SB Assailant Episode 1.6 Robbing Peter to pay Paul

[Magellan Lin]

After a working dinner with the Captain of the Yridian Freighter in one of Assailants less than desirable eating locales in the bowels of the station Magellan made his way back up to the starfleet secure areas and the main docking ports. He stood for a few minutes at one of the vast windows and gazed out as his old ship the USS Victory made ready to depart. Work Bees buzzed to and fro like gnats compared to the starship.
With a clanking groan the vast bay doors shuddered open. The inky blackness of space appeared ever widening revealed a second starship on approach. The Sydney Class transport was dwarfed by the station as it entered. Using RCS thrusters it carefully manouvered towards one of the inner docking ports as opposed to the vast docking arms that were used for the starships.
Magellan checked his uniform and looked up to see Zoilip arrive with a simple honour guard.
"Everything in order?"
The bolian grinned,
"Of course. Wouldnt be much of an aide if it wasnt"
"Good, I have a sense this may not go well"
"You always think that sir"
"Yes and I m usually right"
The transport was now docked and the airlock cycling.
With a hiss of air the door slid open. Zoilips honour guard flanked the doorway and snapped to attention.
Emerging from the doorway came three men.
They were willowy in shape, fragile sprang to mind. There were essentially humanoid but had piercing orange pupils and an odd yellowy tinge to their skin. Hair colour ranged from jet black to almot white.
"Jenta ta lo" Magellan suddenly said extending one hand fingers extended and thumb tucked beneath.
The lead tekaran copied and said,
"Jenta ta la Admiral Magellan. I was unaware you spoke our language."
Magellan likewise was surprised but merely smiled and replied,
"I believed it appropriate to pick up a little, we will after all be neighbours."
"Very good. How much have you picked up?"
"I m not sure" Magellan answered truthfully
"Let me introduce ourselves. I am Prime Delegate Lorol, this is Councillor Garel of our Cultural Committee and this is Lead Enforcer Hapel in charge of planetary security."
"A pleasure." Magellan nodded taking each of their hands. "I have arranged a light buffet and an opportunity for you to meet our dilpomats, Ambassadors Saarok, Tedak and Laika. I thought it prudent we discuss the aspects of teh project before we meet with Jak'dor and the rest of teh Debrune tomorrow."
"Very wise Admiral. I must confess to be somewhat skeptical of the Debrune, they feature in much of our folklore and never in a positive light. I am however more upon to negotiation than some." Lorol cast a sidelongs glance at Garel. He seemed not to notice or simply ignored it.
"Here let me lead the way." Magellan offered and together with teh delegates and honour guard they left for Conference Room 4.
As Zoilip had promised everything was in place all that was missing now were the Federation diplomats.

[Deleted]

T'Val paled slightly as the courier gazed at her, asking her to handle weapons. As a healer her oath was not to do any harm, but if she were to handle weapons, she would be doing harm. ~but if I do not, they will harm us, and a healer's safety comes first~

"I believe that now would be as good as a time to learn," she replied, her voice a little shaky, as she settled down in the chair at the weapons console. "What do I do?" She listened patiently to Jibb's crash-course in shooting and targeting. "Now what?" she asked, still feeling oddly out of place.

[Deleted]

Magellan said:

"So whats New Fabrini like now." Magellan started, Now - what was he on about he had never been to New Fabrini and neither had his first host Toya.

“Do you mean its government or its geography?” she asked.

“Both,” Magellan answered.

“Well, basically on New Fabrina we hold elections for our officials, but we do not elect our K’Len, or President as you would call it,” she explained. “Instead, we elect the members of the Cabinet for each department like education and economic. Then, those elected members chose the person who would govern our world.”

“As for its geography, New Fabrina only has one land mass has many cliffs unlike the beaches that I’ve seen on Earth. Since the land mass is near the equator, it is very warm and very few areas receive any snow. Those that do are the high mountain areas in the far south. The rest of the land is covered in smooth plains that are very good for agriculture and has a wide variety of wildlife including some Phawnders, which are horse-like creatures with horns on their snouts. They are the largest animals there and most others are the birds and other small creatures,” she paused. “Is there anything else you would like to know?”

At that moment, Ambassador Saarok came out and Magellan introduced him to Jatira. After the introductions, the Admiral had to leave, so he left her with Saarok.

Saarok said:

“Allow me to properly introduce my self, Ambassador Saarok of Vulcan, and this here is ambassador Tedak ir-Saj'sihaer tr'H'Rhinann. “

“It’s a pleasure sir,” she nodded respectfully.

Sonak/S'reena/Tedak said:

Tedak made a little formal bow. "Of the Romulan Empire," he added, giving Saarok a little nudge between the ribs, "you do keep forgetting that part my dear Vulcan friend." He grinned at Jatire, then deepened his bow playfully. "At your service ma'am."

Jatira smiled back, a little amused by the Romulan’s behavior. “A pleasure to meet you to,” she said.

