Early the next morning, Omega Team was once again assembled in Briefing Room 12. As was usual, Knight was the last to arrive. He entered the room and quickly took his seat at the head of the conference table.

"All right, first thing's first--Nicot, Estrun, do you have an origin point?"

Estrun took the initiative. "Yes and no, sir." He frowned, obviously disappointed with his own answer. "The instruments we had at our disposal just weren't enough to give us a pinpointed location. We were, however, able to place the sector."

"Anything better than sector location?"

"I can give you my best guess on a system." Estrun replied.

"Good. And our destination is...?"

Estrun got up and went to the room's master display. He entered a few commands and brought up a starchart. "Right here." He pointed. "The Ildari system in the Beta Renner sector. Its not far from Cardassian space, so there is a chance we could see some Dominion activity."

"What about the transporter technology itself?" asked Rojc.

Estrun shrugged. "I can't even begin to explain how it works exactly, but it appears to be an advanced form of the Iconian Gateway technology."

"There's evidence that some kind of nanotechnology is utilized in the Transport process, but like Estrun said, its...complicated," added Nicot.

"Will we be able to detect its usage, though? Will our shields stop it?" continued Rojc.

"Usually no to the first question, and a probable no to the second," replied Estrun. "These aliens seem to incorporate some kind of system into the technology that makes the disturbance undetectable. If they didn't have that kind of technology, then a focused anti-proton beam should do the trick within a radius of about one hundred meters." Estrun paused. "From what we've seen, our shielding technology has no effect on the Gateways. We don't know enough about it to develop a subspace shield modulation to stop it, if that's even possible." Estrun sat back in his chair.

Knight turned his head to face Ykinati and Einhorn. "And the aliens themselves?"

Einhorn stood up and moved to the master display. She called up her own report and displayed it on the view screen. "Once we broke through the shrouding effect, we were actually able to learn a great deal about their biology. The ones we've seen ranged in height from seven feet to eight and a half feet. With the muscle mass afforded by their size, we've determined that its the single strongest un-altered species ever encountered by the Federation."

"What do you mean by, 'un-altered'?" asked Knight.

"It refers to any species that doesn't have a chemically, genetically, or technologically enhanced biochemistry," Ykinati replied. "Essentially it rules out the Borg. Commander Rojc would fit in the 'altered' category."

"So I'll be the only member of the team with comparable strength?" asked Rojc.

"Not quite," replied Ykinati. "Myself in a different form or Lieutenant Iv'Oor essentially won't be crushed easily by them. You are a different story--if you take away four of their arms, you and it would be fairly equal in terms of strength."

"So extra side-arms for everyone will prove to be best?"

"Yep."

"Continuing on," Einhorn began again, "We've determined they do not communicate telepathically, rather the gill-like organs on their necks seem to allow for vocal communication. Their sight in and of itself is limited to infra-red, but the aliens we observed were wearing some kind of goggles--probably to compensate. The tentacles on the sides of the head appear to be hearing organs." She paused and cleared her throat. "Culturally, they appear to be matriarchal. We've determined that one out of four of the aliens was female, and it was the one giving orders and conducting the computer slicing. Of course, that's just speculation." Einhorn turned off the display and sat back down.

"What kind of phaser setting are we going to need to take these things down?" asked Nicot.

"All the traditional stun levels will have little to no effect. We're not quite sure the line between what will stun them and what will kill them," replied Iv'Oor.

"What about their weapon technology?" inquired Knight.

"I don't know quite how to classify what the device was that they used, but I don't believe it was a weapon per se," Iv'Oor responded.

"These two electrodes produce one beam which is directed at the victim--but the beam itself doesn't seem to do any physical damage to the body. Interestingly enough, there is a second beam that returns to the alien device," added Ykinati.

"Some kind of neural probing device, perhaps?" speculated Iv'Oor.

"Their dialogue would seem to indicate that."

"So then the question becomes, what kind of defense can we have against this device?" questioned Rojc.

Iv'Oor bit her lip. "I'm assuming that a standard personal force field will do the trick."

