//------------------------------// // Season 2 Episode 7: "Research and Development" // Story: Star Trek: Phoenix // by Dewdrops on the Grass //------------------------------// STAR TREK: PHOENIX S02E07 “Research and Development” As the ship’s engines thrummed beneath me, sending us hurtling through space at warp speeds, my magic poked at the guts of the converter. Stripped of its casing and laying on a table in Engineering, Amelia watched me as I worked, safety equipment firmly in place. She was far from the only one monitoring though. Commander La Forge and a few of his fellow engineers from the Enterprise observed carefully from a safer distance. “Okay, that should do it,” I said as I made one final adjustment. “I’ve removed the original safety spells.” Thanks to my keen hearing, only I heard Amelia let out a quiet sigh. “Good work, Ensign. Alright, let’s back it up people. Time to test this. Computer, enable converter and establish a level 5 forcefield around it.” A buzz filled the air as a forcefield sizzled to life, surrounding the converter with its bluish glow. “Okay, Ensign,” Amelia ordered, “Begin the test.” Using my telekinesis I manipulated the tools and deliberately attempted to mess with the device in a clumsy, inefficient manner, like I had no idea what I was doing. And just as I’d hoped, the modified version of the safety spells triggered at once, shutting down the device and rendering its enchantment inert. A wisp of magenta light emerged from the device and whipped in my direction, only to fizzle out the moment it hit the forcefield. “Looking good,” Amelia said as she tapped at a nearby console. “Power levels dropping rapidly, no sign of dangerous discharge… I think we’ve got it!” A brief cheer resounded from the crowd of gathered engineers. “Thank goodness,” La Forge said with a chuckle. “Last thing anyone needed was one of these blowing up in their face.” “Yes, sir,” I said, a smile tugging at my muzzle. “These modifications should allow engineers to adjust the components, so long as they safely de-energize the device first. And if they don’t, this happens.” “U-um, e-excuse me,” said one of the officers from the Enterprise, a nervous looking human Lieutenant that I didn’t recognize. “But may I ask what, what was that light that came out of it at the end?” “Great question, Barclay,” La Forge added. “I was wondering about that too.” “That’s a precaution against magical tampering,” I answered. I lit up my horn and floated a few objects around to demonstrate. “In case someone tries to mess with it magically while the converter is active, it sends out a pulse to temporarily negate their magic for a short while. It’s better than the sleep spell we were using, won’t affect anyone without magic, and most importantly, it wears off after a short while. And like the other parts of the spell, it only engages if the device isn’t properly de-energized.” La Forge raised an eyebrow. “Believe me, making things tamper-proof is neer a bad idea, but Is that really something we’re worried about in this case? The only magic users in the entire Federation are you, your sister, and the Sirens.” I shook my head, “It’s because of the Sirens that, while we were hashing this out last night, Sunset insisted on adding this anti-tamper component during the build process.” I thought back to the previous evening, when Sunset called me up to her quarters to hash all this out. She told me all about the briefing with Nechayev – picturing Nechayev cowering from the Sirens left me in tears from my giggles – and then relayed that Nechayev had passed along a new order from the Enterprise, saying they needed some kind of security “in case the Sirens try something.” Sunset and I agreed Nechayev was being paranoid, but an order was an order, so we quickly altered our spell on the fly. The end result was a bit more mana-intensive, but it was also keyed so that only Sunset or I could disable it. In retrospect, we should have expected something to go wrong with the spell when we first designed it all those years ago. It was too cute by a hoof, but at the time Sunset was deeply afraid of either of us running out of mana, so she was obsessed with keeping the mana draw of even the simplest spells as low as possible. It seems a bit silly now, but back then, neither of us knew for sure if we could regenerate mana at all in this world, much less in sufficient quantity to allow continuous magic usage like we were used to in Equestria. I can't fault Sunset for her worry though. Mana is like a second kind of blood for us, and the Sirens too. If we ever ran out entirely, we'd die. Still, it was our mistake that left such a flawed spell in place, and of course it had to literally blow up into the face of one of my crewmates instead of me or Sunset. At least it didn't inflict any lasting damage to poor Amelia. “You know,” La Forge said, startling me out of my reverie, “I’m still not fully sure I understand what the purpose of those spells were to begin with.” “It’s–” I started to say. “It’s like a c-circuit breaker, right?” Barclay interrupted, giving me an apologetic smile. “Like a ground fault interrupter, o-or a surge protector. But it malfunctioned.” My teeth gritting slightly was the only way I let my irritation slip through my professionalism. “Yes, sir, for the most part. Your circuit breaker analogy is an apt one. Though in this case, the problem wasn’t a malfunction in the traditional sense. It worked precisely as intended. The problem is that we’re not on Equus, and the basic assumptions underlying the spell don’t apply here..” La Forge nodded. “Okay.” He looked over at the converter again, rubbed at his chin, then clapped his hands together. “Right. Barclay, I want you to get some equipment and parts together. We’re going to try to build our own converter. Ensign Sparkle, we’ll need you ready to enchant it once the time comes.” “I’ll be ready, sir,” I said. “Good. Let’s get to work, people.” While La Forge and the other Enterprise engineers milled about Engineering, Amelia waved me over into her office. “Something wrong?” I asked as I sat down across from her desk. Amelia flopped onto her chair and brought up her terminal. “I know the only reason La Forge is building his converter is that both our ships are at warp and he can’t beam back yet, but I wish he didn’t have to take over half my Engineering section to do so.” She tapped a few keys on her terminal. “And I know he won’t be the only one. Liang said there’d be eight ships in total in this fleet, counting us and the Enterprise?” “I think so,” I answered. Pain briefly flared through my horn, making me wince. “I hope they won’t have too much for me to enchant by myself.” “Did you already show the Sirens how?” I chuckled. “Yeah. They took to it right away. Said it was one of the easiest enchantments they’d ever cast.” Amelia let out a quiet sigh. “That’s good, I suppose.” I sat there in silence for a few moments, watching her type up reports. “You sure you’re okay, Amelia?” I ventured. She jumped and looked at me with wild eyes. “Y-yeah, of course I am.” She gave me a half grin and waved me away. “I-I’m fine. Go. It won’t take them that long before they need you.” Even as I stood I kept my gaze steady on her, sharp pain biting into my heart like a set of fanged jaws. “Amelia, I’m sorry it was my magic–” “Thank you, Ensign, that will be all,” she cut me off sharply. “...aye.” I trotted out of her office, her words weighing heavily on my mind. Or rather, the words she didn’t say. Clearly she blamed me for her coma, or was at least afraid I’d somehow put her under again. Even though I brought her out of it the first time. Or maybe she was angry at herself for getting herself knocked out of action just when the spotlight turned to her department. Regardless, this sick feeling in my stomach, this feeling of shame… it made me wonder if this was how Sunset felt every time I yelled at her. Even thinking that caused the sick feeling to spread, like a malaise infecting my every nerve ending. