by David Smith
“Just putting down a marker, sir. He’s going to behave himself while he’s in my brig. Or else.”
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Dave sat on the Bridge, feeling very, very sorry for himself. Everything hurt, and to add insult to injury, Chief Burns’ head-butt had brought out two seriously impressive black eyes. He looked like a panda in a Starfleet uniform.
He was most aggrieved at the sly smiles that he drew, but was pleased to get some sympathy from Lieutenant Shearer, even if he didn’t understand her.
“Aww, puer ecksaw! Youse look like a Mackem cawt in the Gallawgeyt End! But youse wora vera brave soulja, an ah think ya did alreet pet.” She kissed him gently on the forehead before returning to her seat.
Dave watched transfixed as she walked away, and gaped as she stooped just slightly to brush something off her seat before elegantly easing herself down into her seat.
Yep, definitely no underwear, thought Dave, swallowing hard. He suddenly realised he was dribbling and tried to discretely wipe the drool off his chin, but winced as he tried to move his still broken arm. If he felt just a little bit better.......
Fortunately Crash distracted him. "Course plotted and laid in. We're ready to leave orbit, sir."
Dave called engineering "Romanov, are we good to go?"
There was a worrying pause "Errr.......Yes?"
Dave paused, trying to grasp the connotations of her inconclusive answer.
"Is there a problem?"
"Not YET, sir."
Dave sighed, knowing he didn't want to ask the question, but also knowing he had to.
"What's wrong?"
"We've had to patch more relays and requisition more of Lieutenant L'Amour's crystals. I hate to say it, but I don't think we can keep Tiger going much longer. We need to get to a repair facility as soon as possible. It's only a matter of time until something breaks and we can't fix it."
Dave thought about this. "We're heading to a system the Sha T'Al call Jal Doran. It's about 6 light years closer to Federation space then we are now."
"ExO, make it the last trip. We're living on borrowed time here" warned Romanov.
Dave cut the link. “Helm, ahead one-third, take us out.”
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The six light year trip was slower than ever. Dave got regular reports on the status of the warp-drive and power distribution system every other hour, and also took the chance to catch up with the more generals repairs the engineers were trying to effect.
Eventually, they arrived at Jal Doran and Crash dropped them out of warp.
Jal Doran was a small world with a previous population of around 25,000 Sha T’Al and in many ways was like Hole. It was blessed with an abundance of rare minerals, and most of the Sha T’Al on the planet were involved with the extraction and refining of the valuable material.
Unlike Hole, Jal Doran orbited a giant blue star, which was a veritable maelstrom of solar radiation. The planet orbited much further out than Hole in a very elliptical orbit and was subject to violent extremes of heat and cold. It was also regularly blasted by solar flares that sterilised the surface, and magnetic fields that played havoc with communications.
The intense solar radiation also meant that most of the habitable structures of Jal Doran were deep underground, and the Sha T’Al at Todot Hahn believed their cousins would have found ways to isolate parts of the colony, presumably leading to higher survival rates. Most of them would be in isolated pockets with little outside communication and only limited supplies. For these survivors, time was of the essence.
With only limited stellar data, Dolplop and Ensign David had plotted a course that dropped them out of warp far from the star and allowed them to assess the situation and conditions as they headed in towards the system’s single inhabited planet.
Lieutenant-Commander O’Mara was on the Bridge scanning the system for dangerous asteroids and radiation fields. There was a beep from her console and she furrowed her brow and tapped a couple of buttons.
“ExO, there’s a ship in orbit around Jal Doran” she said.
Dave hadn’t been expecting that, “Data to tactical please. ASBeau, is it Tana?”
ASBeau studied the readings for a few seconds “Can’t be sure at this distance sir, but it doesn’t appear to be. They certainly aren’t transmitting the messages we got from the Tana scout”
“Have they seen us yet?”
“Unlikely sir, they’re just coming out from the shadow of the planet, and with this much radiation around I’m guessing they’ll need to recalibrate their sensors to see anything. They aren’t showing any running lights, or transmitting any standard ident signals.”
