The U.S.S. Benjamin L. Sisko sat in its high orbit over the frost and tundra covered planet known as VC-92A 5. The high orbit proving necessary after their approach into a standard orbit landed them into a net of cloaked, transphasic mines.

Most of the damage was minimal, however it was annoying. As well, Captain Ranma Saotome and the rest of his bridge crew was certain that the mine detonations informed the people on the planet that they were there.

That wasn’t Ranma’s biggest concern, though. Transphasic torpedoes and mines had a nasty habit of phasing in and out of ‘normal space’; allowing them to bypass the shields and explode in the interior decks of starships.

If one of the remaining mines, assuming there were any, phased into the engine room, the Sisko would be destroyed.

As a precaution, the Sisko had all four of her antiproton cannons deployed and was sweeping with a tachyon field as she orbited. The ship’s automated point-defense software would target and obliterate any mine that was discovered before it even had a chance to get a target lock on the ship.

Ranma glanced over a PADD as Shampoo returned to her seat. She looked to the viewscreen for a moment before turning to Ranma.

“Ranma seem nervous,” the purple-eyed Amazon commented.

Ranma set down his PADD, sighed a bit and nodded.

“It doesn’t seem right that we’re only scanning four Breen,” he explained, tapping the PADD. “Why would they leave something this valuable so poorly guarded?”

Shampoo shrugged slightly. “You think there more?”

“I certainly wouldn’t leave it guarded by only four people.”

Both command officers turned towards operations as Lt. Kaii’s voice blared out over the speakers.

“Nighthawk to Sisko,” he called.

“Go,” Minako replied.

“I’m in position over the coordinates.”

“You sound a bit confused,” Ranma said, standing and walking to operations. Shampoo looked to the viewscreen at the image coming back from the shuttlecraft before swiftly moving to catch up with Ranma.

“Yeah,” Kaii agreed. “I have located the area where the four Breen are, but it’s simply a small trench.”

Ranma sighed. “A look out post.”

“That would be my guess,” Kaii confirmed. “There is a cave about a kilometer north of them, however.”

“Can you scan?” Shampoo asked.

“Barely,” Kaii answered. “The cave has a deuterium alloy deposit lining it, that seems to be reflecting and refracting my scans badly.”

“Could we do a better job?” Minako asked.

“I doubt it,” Kaii sighed. “It’s not a power issue.”

Ranma rubbed his face in frustration and nodded. “I guess they will just have to go into that cave and see if that is where it is.”

“There looks to be two entrances,” Kaii said, bringing up a split screen. “I can send one team to one, one to another, and a third to the lookout guards.”

“Alright,” Ranma nodded. “We’ll move in a few minutes. I want to make sure they know what they’re getting into.”

“Aye,” Kaii replied.

“I’ll let them know what’s going on,” Makoto called out.

Ranma shook his head. “No, Commander,” he said, walking to the turbolift. “I’ll run up there and tell them.”

“Aye,” Makoto nodded, watching Ranma get into the lift.

Shampoo watched him walk off as well. She then turned to Makoto.

“He worry about them,” she explained.

Makoto nodded. “We all do.”

“I’d pay all the gold-pressed latinum I have if they would stop changing our uniforms,” Kio grumbled, adjusting the sleeves of her jacket.

Again, the NSO uniforms had changed. While they still maintained the Starfleet Digital Camouflage pattern to them - these the ‘white’ variation for frosty climate they would be fighting in, they were no longer jumpsuits.

Now, they were a separate pants/jacket combination, similar to a standard Starfleet uniform, with their tactical vests that would go on top.

The rank insignia moved back to their collar and while still in the SFPAT color configuration, the Sisko NEO mission patch was on the left shoulder, a UFP flag on the right.

Rei, who was sitting on the edge of the transporter pad, looked to Kio and smirked.

“If you guys would stop complaining and making ‘suggestions’, maybe they would,” she smiled.

Kio shrugged as she smiled. It was true, they did complain about the jumpsuits and the lack of mobility they had in them. And thanks to Commander Jitsia Gras still being with them, their complaints were quickly dealt with and processed by Admiral Genma Saotome, who despite his insistence to the contrary, did seem to have a crush on the young Trill commander.

The doors to the transporter room slid open and Ranma walked in. Everyone stood and snapped to attention to greet him.

“As you were,” Ranma smiled. The NSO teams relaxed slightly but remained standing. Ranma was very impressed by the discipline the group had, and despite his many attempts to get them, especially the enlistees, to relax in front of him, it just wouldn’t happen.

He realized he was fine with that, since that’s one of the things that made them the best of the best.

“So, here’s the situation,” he explained looking to each of them. He told them about the cave, and how they thought what they were looking for was likely going to be in the cave. He explained how they couldn’t scan into the cave, and about the four perimeter guards.

He turned to Rei.

“I’ll leave it up to you to decide who goes where and how to proceed. Just contact Nighthawk when you’re ready to roll,” Ranma smiled.

Rei nodded. “Yes sir.”

Ranma patted Rei on the shoulder and moved towards the doors. He stopped just shy of them, however and turned back around.

“I say this a lot,” he smiled, “but I assure you, it’s not just patronization. I really do consider you guys the best of Starfleet. Be careful and return safely.”

“Yes sir,” the room replied in unison.

Ranma nodded to Rei and walked out. Rei looked to Jitsia who smiled a bit smugly.

“I guess in a couple of weeks I will have to be content with being second best,” she grinned.

Rei shrugged. “Someone has to be second.”

Jitsia laughed a bit as Rei smiled and turned towards Delta team. “You guys want the lookout guards?”

Lieutenant Aileen Nelson, one of the team’s snipers, grinned widely. “Please.”

“Sounds good then,” Rei smiled back, looking over her PADD with the scans from Nighthawk. “Kio, your team can take this entrance, we’ll take the other one. Once we get inside and figure out where we’re going, we can decide where we’ll meet up.”

Kio nodded.

Rei turned to Delta team. “Once you guys take out the lookout guards, please split up and move to secure the entrances.”

Delta nodded. “Aye.”

“Okay then,” Rei said, placing her PADD in one of her cargo pockets and powering up her rifle. “Let’s go play.”

“The NEO teams have left the ship,” Makoto called out.

Ranma nodded, rapped his fingernails on his armrest for a second, then turned back to Makoto.

“Please have assault teams one through three put on standby, in case we need to send them to the planet,” Ranma instructed.

“Yes sir,” Makoto replied before beginning to issue orders into her terminal. Shampoo leaned into Ranma.

“Having flashback to Badlands?”

Ranma shook his head.

“No, and I don’t intend to either,” he sternly stated.

Delta team had gotten used to this arrangement. Both their snipers had honed their skills to the point of where they could likely do this in their sleep if they had to.

Considering they may slip into hypothermia at any moment, that was likely a good thing.

“Fucking balls it’s cold down here,” Nelson whispered as she plopped into a snowbank about a half kilometer from the lookout trench.

Her partner, Corporal Jessica Shelby nodded as she dropped into the snow as well.

“What do you expect from the Breen?” she asked as she set up her rifle.

“I only see two,” Nelson sighed, looking through her scope.

Shelby looked around a little more. “The other two must be down in the trench.”

“Well, that doesn’t do us any good, now does it?”

Shelby shook her head. “Hey, Lieutenant?”

“Yeah?” Lt. George Carson, the team lead called back.

“Two of our targets might be ducked down in the trench, and we can’t hit them.”

“Okay,” he replied. “We’ll set up a mortar. That should deal with them.”

“Kinda noisy, don’t you think?” Nelson asked.

Carson sighed. “I don’t really know what else to do. The cave is a couple of kilometers away, hopefully it’ll be fine.”

Nelson looked to her partner and shrugged. “Okay.”

The pair waited a few minutes before the trench exploded. Nelson checked her tricorder.

“Well, that certainly was... effective...” she mumbled.

Rei scowled as she turned in the direction of the explosion.

“What the hell was that?” Lt. Parker shivered.

“I think it was our cue to go inside,” Lt. Commander Shelton said, looking towards the opening of the cave.

“Delta to Alpha and Bravo, lookout has been eliminated,” Carson reported over comms.

Jitsia smirked slightly as Rei shook her head in frustration. She motioned for the group to start moving. The five slowly crept through the caverns, which had sparse, but adequate artificial lighting installed, both allowing the group to see, and letting them know that this was indeed the facility they were looking for.

“Commander,” Parker whispered as he walked, glancing down at his tricorder.

Rei looked to him. “Yeah?”

“It’s not just the cave that’s deflecting the ship’s scanning,” he explained. “There is a subspace dampening field in place here.”

Rei stopped her group. “Hino to Yuki...”

No response.

“Hino to Carson.”

Again, silence.

“Hino to Sisko.”

Rei mumbled some profanities before looking to her team. “I guess that means we’re stuck in here till we can get back outside.”

Rei looked to her rifle and flipped a switch, changing it from its phaser setting to projectile mode.

“No playing.”

Kio angrily growled at the information Xiang had relayed as well as the non-responsiveness of her communicator.

“Do we turn back?” Anthony asked?

Kio shook her head. “No,” she looked down the tunnel before turning back to her group. “Commander Hino is likely moving forward, so we should as well.”

“I’ll leave the breadcrumbs,” Yayo mumbled.

Kio smiled slightly as the group slowly ambled forward. Anthony looked to Kagurazaka, who was shaking slightly.

“You okay, Ian?” he asked.

Kagurazaka nodded. “Yes sir,” he said between teeth chatters. “I’m from Hawaii. We don’t like cold.”

Anthony smiled. “My first post was on Andoria,” he said, smiling at the blue medic, Yayo, who was grinning as well. “You want to talk about co-”

Kio quickly stopped and slapped her and over Anthony’s mouth. The rest of the group stopped as well and moved into defensive positions against the walls.

“Bzzrzzzrrrzrzrrzrzrrzrrzrrzrzrzzttt,” was heard coming towards them.

Anthony, after checking and making sure he still had all his teeth, positioned himself next to Kio.

“Bzzzzrrrzrzrrzrzrrrzzrrrzrzrrzrrzrzrrzrzrrzrzrz!” a second voice replied.

The two Breen came walking around a corner and found themselves quickly incapacitated as both Kio and Anthony’s rifles fired simultaneously. The pair quickly moved forward, with the three others right behind them, preparing to restrain and hide the stunned Breen when they noticed there were several other Breen standing there.

“BZZZZZRTRZRTRRTZRTZRZRZRRZZZZZZZZTRRRRTT!!!!!!!!!!” The Breen yelled at them.

The exchange of gunfire was quick. The Breen were outnumbered. There were four of them, five of Bravo team. However, all it took was one lucky shot before the fourth Breen was taken down.

Kio slammed into the cave wall. Hard. She coughed as she slid down the wall and to the ground. Once the group was sure all the Breen were downed, Anthony and Yayo ran over to her.

“Secure those guys,” Anthony ordered Kagurazaka and Xiang. They both nodded as Yayo began to look Kio over.

“That hurts like hell,” Kio growled.

Anthony took Kio’s hand and squeezed it tightly as Yayo pulled Kio’s vest up, then pulled her jacket and undershirt up and inspected her stomach.

“The vest and uniform absorbed most of it,” Yayo reported as she began to apply some of the usual magical Starfleet medical hyposprays to Kio. “You do have a pretty nasty second-degree disruptor burn though.”

“Can I keep going?” Kio asked, gritting her teeth, not sure if her injury or Yayo’s manhandling of her injury hurt more.

“Don’t be so damned stubborn, Kio,” Anthony growled.

“Would you be lonely without me?” Kio half smiled at him.

Anthony rolled his eyes. Yayo sighed a bit, unsure if anything she could say would actually convince Kio to go back to the entrance of the cave and return to the ship.

“Yes,” Yayo sighed. “But you need sickbay to take care of this as soon as possible.”

Anthony turned to Yayo and gave her a disapproving look. Yayo simply shrugged as she injected Kio with a pain killer. She then leaned in and whispered to Anthony.

“What could I have said?”

Anthony sighed as Kio moaned in happiness; the painkillers kicking in and sending a wave of blissful numbness over her body.

Anthony knew Yayo was right. Short of losing a limb, there was little that could get the stubborn First Lieutenant to return to the beam out point and go back to the ship. Yayo put her kit away as Anthony stood and helped Kio to her feet.

“You’re just like her,” Anthony whispered to Kio.

Kio turned to him. “You did not just go there.”

Anthony half smiled before starting to turn off. Kio stopped him, however and pulled him back to her.

She quickly kissed him on the side of his face.

Anthony grinned a little more before picking up his gun. Kio went to tuck her shirt and jacket back in, grimacing in pain when she touched her stomach. After making sure her vest was secure, the quintet then resumed their march through the cave

“BRRRRZZRZRRZRZRRZRZRZZRZRRRZZTTTTTTTTTT!” was the last words the Breen guard could get out before several rounds from Jitsia’s rifle blew right through his helmet, through whatever the hell his head looked like, and out the back.

Jitsia, not happy about being shot at from behind, kick the dead Breen in what she assumed were his - assuming it was a male - genitals, and ran to catch up with Rei and company.

“Well, okay then...” Shelton mumbled, looking at Jitsia with a look that bordered between concern and fright.

“It’s rude to shoot someone in the back,” Jitsia scowled.

Rei laughed. Shelton nodded. “Fair enough.”

“Stop,” Parker, who had point, called out. The group came to a halt as Parker looked over his tricorder.

“There are high chroniton levels detected in this area,” Parker explained.

Shelton looked to Rei and Jitsia. “I think we found what we’re looking for.”

Rei nodded before turning to Parker. “Life signs?”

“A dozen.”

Rei sighed. “Still can’t tell where Bravo team is, can you?”

Parker shook his head. “My effective scanning range is less than 50 meters.”

“Guess it’s just us then,” Jitsia said, loading a fresh magazine into her rifle.

Rei nodded but switched her rifle back to phaser mode. “They said there is a Romulan working with them. They want him alive.”

Jitsia groaned as she switched her rifle as well. “Fine.”

“Let’s go,” Rei ordered, moving the group through the next doorway.

It was another quick gunfight. Most of the Breen in the room were unarmed. The ones who weren’t had time to maybe look and see who was about to shoot them before they were shot.

The rest were downed quickly.

Soon, there were simply two Romulans standing next to a computer, both with stunned looks on their faces.

“HANDS!” Rei yelled at them as Alpha team approached them. “LET’S SEE THEM!”

The two Romulans quickly put their hands up.

“Who are you?!” one asked.

“Not important,” Rei answered as Parker and Shelton slammed them to the ground and restrained them. Jitsia and Masters began to look over the oversized torpedo sitting on a table before they both pulled out a pair of spatial charges.

“What...” the other Romulan gasped, “...what are you doing? You’ll destroy this whole facility!”

“That’s kinda the point,” Rei said as she began to upload computer data to her terminal.

The group heard footsteps. Jitsia quickly swung around and fired once.

Kio, again, was slammed up against the cave wall as the phaser blast from Jitsia’s gun slammed into her.

“OH SHIT, LIEUTENANT!” Jitsia cried, running over to Kio.

Rei blinked as both Ensign Masters, Alpha’s medic, and Yayo ran to her. Anthony also ran to her side.

Kio groaned as she coughed a couple of times. She then turned to Kagurazaka and shook her head.

“And you were complaining about being cold...” she mumbled.

“Sir,” Minako called to Ranma. Ranma looked to the operations station as Makoto and Jansen also began to chat quietly.

“Yes?”

“A freighter just dropped out of warp at the edge of the system. It was on a course towards the planet, but suddenly stopped,” Minako explained.

“Because they see us?” Shampoo asked.

“That would be my guess,” Makoto piped up.

Ranma pondered this for a second before standing.

“Intercept it,” he ordered Ikuhara, the helmsman.

“Aye,” Ikuhara replied, pulling the ship out of orbit.

“They’re turning away,” Minako reported.

“Soon as we’re on it,” Ranma turned to Makoto, “take out its engines.”

“Yes sir,” she replied.

The Sisko made a short warp and landed nearly on top of the freighter. Makoto quickly fired a single shot, hitting the smaller cargo ship’s nacelles, causing them to change from bright blue, to an offline black.

“They’re hailing,” Minako said.

Ranma nodded.

“Scan them,” Shampoo added.

The captain of the freighter, a man of a race Ranma was unfamiliar with, appeared on the screen.

“HOW DARE YOU FIRE ON MY SHIP!” he yelled. “EXPLAIN YOURSELF!”

Shampoo’s terminal chirped as Minako sent her a message. Shampoo read it and whispered into Ranma’s ear. Ranma smirked slightly.

“I see you’re carrying Benzothermite.”

The freighter captain calmed down slightly. “I am not in Federation space. What’s illegal there is not illegal here.”

“Yes,” Ranma shrugged, “well you’ve entered a Starfleet security zone and I am afraid I am going to have to seize your cargo.”

“WHAT?” he yelled. “Under what authority?”

“Under the protocol of my current mission,” Ranma explained, “I can take any action necessary to ensure the safety of Federation citizens.”

The freighter captain scoffed. “Your protocol means nothing to me! I am not a Federation flagged ship. I am in neutral space. I-”

“Look,” Ranma interrupted. “This is going to end in one of two ways. One, you lower your shields and allow me to transport your cargo off your ship and I allow you to leave,” Ranma chuckles a bit, “eventually. Or two, I lower your shields for you, board your ship and your cargo, your crew, you and your ship come with me.”

Ranma cracked his knuckles. “Your choice.”

The side of the freighter captain’s mouth twitched a couple of times before he growled and hit a couple of buttons. The communication then ended.

“CAPTAIN!” Minako called out. “THEY’RE SELF DESTRUCTING!”

“BACK US OFF!!!!” Shampoo yelled at Ikuhara.

Ikuhara quickly threw the Sisko into full reverse.

“ALL HANDS, BRACE!” Ranma called out.

The freighter exploded. The Sisko’s shields glowed brightly as debris from the freighter struck her.

The bridge crew was knocked around, but everyone was seemingly okay.

“Well, that was unexpected,” Ranma admitted.

Shampoo nodded before turning to Usagi. “Damage?”

Usagi shook her head. “None.”

“No casualty reports,” Minako added.

Ranma nodded before returning to his seat. “Take us back to the planet.”

Ikuhara nodded. Usagi looked to Shampoo and Ranma. “So, what was that Benzowhatever for anyway?”

“With the proper reaction,” Minako explained, “it can be used to generate a transwarp conduit.”

Ranma nodded. “That freighter pretty much just confirmed that the Breen as using this facility to develop transwarping, chroniton torpedoes.”

Shampoo shuddered. “They could attack from anywhere.”

Ranma nodded.

Both NEO teams slowly made their way back to the cave entrance. Kio, wary about now being shot by Delta team, was in the middle of the group, where she assumed she’d be safe.

If all else failed, she’d use their prisoners as shields.

“We need to move faster,” one of the prisoners said. “If we’re still in these caves when those charges blow, we’ll die.”

Rei looked to them. “There was only one torpedo.”

“Assembled, yes,” the second nodded. “But there are a lot of explosives down there.”

The first nodded. “As well, the chroniton charges could end up phasing a lot of this cave out of existence, causing it to collapse.”

Rei sighed. “Nice weapon you’re building.”

“We didn’t make it,” the Romulan explained. “We’re just upgrading them.”

“You’re being awfully talkative,” Jitsia pointed out.

The second Romulan shrugged. “We’re doing this for money. Now that the opportunity is gone, what’s the point in protecting the Breen?”

Kio smirked. “Very honorable.”

“Honor is for the Klingons,” the first pointed out. “Besides, technically, we’ve done nothing illegal, so as long as we don’t resist you and cooperate with Starfleet, we’ll likely be released.”

Rei shook her head in frustration. She knew what he said was true. While they were developing a horrid weapon that could - no WOULD - wreak havoc on the Federation, they did not do it in Federation space and likely could not be convicted of any crime.

“You know they would have used these torpedoes against the Romulans too, don’t you?” Kio asked.

Neither of the Romulans answered.

“Yeah,” Kio mumbled. “We were alone in kicking the crap out of them in the war.”

The group chuckled a bit before turning and seeing Kio drop to her knees.

“Kio?” Rei asked as Yayo and Anthony moved over to her.

“Keep going,” Kio groaned. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Anthony nodded to Rei. “We’ll catch up in a second, Commander.”

Rei hesitated for a moment, but then nodded back, taking most of the group with her. Yayo pulled her kit back out and scanned Kio.

“The cold is not helping,” Yayo said. “Plus, that second phaser shot caused more damage to your disruptor burn.”

“We’re almost out,” Kio whimpered, standing back up. Yayo quickly injected Kio again, grabbed her stuff, then put one of her arms around her as Anthony took the other one.

Rei passed off the prisoners to the two Delta team members waiting at their entrance.

“Take them to the brig,” she ordered. They nodded and the four beamed away. Rei then began to move back towards the cave.

“Where are you going?” Jitsia asked.

“To get the rest of my officers,” Rei replied, running into the cave.

Parker looked to his tricorder. “72 seconds...”

Kio was in tears her midsection hurt so much. Despite the pain, she continued to walk as fast as she could. It wasn’t the cave or the explosion she was worried about, it was the need to see Anthony and Yayo safely free from the planet.

It was the last thing in the world she wanted.

The thought of even more people dying because of her.

“KIO!” Rei called out.

“Coming,” Kio cried.

Rei rounded a corner and saw the trio. “We have like 30 seconds,” she told them. “Put her on my back.”

Yayo and Anthony did as they were instructed. Kio wrapped her arms around Rei and carried her piggy-back. They ran as fast as they could towards the exit.

Kagurazaka waved them out of the cave as the first rumbles of the explosives triggered below, hunkering down in a depression a safe distance from the cave entrance.

Slight tremors threatened to topple the running group, waves of fire chasing them out of the cave as they made it to Kagurazaka and safety. Flames curled up the cave entrance, shooting from the cave behind them, bathing the teams in the heat of the explosion. Secondary explosions rippled under the teams, proving the Romulans correct.

“Ahhh, warm...” Kagurazaka grinned, looking up at the rest of the group, slight smudges of ash coating his features.

‘Captain’s log. Stardate 62800.3. With the Breen research facility obliterated, Starfleet Intelligence now believes that their research on any transwarping chroniton torpedoes has been eliminated, buried under what little remains of that cave. The facility was isolated, as to not allow any leaks, so Starfleet believes the Breen have no ability to recover the research. With the prototypes destroyed and the lead researchers in Starfleet custody, they will have to start from scratch.’

Ranma leaned back in his ‘thinking chair’ and sighed a bit.

‘I was worried that once Starfleet was done with the Romulan researchers they would be released back into the wild, free to sell their secrets to the highest bidder again, but it seems that won’t be the case.

‘Apparently working with the Breen is not something that is considered ‘proper’ on Romulus, and the Tal’Shiar would like some time with them once Starfleet Intelligence is done.’

Ranma shook his head in disapproval yet couldn’t help smirking a bit.

‘This will likely be the last time we have to deal with them.

‘Lieutenant Yuki was given a couple of days of leave to deal with her injuries. I’m constantly astounded and proud of how resolute those guys are. I like to think I am pretty tough, but I don’t know how tough I would be after receiving a second-degree disruptor burn.

‘The incident with Commander Gras was determined quickly to be accidental and there will be no further need for action on that.’

“End log,” Ranma called out. The computer chirped in compliance. A few moments later the door chimed for the Captain's attention.

<Nifty Star Trek Doorbell Sound>

“Come in,” Ranma called.

The door slid open and to Ranma’s surprise, Anthony was standing there.

“Captain?”

Ranma quickly bounced out of his chair and nodded towards him.

“Good evening, Sergeant.”

“If this is a bad time, sir...”

“No,” Ranma shook his head and motioned for Anthony to come in. He pointed towards his living room table as he walked to the replicator. “Can I get you something to drink?”

“Coffee will be fine. Thank you, sir.”

Ranma nodded and ordered a coffee and a tea from the replicator. He then walked back to the table, handed Anthony his drink and sat down across from him with his own.

“And it’s...” Ranma smiled, “...usually never a bad time. I always have time to chat with my crew, especially the exceptional ones.”

Anthony smiled. “Thank you, sir.”

“What can I do for you?”

Anthony cleared his throat. “Well, sir, I was actually wondering if I could ask a favor of you.”

“Oh?” Ranma asked.

Anthony nodded and handed Ranma a PADD.

“I have a far more likely chance of being accepted if I get a letter of recommendation, especially from someone of your stature.”

Ranma smiled as he read the PADD. “Officer candidate school.”

Anthony nodded. “Yes sir.”

“Well, it will certainly give you a lot more flexibility in your career,” Ranma nodded. “I would be happy to...” Ranma trailed off. He sensed something wasn’t quite right.

“This is what you want, right?” Ranma asked.

Anthony remained silent for a moment before looking to Ranma. “I’m not sure, sir.”

“Then why?”

Anthony hemmed and hawed for another minute before sighing. Obviously if he didn’t want to admit it, he shouldn’t have bothered coming here.

“I want a relationship with Ki- Lt. Yuki,” he said softly. “She wants one with me, but...”

Ranma took a sip of his tea. Professional matters he was a wiz at. Things involving girls... Well, that was an entirely different story.

Why was there never a red alert when you really needed one.

“Sergeant...” Ranma said, smiling slightly. “Anthony. Yes, ours is a warship. One of a few, but Starfleet, the LDF included, is not a military.”

Anthony eyed Ranma intently as he continued.

“We’re a peacekeeping force at most, and while WE may be far more proactive at it than most, it doesn’t change the nature of Starfleet, nor does it change protocol.”

“I’ve just always assumed,” Anthony admitted.

“It’s discouraged,” Ranma admitted. “Do you really want your C-O being your ex-girlfriend?”

Anthony chuckled.

“Quite frankly, though,” Ranma continued, “with the professionalism you guys show, I don’t think that would ever be a problem.”

“She and I have known each other for a long time,” Anthony added.

Ranma smiled. “Look, I will leave it up to you two to decide what you think is best.” He looked down at the PADD Anthony handed him. “If you decide, at any point in time, that you truly want to go to OCS, I will gladly write you a letter of recommendation. No questions asked.”

Ranma looked to Anthony. “However, I want you to want to go there for the right reasons.”

Anthony took the PADD back and stood. “Yes sir. Thank you, sir.”

Ranma stood as well and shook Anthony’s hand.

“Good work today,” he said.

Anthony nodded a thanks and walked out the door.

“You should have been a councilor,” Akane called out.

Ranma jumped about ten meters.

“OH MY GOD!” he yelled, “You scared the hell out of me!”

Akane walked into the room, laughing.

“What? Did you forget that I live here too?”

“I didn’t even know you were home!” Ranma laughed, pushing Akane onto the couch and hopping on top of her.

“I was cloaked,” she joked.

“Disable cloak,” Ranma grinned as he started to unzip her jacket.

Purple-green lightning flashed as Nephrite meandered his way down the long and winding corridor towards Queen Beryl’s chambers.

She would not be pleased with him.

Though that really wasn’t anything new. There was no time in his recent memory when the Queen was pleased with the General.

Nephrite knew it was in his best interests for this to change. The visions he was having, he hoped, were the key, but it would take quite a bit of energy for him to contact them.

For several days now Nephrite had been having the same dreams at night. The same images flashing into his mind when he meditated. The same visions of the same... people... when he was awake. They appeared human, for the most part, but there was something different about them. Something... strange.

And what most drew him towards the visions was what he sensed from them.

Both a sense of unspeakable evil, and a sense of unparalleled naivety. They seemed, at least what he could sense from him, people that the Negaverse could use to their own ends, then dispose of.

First things first, however.

Nephrite walked into the Queen’s throne room as a massive thunderclap shook the deep underground facility. The ‘evil’ generated storm adding an extra layer of intimidation to the already very intimidating room.

Nephrite nodded a greeting towards his fellow general, Kunzite, before dropping to one knee and bowing before the Queen.

“What news of failure do you have to report tonight?” Beryl asked, sighing heavily.

Nephrite’s eyes twitched slightly. “The youma sent out against Sailor Moon was not powerful enough to-”

“ENOUGH!” Beryl yelled. “Why should I continue to keep you around, considering it’s just one failure after another?”

“My Queen, the failures aren’t because of incompetence,” Nephrite argued. “The youma lack strength.”

“That’s why we’re trying to obtain the Silver Crystal,” Kunzite pointed out.

Nephrite nodded. “Yes, but we may be at an impasse.” Nephrite looked up, first to Kunzite, then to Beryl. “I have been having - visions - of another world. One just like ours, only several hundred years in the future.”

Kunzite looked to Nephrite with concern on his face as Nephrite continued.

“In my vision, there was a group with amazing technology and unspeakable evil that we could manipulate to help us eliminate the Senshi once and for all.”

“Hrm,” Beryl mumbled. “What’s the catch?”

“We would need to tap into Queen Metalia’s energy to both contact them and to open a portal in space for them to travel through,” Nephrite explained.

“Are you insane?” Beryl laughed. “Risk injury to our Queen based on a dream?”

“My Queen,” Nephrite began to protest.

“Get out of my sight!” Beryl ordered.

Nephrite sighed, stood, bowed, turned, and quickly walked out of the throne room. He managed to get about two-thirds of the way back to his quarters when he heard someone running up behind him.

He quickly pulled out a knife, readying himself for whom he assumed was Beryl’s assassin, but instead found a slightly out of breath Kunzite.

“A grey and blue cube shaped spaceship?” Kunzite asked.

The knife hit the ground with a clang as it fell from Nephrite’s hand. “How did--”

“I’ve had the visions too,” Kunzite explained, looking around a bit. “I have been thinking of ways to contact them as well.”

Kunzite motioned for Nephrite to follow him. The pair began walking together as Kunzite continued to speak.

“I don’t think we need Metalia for the initial contact, but we will need her to open a door for them.”

Nephrite looked to Kunzite sullenly. “Beryl said no.”

“We serve Queen Metalia and the Dark Kingdom first and foremost,” Kunzite stated bluntly. “If Beryl is going to stand in the way of a plan that can bring us victory, then she is no better than the Senshi.”

Nephrite paused for a bit then nodded as he and Kunzite continued to walk and talk.

* * * *

Tatewaki Kuno laughed uproariously. “Oh, sister, you must come and see this,” he called out.

Kodachi Kuno slowly walked into the room and looked at the scene playing out on the screen.

“The yellow one, Fluttershy, is normally very cute,” Tatewaki explained, “but right now she has a disease that has given her a very deep voice!”

Kodachi sighed and looked to her brother with the same annoyed, tired look she’d been looking at him with for at least the past twelve months now.

“Brother dear, how long, exactly, are we just going to sit here in this nebula and do nothing?”

Tatewaki laughed at the ponies some more until his sister shut off the television monitor. Tatewaki growled at his sibling for a moment before standing.

“I’ve told you,” he explained, walking to a communications panel and patting it lovingly. “As soon as father gives us instructions, we will proceed.”

“It’s been two years,” Kodachi pointed out, flailing her arms to dramatize the point she was trying to make; a couple of Kodachi drones joining in behind her. “I don’t think he’s going to be giving us any further guidance.”

The communications panel suddenly began to chirp.

“See!” Tatewaki smiled. “All we had to do was to have faith and start talking about-”

Tatewaki is cut off mid-sentence by the panel exploding, sending the two siblings airborne and across the room. After shaking off the sudden, unexpected flight and even more sudden landing, the pair staggered to their feet, finding Nephrite where the communications panel used to be, looking around curiously.

“An intruder!” Tatewaki bellowed, drawing his bokken and charging.

“No, wait,” Nephrite pleaded.

“WAITING IS FOR A WAITER!” Tatewaki bellowed at Nephrite charging at him, driving his sword right through Nephrite. Unfortunately for the elder Kuno sibling, the Negaverse intruder was little more than a projection. Tatewaki, sword and all, passed right through him and plowed into the bulkhead at full speed.

Kodachi walked up to Nephrite and poked her finger into his projection a couple of times.

“What manner of apparition are you?” she demanded to know.

“I am speaking to you from Earth,” Nephrite explained. “But not your Earth.”

Kodachi cocked her head slightly as a bandaged and bruised Tatewaki came back over and began swinging his sword through Nephrite, doing his best to try and slice up the photonic intruder.

“I don’t understand,” Kodachi said.

“I don’t either, honestly,” Nephrite admitted. “But from what we have been able to gather is that I am from an Earth that is in a mirror universe of yours, except that it’s about 500 years behind yours.”

“Sounds boring,” Kodachi groaned, finally grabbing her brother’s sword, and breaking it in half.

“That is why I have contacted you. Your ship has come to me and my associate in a vision. That cannot be a coincidence.”

“What did you contact us for?” Kodachi asked.

“To help us take over the Earth.”

Tatewaki, who had been crying profusely over the remains of his sword, stopped and became interested in the conversation now that there was talk of world domination and potential mayhem.

“You managed to contact a spaceship from another dimension and time,” Kodachi yawned. “That seems pretty powerful. Why can’t you do it on your own?”

Nephrite sighed as well and held up some pictures. Tatewaki took a close look at the pictures and grinned widely.

“Hot,” he admitted.

Kodachi smacked him as Nephrite resumed speaking.

“These are the Sailor Senshi,” Nephrite explained. “Guardians of the Earth, more or less. Their magic is very powerful, thanks to the Silver Crystal. Once we are in possession of it, well, then it will be pretty smooth sailing.”

Nephrite rolled his eyes a bit while groaning. “Until then, I have to admit, they may have a slight upper hand...”

Kodachi studied the pictures intently for a couple of moments before gasping.

“The tall one...”

Nephrite pointed to one of the Sailor Senshi. “Sailor Jupiter?”

Kodachi nodded. “That is a girl we’ve battled here. Though, she was in Starfleet, and she never wore a skirt that short!”

“Shame,” Tatewaki groaned.

Kodachi gave him the ‘look’ before turning back to Nephrite. “If you’re 500 years in our past, why are they still alive?”

Nephrite shrugged. “Perhaps they were reborn again to save Earth?”

Kodachi shrugged, then pondered some more. Finally, she looked to Nephrite and smiled slightly. “We’ll help you on one condition.”

Nephrite nodded.

“Find out if Ranma Saotome exists on your Earth.”

Nephrite, who was expecting an exorbitant, evil request, nodded, and smiled. “Okay. I’ll get back to you soon.”

“AKANE TENDO TOO!” Tatewaki called out before the image of Nephrite phased away. The older Kuno sibling smirked slightly, then turned to his sister who was pacing, rubbing her chin thoughtfully; several of her drones mimicking her as well.

“What?” he asked her.

“If this world,” Kodachi chuckled, “is identical to our own, but without Starfleet to stop us...”

“What about those guys with their magic?” Tatewaki asked.

Kodachi scoffed. “Which do you think will win? Magic, or several thousand torpedoes from orbit?”

Tatewaki began to think about this for a moment before Kodachi smacked her brother upside his head.

“First things first, though,” she stated, looking out the window. “We need George.”

“Hi George!” a guard called to George Kuno who was planting a flower in the arboretum of Starfleet Prison Facility 27-B.

“Hey Chuck!” George called back, waving. The adopted Kuno sibling then returned to his flower planting. It had become one of his favorite and most enjoyable hobbies. Peaceful, relaxing, everything that his life had not been, it was.

And that’s why he liked it.

The only issue with it was the fact that when he was out of his cell, he had to wear a neural-dampening helmet.

While the facility was shielded, Starfleet decided to take no chances. George had investigated having his implants removed, but unfortunately it was determined that it couldn’t be done without killing him.

“Excuse me, George,” a man in a Starfleet uniform with the rank of Rear Admiral called to him.

George turned around and smiled. “Good morning, Warden.”

The Warden smiled back. It was a short-lived smile, however. “There are a couple of men from Starfleet Intelligence here to see you.”

George Kuno looked to the Warden worriedly. It had been 471 days since anyone from Starfleet, apart from the jailers, had spoken to him.

This wasn’t good.

George set down his gardening tools and followed the Warden into his office. There waiting for them were two Starfleet Intelligence officers. Both of whom looked quite upset.

“Why isn’t he restrained?” one asked.

“He doesn’t need to be,” the Warden grumbled, motioning for George to sit down in an empty chair, then going back behind his desk.

“Warden,” the second cleared his throat, “We’d like to speak to the prisoner alone.”

“The ‘prisoner’ is entitled to representation in all questioning,” the Warden stated. “Since he has no legal counsel here, I will advocate on his behalf.”

“He’s not in trouble,” the first officer said.

“Then I will not intervene,” the Warden smiled.

The second officer sighed and relented. “Fine. What we’re talking about doesn’t leave this room.”

Both George and the Warden nodded.

“Yesterday, two separate sensor platforms on two separate sides of Federation space detected a quantum slipstream event and then a Kuno scout ship,” the first officer explained.

George blinked.

“Do you know anything about this?” the second asked George.

George shook his head, then conked the helmet he was wearing. “No sir. Thankfully this thing is very effective in keeping me from being reconnected to the collective.”

“Thankfully?” the first officer asked, not sure whether he believed George.

George leaned forward. “Have you ever been in a room where it was very, very noisy? Well imagine that, but you can hear everything everyone is saying, very clearly.”

George’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Now imagine that all of those people are moronic perverts.”

George leaned backed. “Would YOU want to go back?”

Both SI officers shook their heads negatively.

“There’s really nothing I can do to help you,” George sighed. “Since my capture I have to assume they changed their shield modulation frequencies, as well as their slipstream intervals.”

“You could go back in and see what they are up to,” the second SI officer suggested.

George shook his head defiantly. “No way. Besides, if I did that, there is a risk they could locate me.”

“Really,” the first SI officer sighed, “after all the chaos you’ve caused, you’re just going to sit there and think of yourself?”

George looked angrily at Starfleet Intelligence officers as the Warden piped up.

“He said no-”

“Fine,” George growled, drawing a look of disapproval from the Warden. “But just for a few seconds so they can’t get a fix on me.”

The second SI officer nodded and turned to the Warden. “Lower the dampening field.”

The Warden gave both SI officers dirty looks before complying and lowering the prison’s dampening field.

George removed his helmet.

The imprisoned Kuno gasped as two years of new information began to flow into his brain. He quickly put the helmet back on.

“Well?” the first SI officer asked.

“They’re looking for me,” George groaned.

The Warden quickly raised the dampening field as George let out a long and exasperated sigh.

“After all this time, why would they be actively looking for you again?” the second SI officer asked.

George shrugged. “I dunno. That information wasn’t available.” George looked to the Warden, shaking his head with a sad look on his face.

“I recommend you reinforce the prison.”

Kodachi had changed quite a bit in two years. Her insanity, which had seemingly run her life, had become focused thanks to the boredom of being exiled into what Tatewaki had called ‘The Noble Kuno Nebula’.

Kodachi was still quite insane, but anymore her insanity was more like that of a mad scientist, rather than that of... well Kodachi.

Despite all of that, her dreams had not changed at all in two years.

Filthy. Pornographic. Obscene. War-Crime-Worthy. Some of the words Tatewaki had used to describe the dreams she had been having of her and Ranma.

It was why he had stopped regenerating at the same time as her.

Regardless, it was one of these dreams she was having when suddenly she saw him.

“George?!” Kodachi asked.

“OH MY FUCKING GOD!” George screamed, quickly looking away from the scene playing out in front of him - a scene involving Kodachi, Ranma, and multiple llamas.

“Don’t be such a prude,” Kodachi groaned, climbing off both Ranma and a llama. “You’ve finally reconnected!”

“Yes,” George, still turned away, said. “I want to know why you have scout ships roaming around.”

Kodachi cocked her head slightly as one of the llamas began to make loud llama noises in the background. “You’re working for Starfleet now?”

“No,” George stated, knowing full well Kodachi could look into his head. “I’m just trying to keep the good thing I have going for me.”

“That seems selfish,” Kodachi grumbled.

George shrugged. “I am a Kuno.”

Kodachi laughed. She slowly moved to George and spun him around.

“We’re looking for you,” she smiled as she moved her lips close to his.

Before she could make lip-to-lip contact with George, he phased out.

Kodachi sighed, then forced herself to wake up.

Once awake, Kodachi wandered into the control room of the Kuno cube where she saw Tatewaki looking out a window.

“You know where George is, don’t you?” he asked, never turning around.

“I have a good idea,” Kodachi nodded.

Kuno continued to look out the window and sighed deeply. “We must continue to wait for Father’s instructions.”

“It’s been TWO years,” Kodachi glowered, grabbing her brother, and spinning him around so that he faced her. “He no longer cares for us. We need to move on.”

“How dare you speak ill of him like this!” Tatewaki growled, pulling out his bokken.

Kodachi backed up slightly and laughed. “This is quite ironic. I remember a time when you were the one warning me about how unreliable he was and how I shouldn’t become attached to him.”

Kodachi looked her brother over, her eyes moving up and down him.

“That Nephrite fellow contacted me back,” Kodachi smiled. “There is, in fact, an Akane Tendo and Ranma Saotome in their world.”

Tatewaki allowed a look of intrigue to cross his face.

“I assume that if they are there,” Kodachi sighed, “then that wretched pig-tailed girl is there as well.”

Tatewaki holstered his bokken and smiled. “Glory!” He clapped his hands together and turned back towards the window.

“As soon as father contacts us and gives us the a-okay, we can do this!”

Kodachi looked to Tatewaki with a glare of ire on her face. Something just wasn’t right. She knew that this creature just could not be her brother.

Even if it was, in the shape he was in now, he was better off dead.

Kodachi quickly and quietly unsheathed her katana, tip-toed up behind Tatewaki and slowly pushed the sword through his midsection while embracing him.

“It’s you, isn’t it father?”

Tatewaki gasped for air before replying.

“How?”

Kodachi smirked. “Only you would be so arrogant to think you would be more important to Tatewaki than the pig-tailed girl.”

Tate-whatever smiled slightly as it coughed, spitting up some blood-slash-nano-robotic goo.

“I have been waiting for the day when my kei kei would become independent of me.”

Kodachi blinked. “You kept us in this nebula for two years waiting for you to make us independent of you?”

The Tate-Principal nodded.

“That’s idiotic,” Kodachi groaned. “Where are you?”

“Oahu,” he replied. “Daddy’s too old to do this stuff myself.”

“Where’s Tate?”

“In the closet.”

“FOR TWO YEARS?” Kodachi bellowed.

“Yeah,” Tate-Principal nodded. “Might be a little messy.”

Kodachi groaned as she pulled her sword out of the Tatewaki doppelganger.

“Kei-kei,” it called out as it began to take its last breaths.

“Yes?”

“Rule your new world without mercy and never forget who you are.”

The fake Tatewaki died as Kodachi nodded.

“I am a Kuno.”

“You wanted to see me, Captain?” Jitsia called out, walking into Ranma’s ready room.

Ranma, who was standing at his replicator, ordering some tea nodded and motioned for her to have a seat at his desk.

“Would you like something?”

“Tea is fine,” Jitsia smiled.

Ranma ordered a second tea, walked over, and set it in front of the young officer before sitting down and leaning back in his chair contently. He took a sip of his tea, making it known to Jitsia that he enjoyed the new flavor he just had installed.

“Mmm. Xindi Rust Root,” Ranma said, setting his cup down. “It sounds like it would be terrible, but it’s actually quite good.”

Jitsia took a sip and nodded in agreement.

“Well, I have some good news and some bad news for you,” Ranma grinned, finally getting down to business. “Ironically it’s all good news for me, however.”

Jitsia looked up to Ranma with a curious grin on her face. “Oh?”

“The Trinity design team LOVES Lt. Commander Devall and his ideas. So much so that they have basically disassembled fifty percent of the Miyazaki and started over.

“So, you’re looking at being stuck with us for at least another two months.”

Jitsia smiled. “I’ve come to enjoy being here. So, I’m not sure if that would qualify as good news or bad news.”

Ranma returned the smile. “Well, technically that was the ‘bad’ news. The official good news is that Pop has approved your ‘Alpha Team’ list and they will be transferring aboard for training this week.”

Jitsia smiled broadly.

“Unfortunately,” Ranma continued, “The NSO command center was only designed for about 22 people, so we’ll have to assign them quarters on the lower decks.”

Jitsia thought about this for a moment.

“I should probably also move to the lower decks to be with them.”

Ranma nodded a bit. “Yeah, I considered that, but Commander Hino said she still wants to take you out...” Jitsia’s eyes went wide as Ranma took another sip of his tea, “...on actions as a part of our teams, so I’d prefer if you stay up there with them. I’m sure your teams will understand.”

Jitsia blinked a couple of times and nodded quickly. “Yeah-yes.” She quickly drank some more of her tea, ignoring how hot it was before smiling.

“So, just out of curiosity, what kind of changes is Commander Devall having them make?”

Ranma laughed as he looked over a PADD. “Seems like he’s brought up every small issue with this ship, so the Trinity team is trying to find a work around to it.”

