He would need to find a medical kit before too long, if he could risk it. It wasn't the first time he had been stabbed and compared to getting shot, it was much less painful. Still, he was starting to wonder what the cosmos had against his arm.

Gingerly, he climbed back up the deflector generator and made his way to an access hatch.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the Falcon

Rivas turned off the footage from the Epsilon 3 tests and turned to the crew, who were looking on in quiet horror.

"So, now you can see what the Raptor is fully capable of," Rivas said. "Any questions?"

The male Cabarran tactical officer, Sorn Drall, raised his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Drall?"

"Do you happen to know the shield frequencies for the Raptor? If we can hit it with our main gun, it might be enough to cripple it?"

Rivas nodded. "That is true, but if the attack mode is active, you will have one shot. After that, the shields will adapt automatically."

He heard Captain Ka stifle a laugh.

Rivas raised an eyebrow at her. "Is there a problem, Ms. Ka?"

She tried to keep a serious face, but couldn't. "No...it's just...'Attack Mode'? That's just adorable. I'm sorry, this is very serious. It's just, that name made me laugh and took me a bit off guard."

"What do you call it?" Rivas asked dourly.

"Well, Pursuit Mode," Rayna said. "It deploys the weapons and armament as well as boosting the engines. It seemed more fitting. A bit less...obvious?"

"Our Captain came up with the name. He's a bit blunter than most."

"From what I've read on the Raptor, the protection from the rotational shielding is a bit iffy," Lt. Drall continued, smiling a little at the light brevity.

"It was, but after the recent refit on Altaria everything is working in top form. So, if the hijackers have managed to get the command codes, we will have a fight on our hands."

"Commander, if I may?" O'mara said, putting her hand up.

"By all means," Rivas smiled at her.

"I am familiar with our shields, enough that with Remmick's help we might be able to find a way to get past the rotation shielding," she said.

"It's doable. I wouldn't rely on it though," Kai said after a few moments of thought.

"The only problem is," Jenna Rydel added, sitting beside him, "is that we have to be faster and more predictable than the computer. I might be able to get the Falcon's computer to produce a phaser rotation that might be effective, with your permission of course."

Kai and O'mara nodded as well.

Rivas smiled. He was grateful that Harry had managed to get his crew in good enough shape that they didn't need prodding to start coming up with ideas.

"Well, those are all good ideas. I suggest you get on them as soon as possible. Our other hope is that Fara, the Captain and any others have escaped and are doing their best to disable the ship. If they can take out the systems that will pose the most threat, then this will be fairly easy, but we can't count on that. We don't know if they are incapacitated or not. Are there any other questions?"

Nobody said anything.

"Alright. We are still on their trail, so stay on your toes. O'mara, Rydel, Remmick, get to work on that idea. Dismissed."

Everyone got up and left, with the exception of Rayna-Ka. After the last crewmen had left, she cleared her throat.

"I am sorry about that," she said, "it was very unprofessional of me."

Rivas shrugged. "Just watch that stuff around the higher brass. They tend to frown on that."

Rayna nodded. "Thanks. I'll try to watch it."

"Trust me, they'd make you feel like a cadet being dressed down in front of the class when they were done with you. Bite your tongue next time."

"I'll keep that in mind. So, what are our chances of stopping the Raptor?"

"Slim to great, depending on the beating the Falcon can take and how your crew handles the stress," Rivas replied. "In my experience, you don't know how well a vessel is built until it takes its first hit. That's when you find out everything that is wrong with it. I am not looking forward to that."

"Was it like that with the Raptor?"

Rivas nodded. "Oh, yeah, possibly even more so than with a normal ship."

"I guess we'll find out," Rayna-Ka smiled. "I'll see you on the bridge."

She exited the conference room. Rivas followed shortly after and headed down the corridor as O'mara stepped out from behind a bulkhead, surprising him.

"I thought you had work to do?" he said.

"You mean to stand there and watch the wonder couple do all the work?" O'mara teased. "I'll check on them a bit either way. Looks like you and Lt. Ka are getting mighty chummy."

Rivas flushed. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, you didn't rip into her for disrupting the meeting," O'mara said, smoothing her feathers. "Something going on with you two I don't know about?"

For an instant he thought she was being serious and felt his stomach turn inside out. Then he saw that she was grinning mischievously.

"No!" Rivas sputtered, trying not to laugh. "I respect her position, that's all."

"I think you like her, maybe just a little bit," O'mara smirked, holding up her feathered talons an inch apart.

"Maybe I do," he said. He looked around. The coast was clear, so he grabbed her and pulled her close. "You, however, don't have anything to worry about," he grinned, squeezing her butt.

