Don't Blame Me

Posted on Tue Jan 13th, 2026 @ 2:19am by Rear Admiral Veegg & Lieutenant (J.G.) Rrawran & Ensign Talyn Daughter of Moya & Commander Ash Randall & Commander Zhora zh'Roothi & Lieutenant Commander Kuzos & Lieutenant Commander Sora Bernadotte & Lieutenant Commander Aidan Datari & Lieutenant Urvasi Elandorn & Lieutenant Amber Laurell & Lieutenant Joshua Silas & Lieutenant (J.G.) Dylan Blake & Ensign Sayori Nakai & Ensign Mirakylin Yumerieva

6,606 words; about a 33 minute read

Mission: Distress
Location: Operations, Deep Space 47
Timeline: 2439-08-12, 11:00

First Officer's Log, U.S.S. Defiant, Stardate 116612.2:

Deep Space 47 is a tomb in space. We have been able to successfully recover the station, but so far we've determined that there are no survivors among the station's 300+ crew. I can only thank the Prophets that the teams from Defiant and Enterprise have been able to restore power to the station and bring the computers online so that we can maybe get to the bottom of what happened here.

Except we have a new problem. About fifteen minutes ago both Defiant and Enterprise jumped to warp on a course for the central star in the Idran System. My Science Officer, Lieutenant Ash, theorizes from the data that both vehicles are on a collision course for the star. I can only theorize about what this means, but I hope that she's wrong.

Lieutenant Commander Ektis Samti stood at the Situation Table in the heart of Deep Space 47's Operations Center reading over the details on the display. It had taken some time to adjust to the Cardassian inspired screens but, after having first served on DS9 and now the Defiant, he'd started to adjust to them. At times he actually preferred them to the Starfleet issued LCARS displays, not that he'd admit that to many people. Being a Bajoran having an appreciation for anything Cardassian was a major faux pas, despite the Bajorans and Cardassians having improved relations over the years. Not that relations were all that great again at the moment as the Cardassians had returned to their old ways, but that was a story for another time.

Especially when they were dealing with two runaway starships.

It had been about fifteen minutes since the Defiant and Enterprise jumped to Warp on a direct course for the Idran Star. The nearest system, at that speed it would take roughly an hour for the ships to reach their destination so that gave them only a small amount of time to figure out how to help their motherships. They all knew that their colleagues would be working on the problem too, but something told the Bajoran man that this was going to be up to them to solve. It was almost like some monster was messing with them, making them feel like they'd had a win only to throw a new monkey wrench into the works.

Ensign Talyn, Daughter of Moya, spoke, "We need to do something! Every minute we waste is one closer to our ships being destroyed!"

Lieutenant Urvasi Elandorn remained to the side and out of mind, waiting for command, engineering, and sciences to work on the issue. Her EVA helmet was open, though, conserving its supplies as she drank a black coffee herself.

Lieutenant Commander Sora Bernadotte, chief operations officer of USS Enterprise, took a sip from the cup of coffee she had been able to get from the now restored replicator in Operations on the station. An unnecessary luxury, some would say, but looking around the room she saw several other people holding a variety of drinks. Hydration should never be underestimated, and she absolutely needed the caffeine to think this new crisis through. "So, to sum up what we know so far. As soon as my team reactivated the main computer core, we tried to contact the other teams, as well as Enterprise, and found communications jammed. Commander Randall has reported that she experienced the same issue when she tried to contact the ship from the power core."

Another sip of coffee, before she continued. "We must also assume that neither Defiant nor Enterprise intentionally set a collision course for a star. That leaves us with two options. Either there is a saboteur on board one or both vessels, or their navigational systems were hijacked remotely. With the complete lockout on communications both within and without the station, I would assume the latter, and that both ships are experiencing the same issue as well. We have seen that the enemy is capable of hiding mines in subspace, safely and rapidly shut down the advanced power core of this station, completely shut down the computer systems while corrupting sensor and communications logs, and all of that while allowing just enough power to maintain gravity and air. So, we can assume that whoever we are facing has access to highly advanced technology."

