LOG 012 – DARK HORIZONS

Captain's Log, Stardate 57952.1.

I have deliberately kept the USS Melbourne's current stellar survey close to Antara, but it has been almost two weeks since the subspace signal was sent from the planet and there has been no sign of the K'thon returning there. It is only a matter of time before Starfleet orders us to move on from the vicinity.

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Part Four

PART ONE

Capt. Mitchell is in his Ready Room, leaving Cmdr. Partav in command on the Bridge. Ens. Keldan is at the Science station and passes on a request from Astrometrics to rerun a scan of a previously surveyed area due to an error they made in the mass estimate of an object they originally classified as a Brown Dwarf. Partav authorizes the scan, but also notes that this is the latest in a series of small errors that the crew has been making over the last few days. There has been nothing critical so far, but it is a sign to the First Officer that the crew is on edge anticipating the potential conflict to come.

Partav goes into the Ready Room to speak with Mitchell, finding the Captain staring out the window while strumming a tune on his guitar and quietly singing to himself. Partav brings up the issue with the crew, something the Captain had also begun sensing with his Deltan empathic abilities. He calls in Lt. Cmdrs. Ahn'Kress and Tir and asks for suggestions on what they can do to help ease the crew's anxiety. It is Partav who comes up with the winning idea to put on a variety show with members of the crew performing acts, referencing the "USO Shows" that used to be put on to entertain members of the American military in the 20th and 21st Century. Capt. Mitchell okays the idea, volunteering himself to either open or close the show and putting Partav in charge of organizing it.

The show goes on two days later, staged in one of the larger holodecks with those unable to attend in person able to watch on viewscreens in common areas around the ship. Things start off with an opening comedy skit, done deliberately badly by Ahn'Kress and Tir. They are followed by Ens. Keldan, who performs a visual display of reactive flora from Kaminar set to music; and the first half ends with music from a Bolian Jazz Fusion band made up of members of the ship's Engineering teams, including Ens. Eric Chandler, who call themselves Positron Flow. After the intermission, Ens. Haral demonstrates his knife throwing skills with the help of fellow Security office Veronica St. Cyr. A pair of Science officers demonstrating polychromatic fire juggling before Capt. Mitchell gets ready to deliver the final performance of the event.

While the Captain is setting up on stage, Lt. Cmdr. Ahn'Kress receives a call from the Bridge informing her that the probe in the Kuvalae System has detected some unusual signals. Ahn'Kress quietly leaves the holodeck venue and heads for the Bridge, where Lt. Serin is in command of the Delta Shift and has Vulcan crew at many of the stations. As the Captain is performing his final song, an acoustic rendition of the classic late 20th Century tune "Take On Me", Ahn'Kress is working with Lt. Steck at the Science station on the Bridge to analyze the data from the probe. While there is an increase in gravity readings at the edge of the Kuvalae star system, it could be any number of naturally occurring phenomena so Ahn'Kress tells them to keep monitoring. On the holodeck, the Captain finishes his song to the applause of those in attendance, echoed by cheers and clapping across the ship. The show has had the desired effect and given the crew a release, easing much of the tension that had been building since the end of the mission to Antara.

Several hours later, when most of the crew are asleep, the Science station lights up with another alert from the probe - the gravity readings have begun to increase at an alarming rate. Lt. Serin wakes Lt. Cmdr. Ahn'Kress and she gets on her uniform and heads for the Bridge. Moments after she arrives, the scans from the probe show the gravity peaking and rapidly dropping off followed by a burst of tachyons, something which can often signal the opening of a wormhole. Ahn'Kress alerts the command crew. After they have arrived on the Bridge, Ahn'Kress briefs Capt. Mitchell, Cmdr. Partav and Lt. Cmdr. Tir. This is what they have been waiting for and Mitchell orders Lt. JG Reydon to head for the Kuvalae system at maximum warp, or as the Captain puts it, "drive it like you stole it." Even at Warp 9.5 the journey will take the Melbourne nearly nine hours, so Capt. Mitchell asks if they can push the engines any harder. Ahn'Kress reworks the power distribution giving Chief Engineer Tarka enough energy for her to get the ship to Warp 9.7, though with the warning they will need to let them cool down for a while once they get to their destination. This will shave off a little over an hour from their travel time, which Capt. Mitchell determines is acceptable. With several hours before they will be needed back on the Bridge, the Captain orders everyone to try and get some more sleep.

