Ahoy - Redux

The continuing adventures of the crew from the USS Luna, hunting pirates.

New Legs

Starbase 86
2401

—- Starbase 86, Commodore Ciffao Tharc’s Office —-

The Commodore was clearly annoyed when she finally spoke with Commander Olivia Carrillo. The USS Luna had been in dock for a few hours now, back from retrieving its intelligence officers from a tricky situation in the Triangle and had not hunted down the pirates they’d been sent to deal with. However behind her back strings had been pulled, and promises made and she had to do this.

“At the request of someone at Starfleet, that your Lieutenant Commander Dornall had call someone else who called an Admiral who then called me, I’m reassigning your crew, Commodore Ciffao Tharc said, “You now have command of the USS Selene, keeping with your moon theme.”

Carrillo had not expected that, “Reassigning us, but it’s not my crew it’s Captain Cruz’s.”

Tharc ignored her, “You’ll also be getting the USS Sizemore in a strike force and you’ll be in charge of the mission.”

“But Captain Cruz might…” began Carrillo defending her commanding officer’s best interests.

“If Captain Cruz walks through my door in the next five minutes she can lead this strike, but she’s off growing a new leg,” Tharc said.

“Humans don’t grow new legs,” Carrillo pointed out, “It’s artificial.”

“I know that,” Tharc said, “Take the Selene, execute the mission and for once don’t wreck my ships.”

Carrillo nodded.

The commodore moved about her desk then took out a small box and tossed it to the Commander. Carrillo opened it to see a single gold pip.

“Can’t have a commander leading a strike force of three ships. Don’t make me take the pip back,” Tharc said.

“Isn’t Cruz meant to promote me?” Carrillo asked.

“No, and I understand she got promoted via sub space transmission after her captain was poisoned. Neither of you are moving up the traditional way, but after Fleet Day it’s not like we have enough captains,” Tharc said. She sat down behind her desk and picked up a PADD, “Now get out of my sight before I put you back as an ensign.”

 

—- USS Selene, Bridge —-

“Course laid in,” Pr’Nor said, her Vulcan efficiency evident and ensuring that she was the only member of the bridge crew that was not looking around the bridge with a certain form of glee mixed with trepidation as they pulled out of Starbase 86’s dock and turned towards the Triangle. She glanced at Carrillo added, “Captain.”

“Warp 9.9 to the rendezvous point, we’ll meet us with the fleet,” Carrillo said and then paused not sure what her captain slogan for starting them off would be before saying, “Go.”

It was enough. Turning back to her conn the Vulcan engaged the warp engines and the slender ship leapt forward hitting top speed in seconds.

Carrillo sat in the centre chair. There had been a scramble to reassign the Luna’s crew and the bulk had moved. The USS Selene had an extensive cetacean operations centre and so even Lieutenant Scchhttt’aaakkk had moved and even found the department growing with more water based members of Starfleet looking for transfers. There were also two Academy classes looking for assignment to the frontier but they were not due to arrive until after the strike force was finished. The ship was a scientific ship, but given the task for Task Force 86 to which they were assigned, there would be more intelligence officers joining and much of their work would be as a quick response ship to handle hot spots.

Rising Carrillo knew that there were several hours until they neared the border of the Triangle and the rendezvous point. She nodded at the crew, “Lieutenant Jara take the bridge. Let me know the moment we hear from the USS Sizemore.”

 

—- USS Selene, First Officer’s Quarters —-

Carrillo had taken the First Officer’s quarters, even though she was technically the captain at the moment. She entered to find Lieutenant Pierre Lambert adjusting furniture, as they were now married and shared the larger XO’s quarters.

“I miss the carpeting in the Luna’s hallways,” Lambert observed.

“You flew a Miranda-class you shouldn’t be complaining,” Carrillo teased her time lost husband.

He shrugged, “I got used to the comfort. Is this a good thing, being assigned to this ship?”

The politics of modern day Starfleet was new to him and the difference between a Luna-classand the Lamarr-class was lost on him. To him all ships were so far beyond even the Constitution-class that was the cream of the crop of his time, that it was hard to be a judge.

“Yes, no, it’s hard to say. It’s bigger, but still a ship to explore. A science ship, and we’re in the job of defense,” Carrillo said taking off her uniform’s duty jacket to reveal a plain black t-shirt underneath it. She glanced at him, “You’ll enjoy flying it. It’s basically a Sovereign-class with fancy chrome platting.”

