<A few minutes later>

Boardwalk - The meeting between O'Sanna and Moss continues. Others are welcome to come meet the new shop owner.

Bridge - Scans of the moon and surrounding area continues, bringing no new information about what has happened to the previous ships.

Transporter Room - The away team has just returned from the planet's surface. Nganga is in route to the bridge to give a report to Captain Starkin.

Bak and Sulu, who have their duty stations on the Bridge, follow Nganga out of the turbolift.

Nganga walks purposfully around the security station, noting the status boards, and then down the blue carpeted ramp on the captain's right. Walking around the rail, David then takes his proper place on the Bridge.

Protocol being what it is, Nganga waited for the captain to address him. He picked up a data PADD, and started filling in information for his report of the away mission.

Currently in medical back store room. Cleaning and resuppling medical equiptment and supplies. Checking off what he needs to get from the supply officer and also making notes what to order as well on the data pad. As he works he is humming a nice simple tune, to keep him on track. Slowly working from one row and section to the next so he dont miss anything that might be important. continuing to check other medical storerooms in other parts of medical bay to see what else is needed before heading down to see the supply office to see about ordering more supplies.

After finishing the task of stocking the sickbay stores full of supplies and equipment. I head down to my cabin to take a break and have a spot of lunch. i walk into my cabin straight towards the food replicator and orders "cheese burger french fries, And a glass of milk 36 degrees." takes the tray of food and drink to the table and sits and eats it. After finishing puts the tray back on replicator and heads out of the cabin, then heads for the chief supply officers office to get the orders put in for supplies.

Starkin was checking the scans one more time. They still revealed nothing. Without moving, she spoke, "We still haven't been able to find any indication of who or what scanned us. No ships, no technology, nothing." She exhaled and finally turned, saying, "So Commander, how did it go? How are the survivors doing down there? Since their doctor survived and was able to serve you... refreshments... I would guess he was able to treat them well enough."

"They're doing too well, Captain," Commander Nganga replied. "Well enough to insist that they don't want to come back. All their needs are being met by some kind of super replicating technology. Also, they survived with all hands."

Norallah turned from her seat, "This is a bad thing?"

"In the sense of saving lives, no. But given the catastrophic destruction of their ship, and their ship's transport systems, they couldn't have all escaped without help."

"They don't want to come back? Those are Starfleet officers!" Confusion crossed Starkin's face. "I could understand the possibility of a few of them wanting to stay, but all of them? It strikes me as very unlikely."

"Extremly unlikely," Nganga said, "I said as much down there. I was essentially told to mind my own business."

She stood up and turned, facing them. "Any ideas on what kind of help we could be talking about?"

"I believe that they are essentially captives," Nganga said. "Whatever this force is that provides for them is, it also doesn't want them to leave." Nganga looked over to Ensign Bak, "Xiam, how are your scans going?"

Ensign Bak looked up from the work station where he was examining four data disks, "I've only gotten some preliminaries done sir. So far, the disks that were provided seem identical to the real ones I already have. If I find anything, I'll let you know."

Anticipating the captain's next question, Nganga continued, "Bak indicated that he 'needed' a couple of vid-disks for his collection but they were ones he already had.

"This gave us hard samples of what the entity can create, and we have something to compare them too. And it should give us some indicator of its resourcefulness."

As if on cue, the disks began to glow with a white light, similar in composition to that of a transporter beam. A second later, the disks were gone.

"Sir," Bak said, "the disks are gone. Its as if they were transported away. As if they learned that I didn't really need them."

"Well, you did need them," Nganga said, "Just not the way you inferred on the planet's surface. That also means there is a good chance we're being monitored."

As Jayngo left the transporter room and made his way through the corridor back to sickbay, he was approached by Lt. J.G. Scott, who seemed to be moving in his direction. When they were in front of each other, she stated, "Do you have a moment, Jayngo?"

"Of course, Mary. What seems to be the problem?"

"Its Lt. Commander Tiny, sir. I realize that I should probably be taking this to the Commander, but I was concerned about the ramifications."

"What's going on?"

"He hasn't reported for duty, sir."

"When was he supposed to start?"

"Three hours ago, sir. Frankes went by to see if he had overslept or something, but all he heard was some animalistic sounds. We thought maybe it was his pet wolf."

"How is it that the bridge isn't aware of this yet? Haven't they called for any information?"

"Yes, but we were able to handle their questions ourselves."

Jayngo frowned. "You realize that this, in itself, may cause problems for you."

"Yes, sir, but none of us wanted to get on the new chief's bad side."

"Understood. I'll swing by his quarters and check it out. You had best get back to engineering."

"Yes, sir." As Scott turned to return to engineering, Jayngo redirected his course toward the crew quarters.

::Boop::

::Beep::

::Bedoop::

**Sigh**

::Beep::

D.J. watched text flow across his console.

COMMAND: USS COCHRANE ORBITAL DRIFT OF -2% STOPPED.
COURSE CORRECTION TO ORIGINAL SETTING – REINSTATED
CURRENT STATUS: CONTINUING ORBIT OF PRIMARY SATELLITE OF PROMOS VIII
CURRENT SPEED: IMPULSE

**Woohoo … another disaster averted …**

David’s shoulders slumped while he sat in his chair. His eyes drifted up and around, taking in as much of the bridge as he could without noticeably moving his head. **Don’t want the captain to think my attention’s wandering …** He kept his hands ready, but couldn’t help but feel a bit useless … resulting in some boredom. While he loved the thought of being "Chief Flight Officer" on a ship of this status, D.J. also couldn’t shake the fact that most of the time he didn’t do much that a computer couldn’t do entirely by itself. David often felt like nothing more than window-dressing to create a prettier picture for all the promotional material HR generated back on Earth … **After all, a bridge bare of people wouldn’t instill a very grand vision or much excitement … would it?**

**God … this shift feels like it’s been going on for months …**

Despite the presence of the previous starships’ remains in orbit, and the scan of the Cochrane, the ensign was starting to feel frustrated. D.J. felt the captain’s suggestion to keep alert in case evasive maneuvers were required may be unnecessary.

**Something would have happened by now, wouldn’t it?**

D.J. checked his board’s status again … still on course, all systems normal.

"They don't want to come back? Those are Starfleet officers!" D.J. heard the Captain in the background, and kept himself from snorting out loud.

**Sure … there’s nothing more important than Starfleet … groan …**

"Any ideas on what kind of help we could be talking about?" the captain asked.

Ensign Bak’s voice took over. "I've only gotten some preliminaries done sir. So far, the disks that were provided seem identical to the real ones I already have. If I find anything, I'll let you know."

D.J. glanced around briefly to the ensign’s work station, taking in the stack of disks, and Xiam’s face hunched over the control panels. His face was illumined in various shades as he studied the data on his viewscreens and issued queries to the computer.

"Bak indicated that he 'needed' a couple of vid-disks for his collection but they were ones he already had." D.J.’s gaze shifted over to Commander Nganga as he offered an explanation to the captain. "This gave us hard samples of what the entity can create, and we have something to compare them too. And it should give us some indicator of its resourcefulness."

**Hmmm, wonder if it can create another me to take over this shift …** D.J. stifled a yawn as he again faced his own station.

"Sir," Bak said, "the disks are gone. It’s as if they were transported away. As if they learned that I didn't really need them."

David’s ears perked up at Bak’s comment. ** … the Hell?** Checking his own board, he confirmed to himself that shield’s were still up. **Great … it can transport through our shields … **

Sitting upright in his seat, David took in the rest of his station. **Well, that answers how everyone got down to the surface with no casualties. Gotta wonder, though … were the crews "beamed" down before or after the attacks on their ships began?** D.J. cracked his knuckles and watched the course of the Cochrane.

"Well, you did need them," Nganga said, "Just not the way you inferred on the planet's surface. That also means there is a good chance we're being monitored."

**Monitored, eh …** David casually glanced to either side of him, suddenly worried that his "twin" would appear in response to his earlier thought. Not seeing anything more than the confused and concerned looks of the rest of the crew in response to this new development, he faced front again.

**That’d really suck …** D.J. mused. **Don’t know how I’d explain that one.**

**And with my luck, he’d probably be assigned to the runabout … and I’d still be stuck here on the bridge …**

As the Captain, First Officer, and Ensign spoke, the turbolift doors opened, revealing the ship's dentist. Entering the bridge, the doctor didn't seem to stand on ceremony, walking directly to the two executive officers.

"Excuse me. I realize that there is a great deal of tension on board, and that you may be unaware of the emotions running rampant since DeKelley was asked to accompany the ambassadors back to earth temporarily..."

::I thought they ran rampant most of the time, anyway.::

"... but I thought you might want to know that there are two sentient beings out there that are scared to death."

Nganga was taken a little aback by the dentist's chutzpah, "Out where, Lieutenant? On the planet? On the moon? In orbit? And what type of beings?"

"I'm not sure about the type of being, sir, but there is one down near the planet, and one out there," pointing at the viewscreen, which was still focused on the moon. "Their scared, and angry, and bordering on desperate."

