“Captain’s Log: After our almost disastrous encounter with the energy cloud, the Burning Age is significantly worse for wear. Now operating with less than a skeleton crew and with a few secondary systems damaged, we need people and repairs. All the same, the Iantus colony needs our supplies, and we will deliver. We will return to a starbase after our next three stops, and hopefully receive crew and repairs there.”
The lounge was very empty. So was the exercise room, and even the cafeteria generally only had tired people enter, eat, and then leave. Twilight vaguely knew that the ship was now undercrewed, she had heard others say it, but it still struck her as odd.
When she saw Kahkala enter the cafeteria, Twilight decided to ask about it. She watched the Caitian order a meal from the replicator and then sit down, and then Twilight walked over. “You’re looking tired,” Twilight observed, “Are you okay? Everyone seems to be working all the time. Don’t you people ever take breaks?”
Kahkala smiled a little at Twilight. “We do most of the time,” she said, “The issue is that we’re on less than a skeleton crew right now, so everyone is having to pull double-duty. And I was already pulling double-duty as chief medical officer and psychologist, picking up the extra slack is running everyone ragged.”
“There’s over twenty people on this ship,” Twilight said, “Surely some of them can relax sometime?”
“Twilight,” Kahkala said carefully, “This class of ship has a crew maximum of 220, and the official bare minimum is 26. We were working on a skeleton crew beforehand, and now everyone has to do more work besides.”
“Two hundred!?” Twilight boggled. “What is this ship doing with a tenth of that? Did 194 people die before I even got here?”
“No, no,” Kahkala said with a shake of her head, “The Burning Age… well, there’s a bit of a story there, but this particular branch of Starfleet is a bit undersupplied. It has less ships and less men that it would like, and not a lot happens out here. Putting 220 people on this ship is the maximum, it’s generally not needed except for the most important of circumstances. Now, we did start a bit understaffed, and then… stuff just started happening. They didn’t all die. We found a ship that had suffered a terrible accident and got them back up to a skeleton crew. The chief medical officer, my predecessor, received an emergency notification and had to leave. The ship councilor was… suffice to say he’s liable to be court-martialed. Just a lot of bad luck.”
“…but some of them did die?” Twilight asked sadly.
Kahkala nodded sadly, in turn. “I’m not at liberty to say how, but yes. Normally things aren’t this exciting. I’ve been on several tours, and they’ve never been this much of a mess.”
“Wow,” Twilight said, “I don’t suppose I can do anything to help? Given that I don’t know a lot about starships and I’m not allowed to go a lot of places.”
“I appreciate the offer,” Kahkala said with a slight smile, “But there really isn’t anything you can do. Every officer in Starfleet has completed at least four years of school and a cadet cruise. Say what you will, but Starfleet takes the preparation of its officers seriously.”
Twilight nodded. She hadn’t realized how much trouble the ship was in. “I still find it odd that no one is taking breaks.”
“They should be,” Kahkala said, almost accusingly. “They need to stay focused. I’ll talk with people about it. We need to be ready for the long haul, pace ourselves. We can’t get worn down.”
“Now approaching Iantus 1,” the helm offer said as the ship dropped out of warp. Dolen looked over the readouts as the came in. it was a fairly standard habitable planet, if a bit warmer than most. An M-class yellow sun shone down upon a large ocean, a few islands visible from space.
“Standard orbit,” the captain said, “Hail them. With luck they can help us… somehow. I know it’s not realistic, but I hope for a replacement shuttle.”
“Iantus colony is responding to hails,” Kelov P’traal said from the operations panel.
The Captain nodded. “On screen.”
The viewscreen blacked out for a moment, before showing a man in an office. He was wearing simple enough regalia, and the office looked out over a skyline interrupted by a few small buildings in the distance.
“Iantus colony, this is the USS Burning Age,” Captain Dolen said, “We’re here with your supply shipment.”
“That’s good to hear, Captain,” the colony representative said, “We look forward to it. I would like to discuss with you privately, though, a matter of urgency.”
“Oh?” the Captain asked, his heart dropping.
The representative spoke quickly, “In person. I’ll explain more when you arrive.”
“Very well. I’ll be down shortly,” Dolen said. As the screen winked off, he stood up. “Number one.”
“Sir?” Rhealm said, standing up herself.
“Put together an away team, to go down planetside to ensure smooth unloading of the cargo. I’ll be headed down with you,” Dolen said, “With luck, we’ll have a message to take back to Starfleet, instead of a problem.”
“Don’t jinx us, sir,” Rhealm said.
“That’s why you’re going to be down there, too,” The captain replied, “Take a type-2 phaser down with you, and keep the ship apprised of your progress.”
The shimmer in the air was the telltale sign of the arrival, as the Captain and away team transported down to the middle of the colony. The Captain didn’t waste any time, immediately heading toward the government building while the rest took off toward the storage areas. He was immediately pointed into the colony representative’s office, where the representative sat waiting for him. “Captain,” the representative said slowly, “We need your help.”
“That’s not what I was hoping to hear,” the captain said, “because we need your help, as well.”
“We don’t have any help to give,” the representative replied, “We’re spent, captain. The colony isn’t even self-sufficient yet, and we’re already in debt.”
“Debt?” the Captain asked with a frown. “It isn’t my job to help fix your financial troubles. Who even is there out here who you could owe?”
The representative sighed. “We were going to have the replicators online a year and a half ago, we just needed to tap into a geothermal energy vent. The trick is, everything went wrong, we weren’t thorough enough. What we thought to be a pocket of superheated water was really superheated methane. As soon as oxygen got into it, it exploded. Seven people died, and our geothermal plant was broken beyond our repair. We were desperate.
“Then, a group appeared. A pirate group.”
“Pirates?” Dolen interrupted. “In this sector? That’s almost unheard of.”
“But they had just what we needed,” the representative continued, “The parts we needed to repair our geothermal generator. But we had to promise something in return.”
“Whatever you promised,” Dolen said slowly, “We can’t help you. As is, my ship is understaffed and crippled. We were barely able to make it out to you.”