Ensign Sayori Nakai, Enterprise junior science officer, held up her hand. "Sir, given the short period of time since the deactivation of the power and computer cores, are we certain that life support still being active was not simply a side effect, rather than intentional? I mean, it does take quite some time for breathable air to disappear, at least when it's not actively being vented, and the gravity plating to discharge."

Sora shook her head. "I don't believe so, Ensign. Given the placement of the bodies where your team first arrived, as well as the mines, I believe things so far have happened exactly as the enemy intended them to. A federation vessel came to investigate the station, dropped boarding parties that restored power and the computers, and discovered the bodies and mines, before said vessel was forced to jump away, with the intention of destroying it, leaving the boarding party stranded. All this tells me three things about them. First, they are highly advanced, possibly more so than the Federation. Secondly, they are ruthless. And thirdly, they want to send a message, which I can only surmise to be to tell us to get out of the Gamma Quadrant, and stay out."

"The brutality and efficiency of which this assault was conducted is chilling," Commander zh'Roothi added. "An hour had passed between losing communication with DS47 and the Enterprise arriving in orbit - you've all seen the result of this attack," she glanced around the gathered officers. "They knew exactly how we'd restore the station, which areas to place mines and devices to slow our progress and perhaps force our hand. I agree with Sora on the theory of remote hijacking - all the events that have led up to this are too complex to be coincidences."

Kuzos was one of the few who had no drink. He didn't need one. "This was calculated." He spoke up. "Plain and simple and we." He looked around at the others. "We are the key. This is a challenge another piece of the puzzle if you will set by the attackers. To see if we are worthy. If we can save both the Defiant and the Enterprise. They will have their answer."

"Worthy of what?" Sora asked, anger beginning to form in her voice. "So this massacre of the entire crew of this station, that's just part of some game? Who in the universe would-" Suddenly, she stopped herself. "Oh, no. No. To do what they did, they had to have intricate knowledge of how this station's systems work, as well as Starfleet protocols, procedures, communication channels. And how to effortlessly take over a Starfleet vessel remotely." She shook her head as she began to recognize the pattern. "Do we have any intact mines handy?"

"Easy," zh'Roothi began ready to interrupt Sora's anger even if she harboured her own concerns of Kuzos' word choice.

Kuzos remained calm unaffected by Sora's anger. "No, not a game much more than that. A chess match, a strategy learning experience. As to who, take your pick Commander."

Standing nearby, Lieutenant Rrawran did speak up to answer Commander Bernadotte, "I'm afraid that we don't, Commander. All of the anti-personnel mines were detonated. I did take scans of the remains of one that we encountered if you would like to review them. They are incredibly close to the scan data we have regarding the Houdini mines used during the Dominion War," the Rrorworr glanced at Commander Kuzos as he said it. He wasn't certain if they were Houdinis, or were meant to look like them.

Sora cursed under her breath. The scans the Lieutenant had would most certainly not include the details that she was looking for. "No need, Lieutenant. I had hoped that inspecting an intact mine could have given us a better clue towards where they came from. I have seen enough scans of them to know that those won't help." She glanced at zh'Roothi. "And don't worry, Commander. My anger is not directed at anyone here, but at our situation. At the enemy turning us into playthings."

"Understandable," zh'Roothi nodded relieved they weren't about to start fighting amongst themselves.

While the other officers were talking, Sayori had sat down at one of the computer consoles and began randomly inspecting pages. Suddenly, she called out. "Sirs, everyone? I think I might have something." She pointed at the screen. "This all started when we booted up the computer, right? Well, there are several processes running in the computer's RAM. One of them is taking up a lot of memory, actually. And when I tried to access them, I immediately got locked out. I think we have found our sabotage. Or at least part of it."

"What are you suggesting?" Lieutenant Blake who was close to where Sayori was working. "The computer is responsible for this chain reaction?"

Sayori nodded. "Yes. Or rather, malicious code that was injected into the computer. Another surprise left behind for us."

"I'm not sure if that's more horrifying that mines to not," Blake murmured.