A few hours later, while still some ways out from their destination, the command crew takes their stations on the Main Bridge. Capt. Mitchell puts the ship on Yellow Alert and addresses the crew, letting them know that while they do not yet know exactly what they will be facing, he knows they will perform their duty and he repeats some of the speech he gave the crew when first taking command - "There's no such thing as last call. Pick each other up when you fall."

As the Melbourne approaches Antaran space, the scans from the probe show that whatever might have arrived is still far out at the edge of the system. Luckily, it has appeared on the opposite side of the star from where the planet Antara currently sits in its orbit. Examining the situation, Capt. Mitchell wants to put the ship in the inner system, inside the second asteroid belt. Dropping the Melbourne out of high warp directly into an asteroid field is an extremely tricky, not to mention dangerous, maneuver but Mitchell has faith in their Helm Officer. With a deft hand, and rapid deceleration, Echo Reydon brings the ship in tight, at first appearing to be on a collision course with a large asteroid before diving the Melbourne hard to pilot the ship safely under the asteroid.

From what Capt. Mitchell hopes is a suitable hiding place among the asteroids, the USS Melbourne begins running scans of the outer system to try and detect what is out there. Lt. Cmdr. Ahn'Kress' scans show no indication of conventional sublight propulsion, at first Capt. Mitchell wonders if it is some kind of Cosmozoan, but they realize it is some form of inertialess gravity drive. Ens. Keldan uses occultation to get an idea of the nature of the object, determining that it is not made of any crystalline substance like they theorized it might be. Using the warping of spacetime around the object, Keldan is able to estimate its mass at over 100,000,000 metric tons, making it far larger than any conventional space vessel and closer to a small asteroid or moonlet.

The target is moving at a constant speed of just under one-third the speed of light, which means it will take more than two days for it to reach the planet Antara if it does not increase its velocity at any point. Not wanting to give themselves away, Capt. Mitchell orders the Melbourne to hold its position and continue scanning. Hours pass and the target is still in the outermost reaches of the star system when they are finally able to resolve a visual of their target, and it is massive. The scans show an irregularly shaped object roughly 10km tall with a diameter of roughly 5km, twice the size of Starfleet's Spacedock complex in Earth orbit. Realizing the true scope of the threat, Capt. Mitchell exclaims that "We're going to need a bigger Parliament Class", and orders subspace messages to be sent to their allies in the region requesting any help they can provide.

PART TWO

The command staff is in the Main Briefing Room discussing options of what to do next. Commander Partav is suggesting sending a small team in a shuttlecraft to gather detailed scans from a closer range, or at least a probe. The Captain is unwilling to endanger a shuttle crew, and wants to take the Melbourne in and make contact, believing the ship is better suited to withstand a hostile response. Partav continues to argue for gathering information ahead of taking the ship in to confront the K'thon, and he is supported by Lt. Stuart, who advises that giving the enemy a chance to scan the Melbourne reveals all their cards immediately, that it is better if they can learn more about the K'thon before letting the K'thon learn anything more about them. In the end Capt. Mitchell agrees to send a probe first, and also launch a comms relay beacon to allow the Melbourne to monitor and communicate with the probe without revealing their own location.

