Vondem Thorn
Archanis Sector

“Time?” Gaeda asked as the bridge hatch opened and the lithe form of the ship T’Ael, the ship’s chief engineer if such a think existed, entered the bridge. She looked to Gaeda, gave him a nod and manned the engineering console in quick order, her look enough to tell him that Engineering was handled.

“Thirty seconds to weapons range,” Lewis answered back from his console just off to the left of the main viewscreen, it’s contents the star streak of warp travel. “

Gaeda had abandoned his Ops console for Tactical, bringing the ship’s unique blend of weapons online and getting them ready for battle. The starboard wing disruptor had given out long ago and a salvaged phaser emitter from some ancient Starfleet ship had been reworked enough to fill the spot, giving the Thorn a truly unique blend of disruptor and phaser fire, just as much a signature as her purple paint scheme.

Jesus, we’re down to five torpedoes.

“Weapons ready, standby to decloak,” he got out as again the hatch opened, this time Telin stepping through and pushing Gaeda aside without much fanfare as he assumed the post his brother would normally have manned.

While Gaeda was firmly in the camp as most of the crew that Telin was a barely controlled brute, he did respect his ability to fight, be it up close and personal, or as a marksman with ships weapons.

Course, where’s Orin when we really need him? Getting freaky…lucky bastard.

“Your excused,” Gaeda snapped at the Orion monstrosity before returning to his own battlestation, bring the console fully to life and sitting himself down.

Ten seconds out and the hatch opened once more and in flowed his captain, wearing but a silk dressing gown she was still busy tying the sash on. Behind her, with footfalls likely unnoticed in the din of klaxons was Revin, who hung back just enough that it was difficult to tell, but looked to have cloaked herself in a bedsheet similar in colour and texture to Sidda’s gown.

Oh dear, someone isn’t going to be happy.

“Report!” she demanded as she sat down and turned the chair to face Gaeda.

“Federation merchant under attack by klingon raiders. We’re the closest ship. Feds are ten minutes out,” he responded without looking away from his console where he was busy making the final system adjustments for battle. The ship’s wings were lowering, the cloak was being primed for deactivation and a rapid cycle to bring it back up if called on.

“Impulse in three…two…one…”

The ship lurched ever so slightly as they came out of warp and the hulking frame of the SS Avalon Princefilled their view screen, a single klingon bird of prey, B’Rel class like the Thorn was harassing the ship, having clearly collapsed it’s civilian grade shields already and busy using the ship for what amounted as target practise.

It didn’t move like it had even noticed the Thorn on sensors as they had made their mad dash in under cloak.

“Lewis, attack vectors. Telin, all weapons. Drop cloak and fire…now!”

The sequence of events was flawless and trained. Executed with experience, though this time against a capable enemy and not some hapless freighter they were firing on to frighten and get to surrender before they did any real damage. But an unsuspecting warship was just as hapless as an unsuspecting freighter.

The starboard phaser emitter lashed out with it’s orange beam while the port disruptor spat forth green death at the klingon ship, impacting hull and not shields. There was a moment where Gaeda could see confusion on Sidda’s face and then her glance over her shoulder in an unspoken command to Telin and a single torpedo was launched as they swooped past their prey.

Gaeda turned back and jabbed a button on his console without being asked and the Thorn disappeared back under her cloak. Then he was straight to the sensors, scanning the other vessel.

“Direct hit. Looks like their starboard weapons are out. Warp drive and cloak too. They’re bringing shields up. I’ve also got klingon life signs on the merchant.” That, he thought to himself, didn’t bode well for the merchants.

“Shields up! Bring us back around Lewis.”

As the Thorn decloaked she too took a hit, though instead of a directed it, it was a random spray of disruptors as the enemy ship swooped through a turn. Visually Gaeda could see now why the enemy’s starboard weapons looked offline – Telin’s torpedo strike had sheared the wing right off at the midpoint, the vessel trailing plasma and atmosphere from its wounds, including those on the main hull for their directed weapons attacks.