“Ok O’Mara, discrete scans, find out who they are.”
“Aye sir”
“Crash, kill our impulse drive, running lights, IFF and ident signals. Let’s see if we can sneak a bit closer by drifting in.”
Thirty minutes later, they were still drifting, albeit still carrying the velocity they had from dropping out of warp. This was nearly half the speed of light and the distance to the unidentified ship was reducing rapidly.
O’Mara gave regular updates and eventually started coming up with more useful information.
“I’m fairly confident she’s a Federation built ship sir. The spectrography from the hull is consistent with commercial vessels built at Vega. Mass and outline indicates a small freighter, probably VTL or VTP class. There seems to have been a fair amount of modification though and I’m pretty certain her engines have been seriously up-rated. Still no obvious identity, I’m guessing they want to be anonymous.”
“Hang on, I’ve picked up a plasma trail…….yep……it’s a Federation drive system” she added.
“Looks like we’ve found our aspirin dealers. I can’t believe they haven’t spotted us yet! We’re only minutes away from them?”
O’Mara knew why “Don’t forget sir, we’re rigged for silent running, and we still have about two thousand tonnes of barbecued haggis smeared over our forward facing surfaces. We’re probably as black as the ace of spades against black space. We’re a stealth cruiser, and they almost certainly aren’t expecting us”
“Good point, I’d forgotten about the haggis. ASBeau, if they run, can we disable them?” asked Dave.
“Not at this distance sir, and that assumes the phasers are working. Romanov was considering cannibalising the power relays from weapons systems for the drives and deflectors.”
“Ok, check that out. We need to be ready…..”
As if on cue, O’Mara spoke up “They’re powering up their drives: they must have spotted us!”
“OK. Crash, get everything up, plot an intercept.”
“Aye sir. Hold on, they’re moving…….wow…… They’re accelerating towards the planet!”
“What??”
O’Mara confirmed “They’re at full impulse, on a heading to skim the planet’s atmosphere. Jeez, they’re really shifting. Definitely had a major, major engine upgrade, sir!”
ASBeau chimed in “It’s a blockade runner sir. A smuggler for high value goods, modified to be able to outrun anything big enough to tangle with them.”
“So why are they heading towards the planet and not out for open space?”
Crash spoke up “We’ve got the high-ground, ExO: when they spotted us they were heading pretty much straight away from us, but at only a fraction of our velocity. We’d have been able to intercept them easily. They’re going to sling shot around the planet, pick up speed themselves and break orbit on a heading that will take them straight past us in the opposite direction. We’ll need to slow, change heading and then accelerate towards them, giving them the edge. If they get to warp before us and get outside our sensor range before we get to warp, we’ll lose them.”
“Lieutenant Shearer. Tell them who we are and to cut their engines and prepare to be boarded.”
“Aye sir!”
After a brief pause she said “Naw reply atall sir. Norra peep.”
“Suggestions?”
“Phasers are on line sir. If we can get close enough I might get one shot at disabling their drives. They won’t have shields strong enough to deflect our phasers, so one hit would be enough….” said ASBeau.
“I could try and rig a probe to track them sir….. but I may not be able to do it quickly enough” added O’Mara.
“Or we could try following them” said Crash. “We loop around the planet, come out on the same heading even faster than them and we may even get close enough to use the tractor beam.”
O’Mara and ASBeau both winced.
“The Tiger’s a heavy cruiser, not a scout. She can’t pull those sort of manoeuvres” warned ASBeau.
“Sure she can. I reckon I could have done it as she was, but Cassini pumped up the structural integrity fields when he peeled off the hull plating. Those settings are still in place. The old girl can swing it no problem!” smiled Crash.
“Assuming the power relays hold together under the strain” added O’Mara. “If they don’t we’ll be nothing but a debris field by the time we come around the other side of the planet!”
“They’ll hold!” said Crash, “I’ve pulled many, many stupid stunts and I have a good feeling about this one.”