A Class V reconnaissance probe is prepared and launched, choosing the better sensor palette on the Class V over a Class VIII or IX which has a more basic sensor package but could reach the K'thon faster. With the K'thon vessel still more than 90 AU distant, the slower Class V probe will take almost an hour and a half to get close enough to scan, even traveling at Warp 2. While the crew waits for the probe to reach its target, a message comes in from Capt. Garneau of the USS Joshua Chang. He indicates that they received the request for assistance and that he has ordered his Chief Engineer to run the Joshua Chang's engines at Warp 9.5, which will get them to the Kuvalae system in a little over 24 hours, assuming the engines don't give out. Capt. Mitchell sends a reply telling them to not push things too hard, to not take chances that will prevent them from getting to the system safely.

The probe arrives at its target and is ready to scan, with Capt. Mitchell prioritizing turning the sensors on the K'thon's power and propulsion, offensive capabilities, and defensive capabilities, in that order. The probe's initial scans detect no form of warp nacelle or other warp propulsion, nor does it find any evidence of an impulse drive. This corroborates what their earlier scans had implied, that the ship had arrived via some kind of wormhole and is now using a reactionless gravity drive of some kind to move at sublight speeds. With the more precise readings the Melbourne realizes that the K'thon vessel is accelerating, its speed increasing at a rate that is linked to the spacetime curvature caused by the gravity well of the system's star. The new data on the vessel's speed brings it to Antara almost 12 hours earlier than previous calculations, tightening the window for reinforcements to arrive in time. The scan also reveals no hard radiation or neutrino emissions, indicating that whatever is powering the K'thon vessel, it is not a fusion or matter-antimatter reactor.

The K'thon vessel has clearly detected the probe now that it has started its scans, and begins scanning the probe in return. The probe's scans turn to a search for weaponry and returns evidence of a heavily armed vessel. The probe detects dozens of disruptor banks, point defense systems, multiple torpedo types (one of which is likely primitive nuclear weapons), and several large emitters that imply gravitic weaponry of some kind. As the probe continues its scans, the K'thon vessel slowly turns to intercept the probe, forcing it to take evasive action.

After scanning the K'thon vessel's superstructure, the probe reveals that its base is some kind of organic mineral compound, but reinforced with high-density refined metals and covered in a silicate material of some kind. There are also several projections made up of the same material as the crystalline webbing, which likely serve as communication and sensor arrays of different types. The entire vessel is also protected by metaphasic shields. At least one of the crystalline communication arrays appears to be transmitting a signal towards Antara, probably trying to reach the K'thon who summoned them. The lack of reply tells the crew of the Melbourne that they had been successful at stopping the K'thon on the planet's surface. The silicate material that serves as an outer layer bears some similarity to the carapace grown when one of the silicon spider's victims mutates into a humanoid K'thon, leading the crew to hypothesize that the vessel was not constructed from an asteroid but instead might have been some kind of living, or at least organic, spacecraft that the K'thon captured and mutated into its present form.

While the probe continues scanning it detects three small craft launching from the K'thon vessel, which head towards the probe. Not willing to lose the probe or risk it being captured, Capt. Mitchell orders a recall signal sent. The probe goes to warp, with the small craft unable to pursue. The image the probe takes as it flees indicates the craft are one- or two-person fighter craft of some kind. This lines up with the reports recovered from the ruins of the Karishi homeworld that fighter craft had strafed the cities on the surface during the K'thon attack.

With the data gathered, Capt. Mitchell holds another briefing with the command crew before sending them off to coordinate the Melbourne's teams. He comments aloud that the K'thon vessel is like a Borg cube and a Crystalline Entity were combined into a single vessel, but that the work was done by the Pakleds. Thinking about the Borg reminds Mitchell of his own past and he suppresses a shudder before commenting to Partav that the Melbourne is the largest vessel either of them have served on, which he notes means it's more crew than were risked under any of their previous commanding officers. Partav agrees that the ship is large, but reminds Mitchell that he's been in bigger battles during the Dominion War and he has faith in his Captain now.

