The newly-recommissioned California-class starship USS Culver City was close to halfway through her transit from Starbase 86 to Starbase 400 for final fitting-out and shakedown.  Thus far, the trip had been uneventful, and it had given the crew a chance to fix a few nagging issues that remained after the repairs at 86, and properly dial in the warp drive; the ship’s impulse engines now seemed to be in full function (though they did need to be tested outside of simulations), the sensors were now properly calibrated, the malfunctioning tractor beam emitter was up and running again, and the issues in cargo bay 3 had been fixed, though there hadn’t yet been time to test the phasers.  She still had some issues – missing torpedoes and small arms for security and away teams, the missing autosurgery, and they had discovered some malfunctioning gravity plating in one part of cargo bay 1, to name a few – as well as missing some more recreational supplies, but it was nothing that couldn’t be fixed at Starbase 400.

As Culver City approached the outskirts of a small planetary system, named on her navigational charts as the T’Sora system, on her bridge newly-minted Lieutenant Varyn K’lev, the ship’s commanding officer, looked back to his executive officer/science officer, Ensign Ophelia Lotharys.  “Think we can spare some time to test the impulse drive?  Might be a nice surprise for the team at Starbase 400 if we can show up with half of the shakedown cruise already complete.”

Lotharys consulted her displays, then nodded.  “I think so….  The asteroid field could make a good obstacle course.  T’Sora II is populated, but it’s by a newer Federation colony, so we probably won’t get in trouble.”

K’lev smiled.  “Sounds good!  Ari, shift our heading; let’s take an hour or two to test, then resume course for 400.”

A short time later, Culver City dropped out of warp, vectoring for the system’s asteroid belt at half-impulse.  K’lev stood, walking forward to lean over the engineering console and its current occupant, an enlisted crewman, studying the status of the impulse reactor.  Over his shoulder, he addressed Ensign Ari Phillips at the helm.  “I think that cooling problem may be fixed, Ari; take us to full impulse and let’s find out.”

Culver City accelerated smoothly to full impulse; on the board, reactor temperature held steady, proof that the coolant system was – in fact – now working properly.  As Phillips began a bit of a weave through the asteroid belt as a stress test, alerts sounded from the ops and tactical consoles.  “Va- sorry, Captain – I’m picking up some weapons fire, 103 mark 22,” said Midshipman sh’Livo.  Chief Bong nodded his concurrence.  “And I’ve got a distress signal, same bearing, sir,” he added.

K’lev’s breath caught in his throat.  “Put….  Put it through,” he said, trying to push back the sudden attack of anxiety he was feeling as he moved back to his seat.

A voice crackled over the bridge speakers.  “-need help!  Again, this is the cargo ship Pelican; we’re being attacked by pirates, and we need help!”

“Pelican, this is USS Culver City.  We’re on the way,” K’lev said, hoping his voice didn’t quaver as he spoke.  He then looked to Phillips.  “Let’s go help them, Ari; 103, mark 22, full impulse.  Tyrisa, red alert.”  He took his seat, trying to project calm and ignore the heartbeat hammering in his ears.

In just a few minutes, Culver City had Pelican and her assailant in visual range.  Pelican was a run-of-the-mill cargo ship, and was venting plasma; her assailant was little more than a tug, bearing a light phaser cannon that appeared to not be at full power.  On Culver City’s bridge, K’lev’s eyes widened in surprise and confusion.  “Okay, that makes no sense…” he muttered, then shook his head.  “Hail that tug; maybe they’ll talk?”

After a moment, the tug answered the hail, audio-only.  “This is the starship Culver City-” K’lev began, before a voice on the other end interrupted.  “Starfleet vessel, I know you want us to stand down, and we will, but please give us a chance to explain ourselves first?” it said, its tone cautiously hopeful with undertones of resolve.

“Umm…. Sure, go ahead…”  K’lev shrugged, looking around his bridge in now-total confusion.

“We’re from T’Sora II; the colony has been dealing with a blight that’s been killing our crops.  We’d put in a request for assistance, but I guess it got lost due to recent events.  Around a month ago, we signed a contract with a agricultural company for shipments of supplies to combat the blight; the Pelican arrived a week ago with the supplies, but demanded triple the agreed price for them.  We’ve tried to talk to them, to remind them of deal we made with their office, but they told us to pay or they’d recall the shipment.”  The voice broke.  “We’re desperate here; if we don’t get that shipment, the colony will either have to leave, or starve.”

K’lev glanced back at Lotharys, who ran some quick scans, then nodded.  “Okay…  We’ve scanned the colony, and the blight checks out, and Pelican does seem to be carrying agricultural supplies.” he said, turning his attention back to the voice over the speakers.  “But you did still attack the Pelican, and they asked us for help.  We’ll still have to take you in for the attack, but how about this?  You come aboard the Culver City, and we’ll bring the Pelican’s captain aboard too, and we can try to talk this out?”

The voice responded promptly.  “We just want to be heard, and for them to honor their contract.  Please beam me over.”

“We will.  Culver City out.”  K’lev stood, tapping his combadge.  “K’lev to Ghimir.  Teles, I could use your help in the conference room; we’ve stumbled into a dispute here, and I’m gonna try to bring them here to talk it out.”

“There in a moment,” came the reply.  “Ghimir out.”

K’lev started for the turbolift, then stopped.  “Chief, please tell the Pelican that we need their captain over here, to try and get this sorted out.”

Chief Bong nodded, sending the message.  A few moments later, the reply came in; after reading it, he looked up.  “They’re confused, sir, but the captain will beam over, along with a company trade representative.”

Klev nodded.  “Okay.  Ophelia, please join me?  Ari, would you keep an eye on things up here while we’re gone?”

