A lot had happened since Atracos III; many fine officers and crewmembers had lost their lives in that battle and those that had followed it.  The sinister and deadly events surrounding ‘Frontier Day’ had taken even more lives.  How Captain Eglin had made it through that day alive was a matter of debate and speculation. There were those who believed he wasn’t telling the whole truth, including his superiors.  Could he really have murdered the entire bridge crew both assimilated and those not affected by the Borg; to save his own neck, or had evacuating the oxygen from the bridge, been instigated by someone else, as he claimed in his report.  The computer logs were corrupted and impossible to understand, which only added to the mystery.  The fact remained; seven people were dead from that section of the ship, he was not. 

The USS Valparaiso was old and almost ready for retirement, but until that time came, the captain’s seat was still his.  The ships doctor had declared him fit for active duty and no charges had been brought against him over the ‘Frontier Day’ events; for now at least that was good enough. 

The Valparaiso’s current mission was to search for and track down a stolen Norway-class starship; the USS Stavanger.  It had gone missing from Number 3 Decommissioning and Storage Facility, sometime prior to the arrival of the ‘Lost Fleet’; rumour’s had been circulating for a few months before then, regarding a rogue Federation ship that would appear, not long before a convoy or lone transport vessel came under attack from pirates.  That these rumours were in fact true; was being kept a closely guarded secret in the hope of avoiding any panic.  Because if people stopped trusting that the Federation would protect them; then the whole situation could become much worse.

On the main view screen another damaged transport vessel loomed before them; slowly turning as it drifted through space, its engines dark and lifeless.  Energy readings were fluctuating throughout the ship.

“Can you raise them?” Eglin’s voice was terse and irritated.  Never the most pleasant of captain’s to work under in the past; things had steadily got worse as the year rolled on. 

“Negative Sir, no reply on any frequency.”  The communications officer answered. 

“I’ve got three life signs, all on the bridge.” Added the science officer; from the rear as he scanned the transporter internally.

The Captain turned to his XO, yet another new one; the forth of the year to be precise.  The first injured fighting at Deneb IV, whilst in command of her own ship, the second killed on ‘Frontier Day’ and a third had quite just over a week ago.  Chances of this one doing any better were still pretty debatable.  Annoyingly right now, he couldn’t even remember the stupid man’s name.  Whatever his name was, he had the look of a rabbit on a highway, waiting for the headlights to come round the corner! 

“Get a team over there now!” Eglin barked hoping to wake the fool up. “I want security with them, just in case of any surprises.” 

The ‘rabbit’ jumped into action and began the task of contacting the relevant departments to assemble an Away Team. 

            **********

Five minutes later six figures materialised in the darkened corridor adjacent to the transporters bridge.   Two held phasers; a Tellarite and a Vulcan, a pair of engineers carried a few tools in a box which they hoped would help them restore power to the vessel.  Then there was a doctor and a nurse with their medical equipment.  The air was slightly musty and a little chilly, but at least it was breathable. 

The Tellarite Lieutenant entered first, scanning the room quickly before allowing the others to follow him in.  The engineers made their way to the controls, the doctor and nurse to their patients.  Grav merely grunted in the kind of bored way only a Tellarite waiting for an argument to happen could ever truly manage. Vulcan’s were no fun and the rest of the team were far too busy with their tasks and he was smart enough not to interfere with what they were doing unless any form of danger presented itself.  It had been a while since he’d had the opportunity to stun anyone; that thought brought a shiver, as he recalled what he’d been forced into doing.  At least it was too dark for any of the others to notice the brief change in his demeanour.

The first member of the crew Doctor Sunny dealt with was conscious but confused.  Bruising around the temple and swelling told the doctor most of what he needed to know about the patient without having to ask him any questions; never the less he scanned the man for any injuries that weren’t currently visible.  He instructed Nurse Folland what to do before moving on to the second crew member.

It was after she’d injected him with the hypo-spray that the man in his mid-twenties from the look of him grabbed her wrist.  “Why didn’t you stop them?” He pleaded hoarsely.  “You were right there, right at the edge of our scanners!”

“It’s ok, we’re here now.” Nurse Folland spoke softly to the distraught man.  “Now just relax and let me deal with your injuries.” 

Grav had moved in closer, aware of something being up.  But felt this man was more agitated than a real threat to the young nurses’ safety.  He did however stay right by her just in case.  The man’s grip loosened as the mild sedative eventually did its work.  The Tellarite security officer grunted; it would take more than that to put him to sleep. 

The lights came on a moment later, thanks to the efforts of the engineers; one of which then moved on to the ships computer memory in the hope of extracting any data regarding the attack.

            **********

On the bridge of the Valparaiso, Captain Eglin passed up and down, like a tiger waiting to pounce on its next meal.  That just made his First Officer even more nervous than he usually was.  This ship they were now alongside, had been attacked no more than two hours ago; it was the closest they’d got in a while.  He was right on the tail of this rogue Norway-class vessel and two pirate ships that accompanied it and made the attacks.  A small force, granted: but they had been no less effective.  They could still detect the warp trails of the two pirate ships; both Orion in manufacture, but of a less common design, if eye witness statements and a far from sharp image from an external camera on a previous victim of their attacks were to be believed.  The trail of the Stavanger or whatever name it had chosen this time; was proving much harder to find.

Eglin turned to his XO. “Rabbit you have the bridge.” He said sternly, before heading to the turbolift. 

“It’s Roberts, Sir.”  The other man stuttered, but by then the Captain was gone.

            ********** 

Stella Cartography was a section of the ship Eglin didn’t visit very often; he knew what they did and received all the relevant information from the department when he needed it.  Today though was a day for going down there in person, and asking questions direct. 

When he arrived he found a lieutenant in Teal, working at a wall mounted terminal adjacent to the door he’d just passed through.  The man turned and when he realised who’d just entered stood bolt upright. “Sir!” He blurted out with surprise; before with a little more composure, added. “What can I do for you?” 

“Know how to use this thing?” Eglin asked waving a hand in general around the room. “Lieutenant?”

“Agusta, Sir. Lieutenant Agusta.” The man answered. “And certainly, what do you need?” 

“I want you to display this sector.” The Captain asked moving over to the railing that curved around the middle part of the room.  The Lieutenant moved over to a computer consul and started imputing the relevant request. Stars, plants and other bodies, flashed into existence forming a large multi-coloured ball in the middle of the room.  “I take it that flashing blue arrow indicates this vessel?”

“That’s correct Sir.” 

“Can you add the course we arrived and the two showing the pirate ships leaving?”

“One moment.”  Agusta, accessed the logs and added the three warp trails to the 3D image floating before the Captain.  One of which was blue the other two in orange.  

Eglin studied the image for a few minutes, walked around it, even stood in the middle for a moment; before waving a hand at an area of space which was almost the opposite direction to the one the pirates had taken. “If I wanted to hide a ship the size of a Norway, were could I stick it?”

With a few more computations added; eight areas of space glowed purple.  It was not what the Captain hoped to see.  It was too many places to look and all spread out.  Entering any of those areas would leave the Valparaiso blind and potentially allow the Stavanger the chance to escape from them once more.  None of this was going the way Eglin liked.  He’d got half a crew, many of them inexperienced, and just this single aged relic without any form of support.  His fist slammed into the railing in frustration.  He needed a plan, something to swing the odds more in his favour; because very soon someone was going to start joining the dots, and it wasn’t ’going to make a pretty picture.