“Direct hit, aft shields are down to eighty-two per cent.” Lenjir announced, “Firing quantum torpedoes!”

The vibrations of the torpedoes being released from the aft launchers were heard on the bridge as the ship shuddered from enemy fire. Holding tightly to his chair’s arms, Captain McCallister kept one eye on the readings of the Odyssey’s status while focusing on the battle around him. “Cline, where are we in disabling those Hazari support ships?”

“Both are damaged; we are continuing to fire. They have reinforced their shields using their deflectors though,” Lenjir reported. 

“Tomaz, would a tachyon burst from the secondary navigational deflector be enough to force them to re-modulate their shield harmonics?” Duncan asked.

Nodding, Tomaz could see what the first officer was suggesting. “It would be, sir; I think we’ve got enough power to do it to affect all four of them.”

McCallister looked at his first officer, “What are you thinking of doing, Max?” He asked. 

“Force them to re-modulate their shields; we beam over a photon torpedo next to their warp drive on a three-second delay detonation,” Duncan answered. “If we can show to the rest of them we mean business. Who knows? They may get the message and force the rest to negotiate with us.”

“Maybe, while on the other hand, they may consider us an incredible threat.” McCallister posed; he considered the idea for a moment before nodding and giving it his authority to do it. “Lukiz, polarise the hull. I know the ablative armour will hold for some time while our shields are down during transport but let’s ensure we can avoid taking too much damage.”

“Aye, sir,” Jen replied with a nod and went straight ahead in working on the captain’s orders. 

Several seconds later, Tomaz announced that the tachyon burst was ready as were the transporters. McCallister gave Duncan permission with a simple nod to give the word to implement his plan. Lenjir would continue firing phasers at the enemy vessels. Tomaz activated the deflector, and the cobalt blue burst of tachyon particles was released in a shockwave hitting all four ships. Banfield apprised everyone that the ships were re-modulating their shields, and as each one did Odyssey’s transporters were pressed into service as they delivered their ‘bombs’ to the enemy vessels. Several seconds later and each one exploded as they detonated. 

“All four ships are destroyed, sir,” Lenjir announced. “The other two that were investigating our echos have fallen back to join the rest of their fleet.”

“Right, let’s hope they get the message,” McCallister stated with a sigh. “Lukiz, open a channel to the Hazari ships.”

Jen did as he was told and indicated to the captain when he could speak. 

“This is Captain James Preston McCallister of the Federation starship U-S-S Odyssey. I hope my intention to show you that we will defend this vessel to the best of our ability and is now taken seriously. I am prepared to negotiate with your next senior leader to end this conflict, when you are happy to speak please respond,” McCallister said and then gestured for Lenjir to cut the channel. 

Turning in her chair, T’Rani looked at her superior and reported they were close to the star that Banfield, and she had prepared to use to create their solar eruption. “Shall I alter course, captain?” She asked. 

Not waiting for the Hazari, McCallister wasn’t prepared to wait for an opportunity to pass him. “Do it and let’s make sure metaphasic shields are ready for us when we enter the sun.”

“Already on it, sir,” Jen announced from operations. 

The port turbolift doors opened allowing for Flemen and Horin to arrive. 

“Captain,” Horin said, grabbing the attention of her superior, “I believe we may have Y’Skei’s cooperation in the bag.”

Turning his seat to face them, McCallister looked at both his diplomatic officer and counsellor. “What do you mean?” He asked, intrigued about how they had arrived at that result. 

Flemen smirked as he brushed a look to Duncan and then to the captain, “A little bit of diplomatic persuasion was enough to secure the deal with him…however you might want to add a bit more to our bluff,” Flemen’s grin had moved to one showing he felt awkward about revealing what he had said. 

“We seemed to be getting good at that lately,” Duncan remarked as he crossed his arms. “What did you say?”

Horin answered for her colleague, “Craigen made himself the ship’s JAG officer as well as Jorgeh’s godfather.”

“Well the latter is true,” Duncan shared, “Tobias and I have asked Craigen and Tremt to be their godfathers, but we never got any further than me asking them the other day.”

“Odyssey doesn’t have a JAG officer though,” McCallister piped in after hearing the news from his first officer.    

“It does now, sir,” Flemen winced a bit more, “sorry for the self-promotion.”

Duncan chuckled, “If it helped get Y’Seki in a position to accept our bluff about Jorgeh and Wylem’s heritage, then I’m all for it. Anyway, aren’t you almost finished completing your law degree?”