“Is that good?” Lambert asked sitting next to her and starting to massage her shoulders.

“The Enterprise-E was a Sovereign,” she said.

“I know you like that ship,” Lambert said, meaning the fixation that people of this time seemed to have on the Enterprise and all of it’s subsequent ships. To him it was just another ship, to people of this time there seemed to be an almost religious fever about it.

“Is it Picard’s?” he asked.

“His second Enterprise,” Carrillo said leaning into him.

People of this time also seemed to really like Picard, another captain of another Enterprise.

“This ship is like a starbase,” he observed, “Two schools, seven hundred people?”

“Well not yet, but soon, yes. Ships got big,” Carrillo explained, not wanting to get into what else was out there. “We started to put families on some ships.”

“Would you,” Lambert started, then he paused, “want to do that?”

She laughed, “Maybe, but not today. Today we have pirates to hunt.”

Running to Standstill

USS Selene - The Triangle
2401

—- USS Selene, Briefing Room 1 —-

Commander Barin Kayto of the USS Sizemore sat down. The captain of the USS Sizemore took the cup of coffee that had been offered by the acting first officer of the USS Selene Yuhiro Kolem, and looked at the plan that had been drawn up by the tactical and strategic operations department aboard the Selene.

“So this thing has taken out a number of our ships and stations,” he observed, dark Betazoid eyes looking up at Captain Olivia Carrillo, “what makes this different?”

Carrillo knew that Kayto tended to respect the chain of command, and those officers who had a higher rank than him. What he’d think of her if he knew that two days ago she’d been a Commander just like him, she was not sure. For now she was a captain, and had to act like she was confident in her plan.

“We’re looking for them, and they’re not hunting us,” she said, “we’ve given you modifications to make to your photon torpedoes. We’re making the same ones. We assume the drones are resource intensive, it’s not easy to make them. We keep slamming them with torpedoes, keep them from getting near our ships. Once they’re out of drones we close in with phasers.”

He glanced at Kolem and then nodded, “Okay, I guess that’s the plan.”

The two ships were flying in tandem to their destination deep within the Triangle. It was a location known to be rife with pirates, and not a place the Steamrunner-class ship would have ventured normally. But joined by two other Starfleet vessels there was a feeling that risks could be taken.

“We’ve also sent the specs over to your engineering team,” Kolem said. Half-Betazoid herself she admired the officer for rising to the rank of commander, a feat that she was not sure was possible with everyone’s inner thoughts in your head all day.

Kayto nodded, “Well if we survive this we’ll have to get together and have quite the party.”

“Well hopefully we survive this,” Kolem smiled.

Kayto nodded and left the room heading back to the transporters and his own ship. The door slid closed behind him and Carrillo glanced at her temporary First Officer, “You were flirting with him.”

“He was flirting with me,” Kolem protested.

“Oh I know,” Carrillo said.

“You should have heard what we thought to each other,” Kolem teased.

“What?” Carrillo asked, interested.

“Nothing actually, but I got you interested,” Kolem said, “It’s not just Betazoids that are frisky.”

“I’m married,” Carrillo protested in her own defense. She stood, she had department heads who were still getting used to their new ship to meet.

 

—- USS Selene, Main Engineering —-

Lieutenant Commander James Young gestured to the warp core, “It works if that’s what you’re asking.”

Carrillo nodded, “It’s not all I’m asking. Give me the run down on the ship.”

“It’s a beautiful mess. If they’d built a hundred of them by now it would be running like a dream,” Young said. He gestured around him, “Instead they built a small number, scrapped the plan once Mars blew up and never went back to it. So there’s not many of them, and they’re temperamental because the kinks haven’t been ironed out. But…”

“But?” Carrillo asked.

“But it’s in good shape and we could get to our destination much faster if we weren’t escorting two other ships,” Young said, “Slower ships.”

“Tactical systems, shields?” Carrillo asked her Chief Engineer.

“Built like a Sovereign,” Young said, “Not as well armed but the shields will take punishment. The phasers are solid, just conserve your torpedoes or you’ll run out of them.”

“Young about the First Officer job, even though it’s temporary,” Carrillo began.

Young shook his head, “Save it, I’m not a people person. I know my team, but I can’t be your XO. I just don’t have it in me. I’m good at this, I appreciate you bringing me along, but I don’t want to get promoted out of engineering.”

