After spending the better part of the early hours of the morning discussing/debating with his senior staff the best route forward with dealing with the Hirogen, Captain McCallister was finally moving forward and hoping that somehow they could find a way to end the conflict the Hirogen had with the Sikarians. He wasn’t hoping to find a diplomatic solution, but everything he read about them pointed to that not being a possibility. Only twice had Admiral Janeway been able to find a diplomatic solution with them, but it was only because, in both instances, they were outnumbered and/or their ships were severely damaged. On another occasion, in a rare moment, Admiral Picard had made diplomatic exchanges with a Hirogen Alpha after the admiral and one of his faithful officers trapped the Alpha. 

Thankfully, in this case, the ‘Janeway criteria’ were met, but the fact they could attack the Sikarians meant they were still resourceful and saw their enemy as prey.

McCallister sighed as he walked along the corridor, holding onto the trigger part of the phaser rifle he now carried. Security across the entire ship was now beefed up as per the request of his security chief. McCallister had agreed to raise the ship’s security alert status to level eight. Armed security officers were posted on every deck and in every section. Everyone was also armed. Lonar had also issued that security force fields around critical and primary systems were erected while non-essential stations were shut down, and those that remained required security clearance to access them. Though her precautions may have appeared over the top, McCallister understood it. They were about to beam aboard every Hirogen, place them in stasis and attempt to negotiate with their Alpha. There were only forty-seven Hirogen, but that was still enough of them to do damage to the ship. 

Entering the stasis chamber storage area, a large area on deck twenty-six, McCallister was impressed at the security arrangements Lonar had mobilised in less than an hour. Lonar was standing with Ethav by one of the primary controls that was separated from the rest of the area. 

“Report,” He asked the two of them. 

“We’re ready, sir,” Lonar said with confidence. 

McCallister then looked at Ethav; the young lieutenant nodded in agreement with Lonar. “Stasis chambers are operational, and every security precaution, besides a ship-wide lockdown, is in place.”

“If we could go to level ten, I would suggest it.” Lonar shared.

“Having non-essential crew confined to quarters isn’t going to help us get out of this mess, lieutenant,” McCallister reminded her before tapping his combadge. “McCallister to bridge, are we in position?”

Jarata answered from the helm. “We’re in orbit above the crash site, sir.”

“We’ve also determined which one is the Alpha, sir, thanks to our intelligence drones,” Thaustin announced.

Turning to the two lieutenants in gold, McCallister nodded for them to proceed. “Energise.”

“Expanding the pattern buffers,” Ethav said as he manipulated the controls before him. “Widening the annual confinement beams, locking on with the targeting scanners and energising.”

 Before them, through the viewports, they could see the transporter effect starting to materialise the Hirogen from the surface, but the process began to take longer, which caused warning lights to appear across the board.

“Report, what’s going on?” McCallister asked his team.

Ethav answered, “We didn’t grab all of the Hirogen in one go, and they’ve activated a transporter inhibitor network; we’re losing the patterns.”

“The transporter system is starting to overload,” Lonar warned. 

“I’m going to have to send all of the patterns back to the surface,” Ethav said in frustration.

“Do it!” McCallister ordered, sharing in the lieutenant’s frustration.

“Hang on, there’s one pattern stabilising that I can retrieve if I narrow the annular confinement beam.” Ethav announced, “Captain, you’re not going to believe it, but it’s the Hirogen Alpha!”

“Then beam them directly to the brig, as planned,” McCallister said with a smirk and looked to Lonar, “Have your teams on standby, lieutenant.”

“With pleasure, sir,” She said with a grin of delight. 

Heading to the brig with Lonar by his side, McCallister could sense the pride radiating from his chief security and tactical officer. The only issue he had to face was dealing with a highly agitated Hirogen Alpha who was now caged in their brig. McCallister entered the nearest turbolift with Lonar still in tow and ordered the computer to take them to the deck the brig was on. 

“Have you got an idea on how you plan to open a dialogue with the Alpha yet, sir?” Lonar questioned, breaking the silence between them.

“It’s partly figured out,” He replied with some confidence in his tone. 

In truth, he was still improvising on the spot. McCallister was no fool; years of working in Starfleet Intelligence had taught him to think on his feet, and his extensive retraining to return to field duty as a captain had slightly prepared him. Further reading of Admiral Janeway’s logs had also helped gain her thoughts on dealing with the Hirogen, but they were almost thirty years old. Picard’s were not as insightful as he had hoped. The Hirogen may have changed. Who knew? In any way, he had to try and achieve a middle ground. 

