Seven Ate Nine

Posted on 17 Feb 2019 @ 5:47am by Lieutenant Colonel Anton Markov & Major Patrick Smith 'Nine'

Mission: From the Darkness
Location: 'Blackbird' - Federation Klingon Border
Timeline: Four Hours after Powell enters Warp.

Nine sat in the cockpit of his modified Peregrine, drinking a coca cola staring out the cockpit window, face as blank as the void before him. He chuckled and smirked to himself as he remembered a joke a former colleague once told him when he was given his smuggling nickname. 'Why was six afraid of seven? Because seven ate nine.' He shook his head and took another swig of his drink just in time for the console to beep in front of him. Taking his feet off the console Nine stretched out and pulled up the results of the long-range scans he had been running for the last several hours.

"Hmmm. Interesting," he mused to no one in particular as he scratched the stubble on his chin and cycled through the data in front of him. "Computer isolate grid forty two section five. Enhance and project," the man instructed as a holo visualisation of the data appeared in front of him. "Bingo. Computer high-intensity scan towards that area. Look for cloaked vessels," he added as he set his drink down and closed the display.

Hands moving over the console he started marking and cataloguing the new scans results as quickly as they were coming in. Once he had given those instructions to the computer his vessel had pinged every ship between his location and that grid with a full strength scan, significantly less subtle than the slow passive ones he had been taking for the last few weeks.

It was about sixty percent of the way through the scan that the proximity sensors kicked in. "Computer identify the source of proximity warning," he asked.

"Klingon Vor'cha class battlecruiser approaching bearing zero two six range two million kilometres. Vessels weapons and shields are operations," the computer rather helpfully added.

Nine frowned and continued his scans. Even if the Klingons were pushing full impulse they would be late to the proverbial party however the escape would be another matter. His own upgrades had squeezed a little extra out of the warp engines but the craft would never be able to outrun a starship, even if it was Klingon. Quickly finishing his scan he encrypted everything he had been working on to a small drive and as he tucked it into a small pouch inside his sleeve he purged the computer logs.

Shaking himself off again quickly Nine cracked his knuckles and pushed the console to activate his more traditional flight controls. "Computer divert power from weapons to aft shields and auxiliary power to reaction control thrusters," he barked at his ship as he pushed the throttle full forward and immediately turned the ship towards the third planet in the system. Having been hidden alongside a moon until recently he had kept this ringed planet as his get out of jail free card, something that usually was an analogy but in this case may become a reality.

"Incoming message," the computer sounded to him. He held for a moment before pushing the comms button and opening the channel. "This is Nine, owner of the cargo vessel 'Blackbird'. What can I do ye for Captain," he asked.

The Klingon Captain snarled across the viewscreen in a way that made Nine a little uncomfortable, "You are no cargo ship. Who are you spying for human?!"


"Spying? I'm not sure what you meant. Im looking for a trading post somewhere near here and I've been struggling to find it. My navigational sensors aren't working. All I have is my targeted long range scanners," he replied rather doubtful the Klingons would believe him.

Sure enough, the angry look on the screen indicated such. "You lie! Cut power to your engines immediately and prepare to be inspected," he demanded.

"I'm sorry I can't do that. My cargo needs to be at this station yesterday and I really really really don't want to be any later than I already am," he blagged now halfway to the planet rings, the klingons following at a speed which made Nine believe they were burning their engines well above safe levels. The Klingon Captain cursed at him and closed the channel, a hail of disruptor fire bursting forth but disappaiting before it reached the Blackbird.

Time seemed to move slowly as his small craft covered the distance to the ring belt but when he finally arrived he let out a breath as he took the ship into the ring. Debris from the asteroids littered space with a faint dust cloud blocking his own targeting sensors and preventing the Klingon warship from locking onto him. The big warship closed the gap quickly once the smaller craft was inside and began to fire on large rocks near to him.

As Nine manoeuvred through the belt ship juddering from small impacts of stellar rock the Klingons, seemingly frustrated at not being able to force him out, rather too gracefully for what would happen next, lowered their ship into the belt to better use their manual firing solutions. Their enginers still hot from the effort required to catch up to the smaller ship at impulse speeds were not filling with debris and dust particles, a majority of which incidentally their ship was creating as it ripped the large rocks apart.

With more and more debris blocking both ships scanners Nine ducked to one side and doubled back around and dropped into the wake of the Klingon vessel. Following the trail of devastation back the way he had come he dropped out of the lower edge of the ring and jumped to warp, cutting power to anything that wasn't essential or his engines. Behind him still busy blowing up space rocks in what was now a massive waste of his crews time and munitions the Klingons carried on. It would be almost seven minutes before they realised the trail they were following was natural radiation.

With some minor tweaks to the course to take him clear of Klingon patrols Nine locked in the course that would take him to his rendezvous with the USS Powell. Taking his can of coca cola from the cup holder it had been resting in he took a swig before putting his feet back up onto the divider between his and his currently empty co-pilots chair, settling in for the trip ahead.