Forty minutes after jumping to warp, the Ranger dropped in on the convoy's last known coordinates, and true to Devin's suspicion – was no where to be found.

"Captain, I'm not reading any ships in the local area, and nothing that matches the convoy's profile within two light years." Terrik reported from his spot at Ops.

Devin nodded, "We expected as much."

"Commander Tai, launch the alert fighters." Caroline interjected, glancing over her shoulder at the Flight Operations station.

"Launch order given. SAR and Hound flight launching now," Kim responded.

There was a slight hum of vibration under their feet, and a moment later a lone 'Angel' and the eight fighters of Hound flight launched sequentially, coming into view off the prow of the Ranger before breaking off and forming up for their recon.

"Science, what have you got for me?" Devin asked, rising out of his seat to watch the fighters on the forward monitor.

Lieutenant Grigs looked at the readouts he was getting from the Ranger's sensor package and frowned, "Sir, I'm not reading any discernable warp signatures through the area – I've got a couple of faint traces, but nothing that fits the seventy to ninety minute profile we're working with – which doesn't make sense."

"I concur Captain. By general standards – there has been no travel activity through this system in the last half day." Terrik added, "Unless they are actively attempting to mask their Warp signature, which is possible – given the nature of the convoy."

"None of which makes our job any easier." Devin stated flatly before turning back to Science, "Ok Mr Grigs start a full spectrum sweep. Look for anything out of the ordinary."

"Yes sir."

"Commander, give Hound flight the green light. ROEs remain as they are – they are not to engage unless fired upon first, and they are to keep a low profile. If Mr Grigs finds something we can use to track our wayward convoy, pass it on to the fighters. We will stay about six light years behind the forward group – I need to report to Starfleet, so Number one, the bridge is yours." Devin nodded to Commander Nyes, not waiting for Kim's response before heading to his ready room he glanced over his shoulder before heading inside of office, "Keep me appraised."

Caroline barely had time to utter an "Aye Sir." Before the doors to the Ready Room slid shut, with a sigh she rose and moved to the center seat, "Alright then. Tai, send those fighters on their way. Mr Zephyr, we follow at Warp six, about fifteen minutes after they move out."

Kim nodded, and called up Hound flight, "Hound Lead, this is Home-plate – you are loosed. Repeat, loosed."

"Hound lead copies. Starting the hunt – keep the lights on for us," Kim heard over her VCom.

"Always lead. Fly safe." Kim responded then turned to the Commander, "Sir, Hound flight is away."

On the main viewer, the eight fighters, aligned into their flight pairs and then as one jumped away to warp.

"Ok people, timer is running. Recall the Angel and let's get ready to follow their lead." Caroline responded before glancing back at science, "You have anything back there Mr Grigs?"

"Maybe sir, give me a few minutes to sort it out."

Caroline nodded and settled back into the command chair – all they could do now was – hurry up and wait.

Lieutenant Commander Rice settled into her acceleration couch and glanced off to her left; gauging the distance the Hawk on her wing was holding as they whistled through space at Warp six. At this point, she had almost no autonomous control over her fighter – maneuvers at Warp speeds could get a person killed, and anything beyond very minute course adjustments was unheard of anyway. Hound flight was made up of two elements – the Hawks, which were going by the callsigns Hound Lead through Four, and the second element, the Eagles, which was going by Horseman.

Whoever had come up with the callsigns for this op had apparently had a hard on for European fox hunting. Glancing over her shoulder Rice keyed the intercom, "How's it look back there WEPs?"

Ensign Quark keyed his own intercom and grumbled in frustration, "I don't know what the deal is, but I'm getting a ton of interference all of a sudden. Can't get a clean look at anything – we're skirting fairly close to a major nebula, but not that close – we're getting hosed with some fairly heavy neutrino emissions… and the noise they're causing is making my ears ache."

Rice nodded, she couldn't really sympathize, her Ferengi backseater had a much wider range of hearing then she did – and part of the sensor return was piped to the WEPs officer as audio. "Check with Hound Four, see if they're getting the snow job to – it could be our array is out of whack."

