Stardate 52038.0 Captain Mason was pacing back and forth on the bridge. Ship's repairs had been going smoothly, but the fact that he was unable to get any word from the away team had worried him. Sensors had been restored to enough of a level that the ship was able to read several groups of warring natives. The away team's last known location put them in a situation where they were they could easily be caught in the middle of one of the periodic battles the natives seemed to have. The only way the away team could avoid getting caught in the crossfire was just to avoid any of the natives altogether, and to do that they'd need their tricorders. The problem was that several veins of some kind of ore on the planet were emitting a specific kind of radiation that left scanning and communications equipment useless, and making for huge gaps in the surface area that could be scanned by ship's sensors. Elea had pointed out that there was no way this type of ore could emit this radiation naturally, that it's been exposed to some type of artificial power source, probably over a long period of time. They didn't have enough information to know any more than that. The Captain had ordered Syxx and Enoz to get the information regarding the dampening fields to Ming, and he could only hope they had reached her, but for every minute that he didn't hear from the away team he got increasingly nervous. At this point he really just wanted to get his away team off of the planet and out of harm's way, but he knew that both Chaz and Reman had to be found because either would undoubtedly cause cultural contamination, if they hadn't already. He looked at the ship on the viewscreen. A lot of his answers were probably over there, but the ship had it's shields up and he couldn't beam over there. The ship's design was completely alien. It looked like a flattened out sphere with elongated, curved protrusions on each side that he could only guess were some kind of warp nacelles, even though the design was something any Warp Field Theory instructor at the Academy would agree was incapable of channeling warp energy. The whole ship had a grayish-green tint to it, looking more green toward the center and more gray toward the edges. The only exception were strange looking hatches spaced evenly around the edge of the ship which glowed a haunting shade of blue. He still wondered how his son ended up on that ship after beaming down to the planet, and why he had yet to contact them again. The ship just kept repelling any attempts to initiate transports or lock on with a tractor beam, and Chaz hadn't been answering any hails. One thing that was clear to the Captain was that this was either an impostor of Chaz, or the real Chaz but he's under some kind of alien influence. Even a rebellious teen doesn't go to these kinds of extremes. Mason decided it was time to break the current silence on the bridge, "Mr. Mull, has the away team moved into any scannable area yet?" Mull glanced at Elea briefly, but otherwise kept watching the sensor display in front of him, "No, sir." The Captain kept pacing, "Keep watching the sensors, Commander. I want to know as soon as we can communicate with.." He was interrupted by a hail from the alien ship. Chaz Mason once again appeared on the viewscreen. Before Frank Mason could say anything, Chaz said, "Hey, pops. Time to die!", and abruptly cut off the communication. The Captain immediately gave the order to try to hail him again, but once again he didn't respond. Mull said, "Sir, he's charging weapons!" Mason didn't hesitate, "Red alert! Shields up! Mr. Mull, man tactical." Mull jumped up from the Ops station and ran to the tactical panel, which was unmanned while Beeg was on the planet's surface. He nearly fell on the way there as the ship was jolted by a blast from the alien ship. "Fire phasers, target his weapon systems. Evasive maneuvers pattern Lambda." The Equinox fired several quick phaser bursts just as it veered toward the upper port side of the attacking ship. The alien's response was quick, delivering a powerful energy burst toward the Equinox. The ship shook violently, knocking Mull to the ground. Mason was able to hold on to his seat to keep from being jolted across the bridge, but Elea kept her balance, continuing to work. Mull jumped up as one of the science stations exploded behind him, "Damage to, um, Decks 6 through 9. Emergency forcefields holding." The alien ship spun around and fired again. Mull's display lit up with more damage reports, "Sir, direct hit to the drive section! He almost took out the main deflector!" Mason yelled over the alarms that were going off on the bridge, "Lieutenant, back us off! Commander, divert emergency power to the aft shields and launch a spread of torpedoes for cover fire!" The alien ship fired again, narrowly missing the Equinox's port nacelle. The Equinox swung around, torpedoes firing. The torpedoes did little damage to the alien ship, but helped the Equinox to gain some distance. The Captain got up from his chair, "Report." Elea said, "Sir, the alien ship is pursuing, but..." Mason looked at her, "But what, Lieutenant?" Elea looked puzzled, "It's pursuing at an extremely slow speed. There's no damage to its engines, though." Mason shared her look of