Mission 30: Due Process

[Carl Torek]

~ Mission 30 : Due Process ~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Synopsis:

Following the kidnapping and successful rescue of Commander 1C Andae Blakus, the Chief Engineering Officer of the USS Raven-B, the perpetrators, known to be Terrellian’s, attempted to escape Star Base Forty Seven in two vessels. When this proves impossible to accomplish, they crash one of their vessels into the USS Potemkin, damaging her beyond repair. The crippled Terrellian vessel then slammed into the Engineering Section of the USS Raven-B, destroying most of the ship along with a substantial proportion of the Dome of Starbase forty Seven, killing over six hundred individuals in the process. Alas, this included thirty three Junior Officers and Crewmen, eighteen Civilians, and most upsetting, five Children, on the Raven herself ! ...

It has been discovered that the Terrellian’s had a third vessel, cloaked, and until now undiscovered. It is believed that numerous culprits involved in the actions against Federation Personnel and the Star Base itself have escaped justice on this vessel. The Federation council are holding emergency meetings to determine the true involvement of the Terrellian Empire, despite their fervid denials of any involvement which could lead to open war being declared. Having captured three of the attackers involved, a Terrellian, a Benzite, and startlingly, a Human. It is thought that the situation could prove more far-reaching than first thought, and others may be sympathising with the Terrellian Empire against the Federation.

ooo000ooo

Having now discovered the heading of the cloaked Terrellian vessel, Admiral Sato Tetsutaro propositioned the Council and Section Admiral Gheskori to allow Fleet Admiral Torek and his crew to pursue the offenders and return them to Federation space, where they will face the harshest justice the Federation can administer. With the Raven destroyed and the Starbase undergoing repairs, it was decided to commission their newest vessel, a Sovereign Class Star Ship, ahead of time, and assign it the name: USS Raven-C, under the Command of Fleet Admiral Torek.

With the new Raven officially handed over to Admiral Torek and his Crew. They will pursue the perpetrators of these heinous crimes and return them to face Due Process.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Regards and enjoy

Carl Torek

[Carl Torek]

16:30 hrs - Raven Conference Room ::


The Conference Room was almost exactly the same as the one on the Raven-B ... A long curved table set in the middle of the room, panoramic windows covered almost all of the far bulkhead, it was functional, the decor 'warm' rather than harsh, as some. He took his seat at the head of the long table, looking out onto the darkness of space, the Orbital Facility, where the prisoners were being held was ahead of them, Starbase forty Seven astern. He stood and walked to the plexi-glass and could see the four kilometer long jewel seemingly hanging lazily to one side, a myriad of vessels humming around her like bees around a Queen. The reconstruction of the Dome was going to take up to a year to complete, but even with the massive loss of life, now known to have taken the lives of almost three thousand men, women, and children, with thousands injured, he silently gave thanks that it wasn't much much higher.

He was returning to his seat when Calli and Harry entered:

"How are we doing on crew allocation Harry ?" he knew that as Acting Executive Officer, Andae Blakus was responsible for Crew rotation and assignment, but with his issues in Engineering Carl had asked Harry to do what he could to get it accomplished as quickly as possible, telling him to consult the Chief Engineer if he needed to do so.

"Almost there Admiral ... Colonel Burwell lost a good deal of his men in the initial attack, they were running Drills in the Main Cargo Bay when the ship ......." he stopped speaking for a moment then continued, "We're waiting on replacements, should arrive approximately zero hundred hours tonight. Duty Shifts are up and running but Commander Blakus will need to go over them when he has time, I've simply ensured there is someone where we need people at this point."

"OK, thank you Harry." Carl said, glancing at the chronometer over the door:

.. 16:21:14 ..

Within five minutes the remainder of the new Raven's Senior Staff arrived and Carl stood, taking a moment to look at each of them in turn.

"We have been given permission to depart." he said, giving everyone a second to take the information in, "I know you all think we have unfinished business here, especially as we have three people in custody. Intelligence is handling their 'questioning' and all information will be relayed to us as they get it. As for us, we will remain here until we have a full crew compliment. Departure is set, tentatively, for zero eight hundred hours tomorrow, so just over fifteen hours to get things running smoothly." he grinned at Andae who seemed to cringe at the 'running smoothly' comment.

"Do we know where the third ship went Admiral ?" Commander Wedlerson asked.

"Last confirmed identification had them heading for the Mrgila Star cluster Maze, or possibly beyond the Arshikon Nebula, we'll be heading that way initially unless further information on their whereabouts comes to light before departure. Right, you all know how these meeting go, we successfully adopted the 'Chinese Parliament' method on the Raven-B, and I see no reason why we can't do likewise here, so feel to comment." he sat back down and waited ..........





< Tag : All >



OOC : Cmdr Marionette - I've left it open as to whether you manage to get to the meeting in person, or are participating via view-screen from Sick-bay .. (see SL thread) .. You're call.

[Marionette]

"Harry ... Contact all Senior Staff. I want them in the Conference Room in thirty minutes ... Commander Marionette may be confined to Sick-bay. Ask the Doctor if she is able to attend, if not set up a direct link ... I'll be back in fifteen minutes, you the have the Conn." he left the Bridge immediately.

=/\= "Wendlerson to Doctor Roach, is Marionette functional enough to resume her duties as Chief Navigations Officer ?" =/\= he asked over the Comms. In sickbay, Doctor Roach tapped her comm-badge =/\= "No, i don't think that she is fixed enough to resume her duties, and i've chosen to keep her in sickbay for now...." =/\= and then closed the comms line with a beep that signaled end-of-line.

~ . ~ . ~

"....and I see no reason why we can't do likewise here, so feel to comment." Admiral Torek sat back down and waited.

Just as he sat down, the doors whisked open and Cyberpunk Marionette ambled into the room, in uniform and cane in hand - Followed closely by Doctor Roach, who looked beyond annoyed, and Bruce Maddox. "Apologies for my tardiness, Admiral. I will attempt to keep it to a particularly temporary occurrence." she said, and took her usual spot at the conference table. Roach loudly broke in. "Admiral, your pilot is quite insistent on coming to the Bridge. Even in her dilapidated state, she managed to toss the security officers i had summoned, and go meandering down the corridors !." she bellowed, flailing her arms for emphasis.

Bruce stood there quietly, a thoroughly amused look smeared across his face. Maddox had seen the whole thing, and was currently as entertained as Roach was livid.

Everyone looked at Marionette, then to Dr. Roach, and then to Admiral Torek....

<Tag; All>

[Andae Blakus]

Despite being taken aback by Marionette's appearance, Blakus commented, "The Commander seems to be standing up well enough," and earnt a look of malice from Roach.

Torek bade Marionette take a seat while the positronics expert Maddox and Roach, the 25th century's laughing and crying philosophers respectively, were forced to the back of the room. Blakus approved of the gynoid's cane; adds character, he thought. The blue eye was a little disconcerting at first glance, but at least one couldn't be accused of staring at it, or could they... hmmm.

Wedlerson went on talking about duty shifts and those he'd appointed to map out the inconsistently charted - and the last survey had been conducted a quarter of a century ago - Mrgila star maze using the state-of-the-art astrometrics lab the Raven-D was equipped with. Still the Sovereign class showed itself amenable to refits and adaptations, those which constituted the Federation's new technological breakthroughs.

Making a note to see to the duty shifts as soon as eminently possible, Andae reflected on Commander Maddox, whom he could hardly believe was actually standing in the same room as them. His attempted experiments with the Enterprise's android were well known to engineers, deplorable of course despite the intriguing proposals laid out in that paper passed around the cybernetic and related academic communities at the time. The researcher's change of heart and subsequent non-invasive experiments with such technology - as well as being well advised ethically - made him a figure of interest and respect.

Andae picked up on something Wedlerson was saying, "It should be said that if the Terrellian ship does pass within 20 parsecs of that side of the star cluster, as thought by the computer and its tentative plotting of the vessel's course, then assuming they remain cloaked, they will be impossible to detect while they're in there."

He was asked for an explanation. "Because the radiation from stellar matter in that region is energetic enough to mask the tachyons left by the ship's passage, due to the high output of tachyons from main sequence stellar cores. It's true," he allowed, "The cloaking device on their vessel - meant to conceal them even more - changes some of their tachyons into normal matter ions, but not in high enough quantity to render their vessel detectable."

"If they do enter that region," someone spoke, "We could simply wait for them to exit and pick up their trail."

"That's assuming they emerge where we expect them to. Until we can begin to narrow it down, we think they're going to pass through a point between the high radiation region and the Terrellian homeworld. There's no guarantee they want to go there, on the other hand, they could just as easily push into the Mrgila cluster, which has over 500 warp-capable civilisations in 600 star systems."

"The Arishikon Nebula has at least 10 times that number," Calli said, "Conceivably their destination could be any one, or perhaps none of them."

Blakus nodded. The two indications they had that the ship could be bound eventually for Terrellia were, 1) that the other couple vessels had been predominantly or solely crewed by Terrellians (but not admittedly of Terrellian design), and 2) the path the third ship seemed to be following was a trading route that some non-aligned species used, to take them from the regions nearer the galactic core out to Sector 47 via Terrellia. However the route was very roundabout (so traders could visit as many systems as possible), thus there was no guarantee they really were on course for the seat of the Empire.

[Carl Torek]

Carl too couldn't help be startled by the sudden appearance of the Gynoid ...

"Admiral, your pilot is quite insistent on coming to the Bridge. Even in her dilapidated state, she managed to toss the security officers I had summoned, and go meandering down the corridors !" Doctor roach said, waving her arms as if absolving herself of any responsibility for the Android. Both Commodore Brevet and Commander Maddox had entered the conference Room behind them, both remaining sullenly silent.

"This is a Staff meeting Commodore." Torek said, eyeing the two members of the Daystrom Institute.

"With respect Admiral ..." Alicia Bravet began, stepping forward, "I request we be allowed to remain while repairs,sorry, the installation of new, apparatus, is successfully incorporated into the Andr, into Commander Marionette."

"You want to come with us, or do you intend 'requesting' the Commander remain behind ?" Calli asked.

"If possible, both the Commander and Myself would prefer to remain aboard. The work required to return the Commander to her former condition is going to take some time. We have brought several replacement accoutrements with us, but have also brought schematics so we can, hopefully, construct specialist modules that will replace her old or damaged ones. There will be numerous albeit monor upgrades, but essentially the Commander will, in essence, be her old self once our work is completed .... I don't have to say that events of the past are no longer tolerated, and the work Commander Data did both via sub-space, and in person with Commander Maddox when time and distance permitted, has advanced our knowledge a hundred fold. We would very much like to see that advancement continued, if of course you, and the Commander, are agreeable ?"

Carl looked at the 'patched-up' Marionette, who gave her permission by nodding. He looked at his Exec' but Andae just shrugged, as did Calli. It seemed it was his decision alone. He looked back at the Commodore:

"There will be conditions to your remaining on the Raven ... One of those being you do nothing, nothing at all to impair the Commanders' functionality during this mission. Her singular skills may well be needed at a moments' notice, and I don't want her in pieces on one of the Science Labs benches when we do."

"Understood." Maddox said quickly.

"Also, given you are coming with us, one of you will need to attend all briefings from here on in. Commander Blakus will furnish you with a tentative, and 'flexible' schedule where you may work with Commander Marionette. The Commander in turn will make herself available within reason and if she has not been tasked with any ship-related duties. You will guarantee that she is available outside that schedule. I need you both to be fully aware, that the first non-compliance, for whatever reason, will be your last. Is that fully understood ?"

