As they stepped into the safehouse, Chief Shafir’s eyes went straight to one of the men standing in the room. “What the hell is he doing here?” She hated the man with every bone in her body.

“He’s here to beat the bad guys, same as you,” Captain Kioshi replied.

“Is he now?” Chief Shafir raised an eyebrow. She didn’t trust Commander Robert Drake further than she could shoot him. Not after what he’d done on Polaris. While Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall had narrowly evaded his indictment, Lieutenant J.G. Morgan had taken his life as a result of his overzealous pursuit. She considered him directly responsible for that, and she’d never forgive him for it.

“It’s good to see you too,” Commander Drake replied sarcastically. He liked Ayala Shafir no more than she liked him. She was one of Captain Lewis’ goons.

“Why perchance is your highness stooping to our level?” Chief Shafir pressed, her words biting. A place like this and a mission like this hardly seemed suited for a pretentious JAG prosecutor.

“They killed my sister,” Commander Drake replied darkly as his eyes fell. “They killed Elsie.”

“Amazing what that’ll do to change one’s mind,” Chief Shafir smirked, not the slightest bit of sympathy present in her voice for she had none. Not for him. Not even for the death of his sister. Served him right.

Around the room, everyone, both the folks who’d just arrived from the SS Lucre and those who’d already been tucked away in the safehouse, glanced around awkwardly. What was going on here? Was a chief petty officer seriously mocking a commander over the death of his sister?

“We have bigger problems than whatever this beef is that you two have,” Captain Kioshi interjected, trying to shut down whatever this was before it got going. He needed them to focus on the mission at hand.

“Yeah, we have bigger problems for now,” Chief Shafir countered. “But later, when all is said and done, this asshole will question everything we did and prosecute us for whatever it is he can come up with that we had to do in order to see victory.” That’s what he’d done after Nasera, and she had no doubt that here he’d do the same. It wouldn’t help to have that hanging over them. Not with the stakes at hand. They needed to be able to do whatever needed to be done without hesitation and fear that some prick would question them for it after.

“Just stay within the bounds of the law and protocol, and you have nothing to worry about… as hard as I know that might be for you to do,” Commander Drake scolded.

This was going to be a problem, Captain Kioshi could tell. There was prior history here, and the chief did have a point. There was no promise, once shit hit the fan, that everything would fit neatly within rules and procedure that the JAG clung to. Context was important. “Robert, let’s remember what’s at stake here.”

“I know better than anyone what’s at stake!” Commander Drake snapped back.

“Good,” Captain Kioshi nodded. “Then I trust there will be no referrals from your office after.”

Commander Drake stared at the intelligence chief. Why was it that these wannabe-hero intelligence types were always like this? If anyone went over the line, it was his duty as a duly appointed prosecutor from the Office of the Judge Advocate General to pursue them to the fullest extent of the law.

“Everyone here has the same aims, and we’re going to do our best to keep it clean, but this may get messy,” Captain Kioshi warned, softening his tone to try and bring the JAG along. “We will do what needs to be done, and no one needs to be afraid they’re going to be questioned afterwards because of collateral damage.” There would be collateral damage. He had no doubt about that. It was just the dynamic of the battlefield on which they’d be fighting, one where hordes of enemy soldiers were intermixed with fifteen thousand civilians and five thousand officers.

Still, Commander Drake looked skeptical.

“Ten for one, the Vaadwaur said,” Captain Kioshi reminded him. “Ten, fifty, or five hundred even, they pale in comparison to the numbers that will die if we fail. But if you threaten us like you did Lieutenant Anderson earlier when she killed those Vaadwaur to set us free, it’s going to cause everyone to second guess their actions, and that can’t happen. Not unless you want everyone to end up like your sister.”

Fleet Captain Elsie Drake. That’s what this was about. The Vaadwaur had not executed his sister because she’d done anything wrong. They had killed her simply to make a point. And yes, maybe the captain was right. More would die if they didn’t commit to this regardless of what the Vaadwaur did in response.