Ensign Mirakylin Yumerieva heard what Sayori said and moved over to be by the computer console. She looked at the displays, then brought up a schematic of DS47. What if there was a way to directly access the computer to its programs to bypass needing to access them? She began searching while taking a sip from the sweet tea cup that her tail had a hold upon.

"What was done here took more than an hour." Commander Randall said, quietly. "We have to establish communications with those ships. Get a message to them with what information we have. Any ideas?" She stated and looked to Commander zh'Roothi, the expression on hers saying she had an idea and she didn't like it. "The clock is ticking and we don't have much time."

"Thank you for the reminder," Zhora nodded having caught Randall's unsettling expression.

Commander Ektis from the Defiant spoke up, "I have a feeling that's easier said than done. While Defiant and Enterprise weren't able to talk with us when we tried to contact them, the evidence from the sensors suggests they did talk with each other and their communications transceiver failed shortly before they jumped to warp. So, we can't reach them by traditional means and, if we did, what exactly do we tell them anyway? Sorry about your luck? We need a solution first."

"There are ways to throw a ship out of warp, if necessary," Sora replied. "Creating an instability in the warp field by physically deactivating one of the nacelles, for example. Maybe a simple computer reset would be all that's needed to get rid of the navigation takeover. But the best solution is worthless if we can't get it to them." She looked around the room, and finally nodded. "Commander Ektis, Commander Randall. Grab a few of the others here and try to figure out how to regain control of Enterprise and Defiant, or at least how to stop them heading straight into a star. Meanwhile, Commander zh'Roothi, Ensign Nakai and I will work with the rest to restore communication with them. Starting with figuring out what the hell is going on with the computer."

The Chief Engineer of the Enterprise grinned, widely. "Divide and conquer, I like it." She stated, in a chipper manner. "It will take about 10 minutes to supe up a Runabout so it can manage Slipstream speeds. It'll be a bumpy ride, but we can overtake those ships and transition to Warp 5 before we shake to pieces." She added and looked to Commander Ektis. "It'll go quicker than 10 minutes with help, of course." She added.

Urvasi heard this and moved over to be near Ash. "Commander Randall, I can help, I am well versed in Control Panels for Damage control, I can pretty much build one from scratch." She then asked, "If we can get to one of the ships, match our field, but then decay it, won't it also decay the other ships Warp field and drop both into normal space?...." She left off there, not wanting to add anything dramatic or to be taken in another direction.

"Its a viable option." Commander Randall replied, quietly, while she popped open her Doctor Bag, peered inside for a few seconds, and then nodded to herself as she closed it. "We need to hit it and soon." She muttered to herself.

As quickly as ideas were forming zh'Roothi could feel them already snowballing and threatening to fall out of control as the team began to talk over another. Though they were working against the clock they also needed to operate as well oiled and efficient team. The Commander inched forward to bring order to the scene when another voice spoke over the din.

Kuzos was nonplused by Sora's anger and her explanation. Anger was a wasted emotion. he was working on discovering who was behind the attack on the station and the reason for it other than what he said to the others.

Seated at the Science Station, Lieutenant Ash of the Defiant looked up from her monitors toward the group. Having listened in to the group, and the potential that the issues began from the communique between the station, Defiant, and Enterprise, the Soong Type android considered the possibilities that they faced. Pressing a control on her station, she interrupted.

"We are missing two items," the android explained, "first, DS47 has been equipped with three Flyer Class runabouts. We must determine whether or not they have also been impacted by the same hazard that is affecting Defiant and Enterprise prior to launch as we may be making a vessel that could very quickly overtake our vessels, only to then travel into the star themselves. Second, under military jurisdiction Commander zh'Roothi of the Enterprise is next in chain of command, which would mean she would be in operational control over DS47 for the duration of this mission. We must determine the sanctioned course of action, who will deploy to attempt to recover Defiant and Enterprise, and we must also determine if the file mentioned by the Ensign is the cause, as well as how to stop it from causing disruption in the future."

"All true." Ash stated, in agreement. "And, it all needs to happen at the same time." She added and looked to zh'Roothi. "We have a plan. Just say the word." She added.

