The Nemesis is moving out

From the hollowed part of the asteroid lost at the heart of the blue and red, lightning-crisscrossed hazy nebula, a huge but sleek, ominous silhouette slowly glided out like a shark out of a sea cave. Lights coming up all accross her smooth, armored hull, the USS Nemesis was moving out, torpedo ports, cannon muzzles and phaser strips glowing with power. There was no halo bubble around it however, as the dense ionized particles of the nebula made shields inoperative, sensors severely hampered... and targeting lock useless.

Nevertheless, the Achilles class heavy siege destroyer was about to open fire. Here, she didn't need any sensor or targeting system just to fire straight behind her at the huge mass of the asteroid base it was exiting.

And the Nemesis did have the monstrous firepower needed to utterly destroy even such a massive target and everything and everyone within it. She had been created to do just that.

On the Delta Flyer class shuttlecraft Dawn, tow Andorians and a Trill rushed in the cockpit, leaving their Bynar chief medical officer in the aft section crowded with a dozen injured and sick Human and Bajoran refugees. The smaller, lighter toned pilot Sheeneea droped into the nav seat, both hands already starting the launch sequence, bypassing just about every basic Starfleet protocol to do so in dire haste. Beside her, Jaxon took the ops station and focused with failing sensors and limited sennses on what was going on outside their fragile shell. Behind Sheeneea, the Andorian giantess Tyvya squeezed her towering frame in the tactical station to also monitor their situation. Technically, the Bynar in the aft section was the highest in rank, but being out of the chain of command and responsible for their passengers, command now fell to Tyvya.

"Sheeneea, get us the hell out of here before that monster incinerates everything here! "

"But... but what about Oseno and K'Leysha?" again protested Jaxon.

"We won't do them any good if we are turned into space dust!" retorted Tyvya. "Sheeneea! Take us out!"

The small, agile Dawn was the first vessel to follow the gigantic warship out of the hollowed asteroid. 

Snowfire's first thought as she took in her new surroundings was quite simple; at least I managed to delay him for a few minutes. And in all honesty it had gone about as well as could be expected. Not well enough however, and she could feel the moments slipping steadily away as the presences of her comrades fell away behind her. But...there was still one other person on board that she knew and trusted, and she reached out with her mind even as physically she slumped down onto the bunk in the very picture of dejected failure. Up and forward through the ship the probing thought went, seeking Commander Oseno once again.

The Bajoran's emotional presence was a mess, she realised as she found it at last, a far flung thing from the tightly focused mind that had been there minutes before. Worry, terrible worry and fear that he was about to fail everyone who relied on him. Yet it went deeper than that. Fear for friends, for comrades and also for himself radiated off of his mind, beneath an icy sheet of cracking professionalism. She took a breath, let it out, focusing on the feelings and the world around her. The hum of power in deckplates, fear from a tactical officer certain that so many were about to die, the rising pitch of energy flooding through power conduits all around her... There was a way out of this, there always was. Yet Oseno had been so sure a few moments - oh.

Bingo.

"Tess." She said quietly, whilst her mind raced through possibility after possibility. He was worried, sure that people were about to die. The ship had come to combat power but it hadn't fired yet. He had been sure a moment ago. Khan. It made sense. He wanted the Starfleet officer in his grasp to damn himself forever. He was a showman, and Oseno would have gone as far as he could have without arousing suspicion which also meant that there'd be power flooding into the ship's weapons right now. And that meant...maybe, just maybe, there was a way out of this for them. She reached further with her mind, to the edge of Commander Jureth's thoughts, and then spoke.

"Don't react. It's Snowfire. I have a plan, just keep him talking for as long as you can." 

That was it. Except...no, it wasn't. Not quite.

"I'll be right here with you, Commander. We'll get through this."

That was all that she needed to say. And now she just had to wait. And pray that she was right.

