Putting the Genie Back into the Bottle

"Ship's log: Lieutenant Oseno Jureth, acting commander. As noted previously an injury to Captain Rivers as we engaged the Romulans near the Azimuth Horizon has left me in command of the Alsea. We are currently moving at high warp to position ourselves to participate in the Azimuth Horizon containment operation and should be in position to begin our sweeps around the Horizon shortly. I do not know the status of the rest of the Lotus Fleet ships save for the Artemis which I fear has been lost with all hands. I feel I would be remiss in not noting the dedication of this crew and their amazing response under extreme circumstances particularly the engineering department in dealing with the repairs to the warp core. There will be commendations for them all if I have my way, but that can wait. Now it's time to get to work..."

Jureth ended the ship's log entry and closed the terminal on the ready room desk. He had elected to use the ready room because he did not want to go down to the security office with the ship maneuvering so close to the Azimuth Horizon. He stood up from behind the desk and exited the ready room onto the Alsea's bridge.

"Report," he demanded as he approached the command chair

"Steady on course at warp eight Sir," Shawn Hunter said

"Cat," Jureth said "sensor contacts?"

"No hostile contacts, I am picking up signatures from the Lotus and the Spectre on the bleeding edge of our sensors, but interference from the anomaly is preventing me from getting a good read on their positions."

"Security status?"

"All of the teams have had several hours rest as you ordered"

"Order T'Lana to resume stepped up security patrols and place armed guards outside critical spaces."

"Aye Sir"

Jureth opened the intercom "Bridge to engineering, I need to know our MVAM status. The Fleet Captain's original plan called for us to be separated and in formation as we made our sweeps around the Azimuth Horizon."

"Crewman Jones here sir. As far as I am aware, Commander Lire had suggested we only separate if desperately needed. I can wake him if you want the specifics. We are still only a skeleton crew down here." a voice responded.

"I understand Mister Jones," Jureth replied already knowing that was the likely response to his question "and no..don't wake the Commander unless you need to. For now I will keep the ship together. I will be ordering Mister Hunter to take us to warp nine shortly. Bridge out."

Closing the intercom Jureth closed his eyes for a moment, Lotus Fleet's perfectly laid plans had gone slightly awry. He hoped the rest of the ships of the fleet were faring better than the Artemis had.

"Mister Hunter, begin our first containment run around the Azimuth Horizon. Increase speed to warp nine and keep a sharp eye for those tendrils."

"Aye Sir, coming to warp nine."

"Ensign Wynn," Jureth said to the operations officer

"Yes Sir?"

"Send a message to Starbase Ten, and all Lotus Fleet vessels that we are beginning our run around the Horizon."

"Aye Sir,"

As Wynn sent out the message to their compatriots Jureth sat back in the command chair, the only thing they could do now was wait.

About ten minutes later, Niomo returned to his office in engineering, wearing a fresh tan jumpsuit over his Starfleet Uniform. As he entered, a short man came up to him.

"Sir, Crewman Jones. The Captain was looking for you while you were resting. Did he find you?"

"Nope." Niomo shook his head, "What did he want?

"Status of the Warp core and a question about separation during the Phase 2 of the Operation." the crewman responded.

"Fantastic. Thank you for letting me know." He let the man walk away to go off duty as he contacted all of his staff. "Skeleton Crew Charlie is now ordered to rest. Begin Alpha Beta Charlie shift schedule. Alpha on deck in 10. I will be on the bridge."

Before he left, he checked the primary display in his room to make sure there were no problems. There were no reports of any irregularities. With that, he proceeded to the Bridge. Upon arriving he caught the attention of Jureth.

Jureth was deep in thought when Niomo approached him. The Bajoran acting commander of the Alsea was pondering the decision to leave the Artemis alone with the Romulan behemoth. Even though tactically, Jureth knew that had been the only choice. The Alsea was the only one of the two vessels that could have stopped the Romulan task force, but that didn't make the likelihood that they had sacrificed Captain Kheren and his crew easier to accept.

"I heard you were looking for me Captain?"

"Hmm?" Jureth said as he looked up "Yes, I had a question regarding our ability to separate. If you recall Fleet Captain Samji had originally called for us to be in MVAM and using all three of our warp cores at maxium in the containment operation. I didn't know if your repairs had improved our ability to separate or not."

