Chapter 8
PIRATE E BRIDGE
SIX HOURS LATER
"Sir! That Federation Starship is closing on us!" the Norsican weapons operator reported.
The Norsican Captain jumped out of his chair and yelled at the engineering station, "I NEED WARP DRIVE NOW!"
The engineer turned, "That starship did severe damage to our structure, engineering section, and the pylons to the warp nacelles. If we try to go to warp, we will either be torn to shreds or blown to bits. It will take another day at least before we can warp."
The Norsican Captain looked around, there was simply nothing left of the ship. That Federation starship did too good a job crippling them. They could breathe, and move the ship at impulse. But little else. The communications operator was working feverishly to rebuild a makeshift transmitter to call for help. But at the rate the fix was going it would be a week before they could rebuild the transmitter. By then they could be at the base.
Good thing was that they got the hostages off the ship before the transporter was knocked out. This new Federation starship class looked an awful lot like their Constitution class, but it had warp engines he had never seen before. Also, the fire control was unlike anything he had seen before. The hits were more precise than anything he had seen before. Just as they had gotten in range of the Claw, the hostages were transported to his ship. The Federation starship also focused its attention on the Claw by boarding it, according to sensors, and then it started hitting his ship, the biggest pirate of the group. The Pirate Captain realized that to protect the operation, he had to get the hostages to the other ships. During the exchange of fire, the Captain of Pirate E transported one hostage each to Pirate B, C, and D. Then the transporters went out of service along with warp power. Then disruptors, then the main computer, not to count the numerous minor systems with shock damage to them. Impulse power was even temporarily knocked out, but was restored quickly.
Now, the starship was coming back, and he was still in no shape to fight. If his ship survives this, they better get a huge portion of the ransom. All he is going to have to do is survive this next encounter. Maybe he can slither out of this by pulling the current state of Federation-Norsican relations and politics into the fray.
The weapons operator looked at his display "They are activating transporters" and six figures shimmered onto the bridge. All were armed and dressed in black.
The biggest one stepped forward and was scowling at the Norsican Captain. The Norsican pirate figured this was the leader, so he tried a tactic "YOU HAVE COMMITTED AN ACT OF PIRACY! I demand you get off my bridge immediately."
Teal'c didn't change his expression, just continued scowling at the Norsican Captain. He touched his ear communicator piece and said "Teal'c to Wisconsin. Bridge secure."
Just then the transporter shimmered again and six more figures appeared. They weren't dressed in the new Starfleet uniform, but were dressed in black combat pants, dark grey combat jacket, and various colored shirts underneath the jacket. All had a muted Starfleet symbol on their jacket, but it was colored like the grey jacket. The Norsican Captain was starting to wonder if he was dealing with a Starfleet crew or a renegade crew. Renegade crews were uncommon among the Norsican Navy, but not unheard of. He and his ship were one, turning to piracy in favor of the Navy.
Teal'c turned to the only human with a white shirt on. He said evenly "The Norsican Captain is accusing us of piracy."
The human stepped forward. The Norsican Captain recognized him as the Federation Captain. This human looked him directly in the eyes. "You may file a complaint with your authorities, we already have with ours. They have been notified of all sensor data that we have concerning the conflict earlier."
The Norsican Captain started thinking quickly, "We were there to stop the pirates. You interfered! I demand a formal apology and supplies to get my ship in proper order again."
The Captain nodded, then he turned to the boarding party "McGee, hack their computer, see what you can find." And McGee walked to a station and started working.
The Norsican Captain yelled "DID YOU HEAR ME? YOU ARE COMMITTING AN ACT OF WAR AGAINST NORSICA!"
Jacobs turned back and said calmly "You and I both know that's not true, so don't even try that play."
McGee looked up from his tricorder, "Sensor data confirmed. They did have the hostages for a while then transported them to the other ships."
"Anything on where they were going?"
"No, that was either not entered or deleted." McGee shook his head.
Jacobs turned to the Norsican Captain. "No state of war exists between our peoples. Also, no treaty exists. By interstellar law, you are declared a pirate and will be treated accordingly."
The Norsican Captain wasn't about to give up yet. "Even if I am a Pirate, which I am not, your Starfleet's policy was only to use force as self defense, not attack as you did. You are in violation of your own regulations!"
Jacobs smirked "So you are an expert on my regulations? You're wrong. Starfleet's policy is just this: we will not negotiate with terrorists, pirates included. We also will do what is necessary to rescue hostages. Captain, I'm going to let you go, not because of any soft heart or compassion. You will do a far greater service this time for me rather than die."
The Norsican scoffed "What's that?"
"You will take our message back to your …. People. We do not negotiate with terrorists; we will do whatever is necessary to secure hostages. I think you realize we could've blown your ship up several times over already. I want you alive to take this message back."
The Norsican realized now that his share of the ransom was safe. He could tell the overlord whatever he wanted, but he had done battle with a Federation heavy cruiser and lived. Starfleet can say what they want, but they are still soft because they don't follow up with action. All they will do is file a complaint, Weak. All he needed to do was get away. "I don't know who to talk to, but be sure, the Norsican government will know about your attack on this ship. You are going to be in big trouble when I get in touch with the Ambassador because you've made a big mistake."
Jacobs looked over to Hotchner who made a subtle point to the Captain's chair. Jacobs caught the idea and turned back to the Captain. Opening his communicator he called "Jacobs to Santini, you ready?"