Behind her, Quark shook his head, "Already did. They're getting the same, as are Two and Three – the Horsemen aren't getting it nearly as bad – but their arrays are a bit more simple then ours."

"Hmm – sounds like something we should report to Home plate. Guess now is as good a time as any." Rice said as she switched to her external comm and opened a channel to the Ranger, "Home plate – this is Hound Lead. We're getting some serious interference out here…"

"One moment Hound Lead," Commander Tae replied, before glancing at Caroline, "Sir, Hound Flight is encountering sensor interference."

"Can they pipe their sensor data back to us?" Lieutenant Grigs interjected, before Nyes could comment – which earned him a raised eyebrow from the ships First Officer. Realizing his mistake, he quickly added, "I… uh, have a hunch Commander."

"Alright Mr Grigs... Tai, can you do that?" Nyes asked.

"Yes sir. The Hawks are equipped with a directional transceiver for this exact purpose. We can piggy back the information on the telemetry data."

"Set it up." Nyes ordered.

Kim nodded, "Hound Flight, pipe sensor data back to Home Plate on your telemetry feed. Please begin with t minus 10 seconds before warp acceleration, and continue through until real time."

Across the bridge Grigs nodded.

"You heard the boss lady WEPs." Rice stated after receiving the transmission from Home plate, "Apparently the brains of this outfit want another look at what you're looking at."

Quark grumbled, "I have no idea why… there's nothing to see…"

"You know how it works WEPS," Rice responded, "It is not ours to ask why…"

"Yah yah… it is ours but to do and die." Quark finished, "Sending feed to Home Plate on telemetry link."

"Ok, I've got the data piping in - sending it to Grigs' terminal now." Kim piped up from her Flight Ops console at the back of the bridge.

"I've got it. Give me a minute here to sync it up with our own sensor data…" Grigs responded.

"Good work people." Caroline added, she didn't know if was going to mean anything, but they were working together to attempt to solve the problem, and she couldn't see a problem with a little pat on the head from Command.

Behind the closed doors of his Ready Room, Devin wanted to reach through his terminal monitor and strangle Admiral Decker. He respected the man, and had worked with him on more then a few occasions, and now was reporting directly to him – but for the life of him, could not make the man understand that he needed more information then he was being given.

"Sir – there is nothing more you can give me at this time… at all? Even… off the record?" Devin tried, one last time.

Decker's image shook its head, "I'm sorry Captain – you have all the information I am currently at liberty to discuss. You don't have much more information for me then when this whole thing started."

"Fine – I have the discretion to proceed in the matter as I deem necessary to recover the convoy?" Devin asked, sitting back in his seat – if they took the reigns off at least, it would be his show to sink or swim.

The Admiral seemed to consider that for a moment, and it was obvious he was choosing his next words extremely carefully, "Yes. You're the Captain on site; you are of course allowed to exercise your discretion. This matter is of the utmost importance though – so you understand."

Devin understood the Admiral's words perfectly. By requesting more autonomy from Starfleet oversight – something of which, most Captains were used to having anyway, he had officially washed the Admiral's hands of all primary responsibility. Now it was his performance that would be judged most harshly, if this ended badly. Likely even if it ended poorly it would not hurt his overall career horribly – but just the fact that Decker had seen fit to be quite that specific did bother him, a bit. "Of course sir – I will report back as soon as we have the convoy."

"Good - Decker out."

Devin stared at the blank terminal for a moment before letting out a small sigh. Well it was his mess now, time to start cleaning house – before he could decide on his next course of action however, his door chimed. After taking a moment to straighten up he ordered, "Enter."

Caroline stepped inside, "Sir, Lieutenant Grigs says he might have something."

"Oh?" Devin asked, raising an eyebrow, "And what has he come up with?"

"He wanted to tell you himself sir." Caroline responded

"Hum. Fine – I guess I'll humor him this time." Devin said, standing up, "Let's go see what Science has to say, eh Commander?"

A few moments later Devin and Caroline stepped onto the bridge, and Devin headed for Grigs' terminal. "Ok Mr Grigs, what have you got?"

Grigs looked up, unable to suppress a grin, "This is really great sir. Someone's really being sneaky."