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, though I wasn’t sure to whom. “Ensign?” I whirled, doing my best to school my face into a neutral expression. “Yes, sir?” La Forge briefly arched an eyebrow as he looked at me, then said, “Would you mind lending us a hand? We’re having a bit of trouble with some of the finer components.” I mumbled a quick, “Aye, sir,” as I rushed over to take a look. Their converter was only partially assembled, more a collection of circuit boards and isolinear chips spread across the table without an assembled casing yet. Nothing seemed out of place at a quick glance though. “What’s the issue?” Barclay lifted a tool and used it to point to a specific cluster of circuits. “Well, I-I happened to notice that this arrangement of circuitry here seems a bit… unusual.” I peered at the set he was pointing at and promptly felt the urge to smack myself in the face. “Ah. Yes, that's an area where we had to improvise a bit and customize things to match the parameters of the Phoenix's warp core, so it's not purely interchangeable with another ship. The underlying design is sound, you'll just have to retune it for whatever ship intends to use it.” “Good catch, Reg,” La Forge chimed in as he looked over the components. “And thank you, Ensign. That's a big help. Looks like we’ll have to do some customizing of our own, then. Pull up the schematics while I contact the Enterprise for a few details.” “Yes, sir.” After a moment of conversing with his ship, La Forge tapped his combadge and turned to me. “Sparkle, when you were first hooking the converter into the Phoenix’s warp core, you had precautions in the event of overload, right?” I stifled my initial response for a more polite, “Yes, sir. We did it remotely through forcefields and we had the entire assembly set up to be ejected into space the instant there was a problem.” “Good. We’ll want to do the same on the Enterprise, then,” he said. “Last thing we need is a warp core breach.” “Liang to Sparkle.” Blinking in surprise I tapped my badge. “Sparkle here, sir.” “Would you please report to my ready room?” “Right away sir,” I answered, my hooves already carrying me to the nearest turbolift. A swift ride to the bridge later and I trotted up to the ready room door and entered. Captain Liang and my sister awaited me inside, which didn’t surprise me. What did surprise me was seeing all three of the Dazzlings in there too. “Please sit, Ensign,” he ordered, gesturing to the chair next to Sunset. “Thank you for joining us. I’ve asked you here as the five magic users aboard ship. Each of you will be needed for crucial tasks in the coming days.” “Don’t forget our deal,” said Adagio. She and her sisters were seated on Liang’s couch, for lack of a better place to sit. “We won’t leave the ship for very long.” Liang smiled warmly. “Believe you me, Miss Dazzle, I’ve no desire for the Admiral to get her wishes when it comes to you and your sisters. I’ve already ‘placated’ her worries by assuring her I’d send a pair of security officers with you anytime you leave the ship. Which, I should add, will have orders to protect you from others, in case Nechayev gets any bright ideas.” “Aww, he really is a nice guy,” Sonata whispered, just loudly enough that I could make it out with my pony hearing. “Shut up, stupid,” Aria grumbled, smacking Sonata on the shoulder. Adagio smiled back, and to my surprise it seemed just as warm and genuine as Liang’s. “Thank you, Captain. I… we’re not used to such genuine generosity.” “I understand,” Liang replied. He picked up his cane and tapped it once gently on his desk. “Now then, to business. The Admiral had ordered us to find a suitable location to work in, reasonably close to the front lines should we need to hurry and put our testbeds into action, but far enough away and hidden enough that we would be undetectable. So, we’ve chosen this.” He turned on the larger screen on the wall behind his desk, next to the window. A nebula appeared on screen, opaque and bristling with the occasional sparks of electrical activity and other interstellar discharges. Its pink color wafted about the screen, suggesting anyone going inside would be swiftly hidden. It also struck me as intimately familiar. “This,” he said, pointing with his cane, “is Nebula 11037-DR, an uncharted Mutara-class nebula near the Cardassian border.” Sonata cocked her head. “Um, sorry if this is a stupid question, buuuut I thought you Starfleeters were all about exploration and stuff. Why haven’t you charted it?” Liang frowned. “Truthfully, It is unremarkable save for being a Mutara-class nebula, and the dangers of exploring such nebula types and its proximity to the Cardassians has always dissuaded exploration.” Aria snorted. “That didn’t seem to stop a lot of other things you’ve done before, according to what we’ve read.” “Cut it out, Aria,” Adagio barked, giving her a peculiar glare. His frown started to deepen, but before he could respond I interrupted. “Sir!” I said, raising a hoof as if I was in class. “Permission to speak freely?” “Granted,” Liang said, a curious look in his eye. “Sir, unless I’m mistaken, didn’t James Kirk fight Khan Noonien Singh in a nebula just like this?” I asked. “So he did,” Liang said, nodding, a slight smile crossing his face. He nudged his cane in the direction of the Sirens, who all bore matching blank looks. “But since we have several guests unaware of these events, why don’t you go ahead and regale us with a brief summary.” I glanced at Sunset, who shot me an amused but knowing look. She knew better than perhaps anyone how much I relished any chance to channel my inner guest lecturer. I flashed her a quick smile in return, then stood and cleared my throat. “In 2284, Admiral James T. Kirk was captaining the second Enterprise as part of a training mission when they responded to a distress call from Spacelab Regula I, which at the time was in orbit of a small planetoid in the Mutara sector of the Beta Quadrant. On the way there the Enterprise was ambushed by the USS Reliant, a Miranda-class ship that had been assigned to the Spacelab and, unbeknownst to the Enterprise, had been commandeered by Khan, an old adversary of Kirk's. The two ships engaged in a running series of fierce battles, leaving both severely damaged. After affecting emergency repairs, Enterprise fled into the nearby nebula, with Reliant in pursuit. Mutara-class nebulas act like natural energy dampeners, rendering shields and most sensors useless. In this case, both Enterprise and Reliant were reduced to partial visual sensors only. Eventually, however, the Enterprise was victorious, and fled the scene when the Reliant self-destructed, though not without casualties, including Captain Spock.” For some reason I saw Sunset flash me a brief confused look, and she even mouthed, “Aren’t you leaving out the…” before trailing off. Though I had no idea what she was talking about. It wasn’t as if there was any other ship, or