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"Get to sickbay, Jenkins," Janeway ordered, rising and coming down to the conn.

"Captain, no, you need someone-" Jenkins's voice was tight, fighting pain, and she steadfastly blinked back tears of agony.

"You're no use as a conn officer with a burned hand," said Janeway, not softening the words. "Get to sickbay. That's an order."

"Aye, Captain." Reluctantly, Jenkins rose and headed for the turbolift. Janeway moved from her captain's chair to man the conn herself.

Another blow. Again, the vessel shuddered. Something Tuvok said lingered in Janeway's mind. Something about the damage. What was it?

The warp core was offline.

And the dark matter was stored in a fragile little universe inside that warp core, a fragile little universe that Torres had reported had already begun to disintegrate.

"Oh, God," said Torres. "Not now, not now..." As if there was ever a good time for the warp core to be offline. But now, right in the middle of a battle with Romulans, when the warp-bubble universe was already showing signs of rapidly increasing instability, was quite possibly the very worst time the warp core could have chosen to go offline.

She knew that Janeway would want warp drive back immediately, but right now getting that warp-bubble universe stable again was the most important priority. Without it, having warp drive wouldn't matter one damn bit.

"Seven, how are you coming on creating that second shell?"

"I am making progress," began the former Borg. At that moment, the ship rocked again. Her console began spitting sparks. "This console is damaged. I will have to start from the beginning." As if that didn't matter to her at all, Seven calmly strode to a second console and began tapping in equations.

Torres admired Seven's cool even as it frustrated the hell out of her. She made a decision. "We don't have time. Keep working on it anyway, Seven, we may need a backup. Khala, Vorik, give me a hand here. We've got to see if we can't create some kind of field around this thing."

Something that would halt the destabilization of the miniature universe. Something that would not halt a transport of dark matter from That Damned Ball into said miniature universe.

There were moments when being chief engineer on Voyager made being a Maquis look like an afternoon in the park.

"Shield," said Khala softly. Her pretty brow furrowed in concentration.

"Sometime today, Khala, if you don't mind," barked Torres.

"Wait a minute, B'Elanna. I have an idea." Khala tapped her combadge. "Khala to the Doctor."

Despite Jekri Kaleh's haughty attitude, Janeway noticed that the Talvath was heading straight for the protection that Voyager had offered. The battle continued, with Janeway now manning the conn. Voyager and the Romulan warbird that defended the science vessel were outnumbered three to two. It was an odd little dance.

Janeway was not issuing orders to destroy the ships, merely cripple them. She knew, as the Romulans could not, how they had been duped and how closely they were skirting death. The warbirds, for their part, were also firing carefully on the Federation ship. Janeway realized that they still wanted Voyager as a spoil of war.

However, the Para'tar seemed to have no such compunctions. It was firing to kill, and the other warbirds attacked it with equal vigor.

"Come on, Kaleh," said Janeway under her breath. The vessel's approach was agonizingly slow. But it needed to be, she reminded herself.

One of the enemy ships suddenly became aware of the Talvath's snail-like progress. It ceased firing on Voyager and redirected its efforts on the smaller vessel, landing a direct hit The ship careened off course, badly damaged.

'Target and fire," Janeway ordered. She knew the Romulans must be baffled that she could see them so accurately with their supposedly flawless shields erected. Tuvok obeyed, and the warbird took heavy damage. It turned slowly, then stopped.

"That one's out of the battle,"