Sebi lay on the deck of the bridge, his head inside one of the instrument panels. While the others were on the planet surface, he had talked one of the remaining Romulans still on board, into letting him carry out some routine repairs. At least, that was the cover story.

Unknown to the others, Picard had asked him to remain on board and try to contact Starfleet. It had taken time, because setting up a distress signal, without being found out, was not easy. Thankfully, the four Romulans on the Proxima didn't appear to know much about ship operations.

Serrupticiously, he inserted the repeating message chip and managed to hide the signal inside the Romulan communication network. Crawling out from beneath the console, Sebi came face to face with one of the guards.

"Is your work concluded, Devion?"

"It is complete," replied Sebi, his fingers dancing over the control panel. "Just checking the pitch level. Won't be a moment."

"The pitch level?" That was all the words he managed to say. A piercing sonic pulse resonated through the ship. Both Romulans who were on the bridge collapsed onto the deck unconscious. A quick check of the sensors revealed the others were the same.

Moving over to the transporter control, he locked on to all Romulan life signs.

"Computer, transport all Romulans to the planet surface."

"Please state required destination."

"The Triathian City wall."

Sebi watched the two unconscious guards dematerialise. Immediately, he activated Proxima's limited defence systems. Moving over to the scanner, he entered a sequence to scan for the team.

What he saw on the screen confused him. All five com badges were visible, Picard, Vash, Lumi, Glav and Molly. There was a separate indicator for Niata and the Romulan Commander. He watched as the area suddenly came alive with multiple transporter signals, all Romulan. Then a huge mass of people, that read as Othallian appeared out of nowhere. All of this, Picard had warned about but then it happened.

Amidst readings of mass transport and violent energy spikes, he watched as hundreds of Othallian readings disappeared. Shortly after this began, Glav and Lumi's com badges went offline. He felt a cold chill cross his heart. In only the vaguest way, his Devion brain was aware of Lumi's presence, even at a distance. Somehow, he knew something terrible had happened.

"Computer, transport the team directly to the bridge."

"Unable to comply. Local energy source is compromising the transporter lock."

An alert sounded and there was a reverberation through the Proxima's hull, as several disruptor blasts hit the shields. The Proxima only had limited weapons, not enough to bother the Romulan ships, three of which had changed course to intercept.

"Computer, activate transporter inhibitor field."

"Inhibitors activated."

Two more blasts hit the shields, which were down to fifty percent. He knew that the ship wouldn't survive many more hits. Frantically, he searched the ship weapons inventory, hoping to find something that had been missed on the database.

Another blast rocked the ship.

"Shields are at thirty percent."

Suddenly, one of the listing jumped off the monitor.

"Well Glav," he said, to himself. "You kept that quiet."

His fingers began there technical dance across the interface, as Proxima's shields reconfigured to block electromagnetism.

"Computer, initiate Failsafe protocol, set to maximum range."

"Failsafe is ready."

On the screen, Sebi could see at least ten ships coming toward Proxima.

"Fire."

The lights on bridge, change to emergency and Proxima came to a dead stop. Sebi heard a barely perceptible whine, as the pulse was transmitted.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. Sebi's eyes ran over the readout. Had he missed something?

He looked back up at the screen, just in time to see the Romulan ship's nose dip toward the planet. Behind it, others were either doing the same or coming to a dead stop. Within ten minutes, the entire fleet of ships was drifting.

The only ship moving was Proxima, which was insulated from the disabling pulse.

"Computer, open channel to Commander Cenita, on the planet surface."

"Channel is open."

"Proxima to Commander Cenita, this is Sebi Tars."

"This is Cenita."

"Just to inform you that your fleet is disabled and drifting in space. Unless the Proxima team is returned to the ship at once, it will remain that way."

There was a pause.

"What have you done?" Cenita sounded angry. "You will reverse what you have done at once."

Sebi laughed, which was uncharacteristic for his race but he had to admit, it felt good. "Commander, you are in no position to make demands. Your control on the surface is tenuous. I think you'll find that your weapons will no longer function. You have five minutes."