Zhora's gaze shifted uncomfortably to the Android and instantly felt a heavy burden fall across her shoulders as the weight of the statement struck her. Immediately the eyes of the room shifted to her, poised to take action. Though accustomed to being the hot seat this new update had Zhora feeling unsteady and was glad for another interruption.

Mira found what she was looking for. However, they may not have much time to actually console decode a direct memory feed. But, in looking for that, she had another thought. "XO Commander zh'Roothi, if the computer is running programs that interfaces with the Starbases special sensors to play havoc with our ships... if we want to stop the programs cold, we would need to cut power from five different junctions at the same time, but that would cut off all emergency, backup, aux, main, and power cell reserves from the Computer core and power it immediately down." She blushed lightly, "I did find a place to directly interface into the memory buss for performing analytical analysis to get into the programs to understand what they are doing... but that probably would take more time than we..... wait... direct program interface... think we could send the kill program command to those programs directly via injection? Maybe?"

Amber looked towards Mira. “I’ll admit it’s been a while since I took Ops at the Academy, but wouldn’t that be a risk to the station if anything went awry? Don’t get me wrong it’s a great idea, and if it works it’ll save a heap of time, but if someone has taken the time to set this all up, they might just have taken into account our interference and have countermeasures put into place.”

Sayori stared at the screen in front of her. While she had specialised in radiation and particle physics at the academy, her adoptive mother was, in addition to running a teahouse, an accomplished programmer and hacker - after all, she had written a virus merging Tal Shiar and Starfleet technologies to remotely override an enemy ship's defensive system, back when she had worked with some mercenaries during the evacuation of Romulus. Thinking about that virus gave her an idea. "I think I've figured out how the navigation override on Enterprise and Defiant works," she said. "My mother once wrote a programme that did a similar thing to another ship, well, it took over weapons and shields and shut them down, but it could have equally been used to hijack navigation. Genius bit of coding, really, using a Tal Shiar failsafe system coupled with Starfleet command software. I mean, it had to be tailored to the ship it was being used against, and that used a Starfleet computer, so obviously it had to be made compatible. That virus had to be manually installed by someone on board, though, it couldn't be transmitted remotely. But the working principle seems to be exactly what was used against our ships, so I reckon flushing their computers might get rid of it. Once we get to them, anyway."

Sora chuckled. Her sister Freya had been the commanding officer of the Terran ship that code had been used against, and the person who had installed it following her defection to the mercenaries of the I.R.W. Ourainavassa. "Good thinking, Ensign. Unfortunately, it doesn't really help us right now. As far as I know, Shizune herself is the only person who knows how exactly she made it work, and it's not like we have the time to call her and explain it to us."

"Wait, you know my mother, sir?", Sayori asked in surprise. "I suppose we'll talk about that later. I also have an idea how we could deal with the processes blocking the comms system. See, they are using up 98.72 percent of available memory allocated to the communications subsystems, and the same amount of computing power. So, if we fill the rest of the system with junk code, like Ensign Yumerieva suggested with injecting a kill programme, it should overload that particular subsystem and shunt everything into the backup memory, which is quite easy to isolate from other systems."

"Alright," Commander zh'Roothi took control of the scene having put aside her missgivens and moved to stand at the Operation. "Reset the main computer, purge this code, programme whatever it is that's sending out that signal. Baradotte, get your team on that straight away." She nodded to her Ops Officer.

"Randall, Elandorn I want those support vessels inspected before they fly." The Commander continued. "They too may have been tampered with or damaged from the assault, without them the plan won't even get out of the starting blocks. Then, there's the means to actually stop the Enterprise and Defiant, I'd prefer to avoid an aggressive option that may already weaken our position in the region. Kuzos, I want you to concoct a tactic for this." she glanced to the Vorta officer who'd been mostly quiet up till now. "Talyn please assist him. Commander Ektis you know your crew best please assign them accordingly."

Commander Ektis nodded, "Immediately, Commander."

Commander Randall was moving as zh'Roothi issued her orders and was already sprinting out the door of the operations center. "Clock is ticking, Lieutenant." She announced as she exited.

