Summary: Near Alpha Centauri, precious crystals have been discovered that, once modified to function as a power source, could tip the balance of power in the Alpha Quadrant. The Cardassians and Romulans have already tried to steal it, but they failed. One Cardassian was captured and beamed to a Federation starship, the USS Aquinas. En-route to a starbase, however, the Aquinas was attacked by another Federation starship, under command of a Captain that will go to any length to capture the samples. Having lost the samples and a crewmember, Ensign Sandra Burke, to the unknown Federation ship, the Aquinas' crew ponders what to do. Romulans have picked up the scent of the samples, however, and beam aboard the Aquinas. Captain Ayer reluctantly decides to help the Romulans find the samples and Sandra. While they beam aboard the Romulans ship, the Captain realises he may never see his damaged ship again...
And now the continuation:
On the Bridge of the Romulan warbird materialised nine people: six Romulans, two humans and a Ferengi. Once the green light of the transporter had dimmed away, Ayer looked around. This Bridge was different from what he was used to. Only the bare essentials were present; this Bridge seemed to revolve around efficiency, not around style. In a way he agreed with that philosophy; after all, what good would a comfortable chair be in the middle of a battle? Even more, that comfortable chair would be more likely to be consumed by flames if the Bridge was on fire.
Another thing Ayer noticed was that this Bridge was darker than a typical Starfleet Bridge. Not only was there less lighting, but the atmosphere was darker too. There was the hint of secrecy behind every console, and the Captain and the other Starfleet people were eyed at with suspicion.
"Captain!" Ayer suddenly heard a voice behind him and he turned around quickly. Near the turbolift at the back of the Bridge stood Chief Engineer Zjavick, guarded by two Romulans with rifles.
"Commander, I see they brought you here as well?" Ayer said, not without surprise.
"Yes sir. Senior officers to the Bridge, I suppose."
"I'm just glad you are alive, Commander Zjavick." the Captain smiled. "Your section faced the brunt of the shockwave."
Zjavick nodded and swallowed. "I was lucky to survive," he said. "A lot of the engineers didn't make it." His voice was but a whisper, barely understandable due to the noise a number of consoles were producing.
"We've lost a lot of good people," agreed Ayer, and his mind drifted to the expression on the face of Ensign Mill. The way he looked when he died was enough to make anyone cry out in tears. He shook his head. "But it's time to move on. We still have another crewmember to save, and our ship to avenge."
"Brave words," interjected the Romulan commander. "But please remember, Captain, that you are now on *my* ship. You will help us disable the Federation starship carrying the samples, understood?"
"That was the deal, wasn't it?"
"Captain!" Zjavick exclaimed. "We can't do that, can we? Are we really going to help them disabling a Federation vessel?" He thought it was the craziest thing he ever heard his Captain say. Even if the starship they were going to disable had disabled them first, that didn't make it right. It was still treason.
"Either we help to disable them, or they do it by themselves," Ayer said in reply as he gestured towards the Romulans. "And I'd rather we are the ones who disable them. It would prevent..." he swallowed. "Casualties."
Zjavick understood, but didn't agree with it. "Captain, it's still a Federation ship that you plan to attack. You can't possibly suggest that we attack them of our own free will. Yes, the Romulans might find that ship and start a fight, but that's a Prometheus class vessel out there. Those are tough ships and you know it."
"They were badly damaged when we blew up our warp core, remember, Commander?"
Zjavick took a few steps forward, and immediately the two guards that were assigned to keep him under surveillance followed suit. They kept their disruptor rifles locked at the Commander, just in case he was about to do something foolish. "We don't know that," Zjavick replied. "The blast disabled us too. Our sensors were down, we couldn't scan them. If our sensors were working, wouldn't you think we'd have detected the Romulans?"
"Hah, never," laughed the Romulan commander. "You couldn't have detected us if your sensors were fully operational and we were flying right in front of you!"
"Shut up, will you?" said Ayer angrily as he looked at the Romulan. He then turned back to Zjavick. "What's your point, commander?" he snapped.
"My point is, *sir*, that there may be an ulterior motive behind your decision to help the Romulans." There was clear tension between Ayer and Zjavick, and Watters and Zaag dared not intervene. The Romulan commander signalled his men to let the two continue this verbal fight. He found this interesting to watch.
"And what would that be?" Ayer said as he too stepped closer.
"When we were attacked, I thought for sure that there wasn't anyone more angry at that Federation vessel than me. I guess I was wrong," Zjavick said. "Admit it, Captain. They hurt us and now you want to hurt them back."
"How dare you say that!" thundered Ayer. "I'm a Starfleet officer and Captain of a starship! I help these Romulans because I have no choice, not because I want revenge!"
"You said it yourself!" cried back Zjavick. "You want to avenge the Aquinas! This isn't about having no choice." Zjavick frantically waved his arms in the air. "You want to help the Romulans to get even with that ship that attacked us."
"Is that what you think, Commander?" asked Ayer through his clenched teeth. "You're wrong. If I had refused to help these Romulans, they would have killed every single crewmember aboard that ship. By helping these bastards, I'm preventing lives from being lost."
"Hey hey, no need to get personal," the Romulan commander said, but Ayer and Zjavick didn't listen to him.
"Is that really the reason?" Zjavick asked rhetorically. "Because I think you are mad like hell at those people who crippled the Aquinas. I think you just want to get even."
