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Chapter 45

Interlude IV: The A-Team

Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards

March 29, 2381

B'Elanna Torres had experienced much in her 35 years; more than most people would in their entire lives.

Until today, she'd thought she'd seen more of the universe's horrors and wonders than Kirk had during his first five-year mission.

What was once a passing feeling of accomplishment, dissolved into fear and regret as the details were laid out before her on a PADD older than it had any right to be.

Some of it was comparable to horrors she'd seen in the Delta Quadrant and stomached them as such, but this one last thing, she could not.

Sometimes ignorance was bliss, and this was one time she wished she'd remained as such.

Like so many others before her, the ring world projected in front of B'Elanna drowned out any other thoughts upon discovering it in the PADD's databanks.

The ability to kill anything possessing a central nervous system within a 25,000 light year radius was a weapon none would dare build, unless they were being overrun by the biological equivalent to the Borg.

The more she read about the Forerunners and their war with the Flood, the more she understood why they'd built the Halos. Despite the validity of the Forerunner's reasons to construct such a weapon, she couldn't help but imagine what would happen to her family and friends, and for the whole of civilization should one find its way to the Alpha Quadrant.

Now leaning against the wall of her office, her eyes remained transfixed on the projection spinning above her.

The ring, in all it's technological glory, had put B'Elanna between a rock and a hard place. Two choices were laid out before her, and neither of them seemed ideal.

On one hand, she could tell Janeway, but what would that lead to? Bureaucracy was the likely answer, but then there were the Federation's less talked about organizations that might do drastic things in order to get answers. Savannah had name-dropped Section 31 during their conversation, and while B'Elanna played ignorant, she'd heard about them from her husband once, though he treated them more like a ghost story rather than reality.

The other choice was going along with Savannah's plan. That would jeopardize her career, and possibly lead to prison time if she were caught. The thought of being away from Miral was a punishment worse than death, and that alone almost sent her running to Janeway, but the other potential pitfalls soured that idea even further.

What her indecision boiled down to was her inability to determine if Savannah said was telling the truth or a twisted version of it.

The last thing B'Elanna wanted was to be fooled into doing something she'd really regret, like building a universal power source for a race of androids who killed their own creators.

Indecision wracked her mind as her fears fought for dominance over one another, and she ended up spending hours just sitting on the floor with the holographic image of Halo rotating before her.

B'Elanna wanted to go to Janeway, she wanted to get her old colleagues together once more and figure out for themselves, but every time she intended to do so, the weight in her gut pulled her back down.

The choices pulled at her the longer she sat, and made her feel as if she were being torn in two.

Finally, six hours after she'd spoken to the cadet, someone got tired of her indecision.

Off to her left, a high-pitched ping heralded the arrival of the last person she wanted to talk to right now.

Dressed in his traditional captain's uniform and occupying her chair was the infamous Q.

B'Elanna had not seen hide nor hair of him for many years now. While she was content to never lay eyes on him again, she wasn't entirely surprised by his visit.

He might be the only person who could answer her questions and give her some guidance, even though she'd probably have to play his mind games to get them.

At least he wasn't spouting some rhetoric right out of the gate, or start preaching about some obscure philosophical bologna she couldn't care less about at the moment.

"You know what I really hate about you, Q?" she drawled while keeping her eyes planted firmly on the wall in front of her, "You could snap your fingers, and all this would go away," she snapped her fingers for emphasis before twisting her head to the quasi-god sitting in her chair.

"If only those pesky rules weren't so... pesky," he sighed with exasperation, "I wonder how many curse your Prime Directive for the same reason."

B'Elanna already knew that, but she just felt like saying it. He was right, of course. The rules existed for a reason, but whether or not she always agreed with them was a completely different subject.

"If you're not here to help me, then buzz off and leave me be," she bit while turning her attention back to the wall.

Q rolled his eyes and leaned back in the seat, "I never said I wouldn't help," he clarified, "just not the way you want."