Saarok said:

“I have heard good things about you Miss Jatira”, Saarok said

“But now to keep the talk to the minimum as we have a Tekaran council arriving shortly”, he said

“Let me show you to your office, and then perhaps you would like to join me and ambassador Tedak in greeting the council?”, he said as they started moving towards her office

“Of course,” she said and followed the much taller Vulcan and Romulan towards the offices.

Saarok said:

After a shorter walk they arrived to her office.

“This here is my office, he said pointing to a door as they passed by it, and yours is right down here, he said pointing to a door where an ensign holding a pad was standing.

“Ms. Jatira Laika”, he asked

“Yes?” she stepped forward toward the Ensign.

Saarok said:

“I have your access codes, and also you can tell me if there is anything you might need, from assistants to security guards anything at all feel free to contact me about it and ill see that it gets done.”, the Ensign finished

She thought about it for a moment. “Well, I can say that I will need one assistant. As for the security guards, I don’t think that will be necessary.”

“Of course,” the Ensign noted the request into his PADD. “But if you do change your mind, all you have to do is ask. However, I do recommend that you have at least one security guard.”

“I’ll keep it in mind, thank you,” she said and took the PADD. She began to read over the data when she noticed that the Ensign was still standing there. “Yes?” she asked.

“Shall I assign you a security guard then?” he asked again.

“Very well,” she nodded after a few moments. If he wants me to have one that badly, then perhaps I should. she thought curiously.

Finally, the Ensign was satisfied and Jatira went back to Saarok and Tedak. Saarok then went on to explain the data on the PADD that he was giving her and that if she needed anything else, she was to go to him.

Sonak/S'reena/Tedak said:

"Or me, or my wife," Tedak added, still grinning.

Jatira smiled, feeling at ease. "I'll do that," she nodded. She wondered if the Romulan represenative was always this cheerful or if he was just in a good mood that day. She hoped that it was the former, because she disliked working with grumpy people. If he always was this pleasant, then she looked forward to working there alongside him and Saarok.

[Deleted]

Richard had been hoping that T'Val had received some training, but in hindsight, he shouldn't even have entertained the notion. A Vulcan doctor, two usually non-violent concepts all rolled into one. He quickly explained how to use the main phaser system. The Wanderer was pretty well-armed for a smaller ship, and T'Val would have access to fore and aft Type 9 phasers. Richard kept control over the mini-photon torpedo launchers, as they were a lot harder to use effectively.

"Excuse me, Federation ship. Apparently you haven't noticed that you are surrounded by superior forces. Please drop your shields and prepare to be boarded. Otherwise I will be forced to put your shields down myself. You won't like that" the Dread Pirate Roberts declared. The pirate was unusually polite, but that name. Richard shook his head. Richard doubted that the situation would improve if he giggled...

"Sorry, Roberts. I was busy overriding your jamming and placing a distress call in to Assailant. A Federation starship is on route right now. It might be best if you and your ...fleet... left right now" Richard replied.

"Nice try, Federation vessel, but I would know if you had managed to get a signal out. This is your last warning. Drop your shields and prepare to be boarded!" Roberts said menacingly.

Richard grimaced quietly, then narrowed his eyes. Roberts would "know" if he had gotten a signal out? There was no real way for for him to know that. An interesting slip of the tongue. He put that aside for the moment and analyzed the situation. Roberts was running out of time, and they both knew it. There was a heavy Federation presence out here and the Starbase would notice a situation like this fairly quickly, whether or not Richard could actually contact them. All he had to do was keep the Wanderers' shields up until help came. Richard decided to let his engines do the talking, kicked the Wanderer into warp and prepared his pre-programmed list of evasive maneuvers.

[Deleted]

T'Val kept an eye on the sensors, while Jibb concentrated on the main vessel, with the person who had done the talking. ~a pirate apollogizing for threatening to board a ship?~ she thought, shaking her head ~highly illogical~ One of the smaller ships came swooping in, and thanks to Jibb's quick explanation of the weapons console, she disabled it's engines.

Sev suddenly burst in, chittering in agitation. "Down," T'Val sternly told the bronze, casting a quick glance at Jibb. "You know, nobody would notice if he were to zip out and get a message to anyone you wish to notify. Just give him a clear image of whom you want to alert, and he will go there," she continued to Jibb, all the while keeping an eye on the sensors. The bronze chirped once, but stayed well away from Jibb. The little creature had not liked being transported, but since his lady friend had not taken offense at it, he stayed away from Jibb. Had she taken offence, the man would have known instantly as well.

T'Val waited for Jibb to respond to her suggestion. She keyed out a sequence on the console, so that she could easily target out the ships that were about to attack. She also kept an eye on the disabled vessel, lest it be feigning being disabled. "Sev is agitated, I would not be surprised if his litter mates are also." She explained about Nut and Saaroks duo, who had all come from the same nest.

