The comm line relayed sounds of large pieces of metal hurtling through the air, slamming into the way ahead for the security team, and then the subtle crackle of particle rifle frames and boots quickly and tactfully pounding the deck plating. What the heck is going on down there? Aaen thought to himself, actively listening, worrying for the security team's safety. There's no telling what was waiting for them on the other side of that doorway. Did the phasemorpher somehow know they were coming and booby trap the door? Admiral! You might need to get a medic—
"Security! REPORT! NOW!" the Executive Officer demanded.
The comm line filled with subtle, nearly inaudible speech, and then a male voice followed the order, "Security-bridge: Copy. Room is clear. Repeat: all-clear. There is one computer terminal active in the room. . . It looks like someone figured out how to jerry-rig a replicator to interface with the main computer for the download—"
"That explains why I wasn't able to stop the download!"
Aaen nodded a dismissive 'Quiet', despite knowing that the gesture was virtually impossible to see from across the bridge with the lighting offline. "Whoever it was that did this is very adept with computers, and knows how to bypass security protocols and block intervention from the bridge."
"Is there any evidence of how the intruder got out of that room without you noticing it?" Aaen asked directly.
"Negative. Whoever did this is long gone, now, sir. No visible apparent point of entry or exit. scanners are underway, but it might take some time before we'll have enough information to pursue the intruder."
"Keep at it, and keep me informed."
"Yes, ma'am, Admiral."
"Captain! Main Engineering is trying to contact the bridge!"
"Security: Standby! Division Comms, open a channel."
"—Channel open!" a short series of beeping sounds filled the bridge, and then—
"Uh, hey there, bridge! This is Watson down here in Main Engineering! Is everyone alright up 'der?"
"Yes, Engineer! We're fine! Do you have an update on the main power?"
"Yeah, main power'll be back online in just a minute. I just thought I'd let you know one of my engineers down here just got back from a maintenance saying they heard some strange noises coming from behind a wall on deck eight!—"
"'Noises?'" Aaen asked.
"Yeah, that's whad I heard, Commander!"
"Can you be more specific as to what they meant by that?"
"'Fraid not, Admiral. They just said they heard what sounded like 'high-pitched cutting sounds'. . .or something."
'Cutting' sounds? Aaen wondered. "Chief of Ops! What's on deck eight?"
"Uh. . . Mostly just Runabout docking ports and—"
An electrical hum filled the bridge for several seconds as the lights on the bridge increased in brightness to half of maximum illumination.
"Way to go, Engineer!" Aaen congratulated the bridge engineer. The bridge filled with cheers, clapping, and subtle spoken expressions of relief at the lights coming back on. Aaen silently agreed with the rest of the bridge crew. The Station's still on Red Alert, Aaen noted, staying close to his computer stations and putting his hands on his station's controls, sitting upright and awaiting an order. The red lights glared on the bridge stations.
"We have partial main power!" the bridge engineer announced. Aaen made an enthusiastic fist.
The Executive Officer rushed a small document to the Division Communications Officer. Moments later, an announcement filled what Aaen guessed was the entire Station, "USS Ranger is undocking! All hands: standby! Repeat: USS Ranger is undocking. All hands: standby! Bridge. Out." The line closed with an abrupt series of identical low monotones.
Aaen nodded slowly with an emphatic grin.
"Sensor resolution just jumped!" the Executive Officer announced. "Whatever's coming through the Vortex is HUGE!"
"Alright! Captain, launch the Ranger, immediately. We've got to close that Vortex!"
"Yes, Admiral!—Ranger is away! Ranger is away!" the Captain announced.
"On-screen!" the Admiral commanded, standing from her chair and facing the main viewscreen with a straight back.
The Ranger in its docking port filled the main viewscreen. The docking clamps released it with a white flash of light as the Ranger's external lights blinked on and off at regular intervals. Aaen noticed the Captain was controlling it by computer. It quickly, gradually reversed from the Station, rolled slightly and veered hard to Starboard, and then another command activated it's impulse engines. It quickly and gradually sped forward, and then around the Station.