Dave knew the decision was his, and with the other ship now heading towards them to make a fly past just out of phaser range he knew he had to make a decision immediately.
“Ok. Red Alert! Let’s do this! Crash, get after them.”
He called engineering “Lieutenant-Commander Romanov, we’re going to be pulling some seriously high-stress manoeuvres, watch the structural integrity system like a hawk. Assuming we survive that stunt we’re going to need warp drive.“
“Aye sir.”
Even against the increasing noise of the impulse drive, Dave could hear the note of apprehension in the engineer’s voice. It was too late to worry about it now.
The planet loomed large in the view screen and Lieutenant Shearer wound down the magnification as they sped towards the planet still accelerating as fast as Tiger could manage. The smuggler was picking up speed now and heading in pretty much the opposite direction, but ASBeau and O’Mara were both tracking her progress.
Tiger reached the transition point from solar orbit into planetary orbit and Crash brought her around on to a new heading to skim the planet’s atmosphere. The hull groaned and creaked as massive g-forces tried to shred the ship. The structural integrity fields held the ship together although the Tiger was undertaking a manoeuvre which her designers probably wouldn’t even comprehend.
Tiger accelerated faster still as the gravity of the planet added to her velocity. Alarms sounded, and the computer squawked “Danger, hull stress 102% of design value!”
The noise of the impulse engines rose to a crescendo and the groans of the tortured hull-structure became a long continuous squeal as the stress rose:
“Danger, hull stress 104% of design value!”
Dave made a deliberate effort to remain calm and unworried by the warnings.
“Danger, hull stress 106% of design value!”
Dave was trying really, really hard to appear completely unconcerned. However, in his head, the horrific knowledge of what would happen to their poor frail bodies in the event of a hull failure was projecting graphic images of death, destruction and dismemberment.
“Danger, hull stress 108% of design value!”
Dave found himself gripping the arms of his seat as if they were going to be torn off by the monumental forces at play. Looking around, everyone was white with fear and even Dolplop seemed to have gone several shades lighter, but Crash was in his element, shouting over the warning klaxons and the tortured moans of the ship’s structure.
“YEEEEEEEEEEHAAAARRRRRRR!!!!!!!!! Man this is just like the final race of the ’62 Winston Cup season! Greatest NASCAR Race ever!” he yelled, as his hands danced over the controls, making minute adjustments to their trajectory.
“Danger, hull stress 109% of design value! Structural failure imminent!!!” The computer sounded as nervous as everyone else.
“Billy Bob McRae and Bad-boy Jimmy Jackson were tied for the lead of the championship going in the very last race of the season. Ol’ Billy-Bob McRae was a lap down with three to go when the safety car came out. He managed to get back on the lead lap when everyone pitted, but was down in 15th place when they went racing again with two laps left. His tires were shot and his brakes were fading, but Ol’ Billy Bob didn’t give up, no siree!”
“Danger, hull stress 110% of design value! We’re all going to die!!!”
Dave discretely turned off Susan’s audio channel, but the noise from the screaming impulse drive and the grinding and twisting of the hull all but drowned the computer out anyway. Crash was now screaming at the top of his voice to make his story heard over the cacophony.
“Billy Bob drove like the Devil hisself that day! The car was sliding like a rattlesnake on a griddle, but Billy Bob kept that pedal to the metal. Coming into the last bend he was in second right behind Bad-boy Jimmy. Billy Bob went high up the banking to try’n get round the outside, but Jimmy blocked him hard and pushed him against the wall. But Ol’ Billy Bob wouldn’t be beat, uh-uh! He braked, slipped under Jimmy and accelerated down the bank towards the finishing line!”
“That’s when his tire blew, he spun and flipped, wiped out himself, Jimmy and the next twenty-two cars. Eighteen killed that day, including Billy Bob, Jimmy and eleven spectators. But Man…WHAT A RACE!!!!”