[Deleted]

"Could you send him yourself, T'Val? I'm a little busy. And strap yourself in, this is going to get rough." Richard grated. The opposing shuttles were proving to be a lot more agile than Richard had anticipated, and the destroyer was trying to lock onto them with a tractor beam. "Computer, begin evasive sequence Jibb 72." The Wanderer immediately started moving in a highly erratic series of turns and attitude changes. A volley of phaser fire blasted by, just missing the ship. Richard didn't think that the ships had access to phaser locks, and were being operated on manual. Unfortunately, the shuttles were attempting to force him closer to the destroyer, so that that ship could bring it's superior power to bear.

Abruptly, Richard had to disengage the computer and go to manual. The preprogrammed maneuver had taken them into a collision course with one of the enemy shuttles, and he had to jerk the Wanderer into a corkscrew maneuver to get away from it. This had led him into the sights of a type 9 shuttle, which ended up scoring several hits on Richards starboard shields, lowering them to about 70%.

"Computer, evasive manuever Drunkard's Walk!" he yelled, as the Type 9 continued to fire away. The Wanderer responded with a number of tiny course changes along a straight line, causing the shuttle to miss. Richard could hear T'Val firing the phasers, hit it several times and causing it to break off it's attack with some severely damaged forward shields.

Richard's unexpected corkscrew had a bonus though. Another shuttle walked into Richard's torpedo sights. He quickly fired two, both of which hit, heavily damaging the shuttle and sending it into a powerless spin out of the combat area. Richard could have fired more, but he had a small stock of torpedoes on the Wanderer and didn't want to waste them on a ship that was probably out of the fight.

Suddenly, the Wanderer lurched violently to port and several consoles blew out on the bridge. Richard looked at the damage control screen. His port shields were down to 40% and some EPS conduits had blown out. Roberts' destroyer had finally gotten a hit on them. The ship-to-ship comm crackled to life and the gleeful voice of the Dread Pirate Roberts filled the air. "I'm really looking forward to having your ship in my fleet. She's quite powerful and agile. Too bad I don't need any more pilots."

Richard started running repair subroutines and looked for a way out their predicament. There didn't seem to be too many options.

[Deleted]

T'Val nodded and beckoned the bronze firelizard. "Sev, go find Magellan." She pictured the Trill admiral and tapped out a message on a PADD, which read:

Wanderer under attack, request assistance. Two person's aboard: Ambassador Richard Jib, Healer T'Val. Repeat: require assistance, Wanderer under attack

She didn't have much time to write more, because she was a little occupied herself. "Go," she told the bronze, picturing Lin one more time. Sev warbled and zipped out. "He is gone." T'Val announced, concentrating on weapons again. The cheerful voice of the pirate was starting to annoy her. "Someone give that man a nerve-pinch" she muttered.

~~aboard Assaillant~~

Sev zipped into view, gracefully flying past Tedak, warbled a greeting at the other firelizards, then continued to glide towards Magellan and settled on his shoulder, holding the PADD in his front paws. He warbled questioningly, holding out the PADD to the admiral.

[Magellan Lin]

magellan glanced down at the Padd and then frowned.
Spinning on his heel he crossed to a terminal. He punched in a command and was met by the face of F'Rrass.
"F'rass The Wanderer is under attack, edge of the nebula"
"Sir, we are detect..."
"No time to argue. Launch Runabouts Thames, Tay and Avon, and call back the USS Shial'ra. Have them scamble an intercept."
"Aye Sir" the regulan replied, turning from the screen to issue the commands.
Magellan turned of his screen and then flicked it to a new channel.
"Paul" He greeted as Paul Drews face appeared.
"You and Kez might want to get up to Ops"
"Oh?"
"Jibb has gone and got himself tangled up, could be the pirates. F'Rass is scrambling a response now."
"Thanks for teh heads up. You coming up?"
"Can't at the moment, gotta get these talks going. Will try and slip away. Keep me posted."
"As always, Drew out."

[Deleted]

Sev fanned his wings, as he was grateful for the food offered by Tedak. He hadn't had any food for a couple of days now and he was extremely hungry now. He crooned as the Romulan fed him the chunks of meat, Nut crawling up beside him to beg for a few bits too. While feeding his friends, balancing a tray on his arm with a lizard on either side of it, Tedak walked up to Magellan. "Problem?" he asked, having caught the images from Sev's mind.

Magellan, however, shook his head, and went on to introduce them to their guests. Tedak midly shook his head, smiling to himself. ~that man should learn to relax~ he thought. After his two little friends were done, he sent the little bronze back to T'Val with a message of his own.

~~ aboard the wanderer~~

Sev appeared mid-squawk, quickly landing on T'Val's lap, dropping the PADD. "Help is under way," T'Val announced, "but it may be a while before they get here."

