"Yes. Open a channel. All frequencies."

When the channel is open, the captain speaks.

"This is Captain Shanna Vess of the Nereid to the Maquis vessels. Break off your attack, or by the conditions of the Treaty we will be forced to intervene. Stand down."

Whether the words, or the appearance of another ship, the Maquis do break off their attack, though they fire a few more pot shots as they fly past the ship on their way away from both the Galor class ship and the Nereid.

Shortly after, the Cardassians hail the Nereid.

"This is Gul Evor of the Revtak. To what do we owe the pleasure of a Federation ship coming to our aid? And in the Badlands, no less?"

"I'm afraid that saving you the trouble of fighting was not our mission here. We were sent by Starfleet to find out what happened to the USS Voyager. She dissapeared a month ago with no word or warning."

The Cardassian on the viewscreen snorted. "It is likely then, that the Voyager was destroyed. The Badlands are a dangerous place, after all. Why, I would say that more than nine-thirteenths of our losses hunting the Maquis was because of the Badlands, not the Maquis themselves."

"Be that as it may, we-"

At this point, Delix cuts in from his place at Ops.

Captain! There is a massive subspace energy wave heading for us! Bearing Two-Six-Three, Mark Twenty Six!

"On Screen!"

The viewscreen flickers from the image of the Gul, and instead shows an image from outside the ship. From the heart of the Badlands, a bright white wave is pulsing through the plasma storms, and in fact, when plasma discharges strike the wave, it pulses, and grows.

"Evasive maneuvers! Kovacs! Get us out of here, full impulse!"

Kovacs tries, but no matter what he does, he can't seem to get from out of the path of the wave, he estimates thirty seconds to impact.

"All hands! Brace for-"

The ship lurches as the wave hits the ship. The inertial compensators are briefly overloaded, and everyone is thrown forward.

Everything fades to black...

As you come back to consciousness, sparks are flying from damaged displays and ruptured conduits. Emergency lighting casts everything in a dim glow, amplified slightly by the smoke from smoldering carpeting on the deck. Captain Vess is sprawled on the deck, a piece of broken bulkhead piercing her leg. And she isn't the only injury. Others are strewn about the remains of the bridge, and it seems that no one has gotten through the... whatever that was, without an injury of some kind.