“It’s no wonder they didn’t see the pirates until they opened fire,” Siysye muttered, his mottled brown face creased in frustration as he considered the Frozen Summers sensor logs. “I don’t know where they got their sensor arrays from, but if they’re lucky, they might just notice a star before they crashed into it at warp speed.”
Further down the conference room table, Thryiss Aniri didn’t quite suppress a snort. “Sounds about right. The Andorian Mining Consortium owns the Summer, and the Board of Directors make a pre-Zek Ferengi look like a philanthropist.”
Wincing slightly at the mental image that provided, Priss pushed the issue aside. “So, what do the logs tell us?” she asked.
“One of the ships is rather small, barely a frigate, and it seems to be hanging back somewhat, but I suspect the other two larger ships may be the same class,” Thryiss replied. “Although they’ve both seen a lot of wear and tear over the years, going by how different their warp fields appear to be. Those two seem to be the main aggressors. In the logs Captain Shral transmitted, they’re the pair that keep moving forward to give the Summer trouble.” Pressing a button on the table in front of her, she turned to the rooms main monitor, which was replaying a scene from the Summers logs at an accelerated rate. They all watched as the two ships in question closed on the Frozen Summer, splitting up to flank it from two sides. Once they were close enough to link up their warp fields, the pair briefly opened fire on the freighter with beam weapons, before cutting their velocity and falling back with their targets shields reduced by less than a third.
When the recording paused, Lieutenant Smith took over the report. “Like Shral said, they’ve been making the same sort of maneuver pretty consistently ever since the chase began. And from what I’ve seen of the pursuers emissions, I think he’s right about the fact they’re not really pushing their engines to run him down.” The man leaned back in his chair, body language radiating disgust even through his bulky encounter suit. “They’re drawing it out, tormenting the Frozen Summer for some reason.”
Priss frowned, something about the comment pulling her attention back to her earlier stray thought regarding the jamming technology. “Do we know what kind of beam weapons they used?” she asked, trying to work out the puzzle.
Siysye shook his head. “Like I said, they haven’t exactly invested in decent sensors. Even the effects of the weapons hitting their shields aren’t well documented. So far, all I’ve been able to confirm is that they’re not armed with phasers or plasma weapons,” he admitted, referring to the two most common beam weapons in this region of space. “It’s likely something more exotic, but without better sensor logs, or the chance to see them in action ourselves, we might not be able to give you a specific answer.”
Sipping at her coffee, Aunlez frowned. “Will we even be able to tell ourselves, with that dampening field in place?” the Trill asked.
“We should be able to,” Siysye replied. “Our mystery pirates are far enough away from the center of the field that, combined with our much better sensors, we should be able to get a good look at any weapons emissions.” Waving a hand in faint irritation, he picked up his padd again. “What I don’t get is why they’re still haven’t reacted to us. The way we’re pushing the engines, and as close to the edge of the field as they are, we should stand out like a supernova on their sensors. But they’re still flying right at us. If they turned and ran back into the field, we might lose sight of them.”
“They’re pirates,” Smith responded, almost snorting in contempt. “Intelligence and common sense are pretty damn nonexistent among that collection of idiots. Hell, maybe they think they can take us and figure they might as well let us come in, save themselves the trouble of hunting us down,” he added, sounding slightly eager.
Thryiss gave the tactical officer a sharp look. “Maybe they actually can ‘take us’ Lieutenant,” she pointed out. “They outnumber us, and pirates do tend to at least be smart enough to recognize the need for sufficient firepower.” Smith shifted slightly in his chair, catching the warning the First Officer was giving him, and she decided he’d gotten the point. Before she could move the conversation on however, Priss straightened in her chair, her expression shifting to one of slight alarm. “Captain?”
“Hunting,” the smaller woman said, all the pieces of the idea in the back of her mind coming together as she turned to look at Siysye. “Lieutenant, have your people run a comparison of the data we have so far against Tetyron weaponry.” Blinking, the ops officer nodded, entering a message into his padd, as Priss looked around the room. “There’s only one species in explored space that uses Tetyron weapons,” she noted, “but they’re a lot closer to here then I think we remembered.”
Nodding, Thryiss leaned forward. “The Hirogen. Empress Sela’s been using them to maintain her grip on the Star Empire. Given their obsession with ‘The Great Hunt’, their advanced firepower and their general lack of respect for anyone that isn’t them, it wouldn’t surprise me if a few packs decided to leave Romulan space and find other people to stalk and kill.” She frowned slightly, antennae curling as she considered the matter. “The part I don’t see is how the Hirogen could get their hands on the sort of technology to create that dampening field. That kind of science and development... isn’t the sort of thing they normally bother with.”