As the crew of the Melbourne begins a detailed analysis to hopefully find weaknesses or other details they could exploit, Capt. Mitchell does a shipwide broadcast to encourage them in their efforts. He addresses the threat of the K'thon and that it is up to them to stop it, and that he and Partav will lead them through the challenge while reminding them that the whole crew will play a part, not just those on the bridge. They will need Engineering to find solutions, and Science and Medical to uncover the secrets of the K'thon. He concludes by stating "The K'thon think we're insignificant and they have a playbook on how to deal with us. We aren't going to win this playing by their rules. We're going to make them play by our rules. Melbourne Rules. Everyone work together, bring your 'A' game, and get in this fight."

The crew are inspired, and the Captain sets a deadline for having a plan ready while the K'thon are still at least a day out from reaching Antara. Cmdr. Partav proposes delaying tactics; the enemy vessel is too large and well-armed for the Melbourne to stop it alone, but if they can perform hit-and-run attacks or other means to slow down the K'thon it will buy time for reinforcements to arrive and increase their odds of success. Over the next few hours the Engineering, Science and Medical teams come forward with a number of enhancements and innovations to help fight the K'thon. Engineering, guided by Cmdr. Partav and Lt. Cmdr. Ahn'Kress, devises a means to use the main deflector to cause a spacetime disruption that will impede the K'thon's gravity-based propulsion and slow them down. They also configure the Melbourne's propulsion system to support a series of pre-programmed micro-warp jumps that will help with performing the hit-and-run attacks. Science and Medical focus on what they know about the K'thon and develop a jamming field they hope will make it difficult for the enemy to coordinate attacks if they launch the newly-discovered fighter craft. Anticipating the possibility of those fighters performing swarm attacks, an autonomous control program is developed that will allow the Melbourne's construction drones and other small, uncrewed craft to act as interceptor countermeasures that could attempt to block fighter attacks.

The crew is able to implement all their plans in time for Capt. Mitchell's self-imposed deadline. With everything in place, Cmdr. Partav puts the ship on Red Alert and Capt. Mitchell orders Lt. JG Reydon to take them out of the asteroid belt and warp to intercept the K'thon vessel, telling him to "knock on their front door". Before engaging in combat, Capt. Mitchell makes a diplomatic effort despite knowing it will likely be futile. Ahn'Kress opens hailing frequencies and Mitchell addresses the K'thon, stating that the Melbourne will stop them from reaching the planet. The K'thon return the hail, appearing on visuals from the control center of the giant vessel. The figure center in the screen responds plainly:

The response is followed by the K'thon vessel powering up its many weapons systems. Capt. Mitchell mutters under his breath how they are dealing with zealots and glances at Cmdr. Partav. Partav then turns to look up at the tactical station situated behind him and gives the order: "Commander Tir… Fire!"

PART THREE

Lt. Cmdr. Tir fires the pulse from the main deflector, which begins warping spacetime in the path of the K'thon vessel. She pushes the deflector right to the edge of tolerance to get the maximum effect, but this unfortunately does not leave enough time for the Melbourne to get out of range before the K'thon respond. The massive vessel unleashes a barrage from its many weapons systems. Graviton emitters fire beams that merge into a single blast which overwhelms the Melbourne's shields and rocks the entire crew. Disruptor emplacements rake her superstructure, knocking out long-range sensors, before a cluster of gravimetric torpedoes slam into the Melbourne, causing hull breaches across decks 10, 11 and 12, overloading the EPS grid, and knocking out communications systems. Finally, a powerful electromagnetic blast knocks out main power and damages the ship's maneuvering thrusters.

Under the emergency lighting, with several secondary consoles having shorted out, the command crew rushes to deal with the attack. Ahn'Kress fights with a failing power grid, rerouting what is left from any system she can to bring critical systems online. Violating several safety regulations in her efforts, Ahn'Kress is able to route enough power to not just partially restore the shields but also enough for the warp drive. As soon as warp power is available, Cmdr. Partav orders Lt. JG Reydon to get them out of there and Echo executes one of the micro-warp jumps previously programmed into the system. The Melbourne leaps away from the danger zone, emerging back in the inner system, just outside the asteroid belt they had previously used as a hiding place.

