the turning point

Around the diplomatic delegation, everything tumbled and went dark for a moment, as if some brutal titan had suddenly struck the entire vessel they were in. They were all scrambling as best they could to get back on their feet when some of the yellowish orbs lighted up again, enough for then to discern one another and the form of Boothby sprawled on the fllor under some dark green liquid oozing on him from several cracks in the now flaking wall.

Another jolt almost sent them back down as Kheren spoke outloud to be heard through his combadge.

"Dusk, report!" 

"Don't know, Capt..." came back the voice of Robert Moore slightly distorted. " We're blind ... here. It's something ... outside!"

In the mind of Snowfire K'Leysha then appeared a vivid image, as if she was herself in outer space, outside the bioship, from some far away distance. What she saw was nine dagger-shaped vessels with prongs in front and small wings forming a triangle behind that zoomed out of the greenish halo of Fluidic Space. The sleek ships looked much like the Undine dreadnough in style, texture and color but they were much smaller, although this still made them several hundred meters in lenght. From the angle of view she was getting, the Yllithirii could see all of them converging fast towards Boothby's huge squid-like starship. And they were all firing at the resting dreadnought.

Everything shook again around them  and gloomy yellow light light fought weakly against oppressive darkness. Something clamy and wet and burning splashed on a few of them.

"Dusk! Emergency transport, now!" ordrered the energetic yet calm deep voice of the Andorian.

"Sir... we still have ... interference. We can ... transport ... ... ... two of you at ... one time!" responded the voice of Patricia Blakely.

"Captain! Look! Boothby... he's hurt!"

The Andorian's keen eyes instantly saw what Somers was squinting at. The sprawled form of the Undine was lying against the far wall in a pool of greenish liquid that came from the cracked bulkhead. He was barely moving but his body seems racked with spasms and convulsions as if something was trying to jump out of his bruised skin. His hand was weakly waving to him.

The whole bioship trembled again... and again.

Kheren managed to get to the Undine and kneeled beside him. There were no visible injuries on him and yet, it was as if his whole body was a bout to burst with blisters everywhere. With a trembling hand, Boothby pointed to the console nearest to them both. As Kheren touched it, an aperture appeared like an opening mouth. Inside he saw what looked like a small flat coffer. Opening it, he saw it contained what looked like a wicked-looking three-pronged dagger with a handle of a greenish hue similar to that leaking from the walls.

The next impact almost sent them all tumbling again on the floor. Vapors hissed from the ceiling and leaks spurted anew all around them.

The captain didn't hesitate.

"Dusk! Transport back Oseno and Solius! Then K'Leysha and Yiral; Somers and me last! Start flight back to the Horizon at once! Energize!"

Instantly, the Bajoran and the Romulan disappeared in a shower of sparkling blue and white lights, although for a moment it seemed to take forever.

S'Tan arrived inside the shuttle to see the shocked and worried faces of the crewmen they left behind.

"Move aside!" He shouted, roughly pushing Blakely away from her console. He took over and began diverting all power from the systems to boost the transporter and sensor systems. The air instantly became still as the purifiers shut down.

"Solid locks made on the Lieutenant Commanders!"

He slammed on the energize button before almost instantly manually inputting commands to the system to reset and recharge the transporter.

Kheren took out the three-needled object from the coffer, and placed it into the trembling hand of Boothby.

At that moment, the Yllithirii science officer and the El-Aurian ambassador were beamed out with the same agonizing slowness. Somers even had the time to see Adira's face suddenly contort in fear and her hand starting to rise up as if to warn them... but then she was gone.

On the shuttle, the Romulan nodded in approval as the two women arrived. Once again he began to get the locks on the last two members of the crew. He easily gained the lock on the Marine, but the Captain's lock was too weak. The interference was growing stronger and even with full power, he could only transport one at a time. He hit the enegrize controls and tried to get a pin-point lock on something Andorian.

When Alexandria turned to her commanding officer several steps away, there was another shock and she had to grasp the nearest console-like protrusion to stay on her feet. That's when she saw the Undine plant his three-bladed dagger deep in the chest of Captain Kheren.

"Captain!"

Then the transporter beam caught her before she made even one step towards him. 

Through the slow, tingling sensation of the transporter beam, Alexandria had just enough time to see the Andorian suddenly turn a sickly blue-green shape and moss-like tendrils spread out from under his uniform to his neck and hands before he collapsed beside the trembling Undine, his own body starting to trash with racking pain, leaking dark fluid splashing on him from the walls as the whole scene shook and disappeared in sprouting yellowish vapors.