O'mara chirped and giggled, gently patting his hands away. "Ok! Ok! I'll stop teasing you! Want to meet for a late lunch?"

"Sure. I've got to go over a few things on the bridge first. I'll be over in say...an hour?"

O'mara nodded. "Sure, all things considered."

"Right?"

"See you then."

* * *

Fara and Knackt were crawling through the tubes when an access hatch from the adjoining corridor opened up. A large ursine arm shot through and grabbed Fara by her ankle, attempting to pull her out of the tube. She screamed for Knackt to help and sunk her fingers into the grate.

"Let go!" She shrieked, trying to kick at the iron grip on her ankle.

"You better let go or you're gonna be short a few fingers when I'm done wit ya!" Brunt yelled through the hatchway. He was too big to fit into the tube, so he pulled hard and Fara yelped as the metal grating started digging into her fingers.

"Let go! I can bring you out in pieces if you'd like!" Brunt snarled, pulling even harder again.

Fara screamed. Her back hurt as he violently jerked on her leg and the metal she clung to for dear life cut deeper into her fingers.

Suddenly Brunt yelled out in pain. Fara quickly scrambled forward, snarling and flailing her hands. Her fingers were sticky with blood.

Knackt spat out a chunk of bloodied flesh and fur as he caught up with her.

"Move! I got this jerk," he yelled over Brunt's screaming. "Ya, and there's more where that came from!" Knackt said, backing up and taking his hand phaser and taking a few shots out into the corridor.

Fara crawled as quickly as she could and disappeared around a corner. She moved as fast as she could, panting. Her hands stung terribly and her leg was throbbing. She found a junction down to Deck 3 and slid down the ladder, landing in a heap at the bottom. She took a moment to catch her breath, but a junction hatch ahead of her opened.

Fara snarled, unsure where she could flee to. Harry crawled out of the tube and stood up.

"Harry!" She gasped, running up and embracing him.

Harry held his finger up to her muzzle to remind her to be quiet and she nodded.

"What happened to your arm?" She asked, spotting the improvised bandage.

"Little fight down in the shuttle bay," Harry said dismissively. "My god! What happened to your hands?"

"The really big guy got a hold of me and nearly pulled me in half," Fara said, finally looking down at her hands and realizing how torn up her fingers were. "Knackt got him off me, but I don't know what happened after that."

"Hopefully he's fine," Harry said, taking her paws and looking closer at her fingers. "You won't like this."

"What?"

She felt him grab her dress and heard fabric tearing. He quickly removed the bottom third of it and fashioned it into bandages.

"I found some antiseptic and anti-inflammatory, so just hold still a second," he said, as he worked on her injuries. Fara let him do work. Glancing down, she rolled her eyes. Her dress now looked like something Terri would wear due to how short it now was. It was officially trashed.

"Again, sorry," Harry muttered as he finished dressing her wounds

"Well, if we do any more tube crawling you lead". Fara groused. "It's ok,though." She sighedfeeling the pain subside in her hands and examining the bandaging. "Are all your dates like this, all getting shot at and ripping girl's clothes off?"

"Not usually," Harry said, smiling mirthfully.

Fara chuckled. "What do you mean 'usually'?"

"Fara...."

"Ok! Ok! Now what?"

"I am hoping that Kyle and Rosa got away to get help," Harry replied. "You did what you needed to do, good job."

"Thanks," Fara smiled.

"Jakar and Sonya are probably somewhere raising hell, so I'm not too worried about them. They will give this lot a run for their money," Harry replied.

"What do we do?"

"They want us, given that they can't use a lot of the ship's capabilities without us. I suggest we stick together," Harry said.

Fara glanced down to the blaster on his belt along with his phaser. "Can you spare one of those?"

"Yeah, here," he handed her the blaster. "Be careful, it's a modified T34 that, as far as I can tell, can't be set to stun"

"Oh good, a hand cannon...there's stun," she said, making a few adjustments. "I still wouldn't want to get hit with this."

"Exactly."

"It'll work," Fara said, sticking it in her belt. "If we can take Engineering I can drop the bulkheads and then it'll be hard for them to do anything."

"It's not a bad idea. I'd rather we all be on the same side if we do it," Harry said. "What about Knackt?"

"If he's not dead, that's where he'll head. He knows every bit of that sector like the back of his hand, if he isn't already there," Fara surmised. "We should probably find Jakar and Sonya."

Harry nodded. "They are probably on Deck 4. You ready?"

Fara nodded. "Could use some water, but whatever."

"Alright, let's go."

* * *

"How long until the engines are back online?" Holtz asked on the monitor in engineering.

