Chapter 7 Intercept
BRIDGE
USS WISCONSIN
Bridge was staffed now with the division heads. Jacobs was looking at the screen, shortly after the probe was discovered, the pirate ship slowed and destroyed it. They were now flying blind, assuming that the Pirate ship was going to remain on course to get help. These Norsicans may be gutsy, but they didn't want to tangle with a starship alone if they didn't have to.
Hotchner was now running all the scanners on maximum. At warp 7 their warp trail would very noticeable, detectible to anyone with warp knowledge. Since stealth was no longer a factor, they might as well be running sensors on max power. Pushing a button, he put a display up on his big screen, "Captain, I'm starting to pick up some warp trails. They are converging to this area here."
Jacobs turned to the Science station "How many Hotch?"
"I think 4 more warp trails. I'm working on types."
Jacobs glanced briefly at the Tactical screen, Hotchner had transferred coordinates to Leonaidas's station and present position was also up. "Alan, accelerate to Warp 9. Helo, adjust intercept point, time to intercept?"
Agathon worked the controls, "15 minutes."
Jacobs looked at the weapons, noted that all the weapons status were good. Santini started working the engineering controls for the increased demand.
Hotchner spoke up "Getting tracks on 5 ships for sure now, including our Pirate. They will be within their transporter range soon."
Jacobs frowned; it was happening too fast. "Red alert, battlestations" And the claxons went off. All around the ship everyone was going to battlestations.
Jacobs looked at the tracks and thought. They're going to divide and conquer. "Let's intercept the pirate before they can make the transfer. Jack, boarding action."
Bauer hit a button on his panel that went to the Badgers briefing area. Teal'c was standing up front in their briefing area. "Alright, you have your assignments, proceed to assigned transporter rooms! MOVE!" And the Badgers double-timed to the four transporter rooms. Once in each room, the first squad in each room went up on the transporter pad and readied weapons. Each transporter chief signaled ready.
This signal showed up on Bauer's Master display. "All boarding parties ready."
Jacobs leaned in his seat to the left and started rubbing his chin "JJ, can we jam their transporter signal?"
Lt Jareau nodded. "Yes, once I figure out their frequencies. I'll jam everything except ours, but they will be able to overpower the jamming once they realize what is going on. I can deliver good jamming strength once I focus on the freqs they are using."
"Very well, best you can do. Anybody think of anything else? This is not our original plan, we got to think quickly." Jacobs looked around.
Lt Jareau offered, "Want me to make challenge?"
Jacobs said "Good idea, good bet they can see us now on their scanners. Warn them off, be blunt. It may distract them." And Jareau started transmitting.
Jacobs pushed the PA button "Attention all hands, this is the Captain speaking. We are intercepting the Pirate right now. It looks like the Pirate is trying to rendezvous with four other ships. Timing will be critical. Currently we are 5 minutes from intercept."
Hotchner updated the tactical plot "I got 5 solid tracks. The pirate is track A, others are approximately same power output except for E, that seems to be a Frigate size."
Jacobs looked over at the Science station, then tactical to see the plots of the ships coming in. "Karl, Alan, put us between the pirate and the others. Ben, as soon as we get in range, bring down the shields then hammer target E as hard as you can. Jam as soon as you can." Looking at the countdown clock "Ok people, it's showtime."
Agathon was looking at the navigation plot. The Pirate started to slow at the predicted point. "Mr. Carter, start deceleration in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, now." And Carter started maximum deceleration. Both ships came out of warp at the same time, Ben Grimm fired phasers to lower the Pirate's shields.
Hotchner flipped a couple of switches "They have sensor scramblers up. I can't get life signs. I can get a basic layout of the ship."
Jacobs turned to Bauer "Send the Badgers when ready."
Bauer designated beam in points and sent them to the transporter rooms. The transporters sent over 4 teams of 6 apiece.
Just at that time, the other four ships decelerated. Grimm located Pirate E "Pirate E in range. Firing."
Ben Grimm fired the two photon torpedoes Pirate E. The torpedoes hit the pirate's shields causing a brief flare. The remaining energy crashed through the shields and hit the ship in the center of the hull. The blast had a massive shaking effect to the pirate and the ship heeled over on its side from the blast. The blast also caused various systems to either short out or temporarily go off line.
On board Pirate E the blast also shook everyone violently. E's Captain grabbed the sides of his chair to keep from being thrown. All the displays were blinking from shock damage. He yelled across the bridge "FIRE DISRUPTORS NOW!"
The weapons officer climbed back up from the floor and was leaning against his console. Automatic targeting was off, so he manually started targeting the starship that hit them "They are between us and the Claw. I might hit our brothers!"
"FIRE ANYWAY! THAT'S A CRUISER AND HE CAN TAKE ON ALL OF US!"
The weapons officer tried to line up a shot, but the ship was still shaking from the internal echos of the photon torpedo blast. He pressed the fire button.
On board the Wisconsin, Agathon turned "Transport complete, shields back up."
Jacobs nodded "Thanks Helo." Jacobs looked at the weapons, the Phasers were almost recharged. Just then he saw the surge of power from Pirate E.
Grimm spoke up "Incoming" just as the pirate's disruptors fired. The disruptors hit the starboard shields of the Wisconsin and the ship shook a bit.
Agathon reported "Shields holding, down 10%. Starting recharge."
Jacobs turned to Bauer, "How are the teams?"
Teal'c beamed in a dark area. Somehow beaming in dark areas were always disconcerting. He moved his phaser rifle around using the light to search the room "Report."
McGee had his tricorder running "It appears we are in a cargo bay. Door is over here. I think Engineering is one deck up."