Not sure what the captain’s response would be, D.J. kept the Cochrane in its current orbit. Just in case Starkin wished to alter course, he set up multiple possible trajectories in the queue, depending on what she decided to do. Along with adjustments to the current orbit around the moon itself, D.J. also prepared several routes that would take the starship back down to the planet’s orbit, and around, if need be.

Finishing his task, D.J. turned his attention back to the conversation without initiating the new trajectories, waiting to hear if he would get any updated orders.

"Damn. I thought we scanned that moon!" Starkin hissed. She did not like the fact that they were being monitored somehow, yet they couldn't get any kind of read back.

"We did," replied the ops officer, obviously flustered herself.

"Lieutenant," Starkin turned to Agra, "I... don't understand exactly how your.. particular senses work, or to what degree. But would there be any way we could use what your sensing to help locate these individuals?"

"Believe me, Captain, that I wish I could. Unlike the Betazeds, our empathy abilities are not as honed. It is only because of the intensity of their feelings that I can tell them at all from this distance."

"Alright. Conn, have us do a run by that moon. Ops, do as detailed a scan as you can in that area. Scan for life signs, for technology, for communications... Scan for any anomolies -- look for anything!" Starkin turned back to the Deltan. "If you were in close proximity to a group of people, could you be able to tell what they were feeling? Could you focus on a single individual?"

As the conn and ops began their work, the dentist answers "Only if their emotions were intense, Captain. Not nearly as easily as a Betazed. Also, I'm not trained as much as some in the art." Her body language and demeanor seems reluctant.

Nganga watched the exchange, and noting the dentist's reluctance, something tugged at the back of his brain. He picked up one of the ubiquitous data pads kept by his seat. He tapped at it for a moment and in a moment, he found what he looking for.

Starkin nodded and asked slowly, "Well... how would you feel about... faking it?"

Aygra looked similar to a Vulcan as she raised one eye-ridge.

Nganga cleared his throat, loudly, to get the Captain's attention.

Starkin sighed. "I MEAN preten.., er.. acting as the ship's councilor... with the absence of DeKelly and all." Starkin turned towards David, then turned and read the PADD he was holding up. "Ah. Good idea, Commander."

"Officer Kais, Officer Rein, please report to the Bridge," Nganga called in a warm baritone voice.

As the Captain, Dentist and First Officer have their conversation, Norallah runs her scans, looking for "anything". After several seconds, she finds something that meets the anomolous qualifications. Amping up the scans for deeper probing, she finally finds something strange.

"Sir. There are still no life signs per-say, but I have found that the moon is hollow beyond the first four miles of crust. Nothing is stored inside, but it definitely shows signs of not being a natural phenomenon. There also seems to be some signs of brainwave activity inside, though, as I said there are no bodies."

"Is it a vacuum or is there any kind of gas inside?" Nganga asked. If there was any kind of gas inside, he knew it couldn't be a natual phenomenon. They laws of gas pressure would blow the moon up eventually. Then again, this moon was a new feature in the neighborhood, wasn't it.

Jayngo knew of Tiny's medical history, but had discounted it as a possibility as he knew the officer had a full prescription. Nonetheless, he questioned whether or not to call in a security team. He dismissed it quickly, however, knowing that they already had their hands full.

Arriving at the engineer's door, the doctor switched the case to his other hand, pressed the door chime and waited. No sound came from within. He rang again, only to be greeted by an animal's whine. :: It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. ::

"Computer, emergency medical override. Authorization Jayngo-Theta-Beta- Alpha-Three."

The door opened, casting the only light into the room. Even under such limited illumination, he could tell that the room had been trashed: furniture overturned, books destroyed, cushions ripped in half. Jayngo's first assumption was that Tiny's wolf was not as trained as they were led to believe and had turned on his master, until he saw the creature curled up in the corner, whimpering and laying in his own feces.

A growl was heard on the opposite end of the room, followed by a guttural "GET OUT."

Jayngo's security training kicked in as an object came out of the darkness, causing him to duck just as a large hunting knife sailed past his head. The doctor quickly moved into the shadows himself, allowing the door to close and sink the room back into darkness. While he would normally be able to calculate the layout of the room based on standards for all rooms, the scattered furniture made his navigation harder, his footfalls giving away his position as he crushed the broken pieces further.

The blow to his ribs came quickly, knocking the air from his lungs as the chief engineer's head impacted with his torso. Falling to the ground, Jayngo rolled to keep from being pinned beneath the other large man, bundling his legs underneath himself to spring back to his feet. Fully realizing that his opponent was acting purely on instinct, he waited and listened for the telltale footfalls. Hearing them, the doctor was forced to remember his training, this time that he was no longer a security officer, but a physician.

Flicking the clasp on his medical case, Jayngo allowed it to fall open, exposing its contents. Reaching down, he removed three prepped hyposprays before the case was knocked from his hand by the once-again charging engineer. This time, however, the doctor was prepared, moving with great speed to press all three against the attackers neck. While, for anyone else, this would be a dangerous level of sedative, it was just enough to allow Tiny to stagger three steps, roll his eyes up into the back of his head, and fall forward into the waiting arms of Jayngo.

Lowering the giant earthling to the ground, Jayngo tapped his communicator. As the beep sounded to inform him of an open line, the red alert klaxons began. "Jayngo to Captain Starkin, when you have a moment, I need you and Commander Nganga in Lt. Commander Tiny's quarters. We seem to have a problem."

Starkin: "Alright. Conn, have us do a run by that moon."

D.J. looked down, placed his hands on the controls, and went to work. Pulling up the queued programs, he selected one and watched the viewscreen. The moon began drifting to the left as the Cochrane made a slight angle turn to starboard. Under his fingertips, through the surface of his console, he detected the vibrations indicating the starship’s new momentum. Most people never really picked up on the subtle adjustments in trajectory or speed of a vessel as large as a starship … which often led D.J. to wonder whether the feeling was real or not. Maybe it was just something subconscious that all pilots made up to make themselves feel important, set themselves above the other crew onboard their ship …

**Heh, yea, MY ship … I oughta mention that to Nganga, see what he thinks of that … yea, sure, bet he’d like that …**

"Ops, do as detailed a scan as you can in that area. Scan for life signs, for technology, for communications... Scan for any anomolies -- look for anything!" Starkin continued. After issuing this order, she continued her discussion with Nganga and the Deltan. D.J. lost track of the conversation as his attention diverted to the readings on his board.

**Hmmm … this can’t be right … ** D.J. scrunched his eyes in thought, bringing up his programmed trajectory and current speed.

**The moon’s a lot closer than it should be, unless I programmed the speed wrong …**

::Beep boop beep::

**No, impulse is fine …**

D.J. sent out some quick scans of the local star system, gauging distances and placement of the Cochrane within the area and relative to the planet itself. **Odd, according to the readings, the Cochrane is right where my course says it should be. So, how did we get so close to the moon so quickly? We shouldn’t have reached this distance for another 30 seconds …**

D.J. looked up and back as he heard Lt. Norallah jump into the conversation. "Sir. There are still no life signs per-say, but I have found that the moon is hollow beyond the first four miles of crust. Nothing is stored inside, but it definitely shows signs of not being a natural phenomenon. There also seems to be some signs of brainwave activity inside, though, as I said there are no bodies."

On a hunch, D.J. turned around and checked his instruments. **God, I hope not …** D.J. did some further scans, this time comparing the moon’s placement itself within the local star system.

**Oh jeez, what the F …**

"Captain," D.J. heard himself say, perhaps a little more loudly than intended. Hearing the conversation behind him break off (**God, I hope I don’t sound crazy … at least DeKelly’s gone in case I’m hallucinating …**)

:: D.J.? Paxton doesn't usually have much to say... ::

"Captain," D.J. double-checked his figures, "it appears as though the moon itself has … well, uh … it’s broken orbit, Captain."

:: Broken out of..? ::

"It appears to be coming straight for us."

"That's one Hell of a broken orbit!" Nganga commented. "Evasive action, " Nganga ordered. He wondered if he should have let the captain give the order, but it seemed so obvious...

Starkin's mouth was open, about to speak, but she then heard her order come out of her first officer's mouth.

D.J. checked his readings. **By the time I reverse engines and back up, it’ll be right on top of us … ! I’ll have to use its own speed against it …**

Hands flying over the controls, the Cochrane gunned forward, straight for the "moon." **With us heading towards it, the distance is going down too fast for it to react to us … I hope!** Ignoring the growing shape on the viewscreen, D.J. kept his eyes and hands glued to his control station. The numbers on his datascreen spiraled downward from calm blue to bright red as the distance between the two decreased.

**Almost there … ** D.J. clenched his teeth. **Almost there … Now!**

With a warp speed of their own, D.J.’s fingers plotted the new course and added another burst of speed to the engines. On the viewscreen, the "moon" rose higher as the Cochrane dipped suddenly underneath. The small distance and high speed prevented it from compensating to the starship’s new course, and it sailed right through where they used to be.

"Nora," Nganga turned back to the Ops officer, "Can you tell what kind of propulsion system that ... thing ... is using."

:: It's not in orbit any more, it isn't a moon. ::

From his work station Ensign Bak looked up at what was going on with disbelief. He noted Nganga's lack of words as to what to call the former moon.