Capt. Mitchell wants long-range sensors back online as quickly as possible, letting Cmdr. Partav gather the full casualty and damage reports from across the ship. Mitchell reiterates that the sensors are the priority, followed by the ship's power systems and maneuverability, then the shields and communications. Ahn'Kress and Lt. Stuart take point on the sensor repairs, with Partav overseeing the supporting teams. Together they are able to get the long-range sensors back online in a fraction of the expected time. This allows the Melbourne to get scans of the K'thon vessel again, confirming that it has had to change course to get around the spacetime disruption the deflector burst created, slowing its arrival at Antara by at least four hours.

While the repairs are happening, Lt. Cmdr. Tir works with the records officer Lt. Serin to review all the data from their brief confrontation with the K'thon vessel. They now have a clear indication of the firepower wielded by the K'thon, the only benefit from the damage sustained. The pair also perform a detailed analysis of the brief visual communication exchange with the K'thon. They focus on the consoles and other details visible behind Ravik, the K'thon who had been center screen during the exchange. The analysis confirms that there is a crystalline-based technology of some kind, possibly related to the crystalline webbing known to be used elsewhere by the K'thon. The two are also able to discern that the control interfaces seem to be permeable rather than solid, with K'thon in the background being seen pushing their hands directly into a gelatinous substance of some kind.

It is Lt. Serin who makes the most dramatic discovery in the footage, however. A close examination of one of the K'thon in the background reveals an unexpectedly familiar face. Though clearly a K'thon with the darkened carapace and strange limbs, the facial features of one of the figures are that of Alexander Selani, a security officer from the Melbourne who had been believed killed on an away mission aboard a derelict Ferengi vessel, a mission that was also the crew's first encounter with the silicon spiders of the K'thon. It is now apparent that Selani had not actually been killed, but instead infected with the spiders' mutagenic virus and transformed into one of the K'thon, much as the crew had observed happening to the spiders' victims on Antara.

Summoning the senior officers to inform them of the discovery, Mera is barely able to contain her own fury at the revelation. Cmdr. Partav is also shaken; the mission had been his first as the XO of the Melbourne and he considered the loss of Selani on that first mission to be a personal failure. He steadies himself as he did then by remembering that sometimes doing his duty would require making difficult decisions. Capt. Mitchell wants to know how big a threat this represents, and orders a comprehensive review of all the security and tactical systems to remove or change anything that Selani might still have access to. He also notes that this adds a new dimension to their situation, if the K'thon have even a fraction of Selani's knowledge of Starfleet procedures and tactics then they will need to start thinking outside the usual box.

Mera continues to try and wrap her head around the information. She finds the very idea of what was done to Selani revolting, and Capt. Mitchell's empathic abilities are picking up her anger loud and clear, when Mera declares that she wants to go and get Selani from the K'thon vessel. Loto remembers what Tradis' tricorder scans had shown from the victims of the mutation process on Antara and points out that all information points to there being nothing left of the "real" Selani, this is something else using his body. He does not think it is worth risking any of the crew to retrieve what is essentially the corpse of someone they already held a funeral for months ago. Mera retorts that they should still try and retrieve him, if only to deprive the K'thon of him. Even if there is nothing left of the man they knew, as far as they know the K'thon that his body has become still has access to his knowledge and memories. This in itself presents a grave threat to the Federation, giving the K'thon countless potential new worlds to target. Mera also adds that if they can't bring him back, then they should still remove him as an asset the enemy can make use of.