Lotharys joined K’lev in the turbolift as Phillips nodded.  In a few minutes, the group was assembled in Culver City’s conference room: the tug’s captain, a Saurian man; Pelican’s captain, a Bajoran woman who seemed to be more of a ship-driver than the actual leader, and a Romulan man representing the trade company, who seemed to be the actual leader between the two; and K’lev, Lotharys, and Ghimir – a young Cardassian man – from Starfleet.

“Why haven’t you impounded that ship and arrested its crew?” the Romulan demanded before the Starfleet contingent could even take their seats, perhaps emboldened by their relative youth.  “We asked for your help!  Surely you’re not going to side with pirates over their victims?”

K’lev took a deep breath; he was no diplomat, yet here he was.  “Look, I’m not taking sides here; I told them that they’d be getting arrested, but that I wanted to get you all here to talk things out first.”

“They attacked us and tried to steal our cargo!  There’s nothing to discuss!” came the irate retort from the Romulan.

The Saurian rebutted, not to the Romulan but to K’lev.  “As I told you, they promised that cargo to T’Sora II, and we paid for it, and now they’re demanding more latinum for it.”  He slid a PADD across the table.  “Here’s the contract and the receipt for the payment, along with the communication logs over the last week,” he finished, sitting quietly.

K’lev took the PADD and read it over, then handed it to Lotharys and Ghimir.  After all three had reviewed it, he passed it to the Romulan.  “Is this correct?”

The Romulan read the PADD’s contents, then tossed the device onto the table.  “It doesn’t matter; the market value of these supplies has gone up, so they’ll pay market price, or we’ll find someone who will.”  He smirked.

K’lev felt his blood start to boil, his hand unconsciously clenching into a fist as he remembered what had been done to his old classmate T’rin; just as that professor had at the Academy, this company representative clearly felt that he could do what he liked to those he saw as weaker than him.  Lotharys saw the fist clench, and rested a hand on K’lev’s arm to try and exert some calming influence on her friend and captain, hoping to stave off the outburst she could see forming as she spoke up.  “So the contract is correct, and the payment was received?”

The Romulan started to stand angrily, but as he opened his mouth to rebut Ghimir spoke, having also caught what Lotharys had and using his counselor’s training to read the Romulan’s posture.  “Interesting…  You’re so eager to shout this down when disproving would be easier, I can’t help but wonder what you’re trying to hide?”  He turned to K’lev.  “My guess is, something shady.”

That took the wind right out of the Romulan’s metaphorical sails; his mouth opened and closed a few times, then he sat down.  K’lev took a deep breath, gratefully patting Lotharys’s hand on his arm with his free hand as he nodded towards Ghimir, addressing his words not to the Romulan, but to the Bajoran captain.  “I can’t help but wonder if Midshipman Ghimir is onto something here…  You might have your crew look into that; we can wait while they do.”

Over the next few minutes, the Bajoran spoke into her communicator, asking her crew to look into the allegation and receiving an answer.  Once she had it, she looked to the Saurian.  “It appears that he,” she glanced at the Romulan “was trying to steal from your colony, and that he’d been doing this for a while.  Our offices have been informed, and I have ordered my crew to beam the supplies down immediately.  The company will be refunding the price of the supplies by way of apology.”

K’lev smiled in relief.  “Thank you, Captain,” he said to the Bajoran.  His smile grew cold as his grey eyes shifted to the Romulan, and he tapped his combadge.  “K’lev took Security.  Please send a team to the conference room.”  He closed the channel.  “And you are under arrest,” he said to the Romulan, with no small satisfaction.

The Saurian leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table, and his face in his hands for a moment before he looked up at K’lev, Lotharys, and Ghimir, joyous relief plain across his face.  “Thank you, sirs and ma’am.  On behalf of everyone on T’Sora II, thank you; you’ve saved us all.”

K’lev’s cheeks flushed a darker green, the young Orion’s touched embarrassment clearly joined by both Lotharys and Ghimir.  “I’m glad we could help the colony, Captain.  Unfortunately, though, I’m afraid I will still have to arrest you and your crew, as well, for the attack on the Pelican.”

The Saurian nodded.  “I know.  And we knew that could happen.  But we’ll come quietly; all we wanted was to make sure the colony got its supplies.”

The security detail arrived, taking both the Romulan company representative and the Saurian captain into custody; a short time later, the 4 others on the tug had beamed aboard and surrendered themselves, and Culver City took the tug in tow.  With that matter resolved, K’lev looked to the Bajoran captain.  “Do you need any help with repairs?  We’ve got some skilled engineers aboard.”  He chuckled.  “Young, but skilled all the same.”

The Bajoran nodded.  “They damaged two of our warp coils, and a power surge took out one of the plasma injectors; we can wait for a company repair ship if necessary, but…”

K’lev waved a hand.  “Let’s talk to my chief engineer; maybe he can help speed things along.”

Within a short time, Midshipman Pelix, the chief engineer, accompanied by his senior petty officer (who was also his training officer), had joined the group in the conference room; they and the Bajoran captain quickly struck up a conversation about the Pelican’s repair needs, which the petty officer relayed to the fabrication team.  Within just a few hours, Culver City’s short-handed engineering team had fabricated the components that Pelican required, and even helped the latter’s engineers to install them, along with a matching set for the other nacelle for balance.

Now back on the bridge, and with Pelican’s delivery confirmed safely to the colonists of T’Sora II, K’lev watched the cargo ship break orbit and go to warp, then turned to Phillips.  “Well, I’d say it’s time we got on our way.  Full impulse to safe distance from the planet, then set course for Starbase 400, warp 7.5.”  The California-class starship wheeled about, moving away under impulse power at first, then jumping to warp as she resumed her course for Starbase 400.