"Fully Admiral." Brevet replied.

"Take a seat." Carl said .... "Right. There is no need for me to go through the reasons why we are all here, and eager to get going, we all know why. We have less than twelve hours to ensure the ship, and Crew are ready. Any learning, any 'modifications' will need to be carried out en-route. We will be heading for the Arihikon Nebular and the Mrgila Star Cluster Maze."

"Admiral, if I may request a shuttle so we can retu ......" Brevet began, but Carl interrupted her:

"No. No-one will be going anywhere Commodore. There are serious security issues here which I shouldn't need to reiterate. Whatever you need can be sent via sub-space, any further equipment et-cetera can be brought in by shuttle once it has been thoroughly checked, and passed. I know it's going to be an inconvenience, but that's the rule. Of course, if you prefer to continue your research from the Orbital facility ....."

"No, no, my apologies Admiral. I should have known better, but we are Scientist's and not au fait with ship-borne protocols."

"I suggest you learn then Commodore, and quickly." Carl said, "Where do we stand regards readiness ?" he asked the table ..........

[Carl Torek]

Two Days Later ::


With the Raven now in pursuit of those assumed responsible for the devastation on Starbase forty Seven, the teething problems had all but vanished ...

"At our current speed we should be in the approximate area the ship was last seen." Harry said during their meeting in the Conference Room.

"Do we have any further information on them ?" Carl asked.

"Nothing concrete." Calli replied, standing and moving to the large screen on the wall, "Our main concern is where they will go once they pass through the Arishikon Nebula, if they choose to remain hidden, as Andae pointed out, the Mrgila Cluster, which has over 500 warp-capable civilisations in 600 star systems, gives them almost countless options ..... I think they will make contact with someone here though."

"What gives you that impression ?" Carl asked.

"We know they were under orders, they didn't come up with this on a whim. The kidnapping of Commander Blakus could have been a prelude to something much wider. Having lost what we assume is their first hostage, or more likely, captive, they would need to report that to whoever is funding them. The Terrellian's wouldn't normally risk going to war with the Federation, not on their own anyway. So, given their need for escape, they will need to get further orders, otherwise why run, they could have destroyed Forty Seven easily once it was damaged."

"What about this doctor, the one that snatched Andae ?" Harry asked.

"Doctor Reason and Myrox, yes, someone was paying them a hell of a lot to snatch the commander, but to what end ? ... Replacement, brainwashing, ransom, without getting hold of one or the other to ask we're speculating." Burwell commented.

"We're going to be joining the Trade Route in six hours where we'll be restricted to warp factor five. If the Terrellian vessel follows regulations then they will remain ahead of us indefinitely. If we take a risk and pass through the 'NGC 6752' globular cluster at three one four mark six, we can cut out almost sixteen light years and almost on top of them when we exit." the Chief Operations Officer suggested."

"NGC 6752 is an Algol Variable globular cluster, eclipsing binaries with one in it's final stage before red-shift. Commander ..." Calli said, turning to Blakus and Marionette, "... Am I right in thinking that will play havoc with shields, sensors, weapons systems, pretty much everything. not to mention one hell of a place to navigate. Given this is a new ship, can we risk taking her through such violent conditions ?"


< Tag : Andae / Marionette >


"Presuming the Terrellian vessel obey's the trade restrictions, can we catch them 'before' they enter the Mrgila Star Maze ?" Everyone sat in silence. He couldn't blame them if truth be told. Yes, this Raven was faster than their Galaxy Class, but then, that ship had been caressed and coaxed into a finely tuned piece of technology. Andae knew her drive systems like the back of his hand, where here, now, practically all he had to go on was the computers' specifications, and that was more than enough for Carl, "My call then." he said grinning as he tapped his comm badge:

=^= Torek to Bridge =^=

=^= Lieutenant Svensson =^=

=^= Lieutenant .. Set course for NGC 6752 .. Increase speed to transwarp four immediately =^=

=^= Yes Sir =^= They saw the stars begin to move left to right in the panoramic plexi-glass window before they settled as the Doppler effect elongated the stars for a second as the ship lanced through nether-space ..........

[Andae Blakus]

"As long as we stay away from the oblate region where tidal forces are at work I believe we should escape unscathed," Andae answered, "Though there may be electrical storms in streamers of gas released from the stars, and possibly - though unlikely - local warping of spacetime we'll have to take account of... We may be going blind for a short while, sensor-wise," he glanced about the table inveighing the seriousness of it.

* * *

Less than an hour later the Raven-C had closed to within - a projected (once back on the trade route) - 10 lightyears of the pursued vessel, and now going by scans - which were still possible through the dense field of stars being drawn out to their right as they passed deeper within the cluster - it was very clear their quarry wasn't of Terrellian design.

Current sweeps told them there were about 50 lifeforms on board, though what species - whether Terrellian, or of more than one species, and whether one species was predominant in numbers over the others - could not be discerned. Checking the roster of ships having arrived at Starbase 47 those few fateful days ago, they found that 245 Terrellians had registered themselves as arrivals two days before the destruction, which didn't quite tally with the suspected number of Terrellian dead on the first two of their ships, even when added to those killed in the hallucinatory holodeck of the visiting crew level. It thus remained a mystery whether the ship was crewed with all Terrellians, or even any Terrellians at all.

A mystery which extended to Donna Pearson, Blakus thought. She had vanished around the time of the explosion, and unless her fate lay with the blindingly obvious, then she must've escaped either on their quarry or any other craft that'd managed to slip away shortly after the blast - for legitimate reasons or not.

The thought occurred to him - and he was surprised it'd taken this long for him to realise - that Pearson (together with the two Terrellians, one Benzite) was responsible for Myrox's death. Kill him before he can offer up information and betray his former colleagues, assisting the agency of he whom he'd tormented.

The Sovereign class shook as it grazed a zone being subjected to tidal forces - such effects were unexpected this far from the binary but then, he thought, the regions of spatial warping weren't always uniform about variables.

"Sensors have been blinded by the electromagnetic interference," the man at tactical reported.

Staggering with the vibration of the vessel to the engineering console on the port side, Blakus was fed a real-time diagnostic conducted by Milyanov... "Power drain," he murmured, and the bridge lights obediently dimmed. That wasn't the worse of it however, "Oh... Brace yourselves!" he called out.

The Raven slammed into a volume tortured by invisible tidal forces. Space folded in on itself like a collapsing wave, the underlying substance of the continuum twisted and frame-dragged, points in local spacetime dashed across kilometres where before they'd existed as singularities. Blakus slid into his seat and gripped the edge of the console, "You may experience... disorientation - and... confusion of... chronolllllllllloooooggg..." The word never quite ended.

The bridge seemed to lose cohesion - the concrete image of the room as experienced in normal space broken up into many instances as observer and observed continued to move. Time began to play by different rules also. The next instant Blakus found himself on the other side of the bridge, looking back at himself at the engineering station, then glancing down at the tactical console he'd found himself by,

"Sensors have been blinded by the electromagnetic interference," he reported what he saw there, then blinked, withdrawing hands from the console as soon as they'd lain themselves over it; deja vu...

He looked at the forward viewer, Carl passing by in front of it, distorted and dragging thousands of him in his wake like a ship's disturbance of the water - this ocean being spacetime. Andae worked the console again, "Spatial warping from the binary companion, Admiral! There's a path clear at..." his voice flipped back on him and it seemed momentarily he was back at the engineering station - in fact he was in five places at once - "Marionette, a clear path... bring our heading to 047 mark 19!"

<Tag Both>

[Carl Torek]

As the Raven sped forwards toward her goal, the ship suddenly began to shake. nothing serious, but it made Carl look up at the clear plexi-glass dome set into the ceiling then back at the large view-screen .....

"Sensors have been blinded by the electromagnetic interference," the man at tactical reported.

"Power drain." Blakus murmured, and the Bridge lights obediently dimmed. That wasn't the worse of it however, "Oh ... Brace yourselves !"

He was almost thrown from the center seat as the ship lurched upward violently, he managed to save himself from being flung across the Bridge by grasping the two arms of his seat, but others weren't as lucky. He saw one Officer passing him at head height but the woman suddenly seemed to 'hang' in the air to his left. Andae was trying to tell him something but his words were, elongated, stretched out, almost to the point of being unrecognisable.

Admiral ... There's a path clear at ..." his voice flipped back on him and it seemed momentarily he was back at the engineering station - In fact he was in five places at once - "Marionette, a clear path ... Bring our heading to 047 mark 19 !"

