Captain’s Log, supplemental. We’ve in pursuit of the unknown vessel that has abducted people from the Little Roc colony. On a related note, I’ve put Ensign Vinyl Scratch in for a commendation for her quick thinking during the aliens' attack.

The aliens have accelerated since they noticed us closing the head start left by their atmospheric warp, but their ship appears to be nearing its limits. All we can do is catch up, and hope the abductees are alright...

Reg was making a groaning noise even as he struggled back into consciousness, the feel of somebody poking his side insistently drawing him toward the waking world. He forced his eyes open, and focused them to meet the gaze of a burly looking female griffon who was standing over him.

"Good...rise and shine, sleepyhead. How do you feel?"

Ruffling his feathers and rolling over, Reg took stock. ’Two arms, two legs… check the rest later’ "Not too bad I guess, just a little groggy."

She nodded, "I think whatever weapon they used was less effective than they expected, probably because of our natural resistance to lightning." She muttered under her breath, "I doubt they could have taken me out if they hadn't come from behind..."

Reg just raised an eyebrow at her.

"Anyway, the griffons are the only ones awake so far. We're trying to figure out a way out of here." She paused, and focused on him again. "Name's Ash. You're Reg, with Special Engineering, right?"

"Mmm...yeah." Reg stood up, and glanced around, taking in what appeared to be a simple cargo bay. Seven other griffons were spread around the area, engaged in various tasks, and several ponies and a canid were carefully stashed behind a large...crate? Reg blinked at the realization that the stolen goods from the Little Roc warehouse were lying all around.

"Thought so." She gestured about. "Maybe you can figure out something with all of this stuff. The door seems pretty flimsy, for a pressure bulkhead."

Reg wobbled across the hold, still a little unstable from the stun blast. He raised his brow as he examined a promising crate, before he pried the lid off and began to dig through the boxes the aliens had haphazardly tossed inside. Microchips and sections of power conduit, spent energy cells and hydrostatic calibrators clattered onto the deck plates as he dug deeper, confident that he’d find something even more worthwhile in the bottom of the container.

His clawed finger fell across a transparent package with several shimmering objects within, and the corner of his mouth curled up in a smirk. 'Paydirt'. He opened the package, and snatched out one of the magically enhanced anodyne relay crystals, rolling it in his grasp as he turned back towards Ash.

"Not a problem...give me ten minutes."

“No change, Captain: it looks like they've maxed out at Warp four point eight! We should catch up in about ninety seconds.”

“Thank you, Miss Dash.” Applejack looked to Twilight, and raised an eyebrow. "What do you have for me, Lieutenant Sparkle?"

Twilight fretted for a moment, still looking at her scanner, but then nodded and spoke, "Despite the differences in design, I'm confident that their warp nacelles will behave like ours. With their shields still down, one good shot from the phase cannons should destabilize their warp plasma relays."

"Very well. Shining Armor, pick a nacelle to lock onto and fire as soon as we're in range. Dash, bring us out of warp right on top of them, I don't want to give them room for any shenanigans."

"Yes Ma'am."

A bead of sweat formed on Shining Armor's brow as they drew near, and he narrowed his targeting solution, and... "Firing."

The beam lanced out and kissed the aft side of one of the alien ship's gently curved nacelles, striking with a pulse of angry red light, and causing the warp-plasma emissions to flicker. The star field resolved as the alien ship dropped out of warp, listing harshly to one side as the warp field collapsed asymmetricall. The Trailblazer followed suit, ending up less than a hundred meters away.

“Very good. Open a channel.”

The center of the bridge viewport went dark as the comm system activated, "Sorry Captain, I'm having a little trouble with their comm protocols, but I think-"

"Back off, Akkord!" cried a harsh, high-pitched voice. As it spoke, the viewscreen synced, revealing an angry, swarthy biped with enormous ears and frighteningly sharp teeth.

The Captain winced, then narrowed her eyes, “Just give us the people you’ve abducted and we’ll think about it!”

The alien pointed aggressively with a finger, “No, you back off, or we keel the ho-stages!” The alien was sweating profusely, and as Applejack grew a little more used to its features, she sensed what felt akin to panic on its face.

Reg looked up from the clump of crystal and tech as the ship shuddered, and the ambient noise changed slightly.