Again, she figured as much. He was so fond of giving hints to his pets when he was testing them.

At this point, though, any help was better than sitting here a minute longer, even if it meant listening to his uppity-condescending voice.

"And why not Picard? Or Janeway? I've never been of interest to you."

Q smiled, "Until now."

"Until now," she repeated demurely. She'd rather be trapped on a Borg cube in the darkest corner of the galaxy than spend one moment as Q's muse.

There was a moment of silence after the exchange while she waited for the god-like being to speak his peace.

"It's true," he revealed. "What the girl said. It's all true."

Her eyes turned back to him, and she found his face honest and open. "Halo?"

"Especially that," he groused, "Omega powered, or whatever passes for it in that universe, and extremely deadly to all who have any kind of nervous system. And that's just the default setting!"

"Of course it is..." she sighed as her mind attempted to come up with some way to eliminate that much Omega, but came up empty. "Wait... what do you mean 'passes for it'?"

"The universe from which it comes from, is slightly different from our own. Different enough, that the Q have no power there, nor over any object originating from it. It's from a different subset of the Infinite."

"The Infinite?" The phrase sounded like something from one of Tom's old movies, but she quickly realized it was a simple expression for something much more profound. "You're talking about all the possibilities that could have happened after the Big Bang?"

He shook his head, "Worse. I'm talking about all the possibilities starting from the moment anything existed, including universes who's rule sets are different from any like our own. Some so different, that just upon entering one, you'd cause a catastrophe that would kill you and possibly untold numbers of natives. Or you'd simply dissolve into nothing because that universe doesn't support life as you know it."

"But if they're similar enough, then you can travel between them without getting killed," she concluded. "Like Savannah."

"Like her, and her adoptive parents, and the AI that's coming to kill you all," he affirmed with a grim smile, "You're running out of time to put an end to things, and the Q aren't the only ones interfering."

Her eight-chambered heart quickened in her chest at his revelation. There were plenty of powerful, non-corporeal beings that Starfleet had encountered over the years that Q might be referring to.

"It's strange, isn't it. Before we'd be more worried about ourselves, now our first thoughts are for our children," he mused after witnessing her reaction to his warning.

"Your son is basically a god. Miral is a helpless child who could get herself killed by falling down a flight of stairs, or be hit by a stray phaser beam, or...or...or..." finally she trailed off and slumped back against the wall.

She pressed her right index finger and thumb against her tear ducts to keep from letting any tears spill in front of him.

"Gods we may appear, but you know better than that," he reminded her. "I worry about Junior just as much as you do your daughter."

While she had a hard time believing that, she knew he cared about his son deeply.

"Any other guidance, oh wise one?"

Q narrowed his eyes at her sarcasm, but ended up ignoring it save the irritation in his voice, "It'd be best to keep Starfleet out of this."

"Even Janeway?" B'Elanna prodded.

"Even Katie," he replied, "Section 31's roots run deep. Even if she's trustworthy, her colleagues may not be."

"And a vice-admiral has more eyes on them than an engineer," the half-Klingon conceded. "Fine," she huffed as she accepted her fate. "I'll go."

As she made to stand, Q gave one final warning, "This won't be easy," he warned as a dark look came over his face. "There will be choices you'll make that will tear you apart, and the fate of galaxy will rest on your shoulders. Are you ready for that? Are you ready to make decisions that will affect billions?"

Uncertainty flickered in her eyes from a brief moment before resolution replaced it. "We have before," she reminded him as memories of their encounters with the Borg and Omega came to mind.

"Those were Katie's decisions," he corrected. "The burden was hers to bear, but now it's yours. You hold the future in your hands, Commander. Choose wisely."

She inhaled deeply as the truth of his words rung in her mind, but that wasn't going to stop a retort from flying past her lips.

When B'Elanna turned to tell him it wasn't just her cross to bear, that it would take many such people making many hard choices to stop what was coming, she found Q snapping his fingers and disappearing in flash of light.

