Stardate 52054.0

     Mull froze in fear momentarily.  He shook it off and picked up a heavy
compression phaser rifle Beeg had stashed.  He fired two quick bursts over 
Enoz's head, where he saw the interdimensional glow of a Wiansani.  The bolts 
went right through it.
     "Retune your weapons to the deflector dish frequencies we and Antal have 
used to get rid of these things!", Enoz yelled, lowering her head to retune her
phaser.  Mason and Mull lowered their phasers to do the same, but Mason 
stopped.  Enoz and Mull knew the frequencies, but he didn't.  The helmsman on 
duty, Ensign Candler looked confused and helpless.
     Wallin grabbed the phaser from Mason's hand and began tuning it.  Mason 
heard a whine behind him and turned to see a Wiansani headed straight for Enoz,
who was still tuning her weapon.  "Enoz!", he yelled, shoving her out of the 
way.  Unfortunately, it whipped him in the forehead, knocking him out.  The 
Wiansani spun around to attack the defenseless Mason, but Enoz leapt up and 
pulverized it.
    Getting back to back with Wallin, she and the doctor were able to lay down
the whole bridge with cover fire.  She tapped her commbadge, but it didn't 
respond.
     "Valen!  Use your rifle to get your console online!  Tell all decks the 
frequencies or they're dead!", she yelled.
     Mull pulled the weapon open to get the power pack and a moment later had 
the console running.  He quickly opened the ship wide intercom.

     In his quarters, Beeg heard the orders, but it wouldn't do him much good.
The dampening field had deactivated his prosthetic arms and one leg.  Lying on
the floor, seemingly helpless, he almost thought he could hear the Wiansani 
above him laughing.  As it swooped down, he kicked it in the rear with his one
good leg and sent it flying to a bat'leth hanging on his wall.  The Wiansani 
was split in half and exploded from the inside in a small fireball.

