Threat Assessment, Part II

Posted on Thu Nov 22nd, 2018 @ 2:52pm by Captain Alistar McKeon & Brex & Commander Isabella dei`Silvisi & Lieutenant Commander Akira-Ri Sato & Lieutenant Jera'turak Ros & Lieutenant T'lon

1,091 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Memento Mori

The darkened corridors of the Defiant class ship were surprisingly empty as Alistar and Lieutenant Ros were escorted through the ship. Fortunately, most Defiant class ships had the same basic layout and it didn't take Alistar long to realize that they were heading to the mess hall. When the doors opened to the mess hall, Alistar raised his eyebrows as they were shoved in the and door closed behind them. Other than himself and Ros, the only other occupant was a male Trill sitting at one of the tables with a few trays of food and drink arrainged between them.

"Please, do come in. I'm Brex, and I understand that you've decided to come hunt me down and stage some kind of rescue mission for your comrades," the Trill said. "Since Starfleet prides itself on being reasonable, I thought it would be best for us to meet, if for nothing else to let you understand just how dire your situation really is."

Alistar glanced over at Lieutenant Ros, then shrugged and cautiously went forward to the table and sat down, facing the Trill. "The terms are simple, Mister Brex. Release the hostages you took from D5, and I'll let you go without incident."

Jera started to sit down, but she stopped beside the chair that was clearly intended for her and instead moved to stand behind the chair the her captain was sitting in. There didn't appear to be anyone else in the room, but that didn't mean she was about to lower her guard. Besides, she refused to sit down at a table with a slaver and a pirate and be anything less than hostile.

Brex smiled as he took a sip of his drink. "Captain, you're clearly a smart man. After all, I'm sure you're the one who commanded that magnificent ship out there and defeated me and took my most powerful ship away from me. I have to salute you. Few have ever defeated me, and none in recent time. So I know how dangerous you are. Now, I need you to know just how much in over your head you are. I have fourteen Trill prisoners. I only need five of them. I'm willing to release the rest to you and let you walk away without incident. If not, I'm fully prepared to murder the ones I don't need, harvest the ones I do need, and kill you and your crew without a second's thought."

"And here I thought we were having a civilized conversation," Alistar said. "I guess I was wrong. Let me take a wild guess. You stole the Raptor from the Romulans, somehow, and reverse engineered the cloaking device from that ship and installed it on a Defiant class ship you again somehow managed to steal. Making you wanted by two major governments. Now, personally, I'd let you rot in a Starfleet prison, but under the circumstances I'm leaning heavily towards dragging you to the Romulans with the information we have so far, returning their ship and handing you over to the Romulan Galae and letting them try you for theft of a Romulan assault cruiser. Now. I want all fourteen Trill you kidnapped turned over to me in one hour and for you to never return to Federation space. Or, I get unfriendly."

"Well, you are single minded when you need to be, Captain," Brex said with a shrug. "I think I've reconsidered the offer I made you and I've decided to renegotiate. I'm sending you back to your ship with nothing, I'll execute my prisoners, and you can explain to Starfleet Command the boxes filled with bodies that I'm about to start shipping every day. Good day, Captain."

Brex pressed a hidden controller, initiating a transporter beam that engulfed McKeon and Ros both. Both shimmered out of the Defiant class ship and when it released them, they were both on the bridge of the Endeavour.

Isabella felt and heard the presence of a transporter beam and whirled about to face the source. Seeing the captain and chief engineer materialize onto the bridge, she blinked and hurried over. "Captain?" she started.

Akira reacted to the transporter beam by drawing her hand phaser and aiming it directly towards the source, her thumb sliding away from the firing button when she recognized members of her own crew.

Alistar glanced around and sighed. He was back on his ship, and he was starting to get ticked off. "Red alert," he called as he moved towards tactical. "Commander Sato, begin a full sensor sweep using tachyon particles. Lieutenant Ros, you might want to get to engineering."

Jera nodded and started towards the turbo lift. She had a feeling that the Endeavour would be needing every ounce of power the ship's systems could provide.

As the ship shifted into red alert, Isabella stared at McKeon for a moment before she moved towards the security and tactical station along with him and Sato. "What exactly is the problem?" she asked as she arrived.

"We're dealing with a murdering pirate who has a Federation star ship, stolen Romulan technology, and apparently scavenged Dominion transporter technology," Alistar growled. "Sato, find that ship. It's probably in high orbit so the atmosphere interference doesn't react to the cloak."

"I've got something," Akira said. "We detected a disturbance in the high orbit ranger earlier, but our first scans didn't find anything so I dismissed it. But it makes sense for a cloaked ship to be there."

"How long will it take to conduct the scan?" Isabella asked.

"I've already scanned the area where we detected the disturbance," Akira said as she studied her screens. "If the ship was there, it's moved off by now."

"Captain, the fact that our adversary uses Dominion based transporter technology indicates that he may have moved from orbit as soon as you were beamed to his ship. We have never determined the full extent of Dominion transporter technology," T'lon said.

"Or any of their tech, to be honest," Alistar said. "Damn!"

"I've got something," Akira said. "A massive subspace disturbance moving away from the planetary system at a pretty good rate of speed. I'm also reading a high level concentration of subspace emissions that can only come from a cloaked ship moving at impulse speed."

"Confirmed, Captain," T'lon said from operations.

Alistar turned and spied Petty Officer Ellija at the helm. "Zoe, pursue course, full impulse speed," he said as he moved to the command chair. "We're going hunting," he finished softly as he sat down.

to be continued..........

 

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