"That's enough, Commander!"
"I don't think it is," replied Zjavick defiantly. "Don't you realise that by helping the Romulans you're giving away some of the Federation's most valued secrets? Shield frequencies, prefix codes, information about their weapon systems... That could all compromise Starfleet security."
"What Starfleet security?" yelled Ayer. "There is practically no security left in Starfleet! These Romulans managed to sneak into Federation space and blow up an outpost on a world in the very centre of the Federation. Hell, they might even have a whole fleet of cloacked warbirds in orbit of Earth itself without us detecting them."
The Romulan commander smiled. He knew that Starfleet would probably react in the same way as Captain Ayer, and that his little incursion into Federation space would send waves of panic and fear throughout the Federation, and with it ripples of that fear that would reach the outermost worlds of the Federation. Those worlds might even leave the Federation after that. In any case, his incursion could have long-lasting repercussions.
"But that doesn't mean we should just give the Romulans all our secrets!" Zjavick yelled back.
"I have made my decision," Ayer said. "The choice was this: either we help the Romulans and risk handing over secrets to them, or we would have stayed on the Aquinas and let the Romulans kill every one aboard that ship. In my opinion, the former is preferable. Do you think I should let those people get killed, just because I don't want the Romulans to know what kind of weapons a Prometheus class ship has? Their intelligence organisation has probably acquired that information already."
"You're quite right, Captain," the Romulan commander said. "Now, if you don't mind, could you please provide us with a way to trace masked warp trails left by a Federation ship? We're having trouble pinpointing the exact co-ordinates to which they lead. It seems that this particular Starfleet ship has used some kind of technique to mask their warp trail, so I need your help, Captain." He smiled. "After all, you're probably familiar with the Starfleet way of masking one's warp trail."
"Just give me a station and I'll unmask that trail for you."
"Fair enough." The Romulan pointed at a station and Ayer walked towards it.
"No!" yelled Zjavick. "Captain, please reconsider. You're giving the Romulans exactly what they need to know to locate the warp trails of every Federation starship!"
Ayer halted for a brief moment, but walked towards the console again.
"No..." Zjavick said again. "I can't let you do this!" Acting on impulse, he stormed towards his Captain and crashed into his back, making him fall on the ground. Ayer turned around quickly and countered with a fist in Zjavick's face. He added a kick that made Zjavick roll off him and onto the floor.
The Engineer quickly got up, and so did the Captain. Both looked each other in the eyes for just a moment, both getting ready to act in an instant. It was Zjavick who acted first. His fist swung to hit Ayer's face, but the Captain blocked it and punched Zjavick in the nose again. The Engineer stumbled back a few steps, but quickly reacted by storming forward once again. He evaded the Captain's right arm that had swung to hit him, and planted an elbow in the Captain's face. This time it was the latter that took a few steps back, trying to recover.
Zjavick didn't wait for Ayer to recover, and jumped towards his Captain. Ayer looked up and saw the Chief Engineer coming towards him. There wasn't any time left to react, so he braced himself. At the time that he expected to be knocked out cold, he heard a disruptor rifle fire, followed by a scream and a dull thud on the metallic floor. He opened his eyes and saw that Zjavick lay motionless on the floor. A Romulan guard had shot Zjavick.
Quickly, he kneeled down besides his Chief Engineer and felt his pulse.
"Don't worry Captain, he's just stunned," said the Romulan commander with a smile. "We may need him later. Now please, show us how to detect the warp trail."
"You shot him!" was all that Ayer could say. Although he was stunned and would therefore eventually regain consciousness, Ayer didn't like it at all that one of his crew was shot down. "You shot him!" he said again.
"Regrettable, but necessary. Please, Captain." The Romulan seemed to be in a hurry. "The warp trail, please. We need to follow it before it has dissipated."
"You shoot my crew and you expect me to help you?" Ayer asked defiantly. He stood up and looked at the Romulan who was in command of this warbird. "I won't do it. You can beam us back to our ship if you want, but I won't help you. It seems you're having trouble finding that ship anyway, so if I don't help you, you won't be able to execute your threat of killing every crewmember on board that starship."
"Captain... You wouldn't want to back out of our deal, now would you?" The Romulan commander nodded to a guard, who raised his disruptor and aimed it at Zaag and Watters. "This guard here is a little inexperienced," the commander told Ayer with the sneaky smile of a victor. "He may not know the difference between stun and kill. I'd hate to find out that he mixed up the two settings." He paused and let Ayer take in this new threat. "I don't want to give the order to fire... But I will if you don't co-operate."
Ayer gulped and looked at Zaag and Watters. He didn't want any more people to die today. He would do anything to prevent any more lives from being lost. Finally, he looked at the Romulan commander. Both knew that the Romulans were in command here and that Ayer would have no choice but to comply.
"The warp trail, Captain?"
Ayer nodded almost unnoticeably, and set to work. "I'm recalibrating your sensors to pick up the warp trail." He was finished less than a moment later. "You should be seeing the warp trail on your sensors now," he said in a soft and defeated voice.
The Romulan commander checked the readings. "Excellent." A broad smile showed up on his face. "Thank you, Captain. We appreciate this." He turned to the Romulan at the helm station. "Helm, lay in a course for these co-ordinates. Maximum warp." He then looked over to Ayer again, a sparkle apparent in the Romulan's eyes. He wanted Ayer to show who had won.
