A Romulan officer hunches low over his console, the low green-tinged lighting highlighting the harsh cast of his features, "I don't know how much longer we can avoid them. They're penning us in. There's not much gas giant left to hide in. We may have to..." his whispers trail off with a significant raising of an eyebrow.
His commanding officer nods, herself leaning low herself to exchange hushed words with her tactical officer, "They can't know that we were here." she looks around at her crew, at the young faces closely attentive to their duties, "If it comes to it, I'll order a dive to crush depth, we'll leave no evidence."
"STATUS CHANGE"
Commander Velim's head snaps around to face the sensor operator, "Report"
The young lieutenant at the science station looks as surprised as the Romulan Commander feels as she watches the icon of the Vulcan destroyer accelerate off of her screens, "T'Mir has broken orbit at full impulse. She's accelerating towards the edge of the system"
"What are they up to?" Velim exchanges a look with her first officer, his eyes rapidly flicking back and forth over the lines of information that are scrolling rapidly down the screens on his own station, "Some sort of trap, trying to lure us up to the surface?"
The sensor operator allows excitement to creep into her voice, "She's topping out at factor nine, wait she's still accelerating!" she's almost cheering now, "Warp eleven and still accelerating to factor twelve. She's gone!"
The Romulan commander makes a split second decision and leans forward, placing her hand on the back of the Conn Officer's chair, "Bring us up, Sublieutenant"
Her head turns fractionally, "Chrinek, track her warp wake, I want to know where she is headed." Most T-type destroyers can barely hit warp eleven, something important must have caught T'Mir's attention for her to risk warp twelve.
Velim lowers herself into her command chair, "Engineering, how is our cloak holding up?" she says, flicking a switch on her armrest.
"All systems optimal across the board Commander."
"Thank you Obsiek" Velim flicks the switch again, before leaning forward in her chair and nodding to herself, "Navigation plot a course into her wake, with that level of churn they won't notice us trailing along, even at high warp"
The Romulan woman leans forward in her chair, "Execute"
-------------------------
"New contact" the Gaeni sensor officer says, excitedly, "Smaller design, one point two megatonnes, similar IFF codes. Reading as VTS T'Mir" a brief pause before the officer picks up excitedly again, "-she's moving to get between us and the wavefront"
"Not a friendly maneuver" Captain Leaniss Larai nods to herself absently, "Tolar, how are we coming on those deflector modifications?"
There is a long moment of silence from the Vulcan science officer, "Frequency charging at sixty percent Captain" he says at last.
Leaniss's heart starts to sink in her chest, "Kahurangi, good news please"
"Sorry ma'am" the Human tactical officer shakes his head, "they've got proper intercepts generated. They'll catch us before we can reach the wavefront"
"Well, there goes getting home again without alerting the locals." Leaniss straightens up in her chair, her voice changing subtly, familiarity giving way to a regal confidence, "Open up hailing frequencies to the lead ship"
The former Amarki senator stands up, adjusting her stance for maximum impact, "Unknown vessels, I am Captain Leaniss Larai of the United Federation Planets Starship USS Tarrak, we-"
The viewscreen snaps to an image of a wildly unfamiliar bridge, reminiscent more of the Romulan-style raised officer's walkway than the Vulcan bridges that Leaniss is more familiar with. "Message for vessel Tarrak from vessel Sarek, stand down and prepare for boarding." The Vulcan captain stands in the centre of her raised platform, the mistress of all she surveys. She fixes her gaze on Leaniss across the mega kilometers that separate their two ships, her brow fixed in a disciplined mask which brooks no resistance to her will, "Your existence is a violation of Technocratic decrees. Disarm all weapons and stand by for processing. All resistance will be met with immediate termination."
Then the screen snaps off.
"Here I thought T'Lorel was a friend" Leaniss mutters to herself as she carefully returns to her chair, "Tolar?"
"Sixty-four percent Captain"
"The, uh, Technocracy ships are powering phasers and locking on to our signature" The tactical officer taps frantically at his console, "I'm throwing up sensor masking, but they'll triangulate that quickly"
Leaniss nods, deep in thought, studying the information gathered by Tarrak's science and tactical sections. The VTS Sarek is one point seven megatonnes, heavily armed and shielded. Not a ship to casually cross swords with, certainly not in a slugging match with a pair of light cruisers to cover her flanks.
Sarek does seem have something of an underdeveloped RCS and impulse acceleration array on her though...
"Back us off, Ensign, slowly"
"Sarek is hailing us again."
"Put it on the main screen"
"Audio only Captain"
The Vulcan commander's voice is tightly managed, devoid of all mercy or compassion, the harsh edges of the words a writ of execution in and of themselves, "Message for vessel Tarrak from vessel Sarek: Your failure to comply violates Technocratic decree. The object lesson of your termination will prevent further dissent."
Kahurangi's fingers fly across his panel, "SAREK IS OPENING FIRE!"
"Return fire!" Leaniss braces herself into her chair, "Helm, execute Agile-Beta, bring us about at full impulse, give us maneuvering room. Keep your distance"
"Direct hit on the lead cruiser ma'am. " Kahurangi says, holding in an excite whoop, "Their initial barrage targeted the sensor ghost. No damage to us!"
