The Starfleet Academy Adventures By: Christine Schnell

Retribution

Prolog

The Aqueous came into orbit around the Klingon colony Nictog. It had been years since the ship had seen it's rightful owner, and now it was time once again for him to comeback from the dead. The Klingon underground had done all the dirty work while the crew of the Aqueous provided them with time and money. And it took plenty of money to get the special cargo they required. Some rich unidentified man gave the lost crew of the Orion ship Aqueous the money to bring back their captain. But the origin of the money was not important. The fact of having the money was.

For much time the ship had gone wandering around the galaxy trying to find purpose. But with out its rightful owner it was lost. The Orion equivalent to the coat of arms had been removed from the ship. As must all when the person to whom it belongs is dead or merely gone from what they call life. Now though, the crew was preparing to put that coat of arms back upon the hull. It was the ship's marker and now it was back where it belonged.

Yet there still was a hole missing. The returning captain to this ship was not complete. He had a mission to carry out before he would ever be able to take total command of this ship and feel that he earned it. For years he had been planning what is to come. For years he has had plenty of time to think. For he had been immobilized.

The precious cargo was now being beamed aboard. It was time for the unveiling. A large rectangular object came to being on the platform. One Orion walked up to the object and turned on his scanner. He looked to another and nodded. The second Orion walked over to the cargo and placed a mechanical object on the side he then typed in several commands. He stepped back as a white cloud of vapor appeared signaling the regeneration process.

Out of the vapor a form appeared. It sat up slowly taking in the surroundings. He was reanimated. No longer would he have to lay unconscious and at the same time being conscious of his being. Now he was near filling that hole. All he had to do was wait a little longer and he could reek his revenge on the ones who put him in that hell. He stood. The other Orions gathered around him waiting. They were loyal, almost all were the same crew he had before he was put into the box. He looked around, there was one missing however. The one he had always depended on the most. But he did not expect to see him, for he had died the last time he encountered those worthless humans.

He stepped out of the box. He gave the order he had waited years to give. They were to replace his coat of arms back onto the hull where everyone could see. So that everyone could know that Dijon Maris is back and he is one step closer to his retribution.

Chapter 1

The Integra once again made its way through space. The obstacles in this area were considerably more abundant than had been anywhere else in the past few months of their journey. The asteroid belt between the two moons was very dense. The helmsman could handle it though. He was one of the best in the fleet. The vessel, traveling at one quarter impulse, maneuvered around several asteroids easily. They have been in the belt for not ten minutes and already they were half way through it.

Inside the mighty ship the captain, Arron Steele, sat watching as the skilled young man "drove" the ship through the debris of a long dead planet.

Their mission now was to patrol the area beyond the asteroid barrier for smugglers. All the planets in this area are rich in some mineral or another. The Federation hand claimed the planets not too long ago after chasing the Klingons through the area. Both the Federation and Klingons had reported that neither owned them. Nor could they find anyone who did. From there it was a race for the claim, whomever had the fastest vessels and reached the area first got the claim. Guess who had the fastest vessels.

Now the Integra found itself wandering about the Heria system, patrolling and other than being on the lookout, it was pretty well unoccupied with business. So the main bridge crew set out for some recreation. The crew had been ordered just to patrol, they were not a research vessel, therefore had no right in going down to any of the planets. So there it roamed. The orders did not however mention anything about hot dogging.

The pilot of the ship was a good one. He could fly the ship around any obstacle. At the moment with out the threat of any hostilities that pilot spun the ship around in a few impressive moves.

Inside the ship, the crew were mostly festive. Without the command of the Federation, far out in this area, they were free. Some wished to drink homemade brews others preferred the rec. room. But only one place would satisfy the captain of this ship. That one place was the bridge. He was born to command, and he made one hell of a commander too. What do you expect in a family whose had a long line to top Starfleet officers. And Captain Steele was not an exception to this rule.

The well built captain watched the viewscreen as the stars flew by, their streaks curving whenever the pilot turned the ship slightly. Besides the Captain, there were others who preferred the bridge to anywhere else on the ship. This list included the bright young Betazoid first officer. She was thin and tall, with black hair that cascaded halfway down her shoulder blades. She also watched the stars, while standing next to the man she had once hated, and grown to love and admire over the years. She looked down at him, his hair a light brown, reached the bottom of his neck. Not quite regulation, yet with his stature, his superiors seemed to look past it. As a young man he once had a round and soft face. As the years passed on and he gained more experience, his composure hardened on the outside, on the inside he was still young and care free, and as loving as always.

He looked up to his first officer and noticed that she was staring. He couldn't help but stare back. Her lovely features was the first thing he had noticed in her, though he wouldn't admit it to her. But beyond those luxurious curves he knew that she was hard set and determined to get what she wanted, in any situation. Her innocent blue gray eyes and high cheek bones were very deceiving.

He broke the contact between them and looked to the view screen. "Something on your mind, Commander?" Steele was always formal in front of his crew, no matter who he was talking to.

"No sir nothing at all." First officer Kiljian replied. "I was just, uh, admiring the view."

He nodded his head understandingly. "I bet you were." He said quietly only for her to hear.

She pretended she didn't hear him. "Sir?"

He waved it off. "Never mind."

***

Somewhere else in the ship there was laughter. It's source seemed to be in engineering. It died down after a few minutes, except for one boisterous laugh that sounded as if it was echoing through the entire ship. The laugh went on and on until someone silenced it. "It wasn't that funny Lyle."

Lyle, a pig nosed Teralite snorted one last time and looked to his commander in apology. The man was not full Teralite, he was also part Centurion, but that did not stop him from having the Teralite traits.

His commander on the other hand, who was Lt. Commander Jenifer Quintero, a.k.a. chief engineer. Laughed a little at the Teralite, who had seemed to regain his composure.

The engineering section seemed to be a little less stuffier than the bridge or for that matter, the rest of the ship. And so it had become a second home to many engineers on the ship. Part of the atmosphere was due to the chief who was quite the opposite of the Captain. She was a tad bit taller than the first officer, with longer red hair, that extended down to the small of her back. She always seemed to be relaxed, yet in control of her self and her surroundings. She was also, always, informal. She would use the first names of people, on or off duty, with the exception of superiors, whom she would only call them by their first name with permission. Furthermore she also hated giving orders, she would rather ask the person first, and order only if positively necessary.

She smiled once more at the Teralite. Then she looked down to the chronometer on the workstation in front of her. "Aren't you off duty, Lyle?"

"Yes, is it all right if I stay for a while, sir?" He asked mildly. She laughed as did others around her. "What did I say."

"You're new aren't you, kid?" A man called from one side of the engine room.

Jenifer threw him a look that told him to shut his mouth, and he did so. She then considered the short pig like man. "Don't pay any attention to that imbecile, he doesn't know a coil from a shaft." More laughter filled the room. The man in the back only bowed to his superior and waved his hand, indicating he was at her disposal. She then went back to talking with Lyle. "Sure you can stick around, just don't get into anybody's way, okay. Some of them have a tendency to be clumsy, and I don't want you to get hurt."

Lyle smiled in thanks and walked away when Jenifer made a shooing motion to him and the rest of the crew. They dispersed around the section and went back to their business. Then from behind her someone spoke. "Why don't you just shoot him and get it over with?"

"Who are you referring to?" Jenifer asked waving both her hands indicating the entire engineering section. "There's a lot of people here who deserve to be shot."

"You know who I'm talking about. Hank, every time you make a comment he talks back, then you make another comment. It's as if you two were competing to see who is the most sarcastic." He said still standing behind her.

"Eric, you know I love it. There's no way I would shoot someone who gives me a challenge. I need to out do him before I can ever shoot him." Now she did turn to see her second in command.

"Jenny, one of these days you are going to get yourself into trouble." He took her hand and looked into her eyes. "That's when I'm going to say 'I told you so.'"

She stood so she could look straight into his eyes. He was a few inches taller than she, but that didn't matter to her. "And as I've told you, I've already been through that part of my life, and it's all behind me now. All of my troubles are frozen, so to speak." She giggled softly.

"Frozen? I'm surprised you don't remember your basic physics. Everything that's frozen does have a tendency to thaw out eventually." He smiled despite what he had just said. It was a very serious matter, one she didn't like to talk about that much.

Her smile however faded. She looked down at their hands for a moment. She squeezed a little harder trying to draw on some of his energy. After a moment or so she looked back up and her smile had magically reappeared. "Maybe he will thaw out, but it won't be for a long time. In the meantime, you and I will be together, forever, I promise you." She couldn't help herself, a tear rolled out of her eye and down her cheek.

Eric brought her up against him and hugged her tight. "Don't worry, I know, we will be together. I won't let him take you away again." He held her and let her cry.

She got like this every once in a while, maybe once every few months and each time it came out of no where. She could be happy one moment and sad the next it was hard to tell what emotion Jenifer would let out next. It was long overdue. She had never truly recovered from that time long ago, and each time she cried she came a little bit closer to that recovery. After a few minutes she regained part of her composure. She looked into her husbands eyes. Slowly she asked, "When is all of this going to end?" He shook his head. He did not know, even if he did he would be unable to answer. She understood, she nodded and put her head back on his shoulder. Eric brushed over her hair with his hand, soothing her.

From a cross the room Hank glanced over his shoulder one last time and went back to work on his control board.

***

Stephanie sat in the rec. room staring at the 3D chess board. Chess wasn't her game. As a matter of fact she really wasn't into that many sports. Her thing was taking care of people, besides that she didn't have many hobbies. Of course there was that time many years ago, before the academy that she encounter the joy of sports. Come to think of it after a while she didn't enjoy it that well.

But she was here now. She moved one of her rooks up a level. Which resulted in her opponent capturing that rook and a knight and finally her king. Someone chuckled next to her. She looked over and found Jason Evian. He quickly covered his mouth with his hand. Across the way Darian crossed his arms across his chest confidently.

"Well, so much for that game. I think I will find something else that doesn't hurt my pride as much." Stephanie stood and walked over to a food replicator. She picked up a glass of water and walked back to her seat. "When did you learn how to play like that?"

"In my first year at the academy I had to learn so I could face German Swan and deprive him of his arrogance." Darian started.

"Who's German Swan?" Stephanie asked.

"He was this cc who really didn't give a care who he hurt." Jason explained for his friend.

Stephanie was confused at the unusual term that Jason had used. "What's a cc?"

Darian laughed. "I'm surprised you never heard the term before. It means 'computerized cranium,' or an annoying intelligent person."

Stephanie understood now. "Ah, kind of like Arron Steele." Everyone in the room laughed at this. She was glad to see that there were some people on this ship who laughed at her jokes, though it wasn't often that she told them.

"You know," Darian began more seriously. "I think someone should deprive Arron of at leas a little of his arrogance."

Stephanie contemplated that. "It's not very easy. I tried to do that many times when we were younger. It never worked."

"What if someone just confronted him on the situation?" Jason interjected.

"Okay." Darian said playfully. "You go up to his face and tell him that he is arrogant and annoying."

Jason sank in his seat. "On second thought, maybe not."

"I know. " Stephanie's face lit up like a light bulb. "Why don't you challenge him to a game of chess. As far as I know he's no better than I."

"You know I might just do that. There's only one problem, Arron might actually win, you don't know for sure that he's no good." Darian smiled.

Stephanie smiled as well. "Well, your right about that." Everyone laughed once again at Arron Steele's expense.

It was at that moment that the red alert siren chose to sound.

Chapter 2

"What the Hell is it? Engineering, what's going on?" Arron screamed over the siren.

Through the communicator a voice called back. "I have no idea as of yet, give me a few moments, it surprised me as much as it surprised you." Over the channel the bridge could hear the chief giving orders. "Lyle, get that coolant over to the matter antimatter intersection, Eric what's the reading on the core temperature?"

"Normal." Answered Eric over the unit.

"Good, check the ... Whoa! Coolant leak get out of here! Evacuate now." She paused for a moment. Arron figured she was directing traffic. "Bridge, we've got a coolant leak. I have to control it manually, no time to talk. Quintero out."

Steele looked over to his first officer who was now at a console monitoring the situation. "Were we fired upon?"

Kiljian shook her head as she looked at her screen, "We have no external damage, yet we are receiving damage reports from all over the inside of the ship. However the bulk of the reports are coming from decks 12 through 15 sections j and k, the areas closest to engineering."

"Sir, our course has changed." Jason Evian sounded very disturbed. While the captain was distracted by his engineer's report Setek and Evian had arrived on the bridge and manned their post. "We're heading straight for the asteroid belt!"

"Can you change course?"

"Sorry sir, the engines are not responding."

"Quintero, I need those engines or we'll be Swiss cheese." Steele called out to engineering. Something unusual then occurred, he received no answer. His engineer always gave him an answer if it was even a short acknowledgment that he had said something. He pounded the switch worriedly. "Engineering report!"

"Sir." Kiljian turned to face the captain, "All communications are out throughout the ship. Should I send someone to get a report in person?"

Arron Steele considered it. It would be risky to send someone down there without knowing the situation, but on the other hand they had to know what was going on. "Yes, you go, take a personal communicator with you so you can give me your report from there."

"Yes sir." Kiljian opened a storage locker grabbed a communicator and ran out the door.

***

"Where the hell is Hank?" Jenifer Quintero searched the crowded hallway but could not see him.

"He was stabilizing the matter flow down in jefferies tube nine, the last I knew." One of the engineers said from inside the crowd, she recognized his voice, it was distinct because it sounded to her like he was talking with a mouth full of cotton balls, Greg Amini.

The chief engineer looked around quickly at the people she had. "Lyle, go find Hank help him stabilize the matter flow and then get back here, we don't need the both of you in there if there is an explosion."

Lyle nodded then went half waddling half running down the corridor. Jenifer turned to Eric. "Assign six good people life-suits, we're going to go in there and turn off the coolant valves."

"We? As in you?"

"Yes, do you have a problem with that?"

"Yes as a matter of fact I do. You could get hurt Jenny, I won't let you go in there."

"Tough." Her mind was set and no one could change it. "I gave you an order, now follow it."

Eric looked at her a moment then decided his set of actions. He turned and got eight life-suits, he handed them out and kept two for himself and Jenifer. When everyone was suited up they cleared the hallway except for those that were going to attempt the manual shut down.

"Wait a moment." Just as Jenifer had put her hand on the door control her first officer walked up. "I need a report, the ship has set course for the asteroid belt and helm has no control over the engines."

"Jenny, it must be due to the matter flow. There's too much matter and it must be freezing up the engines." Eric interjected.

Jenifer nodded her head and addressed DeArra. "Go back to the sheltered area with the rest of the section, have someone go and help Hank and Lyle in jeffries tube nine. We'll try and help out with the flow as much as we can from inside. As soon as we have everything stable we'll shut down the engines. I just hope we will be in time."

DeArra took off down the hall in the direction she came once she was safely beyond their temporary force field Jenifer opened the door. A gush of white air blew passed them and they forced their way through. Each of their personal life-suits acted as a forcefield and kept the coolant away from their bodies. They were protected, for now.

***

DeArra ran with Greg Amini towards the jeffries tube. She had already reported to the bridge and got the okay from Steele to accompany the crewman. She had also (approved) them of the problem with the matter antimatter ratio. He seemed worried but knew Jenifer would pull through.

She wondered how exactly Jenifer would pull it off. DeArra really didn't know much about engines or about how the matter and antimatter worked to make the engines go without blowing up. At the moment, that was not important. She had a job to do. They rounded the corner and saw a horrible sight. One crew man was pulling another by the arms. When he heard the two approaching he dropped the still form to the ground. "Commander." He said astonished.

"Why haven't you called sickbay?" DeArra asked like any ordinary concerned commander running faster to the side of the fallen man.

"W-W-We just barely got out of there in time." He stuttered.

"We? You don't even look scratched."

He paused for a moment thinking. "You know what I mean commander. It was hard to get him out of there . Unfortunately he received most of the blast."

DeArra Kiljian nodded, semi-understanding. And pulled out her communicator, "Kiljian to sickbay, we have an emergency, an injured man down on level 14 section J."

"I'll send a team as soon as I can." Stephanie Koval answered.

DeArra motioned to the crewman who had accompanied her. "Go get a first-aid kit from a storage unit, we've got to do what we can before the team gets here."

Amini moved off around the corner to go fetch the kit. Meanwhile Hank stood there looking over DeArra. She looked back up at him. "Don't just stand there staring, do something."

He still stood there staring as if he were frozen. "I'm sorry commander, I don't know how to help, I just don't know."

"Didn't you take any first aid classes at the academy?"

"Yes, but..."

"But nothing, you should know, now get your butt down here and help." Amini had returned and was handing her the kit as he kneeled down besides her. DeArra pressed a pain reliever against his arm as the Greg elevated Lyle's legs and covered him with a blanked to keep him from going into shock.

Hank remained standing there watching them care for Lyle even as the med-team approached he stood there and watched and did nothing as if he had grown roots and they have bound him indefinitely to the deck. The med-team came and left along with DeArra and the crew member and Hank stood there, as soon as he was sure they had left from his sight he smiled and moved down the hall.

***

"Is that the last of it?" Jenifer looked to the seven other engineers in the core area of engineering.

"Yes sir." Answered one crewman. "We were able to stabilize the matter antimatter flow and shut down the engines, however, we detected a small explosion in the intersection of jeffries tube nine and sixteen."

"Do you know if Hank and Lyle were still in there?"

"No sir, we didn't detect any life forms whatsoever."

"Good." She turned to face Eric. "What about the coolant leak."

He answered swiftly. "We were able to confine it easily."

Jenifer smiled. "Excellent. We have also cleaned up all the radiation caused by the coolant leak. The computer has confirmed that it is all right to breath freely." To show this she turned off her life-suit first. She stood there for a few seconds breathing the air as if it were brand knew to her. The recycled air in the life-suits seemed to get stale awful fast. "Let's open up the doors."

She walked over to the doors and as soon as she opened them one of her engineers greeted her there. She was startled at first but recovered quickly. "Jenifer." Greg seemed out of breath. He took hold of her arm and started pulling her out the door. "Sickbay...Lyle...explosion..."

Jenifer stopped him and relieved her arm from his hand. "Whoa there. What's wrong and go slowly this time."

He stood for a half a second caught his breath and started over. "There was explosion in jeffries tube nine. Lyle received most of it, DeArra and I took him to sickbay. Unfortunately Hank didn't help at all."

"Was Hank hurt?" She asked concerned.

"No. I think I should add that all he did was stand there while we attended to Lyle. Doctor Koval wanted you to come down to sickbay immediately." Greg gestured toward the turbolift.

Jenifer took the cue and started walking. Eric soon caught up and asked her what was wrong. "Lyle's been hurt." That was all she said. Eric knew and liked Lyle so that was all he needed to know. When they reached sickbay it was as if it had turned into a museum, the entire place was silent with absolutely no movement whatsoever. The engineer lead her toward where Lyle lay motionless with Stephanie and DeArra standing over him.

It seemed like no one was breathing, even Lyle. Jenifer slowly approached not wishing she was there to see this. There before her, Lyle's pig face was almost unrecognizable due to the blast. His chest never rose, a chill ran down her spine as she realized the impossible. Jenifer looked up to Stephanie and then to DeArra, softly Stephanie whispered her regrets. "I'm sorry, we were just too late."

Jenifer pursed her lips and leaned up against the table as a wave of nausea washed over her. She felt a hand rest on her back. She realized without looking it was Eric. She moved away and let her back look upon the others. For a minute or two she stood there in silence. Jenifer may not have known Lyle long but he was a good man, she liked him. He was bright, funny, and a good worker. How could he die, how could he die?!