anything else important had happened. Liang coughed for attention and tapped his cane on his desk again. “Perfectly stated. Thank you, Ensign Sparkle. The most important thing in the Ensign’s summary, you will have noticed, is the way in which the nebula dampens sensors. Now, both the Enterprise and Reliant were old and out of date even at the time. Fortunately, technology advancements mean that nebulas like these have far less effect on today's ships of the line. We will still be more vulnerable in the Nebula, but we’ll be able to keep our shields and sensors up to a reasonable degree. More important, however, is there will be no possible way for sensors to penetrate the nebula from a distance.” “Meaning we’ll be completely hidden from the Dominion,” Sunset weighed in. “While still being safe.” “Precisely.” Liang sat down and set his cane atop his desk. “Now, we will also supposedly still be able to beam between ships, but at a much shorter distance. We may end up using many shuttlecraft, both for safety and efficiency.” “Do we know what ships will be joining us, sir?” Sunset asked. “We know of a few,” he answered. He switched on his terminal then spun it around to face us, showing a classic Excelsior-class vessel. “The Brynhild is an older ship, and the one that Nechayev intends to make her flagship for the fleet.” “So she’s sticking around, huh?” Sonata grumbled. “Booo. She’s such a stuck-up jerk.” I snorted, barely restraining my laughter. “Yes, well,” Liang said, unable to repress a grin, “Neither Captain Picard nor I wanted her aboard our ships, so she was forced to fall back on this one.” “Looks like there’s other ships too,” Sunset murmured. “Algerie, Intrepid-class, a Nova-class, the Helena, the Saber-class Javelin, and…an Akira and Steamrunner class too?” “Yes, the Baltimore and Shimakaze. Extra protection, or so I am told.” Liang’s smile dropped. “Though given Nechayev’s desire for weapons, it does not bode well that both are equipped with tricobalt torpedoes in place of the typical photon or quantum torpedoes. Nasty stuff, tricobalt. Prone to leaving residual radiation and other toxins.” “How… barbaric,” Adagio quipped, making a face of disgust. “Like using primitive atomics.” “Primitive atomics, huh?” I muttered under my breath. On Equus, we’d barely begun to grasp atomic theory, let alone the concept of splitting the atom. A nuclear reactor to ponies would seem like an almost miraculous achievement. Then again, considering the abject horror that such technology unleashed on countless species in this universe, I wonder if it wouldn't be better if they never figured it out at all. One of these days I need to ask the Sirens about the years they spent wandering the galaxy. What it was like, leaving Equus, traveling the stars. Did they meet anyone important? They didn’t seem to know of humans before the Phoenix, judging by how they reacted when they were rescued, but that didn’t mean they might not have met some other historical figure. They might have the stories of entire civilizations preserved only in their memory alone. And what technologies did they encounter, if even our most advanced weaponry seems primitive to them in comparison. Liang’s terminal chirped. “Liang here,” he said. Even as Rodriguez’s words came through the terminal, I saw the streaming stars in the window dissipate behind us into endless points. “We’ve arrived at the nebula, sir.” “Understood, I’m on my way.” He tapped a button then rose from his seat, cane tucked under his arm. “Ladies, if you’ll all care to join me.” The five of us followed Liang out onto the bridge, with Sunset taking her first officer chair and Sonata taking the other seat to Liang’s left, while Aria sashayed up to stand between the ops and conn consoles, taking in the viewscreen. Adagio meanwhile headed around to glance at the tactical station. As I took in the bridge, it struck me, just how remarkable this was. Two ponies and three Sirens… five Equestrians, all from a planet that had never once known its own form of spaceflight, let alone interstellar travel, all standing on the bridge of a starship looking at a visual of a nebula. After a moment I took a seat at one of the portside consoles and switched it over to a scientific layout, running a brief sensor sweep. The viewscreen filled with a live image of the nebula, its pinkish and purplish clouds constantly churning from the gravimetric distortions these nebulas were known for. Plasma eddies rippled through like slow-rolling waves, setting off energy flares in their wake that resembled lightning bolts zigzagging through space. “It’s beautiful,” Adagio breathed, almost too quiet for me to hear her. “Isn’t it?” I seconded just as quietly. “Deadly, though. I wouldn’t want to be in that nebula without a decent starship around me.” A repeated beeping alarm preceded Williams at Ops announcing, “Incoming ship dropping out of warp, sir. It’s the Enterprise.” The trailing edge of the Enterprise’s left warp nacelle, stretched out like a piece of taffy, drew in on itself as it dropped out of warp, followed by the rest of the magnificent starship, its bold lines and streamlined form gliding through space like an ice skater with perfect form. “So that’s the Enterprise,” Adagio said, prompting me to glance over. She’d propped herself up against the railing lining the outer edge of consoles, leaning back to rest her hips against them so she could focus on the viewscreen. “It’s a beautiful ship. Your Starfleet knows how to design them it seems.” Sunset looked up at us from her chair. “Starfleet Engineering might not have the best fashion sense, but they do know how to design elegant ships,” she quipped. I repressed a snort of amusement as I continued to run my sensor sweep. As I expected, I was barely able to penetrate a few dozen meters into the nebula, and what I could detect was mostly a collection of gasses and low level ionizing radiation. “Incoming transmission from the Enterprise, Captain,” Ishihara said. “Very well, on screen,” Liang replied. The viewscreen filled with a shot of the Enterprise’s bridge, letting me get a good look at the layout. Like our own bridge it was dominated by blues and grays, but with a decidedly more militaristic, severe cut to its consoles, the chairs looking less comfortable and more utilitarian. Ours was still a ship of relative luxury, despite the shift in Starfleet since the first appearance of the Borg. The Enterprise was a warship, and it showed. And despite the smiling faces of Picard, Riker, Deanna Troi, and a whole gaggle of junior officers I didn’t recognize, the sight pulled at my stomach just a little. Though Nechayev lurking behind Picard’s chair might’ve had something to do with it. “Captain,” Picard said, “now that we’ve arrived, I’d like to do a brief crew exchange before we enter the nebula. Once inside we’ll most likely be limited to shuttlecraft.” “Agreed, Captain.” Liang’s smile rang loud and clear in his voice. “I’m certain you’d like your chief engineer back. If you don’t mind I’d like to send my own over, along with Lieutenant Cadeneza; they can get started working on some of the basic research ideas.” Picard nodded. “Of course.” “Do we know the ETA of the rest of the fleet?” Picard gestured to Data, who responded, “The Brynhild will be arriving within three hours. The Algérie and Helena within six, the Baltimore and Shimakaze in seven, and the Javelin in fourteen.” “Sounds like we’d best get started then,” Liang said. “Phoenix out.” As