A decoy. Captain McMillan flinced as he remembered when the Gibraltar had initiated persuit of the Runabout leaving the dinosaur world they had visited. They had been fully convinced that this runabout housed Slade, the treator. The renegade officer. When they had *finally* managed to get the elusive runabout in a tractorbeam, they had found... nothing. It had been a decoy.
And as a result, we're on simple diplomatic duty. He'd rather be hunting down Slade, but for that he needed an *idea* as to where Slade could be. At the moment, neither he nor his crew had even an inkling of a thought as to where the most-wanted-person could be hiding. So Starfleet had decided to give the Gibraltar a diplomatic assignment instead: to go to the Klingon Ku'Vat colony and strengthen their diplomatic relationships. Their recent escapades had always included some form of danger: from being trapped on the Challenger to being attacked by dinosaurs. Perhaps a quiet mission is what this crew needs. Their last few missions were barely 'quiet'... they usually involved some sort of danger. From being chased by dinosaurs to being trapped on a dying Challenger... no, the Gibraltar crew was no stranger to dangerous situations.
Still, to have a mission with no danger at all... "Science, anything interesting on our path? Something worth exploring while we're on our way to Ku'Vat?"
Ensign Braveheart answered. "Nothing we don't already know Sir. There's a nebula, not far from here."
"Not even a comet." McMillan answered with nothing more than a faint smile. He was about to ask for what kind of a nebula it was that his science officer had located, but he didn't get the chance. "Sir," came the voice of the Vulcan Sereana Westland, standing at Tactical, "Two unidentified ships are closing in on us: they're on an intercept course."
The Captain leaned forward. Whoever could these be? There had been no reports of unidentified ships in this area of space before. "Can you get any readings on them?" he asked.
Ensign Braveheart at Science seemed happy that he had some sort of target to scan, but his face fell when he noticed the results. "Not much Sir." the Science Officer answered. "They're too heavily shielded."
"Sir, we're receiving a hail." Mr. Quinn Lanzius, at OPS, announced. "It's from the lead ship. They're not identifying themselves, but they do say that we have to follow them." He paused for a second to verify this information. "It uh... would seem, Sir, that they have valuable information about Slade."
"What?" McMillan responded, as if he hadn't heard the report correctly. Part of him was thrilled at this sudden stroke of good fortune coming their way. He had silently wished that Starfleet Intelligence would bring them some more information about the renegade officer, as they had last time. But he had never imagined some alien ships delivering such information... "Mr. Lanzius, please ask them how they know we're interested in Slade?"
The officer worked for a few moments, and then answered. "They claim they have listened in on our communication channels, Sir." He answered, looking unconvinced himself. "They're leaving now, so if we want to follow them, they advise we do so now."
McMillan glanced at the viewscreen in front of him, and wondered if this might be a trap. It was all a bit *too* good to be true. But then again, the offer *might* be genuine. If they'd let it go now, they'd lose any advantage they might have. "Mr. Bourne," He finally said to the helmsman, "Stay with them. In the meantime, I want the ship to go to yellow alert. Keep weapons at the ready. And Science... keep scanning those ships. Get to know all you can about them."
As the Bridge alert signs showed the entire ship being at yellow alert, Captain McMillan leaned back into his chair, wondering what they'd encounter.
"Sir," Ensign Bourne spoke up after a little while, "We're close to our destination, it would seem. There's an asteroid belt ahead, and those ships are leading us to it." The viewscreen flickered on, causing the entire bridge crew to see various smaller asteroids, and one big one.
"The large asteroid has an L-Class atmosphere." Ms. Westland at Tactical said. McMillan couldn't tell if she was surprised about this or not: Vulcans were renowned for their lack of emotions, and this woman was no different. "Also, I managed to scan the ships' weapons systems. Their phaser capacities are similar to those of a Steamrunner class vessel."
While McMillan hoped to avoid a conflict, and instead wished that the intentions of these people were as they said it was, he couldn't ignore the bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Thank you Ms. Westland." The CO said. "Let's just hope we..."
"Three more ships coming from the other side of the large asteroid, weapons hot!" Braveheart reported, interrupting the Captain, who was frowning now.
"Damn." He muttered. "Walked right into their trap." Then, louder, he added "Red alert! Lock weapons and prepare to fire. Helm, evasive maneauvres. Get us out of this asteroid field, and once you're through, engage at maximum warp!" As the first shot struck its target -and the target being the Intrepid class vessel- McMillan knew that the Gibraltar could not possibly survive an confrontation with five of these ships.
