Chapter 17 Setup

CLAW DROPOFF POINT

SYSTEM BLACKBEARD'S HIDEOUT

The Wisconsin-Claw group slid up to a small asteroid field outside Blackbeard's hideout. Agathon was on the Wisconsin to get some last minute data. Nothing was being left to chance now, not even the small chance of a stray signal being picked up by the Pirates. Karl Agathon picked up the memory stick with the latest sensor data and some programming that Wisconsin provided for the Claw's targeting system.

Jacobs was at the hangar deck with Agathon and Octavian. The main doors were closed, the shuttlecraft Slayton prepped to go. "Helo, good hunting. We will be looking for you in thirty hours." The two shook hands. All bowed their heads and Octavian offered a prayer of protection for the Claw.

Agathon looked at Jacobs back, "Thank you sir. We will do our part. The Claw is a good ship."

Jacobs smiled. "All captains think their ships are the best. It is nice to be in charge, to be responsible. You have done a wonderful job, keep up the good work."

Agathon nodded, turned around and stepped in the shuttle. Dietrich was at the controls, and a few Badgers were in the back. "Wisconsin signals ready sir."

Agathon sat down and nodded. Dietrich called the LSO, "Slayton ready to launch."

The LSO replied. "Doors opening, forcefield in place. The pallet will launch 1 minute after your departure."

The Slayton gently lifted off and went just outside the hangar bay doors. Behind it trailed a cable attached to a very large pallet. The pallet was loaded with about thirty cylindrical devices about the size of a man. It also had a large box that was about the same size as one of the cylinders. When it came to launch the pallet, the artificial gravity was turned off. A few deckhands in gravity boots walked to the pallet and picked it up. They gently moved it towards the forcefield keeping the air in the hangar deck. When the pallet touched the forcefield, it started to accelerate out the hangar. Before too long it was outside and all the Slayton had to do was tug it into position. Agathon pointed at the display between them. "We think that this is a good asteroid right here to set up. Hover over the sunward side of the rock. The other coordinates are on this pad."

As the Slayton moved toward the asteroid, the Wisconsin slowly slipped away from the system. Agathon watched it go off in the distance. Funny, it seems like there should be some sound, but it was dead quiet. Maybe the wrong choice of words. Dietrich started hovering over the asteroid. Agathon got up and went to the door. "Everybody check your suit integrity." All responded with thumbs up. Agathon then depressurized the cabin and opened the door. Just outside was the surface with the pallet a short distance away. Dietrich did a good job stopping the motion of both at the right time, not easy to do even with autopilot.

Agathon and the Badgers went out and with their suits, thrusted over to the pallet and maneuvered it to the surface. Once on the surface, they set some anchor points to keep it from floating off. Agathon and a couple of the Badgers disconnected the box and anchored it to the surface. Agathon opened an access panel and started turning the box on while a couple of the Badgers pulled out some antennae and set them up around the box. After a short time, they gave each other a thumbs up and went back to the pallet. At the pallet, they disconnected the first set of three cylinders and floated up to the ship with them.

Once onboard, Agathon signaled a "1" to Dietrich, who flew the ship a short distance away. Artificial gravity was off and the back door opened once again. Agathon and one of the Badgers opened a small access panel and activated the device. They disconnected it from the framework of the other two, and very gently pushed it out the door. Agathon thought, "one down, twenty-nine to go." He turned to Dietrich and signaled "2" to him.

FAR SIDE OF SUN

SYSTEM BLACKBEARD'S HIDEOUT

16 HOURS LATER.

The Wisconsin came out of warp relatively close to the sun. Down in the Hangar Bay, Jacobs was seeing the Badgers off. They were going to be in good hands. Jacobs looked at Carter in Raptor 1 and TC in Raptor 2. Here is the price of command, Jacobs would love to be flying this mission, but his place was elsewhere here. Jacobs observed as Octavian prayed over the Badgers and the Badgers and Octavian huddled while Octavian prayed. "Lord, we ask you to bless these men. Please give them your divine protection, guidance, and unusual wisdom. Please help them to shoot straight. In Jesus' name, Amen."

Jacobs said goodbye to all, he shook hands with Teal'c and Bauer. "Good hunting guys. Bring our kids home safely."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow and in his typical formal accent said, "Indeed." Bauer quietly nodded affirmative.