"Communication recieved," the Computer reported.

"Open a channel," said Sebi.

He turned to face the screen and saw a familiar face.

"Admiral Riker."

The smiling face of Will Riker filled the screen.

"Sebi Tars, its been a long time. Starfleet recieved your distress call. I'm bringing the Titan along with another twenty-five starships. Our ETA is twenty minutes." Riker's smile disappeared. "Any news on Jean Luc Picard?"

"Commander, two of the com badges have gone offline. I fear at least two of the team have been killed."

Riker looked grave. "I see. What about the Romulans?"

"For now, I have neutralised them but not for long."

"We'll be there as soon as we can, Riker out."

Sebi checked the surface scan again. More Othallians were appearing then disappearing. He opened a channel.

"Proxima to Commander Cenita."

Cenita answered, her voice was icy and devoid of emotion.

"Here me, Devion," she hissed. "Restore my ships immediately or I will kill the remainder of your team."

Sebi's reply was measured and equally cold.

"You listen to me, Romulan. I will restore your ships once my team has been released. In the meantime, if anything happens to any of them, remember, at the moment your fleet has no shields and I have a full phaser bank. Its primary function is for excavation but it would be enough to do some real damage. Especially, if I adjust it to wide beam status. If you hurt anyone else Commander then look up into the sky and watch for the fireballs, as your fleet burns up in the atmosphere. By the way, there are twenty Starfleet vessels en route to this location."

There was a long pause.

"Transporter lock is established," reported the computer.

"Transport the team directly to the bridge."

A few seconds later, Vash, Picard and Molly materialised in front of him. The realisation hit him immediately.

"Good work, Sebi," said Picard, moving across to Proxima's limited tactical display. "The EMP dampening field was genius, how did you generate it?"

"It was in the ship's database," he said. "Glav must have programmed it in."

"Glav." Picard met his eye, instantly realising how insensitive he was being.

"What happened?"

"Cenita shot them both dead right in front of us," said Molly, giving Sebi a hug. "There was no reason for it."

"There never is," said Picard, solemnly studying the scanner readings. "And its still happening."

Sebi looked at him. "What's happening?"

"Genocide," said Vash, moving to an adjacent console. "The power level is reducing, I think all the people are out. There are no disruptor signatures, so, for the moment, the effects of the pulse have stopped the killing."

"How many are left?"

Vash shook her head in disgust. "Around two thousand. We could transport some of them up to the Proxima but there's only enough room for about fifty in the cargo bay and that's only if we dump whats in there."

"Incoming transmission," announced the Computer.

"On screen," said Picard.

Riker appeared. "USS Titan and company, ready to assist."

"Will," said Picard, warmly. "We don't have long before the Romulans will get power back. There are life signs on the planet. They are Othallian, I'm sending you the readings now, I'll explain later but can your fleet, transport them off the planet immediately?"

"Yes we can," said Riker." The fleet are coming into orbit now. I'll see to it right away. Riker out."

They all looked up at the external monitor, just in time to see an array of starships flying in formation, re-orientating into various orbits.

Vash smiled. "Multiple transporter signatures. The rescue has begun."

Suddenly, Picard caught movement nearly at the limits of visible space. Several of the Romulan ships had managed to restore power.

"Proxima to Titan," said Picard. "Watch your back, Will. The Romulans are on the move."

"Understood," said Riker.

They all watched as some of the starships broke formation and moved to intercept the approaching Romulan vessels.

There was brief weapons fire from the Romulan ships. Quantum torpedoes erupted from two of the starfleet ships. Two Romulan warbirds exploded.

Molly looked at Picard."What now?"

Ignoring her, Picard turned to Vash.

"Let me know when all the people are off the planet, including the Romulans."

"Another fifteen minutes," she replied. "What happens then?'

"Answer me one question," said Picard. "Would I be right in thinking that the Translation is dependant on the mosaic, or structures like it, to function."

"That's right," she said, frowning.

"There's only one way to prevent the Romulans getting this technology."

"What's that?"

"Destroy it."