Ranma allowed a devilish smirk to cross his face. “Honestly I’m a little jealous.”

Jitsia chuckled. “Well, she may end up being a little sturdier,” she admitted, “but she will never be the Sisko.”

Ranma nodded.

“We’re on our way to Betazed right now to pick up Lt. Pan,” he explained. “Lt. Commander Ishran is waiting for us at Earth and the other three will arrive at Earth, as I said, within the week.”

Jitsia’s smile faded slightly, though Ranma didn’t notice. Jitsia nodded and stood.

“Thank you, sir,” she stated before walking off.

Ranma did, however, notice the change in the tone of her voice.

“Three Kuno spheres have entered the system!” The tactical officer on the U.S.S. Milford reported.

Per George’s suggestion, the jail was in fact reinforced. Starfleet had sent three escorts and a heavy cruiser to defend the facility.

It seemed like it would be a simple task. Three spheres wouldn’t be any threat. Starfleet had upgraded their weapons over the last two years. The constant threat of war, and the near break out of civil war had caused the Federation to realize that perhaps the best defense is - in some cases - a strong offense.

The Kunos, however, as nutty as they were, were not totally tactically inept, especially when they had a goal in mind.

Kodachi had spent two years planning on how she would break George out of jail, and she had no intention of allowing four Starfleet ships stop her.

Her brother on the other hand.

“CHARGE!” Tatewaki yelled.

Kodachi whacked the elder Kuno over the head.

“That hurt, you know,” he said to her.

“I’ll bet,” she grumbled. “We can’t just charge in there,” she explained, pointing some things out on a tactical monitor. “This is going to take some finesse and poise, much like a gymnastics event.”

“I am the oldest,” Kuno objected. “Surely I, the great and noble Blue Thunder of the Alpha Quadrant, should be able to-”

“First off,” Kodachi interrupted, “We’re in the Gamma Quadrant, so pipe down. And secondly, do you want to go back in the closet?”

Tatewaki whimpered. “No...”

“Okay then,” Kodachi smugly grinned. “We do it my way.”

Her brother sighed and relented.

In her head, Kodachi signaled the first part of the assault.

The three spheres quickly motored towards the Starfleet ships. The Starfleet ships opened fire, obliterating them. However, they were unprepared for the Kuno’s trap. Each ship was a trap. When each ship’s warp core detonated, protons and anti-protons combined, creating three gravity wells that ended up trapping all four Starfleet ships.

Within seconds, the Kuno cube emerged from a quantum slipstream, barreled past the ensnared Starfleet ships, none of which dared fire in fear of what the gravity well might do, and removed the facilities orbital defenses.

The Kuno siblings cackled maniacally as they sent wave after wave of Kuno drone to the prison to battle it out with the prison guards. After a few minutes - more though than they thought it should have taken, George was back on the cube and the cube was headed back towards the Alpha quadrant.

“We’ve rescued you, brother!” Tatewaki exclaimed as he hugged George.

George shoved Tatewaki away before sighing. “I didn’t want to be rescued.”

“How is it possible that you’d rather sit in jail than be a part of the great and wondrous House of Kuno?!” Tatewaki asked, shocked.

“What kind of great and wondrous house sits in a damned nebula for two years?!” George asked. “How does ‘The Blue Thunder’ get defeated not once, but TWICE by someone like Saotome and his crew of misfits?”

Tatewaki started to growl however Kodachi stepped between him.

“Can’t you see it’s different now?” she asked.

George looked to her.

“You haven’t bothered to see what we’re up to,” Kodachi smirked. “Is that because if you get rearrested you don’t want to tell on us?”

George turned away slightly and mumbled.

“What was that?” Tatewaki asked.

George sighed. “I said I still love you idiots. Of course, I don’t want to snitch on you.”

Tears poured down Tatewaki’s face. “I knew it.”

Kodachi smirked. “You don’t have to worry about being arrested,” she explained, sitting down next to George. “By the time they realize where we’re going, we’ll be gone.”

George slowly turned to his sister, eyed her cautiously for a moment before finally relenting and allowed the current situation and plans to flow into his head.

For the first time in years, being with his adopted family made George smile.

Makoto plopped down onto the L-shaped couch in her and Gosnell’s living room. She kicked off her boots, both in seemingly one motion, and unzipped her jacket and turtleneck before flopping out on the couch and sighing.

Loudly.

“Rough day?” Gosnell called to her.

“I wish we were shooting people all the time,” Makoto groaned as Gosnell brought a tray of cookies and a large glass of Mt. Dew for his wife. He quickly moved her legs so he could sit down on the couch next to her. As soon as he was seated, Makoto threw her legs on his lap, silently demanding a foot massage as she continued.

“If the weapons were always active, then we wouldn’t have to do diagnostics and maintenance drills and shit like that.”

Gosnell smiled as he rubbed Makoto’s feet. “But if you didn’t do ‘shit like that’, then the weapons wouldn’t fire when you wanted them too,” he countered.

Gosnell laughed slightly. “I can only imagine how bitchy you’d be then.”

Makoto scowled at him for a moment, before sighing again. “I guess I would be pretty bitchy about that.”

Gosnell simply smiled as he continued to rub his wife’s feet while she ate a cookie, which was quickly chased with a swig of Dew. Eventually, she looked up to him.

“Do you ever miss it?”

“Hmm?” Gosnell asked, never looking away from his task.

“Just wandering around.”

Gosnell stopped what he was doing for a moment, then shook his head.

“No.”

“You hesitated.”

Gosnell turned to Makoto. “I’d be lying if I said there weren’t some things I didn’t miss,” he shrugged, resuming his task of making his wife feel better. “But I’d miss this more.”

Makoto smiled before moving around and climbing on top of Gosnell.

“I’m really, really happy we found each other again.”

Gosnell nodded. “Me too,” he quietly replied as Makoto pushed her lips against his.

STARDATE 48166
ABOUT 15 YEARS AGO; SOMEWHERE SOUTH OF THE FEDERATION/KLINGON BORDER

Makoto walked slowly down the darkened alleyway. She wasn't really a fan of these kinds of assignments. Meeting some confidential informant always ended up with her having to either get blood on her hands or worse, to have a conversation with some idiot.

She was far happier with the assignments that allowed her to simply find targets, deal with them from afar and let her associates do the dirty work; usually in the form of some kind of 'accident'.

Fortunately, with space travel being as dangerous as it was, accidents were easy to cover up. Killing someone ‘in person’ usually meant she was forced to bring the body back to the ship with her, have a doppelganger body made (one lacking multiple phaser burns, contusions and broken bones Makoto generally caused), and then return it for the local authorities to find.

Annoying work.

It got even more annoying when the planet she ended up on decided to not cooperate weather wise. Not more than thirty minutes ago when the sun was up it was clear and at least twenty-five degrees. She was dressed for that in light, black, loose-fitting shirt and pants.

Now it was freaking snowing.

Makoto sighed as she leaned up against a wall and checked her watch, the lightly falling snow melting as it landed on her face. Her informant was now late, as an added insult.

She decided at that instant if she did end up having to kill him, she wouldn't actually find it an annoyance.

“I'm sorry I'm late,” a slightly out of breath voice quietly spoke out as a tall man, who was bundled up like he was preparing to go hiking through the coldest parts of the Breen home world, rounded the corner.

Makoto sized him up before springing forward and pinning him against the wall.

“Quiet,” she whispered as he nearly screamed. “Just checking.”

The man complied as Makoto pulled out a small, black tricorder and ran it up and down him. Once she was satisfied with the results, she released him and backed away a bit.

“I take it you're Jupiter?” he asked.

Makoto nodded, acknowledging the codename the contact had been given.

“I am Bar'Ha'Lak,” he said. “I can give you the information I told you about, but first I want some assurances.”

“Such as?”

The alien sighed before looking to Makoto. “I will be a wanted man here. I want asylum in the Federation.”

Makoto nodded. “That can likely be arranged.”

“Not likely,” he shook his head. “No asylum, no weapons.”

Makoto rolled her eyes. “I will get you your asylum.”

Bar'Ha'Lak eyed Makoto suspiciously through the hood in his coat, before pulling the hood off. He pointed to a massive scar on the side of his face that led up to what was an obvious prosthetic eye.

“Do you see this?” he barked. “This is what they did to me because I questioned them for even making the weapons.”

Makoto again nodded. “Look, you will get your asylum. Once you are on my ship you will be safe. The actual asylum will take a little bit because the Federation doesn't officially acknowledge what we do, so a story has to be made up about who you are and where you're from.”

Bar'Ha'Lak contemplated what Makoto said for a moment before accepting her explanation. “Okay. I will trust you.”

The alien motioned for Makoto to follow him, and the pair walked down the alley a bit before stopping at a parked vehicle. Bar'Ha'Lak pulled the headlight casing off, revealing a small box. As he opened the box, he spoke.

“I am abandoning everything for this...”

“Why?” Makoto asked.

Bar'Ha'Lak continued to open the box as he explained. “My people want to make a name for themselves in the galaxy. However, they go about it in the wrong way. They do not understand that if they sell these weapons to one group, another group will not buy them – they will destroy us.”

Bar'Ha'Lak sighed. “They think that they can profit from chaos and misery, but even if say the Klingons bought them, they would not want us selling them to their enemies. So even our customers would attack us.”

“By betrayal, you are saving,” Makoto nodded.

“It's not betrayal, despite the fact I am giving you this information,” Bar'Ha'Lak grumbled. “It is simply doing what I can to stop them from heading down a self-destructive path.”

Makoto looked to the alien man as he finally got the box open. In it were two isolinear chips. He handed them both to Makoto.

“One of these contains all the database information needed to break in and destroy years of research and work,” he sighed. “The other contains the location of the prototype facility.”

“Is the prototype functional?” Makoto asked.

“No,” Bar'Ha'Lak shook his head. “They are still working on the genetic-” the alien stops speaking at the same time Makoto finds herself partially covered in blood and brain matter.

“Fuck...” she whispers before diving behind his vehicle just before another bullet impacts the spot where she'd been just a couple of seconds before hand.

Makoto looks down the alley and notices multiple police vehicles heading in her direction, as well as several coming in from overhead. Behind her she also sees several heavily armed police officers running towards her.

The door of a nearby house splinters as it’s kicked off its frame by Makoto. A small child in the house screams as she runs through, smiling and waving at the child before the Section 31 operative barrels out through the front door much the same way she burst in the back. Makoto grits her teeth and takes off running as she sees several more military and police officers closing in on her from multiple vectors.

Weaving through traffic, between a couple of vehicles parked on the side of the street, Makoto turned and dove through another residential window, narrowly missing a barrage of gunfire and phaser blasts sent in her direction by the rapidly approaching security forces.

More residents scream as Makoto ran through their homes, the police kicking down the doors behind her. Makoto again chose to not use the door and dove through a rear window, rolling out into another alley and taking off running, several police officers hot on her trail.

Makoto slaps the biometric implant in her forearm desperately; the implant unhelpfully communicating to her earpiece that escape would not be easy.

“Transport unavailable,” she barely heard in her ear over the sounds of sirens, phaser blasts and gunshots.

“Why?!” she asked.

“Transport inhibitors in effect.”

“GOD DAMN IT!” Makoto screamed as she jumped on top of a car, grabbed a hold of a fire escape, and began climbing it. Gunfire from the street below barely missed her as she made her way to the roof of the building, only to find airborne police vehicles waiting for her; officers firing at her from the windows.

After hopping over two rooftops Makoto jumped off and onto the roof of a passing vehicle. She lost her balance and slid backwards, falling onto the street where she was promptly run over by at least three vehicles.

Fortunately, all these vehicles were hovering, so she was uninjured by the cars. The chaos that followed a strange alien landing on a car and then being ran, or rather, flown over was enough to snarl traffic. The mass of cars and people provided Makoto the opportunity to slink away into a nearby alleyway undetected.

The dark-haired girl sat down next to an old, burnt-out car. Her leg was very sore, and she was bleeding. At first, she thought the blood on her arm was from hitting the pavement, but after closer inspection, she'd realized that she had a deep cut, as well as a couple of fragments of glass embedded in her bicep.

To make matters worse, one of her isolinear chips had been broken in the chase. She was certain that a Section 31 forensics team could still recover the data from it, but there was the idea of everything today being for nothing.

All of that could be completely irrelevant, though. Makoto still had no idea if she'd be able to get off the planet. The transport inhibitor was still up, and she couldn’t tell how far it extended. The Minneapolis wouldn't stay there forever waiting for her. Eventually they would assume she'd been compromised and abandon her.

And it was fucking cold.

“Well, hey there,” a voice said.

Makoto looked up to see four men standing a few meters from her.

“You're not from around here, are you?” another asked.

“No,” Makoto replied. “Go away.”

The men all laughed and looked to each other. “That's really rude!” one said.

“Very rude considering that you're in our spot.”

Makoto grumbled and stood. She gave the men a look before she began to walk away.

“Oh, so you're going to play hard to get?” the fourth laughed before nodding to the other three.

The other three nodded back and began to advance on Makoto. She spun around, catching the closest of the men off guard and breaking his neck, killing him instantly. The remaining three pulled out guns.

“Look bitch,” the first said, losing his sardonic smile. “This is going to happen, just accept it.”

Makoto growled at them, turned, and began to run. Her injured leg made escape impossible, and the trio of remaining men were able to catch up and surrounded her easily. Two held guns on her while the third approached, his disturbing grin signaling his intent. They closed on her, subduing her before she could fight back again.

“LET GO OF ME!” Makoto demanded.

“Where you from?” The first man asked as he tried to pin down Makoto's arms.

“I think she's a Vulcan,” the second said, ripping her pants roughly down.

“Naww,” the third replied as he began to unfasten his own pants. “They have those pointy ears.”

“HELP!” Makoto screamed.

“No one here is going to help you,” the first grinned.

“Not true,” a voice said.

The three turned around to see another man standing behind them. The man’s appearance, rather average looking - average height and weight for a humanoid, dark brown hair, neatly trimmed goatee, perplexed the attackers.

Surely this schmuck wasn’t going to get involved.

“Who the hell are you?” the third man asked.

“Does it matter?” the interloper responded.

“Does it?” the second asked.

“NO!” the first screamed, grabbing his gun and pointing it at the Samaritan.

“No guns,” the man said, closing the distance suddenly, pulling the gun from the rapist's hands before turning it on the other two, recovering their weapons. He then took all three guns and threw them as far as he could. He groaned slightly as they landed in a distant schoolyard.

“Well, whatever!” the second rapist said as he charged the Samaritan. The Samaritan smirked before grabbing him by the shirt and throwing him several hundred feet down the street.

“What the...” the first one mumbled before being picked up, spun around helicopter style, and thrown through the wall of an abandoned building.

The third attempted to run but was unable to avoid being grabbed and similarly tossed. Unfortunately, the toss was bad and had sent him in the same direction as the guns.

The Samaritan slapped his head and called out “D'oh!”.

The man cracked his knuckles then snapped his fingers, causing the third wannabe rapist to reappear.

“Let's try that again,” the Samaritan smiled.

“No, please...” the third pleaded.

The third was again picked up and this time thrown onto the roof of a building, where he exploded in a wondrous fireball.

The Samaritan looked to Makoto, who had fixed her clothes once her attacker’s attention was drawn away from her. The man extended his hand to her. Makoto accepted it, not knowing what to expect. The Samaritan bent down and quickly looked to Makoto’s fingernails, mumbled something about ‘green’, presumably referring to her nail polish, and wrote a note in a notepad he had concealed in his shoe.

Makoto shook off the oddity and bowed slightly.

“Thank- Thank you...”

“No problem,” he smiled.

Makoto quickly turned around as she heard police sirens approaching.

“I need to go.”

“I would think you would want the police around give what those men were trying to do.”

“I am not supposed to be here.”

The Samaritan nodded. “Come with me.”

Makoto, normally untrusting, especially of unusual people with apparently superstrength and near magical powers. Something was different about him though, and Makoto instantly trusted him.

The pair, as quickly as they could with Makoto's injured leg, ran down the street and into one of the most decrepit homes Makoto had ever seen in her life. However, to Makoto's surprise, once inside, it was quite nice.

“This is strange...” she acknowledged.

The man nodded. “I like... strange.”

Makoto smirked.

“Are you hungry or thirsty?”

“I couldn't impose.”

He laughed. “No imposition. It's a snap.”

Makoto blinked as the man snapped his fingers and made a turkey club sandwich and some orange juice for Makoto.

“This all seems very familiar...” Makoto blinked as she sat down and began to eat.

“I am sure you are familiar with the...” he paused for a second, some slight annoyance twitching across his face, “...escapades of brethren of mine, known only as 'Q'.”

Makoto looked up. “You're a Q?”

The man nodded. “Yes. Though I disliked not having a name for my travels, and I enjoy being unique, so I named myself Gosnelliusbarbanyanda.”

Makoto just stared at him.

“Yeah,” he nodded, having gotten that look quite often, “that's why everyone just calls me 'Gosnell'.”

Makoto smiled. “I like that.”

“Who are you?” Gosnell asked.

“I'm...” she paused. Makoto realized that technically, she was no one. Despite procedure, despite protocol... there was something about this man, this being, this - Gosnell - that made her feel safe. It could have been the fact that he had just saved her from being gang raped, but she felt like there was something more, something deeper.

“I'm Makoto.”

Gosnell smiled. “Your name is better.”

Makoto smiled back. “So, what is a Q doing here?”

“Oh,” Gosnell said, as he sat down and leaned back in his chair. He promptly fell over backwards. He grumbled to himself as Makoto did her best to stifle a laugh. Gosnell reseated himself and leaned back again, albeit more carefully this time.

“Just passing time,” Gosnell finally continued. “I have little to do, and all the time in existence to do it in, so I have been going around, living on as many planets as I can, taking in the culture.”

“That doesn't sound like a Q...”

Gosnell rolled his eyes. “See, that's why no one likes him. Now we all get painted with the same brush.”

Makoto laughed a bit. “You guys are as diverse as we are?”

“Just because we evolved out of linear hood doesn't mean we have evolved out of personalities.”

“Fair enough,” Makoto smiled.

“So,” Gosnell smiled. “What about you? What are you doing on this dirty little planet?” He leaned forward and smiled a bit evilly. “And why aren't you supposed to be here?”

Makoto sipped on her orange juice for a moment before meekly replying, “I can't say.”

Gosnell leaned back, looking dejected. “Oh.”

Makoto looked at Gosnell. Gosnell looked up and noticed her eying him. He smiled sweetly at her before standing.

“Well, I don't want you to do or say anything you're uncomfortable doing or saying. And don't worry, you're free to stay here as long as you-” Gosnell paused as he noticed a small pool of blood on the floor next to Makoto's chair.

“HOLY CRAP YOU'RE BLEEDING!!!” he screamed.

Makoto turned and looked to her arm. “Oh, right.”

“Those dogs!” Gosnell growled.

“It wasn't those thugs,” Makoto explained. “It was the police.”

“Those pigs!” Gosnell corrected himself.

Gosnell walked out of the room for a moment then came back. He then walked up to Makoto and rolled up her sleeve. Makoto, despite normally being someone who would instinctively jerk away, allowed Gosnell’s touch.

Gosnell placed a bandage on Makoto’s wound. His hand then passed over the wound, leaving behind undamaged skin, before looking back up at her, and sighing.

“I guess the Band-Aid was kind of pointless,” he admitted.

Makoto just smiled.

Gosnell pulled the bandage off, trashing it before looking back to her.

“Which one of your legs did you hurt?” he asked. “I saw you limping.”

Makoto looked up at him. “The left one.”

Gosnell nodded and again Q'ed her, fixing her leg.

Makoto's eyes followed Gosnell, a new appreciation forming behind them, as he walked back to his chair and sat down. She slowly reached into her pocket and pulled out the broken isolinear chip and set it on the table.

“Can you fix this?”

Gosnell looked at it for a moment. “The problem with that is I could fix the physical chip, but if there is data on it, it would go away.”

Makoto sighed. “I guess there are things even a Q can't do.”

Gosnell nodded. “Lots of things.”

“Lots?” Makoto asked, putting the chip pieces back in her pocket.

Gosnell nodded. “Yes, but if I tell you what they are I will never get a chance at a second date.”

Makoto blushed as she laughed. She finished the remainder of her sandwich in silence, then looked up to Gosnell.

“You don't do this with all the other girls you meet, do you?”

“I can honestly say that this is the first time this has happened.”

Makoto grinned and leaned back in her chair. She eyed Gosnell thoughtfully for a few moments before speaking.

“I'm a Starfleet Intelligence Officer,” she explained. “Well, more than that, but the details aren't important. The authorities on this planet are developing a weapon that will send both the Alpha and Beta quadrants into chaos.”

Gosnell listened intently as Makoto continued. “I was sent here to meet with one of the developers who realized how bad it would be and was willing to give Starfleet the ability to destroy all research and schematics on the weapons. Unfortunately, we were intercepted and he was killed before we could get off the planet.”

Makoto sighed. “They apparently have this entire city transport inhibited, so I have no way of getting back to my ship.”

“The data you need, that's what's on those chips?” Gosnell asked.

Makoto nodded.

“Meh,” he smiled. “Small inconvenience. I'll get you to your ship.”

Makoto smiled weakly.

“What's wrong?” Gosnell asked.

“Almost seems like you're being too nice to me.”

“You're doing ‘good.’ Why shouldn't I?”

Makoto turned away. “I do very bad things in the name of doing ‘good’.”

Gosnell stood, moving his chair to sit directly in front of Makoto before having a seat again. He took her hands and held them as he spoke.

“I’ve been around. I can understand the need for such things in keeping a galaxy like yours stable, it’s not an easy task. Besides, it’s not like I have any right to judge you.”

A tear rolled down Makoto's face. She pulled one of her hands back from Gosnell and hastily wiped the tear away.

“Thank you.”

Gosnell squeezed her other hand and smiled, doing his best to look comforting. His mouth opened as to speak, but he cut himself off as his eyes shifted towards the window.

“My Gosnell sense is tingling.”

“Your what?” Makoto asked.

The door is suddenly kicked down and multiple police officers storm in. Gosnell snaps his fingers, and the pair find themselves standing on the bridge of the Minneapolis.

“I hope this is your ship,” Gosnell mumbled.

“BLOODY HELL!” Captain Steve Giles screams as Makoto and Gosnell appeared on the bridge. The bridge’s security detail, five officers in total, as well as the tactical officer and the XO, point their weapons at the pair.

“DON'T SHOOT!” Makoto yells.

The pair is pulled apart by security and, short of the Captain, the entire bridge staff dogpiles on Gosnell, despite vocal objections from Makoto.

“I have told them at least six dozen times to let you out of the brig,” Makoto said through the force shield that detained Gosnell.

Gosnell shrugged. “It's all good. I'm departing soon anyway. At least now I can check off 'Starfleet brig' from my list.”

Makoto smiled. “Where will you go now?”

“Where are you going?”

Makoto shrugged. “Don't know yet.”

The two of them stood in awkward silence for a few moments before they both began speaking at the same time.

“I’d like-”

“I'd like-”

“Sorry,” Gosnell said.

“You first,” Makoto blushed.

Gosnell cleared his throat. “I'd like to see you again...” he mumbled. “For fucks sake, I'm an omnipotent super-being and I can't even ask a girl out...”

Makoto giggled. “I would too.” She sighed a bit. “However, my line of work would make it a bit hard to give you my phone number.”

Gosnell shrugged. “That's not how we roll. Just whenever you want me around, just ask.”

“Just ask?”

Gosnell nodded. “Just ask.”

Makoto smiled. “I will.”

“Until next time,” Gosnell smiled before snapping his fingers and vanishing, setting off security alarms in the process.

IN ORBIT OVER BETAZED, STARDATE 62805.2 - PRESENT DAY

“Establishing standard orbit, sir,” Ikuhara reported.

Ranma nodded, standing, and adjusting his uniform, Shampoo stood with him. He turned to Minako and Kaii.

“Has Starfleet Security contacted us yet?” Ranma asked.

Kaii nodded. “They have. Lt. Pan is ready to beam up on your command.”

Ranma acknowledged Kaii and tapped his communicator. “Saotome to Gras, please meet us in transporter room one.”

“On my way,” Jitsia cheerfully replied.

Ranma turned to Minako as he and Shampoo stepped into the turbolift.

“You have the bridge, Commander.”

Ranma and Shampoo arrived at transporter room one to find Jitsia waiting next to the operator's console. Ranma smiled to her and nodded to the Chief Petty Officer manning the station.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Commander,” he apologized.

“Not at all, sir,” she replied. “Just got here myself.”

“Excited?” Shampoo asked.

Jitsia nodded. “Yes, though...” she trailed off a bit.

“Though?” Ranma asked.

“Though,” Jitsia continued, “this is just a reminder that my time here is limited.”

Ranma placed a hand on Jitsia’s shoulder and squeezed it gently.

“Energize,” he ordered.

The transporter chief compiled and after a couple of seconds, Lt. Pan and his belongings appeared on the transporter pad.

Pan was an interesting looking character. Short, about 170 cm tall. Though what he lacked in height he overcompensated for in muscle mass. Ranma wondered if he took lessons from Ryoga. The man looked like he could take a crossbeam of the Sisko and bend it with his bare hands.

He was a Betazoid, a race that, in general, doesn’t choose military or security for their careers. They’re a passive, friendly, peace-loving race. One of the reasons their planet was so easily occupied by the Dominion during the war.

This man, however, had soldier written all over him. Likely one of the reasons Jitsia chose him.

Ranma had done some checking. His record was spotless. He’d been awarded several times for actions during the war, so much so that he was allowed to choose his next assignment, which of course was part of the peacekeeping mission to his home world which oversaw the withdrawal of Dominion forces.

Pan looked around for a moment, then stepped forward, outstretching his hand towards Ranma.

“Captain,” he greeted, his voice deep and authoritative, “it’s nice to meet you. I’m Lt. Darrius Pan.”

Ranma shook the Lieutenant’s hand, nearly grimacing at his death grip. “It’s nice to meet you, Lieutenant. This is my executive officer, Commander Shampoo.”

Shampoo also took Pan’s hand and shook it. Shampoo did grit her teeth as Pan nearly crushed her hand.

“Welcome aboard Sisko,” she whimpered.

Pan nodded, then turned to Jitsia. He took her hand and shook it. Jitsia bit her lip over the man’s grip before speaking. “Lieutenant, it’s good to finally meet you face to face.”

“You as well, Commander,” he said, snapping to attention. “I’ve heard and read so many good things about you. I will do my very best to not let you down.”

Jitsia smiled as she shook her head. “Based on your service record, I don’t think that will be an issue at all.”

Pan nodded. “Thank you, ma’am.”

“Please,” Jitsia laughed. “Just ‘Commander’ will be fine. ‘Ma’am’ makes me feel old.”

Pan, for the first time, maybe ever, smiled slightly.

“Yes, Commander.”

Ranma motioned for Pan to gather his stuff and follow him and Shampoo. He did and the four walked out into the corridor.

“On your ship,” Ranma explained as they headed towards the turbolift, “you’ll have officers’ quarters up in the NSO Operations Center. However, ours is a little crowded right now, so the Miyazaki crew will be assigned our spare junior officer’s quarters on deck five.”

Ranma sighed a bit. “They’re nothing fancy, but you won’t have to share as we don’t run with a full crew, so we have plenty to go around.”

“During the war I spent two weeks in a Cardassian controlled cave,” Pan said. “So, I think I can manage, sir.”

Ranma smirked. Pan’s eyes shifted slightly to Jitsia, who seemed to be frowning.

“Is something wrong, Commander?” he asked.

Jitsia looked over to him. “Hrm?”

“You seem upset.”

“Oh,” Jitsia blinked. She’d totally forgotten that her recruit was an empath. She was going to have to remember to reign in her emotions around him.

“I guess I am just upset that everyone I know was able to contribute something and...” she rolled her eyes, realizing how stupid she was probably sounding, “...I hadn’t even enrolled in the Academy yet.”

“That not really your fault,” Shampoo pointed out.

Ranma nodded. “Besides, who knows what might have happened. Perhaps your destiny is to be one of a peacekeeper, rather than that as a ‘peacemaker’.”

Pan nodded as well.

Jitsia grinned, content with looking at things that way.

The four continued on, chit-chatting as they took the turbolift up to deck five and down to where Pan would be staying.

EARTH - ABOUT THE SAME TIME

“ADMIRAL!!!!!” an Ensign in one of Starfleet’s Sol control rooms screamed out.

An Andorian Admiral, who was half asleep at her desk, nearly fell over backwards before she managed to upright herself and stomped out of her office and down towards the Ensign who now had several other ensigns around him trying to decipher the blinking lights and beeping noises on his terminal.

“Report!” the Admiral barked.

“We appear to have a quantum slipstream signature forming about 4,000 kilometers from Earth Space Dock!”

The Admiral’s antenna shot straight up.

“That ain’t good,” she mumbled. She spun around to another set of terminals. “GET THE DEFENSE FLEET HERE NOW!” she screamed before spinning to another set of terminals. “EVACUATE THE SPACE DOCK!”

Alarms in the center began to blare as the Admiral ran from terminal to terminal, checking readings. She eventually hit her commbadge.

“Steen to Admiral James, you need to get down here ASAP.”

“On my way,” Starfleet’s Chief of Staff, Fleet Admiral Kevin James replied.

“THE SLIPSTREAM IS OPENING!!!!!” one of the ensigns screamed.

“SIX KUNO SPHERES!” another called out.

“The defense fleet?” The admiral asked.

“One minute,” was the reply.

The Andorian grumbled. James beamed in and looked around, nearly being knocked over by someone running past him.

“What the hell is going on?” he asked.

“It appears the Kunos are attacking Earth,” Steen replied.

“What?” James mumbled.

“ANOTHER SLIPSTREAM IS FORMING 6,000 KILOMETERS ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE PLANET!!!!!!!!” another ensign yelled.

“For fucks sake,” Steen grumbled. She looked to James. “We need more ships.”

James nodded and turned to a group of ensigns. “Get the Vulcan Defense Task Force here pronto!”

“Aye!”

“Terran Defense Force has engaged the spheres!” someone called out.

In space, the eight Starfleet ships permanently assigned to the defense of the Sol System broke formation and began to attack the Kuno spheres which had slowly began to make their way towards Earth Space Dock.

Starfleet, wary of any Kuno traps thanks to their encounter at the prison, were keeping their distance. However, when the first sphere exploded and no gravity well was formed, the defense fleet began to get more aggressive.

Unbeknownst to them, their overconfidence was the trap.

The goal was not to attack Earth or invade, but to distract the defense fleet.

The Jem’Hadar were good at using their soldiers as cannon fodder. The Kunos, though, had perfected the practice.

“THE SECOND SLIPSTREAM IS OPENING!” someone screamed.

“TIME ON THE SECOND FLEET?” James barked.

“ELEVEN MINUTES!”

“Shit,” James silently swore.

“KUNO CUBE!”

“Shit indeed,” Steen sighed.

The two admirals looked to the tactical display on the room’s main viewscreen. Neither liked the position they were in. If any of the ships went off by themselves to attack the cube, they would be easily obliterated. If they all went, the spheres would be left alone to destroy the space dock and kill the still remaining 10,000 or so people left on it.

“Sir,” a confused ensign reported. “The cube appears to be moving away from Earth at one fifth impulse.”

“Away?” Steen asked.

“Yeah,” he replied. “To... nowhere in particular.”

James eyed the viewer intently. “What the hell are they doing?”

“Sir...” the ensign started to sweat. “I’m reading massive anti-tachyons readings coming from the cube.”

“Anti-tach-” James was cut off by the cube disappearing.

“Where’d...” Steen asked.

Both admirals looked at each other in confusion before both turning towards a group of ensigns.

“WHERE’D THAT SHIP GO?” they yelled in unison.

“I...” the ensign stammered. “I don’t know, but I am reading a lot of anti-tachyons and chroniton radiation where they used to be.”

Another looked to the admirals. “No debris. They weren’t destroyed.”

The group continued to work on figuring out what happened. Eventually the second fleet arrived and helped to finish off the remainder of the spheres before moving to where the cube was and began running scans.

About thirty minutes into the investigation, an older man in civilian clothes came into the room, flanked by two Starfleet Intelligence officers.

“Admiral,” he called down to James.

James and Steen looked towards him.

“Yes?” James responded.

“Hello. I’m Rene Anders with the Department of Temporal Investigations. I think I may have an answer to your missing ship,” he frowned.

The Kuno Cube exploded into space in essentially the same place it had disappeared from mere seconds earlier; about four thousand kilometers from Earth.

Kodachi shoved her brother out of the way as she bounded towards a window. She looked out and towards the blue and white planet nearby.

“It looks just like it,” she stammered.

Tatewaki walked to the window and looked as well, cocking his head slightly. “Did we actually go anywhere?”

George began to check the readings on one of the terminals. “Oh yes,” he grinned. “There’s not a Starfleet ship or facility to be seen.” He laughed loudly as he continued, drawing a smile from Kodachi. “There’s no lunar bases, there are very few communications satellites, and there are certainly no orbital defenses.”

Kodachi cackled as she bounced back over to George and hugging him, Tatewaki slowly following behind, a little sad that he didn’t get a hug. “Put us in orbit then!” she instructed George. “We need to meet our...” she grinned devilishly to both George and Tatewaki. “...partners.”

“Is Queen Metalia okay?” Nephrite asked Kunzite as the pair got out of Nephrite’s car and began walking into the park where they had told the Kunos that they would meet them.

Kunzite nodded. “The power drain weakened her,” he sighed, “but once we have the silver crystal, it will be a non-issue replenishing that power.”

Nephrite gritted his teeth as he nodded. “It will not take Beryl long to realize we disobeyed her.”

Kunzite agreed. “This is why we need to deal with her quickly.”

“Deal with her?”

Kunzite grabbed Nephrite’s shoulder, stopping him, and spinning him around so that he was facing the elder General.

“Beryl cares more about her own ego than she does anything else,” he explained. “She wants to succeed, but if success comes at the price of her being disobeyed, she will accept failure to ensure that she remains in control.”

Nephrite sighed and slowly nodded.

“We tell her what we’ve done,” Kunzite said, resuming his walking. “If she decides what I know she will decide, well...” he trailed off and shrugged.

Nephrite said nothing as the pair made it to the middle of the park as Kodachi, George and Tatewaki materialized, surrounded by a half-dozen Tatewaki drones.

The two Negaverse generals looked the group over curiously as George shook his head and mumbled.

“Why did you bring the drones...”

“There may have been treacherous land mammals,” Tatewaki proudly replied.

George began to inhale, as to reply, but chose not to and just shook his head again as Kodachi stepped forward.

“Hello,” she smugly grinned. “I am Kodachi Kuno, mistress of the Noble House of Kuno. These are my brothers, Tatewaki and George.”

Both Kunzite and Nephrite looked to George oddly.

“I’m adopted,” George groaned.

The pair accepted the explanation and bowed slightly. “As I said before, I’m Nephrite,” Nephrite said as he turned to his partner, “and this is my associate, Kunzite.”

The three Kunos nodded to the pair.

“We appreciate you answering our call for assistance,” Kunzite said. “Some force must have guided us to you for both Nephrite and I too have seen your ship in our visions.”

Kodachi nodded. “It would be too big of a coincidence for that to happen otherwise.”

George stepped forward, past his sister and looked the Generals over. “I don’t know if they have bothered asking, but I will. What’s in this for us?”

Kodachi looked to George frumpily as Kunzite sighed. “Well, your sister tells us the only thing stopping you in your dimension is a ‘Starfleet’. That apparently doesn’t exist here yet, so I assume the answer to your question is ‘anything you want’.”

Nephrite nodded. “The only thing we ask for is the Earth, and... well basically this solar system.”

George pondered this for a moment. Let them have the Sol system, and the Kunos could have their way with pretty much the rest of the galaxy. It seemed like a fair trade.

Of course, he knew that his siblings had every intention of backstabbing them, but for now if that was the deal they wanted, he could live with it.

George outstretched his hand. “I hope this will be the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship.”

First Kunzite then Nephrite shook George’s hand. Kunzite then cleared his throat.

“We do have a small issue with... our boss, however.”

* * * *

The Sisko dropped out of warp at the edge of the Sol system. Ranma, who was in a state of not quite asleep, not quite awake while sitting in his chair was nearly sent flying as three people called out for him simultaneously.

“Captain,” Shampoo, Makoto, and Minako all called.

“Yes?” Ranma asked, wiping the drool off his face.

The three all began to speak at once. Ranma sighed and waved his hands, silencing them. He then turned to Shampoo.

“Earth currently set to security zone,” Shampoo reported. “We no can get closer than Mars.”

Ranma blinked. “Why?”

Makoto spoke up next. “Probably has to do with the sixteen ships from both the Terran and Vulcan defense fleets that are there.”

“What the hell?” Ranma blinked again.

Minako chimed in now. “Commander Ishran has sent us a message saying that he took a Runabout to Titan so we wouldn’t have to deal with the blockade to pick him up.”

Ranma smirked. “That was thoughtful.” Ranma turned to helm. “Ensign Ikuhara, please adjust our heading.”

“Aye,” Ikuhara replied.

The Sisko nonchalantly impulsed her way through the solar system till she got to Saturn and established an orbit around the gas giant’s most populated moon.

Once there, Ranma and Shampoo again made their way down to the transporter room. Unlike before, however, they were not beaten there by Commander Gras.

In fact, they had to wait several minutes for Jitsia to show up. Both the Captain and the XO noticed that Jitsia looked quite different than she did when they were picking up Lt. Pan. Where she seemed quite excited to see him, now she seemed almost...

...reluctant.

They hoped it was, as she said, just a touch of sadness that the training of her NSO teams was a sign that she’d be leaving soon, rather than something deeper.

Ranma nodded to the transporter chief.

“Energize.”

A suitcase and 180 cm tall Bolian male appeared on the transporter pad. Ranma and Shampoo smiled to him. However, unlike Pan, he did not go over to greet the Captain first.

“Gras!” he called out, nearly running over to Jitsia, and hugging her, lifting her off the deck slightly. Jitsia slowly hugged him back. “It’s so good to see you again,” the Bolian smiled.

“Good to see you too, Siohxx,” Jitsia softly replied.

Lt. Commander Siohxx Ishran pulled away, sized Jitsia up for a moment, then turned to Ranma. He grabbed the Captain’s hand and shook it fiercely. “Captain Saotome, I presume?”

Ranma nodded. “Indeed. And this is my executive officer, Commander Shampoo.”

Siohxx grabbed Shampoo’s hand and shook it too. “I’m Lt. Commander Siohxx Ishran. It’s wonderful to meet you both. Thank you for allowing me to train aboard your ship!”

Ranma nodded and smiled. “It’s no problem. I am sure you will learn a lot. Our guys are very good at what they do.”

Siohxx smiled. “I sure hope Gras hasn’t been too much of a lead weight!” He laughed as elbowed Jitsia slightly.

Both Shampoo and Ranma chuckled uncomfortably as Jitsia grinned ever so slightly.

“I was a good friend of Gras’ before her previous host sadly died,” Siohxx explained, sighed. “Some weird Trill genetic disorder-”

“Carat’s Syndrome...” Jitsia mumbled.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Siohxx nodded. “Only affects the males though, so this one should be fine.”

Shampoo’s eyes drifted towards Ranma as Siohxx smiled at Jitsia and patted her on the head, almost as if she was a pet.

“Just really nice to be working with you again,” he smiled. “Thank you for the opportunity.”

Jitsia simply nodded.

“Well,” Ranma said, trying to end what was obviously a very uncomfortable situation for Jitsia, “shall we show you your quarters?”

Siohxx nodded and grabbed his bag. As the four headed to the turbolift, Ranma explained the situation with the quarters. Eventually they reached Siohxx’s.

“There’s an introductory briefing at 09:00,” Jitsia explained. “Deck A conference room.”

Siohxx nodded. “We should have dinner.”

“I-I can’t tonight.”

Siohxx looked to Jitsia with a very disapproving look. He relented, however. “Another time then. I would like to catch up, old friend.”

Jitsia, again, just nodded.

The door closed, and Jitsia walked off towards the turbolift.

“Commander?” Ranma called out.

Jitsia continued to walk, either ignoring or oblivious to Ranma.

“Shampoo not the only one who see that, right?” Shampoo asked.

Ranma shook his head as his eyes followed Jitsia down the corridor till she rounded a bend.

“No, Shampoo, you are certainly not.”

Anthony walked into the NSO gym and looked around. He liked it when it was empty. No one there to judge him for singing along to his Spice Girls mixtape.

Anthony quickly put in his earbuds, hopped on the treadmill, and started running. Fast.

“IF YOU WANNA BE MY LOVER-”

“YOU GOTTA GET WITH MY FRIENDS!” Kio yelled into his ear.

Anthony jumped about two meters into the air before coming back down with a crash. Kio laughed as Anthony hopped up and started screaming.

“GOD-FUCKING-DAMMIT KIO!” he swore. “What the hell are you trying to do?!”

“What?” she continued to laugh, helping him up. “I assumed you wanted a duet.”

“Where were you hiding?”

“I wasn’t hiding, I was doing crunches on the floor right there!” she said, pointing to a mat next to the weight equipment.

“I did not see anyone doing crunches,” Anthony growled.

“That’s probably because I only did one,” Kio mumbled, “and it hurt like hell, so I didn’t do anymore and was just lying there. Then you came in and started singing.”

Anthony was about to say something else, but then grew concerned. “What hurts?”

“My battle wound.” Kio smirked.

Anthony cocked his head. “I thought you got that taken care of?”

Kio shrugged. “Apparently if you don’t take care of a second-degree disruptor burn right away, it scars pretty badly,” she said, pulling her shirt up and showing Anthony a pretty wicked scar about 15 cm across and 3 cm high right above her navel.

“Ewww,” Anthony said, squatting down to inspect it closer. “No man is going to want you now.”

Kio rolled her eyes. “Dudes dig scars.”

“Chicks dig scars,” Anthony corrected her. “And unless you’ve changed your mind on Commander Hino-”

Anthony, almost immediately, found himself upside down and in the middle of a weight rack. Kio walked over to him and poked him on the forehead.

“You’re begging for a scar yourself, bucko.”

“Maybe if I had one, you’d stop playing hard to get,” Anthony mumbled.

Kio looked Anthony over. “You know that’s not why I-”

“I think you’re just using protocol as an excuse,” he interrupted.

“An excuse?”

Anthony righted himself and nodded. “You’re scared.”

Kio just eyed Anthony.

“Of the two situations, which do you think is worse,” Anthony asked, “marrying Nik but knowing you would eventually lose him, or never marrying him at all?”

“Why are you bringing Nik into this?” Kio growled.

“Because I am trying to make you understand that I would rather be with you, knowing there is a risk I could lose you, than not be with you at all,” Anthony said. He sighed a bit before shaking his head. “Because if I lost you, regardless, it would still hurt like hell.”

Kio ran her hand across the top of Anthony’s head.

“The Captain said it was okay too,” he added.

“For fucks sake, Tony,” Kio laughed. “You told the Captain about us?”

“I asked for an OCS recommendation,” Anthony sighed. “But he kind of coerced me into confessing why I really wanted to go.”

“Wow,” Kio smiled. “I don’t know if I have the balls to tell the Captain I wanted to go to OCS just so I could get laid.”

Anthony scoffed. “Trust me, if that’s all I wanted from you, it’d be done by now.”

Kio rolled her eyes.

“Lemme see your scar again,” Anthony requested.

Kio pulled her shirt up slightly. Anthony looked around before grabbing Kio’s waist. He moved in close, Kio closing her eyes, when suddenly the door opened, and Lt. Parker walked in.

Anthony flung himself backwards, growling to himself. Parker, hearing the noise, turned in that direction to see Kio with her shirt pulled up to just below her bra.

“Oh hi,” he said. He noticed Kio’s stomach. “WHOA!!!!” he called out. “WICKED SCAR!!!”

Parker nearly flew over to inspect it closer. Kio, not sure if she should be offended that she was now being manhandled by the Alpha Team Lieutenant or not, smirked at Anthony as her ‘dudes dig scars’ theory was proven correct.

“Is that from the Breen or from when Commander Gras shot you?”

“It’s from the Breen disruptor, but I’m sure Commander Gras’s shot didn’t help matters any,” Kio chuckled.

Parker looked it over a bit more before removing his own shirt.

“Check this one out,” he said, pointing towards a long scar that ran down the left side of his torso from his armpit to nearly where his leg began.

“Damn,” Kio whistled.

“Yeah,” Parker nodded. “Freaking Jem’Hadar Houdini mine exploded. The mine wasn’t so bad, but it blew apart an already damaged bulkhead.” Parker shook his head. “I had about twenty-three different shards of the U.S.S. Darmount in me.”