"'That's no moon. It's a space station,'" Xiam commented quietly. Starkin glanced quizzically at Xiam and the stared back at the screen. "Are you sure?"

Norallah looked at Bak, sparing only a second for the questioning glance, then turned back to her instruments. "There does appear to be gasses within the .... station, though they appear to be in flux. Currently, Oxygen seems to be the most dominant." She paused for a second to recheck her readings. "In fact, sirs, it seems to be forming a class M atmosphere. As for propulsion, it doesn't seem to have any."

D.J. nearly snorted out loud. **Yea?! … coulda fooled me!**

The ensign looked up to notice the viewscreen change its image to aft view. Behind the starship, the "moon" swung around in a broad arc and continued its pursuit of the Cochrane. At the same time, it began to change shape. As though put into a giant vice, the "moon" compressed to a disc-shape. The hard, grey surface of the pock-marked moon smoothed itself out, and started to glow a light cream color. On its underside, squid-like appendages unfolded and dangled below, swaying in a non- existent breeze like some sort of cosmic wind-chime.

**You’ve got to be kidding me**

As the crew looked at the "moon" through the viewscreen, it began to change shape and texture, glowing in a light cream color, extending its mass outward and flattening slightly, with what could be described as squid-like appendages dropping down from beneath it.

"Or not a space station either..." Bak said quietly.

"Red alert." the Captain intoned. The red alert klaxons began. The transformation was amazing - she had never seen anything like it. "This may be why we had brainwaves with no bodies. It's no moon, it's a life-form."

**If I get out of this, I’m never eating calamari again …** D.J. thought as the Cochrane dove for the planet. All around him, the red alert sirens went off.

**Oh, yea … that’s going to help my concentration … ** A grimace on his face, Paxton let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. Checking the readouts, the … whatever-it-was … had begun to gain again on their position.

D.J. checked his speed. **I’m going full impulse, and then some … and it’s still gaining!**

=^= Jayngo to Captain Starkin, when you have a moment, I need you and Commander Nganga in Lt. Commander Tiny's quarters. We seem to have a problem. =^=

"That may have to wait, Doctor," said Starkin, still staring at the screen.

"That damned wolf isn't shipbroken after all, eh?" Nganga said sarcastically. "This isn't the best time, Doctor. That new moon around the planet has just transformed into a gigantic cosmic jellyfish."

Despite the seriousness of the situation, the Commander smiled at the absurdity of the words "giagantic cosmic jellyfish" said aloud.

"Wrong animal, Commander. When you get a chance. I'll make sure to keep Tiny sedated until you get here, sir."

:: Cosmic Jellyfish? ::

:: Wrong animal? Tiny sedated? What the Hell? ::

"What?!" Breaking her concentration from the squid-like creature on the screen, Starkin looked to the side, concentrating. "The cheif is hurt?" She paused... her attention was suddenly split. Which crisis to address? She breathed hard, regrouping, refocusing. "Can you keep things under control there? We really are in a situation up here."

**I’ll just need to get creative, then …**

Plotting a new course, the starship dipped even closer to the planet. Hugging the atmosphere, D.J. kept a tight course, keeping the Cochrane in the gravity well of Promos VIII. Not deterred, the squid dipped toward Promos VIII. **Yea, you’re fast … but can you take the heat?**

The Cochrane dipped lower towards the planet. D.J. worried about the atmospheric drag he must be creating slowing them down, but refrained from altering course. **Hopefully this thing is too obsessed about catching us that it’s not thinking about strategy … just a blind pursuit. As long as it stays directly behind us, it’ll be caught in the planet’s gravity and atmospheric friction, too.** His sensors began to light up in warning as heat shields on the Cochrane’s underside began to rise due to the low orbit.. **Hot enough for you? … we can take it, squid … can you?**

D.J. checked his gauges, trying to ignore the red warning indicators for the heat shields. The squid had stopped gaining, but it wasn’t losing any space either. **Yea, that’s it … not so aerodynamic with all those tentacles hanging out, are you!** Just as D.J. let an uncontrolled smirk begin to blossom, he rechecked his views. The squid’s tentacles folded upwards. While not collapsing entirely into its body, they were no longer creating as much drag as previously. The distance between it and the starship decreased.

A growl formed in D.J.’s throat. **Oh, man … time for plan B**

The Cochrane sailed above the planet, heading toward its Western pole. D.J. brought the ship farther out of the atmosphere, but still kept it close to the planet. The reduced friction gave the Cochrane a boost of speed, as the heat indicators lowered from red to a cautious yellow. The ensign held the course straight. The squid was getting too close, but swerving to throw it off would slow the Cochrane down, and D.J. needed to keep his speed up if his plan were to work.

Sailing across the horizon, D.J. observed the system’s sun creeping into view, no longer eclipsed by Promos VIII as the race stretched on. Seeing that as his cue, he poured what speed he could into the impulse engines. Rounding the western pole of the planet, D.J. pulled the ship out of the planet’s gravity well, closed his eyes, and wished.

The Cochrane rocketed away from the planet, and the squid. D.J. cracked an eye open to check ship status, and nearly whooped for joy. Hugging the planet at such high speed and using its gravitational field had created a slingshot effect, propelling the Cochrane away at a higher speed than it could have achieved on its own without going to warp. The squid, either not realizing what he was trying to do, or physically incapable of achieving a similar affect, had been left behind for the moment. He’d only have a few moments to enjoy it though, before the increased speed wore off and the squid regained its distance.

Taking a slight breather, D.J. was aware of the conversation on the bridge again. He’d unconsciously been tuning it out while he concentrated on flying. **Something about a wolf being shipbroken?**

Before he could replay the conversation in his head, he heard the Captain’s voice jump in.

Starkin alternated looking between Paxton and Norallah, asking, "Is it still heading towards us?" Then she looked back at the creature on the screen.

As Paxton maintained evasive maneuvers, Norallah stated, "It seems to be closing on us, sir. It would have overtaken us by now, except for the ... creative maneuvers of Paxton."

Nganga smiled, having experienced D.J.'s creative piloting before.

**Ah, what a nice comment … too bad I’m too busy being chased by something out of Lovecraft to enjoy it!** D.J. was starting to sweat a little. **This thing won’t give up**

The Cochrane jerked to port and starboard, trying to shake the pursuit. All it seemed to do was make the alien more determined. D.J. watched the distance gauge constantly, barely even needing to look at the helm controls as he struggled to find an advantage. Over his shoulder he heard Sulu’s voice.

"Captain, I have an ID on the creature out there."

The Captain turned suddenly towards Sulu. "What is it?" She walked hurredly towards his station, with Nganga following suit.

Sliding to the side of his station to make room, Sulu calls the report up on the screen. "As best as I can tell, this is the same type of creature that had been used by the Bandi of Deneb IV to create Farpoint Station. The U.S.S. Enterprise-D encountered it on its first mission, where the ship and planet were attacked by a second creature, trying to free its mate."

"Let me see that report." The Captain began quickly scanning the screen.

"Its mate?" the Commander asked. "Did it succeed?"

"Yes, sir. The mate was freed from the planet and they flew off into space together."

::Wait... They referred to 'she'. ::

"Captain, this is the male, I think. If I'm right the female is down on the planet. That island is no more an island than the moon was really a moon."

**So much for shore leave … ** Paxton set his jaw. The alien was closer.

Starkin turned from the station to Nganga, a little surprised. She thought for a second and continued scanning the report. "You might be right, that seems somewhat consistent." A puzzled look crossed her face. "But how do you know which is which?" She looked at the image on the report, then looked at the viewscreen, squinting slightly. She asked in complete seriousness, "Are you seeing something that I'm not?"

Sulu stifled a mild snort.

Nganga heard some kind of noise from Sulu and smiled. But now wasn't the time.

D.J. jerked the Cochrane to port. **It would be nice to get some orders, here…** The alien swerved to port. **This isn’t a game … **

"Back when we were on the island, Munroe made references to their benafactor-slash-captor using female pronouns like 'she'. I'm guessing that their captor would be the one closer by," the Commander explained.

Hands flying across the controls, the Cochrane dodged to starboard. **I don’t have the experience for this … ** Distance decreasing, the squid sailed to starboard. **I’m only an ensign … I refuse to take the blame for this if we go down!**

"Well," replied the Captain. She stared at her first officer with a reproachful look, then looked around at the subordinates around her and forced a fake smile. "That's good to know." She started scanning the report again. "This doesn't say how or if the Enterprise was able to communicate with these type of creatures."

"No ma'am," said Sulu. "I don't think they ever did."

"Then we should at least try right? Open a channel, wide spectrum."

"Channel open."

"To the entity that is chasing us, please -- we mean no harm to you. Please stop persuing us."

After a brief pause, they saw that the jellyfish creature remained following them.

D.J. glanced at his screen. The distance counter ticked another notch downward. **Yea, that worked**

"And Rory is tied up playing diplomat," Nganga commented.

"But I'm not" retorted the dentist, standing near the outer rim of the bridge, "and he is ticked."