Oseno felt it...as he engaged in a staring contest with Khan, a battle of wills of sorts, the stubborn Bajoran versus the insane super soldier. He "heard" Snowfire in the back of his mind and outwardly kept a cold stare on the dictator while trying to process information. He knew that Snowfire's species was telepathic and even though his mind was racing trying to come up with something to stop Khan or delay him enough for whoever was out there to escape he was able to comprehend that she was trying to contact him. Jureth tried to fill his mind with thoughts of his backfired plan so that she could understand what he had tried to do. To Khan he simply said

"I don't think I stuttered, if you want to fire you do it. Kill me if you think that will help, but I will not be the one to take their lives."

Snowfire felt the thoughts streaming through Jureth's mind, seeing everything he had done, and she breathed a silent prayer of thanks that she'd been right. Max power, arguably even more than that. A ship could take that for a while, but even the best capacitor technology in the galaxy had limits. And with that much power...considering that this was a purpose built warship... Snowfire knew how long an IDF cruiser could hold maximum charge in its banks. But the IDF had been building warships for quite a lot longer than the Federation. And they didn't routinely strap overcharged weapons to their ships like the Klingons were so apt to do. So taking into account the fact that she couldn't be sure of the exact values, she somehow doubted that the systems would be able to take an overcharge for more than a minute before Bad Things started happening.

Combine that ticking clock with Khan's psych profile and that led to a combination that could be decidedly useful. She just needed a little help...

"Keep refusing, Khan won't fire unless he has to. He's that sort of psychopath and he'd take far more pleasure from forcing you under his thumb forever by making you fire then simply killing everyone on that base himself in front of you. All we need is a minute or two. One to let everyone on it get away, and the other to hoist him by his own superiority. Oh, and something that might be an aid. First, phasers can be set to disrupt a hologram's holo-matrix. Second, Starfleet bridges have had automated phaser defence systems since 2269. I'm sure someone of your talents can work out a way to use that to your advantage if you have to."

And indeed Khan was hoisted high on his emotional pedestal.

"It's all so useless!"

He made a pause obviously to calm himself but it did not work very well. Flammes danced in his eyes and thunder roared in his voice while his hands clenched as if he was about to strike Oseno. 

"You will obey me... or you will watch them die, knowing that you are still responsible for their deaths!

And on the main viewer, the Bajoran could see that the Nemesis was turning to bear her overcharged forward weapons toward the desperately fleeing diminutive form of the shuttlecraft Dawn.

Aboard the Polaris Redding barely managed to squeeze his large frame on to the bridge and found it necessary to bellow over the din of the panicking passengers.

"Everyone please be quiet!" His voice actually hurt the people nearest to him it was so  deep and resounding on the small bridge.

 The bridge did indeed fall silent.

Before he could ask Moore reported in.

"As soon as I got the word everyone was aboard I started us on our way Commander, hope I didn't spoil anyone's heroic overture back there, but we are launching."

He went back to ignoring everyone else in the room. Redding didn't bother to respond to Moore's insolent tone and instead worked his way over to the tactical station. As people started murmuring he again yelled out "Quiet on the bridge! that's an order!" He started bringing up the Nemesis on the main view screen, if for no other reason than to give everyone something to focus on.

The ship moved majestically out of her mooring but seemed to display no immediate thoughts of pursuit of the Polaris.

"Leone, put as much power as you can into the impulse engines and the life support, take it from weapons and the warp systems if you have to but keep life support at max."

He shook his head in frustration at the knowledge the even if they could get an accurate lock on the Nemesis, it wouldn't have done much good.

From his barely functional navigational readings, Moore was already swinging the ship around to use the asteroid for as much cover as possible so Redding kept his mouth shut and instead turned his attention to the Jem'hadar attack ship.

At that moment, the bugship was also leaving dock. But it was not following either the Dawn or the Polaris. It was going straight for the Nemesis.

"What are they trying to do?" exclaimed Moore, looking wide-yeyed at the screen. "That's an Achilles class warship! It has been designed and tried and tested successfully against squadrons of attack cruisers! And their old ship is barely at minimal power! What do they think they can do?"

"Regain their Honor... and the purpose of their very existence," answered Graalthrii with a growl that reluctantly but definitely acknowledged the fact.

On the screen, everyone watched silently as the flat, ovoid warcraft went at full impulse straight at the huge shark-like battleship. 

