Ship’s log, stardate: 2832.5.
The Guardian has altered course to match what we believe is the heading of the Star Runner. At present speed, our ETA is in one-point-six hours.
Senior Chief Zhao’s analysis has shown that the ship has been damaged by someone onboard, which is why they have changed heading as they will need to make repairs. Ensign Ra-Vharii has looked into the only survey of D-107/A we have on file. Our records show that the system is in a formative stage, with no planets but a large number of asteroids, dust particles, gravity wells and radiation surges, all of which will make navigational hazardous, as well as affect communications and sensors. Transporters will also be rendered ineffective; as such a shuttle is being prepped for the VBSS team.
* * * * *
Chief Logan Kincaid sat at the pilot’s controls as he ran through the standard pre-flight checks. Given all that the patrol boat had to deal with on a standard deployment, there were a number of times when transporters couldn’t be used, so in these instances they would often need to use one (or both) of their shuttles. The auxiliary craft were smaller than the more common Class-F shuttles used by most other Starfleet ships or bases and were restricted to impulse, but with reinforced hulls and a phaser emitter as standard they better suited their needs.
Whenever the shuttles were to be used, Kincaid made sure he was the one that carried out the systems checks, given that he would always be on the team that was being deployed. Though he made sure that all the mates and deckhands under him were just as thorough as he was, it had become something of a habit for him—one no one could dissuade him from.
As he ran diagnostics on everything from the power plant to the manual overrides, the newest member of the crew (in every sense), Apprentice Hunter Munro, was checking and loading up equipment they could well need. Munro was fresh from Basic Training, barely turned eighteen, he made Ra-Vharii look like an old spacer. Despite his inexperience, he was a workhorse and very eager to muck in wherever he could which, on a patrol boat, was a very good mind-set to have. Kincaid had made sure to put the rookie through his paces, trying to get him up to speed as quickly as possible—which was why he’d included Munro’s name on the boarding team roster.
He had just finished up checking the guidance and flight control systems when he heard Munro stomp up the entry ramp. Glancing back he saw the younger man carrying a full case of body armour, which was standard for VBSS operations. Kincaid knew from personal experience just how cumbersome that would be, so was impressed to see the crewman apprentice handle it with apparent ease—though as someone who had captained both his high school wrestling and rugby teams, it was unsurprising that the kid had both strength and stamina. In a lot of ways, Kincaid saw himself in the younger man, which was probably why he wanted to make sure he excelled—just as his first boatswain had done for him.
“Got everything?” he asked, smiling to himself.
Munro set the crate down so he could fill the lockers near the rear of the shuttle. “Six sets of body armour, helmets and wrist scanners—were we needing more than that, Chief?”
Kincaid chuckled softly. “That should do it, but you should take it a little easier otherwise you’ll sprain something and be no use to anyone.”
“Got it, Chief.”
“How’re we looking, Chief?” came the voice of Lieutenant James, who had managed to enter the hangar and approach the entry hatch without him noticing. Immediately, Munro stood at attention not moving a muscle.
James stepped into the shuttle and cast an amused sideward glance at him, before focusing on Kincaid.
“Everything looks good on this end, Lieutenant. I just need to log the checklist and secure the controls, then we’ll be good to go.”
She nodded. “Carbines loaded?”
“Yes ma’am,” snapped Munro.
The XO turned to give the rookie her full attention. “All checked and cleaned?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Additional power cells loaded?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Is that comfortable?” she gestured to his stiff stance.
“Ma’am?” Munro asked, a look of concern on his young face.
“Crewman Apprentice, I’m all for showing respect to superiors, but you don’t have to tense up so much around officers. We put our pants on one leg at a time.”
“Um, yes ma’am.”
“Sir.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am?”
“Starfleet protocol is to address ones superiors as ‘sir’, regardless of sex.”
Munro visibly winced. “Yes sir, sorry sir.”
“Much better.” She looked from Munro to Kincaid and back again. “Carry on then, gentlemen.”
“You got it, Lieutenant,” Kincaid replied for the both of them.
As soon as James left the shuttle, Munro almost completely deflated. Kincaid fought the urge to laugh. The new XO was by no means an imposing woman, being just under the average height for a human woman and of a lithe build she was dwarfed by the crewman apprentice.
“How could I have messed that up? It’s pretty much lesson one in Starfleet protocol and procedures!”
“Hunter, don’t worry about it. You slipped up, she corrected you, now you won’t forget. Coaching and mentoring is something a good first officer is meant to do.”
Blushing sheepishly Munro looked up at him. “Thanks Chief.”
Kincaid got out of his seat and headed for the ramp. “Unless of course she was hiding her anger and is now off to write you up for the breech in decorum.”