**No kidding! They teach you that in telepathy school, or is it just a good guess!** The ensign almost immediately slouched, his shoulders sinking in the chair as his eyes rolled upwards for the moment. **Oh, man … I hope she didn’t hear that…**

The bridge lift doors opened at the same time, releasing two security officers.

"Its more than ticked, sir," said the Crewman Kais.

"Its afraid of what we are going to do to its mate down below," said Rien.

The two men looked at each other simultaneously, a bit surprised. Speaking in unison, "and her unborn child."

**What, did they rehearse their speech on the way up here?** As the two new voices began to present their analysis, D.J. again hunched over his controls. **Fine … if everyone’s just going to chat away, I’ll have to do something myself.**

"Glad you could make it, gentlemen," Nganga said. "Now, would you happen to know what it think's we're going to do?"

:: Funny, it doesn't look like a mammal.::

The two men looked toward the viewscreen for a moment, eyes half glazed as they tried to stare with their subconscious. Kais was again the first to speak, though this time a bit more strained. "As far as I can tell, sir, it doesn't see us as much as it sees humanity. The actions taken by the ..."

"The Bandi," Rein threw in.

"Yeah, them. The actions taken by them against its mate has caused it to distrust all humanoid life forms."

"It's afraid that we are going to take them and imprison them again," added Rein.

"They are stuck a Bandi...," Bak sang quietly, the melody and old Twentieth century 'jingle', "And the Bandi look like me..."

Commander Nganga looked to the Captain...

"So, if they are afraid of the Bandi, that would imply that these are those same creatures Enterprise encountered, not just members of the same species, right?" asked the Captain.

"Maybe," answered Sulu. "Or maybe the ones the Enterprise encountered told these about what happened with the Bandi."

Starkin turned towards the telepathic trio. "You are obviously able to, at some level, understand this being. Do you think you can communicate with it back, send it a message?"

The bald woman shakes her head slightly. "I am an empath, Captain. Telepathic communication is beyond my capabilities."

"We could probably send it a message, Captain ...." said Rein.

"... But unless it is truly a telepathic race unto itself, it may not understand," continued Kais.

"Communicating via telepathy is different from verbal ..."

"... especially when dealing with interstellar races..."

"... as one side or the other must be able to translate the mental images and thoughts ..."

"... into ones that they will understand," said Kais.

"As we do not know what the creatures' basic language is ..."

"... it may not understand what we are trying to tell it ..."

"... unless it has the capability of seeking out our thoughts for understandable material," said Rein.

"We could send a message of peace, but unless they understand what peace is, it does us no good."

The two men, who had been taking turns explaining, turned to each other, apparently thinking, then smiled.

"Fortunately, however, it appears as though the creature may actually be a telepathic race," continued Kais.

"Which makes sense, coming from a race that exists in the vastness of space."

"And sound doesn't carry very well without oxygen."

Nodding, both men turn back to the Captain. In unison, the two men state "In other words, Captain, yes."

Without receiving any word from the executive officers, either for or against, the two men begin to stretch out their minds in the direction of the squid pursuing them.

"It is very angry," states Rein.

"It does not believe that we do not wish it harm," states Kais.

"It has been hurt many times by humanoids."

"The abuse by the Bandi to its mate was shared telepathically."

"We are attempting to remind it of the assistance by the Enterprise."

A few seconds pass silently, the Kais states, "It is grateful for the Enterprise's help, but is fearful for its unborn offspring."

"It doesn't help that the Klingons fired first," snips Rein.

"It considers its act of destroying only the ship, but sparing the crews as merciful."

"And it has every intention of doing the same to us."

**I’ll never outrun it, so I need … anything … I might be able to use against it. And right now, the only thing in system is Promos VIII.**

**If I can only get back to it … **

Cutting back on the starship’s rapid back-and-forth maneuvering, D.J. allowed the ship to settle into a straight course. Once again on a direct course, the squid began to cut the distance quickly. Hoping it wouldn’t notice, D.J. very gradually cut back slightly on the Cochrane’s speed.

Not even watching his hands, D.J. flew the ship by feel, never taking his eyes from the chart on his screen, flicking back and forth between the distance and speed settings.

**It’s getting closer … hope those inertial compensators are working. Don’t want to bump up the command staff too badly**

Just in case, without taking his eyes off the data on his screen, D.J. quickly flicked a button with his left hand. The compensator’s power bar maxed out.

As the alien was almost on top of them, the Cochrane veered in a soft arc "downward." Almost immediately, D.J. altered course, brought the speed up to full power again, and yanked the starship sharply "up." A split-second later, he cut the forward power altogether, and hit hard on the reverse thrusters. With a jerk, the ship hung in space. The conversation behind him never faltering, D.J. uttered a silent thank you that the compensators worked better than he could have hoped for, and he didn’t end up sending the captain flying across the bridge.

The alien, not ready for the Cochrane’s sharp turn, and unaware that its prey wasn’t already flying at full capacity, was caught unawares. Following the Cochrane’s downward arc, it was moving too fast to compensate for the sharp turn and sudden burst of speed. By the time it realized how it was duped, the alien was still twice as far away from the starship as it should have been since the Cochrane had stopped moving forward altogether.

Blowing a breath of air out the side of his mouth, D.J. tried to dislodge a strand of damp hair hanging over his eye. Pulling the Cochrane around, he powered up to maximum and sent it back towards Promos VIII. Behind them, the alien was again making a wide arc back in their direction.

**Now, if I can just keep the distance, maybe I can get around the far side of the planet before it catches up … use it to obscure our location … **

**I wonder what the captain’ll say if I go into warp near the planet? Just a quick jump to dodge behind and out of sight … **

As the ensign pondered, behind him the Commander seemed to finish discussing, and started giving orders.

"Does it... do they understand that with each ship they destroy it becomes more certain that another ship will come? That sooner or later, someone will come intent on hurting them. They each easily outmatch us. If we were coming with intent to do harm, whouldn't we come with enough force that we could adequatly defend ourselves?" Nganga asked.

"Klaus, prepare a spread of photons. Do not target the creature. Target near the creature, and set the torpedos to detonate close enough to scare it. But do not fire. This is to cover our retreat if we need it."

Klaus enabled one of his many preprogrammed torpedo spreads at the tactical station, targeting it as instructed. He also took the liberty of setting the lowest yield.

There had to be a better way, he thought.

"Paxton, we may need to do a near-planet warp."

D.J. continued facing forward, but to himself he grinned. **Well, how about that?**

Nganga looked away from D.J., "These creatures aren't capable of warp speeds are they?

"Anyway, D.J., we may need to do a near-planet warp. I know you can handle it. Plot a course and have us ready to go at Warp Nine."

"Yes, sir." D.J. started figuring vectors in his head, and programmed a couple separate flight paths, depending on what happened.

"Norallah, get down to Engineering. Commander Tiny is indisposed; go down and help Lt. Scott make sure Engineering is ready if we do have jump to Warp Nine."

Norallah turned towards the Captain. After receiving a short nod of approval, Norallah replied, "Aye sir" and went towards the turbolift.

"Captain," Nganga said, "there's our escape route; I hope you have a better idea."

"I don't want us firing towards the creature unless absolutely necessary," stated the Captain. "We don't know how powerful it is. A parent protecting its kin won't scare easily, and provoking it might cause it to be less forgiving in its form of mercy, if it should come to that."

Sulu looked up from his readings. "All information shows that they are interstellar travellers. When they left the Enterprise at the former Farpoint Station, it appeared that they left at Warp."

:: That doesn't make any sense. The whole concept of Warp is bending the laws of physics. For it to be achievable by a life form flies in the face of reason. There's some strangeness out here, certainly, but sometimes it seems like the Great Bird of the Galaxy created some types of life for the sole purpose of making our lives complicated. ::

"That makes our last resort more complicated," said the Commander. D.J. silently agreed.

Then Nganga pulled in close to the helmsman. He whispered to D.J. "We're going to need a second course, perpindicular to the couse I just told you to plot. It will need to be in the direction of the creature's short axis if and when it begins chasing us."

D.J. nodded his assent, and began programming a third course into his queue. **Interesting, never thought of that one … hope it works … **

Starkin paced a bit. "We need to find a way to better communicate with it, without getting ourselves stranded. Keep your plan ready, but I want you to let let the creature continue to follow the Cochrane for as long as possible to keep it distracted."

Nganga turned. "Distracted?"

D.J. sighed, rubbing one eye. **I’m running out of tricks, here … **

Starkin, pressing forward, tapped her comm badge. "Bridge to shuttle bay one. Prepare the Mozart for immediate departure."

=^= Yes ma'am. =^=

Uriell had a slight mental wince, then tapped her badge again. "Lt. Indigor, report to shuttle bay 1 to the runabout Mozart immediately."

=^= Right away, Captain. =^=

A slow, quiet growl rose in D.J.'s throat. Still standing close to Paxton, Nganga noticed D.J. tensing. He guessed he was doing the same.

The captain looked at Nganga, "I'm taking the runabout to the planet."

D.J. nearly choked.

It wasn't a discussion. In the short time Nganga had been Starkin's First Officer, the two of them had worked out a method of working together without ever discussing it much. Nganga had been a part of the design team for the Cochrane, and had in fact been offered the command. Starkin knew this, and knew Nganga had more familiarity with much of the crew as well. As such she regularly gave Nganga broad powers; letting him issue commands to her crew in her presence.