Ash listened for a moment, then looked at Reg. "I think we just dropped out of warp! Are you ready?" she asked with a fierce look.

"Y...yeah. One sec." He made a final adjustment, and then activated the bomb, tossed away the safety pin and Fledgeling Mint he'd been using, and shouted, "Cover!" as he ducked behind a crate, claws going up to cover his ears.

The explosion rocked through his body, leaving him feeling a bit shaken. He looked out to see the entire bulkhead torn up, and the cargo bay doors lying in the hall, looking bent and abused. "Eheh...maybe I went a bit overboard."

"Looks good to me!" Ash and the rest of the griffons ran for the door. She peeked outside, and was greeted by poorly aimed weapons fire from the right. "Nnng. Two of 'em out there. The corridors are a bit tight, but don't stop moving. And..." She paused, glancing back towards the other, still-unconscious abductees "...do your best not to kill them. That could just make things worse." Another random burst of fire flew past the doorway, earning a glare from her. "A few broken bones, though...that should be fine." That said, she seemed to focus for a moment, and spread her wings slightly.

Reg noticed a faint glow forming around them. 'Wingkata? Who is this griffon?'

Before he could ask, Ash nodded. "Let's go." She brazenly stepped out into the corridor, moving swiftly to the fallen bay doors. Orange-colored beams lanced out towards her, but she just raised her wing, blocking the incoming fire without even a flinch. As the beams faded, she reached down and in one smooth motion plucked up a chunk of door debris and heaved it down the hall, earning a panicked exclamation from the aliens.

She glanced back to see the others gawking at her from the doorway. “What are you waiting for? Come on!” She picked up another large piece of debris, using it as a shield. “Charge!”

“Hey now!” Ears back, Applejack held up her hooves. “Let’s not be hasty!”

The alien was about to respond, when one of its bridge crew came up close and whispered something to him.

AJ signaled Fluttershy to mute their audio, and asked Twilight, “You picking up anything?”

Twilight fretted for a moment before responding, “There was some sort of minor explosion just after we dropped out of warp...it could have been secondary damage from our interception, but I’m not picking up any plasma leaks…”

The alien’s expression grew even more panicked, and he responded shortly to his cohort before waving him away.

Applejack did her best to smile reassuringly as Fluttershy restored the audio, “Now, I’m sure we can come to an agreeme-”

“No! You want a deal, here’s your deal!” The alien gestured vaguely behind itself. “Go home now, or--or I give the order!”

Reg finished dragging the stunned body of an unlucky griffon down the hall, and returned to where Ash and two others were hunkered down at a junction, held in a standoff by a group of aliens.

Ash glanced at him as he came up. “Having fun yet? Beats my first job anyway. Hate retail," she said with a harsh bark of laughter. "Any ideas? I not sure we can get by these guys without more casualties.”

“Uh...cover me.” As the others fired down the hall, Reg peeked out, trying to take in as much as he could of the view of the next section. “Huh...looks like some sort of relay station…wait.” He glanced around the junction they were in, then tapped at a section of wall, muttering, until he suddenly jammed the hydrostatic calibrator he'd found earlier into a seam and pried a panel open.

“Wha…” Ash raised an eyebrow at him. “What’d ya find, Mr. Wizard?”

“It’s a power conduit that feeds into that relay.” He ground his beak for a moment. “If we overload it with a disruptor blast, it might discharge down the hall. It depends on how well shielded their power system is…” He looked doubtfully at her.

She winced as another volley of fire blazed past, and blindly responded, before looking back at Reg and shrugging. “Worth a try.” She tossed him her weapon.

He caught it, stood back, and fired into the open wall section, holding the shot until the weapon burbled a warning and stopped.

The griffons all stood by, warily looking around as a low noise hummed through the area, slowly building in intensity until a muffled ZAP echoed from down the hall, eliciting strangled noises from several of the aliens.

Ash glanced down the hall, and saw one of them still standing, weapon at the ready as he glanced back to his fallen comrades. One of the other griffons leaned out to fire, but the frantic alien saw it and fired first, striking his arm and making him squawk in pain. Ash saw that the shot had left a serious burn mark--'guess they turned up their weapon power...well screw this.'

