Chapter 21 Escape

THE CLAW

APPROACHING STARTING POINT

Agathon was watching the distance close between the pirates and the Claw. It was going to be close, but they were going to lose, barely. He started doing evasive maneuvers, but still was trying to head towards the starting point. The lead pirate started firing, but at this distance, the phasers were not that effective.

Each successive hit did wear the Claw's hull down a little bit. Agathon was out of ideas, resources, and now time. Reeves' comment about needing the warp core was haunting him. Maybe it was a bad decision to have ejected it. He did not know if it was even effective. He may never know.

A particularly strong phaser hit the hull by the starboard warp nacelle. What a fool he had been, those nacelles were heavy and useless. "Robin, jettison the nacelles!"

Jensen did the sequence and the nacelles separated. The ship lurched forward and was slightly more maneuverable.

Dietrich said, "We're just entering the field."

Another hit on one of the pylons and the ship rolled. Agathon had an inspiration, he cut power to the drive and disengaged the maneuvering thrusters. The Claw's momentum carried it forward, and it was in a slow tumble. Reeves, incredulous said, "What are you doing?"

Agathon remarked, "Playing possum. Maybe they will stop firing."

Dietrich looked at his sensors, "Looks like it, but they are still closing."

Agathon thought aloud, "I wonder how quick it will happen?"

The asteroid they started from had a box that they planted. The sensor suite was watching the pursuit for some time. It identified the Claw and the attackers. Naturally, it considered the Claw as friendly. To the attackers, it analyzed the geometry of them to the cylinders that the Claw had in the immediate volume of space.

A minefield has many different forms. The oldest minefield known was in the 16th century. Chinese used boxes filled with explosives to thwart Japanese pirates. The basic mine was unchanged for four hundred years until the late twentieth century, when the mine changed from something stationary you hit or passed near, to something else. The US Navy had mines that were in the form of torpedoes. When a ship passed near, the torpedo launched itself and hit the nearest object.

This minefield is a variation on that. The cylinders that the Claw placed around were self-launching photon torpedoes. The sensor box was a command-and-control center that made sure that all targets had sufficient 'coverage.' No overkills were permitted, so that no mines were wasted. The sensor box started allocating torpedoes to attackers. It could see that there were more than enough mines for the job, so it waited until the attackers were fully in the minefield. The problem is that the attackers were getting close to the Claw.

One of the surviving frigates noted that the Claw lost power and was drifting. The Captain ordered, "Slow down, scan him again!" Something did not feel right.

"The Claw has depowered it's impulse drive." The sensor operator announced.

"But it still has power?"

"Yes, but is neither charging phasers or regenerating it's shields."

The Captain thought, why do that? He would be running. "Scan the area around here. It is just the asteroid field, right?"

The sensor operator nodded, "Yes, and lots of metal. Looks like a fight happened here sometime."

The Captain still didn't feel right. A fight? The reason why they chose this system is because no one had been here before. There was not a fight, that was the whole purpose of a clandestine system. "Tactical plot, put up the fleet and the Claw."

The main screen changed to a diagram showing the fleet and the Claw. "Overlay the asteroids." And the screen showed the extensive asteroid field. About what he thought. Now for the part that he did not have the big picture. "Now overlay all metal contacts." The screen was flooded with contacts.

The Captain turned to the sensor operator. "These asteroids are loaded with metal, nothing remarkable about that."

The operator answered, "If I may, sir. I am talking about metal not on asteroids." He pushed a couple of buttons.

The fleet was just entering a small sphere of dots. They were all around them. There is a saying that the worst feeling is that you find out you are in a minefield. The Captain yelled, "ALL SHIPS, EVASIVE NOW. GET OUT OF HERE NOW."

Unfortunately, that was the time that the sensor box thought it was as good as it was going to get. Instantly twenty photon torpedoes started up and went after their targets.

THE CLAW

The pirates did not have a chance. Agathon was watching the lightshow on the Claw. It was all over in a matter of seconds. Dietrich announced, "All remaining pirates destroyed." The relief that the crew felt was tremendous. Agathon powered up the impulse drive and thrusters and maneuvered behind the asteroid with the sensor box.

