Bridge - USS Repulse

Heinz' firm, but urgent voice responded.

=/\=Captain to Repulse. Bring everybody up except the following...=/\=; she listed the names of those staying behind; =/\=Right now if possible. Go to Red Alert and arm all weapons.=/\=

- CO

=^= Confirmed. Stand by. =^=

Sullivan re-directed the orders to Transporter Room 1.

"RED ALERT. Shields up as soon as the Away team is on board. Ensign Roux, lay in a course and get us under way on my mark."

The klaxon sounded and red lights flashed.

"Commander," Admiral Carter stated calmly, "the ship has cleared the Nebula and is engaging warp engines."

Sullivan once again contacted the Transporter room. "Chief? Do you have them?"

~GM~

=^= Transporter Room 1 to Bridge. The Away Team is aboard. =^=

"Now Ms. Roux. Full impulse."

Ensign Roux nodded her head and the ship pulled away from Regula towards the Mutara Nebula.

~GM~

Two minutes later, Captain Anna Heinz, still in her spacesuit and sweating like a proverbial pig, bounded through the doors at a full run and bounded into her seat.

"Ahem", she said embarrassed, "Captain on the bridge".

She looked at the image of the accelerating ship - there was no time to remove her suit at the present time as key decisions would need to be made in the next couple of minutes.

"Are we in weapons range?" she asked.

- CO

Ja'niri stepped off the lift and went immediately to the science station. She never even glanced at the junior officer attending the post, but merely ordered, "You are relieved Lieutenant." She went immediately to her work, running as comprehensive of a scan as she could on the fleeing vessel. In moments it would be gone.
-Ja'niri

Ta'ask clattered out of the Turbolift behind the senior officers. The EVA suit was still an impediment, but if there was a chance to catch the fleeing prey, he needed to act now. He stepped up to the tactical station and immediately locked on phasers. "Maximum range Ma'am." He held his claw directly on the fire control intent on acting the moment the words began to be uttered by the Captain. His predatory instincts kicked in as he selected a target spot on the fleeing vessel he felt would do the most damage with the least force.
-Ta'ask

Unfortunately, by the time the Away team had made their way to the bridge, the vessel had entered warp.

Sullivan took her place at the Ops station as she gave her report.

"The unknown vessel appeared on our sensors at the farthest edge of the nebula, Captain. It didn't match any known configuration."

Ensign Roux added, "We are clear of the planetoid now, ma'am. I can go to warp on your command."

The Communications Officer turned towards the Captain. "Incoming transmission from Starfleet Command. The Hathaway has been denied entry into the sector."

~GM~

"Yes", Heinz ordered, "Go to warp. Oh and remind Starfleet Command that I don't ask for reinforcements unless I have a very good reason for doing so".

As they couldn't fire at this point, Heinz used the opportunity to remove her suit - something that was now do-able by one person as opposed to two as in the very early days of space travel.

She got a Lieutenant to take her suit and return it. As the LT did so, she contemplated her next move and checked where their current course would take them. Hopefully nowhere near Klingon or Romulan space, but she somehow doubted that.

- CO

Ja'niri's eyes did not leave the scanner interface, however her antenae shifted around to face the captain.

"Captain, sensors are showing a distinct warp signature that we can currently follow. Unfortunately, the sensors are still heavily obscured by the Nebula. It does appear to be a class of small Cardassian cruiser identical to the sensor logs from the weapons platform. It will be interesting to see if we can match them at warp."

-Ja'niri

"Noted", Heinz replied, "If we get into a firing position, they get three hails and then we fire at them. If they cross a border; we follow and let the diplomatic furore sort itself out later. If anyone is unhappy with the latter; please leave the bridge now - you will be not be part of any court martial".

Heinz knew full well what the results of doing the latter might be - but she was fully prepared to risk it.

- CO

Ensign Roux immediately responded, "Aye, Captain. Going to maximum warp." The nebula on the viewscreen suddenly blurred as they entered warp, the star field streaking past.

The bridge crew was silent at the Captain's order. No one moved from their chairs, although a few did look towards Admiral Carter, who was busy studying his console and had either not heard the order, or more likely had chosen to ignore it for both his and Heinz's sake.

More than a few looked puzzled at the Commander's statement as well, having never heard the word "Cardassian" before.

After a moment, Roux reported, "We have achieved Warp 9 and are holding steady."

Carter added, "By my calculations, the vessel is headed for the Romulan Neutral Zone. At current speed, we will not overtake them before they reach it."

~GM~

Ta'ask scrathed his chin with his claw for a moment. Prey was fleeing, but prey was not prey, but another predator bringing home its kill. It it had something else to kill it might turn about.