While their journey remained quiet, McCallister recalled the senior staff meeting from earlier that day. He had never experienced such a divide of opinions. Another challenge he had to deal with. While Thaustin and Uknare promoted a complete diplomatic approach, the likes of Kazlaf and Lonar suggested a more tactical approach. Then, what surprised McCallister the most was the middle ground. Jarata, Oron, Ethav and T’Penni proposed the alternative – a combination of the two approaches. 

Initially, Thaustin, backed by Doctor Uknare, told the captain he thought they should call the Hirogen out and force them to agree to end hostilities; in return, they could cooperate with the Sikarian to return to a suitable location. Uknare had said it was in the interest of the Hirogen to cooperate, or eventually, the Sikarians might end up using their advanced technology to kill them. 

Kazlaf and Lonar (who seemed to be getting on well recently) had a different idea and made a joint proposal. They wanted to capture every Hirogen, place them in stasis and drop them off on the nearest habitable world, far away from the Sikarians. It would require force to seize them. McCallister wasn’t keen on this idea. 

The middle ground came from his third officer, Jarata, supported by Counsellor Oron. The idea was further developed by the technical minds of Lieutenants T’Penni and Ethav. Combining the two original ideas called for using the transporters to capture all of the Hirogen, placing them in stasis, dealing with their leader (the Alpha), and almost forcing a diplomatic approach upon them.

Kazlaf had initially shot down Jarata’s idea as too risky. Her snap was almost as sharp as the blade used by the Hirogen to cut McCallister during their attack against the Sikarians. Even now, after Uknare had performed surgery on his arm, McCallister could still feel the pain of it. She had offered to give him an impressive scar, which he declined. He had enough of those on an emotional level. He wasn’t into all of that macho stuff. 

In the end, McCallister had the final say and decided he wanted to try Jarata’s way. Uknare had worked out a suitable nerve gas that would be enough to render the Hirogen unconscious, while Ethav and T’Penni would work on the transporters. Lonar had said if they were going to try it, they needed to take as many security precautions as possible. While they prepared, Thaustin worked with the captain to review the Voyager files one more time to find something that would give them their way in with the Alpha. There wasn’t much that could help them. 

Now, the plan hadn’t gone complete the way McCallister had wanted – so improvising on the spot and at least trying some element of it was worth a try. He hoped.

“Starfleet,” the Hirogen Alpha said moments after McCallister had come into view of the cell that the very tall hunter was in. 

Besides him stood both Lonar and Oron; McCallister kept his posture solid and steady. He had to remain in control as long as possible. It may have worked with a Klingon and possibly a Jem’Hadar, but he wasn’t as confident about how it would affect a Hirogen. If it would affect them.

“Welcome aboard,” McCallister said in an almost sarcastic tone. “I’m Captain Horatio McCallister.”

“You are prey,” The Hirogen replied as he looked McCallister up and down. “Pathetic, weak prey.”

“Maybe, but this prey has you behind a very powerful force field, which I can flood with a very effective anaesthetics gas that will knock you out instantly,” McCallister replied as he clasped his hands behind his back.

“Our immune system is far stronger than yours,” The Hirogen replied.

“Oh, yes, you are correct there,” McCallister said before picking up a PADD that Oron had placed on the nearby bench before the cell. He waved it in the air. “But as you said, we are Starfleet, and on more than one occasion, your fellow hunters were treated by a very clever and ingenious holographic doctor of ours.”

“Voyager.”

“That’s the one,” McCallister pointed out, still holding onto the PADD. “Voyager’s Chief Medical Officer eventually found the right potent level to be effective against your kind, just in case they were boarded by your kind on their way out of the Delta Quadrant.” McCallister took a step closer to the cell. “Now, it’s been a few years since he created it, and since then, other doctors and scientists have improved on his work. So you could always see the results of it, and we can carry this conversation once you’re awake, or you could place your drive for the hunt to one side and actually listen to me.”

“A Hunter does not talk with the prey,” the Hirogen spat out in frustration before smacking his fists against the force field more than once. 

“Now, there’s no need to have a temper tantrum,” McCallister said sarcastically. “And what you said about a Hunter not talking to its prey, again, I refer you back to the adventures of my former colleagues on board Voyager. On more than one occasion, the Hirogen had a dialogue with Captain Janeway. Your people negotiated an exchange of technology with her for holograms; she also helped stop Iden’s rebellion.”

“Don’t forget the Enterprise’s encounter, sir. Didn’t Captain Picard turn the tables against a Hirogen Alpha when a pact of their ships entered Federation space over a decade and a half ago? I’m sure that resulted in him opening diplomatic relations with them.” Oron reminded McCallister.

