The Point of No Return

Posted on Mon 25th Nov, 2024 @ 1:50pm by Izwyx 'Lo & Commander Geraldine "Geri" Severide
Edited on on Mon 25th Nov, 2024 @ 2:25pm

1,857 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: The Phoenix Gamble

previously... https://sb109.sim-station.net/index.php/write/missionpost/2366/view

-Start-

{Shrike Raider-G’konn}

The balance had been off from the get go. This day had started with waking up in a bunk aboard the Ticonderoga, seen him leave his career behind for an uncertain future. Then he had been blown to pieces and almost lost to space. Now he was aboard an unknown vessel surrounded by enemies. What a day.

Swirls resolved into form and time was paramount. He felt the confinement beam restricting movement over the course of the next few seconds and he was forced in agonizing half time to watch and wait for the others to be free to move. Time was fickle and prolonged itself, if Digga had worn the helmet maybe a moment more could have passed, but the armor didnt fit, and the helmet wouldn't even slide over his head. He was exposed and every millisecond was agony while he was confined.

Her lips. He remembered that most of all in a torrent or sensation, the growing portion of him that wanted to live and have a family and maybe just see tomorrow clawed past the brave duty bound persona which had so long gripped onto Digga. By the gods of Capella and his ancestors watching, today was not a good day to die at all!

He felt the pressure release, but three other armored soldiers were released as well. Digga reacted with no plan, just speed, selecting the target whose pistol had already begun to drift up to firing position. The pistol cycled for half a second or so between shots, and Digga counted beats after firing his first shot, absorbed into the neck of the armored man across from him. Though the armor prevented much of the beam from damaging the flesh underneath, the hot flash made the victim feel like they were on fire for a moment. With only time to hope, he twisted and maneuvered the soldier nearest to him to block the third man. They spun as though in a dance, with Kreypa flipping his grappling partner towards the last man standing and charging in a full bellowing rage.

The Kleegat was ceremonial but very real, and the blades made of an star forged material akin to neutronium. Thin, but massively heavy it was a deadly weapon in close quarters and could be thrown at range given its disc shape. After a slash to the chest felled the third soldier, the first he had wounded was recovering. Kicks and punches to the prone forms kept them down but the fourth man, surprised him. Jedsak had been recalled as well, the officer on the bridge clearly of merit to notice they had been tricked. Jedsak materialized still in his pathetic positions pretending to be grievously hurt, but stood up and laughed thinking this was a great moment.

Without a moments hesitation Kreypa threw the Kleegat and the heavy bladed disc nearly halved Jedsak.

"Stop, or I shoot their engines!"

Their pilot had a weapon, pointed right at the Lieutenant, he spoke again, "You just killed Jedz!"

He went to shoot LT Kreypa who finally admitted in a low yell, "I am Starfleet!"

Wisely the pilot stopped in his tracks. The soldiers looked to one another and a silent communication occurred. "Do they know of this?" The one with the chipped visor sounded Klingon, the helmet made it impossible but they were built like one too.

Lt. Kreypa nodded, "I sent word."

"I saw nothing on long range, just a Star Cradle far too slow to intercept us. We are deep inside Tal shiar territory! Feeling brave still Starfleet? Your uniform means nothing here!"

The uniform carried weight everywhere, with utter confidence he squared his stance, firmly replying "Then shoot me."

An alarm chimed, the pilot knew it from the sound alone, it was a proximity alert and the pilot chanced to look.

"No. No....Egrim!"

On the area map, the Ticonderoga showed up within four light years, impossibly, and was gaining fast, nearly Warp 6!

The chipped visor pointed at the console, "You fool, do you not see we are being dragged, they've cut thrust and slowed us to 5.2... 5.1... 4.8 dammn it!

"Over heat the engines" The chipped visor began pointing, "Return to the freighter if you have to Lidokh they are still secured, and send for reinforcements, we cant lose this one or Kr'torg will-!"

Kreypa reasoned the other, shorter soldier with a clean visor, Lidokh? spoke up, "What about Starfleet, he killed Jedsak!"

The pilot knew better, the voder disguising his voice from beneath the helmet, "Starfleet would be authorized to respond with heavy guns and a deep incursion if a fleet member was killed here, we leave him behind they wont have the cause for civilians alone to ignite war. Put him in an escape pod I guess, get his ass out of here."

They didn't notice the Lieutenant had taken off his wrist device when they stripped him out of the armor. When they reattached it, it was without realizing it had been emptied. Set to ten minute timers, two sonic grenades awaited the bridge crew.

"We can disguise our warp trail, crossing over this plane. Match their signatures, change course. We have lead lets use it to confuse them.