“That only makes it easier, Captain,” The representative said sadly, “We promised them a ship.”
Dolen heard the door slide open behind him, followed by the feeling of a phaser muzzle being pressed against his back. “Keep your hands to your sides,” a gruff voice said, “Don’t go for your phaser or your badge.”
Twilight perked up as someone else entered the lounge. Pilah, she remembered. The Vulcan woman. Twilight walked over as the tired-looking Engineer sat down. “It’s good to see someone relaxing,” Twilight said, “I was beginning to think that no one was going to do that. Did Kahkala talk to you?”
Pilah did not react much, but said, “The ship councilor came down to discuss this with me, and I helped arrange a refined duty roster to ensure that the officers in the engineering department got breaks. At this point in time, it is my turn.”
“Good,” Twilight said, “I haven’t seen you since you delivered my whiteboard. Thank you again for that, by the way.”
“I have been very busy,” Pilah said simply, “since Lieutenant Commander Herod’s death, I’ve been acting as the chief engineer. It is a very important position. While I accept that I need relaxation to operate optimally, I do not have much time.”
Twilight nodded. “Okay, I’ll leave you be to… relax as efficiently as possible,” Twilight said, suppressing a giggle. ‘That sounds like something I’d do,’ Twilight thought to herself, ‘even if I’m more the type to just refuse to stop working.’
“Unfortunately,” Pilah said, “My preferred method of relaxation is Vulcan chess, and that requires another player.”
“Vulcans have chess?” Twilight asked with surprise, “I wouldn’t think that other societies would just develop the exact same kind of game.”
“The ‘chess’ form of game is very common,” Pilah clarified, “there is a wide number of forms of chess, Human chess, Jokarian chess, Klingon chess, Vulcan chess, and even Romulan chess.”
Twilight smiled. “I guess you can add Pony chess to that list,” she said, “What’s Vulcan chess like?”
“I understand we’re to avoid cultural contamination with you,” Pilah said to Twilight.
Twilight winced. “Right. That’s right. Okay. Wait, is there any reason I can’t teach you pony chess?”
Pilah thought for a moment. “I can’t think of one, no.”
Grinning, Twilight summoned some paper from her room.
Rhealm watched the last crates get unloaded. It was standard work, nothing unusual. She gave her commbage a tap. “Captain, we’re done here.”
The only response as a burst of static.
“Away team to ship,” she said as she tried again. Only static. Were they being jammed?
She walked over to a pair of other away team members. “Attention! Can either of you contact the captain or the ship?”
The pair tried, but only got static themselves. Vihan sighed. “We need to meet with the captain, immediately.” She turned around, and barely had time to react as a phaser blast hit her in the chest, followed closely by two other blasts hitting the other crewmen.
Pallik Forpeg, as one of the most senior officers on board, was given the duty of the bridge when both the captain and the first mate had to leave. It wasn’t something he was fond of, all truth be told, but he took to the duty seriously.
When Kelov P’traal suddenly said, “Communications with the surface are jammed,” Pallik became very worried.
“What does it look like? Natural interference or specific jamming?” Pallik asked.
“Jamming, sir,” the Andorian replied, “But there are no other ships in the area, and I can’t seem to locate the source of the jamming.”
“Try to punch through,” Pallik ordered, “and keep trying to punch through. Hail the captain as soon as you’re able.” that order given, he tapped the comm on the command chair. “Bridge to Lieutenant Commander Pilah. Come in.”
“Acting Chief Engineer Pilah, here,” the prompt response came.
“Communications with the surface are jammed. I want you working on getting them back.”
“Yes, sir,” Pilah responded.
In the lounge, Twilight frowned as Pilah stood. “Duty calls, huh?” Twilight said with a sigh. They were just getting into the good stuff, too. Twilight looked down at the small chessboard, a grid drawn on a piece of paper with paper squares marked with signs for the pieces. “Well, I’ll save our place.”
“Thank you,” Pilah says, “I have been enjoying this,” before she left, leaving Twilight alone.
‘Oh, well,’ Twilight thought to herself, ‘I doubt it will take her too long to sort out.’
“Number one?”
“Number one, can you hear me?”
“Yes, sir,” Rhealm said as she straightened up a little. As she did that, she realized that she was bound hand and foot, and quite uncomfortably at that. “Not that it will do you much good.” She looked up, seeing her captain similarly bound sitting on the other side of the small room. “I think they hit me with a phaser set to stun.”
“Must have only been medium stun, you haven’t been out that long,” Dolen concluded. “Were you able to get any word to the ship before they stunned you?”
“I tried to call you and the ship to let you know that the unloading was done, but there was some kind of interference on the line,” Vihan explained.
Dolen nodded. “Good. If there’s interference bad enough to cut us off from our ship, they’ll be wary.”
Rhealm strained against her bonds, and after a moment sighed. “I can’t break free.”
“This is colony cable,” Dolen said, “It’s made to not break for anything but dedicated cutting tools. You could tie one to two different hovertrucks, send them in opposite directions, and you’d only damage the trucks. We have a better chance to untie the knots. Can you move?”
“Far less than is healthy,” Rhealm admitted, “They apparently took my long limbs as an invitation to double up.”
“Okay. I’ll start moving toward you.” the Captain said. He pushed away from the wall and wormed his way toward Rhealm. Rhealm offered her bound hands to him, and he began to untie the knot there.
He had barely gotten that done when the door to the room slid open. There stood a heavy-set, scarred man with a large moustache and wearing several gold bangles on his otherwise mishmash outfit.
“Here I had thought that I had trained my crew well, but they put the two of you in the same room, and left you unmonitored, at that. I’ll need to tell them again about the importance of keeping an eye on a ship’s captain.” the man drew a phaser at his belt, and pointed it at the pair. “Move away, you two will have plenty of time to heroically rescue each other in another life.”
Captain Dolen sighed and moved back, away from the first mate a bit. “Who are you?” he asked, “Do you know what you’re doing? You’re more than risking your life, you’ve taken a federation captain hostage, and the federation doesn’t deal with pirates.”
