240102.01.1000

Kr’antren and Aryanna exit the captain’s ready room. “Morning everyone, are we ready to spread our wings?” Kr’Antren looked around the bridge, taking in the new console/positions and nodding to himself.

Aryanna took a seat at her console and tapped her internal comms button, as the ship’s whistle played over the system. “All hands, make ready to depart Bravo station. Operations confirm all docking ports are closed and docking arms are detached.”

Lieutenant Khoiba looked down at his console before looking up and facing the XO, “All docking port hatches are confirmed closed and locked, station docking arms are retracted.”

Aryanna nodded. Tapping another button. ”Zaishi, engineering status?”

“Engineering is green across the board, Warp core is showing stable and currently operating at 50% of operational capacity. We are good to go down here, just waiting on the word to see what this lady can do.”

“Thank you Zaishi.”

Kr’Antren took a seat in the center chair and activated the newly installed side console on his right, as a small holo of the Dragon showing system statuses appeared floating just over the console. “Remind me to thank the chief, Aryanna. I wouldn’t have thought of this.” he tapped the edge of the console.

“Sure will.”

He tapped a button on the newly installed console. “Bravo flight control, Dragon requests departure clearance.”

“Dragon, you are cleared to depart. Thrusters only inside the station, Impulse till past the station’s outer markers. Fair winds and following seas Dragon.”

“Dragon acknowledges”

“Lieut..damn gotta get used to this. Viameli” as he looked at Aryanna, ears twitching as she nodded. “release the docking clamps.”

They feel, more than hear, as the docking clamps are released between the station and the Dragon. “Sir, clamps are released and show retracted and locked on the Dragon.”

“Acknowledged.” 

“Bravo, you are cleared to push the Dragon from our berth.” No response comes over the comm channel as they feel the Dragon start to slide sideways toward the center of the station’s docking bay. 

Sustram, with his Holo-Lcars up. “Captain, we are cleared to conduct station transit.”

Kr’Antren looked at his console and nodded. “Viameli, she is all yours. Take her out nice and easy.”

Viameli, if anyone could see her besides her brother would see a smile across her face. ” Yes, sir. No scratching the paint.” a wave of chuckles flows across the bridge.

They watch as various ships of the fleet flash their lights as the Dragon passes. 

Lieutenant Khoiba turned toward the Captain. “We are receiving messages of good luck and fair winds, captain.”

The bridge crew watched as the Dragon slowly approached the massive doors of the station and they slowly started to part and beyond them they could see the openness of space. They watched as the main view screen showed them passing through the massive doors.

“Helm, quarter impulse till we are clear of the inner markers and then take us to ¾ impulse till the outer markers.”

“Yes, sir.”

Kr’Antren looked over at Aryanna and nodded. “Give the chief the word.”

Aryanna smiled and tapped her console.” Zaishi, light her up.”

“Yeeesss, let’s go folks. Light the fires and kick the tires.”

Kr’antren turned slightly toward the engineering area and watched as the various screens and system displays started to show the effects across the ship as the warp core was brought to full power.

“Helm, plot a course for Deep Space nine, warp 8.”

Sustram turned toward Kr’Antren after a couple of mins. “Course is laid in and locked.”

Kr’Antren nodded.

“Captain, we are clear of Bravo’s outer markers.”

“All departments give me a go/no go.” as he looked around the bridge each of the departments either verbally acknowledged or nodded to signal their readiness. Sitting back into his chair, and tapping his fingers on the edge of his chair’s armrest as he listened to or noticed the replies.

“As Sir Richard Branson once said; The Gladdest Moment In Human Life Is A Departure Into Unknown Lands.

“What’s wrong with stars to guide us by, rather fond of that one.” Skagath said from his console.

Kr’antren turned and looked at him. “I felt like changing it up, my ship, my quotes. When you get a ship of your own then you can select the quote. Though you would have to read a book without pictures first in order to find one, old man.” Kr’Antren winked at Aryanna.

Grumbling from Skagaths position. Kr’Antren chuckled.

“Viameli, let’s see what this dragon can do. Deep space nine warp 8.”

“Course laid in, captain.”

“Let her fly, lieutenant.”

They watched from the bridge as the Dragon entered warp.

– Captains log: Supplemental –

It was decided amongst the department heads and command staff to extend out transit time to DS9 by a few days. It was felt by most of the new staff that they would like to run drills, test and calibrate systems before we arrived in the expanse, Aryanna and I had originally planned to do this upon our arrival at Deep space forty-seven but we could understand the desires to workout some of the proverbial gremlins now versus later. 

