((A/N: So sorry for the delay on that last chapter, writer's block is a bitch. Onward!))

Alpha Site- between Inner and Outer Council Space

A system barely charted, with no Mass Relay or monitoring post, light years away from the nearest primary or secondary Relay. Now a hive of activity. Sensor buoys litter the width and breadth of the binary system. A number of barely habitable moons and planets, each now with signs of settlement of some kind. The Jovian worlds were bustling with dilithium mines and vast orbital arrays of replicators. Industrial replicators transporting raw material from the surfaces of moons and fabricating more industrial replicators. In days the number grew to easily observable swarms, fabricating new fusion plants and assembling themselves into dry-dock facilities.

In a few short weeks, several small space stations were well under construction, primarily of Starfleet design for simplicity sake. Though around the largest habitable world, one that had just recently transitioned into class M status, a Cardassian space station was also under construction, in geosynchronous orbit over a new ground settlement. Even to those building and overseeing the construction were surprised at the pace. In a month's time, the Cardassian station would be complete and ready for habitation and supply storage.

Commander Shepard was definitely impressed, and a little intimidated. Once again aboard the Hallowed Pillar, she looked out from the forward lounge at the station in construction. Liara was present as well. In fact, her entire crew was on board. The Alliance had reviewed the performance of the Normandy in it's engagement with the Tal Shiar cruiser, and it not only needed repairs to it's weapon systems, but a battery of systems upgrades and changes to help improve the vessel's survivability.

Looking out the large window down at the station that dwarfed most Alliance stations in its incomplete state, Shepard sighed. These replicated drinks from exotic places did little to reign in her mind, though a prothean expert was more successful. Liara was beginning to figure out the biotic human's moods, but human culture was still a lot to try and figure out at once. Her life of solitude up to this point was not helping her, but Shepard seemed patient. Setting her PADD- courtesy of Admiral Skaarsgard- aside, she rose from the lounge chair and stood next to Shepard, looking out into space.

"Sorry Liara," the commander said after a few seconds, eyes still locked on the station. "Lot of things on my mind." The asari smiled a little. "Is that different from any other time?" Shepard smiled and sipped from her glass. "I suppose not. But being a Spectre means I have to juggle some pretty scary secrets. Take all this for example," she said, gesturing to the construction, not only of the station, but all the work in this backwater system. "This is a secret from the whole Galaxy. Only the Council and the Spectres know about it. And these… Starfleet admirals expect me to help keep it that way. Keep out the Alliance. The Shadow Broker, these shady Cerberus characters… It's a tall order."

Liara studied the human's face; the light on her dark skin, the subtle muscle movements when she spoke. She could only find admiration for this face, the strength of character. "You've made a career on accomplishing the impossible. You can do this Shepard. I have seen you in action. I have faith," she placed an assuring hand on the human's shoulder, "in you. Your abilities and strengths."

A far door opened and interrupted the pair, turning to spy a female officer enter the lounge. Judging from the uniform jacket in red with gold epaulettes and trim, she was pretty important. Her skin was an odd hue, almost a creamy yellow, with her black glossy hair in an elegant bun, strands tastefully left free. She spotted Shepard and Liara and altered course, a pleasant enough smile on her too perfect face. She came to a halt a respectful distance away, eventually settling her gaze on the commander.

"Greetings Commander Shepard. I am Lieutenant Commander Nanaleh. Admirals Skaarsgard and Bur'kol request your presence on the bridge. Something urgent has come up." Leading the guests out of the lounge and to the nearest turbolift, quiet as they all stepped into the car. Once the doors slid shut, Nanaleh told the lift their destination. If it was unsettling how Shepard and Liara were staring at her, she did not show it.

"I thought Admiral Skaarsgard had said you were recalled to Starfleet Command," Liara finally said to break the silence. Nanaleh seemed delighted to answer the question. "That is correct, Dr. T'Soni. I was stationed on the Hallowed Pillar under orders not to report my location to the crew of the Road to Victory. However, that project is now complete, and I will be returning to my post soon." Shepard watched the android in rapt attention. She could not help but blurt out.

"So, is your rank honorary? I mean, as a machine I doubt going through an academy would be useful. Wouldn't Starfleet just program you for specific tasks?" The asari looked a little pale, staring at Shepard. She had heard about the tense discussion Admiral Bur'kol had with Matriarch Persello. But thankfully, Nanaleh did not seem to mind. In fact, she was expecting it.

