Captain’s Log, Stardate 74773. What was meant to be a temporary return to my former command during a diplomatic ‘experiment’ between the Federation and the Cardassians has turned into a permanent reassignment. While somewhat unexpected given that the mission with the Cardassians isn’t entirely ‘complete’, my involvement with the project has shifted from onsite management of our efforts to… shall we say… convincing the various raiders that have made getting transport vessels to and from the Federation difficult. We are currently patrolling a stretch of space that has seen a good deal of pirate activity in the area in recent weeks to see if we can find a solution to the problem… diplomatically…

Captain Jonathan Bastin leaned back in his chair as he paused his dictation. Even as he said the words, the truth of the matter was he held absolutely no delusions that the raiders combing the area looking for an easy target would simply mend their ways from a stern talking to. Given his long career as a diplomat, Bastin had been party to a great many negotiations and functions of the sort that didn’t go exactly as planned. More than one engagement had ended in complete failure, which included the trading of weapons fire rather than words.

A long sigh slipped out of Bastin as he ruminated over the past for a few minutes. His thoughts meandered along for several more minutes before he finally committed the log to record as it was and pushed himself out of the chair he was sitting in to cross the somewhat short expanse leading out to the bridge of his ship. Most of his senior officers were no longer on duty, as it was getting rather late in the duty rotation.

“Anything to report?” Bastin asked of the watch officer sitting in his usual position.

The young Lieutenant Commander rose to his feet, “Nothing significant to report, Captain.”

Bastin nodded in a satisfied manner as he started walking toward the turbolift near the back of the compartment. If he had walked just slightly faster, he might have missed the concerning warble that issued from the tactical console. It was enough to halt Bastin in his tracks and turn toward the Ensign manning the station with an expectant look on his face.

“Sensors have picked up three small craft matching the description of raider vessels in the area,” the woman reported.

“Distance and heading?” Bastin asked with a slight frown.

“Two light years out, their course projected to intercept ours in approximately twenty minutes,” came the response after the Ensign had made the required calculations.

“Of course they are…” Bastin muttered under his breath before making his way back toward the central portion of the bridge. The watch officer wasted no time moving out of his Captain’s way, taking over the first officer’s position in her absence. Bastin took his seat and began issuing orders.

“Take us to yellow alert, Ensign,” Bastin remarked, “Captain Bastin to all senior bridge officers, report to the bridge immediately.”

Once his orders had been passed along, Bastin deactivated the comm and had the operations officer switch the viewscreen to a tactical view of their position relative to their inbound pursuers. The streaking field of stars blinked off, soon replaced with a gridwork of thin blue lines accentuated by white dots of various sizes to denote the many stars in the sector of space the Argonaut currently occupied. A Starfleet delta dominated the dead center of the display, while several red arrows indicated the inbound vessels.

Capt. Bastin was about to issue a request when the doors of the turbolift swished open to reveal his Saurian Security Chief. Having her show up at that particular moment brought a smirk to his face as Bastin got the feeling she hadn’t gotten too far from the bridge after being relieved.

“Lieutenant, what types of vessels are on approach?” Bastin inquired once the Saurian was behind her console.

Her fingers clacked against the hard surface of the console as she made the various sensor requests, “Vessels appear to be similar to the Peregrine-class fighter, though a great deal of modification have been made that suggest that whoever is flying them might have cobbled them together from parts of other craft to make them spaceworthy.”

“Likely rules out anyone well funded and well organized,” Bastin postulated.

Lt. Nieru cocked her head to one side slightly as she considered the analysis. Given the readings before her, she couldn’t immediately rebuke the statement, though taking it at face value could be exactly what the raiders wanted them to do.

“I would recommend caution, Captain,” the Saurian said after considerable thought, “Their outward appearance may well be an intentional ploy.”

“Noted,” Bastin said briefly. A few seconds after making the utterance, the turbolift doors parted to reveal the two missing senior bridge staff, Cmdr. Rena Yuri and Lt. T’Rel. While the Vulcan took his seat at the Ops console, Bastin’s First Officer replaced the watch officer who had been occupying her chair.

“I take it there’s some raiders making the rounds if you’ve called us back up here,” Yuri said with a smirk as she settled into her chair.

“More like… they are coming to say hello,” Bastin said, pointing toward the viewscreen that was currently projecting the paths of the vessels in question.

“Have we made contact with them yet?” the woman asked with an arched eyebrow.

“Attempts at contact have so far been ignored, Commander,” Nieru replied in an even tone.

The First Officer let out a grunt of displeasure, “Looks like they’re looking for a fight.”

