After Nishka wakes up she looks around but is unable to locate Kinjo. She shrugs her shoulders and gets up to take a shower. It's not unusual that Kinjo wakes up before her, he can go without sleep for longer periods and requires lesser sleep then she does due to his Vulcan nature.

After she gets dressed in her normal Federation uniform she walks towards the bridge where she's greeted by Kinjo and a cup of coffee with milk and sugar, just the way she likes it.

"Busy day ahead hmm?" she asks while sipping her coffee.

"Indeed, I'll prepare for the evacuation of all our Starfleet personnel. I've beamed Carlson over earlier and we've prepared a report for the Romulan officials aboard the station while you were asleep. It requests to release all prisoners to us so we can take them to a star system fifteen light years away from here. There is a M planet called Xr-4300E there that has a special kind of eel living on it. Once the eel nestles itself in a victims body it'll force them to tell full truth about any matter. It also gives agonizing pain and is likely to kill the victim afterwards if he goes untreated. I've also requested that they escort the prisoners with their best guards to us."

"You've been very busy I see..." Nishka replies, "so why go through all this trouble? It's not like we'll ever go to that planet."

"The Romulans would be suspicious of a request to transfer all prisoners here if it wouldn't happen under supervision of their best personnel. This way they won't be very suspicious and will actually encourage the idea. If I were a real Romulan I'd probably receive a promotion if I found any interesting information. Through ruthless leadership you can increase quickly in rank here."

"I'm glad you're on our side then. I take it you also thought of a way to dispose of those guards..?"

"Naturally my dear. When they board our ship we'll hit them all with sleeping gas to knock them out cold. After that we'll lock up the guards in the brig and our own personnel can take up positions else where in the ship. We should try to get some more engineers here too. Carlson said earlier that he could use help getting the engines going. Though not completely unfamiliar with Romulan technology he still has a hard time with figuring out how a lot of this technology works and feels like this is way over his head."

"Hmmm... Agreed, you should get him some extra help. You could contact Josie, perhaps she can be of assistance. As Kalitta's private doctor I think it's also wise she stays aboard this ship so she can recover from her earlier ordeal. It seems like you have everything under control, I'm gonna see if I can make myself useful in sickbay and prepare that sleeping gas for you."

Nishka gives Kinjo a soft kiss on his lips and gets underway, leaving it up to Kinjo to deal with the details they just discussed.

Nishka enters the Romulan sickbay and takes over a hour to familiarize herself with all the equipment present. She recognizes a lot of it but some equipment looks very unfamiliar to her and sometimes she has no idea what something is supposed to do.

Two hours later she managed to prepare enough sleeping gas to knock out all the captive crew and their guards. She also prepared an antidote to wake up their own personnel immediately after knocking out the group so they could help dragging away the Romulan bodies.

Carlson meantime prepared one of the decks for their future prisoners and disabled all possible ways to communicate with the Romulan ship computer, least they'd find a way out of there. He also made sure that escaping from that deck would be virtually impossible and double checked that there are no weapons or tools left that could be used for an escape.

Kinjo meantime contacted Kalitta and Josie to find out if they're interested in coming over to their new ship and he informed Michael with a status update. When Michael gives the order Kinjo will send the request for the captured Federation personnel and guards to the Romulan station control room so that it could be processed.

'It's not the same as a heroic breakout but it'll do... This way lesser people will get hurt too, at least until we blow up the station that is...'

Kinjo is having mixed feelings about killing so many Romulans, but their intentions were very clear and they wouldn't think twice to do the same to a Federation station if they were given the chance.

Josie had woken up earlier and found Kalitta still sleeping holding her hand hostage. As Josie tried to move Kalitta seemed to hold on to her hand even tighter in her sleep like a subconscious reflex.
Josie decided its better not to move, she didn't want to wake Kalitta up. She didn't knew what had gone on with her but she could tell Kalitta wasn't her usual self.
"Josie, this is Kinjo, we need help in engineering to get this romulan vessel running I could beam you and Kalitta over since Nishka said she should keep her under supervision and maybe she can help with the rate of recovery."
"Okay, I help gladly, specially if it means getting off this place, plus I too agree that Kalitta can't fight in this condition."
Kinjo tapped a few controls on the consoles and beamed Kalitta and Josie out of the room.

As soon as they arrived on the ship Kalitta woke up, she didn't understand what was happening and was scared at first but as soon as she noticed Josie smiling in front of her she just grabbed her hand again.
"We are going to see Nishka, okay?" said Josie with as much kindness in her voice as she could.
Kalitta didn't say a word just nodded slightly hesitantly.
Josie led Kalitta to the sickbay Nishka was in.
"Okay Nishka is going to take care of you now, i need to help in engineering. Don't worry you will be fine here, no one is going to hurt you here."
Kalitta stared at Josie and shook her head.
"Kali, don't worry you will be fine, i promise" said Nishka who stepped closer sending warm feelings to Kalitta hoping that she will remember she is safe with her and will let Josie get to work.