Trust is such an important part of command.

Nganga wanted to remind the captain that her place was on her ship; that her responsibility was to the crew; and all of the other Star Fleet regulations that Nganga knew that she knew. It would do no good. Just add to the stress of a bad situation, and potentially undermine what little confidence the crew had left. The noise Paxton just made behind Nganga was proof of that. And the same reason why she let Nganga give orders while she was on the Bridge is why that he was the better choice to stay on the Bridge.

Nganga picked up a PADD, and brought some information up on it.

"Captain, with all due respect," Nganga started...

Starkin started to explain before he could protest. "We need more information. Those people on the planet, those Starfleet officers, they've dealt with these creatures more than we have; they know them well enough to know it's a 'she'." Starkin took half a moment to be bemused at how important other species seem place gender in their classification of individual beings. "They may be better at communcating with them than we are, know something we don't. Besides, I want to know how much they have or haven't used these creatures like the Bandi did."

Nganga hated saying it. D.J. had impressed Nganga with his Runabout piloting skills during the business with the Romulans. And he was aware of how hard Paxton was working now. He wanted Paxton there on the Bridge. But Starkin was said she was flying down to the planet. Implicitly, she may have to dodge these jellyfish. And while it was tough enough with a starship to avoid the creatures, with a runabout the size difference was a double edged sword. Indigor, Nganga was sure, could handle piloting the Cochrane. And Paxton's skill with with the runabout is what the Captain would probably need.

"Take Paxton. He's logged more hours on runabouts." Nganga finished.

**Wha … ?**

Paxton’s eyes bugged slightly as he tried to register what he just heard. It occurred to him at that moment that the Commander was still fairly close to his position, and might have sensed …

**and heard?**

… the tension D.J. was feeling with the Captain’s idea.

D.J.’s previous jealousy at the thought of … (shudder) Indigor … being the one to pilot the runabout …

**and the Captain, of course**

… especially in these circumstances, now gave way to jealousy at the thought of giving him control of the Cochrane in such a serious situation.

As Chief Flight Officer, D.J. actually HAD reviewed the qualifications of all the other flight controllers, even if it had bored him stiff. Indigor was certainly qualified, and had placed highly in all of his simulations. Still, that attitude of his was just insufferable … and D.J. didn’t like to trust Indigor and his over-reliance on his superiority too far …

:Sigh: **No matter which ship he ends up flying, I won’t be happy.**

**Too bad the squid hadn’t cloned me earlier … then I could fly both.**

While initiating another dodge to starboard to avoid the alien, D.J. waited for confirmation, or denial, from Captain Starkin regarding the Commander’s suggestion.

After pondering for a second, the Captain shook her head. "As much as I would appreciate Ensign Paxton's piloting skills, he's needed more here. I'm sure you've noticed, his flying may be the only reason we're still around out here, and I don't want to interupt that. This ship and its crew are too important."

**Nice to get some …**

D.J. initiated a sudden jerk to starboard on an upward vector.

** … appreciation around here.**

Still, Indigor would be heading to the runabout right now.

::Sigh:: **Why couldn’t she have asked Reynolds to fly instead?**

**Sure, Indigor is more qualified … but Reynolds is actually … nice**

The Ensign pulled up a separate window on his screen.

**Hopefully I can keep the squid distracted somehow so it doesn’t notice the Mozart. Won’t do if Indigor gets eaten as soon as he clears the Cochrane.**

D.J. began plotting numbers and pulling up calculations for possible flight paths for the starship that would give the runabout its best chance at making planetfall.

**At least … not as long as the Captain is onboard, too** he thought with a smirk.

Making eye contact with the Captain, Nganga then looked pointedly up to the rail where Klaus worked the tactiacal station, with T'vala standing nearby.

:: Captain, you're taking someone from security along for your protection. Please don't make me say it out loud. ::

Starkin followed Nganga's gaze, swiftly passing over Rien and Kais. Rien had the awkward look of someone hearing a discussion/arguement they're not supposed to hear and pretending not to notice. Kais, meanwhile, glanced over at the piloting ensign and smiled to himself. In their efforts to communicate with the 'cosmic jellyfish,' Kais and Rien had to open their minds to listen to it. They're both trained to normally filter out and ignore the din of other beings' general mental activity. However, given their current accute empathic awareness, they couldn't help but notice some of their fellow crewmates' more pronounced thoughts.

Smiling with understanding, Uriell turned back and leaned in towards her First Officer. "I'm not planning on going alone," she said quietly. The Captain then injected volume and authority back into her voice. "Lieutenant T'Vala, take over on tactical. Lieutenant Klaus, you're coming with me." Her eyes shifted between the pair of Betazoid officers. "I want one of you to come with me, to help communicate with the creature and maybe help with our friends below. The other, I want you to stay here with Lieutenant Agra to continue to.." 'Talk' didn't quite seem to be the right verb. ".. think at the creature. It needs to understand that we aren't trying to hurt it, that we want we to resolve this and leave it in peace."

She looked between them again, and did the mental equivalent of flipping a coin.

:: I win. :: :: You win. ::

Just before she was about to state her decision, Kais stepped forward and said "Yes ma'am." Rien, at the same time, took a small step backwards, indicating his understanding as well.

Slightly unsettled, Starkin blinked, quickly recovered, and then tapped her comm badge again. "Starkin to Dr. Jayngo." :: Jayngo... Tiny... :: She did a full face wince this time as she remembered that her Cheif Engineer had some sort of medical emergency and that Jayngo was there, keeping him sedated.

=^= Yes Captain? =^=

"Doctor, I'm afraid it will be some time before I can get down there, as I'm heading to the surface. Is Chief Tiny alright? Is the situation stable?"

=^= Yes ma'am, he's okay for now. =^=

She closed her eyes in relief. "But I assume you can't get away and come down with us."

Jayngo hesitated. He hated to disappoint her. =^= If it's all the same to you, Captain, I really can't right now. I'm needed here. =^=

Uriell hated being disappointed. With the doctor's varied training in security as well as medicine (not to mention his physical characteristics and disarming bedside manner), his presence could have been a multi-faceted asset. But like Paxton, Jayngo's presence was needed more on the ship than on this away mission, and she accepted that.

She already had security, but she still wanted to keep the possibilities covered. "I'm not sure what kind of trouble we might run into on this mission, and I'd like one of your medical staff with us just in case."

=^= I'll send Yures. =^=

Starkin recalled who exactly that was, mentally ticking through what she remembered about him. :: Ah, the 'Chief Medical Assistant'... was at my first examplination here... the Bajoran/Human one... seemed nice enough...:: "Very good. Tell Lt. Kuehl to come in shuttlebay one immediately. We're leaving on the Mozart right away."

"Very well, mam. Jayngo out."

The Chief Medical Officer looked over at the fitfully sleeping Chief Engineer. He hadn't bothered to move the sedated giant from where he fell on the floor, both out of concern for the fallen officer and to preserve the "evidence" of his conduct. If there was one thing that concerned Jayngo the most was an officer who was more concerned with personal goals and ego than taking care of their physical needs. The fact that Tiny had neglected to take his meds, for whatever reason and knowing the possible outcomes, make him a danger to himself and, because of his position, the ship.

"Doctor Jayngo to Yures Kuehl. Please report to shuttlebay one to accompany the Captain on an away mission to the planet. Jayngo out."

Tapping his combadge once again, Jayngo makes an additional call. "Jayngo to Simon Tarses. Please report to Chief Tiny's quarters with four hypos, 50 c.c.s of Corozine each and a gurney. Also swing by the boardwalk and ask Moss to grab the wolf tranqs I provided him and to come along. I need him to baby-sit a pet for a few days in the animal park."

=^= Aye, sir. I'm on my way. Tarses out. =^=

::And now, we wait.::

The Cochrane once again swooped in towards the planet. D.J. set course to dip into a low orbit again. The closer he could get to the planet, the less time the shuttle would be vulnerable from pursuit. And, hopefully, the additional heat proximity of the atmosphere would help to mask the Mozart’s departure from whatever sensors the squid might have.

D.J. transmitted his current flight arc down to the Mozart’s computer log. **Indigor should know what’s going on up here, and what to expect**

Nganga hadn't really been suprised when the captain explained her opinion. Had he didn't bother to be disappointed when the Captain made the decision about Paxton that he would have preferred, had it not been the Captain leaving. She was taking Klaus, and one of the Betazed security, Kais. And the nurse, Yures Kuehl. Nganga had no complaints, at least as far as the small picture went, and he nodded to the captain.

He wished Biff were back aboard, and in the Engine Room. He wished Norallah were here at Ops, instead of covering for Tiny. All in all, Bruno Tiny had managed to to make a bad situation a lot worse. And David Nganga found himself hoping that whatever the medical problem was, he hoped Tiny was in pain.

Recognising the nastiness of that last thought about Tiny, David reminded himself to sit down with Rory when their Councillor got back.

"Good luck Captain," Ngnaga said as the captain and part of her entourage left.

