The four day trip out to the Hodian Belts outer edge was quiet, and they had only had a few faint contacts show up on their sensors. With their new signal scattering hull plating, long range sensors, and ECM package, Chief Bong was reasonably assured that they hadn’t been spotted. But the final approach towards the Beta Hodia system and the suspected site of this, ‘Port Freedom’, would be the most difficult part of their mission.

“I’m transferring a flight plan to your station Ensign. I’d like to have us take a parabolic course past this large outer comet. It’s right at the edge of the mining claims that Daimon Solli’s corporation has staked.” The Chief tapped in the command from the right rear console in the cockpit of the Orion-class scout.

“Daimon Solli?” Pruitt asked as she received the packet the Chief sent over.

“He’s the mining magnate from Ferenginar that built the first non-Federation outpost in the belt about a year and a half ago. Rumor has it he and some Orions have gone in together and built this Port Freedom into the pirate haven that we suspect it is.” Bong stood up and walked over to the sensor and auxiliary operations console.

“Lt, once we get a bit closer I’m sure someone or something will spot us at some point, but we need as many detailed scans of that edge of the system.” He traced out the area with his finger on Elo’s sensor display.

Elo refined the scans as well as he could, “Nothing yet. But I am spotting something that could be this Port Freedom. A small dwarf planetoid or a large ice ball thats emitting EM and low level comms chatter.”

“Can you identify who’s doing the chatting?” Bong asked. They had heard about the second convoy being attacked the day before, which had only increased the importance and urgency of their recon mission. The Trenton would be heading this way shortly, and the sooner they had a target, the better chance they would have of catching the pirates unprepared.

“I’d love to be able to identify whose doing the talking,” Elo returned, scrunching his face into the scanner feed. “But we’re not close enough to determine anything more than garbled word fragments and gibberish.”

And if Lieutenant Fanak knew anything it was that relying on faulty facts was a great way to get killed.

The Chief exhaled slowly, “How long until we reach a clear sensor range to the source of those signals Ensign?

Pruitt replied, “20 minutes.”

Bong made up his mind. There was no stealth approach vectors they could take to get an easy peek at the pirate station. There best chance was to make a high speed run in as close at they could to the station and then rely on their stealth and speed to get back out again.

“Slowly increase speed to maximum Ensign.” Bong ordered.

“Copy,” the pilot murmured, slowly opening the big roundabout’s throttles, eyes on the controls. “‘Round three minutes until we’re in primary sensor range, Chief.”

“Get ready Lt.”

A moment later a warning chimed sounded from Fanak.

“Dammit.” Bong hurried back to his seat.

“Ship emerging from behind the comet. It’s a Nausican raider class vessel.” The science officer reported.

“We’ll be on top of them in about 90 seconds.” Pruitt replied as she twitched at the controls,ready to turn and run. This runabout was built for speed and stealth, not combat- she knew if things went hot, their only hope was to punch it and cross their fingers.

“They’re hailing us.” Bong announced. He took a few precious seconds to size up the situation. They weren’t equipped or authorized to pick a fight, but they were marginally faster than the Nausican ship that was designed to chase down and overmatch freighters and transports, not a top of line Starfleet scout vessel.

“Opening a channel.”

“Federation Starship you are entering restricted space, reverse course or be destroyed.” The Nausican Captain bellowed, his large horizontal incissors flaring.

“This is Chief Petty Officer Richard Bong of the USS Rainbow we are currently conducting spaceborne patrol exercising our free rights to move freely among the stars in accordance with interstellar law.”

Pruitt raised a hand, about to announce that this ship was about to enter sensor range of the target location. She pointed a finger right at Fanak as they crossed the imaginary threshold.

“You will stop and turn around now Starfleet!” The Nausican waved his hand to someone offscreen.

Bong noted on the tactical sensor display that the ship was charging its weapons.

“Ensign slow us to half impulse speed. Captain, I am willing to comply, but may I ask under what treaty or law are you claiming that the area is restricted…so we may update our maps to show your boundaries.” Bong was stalling for time as he Fanak worked diligently at his console gathering as many detailed scans as he could.

“We have staked claim to mining rights. Retreat now, or face death, puny hooman.” The Nausican closed the channel.

“Their moving towards us chief.”

Bong looked towards Fanak who nodded.

“Come about, set course for El Doradia, maximum warp Ensign.” Bong ordered as a small smike crept onto his face.

He patted the edge of the console infront of him and whispered, “Good girl, well done.”

On their way home, they spotted a severely damaged Meade heading directly for Port Freedom. Bong immediately forwarded the info back to Eos, who relayed the Intel to the Trenton and Vor’nak, who were already on their way out to the Belt.

The Rainbow had proven her worth as a scout ship and recon platform. He just hoped that the scans that Fanak got were worth the risk they had just taken.