"Sir, we're being hailed," Lartyne reported before anyone else had a chance to say or do anything, the doors sliding shut behind Spud.

Grey took his seat again quickly deciding whether or not to take it on his screen or the large screen. He couldn't think of a benefit of hiding his bridge, both sides were beyond the point of pretending about their situation. "Patch it through to the view screen," he ordered and Lartyne quickly opened the channel to receive the transmission.

"Hello again, Grey," Barker said, sounding confident as he leant back in his chair. "I hear you've been made a Rear Admiral now, yet here we are, you're still chasing me across the sector."

"Bert Barker," Grey replied, almost making it sound like a warning, "believe me, I don't intend to be chasing you for much longer."

Barker's expression brightened into a smile. "For once we agree on something." He paused as he glanced at something out of view. "You are going to stop your little vendetta right now, turn around and leave me to my affairs."

"We both know that's not going to happen," Grey promised the younger man.

"Oh, but it is," Barker corrected calmly. "You can't risk killing me, we both know that, otherwise Alice will die too," he explained, his eyes dancing around the crew members visible on his screen to determine who knew and who didn't. Grey knew that trick, he knew how to read a room too. He knew the benefits of working out what people knew, who people trusted and how they reacted to exploit it all in different ways when the appropriate time came.

"Do you really think she cares if she dies to kill you?" Grey questioned.

"No, I know she doesn't," Barker agreed, "but I know you do."

Grey allowed a small smile to escape his lips. Yes, he did care, but why let that get in the way of telling a truth that painted an entirely different picture. "If I cared about her, why did I let USEP hang her out to dry? You know she got kicked out, right? Then you must know that no one came to her defence when she was." It wasn't common knowledge that he'd convinced her not to fight, so he couldn't use the exact truth.

Barker frowned as if he hadn't expected that answer. Grey had to admit he was a little surprised by that, he knew Barker was smart and liked to be kept in the loop. Perhaps he hadn't considered the specifics important? A moment later Barker shrugged. "It doesn't really matter. If you don't turn around within the next five minutes I shall fire upon you. We both know the capabilities of the weapon I have. It will obliterate the Endeavour."

"I have no intention of letting you get away, Barker," Grey replied calmly.

"You'd sacrifice the lives of your entire crew?"

"What makes you so sure you're going to win?" Grey questioned instead. "I mean, you've just pissed off the taurrans. Or is it only Klandra that found out what you really plan on doing at Taurr?"

Barker sighed dramatically. "Alice."

"So how many of your taurran allies know what you really plan on doing at Taurr?" Grey repeated. "How many of them know that you plan on testing that weapon on the home planet of the very people who helped you regain your power?"

Only a couple of taurran crew members reacted as if that was news to them. One of them stood up and shouted something the translator didn't catch, only to be quickly shot by one of the other taurran's on Barker's bridge. Despite Barker's relaxed posture Grey could see the hand resting on his pistol. Barker turned back to Grey. "If you think to cause a rebellion, Klandra beat you to it," he said. "She failed and so will you."

"You might have convinced them that they need to do this to prove their loyalty, but how many are biding their time till they can take that power for themselves? After all, isn't that what you'd do? Power is security and they know that as well as you do, and you aren't the kind of man who risks losing his power by sharing it. So where does that leave them?"

Grey saw a couple of taurrans share a look but Barker was aware of it too, and with a flick of his wrist he shot one of them whilst turning a hard look on the other. Grey didn't dare take his eyes off the screen for a moment as he prayed that he hadn't just pushed the matter too far. "I know what you're trying to do, and it won't work."

"Except that you can't afford to ignore me," Grey said, "because -" He stopped as Barker cut the connection. There was no point explaining the maths to his own crew, it was Barker he had wanted to doubt the situation. Grey hoped he'd done enough damage as his mind turned to their next move.

After a long, mostly silent pause which was only broken by beeping machinery, Grey nodded to himself. "I'd rather have you manning the weapons, but we're out of options," Grey decided, turning to the security stations and Wood nodded back before jumping up to go and prepare. "Remember you'll be on limited time. Good luck," Grey called out as Wood stepped into the lift.

Naturally his first stop was the armoury to quickly browse and select his weapons. As it was a solo mission he needed to be well armed because he was his own backup, but he also needed to remain light enough on his feet to enable himself to be nimble enough to sneak through an enemies' ship. He also grabbed a scanner and visor because he was also going to be his own technician on this mission. He could almost see the incredulous eyebrow Ali would raise at that thought. He shook his head as he continued to sift through his options.

Once loaded out he had one last stop to make before the beamer. If he was really doing this he needed to be sure that he wouldn't make things worse by doing so. The medical bay was much as he left it earlier, Marsh was still resident in a bunk and stable, despite his injuries, with a nurse checking his vitals. Narla was still working next to Ali. "How are they doing?" Wood asked as his eyes darted between the two unconscious crew members.

Narla lowered the tablet she was working on. "Brian is stable for now. I'm still keeping him under until I can be confident his injuries won't jeopardise his brain activity when I take him off the sedatives," Narla explained. "Ali is… much the same as when you left," she admitted, "but she is fighting, so I have seen a small improvement."

Wood nodded. "I'm going to board his ship," he stated, "if I run into Barker will it have an effect on… this?" He asked waving a hand in Ali's direction. He wanted Narla to tell him he was being ridiculous for even thinking it might, but in all honesty he barely understood how any of this worked. He didn't want to add unnecessary risk, especially when it was his job to keep the crew of the Endeavour safe.

