Maxwell stepped out of the turbolift. As he headed for his seat, his eyes fixed on the Ronin on screen, where it appeared to be not moving while it faced them. As he stopped before his seat, he noticed that Ruby stood by his side. Maxwell pointed to an empty station for Ruby to man, before he turned on his heels to look at Zane.

“What is the status of our weapons and shields?” He asked and he saw the look on Zane’s face, the look of frustration and defeat.

“Barely. With only auxiliary power and batteries, I can only manage phasers at twenty-five percent. As for torpedo launchers, I can cycle through and fire one at a time but they will have to be manually loaded.” Zane explained. Maxwell was about to say something when Zane quickly added. “Sir, the Ronin has not powered up weapons or shields. While they do show moderate damage to their hull, I do not see much power fluctuation in their power grid.”

Maxwell then heard Ruby’s voice. “Captain. They’re hailing us.”

Maxwell turned to look at Ruby, with a curious expression on his face. He was not sure what it was they wanted to talk about but perhaps they wanted to know about their assault force. Maxwell then nodded his head to Ruby, before he looked directly at the center of the bridge where a holographic image of a man appeared before him.

“I am Captain Harald of the Terran Imperium War Vessel Ronin.”

Maxwell stared at the man’s eyes, where he tried to see if he could find any hostile intent in them. “Captain Maxwell of the United Federation of Planets Sovereign.” Maxwell wanted to say more, but he couldn’t find the words to provoke more information out of this man. Perhaps patience will be its own reward.

“Interesting. Your ship trespasses in the rightfully claimed territories of the Terran Imperium and by the order of the Supreme Leader, you are to surrender yourself, your crew and your vessel to the Imperium at once. With that said. I would like to discuss the terms of your surrender in private, out of respect for you, Captain. Would your ready room be suffice?”

Maxwell frowned at the man. Discuss terms of their surrender? How would he explain that to his crew of a hundred? How would they even remotely fit in this universe? Does he even have a choice? And as if the man had read his mind, they spoke once more.

“You do not have a choice, Captain. I will be in your ready room in five seconds. I expect you to be there.” The holographic image of the man soon disappeared when he had given the gesture to kill the link.

Maxwell turned his head to his side when he felt his first office was by his side. “What do you think, Number One?”

“I think he is correct.” Said Graves. “We really do not have a choice. We have no warp core. We can barely fight, let alone that ship or what other ship there are out there. We have a responsibility to the crew, Henry. Although, depending on these terms, we could rig the ships computer to initiate self destruct once all crew are off. That way they can’t get the Sovereign.”

Maxwell let out a heavy sigh as he turned his head to look at the door to his ready room. “Come on. Let’s see what he has to say. Zane, you have the conn.” Maxwell quickly led Graves into his ready room, where they both found Captain Harald, in the flesh, who stood there in the center of the room, facing directly at the door. As the door closed behind Graves, Maxwell saw Harald first look at him, then Graves, then back at him before Harald pulled something out of their pocket and held it out to him.

“Do you know what that is, Captain?” Harald asked.

Maxwell held his hand out towards Harald’s, where they dropped a small device into his hand. Maxwell brought it up close and looked at it for a moment before he held his hand back out towards Harald, who then took the device back. It looked familiar, to something that was used to block transmissions and other signals. But why did he have it? “I believe I am familiar with it.”

Harald then twisted the top half of the device before he set it down on Maxwell’s desk. And then Harald grabbed hold of the emblem that was on his mid-arm sleeve. The emblem looked similar to something that Maxwell saw before in history class but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He watched Harald set it down on the desk next to the device.

“Everything is recorded, Captain.” Said Harald. “Everything. It is why I insisted on meeting you in private.”

“To discuss our terms of surrender?” Maxwell asked, even though he was certain that was not the case.

“No, Captain.” Harald confirmed Maxwell’s theory. “To help you.”

Maxwell took a deep breath as he looked at Graves then back at Harald, where he was not sure whether to sigh in relief or remain cautious. “I do not understand. But also, why show up now?”