She turned back towards the group. Eric had a tear in his eye but was not allowing it to fall. Unlike Jenifer, several wet streaks marked where tears have already fallen. She summoned up the will to speak. "I will notify his family personally, he died because I sent him there, it is the least I could do."

She started out the door when Stephanie stopped her. "Jenifer, there is something else."

Jenifer swiveled and almost spatted out her answer. "What?"

Stephanie motioned her back toward the table. Pulling back the blanket over Lyle's chest revealed and even bloodier mess. Jenifer did not care to look but if Stephanie insisted she would, she'd do it. She looked but saw nothing out of the ordinary for an explosion of this type. She faced Stephanie, "So?"

Stephanie carefully fingered several scars across his chest. "Do you recognize these."

Jenifer leaned over to get a closer look and traced over the scars herself. "These look like knife wounds." She looked again at Stephanie, her eyes questioned her to see if she was correct.

"Yes they are. Unfortunately we know that Hank was the last person with him." Stephanie put in.

DeArra interrupted her. "It is possible however that someone else had killed him and Hank found him that way."

Amini corrected her. "If someone else did this to him then he wouldn't have been able to be standing there for the explosion."

Jenifer stood in thought. "How long between the time of the explosion and the time you intercepted him in the hallway."

DeArra responded quickly. "It couldn't be more than five minutes."

"Which could have been enough time for Hank or someone to finish him off if the explosion did not kill him." Jenifer observed.

"What if someone did try, or did kill him before the explosion." Eric began.

Stephanie continued for him. "Yet his scars indicate that he was standing, facing, the explosion. It is possible that someone or something could have been holding him up if they knew the explosion was coming." After a half a second she added, "Or, if he himself caused the explosion."

Jenifer frowned deep into thought. "We must find the knife first off."

"And if the suspect has disposed of it?" DeArra asked.

Jenifer took one last look at the scars. "I don't think so. Orions hold their knifes as sacred objects."

"Orions." DeArra was astonished. "Since when did the Orions come into the picture?"

Jenifer pointed at the scars. "Since Those scars bear a remarkable resemblance to a popular Orion knife known as the Ulo. Leaves a scar that can be identified easily. See the small zigzag near the end of the wound." Jenifer pointed toward the small z shaped pattern at the end of the scar. "That is characteristic of this knife. Now either Hank, or whoever is the killer, is Orion, or they have good connections. These knives are only sold to Orions within the Orion trading center. It is unusual for non-Orions to carry them."

DeArra did not want to hear this. It was not what she needed. She did not want a traitor on her ship, especially one that she knew that one of her crew members would try to get vengeance upon. "I must talk to the captain about this."

"Aren't you going to question him?" Jenifer stepped in her way as she started to walk out of sickbay.

"I will wait until I hear from the captain." She then stepped passed Jenifer, Jenifer made a grunting, cursing sound and walked back to Lyle. DeArra only stopped on her way out to talk to Eric quietly. "Watch her. I'm trusting you to keep her out of trouble." He nodded and she left.

Chapter 3

Arron sat on the bridge. He had yet to hear any reports on the engines from either Kiljian or Quintero. What could be going on down there? Were they going to blow up at any second? Or were the engines fixed? Setek did inform him that the engines were now off line, but what did that mean? He was ready to walk down there and find out for himself. He stood straightened his beret and entered the turbolift. The turbolift stopped on the way to engineering. Who to enter but his first officer. She straightened as she saw him standing there. "Sir, I was just on my way to see you."

"And I you commander. You have something to report I hope." He was business as usual.

"Yes sir." DeArra reported. "The engines have been repaired and ready for your use. The problem was the coolant pressure was too high and the containment field was not enough to hold it. The coolant pressure was set back to normal and the field was stabilized. There was also an error in the matter antimatter ratio, that was fixed easily by regulating the matter. However there was one casualty. Ensign Lyle Youk. He was killed in an explosion in jeffries tube nine caused by the off balance of the ratio. There is a problem, Doctor Koval also found several knife wounds. Commander Quintero recognized them as Orion and Hank Williams was the last person known to be with the Ensign."

"I see." The captain considered it. "Have you taken any actions against Mr. Williams?"

"No sir. I was waiting for your word on the matter."

Arron thought about it for a moment. "Let's go to sickbay, then I want to examine Jefrries tube nine and engineering. If someone else is involved I want to know about it." He walked off straight to sickbay.

Once they arrived it was silent, but the feeling was not the same as it was before. Now everyone had departed and Lyle's body was no longer on the bed, he was more than likely moved to a stasis unit in the morgue. He looked around and walked straight into the doctors office. Stephanie was there presumably making out a report on the past events. Arron cleared his voice to get Stephanie's attention. She looked up and nodded her head in acknowledgment. "Is it possible to see Ensign Youk?"

"If you like, I can have Nurse Flob to escort you. I'm sorry I can't, I have to finish up this report." Stephanie said without raising her head.

When Arron turned around Nurse Flob was there waiting for him. He was unaware that Stephanie had even called for him, but he was there nonetheless. Both DeArra and Arron followed him to the stasis chamber and saw a single casket there. The nurse left them there alone. Arron walked up to the casket and put his hand on it, trying to pull something, anything from the lifeless form. DeArra looked upon them, she noticed that Doctor Koval was able to clean up Lyle's appearance where he was recognizable, yet he still had many scars. Arron on the other hand looked horrible. He had lost few people under his command and each time it was hard for him. "I do not like this." Arron looked up to DeArra. "This has the feeling of something bad. Why would someone kill an ensign, he was not important. There must be something else involved." He stopped took one last look at the ensign. "We'll have his funeral services tomorrow at eighteen hundred hours. For now lets get down to engineering."

***

"Boy is it ever smoldering in there. I don't see how he was kept in one piece." Greg Amini leaned in half way in the tube.

Jenifer and Eric had already climbed inside tricorders in hand. "He was more than likely at the end of the tunnel furthest away from the blast. Especially if someone was holding him up, he wouldn't want to be where the blast was exactly, otherwise he would have gotten it too."

"Why are you so insistent that it was Hank that killed Lyle." Eric asked climbing after her toward the center of the blast.

"You saw the scars, you know that Hank was the last person with him. It has to be him, if only the captain would let me go and find the knife in his cabin I could prove it." Jenifer finally reached the broken metal where the explosion had occurred. She scanned the surface of the metal. "Fifty-five square centimeters of Nitronium, and only six square centimeters of duranium. This is strange, I would expect more then six." She paused for a moment scanning. "Well, well, well. Look here." She reached in behind the metal slab and picked up a small device. "A detonator. This obviously wasn't an accident, and it's my bet that neither was the coolant leak." She scanned further. "Yep, I'm finding traces that this thing was hooked up to the core, defiantly sabotage. I bet Hank was the one that caused the error in the ratio in the first place. I've got to tell the captain."

"Tell the captain what?" Steele's voice boomed and echoed across the metal walls around them.

"Sir, we've been sabotaged. Eric, back out of here please." They climbed out of the tube and Jenifer sat on the end of the tube handing Steele the detonator. "I have to tell you I believe it's Hank Williams."

"Because he was the last one in this tube?"

"No sir, because he's the only one other than Eric and myself that knows enough about engineering to design that type of detonator. It is electromagnetically coupled to the engine core, which means that it does not require a second detonator to be hooked up at the sight of the explosion. This one could have been detonated from the bridge and would still work."

Eric looked at her strangely. "Then why was it hidden behind the wall?"

Jenifer shrugged. "I guess he wanted it to be destroyed in the blast, but because of the angle of the explosion the wall was able to protect it very well. It's down but not out."

Arron looked over the detonator carefully. It was beaten up. As he looked closer he noticed a small discoloration, he couldn't tell what it was but he knew someone who could. "Mr. Kiljian, take this down to Dr. Koval, I want her to do a run on this stain." DeArra took it and walked off without a word. Arron then turned to Eric. "Mr. Quintero, if you will excuse us I would like to talk to my chief engineer in private."

Eric took hold of Jenifer's hand as if he did not wish to leave her in her present state of mind. He smiled at her and walked slowly back to engineering. Jenifer remained seated waiting for the captain to speak.

Arron sighed and leaned his back against the bulkhead his beret moved forward making him look as if he had just come back from a battle and was determined to destroy the enemy. There was no enemy however, at least not physical ones. "Jenifer, I know what you are thinking. With the accidents in engineering and Lyle's death, and all. I can assure you that Dijon is not and can not be behind this. The Klingons are keeping him well guarded, there is no way that he could be free and organizing this. It could be all of these things are coincidence. It is possible that someone is trying to sabotage the ship, but they are not necessarily Orion or Hank Williams. Until we get more proof I want you to go on about your business. I also want you to treat Mr. Williams as normal, he may be a suspect but he is not condemned yet. Is that understood?"

Jenifer had lowered her head about halfway through his speech more in thought than in shame. Quietly she answered him. "Yes sir."

"Now, get back on the job, I need you in there to make sure nothing else like this happens again."

She stood. There was no ordinary smile that came with her when she was to attend to her engines. She was not as care free as she was a mere few hours ago. She had changed. It wasn't the first time he had seen her like this, she was this way when ever the subject of the Orions came up, it is as if whenever that word was mentioned she got nostalgic, but not in a good way. She walked away out of his sight.

***

Stephanie had called Arron to sickbay ten minutes ago and he still wasn't there. She knew he took his time going places but this was getting ridiculous. She had important information here that she didn't think she could hold in much longer. The doors to sickbay finally, finally, opened and thank god it was Arron. She waved him over to her office. Once he reached the door way she started out not wanting to wait another second. "You remember that stain on the detonator? It was a blood stain, and no ordinary blood stain at that. It is copper based blood. Since we have a few species with copper based blood on the ship I did further research into the blood and I came up with the DNA pattern of one person, would you like to guess who that is?" Stephanie smiled, she was happy that they finally got to the bottom of this mystery, but getting the murder into custody would be an entirely different matter.

Chapter 4

Jenifer signed the report off reluctantly that Hank had given her. She handed it back to him. As she did so she noticed something strange. He had a cut on his finger. It was so small that normally she would not notice it but she did now. She started to wonder why he had not taken care of it with a suture. She stopped him for a moment. "Hank where did you get that cut?"

"What cut? Oh, the one on my finger. I, uh," He stumbled for a moment as if he was looking up an excuse. "I was working at a console and I scraped it against the edge of the table."

Jenifer thought about the truth of his words. "I don't think so. These tables are designed not to inflict injuries of that sort. Tell me truthfully this time where did you get that scar?"

He did not pause this time. "I got it from the explosion. A metal fragment came out and hit me."

Jenifer shook her head. "Try again, please."

He stared at her in disbelief, for some reason Jenifer was not buying a word he said. "Why do you look at me like that commander? What I say is true."

"Then why wasn't that your first response?"

He looked to the report as if examining it for help in answering her questions. He looked back up at her with a different expression on his face. His eyes were lit with fire and his jaw was clenched. "All right commander, you want the truth. You've got it. I am Orion and I have been sent by Dijon Maris to kill you."

He saw now a change in Jenifer, one of determination and hate. She moved forward. Out of the blue he threw the notepad at her and ran off down the hall. Without a seconds thought she ran after him. He ran off into the main engine room and did a U-turn around the main work table and stopped on the opposite side of it. Jenifer stopped as well knowing that if she chased him from here it would be useless. "If you are Orion you would stand and fight me."

A crowd had started to form around them, no one wanting to interfere for fear of getting hurt, yet they knew they had to do something. In the back ground the sound of someone calling security could be heard. Hank ignored the happenings around him and responded to his former commander. "Who said I'm not ready for a fight?"

With that remark Jenifer leaped over the table and onto her opponent. He was unprepared for that attack and nearly fell over. He recovered quickly and threw her off of him. She hit the bulkhead with the thud but came charging back at Hank. Hank blocked her fist and pounded her in the stomach with his own. She came back with a fist in his face and a kick to his groin immediately there after. He swatted at her with a double fist , but she ducked in time while knocking him off his feet with her leg. She got down on her knees to hold him down. He reached up and grabbed her by the throat. She struggled at first trying to pull his hands away from her but his grasp only tightened. Finally she did only what was her last result. She smashed her fist into his face causing his head to bounce off of the floor. She knew that with the blow directed as it was it would cause at the least a small concussion. As she had predicted it did. His hands fell away from her throat and his entire body went limp.

She stood up and rubbed her throat. She did not notice that security had already shown up and taken Hank out of the room. Nor had she noticed that the room has emptied out and only one person remained. The man cleared his thought and she looked up to confront her captain. "Sir." She straightened her throat still a little scratchy.

"I thought I had told you to lay off of him. I should have had security take you too." Arron looked her straight in the eyes.

"But sir." She protested. "He had confessed to me."

"Yes and if it wasn't for that fact and for the fact that Dr. Koval found his blood on the detonator I would have had security confine you in the brig. I say you lucked out this time."

Jenifer was ashamed, she knew she shouldn't have acted in this manner, yet she could think of no better way to resolve the situation. "Sir, I have a question."

"Go ahead." He looked upon her sympathetically, she was having a hard time controlling her emotions and he now understood why.

"The blood sample that Stephanie had found was it..." She didn't want to ask she didn't want to hear that what Hank had said was true.

He gave her the answer even though he knew that she didn't want to know. "He is Orion."

"Oh great." Her legs fell out from underneath her and she slid to the ground. "That means Dijon did send him."

"You don't know that for sure." Arron knelt down besides her and tried to comfort her. "He could be on a mission to just generally get information and destroy our forces. We will know for sure when we question him. You could be there when we do, if you like."

"I don't know Arron. I mean this guy is not only our enemy he's mine too. Aren't you afraid I might kill him." Normally Steele would just take that as another sarcastic remark, but this time she seemed serious.

"Jenifer please, there will be security officers there." He smiled hopping it would be contagious, it was.

"I guess so." She smiled softly looking up as if she were looking straight through him.

Arron looked behind him and found Eric standing there waiting for Jenifer. "All right I'll call you when were ready to question him." Arron stood looked at Eric then walked out passed him.

Jenifer stood with the help of Eric and looked toward where the captain had walked out. "You didn't have to go and make those faces behind his back you know." She laughed and kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks anyway."

***

Arron stared in the man's eyes, the man did not cower away, he sat there not answering any questions the captain put to him. Arron on the other hand was ready to strangle the Orion. The Orion more than likely wouldn't mind since he was willing to die, the guards had to wrestle a Tellarian poison chip away from him.

Behind Arron Steele and the guards Jenifer Quintero stood watching over the whole event. She knew Steele's approach was all wrong , she would interrupt but she had an agreement with the captain that she would not get involved. Now he was looking to her, he had turned his back on their prisoner and was in need of help. He walked over to her and whispered so only he and she could hear their conversation. "Jenny, this isn't going the way I expected, can you help out here."

"But you said you didn't need help." She stood leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.

"Jenifer, please, don't make me beg."

"You know full well I love it when you beg." Jenifer kidded him and walked over to the shield. She pulled up a chair and straddled it. She stared at her former engineer and he stared back. Finally she spoke. "Negle birn Olaf?" It was strange to speak the language again.

"Bolgla puca." The Orion did not seem happy.

Arron leaned over Jenifer's shoulder and asked. "What's going on?"

She translated for him. "I asked him what his real name was and he told me to go to hell."

"Sounds like you're doing as good as I was." Arron complained.

"Give me a minute will you." Jenifer turned away from her captain and faced the Orion once again. "Mira Lobirn from Maris nom lack?"

"Pos une yas."

"What now?" Arron asked.

Jenifer was getting annoyed, he kept on interrupting after each little conversation she had with him. "I asked him what his connection with Maris was, he said he never heard of him."

"Jenifer I need to know why he sabotaged us. I know Maris is important to you but it isn't as important as this ship."

"All right." She turned once again to the Orion. "pic Thell Wen bull wiff Vas io qes." The Orion was silent for a second and Jenifer urged him on. "Cex Ipu."

The Orion looked at her and stared and stared. He seemed unsure of himself. He stared into her eyes once again. "Id hana warner Os Don."

Jenifer smiled and stood up. Without waiting for Arron to ask what was up she filled him in. "He said that he doesn't know exactly who his employer is but he said we can find them in the Antaris sector."

Arron was suspicious. "He said all that in that short sentence."

"Well, in their language few words say a lot." She said that and walked out.

***

Jason set down the coffee cup and sat across the table from Stephanie, Darian and DeArra. "So what do you think is really going on? Is it some kind of conspiracy or something?"

"Well, I did find Hank Williams blood on the detonator. Arron and Jenifer are interrogating him now." Stephanie told him. "I think there was some ulterior motive but don't ask me what."

"Isn't Hank Orion?" DeArra asked recalling the personal record of Williams that she had read recently, when this all came up.

"He is?" Darian seemed surprised.

Stephanie confirmed it. "Yes, he was born Orion but was brought up human. He was orphaned when an Orion colony was attacked by Klingons, the Federation came in and picked up the pieces."

"How do you know so much about him?" DeArra was curious.

"Well, someone had to figure out why he had Orion blood in him. I did that research when he first came on the ship." Stephanie confessed. "I never thought he would be a traitor."

"Maybe he isn't maybe someone framed him." Darian defended the Orion. He had only talked to him a few times but Hank had seemed okay to him.

"Darian there's every shred of proof toward him, I don't see how anyone else could have possibly killed Lyle." Jason sounded as if he were a prosecutor trying to prove his case. "The blood on the detonator just tops the cake, and I know that when they search his cabin they'll find the knife, probably sitting out in plain sight."

"I kind of hope he's innocent. He seems like a nice guy." DeArra also defended him.

Stephanie turned to confront her. "You know it's possible that he wanted to blow up the entire ship just not the jeffries tube. You personally should know how Orions are, you've dealt with them, one moment they're nice and sweet and the next they're stabbing a knife in your back, or your chest what ever the case may be."

"But he was in the same corridor, you would think he wouldn't risk himself to kill someone else." Darian stood up for what he believed in.

"If you will recall, Darian, he didn't have a scratch except for the one on his finger which he cut on the detonator." Jason too stood up for what he believed in.

"Then maybe he wasn't anywhere near the explosion and couldn't have set it off."

"He could have had a remote control to trigger the detonator."

DeArra quieted them. "We will find out all those answers when they search his cabin. We may even find out right now, here comes Arron."

Arron walked in and stood, he seemed to have no intention of sitting down for conversation. "I thought I would inform you of the out come of the interrogation. All we were able to get from him is that his employers are hiding out in the Anteries sector. As soon as possible I would like you to set a course, we will search every habitable and inhabitable rock until we find who sent him, no other matter will take priority over this. That is all." He walked out not allowing questions which they were full of.

DeArra looked at her friends around the table. "You heard the captain, let's get to work."

Jason drained his cup of coffee and followed the others out. He however did not go to the bridge, he had already put in two full straight shifts and was ready for at least a short nap before he went back up to the bridge. He was on his way to his cabin when he noticed a couple guards standing in front of the entrance to a cabin. He stopped to inspect the unusual sight and noticed it was Hank Williams cabin. They were probably in the middle of the search, that would explain the guards. Jason continued on his way.

Chapter 5

Jenifer walked into the empty cabin. It was eerie in a way, it seemed almost like home and yet it was alien. She couldn't believe that this man could act as he did in engineering and still live like an Orion in private. She seriously doubted that he had many visitors, otherwise she probably would have been prepared for this atmosphere.