The Gynoid, still looking less Federation officer and more a hodgepodge of spares hurriedly pieced together, turned the massive Sovereign Class Star Ship onto the heading Blakus had given her, the ship lurched Port then Starboard and back again, but the cacophony of noise and the convulsing began to subside, albeit slowly. Carl regained his balance as did everyone, some were still on the carpeted deck, suffering from fractures, cuts and bruises, but no-one had died ... As the ship steadied herself Carl had to silently thank the designers for their often over-zealousness when designing the structural integrity elements of a Star Ship, he wondered momentarily if their old Raven would have survived the ordeal.


~~~~~


"All stop." Carl ordered once they had passed through the majority of NGC 6572. They needed to take stock, get the injured treated, make sure the Raven was still fully functional, because going into the unknown with no idea as to what worked and importantly, what didn't, was tantamount to suicide !

He was fully aware that every moment they were motionless their prey was getting further and further ahead, and with greater distance, came the increased uncertainty of their options. he allowed fifteen minutes then gave the order to proceed.

surprisingly, when they scanned ahead for the Terellian vessel, it was less than eight light years ahead, much closer than they had anticipated, It was seemingly heading directly for the Maze, which in itself caused them problems as once inside it would be all but impossible to track their whereabouts with any certainty. Of the numerous options, they could narrow it down to those worlds that allowed unidentified vessels into their space, and rule out those that didn't, but it was still a daunting task ans every second counted.

"Increase speed to warp seven." Carl ordered.

"Sir ..." Marionette said, turning to face the Admiral, "We will be in viola ....."

"I'm fully aware Commander. Do as I ordered please." he sat back, waiting for his instruction to be carried out, "Once we attain warp seven drop to warp five after three seconds. Be prepared to inform Corridor Command that we suffered damage whilst traversing the Nebula and have now corrected. That should close the distance to less than five light years, we'll have some chance of seeing which System, if any, the Terrellians head for."

It took eight seconds for the overseers of the Transit Corridor to contact the Raven and Marionette gave the prearranged reply. They were ordered to check all drive systems once in orbit if they were passing through the system. If that was not the case and they intended to establish orbit around one of the Worlds within the System, then they were to drop to impulse immediately. Carl hadn't envisioned they would be so harsh given the Raven had infringed the strict regulations for less than five seconds.

"Harry ... Lock all available long-range sensors on that Terrellian vessel, Helm, drop to full impulse." Carl said, frustration in every syllable. He knew that if they lost track of their prey now, it would be all but impossible to pick them up once they were in the System itself. In realistic terms, they were crawling now and their foe was increasing the gap between them by the second. The wait was excruciating, but Harry finally had something, "Sir, Sensors show the Terrellian entering the Vasor Kal System, heading two four zero mark, two zero, distance six point eight 'LY' ..."

"Helm, chance course." he said, resisting thumping his clenched fist against the armrest. "Harry, keep a close eye, if they depart while we're still en-route I want to know."

".... And if they do Sir ?"

"Go to Warp immediately, we'll face the consequences later." he said. Thankfully, their prey had entered the system and had dropped to impulse, and were heading for the fourth planet of eight. Records were scant regarding the Mrgila Star Cluster Maze, so they were practically going in blind. Had this been a Federation World, he would have contacted the authorities regarding their presence, but this was different, as it was possible that one or more of the planet's ruling council could be in league with their foe, and telling them they were coming was hardly going to be helpful, "Drop to two thirds impulse, let's go in their nice and steady ... We're visiting, that's all, nothing more."

The massive Raven slowed as the power to the impulse engines was reduced. Andae was at his Station monitoring, still not one hundred percent happy, but getting there, despite his disappointment over not having installed the 'Pool Table' from the Galaxy Class. Slowly they closed on their target, but what they would find was completely unknown ..........




OOC : I have put a schematic of the Raven Bridge on the OOC board so everyone knows where they are in relation to the CO on the Bridge ~ Steve.

[Marionette]

".... Am I right in thinking that will play havoc with shields, sensors, weapons systems, pretty much everything. Not to mention one hell of a place to navigate. Given this is a new ship, can we risk taking her through such violent conditions ?"
She spoke "I agree, there is a noticeable risk that other systems of the ship are not be as enduring as the Sovereign class Space Frame and Hull plating. Conversely, Most Terellian shipframes are not quite as solidly built, and would not be able to survive the shear forces that would result with deviation from established trade routes. Also, The Terrellians do not possess the ability to produce warp engines capable of going beyond warp 8.53, whereas we have a working Transwarp core."

* * *

Marionette had since taken her position at the controls, expertly flying them through the hazardous terrain of space. She was also plugged into an interface port for supplemental control over the Helm, since her arms weren't currently quite as fast as they used to be.

Within the cyberspace of the ship's computer core, there was a split-copy of Marionette; a copy of her at the helm console on the bridge (A) and mostly representing her physical/primary self, and a second copy of her (B) standing at bookshelves of glowing data codes and circuit lines. This mission was too important to risk her damaged body being a risk for her failure at piloting.

The Sovereign class shook as it grazed a zone being subjected to tidal forces - such effects were unexpected this far from the binary but then, the regions of spatial warping weren't always uniform about variables.

"Sensors have been blinded by the electromagnetic interference," the man at tactical reported.

Staggering with the vibration of the vessel to the engineering console on the port side, Blakus was fed a real-time diagnostic conducted by Milyanov.... "Power drain," he murmured, and the bridge lights obediently dimmed. That wasn't the worse of it however, "Oh.... Brace yourselves!" he called out. Marionette physically grasped the console.

The Raven slammed into a volume tortured by invisible tidal forces. Space folded in on itself like a collapsing wave, the underlying substance of the continuum twisted and frame-dragged, points in local spacetime dashed across kilometres where before they'd existed as singularities. Blakus slid into his seat and gripped the edge of the console, "You may experience... disorientation - and... confusion of... chronolllllllllloooooggg..." The word never quite ended.

"Sensors have been blinded by the electromagnetic interference," Blakus said, tapping at the console.

The bridge seemed to lose cohesion - the concrete image of the room as experienced in normal space broken up into many instances as observer and observed continued to move. Time began to play by different rules also. For Marionette, the bridge seemed to yawn and expand to quite cavernous dimensions, with each station of the bridge stretching away from itself. From her perspective, the bridge approached the size of about 4 acres worth of space-area of fractally repeated sections of the normal bridge. "Sensors have been blinded by the electromagnetic interference," Blakus said again, tapping at the console.

She also found herself sitting in front of herself - and/or also behind herself, as she turned to see a pair of Past Marionettes, some meters away. The pair of Past Marionettes glanced at eachother, and then pointed ahead to the trio of Future Marionettes, who looked back at the present Marionette, still at the helm controls. Very Strange Indeed.

"Sensors have been blinded by the electromagnetic interference," Blakus said, for what Marionette perceived as the fifth time.

"Spatial warping from the binary companion, Admiral! There's a path clear at..." his voice flipped back on him and it seemed momentarily he was back at the engineering station - in fact he was in five places at once - "Marionette, a clear path... bring our heading to 047 mark 19!"

Suddenly, she found herself elsewhere on the bridge, and looked to her left - only to again find herself elsewhere on the bridge, and so she looked to her right, and saw a past version of herself. She then pointed to the viewer - and yet again found herself shifting positions. She again pointed to the Viewer.

"...bring our heading to 047 mark 19!"Blakus said again, now at the engineering MSD. Snapping back to being at the helm again, she looked, and saw three other versions of herself, as if looking edge-on into a 3 way mirror. She tried not to think about it, and focused on changing their heading. As she dialed in the information to the console, time seemed to slow down for her, her limbs moving slower and slower, before becoming frozen in place.

In cyberspace, however, she was still functional, weirdly enough. Marionette-A got up from her sim-console and looked at B "Space-time reality has become fragmented. The ship must change course to survive. I will work this way." B nodded, and went to another shelf of data and bus-lines. A went to a different set of data-shelves and lines, and started manipulating them, re-sorting the algorithms and commands into proper executions to change the ship's course. B was also working in tandem behind and facing away from A, not unlike the Bynars way of doing things.

The ship began to turn, straining against the tidal forces of the local stars and space-time shifts with a low groan. As the Raven-C followed the course set by Marionette within the cyberspace systems, Spacetime slowly began to return to normal.

-/\-

[Andae Blakus]

Having nearly made a gift of his breakfast to the bridge floor and perhaps in danger of doing so again, Blakus sat as still as possible in the port side engineering seat, keeping his eyes fixed on the viewscreen - where he'd happened to be looking - and being grateful the ship had dropped out of warp and that thus he wasn't subjected to the illusion of stars streaming past the warp bubble.

Such contortions of spacetime were never meant to be experienced by intelligent lifeforms, he decided. On the next occasion they passed close by an Algol variable of that violence, he was suspending himself in a quantum dot manifold and thus hopefully saving himself from an identity crisis. An EM field wouldn't do, it would probably just shift him into a bipedal expression of the electroweak force.

"We've lost the ship, Admiral... It's entered some sort of diffuse cloud covering the orbits of the 4th, 5th and 6th worlds, an entirely opaque surface shaped like a dumbbell."

"Material... unidentified," Wedlerson reported, "The 4th planet is currently in that part of its orbit."

The cynic in Blakus - or was it the sensible part? - told him that the cloud of material had been generated by the people of that 4th world, to disguise what took place within it... But then wouldn't it be less conspicuous to carry out business in seeming normality, rather than inside an interplanetary-sized bubble visible to ships out in the Oort cloud? No, it must be a natural occurrence.

The Raven entered the cloud twenty seconds later, but they found that what'd been deflecting the scanners from outside the bubble was obscuring them within as well, so the Admiral had the ship step outside the diffuse material again. The only thing discernible within the field had been the 4th planet itself, so they could if they wanted enter orbit and explore the surface, however the only way they'd see the probable-Terrellians' ship was if they actually came into its presence.

"Admiral," Wedlerson spoke urgently, "I'm detecting a vessel of a similar configuration to the Terrellians' exiting the other side of the cloud, heading out of the system. They're powering up their propulsion system... different signature to the first vessel, cannot be the same one."

Andae looked down to the Ops console, "They could've modified their engines to mask themselves?"

"I don't think so, sir. The technology involved in manufacturing their drive system is virtually impossible to manipulate like that... I should know, I operated such a cargo vessel before I joined Starfleet."

Scanning the new vessel they found that there were 9 Terrellians on board out of a crew of 80, the others formed of a diverse mix of different species, the most common being Benzite, 11 of them. Before they could scan further to search for any cargo or weapons, the ship shot to warp, making for the trade route whose closest point was 0.2 lightyears away.

Silence reigned for interminable seconds. "Do we follow?" Andae asked eventually, eyes on the viewscreen and the grey-blue dumbbell shaped mass concealing the 4th planet. Now Wedlerson's console was beeping again.

"Another one!" he called, "Same configuration... No, make that slightly larger, but dimensions to the same scale, leaving the bubble on a heading perpendicular to the first. It's preparing to jump to warp, seems to have set a course for Deneb."

<Tag Both>

[Carl Torek]

"It's pretty obvious that that vessel has some means of scanning through the cloud." Carl muttered as the Raven escaped into open space ...

"Another one !" Harry called after a second ship left the cloud, Carl was beginning to wonder if someone was playing him for the royal fool, "Same configuration ... No, make that slightly larger, but dimensions to the same scale, leaving the bubble on a heading perpendicular to the first. It's preparing to jump to warp, seems to have set a course for Deneb."

"Go after that one." Carl ordered ... The Raven changed course and jumped to warp, their prey less than a tenth of a light year ahead. He wondered for a split second if he was allowing the real perpetrators escape while he chased after the proverbial 'wild goose' but something told him that whoever they were chasing had transferred to this ship, maybe hoping the Raven would monitor the gaseous cloud waiting needlessly for they to appear, while in reality they would have escaped. He pondered the idea, too late now, to leave a shuttle behind, but it would have made little difference in reality.

"Drop us back a little Commander." he said to Marionette. As they slowed, the unknown vessel began to move ahead until it was almost at the limit of the Raven's long-range sensors, but hopefully beyond their own, so even if they had noticed the vessel on an identical course, they would think it had veered away at some point, "Speculation Andae, in your opinion ... Are they still heading direct to Deneb ?"

"Looks that way." the Chief Engineer replied, looking at the tactical plot on the massive view-screen.

"OK, remain at this range until we're certain they are slowing to go into orbit, then drop us from warp .... We'll coast for thirty minutes than approach Deneb. The second we're close enough scan for that ship. Marionette, try to 'inconspicuously' drop us into an orbital path 'behind' that other ship. not too close."


One hour later : Deneb System ::


< Tag : Marionette >


He watched as they established orbit around the fifth planet, eyeing the numerous vessels already here ... Apparently, Deneb was a busy place. Even in their section of space there were at least another dozen vessels in various orbits, some low, some high, dependant on mass tonnage. The Raven, being over three point two metric tonnes was currently the largest and as such was assigned a high orbit.

"Lysia, try to locate the Terrellian vessel."

"I have it." the Tactical Officer said, changing the view screen to show a tactical plot once more, "There .... Two seventy eight kilometers ahead, forty kilometers below us. I'm picking up eighteen life-signs, Terrellian, possibly Benzite, it's difficult to be certain without increasing scan intensity, and they would know they were being peeked at if we did."

"No Human life-signs ?" Calli asked.

"None that I can detect, but as I said ...." Commander T'Seng shrugged.

"If this ends up being a dead end we'll need to high-tail it back, and quick." Harry muttered. Carl heard the comment and completely agreed.

"We need to get down to the surface. Harry, find out the protocols for visiting, Lysia, Andae, we'll need to be able to access their database, either from here or better still on the surface. If they have allowed any Terrellian or Human visitors in the last hour I want to know who and where they are. If we can snatch one of them and get back up here un-noticed we might have a source of information we're sorely lacking at the moment. The Away team will comprise the following:"

Fleet Admiral	Carl Torek
Commander	Marionette
Commander 1C	Andae Blakus
Lt Commander	Lysia T'Seng
Commander	Calli Valente
Colonel	Lew Burwell
2nd Lieutenant	David Scott

They assembled in Transporter Room Two awaiting permission to beam to the surface. It came moments later ...


Deneb V ::


The spaceport was nothing short of extravagant, a far cry from what the Raven crew were expecting, given only kilometers from here people were living in abject squalor. Deneb Five, unlike it's sister planets was the proverbial 'rear-end' of the system. Having no appreciable assets other than it's uncanny proficiency in trading, where it would outwit even the most cunning Ferengi if the need arose. Carl realised immediately that they were on the right tract, all they needed to do now was locate their prey, and snatch one from under the noses of possibly the most cut-throat group of people they would come across.

They had a list of names, any of which could hopefully supply them with information, but ideally he wanted one of those responsible for the outrage on Starbase forty Seven, or failing that, one of Andae's kidnappers. He didn't particularly care which, as long as they had someone to demand answers from ! .... Yes, he was acutely aware of the Prime directive, and his position as a Starfleet Officer, but despite this and the possible consequences of his actions should they be called into question, he had been given a great deal of 'lee-way' in how he procured information, and how he attained those that would eventually be brought to justice and account for their actions.

