Captain’s log, supplemental.

We have gone off our chartered course for Zeadar-three in response to a distress call from some sort of merchant vessel. We are a few minutes away from dropping out of warp. We remain at yellow alert and the crew are ready to respond with aid.  

“There’s another vessel inbound as well with a similar configuration. They’re ten minutes away from us at their current speed.” Jezria called from her station. She had been vigilant in coordinating as detailed a scan of their surroundings as possible with Callisto. 

“Thank you, Lieutenant. Any response to hails from the vessel?” Raiem asked. 

“Just a repeat of the initial distress signal. It did indicate that they were having troubles with their communications systems.” Callisto answered. 

Raiem sighed softly and then looked at Mayvilis, her expression similar to his. Something felt off about this entire thing, but they did not have concrete data to back up his weary gut feeling. Mayvilis’ expression affirmed to him that she was feeling similarly. For now, he kept silent on the matter and tapped his right index finger on the edge of his armrest control.

“Captain. We’re closing in on the vessel in distress.” Sinclair’s young voice travelled back from the helm station. 

“Drop us to one-quarter impulse, Ensign and then bring us to an all-stop twenty thousand kilometres off their starboard bow. Put the vessel on screen.”

A barely audible hum in the bridge suddenly ended when Calistoga lurched out of warp. The blank view screen was replaced with the unfamiliar image of some merchant vessel. “Open a channel to the vessel,” Raiem commanded as he stood from his chair in order to investigate the image better. 

“This is Captain Raiem of the Starfleet vessel Calistoga. We are responding to your distress call for aid. How can we help?” 

Silence. 

Raiem raised his brow and looked back to his tactical officer, “Full analysis of that vessel, Lieutenant.” 

“Captain. We are receiving text communication from the vessel. They are thanking us for our aid and have reported a cascade failure in several of their key systems – they are asking us to stand by.” Nahl spoke up from her own station while she assisted Callisto with a deep scan of the vessel in the background.

“We have little choice but to do just that–” Raiem turned around abruptly and reassumed a seat in his command chair.

“There appear to be several power fluctuations across the ship’s power network, but I do not understand why it would be causing problems. This thing has teeth too, Captain – more than one would expect for a vessel of this size.” Callisto brought her tactical analysis to scan up on the main viewer, split with the space view of the vessel.

“Captain. I can no longer establish communication with the vessel, and I’ve lost our uplink with Starfleet command – there appears to be some localized dampening field. It just came out of nowhere, but sensors indicate it’s originating from our friends out there.” Nahl looked up from her controls at the viewscreen with a scorned expression. 

“Red Alert!” Mayvilis beat Raiem to the ask. The lights darkened on the bridge, and the klaxons sounded. 

“Back us away from that vessel, Ensign Sinclair. Target weapons and prepare to fire.” Raiem gripped his armrests and watched as they backed away on the viewscreen. 

“More text incoming from the vessel, Captain. They’re calling for our immediate surrender and demand that we prepare to transport our medical supply payload to their cargo bay. They indicated they do not wish to engage in a firefight but want to remind us that we are outnumbered.”

The second ship.

 “Options, people. I’m getting the feeling from our tactical analysis that we cannot outgun them, especially with that second ship due on our tail at any moment. Can we outrun them, at least?” Raiem looked around at his officers, hoping for some good news. 

“I don’t think we can outrun them, Captain. Not before they could do some significant damage to us. We could put up a decent fight if it were just the one vessel but… Company is here.” Callisto added and brought the image of the second identical type of vessel up on the screen, which took a position directly aft of Calistoga. 

“Pirates…” Raiem announced to the room, only putting a name to the false flag distress call they had answered.