Partav enters the debate, not necessarily agreeing with Mera's idea but noting that any such effort has a high probability of being a suicide mission, and adding that if they do attempt to infiltrate the K'thon vessel then the priority should be to sabotage the ship, and dealing with Selani would come second. Capt. Mitchell listens as his senior staff continue to debate the situation and a thought crosses his mind: could this be a trap? He reviews the analysis and concludes that the K'thon did not deliberately place Selani on the bridge for them to see, it was just a coincidence and they would not have known if not for Tir and Serin's precise analysis. In the end he makes the call: they will execute the plan and send a team to infiltrate the K'thon vessel.

PART FOUR

Capt. Mitchell makes his way to the main shuttlebay as the Away Team is completing their final preparations. Initially, Cmdr. Partav thinks their best bet to approach the K'thon vessel is for the USS Melbourne to perform another quick strike against the enemy to distract them, though this will put the ship at risk, but another option is soon presented. Despite damage to the astrometrics facilities, the science team has been able to track the paths of several comets whose orbits were disrupted by the Melbourne's earlier actions, and one of these comets will now intersect with the new course of the K'thon vessel. The plan then is to warp the shuttle out to the comet and remain hidden behind it until it passes close to the K'thon, at which point the shuttle will use minimal thrusters to glide to an intercept.

With plans finalized, the team consisting of Cmdr. Partav, Lt. Cmdr. Tir, Lt. Cmdr. Ahn'Kress, Lt. Stuart, Lt. JG Tradis and Ens. Garrett boards the shuttlecraft Bragg. Just before departure, Capt. Mitchell addresses them, saying he believes in them and that they will be successful, finally reminding them of the Melbourne Rules. With this, Lt. Cmdr. Tir takes the shuttlecraft out and they successfully reach a hiding place behind the target comet. At this point it becomes a waiting game, and the team sits tight for the next few hours as the K'thon vessel makes its way towards the comet. At its closest approach, Lt. Cmdr. Tir fires the thrusters to put the shuttlecraft on an intercept course, approaching from an oblique angle at slow enough speeds that they should pass through the titanic vessel's shields. For good measure, the USS Melbourne begins conducting intense active long-range scans of the K'thon as the shuttle nears the point of contact, drawing the enemy's attention away.

The maneuver is successful, and the shuttlecraft drifts through the K'thon vessel's shields. As the titanic ship dominates the view out of the shuttle's windows, Lt. Cmdr. Tir gently nudges the Bragg into position where it can latch onto the outer hull. Once their position is secured, the Away Team moves into action. Lt. Stuart conducts low-level scans to get a picture of the interior of the ship near their landing spot, intending to get a direction to the largest power source they can find as well as to map out potential entry points. Surprisingly, the scan detects the signal from a Starfleet combadge, specifically the one assigned to Ens. Selani. The K'thon have apparently kept it, likely to examine the technology, but it has remained functional.

Taking advantage of the discovery, Lt. Cmdr. Ahn'Kress sends out an ultrasonic ping through the combadge, pitched to a frequency that Lt. JG Tradis believes will be outside the hearing range of the K'thon. By using the reflected sound waves from the ping as picked up by the combadge as a form of echolocation, Ahn'Kress is able to render a crude outline of the area the badge is located in. This reveals a large, irregularly-shaped room that, most importantly, seems to be unoccupied at the moment. The signal is coming from deeper in the vessel than their scans would otherwise give them precise data on, so Cmdr. Partav orders that the team will use the shuttle's emergency transporter to beam to that location. Ahn'Kress programs the coordinates into the transporter and the team take up defensive stances before the system energizes and they are beamed into the K'thon vessel.

The crude imaging proves true and the room is unoccupied when the team materializes. The room is fairly large, lit by an eerie green bioluminescence from the ceiling. Ahn'Kress immediately spots clusters of technology scattered on workbenches, much of it clearly Ferengi in origin. Tradis scans the room to identify the source of the bioluminescence while Ahn'Kress and Loto do a more detailed survey of the room. At the same time, Cmdr. Partav has Lt. Cmdr. Tir and Ens. Garrett do a security scan to identify exits and if there are any nearby threats. Partav himself locates Selani's combadge, which he finds along with the Ensign's Phaser and Tricorder, and takes all the equipment. The search of the room yields mostly examples of Ferengi technology, but there are also examples of Karishi equipment in a state of disassembly. Lt. Stuart grabs any Ferengi data storage units he can find to examine later, while Lt. JG Tradis quietly pockets a few bars of gold-pressed Latinum she spots.