"Is it just me here, or does this Spaceport look way out of place ?" the Marine Colonel asked.

"Yes ...." Calli said, looking around like the proverbial tourist, Almost as if they were using this to lure visitors in. But why ?"

"Maybe they are undergoing some sort of development program, you know, rebuilding, I have to admit, it would be logical to have the first place you come when arriving looking pristine, but as for the rest ....."

"OK. we're not here on behalf of the Federation Tourist Board." Carl said, seeing a small cafe, strangely named the 'Comet Bistro' across the square, "Lets get in there and work out our next move." he said, heading in the direction of the cafe and they found a table under a large veranda. A serving girl approached, asking what they required, Carl ordered wine all round and the girl vanished from sight to get their order. Lysia took a tricorder from her satchel and held it under the table, she was scanning for access to the cafes' computerised payment system, hoping that from there she could worm her way deeper. Establishing access she passed the tricorder to Blakus under the table, knowing he had more chance of getting into the planets systems undiscovered than she did. They needed the names, fake of otherwise, of everyone that came down from the Terrellian Freighter, and once they had them, where they went on leaving the Spaceport ..........

[Andae Blakus]

"Accessing, I think..." Blakus said uncertainly, catching the withering look of Carl before returning eyes to the tricorder, "Yes, definitely accessing. It's her!"

"Excuse me." Someone from an adjacent table whipped away Blakus's untouched wine glass and drained it in one as they passed by, staggering through the door of the establishment into the impenetrable night of its interior. Distracted by the event, Blakus managed to stealthily pass the tricorder back to Teng who gave it to Torek on the other side of the table.

"Who?" he whispered.

"Donna Pearson, one of my captors. A credit payment was processed for her 2km away from here in Meridian Plaza, 15 minutes ago." He also let the team know - including Marionette, Burwell and Scott who'd sat at a nearby table - that he recognised a couple of the names on the payment system from the list of 245 Terrellians who'd been on the Starbase before the blast... a list he'd glared at too long and too often late at night in his quarters...

They rose and cast about, deciding to pay for the wine despite their renewed urgency - not to do so would only infuriate the proprietor, risking a complaint being filed with Command for officer misconduct and abuse of privileges, which of course they'd still be disciplined for despite the circumstances... Nodding as Scott returned with a slip of real paper, Blakus and the others made to leave, before the 2nd Lt. informed them they had to physically go to the counter. Many were the sighs and Andae turned to Marionette who had the chips, payment ones that was.

* * *

They approached the star-baked plaza that was just as busy as the crowded space lanes of Denebian orbit. It was fortunate they had their three tricorders that could easily be concealed, otherwise they'd never be able to find the sadistic human Pearson and the at least two Terrellian friends of hers - and that was even if they were still in the square, which they weren't as the tricorder informed.

Splitting four ways - three pairs and a lone ranger in the form of Burwell, one group for each side of the plaza - they resolved to use their three tricorders, in the possession of Andae who'd gone with Scott, Marionette with Teng, and Torek with Valenti, to track down their quarry in the hope it'd slipped off sensor range into one of the gaudy buildings obscured by the blur of locals.

Approaching a stall next to the seeming antique shop where Pearson's surprisingly undisguised purchase had been made, Blakus and Scott were harangued by someone pushing the ossified gizzard cartilage of an exotic species of game fowl, supposedly priceless.

Blakus blinked. "What's it used for?" the useless query being the first thing to enter his mind. The man explained it was no ordinary bird gizzard, but had formed the spine of an early 22nd century edition of the Divine Comedy, published by the co-founder of the human colony established on Deneb II around that time. The co-founder had communicated a great deal with the Denebians, his philosophy that echoed Dante's discernible in the structure of emergent Denebian law.

The engineer rolled his eyes and walked on, Scott running after him, "In Dante's hell fraud's considered a worse crime than murder," he said, "Offworlders have found out to their expense. Think... ultimate sanction..." He trailed off and Scott followed his frozen stare to a building 15 metres away: under the awning, a shock of black hair and a tightly fitting garment - Pearson! - flanked by a hooded figure who for a moment had turned their way, Terrellian eyes piercing the dark folds of its cloak.

He burst forward, Scott soon overtaking him. Pearson and the Terrellian recognised their peril and sprung away towards the plaza corner, where it intersected with the line of shops that were across the road (leading away diagonally north-eastwards), =/\=Team, this is Blakus... Scott and I see Pearson. Admiral, she and a Terrellian are making for where your search area meets mine.=/\=

<Tag Carl, Marionette>

[Carl Torek]

The teams split up, each pair and the Marine who was solo, taking a compass direction ....

"You think we'll find anything here ?" Calli asked Carl after linking him to look more the tourist than the Federation Officer. Either way it seemed no-one was taking an iota of notice either way. They moved to the East side of the large plaza, Burwell had gone West, while Marionette and Koni had headed to the South side ... They were keeping a close eye on those around them while trying to triangulate with the other teams. With only three tricorders, the Marine Colonel was on his own apart from his comm-badge. Carl and Calli were at the far side of the plaza now and were slowly making their way along the row of shops and portable outlets, almost akin to an outdoor market when both their comm-badges chirped to life !

=^= Teams .. .. This is Blakus .. Scott and I see Pearson .. Admiral .. She and a Terrellian are making for where your search area meets mine =^=

=^= Understood .. Converging now .. .. Colonel .. Make for the large statuette towards the North East corner .. Andae .. Keep eyes on her report any deviation =^=

He slapped the concealed comm-badge and they began making their way through the seemingly increasingly dense. Carl was tall, almost six foot two inches, so he was able to see over most of the people around him if he walked on tip-toes but it was still impossible to spot who they were looking for without being close. He knew they were close, they had gone in the direction indicated immediately so he couldn't see how Pearson and her companion had got past them, then he spotted the tall Terrellian. He was only twenty, maybe twenty five meters away and heading across their path. he nudged Calli then drew his phaser but kept it against his jacket, out of plain sight as they inched toward their pray.

He could now see Burwell, coming at them from another angle and looked to his left, trying to spot Andae and Koni ... He didn't know if it was his trying to locate his teams, of if the Terrellian just managed to look in their direction at precisely the right second he was not watching them, but he heard someone protesting and returned his attention to Pearson and Co. A man and woman were shouting at someone, arms raised in anger as others seemed to be focusing their attention on something close-by. He tapped his comm-badge quickly:

=^= Torek to Teams .. I think we've been spotted .. My fault .. Targets moving towards north east corner .. There are multiple escape routes in that direction .. Converge now Now NOW ! =^=

He began pushing his way through the crowd with little regard to their protestations when Calli suddenly grabbed him and said something was amiss and she would investigate. Carl nodded then quickly left her behind not wanting to let their prey escape capture. He knew Marionette and Koni couldn't be far behind and hoped they had instinctively circumnavigated the throng in favour of getting to the north east corner quicker...

Calli pushed her way towards the throng as Carl continued his persuit of Pearson. She found it difficult to push her way through but eventually she managed it, though immediately wished she hadn't ... There, on the floor, was a young man and woman, the man was bleeding from several puncture wonds on his back while the woman was trying in vein to stem the blood loss. Calli dropped to her knees and began to apply more pressure on two of the wounds the woman couldn't reach, she looked into her eyes seeing the pleading therein. Calli lifted the mans tunic and immediately recognised the puncture wounds, triangular, approximately five millimeters per side, it was a Terrellian blade. She couldn't understand how the race had got involved in something so heinous. She tapped her comm-badge, abandoning any pretence of concealment now:

=^= Valente to Torek .. The Terrellian fatally stabbed a local .. Obviously to cause a distraction to aid their escape .. Do you have them ? =^=

=^= Closing now .. Can you help the man ? =^= he asked, but Calli's non-reply was answer enough, then he heard a shout and looked in the direction it came from, almost falling over the prome Marine colonel, who was clutching his midriff, blood oozing through his clenched fingers.

"That way !" he said, signifying the direction via frantic nodding, "Get the hell after them Admiral, I've had worse than this." Without hesitation Carl got back to his feet and began pushing his way in the direction indicated. The countless back alley's and small streets leading away from the plaza were too near for comfort, and if Pearson and her henchman reached one of them their efforts and needless loss of life, were for nothing. His comm-badge was demanding his attention:

=^= Torek =^=

=^= Admiral .. We're within meters .. Lieutenant Scott is attempting to move past them to delay their progress .. Head towards the water founta .. .. .. .. .. =^=

=^= Andae .. ANDAE ! .. .. =^= his blood ran cold as his worst fears sprang to the forefront of his consciousness ..........





< Tag : Andae / Marionette >

[Andae Blakus]

Closing in on their target, Blakus had swung out to the left directly under the shop awnings, while Scott went in the opposite direction and around the opening in the narrow delineated paths ahead that contained the fountain, so as to cut the fleeing duo off from their escape route.

He commed Torek just as he reached the next shop from last along the north side of the plaza, =^= Admiral .. We're within meters .. Lieutenant Scott is attempting to move past them to delay their progress .. Head towards the water founta .. .. .. .. .. =^= just as someone outside the shop slammed an object down around his skull as he passed.

Blakus found his vision sunk into a scarlet world that glowed hellishly at its interstices, the 1-dimensional gaps between the hexagonal patterns saturating his entire field. Letting out a pathetic yelp he kicked at the dust of the ground, propelling himself onwards, but he found he no longer had anything to push against, as if he had been levitated into the sky - he had in fact hit the deck and dislocated his ankle.

=^= Andae .. ANDAE ! .. .. =^=

The numbness eventually passing, he felt the weight of the object pressuring his cranium, a voice reaching through his awareness and making itself the centre of his attention, its voice smooth and so lacking in vocal imperfections that it couldn't possibly have come from a biological larynx, "Welcome to the new edition of Parallax Warriors in Dimension 62. Select difficulty: amateur, hotshot, minor deity."

He staggered to his feet and tried to pull the 'game' off his head, was then confronted by the seeming responsible agent: "Sir! This is the first day of the rest of your life. You've discovered PWD 62... Ok... You're not familiar with it. I can tell that. Well, let me just tell you what it's all about, the controls..."

Finding that Parallax Warriors was of quite an impressive weight, Blakus began precessing his head like the unstable pole of a planet, around and around, building up momentum, before butting the vendor hard with his all-enclosing spherical construct of onyx. "Don't make a complaint!" he shouted into red-tinted nothingness, and stumbled away ridiculously with his new top-heaviness.

The world becoming visible as he tore off the sphere, he saw Scott bowling over the Terrellian at a corner jutting out into the area behind the wide fountain, sending the dark-cloaked being sprawling onto his back.

=/\=Andae?=/\=

=/\=Here, Admiral... I think we've lost Pearson...=/\= his ragged breathing must've been heard over the just opened comm, coupled with considerable noises of discomfort as he limped on his dislocated ankle. =/\=Are you by the fountain, sir.=/\=

Light played liquidly on this small courtyard, reflected from the Deneb sun off the spraying water of the fountain. As Scott prepared to render the Terrellian unconscious - currently pulling his phaser from the folds of his disguised uniform - Blakus saw the dark uniformed woman in the clock tower, well away across the cobbled area and stark against the bright sky. Now the Terrellian grabbed for his own weapon, a short sabre, but Scott kicked it away.

The dark-clothed Pearson's pale face looked down from that height and she raised a small wafer of something, about the size of an ancient postage stamp, speaking a silent word to it: a local weather system gathered. An incredibly focussed electrical storm - magnitude of the some of the greatest recorded in the history of Earth or Deneb - began, incident upon the surrounding 200 square metres.

"Admiral, rest of the team, where are you?" Blakus shouted over the gathering winds... The sky had grown dark and all began flashing electric blue with improbable frequency, sheet lightning, the earth vibrating with the very close discharges. In the chaos, Blakus watched an atmospheric ship cruise above the unnaturally local weather and land in the next square over, beyond the clocktower which, Blakus could see, Pearson had disappeared from.

[Carl Torek]

USS Raven-C ::


"Commander, you should see this !" Delik Gerelo said making Wedlerson turn from the Science Station Two. As he looked at the screen he was shocked a the sight before him ... A micro-climate storm had formed directly above the away teas' location. He couldn't understand it, there were no prior signs that a storm front was forming, in fact, the whole hemisphere was calm. He dropped into the Center Seat, chin resting in his palm as the Duty Science Officer took readings:

"There is no way this micro-storm could have formed naturally Commander, it has to be artificial." she said.

Do we still have bio-signatures for our people on the surface ?"

Fragmented, they are definitely inside that thing, and if our readings are correct it is gradually building. It's only a matter of time before it reaches hurricane level gusts and structural integrity of the buildings could be taken beyond design levels."

"So things could begin to collapse ?"

"Yes Sir."

"Open a Comm to the away team." Harry said. A few moments later the Comms Officer nodded. The connection was fragmented and static-filled.

=^= .. .. orek .. Loc .. .. Team to a secu .. .. .. =^=

=^= You're breaking up Admiral =^= Harry said through the crackling communication.

=^= .. .. .. an you lock onto the towe .. .. .. ters from our posi .. .. Fire phasers at minima .. .. .. Raven .. Come in Raven .. .. .. .. =^= the comm disengaged, leaving the Bridge crew frustrated.

"Find a way to beam them off the surface, quickly !" Harry said .....


Surface ::


=^= ANDAE ! .. .. .. .. =^=

=^= Here .. Admiral .. I think we lost Pearson =^= Blakus said as he noticed a darkened figure in the nearby tower, but before he could say anything the wind beganto rise significantly. Within seconds the whole square was a torrent of flying debris, from chairs, tables, awnings ...

Carl made his way over to his Exec and looked in the direction indicated, but he could hardly see anything as Blakus' attention turned to the south as a craft passed over them coming down a short distance away. Blakus looked back at the tower but Pearson had vanished from sight. He could see Torek shouting into his communicator to no avail as the lightning and winds continued to increase. It was obvious that they needed to get out of the micro-tornado before one of them was injured or even killed. Marionette took an arm of Torek and Blakus and began to walk across the square, T'Seng, Burwell, and Lieutenant Scott all grabbed hold of the android forming a train behind her, her mass forming a minimal windbreak against the ever-increasing gusts ... Finally they reached a small alley and entered ... Looking back it seemed everything that hadn't previously been secured to the marbl-like pavement was passing the gap meters above it, including people !

"Did anyone else notice the other ship ?" T'Seng said, ruffling dust from her hair. Blakus confirmed he'd seen it and thought Pearson could have reached it, "That storm, pretty damn convenient if you ask me !" she said as Carl again slapped his Comm badge, hoping for more success now they were out of the brunt of the storm.

=^= Torek to Raven .. Can ou track a small vessel leaving the surface two hundred meters to our East ? =^=

=^= The storm is playing havoc with sensors Admiral .. But we have it moving away fast at surface level =^=

=^= Can you transport all occu .. .. .. =^=

=^= Not a chance Admiral .. The electrical and magnetic effects of the storm pass well beyond the city .. It will be out of range before we can get hold of anyone unless you want me to break our geosynchronous orbit ? =^=

=^= Go after her Commander .. We'll manage .. Come back for us when you have her ! =^=

The Comm closed and he turned to the others as the storm, seconds ago almost ripping buildings from their foundations, was now little more than a heavy rain storm, and was receding by the second. They walked to the end of the alley and looked out on the mayhem that the sudden torrent had caused, the once pristine square looked like a war-zone. Men woman and children were being treated by newly arrived medical help ... They looked for the fallen Terrellian but he was nowhere to be seen, he had either recovered enough to make his escape, or had been taken by one of the Medical teams in the square. He asked Colonel Burwell to contact the authorities and have the Terrellian detained if they had him ... There was nothing they could do to help here ...

"Let's get back to the compound, we'll regroup and 'if' the Raven manages to grab Pearson we'll question her."


