Unexpected... part 4

Posted on Tue Dec 12th, 2023 @ 1:33am by Lieutenant Commander Jaal Jaxom & Commodore Finchley Kerr & Lieutenant Kell Asaa Dr & Lieutenant T'Lira Sh'Karra & Lieutenant Commander Isabelle Savette & Lieutenant Commander Kevin Kilbane & Commander Shr'Nesh Karadis
Edited on on Tue Dec 12th, 2023 @ 1:36am

1,510 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Investigate the Chintoka Shipyard Buildup
Location: Cardassian Territory
Timeline: current

Kell nodded and motioned one of her medical team over to get Kilbane squared away. As she moved back to her office, she updated Jaal that Kilbane would be along shortly. She had purposely neglected to mention Kerr's involvement, glad to stave off the inevitable round of ranting and raving whenever the intrepid Captain was in the mix... Let Jaal drop that little bomb.

[ Bridge ]

A few minutes later Kilbane stepped out of the turbolift and onto the bridge. It was still a bit of a mess, the science console was fried and there were a few scorch marks on the bulkhead.

“Report” he said.

“Good to see you on your feet again Sir, it’s quite a report…” Jaal proceeded to tell Kilbane everything that had happened since he’d been taken to sickbay. He went on to mention their latest orders to destroy the Founder’s ship and that Kerr was about twenty minutes behind them. Next was a quick rundown of Blackeagle’s operational status. "Then there was one other thing, … and for the last hour or so we’ve been reviewing Cardassian and Dominion tactics. We know the Founder is being escorted by two Keldon and one Galor class. I can only suspect the Founder’s ship is from the Dominion. I want us to be ready for anything.”

“I’ve got to hand it to Kerr, I knew he was bat shit crazy, possibly psychotic, but this is out there, even by his standards, but it could actually work” Kilbane replied.

“We’re approaching the quadrant where the Founders ship is” Karadis reported.

Tapping his Comm badge, Kilbane said “Kilbane to McCrudden, cloak the ship.”

“Aye Captain, cloaking now” McCrudden replied.

Closing the link, Kilbane then turned to Isabelle and said “Take us out of warp Lieutenant Savette, but keep on the same heading, impulse power only.”

“Aye Sir, Dropping out of warp now.” Her fingers traced over the console as she dropped the ship to impulse.

He then looked over to the Operations console and said, “Karadis, sound yellow alert, shields up, ready main phasers and photon torpedoes.”

“On it!” Karadis replied.

Looking at Jaal he said “The Keldons and the Galor will be alerted to spacial disturbance, we need to make them think it’s background noise… or an anomaly of some kind, see what you can do to create that effect.”

Karadis moved away from the Operations console and toward the centre seat, knowing Jaal would take over.

“I think I have just the thing,” he replied while taking his seat at the operations console. He began tapping the control board while muttering to himself in an illegible manner.

The great thing about modern deflector dishes… is that they don’t need special physical modifications… to do something that isn’t what they’re normally designed for… you just have to program them to do it… the hardware is already built in…

He directed a little power to the main deflector dish and it began emitting a variety of electro-magnetic noise, the type of which might come from an abnormally formed star. “I think that should do it... I hope.”

Kilbane watched as the Cardassian ships moved out from the defensive line of the Founders ship and very slowly moved in their direction. When they stopped, he was sure they had read the false sensor data Jaal had sent out, and this was their chance. They’d created a pocket space, enough that if they were going to attack, the Blackeagle could fit through. However, he also knew that in order to fire, they’d need to de-cloak.

“Time to Kerr’s ships arriving?” he asked.

“Twenty seconds…” Karadis replied.

“Ok, hang onto your hats ladies and gents” he said.

Bang on twenty seconds later, the two Galor class ships dropped out of warp.

“Drop cloak, heading…two six three…punch it Lieutenant Savette!” he called to Isabelle.

Isabelle grinned. “Heading two six three, and Punching it Sir!”

“Lieutenant Jaxom, try to target the Founders ships engines if you can when we have a clear shot, let’s hope our Captain can make this ruse work” he said to Jaal.

