Jason Devron had been woken at just before 4am, by a rather frantic sounding Phoebe Andrianakis; with the words, “Jason, we need to move now!”  It had taken a few seconds for the fog in his brain to lift, and the meaning of what she’d just said to register.  He did nothing more than acknowledge the message, before leaping out of bed and jumping in the shower.  Jason wanted to be awake and prepared for anything that may lie ahead.

Less than ten minutes later he was in his uniform outside the door of the doctor’s quarters.  It opened and he stepped inside, finding the young woman sat on her bed.  “What’s happened?”  He asked, sitting next to her and putting an arm around Phoebe’s shoulder.  Jason could feel her body shaking and it wasn’t from the cold.

“I can feel the presence of evil!” Phoebe blurted out. “It’s everywhere and growing rapidly.  I think the end may be near.”

“You can’t really mean that?” Jason replied with concern.

She nodded her head in reply.  “Soon the Helgeshran will be here.  His army of slaves grows by the hour.”

Devron knew the woman sat next to him was destined for something; just what that was had never been made clear.  Some stupid idea; that by knowing what was going to happen, you’d try and change it.  How could you do the right thing if you didn’t understand what that was?  Phoebe Andrianakis was a daughter of a member of the Q continuum, and as such possessed at least some of their abilities; though they’d only started to develop over the last year.  She’d demonstrated some of it in the past; both by protecting herself from harm and those near to her. Yet Jason wanted to be the one protecting her.

He’d been shown a future, were the two of them would be together on Earth, married with two kids.  That had been an illusion; created by an entity that drew its power from strong emotions.  It was a future though, that deep within his heart Jason would love to make true.

“We can always run the other way?” He suggested. “Space is vast.”

“I could never run far enough or live with myself knowing countless lives had been lost because of my inaction.” Phoebe answered solemnly.

“Then what do we do?” Jason asked, gripping her hand reassuringly.

“We need to find the Commander.”  Andrianakis informed him.  “His life is in danger.”

The Lieutenant knew that the Commander had gone off on a trip somewhere, to a planet; the name of which escaped him.  Using the doctor’s terminal, he checked with the stations computer, as the Vulcan would have certainly logged his destination and travel plans; so he could be contacted in an emergency. The name Elas came up, but when Jason tried to file a flight plan heading there, his request was denied.  A further check revealed that this planet had now been placed under quarantine.

“Ok, that’s really weird!” He commented on reading through the information presented to him.

“What is?” Phoebe asked moving up behind him.

“This whole sector has been quarantined as of midnight, Station Time.” Jason pointed to the map on the screen. “Nothing is been allowed in or out.”

Several planets lay within the newly created restricted zone; and not all of them Federation; independent worlds and even two that formed part of the Romulan Republic, were included.  The names of dozens of ships within the zone also appeared on a second list; none of which were being allowed to leave the area.

“His influence is spreading everywhere!” Andrianakis heart sank at the enormity of the situation.

“If we are going to make any attempt of getting to the Commander, we’ll need help.” Jason announced turning towards the doctor.

********

To say both Lieutenant Lyanna Stuart and Ensign Skova Tholakath were stunned was a clear understatement; the half Orion/Human looked at the Cardassian to her left then back towards the other two individuals in the room.  “You’re ‘Q’!”

“There’s no need to make it sound like an insult.” Andrianakis retorted. “I didn’t exactly have much say in the matter.”

“So you can manipulate people and objects, stuff like that?” Tholakath enquired.

“Kind of, I guess.” The doctor answered.  “It’s just hard to focus my thoughts.  That’s why we need to rescue Commander Salan, I think he’d be able to help me meditate and control whatever abilities I’m developing, better than I could alone.”

“The less people that know about this, the better.” Devron added. “It’s why we’ve not just asked any random Vulcan to help.”

“How do you propose to get past this blockade that’s been set up?” Stuart enquired.

“First off we need to steal the USS Jaxartes!” Jason answered.

“Well it was a nice carrier whilst it lasted.” Lyanna sighed.  “Exactly how are you getting the old girl out of the bay?”

“Not sure about that part of the plan.” Devron replied. “I was just going to wing it.”

“It would help if we had a Chief Engineer.” Tholakath interjected. “But I believe Torf is still on his home world recovering from his ordeal with the Devore.”

The Betazoid had left not long after they’d docked and no one had heard from him since.  His imprisonment and torture at the hands of the Devore Imperium had almost killed him and despite returning to duty in order to help get the ‘Jax’ home; it was clear that he was far from himself.  The crew had jelled in their year long time serving together, so it was hard for them loose somebody after everything they’d managed to struggle through.  Whilst they hoped to see Albert again in the future; some doubted he’d ever return to active duty.

“Give me an hour and I’ll have everything sorted.”  Lieutenant Stuart piped up; jumping to her feet. “Be just round the corner from the bay.  You’ll know when to come, just trust me.”

The three other officers watched as the Orion left the room.  Devron turned to the Cardassian.  “Hey, don’t look at me.” Tholakath defended himself.  “Just because we’ve been hanging out together, doesn’t mean I know what’s going on inside her head!”

Phoebe just gave a long hum in response, nodding her head a little. “Mmmhm.”

“Ok it was just the once!” Tholakath sounded exasperated as he got up and went to leave to.  “Just don’t get reading anything into it.” He added from the open door.

Jason turned towards Phoebe, a puzzled look on his face; not at first fathoming what that last outburst had been all about.  “You’re kidding me, those two?”

“Mmmhm.”

**********

Just under one hour later, Lieutenant Devron, Doctor Andrianakis and Ensign Tholakath; all stood in one of the many corridors that linked up the docking areas of the Aurora-class spacedock.   None of them knew what their fellow crewmate had got planned.  The message she’d sent them had merely indicated that they should wait at this very spot, roughly 200 metres from the hatchway to their ship.

The alarm that sounding throughout the docking area; was loud and made them all jump at the suddenness of it, and the computer voice that followed only added to the confusion.  “A warp core breach, that’s her plan!” Devron shouted over the din.

The three of them ran to the ship, only to be met by a rather confused looking security officer desperately getting a message through to the stations flight control.  “I can’t let you on; orders are not to allow this ship out of the dock.”

“Do you really want it blowing up here and taking out half the station?”  Devron asked the man.  It may have been a slight exaggeration, but the warp core of a Raven-class corvette would make a pretty big mess, if it exploded.  Realising what was at stake the guard stepped aside and let them aboard and watched as they closed the hatch.

**********

On the bridge of the USS Jaxartes, Ensign Cho was at her usual station.  “This is the USS Jaxartes requesting emergency docking clearance. We have an imitate warp core breach in progress!”

“Clearance granted.  Proceed to the outer marker.” The reply came. “We’re dispatching Runabouts to retrieve your crew.”

Lieutenant Stuart at the helm turned briefly and smiled at the Korean Communication Officer, before quickly adjusting the ships flight controls. Never before had any ship exited a spacedock as fast as the Jaxartes did; moments later and continued to accelerate once clear.  A pair of hastily scrambled Runabouts swung round; having launched from another part of the station; they followed the corvette but maintained their distance.

**********

From a small observation window along the stations outer edge; Petty Officer Derek Lightwood watched as the USS Jaxartes jumped to warp.  He’d used one of the starbases many transporters to secretly beam some of the crew aboard; before erasing all trace of his actions from the system.

He knew they were heading into danger and were doing it without authorisation; all of which could land them in serious trouble.  Yet he still wished he could have gone with them.  “Good luck.” He whispered softly before turning away.