The walls were bare but the desk and table tops were filled with alien artifacts and nicknacs from around the universe. She knew she would have a hard time trying to search the room for anything important like a knife. She was willing to spend hours in here if need be. However the need not be, for in his bedroom there on the nightstand next to the bed sat three lonely boxes. She picked up the largest of the boxes only because she believed she knew what was in it. She was right. In the padded box was the freshly polished knife, it seemed he wished to get rid of the blood which would incriminate him, he however didn't predict anyone identifying the knife wounds in the first place. Jenifer examined the knife closely and believed that with careful analysis Stephanie wouldn't have any trouble finding small bits of Lyle's DNA left from the blood, on the knife. She also noticed the handle of the knife it had an insignia on it, one very familiar to her, and one that confirmed what Hank had told her in the brig. She placed it neatly back in its box and went on to the next one.

She picked up the second box, it however was a box in itself it was some sort of controlling device. Unsure of it's purpose she put it down for later examination when she had some equipment to analyze it. Lastly she picked up the other box this one too opened to show a solitary communications tape. Curious she placed it in the wall viewer right there by the bed and watched as a face appeared on the screen.

"Hello Jen." The voice went right along with the face. It was Dijon Maris and if this tape was showing now it meant that he was free and on the rampage once again. "If you are watching this now that could only mean that you know about Jua Rise, you may know him better as Hank Williams. Yes he was sent by my men to watch over you until I was able to escape the imprisonment you put me into, and don't think I have forgiven you. I am glad however that he has not killed you, I made it clear to all my people that the pleasure of seeing you dead was mine and mine alone. So until then." He puckered his milky green lips and blew a kiss out toward the screen to her. "I will see you soon my love." His face stayed on the screen for a few seconds more and then the screen was shattered and sparks flew as a knife pierced the glass. Dijon's face was split into a million pieces on the screen and then blinked off.

***

Jenifer walked into her own cabin. It was a bit more comfortable, it had an almost soothing effect on her, she calmed down slightly as she walked in the door. Eric was no where within the front part of the cabin and she had no wish to go searching for him. She just laid herself down on the couch and closed her eyes. A sweet smell came rushing through the cabin. She opened her eyes to see the origin of the delicious smell and saw Eric entering the room with a tray of cookies in his arms. He set the tray down on the table in front of the couch while she moved to make room for him. He sat handing her a peanut butter cookie. "So, did you find anything interesting in Hanks quarters?"

"Yes, very interesting." She took a bite out of the cookie then her eyes lit up and she sat straight. "Damn, I forgot the controller. I went out of there in such a rage I forgot to pick it up."

"What controller? Wait, why did you leave in such a rage?" Neither of his questions were answered she was already racing out the door and down the hall. She wanted to get a hold of the controller before security did, as well as the tape, they would allow suspicion to enter Captain Steele's head before she wanted him to know of the connection between Hank and Dijon. The controller was of less importance, she just wanted to know exactly what it's purpose was. She reached the cabin but found that she was not in time. Arron had just walked out of the cabin with a couple other personnel each holding a box. Arron was not holding a box but a singular chip which looked too much like the tape of Dijon's message. He looked at her his eyes flaring. He was angry and she could tell, she wanted to run form there, but run to where, there was no where to run. She had to confront him.

"Jenifer, I believe you have some explaining to do."

She put on her best confused look. "What in heaven's name do you mean?"

"I mean, this tape from Maris, the knife in the viewer, and you lying about the connection between Williams and Maris." Arron shoved the tape in her face as he spoke.

Jenifer knew she was in for it so she had better confess, perhaps her punishment would not be so server if she did. "All right, I did lie. When I talked to Hank earlier he had told me that he was working for Maris. I'm sorry, but I knew that if you knew Maris was behind this you wouldn't go after him."

"Damned right I wouldn't have. As a matter of fact shortly we will be turning the ship around, I'm not going to jeopardize this crew so you can get revenge on an enemy of yours. Besides, didn't you even think this could be a trap. Maybe Hank wanted to get caught so he could lead you straight into Maris' hands. You were willing to endanger this ship just for the sake of revenge and you withheld vital information, Jenifer I'm very disappointed in you."

Jenifer was so taken aback by Arron's tone of voice she had unknowingly backed herself in a corner against the bulkhead and he was still right in her face. He too seemed to notice that she had backed away. He looked at her considering his choices. He could either forget this all happened or he could turn her and Williams into the authorities. His heart told him to forget it but his Starfleet training told him otherwise. "You are relieved of duty and restricted to quarters until further notice." He stepped back to give her room to walk. She lowered her head and started to walk back in the direction of her cabin. Arron knew her as a proud woman, but he had shattered all that. She now had truly lost her fight against Dijon Maris, all the fight in her was gone.

***

Arron walked onto the bridge and greeted his first officer. "Change course heading 769.3 mark 11 and maintain current speed."

"Aye sir. " DeArra related the order to the helmsman.

At the same time Arron called out over the intercom. "Lieutenant Quintero please report to the bridge."

"What's going on?" DeArra usually didn't question his orders, but with the course change all of a sudden and now he was calling Eric to the bridge and not Jenifer, she believed she had a right to know what was up.

He sat in his command chair and lowered his voice only so DeArra could hear him. "Williams was working for Maris, he had told Jenifer where Maris is hiding out." He sighed remembering the look on Jenifer's face. "She lied to me about it, I thought we were going after someone else other than Maris. She then entered Williams cabin without permission, she discovered a message from Maris directed to her, and she put the incriminating knife through the screen she was watching it on. I met her on my way out of the cabin and I can only assume she was coming back to destroy the tape."

"So you relieved her of duty." DeArra knew him well.

"Yes, wouldn't you?" There was a bit of remorse in his voice.

"Of course I would. Witholding information in itself is considered mutiny, she could be court-martialed for it." DeArra said, she felt bad about saying it but it was the truth. She then tried to justify his actions for him. "No matter how close a person is to you, if they do something wrong, you have to do something about it, you can't let them get away with doing something that's not right. That in itself would be wrong."

"Then why do I feel so bad about it." Arron asked.

"Because she's your friend." DeArra put her hand on his, he squeezed it.

At this time Eric Quintero came walking onto the bridge. DeArra saw him and moved off so Arron could speak with him in private. Arron, however, did not whisper this time. He spoke in a voice not loud but loud enough so everyone could hear. "Mr. Quintero as of this time you are now acting chief engineer with all the duties and responsibilities of that rank. Please return to engineering now and make any adjustments you may need."

Eric was confused, but he knew orders when he heard them. "Aye sir."

***

Jenifer tapped her finger on the PADD out of boredom. This was worse than just being relieved of duty, she was cut off from everyone and everything. Even the computer wasn't cooperating, she tried talking to some of the people in engineering and the computer wouldn't put the call through, sometimes she hated technology. She of course being the expert that she is could get around it easily, however, that would only make things worse for her. She put the PADD down and went to look out the window port.

The stars flew by like strings of confetti, she knew Dijon was out there somewhere and it wouldn't be long until he found her. But how long? Hank had infiltrated their starship and there could be others, she couldn't just stand idly by and let her ship get taken over. Of course, now, if she were to try and convince Arron of that it would just make things worse. He thought she was going over the edge. Maybe she was, but how could she let Dijon take over, it was against every moral fiber in her body.

When Jenifer looked away from the window she met Eric who had obviously been standing behind her for several seconds. "Hi." She walked around him and went to the replicator at the other end of the room. "Water two degree's celsius." The glass appeared slightly frosty she took it and drank it all in one gulp. "What's happening in engineering." She said it as if she wasn't interested but merely being polite.

"Nothing interesting really. Jenifer, we are going no where near where Dijon is hiding out." Eric started to explain.

"I know, I could tell when we changed course, I suppose we're heading for the nearest starbase to get my court-martial and Hank's started." Her sarcasm was apparent, there was also sadness in her voice.

"Honey, please, you shouldn't be so down, perhaps you won't get a court-martial." Eric took her by the arm gently.

"Eric, if you were captain and had to deal with what I've been doing wouldn't you court-martial me? I sure as hell would. Not only that but I'm still willing to go further, if we ever encounter Dijon, I am willing to kill him on the spot and anyone who gets in my way. When I have a goal like that I won't act like a Starfleet officer." Jenifer released his grip on her arm and walked into the bedroom.

"What will happen to us if you get court-martialed?" He asked after she had gotten dressed for bed.

"I don't know." She threw her arms up in exasperation. "I guess I will just become a civilian on this ship while you are chief engineer. If Arron won't allow that, then I guess I could go back to earth and see you on shore leave or something."

"No, I wouldn't want that. I could put in my resignation."

"No! Teddy bear, I can't let you do that. Starfleet is your life."

"And it's yours too. Don't you see Jenifer you can't throw it all away like this."

Jenifer sat on the bed and buried her face in her hands. "I already have. It's too late for me, I've already ruined my opportunity to stay in Starfleet, I don't want you to ruin yours."

He sat next to her. "Your point is moot. Where ever you go, I go."

"Even if it's a rehabilitation colony."

"Come on, your crimes aren't that severe."

"Yet. Like I said before and will again, no matter what, Dijon will die before I do. No matter what I have to do to accomplish it."

"This seems to be a circular argument. Besides you're the most stubborn woman I've ever known."

She smiled and brought his face toward hers. They kissed. "I know, that's how I get everything I want. I do mean everything."

"Really, would you like to make a wager?"

"Yes." She embraced him passionately and of course won the bet.

***

A ship came cutting through space. It flew with anger and violence looking for a victim. Something to take the frustration of the hunt out on, anything. This area of space was barren, nothing to blow up and nothing to fight. So the ship continued its search.

"Where are they. They should have been here by now." Dijon said out loud to no one in particular.

There came an answer. "Perhaps your message has not reached them yet master."

"Shut up Taff I wasn't talking to you. Besides they would have gotten the message, he probably hasn't had time to get her to watch it yet." Dijon turned to his newly appointed first officer. Taff was loyal, but he was not Devak whom had served under Dijon for as long as he could remember. She had killed him, for no reason. He now had even more reason to do away with her.

Dijon turned to the other man and confronted him. "She put me through hell and suspended animation. She killed my best servant and my son, I think once she receives the message and knows where I am then it won't be long until she comes after me. That's when I will take out my revenge on her."

"Will she not have a starship on her side?"

Dijon laughed loudly, it echoed through the bridge. "You call that puny, piece of junk a starship." He finished laughing but a little more slipped out as he continued. "It's captain doesn't know a star from a planet, he is worse than his father was."

After a few moments Taff turned back to his station and searched the computer for locations where the Integra could be. "Master there is a starbase in the next sector."

Dijon thought about it. "We will wait. For a while. Then we will intersect them if they do not show up here." Dijon looked toward the screen and wished he had seen some movement, there was none.

Greg Amini placed his tricorder close to the entrance of the open dilithium chamber. Earlier during a routine check he had noticed a slight variation in the core regulation. He figured the best way to find what was happening was to check it out in person. At that time he noticed something and didn't need his tricorder to register it. A small box on the inside of the chamber with a few blinking lights on it. He dared not touch it but did a quick examination of it with the tricorder and it confirmed what he knew it was.

Eric entered his values into the computer and waited for the output. While he waited he noticed someone running through engineering and straight towards him. Eric stood to intercept the person.

Greg Amini came to a skidding halt right in front of Eric. "Sir, we've found bombs. Several of them in the engine core."

Eric looked at him in disbelief. "You're kidding right." Greg shook his head. "Come on, show me." Eric took off toward the engine core.

He grabbed a tricorder on the way and Greg lead him toward the exact location of the first bomb he found. Eric took the tricorder readings of it and looked toward Greg as he hit his communicator. "Engineering to bridge." He continued without waiting for a response. "I recommend full stop immediately, we have a bomb threat. Six bombs have been found, strategically placed in the engine core."

"Please repeat that last statement chief." Captain Steele sounded bewildered.

"We have six bombs placed inside of the engine core, and I might add they are at the hardest to reach places. We need to shut down the engines to get to them." Eric reported.

"What if they are detonated by shutting down the engines?" Arron asked cautiously.

"Sir, I think we have to take that chance. Besides it's the only way to get them out of there."

"All right, do what you can. I'll be coming down shortly to check it out."

"Aye sir. Quintero out." Eric looked toward Greg and nodded toward the engine core. "Let's get those things out of there."

Twenty minutes later and without success Eric and Greg took a short break. Greg picked up a couple of glasses of water and sat down. "I don't know about those bombs. This one we can't even figure out what would detonate it."

Eric took a drink. "If we know how to disable one, then the others will be easy to get rid of. It will just take us a while to do this one."

An hour later, they had given up on the first one and was onto the second bomb with no luck at all. Eric just happened to look down while wiping sweat off his brow to see Arron Steele enter engineering. He started moving downward and Steele stopped him with a wave of his hand. "Don't come down please, keep working." Steele climbed up the ladder to where Eric and Greg were working on the bomb. "What have you found out?"

"Sir, it doesn't look good. It's been over an hour and all we've figured out is that each one of these bombs are set up differently. I estimate it will take us about seven hours to get all of these things disabled." Eric reported.

"There is a complication however," Greg continued where Eric left off. "This bomb and a couple other have a timing device on them and each are set to go off at different times but each under four hours from now."

Arron looked at the bomb and had no decision to make there was only one choice. "Take out the ones with the timers first, then go onto the others."

Eric nodded, "That's what we were in the middle of doing, but it will still take us more than three hours to do all of those. However, I know someone who could do it in an hour."

"And who praytell would that be?"

Eric was ready for a lashing after he gave his answer so he gave his explanation at the same time. "Jenifer, all she needs to do is a primary analysis on it, which takes five minutes, then she'll be able to take care of them easily."

Arron didn't even think about it. "I'm sure she could, however she is not on duty. You are Chief Engineer, now get those bombs disabled in less then three hours." Steele climbed down the ladder and exited engineering.

Greg looked skeptically toward Eric. "Do you think we can do it?"

"Honestly, you and I and everyone else in engineering don't have a chance at disabling these. Although, when I told Arron that Jenifer could do it if she had a chance to look at these." Eric paused making sure Steele had left the room. "I was thinking though that with just our tricorder readings, she could diagnose the problem and give us an answer, without leaving our quarters."

"Sounds good to me."

"Let's prepare a tape and have Johnson take it to her." Eric slid down the ladder and hooked his tricorder up to the computer.

"Bingo." Greg snapped the bomb encasement off the inside wall of the engine. He half threw the bomb over to Eric. "Think fast."

Eric caught it easily and laughed. "If it wasn't for Jenifer I'd be dead, you know." Eric handed the bomb to one of the assistants standing by. "Well, two more to go with timers and an hour and a half left before they go off."

"You honestly think we can do it?" Greg leaned back against the wall.

Eric looked up to where the next bomb lay above them. "I wish I could tell you one way or the other. I just don't know and the only way to find out -"

"Is by doing." Greg finished for him and climbed upward as an alarm went off. Greg lost his grip for a second and nearly fell. "What was that."

Eric called down to main engineering. "Report, what just happened?"

"A bomb went off on the starboard nacelle. I don't no how we missed it but we have major damage, I think we're in trouble sir." The assistant called back to him.

Eric gritted his teeth. "Greg, you know what to do, I'll send someone up to help you." He slid all the way down the ladder and as soon as he hit the floor he tapped his communicator. "Engineering to Captain Steele, a bomb has gone off on the starboard nacelle, I'm going there now to check it out. Sir I think Amini's going to need more help other than his current assistant to disable those other bombs."

***

On the bridge Arron looked to his first officer for help, she gave him none. "Do what you can Mr. Quintero, your priority is those other bombs unless it is to dangerous to let the nacelles go."

He could hear the hesitation in Eric's voice. "I guess I could send someone else and keep working on the bombs. Although my offer still stands, about getting Jenifer to help out, you know it wouldn't have to be as a Starfleet officer."

"And my opinion on that still stands. Take care of the problems." Arron stood up and started walking toward the turbolift.

"Wait, where are you going?" DeArra asked.

Arron turned as the doors opened for him. "Engineering, to see if I can help out any."

DeArra smiled, she could feel the worry in his heart and the confusion about what was right and what was wrong. It seemed to her by the way he was feeling that he wasn't going to engineering.

***

Jenifer sat cross legged on a chair in front of the window staring again at the stars. She wondered if she would ever be able to see the stars this close again. Once she was court-martialed, if she didn't get sent to a rehabilitation colony, she would probably settle down on some out of the way planet. She wouldn't ever be able to reach out and grab for the stars, while piloting a starship again.

It was now that she had finally realized what she was doing to herself. She had ruined her life, she had thrown away everything she had worked for. Her engines, her life, and she knew her husband would be next, she knew that he would not leave Starfleet, she wouldn't let him throw away what he has because of her. She knew that what she had done was a mistake, but all that was in the past she could do nothing about it now. She was out of Starfleet and to her all she lived for was gone.

She felt the explosion and knew the ship was on alert. She wished she could help out but knew there was nothing she could do. She felt helpless, trapped, and most of all alone. Is this what she would feel like the rest of her life? Is this what she would have to put up with, knowing there is a problem and being helpless to do anything about it?

Unsuspectingly the door chime range. She jumped from her chair. She was still shaking when she answered the door. Arron stood on the other side and looked concerned. He took a hold of her arms and sat her down on a chair near the door. "Jenifer, are you okay, you're shaking." He took a hold of her hands to try and stop their shaking.

She shook her head. "I'm okay, just startled."

"No, it's more than that, you would have calmed down by now, what's wrong?"

She tried to stand but was unable to. "I.., I thought, I don't know why I'm still shaking."

He sat down besides her, "You've been through a lot lately, maybe I came in at a bad time."

"Arron, wait." She grabbed his arm as he stood. "Why did you come here. Does it have something to do with the explosion I felt?"

Steele noticed that she had stopped shaking and decided to get on with the reason he was there, besides they were wasting precious time. "Yes it does. There has been several bombs placed in the engine core, and obviously there was one placed on the starboard nacelle."

"I know about the bombs."

"How do you know." Then it hit him.

"How do you think they knew how to disable the bombs in the first place?"

"You didn't set them did you?"

"Are you kidding Arron? If it weren't for Eric, then I would probably be living in engineering. Those engines are all I care about." Jenifer admitted.

"Other than Eric, and killing Dijon."

She now stood getting tired of this line of conversation. "I doubt you came here to remind me of my crimes."

"You're right. I know this goes against everything I'm for and Starfleet laws, but we need your help. If you already know how to disable the bombs you could probably do it in a quarter of the time that Amini and Eric are taking. It would also allow Eric to fix the nacelle. Will you come down to engineering." It sounded as if he were begging her.

She stood and put her hand thoughtfully on her chin. "Let me see, you come in here insulting and accusing me, but yet you want me to fix your ship. I don't know, I don't think you really appreciate me as much as you say you do."

"Jenifer, please, time is running out. I do appreciate you."

"Well, if you do appreciate me then I guess I could do it." She smiled at him. Surprisingly he embraced her and kissed her on the cheek. "I guess you really do appreciate me."

Chapter 6

Jenifer Quintero walked into engineering head held high. Two security guards flanked her, one on either side. Arron said it was just a precaution, she agreed, but a precaution against what? She clasped her hands together loudly. "All right people let's get to work."

Heads all around the area turned, one called out. "Jenifer, you're back."

At the sound of her name Eric quickly dropped out of the core and stared in disbelief. Jenifer stared back and understood his feelings of happiness, she shared them as well, but she could not let them get in her way, there were more important things to take care of. "Eric take Bob Johnson and see what you can do with the nacelle. I'll help Greg finish up with those bombs."

