Star Trek : Wisconsin - Launch

by Mashal Wisconsin

Join the newly formed crew on the new USS Wisconsin- a Constitution II Class otherwise known as an Enterprise Refit ship. Join as Captain Joshua Jeremiah Jacobs as he leads the crew into their first adventure while traveling to Starbase 5. A distress call diverts the crew to track down hostages taken by an old adversary of the Federation.

19. Chapter 18

Chapter 18 Phase I

THE CLAW

Agathon looked at the countdown clock. T-6 hours. Time to move. The Claw powered up and started its approach. Blackbeard's hideout was different in that there were no sentinels to interrogate. That job was done at the other systems. What one had to do was fly a precise path and communicate at the right time during the approach. This took time, no doubt they were on the base's sensors after a short time. The big question was nobody knew what exactly the capability of the sensors were.

On the bridge were Dietrich sitting at what was the sensor station. It doubled for weapons as well. Lt Robin Reeves was at communications and had some engineering functions too. Agathon manned the helm/nav console. The first part of the approach was uneventful. As the Claw got closer to the base, its sensors were picking up more and more data.

Dietrich was working the sensors and doing some computations. He turned to Agathon, "Skipper?"

Agathon smiled inwardly, "Dietrich?"

"Sir, I have been getting some more data on the screen. There may be a problem."

Agathon looked over at the displays, he could see diagrams of what the sensors were bringing in, but the symbols were too small to see where he was at. "What's the problem?"

"Our initial estimate of their power output may be off, significantly."

Agathon walked over to the console. Looking at the numbers, nothing seemed to be off. "How do you figure that out?"

Dietrich pointed to the screen. "It is just a guess now, but look at these defensive positions that are showing up. They have way too many phaser batteries. If they had the power output equivalent to the Wisconsin, then they would practically be able to run four or five phaser batteries. All this assuming they have similar shielding, and I am beginning to think that is not correct either."

"Why not?"

Pointing at the screen, "The size of the asteroid is not as big as what we originally thought."

Agathon asked, "How is that a problem?"

Dietrich explained, "I'm just guessing, but originally, we thought a base buried in a large asteroid. That does two things; first the heat from the star being reflected by the surface of the asteroid is less, making the observed total heat being reflected more of power output than star reflected as we surmised earlier."

Agathon nodded seeing what he was pointing at. "How much more power are we talking about?"

Dietrich pointed at a chart he pulled up. "From our planning session, right now it's 50% more power."

Agathon shook his head. "You said there were two things, what's the second?"

Dietrich pointed at the asteroid picture and pulled up some comparative schematics. "Since the asteroid is smaller, I believe it would provide insufficient protection against an assault."

"That's great for us."

Dietrich shook his head. "I am assuming that the Norsicans are smart. If the asteroid is insufficient, I am assuming they shield the whole rock, not just the base on the rock."

Agathon blinked. "How much power are we talking about?"

Dietrich shrugged. "A hundred, maybe a hundred fifty Cochranes of power total for the base. That would cover phasers."

Agathon looked at him, "That's almost three times the Wisconsin's output."

Dietrich nodded. "And they are going into it dark. It is going to be a real problem for them to bring down the shields. We need to get very close for me to pinpoint the generators. They probably have them hid well."

Agathon slid into his seat and started programming a course. "How close?"

Dietrich turned to him. "I'm not sure, I'll let you know when I start finding them. Once I find one, the others will be easy to find due to the geometry."

Reeves turned from her console. "Base is calling asking for the recognition code."

Agathon nodded, "Give our recognition code. And prepare a burst transmission to the Wisconsin and Raptors on our sensor data when action starts."

Reeves nodded and started her work. Dietrich sent the data along with the conclusions. Wisconsin may not have much time to deal with the new disturbing data.

COMMAND CENTER

BLACKBEARD'S HIDEOUT

The communications operator acknowledged the code from the Claw. Looking up on the screen, he saw that it was a valid code. The approach fitted all the procedures for arrival, there was nothing to concern himself over. The door to the rear slid open and the Commander along with a Captain walked in. The communications officer almost closed the screen but turned too quickly and missed the button. "Sir!"

Ragnar barely acknowledged his presence. He was talking to the Captain. "You did a good job getting the Kruk back here. What was that ship that you were up against?"

"One of the Federation's new line of ships. New warp engines, new sensor and deflector dish. That ship took on my squadron and went through us like we were not even there. Our weapons were ineffective."

The commander looked at the screens. One ship on approach. Others docked. Nothing happening. "You're lucky to have survived."

"Not luck, they wanted us to survive. They were trying to track us here."

Ragnar turned to the Kruk's captain. "How so?"

"An unbelievable number of beacons, other devices planted when they boarded. I never thought that the humans could plant so many devices so quickly. They even planted a virus in my computer to see what coordinates we set."