Ducking around the corner, she raised her wing and blocked the first shot, grunting as it blew away the last of her focused wing magic and scorched a few feathers. She dodged the next shot by leaping into the air and grabbing ahold of the ceiling, then pounced on the alien as it was gawking up at her. A kick to the arm yielded a satisfying snapping of bone, and a sock to the jaw cut off the creature’s cry of pain as it slumped to the floor.

Reg shuffled up as Ash was prodding the other aliens, making sure they were out for a while. “Uh...wow.”

She just grunted at him, then said to the others, “Gather up their weapons and figure out some way to secure them.” She gestured at Reg. “So...that stun blast was you sending a pulse from downstream of this relay, right?”

“Y...yeah?”

“So…” she grinned wickedly “...what happens if you send a pulse to whatever’s upstream?”

“--or I give the order!”

Applejack’s smile turned dark, and she spoke through bared teeth, “Now, I’m offering to end things peacefully here. I don’t know how you think killing our people is going to get you any better outcome, but trust me--it won’t.”

The alien’s stared at her, its left eye twitching nervously, but before it could respond the lights on his bridge began to flicker, and his ship was rocked by a small explosion.

“Captain!” Twilight whispered, “I’ve been reading what I’m pretty sure is weapons fire, and now I’m picking up power fluctuations all across their ship--it looks like their EPS grid is overloading.”

AJ just raised an eyebrow as she turned back to the alien captain, to see him frantically tapping at a console. He glanced up and started, before letting out a rather feeble, “Just go away!”

As his lights flickered again, Applejack spoke in a slightly more relaxed tone, “Now, it seems to me that you have a situation on your hands over there. Never let it be said that a Starfleet captain isn’t helpful to someone in need, so how’s about a new deal: power down your engines and weapons, and I’ll go on your intercom and try to get your shipload of angry griffons to stand down.”

Shining Armor kept a close eye--as well as the business end of his phase pistol--on the sullen-looking ‘Ferengi’ who were standing to the side near their ship’s airlock. A group of dazed-looking abductees had already passed by, and the stolen cargo had been transported away.

Now a string of battered, bruised, and in one case scorched-looking griffons were sauntering into the docking bridge, looking rather pleased with themselves. The last to leave were a rather scrawny fellow, followed by a female that moved like a trained fighter.

Nodding to the other members of his security squad, Shining Armor sidled towards the door and let them pass through first. He looked at the angry ship’s captain, and just said, “Thank you for your cooperation.” He received nothing but a heated glare as he backed through the door and hit the awkwardly small close button, breathing a sigh of relief as the door hissed shut.

He turned and entered the bridge between the two ships, seeing the tail of a security officer already disappearing into the Trailblazer. A groaning noise made his ears flick backwards, and then a ripple through the docking bridge made him stumble. 'They’re tearing away from the ship!'. He shoved himself to his hooves, and desperately tried to make it down the flexing length of the tube--ten meters.

Eight.

Six.

A horrible, tearing, screaming noise of tortured metal and liberated air told him his time was up, as the bridge’s gravity plating gave out, and then a rush of air sucked him away from the Trailblazer airlock. He reflexively slammed up a small shield, capturing as much air as he could. His adrenaline-charged brain idly noticed that the docking bridge was ripping away on the other end--as it twisted away, slamming into and cracking his shield, brushing him further from any salvation and sending him into a spin.

'...Two minutes.'

That was what they said, at least. Two minutes of air was all a standard, personal mageshield could hold. He tried to control his breathing, as his view swung about wildly, debris from the two ships’ docking systems still spreading around him.

The Ferengi ship, pulling away--running? But then it began to turn.

His view was still obscured by the bulk of the bridge, but he could make out the Trailblazer holding station. 'What are you doing? They’re coming. Evasive maneuvers!'

A flash, as the Ferengi ship came back into view--blobs of hot plasma flying by, only a couple dozen meters away. He couldn’t tell if it would hit. Another flash, as the ship left his view, and this one came close.

Too close. It slammed into the expanding debris field, and a wave of hot shrapnel tore into his already abused shield. As a chunk of the Ferengi airlock slammed into it, he lost the battle, and the last of his air rushed out through the fading fragments of his protection.

With a painful pop, all sound disappeared, and he was left only the feeling of his heartbeat. He lightly closed his eyes, as his sublimating tears began to sting.

'Cadence.' He began to shiver, as his lungs reflexively tried to pull in air that just wasn’t there.