“They don’t need to. Come on, captain, I’ve got a colony wrapped around my finger, you think I’m not smart enough to know how to deal with the local Federation? Oh, they’ll notice that you’ve gone missing, and they’ll come looking for you. The colony will point them straight to me, of course, but by then I’ll be long gone. The Federation comes after me, and then all I need to do is to drop you and your crew off in some survival pods with alarms blaring. They’ll find you, pick you up, and then pat themselves on the back for saving the people. Because the people is what’s important, the ship itself, especially one so small, is of secondary concern, see?”
“So by the time they start looking for the ship itself,” Dolen concluded, “You’re already long gone. There’s still holes in that plan; you can’t take the ship.”
The pirate straightened up and crossed his arms, a smile crossing his face. “There’s the delicious part, captain: I can. I’m the great pirate Maverick Mudd, and I have at my fingertips one of the greatest weapons available to humankind: transporters.” The pirate took a moment to laugh. “Transporters, captain! Starfleet brags of their phasers and their torpedoes, but that’s because they don’t want people to stop and think about how utterly devastating a properly weaponized transporter can be.”
Back on the bridge of the ship, Forpeg frowned. This was taking too long. “Have you found the source of the jamming?” he asked P’traal at the science station.
“It seems to be from the moon,” P’traal said, “but the jamming frequencies are thick enough that they’re interfering with the sensors some, and as a result I can’t find the source. Engineering estimates that there’s at least five jammers, likely set up several kilometers apart. What’s more, the modulation changes random amounts at random intervals, so I haven’t been able to punch through.”
“That… doesn’t sound like any military jamming pattern I know of,” Forpeg said, “if multiple jammers were to be set up, they’d often be spread out across the system, not a single moon. Failing that, they would be in one structure. But any structure should be visible to our sensors. Unless it’s cloaked?”
“Possible, sir,” P’traal said, “But I don’t know if-” the Andorian stopped suddenly. “Incoming transporter signal.”
“From the planet?” Forpeg asked hopefully.
“No, sir, from-” There was a shimmer in the air, and several small, spherical objects appeared around the bridge. Forpeg had just enough time to recognize the stun grenades for what they were before they fell to the deck.
A moment later, there was a shimmer in the air, and a motley group of men appeared on the bridge, phasers drawn. As they looked around, they only saw the unconscious bridge crew. One stepped over to the captain’s chair, and pressed the comm button. “Engineering?”
“We got it, Karl,” a female voice returned. Across the ship, a similar scene played out in the engineering bay, as pirates there began to tie up the unconscious engineering crew. “Stun grenades worked great. We officially own this ship.”
“Not yet we don’t,” Karl replied, “Lock down everything, close all the doors. See if you can figure out how to turn down the life support so that the rest of the ship takes a nap.”
Those were explosions.
Twilight peered down the hall. Those were definitely explosion sounds. She wasn’t sure where they were coming from.
Some of them, anyway. There were two batches, Twilight was just pretty sure, and the second batch came from the engineering section. While she hadn’t been in there long last time, she did know that that area was important, and a little tight. Explosions in that small of an area, where people (including Pilah) were working? People were almost assuredly hurt. Twilight started into a gallop, headed for the medical bay.
Kahkala looked up as the door slid open. “Twilight? Is something wrong?”
“I heard explosions,” Twilight said, “coming from the engineering part of the ship, and somewhere else, too.”
Kahkala frowned. “Are you sure? If there were explosions, especially in engineering, I think an alarm would go o-” Kahkala was suddenly interrupted by the sound of the door slamming shut and locking. Kahkala frowned at it, and then walked over to it. It did not open for her. “That’s bad.”
Twilight walked over to it, examining it curiously. “Did the door-computer fail?” She guessed.
“No,” Kahkala said, “the door’s been sealed. That’s odd. That should only be done if there’s an intruder on the ship, and then there should be a red alert status.”
Twilight hmmed. “Well, I think I can find out…” She closed her eyes and her horn glowed. “Me, you… five… eleven… eighteen… uhoh.” Her horn stopped glowing. “So, I think there’s 36 people on board right now, counting me. And in that engineering room, and in the room on top of the ship,” Twilight stopped, trying to figure out how to say this. “know what? I’ll just show you.” Twilight’s horn lit up again, and a 3-D model of a Miranda-Class ship appeared in the air. After a moment, most of the ship appeared in wireframe, leaving a number of person shapes in solid purple.
Kahkala blinked. “You can make holograms?”
“No, illusions,” Twilight said. “But… just look. In engineering and that little room on top of the ship.”
Kahkala did. In each room were eight people standing, and several more on the floor. She winced. “It’s a lightning takeover. Secure the bridge and engineering, and you effectively control a ship. From there you can-” she stopped suddenly, and then walked to her desk and pulled out her tricorder. Scanning the area, she quickly confirmed her suspicions. “They’re turning down the oxygen content in the air.”
“They can do that?” Twilight asked, confused. “I assumed you had your weird electric computer magic keeping the atmosphere stable.”
“Yes, it’s called life support, and it can be easily tweaked from engineering,” Kahkala explained, “Even changed in various rooms. They aren’t just suffocating us, so presumably… they…” Kahkala yawned. “Uh-oh.”
Twilight winced, and then lit up her horn again, making a bubble around the two of them. “There, that should keep the two of us breathing easily. I can’t just spread this through walls, though, so we need a different way to help the rest.”
“Right,” Kahkala said, and then went over to the panel next to the door. She messed with it a bit, and then pried it off. “If I can re-wire this door, I might be able to get it open. I’m not very good at it, but it’s the best chance we have.”
“Um, I could just teleport us around,” Twilight offered.
Kahkala looked at Twilight, slightly confused. “Really?”
“Mutiny to Pirate Lord,” Maverick Mudd’s communicator said, “We have the ship. It’s in our control.”
Mudd smiled at the pair in the room. “It baffles me, it does. How so many people just don’t use their imaginations.” He tapped the communicator himself. “Pirate Lord, here. How is she?”
