The shuttle landed on the deck of the ISS Leviathan's hanger, which looked very empty. Four shuttles sat in their stations, the entire complement aboard the Leviathan. All looked intact, but at least one showed damage as if it had been in a fight. When they'd left Earth for the Delta quadrant, the hanger deck had been filled with small vessels and equipment, but now all that had gone.

The only other vessels in the bay was the 'Par Maru' and a small vessel the ISS Leviathan had encountered soon after finding themselves in this hostile universe. The vessel was designed to be some kind of one-man research vessel and only one occupant had been found. He had been dressed in a military style uniform and was currently in the Brig unconscious. The shuttle was rather interesting, but Chu had not had time to look over the small vessel. Chu had even forgotten about the vessel and it's occupant, preferring to concentrate on more urgent matters.

The 'Maru' on the other hand was very familiar to Chu, it had been the vessel that Chu and Major Phanan had taken when they'd captured the Romulan and Cardassian rebels. It was three times the size of the shuttles on the Leviathan and had originally been a Terran Navy transport. When the Dominion war started, many of these old vessels were brought out of mothballs. Some fell into the hands of the Dominion and after the war was over, many more just disappeared.

*At least all the search parties returned safely.* Chu thought.

Chu had been worried about Commander Oakenshield and ASHER being together and what they could have discussed. But Chu had not let the time he'd spent with Major Phanan go to waste either. The two of them stepped off the shuttle and entered the corridor where ASHER was waiting to greet them.

"The Commander want's everyone in the briefing room now." ASHER announced.

"Tell her we'll be along in ten minutes, we need time to get changed." Chu replied firmly.

They did indeed need to change, although the shuttles were designed for long-range travel, they were never designed for comfort or convenience. The two officers had spent nearly a month with the shuttle as their only home and neither smelt or looked half-decent.

Chu and the Major had been charged with attempting to seek out the Orion syndicate. That had meant hanging around the most seedy and dirty places in the universe. In the end they'd failed, the syndicate had proved far more elusive than they had hoped. No-one was ready to trust two strangers who were flying in what appeared to be a Federation style shuttle. Chu hoped that Julia and ASHER had been more successful dealing with the Ferengi of this universe. After a quick sonic shower and a change into their fleet uniforms, they both arrived in the briefing room.

"Thank you for finally joining us." Commander Oakenshield announced as they entered the room and took their seats.

"We needed to change." Chu replied calmly. "Wouldn't want to smell the briefing room out."

"Let's get started. Commander Barker, let's here your report first." Julia requested.

"We failed to make any direct contact with the Orion syndicate in this universe. Most of the contacts we did make never came back to us, they appeared to be suspicious of strangers. We just stood out too much, a Trill and a human flying around in a Federation style shuttle." Chu reported.

"So your mission was a failure ?" Julia commented.

"Not entirely." Major Phanan replied. "Some of the contacts we did make provided us with valuable information on the Federation and their allies. It would appear that the Federation has recently been in conflict with a race that exists beyond the Solaris nebula. In this universe the Solaris nebula is called the 'Briar patch' and some of the people we spoke to described a mythical planet where people remained young. Unfortunately no-one could give us exact co-ordinates for this planet."

"We also picked up a great deal of information on this universe, Federation positions and forces." Chu added. "We have tactical data on almost every Federation and Klingon vessel in this universe."

"So you managed to salvage something from your mission." Julia replied. "Good."

The next part of the briefing dealt with the three shuttles that had been given the task of exploring the local area and seeking additional resources. One had been in a fight with a Klingon bird of prey, but all three had reported only small areas of interest and returned with few additional supplies. Finally Oakenshield and ASHER reported on their mission.

"Fortunately, we had better luck with contacting the Ferengi." ASHER stated. "They appear to be more commercially organised than those Ferengi we have encountered in our own universe. But they will do anything just the same, as long as the price is right."

"We have managed to 'purchase' a number of small devices which will aid us in our defence of this facility. As we speak, they should be enroute to our position." Julia continued.

"What of the quantum crystal ?" Chu enquired. "Did you have any luck finding a source ?"

"One of the Ferengi traders we encountered did seem to know of a possible source, but he was asking too high a price." Julia replied. "But just before we returned to the Leviathan, we encountered a second Ferengi who seemed willing to obtain the information we required."

[Captain, we have a vessel entering the Sigma asteroid belt.] A voice announced over the interecom. [ETA thirty minutes.]

"That will be our Ferengi friends." Julia stated. "But before we finish this briefing, I'd like to know how the repairs are going."

"I'm afraid repairs are progressing very slowly Captain." Lieutenant Commander Taline replied. "We're being hampered by the lack of sufficient resources. Replicators are running at maximum, but it will still take us over another month to finish all the repairs."

"That is not good enough Taline, I want a full report on my desk within the hour. Also make a list of the materials you require, maybe our Ferengi friends can obtain the materials that will get this vessel back into service." Julia replied. "Are we able to take the ship out at the moment ?"

"No Captain. We've taken all the impulse reactors off-line so we can clean them out. We're looking at a week before that's complete and even if we stopped now, we'd still be two days away from getting the reactors online." Taline replied.

"Damn." Julia cursed. "I was hoping we could use the ship to deploy the mines the Ferengi are bringing. The shuttles are too small to deploy more than one mine at a time, we just don't have anything bigger."

"What about the Ferengi ?" The Major enquired. "Maybe they could help."

"I don't want the Ferengi involved more than they have to. They are here to do a job and get their payment, no more." Julia replied.

"We do have one vessel at our disposal." Chu announced. "The 'Par Maru'."

Commander Oakenshield was quite for a moment, thinking over the suggestion.

"Mister Taline, could we use the 'Par Maru'." Julia asked.

"She's a little beat-up Captain, but she'll fly." Taline replied.

"Get to work." Julia ordered. "I want it ready to fly by tomorrow morning. Everyone dismissed."