"While I'm sure this is very interesting to your scientific side, Mr Grigs, please remember that we're chasing a convoy that belongs to us and is carrying what we can only believe is weapons of some unspecified type – and it, and the crew onboard those ships, may have fallen into unfriendly hands." Devin said, quietly. The look on Rilo's face quickly sobered. "What have you got for me?"

"Uhm… well sir – we probably wouldn't have noticed this quite as readily if we hadn't sent the fighters out ahead of us." Rilo paused and glanced at the Captain to see if the man was following. He got a slightly curt 'go on' gesture and continued hurriedly, "Well, you see the fighters; especially the Hawk-R's are getting a lot of neutrino interference on their sensor arrays. Their arrays have a lot less power then our array on the Ranger but are really quite sensitive, and while we would likely just burn through it, and attribute the higher neutrino count to the nearby nebula, and then completely miss the significance, the fighters are sniffing out the problem quite nicely."

Devin nodded, he thought he could see where this was going, "Go on Lieutenant…"

"Well, what it boils down to is someone ahead of the fighters is using a neutrino stream to artificially mask and degrade their warp signature. It's a nifty trick, and I'd bet a weeks worth of holodeck time that any ship of the line would have completely missed it, and lost them." Grigs couldn't help it anymore; he broke out in a huge grin again, "So in short, if we follow the neutrinos, we should find the convoy sir! The worse the fighters' interference gets, the closer they are to the convoy."

Devin gave the young science officer a slight grin to take some of the sting out of his earlier comment, "Good work Mr Grigs. You might have answered at least one question of the day. Keep at it and see what else you can come up with."

"Aye sir we'll find them." Grigs responded with just a touch of his earlier enthusiasm

Turning back to the rest of the bridge, Devin headed for the center chair, "Helm – assuming the convoy continues along the vector Hound flight is following – is there anything out that way?"

Ensign Zephyr turned around, "About five light years ahead of Hound flights current position is a fairly large ice crystal field, which stretches quite a ways in all directions, including all the way to the Melcomf nebula the route skirts. It's dense enough that they'd have to drop to sublight speeds to navigate it. It is part of the convoy's normal route…"

"And it provides an excellent place to 'lose' a convoy, should their crews get sloppy." Devin filled in. "Plus, a good escape route – that nebula is pretty big, and tends to mess with long range sensors. Assuming of course, the convoy didn't indeed run into trouble in the field."

"Sir, if I may interject?" Commander Terrik asked.

Devin settled into his chair, and nodded, "What's on your mind Ops?"

"Well sir – the behavior of what we believe to be the convoy doesn't fit any logical explanation we can currently come up with – except that they've been compromised in some fashion. This is supposedly a standard convoy, not a covert operation or some sort – even if we aren't told the contents – so hiding the warp trail doesn't fit the profile. I would argue that hiding one's warp signature makes any potential pirates who might mange to wander across it even more interested, and I'm certain Starfleet wouldn't want that. So, I have to wonder, who would have the ability to capture an escorted convoy in the middle of Federation space, without anyone knowing about it?" Terrik stated, making a logical conclusion to what had been thus far, a goose chase.

"That's a good point and an excellent question Ops." Devin responded, and was about to continue but was interrupted by Ensign Zephyr, "Sir, we've hit the deadline for following the fighters. Proceed as ordered?"

Devin tapped his fingers on the armrest of his chair, and then nodded, "Go ahead Helm – but restrict to Warp 2. I want to see what else our 'hounds' can find, and the longer we stay off the radar of whomever we're following the better."

"Aye sir, engaging course – Warp 2 only." The Ensign responded.

As the bridge crew watched the stars on the main view elongate into streaks as the ship jumped to Warp, the turbolift opened on the bridge and Lieutenant Fero stepped onto the bridge carrying a PADD and wearing a determined expression.

Glancing over her shoulder Caroline caught sight of the Chief Counselor, "Lieutenant, it looks to me like you have something."