“Ouch,” Anthony mumbled.

“You know, at that point it doesn’t really hurt anymore,” Parker laughed. He put his shirt back on and headed towards a weight machine. “You guys should get Yayo to show you the plasma burn scar on her thigh.” He smirked slightly. “I’m not going to comment on how I know about that one.”

Both Anthony and Kio eyed Parker for a moment before standing and running for the door, deciding to track down their medic for interrogation.

* * * *

Beryl was furious. Her Generals had gone behind her back and used Metalia’s energy anyway, weakening her. In turn, Beryl had used some of her own power to make sure she was okay.

Metalia seemed to be fine, regardless, so it wasn’t really the energy drain Beryl was angry about.

It was the blatant insubordination.

She halfway expected that kind of backstabbery from Nephrite, but Kunzite seemed loyal. He seemed like someone she could count on. Someone she could trust to do her bidding without question and without hesitation.

Not only had she been betrayed, but she had been proven wrong.

Neither act of treason would be allowed to stand.

The Negaverse Queen heard footsteps approach her throne room. She laughed as she shook her head.

“So,” she said as she continued to laugh, “you two have the gall to show yourselves to me after what you’ve done?”

Nephrite and Kunzite walked into the throne room. The pair bowed, drawing an irritated scoff from Beryl, before speaking.

“What we’ve done,” Kunzite explained, “is guaranteed victory for the Dark Kingdom.”

“By trying to kill our master?” Beryl asked.

“It took less than a third of her energy,” Kunzite growled. “She did not resist. She understood what we were doing and what we could accomplish by doing it. Surely with that kind of support-”

“Shut up,” Beryl snapped. “I run things here, not you. It’s not your decision to make.”

“Why are you being blinded by your own narcissism?” Nephrite asked. “Do you not see the power we now hold?”

“NARCISSISM?” Beryl screamed, standing.

“Oh boy,” Kunzite grumbled turning and making a motioning gesture with his hand.

Beryl fired an energy blast at Nephrite, which the two Generals barely avoided. She readied another one but halted just prior to firing it as her attention was drawn towards the doorway.

There she saw, two by two, a dozen Tatewaki drones march in.

“WHO ARE THEY?” she screamed, firing a blast at the drones, obliterating the first six.

The Nephrite and Kunzite, who expected the Kuno drones to be invincible, gritted their teeth slightly at the scorch marks on the ground that used to be their backup. The remaining six continued towards Beryl.

Beryl fired another shot, destroying them.

“Really?” she asked Kunzite.

Kunzite didn’t have any words. However, before anyone could say anything else, another twenty-four drones beamed in. They began marching towards Beryl, being blown to smithereens, just like their predecessors. Again, another twenty-four beamed in. Again, they were blown to bits.

The cannon-fodder was effective, though. Beryl was tiring. She was using a lot of energy killing the Kuno drones. As well, the Kunos had a method to their madness.

The next batch that beamed down was simply six, as well as Tatewaki, George and Kodachi.

Tatewaki, being the hot head that he was, ran full steam towards Beryl.

“CURSE YOU VILE WOMAN!!!!!!!!!” he screamed.

A blob of Negaverse energy nailed him, sending him crashing into the rear wall.

“That hurt, you know...” he whimpered.

Beryl’s eyes widened. She fired her energy blast at the Kuno drones, however it hit them and dissipated.

“We’ve adapted to your attacks,” George explained, stepping in front of Nephrite, and taking a shot that was intended for him. “You are incapable of harming us.”

“I SHALL SMITE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Tatewaki screamed, charging at Beryl.

“Tate, no,” Kodachi ordered.

Tatewaki stopped, a few meters from Beryl’s throne. “Why? Why won’t you let me smite anyone?” he whimpered.

“She belongs to our partners,” Kodachi smiled, helping Kunzite to his feet. “We’ll put her in a stasis chamber and when we’re done, they can do with her as they see fit.”

Beryl simply scowled at both Nephrite and a smugly grinning Kunzite as she is swarmed by Kuno drones and injected with a sedative.

“Where will you keep her?” Nephrite asked.

“Our ship will be the safest place,” George replied. “She’ll be unable to tap any of the power sources down here from there.” He grinned a bit sadistically. “She’ll just be like any other trapped lady.”

“May we see your ship?” Kunzite asked.

Kodachi smiled and nodded. “I don’t see why not.”

George gritted his teeth. “We should probably tidy up a bit first...”

“Are you calling the noble Cube of Kuno, unkempt?” Tatewaki asked, drawing his bokken.

“Yes,” George nodded.

Kuno began to stammer out a response, but then remembered the closet he’d been living in for the past two years.

“It could use some vacuuming.”

“That will be fine. While you’re doing that, we’ll set up a trap for the Senshi,” Nephrite said.

“The who?” George asked.

“Those hookers in the short skirts,” Kodachi sighed.

“What?” George asked again, realizing that he probably should read up more on what’s going on.

“Very sexy,” Tatewaki added.

Nephrite looked to Kunzite with some concern.

“I’ll explain on the ship,” Kodachi sighed.

“They had me at ‘short skirts’,” Tatewaki acknowledged.

“That wasn’t even you, that was Father,” Kodachi growled.

“Great minds and all,” he replied.

George looked to Nephrite and Kunzite who were still watching the trio with great concern. He walked over to them, herding them away from Tatewaki and Kodachi, before handing them a couple of items.

“First off, here,” he smiled. “These communicators will allow you to call our ship. Secondly, these are micro-transport enhancers. Incase these people were fighting have some sort of ‘magic’ energy field our transporters can’t punch through, that will help.”

“There are things your technology can’t get through?” Nephrite asked, shocked.

George shrugged as Kodachi and Tatewaki started fighting behind him.

“To explain the exact details of how the transporters work would take hours, but generally anything that disrupts the signal from the ship will cause the transport to fail, unless you have something on the other end to support it.”

“Makes sense,” Kunzite nodded.

George smugly grinned. “Our technology isn’t infallible, but nonetheless, I think our partnership is likely to yield some very positive results.”

STARDATE 48950
THE SETLIK SYSTEM; CARDASSIAN DEMILITARIZED ZONE

Makoto sighed. It was always - ALWAYS - raining when she needed to wait for someone.

“Hey beautiful,” a voice called out from behind her.

Makoto jumped slightly, then turned around. Behind her was Gosnell, dressed in casual clothes like Makoto’s. Makoto smiled at him before leaning in and kissing him.

The pair kissed for a good thirty seconds before Makoto quickly tapped her arm.

“I probably shouldn’t record us talking,” she smiled.

“You would think they wouldn’t mind you hanging out with me,” Gosnell smirked.

Makoto shrugged.

“How much stuff do you have implanted in your arm anyway?” he asked.

Makoto looked down at the underside of her left forearm. “A communicator, a transport enhancer, a recording device and...” she paused and looked to Gosnell with her teeth gritted for a moment.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Well, there’s what I call the ‘Oh shit, everything’s gone terribly wrong’ button,” she explained.

“What’s that do?”

Makoto scratched her head before smiling softly. “It turns me into a bomb.”

Gosnell blinked. “I don’t care for that one...” He looked to her arm. “How do you keep from accidentally triggering it?”

“It has to be hit simultaneously with one implanted in my mouth.”

Gosnell nodded. “I shall have to use care with my tongue then.”

Makoto laughed.

“I was thinking,” Gosnell continued, “you should get me tattooed on your arm, so when you do call for your ship, it will look like you’re poking me in the belly. Like the Pillsbury Doughboy.”

“I don’t have a clue what that is,” Makoto admitted.

“You and I need to sit down and watch some classical Earth entertainment sometime,” Gosnell sighed.

Makoto grinned, nodded, and kissed Gosnell again. A beeping suddenly started to come from a device in her pocket.

“The people I am meeting are nearly here,” she sighed.

Gosnell nodded and disappeared. Makoto reactivated her recording device and leaned up against the wall of the prefabricated building where she was meeting the Maquis that she had spent the last couple of months infiltrating.

“Lieutenant Chen?” a woman calls out.

Makoto looks around. “Yes?”

Makoto is quickly tackled by two men and slammed to the ground.

“Please, Lieutenant, don’t resist” the woman’s voice called. “This is just precautionary.”

Makoto nodded slowly as a third man came and began to run his tricorder over her, while patting her down.

“Lieutenant Chen was my Starfleet designation,” Makoto grumbled. “I am fairly certain I am not welcome back there, so just Yumi will be fine.”

“Fair enough, Yumi,” the woman replied.

“She’s clean,” the third man reported.

The two men who had tackled Makoto helped her to her feet.

“Sorry,” one whispered. “Starfleet Intelligence has been trying to infiltrate us for the past three years.”

Makoto nodded. “All things considered; you’d think they’d be trying to help us.”

The woman, a human, walked over and sized Makoto up. “Us?” she grinned. “Well, we’ll see if you’re truly one of us if this virus of yours works.”

“I was one the lead programmers of the new defensive turrets that Starfleet is deploying,” Makoto sighed. “I’m fairly certain that I can make a virus that will shut it down.

“Besides,” Makoto continued, “you can ask Adrian. I’ve been helping gather supplies and provisions for the Maquis for the last two months since I abandoned my post.”

“And why did you do that?” the woman asked.

Makoto rolled her eyes. “Same reason everyone else did. It sickens me that the Federation would give Federation worlds to the Cardassians, and I think it’s both our right and our duty to fight for them.”

The woman nods approvingly.

“Just because these planets are not, nor never been my home doesn’t mean I am going to ignore the oath I took as a Starfleet officer to defend them from all threats,” Makoto stated.

“Foreign or domestic,” she added.

The woman again nodded, moving closer to Makoto. “Where’s the virus?”

“In my bag,” Makoto said, pointing to a small satchel sitting on the ground. The woman bent down and picked up the bag. She opened it and pulled out both an isolinear chip and a picture.

On the picture was Makoto, an older man, and an older woman, all in Starfleet Engineering uniforms.

Makoto looked at it and frowned slightly. “Oh...”

The woman looked to Makoto for an explanation.

“Yeah, my parents work on the Gallant Shipyards. I was kinda hoping in exchange for the virus, I could get it taken off any target list.”

The woman smiled to Makoto. “Don’t worry. Right now, our targets only include observation posts and supply depots.”

Makoto sighed in relief, taking the picture, and holding it tightly to her chest.

The woman put the isolinear chip in her pocket and patted Makoto on the shoulder.

“Thank you, Yumi. You’ve quite possibly turned the movement in our favor with this action.”

“I certainly hope so,” Makoto smiled back.

“Give Adrian my best,” the woman waved as she and her group walked off. Makoto nodded before turning and walking in her own direction. She made her way to a forested area before moving her hand to her arm.

Before she could call for transport, though, she disappeared and reappeared in her Runabout.

“Damn transporter takes too long,” Gosnell complained.

Makoto chuckled as she took a seat at the helm. Gosnell walked up and sat down next to her, dodging the crumpled-up picture that she was throwing towards the trash receptacle.

“So, what does that computer program really do?” Gosnell asked.

“Well,” Makoto said, powering up the small craft and setting it on a course to meet its mothership, “it actually does what I said it does. If it didn’t, they would notice that and realize it was a fake.”

Gosnell blinked. “So, you gave them a virus that could shut down the Federation’s orbital defenses?”

Makoto nodded. “Yup.”

Gosnell cocked his head slightly as the ship exited the Badlands and went to warp. “There’s more, isn’t there?”

“Yup,” Makoto smiled, turning to him. “Before sending the signal to the orbital defenses, it sends a command to the ship it’s running on, instantly triggering the self-destruct.”

Gosnell blinked. “Wow.”

Makoto nodded.

“That seems a bit...” Gosnell paused for a moment. “Harsh.”

Makoto sighed. “Those people are terrorists, and they need to be dealt with harshly.” She leaned forward as she spoke. “They don’t want to bypass those platforms so they can buy the people on those stations candy, Gosnell. They WILL kill them.”

Gosnell still wasn’t sure if he was cool with summary execution, but he accepted Makoto’s reasoning.

He loved her, and he knew she was a good person, and a good person would not do bad things unless there was a good reason for it.

Gosnell smiled and took Makoto’s hands.

Makoto looked to her terminal. “We have about two hours before we reach the Minneapolis,” she said, eying Gosnell devilishly. “Wanna play cards?”

Gosnell narrowed his gaze. “Yes.”

Rei was in her quarters, seated at her desk, glaring at the stacks of PADDs with disdain. She knew that the stacks were her own fault, but the only way around it was to do paperwork more often.

She wasn’t sure which was the more unbearable option.

“Maybe I should make Kio do it?” she asked herself. “Teach her what it’s really like being an officer.”

Rei laughed out loud at her own musings before her door chime went off.

“Crap, she heard me,” Rei smirked as she stood. “Come in!”

Rei was a little shocked when she saw Jitsia standing in the doorway, meekly looking in for her.

“Jitsia?” Rei asked.

Jitsia slowly stepped in and allowed the door to close behind her. The Miyazaki Commander was dressed in her camo duty pants, boots and a workout shirt. Her hair looked quite unkempt, not tied back in her trademark pigtails, but rather loose and seemingly just dangling. Rei noticed that she didn’t seem to have any makeup on either.

Scratch that, she HAD some on, but appears to have cried it off...

“Hey,” Jitsia quietly mumbled.

“Are you okay?” Rei asked, hoping up so fast that she knocked her chair over, and rushing over to Jitsia.

“No,” Jitsia admitted.

Jitsia slowly shuffled over to Rei’s bed and sat down on the edge of it. Rei ran over to her replicator and made the pair some tea before walking over to Jitsia and handing her a glass. She quickly sat down next to her and watched her slowly sip a couple of sips before slamming the cup onto the deck plating.

“What’s going on?” Rei asked, scooting closer to Jitsia.

“My ship isn’t even built yet and I’ve already destroyed my NSO team,” she said, her voice breaking.

“I don’t understand,” Rei replied.

Jitsia never turned to look to Rei, instead just looked towards the broken teacup on the deck.

“I brought someone on based totally on personal feelings, rather than any kind of skill they had.”

Rei squirmed as she pondered this for a moment. “I’m sure we can reevaluate her and-”

“It’s Commander Ishran,” Jitsia stated, looking to Rei.

Rei looked back, confused.

Jitsia ran her hands through her hair and shook her head. “I picked him because I am in love with him.”

Rei stammered a bit. “Whu...”

Jitsia, either ignoring or oblivious to Rei’s mumbling turned back to her. “I can’t imagine that anyone has ever had to deal with this,” she said, quietly. “Being in love with someone they aren’t attracted to, or even know.”

Rei scooted even closer to Jitsia as the blonde shook her head in frustration. “This is really unfair, as I have absolutely no interest in him, but...”

“Then how...” Rei started.

“Gras,” Jitsia explained. “Gras loves him.”

Rei blinked. “Isn’t the symbiont a male?”

Jitsia shook her head as she rubbed her midsection. “No, they don’t have a sex, and normally their emotional attachments to a previous host’s...” she paused for a moment, “...friends… don’t carry over so strongly.”

Rei put her arm around Jitsia. “So why did you bring him aboard then? You had to know it would hurt.”

Jitsia closed her eyes. “I couldn’t stop myself.” A single tear rolled down her face before she laughed slightly. “In fairness, he is pretty good.”

Rei didn’t laugh as she wrapped both her arms around Jitsia.

“Well,” Rei sighed, “I’ll be here for you, but I guess we’ll just have to get used to him being here.”

Jitsia bit her bottom lip. “Easier said than done.”

“Why?”

“Gras...” Jitsia got quiet for a moment before she slumped down, only Rei’s tight grip keeping her from sliding off the bed.

“Gras is forcing me to think of us. Together.”

“As a couple?” Rei asked.

“No,” Jitsia said, beginning to cry. “Sexually.”

“Oh,” Rei answered.

“You don’t understand,” Jitsia said in between sobs as she turned around and stared into Rei’s eyes. “You were married to a man. You can be attracted to a man.”

Rei’s eyes widened.

“Yeah,” Jitsia nodded, sniffling. “I’m not just open, Rei. I’m a lesbian.”

Jitsia looked back to the floor, blankly staring at her own reflection in the spilt tea. “I’ve never questioned my sexuality. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been attracted to women.”

She turned and looked back to Rei. “I...” she paused for a moment, “To me, the idea of a man touching me in that way... the idea of me touching a man in that way...” she again paused, obvious discomfort on her face. “The idea of a man... in me... It’s...” Jitsia’s face contorts as she spoke her final word, “...repulsive.”

Rei looked to Jitsia for a moment before leaning forward, wiping the tears out of her eyes, and kissing her forehead.

“I will find something that will disqualify him from Black One security clearance,” Rei smiled to Jitsia. “I know Starfleet vetted him, but I am sure I can do a more thorough job.”

Jitsia half-heartedly smiled back. “I know this is good, but it hurts.”

“You love him,” Rei replied. “Kinda.”

Jitsia laughed slightly before grabbing her abdomen in pain.

“Are you okay?” Rei asked.

Jitsia nodded after a moment. “Gras is just making his objections known.”

Rei nodded as Jitsia moved up on the bed, laying down, obvious discomfort on her face. Rei watched her for a while before lying down next to her, making a point to hold her tightly.

The largest table in the lounge was full of what Gosnell would consider ‘rowdy’ customers. On a rowdy scale of one to ten, the group of NSO sitting there, chatting, and laughing would rate probably a three, but considering the usual rowdiness level in the lounge was about a one-point-five, that was pretty darn rowdy.

Gosnell had demanded that his wife send down security to keep an eye on them, to which he had simply gotten sworn at and hung up on, so he realized that if a riot did break out, he’d likely have to deal with it himself.

He wasn’t sure how he’d be able to do that considering the closest thing he had to a weapon was a fire extinguisher, but he’d make do.

“Boss,” one of the waitresses called to him.

“Yes?” Gosnell asked from his position, crouched, yet peering over the bar.

“You do realize that even if they did start fighting, which they aren’t, they would literally kill you, right?” she pointed out.

Gosnell opened his mouth to reply but said nothing.

The waitress nodded. “Okay then. I need three more coffees, two green teas, and five Xindi Root teas, cold.”

Gosnell simply nodded and went to make the order.

At the table, Alpha team, minus Rei was there, all of Bravo team, and Lt. Pan. The entire group was semi combat ready, as the ship was at yellow alert because of whatever happened at Earth, but none of them had their weapons or their vests with them.

Kio and Anthony were both getting a kick out of the consistent glaring their Andorian medic, Ensign Yayo was giving Lt. Parker. The whole incident proving to be more humorous considering it was not a sexual escapade that discovered the scar, but rather a run in at the pool.

“So,” Pan said, nodding a thanks to the waitress as he took his drink, “you guys think I made the right choice?”

All the Sisko NSO soldiers nodded.

“It’s dangerous,” Kio sighed, “but worth it.”

Pan nodded. “I saw the memorial plaque. I’m sorry about your friends.”

The Sisko group nodded a thanks.

“Their losses were not in vain,” Shelton stated. “All of them sacrificed themselves for this ship and the Federation.”

Parker nodded. “Great people.”

Pan raised his glass and took a drink. The doors to the lounge slid open and Ishran walked in. He looked around and noticed the group.

Pan looked up at him as he began to move towards them.

“What’s wrong?” Kio asked.

“Something about Lt. Commander Ishran just doesn’t sit well with me,” Pan admitted.

Kio’s eyes followed the Bolian as he meandered his way around the lounge and to the group’s table.

“Good evening,” he smiled.

“Good evening, Commander,” the group responded.

“Mind if I join you?”

No one objected and Ishran pulled up a chair and sat down next to Pan. Ishran ordered a beer from the waitress, then turned to the group.

“Wow, what’s with all the sissy drinks?” he asked, laughing.

Anthony looked sadly to his coffee as Shelton cleared his throat.

“The ship’s NEO teams are tasked with mutiny suppression,” he explained. “We rotate as to which of the three teams will be ‘off duty’. Right now, both our teams are on duty, so we cannot be drinking.”

“Hrm,” Ishran nodded, seemingly disliking his new job already.

“As well, while at alert status,” Shelton continued, “our primary mission is authority reassertion, so we have to be ready in case we get boarded.”

Ishran chuckled. “I guess the easiest job on this ship then is a security officer if we do all the work!”

A couple of off-duty security officers at a nearby table turned and glared at Ishran before returning to their drinks.

“Everyone has a role, Commander,” Kio mumbled.

“Indeed,” Ishran replied, slurping on his beer. He looked around the group a bit before speaking up again.

“So, where’s Gras and Commander Hino?”

“Commander Hino had a lot of paperwork to catch up on before we got to Earth,” Shelton said. He started to growl a bit as he continued. “I don’t know where COMMANDER Gras is. This wasn’t a mandatory night out.”

Ishran chuckled. “Gras has always been kind of a homebody. I’d always try to get her to come with me to the bar on the Starbase where we were based during the war. Was like pulling the teeth of a feral shelat cat.”

Kio looked to Ishran curiously. “Commander Gras was a teenager during the war.”

Ishran shook his head. “No, no. Not that one. Her previous host, Deka. He died a couple of years ago. I keep forgetting what it’s called. Carrots Disease or something.”

“Carat’s Syndrome?” both Yayo and Masters asked.

“Yeah, yeah,” Ishran nodded. “I was there when Deka died. Gras told me she’d wait for me, and she did.”

Ishran sighed. “Stupid Symbiosis Commission almost got it right too. Put her in a pretty, young girl and everything. Just forgot to ask her if she was a fuzz muncher.”

The entire table stared at Ishran in shock.

“You guys didn’t know?” Ishran asked.

“Not really anyone’s business,” Kio mumbled.

Ishran shrugged. “Well, doesn’t matter. I’m back with my buddy, have a good job and that’s all I care about,” he smiled as he gulped down the rest of his beer and stood. “Guess I’ll see you guys in the morning at the range!”

Ishran patted Pan on the back before walking off, the eyes of every single one of the Sisko NSO members and Pan following him.

“That man is disturbed,” Pan stated bluntly. “We should really keep Commander Gras away from him.”

The rest of the group, knowing full well that Pan could sense what Ishran’s true intentions were, nodded and fully planned to do just that.

Nephrite and Kunzite materialized aboard the Kuno cube to loud ovation from both Kodachi and Tatewaki. Several Kuno drones shot off fireworks and fired confetti cannons into the air in celebration. George simply rested his head in his palm while slowly shaking his head as his two siblings walked over to the two Negaverse generals, smiling.

“WELCOME!” Tatewaki exclaimed, “Welcome, welcome! To the great and noble Cube of Kuno!”

“Please,” Kodachi smiled as a couple of drones rolled out a red carpet for the pair, “make yourselves at home while you are our guests here!”

The Generals looked to each other cautiously, then walked down the path as the drones showered them with black rose pedals. Kodachi and Kuno followed them, with George bringing up the end.

‘Don’t you think you’re going a little overboard?’ George asked Kodachi, via their hive-mind connection.

‘I certainly don’t want them doubting our intentions, do you?’ she responded.

‘I think over-kissing their asses is going to raise doubts,’ George sighed.

‘You question our motives?!’ Tatewaki interjected.

‘Quiet you,’ both George and Kodachi snapped.

Tatewaki simply glowered.

‘Besides, once we smack those ‘Senshi’ around a bit, we will have their full trust,’ Kodachi chuckled.

Kodachi began to cackle loudly, out loud. Both Nephrite and Kunzite turned to her. She blushed and looked to them sheepishly.

“Sorry, was thinking of something I saw on...”

“My Little Pony,” Tatewaki smirked.

“Yes...” Kodachi nodded, reluctantly.

George fought off the urge he had to shoot both of his siblings right there and instead continued to follow them around as they gave the Negaverse pair a very... obtuse... tour of the ship.

Nephrite and Kunzite seemed to be impressed, yet at the same time, were seeming a little apprehensive.

“With all this power,” Kunzite said, looking around the cube’s control room, “it almost seems like you really have no use for us anymore.”

Nephrite nodded a bit. “We trust you, but we’re a little worried that...”

Kunzite chuckled. “That you might just decide to throw us outside and destroy the world on your own.”

Both Tatewaki and Kodachi feigned shock.

“YOU DARE QUESTION THE MORALS AND ETHICS OF THE GREAT KUNO COLLECTIVE?!” Tatewaki bellowed. “Why... Why... I should box your ears for that, you rapscallion!”

George looked to Tatewaki, flabbergasted.

“I am hurt by your words!” Kodachi cried, turning, and running off to sob in the corner. George’s eyes followed her for a moment before he turned back towards Nephrite and Kunzite.

“Despite the overacting by my kin,” he sighed, “they’re ‘right’.” He moved up and patted both Nephrite and Kunzite on the shoulder. “We Kunos may be eccentric and, yes, I’ll admit it, bloodthirsty, but we’re loyal. We’re also true to our word.”

George smiled reassuringly and turned towards the window, which overlooked Earth, off in the distance.

“We agreed to help you defeat the Sailor Senshi and obtain the silver crystal, and we will do just that.”

Kunzite nodded. “Then we will not worry about such things then.”

“Good,” George grinned. He turned back around to face the Generals. “Now, you said you had a trap set up for them?”

Nephrite nodded. “In about one hour there will be a youma attacking a gathering of people for a small concert. The Senshi will assume it’s one of our usual energy-stealing ploys and come to stop us.”

Kunzite chuckles. “Except you guys will be there! We’ll capture their leader, Sailor Moon, and then force them to hand over the Silver Crystal in exchange for her release!”

George nodded. “Hostages. I like the way you guys think.”

“We must prepare,” Nephrite said. “See you in an hour?”

George nodded and beamed Kunzite and Nephrite back to the planet. Kodachi halts her crying and walks over to George.

“Suckers!”

George rolls his eyes. “Just try and keep the melodramatics to a minimum till we have what we need, okay?”

Kodachi sighs and nods. “Since we have an hour, I am going to go find my darling Ranma!”

“OH!” Tatewaki calls out, “and I the pig-tailed girl and Akane Tendo!!”

George, not caring, nods. However, before they beam away, he calls out to them.

“If you happen to see Shampoo, will you tell her I said ‘hi’?”

* * * *

Ranma figured that eventually they would be getting a call from Starfleet Command. He couldn’t imagine that with Earth being declared a ‘security zone’ and the Sisko so close that they wouldn’t somehow be issued orders that had to do with whatever was going on.

It did shock him, though, that it took them as long as it did. It had been almost two days. The Sisko had just been ‘hanging out’ around Titan, waiting to go home.

Finally, they got the call.

Ranma sat down at his computer and activated the terminal. The image of his father that appeared perplexed him.

“Pop?” Ranma asked.

“Hey boy,” Genma replied, a half grin on his face.

“What's wrong?”

“We've sent you on some pretty important missions, yeah?”

Ranma nodded.

“And some pretty strange events have happened, you'd agree?”

Ranma again nodded.

“You've heard of the Department of Temporal Investigations, right?”

“Heard of them, yes,” Ranma replied.

Genma nodded. “Well, they basically monitor space and the timeline to make sure people aren't going around changing history and whatnot, either on purpose or on accident.

“Yesterday they noticed a pretty massive temporal incursion near Earth.”

Ranma looked around. “I don't notice anything different.”

“Neither do I,” Genma agreed. “They don't either, but that's a moot point. They determined that there was also a quantum, inter-dimensional breach.”

“I don't have a clue what the hell you're talking about,” Ranma said.

“I don't either,” Genma admitted. “But the gist of it is that the people who committed the breaches not only went back in time but went into another 'universe'.”

“Is that even possible?”

Genma nodded. “You've heard of the Terran Empire, right?”

Ranma nodded slightly. “Yeah, I forgot about that.”

“There are theories that there are multiple universes running side by side.”

All of this was getting well over Ranma's head. “So, what does this have to do with me?”

“Well,” Genma continued, “prior to the breeches, the Kuno Collective broke a reluctant George Kuno out of a Federation Prison in the Gamma Quadrant.”

“Oh, for God's sake, the Kunos?”

Genma nodded.

“And what do you mean 'reluctant'?”

Genma smirked. “George repeatedly attempted to flee his 'liberators', and even assisted the jailers in attempting to repel them.”

Ranma laughed before understanding why his father brought up the Kuno jail break. “You're not insinuating that the Kuno's caused the breach?”

“No,” Genma frowned. “I'm flat out stating it. The Kuno's caused the breach.”

“Crap.”

“Indeed,” Genma agreed. “The DTI has enough data to be able to replicate the breech and generate it again.”

“Well, that's good,” Ranma smiled.

Genma just looked at Ranma.

“Wait, us?!”

Genma nodded.

“WHY?”

“You guys have had incredible success against the Kunos. As well, the NSO teams might prove useful to potentially fix any damage the Kunos have caused to that universe's timeline.”

Ranma puts his face in his palms. “Do you know when and where they went?”

“No.”

Ranma sighed for almost a full minute. “Hoooooookay. Well, we’re just up the road, so it should only take us about ten minutes to get back there.”

“Great,” Genma smiled. “Also, be aware, a pair of DTI agents will be coming aboard when you arrive to observe and advise.”

Ranma looked to his father, a narrow gaze on his face. “Are you kidding me?”

“Ranma, the protection of-”

“Do you not think I heard this enough from Admiral Larson when we were shipwrecked?” Ranma asked. “I am aware of how important minimizing cultural contamination and the sanctity of the timeline is. I don't need a freaking bureaucrat hovering over me, much less two, questioning everything I do.”

Genma sighed. “It's really out of my hands.”

Ranma groaned. “Like I said, we'll be at Earth in a few minutes.”

“Thank you.”

Ranma nodded and ended the communication. He waited a moment, silently cursing to himself before tapping his communicator. “Saotome to Shampoo.”

“Yes Ranma?”

“Take us to Earth please, full impulse. Also, need senior officers in the conference room ASAP.”

“Aye,” she responded.

“Tell them to bring their 'shocked' faces,” Ranma added.

STARDATE 51357
VALALA (GAMMA QUADRANT/DOMINION SPACE)

There were two acceptable outcomes to this mission. And one very, very unacceptable one. The first acceptable one was that Makoto managed to alter the protein pattern on the Ketracel White, making it poisonous, the second, assuming the computer wouldn’t cooperate she simply destroyed the facility.

Of course, the unacceptable outcome would happen if she got caught.

She would die.

Either at the hands of the Jem’Hadar or her own. Either way, she was not being taken alive.

“Fuck,” she whispered as the computer beeped again. The one they had tried this on from the facility Starfleet had captured was quite a bit more cooperative.

Either the Dominion had seriously upgraded their security, or she was doing something wrong, and she wasn’t sure what.

She was running out of time too. The computer core wasn’t going to be empty forever. Plus, the planet was mined to hell and back, so the Minneapolis had to maintain a strict orbit. There were only so many windows she had to be beamed up.

Hers was closing shortly.

She really wanted to get the protein string changed, rather than just blowing the place up. Poisoning millions of Jem’Hadar would be so much better than simply causing a supply inconvenience.

Makoto looked up. She could hear voices.

In her other ear she could hear her ship. She had two minutes before she would be trapped for sixty.

“Fuck!” she cursed as she again tried to get the computer to comply.

She suddenly felt metal being pushed up against the back of her head.

“Stand up slowly,” a deep voice told her.

Makoto began to stand. As she did, she slowly went for her left arm. The Jem’Hadar with the gun suddenly disappeared and Gosnell grabbed Makoto’s arm.

“Dammit, don’t do that!” he snapped.

Makoto sighed. “I can’t be taken alive.”

“You know I won’t let them keep you,” he whimpered. “NEVER do that!”

Makoto chuckled. “Will you watch the door?”

Gosnell nodded and moved to the door as Makoto resumed her work. After about a minute, and noticing Gosnell snapping his fingers at least twice, she managed to get the protein resequenced.

“Yes!” she cheered.

“Do I even want to know what you’re happy about?” Gosnell asked.

“No,” Makoto shook her head, grabbing her jacket and hitting her transport button.

“Unable to comply,” her earpiece told her.

“Why not?” Makoto scowled, despite knowing.

“No line of sight to ship.”

Makoto sighed. Gosnell shrugged. “I can just snap you up there.”

Makoto shook her head. “I am going to get into trouble if they know I have been bringing you with me,” she sighed.

Gosnell nodded in understanding. “Well, how far do we need to go to get you where you can be beamed out?”

Makoto pulled out a PADD and checked it. “If we move 15 kilometers north of here, they should pass over us in about six minutes.”

Gosnell nodded and zapped the pair to about where he thought they should be. Sadly, however, they ended up in the middle of a small, Jem’Hadar lookout post.

The Jem’Hadar started screaming and shooting, to which Gosnell responded by killing the whole group of thirty at once. Makoto, who had ducked behind Gosnell gripped him tightly.

Gosnell blinked a couple of times.

“I killed them,” he mumbled.

“They were going to kill us,” Makoto said, turning Gosnell around.

Gosnell nodded, and sighed. “I know. I’ve just never taken a life before... I just kind of thought I feel more...”

Gosnell looked to Makoto and placed his forehead to where it was touching hers.

“...remorse.”

Makoto ran her hand through Gosnell’s hair as the Q leaned back and smiled at her.

“I guess, or at least I hope, that if it had been for any other reason than saving you, I would have.”

Makoto kissed Gosnell. “You’re the sweetest person I have ever met. I can’t imagine you hurting a fly in any other circumstance.”

Gosnell smiled.

“Transport available,” Makoto’s earpiece informed her.

“Gotta go,” she smiled.

Gosnell nodded. “See you later.”

Makoto kissed him again, then beamed away.

Gosnell walked up to one of the Jem’Hadar, looked at him for a moment, then kicked him for good measure.

Makoto walked onto the bridge of the Minneapolis and smiled to Giles. “Hiya.”

“MK!” he blinked. “I figured we’d have to wait an hour to see you,” he laughed. “Bloody chunder!”

Makoto shook her head. “Nope. Wasn’t staying down there any longer than I had to.”

“Good, then let’s get the hell out of here,” Giles said. “Take us back to the wormhole!”

The cloaked Minneapolis began to pull out of orbit. Unfortunately, as she was doing so she hit a cloaked tachyon mine, destabilizing her cloak.

“THE CLOAK IS FAILING!” the engineering officer called out.

“That ain’t good,” the executive officer noted.

Giles shook his head as about forty Jem’Hadar ships began to swoop down on them.

“SHIELDS TO FULL! GET US THE HELL OUT OF HERE!” Giles screamed.

“They’ve enacted some kinds of subspace destabilization field!” engineering called out. “I can’t generate a warp field!”

“Balls,” Giles whimpered as countless torpedoes barreled towards the helpless Minneapolis.

Everyone on the bridge closed their eyes, fully expecting to be dead within seconds. After about ten seconds with no impact, no shaking, no nothing, Giles cautiously opened one, then the other.

He looked around, as did everyone else.

“Why aren’t we dead?” Giles asked.

Operations looked confused as he checked out his display.

“Sir... I am not sure how, but it appears we’re in The Badlands...”

Everyone but Makoto stared at him in shock. Makoto simply smiled and whistled a happy little tune as she headed towards the turbolift.

The five Sailor Senshi, as well as Luna and Artemis slowly crept down a darkened alleyway in the Azabu-Jubaan district of Tokyo.

Luna had detected NegaEnergy and had quickly summoned the girls. They transformed on the way over and were now trying to pinpoint the exact location what they assumed was another Negaverse youma.

“There is a concert going on in a park a couple of blocks from here,” Sailor Venus mentioned.

“You think they might be planning on attacking it?” Sailor Mars gasped.

“There would be several dozen people there,” Luna pondered. “They could gather a large amount of energy from them.”

“Especially considering the excitement a concert would generate,” Sailor Mercury added.

“We better hurry then,” Artemis suggested, hopping onto Sailor Venus’ shoulder.

The group of girls nodded and began sprinting. It was just after dark, and there were not a lot of people around. They could see the lights coming from the small stage in the small park not too far away.

“There,” Sailor Moon pointed.

“Thanks, eagle-eye,” Mars chuckled.

Sailor Moon stuck her tongue out at Mars as she giggled as well.

The five and two cats ran the rest of the way in silence till they arrived at the back of the stage. Sailor Jupiter and Mars looked around confused as there didn’t seem to be anyone around.

Artemis hopped off Venus and began to investigate with Luna as Sailor Moon, Venus, and Mercury looked around in a different direction.

After a few moments, all three groups returned, none finding anything suspicious.

“I’m still detecting NegaEnergy,” Mercury said, checking her scanner.

“The Sailor Senshi?!” a man gasped as he came around the corner.

The group turned to him. Based on the way he was dressed, he looked to be a maintenance worker.

“Is something wrong?” he asked. “Do we need to cancel the concert?”

Venus shook her head and smiled. “No. We’re just checking some things out and being...”

“Precautionary,” Mars finished.

“Oh,” the man nodded. “Well let me know if you need anything,” he said, turning away and resuming his duties.

The Sailor Senshi all nodded and began to turn away as well. Mercury checked her scanner quickly, then nodded to Jupiter.

“SUPREME THUNDER!!!” Jupiter called out, spinning around. Her lighting attack barely missed the man as he jumped away, ripping his human body off, and becoming some semi-sexy half ferret-half woman youma.

“Ha!” it laughed. “You saw through my disguise! Well, no matter! I shall take your energy for my queen, then I will nibble at your toes!”

“You’ll do what now?” Mars asked.

The youma fired some energy at the group which most of them easily avoided. Sailor Moon managed to get out of the way but fell flat on her face in the process.

She cried loudly as Luna came to check on her.

“Sailor Moon, snap out of it and zap this thing!”

“But... but... I haven’t done my... my... speech yet,” she slobbered.

Luna sighed as Mars fired off her attack, winging the ferret monster.

“Well hurry up,” Luna growled.

Sailor Moon nodded and stood.

“You there!” Sailor Moon barked at the youma. It turned and looked towards her curiously. “I am the Sailor Warrior of love and justice! Sailor Moon! You come to the park to pick on poor people just here to listen to...” she paused, listening to the music for a moment before glowering, “...orchestra? Yuck...”

“Sailor Moon!” Luna snapped.

“Right! In the name of the Moon, I’ll punish you!” she concluded, doing her Sailor Moon acrobatics in the process.

The youma looked at Sailor Moon frightened as Sailor Moon spun her crescent moon wand around a few times.

“MOON HEALING ESCALATION!!!!!” Sailor Moon yelled, sending a charge of Moon energy at the youma.

In front of Sailor Moon, several Kuno drones beamed in, as well as George, Kodachi, and Tatewaki.

“Yoink!” George smiled as he ripped the wand out of Sailor Moon’s hand.

“ARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!” the youma cried out as it died.

“Our timing was a bit off,” Kodachi pointed out.

George shrugged and grabbed Sailor Moon by the arm.

“LET GO OF HER!” Mars yelled, running at George.

Kodachi quickly turned and ripped off her dress, sending black rose petals flying as she was now stripped down to her leotard. She, just as fast, pulled out her rhythmic gymnastics ribbon and within a second, wrapped up Mars, and placed her upside down on a mixing board.

A pair of the Kuno drones grabbed Luna and Artemis, who had begun to scratch them, by the scruffs of their neck, and placed them in a tree. They patted the kitties on the head, as Kuno drones seemed to like cats thanks to their hours and hours of reading early Earth internet memes while sitting in the nebula and moved over to where they could help defend their bosses.

George began to drag the kicking and screaming Sailor Moon away.

“If you want blondie here back, talk to Nephrite and Kunzite,” he smiled. “I assure you; she won’t be harmed unless they tell us things haven’t gone well between you guys.”

The gaggle of Kunos turned to walk away, the Senshi too stunned to do anything, when suddenly, there was a guitar riff.

A rose flew like a missile, landing next to George’s foot.

George just stepped around it.

This time the guitar riff was louder. Another rose came rocketing through, nearly hitting Tatewaki, and this time striking George’s shoe.

“VILE FIEND! YOU NEARLY STUCK THE BLUE THUNDER OF THIS ALTERNATE UNIVERSE!” Tatewaki screeched, drawing his bokken. George looked down to his shoe.

“Shit!” he whimpered. “These are 1000-dollar LeBron Durant Jordan Nikes too,” he growled, looking at the scuff mark before he spun around to see who threw the rose.

The group saw Tuxedo Mask standing behind the Senshi.

“Return Sailor Moon at once,” he ordered.

“You DARE issue an order to us?” Tatewaki laughed. “Do you not know who we are?”

“I don’t care,” Tuxedo Mask replied. “All I know is that you cannot take what does not belong to you.”

“How can he not care?” Tatewaki pondered. “We are the great and noblest of all noblemen. It’s inconceivable that he would not wish to know of us.”

Kodachi, indifferent to her brother’s ramblings, cackled. “Who’s going to stop us? You?”

A smug grin came across Tuxedo Mask’s partially exposed face. “I will punish you for the crime against love and justice you’ve committed.”

Sailor Moon swooned, causing George to groan.

“Sic ‘em, Tate,” Kodachi grinned.

“Can someone untie me?” Mars called from where she was.

Tatewaki let out a loud battle cry as he charged at Tuxedo Mask.

“MERCURY AQUA MIST!” Mercury cried out, nailing Tatewaki with a blast of energy and water.

“WHAT FOUL INSTRUMENT OF CHEMISTRY HAS DOTH AFFLICTED ME WITH?!?” Tatewaki cried. “TWO PARTS HYDROGEN AND ONE PART OXYGEN!!!!!”

“It’s just water you fucking spaz!” George facepalmed.

“CHEATER!” Kodachi cried, flinging her rhythmic gymnastic balls at Mercury, hitting her. The balls exploded, sending paralysis powder all over her and Jupiter.

“I can’t move!” Jupiter groaned as she and Mercury fell to the ground.

Tatewaki quickly recovered from Mercury’s attack and swung his sword at Tuxedo Mask. Capeboy dodged the swing and swung back with his cane. The pair fought for a bit before Tuxedo Mask finally got in a good swing and broke Tatewaki’s bokken.

“NO!” Tatewaki cried.

“I keep telling you,” George sighed, shoving Usagi to a couple of the drones, then pulling out his phaser.

“You just need to start shooting these mother fuckers.”

George shot Tuxedo Mask dead center in his chest. Tuxedo Mask gasped before falling over backwards and hitting the ground. All five of the Senshi screamed at the sight.

“Let’s go,” George ordered.

Tatewaki, now over the death of his sword, ran and grabbed the two rose-turned-projectiles that were on the ground.

“One for Akane Tendo, one for the Pig-tailed Girl.”

George grinned.

“USAGI!!!!!!!!!” Venus yelled. “VENUS CRESCENT BEAM SMASH!!!!”

George is blasted in the back by the massive golden magic beam shot from Sailor Venus. He’s sent tumbling forward several meters as the ground around him explodes from the destructive nature of her attack. George, scorched, but otherwise unharmed, stands and turns around, glaring at a very distressed Sailor Venus, with rage in his eyes.

“You don’t know how lucky you are that Nephrite and Kunzite asked us to leave you all alive...” he mumbled before activating the transporter, beaming his siblings, the six drones, Sailor Moon, and himself back to their ship.

Venus, after shaking off the fact that one of her most potent attacks did nothing to the Usagi-napper, ran over and untied Mars. They then sprinted around, checking on Tuxedo Mask, who was just stunned, Mercury and Jupiter, and then running to get the two cats out of the tree they had been put in.

* * * *

Ranma, Makoto and Minako marched in step with each other down the corridor towards transporter room one with Ryouga and another Marine trailing a couple of meters behind them.

“Ryouga,” Ranma called out, without turning around.

“Yeah?”

“If by chance they ask any...” Ranma paused, trying to find what he thought would be the ‘right’ way to phrase this. “...weird questions, try not to be too specific and let me know, okay?”

Ryouga nodded. “Sure.”

Makoto, despite wanting to turn around and slap Ryouga for being so informal with Ranma, something she has scolded him about on countless occasions, looked to Ranma.

“You think they might have an agenda?”

Ranma shrugged. “No offense, but I don’t like secret organizations.”

Makoto laughed. “None taken, sir.”

Ranma smiled as the group turned and walked into the transporter room; Ryouga and his partner staying outside in the corridor.

Ranma leaned against the operator’s console for a couple of moments before he stood up straight, adjusted his uniform, then looked to Makoto, Minako, then the transporter operator. Ranma nodded to the transporter chief who began the transporter sequence.

The group watched two women appear on the transporter pad. Both appeared to be wearing semi-formal attire; one with short, brown hair - a men’s tie dangling halfway down her very well-endowed chest. Her skirt, probably too tight and too short for someone who worked on starships, and certainly not the way Ranma thought she should be dressing.

The other one was a bit more conservative. She had long, pink hair, three red dots on her forehead, the same white business shirt on with the same men’s tie making not even halfway down her comically oversized breasts.