"Thank you Commander. Keep the ship safe - leave the system if you need to."

**Huh … well, that would make things simpler** D.J. thought as he subconsciously initiated a subtle head nod in the same direction that he dodged the starship.

She walked towards and entered the turbolift. As she turned around to face the door, she added with a slight grin, "Just don't forget about us." The turbolift doors closed and they headed down.

**Hmmm, that does make it more difficult, doesn’t it** he thought, his eyebrows scrunched in concentration.

"Bridge to McGintly," Nganga said.

=^= Commander? =^=

"Doctor Jayngo needs to talk to you in Bruno Tiny's quarters. Both the captain and I are a little busy right now. Oh, and you had better bring someone from Security."

Klaus quickly briefed his replacement at the tactical station before heading to the turbolift. Once inside, he tapped his communicator.

"Klaus to Ensign Corbin."

"Corbin, here."

"Ensign, please gather standard deployment gear for Mr. Kais and I, as well as 2 standard enhanced compression rifles and meet me in shuttle bay 1."

"Would you like my team to accompany you, sir?"

"Negative, we will be taking a runabout and won't have the space. Besides, I think the captain wouldn't want an overwhelming military presence on this one."

"Very well, sir."

A couple minutes later, the tubolift came to a halt. Servos sounded as the shuttlebay doors opened allowing the two security officers to enter. Much to Klaus' surprise, Corbin was there to meet them.

Corbin motioned over to a table near the shuttle. "Your gear is ready, sir. Are you sure there is no room for me?"

"Sorry, Ensign. I know that you have been itching for some action, but it won't be this time."

"I understand, sir. Good luck." The SERT team leader started to walk past Lieutenant Klaus, when she placed a hand on his arm and whispered, "Be careful." She then continued out of the shuttlebay.

Klaus furrowed his brow and unconsiously rubbed his medallion. What was that about, he thought. Mr. Kais was already to the equipment table donning his gear. Klaus joined him. The checked over each others personal defense shields and eyepiece scanners and made sure all their weapons were charged and ready. All fell in the green. The two man team then tucked a few extra items in equipment pouches, both hidden and obvious.

The Captain was equipping herself by the runabout. Klaus and Kais walked over to her.

"Lieutenant Klaus and Mister Kais reporting for duty ma'am. We are ready to roll."

"Very well, Mr. Klaus. Let's board and get on with the mission."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Yures Kuehl here on my way," as he grabs a medkits and what ever gear normally needed for away missions and heads out of medical. Thinking to himself, ~~This is the first time have beening asked to be on away mission for a long while,~~ as he continues to walk towards shuttlebay one. As he walks into the shuttlebay, he seees the Captain and the security officers. "Reporting as ordered sir?" still thinking to himself ~~Why was I picked for this assignment there are other people qualified personel to accompany the captain? ~~ He stands there waiting for a response.

When they reached the shuttlebay, the nurse was there waiting for them. The captain addressed Keuhl. "Yes Lieutenant, come on board. We're heading down and things may get a little rough. Hopefully, your medical services won't be necessary, but I want you with us, just in case."

Starkin went on board, followed by the others. Indigor was already in the pilot's seat, getting the ship ready. "Ma'am. It's good to be here."

"I'm glad your pleased. Are we ready to take off?"

"In a few moments. There are a few more system checks..."

"Make them fast or skip them. We need to move. You may have noticed the Cochrane is in a bit of pursuit right now."

"Yes ma'am."

"By a large creature I'm counting on you to avoid as well."

"Yes ma'am." Indigor got back to work.

D.J.’s console chirped. Checking the log, he could see that Indigor had logged into the runabout’s computer and had received the Cochrane’s latest flight information. It wouldn’t be long before the preliminary flight checks were finished …

**If the Captain gives him any time to even run them**

… and the other flight controller would be ready to take her out. D.J. dipped low towards the planet. As expected, the heat shields and sensor readings began to register some minor interference. Hopefully, the squid was having the same reaction.

=^=Starkin to the bridge. We need you to run a straight course for a little bit. We don’t want you swerving into us on the way out.=^=

"Aye Captain. D.J. please be sure to avoid the Mozart, and keep her straight on course so the Mozart can avoid us, too," Nganga replied.

"Yes, sir." D.J. sent his updated plan to Indigor’s computer. Angling the trajectory, D.J. rounded the planet so that he was heading towards the system’s sun. Who knows if it’ll have any effect, but maybe the added glare will keep the squid from noticing the Mozart. Once the star was firmly in sight, the ensign straightened out his course.

Nganga went to a panel, and pressed some buttons to route communications through to the Captain. "Bridge to Transporter Room One. =^= Nganga continued.

=^= Yes Commander? =^= Salex sounded slightly suprised.

"Please maintain a transporter lock on the Captain and the rest of the crew of the Mozart," Nganga ordered.

=^= Aye Sir, but we will only be able to use it if they drop their shields. =^=

"Salex, if their shields are down, they will need the transport."

Salex found the Commander's logic irrefutable.

:: A little protective, eh, David? :: Starkin glanced at Kais. If he "overheard," he didn't show it. She asked Indigor, "Are we ready?"

"All set, ma'am."

She tapped her badge. "Starkin to Bridge. We're ready. Are we clear?" She watched as the stars outside moved from right to left. Then the slowed and straightened out.

The Cochrane slowed to a stright course. D.J. sent an "all clear" message to Indigor on the runabout. At the same time, he glanced over his left shoulder to the commander and nodded his head.

"There’s your window, Captain. I suggest you take it," the Commander replied.

She said quietly to Indigor. "You heard him. Take us out, with due speed."

D.J. split the viewscreen on his control panel into several angles, one watching the fore of the ship, one the aft and the squid, and one watching the shuttle bay. The doors already open, he saw the runabout begin to move out, puncturing the blue-tinted magnetic field containing the bay’s atmosphere. As soon as it was clear, it accelerated and angled downward to the planet.

D.J. began pulling the Cochrane out of its low orbit again, and accelerated.

"The Mozart is away," Bak stated plainly, without the usual reparte others had become accustomed to. Obviously, he was concerned.

"Nicely done, Mr. Paxton," Nganga said to the pilot, "Resume evasive maneuvers." Even as Nganga was saying it, he realised that Paxton was already doing so.

"Ensign Aeth," Nganga addressed the Bajoran who was on hand as Paxton's reflief control officer. Getting eye contact, he looked at the water dispenser on the the far right side of the bridge (OOC: the part we NEVER see), and then to Paxton.

Aeth Nik understood and filled a tumbler with water, set a in the tumbler and brought it over to D.J.

**Don’t have to tell me twice** D.J. thought as he straightened in his chair, trying to stretch his back.

A moment later, Ensign Aeth appeared next to him, setting a tumbler of water next to him. He nodded to her, mouthing "thanks". She smiled back at him and retreated to her station. D.J. still didn’t know Aeth very well, the two of them hanging out with different crowds in their downtime.

Still, he could tell that even her usually bright and lively personality seemed a bit held back in the situation.

Rein also had a intense look upon his face, having taken the councelor's chair on the bridge. Somewhere along the way, Fay had managed to slip off of the bridge. The security officer stated "The creature has not noticed the runabout's departure. I am doing my best to keep its mind on debating with me and chasing us to give them a window of escape. He is pretty stubborn though, Commander. He just doesn't want to believe that we are willing to help."

"Has i- he..." Nganga checked himself, "said what it would take on our part to prove our intentions."

The security officer furrows his brow, seeming to be trying to do multiple mental things at once. "Nothing so specific, sir. It doesn't seem to be using logic as we know it, but is working more off emotion. It doesn't want an explanation or discussion, it just wants us gone."

"It's not like we really want to stay," Bak commented.

"Good point," Nganga said "But neither did the people on that 'island'. And that gives us a job to do.

"Is keeping the other crews on the island fulfilling some emotional need as well?"

"It seems to feel as though they all represented a threat, and by being held against their will as prisoners, the threat is lessened. Without weapons or starships, the crews cannot harm the mate."

The security officer shrivels his brow a little further. "I've asked if we could be allowed to remove them from the planet and leave, but it doesn't seem to be willing to allow it. Especially with it being so close to the time of the infant's birth. It just doesn't believe that we mean it no harm."

Nganga squeezed his the bridge of his nose. It wasn't Rein's fault, but Nganga was sick of hearing this same line of bullshit.

Without looking at the Commander, the security officer stated, "I'm sorry, Commander. If there was some way that we could show our intentions, rather than just talking about them, it may mean more to him."

"Fine let's just induce the mother to go into labour so we can help out with the delivery and get on with our next mission."

Picking up on not only the words spoken by the Commanding Officer, but also those unspoken, Rein appears to mull over many responses, but simply mutters, "Yes sir. I'm doing the best I can." He then turns and looks intently back at the main screen.

=^=Falan! What the hell is going on? This ship is flitting about like a Ferengi Tatamaran!=^=

Another quick tilt causes Skepti to shift sideways and nearly lose his footing.

=^=Don't know, Sir. We're getting the same thing over here.=^=

Cal squints, eyeing the length of the Promenade. His charge.