“Do you understand me, Commander?” Captain Kioshi pressed.

Commander Drake slowly nodded. “Yes, I understand.” Those were words he never thought he’d say, but there they were. He’d said them. No one else needed to feel the pain he felt right now, and if this was the compromise he needed to make, then so be it. “Let’s do what needs to be done.”

Standing there watching the exchange, Dr. Lisa Hall cracked a twisted smile, reveling in the moment. Captain Kioshi was good. Damn good. He’d played Robert Drake like a fiddle. He’d managed what none of the rest of them ever had. He’d managed to turn the JAG. 

“So tell me,” Lieutenant Commander Keaton Ryder asked, trying to change the conversation away from the uncomfortable subject. “How many of you are presently operating?” It was not lost on him that there were only five of them in the station. He hoped that wasn’t it.

“Just a handful,” volunteered a suave looking young man from the corner of the room, leaned back against the wall with his arms folded across his chest. “The name’s Park. John Park. Intelligence officer stationed here on Kyban. It’s the five of us you see here – Captain Kioshi and Commander Drake, who you appear to already know, plus myself, Ensign Maya Ortega from the diplomatic corps, and Ensign Evelyn Luna from our team here on Kyban – plus three others doing pre-op work over on Archanis right now.”

“That’s not a lot to work with,” Lieutenant Commander Kehlani Koh noted. Especially to retake a Canopus class starbase and its five hundred decks where the Vaadwaur were dug in.

“That’s why we asked for some extra hands,” Captain Kioshi reminded them. Plus, he had plans for how they would quickly exponentiate that number quickly once they made their move.

“What happened to the rest of Kyban’s intelligence unit here?” Lieutenant Commander Ryder asked. There should have been dozens, if not hundreds, more officers around. Kyban was a critical post for borderlands intelligence, and it couldn’t have been so short staffed.

“Either captured or gone to ground,” frowned Ensign Park. He’d tried to convince the others to stay, but they’d set out on their own. Just sort of how it was with this unit. “This isn’t some premier starship with officers in pretty-pressed uniforms. Everyone’s got their own motives here, and many are more obsessed with striking gold in some big bust than working as a team.” Any semblance of order had disappeared the moment the colony fell and the Vaadwaur walked freely among them.

As the others spoke, Commander Drake eyed the new arrivals. While the extra hands would be helpful, he recognized only a few, and of the ones he did, two of them, he knew, had been part of Captain Lewis’ goon squad, so that put him on guard. “Before we get to work, I believe some introductions are in order?”

To the commander’s point, the new arrivals went around the room introducing themselves. Besides Chief Shafir and Dr. Hall, there were the chiefs of security from the USS Polaris and the USS Diligent, plus eight security officers drawn from between the two ships. To round the group off, there were three others too, clearly not Starfleet, who introduced themselves only by their first names: T’Aer, a Vulcan who looked oddly familiar; Cassius, a hulk with tattoos and dreads; and Mara, a lithe young woman her bright blue hair. 

“What exactly brought you three down here?” Commander Drake inquired suspiciously of the trio not from the Polaris or the Diligent. This wasn’t exactly a place suited for civilians.

“We’re just caring citizens who thought we could be of assistance helping save the galaxy,” T’Aer answered flatly. She knew who he was, and she didn’t intend to give him any excess details. Their private enterprise only worked because it was innocuous and stayed below the radar.

“And do you understand what you’re getting into?” Commander Drake followed up, concerned they might be using civilians inappropriately. “It’s not pretty over there, and you might…” He flashed back to his sister. “You might end up dead.” You couldn’t just throw civilians into that.

“The frontier is a rough place, commander,” T’Aer assured him. “We can handle ourselves, and we know how to slot in.” Two of them, in fact, had a background with Starfleet even. T’Aer been an officer once long ago, up until Starfleet diverged too far from its purpose, and Mara Selene had attended the Academy, up until she was suspected of killing that guy and they expelled her for issues of moral turpitude.