[Deleted]

The Wanderer suddenly slammed to a stop. They had been caught by the tractor beam of Robert's destroyer. A series of alarms started to go off, including one that surprised Richard greatly. He turned to T'Val and said "It seems that they have a device to drain the shields. We probably don't have a while" in a resigned voice. "However, that doesn't mean we have to give up!" Richard bent over the command console and started entering commands which began a power build up in the engines. Putting their output to the wall, Richard forced the wildly vibrating ship to pivot towards the destroyer. Once she was in sight, Jibb burst fired the remainder of his torpedoes. The unexpected maneuver caught Robert's flat footed and all of the projectiles slammed into his forward shields, causing extensive damage. Smiling grimly, Richard then accessed his main computer and said "Computer, engage fractal encryption algorithm." Immediately, all of the consoles and lights on the bridge went dark, and the ship was quickly dragged towards the larger vessel.

"What did you just do?" T'Val asked as she sat with the fire lizard on her lap.

"I initiated a fractal encryption code on the main computer. It will take some major computing power for them to be able to use the Wanderer for anything besides a paper weight now" Richard said with satisfaction.

T'Val shook her head. "Won't they just get how to decrypt it from you?" she asked.

Richard shrugged. "I can't decrypt it either. The ship will really need a spacedock before she'll function again." He looked out the viewport. The Wanderer had been dragged in very close to the destroyer, and the rest of the shuttles were huddled near her as well. Richard noted that the enemy shuttles that had been damaged in the combat had been recovered and were here as well.

T'Val got up from her chair and joined him. "They must be bringing us in so close so that they can use their cloaking device on all of the ships." Richard agreed with her silently. Abruptly, a hum filled the air and he and T'Val disappeared from the bridge of the Wanderer, only to rematerialize on a transporter pad.

"Welcome aboard Robert's Diamond!" a cheery voice exclaimed from the other side of a transporter command console. Leaning down, the tall man then said "Engage cloak and get us out of here!"

[Deleted]

After looking around her new office and briefly speaking to her new neighbours, the Bajoran delegation, she checked to see what time the Yridian freighter would be arriving. Since it wouldn't be there for a little while longer, she decided to take the time and settle into her new office.

The room may have been a little small, but it was comfortable. Sala, her aide was already there setting up a few of her belongings. A small picture of her family sat near the computer monitor along with a few trinkets that she had picked up on a offworld trips. One was a spiked orange crystal from Alpha Centuri and another was a small fern from Earth. The most special item was in a small blue ceramic box with a piece of glass. In it was a little bit of dirt from New Fabrina. People always asked why she kept it and she told them that it was to remind of home.

"Everything's set up," Sala said, getting up from the computer. "Your account is set up and all it needs now is your authorization."

Jatira sat down and put it her security code. "Security codes accepted. Welcome Ambassador Laika," the computer responded. She turned around to Sala. "How are the scientists settling in?"

"Things are going smoothly," she reported. "They have almost finished unpacking their supplies and will soon be moving into their quarters."

"Excuse me?" they heard a voice behind them. They turned around to see one of the Bajoran delegates, standing there. "Welcome to our office, Ambassador," she smiled. "I am Delegate Lora Kenda. I've been instructed to help you settle into your new office."

"Thank you, but I think that we're okay."

"Well, if you need anything, I'll just be around the corner," she said. "Feel free to come over if you need to. We enjoy the company," Lora Kenda said and went back to her work.

"Perhaps you should be going now, the freighter is due to arrive shortly," Sala told her.

Jatira glanced at the time and saw that Sala was correct. "Very well, then in that case would you please compile a list of the delegates here on the station for me to read when I come back?"

"Of course," she said and went to work immediatley.

[Deleted]

T'Val gasped as she felt herself being caught in a transporter beam. A quick glance told her that her companion had been beamed over also, but the little bronze firelizard had not been. Knowing her little friend though, it would not take long for him to appear once he figured out where she had gone.

She was pulled out of her surprise by a cheerful voice who welcomed her aboard. ~now what?~ she thought, but gazed ahead, her face composed into a blank expression. She averted her eyes only to acknowledge the man's presence. She willed herself not to look at Jibb, not only to keep the man's attention on her, but because she knew Jibb was in a sour mood now.

~~ aboard wanderer ~~

Sev chirped in agitation, flitting around trying to find his friends.

~~ aboard the pirate ship ~~

The little bronze firelizard appeared, but apparently nobody took notice. A stern glance from T'Val told him to remain absolutely quiet, and hide himself somewhere on the ship. The pirates must not notice his presence, until it became useful that they did. ~useful for me~ she thought.

"Why am I here?" she finally asked, her voice icy as she gave the pirate leader a cold stare, "I am a Federation citizen." ~revealing my diplomatic status will do little good~ she thought. She still did not acknowledge Jibb's presence.

[Deleted]

At that moment, a door to the room slid open,two heavily armed humans walked in and pointed weapons at Richard and T'Val. The Dread Pirate Roberts did not react to the hostile tone of T'Val's voice. I'm sure that he's heard it before, Richard thought to himself. He decided to keep quiet for now and let T'Val chat with the pirate. Richard listened carefully for any useful information or clues that would help them get out of this.

