Ali sighed as she sat on the edge of her bunk. She had spoken to Frost not much earlier to confirm when they'd catch up with Barker. Frost had confirmed that they would be upon them by morning.

She couldn't stop staring at where her hands rested in her lap. She really didn't want to have to do this - trying to utilise their tetnar to find a way into his mind had a huge risk of opening hers to him. People would think she had the advantage, being the one whose physiology had caused the tetnar in the first place, but she had barely been formally trained in how to use her telepathic abilities. For all intents and purposes she had been raised human, as her parents suspected that to openly admit that she wasn't might bring down the kind of reckoning that occurred when USEP HQ did finally find out about her true heritage.

Ali scoffed to herself at that. She had been an exemplary officer, she had gone above and beyond in the line of duty more times than she could remember, always pushing herself to be the best she could and earning every accolade they gave her - though that had never been the point. She had helped saved a whole goddamn planet. Yet none of that had mattered when push came to shove and they promptly showed her the door, officially citing mutiny to avoid the scandal that would otherwise break. It made sense, as technically Ali did rebel when she found out about their views - though it was hardly enough to call a mutiny - and her known lapses in professionalism, the only real blotches on her record, bolstered their case.

The moral question behind forcing her way into his mind was easily reconciled with how many species extracted information from enemy agents and the fact that he would happily do the same to her. The moral question behind ordering her to do this was less easy. It was an order to give up her autonomy, a very personal part of her autonomy. Even if it didn't go astray it could be a deeply traumatic experience, if it did… Well, Ali was refusing to think about that. In the end it came down to that one simple thing that Wood had reminded her of the previous day.

She was willing to do whatever it took to stop Barker.

~-x-~

"Sir, we're about an hour out from the weapon," Frost reported as she relieved the night duty helmsman and quickly updated herself on their situation.

Grey turned to Chopade who was busy coordinating with the other crew members on duty at the science stations. "We still have no codes, sir," Chopade reported. "We've been refining the back up plans in the meantime…" He trailed off, slightly uncomfortable suggesting that Ali needed to come through to them. He could only imagine how being ordered to exploit something so personal must feel.

Grey tapped his palm to open a comm line. "Ali, this is Grey, come in." A silence fell over the bridge as they waited for a response. "Ali, can you hear me?" He added, chancing a glance at Lartyne who nodded to confirm that the comm was working. He tried once more but was greeted yet again by silence. "Where is she?" He asked, turning to Chopade again.

Chopade made a few quick flicks with his wrist, a couple of swipes and a button tap here and there. "She's in her cabin," he confirmed.

Grey almost sighed as he glanced around, considering going himself before noticing Wood hadn't arrived for duty yet. He tapped open a new comm channel. "Wood, this is Gr-"

"Yes, sir?" Wood came in before Grey had even finished the standard call opening.

"Where are you?"

"About the get into the elevator," Wood replied, clearly confused.

"Please can you swing by Ali's cabin and wake her up? We still haven't got the information we need," Grey explained.

"On my way."

~-x-~

It didn't take Wood long to detour to Ali's cabin and he soon found himself outside her door pressing the buzzer. No response. He frowned and pressed it again. When she still didn't reply he banged hard on the door on the off-chance that she'd disabled the chime to enable her to sleep undisturbed. He knew it was unlikely but it was better than the alternatives. "Ali, open up or I will let myself in!" He shouted as he banged on the door a final time.

He counted ten seconds before he entered his security override into the access panel to open the door. It slid open without issue and he stepped cautiously into the small room. It appeared normal and empty at first, until his eyes caught sight of the bright green jacket on the floor next to the bunk. "Ali!" He shouted, dropping into a crouch next to where she was lying next to her bunk, pressing his fingers to her neck to check her pulse and opening a channel with his other hand. "Narla, I'm bringing you a patient, have a bed ready," he warned, relieved when he felt Ali's sluggish pulse and easily scooped her up.

Narla had heeded his warning and had a bed and work station ready by the time he arrived in the medical bay. "What happened?" She asked as she directed Wood where to put Ali down.