“She who?” the response came. “Oh, yes, Stowaway is on board, too, and everything is going to plan.”
“The ship!” Mudd snapped, “The ship! It’s not every day you get on board a Federation vessel! How is she?”
“Uh,” The voice came back, “It’s very, ah, clean? But oddly angular and everything is an ugly grey. Also, I think the sensors are broken.”
“What?” the pirate captain fumed, “You’ve been on the ship FIVE MINUTES and you’ve already broken something!? I swear, on my grandfather’s conman BONES, I will find a way to keelhaul you IN SPACE.”
“It’s not our fault, captain! We get on, and we set it to lockdown, and then the sensors start going on about some kind of energy field inside the ship, and then that stops. Next thing we know, there’s little bursts of this energy, life forms are moving all over the place, and no-one’s passing out like they should! I think this ship has wonky sensors, and they may have the life-support jury-rigged or something.”
“It’s a federation ship!” the pirate bellowed, his face starting to turn red, “they don’t stoop to jury-rigging! I’m coming up there, and I will show you how to use the systems properly, you great, foolish oafs!”
The pirate captain stormed out, shutting the room’s door behind him.
Maximilian Dolen and his first mate looked at each other, and Vihan said, “He’s not going to be happy when he finds out that the photon torpedo tubes are damaged.”
“He’s not even going to be able to add the shuttle to his fleet,” Dolen added with a sigh. “It’s almost nice to have a spiteful denial handily set up for your enemy without needing to do the work yourself.”
With a purple flash, Twilight appeared in the lounge. With her were the last two crewmembers. She took a moment to refresh the pure air spell, giving everyone a moment to breathe deeply. “There we go! Everyone’s together! Well, everyone not from engineering or the bridge.” Twilight looked around the room, at the six others present. After a moment, she sighed. “This is a very empty ship.”
“It does put the ship’s workload in perspective,” Kahkala agreed. “But now that we’re here, we can plan. Who here is highest ranked?”
“I think you are, sir,” said the single other medic in the room. She had been in the restroom when the lockdown took place. “I don’t see anyone here above lieutenant, and as the acting medical officer, you become the de facto leader.”
“Great,” Kahkala said, “Who here is armed?” the two security guards raised their hands, and no one else did. The remaining officers were a scientist and the one engineer who was on break. “Okay. Can get more weapons somehow? From the armory, perhaps?”
“After that thing got to them, we mainly got some type-1 phasers re-charged,” One security officer said, “It was a low priority compared to everything else.”
Kahkala nodded. “Think you can get those, Twilight?”
“Likely,” Twilight said, “I just need to know what I’m looking for and where they are. And how would I tell the charged ones from the uncharged ones?”
Back on the bridge, Maverick Mudd looked at the sensors. “Well… I’ll be. I don’t know how, but you’re right. Well, there are ways to deal with this.” He moved over to the captain’s chair, and sat down heavily. “Transfer life support systems control to the captain’s console. Watch and learn, boys. This is how we deal with stubborn spacemen.”
As the armory was being described to Twilight, she felt a tug on her magic, as there was suddenly a bit more strain to keep the air so fresh. That was odd. A moment later, every vent in the room opened, and began to suck air out of the lounge. Although momentarily surprised, Twilight responded by putting force fields over the vents and restoring the amount of air in the room.
“Okay,” she said, “they’re trying a bit harder now, and I know I can’t keep that up if I teleport. I don’t think I’ll be able to get those weapons after all.” After that, the temperature in the room suddenly skyrocketed. It went from comfortable room temperature to oppressive summer heat and 100% humidity fast. Twilight shook her head, and then added temperature control to her spell. “Okay, that was clever, but I’m well-versed in temperature control spel-” Twilight’s knees buckled as she was suddenly much heavier, the officers suddenly falling to the floor… only for a moment, before that, too, returned to normal. Twilight snorted. “There! Air purity management, air density management, temperature management, and gravity management! Anything else I can do? Oh, what the hay, let’s throw in an antiseptic spell as well!”
The captain and first mate stood up, shaking off the last of the untied cord. “Rookie mistake,” Viln said, taking up a flanking position by the door. “Didn’t check to be sure his orders were carried out.”
“Experience is the best teacher,” Dolen said, “Speaking of which, take the lead, number one. You have more experience in this than I do.”
Viln nodded, and took a position to one side of the door. Dolen mirrored her action, taking a place on the other side of the door. “Can you hack the door open?” Viln asked. Dolen nodded, and popped open the door’s control. Not having been originally intended as a prison, the door wasn’t terribly high-security.
“On one,” Dolen said, working the wires with his hands, “three, two, one.”
The door popped open and Viln moved quickly, leaping out into the hall past the guards. Two of them, surprised and confused. She landed on her feet, spinning around into a kick. One of the guards took it to the gut and crumpled to the ground. The other one stepped forward and drew his phaser. From behind, Dolen grabbed the guard, getting him into a sleeper hold. As that guard was incapacitated, Viln took a moment to be sure the other guard also passed out, and took his phaser. Dolen did the same thing, and then the pair of them started moving. The captain practically had to run to keep up with his first mate, and when they were sure they had found an out-of-the way room they took a moment to get their bearings.
“This phaser is so crude,” Viln said quietly, “No wide setting, no wound setting, just stun or kill.”
“I don’t see why you’re surprised,” the Captain said, “They’re likely cheap, illegally mass-built phasers. I find it likely they have small power cells, too.”
Viln holstered the phaser with a sigh. “Still plenty enough power to kill a skeleton crew, I expect. Captain, can we assume that our ship is still under our control? Is it possible the pirate was bluffing?”
“No,” the captain admitted, “I don’t think so. We need to confirm the state of the ship, find our equipment, and the other away team members.”
“There has to be a security station around here,” Viln pointed out, “But that begs the question as to why they haven’t sounded the alarm yet?”
“Maybe they have,” the Captain replied, “But this building is a standard prefabricated colony bureaucracy building. I practically lived in one of these for the first years of my life. I know where the security station is.”
