Chapter 11

EARTH STARFLEET COMMAND

ADMIRAL KIRK'S OFFICE

Kirk was looking over some reports of the fleet near the Klingon- Romulan- Federation border zone known as 'The Triangle.' He was being transferred to Starfleet Academy as the Superintendant soon, but had to get his replacement ready to assume duty when he left in a month. Overall, he was looking forward to the transfer. It would be a chance for him to get back to some duty in space again. Kirk was thinking he could swing a lot of inspection duty of cadets running starships, maybe even swing getting the Enterprise assigned to the Academy. Being one of Starfleet's most famous officers had its perks after all.

Kirk's secretary came in with Admirals Warren and Clayborne in tow. "Sir, Admirals Clayborne and Warren to see you."

Kirk knew this wasn't a social call. He stood up to shake their hands "Craig, Harry, good to see you. What brings you here?"

Clayborne started first, "I want to know why the Wisconsin isn't going to rescue Senator Jameson's shuttle."

Clayborne outranked Kirk, and was equal in rank to Warren. Clayborne had an interesting history. Unlike Kirk or Warren who commanded starships for years, Clayborne had only one tour on a heavy cruiser. Clayborne was thought to have made rank by political favor rather than reputation and was favored to replace Nogura as Commander in Chief Starfleet when Yamato retired. Clayborne always seemed to be in the right place politically at the right time, and generally made politically correct decisions rather than common sense ones.

Kirk motioned for them to sit down and sat himself behind his desk. "Please have a seat, let me show you why." He pushed a few buttons on his desk pad and the wallscreen lit up. "At the time the Wisconsin received the notice that Senator Jameson's shuttle was being attacked, the relative positions are these places." The screen showed a starmap with the Wisconsin, Tahitii, and Jameson's shuttle plotted in place.

Kirk continued, "The Wisconsin could have either stopped its pursuit of the Tahitii and pursued the shuttle, or continue on. The time would have been equal either way, but Captain Jacobs felt that a thousand Federation citizens trumped assisting the Huron in rescuing the Senator."

Clayborne pressed on, "Why could they not have exchanged assignments? Have the Huron rescue the Tahitii?"

Kirk pushed another button and showed some schematics of the ships involved. "First of all, we suspect the pirate ships to have around a dozen on board each. Their firepower should be relatively small. Their ships weapons would primarily be used to bring down a victim's shields then a boarding party beams on board to take their objective. There have been a couple of bigger pirates noted, frigate sized ships, and this is what the Wisconsin's Captain was considering. The tactical situation for liberating a cruise liner is significantly more demanding than that of a shuttle. He felt that since the time was equal between the two, it would be better to have the more capable ship rescue the greater number of citizens."

Clayborne pointed at the screen "But a Senator is on that shuttle! We need the best assets available to protect him!"

Warren interjected, "The best assets? You and Jameson said years ago that Starfleet's Marines were 'Too Militaristic' and would project the wrong image to other spacefaring civilizations. You enthusiastically carried out the dismantling of the Marines and forming the Starfleet Security division. Now it is not good enough to do the job? Even one of our scout ships outmans a pirate five to one. Why is Starfleet Security now no longer able to do the job?"

Clayborne was getting angry, "Is this what is going on? You are hanging out the Senator out to dry because he opposed the concept of the Wisconsin?"

Kirk spoke up, "No, Captain Jacobs thought that since the tactical situation on the space liner was significantly more challenging, he should perform that rather than the Huron. I agree with him and authorize his plans."

Clayborne shook his head, "If anything happens to Jameson, this will come down on you all. We can't afford to have him hurt."

Kirk stood up and leaned over his desk toward Clayborne. "Captain Jacobs made the best call he could with the given information. In case you forgot since you last were in space, Captains are always making decisions for the greater good of the Federation, frequently with only a partial picture available."

Clayborne stood up nose to nose to Kirk. "Did you tell him that Jameson was onboard the Shuttle?"

Kirk thought that he might have put Jacobs in a bad position. "Yes, I did. However, I agree with his assessment and would have made the same call as he did. To do otherwise would be an extraordinarily bad decision and I'm surprised you are even arguing for it!" He wasn't going to back down.

The two stared at each other. Clayborne relented, "If this goes bad, I'm going to make sure the Senate knows exactly what happened!"