Commander Drake turned to Lieutenant Commander Ryder. “Did Fleet Admiral Reyes approve this?”

The Polaris security chief opened his mouth to respond, but Captain Kioshi got there first.

“Robert, what was it we just discussed?” Captain Kioshi asked. “This is not an inquisition, and we’re not going to play twenty questions. If a civvie wants to help, I’ll be the first to hand them a phaser and tell them to have at it.” Not just these three, but anyone who wanted to take up arms against their oppressors. It didn’t matter if they were effective either. As long as it created more threats for the enemy, it would serve its purpose, and he intended to use every last civilian they could mobilize once they got aboard Archanis.

Commander Drake looked like he was about to object, but then he remembered himself and why he was here. This was about Elsie and making sure not everyone met her fate.

Suddenly, a young woman dressed in dregs with feathered earrings and a shark tooth necklace blinked into existence out of nowhere. “Well, that was closer than it should’ve been…”

Everyone turned, and that’s when they saw it, the Borg-like arch in a shadowed corner of the large sub-basement.

“Oh, now that is cool,” Cassius said as he realized what they were looking at. “Is that an actual spatial trajector lifted from a Borg ship?” He’d heard rumors about such things, but he’d never seen one in person.

Captain Kioshi chuckled. “Yup, it’s our fast pass to Archanis Station.”

“The things you could do with such a toy…” Mara mused with hungry eyes. In the blink of the eye, you could be anywhere you wanted to be, bypassing troublesome security and catching your enemy unawares.

“Yeah, well we’re going only one place with it,” Commander Drake insisted firmly, his eyes falling on the intelligence chief who’d stashed it in this sub-basement. “And then, when this is all over, the good captain here is going to hand it over to Starfleet Security for safekeeping, just as he should have done long ago… isn’t that right, captain?”

“I suppose,” Captain Kioshi sighed. It had been a powerful tool for intelligence collection, and he’d appeal to the powers that be to see if he could keep it, but that they’d had to reveal it to so many – especially the JAG – meant he wasn’t likely going to once this was over. But that was neither here nor there for now. He turned to the new arrival. “How’d it go, Samira?”

“I made contact with Eriksson,” Petty Officer Samira Sasori reported as she stepped away from the arch. “He’s identified the four target locations where they’re holding his men.”

“One of our first objectives when we go active on the station will be to jailbreak them,” Captain Kioshi explained to the others. “The Vaadwaur confined Archanis Station’s security department in an effort to tamp down on resistance, but when we unleash them, the Vaadwaur will have to deal not just with us, but hundreds of armed threats.” Plus, Commander Eriksson had been insistent that it had to be one of their first moves. “How’s the computer core looking?”

“It’s going to be a fight,” Petty Officer Sasori explained. “The Vaadwaur know the importance of it since it was one of the keys to their victory.”

“Me and my three friends here,” Chief Shafir volunteered, looking at the trio from the Lucre. “We will handle retaking the computer core.” This was her specialty.

“There’s a full platoon guarding its triple-deck enclosure,” Petty Officer Sasori warned. “Thirty men.”

“Not a problem,” Cassius said confidently, looking at T’Aer and Mara.

The other two nodded. They’d get it done.

“What about the command deck?” Captain Kioshi asked. “Did you manage to get up there?” That was another site he planned on taking in the first moments of the counteroffensive.

“It’ll be a two-for-one,” Petty Officer Sasori shared. “Anderson managed to sneak in, and it turns out the rumors are true. They’re holding Grayson up there, interrogating him for information.”

“How convenient,” Captain Kioshi smiled. They could take that critical hub and simultaneously free the vice admiral. “When we go active, those are our three targets. Make an army out of station security by freeing them, render the station useless as a weapon for the Vaadwaur to use against Polaris Squadron by compromising the core, and secure the command center to regain control.”

Around the room, everyone nodded.

“I think then that it’s time we notify Polaris to proceed,” Captain Kioshi concluded.

Ensign Evelyn Luna nodded and moved over to a comms station to send the go-ahead signal.