Vausees opened her eyes and found herself lying on one of the medical beds. A soft groan escaped her lips as she lifted a hand to her forehead and found that her head was wrapped in a bandage.

“Easy baby,” came a soft voice from a familiar person.

Turning her head, Vausees looked at Debrah, who also had a bandage on her face.

“What happened?” Vausees asked her beloved.

“We are not entirely sure, at this point, but we are currently weapons locked on two ships,” Debrah stated as she looked at Vausees.

Hearing this, Vausees slowly sat up and placed her feet on the floor. Her vision wavered as a slight case of vertigo set in. She placed a hand on her forehead as Debrah tried to ease her back into the bed.

“No, babe,” Vausees objected as she placed a hand on Debrah’s, “I need to be on the bridge.”

“Captain,” Zazzrac said as he walked into the room, “I have temporarily removed you from command,” he stated as he took out a medical tricorder and began to scan Vausees head. “As you took quite a nasty fall, as did most of the crew, I am afraid. As such, you are not fit at this time to command the ship. I will, however, allow you to be escorted to your quarters, but under no circumstances are you to set foot back on the bridge until I have cleared you.” he ordered.

A sigh left Vausees’s lips as she accepted her current fate. After all, the only person on this ship who had the power to override her decisions based on a medical reason was Zazzrac. With a nod, she looked at Zazzrac, “Understood.”

Debrah helped her fiance up and out of sickbay. She looked at her as they walked through the corridor to the nearest lift.

“I was so worried about you when I came to and found you on top of me and not responding,” she said as they waited for the lift to stop at their location.

Vausees looked up at Debrah. “I think today we should have just stayed in bed,” her voice was full of sarcasm as she tried to lighten her fiance’s mood and soothe her fears.

*Bridge*

Cody looked out the main viewscreen at the two ships that stood motionless before him. He was almost sure it was because they had appeared out of nowhere. Now he needed to understand what was going on.

“Operations, what did we just stumble upon?” He asked Jonton, who was manning the Operations Console.

Jonton didn’t waste any time as he began to press on holographic icon after holographic icon. Information flooded his console. Some of which did not make any sense to him.

“Commander, from what I can gather, it seems that these two ships were in combat just before we appeared to them. Now the unknown Romulan ship has its weapons trained on us. As far as I can tell from the scans, we should be able to withstand their armament for a while,” he said as he passed on the information that he was getting. “As for the second ship,” he paused and ran a second scan. “It appears to be a D7 Battlecruiser.”

“I can see that much, Lieutenant,” Cody said as he looked at the Unknown Romulan ship. “What I want to know is who is the bigger threat to us?”

Jonton shook his head before he replied, “Neither. However, the D7 is critically damaged and is venting plasma and oxygen,” he stated as he looked over the readings from the D7. “As far as….”

Suddenly the viewscreen changed, and a female Klingon appeared.

“This is Captain Vonika. I am the commander of this ship.”

Cody stood up and looked at her. “Can we render you any aid?” Realizing that was a stupid question, he waved it off.

Then as suddenly as the image came, so did it leave. Cody turned to look at Jonton.

“Sorry, Commander, we are experiencing a comms interruption, and I think it is coming from that ship.” He indicated the unidentified Romulan ship as the source of the disruption.

Cody nodded, realizing that the ship was their primary concern at this time. Reaching down, he tapped the icon for engineering.

“Chief, I need you to develop an idea that will knock out, if not destroy, a signal disruptor. Without us firing any of our weapons.”

*Engineering*

When he heard the order, Charles shook his head but nonetheless accepted the challenge. He turned and looked at the Engineering crew.

“You heard him. Let’s put ideas together and get this done,” he ordered; as he moved over to Skirak.

Skirak looked at Charles for a moment, and clicking was heard. Charles knew what that sound meant and couldn’t agree more with his friend. “I know. The impossible was just ordered.”

Skirak grabbed a PADD as Charles took a seat next to him. He looked at Charles for a moment.

“I am not entirely sure what we can build, let alone come up with.” the Xindi-insectoid stated as he brought up data from what the Heracles had gathered.

*Vax and Fergouson Quarters*

Vausees was on her back, asleep, tossing and turning as she tried to sleep. She kept replaying the event that had transpired in her mind a few hours ago. And every time she sees herself tossed over the operations console.

