Looking back on it, Hoshi Sato-Reed realized that volunteering for duty aboard Endeavour had probably been a mistake.
As the NC-06 rapidly approached the origin of the impulse wake T'Pol had detected, Hoshi sat at the communications board, re-familiarizing herself with a console that had undergone just enough renovations and upgrades since her time aboard Enterprise to confuse the daylights out of her. Every time she started to reach for a particular button, she was forced to hesitate and confirm that it was actually still there instead of being moved to the other side of the console for reasons that completely defied her comprehension.
On top of that problem was the realization that she didn't know the names or specialties of any member of Lieutenant Devereux's team. On Enterprise, Hoshi had known exactly who to contact if she encountered a technical problem with the linguistic database, or if she was having problems with a particularly tricky translation. Here, however, she didn't know where to start.
"We are in visual range of the target," T'Pol announced abruptly, breaking into Hoshi's mental rant about acting without thinking. The Vulcan hadn't moved from the science station since they arrived on the bridge, and had been bent over her viewfinder the entire time.
"Onscreen." Trip ordered from the command chair. He leaned forward slightly but, to Hoshi's surprise, did not stand. She frowned at the realization that she barely knew this veteran combat commander. The war had hardened him, transforming him from a gregarious and fun-loving engineer to a soldier who seemed to be expecting combat at any second.
She wondered if Malcolm would have even recognized him.
"D Type transport," T'Pol identified as the main viewscreen activated. The ancient-looking craft now displayed bore only a superficial resemblance to the many cargo transports Hoshi had seen before. "Heavily modified," the Vulcan science officer continued. "Hull registry identification, Earth Cargo Ship Daramo."
"Daremo," Hoshi corrected absently. "That's Japanese for no one."
"Reading no life forms aboard," T'Pol continued. She straightened and raised an eyebrow in an expression Hoshi recognized as mild interest. "There is mild structural damage on the outer hull that I do not recognize." She pressed a button, and the main viewscreen zoomed in on the structural scarring.
"That's Immobilizer damage," Lieutenant Commander Eisler growled from the tactical station.
"Dammit," Trip muttered, so softly that Hoshi suspected only she and T'Pol had heard it. "Can you get a remote link with that tub and pull the data from their flight recorder?" he asked more loudly, his eyes trained on Hoshi. She swallowed and input a few rapid commands.
"No, sir," she replied. "We can't get a signal."
"Confirmed," T'Pol said in her no-nonsense manner. "Its transmitter array has been destroyed."
"Then we do it the old fashioned way," Captain Tucker decided. He looked in Eisler's direction. "STAB team deploy."
"Aye, sir." The tactical officer pressed several buttons in rapid succession. Seconds later, Hoshi's board beeped as she began receiving telemetry. One of the buttons she did not recognize began flashing on her console, and she pressed it hesitantly. Instantly, the image on the main viewscreen changed to a real-time transmission from one of the security officers beamed to the Daremo.
"This is Roughneck Six," a male voice declared. Hoshi presumed it was the man with the camera. "Are you reading this, Endeavour?"
"We are," Trip said loudly. "You should be able to access the flight recorder from the bridge."
"Copy." The image began moving, and a pair of armored figures entered the camera's line of sight to precede the speaking officer. Hoshi found herself unable to turn away from the real-time image, even when they paused to study a pair of human corpses. "They put up a fight," Roughneck Six stated. "And their weaponry is almost military grade."
"Smugglers," Commander Eisler declared flatly, contempt in his voice.
Beeps from T'Pol's board drew Hoshi's attention, and she watched for a moment as the Vulcan began inputting commands with a speed that brought back many pleasant memories. Her own console chirped, reminding Hoshi that she had a job to perform, and she studied the data crawling across her monitors. Almost without realizing it, she fell back into her old habits, forgetting if only for a few minutes that she was primarily a codebreaker these days. Fortunately, it wasn't always just number crunching.
As the most experienced linguist Starfleet had at its disposal, the few pieces of intercepted Romulan audio inevitably came to her, and she had spent the last six weeks attempting to construct a usable database out of those scraps. From what she could tell, the Romulan tongue was a fascinating language, with some familiar proto-Vulcan words that seemed to indicate the two cultures had come into contact before, probably centuries earlier if the word deviations were any indication.
"Captain." T'Pol's voice broke the silence that had descended upon the bridge. "I am detecting another impulse signature that remains unaccounted for."
"Bearing?"