"No, I graduated from Starfleet Academy in one of the largest graduating classes. Starfleet does not commission the construction of androids. I do not believe any of us even know our creators. Before I attended the academy, I resided in a colony near the Neutral Zone. I am an equal. The Federation, Klingon Empire, and Romulan Republic all recognize both androids and holographic programs as sentient beings. I've heard about how your universe treats synthetic life. I personally hope your galactic society matures during our stay. However long that is."

Before Shepard could mumble an apology, the turbolift doors slid open and Nanaleh led the guests onto the bridge. Wulfgar was down in the forward sensor bay, shouting needlessly up to the dais where Ma'velo, Tkuran and Matriarch Persello were seated. The android led them to the dais before joining Wulfgar at the sensor consoles. Shepard turned her attention to the viewscreen, where a grainy image was gradually being cleared up. "We can't get the transmission any clearer," Wulfgar shouted, appearing from a set of steps on the far side of the bridge.

"What exactly are we looking at?" Shepard asked.

"A debris field a surprisingly honest volus exploration company has alerted us to," the Matriarch stated, keying up a transmission to split the viewscreen in half. A volus in the classic pressure suit, waited with a datapad in hand. Shepard was not very confident in volus in general. "At great risk I might add. If we went through proper channels salvage companies under Citadel protection would flock this site. I'd rather more responsible parties clear this up. Your technology… our galaxy is not ready for it."

"You want a Spectre to secure the area before illicit goods get carted off," Shepard said, surmising her role now. "Smart plan. How big of a debris field are we talking here?" The volus checked his data pad, sending the data to the viewscreen. "One hundred twenty kilometers on one axis. Mass spectrometer readings show alloys of unknown manufacture. We also spotted your Federation insignia on several pieces of debris."

Wulfgar digested the information the quickest, and was quick to issue orders. "Please maintain your position near the debris field, keep in communication in case you get visitors." The volus nodded and closed the video feed. "Shepard, I'd like for you to come with me. Admiral Bur'kol," he said, turning to face the Klingon, a slightly apologetic look on his face. " please keep the Hallowed Pillar here, I'd rather not split up our battle cruisers in case the Tal Shiar or those renegades show up." Ma'velo pouted for a second, but smiled and nodded. "Yes Admiral."

"Contact the captain of the Yan Zhe, I'd like to take it out for this mission while Road to Victory is undergoing repairs. If need be, I'll send for the Will of Kahless to aid us. Have Nanaleh, Fourteen, and Takerra report to the Yan Zhe as soon as possible." The Grey Hair's attention settled on Shepard. "Shepard, square your team away and get ready to transport to the Yan Zhe. We will depart once you are ready."

In under an hour the Yan Zhe, under temporary command of Wulfgar Skaarsgard was well on its way to the debris field. After some convincing, Shepard was allowed to bring along Tali, who had spent time looking over the technology of the federation and was eager to examine some in its raw state, as well as investigate the cause of the debris field. Wulfgar relented, knowing someone would have to be taught about his universe's technology, why not someone under the watchful eye of a Spectre?

The ship was significantly smaller than the Odyssey Advanced class, but was still a tough battleship. Shepard and Tali were allowed to explore, but needed to wear Starfleet combadges. Some of the Yan Zhe's systems were a little dated, unable to work with the omnitool's holographic data storage structure. Shepard did not feel the need to review the ship's tactical systems, as this was just a salvage operation. A little sting to her pride, something she mused was ultimately a part of human nature. Always upward and forward.

But Shepard also knew why this was important. The technology even a hull scrap could provide would destabilize the entire galaxy. If the Tal Shiar was not already doing that in the Terminus. Her musing stopped as the room's quiet was interrupted by the computer's announcement for Shepard to report to the bridge. She left the guest quarters and met up with Tali on the way to the turbolift.

"Shepard, I've been noticing something strange," the quarian said as the turbolift doors closed. Shepard was visibly shocked by the revelation. "What do you mean?"

"Some of the crew on this ship… they act suspiciously. A few talking amongst themselves will go silent if I walk by. I even saw one leering at me when I was in Main Engineering earlier to get a lesson on Deflector Control. Could they just not like… well, aliens like us?"

Shepard dwelled on it as the turbolift reached the Bridge. "I'll ask Wulfgar about it later. Right now the mission is first and foremost."

"Yes, Shepard."

The Yan Zhe had a standard Sovereign class bridge, smaller but more practical for the battlecruiser. Wulfgar sat in the chair, looking at the console next to his chair. On the viewscreen, a sprawling debris field, and the volus ship waiting for them. "Keelah, what could have damaged and destroyed so many ships?" Tali said, a little intimidated at her own imagination. "You don't want to know the possibilities," Takerra said from the helm.

