Trade lanes and Convoys

Posted on Mon Mar 22nd, 2010 @ 2:21am by Walter Jones & Martok & Lee Pierce & Tyl'varas Shrive & Kyle Bowman & Jan Valentine & Charlotte Ashcroft & Hank Tasco

1,930 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Session Two - Space Junk

Jones sat lazily in his chair working on a puzzle, it had been 2 days at warp and it usually made him cranky, something about the hum of warp engines made him queasy. He made a mental note to help Jan take a look at them when they got back to civilization. Putting down his puzzle he looked over at Kyle.

"How long before we get to the rendezvous point?"

Kyle pushed a few buttons on the newly installed console "Should be soon Cap. The carp core is doing well since those Starfleet pouges had a go at it, but I’m keeping us on the safe side, just in case the repairs weren’t as good as they seem." He stretched, "Any idea how long we're going behind the lines?" He asked.

"I reckon about 3 days at warp, intermingled with short stints at sublight for course corrections as well as to help mask warp ion trails." Jones looked over the data pad "8 hours or so to take over the station, and then a week back to federation space... that is if everything goes to plan. Which reminds me, I'm probably going to have you run a CAP with the drake when everything goes down to help protect the ship."

Kyle raised an eyebrow "Sounds like a lovely vacation. Who’s in change when everything goes down?" he asked.

"Well, I think most of us are going over to the station to try and make quick work of it. I'll have you in the Drake, Might have Jan stay here on the Warden with defenses and allowing us a quick escape.

"We'll see, we may have been upgraded in areas, but escaping is still a tall order." Jan said.

As the Warden dropped out of Warp several other freighters were milling about, roughly getting in line together. Circling in combat patrols were several Gorn and Tholian ships, flying in and out of the freighters, on the comm control panel an indicator light start flashing. Jones pushed it a Cardassian showed on the screen.

"Humans, we must be scraping the bottom of the barrel, prepare to be boarded, and have your guild papers ready." The cardassian looked with utter disgust at Jones,

"If you think I'm bad, just wait till my Andorian sees you. We'll be ready." He cut the transmission and got on the internal comm. "Tyl, Lottie, James, Martok, we are about ready to have guests, meet them in the cargo bay, show them around and if they aren't going to buy our cover story, get rid of them. Lee, come up to the bridge please."
He turned back to Jan. "Keep the engines spun up, in case we need to get out of here quickly."

"Captain, the number 2 engine is running hot again, I'll see if I can tweak the cooling system to compensate." Jan said, looking around the hodge-podge of new and old equipment, wired together almost randomly.

"Do what you can, hopefully all goes to plan and we don't need to push the old girl, what do you think is wrong with her?"

"Hell if I know, could be the the replacement pipes being too large..federation sabotage, heck, the engine could just be in a bad mood today. I'll do what I can to get it flowing better before we need them." Jan said.

"Just need to give the old girl some love." Jones pointed out the window, "Think we can outrun those old Hideki patrol ships on just one engine?

"Well.....it would probably ruin the engine....but I can shunt all the power through the other engine and overclock it. It would make one hell of a boost, in a straight line, and like I said it would burn out all the coils. But yeah, we can outrun one." Jan said.

"Good I don't foresee us needing too but you never know with this scum, this is the scum that Scum tends to stick to at the bottom of the barrel." Jones looked over the control panel and watched one of the larger patrol ships come into range. "See if they are running any kind of defensive systems right now."

"Scanning...Yep, the larger patrol ship is running some decent shields, I'm guessing second gen Cardassian, they're not state of the art, but still more than a match for us." Jan said.

"See if you can come up with a way to overload their shields, again, hopefully we won't need to use it but I want as many contingent plans."

"I've got a trick or two up my sleeve." Jan said.

==Cargo bay==

Martok was in the cargo bay waiting to meet the guards coming to search the ship. He had a disruptor rifle slung over his shoulder just in case. He watched as a Cardassian and 2 Gorn beamed into the cargo bay for inspection.

As the outlines of the arrivals formed Lottie arrived next narrowing her eyes with disapproval as they came into focus.

"I am Legat Dustak, more of my associates will be joining me shortly for inspection, I require to speak to your captain." The Cardassian looked at Martok and Lottie, he wasn't sure what to make of the Chal, "I'm sure everything is in order but, due to the nature of our operation certain precautions need to be in order." 4 More Gorn and a Cardassian beamed over carrying disruptors and some scanning equipment.
"Check to make sure that the cargo is intact and indeed pure."

"Lead the way." Martok said motioning for the Legat and his associates to go where they wanted to and inspect what they wanted. He made sure that they boarding party ended up splitting up so the would be easy prey for Tyl, James and Lottie, who wear hidden throughout the ship.