"They're going to ram them," saw Major McGregor, on the bridge  to coordinate order aboard with his marines among the mass of refugees that crowded the entire vessel but for the restricted areas like the bridge.

The command center was nevertheless overcrowded with off-duty officers of the Polaris, standing by to releive injured comrades if things went bad but at the moment feeling useless, powerless as they watched in silence the Jem'Hadars closing in on the looming destroyer. They were all starting to sweat and pant, not only because of the tension, but because of the life support system trying to support twice the maximum number of lifeforms it could ever provide for.

Ops officer Leone knew better than anyone else that it would not be long before it collapsed under the strain. Then they would all start to find it very cold and very difficult to breathe.

But anyone else was riveted to the drama unfolding out there, in that cold, radiation-filled space.

"The... the Nemesis is coming about... towards the Dawn!" again shouted Moore. 

Redding could already see that her weapons were overcharged with deadly energy as the huge warship angled herself in the direction of the escaping Delta Flyer. It took a second for the experienced officer to understand that, without the possibility of target lock in this hazy, sensor-hampering nebula, the warship had no choice but to move herself in the general direction of fire to hope to catch her target in a full volley. Khan might be the consumate mad genius revived by all the power of the ultimate sentient supercomputer, he was still limited to his computer mind and ship body; he needed sensors to see. 

Unless someone aboard used the firing controls manually for him.

Oseno was onboard, he knew... and K'Leysha. He knew neither would willingly help Khan; but he knew also that Khan was notorious for his mastery in using and forcing people to bend to his iron will. On Earth, four hundred years ago, he had been a prince with power over millions. If they had been subverted...

Events brought his eyes back to the viewer, The attack ship had started to swiftly closed the distance between the base and the Nemesis. Then, it swerved sharply as if to avoid incoming fire that never came, then resumed it's attack run straight at the warship.

Again, Redding interpreted instantly what the tactical monitor confirmed him. The Jem'Hadars had repositionned themselves between the Nemesis and the Dawn, covering it's escape qith it's own larger hull. The attack ship went straight at the oblong forward section of the siege destroyer and in an instant collided with it.

But instead of the expected explosion, everyone saw the much smaller cruiser literally rebound away from the Nemesis, It tumbled end over end in a shower of hull plates before exploding several kilometers away from it's target.

"Anti-ramming system," commented Graalthrii. "The Achilles class was designed to eliminate Jem'Hadar bugships and nullify their suicide run tactic with a combination of deflector and tractor beam technology through a dedicated secondary deflector dish. They... they never had a chance..."

The shockwave of it's detonating warp core shook the Polaris despite the distance. Gripping consoles and chairs, everyone on the Polaris bridge saw the enormous shape of the Nemesis also lurch like a big oceanliner in a storm, blackened armor plates studding the blue haze around it as static discharges completed the illusion of a big ship caught in a sea storm. At barely a few kilometers, even a depleted warp core caused a massive explosion.

The damage to the Nemesis was minimal but still, the sacrifice of the former Dominion supersoldiers had bought them some time... and saved the Dawn. The smallest craft had disappeared inside the veils of the nebula.

But now, it would not be long before the titanic killing machine would right itself and bear down on the Polaris.

On the bridge of the Nemesis Jureth watched the seen unfold in amazement, and knew he had to take advantage of it. Oseno looked from the viewer to Khan "Even your Jem'Hadar realize you're insane," he scoffed. "I am a Starfleet officer, and not pulling the trigger does NOT make me responsible. Their blood will be on YOUR hands" he practically growled at the sentient hologram "You will not manipulate me any further."

While Khan had been talking Jureth had been subtly working, and  now Oseno looked down at the tactical console, entered a command and alarms began to scream throughout the bridge. A voice that sounded remarkably similar to that of Tess announced

"Emergency warp core jettison in progress, all personnel evacuate engineering spaces."

Jureth knew that wouldn't keep Khan busy for too long, and so he immediately began entering further commands into the console accessing the ship's bridge defense system, and targeting it on the command area with a wide dispersal setting.

"Let's see how you deal with this," he muttered...

