— USS Andromeda, The Triangle —

Watching as the ship broke in half was a troubling thing for Captain Olivia Carrillo. Though saucer separation was standard and had been part of what vessels could do for longer than she’d been in Starfleet seeing her ship break apart went against everything she believed in as a captain. Her whole life was safeguarding her ship, and now she was leaving a big chunk of it alone as she went off to save a Romulan colony. Plus the crew, not to mention her husband and daughter, that was being left behind. While she understood it was for the best, rather than taking civilians into an active war zone, they would be beyond her protection.

Not that she believed that she was omnipotent, but if you spent enough time worrying about the wellbeing of someone it was hard to let go and trust that they could handle it on their own. It must be, she thought, what being a parent was like. Maybe when Aimée was older, she’d have to feel the same feelings as she struck out on her own.

“The saucer section has achieved independent stable orbit,” Kan Th’kaotross the first officer reported.

Captain Carrillo nodded, having gotten the go signal from Commander James Young the Andromeda’s chief engineer she knew that they were now ready to go.

“Then engage the slipstream drive. Let’s go,” Carrillo said, leaning back.

Young had described the drive ready by saying it would either get them to the Romulan colony or explode the entire ship in an instant. While not eager to be blown up, if they relied on warp three which seemed to be the maximum anyone was capable of traveling at the moment, they’d reach the Romulan colony too late to provide and help.

“Pr’Nor, set in a course and engage,” Carrillo said to the chief navigation officer at helm.

The Vulcan nodded, her fingers moving across the flat screen full of controls, before she reported, “Course laid in and engaging now.”

Never having been at transwarp before Carrillo was surprised by the sudden lurch, the ship’s gravitational field did a good job of compensating, but it was not designed for such fast travel so it took a brief moment to catch up. The stars before them turned into a swirl as what was previously light years away rushed up quickly, quicker than even their warp 9.9 maximum speed.

“We are one hour and twenty from our destination,” Pr’Nor reported.

Nodding Carrillo turned to the tactical station and addressed her chief of security and head of tactical, “Jara make sure we’re ready, let’s come out of warp on in a fighting stance. We don’t know what’s going to greet us.”

The woman at security nodded, “Yes ma’am.”

It was now a case of what they were going to find when they dropped out of transwarp.

— USS Andromeda, Romulan Space —

The stars became static as the ship left transwarp, though they were different than those that the Andromeda had left. The crew had little time to gather their bearings before Lieutenant Claudia Jara at tactical began reading off contacts as the solar system was filled with potentially hostile craft.

“D’deridex-class warbird taking fire from two large unknown vessels. There’s also four of those cruisers we fought,” Jara said. It was a seismic increase in forces, one that the Andromeda was likely not prepared for. The addition of the Romulan ship did not provide as much help as the increase in opposition forces warranted.

“Take us through the fighters, launch torpedoes at the larger ships and do our best to take some of the fire for the warbird,” Carrillo said, “and of course let’s make sure we have shields up.”

The saucerless Andromeda tilted and increased speed, taking to the right then cutting left. Its twelve phaser arrays began firing constantly, and both forward and aft torpedo launchers began letting loose. It was clear that the Vaadwuar forces had not anticipated their sudden arrival and leaping into the fight before they had a chance to reassess clearly confused them. Two of the four Manasa-class Assault Escorts turned in opposite directions and barely avoided collision.

“Romulans hailing us,” Lieutenant Randolph McKenzie said.

“Onscreen,” Carrillo said.

The viewscreen filled with the image of a Romulan bridge where fires were almost as common as lower deckers. It was clear that they were not doing as well as they might have hoped, especially given that the D’deridex-class warbird was one of the most fearsome tactical vessels around.

“Starfleet,” shouted a bleeding officer who had obviously assumed command after something had happened to his senior officers, “what are you doing here.”

“I think you mean ‘thank you for coming’,” Carrillo said, “but look I don’t think we can win this fight. Does your cloaking device work?”

“It is functional,” he said.

“Great is there anywhere you want to meet up? We’ll cover your exit, and wait for you there,” Carrillo said, assuming the Romulans were limited to warp three as well and that transwarp would arrive much faster.

The Romulan looked down at his chair’s control pad and punched a few buttons. Behind Carrillo Randolph confirmed that they had received the coordinates.

“See you there, we’ll buy you some time,” Carrillo said.

“The colony,” the Romulan began.

“Won’t be helped if we’re both destroyed,” Carrillo pointed out.

The Romulan nodded and the screen went dark.

“Let’s buy them time to cloak and get out of here,” Carrillo said, “bring us on another strafing run.”

More agile than it might have seemed the Andromeda turned, and flew back through the chaos of fighters and the larger capital ships. Still unaware of their enemies classification for their ships, and unable to contract Starfleet for additional information, they did not know that they were facing four Manasa-class Assault Escorts, two Astika-class Heavy Battlecruisers, and untold number of fighters.

This pass through the battle however the Vaadwuar were ready, and landed several hits on the Andromeda. Its shields held, but the ship rocked as it was struck by enemy fire.

“Pr’Nor set in the course for the coordinates the Romulans provided and kick it,” Carrillo said.

“I will… kick it,” the Vulcan helm officer responded, and with a few strokes on her console the battle vanished and the stars became streaks.

“Time to ETA,” Carrillo asked.

“About twenty minutes. The Romulans will likely be at least two days at warp three,” Pr’Nor said.

Tapping her commbadge Carillo called engineering, “Commander Young, fix our ship and study up on D’deridex-class warbirds, we’ve got one for you to fix,” the captain said.