"Maybe another thirty minutes. I got some of our people over here, but they aren't as familiar with feddy tech," Kursk grumbled. "That bitch messed us up pretty good."

"What needs to be done?" Holtz said tersely ,accenting each word.

"We need to restart the core and repressurize the plasma lines," Kursk said. "These things take time, sir."

"Time is a luxury we don't have, Kursk! Get it done! I am sure our lead is rapidly dwindling," Holtz snapped.

"Yeah, well, beatin' a dead horse ain't going to make the horse move faster," Kursk said, cutting off the channel.

Kursk sighed. He knew he could get the job done. With a little help from the computer, getting it done quickly was another story altogether.

* * *

Carmina Rosa awoke, sitting up with a groan. The Talon's cabin was filled with smoke and dimly illuminated by flickering consoles. Embers from a few small fires provided some light as circuits burned slowly.

Rosa got to her feet and coughed, breathing in the acrid fumes. She located a fire extinguisher and set about putting out the flames. As she did so, she heard Danny groan. A wave of relief washed over her.

"You ok over there?" She called.

"Yeah...I think so...a little beat up," Danny grunted.

Rosa put the extinguisher down and went to the ops console. She tried to check the life-support systems to see if they could clear the air.

"Life support is at 50%...rerouting power...I'm going to try to clear the smoke out of the cabin."

After a few minutes of messing about with the barely responsive console, they heard the air circulation system kick in. The air began to clear.

"Engines are offline. I'm going to see if I can figure out where we are at," Kyle said, crawling back into the pilot seat. "Can you try to figure out how bad we got hit?"

"Trying to..." Rosa looked at the readout. "Looks like the starboard nacelle took the hit and...we might be missing part of it. There's some other structural damage scattered throughout the entire vessel. Internal sensors are messed up. I'll see what I can do."

"Don't stress too much. We're alive...if a bit crippled," Kyle said lightly. "We'll work with what we have."

Rosa nodded and tried to restore the computer systems to a functional state. Finally, she was able to get the lights and external sensors back up.

"Auxiliary power working?" Kyle asked.

"No, at least not that I can detect," Rosa replied.

"Good, then we can get into the aft compartment," Kyle replied. "Go ahead and send out a general distress call. With any luck, someone will find us."

Kyle got up and started heading for the back.

"Ok, distress signal broadcasting," Rosa reported. "Where are you going?"

"Outside. I need to see how bad that nacelle is. I'll be back in a few," Kyle grinned, stepping through the aft door. "Someone needs to stay here and answer if anyone responds to that call."

* * *

A computer signal went off on the communication station of the Falcon's bridge.

"Commander," Crewmen Yates, who was manning the Falcon's communications station, spoke up suddenly. "I am picking up a general distress signal from a shuttlecraft tagged as the Talon."

Rivas perked up and rushed over to the station. "Where?"

"It's coming from coordinates 265, 35 Mark 2," Yates replied. "It's just an automated signal though."

"Lieutenant O'mara, will we lose the Raptor's ionization trail if we deviate to intercept?" Rivas asked.

"We shouldn't, it's still pretty fresh," O'mara responded.

"Very good. Helm, move us to intercept," Rivas ordered. "Lieutenant Ka, I hope your shuttle bay can accommodate the Talon?"

"It will be a bit tight, but it should fit. We don't really have the room for an auxiliary craft that your ship has," Rayna-Ka replied.

"Trust me, if that thing is salvageable we might just need it." Rivas said, sitting in the Captain's chair.

Rayna looked a bit confused, but shrugged. "If you say so, sir."

* * *

Another Cornerian raider fell under phaser fire as Jakar and Sonya moved through Deck 4.

"Ya'd think they'd get sick of gettin' wiped out," Sonya growled as they vaulted over the fallen raider and Jakar dove towards the ground. He popped up and fired off two more shots, felling two more raiders. Sonya heard footsteps coming up the opposite way and picked off two more as they charged around a corner.

Jakar grunted as he got up. She could hear him panting.

"We gotta keep moving," He said in her ear.

"We might wanna rest for a sec," Sonya replied. "We can't keep this up forever."

The sound of an airlock uncoupling echoed down the corridor.

"You're right, but maybe we won't have too," Jakar said.

An alarm sounded. It wasn't an alert. It was something else.

"Um...what's that one luv? Aven't heard it before."

"They are sealing off this deck," Jakar said. "We need to move or we're going to be trapped down here with these clowns."

* * *

The Bridge, the Raptor

"I did it! I did it! Yes! Deck 4 will be sealed off momentarily," Korowaski said gleefully.

