While monitoring the prisoners of the crow beings, Prince Leto and Renn Tolbac learn that they only have no more than a day before the prisoners become the queen crow's lunch. Dax Dunnbar and the captain of the Federation starship had hoped to send in another starship to the location they thought the prisoners were and create a diversion so the rescue attempt would be easier, but that plan had to be scrapped in light of current developments. Their only chance was to attempt an immediate rescue with what they had on this starship. Reviewing all the possible equipment at their disposal, they decided to maneuver the utility robot through the wormhole door and up to the adobe wall blocking the prison cell. Then have the robot drill a small hole in the wall and inject knockout gas into the cell putting everbody on the other side to sleep. Once everyone was out, knock a hole large enough in the wall to bring the prisoners through to the wormhole door and hopefully safety on this starship. Everything went smoothly until they were collecting the last two prisoners. Then, one of the crow beings regained consciousness and was able to sound the alarm. Soon the area outside the cell was swarming with the crows. They came charging into the cell and after these last prisoners and their rescuers. They were barely able to get through the door before the crows were almost on top of them. Luckily, there was a very skilled man operating the transporter beam that day. As soon as the rescue party was safely away from the door, he beamed it into outer space well away from the starship. The starship had already traveled half the distance to the rescue point so they were in deep space by this time. As they viewed the door on a large viewing screen, they saw it burst open and about 20 crows came flocking out and were sucked into void of outerspace before the door was pulled shut again. There was much cheering on the Federation starship that day, you can be sure! All the prisoners were immediately taken to sick bay where the ship's doctor gave them a full battery of tests to insure they hadn't picked up any known illnesses or that they were transporting any items that might be boobey traps. They kept the men sedated and quaranteened them for a few days just to try to be sure there were no surprises. Lieutenant Franklin was the first one to be awakened. When he came to, Prince Leto was standing by his bed, the first person he saw. He got the widest grin on his face and such a look of relief when he realized he hadn't been the crow queen's lunch. He got to his feet and began discussing what he knew about the missing military space ships. Meanwhile, Dax Dunnbar was walking between the beds of the still sedated prisoners giving them one last visual inspection before he allowed the doctor to awaken them. Thank you for taking a peek! Your support is greatly appreciated!