"I don't know," Wood admitted, carefully placing his charge onto the medical bed as Narla was already waving her own scanner over Ali whilst initiating the inbuilt scanners for that bed. "She wasn't answering her comm. I found her on the floor of her cabin like this."

If it wasn't for the fact that he knew Narla was an incredibly attentive individual he would have doubted that she had been listening based on the way she stared at the data from her scanner, glancing up only to look at the monitors above Ali. "Has she said anything? Gained consciousness at all?" Narla finally asked as her eyes fell closed and her tentacles started dancing around her head.

"No."

A moment later Narla's eyes opened again and she promptly opened her comm - though because she was a doctor her's was located on her forearm and she activated it with the back of her other hand. "Rear Admiral Grey, report to the medical bay."

For a moment Wood didn't know what to say or think at the defeated tone to Narla's voice. "Is she..?"

"I don't know," Narla admitted, "she is pushing the boundaries of her physiology attempting to seek Bert's mind. I'm limited in what I can do for her without it becoming dangerous in entirely different ways." Wood nodded once, staying out of Narla's way as she shooed her assistants away once they had finished attaching a cannula, fluids and instruments to Ali. This was a personal secret of Alice's, she only told those she truly trusted about the connection, and Narla had no intention of breaking that trust.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Grey soon joined them. "What's going on?" He asked as he took in the situation, Narla working away over an unconscious Ali as Wood watched nearby.

"We cannot kill Bert Barker," Narla reported decisively and unhappily.

"Why not?" Grey demanded.

Narla didn't react to his clear anger instead she just turned calmly to her patient. "Because the shock will kill Ali," she explained. "She carried out your orders and is attempting to use their tetnar to gain access to his mind. I don't know if he's resisting, or if he's turned the tables, but something is making her have to fight for control. Her vitals currently aren't stable enough to risk the shock that killing him would entail."

Grey glanced at Ali. "This is making my job more difficult," he sighed.

"It's not mine to make yours easier," Narla retorted. "If she were awake she'd tell you to just kill him anyway, but I am her doctor and I am more interested in saving her life regardless of what that means for a dangerous criminal."

Grey glanced from Ali to Narla, to Wood and then back to Ali. "I don't suppose we know what effect this will be having on Barker?" He finally asked as he turned back to Narla, she clicked her tongue but said nothing. That was the jetra equivalent of shrugging. She didn't know. "Can you do enough to ensure she survives the shock?"

"I'm trying everything I can, but I have no guarantee it will work," she admitted. "If I had to speculate I'd say he's worked out what she's doing and he's taking advantage to stop us from being able to kill him."

"But you don't know?" Wood asked.

"I don't," Narla admitted, "to find out I'd have to use my own abilities to break through and that is dangerous in it's own right."

"We need to break that connection without killing her. I won't allow her to die because of that man," Grey stated with cold fury in his voice that surprised Wood, but not Narla. Wood glanced around the group suspecting that he was missing something about Ali's history on the Endeavour. The times he'd seen Grey and Ali interact implied some kind of underlying quarrel between them, but this reaction suggested it wasn't as simple as he'd thought. "Suggestions?" Grey asked.

"How much time do I have?" Narla countered.

"Less than an hour."

"Then let me work," she replied and both men nodded as they made to leave. "Wood, if you can be spared, it might be beneficial if you stayed."

Grey and Wood shared a look. "You're not needed until we're on final approach," Grey confirmed and glanced at Narla who was giving them both a perfectly blank stare. As a doctor she had perfected such a gaze required for when people tried to get confidential information out of her. It was why none of the longer standing crew members played cards with her. Instead Grey said goodbye and continued up to the bridge as Wood stepped back up to where Narla had turned back to her instruments.

"What do you need me to do?" Wood asked.

"Nothing," Narla confirmed, "but you have spent the most time around Ali recently. I'm hoping that might give her an anchor, of sorts."

Wood couldn't stop himself taking a step closer to Ali, noticing how pale she looked and her too slow breathing. "I don't understand how he can control it. She said this was normal for kentarians," he half asked glancing back at the doctor.