The USS Gibraltar lurched, both from the fire it was taking, as well as from the evasive maneauvres. As Mr. Bourne tried to shake their attackers off, Ms. Westland worked on the phasers and torpedoes, making every shot count. Finally, they were out of the asteroid field, and Ensign Bourne activated the warp drive. McMillan braced himself for the jump to warp... but it didn't come.
"What the hell?" He asked.
"Sir, the warp field won't form!" Bourne shouted over the sound of another hit. "There's some sort of tachyon field preventing us from creating a stable warp field!"
In other words, we're dead in the water. McMillan realised. "Very well then. Take us back into the asteroid field, maximum impulse. At least there we might have some cover. Science, any idea on how to get rid of that field?"
It wasn't the Science officer who responded, but the Vulcan Tactical Officer. "If we release concentrated parts of deuterium from the ramscoops," Westland began, "it might interfere with the tachyon field."
"It would also be exposing the entire front end of the ship to severe doses of radiation!" Braveheart stated. Yet, he didn't seem to disagree. "But it might be worth the risk."
Even though McMillan didn't like all the 'mights' that he had just heard, he also knew it was their only option. "Make it so." He ordered. "Tell me when we have the ramscoops ready." As the officers set their respective departments to work, the Gibraltar shook again: despite Bourne's magnificent politing, there was no way to avoid all the blasts being sent at the Gibraltar.
"Minor hull breach deck 3." Quinn Lanzius said from OPS. "Forcefield in place."
"Sending out medical teams." Doctor Seesaw responded. "Sickbay is on hot standby."
While it pleased McMillan to see his crew working together like this, he knew there would be time for praise later. Right now, survival was their goal. "Helm, evasive maneauvre theta. Keep them behind us." He knew Bourne would be able to use the asteroids here to avoid those ships getting a clear shot, but for how long?
A few more hits later, both Westland and Braveheart spoke up. "Ramscoops prepared Sir." Westland said, while Braveheart added "We just need sixty more seconds to get all the personnel away from the forward sections."
Sixty more seconds. That might as well be an eternity. Nevertheless, it was what McMillan had been waiting for. "Ensign Bourne. Bring us around, and get out of this field. Ms. Westland, fire everything you've got on them. Mr. Braveheart... release the deuterium on my mark."
As his orders were followed, he watched the chronometer steadily. The ship shook and lurched tremendously, letting the Captain know that there was a hullbreach before it was even reported. He hoped there'd be no loss of life... but that too, had to wait until this situation was resolved.
The Gibraltar emerged from the asteroid field, phasers blazing. For a moment, their assailants seemed surprised... but only for a moment. It was all the Gibraltar crew needed. "Now." He ordered.
The deuterium was ejected from the ramscoops, interacting with the tachyon field. At the same moment, Ensign Angelis Bourne tapped his console... and the Gibraltar accellerated to warp 9.6. A cheer was heard through the Bridge, but it seemed to be premature. "We've got two persuing vessels." Bourne announced. "And I'm not sure how much longer we can hold this speed."
McMillan nodded. "Understood." He said, knowing exactly what to do. "Science, where was that nebula of yours again? Transfer the co-ordinates to the helm. Perhaps we can lose them in there."
The Gibraltar changed course towards the nebula, and at first the two persuing ships followed. But the closer they got to the mutara-class nebula, the less enthusiastic those ships seemed to be. Finally, they abandoned persuit.
"It would seem they are not keen on fighting in our playing ground." Bourne observed. He sounded relieved, and McMillan didn't blame him.
"Keep on going." The Captain ordered. "But change course to Starbase 436." That starbase was close to the Klingon colony Ku'Vat anyway, so they had been heading towards that. It shouldn't be far now.
"Slowing down to warp 9, Captain." Bourne then announced. "Otherwise we'll fall apart before we even reach 436." McMillan nodded: he wanted to be alive to tell the base commander of this new threat they've discovered.
It was then that Braveheart spoke up. "Sir, our friends are back on a persuit course. Seems they got reinforcements. But it doesn't seem they'll catch up to us before we arrive at the Starbase."
"One of them will." the Vulcan announced. "It is transferring all its power to its engines. It's overtaking us..." Was there surprise to be heard in the Vulcan's pause? "Sir, the enemy ship is passing us, going straight for the Ku'Vat colony."
McMillan turned around, facing the tactical console. "Why in the world would they want to go to that colony?"
As the Gibraltar came closer and closer to the starbase, that question was more and more on everyone's mind...
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