Lieutenant Elendorn announced "Coming, Sir.." as she sprinted out the door behind Ash. This was a race against the clock. She was surprised at how fast the CEO of the Enterprise could be, but she was fast herself, and in a lower G gravity than she was used to, so the two made quick work of the distance to the Runabouts.

Sora simply nodded and turned to both Sayori and Mira. "Right then. We'll try Sayori's idea first. If that doesn't work, we'll do it Mira's way. Ensign Talyn, Lieutenant Laurell, monitor the systems. Nakai, how long do you think it will take to overwhelm the memory? Remember, we're on a very tight schedule."

Sayori smiled. The moment Sora had given the go ahead for her plan, she had begun injecting some basic junk code into the comms system memory. "I've already injected the code, comms subsystem is running at 103 percent capacity. The junk should self-replicate until it hits 175 percent, but the safeties should kick in before that and clear the memory."

Aidan had been listening to the back and forth between the officers, while nursing a glass of near frozen ice tea. His expression was one of worry, since the Enterprise had moved away apparently on its own accord. He trusted Sherlock would watch his daughter, or that he would warn someone to pick her up and look after her. "We should purge the computer core," he finally spoke up. "It would wipe everything, but it certainly would wipe whatever these invaders have left behind."

Amber was monitoring the readouts, keeping a close eye on the systems as the junk started self-replicating. “It’s self-replicating, numbers are going up steadily.”

"Purge the system," the Trill insisted, "it will wipe the entire computer database including all that junk."

"Purge the system," zh'Rooth instructed. "We don't have the luxury of time to cleanse each file one by one. It will hinder us somewhat I know, but will wipe clean everything left behind that maybe in wait to harm us further. Lieutenant Ash," she looked again toward the Android from the Defiant. "Unlock the stations back up files and start the purging."

Mira started to raise a hand as she started to say, "Wait.. wouldn't the..." She trailed off. The senior officers had their plan, so she waited for any orders for herself.

Lieutenant Ash of the Starship Defiant nodded and accessed the appropriate controls, "Initalizing a complete shutdown, now!"

Mira decided to make herself useful and followed after Ash and Urvasi. She would go through the docking system to make sure the runabout could launch.

The androids fingers raced over the obsidian control interface almost faster than humanoid eye could see, resetting every system onboard the station back to their factory setting. Alarms blamed as the life-support and power systems crashed first, but they quickly came back to life. Every screen went dark, awaiting their restart sequence.

"Reloading programs from the protected archives in the main core. Now!"

Ektis joked, "Just avoid the counterinsurgency program please."

Ash ignored the comment, her fingers gliding over the terminal. The screens all switched back to a more traditional, animated layout than the static screens of before. Ash looked up from her terminal, "Reboot complete."

Sayori threw up her hands. "Ten seconds. Ten fucking seconds more patience and it would have been done. But no, you had to go reboot the entire computer. You know, just what we did when those files first showed up." She glanced at the systems display, and groaned. "Someone please tell me I'm wrong, because I am seeing the exact same thing as I saw before I filled the system with junk. Commander, congratulations. You just wasted precious time we do not have."

"Sayori," Blake hissed in warning still hovering nearby. He'd had his fair share of reprimands in the post for disrespecting the chain of Commander. Insulting the newly appointed station Commander wasn't a wise decision even if she was feeling frustrated or stressed.

Sora walked over and put a hand on Sayori's shoulder. "Enough. Don't you go and get yourself in trouble for insubordination. Especially not for insulting your direct department head. We can discuss this once this situation is over." She looked at the display and shook her head. "Okay. Overwhelming the memory might have worked, but we don't have time to try again. Rebooting the computer did not work. We don't have the time for Mira's plan, either, by the time we have rebooted the computer from that, Enterprise and Defiant will be crispy balls of scrap."

She sighed, and shooed Sayori away from the console, before reaching into one of her pockets and taking out a datachip. "I did not want to have to do this." She plugged the chip into the console, and entered a few access codes. Immediately, the computer began rebooting again. "We now know that the malicious code operates at the OS level, or possibly even deeper. So, let's override the operating system." She looked around the room at the other officers as the computer came back online once more. "Nobody ask me where I got this chip," she remarked, as the main viewscreen's Cardassian UI was replaced with one that looked much closer to the LCARS system of the Federation - except for an emblem of planet earth impaled on a dagger in the upper left corner.