“Seems likely given that they’re coming our way and refusing to even say hello before they get here,” Bastin nodded. Sinking into thought, the Captain began to map out how the interaction might go down. Chances of communication were low, but not zero. The likelihood of the ships mistaking them for a transport ship was also low, but again there was a non-zero chance that they simply reacted to their warp signature and didn’t bother to do any comprehensive scans to see who they were racing towards. It wasn’t impossible for their encounter with the vessels speeding toward the Argonaut to end peacefully and without weapons fire, but the longer things drew out without them answering hails, the less likely that became.

“Thoughts?” Bastin prompted his First Officer.

Cmdr. Yuri tapped her chin with a finger several times before responding, “I think it would serve us better to assume we’re in for a fight. Recommend we go to red alert and assume a defensive posture.”

“Agreed…” Capt. Bastin said after a short pause.

“Red alert!” Yuri ordered, “Raise shields and bring weapons to standby.”

“Aye,” the Saurian officer nodded. A second later the amber hue of the bridge was replaced by the deep crimson indicative of the highest threat condition on the ship. The klaxon associated with the alert status only rang out half a dozen times before the sound was cut off in the bridge compartment.

“Vessels are in visual range, Captain,” Lt. T’Rel spoke up from his console at the front of the bridge.

“On screen,” Bastin ordered.

The tactical display blinked to black before being replaced by the image of three mismatched and very poorly constructed ships dropping out of warp. Bastin frowned at the sight, his gut telling him that talking was not likely going to resolve anything if the raider vessels he was looking at were any metric to go by.

“The lead vessel is sending us a hail, Captain,” Lt. Nieru said with a hint of displeasure in her voice.

“Put them through,” Bastin said as he stood up.

The screen blinked out again before displaying the face of what could only be assumed to be the leader of the ship. Bastin didn’t immediately recognize the species the individual belonged to, though it hardly mattered given the situation. None of the people visible on the screen shared the same origins, which made it blatantly obvious that they weren’t representing any one entity.

“You will lower your shields and surrender,” the being that appeared to be the leader of the raiding party said bluntly without preamble or introductions.

Capt. Bastin couldn’t help himself, turning to his First Officer, “Am I the only one who thinks that demand is overused and completely cliche?”

Cmdr. Yuri smiled wryly at the question, “Is this really the time for that discussion?”

“That’s fair,” Bastin said with a shrug before returning his attention to the viewscreen, “You were saying…?”

The being’s face contorted in rage over having been so rudely brushed off, “We are taking your ship, lower your shields this instant!”

Bastin let out a very exaggerated sigh, “You’re not taking our ship, friend. Our shields will remain up and our weapons will remain locked on your vessels. Should you wish to power down your own weapons and return to your point of origin… I might even let you get a few minutes head start before we track you back to your den and clear it out along with you. I believe that to be an acceptable counter offer.”

“This is not a negotiation!” the being seethed, “You will comply with our demands or we will destroy your ship!”

“That’s what I was waiting for…” Bastin turned his back on the screen, “Lieutenant… fire at will.”

The moment the words left his mouth, the communication was cut off and the Saurian began directing the Argonaut’s weapon systems to fire upon the various weapon systems that she had managed to identify while her Captain had been casually bantering with the First Officer.

As Bastin sank back into his chair, Yuri leaned over with a smirk on her lips, “For a diplomat, you certainly don’t waste time talking.”

“They weren’t interested in talking… hell, I doubt they had much in the way of thoughts that didn’t involve preying on ships and making threats of violence. I haven’t met any poets and statesmen among thieves and murderers,” Bastin shrugged off the teasing comment with ease.

Several slight shudders rippled through the Argonaut, prompting Bastin to look back at the Security Chief. The woman behind the console seemed perfectly at her ease, continuing to input commands in rapid succession without so much as a crease in her features.

“Mister T’Rel, status if you please,” Bastin abandoned his silent inquiry of the Saurian in favor of his Ops Officer.

“Shields are holding at ninety-eight percent. One of the raiding vessels has already been disabled and is currently adrift, the other two vessels are attempting to break off and run,” the Vulcan reported in his usual even tone.

“Have the raiders beamed directly to the brig,” Bastin said with a tone of disinterest.

“Already done, sir,” T’Rel reported dryly.

Bastin nodded at the efficiency of his crew and the way they were able to anticipate orders before receiving them. While the Captain silently praised his crew, the Argonaut had just crippled the second raider, repeating the cycle of responses that didn’t wait for a request from Bastin. The last craft, however, managed to slip away far enough that the Argonaut’s mass wouldn’t inhibit their jump to warp and made a break for it.

“Last vessel has accelerated to warp 4, which appears to be its maximum speed,” the Vulcan remarked from his console.

“Lay in a pursuit course,” Bastin ordered, only to be cut off by the Saurian.

