"Captain, I believe I've just learned something disturbing," said Rojc, breaking the silence that for the past fifteen minutes had consisted of only the beeping of consoles.

Knight walked over to his console, dismayed that yet something else was wrong. "What is it now, Commander?"

Rojc pointed at a spot on the sensor display schematic. "I've been observing the Web and it's stopped."

"Stopped?" asked Knight, staring intently at Rojc. "Our systems are still registering a power siphon from the Web, are they not?"

"They are, but that's not what I mean--"

"Then say what you mean, we don't have time to play 'twenty questions'..." Knight stopped himself as he realized his tone had started to become hostile.

Rojc irately glared at Knight, but to his credit, did not respond to the Captain's hostility. "The Web is no longer moving to crush us, is what I mean to say, Captain--its position is stationary and it's been that way for nearly three minutes."

"So then you think the Tholians were listening in on our conversation?" asked Knight, thinking he was thinking the same thing Rojc was thinking.

Rojc nodded. "Clearly they decided that the anomaly really is killing us and that if they don't have to, destroying our ships doesn't serve their purpose."

"So how do we communicate without tipping our hand to the Tholians?" asked Knight, "The encryption protocols are off-line just like every other damn thing."

"I've been thinking of that myself, Captain, and provided there's a capable Vulcan on the Osbourne, I'm brushed up on my conversational Ancient Vulcan," replied Rojc.

That was enough to earn a strange look even from Senel.

"Why would you ever need to--" Knight shook his head. "Then again, never mind. You're sure the universal translator won't pick it up?"

"The pronounced language only exists in ceremony on Vulcan--even if the Tholians have the alphabet, they don't have pronunciations," answered Rojc, "It's not something that the translator picks up easily anyway."

Knight looked uncertainly at Rojc, but figured he had little other recourse. "It's your show then. Open a comm-link to the Osbourne and Defiant."

"Channel open," reported Iv'Oor.

"Shee-sah, Tal'oveeb?"

"e'Tioh?"

"Me'so vay t'ul cheesp'a T'Khasi," replied Rojc to his startled wife.

"Uhhhh...what?" asked Perevoz. "I think we just lost the universal translator..."

"Could be, Lieutenant," interjected Knight. "I think it's a problem for 'Pointy-Ears,'" he added, hoping he was cryptic enough to confuse the Tholians, but still have Perevoz understand him.

"Captain?"

"'Pointy-Ears,'" Knight repeated with emphasis.

"Oh...right. Good 'ole 'Pointy Ears'..."

Knight sighed and shook his head, trying to surpress the inappropriate laughter he felt.

"This is..." the voice from the Osbourne cleared its throat, "...'Pointy-Ears.'"

"Shee-sah do'vas stuul com'?"

"Mai'to. Fak'la makto."

"Nee'sah. com'Vil."

"T'vay soe fin. T'Specor fi." Rojc terminated the comm-link. "The Osbourne is making progress on their core. Guitarrez somehow managed to rig some kind of program to piece the system back together. As for our team on the Defiant, they reported no success with their core."

"What is wrong with our universal translator!?" demanded Vrax.

Ledron's head twitched. "Diagnostics show the translator to be working within parameters--"

"Then why can we not understand what they are saying!?"

"I...do not know," uttered Ledron, still twitching.

Vrax produced a violent, shrill buzz, then pulled out a weapon and fired. Ledron was instantly vaporized. "Nethrax! Assume the Operations station and provide me with an answer or I shall discharge you next!"

"T'Osbourne a T'Specor. Chi'nto see com'eai'ta. Kun'vay son iti yon mak fula goem micho Kirk i'T'Ampistr. Tee'vay com wai iso con suya?"

Knight looked at Rojc for a translation.

"They did it Captain," began Rojc. "Our teams on the Osbourne succeeded in restoring 89% of their database. They've located the reports from the Starship Enterprise on the Defiant's disappearance, but they're not sure what they're looking for."

Knight thought for a moment. Regardless if the Osbourne had their encryption filters operating, the Defiant's were out of date and wouldn't be able to decode the transmissions. "Could we translate the log entries to Ancient Vulcan and read them to the Defiant?"

Rojc shook his head. "A lot of it probably wouldn't translate."

Knight was about to order the transfer of the files regardless when he remembered an old Maquis trick he'd come up with. "How long until emergency power is exhausted?"