His final action only made her more irate. She bared her teeth and spat several, colorful, Klingon curses at the spot he'd just been sitting at a moment before.

As her anger subsided, she took a deep breath and ran her hands through her hair in an attempt to make herself look a little less bedraggled.

Now that the path ahead was clear, B'Elanna had one last thing to consider before she met with Savannah again: her husband.

Tom Paris was, without a doubt, the best thing that had ever happened to her. For so long she believed that her relationships would fall apart like her parents had, mostly because of her Klingon temperament. Tom had seen past that and all the drama her fiery personality brought, and she, in turn, had saved him as well.

She didn't know she could love someone that deeply before being flung to the Delta Quadrant, and she'd do anything to protect him and their child.

Together, they'd probably stand a better chance of resisting Skynet, but if something were to happen to her, who'd take care of Miral?

Her father? Tom's family?

They'd look after her, sure, but it wouldn't be the same.

Tom had to be safe and above reproach.

Lying to him, she feared, was going to be much harder than keeping this secret from Starfleet. He knew her tells better than Chakotay, whom she'd known for much longer than Tom.

Right now, she was too riled up and emotional to be able to make him believe everything was fine if she woke him up. Instead, she left him a message telling him that she was checking up on a lead before packing a few things in a messenger bag and leaving their quarters.

He'd be sound asleep right now, and hopefully he'd take her at her word should he wake up wondering where she was.

Guilt welled up in her chest as she walked the towards the shuttle bay. It had taken a long time for her and Tom to establish the level of trust they had in their relationship, and keeping this secret felt like a regression backwards. It harkened back to when they'd kept secrets from each other even when they'd shared a bed.

She pressed on though, and soon she was leaving the station in one of the many type 1 shuttles stored there. No one questioned her when she requested one out of the blue. They likely assumed she was busy with the whole Voyager disappearing business, which wasn't entirely false.

More lies she'd have to dream up now that she knew the secret truth, and she wondered if the Temporal Prime Directive would be a good enough excuse to keep Naomi from hating her should she ever found out.

Once she put in at Spacedock, B'Elanna wasted little time transporting down to the little house where Savannah resided. It was bitter cold outside, but B'Elanna only took note of the chilly bit before stepping up onto the porch and triggering the door chime.

She wasn't sure what would happen next, but she steeled herself regardless and waited for someone to answer the door.

Almost a minute went by before the door slid open, revealing a slightly disheveled Savannah dressed in a bathrobe.

The cadet's eyes scrutinized her for a second before darting around to various points behind B'Elanna. After ten or so seconds, she finally spoke, "That was faster than I expected..." she said while ushering B'Elanna in out of the blistering cold. "You didn't bring any...guests, did you?"

"We wouldn't be talking if I had," the engineer deadpanned as she strode into entryway and took in her surroundings. "So... what do you want from me? You said you needed help, but what you need is a miracle."

Savannah couldn't help but smile, "And you haven't pulled off a few of those in the Delta Quadrant?"

B'Elanna crossed her arms with Savannah's pad dangling in her hand. "I'm an engineer, not an angel."

"An engineer who was able to build a crude Quantum Slipstream drive after studying one for a few hours, enabling Voyager and her crew to rescue Captain Janeway from certain doom at the hands of a vengeful Arturis."

Arturis. That was a name she hadn't heard in a long time. The brilliant linguist/cryptographer had tried to sacrifice them to the Borg for saving the Collective from Species 8472. His people had subsequently lost their long stalemate with the Borg and had been assimilated, leaving a few, grief-stricken survivors to wander the galaxy looking for a purpose.

There had been some initial guilt amongst the crew after they'd been briefed on Arturis' true intentions and reasons, but he'd left no permanent mark on them save the Quantum Slipstream technology itself.

"You want a slipstream drive?" She couldn't say she was surprised, but still... it would a tall order to fill and she'd need a good reason to give up its secrets.

