—- Shuttle Bay —-

“When we get back to Starbase 72 I’m requisitioning a runnabout,” Captain Hawthorne noted as the shuttle Pearl Jam returned to the ship carrying the Prime Minister and her cabinet from Maya the world below. They had gone back and forth about this mode of transport, but after much negotiation It had trumped the transporter as the delegation had proven to find having their molecules broken up to be slightly unsettling. 

An hour before hand the Captain had been going over his away team’s reports about the all-female world below. Lieutenant Kolem had expressed the they were hiding something, but was not sure what that was. It likely did not matter, but his senior staff had assembled in their dress uniforms anyway. It was not often they had the occasion to wear them and not often had he been able to handle a first contact mission. 

Commander Adriana Cruz nodded, “Now remember this is the first time in generations anyone here has met a male, so try not to be…” 

Hawthorne smiled, “I can be charming as Hell Commander.”

Kan Th’kaotross the Andorian Chief Security Officer adjusted his uniform, feeling confined by the fabric. He disliked first contact missions, and had no patience for being anything aside from his authentic self. He grumbled as Lieutenant Eleanor Dorian the Chief Strategic Operations Officer helped him fasten a snap on the unfamiliar dress uniform. 

The Pearl Jam touched down and slowly the rear opened to reveal the Prime Minister Tchaka and her cabinet. The pilot, Lieutenant Claudia Jara was the last out of the shuttle, talking with one of the Prime Minister’s aides. 

“Prime Minister, glad to meet you. I hope the flight up here was alright,” Hawthorne said, smiling as he tried not to look as large and threatening as he normally felt he did. Not that he was a large man, just compared to the slight women who had boarded his ship, he knew that he was.

The Prime Minister nodded, “The invitation was appreciated. Your arrival has been keenly debated on my planet, and we hope to show your crew much about our world.”

”Well, let’s begin with a brief tour of the ship,” Hawthorne said.

”Of course Captain, may my flight attaché remain, she wishes to see more of your shuttle,” the Prime Minister said.

Lieutenant Jara pipped up, “I can give her a tour sir.”

Hawthorne smiled, “Okay, of course Lieutenant.”

The Prime Minister’s party followed the Captain and his officers, save for the one who had been speaking with Jara previously. Jara took her back into the shuttle, and showed her the controls, and storage areas. 

“This is where we keep hand phasers, for planets where we meet danger,” Jara said.

”May I see?” Corporal Lenova, the Prime Minister’s flight attaché asked.

”Well we really don’t hand weapons out to visitors,” Jara said, but her resistance faltered as Lenova slid a hand onto her upper thigh and kissed her on the lips.

”Okay,” Jara said, “But it’s in stun.”

Lenova smiled, “Good, I wouldn’t want to hurt you.”

As she took the phaser she fired directly at Jara who collapsed in her seat back against the shuttle’s hull. Working fast Corporal Lenova began to undress Jara, getting into her uniform and then tying up the Lieutenant.

Across the ship Captain Hawthorne was leading the Prime Minister and the remaining members of her party into the forward observation lounge where a dinner had been set up. The original away team who had travelled to the planet below plus most of the Senior Staff were there. It seemed to be going well.

”Captain,” Lieutenant Kolem the half-Betazoid half-human Chief Counselor said pulling him aside and speaking quietly, “I sense something.”

”I get it they’re hiding something, but we have no right to know everything about them, and we keep our own secrets too,” Hawthorne said.

”No, this is something new, something pressing on their thoughts,” Kolem said.

”So it can’t wait for desert?” Hawthorne said.

”No sir, something is imminent, so so they think,” Kolem said.

Hawthorne turned to the Prime Minister, “Umm, ma’am, I was wondering for the sake of our new friendship, is there anything you’d like to tell us?”

”What do you mean?” the Prime Minister asked, seemingly innocent.

Hawthorne’s commbadge chimed, it was Lieutenant Junior Grade Hume who was the duty officer abroad the bridge, “Captain we have multiple small vessels, and a large one dropping out of warp. Looks like pirates of some kind.”

”Shields up, red alert,” Hawthorne said.