"Yes ma'am. If I may take a minute of the Captain's time?" Melissa asked

Devin indicated the empty seat to his left – Caroline had claimed the station to his immediate right as her location – while it was completely up to the first officer, most first's took the seat to the right of the Captain for tradition's sake. "What have you got for us Lieutenant?"

"Well… there was something odd about the crew roster of the Valley Forge sir... it might be nothing – but it just doesn't stack up." Fero replied as she sat down and handed the Captain one of her PADDs

"The 'Forge was the Sabre on escort, if I recall correctly." Caroline noted as she took a PADD from Fero for herself

The Lieutenant nodded, "Yes, it was. It was escorting the Milspec freighters Dante's Own and Ninth Circle… apparently the military freighter crews have a bit of tradition with naming their ships with various references to Hell. Starfleet of course typically designated them with just a number/letter code, but apparently once a freighter gains a nickname, it sticks."

"Interesting facts Lieutenant…" Devin interrupted, "But where are you going with this?"

"Well sir, my research shows these freighter crews, which are pretty small can be fairly fluid at times – but these two freighters and their crews have been serving the Alpha Centari research station exclusively for some time. Probably to increase security – but the Valley Forge, which has also been serving in the station's primary patrol area for the last eight months, suddenly had almost a complete crew change."

Devin blinked, and cycled through the information on the PADD, "A complete crew swap?"

"Yes sir. The entire senior staff, as well as most of the senior noncoms – a good 2/3s of the crew was rotated out." Melissa clarified.

"So, did they get a different ship?" Caroline inquired; it wasn't unheard of for Starfleet to move an intact and experienced crew to a new ship to work out the bugs.

Melissa shook her head, "No, that was the first thing I thought too. But within a week, almost everyone on the ship got rotated to various positions they had all applied for separately and at different times. The Captain got his shot at an Intrepid class; the First officer was frocked to Captain and is destined for a Sabre of his own. Two of the senior Non-Coms took posts as boot instructors… the list goes on, it's all… very convenient."

"And the crew that replaced them?" Devin asked, as he skimmed the information himself.

"Boring." Melissa replied

"What do you mean by boring?" Caroline asked with a raised eyebrow

"Well… nothing about them is… exemplary in any way. No black marks on any of the records – but no citations of any type either. It's like an entire crew of people who do 'just enough' to get by, and nothing else." Melissa shook her head, "I'm fairly new to the fleet, all things considered, but I spend my days talking to people – reviewing their case history… nobody is this boring. We all have… something that makes us stand out from the masses. For instance – Captain to use you as an example – one of the counseling reports we have on file for you notes that you might have had a slightly unhealthy fixation with a certain aircraft of ancient earth, but after further investigation it was determined to be a healthy outlet for you."

Devin raised an eyebrow, "Lieutenant… I'm hoping you have a point."

"Ah – yes well. This crew has none of those little… touches that make's us people. They're just… dull, boring, uninteresting." Melissa said quickly.

"Camouflage." Caroline stated, "It's a common intelligence trick… but overused like this it stands out like a sore thumb."

Devin glanced at his first officer out of the corner of his eye, a few of the 'sealed' sections of Caroline's record making a little more sense now. "So what we have here is?"

"Hard to say sir – if it is some sort of Intel op, like the Commander noted, I don't see what the point is. And if it's not – well – I can't believe so many people could possibly be this boring, and it's just so… convenient."

Devin nodded, making his decision. "I believe the Valley Forge's classification just changed… Ops, take us to Yellow Alert and sound General Quarters – then give me a ship wide broadcast."

"Yellow Alert, aye – Sounding general quarters now." On the decks below the bridge, a long warble went out across the ship's intercom speakers – letting the crew know to be up and ready to man their combat stations. Engineers headed for Main engineering to form repair parties. Med techs flooded sickbay to set up triage points, Security personnel moved to pre-determined points on the ship – and set up armed guard posts. Everyone had a job during general quarters.

A few moments later the sounding ended and Terrik glanced at Devin and nodded, indicating he had an open channel to the entire ship.