“To start with your question, Captain.” Harald began. “My ship was quite damaged after our engagement a month ago. Even when your ship disabled the warp engines, Hans’ ship was still quite formidable and was not easy to destroy so easily. But even then, Hans knew what was happening and-”

Maxwell held his hands up to stop Harald. “First off, this is my First Officer, Commander Graves. Second, let me make myself clear, Captain. I do not care about your Imperium’s history or who knew what or why you fired on your own. Quite frankly, I rather not bring back anything about this universe to my own. In fact, I intend to scrub the entire databanks about being in this universe from the ship, and just say that we were in a universe full of ponies. So get to the point, Captain.”

Harald nodded his head as he understood the frustration in Maxwell’s voice and so he started again. “To sum it up, Captain. When your ship ejected your warp core, not only were we blinded on which direction you ran off to, but we also had to conduct our own repairs without assistance from a yard crew. It is why it took us about a month to find you. Now, it is no question that you and your ship does not belong in my universe but I do believe that you are the sign we had been looking for for so long.”

Maxwell sighed and before he could say anything, he heard Graves speak up. “The hell are you talking about? Again, we do not want to know, or care, about what is going on with your so called Imperium.”

Harald held his hands up in a defensive gesture to try and calm the tension that had started to brew in the room. “I do not mean to trouble you two with this but if I may briefly explain.” When Harald got a brief nod from Maxwell, he resumed. “I am part of a group that is trying to stop this insanity once and for all.”

“A Rebellion?” Graves asked.

Harald nodded his head. “Precisely.”

“How exactly did we become some sign for you?” Maxwell asked.

“Your presence,” Harald continued. “Has completely acquired the Supreme Leader’s attention. He has Grand Admirals amassing their entire fleets in looking for your ship.”

Maxwell looked to Graves who looked back and they both found themselves on the same page. They looked back at Harald and Graves was the first to mention it. “The Quantum Slipstream Drive.”

“Precisely!” Harald said, perhaps with too much enthusiasm. “The Supreme Leader wants the knowledge on how to build and use one. You see. During our great war with the Dominion, every battle was a struggle but we always won. We practically pushed them all the way back to the Terran Wormhole. But then the Dominion did something that none of us had expected. No one was able to figure out what they did, but all we know is that our wormhole only opens once a year. And every year, the Dominion pours through onto our side, stronger, faster and deadlier. But we too have grown. So every year, the Imperium’s First Fleet would bolster their numbers until the Dominion arrive and a battle of intense scale rages and we always win. But every time we win, the wormhole closes.”

Maxwell shook his head. “So he wants the drive so that he can send multiple fleets to the Gamma Quadrant and defeat the Dominion.”

“Precisely!” Harald exclaimed once more, again, perhaps too much. “You are very smart, Captain.”

Maxwell just shook his head once again. “We just happen to know a thing or two, because we’ve seen a thing or two. All right then. How does any of this information help us?”

“The wormhole plans to open again in a couple of weeks.” Harald began. “My ship has a warp core that is practically identical to a Sovereign class vessel. We only have them as a backup, in case there is a catastrophic error in our singularity cores and we have to eject them. Point is, we will eject our warp core and you can take it to replace the one you lost.”

Maxwell was taken aback and uncertain as to how to handle this generosity, but he still felt skeptical. “That’s all fine and dandy, but two problems. Our magnetic interlocks need to be replaced or we’ll just have another core meltdown. Secondly, how do you plan on getting us home?”

Harald nodded his head. “I will send over new magnetic interlocks for your chief engineer. As for sending you home, first we will go to the Badlands, and have a little chat with the leader of our rebellion. There, we will formulate a plan to attack the station and first fleet at the Terran Wormhole. All you have to do, Captain, is fly your ship into the wormhole as soon as it opens.”

Maxwell raised a brow. “Wait. The wormhole would get us home, how?”

Harald smiled. “It’s a natural conduit, not artificial like the quantum slipstream drive. All you have to do is charge that crystal that is embedded into your hull, and once it discharges inside the wormhole, the wormhole will make the corrections. The crystal will basically overload your quantum signature and the wormhole will realize that you’re in the wrong universe and spit you right back out into your universe where you belong.”

Maxwell looked to Graves who also had a bit of a surprised look on his face before he looked back at Harald. “We would like whatever data you have on this, transferred over so that my experts can take a look at it. If you do not mind.”