~~~~~~~~~~


They had got back and were being brought up to speed regarding the lost Terrellian, who alas remained lost at present, when the Raven contacted them saying Wedlerson was on his way down. Seconds later the Operations Officer materialised:

"Sorry for coming down in person Admiral, but I thought I'd better give you this in person." Harry said, motioning for the Raven Officers to move to one side and out of earshot of their hosts. Once he was confident they couldn't be overhear he continued, "Sir, apologies, but doctor Pearson evaded us. We were too late in reaching transport distance. Knowing we couldn't reach her to get her off, I took the decision to disable the craft using our phasers. It dropped from the sky and we lost it for a few vital moments. We finally located it in a clearing on the outer edge of a large forest region, we intensively scanned the surrounding area but the Doctor either got clean away by pure fluke, or has some sophisticated cloaking technology hidden somewhere in there somewhere."

"DAMN !" Torek said, making their hosts look in their direction for a long moment, before returning to their own conversation.

"We did get a lot from the craft though." Harry said holding out a PADD with information on the small screen, "That craft was hers, or at least she had been using it for some time. We sent a small team down to get as much data from the computer as possible. somewhere in there she had hidden files, big ones ... Almost two hundred and eighty 'million' tertquads. In fact a damn-sight more than first thought ! ... We've uploaded it all to one of the Raven's cores and completely isolated it from the rest of the network, just in case. It's going to take considerable time to decipher without help, but we did get two snippets of information that could prove relevant." he handed the PADD to Torek then pointed at a line on the screen:

"According to this, and believe me. we have only skimmed the surface, so it may not be reliable, but the incident on the Starbase, and whatever she is doing here, both appear to be a prelude, or more likely a test of some kind, though what we're reading could easily be taken completely out of context without full access, we won't know until we have the rest." Wedlerson admitted.

"..... And the other snippet ?" Koni asked, apparently a fraction less patient than the others. Taking the PADD he changed the information then turned it so everyone could see:

.. 65°32'35' - 38°58'30' ..

.. 65°36'49' - 37°37'52' ..

.. 66°21'00' - 38°12'00' ..

"Coordinates ?" Koni commented, "But to where ?"

"We've run then through our charts ....." Harry said quietly, "While these can be applied to numerous astronomical bodies within our records database, the coordinates coincide with three specific locations, namely: Isortoq, Tasiilaq, and Helmein, or more precisely, the Helmein Glacier, Greenland ....... Earth !"

"So the attack on Starbase Forty Seven 'could' have been a dry run, so to speak, to what an attack on Earth itself, that's unheard of ?" Colonel Burwell said, disbelievingly.

They looked at the PADD as if it was on fire. The thought, that Pearson was directly responsible for the atrocity on Starbase Forty Seven was something they needed to prove, but the idea that what had happened was only a prelude, and could be followed by other attacks, sent shivers down their spines !



"GET US BACK TO THE RAVEN COLONEL ... NOW !" Torek ordered ..........

[Carl Torek]

OOC ~ Sorry for the length of these back to back posts guys.


IC ~


Conference Room ::


They had sat in orbit for seventeen hours, ordered not to go back to the surface, they were to wait on command contacting them ... Frustration was building by the second as both the Terrellian, and dishearteningly, Donna Pearson remained at large and were getting further and further out of reach by the hour. Twice they had received requests for assistance on the surface to help with the dead and injured, and despite direct orders, Carl had dispatched Medical Teams, and in his opinion, 'Damn the consequences' ! ...

"Hell, what are they doing there, flipping coins." Calli said, having been sat with the others for hours. She was about to comment further when Harry entered the room:

"Admiral, we are receiving a priority one communiqué ....."

"Put it through here Harry." Carl said, sitting up in anticipation.

"Sir, It's the vice President personally, she respectfully requests you spe ....."

"Put it through here, Commander." Carl said, seeing Wedlerson hesitate, "Don't worry, if there's any fallback I'll take it, put it through please, Harry." he said reassuringly. Harry moved to the screen on the wall:

=^= Admiral Torek =^= Fabienne Laurent said, her eyes flicking around the screen as she took in the others behind him, =^= I believe I requested our communiqué be in private .. Did I not ? =^=

=^= You did Madam Vice President .. But given the circumstances and the possible gravity of the situation .. I felt that my Senior Staff should be included =^= Carl said, making no apology for his disobedience.

=^= Very well Admiral .. .. We have conducted extensive scans and ground searches of the three sets of coordinates you supplied .. Alas we found nothing that we did not expect to find .. How do you account for this ? =^=

=^= There is nothing there .. .. nothing of significance ? =^= Carl replied, suddenly anxious.

=^= As I believe I have just stated =^= Laurent said patiently, eyeing Torek and waiting for his reply.

Carl wracked his brain for something viable to give her. He'd seen the data, or what little they had deciphered on the Raven, and even that almost minuscule fragment had pointed to Earth, if not as the next target of the terrorist attacks, surely as a base of operations, then it occurred to him, what if the attacks were a distraction of some kind, but to what ! ... 'No' he decided, Pearson was intelligent and determined, of she wouldn't have escaped capture. she had something in mind, and those coordinates on Earth were vital to the continuance of those plans. had the information simply stated 'Greenland' or 'Norway' or 'Brazil' he could have accepted the fact that it may have simply been places she had met confederates, but the satellite coordinates were too accurate, too location defined in his opinion.

=^= I do hope you have not fallen asleep during our chat Admiral =^=

=^= Madam Vice President .. I .. 'WE' .. Believe that Pearson is in league with a Terrellian Faction bent on instigating war between our races .. Those coordinates are far from insignificant in my opinion and if ignored could jeopardise our well-being to the point of all out WAR ! =^=

=^= I will thank you 'not' to raise your voice to me Admiral .. I am fully aware of your expertise and experience .. In fact .. I am led to believe that if you had accepted you would be sat in this office now instead of me =^= ... The Federation Vice President said, making Carl feel uncomfortable given his taking any other role than what he was currently doing had never been spoken about, at least to himself ... =^= Now .. I believe I informed you that our search bore no fruit .. So to speak .. Though we are still trying to decipher the teraquads of information you supplied .. I think you are best served by remaining in the .. Mrgila Cluster and pursuing the fugitives from there =^=

=^= With 'ALL' due respect .. Madam Vi .. .. .. =^=

=^= My apologies once again Admiral .. But I fear you may have misinterpreted my last comment .. You are hereby instructed to remain in the region of space you currently occupy until ordered to do otherwise .. .. .. =^= the woman said, a sudden hardness in her tone and expression making it perfectly clear to all present that she had given Torek a direct order =^= forgive my abruptness Admiral .. But if we had found anything we would of course informed you .. As it is we fund nothing .. If there are more developments we shall immediately inform you .. God speed Admiral .. .. =^=

Everyone, including Carl, looked at the blank screen.

