Chapter 3

Seifer, Cody and James stood on the bridge. All main systems had come back online a few minutes ago. James looked at lion cub standing in front of him, and at the young humanoid skunk standing beside him.

“This is going to take time to explain”, he said.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll do fine”, Cody said as he hugged James’ right leg.

“Seifer, are you still in there?” James asked. The lion cub nodded to say ‘yes’. Tapping his combadge, James contacted the captain.

“Bridge to captain Strife, are you okay?”

“In a manner of speaking”, Leon answered. Looking at the lion cub, James pondered how he was going to explain to the captain that his son was now an animal.

“Captain, this is difficult to explain, but strange things have happened to us while main power was out”, he said.

“I know, when they attacked, the boarding parties were able to release the virus into the ships systems, but we have been able to release a cure, we should know soon whether or not if it’s going to work”, Leon responded.

“Captain, I’m not sure how to tell you this, but Seifer has been completely turned into a lion cub.” James said.

“Where is he?” Leon asked.

“He’s with me, along with Mr. Stevens and Rachel” James responded.

Leon, along with Pa’chang and Samuel Xavier walked onto the bridge.

“Where is my son?” Leon asked. Seifer ran up to him, rubbing up against him.

“That’s him”, James responded.

“He shouldn’t be this way for long, the cure should restore him, although I’m not sure how much” Pa’chang said.

“Captain?” James’s asked, as Cody hid behind him.

“This is Mr. Pa’chang. He helped us to restore power and to stop the virus and get the cure into the air system.” Leon said.

“I’ve felt that what my people are doing is wrong. I want to help to stop them.” Pa’chang said.

“Okay”, James’s said, still a bit skeptical.

“I can show you how to detect our ship. It’s maximum speed is limited by it’s mass, so you should be able to catch up to it easily with your transwarp drive” Pa’chang said.

“How is it that you know so much about our ship?” Samuel asked.

“We had an inside man, as you might call it. He served onboard one of your ships, The USS Midway.” Pa’chang responded.

“The Midway? She was lost 2 years ago, there was no trace of her found” James’s responded.

“She was lured into a trap, the virus released into her, she was sent into a wormhole, and deposited at a star system 2.5 million light years from here” Pa’chang responded.

“But why?” Leon asked.

“We had to test the virus, to see if it could work on a ship, we had to get them away from your space, so the truth about what we were doing would not be known” Pa’chang responded.

“We’ll have to talk about this later. Yours aid you had a way to detect your ship.” Leon said.

“Yes, her hull is composed of a rare element, I can give you the exact structure of it. With this info, you should have no problem detecting her” Pa’chang said.

“Alight.” Leon said.

“Mr. Xavier, input the information into the sensors and scan for the ship once they’re ready” Leon said.

“We seem to bit a bit short handed” James’s said.

“Where is Ensign Gates?” James asked.

“In transporter room 1, that virus completely turned him into a sea lion. I just hope the cure can change him and my soon back” Leon responded.

“And Mr. Jank?” James asked.

“It completely turned him into a Cougar.” Leon responded.

“I can take the helm in the meantime” James said.

“Mrs. Peters can take operation in the meantime” Leon responded.

“I’ll contact her,” James said.

“Bridge to Lt. Peters.” James said.

“Go ahead.” She responded.

“Were a bit shorthanded, we could use some help at operations, are you able to operated the station?” James’s asked.

“Yes sir, ill be right there” she responded.

“Captain, sensors have be reconfigured to detect the enemy mother ship. We have them on sensors” Samuel reported.

“Where are they?” Leon asked.

“They are approaching the other colony, the Iwo Jima and Lexington are moving to intercept.” Samuel reported.

“We have to get here and fast. Bridge to Engineering, what is the status of the transwarp drive?” Leon asked.

“It suffered minor damage in the attack, but I can give you transwarp if needed.” Catherine responded.

“It’s needed, and as soon as possible” Leon responded.

“Very well, I’ll ready it” Catherine said.

“Take the helm James”, Leon said.

“Yes sir”, James said. As he walked down towards the console, Cody followed him.

“Mr. Stephens?” James’s asked.

“I want to stay beside you,” he said, looking at James with the classic puppy dog eye look. James’s picked him up and held him.

“Alright” he responded. The doors to the turbolifts door opened and Christine Peters walked in.

“Reporting for duty sir”, she said.