"Hmm." Niomo responded in the same tone as the Captain. "I'd have to run some simulations. Yes, it is possible......but as a best guess, the Primary hull would be restricted to Warp 6. Second and Tert would be at their normal 9s. Maybe a click or two less. Have we heard from the station recently? I'd like an update on the Artemis."

"No, I've not heard anything from Starbase Ten. Fleet Captain Samji made it clear the Wisconsin would investigate the Artemis..though I did launch a probe before we left the area."

Niomo frowned, "Sounds like Starfleet hasn't changed one bit. You'd think they'd let us in out of the dark. Has your probe sent any data back yet?"

Jureth turned and looked over at Cat Steele "Cat, the probe?"

"Sorry Sir, I completely forgot..." she replied as she tapped commands into the console

That was incredibly unlike Cat to forget something like that and Jureth couldn't help but wonder if the stress of their mission was having an effect on the former Marine, what must it be doing to the rest of the crew?

"Last signals from the probe were received...just before we started maneuvering around the anomaly. As we noted before multiple subspace distortions in the area of where we last detected the Artemis. Also...detected...Federation transponders!! Shuttle craft Sir!"

"They're alive.." Jureth said softly "Wynn, get me Starbase Ten." he demanded of the Ops officer.

"I'll try Sir, but the Azimuth Horizon is going to play hell with the subspace array."

The dark haired human manipulated the controls for a moment and then spun in his chair to face Jureth

"The channel is open Sir, but I can't guarantee they can hear us."

"Understood," Jureth replied before trying to raise Lotus Fleet's headquarters "Starbase Ten, this Alsea do you read?"

Niomo had already sat down and started pulling up command systems. "I'll boost the gain on the transmitter by 15%. No guarantees though."

The subsystems that he had to float through to find the transmitter were nebulous. Whoever thought having so many connections to one part of the ship was insane. However, he eventually find the system he needed and proceeded to increase power to it, improving the signal. Or so he hoped. He kept a close eye on the warp cores. They were already being stressed more than he wanted. The extra drain from the comm array wasn't something he wanted to do.

"Starbase Ten, this is Alsea" Jureth repeated "please respond."

Jureth looked at Wynn who shrugged "there's no way to tell if they can hear us or not Sir."

"What about the Wisconsin? Can we reach Captain Onia?"

"We're closer to Starbase Ten than we are to the Wisconisn Sir. If they can't hear us it is unlikely that Captain Onia will hear us either."

Jureth sighed "leave the channel open to Starbase Ten, just in case they come back to us. Mister Hunter, how is she handling?"

"Only fighting a little, don't worry Sir, I can keep her under control."

"I don't doubt it. It seems our only recourse for now is to continue with the containment mission."

-----------------------------------

"Starbase 10, this is Captain Onia of the Wisconsin, please come in..."

The message at last had made it's way into the communications system of Starbase 10 after hours of being repeated through an automated system by the Wisconsin.

Samji nodded to his Ferengi Operations officer Grok, who knew his Captain wanted to make a connection to the Wisconsin, and then spoke. "Captain, this is Fleet Captain Samji, we read you."

"Finally," said the concerned image of the Deltan female figure who appeared on Starbase 10's screen. "We've been attempting to contact you for hours. We feared the worst."

"Apologies Captain, but we had a situation that required us to shut down all systems other than life support for a while. What do you have to report about the Artemis?"

Onia responded, "Well, to start off, the crew seems to be safe." She allowed the good news to sink in before continuing. "When we originally began our automated message, we had been able to see the results of the explosion through long-range sensors. The Scimitar-class ship was completely destroyed, as was the star-drive portion of the Artemis. However, the saucer section remains, and while we couldn't verify the exact status of all the crew, we assume Captain Kheren was able to get his crew onto the saucer section, even if he had to sacrifice himself in the process. The saucer section has also incredibly gone to warp toward the anomaly."

Her unfortunate theory left mixed emotions in the Fleet Captain who felt joy in the safety of the Artemis crew, tempered with the hesitation left at the prospect of Kheren's sacrifice, and then confusion about her latest statement.

She elaborated on that revelation further. "Sir, our more recent investigation has shown that they used the micro-singularity left by the Romulan Scimitar to accomplish this feat. Before this singularity had consumed all matter in the area, we did some scans of the debris and noted that there were no residual trilithium particles in the area, which is unusual in an explosion of this magnitude of a Romulan ship. There were also several warp trails in the area that could only have been left by shuttles. We assume the Artemis had collected the trilithium and went to the Anomaly to continue Mister Syntron's contribution to the containment effort."