"Admiral, the volus captain Sek Deph is hailing us."

The screen shifted to the same volus from before, and from his demeanor, something was agitating him. "Admiral, there is a grave problem here." The Grey Hair sat forward in his seat. "I'm listening." The volus sent data to the Starfleet vessel, which displayed on the split screen. "We have been surveying the field just to determine expansion and how long it might have been here when we spotted something alarming. Fifty kilometers down the field on it's far side there is an obvious intrusion into the field. A path was cleared to a cluster of ships, here-" the screen denoted the dispersion of junk apart from the rest of the field, then displayed something the Starfleet crew had hoped not to see.

"Those are temporal ships from our future. Klingon timeships," Nanaleh said, scanning the field to confirm the suspicion. "We will need to get closer to get a good scan, the debris is interfering heavily with active scans. It appears the deflector arrays are all reflecting ambient radiation within the field." Wulfgar rose from the Chair and looked over Nanaleh's shoulder. A scowl on his face was the only way he showed his frustration at the turn of events.

"What about a high frequency wave?"

The bridge turned to face Tali, who stepped back slightly. "A high frequency wave might flush out the radiation and clear up the interference." Nanaleh smiled. "An excellent idea Tail'Zorah. A high frequency pulse from the main deflector should do the trick," the android stated, turning to her console and remotely configuring the pulse. "It should also let us get a loose count of how many ships are out there. The particle emitters in the deflector assemblies should give off a slight resonance," Wulfgar said, turning to Shepard. "Care to join me for a little up close surveying? If there are timeships in there, we need to secure them or completely destroy them."

"Before you go Admiral," the volus interrupted, "I need the Spectre to transmit instructions to the Council to encrypt all comm traffic regarding this area. Create a navigation loophole, at least stall them from saying anything about this find. Volus salvage companies and illegal salvage operations are cut throat businesses. We don't need this disappearing into some research lab with no regulation."

A half hour later Shepard successfully had the area declared an impassible navigation hazard and they could salvage in peace. Using one of the Yan Zhe's Yellowstone runabouts, Wulfgar, his crew from the Road to Victory plus Shepard and Tali were navigating the debris field. Coming upon the first Klingon timeship, it was a foreboding find. Disruptor fire scored the remnants of the hull, where components had been cut or ripped free.

"Someone on that ship knew what to look for. No Manheim Device, no Tipler Cylinder, and I am not sure if they got the time device or not," Nanaleh said after a few moments of scanning the forward hull of the Krenn class destroyer. Tali was at an auxiliary sensor console, surprising them as she was quick to learn her way around the advanced technology. "These disruptor blast marks are barely thirty hours old," she reported, setting Shepard on edge.

"Nanaleh, what could they use those devices for?" the Spectre asked.

"Several things, although I would have thought they might salvage the entire vessel. It is possible to fit them into the EPS grid of one of our era's vessels, but it will be very difficult. Additionally, it would take some advanced knowledge to do so. We may have to consider a Klingon Intelligence agent from the future is assisting them." Shepard scowled. Wulfgar had the same sentiment.

"I'd guess on them making a creating a localized time contraction device," he finally said, directing Takerra to take them deeper into the debris field. "It could speed time up for anything in the field, making repairs and upgrades fast and easy. We need a way to disrupt that capability." Moments later, Tali made a worthwhile discovery. "Admiral, the computer has identified a Mobius class escort and a pretty damaged Wells class timeship."

Once in range of the ships, the crew was surprised to see the Mirror escort in better than expected condition. It's advanced chroniton weaponry remained intact, and it's own time devices were more gently removed. The Wells was heavily damaged, but the time device, Tipler Cylinder and Manheim Device were salvageable. Nanaleh transported to the Mobius vessel to inspect it, and did one better, restarting the ship's warp core. With the advanced ship active, they could better scan the debris field. With no more exceedingly dangerous technology in the field, the remains of the other timeships were destroyed. Now on board the Mobius vessel and the salvaged time technology in the cargo hold, Wulfgar directed the vessel back to the Alpha Site. Yan Zhe would remain behind and guard the field while beginning salvage operations.

While the debris field was being secured, the Alpha Site was monitoring communications through the comm buoy and was monitoring a situation that was swiftly developing. While still piecing together how the politics of this universe worked, it was a little too late to realize a batarian force massing in the Terminus Systems was about to converge on a human colony at the edge of the Systems and the Attican Traverse. Soon that region experienced a communication black out, then a hail from Arcturus Station on the secure line to the Alpha Site the Council had authorized. After some deliberation, aid was dispatched in the Hallowed Pillar and the RRW Rhidan.

