Stardate 52039.6

	The bridge crew looked at the alien ship on the viewscreen.  The changeling had
been hiding it on the other side of the planet, over an area that the Equinox's sensors
couldn't reach.  But with the changeling dead, the ship had begun drifting, and was found
by the Equinox.  The Captain stared at the greyish-green ship.  Elea had pointed out that 
it wasn't of Dominion design, but one look at it was all he needed to know that. 
The Dominion didn't have anything even remotely resembling this huge, smooth,
flattened-out sphere that somehow propelled it's way through space.  "At least it's not
firing at us this time," he thought to himself.
	"The datalink is managing to retrieve a few of the changeling's files," Lt.
Commander Mull said from the Ops station.
	Commander Ming turned to the small panel beside her chair and read the data
being fed to it, "According to these files, this ship was found in the Gamma Quadrant. 
The Dominion didn't know who it belonged to, just that it was extremely powerful.  They
were going to use it against the Federation, but it was stolen by a renegade changeling. 
There's an entry by him here saying that only he knew how to use the ship properly and
that anyone else would have ended up being destroyed if they had tried to."
	Beeg nodded thoughtfully, "For a dead Founder, he's very arrogant."
	Ming smiled at Beeg's comment and continued, "There are also records here of
genetic experiments performed by whatever race built that ship.  The people on the planet
down there were part of the experiments.  The changeling was convinced that they had a
genetic code that made them perfect for enhancement into super soldiers that he was
going to use for . . ."
	"Go on . ." said the Captain.
	Ming shrugged, "That's as much as it has.  There’s nothing here on what the alien
was going to do with his 'super soldiers'."
	The Captain nodded, "Well, it's not going to happen now."
	Elea's console beeped, "The runabout is returning, sir."
	Mason walked to the turbolift, "You have the bridge, Commander Ming."

	The runabout docked in shuttle bay 1.  Even though shuttlebay 1 is the largest
shuttlebay on the ship, the runabout barely fit inside.  The Captain was standing there
waiting when the runabout door opened.  Lenoz and Zenoz came running out first.  Lenoz
saw the Captain, "Sir, permission to go to sickbay.  We beamed Enoz directly there. 
She's in bad shape."
	The Captain saw the look of concern on Lenoz's and Zenoz's faces, "Granted."
	Both of them ran out of the shuttlebay.  Reman and Syxx came out of the
runabout next.  The Captain looked sternly at Reman, "Mr. Reman.  I hope you're
prepared to explain why you stole a Federation shuttlecraft."
	Reman was ready for this, "Well, you see Captain.  I didn’t steal the shuttlecraft. 
There's actually a very funny story behind the whole thing.  It started when . . "
	The Captain interrupted, "Fine, you’re to report to security and tell them your
funny story."
	Reman smiled, "No problem.  I’ll be happy to speak with Lieutenant Carter about .
. ."
	"Carter’s dead, Mr. Beeg is security chief."
	Syxx frowned, Carter was his friend and he didn't like the Captain talking about
his death so dryly.  Reman frowned, too.  Just when he had found a ship with a security
chief that was easy to fool. . .
	"Is there a problem, Mr. Reman."
	Reman shook his head, "No problem at all, Captain."  The Ferengi almost sprinted
out of the shuttlebay.
	Syxx wondered why Reman was in such a hurry, but had other things on his mind. 
He turned toward the Captain, "Sir, Enoz was injured badly."
	Mason shook his head, "I know, Commander, you can go to sickbay for a while 
before returning to your duties.  Just have a report on what happened down on the planet 
ready by tomorrow."
	Syxx looked a little uncomfortable, "Um . . yes, sir."
	The Captain left the shuttlebay and returned to the bridge.

	Beeg walked into the brig.  From behind one of the containment fields, Kyra
Draven immediately said, "Thank you."
	The Pinx breathed in heavily.  He didn't like Betazoids, the idea of someone
reading his thoughts was a little disturbing to him, though often he thought it was probably
a little more disturbing to the person seeing what he was thinking.  This time, Kyra Draven
had reason to thank him.  Beeg walked over to the console where Lieutenant Heaton was
standing, "Release Lieutenant Draven.  She's been cleared of all charges."
	From the adjacent containment cell, Jack Hindman was watching what was going
on and said, "What about me?  There is a creature on board.  It's a danger to the ship, you
can't find it without me!"
	Beeg shook his head, "You will stay there."  Kyra Draven was leaving the brig. 
He started to tell her she should return to her quarters, but decided she probably already
read his mind anyway so instead he turned to Lieutenant Heaton, "Has Reman reported
here yet?"
	Heaton shook his head, "No, sir."
	Beeg frowned, Reman was supposed to have reported to the security office by
now.