The captain led, sneaking to the security station. They hacked the door open, and inside was a single pirate. Despite the multiple security screens in the room, he had his eye on his own Padd. “No, you idiot,” he hissed, “You don’t drop the ball. I swear, one more lost point and you’re off my fantasy team.” Viln calmly shot him with a stun beam from her phaser.
“Now,” Maverick Mudd said slowly, while checking his phaser. He stood in the hall outside the room where the last of the crew was holding out. “This might seem like a bad situation, but the truth is that this is barely a hiccup.” He gestured at the door. “We can’t get the life support system to take them out, for whatever reason, but we have options. And it just so happens that option 2 is the classic: Shoot them.” He turned to the four pirates behind him. “Got it? You four go in, stun them, and then drag them to the brig. One, two, three.”
The pirates nodded, and their captain took a position behind them. They opened the door, and fired a few shots into the room. Mudd recognized it as a lounge, but didn’t have much time to get a good look before there was some return fire. One of the pirates went down quickly, and although some Starfleet officer in a red shirt fell to the floor, the remaining pirates were pretty well pinned.
Twilight leaned against a wall, startled by the sudden appearance of glowing beams shooting through the air. “What do we do?” She asked Kahkala, who was taking cover nearby.
“Get ready to fight,” Kahkala replied, “that’s about the best we can do, hope we can keep them pinned down or beat them in melee when they come in the room.”
“Okay,” Twilight said, “But I don’t think I can keep all these spells up and fight at the same time.” She watched as one of the armed men shot into the doorway, and heard someone fall to the floor. She winced. Hopefully those were just sleep spell phasers.
Mudd sighed as the situation turned against his crew. “You told me you were good at combat! It’s not hard, just… Oh, forget it,” He sighed, “If you want something done right, I suppose. Here, boys, watch the finesse.”
Twilight watched the small, egg-like object fly through the doorway, bounce off a table, and land at her feet. Someone shouted “Grenade!” Twilight looked at the small thing, about the size of her hoof. What was a grenade?
The blinding light, deafening boom, and crippling pain answered her question. It took a few moments for her to regain her senses. She had dropped her spells, and from the sound of it everyone else had stopped firing. She heard someone talking, but she wasn’t able to hear what was said.
After a moment, a human in a very odd outfit and a moustache stepped over to her. He was round, fat, unlike the other humans she’s seen, and he had a moustache. “What, are you still awake?” He asked. He drew a weapon from his belt, and fired it at her. Pain shot through her, and the world seemed to swim around her. Her entire body tingled, parts of it going numb. Another attack, and Twilight had no choice but to pass out.
On the planet, a pair of pirate guards guarded a large shed. After a moment, their comms beeped. “There’s some trouble by the west side,” a voice said, “Someone should go over there and sort it out.”
The guards looked at each other, and one sighed. He walked away, and the remaining guard watched him go. A moment after the pirate had rounded the corner of the shed, someone dropped on the remaining guard’s head. To call the fight short would be deceiving; the guard was immediately caught in a wrestling hold, and after a few tense seconds passed out from the pressure on his throat. Captain Dolen stood up, and a moment later Rhealm slid off the top of the shed.
“How do you think they’re getting past the communication blackout?” Rhealm asked, “If they can find a way, I would suspect that we’d be able to, as well.”
“It could be that the jamming stopped after they successfully took the ship,” the Captain hypothesized, “But even if it did, we can’t risk using communicators, if we find them. If the pirate was honest, and they did take over the ship, wearing our commbadges would just let them track us.”
Viln opened the shed, revealing the other away team members tied up inside. Alive, but unconscious. “All the same, finding our equipment would be good right now. We need every edge we can get.” One of the away team members moaned and looked up, blinking blearily. “Especially if we’re going to have to take our ship back.”
Dolen nodded. “I have a plan that might work. Unfortunately, the first step is the hardest: We need to capture every pirate left planetside. Then we can see about getting back up to the ship.”
“Why do we have to capture every pirate?” Viln asked, “That seems like an unneeded risk.”
“Because the Colony Representative is far, far more likely to cooperate with us if there’s no pirates left in his colony,” Captain Dolen said.
Twilight woke slowly. She hurt. Her skin was numb, her muscles ached, and her horn tingled. Whatever that was, it wasn’t a sleep spell phaser. It hurt. It hurt a lot. She lifted her head and looked around, her vision slowly un-clouding. Cold metal, a small room? No doors, but one wall was glowing blue.
As she realized that the glowing wall was also translucent, she realized that was also the door. She moved toward it, slowly, peering through it with bleary eyes. Across a small hall was Khakala, in a similar room, splayed out on the floor as if dumped there.
“Khakala?” Twilight asked, hoping that the doctor was still alive, “Khakala?”
“Shh,” a voice replied from somewhere Twilight couldn’t see. It sounded familiar, though, and that was comforting.
She moved in that direction, and looked, but she could only see more of these blue-walled rooms. She pressed her hoof into the blue wall, and there was a slight change in color. “Force field,” Twilight concluded.
“Yes,” the voice replied, “We’re in the brig.”
“Oh,” Twilight said, trying to keep to a whisper, “It… very nice. Much bigger cells than I was expecting. Why are we in the brig?”
“Nonlethal take-over,” the voice replied simply, “With intent to hold us hostage, I assume.”
“Pilah, is that you?” Twilight guessed.
“Yes,” Pilah said.
Twilight replied, “I heard the explosions in engineering. Are you hurt? What happened?”
“Stun grenades,” Pilah said, “I only woke up recently. That means it has been some hours since the initial attack.”
“I gathered everyone left up in the lounge,” Twilight said, “And then the invaders attacked us. I feel stupid now, the ‘grenade’ landed at my hooves, and I didn’t know it would explode.” She grimaced. “And then a fat invader shot me twice. Can’t you get stun weapons that hurt less?”
“Wait,” Pilah said, “You were at point-blank range for a stun grenade, and then you had to be shot twice before passing out?” she asked.
Twilight blinked. She was pretty sure that was the most words that she had ever heard Pilah say in a row. “Uh… yes.”
