Sol frowned, sitting quietly in the darkened interior of the ship. They were currently sitting, obscured within a plasma drift. The Orions hadn’t been too happy with their escape, and their ships were currently searching for them. The Yamato was also looking for them and at this point it was a race to see which group would find them first.

That wasn’t the only thing on her mind though. The rifle they had been tasked with recovering sat in their cargo area. She still wanted to know why Starfleet had tried, and succeeded, in developing such a weapon. Having seen its power she now had serious reservations about their mission.

Her attention was drawn from her thoughts by a console beeping. She looked over to where T’liss sat, the Vulcan staring out of the forward view port.

“What is it?” Sol asked.

“Their ships are moving closer. I am unable to determine why.” T’liss reported. Sol frowned. The ship they were on wasn’t heavily armed, and against one of the Orion patrol vessels, it stood almost no chance in a sustained fight. She leaned over and checked the sensor readouts. They were hazy, but did show a few contacts closing toward their position, but not with any haste.

“Do we think they’ve found us?” Kael asked from his seat. Sol looked to T’liss who studied the screen.

“I do not believe so… there are no indications of weapons being powered or any increases in speed.” she reported. Sol nodded, sitting back. Maybe they would get out of this unscathed yet. The ship rumbled some as the patrol ships passed by the plasma drift they were hiding in, almost close enough that Sol thought she could see one of them outside the drift. She held her breath hoping the ship continued on its way. It did so, and she sat back. They couldn’t leave yet, there were still too many ships out there between them and the Yamato so they just had to sit tight and wait.

Amaya glanced back to Rukia from the center chair. They had been searching for the captain’s ship for at least half an hour. She hadn’t expected that it would take this long, having actually expected them to seek the Yamato out, rather than get themselves lost in the Badlands.

“Anything yet?” she asked. Rukia looked up and shook her head.

“Nothing but Orion patrols, and they’re staying well clear of us. They must’ve heard what happened at the station.” she said, tapping a few controls. Amaya sighed, looking back at the view screen, which just displayed the vast endless plasma fields of the Badlands stretching out before them.

“Fine… helm take us to the next search grid.” she ordered, slumping down in the chair. A fine first officer she was.. Their first mission and she had already lost her Captain. Not to mention their Chief Engineer and Chief Medical Officer. She felt the ship bank and move off deeper into their search pattern. She only hoped that they would find the captain’s ship intact with all of its occupants.

An hour had passed by the time the area had cleared enough to even consider making a run for it. T’liss looked down at her sensor screen, making note of the locations and directions of the last remaining patrols.

“Captain… I believe they have given up their search for us.” she said. “Shall I begin looking for the Yamato?” she asked. Sol sat up, having been lost in her own thoughts.

“What?” she asked.

“The Orions are moving away from the area… we can start looking for the Yamato.” Kael said, stopping T’liss from having to repeat herself.

“Oh…” she said. She looked back into the cargo area, then back to the two of them. “No. Not yet…” she said.

“Captain?” Kael asked. T’liss simply remained quiet. She had seen Solaris like this before, always when there was something troubling her.

“What bothers you, Solaris?” she asked. Kale looked at T’liss as if she had lost her mind but Solaris just laughed.

“I never could hide much from you, T’liss…” she commented, sighing. She pointed into the cargo area. “It’s that rifle.” she said. She stood and moved into the cargo area to retrieve the weapon.

“I don’t much like it either, Captain… but what can we do about it?” Kael asked, as she returned cradling the weapon gingerly. “We were ordered to get it back and we did…” he added.

Sol nodded and turned the weapon over gently, being careful to not disrupt the connection of the anti-matter injector or the canister that contained the anti-matter itself.

“We’re the only ones who know that…” Solaris pointed out, looking between T’liss and Kael. T’liss just raised an eyebrow and Kael seemed confused.

“Are you suggesting we violate our orders, Captain?” he asked.

“Right now? I’m just talking…” Solaris said, studying the rifle carefully.

“We can’t do that Captain…” Kael said.

“Doctor… you can’t honestly tell me that you believe Starfleet should have a weapon like this… even if they just confine themselves to locking this prototype away… people know it’s out there now… and they know how powerful it can be.” she said. “And I don’t believe they’ll just keep this prototype locked away. The next Dominion or Borg or whatever will show up and someone somewhere will remember this thing exists… and they’ll make more.” she continued. “By that point it will be too late to go back. Too late to put the genie back in the bottle.” she continued.

“But… it’s not our call. You don’t have those fancy Admiral’s pips yet…” he said.

“No I don’t… but I wouldn’t be the first Captain to make a stand on principle.” she countered. “Starfleet is, or was, full of idealists. We can shut Pandora’s box right here and now.” she said. Kael just shook his head. Sol looked over to T’liss.

“You’ve nothing to say on this?” she asked. T’liss remained quiet for a few more moments before turning back to the console.

