The Kazon warship landed two more phaser strikes against Constellation’s shields, and Yuulik vowed bloody revenge on the warship’s maje.

As the bridge crew scattered out of the observation lounge to take their posts, the artificial gravity fluctuated under the strain of the warship’s attack.  Yuulik’s footing went wobbly, and she caught herself on the railing behind the command chairs.  That’s all it took.  In those seconds lost, Yuulik was eliminated in the fight for dominance of the bridge.

And it was all the fault of the awful Kazon.

Lieutenant T’Kaal was already seated at the forward science station beside flight control.  She had yet to apologise for her public chastisement of Yuulik on Buccarro IV.  Yuulik certainly wasn’t going to say something about it first.  That was one race Yuulik didn’t intend to win.  She would take that grudge to the grave if that’s what it took.

“Proximity alert,” T’Kaal announced.  “The Kazon ship is increasing speed.”

As Captain Taes settled into the centre chair, she ordered, “Match their speed, Mister Door.  Whatever it takes to maintain distance.  Put the Kazon on screen.  Reverse angle.”

The way Taes gave orders, she sounded like she was flirting with a replicator while ordering a cup of tea.  Truly, Yuulik questioned how the crew was supposed to understand any sense of urgency when Taes spoke in such a lyrical tone.

“It’s a Predator-class carrier, captain,” reported Lieutenant Commander Ache from the tactical station.  Judging by the dirigible-shaped predator on the viewscreen, it was easily three times the size of a Constitution III-class starship.  The shape of its forward section loomed over them with an anthropomorphised rictus grin as it increased to ramming speed.

Ache went on to say, “Between its deflector shields, plasma torpedo launchers and a dozen phaser emitters, Kazon carriers have proven a match for any Starfleet explorers passing through the Nacene Reach.  Our speed and maneuverability should be our advantage, but the corridors of Underspace limit our options.”

“I might re-think that speed if I were you,” taunted Doctor Flavia from the science two station.  While Yuulik had been stumbling into the railing, Flavia had taken up residence in the expansive sensor suite to the captain’s left.

“Long-range sensors are picking up a large metallic mass in our path of travel,” Flavia said.  “No energy readings emanating from the mass.  First look at the high-resolution series makes me suspect it is the remains of three distinct starships fused together.  Even the way they’re tumbling through the corridor, there’s insufficient clearance for Constellation between the fused wreck and the radial walls of Underspace.”

Yuulik craned her neck to examine the sensor readings on Flavia’s station, and almost immediately, she felt Nova’s eyes on her. Seated at the operations station, Nova offered an inviting nod to Yuulik. Judging by the direction of her head bob, Nova gestured to the guard railing around her workstation. A moment later, a holographic LCARS interface flashed to life over the railing. Yuulik scurried over to stand behind the holographic screen.

Taes looked at Yuulik.  Her expression was impassive –she barely moved– but Yuuilk could swear she saw an incipient sneer on her lips.

In an undertone, Taes asked Yuulik, “What are you doing at ops?”

In a heartbeat, Yuulik didn’t know how to answer.  The literal step-by-step of Flavia making it to the science station first was meaningless.  It was laughable as a justification.  Although it hadn’t been an intentional thought, Yuulik recognised a strange feeling within her.  There was an unfamiliar instinct to demure, to defer.  Taes had the presence of spirit to elicit that feeling in Yuulik like few others before… aside from her.  There wasn’t time to unpack what she was feeling or how those feelings had been tangled with this new instinct not to overshadow her science team.

Again, Nova saved her.

“We’re being hailed by the Kazon carrier, captain,” Nova said.

When Taes ordered the transmission on screen, a video feed of the carrier’s bridge appeared on the viewscreen.  One Kazon stood proudly in the middle of the bridge, wearing a green headband that crossed over his cranial ridges.  He was a centre of calm on the viewscreen, while Constellation’s bridge rocked again under the carrier’s phaser attack.

“I am Maje Midrell of the Kazon-Relora,” he said.  “I demand to speak with your captain to discuss the terms of your surrender.“

Despite his posture, Taes remained seated in the captain’s chair.  She only inclined her chin slightly.

“Surrender?  I offer no surrender,” Taes said in a quiet defiance.  She checked the readouts on her armrest panel.  Her voice expanded when she added, “I am Captain Taes of the Federation Starship Constellation.  We come in peace and friendship.  However, we appear to have lost our way on our mission of exploration.”

Midrell snorted.

“Did you sew that costume for yourself?” he asked.

“I earned this costume for myself,” Taes said surely.

“It’s true then.  You are Starfleet, overburdened with more arrogance than sense,” he said.  “I will speak to your captain now.“

Midrell turned his head, his eye-line shifting to regard Kellin in the executive officer’s chair beside Taes.