Sayori had moved to a different console, and looked over the memory status of the computer. "The malicious code has failed to execute. It's gone."

Aidan held his breath as he recognized the emblem. "Whatever you did seems to have worked," he agreed, "for now. Can we send it to the Enterprise and the Defiant to override their computer as well?"

Amber gave Aidan a brief look as she sensed a change in his emotions, a sense of familiarity but question was familiarity to what?

The eagle eye of Trill scientist wasn't the only one who'd seen the insignia on the console. Blake's eyes narrowed with increased suspicion having already eyed the Commander's unique blade as they roamed the station prior to arriving at Ops. The Lieutenant glanced over to Commander zh'Roothi wondering if the Andorian knew of Bernodotte's connections and how she'd reacted to Sayori's outburst.

Sora laughed inwardly at the thought of using a Terran systems override code to regain control of the two wayward ships. Ironic, really. "Unfortunately, this code needs to be injected directly from the chip. So, it would not work, no." She glanced at Sayori, wondering if the young science officer had recognised her adoptive mother's work. After all, she had just used an updated version of the very virus she had referred to earlier. "We should take a look at those weird files, though. Now that they're no longer active, maybe their safety protocols aren't, either."

"Actually, at this point, I think for the safety of everyone we need to purge these files and not look back. We've seen files get accidentally reactivated and turned into a danger before, the Counterinsurgency Program I mentioned earlier for example. Plus, we have to worry about the future. There's a potential that this file could be used to spy on Starfleet and its operations," the XO of the Defiant looked at Commander zh'Roothi, "this is your station now, Commander, which means its your decision what happens to that file."

"Keep it securely sealed for now," Zhora replied. "It may be useful later, however lets return to the matter at hand. What's the status of our Starships and the countdown?"

Lieutenant Ash, still seated at the Science Station, looked at the sensor monitor on her display. Bringing up the tactical plot, the android entered a sequence of commands on the screen. "Sensor lock on both Defiant and Enterprise indicate they are nearing the point of no return. Even if we are able to launch the runabouts, we would no longer be able to catch them in 7.2 minutes. Are we able to launch?"

"Some of us have families onboard," Aidan all but pleaded, his worry now plain on his features. "Would they evacuate?"

Amber stepped up offering Aidan a comforting smile. “Try not to worry, they won’t let anything happen to your daughter. The safety of everyone aboard is paramount.”

Aidan cast the dark eyed Vulcan woman a small smile. "I know," he answered softly, "but I can't help but worry. I'm a single parent, since her mother walked away from us. She's so small still..."

“I know it’s difficult, I’d feel the same in your position but try and concentrate on the here and now.” Amber offered a warm smile. “We’ll find a way to help them.”

Being a somewhat random empath himself, Aidan was aware of her sincerity and he gave her another worried smile. "Thank you," was all he said as he tried to focus on his job.

"We'll be able to launch in 90 seconds." The Chief Engineer of Enterprise responded, over comms. "It'll be tight but we'll get to them with enough time to force them out of warp, one way or another." She added.

Urvasi keyed the comms as well. "All diags check out, Commander Randall and I switched Computer and aux cores of the runabout from ones in storage, key sequences for emergency startups are engaged. We will perform the Ashata maneuver, matched decay of warp fields in an inverse energy decay to bring both rescue ship and rescued from warp intact." She glanced at the time and added, "Launch in 60 seconds mark."

Sora smiled. "Good to see that comms are back up." She turned to Commanders zh'Roothi and Ektis. "I assume you'll want me on ops?"

Commander Ektis looked between Sora and then Zhora, "Commander, with your permission, I would like to serve as Commander of the Away Team to recover Defiant and Enterprise." He looked at Commander Bernadotte, "I'd like the Commander to travel with me."