"The Phantom has about six hours and twenty-nine minutes of power left, the Osbourne four hours, and the Defiant two and a half," reported Senel.

Knight paused as he took power reserves into consideration. "Mr. Rojc, ask the Osbourne for a status report on the crew."

"Ti-mon-tay kal-vem sto'kil?"

"M'aish timon sae kal-fon-to-if'ay."

Rojc turned to look Knight in the eye. "An hour. Two at best."

Knight shook his head uncertainly--his plan had never worked with less than two and a half hours of time--this was going to take a little creative modification on his part. "All right, Commander, here's what we'll do--tell our teams on the Osbourne to divide up the log entries into separate files, every five letters. After they do that, tell them to divide the files into sequential pairings and then reverse the pairings. Keep doing that in growing increments of five and when that's complete overlay the audio logs in that format--then have them embed the result in whatever files they can find on the Tholian Web weapon and spatial interphase phenomena."

Rojc gave Knight a look of uncertainty. "What are you hoping to accomplish with this?"

"We send the files on the Web, the Tholians think we're trying to find a way to escape, much as I'm certain they're expecting us to do. Should they investigate that transmission further they may or may not see the embedded data. We'll attach a different segment of the Enterprise's logs to each file transmission across the period of twenty minutes, so that each embedded file found will be little more than incomprehensible words. On the off chance they don't decide that it's a malfunction of our systems and investigate all the embedded data as one, they'll have two blurred data streams--audio and text. Not knowing what they're looking for and having an entirely different procedure for sorting out data reconstruction, it will take the Tholians several hours to find the right reconstruction algorithm to unscramble the data we're really sending," Knight replied excitedly at the genius of his plan. He paused as he saw Rojc still wasn't following him.

"Then under the assumption they expect us to try to find a way to escape, why not just send the actual log files?" asked Iv'Oor, also confused.

Knight shook his head. "You haven't dealt much with Tholians, have you?"

"No, but--"

"They have a superiority complex that makes them think we are stupider and more aggressive than they are," continued Knight, cutting Rojc off. "Logic would dictate finding a cure to the effects of the anomaly first, but the Tholians aren't expecting us to be that smart. Regardless if we have any tactical capability, they will have no trouble believing that we think the best solution is to escape from the Web. We need to play on that belief and buy us some time. If they suspect what we're really trying to do, they'll just proceed to crushing the ships and then we're pretty much screwed any way. Trust me Dade."

Rojc shrugged and turned back to his console, hoping Knight knew what the hell he was doing. He re-opened the comm-link and began to detail Knight's plan to the others.

Vrax continued to stamp his feet as the universal translator continued to not do its job. He began a low, subsonic buzz as he addressed his first officer at the Operations station. "Have you determined the problem?"

Nethrax looked up uncertainly. "I have." He began bobbing. "They are using a language not in our database--we have no basis for it in our database, so the translator is unable to decipher it quickly. The Federations must speak more if we are to understand the language."

Vrax considered this new information and its effects on his plan.

"They are up to something, m'Lord!" stated Tethor, despite the fact that it was obvious.

"Is that no surprise?" barked Vrax, annoyed at his Tactical officer. "Whatever their plans, they will slip up soon enough."

As if on cue, an alarm buzzed on the Operations station. Nethrax analyzed the data then looked up to report. "The small ship has begun sending coded files to the other two ships. The larger ship is sending files to the third ship as well. They contain data on our Web weaponry."

Vrax made a calm, short buzz, basking in the fact he had been proven right. "As I said, they have shown us their plans! Signal our brethren to beware of any weapons fire from the Federation ships."

"Coo'la sto fal-so vay mon. Dijna mek'sco Kirk i'T'Ampistr. Muj'gon-ti-o resa hui cha go Q'onos han dreya."

"They did it!" Rojc relayed. "The Starship Enterprise used a diluted form of a Klingon nerve agent to dull the synapses, but it was only a temporary protection. Arona found a way to re-synthesize the nerve gas to be less damaging and more effective. They're in the process of coding the information now."

"Ag'ine son ippa ton ale kay-vot-suh v'ree san Nicot i'tan."

"T'Senishra tells me that she and Nicot have also come up with a plan to free the ships, based on the 'cover' data," Rojc grinned, "They're including the specifics in the file transfer."

"Excellent," replied Knight.

