Chapter 10

BRIDGE

USS WISCONSIN

Captain Jacobs watched the arrival of the Pike. He was glad that Troy got a good ship. The Pike had Starfleet's basic saucer section with two nacelles; one projecting from on top and one underneath. It was one of the new destroyer class ships, not really meant for sole forward deployment but rather fleet escort. In this case, the Pike was going to take the survivors from the pirate attacks off Wisconsin's hands and get them better treatment.

Lt Jareau turned to the Captain, "Pike hailing sir."

Jacobs turned and smiled, "Open the channel. Put it on your main screen."

Simmons' images showed up on the Communications main screen "Josh, how are you doing? Glad to see you finally got out of spacedock. Did you have to row out?"

Jacobs laughed "Not quite, we had them pull spacedock away from us. How are you doing?"

"Doing well, been enjoying my own command. I've heard you've had a trial by fire."

Jacobs shrugged "Not really, we've been answering other people's distress signals. Are you ready to take the survivors?"

Troy nodded "Yes, we can start that right away. Mind if I come over to see the latest heavy cruiser?"

"Sure, beam on over. We'll start cleaning engineering right away." Jacobs quipped.

Simmons finished "Five minutes, Pike out." And the screen returned to the view of the Pike's approach.

Jacobs pushed the com button "Jacobs to sickbay."

Dr. Mallard's voice came through "Sickbay here."

"Ducky, how long will the transfer of patients take?"

Dr. Mallard looked at his terminal "The beaming over will be relatively short. I would like to personally catch up the Pike's doctor on a few of the cases. Give me about an hour."

Jacobs answered "That would be perfect. Let me know when you are done."

Dr. Mallard said "Will do." And shutdown the com.

Jacobs got up "Ben, you have the conn. JJ, I'll be with Capt Simmons."

TRANSPORTER ROOM

USS WISCONSIN

Jacobs walked in and the transporter attendant said "Pike signals ready to transport."

Jacobs responded "Energize."

The transporter beamed Captain Simmons over. He was wearing the new standard Starfleet uniform of a red jacket, black pants, and white for command collar. He stepped down and shook hands with Jacobs "Josh, good to see you. Are you planning on going camping?"

Jacobs pointed at his uniform. Wisconsin's uniform was black field pants with the new field gray jacket and division color shirt. "No, regulations allow us to chose this as our standard, and we chose it because of the ability to quickly respond to a wide variety of environments, either shipboard or planetside."

The two walked out of the transporter room into the hallway. Simmons added "I can understand. These uniforms are nice as dress uniforms, but seem impractical for normal duty. The interior seems pretty standard stuff. I remember some of our correspondence concerning customization of the Wisconsin. Did you get the EMP device installed yet?"

Jacobs nodded "Yes, though that was a battle."

Simmons continued "I saw some of the hearings, looks like Senator Jameson had it out for you."

Jacobs shrugged "Politics in action. The committee eventually saw it Starfleet's way."

Simmons asked "How was the support from them?"

Jacobs continued "Chief of Starfleet Operations Nogura was fantastic. He, Admiral Kirk, and a few others were very supportive of some of our ideas that we cooked up on the Wolverine."

"Like manual backups?"

Jacobs pointed at a box on the ceiling "As much as we could do. For instance, your backup communications system. We can drop signs down from these with cable deployment from a few areas around the ship. It's basic messages only, but better than nothing. Shorewood systems went all in and took your designs to the next level."

Simmons turned "You can fly this ship without power?"

Jacobs stopped in front of a turbolift and it opened. They stepped in and Jacobs said "Engineering. Yes, we can of a sort. The Senate committee denied the impulse drive. We have the standard cruiser drive installed. The attitude control, low power thrusters, phasers, and other ideas we cooked up have been installed."

The turbolift opened on the engineering deck, the two stepped out and walked in to the deck. Santini looked up from the main board he was leaning over. Jacobs introduced them "Dominic Santini, my chief engineer. Captain Troy Simmons" and the two men shook hands.

Santini smiled his big toothy smile "Glad to meet you Captain, it's great to meet the man who kept Captain Jacobs out of trouble all those years."

Simmons joked "He made it a full-time job. Mr. Santini, I must hand it to you, you did a good job on Wisconsin. Glad to hear you guys were able to get most of the improvements installed."

Santini laughed "It's not easy to convince somebody that infallible technology isn't infallible. We still have some others to go."

Simmons mentioned "Josh mentioned that you have phasers even while under the EMP effect?"

Santini pointed "Yes, we have a couple of short medium power shots, provided we have the capacitors charged before the EMP. Our batteries then can charge the phasers once."

Simmons asked "How were you able to make that happen?"

Santini answered "An Andorian scientist made a shield material that protects from the EMP. Unfortunately, it's very rare and expensive. We have enough to just protect one phaser bank emmitter, battery, and capacitor now. Later we might be able to do more, but just that for now."

The three went around engineering describing the changes in design and theory. Suddenly Ben Grimm's voice came over the com "Bridge to Captain Jacobs"

Jacobs walked to a wall com unit "Captain here."

"We are receiving a distress call from the Pan Galactic cruiser Tahitii. They report being attacked by pirates."

Jacobs had a wry look to his face "Let me guess, Norsicans."

"You guessed right. What do you want to do?"

Jacobs looked at Simmons "Troy, we're going to have to be going."

Simmons nodded "Let me know if you need help. In the meantime, I'll get your survivors back to Earth."

Jacobs turned to the com panel "Acknowledge distress call. We'll be underway as soon as Ducky gets back aboard."

"Aye Sir."

USS WISCONSIN BRIDGE

TEN HOURS LATER

"Captain's Log, Stardate 6311.2. We are chasing down the Pan Galactic ship Tahiti. The Tahiti was taken over by pirates and they are now flying it to some unknown destination. We intend to intercept and liberate the Tahiti from the Pirates. Fortunately, intercept will probably happen in about twelve hours."

Lt Jareau turned around "Captain, incoming message from Starfleet. Priority tasking."

Jacobs nodded "Onscreen"

The viewscreen switched to show Admiral Kirk on Earth "Captain Jacobs, there is another ship that is being attacked by pirates. Coordinates are as follows." He pushed a button, "Nearest ship that can assist is the Huron, however they are only a scout ship and might be outgunned. By the time you get this message, your tactical situation will have changed. Evaluate and advise your decision. One more thing to consider, however I do not want it to be your primary concern. The ship is a private warp shuttle. It's Senator Jameson's."

The viewscreen went back to the starfield at warp speed. Jacobs leaned back in his seat. "Lt. Agathon, plot our position, the position of the Tahiti, and the Senator's Shuttle."

The viewscreen changed to an image showing the three ship's position along with vectors and time to intercept. The choice was going to be either Jameson or a thousand vacationing civilians on the Tahiti. Intercept time for either was comparable.

Jacobs said a quick prayer for guidance, wisdom, and strength.

"Lt Jareau. Open a channel to Starfleet."

Jareau turned and said "Channel open sir."

"Admiral Kirk, message received and understood. Intercept times are almost identical, they also would prohibit dual rescues. In my best judgment, the civilians would be of priority. We intend on carrying out our liberation of the Tahiti. After that, we can assist Huron on the rescue of Senator Jameson's shuttle."