Kalia felt a huge smile come over her face. She put her hand on his shoulder and said, "Good job, Lieutenant!"

She took outer a forth power cell, then inserted the new power cell, hoping it would solve their dilemma.

She closed the panel and backed away. She nodded to Ada, who tapped in a few commands on her console. The mine began to cloak again like last time, only this time, it fully cloaked, and stayed cloaked.

Kalia looked at Ada expectantly, who smiled and said, "All readings are nominal!"

Kalia smiled and tapped her comm badge. "Tarkent to Harriman."

After a moment, a reply came back. "Go ahead."

In an enthusiastic voice, she stated, "The mine's prepped and ready to launch."

"Good job. We're approaching the coordinates now. Open shuttle bay doors and launch as soon as ordered to." He sounded rather glad now, as opposed to what he had sounded like before. Or rather, sounded like before as according to Ada. "Harriman out."

The mine decloaked as the shuttle bay doors separated and moved to either side. They were similar to the shuttle bay doors on an old refit Constitution class starship in how they opened, though that was as close as they got. The material, shape, and almost every other aspect was different.

The stars could be seen still streaking by, but then immediately slowed to simple points in space. She could see a brighter point of light, and knew it was probably the star of the system they had just left.

The stars then streaked around, and Kalia found she had to grab on to the mine to stop from being thrown to the deck as the Dragon produced a rather quick 180 turn.

"Launch!" Chris shouted over the comm system.

The mine immediately moved towards the bay opening. As soon as it cleared the atmospheric field, it cloaked. This would allow it never to be detected, as it had cloaked before leaving the Dragon's cloaking field.

The bay doors began to close. Kalia tapped her comm badge and stated, "Mine launched!"

Right before the doors fully closed, she could see the stars elongate as they entered warp.

Kalia smiled again, and put her hand on Lieutenant Palzen. She looked at him and said, "You should get into better shape if your exhausted from simply running from engineering."

Palzen looked at her, still slightly breathing quickly, and then sighed. The sigh sounded partially like a sigh of annoyance and a quiet laugh.

Kalia then headed back for engineering.



"The Vorkalai ships are approaching the mine," Perkins stated.

Chris smiled, and asked for what he all ready knew. "They will pass right by it, correct?"

Perkins nodded her head and stated, "Yes."

Chris smiled deeper. Not in satisfaction for achieving what they had, but because of the fact that Perkins feels comfortable not all ways addressing him as sir. She was quickly becoming friends with the senior staff.

Chris stood, staring at the view screen. It would only be a matter of a few seconds now…

"They've reached the mine. The mine's detonated," Perkins confirmed.

Chris smiled at that fact, a fact which he could not see, and would not see at all. They were, after all, traveling 15 times faster than the speed of light, so of course the flash would not catch up to them until they stopped at the planet.

Which they would reach in only a couple of minutes now. Chris smiled as he thought, Warp 15 certainly has a lot of perks to it.

Chris heard the turbolift doors opened. He looked to see Ada stroll onto the bridge, heading for tactical. Chris smiled at her, and she returned the smile. "Good work," he told her.

She nodded and took the place of another officer at tactical.

"Approaching the planet," James stated.

Chris then turned serious again and sat down in the command chair. "Slow to impulse power."

"Aye, sir," James stated.

"Send a transmission, narrow beam, to the lead Britar vessel," Chris ordered. "Tell her to clear out all ground troops. We'll bombard the planet from orbit."

A flash occurred in the chair to Chris' left, and he heard an annoying voice ask, "Are you sure that's what you want?"

Chris turned his head quickly to see the omnipotent Q looking at him, and doing something Chris rarely had seen him do: looking serious.

Chris raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why wouldn't I?"

Q stood and strolled around the bridge for a moment. As he did so, he said, "Think about it. Why are you behind enemy lines in the first place?"

Chris frowned, watching Q as he inspected the bridge. "Are you saying the information we are looking for is down there?"

Q wiped a finger across one of the consoles and inspected his finger to find no dust. He then looked at Chris and said, "Maybe."

Chris stood in annoyance and walked up to the creature. They stood by the tactical station, nose to nose. "Tell me, yes or no!"