Her pants were black suit pants, however. She seemed to be ‘the professional’ one, and as such, Ranma assumed she was the leader of the group.

“Hello, Captain,” the brown-haired one jiggled forward, stepping out in front of the pink-haired one and extending her arm. “I’m Kirie Kojime, deputy assistant director of temporal operations for the Sol Sector block, and this is my partner, Miharu Sena-Kanaka.”

Ranma shook Kirie’s hand, averting his eyes slightly both to avoid seeing what she was not making any real attempt to hide, and to protect them from any buttons that would spontaneously dislodge from her shirt.

“Uh, Deputy Assistant Director,” Ranma nodded.

“You can just refer to us as ‘Agents’,” Miharu smiled.

Ranma nodded slightly, despite Kirie scowling at her assistant. Ranma was beginning to wonder exactly who was in charge between the two of them, and whether ‘deputy assistant director’ was in fact a real title. Looking them up probably wouldn’t help, however. The DTI was more secret than his group and nearly as secret as Section 31, so it wasn’t as they would have a Wiki entry in the Starfleet database.

“Well, Agents Kojime, Kanaka,” Ranma continued, motioning towards the two officers with him, “this is my chief of operations, Lt. Commander Minako Hibiki and my chief tactical officer and head of security, Commander Makoto Kino-Gosnell.”

Miharu smiled and greeted the pair while Kirie nodded and very curtly shook their hands. Kirie then turned to Makoto and handed her a PADD.

“We need the following protocols put in place before we can depart,” she stated, walking over to Minako, where she handed the blonde operations officer a PADD. “As well, Commander Hibiki, we have various sensor and feedback calibrations that need to be put in place to ensure we’re not detected by anyone and accidentally trigger a premature first contact mission to Earth.”

Minako nodded and took the PADD. Kirie turned back to Ranma before moving towards the door.

“We’re going to need a place to work both on and off the bridge.”

Ranma nodded. “Yes, we were sent a request, and we have an office set up for you on deck six-”

“Deck six?” Kirie asked, grumpily.

“Decks two through five are mainly crew quarters,” Ranma explained.

“It will be fine, thank you, Captain,” Miharu smiled. Ranma nodded and smiled back before continuing.

“The science station on the bridge is all yours,” he smiled.

“I hope your science officer won’t be upset,” Miharu smiled.

Ranma smirked as both Minako and Makoto laughed. “I am sure they’ll get over it.”

“What’s funny?” Kirie asked.

“Minako’s the closest thing this ship has to a science officer,” Makoto explained.

“What kind of starship doesn’t have a science officer?” Kirie asked, shocked.

Ranma smiled as he shrugged. “This kind.” He escorted the pair out of the transporter room and passed them off to Ryouga.

“Captain Hibiki and Sargent Suran here will show you to your quarters and then show you where your office is. I need to deal with Starfleet,” Ranma explained. Ranma smiled at Kirie and Miharu as the enlisted Marine took their bags. “Thursday night is all you can eat pizza night in the lounge. I highly recommend it.”

Miharu smiled widely as Kirie nodded. “Thank you, Captain.”

The two DTI agents went off with the Marines as Ranma and his bridge officers walked off in the other direction.

“At the risk of sounding judgmental,” Makoto said, once she was out of earshot, “but the short haired one is a bitch.”

Ranma simply shook his head. “There’s nothing wrong with being all business.”

“I guess,” Makoto groaned. “I’m going to keep my eye on her, though. I know those types.”

“Those types?” Minako asked as the three entered a turbolift.

“Yeah,” Makoto explained. “Civilians who are given a little bit of oversight then suddenly think they have the power to dictate everything.” Makoto turned to Ranma. “I guarantee that at least once on this mission you’re going to have to remind her that she’s simply an advisor and an observer.”

Ranma nodded. “I made my displeasure of having them with us known to Starfleet. You’d think we, of all people, they’d trust with not completely throwing the Prime Directive out the window.”

Both Minako and Makoto nodded as the turbolift stopped and the trio stepped out onto the bridge. Shampoo quickly stood and rushed up to Ranma.

“Ranma,” she glowered.

“What’s wrong?”

“Panda will not stop calling for you.”

Ranma facepalmed. Primarily to hide the chuckle from the nickname Shampoo had begun calling his father. “Is he-”

The operations terminal began to chirp. Kaii looked to Ranma and nodded.

“On screen,” Ranma groaned.

“Ranma, where have you been?” Genma flailed his arms.

“I’ve been dealing with the policemen you sent to watch us on this mission,” Ranma sighed. “What’s wrong?”

“When are you departing?” Genma asked.

“In the morning.”

“WHAT?”

“It’s a temporal portal, Admiral,” Ranma grumbled. “DTI has determined that once it’s opened, we will crossover somewhere between one minute and one hour after the cube did, regardless of when we leave.”

Minako nodded. “As well, the portal seems to have well over six days of stability left.”

Genma calmed down a bit. “I see.”

“We have a lot of sensor, shield, weapons and engine work that the DTI gave us to take care of before we can leave,” Ranma continued. “I’m as anxious to get this over with as you are, but...” Ranma trailed off and shrugged.

“Well, all of their modifications are to help protect the temporal prime directive,” Genma said, far calmer now than he was when he called.

“Right, right,” Ranma nodded.

Genma sat there in silence for a moment before nodding. “Well, call me before you depart.”

“Yes sir.”

Genma smiled slightly and closed the channel. Ranma looked to Shampoo, then Makoto, and then Minako. “Can second shift handle the modifications?”

All three officers nodded.

“Then we’re done. I’m hungry.”

The bridge officers all smiled as the second shift officers were summoned to take over for them.

* * * *

To say Gosnell was having a hard time keeping up with Miharu’s trips to his pizza buffet would not only be an understatement; it would be a flat out lie.

Jitsia, who begrudgingly had agreed to come with Rei and several other NEO officers for dinner to the lounge could only stare in amazement at the woman.

Rei’s jealousy was going mostly unnoticed.

Not totally, however.

“Commander?” Kio smirked.

Rei’s eyes slowly moved to Kio who was seated next to her.

“Yeah?”

Kio simply grinned.

“What?”

Kio continued to grin.

“I will knock that grin right into Mars if you don’t tell me what you’re grinning about,” Rei scowled.

Kio looked around quickly, noticing that both other NSO soldiers that were seated next to them had gone to get pizza while there was still some left, leaned in and whispered in Rei’s ears.

“She’s yours. Your jealousy is unnecessary.”

Rei nearly flipped over backwards. “Jealousy?!” she scoffed. “You think... Me?!”

Kio just grinned, deciding to call Rei’s bluff on beating her senseless.

“Well...” Rei looked to Jitsia, who had returned her attention to her dinner, before turning back to Kio. “...that other girl does have... bigger...”

Kio rolled her eyes. “So? You don’t see me worried-” Kio cut herself off when she saw Anthony at the pizza bar chatting with Miharu.

Rei couldn’t help but laugh.

“Excuse me,” Kio said, standing.

Jitsia looked up. “Where’s Kio going?”

Rei smiled. “I think we may need a new member of Bravo Team soon,” Rei answered.

Jitsia looked back that direction to see Kio force herself between the pair, before bringing Anthony back in the direction of the table by his ear.

“You seem a little distant, Sia,” Rei said, noticing Jitsia was simply poking at her food, rather than eating it.

“Just stuff on my mind,” she replied.

“Ishran?”

Jitsia nodded.

Rei sighed. “I promised I’d take care of it, and I will.”

Jitsia smiled to Rei. “Thank you.”

Anthony was all but slammed into his seat.

“Dude, I told you,” he protested, “it turns out we were at the Lunar Outpost at the same time! We were making fun of this crotchety old Admiral!”

“Uh huh,” Kio mumbled, shoving some pizza into her mouth.

Anthony sighed. “Seriously. Other than here, Luna Base was one of the breast times-”

Anthony slapped his hands over his mouth as Kio turned bright red.

“HOW COULD YOU NOT LOOK!?!” was his attempt at an excuse. It didn’t seem to work as Kio sent Anthony pinballing around the lounge before she sat down and resumed eating.

Jitsia’s eyes followed Miharu again as she walked back to the pizza bar.

Rei scowled.

“That’s like her tenth time over there,” Jitsia growled. “All of that HAS to go to her tits.”

Rei continued to scowl.

“Maybe if I ate like that, mine would grow?” Jitsia pondered, looking down at her own chest.

Rei’s scowl softened slightly. “Aw, yours are fine. And besides, Kio’s are small and she’s really pretty.”

“Yeah, thanks boss,” Kio grumbled.

“You should see her in a bikini,” Anthony said as he stumbled back to his seat. “They don’t look that small then.”

Kio rapped her fingernails on the table as she stared at Anthony, who was apparently oblivious as he had resumed eating. Jitsia chuckled and leaned forward.

“Oh, I’ve seen her in less, I know.”

The rapping increased in speed quite a bit. Anthony’s eyebrows raised.

“Do tell.”

“Okay!” Kio said, standing while simultaneously pulling Anthony from his seat by his ear. “We should all probably go to sleep early tonight in case we’re needed in the morning, so...”

Kio bowed slightly while maintaining her grip on her perverted Sergeant, “Commander, Commander, see you later.”

Rei, who was a little concerned as to whether Anthony was going to be beaten again, nodded. Jitsia waved goodbye to Kio and Anthony as Kio drug the reluctant man out of the lounge.

“So,” Rei started, turning to Jitsia. “How long have you been drunk?”

Jitsia shrugged. “Few hours.”

Rei shook her head. “Why?”

“Hurts less.”

“Don’t do this, Sia,” Rei sighed.

“I’ve never ran away from anything before in my life, Rei,” she sighed. “but... if my mind is a mess, I can run away from the thoughts. I seemingly can run away from Gras.”

“Can you get it removed?”

Jitsia sighed. “Maybe. The Commission doesn’t like to do it unless the life of the symbiont or the host is at risk.” Jitsia leaned back and sighed. “There have been reports of symbionts that have more influence over a host than they ‘should’, but the Commission has dismissed most of them.”

“You’ve researched this?” Rei asked.

Jitsia nodded. “I’ve only had it for a year, but this is not the first time it’s pushed me into something I really didn’t want to do.”

“Oh?”

Jitsia bit her lip. “You’ll keep my secret, no matter how wrong it is?”

Rei nodded.

“I fabricated a police report while I was on Cardassia,” Jitsia sighed. “I had a man killed because of a debt owed to Gras’ previous host.”

Rei inhaled deeply as she took that in.

“It was at that point I started seeing how I could get out of this,” Jitsia continued. “But it really didn’t look like I could unless someone else took the symbiont. But I didn’t want to condemn them to what I was going through...” she sighed. “To what I AM going through.”

Rei was about to say something when she noticed Ishran walk into the lounge. He quickly noticed the two, smiled and walked over to them.

“Commander! Gras! How are you two this evening?”

“Good, thank you,” Jitsia softly replied.

“Fine, Commander,” Rei replied curtly.

“Do you mind if-” he began.

“Commander Hino, Commander Gras, please report to the bridge,” an obviously disguised Lieutenant Yuki’s voice called out.

“Well, that’s annoying timing,” Ishran, who didn’t seem to notice whose voice it was groused.

Jitsia nodded as she stood, stumbled a bit, then headed for the door.

“Yup,” she called as she scurried away.

Rei nodded to Ishran as she followed Jitsia out.

“You can let go of my ear at any time now,” Anthony whimpered.

Kio drug Anthony down the deck five corridor a bit more before slamming him into the wall. She poked him in the chest a couple of times before laughing slightly.

“Did you notice that she was drunk?” Kio asked.

“Commander Hino?”

“No, you blockhead,” Kio said, shaking her head. “Commander Gras.”

“Hrm,” Anthony pondered this for a moment. “No, I guess I didn’t notice.”

Kio sighed. “I shouldn’t have expected you to. Your observational skills have been declining recently. I may have to have Sargent Kagurazaka promoted to where he outranks you so he can assume second in command of our team.”

Anthony scoffed. “Fine. Better his blue balls than mine.”

“Please, as much time as you spend in the holodeck-”

“THOSE ARE TRAINING PROGRAMS!” Anthony barked.

Kio smiled, looked around quickly, then kissed Anthony. “I’ll make you a deal,” she whispered as she moved her mouth away from his and up to his ear.

“I’m listening,” he whispered back.

“Since apparently time will be frozen while we’re in the alternate universe, I’ll let you pretend I’m program Schaefer-Gamma-Nine.”

Anthony turned beet red.

“If we’re sure we’re cool,” she continued before moving back to Anthony’s mouth and kissing him again, “then, you delete that horrible, horrible program.”

Anthony nodded his head feverishly.

Kio moved away from Anthony as she heard someone coming down the corridor. The pair nodded a greeting to Lt. Commander Ishran as he headed for the lounge.

Once he was through the doors, Kio looked to Anthony.

“If she’s wasted, the last thing she needs right now is that guy,” Anthony said.

Kio nodded. “Commander Hino too, as she will murder him if he says the wrong thing.”

“That seems extreme,” Anthony blinked. “You know something I don’t?”

“I know a lot of things you don’t,” Kio nodded before clearing her throat and hitting her commbadge.

“Commander Hino, Commander Gras, please report to the bridge,” she said deepening her voice.

Anthony busted out laughing, which caused Kio to take a swing at him.

“Anyway, I’m going to sleep,” Kio smiled. She again brushed her lips against Anthony’s, this time allowing her tongue to run across his lips.

“See you,” he mumbled, watching her run off. Once she was gone, Anthony sprinted to the nearest holodeck.

“Computer!! Run program Schaefer-Gamma-Nine!” he ordered. The computer complied and Anthony ran in. As the doors closed, he made one last request.

“Lock holodeck doors!”

STARDATE 53444
EARTH; CHICAGO

Makoto plopped down into a seat on the patio of the small bistro that sat on the shore of Lake Michigan before kicking her feet up and taking a sip of her beer.

The chilly breeze blowing in off the lake made her happy that she’d brought her jacket. It was late April, but it was still cool. About 11 degrees. Probably warmer than it should have been for this early in the spring, but still too cold for simply just her long sleeved shirt and cargo pants.

“Hey,” Gosnell smiled as he walked up, leaned over her, and kissed her.

Makoto happily returned the kiss before Gosnell sat down across from her. She laughed slightly at Gosnell’s attire. The Q was dressed in a heavy coat, a hoodie sweatshirt and appeared to be wearing two pairs of pants.

“If you’re cold we can go inside,” Makoto smiled.

Gosnell shook his head. “No, it’s fine,” he smiled as he pointed to his drink, steam wafting off the top of it. “I got a mochaccino.” The alien took a sip before finishing continuing.

“Whatever the hell that is.”

Makoto smiled at him some more before drinking from her own cup. She watched Gosnell, who had started to admire some of the boats sailing around on the lake, a short while before speaking.

“I have some news that is probably not going to make you very happy,” she said.

Gosnell turned to her. “Oh?”

“The Directors asked me if I wanted to participate in an experiment,” Makoto explained, sheepishly looking away. “They have memory implants that will give me the ability to remember everything, perfectly.”

Gosnell nodded. “That doesn’t make me happy. The last thing I need is you having the ability to point out something wrong I did from fifteen years in the past to win an argument.”

Makoto laughed slightly. She then sighed as she turned back to Gosnell. “It’s risky.”

Gosnell shook his head and shrugged as he took another swig of his drink. “Any objection I have would be rather moot, wouldn’t it?”

Makoto sadly nodded. “I’ve agreed, yes.”

The pair sat in silence for a few minutes, Gosnell’s attention returning to the boats as they casually floated across the lake, their sails ruffling slightly in the crisp April breeze.

Finally, Makoto spoke up again.

“Are you angry with me?”

Gosnell didn’t turn to Makoto but shook his head. “No. Obviously I worry about losing you, but I love you.” He turned back to her and smiled softly. “I trust you as well, so, I know you will make the right decisions.”

Makoto moved over to Gosnell’s chair and embraced him.

“I love you too,” she whispered, pushing her face against his chest, a pair of tears sliding from her eyes, down her cheeks, unnoticed as she held onto him.

PRESENT DAY - STARDATE 62822

Ranma yawned as he walked out onto the Sisko’s bridge. There was quite a bit of activity, as there likely should be considering the inconceivable event that was about to happen, and he was glad that everyone didn’t wait for him to get there to get things rolling.

At tactical he took notice of Makoto and Jansen working. Both seemed to be quite busy. Likely they were putting the finishing touches on the shield recalibrations that would hopefully shield them from any surprises the Kunos might have in store for them and have the weapons ready to annihilate the Kuno cube once they tractored it back through the portal.

The operations station was abuzz with activity. Minako was working with Kaii, most likely on the sensors and double checking the various other adjustments the DTI agents had given them.

Engineering was also busy. Lt. T’Sean, the new assistant chief engineer, was on the bridge helping Usagi with the sensor mirroring, to help conceal the ship. As well, once they crossed over, they would disable the warp engines to make sure they did not accidentally alert any other warp capable race to their presence.

Finally, at the science station, Miharu and Kirie were working feverishly. Ranma figured they were doing some last-minute calibrations on the ship’s temporal protection array.

The array, located just above the main deflector, was experimental and was installed on both this ship and her predecessor. It had never been activated, but allegedly it could detect ‘anomalies’ in the space-time continuum and force them to collapse on themselves by irradiating them with an inverse-tachyon charge.

The DTI believed they could open the portal created by the Kunos with the array by reconfiguring it to fire anti-chronotons, along with the charge.

‘Either that or blow up the solar system,’ Ranma mused to himself.

The pig-tailed Captain walked down the bridge and stood in front of his seat. Shampoo, after finishing a status report she was reviewing, stood, and looked to him.

“I think Ranma father dead,” she said.

Ranma blinked. “What?”

“He no call in two hours!” Shampoo smiled.

Ranma shook his head and scowled. “Not funny.”

Shampoo patted Ranma on the shoulder as Minako piped up.

“We’re ready here, sir.”

Usagi concurred. “Engineering is as well.”

“Tactical is set,” Makoto called out.

Ranma turned towards the science station. “Is the array ready?” he asked.

Miharu looked up as if to speak, but Kirie cut her off.

“Yes, Captain. It should jar the fissure the Kunos made open wide enough for us to get through. And if these readings are correct, kick us out right after they entered,” she explained.

Ranma nodded. “Hail Starfleet,” he ordered Kaii.

Kaii complied and Genma appeared on the viewscreen.

“Ranma,” he smiled.

“Admiral, we’ll be departing now,” Ranma nodded. “See you later, or in a minute or two,” Ranma laughed. “Hell if I know how these time holes work.”

Genma laughed. “Good luck and Godspeed.”

Ranma nodded and closed the channel. Both Ranma and Shampoo walked up behind Ikuhara.

“Ensign,” Ranma ordered, “set a course for the time fissure. Full impulse.”

“Aye,” the helmsman replied. Within a few minutes the Sisko was a few thousand meters from what appeared to be normal looking space, but in reality, was a massive tear in the space-time continuum.

“Activate the array!” Kirie ordered.

Nothing happened. Mostly because no one did anything. Kirie looked to operations where she saw Minako and Kaii looking at her strangely. She turned to Ranma and Shampoo, both were looking at her with the same, ‘what the hell are you doing?’ looks on their faces. She then noticed Makoto and Jansen had similar looks, but also had their hands seemingly close to where their phasers were.

Miharu tugged on Kirie’s skirt slightly, causing Kirie to meekly, and without a word, slink back into her seat.

With the DTI mutineer now all but hidden in the science station now, the bridge turned their attention back to Ranma.

“Activate the array,” Ranma ordered.

“Aye,” Minako replied.

From the front of the Sisko a blueish-purplish-silverish beam shot out and slammed into what looked to be open space. The beam caused a cloud to start to form that increased in size the longer the beam impacted it.

“Ten more seconds and it should be big enough for the Sisko,” Miharu reported.

“The event horizon should close behind us,” Kirie added, “so we shouldn’t have to worry about any other interlopers.”

“It’s not very stable,” Minako reported. “I suggest we get through it fast as possible.”

Shampoo poked Ikuhara. “Soon as it big enough, go.”

“Aye,” he replied.

“Red alert,” Ranma ordered.

“Two seconds,” Miharu said as the bridge’s lighting changed, and the alert klaxons sounded. Miharu watched her terminal intently before turning towards Ikuhara.

“Now.”

“Terminate array,” Ranma ordered.

“Go!” Shampoo shouted.

The beam disengaged at the same time the Sisko began plowing forward. It burst through the cloud and came out the other side, no one on the bridge seemingly noticing anything.

“Did we miss it?” Ranma asked.

“I don’t think so,” Ikuhara mumbled, looking at his console.

“No,” Makoto mumbled, “we didn’t. I’m no longer seeing the ships guarding it, the Terran Defense Fleet, Earth Space Dock...”

“Where Kuno ship?” Shampoo asked.

“Scanning,” Kaii said. “Other side of this planet’s moon.”

Ranma blinked before turning towards Kirie and Miharu. “I thought you said we’d come out of that thing at the same time they did.”

Kirie checked her terminal and groused. “I’m sorry, Captain. Interdimensional time travel isn’t an exact science.”

“Sir,” Makoto called out, a little stunned. “Based on stellar cartography, I was actually able to pinpoint our position.”

“Using our star maps?” Ranma asked.

Makoto nodded. “Yes, so based on that, I’ve been able to determine exactly where and when we are.”

“So?” Shampoo asked, growing tired of the suspense.

“Earth, around 1990.”

“Earth?!” Ranma gasped. “As in our Earth?”

Makoto nodded. “From what I can tell from here, it’s identical.”

Ranma was astounded. That said, he didn’t want his ship anywhere near where he could be stranded on another pre-warp civilization. He looked to Ikuhara. “Intercept the Kuno cube.”

“Aye,” Ikuhara replied.

“We need to shut down the warp engines,” Kirie reminded them.

“If the Kunos try to warp off, we need to be able to pursue them,” Ranma stated, sitting down. “Soon as we have them, we’ll shut them down.”

Kirie acknowledged that allowing the cube to get away was far worse than having a Vulcan scout ship come to the system to make first contact with Earth, which they could simply tell to go away.

“10,000 kilometers,” Ikuhara reported.

“They’ll be able to detect us soon,” T’Sean added.

Ranma nodded.

“Uh oh,” Minako sighed.

“What’s ‘uh oh’, Commander?” Ranma asked.

“I’m scanning two ‘non-Kuno’ life signs on that ship,” she replied.

Ranma looked to Shampoo concerned.

“Shampoo think timeline here already been altered,” she sighed.

Miharu looked to Kirie with concern. Kirie had the same look of concern on her face as she began to go through her PADD containing rules, procedures and ‘what-to-dos’ to try and find this kind of scenario.

“First thing first,” Ranma said, standing. “Disable that ship’s engines.”

George was enjoying his day. At least he was now that he had placed Sailor Moon in a soundproof room. He had no clue how it was possible that a human could cry, nonstop, for as long as she had.

Nonstop wasn’t totally accurate. She did stop for about five minutes when he fed her, and again for a short while when he convinced her that he hadn’t killed Tuxedo Mask and that the guns only stunned people. He even demonstrated it on Tatewaki to help alleviate her fears.

However, she started back up again, and he had no choice but to confine her.

Shame too, he thought. He enjoyed being in the company of pretty girls.

There was a lack of them on this ship as well. The only females being Kodachi and her army of drones, and he’d be damned if he’d do anything with them.

Even if they weren’t siblings.

Yuck.

George had the ship parked in a good spot. Hidden in the shadow of the moon. The last thing they needed right now was to be spotted and attacked by an armada of Andorians, Vulcans, or Klingons who might confuse them for over ambitious Earthlings.

It was still within the ships elongated transporter range of the planet.

So far, all their plans, including the ones they had yet to tell their Negaverse partners about, seemed to be going smoothly.

Seemed to.

A Tatewaki drone came running into the ‘living room’ area of the Kuno cube, where George was watching Seinfeld, flailing its arms.

“DANGER! DANGER GEORGE KUNO!”

“What?” George asked, muting the television.

“A Starfleet ship has dared breached the outer perimeter!” it reported.

“Starfleet?” George asked, dismissively. “I think your brain is as broken as your likenesses. There’s no Starfleet here.”

George is thrown from the couch as the ship is jolted. Hard.

“A Kuno drone does not lie!” the drone proudly states from where he’s being crushed by support beams that were jarred loose.

George quickly stands and runs into the control room as the ship is rocked again. He looks to the sensor readout before smirking.

“Saotome. How about that.” George begins to hit some buttons.

“Their weapons have been knocked offline. Their engines are disabled,” Makoto blinked. “Err.. scratch that... I blew their nacelles right off the ship.”

Ranma chuckled. “Whatever keeps them still.”

Shampoo turned to Usagi. “Take warp drive offline.”

Usagi nodded as Kaii’s panel began to beep.

“They’re hailing us.”

Ranma nodded. George appeared on the viewscreen and smiled to the captain. “Well, hello again, Captain Saotome. Long time no see.”

“Not long enough,” Ranma mumbled.

“Awww,” George frowned. “I like to think that of the three of us, I’m the most tolerable.”

“No question,” Ranma nodded, causing George to grin. “But I’d really rather not deal with any of you.”

George pondered this for a moment, then nodded. “I can see that.”

Ranma eyed George up and down for a moment before smirking himself. “You don’t seem as disappointed to be here as I thought you would be. I heard you ‘resisted’ your rescue.”

George cracked his knuckles, laughed a bit, and nodded. “Yes, well, I was initially reluctant to rejoin the idiots, but they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

“What that?” Shampoo asked.

“Assured victory,” George smiled. “Now, I know you went through a lot of trouble following us across dimensions to stop us, but it’s quite pointless. We’re almost done with our master plan, and you won’t succeed.”

“Engines offline,” Usagi called to Shampoo.

George noticed Usagi. He stared at her for a good twenty seconds, turned slightly, then shook it off, and resumed his taunting. “It-it will take us no less than a day to regenerate our engines, then we can fly away.”

“We’re towing you out of here now,” Ranma growled, doing his best to ignore George’s reaction to his Chief Engineer.

“Not with our hostages on board!” George smiled.

Ranma simply stared at George.

“Yup,” George continued. “Besides, I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m the only actual Kuno sibling on this ship. Oh where, oh where have my beloved brother and sister gone? Oh, where oh where-”

“Shut him up,” Ranma ordered. Kaii complied and the communication ended.

“You see how he stare at Commander Tsukino?” Shampoo asked.

Usagi shuddered. “You think he... wants me?”

Ranma moved up to the tactical station as he spoke. “It wasn’t that kind of look, Commander. Seeing you...” Ranma paused mid step. “Seeing you freaked him out for some reason.”

“I’m not ugly, am I?” Usagi whimpered.

“No!” the entire bridge crew shouted, trying to make sure Usagi didn’t start bawling.

Ranma turned to Makoto. “Have Rei get her teams on that ship A-S-A-P. They need to recover those two people so they can be returned to the planet.”

“Aye,” Makoto nodded, contacting Rei. Ranma spun around to Kaii.

“Kaii, take Nighthawk and begin scanning the planet for signs of transporter activity and Kuno life signs.”

“Aye,” Kaii nodded, starting to move off.

“BELAY ALL OF THAT!” Kirie called out, standing quickly, her sudden shout causing the entire bridge crew to freeze in their tracks. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, Captain, but you can’t just be forcing contact with the people of this universe and putting shuttlecraft in orbit! There are consequences!”

Ranma eyed Kirie for a moment before he casually flipped his pigtail off his shoulder.

“What would you have me do, Assistant Deputy Director, if that is your real title? Drag that cube back with two people from this universe on board? Leave this planet with two Kunos on their planet and who-the-hell knows how many drones?”

“We have to leave this place the way we found it,” Kirie explained.

“The way we found it is fucked up,” Ranma growled. “It’s our duty and our responsibility to fix what the Kunos have done.” Ranma pointed at the planet on the viewscreen. “Their timeline is already corrupt. We need to mitigate the damage while doing as little damage as possible ourselves.”

Ranma sighed. “The shuttle cloaks. No one will see it. Those hostages have seen the Kunos, I don’t think seeing more aliens will hurt their sensibilities any.”

“He’s right,” Miharu nodded.

Kirie sighed and simply sat down.

Ranma motioned to Kaii to get moving before walking back to his seat. Before he sat down though he turned towards the science station.

“Oh, and Miss Kojime, as a reminder you are an observer and an advisor on this mission. The Sisko is MY ship. If you forget that fact again, you will be observing and advising from a lifeboat, is that understood?”

Miharu bit her lip as Kirie grumpily nodded.

“Yes, Captain.”

Ranma smiled, nodded, and sat down in his chair.

Makoto grinned widely as she turned to Amanda.

“That didn’t take anywhere near as long as I thought it would.”

The NSO teams quickly scurried down the corridor and into their transporter room. Rei’s team as well as Jitsia took their place on one pad, Kio’s team on the other.

Ishran and Pan nodded to Jitsia as she dematerialized. The pair walked out of the transporter room, Ishran sighing deeply as he walked.

“What’s wrong, Commander?” Pan asked.

“Well, this is getting annoying,” Ishran grumbled. “I’ve gotten to spend no time catching up with Gras since I’ve gotten here.”

“Well, things have been pretty hectic,” Pan nodded. “But we have two months of training ahead of us and we’ll all be together on the Miyazaki.”

Ishran half shrugged. “I know, I know. It’s just been so long since I’ve seen her.”

“Mmm,” Pan nodded. “Well Commander Gras is eager to start working with us all, so I am sure she’s as disappointed as you are.”

Ishran nodded a bit as the pair reached a turbolift. “I hope so. It would be rather cruel of her to break my heart again.”

Pan did not care at all for what was going through Ishran’s head, and first chance he had, he was going to make a point of bringing it up to Commander Gras.

As is typical for their hostage rescue missions, both teams appeared in different areas of the ship. Alpha team beamed in near the control room near where the first non-Kuno life sign was; Bravo team beamed in down by the second life sign in the bowels of the ship.

Kio and her team had never fought the Kunos before. Most of them were even too young to have any experience fighting their next closest equivalent, the Borg. This would be a new experience for all of them.

However, they were well trained, and well disciplined. And the Kunos had not gotten the pleasure of going up against the NSO teams, so they didn’t know what to expect either.

They got a quick demonstration when a half dozen Kodachi drones came charging after Bravo team.

“ASCOND YE INFILTRATORS!” the drones yelled as they charged, ribbons twirling. Kio and her soldiers were at first a little stunned. After all, they were used to Jem’Hadar and Orions trying to shoot them, not a group of identical drones trying to... ribbon... them.

Regardless, it only took a second for at least two of them to come to their senses and without wasting a bullet they shot and placed every one of the drones on their backs.

A mixed batch of twenty or so Kodachi and Tatewaki drones blindly charged in, ribbons and bokkens flailing, shouting semi-poetic gibberish, but in the end the result was the same.

A pile of expended shells, nanorobotic goo and Kuno drone corpses.

“Can someone explain what exactly just happened?” Anthony asked.

The remainder of Bravo team shook their heads. Ten more drones came rushing in, and like their friends, were nearly instantly killed.

Kio ejected her magazine and loaded a new one. “I hope you brought plenty of ammo, Ian” she sighed, looking to Kagurazaka.

Kagurazaka nodded and patted the backpack he was wearing. “They said phasers would be useless against these guys, so I have about 5,000 rounds in here.”

Kio smiled, gunned down three more drones, and pointed towards the door. “The bio sign is this way.”

Rei and her group were greeted in much the same way. Her greeting party wound up in the same position as well.

Dead.

The Kunos could easily adapt to energy attacks. Sometimes, like with the magical energy used by the Negaverse and the Sailor Senshi it took a few - dozen - waves of drones to get it done, but they could do it.

They could not, however, adapt to physical attacks.

And that was exactly what a gunshot with a projectile round was.

A chunk of metal moving through you a high velocity.

Of course, the Starfleet rounds the NSO teams were using were especially nasty insofar as they also expanded and as a side effect from ripping apart the body at several times the speed of sound also caused additional damage that way, there was little the Kunos could do.

Parker, the pack-mule for the day, adjusted his backpack slightly and poked his head around the corner.

“There are several more headed this way.”

Rei checked her eyepiece and nodded. “Welp, that’s the way we need to go.”

Parker, Shelton and Jitsia all nodded and hopped into the corridor. They quickly gunned down one group, turned, and gunned down another who was coming from the other direction.

The group, quickly but cautiously, moved down the corridors.

Rei thought back to the last time she was aboard this ship. She nearly died. The Kunos seemed a lot stronger back then. Or was it the other way around. Were they - was she - just not as strong as they are now?

The Kunos had two years to improve themselves. They had managed to fight off, sort of, both the Terran and Vulcan defense fleets with their drone ships in order to get through the dimensional portal, as well as defeat the small fleet sent to guard the jail, they broke George out of.

Perhaps this was so easy because of everything Rei and her group had been though.

Orions, Breen, Jem’Hadar, emotional Vulcan terrorists, regular Vulcans, private security mercenaries - the list went on and on. All of them, in one way or another had either been defeated by, or at least been placated by Rei’s teams.

While Rei would never allow them to consider themselves ‘perfect’ as they would give them no initiative to improve, Rei wondered to herself, could her team now be at her goal of 99.99 percent perfection?

“Commander,” Parker whispered, stopping the group.

“Yeah?” Rei asked.

“Life sign is in here,” he motioned towards a room. “Looks to be guarded by about fifty drones.”

Rei nodded smugly. “Okay. Watch your fire folks,” she said as she loaded a fresh magazine into her rifle.

George’s eyes darted back and forth across the information panel in the cube’s control room. He bit his fingernails several times as he watched drone after drone get destroyed.

“Why aren’t they adapting?!” he whimpered. George grabbed a passing Tatewaki drone and shook it madly.

“WHY AREN’T THEY ADAPTING!?!?!” he yelled at it.

“Wretched fiends are using projectile ammunition!” the drone replied.

“WHAT?!” George screeched, shoving the drone away and returning his attention to the control panel. “Well, that ain’t good,” he whimpered some more.

George paced around a bit, a couple of the drones mimicking his moves before he returned to the panel and activated the communication system.

“Kodachi!” he barked into it.

“Yes brother?” she sweetly answered.

“Is the hive ready?”

“More or less,” she replied.

“What do you mean ‘more or less’?”

“We need that Beryl lady for power, and there are a few minor details that need to be taken care of, but-”

“Well, that will have to be dealt with later,” George interrupted. “I’m sending Beryl down to you.”

“I’m not finished decorating!”

“FUCKING CRACKERS WOMAN!” George screamed. “Saotome has sent people over here and-”

“My darling Ranma is on the ship?!” Kodachi happily asked.

“NO!” George yelled, spinning in circles in pure frustration. “But he sent people over here who-”

“WE HAVE SCOUNDRELS DEFILING THE NOBLE HOME OF KUNO?!” Tatewaki interjected. “I shall return at once and dispatch them!”

George pondered for a second allowing him to beam up, then sighed. Deeply.

“Do not return to the ship. The ship is lost,” he said quietly. “They have projectile weapons we cannot adapt to.”

The two elder Kuno siblings were quiet for a moment.

For a moment.

“What about my darling Ranma?” Kodachi asked.

Again, George began to ponder turning himself in.

“You are just going to have to be content with the one on the planet,” George stated.

“I’d rather have both,” Kodachi admitted.

George just shook his head. “Look, I am beaming Beryl down there. Then I am killing the ‘interlopers’ by self-destructing the ship.”

“How do we take over the universe without a ship?” Tatewaki asked.

“We’ll just build a new one once the Starfleet ship leaves,” George replied.

The Kuno siblings agreed. “What about the blonde girl?” Kodachi scowled.

“I can’t get to her,” George sighed. “She’s in a transport blocked area because she was too noisy. She’ll just have to die.”

Tatewaki sighed. Kodachi cheered.

“I’ll be there shortly,” George finished before closing the channel. He looked to the Sisko on the viewscreen. He knew things were going to be a lot more complicated than how he explained it to his siblings. However, he hoped that with the Negaverse’s help, it would somehow work out.

The only annoying part was that now maybe they would have to stick to the deal they made.

George again sighed, noticed a couple of the Sisko soldiers getting close to the control room, beamed Beryl off the ship, activated the auto-destruct, and beamed himself away.

All it took to aggro the room of Kodachi and Tatewaki drones was for Parker to activate the door. Then, two by two, the drones came marching towards Alpha team.

And two by two they fell. First Parker and Shelton fired. Once they were out of ammo, Jitsia and Rei, then back to Parker and Shelton, and the cycle repeated till the group was out of drones to shoot.

Rei turned to Parker and the combat engineer, Sgt. Anderson. “The control room is just down this corridor. Only seems to be a few people in there. Go check it out.”

“Aye,” they both replied before scurrying off.

“Yuki to Hino,” Kio’s voice called out.

“Go,” Rei replied.

“Commander, our target’s bio sign just disappeared,” Kio reported.

“You think they were killed?” Rei asked.

“No ma’am,” Corporal Xiang, Bravo’s combat engineer reported. “We were right outside of where they were, and we detected energy traces consistent with transporter activity.”

“Okay,” Rei replied. “Have a look anyway, then meet us up by the control room.”

“Aye,” Kio replied.

The group slowly moved in and stepped over the pile of dead drones. Ensign Masters, the medic pointed towards a door that looked to have a Borgish looking lock on it. Rei walked up to it and shot it, causing it to spark a couple of times before the door opened slightly.

Jitsia and Shelton pulled the door open.

Everyone gasped.

“Usagi?!” Jitsia finally asked.

Masters quickly moved and untied Sailor Moon’s hands and pulled the duct tape from off her mouth. She quickly stood and wrapped her arms around a still stunned Rei.

“REI!!!!!!” she bawled. “I knew you’d come to save me!!!!”

Masters ran his tricorder over her. “Are you injured, Commander?”

“How in the world did you get over here, Commander Tsukino?” Shelton asked.

Sailor Moon pulled away from Rei a little bit and looked to Masters, Shelton and Jitsia oddly. “How... How do you know who I am?”

She then moved around Rei a bit to get away from Masters. “What is that thing?” She began to whimper more. “Rei!!!! Help me!”

“Usagi...” Rei blinked.

Rei shook her head. “No, this can’t be right.”

“What?” Jitsia asked.

Rei activated her communications system. “Hino to Commander Tsukino.”

“Yeah?” Usagi asked.

“Nothing,” Rei replied. “Just checking.”

“Okay...” Usagi said.

Rei pushed Sailor Moon away. “Who are you?” she demanded.

Sailor Moon looked to Rei sadly. “What do you mean? It’s me. Usagi Tsukino. Sailor Moon.”

Shelton looked to Jitsia. “Sailor what?”

Sailor Moon looked Rei over for a bit. “Where - why are you dressed like that? Where’d you get those guns? Why-”

Kio and her group walked up. Anthony’s jaw hit the deck with a loud clang. Kio promptly shellacked him for thinking what he was obviously thinking. The rest of the group just stared at Sailor Moon oddly.

“Commander Tsukino?” Yayo asked.

“This is not Commander Tsukino,” Rei stated.

“And you’re not Rei,” Sailor Moon glowered. “Rei isn’t old.”

Rei glared at Sailor Moon.

“Oh snap,” Kio said, stifling a chuckle.

“Commander Hino!” Shelton called, running into the room. He skidded to a stop, slamming into the back of Yayo when he saw Sailor Moon.

“Wow,” he babbled. “Nice... uniform, Commander Tsukino...”

Sailor Moon began to look herself over as Rei turned and glared at Shelton.

“What is it?” Rei asked.

“The Kunos have activated the self-destruct on the ship. We have about a minute.”

Rei quickly turned to Masters. “Sedate her.”

Masters nodded and before Sailor Moon could object, she was hyposprayed asleep.

The group drug Sailor Moon into the corridor and beamed back to the Sisko. Shortly thereafter the Cube blew itself up, at least for now, stranding the Kunos on this Earth.

“It would be a very long story to explain everything, Captain,” Rei said as she looked down at the bio-bed that contained the Usagi doppelganger. “No secret Section 31 stuff though, nothing terrible. Just another life, another time.”

Ranma nodded. He could understand. He wouldn’t recognize himself from twenty years ago either.

“But,” Rei continued, “in some weird temporal, theoretical way, this could be an alternate Usagi.”

Akane walked over to the pair and handed Ranma a PADD. “Not could,” she smiled, “is. DNA is a one-hundred percent match.”

“Well,” Rei said, slightly confused, “that actually doesn’t make sense because the way I understand it, our spirits are reborn into human bodies. If her DNA is the same, that means this Usagi has the same parents our Usagi has.”

“Which is unrelated to your guardians of the...” Ranma trailed off, already confused.

Rei nodded. “Yeah. Like I said, it’s complicated. It’s best not to try and get to far into it or look it up on Wikipedia or do anything that will ruin the fun of a good story.”

Ranma nodded as he and Akane looked towards the fourth wall of sickbay.

“Usagi-” Rei cut herself off, realizing the rest of this mission was going to be annoying, “this Usagi thought she knew me, so there must be an alternate me down there too.” Rei pondered some more. “There is likely all five of us.”

“All five of you?” Ranma asked.

Rei nodded. “Me, Usagi, Minako, Makoto and Ami - Captain Muzino.” Rei gasped. “I think it’s pretty important we find out exactly why they kidnapped, uh, Usagi-Two.”

“You really think we should wake her and interrogate her?” Ranma asked once he finished chuckling at Rei’s redesignation of the mirror Usagi.

“Interrogate is a little harsh, but yes.”

“I’m not sure DTI would approve,” Ranma smirked.

Rei sighed.

“Let me get the reasonable one to hang out with you while you do it,” Ranma smiled. “I have to at least pretend I care what they have to say.”

Rei smiled. “Thank you, Captain.”

“Don’t thank me,” Ranma said, walking to the door. “I want to stop the Kunos and I think your plan is the best one right now. I thank you.”

“Agent Kanaka, may I speak with you?” Ranma called to the science station as he stepped out of the aft turbolift.

“Is there something going on with the girl recovered from the Kuno cube?” Kirie asked.

“Yes,” Ranma nodded as he walked down the bridge to the science station and looked to first Miharu and then to Kirie. “And I’d like to speak with Miss Kanaka about it.”

“We’re a team, Captain,” Kirie pointed out.

Ranma leaned up against the science station and pondered thoughtfully for a moment as Shampoo watched from the Captain’s chair. “Fair enough. Right now, she’s sedated in sickbay. However, our best hopes of finding out what the Kunos are doing on the planet lie with her. So, we intend on waking her and interviewing her and I would like Agent Kanaka to sit in on it, to observe and advise.”

Miharu was about to say something, but Kirie cut her off.

“Why can’t I do it?”

“To be perfectly blunt,” Ranma said, leaning forward slightly, “the last thing this poor girl needs right now is to be in the middle of a shouting match between you and Commander Hino.”

Kirie simply scowled. Miharu, after making sure Kirie didn’t appear to be mad at her, nodded to the Captain. “I’ll report to sickbay right away.”

“Thank you,” Ranma smiled.

Miharu scurried off towards the turbolift. Ranma began to walk towards his ready room but stops as Kirie begins to speak.

“Captain, I may be forward and loud, but it’s because I take my job very seriously.”

Ranma returned to the science station, Shampoo’s eyes following him all the way, and leaned on it again. He looked to Kirie and smiled.

“I’ll tell you a short story. There was a captain who didn’t follow protocol once. Was just a couple of breeches, but nonetheless, breeches. The result, six people dead and half his ship was destroyed. He lost his command and worst yet, he lost the trust, respect and good standing he had built with Starfleet Command and his crew.”

Ranma chuckled a bit. “That captain was an idiot by the name of Ranma Saotome.”

Kirie eyed Ranma oddly as he continued.

“It took a lot of work to rebuild that trust and respect; not necessarily that of Starfleet Command, but of my crew. They are the ones whom I care if I am trusted and respected by.

“That trust and respect is not a given but is earned. And you don’t earn that by not taking this job dead-fucking-serious.”

Kirie blinked.

“I have ordered people into situations that will and have led to their deaths. People will not blindly follow you into those situations unless they believe in you. I don’t command a Jem’Hadar or Borg ship here, Assistant Deputy Director.”

Ranma leaned back and cleared his throat. “My whole point is that you can in fact take your job seriously while not acting like an obnoxious ass.”

Ranma nodded a goodbye to Kirie before he walked into his ready room. Kirie simply stared at the viewscreen for a few moments before resuming the work at her station.

Shampoo watched Ranma’s door for a bit longer, however.

Miharu walked into sickbay and sat down next to Jeff who had sat down on the bio-bed next to Sailor Moon. Rei, who had taken off her combat vest and jacket, nodded to her before turning to Akane.

“Can you wake her up please?” Rei asked.

