On the Bridge of the USS da Vinci; as with the Bridges of the other ships in the small Taskforce and that of the vessel they’d come to recapture; there was a sense of collective confusion.  First was the realisation that this whole operation had one more twist and the second was what the USS Stavanger  was about to do.

Protocols dictated when and where a ship could engage warp drive.  Travelling at speeds many times faster than light within a planetary system could be dangerous.  The orbits of every planet, moon, etc. had to be calculated to avoid collision.  So whilst not impossible; ships tended to make their approaches at sub-light speeds.

So when the Norway-class vessel sat in front of them raised shields and jumped to warp 6 from orbit in the space of a few seconds; it caught everyone flat footed.

“Lay in a pursuit course and get us up to warp 7 the moment we’re clear!” Yelled Commander Anacostia-Bolling to her Helms Officer; whilst to her Communication Officer.  “Signal the others to follow.”

She sat forward in the captain’s chair hands clasped together.  Her crew, including the XO were now trapped on that ship; until she could stop it or they could figure out a way of disabling it from on board.   The other ship had a head start, but by going faster, catching it up wouldn’t take long.  But where were they heading, that was the question.  The answer was confirmed a few minutes later; they were heading into Klingon territory.  That was not a good sign at all.

**********

Ten minutes later the Commander was sat in her Ready Room talking to her two fellow captains.  Both Commander’s  Salan and Kayto seemed relatively calm and relaxed, both sat aboard their relevant ships; though understandably Vulcan’s never looked panicked and Betazoid’s had a general grasp of emotions.  Neither of which did much to help Anacostia-Bolling.

At the moment it wasn’t clear what the Stavanger’s destination was; it was understood from Lieutenant-Commander Alara Ley’s last message; before being cut off, that the Fleet Formation system had been re-activated and that the ship was now operating on a set of pre-programmed instructions.  Along or close to its current path, lay four planets inhabited by the Klingons.  None of them were anything significant, but if a Federation vessel was to suddenly turn up and attack one of them; who knows how fast things could spiral out of control.  They could be hours away from starting another war, that ship had to be stopped.

It was the Captain of the Sizemore who came up with the first suggestion of a workable plan. “Inverse Graviton burst.”  It was in a report he vaguely recalled regarding destabilising a ships warp bubble.  A few minutes later Kayto had the relevant information and was able to pass it on to his colleagues.

“Yes, I remember now.” Salan looked thoughtfully at the data. “It was used by one of the Klingons greatest warriors, Dahar Master Kor: to drop a fleet of ten Jem’Hadar fighters out of warp.”

“How would we deal with the shields?” Anacostia-Bolling enquired.

“The Norway-class is fitted with Graviton shields.” The Sizemore’s captain replied cheerfully.  “A big enough burst would render those temporarily inoperative.”

“I believe that assumption to be correct.” Added the Vulcan.  “The USS Stavanger would be unable to use either its warp drive or shielding for approximately two minutes.”

“Who’s got the best equipment for this task?” A-B asked.

“I think the Sizemore has the most robust main deflector, out of the three of use.” The Betazoid replied with a nod of agreement from the Vulcan.

The rest of their conversation involved formulating the plan and how they would coordinate their efforts to stop the rogue vessel without injuring any of the da Vinci’s crew currently trapped on board.  When it was concluded Commander Kayto headed off to have a word with his Chief Engineer about making the required adjustments to the Main Defector.  It would also require the Sizemore travelling at emergency warp to get far enough ahead to get in position.

**********

Lieutenant-Commander Alara Ley and the rest of her party were stuck on the Bridge of the USS Stavanger, now under computer control and hurtling towards Klingon space. Attempts by herself and the two engineers in the group had been blocked.  The turbo-lift appeared to be out of action; so the security guards were looking for other means of escape.  There had been no word from Lieutenant Grav since the vessel had become active again.

The Trill looked across to the Captains Ready Room, were the body they’d discovered, had been moved to.   Former Starfleet Command Armitage had been shot in the back by a disrupter at relatively close range; no more than an hour or so before they’d first sighted the ship.  May be the Orion who led this group had decided he was of no further use to her.  According to doctor Sunny; the others had died at various times and their bodies frozen, which made calculating when death had occurred rather difficult using just a medical tricorder.  He was almost certain that two of them had been killed in a mining accident.

That interesting piece of information, just added more to the puzzle.  Was Navaar Orci operating a mine somewhere, or had someone supplied her with dead bodies to represent a skeleton crew.  That particular line of thought only brought a groan from Alara’s symbiont.

She sat on the smooth surface of the forward console looking around for any inspiration.  ‘Mary won’t give up on use, you know that.’ That inner calm voice of her late husband hoped to reassure her.  ‘And what if it’s the difference between us and the lives of a planet full of people?’ She replied.

‘We just keep trying until all else fails.’  Was the answer she received.

‘I knew there was a reason I married you.’

‘What, just one?’

Alara smile. ‘Ok, this ship hasn’t beaten us yet.’

Then there was a shout, one of the security officers had made it through to deck 2.  If they could get to deck 4, they could possible reach the Computer Core and disable the ship from there.

**********

Down in Main Engineering, Lieutenant Grav and his group were making just as much progress; in fact technically even less, because were as those on the bridge had access to all the controls but could get the computer to release control; a set of force fields prevented anyone from touching anything.  The Tellarite Security Chief had even fired his phaser on full power directly at the warp core.  The only effect being a rippling wall of energy and a few panicked faces.

There was nothing to stop them walking out, or going anywhere else, they just couldn’t touch any of the controls here in engineering.  With that in mind; one of the engineers came up with the same idea that had been reached on the Bridge, head for the Computer Core and shut it down.  Grav pointed to one of the two security men with them.   “Edwards go with him, you shouldn’t run into any one legged Nausicaan’s.  But keep a sharp look out.” The man nodded and followed the engineer out of the room; wishing his boss hadn’t reminded him of how badly he’d handled a seemingly simple task.

Just like the equipment and controls in Main Engineer, access to the ships Computer Core was blocked by a force field.  Time and options were starting to run out.

**********

Morning on board the USS Sizemore came with a mix of hope and trepidation.  Commander Kayto was immensely proud of the hard work his engineers had all put in to get the Main Deflector prepared.  The ship now sat directly in the path of the runaway starship; ready to fire an Inverse Graviton Burst as the Norway-class came into range.

“Target in range in three minutes.” The calm steady voice of the Tactical Officer announced.

“Standby, we only get one chance at this.” The Commander’s voice sounded louder in the near silence.

Target in range in two.” She stopped a second. “Target altering course; taking avoiding action.”

“Can we still fire?” Shouted  Kayto.

“Negative Captain, the Stavanger stayed out of range.”

He slammed his fist into the arm of his chair.  Ten hours that ship had stayed on this heading and now moments before they could strike, it turned.  Outsmarted by a computer!

“Helm, get after that damned ship.” The Betazoid ordered, and then taking a deep breath he calmed himself.  “You did your best. But we’re not giving up.”