—- USS Luna, Bridge —-

“Onscreen,” Commander Olivia Carrillo said, watching as the now three Devore Imperium ships were replaced by the image of a man in a black uniform. He looked pleasant enough, though given the files they had read from Voyager Carrillo knew that they were unlikely to get along. The Imperium had an issue with telepaths and the Luna had too many telepaths to hide in a transporter buffer, and that had already been done by Voyager so the Imperium was unlikely to fall for the same trick twice.

“I am Chief Inspector Gladius of the Devore Imperium, state your name and nature of your entering our space,” the man said in a clipped and official tone.

“I am Commander Olivia Carrillo of the Starfleet vessel USS Luna,” Carrillo said, “We were exploring and came across your space. We apologize and will return to our own shortly.”

“Of course, first though we will be boarding your ship for inspection,” Gladius said, “As I’m sure you’re familiar with from the ship Voyager.”

“I’m sorry we currently have a radiation leak on board it would not be safe for your inspectors,” Carrillo said, returning to the center seat in the bridge.

“Lower your shields for boarding,” he demanded.

Carrillo turned her back to the screen making a gesture that meant that tactical should cut off the feed. She knew what Voyager had noted the consequences for not submitting to the inspection where, and she did not think that the Devore Imperium who had finally discovered their trick of hiding their telepaths in the transporter buffer would work again. They had discussed a few other options, such as hiding the telepathic crew members in the captain’s yhatch but they all had required their enemies to be dumb and at least from Voyager’s records Commander Carrillo realized that she was taking a risk if she underestimated them.

Not that she was not taking a risk now, not that she was not taking a risk now. They had run tactical analysis of the situation and while the USS Luna was a bit more rugged than Voyager, it was not so much of an upgrade that they could defeat the Devore Imperium.

“Warp nine point nine seven five,” Carrillo ordered, as the ship rocked as the warships opened phaser fire. The USS Luna leaped forward, entering warp and taking off running. The screen changed to show a broader view of the action, with the Devore Imperium’s ships falling back slowly as they reached their own maximum warp.

“We are out of phaser range,” Lieutenant Jara said at tactical, “Slowly increasing our lead, they’re hitting warp nine point five.”

Tapping her commbade she said, “Bridge of engineering, Young how long can you give me at top speed?”

The answer came as Lieutenant Commander Young replied, “Thirty-five hours give or take. Then we’ll need at least a few hours to cool down and do some maintenance.”

Carrillo nodded, “Okay, so we’ll run this way for about a day, then loop back to the entrance of the portal. Try to loose them though a gas cloud, or something. Stellar cartography, look around for something for us to hide in. We may have speed on them, but I don’t want to start a war if I can avoid it.”

—- USS Luna, Gymnasium —-

While the USS Luna was on the run, there was not a lot to be done. Tactical and strategic operations were examining what they knew about the threat vessels and running simulations on their various options, all while engineering was doing its best to ensure the wheels did not fly off the ship, a curious expression given that they did not have wheels.

Feeling pointless until the options were presented and she could pick the least bad one, Olivia Carrillo was drenched in her own sweat running in a simulation of New York’s Central Park on one of the treadmills that the Luna had in her gymnasium. It was an attempt to wear herself out so that she could get some much needed sleep before the senior staff presented their ideas for what they should do but it seemed impossible to take her mind off the problem.

There was a hiss of the door to the rest of the ship opening, as someone else entered the gym. Carrillo ignored it for now, until a voice spoke up that she recognized as Lieutenant Pierre Lambert, her fiancé.

“You in there dear?” he asked.

“Computer end session,” Carrillo said and the ground stopped moving beneath her feet and the trees of Central Park vanished, replaced with a clear glass wall which opened up.

“There you are,” Lambert said, “Are you alright chere?”

Carrillo stepped out of the treadmill and grabbed a towel which she used to mop some of the sweat from her brown. She nodded, not wanting to let on that she was trying to keep the ship from being seized and the telepaths on her crew including the acting first officer, from being carted off to reeducation camps. Lambert for his part was in his duty uniform, about to take his shift on the bridge.

“I’m sticky and wet,” Carrillo objected as he hugged her, risking his clean uniform.

“And smell bad,” Lambert joked kissing her forehead. He slid his hands down her body to her waist, and smiled, “But it’s nice. We should work out together.”

“Get your mind of the gutter Lieutenant,” Carrillo said returning the hug, it was nice to feel him against her, large and strong even though she outranked him there was a feeling of safety as much as it was illusionary that he brought.

“It is your mind that is in the gutter, I did not say anything forward,” Lambert protested.

“Get to the bridge,” Carrillo said slapping his bottom to rusher him out.

“Just as long as you know, you’re doing well. We all know there is no easy answer and you’re taking the best course for everyone,” Lambert said and then left, the door hissing open and then closed as he went to the bridge to fly the fleeing ship.

—- USS Luna, Chief Counsellor’s Office —-

Lieutenant Yuhiro Kolem sat across from her acting-Chief Counsellor Lieutenant Junior Grade Torma. The woman had taken on that title when Kolem had been made acting-First Officer, and now had been unable to juggle both jobs duties. Torma was her counsellor anyway so the soft smile that the woman offered was not unknown to Kolem.

“So the Devore Imperium,” Torma said, “How are you doing with us being pursued by them.”

“I don’t like being chased if that’s what you mean,” Kolem said.

“Well it’s more than that though isn’t it? You’re the First Officer now, and the Imperium is chasing us because you telepaths. If it wasn’t for telepaths, we’d have submitted to their search,” Torma said.

“You’re suggesting I’m to blame?” asked Kolem.

“No, I’m not suggesting anything, just an observation. Do you feel you’re to blame?” Torma asked, digging at the negative feelings Kolem might have around the situation the USS Lunafound itself in.

The half-Betazoid frowned in displeasure at her Gideon Assistant Chief Counsellor but understood the line of questioning. Kolem did not blame herself but she could see that someone else in her position might have. She sighed relaxing and backing off her fight or flight instincts.

“The only ones responsible for the situation we’re in now is the Devore Imperium and their distrust of those with telepathic abilities,” Kolem said.

Torma nodded, “Good, as long as you keep that in mind. This isn’t your fault, and it’s not anyone’s fault but the people who hate you without knowing you.”

—- USS Luna, Main Engineering —-

“It’s holding up,” said Lieutenant Murf. The trouble was that if the warp drive started to fail due to being pushed to the limit, it would not give them much notice. They had maybe ten more hours until they’d been running for a day and a half, and all of the training and manuals that they’d been given on how to run a Luna-class ship said that this was as far as you could push the engine like this.

Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander James Young made an unconvinced sound as he stood next to her gazing up at the warp chamber. Their last mission the ship had gotten beat to hell, and it looked like they were verging on doing that again. He wanted a nice mission of just labeling types of weird alien rocks or something, not racing a foreign military to save their own crew.

“At least it’s not the Borg,” he muttered, mostly for himself. On his last ship the USS Seattle, he’d lost all power after trying to run from the Borg. He’d managed to get it working again but they’d come close to the Borg cube catching them.

Lieutenant Junior Grade Kv’skrkks came over with a PADD of readings on the warp core. He looked like an ancient earth Velociraptor and more so as he grinned, “It’s holding up.”

Taking the PADD from his claw Young looked over the readings, finding that the warp core was holding up. The problem was it was not as if they had a destination, or a safe haven that they were aiming for. It was not a state that could hold indefinitely but for now it was working. The larger problem was they had no final destination, they were just running for the sake of not having another plan. Though as a senior officer Young knew better than to let on to the rest of the crew about his own trepidation.