Akane nodded, injected Sailor Moon with a couple of hyposprays, then ran for cover, as the last time they woke her up to talk to her about how she was feeling, she started flailing and freaking out.

Sailor Moon moaned a couple of times before blinking and opening her eyes partially.

“Can I have five more minutes, Mommy?” she asked.

Rei rolled her eyes. This was a duplicate of Usagi, alright.

“No, uh, U-Usagi,” Rei softly said, shaking her, “wake up. I need to ask you some things.”

Upon hearing Rei’s voice, Sailor Moon quickly woke all the way up and began to scoot around on the bio-bed. The security officers posted in sickbay began to move towards her, but Jeff motioned for them the back away. Rei backed off for a moment as well, concerned about how upset this Usagi seemed to be.

“Where am I?!” she finally cried out.

“You’re...” Rei stuttered for the right words, “you’re-”

“...at a hospital,” Miharu helpfully piped up.

Rei nodded and ran with it. “Yes, a military hospital.”

Sailor Moon stopped squirming around and looked to Rei oddly. “What?”

“I haven’t been quite honest with you, Usagi,” Rei said, dropping into full melodramatics mode. “I’ve been leading a secret double life in the military for years now. Rescuing clumsy blondes all over the univer-globe.”

Miharu was slightly impressed by Rei. Jeff, however, found his eyes ready to roll right out of his head.

“Wow,” Sailor Moon smiled. “No wonder you’re such a jerk half the time. A busy schedule like that!” Sailor Moon smiled some more as Rei glowered.

“Yes, well, I need you to tell me what happened when you were abducted.”

“Why?” Sailor Moon asked. “You were there.”

“I was?” Rei blinked.

Sailor Moon nodded oddly. “Yeah. Boy they musta really conked you hard on your head.”

“Yes,” Rei nodded, rubbing her head and feigning pain. “Ow, my skull.”

“Oh, well you know we were fighting that youma, then those dudes with the robots that all looked the same appeared and grabbed me, they tied you up, shot Tuxedo Mask, and-”

Rei gasped. “Wait, Mamoru?”

“Huh?” Sailor Moon blinked.

“Oh crap,” Jeff sighed.

Rei inhaled deeply and sighed. “Nothing, go on.”

Sailor Moon was again weirded out by the look on Rei’s face, as was Jeff who was clearing his schedule for the next six weeks. Sailor Moon thought for a moment then turned to Rei. “Well, then they took me away, even though Sailor Venus and Sailor Mercury both blasted them with their attacks.”

Miharu was confused, but she let Rei continue.

“Do you know why they took you?”

Sailor Moon again looked to Rei oddly. “Are you sure you’re Rei?”

Rei nodded. “Why are you asking me this again?”

Sailor Moon shrugged. “Well, you were there, and again, Rei doesn’t look so old.”

“I AM NOT OLD!” Rei snapped.

Sailor Moon looked wide-eyed at Rei. Rei smiled at her sweetly. “Why did they kidnap you, sweetie?”

“The-the Negaverse wants the Silver Crystal. They said if the others brought the crystal they would give them me back,” she sighed.

“Where is the crystal now?” Rei asked.

“In my broach,” Sailor Moon replied, tugging on her sickbay PJs. “Wherever you put my clothes.”

Rei nodded and ran her hand through Sailor Moon’s hair once. “Don’t worry. You’re safe here and we’ll protect the others.”

Sailor Moon looked to Rei. “Who are you?”

Rei smiled. “I’m Rei Hino.” Rei nodded to Akane. Akane came over and injected Sailor Moon. The blonde-haired heroine started to object before realizing that she was going to get to go back to sleep, then decided to simply allow the drugs to kick in.

“Where are her clothes?” Rei asked.

Akane pointed towards a table.

Rei scurried over to it, with Miharu right behind her. Rei went through the clothes, which were the mirror Usagi’s street clothes – she apparently transformed back from Sailor Moon during her stay in sickbay - and found the transformation broach. Rei popped it open and looked at the brightly shining Silver Crystal.

“Those morons had it all along and they didn’t even realize it.”

“Looks like just a diamond to me,” Miharu said.

Rei shook her head. “If this universe is like ours, then this crystal falling into evil hands could be disastrous. And considering everything THAT Usagi just said, only Kuno stupidity stopped that from happening.”

Miharu watched as Rei packed up Usagi’s clothes and placed them in a locker. She then placed a biometric lock on the locker and summoned a couple of extra security officers.

“If anyone tries to get into THAT locker,” Rei said, making a slicing motion towards her neck.

“Aye,” both guards replied.

“I cannot believe you lost our ship,” Kodachi glowered at George.

“I cannot believe you did not make the drones bulletproof,” George replied in a mocking tone. “What would you have me do? Stay up there and die?”

“To die in battle is better than to live in defeat,” Tatewaki proudly stated.

“That explains why you’ve died in battle so often,” George snapped.

Tatewaki scowled as Kodachi cocked her head. “You seem perturbed, dear brother,” she pointed out.

“Perturbed?” he exclaimed. “Dear sister, there is not an adjective or adverb in the entire universe - either of them - to convey my level of annoyance right now.

“The ship is gone, we lost one of our hostages, and I’ve not had a decent meal since I left jail. And the only thing I asked you two to do was to get the Hive built, and you couldn’t even get that done.”

Kodachi sighed. “I said it just needed a bit more decorating.”

“THERE ARE NO LIGHTS!” George screamed, spinning around, and pointing towards all the darkness that surrounded him and his kin. “You guys haven’t done any electrical work, the drone construction alcoves are not set up, nothing! You do realize that if Saotome sends those people down here with their projectile guns in the position we’re in now, THEY WILL WIN.”

“Nonsense,” Tatewaki scoffed.

George shot Tatewaki and stunned him. He then turned to Kodachi. “And I like him.”

Kodachi nodded, becoming serious as Tatewaki staggered to his feet. “We’ll get it done, George.”

“Knock, knock!” a voice came from the opening of the cave that concealed the Kuno hive. George, Tatewaki and Kodachi turned to see Nephrite and Kunzite come in.

Kunzite drug behind him college aged man and woman.

“Welcome to the Great and Noble Hive of Kuno,” Tatewaki boasted.

“Sure is dark,” Nephrite noted.

“The lighting hasn’t been installed yet,” George sighed.

“What’s with the brats?” Kodachi asked.

“Oh,” Kunzite smirked, “we found them poking around outside. Weren’t sure if you used humans for energy or not.”

Kodachi and Tatewaki walked up to them. “Not usually for energy,” Kodachi smiled as she raised her arm to the girl’s neck. “But they can help.”

Two prongs shot out of the top of Kodachi’s hand and into the female’s neck. The same thing happened to the male from Tatewaki.

“Ah man,” George groaned. “I wish I knew you were going to do that. I would have done it first so they wouldn’t end up being daft.”

“You can let them go,” Kodachi smiled as she cupped the girls face in her hand. “They won’t be going anywhere, now, will they?”

The girl shook her head. Kunzite let the pair go. Both turned around and ran as fast as they could out the exit of the cave. Kodachi sighed.

“The assimilation process used to be faster,” she grumbled. “It’s all the high-fructose corn syrup the kids drink now-a-days.”

George simply shook his head and motioned for Nephrite and Kunzite to come with him.

“Those kids will be back. Maybe we’ll be lucky, and they’ll assimilate a small labor force along the way,” George chuckled.

Nephrite and Kunzite nodded.

“We’re all set up meet the Sailor Senshi tomorrow night to trade for the Silver Crystal.”

“That long?” Nephrite asked.

“Yeah, well, there’s been a complication - and before you guys get mad it’s partially your fault,” George chuckled nervously.

Nephrite and Kunzite looked to George with concern. “What do you mean?”

“Well, apparently that portal you made was too stable and Starfleet - the Sailor Senshi from my universe except with spaceship and big fucking guns - followed us through.”

George sighed. “They attacked our ship and boarded it. I had no choice but to blow it up, killing the intruders. Unfortunately, that killed our hostage as well.”

To George’s surprise, Nephrite and Kunzite laughed.

“What? What’s funny?” George asked.

“Well, we can just attack them tomorrow and get the Silver Crystal now,” Nephrite smiled.

Kunzite nodded. “Without Sailor Moon, they cannot use the full potential of the crystal. If she’s dead...” Kunzite began to weep in joy before the two Generals began to dance around in circles.

“Well,” George smiled, “I am glad things will still work out, except that we’re kind of stranded on your planet now.”

“You’ve done the Dark Kingdom a great service,” Kunzite said. “We will return it by doing whatever we can to get you a spaceship again.”

George smiled. For probably the first time since coming to this universe, he was feeling a little bit bad about his plans to backstab the Negaverse.

The electronic lights in the cave came on. George blinked when he noticed there were several assimilated Tokyo citizens walking around and carrying various items that would make up the inside of a Kuno hive.

“See!” George pointed out.

“Won’t people notice their friends and kids missing?” Kunzite asked. “I mean, we use magic to take care of that...”

George shrugged and took the pair to the entrance to the cave. They walked out and George laughed slightly as he pointed towards the entranceway. Where there used to be an opening, now there was just rocks and a faux waterfall streaming into a small stream.

“Holoemitters,” George smiled. “Poor man’s magic.”

The Generals both smirked. “See you tomorrow evening,” Kunzite said.

Rei sat with Minako and Makoto in the Sisko’s main conference room. The three of them had arrived an hour before the scheduled start of the meeting at Rei’s request. Now, both Makoto and Minako were curious to what Rei had gotten so worked up about.

“You guys remember when we were fifteen or so?” Rei asked the two women.

Both Makoto and Minako nodded. “Yes,” Minako replied. “Well, sorta...”

Makoto kinda grinned and gritted her teeth as she looked to Minako. “Well, you won’t really remember it well because you kinda died.”

Minako blinked. “Wait, are you talking about THAT?”

Rei nodded.

“And Ami died too, okay?” Minako scowled.

Rei again nodded, chuckling a bit. “But you both were revived by the Silver-”

“Why are you bringing this up?” Minako asked. “I thought we agreed that with the Black Millennium threat gone and there being no need for us anymore, we’d move on and just be normal people.”

Rei, upset at Minako interrupting her, glared at Minako for a moment before bluntly reporting what she had to say.

“Sailor Moon is lying in sickbay.”

Makoto this time blinked as Minako looked to Rei in shock.

“I just passed Usagi on the bridge not more than five minutes before coming in here,” Makoto argued.

“Yeah,” Rei nodded. “Our Usagi. This universe apparently has duplicates of us, and those duplicates are fighting the Negaverse.” Rei sighed a bit, “A Negaverse apparently being aided by the Kunos.”

“Fucking balls,” Makoto swore.

“Does Usagi -” Minako cut herself off for a moment, “our Usagi know?”

Rei shook her head. “It would just confuse the hell out of her.”

“What would?” Usagi asked from the conference room doors.

All three women jumped in the seats before growling at Usagi.

“You’re becoming even worse than Jitsia,” Rei snarled.

Usagi ignored Rei and sat down next to Minako. Usagi, while some might call her ‘technically’ dumb, was sharp when she needed to be, and she’d learned how to manipulate the right people.

She knew Minako wouldn’t lie to her.

“What would confuse me?” Usagi asked Minako, their blue eyes staring into each other.

Minako sighed and put her hand on Usagi’s shoulder. She then put the other one on the back of Usagi’s chair and turned her so she was facing Rei.

“You were saying something about a duplicate Usagi?” Minako smiled to Rei.

Rei narrowed her gaze at Minako before shifting towards Usagi. She wasn’t exactly sure how to phrase it so the cute engineer would grasp it.

“Apparently, we have duplicates in this universe, Usagi,” Rei started.

“Oh,” Usagi said, nodded. “Kind of like how there is a double of everyone in the Terran Empire universe, only EVIL!”

Rei blinked. “Well, yeah. And how do you know about that?”

“JC showed me where to find the information,” Usagi smiled. “And I have been writing...” Usagi slightly blushed, “...T-E erotic fanfiction.”

“Only you could make the phrase ‘erotic fanfiction’ sound adorable,” Makoto laughed.

Usagi smiled and shrugged. “JC encouraged me to express myself.”

Minako rubbed Usagi on the head lovingly. “There’s a whole ‘nother Usagi in there that we’ve never met, isn’t there?”

Usagi simply smiled.

“Speaking of ‘a whole ‘nother Usagi’,” Rei said, clearing her throat. “There is literally one in sickbay.”

Usagi gasped. “Can I see her?”

Rei shook her head. “Not now. But I have a feeling we’re going to end up being tasked with protecting them.”

“If they’re Sailor Senshi,” Makoto asked, “won’t they be okay on their own?”

Usagi’s eyes went wide. “Sail-” she stopped speaking and simply started rambling incoherently to herself as Rei again shook her head.

“No, because first off, the Kuno’s technology has apparently allowed them to adapt to... our counterparts attacks.”

Minako, who was attempting to comfort Usagi slightly, sighed. “That’s a bummer.”

Rei nodded. “Yeah. The other thing is, we have the Silver Millennium Crystal locked up on the ship.”

Usagi shot to her feet. “YOU HAVE THE WHAT IN THE WHERE NOW?!?!”

“The crystal,” Rei said, eyeing Usagi oddly. “It’s locked up to keep it safe till we can return it and the other Usagi to the planet.”

Usagi nodded a bit, then paced around. She then started towards the door.

“I need to go to engineering,” she said. Before anyone could object, Usagi was gone.

“Wow,” Makoto said, looking to first Minako and then Rei. “I’ve never seen her so worked up before.”

“It is a strange turn of events,” Minako nodded, “but her reaction was really... wild.”

The three girls continued their discussion till Ranma, and the rest of the senior staff came in, as well as the two DTI agents.

The Sisko command staff debated the pros and cons and went back and forth a couple of times with DTI - Ms. Kojime to be exact, but eventually it was determined that a group, most likely an NSO group, would have to beam to the planet to shadow the potential targets, while Rei, Minako and Makoto contacted their alternate selves and explain the situation.

It certainly wasn’t ideal, and Ranma acknowledged that.

“It’s very dangerous,” the Captain sighed, “what we’re planning on doing here. But I cannot believe for a moment that it is any more dangerous than allowing the Kunos free reign on this planet and allowing whatever scheme they are hatching to come to pass.”

The group, DTI included to Ranma’s surprise, nodded in agreement.

“There actually is a procedure for situations like this, Captain,” Miharu smiled. “We need the shuttle to scan the area where the away teams will be, then each away team member will need to be inoculated for any viruses or bacteria that could potentially harm the planet’s inhabitants.”

Ranma nodded. “Sounds reasonable.” He turned to Minako. “Will you make sure Kaii gets the scan done ASAP and pass along the results to Akane?” he said, motioning towards his wife.

“Yes sir,” Minako nodded. She really didn’t think that she had any diseases that would kill anyone, seeing how she spent nearly all her time in the recycled air cooker that was a spaceship. However, she could see the other side too. She didn’t want to be killed by some disease that humans had lost their immunity to simply because it hadn’t existed in 500 years.

“Also,” Miharu continued, “Only humans or aliens that could pass for human in, quote, a basic medical exam, can be allowed to beam down.”

Rei grumbled. “I really could use Jitsia.”

Kirie looked through her records. Ranma was about to give Rei a ‘sorry’ speech, Kirie spoke up.

“It’s probably out of protocol, but I don’t see why she can’t go.”

Miharu turned to Kirie and whispered, “She’s a joined Trill.”

Kirie looked to Ranma, who seemed to be pleased with her allowing Jitsia on the away team.

“I think that as long as she’s careful and is in constant transporter lock in case things go badly, it will be okay,” Kirie smiled. “And you know how the kids love crazy tattoos,” she joked, motioning towards her neck, an obvious reference to Jitsia’s spots.

Ranma nodded and looked to Rei. “I want your guys in civilian’s clothes. Do what you can to minimize personal injury risk, but...”

Rei nodded. “We can work something out.”

“Good,” Ranma looked over his PADD and sighed. “I know phasers won’t work well against the Kunos, but if this Japan is anything like the late 20th century Japan I have read about, your guys wandering around with rifles will not go over well.”

Rei pulled out her LA-15 phase-projectile hybrid handgun and plopped it onto the table. “That’s what these babies are for.”

Ranma smirked. “Well then, let me know when your team is ready to go.”

“Appears to be sunrise now, Captain,” Makoto reported, checking out a report. “I think it would be best if they waited till evening to beam down.”

Ranma nodded. “What is that? Morning up here?”

“If you could call it that,” Makoto grumbled. “Around 04:00.”

Shampoo chuckled as the room stood. “Okay then. If possible, I want the first set of scouting boots on the ground around 04:00. We’ll see how to deploy from there.”

“Aye,” the room replied as they filed out.

It was well past her bedtime for such an early mission and Jitsia knew that she should be in her quarters sleeping, but she couldn’t.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t tired, it was more that she was constantly having dreams; more so nightmares in her opinion, that constantly woke her up. It was because of that she decided that she would try and work herself to sleep.

Jitsia figured that if she was exhausted, even if she had the dreams, she wouldn’t wake up. While that would just end up forcing her to have the dreams, at least it wouldn’t compromise her in the morning by disrupting her sleep.

The Trill was the type of masochist that enjoyed a workout that caused every muscle in her body to burn and ache. In her opinion, if it didn’t make her sore, then she was doing it wrong.

Right now, though, the strenuous workout served a second purpose. The pain in her arms, back and legs took her mind away from the other things racing around in there. The thoughts and ideas that she really didn’t want any part of but was seemingly being forced into thanks to her symbiont. 

She’d only heard rumors of something like this happening before. They teach you all about the relationships between the symbionts and the hosts, and how they interact with each other, and it’s always explained that it’s a cooperative relationship.

If anything, the host is the dominant party. The host controls where they go, what they eat, who they talk to, what they listen to, whether they go swimming...

So why, she pondered as she struggled to push the leg press, was Gras able to cause her to think the way she was thinking about Lt. Commander Ishran?

She knew this feeling. She’d felt it before.

She was in love with him.

But she didn’t love him.

She’d never met him before he tracked her down on Cardassia. Then they only chatted for a while. Ishran had mentioned talk of Deka, the previous Gras, and how he wanted to be friends with her, like he was with Deka. He hinted at other ‘aspects’ of their relationship, but that talk quickly ended when he found out that she was dating one of the female Vulcan security officers on the base.

He found out ‘she was like that’.

Ishran ended up spending the night there in guest quarters, they said a curt and short goodbye and she thought that would be the last she saw of him.

Yet this love was so strong that she was compelled to select him as the second in command of her NEO unit. He was good, but he wasn’t anything special. There were several officers she worked with on Cardassia and on the ship she commanded, the DeSoto, that would have been just as qualified.

But she chose him.

All because she loved him.

But she didn’t.

Gras did.

What was worse was that Gras wanted them to be closer.

Jitsia did not want to be closer to a man she didn’t love.

She did not want to be close to a man.

Jitsia finally gave up. There was no way she was moving the leg press plate. She rested on the weight equipment for a moment before sliding off and wiping her sweat from it.

The young woman, who normally worked out in shorts and a t-shirt, was wearing her NSO uniform pants and grey tank top. She’d been wearing that combination pretty much constantly since Ishran came on board. Her hair was a rat’s mess as well.

Jitsia was hoping that if she looked as unattractive as she figured she did, Ishran would lose interest. He hadn’t yet. Nearly everywhere she went, he managed to run into her. Luckily something always managed to come up.

Jitsia sighed as she slowly walked out of the lower deck gym and made her way to the turbolift and hit the call button. She was avoiding the NSO gym in hopes to avoid him as well.

After a moment of waiting the doors slid open. Jitsia nearly jumped backwards when she saw the Bolian standing there.

“Si-Siohxx,” she stammered.

“Hey,” he smiled. “How are you?”

“Okay.”

Jitsia simply stood in the corridor for a moment before Ishran smirked a bit. “Going up or down?”

“Back - back to my quarters.”

“I’ll walk you,” he smiled.

She wanted to decline but didn’t.

“Okay,” she said, stepping into the turbolift.

“Deck A,” Ishran called out.

The pair rode in silence for the very, very long trip, Ishran standing very close to Jitsia. The musky scent that came as a side effect of her workout not seeming to bother him in the least. The Trill could feel his breath on the back of her head, something that scared her, yet thanks to Gras, she could do nothing about it; she was frozen in place.

When the doors opened, the pair stepped out, virtually in unison. They slowly walked down the corridor as Ishran spoke, his hand on the small of her back, rubbing her slightly.

“Shame I am stuck down on deck five thanks to the lack of room up here.”

“The junior officer’s quarters are probably bigger than these anyway,” Jitsia quietly replied.

“Oh?” Ishran mused. “Well, Gras,” he smirked, “maybe you can show me so I can make a comparison.”

‘No,’ her brain tried it’s damnedest to force her mouth to say. “Okay,” is what came out.

Jitsia gritted her teeth. Her eyes darted around, angry at the fact that out of all the times for no one to come by and cause a distraction, of all the times for the alarm klaxons not to sound or shit to start shaking, everything seemed to be quiet and peaceful.

The pair stopped outside of crew quarters A-19. Jitsia punched in her unlock code, her fingers trembling.

The door slid open and Ishran entered, guiding Jitsia in; his hand moving from the small of her back to her hips as they walked.

“Oh, you’re right. These are small,” he stated, looking around, keeping a tight grip on Jitsia as he scoffed. “I mean, they’re bigger than mine, but far smaller than what a Commander deserves.”

“It-it’s got a shower, a desk, a couch...” Jitsia mumbled.

Ishran nodded and looked around some more. He looked to her desk, looking at a picture of her family. He then noticed a picture of Jitsia and Rei that Jitsia had, as a keepsake of her time on the Sisko.

“What does Gras think of your relationship with this woman?” he asked as he picked it up, looked at it for a moment, then set it back down with the face of the photo lying down, as to ensure they would not have to look at it.

Jitsia looked to Ishran. “What?”

“Does she like it?”

“Rei?”

“No. Gras,” Ishran said, fondling some more of Jitsia’s belongings before moving back over to her.

“Gras isn’t...”

Ishran rolled his eyes. “They say they don’t have a gender, but they do. Her last host was a male, but she shone through. Had the host not died, I would have looked the other way because I love Gras that much.”

Jitsia stammered a bit at Ishran’s confession but didn’t say anything coherent.

Ishran put his hands on Jitsia’s shoulders. “It’s a lot easier now. We can both have what we both want.”

“I-I’m gay.”

Ishran shrugged as his hands moved to the sides of her face. “It’s not just about you. Doesn’t Gras have the same right to be happy as you do?”

Jitsia couldn’t say anything as Ishran began to guide her towards her bed.

“Gras is amazing. Think of all you have learned from her,” Ishran continued as he slowly pushed Jitsia backwards, finally stopping them at the foot of her bed. “Do you really think that you would have the life you have right now if it wasn’t for her?”

“Please...” Jitsia began to cry.

“Tell me no, and we won’t,” the Bolian said unzipping his uniform jacket.

‘NO!’ Jitsia’s brain cried out.

Her mouth moved, yet no words came out.

Ishran smiled as he pulled her tank-top off. He slowly laid her down on the bed before kissing her abdomen passionately.

“Finally,” he sighed contently.

Despite every desire to want to rip this man’s head off, Jitsia could do nothing by lie there motionless for the next couple of hours.

Gosnell hit the deck with a thump. He groggily looked up at his and Makoto’s bed to see Makoto thrashing around, mumbling in Klingon.

“I didn’t know she spoke Klingon,” Gosnell yawned as he stood and began to shake Makoto. “Honey, wake up.”

“jIH DIchDaq HoH SoH vaD yuch!” Makoto screamed as she sat up quickly swinging at and clocking Gosnell upside his head. Gosnell quickly found himself back on the deck as Makoto looked around confused for a moment.

“Whu...?” she mumbled.

“When did you learn Klingon?” Gosnell asked, slowly climbing back to his feet, rubbing the massive welt on the side of his head.

“OH GOD,” Makoto screeched, hopping out of bed, and running to the replicator to get Gosnell some ice. “I’m so sorry,” she called back to him.

“It’s okay,” he smiled as she returned with a small bag of ice and began to try and take care of his small wound. “I’m not mad assuming it wasn’t me you were dreaming about punching.”

Makoto lowered her head.

“IT WAS ME?!” Gosnell cried out.

“No, no,” Makoto said, kissing Gosnell a couple of times to relax him. “You know I would only wallop you for something you did, not out of anger.”

“Is that better?” Gosnell asked, chuckling a bit.

“Technically that’s discipline,” Makoto smiled.

“I’m not a pet,” Gosnell sighed.

“A husband is always a pet of sorts,” Makoto grinned back, kissing him again.

Gosnell seemed to be lulled into acceptance from the love he was receiving. He laid down in the bed with the ice pack on his head, Makoto next to him. He turned slightly.

“So why were you freaking out, yelling in Klingon?” he asked.

Makoto sighed. “I still, occasionally, have dreams about the times when I was implanted...”

Gosnell looked to Makoto softly. “Jeff’s meditation didn’t help?”

Makoto shook her head. “Those implants were very effective,” she explained. “Every minor detail. I remember it.”

Gosnell took Makoto’s hand.

“You know,” she continued, “hurting my friends bothered me, but I think what still gets me the most is remembering what I did to you.”

Gosnell squeezed Makoto’s hand tightly. “Obviously I got over it,” he smiled.

“I know,” Makoto smiled, turning to Gosnell. “But everything you did for me. Everything you gave up for me… For me to just... Throw you out like...”

“A stray pet?” Gosnell grinned.

Makoto sighed deeply. “I think you forgave me too easily.”

Gosnell shrugged and turned back to where he was looking at the ceiling. “In the end, everything - at least for me - worked out. So, why shouldn’t I?”

Makoto looked at Gosnell for a moment before wrapping her arms around him. Gosnell smiled and wrapped his arms around Makoto as well.

“Just don’t do it again, okay?” Gosnell whispered.

Makoto nodded.

STARDATE 54011
EARTH - CHICAGO

Six months. It had been a little over six months since the last time he had seen Makoto. That was far too long, even for one of their infiltration missions.

Makoto was more of an enforcer, rather than a clandestine agent anyway. If she couldn’t get in and out in a couple of months, she usually didn’t get assigned to the mission. She was far too valuable to leave stuck in one place for several months at a time.

The visit from ‘the power company’, whom Gosnell all but knew for a fact were likely her Section 31 handlers told him that something very, very wrong had happened.

But what exactly could he do?

He couldn’t report her missing. According to her official file, Makoto Kino (Ensign) had been blown to bits in the battle of Wolf 359. Her fake ID for her civilian life, Koyomi Su, could be reported, but that would flag Section 31 and they would just end up killing off that ID somehow.

Gosnell was frustrated.

And hungry. He was terrible at cooking.

He wanted his fiancée back.

The door to his house opened. Gosnell began running around feverishly looking for a phaser. If the people from the ‘power company’ had come back for him, or worse yet, they were really from the power company and they were here to shut off the power, they weren’t doing anything without a fight.

Gosnell finally found one and slinked into the living room.

“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!” Gosnell cried when he saw a rather disheveled looking Makoto grabbing stuff and jamming it into a bag.

She turned and smiled to him.

“Sorry I haven’t-” Makoto is interrupted when Gosnell glommed onto her. Makoto lost her smile and pried him off. “Sorry I hadn’t called. I’ve been off the radar.”

“Some people were here looking for you,” Gosnell said, a little shocked by Makoto’s reaction.

Makoto nodded as she walked into the couple’s bedroom.

“I’m not surprised. I quit Section 31.”

“You what?”

Makoto walked back into the living room with another suitcase and some clothes. “I quit Section 31.”

“Oh,” Gosnell said, smiling a bit. “Well, good. We can spend some more time together then.”

Makoto shook her head. “No, I really don’t think so.”

“What do you mean?”

“I took a job with some people,” she explained as she packed. “Basically, a freelancer-hired-gun type position. It’s fun.”

“Oh,” Gosnell said. “So, I-”

“They really don’t need the services of...” Makoto paused and looked to Gosnell, a rather uncaring look on her face, “...someone who really has no skills.”

Gosnell basically fell into one of the recliners.

“I mean, if you still had your powers, then yeah, you’d be really useful,” Makoto continued as she finished packing. “But as you are now,” she said, shrugging a bit, “just baggage.”

Gosnell could only stare at Makoto in shock as she pulled out a small communicator.

“I ‘killed’ Koyomi in a runabout warp core breach, so try and look shocked-” she grinned slightly at Gosnell, “Yeah, that look, when Starfleet comes to tell you. The house is in my name, so you’ll want to start looking for someplace to live pretty quickly.”

Gosnell, despite wanting to say a million things, was speechless.

“Kino to the Gold Schlager, beam me up.”

“Acknowledged,” a voice replied.

“Goodbye,” Makoto half grinned to Gosnell before she was beamed away. Gosnell could do nothing but stare in shock at the spot she beamed away from. He sat there, motionless for several hours till, as Makoto had warned him, two men from Starfleet arrived to inform him that his fiancée, Koyomi, was dead.

STARDATE 55643 (ABOUT 18 MONTHS LATER)
RISA

Gosnell glowered at the people who were wandering around the small casino at this resort. Almost ninety percent of them were male. The brochure had declared that there would be globs and globs of sexy ladies here, but the only women seemed to be the waitresses.

And, in Gosnell’s humble opinion, none of them were ‘that’ sexy to begin with.

Sure, some people might like them, but Gosnell had a type. Tall. Long, dark hair. Green eyes. Kinda deadly.

Though there was one woman who he did find cute.

Gosnell slid into a chair next to her at the bar and grinned to the bartender.

“What’ll it be?” the bartender asked.

“I’ll take a vodka,” Gosnell nodded. He looked to the short redhead next to him. “Can I buy you another round?”

She looked to him cutely. “Sure!”

The bartender walked off to get the drinks. Gosnell looked the girl over. He was intrigued. She seemed to have a nice body, but she was certainly hiding it. Loose fitting black pants and a bulky red and white Chinese style shirt. And of course, there was her hair. Get it out of that weird braid and do it up nicely, then put this girl in a formal gown or even a sporty short skirt and t-shirt and...

“Here you go,” the bartender smiled, passing out the drinks. Gosnell nodded a thanks and passed the bartender a couple of strips of gold-pressed latinum. He then turned back to the redhead.

“I’m Gosnell,” he said, extending his hand.

The redhead took it and shook it. “Commander Ranma Saotome,” she smiled.

“Oh, you’re with Starfleet?”

Ranma-chan nodded. “Yes, I am the executive officer on the U.S.S. Loami.”

“That must be exciting,” Gosnell smiled, taking a drink of his vodka.

Ranma-chan nodded and chuckled a bit. “It has its ups and downs.” She turned to Gosnell and smirked. “Look, you seem nice, so I don’t want you to get the wrong idea here. I’m a guy.”

Gosnell chewed on this for a moment. “Well, I’ve had women tell me they had cancer, their parents were dying, they were gay, they had a parasite, and that their religion forbade them from contact with the opposite sex. I think this is the first time I have heard that one.”

Ranma-chan laughed a bit. “Well, I’m actually serious.” She quickly ordered two waters from the bartender. One hot, one cold. She poured the hot water on herself, changing her to male Ranma.

“This is my true form,” he said, allowing a shocked Gosnell to feel his chest.

“Wow...” Gosnell stammered.

Ranma nodded, then splashed himself with the cold-water glass. “I’m not a big fan of this curse,” she explained after swatting away Gosnell’s attempts to now feel her female chest, “but it comes in handy, especially when there is a poker tournament.”

“You will literally flirt with anyone, won’t you?” another voice called.

Ranma-chan rolled her eyes. “Gosnell, this is my friend, Akane Tendo.”

Gosnell smiled to Akane. She was kind of his type. She certainly had that ‘I want to murder someone’ look in her eyes.

Akane sat down next to Ranma-chan and smacked the back of her head. “I don’t know why you think flashing your cleavage does anything to help your horrid poker skills,” she concluded.

Gosnell, both interested in the poker tournament and in seeing female Ranma’s cleavage grinned slyly. “Is there still any room in this tournament?”

A Ferengi seemingly appeared from nowhere. He was dressed in a pinstripe suit and looked as if he had come straight from a 1950’s gangster movie nodded to Gosnell.

“There is a one-bar buy in.”

Gosnell grimaced.

“Too rich for you?” he taunted.

Gosnell shook his head. “No, just a lofty buy in.”

“The prize is 10,000 bars,” the Ferengi grinned.

“Dang,” Gosnell whistled. He quickly ran to the nearest cashier and got a line of credit, allowing him to bring the man a bar of gold-pressed latinum.

“Great!” the Ferengi smiled. “We start in five minutes!”

Gosnell turned to speak to Ranma-chan again, but noticed she was gone. “Where’d she go?” he asked Akane.

“To... change,” Akane sighed.

Gosnell could now understand how Saotome’s strategy would work. The dress she was now wearing was cut very, very low and was very, very tight. In fact, it seemed like a small seismic event would cause her breasts to come exploding out of the top.

Akane was sitting with the spectators, with seemingly both an annoyed and amused look on her face.

He wondered if she was amused because all the players seemed to be enamored by what were essentially a male’s breasts, or because she thought Saotome looked rather silly wearing that, considering her ‘real’ sex.

Either way, her look amused Gosnell.

As the tournament progressed two things became clear. First, Akane was right. Saotome was in fact a terrible poker player. She had folded more than once when she shouldn’t have, and seemingly called when she shouldn’t have. She was only saved by what Gosnell assumed was the second thing to prove true.

Ranma-chan’s cleavage was distracting enough to cause the other, better players to make several, costly mistakes.

Eventually the other players were eliminated, and it was down to Gosnell and Ranma-chan.

The redhead grinned to Gosnell devilishly.

“I guess since you know my secret, my technique won’t work on you, eh?” Ranma-chan asked.

Gosnell shrugged slightly as he smiled. “Not entirely, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy myself.”

Ranma-chan’s eyes narrowed as the Ferengi dealt the cards.

“The final hand of the Frenginor No-Limit Hold ‘Em Tournament is beginning!” he cheerfully called as both Ranma-chan and Gosnell placed their opening bets.

The dealer flopped the community cards.

King, King, Six.

Ranma-chan, with the token, peaked at her cards before tossing a few bars onto the table. Gosnell didn’t even bother looking before calling her bet.

The turn card was dealt.

Ace.

Gosnell saw it. She was not pleased with the ace. He realized that she had nothing. He quickly looked to his cards as Ranma-chan placed some more latinum on the table.

Two sixes.

He had a full house.

Victory was assured.

Gosnell called the red headed commander’s bet.

The river card was dealt.

A three.

Again, he saw Ranma-chan wince.

Certainly, she would fold.

Gosnell watched in disbelief as she shoved every piece of shiny metal she had onto the table. Gosnell stammered.

“I- I don’t have that much.”

“Then you’ll have to fold,” Ranma-chan smirked.

Gosnell KNEW she was bluffing. He KNEW it. He WAS going to call it, come hell or high water.

“How about this, to even out the difference, I offer my services as a personal concierge, for the rest of your life,” Gosnell pleaded.

Akane shook her head in disbelief. Ranma-chan pondered this for a moment before looking to the Ferengi. “Is that allowed?”

“If you don’t care, I don’t care,” he shrugged. “But I’m taking 5 percent of the pot as a contracting fee.”

Ranma-chan nodded. “Okay.”

“Ranma!” Akane barked.

“Ahem,” the Ferengi coughed, “I said ten percent.”

Both Gosnell and Ranma-chan scowled at him as the Ferengi, doing what he loved, scammed them both and wrote up a quick contract before handing it to Gosnell. Gosnell skimmed it over, then nodded and applied his thumbprint to the bottom.

“For God’s sake,” Akane murmured.

The Ferengi then looked to Ranma-chan.

“Him first,” she smiled.

Gosnell grinned happily as he turned over his cards. “Full house, baby!”

Ranma-chan sighed before lazily flopping her cards onto the table. “Four kings.”

Gosnell could only stare wide-eyed at the two kings Ranma-chan had tossed out there. The spectators applauded as the Ferengi pushed the pile of latinum, as well as the PADD with Gosnell’s contract on it over to Ranma-chan.

Ranma-chan slowly walked around the table, took a communicator out of her purse, and stuck it on the still stunned Gosnell.

“The Loami leaves in 72 hours. Don’t be late!” she smiled, patting Gosnell on the head.

Gosnell continued to sit there, in shock.

“Aye,” he finally replied.

PRESENT TIME; STARDATE 62827
ALTERNATE UNIVERSE

“Shelton to Commander Hino,” Rei’s communicator chirped.

Rei who was in the lounge with Kio having coffee, looked at it strangely. Shelton should be on the planet by now, so if he was calling her directly, something bad must have happened.

“Go,” she worriedly replied.

“Commander, you said Commander Gras was coming with us for the first scouting mission, right?” he asked.

“Yeah, she didn’t?” Rei asked.

“No,” Shelton replied. “We’re in the transporter room waiting, but she’s not here and she’s not answering us when we call her.”

Rei and Kio look to each other.

“That doesn’t sound like her,” Kio said, worried.

Rei shook her head.

“Go ahead and beam down with just you and Parker,” Rei sighed. “We’ll look into things and get back to you.”

“Aye,” Shelton replied, worry coming to his voice.

“Where the hell is she?” Rei pondered.

“Did she come home last night?” Kio asked Rei.

Rei shot Kio a very, very nasty look before shaking her head. “No, she did not spend the night, but for your information, Lieutenant, she doesn’t spend every night.” Rei hit her comm badge. “Hino to Gras.”

No reply.

“Hino to Gras,” Rei tried again.

Again, no reply.

“Computer, where is Commander Jitsia Gras?”

“Commander Jitsia Gras is in crew quarters A-19,” the computer replied.

“Those are hers,” Kio said.

Rei nodded and stood. Kio stood as well. “We better go check on her,” Rei said.

Kio nodded and the pair ran off.

<Nifty Star Trek Doorbell Sound>

Rei looked to Kio as no one answered the call.

<Nifty Star Trek Doorbell Sound>

Kio pulled out her side arm and activated the phaser mode before nodding to Rei. Rei typed in her security override code while pulling out her own side arm.

The door slid open, and the pair quickly moved in. Kio went one way, Rei the other.

It didn’t take long for Rei to find who they were looking for.

“Oh my God...” Rei mumbled, dropping her gun.

Kio, hearing Rei, and more clearly, the clanging of the NEO pistol on the metal deck plating, quickly ran over.

“Holy...” Kio stammered. Rei dropped to her knees and began to run her hands through Jitsia’s hair as Kio smacked her comm badge. “Medical emergency to crew quarters A-19! Hurry!!”

“On the way,” sickbay reported.

On the bed lay Jitsia, naked. Her body, covered in blood. A large incision went from the middle of her torso about a third of the way down. In her right hand, still gripped tightly was a large, sharp knife that was covered in blood.

Several medics arrived, most stunned by what they saw.

“She’s lost a lot of blood. We need to get her out of here now,” they stated.

Rei nodded as Jitsia and the medics beamed out of the room.

Shelton looked around a bit before pulling out his tricorder and scanning. None of the targets seemed to live near each other, so he was a little frustrated that they were dispatched with only himself and Lieutenant Parker.

Not that the third person would have helped totally, considering there were four people they were supposed to be watching. It certainly would be easier to watch four people with three than with two.

Shelton checked out the scans, then set himself up on the rooftop of an apartment complex that sat near one of the addresses he was given. Parker was sent to a small temple and was posted up in the woods nearby.

“Commander,” Parker called out over the comms.

“Yo?” Shelton replied quietly, looking through his binoculars.

“They all seem to be at my target’s location,” Parker reported.

“You have a visual?”

“Yeah,” Parker replied. “It’s insane, man. They look exactly like them.” Parker paused for a few moments. “Maybe a little bit younger, but otherwise, mirror images.”

“Well, I know you’ve had a thing for Commander Hino,” Shelton mused. “Now’s your chance.”

Parker growled. “You realize they record this shit, right?”

Shelton laughed. “I’m heading to your location, let me know if they leave.”

“Aye,” Parker replied.

The aft turbolift on the bridge opened and Kio quickly walked out. She looked around a bit and noticed Ranma and Shampoo speaking with Makoto. Kio moved over to the tactical station and tapped on Ranma’s shoulder.

“Lieutenant,” he smiled. “Good morning.”

Kio nodded to Ranma. The pigtailed Captain lost his smile upon seeing the look on Kio’s face.

“I need to speak with you, privately,” Kio requested.

Ranma nodded and took Kio over towards his ready room. Kio stopped them outside the doors however and simply had Ranma lean over a bit to where she could whisper into his ear.

All the color in Ranma’s face faded as she softly spoke into his ear. Once she was done, Ranma turned to her, a stunned look on his face. “Is she okay?”

“I don’t know,” Kio whispered. “I have to go on the away team, but I thought you should be told in person.”

Ranma nodded. “Thank you,” he said, placing his hand on Kio’s shoulder and guiding her towards the fore turbolift.

“Shampoo, you have the bridge,” he called out as the pair stepped in.

“Is everything okay?” Shampoo asked.

“No,” Ranma said as the doors slid closed.

An obviously distraught Ranma walked into Sickbay and moved quickly to Akane.

“How is she?” he asked.

Akane shook her head. “I think if they had found her even five minutes later, she’d have been dead.”

“Will she survive?”

A real doctor turned and bit his lip. “Maybe.”

“I don’t like ‘maybe’,” Ranma groaned.

“She’s lost so much blood, I can’t be certain of anything at this point, sir,” he said. “If we can get her stabilized, she should be okay, but…”

Ranma sighed. “I want to be kept in the loop. I don’t care how small of an update.”

Both Akane and the doctor nodded. The doctor went back to working on Jitsia. Akane sighed and looked to her PADD. “I don’t understand why, with everything they have access too, why you’d try to kill yourself by cutting yourself open with a knife.”

“She wasn’t trying to kill herself,” Rei, who was sitting on a bio bed nearby, dryly stated.

Ranma moved closer to Rei. “What do you know?”

Rei sighed. “She was trying to cut out her symbiont.”

Ranma cocked his head. “Why would she try to do that?”

Rei bit her lip.

“Commander.”

Again, Rei stonewalled for a moment, before turning to Ranma and looking at him softly. “Captain, she trusts me.”

“I only want to help her,” Ranma replied.

Rei slowly nodded and pulled Ranma into Akane’s office and shut the door.

“Gras, the symbiont, is seemingly ‘stronger’ than they usually are and has been exerting more influence over her than normal,” Rei explained.

“Including forcing her to have feelings for one of the NEO officers she recruited.”

Ranma took this in for a moment.

“But what would cause her to go to such an extreme step?”

Rei shook her head. “I don’t know.”

A knock on the door is heard. Ranma and Rei turned to see Akane. Ranma opened the door for his wife and motioned for her to come in.

“Ranma... There’s... something we found...”

“Oh?” Ranma asked.

Akane silently looked to Rei.

“If it’s about Commander Gras,” Ranma said, seeing Akane’s concern, “Commander Hino has Commander Gras’ trust, I assure you.”

“Okayyyyy,” Akane said, not sure but trusting her husband. Rei, unsure whether to be offended or pleased that Akane cared that much about Jitsia’s privacy, listened attentively.

“Well two things, first off, the symbiont was cut, but should be okay-”

“Remove it,” Ranma ordered.

“What?” Akane asked.

“Remove it,” Ranma repeated.

“Shouldn’t we talk to Commander-”

Ranma simply gave Akane a look, one of his very serious and stern faces that Akane rarely ever got from Ranma. The drop-dead sternness of his gaze and the authority in the tone of his voice was usually something he reserved for the people off ship he dealt with.

Akane decided to assume that Ranma knew something she didn’t and that she would not question her husband. After all, he would not order her to do something that wasn’t ethical or something he didn’t believe was right. That was something she knew.

“Okay,” she said.

Rei smiled slightly. Not for long though.

“The other thing is that our medical exams found semen in Commander Gras. Perhaps whoever she was with could shed some light on-”

“She was raped,” Rei growled.

Both Ranma and Akane turned to Rei.

“How do you know?” Ranma asked.

Rei again stonewalled for a moment but realized that if the rapist was going to be punished, some secrets would have to be let go.

“Jitsia would never consent to having sex with a man,” Rei sighed before lowering her voice. “She’s gay.”

Akane nodded and started to walk out. “I’ll have them run a DNA check and a rape kit on her.”

Ranma grabbed Akane. “Do it yourself, please.”

Akane nodded. “Sure.”

“Thank you,” Rei said.

Akane softly smiled to Rei before turning and heading back to Jitsia. Ranma turned to Rei, shaking his head slightly.

“You know who it is, don’t you?”

Rei nodded, before tears started to well up. “I was going to get rid of him. I found at least three things in his record that would have disqualified him from Black One clearance, but with us here,” Rei dropped to the ground and slammed herself against a wall, “what fucking good would it have done? It’s not like he could have left the ship?”

