There was a feeling of mutual happiness on the bridge, as there was a light of hope shining upon the Alliance again. They had found that the war might be lost again, only to find a way to win it…yet again.

Chris was in a very good mood as he looked to see Sarah enter the bridge. She, too, was smiling. Chris stood up and they embraced in a hug for probably the tenth time in the last hour.

She then separated, both still smiling. "The Perimeter is ahead of schedule, and should be here with in thirty minutes," Sarah stated.

This lightened Chris's mood even more so.

How ever, the mood suddenly came to an abrupt halt, as a familiar bright flash occurred from some where on the bridge.

Chris sighed, his smiling gone, as he looked at the source of the light.

Q wasn't smiling wryly, like he usually was when he would first appear. "I'm afraid you've failed, Harriman," Q said.

Chris frowned and asked, "Why?"

Q rolled his eyes as he moved from standing next to the helm to come nose to nose with Chris again.

"Need I spell every thing out for you like I've had to do for Picard?" he asked. "I wanted to see if you could accomplish this mission quickly with out my help." "You failed to do so."

Chris raised an eyebrow. "Maybe so, but that still…"

Q raised a hand to stop him as he took a couple of steps back. "No buts about it." He shrugged then said, "Maybe next time."

Q snapped his fingers, and was again gone.

Chris slumped in his chair, his good spirits diminished by the ever-annoying creature. It was going to be a long stay in the Kalium Galaxy…



He'd expected her to ask again, but it still was a surprise.

"What's wrong?" Sarah asked, staring into his eyes. The silence in their quarters was deafening.

Chris sighed and sat down on the couch, Sarah next to him. "When I was first officer aboard the Dragon…" He was finding it hard to say the words, or even find the right words.

"I…well, history records only a couple of Jem Hadar warships had attacked the Dragon," Chris finally began. He began to spew out the information now, unable to stop. "We were successful in destroying them with minimal damage."

Sarah frowned and said, "But records state…"

"That those two were enough to cause the warp core breach," Chris said. "But records are incorrect. We were lured by one of the ships into the neutral zone. Our sensors were one of the few systems that were down…well, long-range sensors, any way. They lured us to a planet, where we were ambushed by cloaked Romulan Warbirds."

He could see surprise from on Sarah's face. Chris closed his eyes and continued. "The Jem Hadar warship knew it was going to die any way, so did what it thought best. It of course was also destroyed.

"Our warp core was going critical, so we evacuated to the saucer section. The same thing that happened to the Enterprise-D happened to us, and we landed on the surface. We were then taken prisoner by the Romulans.

"It took about three weeks for the Federation to get us out of there, but most of the intervention of both our imprisonment and our getting a court martial was by Section 31."

Sarah nodded and replied, "I expected as much."

Chris opened his eyes and looked into Sarah's eyes. "Another reason I was forced to take Section 31 up on their deal was to allow the Dragon crew's full release from the Romulans."

Sarah nodded, understanding every word. "I…"

"Shhh," Sarah replied, putting her index finger to Chris's lips. "You don't have to say any thing else…"

She put her head on his shoulder, and they stared out at the stars and the planet. Chris was glad he didn't have to explain it, and glad that he had found Sarah…she was indeed the perfect love…