With the runabout in the air, a new enemy appears.

"But our transporters are down, the Commander said so." Hanayo said, "How can it help us?"
"Check if the pattern buffer is still online." Rin's voice came over the com-badge.

Hanayo pressed a few controls on a panel by the transporter. The display showed her the information she requested.

"Ok, it looks fine, but how… wait… there is something odd here…"
"I tweaked the transporter, nya!"
"It that safe?" Hanayo wondered.
"Smooth as a purr, nya!"

What did that even mean?

"We just have to tune up the shields. I'm sending the timing for the phase-shift of the shields and coordinates for Lieutenant Kosaka."

"Got them!" Hanayo heard Honoka shout from the bow over the whining of the wind.


In some ways Honoka wished that they had spacesuits on board, or at least a helmet. The wind coming through the open front window, that they had try to patch up, filled the cockpit with a whine, drowning out most of the other sounds. She had thought about replicating a helmet, but a quick check had showed that the replicators were offline.

She had piloted many antique open-air craft in her youth but flying what was essentially a brick with an engine at sub-sonic speeds at high altitude was something else altogether. The life-support was doing overtime compensating for the lack of pressure and oxygen, but it was helpless against the wind and in extension the sound.

As Honoka maneuvered to their destination, a point some distance away on the far side of the planet, she kept her eyes on the ground scanner display. Doing aerial manoeuvres in the state they were in wasn't high on her list of priorities.

But at least they were in the air.


"Tactical, where is the warbird?" Umi asked on the bridge of the Helicon.
"They're still cloaked, Captain. But they should be going into standard orbit in a minute or so. Those D7s are a bit sluggish in orbital manoeuvres" Kwon said from the tactical station.
"I see. Helm, ETA to our rendezvous coordinates?"
"One minute thirty seconds."
"And the runabout?"
"It's hard to tell with all the interference, but I'd venture they're close." Wakefield responded.

Umi stood up.

"Bridge to Engineering."
"Rin, nya!" came the cheery voice over the intercom.
"Lieutenant, we are about to have a D7 cruiser greet us uncourteously. Please tell me that all modifications are ready?"
"They are."

Hope this works. Umi thought, recalling their previous conversation.

"But stationary and without phasers we will be defenceless." Umi objected.
"Can't be helped, nya. We need to pump as much power as possible into the emitters or the field might prevent us from getting them."
"We'll be a sitting duck."
"Can't be helped. Just trust us to keep everything purring along, nya!"

"Battle stations. Bring the modifications online. Raise the Norikura. And be ready the second the D7 de-cloaks." Umi said.

The illumination changed to a subdued red. They were committed.


"Captain!" the tactical officer on the D7 cruiser began, "The ship we thought was ours is the Federation ship. They somehow tricked our long-range sensors."
"What?" the Captain turned to the officer, "Check the sensors! No update suggested they have that capability. Where are they?"
"Still on the far side but…" the officer looked at his display.
"But what?"
"They are ... matching the planet's spin rate."


"Helicon to Norikura."
"Commander Ayase." Eli shouted over the whining of the wind.
"Report." Umi's voice came in with a slight distortion.
"We're almost at the coordinates, field strength appears to weaken." Eli reported.
"Excellent nya! Setup the pattern enhancers in the living area, you'll have to remove the table and connect runabout's pattern buffer."

"Beam Nico and the Commander directly to the bridge." Nico said.
"Hmm" Rin's voices sounded distant, after a second she was back, "A-ok!"

"In position." Honoka's voice and a lot of wind came through.

Eli looked around.

"Remove the table, set up the enhancers and stand-by, I'm getting Lieutenant Kosaka." She said and walked over to the door to the cockpit, being careful not to step on the chaos of wires and hoses that came from the transporter.

She braced herself and opened the door, the howling of the wind and its force almost pushed her back into the other compartment. Holding onto whatever surface and handrail she could find; she made her way to the pilot's seat.

"We have to go." She shouted over the whine.

Honoka nodded, pressed a few buttons on the panel and stood up, pointing at the back. Slowly, taking care not to fall, they moved to the back compartment.


The Romulan Captain paced along the sparse space of his bridge.

"How long before we are in range?"
"16 millicycles" a subordinate confirmed.
"Battle Alert, be ready to fire."
"Yes sir" the bridge crew echoed.

With time ticking down, the captain sat back down.

"In range, ready to fire" tactical said.
"Very well. Disengage cloak, launch torpedo and re-cloak." The captain ordered.

The bridge light changed as the cloak was disengaged then a low rumble and a slight jolt rocked the ship as the heavy was charged and fired. The lighting immediately changed again to reflect they were again under cloak.

The captain watched the torpedo's course plotted on the view-screen overlayed on the visual as it came ever closer to its target.