“Okay,” Pilah said. She didn’t say anything more after that.
“So, what do we do now?” Twilight asked, “How do we get out?”
“I don’t think we can,” Pilah said, “These rooms are shielded and reinforced, and there is a guard posted in the brig control.”
“That I am!” a voice shouted from down the hall, “And I can hear you just fine!”
Twilight frowned, and tried to whisper quieter, “I’m going to try something.”
She closed her eyes and tried to focus. She just had to teleport past the wall, and she and Pilah could communicate by pictures instead of talking. A surge of energy, and Twilight fell over with a grunt. She shook her head, her horn numb and tingling. “Ow.” What had happened? It felt like the teleport spell had run into something. “Are these cells warded against teleportation?”
“Yes,” Pilah replied, “They’re shielded, to keep people from transporting out.”
Twilight laid her head back down on the floor. “I guess we really can’t get out, then.”
“This is a cruel joke,” Maverick Mudd muttered to himself, sitting in his new captain’s chair. “It has to be. There’s thousands of ships in the federation, each one immaculately kept to the highest of standards. Some of them are worse off than others, the ones that don’t get into spacedock all that often, but that doesn’t change that they’re still the best ships in space; well-armed, well armored, and well maintained. If you see a federation ship, you know that it’s ready to take on anything, because every federation ship is always ready for anything.
“Except this one.” Maverick Mudd stood up, took a deep breath, and as loud as he could, he bellowed, “How come the one ship I get my hands on is the one ship in the entire federation fleet that’s total trash!?”
He began to stomp across the room, glaring at the readouts. “The Photon torpedoes are down, the shuttle is dead, the warp core containment has problems, and there’s barely a half-dozen crewmen and one pet aboard!” He spun around, facing the back of the room where one of his men worked at a console. “What have we gotten off of the ship’s computer?”
“Jack shit, sir,” the pirate replied, “Their cyberdefence software is all up to date and military grade, we’ll need special tools to get into the database. The crack for the command consoles worked fine, giving us complete control of the ship, but we can’t get anything more without the highest-grade of hacking tools or some command codes.”
Mudd sighed, and sat back down. “So all we’ve gained from this endeavor is a set of transporters, some phaser banks, and a warp engine.”
“Sir,” the pirate at the communications console said, poking at the screen, “The colony is hailing us.”
Maverick Mudd straightened up. “Well, nothing good lasts forever. Everyone straighten up, look professional, and put ‘em on screen.”
The front view changed to show the very upset colony representative. “Are you done yet? We’re done, we’ve played our part. Take your crew, and your prisoners, and leave us alone.”
Mudd smiled. “I can tell you’re not expecting me to, sir,” he said, “Because, what pirate would honestly follow through on his word? Especially on something so small as a Miranda-Class cruiser? But, say what one will about my ancestor, the competence of my crew, or my fashion sense, but a man is only worth as much as his word.”
The colony representative blinked, surprise crossing his face. “Wait, really?”
“Have my men get together with the prisoners,” Mudd said, “And we’ll beam them all right up, and you’ll never hear from us again.”
The colony representative relaxed visibly. “Thank you. I’ll let them know.”
The screen blanked. “Sir?” a pirate said, “Are we really going to pull out? This Miranda is half-dead as is, it’s almost complete scrap. If we twist ‘em right, I bet we can stick around until the next supply run.”
“Maybe,” Mudd said, “But I’m not the kind of fool to try the same trick twice in a row. Besides, as my great-grandfather so well showed us, a man really is only worth as much as his word.”
“Harry Mudd was a con man and a liar,” the pirate pointed out.
“And he wasn’t worth anything,” Maverick Mudd concluded, “Tell the transporter chief to start beaming up crew and prisoners.”
A few minutes later, the newly-minted transporter chief hit the energize button. As a shine appeared on the transporter pad, he let himself smile. The smile faded as he noticed that the figures standing were wearing Starfleet uniform, while the ones on the ground were the ones in pirate outfits.
He didn’t have long enough to realize the full ramifications as Rhealm shot him in the chest with a stun phaser as soon as the transportation finished.
She and the captain stepped off the pad first. “Clear the pad,” The captain ordered, “I’ll transport up the rest of the away team and the pirates. Rhealm, use the security codes to blackout the security system, keep our attack a mystery. And find out what’s happened to the crew!”
As he began to work the transporter console, Rhealm went over to the wall console and began to work on it. “Looks like the crew is alive and in the brig,” she said, “Security blackout in place.”
On the bridge, a pirate frowned at his console “Captain, the security system just went black,” he reported.
Mudd sighed. “We need to get out of orbit before this ship falls apart around us. What’s it saying?”
“Security override, sir,” The pirate said.
Mudd frowned. “What?” He stood up and walked over to the console. There it was, a black screen, with the words ‘security override’ plastered across it.
Mudd hmmed, and reached up and stroked his moustache. “No error message. Just an override. That means, that someone with executive access to this security system shut it down. And you know what that means.”
“The starfleet captain is on the ship, sir?” the pirate asked.
“And he’s taking it back. Get ready to fight, and call engineering and tell them the same thing.”
Mudd sat back down at his captain’s chair, and pulled up the engineering controls. “And no one open any doors.”
A small group of federation officers moved through their own ship, quietly, weapons drawn. Every corner was a risk; if they found an enemy, and that enemy called in their location, this could end suddenly.
“My override codes could open the cells in the cell block,” Rhealm said, “Giving us anyone there who is combat-ready.”
“Engineering will give us ship control,” Captain Dolen countered, “But we don’t know how many of them are in there. Our best option might be to try and capture Maverick Mudd, get him to surrender. But he’s likely on the bridge, and that has the same issue as raiding engineering.”
“Whereas the brig only seemed to have one guard,” Rhealm said.
Dolen nodded. “Brig first, get the full crew together, and then hit engineering. If we can re-route control to the auxiliary bridge, we could deny them from bridge control.”
“Agreed,” Rhealm said with a nod. She opened a door, and the group moved forward, quiet and concentrated.