Agathon set the autopilot for station keeping. "Let's recharge everything. We might need it before the Wisconsin rescues us."

USS WISCONSIN

BRIDGE

The Wisconsin kept delivering a pounding, but was getting pounded on in the meantime. The goal was to distract the base and protect the Raptors while they were leaving. Hornblower announced, "Aft shield down."

Santini added. "That last hit just knocked the starboard impulse drive inoperative. Numerous structural damage as well."

Jacobs said to Bragg, "Keep our stern away from them. Ben, any luck on those phasers?"

Grimm shook his head. "No, they fire then retract in the asteroid, just when I destroy one bank, another pops up and fires."

"Any idea where their new command center is?"

Hotchner offered, "Probably not a center, maybe just a room. The attacks are not well coordinated. Also, they may even be firing them optically, because they miss more than what they should be missing."

Jacobs looked at the tactical screen. The Raptors are very close to being out of weapons range now. "Mr. Bragg, give us a spiral course away from the station, full available impulse. Keep that aft shield away from the station. Let's get out of here."

Jareau announced. "Pirate base hailing us."

Jacobs turned to face the communications screen. "On your screen."

Jareau pushed a couple of buttons and a Norsican showed up on the screen. "I demand you stop your fire! We are no threat to you anymore! Starfleet rules say you stop!"

Jacobs looked at the tactical plot, almost time. "Who am I speaking to?"

Ragnar identified himself, "I am Ragnar, commander of this free Norsican trading post."

Jacobs stared him in the eye. "Commander Ragnar, you are not in position to lecture me on rules. You are a Pirate commanding a Pirate base. Under interstellar law, I could destroy your whole base." Calling over his shoulder, Jacobs called, "Mr. Grimm, hold fire for now." Grimm acknowledged. Grimm realized it was just for show, all the weapons are in various states of recharging. The time would allow a full salvo.

"We are a peaceful people. Your Federation has always treated us like lower-life forms. I…."

Jacobs cut him off, "Ragnar, don't waste my time. We both know what the truth is. This is what is going to happen. You are going to power down your shields and weapons immediately. Any argument, and we open fire. Helm, come around to bring tubes to bear. Hold position at this point."

Ragnar was in his office looking at his monitor at this Federation Captain. He was not acting like Starfleet was in the past. Looking at another monitor, he could see that ship finishing its turn and stopping is space, facing directly at him. There is something intimidating to that, but surely, he won't fire. Once you got a Starfleet Captain talking, it took a lot to provoke weapons fire. Ragnar took a calculated risk. "We are going to protest this attack through the Norsican Government. You will be in big trouble unless you cease fire and apologize. Even then…"

Jacobs cut him off, "Wrong answer Ragnar. Weapons, open fire, target the hanger."

All phasers and photon torpedoes were charged and loaded; the full salvo overwhelmed what was left of the base's shields. Since the phasers arrived first, they cut right through the door. Ship's phasers on this power level not only burn metal, they explode metal. The explosion isn't relatively powerful, but it does weaken the remaining metal and the fragments going inside the hanger damaged some of the ships parked there. The photon torpedoes arrived, one hitting the hanger door exploding that to shreds and spraying the inside with debris, coupled with the other torpedo passed right through a hole and hit a shuttle, destroyed the hangar bay.

The shaking in Ragnar's office was violent, and that showed on Jareau's screen. Jacobs continued. "Ragnar, know this. Federation policy is not to negotiate with terrorists. Once force is deemed necessary to recover hostages or negate a threat, it is the commander's decision how much to use. I am leaving you alive to spread the word amongst your pirate brethren. Harass us again, and we will use overwhelming force just like today to accomplish our goals. The next Captain may not be as nice as I am now. Weapons, fire one more salvo, targets your choice."

