—- Engineering —-

Things were falling apart. Two disasters had stuck the Seattle at once, and Lieutenant Commander James Young was not sure if they could handle it, but he was trying. He had on a gas mask, attached to a plastic tube that snaked down to an oxygen canister on his belt. Simply having all the male crew disabled save for himself and apparently Doctor Va’Tok was enough of a blow, but now they were in a fire fight, so he had the task of venting the ship of poison and keeping them all in one piece at once.

He gestured to Engsign Constable his Assistant Chief Engineering Officer, “Reroute the EPS conduits, we have more protection on our stern.”

Vanessa Constable nodded, working frantically at her station, realigning the warp core. While women were filtering in to take over from male officers who had been downed by the toxic air, it was still chaotic. They had no dedicated shuttle engineers at this point, not that that was an issue for this moment, but it was a sign that this transition to a nearly all female crew was not being done in an orderly fashion.

The ship rocked, he found a conn and boosted power to the shields. Hopefully people would stop shooting at them soon.

—- Bridge —-

“Shields holding at forty percent,” Dorian reported, the Lieutenant handling tactical since all the senior staff in security had been male. She had worked security on past postings, so it was not that new for her, and not that far from being a Strategic Operations Officer.

Commander Cruz who had taken control of the bridge did a quick check. Five ships left, they had destroyed two of them, though the central ship piloted by their main antagonist was going to be hard to break down. For its part the USS Seattle was fast, and was making itself hard to hit. The pirates likely had manual firing, which meant that if they stayed in motion they could avoid a great number of the shots.

The pirate ships were slow, and used to being the most dangerous thing in the sector. The Starfleet vessel was more technologically advanced in every way, it was just out numbered. An explosion happened on the screen.

Pr’Nor said, “Another vessel destroyed.”

Four ships left. 

Or one that mattered. Cruz looked at the screen, “How come I never win big in dabo?”

”As a game of chance dabo is notoriously weighted towards the house, and many owners of dabo tables have weighted the game even more in their favor,” Pr’Nor said.

”Exactly, we’re playing a game setup against us. It’s time to change things up,” Cruz said, “Pr’Nor break off the engagement, head to the second class M Planet in the ship and prepare to land.”

”Unlike the Intrepid Class we can not land,” the Vulcan pointed out.

”No, but they don’t know that. Get as low as we can, then when they start to follow up hit full impulse and pull up,” Cruz said.

”Interesting, well it will be a fascinating way for us to die,” the Vulcan said.

”I can’t tell if you are joking,” Cruz said.

”I do not joke,” Pr’Nor replied.

”Well then today is a good day to die,” Cruz said as the USS Seattle banked hard towards Maya 6 the uninhabited class M planet. The pursuing ships temporarily lost them and then began their much slower, more laborious turns. In a out and out race this would be no contest, the Seattle was better maintained, newer and nearly three generations of ship design more modern.

”This is quite the time to let out your inner Klingon,” Lieutenant Dorian said from tactical, firing off phaser shots to try to break through their opponents’ shields. 

Petty Officer Nurse Jennifer Westbrook and two other non-commissioned officers entered the bridge, each pulling one of their male crew out via the turbolift. Kan Th’kaotross the Andorian Chief of Secuirty was taken out and unconscious like the rest.

”He’ll be okay, you hear me Dorian, he’ll be back here before you know it,” Cruz said knowing that the two officers had a quiet relationship that was not quite as splashy or obvious to the rest of the crew as hers and the Captain or Pr’Nor and Lieutenant Commander Tashai.

The Seattle hit the atmosphere and flew low, passing over trees. So low some tree tops scraped the bottom of the ship’s hull. No longer in the void of space the crew could hear them below breaking as the ship passed overhead. Watching the monitor Commander Cruz waited for the four pirate ships to get as far into the atmosphere as they had, then once they did she gave the order.

”Pull up hard, loop around and get behind them,” she said to her pilot Pr’Nor.

The Seattle pulled up, the ship shuddering against the pull of gravity. It caused the pirate ships to follow suit, but they were not as well made. The three smaller ships broke up, losing drives and other important parts and then each in turn exploding. The larger ship did not break up, but did not complete the turn quite as elegantly as the Seattle as the Federation ship continued to turn until it was directly behind the large pirate ship, that was as big as a Galaxy class but no where near as well built.

”Fire everything we have,” Cruz said. A series of small explosions rocked the pirates’ ship as the Seattle’s photon torpedoes stuck home. Phasers raked the hull as the pirates’ shields dropped and they sat dead in space.

”We’re being hailed,” Dorian said.

”On screen,” Cruz said from the Captain’s chair.

The scene now was one of chaos, fires had broken out behind the Pirate Captain and everything seemed to be in disarray. 

“We surrender,” he said, the reputation of the Federation and Starfleet had not made it this far, so he did not know that killing was against their ethos. 

“We have no ability to keep prisoners on that scale,” Dorian said and then doing a scan added, “That’s over six hundred.”

”We don’t,” Cruz agreed, “but I know who does. Captain we’ll get back to you. Dorian one move from that ship put a hole right in the middle.”

—- Security Office —-

A few non-commissioned officers were under the command of an Ensign in security, the department most keenly hurt by the attack on all men aboard the Seattle. Still they had managed to arrest the Prime Minister and her staff, along with the saboteur who had to be stunned and dragged out of Engineering. 

Cruz entered, “I want to see the prisoners.”

So she was soon standing in front of the Maya Prime Minister who despite being jailed, did her best to look dignified. Cruz wanted to hurt this woman, the kid from the streets of Mexico City would have. As it was she just glowered.

”I’ve met your charming friend, he seems nice,” she said.

”He isn’t,” the Prime Minister either missing the sarcasm of ignoring it.

”I don’t know if my Captain, my well… the person I care for, is alive or dead. I want the truth or I shoot you out the torpedo bays at the pirate ship,” Cruz said.

”The pirates showed up about two hundred years ago. At the time, our great grandmothers paid them off. Energy, women who they used for… purposes,” the Prime Minister explained, “Then every year they came back and took three hundred of our citizens with them. We had not developed weapons since the men had died.”

”The men didn’t kill themselves did they,“ Cruz said.

”No, a scientist working in a lab figured it out,“ the Prime Minister said, “And she released the poison. We were in a cycle of endless war, with the men gone, well we have world peace.“

”Except you get plundered every year,” Cruz said, “Well we dealt with that, and now I could kill your friend, but I don’t want to. Killing in a fight is one thing, killing an unarmed opponent who has sued for peace is another.”

”Kill him, he’ll just be back,” the Prime Minister said.

”What was your deal with him, the crew and the ship for that?” Cruz asked.

”We kill the men. If any survive they could take them. The women come with us back to the planet and live life with us. Your ship was for ten years of not raiding us,” she said.

”He won’t be leaving. See we let you go, and you take these men and put them on trial. A fair trial, and don’t kill them,” Cruz said, “Then the raids stop. You charge them for human trafficking, you get to be the Prime Minister who stopped the raids.”

”Do I have a choice?” the Prime Minister said.

”Honestly no, we’ll let you use comms. Have your people prepare for about five hundred prisoners,” Commander Cruz said, “And you may be a peaceful utopia but fix your weapons. Trust me this ship just whooped all your pirates and we’re not the scariest thing around.”