Kirk answered, "And regardless what happens, I'm going to make sure they know what you recommended."

Clayborne turned and stormed out of the room. Kirk relaxed a bit and Warren stood and smiled, "He's had it out for you ever since you were recommended for Admiral after your five year mission. Be careful of him. We both know he couldn't find his way to Klingon territory now, but he has too many political friends."

Kirk looked at Warren. "Is this what the Federation is becoming? Political instead of Principled? I remember when we did things because they were right, not because they would garner favor."

Warren nodded. "Maybe we are losing a bit of what we used to be. All I'm saying is be careful."

Kirk smirked. "I didn't play careful when being a Captain. I did what I felt was right. It served me well."

Warren smiled as he walked out the door. "That was in unexplored space, you are in far more dangerous territory now."

USS WISCONSIN

BADGER BRIEFING ROOM

Jacobs stood before all the Badgers with the screens behind him showing schematics and the plan of attack. "People, that is our plan. Remember our priority is safety of the hostages. Secondary is gathering intel on where their base is. Follow your training, trust your training. You all have done well so far, and we have a lot of people depending on us to do our job well in the future. Thank you."

Everyone stood up as the Captain left, with Leonaidas beside him. Jacobs turned to Leonaidas as they walked, "Leo, I have one more stop before the action starts."

Leo smiled "Octavian? Mind if I come along too?"

Jacobs smiled "Wouldn't have it any other way."

The two walked into Octavian's office. Octavian rose, smiled, and shook their hands "Good to see you gentlemen. How much longer before action starts?"

Jacobs glanced at the clock. "About an hour."

Octavian looked at the clock. "Good, Good. Is there anything I can do to help?"

Jacobs and Leonaidas exchanged glances. "Yes, first pray with us."

Octavian came around his desk. "Absolutely, let's pray." The three stood in a huddle. "Dear Lord, we're once again here to petition you for guidance and protection on the crew. We're about to enter into a very challenging situation and many lives are at stake. Please guide everyone into performing marvelously, well above their ability. Please use us to glorify you. In Christ's holy name, Amen."

The three men gave each other bear hugs. Octavian asked, "What's the other thing I can do?"

Jacobs answered, "Ducky and Bauer wondered if you would be willing to standby to help out with the hostages, calm them down, assure them that they are ok. Post traumatic stuff, Ducky is thinking he's going to be swamped."

Octavian smiled. "Absolutely, anything I can do. Which transporter room do they want me at?"

Leonaidas said, "Transporter room one should be good. That's where we will be bringing in all the casualties."

Octavian nodded. "I'll be there ready to do anything."

Jacobs laughed. "Coming from you that will be a lot. Be ready in a half hour at transporter room one."

Octavian answered "Aye Aye, sir"

USS WISCONSIN BRIDGE

INTERCEPT TIME

The Wisconsin, with the Claw trailing closely behind it, had the Tahitii on passive sensors for a while. They detected a pirate ship flying formation just off the port side of the Tahitii. Looks like another scout sized ship, probably a dozen people or so to deal with. They were coming up dead astern of the ships, to better mask their approach. The big challenge was to try to do a stealthy approach at warp speed to a pair of vessels flying through free space. Since all the vessels were travelling faster than light, sensors sensing the gravity distortions of stars, sensors sensing warp trails of other ships, and active subspace sensors were the primary methods of determining what was around you. The trick was to get your ship in the warp trail of the ship ahead, and stay there during the approach. It demanded precision flying a 900,000 ton plus ship to within feet of the center of the warp trail the Tahitii was creating.

During the crafting of the plan, all acknowledged that there were a lot of variables that had to go their way: the Tahitii had to hold a course for a long time, the Tahitii also couldn't use its active sensors behind her, the pirate ship assumed to be with it also had not to be able to detect the approach, and when it came to stop the Tahitii, the engineers aboard had to be slow in counteracting what was going to happen.