It didn’t take them long to come up to the door to the brig, forming up outside it. “Number one,” Dolen said, “take the lead.”
Rhelam nodded. “Spenc, Tolres, you two breach and sweep the room. Spenc on point. On my mark.” The group reorganized slightly, the two security officers ready. “Three, two, one, mark.”
The door opened, and the pair swept in. The first in the door took a phaser bolt to the chest, but the second fell to one knee and expertly fired back, hitting the pirate in the chest. The pirate fell to the floor. The rest of the group entered, Rhealm ducking under the doorframe, and the door closing behind them. Dolen strode down the cell block, looking at those present. “Looks like everyone is here. Senior officers, sound off!”
“Pallik,” a voice came, “Present. P’traal and I were on the bridge when the attack came, stun grenades transported onto the bridge. I don’t think P’traal, or many other of the bridge crew recovered yet.”
“Acting Chief Engineer Pilah,” another voice came, “Engineering was attacked in the same way, and with a similar recovery rate.”
“Less reinforcements than we were hoping,” Dolen said.
Rhealm nodded. “Stun grenades are strong enough that most of the crew is likely to stay unconscious a long time yet, even if they were only hit by one.”
Dolen nodded sadly. “Oannar, sound off!”
“Um,” a voice came. Dolen walked over, and saw Twilight stand slowly. “I think she’s still unconscious,” Twilight said, “They hit us with a grenade, too.”
“What happened?” Dolen asked, his tone of voice changing to be less commanding.
“I heard the grenade explosions in the engineering and the bridge, I guess, and I asked Kahkala what was going on. She figured out what was going on, and that they were reducing the oxygen content of the air. I started using a spell to counteract that, and gathered everyone in the lounge. And then they attacked us, and threw a grenade. It landed right at my feet.” Twilight winced. “It hurt a lot. I don’t remember much after that, but someone came up and shot me twice more so I would pass out.”
Dolen frowned. “You took a grenade, and then two phaser blasts, before you passed out? I didn’t know there were any species in the galaxy that reiliant.”
“Well,” Twilight said, “It hurt, and I don’t want to do it again.”
“Just do as we say,” Dolen said, “and you shouldn’t get hurt any further. I’m sorry you got wrapped up in this, but I don’t think it was avoidable. Number one, get these cell doors open!”
Rhealm nodded, and stepped over to the cell console. She typed on it a little, but stopped with a frown. “The console is in maintenance mode.”
“What?” Dolen asked, stepping over. He touched the surface. “It is…”
“It’s not going to be opening any cell doors like this,” Rhealm said, “Which means we’d need to open them from the bridge or engineering.”
“With as few people as we have?” Dolen asked rhetorically, “Not likely.” He was quiet for a moment, before realizing the core of the situation. “The door!”
A crewman rushed over to the door, waving a hand over it. It didn’t open, and he stepped over to the door’s console. “It’s in maintenance mode, sir,” the crewman reported.
Dolen grimaced, bringing a hand up to his head. “He’s using engineering options to mimic security ones. He may have been tracking us through the life support, or maybe the reports from the doors we used. But now, we’re trapped in.”
“We can still get out,” Rhealm countered, “we need to use our phasers to burn through the door, and then get ship phasers from the armory. They will have options like wide-angle stun, and if we can find a way to keep them from tracking us, we can use that to mount surprise attacks on the engineering bay.”
“There aren’t enough phasers charged for that,” Pallik said, “we only had a few type-one phasers charged, and that’s assuming that the pirates didn’t take them.”
“It’s possible we could speed-charge them by routing power,” Pilah said, “and as acting chief engineer, I have access to the engineering override codes, I could bypass the maintenance mode on things we encounter.”
“But we can’t get you out of the cells,” Rhealm said.
“Yes, we can,” Dolen countered. He dialed his pirate phaser to ‘kill’ and pointed it where the floor met the field of Pilah’s door. The force field began to flicker. After a few moments, however, the phaser sputtered and died. Dolen sighed, examining it. “Out of power.”
“Wait,” Twilight said, pushing up against her own field door, “Why were you cutting the floor?”
“The emitters for the field are in the floor and the ceiling,” Dolen said, “If we can damage them, we can open the cells, and no alarm will go off through the security blackout.”
“Oh,” Twilight said, and stepped back. The end of her horn glowed brightly, and a beam shot out, cutting through the floor. The force field flickered, and has twilight dragged her beam across the bottom of the door, it eventually went out. She looked up with a smile. “I can get everyone out!”
Dolen nodded. “But, Twilight,” he said, his voice very serious.
Twilight winced. “Yes?”
“Next time, let me know what you intend to do, and ask permission before you do something like that, especially if it damages my ship.”
Twlilght looked down at the long, scorched line across the base of the door. “Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.”
Dolen nodded. “Twilight, please open the rest of the cells containing crewmembers.”
“All of them?” Twilight asked, stepping out.
“Yes,” Dolen said, “Start with Pallik and Pilah, and then other conscious crewmembers. We will discuss any repercussions for unbidden damage done later.”
“Got it,” she said, and stepped over to open Pilah’s door.
Dolen stepped up to Rhealm Vihan. “Number one, make a plan of attack, including the presence of the chief engineer, the chief of security, and anyone else we can rouse.”
Rhealm nodded. “And Twilight?”
Dolen was quiet for a moment. “If a combat-ready civilian were to volunteer, I would not turn them down,” he said, “but I don’t think she’s combat ready. Have her stay here, with whoever we have to leave behind.”
Rhealm nodded.
As the next door flickered away, Twilight smiled. She still felt terrible for doing some damage without permission, but right now she was helping, and they were going to re-take the ship! She wished she could help more, but she likely couldn’t.
As she got to the next door, she saw the unconscious form of Kahkala. The cat-eared biped was splayed on the floor, unconscious. Twilight felt guilty as she moved on to conscious crewmembers. She wished she could do more. She wished she could help more somehow.
“We don’t know the amount of the enemy or their location,” Twilight heard Rhealm say, “There may be guards or patrols posted, or they may have fortified their location in the bridge and engineering. We could find out using the security system, but that would require deactivating the security blackout, which is currently defending us.”