"Strategic Operations, do we have cannons or torpedo launch capability yet?"
"No! They're still offline."
"We don't have enough power for weapons yet, Admiral!" said the bridge engineer.
"Fine. Arm all weapons on the Ranger! Lock weapons on the Vortex!"
"Charging cannons!. . . Arming—"
"Torpedoes!" Aaen shouted. The order drew multiple shocked looks from both wings of the bridge. Aaen looked at the Admiral.
"What are you thinking?"
"We don't know what it will take to collapse that thing. And we're running out of time! Torpedoes give us the best chance of closing it, completely, with one shot."
"I'm not so sure it's necessary to use torpedoes, Commander."
"Whatever's coming, Admiral—" Aaen said directly.
"It's coming quickly!" said the Executive Officer.
"—Admiral!" Aaen said quietly and directly.
"Okay! Gather whatever sensor data you can about the anomaly and whatever's trying to come through! Captain, I am authorizing you to use torpedoes!"
"Aye! Pulsating cannons charged! Arming torpedoes. Armed! Locking. .weapons. . .on target. . . Target locked!" Aaen noticed the Ranger was headed straight for the Vortex at high-impulse. He had never before seen such a brilliant and bright shade of blue before beaming from a starship's engines! Eager to see the Ranger in combat action, he grinned as he thought that ship's loaded for BEAR!. .And it's all assigned to Magellan! He silently laughed in his seat. He started imagining Magellan, Odyssey, Voyager, and. . .sure, Galileo as part of a joint—discrete—fleet action in some random and distant part of space. . . .
"—FIRE AT WILL!"
"FIRING-ALL-WEAPONS!"
Aaen made two enthusiastic fists on his desk as the Ranger's weapons breathed extremely rapid, pummeling and nearly blinding bright yellow lightning and twin volleys of four bright blue warheads on the gleaming orifice. The weapons found their target almost immediately, causing a shockwave and a massive, brilliant fireball and an electrified shockwave expanding in every direction. The Station rocked sharply as the shockwave seemingly passed through the main viewscreen. Aaen felt himself sharply tilting left so he grabbed his desk for stability.
"Holy crap!" Strategic Operation Officer yelled.
Aaen looked at his navigational computer screen and then said, "Yeah, that blast knocked the Station back and nearly twenty degrees to port!"
"Damage?" the Admiral asked.
"None!" replied the bridge engineer.
"Admiral! I'm reading a Runabout launching from landing pad one." said the Chief of Operations Officer.
"WHAT?" she looked sharply to her left with a shocked look. "Who authorized that?"
"I don't know! All of the Runabouts are docked and unpowered! The launch doors are cl—"
The Admiral rushed to the Officer's station, "Can you abort the launch?" she asked directly.
"I'm trying. . . Dang, it! Whoever's doing that is—"
"It's the intruder!" Aaen shouted. It's at least one if not two steps ahead of us! He thought angrily. This thing knows this Station like it practically DESIGNED IT. "Strategic Operations! Do you have weapons yet?'
"No!"
"Admiral, I suggest we make weapons a priority! We need to charge cannons and disable that Rundown!"
"We could destroy the Runabout doing that, Commander!" she replied sharply.
"Well, is the tractor beam online?"
Damage Control quickly replied, "It's being replaced! It burned out from a power surge!"
"Look, Admiral, Ensign Sorenson hasn't missed a shot in however long! One shot to one of the Runabout's nacelles should disable it!"
The Admiral gasped, anxiously combing her fingers through her hair.
"Do you think you can hit it, Ensign?" the Captain asked.
Think fast, Ensign!—C'mon! Aaen thought.
Nodding, the reply was, "I think!"
Aaen stood up sharply and leaned on his hands on the top of his station. "HURRY!"
The bridge engineer was quick to respond, "Diverting power to weapons. . . Done!"