'Twilight.' The sliver of a view from between his eyelids began to fade to black.

…

As something heavy-yet-soft slammed into him, he felt a grip like iron take hold around his withers. His eyes shot open, revealing the face of a determined looking griffon.

As he felt the griffon’s grip begin to pull him back towards the ship, he lost what was left of his consciousness.

“Report!” Applejack shouted, as she resettled herself in her seat, ship still rumbling with structural vibrations.

Ensign Scratch’s hooves were flying across her console. “The Ferengi ship moved away without undocking, Captain! Reading failures all over the port dock, but no other damage.”

“Ma'am,” Rainbow Dash spoke up, “I’ve got a decompressional thrust coming from port. Something isn’t sealed up right.”

“Hold position for the moment, Lieutenant, we--”

“Captain!” Fluttershy spoke with rare volume, “I’m reading Shining Armor’s locator outside the ship!”

Applejack blinked at Fluttershy, then turned back to Rainbow, “Hold position, hard.” She moved quickly over to Fluttershy, “get me anybody near the port dock!”

The comm wavered for a moment before a harsh voice came on over a howling background, “Security here.”

“What’s your status? We’re reading decompression, and Commander Armor off-ship!”

“Confirmed. The inner airlock door has failed, and I think two of the griffons are going to attempt a rescue of the Commander.”

Forcing herself not to glance at Twilight, Applejack asked, “How long?”

“...Unknown……..One of the griffons just jumped!”

“Captain!”

Applejack looked up at the sound of Twilight’s voice, ready to calm her, but found the unicorn was staring at a scan readout.

“The Ferengi ship is charging weapons, and I think they’ve got their shields back up!”

“Polarize the hull plating! Auxiliary power to inertial dampeners. Dash...hold position...of the dock.”

“Aye Ma'am! Thrusters on full…”

“They’re firing!”

The ship groaned as it it pitched forward, swinging around with the port dock as a pivot point.

“Missed!”

AJ turned to Rarity, who had taken the tactical station. “Return fire, aft cannons only.”

“Firing.”

“Their shields emissions are at eighty-four percent,” Twilight reported.

“Nnng. We can’t risk torpedoes until we can get away from this debris…”

“Incoming!”

The ship twisted again, then shook from an impact.

“Ensign?”

“One hit to the port pylon. Minimal damage. The blast was diffused by some of the debris.”

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie’s voice came over the comm, “She can’t take much more of this, Captain! I’m getting microfracture warnings on some of the medial supports!”

“Captain…” Dash hesitated as she successfully dodged another volley of plasma, “I think the decompression is gone!”

Applejack looked to Fluttershy, who had a hoof to her ear, listening. A tick later, the pegasus nodded, “They’ve got him!”

“Break away, full power--ready all forward weapons!” Applejack watched as the Ferengi ship came into view. Her face set into an angry snarl, “Light ‘em up!”

The forward phase cannons lanced out, impacting the Ferengi shields, as three torpedoes fired, their trails lancing out towards the ship.

Twilight turned from her station, “Captain, high energy signature approaching at warp...nine!?”

Applejack gave her an incredulous look, then turned back to the viewscreen as a massive Ferengi ship appeared, eclipsing their view of the smaller combatant. The Trailblazer’s torpedoes impacted the ship’s shields with minimal effect.

“Woah, nelly…”

“Ma’am, their weapons are charging,” Twilight’s tone became confused, “they’re firing...on the other ship?”

“What? Lieutenant Dash, take us up, z-plus five-hundred.”

With a few hoof swipes, the view outside shifted, revealing the small Ferengi ship, its shields down, with a broad blue beam surrounding it.

“It’s a graviton tractor beam, ma’am.”

The Captain rubbed a hoof along the back of her head, “Just what the hay is goin’ on… Helm, back us off, give’em some breathing room.”

“Aye, Ma’am,” Dash replied as her hooves slid across the controls, the ship in the viewport came into full view as the Trailblazer reversed on thrusters.

Applejack stared in awe at how casually the other ship had immobilized their attackers. “We’re so outclassed…” she muttered under her breath. “Can we go to warp?”

“Engines are ready at your command, Cap’n.”

“Be ready to jump to maximum warp--if we’re lucky, they’ll lose interest...”

Fluttershy spoke up suddenly, “Captain...they’re hailing us!”

“On screen.”

