Chapter 4 – An Unexpected Passenger

A chirpy alarm went off on the Cookie as Majira and Wes looked on, in communications. Mack glanced over at the Tactical console. "It's that old gravimetric sphere over there, I think."

"Dana, what is the trouble?" Majira finally asked.

"There's a merchant shuttle, caught near the ruins of an old gravimetric sphere. I'd like to help them, if we can."

"There could be spatial anomalies, still. I know there are still a few in the area, from time to time. The area never really recovered, and it's been over a century since the spheres were active," Wes explained.

"That could be the cause of their problems," Dana opined. "They're venting plasma."

"I will be ready for casualties," Majira vowed. "How large a vessel is it?"

"They probably don't have more than a half a dozen people on board," Mack estimated.

"That ship could probably fit in the bay," Wesley suggested. "If you want me to help them fix it – or at least give them a chance to – then the bay is a lot better than towing them along and attempting repairs in a pressure suit, in an anomaly field."

"Okay, so we've got the semblance of a plan for afterwards. But what about now?" Mack asked.

"I can get us just about close enough for a tractor beam," Daniya offered. "But I don't recommend getting too close. Otherwise, there could be two ships caught by an anomaly."

"Got it," Mack replied. "Get as close as you safely can."

The green-skinned woman nodded. She flipped a few switches, and the Cookie started to turn.

"Tell them we're on our way, please," Mack requested."

"Unidentified vessel! Help is on its way. We will be using a tractor beam. This is the Cookie. Please stand by for assistance."

"This is … Audrey … by."

"Was that a good-bye?" asked Mack.

"It may have been the second half of the phrase, 'standing by'," Crita speculated as the Cookie moved into position.

"A little closer, a little more," Mack coaxed.

"We're reaching our safe limits," Daniya cautioned.

"Just a few hundred meters more," Mack murmured.

"Wes, can we get better shielding in the front?" the pilot asked.

"I'm on it!" he yelled. He could be seen, in the leftmost third of the view screen, tapping away furiously at a console. "Hang on, almost there. Okay," he said, after a few moments, "try it now."

Daniya turned the ship a little, so that the front starboard side was closest to the vessel that they all believed was a regular merchant shuttle. In the center of the view screen, on the side of the vessel, the name of the ship could be clearly seen. "I wonder who Audrey Niffenegger is, or more likely was," Mack muttered to herself. Then, more loudly, she added, "Deploying the tractor beam now."

The beam, which was reddish-orange in color, enveloped the Audrey and tugged a little until that smaller vessel was freed. It was towed along as Daniya steered the Cookie to a safer part of the old Delphic Expanse. Once the two ships were in a safe location, she said, "We should be able to bring it into the bay now."

"All right, let's do this," Mack commanded.

Crita looked over at her. "What if, despite the fact that we have just saved them, they turn out to be hostile?"

"Huh, you're right. Good thinking. Contact Xochar'inif, Grosk, Cilla, and Tag Shaw, and have them meet me at the bay, thanks."

"Right away."

"Okay, you're in charge, Daniya. If it takes me more than ten minutes after I get to the bay and they arrive for me to call you, assume the worst and call Wes. Figure out if you'll need to pass out weapons. I don't love that, but if they're hostile to the five of us, and muscle doesn't work on them, then I doubt they'll listen to reason from anyone else."

"Got it," Daniya confirmed. "Crita, find any Federation ships in the area, in case we need to call for aid. Let me know how far away they are, too."

"Of course."

"Well, here goes nothin'," Mack quipped as she departed.

Crita gulped. "Do you really think we will need weapons?"

"Let's hope not."

=/\=

At the bay, Mack met the four athletes – Cilla, a female Klingon; Xochar'inif, a Jem'Hadar; Grosk, a tall Imvari male; and Tag Shaw, a human guy who had played hockey.

"I don't know how much you were told," Mack began.

"Crita just said you needed assistance," said Cilla, "nothing more."

"All right," Mack said, "that ship in distress should be just about in the bay by now. I want you with me, just in case its occupants aren't quite so friendly."

"Of course," replied Grosk. He had a bluish face with a red blotch on it, with orangey horns around its perimeter.

"Just say the word, Coach," added Shaw.

Xo got the door opened for her. The four athletes instinctively surrounded her, as she walked up to the hatch and stood in front of it, waiting. "Audrey Niffenegger," she read off the ship's side again. "Any idea who she is or was?"

"No idea," replied Tag as the other three all shrugged.

"It doesn't matter. Okay, um, ready whenever you are."

The hatch opened as the four athletes all tensed, like coiled springs. A guy came out. He looked like he was fully human or close enough and, maybe, in his late thirties or so. He had dark brown hair, cropped close, and blue eyes. He wasn't ugly, but he wasn't movie idol handsome, either. Still, there was a kind of swaggery confidence in his demeanor. He came right over to Mack as the athletes all close ranks around her. "Hi, I'm Richard Daniels."

"Oh, um, Dana MacKenzie – but please call me Mack. Hang on, just, uh, give me one second, okay?" She had on a bracelet-style communicator, and engaged it. "We're good," she said into it, and then turned it off and her attention was once more focused on her guest. "You need help with fixing your ship, Richard?"