"You got it." Eric picked up his box of tools and went for the turbolift.

Jenifer moved to her storage locker and took out her tools, she climbed up the ladder with Greg and the guards flanked the opening to the core. She looked down at the guards once more and shook her head. "This is ridiculous." She said to no one in particular, but since Greg was there she went on. "What do they think I'm going to do? Intentionally set off these bombs?"

"The universe moves in mysterious ways Jenny. Maybe they're here to protect you from Hank?" Greg climbed the rest of the way up to a ledge where the next bomb was resting.

"You mean Jua Rise. I should have known he was an Orion from the start, just by the way he acted." She never moved she just hung there on the ladder.

"You shouldn't blame yourself, after all, I spent a certain amount of time with Orions myself." He said it so casually she was unsure he was kidding.

Jenifer climbed the rest of the way up the ladder and sat on the ledge across from him. "Oh, really? What ship did you serve on?"

He smiled. "No ship. I was undercover on Neumera. Starfleet wanted me to recover several prisoners the Orions had taken."

Jenifer became a little suspicious. "And a couple of secrets too, no doubt?"

"No doubt. Actually I was only on the planet for a couple of months. Not much time to get too many secrets. Though, there were a few..." He stopped in mid-sentence and started to inspect the bomb.

"A few? A few what?" She urged him as she got some tools ready.

"Nothing, believe me you don't want to know what I found out." He took a hydrospanner from her.

"What was it? It wasn't anything about me was it?" She became very curious, however her mind was also set on defusing the bomb. "Set the () calibrateed to 20 percent of maximum."

As he changed the calibration, he shook his head. "Nothing about you directly. There were some things about Maris, and a Romulan named San. I think this was sometime after you left the Orions. Actually it was only about seven years ago."

She stopped after he mentioned Kormin San. "San? What did you find out about him?"

He was confused, he knew, like everyone else in engineering, how she had spent time with Maris and the Orions, but he knew nothing about her relationship with the Romulan. "At the time he had just been captured by some of Maris' people. There was something about a trial. I'm sorry but I don't believe he survived."

She looked at him. "Seven years ago. That puts that just about right after the time we captured Maris." She looked toward the bomb and twisted a scanner around in her hand. "Stator rel. God, I should have kept in touch with him." She looked from the scanner to Greg. "And don't tell me there was nothing I could do. There is always something I can do to change things. Right now, if we don't defuse these bombs, then I will be regretting it later."

"Optimist." Greg smiled and didn't say anymore, he knew what she was thinking, and didn't want to upset her anymore.

***

"Ten minutes and counting." Darian watched the chronometer as the seconds ticked by.

DeArra whipped around from her station. "Do you have to do that?"

He swirled around in his chair. "Sorry for doing my job, commander."

"Hey" Arron didn't even need to raise his voice to get the two to quiet down. "Can we have a little piece in our last few minutes in this universe?"

DeArra turned back to her station. Without looking Darian said, "Nine minutes and counting." DeArra did not give him a second look, however, Steele glared at him as if saying, "Say it again and you will die before your time." With that Darian turned and minded his own business.

***

Eric and Bob walked into engineering, having finished the preliminary work on the nacelle. The rest of the work will have to be done when they reach the space station. If they reach the space station.

Engineering was as quite as a student library. The only sounds that could be heard were the beeping of the computer, the breathing of the engineers standing around the core, and Jenifer and Greg defusing the last of the bombs. Suddenly out of no where, or rather over the loudspeaker a voice was heard. "Nine minutes and counting."

"Will somebody shut him up." Jenifer yelled down from the core. "It's bad enough having to defuse this thing, but do I have to be reminded of the deadline?" It had only taken her an hour to disable all the bombs but this one, unfortuantly when they began examining this one, they had found that it had a hidden timer, one that was near the end of its countdown.

Bob leaned over to Eric. "Good old Jenifer, sarcastic to the end."

Eric wasn't listening, in fact, by the time Bob finished Eric was already moving up the ladder.

Jenifer looked at her toolbox. She just sat there staring at it. Greg looked confused. "What's wrong." He sounded a little nervous too.

She scratched her head as if she had all the time in the world. "I don't see my cutters in here."

Shaking his hands a little Greg searched his tools. "I..I don't have them either. Maybe you left them at the last bomb. I'll go check." He put his foot on the first rung of the ladder and looked down. "Oh, I shouldn't have done that. It's a long drop."

"Be careful." Jenifer warned.

"You don't have to tell me twice." Slowly he lowered himself a couple of rungs. Step by step he took it slowly. He then realized they hadn't had another update on how long they had left. He began to worry, what if they didn't have enough time? He took another step downward. As soon as his boot hit the rung he knew it didn't connect right. His foot slipped out from under him.

Jenifer saw what was happening she tried to reach for him. Either he was too far down, or she was just a little late. It did not matter, he was falling.

Greg was falling, he knew that now, because of his small slip up, the entire ship would explode and everyone on it would die. He had no fear of his own death, after all, the ship would probably be gone before he hit the bottom.

As he sped faster and faster to his impending death, his descent was halted. At first he wondered if he had hit bottom so soon and was already dead. Of course once he was shoved up onto a shelf in the core and saw Eric looking back at him, he knew better.

Without a word Eric ascended towards Jenifer with the cutters in his hand. Before he even reached the ledge where Jenny was he reached out and handed her the cutters. She grabbed them greedily and went to work. Only she knew how long they had left, since the timer was right there in front of her face.

For what seemed like an infinite amount of time she worked quietly. The ship was even quieter at this moment then it ever had been. It seemed as if everyone on board at the same time was praying to what ever God they believed in. Suddenly, out of nowhere one word was shouted that could be heard throughout the ship without a communicator. "DONE!"

As if to confirm it Setek's voice chimed all over the ship through the intercom. "One minute and...Wait, it's stopped." He was quite for exactly one minute, just to make sure. "That's it, she did it." A loud cheer could be heard throughout the ship as everyone on board felt alive once again.

However, once it quieted down, there was a sound louder than anything else they had heard so far. "BOOM!!!" The ship seemed to rock as everyone jumped out of their skin. Had they underestimated the bombs?

A laugh was heard then. "Sorry, just kidding, boy is this ship jumpy or what?" Everyone looked up the engine core to see former Chief engineer Jenifer Quintero, laying on her side laughing as if there was no tomorrow.

Eric for that matter was still hugging the ladder as tight as he could. It seemed that he was only one of the several hundred people on the ship fooled by her little joke.

Jenifer and Eric stood on the bridge giving the report to Captain Steele. "So once we got out of the engine core we had some techs take the bombs to the transporter room. They were transported out into space where the bombs can do no harm as molecules." She looked around the bridge and lowered her head. "Now I'll go back to my room like a good little girl, where I can't cause any trouble."

Arron Steele stopped her in her tracks. "Just one moment. Though you should be court-martialed just for that little stunt you pulled scaring people, I'm going to give you back your duty as chief engineer. You saved our butts, and a traitor wouldn't do that." He stopped to watch her face light up. "However, this little event will go on your record and we will let the Admiralty interpret it anyway they like. Is that understood."

"Crystal clear sir." Jenifer gave him an old style salute and walked off the bridge with Eric on her heels.

DeArra came and walked up to his side anticipating his need to talk to somebody. "I noticed that she's feeling a little better. Her wit is certainly back where it belongs."

DeArra nodded and added her thoughts. "Yet, she still feels empty. She also still feels the need for revenge."

"I was afraid you were going to say that." Arron shrugged and headed back for his chair. "All I know is, I'm the one that has to stand in the way. I can not, no matter how much I wish to, can not let her get that revenge."

***

Captain's Log Stardate 3563.4; The starship Lumier has been assigned to our scouting duties in the Doimor system, keeping it safe from pirates, while we receive a new nacelle at starbase 34. Hank Williams, alias Jua Rise, has been dropped off at starbase security and will be facing court-martial in a couple of weeks since he has already pleaded guilty to his crimes.

My chief engineer, while under surveillance, is doing her duty to the best of her ability. Despite the fact that she feels the need for revenge on the Orions for two or perhaps more murders. At present she listens to reason and does not question my orders. I am worried though, that in the future she may make a decision we will all regret.

***

The main court of Starbase 34 was crowded as seven officers from the Integra walked through. While the Integra was getting fixed they had even more spare time on their hands then they did before. However, chief engineer Quintero felt as if she was being kidnapped. She had argued with them, insisting that she stay and help fix the nacelle or supervise various other things in engineering. Her husband, along with the rest of the bridge crew commandeered her into coming down with them. Their reasoning was that she was off duty and should relax. She came back at them with the fact that her engines needed her touch and not some strangers, as well as the fact that she was always relaxed, she just liked working. Yet they out numbered her six to one, so there she was, bored stiffless.

Stephanie wandered off to the side as she noticed a small shop with beautiful alien clothes. The group followed in the general direction and split off as each found something that interested them more than clothing. That left Arron, Jenifer, and Eric standing in the court yard. Eric glanced up towards the sky. "Nice day, isn't it sir?" Eric tried to initiate some small talk.

"Yup." Arron watched people move all around him. Obviously the small talk bit wasn't working.

"With respect, Arron." Jenifer caught his attention with her informality. "I believe what Eric's trying to say, you go off and find DeArra or something, the two of us would like to be alone."

"With all due respect to you Jenifer, somebody has to keep an eye on you." Arron watched the crowd go by rather than directly talking to Jenifer.

"Don't you trust Eric to do that?" She sounded somewhat offended.

He thought about it for a minute or two. "Of course I do. I trust Eric completely. It's you I don't trust."

He had said it lightheartedly, that's why he was not expecting the reaction he received from Jenifer. "You don't trust me? How could you say that? Let me tell you something right now Arron Steele. I have always been loyal to you and to Starfleet. Just because an Orion shows his face out of the blue, you don't trust me any longer. I thought I had proven to you by disabling the bombs and by not turning the ship around myself (I could have you know) that I am loyal, very loyal.

"If I choose to risk my life to bring out the justice that Starfleet can not serve that does not mean that I am not loyal to Starfleet." Jenifer's temper now started to fume. "If Maris were here, right now, it is true I would kill him on the spot, but that does not mean that you should mistrust me, because I would not kill you or anyone else. Hell, I wouldn't even kill Rise, he may be Orion and working for Maris, but he is not the man I am after.

"So, next time you doubt me, why don't you ask my feelings first before you assume something." She then smiled. "After all you do know what assume stands for don't you?" When he shook his head she supplied him the answer. "It stands for, makes and ass out of you and me. So stop being an ass and try asking my opinion next time." She walked off in a hurry and Eric could hardly keep pace with her. Arron on the other hand stood and watched her go. He knew her well enough not to try and confront her any further.

"Who does he think I am, some sort of idiot." She heard Eric's foot falls behind her and knew he would comment. "Don't answer that. The guy has got to learn to trust me. After all look at what I did for him yesterday. I saved the whole damn ship, and he doesn't care. Hell, I've saved his life a number of times, and most of the time he takes the credit for saving the day."

Eric kept quiet. He knew that when she cursed as much as she was now, she is not in the mood for conversation. She was merely thinking out loud. "That Muskat of a captain isn't fit to wear a janitorial uniform. And he could use a lesson or two on manners. Did you see the way he treated me back there. It was as if I was his prisoner. Of all things, I thought he was my friend."

She was walking along rather fast, admittedly angered, when she bumped into a young Andorian. Or perhaps he bumped into her, she wasn't really that sure because she wasn't paying attention. She took his hand and helped him to his feet. Nodding to her he shook her hand in gratitude and ran off before anything could be said. Jenifer looked to Eric and shrugged.

Chapter 7

Stephanie held an elegant dress up in front of her and turned from side to side to get the best view in the mirror. "Oh, look at this. I must have it."

DeArra laughed. "You think you can afford that with what Starfleet is paying us? Besides what special occasion would you wear it too? I don't believe there is a ball scheduled anytime soon."

"Get a grip DeArra. I'm not going to buy it. I just like the way it sparkles. And look how it brings out the color of my skin." Stephanie wiggled her arm out towards the mirror as if she could see her skin any better from that angle.

At that time Arron walked in. After his conversation with Jenifer, or rather her conversation with him, he was not a happy camper. It also seemed Jenifer's sarcasm was rubbing off on him. "Is that your costume for the Halloween bash and you're trying to cast a spell on the mirror to make you look prettier."

"Arron!" Stephanie was astounded. He hadn't criticized her like that since he was a real small boy back in Kansas.

DeArra moved in toward Arron she spoke quietly so no one else could hear. "Arron I can feel your stress. I think when we go up to the ship we should talk about it. For now can you at least be tolerable?"

"Why should I be tolerable when Jenifer can't even take half the criticism that she can." He said equally as quietly while pointing to Stephanie.

"For two reasons. One, your a captain and have a reputation to maintain. And two, you're around us, and Stephanie and I don't enjoy it when you act like this. Calm down just a little and we will all be happy." DeArra counseled him.

Arron decided for now it would be best to behave himself. He stood close to the door of the shop and watched the salesbot bring in a few more newly sewn gowns to the showroom.

In the mean time Stephanie put away that particular dress and was searching the racks for another less expensive one. DeArra, forgetting about Arron, started to help her look. DeArra had found a lovely three piece gray and purple gown. She lifted it to show Stephanie. As she opened her mouth and unexpected alarm came out. However it did not emanate from DeArra, it was a sound coming through the speakers in the entire court. People scrambled panic stricken like chickens with their heads chopped off, looking for a place to hide. The three curious crew members, not knowing what they were getting into, moved into the court yard. Arron stepped out through the door and nearly got trampled by a dozen children running to safety. At that time his communicator chirped, he could hardly hear it over all the commotion.

He slapped it and strained to hear the crewman on the other side. "Sir, we have trouble up here. There seems to be a Romulan ship coming in fast, weapons at ready."

"Beam us up immediately." Arron commanded and waited for the beam to sweep them away. It never came.

"I'm sorry sir, but the station has already put up their shields, there's no way we can beam you out." The crewman seemed a little nervous, and why shouldn't he be? He was up on the ship with nothing but a skeleton crew.

Arron hated to say what he was about to, but since there was no other choice... "Take the ship out of orbit, inform Starfleet that you are responding to the attack, and will need back up. I believe the Yardi and Sisto are also in orbit, follow their captain's orders."

Arron defiantly heard a gulping sound over the communicator. "You did say attack, didn't you sir."

"I did, but you are not to attack without speaking to the Yardi and Sisto first, I'm going to make my way up to the command center here and will be in touch with you once I am there. Steele out." Arron gestured to his two crewmates to follow him to the Ops.

Jenifer put down the tech manual she was reading and searched the area, since the alarms have gone off she lost Eric, not to mention the fact that she could get no contact from the rest of her crewmates. She tapped her communicator once again just to see if she could get through, she could not. She rationalized that all communications below command level were being prioritized as to not block up communication to important functions.

She knew what she must do, she had to make her way to Ops, however that was easier said then done. She couldn't even get her foot out the door, she was in one of the most heavily populated areas of the station. She watched as people scrambled across the doorway. She had to get across the crowd. Turning away from the door frustrated she looked into the store she was in. Of course it was a store specializing in engineering, where else would she be? She searched the area and noticed something she really could use. She ran to the counter reached behind it and grabbed a small device she then threw a few credits on the counter to account for the missing device and a few plugs she picked up on the way out. She ran to the door, put two plugs in her ears and threw a switch on the device. A sonic wave at a frequency that humans could not hear emanated through the court yard. A few windows shattered in her area and many of the beings running through the area fell to the ground.

Ignoring them she ran out and moved her way towards Ops. As she moved people in her vicinity started to fall, the people behind her recovered fast and while a little disoriented found their callings as the alarms rang out. Once out of the heavily populated area's she turned off the sonic distorter and pocketed it. However on her way she found a recovering Eric Quintero. She helped him to his feet and dragged him along as she ran.

During the time it took her to get from the electronics store to Eric the station shook twice, which meant that the three starships were not able to hold the Romulans off. She had a very bad feeling about what that meant. As she was speculating she heard an all too familiar sound behind her. Transporter beams energizing. She did not turn to see what was happening, she had to get up to Ops and warn them. She headed for the turbolift in a run she could hear Eric running next to her but she dare not look at anything but her end target. In the background she heard Romulan voices and people screaming as they tried to run from the Romulans. She then heard phaser blasts and disrupter blasts, obviously security was trying to hold them off.

The weapon fire had seised for the moment Jenifer did not know if the security had taken the Romulans over, or vice versa. She jumped for the turbolift as she commanded it to Ops a Romulan blaster energy beam shot right next to her head and into the turbolift control pad. She turned around to find a disrupter aimed squarely at her and Eric. The Romulan motioned her off the lift, she did as she was told. Behind him she could see many of the civilians and Starfleet officers as well being herded into one small area, the Romulan gestured her to join them, but before she did he took her communicator as well as Eric's.

She looked around the now small group of people. It seemed that in the cross fire many people had fallen. She also noted very few Starfleet personnel standing, the rest were either wounded or dead. It also seemed, by looking upon what remaining officers there were, she was the highest ranking and all those officers were looking to her for leadership.

She silently checked out the situation around her. Five Starfleet officers, not including herself and her husband, thirteen civilians, and four Romulans. Why did it seem that the odds were not in her favor?

***

"Damn!" Commodore Jerry Ferwell hit the panel he was just reading. The battering from the Romulan vessel had stopped just after the Romulans beamed down. "Shields have been partially depleted and Romulans have taken over the court yard. Security reports it wasn't that hard because some idiot had used a sonic disrupter and immobilized most of the people in the area, made an easy take over for the Romulans. Security also reports they didn't kill all people on the deck. They are holding several prisoners." He turned on the only other person in the office. "Steele, this is not good. What happened to our three vessels out there? Hell what happened to our own Starfleet security? How could they not overwhelm the Romulans there are at least three security to one Romulan in the court."

"Sir, the station alone cannot hold off a Romulan vessel. If they board the station anymore, the only way we can hold them off is by sheer numbers. That means by employing all the citizens to use force against them." Steele did not sound convinced that this action would work.

Ferwell felt the same way. "I will not force the civilians on this station to fight. Our first priority is the ship, then we'll worry about the people in the court."

"In the meantime those people could die."

"We'll just have to take our chances." Ferwell stood and walked out towards Ops.

***

"Damn." Kiljian rounded the table staring at the security screen. From where the camera was situated they could not see faces only a group of people surrounded by four Romulans and a number of bodies laying around. She looked around Ops, familiar and unfamiliar faces surrounded her, but there were two missing. She repeated her earlier curse. "Damn. Where are the Quintero's."

"I would like to know where our vessel is." Darian sat across the table from her.

Ferwell walked out followed by Steele. "Doubly send out the shuttles and air assault vessels. We're going to get these Romulans while they're in the air if it's the last thing we do."

A sharp, "Yes sir." came from behind Kiljian.

DeArra watched as the screen in front of her changed from the court yard to space. A number of small vessels came screaming up toward a rather large, menacing, looking Romulan vessel. She watched as each one was picked off easily. Then the vessel shot out towards the station two more times. These two shots shook the entire station worse then all the other shots put together.

"Shields down to ten percent." A four armed Talerian yelled from the front of the room.

"Sir, they are hailing us." Doubly looked to his commander and waited for confirmation. "On screen now."

On the large screen above all their heads a Romulan face appeared. Before anyone could say anything DeArra muttered one name. "San."