Grimm responded, "A pleasure sir." One phaser bank fired into the hangar again, lancing through debris and into the station beyond. Another fired into the remains of the command center, digging so close that Ragnar was covered in debris and dust, the sound being deafening. The last one went to the antimatter reactor, demolishing it. Fortunately for the station, the phaser also demolished the antimatter in the reactor, preventing a breach. Everyone saw the hit, and Grimm remarked, "What do you know, the reactor didn't blow after all!"

Jacobs signaled JJ to cut the transmission, then chuckled at the remark. "I didn't want to chuckle on camera, bad form. Let's go pick up the Raptors, Mr. Bragg."

RAPTOR 1

Carter turned to Bauer and asked, "How's your people?"

Bauer walked to the front. "We're all fine. I have a medic tending to Jameson."

Carter chuckled. "So, you got to clock him?"

Bauer embarrassingly smiled, "It wasn't my first choice. We were pressed for time."

Carter remarked, "You got to do what I think everyone on the Wisconsin would love to do. You might get away with it!"

Bauer shook his head. "Jameson said he's going to file charges when we get back to the ship."

Carter offered, "We'll see about that. Did you have a tricorder running?"

Bauer nodded, "As well as gun cameras, everything. We'll see."

Carter remarked, "So the gun camera captured the shot?"

Bauer asked, "You mean the one I saved Jameson with? Yes, it did."

Carter joked, "Let me see if I got this right, you got to give Jameson phaser burns, grabbed him, drug him, pushed him, then knocked him out. Why would you be in trouble?"

Bauer smiled, "Of course, nothing to worry about."

A nauseating sound came from the back. It was Jameson. With the flying that the Raptors had done over the station escaping, plus some standard evasive maneuvers, it was too much for him. He looked around at the Badgers, still dressed in battle gear. They were chomping down food bars, drinking water. One that was particularly loudmouth, Denozzo, turned to the Senator and offered him a sandwich. "Want something to eat Senator?"

Jameson looked at the sandwich, it was ham, and the smell was awful. He immediately grabbed his air-sickness bag and started throwing up in it. Denozzo smiled that gotcha smile and said to the others, "Guess not." Denozzo being Denozzo he couldn't resist overdoing it a little. "Hey Senator, this is nothing. Don't feel bad about throwing up, no big deal. We were doing our first practice combat drop into the Everglades, during summer. The thermals were so bad that day the turbulence kept lifting us off the seat, against our seatbelts. McGeek here started throwing up, the smell was awful, kind of like what it is now. Pretty soon, we're all throwing up. Lt Knabe spent a week cleaning up the Raptor." This elicited another round of wretching from Jameson.

Bauer heard some of it, inwardly was smiling, but this had to be reined in. "Knock it off Denozzo."

"Aye aye, sir." Denozzo smirked chewing his sandwich.

Jameson thought that Jacobs had created uncouth, undisciplined monsters. This needed to be stopped. He was not going to allow the Federation to put a bunch of roughnecks on the front line contacting new worlds and civilizations. One look at all this, and a new civilization would think that the Federation was like the Klingons. He was going to fix that.

On the speaker, Jareau's voice came through. "Raptor flight, Wisconsin approaching. Prepare for landing. Welcome home gentlemen."

USS WISCONSIN

FOUR HOURS LATER

The Wisconsin pulled alongside the Claw. On the Bridge, Jacobs walked over to Ben Grimm at weapons. "Ready for the tractor beam?"

Grimm nodded yes. Jacobs turned to Jareau and asked, "Let the Claw know we're ready for towing."

Jareau turned around, "Claw signals ready."

Jacobs looked at Grimm, "Engage tractor beam."

The tractor beam was engaged, and the Wisconsin started tugging the Claw away from Blackbeard's hideout. Jacobs turned to Santini and said, "Dom, you have the conn. Go to warp as soon as Mr. Agathon beams over from the Claw."

Santini smiled and walked over to the Captain's chair. "It will be nice to have all our kids home again."

Jacobs and Leonaidas were stepping in the turbolift. "Yes, it will. I'll be wandering around if you need me."

Santini asked, "First stop?"

"Ducky, I want to visit the rescuees. Leo, let's go." The doors closed.

Santini looked to Bragg. "You heard the man, full impulse, set course for Starbase 5 son."