"Admiral, this is a small colony of about three thousand humans, less than a handful of asari and Salarians," Commander S'Rae advised, her ship travelling several light-years behind the Odyssey class flagship. Ma'velo looked to the Matriarch to her left. "It is not uncommon for colonials to contact other races for help, though many are preyed upon and essentially robbed," the elder asari stated. "Without knowing who they are or what company they represent, it's hard to say."

"Could they be coordinating the attack on the colony," Tkuran asked, leaning forward in his chair. "We've seen reports form the Terminus systems, these 'mercenary gangs' don't seem to discriminate much and employ even species we have not yet encountered," the Cardassian added. The matriarch had a pained expression on her face as she stared ahead.

"It is possible, though we asari try to limit any association with them at all. Most are in the gangs after being cast out of the Republics and Council Space. If they are guilty of collaborating with slavers, they should be imprisoned and stand trial."

The Admiral thought for a moment, slowly rising from her chair. "Tactical, I want firing solutions to disable the engines of any batarian vessel we encounter, try to limit casualties. I want detailed sensor analyses on their vessels and any way to transport the colonists off those ships." The bridge began executing her orders as they were short minutes away from the system. It was far from the cluster Mass Relay, but this was more an advantage for the Starfleet and Romulan Republic ships.

"Bur'kol to Sickbay."

"Sickbay here."

"Standby for treatment of mass casualties. You have authority to use every cargo bay, shuttle bay, gymnasiums, the lounge, even the holodecks if you need to."

"Understood, Sickbay out."

Commander S'Rae had issued similar orders to her crew, but also knew her ship, despite its size, could hold only a small number of the potential abductees. "Admiral, once my ship is in range, we will begin searching for any batarian vessel with humans in them and disable them. But we will need to act fast, some slavers will kill their victims rather than have to repatriate them."

Ma'velo scowled at the dishonorable thought. "If you have time and the supplies, maybe you could transport nonlethal amounts of anesthnazine gas into the environmental systems, it might incapacitate them long enough to get the humans out of there." The Romulan acknowledged and closed the channel, and Ma'velo returned to her chair. The ensign at the conn signaled they were ready to drop from high warp.

"Drop to impulse and accelerate to full attack speed. I want to secure the route they're likely to take to reach the Relay before we push to the colony," the Admiral ordered, and all eyes went to the view screen as the ship drop from light speed. Already five large cruisers loitered, and despite raising their kinetic barriers, sensor sweeps revealed only one was laden with prisoners.

The Starfleet cruiser moved on the single cruiser, raising shields as the batarians tried to retaliate. Once they were in range, Ma'velo ordered the cruiser captured in a tractor beam while they scanned the cruiser in detail. Survey had quickly scanned the vessel, and was pleased to find and report that the kinetic barriers were weak enough that they could be overcome easily. "Primary deflector primed and ready to generate a system wide ionic pulse," the android reported.

The Matriarch at the Admiral's side looks a bit confused- or perhaps skeptical- as the android deployed the pulse, wiping out all kinetic barriers while hardly disrupting the Starfleet vessel's shields. "Good work, Survey. Bridge to all Transporter Rooms, begin beaming all non-batarian life signs off that ship, and stand by to transport more off successive ships," Ma'velo ordered, and various voices over the comm acknowledged the orders.

In a few seconds, the batarian cruiser only had it's skeleton crew, and Ma'velo looked at the ship on the view screen. She had not met a batarian, but she knew enough now she did not like them in any way. "We must send a strong message. The Batarian Hegemony will not take prisoners of a foreign power, regardless of how important it is to their society. Tactical, lock weapons on all enemy targets and fire. Destroy them all," the Klingon demanded, earning a rallying cry from the officers on the bridge.

Matriarch Persello watched dumbfounded for a moment, but realized it was definitely not her place to interfere now. Some of the Republics on Thessia might do a little slave trade, especially through Illium, but she never agreed with the practice. If the asari could make a strong alliance with Starfleet, perhaps the trade would be banished to the Terminus Systems. On the view screen, she got to see what Federation weapons could do to native vessels. The beams of energy arched from the arrays on the chevron bow, each array firing multiple beams even, and cut up the five batarian ships. The hull armor was simply no match, melting instantly and the superstructures fairing little better. Some were cut in half, one had a hole bored through from bow to stern, completely obliterating its Element Zero core. Another lost its prow, then two engines shot clean off, then destroyed by a single Photon Torpedo.