The security officers' scans show some of the silicon spiders are close by, but not near enough to be an immediate threat, and have also identified one large corridor as well as a couple of smaller ones that all seem to be heading in the general direction of the large power source they had detected from the shuttle. In the absence of any detectable maintenance tunnels like Jeffries Tubes to use, Partav decides that they should take one of the two smaller corridors to make their way towards what he hopes is the ship's main power reactor. As the team makes its way down the corridor, Lt. JG Tradis is examining her scans and realizes that the silicon spiders are not behaving like the ones encountered on Antara. She believes that the ones on the vessel have assigned duties, basic maintenance and the like, and that it is probable that they would not even take notice of the Away Team as long as the team does not do anything to disrupt or otherwise draw the attention of the spiders.

Tradis's tricorder scans detect a strange mix of biosignatures from a nearby chamber, and the team decides to investigate. Pushing through the permeable membrane that serves as a door, the team finds a chamber of horrors. The room appears to be a biolab where the K'thon scientists perform post-mortem examination of the life forms they have wiped out. On examination tables are the dissected remains of several Ferengi. Also around the room are translucent pods containing dissected samples of various life forms, both flora and fauna. Inside some of the pods are remains of what were clearly Karishi and Xersians, but also some of a centaur-like species that the team do not immediately recognize. It is not until they remember that the Karishi had a second client species besides the Xersians, a centaur-like intelligent herbivore who were called the Tofari. Realizing that these samples might be the only remaining example of Tofari tissue in the galaxy, Lt. Stuart grabs some DNA samples to preserve something of the now-extinct species. Cmdr. Partav wonders why they take bodies for examination instead of mutating them into more K'thon, to which Lt. JG Tradis responds with the hypothesis that as a death cult they are likely researching better ways to kill. Disgusted by it all, Lt. Cmdr. Tir plants one of the team's plasma charge explosives in the room before they leave.

Back in the inner asteroid field, the USS Melbourne detects another vessel approaching at warp speed. They are hailed by the USS Joshua Chang as it drops out of warp near their position. While grateful that they have arrived in time to help, Capt. Mitchell also quietly laments that it is only a medical ship. He then orders a response to the hail and speaks with Capt. Garneau of the Joshua Chang. Garneau is filled in on the most recent events and offers to take on the more serious casualties from the K'thon's attack on the Melbourne. That done, the Captains confer on what the next plan of action will be, and start coordinating on tactics.

On the K'thon vessel, Lt. Cmdr. Tir notes that they have not detected any of the humanoid K'thon, just the spiders. They theorize that there may not actually be very many on board the massive vessel, despite its size, with the spiders doing most of the menial work. Carrying on, they see that the corridor they are in ends with one of the permeable membrane doors, with a reddish orange glow coming from the other side. Pushing through, they find themselves on a balcony-like observation platform looking out into a cavernous space that seems to take up the central portion of the vessel's interior. Far off they can see a giant shaft running vertically through the center, and at the midpoint is a large spherical structure. From readings this seems to be the central power core, but there does not seem to be any easy way to get to it from where the team is.

As the team adjusts to the scale of the interior space, the Away Team begins to realize that other protrusions from the interior wall are not just observation platforms like the one they are on. Dotting the interior walls are alcoves that resolve to dockyards, and many contain skeletal hulks of decaying spacecraft, the majority unrecognizable and unfamiliar to a Starfleet crew. A few contain partially dismantled vessels that they are able to identify as Karishi ships, some with visible warp rings as well as smaller vessels; there is even something that might be the wreckage from a destroyed Catapult array. Nearby to the observation deck where the Away Team is, relatively speaking, is a berth containing a very familiar vessel - a Ferengi D'Kora class cruiser, still easily recognizable though being slowly dismantled by silicon spider drones.

