The asteroid carried a marker beacon, like most asteroids of that size in a busy planetary system that might be a hazard to navigation. The constant warning was supposed to keep ships at a safe distance from it. This particular asteroid had nearly thirty ships in close proximity to it, and not by accident.

The Calpean colony near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between Federation and Cardassian space was a prime target for attacks from nearby Cardassian colonies. Despite being officially on the Federation side, it was on a key supply route to Federation colonies in the DMZ, and shipping through it was regularly disrupted. It was suspected that the main colony would come under attack sooner or later, but Starfleet was too thinly stretched to be able to give a fast response to warnings from the colonists or ships in the area. The colonists had three runabouts, which could see off a couple of scoutships, but weren't up to much more. A full-scale attack would easily overwhelm them.

Such an attack was approaching behind the asteroid, using its bulk to shield the ships from the colony's sensors.

Gul Evan smiled as he viewed the fleet of scout ships in tight formation behind the asteroid. He would have liked to have a Galar-class destroyer, but that would have betrayed the Cardassian government's involvement far too clearly. However, he was confident that the ostensibly battered-looking scoutships would be enough for the task at hand, removing a Federation outpost from close to Cardassian space, and would be blamed on Cardassian colonists in the DMZ. Now all he needed was patience as the asteroid entered the colony's solar system, and approached near enough for a sneak attack to be carried out before a Starfleet vessel could respond. Coded transmissions from the Obsidian Order told him down to the minute how long he could expect that to be. He did not reply- good old-fashioned 'radio silence' was still a good policy for remaining undetected.

In the darkness of a small room on Calpe colony, a computer terminal beeped and flashed for its owner. Roused from sleep, John Borda checked the readout, and ran it through another program. He didn't like what he saw.

"Computer- contact Mike Stevens, privacy override JB473."

The computer went to arouse another sleeper. Shortly, a voice came through the intercom.

"This better be good PlanB." Mike always used the nickname- John always had a 'plan B'.

"We've got 20 plus ships sneaking in behind 43." 43 was the designation of the asteroid.

"How the hell would you know that?"

"Because the marker beacon's signal is reflecting off them, and I reconfigured the orbital sensors to pick up those reflections."

"Good old PlanB- so what do we do about it, our three tin cans won't hold that many for long.

"Remember when I said I had a special upgrade for 'Charity'?" With the Calpean's sense of history, the three runabouts were named 'Faith', 'Hope' and 'Charity'.

"How long will that hold them? A few minutes at most!"

"I'm sending a coded distress signal to Starfleet now- that should cut down their response time. They want to clobber these raiders as much as we do."

"They might still get through."

"We've got a few hours, enough to get the women and children into the mine shafts. With luck, the Cardassians will only get a few minutes' strafing time before Starfleet gets here. In the meantime, get the ground crew up- I need to get that upgrade installed."

Both men signed off. John dressed, then picked up a carefully wrapped parcel from under the bed. He had hoped not to need it, but the details were important to the success of his plan. Unusually for a colony where mining dust permeated people's day clothes, the parcel contained clean, ironed uniforms, painstakingly hand stitched, for lack of replicator power to do more than produce the bolts of cloth. He then ran for the spacedock.

'Charity' was unrecognizable when Mike got to the spacedock. A gridwork of scaffolding had been bolted to it, and a ground crew was frantically bolting on and wiring in bits of equipment. John had come through with enough 'Plan B's' that they didn't argue about seemingly useless modifications. The information about the Cardassian fleet gave extra urgency to their efforts.

"PlanB! Where are you? He called, not spotting him anywhere on the outside of the ship.

"In here, Mike!" came from inside one of the ceiling consoles in the ship's interior.

"What do you need me to do?" Mike was a good pilot and leader, but lost on the technical details between the flight controls and the thrusters.

John poked his head out of the console, as if he had had to take a breath inside to survive outside it. He then got down and pulled a smaller, flatter package out of his parcel.

"Shower, shave, get your hair cut and put this on." He carefully passed the package to Mike. Personal grooming was not a high point of etiquette on a mining colony. "And don't get it dirty!"

"You're kidding? Who do you think I am- a Starfleet cadet?" He looked into the parcel and did a double-take. "You're mad! You really are this time!"

"I'll be doing the same as soon as we're ready. Nothing like projecting the right image- might even make those Cardies think twice about shooting first and asking questions later! And the longer they have to think about it the less time they have for shooting this place up!"

