Stardate: 74769.81

Time: 0957 hours

Location: Alpha Quadrant – USS Heracles

—Conference Room—

Soft voices spoke to one another as the Senior Officers waited for their Captain to enter into the conference room. The tension in the room was heavy as all of the officers spoke softly about what they knew so far and what they had come up with.

Vausees entered the room and it became silent, that you could have heard a pin drop and that it would have echoed off the bulkheads. She looked about the room before she took her seat at the head of the table, “So what do you all have?” She asked as she looked at each of her senior officer’s.

Charles and Adé looked at each other for a moment before Charles spoke up, “Adé and myself believe we can modify the transporters to beam Commander Ty off of the ship and into our brig, however, the device itself is shielded.”

“And not just by its own shielding,” Adé stated, “but also by the main shielding around the computer core.”

“This does complicate thing’s,” she said as she looked at the two men, “See if you can do something about the shielding,” she stated as she looked at Debrah and Cody, the two men nodded and sat back in their seats with PADD’s out. “What about you two?”

Debrah looked at Cody who nodded, “The Commander and myself have a contingency should we need to either board or beam a small team into the rather empty cargo bay of that ship,” Debrah stated as she looked at her fiancee and captain.

“How small are you talking, Ms. Fergouson?” Vausees asked as she kept her eyes on the Commander.

“Three, including myself,” Debrah stated.

“Vausees nodded, “Let us hope that we do not need to take that ship.” 

“Agreed, let’s hope not.”

“Anything else?” Vausees asked as she looked at her senior officer’s.

When no one spoke up she nodded, “Dismissed,” she ordered and then turned to Debrah when she stood up, “Commander Fergouson, stay for a moment please.”

When the door slid shut she turned and looked at Debrah, “Why must you lead the hazard team?” she asked her fiance, “Why not let Zyvia or hell even Commander Bettencourt?”

Debrah placed a hand on the side of Vausees, “I know where this is going Vausees, I know you fear for my life, but I didn’t come back to the fleet to be coddled. I love you Vausees and I know when we get the chance we are going to be married but in the meantime please let me do my job. We both know the risks of wearing this uniform.”

Vausees knew that Debrah was right, and she nodded in agreement. Debrah leaned over and gently kissed her fiance, “I love you baby.”

Vausees returned the kissed, “I love you too Debbie.”

—Bridge—

Vausees sat down in the command chair and looked up at the viewscreen as the image changed to that of Commander Ty. 

“We may have identified the issue on our ship, it will take us a little time to isolate it and then we should be on our way post haste,” she stated as she looked at the man that was, in her eyes, a traitor to the Federation.

“That is good to hear Captain Vax. Is there anything that we can do to expedite this issue?” He asked her.

Vausees shook her head, “That will…”

Suddenly the Commander was enveloped in a circle of light and he was transported off of the lead ship and into the Heracles brig. Where several security officers and crewmen stood with phase rifles aimed at him.

A woman appeared on the screen, “Excuse me Captain, but I demand an explanation?

Suddenly behind the woman three streams of transporter energy appeared.

—Lead Ship—

Debrah stood there with Zyvia and Adé. Without explaining herself Debrah raised her rifle at the Chief Security Officer, “Give me a reason,” is all that she said as Zyvia took aim at the security officer that had moved to pull his phaser.

“Drop it,” Zyvia stated as she motioned for the officer to place the phaser on the floor

“You too, Commander,” Debrah stated as she looked at the Chief Security Officer.

“What the hell is going on?” A Cardassian diplomat asked as she stepped forward. 

“All will be explained once we have finished our task,” Debrah stated as she looked at the diplomat and then to Zyvia, “remember Lieutenant we are not here to hurt anyone.” She then looked at Adé, “Let’s go.”

Moments later Adé contacted Vausees to let her know that the device was removed from the main computer core and that it had been disarmed. Vausees nodded and tapped her Combadge and a second later she stood on the bridge of the lead ship. 

“Diplomat Zer, I am Captain Vausees Vax, the Commanding Officer of the USS Heracles, your Federation Escort. I am sorry that I had to seize your ship but the Commander that you trusted to take you to Cardassian space was in fact planning to destroy this ship and make it look as if it was attacked by a Cardassian,” she stated as the door to the bridge opened and both Debrah and Adé emerged with the device in a container surrounded by a level 5 force field.

“Zyvia, Adé take that back to our ship and neutralize it in our ship’s vaults.” Debrah said as she stopped next to Vausees.

“Now without any further delays I am sure that you all would like to get moving to Cardassian space,” Vausees said as she looked at Diplomat Zer, who in turn nodded and returned to her seat.