The founder watched as the sheilds of the Federation ship lowered, it had been too easy. The odd creature who had visited the link had been correct, the Federation was lost.

'Begin to beam the Jem'hadar over to the Federation ship, I want it secured, but keep the crew alive' ordered the founder. Without a word the Jem'hadar obeyed.

Twelve minutes later the ship was secured.

The Founder turned to one of the Jem'hadar.

'Transmit a message ordering all of the first fleet to come through' ordered the founder.

The First fleet, five thousand ships. The battle would be over quickly. They would set up thier facilities, then strike at the Borg.

Everything was ready, victory would go to the Dominion with ease.

But then that was how the founder liked it.
--Daryus Aden

Shortly the first wave of Dominion ships began to move through the wormhole and take up orbit around what remained of Bajor. When DS9 fell, the Aurans quickly occupied the planet, crushing the inevitable rebellion with savage efficiency. Several attempts by the Federation/Klingon alliance to repatriate the planet failed, only adding to the desruction. Hundreds of millions of Bajorans died in the ten years of occupation, until the Borg arrived. Assimilation took less than 21 hours, and except for a handful serving in Starfleet, effectively ended the Bajoran race.

Two days later, every remaining ship the Federation/Klingon/Auran command could muster struck at Bajor. The system was too valuable to let it fall into Borg control, simply because it was an escape route. If the Borg couldn't be stopped, travel could be made throught the wormhole, and collapse it behind.

1000 ships struck at the newly assimilated world, and burned it down to the bedrock. 370 ships were completely destroyed, and 200 were severely damaged in the attack. When the survivors made their way back to base, they learned that Betazed and Vulcan had been assimilated, along with the last remnants of the Romulan empire. Bajor had been a diversion, proving that the Borg were adapting to this quadrant very quickly.

Of course, the Founder knew nothing of this system's history, which might have changed his mind about using it as a jump off point. Instead, he made his way to the Federation ship, intent on interrogating the crew for information on the Borg in the area.

On board the ship, the Founder and his assistant Waynill met with the Captain.

"I demand to know why my ship has been seized!" growled Picard "We made a good faith offer to you, and instead you attack my ship and injure my crew."

"Captain, you aren't in the position to demand anything of us. Instead we demand information on our mutual enemy in this sector." Waynill moved behind Picard and studied him further. These beings would make fine additions to the Dominion, if their strong wills didn't get in the way.

"Let my crew go, and I will stay with you as a guide to this sector. Just let my crew get back to our space and I will cooperate without question."

"Do you think we are foolish Captain Picard? Should I just send out a transmission to all concerned to let them know we have arrived? Your ship and crew will remain in our control, you will hand over all information on the Borg in this sector, and you will offer us no resistance. We could simply rip the information from your ships computers Captain, but we prefer to have you cooperate with us. This situation requires us to act in this manner Captain Picard, we can brook no delays. Now, provide us with what we have asked for and no one else shall be harmed."

Picard mulled over the situation, racking his brain for an option, some way he could stall these beings and allow Data the time to retake the ship. He had ordered the android into a Jeffery's Tube when it was evident the ship was overrun, and had given him express orders to formulate a plan to retake the ship or destroy her if necessary.

His concentration was disrupted when another creature like Waynill walked into the room and spoke to the one they called a Founder. From the aggitation in his voice, Picard knew it was bad news of some sort.

"What kind of activity?" queried the Founder. "That planet was scanned and shown to be a dead rock. What possible activity could there be?"

The other Vorta cringed at the questions, for the scanner reading had been inconclusive at best.

"Strange energy spikes as best we could tell honored Founder. We shall continue with the scans until we can verify what their origin is."

"No, cease the scans and put the fleet on alert. I do not trust dead planets which suddenly emit energy spikes. Have the fleet rendevouz at new coordinates on the outer edge...."

"Founder!" Another Vorta raced into the room.

