With its last mission completed, the USS Victorious makes her way back to Starbase 7. Captain Michael Cooke sits in his chair sipping on a mochachino. He turns to Commander Patterson. “Love these types of missions. To see a star go supernova is such an amazing sight. It's just spectacular.”

“That it is Captain,” replies Patterson. “I think science missions are the best. They are so peaceful. And with the problems we have been having lately, I needed some peace and quiet.” He then turns his head toward the helmsman, “ETA to Starbase 7?”

“We are about 5 minutes out Commander,” replies Lieutenant Junior Grade Spac Durek. Spac sends a message to the starbase requesting permission to dock. The starbase sends a message back to the Victorious, but it has nothing to do with docking. “Captain, the starbase is under attack!”

“What?!” shouts Cooke. “Spac, get us there quick. Ensign Cox, takes us to red alert, raise shields, and charge weapons.”

Both officers answer at the same time, “Aye sir.” Spac increases velocity to Warp 5. Ensign Danielle Cox initiates the “Red Alert” and prepares for battle.

Down in sickbay Lieutenant Rehnor Vox sees the red alert claxons turn on. He then calls in his assistants and prepares for casualties.

The Victorious arrives at Starbase 7 to find 3 ships are attacking it. Off to port they see a partially destroyed Federation ship, it’s the USS Endeavor. Scans of the 3 attacking ships show them to have the insignia of U.S.A.G., Union of Species Against Government. Continuing scans are able to identify the ships as: a Klingon vessel, the Tok; a Breen ship, the Enlai; and a Starfleet ship, the Gemini. The Tok notices the Victorious and breaks off to engage it.

“Oh man.” Cooke begins to bark out orders. “Helm…evasive maneuvers. Ensign Cox…ready phasers.” The battle begins. “Open fire!”

Cox fires phasers and scores a direct hit on the Tok. It shields fall to 23%. The Tok fires back at the Victorious, shields fall to 86%. Cox fires again. This time the Tok loses shields and starts to limp away from the fight.

All of a sudden, the other two ships halt their attack, turn around, and take off at warp 5. The Victorious approaches the star base. “Ensign Cox, open a channel to the Starbase 7.” Cox opens a channel. “This is Captain Cooke of the USS Victorious. Are you in need of assistance?”

“This is Lt. Commander Han. Don’t worry about us. They abducted Fleet Admiral Dean. He is aboard the Gemini. You have to catch them.”

“What!?” shouts Cooke. “Mr. Durek, turn us around and go after the Gemini, warp 9.”

“Yes sir.” The Spac sets a course and the Victorious jumps to warp 9.

The Victorious begins to catch up to the Gemini. Cooke taps on his communicator, “Mr. Drazh, how much longer can we maintain this speed?”

“We should be able to maintain warp 9 for another 7 minutes," Ensign Drazh replies. “Any longer than that and we’ll blow the warp core.”

“Acknowledged. Cooke out.” He orders Cox to bring the Gemini up on the view-screen. He watches the Victorious get closer and closer to the Gemini. “It looks like we might just catch them," he says to Commander Patterson.

Patterson turns, “We just might. Ensign Cox, be prepared to fire and disable their propulsion.”

The Victorious catches up with the Gemini. “Open a channel.” Cox opens a channel to the Gemini. “All right Monroe…turn over the admiral…NOW!” Suddenly, the Gemini jumps into transwarp and leaves the Victorious in the dust. “Crap. We can’t catch them. Helm, set a course back to Starbase 7, warp 7.”

The Victorious finally makes it back to Starbase 7. The USS Lexington, the USS Cardinal, and the USS Centaur are all docked at the star base. The Victorious docks at the base. Cooke stands up. “Patterson…you and Ensign Brast are coming with me. Mr. Durek, you have the bridge.” He tap his communicator, “Mr. Drazh, start repairing the ship. We don’t know how long we’ll be here.” The Captain, Commander, and Counselor make their way to transporter room 2 and beam over to the starbase. Once on the starbase, they are taken to a conference room.

