Chapter Fourteen

"Bridge to Janeway." Admiral Janeway heard her name echo through the comm system in the Vitesse engine room.

"Janeway here."

"Admiral, sensors have picked up another cloaked vessel in this sector. They are holding position directly to starboard." Janeway exchanged glances with Annika.

"I'm on my way."

A few moments later, Admiral Janeway stepped out of the turbolift onto the bridge. She walked directly over to the tactical station. "Show me." She said to the lieutenant manning tactical. He pressed a few buttons, and the stargrid reappeared on the screen.

"Its either a cloaked ship, or a severely misaligned sensor array." The lieutenant said. Janeway cracked a slight grin.

"And which do you think it is?"

"It's a ship." He replied, matter-of-factly.

"Agreed." She said, and stepped down from his station. "Now, I think it's severely improbable that two cloaked ships are sitting side by side in the same sector of space without some sort of motivation." She pointed to the viewscreen. "Somehow they can see through our cloak."

"How can you be so sure?" Captain Dickson asked.

"I'm not. But I suggest we test it."

"How?"

"Lets take the ship into warp. Prepare for omega speeds, and Lieutenant…" she stopped and pointed to the tactical officer.

"Van De Kamp." He replied.

"… Lieutenant Van De Kamp will monitor our sensor ghost. If they start to move and follow us, we will know they can see us." Janeway finished her plan.

"And if they follow us, then what?" Dickson asked.

"Then we 'accidentally' blow out a coolant valve and disengage. While we make 'repairs,' we can try to collect all the sensor data we can on them. When it comes to it, one of us will make the first move towards contact."

Captain Dickson rubbed his head for a second. "Were you this ambitious in the Delta Quadrant all the time?"

"Every moment of every day." She smiled.

"Well then lets do it. Helm, take us into warp. Tactical, keep an eye on our cloaked ship."

The Vitesse turned, and leaped forward into warp speed. Lieutenant Van De Kamp kept his eyes on the star grid, which zoomed out to keep the blinking red dot into view. Dickson turned to him.

"What's their status?"

"Nothing so far. They are holding position." Van De Kamp replied.

"Well maybe we were wrong…" Dickson started. His tactical officer interrupted him.

"Wait… the ship is accelerating. They just matched our speed." He said.

"Then again, maybe not." Dickson finished his sentence. "Dickson to engine room, I need you to overload something in the warp core. Nothing to damage us, but enough to make that ship watching think we are in trouble. Be sure not to damage the cloak."

"Yes sir."

"Bridge out. Helm, emergency stop." Everyone standing put a foot in front of them as the helm officer activated the braking thrusters. The Vitesse shuddered slightly as it came to a rapid stop.

"The cloaked ship overshot us. They are coming around… and now they are holding position directly in front of us." Lieutenant Van De Kamp confirmed.

Janeway walked to the front of the room and stared at the viewscreen. "Who are you?" She whispered quietly.

--

Briken Dectran stood up from his chair on the command deck of the Voondrek. He looked at the wallscreen on the left side of the room, at the filtered image of the Vitesse. The sensors on the Voondrek could see right through the Vitesses cloak, however he could not figure out why the alien ship had come to such an abrupt stop. His sensors confirmed the overload in their engine core was minimal, and almost faked. Then he realized it.

"They are playing with us." He said out loud.

Vrolan, his first, stood up and looked at the wallscreen then looked back at him.

"What?" he asked.

"They, that ship, they are playing with us."

"What do you mean?" Kernos, his second, stood up to join the conversation.

"That entire scene was fabricated. From the jump to faster than light speed, to the overload in their engine core, to their abrupt stop. They must be able to see us… they were testing to see if we would follow them! And when we did, they disengaged."

"You mean to tell me we fell for a trick from primitives?" Vrolan asked, astonished.

"It looks like it." Dectran responded. The lights in the room flashed suddenly.

"Incoming VSR from Imperial Senate." The ships computer boomed.

"I'll be right back." Dectran said to his two command officers. He entered the transport unit at the back of the room. "VSR." He said, and was suddenly standing in the senate chambers.

Superior DenTra came through the main archway, and rushed up to him.

"You gave the alien captain your naquadah history chip?" He raged.

"What are you talking about… oh. You are referring to the sector cc-2926 mission. It seemed like the right thing to do."

"The right thing to do?" Superior DenTra started to turn red. "We have been reviewing your progress! You just fell into a primitive yet effective trick! If they are the Master Race…" He stopped to breathe. "If they are the Master Race, they are currently unaware of it. The Vanretna Imperial Government would prefer they never found out. The Senate is about to meet. You keep your distance from them until we contact you again. Close VSR." DenTra and the senate disappeared, and the doors opened back onto the command deck of the Voondrek.

Vrolan walked up to him. "Now what?"

"Now we wait and see what happens next." He replied.

--

…sorry for the short chapter, I just felt like this one needed to be ended here.

Reviews please! And if you haven't figured it out yet, I can't spell. I already know this. Lol.