"With what ship?" Savannah asked, "My father bought an old Federation attack fighter years ago, and I'm not sure that qualifies."

B'Elanna, being extremely familiar with that type of craft from her Maquis days, had a little more faith in the old fighter shuttle than Savannah did.

"You'd be surprised how much speed you can pack into one of those," she smiled as old memories flashed through her head of tuning the Val Jean to be one of the fastest in the Maquis fleet.

"Can you pack a slipstream drive into one?"

"Not yet," B'Elanna admitted as they entered the living room, "It might take twenty years to build one small enough to fit, but it's not impossible."

Savannah had no reason to doubt her skill, but they didn't have twenty years.

"If only we had twenty years to prepare..." she sighed while offering B'Elanna a seat. "We're safe until John Henry leaves with Seven and the Doctor, but after that... who knows."

B'Elanna's face darkened. "I wasn't sure about you an hour ago," she admitted. "I thought about going to Janeway and telling her everything."

The engineer's bluntness made Savannah pause as a seed of worry settled in her gut. Whatever the woman would say next wouldn't be pleasant. "Why didn't you?"

"Q," she revealed, much to Savannah's surprise, "He convinced me to avoid telling Janeway, or anyone, about you. Told me your tale wasn't just an elaborate hoax. He even knew what Halo was."

Savannah's face scrunched in confusion and worry before it settled on realization and horror. "When was the last time the Q stepped in to warn anyone about an impending threat?"

B'Elanna knew this one from her time on Voyager, "The Borg."

"And the Borg would have destroyed the Federation if he hadn't forced a confrontation earlier than would have happened naturally. That means..."

B'Elanna had already figured out that Q knew more than he was letting on. She knew they were in mortal danger, but she wasn't exactly sure of the circumstances until she saw the horror painted in the young cadet's eyes.

"...that Skynet wins," B'Elanna breathed. "Halo, that has to be it!"

"No chance of a response," Savannah muttered as her father's message from earlier started making sense. The Prophet's had likely shown him a future where Skynet had won, and were stepping in to help avoid it. She told B'Elanna as much.

"Q said they weren't the only one's interfering. I bet he was referring to them," the half-Klingon reasoned as the severity of this threat continued to rise. "If he knows something we don't, we need to know."

"Well, you and I have to maintain appearances. We'll just have to wait."

B'Elanna didn't really want to wait, but the girl was right about avoiding suspicion. "Which is why I can't wait for your parents. I'm supposed to be figuring out what happened to Voyager, not stopping a murderous AI."

"I know," Savannah huffed, "I've been planning this for years. Whatever we do, we can't change our interactions all of a sudden. If we're going to interact, we have to come up with an excuse. Some way for you and I to interact professionally."

An eyebrow rose to meet tan ridges, "Is this your way of asking for a promotion?"

Savannah smirked, "No, just an assignment. I'm tactical path, but I've minored in engineering and science. Enough to be useful in most situations."

"What kind of classes does a girl like you take when she's preparing for the end of the world?" B'Elanna asked as a knowing smirk appeared on her face.

The girl shrugged, "Besides the ones that teach you how to survive and fight? Lots of advanced tech courses. Like Montgomery Scott's elective on transwarp theory I took last semester."

There had been some buzz about the legendary engineer making some breakthroughs in transporter technology, but the details were classified way above even B'Elanna's paygrade.

"Let me guess, some advanced warp mechanics, shield dynamics..."

"Something like that," Savannah smiled. "Wasn't easy, but I'm motivated."

B'Elanna thought about how to arrange something between them, when all of sudden it became obvious. "I told Tom that you had some crackpot theory about Voyager disappearing. I could say that you had some interesting ideas but that I ruled them out."

Savannah caught on quickly, "You liked what you saw and you'll have me assigned to something close to you after graduation..."

"Yeah, something like that."

"Sounds like a plan, Commander. I'll find a way to let you know what my parents found once you get back."