Carrillo smiled softly at him, she’d been worried that as the most senior member of the team he’d have been angling for the role, but it turned out that Young was happy with what he was, and content to remain in place.

She watched the engineering team for awhile as they explored their shiny new workspace. Some of the team had come with the ship, since their crew capacity had ballooned to 750 people. There was a more intensive cetacean operations department that had to be maintained along with more finicky systems than on the Luna which had been built with tried and tested materials.

Finally without announcing it she looked her leave.

 

—- USS Selene, Science Lab 1 —-

 

In the science labs Gabriella Miller was directing organized chaos, as the Lieutenant Commander showed everyone where to move in. Most of the science staff had not yet joined the ship, as its rapid deployment had happened quickly. Their science department was going to more than double once they returned to space dock, as the ship’s primary mandate was to explore and do science. That meant there was a very good argument for a scientist to be the First Officer, since that was the primary function of the ship.

She spotted Captain Carrillo as she entered and walked over to her commanding officer, PADD in hand.

“How’s it going,” Carrillo asked, knowing that though Miller was less concerned with their current mission of pirate hunting she was likely the second most stressed person on the ship, after Carrillo herself.

“I have about one hundred ongoing experiments that we had to shift ships with,” Miller said her blonde hair pulled back into a pony tail, “We have one hundred scientists and have to find labs for them, plus we’re getting at least one hundred and fifty more, as well as cadets. But we’ll figure it out.”

Wanting to give credit where credit was due Carrillo nodded, “You mean you’ll figure it out.”

Miller gave a non-comital shrug, “Well that’s debatable, actually Lieutenant Commander Mason has been leading a lot of it.”

Carrillo took that in, “I came by to see how you’re doing, but also to talk about the XO role. I was told that I can’t have Kolem as my XO beyond this mission, and at least until Captain Cruz gets back I need a First Officer. So while it may be temporary do you want the job, I figure I need a scientist this being a science ship.”

Miller shook her head, “I didn’t even want to be Chief of the department, how about Mason? She’s smart, and seems to work well with people.”

Carrillo regarded the half Vulcan half human watching as the woman showed their space anomaly experts to a lab. She nodded, “Okay, on your recommendation I’ll go talk to her.”

She did not know Mason that well, she’d buried herself in the department, but clearly Miller thought highly of her. Carrillo walked up, and smiled, “Lieutenant Commander Mason could you take a walk with me?”

The woman nodded, “Yes ma’am.”

As they exited the science labs they headed, with Carrillo taking the lead, towards the forward officer’s lounge. The newly minted captain glanced at the science officer, “So Mason, what do you think of the USS Selene so far?”

“It’s nice, lots of potential,” Mason said, “are you looking for approval for taking it over the Luna?”

“What? No, I’m just trying to get to know you more,” Carrillo said, “Lieutenant Commander Miller thinks you’d be a good First Officer for me. I need to know we’re on basically the same page, at least on the important issues.”

“Why don’t you make your husband the XO?” Mason asked.

“That would be wildly inappropriate, he’s not anywhere near the rank needed and his experience is all in the twenty-third century,” Carrillo said, “I trust him and love him, but he’s not going to be an XO anytime soon.”

“Well ma’am, I think that is wise and a good answer. I will be happy to take the role,” she said, “If you’re offering it.”

“Until Captain Cruz gets back and I shift back into the XO post,” Carrillo said.

“That’s not going to happen ma’am,” Mason said, “Either you or Cruz will get your own ship, Starfleet doesn’t have enough captains. Unless you set the carpet on fire, they’re not going to demote you.”

Carrillo gestured to the shiny metal floor, “No more carpets. Okay, you start tomorrow, work with Miller to replace you as the Assistant Chief of Science, and tomorrow you wear red. I’ll let Kolem know she can go back to just running our counseling department.”

Mason nodded, “Thank you ma’am.”

“Unless we’re on the bridge it’s Olivia now, at least while you’re my First Officer,” Carrillo said, “Got it, thank you Keyana.”

 

—- USS Selene, Intelligence Office —-

“So I have you to thank for a new command and a new pip?” Carrillo asked Jake Dornall suspiciously. She’d never felt like the officer was quite fully honest with her, or with anyone really.

