The Trap, Part 1 - Laying in Wait
Posted on Thu Mar 18th, 2021 @ 12:52am by Lieutenant Mila Lynn & Sublieutenant Miles Lynn & Colonel Sehan t'Varis & Centurion Nancy Gable & Lieutenant Xia Idris & Major Ashley Rogers & Lieutenant Kaol Ralaa & Lieutenant T'Ango & Lieutenant Hatham tr'Krotash & Gunnar Arnason & Sublieutenant Renee Hernandez
1,522 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Chapter IV: Unravelling the Mystery
Location: Faraday Nebula, Neutral Zone
Timeline: 238702.10
Raven looked out of the main viewer on the bridge, admiring the beautiful, colourful swirls of the Faraday Nebula. Around her, the bridge was quiet, with everyone focussed on their tasks. With the lights dimmed, the bridge was illuminated in a faint, amber glow from the alert boards. A few hours ago, the Ourainavassa had arrived, and, using the experimental warbird's ability to activate its cloaking device while dropping out of warp, had positioned itself just outside the nebula, to ensure maximum sensor range. A glance at the chronometer confirmed that the refugee convoy would arrive in a few moments.
"Right, it's almost time," the colonel finally said, breaking the silence. "Lieutenant Xia, contact T'Ango on the Cat Dancing, make sure they are in position. Mister Lynn, be ready to engage. Commander Rogers, be ready to drop cloak and open fire on my command."
The commander smiled. Regardless of what universe she's in, the thrill of battle always brought her joy. One of the only other feelings that is better than this was hand to hand combat, and she had to admit she was a bit jealous of her counterpart on the boarding party. But she was fairly certain the Romulan security officer would probably accidentally shoot her if given the opportunity.
"You ready, Hatham? You're the security chief on this one, I follow your lead." Ash looked over at her partner in crime and nodded supportively. "I intend to win back some of what I owe you though."
Hatham nodded. "Ready to win more booze from you," he replied, flashing a smile.
Ash smiled, "You're on." She checked her weapons again, her mind still concerned that her counterpart will be on the Ourainavassa.
Kaol meticulously prepared his equipment, ready for whatever casualties may come, each tray containing instruments carefully placed. He nodded smugly at Gable. "I'm ready."
"Good." Gable surveyed her own preparations in medbay. Hers were not nearly so meticulous; having more than a little experience with surgery on a ship under fire, the placement of instruments wasn't of great concern since they could be expected to shift if the ship took a hit. She had reminded Kaol several times that combat meant patch up and keep them alive, not do each job with exacting precision before moving on, but looking at his trays, she wondered if he could do even that if his perfect layout wasn't there. "I hope you can work if those get moved around, because if we take fire and the ship rocks, that will happen."
Kaol looked at his instruments. "I guess the bridge crew will need to do better then."
Lord, get me through this without killing him... at least until after the mission. Nancy crossed her arms. "What? The 'best doctor in the quadrant' can only work if everything's perfect?"
"If we allow ourselves to accept imperfection as the norm, we will start allowing ourselves to perform at a lower standard," Kaol said smugly. "I won't change who I am, others just have to do better. Including our bridge crew."
"I'll be sure to let Commander Rogers know you feel that way," she remarked dryly.
(tag)
Xia flipped open the channel to the Cat Dancing. “T’ango, in position?” she inquired as instructed. “Party is about to start. Be ready.” Then she flipped over to scanning for any active frequencies in the area.
"Cat Dancing ready to tango," T'Ango's voice came back with a slight growling purr on the pun.
For a moment, everything was quiet, when, right on time, the convoy arrived -- and it was considerably larger than what intelligence had suggested. "Five, six, seven?" Raven counted the ships as they dropped out of warp and assumed a formation. Noticeably, however, there was no escort to be seen whatsoever.
She frowned. "Something is wrong. Commander, anything you can see on scanners? All hands, go to red alert and prepare for enemy contact. Remember, let them move first. We don't want to make it look like we are the aggressors here."
Commander Rogers furrowed her brow at the readings. "Red alert. Nice and easy..."