"Good! At least we'll have our guests locked down," Holtz growled. "Just make sure that any of our men who were smart enough to not get shot gets out of there."

"The ones that can are." Korowski nodded.

"Bridge! This is Kursk," the boar's voice came over Holtz's comlink. "Main engines are good to go...I think. We should have warp power back any moment."

"Excellent," Holtz grinned. "Reese, do you have the controls figured out yet?"

The gray furred Cornerian female fox nodded over her shoulder. "Mostly. I don't like this control layout much, but I can manage."

"Good. Now, resume our course at maximum warp. Kursk, did Ms. Phoenix at least modify the engines properly for entrance to the Badlands?"

"From what I can tell, yes," Kursk replied. "The bussard collectors seem to be configured properly. Looks like she did the adjustment and just added a subroutine to create the plasma overpressurization."

Holtz grinned. "She was probably hoping they would be successful and didn't want the ship to be stranded. Oh well. That's all the better for us."

* * *

Fara and Harry stopped crawling as they heard the engines fire up. They were thrown a little as the ship jumped into warp.

"Dammit! I knew that wouldn't hold them too long," Fara snarled, cradling her throbbing hands.

"It's fine Fara. You did what you could," said Harry, doing his best to console her. "If anything, you bought us time we didn't have."

"Yeah, but now we're really out-numbered," Fara said hushedly.

Harry stopped at a hatchway and looked at the location number.

"We're here," he declared.

He fished the e-lock off his belt and quickly set to work opening the hatch. A few moments later, it opened and they crawled out into one of the eerily green lit rooms that contained the equipment for the Raptor's adaptive shielding.

He helped Fara out of the tube. Both of them squinted through the gloom.

"Only problem is we have no idea how many of them there are," Fara said. "I disabled the internal sensors, so we could be walking directly into an ambush."

"Possibly, but I doubt they'll come down here," Harry replied, stretching his neck and shoulders. "They wouldn't know what to make of any of this anyway. Also, they need both of us alive to get it to work."

"The command codes...that makes sense," Fara said, nodding. "That'd be why they haven't shot us."

Harry nodded. "I hate to say this, but I think their leader has a plan to get the codes out of us one way or the other. That part is what worries me. If they were going to torture them out of us, they would have done it by now. They must have some other means."

"So, what's our next move?" Fara asked, wringing her hands and then snarling in pain.

"Try to do as much damage as we can without putting ourselves into too much danger. If possible, we're going to recapture the ship," Harry replied, moving to the door and cautiously opening it, taking a peek into the corridor.

"Harry, I am starting to think that may not be such a viable plan," Fara muttered. "Maybe we should set the self-destruct and make a break for an escape pod."

"That's a possibility, but we aren't there yet, okay?" Harry said, doing his best to smile back at her. "I don't want to send my first command off in a glorious fireball unless I have a damn good reason."

Fara chuckled bitterly and sighed. "Ok...."

"Besides, we've got each other, we're armed, and we have some sort of a plan," Harry shrugged. "It could be a lot worse."

"I wouldn't say what we have is a plan. This is more you are pulling things out of your ass...again." Fara chuckled. "Last time that didn't work out too well."

Harry shot her a little wounded frown. Fara grimaced, shaking her head as she put her hand on his shoulder.

"Sorry, that was out of line. You weren't in your right mind at the time." Fara smiled at him. "I trust you'll think of something."

Harry nodded. "It's a good thing you're an engineer," he noted, scoping out the corridor again.

"Why's that?"

"You'd make a terrible doctor," he smirked, "given you have a habit reopening up old wounds."

"Touché," Fara replied, "but that skill makes me a damn good engineer."

"Head for the cloaking device, let's go," he said, heading out into the corridor.

* * *

Ensign Kyle, in an evac suit, floated along the side of the Talon, surveying the damage. The back half of the starboard nacelle had been completely sheared off. The entire unit was totally dark. Closer inspection revealed it was finished. Most of the main conversion chamber was gone, all the plasma had evacuated, there was no coolant left, most of the injectors were warped beyond repair. Overall, it could likely be repaired in drydock, but there was no hope with a small repair kit.

The port nacelle appeared fine. They could at least limp along a bit on the one nacelle if they absolutely had too. Before he had stepped out, the navigation system had told him they were still in Confederation space. With the distress beacon going, it shouldn't be too long before help arrived. Not seeing much else that could be done, he made his way back to the main hatch into the Talon.

After a few minutes he was out of the evac suit and back to the cockpit.

"How bad is it?" Rosa asked.