***

Jenifer reevaluated the situation. Yep still four to twenty, favor still tilted towards the four Romulans with four mean looking disrupters. However, slowly the seven Starfleet officers made their way to the edges of the groups and towards the Romulans. With each step the odds tended in the direction of Starfleet. She watched as everyone moved into position. She checked with each one through eyesight when they were in position. Moving out of the crowd she stepped right in front of the Romulan that was closest to her. "Sip nert koko, weer."

It must have been some insult because the Romulan swung his arm around coming to hit her. Simultaneously, she blocked the hand while taking the disrupter out of his possession, Eric knocked him off his feet, and the three other Romulans went down similarly. The underdog took over and won the game. She found a communicator on her Romulan and tapped it. "Quintero to Ops."

She received an answer this time. "Quintero, this is Kiljian, standby."

Jenifer looked to Eric whom was helping tie up the Romulans. "I guess they just don't want to hear the good news." After they rounded the Romulans into one corner she confronted the one she had conveniently knocked down. "Do you speak English?" The Romulan gave her no answer. "Boi lupa periper?" Whether he spoke English or not he gave her no answer. Jenifer looked to Eric and shrugged. "Keep these guys under wraps. I'll have more security on the way once I reach Ops."

***

The call from Quintero came just after the Romulan commander came on screen. Arron had heard the call when it came in and immediately shook his head to DeArra indicating he did not want her to know what was going on. He then turned back and listened in to the conversation between Commodore Ferwell and the supposed Commander San.

"This is Commodore Ferwell of the Federation Starbase 34. You have entered Federation space and are attacking a Federation Starbase. You have seriously jeopardized the peace treaty that we both enjoy. Why have you done this." Ferwell stood tall and proud ever the diplomat.

The Romulan smiled and as he spoke he gave no indication to his true identity. "I have fired upon you because you threaten the very existence of your precious treaty. You who are so close to the Neutral zone have already jeopardized that treaty." The Romulan finished without any explanation.

"What have we done? No ship has gone into the neutral zone, we haven't even sent a probe there." Ferwell tried his hardest to keep his voice steady.

"You know full well what you have done. Your planet, while hiding behind the pretty sight of your starbase, is a holding post for a strong Federation stronghold for an ambush on the Romulan Empire in one of it's weakest spots."

Ferwell actually laughed. "You have got to be kidding. There is no Starfleet base here. It's only a Federation starbase for tired people coming around this area to rest and relax while we attend to their starships. Three of which you have more than likely engaged."

"I have seen no starships." The Romulan said with total honesty. "But I have seen your secret base, and the weapons. All below the surface." He seemed to think about his next words as he watched the Commodore. The Romulan noticed that Ferwell was not going to give out any information, weather there is a base or not. "I will give you two hours. If you decide to surrender with in that time then, I will be happy to allow your people to leave unharmed. However, if you fail to surrender, let's just say you will not survive the circumstances. As an insentive, I'm sure you know by now that some of your people are being held hostage. In one hour if you do not surrender, those people will die."

With that the screen went blank and Ferwell gave a sigh of relief. However he was the only one sighing. Steele whirled on him menacefully. "He wasn't lying was he. There is a base here. That's why our ships didn't attack. You are sacrificing everything for that stupid base."

"I am sacrificing nothing."

"Bull, you are sacrificing the lives on this station. I will not permit that. As the highest ranking person here, I am relieving you of duty. My doctor there will verify that my actions are justified against you." Koval stepped forward, she knew what Arron expected of her and would back him up in his decision.

"I don't care who you have to verify your accusations. There may be a military base inside this planet, but I assure you I will not let Romulans take us over. That base is ready to fire upon the Romulan vessel when I give the order. That is why your ships have not attacked, I have ordered them not to attack. Our base will be able to take that ship out with a single blow."

"Perhaps, but what about these three more ships coming into the system, they have just crossed the neutral zone?" DeArra stood and pointed to the screen where reinforcements were arriving, but it was not for their side.

"Our weapons are sufficient..."

"To destroy the hundreds of lives aboard those ships. I think not." Arron stood toe to toe with the commodore.

The commodore could not take the challenge. He turned on his heel and headed for his office. Arron turned towards the screen and clenched his hands in frustration. He nodded to DeArra indicating that he wished to talk to Quintero now. She tapped a few controls and talked to the air. "Kiljian to Quintero, go ahead."

The answer was immediate, but it did not come from all around as voices normally traveled over communicators. It came from directly behind Steele. "As I was going to say before I was so rudely interrupted. We have neutralized the Romulan force in the court yard and are awaiting security backup." To everyone's surprise Jenifer Quintero was stepping off the turbolift as she spoke and walked into the middle of Ops. "Besides, I also wanted to know what all the excitement was about up here."

Arron Steele was about to tell her about the Romulan that resembled Kormin San, but DeArra interrupted him. "The commodore, was hiding just a small secret from us."

Steele gave off a mocking laugh. "Small secret, she says. He and Starfleet are hiding a rather large military base beneath the surface of this planet."

Jenifer smiled. "Well, I could have told you that."

Every one in the room was astonished. "How did you know?" Steele came down on her, yet once again ready to find her a traitor.

"My father told me." She was so totally serious, Arron wasn't sure if she were telling him the truth or not.

Arron stared into her eyes and never wavered for a moment. "All right, maybe he did, but that doesn't change the fact that we are literally sitting on a very sensitive bomb that could go off at anytime."

Jenifer grabbed towards her heart as if in pain. "No not that. Not another bomb. I thought I had gotten rid of all of them."

"Now isn't the time for jokes. We have to find some way to stop the Romulans without anyone getting hurt. If we don't surrender the Romulans will fire on us. If I surrender Commodore Ferwell is bound to order an attack on the Romulans." Arron turned and stared at the screen in thought.

"Why don't we just call our ships back in. I'm sure they will follow your orders." DeArra offered her suggestion.

Arron had already considered it. "No the Romulans would take that as an act of aggression on our part and open fire before they could do anything about it."

Jenifer had her own suggestion. "Well then, why don't you invite them over for dinner?"

Darian stood and pointed a finger at Quintero. "That's crazy. What are you trying to do get us all killed before our time?"

Arron held up a hand. "No, wait. I think she has a point. First rule in diplomacy, invite them to dinner. And besides they don't know we have four of their people. They can threaten all they want, about killing the hostages, because there are no hostages."

"They're sure to find out that the Romulans have been over taken." Darian pointed out.

"Not if Mr. Quintero here makes sure they keep in touch. The Romulans will think everything is hunky-dory on this end." Arron patted her on the back and she gave a fake smile. She had no idea how she would pull a stunt like that off, especially when the Romulans weren't talking.

***

Commodore Jery Ferwell looked at the screen. "Come on Doubly, I need those weapons ready for the attack."

Over the screen Jery saw Doubly punching some buttons. "I'm sorry sir, I'm doing the best I can. They don't seem to be coming on line. Should I send someone down to check them out?"

"Negative. I'll go myself." Ferwell stormed out of the office and headed for the lift. Noticing Steele's gaze, he turned and shoved a finger in Steele's face. "I will be gone momentarily. You are to under no circumstances communicate with the Romulans. We are not surrendering. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir." The edge in Steele's voice was apparent, but was also ignored.

As Ferwell left the Integra Crew gathered around their captain. "All right smartty pants now what are you going to do?" Jenifer asked.

"I am going to try and disable those weapons before he can get down there to activate them." Steele seemed very determined.

Quintero smiled as a thought struck her. "I don't think that will be entirely necessary."

Arron was confused and looked to her. "If you can think of another way out of this I'd be glad to hear it."

"Well, it's about the weapons, see, my dad had also told me that Ferwell was under investigation and his armament was being dismantled without his knowledge. Right now he has no weapons against the Romulans."

Arron frowned, "Why didn't you tell us this before?"

She shrugged and Arron mouthed the words along with her, "You didn't ask."

Steele was a little angered but he blew it off. Instead he took command once again. "Quintero you get down to the court and see what you can do with those Romulans. The rest of us will stay here and try to figure out what to do next."

***

Jenifer knelt down in front of the Romulans to try one more time to communicate with them. She spoke to them in their language knowing full well that they could understand English, however she was not going to fight them. "All right, listen up boys and girls. I realize that you're Romulans and you would rather die then do what I'm about to propose, but look at it this way, you're going to die anyway so let's make the most of it.

"Now, I'm sure you are supposed to check in with your ship soon, so you will make that report. The only thing is you will not report your current condition. As a matter of fact you will outright lie." She stopped to see if she could get any reaction of them, she didn't so she continued. "All right then, if you do not make contact, your mother ship will presume you dead or defeated and will destroy you along with this station. Now wouldn't that be ironic, killed by your own commander just because you kept silent. Yet if you do this one little thing, he would probably beam you up right before destroying us, because he knows your alive. The best thing of all, he nor anyone would no any different besides you and me."

One Romulan looked straight into her eyes with a deadly glare. "It figures that you would want us to do this sort of deception. I expected nothing less from an Orion Pirate."

The Romulan said no more, that was because he was unconcious. Jenifer Quintero's reaction to his insult was a sharp right boot in his chin. The Romulan lay motionless on the floor. The other Romulans, though not quite speaking, seemed to shift nervously in their shackles.

Eric had been standing by watching in silence, he knew nothing of the Romulan language and therefore had no idea what Jenifer had up her sleeve. And up until now she had been the only one talking. One Romulan spoke up and from Jenifer's reaction and the tone of his voice, Eric knew it wasn't the response she wanted. He pulled her away momentarily out of earshot.

"Jenifer?" He asked tentivly. He rubbed her arms trying to relax her. He could feel how tight her muscles were and she was clenching her teeth.

"I have to get through this. I have to make them cooperate." Her teeth were clenched so tight they made small squeaking sounds.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" He asked this first, he always thought of helping others. After she shook her head to that, which he knew she would do, he asked his next question, "What did he say to make you so upset?"

"Upset? I'm not upset! I'm furious." Her voice carried through the room and many people looked their way. Once noticing this she turned back and more quietly added. "He knows. He knows about the Orions."

Eric was a bit confused at first. "What about the Orions?...Oh, you mean about, when you were on the Aqueous?"

"Yes." Jenifer spat bitterly. "He called me an Orion Pirate. How could he know about that? The only Romulan that ever knew was..."

"Kormin San." Eric finished where she left off.

She whirled back to the Romulans. Again in their language she confronted them. "Okay, this is it. You get on that damn communicator with you commander and tell him that if he has anything to say to me then say it, don't destroy the station for just one person."

The Romulans were unsure of what to make of this change, they gave her questioning glances. "Give me that damn communicator." She grabbed it out of one of the Romulans tunics. Flipping it on she called out in Romulan. "San, this is Jenifer Quintero, formally Sandara. If you have a bone to pick with me why don't you face me? You don't have to destroy the whole damn station." With that she disappeared into thin air.

Chapter 8

"Sir, I just detected another transporter beam." Jason Evian looked up from the console that he had taken over from Doubly. Doubly had left just after Quintero, presumably to tell the commodore what they had said.

Steele did not care, he wanted to protect this station, but he would not sacrifice lives. "More Romulans beaming down?"

"No sir, the beam emanated from the Romulans but the station security has not detected any more life forms. In fact it's detecting one less." Jason reported.

"One, what they didn't take all their Romulans, only one." Jason was about to contradict him but Steele held up a hand. "No wait, one that means one of our people was beamed up there. Damn, I knew I should have kept a closer eye on her."

"Don't start that again." DeArra mumbled from behind him.

Steele ignored her and called to Setek. "Hail the Romulans."

Darian punched the correct keys to initiate the frequency between the station and the ship with no success. "They're ignoring our hail."

"I wonder why?" DeArra mumbled this too.

Steele whirled on her. "If you have something to say, commander, say it aloud."

She nodded her head. "I think you should leave this up to Quintero. She may have a hot head, but she can get things done. I have a feeling that this event will be for the greater good."

Steele had to agree with her on one point. Quintero, however unprecedented her methods, gets anything she sets out for done. Now why did that sound familiar?

As he was contemplating this question, the commodore burst into Ops. "What the hell happened to my weapons!"

Arron played innocent. "I don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about commodore."

"Don't give me that crap Steele. That's probably why you're here isn't it. While we concentrate on fixing your ship, you dismantle my weapons. Listen captain, I'm not going to take any more of your bull..." He was cut off by a high pitched phaser beam. Now Jery lay unconscious on the floor.

Arron, still confused stared at the commodore. DeArra presented the solution. "I sensed him reaching for a phaser, I had to shoot him before he could do you harm."

"Thank you." Steele looked back toward Jery Ferwell and noticed something he had not before. "Doctor, come look at this." He bent down on one knee and examined the man, Stephanie followed suite.

Stephanie examined the hands of the commodore with a tricorder. On them was a red liquid substance. After her examination and running it quickly through the computer she gave her hypothesis. "I think we found out what happened to Doubly. That's his blood."

"You don't think the commodore killed him do you." Jason asked never taking his eyes off the fallen man. He had drawn his phaser as well as Darian right after DeArra drew hers.

Arron was able to take his eyes off Jery. "There's only one way to find out. When this entire fiasco is finished we'll send a team down to the weapons bunker and find out. For now let's get him tied up."

"I guess this officially puts you in charge." DeArra said casually.

Arron looked at her menacefully. "Don't tell me that Jenifer's sarcasm is rubbing off on you."

"No sir." she said just as casually. "What are your orders now? Surrender or die."

He gave her one final stony glare and turned to Evian. "Hail the Romulans, I don't care if they respond."

"Aye sir. You're on." Jason cued the captain.

"To the Romulan vessel, this is captain Steele now in charge of this space station. We surrender to you." No one gasped no one even breathed they just accepted it.

Jenifer reappeared in a dark room. She was not sure where she was, but when several pointy eared figures started to move her way she no longer doubted the obvious. She walked with them straight into the hands of Kormin San. He stood in a small room with nothing but a chair, a very menacing chair.

Jenifer stared in disbelief when she saw him there. San waved her guards off out into the hallway. She saw in the dim light the face of a man she could never forget. Of all people she would not expect Greg Amini to lye. But yet there in front of her was Kormin San, there was no mistaking it. He was tall and masculine and the mark above his left cheek told her it was him, though his hair was considerably shorter than the last time she remembered it. Cautiously she walked forward. "I thought you were dead."

"A common mistake. I was almost dead." Kormin said almost too casually. "When the Orions captured me I thought for sure I was. Then the Empire came to my rescue. I have a debt to repay them, that is why I am here now, I serve the Empire now, I am no longer freelance. The attack on your station was an order made by the empire. I could not help but follow that order." She could hear the sympathy in his voice. He did not like what he was doing and was helpless to do anything about it.

She leaped upon this opportunity to get him to change his mind, to go against the empire. "But I know you, you are kind and unselfish and you like to protect lives, not kill them. I can't believe you would do this. Aren't your morals and conscious just yelling at you and telling you this is wrong?"

He knew what she was trying to do, and again was helpless to do anything. "I like this no more than you do, but what I must do is for the empire."

"And if I were to tell you that the weapon housing is a product of the commander of this station and not Starfleet, and if I also told you that the bunker was now dismantled, would you pull off this attack?" Jenifer laid out the situation in front of him, hoping he would take it and use it toward good.

"You are speaking hypothetically are you not?"

"No what I said is true. Starfleet itself has dismantled the weapons right under the Commodore's nose."

Kormin seemed to consider it. "I will have to contact the empire."

"Come on Kormin can't you think for yourself?"

"Jenifer, you must understand, I was hurt."

"And just because the Romulans saved your butt..."

"They tortured me."

"Of course the Orions always do that to their prisoners."

"It was not the Orions."

"The Romulans tortured you?" She was astonished, how could they possibly torture their own people. She looked to Kormin for the answer but she did not receive any, or did she, he was staring at the only piece of furniture in the room.

Quietly he spoke. "It is called the Neural Scrambler. An experimental device which converts the mind to the way the Empire wishes you to think. If they want you loyal, you are loyal, if they want you to kill, you kill. It has no mercy."

She circled around it half way, inspecting it. "You said it was experimental."

"It is and I am one of their experiments."

She looked up to him, her eyes showed him many emotions, hurt for him, anger at the Romulans for doing this to him, and there was something deeper, but he could not tell exactly what it was. "Are you all right. I mean, it didn't hurt you physically did it?"

He lowered his head ashamed that he had to admit to any kind of pain. "There was much pain involved, yes, even side effects. Sleepless nights, dizziness, things of that nature. The worst thing of all is that it works. I feel that I must do what ever the Empire wishes."

"There is doubt in you though." Jenifer tried to bring out his feelings, make him face them and then he would be able to become himself again. "You are having a conflict on this very mission, you know that what you are doing is wrong, but this thing is controlling you. There is only one thing you can do. That is make your own decision. Look at the facts and decide for yourself. Don't think, don't use opinions, just act on facts."

As he was about to say something he was interrupted. The door opened and a Centurion walked in and reported the call from the station. "Captain Steele has surrendered and is awaiting your reply." With this Jenifer slammed her palm of her hand into her forehead.

***

Six figures materialized in Ops of Starbase 34. One human, obviously Jenifer Quintero, and five Romulans, Kormin San and four other nameless faces.

All on Ops were surprised to see the sight, after all Steele was more expecting that he be beamed up to the ship. Instead the Romulans beamed down to the planet. Steele wondered just how many other Romulans had beamed down. He stepped forward in front of his crew to great them. "Commander..."

The Romulan commander held up his hand. "Please call me Kormin, Arron. I have not forgotten our first meeting, I owe you my life."

"It would seem, commander, that my life lies in your hands." Arron was cautious, he did not know what San was trying to pull.

"Come Arron, we are friends are we not. You and I fought a great battle against a common foe. Ahh, but I see your point, now I am the foe. Rejoice Arron, for after a short inspection, you and I may be friends once more." He motioned for Jenifer to step forward. "You will see that even our mutual friend Jenifer has been unharmed. She has informed me that the weapons have been dismantled. If I see evidence of this we will leave with out any harm done."

"Of course commander, right this way." Arron showed him to the turbolift and motioned for DeArra and the rest of the crew to remain in Ops, Jenifer however went along.

The seven people dropped down as the turbolift descended under the planet once it reached it's destination everyone gasped as they saw people climbing all over large metal objects. Steele stepped off first in awe. He had never seen anything like it. The metal objects were obviously large weapons. However, the weapons were also as obviously dismantled and unusable. Steele faced San. "You can see for yourself Commander, these weapons are not going to harm you."

Kormin looked curiously at him. "If you don't mind Arron, my people will determine that for themselves." As he spoke his people moved out from behind him and forward to the weapons. The people working on them were surprised, but when they saw captain Steele they resumed their work and ignored the Romulans. "We will see if these are being dismantled, or mantled. After all at this stage one really can't tell."

"I assure you commander, these weapons are not put here by Starfleet."

"Oh, by the way, what did happen to the commodore?"

"He is on vacation, I guess you could say, permanently. He will no longer be a threat to you or your people."

"Oh, he never was. I just wanted to make sure he never became one." San rocked back on his heals several times waiting for his peoples reports. Finally after ten excruciating minutes several of the Romulans came forward. They handed their report to the commander and headed for the turbolift. The rest followed suite. San checked out the reports. "Well, it looks like everything is in order. I believe we will be leaving now."