Not only was the Wisconsin flying directly behind the Tahitii, but the Claw was directly behind the other pirate ship. Also, to help spoof possible detection, the Claw was maintaining the same relative position to the Wisconsin as the pirate ship to the Tahitii. The hope was that if detected, the Wisconsin-Claw combination would appear as a sensor echo of some type. Overall, it was tough to takedown a ship at warp, almost impossible to deal with two at the same time. No one was pleased with the plan, but in the short time, nobody could come up with better. There was no historical precedent to this action, general strategy was to wait for the target ship to come out of warp. The Wisconsin did not have the luxury of time, plus when the Tahitii came out of warp, they would most likely be in Pirate territory and outgunned, and would lose the element of surprise anyway.

Not using active sensors was a double-edged sword. While it allowed a stealthy approach, it also prevented more accurate data to be collected about the two ships. The positions and numbers of Norsicans could not be determined and had to be assumed. During the meeting, Jacobs asked the best way to perform the attack. Bauer said that that in general, overwhelming force would increase the probability of success. The probability went higher if the Badgers were not restricted to the stun setting, and Jacobs approved. Highest priority was safety of the passengers. The plan started to form up around some assumptions and the organization of the Badgers. The Badgers were organized on a basis of a six-man squad. So, each transporter would handle one squad, and a Raptor would handle two squads, or a team. Team 1 would be in transporter rooms 1 and 2, while team 2 would be in transporter rooms 3 and 4.

The Wisconsin approached quickly from astern at warp speed. Both the Pirate and the Tahitii were going at the Tahitii's max speed and thus, had their shields down. Jacobs had paced the bridge and finally settled down now that they were to start action.

Jacobs did not like elaborate plans, and wanted a simple one, one that had more tolerance to things not going as planned. But this was not one of them. As they were getting closer, Santini was at the engineering station monitoring the Wisconsin's engines as well as the Tahitii's. There is no known way to perform a successful transport through a warp field, so the first critical item that needed to be done was to disrupt the starliner's warp field. You cannot do that without either causing it to drop out of warp, or surrounding it with your own. Since Wisconsin wasn't able to add that much volume to its warp field, the only other choice was to disrupt Tahitii's. In order to do this without damaging the ship, Wisconsin had to get close enough to use its warp field to interfere with Tahitii's, very close, undetected or the surprise was over.

Alan Carter was at the helm and Santini was working at the engineering station. Jacobs turned around to look at the engineering displays. Santini had his big display showing a side view of Wisconsin sliding up underneath the Tahitii. The display also showed the warp fields surrounding the respective ships. There were other graphics showing field strengths, frequencies, phases, and other data that Santini needed to get the fields first to mesh properly, then disrupt them later.

Carter just put on a headset-monocle device that allowed him to see data displayed directly to his eye. Also, as he moved his head, through the monocle he could see in that direction to maneuver the ship. He was manually flying the Wisconsin through a pair of joysticks at this time, checking that all the angles were proper for this delicate maneuver.

Santini, looking at his displays, announced "Ok, I'm ready for us to interface with their warp field."

Jacobs looked at Lt Jareau. "Still nothing from their ships?"

Jareau shook her head. "I haven't detected any sensors or communications, I'm not sure they are even looking at all."

Leonaidas added "Makes me think that they are trying to run silent. To avoid any detection."

Jacobs nodded. "Then let's take advantage of it." Pushing the PA button, he announced "All Hands, this is the Captain. We are in place, and are assuming that we have arrived undetected. The operation commences now."

Carter took the cue and gently moved the Wisconsin up so that its warp field literally mixed in with the Tahitii's. Santini watched the fields mix with each other and worked his controls to keep from affecting Tahitii too much. If they were watching out on the Tahitii they would notice, but it would take a sharp engineer to recognize what was happening. Santini then pressed a button which started a pre-programmed sequence. First it activated, "COLLISION ALERT" throughout the ship. After that sounded, the program set up a warp field collapse on both ships. The ships immediately started a rapid deceleration. Everybody on board was braced for the deceleration, however nobody on the Tahitii would be. On the Tahitii, anybody that was standing would be tossed off their feet. On the bridge, the Norsicans flew toward the front instrument panel and one of them even ended up above the dashboard up against the window. Coming down through sublight, the deceleration stopped. Santini pushed his com button which Jareau had set up for PA. "All hands, we are sublight now!"

The Badgers were already jumping on the transporter pads, and as soon as they were in place, a technician pulled a pin on a stun grenade and placed it in the center pad and jumped clear. Another transporter technician had the respective site selected and energized. The stun grenade was first to dematerialize by a second, followed closely by the squads.

