Walking Into A Trap?

Posted on Sat Jan 7th, 2023 @ 9:09pm by Captain Tristan Faust & Ensign Tobias "Toby" Dienstag & Lieutenant Commander Dimitri "Dima" Stoneking M.Eng. & Commander Lucy Heartfilia & Lieutenant Commander Marc Kitchner M.D. & Lieutenant Braun Bernhardt & Lieutenant Shinobu Miyake & Lieutenant Thraxina
Edited on on Tue Jan 17th, 2023 @ 4:05am

2,047 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: A Fool’s Errand
Location: Deck 6: Briefing
Timeline: M1 MD07 (2268.22.05) 1400

"Captain's log supplemental... Mr. Novo and a team of engineers volunteered to stay behind on the Detroit and take the ship back to Starbase 10. Normally I would not agree, but given the value of the ship and its colonization supplies it made sense. Unfortunately we could not stay behind and wait... Using the Detroit's sensor logs extracted by Mr. Dienstag, the Midway has been tracking the Orion vessel's warp trail for nearly 18 hours. An engineering team headed by Mr. Novo have remained aboard the Detroit to fly her back to Starbase 10. Ship and crew have performed admirably given the emergency situation. The Midway herself has handled Warp 8 for six hours now without issue."

The senior staff were assembled in the briefing room discussing the data retrieved from the Detroit and all other information known thus far. Mr. Dienstag was finishing his report regarding the logs retrieved. "According to our files, the Orion vessel is a light cruiser, with an estimated crew complement between 100 and 200 men with the ability to hold approximately 700 prisoners. With an estimated top speed of Warp 6, we should overtake then in approximately two hours," he finished.

"Thank you Mr. Dienstag," Captain Faust said from the head of the table, "Although the Detroit's sensor logs only detected one Orion vessel, we must assume that others are around. Orion pirates tend to travel in packs. Mr. Bernhardt, given their heading what is their most likely destination?"

Braun was not happy about how this was shaping up. He was also not sure how much leeway he had in regards to voicing his opinions. Well, now was as good a time as any to see.

"The Turnstile region would be a good bet," Berhardt said after a moment, "Which means the sooner we catch them the better. But Captain all of this could be bait for a bigger prize, namely Midway. Some," he did not look the XO's way, "don't seem to think that's feasible but a well orchestrated trap could conceivably be arranged."

He pressed on, "Detroit just happened to have the heading we needed to go after the Orions. No self respecting pirate would leave a prize vessel behind full of potentially incriminating evidence, especially when it could be broken up and sold itself. Pirates think purely in terms of commerce, risk and reward. Leaving Detroit behind was...uncharacteristically wasteful."

The Captain nodded, "You make some excellent points Mr. Bernhardt and they make sense," he said, "Most likely they will attempt to ambush us. So we need to go in shields up, weapons charged and aft torpedos ready. Perhaps there's a way we can intercept them in a location more favorable to us by adjusting our speed?"

"If we slow down and look like we've found something, they may be curious and come to us instead," Lucy added in. "It would mean we would have to 'act' like we've found something important."

"That is a possibility," Tristan responded before turning to look at Dima, "Mr. Novo reported an overload to the Detroit's power systems shattered the Detroit's dilithium crystals. What could have caused that?"

Braun's eyebrows rose at that, "I hadn't heard that. We could be seeing some sort of accident caused by faulty maintenance I suppose. Or some sort of...strange new weapon I've never heard of. Or there was a spy planted on board Detroit placed there to sabotage it."

"I've done it before." Dima spoke up then cleared his throat aware he probably shouldn't have said that, but continued nonetheless. "It's a pretty effective way of ensuring the ship you're on isn't going anywhere fast. The "hows" and the "whys" of it differ, but Lieutenant Bernhardt's right, it could easily be a trap. Maybe not specifically for us, but for whoever comes to aid, or plunder, the helpless Starfleet ship."

"Maybe I should fake a call to starfleet command?" The Andorian said. "Something along the lines of "sudden mechanical failure" or some such. The Orions are sure to intercept it and think we're easy prey"

Braun glanced at both the Chief Engineer and Chief of Communications, and with a sigh conceded, "And...the problem with that is, what if I'm wrong? We're giving the Orions a bigger head start, and a greater chance to escape," he smiled wryly, "Look, I think I'm right but there a hundreds of people's lives on the line here. I suppose if we can figure out where the ambush might take place..."

"I can try to protect our crystals from the same thing that happened to the Detroit's based on what I know, but without knowing the specifics of how they did it I'd give it... fifty-fifty odds of working." Dima offered.

"We have spare crystals, but I'm worried about the downtime to replace them. Of course we would dead in the water during that time," Tristan said.

"The Detroit's logs and sensor records show a three minute gap between main power going offline and auxiliary power kicking on. It's possible whatever damaged the crystals overloaded everything else," Toby offered.

The Captain leaned back in the Burke chair and thought, "I have an idea which may be the best of both worlds... What if we continue on our heading at maximum warp, but also drop log buoys broadcasting a false distress message? To help camouflage ourselves to sneak upon the Orions we will shut down all non essential systems. If nothing else it could confuse them enough to give us an edge," he explained.

