Entering sickbay, Captain McCallister felt relief leave him as he saw Alfie sitting on the edge of a biobed while Doctor Forbes was treating him. Seeing Alfie in his dishevelled appearance was not welcome, but being grateful to see him alive was far more important. 

“Hey, dad!” Alfie called out with a wave, a big grin before he pushed a stray lock of his blonde hair back. Realising he made a faux pas with his greeting, he corrected himself, “I mean, sir, sorry.” He whispered the last word.

Chuckling a bit, James dismissed Alfie’s mistake as he approached him. “How is he, Remi?”

Closing his tricorder, Forbes looked at his commanding officer. “Besides a few bumps, bruises and the odd cut here and there, he is in good shape. It won’t take long to get him back to his old self.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” The captain answered as he looked back at his son. “How are you feeling, Alf?”

“Sore, dirty and sweaty, but besides that, I’m okay,” Alfie answered, pushing his hair back one more time before asking how his friend was. “How’s Jorgeh?”

“Doctor Slyvexs is treating him in exam room three,” Forbes mentioned.

Noticing his son wanting to know answers (as much as he did), the captain raised his hand, indicating for him to remain calm. “Stay here, Alf and let Doctor Forbes finish patching you back up. Let me go and see how he is,” James instructed his son. 

“Dad, you’ve got to know that Commander Banfield was a badass down there defending Jorgeh,” Alfie said with adoration for the chief science officer. He described what she did while protecting the young cadet with her Klingon martial arts and use of her mek’leth. “I want her to teach me how to do hand-to-hand combat like that!”

McCallister chuckled in acknowledgement of his son’s praise for Banfield before he left him to find out how his friend was. Walking out of the main area for sickbay, the captain made his way down the corridor towards where the private exam rooms were. Standing outside, leaning against a bulkhead and looking as messy as his son, was Commander Banfield. Her uniform jacket was open, and she had a few dirt marks on her face from the altercation on the planet below. “Corella, you okay?”

Looking up from where she was, Banfield smiled slightly at him with a slight glazed looked over her face and followed it up with a nod. Surprised to see her expression in response, McCallister was caught off guard by it. “I’m fine, thank you, sir.” She answered after a long sigh. She looked tired. 

Before McCallister could say another thing, the door to the exam room whooshed open, allowing Doctor Slyvexs, Commander Duncan and Master Chief Court to step out. Immediately Banfield stood up straight.

“How is he?” McCallister asked in a low voice. 

Slyvexs answered, “He’s sleeping the stun effect off; he had broken a few ribs, but thanks to your son quickly reacting to get him out of harm’s way, Jorgeh is in a better shape than he could have been. I’m expecting him to make a full recovery.”

“That’s good news,” McCallister said.

Duncan turned to Banfield, “What the hell happened down there, commander?” He asked her in a very stern voice.

“Hey, cool it, Max,” Court warned in a soft voice towards his fiancé as he placed one hand on Duncan’s chest. “She got our son back in one piece; let’s remember that.”

Duncan responded to the reminder as he took a breath to calm himself down. “Sorry, commander.”

Banfield gestured for him not to worry, “It’s fine, commander; I know what it’s like when it’s your own children.” She took a breath before she answered his question. “The Hazari just beamed down, pointed at Cadet Jorgeh and called him by his species. The away teams then just started to defend him.”

“Apparently, you were a ‘badass’ in helping Jorgeh,” McCallister stated with a grin, “you’ve got a new fan in Alfie.” 

Banfield smiled slightly in appreciation for the recognition from the first-year cadet. 

“What does Alfie mean by that?” Court asked, curious to know more by his godson’s sentiment. 

McCallister described how Banfield had risked her life after the incursion took place. “You may be teaching Klingon martial arts to our entire cadet unit by the end of the week!” The captain added with a smirk as he looked at Banfield. 

“We’ll see about that,” She answered, smiling slightly.

Duncan took a deep breath before speaking, “We’ll it seems we owe you one, Corella.” He paused, “Thank you.”

“Any time,” She responded with a slight bow of her head. She looked back at the captain, “What happened in orbit?”

“Two Hazari vessels just appeared out of warp and opened fire; we didn’t detect them before they were right under us. Somehow they could beam their forces down to the planet quickly after that.” McCallister answered. “If it hadn’t been for Lukiz’s quick idea of the scattering field to stop them from using their transporters, then you may have been overrun by them.”

“And who knows what would have happened next,” Slyvexs stated.

“The only thing I noticed was they could only beam one or two people down at a time.” Banfield shared as she crossed her arms against her chest. 

Duncan nodded, “Tremt believes they were using a narrow confinement beam to bypass through a gap in their shields. It might be why they couldn’t send a larger group in one beam out.”

