All I Ask Is A Tall Ship...

Picard loooked at Carol. "You're here to help?"

She nodded her head "Yes sir." Carol looked to the man laying on the deck "Good thing you didn't kill him." She pointed out the window to the flight shuttle. "You can beam him to my ship. When he wakes up he'll count his blessings he's still alive and set a course back to Earth."

"Your shuttle?" Riker teased, "Don't you mean the shuttle you stole from Starfleet?"

Carol shook her head. "More like borrowed. An instructor owed me a favor." She shrugged "So I took it. We don't have much time Captain, Starfleet will be looking for you."

"How did you find us?" Data asked, "We were under cloak."

Carol smiled, "It's easy if you know what to look for."

Picard hesitated, something he was not accustomed to doing. "You realize your career in Starfleet will be finished by helping us."

Carol nodded. "Yeah, I get all that." She paused, "Fine, I'll transport him over myself." She walked over to the unconscious Security Officer, took his phaser and dragged him onto the transporter pad. "Energizing." Carol said as she activated the sequence. She looked to Picard, "Don't you see, I'm one of you."

Picard sat back down in his chair. Clearly she was going to help them whether he invited her to or not. "Very well." He said, "Continue to Earth..." He still wanted to get in Starfleets' face.

Carol held up a hand. "Sir, you can't. Starfleet will be expecting you."

"She's right captain." Riker said, "We need someplace to figure out what to do next. What about the badlands?"

"We are not ready to fight the Maquis." Worf objected, "At least not yet."

Riker shook his head, "That's not what I mean. The U.S.S. Cocoa is still out there sir."

Data turned in his chair, "None of us knows the Badlands to acuretly find that ship, not to mention the plasma storms."

Riker stood firm. "I've had time to study sensor logs, I'm sure I can get us through the storms."

Picard stood from his chair and gestured to it. "Take us there, Number One."

Riker sat down at the front right duty station. "Aye sir, engaging warp drive."

The Runabout headed on its way towards the Demilitarized Zone near the Cardassian/Federation border.

On a well hidden moon in the Badlands several ex-federation officers were holding a meeting.

"I say we go back and take their weapons systems off-line then we can have time to get the supplies we need." A woman said.

"No Ro, it's too dangerous. We'd be killed on a suicide mission like that." Rukal said, "Besides, some Federation ship has been making raids on that Station for two months now, we can't get caught."

Ro Laren protested "I know the risks, but we are in a desperate need of medical supplies." She rested her hands on her hips ready to argue the point.

Rukal nodded, "I understand, but there's still too much risk involved."

"Risk!" Ro spat, "That's all you ever speak of these days. What about when you destroyed the Enterprise. Huh? Where was your concern for risk then? Or when we attacked the Cocoa, who still managed to get away."

Rukal walked over to Ro and back handed her across the face causing her to fall to the ground. "You know that was only a demonstration of our strength, the Enterprise was only one vessel. If we attack that outpost, it won't be long before we're up to or necks in Cardassian Galor-Class vessels." He paused allowing his anger to subside.

Ro, holding her hand to her face stood and laughed. "If Tom were still here..."

Rukal cut her off "He's not here! Tom gave himself up to the Cardies after a failed mission because of a false report!"

Ro remaind firm and completed her sentence, "If Tom were still here, he'd give them a run for their money."

A man approached them, "Rukal."

Rukal faced him "Yes, what is it?"

"Sensors show a Runabout has entered the Badlands." He said.

Rukal nodded "What's Sisko up to now?"

The man shook his head "I don't think it's Sisko. None of our people on Deep Space Nine report any runabouts leaving the station. Its configuration is that of the vessel that took survivors from the Enterprise after it was destroyed."

Rukal nodded and looked to Ro, "Looks like we've got another problem on our hands."

Captain's Log Stardate 53264.9:
We have made it to the Badlands on request of my first officer to complete our mission, searching for the Cocoa. We cannot go directly to Starfleet, they would have us in the brig the moment we try to communicate. Unfortunately we had to power down the cloaking device because of interference from discharges in the plasma stroms. My chief engineer is working to correct the problem. End Log.

Geordi LaForge was in a crawl space underneath the cockpit of the runabout. With a tricorder in one hand and an engineering tool in the other, he was attempting to complete his required task.

"Geordi?" A voice said from behind.

LaForge didn't look up from his work, "Yes Data."

The Second Officer crawled his way towards the engineer. "I am curious." He paused while accessing the appropriate subroutines for the proper facial expressions. "Captain Picard does not like his daughter, yet he allows her to help in our mission."