Ranma moved next to Rei and slid down next to her.

“What’s worse,” Rei continued, “is that now I feel like once again I have failed to protect...” she trailed off before wiping some tears out of her eyes. She looked to Ranma.

“Someone I love.”

Ranma took Rei’s hand and squeezed it. "I nearly destroyed half of Vulcan, blew up this ship and got court-martialed trying to protect someone I love,” Ranma said, looking out towards sickbay. “It’s not an easy task. You can just do what you can do, and if things go wrong, you work to seek set right what’s been wronged.”

Rei nodded. Ranma sighed. “It’s my fault too.”

Rei looked to Ranma who was shaking his head. “Sir?”

“Looking back, just on his behavior in the transporter room, and the way Commander Gras acted around him, I should have seen there was an issue,” Ranma sighed.

Rei sniffled a bit and nodded. “Seems we both let our shipmate down,” Rei softly said as Akane walked back in. She moved to where Ranma and Rei were and went to her knees in front of them.

“Well...” she softly spoke, “While it seems to be no indication that Commander Gras actively resisted the assault, the test does indicate that it was not entirely consensual.”

Ranma looked to Rei, who was glowing red with anger. “You said the symbiont was controlling her. Did you mean that literally?”

Rei simply stared at the door towards sickbay. “If she did not fight that monster off, then... yes.”

Akane looked at Rei a little shocked before continuing, although she wasn’t sure if she wanted to.

“There were...” Akane cleared her throat, “...multiple ejac-”

“Akane,” Ranma interrupted.

“Yes, well, we injected Commander Gras with 1.5mg of progestin levonorgestrel to ensure she would not be impregnated,” Akane explained, scanning over the report more. “DNA is 99.999 percent likely match to-”

“Lt. Commander Siohxx Ishran,” Rei stated, standing.

Akane nodded.

Rei began to move towards the doors. Ranma quickly stood.

“COMMANDER!” he barked. Rei stopped. She considered going anyway but realized that would accomplish little but satisfying her own personal need for revenge. As well, she knew Jitsia would be quite angry at her if she destroyed her career, when there was no point.

He’s got nowhere to go. Even if he hid, security would find him eventually.

Rei sighed and turned to Ranma. “I’m just going to go sit with her, sir.”

Ranma nodded. Rei walked into sickbay and resumed her spot on the bio bed next to Jitsia’s. Ranma hugged Akane, which surprised her.

“What was that for?” she asked.

Ranma shrugged. “For being a good person,” he told her.

Akane smiled.

Ranma slapped his comm badge. “Saotome to Kino.”

“Yes sir?”

“Arrest Lt. Commander Siohxx Ishran and place him in the brig.”

“Yes sir,” Makoto replied.

Ranma walked back out into sickbay and moved next to Rei. He looked to Jitsia for a moment before turning to Rei.

“I want you to be able to spend time with her,” Ranma said, placing his hand on Rei’s shoulder, “But-”

Rei nodded. “I understand, sir,” Rei nodded. “I will not allow my personal feelings get in the way of the mission.”

“I totally trust you, Commander,” Ranma smiled. “I have no doubt that you can be both a loving friend and a professional at the same time.”

Rei smiled to Ranma. “I appreciate all the faith you’ve placed in me.”

“You’ve earned it,” Ranma nodded as he patted Rei on the back. Ranma paused and looked towards the bio bed where Jitsia was being worked on before shaking his head and heading with Akane towards the sickbay doors.

“Yuki to Shelton,” Kio called as she stepped onto the transporter pad.

“What’s going on?” Anthony asked as he and Kagurazaka stepped onto the pad as well. “I thought we weren’t going down till later.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kio grumbled.

“Go ahead, Lieutenant,” Shelton replied.

“Three of us are coming down to the planet,” she reported. “Do you want us to come to your location?”

“If one of you could, that would be good,” Shelton said. “You other guys can check out the neighborhood where they live. See if any Kunos are wandering around.”

“Aye,” Kio replied. She turned to Kagurazaka and grinned. “You ready to play with Alpha team, Ian?”

Kagurazaka nodded.

Kio instructed the transporter operator on where to send them. On the planet, Kio and Anthony materialized in an alleyway. Kio grumbled at the rain that was falling.

“They didn’t say anything about rain,” Anthony scowled.

“Don't be such a little baby,” Kio taunted as she pulled out her tricorder. “I see two ‘Kuno’ bio signs about twenty meters from us.”

Anthony placed one of his hands behind his back and under his leather jacket that concealed his handgun. Kio crept forward with Anthony right behind her. Across the street from the alley, they saw an electronics store with the front window smashed out.

Kio checked out her tricorder again and pointed towards the store.

“The bio signs are in there.”

Anthony started to move, but Kio stopped him and pushed him back behind some garbage cans as a police car came screaming up the street with its lights and sirens blaring. It screeched to a halt in front of the store and two policemen got out.

From the broken window, two young men, carrying baskets full of electronic parts climbed out. They tried to ignore the policemen, but one of them sprayed one of the men with mace.

They both dropped their baskets and turned to the policemen. They quickly advanced on them and allowed their assimilation tongs to shoot out of their hands and inject the policemen, causing them to become assimilated.

“They just assimilated those cops!” Anthony gasped.

Kio nodded and pulled out her gun. She flipped it to phaser mode.

“Will phasers work on them?” Anthony asked.

Kio shrugged. “We need to at least try non-lethal against innocent Kuno victims first.”

Anthony nodded and switched his hybrid phaser as well. The pair quickly and quietly moved across the street as the police officers helped gather more electronics.

The two young men picked up their baskets and started to walk off.

A shot from both Kio’s and Anthony’s guns hit each of them, knocking them over and to the street. The baskets tipped over and spilled out. Neither of the young men got back up.

Kio and Anthony quickly ran over to them. Kio pulled two hyposprays out of her cargo pants pocket and injected the men with it.

“Hopefully this will reverse the assimilation process,” she sighed.

“Where’d those cops go?” Anthony asked.

Kio turned towards the store as the cops came back out. They saw the pair, then saw their comrades on the ground. They set their baskets of electronics on the hood of their squad car and went after Kio and Anthony.

Kio fired at one of the policemen, however he dodged the shot and drew his own weapon. He fired at Kio, missing her by a few centimeters.

“Be careful Tony,” Kio called out. “They have projectile guns.”

Anthony nodded as he fought off one of the policemen with a roundhouse kick to the head. The policeman fell to the ground where Anthony shot him in the back, stunning him. He quickly injected him with the anti-assimilation hypo, then went to assist Kio, who was trying to stay out of the line of fire of the first policeman.

Kio ended up tripping in what was a pothole obscured by a puddle and fell to the ground. The policeman drew his weapon and grinned.

“In the name of the law, I shall smite thee!” he declared.

Anthony dove across the police car to tackle the policeman but missed by a meter or so. However, his melodramatic attempt at a rescue was enough of a distraction for Kio to sweep the policeman off his feet, then fire a shot and stun him.

She then injected him with the serum before she walked off the pain in her ankle from tripping.

“You okay?” Anthony asked.

Kio nodded. “Yeah, thanks.”

“Just concerned,” Anthony smiled as he walked back over to Kio who was scanning all the electronic parts scattered around. “You were limping a bit.”

“No,” she smiled, grabbing Anthony, and hugging him. “Thanks for... well trying... to save me.”

Anthony nodded. “I’d be lonely without you.”

Kio smiled happily as she looked to her tricorder. “Me too.”

Sirens began to fill the air as the pair ran off into the darkness.

“I really wish we had a television,” Tatewaki grumbled.

George finished brushing his teeth then turned to his brother. “I really wish we had a lot of things.”

“Where are those children you sent to fetch us one?” Kodachi asked Tatewaki.

“I do not know,” Tatewaki replied. “I am not their mother, you are.”

“ME?!” Kodachi bellowed. “Why do I have to be the mother?”

“Do you see any other women here?” Tatewaki asked.

Kodachi began to point to a couple of the assimilated citizens walking around who happened to be female.

“Our drones cannot be parents,” Tatewaki scowled.

“Maybe when we capture her,” Kodachi smirked, “that Shampoo girl can be the mother?”

George growled. “Shampoo will be a mother, but only to OUR children.”

Kodachi and Tatewaki laughed. George pushed passed them. “Maybe the pig-tailed girl could be the mother. Her idiotically oversized breasts are big enough to feed everyone.”

“Those are mine!” Tatewaki snapped.

“Where are they, anyway?” George asked, moving back to his siblings. “Why haven’t you brought them back here yet?”

Both Tatewaki and Kodachi looked to each other. “We haven’t located them yet.”

“Have you tried going to their homes?” George asked.

The elder Kuno siblings hemmed and hawed for a moment before George facepalmed.

“You forgot where they lived, didn’t you?”

Kodachi nodded sheepishly. “It’s been quite a while, George.”

George nodded and was about to relay the information to his kin when suddenly he felt it. The loss of four assimilated people from the collective.

“Cripes,” he mumbled.

“What?” Tatewaki asked.

“Starfleet has people on the planet,” George sighed.

“Will they find us?” Kodachi asked.

George shook his head. “No, but this may cause us an issue tomorrow.”

Jitsia opened her eyes for the first time in, what seemed to Rei, days. It had only been about five hours. She’d made an amazing recovery, considering everything she’d been through, and while she wouldn’t be going on any NEO actions any time soon, she might be able to leave sickbay in a couple of days or so.

Rei had to do everything she could not to glom onto Jitsia or start bawling like a small child when the blonde woman began looking around.

“Sia...” Rei smiled.

“Hey,” she weakly replied.

Jitsia was noticing something different about herself. Something different, but familiar.

Her hands moved towards her stomach.

“It’s...” Jitsia mumbled.

Rei felt tears coming to her eyes, despite her best efforts to stop them. “Yeah, we had them take it out, so you wouldn’t try and cut yourself open again.”

Jitsia bit her lip a bit.

“Was that wrong?” Rei asked.

Jitsia shook her head slowly. “No.”

“But?”

Jitsia sighed. “I guess it’s like a part of me is missing... even if it was a horrible part.”

Rei eyed Jitsia for a moment.

“Is it okay?” she asked.

Rei nodded. “It’s in stasis till we get back and can be sent to Trill.”

Jitsia nodded and stared at the lights for a little bit.

Rei scowled as she quietly continued their conversation. “Lt. Commander Ishran has been thrown in the brig.”

Jitsia turned to Rei. “So, you know what happened, then?”

Rei nodded. “I’m sorry I failed to protect you.”

Jitsia weakly laughed. “That’s not your job.”

“Why not?” Rei asked.

Jitsia took Rei’s hand. “‘Cause I’m better than you. It’s my job to protect you.”

Rei laughed and shook her head.

There was a bit of silence for a minute before Rei finally spoke again.

“I love you,” she bluntly stated.

Jitsia blinked a couple of times before turning to Rei.

“It’s okay if you’re not there yet,” Rei smiled. “But just so you know.”

Jitsia looked to Rei for a moment and nearly said something herself before being interrupted by the doors to sickbay opening and Ranma walking in. He smiled to Rei and then to Jitsia.

“Commander Gras, I am glad to see you’re awake.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Jitsia smiled, letting go of Rei’s hand and shaking Ranma’s. “And I guess now it’s Commander Carliz, since Gras is safely locked up in a refrigerator.”

Ranma nodded. “I like the sound of Commander Carliz much better anyway.”

Jitsia smiled at Ranma.

“Sickbay has you on medical leave for 14 days, but if you want more, just let me know, okay?” Ranma smiled.

“Thank you,” Jitsia nodded.

Ranma looked around, making sure none of the doctors were nearby before continuing. “I know this isn’t the time or place, but when you feel around to it, we need a statement from you on what happened between you and Commander Ishran.”

Jitsia’s smiled faded.

“I respect your privacy, Commander,” Ranma continued, “which is why only the three of us and your doctors know what’s happened. So, when you’re ready, I’d like you to speak to me.”

Jitsia nodded. “Yes sir.”

“I can-” Rei began.

Ranma’s shaking head cut her off. Rei wouldn’t admit it, but she was relieved that Ranma wouldn’t allow her to take Jitsia’s statement. She was already hurting because of what happened to her. The last thing she needed was to hear was Jitsia tell her every horrid detail of the encounter.

Ranma patted Jitsia on the shoulder and smiled at her. “I’m happy you’re getting better.”

“I’m just sad I can’t help with the mission,” Jitsia sighed.

“Well, when we go back, according to DTI it will be almost the same time we left, so there will be plenty of more missions.”

Jitsia smiled and nodded as Ranma turned and walked off.

Rei leaned over and kissed Jitsia on the forehead before whispering in her ear. “I have an away team to go on. But I promise I will be back as soon as I can.”

Jitsia nodded, ran her hand across Rei’s face and smiled.

“Be careful.”

Rei nodded and smiled back at Jitsia before slowly leaving sickbay.

Parker was snoozing away with his head resting on a rock as Shelton watched the temple from the makeshift trench they had created. The sound of the transporters woke Parker from his slumber however and he sat up quickly and looked around as Minako, Makoto, Usagi, and Rei beamed down next to him.

“Commanders,” he whispered.

The group, all dressed casually, ducked down, and hid themselves in the bushes. Rei turned to Shelton, “Where’s Kagurazaka?”

“Um, the one who looks like Commander Aino went for a jog,” Shelton reported. Shelton turned to Rei. “He followed her.”

“So, they all spent the night here?” Makoto asked.

Rei looked at the temple in awe. “It looks just like my grandfather’s temple.”

Shelton nodded. “Yeah,” he said, showing the group a tricorder. “They’ve been here since we beamed down.”

Parker nodded as well, looking occasionally to Usagi. “They were talking over a bonfire about what their plan was to get ‘Usagi’ back today.”

Shelton sighed. “And just when I thought seeing duplicates of you guys was the weirdest thing ever, they had two cats that could speak as well.”

Makoto laughed a bit. “I’ll have to take you to meet the directors of Section 31 someday.”

“Huh?” Shelton asked, staring at Makoto with a blank expression on his face.

“Well,” Minako started, “if my duplicate is alone, she might be the best one to approach first.”

Rei nodded. “Agreed. If we can convince her of our intentions, the rest should be easier to convince.”

Rei tapped her concealed communicator. “Hino to Kagurazaka. Where are you?”

“About a half kilometer east of temple and headed back that way,” Kagurazaka replied.

“Let’s go,” Rei said. She looked to Parker and Shelton. “Stay here and keep an eye on things.”

Both men nodded as the four girls ran off.

Minako-2 continued to jog down the trail. She enjoyed staying at Rei’s since she had these trails. The scenery was beautiful, especially at sunrise. She could kill two birds with one stone; enjoy nature and keep in shape at the same time.

Her mind wasn’t really on the jog, however. It was on Usagi-2. They weren’t sure what they were going to do. They people who kidnapped Sailor Moon had the Silver Crystal, so even if they were going to trade the crystal for Sailor Moon, they couldn’t. So, the only option was going to be to defeat them.

However as proven in their last battle, these new enemies didn’t seem to be affected by their attacks at all.

Hopefully they could figure something out, combine their powers together or something to rescue her and regain control of the crystal and destroy both the Negaverse and these new creatures.

Minako-2 slowed from her jog to a walk as she heard footsteps in front of her. All of this was Rei’s grandfather’s property, so there shouldn’t be anyone else running on it.

“Oh, hey Rei,” Minako-2 said as she noticed Rei walking up the path. Rei smiled at her. The Rei she saw though seemed different from her Rei. This Rei was wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of black cargo pants, rather than her temple clothes.

“Hello, Minako,” Rei said. “I can already tell you realize I am not who I appear to be,” she said.

Minako-2 went to the pocket of her gym shorts and quickly pulled out her transformation pen. Makoto leapt out from behind Minako-2 and grabbed her arm with one hand and covered her mouth with the other.

Minako-2’s eyes went wide. This Makoto was different as well. Dressed like Rei, and seemingly stronger than her Makoto would be. They must be Negaverse youma in disguise. They are likely here to steal her body as well.

“Please, calm down for a moment and let us explain,” Minako said, walking up.

Minako-2 nearly fainted at the sight of herself.

“MEROWWWWWWWWWWWWW!” a growling hiss is heard, and a white streak is all that is seen as Artemis leaps onto Makoto’s head and begins to claw and bite at her.

“Please stop that!” Minako calls out.

Artemis looks wide-eyed at the duplicate Minako as Makoto, despite the pain, maintains control of Minako-2.

“What is going on here?” Artemis demands to know.

“We’ll explain, but first don’t attack us and don’t transform,” Rei demands. She pulls up her shirt slightly to show she has no weapons. “We’re unarmed and we won’t hurt you.”

Artemis, despite his better judgement, nods in agreement and hops off Makoto. Minako-2 also nods. Makoto releases her and allows her to put the transformation pen back in her pocket.

“Is everything okay, Commander?” Kagurazaka asked over comms.

“Yes,” Rei replied. “Go join Commander Shelton.”

“Aye,” he replied.

Artemis looked around to try and see where the voice was coming from. Minako-2 looked her duplicate over a few times, pausing and smiling coyly as she glanced at her wedding ring, before turning back to Rei.

“Well?”

“You remember the battle you had where Sailor Moon was captured?” Rei asked.

“Obviously,” Minako-2 scoffed.

“Well, the people you fought, they are from another universe. One that apparently nearly duplicate to yours, except about 500 years in the future.”

Minako continued. “They managed to open a portal between the universes and come here. We work for an organization known as Starfleet. Our job is to stop people like them, so we followed them here.”

“So, you go from dimension to dimension fighting bad guys?” Artemis asks.

Rei shook her head. “No. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of this happening. I can’t really explain too much about our universe, as that would violate our rules, but we’re basically a peacekeeping force for our government. We normally don’t get involved in other people’s problems, but when it’s due to outside interference like this, we had no choice.”

Minako-2 sighed. “Well, you need to do a better job. Those ‘people’ kidnapped Usagi.”

Rei nodded. “Yeah, but now we have her, and their spaceship is destroyed.”

Artemis and Minako-2 both looked to Rei, shocked. “You can defeat them?” Minako-2 finally asked. “Our attacks were useless against them.”

Minako sighed. “The Kunos, that’s their names, have the ability to adapt to energy attacks. Your attacks are nothing more than a metaenergy attack. It may be more powerful and hit differently than our energy weapons, but it’s just energy all the same.”

Rei nodded. “We have a special operations team that uses... well, bullets.”

“How do you know so much about our attacks?” Minako-2 asked.

“We’re you,” Usagi said, stepping out of the bushes from where she was obviously waiting to make the most dramatic entrance she could. “We did exactly what you’re doing now. I was Sailor Moon, she was Sailor Mars, she was Sailor Jupiter, she was Sailor Venus, Ami was Sailor Mercury...” Usagi trailed off a bit, bit her lip, then continued. “Quite frankly I hated it, and I don’t really want anything to do with this mission now.”

Makoto, Minako and Rei looked to Usagi, with a comforting expression, as she continued. They were starting to understand why she was so freaked out earlier.

“The whole ordeal was terrible, and it caused me a lot of pain, both during it and when it was over,” Usagi’s eyes moved to Rei slowly, then back to Minako-2. “But I don’t want anything bad happening to you guys, so I am willing to deal with it again to try and help you.”

Artemis walked up to Usagi and placed a paw on her boot. “That’s very honorable of you.”

Usagi squatted down and scratched Artemis behind his ears. Artemis began to purr, which made Usagi smile.

“Our Artemis loves this too,” she grinned.

Minako-2 smiled. “Okay, so you guys are duplicates of us.”

“I think you guys are duplicates of us,” Makoto stated.

“It doesn’t fucking matter,” Rei snapped, drawing a shocked look from Minako-2. “Sorry,” Rei blushed. “If you worked on a spaceship, you’d swear too.”

“I don’t swear,” Minako gloated.

“Should I tell her what you do with Ryouga?” Rei growled.

“WE’RE MARRIED!” Minako snapped. “It’s allowed!”

“Uh,” Makoto pointed towards Usagi and Artemis who were several meters away, walking towards the temple, “we should probably catch up with them before she freaks them out.”

The group nods and takes off running after Usagi and her kitty partner.

“Based on inventory of all the items the assimilated people were stealing,” Kaii reported, “it seems that they’re trying to build weapons and replicators with twentieth century parts and technology.”

“Is that even possible?” Ranma asked.

Kaii nodded. “If you know how to do it, and assuming they have some of the necessary parts salvaged from their ship.” Kaii sighed and looked over some of his previous scans from Nighthawk.

“I have to assume that they’ve got some kind of hidden base on the planet, and it’s being masked, which means they have both an energy source, and a subspace field generator. If they brought that with them, then it wasn’t a last-minute thing before they self-destructed, and it was something they were planning beforehand.”

Ranma grumbled. Every time he thought it was going to be a simple matter of zapping the Kunos and getting rid of them, something else complicated the matter.

“With the subspace field generator up, there’s likely no way to pinpoint their location, is there?” Ranma asked.

“Not from orbit,” Kaii said, shaking his head. “But Lt. Yuki said the thieves were on foot, so it seems reasonable to assume their base would be near the electronics store where the break in occurred.”

“Seem like waste to have a NEO team just wander around scanning,” Shampoo pointed out.

Ranma nodded. “I know someone who loves just wandering around, though.”

Gosnell beamed down next to Anthony, scaring the living wits out of the poor enlisted soldier. Gosnell, who was no fan of heights, backpedaled away from the edge of the building the NSO team was situated on top of.

“Geeze,” Gosnell grumbled. “Spend all day in space, you’d think you’d want to be firmly planted on the ground on an away mission.”

Kio chuckled slightly as she took a gun and a couple of magazines of ammo out of her bag, as well as a power cell and handed it to Gosnell. Gosnell sighed and placed it in his waistline.

“Don’t like guns, eh?” Kio asked.

“I’m a lover, not a fighter, Lieutenant,” Gosnell nodded.

Anthony smirked this time. “I’m both.”

“You’re neither,” Kio scoffed as she patted Gosnell on the shoulder. “It’s ‘just in case’. If things get bad, yell at us, and we’ll come help, okay?”

Gosnell nodded and gingerly made his way down the fire escape.

Kirie was a little upset that she wasn’t getting status reports as often as she wanted them. Though part of that was because there wasn’t a whole lot going on. The deadline to exchange the girl wasn’t for a couple more hours, so the NSO teams were simply sitting and watching.

The other team on the planet had contacted their duplicates and, at least according to their report, had explained the situation without telling more than the duplicates needed to know.

As was stated before, it wasn’t ideal, but Saotome was right.

It was better than allowing the Kunos to succeed.

“Hrm,” Kirie said out loud as she looked at some new information.

“What is it?” Miharu asked.

“Just looking at the reports from sickbay,” Kirie explained. “Everyone who’s eligible to go to the planet has taken a physical except for the bartender they sent down there.”

“How did he get to go without taking one?” Miharu asked.

“Protocol was overridden by the Captain,” she said, typing in some more information. Kirie looked confused as she read the results of her query. “He’s never taken one.”

“Ever?” Miharu asked.

Kirie shook her head. “They’ve always been overridden by Saotome or his father.”

Kirie’s eyes looked towards the captain’s chair where Shampoo was seated, reading a PADD. They then shifted to the ready room. She then began to type something up.

“What are you doing?” Miharu asked.

“He cannot be down there if he’s carrying something,” Kirie whispered. “I’m having him detained and returned to the ship.”

“Are you sure you shouldn’t speak with the Captain first?”

Kirie rolled her eyes. “What’s he going to say? He’s the one who overrode the requirement.”

Miharu sighed and nodded.

“Yuki to Hino,” Rei’s communicator chirped.

Rei, who was chatting with... well, herself, excused... herself, and tapped her communicator.

“Go ahead.”

Rei, Minako and Usagi were sitting outside of the temple with their duplicates and Ami. Makoto had gone inside to freshen up and chat with her duplicate. All the duplicates, despite having their own walkie-talkie, were impressed with Rei’s communicator, and eyed it curiously.

“DTI is saying that Gosnell didn’t get his physical done before he beamed down, and he needs to be detained and brought back.”

Rei blinked. “Can’t they just contact him?”

“They specifically are saying ‘detained’,” Kio said. “He’s closer to you guys and we really can’t leave.”

“That’s fine, I’ll have my team go get him,” Rei sighed.

“Roger,” Kio answered, ending the transmission.

Minako looked to Rei. “We’ve got time, and you really shouldn’t pull your teams off the perimeter. Usagi and I can go get him. Your guys would be too hard on him anyway.”

Rei nodded as Usagi and Minako stood. “Sure,” she said, not sure why Gosnell would need to be detained in the first place.

Minako looked over a PADD that contained the details of Gosnell’s whereabouts and why DTI wanted him before she and Usagi ran off. Rei resumed chatting with the duplicates for a few more minutes before Makoto and Makoto-2 walked out.

“Where’s Minako and Usagi?” Makoto asked.

“DTI told us to arrest your husband because he didn’t take his physical before beaming down,” Rei explained.

“WHAT?” Makoto snapped.

“Sheesh,” Ami-2 grumbled. “Are all of us in that universe married but me?”

“I’m not,” Rei-2 said, pointing towards Rei’s hand.

Rei turned and glared at her duplicate, considering whomping her for a moment before turning back to Makoto. “What’s wrong?”

“Shit, they’re making a huge mistake,” Makoto said before running off in the general direction Minako and Usagi went.

“That Usagi wasn’t married either,” Luna pointed out.

This time Rei glared at Luna before turning in the direction Makoto ran, concerned about what exactly was going on.

Every block or so Gosnell would stop, stealthily pull out his tricorder, and scan. And, of course, it would tell him the same thing. ‘No subspace distortion fields located’.

Gosnell didn’t mind too much. Hell, if time wasn’t a factor here, he would consider this a nice vacation. The weather, despite the occasional drizzle, was decent. The people seemed to be friendly, and while he wasn’t certain, he was pretty sure there was a Hello Kitty mega store nearby.

Unfortunately, Google Maps hadn’t been invented yet, so he was going to have to find a phone book to know for sure.

His next scan was much of the same. Nothing found. Though the tricorder did show something interesting. Two Starfleet communicator signatures, 40 meters away, closing in on him rather quickly.

Gosnell turned in that direction. He could see, as the tricorder had reported, about 40 meters away, Minako and Usagi running in his direction.

He waved at them.

“GOSNELL!” Minako yelled. “STOP!”

“PREPARE TO BE DETAINED!” Usagi added.

Gosnell looked at them oddly for a moment before turning in the opposite direction and taking off running.

“Why did you yell that?” Minako asked Usagi.

“Seemed like the thing to do,” Usagi shrugged as she tried to run faster.

The two blondes continued to chase Gosnell as he ran through a small shopping district and around some food carts. He quickly stopped to look at some cute anime toys that he thought Makoto might like but realized that he was simply allowing his pursuers to close in on him and resumed running and turned into an alleyway.

“STUPID!” he yelled at himself once he realized the alley dead ended.

Usagi and Minako slowly marched down the alley, their steps almost in sync with each other. Both looked down towards their target who was making a feeble attempt to stack cardboard boxes, then climb on top of them in hopes of getting over a retaining wall.

Gosnell's weight crushed the boxes causing him to fall to the pavement. He turned and looked up to the two officers mere meters from him.

“Why are you chasing me?” he demanded to know.

“Why are you running?” Minako asked back.

“Because you're chasing!” Gosnell cried.

“Why do you get out of having to take your physical?” Usagi asked.

Gosnell blinked. “How do you know about that?”

“Your medical file says you're exempted from a physical from special order of the Captain,” Minako said as she squatted down next to Gosnell while pulling out the PADD with the DTI information on it. “How come?”

Gosnell shifted his eyes away from her, refusing to take the PADD she was trying to hand him. “You really have no business looking through my personnel files.”

“DTI made us,” Usagi explained.

Gosnell stood up, dusted himself off and began to walk away from the two women.

“It's a personal matter that I would really rather not discuss.”

Minako looked to Usagi before calling after Gosnell. “It's not a personal matter if it's something that can hurt Makoto.”

Usagi looked to Minako before turning to Gosnell. “Is there something wrong with you?” she asked.

Gosnell stopped, but he did not turn around. “No.”

“So?” Minako asked again, this time tapping the PADD, “What is it?”

Gosnell ignored Minako and began to walk away. Minako, growing quite frustrated with Gosnell stormed after him and grabbed the back of his collar. She quickly spun him around and slammed him against a wall.

The rage on her face disappeared when she noticed that his eyes had begun to fill with water.

“I promised her I would not tell anyone,” he whispered.

“Who?”

“LEAVE HIM ALONE!” an out of breath Makoto called from the entrance to the alleyway.

“Her,” Gosnell replied softly.

Minako released Gosnell and turned to Makoto. Usagi slowly walked up to Minako as Makoto came running up, shoving her way past Minako, to check on Gosnell.

“DTI wants him detained and brought back to the ship,” Usagi explained.

Makoto looked to Gosnell, then to the pair.

“I'll take care of it,” she informed them.

Usagi nodded as Makoto began to take Gosnell away, but Minako quickly grabbed her sleeve.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Makoto barked, attempting to pull Gosnell away.

“I thought we-” Minako paused for a moment as Makoto slowed her pace. “I thought you'd moved beyond keeping secrets from your friends. Lying to your friends...”

Minako looked to Gosnell who was still on the verge of crying. “Hurting the ones who loved you.”

“God damn it, Minako,” Makoto softy swore as she dropped Gosnell's arm. She looked up at him, tears forming in her own eyes.

“I don't know how many times I have to tell you,” Gosnell said, taking her hands, “it wasn't your fault.”

Makoto leaned up against a wall and slid to the ground, crying. Gosnell followed her down, grabbing a hold of her, embracing her as she dropped. Minako and Usagi ran over and dropped to their knees next to them.

Makoto looked up to Gosnell for a moment, nodded to him once, before putting her head back on his chest. Gosnell kissed the top of her head before turning to Usagi and Minako.

“I am a Q.”

Usagi audibly gasped while Minako looked at Gosnell with a look of utter shock on her face.

“That would be the correct reaction,” he acknowledged. “However, unlike most Q, I do not have most of my powers.”

Makoto's crying increased.

“Anymore,” Gosnell amended.

STARDATE 51509
THE Q CONTINUUM

Gosnell appeared in the middle of a darkened room, surrounded by seven other Q’s, all in formal Q attire. It was obvious that Gosnell was not expecting to be here as he was in mid-dance when he appeared.

“...just watch me do the Humpty-Hump...” he sung before realizing the music had stopped. Gosnell looked around.

“Makoto?”

“Your human friend is not here right now,” the ‘head’ Q stated.

Gosnell looked to him. “What’s going on? Why have you brought me here?”

“Do you not understand what it means to be a Q?” one of the other Q’s asked.

“I don’t understand that question, no.”

A different Q sighed. “The last time you were here, you stated that you opposed the actions of a certain Q.”

Gosnell nodded. “I do.”

“So why do you act like him?”

“I oppose his actions,” Gosnell argued. “I do not oppose his views on individuality and freedom.”

“That is not what we’re talking about,” the head Q stated. “You told us you opposed his interference with the linear universe. How he treated it like it was his plaything and how he would do things just because he could.”

“Yes,” Gosnell nodded. “I do.”

“Then why do you do it?” another Q repeated the earlier question.

“I don’t!” Gosnell snapped.

“You do,” the head Q retorted. “You change their events to your whim. Yes, you justify it through your relationship with the human female, but regardless, you still do it. In our eyes, you’re no better than he was.”

“An action to save someone is not the same as an action because ‘it’s fun’,” Gosnell growled.

“The result is,” another Q responded. “Their universe has been irreparably changed because of your interference.”

“This is in direct violation of the agreement we made when we allowed you to go on your little journey,” the head Q concluded.

Gosnell simply scowled. “So, what are you going to do?”

“We’re not as intolerant as you might believe, Q,” the head Q stated, snapping his fingers, and making Makoto appear next to Gosnell. Makoto looked around; a bit frightened before moving next to Gosnell.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“We are giving you a choice,” the head Q continued. “You may continue your life as a Q, but you will no longer be allowed into their universe. Your interference is unacceptable, especially after you terminated lives.”

Gosnell inhaled deeply.

“HE WAS PROTECTING US!” Makoto cried out.

“He shouldn’t have been there in the first place,” a Q responded.

“Your other choice,” the head Q continued, “is that you shall be stripped of your powers and given a linear existence.”

Gosnell looked to Makoto and scoffed. “Well, that’s an easy choice.”

The head Q nodded, but then started to gawk as Gosnell kissed Makoto passionately.

“I choose Makoto and linearhood.”

“You would snub the Continuum like that?” one of the Q’s asked, befuddled at such a ridiculous concept.

Gosnell shrugged. “Yes.”

“So be it,” the head Q stated, quite obviously angry at Gosnell’s rejection of who he was and where he rightfully belonged. “But to remind you for all eternity of what you’ve given up, I will curse you with immortality. You can spend the rest of existence pining over your lost home.”

Gosnell glared at the head Q as he felt his powers zapped away. He allowed a smug grin to cross his face, however as he gripped Makoto tightly.

“Fine. More time to remember Makoto.”

The head Q simply shook his head in disgust as he zapped the pair back to where they were.

ALTERNATE UNIVERSE
PRESENT DAY
(BY WHICH I MEAN 500 YEARS AGO)

“If you had never met me...” Makoto sniffled, “you'd still-”

“I'd still be wandering around aimlessly and pointlessly,” Gosnell said, cutting her off. “Look, the only time I have been even slightly miserable without my powers was the time after we parted ways.” Gosnell pulled Makoto closer to him. “And that was mainly because I had to pay for transports.”

Makoto chuckled a bit as Gosnell continued. “I've said it before, and I will say it again. I regret nothing. All the power in the universe is frivolous compared to the love I have for and the love I get from you.”

Usagi began crying. “That's so sweet!!!!” she bawled.

Gosnell smiled at Usagi as Makoto looked up at her husband. She slowly reached up and kissed him, the kiss lingering long enough for Usagi to go from 'aww sweet' mode to 'now I am jealous' mode.

“Have you ever regretted not having your powers?” Minako asked.

Gosnell shrugged. “A couple of times,” he acknowledged. “I would have like to have stopped the crash, obviously. And helped keep the Captain out of trouble by making sure that freighter never made it to Vulcan.”

Gosnell sighed. “But in the end, even with all the tragedy that happens, there is so much good that occurs in your -” Gosnell paused and smiled, “-in our linear existence that even if they offered me my powers back, I would refuse.”

“If you're still immortal though,” Usagi asked, “doesn't that mean Makoto will get old and die and you will still be just like you are?”

Makoto turned and glared at Usagi. Gosnell also gave her a look, though not one as... evil... as Makoto's. Minako also gave Usagi a weird look.

“I... I will deal with that when the time comes,” Gosnell said, a little perplexed by Usagi's morbid way of thinking.

“What if something explodes next to you? Do you just get seriously injured and not die?” Usagi asked.

“I think we're done here,” Minako quickly said, grabbing Usagi after seeing the burning red battle aura begin to radiate from Makoto.

Gosnell blinked a couple of times, not sure he wanted to think about what kind of a mess he would be in if that were to happen.

Minako and Usagi walked off, heading back towards the temple, leaving just Gosnell and Makoto in the alleyway as it began to rain lightly.

“Is it really okay?” Makoto asked.

Gosnell nodded. “I could be in this alley, in this strange universe, in the past, in the rain, and as long as I was with you, it would be okay.”

Makoto sighed contently as she snuggled a little closer to Gosnell. “Are you worried now that people will find out that you're a Q?”

Gosnell smirked. “I'm more worried that people are going to find out that you're not as much of a badass as you portray yourself to be.”

Makoto laughed. “Just because I am a romantic doesn't make me any less of a badass. Usagi nearly lost an arm there.”

Gosnell scoffed. “A real badass would have taken her leg.”

Makoto laughed as the rain began to come down harder.

It had been almost an hour. Kirie was quite confused as to why the bartender had not been brought back on board yet.

There were other things that were starting to concern her as well. Shampoo had been watching her for the past ten minutes. There were now three security officers on the bridge, just hanging out at the tactical station, and seemingly this close to the time when the Sisko personnel would be going into battle, the Captain was still not on the bridge.

Miharu sensed it too.

“I think you might have crossed a line,” Miharu whispered.

“I was doing my job,” Kirie whispered back.

Miharu was about to respond when the doors to Ranma’s ready room slid open.

The science station was the closest station to the ready room, so it was a short walk for Ranma. The fake smile that Ranma had perfected over nearly three years of captaining the U.S.S. Sisko was not adorning his face. It was a derisive smile that Ranma used even on his worst enemies, but right now he was angry to a point where he couldn’t even muster the effort to fake it.

The Captain sauntered up to the science station and crossed his arms.

“Simply asking me ‘why’ would have gotten you a full explanation,” Ranma said.

“Captain, I-” Kirie started.

“Zip it,” Ranma growled. “You’re done talking. I’ve protected him because he’s special. He’s literally immortal. I’ve seen what certain people have done in the name of science and I will not risk a member of my crew and quite frankly a very, very close friend to that.”

Ranma exhaled deeply. “He could swim through radioactive sewage and other than smell terrible be perfectly fine. He can’t catch a cold, he can’t get sick, hell if you cut him open, he can’t even bleed to death.”

Miharu looked to Ranma as sweetly as she could. “I don’t think they’d dissect him...”

Ranma laughed a bit derisively. “Maybe, maybe not. Regardless, this could have all been worked out with a simple conversation.”

Ranma turned and began to walk towards his chair. “Lt. Jansen, please confine Agent Kojime to her quarters.”

“Aye,” Jansen smiled as she and the three security officers moved towards the science station.

“YOU CANNOT DO THIS, CAPTAIN!” Kirie yelled.

“Mutiny is a criminal offense,” Ranma stated, turning towards her. “Would you rather go to the brig?”

The threat of the brig seemed to shut the DTI agent up as two of the security officers manhandled her, pulling her out of the station, and all but drug her to the turbolift.

Ranma sat down in his seat as Shampoo moved to hers. She leaned into him as Ranma glanced down at his terminal.

“Starfleet not going to be happy with Ranma,” she mused.

Ranma smiled as he shrugged. “Then they can send another ship into a parallel dimension and back in time next time.”

Shampoo laughed a bit. She looked around and after confirming that Jansen had went with the security teams, leaned back into Ranma.

“Do a favor?”

“Hmmm?” Ranma asked.

“Have dinner with Shampoo later?”

Ranma nodded. “I think the lounge is making up-”

“No,” Shampoo shook her head. “Just Shampoo and Ranma, in Shampoo’s quarters.”

Ranma looked to Shampoo a bit cautiously. She had been getting a bit more... aggressive... with him lately. He wasn’t sure if this was more of that, or just a friendly invitation.

“I am not sure if Akane or Lt. Jansen would care for that,” Ranma grinned.

Shampoo didn’t grin. “Please?”

Ranma and Shampoo stared at each other for a couple of moments before Ranma nodded.

“Sure.”

Shampoo smiled. “Thank you.”

Makoto eventually made her way back to the temple where the rest of the group was waiting with their counterparts. Minako slowly walked up to her, took her hand, and walked with her as they approached the others.

“I’m sorry,” Minako softly said.

Makoto shook her head. “It’s okay. You’re right, we shouldn’t have kept it a secret from you guys.” Makoto paused to sigh. “I should know if there is anyone we can trust, it would be you.”

Minako squeezed Makoto’s hand before releasing it and jogging over towards the group, Makoto right behind her.

“Okay,” Rei started to speak once she saw Makoto arrive, “here’s the plan. We’ve replicated a fake Silver Crystal that you guys can give the hostage takers. They don’t know that you know that your Usagi is safe.”

“Speaking of which, we could use her,” Rei-2 said.

“She’s still recovering in our medical facility,” Minako replied.

“Will she be okay?” Luna asked.

Minako nodded. “Yeah, she was just traumatized by the whole ordeal.”

“Anyway,” Rei continued, “the fake Silver Crystal will enact a dampening field around them that will keep them from running off and should limit their powers. You guys can then do what you need to do.”

Minako-2 looked to Usagi. “Maybe she can use our Usagi’s transformation broach and that way we can have a Sailor Moon surprise for them?”

Usagi shook her head. “No, thank you.”

“Sailor Moon is the most powerful,” Artemis sighed. “If we want assured victory, it would be helpful,”

Usagi grumbled and reluctantly accepted the real broach and Silver Crystal from Rei.

“I don’t even remember how to do it,” Usagi mumbled.

“Say ‘Moon Prism Power, Make Up!’,” Luna instructed her.

Usagi, seemingly out of pure instinct, did several Sailor Moon poses and yelled at the top of her lungs, “MOON PRISM POWER, MAKE UP!”

The group just stood there and watched as nothing happened.

Rei looked to Rei-2. “May I borrow your pen?”

Rei-2 nodded and handed Rei her transformation pen. Rei, again likely from instinct, made the proper motions and shouted out “MARS POWER, MAKE UP!”

Again, nothing happened.

Minako-2 turned to Artemis. “I didn’t realize how silly we looked when we did that...”

Artemis grinned before walking over to Luna who was standing next to a very relieved Usagi.

“It seems that because you girls have abandoned your roles as protectors, the crystal’s power is useless to you,” she theorized.

Makoto and Rei both looked to Luna rather angrily.

“We may have decided to no longer protect the universe as Sailor Senshi, but if you had any idea what we’ve done, you’d feel pretty stupid saying we have ‘abandoned’ our roles as such,” Makoto growled.

Usagi handed the Silver Crystal back to Rei as Rei-2 takes back her transformation pen.

Rei looked to Makoto and nodded slightly as she rubs Usagi’s back, hoping what she’s about to say won’t hurt her.

“While we may be duplicates, that doesn’t mean we won’t choose different futures and destinies.”

Usagi simply inhales deeply as Rei continued. “We’ll be near you, in case things get out of control, or the Kuno’s show up.”

The duplicates all nod. “Well,” Rei-2 sighed. “Let’s get going then.”

Nephrite and Kunzite waited patiently outside of the playground where they had demanded the Sailor Senshi meet them. Both were hoping that they would not be required to show Sailor Moon before getting the Silver Crystal, though.

Not that it really mattered at this point. With Sailor Moon dead, they felt like they could easily defeat the remaining four Senshi. Even if they did try and use the crystal on them, without Sailor Moon, it would not have the power it needed to defeat them and the several youma they had brought with them; all of which were hiding in the shadows right now.

Kunzite was the first to sense their presence.

“They’re near,” he said to Nephrite.

Nephrite grinned. “Excellent.”

After a couple more minutes, the four remaining Sailor Scouts and their feline advisors walked onto the playground and stood a few meters from their enemy.

“Where is Sailor Moon?” Sailor Venus demanded to know.

“Give us the crystal and you’ll get her,” Nephrite ordered.

Sailor Venus pulled out the faux broach and held it. She shook her head. “No. Show us that Sailor Moon is okay first,” she demanded.

A blast of energy hit the ground in front of the Senshi, sending them flying and causing Sailor Venus to drop the broach. A youma flew over and picked up the broach and took it to Kunzite.

Kunzite and Nephrite smiled as the Senshi began to pick themselves up.

“Naive as always, Sailor Idiots,” Nephrite laughed. “I hate to tell you, but Sailor Moon is dead.”

Kunzite opened the broach and ran his finger over the crystal. Suddenly a green burst of light shot out from it, causing Sailor Mars to chuckle.

“I hate to tell you, Nephrite, but that’s not really the Silver Crystal,” she grinned.

Kunzite looked at it closer and tried to tap into its energy. He then threw it to the ground. “She’s right!”

“SUPREME THUNDER!” Jupiter screamed, sending a thunderbolt at the pair. They narrowly dodged the assault, Nephrite’s hair getting singed slightly.

“We need to get out of here,” he growled. “YOUMA ATTACK!”

All the youma who were hiding came out and began to attack the Senshi. Nephrite and Kunzite attempted to vanish but couldn’t.

“What is happening?” Kunzite asked Nephrite.

Nephrite shrugged. “I don’t know!”

The pair this time barely dodged an attack from Sailor Mars.

“Guess we run,” Nephrite stated.

Kunzite nodded and the pair started to scurry off.

A Spanish guitar sounded in the distance as a rose impacted the ground in front of Nephrite and Kunzite, causing them to slam to a stop. Tuxedo Mask stood there, and even through his disguise, managed to glare at them.

“What have you done with Sailor Moon?” he demanded to know.

Kunzite fired an energy shot at Tuxedo Mask, but the shot was weak and puttered out before even making it to where the caped vigilante was standing.

Tuxedo Mask again scowled and repeated his question. “Where is Sailor Moon.”

