CHAPTER FOURTEEN

                Rachel Garrett stared at the brutal, burning scars all over his body. The air left her throat momentarily. How could she have done this to him, after he entrusted so much to her.

                "Captain?"

                She slowly turned away from the viewport and looked at Christopher Pike.

                Pike saw the haunted look and recognized it from the mirror. "It is hard. They mean so much ..."

                She shook her head, "I can't understand it, I've been on other ships, even as captain. I've been in combat, but ..."

                They both turned and gazed at the scared and pitted visage of the Starship Enterprise-C.

                "It's the name, isn't it?," Garrett said.

                "To me?," Pike commented. "My Enterprise is nearly at the beginning of what I can see will be an elaborate historical tapestry." He shook his head slowly, "No, not the name, not the history. It's the imagination, the human potential. That's what she represents to me. That's what kept me aboard her. That's why Enterprise is special. My Enterprise."

                Garrett nodded as Miles O'Brien approached them. "Captains, the engineering teams report all ships are progressing as expected. Captain Picard requests a Command level meeting in Commander Sisko's office as soon as possible."

                They nodded, "Inform Captain Picard we are on our way," Garrett said as O'Brien left.

                As the two turned away from the viewport, Garrett touched Pike's arm. "Thank you, Captain."

                He smiled, "Not at all, Captain."

                The meeting adjourned almost immediately after it started, DS9's sensors activated the red alert. The commanding officers uniformly jumped out of their chairs. "Ops, report," Sisko demanded into the air.

                O'Brien's concerned voice filled the office, "Unidentified ship decloaking..."

                "Pike to...

                "Garrett to...

                "Picard to ...

                ... Enterprise. Beam me aboard."

                Three transporter hums filled Sisko's office as the Commander crossed the threshold into Ops. He glanced at the viewscreen in time to see a decloaking wave unlike any he'd seen before, which shouldn't be surprising, he thought, considering where he was. Before the wave entirely dissipated, the screen blinked and the main bridge of the arriving vessel appeared.

                James Kirk stood in the center of Sisko's screen.

                Then, suddenly, without warning, a deafening, hideous, laughter filled every speaker, every ear, encompassed everything around the station and the Enterprises.

                Just as loud came three words, echoing off every surface.

                "TIME TO DIE!"

                "Now," Q yelled, and staggered against a bulkhead. Five energy patterns fled his body, expanding, until they engulfed the Enterprise-D's main bridge. As soon as they appeared, they were gone.

                And the ship began to shake itself apart.

                "Report," Kirk yelled as he was flung to the deck.

                "Readings are off the scale," Spock replied.

                "The surrounding space is charged with an energy I have never encountered," Data said.

                The shaking increased dramatically with each passing second. Consoles began to explode from the quaking.                "Will the shields hold?" Kirk asked, trying to be heard above the din.

                "Unknown," Data answered.

                Then everything went black.