Knight sat in his darkened ready room, unsuccessfully trying to take a nap. He readjusted his chair and closed his eyes, trying one last time to get some rest. He restlessly shifted position several times before he finally got fed up.

"Computer-lights."

The lights returned to normal illumination and Knight stood up to stretch. The joint effort to restore the alien vessel, dubbed Proteus by Doctor Riley, had been woefully unsuccessful so far. The ship's engines just seemed to be unwilling to work.

Still, Knight took solace in the one good point of good news-it had been twenty six hours and there was no sign of further "competition"-Dravic or otherwise. He strolled over to the replicator and was about to make a selection when the comm chirped.

Knight tapped his comm-badge. "Knight here-go ahead."

"Captain-" began T'Senishra, uncertainty obvious in her voice, "-I think you will wish to see this for yourself."

Knight rushed out of his ready room and joined his first officer at the Tactical station. Neeron's prediction had come true.

"How many ships?" he asked, his mouth dry.

Nicot gulped. "They're still entering sensor range. But right now, its over one hundred."

"How long until they arrive?" asked T'Senishra.

"At present speeds-four hours, give or take a couple of minutes," reported Nicot. He turned around. "Based on present reports from the surface, its not enough time to get the Proteus in orbit."

"Inform the others, and tell Rojc and Riley I'm beaming down."

"Aye sir."

Knight was not the only one to beam down. The Autarch, Orum, and Thot Neeron had decided to join them. They were all assembled in the main bunker, along with Doctor Riley and Commander Rojc.

"The final count is two-hundred-twelve Dravic starships," began Knight, "Even with the firepower we have, we wouldn't last more than ten minutes against that many enemy vessels."

"We've tried everything we can," proclaimed Riley, "We can't get her off the ground-we shook her out of the ground some, but it totally fused the engines."

"The engineers have just started attaching anti-grav units to the hull," added Rojc, "But if you want my opinion, we're never going to have this hulk out of here in time."

"Then there is only one thing left to do. Destroy this vessel," pronounced the

Autarch.

"WHAT!?!" shouted Riley, "This is an archeological and technological find of a life time! There has to be another way!"

"I agree," stated Orum, "If in fact we do defeat these Dravic, then we can return to removing it."

"Orum, I realize that your superiors aren't going to appreciate failure, but we don't have a choice-we need to evacuate and destroy the Proteus now!" replied Rojc.

"Frankly, I agree with the Autarch," added Knight. "There's optimism, but this is way beyond it. We can't destroy that many Dravic ships quickly enough to prevent our own destruction."

"NO!" yelled Riley, "I won't allow this! I will launch an official protest-"

"We must do what is necessary, and that means the destruction of this ship," interrupted Neeron, "But the question at hand is do we possess the ability to do so?"

"No, we don't. Because I WILL NOT allow it!" bellowed Riley, once again, "This is MY find--you are here out of courtesy to the Federation."

"Security!" barked Rojc. Two officers promptly entered the bunker. "Take Doctor Reily back to the Phantom. Then start the evacuation of the Proteus and everyone down here."

The two guards seized Reily. "Aye sir." The dragged him out of the bunker, as he continued to rave.

Rojc looked at Knight, "He's going to make our lives hell for this."

Knight shook his head, "I wouldn't worry about it. Now, what will it take to destroy the Proteus?"

Rojc took a breathed in heavily. "We've got a lot of firepower in orbit, but I'm not sure we can obliterate this thing." He knocked against the hull with his fist. "If we can plant the five tri-cobalt devices in the lowest levels, along with some make-shift explosives, I think that should be enough to crack it open. From there, the combined firepower of all our ships we can destroy whatever's left. The environmental fallout is going to be bad."

"How long?" asked Knight.

"We'll be cutting it close-three, three and a half hours. More if Riley's people put up a struggle," answered Rojc.

Knight turned to the other three leaders. "Well?"

"Do we have a choice?" inquired Orum bitterly.

"Not really."

There was a comprehending silence as they all knew that the ship must be destroyed.

Knight turned back to Rojc, "All right Commander-begin the evacuation and start setting up the explosives."

