“Captain. They’re sending the same text message again. I get the sense that they’re not feeling overly patient,” Callisto informed.

“They won’t initiate face-to-face communication. Their vessels are not exactly standard either, making it hard for us to pinpoint exactly who they are. They also haven’t attacked us, although clearly outgun us.” Raiem stated this to himself and looked to Mayvilis.

“I think attacking us is their last option, Captain. They likely don’t want to cause too much attention to themselves. Directly firing on a Starfleet medical ship would attract more attention to this area than they would want, perhaps?” Mayvilis vocalized her own thoughts in a quiet conversation between her and Raiem.

“I’m inclined to agree with that, Commander. Let’s see how far we can push our luck.” Raiem grinned at her and stood back up, moving to the bridge’s center once more. He signalled for communications to be reopened. While the pirates had initiated a dampening field which prevented any communication beyond their immediate area, they had set up a secure link with Calistoga to communicate with their aggressors. 

“Unidentified vessels. The medical supplies we carry include highly sensitive equipment and group elements for medication constitution. We can not simply transport them without some preparation. We need time.” 

As before, no visual or audio feedback was established on the pirates’ end, but he could hear a beep from Callisto’s console, which indicated a text response. 

“Our friends have informed us that we have twenty of our minutes to comply, Captain.”

“How generous of them.”

With eighteen minutes on the clock, the senior staff of Calistoga had gathered in the observation lounge. Raiem scanned the room, looking at each person as he gathered his own thoughts. Although he maintained a calm exterior, it would be a complete lie to say he was not unnerved by their predicament.

“What are our options, people? You know our situation. We can’t outrun them. We can’t outgun them. We can’t call for help.” Raiem re-stated their current circumstances and continued to scan the room. 

Silence.

“Then let’s not do any of that. Let’s give them what they want.” Raiem looked to Hilga, his facial expression intrigued by her statement that had broken the few moments of silence amongst the group.

“Please.. Continue, Commander Stramm,” Raiem motioned for her to elaborate.

“If we cannot outrun them. Or outgun them. Or call for help. Let’s give them what they want,” Hilga continued, a small sly grin on her face appeared. She looked up from the PADD she held and finally made eye contact with the room. 

“Let’s send them a trojan horse. Make it appear that we have surrendered and given in to their demands. However, what we send over is a little something different.” Hilga folded her arms and leaned back now, a satisfied look on her face. 

“Yes! We can implant some explosives or something!” Callisto added in.

Raiem looked over at Callisto and then back at Hilga. “We need to ensure that they cannot follow us – explosives would mean potentially disabling one of the vessels but then we would have their angry partner on our tail. That and I’m inclined to do everything we can not to take life, given that we have not been fired upon… yet.”

“What if instead of explosives, we put something that will ensure that their vessel will be disabled – at least for a period of time.” Nahl spoke up and tapped a few controls on the little control pad in front of her at the shared desk. A moderately sized device appeared in holo in the middle of the table. 

“An EMP device…. That might just work Lieutenant….” Hilga nodded as she stated what everyone was looking at. 

“If we disable the one vessel, distract the other somehow and then make like hell for Zeadar-three. We just might be able to get out of this.” Mayvilis added as she leaned forward – her body language indicated she favoured the plan. 

“I can calibrate it to emit immediately upon transport finish with a yield and range that will at least temporarily disable the main vessel,” Nahl continued with a look of determination. 

“Very well. Good work folks. Lieutenant Nahl – prepare the device. We must somehow trick them into thinking that we have transported the payload to them – perhaps a simultaneous replication of some mock supplies and a dampening field of our own? Mask our actual payload with it. We won’t have them fooled for long, but we may buy enough time for your device to work.” Raiem sounded out some further considerations to his team. 

“Callisto and I can make that happen, Captain,” Hilga spoke up and Raiem noticed both her and Callisto nodding to one another. 

“Lieutenant Sinclair. We will need to run for it as soon as our window of opportunity opens. Keep those engines hot and plot an evasive course break.” Raiem gave his orders to the young pilot, who nodded in confirmation. 

“Once the main vessel is disabled – we will launch several torpedoes between us at the aft vessel. Set them to ignite just before contact and then make our break. Hopefully, that will put them off long enough for us to enter warp. We’re betting that they don’t chase after us and tend to their own instead. Doctor Caade – have sickbay read to received wounded – just in case we lose that bet.” 

“We will be ready, Captain,” Lilzalo acknowledged with a stiff head nod towards Raiem.

“Let’s do this people….”

“One minute left on the clock, Captain.” Callisto announced. 

Raiem’s team had rapidly engaged in their tasks and had set the plan in motion to the best of their ability. He had been beyond pleased with how they had come together and problem-solved through this. He had to allow himself to embrace the optimism – short of actually giving into the demands of the pirates, it was the next best thing. 

Raiem tapped on the armrest controls of his command chair and re-opened a channel to the pirate vessel in front of them, “We are preparing to transport our payload over within the next minute. I trust you will abide by your word and leave us in peace.” 

Silence.

“Alright, everyone,” Raiem took a deep breath and canvassed the bridge before nodding to his staff. “Let’s roll.” 

Most of the officers on the bridge of the Calistoga immediately began working away on their consoles, enacting the plan they had conceived of with haste. 

“Transport in progress – they have the supplies, dampening field initiated in our own supply area – it appears that they did not notice… Activating the EMP!” Jahl vocalized her actions to bridge. 

On the viewer, the lights on the vessel directly in front of them began to flicker, and several went dark. It gave them all a visual cue that their plan appeared to be working. 

“Lieutenant’s Atraix and Sinclair!” Raiem announced louder than he meant to, his own adrenaline clearly emerging at that moment. 

The Calistoga lurched forward and to the right with haste. It launched several torpedoes as planned – each detonating moments before contact with a pirate vessel that was to their aft. She quickly lurched into maximum warp in a clearing Lieutenant Edison had managed to take advantage of.