Turning to look at the Brikar, McCallister smirked. They had slightly planned that moment. “Ah, yes, you’re right.” He turned back to the Hirogen. “Now, if your fellow Hunters are prepared to speak to two of Starfleet’s legendary captains, who are now admirals, why won’t you do it with me? Is it because I hate coffee and Earl Grey tea?”

The Hirogen squinted at McCallister, his frown becoming obvious through his helmet. 

McCallister sighed. “Okay, if you’re not going to speak with me, then at least listen to what I want to say, and then I will return you to your people.” He sat down on the bench, a chosen move so the Hirogen saw himself as the stronger out of the two. “We know about your ship crashing here, and we get why you’re attacking the Sikarians. They don’t like having you as neighbours and would prefer to have you off their back lawn. Their technology is far more advanced than what I have and what you have. They are prepared to send you anywhere in range of what their spatial trajector can send you. All they ask is you stop the attacks, and in return, they will send you and my ship back to where we belong. We aren’t asking you to help in any other way. Just be patient, hold off on your attacks and in return, tell them where you wish to go, and they will send you on your way. Surely there’s a training ground they can transport you to.”

The Hirogen smirked at McCallister. “Lies.”

“It’s not a lie, it’s the truth.” He replied.

“Lies,” He repeated. “You speak of legendary hunters from your own culture; we know of Janeway’s reputation and how she was a worthy prey to hunt. Many hunters have shared stories about her, but what made her worthy was she could see the deception before her. You are weak and are pitiful to try and follow her in shadow.”

“I won’t lie and say that Admiral Janeway isn’t someone I admire and hold in high respect, the same with Picard, and I’m only early in my career as a Starfleet captain, but I’m not here to try and emulate either of them. I don’t need stories about me being hunted being shared among your kind. I just want to get my ship back to where we belong, and I can’t do that while you’re attacking the Sikarians.” McCallister stated.

“Janeway wanted to get home too, but she could see the truth. She was clever and cunning prey.” 

“And I thought my brother had the Janeway fixation,” McCallister mumbled under his breath. James was a huge fan of Voyager, and exploring the Delta Quadrant was something he had wanted to do; though Horatio admired the woman who had gone the furthest than anyone else, he was more into the accolades of the likes of Christopher Pike and Phillippa Georgiou. “What do you mean by she could see the truth?”

“Ah, the prey has opened his eyes,” The Hirogen said. “We are not here by choice.”

“We know,” McCallister said, “The Sikarians said you crash-landed here.”

“Not by choice; my ship was pulled here by the Sikarians.”

Hearing that revelation made McCallister look up at Oron and Lonar before returning his focus to the Alpha. “You were enveloped by the neutrino wake?”

He nodded. “Subspace was folded around our ship, and we appeared in orbit of this planet. A computer virus was transmitted into our systems, and our ship was badly damaged. It caused us to crash.”

“Are you saying the Sikarians pulled you and us here on purpose? But why?” Oron questioned.

“Not everyone hunts for prey,” The Alpha answered. “After we crashed, those who survived soon found the Sikarians attempting to access our database thanks to their computer virus. Those who came did not survive. We fought them off, but they could access our database.”

“What were they trying to access?” Lonar enquired.

“Our hunting logs.”

McCallister then realised what the Hirogen was saying and what the Sikarians were after. “Your stories.”

He nodded with a smirk. “Clever prey.” 

The captain stood up and looked at both of his officers. “The Sikarians trade in stories; it’s in their culture. If his statement is true, they pulled them here to gain access to their hunting stories to share among their culture. But what I don’t get is, why?”

“We are not the only ones they have captured. There are crashed ships littered across this planet. Visit them, and you will see why.”  The Alpha revealed.

“There have been others they have pulled here?” McCallister checked.

The Alpha nodded. “Search them yourselves; you will find their crews dead and their databases removed.”

Lonar stepped forward to the captain and spoke in hushed tones. “Sir, he may be saying this to deceive us and get us to drop our guard.”

“Maybe,” McCallister replied and looked at the Hirogen straight in his eyes. “Or maybe not.” 

Telling the Hirogen he would investigate what he had said, McCallister left the brig and called his bridge to have them start scanning the planet’s surface. He wanted to find these crashed remains to see if he had been foolish to believe the Hirogen or what he was telling was the truth. He hoped for the latter and, for the first time that day, was sure what action he was taking that Admirals Janeway or Picard would have made the same call.