Debrah sits in a chair near the bed. Her knee bent so that her head could rest on it. Worry was plastered on her face. She had already soothed her fiance a moment ago when she had screamed from the nightmare that only she could face.

A sigh left her lips as she looked at Vausees and saw her start to thrash once more. She knows that her fiance is about to be thrown in her dream. Standing up, she slips into the covers and wraps her arms around her. Gentle and soothing ‘shh’s’ slowly escape Debrah’s lips as she presses her body against Vausees.

“I’m right here,” she softly says as light kisses are placed on the side of Vausees’s cheek.

Vausees opened her light blue eyes and looked into her love’s bright emerald green eyes, “It happened again, didn’t it?”

Debrah nodded as she pushed away a stray lock of brown hair from in front of Vausees face. A sigh left her lips as she pushed herself up into a seated position. Debrah slipped behind her and wrapped her up in her arms.

“I need to speak with someone,” Vausees stated as she leaned down and pressed her face against Debrah’s embrace.

“I am here,” Debrah stated as she held onto Vausees.“I know you are, babe, and I appreciate that so much, but I need to know why I can not let this one go.”

“I can see if Ensign Zirtar is available.”

Vausees nodded, “Please keep this between Zazzrac and us.”

“Of course.”

*Engineering*

Charles sighed as he looked at the schematics that the Engineering team had come up with. He needed some air and stepped out of Engineering and almost ran over Cody, who happened to be walking in.

“Oh, excuse me, Commander,” Charles stated as he stepped aside.

Cody could see the frustration on his Chief Engineer’s face and knew something was up.

“Take a walk with me, Chief,” Cody said as he motioned for Charles to follow.

As they walked, Cody would look over at Charles, “Something on your mind, Chief?”

A sigh left Charles’ lips as they stopped. He leaned up against the bulkhead of the corridor and placed his hands on his knees as he bent over for a moment to stretch out his lower back. He looked up at Cody, “Have you ever been given a task that was so demanding and challenging at the same time that it felt like the world was on your shoulders and that no matter what you did, you knew that some things could not be fixed?”

Cody looked down at the Chief. “Actually, yes, every day,” he stated.

This confused Charles for a moment as he looked up at Cody.

“I have a father,” Cody stated as he thought about how he had arrested the man that had brought him into this world, “I had a father that did some things to me when I was younger. He thought he was doing it for the betterment of me, but I have recently come to find out that he was into some very illegal things, and unfortunately, I was one of those illegal things.”

Charles looked at him, still confused. “If you don’t mind me asking?”

Cody shook his head, “Not here, but one of these days, you and the rest of the team will find out.”

“Does our Captain know?” Cody nodded, “She called me out on it but did not make a scene about it.”

Charles nodded as he knew what Cody meant by that. “Yeah, she has a way to look at things and tell if something needs to be done and how it needs to be done,” he stated as he looked down once more. “My team and I are having a hell of a time trying to figure out how to disrupt the signal without it being noticed,” he confessed as he returned his eyes to look at Cody.

“Sounds like you could use an extra pair of eyes and hands,” Cody stated as he held out a hand to help Charles back to his feet.

After taking Cody’s hand, he shook his head. “That would be welcomed. After all, it’s not like we can get any worse.”

Cody cocked his head to the side and held a confused look on his face. It was soon enough that he understood exactly what Charles had meant, because as soon as the two entered the Engineering bay complete and utter chaos consumed them both.

“Charles, what the hell is going on here?” Cody demanded as he stopped dead in his tracks as two crewmen flew past him.

“Well Sir,” he said as he picked up a PADD. “You gave us an impossible challenge and every person in Engineering who has an idea is working on it from every angle,” Charles stated as he handed over the PADD.

Cody looked over the PADD. It contained every idea that had been tested or thrown to the side. He looked over every idea and pulled out a couple that he thought might have potential if they were combined.

“Hey Chief,” he yelled out over the chaos, “why not combine these and see what you get,” Cody suggested as he handed the PADD over to Charles as he walked up.

Charles looked over what Cody had proposed and a smile crossed his lips. “You might be onto something here, Commander,” he said as he turned and yelled out of Skirak. He handed over the proposed idea to his assistant who looked it over and then up at Cody.

Skirak shrieked out to get everyone’s attention, and as if a switch was flipped all of the chaos ceased at once.

“We might have what we are looking for,” Skirak stated as he held up the PADD with the proposed idea.