Standing from his command chair he glanced around the bridge once, taking in the looks of his senior staff, and the view of the bridge awash in yellow highlights used to indicate the current alert status. "All hands, this is the Captain. As many of you are aware – we have been dispatched to recover a military convoy. It has come to our attention that the convoy's escort – the USS Valley Forge may have been compromised. To this end we will remain at general quarters until we have determined the location and status of the convoy. We may be forced to engage one of our own ships in combat. To this end, the rules of engagement are changing slightly. All fighter craft and LCs are cleared to defend themselves with whatever force they deem necessary if they believe they are threatened. Stay sharp people, and we'll get through this smoothly. That is all."

Terrik indicated with a quick gesture that he had cut the shipwide feed.

Turning towards Commander Tai Devin ordered, "Commander, open a channel to Hound flight for me."

"Yes sir. One moment – I'll pipe it to your Command VCom." Kim replied, tapping in a few commands, "Hound Flight, this is Home Plate. Stand by for Actual."

Flipping open a small compartment mounted in his Command chair Devin pulled out a VCom and slipped it over an ear. Getting the nod from Commander Tae he tapped the activation control on his command chair and then straightened and turned back to the main viewer before speaking, "Hound Flight this is Actual."

"Hound Lead copies Actual. Hounds and Horsemen have their ears open."

"Hound Lead, we have determined the source of the neutrino interference is likely the convoy ahead of you attempting to cover its tracks. Use the neutrino trail to track them down. Our Science officer will send you a recalibration setting for your array to make this easier."

"Understood Actual – we have a trail."

"Correct. It is also believed that the USS Valley Forge may be hostile. To this end we need more information. There is a large ice field ahead of you that the convoy will need to slow to sublight speeds for. Exit Warp as close to the field as you can, and then attempt to shadow the Valley Forge and the freighters. Keep your sensor and telemetry data piping back to us, we're currently following your flightpath – but we'll hang back so as to not alert the 'Forge."

"Lead copies Actual. Are the current ROEs still in effect?"

"Negative. You are weapons free to engage if threatened. You are authorized to fire first in this regard but avoid kill shots to the convoy if possible. Understood Hound Flight?"

"Ah… classify threatening Home Plate."

"If any ship attempts a firing solution, you are cleared to engage – no shots need be fired." Devin responded quietly.

"Hound flight copies, mission parameters have been altered to shadowing the convoy and avoiding detection and engagement while providing intelligence for Home Plate. Hound Flight is authorized to engage if detected and if any ships indicate hostilities…"

"Actual copies and agrees. Keep Home Plate informed. Actual out."

"Well this is getting interesting." Rice mused over intercom

"Sure, if your trigger finger is itchy." Quark retorted, "Looks like the Captain has opened up the early round to us though, how you want to play it boss?"

"Let's pick up some speed. You get that optimization program from Ranger yet?" Rice answered as she brought up her primary Nav program, the ice field in question was less then four light years away now.

"Yah, I'm just getting it loaded up. Ohh... that's much better on the ears" Quark sighed, "Hound Four indicates they've finished loading as well."

"Great. Ok WEPS, plot me a course from the edge of the field to a good hidey hole where we can peek out at things, with a low chance of being spotted." Rice ordered as she keyed in a channel to the Flight, "Ok Hounds and Huntsmen, here's the game plan. We're accelerating to Warp 8 on my mark. Ready… MARK."

Matching orders to action Rice keyed in the speed change, and the warp counter started clicking up smoothly until it reached Warp 8, "Ok. Now that we're moving – in about 2 minutes we're going to drop out on top of an ice field – we're going in passive, and going to try to find and shadow the convoy – see if we can figure out what's going on. Use your laser based comm systems so we stay as passive as possible. Once we find a good hidey hole, four and myself are going to deploy our little friends for a closer look. Range out in your wing pairs, don't get seen and report what you find. Understood?"

"Huntsmen Copy" was the replied from Huntsman Lead

"Hounds Copy boss" came the reply from Hound Four.

"Let's get it done people. Stay sharp – we're way out on the pointy end right now – exiting Warp in sixty seconds." Rice ordered before switching to intercom again, "Ok WEPS – everything to passive, we want to be nice and quiet when we go a-visiting."

"All sensors to passive boss – we're running silent."

"Good, time to go hunting."