“Wow”, James said to himself, admiring just how beautiful she looked. Christine, seeing his reaction, giggled slightly.

“Is that you Commander? You look so”, delaying for a few seconds she finished

“Cute”.

“Thanks, err I think“, he responded.

“We’ll have time for this later”, Leon said.

“Yes sir”, James and Christine said as they took their posts.

“Engineering to bridge, you have transwarp power at your discretion”, Catherine said.

“Excellent work. Mr. Conrad, prepare to engage the transwarp drive, lay in a course directly for the mother ship”, Leon ordered.

“Yes sir” James responded. The ship’s speed increased, getting faster and faster until it reached transwarp velocity.

“Our ETA is 4 minutes”, James reported. Seifer seemed to look a bit different. Suddenly he stood up on 2 feet. He still looked like a lion cub, but his body seemed to be taking on a more humanoid shape. Opening his mouth, he found that he was able to speak; although his voice did sound higher pitched then normal.

“Looks like the cures working”, he said. James looked at Rachel, who was not changing at all. She walked up to him, pawing at his legs.

“How come she’s not changing back, or for that matter any of us?” he asked.

“I honestly don’t know” Pa’chang answered.

“I’m not changing back either”, Cody said.

“Maybe it only works on full animals, but that doesn’t explain why it’s not working on Rachel” James said.

“It’s been several hours since she was changed, perhaps it only works within a certain time frame” Pa’chang suggested.

“Makes sense”, Cody said. Seifer was changing at a very quick rate and was starting to look very much like a humanoid lion cub. It didn’t take him long to realize that he had left his clothes behind when changing. Trying to cover himself as best as he could, he blushed.

“Here, you can wear my shirt, it should cover most of your body”, James said, as he handed Seifer his shirt.

“Thanks!” Seifer said, as he ran up to James and hugged him.

“It seems my chest fur is thick enough to keep he warm anyway”, James said.

“Captain, we are approaching the mother ship. Sensors are picking up weapons fire ahead.” Samuel said.

“Mr. Conrad, prepare to go to full impulse.” Leon ordered. James pushed several buttons on the console, while Cody watched.

“Answering full impulse sir” he said.

“On screen!” Leon ordered.

On the view screen, the massive mother ship was fighting the Iwo Jima and The Lexington.

“Red alert! Sam, are the new experimental phasers available?” Leon asked.

“Yes sir, but they haven’t been tested, we have no idea if they’ll work or not” Samuel responded.

“No time like the present, prepare to lock all weapons on that ship. Mr. Conrad, get us as close to them as possible then take evasive action” Leon said.

“Yes sir” James said. The ship rocked as weapons fire hit it.

“Shields holding!” Samuel said.

“372,000 kilometers!” James reported as the ship as rocked again, causing sparks to fly from an unoccupied console.

“On my command!” Leon said as the ship was rocked several times.

“10,000 kilometers!” James responded.

“Fire!” Leon ordered. All of the forward weapons on the Ambrosia fire at once, torpedoes screamed from its tubes, phaser arrays lit up and fired the beams fried. The 2 type 14 phaser arrays fired, shooting their blue beams towards the mother ship. The impact of all the weapons causing small explosions to erupt on the surface of the ship. The Ambrosia flew over the ship, and came about.

“Sir, the Lexington has sustained heavy damage, I don’t think they can hold out much longer, and I’m picking up what appears to be the mother ships transporters array powering up” Christine reported.

“Captain, I believe if we target the transporter array we can damage it enough to take it offline, if you target all of your weapons at it, it should be enough” Pa’chang said.

“What are its coordinates?” Leon asked as the ship was rocked and several more sparks few across the bridge, along with a small conduit bursting, filling the bridge with a layer of smoke near the bottom.

“I can type them into your tactical system” Pa’chang responded. Leon nodded and Pa’chang ran towards the station, typing the commands in.

“That should do it” Pa’chang said.

“Target those co-ordinates are fire!” Leon ordered. The Ambrosia again fired all of its weapons, striking the mother ships, transporter array.

“Their transporters are offline!” Samuel reported.

“Captain they appear to be retreating” Christine reported. The massive mother ship turned and sped away from the battle and went into warp.

“Damage report” Leon asked.

“Shields down to 23%, we have moderate damage on decks 5-12, warp drive is offline. The Iwo Jimas warp drive is also offline as is the Lexington’s.” Samuel reported.