Zhora eyed her equal upon the Defiant momentarily. "Granted and take mister Blake with you and use the transporter - time is running out."

The Bajoran First Officer nodded in agreement. Turning his head, "Mister Blake you're with me as well. Let's go, everyone."

At the sound of this name Dylan looked up with alarm and horror as he'd much preferred to stay on the station, away from the danger of hurtling into the sun. However, an order was an order.

Despite his desire to go with them, Aidan looked back at OPS. "I'll stay here and help get the station operational. I can read Cardassian."

“I’ll do what I can here” Amber offered. “I can handle helping out in Ops if it’s needed.”

Sora turned to Aidan and Amber. "The software I've injected into the system can be removed with a complete core reset. Once you've removed the malicious code, that is." She pulled the datachip out from its slot and returned it to her pocket. "UI is LCARS-based. Just to be safe, I'd recommend leaving it running this way until we're back. Counselor, you have Ops. I have full confidence in your abilities." With that, she and made her way to the turbolift, pre-empting Commander zh'Roothi's orders.

"Bernadotte," Commander zh'Roothi called, her voice perhaps a little colder than normal. "Do try to remember who's in Command."

Sora chuckled. "Apologies, Commander. I was not referring to Ops as in the 'bridge' of this station, but to the Operations station. Sorry for any misunderstandings there."

The Andorian woman nodded stiffly to accept the reply but did not add.

The transporter engaged, taking the three to the runabout Sundweller.

"Counselor I will be remaining in Ops," zh'Roothi turned instead to the second woman. "However, I will be requiring your assistance in maintaining station functionality and updates from our team."

Amber nodded and smiled. “By all means Commander, I’m happy to help.”

In the docking control station, Mira had just completed her diags with one small repair to get the launch system good to go. She verified the link to Ops and checked that everything was green on her end. Now it was just babysitting to make sure the launch went off successfully.

Only a few moments passed before Operations heard from the Sundweller. Lieutenant Ash turned, "Commander, we are receiving a request for departure from the Sundweller."

"Approved," zh'Roothi replied hoping the runabout would be able to reach and stop the other ships in time, the prospect of failure sent a shiver down her ship.

"Time to impact?" she asked Ash despite her misgivings. "Any other vessels on sensors that may have been infected after receiving the SOS?"

Ash looked up at the Acting Commanding Officer, "Not long at all, Commander. We have reached the point of no return. If they fail to recover Defiant and Enterprise in the next fifteen minutes, both vessels are likely to be destroyed. As for whether there are other vessels at risk, I am unable to answer."

"Understood, thank you Lieutenant."

“What about evacuations? Are the ships starting to evacuate non essential personnel and civilians? They’ll need all the time they can get.” Amber added.

"We have no way of knowing, Counselor," the Rorworr Security Officer answered. "If we know the Commodore he'll take every opportunity to safeguard the crew of Enterprise."

"Of that I'm certain," zh'Roothi added. "The Commodore has faults, as we all do, but he'll always put the lives of the crew first."

Sayori shook her head and smiled. "I have faith in the team. I mean, they have Randall, they have Elandorn, they have Bernadotte and her miracle chip. If anyone can figure out how to save Enterprise and Defiant, it's them."

"Let us hope that you are correct, Ensign," Science Officer Ash added, "as the away team should be intercepting Defiant and Enterprise approximately now."

“I hope everything goes well for them” Amber added briefly.

Down in the Shuttle Bay Control Center, Mira had returned the launching platform to its ready mode. She began shifting the runabouts for each of the remaining four landing pads to allow return of any remaining runabouts or escape pods if needed. She really didn't want to think about what would entail such a retreat and the lives lost, but she had to be at the ready and accept those who would survive. She was used to 'just survive', it was what happened to her, family wiped out, she.... survived.

At the Science Console, Lieutenant Ash interrupted again "Commander, sensors are detecting elevated neutrino levels. The wormhole is opening," The android reported, quickly activating the viewscreen that hung above the pit in the forward center of the room.