From the ceiling of the bridge, small portholes opened. Jureth had barely time to duck under the nearest console as whitish light spread all accross the entire command center. Fortunately, the wide dispersal pattern was that of a phaser stun setting so his cover effectively protected him. But it had another effect; it disrupted the emmiting beam of the holoemitters of the bridge.

Before he could utter the shout of surprise and anger that was contorting his face, Khan's image wavered and disappeared.

Finding no target to lock on, the automated defense system shut down a moment later.

Oseno found himself now completely alone on the bridge of the warship. But he found two things much less encouraging; one was on the main viewscreen were the hazy, fuzzy, grainy image of the fleeing Polaris was dead center. The other was, not the engineering board confirming the ongoing shutdown of the core jettisoning sequence, that he had expected... but the tactical board showing all green lights announcing a firing sequence standing by... and that all controls were now locked out by the main computer.

Without access to the main systems Jureth knew there were only two people aboard who could prevent the Nemesis from firing on the Polaris, Snowfire..and Tess. In his mind Jureth screamed at Snowfire to do something if she could. He knew he was not telepathic but he also knew if she was still monitoring his thoughts she would hear or feel his urgency. Then with Khan gone Oseno called out to Tess.

"Tess, I don't know if you can come back, but I know you can hear me. I need your help!"

"Calmly, Commander. You've done everything you need to do but one thing. If Tess comes to you, and not me, have her hide the weapon overload signals. The Nemesis was partially designed by Klingons, and even if her EPS conduits can take the power you've poured into them, the capacitors will blow after too long. The process is almost certainly already starting, and if keeps going for much longer even an attempt to discharge them will cause detonations. But even Khan as he is now will notice if the safety measures start screaming loud enough. So we need them silenced." Snowfire's mental tone was calm, firm and carried with it a confidence that couldn't help but rub off on Jureth through the hearing. "It'll be all right. We just need to take the final step. Regardless of his competence, Khan isn't using the multi-tasking capabilities he possesses as an AI. I suspect he doesn't even know how. If we can get him locked into task overload, we'll have won half the battle."

Oseno took in a deep breath and let it out, he was being irrationally reactive he realized. Even during his tenure as captain of the Alsea he hadn't been this panicked, but the logical part of him knew it was because he had had good people around him then, and now the only person that could help him was imprisoned aboard this ghost ship somewhere. Jureth looked again at the tactical console and tried to used standard Starfleet security and command overrides only to have the computer beep defiantly at him. He looked around the bridge in the dim lighting trying to come up with some way to stop the Nemesis from its intended mission. Just then he had an idea..prefix code. The Nemesis was the only ship of its kind he'd ever seen, but Jureth knew no Starfleet vessel left the yards without a prefix code. It was that code that had allowed Captain Kirk deal a massive blow to the original Khan during their original battle. The question is could he find it in time to stop the Nemesis from wiping out the escaping Polaris, and where would he start looking.

"Ready room," Jureth said to the empty bridge and he darted over to the captain's ready room.

He knew that Khan may have had control over the ship's major systems, but from the captain's terminal he still ought to be able to access things like log files, and other minor things that Khan would be to busy to deal with.  If the Prophets smiled on him perhaps he would find the ship's original prefix code somewhere in those files, or perhaps he could convince the ship's main computer that he was her new captain which would oblige it to turn over the code to him. He was after all the only living command level officer aboard the ship. Oseno sat down behind the captain's desk pulled up the terminal, and began his search in earnest.

***

Aboard the Polaris another Bajoran, Variel Palos, was franctically trying to make his way to the ship's bridge. The young, but weathered intelligence officer had seen the ship they were up against and knew he had to get to Commander Redding immediately. The USS Achilles had been something that all Starfleet Intelligence officers were briefed on in the event they ever encountered the lost prototype. Standing orders were to recover the vessel if they could, but to destroy her if they could not. Palos was not stupid, he knew that the Polaris was no match for the well armed, and armored destroyer, but if they could gain access to the ship's systems... Palos pushed passed another group of refugees

"Make a hole!" he yelled aloud

All of the extra passengers made the Polaris seem like a Sovereign Class cruiser to Variel but he finally managed to make it to the turbo lift which he instructed to take him to the bridge. When the doors opened Palos was greeted by chaos with more extra passengers packed among the Polaris normal crew as they tried to get the little ship to put some distance between themselves and the closing foe. Variel gently pushed his way through the throng of people until he was within ear shot of Commander Neil Redding.