“Enough so they could get away, and leave us in the dust” Leon said.

“Captain, their destination appears to be the colony on Brema 4. Their eta is 4 days, however they’re only going at warp 8” Samuel reported.

“That colony has nearly 25 million inhabitants, we have to stop them.” Leon said.

“If we can get our warp drives online within a day we can still get there before them” James said.

“Then I suggest we go to work.” Leon said.

“Captain, the Iwo Jima is reporting that they can get their warp drive back online within a day, but the Lexington’s warp drive has sustain serious damage, it could take days or even weeks to repair. Especially within their chief engineer, he was one of the ones affected by the virus when they were boarded.” Samuel reported.

“The we need other options. Bridge to engineering, status” Leon said.

“We can get the warp engines back online in a few hours.” Catherine answered.

“Is there anything you can do for the Lexington? Is Ms Bates able to repair the our warp drive?” Leon asked.

“Yes sir, I’m not sure what I can do for the Lexington, if I can beam over there, I can examine the damage and try to figure out a solution”, Catherine said.

“Very well” Leon said.

“Captain, we are being hailed by the Lexington” Samuel reported.

The image of Commander Mitchell appeared on the screen.

“Captain? What happened?” She asked.

“The same virus that was released on your ship was released on our unfortunately.” Leon answered. Alice continued,

“I’m sure you’ve detected the damage to our ship, if you could spare space in your medical bay. Or space on your ship. Our life support was badly damaged and it cannot support our crew anymore, our warp drive was nearly destroyed, our phasers have been damaged beyond repair and our shields generators also damage beyond repair.” She reported.

“We’ll give all the help you need, My Chief engineer is going to beam over to see if there’s anything she can do” Leon said.

“Than you Captain”, Alice, said.

“We have 24 hours before we have to get underway, in that time we need to get the crew up and functioning, we’ll have to find a way to deal with these mutations. Seifer, I want you to report to sickbay, I want to make sure your going to be okay,” Leon said.

“Yes dad” he responded.

“The rest of you, we need to search deck by deck for crewman that were completely transformed, to make sure the cure to this virus is working for them. Dismissed Leon said.

***

Sickbay was filling up with wounded from the Lexington. Alice stood near the back talking to Captain Torme, who the cure had been able to change from a ‘normal’ skunk to a humanoid one. Gabriel Saotome scanned him, to make sure his DNA was stable.

“It looks like this is as much as the cures going to do, but it’s better then being a complete animal”, he said.

“Agreed, I’ll just have to learn to live with the fur and tail. How’s the ship?” Jerry asked.

“She in bad shape Captain. They have the head engineer of this ship over there, trying to figure our a way to get the warp drive online.” Alice answered.

“Then we should go over there and help!” Jerry said.

“Wait a minuet, you need to rest, both of you. We have quarters here that you can use.” Gabriel Saotome said. The two officers sighed, but decided that rest was probably a good idea.

Kyle Gates sat on a bio bed beside Seifer. Kyle has since been restored to humanoid shape, his head still looked like a sea lions, but at least his legs were back. His hands still had a light webbing, but at least he could use them as hands. T’kal scanned Seifer.

“Your DNA appears to be stable, it appears that the cure has worked.” She reported.

“I wonder why we all become lions?” Seifer asked.

“The odds of such a combination seem unlikely. I honestly don’t know how it was possible” T’kal responded.

Patrick Lowell and Brandon Jank had both returned to humanoid shape, as like the others, they looked like humanoid animals. Patrick scanned himself and Bandon.

“Were going to be fine. The fur and tail may take getting used to, but we don’t have to worry about being complete anymore”, Patrick said.

“That’s good” Brandon said, as he admired his tail.

“This form is rather fascinating, I think I could get to enjoy it in time” he added. Patrick petted his own tail, and agreed.

“We could have ended up as far worse, the fur could prove useful, who knows.” He said, giggling.

***

Having completed his work, John closed up to hatch.

“That should just about do it. Now all we have to do is replace the burnt of circuits at junction 12-beta and we can bring the warp core back online” he said. Janice Bates hopped over to his location, with a small container in hand. While she had been restored to a more or less humanoid shape, she found that her legs were still very strong and she could walk or hop. She still had a pouch, and was using it to hold some of her tools.

“Excellent work John. 12-beta shouldn’t take more then 30 minutes to replace, common,” she said. As they walked towards the area, Catherine walked through the doors to engineering.