He to headed for the turbolift which had already whisked his people away. However he stopped when he heard footfalls running his way. Arron too, turned to see what was the matter. A Starfleet officer with the rank of lieutenant ran up and motioned for the captain to see him in private. Steele moved over to the side, out of hearing range of the others. "Sir, we've found a body, and a knife in that body."

"I see." Steele understood. "Can I see the knife?" The lieutenant took out the knife and showed it to Arron. It was identical to a knife he had seen not that long ago. "Keep the knife and write up a report. We will address this issue once we are done with the current one."

"Yes sir." the lieutenant stuck the knife away and moved off.

Steele then rejoined the others as Kormin started to move off towards the turbolift again. This time Jenifer grabbed his arm as he turned. "Kormin, please wait. You don't have to go back to the Empire."

He stared into her eyes, he had forgotten how beautiful they were and remembered the first time he stared into them. He still saw that frightened child inside of her. He put his hand to her cheek. "I still have a debt I must repay."

"Haven't you served them enough?" Her eyes begged him.

"I have much more time to serve for them. They saved my life."

"What about Arron, he saved your life on Arcturus. Don't you owe him a great deal?"

"I will repay him when he needs me. Right now the Empire needs me."

Jenifer was going to argue on stubbornly but was interrupted by the comm unit. "Kiljian to Steele, sir, we have a problem."

"What sort of problem commander?" Steele called out.

"The Romulans are refusing to leave. In fact sir they say that they are going to hold us here until the other ships arrive and take us back to Romulus." Kiljian's voice did not quiver in the least. She was much accustomed to hostile takeovers.

Steele however drew his phaser on Kormin and talked with ease to his first officer. "Tell the Romulans that if they don't leave their commander will die." He cut off the transmission and stared at the Romulan in disbelief.

Jenifer joined Steele in that disbelief and at the same time confronted Kormin San. "How could you lie to me. You said that you would leave us alone."

"I did not lie. These men are not acting under my orders." Kormin protested.

"Now you know how we felt." Arron lifted the phaser. Jenifer knew what Arron was planning, she moved herself in front of Kormin right in the line of fire. "Move away Jenifer. He can not be trusted, just like any other Romulan."

"You're wrong Arron, he's telling the truth."

"Since when did you become the expert in Romulan psychology?"

"Just give him a chance that's all I ask."

"What do you propose? We just let him go and see what happens?"

"Well not exactly." She held out her hand with several small earplugs in it.

Arron smiled. "So you're the idiot."

***

Up in Ops the Integra crew sat in a small area in the corner of the room. The turbolift sounded as Steele and Quintero entered followed by San, whom had a phaser drawn. "Join the others." San pushed the two towards the group. Reluctantly they moved into the corner. Jenifer held her hand out to DeArra as she sat and whispered to her, obviously something encouraging. Steele sat somewhat away from the group, closer to the Romulans. Kormin on the other hand moved in among his men and took a communicator with the intention to contact his ship.

Jenifer nodded to Kormin. He took the cue and opened a communication channel. "San to Velcar. Listen carefully and put this over intership." He waited a few seconds and nodded to Jenifer. She whipped out a small box and flipped a switch. Immediately there after people started falling all over Ops, though all those that fell were Romulans.

Once all Romulans, but San, were unconscious Quintero moved to the transporter platform. She set the coordinates and two by two the Romulans disappeared. Once all unconscious Romulans were gone Kormin pointed to himself. Jenifer shook her head, she would not send him back to the empire. Kormin's face became grim. He raised the phaser at her. "Shoot, I won't let you do this." She said it aloud but he did not hear her words. The other Integra crew members gathered in closer to try and stop San.

Jenifer however watched San, she saw his determination, in fact she would probably do the same thing in his situation. Slowly she set the coordinates and as he started to disappear Kormin moved his lips in a motion that seemed to say, "Thank you."

When he left everyone took out the plugs, but the air seemed to be a bit heavier. No one spoke as Jenifer moved off Ops and down the turbolift. Evian had watched the screen and reported. "The Romulans have all moved off and heading back towards the Neutral zone."

Arron did not care. He was too concerned about the well being of his crewmembers, and the people of this station. He went to the office and to his duties. He had to report to Starfleet.

***

A couple days latter Arron was in contact with Starfleet again, his first report was audio and just now received an answer to it. Now he talk, through subspace, face to face with one of the higher ranking Admirals. "We're sending Commander Traft to take over the station. He will arrive in six days. In the meantime, you are in charge. I presume your ship will take at least that long to get underway." Admiral Cory Jenkins told him. Jenkins who was in charge of the Academy normally did not make these types of calls but he had other reasons for calling.

"I was told ten days. Commodore Ferwell has admitted to murdering Doubly as well as getting the weapons from the Orions. I don't see how he would profit from any of it though."

"Did he say which Orions were behind this?"

"No sir, we haven't been able to get any real details out of him. Oh, and the Romulans have retreated all the way across the neutral zone and now are in the safety of their own territory." Arron finished and was about to cut off when the Admiral just sat there. "Is there anything else sir?"

"As a matter of fact, I was wondering, how is Jenny holding up through all this? I'm surprised she didn't help you question Ferwell." Cory seemed very concerned about his daughter.

"Actually I haven't talked to her since the Romulans left two days ago. She's kept pretty quiet." Arron too was concerned.

"She is still on the station, isn't she?" It was very much like Jenifer to leave her comrades in search for revenge, in situations like this."

Arron actually smiled. "Yes. I've at least kept security guards watching her. She hasn't even gone back up to the Integra."

"I don't like the sound of this. Arron, do me a favor, if the inevitable happens, keep her away from Maris."

"I'll try my best sir. But you know her as well as I do. And no matter what, she will have her way."

"That's what I'm afraid of." Cory discontinued the communication.

***

Maris whirled on Taff. "The starbase. They must be at the starbase." The Aqueous had searched the Heria system, the area where the Integra had been patrolling, and found nothing. Dijon became angry. They had spent a week to get there and this was the third day of searching the area. Dijon had defiantly lost his patience.

"As I had tried to inform you earlier that was where they most likely were." Taff stood calmly never breaking Maris' stare.

"You have a talent for saying things I don't like to hear. If I did not need you so much I would have killed you a long time ago." Dijon moved the chair back facing the screen. "Change course for the starbase, and push the speed up to max."

Taff Lan did as he was told, he did not wish to push his master over the edge. Now they were on their way.

***

Commander Traft walked into Ops where the Integra crew had taken over. "Arron, good to see you again." Arron walked over to him and took his offered hand warmly.

"I relieve command to you." Arron waved his hand across Ops. "This is my crew, First officer Kiljian, Setek, Evian, and assistant engineer Quintero."

"Hello, my crew will be coming in shortly. You can go ahead and get the rest of your crew together. From what I have been told, your ship is finished." Sam Traft was a casual man, but never one for that many words.

"It was finished, unexpectedly, two days ago. Most of the crew had already returned. I wish you luck. If you have any trouble transporting Ferwell to the rehabilitation colony, have them contact us. We will be in the vicinity." Arron motioned to his crew. "Good bye Sam, and thank you."

Sam smiled. "Good bye, now get off my Ops." There was joy in his voice, Arron smiled as well and disappeared as the turbolift took them away.

On board the Integra they walked onto the bridge, glad to be home. Steele confirmed with the computer that everyone was on board then commanded the ship out of orbit. It went into warp and out of the system.

Ten minutes later another ship came out of warp and into orbit about the planet it opened fire wildly.

Chapter 9

Jenifer kicked her heels up on top of the counsel in engineering and folded her hands behind her head. She leaned back in the chair and watched the lights blink on and off on the screen in front of her. "It feels so good to relax and not worry about a thing. No Romulans, no traitors, and defiantly no Orions. Just you me and our engine."

Eric sat next to her watching the display as well. "You know as well as I do that not always is everything as it seems."

Jenifer sat abrubltly and stared at him. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Eric shook his head. "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but there was another problem on the station then just the Romulans and Ferwell's secret armament."

"I'm listening." Jenifer never was very patient.

Eric told her about the finding of Doubly's body and the knife, he also told her that Arron had insisted to the crew to keep it secret, but as her husband, he felt the need to let her know. He also told her of the investigation that was going on as they spoke, and how it was very possible that Ferwell received the weapons from the Orions.

Jenifer concluded the rest on her own, Hank was only the beginning of something that could become very big, the Orions were making their presence known throughout Starfleet. "Okay, so maybe I was wrong, maybe we aren't quite rid of them yet. But hey, that's not my problem right. I mean I was ordered not to go after the Orions. So let's not worry about it and sit here enjoying the quietness of the situation." She leaned back again in the chair.

***

Later that night Eric was sound asleep when Jenifer came back from engineering. She had spent most of her time there running diagnostics. She wanted to make sure everything was in working order. Hours before she had made Eric take some rest. She would have went along with him but she was far from tired. Even now as she began to get undressed she did not feel sleep coming for her. As always she checked her pants pockets just incase she left a tool or something in them, which was a bad habit for her. She pulled something out, but it wasn't a tool. It was a communications chip. She could not remember receiving one on the ship or on the station for that matter. She could not figure where it came from, but that wasn't really important.

She walked into the front room of the cabin and activated the monitor on her desk. Jenifer slid the chip into place and activated the screen. To her surprise a familiar face appeared on the screen. How she received the chip was no longer a mystery, it was the work of Dijon Maris.

Maris' smiling face filled the screen. "Yes it is I again my love. I just wanted to tell you that I am getting closer. What that means, is you only have days maybe hours to live, so make what you can of these few moments you have left." The message was short but to the point. So now she no longer had to worry about finding Dijon, he was coming to her, and she would be ready.

***

Two days later Jason Evian sat at helm and reported. "Sir we are reentering the Heira system, reducing to impulse speed."

"Good now we can sit back and relax. After all the only thing that could bother us here is a couple of smugglers trying to get their hands on those minerals." Steele sat in his command chair while securing his beret.

The word "smugglers" caught DeArra off guard and it got her thinking. "Arron, don't you think it a little strange that we have not yet been visited by a certain pirate?"

Arron a little confused asked, "Which pirate would that be?"

"The one that has his eyes set on more than minerals. I'd say blood was more for his taste." DeArra talked softly not wanting to alert any of the crew.

Arron now caught on. "I don't think there's anything to be alarmed about. Besides Starbase 34 will surely alert us if he passes through the sector."

"And if he still has a clocking device?" Setek countered, obviously DeArra's catiousnous was for naught.

"I don't think Maris is the kind who sneaks through sectors. Once he enters our sensor range I'm sure he would activate it, but not before then."

"Besides, doesn't Maris always announce his visits?" Jason turned to join the conversation.

"Is it just me or hadn't he already announced it?" Setek knew that it was cruel, but he was right, Maris had sent the message loud and clear.(in the way of Hank Williams)

While Evian was turned away from his station he did not notice the activity on his monitor and was shocked when he heard a beeping noise coming from it. He turned around and found something disturbing. "Sir, I don't think we have to worry any longer about him announcing his arrival."

Arron knew exactly what he was talking about. "Hail them."

"No response." Setek was working furiously, he also wished he could engage shields and weapons but he would not do so until ordered.

"Can you put it on screen?" Arron watched the screen in anticipation as the ship grew slightly.

"Sir, he's arming weapons." An impatient Setek called.

"Put up shields and standby weapons." The order came swiftly and Setek followed them through swifter.

Meanwhile DeArra hit her comm badge.

***

Jenifer was working on her usual console along side Eric when the room shook with horrifying intensity. She looked to Eric unsure of what to think he returned the look. As she was about to call the bridge the intercom itself sounded. She went over to the small panel and answered the hail. It was DeArra on the other end. "Jenny, we've got a problem up here. Come up as soon a possible."

"I'm on my way." With that she rushed out to the lift and headed for the bridge. When she arrived she found the problem. She stopped dead in her tracks. There on the screen was her worst fear and her worst enemy. Dijon Maris' ship. She could tell from the markings on the side that she had gotten to know so well during her childhood.

Arron looked to her once she entered and knew by the look on her face that she had answered his unasked question. "Arm the weapons." He called to the security officer. The response was a series of clicks and beeps.

Jenifer's temper started to rise. She wanted Arron to fire and not just arm the weapons. She felt like rushing to the weapons console at that moment but she knew it was futile.

Arron looked to her knowing what she was going through. He walked over to her and took her arm moving her out of earshot of the others. "Jenifer, I know what you're going through but please try to control yourself. This is not the place or the time for emotional boughts."

She looked to the screen once again and nodded to Arron. "I'll try."

"Good, because I'll need your help. You know him more than any of us and you have to tell me what he might be thinking." He squeezed her arm warmly and walked back to the command center. She walked back also thinking all the way about the time when Dijon had killed Arron's father. She knew he was hurt but he was not as hurt as her. Dijon had killed her son, her living flesh and blood, the only thing she had really and truly loved, and he had destroyed it.

Since the first shot Maris did not fire, his ship just sat there waiting. Arron looked to Jenifer. Jenifer lowered her head, she knew what he wanted, but she wasn't really sure what to say. "He wants you to fire back. He's expecting a fight."

"And if he doesn't get the fight?"

"He'll fight whether we do or not. He's just waiting for us to do something, after a few moments he'll decide that his patients has gone far enough and fire. Either way I'd say we're pretty much screwed." She shrugged.

"Always the optimist." Arron turned to Setek. "How do you think we'll hold out?"

"I'd say from what I've seen of his armament it's a pretty even match. That is of course, not counting the Maris destroyer." Setek looked to the gloomy faced Quintero.

"First officer, what's your assessment of this situation."

"If he will not listen to reason, what other alternative is there. I hate to say it but I believe we should fight back." DeArra was the optimist of the group and she wasn't even that optimistic about the situation.

"Mr. Setek prepare to fire." Steele stood closer to the screen.

"Permission to return to engineering sir." Quintero was already headed for the door.

"Granted. And Jenny, don't do anything I'll regret." Arron heard the turbolift doors close and could imagine her reply. Don't worry, I will.

Darian turned to Steele, "Sir, his patients has run out, their firing."

"Well, don't just sit there Setek, Fire."

"It's about time." Darian punched his console and a red beam shot out from the Integra.

***

Jenifer had just arrived in engineering when the room shook once more. Eric ran up to her. He could see the determined look on her face. "It's Maris isn't it?"

"Yes, now get to your post, we're in for a beating."

Eric did not budge from his spot. "What are you planning?"

"Nothing, now do as you're ordered." She moved over to her console and started typing away.

Eric tried to look over her shoulder but could not see a thing. "What do you have up you're sleeve?"

She finished what she was doing and took him by the arms. "Eric, trust me, you don't want to know. Just do your job, I believe the coolant pressure needs checking." She then went to her storage locker as he went to the console near the chamber housing.

***

"Sir, there's a hatch opening in the forward section of their drive section. I'm getting some pretty strange readings." Evian screamed from his station.

"The destroyer. Damn, evasive action, keep moving don't let them get a lock on us." Steele grabbed onto the arms of his chair, he was hoping Maris no longer had the damn thing.

The damn thing, otherwise known as the Maris destroyer was now fully visible and the cannon moved as the Integra moved. A beam cracked out of it sizzling through the air. It brushed the underside of the Integra tossing the ship around without even touching it.

***

Sirens were blasting everywhere and on one of Jenifer's screens was the Aqueous firing the destroyer. She cursed herself inwardly. She was moving too slow, if she didn't get a move on the destroyer may actually hit them and then there would be hell to pay. She strapped her kit over her shoulder and took one last look at the layout of the Aqueous before leaving her station. She patted Eric on the back as she passed him. Fingering the call button for the turbolift she turned back to look at him. He hadn't even acknowledged her, he was so into his work.

She heard the doors to the turbolift open, but the sound was almost totally drained out by the explosion that happened immediately after. As she watched one console exploded after another, luckily no one was in the vicinity of those, mainly because when the first one went everyone ran. As she gathered the destroyer hit the ship and must have hit somewhere close to them. Another round of explosions occurred, however this time they weren't so lucky. The explosion was in the coolant housing area, luckily there was no leak, but the explosion had thrown one person from his station.

"NO!" Jenifer ran to his station and threw the kit off of her as she kneeled down besides her fallen husband. "Stator rel nom Loff. Eric, can you hear me." She shook him slightly, but could not see his chest rise and fall. She hit her comm badge. "Dauipo Yis mie qwellneb, Vir conne Bellim." She realized, mostly from the look on her fellow engineers faces that she was speaking the wrong language. "Damn it, Sickbay, medical emergency, request beaming to sickbay directly."

No reply came over the comm badge instead she felt the familiar pull of the transporter beam. An instaint later they were in sickbay. She grabbed Eric and put him on top of the bed. She held onto his hand tightly. "Eric don't leave me, please don't leave me, not now."

Stephanie, wishing Jenifer would move, worked around her. Several nurses helped as they labored to revive him. The room shook once more making it very difficult for the doctor to work. Also the room was filling up fast, and Jenifer knew that the doctor had other patients to attend to. However, Eric was Stephanie's friend too, and Jenifer believed that Steph was working extra hard to help him. Three minutes later Stephanie shook her head and placed the hypo spray on a tray next to her. "I'm really sorry Jenifer, but there's nothing we can do."

"What are you saying, he's not ... I mean you couldn't... don't say it's true, please." Jenifer was still clenching onto her husbands hand.

Stephanie swallowed hard as she put an arm around her friend. "It is true. He's dead. Jenifer sit down, please. You don't look well."

"Of course I don't." Jenifer whirled on the shorter woman, her temper once again rising to the extreme. "My husband is laying there dead and you think I should look well. I thought you doctors were supposed to be sympathetic. Well, thanks a whole hell of a lot doctor for making me feel better." Jenifer was so upset she had to get out of there, but she did not wish to leave her husbands side, even if he was gone. She however, did not want to stay where she was unwanted.

Besides, she had just remembered where she was headed before this began, and where she was headed now. This time though, she had more purpose, and one more reason to fight. Now Dijon Maris has one more death to answer for.

Chapter 10

Jenifer found herself in the empty cargo bay. She had made preparations earlier to have it be deserted for a while. This way no one but herself knew what was held in the cargo containers. She thought it rather kind of Hank to leave her several bombs for which she could use against his employer. The containers containing the bombs were already on top the transporter pad.

Now all she had to do was fix a hole in their shields and find a hole in the Aqueous shields and she'd be ready to beam over. Of course saying this and doing it were two different things entirely.

Jenifer first checked the coordinates for the engine room aboard the Aqueous. She picked the most undeserted area that was closest to the destroyer. Next she fed the data into the computer that would allow a small unnoticeable gap in their shields, then found a weak spot in their opponents. Quickly she energized the transporter and hopped onto the transporter pad with phaser ready.

She reappeared and to her luck without a welcoming party on board the Aqueous. She was on the top deck of the engine room where the antimatter pods were stored. If she placed the bombs close to the pods it would surely destroy the ship immediately. First, she had to attend to other business. The Maris Destroyer had to be disabled she could not allow it to keep firing at the Integra while she was trying to save her friends.

The bottom half of the destroyer took up a quarter of the room while the rest of it was above destroying things. She had helped build the damn thing so she pretty much knew how to disable it. However she had to get to the middle of it which ensured plenty of climbing. She secured the tool kit around her shoulder and started up. It took her less then a minute to get to her destination. When she got there she was surprised at what she found. On top the control panel was a shining silver Christmas tree shaped knife. Carefully, very carefully, she picked it up and examined it. It was her knife.

