“Alright, try it now.” Kosev yelled down to Beya while laying on his back in the Jefferies tube. While the Pioneer was en route back to Farpoint station after completing their mission, he decided to keep himself busy by helping complete some critical repairs. Their mission, while successful, was costly to say the least, and he wanted to be ready should they find themselves in another combat situation before they arrived at their destination. 

In truth, he was here helping in engineering to avoid his real duties: writing to the families of Jack Sanders and Naran Broll. Every time he started to write the letters or record any messages, he constantly kept going back and erasing what he had done because he wasn’t satisfied with the way it sounded, like he didn’t know them very well. And truthfully, he didn’t. They had only just come aboard, and he lost them before he was really able to even speak with each of them one on one, and now he was tasked to talk about them to their families who knew them best. 

He shook his head trying to purge the thoughts from his mind and focus on the work in front of him. He knew, given enough time, the words would come to him, but it just wasn’t easy. He supposed he was thankful that it wasn’t easy, every time Kosev loses someone, he vows they’ll be the last, but he knows that’s a promise he cannot keep. 

“Receiving signals from the power conversion matrix, Captain, nicely done!” Beya said in the junction down a ways from where Kosev was. “Only thing we have left to do is to head over to junction J-25 and repair the ODN conduits, once that’s complete that should power on this entire section.”

“Good.” Kosev said as he exited the Jefferies tube into the junction where Beya was, readjusting his flashlight on his forehead, “This headband is starting to aggravate my antenna.” He smiled as he grabbed his engineering kit and led the way to the next junction.

“Report.” Ginell said, coming out of the ready room and walking over to Savar’s station. 

“Sensors confirm Dominion and Breen ships in multiple sectors.” Savar said as Ginell looked at his console over his shoulder.

“Have they given any indication that they’ve detected us?”

“No, however, there is something troubling about their heading.” He pressed a few commands and pulled up a trajectory of their course, “According to our sensors, all Dominion and Breen ships within sensor range appear to be converging on the same coordinates. The Deneb system.”

Ginell looked up from the console and to Savar, paused for a couple seconds, then said, “They’re going after Farpoint.”

“I have reached the same conclusion.”

“Kyth, how long until we reach Farpoint station?” Ginell said, putting her hand on Savar’s console to support herself after realizing the Dominion’s new strategy. 

“We’re on course for Farpoint at maximum warp, estimated time till arrival thirty minutes, Commander.” Kyth said. 

Ginell raised an eyebrow, “Well, at least we will beat them to the party.” She made her way to her chair and tapped her comm badge, “Daan to Thiren.”

=^=Thiren here.=^=

“Estimated time to Farpoint station is thirty minutes, Captain. Unfortunately, it appears the Dominion and Breen fleet won’t be too far behind us. Sensors confirm a large force of ships are converging on the station.” She said, taking a seat. 

=^=I’m on my way to the bridge. Hail Fourth Fleet Command.=^=

“If we hail…” Ginell voiced.

=^=I know, they might discover us, but we have to be sure they know the attack is coming, regardless of what happens to us. If they’re unprepared and the Dominion take Deneb, the entire sector’s defense will collapse.=^=

“Aye, Captain.” She tapped her badge to close the channel, then looked to Savar again, “Open a channel.”

Kosev turned his light off and took it off his head, putting it into his engineering kit, then handed it to Beya. “You’ll have to complete this last one without me, try not to have too much fun.” He chuckled. She grabbed it from him and nodded, then crawled head first into the next Jefferies tube and proceed to the junction to finish the repairs. He could tell that she was worried after what she just heard over the comm, hell, he was worried too. They had just barely survived a pitch battle with the Jem’Hadar, and now they were being chased back to Farpoint by an even larger force.

He made his way through the corridor to the turbo lift and uttered ‘Bridge’, then watched the lights go by as the lift moved to his destination. He was almost in a trance and didn’t realize the time had passed by before the doors finally opened and revealed the bridge. Snapping out of it, he walked out and around the bridge to his chair, “Report, Commander.”

“We made contact with Fourth Fleet Command, they are aware of the incoming attack and have ordered us to form up with the rest of the fleet and mount a defense.” She said, pressing some buttons on the arm of her chair and pulling up the diagram on the view screen. 

“From what we can tell, the bulk of the Dominion and Breen forces have committed to this last attempt to take Deneb and Farpoint station. The admirals have gathered most of the Fourth Fleet to combat this threat, as well as elements from Task Group 514.” Ginell said.

“Captain, approaching the Deneb system.” Kyth announced, slightly looking over his shoulder.

“Drop out of warp and take us into position with the rest of the fleet.”

“Sir, we are receiving an incoming transmission from Admiral Dahlgren.” Alia said from the ops station. 

“Put it through.” He said. She pressed a few buttons, then put the transmission over the speakers.

‘It’s not often that this much of the Fourth Fleet gathers together in one place with a singular mission, but today our duty is clear: we must hold the line and keep the combined Dominion and Breen fleet from taking Farpoint Station. They have committed the bulk of their forces to this assault, so if we defeat them here, the conflict is over. We have one more battle. One more hill to take. This is a desperate assault on our enemy’s part, as we have superior numbers, better training and the heart to come out on the other side. We can and we must stem the tide here and now. More important than anything else, we have each other. We will hold the line together. All units have their orders. Squadron and Strike Group Commanders are authorized to engage at their discretion. Dahlgren out.’

Kosev looked around to his senior officers, all of them looking to him and smiled, which in turn caused him to smile. He knew that he didn’t need to say anything, that the admiral’s words had inspired them plenty to take on this new threat, so instead, he said only one thing, “Red alert.”