"You're here because I am in need of your ship, and I do not kill people who I capture out of hand. If that were true, I would have beamed you into space. Also, it is not uncommon that those who I capture can be persuaded to join me, or render some kind of assistance." Roberts declared.

"That is not going to happen" T'Val stated, and even Richard had to suppress a shiver at her frigid tone.

Roberts' face remained darkened slightly, then cleared back up and he shrugged. "That's fine. Perhaps we can find some other use for you." He turned to Richard. "And you sir, I don't suppose that you would be inclined to be more reasonable than your friend here?"

"Depends on what you mean by reasonable" Richard replied.

"You could start by giving me your names" Roberts said.

Both Richard and T'Val remained silent.

Roberts waited, then turned to the two guards and said "Fine. Take them to the brig", then turned and marched out of the transporter chamber.

[Deleted]

"You will not get away with this, pirate," T'Val said icily, and shrugged off the two other pirates who grabbed at her arms. "Where are your manners, you do not touch a Vulcan, did your mother not teach you that?" It was all she could do to keep the firelizard silent. The bronze was fanning his wings in agitation in his little hiding place. If she could not keep him at bay, he would surely attack the pirates, with the risk of him and herself and Richard, getting killed.

~stay~ she told Sev, as she and Richard were marched out of the transporter room. Both of them were pushed into separate cells, and T'Val turned instantly to face the pirates. "Starfleet knows," she said calmly, "and rescue is under way. Soon, you will see."

[Deleted]

“Report,” Drew ordered as he walked out onto Operation’s, KezTrek was right behind him, and for a moment it seemed to Drew like they were on the Fang again, that memory gave him the confidence they could resolve the situation.

F'Rrass looked up from his console, “The Thames, Tay and Avon have all departed under the command of Lt. Tomlinson, they report they will be at the scene in five minutes.”

“Very good,” Drew answered walking down to the command deck, in front of him was a large control panel, showing a map of the entire sector, and the locations of all ship’s, Starfleet and otherwise.

“Do we have any idea what is going on?” Drew asked, as he glanced at the readouts on his display.

“Not at this time Admiral,” young Lt. T’Ark reported from Tactical control.

“Whats the Shial'ra’s ETA?” Drew asked, casting a look up at F’Rrass.

“Slightly longer I am afraid, they are still ten minutes away.”

“Open a channel to them,” Drew ordered, standing in the centre of Op’s so as to face the viewscreen.

A few seconds later, a Bolian Captain appeared onscreen.

“This is Admiral Drew at Starbase Assailant,” Drew introduced himself, he didn’t bother waiting for the Captain to reply before continuing, “We have dispatched Runabouts to the area, once you arrive coordinate your response with them, and forward all your sensor readings to us.”

“Yes Admiral,” the Captain replied, “I believe I may have an explanation for what may have happened.”

“Lets hear it,” Drew answered.

“As we left the sector, we detected some odd sensor readings, we presumed it was our sensors needing realignment.”

“But it could have been clocked ships,” Drew finished for him, “Captain, I am authorising you to break the warp five barrier, increase to warp nine.”

“Aye Sir, our ETA is now just one minute.”

“Keep me informed, Drew out.”

As the screen went blank, Drew turned back to F’Rrass, “Start analysing all our long range sensor readings, find out if there have been cloaked ships in the area.”

“Admiral, Lt. Tomlinson is hailing us,” Lt. T’Ark reported.

“Put him up on the screen,” Drew said, once again turning to face the forward viewscreen, “Lets hope he has good news.”

[Deleted]

Richard sat down on his cot, rubbed his face and spent some time thinking about what he had managed to learn about Roberts so far. It wasn't very much. The man had implied that he had some kind of way to get information out of Starbase Assailant. He had a fairly large ship and a half dozen smaller ones. So he had about 100 or so actual combatants. Roberts would also require access to a base of some kind to service that many ships. Richard thought about what he had seen on the way here. The design of this ship was unfamiliar, so it was either a custom job, or a ship that had been so heavily modified that it was no longer recognizable. Either option meant that Roberts had access to a lot of money. All these items were very unusual for a pirate, but didn't really help with the present problem of how to get off this ship.

Richard could hear T'Val pacing in the next cell and he walked over to the door. There was a force field up, and the two men who had walked them down here were sitting at a small table, playing a card game of some kind. As Richard approached the door, both men looked up. Richard took a quick look around the room and then sat back down on the bed. There wasn't much to look at. The men's attention went back to their card game, giving Richard a chance to check himself out. His hidden phaser was gone, as were the few tools that he kept behind his belt in case of emergencies. Roberts must have removed them during transport. Richard sighed, then realized that he hadn't seen T'Val's fire lizard recently. The animal seemed quite loyal and able to get around without transporters. It must be aboard somewhere. There was some hope. Richard sat for about 20 minutes trying to come up with a plan that would work. He wished that he could coordinate with T'Val a little. Their chances would improve if they were working together.