With that, Tiger reached the desired bearing and Crash killed the thrusters. The alarms stopped, the hull relaxed, and every living being on Tiger breathed a collective sigh of relief as stress levels on the hull (and the crew’s hearts and bowels) returned to normal.
“We’re gaining on them, ExO!” said ASBeau, but O’Mara immediately countered:
“They’re opening up their warp-drive….they’re gone!”
“Crash get us to warp before we lose them!” shouted Dave.
“Aye sir!!” replied Crash and with that the stars on the view screen turned to bright white streaks of light.
“Status!” ordered Dave.
“They’re a couple of parsecs ahead of us, still accelerating. Jesus that thing is fast!” said ASBeau.
O’Mara checked her sensors “Aren’t they just??? She’s up past warp four already and still accelerating hard”
“ASBeau how fast are those freighters??” Dave asked.
“Normally sir, I’d say warp four or five max, but our little friend has gone well past that already and is getting away from us. Seems the mods weren’t restricted to the impulse drive”
“Crash, how’re we doing?”
“Warp 4.4……..4.6…….4.8…… warp 5…….”
Dave heard the beep of a call from the engine room “Hollins here. What’s up?”
Romanov answered “What’s up?? Everything is up!!! Every temperature, pressure and power warning on the warp-drive is going mental. We can’t keep this together for long, ExO!”
ASBeau interrupted “The other ship has gone past Warp 5 and is still increasing the distance between us, sir!”
“Sorry, Romanov, we’re still chasing and losing. Just keep us going a little longer.”
“I don’t think we can get beyond warp 7 sir….” She was having to shout to make herself heard over the howl of the warp core.
“Just do what you can!” said Dave and cut the comm line
Crash was still watching Tiger’s warp spatial velocity creep up, “6.2……6.4……6.6…..”
“Warp 7.8 and that bloody ship is still accelerating!” gasped O’Mara “at this rate we only have minutes before we lose sensor contact.”
Crash was getting louder as the numbers got bigger “Warp 7!.......7.2……..7.4………….”
Dave looked down to see a worrying jumble of flashing amber and red warnings lighting up the status panel on t
he arm of the chair.
“C’mon baby!” he whispered to the ship “You can do this!”
“They’ve reached warp nine sir. STILL accelerating!” said O’Mara, the disbelief clear in her voice.
The ship was physically shaking now, and as the intense warp field grew stronger and stronger, the howling of the warp core could be heard carrying through the structure of the ship.
“…..Warp 8 sir! ……. 8.2…….8.4……”
Dave answered another call from Romanov, but couldn’t hear her over the background roar. The channel was filled with static, and Dave knew that the plasma in the warp core was now so dangerously excited it was starting to leak incidental ionising radiation into the engine room.
“We…..trouble…..containmen……115%......itting my pants!”
“Just hold it together!!!” he shouted, knowing she couldn’t hear him
“Warp Nine!!” squeaked Crash.
O’Mara suddenly shouted “They’re easing off! Their rate of acceleration is falling…..but they’re still at warp 9.9. My god how is that possible in a freighter???”
Tiger continued to accelerate, slowly, agonisingly now as the ship reached the very limits of its capabilities.
“…..9.3…….9.4…...9.5….” Crash continued.
“They’ve topped out at warp 10 sir! They aren’t accelerating anymore!” shouted O’Mara triumphantly.
Dave couldn’t believe it. A freighter travelling at a thousand times the velocity of light. Faster than any ship in Starfleet had gone before.
Except Tiger.
Tiger had been here once before.
The status display on the arm of Dave’s chair was a solid screen of flashing red warning lights.
Dave looked away.
Crash sounded terrified as Tiger growled and groaned, stretching every structure and every system beyond the limits of what had been thought possible.
“Warp 10.” Crash whispered.
The warning lights on the display were now beyond flashing: they were just a single solid red wall of warning, and Dave knew the ship had given everything.
“10.1”
If the other ship kept up this pace, something on Tiger was bound to give.
“10.15”