"Pretty bad. Starboard nacelle is gone. I think we could probably limp along on the good one though. Have you got the main power restored yet?"

"Yes," Rosa nodded.

"Great! Let's get the port nacelle charged and see what we can do."

Rosa nodded again. Before either of them could move, a proximity alarm went off.

"Hold on, we have another vessel approaching," Rosa said tensely, but then she let out a sigh and slumped into a seat. "Thank god! It has a Confederation transponder!"

"Well thank our stars for that," Kyle said, moving toward the cockpit and looking out the viewport. He spotted the Falcon slowly approaching.

"They are trying to hail us, but our subspace communication array is damaged and we can't reply," Rosa reported.

"I wouldn't worry about that Carmina. I think they'll figure it out," Kyle said with relief.

* * *

Aboard the Falcon

Lt. Commander Rivas and Lt. Ka both debriefed the two ensigns once they had been cleared by medical.

"So, they've probably got enough people to man the ship properly if they hooked up with another ship. They still have to deal with the Captain and the others. They've yet to get the command codes?" Rivas said.

"That's correct sir, but that was as of a few hours ago," Kyle repsoned, glancing around the sleek conference room.

"Alight. Good job, both of you. You can take a well earned rest after what you've been through." Rivas said, standing up. "We'll head for the coordinates that Ensign Rosa provided us. Now that we know where they are heading, that will make this easier."

"Do you think we'll get the ship and the Captain back?" Rosa asked.

"I will do everything in my power to bring everyone back. Commander Martinez was wise to remove you both from the situation. I fear if he hadn't you two may not be standing here right now."

Kyle and Rosa exchanged looks.

"Commander Rivas?" Rosa asked.

"Yes?"

"I think we'd both like to help, if we can."

Rivas smiled. "Get some rest first. I'm sure Lt. Ka can find something for you to do."

"Sure, there's always something that needs to be done, but I agree with the Commander. You both need to rest, get a good meal and then we'll put you to work."

They both nodded. "Thank you, sir."

"Dismissed," Rivas said and they both left.

"Aya! So...the Badlands huh?" Rayna sighed. "This just gets better all the time, doesn't it?"

"Agreed," Rivas nodded. "I am sure you are more than aware of the engine modifications we'll have to do if they go into that mess?"

"I am. I'm just annoyed about having to be put in drydock for two weeks for them to scrub every goddamned inch of the warp coils when we get back," Rayna sighed.

"You may want the vacation once we're done here," Rivas shrugged.

"It figures. I barely get the Falcon out of hock and she's going to be right back in it," Rayna grumbled.

"Don't fret too much. Command is a lot more lenient when they tell you to deliberately do something to damage the ship," Rivas shrugged.

"I suppose so," Rayna said. "Well, we better get going. I just wonder why they are heading for the Badlands."

"I don't know, but whatever the reason is, it can't be good," Rivas said, walking to the viewport and staring out at the stars.

* * *

The Raptor dropped out of warp several thousand kilometers out from the Badlands. The Badlands were an area of space that resembled a nebula, but it was highly deformed, stretching for hundreds of light years in every direction. Holtz had always thought it looked something like a splash of drive coolant on canvas.

He sat in the command chair, drumming his fingers on his chin. "Kurowski, transmit the locator signal," he ordered.

"Transmitting it now."

Holtz continued his drumming as he waited. Suddenly, Kurowski's console beeped.

"We've received the coordinates."

"Excellent. Transfer the coordinates to the helm," Holtz grinned. "Once they are locked, take us in at full impulse."

He leaned back, stretching his arms over his head. Soon the trouble makers would be rounded up. As long as they kept them running, and away from engineering and the computer core, they might be able to pull this off.

He checked one of his side consoles and saw that the Vespira was still following close. It was a minor comfort when dealing with the Black Star. He didn't want to go in there alone.

They had psychers that could pry the codes out of Martinez and Phoenix, not to mention help capture them. The price for this help was a good chunk of credits, but they were the only known group of empaths capable of real data extraction. The down side, however, was they operated strictly in the Badlands. He wasn't even sure that, even with payment, they could trust them.

He grabbed his comlink. "Brunt, have you found Owens yet?"

"Yeah boss. The Commander got her good, had her trussed up down in the shuttle bay. She's spittin' mad."

"I take it you still haven't located either the Captain or Ms. Phoenix?"

"Not yet, but we're working on it," Brunt replied. "It's not like they can get that far."

"Do what you can, just keep them out of engineering," Holtz replied, cutting off the channel.

Soon, hopefully, the Raptor would fully be his. That thought made his lips curl into a hideous smile as the ship dove into the chaos of the Badlands.

To Be Continued