THE CLAW BRIDGE

JUST BEFORE WISCONSIN – TAHITII WARP FIELD INTERFACE

The Claw was ready. They had maneuvered in directly behind the pirate. The Claw had a good, point-blank phaser lock on the pirate ship. As soon as Dietrich saw the warp field fluctuating on the Tahitii, he told Agathon, "Sir, it's starting"

Agathon hit his PA, "All hands, the Wisconsin is starting to interface with the Tahitii's Warp field. Action is going to start any second. Be ready."

It seemed like an eternity waiting for the Tahitii to fall out of warp. Suddenly, there was a distortion around the Tahitii, and the ship virtually disappeared. The Claw was ready and fired its phasers at the pirate's engines. Dietrich also started up the sensors on maximum to see what was on board. The pirate's engines were hit and badly damaged with a point-blank phaser shot, and there was no shielding to deflect the damage. The warp field promptly collapsed and it fell out of warp. Agathon was ready for that and slowed the Claw as well. The change in distance of the two ships was negligible, but since it was a few seconds after Tahitii fell out of warp, they were over a million miles from the Tahitii-Wisconsin combination.

The original plan was to beam part of Badger team 4 on board, 3 at a time, until they took over the ship. What Dietrich saw horrified him on his display. "WARP CORE BREACH IN PROGRESS!"

Agathon started turning the ship to make a run. "Beam any good guys onboard."

Dietrich did find a human life sign, locked on and started the transporter sequence. Agathon was at full impulse power now running away from the ship as fast as he could at sublight. The transporter pad at the aft end of the pirate bridge glowed and a human male in a kneeling position appeared. Dietrich yelled "GOOD GUYS ON BOARD"

Agathon engaged warp drive. On the pirate ship, the warp core that was hit with phasers, was in the process of having a core breach. Basically, antimatter containment is lost, and it collides with matter in places where it is not designed to inside the core in amounts that are not manageable, usually all of it that is in the reactor at one time. The amount of energy released is what drives a starship for usually about a month, or enough to destroy a small moon. The Claw made its escape just in time for the pirate ship to explode.

Agathon turned around as Mara Jensen and Dietrich were helping the ex-hostage off the pad. He stood up with a bewildered look. Agathon stood up "Welcome aboard the Starfleet Captured ship Claw, Lt Karl Agathon."

The human was obviously beaten and mistreated, "Captain Lopaka, Tahitii. Am I free?"

Agathon smiled "I know she doesn't look like much, but we just took her from some pirates. This now is a Starfleet vessel. We have an ongoing operation and need to get back to work. Lt. Jensen, please take him to my quarters and get one of the medics to look him over."

Captain Lopaka nodded, "Thank you Captain Agathon." Agathon nodded back and sat down at the helm. He started plotting a course back to the Tahitii. He started wondering how things were going on back there.

THE TAHITII JUST BEFORE INTERCEPT

ENGINE ROOM

Chief Engineer Koka kept stealing glances around the room looking at the Norsicans. His head hadn't quit hurting since they were boarded and he got a phaser rifle butt to the head. Even though the Norsican was a foot taller than he, he would still love to take one of them on in revenge for taking over the Tahitii.

There were a few Norsicans in engineering now. A couple on the catwalk on the second level around the warp core were overlooking the engineers below tending to the ship. Another couple on the main deck walking behind the stations. None looked like the engineer type, but he did not want to press the matter yet.

Koka noticed that the warp field started fluctuating oddly. He worked some controls and brought it back into balance. Funny thing, this feels familiar. Koka had served a few years in Starfleet and realized what was happening. On his monitor, he activated an external camera and saw one of the new refit cruisers sliding up underneath the ship. He quickly shut the sensor down.

Thinking quickly, he killed all visual sensors. Realizing what the Starfleet ship was up to, he looked to his first apprentice engineer across the bay. He made a quick typing sign with his hands and pointed to the computer monitor. The apprentice looked down just in time to see a message pop up "DELETE IMMEDIATELY, BE READY TO TRIP ALL ELECTRICAL BUS MAIN BREAKERS."

The apprentice blinked. What? He deleted the message and gave a quizzical look to Koka. Koka typed another message and it popped up on the apprentice's screen "VERY SOON, GRAB ONTO SOMETHING NOW. YOU'LL KNOW WHEN."