I think we just about gave everyone on the bridge a heart attack  a few days into the transit. We had been running various flight drills, encounter scenarios, Defensive and offensive scenarios and various other types of mission scenarios with the Fallen Angels. Having a squadron at our disposal is something new to many of the command staff including myself, changes a lot of variables on how we approach and conduct various missions. That being said, Commander Thornton brought to our attention that part of their kit was a training/simulation system that would interact with a ship’s computer. We brought Chief Zaishi into the fold and the four of us went to work.

240102.13.1800

Kr’Antren, Aryanna, Skagath are in the Captain’s ready room, going over updated Thomar Exapanse information as they prepare to enter into their, new for some, region of operations.

“Sir, we are picking up a ship of unknown origin, heading in our direction.” 

Aryanna tapped on her combadge. “Lieutenant, with the database we have on this ship, how can it be of unknown origin? Pretty much everyone in this sector of space is known.”

“Well ma’am, I guess a better way of putting it would be that it is composed of several known types of ships, but not anyone in particular. Which makes no sense?”

Kr’antren raised an eyebrow at hearing this explanation, as Skagath got up and headed toward the bridge. “All come on now, how hard could it be? A Cardassian ship is not a Bajoran ship, and neither one of them looks anything like a klingon. I’m telling you lad, one of these days they will figure out that you need to give a new computer core some time before throwing them out into space,  always have the damnedest time telling ships apart till you get them all nice and calibrated. Though seeing a few doesn’t hurt the bugger either.” 

Kr’Antren and Aryanna looked at each other  for a split second. 

“Hey lad, you may want to come out here. For once the computer is right. Someone did a damn fine job of chopping up and mashing together several ships. Im reading a romulan singularity core, on an old Klingon K’vort, Not sure how they got those two systems to work together.”

“Time till we intersect?” Aryanna asked as Kr’antren took a long sip from his iced Raktajino.

“ten minutes at our current course and speed.”

The two of them stood and made their way to the bridge. “Viameli, plot and intercept course if we were to turn towards them and increase our speed.”

Viameli worked a few things on her holo-Lcars – “Sir if we were to turn now and at our current speed, we would intercept them in about five to seven minutes, possibly sooner if they followed suit.”

Kr’Antren sat in the center chair. “Do it, let’s see what they do if we let them know that we see them. Skagath, take us to yellow alert.”

The yellow alert klaxons go off as the main lighting dims and the alert light bars go to an amberish yellow.

“Lieutenat Khoiba, anything on comms?”

“No captain, looks like they are running silent.”

Kr’antren runs a hand through his beard. “That’s a bit odd for this sector.”

“Skagath, anything new?” as he turned toward the tactical console.

“Nope, well hold on.’Let out a low whistle. “Scans are now showing a Romulan plasma launcher along with the klingon torpedo launcher that the K’Vort class has, I’m also seeing Cardassian phaser emitters along with the klingon disruptors. Lad, is there any way one of them groups, from the expanse, could have known we were coming?”

“Anything is possible, though I would think by now it is a known fact in the Expanse that Starfleet has set up shop.”

Aryanna looked up through her holo as she watched the data from the scans. “Hmmm, I’ve been reading about these groups in the mission reports from the Task Force. Could they possibly have sent a ship or two out this way to watch and take notes on who was heading towards the ________.”

“It’s been just about two months since we left for the Blood dilithium operation in the Delta quadrant. So who knows what has transpired in the Expanse that Task force command is not aware of.  Lets not wait to find out what they want.”

“Lieutenant Khoiba, hail them.”

“No response captain.” 

Kr’antren nodded. “Open up a channel, lieutenant.”

“This is Captain Kr’Antren of the Federation Starship USS Dragon, Identify yourselves.” He looked over at Lieutenant Khoiba who looked at their console and shook their head.

Aryanna turned her chair to face Kr’Antren. “I’m not exactly known as being a patient person, the few captains that I have served under so far have been veterans of the dominion war and instilled in me the belief of not allowing others to choose our battlefield.”

Kr’Antren ran his fingers through his beard. “ I’m hoping that it doesn’t come to that,” he looked over at Skagath. “The old man” he pointed toward Skagath “and my father always said that most fights could be avoided but when you had to fight you make sure that you hold nothing back.”

Skagath chuckled, “glad to know you actually listened to some of the things we tried to instil into you kids.”

“Hmmmm I could see how that would be a good rule in these types of situations. However I would suggest them coming to us versus us going to them.” Aryanna said as she turned back toward the main view screen

“Now that I could agree on, Aryanna. Any ideas?”

“Not at this time as we are in a pretty clear piece of space between Starbase Thirty and Deep Space Nine. Maybe head closer to the Cardassian border to see if they follow?”