"You can't." Calli said, knowing he was about to make possibly the biggest mistake, or the largest leap of faith in his entire career. Carl looked from Calli to Andae, his two most trusted advisers ..........

[Andae Blakus]

Andae himself looked from one to the other, finally settling back on Carl, "Are we sure Pearson won't try to strike somewhere else first, somewhere in addition to the Starbase but before any possible attack on Earth?" he asked. It had ended up being a somewhat rhetorical question, as no one could know that answer - yet - for sure, but it did them a service in that regard. "Perhaps we wait to see if there any more disturbances in the area first?"

All he could do was give his best advice, the Admiral would make his final decision that would take into account more factors than he could, even with his additional position of Acting First Officer elevating him slightly.

Asking permission to return to the bridge and receiving it, he sat at the port-side, forward-facing - and occasionally the wall-facing - engineering console/s, resuming his searches in the monolithic data download they'd taken on board from Pearson's ship.

He'd barely scratched the surface of this vast tome, the initial data received from cursory searches seeming quite indecipherable in the slivers that they passed back to him in. Even gaining a moderately helpful picture of the kind of data - on the whole - that the other ship's computer held would take many arduous hours, with automatic search programs operating continuously on several consoles, searching for patterns and revealing a trace of a sustained passage of similar data - that seemed by analogy as if it came from the same page of a book - running through the downloaded information.

The most important information uncovered - thus far - was of course the test/prelude strike - that'd been the attack on the Starbase - and the set of coordinates in Greenland which alluded to - either - the eventual target of the whole operation, or another objective that was immediately next or a bit down the road. His main search parameters - fed to the most sophisticated pattern recognition software on board - consisted of narrowing the results down to data that looked like spatial coordinates.

Ten minutes later - Carl and Calli still to emerge from the conference room - the program had uncovered four additional sets of coordinates, slowly filling a screen mounted into the wall console. One of them matched with Starfleet HQ, Earth (the C-in-C's office to be precise), but whether these coords referred to the location of a coming attack, a computer infiltration, intelligence gathering, or a simple note for Pearson and the Terrellians, couldn't be discerned. For there was still no clear context to the data.

The other three coord sets were unrecognised by the computer but there was an extra string of characters next to those three which wasn't present in the Starfleet HQ coords, which after a short search Blakus found to correspond to a regional code used on the Terrellian homeworld. They were home coords then, or perhaps more targets if these Terrellians wanted to attack their Empire as well.

Clearing his throat and downing the rest of his coffee, placing it neatly in the mug's ring mark on the dark surface, he addressed the computer, "Display habitat information: Tasiilaq, Earth." He retrieved the current population, climatic data, all other main points, and fed that into a search of Pearson's ship data, immediately returning a result.

It wasn't connected to Tasiilaq however, at least, not with its first result. Whatever it'd found was the exact same temperature, humidity, population (and still more precise demographics) as Tasiilaq, just on a different planet.

"A clone settlement? That's why they couldn't find it at Command..." he murmured, "There's nothing odd about Tasiilaq itself at all... There's just a mock version of it somewhere!" That wasn't to say they weren't up to no good with regard to Earth itself though.

[Carl Torek]

"Are we sure Pearson won't try to strike somewhere else first, somewhere in addition to the Starbase but before any possible attack on Earth ?" Andae said, offering his much valued opinion. It had ended up being a somewhat rhetorical question, as no one could know that answer - Yet - For sure, but it did them a service in that regard, "Perhaps we wait to see if there any more disturbances in this area first ?"

"I have to agree." Calli said, glancing at the Chief Engineer, "Our running back to Earth could end up a wild goose chase, and the round-trip time of approximately five weeks would give up practically zero chance of picking up where Pearson might have actually vanished to ... I do believe that what is happening here is a test. If she somehow managed to convince the governing body to test out her theories, it must have given her a lot of data, more even than we managed to acquire !"

"Is it possible that Pearson, or the Tellarites she is working with have acquired tech' that would allow any complex in Greenland to be thoroughly shielded ?" he asked.

"It's possible, yes." Calli said, Blakus nodded agreement.

"But you still think it unwise for us to go back ?" he asked, this time both nodded. He picked up a PADD and read for a few seconds then looked up, "The Federation council has expelled the Tellarite Delegation from Earth pending the outcome of our findings, we are as close to war without a shot being fired as we will ever be, and with several other races possibly aligning themselves to the Tellarite Conclave, things could get extremely messy ..... But I have to agree, we'll have our best satellites re-tasked over Greenland, they can scan the area for anything unusual. I am going to recommend we get people on the ground at all three locations. Andae asked permission to go to the Bridge to begin looking through the masses of data, Calli remained and the two spoke for a while longer .....


~~~~~~~~~~


Entering the Bridge Carl and Calli could see the Chief Engineer at one of the Stations, the three screens awash with information. Walking over Calli leaned in to get a look:

"What's that ?" she asked, making Blakus repeat his thoughts again. He pointed out the sites on Earth, then the minute anomalies that indicated it had a replica, somewhere ...

"Could be a clone settlement ? .... That's why they couldn't find it at Command." he murmured, "There's nothing odd about Tasiilaq itself at all ... There's just a mock version of it somewhere !" That wasn't to say they weren't up to no good with regard to Earth itself though.

"So how do we find this 'duplicate' .... ?" Andae raised his hands in submission.

"So we need either Pearson herself, or someone she in aligned with." Calli said noticing Lysia T'seng and Harry Wedlerson had joined them. 'More the merrier' she thought.

"There are currently eighteen vessels in orbit, only three of which accommodate an Earth-type atmosphere." Harry informed everyone, "Given that, as far as we are aware, Pearson wouldn't have been working alone with the Tellarites, it's possible one or more of her 'associates' could still be here ?"

"There's nothing to say she had anyone with her though, apart from the late Maltis, who we know is dead. T'Seng said.

"There was at least two other Doctors, they were with Pearson when they took the Commander." Calli said suddenly, "Myrox, again who we now believe to be dead, we do have information that Myrox worked with a Doctor named, Rozil ? ... We had initially dismissed him anyway her with Pearson taking the limelight, so to speak. From what Andae told us in the de-brief, he couldn't say one way or the other if the other Doctor in the room was male or female ... It's possible he could have information on Pearson and her next move ?" she directed the comment to Blakus.

"I only got a look at Pearson. but there were definitely others in the background." Andae admitted as T'Seng, at the next station, brought up any information on a Doctor Rozil:

Rozil, John.
Human Male, aged fifty six.
Resident at Starfleet Medical.
Surgeon.
Spent five months off-world and out of circulation citing personal issues ! ....

"OK !" Carl said decisively, moving across the Bridge before dropping into the center seat, "Move us up behind the first of the three vessels that have Earth-type atmosphere. I want all three scanned, discretely, to see if Pearson's accomplice is aboard. If we locate him have transporter room one ready to beam him off the ship regardless of objections !"


~~~~~~~~~~


The massive Sovereign Class Raven began to increase speed. not enough to attract too much initial attention, but enough to allow them to close the distance between them and their first target. Harry informed everyone that Space Control was instructing them to return to their allotted parking orbit immediately. Carl told him to ignore the comm and turned to T'Seng:

"Be ready to passively scan for Human life-signs. Harry, make sure the transporter room is ready." he instructed, watching the view-screen as they continued to approach the first ship. Harry again said that the Port was now 'demanding' the Raven return to her assigned parking position or leave orbit immediately. Again he was instructed to ignore them ... Lysia confirmed that the scan showed no Human life-signs. Disappointed, Carl ordered them move up on the second vessel.

"Sir, two vessels coming up from the surface, they are on intercept course with us." Lysia informed Torek.

"Raise shields. Continue to the next ship." Carl ordered.

"Sir, those ships will reach us in thirty seconds. They are attempting to lock onto us from high orbit." Harry confirmed.

"Marionette, Increase our rate of approach, allow for us being pushed away from the surface. I want that ship scanned quickly."

"SIR ! ... One Human life-sign, they are powering up their drive systems !"

"Increase to intercept." Carl said calmly. The ship lurched suddenly as the lead vessel from the surface opened fire, there was almost zero impact on their new metaphasic shields, "Lock phasers onto that ship and disable it, now." the Raven returned fire, crippling the oncoming vessel instantly, it turned away, plummeting back into the atmosphere. Alas, it only spurred the second vessel to come at them head-on !

"We have partial lock on one Human on the second ship Admiral, it is increasing distance between us and readying to go to warp, if it does ...." Andae reminded Carl.

"Target the oncoming ship, disable their weapo ....." he stopped as the ship they were pursuing jumped to warp, "Go after them !" he ordered instantly, knowing if their only possible surviving lead to Doctor Pearson escaped their grasp, all could be lost and Pearson could have free reign to go on with her plans, which would almost certainly put the Tellarite Empire and the Federation at WAR ! ..........

[Andae Blakus]

The Raven had started out in pursuit of the fugitive doctor's ship, Blakus scanning the vessel in coordination with the Operations and Tactical officers all the time, at the same time as continuing to search in the gargantuan database they'd found in the computer of Pearson's craft.

New coordinate sets were coming in all the time: some applying to Terrellia itself, some to Earth and a couple even to Deneb - including the coordinates of the clocktower where the sudden electrical storm had occurred; perhaps the craft had a capability of inducing such atmospheric conditions and the coords had been used by their targeting computer.

Studying the coordinates might also give a clue as to the presumed Dr Rozil's eventual destination, but none looked even vaguely like sets of galactic spherical coords - which might indicate where the replica settlement was located in the firmament.

Wedlerson's console started flashing scarlet wildly, "Admiral... I believe we're suffering a cyber-attack. It seems to be a mutator virus in a composite with an upgraded version of the prefix code override, evidently able to be used by non-Starfleet vessels..." Wedlerson sounded remarkably calm, "That flaw in starship design was removed decades ago, but the virus is using a more complex string of data common to all information processed by our computer core. How they've managed to find that constantly changing string I don't know," he shook his head, staring at the viewscreen.

"It's come from Rozil's ship... ?" Andae trailed off as his screen went blank, a new image gradually resolving, losing its pixellation and revealing the leering face of Dr Rozil. Now Blakus remembered him, consoling him in the sickbay (beside Myrox, just over his shoulder, casting the spectre of his shadowy visage) that his fellow crew wouldn't be able to see him that day, while he'd lain there in mute terror.

Data packets were infected by an algorithm latching on from an external source, the infection spreading 'til the system was clogged and the Raven's resources were shunted away from primary processes to reinforce firewalls, leaving the critical systems under-utilised; the computer thought it could do so safely as it was now assisting firewall protection, but a prefix code override didn't work that way, it would reach through the defences to seize control of primary systems.