The apprentice looked around and all seemed calm. He noticed that Koka had taken a couple of steps to the aft side of his console. He kneeled and looked like he was inspecting something on the console, but there wasn't anything there to inspect. The apprentice realized that Koka was in a perfect spot if there was an emergency deceleration. The apprentice looked aft and saw the electrical bus panel and schematic on the wall. He tried to think quickly. There was a vertical brace near the warp core just a couple of feet from the console. He walked over to the aft side of it and leaned forward. This should be a good spot. To look casual, he pulled out a nutrition bar from his coveralls pocket and started eating it. A Norsican walked over with his phaser rifle and sneered, "What are you doing?"

The apprentice looked at him "Just grabbing a snack, I haven't eaten in hours." Looking at Koka, Koka nodded and gave a knowing look. He also grabbed the console supports. It must be soon. The apprentice saw that the Norsican was directly aft of him and he needed the Norsican to move. Even if it is only just a foot. "If you want some, there's a bunch of bars over there in that locker."

The Norsican looked and took a step. Just then the ship shook and there was a smashing deceleration. The Norsicans and engineers went flying forward except for Koka and the apprentice. Once the deceleration finished, the apprentice leaped for the Bus console and tripped all the main electrical busses. The whole ship instantly darkened and went to emergency lighting, artificial gravity instantly went to one tenth of normal. Koka leaped up and pushed a couple of buttons on the main console performing an emergency shutdown. The warp core started shutting down and all the warp plasma that was created was vented overboard. Koka heard a transporter start to hum.

The transporters on the Wisconsin were programmed to start the sequence with the stun grenade first followed by the personnel second. The stun grenades were made with an activating pin that was made from a material that does not transport. As soon as the grenade materialized minus the pin, it went off even as the personnel were almost materialized.

Koka turned to the hum, in the forward part of the engineering bay, saw the transporter effect, then a blinding flash and deafening bang. For a few seconds, he could not see or hear anything. As he started to see again, he felt a hand grab his arm. He wrenched his arm free and stumbled aft. Koka fell and heard some yelling, but could not make out the words. He saw a large form on top of him reach down for him, he rolled free and came up swinging, but missed.

It was difficult to see, darkened room with blinking red lights all over and emergency red lighting in the background. Koka could see the figure step forward towards him and could now hear a little better. The figure was holding up both hands to let Koka see that there was no weapon. He was dressed in total black combat webbing with gadgets all over, lieutenant rank, a black Starfleet symbol on his right shoulder, and some sort of patch with an animal on his left. He heard "SIR, I AM LT TEAL'C. STARFLEET. WE'RE HERE TO RESCUE YOU."

It was the best thing he ever heard.

BRIEFING ROOM

USS WISCONSIN

FOUR HOURS LATER

Captain Lopaka and Chief engineer Koka walked in. Jacobs and Leonaidas stood and welcomed them, "Gentlemen, please sit down." All sat down.

Jacobs turned to Lopaka. "Looks like Ducky took care of those bruises."

Lopaka smiled, "Yes, very well done. The rest of the passengers and crew are all fine, thank you very much."

Leonaidas asked, "What about the Tahitii? It did not look like to us you had any damage."

Koka answered, "Just minor cosmetic stuff around, phaser burns, etc. When you brought us to sublight, I did a controlled shutdown of the warp reactor, which prevented any damage. We are ready to go to warp speed."

Jacobs pressed a button and pointed to the viewscreen. "Very well, we need to be underway to help another situation. Your flight plan will parallel ours for a day or so, if you need us, call us."

The four men stood and Jacobs offered his hand. Lopaka shook it vigorously, "We understand Captain. Thank you for your help. Good luck and look us up sometime, we will comp first class cabins for you!"

The Tahitii officers left and Jacobs leaned over and pushed the com button. "Bridge, as soon as the Tahitii officers are back, inform the Claw and start pursuit course to Jameson's shuttle."

Lt Jareau answered "Aye aye, sir. Incoming message from the Huron. After action report."

Jacobs looked to Leonaidas, who raised his eyebrows. Jacobs and Leonaidas sat down and Jacobs spoke, "Let's have it."