Admiral T’Sela is standing at the head of the conference room table. “Have a seat gentlemen," and she points out 3 seats near the foot of the table. “Now that everyone is here, we can get started.” She dims the lights and activates a view-screen. “This is USAG’s newest toy, the Monarch Spacestation. It is mobile, has cloaking capabilities, and is highly armed. We believe that this is where they may have taken Fleet Admiral Dean. Your four ships are to start where the Victorious lost the Gemini, spread out, and find this spacestation. Your mission is to rescue Fleet Admiral Dean, if possible, but your main priority is to destroy this spacestation at all costs. This station would give them a huge advantage, especially if they moved it into Federation space. Do you understand your orders?” All four captains nod. “Dismissed.”

All four of the captains beam back to their ships. All the ships break space dock. The Victorious then proceeds to lead the other 3 ships to where the Gemini jumped transwarp. When the ships arrive, Captain Cooke then proceeds to issue the search areas for each ship. The ships then split up to find the Monarch Spacestation.

Margh, the Klingon sitting at the science station gets a sensor reading. “Captain, I think I have something. I am picking up a warp signature and possibly a large cloaked vessel.” He runs further scans. “The warp signature belongs to the Gemini, and the cloaked vessel should be the Monarch.”

“Good work.” Captain Cooke stands. “Lt. Jg. Johnson and Ensign Brast, please come with me to my ready room. Spac, take the ship to an orbit behind that moon. Ensign Cox, send a message to the other 3 ships of what we have found and have them meet with us here.” Cooke then proceeds to walk into his ready room, followed by the two officers.

“I believe the Victorious might have something they want” states Cooke.

“Sir, you don’t mean the Archangel do you. That’s my baby” replies Gordon Johnson.

“I do Gordon," replies Cooke. “It is a prototype, Protégé-class shuttlecraft. USAG expressed a major interest in it when they tried to steal it. I believe they would be very happy to get it.” Cooke sits down at his desk. “Ok, here’s the plan.”

A few minutes later, Johnson and Brast walk out of the ready room and make their way to shuttlebay 4. They arrive in shuttlebay 4 to find the Archangel ready to go. They jump in and start her up. Johnson taps the panel. “Ok Mr. Durek, we are ready to go, open shuttlebay doors. The doors open. The Archangel clears the doors and sets a coarse for the location of the Monarch.

The Archangel approaches the Monarch spacestation. A ship decloaks off the Archangel’s starboard bow, it’s of Romulan origin. The Petrone hails the Archangel, “Who are you, and what are you doing here.”

Brast opens the frequency and replies, “I am Xend Brast. We are not your enemy. Mr. Johnson and I would like to join your organization. We are tired of the Federation, and we have brought you this shuttle as a present.” The Petrone relays a message to Monarch. The Petrone locks on a tractor beam onto the Archangel, and takes it to the Monarch Spacestation. The Archangel is tractored into a shuttlebay. An armed escort checks them for weapons and then takes them to see the head of the spacestation, Gortak.

They enter Gortak’s office and sit down. Gotak spins his chair around to face them. Gortak is a Cardassian, about 6 feet tall, and with a battle scar across his forehead. He begins to grill the two officers, “So you are interested in joining USAG. How do I know your not Federation spies.”

Brast leans forward, “Do you think we’re stupid? We wouldn’t have come here if we cared about the Federation. We like life, just not with the Federation. We hate the Federation and will do anything to see it fall.”

“Good, then you will be responsible for the execution of Fleet Admiral Dean. What do you think about that,” asks Gortak.

Johnson speaks up, “It would be an honor to eliminate that old fool.”

“Great.” Gortak stands up and shakes their hands. “The guard will escort you to your quarters. The execution will be at 0900, be prepared.”

Brast and Johnson are placed into quarters together. Brast removes his shoes and removes the heels. He pulls to two mechanical pieces of something from the shoes. Johnson does the same thing. They then put the 4 pieces together to create a small phaser. They ask the two guards outside the door to give them a hand with moving the desk in the room. One guard helps them while the other stands watch. While moving the desk, Brast “accidentally” loses his grip dropping it on the guard's foot. Johnson shoots the other in the head. They strip down the guards and steal their uniforms. With USAG uniforms on, they go in search of Dean.