Ragnar started to get angry. "And you still came here?"

The Kruk's captain waived his hand, "I took the prescribed precautions. We got all the devices, and at warp 3 we had plenty of time. We cleared our track by the normal precautions. Interestingly, that starship was waiting for us, and we suspected a computer bug. Sure enough we found the virus and never set coordinates after that. All our courses were set manually. The arrival here was done from portable computer. There is no way they know about this place, I assure you."

The commander steamed a bit, concerned that they were compromised. "What can you tell me about this new starship?"

The Captain handed over a data chip. "All our data is on this chip. If Starfleet gets more of these new ships, we are going to have a problem keeping up our bargain with the Klingons. This ship is 50% more powerful than the standard Constitution class heavy cruisers, very fast, and can keep that speed running forever. Also, I think that one of our ships may be captured."

Ragnar blinked. "Which one?"

The captain pointed at the screen, "It was the Claw, same class as that one on approach. We were trying to rendezvous with them to get the hostages when that starship came in and started shooting everything up."

Ragnar nodded. "Very good, we will keep watch. Tend to your ship, be ready to depart for more raids."

The Captain nodded, turned and was walking out the door. Looking at the ship on approach, he was amazed at how common that class of ship was. He stopped in the door and saw the power signature on the screen. It was too close to be a coincidence. He ran over to the communications officer. "What ship is that on approach?"

"It's the Claw sir!"

"Get the commander back here now."

The communication officer pushed a button and called the commander back. The Kruk's captain started getting a knot in his stomach. Starfleet is here.

Ragnar stepped back in growling. "What is it!"

The Kruk's Captain pointed. "That's the Claw! It's Starfleet!"

The Commander looked and blinked. He ordered the communications officer, "Call them now!"

BRIDGE

THE CLAW

Lt Reeves turned to Agathon. "Base calling again. Not a routine call."

Agathon started feeling like his hand was in the cookie jar. "Universal translator working?"

Reeves nodded. Agathon asked Reeves. "You ready to play Norsican?"

Reeves touched a couple of buttons. "Ready as anytime sir. They will hear a Norsican Male. I'm putting in a lot of static as well."

Agathon nodded and Reeves opened the channel. "WHAT IS IT?"

"This is the commander, identify yourself."

Reeves tried to sound agitated. "THIS IS THE CLAW, WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?"

Dietrich, Agathon, and Jensen looked at each other. Dietrich offered, "Your agitation may not be making it through the universal translator. Try to form your argument without sounding agitated. It will sound more like the way the Universal Translator would sound."

Reevesnodded. "Have we changed our standard approach procedure?"

The commanders voice came through again, "No, but who is this? Is this the Captain of the Claw?"

Reeves was about to answer when Dietrich stood up shaking his head. "Don't say that! They're baiting you."

Agathon remembered something Leonaidas said about Dietrich recently. "Robin, let Mr. Dietrich talk, I think he used to be a con-man. Make sure the translator keeps working."

Reeves nodded and was watching her displays. Dietrich started talking, "No, I'm just a crewman. Most of the crew is captured, myself and two others escaped, but not without injury. We request help, primarily medical once we dock."

Agathon continued the approach, and saw that Dietrich left his sensors on record. More and more data was being stored up for the burst transmission to be done later. Perhaps shortly. The base responded. "How did you get here?"

Dietrich was still operating the sensors looking for human life signs. "We cleared our track using the sentry at system AGC-187. After that we came here by setting course only, no coordinates."

The base commander looked at the Kruk's Captain, who was shaking his head. He wasn't buying it. "Was there anyone following you?"

Dietrich was trying to think quickly. "Perhaps you have an image of the Claw along with that Starfleet vessel. We escaped shortly after that, and went back in the system to escape. We cleared ourselves a couple of times using two other systems."

The base commander asked, "Which systems?"

Reeves actually anticipated that, having two close by systems up on her display. Dietrich answered. "System AGC-124, and System Norsk's palace."

The base commander continued, "What other systems have you used to clear your track in the past?"

Dietrich felt the trap. "Sir, how would I know? I'm stuck in engineering most of the time." The sensors started showing human life signs. Dietrich waved to Agathon and Jensen and pointed at the display. He started programming the weapons. Jensen added this in to the burst that was to be sent.

COMMAND CENTER

BLACKBEARD'S HIDEOUT

The base commander ordered. "Stop your approach, we will send out a ship to escort you in." He turned to the Kruk's captain, "Go out and escort him in."

The Kruk's Captain shook his head. "I don't like it; I think it's Starfleet. I need more backup."

Ragnar asked, "How much?"

The Captain pointed to the screen showing the docked ships. "If that starship is out there, everything that is docked, maybe even some in the hangar bay."