A new, more weathered-looking Ferengi appeared on screen. The Captain of the smaller ship was visible behind him, to his side, looking seriously crestfallen. He seemed to hesitate for a moment as the viewscreen synced, then spoke.

“Ah, greetings Federation ship! I must...apologize for the actions of my son and his friends, but you know how kids can be, eheh. They’ve been a bit rambunctious, but it seems like no harm has been done--certainly nothing that can’t be fixed with a little… latinum, yes?”

“Your...son?” Applejack asked with some confusion. This Ferengi had mistaken her ship for one belonging to some other organization and, given the circumstances, she wasn’t about to disabuse him of this notion.

“Yes, yes,” the Ferengi paused to glare back at his child, “When I told him he could take my old skipper out while I was gone, I never intended for the weapons to be charged, much less for him to be firing on our good friends in the Federation!”

“Yeah, well.” Applejack narrowed her eyes, looking at the--apparently--young Ferengi in the background. “I’m not sure how much Junior there has told you, but we definitely don’t take kindly to our good friends firing on colonies, stealing supplies, abducting citizens, and then spacing my tactical officer!”

The elder Ferengi seemed to blanch a bit at that, his smile turning into a grimace. He held up a hand, and said, “Ah...one moment.” He stalked back to his son, and grabbed a firm hold of his left ear--a situation the youth seemed none too happy about, as he let out a piercing shriek.

Applejack grit her teeth, and waved to Fluttershy to cut the sound. She then paused, and turned back to the pegasus, “Get me Sick Bay.”

After a moment, Cadence’s voice came on, “Y-yes, Captain?”

“What’s the status on Shining Armor? Will he be alright?”

“Yes, he’ll recover. He was exposed to vacuum for about a minute--generally he’ll recover in a few days, though his lungs and ears will take a little longer. If those griffons hadn’t helped…” her voice broke.

“Well, I’m glad they were in the right place. I know he has the best of care now, and I’ll let you get back to it.”

”Yes. Sick Bay out.”

As she turned back to the viewscreen, the Ferengi father was just wrapping up what appeared to have been a vehement dressing-down. Applejack signaled for the sound.

”--to the lowest bidder!”

”Fatherrr, they heard you!”

”They were supposed to!” With that, the Captain returned closer to the view, and smiled ruefully. “I must deeply apologize for the actions of my wayward son. Despite my best efforts to raise a proper, upstanding youngest son, it seems I’ve ended up with a brat who would rather burn the Rules of Acquisition to fuel his pirate ship. Do rest assured he will be…reformed to the best of my abilities.” He glared over his shoulder. “Starting with the sale of all of his possessions!”

“Well Sir, it seems that despite all that’s occurred, there’s been no irreparable damage done, so I think I’m willing to accept such a promise. Everybody deserves a second chance.”

“Ah, yes, yes. There’s that Federation spirit!” He grinned almost too widely, “Now, as a way of beginning his return to my…to our favor, I think he would do well to pay for your repairs, and any damage to the colony you mentioned.” He fiddled with a control panel to his right. “I hope the thousand bars of gold-pressed latinum I’m beaming over to your cargo hold will suffice?”

“Errr...” AJ glanced over to Twilight, who just shrugged. “Yes, that sounds quite reasonable…”

“Very good!” The Ferengi captain nodded vigorously. “I do hope this little incident won’t taint any future business relationship we might have with you or your colonies out here in the Beta Quadrant. In fact--” he snapped his fingers “--do tell your colony that Freg Zum will offer them a five percent discount on their first order! I am a specialist in acquiring all sorts of, ah, esoteric equipment.”

Applejack nodded. “I’ll do that. Y’all take care, now.”

Captain Zum nodded over clasped hands, and the transmission ended. The bridge crew watched in dazed silence, as the ship turned away and went to warp, towing the smaller ‘skipper’ behind.

The bridge was quiet for a moment, until Rainbow Dash stirred, and with her ears pinned murmured, “Uh, Captain? What just happened here?”

“I...I have no idea,” Applejack sighed as she rubbed her head with her forehoof. She slouched in her chair, “set a course for Little Roc, warp four. Engage.”

“...so all that’s left is to attach the new docking bridge hardware and we’ll be good to go. The weapons damage was quite minimal, thanks to Ms. Dash.” Rarity nodded to the named pegasus, who was standing across from her.