“I have claimed this subspace passage for the Kazon Collective.  By trespassing in our territory, you have become the property of the Kazon.  Prepare to be boarded or destroyed.“

Kellin demonstrated more sense than arrogance by not replying.  He only tilted his head to look at Taes.

“Your destruction is what we must discuss,” Taes urged.  “We are both of us on a collision course with abandoned starship wreckage.  They may have claimed this Underspace before you did.  We can’t locate any Underspace branches to escape between our present position and the wreck.”

Looking to his right, Midrell said, “Launch plasma torpedoes.”  Midrell then spit at the viewscreen, and the comms channel snapped closed.

Taes didn’t hesitate.  “I admire your direction, Commander Ache.  I’d prefer we out-maneuver the Kazon without firing on them.  However, if our shields approach fifty percent, target their forward phaser emitters.”

Beside her, Kellin clapped his hands together.  “We need options for maneuvers, people,” he enthused.  Although he added nothing productive to the conversation, his energy erased the tension of Taes’s stand-off with Midrell.  Nova squared her shoulders, and Flavia sat up in her chair.

Ache insisted, “There’s still time to destroy the wrecks.  I’m programming a full quantum torpedo spread to break down the starships into the smallest parts possible.”  While she spoke, her fingers danced over her vertical interface.  So focused was Ache on her task that she almost sounded robotic in her proposal.  That made it all the more noticeable when two of her simulations flashed red.  Her facial tentacles flailed angrily when the composites of the wreck exploded into a shower of debris that would still block Constellation’s path.

Nova’s dark eyes sparkled when she interjected, “I’ve been listening to captain’s logs about Federation starships who became lost in these subspace corridors.  Our Turei allies often used a resonance pulse to– to shove them out of Underspace.” –Her posture deflated again– “I understand the theory, but the exact frequency they used hasn’t been entirely clear from the logs.”

“Fear not,” Flavia announced with conviction.  She swiped a new LCARS frame to the centre of her display.  “I will find the frequency to kick the Kazon out of Underspace.”

Kellin corrected her by saying, “The wrecks ahead of us, not the Kazon.”

Flavia shrugged.  “So you say.”

Taes looked over her shoulder to ask for one more opinion.  She had already glanced at Yuulik several times, and now the depth of her brown eyes moved to drown her.

“Yuulik?” Taes asked.

Under Taes’s intense stare –and another attack by the Kazon– Yuulik gripped the railing to steady herself.  Nova was bright, impossibly bright, and Flavia rarely exposed a weakness.  Yuulik trusted their recommendations, but with Taes staring at her, Yuulik looked back and forth between the operations and science displays.  She studied the earliest stages of their plan and she didn’t like what she saw.

“Yuulik?” Taes asked, impatient now.

Taking care not to criticize what Flavia was already designing, Yuulik breezily asked, “How about full shields?  Our multiphasic shields have hardly been tested outside laboratories, aside from a Dominion skirmish here or there.  I don’t know that we’ve pushed the zero-point energy generation to its limit.”

“Full shields ahead,” Taes balked at Yuulik.  “You must be joking.”

On her holographic display, Yuulik expanded the doodle she had been scribbling in the corner.  A representation of the deflector dish appeared.  The waveform superimposed over the warp core power leads and force activators were clearly red-lined.

“Nova and Flavia are on the right path,” Yuulik said encouragingly, “But to extend our deflector screens over a wreck of that size?  It would burn out our deflector dish and still wouldn’t be powerful enough.”

“And that’s why you recommend we collide with the wreck; all power to forward shields?” Taes asked, baffled.

“Okay, fine,” Yuulik conceded.  “Flavia’s plan.  Flavia’s plan will work.  I believe in her.”

Taes swivelled her chair, facing aft and turning her back to most of the bridge crew.  Yuulik knew.  Yuulik knew what that meant.  Without even thinking, Yuulik closed the distance between them, approaching close enough for Taes to lower her voice.

“What’s your plan here?” Taes asked in a whisper.

“I don’t have a plan,” Yuulik admitted, her voice so soft, it came out hoarsely.  “You need me to break the laws of physics in an unfamiliar layer of subspace.”

“I know what I’m asking, and it wouldn’t be your first time,” Taes insisted.  “You saved the crew of the Brigadoon from a temporal inversion fold.”

“Nova did that,” Yuulik said defensively.

“She pushed the buttons,” Taes said.  “You did that.  So what are you doing now?  Who are you?”

“I don’t– It’s distracting,” Yuulik said.  “Managing people is harder than managing ideas.”

“Then forget all of that,” Taes snarled.  “The crew needs you.  I need you.”

Yuulik shook her head.  “Flavia will find another way.”

Taes simply said, “Stop.  I need Yuulik.”

“I hear you.  I’ll take care of it.”