the viewscreen returned to a shot of the Enterprise against the backdrop of the nebula, Liang stood from his chair. “Well, I’ll need to send someone magical over to the Enterprise to help them install their converter. Ensign Sparkle, you’re up. Report to transporter room three.” “Aye, sir,” I said, smoothly departing my chair. Before I could get far, Adagio’s hand shot out to rest on my withers. “Hey,” she grunted. “I’m going with you. My sisters can stay here, but I want to see that ship.” “Err, that would be up to the captain,” I replied as a shiver ran through my body. Adagio’s touch was warm, almost fiery, brimming with an aura of a kind I had never felt before. “I see no problem with it,” Liang chimed in. “You may join her, Miss Dazzle.” Adagio flashed Liang a half smile of gratitude before returning her cool gaze to me. “Alright, pony, lead the way.” “My name is Twilight Sparkle,” I grumbled as we entered the turbolift, prompting me to add, “Deck 6.” “I know,” Adagio purred, her smile all fangs and sharp teeth. “But it’s more fun to call you pony.” “Would you like it if I called you Siren all the time?” I shot back. Adagio curled her arms over her chest and snickered. “It’d show some backbone… but no, I suppose not. Very well… Twilight.” I nodded in acknowledgement. “Thank you, Adagio,” I murmured. The turbolift came to a halt, dispensing us out into the corridor. As I led Adagio around to the transporter room, I said, “You know, you’re really nothing like what we thought you were going to be like.” “Oh?” Adagio inclined a bushy eyebrow. “I take it you expected us to be bloodthirsty, or maybe crowing for revenge as we took over the ship. Please. Maybe if this had been less than a century since our exile, but we’ve had over one thousand years to reflect on ourselves.” “I know, I heard about what you said to the Admiral.” We entered the transporter room, which was empty save for the chief, who nodded to us as we swept through the doors. “I’m… glad you’re not like what we thought you’d be like. It’s nice to have someone else from Equus around.” Adagio inclined her head. “It is indeed. Trite as I make it sound, a thousand years is a long time. Even I was beginning to forget our homeworld entirely. Now I find myself wondering if we'll finally see it again.” “That's the hope,” I said. “It's why Sunset and I joined Starfleet - to find Equus and return home. Now that we have the Phoenix, we felt closer to the goal than ever before, only now we're caught in this damn war....” I let out a sigh. “She still may,” Adagio replied with a brief chuckle. “Listen, Twilight. If there is one thing my sisters and I have learned from living among the stars, it’s that you never know what the future might bring, no matter how dire the present may be.” Then she did something completely unexpected, and crouched down to bring herself eye to eye with me. For just a moment, I thought I saw a genuine smile on her face. "Another thing we've learned? Never assume there's a problem the ponies can't find a way to solve.” “Maybe.” The doors swished open once more, revealing La Forge and his engineers, along with Cadeneza and Amelia. Barclay brought up the rear, pushing a cart holding the converter. “N-now sir, w-we’re sure this is safe to send through the transporter?” Barclay stammered. “For the last time Reg, it’s fine,” La Forge grumbled. “It hasn’t been enchanted yet, and there’s no power flowing through it. It’s inert.” “Still,” Barclay said, his hands shaking as he looked down at the half-assembled converter. “This is an e-experimental technology. W-we really should be testing this more.” “Oh for god’s sake,” Cadeneza grumbled, “It’s fine. We did extensive transporter tests on the damned thing. It’s not going to explode in your face.” Barclay’s face drooped. “O-oh.” “You see, Reg?” La Forge shook his head and tapped his combadge. “La Forge to Enterprise, we’re ready to start beaming over. We’ll have… three groups, it looks like.” “Understood, sir,” came the response of what was presumably the Enterprise’s transporter chief. “Standing by.” “Alright, Reg, you first,” La Forge ordered. “Sparkle, Cadeneza, Wattson, go with him. Once there head straight for Engineering; we’ll catch up.” I helped Barclay roll the cart up onto the transporter pad with my magic and took up the spot next to it. Without a word Adagio pushed past everyone and joined me; I saw an annoyed look briefly flash over La Forge’s face before it disappeared. “Ready, sir,” I announced. La Forge nodded to the chief standing at the console. “Energize.” The familiar feeling of toothbrushes aplenty washed over my body, tingling like mad as the world went white, then came back in the form of a differently layed out transporter room. With practiced ease I dismissed any sense of disorientation and proceeded to help Barclay bring the cart off the pad. “Thank you, Ensign,” Barclay murmured. “Um, this way everyone.” As we formed a group to follow him to the nearest turbolifts, I took a moment to observe everyone else. Amelia still seemed withdrawn, judging by her stiff movements, though the frown on her face looked more guilty than irritated or worried. Cadeneza seemed mostly annoyed by Barclay’s presence, while Adagio’s eyes darted about, taking in every detail but without the lack of subtlety of a tourist. The bulky size of the cart required us to split up and take two turbolifts, but after a few minutes we all met back up outside of main engineering. The oversized doors swished open to greet us, and everyone's jaws seemed to hit the floor at once. "Wow..." I knew the Sovereign-class' engineering space used an open floorplan compared to most other ships, but I was taken aback by the sheer size of it all. I counted at least five, maybe six decks worth of space above us, with an absolutely massive warp core thrumming away at the center of it all. Curiously, I noticed the coolant tanks looked a little off, just slightly discolored, as if they were hasty replacements. Which, I realized after a moment, they were, because the Enterprise’s original ones were destroyed during its battle with the Borg last year. “This is incredible,” Amelia gasped as she ran over to examine the warp core. “We’ve got a fairly advanced one in the Phoenix but this… this is a work of art.” “She is quite something, isn’t she?” Barclay chuckled as he ran a sweaty hand through his hair. “I used to think the Enterprise-D had the best warp core in the fleet, but this… this truly is something special.” Amelia ran a hand over the core. “It’s got such perfect pitch,” she said, her tone filling with awe. “You can hear the matter and antimatter collisions if you listen right.” “That’s right,” Barclay confirmed. “A-and you can discern variations in the warp field much more easily t-than you could normally. The Enterprise practically sings to you if you listen.” “Sings, hmm?” Adagio strutted forward and gently pushed Amelia out of the way, ignoring the engineer’s protests as she spread a hand over the warp core. Her eyes fluttered as her mouth opened, forming a brief ‘o’ of surprise. Shifting to a smile, she said, “You weren’t kidding. She really does… sing. It’s beautiful.” I narrowed my eyes as I watched Adagio withdraw her hand and shrink into herself, bemused by this reaction. “It’s… it reminds me of what was once our home,” Adagio murmured, so quietly I doubt anyone save me heard her. But before I could press her on the point, La Forge and the rest entered Engineering. “Alright, people,” he