Abruptly, the door to the security area slammed open. Roberts and a Bolian Richard didn't recognize walked in and stood in front of the two cells. "Two of my technicians are dead" Roberts stated angrily. "They were trying to access your ships' systems and were captured by force fields. They both suffocated to death inside. I can't even recover their bodies. They are both just hovering on the bridge and my men won't go near them."

Richard winced inwardly. He had been hoping they would wait before trying to access his ship. The automated security on the Wanderer was lethal. Roberts didn't seem nearly as jovial now as he did when they were beamed aboard.

"What a pity. Perhaps you shouldn't be capturing ships and taking hostages then" T'Val said loudly. "If any of the rest of you are interested in your continued existence, letting us go should be your next action."

Roberts appeared undisturbed by this threat, but the two security guards looked at one another uneasily. "You think so, Healer T'Val? Do you agree with her, Federation Courier Jibb?"

Richard couldn't help but flinch. How had he found out who they were so quickly?

Roberts smiled triumphantly. "Yes, I know who you are. I think that the Federation will pay dearly for the return of a Federation Courier and the wife of the Romulan Ambassador to the Federation. I hope that they do, otherwise, the only way that they will find your bodies is if they run a nuclear level scan of the Bertreka Nebula." Roberts and his Bolian companion turned and stomped out of the room.

[Deleted]

T'Val remained silent for a moment, wondering just how they figured out their identities so quickly. She tried to get a glimpse of Richard Jibb, knowing her companion was stunned into silence also.

"You will wish you had not captured us," she said coldly, "and the Federation does not deal with terrorists, nor do they bargain with them." She gazed the pirate directly in the eye, daringly.

When he had left, she caught movement under the cot in her cell. Crouching down, pretending that she had lost something, she found the bronze firelizard gazing at her, his eyes whirling red and green. Red for danger, green for relief to see them safe. ~Sev, Richard is next to me, show yourself to him briefly to let him know you are with us. Make no sound~ she thought. The little bronze made a movement that sort of looked like a nod and disappeared.

She heard a gasp from the cell next to her, and when one of the guards looked up questioningly, she heard him explain that he had bumped his knee on the cot when he walked past it. Seconds later, the bronze returned. ~fly around the ship, see if you can find a way out for us~ T'Val thought next, as the bronze hid in her long hair ~go to Richard, let him know too. If you can warn Magellan, do so~

The little bronze disappeared again, and did not return. "Richard?" she called softly, "are you all right?"

[Deleted]

When her companion did not answer, T'Val resigned herself to the cot and dediced to get some sleep while she could. Not long after she had dozed off, did she hear a loud clanging noise, as if a stack of containers had collapsed on itself. Opening her eyes slowly, she saw the guards charge out. An instant later, the bronze firelizard was hovering before the forcefield, gazing at the controls that operated it. Having seen how the guards had operated it, when they had first shoved Jibb into his cell, T'Val visualised how to operate it to the little bronze.

Sev gave a soft chirp and, while holding himself aloft with his wings, applied his front paws to the controls. After several attempts, the humming of the forcefield ceased, as the field was deactivated. Instantly, Sev took his usual perch on her shoulder and rubbed her cheek affectionately.

T'Val stepped over to Jibb's cell and deactivated the forcefield. "Hurry," she whispered, "we must be out of here before the guards return."

[Deleted]

Richard sat up when the loud sound filled the brig. The two guards who had been sitting at the table charged out to investigate. Almost immediately, T'Val's lizard appeared out of nowhere and began to hesitantly work the controls to the door. After a few seconds, T'Val stepped out of her cell and released Richard's door. He moved into the brig area and she said "Hurry, we must be out of here before the guards return." Richard nodded, turned to the door, prepared himself and opened it. On the other side was one of the guards with his hand up, preparing to open the door. His eyes widened as he was completely caught by surprise at the site of the two former prisoners. Richard took advantage by seizing his outstretched arm and executing a Harai Goshi. It was a throw from an ancient self-defence technique and threw the guard into the room. It also gave Richard an opportunity to relieve him of a phaser as he fell.

He turned with the weapon. The second guard had overcome his surprise and was reaching for a weapon when Richard shot him. The energy discharge knocked the second guard into the far bulkhead and then the deck, unconscious. He quickly turned to see what the first guard was doing, but discovered that T'Val had already incapacitated him with a Vulcan Neck Pinch and was searching his clothing. Cautiously, Richard peeked around the corner, but there was no one around. He grabbed the guard on the floor and dragged him into the brig. T'Val and the lizard were busy dragging the first guard into her former cell. Richard thought that was an excellent idea and unceremoniously dumped his unconscious guard into his ex-cell, after relieving him of an additional phaser rifle.

That done, Richard activated the force fields, turned and checked on T'Val. She had picked up a phaser and looked ready to go. With Richard in the lead, the three of them left the brig.