Q merely smiled and said, "Do you really need my help on this?"

Chris shrugged and said, "You've all ready offered a hint I had over looked. Why not go the distance?"

Q rolled his eyes and replied, "Because if I did, your test would end as an instant failure."

Chris closed his eyes, trying to contain his anger. He took in 3 deep breaths, a technique a Vulcan had once taught him, then stated, "Ada, lead a team down there to the main building's Computer access room."

"Aye, sir," she replied, leaving the two there.

"Go with her, Perkins," Chris said. He opened his eyes and looked at her. "You're good with computers, right?"

She turned around from her console and replied, "Uh, I guess so."

"Good enough," Chris said. He motioned to the turbo lift that Ada was waiting in. Perkins moved to enter the turbolift.

Chris turned to confront Q again, only to find him gone.

He sighed for probably the hundredth time today, then went to sit in the command chair again.



Ada looked at Perkins, who was still checking her phaser rifle. She sighed, wondering how this person was originally suggested to be a tactical officer.

Perkins looked up and said, "All set."

Ada tapped her comm badge and said, "Marquet to bridge, we're ready to leave."

"Good luck," Chris's voice replied.

Ada and her team then stepped up onto the transporter pad, followed by Perkins. She nodded to the transporter chief and said, "Keep a lock on us at all times. Energize."

The transporter chief tapped in a few commands on his console, beginning the process.

With in a couple of seconds, they found themselves in a room similar to the one Sarah had described from the last planet they had been on.

Only this time, there were three guards.

They had materialized behind the guards, and for some reason, they hadn't heard them beam in. They decided not to press that luck, and every one fired…at the same target.

Ada cussed as the others spun around. She took one out, but the third got off a shot, taking down one of her security members.

Surprisingly, Perkins picked off the last one.

Ada kneeled down next to the downed officer and checked his pulse. He was dead.

She sighed, tapped her comm badge, and said, "Marquet to Dragon."

"Go ahead," Chris replied again.

"One officer dead, three Vorkalai guards likewise," Ada stated simply. "Please beam Lieutenant Meyson's body up."

"Acknowledged," Chris said. A few moments later, Meyson's body dematerialized. Ada knew his wife was on board the Dragon, and dreaded the fact that she would have to inform the man's wife about his death.

Perkins was all ready at the computer terminal, tapping away at the console. Ada motioned for the remaining security officers to take up positions in the room, and to keep their attention on the door.

She moved next to where Perkins was seated and diverted her attention from the door to what Perkins was doing. She had all ready some how managed to get into secure files, and was attempting a search for information about The Destroyer.

And not more than ten seconds into the search did the word 'Classified' present it's self on the screen.

Perkins smiled, as Ada's heart jumped. Perkins kneeled down to the ground and opened an access hatch. She immediately began rearranging some circuits around. Ada wondered if she knew what she was doing, but then found that she did indeed, as the file was then opened.

Perkins then set up the communications transponder and tapped her badge. "Perkins to Dragon, prepare to receive data on The Destroyer."

In an enthusiastic voice, Chris' voice replied, "Acknowledged!"

She activated the transponder, then moved back to the console.

Then she heard the doors open. Ada immediately pointed to the door, ready to take out any threats…

Only to see two Britar officers standing at the door. They also had their weapons trained on Ada. Ada sighed and lowered her pulse rifle. "Damn, it's good to see familiar faces."

"Likewise," the leader of the two stated, lowering his weapon as well.

"Beginning transmission," Perkins stated.

Ada looked back to the console to then see several files, all flashing by so quickly that even Data would have trouble reading them, being shown. They were being transmitted to the Dragon, and Ada then knew their current mission was over.



Captain's Log Supplemental:

Our mission was a success. Thanks to Q's intervention… I guess we all have things to learn about being a commanding officer. The wrong decision could cost millions of lives…

Any way, we were briefed on the current situation. The Hintaru and Britar alliance have begun a total invasion, pressing on and on. The Defense Perimeter will be extended to this planet with in the hour. As there are no Vorkalai ships nearby, we've decloaked the ship and are ready to defend this planet, if Vorkalai ships do arrive before the Defense Perimeter extends to here.