	Reman was in his barber shop, working furiously at his computer console.  That
program that he got from Dand that let him hack into several ship's systems without being
detected was working perfectly, but he knew that if the activated a transporter beam to
beam his latinum to the ship the Equinox sensors might detect it.  He wasn't worried when
he thought Carter was still security chief, but he didn't even know this Mr. Beeg and
wasn't sure if he'd be able to get away with his original plan.  He needed to do something
different, and he had to do it before the ship left orbit.
	As he was checking through the ship's systems, he noticed that the Equinox was
still scanning some alien ship in front of them.  If he beamed the latinum from the planet to
the alien ship it would be very hard for security to detect.  Then he could piggyback the
transporter beam on top of the Equinox's scans to get it from the alien ship to the
Equinox.  Even this plan was pretty risky, and he wasn’t sure whether he should go ahead with
it.  There was a chance he’d get caught depending on how good a security chief Mr. Beeg
was, but he remembered Rule of Acquisition number 263, 'Never allow doubt to tarnish
your lust for latinum.'
	He activated a transport from the latinum mines to the alien ship.  He input the
coordinates to beam it to the Equinox, but before he could initiate the transport the ship
was jolted and Reman was thrown across the room.

	"Shields down to 70%!" Ming yelled over the sound of bridge consoles exploding.
	Elea then said, "Sir, the Jem'Hadar ship is moving away."
	The Captain looked at the viewscreen.  The Jem'Hadar had only fired a couple of
shots at them, and were now going for the alien ship.  He stood up, "Open a channel."
	Mason narrowed his eyes when the image of a Jem'Hadar soldier appeared on the
viewscreen.  Mason said, "This is Captain Frank Mason of the Federation starship
Equinox, break off your attack or we will be forced to . ."
	The Jem'Hadar soldier interrupted, "We have orders to retrieve this ship for the
Dominion.  Do not interfere or we will destroy your ship."
	The Captain said, "We don't recognize the Dominion’s claim to that ship.  I repeat,
stand down or . ."
	The Jem'Hadar cut the communication.  The Ops console beeped and Mull said,
"Captain, the Jem'Hadar are boarding the alien ship.  They're powering it up."
	On the viewscreen, the ship began lighting up in a display that would have seemed
beautiful if it didn't also mean that the Equinox would soon be destroyed.
	Mull looked both shocked and amazed, "The power readings are off the scale."
	Elea was the only one paying more attention to her console than the ship on the
screen, "Captain, the Jem'Hadar aren't restricting the ship's power levels like the
changeling did.  They are powering everything to full: propulsion, shields, weapons.  I’m
detecting massive amounts of subspace interference."
	The Captain saw the weapons hatches on all sides of the ship opening up.  The
blue glow they were emitting was getting brighter and brighter, "Shields at maximum. 
Lieutenant, break orbit and get us away from here as fast as you can."
	Elea looked up at him, "With all the subspace interference, full impulse is the
fastest speed we can achieve."
	The Captain just nodded, "Do it!"
	It didn’t take a Betazoid to feel the tension on the bridge right then, everyone but
Elea sat, staring at the alien ship.  The Equinox was moving away, but they all knew it
wasn't fast enough to get away from this thing.
	Without warning the space around the alien ship began to turn red.  The Captain
had no idea what was causing it, but he could only guess that it was some alien weapon
that was about to blow the Equinox to pieces.
	Commander Ming wasn't so sure, she stood up, "Elea, what's causing that?"
	Elea examined the sensor data coming in, "It looks like rifts opening in subspace."
	Mull jumped in his seat, "Something’s coming through!"
	Seemingly out of nowhere, two ships looking almost identical to the alien ship
appeared, both with weapons firing.  They pounded the alien ship with a volley of shots
then disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.  The alien ship exploded.  The
Jem'Hadar ship was caught in the blast and blew up as well.  The Equinox was knocked
back, throwing everybody on the bridge to the floor.
	The Captain got up, holding his head, and looked at the viewscreen.  There was
nothing left of either the alien ship or the Jem'Hadar ship, and the space had returned to
it's normal color.  He looked around the bridge, everyone was stunned by what had just
happened.  Commander Ming broke the silence, "Is everyone all right?"
	Everyone just nodded wearily.  The Captain turned to Ming, not sure what to
make of what happened, "I'll be in my ready room, you have the bridge."

	Reman stared in disbelief at his console.  The alien ship had suddenly vanished
from sensors.  "My . . my latinum's gone!"
	He shook his arms in frustration then looked up in the air and yelled,
"Goooooooooooone!"
	The Ferengi slumped his head and shoulders as he remembered Rule of Acquisition
number 18, 'A Ferengi without profit is no Ferengi at all.'  Suddenly, he heard something
hit the floor, the latinum glasses he got from the villagers.  He forgot he had put them in
his pocket.  He picked up the glasses and looked at them.  Sure, glasses were an
antiquated tool that nobody had need for anymore, but they were made of solid latinum,
and that made them valuable.  "Maybe things aren't so bad," he thought to himself, "I've
got these, and I'm still on a ship full of gullible hew-mons and other goody-goody
Federation types that I can swindle.  I'm not going to rest until I've finally acquired my
fortune, and got the one thing in this galaxy I want more than anything else . . ."