"Okay! I've got cannons!. . . Charging the third primary array!—"
"Charge to full power!" the Admiral commanded sharply.
Aaen was shocked at the Admiral's order. You could pulverize both the Runabout's nacelle and about half of the cabin with that much cannon power! His chest felt heavy with anticipation and anxiety. He started to worry if the cannon blast would destroy the intruder. . . . Ensign Sorenson's a good shot. . . . Hopefully, we'll be able to capture the int—
"The landing paid is RISING!" the chief of operations yelled in a panic. The main viewscreen showed the Runabout gradually being lifted to the top of the launching bay. Aaen looked down at Ensign Sorenson with some doubt, but he wasn't sure if it was whether or not a Runabout could take a direct hit from a cannon blast from a Mark. .fifteen? Twenty?. .cannon array? Or if his suggestion would work at all. . .?
"Security to that landing bay!" the Admiral yelled.
"No time, Admiral! Without turbolifts or transporters, it's up to Ensign Sorenson!" Aaen said and nearly choked on what he was going to say next. He kept to himself, instead he lowered his eyebrows in anger and determination.
"It's engines are already powered! We're losing it!" Aaen watched the Runabout's warp nacelles power up, and then it gradually lifted off the landing pad.
"—Sorenson!" A crowd was starting to build around Sorenson. Aaen detected high hopes of success. . . The Runabout veered sharply to port and then began gradually speeding away.
"TRACTOR BEAM!" the Admiral shouted dreadfully.
"Repairs aren't finished yet!"
"—Charging!. . . Okay locking cannons on target. . .targeting warp engines. . . There! Weapons locked!" Sorenson sounded surprised, and then sharply announced, "FIRING CANNONS!" the crowd stopped cold in their tracks.
The cannons' hum built up for several seconds as a bolt of dense, bright yellow lightning shot violently at the target as its nacelles breathed white light and then the Runabout seemingly flashed into the distance; the cannons beam scored its path.
"Report!—Stragetic Operations, what happened!"
"Captain! The intruder warped away before the cannons could hit it! There was too much distance already between us and the Runabout!" Damage Control said. Cannons just took too long to charge!—which is probably because of existing damage to the Station. That's not Sorenson's fault. Particle energy travels faster than torpedoes, but if the Runabout's too far away even for that, and it's warp drive is functioning. . .
Aaen noted the Admiral's combing her hair with her fingers again gradually. "Admiral!"
She looked at him quickly with a straight face and slightly messy hair. She walked to him. "What?" she asked doubtfully.
"That Runabout—at best—only has warp drive—" he noted she was nodding at him as he spoke. "We can travel faster than it can. We'll be able to catch up with it—" eventually, maybe, he doubted what he had just said, but kept his posture, and then, wide-eyed, continued speaking, "We need to recoup and re-evaluate our current situation, and make repairs to the Station. If the intruder has the data—"
"Thank you, Commander," she started walking back to her chair. He sensed she knew where he was going with his point, and needed some time to digest everything that had happened.
Someone must have hired who or whatever that was. Someone with the know-how to infiltrate a SPACE STATION had to have had a history. . .SOMEWHERE. . .to be able to accomplish what they did. Aaen reasoned. He tried to think of who might've put such an individual up to what they did to the Station. Every time he asked himself that question, his thoughts kept circling back to the Rotelans. They're cunning, devious, even dangerous—Chess players, to say the least—and highly adept in their methods. They're certainly capable of something like this. . . But so are the Fereni—possibly. No. This wasn't the Fereni. Couldn't be. They'd stand out in a second! And as cunning as they are—compared to the Rotellans—they're too clumsy to be able to do something this serious, much less plan it thoroughly enough. Their lust for monetary wealth would compromise their ability to really think the plan through enough to this point . . It could have been the Cardosans!. . . Given their history with the Balellans with the occupation, they might have learned some tricks in espionage during the occupation to get what they want. . . As vigilant as the Cardosans are, it's highly unlikely that they would know anything about this operation. Dominion? Aaen was immediately doubtful of that possibility. But what if it were the—Orions? Could they really afford to hire someone to do this? Their economy is largely based on thievery and black market dealing. The only member of that syndicate who would really be able to afford to pay someone to do something like this to one of the Union's most formidable is Maddog. The most recent intelligence report on the Orions indicated he owns his own-freaking-fleet, which is separate from the rest of the Syndicate! Not exactly one's standard 'classified' information. . . Any Union Officer might need to know about that in case they 'meet'. . . Unless it wasn't the Orions—themselves? What if they hired someone else? Someone outside of their syndicate? Someone who would have the skills to accomplish something like this, and so efficiently! Whoever it is probably has a military background. Union? Yeah, maybe. Someone may have gone rogue. Highly, highly unlikely, Aaen. He told himself silently. It must have been the Orions, he guessed.