"All very good news. Thank you for the update, Captain. It seems the Artemis has things under control. Please return to the Anomaly to assist in containment."

"Aye, Sir." Onia nodded and ended communications.

"We've detected another automated communication, Sir," Lieutenant Commander Grok said, "from the Alsea."

"Put it through." And when the communications link was established, Samji saw a distorted and corrupt video signal, but could just barely make out Lieutenant Oseno. He turned to his science officer Rexil, and said, "Can you clean it up, Lieutenant?"

"I can try to boost the carrier signal by shunting extra auxiliary power, but we'll only have several minutes for the communication," said the Trill, and Samji nodded his approval.

After the picture was improved, Samji said, "Alsea, this is Starbase 10, we read you... somewhat... through the Anomaly interference." Before Jureth could ask the inevitable, he held up a hand and said, "Our communications system has been down for hours, Lieutenant... sorry for the black-out. Also, we only have a few minutes of decent signal, so make it fast."

"Aye Sir," Jureth replied "A Class Four probe that I dispatched toward the Artemis last known position reported transponder signals from Federation shuttlecraft Sir in the last data stream we received from it. You also need to be aware that we are unable to engage MVAM without the possibility of catastrophically damaging our primary warp core. Even if we could get the ship separated Sir, the primary section would only be able to make warp six because of damage sustained during our fight with the Romulans making it useless for the containment operation. As of now we have begun maneuvering around the anomaly at warp nine."

"Hmm, very well, Lieutenant, that will have to do. We can't afford to have one-third of your ship so far separated from the rest," Samji decided, certain this would put the tactically-minded Lieutenant at ease at least a little bit.

"Tell me, Mister Oseno, did the probe happen to ascertain anything about the fate of the Artemis beyond shuttle transponder signals? On our side, the Wisconsin has reported that the entire saucer section has actually gone to warp! We're also concerned about the fate of the crew, as the Wisconsin was not able to determine an exact casualty count."

Niomo gasped as he spun around in his chair. "The Saucer section?! Sonnova....Of course! Trilithium particles from the Scimitar! Very impressive Captain Kheren..."

Jureth turned and looked at Cat Steele for an answer to the fleet captain's question ignoring the engineer for the moment "Cat, were there Artemis log files in the probe data?"

"There are..but there's something else it looks like the probe recorded a data stream...from the Artemis saucer section in old morse code..the computer is translating it...yes Sir, Captain Onia is right! Captain Kheren used his stardrive to ram the Romulan ship and evacuated all his crew to the saucer. Then they went to warp according to what the probe sent back they used the singularity to slingshot themselves into warp back toward the Azimuth Horizon."

Jureth looked at the fleet captain "It seems that Captain Onia is on to something Sir, but I think Commander Lire may something to add...Commander?"

Niomo closed his eyes for a moment, deep in thought, "Hmmm. Well, two things come to mind. Firstly, they clearly do not have any communication systems, or else they would have contracted someone. Secondly, I applaud Kheren for trying to get his ship back into the operation, but I am not sure how useable they will be. If for some reason need to deaccelerate, they might be trapped or dragged into the anomaly. I'd hate to be the one to tell Kheren to abort his mission, but from the bits information I have, I'd try to get something to contact them and try to get them home."

Samji listened to the new information and opinions with interest. He didn't think now was the right time to be worried about what the other ship was doing as it appeared they had competently succeeded in staying in this mission. "They still have impulse," he reminded the Engineer, "so I don't see why they couldn't safely navigate near the Anomaly. As for recalling them, I don't feel it is my place to do so. As far as we know, Captain Kheren is still competent and that means it's his decision and his alone whether to stay in or not. We need that trilithium anyway if Lieutenant Commander Syntron's theory is accurate."

"Captain Onia reports that they disappeared from sensors after going to warp, likely due to a time dilation effect from doing it without warp engines. When they reappear, if they reached Warp Nine, it will take them 23 hours to arrive to accomplish their part of the mission. If you're also limited to Warp Nine, it will take you 39 hours to go around the entire Anomaly. Depending on where you are when they reappear, you may be able to provide them with support when they arrive, but you may not. And this is all assuming you don't run into any more trouble..." he added, referring to the inevitable enemies lurking around the Anomaly.