As the two were going to their Raptors, Jacobs asked, "Did you guys bring anything to entertain you for the next fourteen hours?"

Bauer turned yelled over his shoulder, "McGee brought along the entire Star Wars saga."

Teal'c smiled, "My Favorite!"

Jacobs watched them get into the Raptors and the doors shut. He flipped open his communicator as he walked to the turbolift. "Raptors One and Two, this is the Captain. Good hunting. Standby for launch."

Carter and TC went through their final checks. The Landing Safety Officer, who oversees all flight operations off the hangar deck called. "Depressurizing commencing. Standby for launch in ten minutes."

Up on the bridge, Jacobs sat down at the Captain's chair. Ensign Bragg was sitting at the helm. As planned, the Wisconsin was coasting past the sun facing backwards, hangar bay facing the direction of flight. Hornblower was at the navigation console, "We are on the correct trajectory for release. Release in eight minutes." Jacobs looked at the tactical display behind Leonaidas and everything looked good.

Just to be sure, Jacobs stepped down and said, "Mr. Hornblower, I do not mean to be insulting, so please forgive me. I just want to double-check your readings."

Hornblower nodded and swallowed hard, "No offense taken, please."

Jacobs looked over the displays, and did some mental math. The mental math was to catch gross errors. "All is in order, very well done."

The countdown went as expected. At one minute to release, Hornblower mentioned. "One minute, we are now at a safe distance from the sun."

Jacobs nodded, "Shields down, JJ tell hangar bay launch on time."

The shields went down and the LSO said, "Hangar Bay doors opening now. Radio silence will be observed." And the hangar bay doors opened. The Raptors lifted off and held their relative position to the hangar bay. All you could see out the hangar bay was stars since the sun was now at the front of the ship.

At launch time, Hornblower announced, "Launch time, trajectory is perfect."

Jacobs said "JJ, tell hangar we're launching now." Down in the hangar bay, the LSO turned on a bright green light. Both Raptors responded by blinking theirs. The autopilots were switched to attitude freeze only; nothing would be used to move the ships at all.

Bragg at the helm had the main screen showing the hangar bay with the Raptors hovering in the middle. He gently moved the Wisconsin forward, causing the Wisconsin to simply pull away from the Raptors. The Raptors were now on a very precise trajectory. After the Wisconsin pulled away a fair distance, it turned slightly and engaged on impulse drive and went behind the far side of the sun. Once on the far side, it went to warp again.

On Raptor 1, Carter, callsign 'Outback', activated the laserlink to Raptor 2. Carter started off, "Raptor 2, Raptor 1 on laserlink."

"TC here, Outback, I read you five by five."

Carter looked at his displays, "Good, confirm that you are EMCON."

TC looked at his displays to make sure he was operating under Emissions Control, or EMCON. "We are under EMCON, Laserlink is the only emission."

Carter looked at his clock. "Good, I have thirteen hours, fifty-seven minutes and counting until T-0."

TC checked his clock, "As do I. I guess we better get the movies started. Did your guys bring popcorn?"

Carter looked back to Bauer, who shook his head. "No, we have a bunch of newbies on board. We'll check back in two hours. What's your movie?"

TC laughed, "Lt Teal'c insisted on Star Wars. What about yours?"

Carter laughed back, "I think it's a conspiracy, us too."

KIRKS OFFICE

STARFLEET COMMAND, EARTH

Chief of Starfleet Operations Nogura was sitting in front of Kirk's desk with Admiral Warren. Nogura was an energetic man who, rather than making people always come to his office, would deliver answers in person. Due to the delicate nature of this visit, he felt it best to visit Kirk personally.

"Jim, I wanted to be here when you transmitted. Just to make sure our intentions are clear."

Kirk nodded, "Thank you sir, I really appreciate that. Let's do this."

Kirk pushed the record button. "Starfleet Command to USS Wisconsin, Captain Jacobs. Josh, we have received your plan and of course the hostage transmission. I am here with Admirals Nogura and Warren and have thoroughly talked this through. We authorize all aspects of your mission. Top priority is rescue and safe return of the hostages, all of them. This mission is what your vision of the Wisconsin was to fulfill, and there is no better ship I can think of. Do well, Godspeed. Kirk out."