[Deleted]

T'Val looked around at the pirates they had overcome, then noticed their own clothing. "We are too much in sight in our own clothing," she announced, and began to strip a pirate she deemed of Richard's size of his clothing, then handed the items which were surprisingly clean, to her compantion. "Those clothes are too large for me, we will have to come across a female pirate, or a smaller one," she continued, as she turned around to stand guard while Richard grumbled and changed.

When he was done, she turned back and looked him over approvingly. "If we encounter someone, we can always pretend that you are moving a prisoner elsewhere," she noted, tucking the weapon she had recovered behind the waistband of her robe, hiding it between its folds. "You know, I believe there is one place they would not look for us," she said after a long silence, "we should get to the captain's quarters."

[dillon]

As the USS Avenger slid out of warp, Dillon brought up the fleet on his main viewscreen. As usual, the other fightershad made a honour guard around Robert's Diamond. It always annoyed Dillon to see that, especially when his long range sensors were showing incoming federation fighters. Of course in his cloaked defiant class vessel, it would be highly unlikely that anyone would notice him. Unfortunately with the fighters mere minutes away, he had to decloak to communicate with the pirates. But then a thought hit him. The new technology that Nechayev had sent him. He made his way down to the small holodeck and ran the program.

He appeared in the Captain's Quarters, where he would normally expect to find Robert, as whenever he communicated with them, he always got patched through to his quarters. However, after looking around the whole place, it appeared that he wasn't anywhere to be found. Frowning, he stepped through the wall, just as he heard the door slide open into the quarters. Sticking his head back through the wall, he saw a pirate enter the room with a vulcan female, who appeared to be his prisoner.

"Okay, now what?" the pirate asked. Dillon frowned. That was not something that was normally posed to a prisoner.

He changed the settings on the holo-program so that he was hidden from sight, and then entered the room with them, the invisible hologram making no noise at all.

"I believe that hiding would be the best option at the moment, until we can device a more logical plan of action," the vulcan replied calmly. On her shoulder, Dillon noticed some kind of dragon, which appeared to be shivering slightly.

The man dressed as a pirate looked around. "We should hide, lay an ambush for Robert's when he returns."

Dillon sighed, the noise inaudible in the quarters, only in his holodeck back on the Avenger. The pair of them made their way to a cupboard, and hid inside. Dillon frowned, and sat down on a seat. He never understood how he could select some things to appear solid and other not... but apparantly he could. Being on stealth setting, the seat didn't sink under his weight, but kept it's shape.

About twenty five minutes later, the door slid open and Robert's walked in, holding a disruptor in his hands. Dillon sighed once more, then appeared in the seat. A shot ripped the chair apart.

"Well that's a nice way t' treat yeh're boss, so it is." He said, rising to his feet.

"They're in the cupboard. The male is armed, yeh may want t' just shoot them from here."

"I need them alive. They would be worth a lot to us."

"So be it. Yeh're problem if they beat yeh though. Who would make a good replacement to ya, would ya say?"

[Deleted]

Richard, T'Val and the lizard slipped into the closet and carefully closed the door behind them. There was a little extra space and they moved around a little, getting comfortable. There wasn't much to do now but wait.

Richard sighed quietly and said "I wish I had one of the remotes from the Wanderer, but the one I had with me must have been removed by Roberts."

"I thought you said that the fractal algorithm prevented even you from getting access to your ship" T'Val whispered back.

Richard nodded. "No one can get access to the important systems, like the drives or main computer, but I might be able to over ride the lockouts on the less necessary stuff which might be useful."

T'Val looked over at the lizard which was twined in her hair. "Send Sev" she said simply.

Richard looked at the little creature. "I don't know how."

"Picture where the remote is on the ship, as clearly as possible" the Vulcan said.

He closed his eyes and pictured the Wanderer, then his cabin, then the small table to the right of the bed. The remote was attached to the bottom of the table. By the time he had opened his eyes, Sev was gone. A minute later, he returned with the remote clasped in his claws and eyes whirling green with satisfaction. The little dragon dropped the remote into Richard's outstretched hands and returned to his perch.

Jibb bent over the remote and started trying to access the Wanderer. He was a little rusty as he had never actually had to try this before, but his knowledge of the ships systems eventually led to some success. He managed to access the Wanderer's transporters and internal sensors when the two of them heard the door to Roberts quarters open. After a brief pause, there was the unexpected sound of disruptor fire and furniture collapsing.

"Well that's a nice way t' treat yeh're boss, so it is." said an unknown male voice. T'Val and Richard looked at one another in surprise. Where had he come from?

"They're in the cupboard. The male is armed, yeh may want t' just shoot them from here." Richard jumped at the words. The unknown man knew that he and T'Val were here. Richard quickly accessed the remote and transported the three of them out, using a pre-made program that held them in the pattern buffer briefly, then created a dozen different transporter traces all over Robert's Diamond. He hoped it might give them a few seconds until the crew of the ship tracked them down. Richard heard the steps of Roberts' headed towards the cupboard and initiated the transport.