“Commander, how bad is it over there?” Janice asked.

“The ship is in shambles. I do have a way to restore their warp drive, but to do so we are going to have to take the transwarp drive offline. There are several part from it that I can use to get their warp drive online.” Catherine said.

“What do you need?” Janice asked. Catherine handed her a padd with the list of parts, showing her how she was going to use them to get the ships warp drive online.

“This should but there’s one problem. This set up will flood much of the ship with radiation, only top 4 decks will be safe,” she said.

“I know, their going to evacuate the ship, and have just a skeleton crew of me, their captain and first officer, tactical officer and helmsman board”, Catherine responded.

“But we need you here”, Janice said. Catherine put a paw on Janie’s shoulder, as if to comfort her.

“I know you can manage,” she said.

“Yes sir, thank you sir. Common lets get those parts,” Janice said.

***

In the Ambrosia’s briefing room, the Captain, First Officer and Tactical officer of each of the 3 ships were meeting. Pa’chang also chose to attend the meeting. Captain Strife stood in front of the display at the front of the room, which showed the mother ships course.

“My chief engineer tells me that she will have the Lexington’s warp engines operation in 8 hours, this still gives us enough time to catch up to the ship in time”, Leon commented.

“But even if we can catch up to it, how are we supposed to stop it? Our shields had little effect on its weapons” Captain Torme expressed with concern.

“We need to use the abative armor generators”, Leon said.

“But captain, that will mean we cannot use our phasers and it will leave our torpedo tubes vulnerable when firing” Samuel said.

“The mother ship’s maneuverability is extremely poor, but its weapons are very powerful. With your hull armor you should be able to sustain a significant number of hits from them.” Pa’chang said.

“I just you’re right, there are 25 million people on that colony, we can’t afford to lose”, Captain Park said.

“I can provide you with weaknesses of the ship, so you can disable it easier” Pa’chang said. Everyone looked at him.

“Were listening” Leon said. Pa’chang got up and walked over to the display, typing several commands into it. A display of the ship appeared with the weak points highlighted. Pointing nears the back of the ship, he continued.

“This is where the reactor core of the ship is located. If you can damage that section enough, you can disable the ship. Its weapons array is located near the front of the ship”, he said as he changed the display to display the weapons array.

“Disabling that will throw their weapons control into chaos, they will be forced to go to manual backup, and it will be much harder for them to hit you. I suggest you make both targets a priority” he said.

“I will send this information to the bases defenses, just in case we are unable to get there in time”, Leon said.

***

Seifer sat in his quarters, with his new size; it was difficult for him to reach things. He pondered for a few minutes, just how he was going to function like this.

“This is no good”, he said, as he knocked several things over when trying to get something off of a shelf. As he picked the mess on the floor up, the bell to his quarters chimed. Picking himself up, he walked to over to the door. When he opened it, he saw Leon standing there.

“Just wanted to stop over to see how you were doing”, Leon said.

“Not so great, it’s nearly impossible for me to reach stuff now”, Seifer said, the annoyance in his voice clear.

“You could stay with us” Leon suggested.

“Are you sure? Would that be a weird, I mean I am 26 years old,” Seifer said.

“Well yes, technically I guess, but physically, I’d say your no older then 8 or 9 now” Leon said.

“I guess so” Seifer responded.

“Don’t worry it will be fine. I promise I won’t ‘cramp your style’“ Leon said.

“I guess we could try it for a while” Seifer said.

“Good, common, lets get some rest, we could all use it” Leon said.

***

James lay in his bath relaxing, it had been a long day and he needed something to help himself to relax. With all his fur, the water felt a bit strange, but oddly comfortable. He was somewhat startled by the sound of chime to his quarters.

“I wonder who that could be?” he said to himself as he stepped out and quickly put on a towel and a bathrobe so he’d be ‘decent’. He walked to the door and opened it. Standing in from of the door was Christine Peters.

“What can I do for you Ms Peters?” he asked.

“I know this may sound a bit strange, but I was lonely in my quarters, I feel like I need someone to stay with.” She said.

“It not that strange, it seems your new species is rubbing off on you. Otters are very social animals, they need companionship.” James responded.

“And were also closely related to ferrets, same family” she said.

“We do seem to be a good fit for each other.” James said, blushing slightly and motioning for her to come in. Looking James over, Christine blushed herself.