Bragg nodded, "Aye aye, sir."

USS WISCONSIN

SICKBAY

Jacobs and Leonaidas walked into Sickbay. The first portion of sickbay was full with the rescuees. Jacobs asked Dr. Mallard, "Ducky, how are they all doing?"

Dr. Mallard pointed to the biobed screens and responded with his light Scottish accent, "With the exception of Mr. Kenn and Senator Jameson, the rescuees all are in pretty good condition considering. They are having pretty much what you would expect; starvation, dehydration, bruising, etc. The Senator has two fingers that were cut off, we are healing his hand up right now."

Jacobs asked, "Anything you can do for his hand?"

Dr. Mallard's brow came together, "That depends on the Senator. There is an experimental procedure that can regrow his fingers, or he can have a mechanical prosthesis, or nothing at all. My prescription is going to leave all options open for him. He does not have to decide until we get to the Starbase. Captain, I would look out for his mental state."

Jacobs looked quizzically, "How so?"

"He has a case of Stockholm syndrome. I've never heard about it happening this fast. He sees us as interfering and being the killers."

Jacobs was astonished. "And what about what they did to his hand? How does he reconcile that?"

Dr. Mallard shook his head and put one of his hands in his pocket. "He blames Starfleet for that, says they pushed the Norsicans to do extreme measures. Josh, be careful dealing with him. He is strongly deluded, not rational."

Jacobs nodded in agreement. "Point well taken, what about Mr. Kenn?"

Dr Mallard pointed, "Probably the most serious of the cases. He had two broken legs, dehydration, malnourished, was in severe shock when they got him off the Raptor. The legs are no problem, he will be walking by the time we get to Starbase 5. One thing I want to show you." Mallard walked to his desk and pressed a button. His computer screen showed some bruising and strange marks on Kenn's back and sides.

Jacobs looked and his brow furrowed. "What are those?"

"The marks are unique as well as what they do to a body. They are pain sticks, Klingon pain sticks."

Jacobs looked up to Mallard. "How many of them have been subjected to this?"

"All except the Senator. They were running a slave trade there."

Leonaidas added, "We're going through the data McGee downloaded. It does seem to support the slave trade idea. No big surprise there."

Mallard shook his head, "It's just horrific that we are dealing with this still. Where in the galaxy can we look for others that are lost? They will be lost forever."

Leonaidas answered, "That's what we are here for, protect Federation citizens."

Jacobs thought aloud, "I wonder what they are doing with Klingon pain sticks. Those things are ritualistic or something aren't they?"

Leonaidas ansered, "They are used in Klingon rituals, yes. But they don't have any symbolic meaning. Just designed to deliver an incredible amount of pain. Ducky, these marks here right about the kidneys are the ideal place for most humanoids, the nerve clusters there are sensitive and will give the brain the maximum number of signals that you are hurting. The Klingons do keep control of those, they are incredibly tough to acquire. Starfleet has not yet acquired one."

Mallard asked, "Has one ever been used on you?"

Leonaidas shook his head. "No, Mr. Kenn will be thoroughly questioned by Starfleet on this. The Klingons mainly use the pain sticks in rear-area operations, prisons, slave control, etc. It's rare that humans have had them used on them. We will want to know exactly what happens. Just talking about it, I still don't know why Klingon pain sticks showed up here. This isn't a Klingon post. Not even close to Klingon space."

Jacobs took it all in. "Let's work on that later. Leo, let's make our rounds. The Senator first."

Jacobs and Leonaidas walked up to Jameson. "Senator, are you feeling better?"

Jameson scowled and growled, "No thanks to you. I demand private quarters. Its humiliating being out here."

Jacobs nodded. "Dr. Mallard, can the Senator be moved to private quarters?"

Mallard nodded. "We can do that; I can put a monitor on him to make sure that he's healing properly."

Jacobs looked at the Senator. "Senator Jameson, anything else we can do for you?"

Jameson scowled and shook his head no.

Jacobs nodded and he and Leonaidas walked to the other rescuees. All were grateful, to the point of tears for some of them.