An uncharacteristically quiet Rainbow Dash perked up upon hearing her name, and then smirked, and shrugged nonchalantly, while Fluttershy responded, “That’s good. I know the Captain is a little impatient to get moving, now that Little Roc doesn’t need our help anymore.”

“She’s not the only one,” interjected Lt. Dash, “I’m getting tired of docking maneuvers.”

Before either of them could respond to that, a distinct griffon’s voice could be heard approaching. Dash’s ears flattened a little as her earlier thoughts returned to her. Will she ignore me again? You’d think after years, she’d at least say ‘hi’, no matter how things ended before…

The voice clarified, “...and I know that we haven’t always seen eye to eye, but… thanks again. Who knows what that ‘wayward son’ would have done with our people.” Gilda turned the corner, walking next to Applejack, and glanced around at the ponies waiting there, her gaze lingering for an instant on Rainbow Dash. Reg and Ash trailed behind the two leaders.

“Yeah, I could hope that Freg would have caught him and returned your people, but, well…” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Let’s just say I didn’t get an entirely honest vibe from him. I hope you’ll be careful if you decide to take him up on his ‘discount’.”

“Ehh, he’ll just be getting his own, uh, ‘latinum’ back. Not like we’d do anything else with it.”

Applejack nodded, and stopped as they arrived at the starboard airlock. She looked at Rarity questioningly.

Rarity blinked, and then spoke up, “Ah, unfortunately Lt. Pie had to be outside, supervising the portside dock repairs. She sends her regards.” Gilda snorted softly, while Rarity continued, “As for Ms. Sparkle-”

“I’m here!” With a clatter of hooves, the Lieutenant arrived at the airlock. “Sorry, I was in the Sick Bay.”

Nodding, Applejack looked to Gilda and spoke up, “Well, I just wanted to send you off with my thanks for your help with our repairs. It’s not that far anymore, but I still much prefer not heading back to Eros for repairs...you know bureaucracies.”

“Yeah, that’s why I moved out to the middle of nowhere. Though I guess you’re going further than that, eh?”

Applejack laughed, “You might say that, yeah. The universe is a big place, lot bigger than we used to think. We’re gonna need friends if we’re gonna make it, you know?”

“Well ah.. I mean that is… you’ve already found two friends, right?” Reg piped up nervously as he glanced over at Ash, who smiled.

Dash smirked at the cheesy line, and noticed Gilda looking askance at the engineer, then staring into the distance for a moment. Did she just glance at me again? I wish she’d say something...

“You know…” Gilda said, grinning “...you were interested in our shield crystals before, and I could really see them helping you out there, I mean, if Freg had been hostile, you’d have been toast, right?”

“Uh, well, I’m sure we would have figured somethin’ out,” Applejack muttered, not seeing where this was going.

The griffon waved an arm. “Of course, of course, but any little bit helps, right? Well, all it would take is a couple of crystal components to shield your entire ship! Who needs deflector shields when you’ve got unicorns on your crew?”

“Well…” Applejack started, rubbing the back of her head with her hoof. “I’d have to run that by my chief engineer of course…”

“You’ll have plenty of time to figure that out, don’t even worry about it; I mean, you’d need an experienced Little Roc crystal engineer to keep the system up and running anyway, and we happen to have one right here in your friend Reg!” Gilda’s grin was perhaps a little too wide.

Ash caught on before Applejack and eyed Gilda before ruffling up Reg’s feathers with her claw, “Well, I can’t leave him by himself you know, who knows what trouble he’d get into without the proper supervision.”

Gilda smiled a bit wider at that suggestion.

Reg glanced between the two, looking a bit baffled, but then turned to Ash, “Well, I guess a face from home would be welcome, if we are doing this…”

Rainbow eyed Gilda and Ash with a bit of suspicion, but then added, “Well, you know you wouldn’t be the only griffons here--not for long at least. We’re picking up a mixed combat specialist team on Starbase 3 on our way to the frontier.”

Applejack nodded, “Yeah, that’s right.” She eyed the three griffons for a moment, then said, “Well, I’m not one to turn down generosity, as long as you two are willing to come along for the ride. I can’t promise it’ll be a safe journey, but I’m willing to bet you’ll have some good stories to tell when we make it back home.” She said to Ash, “Given the skills you showed on the Ferengi ship, I think you’d make a fine Security officer.”