"Got'em." Jaal's worked the targeting sensors to zero in on the Founder's ship's engine core. "Here goes nuttin'," he fired a spread of torpedoes and followed up with phasers to make sure.

Two dozen photon torpedoes hit their mark collapsing the shields and rupturing the rear half of the hull.

Then the phasers, with no resistance at all, went right into the interior and finished the job.

The main viewscreen on the Blackeagle's bridge had to dim because the explosion was so bright.

Once the Blackeagle had de-cloaked, the two Galor ship bearing down on them opened fire. The two Keldon ships and the Galor ship immediately altered course, heading towards the ‘eagle.

If ever there was a time for Kilbane to trust in Finchley’s judgment, it was now.

"We've been targeted by the enemy weapon's array," Jaal consulted his console, "I'm working on weapons lock of our own. May I suggest evasive pattern gamma seven? That'll get us a clear shot at the Galor."

The Galor had the bigger guns. It would make sense to take that one out first as the Blackeagle had better maneuverability at impulse speeds than the Cardassian's Keldons.

“Yes, evasive manoeuvre Gamma seven Lieu..” Kilbane began to say, but it was cut short as heavy phaser fire passed them, followed by a double volley of photon torpedoes. The Galor ship attacking them rocked at the impact, they veered to port, and the next double volley smashed into them, breaking their hull in half. Explosion after explosion tore the halves into smaller chunks, and each of those the exploded, destroying them.

The two ‘friendly’ Galor ships swept past the Blackeagle in pursuit of the Keldons.

“That was a bit close.” Isabelle responded as she adjusted their course.

Jaal was consulting his display, "We're a little singed on the rear end but no hull breaches... only minor damage..." he looked back to Kilbane, "... shields holding at seventy-two percent."

The two remaining Keldon ships backed off, turned and took off. Kilbane wanted to go after them, but the better angels in his head stopped him from giving the order. He watched as they jumped to warp, disappearing from view.

“Stand down alert, but keep our shields up, scan for any other incoming vessels” he told Jaal.

"Aye sir," Jaal's hands did their dance on his console setting up an alert for anything that might fly their way.

“Incoming message Sir, it’s Duka…I mean, Kerr” Karadis reported.

“Onscreen” Kilbane answered.

The main viewer flickered, and there was the face of Dukat.

“A job well done everyone” he said, “ But now it’s time to get out of this area. I’m beaming over, once I’m onboard, set course for base one, out.”

Tag all

Kell's sickbay report followed. A few contusions and abrasions but the crew had managed to get by almost unscathed for once. She prepared for Kerr's inevitable appearance to get returned to his unenviable self...

The transport was complete, Finchley Kerr once again stood on the bridge of the Blackeagle. However, he wasn’t alone, another figure stood next to him, one who didn’t quite seem at home, one whose face seemed plain, unfinished.

“Everyone, this is the Founder, the one we’ve been looking for…”

Jaal looked at the Founder with narrowed, suspicious eyes. There were so many smart remarks he could make but he refrained knowing how the captain would most likely react. Captain Kerr had to have some kind of plan, Jaal hoped.

Isabelle turned to look at the Founder. “Great, Perhaps now I can get some answers about the nanites that are still in my system.” With that she turned back to concentrate on piloting.

Kell was quiet, surreptitiously scanning... mostly the Founder but everyone else in turn as well... just in case... But she was curious nonetheless.

Finchley looked around everyone on the bridge and said “Take a long hard look at them” he said, pointing to the Founder, “They’re the ones who started the war before, a war that cost the lives of untold millions, but they won’t be allowed to begin another one.”

He walked across to the nearest Security box, keyed the code in, opened it and took out a phaser. Closing and locking the box again, he walked back to the Founder, levelled the phaser at their head and fired at point blank range. The Founder dropped to the floor and became a liquid state. Finchley pointed the phaser down, adjusted the setting to a lower setting then fired into the liquid, watching as it shrivelled up and turned black.

Looking back round the crew, his facial expression was hard as granite “We have a mole, they fed information about us to the Founder, they knew we were looking for the time ship. Find whoever it is, I want their head!”

 

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