called, gathering the attention of the engineers present. “We’ve got a converter to get hooked up. Rivers, Yoder, how’s the magic battery coming?” Yoder, a dour looking human who seemed to have a perpetual sour expression on his lips, waved a tool in his hand from across the room and shouted, “We’ve got it online sir. In the cargo bay, just like you ordered.” “Great,” La Forge said. He pointed fingers at several engineers. “You, you, and you, let’s bring the connections over. Sparkle, I’d like you and Wattson to monitor Reg and me while we do the assembly.” I mumbled a brief, “Aye, sir,” and had the dubious fun of standing there watching as everyone else did work. My hooves itched to get involved, but I kept my focus on the converter itself. Adagio sidled up to me and nudged me in the side with her elbow. “Mind if I give the enchantment a shot on this one?” “Sure. You remember what we showed you?” She snorted. “I’ve forgotten more about magic than you’ll ever learn, po--err, Ensign.” She patted me on the withers and gave me a simpering smile. “Don’t worry your fuzzy little mane over it.” Despite her rudeness, I found myself chuckling. Maybe I was getting used to Adagio’s prickly demeanor. Or maybe it was her awe of the warp core, infectious with its wonder. Watching La Forge and the rest finish up the converter proved as boring as I expected, but at least it was entertaining once Adagio swapped to doing the spells. All unicorns have their own natural flourish they apply when spellcasting, but Adagio was something else entirely. She was like a one woman orchestra, weaving each note out of nothing and slipping it into place in perfect rhythm. “How’s it looking, Ensign?” La Forge asked once Adagio stepped back and proudly clapped her hands to her hips. I performed one last checkover, then nodded. “Looks good, sir. You should be able to test it now.” “Alright, let’s give it a whirl. Reg, let’s turn this up slowly, shall we? The Enterprise’s core outputs quite a bit more power than the Phoenix’s, so let’s maybe keep the conversion rate down to five percent for starters.” “A-aye, sir,” Barclay mumbled as he fiddled with the controls. It took another twenty or so minutes of back and forth power monitoring, but eventually they had it cranked up to the current safe maximum of seventeen point three five percent. “Any more than that and we risk overloading the conduits for the energy storage,” Barclay reported. “Right. Let’s hope they start coming up with something better,” La Forge said. He turned to me. “Alright, Ensign, let’s get started on the sensor pallets.” “Sir?” La Forge smiled slightly. “We’ll need magic sensors if we’re to do anything else with magic on the ship, right?” I blushed. Of course that should’ve been obvious. “Err, yes sir,” I said. Adagio patted my shoulder softly and flashed me a grin that was half mocking, half sympathy. “Well, Sparkle, I think my work here is done. I’m returning to the Phoenix.” “Um, Miss Dazzle, I-I don’t think that’s possible right now,” interrupted Barclay. He brought up a readout of the Enterprise’s location. “We’ve already entered the nebula, and are a decent distance from the Phoenix. Transporters are inoperable now; you’d have to take a shuttle.” Adagio rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’ll find something else to do.” She glanced back at me. “Good luck.” ~*~ I stood at a console in one of the design science labs aboard the Phoenix, staring at a larger screen currently rigged up with views of science labs of several other starships, including the Enterprise, the Brynhild, Algerie, and the Helena. A collection of science officers and engineers, some of whom I knew well, some of whom I’d never met before, all awaited me to begin. The one fly in the ointment was Admiral Nechayev, hovering over the shoulder of the Brynhild chief engineer, a Tellarite by the name of Glamgor Pog. “Commander Shimmer, are you ready to begin?” Nechayev asked. “Yes, ma’am,” I said. I gestured to a screen behind me, which currently showed a schematic of the converter, storage medium, and basic thaumometer. “By now, you should all be familiar with the basics of magic and how to construct the converters and thaumometers.” “Glamgor Pog is well aware, yes,” said Pog, a peculiarly arrogant humor dotting his face. “He has already built his and is awaiting the shuttlecraft from the Enterprise.” “We’ve already constructed ours as well,” said the Helena chief engineer, an Andorian whose last name was a tongue-twister for me, zh’Clex. “We’re in the process of setting up our storage capacitor.” “Unfortunately we’re a bit behind here on the Algerie,” said their science officer, a non-binary human named Moneaux. They gave us an apologetic look. “We’ve had some trouble with our bio-neural circuitry. Something about the converter design is making it incompatible and we’re having to adjust on the fly.” “I’ll have Sparkle redirected from the Enterprise to your ship then,” said Necheyev. “It’s important we get this done ASAP, Mx. Moneaux.” “Yes, ma’am,” they said. “I’m hoping if we can find the right way around it we might be able to solve some of the energy transfer issues that have been making scaling up the magic production difficult.” “Excellent,” I said with a satisfied smile. “I’ve been wanting to explore that route as well. So, since we’re all up to speed, let’s get to the real meat of why we’re here.” I cleared the screen behind me and wrote down a few brainstorming categories, labeled sensors, defensive tech, useful tech, and leaving weapons for last, barely on screen. “We’re here to start research on applications for magic-based technology.” Two more screens abruptly added themselves to the multi-way conversation, one with a dark skinned human male face, the other a pale Vulcan female. “Forgive us our tardiness,” said the Vulcan. “I am Mena, chief engineer of the Shimakaze.” “Roy Blackford here, ma’am,” said the human, whose rank I noticed was much lower than the rest of us. “Second science officer, U.S.S. Baltimore. The chief engineer and chief science officer are working on our converter as we speak.” I nodded in acknowledgement. “You didn’t miss much. So, when it comes to magic, despite the name there are still plenty of limitations. Like with any type of technology or effect, it requires a certain level of energy, in this case Sparkles, to fuel it. So for example, I can project a ray from my horn to make a few people around me fall asleep, but I couldn’t do it to an entire auditorium unless I had a few other unicorns to back me up with their mana pools.” “Pog understands this. This much was in the briefing Pog read. Stop wasting Pog’s time.” I noticed a few of my fellow officers repressing grins or snorts of laughter; despite his prickly demeanor the Tellerite was more amusing than he was intimidating. “Just making sure we’re all on the same page, Pog,” I said, repressing the show of amusement. “But here’s what I’m hoping. At the moment the converters you’re all building will be sufficient to partially power an array of magical sensors. These sensors, currently, are only configured to detect magical sources. But I think we can greatly expand on this.” “Is there a chance we could use them to penetrate cloaks?” suggested Blackford. “I can imagine that’d be a real game changer.” “Maybe,” I said, frowning with uncertainty, “but as you know, the Dominion don't use cloaking technology on their ships. But I can certainly see some value in context of a few other