"It's the Borg! The entire planet is a Borg sphere!"

"Impossible! Put the planet on screen!"

The screen showed the planet coming apart, with large chunks of its crust breaking open and moving off into space. Inside the largest Borg vehicle anyone had ever seen began to emerge from the ruined planets shell. It began to release hundreds of Borg cubes, spheres and other vehicles no one had seen before.

"It's a trap! Order the fleet to attack! Strike at them now!" The founder was so upset, and so caught up in the moment that he momentarily lost shape of his extremities. Picard caught the lapse, shocked at the revalation, and wondered if perhaps there were more of these beings onboard that he didn't know about. He couldn't afford to worry about that now, with the Borg rearing their head in Bajoran space again. He needed to retake the Enterprise and get her back to the Federation now.

Around what used to be the planet Bajor, the battle was comenced in full. Borg vessels flew erratically through the Dominion fleet, firing with almost chaotic abandon. Dominion dreadnoughts moved towards the Borg planet sphere seeking to engage the massive vehicle from the cover of the planets crust. Disruptors and the debris from their impacts pervaded the space around the both fleets, and chaos reigned supreme. A chaos that found the USS Enterprise caught in the middle.

Captain Maximillian Franks stared at the ensuing battle from the bridge of the USS Excelsior-A. Modified from the old Galaxy class, she was the most destructive ship in Starfleets arsenal.

"If we had 20 of these ships when the war with the Auran's broke out, it would have ended before it started." was one of Frank's favorite sayings. With 15 type 12 phaser banks, and 25 quantam/tri-cobalt torpedo launchers, she made the old Defiant class look toothless. Add to that exotic sheilding made possible by reverse engineering Borg technology(at the cost of 2 billion Federation lives) advanced interfaces, and phased cloaking devices. The end result was a ship which could take on a Borg cube one on one and defeat it handily.

Unfortunatly, it was too little too late. Remaining Federation facilities couldn't hope to produce enough of the ships, or refit existing ones to make a difference in the battle now. Evacuation was the buzz word in Starfleet Command nowadays, along with the order for each ship capable of carrying personell to begin transporting them through the wormhole.

"Ensign, bring us along side of the Enterprise. Tactical prepare weapons lock on the surrounding ships, prepare to drop cloak and fire on my mark. Attack pattern vega."

"Aye sir!"

The Excelsior-A moved in swiftly, and without detection until she was 1000 meters off the Enterprise's stern.

"Send a coded transmission to the Enterprise, I'm betting that Jean-Luc is still attempting to regain her."
--MHal9000

A Founder entered the cargo bay and stated, "Unless you submit to help us, we will not hesitate to kill the crew of this vessel. Open the cargo bay doors, but keep the shields up until I give the order."

Suddenly, there was a bright flash in front of the Enterprise. A bright blue swirling pattern with a yellow glowing center appeared.

"Sir," Data said, looking at this apparent savior. "The Bajoran wormhole has somehow reopened itself."

The ship suddenly started violently shaking.

The new security chief, a Klingon named Martok, said, "Shields are gone.... today is a bad day to die."

Picard nodded. "I concur, Mr. Martok. Take us into the wormhole."

Geordi called from engineering. "The warp core has been severly damaged. A breach is in progress."

"This is not how it can end," Picard thought.

The Enterprise exploded as it entered the Bajoran Wormhole.

Picard suddenly felt as though he was still alive. He opened his eyes, looked around, and saw a pure white color as far as the eye could see.

"Q, is that you? Did you save me again?"

Voices called out, one at a time, "As the Sisko would say" "It has been the will of the Prophets" 'You are alive" ''Q does not exist here and" "Now as the Sisko says."

Picard started to spin around in a circle, but halfway through, he saw a Cardassian, Ambassador Spock in a captain's uniform, and James Kirk in a captain's uniform.

--Lee Jamilkowski

Continue on to Chapter Three.