“What?”
He couldn’t keep the ruse going, hearing the panic in the younger man’s voice. Laughing he shook his head. “Hunter, you’ve never played poker have you?”
“I haven’t.”
“A word of advice: don’t.”
* * * * *
The Guardian had dropped out of warp as they approached the system and moved to the outer edges at impulse. Although Thelek knew what they would be facing when they arrived, thanks to the survey reports, reading about it and seeing it were two different things. The young star was surrounded by dust, chips and hunks of rock, some the size of a Constitution-Class ship, crashing into one another and flying off in all directions. There was no pattern to the chaos ahead of them, though the scans they had run showed that some of the bigger pieces nearer the outskirts were slower moving, and more than large enough to hide the missing freighter. Given that her main navigational array was damaged, he doubted that they would risk going much farther inside. This would be where the Guardian came into her own, her small profile, high-grade deflector screens, sturdy hull, and powerful impulse engines meant that she was designed to go into hazardous regions.
“Any sign of them?”
“Negative Skipper,” Linae stated from sensors, not looking up from the hooded viewer.
“What about the ion trail?”
Ra-Vharii shook her head; a rogue lock of blond hair escaped the bun at the back of his head. “I’ve lost it with all the interference in the system, sir.”
Well, this is going to get very interesting very quickly, Thelek mused to himself.
Turning to communications he addressed Crewman Rios. “Launch a relay, set it to passive scans and tie it into our system. We can use it to alert us if the ship eludes us and tries to make a break for it.”
“Aye Commander,” the comm specialist replied and set to work.
Thelek looked at tactical, manned by Petty Officer Second Class Dragha, since Chief Kincaid was down in the shuttle, ready to depart. “Weapon status?”
“Shields at maximum and phasers charged. Our targeting sensors will be as scrambled as the rest and all the junk in the system will mean out torpedoes won’t be of much use,” the behemoth Rigellian-Derva informed him, his bright blue eyes standing out against his thick grey fur.
“You may have to shoot more rocks than anything else if we’re to get through in one piece.”
“Don’t worry, sir, I’ve got my trigger finger warmed up and ready.”
“Fire control at your discretion, Mr Dragha.”
“Aye sir.”
He turned to the opposite side of the bridge, where James once again covered the engineering station. “Your team ready, Lieutenant?”
“Assembled in the shuttlebay, ready to deploy as soon as I get down there, sir.”
“No unnecessary risks, secure the ship as quickly as you can and get her out of the system. We can figure out what happened onboard once she’s in open space.”
“Understood, sir.”
They held each other’s gaze for a moment longer. Part of him wished he was leading the team, but he had to keep focused on the bigger picture and on keeping the patrol boat safe, whilst James lead the boarding party. It would be an element of being the Commanding Officer he’d have the most trouble adjusting too, unless of course he became one of those CO’s that never let it go—though that would hinder James’ development. He gave her a nod and directed his focus on the viewscreen once more.
“Is the search pattern set?”
“I have the nav-points locked into the computer, sir.”
“Very well. Ms Sakara, take us in, one-third impulse.”
“One third impulse, aye.”
The sublight engines hummed as the Vulcan helmswoman brought them to life, deftly manoeuvring the ship into D-107/A. Almost immediately, there was a slight tremor in the deck plates, though it eased after a few seconds. Thelek sat back in his chair and gripped the armrests.
“Sensor range is dropping rapidly and what we do have is of poor resolution.”
“I’d prefer clarity over range, Lieutenant,” he instructed Linae.
“I’m working on it, Skipper.”
All he could do was wait. The crew may not have had much time together, may have been untested up until now, but he knew he had good men and women aboard, all of whom would give him all they had. He just needed to make sure he did the same, so he couldn’t hover over their shoulders or ask for status updates every few minutes, he had to show his faith and trust in them, so they would do the same to him. It was a lesson he’d been taught by his first CO when he made Lieutenant, after completing the Officer Training Programme. To get the most out of those under your command, you had to give each and every one of them just as much.
Around him the hull groaned as Sakara executed a tight turn to port, avoiding a jagged crystalline formation.
“I don’t think the survey team probed deep enough,” Linae commented. “That was a chunk of uridium.”
“When we get out of here, we can inform Starfleet Science of their oversight,” remarked James.
“Asteroid to starboard, closing fast!” Ra-Vharii called out.
Immediately, Thelek saw Dragha hit the fire key. Twin cobalt beams lanced out from their starboard banks, hitting the incoming target and reducing it to dust and shards, which pattered against the shields.
“Nice shooting,” Thelek told him.