He had been forgotten for the moment, and time was ticking fast, he counted seconds knowing the grenades had only minutes to go. They were still making plans, with time to spare they didnt need to move quickly.

""Fine then, jettison me into space, they are catching up to you so my part is done, we've slowed you down."

He got a direct look, Lt Kreypa continued, "I inflicted casualties, by now the freighter is definitely unable to go over warp four, if they followed instructions they've done a great job handicapping the Impulse plasma intakes-"

A pistol whip to the face nearly took his life from the brutality of it, and Digga dreamed of a woman whose name he did not know.

***

{Star Cradle Ticonderoga}

Captain Izwyx was not a patient woman when it came to emergencies. The sluggishness of their response was appalling, and the face they couldn't achieve a higher speed similarly felt frustrating.

"Captain, incoming message from Starbase 109... Thunderchild is en route! ETA ninety two minutes!"

She wept internally for the space and time getting torn to pieces in its speed to get here, but prayed it could happen faster. Their quarry had already crossed over into Non-Federation polity. Technically she knew who was in charge but you weren't supposed to acknowledge it even as illegitimate. The Tal Shiar didn't formally exist, the this deep in the former Romulan Star Empire there was no helpful nav bouys or signal depots . The distress call of a Starfleet officer only enabled so much response. Before too long she was endangering the entire crew in space known for open warfare. Knowing the Thunderchild was following them gave her confidence to continue, despite their lengthy distance.

"Report on their locations?"

The comms officer shook her head, "we are going on a warp trail from the freighter in a sector filled with decaying warp trails. As they go deeper they cross other trails, and we can lose them. With all power to engines I can't get a long range scan done either..." He indicated two highlighted points on the grid, "If I had to guess, they're here or here."

The sensor grid looked like a swirl of oil in bubbly water. The trail they followed was still detectable but the margin for error on location was growing into a sizeable area of space. The two ends of the triangle in front them gave a binary choice of which heading to take. There were over four hundred ships in this sector, this was becoming more impossible to keep a sure lock by the minute.

"Captain, signals showing... there's an escape pod, portside 80 3.9 light years away."

She looked, it was a genuine article, broadcasting Romulan military era universal codecs for peaceful POW status.

"How the hell? Can we get it on board without slowing?"

She got a chorus of "Hell no." The engines were running at 130% of their capacity, any disruption would possibly mean they'd never regain that level of performance.

Sepp Agandar, her second officer had an idea, "One of our tugboats can peel off and use emergency warp to rejoin our field after transporting the soul on board."

She concurred, "Do it, great work. set course to favor the port path, reset search vectors, do we have any spare power for a scan, just directly ahead, conical five degrees local?"

Her OPS team looked worried as their cheif said, "Yes, but we'd deplete the system of particles, and to recharge would take over an hour maam."

Izzy loved a good gamble but the stakes were too high for this to be fun. With one chance to get a good long range scan and regain their lock on the freighter she sent another prayer on high. Confidence in their abilities was important, it was all they needed, luck was for the fickle after.

Izwyx took her console in hand, "Inputting the scan radius, setting to six LY focal length, that'll get us a good return eh?"

Her science officer Fouran had calculated by this point, "I have the optimal power and focus settings, we can rescan in twenty minutes."

She loved her team, "Outstanding, lets reacquire target integrity then, scan at designated vectors please."

Power dimmed as the strained engines funneled electrified plasma way beyond its capacity. A Star Cradle has twin antimatter reactors with a ring drive for mobile efficiency, moving under power while powering a dozen other things was what the designs had called for.

The scans ahead resolved in a narrow swath to perfect high quality data as the sensors returned data. The indicant of the freighter restored to 100?curacy as the warp trail redefined itself. They had gotten sight again and there was no escaping. However the point of common sense had been crossed, they faced the uncertainty of where the No Return line was now.

She barked orders in full stride, "Keep power plants optimal, rededicate from non-propulsion systems, lock in target every twenty minutes, we cannot lose them. ETA of advance team?"

"Five minutes Captain!"

"Runabout Yellow Submarine reports rescue of Lt. Digga Kreypa. Reported in critical condition, en route to medical."

She scoffed at the harsh nature of the world, their foes had thrown a body in the path to slow down their pursuers. This Starbase on wheels had long arms. The strike team was almost one them, a starburst maneuver in open space conducted by a civilian who did it for fun slingshotting battle rigged runabout to harass the raider. A prayer went out for her crew, her heart skipping a beat for the love she felt in that moment of such brave people. The uncontrolled rampancy of the anger kettling out in a whistle told her if even one of her family was hurt she'd grind these slavers to pulp with a pipe wrench.

-TBC-

 

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