Ash saluted at that, while Reg thought for a moment, then nodded to the Captain, “It sounds like a real opportunity! And as long as Ms. Pie is okay with it, I think I can get the shield working before we reach the frontier.”

“Great! I’ll send a shuttle up with your things in a few hours!” Gilda’s grin was definitely too wide now, and Dash promised herself she’d keep an eye on their new crew members.

The gathering at the airlock broke up, as Twilight took it upon herself to get their new friends settled, and took them off to see Shining Armor. Before long, Applejack had given a final profuse thanks to Gilda, gave Dash a look, then nodded and walked off.

Dash blinked, and looked around, realizing she was alone with Gilda. She looked nervously at the griffon. “Uhm...hey.”

Gilda looked at her without much of an expression, then grunted, “Yeah. I hear you did some fancy flyin’ out there. Still a showoff, huh?”

“You know it.” Dash smirked at her, then grew serious. “Hey, listen...I know you’ve probably got your own reasons for doing this, but...thanks for the help. When that Ferengi ship came in at warp nine...well, I knew we’d probably be the runt of the herd out there, but I guess I didn’t feel it until right then.”

“My own reasons, huh?” Gilda glared at her for a second, then nodded roughly, and turned and walked through the airlock door. She looked back, her claw on the door control, and then grinned. “Yeah, I guess so. I’ll see ya when I see ya.” Her look softened ever so slightly. “Fly well, Rainbow Dash.”

The door slid shut before Dash could respond, and she stood there stewing in confusion while the docking hardware clicked and thunked, as the Little Roc shuttle disengaged.

Finally, she shook her head, and turned to leave, but her ears were drawn backward by one extra little thump that she didn’t recognize. She glanced over her shoulder at the interior wall, but saw nothing but storage lockers and an emergency kit. New ships settle, right?...I should tell Pinkie.

She walked away, not hearing the breathing coming from one of the lockers.

Captain's Log, fifteenth spring. After a successful--if unplanned--first mission, we are now beginning the first leg of our official mission, and making our way to Starbase 3. With two new crewmen, and a bit of new tech in the works, I feel even more confident that we have the strength, smarts, and will to push the frontier to its limits. Our experiences on this brief detour solidify in my mind the need for us to complete this mission--as much as I would like it to be different, we’re small fish in a very big ocean, and we are going to need all the friends we can get.

Applejack sighed, then saved the log entry, and left her ready room. She nodded to her officers as she took her chair back from Rarity, and keyed the comm.

“Ms. Pie, how’s my ship doing?”

“Purring like a kitten, Ma’am! We’re good to go at your command.”

“Very good.” She turned to Rainbow Dash. “Set course for Starbase 3, warp four.”

“Aye aye!”

“Engage.”

Jean-Luc Picard stirred in his chair and looked up from his book, feeling a change in the air of his quarters. Before he could look about, a voice spoke from behind him.

“Don’t call security, it’s, well...me.”

“Q.” Picard closed his eyes and sighed. “What are you doing here?”

“I have a message.”

“I’m not sure I care what you have to say,” Picard said after a moment’s pause.

“It’s not a message for your benefit, just listen. You are… the only one who I really trust with this information Jean-Luc. Take from that what you will but I come to you in complete honesty this time.”

“...go on then.”

“How’s your history, Jean-Luc? I can’t give too much away you know, even for the right reasons but… Are you familiar with the NX-Class starship Odyssey?”

“What does--”

“Just...be prepared, it’s a big universe for them and they’re going to be lost.”

He turned towards Q’s voice, but further questions died on his lips when he saw the room was once again empty. He thought for a moment, then regretfully put up his book, and went to look up what he could on the Odyssey.

“A lost ship? He couldn’t mean the crew…” the aging captain mused to himself. That would be far too simple for Q to even bother getting involved, and it wouldn’t have been the first time either, he figured, remembering the incident with the Bozeman.

He rubbed his forehead, not for the first time lamenting his interactions with Q. Still, as far as Q encounters had gone, hunting down a ghost ship was probably the least problematic.

He looked over at the clock and decided, however, that this would be a problem to be tackled in the morning.

Author's Notes:

So it took a while, but it was totally worth the wait I'm sure.

Many thanks to the "A"-team.