That was something of an understatement. For centuries, the Hirogens entire culture had been focused on the hunt of beings they considered suitable prey. That obsessive focus, combined with the willingness to turn on their own if they were considered to lack the strength to defend themselves, had created an entire species only able to remain in space thanks to the quality of their ancestors ship designs and replicator technology. The only ‘innovation’ the Hirogen were capable of now was finding new tricks for exploiting technology they didn’t truly understand.
Putting her coffee cup down, Aunlez looked thoughtful. “Actually ma’am, if it is the Hirogen, it might not be something new. Back when Voyager first encountered the Hirogen in the Delta Quadrant, they possessed an impressive communications network that covered a large portion of the galaxy. It was how Voyager managed to tell Starfleet they were still alive.”
“And then Voyager managed to blow up most of the network,” Priss added, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. “But any system that’s handled the Hirogen mistreating it for centuries might have been able to at least partly survive whatever Admiral Janeway did to it, and some of those relay stations were in this region. Of course, it’s entirely possible my theory’s completely off base and we’re looking at some other sort of troublemaker,” she admitted.
A beep from Siysyes padd drew everyones attention, and the man skimmed it quickly before nodding and looking up. “You might not be wrong Captain,” he said. “CIC’s done a quick analysis, and they place a high degree of confidence in the possibility of Tetyon weapons being used.” It wasn’t a complete confirmation, but that didn’t surprise Priss. Even taking into account the limited information they still had, Siysye tended to be very defensive about committing to anything that could prove him wrong.
Leaning forward, Lenita Shinko spoke up for the first time in the meeting, her expression as sour as ever. “Captain, if it is Hirogen, I’m going to have to pull my people away from damage control to focus on internal security.” Across the table, Megan Rossum stiffened and opened her mouth to argue, but the Security Chief met her with a glare. “I’ve faced Hirogen before, and I guarantee you that the moment they think our shields have been weakened enough, they’ll start trying to beam raiding parties on board,” she growled. “They’ll target weapons, engineering and the bridge, not out of tactical considerations, but because that’s where the best ‘trophies’ are. I’ll need my people with phasers out, not pulling random crap off the top of your engineers when an eight-foot tall, sword wielding lunatic beams in next to them.”
Rossum met Shinko’s glare with one of her own, and for a moment Priss was half convinced the woman was going to jump the table. Again. Then the woman nodded and leaned back, conceding the point. “Fair enough. But if that’s the case, I think we should pass out sidearms among my people, just in case.” Shinko nodded, slightly reluctantly, and the engineer continued. “I’ll have the shield array crews try to rig it to defend a bit better against transporters, see if we can improve our odds of keeping them out.”
Looking at the Captain, Shinko nodded slightly. “You’ll have a plan for shipboard defense within twenty minutes,” she promised.
“I’ll start checking up on Hirogen ship tactics,” Smith noted.
“We’ll have an answer on if they are Hirogen within half an hour,” Siysye added.
Running her eyes across the conference room, Priss considered her officers, then nodded in satisfaction. “Very well, you all have work to do. I’ll let you get to it. Dismissed.” Everyone rose and began filing out of the room, but Priss noted that Thryiss was lingering behind. “Something on your mind?” she asked as the door closed.
“Regardless of what these ships might be, Hirogen or more conventional pirates, we’re going to be outnumbered in this fight,” Thryiss pointed out. “And we still don’t know what’s inside the dampening field. They could have reinforcements waiting in there.” She stepped over to the table again and entered a command that brought up a map of surrounding space. “The Bendigo is less than twelve hours away. They can’t make it here in time to help with our mystery raiders, but their assistance could be very useful later.”
Tilting her head to the side, Priss considered that for a long moment. “Not yet,” she said at last, tapping a finger against the information underneath the USS Bendigo’s icon. “They’re escorting the new Ambassador to the Tirolian Alliance. I’d rather not disrupt that unless we have to. Reluctantly, her Exec conceded that point with a faint nod. “In the meantime, I’m confident we have the situation under control.” She smiled at the Commanders expression. “Hopefully that’s not overconfidence, but we have seen worse odds before,” she pointed out.
“I’ll admit to that,” Thryiss said, smiling again as she picked up her padd. “And at least there’s no sign of Drake this time.” Her captain chuckled, and the Andorian shrugged. “I’ll take Hirogen over that scumbag any day.”