The Hallowed Pillar then plotted the course toward the besieged colony, quickly crossing the distance through the system and destroying three more empty cruisers with parting shots from her aft torpedo tubes. Coming upon the colony world however, there were many cruisers in high and low orbit, as well as on the far side of the planet. "Could we separate and assault them from three directions?"

Shaking her head to Persello's question, Ma'velo rose from her seat. "No, the Chevron section has two more Transporter Rooms than the Stardrive, Stardive has Main Sickbay and a med bay. The Aquarius module only has a small three person transporter. We need to disable those carrying their prisoners and destroy the others." Lt. Savern was monitoring the batarian comm channels, trying to get an eye for where they may run first. "Admiral, looks like a few are trying to talk the others into a surrender. The ones in high orbit are their commanders though, I think they are threatening to fire on their own ships if they break orbit. One of the command ships has prisoners."

The Klingon glowered, these batarians were sinking to new lows every second. "Send an ultimatum to all batarian ships; Surrender and offload any prisoners, and we will let them leave the system. If they refuse, we will extract their prisoners and destroy each ship. Piracy will not be tolerated by this or any other Starfleet vessel." The Bajorian Tactical officer relayed the message, and was bombarded by a mix of accepted terms and overbearing overruling of those acceptance messages. "I don't think they're going for it, Admiral. Maybe if we took out their command ships?"

Mulling it over, the Klingon looked at the viewscreen. "Bring the command ship with prisoners on screen." The view shifted to one larger batarian cruiser, with an overlay of its specifications supplied by Survey. "Helm, bring us within transporter range of that ship and-"

"Admiral, there are opening their cargo bay outer doors, they are preparing to decompress their prisoners," Survey alerted, and the Conn officer jumped the gun, plotting a course to the ship at full impulse, but even the android could see they would not make it in time. But then the RRW Rhidan de-cloaked and had begun transporting the prisoners to safety. One Klingon may have never been so glad to see a Romulan vessel in her life. "Admiral, we have the prisoners aboard, moving on low orbit targets," Commander S'Rae said in a short comm burst as the Mogai Warbird arced over the batarian vessel and closed in on an unloaded ship. Without mercy or forewarning, ripped it to shreds in a flurry of plasma weaponry.

The Federation ship moved on to liberate virtually the entire colony from the rest of the ships, but many surrendered before they were in range, and left the system- with some hull scoring and missing weapons. The captains of both ships would then beam down to the colony and help begin repairs to the colony, render first aid and coordinate the return of the colonists. Commander S'Rae and Ma'velo would find themselves at odds though.

"Admiral, with all due respect, we have to give these people more than immediate medical aid! The batarians destroyed much of their infrastructure, vehicles and the few ships they had for commerce or defense!" the liberated Borg shouted, becoming irate with this cool mannered Klingon. "I understand that Commander, and I empathize, but we can't leave your Warbird on station here or just give them an industrial replicator. If we do we will upset the balance of power all over the sector."

"To hell with the politics!" S'Rae practically screamed, causing the security escorts for both captains to stand on edge. "These people could be going weeks or months without so much as a word from the Systems Alliance! I don't care if we are in alliance with Starfleet, but I will not let a colony be raped and leave them defenseless. We will at least leave one of our runabouts and three Scorpion fighters to defend themselves while they petition for aid from their own people. I will stand firm on this Admiral! This will not be another Virinat," the Romulan said.

Ma'velo looked long and hard at the tremoring Romulan for several moments. Just before S'Rae could explode again, the Admiral acquiesced to her request. "Alright. Leave your small craft and we will also leave replicators and the instructions for use. Until the Alliance sends support." The Romulan deflated a bit, but nodded and signaled her ship to execute her orders and prepare to leave. Ma'velo sighed and turned to her officers, motioning for them to stand down, and when she relaxed and turned about, found a small group of children from the colony.

They stared wide eyed at the dark skinned alien, who simply stared back before recovering her composure and stood tall. "You have nothing to fear from us, little ones. Starfleet and the Romulan Republic will not harm you," she said, though it did not seem to convince the children. "Why were you arguing? Why don't you want to help us?" Ma'velo looked down for a moment, a look of guilt briefly on her face. "We might make you a bigger target to the slavers or the mercenaries by giving you this support. And there are too few of our ships to support you. Fifteen vessels can't protect every colony world in the galaxy."

The Klingon knelt down before the children, letting them crowd around her in their curiosity. "But we will help as much as we can. We will even go to the Systems Alliance Parliament, we'll make them do more. You deserve better than to fend for yourselves."