“Captain, sensors indicate that the last ship has had a critical malfunction and has been destroyed,” Nieru said, trying to keep the satisfaction out of her voice.

“Very well, belay my last… set course for the nearest starbase so we can deposit our… guests…” Bastin said after giving his choice of words some thought.

As the helmsman went about executing his orders, the First Officer instructed that the alert condition be terminated, returning the bridge to its normal lighting and appearance. With the crisis now averted, the officers who had been called on duty for the encounter began turning over with the officers they’d relieved to return to their usual rotation. Bastin himself pushed out of his chair, giving the watch officer a brief nod before following Cmdr. Yuri to the turbolift.

“Seems to be a recurring theme in the last few weeks,” Bastin said when the two were halfway to their shared destination.

“How so?”

“Getting waylaid by raiding ships… crippling or destroying said attackers… dropping off prisoners to a starbase… I just feel like we’ve been rinsing and repeating on a strange, unbroken loop,” the Captain said with his arms folded over his chest.

“I get that,” Yuri nodded with a shrug, “But given where we are, and the spectacular lack of oversight from both the Federation and the Cardassians in this area… it’s to be expected. Opportunists thrive in places where no one bothers to crack down. I’m sure the former Neutral Zone areas are just as bad if not worse…”

Bastin couldn’t help but grunt in agreement. He hadn’t bothered to read a great deal of the reports from that part of the Federation, but the ones he had made it glaringly obvious that a lack of oversight had not made the area a better place.

“Guess we’ll just have to stick to gunboat diplomacy for the time being,” Bastin let out a sigh.

“That’s one way to look at it…” the woman chuckled as the lift slowed to a stop and allowed them to depart for their respective quarters.

Captain’s Log, Supplemental. We have just arrived at Starbase 310 and have begun the process of transferring out ‘guests’ to the brig on the station. Our limited investigation didn’t yield much in the way of results, and the vessels that had been left behind had nothing in the way of usable data to extract and retrace their steps. For a disorganized group of outcasts, they were surprisingly thorough about covering their tracks. We will have to leave it to others to find out any information on their hideout, which suits me just fine.

Captain Jonathan Bastin walked into the large holding facility on Starbase 310, a PaDD clutched in his hand. While his people didn’t get a great deal of information out of the few raiders that had been fortunate enough to survive their ill-conceived attack on the Argonaut, they did at least manage to secure some rudimentary demographics that would at least help the investigation get started. It was for that reason that Bastin had decided to deliver the information personally while his Security Chief did the actual leg work of getting their prisoners from his ship to the station brig.

“Hello there, Captain,” a rather deep voice greeted Bastin as he scanned the holding area looking for someone who looked at least nominally in charge. The form that greeted him wore a uniform denoting that they were a Commander, which was of a sufficiently high enough rank to be considered the brig’s commanding officer. Bastin gave the man his best smile as he shook the Commander’s hand.

“Commander,” Bastin said in acknowledgement during their brief handshake, “I have seven prisoners I needed to offload on you. They weren’t the most talkative group we’ve encountered out there, but I brought you what we managed to get.”

Taking the PaDD from Bastin, the Commander skimmed the scrawl of information and gave a few audible grunts when a particular piece of information stood out to him. He didn’t spend a great deal of time looking at the information, motioning one of his subordinates to retrieve the device to no doubt add it to their own files before the prisoners arrived.

“I see they just came at you with phasers armed and demands on the tip of their tongue. Shame you couldn’t get the leader, he was probably better informed than the rest of them. His ship was probably the only one with navigational charts too,” the Commander remarked after returning his attention to the Captain.

“Likely,” Bastin nodded, “We’ve run into that a few times already. Unfortunately, the ships they were using could barely be called space worthy. My Chief Engineer likened them to being little more than a pressurized box strapped to a poorly maintained warp core. Had I not seen them for myself, I might have laughed at the comparison.”

“Just put together enough to harass merchant ships with little to no weapons to speak of and shields just powerful enough to deflect stellar debris,” the Commander chuckled with a knowing smirk, “We’ve had our fair share of reports like that over the last few months. You probably only scratched the surface of how many are actually out there. If I were you, I’d take a trip over to Strategic Operations and see if you can’t narrow down where they keep coming from, since you’ve been out here a while picking up the outliers.”

“My First Officer made the same suggestion. I think she’s just as tired of running into them as you folks are of getting them in here half a dozen at a time,” Bastin smirked.

“Can’t say you’re wrong, Captain,” the Commander said with a brief laugh, “While I won’t say it’s much of a burden to get them in in a steady stream, it would be nice to be done with it and have them all nice and tucked away so they stop ruining people’s lives and livelihoods.”