“The Hirogen we can at least shoot,” Priss noted with a smirk as she left the conference room, Thryiss following right behind her.
***
Further down the conference room table, Thryiss Aniri didn’t quite suppress a snort. “Sounds about right. The Andorian Mining Consortium owns the Summer, and the Board of Directors make a pre-Zek Ferengi look like a philanthropist.”
Wincing slightly at the mental image that provided, Priss pushed the issue aside. “So, what do the logs tell us?” she asked.
“One of the ships is rather small, barely a frigate, and it seems to be hanging back somewhat, but I suspect the other two larger ships may be the same class,” Thryiss replied. “Although they’ve both seen a lot of wear and tear over the years, going by how different their warp fields appear to be. Those two seem to be the main aggressors. In the logs Captain Shral transmitted, they’re the pair that keep moving forward to give the Summer trouble.” Pressing a button on the table in front of her, she turned to the rooms main monitor, which was replaying a scene from the Summers logs at an accelerated rate. They all watched as the two ships in question closed on the Frozen Summer, splitting up to flank it from two sides. Once they were close enough to link up their warp fields, the pair briefly opened fire on the freighter with beam weapons, before cutting their velocity and falling back with their targets shields reduced by less than a third.
When the recording paused, Lieutenant Smith took over the report. “Like Shral said, they’ve been making the same sort of maneuver pretty consistently ever since the chase began. And from what I’ve seen of the pursuers emissions, I think he’s right about the fact they’re not really pushing their engines to run him down.” The man leaned back in his chair, body language radiating disgust even through his bulky encounter suit. “They’re drawing it out, tormenting the Frozen Summer for some reason.”
Priss frowned, something about the comment pulling her attention back to her earlier stray thought regarding the jamming technology. “Do we know what kind of beam weapons they used?” she asked, trying to work out the puzzle.
Siysye shook his head. “Like I said, they haven’t exactly invested in decent sensors. Even the effects of the weapons hitting their shields aren’t well documented. So far, all I’ve been able to confirm is that they’re not armed with phasers or plasma weapons,” he admitted, referring to the two most common beam weapons in this region of space. “It’s likely something more exotic, but without better sensor logs, or the chance to see them in action ourselves, we might not be able to give you a specific answer.”
Sipping at her coffee, Aunlez frowned. “Will we even be able to tell ourselves, with that dampening field in place?” the Trill asked.
“We should be able to,” Siysye replied. “Our mystery pirates are far enough away from the center of the field that, combined with our much better sensors, we should be able to get a good look at any weapons emissions.” Waving a hand in faint irritation, he picked up his padd again. “What I don’t get is why they’re still haven’t reacted to us. The way we’re pushing the engines, and as close to the edge of the field as they are, we should stand out like a supernova on their sensors. But they’re still flying right at us. If they turned and ran back into the field, we might lose sight of them.”
“They’re pirates,” Smith responded, almost snorting in contempt. “Intelligence and common sense are pretty damn nonexistent among that collection of idiots. Hell, maybe they think they can take us and figure they might as well let us come in, save themselves the trouble of hunting us down,” he added, sounding slightly eager.
Thryiss gave the tactical officer a sharp look. “Maybe they actually can ‘take us’ Lieutenant,” she pointed out. “They outnumber us, and pirates do tend to at least be smart enough to recognize the need for sufficient firepower.” Smith shifted slightly in his chair, catching the warning the First Officer was giving him, and she decided he’d gotten the point. Before she could move the conversation on however, Priss straightened in her chair, her expression shifting to one of slight alarm. “Captain?”
“Hunting,” the smaller woman said, all the pieces of the idea in the back of her mind coming together as she turned to look at Siysye. “Lieutenant, have your people run a comparison of the data we have so far against Tetyron weaponry.” Blinking, the ops officer nodded, entering a message into his padd, as Priss looked around the room. “There’s only one species in explored space that uses Tetyron weapons,” she noted, “but they’re a lot closer to here then I think we remembered.”
Nodding, Thryiss leaned forward. “The Hirogen. Empress Sela’s been using them to maintain her grip on the Star Empire. Given their obsession with ‘The Great Hunt’, their advanced firepower and their general lack of respect for anyone that isn’t them, it wouldn’t surprise me if a few packs decided to leave Romulan space and find other people to stalk and kill.” She frowned slightly, antennae curling as she considered the matter. “The part I don’t see is how the Hirogen could get their hands on the sort of technology to create that dampening field. That kind of science and development... isn’t the sort of thing they normally bother with.”
