Sam: There's a Comm. Unit over there. *Gestures towards a Comm. Unit on the wall.*

North : thank you but I have this.

Takes out the device and sets it on the ground. Hampton soon appears.

Hampton: I'm very impressed by what you have been able to accomplish if you are right about this it could be what saws the galaxy.

Sam: Then hope we're right.

John: Er... excuse me, but, don't you think we're jumping to conclusions here? Just because history shows the Iconians as bloodthirsty warmongers doesn't make it true. Remember the Shadow War? What about Siraga?

All data suggests that the Iconians are treating the people of the Federation as equals and Allies, not subjects.

Sam: He raises a good point. We didn't exactly greet the Iconians with open hands. We had an armada with weapons aimed at them.

Forrester: I'd hardly call 750 ships an armada.

Sam: The Spanish did.

Forrester: What?

Sam: How is it that someone not even raised on Earth knows Earth history better than someone who was?

Earth, Elizabethan Era. The Spanish Armada.

Forrester: Oh.

Sam: Anyway, what I'm saying is that the Iconians may have been responding to a very real and present threat. They're not exactly subjugating Earth.

*T'mar waits outside, listening to the conversation.*

T'mar: What about Vulcan?

*Back in the Control Room.*

John: The Tlachina did say that the Iconians destroyed their Galaxy.

Sam: When the Iconians weren't around to answer the allegation.

And, again, they're not enslaving the Federation, or keeping them at gunpoint.

If they were going to wipe us out, they'd have done so by now. You said yourself, John, the Iconians could destroy the Galaxy if they wanted.

Hampton: I hate to break it to you bit they did hold the federation at gunpoint. They destroyed a whole planet. And we dot know there true intentions do we. Or what is going on in federation space. And as for te guardian didn't he say his people fell. They could have stopped us from shooting them a different way then blowingour ship out of space.

Sam: We have deep space probes inside Federation Territory. There are no signs that the Federation is being dominated.

I remind you of the end of the Second World War. The US destroyed two Japanese cities and held them at gunpoint. After Japan surrendered, the US essentially left them alone to rebuild.

The end of the Dominion War was similar. The Federation Alliance let Cardassia Prime rebuild.

All I'm saying is we should give them a chance before condemning them. The Federation's done things it regrets. So has the Klingon Empire. So has every other Empire in the Galaxy.

I'm not gonna weave platitudes of peace when the final hammer falls, Admiral. But I'd rather not be the one to fill the chamber with armor piercing rounds before they're needed.

John: That metaphor barely made sense.

Sam: Let's just get this going. If I'm wrong... which is rare... I want to at least have a very big nuke to blow up in the Iconians' faces.

Is the probe ready?

Tech: And waiting.

Sam: Send it through.

*A small probe is launched through the gate. When it emerges on the other side, it lands on the Forest Floor before scanning the area and shooting itself up into orbit.*

Tech: Telemetry coming through.

Sam: That planet's on the other side of the Galaxy, on the rim of the Gamma Quadrant. Not even the Dominion's been there.

*The Holomap zooms in on the planet, showing a blip (the probe) in orbit and a caption of the planetary readings.*

Class M. It's safe to send an away team through, environmentally. It'll take the probe about a day to accumulate enough data on the inhabitants. Close the Gate.

*The Gate shuts down.*

I'll be in my Quarters.

*Sam goes to her Quarters (The room is sparse, with a bed and table, and a food replicator. There's a set of bags on the bed. (Sam hadn't yet had time to unpack.)) She sits on the bed and takes off the pendant. She holds it in her hand, running her fingers along the markings.*

Sam: The Guardians. What have the Guardians done for us since this started?

Well? I know you can hear me.

Siraga!

MERLIN!

*A partially transparent figure appears in front of Sam. Siraga has clearly aged over the past century.*

Siraga: You don't have to shout.

Sam: Is that all you have to say? No, don't bother. Don't say anything, just do!

Siraga: Pardon?

Sam: Those ships! 100 years ago you appeared to warn us of the Iconian return and to help prepare us! So, WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!

Siraga: You're Great-Grandfather seems to have had a dominant gene.

Sam: DON'T!

Siraga: I am so old now. I'm not as strong as I was.

*2 hours later, the Iconian Command Ship. Siraga appears before Taragi.*

Taragi: Ah... the legendary Siraga. What brings you here?

Siraga: Leave them alone.

Taragi: Or what? Your Veil guardians failed to stop us when you had the chance. Why would that change?

Siraga: I am so old now. I used to have so much mercy. You get one warning - that was it.

*Siraga vanishes*

*Sam's Quarters. Sam's unpacked her things. There's now a photograph on the wall of her and her family (her, T'mar, her mother, her father, Daya, Ryan, and her grandparents.) as well as a frame containing medals. The pendant is lying on her bed. Siraga had left her with more questions than answers and it was irritating her. The chime to her quarters sounds.*

Sam: Come in.

*T'mar enters.*

T'mar, what can I do for you?