B'Elanna nodded in agreement as her face went neutral. There was so much to process and consider and little time to put it all together. "I'll make arrangements after we stop hunting for Voyager," she decided finally. "Probably best if we don't communicate between now and then, unless it's an emergency."

"Agreed," Savannah said while they stood up and headed for the door. Savannah gently grabbed B'Elanna's elbow as the door opened. "I'm sorry for dragging you into this, Commander" she apologized again. "But I knew long ago we'd never be able to do this alone, and we had no one we could turn to that we could trust. I grew up on stories of Archer, Kirk, Picard, Sisko, and Janeway, some before they ever happened."

B'Elanna knew that, but coming from Savannah, with a sense of awe and wonder, it suddenly struck home that this young cadet looked up to her as some sort of hero. It was both disturbing and flattering at the same time.

"And by watching our lives play out like a movie, you could pick and choose who you needed and who to avoid. Clever, if a bit creepy."

Savannah shook her head, "That was only the practical side of it. Remember, I was a little girl when I was brought to Voyager. After we came here, I had nothing. My mother and friend had left me behind, and Mr. Ellison..." she shuddered at the memory. "Sarah and Kyle were little more than strangers to me, just like the world I found myself in. No one knew what I had been through, and I couldn't tell them."

A sad sigh escaped her lips as old feelings of loneliness and alienation cascaded down her chest and settled in her stomach. "When I watched those shows; saw your struggles and triumphs, it gave me hope. Hope that I could learn to live in a strange, new world. Hope that we could find a way to stop Skynet. You and your crewmates especially showed that it was possible to beat impossible odds again and again and again. And even when everything fell to pieces, one of you always came through to fix it. Like Lieutenant Kim when the Quantum Slipstream drive failed and only he and Chakotay survived. Or that alternate Admiral Janeway who came back in time to bring Voyager home 16 years early. Those are the stories that help me keep faith that we can win, and out of all of those people I grew up learning about, I chose you."

B'Elanna swallowed hard. When most people pictured B'Elanna Torres, they imagined the half-Klingon, chief engineer of the renowned U.S.S Voyager. Those that knew her story better might even see her as a hero who helped save the galaxy, but Savannah saw more than that.

Stories showed both the good and the bad that their characters do, allowing Savannah to see B'Elanna's flaws and failings alongside her triumphs and strengths.

Despite perceiving herself to be a mixed bag at best, Savannah saw her as a legend.

B'Elanna did not feel comfortable being associated with Starfleet legends who's careers had spanned decades of remarkable service.

"You're putting a lot of faith in me," she remarked while stepping outside, "I'll try not to let you down."

And with that, she walked away.

Savannah sensed she'd made the woman uncomfortable, but it'd been necessary in her eyes to make sure that B'Elanna understood that Savannah hadn't made her choice lightly. That out of all the potential choices, she was the one that stood out to her.

Now that the meeting was over, Savannah felt her eyes droop a little as sleep tried to claim her. She needed rest, but her worry over what the Prophets had done to Kyle kept her mind from resting.

Needless to say, 8am classes the next day were going to be hell.

Sarah Connor never cared much for transporter technology. It was convenient, for sure, but the sensation of being deconstructed and then reconstructed had never settled with her.

Transwarp beaming was even less pleasant than the normal kind, as reassembly was far more jarring due to the way the person's pattern was transported through subspace.

This discomfort left her stumbling and disoriented after she rematerialized in the middle of a vineyard. To steady herself, she leaned on one of posts holding up the blooming fruit vines.

Once the shock was over, she looked around and caught sight of a house nearby that had one of the most beautiful backdrops she'd ever seen. Bajor was as beautiful as some of her war-time buddies said it was.

She let her eyes wander the valley before Kyle's voice reached her eyes. She never got tired of hearing her name on his lips. While their relationship had been awkward at first, Sarah had always known that both Kyle Reeses she'd met were very similar personality wise, and she'd fallen for this Kyle as she had John's father because of it.

