The Chase.....

Black Star wrote:The Chase
Pt II


The second Kirstsa's Star entered the nebula, all tactical operations were lost. The view screen flickered with static, the odd, occasional somewhat clear view coming through. Reanna was feeling a bit of nostalgic deja vu as she watched the view screen intently. Any shot made within this soup would have to be done by sight leaving a wide margin for error. Leah gasps as the screen flickers clear for a moment, one of the D'Koras passing closely by their bow, Reanna responding by turning the ship hard to port, passing close to the stern of the D'Kora the screen leaving them blind again as it fills with static.

“Whew!” Leah breathes a sigh of relief. “That was close. Should have fired at them.”

“Wasn't enough time,” responds Reanna. “But they won't be so lucky next time.”

Leah grins. “That's muh girl. What now?”

“I'm going to drop her down a few levels and see what happens from there. Are the torps ready?”

Leah looks at her panel, responding with a thumbs up.

They become silent as they wait and watch the screen with intensity, prepared for the next opportunity.

Time passes slowly as they wait, the occasional phasor shot passing by, lighting up a small section of the nebula, but never clear enough to garner a possible position. Reanna had learned well what her mother had taught her and memorized any book she could find dealing with ship tactical and strategic combat. She constantly adjusted her ship's position according to brief glimpses of her foe's. Just enough information for her to stay at arm's length, but never enough to gain a firing position, but that was good enough for her. All was quiet aboard Kirsta's Star save for the normal sounds of the ship. Patience and perseverance were, according to her mother, not a strong trait in Augments, but her mother had been different and there had been numerous times her mother had put her into a situation which called for such an attitude. The first few times Reanna had experienced these little tests, she had been quick to anger and frustration and had, on a few occasions through something akin to a tantrum of which was dealt with swiftly by her mother. She always remembered what her mother would tell her after such a situation.

“You may be the daughter of an Augment. You may have some of our strength, our intelligence and many other aspects of our genetics but you will not ACT like an Augment. I will have better for you! This is why I had you raised by Capellans, to learn honor, strength and courage within combat. You have Augment blood, but you will not live as an Augment.”

These words, Reanna remembers well and in her mind, determination sets in. She watches the view screen with heightened intensity, waiting for the opportunity which now presents itself as the screen flickers semi clear, a D'Kora becoming visible, moving at an angular course to her. She turns the ship to face it, harping out the order for Leah to fire, who responds as quickly as Reanna ordered. Two phasors fire, arcing out towards the the D'Kora, piercing it just fore of the engines, the succesful shots followed quickly by a photon torpedo slamming into the now glowing spot made by the phasors, erupting in a silent explosion. The D'Kora veers off quickly as plasma begins to stream from the damaged area.

“Yes!” exclaims, Reanna. “Nice shot, Leah!”

“Why tank ya berry much,” Leah responds. “But it was your piloting which gained us the position.”

“This mouse has teeth,” Reanna says.

They watch as the damaged D'Kora moves off, vanishing within the field of returning static. Reanna knew, though, that the odds were against them. That at any moment, things could go completely against them. This may be a game of cat and mouse, but it was a game which could end with deadly results, something she would try with all her ability to avoid....if possible. The last thing she wanted, was to be an item on some black market Ferengi selling block, her DNA up for the highest bid. She shudders at that thought as she changes the tact of her ship and whether it was a lucky shot, bad positioning or a combination of both, she'd never know as the ship shudders and shakes under the explosive impact of a missile but little time is had to deal with that when the ship bucks and shudders under the impact of two phasor hits, the Kirsta's Star now drifting off over the top of the unseen, second D'Kora.

“Damn!” exclaims Reanna loudly. “I've lost helm control.”

Leah slaps her hands down on her panel in frustration. “I've no weapons either!” she yells as some conduits within the bridge area burst, sparks flying everywhere, wiring now hanging down flicking about. Reanna looks up at the situation, grimacing in frustration.

“We've lost impulse power and thrusters are down to fifty percent,” Paul shouts into the comm to be heard above the din of back ground noise. Weapons are off line as well. They knew where to hit to hurt us. One more shot like that and we'll be just so much space junk. If you have some kind of plan up your sleeve, Reanna, now is the time.”

“Hang in there,” Leah responds to Paul. “We're not finished yet.” She looks over to Reanna. “Right?”

“Not by a longshot,” responds Reanna. She thinks for a moment, weighing her options and possibilities, then looks to Leah with purpose in her eyes. We've been in this soup going on near two hours. Have you established any kind of pattern with those D'Koras?”

Leah grins. “I know that look and yes I have, or at least best I could. Why?”

“How many cloaked mines do we have left?”

Leah checks her panel quickly. “Four but if you're going to do what I think you are, we won't be able to pick anymore up for quite some time. Not only are they rare on the market, but they're expensive as heck.”