"Commander! Prefix Code!" he yelled at Redding who was sitting in the Polaris command chair.

"Calm down man." Redding said as Variel reached him. "What about the prefix code? I don't think he'd fall for the same trick twice, or did you have something else in mind?" Nearly every officer knew how Kirk used the prefix code to shut down Khan's shilds, It's was mandatory reading.

But Redding was glad for any distraction at that moment, the destruction of the bug ship was still fresh in his mind.

"Sir, are we certain that Khan knew how Kirk disabled Reliant? I realize he's intelligent, but he's also driven, obsessive, and unstable.   I believe the prefix code for the Achilles was highly classified. I'm not even sure the ship's captain would have known it or Thetis for that matter, and unless my assessment of Commander Oseno is off I suspect Khan has been far too busy to worry about us. By all means we should continue trying to escape, but if we can disable her don't we have to at least try? If her code is still classified my Intelligence security codes should allow me to access it."

"Even if he didn't know then, he'd have found a way to compensate now lieutenant... still, no harm in trying it." But then held up his hand to stop him. "No wait.. we know it wont work but perhaps we can still use it.. he's incredibly arrogant and likes to prove it." And thought it over for a few seconds.

"You might have given me a way to distract him, set it up, if it works all the better but if not he'll feel superior and will want to brag about it." and gave a nod to Varial to send him on his way.

Variel nodded at the senior officer, "Aye Sir."

"Have something in mind Commander?" Graalthrii asked.

Redding glanced around and signaled him to come closer so he would be harder to over hear. "I'm worried that Khan wont come after us and just leave, and I can't allow that to happen." His look could not have been more serious.

Palos looked around and found an available auxiliary terminal. Working as quickly as he could he set it up to access the classified library of Starfleet Intelligence and entered his personal access code.

"Voice verification required."

"Recognize Palos, authorization Four-One-Bravo-Juliet."

"Confirmed, biometric verification required.."

Palos placed his hand on the console and allowed the ship's sensors to read it and transfer the information to the Intelligence computer system. It took several seconds before the system responded.

"Authentication complete, access granted."

Palos immediately began a library search for the files that he was looking for. He was right, they had been classified, to the highest levels of Starfleet Command, and the Federation Council. In fact, he shouldn't have been able to access them, but because the ship was lost and Intelligence had standing orders to retrieve or destroy her retrieving the code only required he reenter his manual access code which was unique to every Intelligence field operative. Once he did that he sent the code to the console that Graalthrii was standing in front of, and then removed himself from the system and cleansed the console making it safe for normal use again, and ensuring that no one would be able to follow behind him and use his access. The Bajoran then turned to Redding

"I've sent the code to Graalthrii's console Sir. It can be transmitted any time you wish. If we get in, I'd recommend we disable her weapons first..."

Redding nodded then with a sigh he yelled out "Clear the bridge! I don't care if you piggy back in the hallway or lay on top of each other I don't need Khan seeing how bad off we are."

Surprisingly there were few complaints as people stuffed themselves into anything they could find. The bridge head, the ready room some even crawled into access panel areas. Six more laid down in front of the main screen or pressed into the walls out of shot.

"Adjust the main screen to focus on me and no one make a sound unless your dying." He stood up. "Hail the Nemesis."

Leone worked her controls "Go ahead Commander."

"This is acting Captain Redding on the Polaris, now that I have secured the prisoners we can bring this game to a close 'Khan'" He said Khan with a scoff, as to discredit him as the real thing.

He pointed at Graalthrii "Now, Lieutenant"

For a moment, nothing seemed to happen... except that the Nemesis, looming ever closer to the fleeing Polaris, still did not fire.

"We're being hailed," Graalthrii reported, his stare ominious.

A black and white image, grainy and streaked with distorsions, appeared on the large viewer; but for anyone who had studied Starfleet records, the hard edged face and especially the intense eyes were instantly recognizable. Then, a voice was heard over the comm. It was slighlty garbled by the nebula's interference but instantly recognizable by anyone which had heard it once in historical recordings. The tone and the accent were unmistakable.