species at least.” “Perhaps if we can find a way to enhance the resolution and signal acquisition of passive sensors,” Mena suggested. “Passive sensors function as they do because they do not emit active scanning waves. But what if we were to do so with magic. We could get much better results, and they'd be undetectable by our enemies.” “Pog likes the sound of that,” Pog said with a big grin on his scraggly face. “Ships could lay in ambush much more easily and surprise Dominion ships.” “And it would have some useful peaceful applications too,” I pointed out. “Namely in how it would help with evaluating environmental conditions on some types of planets, or monitoring civilizations that are pre-warp, but still advanced enough to detect our active scans.” I wrote it down on the list underneath the sensors heading. “Okay, what else?” “Um, well,” said Barclay from the Enterprise, “I-I was thinking about shields, and about how the computer has a hard time handling the redistribution of power during combat." "Which would be why Pog has to assign engineers to do it." "Yes, sir. But I-I was looking into some of the early experiments done with the forcefield that Commander Shimmer can project and I realized that her field was adapting naturally." "Of course," I breathed, a sly grin crossing my muzzle. "That's brilliant, Barclay.” I spotted a few blank faces from some of my fellow officers. “To clarify for anyone who doesn’t quite understand, what Lieutenant Barclay is referring to is a magical shield’s ability to react automatically to forces applied to it, without the pony–er, creature who cast it needing to redirect the energy manually. If we can integrate magical shielding into the grid it can react more dynamically. Maybe even allow it to regenerate on the fly and sustain much heavier blows." "Pog has seen these results. Wasn't it concluded that you used relatively far less power to maintain an equivalent level forcefield?" "That's correct, Lieutenant." I tapped my horn. "It's due to energy efficiency. The shields have to have their power transformed from EPS conduits into a more useful form of electricity, then transformed again into a projection across a massive area, while dealing with energy loss from distance. By comparison mine is the equivalent of being able to plug the shields directly into the warp core." "Then this should be one of our primary avenues of investigation," Mena said. "We could drastically improve the quality of our shielding. Perhaps even make metaphasic shielding standard on all ships." "I'm sorry, metaphasic?" said Monteaux, a quizzical expression on their face. zh'Clex tutted. "Shielding designed to withstand a star's corona, designed by Ferengi scientist Dr. Reyga. Useful stuff. If a ship could casually fly into a star we could use the star as a weapon." Nods followed all around, even mine after a reluctant moment. Then I spotted the hungry smile forming on Nechayev's face, and a sick feeling washed over me. The gleam in her eyes reminded me too much of a timberwolf about to feast on its prey. "Speaking of weapons, Commander, I trust you have been considering potential applications. Enhancements to phasers, perhaps?" Before I could open my mouth and determine something more appropriate to tell her than to go screw herself, Twilight said, "Admiral, if I may." Her forehead wrinkled as she narrowed her eyes. "Ensign. Go ahead." "As it so happens, Commander Shimmer and I do have a proposed enhancement, albeit for hand phasers and phaser rifles." As she spoke her eyes briefly caught mine, and while she didn't wink, she didn't need to. I understood immediately where she was going with it and had to suppress the urge to laugh. As it was, a revealing smile briefly snuck into my muzzle. "Why only the personal sized weapons, Ensign?" La Forge asked. Twilight smiled slightly. "Well, sir, you could put this onto a phaser bank or strip but we haven't used shipboard phasers for this since the 2260s. I'm referring to stun settings. As we all know, stun settings can be unreliable. Body weight, size, anatomical configuration, species, age, any number of issues can make a stun setting barely effective on one person while almost killing another." "Not to be rude, but is there a point somewhere here, Ensign?" interrupted zh'Clex, stalks twitching in irritation so much it was distracting. Twilight's smile vanished, but to her credit she showed no other sign of the rebuke bothering her, which made my heart soar with pride. "Jem'Hadar cannot be stunned and often take multiple shots to kill, and Changelings are even worse. However, Shimmer and I were recently reminded due to an…incident… the potency of our magical sleep spells. A single spell utilized as a safety measure kept someone asleep for a full day." I was suddenly appreciative of how Wattson was currently busy with finalizing the shuttling schedule, because I knew she'd be pissed hearing Twilight talk about her like that. "Oh, I see where you're going," La Forge said, a growing smile on his face. "If we can enhance our phasers with this sleep spell we can stun anyone we want in a single shot." "Exactly," I said with a chuckle. "That's the beauty of it. It doesn't do anything except put the body into a sleeping state for however long you, err, 'program' the spell for, and since no species we've ever encountered outside of Equestria bears natural magical resistance then it won't matter who it is. We'll not only stun them, we’ll do so safely. We could even use it on a wide-beam setting, stun a whole crowd at once." "...it's not quite what I was hoping for," Nechayev growled as she flashed us both a deep scowl. "But I can see the sheer number of applications this could have. Safer crowd control, easier ground combat with our choice of POWs, and neutralization of key targets. We'll need to do some hard testing… I will see if I can arrange for a couple of test subjects." All of us looked unhappy at that phrase. We knew what she meant: she meant some unfortunate half-starved of ketracel white Jem'Hadar prisoner being hauled in and repeatedly put to sleep. "Err, begging the Admiral's pardon," said Blackford, "but how will we test if it affects Changelings?" “... We'll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Nechayev said. "Regardless, I suggest this be a priority." “Speaking of the Jem'Hadar, one tactical disadvantage we've yet to overcome is their use of subspace mines and other cloaked traps that are nearly impossible to detect, much less disarm safely,” Mena stated, her voice turning dour suddenly. “The Shimakaze recently assisted in an evac of ground forces from multiple battlegrounds. Regrettably, more fatalities than survivors... all victims of these same traps. Would it be possible to use these enhanced phasers to disrupt these devices?” "That's a pretty big maybe," I admitted. "But what we could do is make them more detectable by using the magical sensor upgrade. These mines are usually undetectable with tricorders but if we can see them using magical frequencies, we'd at least lower the risk to personnel in the field." "Biofilters," Barclay said, snapping his fingers. "I-in the transporters. Better resolution and detection. Sickbay too." "Oooh, good idea, Reg," said La Forge. "I remember from when Commander Shimmer served on the Enterprise-D she helped diagnose a number of injuries in Engineering before the med team could arrive, and faster too. Integrating that with medical technology could help save more lives." “And