They progressed further into the system, Sakara altering their speed and dodging the pieces that she could, Dragha taking out those that she couldn’t. All the while, Ra-Vharii kept on top of their search grid and Linae kept her eyes peeled for any signs of the freighter (or whoever’s trail they had followed). It was slow going, but given the conditions that couldn’t be helped, though they faced many dangerous regions many of which wouldn’t see them return, patrol boat crews did all they could to ensure that day never came.
They had been searching for almost three-quarters of an hour, the bridge uneasily quiet, when Linae looked up from the hood.
“I’ve got some more debris.”
“Definitely not from the asteroids?”
“Refined duranium, it looks like it was sheared off—they mustn’t have as good a helmsman as we do.”
“Can you predict their heading?” he asked Ra-Vharii.
“Negative, sir, with—”
The navigator was cut off when the ship suddenly slammed to port, forcing everyone to grip onto their console and ride out the heavy turbulence. Sakara tapped in a quick command which saw the shacking ease off.
“We were hit by a gravitational eddy; I’m increasing power to the stabilisers to compensate.”
“Commander, currents that strong will have affected the Star Runner as well,” Ra-Vharii pointed out. “Our search pattern didn’t include anything like that.”
Before he had even finished, there was a rapid chirp from sensors. “It looks like they were. I’m picking up a faint plasma trail, similar to a ship increasing impulse power.”
“Can to track them?”
“I can get an approximate vector, but it’s degrading rapidly.”
“Patch the heading to navigation. Helm, best speed.”
As the Guardian plunged back into the eddy, following in the wake of the other ship, the vibration of the deck grew steadily worse, infrequently jolting hard as the patrol boat pushed through. Thelek’s knuckles were almost white as he gripped onto his chair, pressing himself as far back as he could. The hull groaned as Sakara piloted them out of the current and away from the intense gravity field. Almost immediately the ship quietened down again and continued on her course, ducking around a skyscraper sized hunk of rock.
“Damn, I lost it,” Linae hissed.
He glanced back at her. “You got us going in the right direction, Lieutenant.” She flashed him a quick smile then refocused her attention back on the scans.
All was quiet on the bridge, even the vibrations had eased off. Thelek kept his ears open for any sound that might indicate some development, his antennae twitched impatiently. He managed to suppress his desire to pace, knowing that would put everyone on edge. He needed to be patient.
After only five minutes, Ra-Vharii broke the silence. “Sir, we’ve got four large, stable asteroids ahead of us, all capable of hiding a freighter the size of the Star Runner.”
He sat forward. “Any indication of which one it might be?”
The navigator shook his head. He glanced back at Linae, whose slumped shoulders told him all he needed to know. They would have to do this the hard one, check each one for the freighter.
“Helm, take us in towards the first asteroid. Lieutenant, run every available scan you can.”
The region of the system they’d entered was calm compared to what they’d already endure, they didn’t need to dodge any fast moving objects or take out hull-rupturing chunks of rock, so their progress was steady. Sakara brought them right around the asteroid as Linae scanned, but there was no sign of any ship. With one discounted they moved onto the next.
Before they’d traversed even half the distance, Linae hissed, “Gotcha!” He looked back as she raised her bald her from the scanner hood. “I’ve got a radiation signature what matches a damaged impulse reactor—it looks like that damage they took in here caused them more problems.”
“Any indication they’ve spotted us?”
“Negative. Under present conditions they wouldn’t see us until we rounded the asteroid.”
“And there’s no guarantee they’ll stand down as soon as we show ourselves,” stated James.
Thelek looked from his second to first officer. James was right; they needed to make sure that they were ready to act in an instant. “Linae, how sure are you that we’ve found them.”
“If I’m wrong then I will forgo all liberty for the next six months.”
“XO, launch and get into position to board as soon as we announce ourselves.”
“Aye sir,” she confirmed, her tone determined. She tapped the companel. “Hangar deck, prepare for launch.”
With that, she vaulted from her chair and darted off the bridge. Thelek watched her go then turned back to the viewscreen. All their waiting was about to be over.
* * * * *
With the Guardian being under sixty meters, it never took long to get around the ship. James’ dash from the bridge to the aft turbolift and transit to G deck took only a couple of minutes. She entered the hangar bay and headed for the Giles, which was waiting for her. As soon as she was inside the hatch closed and Crewman Munro was waiting with her body armour. Chief Kincaid and Crewman Ama readied the shuttle for departure, clearing it with the control room on the deck above.
As James secured the armour, the bay was depressurised. By the time she was holstering her phaser, the space doors were open and the shuttles’ thrusters lifted them off the deck and out into asteroid filled system. She secured the tactical scanner to her left forearm as she stepped up between the pilot and co-pilot.