***

Lee was inside her quarters reading or trying to read. She couldn't take her eyes off the letter Akiko had handed her. If someone asked her Lee would have to sell that story: that she was a guild representative. Good thing her parents had taught a thing or two about conning people. She just needed to take a deep breath and lie. She could lie and well. That much she knew.

When the captain's voice came through the comm systems Lee closed the book and picked up the sealed letter. She made sure she was presentable before leaving her cabin and then she headed to the bridge. It took her not more than a minute to reach the bridge.

"Captain..." she said with a small smile and pointed at the letter. "I have the letter," she mentioned the obvious and stood near the captain trying to look more imposing than she actually was.

Kyle grunted with displeasure when Lee walked on the bridge. He hated Orions, and had managed to avoid her this far, now she stood there on the bridge he had to work hard to keep his anger in check.

Lee glanced at the pilot with a furrowed brow. She could swear she heard him grunt but it couldn't have anything to do with her, right? They barely knew each other. In fact, Lee didn't remember they ever having any kind of conversation since the pilot joined the crew. She bit her lower lip and looked at the man thoughtfully for a moment and then shrugged lightly. Maybe she was just a bit paranoid and he was just indispose.

Jones shook his head as a Cardassian and two Gorns appeared in the entry way to the bridge. The Legat looked in disdain at the crew on the bridge. "We really are scraping the bottom of the barrel. I am Legat Dustak You should feel priviledged to be in service of the new order here in the quadrant." One of the Gorns spit on the deck of the bridge and laughed. "During transport you will wrest all functions of your ship over to us, and there will be an observer stationed here on your bridge as well as a small contingent of soldiers."

"Somehow I don't think neither my engineer here nor my pilot is going to take too kindly to that. Will you guys? Nor will my trade guild observer." Jones smiled at the crew.

Kyle shook his head "Just what I need, some pompous baby sitter watching my every move, commenting on my choices." He looked at the Legat, "Whoever this observer is, they’ll need to keep their faces shut whilst I pilot or I may dump us into a nearby mood just for fun"

"Fine, here are the directions, follow them implicitly or you'll find yourself scattered across this sector." The cardassian tossed a data pad over towards Kyle. "Do you have any more questions human?"

Kyle shook his head "Nope, get it wrong, get shot, I know the drill." He snorted in disgust "Just make sure your so called patrol ships keep themselves together, i don't need some rookie wandering across my flight path." He turned back to the consol, almost dismissing the Legat, a grin hidden on his face.

"We'll see if human." The Cardassian turned towards Lee and Jones. "Unless you have any other questions we'll be on our way."

Jones looked over at Lee and shook his head. "Just stay out of our way and we'll get this cargo there."


== Cargo bay ==

One of the Gorns who could loosely be called the leader looked at Lottie. "You would make a perfect mate, you could sssit on the nest" The other gorns started to hiss and laugh the the obviously disinterested cardassian spoke up.

Remembering the words from Jones before the company arrived Lottie remained silent just look sterning hardly blinking at the Gornsq who snickered. "I don't think I'll play the part of housewife very well."

"You Romulan, we need to inspect your cargo holds. you will take us." The cardassian engineer pointed toward Martok.

"Bite your tongue before I remove it. I am not Romulan I am Chal." Martok gruffly responded.

"You smell about the same." The cardassian barely looked up from his his readings and then started to head off towards the cargo area."

"Whatever." Martok said. Heading into the cargo bay.

The Gorn moved over closer to Lottie, it's tongue sticking out between it's teeth. "I never ssssaid anything about housesswife, I said mate." The Gorn laughed at her. "You are pretty... for a warmblood."

Lottie's face crinked in disgust. "Come any closer and I'll show you how just how pretty I can be."

The gorn gave Lottie a toothy grin and the followed the Cardassian off towards one of the cargo holds.

--- Later ---

The assembled troops that had beamed over were standing in the hold of the ship. They had completed their scans and were milling about in the cargo bay when the Legate walked down from the bridge of the freighter. "We're leaving, Des, stay here with two guards to supervise." The cardassian that was doing the scanning nodding and picked two of the Gorn.

"We are ready to beam." The Legate and the rest of the Gorn transported out leaving just the three standing the bay."

== Bridge==
The Cardassian observer stood against the wall and got a message on the communicator. "You, human pilot, proceed to holding pattern Beta and prepare for warp, we shall be leaving momentarily."

Jones looked over at Kyle and nodded to him to follow the instructions that the Cardassian had given.

"Course laid in, Here we go..." the pilot said in cautious tones as the ship moved away on their new heading.

 

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