The three men looked at each other. Warren was the first to speak. "Can they do it?"

Kirk leaned back in his chair. "I believe so, otherwise I would have told him to rethink it before coming to you with his plan."

Warren shook his head. "But what a plan."

Nogura said, "Yes, what a plan. I like him. He is not afraid of what others are thinking about him. He is eager to take on the big jobs."

Kirk corrected, "Yes and no. Josh is not a glory seeker. If something needs to be done, he will do it. No matter how crazy it seems."

Warren thought aloud, "But to coordinate a three-pronged attack, in radio silence. And he is seriously outgunned."

Nogura smiled at Kirk, "But this isn't the first time he was seriously outgunned."

Kirk smiled and nodded. "No, I bet he's thinking its not that bad this time."

USS WISCONSIN

OUTSIDE PLANET ECHO

SYSTEM BLACKBEARD'S HIDEOUT

The Wisconsin maneuvered into the prescribed trajectory they wanted. Again, very careful attention to detail was done to make sure that they were in position down to as good of a position as they could possibly have. Jacobs looked at everything in on the bridge and saw that they were ready.

Jacobs stood up and stood beside his command chair. He pushed the PA button and his voice went throughout the ship. "All hands, this is the Captain. We are now on trajectory to the Pirate base. With all of you being plankowners involved with the building of Wisconsin, this is the time where your hardwork pays off. You've all done a tremendous job, trust your training, trust your instincts. All Hands, Battle stations EMP." And Jacobs pushed the Red Alert Button and the EMP alert button.

This was a formality, because everyone knew when he was going to push the button, but hearing the red alert sound three times brought the reality to all. The red alert lights around the ship switched to blue for EMP mode. All hands already had their emergency glow sticks ready to activate. Everyone double checked the crewmen nearby. In engineering, the warp core was brought down to a standby mode, impulse drive had a controlled shutdown. In the forward phaser compartment, the crewmen made sure the phaser was charged along with the protected battery. Once this was done, the lead crewman reached up and pulled a handle down. At the weapons station on the bridge, a simple sign popped into place "READY." Ben Grimm looked at his displays and verified all was ready. He took out a hand crank and inserted it into a hole and locked it in place. Pulling the crank would give the order to fire and reset the READY sign. He announced, "Weapons ready."

On the Bridge was where most of the action was. The Stair-Ladder to Deck two was opened and extended down. Deck 2 already had a stand representing the asteroid, and more stands ready to put in place to represent ships or other tactically significant objects. The Periscopes were raised/lowered respectively. The left Periscope lowered into place, connecting hydraulically to its telescope underneath the saucer and to its portion of the phaser that would work under EMP. The right raised up and did the same with the upper telescope and phaser. Both telescopes were manned and the officers selected key stars to get navigation fixes. Hornblower got up from the Navigation console, pulled out a large six foot crank and inserted it into the base of the Nav/Helm console. Turning the crank would disconnect the electronic controls and engage the manual mechanical mixer to the thruster controls. Since they didn't plan on firing the EMP, just merely eliminating all forms of power, he didn't turn the crank. Both he and Bragg opened doors and pulled out the manual control columns and inserted them into the receptacles in the floor. Bragg also turned a crank on the side of his console and a set of auxiliary instruments came up from behind the Helm console. With these instruments, he could determine the attitude of the ship. Hornblower had the translation controls to the mixer. Once this was complete, Bragg announced "Helm Ready."

Santini looked over everything and made sure the hydraulic accumulator was properly pressurized. It would be bad to have all this preparation and then lose control of the ship and phasers because there were not any hydraulics. Even with no hydraulics, they could still control the thrusters, just could not see or fire anything. When he was done checking, he reported "Engineering ready."

Jacobs nodded. "Standby power please."

Santini pushed the necessary buttons. All over the ship power was cut to non-essential items. This was largely a non-event because the crew was ready in case all power was lost. Finally, the bridge went to the standby lighting of red.

Jacobs looked at the big screen, at least that was still working, as was some computer functions. As they came around planet Echo, the pirate base showed up and had a data tag connected to it. Jacobs checked the clock. Right on time.