On the holographic display the alien stars of the Gamma Quadrant appeared in the once open viewscreen, followed closely by a brilliant white light in the exact center of the image. Like a flower blooming, the Wormhole because to unfold before them with ribbons of amber, gold, and white energy spiraling outward from it like the petals of a blue and purple flower in bloom. The energy gently rotated around its center as the long tunnel to the Alpha Quadrant appeared before them, a small ship coming through.

Zhora's lips thinned with concern. The station wasn't in a position to defend itself if this vessel was hostile. Battle scarred, and operating newly restored systems any conflict may be short lived and one sided. "Yellow alert," she commanded.

Lieutenant Rrawran stood at the Tactical controls on the upper level of Operations, "Readying weapons, Commander, running spacecraft ID."

From the center of the open wormhole came a sleek bullet of a ship. Compact and streamlined like so many of Starfleet's long-range exploration craft of the last century, the Intrepid II Class starship was a sight for sore eyes as it came into view. It followed the general Starfleet design philosophy with a curvy, ovoid shaped primary hull and a secondary engineering hull, but lacked the connecting neck contributing to its sleek and fast appearance.

"It's the Shenzhou, Commander, Admiral Astran Deix's flagship," Rrawran explained.

Ash looked at her readouts, "They're requesting permission to dock, Commander. Shall I approve them for one of the lower pylons?"

"Yes, thank you Ash," zh'Roothi replied exhaling a breath she'd been holding while the computer worked to identify the approaching ship. "Stand down yellow alert."

Looking ashen at the news regarding the Enterprise, the Trill actually looked sick with his dark spots standing out against his now very pale complexion. "I recommend they don't dock but use transporters instead," he announced with shaking voice. "Until we're sure this station's systems are safe, nothing should dock."

“Transporter systems appear stable at present” Amber added. “As long as they stay that way.”

"Yep, looks like we'd be fine to transport if needed," Sayori confirmed.

The acting Captain pursed her lips with thought. Considering what they'd already witnessed there was no harm in playing it safe. "Very well, inform the Shenzhou of the change."

In the Shuttle Bay Control Center, Mira saw the telltales for a docking pylon getting ready for an incoming large ship. She went over to the junction of ring sections 10 and 11 and then began checking over Docking Pylon 5's systems. Everything was powering up and seemed steady, and after the confirmation of that the Pylon was ready to receive, she sent that information to Ops.

As Sciences, Lieutenant Ash received the information.

Rrawran checked his readouts, "Commander, the Admiral is requesting to speak with you once he arrives aboard. He says that it's urgent."

"Of course, I suspect he has plenty of questions," the acting Captain replied watching the sleek ship begin to move into position. "Have him meet me in the Ward Room."

Ash interrupted, "I am able to report that Defiant and Enterprise are both on course to Deep Space 47. They should be here within the hour."

"That's a relief," zh'Roothi spoke first. "I don't think the Admiral would take too kindly hearing of the loss of two star ships on top of the station personnel due to a computer virus."

Aidan breathed an audible sigh of relief at the news. "We don't know if it was a virus," he said, "yes the systems were corrupt, but we don't know what exactly caused it."

"Finding who planted this into the computer is the next mystery we should address," replied zh'Roothi. "Figure that out and motive should follow."

Sayori nodded. "Finding out what exactly it is that they did, and how, and we should get closer to finding out who. The hacking work on this is impressive, to say the least."

"Do we know who controlled this station after the Cardassian were driven from it?" Aidan asked, "knowing this could help us too. As well as tracking down trade routes. Who came and went freely to this station."

Rrawran laughed, "Who didn't control it?"

"There were no shortages of groups in control of this station while it was still identified as Empok Nor, Commander. The Bajoran Cult of the Pah-wraiths, the Nausicaans, the Cardassian Union, the True Way. These are the groups that Starfleet was aware of," the android explained. "None of these organizations are currently approved for access to the Gamma Quadrant presently," she added.

Ensign Talyn added, "Plenty of time to speculate later."

"Indeed," Ash interjected, "with the Commander engaged with Admiral Deix I will remain in operational control here. Let us proceed with initializing repairs to the station and getting an accurate number of casualties. Assignments have been distributed. Let us get to it, people."

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