Last to be visited was Kenn. Kenn's legs were in traction with a couple of big boxes around his lower legs. The boxes were sensor-knitter units. They monitored on a molecular level how the bone was healing, and applied a field to help speed the process. Despite this kid being a pain in the butt, Jacobs felt sorry for him. This kid was almost lost forever. Jacobs looked him in the eye, and saw something different. Embarrassment? No, maybe humility. "Mr. Kenn, how are you feeling?"

"Relieved, Sir. Thank you for coming to get us. We all would have been lost or killed sir."

Jacobs looked at Leonaidas, who nodded. "Mr. Kenn, that's what we do. You know that."

Kenn looked like a broken man, "Yes Sir, I do. Please pass on to Cdr Bauer and Lt Teal'c my thanks, and my apologies."

Leonaidas asked, "For what?"

"For being a royal pain in the butt. I was a jerk in Badger training. I was arrogant, self-centered, a horrible team player. What I experienced; no Starfleet unit could have accomplished this. I need to say sorry to McGee."

Leonaidas asked again, "Why?"

Kenn explained, "The mission I rang the bell on, he was doing everything to help me out. When I was on his back, I kicked and rocked and did what I could to make things hard on him."

Jacobs had an even stern gaze on Kenn. "Why did you make it difficult? Complete explanation, do not hold back."

Kenn nodded. "McGee is such a weak geek, or so I thought. Mr. Teal'c was correct that day. I'm heavier than him, he carried me kicking and finished. I carried him and didn't finish. I thought the whole exercise was useless. Why would you have to carry somebody like that? Why do it for that long? I mean, you could transport someone out, right?"

Jacobs continued, "What do you think now?"

Kenn sighed, "I could not be more wrong. When I heard phasers, I thought it was Starfleet, but I was afraid that because I was deadweight that they would start dragging me until a firefight started, then leave me behind to get everybody else out. Even if they did not, it would take two of them to drag me, and that is two less phasers for them. When I saw Mr. Teal'c come through the door, I knew I was going to live."

Leonaidas observed, "Mr. Teal'c mentioned that you were willing to stay behind when the fire started. Why did you offer that?"

Kenn explained, "I saw the odds, and that it would be better for the hostages if the team did not have to deal with me. Everyone had a better chance of getting out if I was not there. I could help them by providing cover fire."

Jacobs and Leonaidas exchanged looks. Leonaidas said, "Mr. Kenn, no one gets left behind. No one."

Kenn nodded and started sobbing. "I now fully understand that sir. Believe me, even in all the firefighting and chaos, I knew that Teal'c would either get me home or we both die. That was the hope that I was hanging onto."

Jacobs thought a bit. "Get some rest, Mr. Kenn. I'll ask Pastor Octavian to pay you a visit. We'll stop by later."

Kenn responded, "Thank you sir. Thank you very much."

Jacobs and Leonaidas left the sick bay and started walking down the hall. Jacobs was the first to ask, "What do you think Leo?"

"Too bad he didn't realize that before he washed out. Are you thinking of requesting him onboard?" Leonaidas looked a little concerned.

Jacobs shook his head. "No, no. He wouldn't be trusted by the other members. He had his chance. Still, I see some clay there that now can be molded."

Leonaidas nodded, "Pastor Octavian."

"Pastor Octavian."

The com whistled and a nearby speaker said, "Hotchner to Captain."

Jacobs walked over to the speaker and pushed the button. "What is it Hotch?"

"That data that McGee downloaded. In it are all the trafficking that has come through that base."

Jacobs looked at Leonaidas and spoke in the panel, "But the Norsicans have just stepped up this piracy recently."

"Yes, but they have bought and sold slaves with the Orions, the Crisselians, and half a dozen others. They have been raiding Federation assets for a long time, especially the Orions. We now have a trail on hundreds of Federation citizens. This data is a dilithium mine."

Jacobs smiled, "Very good Hotch, my complements. Thank you." He pushed the button and looked at Leonaidas.

Leonaidas smiled. "People who had no hope have some now."