"One-three-five mark zero-zero-nine." The Vulcan leaned back from her viewer. "Range: three-seven light minutes." T'Pol nearly frowned. "I am unable to detect any mass displacements in that area." She sounded slightly surprised.
"Roughneck Six to Endeavour." The security officer was now on the Daremo's bridge, and Hoshi winced at the damage she could see.
"The flight recorder is gone, isn't it?" Trip asked sourly.
"Yes, sir. Along with the crew manifest and the sensor logs." Tucker shook his head in frustration.
"Beam them back, Rick," he ordered the tactical officer, before glancing at Hoshi. "Inform Starfleet Command about this. We'll need a salvage team to bring this ship in." As Hoshi nodded, he was addressing the helm officer. "Set a course for the second target area. Maximum impulse."
The seven minutes it took to cover the distance to the unidentified impulse wake seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. It took less than a minute for Starfleet Command to respond to Hoshi's hail, but she was transferred three times before reaching someone who could dispatch a tug to their location to retrieve the ECS Daremo. By the time she had deactivated the active communications link, Hoshi was remembering why she had been so glad that Command had approved her request for a planetary assignment after her son was born.
"Contact," T'Pol announced, a subtle hint of pride in her voice that Hoshi doubted anyone else but Trip would pick up. "Bearing: three-three-six mark zero-seven-two. Range: twenty-three thousand, nine hundred forty-two kilometers." The Vulcan's body language changed abruptly. "Radiological alert," she said grimly. Even as she was announcing this, the captain was speaking.
"All stop," he ordered. "What is it, T'Pol?"
"Indeterminate readings," she replied, frustration in her voice. "It appears to be constructed of a material that absorbs sensor scans." T'Pol frowned. "I am able to determine that it is unmanned and has a primitive impulse drive system."
"That means there's probably a computer onboard," Eisler pointed out. "It looks like a guided torpedo to me, sir."
"That is a logical conclusion," T'Pol gave Tucker a discreet head shake, as if she was responding to something he had asked. "I do not recommend that we get any closer. A self-guided weapon would, by necessity, be equipped with sensors for navigation."
"And those sensors might be touchy," Trip nodded. "We need to get information, though."
"Sir." Lieutenant Commander Eisler was standing ramrod straight as he spoke. "Request permission to go EVA. ARC Two is prepped for launch, and I am best equipped to disable an explosive if necessary."
Hoshi sighed. It wasn't particularly loud, but drew T'Pol's attention nonetheless. The Vulcan quirked an eyebrow as she realized what Hoshi was about to say.
"Captain," Sato interrupted. "I need to go too."
"What?" Tucker was momentarily aghast.
"I have the most experience with the Romulan language," Hoshi pointed out, once more cursing herself for thinking that a visit to Endeavour had been a good idea. "And I can hack into its computer if necessary."
"I'll keep her safe, Captain," Eisler growled. He gave Hoshi a look that was almost approving, and, for a moment, she was inexplicably reminded of an almost identical expression that Malcolm had given her a few times. That nearly brought a tear to her eye.
Hoshi could see that Trip was torn, and she found herself glad that she didn't have to make these sorts of decisions. He so clearly wanted to go himself, yet he obviously realized that doing so was stupid and dangerous. When he nodded his approval, Hoshi could see how much it tore him up and her heart went out to him. For all he knew, he could be sending her to her death.
She made a mental note to never accept a command position.
The Assault Re-entry Craft was squat and ugly, but looked much tougher than a standard shuttlepod. As she approached it, still fiddling with her EV suit, Hoshi found herself wondering if it was as easy to fly. An enlisted man bearing senior chief petty officer rank was already at the pilot's station; he too was wearing an EV suit, but looked much more comfortable in it than Hoshi did. She gave him a nod before securing her comm gear in the appropriate location.
Several meters beyond the hatch, she could see Anna Hess speaking with the German tactical officer. An odd expression was on the engineer's face as she helped Eisler adjust his armored EV suit, and Hoshi frowned at Anna's unmistakable body language: she was protective of Eisler! From what Sato had seen of the man, he could likely kill people with his pinky, and from her memories of Enterprise, the engineer didn't swing that way, so it made no sense for Hess to be protective. Hoshi shook her head; none of this was any of her business.
Eisler entered the ARC moments later, pulling the hatch down and sealing it with a flourish. He took the seat next to the hatch.
"We're secure," he announced. A moment later, Trip's voice floated across the comm line.
"Then you're cleared for launch. Good luck."
The ARC began to shake as the engines activated, and Hoshi closed her eyes.
She hated this part.