That was something of an understatement. For centuries, the Hirogens entire culture had been focused on the hunt of beings they considered suitable prey. That obsessive focus, combined with the willingness to turn on their own if they were considered to lack the strength to defend themselves, had created an entire species only able to remain in space thanks to the quality of their ancestors ship designs and replicator technology. The only ‘innovation’ the Hirogen were capable of now was finding new tricks for exploiting technology they didn’t truly understand.
Putting her coffee cup down, Aunlez looked thoughtful. “Actually ma’am, if it is the Hirogen, it might not be something new. Back when Voyager first encountered the Hirogen in the Delta Quadrant, they possessed an impressive communications network that covered a large portion of the galaxy. It was how Voyager managed to tell Starfleet they were still alive.”
“And then Voyager managed to blow up most of the network,” Priss added, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. “But any system that’s handled the Hirogen mistreating it for centuries might have been able to at least partly survive whatever Admiral Janeway did to it, and some of those relay stations were in this region. Of course, it’s entirely possible my theory’s completely off base and we’re looking at some other sort of troublemaker,” she admitted.
A beep from Siysyes padd drew everyones attention, and the man skimmed it quickly before nodding and looking up. “You might not be wrong Captain,” he said. “CIC’s done a quick analysis, and they place a high degree of confidence in the possibility of Tetyon weapons being used.” It wasn’t a complete confirmation, but that didn’t surprise Priss. Even taking into account the limited information they still had, Siysye tended to be very defensive about committing to anything that could prove him wrong.
Leaning forward, Lenita Shinko spoke up for the first time in the meeting, her expression as sour as ever. “Captain, if it is Hirogen, I’m going to have to pull my people away from damage control to focus on internal security.” Across the table, Megan Rossum stiffened and opened her mouth to argue, but the Security Chief met her with a glare. “I’ve faced Hirogen before, and I guarantee you that the moment they think our shields have been weakened enough, they’ll start trying to beam raiding parties on board,” she growled. “They’ll target weapons, engineering and the bridge, not out of tactical considerations, but because that’s where the best ‘trophies’ are. I’ll need my people with phasers out, not pulling random crap off the top of your engineers when an eight-foot tall, sword wielding lunatic beams in next to them.”
Rossum met Shinko’s glare with one of her own, and for a moment Priss was half convinced the woman was going to jump the table. Again. Then the woman nodded and leaned back, conceding the point. “Fair enough. But if that’s the case, I think we should pass out sidearms among my people, just in case.” Shinko nodded, slightly reluctantly, and the engineer continued. “I’ll have the shield array crews try to rig it to defend a bit better against transporters, see if we can improve our odds of keeping them out.”
Looking at the Captain, Shinko nodded slightly. “You’ll have a plan for shipboard defense within twenty minutes,” she promised.
“I’ll start checking up on Hirogen ship tactics,” Smith noted.
“We’ll have an answer on if they are Hirogen within half an hour,” Siysye added.
Running her eyes across the conference room, Priss considered her officers, then nodded in satisfaction. “Very well, you all have work to do. I’ll let you get to it. Dismissed.” Everyone rose and began filing out of the room, but Priss noted that Thryiss was lingering behind. “Something on your mind?” she asked as the door closed.
“Regardless of what these ships might be, Hirogen or more conventional pirates, we’re going to be outnumbered in this fight,” Thryiss pointed out. “And we still don’t know what’s inside the dampening field. They could have reinforcements waiting in there.” She stepped over to the table again and entered a command that brought up a map of surrounding space. “The Bendigo is less than twelve hours away. They can’t make it here in time to help with our mystery raiders, but their assistance could be very useful later.”
Tilting her head to the side, Priss considered that for a long moment. “Not yet,” she said at last, tapping a finger against the information underneath the USS Bendigo’s icon. “They’re escorting the new Ambassador to the Tirolian Alliance. I’d rather not disrupt that unless we have to. Reluctantly, her Exec conceded that point with a faint nod. “In the meantime, I’m confident we have the situation under control.” She smiled at the Commanders expression. “Hopefully that’s not overconfidence, but we have seen worse odds before,” she pointed out.
“I’ll admit to that,” Thryiss said, smiling again as she picked up her padd. “And at least there’s no sign of Drake this time.” Her captain chuckled, and the Andorian shrugged. “I’ll take Hirogen over that scumbag any day.”
“The Hirogen we can at least shoot,” Priss noted with a smirk as she left the conference room, Thryiss following right behind her.
***