A smile broke out on her face despite the dread that churned in her chest. It'd been months since she'd seen him in person and she missed his presence.

She'd arrived a football field away from Kyle, giving her time to check him over from a distance as they ran towards each other.

Besides missing his helmet and weapon, he seemed fine.

They crashed into one another hard enough she felt the sting of the impact, but barely acknowledged it as she buried her nose into his neck. His scent washed over her like a wave and settled her fears for a brief moment.

The euphoria settled after only a moment, leaving her with only worry and apprehension.

"What happened?"

Kyle had heard that tone too many times over the years they'd lived together. The look on Sarah's face was one she seemed to wear more often than not. She was always concerned about two things: the fate of humanity, and, primarily, her family.

With what was left of John Connor not too far behind him, he swallowed hard and began to tell his tale.

It didn't take long for him to explain how things had turned sour so fast.

She twitched when he told her about the Halo ring and battle that followed, and became visibly perturbed as he detailed the ground battle and the slaughter that occured at the hands of a new, powerful Terminator.

He showed her Cameron's endoskull, and explained that she'd committed suicide to prevent capture. Then he gripped her by the shoulders and revealed to her the horrifying truth about her son.

Upon learning that her son would be violated and twisted into the very thing he'd dedicated his life to stopping, her controlled features shattered in slow motion.

Sarah turned away from him and stumbled until she found support from another vine post . All of her fears and worries had come true, and it hurt to know that despite having the best chance they'd ever had at defeating Skynet, it had still managed a total victory.

She didn't even need to hear the end of the story to guess it's climax.

"It set off the ring, didn't it?" She couldn't even bear to call the machine by her son's name. It may have his memories and his look, but it was not him. "I'm guessing that's why the Prophets pulled you in?"

"Motivation was part of it, Sarah, but not for me."

She looked over at him with barely contained tears and said, "You mentioned Ezri. I assume she knows now."

"Her and two others the Prophets deemed necessary to our cause," he shifted uncomfortably, "Actually four," he said while fumbling with his vest pocket.

Sarah gathered her strength and pushed aside her overwhelming grief as Kyle extracted something from the black, armored mesh of his vest. She wiped her eyes to get a better look and saw something that gave her a small surge of hope.

"Is that...?"

"Cortana? No. She's someone new."

As if the curtains of a play had been drawn back, the AI emerged from her chip. The small holographic woman that was displayed in front of her wore clothing that Sarah had dawned many times while John was growing up: cargo pants, hiking boots, and a tank top.

Her facial expressions also mirrored Sarah's in that moment. One of sadness, grief, and hopelessness.

Not wanting to look weak in front of a potential ally, Sarah straightened herself and masked her emotions as best she could.

The AI spoke first as she studied the woman she'd heard so much about from Cameron. She was much older than she appeared in her companion's memories, but seemed... healthier, ironically. Perhaps a consequence of living in a near utopian society for 18 years.

Her strength and determination was also present, which made Isabel feel a little better about their chances of pulling off this crazy plan.

"Sarah Connor?" She asked hesitantly, as she did not know if she'd taken Kyle's name or not.

"Reese, actually," she corrected as her mask solidified into one of steely resolve. "And you are?"

"Isabel, UNSC Logistics. I was paired with Cameron for the last few months leading up until... the end."

Sarah breathed sharply at the reminder of the catastrophe that would happen in six years time. Knowing that trying to stop it at that point would be next to futile, she had only one question for Isabel.

"Can we stop it?"

The AI shrugged, "We never got all the details. It attacked, and they barely had time to respond before it went on a power trip to wreck the galaxy. I was just a straggler they picked up along the way..."

Sarah sighed, "When was the turning point?"

Isabel shuffled as Kyle brought her up a little higher. "When they took your son and turned him into a monster. Skynet learned all our secrets in an instant. If we can stop that, then we have a chance."