Meanwhile, back on the Victorious, the other ships have arrived and the 4 captains are having a meeting in Cooke’s ready room. “They still have one and a half hours to get back. I told them to leave in time whether they have Dean or not. You know the battle plan.” The other captains leave and beam back to their ships. Captain Cooke returns to the bridge. “Commander, lets prepare for battle.”

Brast and Johnson search Monarch’s records and find that the Admiral is being held in detention room D on level 7. So they find a turbolift and go down to level 7. They walk down the corridor until they find the detention room, and enter.

The guard stands up and draws his phaser, “Who are you?”

“We are the guys that are executing the prisoner. Check your list, and you’ll find we’re telling the truth," says Brast pointing to the list on the guards desk. “We want one last shot at interrogating him before we kill him.”

“I guess it would be ok. You can go in.” The guard aims the phaser at Dean while he lets down the forcefield.

Brast and Johnson enter the cell. Brast approaches him, “Hello Admiral, don’t say anything, just listen.” He backs off and begins to shout like he would in an interrogation. “We know all about you Dean. We were from the Victorious. We know they are coming, but they will never make it. You have one last chance to talk before your execution.

“I guess he’s not gonna talk," says Johnson, signaling for the guard to drop the forcefield. When he does, Johnson shoots him, and the guard falls behind the desk. Johnson walks over and grabs some restraints. “We’re gonna have to put these on you Admiral, that way it will look more legit.” He places the restraints on the Admiral and they start back to the Archangel.

When they step off the turbolift a guard stops them. “Where are you going with the prisoner.”

Brast steps forward. “We’re taking him to sickbay. We don’t want the old fool to have a heart attack before we can kill him.”

“Ok,” says the guard, and he walks on. “Wait a minute. Sickbay isn’t on this level.” He hits the alarm and runs back after them.

“Dang, they’ve figured it out," says Johnson as he hands Dean the phaser rifle. Johnson then pulls out the mini-phaser. “We’ll have to blast our way out.”

They peek around the corner of the corridor with the shuttlebay only to find it blocked. They begin to fire around the corner at the guards. The guards are slowly taken out, and the rescue team runs down the corridor to the shuttlebay. They open the door and are shot at by more guards.

Brast goes to the shuttlebay panel, “These morons made it too easy.” First he seals the door and engages the docking clamps on the Archangel. He then opens the shuttlebay door and removes the forcefield. All of the guards are swept out into space. Brast then engages the forcefield and repressurizes the shuttlebay. He releases the docking clamps. They jump in the Archangel.

Johnson proclaims, “We only have 1 minute until the attack begins.” He drops the forcefield, and takes the Archangel out of the shuttlebay.

The 4 Federation ships arrive at the spacestation location. Cooke stares at the view-screen, “Where is it?” Just then the Archangel flies out from behind the cloaking field. “There they are. Open fire on the Monarch.”

The 4 ships open fire. The Petrone and Monarch drop their cloaks and engage the ships in battle. The Archangel then turns and makes a firing run on the Petrone. The run does considerable damage to the Petrone, knock out their weapons and dropping their shields to 36%. The Petrone changes course and takes off at warp 8.

All 5 vessels then proceed to fire on the spacestation. The heavily armed spacestation manages to disable the Cardinal. But the ships are just too much. They knock out Monarch’s shields. The Victorious fires a spread of quantum torpedoes, which demolish the Monarch spacestation.

With the spacestation destroyed the ships make their way back to Starbase 7.

All crewmembers of the 4 ships and Starbase 7 are standing in the main ballroom of the star base. Fleet Admiral Dean stands at the podium on the stage. Admiral T’Sela is sitting to his right, Brast and Johnson are sitting to his left. Dean begins to speak. “We are gathered here to honor the bravery of two fine officers, Ensign Xend Brast and Lieutenant Junior Grade Gordon Johnson. These two officers went beyond the call of duty to save my life. I commend these officers for a job well done, and I award to them the highest award Starfleet has for bravery.” Brast and Johnson stand up. Fleet Admiral Dean places the medal on Brast’s uniform and shakes his hand. He then does the same for Johnson.

And the crowd rejoices.