Stardate 52054.0

     Beeg sat in his quarters, scanning his prosthetics with a tricorder, 
making sure they were undamaged from the last attack.  The intercom chirped,
"Enoz to Beeg."
     "Beeg here."
     "Come to the bridge.  With Ming and Mason out of commission, I need some
experienced help here."
     "On my way, sir."  Beeg ran to the turbolift and commanded it to the 
bridge.  While on his way, he thought about what had been occurring without 
him while he was confined to quarters.  The last few days had been extremely 
bothersome.

                          ***************************

Stardate 52054.2

     Over the next hour and a half, most repairs were underway and injuries 
treated.  The notable exception was Captain Mason, who had slipped further into
a comatose state.  Enoz had ordered all crewmen to arm themselves in case of 
yet another boarding attempt.  Beeg did what he could to make sure his security
teams were ready, but he felt they had decreased in efficiency in his absence.
     While running the patrol of the nebula, several of the beacons went off.
     "Enoz, there are two ships exiting the nebula," Beeg reported, "One is 
Antal's, the other is of unknown design.  It does not show up in the database.
What should we do?"
     "Hail them, on screen."
     Beeg paused as he transmitted the hailing signal, "No reply, I'm scanning
for weapons and life forms.  There are only two life forms, one Ferengi, the 
other unknown.  I'm not reading any Goulavar or Wiansani, but there is a lot of
interference from the nebula.  It may be shielding us, they don't act like 
they've seen us."
     "That gives us an element of surprise," Enoz said, "Can we warp right up 
to them and beam our people out?"
     "No, ma'am.  Their shields are up.  However, I may have something in my
collection that might be of use, something that would make their shields 
useless."
     "Go get it."
     Beeg nodded and exited for Cargo Bay 4.  While on the way there, he 
started to think about how good it was to be back on duty and helping the crew
he thought so highly of.
     Ensign Davis, one of the ship's security officers, was at the door to 
Cargo Bay 4, "Sir, what's going on?"
     "I need to find a specific device in my collection, quickly."
     "I can help you look for it, sir."
     "Very well."  They both entered the cargo bay.  Beeg described the device 
as they began searching, "It's a Cardassian contraption.  It modulates a phaser
beam across almost every known frequency in just a few seconds.  That way, it 
essentially scans a shield for its frequency before firing, making shields 
irrelevant."
     "Irrelevant?  You make it sound like something the Borg would use," 
muttered Davis, "How big is it?" 
     "It's a small device, an addition to a phaser rifle.  The Cardassians 
field tested it on Bajor in the latter years of the Occupation.  There were 
plans for a larger version for their warships, but they couldn't overcome 
certain problems."
     "Like what?", said Davis.  The ensign had stopped looking for the device, now,
engrossed in fascination with the conversation.
     "Well, after Wolf 359, most Alpha Quadrant fleets redesigned their shields
to rotate frequencies at random intervals.  Some Cardassian ships were designed
to rotate shields every ten seconds.  This device only gets through shields 
that remain a constant frequency, so unless you hit the shield generator itself
on the second shot and prevent the other ship from rotating, it's useless."
     "So the Cardassians didn't bother making a version to fit a starship 
with?"
     "No, there was no one to use it against, and Cardassians aren't stupid, 
just evil.  Ah, here it is," Beeg picked up his toy from a storage bin, "Beeg 
to Enoz, I found the device.  I'm going to Engineering to see if we can adapt 
this to the ship's phasers."
     When he arrived in Engineering, he found Syxx and showed him the device, 
describing it to him for a few moments.
     The Bolian scratched his head, thinking, "Something like that would 
require a hookup between the phasers and the deflector dish.  If the Goulavar
don't rotate their shields often, it could work.  Work with Zenoz."
     Twenty minutes later, Zenoz had programmed the deflector dish to scan 
shield frequencies in the same way as the device Beeg had brought him.  It 
didn't work quite as quickly, but he thought it would still be effective.  Beeg
had programmed the phasers to modulate across the whole available spectrum in 
one long shot.  The phasers would then automatically retune at a deflector dish
commanded frequency for the second shot.  Beeg turned to Zenoz, "I'm returning
to the bridge.  See if you can create an interface with the transporters as 
well."
     On his way back up to the top of the ship, the Pinx contacted his security
officers, ensuring they were properly deployed and patrolling the ship.  Every
heavy compression phaser rifle they had was in someone's hands, and he even 
ordered many of his guards to carry hyposprays with pure oxygen in them in case
in came to hand to hand combat with the Wiansani.
     Once back on the bridge, he reported his and Zenoz's progress to Enoz,
"With one shot, we can get Antal's shield frequency and then beam the hostages
out, ma'am.  With a second shot, we can disable his shield generator."
     "Wouldn't a second shot be unneeded with the hostages back?", asked Elea
from the helm.
     "No," said Enoz, "To beam them in, our shields will have to be down
momentarily and there is that second ship.  If we disable Antal that would only
leave one ship to worry about if we're forced to stand and fight.  Have you 
been able to cut through the interference, Mull?"
     "A little.  Our hostages are still with Antal, but I'm reading over 150 
life signs on the other ship, armed with disruptors and some type of bladed 
weapons as well."
     "Wiansani?"
     "I can't tell."
     "We need to get our shields back up before they have a chance to beam 
over.  Elea, on my mark, you'll pull us up behind Antal.  Put him between us 
and the second vessel.  Beeg, are your teams deployed?"
     "Yes ma'am."
     "Very well.  Bridge to all hands, battlestations!  We may be boarded but 
I doubt they know we're prepared.  Elea, engage!"
     The helmsman kicked the Equinox to high warp for a mere second, bringing 
her right under Antal's ship.  Beeg fired the first shot with one hand while 
targeting the shield generators with his other hand.  As he blew Antal's 
shields out, Mull locked onto Ming and Reman and attempted to energize.
     "Did you get them?!", asked Enoz.
     "I don't know, there's over a hundred life forms materializing aboard!"