Ambush!

Posted on Wed Oct 12th, 2022 @ 5:45am by Captain Calypso Skyie & Lieutenant Commander Alexander Espersen & Lieutenant Mark Valleroy & Lieutenant JG Faith Vianelli & Lieutenant JG Raven Windancer

Mission: Pirates! (Or Yo Ho Ho And A Bottle Of Yum)
Location: Listrell System

It was a nearly simultaneous reversion out of warp for the five ship, Chimera being the first to leave relative safety of the warp bubble with the four freighters less than half a second later all within microseconds of each other. They had hit the location that Calypso had desired absolutely perfectly and she leaned back in the Captain's chair with a slight smile, "Excellent job with the conn, Ensign Windancer. One quarter impulse, follow the bouncing ball.

True to form, on the Helmswoman's console, a small bouncing ball appeared, all but begging without words to be followed.

"Aye aye, Captain," Raven grinned. This was her kind of game. She deftly tapped keys on her console to follow the cute little strobe light ball. As Raven followed it's instructions, the ball would change color. With one eye on the ball, Raven opened her mind to what the crew were thinking and feeling. "Yikes, everyone's as nervesited as I am," Raven thought, actually feeling calmer now that she knew everyone was on the same page.

Cally's eyes flicked up to the viewscreen where half of it showed the view of a gas giant with a rough ring of asteroids that was off to the left of the view and an image of the holodeck that was where an identical bridge had been set up and where Alex was in nominal command of the SS Aegean Sea, the freighter that 'used to be' USS Chimera was set up. "You ready, Alex? We're 'scheduled' to be here for about thirty minutes just to make sure our charts are fully updated and to make contact with Dexic to make sure the way is clear."

Down on the fake bridge in the holodeck, in the company of a pair of real Starfleet officers, all three of them wearing jumpsuits consistent with a civilian cargo hauler, Alexander Espersen watched the forward viewscreen, which at the moment showed a map of local space. The incoming data stream from Dexic transmitted accurate data, filling the map with details as they waited. “All good down here, Captain.”

She then glanced over to her left, where Faith was in the XO's chair, "Are you ready for this? I mean, hopefully it'll be easier than expected."

Faith drew in a deep breath, her hands firmly grasping the arm rests of the seat. She gave a slight nod. "As ready as I'll ever be Captain," she said softly.

Cally turned in her chair and glanced back at her Chief of Security and his assistant, "Mark? Rene? Use our secondary sensor array to do a scan of the area, anything out of the ordinary we need to know about it."

"On it," Mark said as he moved to follow the order.

A green light appeared on the comm panel and Cally resisted the urge to put it on her own screen, but waited patiently for the officer in command, Alex, to answer the summons.

“Incoming transmission,” reported the Ensign at Ops / Engineering on the fake bridge. “But I’m not reading anything out there.”

“Put it on screen,” ordered Alexander. He stood and focussed his eyes on the viewscreen. “This is Alexander Espersen, commanding the SS Aegean Sea. May I help you with something?” In character he might have been concerned about pirates but he certainly wasn’t trying to bait them. He’d be friendly, until he had to play pathetic.

“Welcome to the Listrell System, Chimera, this is Commodore Damien Penweather. You are surrounded and outnumbered and I hereby demand your surrender.” As the demand for surrender came in, a quartet of ships dropped out of warp, a Steamrunner with a Venture to the ships’ port side, a Miranda to the starboard and directly ahead, nacelles reverting to flat, an Intrepid-class.

“What is this?” Alexander asked. “Surrender?” He played confused. These appeared to be Starfleet ships, after all. “What?”

“Sir, the transmission is coming from the Intrepid, dead ahead,” advised Ops. “Orders?”

“I…I don’t know.” He knew the channel was still open. Either this Commodore had access to outdated personnel records and might predict that he’d be overwhelmed, or they had no idea who he was and his confusion and panic would be genuine. Either way, he was silently confident that his reactions, audible to the Commodore, were contributing positively to the ruse.

He stayed quiet for a moment after that, waiting to hear the next line.

Wait, did he say Chimera? Shit.

"YIKES! Where'd those guys come from!?" Raven thought, gulping even though she'd known this was coming. "Easy, Girl. You KNEW this was going to happen, don't blow it!" Raven took a breath, and waited for the next part of the plan to unfold.

"Ah, you must be Commander Espersen." The smooth and halfway seductive voice pronounced as it appeared to glance around the bridge, "I'm sure you're a competent teacher, Commander, but not a combat officer. Perhaps you could do me the favor of telling me where Captain Skyie is? I'm sure she's listening in right now, hoping to lure me into a false sense of security about her absence."

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Alexander said, trying to bluff, but knowing he wasn’t likely to succeed. He paced, uncertain what to do. They weren’t prepared for this.

He walked to the Ops console and cut the comm channel.

***************
Meanwhile on the Bridge

***************

That voice. She'd only heard it a few times, mostly vowing vengeance against Perseus as Captain Taylor and herself took bites out of his pirate fleet before... The ambush in the asteroid field. Calypso Skyie stiffened visibly as she watched the viewscreen that was relaying what Alex saw from the holodeck. Heard the words... Remembered. "It can't be..." She whispered.

Faith didn't need to be Betazoid to feel the sudden change in the tensions on the bridge. She glanced at Cally, a questioning expression on her face. "Captain?" she asked quietly, her query falling on deaf ears.

Raven's jaw dropped. "Oh Krill!! This is NOT GOOD!! How the Mandalorian are we gonna get out of this one!?" Raven thought, not missing the Captain's movements or the proverbial temperature in the room drop to -0°. She quickly did a mental scan...and her heart dropped even more. "Oh Kahless, this is bad," Raven's thoughts were spiraling out of control. "A warrior does not falter in the face of the enemy. REMEMBER WHO and WHAT you are!" a voice commanded. Raven looked around, but no one acted as if they had heard the voice. "When this is all over, I REALLY need to get a MENTAL checkup," Raven thought, shaking the voice, but not the words, from her mind.

“Looks like we’re made, Captain,” called Alexander from the holodeck. “Recommend we advance to the next phase promptly.”

Her thousand-yard stare seemed to fade as the voice no longer came over the comm. Damien Penweather, the man who'd killed her last ship, her last Captain and most of her friends. Her voice didn't seem like her own, but it was cool, calm and collected. "Lieutenant Valleroy, forget the Venture. Take the Intrepid out. Now."

"Captain?" Mark said, a bit confused. "We go after the Intrepid first, I can't guarantee we'd survive in a firefight against the others."

"Captain, it'll take some doing, but I feel that we CAN do it. At your command of course," Raven locked eyes with Cally, conveying that she was willing to try if the Captain was.

Her eyes stared at the viewscreen, at the ship in the center of it, then they closed for a moment as she composed herself and keyed a holographic screen to appear in front of her and nodded, "I understand, Mark. Let me handle that. Ensign Windancer, attack pattern Skyie Delta. Engage."

"Aye, Captain. Attack pattern Skyie Delta, Engaged," Raven typed the proper commands, and the Chimera deftly leapt into action. Almost like a space ballerina, the Chimera had her way with the other ships, landing blow after blow before any of the ships could react. As the ships tried to get their heads back together, the Chimera came at them again, scoring a few more hits before shields where raised. "WOO HO!!! THIS SHIP IS AWESOME!!!" Raven was having a BLAST!

[To Be Continued]