"Good luck, Mister Oseno, Lieutenant Commander," he was able to add with a nod to each man before the connection became distorted and fuzzy again.

Niomo sighed and shook his head as the screen went back to an exterior view. "Captain, do you ever think Starfleet knows more than it lets on?"

Jureth let out a sigh of his own "If I said no Commander...would anyone believe me?" then turning his attention back to the bridge crew "Keep us steady on course Mister Hunter maintain warp nine."

As the Alsea continued on course one of crew was not quite as dedicated as the others to the ship's mission. The human, a junior engineering crewman, had finished his scheduled shift in engineering and was now making his way toward the Prometheus Class vessel's secondary computer core where he hoped to stall Lotus Fleet's operations until his Horizon's Children comrades could disable the rest of Starfleet's efforts and send them all to paradise. He had thought his operation would be over before the Alsea launched as the Vulcan security officer and the ship's doctor had removed his co-conspirators from the ship. Then the inventive chief engineer had foiled his sabotage of the ship's warp core. Now, the would be saboteur knew there were security officer's about so he had tried to time his moves as the shift's changed. As he arrived near the secondary computer core he found no one in site. He opened the manual access panel and set about bypassing the lock on the door using his engineering authorization.

In the ready room Jureth sat contemplating the path that had taken him from security chief to commanding officer, and whether or not he was going to continue along this track when the Alsea's mission was over, assuming they all survived. Rachelle Rivers was still technically the Alsea's captain, but even the doctor couldn't say whether or not her injuries would put her out of commission or for how long. At the helm of the Alsea Shawn Hunter was carefully watching his readouts as he navigated them at high warp around the unstable Azimuth Horizon. Suddenly the early warning program that Lieutenant Pel had installed on the ship sounded a proximity alarm.

Outside the hull of the ship a tendril from the Azimuth Horizon rapidly materialized in front of the Alsea seemingly from nowhere. The automated program setup by the ship's science officer raised the shields and immediately began an emergency deceleration of the Alsea as Lieutenant Hunter frantically began correcting her course. Hunter and the ship's computer were quick but not quick enough as the Alsea came into contact with the edge of the tendril. The ship shook violently and alarm klaxons screamed throughout the ship. Jureth was nearly thrown to the deck as the Alsea dropped out of warp and he practically ran out onto the bridge.

"Report!"

"Sir we've hit a tendril!" Hunter reported "Pel's early warning program saved us from being destroyed!"

"Damage report! Commander Lire, warp core status?!" Jureth demanded

In Engineering, the now prone Niomo staggered to his feet and fell into his chair. He was lucky that he had moved away from his desk a moment earlier, as he might have hit his body on the metal of it.

He heard the Captain call for a report as he brought up the damage report. "Sir, Primary warp core has suffered no damage. Secondary...minor fracture to the Matter inducer and we might have a small crack and leaking plasma, which we can seal. Tertiary core...thank God, has suffered no damage the computer can detect. Not sure we'd have the replacement parts for any more damage to her. I'm sending teams out for visual confirmation now. To be safe, I'm erecting a level 10 force field around all three cores and I'm limiting us to warp 2 for now. I'd highly suggest moving us away from this beastie."

Above the noise of the alarm klaxon Jureth responded "Thank you Commander and I agree! Bridge out!"

As he closed the intercom channel Jureth then yelled at the computer "Computer, silence that damn alarm!"

The computer bleeped in compliance and Jureth nodded "Much better, now, Cat where is that tendril?"

"Off our starboard quarter."

"Mister Hunter," Oseno ordered "put some distance between us and the anomaly...carefully."

"Aye Sir."

As the Alsea maneuvered slightly away from the Azimuth Horizon the saboteur, Crewman Michael Krease, was picking himself up off the deck. When the tendril hit he'd been thrown clear of the door pad, and now as he approached it he saw his access work had been reset. He cursed under his breath and started about reentering the codes. Unbeknownst to him one of the acting captain's ordered security patrols had arrived on his deck and was beginning its rounds. The saboteur finished the remote access code and the doors slid open just as the Petty Officer Percy and Crewman Valdoff rounded the corner of the corridor chatting idly. Percy heard the whoosh of the door and saw the back side of the man walk inside.

"Did you see that?" He asked Valdoff?