Then she was looking at the cockpit entrance of the Delta Flyer and at the surprised face of patricia Blakely. Even the otherwise impertubable Vulcan S'KOn had an eyebrow raised in obvious surprise.

"The captain!" both women shouted together, one in surprise, the other in despair.

Everything trembled and tilted around them and they were both thrown on the floor as the engines behind them whined. Only S'kon managed to stay up, gripping the console with Vulcan strength, his voice louder to be heard above the noise of the impacts against the hull surrounding them like a hollow bell.

" I'm loosing his vital signs. Interference is confusing the scanners... can not get a positive lock..."

S'Tan struggled to his feet, using the console, he attempted again to get the final lock."We. Need. To. Leave." He muttered, shaking his head. He started to return the power to their correct systems and powering up the engines.

Somers half ran, half stumbled to the door separating them from the cockpit.

"Moore! Don't leave yet! We still have to get the captain!"

"If we don't leave now," the pilot shouted back, "this whole hangar bay will fold like a crushed egg with us in it!"

The Marine hesitated between running to the helm and forcing the controls down herself and jumping back to the transporter console and try herself to retrieve Kheren or go through the hatch and try to bodily retrieve him. Both her colleagues in the aft part of the shuttle were just as frantic as her, even the Vulcan.

"No use, Lieutenant... signal lost."

"Skeletal lock!" shouted Blakely as she came back up and beside S'Kon, her fingers already running on the controls.

But S'Kon shook his head.

"There is no skeleton to lock on to, Lieutenant."

"Andorian cartilages are even more easy to detect! We should be able to..."

"The scanners find no bio matter other than that of Undine physiology."

"I've abducted a few Andorians in my time, Lieutenant, the system should be able to see him easily...He's not there any longer...Get us out of here, Lieutenant!" The Romulan said sternly. Though for a moment, he blinked, questioning his last statement. How can he not be here anymore....

At that moment, there was a sudden jolt, like a mighty push along their longitudinal axis and despite the inertial dampeners, there was a distinct feeling of tumbling end over end for a few seconds before their minds, their inner ears and their stomachs settled back.

"What happened?" shouted Somers still in the doorway.

"We... we've been pushed out clean of the Undine ship!" answered Moore with an astonished and almost angry tone. "Some king of tractor beam..."

"We have to get back!" insisted the security chief rushing into the cockpit where Oseno, K'Leysha, Solius and Yiral were.

"Yeah but how? And where?" 

Through the canopy, she understood instantly the frustration of the pilot. They were already in open space several hundred kilometers away from the stern of the immense Undine vessel and pushed away fast by some barely discernible green beam. And their sensors could no longer detect the hangar access in the battered hull. The dreadnought was moving at full impulse towards were could be seen the almost just as huge form of the flagship of Lotus Fleet.

Around the Delta Flyer, bolts of greenish lights sheared the blackness of space, blinding them like lightning, some streaking towards the Horizon, others converging on the vessel of Boothby. It was already blistered and blackened in numerous spots all along it's green and yellow body and some glowing fumes and liquids were coming out in places. From every direction, long, sleek, pointed ships zoomed in and out like angry hornets, spitting their glowing green energy beams at their massive target with every pass.

"Shields up at full. Sensors detect fifteen intruders, Nicor cruiser class, six of them attacking the Horizon. The ship is under heavy fire, taking damage... The rest of the intruders are all concentrating fire on the dreadnought moving at full impulse towards the border," reported S'Kon back in the tactical seat.

As those words were heard, Snowfire felt something trying to tug at her mind. It was like someone trying to shout something but too far away to be heard. It felt like an order... or a plea... or even more deeper than that, like the instinctual urge to flee.

"What the Hell is this?"

Somers voice drew back the Yllithirii's attention with that of everyone else back to the dreadnought. The squid-like battleship had moved suddenly between the squadron firing on the Horizon and their target, drawing their fire away from the pounded Starfleet vessel and instantly dragging them along in pursuit. And then, as all Nicor ships took the chase, Boothby's ship veered off towards the luminescent border of Fluidic Space. All around the massive hull, debris spread out from the intensity of firepower that shook it's titanic frame. Yellowish particles started spewing out like sweat from pores all accross it's pockmarked and burnt surface

"Correction; eight of them are now regrouping a hundred kilometers astern at five hundred meters from the lead one, position 180 mark 15, taking a radial formation..."