Roberts threw open the doors, but the cupboard was empty. He looked back at the Starfleet officer and said "Are you trying to be funny or something?"

[Deleted]

The three of them appeared on the bridge of the Wanderer, where Jibb quickly got the other remote. Sev hovered around, looking rather pleased with himself for having achieved lifting the remote Richard had needed so badly. T'Val quickly gathered a few medical supplies, among which a tricorder, and found one for Richard as well. For him, she also deviced a small medical kit, just in case he should need it if and when they would get separated.

"I will need an attire like yours," she said, "do the replicators still respond to your commands?"

When he nodded, he gazed her over for a moment, and she suppressed a grin of her own. The dress she was wearing now was rather form fitting, the pirate attire would probably be more so. She had assumed correctly, but at least it came with a long wide cloak that hid her forms quite nicely. "Oh well," she sighed, "at least it may prove a distraction for other pirates we may encounter." Sev crawled into the hood of the cape, chirping questioningly. "No Sev, you must hide on the Diamond again, until we call for you," she answered, "go..." An instant later, the bronze was gone.

She gathered up her supplies and dropped them in a pack she had seen the pirates on the Diamon carry. "I hope we will pass," she said, "how about we beam into engineering, see if we can disable that cloaking device of theirs?"

Jibb nodded, and an instant later, they stood dead spot in the middle of engineering. To their surprise, there was not a living soul in sight. "This is too easy," T'Val complained softly, taking out her tricorder. However, readings showed that there was indeed nobody within engineering.

[Deleted]

On Assailant

The face of Lieutenant Tomlinson appeared on the rectangular view screen, behind him were two other security officers, and one very cramped cockpit.

“Lieutenant,” Drew greeted him simply, he didn’t have time for pleasantries.

“Admiral,” Tomlinson replied, “We have arrived at the Wanderer’s last known location, there is no sign of them.”

“We believe we could be dealing with cloaked ship’s,” Drew told the Tactical Chief, “We are running over our sensor logs now, the Shial'ra’ should be with you momentarily.”

“Shouldn’t we have detected cloaked ships?” Tomlinson asked confused, Assailants sensor grid system was state of the art; nothing was meant to get past it.

Before Drew could reply a horrible thought came to him, ignoring Tomlinson for the moment, he turned to F’Rrass,

“Check the sensor grid’s command and control database.”

“Sir?” F’Rrass asked, not understanding what Drew expected to find.

“Look to see if anyone accessed the grid in the last twenty four hours,” Drew explained, “Specifically look for any commands to shut down the grid.”

“You think someone interfered with our defensive network?” Tomlinson said from the view screen, picking up on what Drew was saying.

“Explain to me how else cloaked hostile ships could get near us without our knowledge.” Drew answered, “We already know the communication logs have been edited, why not other systems as well?”

“Admiral,” F’Rrass called out, “Sections of the sensor grid have been shut down.”

“I knew it!” Drew exclaimed as he walked over to F’Rrass station, “Show me the command codes.”

“I can’t sir, it’s locking me out.”

Drew’s eyes widen as the Starfleet system refused to accept F’Rrass’s codes to access the shut down areas of the grid.

“Computer, bring the entire sensor grid back online, authorisation Drew Pi Alpha Two Tango.”

“Unable to comply, specified user does not have authorisation for this system” came the cut reply from the computer.

For a second time Drew’s eyes widen, as the Chief of Base Operations he had access to every system on the Station, and as a Rear Admiral he had access to just about everything in Starfleet.

Shock still displayed on his face Drew tapped his comm badge.

“Operations to Admiral Lin.”

=/\=Go ahead=/\= came Magellan’s voice.

“You’re not going to believe this,” Drew said, “but someone has locked us out of the sensor grid, we can’t tell what’s out there.”

=/\=How’s that possible?=/\= Magellan asked, concern in his voice.

Drew looked up at Tomlinson on the forward view screen, the Tactical Officer shared the same look of horror that was on Drew’s face, and probably Magellan’s too.

“I don’t know,” Drew answered, “but, there could be a fleet of ships out there right now, and we wouldn’t know about it”

[Deleted]

Richard pulled out his tricorder as well. There was some very specific sabotage that would have to take place if he and T'Val expected to be free much longer. He turned to T'Val and said "See if you can find the cloaking device controls." First thing to go had best be the internal sensors. Using the tricorder, he quickly located the correct console and analyzed the sensor programs. They were pretty straightforward. Richard entered a simple password system into the sensors, then wrote a fast program to activate the password and put the sensors into a two hour diagnostic cycle. This way, no one could stop the diagnostic without entering the password, but no one could access the password due to the fact the diagnostic was running.

After that, he located the transporter relay system and pulled out it's isolinear chip drawer. Inside were the dozens of isolinear chips which allowed the transporters to function. Not having time for anything clever, Richard pulled out a phaser, set it to Level 11 and vapourized the entire assembly.

Finished with what he wanted to do, he looked over to T'Val to see if she had managed to find the controls for the cloaking device.