His badge chimed once more, “Captain it’s Young in engineering an intruder stunned some of my staff and is in the environmental controls. I am trying to lock her out but she’s released a chemical of some kind into the air supply.”

Hawthorne was about to reply when he found his throat closing up, it was hard to breathe. He stumbled then fell to the ground, as did others around the room. He was his Chief Science Officer Debub fall, the man gabbing his own throat as he fell. There was something similar about all the affected, and it took him a second to work out, they were all men.

—- Bridge —-

Commander Cruz entered the bridge furious. Someone had just poisoned half of the ship’s crew, and now pirates. That did not seem to be a coincidence. Lieutenant Junior Grade Hume who had previously been in charge of the bridge had been taken off my medical staff. Female officers were filling in the slots where their male counterparts had slumped over. 

“Sick bay, how are you handling this?” she asked using the ship’s comm system.

Doctor Va’Tok answered, to her surprise, “This agent seems to only affect men. I am synthazizing a cure, but there seems to be extensive damage to the respitory system. I would not expect anyone who is currently affected to return to duty for days, rather than minutes or hours.”

”Dorian, take the tactical conn, also find someone to show the Prime Minister and her party to a cell,” Cruz ordered.

”Engineering, what’s the status?” again Cruz used the ship’s internal communication system.

Chief Engineer James Young responded, “Half my staff is down. I managed to grab a gas mask and I seem okay. I’m flushing the air systems now, but it’s going to take about an hour to work this gas out of the Seattle. Our intruder has been stunned, no damage to systems beyond the release of the toxin.”

”We’re about to get the snot pounded out of us, so get everyone you can on duty,” Cruz said.

”Fantastic, can’t wait,” Young said, “I’ll take care of it.”

”Open hailing frequencies with the big ship there,” Commander Cruz said.

A scruffy unshaven man smiled, he looked dirty and if you could smell someone through a view screen it would be him. His smile was unsettling.

”My prize, contacted me to surrender?” he said looking at the bridge and it’s officers.

”I was going to ask you the same thing,” Cruz said.

He chuckled, “I like you, I’ll keep you. New deal, we keep the ship and the female crew.”

”What was your old deal?” Cruz asked.

”Just the ship, but you’re all fine specimens, if we’re not coming back for ten years, well it’s gonna have to be worth our while,” he sneered.

“Coming back?” Cruz asked.

He laughed, “Oh you weren’t told anything were you. Every year we take three hundred women from this planet as protection payment, they didn’t tell you that?”

“No, the Prime Minister must have forgotten about it while she was trying to kill half of my crew,” Cruz said.

”Well this has been nice, but lower your shields and prepare to be bordered,” the man said.

”Cut transmission,” Cruz said and then the screen went dark, the pirate replaced by the ships in space. She looked at Dorian and asked, “Tactical assessment.”

”We can probably survive, but we may lost warp if we take extensive damage and our way home,” Dorian said.

”Well it’s either that or get traded like daboo chits,” Cruz said, “Pr’Nor, prepare attack pattern six on my mark, keep moving no matter what.”

The Vulcan Chief Flight Control Officer nodded, “Captain.”

”What did you call me?” Cruz asked.

”You are the Captain until Hawthorne returns to duty Captain,” Pr’Nor said. Dorian nodded her agreement.

”Hailing frequencies open,” Cruz said again.

”Ah my Pirate Queen,” the man said.

”Why do people keep calling me that?“ Cruz asked annoyed, “Anyway I’m having a rough day and was going to give you a whole speech but I’m just going to beat you up now. Pr’Nor, now. Dorian fire at will.”

The pirate captain killed the transmission but he did not look happy. If he destroyed the USS Seattle his prize would be lost, any damage he did to it he lost something. The Prime Minister was meant to kill off the men, and surrender the ship but she was nowhere to be seen and this woman was now opening fire on his fleet. The Seattle was small but significantly more advanced than anything he had, and better armed, faster and more agile. Whoever was flying it was a god damn demon, and he was getting reports that one of this ships had been destroyed.

Two now. 

“Open fire bring that woman to me in chains,” he roared. He was going to make the Prime Minister regret not upholding her part of the deal.