Lt. Thraxina listened to all this with a frown of concentration. There was something she didn't quite get and, unlike her helm partner Bernhardt, she didn't mind piping up about it.

"The thing is, no matter whether we sneak up on the enemy or walk into their ambush, it's still going to be a hostage situation, what do we do about that?" Where she came from, they would just blast the Orions, and those weak enough to have let themselves be captured would have to take their chances. But these Federation types were a bit more mawkish about such things.

"So it's a hostage situation." Dima shrugged. "It's nothing we haven't dealt with before, there's a reason they..." A heartbeat passed and he seemed to deflate a little. This wasn't his team he was talking to, and he was an engineer now. Just an engineer. "Sorry, what I meant to say is if it turns to a hostage situation we can handle it. Worst case scenario, stun grenades and stun everything that moves, sort it out later."

"We should disable their engines and weapons if nothing else and then board her as quickly as possible with security teams," Tristan responded, "The worst part is it'll take a great deal of time to both secure the ship and retrieve the hostages." He leaned back in the chair again, "Other option is to disable the ship, take control and then use a tractor beam to tow the Orion ship and travel to a more neutral site."

"The second option, while safer, would leave us less room for error," Lieutenant Miyake, who had been silently listening in on the conversation remarked. "Disabling the ship would be the easy part, but once they eventually clue into our plan, who's to say they won't kill the hostages in retaliation?"

"And themselves" chimed in Thraxina: Orions were notorious for committing self annihilation before surrendering.

Kitchner cleared his throat. "Beg pardon Captain. I hope you don't mind an old man butting in. I'm hearing a lot of IF ... BUT ... HOWEVER. Simply put a lot of questions with no answer's." Marc shifted in his chair. "We need to find these Orion's before we do anything else. It's too risky to do otherwise."

"I...suppose to sum up," Bernhardt said after a moment, "Is that we have to be concerned as to whether or not the Orions have some sort of device that can disrupt our dilithium crystals. That we might be flying into a trap, an attempt to capture this vessel. That even if it isn't a trap it is going to be a fight where we are at a disadvantage because we have to capture their ship intact and prevent them from blowing it up in order to save the hostages."

He smiled wryly at the doctor, "All of which is moot if we don't find them in the first place," he sobered, "If the secret weapon exists then we might know what their plan is. But I also think it would be prudent on their part to have a second ship on hand, a pure combat vessel that doesn't have to worry about hauling 'cargo'. Could be while we run down the first ship the second comes up from behind. But that's purely speculation."

He sighed, "And I think maybe this is as far as speculation gets us."

"And we are no closer to solving this," Captain Faust responded. He rubbed his eyes before taking a sip of the cup of coffee sitting in front of him, although he secretly wished it were a martini glass with a cigar. He grimaced since the coffee was cold and gritty. "Here's what we need to do," he said finally, "Lieutenant Miyake, I want you to maintain security alert on all decks. I want security officers posted at all vital areas to the ship and security teams standing by to repel boarders. Engineering, be prepared to replace the dilithium crystals and restart the warp core at a moment's notice. If something happens flip the switch to auxillary immediately. Helm and Navigation, whenever we catch up to the Orions take an erratic flight path..."

"Well that won't be hard!" muttered Thraxina, though whether that crack was aimed at Bernhardt or herself was a moot point.

"... Be as unpredictable as possible. Focus on disabling the Orion ship. Sciences... Launch several log bouys with a fake distress signal and then once we catch the Orions launch several probes equiped with sensor bouys. I want as much junk flooding the airwaves as possible. Maybe this will slow them down. Medical, you know the drill Doctor." He looked around the room, "Can anyone think of anything else?" he added.

"I'll see to it that security teams are posted at all critical areas of the ship, Captain," Lieutenant Miyake nodded, before dismissing herself from the bridge.

Braun glanced about the table a moment, then returned his attention back to the captain. Honestly he couldn't have asked for anything more; they were going in eyes open and assuming their opponent was no pushover, that was enough for him.

"No, sir," Bernhardt replied as he prepared to rise and head to his station.

"I would issue sidearms to all weapons qualified personnel, in the event of a boarding everyone should be able to defend themselves and the ship." Dima spoke up. He received and acknowledged his orders regarding his engineering duties silently, there had been no need to yessir them when further suggestion was requested.

"I want anybody with even basic medical training temporarily assigned to me. If what I'm suspecting, I'm going to need anybody who can apply a bandage. Within reason sir." Marc looked into his god sons eyes, both were scared it was plain to see. "I don't need to remind you I'm short handed by a third."

"God, even Meddows?" someone at the back of the room muttered. "Hey, I like him!" countered Thraxina and looked at Dr Kitchner "He told me I was 'OK'" she beamed. Really, sometimes it was hard to believe that the Ardanans of Stratos City were reckoned to be as intelligent as the Vulcans.

"You most be the only one." Somebody muttered from behind Faust.

"No, leave Meddows off duty. I'll have my hands full without him." Kitchner said flatly. Trying not to smile. "Commander Heartfilia stop by the office later, please."

"Will do doctor," Lucy replied. She had been sitting back and simply observing the meeting. She was mainly curious at how well this new crew were going to work together.

"We all have our assignments," Captain Faust said, "After the preparations are made I want everyone to get some rest. It's going to be a late night... Dismissed."

 

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