“I know, but at this moment, I don't care! Calculate possible positioning and then pick four co-ordinates to drop those mines.

Leah nods as her fingers work rapidly across her control panel. Reanna knew Leah was a whiz with numbers and had come to trust the calculations her friend always came up with. She knew that if anything, Leah would nail at least one of those mines.

“Done!” states Leah as she holds a finger above a single button, then presses it. The ship shimmeys a bit as the mines are launched out, spiraling slowly towards their designated spots where they wait in cold silence. Reanna kicks the thrusters in, pushing the ship to the best speed possible that fifty percent thruster power could give her.

Heading back to our entry point and let's hope like heck someone is there to aid us,” Reanna states.

“You know there will be someone,” Leah responds. “I'm your lucky charm, remember?” Leah leans over to Reanna. “Go ahead! You know you waaaaaanna!”

Reanna chuckles as she leans over, reaching out to playfully rub Leah's head, messing her hair in the process.

Leah chuckles as she moves her head back, flipping her long, blonde hair a couple times. “Luck has been activated,” she proclaims. “Now get us out of here!”

Reanna nods as she turns her attention back to the task at hand. Now it was a race of hope and survival; hope to survive getting out of here in one piece.

Kirsta's Star moves off into the soup, tracking a course back to where they had entered and the hope that somebody, anybody would be there to lend aid.

Black Star wrote:The Chase


Life had gone from bad to worse ever since her mother's supposed friend had stumbled upon just who Kirsta Aloi was and the history of her heritage. His chance finding had been just a fluke, a cursory check and retest of the various blood samples he kept had revealed something interesting, something he had failed to notice when the pregnant Kirsta arrived upon Capella IV just over twenty years ago. Seeing the immense possibilities within the view of his microscope and having made some discreet inquiries, he had been able to piece the interesting puzzle together and discovered that Kirsta was an Augment from the late twentieth century Earth's Eugenics program. With this discovery, he made further discreet inquiries in his personal quest to acquire Kirsta...deceptively. In his discovery, he had found a way to increase the abilities of his tribe. A way to once and for all, put his tribe on top. Many things had changed over the years on Capella IV but many things had stayed the same and in his view, this was a golden opportunity that could not be passed up. Kliat eventually hired the services of a band of rag tag bounty hunters to track her down, capture her and bring her back. Unfortunately, he had not paid a high enough price to keep their silence. In a dusky bar on some back water world visited by various races, the divulged information by a drunken bounty hunter created a waved whisper of interest amongst those who had been privileged enough to hear. The bounty hunter and his companions were found dead a few days later and the dusky bar....strangely empty.

She pushes the Yridian destroyer hard to port, two missles passing by where her ship once was. She jams the ship hard to starboard, the targeting system quickly locking on to the two missiles, two phasors piercing the darkness as they reach out, causing the missiles to detonate upon impact. She quickly pushes the nose of her ship up into a rapid, upward spiral, causing four phasor shots to pass through empty space.

“Stupid, greedy Ferengi,” she mutters.

“What?” asks her companion Leah.

Reanna looks quickly to Leah. “Oh! Uhm! Nothing, nothing!”

“Are you going to be okay,” Leah asks? “Its only been two weeks since that shoot out with those Cardassians and the words you just muttered have been more than you've said since your mother died.”

Reanna stares coldly at Leah for a moment but looks to the control panel as the ship shudders under a glancing phasor shot.

“Psssht!” hisses Leah. “You can give me that cold stare all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm right.” Leah taps a few buttons, increasing the shield strength to the rear of the ship.

Reanna sighs. “I'm sorry, Leah. I....I just didn't want my mother to go out that way. Its been hell to say the least ever since we found out that her supposed friend had leaked out who she really was. I wanted my mother to die of natural causes but.....” Her words trail off as she watches the two Ferengi D'Koras separate in an attempt to try a pincer manouver on her.

Leah looks over to Reanna, a look of understanding in her eyes. “Its okay, Reanna. You had to destroy your mother's body to prevent her from being taken. If the Cardassians had gotten hold of her, you know what they could have done with her DNA.”

Reanna nods in agreement, a look of sadness upon her face. She turns the ship over onto its starboard side, putting it into a long starboard side arc in an attempt to outflank the Ferengi's efforts. The stunt results in a missle impact to the belly of the ship from the D'Kora on her right, an explosion erupting deep within, the ship shuddering under the impact.

“Damn!” shouts Reanna. She pulls the ship hard aft, pushing the thrusters to maximum heading at full implse back into the teeth of the Ferengi, firing a photon torpedo at each of them. One impacting upon the Ferengi to her right, the other glancing off the one on her left but the effort results in both ships straightening their trajectory for a brief moment as she scoots through the area between them in the opposite direction.

“Nice move,” remarks Leah. “You're just full of surprises aren't you?”