"You lose, Commander. And don't believe for one minute you ever managed to escape our sickbay." Blakus's blood ran cold: of course, he could've been mistaken about the doctor's death... perhaps that same man in the Starbase sickbay had remained alive, perhaps Blakus hadn't even left his presence... "Look around you, Commander." The tearing horror of hollow dreams returned to him...

Apparently all consoles on the bridge were showing the same image, with the same form of address; Andae realised many had turned to look at him, and he looked back, sweat having formed at his brow, a lip quivering in worry. "Don't let him get to you, Commander. He's playing with your mind," Wedlerson said.

The feed of Rozil's head was a recording (the unidentified vessel's bridge was visible beyond, all shadows and one piercing light illuminating part of the face of the person sitting in the room's centre chair; the timestamp on the feed also showed that the message had been recorded before the Raven reached Deneb). It'd been imported with the virus that now seized control of the Raven's defensive systems.

"Phasers offline... Now shields, defensive as well as navigational," Teng reported sternly, "Admiral, we have to drop from warp immediately. Without the nav deflector to avert massive objects, we run the risk of critical damage from interstellar dust... At this velocity with no deflector, a particle the size of a ball bearing could punch a hole in us the size of a fist."

"All is lost, Andae. Yes, you need to break me, your fellow officers will demand it, but you don't have the strength." Rozil's glowering image peered at him from his station, Blakus covered it with a hand and went about halting the cyber attack, the process painfully slow, as Wedlerson announced the arrival of another vessel (matching the characteristics of one of those that'd left the system with the mysterious matter cloud).

[Carl Torek]

"Admiral ... I believe we're suffering a cyber-attack. It seems to be a mutator virus in a composite with an upgraded version of the prefix code override, evidently able to be used by non-Starfleet vessels..." Wedlerson sounded remarkably calm, "That flaw in star ship design was removed decades ago, but the virus is using a more complex string of data common to all information processed by our computer core. How they've managed to find that constantly changing string I don't know." he shook his head, staring at the viewscreen.

"It's come from Rozil's ship ... ?" Andae asked as Carl looked from his Operations Chief to his Engineer and back.

"We are reducing speed." Marionette said, her tone neutral.

"Can you clear it ?" Torek asked almost jumping out of his seat, unable to believe that the newest Star ship in the Federations fleet was coming under an attack that could end in her destruction !

"In time." harry said, Andae nodding in agreement.

Things were happening quickly now, too quickly for his liking. The Sovereign Class Raven was dropping from warp, and in normal space she would be the proverbial sitting duck. If Doctor Rozil decided to come about, they were dead, there was no other viable outlook to their situation. He paced between stations, leaning in, tapping inputs, reading, before repeating the process again. He knew his Chief Engineer was working hard, and he wouldn't interfere with him, nor the Ops Chief ... He looked at the view-screen seeing the stars begin to slow further and further. At their rate of deceleration they would be adrift in minutes, Arrowing uncontrollably through space until either they hit something, or more likely, something hit them ...

"If we deactivate the core, completely, what effect would that have on the virus ?" Carl asked, knowing full well that he was grasping at straws.

"On the virus, very little initially, at least until we could isolate the infected systems and sub-systems, then purge them ...." Harry said, trying hard not to point out the startlingly obvious, but felt he needed to do so while Blakus was feverishly working on a myriad of calculations, ".... On us ? ... We'd have no atmosphere once the batteries drained, no artificial gravity, no light ...." he stopped short of comparing the Raven to a massive coffin.

"But 'until' the emergency power is depleted, we would have basic manoeuvrability, thrusters ?"

"The quicker we use up the emergency power, the quicker we're dead in space though, right ?" Calli asked.

"Yes, Ma'am." Lysia confirmed as Carl was hovering over the spluttering Navigation station.

"What's that ?" he asked, pointing at an anomaly on her readouts.

"Well. If my readings are to be believed, that is a Fermion Emission Nebula, catalogue registry NGC 87491, the Tzueg-Zau nebular ... Expelling anti-neutrino's."

"Can we reach it !"

"We have no way of knowing Admiral, but if we expend energy adjusting our course, it will seriously deplete what little reserve power we have left."

"Those emissions are going to play hell with the sensors we don't have." Lysia said, a wry grin forming. 

"Change course, do it slowly." Carl said, moving to within centimeters of the large view-screen, "Once underway kill all drive systems. We'll drift." he closed his eyes for a second, knowing no-one on the Bridge could see his doubt, his, fear. But fear was part of their role in the vast expanse of space, so he would carve that fragment into the positive. Turning he faced his Staff, all of them were working, diligently endeavouring to save the ship. He almost smiled, but not with amusement, but shear pride ! ....

"Reserve power down to sixty one percent." Lysia informed the Bridge.

Carl looked at his Senior Staff then at the stars beyond their rapidly failing lifeboat. He knew Andae, Harry and everyone else was working, but his thoughts were also on the two ships out there:

Was Rozil still fleeing, was the other still looking for them ? ..........

[Andae Blakus]

Blakus thought he might be onto the virus's modus operandi, and was now following its progress through the systems - tracking it as a dogfighting pilot would an enemy bogey - checking if his simulation of its particular algorithm was correct. Then, if it emerged he was able to predict exactly which set of subsystems it would next enter and could observe its passage for approximately ten seconds, he'd be able to 'spring a trap' for it at its next destination in the software.

He was aware he couldn't exactly report anything of use at this point, but still felt the need to provide some sort of commentary, "Program running, Admiral." He glanced up quickly and saw the Raven had entered the stellar phenomenon, coasting in on its inertia, the phenomenon's features becoming ever clearer. How long would they be permitted to remain in this relative peace?

Now he managed to track the malicious program for just over ten seconds, and the irritating image of Rozil - recorded before the Raven's arrival at Deneb - lost cohesion for an instant before resolving once more, but the Doctor's surroundings had changed... He was on the surface of Deneb it seemed (then he'd certainly beamed down to the surface from his own vessel, meeting with Pearson and/or Terrellians most likely, Blakus thought).

This instance of him seemed a deal more angry, "You will desist from your meddling, Commander! Do we have to spell it out to you, like Myrox had to in the Starbase sickbay..." The nightmarish terrain of Rozil's face was manipulated by his neural processes to approximate a sick leer, "Can be difficult to get through to someone so mentally destroyed, we must admit." The rage returned and the man's eyes seemed to turn to fire before the image reset and he repeated the strong warning.

"Oh, shut up," Blakus covered the visual feed with his sleeve and worked with one hand, until at long last he began successfully debilitating the virus as it rampaged through the Raven-C's critical systems - just in time, too, given another minute the virus would've worked its way into the systems controlling antimatter containment; it was almost a certainty that its tampering with such systems would've caused a collapse in the pods' magnetostatic fields.

Most of the infected software had already been flushed out of the protocols controlling the engines and the navigational deflector, which meant they could return to warp speed, however defensive and offensive systems were still offline. Teng confirmed this a moment later, "Admiral. We've got engines back. Phasers and torpedoes are still non-operative."

Rozil's image dissolved, and simultaneously Blakus found a curious 'avenue' - as such he was only able to describe it - in the data, a passage left open by the virus, in the original master directory containing the virus and in the place where its instances had mainly concentrated themselves.

"I think I can turn the tables, so to speak," Blakus said uncertainly, hands skittering over the two banks of consoles and being assisted by Lieutenant Taylor at the wall-mounted station, "A type of data signature has been left in the computer, near where the virus first took hold... I think it's a node for a datalink to Rozil's ship, a place in the software where his ship was able to, real-time, control the virus's progress in taking down our systems."

"Can you use it to create a feedback loop of some sort?"

"I think so..." And he started manipulating the virus's tattered remnants to make that so, Rozil's face appearing fresh - although massively mangled - on the small screen once more,

"You will desist from your meddling, Commander!"

Blakus looked up slowly, surprised at what he'd been able to do, "I have control of Rozil's ship's weaponry." Rozil's ship was less than a 100km from the edge of NGC 87491, its sensors somehow having fought a way through the anti-neutrino haze; the Raven's shields were down, thus they should be in peril, but fortunately the Raven controlled its attackers' offensive capabilities.

"Reading the other Terrellian vessel on long-range sensors. It's closing within 100,000km to catch Rozil's vessel," Teng said, before adding in surprise, "And another one. That's three. The third one's on a direct course for... the system adjacent to the Terrellian home system?"

Perhaps then if this is some rebel faction against the Terrellians' legitimate government, they were operating from the next system along, Blakus thought. However, the two ships before them now were the more immediate factor; Andae didn't have a bank of weapons to control, but he had a virus's architecture that could do it for him, "Awaiting orders, Admiral. I can prevent Rozil's ship from firing, or we could turn it against the newcomer closing to within 100,000km."

<Tag All>

[Carl Torek]

"Reserve power down to sixty one percent." Lysia had informed the Bridge as the Raven approached NGC 87491 achingly slowly. He almost cursed whoever hadn't thought of the possibility of this type of attack, but then, he realised that they would have, and would have done everything in their power to prevent it happening, but even the most knowledgeable, most revered, couldn't protect against the complete unknown ... So here they were, limping into the unknown ! ... The minutes passed, with no indication of those in pursuit.

Then some good news: Blakus told them he could possibly turn the tables on Rozil. Carl sat quietly watching the Engineer as he worked, utilising two work-stations as he did so.

"Admiral. We've got engines back. Phasers and torpedoes are still non-operative." Lysia informed him a few moments later, but with limited sensors and unable to defend herself, they were still stuck between the proverbial 'rock and a hard place' with Rozil possibly closing on them, the second vessel likely to be closing by the second, and a gaseous nebula that could cripple the Raven completely.

"Divert whatever power you need from the warp drive to reinforce structural integrity, Try not to let any outward sign that we have power leak to the ships out there. If they think we're gearing up for a fight they may just fire on us before we can do anything to protect ourselves. Work on getting us shields and phasers, torpedoes are a secondary bonus." Carl said, eyeing NGC 87491 with a new sense of determination. Thankfully, even with reduced sensors, the Sovereign Class was a formidable vessel. They could now see that Rozil had indeed turned around, and was in fact almost on top of them, while the second vessel was still coming towards them, albeit somewhat slower than expected. The sudden and unexpected revelation that Andae had managed to do the equivalent of one Star Ship taking over the systems of another by means of the Command Code to Rozil's vessel almost brought him out of his seat.

"So there is no way he can simply reestablish control and fire on us ?" Calli asked, impressed.

"Not while I'm keeping a rotating algorithm going." Blakus said simply, hoping he was correct. Torek had some quick thinking to do ...If he fired on the on-coming vessel, which given the two are allies, so they wouldn't expect it, they 'would' return fire and tha .... The sudden news that a third ship had been spotted on long-range sensors, this one heading across their path to the adjacent system could mean they may have bigger problems in due course.

"Awaiting orders, Admiral. I can prevent Rozil's ship from firing, or we could turn it against the newcomer closing to within one hundred thousand kilometers." Calli looked at Carl, knowing he was working through his options.

"I'm assuming Rozil knows what we've done, so, can we do likewise to the oncoming vessel, and disable 'ALL' their communications systems simultaneously ?"


< Tag : Andae >


"OK, a little over-adventurous." Carl said, admittedly not disappointed given the magnitude of the query, "I take it we can assume Rozil then hasn't as yet informed the second vessel of their issues ... I wonder why that is ?" he mused.

"Maybe the newcomer would see it as a sign of weakness, or even defeat, and be inclined to take their own advantage ?" Koni suggested, the others nodding as it made sense, "He might be waiting to see if he can rectify our meddling, that way he remains in a position of power rather than subservient to whoever's on that other ship."