“Inventive,” Banfield said. “What happened during the battle? How did you scare them off?”

“Tomaz was resourceful with a full spread of quantum torpedoes. It was enough to damage them both significantly to retreat,” Duncan stated. 

“The question remains, what did they want with Jorgeh?” Slyvexs asked as she placed her hands on her hips. “If the Hazari are the bounty hunters of the Delta Quadrant, why does Jorgeh have a wanted sign over his head?”“”“”“” 

Banfield shook her head. “I don’t think they knew who he was; they were more after him because of his species. They didn’t call him by his name.”

“Alfie mentioned said the same thing,” McCallister stated.

“If that’s the case, then Wylem could be in danger too,” Court said, concerned. “But didn’t Alfie report that Jorgeh was stating before the attack he felt the planet was familiar?”

“He did,” McCallister said with a nod. “We know so little about Jorgeh and Wylem’s past; maybe they had visited the planet before they were on the Quirennal?”

“For all we know, the Hazari may have been monitoring the planet,” Banfield suggested. “From your own reports, the Jyslanti vessel had advanced technology. Maybe that’s what the Hazari wanted?”

McCallister shrugged his shoulders as he crossed his arms. “That could be one reason; another one could be they were monitoring the planet and waiting to ambush us to get the boys.” 

“That takes me back to my earlier point then,” Court said. “Wylem could be in danger too.”

“Without further proof, that might be the case. I’ll have Cline assign a protection detail to them both for now.” McCallister stated. “I also suggest we equip both boys with emergency transport units to be on the safe side.”

“We still need to know why this has all happened,” Duncan stated after agreeing with the captain’s actions to protect his sons. “There’s too many possibilities and too much speculation. We need to narrow down what their intentions are.”

“I’ve already got Tomaz, Craigen and Tremt going through the database about them, but there isn’t much,” McCallister stated.

“Well, there’s another way of trying to find out,” Court stated. “Let’s interrogate our prisoners, especially the Hazari who attacked Jorgeh in the first place.”

“Agreed,” Duncan said, sounding as eager as his partner to start immediately.

Raising both of his hands to show he wanted them to slow down, McCallister spoke up. “I agree, but we must make a better game plan before jumping into the deep end.”

“Why?”  “Let’s”  there’s  “isn’t  “I’ve”  “There’scaptain’s”  “I’ll  “Court questioned his superior before adding one more word, “sir.”

“As I said, we know very little about the Hazari. Starfleet’s encounters have been few and far between; our most detailed reports are over twenty years old.” McCallister said. “If we want to get through to them, we must do our homework first.”

The intercom then went over, stopping either Duncan or Court from protesting the captain’s remarks. Hunsen’s voice followed it. “Bridge to Captain McCallister.”

McCallister tapped his combadge after he motioned for his first officer and chief of the boat to pause for a moment, “Go ahead, Tremt.”

“Sir, the last of the away teams have returned, and we’ve retrieved all of our equipment and support crafts. However, Lukiz has just modified the long-range sensors to detect the identical warp energy signatures from our recent Hazari visitors.” Hunsen paused before he continued, “We’ve just undertaken a new sweep of the area, and we’ve detected forty-seven similar signatures heading in our direction at warp nine. Their ETA is thirty-one minutes.”

“They really do mean business,” Slyvexs commented after gasping at the number of enemy vessels heading their way.

 “Damn,” McCallister cursed under his breath, “break orbit at once and then get us moving away from them at maximum warp.”

“T’Rani has found a class-nine nebula close enough for us to hide in before they reach us,” Hunsen reported. “It may give us some room to lose them.” 

“It’s better than nothing. Lay in a course and get us underway,” McCallister ordered. 

“Aye, sir, bridge out.” Hunsen closed the channel.

“Corella, if you’re up for it, then get yourself all cleaned up and head up to the bridge to assist the others in getting us a plan to get us out of this mess,” McCallister commanded his chief science officer. “I want to know if that nebula will be a safe harbour for us.” 

“Straight away, sir,” Banfield answered as she made her way out of sickbay straight away. 

“I best go see Wylem,” Court offered, looking over at his fiancé, “and get some things for Jorgeh.”

Duncan nodded in appreciation before turning to the captain. “Can we go and speak to our guests in the brig?”

“I’ve got Louwanna and Cline down there right now, doing preliminaries,” McCallister said as he gestured for Duncan to accompany him. “Doctor, keep an eye on our boys.”

“I will; once they are good to leave, I’ll send them back to their quarters”, Slyvexs informed them, “I’ll also begin preparing for triage for our possible upcoming round two.”

McCallister nodded in agreement before tapping his combadge and opening a ship-wide channel. 

“All hands to battle stations!”