Several reports were delivered to the Admiral. She scanned the reports, nodding acknowledgment and then gave orders pertaining to repairs of the Station.
"Captain!" the chief of security gestured to come to his station where he pointed out some new information on his screen. Aaen got a glimpse of a few lines of text before the Captain stood in front of the screen, blocking his view. She looked at the screen and then turned to the Admiral and then said, "Admiral. This is probably more serious than we thought."
"What is it?" she asked concerningly. The Captain walked to her and quietly spoke with her as Aaen watched. He finally relaxed his face as he watched in his peripherals the repair work on the Station.
"Captain! We've got nearly 80 percent main power! How do you want me to distribute power to main systems?"
"Captain, we might want to get propulsion online, and get power in weapons, shields, sensors, and communications!" Aaen said.
The conversation between the Captain and the Admiral ended as the Captain walked to the bridge engineer's computer and scanned the screen. "Yeah, I agree with Aaen. Divert the power and let me know if there are any changes to main power."
"Got it."
"Thanks, Commander."
Aaen nodded acknowledgment.
"We should have main power fully restored and at least most of the repairs finished really soon, Admiral."
"Thank you, Watson." the Admiral replied.
"Admiral! The Runabout's gone to warp. . . It's gone."
"DANG IT!" she slammed her armrest and then buried her fist in her palms.
"It might be a good idea to start trying to figure out where the Runabout was headed to, Captain."
"Do it, Exec,"
"I'm on it," he replied determinedly.
Aaen noticed the Captain walked back to the Admiral and they started talking to each other. Aaen couldn't hear them, but he had a hunch they were trying to figure out the crews' next move in pursuing the intruder. The Admiral leaned toward right wing.
"Long-range, send an update to Starfleet Command on our situation and ask for new orders."
"Encryption?"
"Yes. Level five."
Aaen raised his eyebrows in surprise at the order.
"Exec, let me know when you have an idea of where the Runabout was heading. I need a complete situation report from all decks, all stations, as soon as possible!"
"I'll let you know when we get a response from Command, Admiral!"
The Admiral gasped hard before replying, "Thank you."
Aaen started reviewing the navigational readings from Vortex transit.
The lights suddenly lit up at full illumination. Aaen looked up and around the bridge—everything had a glaring red shine.
"Alert condition: Yellow! I need damage reports and Station readiness checks: all decks, all personnel," the Admiral commanded. The Executive Officer was quick to follow the order of change of Station alert status. After a short series of beeping sounds, the light color changed.
"Exec, let's get the Ranger docked with the Station, and then we need to figure out where that Runabout went," the Captain said.
"Aye!"
"Security, I need to know how the intruder was able to get by our security measures, access the main computer, download the data on the Vortex, and steal one of our Runabouts," Aaen detected a strong hint of anger and frustration in the Admiral's voice.
"Yes, Admiral!"
. . .You can run, intruder. . .but YOU-CAN'T-HIDE. . .
*****
Steve H. told Jordan Foutin, "You are the next Tom Clancy. You really are a gifted writer."
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