Banfield appreciated that it was Doctr Slyvexs who was now treating her. Since the Themis had arrived and started to beam the Bellerophon survivors over, she had been one of the last ones left. When they had been transported on board, she was pleased to see that Slyvexs had remained on the Themis to help those who needed treatment.  

“There you go, back to your normal self,” Slyvexs said after running the dermal regenerator over the cut on Banfield’s cheek.

“Thanks, doctor,” The chief science officer replied as she jumped off the bio-bed. 

At that moment, Lieutenant Commander Tomaz walked into the Themis’s sickbay. The tall, handsome Barzan man looked exhausted. During the attack on the Bellerophon, he returned to astrometrics to investigate how the Dominion battle cruiser had hidden from their sensors. As he walked over to the two women, his usual stylish but messy hair was almost flat. His confident demeanour wasn’t as expressive in his mannerism. The toll of this conflict was affecting so many, including Tomaz. His uniform had been torn to shreds after he had tried to rescue some of the Bellerophon crew from a fire. His jacket hung loose on his body. Dirt marks, bruises and a few cuts were apparent across his face, neck and part of his chest. He revealed where he had torn off his tunic and jacket. 

“Tomaz, you okay?” Slyvexs asked. “Here, sit down.”

Tomaz waved her kind gesture. “I’m fine,” He sighed. “I just need a shower and a clean uniform.” He turned to Banfield. “The captain wants us three on the bridge with him in about ten minutes.”

“How comes?” Banfield asked.

“Triton has discovered something about the battle cruiser that attacked us. Apparently, Captain Canção believes the colonists aren’t lost.” Tomaz shared.

“But we saw the evidence related to a metagenic weapon being used,” Slyvexs said with a surprised tone.

Tomaz shook his head. “We now think they may have used it in a limited capacity.”

“That changes everything, so how many colonists have they got?” Banfield said as she crossed her arms against her chest.

“Almost all of them,” Tomaz replied. He quickly summarised what Triton had found and that even the Odyssey had found further clues that, once put together, would confirm the theory that the Dominion had used a range of technologies to remove the colonists. It was a complicated but ingenious strategy to take Divinium Four. As he finished his briefing, he was approached by a former familiar face of the three Odyssey shipmates. 

Counsellor Samris smiled at them all before receiving a brief hug from Slyvexs. She was eager to give him a proper hug since she had boarded the Themis, but she hadn’t seen him since boarding the ship to work on the antidote. “It’s good to see you all,” Samris remarked. He turned to Tomaz. “Tomaz, if you want to use my quarters to grab a shower and a clean uniform, go for it.” He turned to Banfield. “Commander, I’ve organised for you to use guest quarters to freshen up in before you go to the bridge. They’re on deck three, twenty-one.” He turned to Slyvexs, “Doctor, I’ve organised quarters for you next to Commander Banfield until you all return to the Odyssey.”

“That’s very kind of you Samris,” Banfield replied before turning to the other two. “I suppose we should find out what’s going on then.”

“Let me see if Remi needs my help here; if not, I’ll meet you both on the bridge,” Slyvexs said to her colleagues before heading over to where Themis’ chief medical officer was operating on Bellerophon’s chief operations officer. 

Though the bridge colour scheme of the Themis was precisely the same as it was on the Odyssey, James Preston McCallister could see the difference (the obvious one being the size). For a moment, he was missing his ship. Standing behind the security and tactical console with his three other officers and his brother (who had also brought his two most senior officers), they listened intently with the rest of the Themis’ bridge crew to what Canção and the Triton had discovered. On the wide viewscreen before them was Canção, sitting on her bridge while the image of Gul Jacet doing the same thing was beside her. On the other side was Captain Duncan back on the Odyssey’s bridge. 

“Are we certain about the colonists being in their transporter buffers?” Cambil had asked the El-Aurian captain.

Canção nodded before speaking. “We’ve performed some intense sensor scans and can confirm. Gul Jacet has done the same thing.”

“And they know we are chasing after them; I’m surprised they’ve not done anything else,” Jacet commented.

“What do you mean, Gul Jacet?” Cambil asked. She had built a rapport with the Cardassian leader but still struggled to truly understand his intentions in all of this mess.

Jacet smirked. “They’ve not altered their course or their speed. Their defences still remain active though.” 

“They know they’re beaten,” Commander Hunsen commented from Cambil’s right. “And they are just waiting for us to slip up so they can kill the colonists.”

“Whatever the plan is, it needs to be done swiftly,” Lieutenant Commander Lenjir suggested from the tactical station. “We can’t allow them to do something to the transporter patterns of the colonists.”

“But what could be done?” Lieutenant Jarata asked. The Bellerophon’s pilot was clinching his jaw, though now in a new uniform and appearing cleaner than he had been. “If we attack them, which I would love for us to do to get revenge for Commander Jaz and Chief Bronden, and the others we lost from the Bellerophon, we can’t risk them snapping and pulling the plug on their transporter systems.”