It was put there for a reason, there was no way in hell that it was just left lying around. Dijon left it there to tell her that he knew what she was up to. Well she wasn't about to let it deter her. She slid the knife through her belt where it was held firmly and went to work on the destroyer. After that she had two goals, move and set the bombs and program the navigational computers for a course away from the Integra. She did not wish her ship to blow up along with Dijon.

***

Dijon Maris fired happily at the other ship. His back was to all other monitors, his attention solely on the screen, so he did not notice when the intruder alert went off. He didn't really care either, because he would know when she was there. Now he was sure. The destroyer was no longer functioning. Maris smiled and left the bridge walking slowly and patiently to his unsuspecting lost love.

***

Setek noticed the change of the Orion ship immediately. "Sir, his firing pattern has changed. The destroyer is no longer functioning and his phaser bursts are now firing at a regular interval."

"Jenifer must have disabled the destroyer." Jason Evian had informed Steele that someone had beamed off the ship minutes beforehand. Now Steele was waiting to see what she might pull next. "It's strange though that his phaser bursts have also changed."

"Sir, should I take advantage of the opening?" Once the news came in that someone had beamed over Arron had ordered that Setek keep the fire away from the engine core. This made it very hard for him to aim at something other than the thing that took up half the ship.

"No, I still don't want her to get hurt. Take evasive maneuvers, try and stay ahead of their computer. Mr. Setek get a lock on Quintero, I want to be able to pull her out of there at a moments notice."

"I can get a lock sir." Setek spoke quietly but strongly. "But I can't pull her out of there while their shields are up."

"Well then work on getting their shields down." Being captain was a hard job but somebody had to do it.

***

Jenifer smiled. She had completed everything without any interruptions. She was very surprised. She checked her armband to ensure that the connection between her and the Integra was still ready. She then laid her hand down on the computer her finger mere millimeters away from the engage button when the door whooshed open. She whirled around the knife in her hand ready to kill.

"I knew you would come. I see you got my gift." Dijon stood in the doorway hands clasped in front of him.

"Just give me a few seconds and I'll be out of your way, permanently." Jenifer moved her hand behind her searching for that button.

"It's not that easy Jen." He fired the pistol which magically appeared in his hand and destroyed the console behind her. "Besides if you leave me permanently, it will be by my own hands."

"Then put down the phaser and fight me with your own hands." The challenge was set, she dropped the knife and her own phaser and showed her bare hands to him. Surprisingly he did the same, she never remembered him to give up his weapons that easily.

She moved slowly forward, he however pounced almost the entire distance and knocked her to the ground immediately. He quickly wrapped his hands around her throat. Her hands unconsciously were bent on removing his hands from her. Her legs however were free to do as they pleased. She thrashed them about wildly for a second, then caught him off guard by using the momentum to flip them over. Now she was on top, he was still choking her, but she had better leverage and removed his hands with a little effort.

Jenifer stood quickly and kicked him in the hip. Phased but not put out he rolled out of her way and stood, once again ready to pounce. She was not caught by him this time, instead she threw out a fist to met with his jaw. He fell backwards. Angered with adrenaline pumping he jumped to his feet. She swung several times, either missing or blocked by Dijon. On one peculiar swing he caught her arm and swung her around into his grasp. He held his arm around her throat as he produced a small knife out of his right hand sleeve. "Now the time for fun is over." He brought the knife up to her neck.

She felt the cold metal against her skin and would not let him have the last word. "That's what you think." She grabbed hold of his arm and flipped him over her into the containers of bombs. He hit with a loud thump, but did not move. She took that moment to quickly rerig the computer and engage the navigation sequence which would take the ship several thousand kilometers away before the bombs were detonated through the sequence. As she watched Dijon began to stir, she grabbed at her arm transporter control and activated it.

Dijon began to rise when he saw the last sparkles of her body disappear. He cursed himself inwardly and ran for the fallen weapons. "You're not getting away that easily my love."

***

Jason turned excitedly in his chair. "Captain, another transporter beam has been activated. Commander Quintero has been identified, she is now back on board."

"Good, get us the hell out of here. Warp factor four." Arron glad to be away from the battle field sat in his chair. Several seconds later Jenifer burst onto the bridge. She arrived just in time to see the Aqueous moving away. She counted the seconds silently, 6,5,4,3,2,1. On cue the Orion vessel exploded. There was no question now, it was finally over. No more Orions and no more Maris, she had gotten her revenge. Jenifer loudly sighed her relief.

Another sigh came from behind Arron, at first he ignored it, but then he realized it was too loud to be a human sigh. He swiveled in his chair to find the impossible.

Jenifer was the first to find out who the visitor to the bridge was. She turned straight into the face of Dijon Maris.

Chapter 11

Dijon Maris smiled, a long evil smile. In an instant everyone in the room was on their feet, he however, only had eyes for one person. He imposed himself upon her, he did not touch her, he merely glared at her with an evil stare. "I told you that you wouldn't get away that easily."

Arron stepped forward and Maris put his hand up to stop the captain. Steele was not deterred, he stopped his movement but not his wish to protect his crew, no matter what they have done. "How did you survive the explosion?"

Dijon turned slightly towards Steele never taking his eyes off Jenifer. "You underestimated me, both of you." He turned his attention back to Jenifer. "You are not the only one who has a knowledge of transporter control."

Jenifer had had enough of him. She reached to her belt where her phaser was, or should have been. It was then that she realized she had stupidly dropped it when she fought Dijon. She cursed herself for doing so, and she cursed her friends for not doing anything to protect her. "I didn't underestimate you, I just got careless."

"A little too careless I would say. Recognize this?" He swiftly whisked the knife she had dropped in engineering in front of her face.

She did not flinch. Not then, and not when he lowered the knife straight into her stomach. DeArra yelped a scream, which Jenifer hardly heard, everything was muffled and cloudy. Dijon held on to the knife and jerked it upwards cutting through Jenifer's middle.

Maris finally let go of the knife, Jenifer fell to the ground, and at that second Arron took advantage of the clearing and ripped his phaser from his hip. With one clean shot Maris fell to the ground. Immediately there after, DeArra knelt down next to her fallen friend and hit her communicator. "Medical emergency, two to be beamed directly to Sickbay."

***

Everything was fuzzy, Jenifer woke up and she could only see fuzz, but hey, she could see. She reached down to her stomach and felt for the knife. It was gone, along with the big gapping hole. "Thank god, thank god, thank you." She sat up slowly and stopped about half way up. "Oh god, Ouch." She dropped her head back down onto the bed. "Major sourness, ow." Her hand gripped her stomach as the pain registered.

"Now you of all people should know that it's stupid to sit up right after you've been stabbed." Stephanie leaned up against the bed as she watched the screen above Jenifer's head for her vital signs.

"It was stupid to get stabbed in the first place."

"I won't argue that." Stephanie put a hand on her friends shoulder. "You are just lucky that you have friends that transported you directly here, otherwise you'd be dead right now."

The thought of death struck Jenifer badly. "You saved me so quickly, why didn't you do the same for Eric?" It seemed to come out worse than she meant it to.

Stephanie took it all in stride, she knew how Jenifer must be feeling right about now and she couldn't take any offense. "You know as well as I do, I did all I could. His injuries were worse than yours. I understand your loss, Jenny, but please, don't take it out on me, or yourself. Neither of us could have helped what happened." She looked up and saw the captain standing in the doorway. "I'll be back in a few minutes to check up on you."

Arron walked over to Jenifer. He handed her the knife that Stephanie had taken out of her only hours ago. She took it and looked it over, it was still stained with blood, but to Jenifer it was the wrong blood. While she examined it Arron spoke. "Well, he's in custody, once again."

"What do you mean in custody?" Jenifer sounded very surprised. "You didn't kill him when you had the chance?"

"No, I didn't kill him. I'm not like you Jenny, I don't demand revenge." Arron, despite her present condition was bent on being honest.

"Would you if he killed your husband?"

"What?" Arron had no idea, in the few hours that had passed he had not had the time to talk to Stephanie, so he did not know anything.

"Eric's dead, he died from an explosion in engineering. An explosion that was the direct result of the Maris destroyer. Dijon has killed again." Jenifer turned away from Arron's stare.

"Jenifer, I didn't know. I'm so sorry."

"Don't be, hell, it defiantly wasn't your fault. I keep trying to blame myself for ordering him to do the diagnostic on the coolant chamber. Then I try and blame Dijon for firing at this ship. Then I blame myself again for involving myself with Dijon, which initiated this whole Damn mess." Jenifer sighed loudly. "I give up, I just give up. I can't kill him, he won't die, and my friends won't do me the favor of getting rid of him."

"Jenifer, this is ridiculous, this time, more precautions will be taken, his trial will begin as soon as we get him to a secure holding. He will not be allowed to escape. It's over." Arron sounded sure, Jenifer only wished she was as well.

***

Several days later Jenifer found herself in the morgue once again. It was quiet and solitary, she found herself coming here often to think or to just calm her nerves. For the first couple of days she thought it was strange and she was afraid that people might think she was sick coming so often to see the dead. Any more she did not care what others thought, she missed her husband and even though he was dead she still felt as if she could talk to him.

She sat next to his cold body that was encased in a clear stasis chamber ready for transport to Earth where the rest of his family was waiting for his burial, Jenifer was going with him, she just didn't know how she could face the rest of the family knowing that she was responsible for his death. They did not blame her, but they did not fully know what had happened, her letter and the reports only outlined the situation. She never let the details out, she didn't know if she could.

She looked to her deceased husband, he looked much like he did before he had died. Stephanie had healed all his wounds, in fact to Jenifer, he looked several years younger than he had looked before. She rubbed her hand over the casket hoping she could feel something from him, wished she could feel his touch again, hear his gentle words, and most of all she wanted to say good bye. She loved him dearly and when she found that he was dead seconds after the blast she did not have the chance to tell him so. And now she could not find the words.

She sat chattering aimlessly, mostly all small talk, nothing of true importance. Just trying to feel as if he were alive again. "I didn't go to engineering again today. I have lost two people down there in the last month, I just don't think that I'm ready to talk to them. I'm afraid that they no longer like me, I don't protect my people that well." She fingered the outline of his cheek on the window trying to remember the feel of his skin against hers.

"Hell, who am I fooling, I'm not set to be an engineer anymore. I'm no use to Starfleet without you, I love you so. Oh Eric why did you leave me, you had said that we'd be together forever."

Folding her arms on top the transparent box she rested her head in them and started crying. This was about the fourth time that day that tears had filled her eyes. Like all the other times she did not stop them, she just let them go. In the counseling she went to for the relationship between herself and her mother, so long ago, she had learned that it was best to let your feelings out for the healing process to begin. Everyone on the ship would testify that she was holding her emotions in. This was because she would only let those feelings out in private, she did not wish to feel weak or let others see her weakness.

***

Arron scratched the back of his neck, his black hat tipping slightly with the movement of his hand. "How long has she been in there?"

"Several hours." Stephanie stood next to Arron in his command chair.

DeArra stood on the other side and they talked quietly amongst themselves. "She hasn't been to engineering since the accident."

"I don't think she should. Physically she's back in good health, but mentally..." Stephanie trailed off letting the words go unspoken.

"DeArra I think you should go have a talk with her."

The first officer shook her head. "I can tell you now exactly what she is feeling. Distress, she feels totally helpless. Without Eric she feels she has nothing she has gone into a deep state of depression. Even if all her closest friends gathered around her and showed our support it would not elevate her spirits. I don't think my talking to her will help. Other than that you would need a full telepath to tell you what else is going on inside her head."

"I wish there was something we could do for her." Steele's eyes became wishful. "As of now I am going to allow her extended medical leave. Hopefully after we get her to earth and all this with Maris' trial is over she will feel up to returning to duty.

"DeArra," he continued. "Could you inform her that I am extending her leave and she is relieved of duty until she and Doctor Koval feel she is ready to return."

"Yes captain." DeArra used the formal term only because she did not wish to do this, she knew that he only wanted her to go to Jenifer to try and help her out of this rut.

***

The room was dark when she entered only the light of the stars streaking by shown in the room. DeArra Kiljian could not see her friend but rather felt her presence. She did not bother to turn up the lights she only stood there near the door waiting for her friend to speak first. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness she could make out shadowy figures.

A coffee table was in the center of the room with a high back chair facing away from DeArra and a couch on the opposite side. On the couch was discarded and forgotten clothing, engineering tools, and PADDs. She could make out a pair of boots on top the coffee table which she assumed was connected to her friends legs. Also on the coffee table was a pile of holographs, PADDs, a finely polished knife, and a plate of food hardly even picked at. DeArra stood there for several minutes in the darkness studying every aspect of the once neat cabin. In the past six days it has gone thoroughly down hill.

Finally the boots moved off the table and a deep sigh came from within the chair. A familiar voice rang out. "Are you going to stand there forever? Either leave or come in, I don't care which."

DeArra's footsteps, though softened from the carpet, were loud unwelcome noise in the room. She pushed aside some of the junk that lined the couch. She sat knees crossed hands folded on top them. She stared across the table at her sullen friend.

Dark eyes stared back. Jenifer Quintero wife to the deceased Eric Quintero slouched in the chair her hair falling all over her face which was swollen and her eyes red from weeping.

DeArra bowed her head slightly from the onslaught of low emotions she received when she lowered her shields. She wished to know what Jenifer was feeling in order to talk to her, but the sadness was too much to bear and she replaced the shields with practiced ease. Her friend did not seem to notice her at all, Jenifer's mind was on another world, thinking either of the past or what the future could have been.

Since it did not look as if Jenifer was going to talk DeArra decided to. "It has been nearly a week and Arron...we decided that it would be best if you were given extended medical leave. Perhaps after you have been on Earth for a while and had time too-" she stopped in mid-sentence because Jenifer had begun to shake her head. "What?"

"You don't need to give me any leave, I have decided to resign my commission." There was no sarcasm, there was no kidding smile, she was serious and everything within DeArra told her she was telling the truth.

Chapter 12

"Why? Why would she do this to us, to herself." Arron paced his cabin the rest of the command crew was there with one exception, someone who was no longer had the rank to be among them.

"She feels she has no purpose here without Eric to guide her." DeArra sat calmly, it wasn't long after she left Jenifer's cabin that she asked to talk to the rest of the crew, so Jenifer's sadness still lingered within her.

"But she did fine without him." Darian protested.

"That was years ago, in the Academy." Jason countered.

"I think she just needs time to think things over, after a while she will realize that resigning was wrong." Stephanie too sat calmly watching Arron walk around the room picking up objects, examining them, and replacing them as he moved along.

"The question is, would Starfleet accept her back if she wanted to come back? After all she has done in the past, they could have court-martialed her twenty times. If it wasn't for her saving our butts now and again she'd be in a rehabilitation colony for life." Arron fingered the sword that he had hung on his wall, was it really seven years ago, after Jenifer had saved his butt from her only real enemy.

This action brought a rush of hope to DeArra as she remembered who they were holding in the brig. "With Maris permanently behind bars, she would have no problems right. They'd have to accept her."

"Especially with her father gaining rank as he is." Jason tried to help lift the mood.

It didn't seem to work for Darian brought it right back down again. "Then Maris will escape again, as he always has, and she will be on the rampage, looking for blood harder than ever."

"Stop this." Stephanie silenced them all she stood and looked them over with pity. "Why are we just sitting here and speculating. We shouldn't just be talking we should be acting. She's our friend and our crewmate and when one of the Integra crew is hurt so are the rest, we have to help her through this, show her we care."

DeArra stood as well. "She's right, United we stand and divided we fall."

This seemed to get the crews hope up somewhat, now the next step was how to act. What could they do to make Jenifer realize that she was still a valued member of their crew. They sat thinking for a while and came out of it empty handed.

***

She walked in civilian clothing down a restricted corridor that was meant for officers only, but since only a few people knew of her resignation no one tried to stop her. She walked up to a door that only allowed command officers and security to pass through, since even the computer did not know of her decision it ignorantly let her through.

Inside was a long corridor slightly lit due to the night cycle the ship was in. Several large doorways lined the corridor but only one several meters down glowed a bright blue indicating that someone was inside. Just inside the outer doorway was a desk off to the right the young security officer paid no attention to the intruder until she had walked several feet past him.

He jumped to his feet and blocked her way. "Sir, I'm sorry, but you are not allowed through."

"What are you talking about?" She preferred to play it coyly.

"The captain's orders sir. He ordered that Commander Jenifer Quintero was not to visit the prisoner, he said it would not be in your best interest." The man moved slightly from side to side as she tried to find the best angle to get around him.

"Oh come on, I'm just going to talk to him, it's not like I'm going to shoot him or anything." She cracked a smile, to her it was fake but the ensign didn't seem to know it was.

He hesitated slightly. "No the captain said..."

"The captain says a lot of things he doesn't mean, believe me I know." To him her smile was sincere. "Besides there will be a forcefield between him and me and you can monitor us, that's what you're here for isn't it?"

He glanced nervously around. "All right a few minutes, just don't tell anybody it was me who let you through."

"Of course not, hell I don't even know your name, but you're a sweet heart anyway." She patted him on the cheek and walked passed.

When she reached the only lit cell she looked inside to find a still form laying on the bench looking to the ceiling. "What a pitiful sight you are."

He jumped to his feet and with what seemed to be sincere gladness he ran to her. "Jen my love, you've come to me."

"Uh uh uh." She waved her index finger at him. "Don't come to close you may get a boo boo." She indicated the force shield between them. She smiled slightly trying to deceive him. "You've won, it's finally happen, you may be in there but you won. I'm resigning Starfleet, you won't have to worry about me any more."

He glared at her mischiefly. "Why are you really here?" It looked like her deception wasn't working.

"What you haven't heard, the captain hasn't told you?" She acted shocked.

He grew suspicious. "Told me what."

"Told you that you are responsible for another death, the only casualty of your destroyer this round. Another person died from the destroyer another person I loved you have taken away from me." With each word her voice grew harsher. Dijon shrank back slightly from the bitterness of her final words. "You have killed my husband."

"Jen my love, if I had known..." He pleaded as if he believed that she would lower the shield and come in to kill him, or just strangle him with the forcefulness of her words.

"You would have done it a million times, just to see me hurt. Well despite what everyone else says, it's not over. I will not rest until I see you get what you deserve, that you suffer far worse than I have. I am going to make your life a living hell, one worse than what I have gone through. And I especially won't let you die, because I want you to scream for mercy, and I will show you NONE!"

He stumbled backwards and hit the back of his knees against the bench, his legs gave out under him and he fell onto the bench. She had never seen him like this, it looked as if he were truly scared of her. He tried to regain his composure to plead further. "Jenifer," He surprised her by using her full name, "I understand what you're going through. please don't do anything foolish, think this through, you don't really want to hurt me."

"Foolish, foolish." She was stuck on the word like a broken record. "I've done hundreds of foolish things, what's one more?" She paused trying to straighten her thoughts. "I have promised him that you will pay for what you have done, to Eric, Justin and all the other people's lives you have destroyed."

At that moment the young ensign approached her. "All right, I think that's enough." He took her arm gently but firmly.

In one last try to rattle his nerves. "I will destroy you, one piece at a time if I have too, you won't know when and you won't know how, but you will be destroyed." The security officer was now pulling her forcefully away from the cell and out the security door he left her there on the other side and locked it so she could not reenter. Sighing relief he sat back at his desk and from somewhere he heard weeping, he did not know if it came from the cell or the other side of the locked door and he really didn't want to find out.

***

"Thank you Ensign." Steele said to the ensign as he moved toward the turbolift. A young security officer walked into the lift that Kiljian had just gotten off of. She watched him go, it was unusual to see security personnel on the bridge. She immediately, out of habit walked to her captain's side. "I have just been informed that our former chief engineer has visited the prisoner."