“She’s dead,” Nephrite said, grinning smugly. “Gone. Forever.”

Tuxedo Mask seemed shaken by this news. He didn’t want to believe it, but there was something in the tone of Nephrite’s voice that led him to believe that Nephrite was certain that Sailor Moon was in fact dead.

Tuxedo Mask growled in rage.

“TUXEDO MASK, LOOK OUT!!!!!!!!!!” Sailor Mars yelled.

Tux turned in time to see a youma leaping at him with its gigantic claws in full goring position. Tuxedo Mask quickly pulled out his cane, though no one was quite sure exactly how his cane was going to help him against those gigantic claws.

Suddenly two orange energy blobs came down from the roof of one of the nearby buildings and nailed the youma, knocking it off course and allowing it to hit the ground harmlessly. Tuxedo Mask looked at the youma, noticing that it was dead. He whacked it with his cane for good measure before turning back towards Nephrite and Kunzite.

“They don’t seem to be playing fair,” Nephrite sighed.

Kunzite shook his head. “No, they are not.” The white-haired general pulled out his communicator that George gave him and pushed a button.

“Hello?” George answered.

“Yes, we seem to be in a bind,” Kunzite sighed. “The Senshi seem to have brought those Starfleet people with them.”

George sighed. “Alright, I’ll send you all the drones I can spare-” he paused. “They seem to have transport inhibitors up around you.”

“What are those?” Kunzite asked as he dodged another attack from the Senshi as Nephrite began to fight Tuxedo Mask.

“They keep us from beaming in. Do you have those transport enhancers I gave you still?”

“Yes,” Kunzite replied, pulling one from his pocket.

“Activate it.”

Kunzite pushed a button on the enhancer. A few seconds later a dozen Tatewaki drones beamed in. Shortly after that, a dozen Kodachi drones.

“I would suggest hiding someplace safe,” George grumbled. “Without our ship, it’s taking us longer than we hoped to get our army rebuilt.”

“Okay,” Kunzite sighed, putting the communicator away.

Rei, who was with Shelton on the roof of a nearby building groaned as she set the sniper rifle she had the Sisko beam down to random remodulation. “We need to be careful. Use phaser mode till we absolutely HAVE to switch to using projectile rounds.”

“Aye,” all the NSO team members replied.

The Sailor Senshi were distraught at how their attacks, much like before, did not affect, or even seem to annoy the creatures that simply materialized in front of them. All the youma had been defeated, and now these monsters were the only thing between them and Nephrite and Kunzite, who were trying to leave, but were being confronted by Tuxedo Mask.

The drones advanced on the Senshi but were soon being sent to the ground by the orange blobs of energy that were hitting them from various directions, coming from the nearby rooftops.

“They’re no help at all,” Kunzite growled as he tried to push Tuxedo Mask away from Nephrite.

With about twelve drones left, the phaser blasts began to simply dissipate upon hitting the drones. The Senshi got worried when the orange energy blobs stopped, but then decided to simply duck and cover when they noticed rather than being hit by the blobs, the drones were simply dropping; blue nano-robotic goo spraying out of the side of their heads.

It took the NEO teams not more than a couple of minutes to gun down the remaining drones.

Kunzite finally got a good kick in and knocked Tuxedo Mask over. The two generals took off running towards the street. Mars quickly stood.

“FIRE SOUL!” she screamed as she shot a fireball at the pair, hitting Kunzite in the back, injuring him. Nephrite almost screamed as he saw his friend fall to the ground. He quickly picked him up, carried him to the street, stopped a car, pulled the driver from the car, and stole it, driving off.

Mars began to look around as the rest of the Senshi slowly stood.

“WHY DID YOU LET THEM GET AWAY?!” Mars screamed.

Tuxedo Mask walked over to the group and looked around as well, trying to see who Mars was yelling at.

“YOU COULD HAVE STOPPED THEM? WHY DID YOU ALLOW THEM TO LEAVE?” Mars again yelled.

Rei watched her duplicate yell for a while before turning to Shelton. “Continue surveillance for now. I’ll be back on the ship.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Makoto was amused by Ranma’s tale of mutiny. She was a little disappointed that she wasn’t the one who got to drag the woman to her quarters, but nonetheless, she was amused. As well, she got to do one of her favorite things ever.

“I told you so,” she smiled.

Ranma nodded as he leaned back in the conference room chair. “I’m just sorry Gosnell...” he paused, “...and you, had to go through what you did because of it.”

Makoto grinned a bit. “It’s been on my mind lately for some reason anyway.” She sighed and turned to look out the window. “It’s kind of funny how fate works out. If he hadn’t made such a stupid decision and signed that contract, he wouldn’t be here, and we wouldn’t have ever found each other again.”

“Not sure how much the contract has to do with it,” Ranma shrugged. “I told him I don’t have any intention of holding him to it.”

Makoto slowly spun around in the chair and smiled to Ranma. “I think that just proves how loyal everyone is to you, Captain.”

Ranma continued to smile. “I assure you; it goes both ways.”

Makoto nodded. “I know.”

The conference room doors opened and the rest of the senior staff, as well as Miharu walked in and sat down. They began to discuss the situation and what their options could be to end the threat once and for all.

“Captain,” Rei sighed, “I think that our theory that their hideout having to be within walking distance of the electronics store was wrong. We clearly saw them beam in drones, so wherever they are, they have the ability to transport.”

“How can they do that without any kind of line of sight?” Minako asked.

“They must have a relay placed on a large building,” Kaii pointed out.

“My guess would be the Tokyo Tower,” Ranma suggested.

Rei nodded. “That would probably allow them to hit all of metropolitan Tokyo.”

Ranma looked to Kaii. “How confident are you that you could take Nighthawk down there and check out the tower without being detected?”

“I should probably do it at night. There will be less air traffic to avoid and hopefully less people to potentially see any exhaust wake.”

Ranma nodded. “Make it so.”

Kaii nodded.

“Also,” Ranma continued, “I want you to check for transporter signatures in Tokyo’s Nerima Ward.”

“Yes sir.”

Shampoo looked to Ranma with some concern.

“You think we there too?” Shampoo asked.

Ranma sighed. “I know we are,” he said, sliding a PADD to Shampoo. “Gosnell was looking through a phone book and found my father and father-in-law’s martial art’s school.”

Ranma turned and looked towards the planet. “I have every reason to believe that the Kunos are going to try and kidnap this world’s Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo, as well as potentially your counterpart, Shampoo.”

Shampoo looked up from her PADD. “Me?”

“Well, you know George did have a thing for you.”

Shampoo sighed. “Right....”

“What are you planning?” Rei asked.

“I intend on letting them,” Ranma said.

The room was quiet for a moment before Makoto began shaking her head. “Oh... No, no, no.”

Ranma chuckled. “I figured you’d have an objection.”

“I wouldn’t be doing my duty as chief of security if I didn’t object to a plan that allows the captain, XO and CMO to be captured by a hostile force!” Makoto grumbled.

“Right now, it seems to be the only way we’re going to find them,” Ranma sighed. “We’ll be tagged, and once they take us back to their hideout, the NSO teams-”

“And me!” Makoto demanded, causing Rei to laugh.

“And Makoto,” Ranma continued, smiling, “can beam in and destroy whatever they’ve done.”

Rei pondered things for a bit. “Our counterparts messed up the Negaverse guys pretty bad, so it’s pretty safe to divert most of our surveillance.”

“Sounds good,” Ranma said.

“So,” Miharu finally spoke up, “how are you going to keep the native versions of yourselves from being compromised?”

“I think they need to have a more delicate touch applied to them,” Ranma said. “Stunned and sedated for the duration.”

Shampoo blinked. “I never have to stun myself.”

“First time for everything, Commander,” Rei smiled.

Ranma nodded. “I assume you’ll be taking our duplicate Usagi home?”

Rei nodded. “Yes.”

“Okay then,” Ranma stood. “Kaii, let me know when you’re done with your scans.”

Kaii nodded. “Aye.”

The four duplicates stood quickly as Rei, who was carrying Usagi-2, materialized in front of the temple. Minako-2, as well as Luna and Artemis ran over to her, worried expression on their faces.

“Usagi!” Minako-2 cried out.

“She’s just sleeping,” Rei said, handing her over to Makoto-2 who had walked over as well. “She’ll be good as new, although confused, when she wakes up.”

Rei ran her hand through the duplicate Usagi’s hair before Makoto-2 took her to put her in a bed. Rei-2 looked at her counterpart with disgust in her eyes.

“You know you could have stopped them. But you didn’t. You just let them drive away.”

Rei sighed. “We can’t become involved in your conflict.”

“You’re already involved!” Rei-2 argued.

“Yes,” Rei nodded, “to stop the outside interference from our world. Not to decide who should win and who should lose.”

Rei-2 scoffed. “I can’t believe you and your people could be so morally indifferent.”

Rei shook her head growled. “Oh, don’t give me this fucking speech. I’ve been there, done that. I saved more lives last week than you will save in the next ten years.” Rei walked up and got right in the face of her duplicate. “So, save your morals and ethics speech for someone else.”

“You shot the one who was about to hit Tuxedo Mask,” Rei-2 grumbled. “Why’s that?”

Rei didn’t answer.

“You can interfere when you feel like it?”

“Rei,” Minako-2 softly said.

Rei turned and shoved Rei-2 to the ground. She then dropped to her knees, wiped a tear out of her eye and growled at the mirror Rei.

“Maybe I will interfere here. I’ll tell you a little bit about the future. How about you be a little less of a bitch and perhaps your life won’t be the lonely, shell of a life mine was, devoid of friends, meaning and love.”

Rei stood back up and turned to the rest of them. “I still have a couple of people watching out in case any more of the Kunos come after you. But we’re close to finishing them off. Once we do, we’ll let you know.”

Minako-2 and Ami-2 nodded as Rei beamed back to the ship. Rei-2 remained on the concrete for a moment and stared angrily at the spot that used to contain her counterpart.

“Boy, you’re going to have to try harder than that!” Genma yelled at Ranma as he, at least in his opinion, expertly dodged Ranma’s leg strike on the roof of the Tendo Dojo.

Ranma scowled. Little annoyed him more than his father not taking him seriously, and that was exactly what he was doing right now. What was more annoying was that he could feel the air getting colder and he knew for a fact that any moment now it was going to start raining, and the last thing he wanted was to end up changing.

“Come on, Pop,” Ranma growled as he attacked again, his father doing the best he could to avoid the strikes coming from his son. “I know you don’t care, but I really don’t want to get drenched.”

“What does it matter, boy?” Genma asked, as he is socked in the stomach and drops to his knees. Ranma leaned down to help his father up, but rather than take his hand, Genma simply grabs ahold of Ranma’s undershirt and hurls him towards the pond several meters away.

“You’re going to have to take a bath anyway!” Genma called after Ranma, laughing as the martial-artist splashed into the pond, emerging as Ranma-chan.

Captain Ranma Saotome, from a nearby rooftop looked to Akane who was shaking her head disapprovingly. Both Sisko officers, dressed in all black, were concealed well, waiting for their two counterparts to go to bed so they could replace them.

“What?” Ranma whispered.

“I forgot what an ass your father could be,” Akane whispered back.

Ranma laughed quietly. “And not more than a month ago, you were yelling at me to be nicer to him.”

Akane grumbled a bit. “Yeah, well, I rescind that.”

Ranma again laughed quietly. He then sighed and rubbed his ring finger. “I feel kind of naked without it,” he admitted.

Akane smiled, leaned over and kissed Ranma. “Good,” she grinned.

Rain began to fall, changing the captain, as they watched the panda gloat before hopping down off the roof and going inside with his son-turned-daughter.

The rain, at first, annoyed Shampoo. Turning her into a cat seemed to be an inconvenience, but she quickly realized that things might work out for the better this way.

The inside of the Nekohanten was dark. As expected, Shampoo and her great-grandmother had gone to bed early. Both were early risers and as such, were in bed by 22:00.

Neko-Shampoo managed to pick up the hypospray she needed as well as the transporter tag she would need in her mouth and slithered in through an open window. Once inside she maneuvered around, far more quietly than she would have been able too had she been in human form, thanks to her padded paws and her mere three-kilogram weight. As well, the cat’s expert night vision allowed her to avoid obstacles far easier than she would have been able to as a human.

Shampoo first poked her head into Cologne’s room. The old woman was sound asleep.

Good.

Neko-Shampoo slowly made her way down the hallway to Shampoo-2’s room. There she saw her. Herself. Sleeping peacefully, a small smile on her face. Neko-Shampoo almost pitied her. She assumed the poor idiot was dreaming of happy life of her and Ranma, blissfully ignorant of the heartbreak and pain that he would bring her.

There was a part of her that wanted to kill her.

Her job was to protect her.

Who’s to say she wouldn’t be allowed to protect her from other things as well.

If she was dead, she’d never feel the hurt. The anguish.

Then again, Neko-Shampoo thought, maybe this world had a different destiny for this Shampoo and maybe her and Ranma would be together.

The small cat sighed and walked up to her before hopping on the bed and walking up to her neck. She set down the tag and hypo before softly kissing Shampoo on the cheek. The cat then picked the hypo back up.

However, the Amazon was a light sleeper. Neko-Shampoo should have known that. The touch to her face woke her. Shampoo-2’s eyes opened and she looked over. Her eyes went wide when she saw her cat half looking back at her, holding some strange looking device in its mouth.

“AYAY!!!!!!!!!!!” Shampoo-2 cried out, trying to scoot away.

Neko-Shampoo leapt at Shampoo-2 but was swatted away. Neko-Shampoo growled before attacking again, this time leaping onto Shampoo-2’s back and sinking her claws into her, finally connecting the hypospray to the back of Shampoo-2’s neck.

Shampoo-2 took flailed around a bit, trying to get the cat off her before falling asleep and dropping back onto the bed. Neko-Shampoo quickly grabbed the transporter tag and stuck it to Shampoo-2 and beamed her away. She then moved over to where there was some tea, noticed it was warm enough to change her, and knocked it over, causing her to revert to human form, just before her door slid over and Cologne ran in.

“Child, what is wrong?!” Cologne asked.

“Shampoo have bad dream,” Shampoo said, standing.

“MY DARING SHAMPOO!” Mousse screamed, running into the room. “ARE YOU OKAY?!”

Shampoo stared wide-eyed at the man in front of her. “M-M-M-Mousse...”

Cologne, who could tell there was something different about Shampoo to begin with, found her reaction to Mousse disturbing. Not only did she react like she hadn’t seen him in years, but she didn’t seem to have any qualms about him looking at her while she was standing there naked as the day she was born.

Mousse hurriedly tried to put his glasses on to see what all the commotion was about. Once he did, blood exploded out of his nose.

Shampoo, realizing what spurred Mousse’s reaction, ran to the closet, and grabbed a robe and put it on.

“Shampoo okay,” she said, quietly, trying to keep her crying in check. “Just very bad dream is all.”

“Do you need me to sleep with you?” Mousse asked.

Cologne sent Mousse flying out the window.

“QUACK!” he objected from the street below.

“Would you like to talk about it?” Cologne asked.

Shampoo shook her head as she moved back to the bed. “No, great-grandmother. Shampoo just want to go back to sleep, thank you.”

Cologne nodded and began to turn away. She started to move out of the doorway before turning back around towards Shampoo who had gotten herself tucked into the bed.

“You have your alarm set, right?” Cologne asked.

Shampoo nodded. “Yes, Great-Grandmother.”

Cologne smiled, turned again before suddenly whipping around and attacking Shampoo. Shampoo dove out of the bed and dodged the attack that sent the bed exploding into hundreds of shards.

“What have you done with Shampoo, you imposter?” Cologne asked?

“I Shampoo!” Shampoo argued.

“You are not!” Cologne retorted. “Shampoo was looking forward to tomorrow specifically because she could sleep in.”

Shampoo again dodged another attack. “Stop attacking and Shampoo explain,” she pleaded.

“Where is Shampoo?” Cologne once again demanded to know, attacking Shampoo again. Cologne was getting very confused. Whoever this Shampoo doppelganger was, she was just like her. She seemed to know all her moves, like Shampoo would, and as such, was able to avoid them.

“STOP ATTACKING SHAMPOO YOU DRIED UP POTATO!!!!!” Mousse yelled, trying to attack Cologne, but again getting sent through a window and out into the street.

“MOUSSE!!!!” Shampoo screamed, looking out the window.

Cologne saw an opening and took it. She attacked again, and again, her attack was dodged, but this time Shampoo seriously attacked back and knocked Cologne to the ground. The act of being... struck... stunning the old woman.

Cologne looked on, slightly worried, as Shampoo’s battle aura glowed brightly.

“Shampoo ask you to stop and Shampoo explain,” Shampoo growled.

Cologne, concerned that maybe she could not defeat this Shampoo, conceded, not necessarily defeat, but at the minimum a stalemate.

“Where’s Shampoo?” she asked again.

“She safe,” Shampoo said, calming down.

Mousse again came charging into the room.

“Mousse, relax,” Shampoo ordered him, quietly.

Mousse, before he could again get pummeled by Cologne, heeded her words, and sat down next to Cologne.

Shampoo explained the situation to them, including the fact that she could get into a lot of trouble by explaining the situation to them, and explained the fact that their Shampoo was hidden away until the people from their world were defeated.

“Once we capture them, we return Shampoo, then we go back to our world,” Shampoo finished.

Mousse blubbered a bit. “Two Shampoos...”

Cologne just rolled her eyes. “I think you’re greatly underestimating Shampoo’s strength if you don’t think she can manage on her own.”

Shampoo sighed. “I defeat your Shampoo as cat with medical device. These not like annoying Kuno who run around and grope Ranma and Akane. They can and do kill people with technology from 500 year in future. Strength only go so far.”

Cologne nodded and finally agreed. “So,” she asked, changing the subject slightly. “If you, Ranma and Akane all work together in your world, tell me, have you married him as our laws dictate?”

Shampoo turned away slightly. “Shampoo not allowed to discuss such matters.”

Cologne shook her head in disappointment. Mousse, however, smiled slightly.

Ranma-chan tip-toed through the Tendo residence towards her room. It had been years since she had stepped foot in this house, but her memory was pretty good, so she was pretty sure she could remember which room was hers.

Luckily, all the girls had their names on the doors, so she wouldn’t accidentally be walking in on any of them.

However halfway down the hallway she did happen to come across Genma-panda tiptoeing the other direction. The pair looked at each other for a moment. Finally, Genma-panda whipped out a sign.

‘Late night snack?’

Ranma-chan nodded. “You?” she whispered.

Genma-panda nodded. The pair continued in their respective directions. Genma-panda stopping at the end of the hallway for a moment, confusion dawning on him slightly as he could swear he left Ranma sleeping in his and his son’s room before he left. Regardless, his need for a sandwich overrode any desire to perform detective work and he continued towards the kitchen.

Ranma-chan reached her room and slid the door open. There she saw her alternate male half. A sight to behold. Spread out, horrid looking. No wonder her wife hit her so much. That said, she was hoping that she still looked that young.

Ranma-chan tiptoed over to her male duplicate and injected him. Ranma-2 seemed happy about the additional sleep and moaned in appreciation before Ranma-chan tagged him and beamed him away. She then took his place in bed and dozed off to sleep.

Akane easily found her duplicate’s room and quietly opened the door. She let out an audible sigh upon seeing the Furinkan High school uniform hanging up, realizing that she would in fact, have to wear that come tomorrow.

The dresses she’d grown fond of didn’t look quite that frumpy.

In fact, she noticed that the vast majority of all Akane’s dresses were quite frumpy. Did she really have this bad of taste in clothing?

She sighed again as she moved over to the bed. She pulled out the hypo and injected Akane-2 and tagged her. She beamed that Akane away and then started to get undressed before seeing, to her delight, P-Chan.

“P-Chan!” she whispered, picking him up and hugging him.

To her chagrin, however, the little black piglet was horrified, and bolted out the partially open window. Akane wondered if it was because somehow, he could tell that she was not ‘his’ Akane.

Didn’t seem too really matter, however. He was just a little piggy. Not like he could run around and tell everyone.

In a seedy area of Tokyo, Bravo team and part of Alpha team had replicated some Yen and rented out two rooms of a ‘love hotel’ for two days. One of the rooms they had converted into a command post, where they were monitoring things. Anthony and Kio were stationed in there.

In the other room, Yayo, Masters, and one of the Sisko’s doctors were stationed, as well as Shampoo-2, Ranma-2, and Akane-2, all set up on temporary bio beds.

They had easy jobs. Keep the three sedated, and if necessary, do some short-term memory erasing.

Shampoo-2’s had already been taken care of. Basically, now all they were doing was waiting.

Anthony looked to Kio who was watching some game show on the television. Kio, who had made herself comfortable on the bed, was chomping away on some popcorn, while laughing at someone getting clobbered at the hands of some strange obstacle, while the announcer was yelling at him, berating him, and letting him know how he had dishonored his ancestors.

“Do you even speak Japanese?” Anthony asked her.

“Universal translator,” Kio said, pointing to her ear.

“That’s not what I asked,” Anthony asked, hopping onto the bed next to her and stealing some of her popcorn.

“No,” she replied. “Why would I need to?”

“Heritage?”

Kio rolled her eyes. “Do you speak African?”

Anthony eyed her kind of sourly. “There are like 50 distinct languages from the African continent,” he grumbled.

“Well, do you speak any of them?” she asked.

Anthony sighed. “Well, your point, albeit racist, is taken.”

“I think you understand I didn’t mean to be racist, Tony. And why is what I said racist and what you said wasn’t?”

Tony cleared his throat, ignoring Kio’s impeccable logic, and stole some more popcorn. “It would be kind of weird to live back in this time, where people were defined by their cultural traits and race again.”

“We kind of did, when we were marooned.”

“Ugh, that was an extreme, though.”

“Still happens in our time, though,” Kio pointed out. “There’s us, the peace-loving do-gooders. The Klingons, the warmongers. The Romulans, the untrustworthy, spies. The Breen, the frozen, back-stabbers. The Ferengi, the corporatist, greed-mongers,” she looked to Anthony. “Should I go on?”

Anthony shook his head. “Well, you can’t even lump the Federation as one?”

“Oh?”

Anthony shook his head as he took the popcorn away from Kio and set it on a table. “Yeah, I mean, if we were all the same, then I likely wouldn’t be as interested in you as I am.”

Kio smirked. “You’d nail anything you could catch.”

“If only that were the case, Lieutenant,” he said, positioning himself, on his knees in front of Kio. “Life wouldn’t be so damned frustrating.”

Kio smiled. “So, what makes me so special?”

“Well,” Anthony smiled rolling up the bottom of Kio’s tank top, making a jokingly disgusted face at the scar on her stomach as he did so, “there is the olive skin that somehow on a spaceship you manage to keep just perfectly tan.”

“Hard work,” Kio whispered.

Anthony pulled her tank top all the way off.

“Those are just spectacular.”

“Small,” she sighed.

Anthony slid his hands below her bra and smiled. “Not from my point of view.”

Kio moaned slightly.

“Dark brown eyes that I’ve never seen anywhere else,” Anthony said, before kissing Kio.

“If this ruins...” Kio softly said.

“It can’t,” Anthony replied. “I’ve been in love with you since the first day I met you,” he whispered. “But Nik was my best friend. And you know what they say...”

Kio began to unbuckle Anthony’s pants. “If you say it,” she whispered, “I’ll rip your junk right off,” she smiled as the pair kissed.

Ranma was awoken by the gentle shakes of Akane, as well as a teakettle of hot water. The now, once again male captain mumbled a bit before looking up at her, slight confusion on his face.

“What the hell happened to your uniform?”

Akane sighed, scowling slightly. “Whatever do you mean, Ranma?” she asked. “Our school uniform has not changed.”

Ranma blinked, suddenly remembering that he was not on the ship. He sat up quickly and looked around. Next to him, snoozing away, was his panda-father. Or at least this universe’s manifestation of him.

Ranma looked to the clock and glowered as Akane poked Ranma again.

“It’s still early,” Ranma complained.

“I know, but I was having a hard time sleeping,” Akane sighed, once again poking Ranma with her foot, finally causing him to get up. “I think it’s the fact that the building isn’t moving.”

“Ironic for Japan,” Ranma smirked.

Akane shook her head as Ranma looked to the wet futon, sniffing the water quickly; seemingly relieved that it seemed to be just water, then wandered to the closet to find some of his duplicate’s clothes to wear.

It took him awhile of digging through the closet, searching for a school uniform, for him to remember that while in school he didn’t wear a uniform, thanks to both his curse and a letter from the family doctor, Dr. Tofu.

“How did I ever make it through the academy with such a lack of discipline?” Ranma quietly asked himself.

Ranma quickly got dressed and met up with Akane in the hallway. The pair then headed downstairs - the smell of a delicious, and presumably Kasumi cooked, breakfast wafting up the staircase.

The assumption proved correct as the pair made their way into the kitchen. Kasumi turned to them, quite surprised to see either of them out of bed this early.

“Ranma! Akane!” she smiled. “You two are up early!”

Akane smiled. Ranma, remembering back and recalling that the pair didn’t always get along, tried to do some acting.

“Yes, well, uh, the uncute one decided to drag me out of bed early,” he explained.

Akane, who apparently was able to slip into her Ranma abusing role far easier than Ranma could his Akane insulting role, turned and clocked Ranma with her mallet, sending him into the floorboards.

“Oh my,” Kasumi sighed, looking to Akane disapprovingly.

“What smells so good?” Nabiki asked, walking into the kitchen.

*squish*

Nabiki looked down and noticed that she was standing on her battered - assumed - future brother-in-law.

“Oh, good morning Ranma. You’re up early,” she noted, stepping off him and moving towards the stove where she took in the smells from Kasumi’s stew.

Rei had very little time to get the several things done she wanted - scratch that - needed to get done. At least one of them was probably something that she shouldn’t, and both the Captain and Jitsia would probably scold her for, but she felt compelled to do it.

It had been eating at her for a while, and she really, really needed to know. She had to ask him.

Rei walked down the dimly lit corridors on deck 17 till she reached a small, nondescript sliding door. She hit the call button and after waiting a second the door opened revealing a larger, brighter room.

In this room there was an office near the main door, and another set of larger, sliding doors. Rei walked up to the security officer seated at the desk there.

“Ensign, I’d like to speak to Lt. Commander Ishran,” she stated, dryly.

The officer nodded and looked to his terminal. He bit his lip slightly before turning back to Rei. “I’m sorry Commander, but the prisoner has requested no visitors.”

“I’M NOT HERE TO FUCKING WISH HIM HAPPY BIRTHDAY,” Rei screamed, causing the two marines guarding the double doors into the main brig to jump slightly. Rei inhaled deeply a couple of times before putting her hand on the Ensign’s arm.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Please, I need to speak with him.”

The Ensign sighed, and despite knowing it was against protocol, motioned for another Marine who was in the office to come over to them.

“Will you please take Commander Hino back to D-2?”

The marine corporal, a blonde Bajoran woman, nodded.

“I’d like to speak to him alone,” Rei said.

The Ensign sighed. “I can break one rule for you, Commander. I can’t break two.”

Rei conceded and followed the marine into the holding area. The Sisko’s brig was far larger than most Starfleet ships. Designed to hold up to 50 people, it spent most of its time empty of prisoners, primarily used as the staging area for the ship’s marine forces.

It seemed far more ‘clean’ and ‘sterile’ than a jail should as well, in Rei’s opinion. It was well lit, the beds looked nice and comfy. In fact, Rei thought the only thing that made it look any different from sickbay was the force fields.

Then again, Rei wasn’t confined here. The look on Ishran’s face once Rei and the marine had taken the short walk to the cell made it quite clear that the comfortable bed and the adequate lighting was no substitute for freedom.

Rei backed up a bit and whispered to the young marine. “Please,” she said, her voice breaking slightly, “keep anything you hear to yourself.”

The enlisted woman was a bit confused by Rei’s request, as she knew that would be the case anyway, but nonetheless nodded. “Yes Commander.”

Ishran looked up to Rei as she approached the force field. He eyed her, slight anger in his eyes.

“Why-” Rei started.

“Are you the one who made her have me arrested?” Ishran interrupted.

“Made her?!” Rei asked, shocked. “There was nothing to ‘make her’ do. You raped her.”

Ishran rolled his eyes and scoffed. “Jitsia invited me in, she never asked me to stop. Gras wanted it.”

“That thing was controlling her! She couldn’t stop you!”

Ishran quickly stood and ran to the edge of the cell, the force field zapping him slightly. The marine corporal instinctively raised her rifle slightly, however lowered it as Ishran calmed down a bit before speaking.

“That ‘thing’ is a person too, just like you or I, with all the same rights as you and I,” he growled.

“But not Jitsia, huh?” Rei growled back.

“Gras gave her far more than she took,” Ishran scoffed.

Rei shook her head in frustration. “That thing hurt her so badly she nearly killed herself trying to cut it out.”

Ishran’s eyes went wide. “Is... is she okay?”

Rei rolled her eyes. “Who? Jitsia or Gras?”

Ishran stammered a bit before finally answering.

“Both.”

“We took the symbiont out of her. It will survive. Jitsia will be okay as well. Physically, at least,” Rei said, shaking her head.

Ishran dropped back to his seat. “What are they going to do with Gras?” he quietly asked. “They cannot survive long without a host...”

“I dunno,” Rei shrugged. “I suggested throwing it outside.”

Ishran glared at Rei.

“I assume that will be up to the authorities on Trill,” Rei continued, after allowing herself to be amused by Ishran’s dirty looks for a bit. “But I cannot imagine they will be placing it into another host. Not after what it and you did to Jitsia.”

“She said she would send for me,” Ishran growled, standing back up. “Deka’s final words, from Gras, were that her new host would call for me and we would be together. And she did. And we were.”

Rei eyed Ishran for a minute before shaking her head. “Maybe you should have just cut the worm out of him then, because now you’re facing a court martial and fifteen years in prison.”

Rei turned and walked away. Ishran returned to his chair, sighing, lost in thought.

“Thank you,” Jitsia smiled to the sickbay tech who had brought her some orange juice. The tech nodded, checked her vitals quickly, and wandered off.

Jitsia drank half the drink before setting it on the table next to her bed, which right now was in a semi-chair, upright position. She stared across sickbay and sighed. The young woman was bored to freaking death. There was literally nothing for her to do. All her friends were on missions, there was no television in the twenty-fourth century, apparently, and ever since Usagi had brought her the PADDs which contained her ‘fan-fiction’ on it, Jitsia was now afraid of reading.

“Hi Commander,” a voice called to her.

Jitsia turned to see Lt. Pan walking over towards her bed.

“Lt. Pan!” she smiled, very happy to have another person - who wasn’t a doctor - to talk to. “How nice to see you!”

Pan nodded and set some flowers on the table next to her. “I heard you weren’t feeling well, so I wanted to check in on you.”

“That’s very sweet of you, thank you,” Jitsia said, reaching over and hugging him for a moment, before grimacing in pain.

“Are you okay?” Pan asked, taking a couple of steps back.

Jitsia pointed to her stomach. “I kind of hurt my midsection,” she sighed. “So, bending, reaching, stuff like that still hurts.”

“I see,” Pan said.

“Are *you* okay?” Jitsia asked, noticing that Pan seemed to be upset about something.

“Well,” Pan said, clearing his throat, “I haven’t seen him in a day, and I’ve heard a rumor that Lt. Commander Ishran is in the brig...” Pan trailed off as he sensed dark spirits behind him. He turned around to see a glowering Rei standing there, staring at him.

“Hey Rei,” Jitsia smiled.

“Sia,” she nodded, still looking at Pan.

“Yes, Lieutenant,” Jitsia sighed, “Commander Ishran has been relieved of his position and placed in the brig.”

Pan, despite fearing that he was going to be on the receiving end of Commander Hino’s fury, pushed onwards.

“Is that related to why you’re in here?”

“Lieutenant, I’m not sure that’s any of your business,” Rei stated.

Pan shook his head. “No ma’am,” he agreed. “The details are certainly not. I only ask though because I feel like I am partially responsible.”

Rei softened her glare slightly. Jitsia looked to Pan oddly as well. “What do you mean?” she asked.

Pan sighed. “I didn’t sense that he had any intention of harming you, Commander,” Pan said, looking sadly towards Jitsia, “but I could tell that he was a very disturbed man and was hiding something. We were doing everything we could to keep him away from you, and I was going to make my concerns known to you and to the Captain, but...” Pan lowered his head, “...I never got around to it.”

As a surprise to Pan, he felt both Jitsia’s hand on his, and Rei’s hand on his shoulder.

“Darrius,” Jitsia smiled. “It’s okay. Things are a lot more complicated than you understand. There’s not a lot that could be done, especially where we are now. I appreciate all you did to help me.”

Rei nodded. “If only my officers liked me that much.”

Pan smiled. He nodded to Jitsia, then to Rei and walked off. Rei looked to Jitsia, chatted with her for a couple of minutes, then quickly kissed her.

“Hopefully last mission, then we can get the hell out of here,” Rei sighed. “Portal is only stable for another 48 hours or so.”

Jitsia nodded. “Good luck.”

Rei smiled, kissed her again, and turned to walk away.

“Oh, Rei?” Jitsia called.

“Hm?” Rei asked.

“Remember what you said yesterday?”

Rei pondered that. “Which thing?”

“If I wasn’t ready, it’s okay.”

Rei blushed slightly. “Yeah.”

“What if I am ready?”

Rei smiled as she walked back to Jitsia’s bio bed. “That’s okay too.”

Jitsia grabbed the back of Rei’s head and pulled her down, so her ear was next to her mouth. “Don’t tell Gras, but I love you too.”

“It’ll be our secret,” Rei whispered back.

Ranma, Akane, and Nabiki all waved to Kasumi and walked out the door. Nabiki excused herself, as she needed to go deal with some business, and took off with a couple of her friends-slash-lackeys who were waiting outside of the gate. Ranma and Akane started to walk together in the general direction of the school.

“Do you remember how to get there?” Akane asked him.

“Not a clue,” Ranma shook his head, realizing that his previous pride in his memory was premature.

Akane sighed. “So, we’re lost already.”

Ranma again shook his head and pointed to his ear. “Gosnell?”

“Sixty meters down this street, then take a right,” Gosnell’s voice reported.

“Where’s he at?” Akane asked.

Ranma shrugged. “Beats me-” Ranma slowly turned and noticed Gosnell walking on the sidewalk, about ten meters behind him.

“Konichiwa!” Gosnell called to him, bowing slightly, before continuing.

Ranma sighed and continued walking. “One of the NSO teams is shadowing us as well. They are hopefully hidden better.”

“Aye, Captain,” Kio’s voice said over Ranma’s commlink. “No worries there.”

Ranma smiled to Akane.

“What if the Kunos don’t make their move today?” Akane asked.

Ranma grumbled. “We’ll have to figure something out then,” he admitted. “The portal closes tomorrow, and we need to be through it before that happens.”

A COUPLE HOURS EARLIER

Anthony yawned and rolled over, expecting to find Kio next to him. He groaned in displeasure when all he found was an empty bed. He slowly sat up and looked around. The room seemed empty.

“Kio?” he called.

Anthony dug around his clothes for his watch and checked it. 05:13. He hadn’t missed their operation time. That would be pretty embarrassing, and quite frankly a very dick move on Kio’s part in his opinion. He wandered around a bit, finally deciding to simply shower and start to get dressed.

After getting his pants and boots on, the door to the room opened and Kio walked in. She smiled to Anthony.

“‘Morning, Sunshine,” she called, tossing a white and red bag to him.

“Morning,” he replied, looking to the bag. “Where’d you go?”

“I was hungry,” she explained, pointing to the bag. “I figured as long as we were here, might as well enjoy some ‘real’ food. The only place nearby that was open, though, was some place called ‘McDonald’s’.”

Anthony opened his bag suspiciously. He pulled out a small sandwich in a yellow wrapper.

“It’s called an ‘Egg McMuffin’,” Kio explained, hopping onto the bed, and pulling out one of her own. “The picture looked good, so I thought you might like it.”

Anthony unwrapped the sandwich and looked at it. He acknowledged that it appeared edible and had things he liked on it. Egg, ham, cheese, English muffin. He noticed Kio was watching him, seemingly waiting for his reaction. He decided to give her one then.

Anthony took a huge bite of the sandwich and chewed it slowly, eating it in what he thought would be the sexiest way possible.

“Really?” Kio asked, laughing.

Anthony just smirked. “What did you get?”

“Same thing,” she said, opening her wrapper up. “I already ate one on the way back,” she admitted.

Anthony smiled and finished off his breakfast, as Kio ate her second sandwich. The pair then chatted a bit as Anthony finished dressing before getting ready to leave on their mission. However before calling for transport, Anthony grabbed Kio’s arm.

“I meant what I said, by the way,” he said, blushing a bit.

Kio reached up and ran her hand across the top of his head. “I’m lucky, then,” she smiled. “I meant what I said too,” she smiled.

“Hm?” he asked.

“Delete that horrible program.”

Anthony nodded and laughed prior to the pair beaming away.

“Captain,” Anthony called to Ranma, “you have someone coming up on your six quickly.”

Ranma could hear the footsteps. They weren’t Kuno footsteps. He’d know those idiot’s sounds in any universe. This did seem familiar to him, however.

“RANMA!” Ryouga yelled.

Ranma groaned. “Oh lord.”

“Is that Captain Hibiki?” Anthony asked.

“No,” Ranma sighed. “Well, his duplicate, yes.”

“Oh,” Anthony replied. “Should I shoot him?”

Ranma took a few seconds to answer. “No.”

Akane looked to Ranma. “I had forgotten how mean you were to Ryouga,” she grumbled. Ranma just turned and glared to his wife.

“Just keep going, I’ll see what this knucklehead wants and catch up,” Ranma instructed her.

“You’re going to fight with him, aren’t you?” she asked as Ryouga ran full steam towards Ranma.

“Probably,” Ranma nodded. “He’s not one to talk.”

Akane just scoffed and walked off. Ryouga bolted up to Ranma. Ranma took up a fighting stance, fully expecting Ryouga to attack him, but instead, Ryouga simply skidded to a halt, slamming into a wall in the process.

Ranma turned and looked to the now plaster covered pig-man with concern. “Are you alright?”

Ryouga quickly pulled himself out of the wall and grabbed Ranma. “Where’s Akane?”

“She’s on her way to school...”

Ryouga’s head and eyes darted around before he pulled Ranma aside. “Ranma, I saw the most horrific thing last night in Akane’s bedroom!”

“What were you doing in her bedroom?!” Ranma asked.

“She was sleeping with me-”

Ranma smashed Ryouga’s head into a nearby light pole. “WHAT?”

“WHAT THE HELL?!” Ryouga growled. “You know I don’t like living as P-Chan, but...”

“Ohhhhhh,” Ranma glowered, “the pig.”

Ryouga looked at Ranma oddly for a minute before shaking his head. “That’s not what’s important. What’s important is what I saw!”

Ranma glared at Ryouga. “And what exactly did you see?”

“I saw another Akane come in and make my Akane disappear!” Ryouga said, flailing his arms. “That sinister, replacement Akane then took my Akane’s spot!”

Ranma bit his lip. “No kidding,” he said, worriedly. He then looked around, down the street, around the corner, then back to Ryouga. “Stun him,” Ranma said.

“What?” Ryouga asked just prior to being hit by a blast from a faraway NSO rifle. Ranma pulled out one of his transporter tags and stuck it on Ryouga and beamed him to the safe house.

“Let the safe house team know that he’s going to need to have about eight hours of memory wiped,” Ranma sighed.

“Aye,” Anthony replied.

Ranma turned to catch back up with his wife. He realized that right now the worst thing that could happen is that they would end up having to spend another night here. If that were to happen, since Akane had seen him, he would have to have his Ryouga come down and pretend to be this world’s P-Chan.

Ranma, now more than ever, was determined to end this.

Today.

“Going out on delivery!” Shampoo told Cologne.

“And your goal is to get captured?” the old woman asked.

Shampoo nodded. “If Shampoo get captured, then ship can find where bad men hiding.”

Cologne hopped over to Shampoo and took her hand. “I am sorry I was so mean to you earlier.”

“It understandable,” Shampoo nodded. “Great-Grandmother only wish to protect,” she smiled. “Shampoo.”

“I am glad to see that you have become a great warrior in your world,” Cologne smiled.

Shampoo beamed a bit. “Shampoo have to overcome many weakness, but ability to defeat fear and doubt make Shampoo stronger,” she explained. Cologne nodded, but sadly rubbed Shampoo’s left hand.

“Tell me child, have you taken Ranma Saotome as your groom?”

As she did before, Shampoo dodged the answer to the question. “Shampoo cannot discuss details like that-”

Cologne’s shaking of her head cut Shampoo off. “If you haven’t, just say no. It’s not me you are dishonoring, it’s my counterpart.”

Shampoo looked down to Cologne with a bit of disgust on her face. “Great-grandmother disappointed, but has accepted Ranma choice,” she sternly said, picking up the delivery. “If you care about Shampoo, maybe you should think two time about trying to force her into marriage with man who no love her.”

Before Cologne could say anything, Shampoo had taken the delivery, walked out the door, hopped onto Shampoo-2’s bicycle and was pedaling off down the Nerima streets.

Ranma was now sprinting.

“The Kuno is running full steam at Commander Saotome,” Kio reported.

“I’m not reading a Kuno bio-sign from him,” Gosnell reported.

“That’s even worse,” Ranma mumbled.

“There’s a lot of people around the gate of the school, Captain,” Kio sighed. “If I shoot him, dozens will-” Kio cut herself off.

“Lieutenant?” Ranma asked, still sprinting.

“Uh, Commander Saotome just punched him onto the roof of the school,” Kio said, kind of shocked.

Ranma laughed. “Ah, memories.”

It took him a couple more minutes, but Ranma finally made it to the gate of the school. Akane was there waiting for him as the bell began to toll. Before the pair could walk in, however, black rose petals began to flutter around, causing Ranma to roll his eyes.

“RANMA! DARLING!” Kodachi-2 called as she bounded towards Ranma.

Akane sighed. Heavily.

“I’m going in-” she is cut off as Tatewaki-2 reappeared, holding a bouquet of roses.

“Ah, my dearest, Akane Tendo, for you have bested I, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High, Tatewaki Kuno, age seventeen, and therefore earned both the privilege and the honor of my company. Yes, your beatings speak louder than your voice ever could. I shall date with you!”

Both Ranma and Akane sent Tatewaki-2 flying. Kodachi-2 watched her brother fly away before starting to turn back.

Ranma’s curse, usually neutralized thanks to being on the ship and not being around random water sources, managed to kick in as one of the school’s landscaping sprinklers kicked in, with a broken head, and sprayed right on him, changing him to Ranma-chan.

Kodachi-2 managed to turn right after his change to see a glowering Ranma-chan standing there where her darling Ranma used to be.

“WRETCHED PIG-TAILED GIRL!” she bellowed. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY LOVE?!”

Ranma-chan rolled her eyes and pointed to the school. “He went to class.”

“Lies!” Kodachi-2 screamed as she ripped off her dress and stripped down to her rhythmic gymnastics leotard. She quickly tied Ranma and Akane together with the ribbons before pulling out her katana.

“I shall end you now!” she grinned.

A beeping came from her purse. She looked down, pulled out her watch and looked at it and gasped. “Drat! The home economics challenge is in fifteen minutes!” Kodachi-2 quickly put away her sword, grabbed her school uniform from off the ground and looked to a very pissed off, and still tied up Ranma-chan and Akane.

“I will finish you two off later,” she said, bounding away, rose petals fluttering.

“Ranma,” Akane groaned.

“Yeah?” Ranma-chan asked.

“Remind me never to agree to one of your ideas again,” she grumbled.

“Okay,” Ranma-chan nodded.

“I’m coming to untie you, Captain,” Gosnell called to Ranma over the commlink. “Or maybe not,” he quickly countered.

“What do you mean ‘or maybe not’?” Ranma-chan snarled.

“Transporter activity and two Kuno bio-signs, five meters from you.”

Ranma-chan turned her head as much as she could without whacking Akane before seeing Kodachi and Tatewaki walking towards them. Tatewaki grinned widely when he noticed the pair, tied up and sitting there, seemingly waiting for his arrival.

“Look, dear sister, someone left a gift for me!”

Kodachi glowered. “Where’s my gift?”

“Maybe he’s in the school?” Tatewaki shrugged. “Who cares?”

“I’ll go look,” Kodachi smiled. “We could use the kids anyway.”

“Uh,” Ranma-chan piped up, desperate to keep Kodachi from running around the school and assimilating the student body, “if you’re looking for Ranma, he’s in the mountains on a training trip right now and won’t be back till next week.”

Kodachi glared at Ranma-chan. “How do I know that you’re not lying to me?”