“Looks like I interrupted something.” She said, slightly embarrassed.

“It’s okay, I was just taking a bath to try to relax a bit”, he said. Christine’s face lit up and she smiled very happily.

“Otters love water!” she said, perhaps a little to cheerfully. James was starting to realizing what she was thinking, and wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“Well, this bath is a little spacious, but I’m not sure if it would be appropriate for us to.” He said. Christine calmed down a bit.

“Sorry, I got a little carried away, I just really feel the need for companionship now. I guess my judgment is a bit messed up right now,” she said. James walked over to her and put a comforting paw on her shoulder.

“It’s okay, if you want um take a bath with me then it’s okay” he said, blushing. He had to admit she looked really beautiful like this and it was hard to resist the idea.

“Okay!” she said, with a huge smile on her face. She quickly walked into the room and disrobed, look at him and smiling. Amazed by her appearance and how gorgeous she was, he took his bathrobe and towel of and joined her.

***

The alien mother ship speed towards the colony at its maximum velocity. The doors to its massive bridge opened, it’s engineering walking through the doorway. He walked over to the ships commander, smiling happily.

“I have good news to report sir, we have the transporters back online,” he said.

“Excellent”, the commander replied. Suddenly, the ship was gently rocked and the combat alert klaxons sounded.

“What’s going on?” the commander asked. The ship was rocked again.

“3 ships bearing 204 mark 128 have opened fired on us,” the tactical officer reported.

“What kinds of ships?” the commander asked.

“They appear be fighters” the tactical officer replied.

“Disable them and transport their occupants into detention chamber 6. I’m sure you know that do to with them”, the commander replied.

“Yes sir, I’ll have several vials of the virus prepped for injection immediately”, the tactical officer replied. The fighters continued to attack the ship, to which the ship replied by returning fire, quickly disabling all 3 of them.

“All 6 of them are in the detention chamber sir”, the tactical officer reported.

“Excellent, once were done with colony, we can transport them down there”, the commander said.

***

“Captains log, Stardate 58644.3, it has been 48 hours since we have been able to go to warp. We are pursuing the alien mother ship towards Brema 4 and are 24 hours away. My Chief engineer remained onboard on the Lexington along with its Captain, first officer and Tactical officer. The events of the past 2 days have been strange to say the least, adjustment had been difficult for much of the crew, but we have a more important task at hand and I know we can do it.”

Cody twisted and turned in his bed, suddenly jolting to a sitting position, he breathed heavily, looking around the area.

“Phew, it was just a dream”, he whispered to himself. Ever since his transformation, he had been having trouble sleeping. He felt vulnerable, and wanted to be with someone else for some security. Like Seifer, he had been regressed and was only around 8 years old physically. Grabbing a blanket, he exited his quarters.

James was woken up by the sound of the chime on his door. Slowly he got up, leaving Christine sleeping on the bed quietly. Putting on a bathrobe, he walked over to the door. Touching the button to open it, the doors opened and he saw Cody standing there, looking upset.

“Mr. Stephens, what’s wrong?” he asked.

“I know this may sound strange, but I was lonely and I had a bad dream, can I stay with you?” Cody said.

“Nothing strange about it, what you’ve been though isn’t exactly something people go through every day. I’m sure I can make some room for you”, James said. Cody walked into his quarters and look around, looking towards the bed and seeing Christine, who had since woken up and was walking over to them.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I was lonely and I had a bead dream, I just could sleep properly alone. I was going to ask if I could stay with James but I don’t want to get in you guy’s way.” Cody said. Christine walked up to him and picked up gently.

“Get in our way? Not at all, we’d be happy to let you stay with us”, she said very cheerfully.

“Thank you” Cody said happily. The 3 of them got back in bed with Cody laying down curled up in a little ball between them.

Leon lay quietly in bed sleeping with Seifer sleeping beside him. Seifer has decided to stay with them, at least for now. T’kal was in the other room, trying to mediate. She was finding it difficult, her new form had given her instincts that made controlling her emotions much more difficult. She also found that her new form craved meat, something with she had never eaten before, being a vegetarian. She had hopped that by mediating; she could control her urges for meat. She was alerted by the sound of someone walking towards her.

“Seifer, I thought you were sleeping?” she said.

“I was, but I can’t seem to sleep”, he responded.

“I see.” she responded.