“Indeed,” Bastin nodded, “Then I will let you and Lieutenant Nieru handle the transfer while I make the trip to Strat Ops.”

“Sounds like a plan, Captain. I’ll leave you to it,” the man gave Bastin a farewell nod before heading back to whatever part of the brig he’d come from.

Taking another moment to look around, Bastin finally turned on his heels and made for the exit of the facility that housed the brig and other correctional facilities on the planetbound Starbase. The facility was laid out in such a way that Bastin had to walk for roughly ten minutes to arrive at his destination, though the route was pleasant enough that he hadn’t been tempted to use the personal transporters staggered around the complex to cut the trip short. When he finally made it to the building he’d been looking for, Bastin had to go through the routine process of entering the secure facility.

Capt. Bastin made a bit of small talk with the young Ensign behind the counter as they processed the request for access, mostly innocuous questions about the young officer’s career to date and their goals for the future. Once he was granted clearance to proceed, Bastin excused himself while bidding his impromptu conversational partner luck with their ambitions before making his way through the maze of corridors to find the hub of Starfleet’s tactical information in the area.

When he entered the room, Bastin was greeted by the officer in charge during that particular shift, a Captain like himself. When he caught a good look at the woman approaching him, a grin spread on his face almost without him thinking about it.

“Now there’s a face I didn’t think I’d see way out here,” Bastin said with a grin, reaching out to take the woman’s hand in his, “It’s been forever, Lisa.”

Captain Lisa Gibson smiled brightly at the man as she took his outstretched hand in her own, “Jon Bastin… What’s a diplomat like you doing this far out? The last time I checked, we don’t have any dignitaries that need coddling.”

Bastin responded with a wry smile, “Funny… I see you still haven’t lost any of your charm way out here on the fringe of civilization.”

“And I see you still haven’t lost your penchant for empty flattery,” the woman teased, “Now, as much as I’d like to just stand here and talk about the old days and your bad habits, I’ll bet anything you aren’t here for a social visit.”

“Well spotted. I’m actually here to see if you have any supplementary information on the raiders we picked up a few days ago. I’m certain the Argonaut isn’t the only ship in the area that’s had run-ins, so I thought perhaps adding what we’ve found to the other reports might help us hunt them down and solve the root problem,” Bastin explained.

“We were actually just discussing that a few hours ago,” Gibson said as she guided Bastin over to one of the large sector display boards that still had operational data pertaining to the subject on display. Bastin took a minute to study the large chart, taking note of the areas that had reported contact with raiding parties near the area he’d had his own encounters. Several of his were already on the monitor, but a few of his more recent contacts had taken place near a different station, and it looked like the information hadn’t promulgated down to them yet.

“May I?” Bastin inquired, motioning toward the console just beneath the display used to add information.

“Please, go right ahead,” Gibson nodded, stepping aside to give Bastin room to work. Once he was seated, the man began populating the missing entries, red dots appearing in the areas around the sub sector of space where the Argonaut had made contact with hostile craft. Thankfully there weren’t a great many gaps in the chart that needed to be filled in, as Bastin’s memory for stellar nav points was far inferior to some of his other abilities. Once he had finished making the required entries, Bastin pushed himself back onto his feet and took a few steps back to really take in the picture.

“The concentration of raids there seems to indicate that they are probably operating somewhere in one of those asteroid clusters…” Bastin murmured as he gazed at the rather large swath of red dots in one particular area.

“Yes… We’ve suspected that might be where they were hiding out, since larger craft would have a hard time patrolling in that region of space. I’ll forward this to our Regional Director and see if he wants to organize an armada to deal with them,” Gibson responded to Bastin’s utterance.

“Sounds like a plan,” Bastin nodded, “Let me know if you’d like the Argonaut to join in. Our primary mission has been fairly streamlined of late and we’ve been struggling to find things to keep ourselves occupied with.”

“Oh right… I had heard you’d gotten shipped off to some backwater system near the border. I take it whatever you were sent to do is complete then?” Gibson said, turning toward Bastin.

“No… our mission is hardly ove. We just don’t need to be there constantly for things to run smoothly. I have enough personnel on site to run the day to day without me,” Bastin corrected his friend.

“Ah…” Gibson muttered, “Well we will keep you in mind should we decide we wish to cobble together a strike force. Having an Argonaut in the mix would prove beneficial.”

“I thought it might,” Bastin smirked, “That’s why I offered.”

Gibson laughed and patted the man on his shoulder, “It’s been nice seeing you, Jon. I’m going to have to get back to work though, but I appreciate you stopping by with your intel. We really should catch up later though, after this raider business is cleared up.”

“Sounds good, Lisa. Take care of yourself until then,” Bastin bid his old friend farewell, taking the hint that he’d done all he could and had reached the end of his welcome in the place.