Teal'c and the others finished looking around. He clicked his communicator earpiece. "Team 1 beam in successful. We are in a cargo bay one deck below engineering."
The communicator replied with the others. Teal'c responded "Team 2 take the bridge. Teams 3 and 4 search the ship, find the hostages."
Teal'c turned to McGee, "Open the door, team be ready"
McGee looked at the door panel. Tapping a bit on the tricorder, he found the correct button on the door and pushed it. The door opened and two Badgers took the left, two to the right and Teal'c looked straight on. It turned out he was facing the wall opposite the hallway. "Mr. McGee, which way?"
"To the left, down the hallway and first right."
Teal'c answered "Mr. Hanna, take point. Denozzo, bring up the rear."
Team 1 followed McGee's directions. They went up an access tube to the next level. Getting on the next level, the team proceeded to Engineering. Teal'c lined up the team for a forced entry. Gibbs lined the door with an explosive and nodded. Teal'c motioned for a three count and on three Gibbs blew the door. McGee threw in a flash-bang grenade. The team waited for the grenade to blow then they stormed inside the Engineering section.
A couple of Norsicans were kneeled over and shaking their heads. Teal'c and Gibbs fired the phaser rifles on stun and dropped them. McGee ran over to the main engineering panel and started typing on his tricorder. He looked up at Teal'c shaking his head. Teal'c tapped his communicator earpiece.
Back on the Wisconsin, Bauer looked up from his security board "Teal'c reports engineering secure, however indications they recently used their transporters."
Jacobs turned and looked at Hotchner "Can you confirm?"
Hotchner worked his scanners as the ship shook from another disruptor fire impact. "No, too many energy discharges. Pirates B, C, and D are warping out different vectors."
Jacobs looked over to weapons and noted that E was heavily damaged. "Lt Jareau, order Pirate E to immediately surrender or be destroyed."
Jareau passed the order on, she turned on one of her screens for the reply. Jacobs turned to face the screen. Soon a Norsican came on "SURRENDER, FOR WHAT?"
Jacobs replied "No discussion, surrender immediately or be destroyed."
The Norsican "That isn't legal, which Starfleet regulation is it that allows you do order a surrender without reason?"
Leo jumped in "Captain he's stalling."
Jacobs nodded "End transmission. Ben, continue firing."
The Norsican Captain yelled "WAIT!" Jareau looked at Jacobs and Jacobs signaled to cut the transmission with pulling his thumb across his neck. Jareau cut the transmission.
Jacobs looked to Grimm "Ben, keep hitting them, but try to avoid blowing E up. Jack, how are the teams?"
Jack pointed to the board behind him "Team 1 has Engineering captured. Team 2 has the Bridge. 3 and 4 are going through the ship searching for hostages. So far none has been found. The whole crew is near being captured."
Jacobs turned to Leonaidas "We missed them."
Leonaidas nodded "It's a good bet. Should we give chase?"
Jacobs shook his head "No, not yet. Ben, cease fire for now. JJ get me Captain E"
The Communications screen came on. Jacobs started "Surrender now or be destroyed. No argument."
"WHY DO YOU WANT ME TO SURRENDER?"
Jacobs responded "I have no time, surrender now."
"NEVER! YOU ARE COMMITTING PIRACY AGAINST…." Jacobs signaled Jareau to cut the transmission.
Turning to weapons, Jacobs told Grimm "Ben, continue firing. Do not blow up the ship, just knock off the warp drive."
Grimm placed a couple of well-placed phaser shots that would knock off the warp drive for a while, but not permanently. Pirate E started limping away on impulse power.
Bauer reported "Pirate A secure, no hostages on board. Teams standing by for orders."
Jacobs looked at Santini "Status of Pirate A?"
Santini checked his sensors "Fully functional, no damage. Looks like their engines are stressed a bit."
Jacobs looked around at the various displays. "Present status, everyone. Let's go around the room."
Santini started "No damage to the ship, engines in good condition, ready for warp speeds."
Bauer went next "Pirate A secured, 4 teams on board. No Hostages found; 12 prisoners taken. No friendly casualties."
Grimm pointed to his displays on the wall "Pirate E severely damaged. Impulse power now, warp power possible maybe a day. Weapons and shields are severely damaged. No other threats in the area."
Agathon was next "Pirates B, C, D, departed different vectors at warp 7. So far, no correlation between their courses and previous intelligence."
Carter added "Station holding with Pirate A. Ready to answer orders."
Hotchner reported "Analyzing data, but hostages probably on one or all the Pirates. Sensor data may yield which hostage was beamed where."
Leonaidas checked his board "12 Prisoners currently on Pirate A. About 70 Norsicans on Pirate E, we still have the original Beluga crew in sick bay or cargo bay 3."
Jareau finished up "Starfleet was updated just prior to the engagement. No transmissions detected."
Jacobs finished swiveling around, then looked at the main viewer. It had Pirate A stationary. Then he spoke "Our mission is to find and rescue the hostages. They have been transferred and presumably split up to complicate rescue. Ideas?"
Hotchner started off, "I would assume that the three are going to rendezvous at some point. They would only do this after they have lost us. Starfleet intelligence reports a Norsican base in the area, coordinates unknown."
Jacobs nodded "So after they lost us, presumably they would go to their base?"
"Perhaps. Even the pirates are operating off some hierarchy. They would also need someplace to trade their plunder and possibly slaves."
Jacobs stood up and walked to the viewscreen. In front of the viewscreen he turned around and looked at everyone on the bridge "Ok, let's assume that there is a base, how do we find it?"
Bauer offered "We could hack Pirate A's database."
Jacobs nodded "Good, what if that doesn't work?" He looked around. Nobody was offering ideas.
Leonaidas looked up "I have an idea."