Kr’antren nodded. “Viameli, head towards the Cardassian border. Whatever we do, let’s make sure we don’t actually cross into it, we don’t need that headache.”

They watched as the Dragon made a gradual turn to port. “Increase speed to full impulse. Skagath let me know what they do, if they follow I want to know.”

“Aye lad.” he started to make some adjustments on his holo-LCARS. “Well, looks like they are following suit, lad. Not following, they turned on a perpendicular path and increased speed to match.”

Kr’Antren nodded. ‘`What are you playing at?” he asked toward the view screen.

“Lad, they just turned hard to port. Their current course would put them coming up behind us.” Skagath said.

“Confirmed” Sustram called out “If we don’t change our course or do something else i estimate they will be behind us in roughly six minutes.”

“I want to know what they are up to, Aryanna.”

“Sir, I have an idea. This is going to sound crazy, but right now all we are doing is playing the proverbial cat and mouse.” Viameli turned to face the Captain and XO. “ What if we picked a point behind their current position and we quickly jumped to warp? They may actually think we warped away.”

Kr’Antren looked at Aryanna with a raised eyebrow. “Hmmmm, that could work.”

“If it worked, they would have to come to us. Putting us in a bit better of an advantageous spot.” Aryanna started to work on her H-LCARS pulling up a map showing the positions of both ships.

Kr’antren saw a flash of color on his console from the corner of his eye, turning in his seat he saw a quick message from Aryanna. “How did we not think of that? The four of us and we didn’t think of the simplest answer.”  Kr’Antren quickly tapped the console, erasing the message.

“Viameli, plot your course, warp 2” Kr’Antren sat back in his chair and let out a slight chuckle.

“Course plotted, Captain”

“Skagath, red alert. If this works I don’t think they will be too happy about us suddenly appearing behind them.” The klaxon sounds as the lights turn from amber to Red.”Sometimes it is the simplest of things that everyone overlooks that could change the outcome of a battle.Helm, engage.”

The Dragon quickly stopped and turned to Starboard, throwing the bridge crew forward and then to the side as the inertial dampers struggled to compensate for such a quick set of moves. The jump only lasted seconds for such a short distance but as they appeared the view screen showed them behind and slightly higher than the mish mashed klingon vessel.

Lieutenant Khoiba. “Let’s send them a message, shall we.”

“Skagath, do not power up weapons but lock both of our forward torpedo launchers on that core.”

Aryanna watched the main view screen. “Going to let them know that we have them dead to rights, that should send a nice little message I would think.”

<<” Nice, so Kr’Antren is one of those i gave you every chance to get out of the predicament peacefully, types. Even if this is just a test he is sending a message to the crew that he will do whatever it takes to avoid conflict but when it is called for the gloves come off and anything goes.“

“Talk about opposites attracting, I would have turned and headed right for them, weapons locked and powered up.”

“Yaa, you would have. But I can say that he has a style.”

“Hmmmm, But what will he do when they don’t give him a chance to ask questions first.”

“I guess we’ll have to wait and see for the answer to that question.”>>

Kr’antren waited for his ops officer to signal hime, when he got a nod in his direction. “Unidentified vessel, This is Captain Kr’antren of the USS Dragon. If you check your sensors you will notice that we have locked onto your singularity core. We have not powered up our weapons at this time,  but I assure you that you would not be able to do more than lift a finger before we were fully powered up. Let this be a warning to you and whichever corporation or group you belong to, the Dragon and its crew are not to be trifled with.”

Several tense seconds go by as the Dragon holds its position just slightly above and behind the mismatched vessel, when suddenly it slows down for a split second and jumps to warp.

“Captain, looks like they were heading toward the Cardassian border, should we follow?” Viameli asked as she turned to face the Captain.

“No, Hold our position.” He turned toward Skagath. “Anything?”

Skagath shook his head.

Kr’Antren stood and turned toward his new Intelligence officer. “Anything on your end, lieutenant?”

“No, sir. Though  I was looking at the data from the scans. Even though it was a Klingon K’vort it looks like it did not have a cloaking device installed.”

“Hmmmm, I was wondering about that. They could have easily cloaked, and we would not have known they were there.” Kr’Antren returned to his seat. 

“Sustram, contact commander Thornton. Let him know that we will meet them in 20 minutes at our predetermined coordinates.”

“Message sent and acknowledged, Captain.”

“Viameli, let’s go into a circular pattern with this point as its center for the next ten minutes. If nothing appears on the scans then head toward the rendezvous point with the Fallen Angels. Once we have them back onboard, head toward Deep Space nine.”

“Aye, Captain.”