“Captain, all Angels on board. They are reporting a couple of narrow escapes with a few interceptors that came through probably looking for them or us. Both sides got a few hits in before the Breen forces left.”

“All right, good chance they sent the location to the fleet and were told to return. I’m betting we will be receiving some guests soon.” Aryanna turned toward Skagath.

“I know we were going to launch a couple of those experimental torpedoes, but with the neighbors possibly coming to knock on the proverbial door, let’s hold on to this set.”

“Agreed ma’am.”

Aryanna looked at her console and nodded “Viameli, let us go to point gamma.”

“Point gamma coordinates locked in and plotted.”

“Ready when you are, helm.”

*****************************

“What do you mean, stay at our current location and proceed as ordered?  Do you not understand that the federation knows where we are? We have taken losses, damn it.”

A helmeted figure is staring intently from the console’s screen. “Thot Griet, your mission is of vital importance to this endeavor. We are not worried about one federation ship. Are you? From the data you sent us on the attack, we believe that this is a lone Federation vessel possibly of the new inquiry class. We heard that one was recently assigned to the fleet located in what they call the Thomar Expanse.”

Griet waved off the information. “I received the same report. Nevertheless, it is beside the point, we have been found. They know our location and according to my people they know where we are heading.”

“Yes, I read your report. We are not worried about your entrance location into the nebula. They have no idea what your intended target is so they would have no idea where to shift their forces. This may work in our favor, knowing that a fleet may be heading towards the nebula, they will divert forces from other locations to try and intercept you and your fleet.”

“They would fail in that; the federation does not have the ships in the region to stop this fleet.”

The ship’s klaxon sounds as the lights in the room quickly dim and go a dark purple. Griet quickly looked at the console and then tapped on another button on the desk.

“What is going on? Who ordered us to go to battle stations?”

“Sir, I did. We are being attacked again. The Pent just took two torpedoes hits; they are reporting serious damage to their main hull.”

“Where did they come from? How many ships?”

“That’s the thing, sir. No reports of ships anywhere in the area around the fleet.”

“Then how did they get attacked? Damn it, torpedoes do not just appear. Get me answers, find those damn ships.”

“Yes, sir.”

Griet looked back at the console. “Did you get all that? I’m telling you we have to act now, we have to move this fleet or proceed with the mission.”

Something slammed down on a table or desk. “You will do no such thing, Griet. You will proceed as planned and wait for further orders. I will see what I can do about sending you some more ships to replace the ones that have been damaged.”

“Thot Opent, you and have been comrades for quite some time, you should know better than making threats that we both know you cannot follow up on. I am in charge of this region, I can, and I will proceed with my mission as I deem best. Get me those ships, hell get me as many ships as you can. It looks to me like the federation, or at least their fourth fleet is moving into the sector.

The person on the console sat back in their chair. “Griet, you may be the region commander but I am the spokesperson for the confederacy command staff in regards to this mission. You will hold your present location and await further orders. I have another piece of information that we are trying to confirm.”

“What is it, now?” Griet sat back in his chair and crossed his arms.

“We are hearing that the Cardassians are also sending ships to the sector, but this has not been confirmed yet.”

Griet slammed a fist on his desk. “Great, just great. Don’t you think that is something I would need to know?”

“I just informed you, did I not?” as the screen goes black.

********************************

Beep, beep, beep

A hand reached out and tried to find the item making the noise, knocking it on the floor as the hand fumbled around.

Beep, beep, beep

The hand reached down on the floor and finally found the item. “Captain Rigras,” a groggy half-asleep voice said.

“Sorry for waking you ma’am, this is Lieutenant Nema. You left a note to be awakened when we reached point Talon.”

“Yes, yes. I did.” a hand reached up and wiped her eyes. “Computer lights thirty percent.” The lights slowly brightened to a dim light as she sat up and swung her legs out of the bed. “Did you launch the last set of torpedoes?”

“Yes, ma’am”

“Very well. Have we heard anything further from the command or the fleet?”

“No, ma’am”

“Guess we shall continue as planned. Lieutenant, have engineering prep a Mark five probe. I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

“Yes. ma’am”

The turbo lift doors opened as Aryanna slowly made her way onto the bridge carrying a large steaming mug in one hand and taking a sip as she tried to blink the sleep from her eyes. She made her way towards the center chair, tapped the Lieutenant on the shoulder, and stepped beside the chair.

The lieutenant jumped slightly as she dropped the PADD she was reading onto her lap. “Captain, sorry. I was reading the latest reports.”