“Um,” Twilight said, stepping up slightly, “You said you don’t know how many there are or where?”
“Yes,” Rhealm said simply.
“Would you like to find out?”
A few minutes later, the small strike team was assembled around a purple wireframe of the ship. On the bridge and in engineering, points representing life forms stood. “So,” Captain Dolen said, “There’s less people on the bridge than there is in engineering.”
“With enough of the senior officers working together, we can set the entire ship to do next to nothing,” Rhealm said, “Keeping them from weaponizing the ship against us further. That will make it a straight combat.”
“Great,” the Captain said, “Now, find a way to make it less straight. I’m not going to gamble my ship on a shootout, we need an edge.”
“Maybe I can teleport you all in?” Twilight offered, “Give you the element of surprise?”
Dolen looked at twilight, eyebrows raised. “Can you do that?”
“Yeah,” Twilight said, “I could even place you in specific places on the bridge, if you want.”
“So, if we were to get into the proper ready positions here,” The captain said, “We could spontaneously storm the bridge, and take them by surprise.”
“Transporter beams aren’t fast enough, Captain,” Rhelm said, “The pirates would have plenty of time to react.”
“But I’d be using my magic,” Twilight said, “Instead of your non-magic teleportation, it’s much faster.”
“How fast?” Dolen asked.
Twlilight vanished in a flash, reappearing a short distance away. “There’s approximately one-tenth of a second of travel time. Will that be fast enough?”
“Yes,” Rhealm said, “it should be, but we still need weapons.”
“Well, what do they look like?” Twilight asked.
Maverick Mudd scowled. “This ship has a curse on it,” He mumbled, “A weird curse. A very weird curse.”
“What do you think they’re doing?” A pirate asked, “That energy field is still coming from the brig, it hasn’t stopped or changed. Are they trying to destroy the ship?”
“No, they can only do that from engineering,” Mudd said, “But they’re plotting something, but for the life of me I can’t-” There was a loud pop and a flash from his belt. Mudd winced, but nothing immediately happened. He reached down to his side, and found that his phaser was missing.
He barely had time to register this before the entire bridge flashed purple. Phaser shots filled the area, and Mudd himself wound up looking down the barrel of the phaser he had kept at his waist. Holding it was a man with a Starfleet captain’s uniform and a finely-trimmed moustache. Mudd glanced around, but the only ones standing were men and women in Starfleet uniforms, guns trained on unconscious pirates. He watched the first mate and a saurian step over to command consoles, but the Captain demanded his attention.
“Maverick Mudd,” Dolen said, “You have attacked and stolen a starfleet vessel, assaulted multiple Starfleet officers, and I’m sure your dealings with the colony broke several laws, but I will have to look them up. It ends now.”
Mudd leaned back in his chair, smiling in spite of himself. “Transporters, eh, captain? Properly weaponized transporters.”
“Tell your men to stand down,” Dolen ordered.
Mudd nodded, and slowly reached to his comm. He tapped it twice, sending a pair of beeps, and a moment later he and every unconscious pirate on the bridge were wreathed in shimmering transporter beams.
Dolen blinked as the pirates vanished from the bridge. “Canny man, had an escape route. Everyone to stations, shields up!” He sat down in his chair. “Raise the lockdown, what’s the status in engineering?”
“Empty, sir,” Pallik responded, “No pirate signatures anywhere on the ship. Shields are up, phasers are armed.”
“Number one, run the sensors,” Dolen commanded, “Find that ship.”
Rhealm sat down, tapping on her console, “previous scans implied a location on the moon… sir! Transporter signatures on the moon’s surface!”
“Track them, and put the source on-screen!” Dolen ordered.
The view screen changed to show a hill on the moon’s surface. As the group watched, the hill shifted, its sides wavering, as it began to blow apart.
“It’s the ship,” Dolen said, “It must have been sensor-baffled, and then… covered in moon dust, I suppose? But the time taken to transport that amount of moondust would be significant.”
“Sir,” Pallik said, “they’re powering up shields and phasers. That ship is a good bit bigger than ours, and in better shape besides.”
“Sir,” a crewman who had sat down at the operations panel spoke up, “We’re being hailed.”
“On-screen,” The captain ordered. The screen changed to a view of a slightly disorganized bridge, Maverick Mudd sitting in the captain’s chair.
“Well, captain,” Mudd said, “Call me impressed. Now, in my defense, I didn’t have the best toolset to work with, but I will admit you’re more clever than most. More clever than I? Maybe, maybe not.”
“Sir,” Pallik said, “the pirate ship is backing away.”
“I could blow your ship out of space,” Mudd said, “But I think I already have enough crimes on my head for one day. Besides,” He smiled, and steepled his fingers, “If you can make it back to a Starbase in your hunk of junk, I think you’ve very well earned it.”
The communication cut out, and the pirate ship angled slightly, so that it wasn’t pointing at the Burning Age or the moon, and then blurred and vanished, its warp nacelles leaving a momentary trail. Captain Dolen let himself relax. “Everyone,” he said, “Take some time to let those still stunned recover, and then have engineering do a full diagnostic. I want to know if those pirates did any more damage. Also, contact the colony and let them know that the pirates are gone.”
“And then, sir?” Rhealm asked.
“And then, we head to our next stop,” Dolen said, “There’s no other choice, we have a duty to do, and as long as this ship can limp along, we will do it.”
Twilight sat in her room, pondering the piece of paper in front of her. After a bit, she began to write, slowly.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Things are hectic out here in space, the ship keeps winding up in dangerous situations, and I’m becoming really worried. The ship has been severely damaged, and the crew has to work hard to keep everything going. I want to help, but this ship needs lots of schooling and training to even run the simple parts, so most of what I can do is stay out of the way. I’ve been able to help some in the dangerous situations, but everyone would much prefer that danger just didn’t pop up.
I’m not sure where things will go from here, it’s so far out of my expertise that I just don’t know. It’s scary, but I’m making some friends.
I hope I’ll see you again,
Twilight Sparkle