"But I can't pull without my beard!"

"There'll be nothing to pull with it- so get going!"

Mike left, shaking his head, and, not for the first time, doubting the sanity of his friend. However, he also knew that no sane person would be cheerfully engineering his way out of certain death, which is what he thought of going up against twenty-odd Cardassian scoutships. However, the combination of his bluff and John's technical skills had got the colony out of any number of situations, and the sheer audacity of the bluff appealed to him. He didn't know that John respected his ability to bluff his way out of tight spots as much as he respected John's technical knowhow and ability to turn a pile of junk into something useful.

Gul Evan returned to his bridge. It was only a couple of hours before the fleet got within jamming range of the colony, and could then attack with impunity. He knew two of the colony's runabouts were on patrol, and one was on the ground, having been damaged in the last attack on a ship in the area. They had lost a scoutship, but the attackers had been told to press their attack until the runabouts appeared, and then to do as much damage as possible before escaping. Gul Evan knew that all three had sufferred some damage in this way over the last few weeks, which would probably mean that none would be fully operational, despite the near-miracles that the colony's ground crew seemed to accomplish to keep the runabouts in space.

"Warp signature astern, sir!" called his helmsman.

"Can they see us yet?"

"Not sure, sir, do you want me to scan them?"

"No, wait- we can't risk any active scans until we can jam the colony's subspace comms. What do the passive scans tell you?"

"It's slowing down- right behind us!"

"On-screen! Stand by to power up shields and weapons! And turn to face them- that will warn the other ships."

Gul Evan gaped, then his self-control returned. Even at long range, he could tell the ship was Federation Starfleet- only they would let the brilliant white of their tritanium hulls shine in the black of space. A starship of some sort… but how?

"Computer confirms an Excelsior-class vessel, sir." The helmsman's composure, too, had returned.

"Hold position- they might still miss us this close to the asteroid. At worst, we can still leave the system undetected by following the asteroid out."

"They're hailing us!"

"Power up! Get our shields up!"

"Sir!"

"And open a channel to them." Gul Evan cursed inside, the element of surprise would be lost to him. His mind was making other calculations- twenty-seven scoutships against one old Excelsior-class starship… There would be diplomatic fallout, but it might be done.

"This is Captain Anton Lavoisier of the USS Elliot. You are trespassing in Federation space. Withdraw immediately, or I'll be forced to open fire on you."

The viewscreen showed the command chair of the Elliot's bridge, and its captain seated in it.

"Good day captain. I am Gul Evan of the Cardassian 5^th Order. My apologies for not informing the Federation earlier, but we were pursuing Maquis terrorists- their trail led us to this asteroid." Out of sight of his own bridge camera, Gul Evan's fingers tapped a brief order to his ships on his seat console.

"Our sensors show no life signs on the asteroid"

"Nor do ours- we were just making sure there was no deception, but they seem to have eluded us this time. No matter, we will just have to get them another time. I'll order my ships to withdraw. Good day, Captain. Close channel." He paused a second and then hit the EXECUTE key on his console to send his order.

"That was too easy!" said Mike to John, as Charity's viewscreen shut down to show the Cardassian fleet. "I never thought he'd just turn around as quietly as that…"

"They're powering weapons!" John shouted.

Mike's next order was drowned out as the ship's shields were pounded by blaster fire.

Gul Evan watched in amazement as the starship suddenly seemed to flicker, and then disappeared from his screen!

"What happenned?

"Don't know sir- there's still a ship out there, but now it reads as a Federation runabout!"

"Destroy them, then finish the colony- quickly!"

"The holographic grid's down!" called John from his side of the runabout's cabin. Fortunately, the Cardassians had been aiming for where the mythical saucer section of the Elliot had been, and most of their shots had missed the Charity. However, enough had to dent the shields and do some damage, the exposed holographic grid used to project the illusion of a starship being the worst hit.

"Couldn't you have made us a Galaxy-class ship? They'd never have tried this!" Mike jumped off the "stage" with the internal holoprojection of a starfleet bridge on it and into the runabout's left seat.

"Too big- and too important- they'd have known who captains a capital ship. Now fly this thing before they figure us out!"

"OK- I'm going through them then round the asteroid- that should confuse them for a bit, but we'll need more than that to get home in one piece- what's Plan B, PlanB?"

"Already on it!"