"Commander Rojc, status report," ordered Knight, now back on the bridge of the Phantom.

"We're finishing up the final check now. We'll be clear and ready to detonate in five minutes."

"See that its only five minutes, Commander. Knight out." He paused and cocked his head towards Nicot. "How long to intercept, Mr. Nicot?"

"Nineteen minutes," Nicot replied solemnly. The seconds ticked by in silence as they waited for Rojc's team to return to the ship.

What seemed like an eternity lasted ended as Rojc confidently strode onto the Bridge and took over at the Tactical station. "We're ready for detonation, sir. On your command."

"Five second delay on my mark, Mr. Rojc."

"Open a channel to our forces," ordered T'Senishra.

With only a brief pause, it was done. "Channel open."

"This is Knight to the rest of the fleet--we are detonating the explosives," he paused to add emphasis, "now."

Five ticks of the clock later, at the press of a button, a startling explosion erupted on the planet's surface. All things considered--it was a good sign.

Rojc did a quick sensor sweep. "Cracked the hull in over two dozen places--showing one major structural breach," he reported triumphantly, "It worked."

"Knight to fleet--fire!"

On that mark, the seven Romulan warbirds, four Tzenkathi cruisers, the N'eg'chav and the Phantom let loose a full salvo of their weaponry on the planet's surface. The impact of that weaponry had greater effect than that of a class one asteroid striking the surface. The crust of the planet broken, the fall out visibly spreading rapidly through the planet's atmosphere, the ships terminated their barrage.

Rojc once again took initiative and ran a sensor sweep of the planet. "The ship has been destroyed," he relayed, "The four kilometers of planet it was buried in has sunk into the planet's mantle. I'm not reading any trace of the ship."

Knight nodded stiffly. "Good. Signal the other ships and set course out of the system--full impulse."

Now it was a race. Could they clear the system before the Dravic fleet arrived?

"Time, Mr. Nicot?" requested Knight.

"Six minutes, fifteen seconds."

"Time to warp speed, Lieutenant Iv'Oor?" asked T'Senishra in the follow-up.

"Four minutes, fifty-three seconds."

Silence returned to the Bridge as the race continued. The Phantom had failed its mission--and what's worse was the threat chasing them.

But while the others dwelt on the impending fate of the ship, Knight's steeled his resolve. There looked to be a good chance for a battle and he was going to be prepared--worrying about his career meant little to him at this point--only his desire to protect his ship and crew and to survive mattered. Xanthus made mental notes about what strategies to employ should it come down to a battle.

"Mr. Rojc--what's the status of the Security System?" inquired Knight.

"I'm keeping the system on passive until it becomes necessary to implement active status," replied Rojc, "Active status may degrade the ship's performance."

Knight shook his head. "Bring us up to active any way. I feel better knowing we have the protection from the start than engaging the system after its too late."

"Understood, sir. Echo Papa 1107 system is at full active status," informed Rojc unquestioningly. For Rojc as well, there was only the battle and survival in mind--petty tactical squabbles were of little concern.

"Forty-nine seconds until we have warp speed available," reported Iv'Oor.

"Hold on--", began Nicot, "I'm getting a funny reading from one of the Romulan warbirds." He paused as he analyzed the readings.

Nicot and the rest of the crew had little time to understand what was happening as the warbird promptly erupted into a fiery mass.

"Damn!" swore Knight, "The software weapon must have better range than we thought! Notify the fleet--"

Knight was interrupted as another warbird and this time a Tzenkath cruiser exploded.

"What the--!?" exclaimed Rojc, "The N'eg'chav just dropped behind the rest of the fleet--they're entering weapons range of the Dravic."

Thot Neeron's ugly little ship deftly maneuvered into the line of fire of the oncoming Dravic vessels. Normally, he would not be so cavalier, but this engagement--however limited it would be--seemed to be of nagging importance.

"Neeron! We have entered weapons range of the lead enemy vessels!" relayed the Klingon at the N'eg'chav's Tactical station.

Without pause, Neeron responded, "Fire photonic charges."