“We’re okay,” shouted T’Ael from her own console, busy coaxing the klingon computers to do her bidding.

As Lewis swing the Thorn around, he dived the ship under the Avalon Prince and back over, searching for his prey and bringing them into view just long enough for Telin to light up their shields with the phaser. The faint green bubble of the ship’s shields flared up and then collapsed just as the beam fell off its target as their own helmsman was now engaged in his own daring do.

Both ships started to dance in the inky depths, sometimes further from the Avalon Prince, other times closer as they sought firing angles on each other. The Thorn rocked a few more times as disruptors found their mark, collapsing a portion of the ship’s shields and showering him in sparks as the upper Ops station gave up on life.

A glance around and he could see a gas venting from aconduit in the ceiling and the rarely used Science station had died in a shower of sparks too. Telin was patting down a portion of his top where the sparks had clearly landed on him and he could make out behind him the form of Revin, still wrapping in the bedsheet and as calm as a statue in the madness going on.

Something is not right with her, he thought to himself, shook his head and returned to his duty.

“Telin! Now!”

Lewis had managed to bring the Thorn in right behind the klingon ship, a perfect shot from the aft and the orion didn’t fail to delivery, bring all weapons to heavy rapid fire and proceeding to chew through the ship’s engines, it’s hull and into something vital as she detonated in an antimatter explosion, far to close for comfort as Lewis’ slammed the ship right into the shockwave and through the debris.

More klaxons sounded and the Engineering console in front of T’Ael looked like a Christmas tree, but she was busy handling it and no doubt elsewhere on the ship her engineering mates were as well. Soon enough they’d all be on damage control duty though.

“Get me the merchant,” Sidda demanded.

Gaeda didn’t need to be told twice as he punched in commands, hit the execute button and then stood to approach Sidda’s chair and stand behind her for the pickup. He’d done this plenty of times before. To give a sense of strength, that this woman actually commanded the ship and he’d be ready to answer a command, to let the receiver know she meant business.

It was after all part of the play, wasn’t it?

“I’m sending over some crew to help with the klingons,” and with that Telin turned and left the bridge, taking care to walk around Revin at her spot by the hatch. “I’ll also be sending a list of demands over as well. Make good the cargo I request or we’ll finish what they intended to do and take everything.”

The human man that came up on screen looked relieved, then aghast at what he heard. “Who the hell are you to make demands of me?”

“The woman who just saved your life. You’ll find my demands entirely reasonable Captain.”

“Fucking pirates,” he responded and cut comms.

“Gaeda, scan them, then send a list over of things we need. Nothing that will cripple them though. And be quick about it. Starfleet is likely already on its way. Once Telin clears out the raiders and we have our loot I want us back under cloak and back on our way to Kyban.”

“Aye ma’am.”

****

“The bitch wants what?”

“Two kilos of dilithium, two of the atmospheric reprocessors we’re carrying, three crates of the wine we’re carrying and two RX-19 power relays. None of it’s critical, or dangerous even.”

“It’s the fucking principal of it!”

“Captain, she did just save us and her men did beam aboard, helped kill the raiders and then beamed back over to their own ship. If it wasn’t for them it wouldn’t just be Jenkins and Hargraves dead, it’d be the lot of us.”

“Fuck! Fine! Give them what they want, then head for the Starfleet ship’s that coming here. We’ll give them everything we can, they can go pirate hunting.”

****

Gaeda was on the bridge once again with just Lewis, the rest of the crew having left to attend to damage control, or to go act as Bones’ nurse when the boarding party had returned, not without incident it would seem.

“Right Lewis,” he said following the confirmation of supplied beamed aboard ship, “get us back underway.”

He transmitted a thank you message to the Avalon Prince and then activated the ship’s cloak as they jumped back to warp, heading for the populated colony world of Kyban.

“Right, give me a hand will you, we need to make some changes to the drive signatures. Can’t be to obvious when we get to Kyban.”