::Goddamn Federation! What the hell is going on out there?::

=^=Get these people to quarters! Don't they know we're under an Alert?! Jesus christ!=^=

::Can't call the Captain... He.. She... Whatever the Hell. Probably busy. Leaving Calvin, Frickin' Skepti to keep this Arcade and its people safe. Probably drinkin' coffee and eatin' Bon-Bons on the bridge.::

As the few lingerers work on getting to secure locations, the inertial dampeners are increased, leveling the ride out. Across the boardwalk, Calvin is able to see Moss, who is standing next to an open access panel. The groundskeeper flips the door shut and continues moving toward the turbolifts.

Skepti frowns and hurdles over some fallen debris.

::This is just like dodging bullets back home. I'm waaaay to old for this shit!::

As he nears the groundskeeper, he calls out, "Moss! Get to your station, we're under alert here!"

As the turbolift doors open, the groundskeeper turns back to face the boardwalk manager. "Just got a call from medical. Something about Chief Tiny's wolves or something. They need me up in quarters." He steps into the lift. "I dialed up the gravity for the boardwalk. It should help keep the tossing down to a minimum. I'll be back in a few."

::No wonder my legs felt like lead.:: Skepti gives Moss a quick nod, "Good luck, then..." Calvin turns away and moves on along the Promenade. He eventually reaches Falen and notices his pasty pallor. ::Poor kid. He's never been involved in this sort of thing.:: "Keep your chin up, Falan. The Federation crew has been born to take care of this ship." Cal steps into the chamber and moves towards an empty seat. "Don't worry. Everything will turn out fine."

<A few minutes later>

<<Runabout Mozart>>

Lt. jg Yures sits in his chair relaxing as much as possible, checking his equipment making sure they're calibrated and ready to go. He looks around a bit nerviously but making sure to stay out of the way.

The runabout enters the atmosphere and approaches the planet without incident, Indigor bringing the craft to a safe and secure landing close to the settlement visited by the previous away team. Seconds after the shutdown sequence is completed, the shuttle begins to shake as an earth tremor passes through. "Ummm, Captain," Kais states, "I don't think she's going to be in much of a mood to talk. That just a labor pain we just felt."

"Wonderful," the Captain says sarcasticly. "Then we better be quick." As Indigor starts to unbuckle himself from his seat, the Captain extends her hand to get him to stop. "Lieutenant, I want you to stay with the ship and keep it ready. We may need to get out of here in a hurry." Indigor's antenae drooped; he was clearly disappointed. But she didn't have the luxury of worrying about that right now. She thought about what Commander Nganga had done, then added to Indigor, "I want you to keep a transporter lock on us, in case we run into trouble."

Starkin turns to Kais, "Try to project as much comfort and support as you can to the creature..." she stops and thinks for a second. "No, belay that. It may not be very aware of our presence here, and we shouldn't draw its attention to us unless we need to. If its labour is anything like Garman labour, it's probably distracted and not entirely rational."

They leave the runabout and head towards the village. The captain continues to tell her team, "This may be our best chance to talk to the survivors and not be noticed."

After a few moments of walking, the Captain and her away team come upon the makeshift village, empty to the naked eye. Kais turns to the Captain and states, "They are inside, ma'am. They are all afraid, on various levels, of what is about to come. Most believe that their lives will soon be over."

Wandering further into the village, the Away Team sees just how quiet things are. The silence is broken by the occaisional tremor as shouts can be heard from indoors even as the buildings start to fall apart.

"Captain. Captain!" A dark skinned woman in a red trimmed Starfleet Uniform comes running toward the Away Team. Her neck, like Starkin's is decorated with four solid pips.

<<U.S.S. Cochrane>>

After several tense minutes on the bridge, with D.J. working his fingers to the bone trying to stay ahead of the squid, Rein perks up slightly. "Commander. I think I've found a way to show him that we are ..."

The security officer is surrounded by a glimmering light, vaguely remenicent of a teleporter beam, though different from Federation technology, and disappeared from the bridge.

His voice cut off abruptly, and D.J. noticed a flash of light in the corner of his eye. Glancing around, Rein was gone. A quick glance back to the Commander showed a shocked and worried expression, mouth slightly open, eyebrow raised in confusion. The expression didn’t last long, though, as merely a second or two later, both Commander Nganga and Ensign Bak likewise found themselves caught in glimmering light a moment before they were forcibly removed from the Bridge. Seeing the flash of light directly this time, it reminded D.J. of a transporter beam, though obviously not exactly similar to Federation technology.

Stunned, D.J. could only stare for a moment. He looked over to Aeth, who was looking in his direction. D.J. wondered if she was thinking the same thing he was: if he disappeared, too, she’d have to take over his station quickly to keep the squid from getting any closer.

=^=Bridge. =^= came the voice of Lt. Mary Scott. =^= Lt. Norallah was just beamed out of the engine room.=^=

Still looking at each other, they seemed to mouth, in unison, "Shit."

"Understood," T'Vala stated. "Commander McGintley, you are needed on the bridge. Priority alert."

D.J. faced front again, trying to pour as much speed as he could into the engines and get as far from the squid as possible. There had to be some sort of limit to the distance from which it could transport others. Aeth stood and ran back to Bak’s station at Operations.

**This is not good. Either Rein figured out something it doesn’t want us to know, or something’s happened down on the planet.**

**Unless we can figure something out,** D.J. thought **this might be a good time to leave the system.**

Ned looked up from Tiny's unconscious body towards the doctor, who wore an equally puzzled face. "I'm on my way. What happened?"

=^= Commander Nganga is gone. He and several other crew members seem to have been beamed off the ship.=^=

McGinty's eyes widened. Until he was called to the Cheif Engineer's quarters, he was following the situation from his quarters, and he knew that the Captain was not on the ship. He looked to the security officer, then to Jayngo. "Excuse me." He then left the room at a slight jog, continuing his conversation with the bridge. "Do you know where they went?"

=^= Not yet, I'm scanning now. =^=

"Find them!" He stopped in the hallway. This was taking too long. He tapped his comm badge. "McGintly to transport. Give me a sight-to-sight transport. I need to get to the bridge, now!"

In the transporter room, Salex saw that the runabout made it to the surface, and the shields were down. The crew members had a clean lock. He trusted that they would hold as he diverted his attention to the command at hand. He locked onto Commander McGintly and onto the bridge. "Yes sir. Transporting now." He moved his hands upward, activating the controls.

The bridge quickly materialized before Ned. Once solid, he quickly looked around the bridge. He saw that Ensign Turnow was still settling into the ops seat. Ensign Paxton was at Flight Control, looking a little tired and a little worried. Ensign Aeth was standing relatively near him, looking equally worried and anxious. He turned behind him to T'Vala. "Report!"

T'Vala was working with a controled kind of frantic. "I found them! They seem to be... inside... the creature."

McGintly turned to the screen with a 'Huh? What the hell?' look on his face. ::That jellyfish ate them?!?:: He tapped his badge. "Transport, some of our crew has been abducted by that... thing. As soon as you can, get them back here!"

=^=Acknowledged.=^=

Salex had just barely started checking on the away team again when the Lt. Commander's new order came through. His console showed T'Vala's scans, giving the sector/subsector of the abducted crew. At first his scan showed nothing but the creature, but by looking specificly for the communcator signatures, he was able to cut through the interference and get a lock on them. He felt it was fortunate that so few had been moved, but concerned that interference from the creature could break the lock. So using the communicator locks as his guide, he quickly went one by one and locked onto their life-signs/bodies as well. He also manually adjusted each one's orientation so they would appear on the pad as upright and comfortable as possible. Just to take no chances, he also had the confinement beam ready to boost, if need be. "Transporter Room One to Bridge," said Mr. Salex, "I have a lock on the Commander, Rien, and the others."

=^= Bring them home, Mr. Salex, =^= came McGintly's reply.

In a moment, Rien, Bak, Norallah, and Nganga were standing on the transporter pad.

"Thank you, Mister Salex," Nganga said. "Norallah, get..."

"... to Engineering. Aye sir." and the Trill headed off the pad and out the door

"Site-to-site transport to the Bridge for the rest of us, please, Mr. Salex," Nganga said. "You can send me the bill for the dry cleaning later."

"Yes, sir." Salex replied, soundling slightly confused. "Site-to-site confirmed."

"Don't ask," Bak said to Salex. "Just don't ask."

"Energise."

Nganga, Rien, and Bak were back on the Bridge.

"Commander!" McGintly said, slightly starteled. He stepped to his right,

"Commander. Glad to see you," Nganga replied, stepping into the space Ned had just vacated while turning towards the viewscreen.

Bak, rather than taking Turnow's seat, trotted up to one of the work stations behind T'vala, "If you have a record of our transport, Sulu, I want to try to recalibrate our shields so it can't transport through them again."

Nganga nodded to Sulu and Bak, approving Bak's idea. "What's the situation Ned?" he said to the Lt. Commander.

"You were apparently taken by the alien creature. We got a transporter lock on you and got you back."

"I had hoped that giving myself over as a volunteer hostage would prove our peaceful intentions," Rein stated. "It apparently got carried away. I apologize, Commander. I expect that is will probably go into my record. But I also believe that it would have worked. Now however, the creature has bigger things to worry about than us."