"Da," the Russian replied "I saw it."

Percy drew his phaser "let's check it out."

The two security officers moved quickly to the door which had closed by this time and Krease had locked it down again.

"It won't open," Percy said to his partner.

"Ve should call eet in," Valdoff said in his thick accent.

Percy nodded and tapped his combadge, "Percy to bridge, Sir we have a problem."

While the two security men were reporting their issue Krease was already at work, he had logged into the secondary computer core and was working on accessing the main computer banks, but with the extra security measures in place it was taking him longer than it should have. On the bridge Jureth received the security patrol's report.

"This the bridge, Oseno here Mister Percy, what is it?"

"Sir, Valdoff and I are outside of the secondary computer core, and as we came around the corner on patrol we saw someone enter, but now we can't get in."

"Acknowledged Percy, stand fast and guard that door."

"Aye Sir."

Jureth turned to Lt. Steele "Cat, take a team go get whoever that is."

"Aye Sir on my way."

As Cat left the bridge Jureth issued orders to the computer "Computer, restrict all command functions to the bridge consoles authorization Oseno six-one-bravo-juliet."

"Acknowledged, command functions now restricted to bridge consoles only."

"Computer, isolate secondary computer core from main core using security firewalls authorization Oseno six-one-bravo-juliet."

"Acknowledged secondary core is now isolated from primary core. Warning, there is now no back up computer core."

Jureth nodded and tapped his combage "Oseno to Steele, status?"

"Just left the armory," she replied "proceeding to secondary computer core."

"Keep me appraised, Oseno out."

Down in Engineering, Niomo gathered his assistants. Once again, he was calling upon them to fan out across the ship and conduct repairs.

"Ok, I will make this quick people." He started, using a seriousness they had seldom seen. "Warner, check the coolant pipes for all 3 cores. Once you confirm their status, check in with me. Take two other officers...extra eyes and ears never hurt."

The young woman nodded, "Aye, Sir. Should I check our prior work too?"

"Affirmative. Give every inch of those pipes a once over. We can't afford to have a leak we can't detect with the computer." He turned to Mr. Thompson and continued. "James. Go to Cargo Bay 4. Your old friend needs a check-up. Can you do that alone? I'd like to send repair teams out to other decks.

Thompson nodded, "Should be fine. I'll call in if I need any help."

Niomo sighed. He was about to continue issue orders, when he noticed two security officers walk into Engineering and take positions beside the door. After a moment, he continued. "Brenes, take a team and go to the tertiary core. The computer didn't register any faults, but that doesn't seem right. We took a major hit. Sparbok, Core 2. Same orders. I'll remain here to coordinate and check the Primary core. Dismissed."

As the officers hustled out of the room and called out to other engineers to help them, Niomo contemplated the security officers. He took a step towards them, before shaking his head and contacted the bridge. "Lire to the Bridge. Two security officers just took positions down here. What is going on?"

Waiting for Cat Steele's call that she'd apprehended their suspect Jureth was only a little surprised to hear from Commander Lire.

"It seems one of the security patrols saw an uninvited guest enter the secondary computer core Commander. Whoever it is locked down the door and I've sent Lieutenant Steele and a security team to open it. The extra security in your space is a precaution, and I've locked out command functions from everywhere except the bridge as well as isolating the primary computer core from the secondary. I expect Steele will apprehend the suspect shortly and I will restore everything to normal but for now I'm not taking chances."

As the two men were conversing Cat Steele and her team were moving quickly down the corridor approaching the secondary computer core all of them armed with compression phaser rifles from the ship's armory. Cat was also carrying three mark one stun grenades or "flashbangs" as they were commonly called. As they came up on the computer core room they were greeted by Percy and Valdoff who were standing outside the door.

"How many?" Cat asked Percy

"Just one Ma'am, that we saw."

Cat nodded and turned to Ensign Lerek behind her "Lerek, the door opener."

As Lerek moved forward he produced a manual door override that would release the lock on any door on the ship. They were kept under constant watch in the ship's armory and Lieutenant Oseno had ordered they only be checked out to security officers, the captain, and the xo. Lerek attached the override to the door and looked at Cat for instructions. Cat spoke to the team softly

"Lerek will release the door, Percy and Valdhoff will pull it open and I'll toss in a stun grenade. Then will bring whoever it is out. If you have to fire make sure you check your shots, we don't want to fry the computer core if we can avoid it."