"Kahurangi, Target their reaction control and impulse systems, cut their tendons Commander." Leaniss allows herself a confident grin that she'd borrowed from Nash, "I bet they've never watched an Excelsior dance and fence before"
The Starfleet ships races for the "roof" on the system, moving in a graceful arc that brings Sarek under the edge of her weapons range before Tarrak's sudden turn and spiral bouncer as she continues her climb allowing her a parting barrage of torpedos, which flash across the gap like shooting stars, from her aft weapons, sending a torrent of fire down towards the warp ring of the needle-like Vulcan ship.
"Tolar. Keep at those modifications, the moment we've cut their ability to give chase, we'll return to the wavefront"
The Science officer simply raises an eyebrow at his screen, as the first lance of Vulcan phaser fire lashes Tarrak's shields, "Deflector dish modifications eighty-one percent complete Captain"
"Another direct hit on Sarek!" the tactical officer takes a deep breath as he feels the slight tug of Tarrak's internal gravity struggling to keep up with her wild maneuvering, "She's slowing, retargeting her escorts now"
Tarrak ceases her race towards towards the "roof" of the system, the sleek Starfleet vessel instead leveling out her run and cancelling the coordination of the inertial systems to spin the vessel around on her central axis as she dives predatorially, like an angel of destruction, on the pair of light cruisers who are all of half her size.
Leaniss watches the screens of the bridge intently, her stomach churning unpleasantly with constant shifting of the inertial compensators, her mind working to keep the battlespace in her mind, "Lieutenant Sabine, give us a least time course to the wave" she narrows her eyes, "Lieutenant, take us to the wavefront...now"
The science officer anticipates his captain's question before she even turns her head, "Ninety-five percent. Diverting excess power now" he says and the crew can instantly feel the change as the inertial dampeners and the lights weaken ever so slightly.
Tarrak is diving between the cruisers, seconds away from a return to her home timeline, when it happens.
Half of Suvek's thrusters are slagged, and her impulse drives disrupted, the Vulcan destroyer has no ability to pursue her opponent. What the Vulcan ship does have is a split second to unload her forward phaser arrays, one last chance to inflict damage.
Suvek's trained and disciplined tactical officer and her advanced targeting arrays unload their lethal payload towards the silver arrow streaking past them. Half the burst of destructivly tuned energies narrowly misses the Starfleet ship.
But a single lance of orange fire penetrates the envelope of Tarrak's shields, catching the far edge of Tarrak's deflector dish, a fraction of the destructive power disrupting the careful build up of exotic energies that Tarrak had been channeling into her deflector dish at that very moment.
Leaniss rocks in her seat as she feels her ship jump, lurching in mechanical pain from the body blow that she'd suffered, the lights above and below flickering dangerously, "DAMAGE REPORT!"
"Deflector dish.. disabled. Ma'am" the ensign at the engineering console reports, hands flying over his panel, "No casualties reported" he says in disbelief, "No other damage."
"Shields holding at 86%" Kahurangi reports from his station as he retargets onto the Sarek, the Vulcan ship closing the gap with her prey, targeting sensors probing with malicious intent, "Orders?"
Leaniss's mind races, there is no running now, not even within this strange parallel timeline. Tarrak's shields will suffice at impulse speeds, but Tarrak needs her navigational deflectors for warp travel, even the shortest and slowest warp trip risks Tarrak being utterly wrecked by even the miniscule particle of dust.
"Hail Sarek"
"No response ma'am"
Leaniss grips her armrests tightly as Tarrak spins on her axis to present another shield profile to Sarek and her escorts, "Well then. Commander. We'll do this the hard way. Fire at will" Leaniss takes a moment to centre herself, she's been in far worse situations before, "I suppose that it's up to us to teach these Vulcans the skill of a Starfleet ship forced into a fight."
The Amarki captain is just turning her head to give more orders when the situation changes again, one of the Vulcan light cruisers suddenly ceasing to exist in the distinctive blazing fire of antimatter and matter coming into violent contact.
Leaniss blinks, that was fast, "Good shot Commander"
Kahurangi frowns, "That wasn't us-"
"New contact, bearing one nine by five" the sensor officer focuses intently at his equipment, "She's Romulan?!"
Leaniss decides that that's a mystery for when Tarrak isn't taking fire, "Focus everything on the other cruiser! Bring us close, put her between us and Sarek!" Leaniss orders calmly, "Let's really even the odds"
Tarrak has barely advanced towards the Vulcan ship, a brace of torpedoes impacting on her shields, when she winks out of existence, the trailing pair of torpedoes racing towards deep space before Commander Kahurangi sends them a self destruct order.
"Both Vulcan ships have entered warp"
"The Romulan vessel is coming about ma'am, her weapons are still charged" Kahurangi warns, "She's hitting us with targeting scanners"
Leaniss purses her lips momentarily before taking a leap of faith, "Power down our own weapons" she says slowly, "Hai-"
"Romulan vessel is hailing us"
Leaniss gives an amused chuckle, "Well, put them on then, Ensign"
The screen flicks on. The Romulan bridge is different than Leaniss had expected, much as the Technocracy ship resembled the Romulan style bridges that Leaniss was more familiar with, the bridge of this Romulan ship was almost closer to Tarrak's own bridge, her captain in the centre of her officers and crew.
"I am Commander Velim of the RRW Liberty in the service of the Romulan Citizens' Navy. Any enemy of the Technocracy is a friend of ours. Do you require assistance?" says the unfamiliarly familiar woman in the warbird's captain's chair.
"Looks like we're not in Kansas anymore captain. Again." Kahurangi mutters to himself from his spot at tactical, as Leaniss formulates her own reply to the Romulan woman.