Two more Romulan ships and one more Tzenkathi ship perished as the N'eg'chav completed its maneuvers. But the remaining allied vessels could only watch in stunned silence as the deceptively insignificant Breen ship opened fire on the Dravic ships pursuing them. The first spread of charges took out almost a dozen enemy ships, while the second broke the Dravic fleet up into chaos.

The Dravic fleet's formation collapsed as more than half the vessels either stopped their pursuit or turned to flee. The rest vainly tried to dodge the incoming weapons fire.

"We can't keep them out of the computers much longer, Thot Neeron!" shouted the Breen OPS officer, "The human was right--we can not destroy them fast enough."

Neeron glared at the enemy on the viewscreen before finally replying to his officers. "Are the pret'ien clear?"

"Yes Sir!" began the OPS officer, "They've just entered high warp. The Phantom is straggling behind to cover us."

"Helm! Engage course away from the enemy--match the fleet's speed," barked Neeron harshly. Regardless of the enemy or situation, he did not like to run. "Signal the Phantom to take their shot after we are clear."

As the N'eg'chav sped past the Phantom, the Federation ship brought its own weapons to bare against the Dravic. Salvo after salvo of quantum torpedoes slammed into the still pursuing Dravic vessels.

"Status?" demanded T'Senishra.

"They're backing off!" returned Rojc, "We're gaining ground again."

"The software weaponry?" pressed Knight.

"Its being successfully repelled," reported Nicot, "Though if they catch up, we're in trouble--they were beginning to adapt."

"We're clear!" notified Iv'Oor, "The few pursuers still on our tail have capped off at Warp Six."

"Increase speed to catch up with the rest of the fleet, but keep us on red alert until the Dravic have discontinued pursuit."

"Captain's Log--supplemental. We've successfully escaped from the Dravic fleet but our losses were considerable. Both the N'eg'chav and the Phantom have endured significant system stress, while only three Romulan vessels and one Tzenkathi cruiser remain. Between the N'eg'chav and ourselves, however, we appear to have destroyed or critically damaged at least fifty Dravic ships. We're now holding position at the edge of the Delta Tomgren sector, tying up some loose ends with our 'allies'."

"Rest assured, Captain Knight, that I will make sure the Tzenkathi Coalition mobilize to deal with the threat of these Dravic," assured the Autarch, "I also thank both you and Thot Neeron for your attempts to delay the Dravic attack."

"You're welcome, Autarch," replied Knight, "I'm sure Starfleet will gladly accept your help, even if they hadn't planned on getting it."

"I too, will see that the Romulan Star Empire is made aware of this new enemy, Captain. It is a shame the Federation Council is so short sighted not to warn us of their existence, but I thank you for your forwardness," declared Orum. "Until next time, Captain. Commander Rojc."

The viewscreen blinked out to the stellar view as the Romulans and Tzenkathi ended their transmission. The lone Tzenkathi ship took off at warp speed in one direction, while the three remaining warbirds cloaked while heading in the other direction. Only the Phantom and the N'eg'chav were left.

"What do you expect to happen now?" asked Thot Neeron uncertainly.

"Hard to say," replied Knight vaguely, "But if I know Council Member Channing, not a whole lot. This will barely even qualify as a minor skirmish to him."

"Unfortunate."

"Yes..." replied Knight trailing off. "I'm sure you're aware, Thot Neeron, that we could arrest you for conspiring with the Orion Syndicate." He paused to let the Breen worry a little. "But it is my estimation you more than exonerated yourself, especially when you turned back to hold back the Dravic. That's one tough ship you've got there."

On the other side of the comm-link, Thot Neeron smiled knowingly, despite himself. "As the romu'sagn said, until next time."

EPILOGUE

Space rippled ever so slightly moments after the Phantom and N'eg'chav had departed. Had they been aware of the distortion, they might have been more concerned.

"You were successful in collecting the data?" barked Maalica.

"I was," grunted the Dravic commander, "They never noticed us."

Maalica's eyes narrowed. "Excellent. At least something went as planned on this assignment. Return to the home system at once. Yin Maalica out."

The Dravic vessel powered up its engines and went into warp. Was it the end of a conflict--or only the beginning?