After a few moments of hesitation Kalitta let go of Josie and stood before Nishka tilting her head slightly as in asking what now.
Josie walked out of sickbay headed to engineering so she can start working as fast as possible.
"First we are going to clean you up completely now and get some real clothes" said Nishka taking Kalitta's hand and leading her down to the room they used with Kinjo.
She untied her long braids, took out the shrapnels then undressed Kalitta and pointed to the shower.
"I believe you know how to use that still, you should clean yourself and then come here"

Kalitta nodded then stepped into the shower, while she was inside Nishka replicated Kalitta's favorite uniform and waited for her to finish.
Kalitta stepped out of the shower, Nishka dried her hair and gave her the uniform.
"I see you enjoy your hair" said Nishka with a smile when she saw Kalitta playing with her long jet black hair that was now let loose.
"Okay, lets go back to sickbay i need to work and you can just watch me and or sleep"
Kalitta Nodded and silently followed Nishka, once in sickbay she sat on a bed and watched as Nishka did her job around the instruments.

[Anybody free to come save Admiral Parker make a post stating your intentions please so I can write up the post for rescuing and then the concluding post]

1 Hour Later

"This is Lt. Ashley, Nishka we have come under fire and are going to be bringing lots of company with us when we board the ship, we have the admiral with us but he needs urgent medical care, currently he still has a knife in his leg and we are carrying him with us, anything you can do to assist would be appreciated..." said Michael calmly as he fired at several guards who were chasing his team towards the docking area, oddly enough the stations alarm had not yet sounded and it seemed as if the Romulans thought the federation personnel would be captured by Kinjo and his team who had convinced the station that they were taking prisoners for transport.

"I understand Michael but we are unable to help you the best I can do is have this ship ready to leave the moment your team is aboard..." said Nishka, who was receivng Michael's message while she was working in sickbay.

"Sir, there is the docking bay, lets hurry this along and get off this station... shouted Mar'Tok as he felled another pair of guards.

"Alright lets GO!" shouted Michael as his team provided cover and the first group comprising himself and several others carrying the admiral ran aboard the ship.

However, Michael stayed behind to provide cover for the team of 5 that Mar'Tok was leaving, he squeezed off a few shots from his phaser to cover their retreat aborad the ship, but at the last moment Michael saw Mar'Tok drop to the ground, Mar'Tok struggled back to his feet to fight the Romulan guards who had run up to pin him to the ground, Michael squeezed off a few shots from his phaser trying to help his friend, but one of the Romulans who was smarter than the others grabbed Mar'Tok and tried to use him as a shield, Michael fired another shot and missed, then he saw a Romulan pull out a small dagger and slit the struggling Mar'Tok's throat. Mar'Tok fell face first into a pool of his own blood.


"Damn it!" shouted Michael as he turned away and sprinted aboard the ship.

"Alright, whoever is flying this bucket get us out of here!" shouted Michael into his communicator, as he sat against the nearest bulkhead....


With that message coming through the two helmsmen took the ship out of dock and cloaked her, the warbird was on its way to the edge of the system when Nishka's rigged torpedo detonated ripping the station to shreds and lighting the surrounding area with deadly fire, not a single soul survived the explosion.


With the warbirds arrival in federation space a message was sent through to starfleet command telling of what had occurred over the past couple days and the heroic actions of all those who had been a part of the patrol.

Upon arriving back at Starbase Valhalla the survivors went their own ways back to their respective ships and those who were now without a ship of their own were reassigned, a memorial was held for all those whom died during the initial attack on the patrol and during the incarceration of the survivors....

In a few weeks everything would be but a memory however the effects of the mission on all those involved may be much more long lasting....


[And that concludes "The Balance of Fear" feel free to make a personal conclusion for your character and thanks to all those that participated ]

Upon arrival back at Valhalla, Michael gave his report to the 12th fleet admiralty, and finished debriefing. He then resumed his primary duties aboard the USS Artemis.

Onboard the USS Artemis

"Welcome back sir!" Shouted his bridge crew.

"Did you bring any souvenirs from your trip?" asked Anthony ever the joker.

"Are you kidding, I brought tons of gifts for everybody....even for you this time" said Michael

"Really?" asked Anthony "What?"


"Well, I figured since you are a little girl Anthony, I should buy something for you that showed this, unfortunately souvenir shops are hard to come by onboard a Romulan station so I only bought stuff for the rest of the crew" said Michael sarcastically, as he laughed along with the rest of the Bridge crew, except for Ms. T'lara who just stood there with one eyebrow cocked, looking puzzeled by Human "humour"

Oh, its good to be back thought Michael as he smiled.

"Alright, Anthony, take us out... first star on the left and straight on till morning..." ordered Michael boldly.

"Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Artemis. Its ridiculously long mission, to explore strange new worlds, to kill new life and destroy small, defenseless civilizations. To bodly go where a lot of people have already been, and yet we'll find new stuff anyways!"