She made eye contact with each one of them and received affirmative nods.

"Okay, Lerek, enter the code."

While the Vulcan security ensign operated the door release, inside the computer core room Krease was panicking. He'd couldn't access the ship's primary computer core at all. It looked as if the secondary core had been completely isolated from the system. In the back of his mind he knew that could only mean one thing, they knew he was there, and they were likely coming for him.

Niomo sighed as the com channel closed. He guessed that his sabotaged coolant line theory was correct. He was still fairly shakey on who or what these "Children" were, but he supposed it didn't matter.

As Lerek stepped away from the door to the secondary computer core Percy and Valdoff each grabbed one side of the door and pulled. Slowly the door opened and Cat grabbed a stun grenade from her belt and primed it.

"Eyes and ears," she said to her team so they would be able to react once the grenade went off instead of being paralyzed by its effects.

When the door was open Cat rolled the grenade into the room. Krease was ducked down behind the terminal he'd working at holding a small hand phaser he'd smuggled aboard the Alsea before the security chief had cracked down on the ship's security. As the door opened Krease expected a security team, but nothing happened until he heard the clank of something hitting the starship's deck. Before he could reach the flashbang went off and the brightest light Krease had ever seen filled the room followed by an ear splitting pop. The would-be saboteur was instantly blind and deaf.

The Alsea's security team stormed the room lead by Cat who swept her phaser rifle in front of her and moved to the right side of the room. Lerek, behind her went to the left with the rest of the team "cutting the pie" and sweeping the entire room. It was Cat who found Krease curled up in front of the terminal.

"Hands!" she yelled "Let me see your hands!"

Krease was unable to comply, but Cat's yell was enough to bring the rest of her team to her location. Ensign Lerek lowered his phaser rifle and swept its tactical sling to one side as he knelt over the immobile Krease. With the poise attributed to his species the Vulcan secured the phaser Krease had been holding and then used magnetic binders to secure Krease's hands behind his back. Two other members of the team pulled the man to his feet just as his vision was beginning to clear, and Cat tapped her combadge:

"Steele to bridge, we have the suspect. All clear."

From the command chair Jureth had been waiting anxiously to hear from the security force. In his mind he wanted nothing more than to be the one leading them, but instead he was sitting and waiting unable to control the outcome of their assault on the computer core room. When Cat's call finally came through Oseno did his best to hide his relief from the bridge crew.

"Good work Cat, bring him to the bridge, I'd like a word with him."

"Aye Sir, Steele out."

Jureth nodded in satisfaction that his people had done what he'd trained them to do, and then activated the ship's intercom.

"Attention all hands, this is Lieutenant Oseno. We've had an incident in the secondary computer core, and a would-be saboteur has been apprehended. The apprehension was the result of two alert crewmen reporting something they saw. We already know that these cultists are devious, and will stop at nothing to hinder our operations, and so I'm asking all of you to stay alert and be aware of anything unusual in your spaces. Keep up the good work, Oseno out."

Jureth closed the channel and then addressed the computer.

"Computer, restore all command functions to normal authorization Oseno bravo juliet six-one."

"Acknowledged, command functions restored."

"Computer, reestablish link between primary and secondary computer cores."

"Acknowledged, secondary computer core functions restored."

As the computer carried out Jureth's instructions the bridge turbolift doors opened and Cat Steele and two other security officers stepped out followed by their prisoner and two more security officers. Jureth rose from the command chair and faced the man that Cat brought forward.

"Who are you?" Jureth demanded of the man

"I am one of the chosen, " the man replied "and you have no hope of succeeding, we will all go to paradise together!"

Jureth scowled "What was your mission?"

"To deliver this ship to the gates of salvation!"

Oseno had heard enough, he looked at Cat "Lock him up, and throw away the key. Make sure he's guarded around the clock and erect level ten forcefields around the brig. He'll stand trial when we get back to Starbase Ten."

"Aye Sir."

The security team and their prisoner departed and Jureth tapped his combage.

"Oseno to Lire, things should be back to normal Commander. Let me know when its safe to resume our previous course and speed."

"Understood, Captain." Niomo responded, "I sh--"

He was interrupted by a flash on his console. He opened the channel, "This is Lire."