" I am Khan. "

There was a pause as the figure on the screen evidently strained to look back at the small bridge of the fleeing escort ship. There was a grin on it's face.

" Acting Captain Redding... Your... acting... leaves as much to be desired as your... captaining, I am afraid. This feeble attempt to take control of my ship is typical of the inferior mind only able to imitate. Spare me your pitiful efforts; the prefix code of this ship is now a rotating fractal code that your best computers would take weeks to even hope to decipher it correctly at the right time... And I can see that you left your comrades on the station. So be it; I will leave them as he left me; marooned in the center of a dead planet... buried alive... buried alive... "

" He's opening fire! " Graalthrii barely had time to shout.

The image switched to an external view. In the hazy, static-filled image, the shark-like shape of the USS Nemesis could nevertheless be clearly seen as it was lighted up by a dozen phasers suddenly firing at point blank range.

There was a blinding flash and then a huge dark cloud of dust blackening the background of the lightning-streaked blue and red nebula. All beams had struck right at the power core and the ensuing explosion utterly destroyed the asteroid base. Huge chunks of rock in a cloud of radiation-glowing debris drifted away from the deeply gouged planetoid in a slow, final dance of death from the destruction of it's crude, old style atomic power plant and stored fissile material.

And then, phaser strips on the Nemesis turned cold.

Standing up Redding shook his fist at the screen and yelled "Khan!"

He looked furious. But after the signal was cut he took a breath and sat back and looked at Graathrii.

"I hope that wasn't to over the top."

"I'm not a drama critic," growled the Tellarite.

"A  Tellarite with no complaint... now that is a first," then commented Moore.

" I have a complaint; it's about a noob, scruffy-looking, nerf-hurter pilot unable to fly us away from that monster!"

Moore looked over at the stout, bearded security officer.

"Who's scruffy looking?"

On board the warship, Oseno saw on his console in the captain's ready room that half the phasers on the ship now registered burned out capacitors and shut down firing circuits on all the rest as safety systems bleeded out the excess power into the depleted batteries. The Nemesis was defanged... for the moment.

But not her master.

"You... you did this!"

Khan loomed before the Bajoran. He looked young, black-haired and wearing a red and black uniform from the glory days of Captain Kirk's legendary five-year mission on his powerful frame. With one hand, he grabbed the seated Jureth and lifted him bodily from his chair to throw him against the nearest wall.

"I have five times your strenght, twice your speed and a lifetime of battle experience! You are no match for me! I will kill your friends out there and make you pay for your treachery! "

Jureth shook his head trying to clear the cobwebs while the searing pain of the impact with the bulkhead coursed through the rest of his body. The Bajoran slowly began to stand up all his emotions now beginning to boil to the surface.  Jureth glared at Khan through the pain and he...laughed. Oseno laughed out loud at the outraged sentient hologram. 

"That may be, but clearly your superior intellect has failed you. You couldn't beat Kirk, and you won't win today. Wherever...there are men like you there will always be men like me, like Kirk, and Kheren who will do whatever it takes to stop you." 

With that Oseno mustered his strength and hurled himself at Khan determined to keep him busy for as long as he could because Jureth knew what Khan did not. Oseno knew that there hadn't been anyone on the asteroid when it was destroyed which meant that all of his people were working right now on the Polaris to stop Khan. Jureth only needed to give them time.

While Khan was stalking Oseno, several decks below a small figure appeared  right before the only occupied cell of the brig.

"Hurry!" saif Tess to K'Leysha. "While he's busy with your friend; Stand right against the forcefield! I know it will hurt but I can only deactivate it for a second so that you can fall out and he doesn't suspect it is anything more than a glitch. Hurry! He already destroyed the base and everyone on it... He's going to kill him... and then all your friends on the other ship!"

"Not if we have anything to do with it." Snowfire replied, feeling Oseno's actions many decks above even as she leant herself against the forcefield. It stung, but she'd felt worse. Much worse. "Just get me out, and we'll go from there." To Oseno, in the moment before he threw himself at Khan, she spoke again into his mind.