“Approach from the portside, we’ll aim for the aft dorsal airlock,” she instructed.
“Aye sir,” Kincaid replied simply, his attention focused on the controls.
“Lieutenant, we could shut down our transponder,” suggested Ama. “That way, they may not notice our approach and when we clamp onto the hull they may think it’s just debris.”
James nodded, liking the deckhands’ ingenuity. “Good idea, do it.”
Taking her seat just behind Kincaid, she watched for a moment as the shuttle swept around the Guardian in a wide arc heading for the Star Runner, as the patrol boat hung back until they were in position. She took a steadying breath, then looked around the other members of her team: Petty Officer Reyne, Crewmen Warren Holloway and Munro. It was a diverse mix of skills and experience, one that had yet to be put to the test.
“Alright, once we breach, we will secure the immediate area then break into three teams. Ama, you’re with me. We’ll head for the bridge. Reyne and Holloway, you’ll secure the engine room. Chief, you and Munro will check the other compartments and cargo bays.
“We still don’t know exactly what is going on aboard,” she continued, “there could well be a legitimate reason for their actions. If not however, you are only to fire if fired upon first. The crew may have been taken hostage, so weapons on stun and watch your targets. Questions?” No one spoke up. “Let’s get it done.”
The shuttle crossed the distance between the two ships in minutes, the dust and rocks they dodged masking their approach. The freighter made no move to suggest they’d spotted either Starfleet craft. Under the Chief’s expert hand, the shuttle came around the asteroid and brought the cargo ship into full view. He cut the thrusters and used their inertia to carry them in closer, coming to a stop mere meters from the pot marked, muddy brown hull. Before they could board any ship, they had to give them the opportunity to stand down before taking any necessary action.
“Send the signal.”
The pre-determined sign that they were ready would be buried in a low communications band, so only a ship listening specifically for it would hear. On their sensor display she watched as the Guardian moved to starboard, coming into view of the freighter and letting them know they’d been discovered.
“Picking up a broadband transmission,” stated Ama.
“Star Runner, this is the Border Service patrol boat Guardian. You are ordered to stand down and prepare to be boarded. If you fail to comply, we will take action,” the Commander’s voice boomed.
“They’re powering engines.”
“Now, Chief!”
Immediately, he hit the controls. A split-second burst of their thrusters brought the shuttle alongside the freighter. Magnetic clamps held them firmly in place, as their ventral docking ring extended and connected with the airlock. The team sprang into action, readying their phaser carbines and securing helmets.
“We have a hard seal,” said Ama, who remained at the controls as Kincaid mustered with the team.
James crouched beside the hatch in the deck. “Force the airlock.”
They waited a moment before Ama informed them, “Airlock open.”
She nodded at Munro, who tapped the control panel and opened the hatch. Carbine on her back, she slipped into the opening and her boot made contact with the ladder, and swiftly climbed down. Pausing as soon as she was able to sweep the immediate area with her phaser, but saw nothing. She reached the deck, holstered her sidearm and raised the rifle in one practiced motion. Standing her ground, keeping her attention focused on the long dimly lit corridor that led to the front of the ship. Behind her, she heard Kincaid slide down the ladder and hit the deck, before joining her covering the others with his weapon raised.
Steadily the others joined them, with Ama being the last one to set foot on the freighter. On both sides was a door, Holloway and Reyne quickly checked and reported them clear. Without words, James led her team forward, sticking to the sides of the cramped corridor, which made the narrow passages on the Guardian seem spacious by comparison. Every doorway they passed, a member of the team entered, swept for signs of life, before they carried on—just as had been drilled into them over the last three weeks on the patrol boat.
As they made their way down forward, she could feel the ship moving as it tried to evade the Guardian, never knowing that they’d already been infiltrated.
It didn’t take them long to reach the stairwell. They paused, long enough for her to issue the other two teams hand signals to proceed and watch as the quartet headed below. When she and Ama were alone, she nodded at the Kamoran and pressed forward once again. This time, one of them checked a room as the other stayed in the corridor. All the crew and passenger cabins were empty, as was the mess hall, which had clear signs of a struggle, but she noted no blood or phaser burns.
She had just emerged from the common area when the bridge hatch opened. The doorway was filled by a tall, stocky human-looking man, who spotted them instantly.
“Starfleet Border Service, you are ordered to stand down immediately!” she yelled.
In the blink of an eye, he was in motion, slapping the panel next to the access hatch, sealing the bridge, as he ducked behind the first available alcove, pulling a weapon from the small of his back and opening fire. She and Ama ducked for cover as the weapons hail of energy pulses punched into the bulkheads, deck plating and ceiling. Whoever he was, he was shooting to kill.
* * * * *