“Lieutenant Nema, always be listening to your surroundings, never get so engrossed in one thing that you lose contact with what is going on around you. Let that be the lesson of the day, shall we? “

Nema nodded as she reached down and picked up the PADD. “Engineering is prepping the probe as you asked and we have seen nothing on the scans since we arrived.”

Aryanna took another sip from her mug. “Well that’s something; we played cat and mouse with that one patrol two days ago.”

“Maybe we left their area or responsibility?”

Another sip and a look at the main view screen. “Maybe, but I would assume that they informed whoever commands this area.”

“True, but we were chasing those signals when they found us. In addition, we just came out of a two-day warp. So maybe they figured we left?”

“Maybe, I wish we could have found where those signals were coming from though.”

“Just reading the latest reports, it seems like the communications and intelligence departments have some ideas.”

Aryanna nodded and started to make her way toward her ready room. “I’ll be in my ready room if anything comes up, let me know when engineering has that probe ready.”

“Yes, ma’am. If I may ask, why did you want to be woken now? I mean if something would have come up we would have woken you; but as you can see it’s pretty quiet out there.”

Aryanna stopped as she was about to enter her ready room. “Gives me some time to plan our next move, plus I have some paperwork to catch up on.” as she continued into the ready room.

Sometime later the door chime sounds. “Enter” as Aryanna, with feet propped up on the desk and a PADD in her hands, barely looked up. “Meadow?”

“Morning Aryanna. You know what they say about captains that are all work and no rest.”

Aryanna took her feet off the desk and reached for the mug sitting on the table, realizing it had gone cold she got up and made her way to the replicator and ordered a fresh mug of coffee. “Hmmm, that they get all the work done?”

“Noooo, they burn themselves out and have to be sent to their quarters for rest.”

Aryanna raised an eyebrow. “It’s only been “she looked at the chrono on the console “four hours.”

“And how much sleep did you get last night?”

“Three-four hours, I think.” She took a sip of coffee.

“Aryanna, I don’t think I need to remind you that everyone needs sleep and that we don’t need you getting fuzzy-minded from lack of rest when we don’t need you most.”

<< “See, this is what you get when you make the counselor your XO. However, she is correct, you know. That stuff only works for so long.”>>

Aryanna looked at her cup of coffee and chuckled. “Meadow, that’s why they put couches in ready rooms,”

Meadow looked up from her PADD and walked over to the replicator herself. “Computer two sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits and two chicken, egg, and cheese biscuits.” She picked up the plate after it appeared and made her way to the desk, placing the plate between the captain and herself. “I’m guessing you haven’t eaten anything yet and have been drinking that,” she pointed at the coffee “so put the work down and eat something.”

Aryanna looked at the PADD and then at the plate of biscuits. She put the PADD down and reached for one of the chicken biscuits. “Yes, counselor”

“No, just a good exec looking after her captain.” she reached for one of the sausage biscuits. “So, what’s next?”

“Not sure yet, I was hoping we would hear something from command by now. Not sure how much we slowed down that fleet. Hopefully, command got the message and sends some ships to the nebula.”

“Oh, Lieutenant Nema asked me to let you know that the probe is ready. So what are you thinking of?”

“For the probe? I was thinking of sending it towards where we were, to see if it could pick up those signals that we heard. Something must be out there. Especially for that patrol to have been so set on chasing us.”

“I was wondering about that myself, it doesn’t make sense for them to have been from that fleet. As we were a few days away from them. “

“No, I don’t believe they were from that fleet. I was reading a report from the communications and intelligence departments. They were both in agreement that the signal frequencies and the amount of traffic that we picked up led them to believe that it might have been coming from a station.”

Meadows’ eyes went wide for a second as she reached for the second chicken biscuit. “Now that would be something that I’m sure command would be interested in.”

“Indeed” Aryanna reached for the last biscuit “Plus we have the Deptrock system, a known Breen dilithium mining operation. So it comes down to which one do we believe would hinder the Breen and the Dominion forces more.”

Meadow lets out a long breath. “Knowing what we know about the Breen and slaves I would think that morally we would need to go take a look at the mines, but a possible station is tempting as far as getting Intel.”

“I would have to agree with those thoughts.” she took a sip from her mug.

“Captain, incoming message from Bravo Fleet Command.”

Aryanna tapped on her combadge. “Send it to my console in here.”

“Yes, ma’am”

Aryanna looked at Meadow with a smile. “Speak of the devil, wonder what they have for us.”

“Only one way to find out.”