“What’s wrong?” Seifer asked.

“I am finding it difficult to adjust to this new form, I find I have a craving for meat, something which I have never consumed before.” She responded.

“I have a possible solution, there is something in the replicator’s from Earth’s database. They have artificial meat, which tastes like real meat and gives you all the nutritional value of it. But it’s made from plants” he said.

“Sounds interesting, perhaps I should try it”, she said.

Patrick Lowell walked over to his replicator. He was hungry and craved meat. When the computer asked what he wanted, he asked for several different kinds of meat, steak, chicken, fish were all included in his order. He found himself quickly gobbling it all down. Only after he was finished, did he realize just what he had done.

“Looks like I’m going to have to find a way to control that”, he said to himself.

***

The Alien Mother ship approached the Brema star system.

“We are now approaching the Brema system sir”, the helmsman reported.

“Once were in range of the 4th planet, drop to sunlight speeds. Ready assault mode”, the commander said.

“Sir! I’m picking up what appear to be orbital defenses and a space station in orbit of the planet. All of the weapons systems have been powered up”, the tactical officer reported.

“Prepare an extra load of the virus, prepare to unleash it on the station, prepare to target multiple targets” the commander ordered. The massive ship sped towards the planet.

“Sir, we will be in weapons range of the station and defenses in 30 seconds.” tactical reported.

“How are our guests in detention doing?” the commander asked.

“We are prepared to transport them to the surface once we’ve cleared the planets defenses, let them have a taste of their fate” the commander said.

“Sir we have entered weapons range”, the tactical officer reported. The ship rocked as the defenses weapons began to attack it.

“Fire!” the commander ordered.

***

The bridge of the Ambrosia was dark. The red alert lights pulsating.

“Sir, we have entering the Brema systems, sensors are picking up weapons fire in orbit of the planet,” Brandon Jank reported.

“Take us out of warp, deploy armor and ready weapons”, Leon said.

“Yes sir!” Brandon Jank acknowledged.

“Captain, the mother ship is assaulting the colonies defenses.” Samuel Xavier reported.

“All security teams are in place sir, if we get boarded this time, we will be ready” Christine reported, as she stood near the back of the bridge with a phaser rifle in hand, with 2 other security officers flanking her.

“We will be in weapons range in 10 seconds!” James, who was operating the operations center in place of Seifer reported.

“Ambrosia to Lexington and Iwo Jima, prepare to engage the mother ship”, Leon said.

“We are in weapons range!” James reported. The ship started to shake from weapons fire from the mother ship.

“Ablative armor is holding sir!” Brandon reported.

“Ready… Fire at will!” Leon said.

Torpedoes flew from all 3 ships tubes, striking against the mother ships shields, lighting them like a Christmas tree. The mother ship started to come about, and fired its main batteries at the Ambrosia. The ship shook violently.

“Hull armor down to 90 percent!” Brandon reported.

“Take evasive maneuvers, continual fire on all torpedoes! Target their weapons array!” Leon ordered as the ship was again rocked, this time sparks flying from an unoccupied console.

On the mother ship, the ship was rocking from all the weapons fire and several console were speaking, a small fire had broken out on the bridge.

“Get us out of range of that station! Target the most damaged federation ship, we have to get it out of the picture” the commander ordered.

The mother ship came about, and went right for the Lexington. The Lexington fired several shots at the ships weapons array, causing minor explosions on its hull. The mother ship’s weapons were finally recharged and it returned fire.

The Lexington was rocked severely, small explosion going off all over the bridge and debris flying everywhere.

“Report!” Captain Torme ordered.

“Port armor is failing, we have hull breaches on decks 6, 8, 12 and 15.” Commander Pixtar reported. The ship was again rocked, this time the impact causing Pixtar console to explode sending him flying the bulkhead. A conduit ruptured near the back of the bridge, sending smoke billowing into the bridge, causing a fire to erupt near the back of the bridge. The view screens image of the ship started to fade and was full of static.

“Return fire! We have to get their weapons offline!” Torme said. Another massive blast from the ship rocked the ship horribly, sending 2 beams from the bridge crashing down on top of the Captain. Smoke poured from the hole in the bridge. Commander Mitchell picked her self up, and sat back up her chair.

“Report!”

“Port armor is gone! Sections 6-28 of decks 3-15 on the port side and gone! We have only 2 functioning torpedo tubes,” Catherine reported.