Reanna shrugs. “Just a simple move. Nothing special,” she responds, a small grin on her face.

The comm crackles to life. “Reanna? Stop playing around and get us out of here,” a male voice states firmly. That hit came darn close to the engine room.”

In an uncharacteristic show of attitude, Reanna raspberries in response.

“Did...did you just raspberry me,” queries the voice on the comm?

Leah breaks into roaring laughter. At this point, Leah knows that Reanna is in complete control and though she may be missing her mother, she is with the situation, here and now.

“Oh, relax, Paul,” chuckles Reanna. “We're still here aren't we?”

“Well....yeah! But we can't take on two D'Koras. One, maybe, but not two and I don't give a rat's butt how modified this ship is. I know her capabilities. Just get us the frak out of here.”

“Party pooper,” teases Reanna. Her attention is brought back to the situation at hand as two phasor shots hit with solid accuracy on the aft of the ship, the ship rocking and bouncing in response.

“Shields down to twenty four percent,” informs Leah. “One more shot like that and we'll be more naked than a dance girl from Risa.”

“Fine, fine,” responds Reanna. “Find us some place to hide while I keep us out of trouble.”

Leah nods and begins scanning the area for a hidey hole while Reanna tends to keeping the ship out of trouble. A few minutes and a photon torpedo hit later, Leah grins.

There's a class two nebula about fifty million clicks that way,” she says, pointing to a spot on the view screen. “You can just barely make it out. Its a small one but if we can get in there, it will mess things up. Targeting and such will be useless. It could buy us some time till you call for help.”

“Just like the Mutara Nebula! I seem to recall that didn't turn out to well for my mother and others...well! The others anyway,” mutters Reanna.

Leah looks at Reanna. They had been good friends for years and as such, Reanna had told her everything, but that stuff didn't matter to her. Reanna had saved her butt way back when and a strong bond had developed since then. All Leah cared about was their friendship and the fact that she would give her life to aid and protect her.
“No! This is different,” responds Leah. “Your mother learned Khan's mistake and everything she has learned, you now know. You and your mother have kept us alive for two years since the information got out and I plan to be out looking, hunting and causing trouble with you for many years to come. And I darn well know the rest of the crew think that way as well.”

Reanna looks at Leah for a few seconds and nods, smiling. Leah and the other eight she was referring to had either been rescued, saved or signed on with her and her mother and all were loyal to a fault and all had developed strong bonds in one way or another. They've had their disagreements, arguments and of course, the odd knock down drag 'em out fight, but they were all friends nonetheless. Each of them were the type of person, friend, that one would be willing to give their life for.

“Plot a course to that Nebula and warp us to near its edge but just before you take us to warp, fire two cloaked mines near the paths of the D'Koras and detonate once we enter warp. It will throw them for a few seconds and give us some precious time.” orders Reanna.

Leah nods in compliance and a few seconds later, the renamed Yridian ship, Kirsta's Star, jumps into warp, the two mines detonating near the Ferengi ships forcing them to veer off for a moment before jumping into warp to pursue Kirsta's Star.

Moments later, they drop out of warp near the outskirts to the Nebula, but one of the Ferengi commanders proves to have some intelligence as a D'Kora drops out of warp almost on top of them, firing two photon torpedoes, one missing, the other impacting near the engine room, but wash damage creates havoc with their warp core causing enough fall out damage for the ship to begin trailing plasma.

“Damage to the warp core,” shouts Paul over the comm. “Taking the warp core offline.”

“I know, I know,” responds Reanna calmly. “Tricky little Ferengi,” she chuckles, looking at Leah. “Taking us in.”

As they slip into the class two nebula, followed by the D'Koras, Reanna launches a communication probe from the belly of her ship. She knows communications will be messed up within the nebula thus the probe will be used to bounce a clear signal to whoever may be listening.

“Time for some cat and mouse,” Leah says softly. “Who are we today?”

Reanna thinks for a moment and then grins. “Let's be the mouse today.”

“Oh! And we weren't just a few moments ago?” chuckles Leah.

“They're Ferengi,” retorts Reanna. “I won't underestimate them, but all they care about is “acquiring something precious and valuable” with which to reap a huge profit. The dolts probably don't even know that my mother is dead.”

Leah nods. “Mouse it is!”

Reanna laughs.

As the three ships vanish into the thickness of the nebula, Reanna sends out a distress call, bouncing it off the communications probe.



**Emergency Distress Signal**

To anyone who can hear me. This is Reanna Aloi of the star ship, Kirsta's Star. We are under attack from two Ferengi D'Koras and need immediate assistance. We have taken heavy damage and are currently located (gives location of the class two nebula). We will hold out as long as we can but assistance is needed immediately. Communication with me will not be possible as I am bouncing this signal off a probe outside the Nebula. Please, hurry!

Communication loops and begins again.