He smiled the same grin that suggested he knew more of what was going on than anyone else, not that he’d admit it, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Carrillo sighed, “Look Lieutenant Commander Dornall. This is a science ship, and my XO is a member of our science team. But I do want to get you as the Second Officer, if you’ll take the role.”

Dornall shrugged, “Okay, I can do that.”

“What do you get out of getting me the Selene?” Carrillo asked, mostly out of curiosity.

“Top of the line sensors, more offices, and more officers. Don’t worry you’ll pay me back later,” Dornall said, “For now we have a pirate to catch.”

Captain Olivia Carrillo sighed, “Just keep in mind we’re on the same side.”

“I’m well aware of what side everyone’s on Captain,” Dornall said and gave a half mocking salute.”

“I’m going to hate owning you a favour,” Carrillo said.

“You’ll love it, trust me,” Dornall said.

“Oh I don’t trust you Dornall, but I probably need you,” Carrillo said and nodded at him, before heading back to her quarters. He was too stuck in the Dominion War-era where he’d lost his father fighting the Cardassians. He was too young to have fought back then, but he was still preparing for the Federation to be at war with someone, or everyone.

Cat and Mouse

USS Selene - The Triangle
2401

USS Selene, The Triangle —

 

The USS Selene dropped out of warp followed by the USS Sizemore. The Selene took the lead position, its powerful sensors reaching out into the dark of space and seeking out the beacon that its intelligence officers had placed. It slowed to half impulse, searching. Finally, it seemed to find something and began to slowly increase its speed, heading towards its target carefully as if it was not sure what it might find. 

 

USS Selene, Bridge —

 

Captain Olivia Carrillo looked over the shoulder of Lieutenant Eshita Elizabeth Das at the readings they were getting back. Behind them at the console was the new acting First Officer Lieutenant Commander Keyana Mason, who had changed her teal sciences uniform for a command red one. The area was littered with various effects that played tricks on their scanners, even the advanced scanners of the Lamarr-class were having trouble penetrating it. Realizing that having to head back to Starbase 86 after all that work of trying to locate their pirate advisory Carrillo was not willing to give it up just yet.

“Try alternating the bands,” Carrillo said, not sure if what she’d just said made sense in this context but there had to be some adjustment that they could make.

Used to investigating stellar phenomena Das found that tracking pirates was not to her taste. However, her hand danced along the LCARS panel as she did indeed adjust the bands that they were scanning. 

“The trouble is they picked this location for the interference,” she said, “I’m going to try applying some limitations to the scanner, so we’re not getting natural phenomena but rather just that someone made.”

Glancing at the captain she said, “You can all stop looking over my shoulder as I work, I’ll let you know when I get something.”

Rebuked Carrillo nodded, knowing that she had to go to a more hands-off type of leadership style now that she was Captain, and that she had an (acting) First Officer who understood the science aspects of their ship far better than her. She had come up through Operations before changing to the command division early on in her career when she had found that she had no real aptitude for the engineering part of the job. Moving boxes around a ship had been one thing, but when asked to fix a replicator she’d not performed as well as she felt that she should have.

“Lieutenant Jara,” Carrillo said, “make sure the Sizemore knows we’re looking.”

“Yes ma’am,” the tactical officer said from her post at the security console.

Stepping away from her screen Das glanced at the captain, “We’re going to fire a probe to try to cut through some of the noise, the filters aren’t enough.”

Carrillo nodded, “Okay. Let me know as soon as we have something. Mason, you have the bridge.”

 

 

USS Selene, Holodeck 3 —

 

Carrillo lay on her back trying to catch her breath, “You know usually you don’t beat up your captain.”

Lieutenant Rebecca Avila who had been the leader of the Hazard Team on the Luna, and likely would fill the same role here on the Selene once things were in place grinned and cracked her neck. 

“If you didn’t want to be flat on your back you’d be training with someone afraid of captains, like Lieutenant Junior Grade Hume,” Avila grinned. The woman was one of many Latinas who had been drawn to the USS Luna due to Captain Cruz’s aggressive recruitment of women who had been overlooked. After a career of largely being the only one on a ship or one of a handful, Adriana Cruz had sought to change that once she had power of her own.

Getting to her feet Carrillo steadied herself then took another swing with her right hand. Avila blocked it and delivered a blow to her midsection knocking the wind out of the captain. Despite using safety equipment the contact hurt and Carrillo doubled over as she tried to regain her breath that had been knocked out of her. 