"Commander, Warner here. We finished checking the Warp cores and our prior work. Everything still looks fairly stable. Core 2 does have a plasma leak, but it isn't serious. I left some of my crew there to patch it. I'll check on it once I'm done here....here being the Core 2 Matter Inducer. It's fused. We are going to need to shut her down while I replace it. After that, we should be fine."

"Understood." Niomo responded and closed the engineer's communication. "I assume you were listening Captain? We will have to disengage Core 2 for about a half hour. It shouldn't affect our ability to go to warp speed...but it will cripple our maximum speed to warp 6 at maximum. We could go faster, if needed, but with the damage we've taken, I'd rather not push her. During that time we should be able to repair any other ruptured conduits and other minor damage we suffered during the tentacle hit."

"Understood Commander Lire, do what you have to do and keep me updated, Oseno out."

Jureth returned to the command chair and addressed the helm "Mister Hunter, resume our course around the anomaly, warp six."

"Aye Sir, course plotted, and laid in."

"Engage."

The Alsea accelerated back into warp, resuming her course around the Azimuth Horizon. Jureth rose from the chair and walked up behind Shawn Hunter.

"Thank you for your excellent work Mister Hunter. I'll be in the ready room for awhile, you have the bridge."

"Just doing my job Sir, and aye Sir."

Jureth left the bridge and sat himself down behind the desk in the ready room. That had been a close call with the subspace tendril, and the Alsea didn't need any more of those. He would have to thank the crafty Ferengi science officer if he ever saw her again.

As the com closed in Engineering, Niomo stood and replicated himself a cup of coffee. He sipped it for a few minutes as Thompson walked back into his office.

"I checked the EPS main, Niomo. Everything is fine. Should I start taking teams and checking the rest of the ship?"

Niomo thought for a moment before answering. "Yes. The final damage report just came in a few minutes ago. Read it over and disperse the crews. We will be taking Core 2 offline to repair that Inducer, so you've got thirty five, forty minutes. Use that time to fix anything that got banged up."

Niomo handed the man a PADD with the report. James took it and frowned, "There's a lot here. Only forty minutes? I'll prioritize any conduit ruptures, I suppose..."

"Do what you can," Niomo responded. "I will be here helping with the the Inducer replacement."

With that, Thompson turned and left, calling some crewmen to being repairs.

Jureth leaned back in the Alsea's ready room, the subspace tendril the ship had grazed had set their trip around the anomaly back several hours and Jureth didn't even know if what they were doing was having any effect. They had no sensor or communications contact with any of the rest of the fleet or Starbase Ten for that matter and likely wouldn't until they finished their circumvention of the Azimuth Horizon. They were deaf and blind, and short not one but subsequent commanding officers. The only thing the Bajoran tactical officer could do was shake his head at the entire situation, and wonder how the ship's chief engineer was getting on with the repairs. He decided not to bother Commander Lire just yet though, and tapped his commbadge

"Oseno to Steele,"

"Send it...Captain."

"Stop calling me that,"

"Well you are..."

"Not really, I'm just keeping the seat warm."

"If you say so..."

"How is our prisoner?"

"Locked up tight, and forcefields are in place."

"Good, how are the teams?"

"They're managing...don't worry about it, you have an entire ship to run."

"They're still my people."

"Let T'Lana and I handle it Oseno."

Jureth sighed, Cat was right, but he didn't like all this waiting.

"Alright, you win, I'll see you when you get back to the bridge. Oseno out."

Jureth sighed again and began looking at his padd where duty rosters from the other departments were awaiting his approval.

An hour later, Niomo contacted the bridge. "Captain, You can return to our cruising speed. All repairs are complete. I'm still running some diagnostics, but I don't expect anything to pop up faulty. As before the tendril, Warp 9 is clear."

After closing the channel, Niomo sipped his coffee and leaned back into his chair. He had worked some miracles in the past day.

Now back in the command chair Jureth acknowledged the all clear from engineering.

"Thank you Commander. Please pass along my thanks to your entire team. You've done excellent work under extreme circumstances, bridge out."

Oseno looked down at the helm "Mister Hunter, resume top speed of warp nine. Let's finish this."

"Aye Sir, increasing speed to warp nine."

Jureth sat back in the command chair as the Alsea accelerated. It would take them nearly another full day to finish their circumvention of the anomaly barring any other unforeseen problems. The Bajoran couldn't help but wonder what would be waiting for them on the other side.