There was a short pause as Narla considered the information she had before she finally clicked her tongue. "I don't know," she admitted. "The visions she has are normally what Bert is seeing or doing, but they're not always completely lucid, sometimes it's just feelings and impressions. Seeing you shouldn't be any different from anyone else, but given the fight she's already in, I can't promise that."

It wasn't the reassurance he was looking for, but it was something knowing that it was at least possible that he wouldn't have a detrimental effect on the mental fight Ali was going through. He glanced back at Narla and nodded his thanks before heading down to the beamer. He didn't have to go to the device itself to be beamed between locations, but it was considered safer, more accurate and quicker for the platform to be either the initial point or destination. Even if Wood wasn't a highly efficient individual it wouldn't have taken him long to be ready and opened his comm. "All set, sir," he reported in.

"We're engaging the ship now," Grey replied. "The moment their shields are down, we'll beam you over," he explained. There was a hesitation as if he was going to say something, Wood presumed a joke, but the situation was too serious to even joke about. They all knew the risks, Wood more than anyone.

"Understood, sir," Wood replied and disconnected the line. Now all he had to do was wait. Only his discipline prevented him from showing his impatience physically, resisting tapping his foot or checking his watch or weapons, focusing on maintaining his readiness for the moment he was beamed across. He was impatient because he knew there was every chance he wasn't coming back and he'd rather get the danger over and done with, whatever happened. It seemed far longer than it actually was before he felt the familiar tug of the beamer.

Wood knew where he'd be beamed too and instantly whirled around to check his surroundings before backing up against the nearest wall to allow him time to check his bearings. The ship appeared to be in some kind of alert mode, he could hear shouting and shooting down each end of the corridor and there were flashing lights that he could only assume were some kind of hazard warning.

He could feel that claustrophobic, cloying feeling of potential flashbacks tugging on his consciousness as he took in his surroundings. He took a steadying breath before focusing on his surroundings, and made specific notes about what was different to keep him in the moment. His memories would never go away, but he could control his responses. It had taken time and help, but he had learnt how to cope and control them, even creating a priority order for the techniques that worked.

Once grounded, he quickly brought up a map on his visor so he could double check his position and which direction he was facing. Luckily, if he was careful, he could pick out a route that would avoid most of the life signs. He returned the visor to it's quiet setting - where it only gave him the minimal amount of data - as he set off, hurriedly creeping down the corridor, ready and alert to be spotted and attacked at any moment.

~-x-~

Meanwhile the medical bay had become a hive of organised, chaotic activity. As the Endeavour engaged Barker's forces in combat reports of both minor injuries and severe trauma would come flooding in. Some would require medics to be sent to the scene of the incident and others would be brought to them. Narla and her team were well trained and experienced - even her newer members of staff had been in emergency situations (albeit of less severe magnitudes) - to keep level heads. As they were alerted to cases they issued calm but urgent instructions to each other as Narla assigned teams and medics as she saw fit with the information they had available at the time.

All in all it looked and sounded like complete chaos, but it was actually very organised. Though when a particularly bad hit caused the entire bay to shake, Narla ordered someone to ask Spud to give their inertia compensators a kick. She had just finished checking on Marsh - all patients were firmly secured in case of such events, but it was standard practise to check on them afterwards if anyone was available to do so - when she felt an insistent nudge at the back of her mind, as if someone were trying to get her attention. It provoked an instant reaction in her tentacles as she tried to ascertain what it was.

She made her way to her desk as she tried to determine the cause of the psychic interference in her mind. As she settled into her chair she managed to focus on a whispering voice, one she recognised as Ali. At first it didn't make any sense until she realised that Ali was repeating a number and a name over and over. Narla opened her comm. "Spud?"

"Yeah?" Spud replied hurriedly as she was clearly busy down in engineering, Narla was pretty certain she heard at least one explosion as she quickly explained what she could hear; Spud's name and a number, on repeat. "You sure about that number?" Spud asked as she brightened up considerably.

"As sure as Ali is," Narla confirmed.

"Great," Spud thanked her before switching comm channels. "Sir!" She called as she ducked under a spray of sparks, quickly ordering someone to reroute the power away from that junction as she hurried to shut it down.

"Spud?" Grey replied sounding concerned, partly because of her alarmed greeting and partly for the ships he was watching on the view screen as Frost weaved between them.

"I think we have that frequency!" She explained. "Though I can't be sure," she added as she continued to interrupt herself to issue orders whilst she moved to a different control panel before madly pressing buttons to bring up the schematics onto the screen so that she could quickly add the missing numbers into her list of commands to the computer.

"When will you know?"

"When they don't fire?" Spud suggested as she finished entering the information. "Do you want me to try?"

"Will it affect any other systems?" Grey asked. "Wood's on that ship and I have every intention of getting him back."

Spud made a noise as if to ask how she could possibly know that when they were dealing with highly experimental and unheard of - until today, at least - technology. "Probably not."

"Then do it," Grey ordered. "Just be ready to switch it off at a moments notice," he added and Spud nodded to herself, knowing that was to make sure that they could get their crewmate and friend back.

"Done," Spud confirmed a few moments later as she finished initialising the jamming frequency. "Just remember that that ship still has its own weapons," she added as something else blew and she started running to fix it.

"We aren't about to forget," Grey half laughed, grabbing hold of the arm of his chair to keep his balance from the same hit that Spud was running to deal with.

"Yeah, well, I'm transferring everything I have spare to the shields. Tell whoever is on tactical to stay the hell away from the weapon bit until Wood gives you the all clear!" Spud reminded him before clicking off her comm.