The captain paced as she tried to regain her composure, “We might not find the pirates.”

Avila shrugged, “Less chance of me being shot at. I’m not mad about that. I get that we need to stop them, but we’re not a warship.”
“No but we’ve got the scanners needed to find them,” Carrillo said, “And we have a canon.”

“A canon and five bucks will get you a coffee,” Avila said.

“What does that mean?” Carrillo asked.

“I think it’s something to do with buying coffee, maybe how much it used to cost. The point being a canon is a canon but it’s not solving all our problems,” Avila explained, trying to define the old Earth adage she’d deployed.

Not sure if she got it or not Carrillo nodded as if she had. Money was dumb, and before they’d gotten rid of it it seemed to be people’s primary concern. Did you have enough money, did this guy (it was almost always a guy) have too much? Were you starving to death from too little of it?

“Canons are pretty good at solving a pirate problem,” Carrillo said.

“True,” agreed Lieutenant Avila before knocking down the captain again.

 

USS Selene, First Officer’s Quarters —

Lieutenant Pierre Lambert looked at the black and blue areas on his wife’s body. A day full of training had not found the pirates and gotten her mostly pummelled by the security officer. 

“I’ll get you some ice for that,” he said heading to a replicator.

“Ice, you know we have doctors your don’t need to put leeches on me,” Captain Carrillo said teasing her husband who was a time-lost survivor from the twenty-third century.

“It’s ice, not leeches, and if you wanted to see a doctor you’d have stopped at sickbay rather than coming home first,” Lambert pointed out, “I’m not a dumb as you think I am sometimes ma chere.”

“You know I love it when you talk French to me,” Carrillo said watching her husband return with a bundle of ice cubes wrapped in a cloth.

“I’m always talking French to you, turn off the translator and you’ll see,” Lambert pointed out. 

Shivering as her husband deployed the ice she lay on their shared bed and closed her eyes, “What if I fail? I’m not ready for this.”

“For the ice?” Lambert asked as he set it on her bruised torso. He shook his head, “Nobody’s ready for the important moments. But you’ll do fine, if you don’t find the pirates it won’t be for lack of trying. Starfleet won’t blame you.”

“It’s all on me now,” Carrillo said.

“It is, and there’s no one I’d trust more,” Lambert said.
“You’re biased,” Carrillo pointed out to her new husband.

He shrugged, adjusting the ice on another bruised area, “Probably. But I’m also someone who’s lost a lot in my life. What little I have now, I trust with you. Out of everyone on the Luna, I picked you to give me heart, and my life to.”

“We’re not on the Luna anymore,” Carrillo said, not sure if that was a good point or not.

“Good point, I should probably find another wife,” teased Lambert.

Carrillo huffed, “You’re lucky all my bones are broken or I’d break all your bones.”
“None of your bones are broken, you’re just banged up,” Lambert said, “We’ll lie quietly for awhile and you’ll be on the bridge in the morning good as new.”
“Through the healing power of hugs?” Carrillo asked.

“And leeches,” Lambert teased and kissed his wife’s shoulder.

 

USS Selene, Bridge —

 

The captain was still stiff in the morning, though she had to admit that the ice had helped. Walking more or less normally she headed to the centre chair and glanced at her bridge crew, “Update?”

“We might have something,” the acting First Officer Keyana Mason said, bringing up a map of the area on the main view screen. “We’ve been getting weird readings from this region here, might be nothing but it might be a power source running something akin to a cloaking device, a janky one.”

Carrillo nodded, “Move in, get the Sizemore to follow. Let’s see what we can find.”

At the ship’s controls, her husband Lieutenant Lambert nodded, “Yes ma’am, moving in on half impulse now.”

Boolean Operations

USS Selene, The Triangle
2401

USS Selene, The Triangle —

 

Slowly at one-third of impulse speed, the two Starfleet ships moved deeper into the unexplored space, reaching out with sensors like old men trying to feel their way through the darkness that surrounded them. The USS Sizemore took the secondary position following the USS Selene’s lead. The Lamarr-class ship had more powerful sensors and was more capable tactically, its captain was leading the mission. The ships began to get drawn in closer in proximity as the space they were traveling began to narrow with asteroids as large as the Selene in between them.