Ragnar shook his head. "Not the hangar bay. I do not want to open that with a potential attack."

The Kruk Captain turned and left. The commander pushed the PA, "ALERT, ALERT. ALL DOCKED SHIPS TO LAUNCH IMMEDIATELY WHEN READY. FORM UP ON KRUK FOR ESCORT MISSION. GUARDS ESCORT THE FEDERATION SENATOR TO MY OFFICE."

Two guards showed up at Jameson's room and entered. Jameson stood and walked to them. "What is the commotion about?"

One of the guards gruffly said, "We are under attack. Probably your Federation."

"Impossible, they wouldn't risk that."

The guard responded and grabbed Jameson's arm. "We'll see, let's go."

BRIDGE

THE CLAW

Agathon brought the Claw to a stop. He checked the clock and saw that time was running out. "Dietrich, do you have good positions on them?"

Dietrich nodded, "Yes sir, our sensor modifications are helping greatly. Looks like all humans are held here except one. He is on the move toward what I think is the command center. There is another one that is returning from somewhere else to where the others are being held."

Agathon nodded. "What about this escort business?"

Dietrich pointed, "Looks like easily a dozen ships like this, a couple of frigates. I think they are throwing everything at us."

Agathon looked at the screen at the asteroid. He could see a couple of ships coming from it now. "Anything we can do to make the odds more even for the Wisconsin?"

Reeves remarked, "Us against a fleet and a base? No match."

Dietrich thought aloud. "What about ejecting and detonating our warp core?"

Agathon turned to Dietrich. Reeves asked amazed, "Are you crazy? We'd be defenseless. And it may not even do any good."

Agathon thought a bit then pushed a button for engineering. "Engineering, this is the skipper. Prepare to eject the warp core and detonate by remote control."

Reeves said, "Are you crazy? We'd be powerless! It's suicide!"

Agathon shook his head. "Not so, we would still have impulse power. We never planned on phasers; all we need to do is run. If the detonation can happen close enough, we can damage the base's shields a bit, and the interference created by the explosion and vapor cloud will help the overall operation. Robin, get ready to send that burst transmission."

The ships were closing quickly now. Pretty soon, they will see that they cannot tell what kind of life signs are on board. The Wisconsin installed jammers on the ship just for this reason. Engineering signaled shortly later that they were ready.

Agathon looked to Dietrich, "You have the calculations ready?"

Dietrich answered, "Yes Sir. We need to be at full impulse within two minutes to give the Raptors time."

Agathon pushed the impulse drive to full power. "Robin, send the burst transmission."

The Claw leaped ahead right at the incoming flotilla of ships. Agathon raised the shields and Dietrich armed phasers. Evidently, they caught the Norsicans off guard, passing right through them quickly. They were closing on the base quickly while the ships behind were turning around to try to catch them. Agathon looked at his clock and the point that Dietrich calculated to drop the warp core.

When it came time, Agathon pushed the engineering button. "Engineering, Bridge. Eject Warp Core NOW NOW NOW."

The automatic ejection system pushed the core out the ship. The forward momentum of the core carried it towards the base at a high rate of speed. Agathon turned the ship to the left and went to full impulse. "Now the chase begins." He remarked.

RAPTOR 1

Carter looked at the screen with the burst transmission. Loads of data was downloaded along with the quick reference to the important stuff. Bauer was reviewing it with him. "A good amount of information. Here is the place of where they are holding the people. I bet this human here is returning for some reason. I am going to assume by the time we dock, he will be at that spot."

Carter nodded. "Sounds good, we will plan on this hatch here to force-dock. It will be just a short trip down the hall."

Bauer shook his head. "Let us have Raptor 2 do that. I want to go after this other hostage."

Carter asked, "Where do you want to dock?"

Bauer pointed. "This point here. It's a short distance from the other docking point and if I'm wrong, we can still support Raptor 2. If I am correct, it is near where he was before they moved him. My bet is when the Wisconsin starts doing its stuff, they will move him back to where they had him. We will cut them off. Also, it looks like a computer center nearby, McGee can have some fun there."

Carter nodded and pushed the transmit button. "Raptor 2, Raptor 1 on laserlink."

TC's voice came through. "Raptor 2, we got it too. Did you see the warp core breach?"

Carter startled answered. "No, when?"

TC answered. "Anytime now."

Carter turned to Bauer. "Shades! Now!"

Bauer turned behind him and pulled a shade across the cockpit just behind the pilot seats. This shade blocked light getting to the Badgers behind them. Carter and his co-pilot reached behind them and put on goggles. The goggles had displays inside them but totally blocked all light coming to the eyes, these were used primarily for flying through nebula due to static discharges.

Carter hit the transmit button. "Thanks, TC. How did you find that so fast?"

"I assumed you would start from the front, so we started from the back."

Carter laughed. "Let's wait for the lightshow."