On the Cat Dancing, T'Ango cocked her head at the readings showing no escort. She scanned and looked sideways at Gunnar, who nodded, knowing what she was thinking. They'd seen something like this before, and had only narrowly escaped.
"Suvasai," they said almost in unison.
T'Ango flipped on her comm. "Can you get life sign readings on those transports?"
On the bridge, Raven nodded as T'Ango's message came through. "Good thinking. This stinks. Commander, scan the transports for life signs, and see if you can find any signs of cloaked ships in the vicinity. This is too far away from what the intelligence said it would be."
She turned to Xia. "Signal the U.S.S. Amelia and tell them to move into the NZ. We might well need their help a lot sooner than we thought."
Xia nodded and flipped to a dedicated channel back to the Federation ship.
Mila looked up from the science console on the bridge. "Colonel, I've run an analysis of the Nebula. I think I may be able to recalibrate our sensors to compensate for some of the interference, and possibly even detect traces of cloaked vessels hidden in there."
Raven smiled. "Excellent thinking, Lieutenant. Do it."
The young scientist grinned. "I wasn't asking for permission, I was telling you I was doing it." She tapped a few commands, and the results of her scan were overlaid on the main viewer. "From the looks of it, there are three or four cloaked ships in there. Three at the very edge of the nebula, so I could get a pretty good reading. I reckon those will be the Birds-of-Prey. And it looks like they are moving towards the convoy. The other ship must be the freighter."
The colonel frowned. The last freighter from Vulture's operation did not have a cloaking device. It would appear they had upgraded. "Patch your scans into tactical. Lieutennt Xia, pass our findings on to our allies. Commander Rogers, your assessment?"
The Commander looked at the readings on her screen, a little surprised, "Nothing unusual. It's the refugees. Romulan and Reman life signs. This is just a convoy. I don't like it... seems too simple."
Raven frowned. "You're right, this is too easy. Lieutenant Lynn, do you think there could be a cloaked vessel travelling with the convoy?"
Mila shook her head. "Highly unlikely, unless it's an extremely advanced one. I scanned the area around the convoy for any traces of cloaked ships with older Klingon or Romulan systems, and I ran a sweep for singularity core emissions, too. Nothing."
Commander Rogers continued to feel uneasy, "I'm still running this like we are going to be ambushed at any moment... I hate surprises."
"I don't like this any more than you do, Commander," Raven replied as she put the overlay of the current situation back on the viewer. "And it seems the Vulture's friends aren't quite sure what to make of it either. Why haven't they attacked yet?"
"I wonder if they know something we don't...." the Commander pondered out loud.
"Romulan and Reman life signs confirmed." T'Ango frowned, hairs lifting along her back. "It still feels wrong. The lack of escort is wrong. And how long the ships in the Nebula are waiting."
Gunnar studied the screen, thinking. "Those transports could still be traps. False life signs, or real ones from people little more than hostages." He frowned. "...or collaborators."
T'Ango shook her head. "Hard to imagine Romulans working with Vulture to prey on their own."
"For Romulans who follow mnhei'sahe, I agree, but we both know that's not all of them," he reminded her. "Nor would sympathy based on species. My own species has a nasty history of humans preying on other humans."
"We'll need to be alert for boarding and rescue. I'll go first and clear." She grinned. "You know how I love door-kicking."
Hatham frowned at the information showing cloaked ships just sitting in the nebula. "I don't know... either they've been tipped to a trap or they're waiting for an engraved invitation to strike."
Ash looked at Hatham, "Maybe they're just letting us be the guinea pigs?"
"For what?" Hatham countered. "As far as I'm concerned, that convey can go right by. I'll be perfectly happy to let them go all the way to Vulcan undisturbed."
Raven checked the chronometer. The convoy had dropped out of warp nearly 20 minutes ago, and were about a quarter of the way past the nebula. "What are they waiting for?", she wondered out loud, when suddenly, an explosion rocked the lead vessel of the convoy. Right on cue, two B'Rel-class birds of prey decloaked and began their attack.
"About damn time," the colonel exclaimed. "Drop cloak, raise shields. Attack pattern Delta two, fire to disable the nearest of the Birds-of-Prey, then destroy the other." She smirked. "Good hunting, everyone."
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