Rojc frowned but did not question further.

"What about the 'extremely advanced computer tampering'?" asked Knight, directed at Nicot.

"The level of sophistication is amazing," answered Nicot emphatically. "They didn't try to crack the codes or slice their way past the security protocols--they re-wrote them to give them full access. Since they appear to have Iconian Gateway technology, it stands to reason they have access to the likewise Iconian Computer Weapon. I've studied their techniques as well I could with such limited information and I think that with some modifications, Rojc's Echo Papa 1107 Security Protocols will keep a ship safe from any tampering with key systems. Total protection is a virtual impossibility given our technology level when compared to theirs."

"Then your next task is to implement the security protocols with modifications on the ship we will be using," Knight declared. "The USS Fearless is docked in Bay 6. Lieutenant Iv'Oor can assist you in interfacing with the ship as needed."

"The Fearless?" asked Rojc stunned. He quickly caught himself and returned to his normal demeanor.

Knight smiled knowingly, as did Iv'Oor. "The one and only, Commander. I've added her schematics to each of your personal databases--I expect you all to familiarize yourself with them." He glanced around the room. "The mission itself--how do we proceed?"

"Assume the worst," answered Rojc. "They seem to know enough about us that they understand what they did is essentially an act of war. I think any kind of diplomacy would be a mistake--of the fatal kind."

"The Fearless may be powerful, Commander Rojc, but we can't fight a war alone," said Knight.

"That's not what I'm suggesting." Rojc paused. "We simply should be prepared to use deadly force and not worry about maintaining a hope for peace."

Estrun nodded. "Which is precisely what they won't expect. If they were expecting to be located by us, they no doubt felt that a diplomatic team on a Sovereign or Galaxy would attempt to establish relations--same way we proceeded with the Ferengi."

"And what makes you believe they don't know of our mission?" asked Knight. "They could be waiting for just us."

"Actually, I wouldn't doubt that they know of our mission," said Nicot, "But a Starfleet Intelligence team given such an open mission briefing tells little about the nature of our response. And since all of the data we've analyzed or collected is on a protected server, completely independent of the rest of the station, there's no possible way for them to access it, short of infiltrating the starbase in the same way they did Invinoori's lab."

"They think they know what to expect from us, so why take such a big risk," added Ykinati, "Intelligence Command rarely adds good comments in their reports when a team violates Federation laws and with reason--so that it looks like it is discouraged. Even if these aliens know that unofficially the policy is accomplish the mission within acceptable costs, allowing minor infractions--a direct assault by a team of seven officers is totally uncharacteristic of this kind of situation or of what would be normally allowable."

"Knowing the severity of their infraction, perhaps they will be prepared for the unconventional approach," replied Knight.

"Sir, we could sit here and debate how well these aliens know and understand our tactics all week--but we don't have that kind of time," said Rojc with a hint of annoyance.

"Well put, Commander." Knight nodded his head.

"The fact of the matter is that even if they expect an assault, they don't know when or how. Run a diplomacy mission concurrent to the real mission, just to distract them."

Knight noticed Rojc's hint of irritation. "Don't misunderstand me playing devil's advocate, Commander. I agree with your assessment. In fact, I expected as much and requisitioned the diplomacy mission resources concurrent with the Fearless. The USS Endeavour will depart roughly twenty-six hours after we get underway. Officially, of course, we will be leaving with them."

"We still have a big problem here," began Estrun, "We don't have any clue what to expect from these aliens as far as ships and facilities. And for all we know, the databases could be spread across the whole of their territory."

Nicot chuckled. "I've gone ahead and solved one of those problems for us. I've procured a spiffy little computer program that will destroy any traces of the databases."

"What good will it do us?" asked Knight, "How do we know it will be compatible with their systems?"

"Because it's Bynar in origin. And as you should all know, the Bynars have the most sophisticated computer systems in the quadrant."

"Bynars--weren't they the ones who stole the Enterprise-D from Starbase 74 about eleven years ago?" questioned Knight.