“Well,” Ranma-chan chuckled nervously, “I might lie to you, but I’d never lie to my...” Ranma-chan swallowed a bit of vomit as she said the next words, “...beloved Blue Thunder...”

Tatewaki glommed on to the two women as Kodachi scowled.

“Well, I can wait a week, I guess.”

Akane, who was now face to face with Ranma-chan thanks to Tatewaki’s glomp, gave her a strikingly disapproving stare. Ranma-chan simply grinned back.

The Kuno’s beamed back to their hive with Akane and Ranma-chan.

“Gosnell to Nighthawk,” Gosnell called from his semi-hidden position nearby. “The Captain and Commander Saotome have been abducted.”

“Copy,” Kaii replied. “I’ve managed to track their tags and have both them and Commander Shampoo in a single location.”

Gosnell smiled. It was up to the pros to do what they do now.

* * * *

Shampoo wasn’t being shadowed. She was too mobile, and her routes and destinations were too unpredictable to have anyone trail her. Shampoo was totally on her own.

She didn’t really mind. She could totally take care of herself. It wasn’t that big of a deal. Though she would have liked a warning that someone was hiding in a pile of trash and was going to knock her off her bicycle.

She wasn’t hurt. She managed to flip off as the bike was falling and land on her feet. However, the ramen spilt. That was annoying.

The assimilated citizen that shoved her bike over stood and attacked her. Shampoo easily fended off her attack and the assailant was quickly incapacitated. Shampoo got into her bag and pulled out a hypo with deassimilation nanites that reversed the Kunoazation and injected the person with it.

“See, I just would have killed them,” a voice called from behind a parked car.

Shampoo looked up to see George step out.

“I didn’t think you were actually ‘Shampoo’,” George said, walking towards her, kicking the now deassimilated citizen out of his way. “Don’t take this the wrong way, you’re still smoking, but you’re no sixteen-year-old.”

Shampoo glowered. “So, what? Now we battle to death?”

George shook his head. “No, not at all,” he said, pulling out a phaser and shooting Shampoo. Shampoo blinked a couple of times before starting to drop to her knees. The amazon stayed conscious but seemed to lose any control over her body. A frightening feeling.

“I want a Shampoo, and I will take you, no problem. Once I get into that head of yours, I’ll find the other one, then I’ll have two,” he smiled, walking over to Shampoo and placing his hand up to her neck. The assimilation tongs shot out and hit her neck but didn’t puncture the skin. Shampoo, despite being half stunned, nearly screamed.

“Yeah,” George nodded. “That would be the proper reaction.” The tongs moved back into his hand slowly, and George pulled Shampoo to her feet, throwing her arm around his shoulder.

“I’m kind of infatuated with you, and the last thing I want is for you to be driven to suicide by making you deal with what I deal with every day.” George ran his hand through Shampoo’s hair before smiling. “Don’t let anyone ever say I’m not compassionate.”

Shampoo’s eyes watched George as he activated his transporter and beamed himself and Shampoo back to the Kuno hive.

Kaii was happy that he was in the cloaked shuttlecraft right now; considering how pissed both Rei and Makoto were, he didn’t think he would have survived delivering the news to them face to face.

“So, our plan is fucked, is what you’re saying?” Makoto growled.

“No,” Kaii said, cautiously as he went over some of the readings on his console. “I can determine where they are, I just cannot beam you guys directly to them.”

“Why not?” Rei asked, a little less angry than Makoto, but still angry. “All three of them have micro transport enhancers implanted on them.”

Kaii sighed. “I know, I know. But there is apparently a very solid metaenergy field up where they are, as well as a subspace dampening field that’s disrupting our targeting sensors. Till we can bring down, at least the metaenergy field, there’s nothing we can do.”

Rei and Makoto, who were up on the ship, in the transporter room, with the remainder of the NSO teams and a few Marines who were going to help and destroy the Kuno base, looked to each other glumly.

“I guess the Captain and them are kind of on their own for now,” Rei said, as she turned to Makoto.

Makoto looked to Rei, very unhappy at the current situation.

“I’ve moved Bravo to the area near the Captain’s signature,” Kaii added. “They’re going to try and pass on the message that they need to bring down the field,” he explained.

“Aye,” Rei said, watching the clock in the transporter room with trepidation.

Ranma-chan kicked Tatewaki Kuno away for what was probably the fifth time since they beamed back. He had yet to untie them, which she was finding annoying, not that it was really mattering. Kicking the crap out of the Blue Thunder seemed to be just as easy tied up as it was untied.

“Captain---disbursement---need---down...” Ranma-chan heard in her ear. The distracting static filled noise was enough to allow Tatewaki to get the upper hand and get a good glom on her.

“Oh, my Pig-Tailed goddess!” Tatewaki cried. “You have no idea how long it’s been since I have held you!”

“Not long enough,” Ranma-chan glowered as she managed to flip around and send Kuno flying. Akane grumbled as Ranma-chan’s maneuvers caused her to get jostled around a bit. Tatewaki, upon hearing Akane’s partial whimper came running back, arms wide open.

“Oh! Akane Tendo, fear not for I haven’t forgotten thou!!!”

Both Ranma-chan and Akane sent Tatewaki flying through the cave. The kick managed to rip part of the ribbon, allowing Ranma-chan to slip out, and eventually freeing both herself and Akane.

“...cannot--beam---field---down...” Ranma-chan heard in her ear again.

“Ranma?” Akane asked.

“I’m hearing a partial transmission from I assume the ship,” Ranma-chan whispered, looking around. “I think there’s a dampening field up we need to take down before the assault teams can beam in.”

Ranma-chan took Akane’s hand and the pair walked along the cave for a moment before running into a bruised Tatewaki.

“Kuno,” Ranma-chan smiled. “We were just looking for you,” she lied.

Tatewaki cocked his head slightly. “You were?”

Akane turned to Ranma-chan. “We were?”

Ranma-chan nodded. “Yes. This doesn’t look like your house. Where are we?”

Tatewaki nodded. “Indeed, we are not the weak, yet devilishly attractive Kunos from your world, my beloved pig-tailed girl and Akane Tendo. You are in the Noble Hive of the Kuno Collective, a collective of Kunos that spans over trillions of light years and multiple universes!”

Tatewaki cackled wildly as both Ranma-chan and Akane rolled their eyes. Kuno continued, “This is our temporary, yet noble, base, since our idiot brother destroyed our spaceship while fleeing the jerks from Starfleet.”

Ranma-chan tried to feign ignorance. “Okay...”

“I understand if this is too much for you to comprehend,” Kuno nodded, grabbing the two women, and hugging them tightly. “After all, you are just females, but alas, you’ve shown how truly smart you can be by seeking me, the great and honorable Tatewaki Kuno, out for clarification.”

Akane clobbered Kuno, hard. Ranma-chan smirked before squatting down to Kuno’s remains. “It seems pretty interesting. Can you give us a tour?”

“Upon my...” he mumbled, still bleeding slightly from Akane’s shellacking, “...slight regeneration, I shall take you on a grand tour.”

Shampoo had been in this position way more often in the last three years than she cared to remember. She awoke to once again find herself tied to a chair and unable to move. There were a couple of Kuno drones nearby, keeping an eye on things, and George sitting at a table, working on a hypospray.

“Why Shampoo tied down?” Shampoo asked.

George stopped his work and turned around. “Oh hey,” he smiled. “I’m glad to see that you’ve finally woken up.”

“What you want from Shampoo?” Shampoo asked.

George finished his work on the hypospray and walked over to Shampoo. He slowly brushed some of the hair from her neck before running his fingers up and down it.

“I don’t have any intention of hurting you,” George said, softly. “This nanopathogen isn’t permanent, and - assuming you don’t resist it - won’t cause any damage to your neural pathways.”

Shampoo tried to move her head away, but George grabbed her forehead and pinned her head against the back of the chair with one hand as he injected her with the other.

Once he was done, he walked over to his chair and sat down again, after turning it so it faced Shampoo.

“What that?” Shampoo growled. “Love potion so Shampoo be willing?”

George laughed. “No. It’s actually something far more devious.” George waited a moment before leaning back. “How much do you weigh?”

Shampoo glared at George.

“We have a lot of people from this universe captured and assimilated. You’d like to deassimilate them, I’d be happy just killing them. Cooperate with me, or I’ll have them go find a few to kill.”

Shampoo narrowed her gaze at George. “50 kilogram-” Pain shot from the front of her head, irradiating downwards through her body, causing tears to well in Shampoo’s eyes as the Sisko’s XO did everything she could to keep from screaming. After the pain subsided, Shampoo looked to George as he sat watching her, grinning widely.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “It’s a nanopathogen that causes great pain and various other neurological issues when you lie.” George scooted his chair closer to Shampoo. “Tell me, how much do you really weigh? It’s okay. You still look great, and obviously it’s all muscle mass. There’s no reason to be ashamed,” he smiled, his eyes moving up and down Shampoo.

Shampoo gritted her teeth before finally responding. “56 kilo-” Shampoo’s eyes went wide, a smile started to creep onto the side of her mouth.

George laughed. “Why lie about six kilograms?” he asked. “Women. Sheesh.” He noticed the almost euphoric look on Shampoo’s face. “Oh, right, yes the pathogen also does some shit to reward you when you tell the truth.”

“How?” Shampoo asked.

“I don’t know,” George said. “Well, I probably do. We assimilated it from some people. The point is, you are now going to tell me where the real Shampoo is, where exactly your ship is so Nephrite and Kunzite and capture it for me, and where the rest of your people are on the planet so we can get rid of them.”

Shampoo shook her head, the pathogens releasing very pleasurable endorphins as Shampoo spoke, “No. Shampoo die before Shampoo betray ship.”

George sighed. This was going to be a lot dirtier than he was hoping.

“And this is my bedchambers,” Tatewaki said, showing a very, very frustrated Ranma-chan and Akane where he regenerated.

“You’ve already shown us this,” Akane grumbled.

“Three times,” Ranma-chan added.

“I just wanted to make sure you would know where it is, in case you wanted to have a pillow-fight or needed someone to read you a bedtime story.” Tatewaki said, trying to hold the women, but failing as they kicked him into a wall.

Ranma-chan noticed an assimilated citizen walking by carrying what looked to her to be an anti-matter converter. Ranma-chan motioned to Akane and the pair, before Tatewaki had a chance to pull himself out of the wall, took off following the drone.

It was a long and winding walk, but finally they followed the assimilated citizen down to what could best be described as the engineering level of the cave. Ranma-chan pulled a small tricorder out of her pocket and ran a scan as Akane looked around a bit.

Inside the large, hollowed out room, there were dozens of assimilated citizens working on building a small scout ship. With that looked to be several dozen alcoves that contained Kuno drones. All around the walls of the cave were junction boxes and conduits that led into another room.

“There’s a lot of power being generated from that room,” Ranma-chan whispered to Akane. “I bet that’s where the field is being generated.”

Akane, in awe of everything around her, nodded slowly and followed her husband-wife around the metal catwalk that separated the alcoves from where the scout ship was being worked on. The pair slowly moved into the second room, ducking some sparks shooting off from a junction box in the process.

The room was dimly lit, little more than the light from the consoles and the glowing coming from the field generator sitting in the middle of the room.

Ranma-chan ran to it as Akane moved to try and find a light switch. Ranma-chan grumbled to herself in frustration as the console kept beeping at her, noncompliant.

Akane finally found a light switch and flipped it on. She then gasped at what she saw, back behind the main power station.

“Ra-Ranma...”

“What?” Ranma-chan asked.

“They’re using a person for power...” Akane said, walking over to the semi-transparent tube and seeing if she could get it open.

Ranma-chan looked up and towards Akane before walking over. She gasped herself when she looked into the tube and saw Beryl covered in electrodes, wires and with prongs jabbing her in various areas.

“I bet if we disconnect her, we’ll pull down this field,” Ranma-chan hypothesized.

“Might kill her too,” Akane sighed.

“Well, we can’t help her if we can’t beam her out,” Ranma-chan shrugged, yanking the cords that went to the tube out of the nearest junction box.

Sparks flew everywhere, knocking both Ranma-chan and Akane over and back a few meters. Panels in the room began to explode and kick out sparks and fire. Alarm klaxons began to sound, and lights began to flash.

Ranma-chan quickly ran up to the tube with Beryl in it and opened it. The woman’s breath was short and labored. Ranma-chan pulled out one of her transport tags and attached it to her.

“Saotome to Kaii,” Ranma-chan whispered.

“Yeah, Captain, we have you,” Kaii replied. “The disruption field is down.”

“Good,” Ranma-chan smiled. “I’m sending one to the safe house for medical treatment.”

“Aye,” Kaii replied. Ranma-chan activated the transporter.

“So,” Kodachi called from the doorway. Ranma-chan and Akane turned to see her and an innumerable number of Kodachi drones with her. “You are not the wretched pig-tailed girl from this universe, but rather the wretched pig-tailed girl from my universe.”

Ranma-chan nodded. “We cannot allow you to harm this world any more than you already have.”

“You give yourselves far more credit than you deserve,” Kodachi cackled. “The Kuno Collective is divine. We have no other option but success.”

Ranma-chan rolled her eyes. “We’ve defeated you buffoons three times. Once even in this story already. Just give up, come to jail. George liked it.”

Kodachi smirked. “George likes your ship’s first officer,” she said, turning away. “I’ll be back for your corpses later.”

“Captain, the calvary is beaming in,” Rei reported.

“Hurry, please,” the unarmed Ranma-chan said as she and Akane started to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the hordes of Kuno drones.

George felt a little concerned with what was going on here. He asked Shampoo a question and the purple-haired amazon clearly lied about the answer as she cried out in pain. That was to be expected, the pain part. What wasn’t expected is the fact that George felt bad about hurting her.

It wasn’t because he had feelings for her. He didn’t. Could it be that all his time he spent with the Starfleet jailers and Federation officials in the various jails he had lived in over the past two years had turned him into a soft-hearted pansy?

George growled. “No,” he said to himself. “That can’t be,” he continued as he walked over and looked at himself in a mirror. “I shot that well-dressed buffoon with the roses with no issues.”

“Who you talking to?” Shampoo asked.

“Please be quiet,” George requested. He then stomped his feet in frustration. “No! Shut up! That is the proper thing to say!” He turned to Shampoo. “Shut up!”

Shampoo glared at him. George whimpered. “Please?”

Shampoo looked to the adopted Kuno sibling oddly as George ran to a sink and threw water into his face. He was getting very concerned now. He knew his killer, blood-thirsty instinct was still in him.

“Yeah,” he said to himself, looking up and towards Shampoo. “Yeah, I can kill. I blew up the ship and killed a bunch of your friends and that blonde with the short skirt.”

Shampoo smiled and shook her head. “No, George fail. We beam her back, as well as our people before ship go boom.”

George’s eyes went wide, hoping to see Shampoo wince in pain. Instead, she moaned in pleasure.

“NO!” George growled; the idea of the ship being lost for naught. He ran over and grabbed Shampoo by the shoulders and shook her a bit. “Then tell me, are you the only one from your ship who swapped out with their counterpart?” George blinked a bit, suddenly realizing what exactly could happen if his idiot siblings captured the Starfleet Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo by mistake.

Shampoo smiled to George. “Yes,” she said before grimacing in pain.

George looked at Shampoo softly. “Why... why would you lie when even a lie would give away the truth and it would hurt you so?”

Shampoo looked up to George and grinned. “To keep bastard from having satisfaction of breaking Shampoo.”

George stared at Shampoo for a moment before the power suddenly cut out, being replaced by dim, flickering emergency power. He quickly dropped the wall in his head that he erected to keep the mind-numbing lunacy that was the other two Kunos out so he could find out exactly what was going on.

“Oh fuck,” George sighed as he walked over, grabbed a rifle, and headed for a door.

“What about Shampoo?” she yelled at him as he walked out the door.

George didn’t answer and left Shampoo alone, still strapped to the chair, in the poorly lit room.

“I’m going to go see if I can find my darling Ranma,” Kodachi said, as a phaser shot flew over her head.

Tatewaki nodded as he ducked a phaser blast himself. “I should go and see if I can find the real Akane Tendo and Pig-tailed Girl.”

“I’d really rather neither of them defile our noble hive, dear brother,” Kodachi glowered, as she pulled a drone in front of her as a shield, protecting her from a phaser blast. Tatewaki snarled and pulled out his bokken, which ended up having the tip being shot off by someone’s rifle blast.

“If... If that sorcerer Ranma Saotome can come, so can Akane Tendo and the Pig-Tailed Girl!” he countered.

Kodachi sighed and nodded, wanting to get away from the phaser fire. “Okay.”

The pair shook hands and prepared to beam out.

“Unable to transport, relay station disabled,” the Kuno computer informed them.

“That’s quite inconvenient,” Kodachi stated.

“You there,” Tatewaki called to a drone. It quickly ran over to him and saluted. “Climb the Tokyo Tower and fix the transporter relay station. Post haste!”

“I SHALL FIX THEE!” it declared before running about two meters and promptly being destroyed by fire from several different Starfleet guns.

“We might want to find George,” Tatewaki suggested.

Kodachi agreed.

“MOKO TAKABISHA!!!!!” Ranma-chan screamed, causing an enormous chi blast to radiate outwards from her hands and impact about three dozen drones at once, annihilating them. Akane looked over Ranma-chan’s shoulder as the panting redhead took a knee to try and catch her breath for a moment.

Some of the surviving Kuno drones peaked into the room from the doorway before deciding it was safe to try and advance on Ranma and Akane again.

“I think maybe you should go back to the ship,” Ranma-chan whispered.

Akane wrapped her arms around Ranma-chan’s midsection. “I think we’ve had this conversation before,” she replied, holding onto her tightly. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”

Ranma-chan smiled, turned around and kissed Akane. “I do love you, my precious wife.”

Akane’s eyes went wide as she felt something poke her in the back.

“Ranma, no,” she pleaded. “I want to stay and help you.”

“I know you do,” Ranma-chan nodded as she hugged Akane as tight as she could. “But we’re running out of time. The ship needs to go back.”

“I’m not going back without you!” Akane said, trying to pull away from Ranma-chan.

“You have to,” Ranma-chan said quietly, pushing the button on the tag she stuck on Akane’s back.

Akane beamed away, swearing at Ranma as she did. Ranma turned, killed a couple of drones then sat down.

“Where the hell is that backup?” she growled as she looked at what looked like a never-ending blob of drones moving in the door.

“They met a lot of resistance,” Kaii replied. “They’re moving your way, Captain.”

Ranma-chan sighed. “Advise the safehouse to send Commander Saotome back to the ship. Also tell them to pass along my apologies to her.”

“Yes sir,” Kaii replied.

Ranma-chan hopped up and quickly applied a multi-target Kachü Tenshin Amaguriken to a few drones, killing them. She picked up a couple of swords and began swiping at a few more, the thought going through her mind that at least she wouldn’t have to worry about dealing with how pissed off Akane would be once she got back to the ship.

At this rate, she didn’t think she’d be able to get back to the ship.

She was starting to wonder if this was what it was like for the NEO teams when he sent them over to the shipyard in The Badlands. Attacking what seemed like a never-ending stream of enemy. Ranma-chan had to think with the power flickering, there was no way the Kunos were still replicating drones, so eventually they would have to run out.

Eventually.

“RANMA!!!!!!!!!!” a voice yelled.

“IT’S CAPTAIN YOU YUTZ,” another yelled before a clunk is heard.

Ranma-chan looked up to see the six Kuno drones who were coming at her get shot in the back, and Makoto and six marines, led by Ryouga who was rubbing his head, storm in.

“Captain,” Ryouga said, looking towards Makoto, grumpily, “are you okay?”

Ranma-chan nodded and moved towards the group. Makoto pulled a rifle off her back and tossed it to her captain.

“Where’s Aka-” Ryouga started before cowering as Makoto raised the butt of her rifle again.

“He brings up a good point,” Makoto said, turning to Ranma-chan. “Where is Commander Saotome?”

Ranma-chan smiled a bit at Ryouga’s reaction before patting her old rival on the shoulder. “Akane’s been sent back to the ship already. She’s safe.”

“Good,” Ryouga smiled.

Makoto smiled as well. “The NSO teams are running around, killing drones, deassimilating people, sending them through the safe house to be randomly deposited around town, and planting charges,” she explained. “Once we capture the three Kunos we’ll light this place up so bad that no one will ever be able to see what happened here. The seismic activity of Japan will make the explosions unnoticeable.”

“Good. Where’s Shampoo?” Ranma-chan asked.

Makoto shrugged.

“What does that mean, Commander?” Ranma-chan grumbled.

“I’m not sure if any of the teams have found her yet,” Makoto replied, checking a PADD. Ranma-chan ripped the PADD from Makoto’s hand and began to look it over. She scowled and began to move off. “Find the Kunos,” Ranma-chan barked as she headed for the door.

“Where are you going?” Ryoga asked.

“To find my XO.”

Tatewaki was concerned that he had lost track of his sister. He was also concerned that he had lost track of himself. He wasn’t quite sure where he was, nor was he sure which way George was. Not that it mattered anyway since he couldn’t see where he was going. Every two or three seconds, the lights would flicker on and off, either sending Tatewaki into a wall, tripping over one of his dead doppelgangers or off the end of a catwalk.

“Curse the public utilities of this time,” he said. “This would not be an issue if the great and noble House of Kuno ran the lights.”

Tatewaki tripped and fell. He looked down and noticed that he had tripped over a large, spatial charge.

“Now this is certainly not something that should be in the middle of the hallway,” he commented.

Rei, Shelton, and Parker slowly tiptoed up behind Kuno. Rei poked him in the back of the head with her rifle.

“Be you friend or foe?” Tatewaki asked, not turning around.

“I poked you in the head with my gun, what do you think?” Rei replied.

“You sound female, you could be either.”

Shelton chuckled, amused. Rei growled, not amused. “I am foe.”

“Then I am afraid I have no time in which to offer you my company,” Tatewaki lamented. A couple of dozen Tatewaki drones beamed in behind Rei and company and began their slow march. “If you decide you wish to date with me, and join the noble collective, then we may rethink our arrangement,” Kuno said, moving off.

Multiple gunshots rang out, the second set of NEO officers deciding to deactivate the silencers on their rifles for effect. Tatewaki made it about one meter before stopping again, Rei’s rifle again poking him in the back of the head. Kio also walked up and poked him in the stomach with her rifle. She smiled coyly as Tatewaki looked at her in fright.

Kio had taken the blueish nano-robotic goo that the Kuno drones expelled as a kind of ‘blood’ and used it as warpaint. She had a rather interesting design on her face that glowed eerily when the lights flickered just right.

“Do you wish to date with me?” Tatewaki finally sputtered out.

“Part of me does,” Kio said in a deep, sultry voice as she moved the barrel of her rifle around Tatewaki’s groin. She fired once, the bullet missing his body by centimeters; the round firing into the ground, sending Rei leaping into the air as the bullet came within centimeters of hitting her foot.

Tatewaki fell over, unconscious.

“He fainted,” Parker noted, checking his tricorder.

Rei glared at Kio before tagging Tatewaki and sending him to the Sisko’s brig. “You could have just tagged him.”

Anthony was hopping around behind Kio. “Yup. She sure could have. Bad Lieutenant! She needs to be punished, that’s for sure! For now, though, we should go and check this area for more people, just in case.”

Rei cocked her head a bit. “Sure, meet us in grid six in ten minutes.”

“Should be plenty of time,” Anthony’s head nodded feverishly, as he grabbed Kio’s arm and pulled her away.

“Are they...” Parker asked Shelton.

Shelton looked to Parker with a stupid look on his face. “Really? Do you have to ask?”

“I guess not,” Parker sighed as he began to walk off with the group. “Everyone’s with someone but me.”’

“Well,” Shelton moved closer to Parker, “I’m not busy later if you wanna-”

“WHAT?!” Parker screeched, causing Rei to stop and look to the pair and Shelton to start laughing.

“Dude, you are really, really stupid,” Shelton said, patting his friend on the head before the group resumed their walking, Parker scowling at Shelton all the way.

Makoto, Ryouga, and their small group of marines were meeting little resistance now. A nice change considering what they had met when they got there. Wave after wave of either Kodachi or Tatewaki drone. Now it was just a few dozen. And they were easily destroyed.

Their phaser rifles, set to remodulate after every couple of shots were working in random enough frequencies that the Kunos were not able to adapt to them. And even if they were, a remodulation or two was all it took to get things working again. It was convenient how similar the Kunos were to the Borg.

“HALT!” a woman’s shrill voice called out to them. “Are you those rapscallions who caused all this chaos?”

Ryouga and Makoto turned to see Kodachi and a few dozen Kodachi drones walk up to them. The marines drew their weapons but didn’t fire yet. Kodachi looked Makoto and Ryouga over, before gasping.

“I KNOW YOU TWO!” she glowered. “You are the ones who dared impugn upon my plans to assimil-errr-wed my darling Ranma Saotome two years past!” Kodachi ripped her dress off and stripped down to her leotard and began to spin her ribbon. All her Kodachi drones did the same, causing several of the Starfleet marines to scratch their heads, trying to understand the oddness that was going on in front of them.

“We beat you before, and we will beat you again,” Makoto snarled. “You may as well just surrender now.”

“A Kuno does not know the word surrender!” Kodachi screamed, jumping into the air flying at Makoto with ribbons, pins and hoops twirling. All five marines, Ryouga, and Makoto shot her, in midair.

Kodachi dropped like a lead weight to the ground.

“Maybe you should invest in a dictionary,” Ryouga smirked, trying to do his best ‘witty, action hero accent’, whatever the hell Ryouga thought that would sound like.

The entire group stared at him till he slunk his way to the back.

“She’s alive, barely,” a marine noted.

The drones cried for a moment, bowed their heads in respect, then charged the group. The battle against the drones didn’t last much longer than the battle against Kodachi. Makoto tagged Kodachi and had her sent to the Sisko’s brig, notifying them that she would need medical care as well.

“I’m going to see if I can help the Captain,” Makoto said, moving off.

“What about us?” Ryouga asked.

“Find Rei and see if there’s anything else they need you to do, otherwise go back to the ship,” Makoto instructed.

Ryouga wanted to object, as he wanted to help Ranma as well, but Makoto was gone. he sighed and began to move off.

“Uh, Captain Hibiki?” one of the marines called out.

Ryouga turned and looked to the marines in a doorway opposite of him. The Marine motioned for him to come where they were. Ryouga turned and noticed that he was about to walk down an open elevator shaft.

“Right,” Ryouga chuckled nervously. “Coming! Anders, you have point.”

George was beginning to wish he’d kept that wall up. He now had a clear picture of what was going on in the facility.

They were fucked is what was going on.

“Is there any way you can help us?” George pleaded into the communicator.

Nephrite cleared his throat. “Kunzite is still very hurt. I am weakened from our last encounter. As well, we...” Nephrite spoke softly, “we have been advised to no longer work with you.”

“WHAT?” George screamed. “BY WHOM?”

“Queen Metalia,” Nephrite sighed. “She’s aware that Sailor Moon is not dead, the crystal we were given was a fraud, and apparently once Beryl was rescued and taken out of your ‘poor-man’s magic’ field, the Queen could tell you were using her as a battery.” Nephrite spoke a little more sternly now. “She’s apparently not cool with that, without her consent.”

George rolled her eyes. “Fine,” he stated. “If you guys hadn’t mucked things up and just made a nice, small portal big enough for just our ship, Starfleet wouldn’t have followed us, and we’d be fine.”

“You say that,” Nephrite growled.

“How smooth did stuff go our first two days?” George argued. “You were even scared about us backstabbing you because of our power,” George growled. “You know, we were going to, but then didn’t because you guys seemed like such a good bunch,” he lied, crying a bit. “Guess now I know to trust my gut and just backstab everyone.”

“George,” Nephrite started, but is cut off as George closes the channel.

“Moron,” George growls as he wipes the fake tears out of his eyes. He then moves back down the corridor and looks around. As far as the eye can see there are dead or dying Kodachi and Tatewaki drones on the ground. There appear to be spatial charges attached to the walls and the support beams. He looks out a window to where the scout ship is being constructed.

“It’s gone...” he mumbled.

“Yeah,” Ranma, who had gone and found some hot water to make sure he was male for his final battle, said from behind George. “We beamed it out into space and the Sisko has destroyed it.”

George inhaled and exhaled deeply.

“I know you didn’t mind jail,” Ranma said. “Just surrender peacefully and I am sure we can get you back where you were, doing whatever it was that you did that got you awarded ‘prisoner of the year’ twice in a row.”

George thought back to jail. He thought about Shampoo and about how he’d apparently allowed his softer side to guide his decisions here.

Maybe that’s why they were where they were?

Could this all be his fault?

George laughed.

Ranma blinked before starting to backpedal as George charged him. George grabbed ahold of Ranma, and the pair went crashing through a wall, Ranma losing his grip on the rifle Makoto had given him in the process.

Shampoo turned her head and saw the pair come through the newly created hole, and George quickly stand up, grab Ranma by his pigtail and fling him across the room.

“RANMA!” Shampoo screamed.

“Ow,” Ranma mumbled as he came to a landing in the middle of a bunch of metal, glass and electronic bits and pieces.

George walked over and picked up two swords from a couple of dead Kodachi drones that were lying nearby.

“Everyone keeps telling me what I should do and how I should feel, Captain,” George growled as he threw one of the swords at Ranma. Ranma quickly skittled out of the way of it, the sword missing his man-parts by inches. “Not a single person, though, has told me to be myself.”

“That because yourself is nuts,” Shampoo stated.

George laughed as he swung his sword at Ranma. Giving the Captain an impromptu haircut as Ranma barely dodged the attack.

“That’s true,” George said, taking another swing. “But who’s to say nuts isn’t okay?”

“Normal people?” Ranma asked, kicking George in the stomach, hard enough to slow George down for a moment. George coughed and stumbled backwards, giving Ranma enough time to pick up the sword George had thrown at him and stand.

George grumbled and took several slashing swings at Ranma, but now that Ranma was on his feet, he was easily able to dodge the attacks.

“RANMA!” Shampoo yelled.

“What?” Ranma asked, turning to Shampoo.

“Shampoo don’t want anything,” Shampoo said, shrugging a bit. “Just always see in movie tied up girl yell hero name while he fight.”

“It’s kind of distracting,” George groused.

Ranma nodded. “It really is.”

Shampoo sighed and motioned for a copy of Marie Claire that was sitting on the ground. “Could you...”

“Oh, I got it,” George smiled, picking up the magazine and setting it on Shampoo’s lap.

“Page 31, please,” Shampoo asked.

George nodded, then realized this was exactly why he was in the position he was in. George growled at himself and threw the magazine across the room, but before he could move away from her, Shampoo headbutted George, sending him backwards, with Ranma charging at the youngest Kuno, his sword in position to impale him.

“GODDAMNIT!” George screamed, turning and narrowly parrying Ranma’s assault and kicking him in the back. Ranma snarled as he spun around with his sword in one hand, managing to slice George’s right arm in the process.

“HOLY CRAP! THAT HURT!” George cried out.

“I bet,” Ranma scowled, leaping at George. George spent another moment whimpering about his arm before casually stepping out of the way of Ranma’s attack and allowing him to fall to the ground.

“Fight out of anger, Ranma,” George taunted, “and you will fail,” he smiled, picking Ranma up by his neck and throwing him across the room, causing him to bounce off Shampoo.

“AIYAA!” Shampoo cried out. “Shampoo hurt!”

George shrugged as he moved around to her to look for Ranma. “I don’t think it matters at this point anyway, really.”

“Shampoo might have, eventually...”

George stopped and looked up to Shampoo. “Really?”

Shampoo smirked. “Yes?” She winced in pain.

George growled. It didn’t last long though as Ranma came up from behind him and tackled him. The pair rolled around on the ground for a bit before Ranma was again thrown across the room - George’s semi-robotic body proving to be quite the adversary for the skilled martial artist.

George picked his sword back up and slowly walked toward Ranma. “You need to die, Captain.”

Ranma wiped some blood from his face and nodded. “That makes two of us, I guess,” he said swinging at George. George simply allowed the sword strike to hit him in the shoulder, wincing as it did, before moving to try and grab Ranma again. Ranma quickly backpedaled before launching forward and firing off a blinding fast roundhouse kick that sent George’s sword flying across the room.

Ranma followed the kick with an overhand sword strike, but George managed to stop the strike with his bare hands, gripping the blade of the sword and starting to crush it, despite blue nano-robotic goo coming out of his hands, as well as red blood.

“Dammit,” Ranma swore, “Why won’t you give up?”

“Because I’m a Kuno,” George smiled grimly, pushing back on the sword. “We’re nothing if not persistent.”

Ranma nodded, “Persistent and incredibly stupid.”

George could only glare at Ranma for a second before the Captain took his free hand and drove it several hundred times in the frame of a couple of seconds into the midsection of George while screaming “KACHU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!”

George coughed a bit, spitting up some goo and blood, and loosened his grip on Ranma’s sword. Ranma moved him slightly, so George was facing Shampoo. George’s eyes went wide when he saw the Sisko’s first officer, smiling, next to Ranma.

“Throw Ranma in to Shampoo, and Shampoo get hand free,” she said, waving her right hand around, which held one of the NEO teams handguns.

Ranma looked to George and smiled. “Shoulda chose jail.”

George shook his head. “I am who I am.” He pushed harder, trying in vain to gain the upper hand on Ranma, but it was pointless as Shampoo emptied the LA-15’s magazine into George.

Blood and nano-goo spilt everywhere as George dropped to the ground, keeping the smuggest of smuggiest grins he possibly could on his face. Ranma moved to the chair and hacked off the remaining restraints holding Shampoo down. Shampoo hopped up and glommed onto Ranma. Ranma, for once, perhaps because he knew Akane was safely locked away on the ship, didn’t seem to mind.

“Thank you, Ranma,” Shampoo said, hugging him, tears coming to her eyes.

Ranma hugged her back, then looked down at her. “I have no intention of letting anything bad happen to my XO.”

Shampoo looked to Ranma and nodded. Ranma took her hand and began to lead her out when they ran into Makoto.

“Captain! Commander!” she exclaimed. “Are you alright?” An odd question to ask two people who were covered in bruises and both their own and Kuno blood. Nonetheless, Ranma and Shampoo nodded.

“How is everything?” Ranma asked.

“We’ve captured both Tatewaki Kuno and Kodachi Kuno,” Makoto said. “We’ve yet to locate George Kuno.”

Shampoo motioned over her shoulder as Ranma smirked. “Don’t worry about him. If the place has been cleaned up, then I think it’s time we got out of here.”

Makoto looked over Shampoo’s shoulder at George’s corpse. She then nodded and followed her two commanding officers off.

‘Captain’s Log, Stardate 62836. I think.’

‘With George dead, Tatewaki and Kodachi captured, my crew has managed to deassimilate about two hundred Tokyo residents. Fortunately, a side effect of the deassimilation agent is short term memory loss, so they won’t have any clue what happened to them.

‘We have detonated the charges in the underground cave after getting everything salvageable out of it. As we hoped, it has been reported locally as a seismic event. The cave the Kunos were using has collapsed to the point where it will take people centuries to dig into it again.’

Ranma sighed as he looked across his quarters to where Akane was pouting.

‘Our mirror selves have been returned, except for Shampoo’s, whom she said she was going to take care of personally. As for her, the nano-agent George Kuno injected her with has been neutralized, and no permanent damage was discovered.’

Ranma again looked across the room.

“End log,” he stated as he stood. The computer chirped as Ranma walked over and sat down across from Akane. He took her hand for a moment before she pulled it away from him.

“It felt just like before,” she said, never looking at him. “I get in the way. Always.”

“That’s not what it’s about,” Ranma sighed.

“Then why wouldn’t you let me fight with you?” Akane asked.

“Because, despite your arguments to the contrary, I still believe it’s my job as both your husband and your captain to protect you,” Ranma smiled.

Akane looked at Ranma somewhat frustrated.

“Besides,” Ranma continued, “if I thought you’d get in the way, I’d have just left you out of it to begin with.”

Akane realized that was probably true. There was one other thing, however...

“What did you mean when you said that ‘the ship has to go back’?” Akane asked.

Ranma cleared his throat. “If things went badly, a couple of us would stay and finish off the Kunos, while the ship returned with the majority of the crew.”

“You?” Akane gasped.

Ranma nodded.

“Who else?”

“Shampoo and Rei were going to stay,” Ranma said.

“Nice harem,” Akane scoffed.

Ranma rolled his eyes. “None of us had any intention of living long enough to engage in any debauchery, Akane. Don’t worry.”

Akane blinked.

“Without the ship, someone’s got to be in the cave to activate the spatial charges,” Ranma nodded as his communicator began to chirp. “Saotome here.”

Akane looked to Ranma, sadly, as the Captain listened to Minako give status reports.

“Captain, we have everyone on board, the planet is reading clear of all Starfleet signatures, and no Kuno signatures appear anywhere within scanning range,” Minako cheerfully reported.

“Great!” Ranma said, standing. “Take us to the time hole. I’ll be there in a moment.”

“Aye,” she replied, closing the channel.

Ranma looked to Akane and smiled. “We’re going home.”

Akane smiled back and stood. “I’m going to go check on Commander Gra-Carliz.”

Ranma nodded. “K. See you on the other side,” he said, kissing Akane before the pair walked out of their quarters, each going a different direction.

Shampoo carried Shampoo-2 into her bedroom and laid her down on the bed. Cologne looked to the two Shampoos before chuckling a bit.

“There is something nice about seeing you, dear,” Cologne said, taking Shampoo’s hand.

“What that?”

“I was worried Shampoo might shrink like me as she got older. I am glad to see she’s remained tall and beautiful.”

Shampoo both laughed and grumbled at the same time. “Shampoo not 100. But thank you.”

Shampoo turned to walk towards the door, but paused, bowed, and showed her respects to Cologne. “Thank you for hospitality.”

“Oh,” the old woman nodded, a little taken back by Shampoo’s sudden change in demeanor. “You’re welcome.”

Shampoo smiled and headed out. Mousse watched the faux Shampoo move on before turning away and heading for the stairs. He paused just short of them though, something in his head telling him to stop and turn around. He did so and noticed Shampoo motioning for him to join her in the alleyway.

He did. Quite... Moussily...

“OH SHAMPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

*Whomp*

“Stupid Mousse no know how to be quiet?” Shampoo asked him.

He did, at this point, know how to be quiet since Shampoo had knocked him out. She resurrected him with a hypospray, before running her hands through his hair.

“Are you an angel?” he asked her, groggily.

“Yes, stupid Mousse,” Shampoo said, smilingly a bit, “Shampoo is angel from the future, telling you to ignore great-grandmother. Be persistent. Shampoo love you, she just too stupid to know it yet.”

Mousse nodded and puckered up for a kiss. Shampoo, knowing that it would hurt far more than it would help, simply rolled Mousse across the street and into the cafe where his Shampoo would be waiting for him.

Ranma stepped out onto the bridge and looked to the view screen with a bit of frustration. In his mind, a multi-dimensional time vortex should be large and have lightning bolts and various other J.J. Abramsish lens flare effects shooting from it.

This one was invisible until you shot it with the temporal protection array, and even then, it only looked like a big puffy cloud.

Nowhere near a menacing as it the last few days had made it seem.

“The array is ready,” Miharu reported.

Minako confirmed the DTI agent’s report.

Shampoo stood and walked up behind Ikuhara. “Same deal as before,” she told him.

“Aye,” he replied.

“Activate the array,” Ranma ordered.

“Array active,” Minako reported.

The bridge crew watched as the beam shot out from above the deflector dish, but rather than hitting where the portal should be, it continued into open space.

“Are we in the right spot?” Ranma asked.

Both Miharu and Minako nodded. “Yes sir,” Minako answered. “This is exactly where we came into this dimension, and that is exactly where the portal is, I can clearly see the event horizon on a chronoton wavelength scan.”

“So why array no open it?” Shampoo asked.

“Captain,” Usagi called out, “the array is beginning to overheat.”

“Deactivate it,” Ranma angrily ordered.

Minako complied.

“Captain, I think I know what the issue is,” Miharu called out. Ranma, Shampoo, and Minako all scurried over to her.

“Well?” the three more demanded than asked for an explanation.

Miharu, a little shy now that there was an audience, pointed towards the portal on her terminal. “This portal is held together, from this side, with metaenergy,” she explained.

“What exactly is metaenergy?” Ranma asked.

“Scientifically speaking,” Miharu explained, “it’s magic.”

“There no such thing as magic,” Shampoo said.

Miharu nodded. “That’s right, because magic is simply metaenergy.”

“You turn into a cat, and you are saying there’s no such thing as magic?” Minako asked Shampoo. Shampoo started to argue, but suddenly realized she had no argument and simply decided to look at Ranma as he stared blankly at Miharu’s explanation.

“It’s my guess that because of the way this portal is made, you can use regular energy to interact with it from one side but would need metaenergy to interact with it from the other.”

Minako sighed. “Great. Guess we just need to get a giant wand for the deflector dish in,” she looked at the clock above the main view screen, “the next fourteen hours, and we’ll be fine.”

Ranma glowered at Minako before turning to Miharu. “Any suggestions on what to do?”

“Well, I know someone who knows quite a bit about this, but it might make you angry,” she said, smiling slightly.

Ranma sighed. “Commander Gosnell, please have security bring Agent Kojime to the bridge.”

“Did you say to the airlock, Captain?” Makoto called out.

Ranma turned and gave her a look, making sure she knew that he did not say airlock. Makoto smiled a bit before issuing orders into her terminal. A little while later, Kirie is escorted onto the bridge and brought down to the science station. She gave the Captain a look before taking her seat next to Miharu, who also received a disapproving, albeit not hostile, look from her.

“Agent,” Ranma said, looking to first Kirie, then the two security officers standing over her, then back to Kirie, “if you’re truly serious about your job, you’ll put aside how pissed you are at me, and help get this ship out of here.”

Kirie nodded. “It seems you managed to maintain a stable timeline here, so leaving the Sisko in this timeline would be catastrophic,” she said as she punched up some things on the terminal.

“Yes, this portal was created by a huge blast of metaenergy, and it’s weaved together by the same. Our energy goes right through it.”

“So, are you saying it’s a one-way portal?!” Ranma asked.

“Sorta,” Kirie nodded.

“Why didn’t you say that before we went in?!” Ranma growled.

Kirie looked up at him. “There were no indications of metaenergy from our side. Whoever made this did it so that someone without magic could get from our universe to this one and vice-versa.”

Kirie blinked.

“What?” Ranma asked.

“If we could get a huge spike of metaenergy to hit the portal, we could likely open it up,” Kirie said. “It would destabilize it, likely collapse it, but that wouldn’t matter because we’d be through it.”

Ranma scoffed and turned to Minako. “I guess you’re right, we will need a giant magic wand on the deflector dish.”

Minako blinked. “Or...”

The Sailor Senshi had not expected to ever see that blue glowing again. It really wasn’t a welcome sight either. Especially not her.

“Hi,” Rei called, Minako walking behind her.

Rei-2, Makoto-2, and Ami-2 all nodded a greeting. Usagi-2 looked to Rei a little frightened and scooted a bit closer to Minako-2.

“I told you there was an old Rei,” Usagi-2 said.

Rei grumbled a bit as she sat down on the edge of the temple fountain. Minako sat down next to her.

“You shouldn’t be bothered by the Negaverse for quite a while,” Rei said, pulling her knees close to herself. “The Kunos had apparently captured Beryl and had injured her pretty bad.”

“Let me guess,” Rei-2 sighed, “You rescued her and gave her back to the Negaverse.”

Minako and Rei looked to each other.

“Are you kidding?!” Makoto-2 growled.

“We didn’t give her back to the Negaverse,” Minako explained. “We dropped her off at a hospital.”

Rei-2 rubbed her face with her hands before holding up two fingers. “That’s twice. TWICE you could have dealt a crippling blow to the enemies of mankind, but either chose to do nothing or chose to help them.”

Rei simply looked to her counterpart in disgust. She really hoped that she was not this much of a bitch, but if she was, it would likely explain quite a bit.

“We have literally saved your world this week,” Minako said. “I don’t think you understand how big of a threat the Kunos were.”

“You say that,” Rei-2 scowled.

Rei had enough of this stuck-up bitch’s shit. She pulled out her phaser pistol and started firing at the temple ground, sending shards of concrete flying, and Sailor Senshi scurrying.

“MARS POWER-” Rei-2 got out half of her transformation phrase before Rei shot the pen out of her hand. She ended up shooting the pen out of Makoto’s hand too, and shooting a couple of other things, lighting them on fire before Minako finally grabbed a hold of her and got her to stop.

“THAT WAS THE LOWEST POWER SETTING,” Rei screamed at the five girls. “THAT IS WHY WE’RE NOT ALLOWED TO GET INVOLVED!” Rei inhaled and exhaled rapidly before slamming the gun back into her holster and turning away.