"That's their planet-killer firing pattern!" immediately shouted Somers, remembering what she had studied of the Undine ecounter records from Voyager. "They're going to destroy Boothby's ship like a twig in a bonfire!"

"The What?" The Romulan interjected.

They all watched as a yellow cloud suddenly spread around the fleeing battleship like glowing blood offered to the scent of the pursuing cruisers. Their beams were already converging on the central vessel in their formation who was pulsing like an overheated phaser cannon.

Then S'Kon's voice broke the cold silence gripping them all.

"They are opening fire."

A monstrous beam of energy suddenly tore open the very heavens near them, so near their instruments short-circuited and sparks flew from some of them before the emergency circuits kicked in. The whole shuttle shook like a leaf in the wind and they were all blinded by the colossal flare tearing space towards Boothby's bioship. But by then, the particles excreted from the dreadnought's hull had quickly formed a yellowish cloud around it that spread out rapidly to form like a miniature nebula. In seconds, the shape of the gargantuan bioship was all but indiscernible within that cloud of particles. And that's when the horrific monstrous planet-shattering energy beam struck.

Again, they were all blinded. It was like a huge explosion of light, as if the Big bang was happening all over again. In the eerie silence of space, it felt like suddenly opening eyes waking up from a nightmare in the bright light of dawn. Then, slowly, the brightness dimmed until, for a moment, there was only blackness with an afterimage of the explosion imprinted for seconds before one's eyes.

When they all blinked their vision back, they stared in open-mouthed silence at what was left after the conflagration. Everywhere around them, in the coldness of space between them and the greenish glow of the border to the other universe, numerous clouds of fiery debris challenged the number of stars before their eyes. 

Looking around with senses and sensors, they saw the Horizon very close by, battered but whole, having obviously extended her shields to cover the Dusk. A signal on their comm board hinted that their ship was seeing them too.

But of the fifteen bioships that had come to spit out destruction, nothing was left but small clouds of debris slowly expanding with halos of yellowish particles still clinging around them. 

And of the immense bioship where last they had seen their captain, there was nothing left but a cloud of slowly fading yellow flakes and a few pieces of blackened debris still drifting slowly towards the first greenish wisps of Fluidic Space.

On the bridge of the Horizon, both Tyvya and Lyrya suddenly collapsed like puppets whose strings had been cut. The Emergency medical Hologram instantly appeared on the bridge to see to them and, after a brief scan, reported their condition with deep frown on it's holographic face.

"They're in a coma. There is no concussion or brain damage that I can detect. It's like their mind suddenly just decided to... shut down. But, if I am to give a preliminary diagnostic, I can see only one possible cause; Andorian matrimonial loss trauma. "

"I will have them both immediately transported to sickbay for further examination and monitoring. I will not mince words here;  when a spouse dies in an Andorian union, the deep telepathic bond between them is severed and the resulting trauma can cause such a state of shock... even the death of the rest of them ..."

His face was still gloomy when the transporter beam whisked the three of them off the bridge.

On the Flyer, the Romulan looked over at all of the depressed faces of his fellow crewmen. Bluntly, he stated:

"What are we waiting for? Bring us in to dock with the Horizon. I have a ship to fix."

He turned his head slightly to the left, as he saw his console lighting up. "And a shuttle it appears. Our life support is failing...Your Starfleet systems do not seem to like Romulan engineering ingenuity."

Oseno looked over at the Romulan as his mind raced trying to come up with ways to get them out of this situation. As much as he didn't want to believe it they had to presume that Captain Kheren, one of the most decorated officers in Lotus Fleet, was dead or at the very least a prisoner of the Undine. The diplomatic mission they had thought they were on turned out to be a defection, and an ambush all at the same time. Somewhere in his mind it also dawned on Oseno that he was now the senior officer aboard the shuttle. 

"Mister Solius, how much time do we have? Do we need to beam back to the ship?" 

The engineer's back was turned to his console, but his response lacked urgency. "Oh, probably in the five to ten minute range. Should be more than enough to get us back onto the ship without passing out. Death is not likely, Captain."

The Romulan too knew the chain of command, and adjusted likewise.

Oseno nodded, and glanced briefly at the chorus of defeated yet somehow resolute faces around him. If the captain was alive, they would find him, this was the third time Oseno had had something happen to a commanding officer in his presence and frankly he was tired of it. 

"Mister Moore, get us back to Horizon."