we could always use better biofilters in the transporters,” I agreed with a slight chuckle. “Never know what might slip through next.” “Pog swears whatever curse inflicted some starships, any ship he ever served on never had such problems with transporters. Pog thinks it was more likely incompetence.” La Forge let out a rich laugh. “Better be glad Chief O’Brian isn’t here to hear you say that, Pog. And as someone who’s been a victim of a couple of those incidents… you can trust me when I say it wasn’t incompetence.” The group almost descended into a byplay of various anecdotes and other incidents until Nechayev interrupted us, just as the doors behind me opened. I paid them no heed. “Officers, let’s focus here,” she barked. “Commander Shimmer, do you or anyone else have any other weapons ideas for how we can use this technology?” “Admiral,” I began, the tension barely keeping out of my voice. “I would prefer we focus on more benign ways to use this technology.” “I’m well aware of your objections, Commander. Overruled. What do you have?” “I have something, ma’am,” said Wattson, startling me. I looked up to see her standing there with a tense posture, tapping a PADD on her palm. “It’s a bit unusual though.” Nechayev’s predatory smile sent all sorts of instinctual shivers down my spine, my muscles coiling in preparation to flee. “Please, clarify, Lieutenant.” “Alright,” Wattson said. She looked down at me and gave me a pained smile, then returned her gaze to the console. “So, before I explain, let me ask everyone this: when in combat, what is the number one goal of any of the combatants?” “To force the enemy to surrender or disengage,” Blackford answered immediately. “Precisely. Too often people forget that we don’t have to blow up every single starship in a war just to win a battle,” Wattson continued. “In fact even in our most recent conflict with the Klingons, there were still surrenders and retreats on both sides, despite the typical Klingon attitude towards death in combat.” My brow furrowed as my ears flattened, taking all this in. “Where are you going with this, Amelia?” “We’ve only been at war with the Dominion for a few months,” Wattson said, “but it has already become clear that while the Cardassians are often willing to retreat when necessary, the Dominion rarely, if ever, does anything but fight to the last man. Their kamikaze tactics alone have been responsible for far more death and destruction than the Federation is used to.” I winced, remembering one of the more recent reports. The Seventh fleet… ninety-eight ships out of one hundred twelve, destroyed. Beyond absurd losses, something the Federation had never seen against any enemy other than the Borg. “Then what you have is something we can use to destroy the Dominion ships faster?” Nechayev growled, her posture tensing up more and more by the second as her eyes further narrowed on Wattson. “Not destroy. Disable.” Wattson tapped her PADD against the nearby control console and uploaded a small animation of the Phoenix tackling a squadron of Jem’Hadar attack ships. “First, we see the results of a typical battle.” The Phoenix and the Jem’Hadar fired back and forth as they dodged and weaved around each other. The Phoenix took two fighters out with a combination of phasers and torpedoes, but the third managed to deal some serious damage, and the fourth went for a kamikaze attack. The Phoenix was destroyed. I swallowed back some anxiety on seeing that, given it was quite similar to the battle we fought on our way to Starbase 375 that ultimately led to this. “I’m still not sure I follow, Lieutenant,” I said, my tone warning her this better be good. She briefly acknowledged my chastisement with a frown and then tapped the PADD again. “Now here is that same situation with the weapon I’m referring to in place.” The Phoenix was once more subjected to attack, but this time rather than firing traditional weapons, it launched a swirling bolt of reddish purple energy at the closest Jem’Hadar ship, which immediately tumbled end over end in a listless state. Two more bolts fired at the secondary pair, neutralizing them instantly. The last fled, and the animation concluded with the Phoenix hauling the three disabled ships off screen. Nechayev scowled. “Wattson, this… demonstration of yours makes it look like you disabled the enemy ships in a single attack, which while laudable is apparently not possible. At least, that’s what I was told just a few moments ago.” “That's why this would fully disable the enemy ship, and for far more than just a few minutes. If my calculations are correct, it would take days to unscramble a ship's power systems after being hit by one of these.” Wattson grinned. “With the right kind of energy dampener, we knock out their ships in one attack, leaving them vulnerable. We could turn the tide of a battle in an instant.” “Great, that’s just a really great concept there, Lieutenant,” zh’Clex snorted. “Just one problem: how in all the hells would we accomplish this?” La Forge snapped his fingers. “The Borg! They use energy damping technology; it’s a large part of their weapons systems, since their aim is to assimilate rather than destroy. The Enterprise was half-assimilated during the recent Borg encounter, and while we’ve never been able to get that technology to work for us before…” “We could use it as a model to create our own that uses applications of magic,” I finished, grinning up a storm with La Forge. “I can think of a few spells that might work… with the right applications of magical power and using something like the deflector array or a torpedo to distribute it, it could make a serious difference. If we can get it to work.” Nechayev scowled at me through the monitor. “Is that truly worth it, over enhancing other weaponry?” I tried not to sigh. “Yes, ma’am. We can’t just pump magic into a piece of technology like phasers or photon torpedoes and expect a more powerful weapon. Physics doesn’t work that way. Our phasers and torpedoes can only handle so much energy running through them, and that energy has to be properly modulated to work with the equipment.” “...but starship captains order more power to weapons or shields all the time,” she countered. This time I did let out the slightest of sighs, which I hoped wasn’t picked up by the comms. “Yesss, and with respect, Admiral, you’re not an engineer. It’s not as simple as putting X amount more power into those systems. What we’re really doing is reserving power to be injected into those systems when they can handle it rather than using that power on other systems instead. It’s like holding a battery or a power pack in reserve. As soon as one runs out you plug the next one in.” “And what’s stopping the magic from being a power source for other systems so we could devote the warp core more to weapons and shields during combat? Or vice versa?” Nechayev shot back, the look in her eye clear: I was once again one hoofstep short of insubordination. I needed to choose my response carefully. The problem was she’d just made a really good point… except she’d forgotten one thing. Before I could respond, however, Wattson took over. “With all due respect, Admiral, I’m not about to plug Sunset’s horn into the EPS grid and tell her to sit there and run the lateral sensors while I keep the phasers running. And we still can’t run our converters above thirty percent, nor do we have a proper magical power distribution system yet.” I picked it up to finish. “We may eventually get