Cmdr. Partav immediately clues in that if the Ferengi ship's warp core is intact, which is likely based on the limited progress on dismantling the exterior, they could potentially sabotage it, using it as a massive antimatter bomb sitting smack in the middle of the K'thon vessel. Time is essential, so they map out the shortest route to take them to the berth where the Ferengi ship is docked. Lt. Cmdr. Tir takes point, leading the team at a quick pace to their destination. From their earlier vantage point, the team could see that an embedded auxiliary shuttle, the Ferengi equivalent of a Captain's Yacht, was still in position, giving them a potential means of escape.

Partav splits the Away Team; he, Lt. Stuart, and Ens. Garrett will secure the shuttle for their escape while Lt. Cmdr. Ahn'Kress, Lt. Cmdr. Tir and Lt. JG Tradis will head for the Ferengi ship's engineering section to sabotage the warp core. On board the Ferengi ship, Tradis notices that there is a lot less crystalline webbing clogging the corridors than when they had first encountered the ship, like they were not needed any longer once the K'thon captured the vessel. From their previous mission, Lt. Cmdrs. Tir and Ahn'Kress know the way to engineering, so are able to sneak their way there. Luckily, their stealthy progress pays off as they hear the voices of several K'thon in engineering, including one they recognize as Selani. He seems to be in charge, directing the others in which areas to remove technology from. Ahn'Kress remembers the engineering controls from when she had to shut down the warp drive before, so is able to work quickly, trying not to be spotted, even using her prehensile tail to work some panels while remaining partially concealed.

The other group faces no opposition reaching the auxiliary shuttle. Figuring out the Ferengi controls, Cmdr. Partav is able to get the ship online and ready to depart. When he gets the call from Lt. Cmdr. Tir that Ahn'Kress has set the Ferengi warp core to self-destruct, he gets Lt. Stuart to use the Ferengi shuttle's transporter to beam them aboard. As soon as they materialize, Mera takes the conn and undocks the craft. Loto scans for an exit, locating the large docking tunnel they must have used to bring the ship inside. Mera pilots the ship down the tunnel, pushing it as fast as she can risk to get them clear. The other end of the tunnel is sealed off, so Ens. Garrett uses the ship's disruptor cannons to blast a way through as the Ferengi ship explodes behind them. They fly through the gap just as a fiery blast of plasma follows them through. Loto remembers their own shuttlecraft and sends an emergency recall signal so it will get clear as well.

The USS Melbourne detects the explosion and she and the Joshua Chang make a warp jump to the location. At tactical, Ens. Haral notes that thanks to the explosion he has line of sight directly to the interior of the K'thon vessel. Capt. Mitchell orders him to fire, and coordinating with the Joshua Chang both ships launch volleys of photon torpedoes through the channel the explosion carved through the K'thon vessel's hull. The torpedoes strike and the K'thon vessel shudders, followed by what almost looks like a ripple passing through it. Before everyone's eyes the massive vessel begins to collapse in on itself, the gravitational power source at its core destabilizing until the entire ship is compressed to a quantum singularity, utterly destroyed.

Cmdr. Partav hails the Melbourne, calling himself Captain of the Ferengi vessel Profit (or is that Prophet?) and enjoying his first "command". Mitchell congratulates the Away Team and they bring it in so the Joshua Chang can put the Ferengi auxiliary craft in its tow space. The threat to Antara is over, but questions remain. Where are the K'thon from, and are there more of them? Is the entire species part of this death cult? And was this vessel one of a kind, or is there a fleet of them out there, waiting to threaten more worlds? The answers will have to wait, but for now the crew of the USS Melbourne can celebrate this victory.