Harald chuckled and nodded his head. “I do not mind at all, Captain.”

Maxwell let out a sigh of relief, as he now felt like it was justified. “What about your assault teams? We have them in our brig, fed and taken care of.”

Harald expressed a surprised look on his face. “I guess I should have expected that, since you’re nothing like us. Unfortunately, eliminating them is the only option.”

Now that uneasy feeling returned to Maxwell’s gut. “I’m sorry, but why?”

Harald pointed to the emblem on the table, and then at Maxwell’s commbadge. “Like I said, everything is recorded. Ever since this Supreme Leader of ours, much more ruthless and paranoid than the last. He has made it law that every child born are to be genetically modified more heavily. They were always modified at birth, blonde hair, blue eyes, but besides removing defects and applying simple color changes, he wants pure obedience, brainwashed, mind controlled soldiers.”

Harald sighed heavily before he continued. “Those men, the assault forces that sit in your brig, they are the third generation that were created by the Supreme Leader. They are not just loyal to him, they will die for him and they will report anything out of the ordinary. If you return them to me, Captain, and I take them back to my ship, let’s just say that our odds of getting you home will be vaporized in matter of seconds.”

“You seriously cannot trust them?” Maxwell asked. “There no other way to deal with them than killing them?”

“I know you don’t like it, Captain.” Said Harald. “But there is no other option.”

Maxwell had not realized that Graves had brought up the holographic terminal at his desk and had already pulled up a planet. “We do have one other option.” Said Garald as he pointed at the planet. “This is not too far from here. You give us that warp core and the magnetic interlocks, our chief engineer will get us back up and running again. Then we will go to this system here, and drop your people off on that planet. It’s breathable, and we will leave them some supplies.”

“A slow death?” Harald asked as he looked at Graves with concern before he looked back at Maxwell. “Captain, please. Even if these men are genetic freaks made by the Supreme Leader, they still deserve better than that.”

“We will leave them with a subspace transmitter.” Maxwell began. “Where they can call for help. Hopefully they arrive before the food we leave them runs out.”

“But then-” Maxwell held his hand up to cut off Harald.

“We will not tell them that you helped us. For all they will know, is that we spent all this time repairing our ship. They do not need to know that you ever showed up and gave us a warp core.” Maxwell explained to the man. “But since you insist on the death penalty for them, they are now my prisoners and I will do what I want with them as I see fit. We are leaving them on that planet. Are we clear?”

Harald took a deep breath before he nodded his head. “Clear. Captain.”

Maxwell sighed once more. “Look, Captain. If you are indeed part of some rebellion that is trying to overthrow your leader and change the Imperium into something better…the first steps is to show mercy and to do less killing.”

“I understand, Captain. I will return to my ship and begin transferring those supplies to you.” Harald picked up his emblem and placed it back where it was on his sleeve before he grabbed the device from the desk and turned it off. “It was a pleasure speaking to you, Captain Maxwell.”

“We shall see how you uphold to our terms, Captain Harald.” Said Maxwell. “And then I will decide whether it was a pleasure or not.”

Harald then smacked the emblem on his arm and disappeared in a beam of light in matter of seconds. Once the man was gone, Maxwell slowly stepped over to the couch where he plopped down and ran his left hand through his hair. “Do we trust him, Art?” He asked before he looked up at Graves.

Art leaned back against the edge of the desk as he folded his arms over his chest. “While I am perplexed that our luck had brought us to someone who would help us get home. I am, although, not surprised by the idea of a rebellion. No empire like this, that is so xenophobic and so paranoid, could ever be successful without some sort of uprising.” Art paused for a moment before he asked. “Did you see that emblem?”

Maxwell nodded his head. “I did. It looked familiar but I can’t quite place my finger on it.”

“World War Two.” Said Art. “Let’s just say, the wrong side won the Atomic Bomb race.”

“I was not lying, Art. When we return to our universe, I am scrubbing all information about us being here. I will make a report that our computer cores were damaged, and all information pertaining to our QSD accident and afterwards, was lost.” Maxwell explained before he pushed himself from the couch and back onto his feet.

Maxwell heard Art chuckled. “And I’ll help you.”