"Uh, call me Rick. And thanks. The plasma leak seems to have stabilized in here. I wonder if the outside temperature, or even the pressure, is affecting the seals."

"I can get my Chief Engineer in, to help you and your own engineer, if you like." She tried to look a little past him and into the ship, but he was blocking her view.

"Maybe," Rick allowed. "I'm usually alone for these runs. There's no one else back there."

"No crew?" asked Tag.

"Oh, sorry, where are my manners?" Mack then introduced her small entourage. "Anyway, there's our chief. Plus, some of the team – Dathan and Effenston – they help out with Engineering. Sometimes there's also a Calafan woman named Yi'imspi. I understand she's rather good."

"Uh, sure." Rick was a tad nonplussed at the news that Yi'imspi had been able to infiltrate in that way. "Team? You said there was a team. I don't understand."

"Oh! The Cookie is the home of the Black Sheep. We're a barnstorming team. Have ball, stick, Kreesta table or whatever, will travel," Mack explained. "Where's your cargo?"

"I don't have any yet. I've just come from the Kreetassan home world. I swear my charts must be from the time of Jonathan Archer! But he didn't get the anomaly fields all completely correct. Everybody seems to think the old Delphic Expanse is free of anomalies, but nothing could be further from the truth."

"I hear that," Mack replied. She turned to her entourage. "It's okay. If you wanna go and work out, it's fine."

Tag came over to her and quietly asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I am. Don't worry, okay?"

"Okay, Coach. You heard the lady," he said to the other two, "we're cramping her style." He turned to Mack as the others left. "Holler if you need me."

Once the door had closed, Rick commented, "They're very loyal to you."

"Yeah, I guess so. They're a good team. So, why are you really here? And don't tell me you're lost, or it's for some nonspecified trade. There is nothing at all out here. Just a few little planets, some destroyed and failed spheres, a few stars, and that's about it, Rick."

"I'm a trader," he reiterated, sticking to the story he and Carmen had come up with. There was a trill his ear, but at least Mack couldn't hear that. Rick knew it was Carmen calling to check up on him. He batted a little at his left ear, making it look like he was absently scratching the lobe. This opened the channel and allowed Carmen to listen in on the conversation.

"Now I haven't looked it up yet," Mack played her trump card, "but I've got no idea who Audrey Niffenegger is, or was." She took out her PADD. "I'm happy to look her up right now. Or you could tell me, or at least tell me something that better resembles the truth."

Rick swallowed as Carmen, in his ear, informed him, "Niffenegger wrote a book, The Time Traveler's Wife. We should have cloaked over the name. Damnation! You'll have to think of something right quick."

"I –" Rick began.

"Yes?" Both women asked in unison.

"You, you got me. I'm sorry for the false pretenses. But I really am harmless, cross my heart and all of that. You can come on board and check if you don't believe me. I'm just, uh, I need to fix the plasma leak, and then I can go."

From her hiding place, Carmen snapped her fingers as the perfect idea came to her in an instant. "Tell her you're an ex-convict as well. She'll relate to that." There were a few stray clicks as she looked something up on her PADD.

"Oh?" asked Mack. "What's your real story, Rick."

"I, um," his voice trailed off and he bit his lower lip, looking contrite as he was, rather, trying very hard to stall as Carmen did research on the fly. "I'm not proud of this."

"Berren Five!" Carmen got excited when she found the answer. "It's active now. Say you were caught for piracy against the Klingons."

"I'm waiting for your explanation," Mack prompted.

"I only just got out of Berren Five."

"Ah, medium security. I was there recently, for a transfer from max. I didn't see you."

"Well," Rick explained, "I was in for piracy against the Klingons."

"So, you were on some other side of the yard, I bet. And the transfer was quick, anyway," Mack added, after thinking it over a little bit. "So, it's no wonder we missed each other. Klingons, eh? You're lucky you escaped with your life and your ship."

"It was a lucky break, yeah, just like running into you out here."

"Are you still a pirate? I don't see any parrots, Richard."

"Oh, pull-eeze," Carmen whined a little in Rick's ear.

He laughed a bit. "Sorry, I left my parrot in my other suit. We could, um…"

"I already got a fellow," she said. "If that's what you mean. Uh, was it?"

"Don't worry about it. Anyway, you said you had a Calafan engineer?"

"She's just one of three athletes with some mechanical talent."

"That'll work," he said. "And, uh, a pity about the other thing."

"Yeah, I guess so. Look, I got what to do. Therefore, let me get her in here and maybe someone else in case you need a spare pair of hands, and they'll help you get old Audrey here fixed up in a jiffy. Stay for dinner? I'm making pizza tonight."

"Replicated?"

"Nope, although some of it is pre-frozen."

"That's all right," he said. "Oh, and Miss MacKenzie?"

"Call me Mack."

"Uh, Mack? Thank you for allowing this. Not everybody likes dealing with ex-cons."

"Don't I know it?" She engaged her wrist communicator again. "Yi'imspi? Dathan? Please report to the bay and help our guest fix his ship, thanks." When the other two arrived, she glanced at the ship again. "I hope we can help you."

"I'm sure you can. See ya."

"See ya."