Santini's voice came over the communicator "Everything is all connected. We're standing by."
Jacobs responded "Roger that, all units masks on, Stand by for my signal." The Wisconsin crewmen on the bridge alternated putting on their gasmasks.
When all were done, Jacobs looked at the Captain in the eye. "Just so you understand me I know exactly who I am talking to. I know the difference between Norsican Navy and Pirates. This is how I know." He took his phaser out and shot the Norsican Captain's chair, burning it down in a second.
The Norsican Captain lost his temper. He yelled and leaped at Jacobs. Jacobs stepped aside and blocked his arm as he flew past. Teal'c anticipated this and had his hand on the Norsican's back and pushed hard as the Norsican hit the floor, knocking the wind out of him. As the Norsican was rolling around on the floor Jacobs started putting his gasmask on. "A disciplined Captain of a Navy would not respond this way. A self-centered egotistical Pirate who owes tribute up his own food chain would respond exactly like you did to his symbol of authority being ruined. Take my message to your people. Give us the hostages before more people get hurt." He pushed a button on his communicator.
Down in Pirate E's Engineering, Santini along with the Badgers who accompanied him, received a signal on their communicators. Santini opened a valve that came from a tank that they had beamed over from the Wisconsin. The valve dumped gas directly into the air conditioning system and the gas started putting Norsicans out all over the ship. Dr. Mallard concocted a mixture just for Norsicans. Santini opened his communicator and pushed a button that marked a timer. About a minute later, his communicator sent a signal to all others that the Norsicans should be out by now.
The team in engineering started planting small devices all around engineering. Santini started shutting down systems all over the ship. Engines, sensors, whatever he could. Pretty soon the ship was just on batteries with emergency lights. The team in the Bridge also set devices and McGee continued to hack the computer. He tried downloading as much as he could, and set viruses to be left in the computer in the short time that was allowed.
One other team was going throughout the ship placing devices in out-of-place places. There wasn't much time, because everyone was set to beam out in a matter of a few minutes.
The signal also went to the Wisconsin. As soon as it came through, Leonaidas turned to Jareau and said "Launch Raptors"
The Raptors launched immediately and turned to Pirate E. Pirate E was a short distance away and one Raptor went to each warp nacelle. Arriving at the nacelles, each Raptor had its task to perform. Raptor 1 had Alan Carter flying and Agathon was his copilot. Agathon was standing up in the overhead hatch. Carter flew up near the end of the warp nacelle and was looking for an access hatch. He found it on top of the nacelle and rolled inverted "TC, this is Outback, I found the hatch. Look about thirty feet forward of the end of the nacelle on the top side. It's a hexagonal hatch."
TC's voice came through "Got it, thanks Outback."
Carter was holding the Raptor steady just far enough away for Agathon to work the manual controls and open the hatch. The area beyond was unpressurized and Agathon pulled up to go inside "Going in Outback."
Agathon glided in zero G into the nacelle. His suit lights lit up the area and he now was looking forward up the nacelle. He could see the warp engines and plasma guides. Following the plasma guide aft he could see the final collecting cone. Working the handholds until he got to the cone, he pulled on his lanyard that had a cone attached to it. The cone was very simple, about two feet across with a six inch opening at the tip of the cone. It was made of a special material that Santini prepared. He just slid the cone inside the existing cone and took out his portable welder and spot weld it into place. "Helo is finished, coming back."
Raptor 2 had the same duty. Once the copilots were back aboard, the Raptors returned to the Wisconsin. Leonaidas was looking at the schematic of the Pirate with the teams. Checking the time, he pushed the communicator button, "All teams, time is at four minutes thirty seconds. Beam out in ninety seconds."
The teams started forming up to transporter formation, and were beamed over in a short amount of time. Jacobs walked up to the transporter console, pressed the com switch and said "Bridge, Captain here, report"
"Leonadias here. All teams now aboard, Raptors secured, ready for Warp Speed."
"Then let's start pursuit of Pirate B, Warp 7 when ready."
"Aye Aye sir."
PIRATE E BRIDGE
SIX HOURS LATER
The Norsican Captain looked around. Everyone's nerves were frazzled with the events from the last day. Engineering finally got a replacement chair for him installed- what a humiliation that human captain inflicted. Once his crew regained consciousness, they started powering up the ship only to have small charges detonate all over the ship randomly. Right now, his crew is trying to get warp power back online to get them back to their base for more extensive repairs.
But every time that a system came back online, a small charge went off killing the system again. It was delaying them getting back to the base. Suddenly, Engineering called up "Engineering to Bridge! Urgent!"
The Captain slapped the intercom "What is it!"
"We've discovered a transmitter. It was attached to a frame and has been transmitting our position."
"Disable it and bring it to communications, they could use some components." The Captain ordered. Pushing the Public Adress, "Listen up everyone, look for transmitters that the Federation soldiers left. Disable them and bring them to engineering."
A short time later another transmitter was found. So, the Federation was trying to track him, he'd have to be extra careful getting them back to the base. He thumbed the intercom to engineering, "How long until we have warp power online?"
The exhausted engineer responded "I have no idea. Without the booby-traps, it would be about a day. It's going to be longer because we have no idea where the next trap is going to be found."
"How many have you found?"
"About a dozen so far. One of my guys is getting bandaged up because one went off in his face."
The Norsican Captain slapped the intercom off. He'd love to get this Federation Captain cornered with a dozen of his ships. He'd make the Federation hurt for this.