T'mar: "They may have been responding to a very real and present threat"?

Sam: *Sighs* I had a feeling you were listening.

T'mar: Did you just FORGET that my Grandparents barely made it off Vulcan ALIVE?!

Sam: Do you really want to do this now? Neither of us has had any sleep in 36 hours.

T'mar: Answer the question!

Sam: No! I didn't forget what happened to Vulcan! But, aren't you the one who was saying that you didn't CARE back on Earth Spacedock?

*T'mar remains silent.*

I get it. It's fine to act like nothing happened to Vulcan so long as it's YOU DOING IT!

T'mar: That's it!

*T'mar punches Sam, who catches herself on the wall.*

Sam: Feel better?

T'mar: Yeah.

*T'mar pulls Sam away from the wall and hits her again before Sam knees her in the stomach and throws her into the wall.*

That all you got?

Sam: Come on T'mar. Do you seriously want to do this NOW?

*T'mar relaxes, staring at Sam angrily as she walks out.*

Damn it.

Allington to Matthew Forrester. Matt, could you come to my quarters?

Matt: On my way.

*After 2 minutes, Matt walks into Sam's quarters.*

"Matthew Forrester"?

Sam: With Captain Forrester on the base, I didn't want to cause any confusion.

Matt: Right. You gonna tell me who gave you a cut lip?

Sam: T'mar.

Matt: Over what happened in the Board Room, right?

Sam: More like over me being annoyingly observant.

*Matt looks at her.*

This isn't the first time we've exchanged blows. We're like family, rivalries included.

Matt: Except this coincided with the Fall-out from her world blowing up.

Sam: She was born and raised on Khitomer like me, Matt. She's only a quarter Vulcan. Maybe not even that.

Matt: That mean she can't mourn Vulcan's destruction?

Sam: I didn't say that. I almost had to fight her on ESD because she WOULDN'T mourn Vulcan's loss.

Matt: Look, Sam, I know it's a lousy time to bring this up, but Tara is on the base. Having you and her in the same place worries me enough. I need to know if T'mar's going to be a problem.

You said that your family adopted her when her parents died in the Khitomer Raid, and that she loved your parents like her own. I need to know how much of a problem she's gonna be. She just lost a home, and is on the same base as her foster-father's murderer.

Sam: Tara didn't kill my father. If she had, believe me, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Matt: But does T'mar know that? You know how volatile Vulcans can get if they lose emotional control.

Sam: T'mar doesn't have any more emotional power than any human.

Matt: Sam.

Sam: No, she doesn't.

Matt: So, what's she gonna do?

Sam: I don't know.

Matt: And that makes her a wild card. Excluding the fact she's telepathic--

Sam: That's it. Matt, you're a genius! I love you!

Matt: I hope you aren't just saying that because I'm a genius.

Sam: Well, maybe a little.

Matt: Sam, if T'mar's going to be a wild card, that raises security issues.

Sam: I know. Get her back here.

Matt: Right. You gonna put a regenerator over that? *Points to the cut on Sam's lip.*

Sam: Eventually.

*Matt smiles as he walks out.*

Hampton: wait that's it. The more advanced technology we used the better the defended against it. That's it.

Hamptons image is soon gone as he heads for Ops.

Back at proxima XII Hampton is busy getting things done He has started changing out phaser weapons for ballistic weapons and is working on a few ship designs. He has a pistol holstered on his side now.

Admiral Petry: are you sure these will work.

Hampton: no but it's worth a shot at this point. Beside it worked for Picard once. I prefer ballistic weapons anyway.

Petry: well lets hope you are right

The mysterious object that collapsed the subspace rifts caused by Voporak's tricobalt devices had appeared to have been lost on its way through the timespace link. But out of the blue, an unfortunately familiar sensor reading pops up.

It is Mirror Voporak - reversed in time by the destruction of the Black Phantom's temporal node, he commands the mirror version of the U.S.S. Dreadnought, a ship that came before the Phantom. Having retained his memories of the future, mirror Voporak has modified the Dreadnought with a cloaking device.

Mirror Voporak was greatly observant, noting how energy weapons are being replaced by ancient kinetic projectile launchers. M. Voporak is vengeful - he seeks to assist for no other purpose. Using Tholian technology, he opened a portal to the Mirror Universe of his time and brought a fleet of 1500 ships (time has no meaning on his communication to the past, the Terran Emprie has had many years to prepare the ships and send them), all of the phaser banks having been overlayed with several types of ballistic weapons (the phaser arrays are still intact underneath if they should become neccessary, but are taken completely offline at the moment).

Mirror Voporak, on the Terran Odyssey class U.S.S. Dreadnought, hails Hampton...


OOC: If there's one thing you can ever count on with Mirror Voporak, it's that he never gives up his mad revenge until he succeeds or dies trying. (and he goes to great lengths, too)

Hampton : well normally I would be concerned to see these kind of ships but I have a good feeling of why you are here.

Mirror Voporak: You are correct - I am not here to start a war with you. I brought these ships to assist you.