“You have already made up your mind… to try and change it now would be… unwise.” she stated. “But I will not see you place the weapon on overload, nor will I see you jettison it into space.” she added “If that is what you choose to do.” she finished. Sol laughed and turned back into the cargo area. She understood the Doctor’s argument and maybe years ago she might have even bought into it. Maybe even before Frontier Day she would have. But the current version of Starfleet only looked superficially like the one she had joined. Somewhere along the way, whether it was after the Dominion War, the Hobus supernova or somewhere in between, they had grown more insular and scared. The weapon in her hands with just further proof of that. She set it on the crate where she had picked it up from and tapped a few controls on it. She would set it to overload. The PADD containing its schematics was set next to it. She finished keying in the sequence and hurried for the hatch to the cargo section. She could hear the high pitched whine of the rifle as it built up to an overload. She sealed the hatch and bright up the command to vent the cargo bay. She paused for the briefest of moments to really consider what she was doing and then punched in the final command. The rear hatch exploded outward and she watched what was left in the cargo bay get sucked out into space.

“T’liss… we should go… now…” she said, turning back to the rest of them. T’liss was already engaging the engines. Moving the ship away from the rifle’s last known location. There was a dull thud and then the ship shook. Sol stumbled forward grabbing onto the backs of one of the chairs. That had been quicker than she expected and far less of an explosion as well. Then the ship shook again and there was a much louder thud as the anti-matter containment for the rifle failed. The ship pitched forward and threw Sol off her feet to the deck. Consoles sparked and the last thing she heard was Kale calling for her.

Sol awoke with a start in the darkened cockpit of the small craft they currently occupied. She was no longer on the floor, but sat upright in a chair. She groaned.

“Welcome back, Captain.” Kael said.

“How long was I out?” she asked.

“Ten minutes, give or take.” he reported. “You took a nasty fall when the shockwave hit us… might have a concussion. Right to medical with you when we get back.” he said. Sol wasn’t in the mood to argue, and simply nodded, though regretted it almost instantly.

“What’s our status?” she asked quietly. T’liss looked over from her position.

“Main power is out… engines are offline. We are adrift right now…” she said. Sol sighed.

“No sign of the Yamato?” she asked.

“Not as of yet… I am uncertain if they would even be able to detect a distress call within the badlands.” T’liss said.

“Right… well.. All things considered… it could be worse.” she said.

“How, Captain?” Kael asked.

“We could already be dead.” she replied. Kale laughed and then nodded.

“True. Though I dont fancy suffocating to death that much…” he said. Sol was about to reply when she felt something roll against her foot. She glanced down slowly, spotting the bottle of aldebaran whiskey she had first seen when inspecting the ship. She leant forward and snatched it off the decking, turning it over a few times. She popped the top off and took a swig, sitting back.

“At least we can make it a little more pleasant then…” she said, offering up the bottle.

“Commander, there’s been a large anti-matter explosion several hundred kilometers off our port beam.” Rukia reported, unsure what had caused it.

“A ship?” she asked.

“Possibly. Its smaller than I would expect for a vessel.” she said.

“Helm change course, take us there.” Amaya said, sitting up. She didn’t like what that could mean.

Kael passed the bottle back to T’liss. Sitting back. The Captain was right, there were worse ways to go. The ship had been drifting for only about half an hour, which wasn’t long enough for anything drastic to have occurred but without rescue that didn’t really matter in the end. He sighed looking out the view ports, then sat up straight. There was another ship approaching, and it didn’t look Orion.

“Captain…” he said, pointing. Solaris glanced over, sitting up as well. She grinned. She recognized that ship. It had been seared into her memory ever since she had seen it just a few weeks ago. It was her ship.

“T’liss… let them know we’re here…” she said. T’liss tapped a few controls and it wasn’t long before the comm system chirped.

“Captain!? Are you all alright?” her XO asked, sounding every slightly panicked, even through the hazy comm system.

“Yea yea… we’re ok. Just some bumps… nothing serious…” she replied.

“What happened?” Amaya asked.

“The weapon overloaded…” she replied. A technical truth. “I’ll tell you more when we’re back the ship. Beam us aboard…” she ordered.

“Yes, ma’am.” Amaya replied. The comm channel closed, and Sol could feel the tingling she always associated with transporter travel. Things hadn’t gone as planned but she wasn’t upset. What came next wouldn’t be easy, but it was for the best. Intel wouldn’t be happy about the rifle, but they didn’t need to know how it had happened and her report wouldn’t tell them. She wouldn’t stop the others from making their own reports and doing what they believed was right, but she knew what she thought was right and she would stick to her own story. She could only hope the others would back her.

“You heard the Captain.” Amaya said.

“Energizing.” Rukia replied, beaming the three of them off the disabled vessel.

“Helm… take us out of the badlands… set a course for DS17 when able…” Amaya ordered.

The ship banked away from the stricken vessel, leaving it drifting through the plasma fields and set its sights on returning to the inky blackness of space so they could return back to Deep Space 17 and report in. As it crossed out of the Badlands it didn’t spare a thought to The Jade Exchange or the Orions. It paused briefly as the course to DS17 was laid in, then jumped forward, disappearing in a bright flash for its lengthy trip back.