Nicot nodded. "The same. Instead of legal action taken against them, Starfleet approached them about doing various research and computer technology assistance. They never actually did anything until after the Battle of Wolf 359, when the Federation Council actively began pursuing an anti-Borg agenda."

Knight waved his hand. "Okay, okay. Get on with it."

"I can't actually tell you how exactly the program works--its beyond even me." Nicot grimaced. "Its purpose is like that of an uninstaller or cleaning program--it can completely erase all data it targets within any system. Essentially it modifies the computer operating system to make it a regular part of the code, while it writes itself into any communications software for further spreading."

"So back to my original question, what good will it do us?" Knight sighed. "If these aliens have the most sophisticated computer technology ever seen by the Federation, what makes you think they won't notice this Bynar program and stop it before it does its task?"

Nicot frowned. "Had you allowed me to finish my backstory, I would have addressed that." He paused before continuing. "As I was about to say, the Bynars' research was focused against the Borg. Actual field tests themselves were deemed impossible until the Prometheus project was finished early last year. The Bynars and their team were given a second Prometheus-class vessel named the USS Trojan Horse to modify as they saw fit. After they completed their upgrades, the Trojan Horse was ordered to the Delta Quadrant, to locate Borg vessels."

"Wait a minute--" Knight interrupted, "How did they get out to the Delta Quadrant--that's one heck of a trip."

"Contrary to popular belief, the Federation does indeed have a form of limited Transwarp Drive," answered Rojc, "Starfleet Engineers only began their first test flights about two years ago and its remained a closely guarded secret ever since."

"Intelligence was opposed to the idea of wide-spread use of the drive for the time being, for security reasons," added Nicot, "The Romulans, Klingons, and the Dominion would like to think they know all the Federation's secrets, but they're far from them."

"Section 31's doing, I suppose," said Knight.

"Who?" asked Einhorn.

Knight cleared his throat. "Not important, Ensign. Please continue Nicot."

"Getting to the point, the goal of the latest assignment of the Bynar research team was to test their computer weaponry against the Borg themselves. To date, the Trojan Horse has disabled and/or destroyed 5 Borg scout vessels and 3 Borg spheres--they're currently supposed to be tracking a cube to test the software weaponry against," finished Nicot, "And if that doesn't get my point across about the Bynars being computer wizards, then let me just say that they broke through top-level Federation encryption in less than half the time it took these Unknowns."

"I'm assuming that the Federation had a backup copy of the databases, otherwise you wouldn't have suggested we destroying several decades of ship research," Knight said.

Nicot nodded, "Secure backup server."

Ykinati spoke up, "What about Invinoori and his team?"

"What about them?" asked Rojc.

"What about their neural patterns--if we can retrieve them, we could restore Invinoori and his team."

Nicot shook his head. "We haven't even established that the weaponry does that for sure--nevermind the fact actually retrieving data is going to be next to impossible. My guess is that if the Unknowns do have Invinoori's team's neural patterns, they'll be wiped out with the databases."

"But if we can help them--" began Einhorn.

"It's not within the mission parameters," answered Rojc, cutting her off. "Starfleet has written off Invinoori and his team as casualties of war, period. I trust Nicot's judgment here--data retrieval of such importance is difficult enough when dealing with known subjects--we don't have the time or resources."

Einhorn was scowling, but did not press the issue further.

There was a brief silence before Knight continued. "Why do I get the feeling this is too easy?"

Nicot avoided eye contact with Knight. "We will need to find and infiltrate one of their facilities, find the main computer core, and then upload the Bynar program."

"And again, we have no clue what to expect from their facilities," added Rojc.

Knight rubbed his forehead and groaned. "Then for the next week we will prepare by running holo sims eighteen hours a day." He paused as he glanced at the faces of the officers around the table, gauging their reactions. "And one last matter, contrary to how you've run missions in the past, I want people confirming orders and voicing concerns about the mission to me--complete awareness, people. Understood?"

"Aye sir," the rest of team responded together.

"Then I think we've covered everything for this briefing. Dismissed."