“Then we’ll have to make them count” commander Mitchell yelled.

“How’s the Captain?” Catherine asked. Solemnly, Alice reported that the captain and Ron Pixtar were dead.

“The we’ll have to make sure they didn’t die for nothing!” Catherine said, the anger in voice evident. The Lexington screamed towards the mother ship dodging shots right left forward and center. With it’s only 2 remaining torpedo tubes, it’s fired everything it had at the ship, causing several large explosions on its hull.

“Their weapons array is offline! It will take them a few minutes to switch to manual!” Catherine reported.

“Target at your discretion commander!” Mitchell reported.

The Ambrosia soared towards the mother ship beside the Iwo Jima, both ship firing everything they had at her.

“Captain, they’re rearming their weapons!” Samuel Xavier reported. The Ambrosia and Iwo Jima were rocked but repeated fire from the ship, small explosion rocked the Ambrosia’s bridge, smoke filling it from the 2 fires that now buried.

“Damage report!” Leon ordered.

“Heavy casualties reported on decks 28. Starboard armor is failing, hull breaches on decks 6, 12, 28 and 39” James reported as the ship was again rocked.

“The type 14 phasers are offline, 3 of our torpedoes tubes are offline, and the Iwo Jima is reporting that they are in similar shape.” James reported.

“Then we have to get their weapons completely offline now! Fire at will!” Leon ordered as the ship was rocked, and Brandon Jank’s console exploded sending him flying back.

“Mr. Gates!” Leon said as two medical officers helped Brandon who was hurt pretty bad, but alive off of the bridge.

“Sir the Lexington’s weapons are offline and they have sustained massive damage!” James reported.

“We have to cover them!” Leon said as an explosion rocked the bridge close to him, causing his chair and him to go flying, as well as causing a pillar to fall, knocking James down and causing his console to spark and a fire to erupt close to him. Christine ran over to him, dragging him out of the way. Scanning him with her tricorder, she reported that he was okay as she helped him up.

“The Captain he said, as he limped towards Leon.” Leon lay on the floor. James walked up to him, feeling his neck for a pulse, relived when he felt one.

“Captain?” he asked. Leon slowly got up, saying that he was okay, just a little banged up.

“Report” he said, quietly. James walked over to his console, moving the beam out of the way and brushing the debris off of it.

“Weapons systems are offline, backup’s are gone! The Iwo Jima’s weapons are in no better shape. The mother ship is coming about and preparing to fire again,” James reported.

On the Lexington, its bridge was in shambled. Fired burned everywhere and wired hung from over the ceiling. Catherine Annex walked over Commander Mitchell, who had been hit hard by an explosion. She felt no pulse on her neck and one look at her body made it obvious that the commander was dead. The helmsman lay lifeless by the helm. As she felt for a pulse on his neck, and felt none the COM system of the ship sounded.

“Captain Torme are you there?”, Leon’s voice said.

“Captain!” Catherine said.

“Where is Captain Torme?” Leon asked.

“He’s dead”, Catherine retorted.

“And the first officer?” Leon said, the concern in his voice clear.

“There all dead sir, I’m the only one that’s left.” Catherine said. Leon signed heavily, and then asked for a report.

“Weapons are gone, hull armor is gone. And I’m getting indications that the warp core is going to breach” Catherine reported as she took the helm.

“We have to get you out of there!” Leon said.

“What is your status?” she asked.

“Both the Iwo Jima’s weapons and ours are offline,” Leon solemnly reported.

“Captain, there’s only one way left that we can stop that ship!” Catherine reported as the Lexington was rocked.

“I’m open to ideas,” Leon said.

“I’m setting a collision course for it’s primary core! If I hit it all full speed and just as the core fails, that should be enough!” Catherine said.

“Catherine, this is crazy we can remote pilot the ship!” Leon urgently said.

“There’s no time, the core is going to go in 15 seconds!” Catherine said, tapping the console seating the course as the ship was rocked, causing debris to fall all the bridge.

“Catherine! You don’t have to do this!” Leon yelled.