 

USS Selene, Bridge —

 

The grouping of scientists that had assembled on the bridge were muttering to themselves as they studied the readouts that were now displayed on the main view screen. Probes had been launched and while the USS Selene and USS Sizemore were moving slowly along finding their way toward the beacon’s signal and (hopefully) the pirate ship they were searching for they were studying the narrowing pathway afforded by the asteroids.

Lieutenant Eshita Das frowned at the readings, “If you wanted a highly defensible location, this is it.”

“What do you mean?” Captain Olivia Carrillo asked, her knowledge of science had been insufficient in this case but she trusted her tactical instincts.

“These asteroids are explosive, unstable. A fleet gets in here, it would take one shot to set off a chain reaction and…” she made a hand gesture like a ball exploding and mouthed the word boom.

Carrillo stood, “So you’re saying, this is a spot you’d lay a trap?”

Das nodded, “If you were worried about a more powerful ship finding you and…”

“Full stop,” Carrillo said, suddenly standing, much more concerned and not just with the pre-fight jitters. She glanced at her communications officer on the bridge and said, “Tell the Sizemore to get in close, get in our shield umbrella. Jara extend shields to cover the Sizemore and prepare a torpedo barrage. Three torpedoes.”

“Do you think we’re in a trap?” Jara asked, adjusting the ship’s shields.
“If we’re not already we’re about to be,” Carrillo said as she tapped her comm badge, “Engineering, give me full power to the shields and anything you can spare.”

There was a pause and then Chief Engineer James Young’s voice answered, “Give me five minutes.”

“You have two,” Carrillo said, ending the communication.

“Let the Sizemore know things are about to get hairy,” Carrillo said, and then pausing to give Young another minute she said fire torpedoes at one of the asteroids, let’s set off this chain.”

The main view screen switched to space and the peacefully floating asteroids around the two ships, and then streaks of light exited the torpedo canon on the USS Selene and stuck one of the asteroids and suddenly it seemed as if space itself had been lit on fire. The Selene rocked, tossing the crew around, sending the captain tumbling to the ground, and then causing the gravity systems to temporarily go offline. The energy to the lighting systems went out temporarily casting everyone in darkness, but the shields held. As the lights came back on Lieutenant Jara climbed back to her feet from the ground where she’d been thrown and read out the status of the ship’s shields, “We’re at thirty percent shields.”

Tapping her comm badge once more Carrillo called back to engineering, “Young get me full power to the shields, I think all Hell is about to break loose.”

“If we’d gone any further we’d be toast,” Jara said, then she saw it, “Ma’am, about a thousand contacts coming our way.”

“That’ll be the drones, signal the Sizemore, hold back, let us deal with them,” she said, “and start firing torpedoes one every ten seconds. Let the swarm converge and then detonate. Keep firing until there’s no more,” Carrillo said.

“No more torpedoes or no more drones,” Jara asked for clarification.

Carillo smiled tiredly, “Hopefully no more drones. If it’s no more torpedoes we’re screwed.”

Drawing back from the Selene’s shield envelopment, the USS Sizemore backed off as the larger ship began a patten of firing off a torpedo, allowing the drones to swarm it and then detonate it. Clearly, the programming that the drones were operating under was to swarm and sizeable metal object with a power source and thus they were drawn to the torpedoes. Slowly but surely the Selene winnowed down the mass of drones, until suddenly it seemed that their programming changed. Whether by learning or by an over-the-air update the drones began to ignore the torpedoes and instead head for the two ships.

“They’ve updated, it’s a basic boolean operation,” said the new First Officer Lieutenant Commander Keyana Mason, “They’ve adjusted the parameters to ignore anything smaller than… well us.”

“Stop talking Vulcan,” Carrillo said, “and I don’t love this ‘smart pirate’ thing. Jara keep firing torpedoes, speed them up, and engage with phasers. If I let drones eat our ship I’ll never get a new one after using the Luna as a battering ram.”

Carrillo had taken to pacing, not sure there was anything else she could do. Increasing the speed they shot torpedoes was also increased the rate they ran out of torpedoes. While the cloud of drones was visibly smaller now, it was not striking as fast as she’d have wanted it to.

Then all at once, they stopped, their number diminished enough that they began to drawback. Carrillo took a breath, knowing that the next phase of this was just getting started.

“We have three vessels on scanners, two about the size of a Defiant-class ship and one,” Jara started, “One very big one. It matches the readings we took and what starbases that have been attacked have reported.”

