Stardate 52062.7 "Davis, take position with Haiden and Anaita. Roberts, you'll join Calea and White at the access point on deck 14." "Yes, sir," came the reply from Davis and Roberts as Beeg gave them their instructions. The Pinx then patrolled the corridor on deck 15. Security officers armed with phaser rifles were positioned where he had ordered. He wanted to make sure his team was ready if the prisoners now sealed up in holodecks one and two managed to get out. As Beeg neared the end of the corridor, the turbolift door opened and Captain Mason stepped out. He walked decisively over to Beeg and said, "Status." Beeg replied, "The Goulavar and Jem'Hadar prisoners are awake. The Goulavar aren't giving my men much trouble, but the Jem'Hadar began to fight almost immediately. We were able to keep them contained long enough to erect a forcefield around holodeck two, and we have them trapped for now." "Very good," Mason said, "You have security officers ready in case they get past the forcefield?" "Of course. They're posted around the holodeck on this deck and at all possible access points on the decks above and below. Sir, may I ask when the Romulans will be arriving?" "At this speed we'll meet up with the Romulan ship in an hour. They've agreed to hold our prisoners, Romulan Warbirds are better equipped to deal with them than we are. They're also going to escort us back to Federation space. The sooner we can get to a Starbase and away from Goulavar space, the better." "I'll keep the prisoners contained until they arrive," Beeg said. Mason said, "Keep me posted," and walked back to the turbolift. Doctor Wallin frowned as he looked at the data from Jack Hindman's medical scan. He didn't understand why he hadn't regained consciousness yet. He looked up at the EMH, "I still can't figure out why he hasn't recovered from this." The EMH shared his frustration, "It must have something to do with what's been happening to him. Under normal circumstances, exposure to anesthezine gas wouldn't have affected him for this long. I'll run a new scan, maybe it'll turn up some answers." Wallin started pacing around sickbay while the EMH scanned Hindman with a medical tricorder. Wallin said, "Maybe we should just continue my research into his condition. It might give us some insight into how to help him." The EMH's tricorder began to beep, he examined the readings, then looked sharply at Wallin, "Whatever we do we're going to have to do it soon. He's not just in a simple coma. According to these readings his brain activity is slowly starting to shut down. If this continues he'll be dead within 24 hours." In the lab next door, Elani Borgatella was analyzing a sample of DNA from the life form in stasis. She had recommended to Captain Mason that it be brought out of stasis, but he wanted to wait until the current situation was over and they were safely out of Goulavar space. As she was running a comparison of the sequence to several known species, she heard a voice, . She turned around and looked at the door, and then looked around the room. She saw no one. "Computer, is there anyone else in this room other than myself and the unidentified life form?" "Negative," was the computer's response. She went back to working, but heard it again, . She looked up again, still no one in the room, "Computer, is there a comm line open?" "Negative," the computer once again replied. She knew of no other way she could be hearing this voice, except one. She concentrated, and with her mind tried to focus on and reach out to the voice she heard, 'Are you trying to communicate with me telepathically?' She was hearing it more clearly, now that she was concentrating on the voice, It had been exhaustive work, but Reman finally got his barber shop more or less in order. Those security officers didn't have to tear my shop up like this just to search it. Beeg must have something against me or something. I lost a lot of business while I was getting everything back together, Reman thought. He looked over at his console and remembered the thing he had to do for Taj. He called up the extremely useful program that Dand had sold him, and configured it so that it'd be ready to execute at a moment's notice. I wonder why Taj wants me to create this power fluctuation and then disable all forcefields on the ship, he thought to himself. Oh well, a deal's a deal and Taj seems like he's crazy enough to try and kill me if I don't hold up my end of the bargain." Captain Mason walked into sickbay. Seeing Elani Borgatella he walked over to where she was standing, "You wanted to see me, Lieutenant?" "Yes, Captain," she said, "I've received a telepathic communication from the Wiansani." The Captain folded his arms, "I see, what did they say?" Elani continued, "They said that Ensign Hindman was one of them. Their ship is on the way here, and they want us to give him to them." Surprised, the Captain looked over at Hindman, then at Doctor Wallin, "Is that possible, Doctor?" He nodded, "After the Lieutenant told us what the Wiansani said, we checked Hindman and found traces of Wiansani DNA that we didn't see before." "Are you saying that something's changing his DNA?" The EMH chimed in, "Not exactly. The DNA was there before, it was just dormant, and has just recently begun surfacing. I don't know how, but he was born with this Wiansani DNA." "That may be true," Mason said, "but I'm still not going to just hand him over to the Wiansani." Doctor Wallin said, "I don't think we have a choice, Captain. Hindman is dying. The Wiansani also told the Lieutenant that they could save his life. We don't know what to do for him. Unless we give him to them, he'll die." Mason sighed and paused for a moment, while everyone waited for his response. He finally said, "These are Confederation Wiansani, right, ones that aren't slaves of the Goulavar?" "Yes, sir," Elani said. The Captain nodded, "All right then. It looks like the best thing we can do is to turn Ensign Hindman over to them. Will it be safe to use the transporters?" "Not with his neural activity this weak," the EMH said. "All right then," the Captain said, "Doctor Wallin, Lieutenant Borgatella, prepare a stretcher. We'll take Ensign Hindman to Shuttlebay 2 and take him in a shuttle to the Wiansani ship." On the bridge, Mull Valen was watching the viewscreen from the Captain's chair. The Captain had left Mull in charge of the bridge while he was in Sickbay. Mull was thinking