bewilderment. Mull just stood and waited to see what they were getting at. Mason said, "Increase speed, let him know he won't catch up if he doesn't increase his." Elea shook her head, "He's increased speed and is closing, but I noticed a drop in his shield strength just as he did. I noticed his weapon strength fluctuating earlier as well," She quickly examined the sensor data, "Sir, at no time during the battle has the total power output of his ship exceeded 4,000 gigawatts, even though his ship is capable of many times more than that." The Captain began to see his opportunity, "So for some reason he either won't or can't let his total power output exceed that, and has to adjust power between his systems to keep it under that total." The cyberdroid nodded in agreement, "It would seem so, sir." Mason talked quickly, the alien ship was still approaching, "Lieutenant, knowing that his power output must stay at that level, calculate the optimal course, weapon strength, and shield strength to maximize damage to his ship and minimize damage to ours." "Aye, sir," Elea appeared to be working, but she had already done the calculations before the Captain even gave the order, "Tactical, adjust shield strength to 18%, divert all leftover shield energy to weapons and prepare to fire at the time intervals I'm sending to you now." Mull looked at the Captain protestingly, "Sir, shields at 18% will leave us extremely.." "Now, Mr. Mull," the Captain said sharply. Mull looked down at his panel, "Aye, sir." Mason sat back down in his command chair. The thought occurred to him that even though Elea was a cyberdroid, she was a junior officer without any real combat experience. However, No other alternatives came to mind, so he put his trust in her, "Lieutenant, Engage." The Equinox continued to move away. As soon as the alien ship reached one quarter impulse, the Equinox swung around and flew toward it, firing phasers. The alien ship returned fire. The Equinox was jolted again, a power conduit near the back of the bridge ruptured, resulting in a shower of sparks. Mull and Mason both had to duck to keep from being singed. Mull looked at Mason one more time, "Captain? Are you sure.." Mason looked at him and yelled, "Follow the instructions you've been given, Mr. Mull!" The Equinox turned sharply to starboard, continuing to fire phasers. The alien ship turned its forward momentum to the side in chase. The Equinox changed its course abruptly again, and fired three photon torpedoes. The alien ship adjusted its course, both to give chase and to quickly avoid the torpedoes. Elea said, "Now, divert all power from the shields to weapons." Mason looked sternly at Mull before he had time to protest. Mason knew just as well at the Bajoran that having no shields would leave them defenseless, but this was their best chance against the alien ship. To Mason's relief, Mull didn't say anything this time, just carried out the order. The Captain turned to the viewscreen. The alien ship was coming up quick. The Equinox was releasing a full spread of phasers and photons. He knew that the alien was coming in close to fire, his battle instincts told him that much. He just hoped the culmination of years of Federation cybernetics research that was sitting at the conn wasn't about to get him killed. The alien ship opened its weapons hatch and fired an energy beam directly at the Equinox bridge. The Captain recognized this feeling. He had felt it the last time he fought the Jem'Hadar. An energy weapon only takes a split second to reach you, but when you know it could very well be your last moment, that split second can seem like an eternity. An eternity later, the beam hit the Equinox bridge. Mason felt the jolt as it hit. He breathed a sigh of relief. He knew if he could feel the jolt, he wasn't dead. Even with the shields down, the alien had been forced to divert so much of his energy to propulsion and shields that the beam did only minor damage, then simply dissipated. The Equinox kept firing. Mull smiled as he looked at his tactical readout, "The alien ship is taking heavy damage. He's retreating," Mull looked over at the redheaded Cyberdroid. The Captain walked up to the conn and put his hand on Elea's shoulder, "Good work, Lieutenant." Elea looked up at him and smiled, "Thank you, sir," She seemed to be even more surprised at how well she performed than either Mason or Mull was. Mason nodded to Mull, "Take Ops, Commander. Stand down red alert, arrange for repair teams to get to work on the damaged areas of the ship, and continue scans of the surface. Lieutenant Elea, I want you to work with science team alpha. Go over all the data we've gathered on that ship and on this planet. Find out why Chaz or whoever that was didn't want his power output going over 4,000 gigawatts. I have a feeling we didn't run him off for good, and I want a better understanding of the situation when he returns." Mull returned to his station, and Elea got up, seeming a little more shaken by the battle than she was when it was actually happening, "Aye, sir. Right away." The image on the viewscreen was once again the greenish planet below them. Mason wondered if the away team had encountered as much trouble as he just did, "Ming, I hope you're still alive down there."