"Commander, give me your command codes. If what I've got in mind is possible, it's going to need them to work. Mine aren't going to reach high enough. Just trust me, and keep Khan distracted for as long as you can."

In that heated moment as the Bajoran taunted Khan he heard the science officer make her request, and did his best not only to grant it, but also to let her know he'd already tried to override the ship's systems to no avail before turning his attention fully on the enraged man in front of him.

Khan caught Oseno in his full charge and barely budged as the whole body of the Bajoran slammed against him. With superhuman strenght, he lifted him bodily over his head and threw hima again against the bulkhead. A smile stretched his thin lips. Now, he was stalking him, fully confident now that he could crush the Starfleet officer anytime he chose and that he could do nothing to stop him.

That's when a sudden light came to his slitted eyes, making them open suddenly. 

Oseno was stopping him. As he taunted him, fought him,  the others were slowly but surely getting away! Already, the nebula-garbled ship's sensors has lost all traces of the small Delta Flyer after the Jem'Hadar ship's destruction... and now were almost loosing their tenuous contact with the fleeing Polaris.

Khan stopped, straightened himself, and smiled, nodding his head towards Jureth.

"Excellent, excellent. I can see that I made a serious error in judgment. Shared plight would foster heroic camaraderie in you, brave Starfleet officers. But it is quite another thing to watch someone else suffer... isn't it?"

He showed the door that now opened near the Bajoran, giving him access to the bridge. From his angle, he could see part of the viewing screen. Through the blue, lightning crisscrossed haze of the nebula and the intermittent static discharges that twisted the image, he could still easily see the Polaris trying to move away from the énormous warship.

"Go... and watch your friends die."

And so confident in his power of everyone's life and death, he did not bother to notice, amidst the reporting failings of a few systems and the rerouting powerflow to try and circumvent the damage to the weaponry, the short glitch of the brig's forcefield.

Lying against the painful energy barrier as told, Snowfire K'Leysha suddenly fell forward, reflexively rolled on a shoulder and stood again on her feet, outside of her cell.

And all the while, on board the escort vessel, everyone had watched the heart of the asteroid explode, silhouetting the ominious shape of the Nemesis turning again to bear down on them through the waves of ionized particles, etched sharply each time a static discharge flared around them.

"Commander... "

Redding didn't need Moore to tell him that the forward torpedo ports of the Achilles class destroyer were flaring up like angry red eyes on the profiled bow; all four of them.

The Achilles class starship had been designed with the same rapid burst 5 launchers as the older Ambassador class USS Artemis had sported. No less than twenty quantum warheads were about to rush at them. In a widespread pattern, at this distance, it could not miss them even without any targeting solution. And with no shields, only one grazing them would obliterate the Polaris utterly.

"Sir... there's another ship coming in... "

Every head turned toward Graalthrii looking at the tactical monitor and then raising wide eyes and a feral grin to Redding.

"It's the Horizon!

And just as the Nemesis opened fire, an immense shadow fell over the Polaris. A wall of metal completely filled the sreen and forward viewport as the titanic hull of the Horizon flew between them and the firing warship.

Even then, the birdge of the escort craft shook as several quantum torpedoes exploded barely a few kilometers away, on the other side of the arriving starship.

"Man! She flipped on the flank and took the brunt of the salvo point blank!" Moore shouted in horrified amazement. With no shields!

Graalthrii pounded his fist on the console with glee.

"All the lowest decks of the Horizon are crammed with stored replacement plating for it's regenerating armor shell! That's ten meters of pure armor under the regen armoring itself! She can take it! She used her thick belly as a shield to cover us!"

"I thought the captain was Andorian, not a portly Tellarite," grinned Moore eyes still widened with disbelief.

"He's almost as smart as one," shot back the stout security officer with a wide grin through his thick beard.

Then, a garbled but still audible message came over the comm, obviously sent over all channels to pierce through the static of the nebula.

"This is captain Kheren; I've beat you once again Khan, are you game for a rematch?"

And as this was heard, Elisha Leone saw on her own ops console that another, encoded message was piggybacking the bold challenge.