     Back on the bridge, Mull did what scanning he could.  "Commander Enoz, the
dampening fields aren't affecting all systems!  Life support is almost fully 
operational!"
     "Care to elaborate on that Doctor Wallin?", Enoz asked.
     "Dead humanoids aren't sufficient nutrition for the Wiansani.  They need
us alive."
     "If we have life support, why cut out the lights?"
     "Fear from you, and it makes it more fun for them."
     "A happy slave is a good slave, right Doctor?", muttered Mull.
     Enoz found it strange that Wallin knew so much about the situation.  Maybe
he knew Antal was going to do this after all, or maybe the Goulavar have fed 
the Wiansani this way before.  Either way, she didn't give Wallin time to 
respond, "Valen, are all decks clear yet?"
     "No, ma'am.  A maintenance crew had to take cover inside a shuttle in bay
two.  They don't have phasers.  There's also several hundred more Wiansani 
outside."
     The intercom chirped, "Beeg to Bridge, I've just discovered that the 
Wiansani are spontaneously combustible when their internal organs are exposed 
to atmospheric gases."
     Enoz didn't even want to know how he had discovered that, "Mull, can you 
divert power from life support and beam out the Wiansani?"
     "No, ma'am.. but I can beam something in."
     "Transport the oxygen cartridges from some environmental suits, 
materialize them in the Wiansani."
     Mull frowned, but tapped a few buttons and energized the transport.  Enoz
felt a dull thud on the deck below her.
     "I underestimated the explosion, Commander.  The maintenance crew is okay
in the shuttle, but it blew the doors off of the bay."
     "As long as it took out the Wiansani, that's just fine," Enoz said.  Only
then did it occur to her that she hadn't needed to order him to damage the 
ship.  "Reroute life support to the primary deflector dish and blast the 
Wiansani out of here like we did the first time."  She shook her head, weary.
She should have remembered that already.  "You've been up too many hours, 
Enoz," she muttered to herself.  
     Mull initiated the burst, but the dampening fields compensated, focusing 
on the dish.  Unable to emit, the dish partially overloaded.  Enoz 
instinctively reached for her phaser, but the lights came back up.  Mull 
blinked, "Commander, the Wiansani are all gone, I don't understand how, but 
all systems except the deflector just came back up."
    Wallin looked up, "The processors in those dampening generators only have
preprogrammed responses.  They can't handle situations they've never 
encountered before.  I've never heard of anyone using their deflector dish for
non-navigational purposes before."
     "The Goulavar obviously don't get out much," muttered Mull.  Then, more
loudly, "Request permission to vaporize the dampening generators before they.."
     "Granted!", laughed Enoz.  Mull ran to the tactical station and began
firing low powered shots as Enoz contacted Syxx, "How are we?"
     "The primary dish is off-line, so is the EMH.  I can have one up in less 
than a half an hour, but not both."
     Enoz checked her console, thinking.  Ming and Reman had been beamed off 
of the ship.  They could go to warp with the saucer section's dish, but at no 
more than warp four without relying on the shields to protect them from 
interstellar debris, and even that would only protect them for a few minutes 
at high warp.  Besides, Wallin seemed capable and willing to serve as their 
CMO temporarily.  "I want the dish, Syxx.  Doctor Wallin, please take Mason to
Sickbay and tend to the rest of the injured."
     The doctor hoisted the Captain up and left immediately.  
     "Mr. Mull, I'm reading Antal's ship just sitting out there."
     "Waiting for new happy slaves, I bet."
     "They seem to be oblivious to our improved circumstances for the moment, 
but we need to get out here fast so we can rescue Ming and Reman.  Phasers 
would take to long, we're too close for torpedos," she thought hard for a 
minute, then remembered the Wiansani splattered all over the shuttlebay, 
"Valen, how fast can you drill holes halfway through the doors on tight beam 
phaser?  Say, ten holes?"
     The Bajoran tapped some quick calculations, "Only about a minute, but 
they'll only be a few meters wide apiece.  Why?"
     "Do it!  When you're done, we'll beam tricobalt devices right into the 
middle of it and blow it from the inside, and invert a tractor beam so we can 
keep debris from hitting us."
     Valen grinned and started firing.  His grin faded when Elea strolled onto
the bridge with half of her head missing.  He let a stray shot vaporize some 
cargo containers on the floor of the station dock, but Enoz didn't notice.  
Elea took a seat at the helm, and Chandler went to a science console.  
     Mull froze, unable to take his eyes of the circuitry in the side of her 
head.
     "Are you staring at my subcranial processor?", asked Elea.
     "No, not at all!", stammered Mull, "It's... it's ah.. hardly noticeable."
     Elea turned back around, seriously confused as to why Chandler was 
giggling to heavily.
     "Problem, Ensign?", barked Mull. 
     "No, sir," Chandler replied, "Actually, I was just wondering if Captain 
Kirk and the original Enterprise had moments like this when they were waiting."
     "Mr. Chandler, I actually got to see Captain Kirk once," Enoz sighed, 
"There was a brief time in my childhood that the Troubles subsided, and the 
Enterprise visited as part of a Federation diplomatic effort to befriend us 
before we got violent again.  As part of a cross-cultural exchange, Kirk 
performed in a musical before an audience that I was in as a student."
     "And?", asked an intrigued Chandler.
     "His singing could make a Vulcan cry, but his poetry... his poetry 
recitals were among the best in my world's history."
     "Drilling complete, I'm transporting tricobalt devices now," Mull 
reported.
     "Put them in the right places, Mull."
     Mull pressed one meager button and the doors poofed slightly in a flash, 
then were pushed away in crumbles by the repulse beam.  Elea guided the Equinox
out slowly.  Antal's ship floated nearby.
     "Hail them!", ordered Enoz.  Antal's face appeared on the viewscreen, his
jaw hanging low in shock.  Ming was all over Reman in the background, trying to
rip his ears off as he howled in delight.
     "Why am I talking with you?  How are you still alive?", Antal babbled.
     "How old are you, Antal?", Enoz demanded. 
     "I'm 32."
     "A third my age, no wonder you're acting like a little baby.  Transport 
Commander Ming and Reman back here now!"
     "Or what, you'll spank me like you do your other grandchildren?", Antal
retorted.
     "No, I'll just blow up your ship," lied Enoz, "We have sufficient 
firepower."  The Oblokoni really hoped Antal hadn't learned enough about 
Starfleet to know she was bluffing, and very badly.
     "Wouldn't it be more civilized to trade?", Antal suggested.  Enoz nodded,
hoping for something better than violence.  "This Ferengi seems to have taken 
control of Becky through the use of an Oblokoni herb.  Whatever an Oblokoni
is."
     Enoz burned in rage, suddenly realizing who had taken Zenoz's snuff, 
"Reman, when I get you back here I'm going to lock you in a dark cold room with
Beeg and hope he rips your ears off."
     "Oh Frinx, that Pinx!", howled Reman.  "Get me out of here!"  Commander 
Ming giggled and grabbed his ears in a different place.  "Actually, give me a 
few minutes first."
     "Commander," Antal continued, "That substance would help us tame the 
Wiansani even more.  I'll exchange these two for all of it that you have, plus
transmission of all computer files related to it.  Agreed?"
     "Fine," lied Enoz again.  Mull locked on to Ming and Reman with the
transporter, and to Antal's engines with a torpedo.
     When both ships dropped shields, Antal fired an energy bolt, blinding the
Equinox but not damaging it.  When the display cleared, Antal had gone to warp
three.
     "Shields back up!  Pursuit course, engage now!", Enoz ordered.  Elea sent
the Equinox directly to warp four.  Antal had obviously been banking on the 
Equinox not going to warp at all without the primary dish, but the Goulavar 
ship sped up to warp seven.  "Syxx, where's my dish?"
     "Five minutes."
     Without full deflector power, shields could only protect a starship at 
warp for about three minutes.  Enoz hesitated in indecision, "Bridge to 
Sickbay, is Captain Mason conscious yet?"
     "Negative," replied Wallin, "He's suffered a concussion, it's too minor 
for me to concentrate on with more severe injuries present."
     The Oblokoni bit her lip, "Mull, reroute all shield power to the forward
generators.  Elea, warp eight.  We'll take them with a tractor beam."
     The Equinox began to rock violently as the unprotected lower decks shook
from the shields getting plastered with interstellar material faster than 
light.  Valen had the tractor ready, but Antal's ship went to warp nine.
     "Nine point eight, Elea!", Enoz ordered.
     "At this speed, we've got thirty seconds!", Mull reported.
     The Goulavar vessel went to nine point nine, towards a nebula.  Elea 
matched at nine point nine two, "10,000 kilometers from tractor range.  Twenty
seconds."
     Antal's ship disappeared.  Enoz perked up, "Realign sensors for the 
frequencies Wallin gave us, it's probably Wiansani based invisibility 
technology."
     "Adapting sensors," said Mull, "Ten seconds."
     Enoz was gritting her teeth, thinking she was about to be forced to call 
off the pursuit, but the intercom sounded, "Engineering to Bridge, full 
deflector power online."
     Though relieved, Mull cursed, "I got a quick glimpse, but they went into
the nebula."
     "Do we follow?", asked Elea.
     "Into another ambush?  Uh-uh," said Enoz.  "Circumnavigate the nebula at
impulse.  Deploy sensor buoys around the perimeter.  Visible or not, he won't 
leave without us on his tail."