The runabout lurched as Mike accellerated to take it straight through the fleet, making targeting without hitting their own ships difficult. John took over fire control, trying to damage as many ships as he could on the way. There were rattles around the hull as the damaged hologrid buckled and tore away. Then they were skimming the asteroid, blaster fire from the Cardassians vapourising chunks of rock away behind them.

"We're clear! If you've got an idea, now's the time!"

"Not quite- just keep us steady and keep moving." John was intent on the rear viewscreen.

The Cardassians were also skimming the asteroid as they came on, it was the shorter route and now offerred them cover against the runabout's phasers.

The runabout's rear torpedo launcher spat all five of its photon torpedoes into the asteroid. The interior vapourised, blowing the asteroid apart- and right into the Cardassian ships! Several ships completely lost power as their shields were smashed by the huge chunks of rock that had suddenly appeared in their path. Some simply exploded as they ran straight into hard stone. All were hit by debris and suffered damage of some sort.

"Nice one, PlanB! That'll send them packing!"

The runabout rocked as blaster fire hit the aft shields. These weren't just Cardassian colonists sent to harass, but the battle-hardened 5th order, and they ignored their damage and kept coming, if they were still able. Half their number were destroyed or disabled, they would look after themselves while the rest pressed home the attack, and exact retribution.

"Aft weapons are down! We can either run or turn and fight, but not both!"

"How many are still after us?"

"Fourteen"

"We run!"

"Incoming torpedoes- five of them!"

The runabout groaned as Mike put it through a series of tight turns to throw them off. One exploded nearby, shaking the craft and causing power to fail momentarily.

"Hard port- there's another coming in!"

The runabout lurched again, but the power loss had slowed its rate of turn. The torpedo hit the back rear, blowing out the engine compartment and sending the runabout into a violent spin.

Inside, the inertial dampeners failed, sending both men forward into the front window, where they were pinned by the centrifugal force, driving the air from their lungs, and the blood from their heads. John could hear the air screaming out of a hull breach, briefly saw more explosions outside the ship as it span, then a strange white blur, then nothing…

There was a beeping sound. Regular, persistent, annoying. John wouldn't have minded, but it was in exact rhythm with the pulses of pain in his head. He couldn't move, not even open his eyes. There was another sound- a deep smooth rolling, like only the best-maintained engines would produce.

"He's coming around."

Unfamiliar voice- he knew most of the people on the colony- where else would he be? The white blur resurfaced in his memory- a starship?

"Don't try to move. You were injured when your runabout was hit- there are superficial cold burns and your leg is broken. Your eyes will be OK in a while- you were exposed to space for almost a minute. They were nearly frozen when we got you out."

"Where am I?"

"Sickbay- USS Santiago. We got there just in time- good job someone sent us advance warning of the attack. We chased off the rest of the Cardassians- your colony is safe."

"Thank God for that."

"Don't try to speak for a bit- I'll give you something to help you rest."

"Mike?"

"Your friend is in the next bed, he'll be fine in a while as well."

There was a hiss, and the noises faded.

It was a day later, and John and Mike could sit up and look around one of the cleanest rooms they had seen in their lives. Two Starfleet officers came in to see them.

"So, what's going to happen to us now?" said Mike.

The Trill captain looked at him. "You, Mr. Stevens, are free to go. Under the circumstances, we can best forget this incident. The Cardassians were trying to provoke a reaction, maybe start a war. That won't happen now, but for the sake of diplomatic relations I must ask for your silence."

"And Plan- sorry, John?"

"Ensign Borda would probably be charged with impersonating a superior officer, amongst other things, if it wasn't for the fact that I sent him here for just this eventuality."

"You? Starfleet? I thought they kicked you out of the Academy?"

"Not quite. Replied John "When Starfleet Intelligence became aware that the Cardassians might try this sort of thing here, they asked me to take up duty a little early. It would be impossible for a stranger to enter a small mining colony like Calpe without being noticed, so they sent me home. Captain Jat told me to keep watch and give her, as much warning as possible, of a major attack. I had my first clue when the Cardassians stuck around long enough to engage us.

"So you did make it through the Academy!"

"Well, I missed graduation, but I think this sort of makes up for it!

Lt. John Borda sat back in his chair in the Starbase 410 bar. "My first mission? Assistant engineer in a mining colony. Lots of dust, holes in the ground and no excitement for at least a couple of parsecs. Really dull stuff, but plenty to fix. I almost miss the dirt in a place like this. Almost! How about you? What was your first mission like?