"It is," Narla agreed, "but she is only half kentarian with little training in how to use her abilities beyond basic, every day situations. Also to keep the tetnar open is no effort at all, but to keep it closed requires a constant vigilance and battle, giving her a disadvantage. Though that is an over simplified explanation." She explained as she continued to work. Wood remembered Ali telling him that but it still seemed odd to him that Barker could gain this much control. He put it down to being something you had to experience to truly understand. "Good, she at least appears to be responding to the IV, it's not enough but it's a start."

~-x-~

On his way back up to the bridge Grey called Spud to join them. After Narla's latest update he wanted to go over their options again. He didn't think that they'd be able to find anything new, but they had to try. He couldn't let Ali down again.

Spud was already there when he arrived. "Do we have anything new?" He asked, trying not to let his temper get the best of him right now. Yelling at his officers because he was worried wouldn't help anything.

"Not really," Chopade confirmed.

"Why? What's changed?" Spud asked rather more shrewdly.

Grey sat down in his captain's chair as he quickly debated whether or not he told them. "We can't kill Barker without risking killing Ali," he explained, noticing Spud's eyebrows tighten in a frown. "Don't," he warned and Spud nodded once, understanding that he felt bad enough without her ripping him a new one for ordering Ali to do something so dangerous in the first place. She'd save it for later. "I need options."

"Did we at least get the codes?" Spud asked and Grey recognised the same strain in her voice that was in his, the attempt to keep any anger at the situation or anyone else in check because you knew now wasn't the time.

"No," he explained with a shake of his head.

Spud glanced at Chopade who shrugged. Neither of them had anything new. "Bring the data up," she ordered as gently as she could. "Claire, how long do we have?"

"Just over half an hour," Frost reported after quickly checking her instruments.

Spud and Chopade spent the rest of that time pouring over the data they already had and quietly discussing theories between themselves as Grey paced around the bridge. Frost and Lartyne were trading reports on their position and what kind of other ships they were reading. Every new time interval caused Spud to give a tiny frown as she resisted turning from her work with Chopade. The usual background chatter was absent as everyone was singularly focused on their equipment or theories.

"Ten minutes out, sir," Frost finally reported.

Grey opened a channel to call Wood back up to the bridge before turning to Spud and Chopade. "Anything?" He asked hopefully.

"Only what we already had," Chopade admitted. "If we had the codes we could jam it. If we get someone aboard we can deactivate it or minimise any potential explosion. Otherwise we're going to have to be very careful about where we shoot."

"How do we get the codes without Ali?" Grey asked.

"Ask them nicely?" Spud suggested sarcastically, earning a glare. "What? Our presence will cause a fight, even the best hackers would be hard pushed to break into their systems to get them."

"If we're lucky - like very lucky - it'll be such a unique signature that the frequency that needs jamming will be all but broadcast to us," Chopade added, "but there would be no point in having a weapon that easily stopped."

"I'm not putting much stock in Barker being stupid enough to make this easy for us," Grey agreed wryly.

"Hey, Wood, how good's your aim?" Spud called as she spotted him walk back onto the bridge.

He paused long enough to give her a suspicious look. "Pretty good, why?" He asked.

Spud turned back to the console she was using and sent a highlighted schematic over to the tactical console he was about to relieve another crewman from. "Could you cut that?" She asked.

Wood patted his counterpart on the shoulder by way of thanks as he vacated the seat, before bringing up Spud's latest idea. He actually laughed. "I'm good, Spud, but not that good," he replied. "Even if we got the shields down we'd be hard pressed to stay still long enough for me to get that shot," he explained as he spun the diagrams trying to think of anything to improve their odds.

Spud swore. "Then our best bet is still getting a man aboard. I don't like that plan," she admitted unhappily.

"I can get in," Wood stated firmly, they were running low on options and he knew he could do this.

"We might not be able to get you back," Grey reminded him.

"I know," Wood confirmed, "but I have the best chance once aboard his ship. If we have to take this option, I'm the most qualified." Grey couldn't argue with that, nor could he argue with the adamant tone in his voice. They both knew he was right.

"Sir, we're in range of the weapon now," Frost reported.

"I better get back to engineering," Spud decided as she stood up again. "Don't do anything stupid," she warned Wood as she moved towards the elevator.

"I'll take that as wishing me luck," Wood retorted.

"You know it," Spud agreed with an innocent grin.