Out There

Posted on Mon Aug 16th, 2010 @ 8:58pm by Provisional Lieutenant Commander Narayn Ballard

Mission: Shoreleave
Location: Talon Runabout - Inkara Sector
Timeline: Shoreleave Day 2 - 2350hrs

[ON]

The Inkara sector was possibly the blackest area of space that Bones had ever seen. Sitting in the dingy runabout next to the largely silent Chief Petty Officer from the Endeavour was not his idea of a good time. Frankly there were more things that he could be getting done on the Jackal given that she'd been largely ignored by Lieutenant Allein since they had been reassigned.

The Intelligence Officer was far too preoccupied to be concerned with the happiness of the engineer. He'd tried to make small talk with Narayn about three times during the flight but there was far too much swimming around his head for him to really have any interest in trivial points of Defiant class engine mechanics.

The warrant officer sighed and leaned back in his chair. Ballard obviously had little interest in his attempts at small talk. Still, the silence was deafening to the engineer. His assignment on this mission came out of nowhere from Commander Gunning. The tight lipped intelligence officer wouldn't tell him much of anything short of their destination. Just about all he could do was wait until Ballard decided that he had the 'need-to-know.'

"Listen. Bones." Ballard suddenly offered out of nowhere. "I know you think I'm just being difficult here but there's something you need to know. We're probably flying right into a trap. A really dangerous trap. If I get this wrong, I could die and you could go down with me. If I get it right then we get the lost convoy back and we get home safely."

Gilbert nodded. "I see. I suppose not coming home were the risks I signed up for when I enlisted. Care to explain what we're doing out here then, Chief? I don't like the thought of knowingly flying into a trap without at least knowing what kind of trap it is I'm flying into."

Ballard sighed. "I used to be part of a pirate syndicate. The Vinarians. You've probably heard of them. When we... when they used to attack convoys they would come flying out of nebulas, blank out the environmental systems of the escorts while they weren't expecting it. In the confusion our ships could round up the convoy like they were cattle. It was always risky but it saved attacking any ships with direct affiliations."

Bones considered the plan for a moment. Some ships, particularly older ones, would automatically reroute power from what the computer deemed to be 'nonessential' systems, such as short range sensors, in order to bring the environmental controls back online. It was a design flaw which Starfleet has tried to correct, but it was present in several classes, including most shuttles. "That sounds like a reasonable plan. Any ideas as to what we can do about it?"

"There's got to be a nebula. If there's a nebula then the convoy will be inside it. It was always a really well planned operation. This has the look and feel of something a little more slap-dash. We've got to be able to get into the nebula without being spotted. If I know them they'll leave one ship to guard the convoy which will be disabled inside the nebula until the Vinarian freighters can arrive and pick up the plunder." The Intelligence Officer tapped a couple of commands into the console. "We need to get past the sentry vessel."

Sneaking around was never really Bones's forte. That was something Ballard would know more about. Still, he knew the technology better than the chief. "We might be able to pull a similar stunt on them. What kind of ships do they tend to fly?"

"Imagine a Defiant class but if it was made eighty years ago. It's about the same size and manoeuvrability but there's less in the way of passable weapons. Still, if we come up against it we'll be in trouble. We'd be better to avoid them completely if we can." Ballard pulled up a couple of schematics. "They'll be sitting with their shields up at the very least. We'd have trouble getting anywhere near them."

"Hmm, that would be a problem. You know these people far better than I do. Do you have any suggestions?"

"We've got to get enough time to get in and shut down the pulse-field which they'll have set up around the convoy. If we can do that then they can power up and jump to warp as soon as they're out of the nebula. However, we'll need a way to knock out both the Vinarian's communications and sensors if we're going to do it without getting blown apart."

"That would be ideal, Mister Ballard. I'm an engineer, not a tactician. Are there any parts of their computer or communication systems that we could use as a flaw?"

"That's why you're here, Bones." Ballard checked out a couple of blueprints. "If I remember correctly, there should be a tiny gap in the shields of the vessel just... here." He declared, zooming in on a tiny point on the port warp nacelle. "If we can engineer some kind of inverse Calauran burst into the nacelle it should disable their impulse engines. Now, while that won't do anything to help us as their systems will reboot within a matter of seconds."

He glanced at the blank expression of the Engineer. In all honesty he wasn't surprised that he was less than impressed. However, he had a load of information that he wasn't willing to freely give up to Starfleet personnel.

"Listen, I was an engineer back in the day. I tricked my ship around so that this didn't happen; but if the engines go down suddenly then the sensors trip." He looked at the Engineer whose face was a mixture of surprise and alarm that anything could have been produced so shoddily.

Bones couldn't believe ships built like that could even fly. The major systems should be able to work in tandem, but not so closely that unrelated systems fail together. Still, he wondered if it would work. "Alright, I'll bite. We configure the deflector to send the pulse. That leaves their engines and sensors down. Despite the haphazard assembly of their ships, that won't buy us that much time before they realize what happened."

"Oh, it's not just that. It's the perfect cataclysmic chain reaction from an engineering standpoint. The sensors going down triggers an auto communication from the communications system declaring the intentions of the syndicate on all subspace channels. Not only does it stop them communicating out the way it'll light them up like a Christmas tree and bring any ships in the area down on top of them."

The engineer's face lit up. "Now that's a plan. They'll be too worried about protecting their own skins to worry about us. That would certainly buy us more than a few minutes. That might give us enough time to disable that pulse field."

"Exactly." Ballard said as he increased the propulsion system to Warp 6. "Get the pulse ready. When we drop out of warp we'll need to be ready to cycle the targeting scanners and fire before they come about."

"Sounds good. It will take me a few minutes to reconfigure the deflector. I'll have to do some of it manually." Bones gets up from his chair and moves to a panel on the floor of the cabin. "Doing this on the Jackal would have been easy, but these runabouts weren't designed that kind of flexibility." He goes to work on the now exposed circuitry, rerouting pathways and reconfiguring isolinear chips.

"You got it. I'll calculate some waypoints to get into the nebula once we light them up." Ballard replied as he looked back to the CONN.

To be continued...

[OFF]

Chief Petty Officer Narayn Ballard
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Endeavour

Staff Warrant Officer Gilbert Bones
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
Starbase 332