"I thought you had ordered that she wasn't allowed to see him?" That was one of the first things Arron did after Maris' capture.

He waved it off. "Oh, the ensign apologized for that. Jenifer has a way with men you know."

"I know." DeArra looked at him suspiciously. Jenifer had told her many years ago about the small affair she had with Arron, but she never let it come between them.

Steele ignored her looks. "I think it's time that I talk with Jenifer."

"Good luck, you know how stubborn she is."

"I know." He received another suspicious glance from Kiljian as he left the bridge. He did not find Jenifer in her cabin, engineering or the brig, not even the gym where she rarely went to work out. So he tried the last place he wanted to go to and found her there. He did not wish to bother her, not in the morgue, but he had to talk to her. He stood in the doorway easdropping unintentionally since she did not know he was there.

"You should have seen it." She laughed. "I actually had him backing away from me. He was scared, truthfully scared. God how I wish that forcefield wasn't there so I could face him on his own turf."

She was facing Eric with her back turned to the doorway and jolted when she heard the additional voice. "You know that forcefield is to protect you as well as him."

Jenifer jumped out of her seat and turned to Arron. "What are you doing here?" It came out harsher than she meant it, or perhaps she did mean it.

"I wanted to talk to you, I thought maybe we could straighten some things out."

She quickly dragged him out of the room. "I wasn't asking what you are doing here, I was asking you why you disturbed me when I'm with him." She pointed back towards the room.

He had no answer for that question so he went on with his original answer. "I came to try and give you a little emotional support."

"Oh yeah sure, pity me, go ahead, I don't care anymore because I won't have to put up with you're crap for much longer. By the end of the month I'll be back home where I belong."

"You don't belong on any planet's surface, you know that as well as I do." He tried to play on her feelings to bring out the truth. "You belong in space just like me. You've known that since before you came out here, long before you ran away."

"Being out in space isn't for me anymore." She dropped her head in defeat. "I don't feel at home here anymore." She gestured all around her indicating not only the room nor the ship, but the entire galaxy filled with stars. "I feel if I stayed trapped here on this ship much longer I'll burst."

"You're lonely aren't you?" The question came out of nowhere.

"What?"

"You're lonely, I can see it in your eyes. That's why you come here so often." He indicated the other room and Eric's still form. "That's why you went to see Maris. Then you go and lock yourself in your room because you don't want us, your friends, to see how badly you are hurting."

"That's ridiculous." She waved the idea off with a motion of her hands and turned her back to him looking out a porthole.

"Is it? I think it's rather plausible and logical, given you're current dilemma you feel pulled between many different things. Your hate for Dijon, your love for Eric, your rightful duty, and your caring friends. Each of these things are pulling you in different directions." He concluded.

"You're no psychologist. You don't have the slightest idea what I'm going through." She stared out the porthole trying to ignore his words.

He shook his head sadly. "No I'm not a psychologist but as your friend I can see what you are going through and I want to help you. But Jenny, I can't help you unless you want to be helped. None of us like to sit by helplessly watching you get torn apart. We just can't do anything until you ask it of us."

"Why haven't you helped me?" The words came through tears and Arron was unsure of what she said so she repeated it. "Why haven't you helped me? You've seen me in pain, I've looked to all of you wishing you would help me but all you people do is talk. The only one that will listen to me and allow me to talk is dead. He knew that when I'm in pain, I don't ask aloud. I never had too, he was always there to listen and love me. Now he's gone." She fell to the ground in tears her face buried in her hands ashamed of her breakdown but wishing that someone would help her out of it.

Arron sat down besides her and put an arm around her. "It's all right." He whispered it softly reassuring. "I'll listen to you now, go ahead and cry, it will help."

She looked up to him her eyes already red, his eyes met hers, she did not feel the lust for him now, that was gone long ago, but she did feel the love that was in his heart. He was her friend and he would help her. The love was nothing like that of Eric's but it was enough.

Chapter 13

They had been there sitting for several hours looking out the window to the stars streaking by listening and talking to one another and was utterly surprised when the room shook. Jenifer had a strong sensation of deja-vu. Right afterwards Steele's communicator chirped and he was back in his command mode. "Steele here, report."

"Sir," it was Kiljian. "A ship has just declocked and opened fire on us, we just barely had time to put up shields."

"I'll be right up, try to hail them and if they continue to fire don't hesitate to return their fire." He slapped his comm badge off. "I'm sorry Jenny, but I have to go." He offered her his hand.

She took it gladly and ran with him into the turbolift. He ordered it to the bridge when it opened the bridge staff was in order and ready for combat, however the ship had not fired again, it was also not answering their hails. Unbeknownst to him Jenifer was on his heels all the way, she didn't care if she was still a civilian, she wanted to know what the hell was going on.

The screen was filled with the visage of a large Klingon vessel. At the tip of it's wings the phaser banks glowed with readiness to open fire again. Jenifer ran to the unoccupied engineering console and checked out the specs on this specific model. No one noticed her, or was so used to her being there didn't realize she was not supposed to be there.

"Hail them." Steele ordered again. "Find out what they want."

Jason complied with his order. When he received no reply he let his feelings out about the situation. "Why are they just sitting there what do they want?"

"Ready the weapons Mr. Setek."

"Sir the phasers have already been targeted." He allowed the confusion to show in his voice.

"Then fire." The command came sharply and so did the phaser shot, it crossed the spance of space with no resistance and hit the Klingon ship in it's most vulnerable position. It rocked with the hit but instead of firing back two more vessels appeared.

From behind him came an unexpected voice. "It's Kobiashi Maru all over again."

Steele turned to find Jenifer hunched over the engineering controls, now he knew why the phasers were pretargeted. "Quintero, what are you doing here."

She unknowingly flinched at the name he had called her. "I, um... I"

She was cut off by DeArra. "Sir, they are now hailing us."

For the moment Steele forgot about Jenifer. "On screen." He turned around to greet the smiling Klingon face.

The Klingon was dark with more facial hair than Steele had remembered seeing on any Klingon. The large man spoke in a light amused voice. "I am Vareck, you are holding a prisoner of the Klingon Empire, we demand that he be returned immediately."

"No." The shrieking reply came from behind Arron.

The Klingon tried to see behind him but was unable to. Arron tried his hardest to ignore her. "He is also a prisoner of the Federation with numerous counts against him, we are on our way to drop him off for his trial."

"Maris deserves no trial." The light hearted Klingon no longer was light hearted, he pounded his fist against the consul in front of him.

"You've got that right." Came the reply from the back of the bridge.

Again Arron struggled to ignore her. "Every being, no matter how serious his crime, deserves a trial. Besides," Steele added. "he escaped you and now we have him, we have every right to try him under our court of law."

"I demand justice."

"Yes and so do I." Steele beat Jenifer to the punch. "He will receive his due punishment once his fair trial is over."

"Trial, punishment?" He said mockingly. "The Federation's idea of punishment is putting a man into a retirement home before he is middle aged."

Jenifer smiled. "I like him, he's funny." DeArra shushed her immediately.

The Klingon, still wondering whom was speaking in the background, continued. "I want your prisoner, and I will destroy your ship to get him."

"You will risk war with the Federation to get one prisoner."

"Your war does not frighten me human. That ship you are riding in is hardly space worthy there is no way you can defeat me." He laughed.

Arron had Setek cut off the transmission and Jenifer jumped at the chance to talk. "I say we hand him over to the Klingons, he'll suffer more that way."

"I can't just willingly give up a prisoner, no matter who he is."

"All right, I'll put it to you this way." Jenifer reasoned. "If you don't hand him over, the Klingons will open fire and everyone on this ship will die. You're risking your entire crew for one man. Didn't we talk about this some time ago? The ship isn't worth it."

"One man or a dozen, I won't do it." It seemed the Klingons heard his words, for it was at that moment that they began to fire. "Evasive."

Jenifer ran back to the computer and decided the best shots they could make to the Klingon vessels, she may have wanted hand Maris over to them, but she sure as hell wasn't going to let them destroy her ship.

***

The entire ship shook again and the young ensign grabbed onto his console trying to keep from falling onto the floor. His phaser which was sitting loosely on the desk clattered to the floor noisily. The noise alerted the prisoner and he bent as far as he could to see his guard without touching the field that kept him inside.

The guard looked to him nervously and tried to grab the phaser up off the ground when another volley of weapons hit the ship and the stabilizers worked overtime to straighten the ship. The ensign crashed to the floor and rolled several times until he came to a landing on the opposite wall. He slid to the ground unconscious.

Maris smiled, it was wicked as he wished the guard much pain. The next round of fire hit the ship and to Dijon's luck the field in front of him flickered. It however did not go out entirely, but it generated hope within him. Another hit to the ship did not come for several seconds and when it did the field went out entirely. Dijon jumped to his freedom just in case the shields wished to reinstate themselves. He was free at last, but if he did not act quickly he would go down with this ship. He ran to the guards console, picked up the fallen phaser, and ordered up the Klingon's blueprints. He would commandeer one of their vessels. The Federation was not equipped to handle it, nor would the Klingons fire on their own. He made his plans to make his way to the transporter room and take the ship that had the weakest shields.

***

It defiantly wasn't a fair fight. Three Klingon ships against the Integra. With Jenifer at the weapons control the Klingons had no chance. She fired another round of torpedoes with a smile. The three Klingons have slowed down. One ship in particular had almost completely lost their shields she concentrated her fire on that vessel. As she prepared the next volley of phasers and torpedoes the ship started to move off. It clocked and she lost track of it entirely. Hitting her console she cursed. She wasn't about to give up though, she relocked the phasers and fired on the two remaining ships.

The phaser energy was lost on their shields. Yet out of nowhere another round of phasers and torpedo's hit the Klingon vessels. Unclocking, there were four Romulan ships surrounding them.

The Klingons followed the first of their kind, they clocked and ran. Evian smiled as he saw the screen on his console. A moment later his grinning face turned to one of despair. "The Romulans have now locked their weapons on us."

"They're hailing us." Jenifer called.

"On screen." Arron stood and adjusted his beret. When the face on the screen appeared he was slightly shocked. "You?"

"Hello Steele, Jenny." The Romulan nodded to Arron and then to Jenifer behind him. "I don't have to guess why the Klingons were here."

"I don't suppose you're here for the same reason?"

"When I heard he had escaped I could not help but come after him." As Kormin spoke he was distracted when Jenifer began to kick the computer.

Arron moved quickly to her side. When he was there she muted the communications and still she spoke quietly as if he could still hear her. "He's escaped that Locnusber. The security teams can't find him on the ship." Exasperatedly she added. "I think he got away on that first Klingon ship."

"Damn." Arron pounded the console.

"You can say that again." Jenifer sighed when she saw Kormin's face on the screen. "What are you going to tell him?"

"I don't know, what about you?"

She had no idea what she would tell Kormin, he was her friend, but she still believed that she had more right to Dijon than anyone else. She flipped on the volume of the communication. "Kormin, I'm sorry, but Dijon has escaped, unless you can find the first Klingon vessel that had left here then I don't believe you or I can have him. We'll just have to wait until next time."

Kormin looked saddened he now addressed Steele. "If I may captain I would like to come aboard your vessel and discuss this with you."

"Of course, we'll be waiting." Arron nodded to Jenifer and she cut off the transmission and lowered the shields after Darian had confirmed the Romulans had powered theirs down.

Jenifer and Arron then walked out the door together. After the turbolift allowed them privacy Jenifer began. "Arron, I think..."

He stopped her. "Now listen, we are not going after that Klingon ship, he's gone for now, forget about him."

She smiled. "I can never forget about him, and that wasn't what I was going to say. I was going to say; I think I was wrong to put in my resignation so soon, I saw how much you needed me in that fight and I don't think I can give up the stars. I would like to request, however, that I still be on leave until after his funeral, it would allow me time to relax and reflect over what's happened."

Arron too was now smiling. "I'm glad to see you're back."

They walked into the transporter room not touching but defiantly close. She needed his strength right now as much as he needed her as an engineer. She loved him, but not in the way DeArra does, he was her captain and her friend, he was just like a brother. He helped her when she was down and he acted as her conscious all because he loved her too. They were family, perhaps not in blood but in mind, as was the rest of the Integra crew.

Jenifer asked the transporter chief if he would leave for this transport without arguing he left. She prepared the transporter and nodded to Arron he contacted the Romulan ship through the ships computer. "We are ready to receive you Commander San."

"I am ready." The voice came over the communications network.

Jenifer activated the beam and watched as her friend appeared. He hardly looked any different than the day she met him, after all they don't age as much as humans do. He held over his shoulder a small bag and was no longer dressed in the attire of a Romulan commander. Jenifer's smile broadened as she realized what this meant. DeArra's voice over the comm link only confirmed her thoughts. "Sir, the Romulan vessels are departing."

"Understood commander." Arron extended his hand to the Romulan. "I assume this means you are not going back to the Empire."

"My work there is done. Besides, I found their life to be rather boring." He placed the strap of his luggage into Steele's open palm.

Jenifer giggled slightly when she saw Arron's expression. She moved around the computer console and ungracefully hugged the large man. The Romulan did not resist and embraced her as well. "I knew you would come to your senses."

"Yes I have, but it appears as you have lost yours." He indicated her casual appearance.

She pulled at her sweater looking down at it and rocked on her heels. "I did, but with the help of my friends, I came back to them quickly."

"Where would you like to be dropped off?" Arron draped the luggage over his shoulder.

"I do not wish to be a nusence. Where ever your next stop is at."

She cleared her throat. "Earth."

"Then again, I believe Beta Opilon is nice this time of year."

"Good choice." Arron tried to balance the bag as he walked and didn't do a good job of it. Jenifer smoothly took it from him and had no trouble carrying it to San's temporary housing.

Chapter 14

Chief Engineers Personal Log; Stardate 39345.1. It has been a week since I left Earth and my husband. It has taken me a while but I finally believe that I am no longer alone, my friends have helped me through my sadness and have helped me to decide to stay in Starfleet. As for Dijon Maris, so far no one has heard from him, I have a feeling that it will be a while until anyone does. Kormin San the Romulan commander who had requested asylum was left on Beta Opilon on our way back to Earth, I can only assume that he is freelance once again.

As for the Integra, I have had to do some major repair on the engines, it seems I just can't leave the crew during a battle and come back to a neat ship. I have to say that my engineers are very competent and did do a very decent job while I was away.

***

She paused the recording device for a second. Now comes the hard part. It had taken her a long time to realize that she needed a new assistant engineer and it was hard for her to admit that the gap needed filling. Now command has sent her a new one, she wondered what he would be like.

***

"Starfleet command has seen it fit to give me a new assistant so early after my last one had... left us. This officer will be arriving sometime today. I have researched into this Mark McKlure and found him to be a competent officer. However, I have doubts about him. I do not believe I will ever be able to attain a reptor with him that I had with Mr. Quintero. I am just afraid that this officer will clash with the environment we enjoy in engineering. And I feel that he may not be suitable for me."

***

She stopped the recorder and read it over on the screen in front of her. She still did not feel comfortable around the crew, she felt as if she had abandoned them at the time they most needed her. Yet they had welcomed her back with open arms and rejoiced that they didn't have to replace two officers. She began thinking of her husband once again when she noticed movement outside her office. She looked up and saw an unfamiliar face.

At first she thought it was someone whom had lost his way, but then she realized he was in exactly the right place. She stood and waved him inside. As he walked in she gave him her hand. "Mark McKlure I presume." He nodded his head. "I'm Jenifer Quintero, the crew usually calls me Jenny. Have a seat please." She motioned to the chair that was now behind him.

He took it gladly and seemed very relaxed in this situation. Normally anyone meeting their superior officer for the first time is nervous, he wasn't. She looked him over approvingly. Tall, she would guess about 6'2'', medium weight, muscular, short light brown hair green eyes, and she had read he was from Mars, very interesting. She noticed that while he was not at all nervous, her leg began to jiggle slightly, an unconscious reflex of hers.

She began with normal business. "I'm glad to have you aboard, I don't know if you have talked to the captain or not, I'm sure he will get around to talking with you. I want you to also feel welcome to come and go from engineering and this office as you please, just as long as you don't get in the way. We try to keep an informal environment in here.

"Right now we are repairing the last of the recent battle damage, it is all minor." Jenifer began, she noticed that he had just a little strange gleam in his eye. "I thought that maybe you could start gathering a team together to fix some of the matter containment units that were damaged. There is also several bulkheads that have to be removed. Other than that, relax and enjoy yourself. I believe your shift doesn't start till eight am tomorrow, so you can go get some rest if you wish before you start."

"With all respect, Jenny," he tried her name out cautiously. "I would like to start now if I may."

"Of course. I admire a person who likes to get a head start on things." She smiled admiringly.

He smiled as well as he got up to leave. "Oh, I know it's usually customary for the command crew to throw a dinner for a new command level officer. I was wondering if I could change that tradition a little, I would like to have you for dinner tonight."

"Well thank you Mark. I'd be delighted." (she sees it as a formalilty)

"Great, my place, around fourteen hundred?"

She nodded her reply and he walked out. She automatically hit the record switch again on her computer.

***

Chief engineers log; supplemental. Then again, I could be wrong.

***

She flicked the switch off and leaned back in her chair. She's been wrong before and now was no different. This Mark McKlure looked very promising.

Epilog

Jenifer took the band out of her hair and let it flow about her shoulders as she walked into her room. She had just left Mark's quarters after an enjoyable evening. The man was a pure gentleman, he did not attempt anything (as she thought he might have from the looks he had given her), he didn't even kiss her until she left and that was just on the cheek. She smiled as she thought of when she first met Eric, this man was very much the same except he was more forward where Eric was shy. She leaned back in her favorite chair and kicked her boots off.

The cabin had mysteriously cleaned itself up, she would not admit to doing it herself. She closed her eyes and started to imagine about different things, mostly involving all the people in her life, everyone from Dijon Maris to Arron Steele and Eric Quintero, including the new man Mark McKlure. She knew that it wasn't really that healthy to get into a relationship this soon after losing her husband, but there was just something in this man that affected her. She could not pinpoint it, it was just like they belonged together.

Her thoughts started to vary and fuzz out. She was on the brink of sleep when a call came over the communications channel for her. "Commander Quintero, you have a private communique coming in for you over subspace."

Jenifer bolted from her chair and from sleep wondering who would think it important enough to talk to her over subspace, perhaps it was her father wondering how she got along with the new assistant, maybe it was Kormin just wishing to talk. There was only one way to find out. She ran to her communications console and activated it. All her hopes washed out of her as she saw the face of a man she had grown to hate.

"Jen, my love." He started, he did not have so much hate in his voice now, she wondered why but did not interrupt him. "I realize and understand your grief, I wish you to know that I am truly sorry for the death of your husband, I wished you pain but not in that manner."

"I don't believe that, you wish me pain in any form you can give it." She did nothing to hide the anger in her voice.

He shook his head. "You forget that I had a son too, Jen, one that died much like your husband died. The pain of a lost love is great, I realize that Jen, I have always loved you. That is why I call now. I wanted you to know that, and that my heart goes out to you." His expression changed. "I will allow you time to grieve this loss, but I also wanted you to know that I am free and I will be back for you. Good bye my love." He cut off the transmission before she could say another word. She went back to her chair and stared at the stars. They gleamed especially bright today, and reflected off of something on the table. She looked down and found the knife staring back at her. She picked it up and fingered it, remembering.