They were now drifting into the outer dust cloud of NGC 87491, Rozil's vessel seemingly keeping pace but making no other course alterations, so they were either content to follow the Raven, or their systems were more affected than thought. At this point, Carl didn't want to test either theory too vigorously as it could see them on the wrong end of the incoming vessels weaponry, unless Andae could scupper their systems too of course. but if they could get 'both' ships inside the gaseous nebula, incapacitate both enough to ensue they survived but were not going to make any surprise appearances, but maybe that was wishful thinking, especially given they were, for want of a better phrase: 'so much dead weight' ... At this point Carl believed he had two objectives:

1: They needed Rozil
2: They needed the Leaders

Acquiring one, may well be beneficial to attaining the other. But first they needed a working ship !

They were deep inside the gaseous nebula now, So ...

"We still have no weapons systems, and our drive is inactive ?" he asked, seeing T'Seng confirm his query, "Very well ...... Let's test just how much our friends have. Bring manoeuvring thrusters on-line, one three second burst of our port dorsal and drive section thrusters. Slow us slightly so they begin to close the distance between us."

"Admiral, that ploy, could prove, dangerous." Marionette said from the Helm, "Should he not have any systems which he could use to avoid collision, he cou ....."

"I'm aware of what 'could' happen, Commander. It should slow us while moving us into their path. With luck they may think we're still trying to get our drive systems on-line and have managed the thrusters only at this point. Commander Marionette, Andae, be ready to bring impulse engines on-line quickly, we might just need to move." he said wryly before sitting back in the center seat ... The thrusters fired for the required time, slowing the Raven's progress by one hundred fifty kilometers per hour, a fraction of their drifting speed in reality. It also changed their heading by almost four degrees, so while previously both ships were in tandem, parallel courses, now the Raven was slightly slower and moving into the path of Rozil's vessel. Marionette projected they would impact in six minutes forty one seconds ..........

[Andae Blakus]

Blakus shuddered at the possibility they may collide with Rozil's ship... In case things got too close for comfort (a possibility, even if they used the impulse engines) he began seeing if he could shift the virus's focus - sent on a feedback loop into Rozil's vessel - over to its engines.

Unfortunately the control for the engines was sequestered in an insolated section of the maybe-Terrellian vessel's computer core, inaccessible from Blakus's software ingress point - however, what was accessible was the communications grid; it would be a short hop over from the weapons that were currently malfunctioning (being prevented from firing at what they wished and even capable of being manipulated to fire by the Raven itself).

The first target under consideration would ordinarily be the second Terrellian vessel, but with no shields or other defensive capability yet available on the Raven-C, such a surrogate assault would impel the former to make its own attack, destroying the interfering Raven in short order.

"Admiral, I believe I can isolate Rozil's comm array from the rest of his systems, use it in the same way that we're able to use his weapons."

Torek turned sharply, "What do you have in mind?"

Running through the permutations again, eyes shut for a moment as he visualised the sequence of events, Blakus divulged his plan, "If we use the comm array to send a message to the second Terrellian vessel, something to the effect that Rozil's shipmates have regained control of their weapons, and then block Rozil from sending any real communication to amend what we've forced him to say... We could drive the second ship off, leave us with only Rozil to deal with, and capture."

"That would only work if the second ship felt comfortable that Rozil was able to contain us," Calli objected, "With Rozil's comms down, even if the second ship believe his weapons are restored they're not going anywhere."

Blakus paused, "We add a message saying that Rozil will take care of us and is instructing them to leave. We're not sure of their chain of command though, Rozil may not have the authority... So to reinforce the point for ship no. 2... We could fire on ourselves." Wedlerson chuckled and shook his head. The CEO disregarded him, "It's a way of - seemingly - proving to the second ship that Rozil has control of his weapons: fire one of Rozil's weapons against ourselves, low setting if need be, and simulate our damage - open a bulkhead, decompress a couple decks and shut off a section with a mock EPS overload..."

"This is a brand new starship, Commander, in case you'd forgotten. And with our shields down, having another ship fire on us -"

"There's no way to resolve this stand-off under present conditions," he retorted, "If we try to turn the ships against one another - with our weapons and shields offline - the second ship will obliterate us; at current they're probably only holding back because of our proximity to Rozil."

Wedlerson had turned from Ops now, Marionette watching the viewscreen showing a starboard-aft view of the Terrellian craft - containing Rozil - seemingly closing on them.

Turning back to the engineering console, Andae entered a short string of commands; it beeped submissively, "I've seized control of Rozil's comm array. Can send a short text message to the effect that Rozil's regained weapons, that he wants to deal with the Raven alone, and that he's now losing comms at the expense of renewed offensive capability... If we send it text-only - a sign of failing transceiver resolution - maybe the other ship will believe that."

He supposed that Rozil may just jump to warp after the second vessel once he realises what the Raven had done; however if they could get the Raven's weapons online during the Terrellians' confusion, Rozil and/or others could be captured very quickly, assuming everything went to plan.

[Carl Torek]

Carl, as much as everyone else on the Bridge, not to mention anyone having line-of-sight visuals on the closing vessel, knew the risks of his admittedly risky move. Should anything go wrong they could find themselves actually colliding with Rozil's ship, and if that happened he knew the second vessel would likely fire on the Raven to either move her, or destroy her completely before that occurred !

"I've seized control of Rozil's comm array. We can now send a short text message to the effect that Rozil's regained weapons, that he wants to deal with the Raven alone, and that he's now losing comms at the expense of renewed offensive capability ... If we send it text-only - a sign of failing transceiver resolution - maybe the other ship will believe that."

"Do it." Carl said instantly.

They waited, scanning every possible frequency in case their plan backfired, but eventually, after Andae insisted more and more harshly, that the second ship turned away, jumping to warp almost begrudgingly.

They are approaching the edge of the System Admiral ... Past out completely now ....." Harry informed them, watching their progress intently, "..... They are dropping from warp, coming about, they are at the outer limit of our limited sensors. I can't guarantee they can't see what's happening here."

"OK, can we completely disable Rozil's vessel, do we have adequate access Andae ?"

"Touch and go, and if they find a workaround then ...."

"Andae. Disable their life support." Carl ordered, standing before approaching the large view-screen, "Marionette, use the minimal thruster allocation you need to bring us slowly into a parallel course, one hundred meters away." he ordered, watching the ship on screen, so large now he almost expected to feel the collision between them any second. Achingly slowly, the enormous Sovereign Class Raven began to turn on her axis while altering her drift to coincide with Rozil's much smaller, but at this point exponentially deadlier than the latter.

"One hundred meters Admiral." the Navigation Officer informed them, but continued to speak before Carl could reply, "Admiral. May I remind you that the adverse affects of this gaseous nebula will be detrimental to our well-being should we remain too long. The hull will begin to suff ....."

"Understood Commander." Torek interrupted, "Lieutenant T'Seng, what is their crew compliment ?"

"Three hundred eighty one Admiral." the Tactical Officer replied, "All of which will begin suffering from the first signs of oxygen deprivation. If Commander Blakus was successful."

"Admiral, I've lost contact with the second vessel, it has to be the nebula."

"Well, if we can't see them it's a good guess that they can't see us, or their other ship." Calli commented, "Which is a double-edged sword in itself. Because if they get nervous waiting for their sister ship, they may well come a-looking for it. We don't want them coming any closer while we're still disabled, shields and weapons-wise. If we're going to be doing anything it should be sooner than later ... In my opinion." she finished.

"Is there 'any' way to identify Rozil with our limited sensors ?"

"No Sir." T'Seng said instantly.

Carl walked around the Bridge. He needed his hands on Rozil, or at the very least, information he may have that will lead the Raven to the Terrellian's responsible for the recent atrocities. They were on the brink of all-out war here, it wasn't some petty dispute, and someone needed to be held accountable ...

"Admiral, they've been without atmosphere for fifteen minutes, what air they have must be getting stale by now." Harry said, glancing at Calli then Andae in turn while his Commanding Officer still had his back to them, ".... Sir ?"

"Leave them without atmosphere for another five minutes." Torek said, lowering himself into the center seat ... They waited the five minutes, ever conscious of the fact that the second vessel could return at any time. Silently Carl hoped his ploy worked, or all this had been for nothing, then he turned his chair to face Blakus:

"Commander ..... Can you allow ship to ship comms ?" Andae nodded then turned back to his console before entering numerous commands. Once satisfied he turned to Carl with a nod "On screen." They could see the Bridge of the other vessel now, four people were in view, all wearing portable breathing apparatus, which everyone knew wouldn't last indefinitely. He sat patiently watching the man in the command chair switching between taking deep breaths and trying to shout obsenities at the man on the screen before him.

=^= Rozil .. .. .. Where is he ? =^=

=^= I do not know what you ar .. .. .. =^=

"Shut the comm down." Carl said ..........

[Andae Blakus]

The screen returned to its view of the anti-neutrino dense nebula, Rozil's oxygen-deprived ship rotating gently against the colourful mass and the stars barely peeking through beyond. Blakus smirked slightly and returned his gaze to his console. Not long afterwards the tactical officer's display was beeping.

"They're hailing," Teng confirmed.

"On screen."

"Admiral..." their captain took a breath, "Perhaps we can discuss terms: the doctor will be handed over to you, in return for the restoration of our life support and our freedom to go on our way with our allied ship, to wherever we might choose."

Torek had been about to respond - surely in the negative, but Blakus didn't want to make any presumptions - when an oily man in a grey coverall leapt into view from their bridge's port flank, shouting at the captain, his words unintelligible due to the effect of the intervening breather mask. Blakus recognised Rozil from the virus's recorded communication, the doctor batted away by the captain who tried to address Carl again,

"You clearly want Dr Rozil, or you wouldn't have mentioned him right away by name... He's on his way to the transporter room. Once you have him, don't try to follow us once we leave here, or more ships than you'll know how to deal with will come after you, and you won't be able to touch this ship. If you follow any closer than a million kilometres..." he took another breath of oxygen, "You will be under automatic suspicion regardless of your intent."

<Tag Carl>

The channel was suspended. "They're not really in any sort of position to dictate terms." Blakus resisted the urge to chuckle.

"We could wait 'til their life support fails, when their hands will be forced and they give us Rozil and - hopefully - agree they won't rejoin their allied ship." The Raven might not have that amount of time if its crew didn't want to be cooked by the nebula.

"Even if they do consent to stay here," Wedlerson said, "Trying to follow after their other two ships towards Terrellia, or wherever they may be going, is likely going to raise the ire of Pearson's friends anyway, and they'll send ships after us all the same."

"What about this replica Greenland settlement? Should Rozil know about that?" It was a huge question. Surely though whatever Rozil did or didn't know, it shouldn't stop them trying to get him into custody - he was someone who'd been with Myrox and Pearson in SB47's sickbay, somone who'd have knowledge about what that duo and the Terrellians had been trying to accomplish in imprisoning Blakus, what the overarching goal of the attack on the Starbase had been - a warm up for an assault on Earth? For somewhere else? Simply an attack to provoke war? To what end? Where had Pearson gone? Who exactly was she working with? Questions which they could get some or all of the answers to by interrogating Rozil.

As Blakus thought these things, the other ship they'd thought they'd dismissed flickered on the sensors, ghosting into visibility beyond a dense patch of cloud layers before vanishing once more. They hadn't yet departed.