It was roughly fifteen minutes later that the all the data received from the Defiant had been reconstructed. The nerve agent was the first thing to be decoded, and after it had been, was given to sickbay to synthesize immediately.

By the time the specifics for T'Senishra and Nicot's plan had been reconstructed, the incredible tension and near-crippling stress the crew had been experiencing was seemingly much alleviated. It had been close on the Osbourne, but thankfully no one had died--though a few were still in pretty bad shape.

The crews turned their attention to the escape plan before them. T'Senishra had theorized that the sensors had in fact caused the anomaly to react as it had to the Starfleet vessels, and the added output of the tractor beam had increased that reaction, causing the anomaly to "shift." Nicot had decided that the Web was slowly feeding the anomaly in much the way the sensors had and that more power would reactivate the shift, also causing the Web to dissolve. Wherever the three Federation vessels were pulled to during the shift, it had to be better than being at the mercy of the Tholians.

"Mek'sca von-to-fay misha ek. T'Osbourne das-pla fo shay na vial'to'man."

"T'Senishra doesn't think that a tractor beam would be enough to bring the shift about again," translated Rojc. "She thinks that once the Osbourne was pulled into the anomaly, that was the cause of the power drain."

"Fordall kor hil' so eta m'va'rea choen ir-ra. So'ma a dis'von-tome-sila-meso. I'rach poont'ei waas veya com' il'ta cor rata-abba."

"Captain Fordall suggests using the phaser cannon. He thinks with the right re-configuration, it can be used more as an infuser."

"Is that possible?" asked Knight.

"Perhaps, but I won't know until we brought the phaser cannon on-line," replied Rojc.

"And even if we could bring the cannon on-line, it'll probably be enough to encourage the Tholians to press their attack," added Iv'Oor.

Rojc was about to translate the feedback from the possibility for transmission, when Senel interrupted. "I believe I can bring the cannon on-line. Furthermore, I believe it can be done without alerting the Tholians."

Knight glanced at the Vulcan junior officer. He hadn't said much so far to contribute to their escape. "Explain, Mr. Senel."

"The stealth sensor array and the phaser cannon have relatively similar paths to access them," began Senel, "The stealth sensor array is also accessible through the sensor palette controls of the main deflector dish. By circumventing normal access to the cannon through that route, not only do we avoid start-up and power routing concerns, but we have access to the cannon's control systems before it is fully powered up."

"Giving us time to reconfigure it," finished Knight, understanding. He looked at Rojc to see if he had any objections. "Your opinion, Mr. Rojc?"

"It's going to be tricky, but if the power rerouting succeeds, it should achieve the effect we want," replied Rojc. "We might lose some power relays and ODN junctions when we fire, but it should work."

"All right, get to work then," ordered Knight.

Nethrax sat at the Operations station onboard the Tholian flagship, embroiled in deep thought as he glared at Vrax, who thankfully had his back towards him. Nethrax despised his commanding officer so very much; now he would be hailed as a hero when word spread of his victory against the Federation "invasion." His head twitched in irritation as he briefly considered killing Vrax. Perhaps should the situation present itself.

Nethrax's murderous musings were interrupted by a bridge alert. He switched off the irritating noise and scanned the source of the disturbance. "Vrax, m'Lord, the largest Federation vessel appears to be powering up its weapons!"

"Alert status!" ordered Vrax as he took his place on the command tier. "Power our shields and prepare our weapons. Target to destroy their weapons array."

Tethor made a noise conveying his surprise at the Federation vessel's actions. "It is not firing its weapons, rather using their cannon to infuse the anomaly with energy!"

Vrax's head snapped towards the nearest monitor. "What are they doing?" His eyes widened as the three Federation vessels began to shimmer and glow an eerie green. Vrax was speechless.

A large jolt and several small explosions around him brought Vrax out of his puzzlement. "Fire! All weapons!"

Tethor hastily complied, but to no effect. "We cannot target them, they appear and disappear!"

"There is a feedback building up in the Web generator! If we do not disengage it will destroy us!" exclaimed Nethrax, buzzing loudly.

The Tholian ships no longer worried about the Federation vessels as they phased out of sight and instead turned their attention to shutting down the Web. y met with little success as it bent and twisted towards the anomaly. The Web continued to flail wildly until one vessel was destroyed, taking a large chunk of the Web with it.

Soon, the remaining five Tholian vessels too began to glow an ethereal greenish color...