KENN'S CELL

BLACKBEARD'S HIDEOUT

The door opened and Kenn was thrown into his cell, and he howled with pain. During the last slave showing Kenn decided to push back when pushed. The response was swift and cruel. The guard swung a large club and broke both of his legs. They dragged him back to his cell, Kenn howling all way. Now in the cell, Kenn was fearful that he was falling into shock, already he could feel his legs swelling.

For the first time in his life, Kenn started thinking that he might not make it. Before it was almost surreal. In the back of his mind, he was thinking that Starfleet would come charging in and a hundred redshirts would flood the station and he would just walk right out of the cell. Either that or some agreement would be done and he would walk right out and be beamed right back to a Starfleet ship. Even standing up on the slave trade platform, he never thought that it was really going to happen to him.

When that guard broke his legs below the kneecaps, the pain was incredible. Unlike the painsticks, this was pain that was telling you that your life was in jeopardy. There was not much use for a slave with broken legs. Now that shock was setting in, despair, fear for his life, and hopelessness was starting to rule. After going through Starfleet training and part of the Badger training, he realized that if normal Starfleet security types came, they may not be able to get him out alive, broken legs and all.

BRIDGE

USS WISCONSIN

Jacobs looked at the transmission on Jareau's screen. "Ben, get those coordinates of the shield generators programmed in. We will hit those first."

Hotchner looked up. "The Claw is going to detonate it's warp Core!"

Jacobs ordered quickly, "Scopes down! Window shades Down!"

The periscopes were retracted and Santini hit a master button and all over the ship wherever there were windows, a thin metal shade was extended to block all light coming in.

Leonaidas looked up from his console, "Why are they doing that?"

"To help us out." Jacobs surmised.

COMMAND CENTER

BLACKBEARD'S HIDEOUT

The Commander saw the Claw accelerate right through the incoming ships. When he saw the incompetence of his ships, he slapped the transmit button. "BLOW THAT SHIP OUT OF THE SKY! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!"

The pirates were turning, it was clear that they were not coordinating themselves. That is the problem with them, they rarely worked together on a target. He noticed the Claw was doing a turn trying to escape, it just might escape. Hitting the button again, he yelled "HE'S TRYING TO ESCAPE ON A DIFFERENT VECTOR, TURN TO INTERCEPT, NOT TO FOLLOW!"

Suddenly, his eyes caught some movement on the screen. Whatever it was, it was very small. Irritated, he asked the communications officer, "What is that?"

The communications officer was wondering himself, but dared not fiddle with the controls until his Commander ordered. Now he was zooming in. Interesting enough there was a power signature on the object. He zoomed in and the screen revealed the Claw's warp core. Ragnar yelled "SHIELDS!"

On the warp core, there was a small shaped charge on the dilithium chamber. When the charge detonated, it blew inward destroying the dilithium crystals. This set up a warp core breach that was virtually instantaneous. The blast was blinding and, on the Raptors, the Badgers were protected by the shades that were drawn. The pilots were also protected and the blast was shown in a much-protected format on the pilots' goggles. The Pirate ships in pursuit of the Claw had their shields weakened considerably.

The base fared quite differently. Even though the base got its shields up in time, the blast still strained the shields to their limit. Because of the nature of the blast, the base still had numerous burnouts and circuitry damage randomly throughout the base. Also, the shockwave was considerable, shaking the whole asteroid. Jameson, being escorted to the commander's office, was thrown off his feet and hit his head on one of the bulkheads. He groggily was pulled to his feet with a cut on the side of the head. The Norsican also, running, dragged him behind and threw him into Ragnar's office.

BRIDGE

USS WISCONSIN

They saw the blast on the screen. A feature of all viewscreens is that it prevents harmful radiation, because all it is just a screen, not an actual window to the outside world. Once the blast had subsided, Jacobs ordered, "Scopes up, open shades."

Hotchner was looking at his sensors. "Looks like they did do some damage. According to the burst transmission from the Claw, we underestimated their power output."

Jacobs asked, "What are our sensors telling us now?"

Hotchner shook his head. "Passive sensors not working in the base's area, interference from the warp core breach."

Jacobs thought a minute. "What would active sensors do?"

Hotchner answered, "Probably not give us much more than let them know we're here."

Grimm announced, "Captain, I did get a reading on their shields, we have a major problem."

Jacobs startled, asked, "What is it?"

Grimm continued, "The Claw guessed that they had more extensive shields than we originally thought, because the asteroid was so small. I can not only confirm that, but their shields are also very strong."

"How strong?"

Grimm explained, "Like one of our space stations. The blast has significantly weakened them, but they are regenerating."

Jacobs returned to his seat. "Battle stations, Secure from EMP. Helm, full impulse. We must attack now to get those shields down for the Raptors."