“Ask the Sizemore to handle the smaller ones,” Carrillo said, “target the big ship and prepare our quantum torpedoes. Communications, open a general hail. This is Captain Olivia Carrillo of the USS Selene. We are here to arrest you for multiple attacks on Federation civilians, property and bases. Surrender now and you’ll be granted a fair trial.”

Mason looked unconvinced, “Do you think they’ll surrender?”

“I do not. Lieutenant Jara, target enemy weapons systems, and on my mark fire,” Carrillo said sitting down.

She waited a moment to hear if there was a hail from the pirates in response, but there was nothing. When there was no answer she nodded, mostly to herself, and said, “Fire. Full spread, phasers, and quantum torpedoes. Let’s make them wish they’d surrendered.”

Maneuvers

USS Selene, The Triangle
2401

—  USS Selene, The Triangle —

 

The USS Sizemore peeled off heading to the port side, firing a salvo of photon torpedoes at the two smaller pirate ships to draw them into engaging with it. This left the USS Selene against the larger, and better-armed pirate ship. 

The ship had large expansive cargo holds, both for the large inventory of artificial intelligence-controlled drones that the Selene had already dealt with and for the spoils of its attacks. It also had more canons than seemed possible, though they were almost jury-rigged onto the ship, and lacked the precise targeting of Starfleet vessels, or even the not as well-engineered Klingon ones. Its strategy was clearly to turn the sector to fire, meeting the Selene’s hails with overwhelming force. 

With its shields already weakened the Selene had no choice but to begin the engagement with evasive maneuvers, its forward torpedo canon firing off a quick burst of quantum torpedoes. It stayed moving, unable to stand up to a sustained assault from the large, and ungainly pirate vessel.

Space was silent, the void cutting off all sounds as the Sovereign-style engineer strained, the warp core trying to rebuild the damaged shield power as the ship took turns and danced to avoid the onslaught. 

The Sizemore was having a more straightforward time, used to border patrols it had faced off against small pirate vessels like its opponents before, often in more overwhelming situations. It to had to stay in motion, to prevent being outgunned and a stationary target, but its flight was to keep the two vessels operated and to prevent them from coordinating their attacks. Phaser fire weakened their shields, if they were the only three vessels in a quadrant they would have withdrawn, but they were like a cornered animal fighting to hold onto its merger territory.

 

USS Selene, Bridge —

 

A console exploded in a shower of sparks as torpedoes struck the already weakened shields and hit the ship’s hull. Captain Carrillo gripped the seat armrests tightly, to keep from being once more tossed to the floor unceremoniously. Inertial dampeners were the only thing that kept the bridge crew, and likely the rest of the crew through the ship, from being thrown left to right and back again as the ship bobbed and weaved like a boxer looking to catch their breath between pummellings.

Chief Security Officer Claudia Jara called out, in between firing the ship’s phasers, “Shields at twenty percent.”

Though they had survived the trap that had lain in wait for them and had weakened their shields, they had already been outmatched and so starting off the fight with the disadvantage of damaged shields had not helped.

“Pr’Nor keep us moving, but then bring us around,” Carrillo said to the Chief Flight Control Officer who was at the conn. It was clear that motion was only useful for a short time, and that they were just giving the pirates a chance to weaken their shields before going in for the kill. The chief tactical advantage of the Lamarr-class ship was its forward phaser canon.

“Jara as soon as we come around fire everything we’ve got, unload on them,” Carrillo said, arresting the pirates, while noble, was not looking like a feasible outcome. The ship shook with fire from the pirate vessel’s disruptors once more, pivoted on its slow arc, and fired. The streaks of light were continuous as at the tactical station Jara counted down the rapidly dwindling inventory of torpedoes, “One hundred photon torpedoes left, twenty quantum…”

It was risky, putting their fate into one final push to break the pirate ship’s resistance, but Carrillo was counting on the Starfleet vessel to be better armed, better engineered and to be able to weather a beating a bit longer.

At tactical Jara again spoke, “We’ve hit a store of torpedoes, they’ve ignited I’m reading an explosion inside the pirate vessel.”

The other two pirate vessels that had been engaging the Sizemore suddenly stopped fighting and took off, entering warp without notice, suddenly as if given a signal. 

“Hail the pirate vessel, offer our assistance, if it drops its shields,” Carrillo said. She stood from her chair, adjusted her uniform that had become disheveled during the battle, and watched the main view screen as the pirate vessel suddenly began to break apart as explosions cascaded along its exterior.