Horatio McCallister placed a supporting arm around his new second officer. The death of Jaz had hit him and the rest of the survivors hard. Still, before they had reached the meeting on the Themis’ bridge, they had been told that Bronden had died from complications during his surgery. Doctor Corben, who had been on Themis, was with him when he took his last breath. Jirani had silently prayed to the Prophets after the intercom channel had closed. Jarata had just looked at Horatio with a shocked expression. Before the turbolift had delivered them to the bridge, Horatio had told them both they needed to keep it together as they had a job to complete. 

Canção smirked as she revealed her plan. After hearing it, everyone assembled on the bridge appeared surprised by how daring and risky it was. “We will need the Themis to help.” She added. “And if the Odyssey can wrap up things at the Divinium system, the extra set of hands will make a difference. Well, transporter buffers, that is.”

“What about the Bellerophon?” Horatio asked.

His brother automatically responded. “She’s out of the fighting for now, Horatio,” James’ response was quick but respectful. “We’ll have to completely abandon her.”

Surprised to hear that, Horatio protested. “She’s at drift but salvageable.”

“We can’t spare anyone else from the squadron when we need to rescue those colonists,” James countered. “I’m sorry, Horatio.”

“Then let me and my crew return to her for now. We can make repairs while you’re off saving them.” Horatio argued back.

Cambil then spoke up. “That’s pretty reckless, captain.” Her tone was formal and firm. “If something critical was to happen, there would be no one to rescue you all. Plus, many of your crew are still being treated in my sickbay.”

“Then let us have a skeleton crew remain behind until we can return to a shipyard.” Jarata pleaded to both Fleet Captain McCallister and Captain Cambil.

The two senior captains looked at one another, almost reading each other’s thoughts. James looked over to the viewscreen back at his first officer. “Max, how quickly could Odyssey be here to drop off our squadron of fighters and the Telemachus?”

“Less than thirty minutes, but we still have teams working on restoring the Divinium Station. I’d prefer not to leave the system completely defenceless.”  Duncan stated.

James considered his options quickly. “Then tell Counsellor Horin she has some babysitting duties to undertake; I want her and the Telemachus here in thirty minutes. Tell Commander Gray to take command of the repairs. Leave some runabouts and shuttles behind for those teams still working, and tell Commander Rosle she needs to remain behind too. She can protect his back.”

“Understood; where do you want Odyssey?”  Duncan asked.

“Once you’ve offloaded, join us and the others at your best speed,” James ordered.

“Aye, sir,” Duncan replied.

The squadron commander turned to Canção, “Rio, where is the Dominion ship heading?”

“Straight to Deneb if they remain on course,” Canção answered.

Tomaz spoke up. “Fourth Fleet Command issued orders for all available ships to fall back to Farpoint Station to help repel the last segment of the Lost Fleet.”

“Great,” James grumbled. “Tell the top brass that we’re coming in hot, Tomaz. Otherwise, everyone else follows Rio’s plan, and we take on that battle cruiser. Is that clear?” 

A series of ‘ayes’ and ‘yes sirs’ followed, and Fleet Captain McCallister ordered everyone to get on with the next stage of their mission. The channels with Canção, Duncan and Jacet all closed, and then he watched everyone go to their stations or leave the bridge. His eyes fell on his brother, whose sombre demeanour was evident. It was tough because he had just lost his ship and crew members. He felt for him. He had been there before, back when the Trinity had been lost. Losing his first command had been a horrible experience. Still, James knew Horatio would focus on getting the Bellerophon back from the grave. He wasn’t going to lose her, and James admired that.  

Cambil approached him and quietly spoke to him. “I take it you’re transferring your flag to the Themis?”

He nodded, still watching as his brother left the bridge. “For now, that okay?”

“No problem,” Cambil said with a smile. “It’d be nice to do something together again.”

James nodded at her. “Let’s just hope we succeed.”

“You think Rio’s plan will work?” Cambil questioned.

“I’ve not had to doubt her before.” 

“Very well,” Cambil said before turning around to the rest of her bridge crew and ordering them to return to red alert. She called over to T’Rani to lay in an intercept course for the Triton while telling Lenjir to arm all of their weapons. While she had Jines ensure the ship was ready and to have all available power allocated to the weapons array and shields, Commander Hunsen coordinated with their chief engineer to modify their transporter buffers as the Triton’s skipper had suggested. Trev’s usual mumbling soon started.

Banfield, Slvexs and Tomaz turned to McCallister.

“What do you want us to do, captain?” Banfield asked. 

“For now, make yourselves useful in coordinating Rio’s plan across the squadron,” McCallister answered.

“It is quite farfetched, sir,” Tomaz said quietly.

“Do you think it will work?” Slyvexs asked. 

McCallister smiled. “Yep, and it’s totally Rio’s thing.” He assured them all that he had confidence in the friend’s plan.

Cambil moved back to her chair, and once word had been received that the skeleton crew for the Bellerophon were back on board their ship, she stretched her shoulders back slightly. “T’Rani, engage at maximum warp.”

The Vulcan pilot nodded as she executed the command and span the massive Ross-class on its axis before it darted into warp to meet up with their sister ship.