Without saying anything Cody slipped away and headed for the nearest lift. He knew that the idea would work. He had seen this signal before when he was in the labs with his fathers personal scientist; before they suddenly disappeared.

*Bridge*

As soon as Cody had exited out of the bridge all hell seemed to break loose outside of the ship. Alarms and alerts sounded as the Romulan ship re-targeted the Klingon ship.

“Trever, I do not care how you do it but put us between that ship and the Klingon ship,” he ordered.

“Is that wise, Sir?” Trever asked, “After all this isn’t our fight.”

“That’s an order Lieutenant Commander,” Cody said as he slipped back into the command seat.

Trever did as he was commanded and moved the Heracles so that the ship was blocking a clear shot from the Romulan ship.

Suddenly the viewscreen changed to a shadowed figure and a distorted voice came over the intercom.

“Move your ship or be destroyed.”

The viewscreen returned to the image of the Romulan ship and Trever looked back at Cody; who appeared to not have been fazed by the sudden threat. Cody’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the ship. Reaching down he tapped on the captain’s icon.

“Bridge to Commander Fergouson, I need you on the bridge immediately.”

*Vax and Fergouson Quarters*

Debrah had just returned to her quarters when she heard the intercom. Moving quickly she dressed in her uniform and made her way quickly to Ensign Zirtar’s quarters. Zirtar looked up and saw that Debrah had changed. It was Vausees that noticed the other change as well. The look of duty and determination was in her eyes. She nodded knowing that her fiance had been called to the bridge.

*Bridge*

Debrah took over her tactical console from her replacement as Cody looked back at her. She nodded to him and that was all the exchange that was needed.

“Tactical, send a single warning shot over their nose a few micron’s from their skin,” he ordered.

Debrah didn’t waste any time and did just that. With a few flicks of her wrists she had issued the order for the Heracles to send a single phaser shot over the Romulan ship’s nose. As it passed over the ship it missed the hull by less than a micron.

“Hail them,” Cody said as he leaned forward.

“Hail sent,” Debrah responded, “And received,” she finished as she looked up from her console.

“Your move,” he said softly as he waited for the screen to change.

When the screen didn’t change, he spoke out to Debrah, “What do you think, Commander?”

Debrah thought for a moment before her hands shot out and over her console. “Brace!” She yelled out as the Heracles was hit by cloaked torpedoes.

“Shields are at 84%,” Jonton informed Cody.

“Not very strong but still,” Cody stated

“I take it that was their response to our hail,” Debrah said as she re-targeted the Romulan ship; this time what she had determined to be their weapons and engines.

Cody tapped an icon on the armrest console, “Chief are you ready?”

“Ready as we’ll ever be,” came a response from Charles.

Cody nodded to the response and without closing the intercom his finger moved and tapped on another icon.

Outside of the Heracles a small device, no bigger than a dinner plate, was ejected from one of the forward torpedo launchers. A few moments later it began to broadcast a silent signal.

“Commander, hail the Klingon ship,” Cody ordered as he sat in the command chair.

Debrah didn’t waste any time as she immediately contacted the D7 Battlecruiser. The viewscreen changed from the Romulan ship to a smoke and battle torn bridge. A female Klingon sat in the command chair.

“How are you able to contact us, human?” is all that was said.

“No time to explain, but I would like to render any aid that we can,” Cody said as he looked into the Klingon’s one eye.

“No, but you can do us one favor,” she replied as a second Klingon dressed in Chancellor robes came into view. “Take this woman to Qo’nos and my ship and my crew will consider it a debt paid. As we will make sure that this petaQ will not see another day.”

Cody knew that one word all too well and needed no further explanation. “We will be waiting for her on our side,” he said as the screen returned to the image of the Romulan ship. “Transporter room one prepare to receive our diplomatic guest.”

“Acknowledge,” a young crewman stated as he began to reintegrate their Klingon guest. “I have her, Bridge.”

Cody looked at Trever, “Get us out of here at maximum warp for Qo,nos”

Trever did not waste a moment as the Heracles’ nacelles came to life and propelled the ship into warp. As the ship entered warp the Romulan ship tried to do the same, having discarded the Klingon ship. As its warp engines came online, a massive explosion ripped apart the Klingon ship. On the Romulans viewscreen, the female Klingon spoke, “It is a good day to die.”, and the screen changed back moments before the two ships exploded from the Klingon’s warp core breaching.