about how the streaking stars somehow looked different from the Captain's chair than from the Ops console. He stood up and walked over to the Conn, where Elea was sitting, and said, "So, Lieutenant, what do you think of this whole Goulavar situation?" Elea looked up from the Conn, with a surprised look on her face. She didn't expect anyone to ask her opinion, and didn't know what to say, "Um... what exactly do you want to know, sir?" "You know," Mull said, "The Goulavar Republic enslaving the Wiansani and allied with the Dominion, and right across from the Goulavar Confederation, opposed to Wiansani slavery. What do you think this will all mean for the Federation?" "Um, well, I think that.." just then Elea's console beeped, she faced forward again blindingly fast and check the readings, "Sir, the Wiansani ship that's been following us is approaching quickly." Mull tapped his commbadge, "Mull to Mason. A ship is approaching the Equinox." The Captain's voice came over the commline, "Is it the Wiansani ship?" "Yes, sir," Mull replied. "Drop out of warp and ready a shuttle in bay 2 for launch," the Captain ordered. Mull said, "Aye, sir," and looked back down at Elea, "You heard the Captain, drop us out of warp." Elea reduced the ship's speed and breathed a sigh of relief when Mull returned to the Captain's chair. Etalom'Ori Taj lay in the holding cell, staring at the ceiling just like he had done for the last few hours. He had managed to keep himself entertained by looking for shapes within the metal. He had managed to see a microscope, a tricorder, even his old ship in the otherwise dull, gray bulkhead. Then, his waiting came to and end when the felt the ship drop out of warp, something his people have a knack for sensing despite inertial dampeners. He turned his head slightly to the right to see Lieutenant Heaton standing at his post. Taj discreetly reached under his shirt at his side, to a fold of skin, sort of a natural pocket all Etalom have, and pulled out a small device. He then pressed a button on the device's face. Heaton noticed on his console that there was a strange power fluctuation behind one of the walls there in the brig. He decided to check it out. As he walked over to the panel, he turned his back on Taj's cell. Taj slowly got up and stepped lightly to the front of the cell. He watched Heaton for a moment, then pressed the other button. All at once, every forcefield on the ship deactivated. The EMH flickered and vanished, the field around holodeck 2 collapsed, and the one on Taj's holding cell disappeared. Taj immediately jumped out and tackled Heaton. Heaton struggled to grab the phaser on his belt, but Taj grabbed it off of him first and stunned him. Phaser in hand, Taj ran out of the brig. The Jem'Hadar had been ready in case the forcefield went down. As soon as it did, they bypassed the door lock, and started pouring out into the corridor. The security officers posted at the holodeck entrance started firing at them. They got the first few Jem'Hadar that came through the door, but the Dominion soldiers overtook the Starfleet Officers, killing them and taking their weapons. Two more security teams arrived on both sides of the corridor, Beeg among them. The Jem'Hadar started firing. As Beeg ducked around the corner he tapped his commbadge, "Beeg to all security officers, the Jem'Hadar have escaped! Hold them off at every access point! We have to keep them contained!" He then swung back around the corner with typical Pinx fearlessness and returned fire. Taj entered Transporter Room 3 and phasered the officer on duty there. He went over to the transporter console and scanned for Lieutenant Commander Enoz, finding that she was asleep in her quarters. He locked on with the transporter and beamed Enoz from her quarters to the transporter pad, and left the annular confinement beam active after the transport was complete. Enoz was startled awake. She saw Taj and yelled, "You..!", but as she tried to walk off of the transporter pad she found she couldn't move. Taj smiled, "Just relax, Oblokoni. This will all be over soon." "Exactly what is it that's going to be over?", Enoz asked. Taj didn't look up from the work he was doing on the console, "I'm configuring the transporter to lock on only to your unborn child, so that I can beam it out of you." "What!?" Enoz yelled, "It's barely in the fetal stage! If you remove it from me now you'll kill it!" Taj shook his head, "I have a device set up that will keep it alive. A half Oblokoni, half Bolian child in this stage of development is perfect for my research. I can't ignore that." Enoz said, "You should know there's no way you'll get off this ship with it." Taj replied, "According to this there's a shuttle ready for launch, and escaped Jem'Hadar providing a nice diversion for me. By the time someone finds you and deactivates the confinement beam, I'll be long gone." Enoz gritted her teeth and tried to struggle, but realized it was futile. Captain Mason was leading the way down the corridor to Shuttlebay 2 on Deck 13. Lieutenant Borgatella and Doctor Wallin walked behind the hovering stretcher. As they were walking, the Captain heard a noise behind him, sort of a clinking sound, and looked back. Wallin and Elani heard it too, and also turned around. They heard the sound again. Mason stepped around the stretcher and stared down the hallway. Suddenly, the access hatch opened up and three Jem'Hadar jumped out, firing at them immediately. "In there!", Mason yelled as he pushed Elani toward a door which opened up just as she stumbled through. Mason and Wallin both grabbed the stretcher and pulled it in, too, but a phaser blast hit Hindman in the torso just before they got him inside. As soon as they were all in, the Captain yelled, "Computer, lock the door!" He looked to see where they were. They had ducked into a power management room. There were plenty of screens displaying how much power was going to each section of the ship, but no weapons locker. He then looked over at Wallin, who was feverishly examining the phaser wound on Hindman. "How bad is it?", Mason asked. Wallin said, "It looks pretty bad. I can't do anything for him here. It's possible we could help him if we could get him back to sickbay, but I think the best option is to get him to his people. They can help him better than we can." Captain Mason said, "Tell the Jem'Hadar that. If we go back out there, all of us might end up dead."