"Sarah," Kyle interrupted, "We still have time, but right now we..." he trailed off as Sarah's attention drifted to someone far behind him. He looked over his shoulder and found Sisko sitting down in a porch chair.

Upon seeing the legend they'd both served under at one point, the same idea that had been brewing in his head was forming Sarah's.

"You mentioned Dax earlier. Is she here too?"

"We have two Daxes, actually." Isabel crossed her arms as she too focused on Sisko. "Seems these 'Prophets' are as powerful as they say."

The shock of that revelation barely amounted to a confused blink from Sarah, but she still looked to Kyle for confirmation. "They reformed her body and copied her essence from Dax. They mentioned something about us needing more 'help'."

Sarah took a moment to process the implications of that, but didn't dwell on it for long. It was best to leave ruminations about space magic for a later date, if ever. Some things in this universe still disturbed her to even think about.

"So now we have four legends in the loop," she stated bluntly, "and we have no idea if we can trust any of them to keep quiet."

"I know, Sarah. It's a risk, but we have no choice. The decision was made for us."

Indeed it had. There was no going back now.

Anxiety and worry hounded her as numerous scenarios ran through her mind, all of them ended with them in a penal colony while Skynet wreaked havoc on the Federation and beyond.

She kept those thoughts to herself and tried to not let their effect show on her face. Her old paranoia was rising it's ugly head again and there was little she could to to banish its effect on her.

"So how does this work, then?"

Isabel raised her arms in a 'I don't know' gesture to match Kyle's shrug. "We haven't worked out the details," Kyle explained. "Jadzia's sleeping and Ezri's still processing all of this. Sisko's adjusting pretty well, though. I think he knew before they returned him."

"At least they won't commit us," she snorted sardonically. Sarah still held a grudge when it came to law enforcement and the like, of which Starfleet could technically be called a part of at times. Besides, Star Trek was filled with stories of senior management not believing their underlings when they had some wild tale to tell.

That being said, Sisko had been on the receiving side of skepticism before when trying to explain his relationship with the Prophets to Starfleet brass.

With that in mind, Sarah took Kyle's free hand and walked with him down to the house while Isabel continued to ponder the whole situation.

Sisko watched them approach with calm apprehension. He knew whatever conversation they had next would determine the fate of Alpha Quadrant and beyond.

His family was at the forefront of him mind, naturally. His wife, daughter, and son were all at risk if they failed to stop Skynet.

With what he'd learned thus far, he knew that working in the shadows was the only way they were ever going to succeed. Any interference from interlopers like Section 31, or the Tal Shiar would put them on the defense instead of focusing on fighting Skynet.

When the couple got to the porch steps, Sisko stood up and straightened his uniform before stretching out his hand.

"Sarah Reese," he greeted jovilly as he shook her hand. Her smile was reserved, but her handshake was not. It was firm and concise, like most battle hardened people he'd met.

He could sense some nervousness as well. From what Kyle had told him, they'd tried to avoid anyone they knew too much about, and now Sarah was having to confront eighteen years of conditioning.

"Captain Sisko," she replied curtly, and said nothing further.

After she stepped back, Sarah looked at him expectantly, obviously waiting for him to break the ice. Kyle and Isabel waited silently off to the side as the exchange took place.

"You served in Starfleet during the war. That must have been hard fighting someone else's battles while your own loomed on the horizon," he observed while gesturing them to enter the house.

"Partly," she admitted, "but we chose to fight. No one forced us."

"May I ask why?"

Sarah stopped and faced Sisko at the entrance to the living room. "The Federation is as close to a utopia as I'll ever see, and I think that's worth fighting for."

He figured as much.

"Our way of life is the reason we all fought, Mrs. Reese, and it's the same one were fighting for now."

"No," Sarah shook her head, "We're fighting for the right to live, captain. Unlike the Dominion, there is no negotiating for peace. There is no deal to be struck, no latinum to be traded, no territory that will satiate it. It will not stop until we are all dead. No matter how long it takes, it will see it through."

