From: Shawn _ (alamo_nate_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Jun 27 2008 - 00:49:20 PDT
=Hide And Seek, Part 2=
(cont'd from "Hide And Seek")
LOCATION: Space
SCENE: Lantar Nebula
STARDATE: [2.8]0627.0005
The BFOV SHIV floated gently through the swirling, fluorescent gases of the Lantar Nebula, operating on minimal power to prevent discovery from the three Starfleet ships that were currently scouring the nebula looking for it. One of the Starfleet ships passed dangerously close to the SHIV, but a last minute course correction kept the rogue ship from colliding with its hunter.
The game was getting dangerous- so far, the Starfleet ships' search-patterns were turning up nothing, but they refused to give up the search.The SHIV was left with no choice but to wait, hoping that its pursuers would eventually lose interest. The crew of the SHIV did not truly understand the tenacity of the officers who pursued them, but even this was not their biggest problem. The SHIV, as well as the Starfleet ships who sought it, was in far greater danger than its captain or any of its crew realized.
Because the Dominion vessels had not left the area. They, too, were hiding in the field of gravimetric distortions created by the nebula, safely shielded from detection.
All but one.
One ship had escaped the nebula, slipped through the search-net of the Starfleet vessels, and set course back towards Dominion space.
And it had already signaled for reinforcements.
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LOCATION: USS CHANTICO
SCENE: Bridge
"Any luck?" Kate MacNeil asked, coming up behind Crichton and peering over his shoulder.
"Nothing," Crichton said. "Absolutely nothing."
"Then there must be nothing there to find," Kate shrugged.
"No, you don't understand," Crichton said, glancing up at her. "I mean, literally nothing. None of the normal spatial distortions emitted by the rest of the nebula. It's like it's a pocket of null-space, barely generating the usual amount of background radiation you'd expect for this sector."
Kate frowned. "What does that mean?"
"The less I find, the more I'm convinced there's *something* in there," Crichton said.
"We can't lock a tractor beam on *nothing*, Jake," Kate said reasonably.
"Maybe we don't have to," Crichton said, working fast now. "If I'm right, then our rogue ship is hiding in there. It's using the nebula as cover, and using our own sensor sweeps against us. They know that our sensors are affected by the nebula, so they figure any irregularities we find, we'll just chalk up to the effects of the nebula and move on. It looks like they're somehow projecting a sensor image of normal space around their ship, and filling the surrounding area with sensor-ghosts and reflections of our own ships to keep us chasing our tail."
"That sounds like something you'd come up with," Kate observed.
"Except that, in a place where nothing is normal, finding absolutely no irregularities at all is the most abnormal thing you can find," Crichton said.
"So how do we flush them out?" Kate asked.
"They must be operating a low power," Crichton said. "We need to get them to move, to power up their engines, or give us some trace of their ship. Once we lock on to that, I should be able to follow them wherever they try to hide."
"What's your plan, lieutenant?"
"If we use the main deflector to send a concentrated field of radiation into that patch of space, it will force them to either power up their shields or to move the ship," Crichton said. "Once they do, we've got them."
Kate considered the plan, then nodded. "Do it. I'll notify the MATACO and the COMMENDATION as to what you're doing."
"Aye, commander," Crichton nodded. He quickly completed the calibrations on the deflector, and initiated the pulse. Kate came up behind him again, and both of them kept their eyes fixed on the sensor-screen. Several minutes passes, with nothing happening.
"Jake?"
"They might be trying to wait us out," Crichton said. "Trying to bluff us. But they won't be able to wait for long."
"How long can we keep the pulse active?"
"At least another 15 minutes before we experience a noticeable power drain," Crichton said. "There's no way they'll be able to wait that long."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LOCATION: BFOV SHIV
SCENE: Bridge
The radiation warning began to beep almost immediately after the Starfleet vessel initiated its energy pulse. Daisy growled as she realized what they were trying to do. She turned to glare at Crichton, pointing an accusing finger in his direction.
"They're trying to flush us out," she spat. "You said they couldn't see us."
"In point of fact, they can't," Crichton said with a shrug. "If they could, they wouldn't have to flush us out, they could just slap a tractor beam right on us."
"But they *know* where we are," Daisy said, storming over to the engineering console to loom menacingly over him.
"They must have a very clever engineer," Crichton said, staring up at her without the faintest hint of fear. "Does the captain wish to punish me, or would she rather skip past all the melodrama and get right to the part where I do something about it?"
Daisy bared her teeth at him, and her hand came up swiftly, delivering a savage backhand blow to Crichton's cheek, strong enough to knock him from his chair. Before he could rise, she slammed a boot hard into his ribs, then grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked his head upwards violently. She leaned close to his ear, and spoke in a harsh whisper.
"You will figure a way out of this, or there will be no end to the pain I cause you," she said.
But Crichton was smiling. "You'd have to be quick about it. If I *can't* get us out of this, they'll find us and take us into custody, and I know how grumpy you get when you don't have anyone around to torture."
The anger rose in Daisy again, but she bit it back and smiled. Crichton could have simply done nothing, let the Starfleet ships find them, but he didn't. He *wanted* to help, wanted the chance to test himself against these Starfleet simpletons. Despite all his bravado, Daisy knew that Crichton would willingly keep himself under her thumb as long as it provided him an opportunity to test his intelligence.
She released his hair, and let him climb back into his chair. She placed a hand gently on his shoulder and gave him an almost loving squeeze.
"Very well, Mr. Crichton," she cooed with all the sincerity of a viper. "Do your thing."
====================================================================
Shawn Putnam
a.k.a.
Jacob Crichton, Lieutenant
Chief of Engineering
GATEWAY Station, GS-2
From HyperNews_at_youth.net
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Nov 19 2008 - 03:10:53 PST