"Captain, we could sssend a falssse messsage to Ssstarfleet claiming to have recovered hidden filesss from this Genessssisss for our prey to intercept. They musst have ssscaned the crew we left behind. Perhapsss our prey would try to get it from usssss."

-Ta'ask

"Mr Ta'ask", Heinz said as she digested his suggestion, "That is a truly excellent idea and I heartily endorse it".

- CO

Ta'ask's eyes bulged (well a little more than usual) with delight at the Captain's approval. He had served on scout ships on the Frontier where Captains were often no better than drinking buddies. But here on a Federation ship of the line, it was an entirely different matter. His claws fumbled with excitement at the recording controls as he started to compose his message.

"Repulsssse to Sssstarfleet. Sssending ssssspecial priority messssssage. Pleasssssse advisssssse. Ssssssecret plansssss for Genesssisss sssssecured..."

His recording was abruptly canceled. He pivoted his eye about to see a thin blue finger on the instrument pannel. He turned his large head to the side. "Yesssss, Commander, how my I help you?"

-Lt. Ta'ask

Ja'niri's antenae twitched with irritation. The slurring ssss's were really getting to her. She walked over tot he tactical board and pressed cancel on Lt. Task's control board. As he turned his crooked, menacing smile to ward her she looked blankly back at him.

"Lt. Ta'ask, that was a fine recording, but a message of this type should be sent from senior staff on a secured frequency. I will take care of it." she said with deadpan sacrasm that was likely lost on the reptile. She turned and walked back to her station to begin her own recording.

=Repulse to Away Team. What you recovered corresponds to what Dr. Orson describes as the Genesis Key. He is expected to survive his wounds in sickbay and should be able to give us the full 'functional' diagnostic on Genesis to report back to Starfleet. We will return to pick up the component once we have run the intruder off into Romulan space. We shouldn't be long.=

"Ready to transmit Captain. The Cardassian ship should be able to decode this easily." she called out.

-Ja'niri

Heinz nodded. Time in this matter was very much of the essence.

"Transmit the message", she ordered, "We'll have to explain it to Starfleet later, but I'm sure they'll understand".

Now all they had to do was sit back and wait. She needed a drink and quietly sent a message to the galley asking for some water to be sent up.

- CO

"Transmitting message, Captain." Ja'niri called back as she tapped the keys to transmit seemingly away from the fleeing Cardassian vessel, but certainly within their arc to pick up. She immediatly went back to monitoring the target, hoping the ruse would have some effect.

-Ja'niri

Ensign Roux monitored her console.

"The ship has not altered course or reduced speed."

"Give them time, Ensign," came the reply from Commander Sullivan.

The minutes passing seemed like hours. Then, abruptly, the situation changed.

"The ship is falling out of warp! Very close to the Romulan Neutral Zone, near the Angel system. We should be within intercept range in three minutes."

~GM~

"Understood", Heinz replied, "What is the readiness states on our weapons? I want to engage them as quickly as possible if it comes to it".

- CO

Ta'ask turned his larg head towards the Captain. "Phasssssersss and torpedoessss ready at your command, Sssssir."
-Ta'ask

Ja'niri too close note of the Cardassian ship slowing. Their ruse was potentially working. Her anteae monitored the board while she turned her head towards the captain. "Captain, It would be a good time to issue a warning and heave to order to the target ship. If they think we are merely running them off they may believe our tranmission even more."
-Ja'niri

"Do it", Heinz replied, "And put them on screen if you can, because I want to see face-to-face who is responsible for this particular act of piracy".

Anna leant forward as the Lt started to do the necessary hailing.

- CO

OOC: Do we have a lt. to do the hailing? Does this fall to Commander Sullivan?
-Kevin

OOC: It would be the Comm officer, who I believe was listed as a Lt. earlier.

IC:
The Comm Officer nodded and transmitted: "Unidentified vessel, this is the Starfleet vessel USS Repulse. You are in Federation space. Request you come to a halt and identify."

A moment passed without response.

"No response, Captain."

Ensign Roux reported from the helm, "Vessel has not come to a halt. It is proceeding towards the Romulan Neutral Zone at full impulse. They'll pass into the Neutral Zone in 12 minutes, 52 seconds."

Admiral Carter reported from his science station, "I'm reading all sorts of energy fluctuations coming from the vessel. Their warp engine appears to be damaged, but their warp core reads stable - no threat of core breach at this time."

~GM~

Heinz was expecting a distinct lack of response.

"Hail them twice more. If you don't get a response, open fire", she ordered as she looked at the known tactical data on her personal screen. She formulated the best response to cripple the vessel to allow boarding. If that didn't work, they'd just destroy the thing. Problem solved - hopefully.

- CO