“It’s the only way!” she yelled. The image of the mother ship got closer and closer, and smoke filled the breech and the computers countdown to the warp core breech started to approach 0. As the ship reached full speed and the countdown hit 1 second, the image of the mother ship filled the screen, she open a com channel to the mothership

“You’re fired!“ Catherine screamed

The Lexington smashed into the ship, exploding on impact just before it’s warp core exploded, causing a massive explosion, which blew significant chunk out of the mother ship, causing several secondary explosions to rock across it. On the bridge of the ship, massive explosions were going off everywhere. The commander say in his chair, and folding his hands in his lap, and the rest of his ship came apart.

“Perhaps we shouldn’t have underestimated the federation! Maybe next time we’ll know better”, as he finished that though the bridge was engulfed in a massive explosion as what remained of the mother ship exploded in a massive fireball.

As the crews of the Iwo Jima and Ambrosia watched the explosion they bowed their heads in moment of silence for their fallen comrades and ship.

***

“Captains log, Stardate 58646.3. While we did win the battle and save the colony, the cost was extreme. The Lexington was lost with its senior officers and my Chief engineer. Perhaps if it’s any consolation, their sacrifice has saved millions if not billions of lives. Brandon Jank, Mr. Conrad and myself have recovered from their injuries. We are both docked at the colonies starbase to undergo repairs.”

Janice Bates stared out the windows of the mess hall. John walked up to her and joined her.

“Congratulations on your promotion” he said.

“Not exactly the best circumstances to get one”, she responded.

“I know, but at least it was a nice service” John said.

“Yes, for a funeral. So many lives lost and for what?” Janice replied. John placed a comforting hand on Janice’s shoulder.

“At least her death wasn’t for nothing, she died saving us, saving the colony and perhaps even the entire federation, a very worthy cause.” John said.

“Your right of course, but that doesn’t make it any easier”, Janice said.

“I know”, John responded sympathetically as they two of them walked towards an empty table to sit down.

Captain Strife and Seifer sat with James and Cody.

“So what is going to be done with the inhabitants of that colony?” James asked.

“They’re sending several ships over to locate all of the colonists and find suitable homes for them.” Leon said.

“At least we’ve finally been able to find out what happened to the Midway. But their so far away, how can we even contact them again?” James asked.

“Mr. Pa’chang gave us specifications on just how they were able to create the wormhole that send her to that system, some day we will be able to recreate it and we will find them. It also seems that we now know that happened to those ship that vanished in the Turné system.” Leon said.

“The virus?” James asked.

“It seems that one of the planets in that system was used as a test bed of sorts for the virus. Already several ships have been dispatched to try to find all who were lost there”, Leon, said.

“After we have finished repairs what will be our next assignment?” James asked.

“Were going to spend time on the colony, getting used to these new forms, after what was happened Starfleet feels we earned some shore leave” Leon responded.

“Sounds like fun, I hear that there is a beautiful forested area in the southern continent, Christine would probably love it as it as a lot of lakes, and Rachel would love it for all the tree’s.” James responded. Leon smiled.

“There’s a savanna as well, I think T’kal, Seifer and I could spend some time there, it seems fitting”, he said.

Samuel Xavier, Gabriel Saotome and Patrick Lowell sat at a table discussing the events of the past several days.

“It seems that there is no way to reverse this, this is going to take some times to get used to”, Gabriel said.

“Perhaps, but I can see possible advantages to this. This fur is certainly warm; it will allow us to save energy on life support from being able to keep the temperature lower.

“That it will, lets just hope we can control our instincts, I don’t think we need anyone trying to hunt anyone else down”, Samuel said as he held one of his long ears.

Brandon Jank, Kyle Gates and Megan Wiley sat at another table.

“I have to admit, Ms. Wiley you certainly look very nice in this form, not that you didn’t look good before of course”, Brandon said.

“Thank you. Ever since this happened I have noticed a lot of the male crewmembers giving me a lot of extra attention, not that I don’t mind it.” Megan responded.

“I’ve been thinking of joining Ensign Pillar and Crewman Yang on the planet, they at a marine facility. It seems we have similar forms and I’ve been told that I’d enjoy it there” Kyle said.

“Sound goods to me, go for it”, Brandon said.

“Yes, I’ve heard that it’s quite pleasant there and there is some interesting marine wild life” Megan said.

“I think I’m going to do it then”, Brandon said.

“In the meantime, Ms Wiley, would you like to join me on a walk in one of the colonies parks?” Brandon asked nervously.

“Sure!” Megan said rather enthusiastically. The 3 of them got up and walked out of the room.

The Ambrosia sat docked at the base, being repaired for the battle and awaiting her next mission.