to what you’re suggesting, but for now it would be more practical to focus on specific applications, and gear the magic for that. Eventually we can work it into a secondary power source of its own.” “Hmm, I-I wonder if it would be practical to have a secondary, smaller warp core dedicated just to magical energy production,” Barclary wondered, tapping the side of his face. “That’s something for the shipyards to think about, Reg,” La Forge said with a wry grin. “One of these days we’ll need a proper testbed ship, built from the ground up.” “Realistically that’s what we should be doing anyway, not this rag-tag research group in a nebula outside Cardassian space,” Moneaux stated. They gave us all a piercing look. “But wartime needs must.” “Precisely, Mx Moneaux,” Nechayev said. “Starfleet Intelligence and R&D want us to be able to test these technologies in the field. We don’t have time for anything else.” “Pog appreciates the challenge.” The Tellerite pounded his fists together. “Better to take the fight to the enemy." In that we all agreed. The meeting continued for a while yet, with a great many more ideas thrown about, but few that we agreed were viable. Though there was one amusing moment when Pog started ranting about replicators not matching proper home made cooking and grumbling the replicator should have a “chaos factor” that allowed the quality of the food to be different each time it was made. The idea struck me as one with actual merit, so I added it to the list. If nothing else, trying it should produce some hilarious results. We could use some laughs. “Ma’am, can I speak with you privately?” Amelia asked me as soon as the conversation ended. “Of course,” I said, drawing her over to a corner of the lab. While a few others saw fit to get to work, I looked her in the eye. “What’s up?” Amelia’s fists tightened for a moment, then she reached up to pluck her comm badge and set it down. “This is off the record.” I nodded in acknowledgement, and set mine aside as well. “Okay, what’s the issue, Amelia?” “It’s Twilight,” she answered, ringing her hands. Her mouth worked like a cow chewing a cud while she let out repeated small sighs. “Or, rather… it’s me, and my issues with Twilight, and how I acted towards her earlier.” I inclined an eyebrow as I took that in. “Lemme guess. She tried to apologize to you over the sleep spell and you shoved it back in her face, verbally speaking.” “Preeeetty much,” Amelia said in a tired moan, plopping herself down in a nearby chair so she could hold her head. “I acted like a complete idiot.” “Yeah, you did,” I admitted as I adjusted my wings to be more comfortable. “I'll admit, it was mine and Twilight's mistake to leave the old spell in there, but mishandling the converter and knocking yourself out was all on you, I'm afraid.” “...I know, Sunset,” she grumbled. “But… it… what if you hadn’t figured out why I was still asleep?” “The spell would’ve eventually worn off,” I answered immediately. “In fact it’s a little odd it lasted as long as it did. Usually a spell like that wears off in a few hours.” She looked up at me from between her hands, which had her hair laced between her fingers. “So why did this one last over twenty-four hours?” I set a hoof to my chin for a moment as I considered the evidence. “It… most likely has to do with the same reason the converter exploded in your face. We’re not on Equus. The spell might have been… supercharged by the energy passing through the converter.” “Meaning?” she pressed. I rubbed my chin some more as I thought, trying to scrunch some numbers. “Meaning that, since it took close to thirty-one hours for you to awaken… it likely would’ve worn off after a week.” “A week?” she hissed. “A week?!” Instinctively I tossed up a privacy warding charm to keep her from disturbing the rest of the lab. “Amelia, calm down. It was a mistake, we’ve corrected it, and you were woken up well before then.” She shuddered, her eyes filling with tears. “I know you’re right, Sunset, but, you don’t… it…” She swallowed back her tears, almost choking. “When I was kid, I had a lot of… problems. And sometimes those problems meant I had to be put under, sometimes for days. So they had to use stasis chambers. Then I was cured, thanks to an incredible discovery, made friends with Cady… and it all came flooding back when I was told what kept me under.” I glanced over to make sure the other officers weren’t paying attention before I rushed in to give her a quick hug. “I’m so sorry, Amelia. Twilight and I had no way of knowing--” She hugged me back. “No, you didn’t. And you’re right, I shouldn’t have messed with the thing by myself to begin with.” She let out another sigh and let me go. “I need to find a way to apologize to her.” “She should be returning later this evening,” I said as I brought up the shuttle schedules on a nearby screen. “She’s scheduled to depart soon for the Algerie to assist with their converter creation, then return to the Phoenix. If you’d like, I can be there with you. Maybe make it a hangout for dinner. How does that sound? “...sure,” Amelia said, nodding to me. She scooped up her badge, and I took mine back up at the same time. “Thank you, ma’am. Much appreciated.” I gave her a respectful nod. “Of course.” Then a sly grin crossed my muzzle. “And thank you for helping to deal with Nechayev. She’s… well, you saw.” Amelia flashed me one last grin and left, while the rest of us took a few moments to stretch our legs and grab a beverage and small snack; I favored some raktajino and a cream cheese bagel. As the taste filled my mouth I returned to the research, I started crunching some numbers and putting together a few basic simulations on how a few of these things might work. Of them I thought the easiest to adapt would be the sleep spell on the phasers, since all that should require is a use of the same Shimmer crystal used for a battery, a stored spell, and applying it through the nadion beam. But as I worked, a sour feeling wormed its way into my stomach. Moneaux was right about one thing - hiding out in a sketchy nebula on the doorstep of a warzone is not the best way to do research of any kind, much less do it safely. If the Cardassians or the Dominion stumbled in here and found us… I shook my head and snorted. The last thing any of us needed was more negativity, more stress. We'd taken every precaution, magical and otherwise. Besides, we were short on time - less than three days until the Dominion completed dismantling the minefield blocking the wormhole. A ragtag fleet gathered at Starbase 375… barely more than six hundred starships. They’d have to depart soon to have any chance of making it in time, and knowing the Dominion they’d defend DS9 with everything they had. If we lost that fight, we could lose everything. And losing everything meant losing the only way home we might ever find. That was the only reason I’d even agreed to this whole affair to begin with. God...I could only hope that we’d somehow win the day. That, somehow, we would survive. With the magical sensing technology we had now, we were closer than ever to potentially finally discovering our way home. If it weren’t for this stupid war, we'd be out here looking for Equus, not researching ever more convoluted ways to stun aliens that want to kill us all. We were so close… so close, and yet still so far. “Please,” I whispered. “Whatever or whoever might be listening… please let my sister and me survive to set hoof on our homeworld once more.” “...please…”