The intensity of her delivery was enough to rouse Jadzia from her slumber upon Ezri's shoulder.

All turned their attention to the Trill as her fluttered open. Her blue eyes searched for the source of the noise, and landed on the human trio and Isabel.

"I didn't know there was a party," she smiled while stretching her longs arms. "Didn't even give a girl a chance to freshen up."

Ezri rolled her eyes, "And we all know how much you like to party."

"I haven't been to one in six years!" She protested playfully while pushing herself into a sitting position. Ezri, however, was not in the mood to banter with her predecessor and declined to continue the conversation.

Instead Ezri stood up and moved towards Sarah, offering her hand in the process. "Sarah Reese, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Sarah gave her the same reserved smile as Sisko and shook her hand. "If only the circumstances were different, Commander."

"Speaking of circumstances," Ezri shifted, "I have some ideas on how to improve ours."

While that was true for all of them, especially Isabel, they all opted to let the young commander present first, but not before Sisko let his surprise be known.

"You've been planning this whole time?" He surmised while a smile spread across his face. "Even after what happened?"

The petite Trill crossed her arms, "I'm fine, Benjamin, just a little ruffled. Nothing I haven't been through before."

Kyle had to give her that. He couldn't imagine having his mind joined with eight others without any sort of training to handle it.

Jadzia had managed to stand up during the exchange, but stayed silent behind her successor.

"From what we know, which isn't much," she stared pointedly at the displaced couple. "We have six years until Skynet fires one of those rings in the former Demilitarized Zone shortly after bringing it to our universe and defeating your allies."

"That doesn't leave a lot of time for us to enact any kind of response before the ring is activated."

Jadzia quickly picked up on Ezri's line of thought and added another point to the argument. "Not to mention we probably wouldn't be able to save the allied armada."

"And Skynet would still have an armada of its own, with plenty of time to escape during any attack," Sisko added as he, too, followed her train of thought.

"Exactly," Ezri affirmed, "We need to be proactive. With our combined skill sets, we should be able to come up with some plan of action for stopping Skynet from gaining the upper hand. To do that we need destroy the Halo's, secure the Ark, and keep our allies from being...converted."

Sarah winced at the sidelong mention of her son, but kept her composure.

"The only problem with that, is the need for a quantum slipstream capable starship to get there."

"We'd have to steal one," Kyle observed. This was not a new concept to them, but one they had abandoned as impractical before hand due to low manpower, even if they got B'Elanna on their side. They'd originally planned to buy and modify a small frigate of some kind that B'Elanna would be able to work with, but now that they'd added three experienced Starfleet officers and a Smart AI, it was suddenly very feasible. "What about the Defiant?"

Sisko, having designed the Defiant-class starships, shot that down immediately, "The hull would never take the stresses at those velocities. We can't even safely take one above warp 9."

"Which is why were going to steal one that can," Ezri smirked devilishly.

"There aren't many Intrepid-class starships to choose from," Sisko reminded. "Those that survived the war were assigned deep space missions, and we both know trying predict where a ship on that kind of assignment will be is almost impossible."

He knew that she was aware of that, but he wanted to make sure Sarah and Kyle knew that as well.

"True," she admitted, "but the Intrepid-class isn't the only Federation starship capable of slipstream conversion."

"That still doesn't help us track down one. If we steal a starship, we must know where and when it will be. That way, we can plan for every contingency."

Sarah and Kyle looked at eachother and subtly gestured to the other that they understood where this was going. Isabel had caught on too, and she voiced her deduction.

"You want us to pull a Kirk?"

Sisko barked with laughter as Jadzia's face turned mischievous.

"Yes," Ezri smiled at the AI, "we're going to steal Enterprise."

A/N: Sorry for the long delay, again. My muse was cruel and left for a while and I was addicted to Factorio for three months straight.

Anyway, We'll be switching back to our main cast next chapter and will likely oscillate between Star Trek and Halo perspectives until they inevitably meet.