“That’s bigger an explosion than it should be,” observed Lieutenant Commander Keyana Mason, the acting First Officer.

“A distraction?” Carrillo asked, trying to understand what was happening. Suddenly a large segment of the ship seemed to break off, and before they knew it it too jumped to warp. 

“On ancient Earth, sleight-of-hand performers used to deploy an explosion or smoke bomb to distract their audiences from their actual movements,” Pr’Nor observed the Vulcan bringing the ship to a stop.

The crew watched as the segment of the ship that remained behind was consumed by a series of explosions. It was clear that the pirates had gotten away, though hopefully not without suffering their own setbacks with the destruction of their drones and at least part of their mothership.

“We’re being hailed by the Sizemore,” Jara said.
“Onscreen,” Carrillo said.

A much more composed Commander Barin Kayto appeared on screen his bridge not showering him in sparks or looking like it had been half blown up at all. He smiled, “Good job Captain, I was starting to think you were on the ropes.”

“We got lucky,” Carrillo admitted, not seeing any point in lying to the Betazoid, or her own crew that had just lived through the same experience that she had.

“Ready to go home?” Kayto asked.

“We’ll take about half an hour to get our warp core online, but we’ll join you. How about your bridge crew come for a celebratory dinner, we apparently have real chefs,” Carrillo said, knowing that life aboard a Steamrunner-class was a great deal more Spartan than on the Selene.

“Will Lieutenant Kolem be there?” the Betazoid asked of the ship’s former acting First Officer and current Chief Counsellor, the half Betazoid half human. 

“I’ll be sure to invite her,” Carrillo promised.

“We’ll join you in a few hours,” Kayto said, “Once we’re underway and sure we’re not about to be jumped out here in the wrong end of nowhere.”

 

USS Selene, The Delphi Senior Officers Forward Lounge —

 

“Your husband isn’t a senior officer?” Inquired Jake Dornall as he drank something Bajoran that was colourful and probably strong.

Captain Carrillo shook her head, “No, also he’s on the bridge, someone needs to fly the ship. Sorry to hear about you and Kolem, I didn’t realize you broke up.”

He shrugged, “I keep secrets, it’s kind of my thing. She’s half-Betazoid, I don’t deal in open candour, long term it wouldn’t have worked. Not everyone is marriage material.”

Another tray of something Betazoid made the rounds. It was light, delicate much like the people. Airy, as if could crumble but it did not. Carrillo wondered if you could read metaphors into all people’s food like that, extrapolate things from the unspoken meaning they gave to their cuisine.

Dorsal stepped aside as Lieutenant Commander Kyle Renault approached, “Captain, I have to say good job. The odds were high, but you had the balls… excuse me guts, to see it through.”

“Thank you,” Carrillo nodded, “Your captain and your crew performed its job perfectly. I’m glad you had our backs.”

The man nodded, then said, “Is it true you married a man from the twenty-third century named Lambert?”

Carrillo nodded, “I suppose you could summarize it that way.”

“My great-grandfather was in the Academy with a Lambert, maybe its the same person,” Renault said.

Carrillo shrugged, not knowing what that mattered. Pierre did not seem to want to spend a lot of time looking up the ancestors of the crew or the cadets that he’d served with. He was more focused on his future, trying to find him place in a Starfleet that had changed considerably since his time on the USS Boston. She nodded though, “I’ll mention it to him, it may well be that they knew each other.”

“I can’t imagine marrying my great grandfather,” Renault said adding, “You know if I was a woman.”
Carrillo nodded, “I also probably would not marry my own great grandfather. And I am a woman.”

She disengaged with the Sizemore’s First Officer and found a window looking out at the stars stealing towards them, then past them as they headed back through the Triangle. Captain Carrillo sipped her drink quietly until her acting First Officer sat next to her, the half-Vulcan Lieutenant Commander Mason. Drawing more on the human half of her the woman smiled, “You did good captain. Keep this up you’ll get to keep the pip, and the ship.”
“Captain Cruz will be back,” Carrillo observed, hoping that it was true.

“Maybe, but you saved lives today, and with no casualties,” Mason observed, “Starfleet needs captains, you’ll end up somewhere.”

“It feels like this is where I belong,” Carrillo said.

“Maybe, but where ever you go, you’ll manage,” Mason said.