"What do you mean," Ned demanded.

"The female went into labor and cried out to him after we went aboard."

As the crew turns to the viewscreen, they can see the creature breaking off its pursuit and heading back toward the planet.

D.J. let out a gust of air. Taking both hands from the control panel, he rubbed his eyes. Relaxing his back, D.J. slumped while reaching for the water Aeth had brought earlier. The water wasn't cold any longer, but still helped to revitalize him somewhat. D.J. massaged his hands, while angling his head first to the left, and then the right. A "crack" sounded, and he relaxed even more from the release of tension.

After wiping his hands on his trousers, the ensign placed them back on his panel and pulled up the squid's new trajectory, as well as the Cochrane's current trajectory and location of the planet. Keeping his hands on the board, he turned his head to look back at Nganga.

"Shall I pursue, Commander?"

"No, Mr. Paxton, I think that might be just asking for it," Nganga replied. "But do plot a course back towards the planet. If possible get us above either the Klingon or the Romulan settlement. Assuming that 'Daddy' is heading towards whichever part of that island the ... birth canal, or whatever, is on, that should leave at least one of the settlements exposed."

"Yes, sir."

Checking his console, D.J. locked onto the squid and tracked its trajectory. On his monitor, the alien’s arc sent it heading towards the southern peninsula of the continent. Looking up to watch on the main viewscreen, which still showed an anterior view, D.J. noticed the squid’s tentacles flailing in its flight.

**Is it just me, or are they more frenzied than before?**

Setting his own course, Paxton drove the Cochrane to starboard in a tight arc.

**Not like I would really know … since I was too busy watching my own controls instead of the squid through this whole thing** He shrugged his shoulders.

Careful to keep the starships speed and distance away from the squid, and as non-threatening as possible, D.J. sailed the Cochrane towards the northern part of the continent, and one of the other encampments.

Nganga spoke into the ship's intercomm. "Security and medical teams to all transporter rooms. This should thrill everyone to no end, after the recent summit, Transporter Rooms, as soon as the security teams arrive, start beaming up every Klingon, Romulan, and human we can find. We'll be trying to sweep the island."

He paused.

"Bridge to Jayngo. Doctor, how is your vetrinary medicine?"

Doctor Jayngo leaned against the remains of Lt. Commander Tiny's kitchenette table, not wanting to disturb the room any more than necessary. Lt. Commander McGintley had only just arrived before he was summoned away again, thanks to the mysterious disappearance of several crewmen. Jayngo had been unable to give a report, but had gained permission to move the engineer before the second officer left the premises. As such, when Simon and Moss arrived with the gurney, the Doctor was torn between using it for his initial intention or its natural one.

Taking the sedatives from Moss, the Doctor eased into the corner gently, with a grace uncharacteristic for a man of his birth. When he was within a foot of the cowering wolfhound pet, the animal's natural instincts overtook his training, slashing out with his enormous jaws. Fortunately, Jayngo had anticipated the fight response, moving with a superhuman speed with the tranquilizer hypospray and wrapping his other enormous arm around the creature's body. Holding it still for the four seconds needed for the drugs to kick in proved to be little difficulty, silencing the beast into a calm slumber.

Picking the animal up gently and placing it onto the gurney, Jayngo looked at the two men and nodded, enabling them to take the wolfhound to the secured animal park for safekeeping. Upon their departure, the doctor once again turned his attention to his primary patient, shaking his head in mild frustration. Looking over the scene once more, he grabbed his medical case and removed another hypospray, applying more medication to the already unconscious engineer.

Once done, the doctor bent over the gigantic Lt. Commander, picking him up and placing him over his left shoulder with a simple flip. The gravimetric plating adjusted slightly to compensate for the incredible mass of both men within the same square footage. Keeping his medical case in his free hand, Jayngo eased through the comparatively small door carefully. Once outside, the doctor closed the door and stated, "Computer. Security lock on this room, authorization Jayngo-five-alpha- twelve." He then turned, striding slowly down the corridor toward sickbay.

Dr. Jayngo had no sooner laid the unconscious chief engineer on a biobed than his communicator chimed.

=^=Bridge to Jayngo. Doctor, how is your vetrinary medicine?=^=

"I've been getting more practice than usual lately. What do you need?"

=^=Two weeks on Risa, I think. But under the circumstances, I'll settle for the location of the birth canal on that ... thing down on the planet.=^=

::Thing down on the planet? Birth Canal? What the ...?::

"Please have Norallah patch an image down to my office, Commander."

Moving to his desk, the Chief Medical Officer opened the feed from the Operations Officer to take a look at the 'thing' in question. All he saw was an island. Then the rest of the information began pouring in. Norallah had sent down a fairly detailed report mixed with bridge recordings and logs covering the situation at hand. He knew about the rescue mission, but the new alien species was news thanks to the Chief Engineer's bout of stupidity.

Jayngo spend a few seconds crunching numbers comparing the Enterprise's reports and the Cochrane's readings, including seismic and gravimetric. Based on scans performed by Sulu, Jayngo finally felt as though he could make a reasonable guess.

"Commander. The female appears to have tapped into the planet's core to provide necessary nutrients and warmth that the species just wouldn't be able to get in the depths of space. It's probably the only reason they took residence in the first place. As far as a birth canal goes, my best guess would be pointed at the planet's equator in order to use the planet's gravimetric pull to aide in the birthing process. Considering the area she chose on the planet to take roost, the birth canal is probably located on the farthest southern shore."

"Captain... just who I wanted to see. I'm Captain Starkin of the U.S.S. Cochrane." Starkin shook the woman's hand in greeting. "Are you and your crew alright?"

"We've fine, but we're pretty shaken up at the moment. You're not trapped here too, are you?"

Starkin glanced behind her towards the direction of the Runabout. "Not that I'm aware of. Look, I'll try to be brief: As you may or may not know, the beings who are holding you here, the ones that are providing for you on this planet - they are some sort of telepathic, shape- shifting space faring lifeform that resembles cnidaria. We've been trying to communcate with them, reason with them to let us help you, to help them... but to no avail. My understanding is that fifteen years ago, two-like creatures - presumably the same ones as here - were coerced and captured by the native Bandi of Deneb IV. Consequently, these creatures don't like us or trust us. To make things even more complicated, one of them was pursuing my ship while the other is apparently going into labour."

The ground shakes slightly. Starkin continues, "I know you know of this creature's existence. You've been down here for quite a while, you should understand it better than we do. Some of your crew even know it's female, so I'm assuming you've had some level of connection with it. I need to know, how do I get through to this thing?"

The ground shook again, harder as the "island" pushed. "If you've ever had children, Captain, I don't think it's remotly possible at the moment," replied Captain Taylor, recalling her own labour. "Unless you have a giant hypospray... God knows what... some kind of pain killer available." Her eyes turned to the direction Captain Starkin had glanced a moment before. She refocused her eyes on the silvery object parked beyond the borders of the settlement.

"Captain, is that a runabout?" Taylor asked.

::I guess the crew doesn't want to stick around. I can't image why...:: Starkin mused. "Yes it is. My understanding was that the creature didn't want you to leave and was somehow keeping you. That's part of why I wanted to communicate with it."

Klaus continued to visually scan the area as the ground moved again. "It may be too busy right now to worry about keeping hostages."

Starkin nodded. "Agreed. It's certainly worth a try. Captain, if possible, I want you to get your crew to the runabout. How many of them are there?"

"Sokep," Taylor called. A vulcan in a blue Starfleet uniform and a lieutenant's insignia pips stepped out from one of the buildings. "Start getting the crew aboard that runabout," Taylor instructed him.

"There are fourty-five in this ... settlement. There are two other settlements: the one your people visited earlier has thirty-eight people in it. And there are fourty-one in the third."

The away team began evacuation procedures of the Federation personnel trapped on the planet-based alien. With well over hundred Starfleet personnel on the planet, the Runabout wasn't big enough to get them all. After contacting the Cochrane and finding out about their plans to beam the Klingons and Romulans aboard, Starkin sent Klaus up first to help with their new guests.

No longer being pursued by the space-bound mate, the U.S.S. Cochrane was able to establish an orbit on the other side of the planet. Using all of the transporter rooms and cargo bay transporters available on the ship, they began beaming the Klingon and Romulan crews aboard, placing a security detail led by Klaus in charge of the Romulans and a second team led by T'Vala on the Klingons. Then Starkin ordered the Cochrane to get people into the shuttlebays and use all the transporters on the various shuttles and runabouts. She even authorized the use of the transporters in the Captain's Yacht. They then began to beam up the Federation personnel from the other two settlements. Meanwhile, the Captain and her crew dumped as much cargo and equipment as they needed to fit the remaining people.

With the runabout filled to capacity, the ship rose amidst one of the last planet-shaking contractions, reaching orbit in time to see the baby alien rise into the air. With the childbirth complete, the ship is able to see that the male alien is once again turning its attention to the observers. Both ship and runabout entered into warp, fleeing the scene, watching as the female alien broke away from the planet to rejoin her family and head in the opposite direction.

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