“Only a few more months to go, sir,” Flemen replied. 

“Let’s discuss Craigen’s future career prospects later, Number One,” McCallister said as he considered his choices again. “Alright, the only way this is going to work is if we can prove Jorgeh and Wylem’s heritage being Human.”

“That and knocking the Hazari down a peg or two,” Horin said as she placed her hands on her hips, “It’s my professional opinion, sir, that they won’t listen while they’ve got the superior hand.”

“Then Banfield’s plan is going to be needed,” Duncan indicated. “If we can lure them into the sun with us and then set off the eruption we could easily destroy a majority of their force if not all of it.”

“That would certainly do it,” Horin stated. 

Looking over at his chief science officer and second officer, McCallister spoke up to her. “Are you hearing all of this, Corella?”

“Indeed, sir, and I promise you that this plan will work,” Banfield said confidently.

“Good, because we’re almost out of other ideas.” McCallister said and gazed back to his first officer, “Max, get down to sickbay and finish off plans to show that Jorgeh and Wylem are your biological children. We’ll hold the fort for now.”

Duncan nodded and thanked everyone again for their efforts before leaving the bridge.

Stepping into sickbay where his family was, Duncan was surprised to see both Jorgeh and Wylem laying on bio-beds while both Doctors Slyvexs and Forbes were running scans. His fiancé was sitting in a nearby chair, working on a PADD in his hands. Court immediately looked up and smiled, “Hey, I take it the first battle went well?”

“For now,” Duncan confirmed. “How are the boys?” He asked, indicating to their sons on the other side of the room. 

“They’re preparing them now for the final stage of the treatment,” Court said. “The boys have agreed to their new Human names.” The master chief passed his PADD over to his husband to show the newly updated records. 

“Jordan Luke Duncan-Court and William Nathan Winston Duncan-Court,” Duncan read and a smile crept across his face at seeing his birth father and adopted father’s names appear in their choice as well as Tobias’. “I love it, but what about how we’re going to explain how we got together and had them?”

“Ah, that’s easy.” Court said with a proud smile as he stood up, pressed a button on the PADD and loaded another set of documents. “I’ve slightly adjusted our records to show that we served on the Vendetta together first and then transferred to the Triton.”

“So I wasn’t stationed on Deep Space Five?” Duncan checked. 

“Yeah and I never did my stint at Starfleet Command,” Court clarified. “And before you ask, I’ve already been speaking with Lieutenants Tierra and Jines about how we make these records look ‘real’ to be inspected by the Hazari. Decter said he has a few tricks that the captain taught him back when he was at the Academy.”

“Are we certain all of this will hold under scrutiny?” Duncan asked, worried their bluff may throw back up in their faces. 

“They’re both certain of it and Decter is going to ask Lukiz to look it over too,” Court assured him. 

Duncan just nodded and gave the PADD back to him, “Does it say when we got married?”

Court shook his head, “That’s one thing I’m not pretending to fake if they want to know why we’ve not tied the knot, then let’s just say it’s been a long time coming.”

“Sounds perfect,” Duncan said as he placed his arms around Court’s neck and gave him a light peck on the lips.

Their moment was interrupted by the arrival of Slyvexs and Forbes. The Denobulan senior doctor spoke up first, “Good news, their DNA reconfiguration has gone without a hitch.”

“In about an hour or so, we can test to see if your combined DNA has grafted on to theirs and stands up to scrutiny,” Forbes added.

“Great, the captain is eager to try and resolve this matter as much as we are,” Duncan replied as he took hold of Court’s hand. “Will the boys suffer any side effects from the procedure?”

Slyvexs shook her head, “No, the pathogen will do its job and eventually their original DNA should restore itself.”

“Should?” Court repeated. “I thought you originally said that this would be relatively simple to do without any complications?”

Forbes responded to the master chief’s concern. “Genetics is something that we can’t always be certain will do as it’s told, plus we still don’t know everything about the Rylsanti genome, but the boys won’t be hurt from anything. It might take a bit longer than we expect for the pathogen to clear from their systems.”

“And what’s the worst that could happen?” Court questioned.

“They remain Human on a genetic surface level.” Slyvexs honestly replied. “However, I am certain this won’t happen.”

“Let’s just hope it’s enough to convince the Hazari,” Duncan said as he looked upon his sons, hoping they had made the right choice. It was a huge gamble that all of this subterfuge would pass Hazari scrutiny. 

What else could they do though?