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Chapter Three

"And that is all the information you have managed to extract from him?" General Rax asked.

"Yes," Kline answered. "It's not much...But at least we have a small trail. We know that this Doksath made threats and made multiple references to the River of Blood. It's hard to believe that this is a coincidence."

"Indeed..." The old Klingon said. "However, I doubt that you have enough clues to keep advancing in this investigation...It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack in the dark."

Suddenly, Mantion's tactical console beeped, she said: "Captain, the Klingon planet Qulq'ahn is reporting that their capital city has been the victim of a new terrorist bombing. They have detected a ship escaping from the planet but they do not have any ships to pursue."

"It could be anything..." Rax said. "I suggest you let this pass, Captain. If a Federation starship comes to the rescue it might bring attention on you."

"What?" Gorik frowned. "What if the terrorists are on that ship?"

"You cannot be certain of that, Gorik."

"But we cannot be certain that they aren't on the ship." Gorik said.

"It would be a waste of time."

"But we have all the time in the world...You said it yourself; we don't have enough clues to pursue our investigation. This could be the chance to find some more clues."

Rax grunted: "Well...If you insist."

Kline nodded, and then turned to Burnel: "Sylvia, set a course for Qulq'ahn, maximum warp."

She nodded and she quickly activated the warp engines as Rax wished them good luck and blinked off the screen.

"ETA?" The captain asked, sitting down into his chair.

"In about a minute..." Burnel answered.

The two Klingon operatives sat down in their pull-down seats at the side of the bridge as they waited for the Card to arrive at the planet. On the Valiant, it wouldn't have been possible to have them sit down, there wasn't enough space on the small ship. Fortunately, the Card had a much bigger bridge.

Sixty seconds later, as Burnel had said, the Card arrived at the Klingon planet.

"Locate the runaway ship." Kline said.

Mantion hands flew across the tactical console and she reported: "Ship is headed for the Ikazar asteroid belt; it appears to be a Class-5 Klingon bird-of-prey."

"Class-5..." Kaytan repeated. "Those are pretty old ships, mostly used by mercenaries. Traders won't use them because there is little space on board for cargo."

"Set an intercept course." Kline said. "Maximum speed,"

"Aye, captain." Burnel said.

"When will we catch up?" He asked.

"Approximately seven minutes, captain." Mantion said. "We will not manage to reach them before they enter the asteroid field."

"Is it too dense for us to navigate through?" He turned to Burnel. "Sylvia?"

She smiled grimly: "I think I can make it..."

"'Think'?" Sutter raised an eyebrow.

"Trust me." Burnel said.

A few minutes later, they came into visual range of the Ikazar asteroid belt; the Card slowed to full impulse and Burnel navigated it swiftly into the belt.

"Greg, can you give us a schematic of the asteroid belt with the positions of us and that Klingon ship?" Kline asked.

"Right away..." Eskina tapped a few controls and the viewscreen changed to a schematic view of the asteroid belt with two blinking dots representing the two ships. Burnel continued her swift flying through the belt thanks to visual aid given to her by the holographic screen that was displayed in front of her.

"If we keep this rate up we will intercept the Klingon vessel in twenty seconds." Mantion reported.

Indeed, the blinking yellow dot representing the Card was approaching the dot of the Klingon bird-of-prey rather quickly. They would catch up in no time.

Suddenly, the dot that represented the Bird-of-Prey disappeared...

"What?!" Gorik jumped in his seat.

"The Klingon vessel has just disappeared from our sensors." Mantion said calmly.

"Where has it gone?" Gorik demanded.

"I didn't detect a cloaking device aboard ship..." Eskina said. "Maybe they were protecting it by a sensor scrambler or something..."

"Perfect..." Gorik sighed.

Mantion suddenly frowned: "I'm reading something stra..."

An asteroid directly to the port of the Card suddenly exploded, the space rock separated into several smaller parts and they began moving in different directions. Burnel reflexively steered the ship away from the asteroid parts by diving to starboard.

"Shields!" Kline barked.

"What the hell happen..." Eskina began saying.

But then, another asteroid--this one bigger than the previous one--exploded straight in their path. Burnel managed--with a mix of luck and skill--to twist the Card right through the moving asteroids.

"I believe there are many hidden proximity explosives placed within some of these asteroids." Mantion said. "There is no way to detect them, only slight disturbances that are barely detectable..."

"Stop the ship, Sylvia." Kline ordered.

The Card came to a halt and, thankfully, no further asteroids exploded.

"How far are we away from the edge of the asteroid belt?" Kline asked.

"Approximately two million kilometers," Eskina said.

"Is there no way we can detect the asteroids containing explosives?" Sutter asked.

"I don't think so..." Mantion said, shaking her head.

"Those bastards brought us into a minefield..." Gorik snarled. "They probably hoped to destroy us when they found out we were on their tail."

"How could they have found out?" Sylvia asked.

"The monastery," Kaytan said. "Someone must have heard what we came about..."

"Damn..." Kline muttered. "How will we get out now without blowing up?"

"Stevenson to bridge," Suddenly, the voice of the chief engineer was heard.

"Yes, Mister Stevenson?" Kline said.

"I've been uh....listening to you on the bridge using the intercom." Kline heard the engineer grin. "I have an idea."

"Okay, what do you suggest?"

"Klingon proximity explosives function by scanning the sensor radius for energy signatures. Since the Card is a big energy signature, it triggers the explosives."

"So we would have to...to hide our energy signature so they don't explode?" Gorik asked.

"Precisely," Stevenson said. "Unfortunately, it's impossible to turn off all of the energy sources of the ship. So we'll just have to hope that the explosives are old-fashioned and rusty..."

"Reassuring..." Eskina mused.

"Well..." Kline said. "It won't help us much if we stay here, so I think we should take the risk. Unless, anyone has a better idea..."

There was a collective shaking of heads and Kline nodded: "Okay...Then let's deactivate all systems except thrusters and minimal life-support." He activated the ship-wide intercom and said: "This is Captain Kline to all crewmembers, we are going to attempt to escape from the energy-detecting proximity mines in this asteroid field by deactivating all systems except thrusters and minimal life-support. Just in case, try to stay as calm and stay away from high places, the life-support systems will barely be functioning and it is possible that you will pass out. Kline out..."

The lights dimmed, all the consoles except the conn switched off and everyone felt the change in atmosphere and in the air. It became difficult to breathe and rather cold, when the officers exhaled, clouds emerged from their mouths and noses quickly dissipating into the air.

"Sylvia...Take us out." Kline said after taking a deep breath.

Burnel nodded and activated the aft thrusters.

The Card began moving...

All eyes were locked on the main viewscreen, the asteroids passed by the ship at an agonizingly slow rate and Kline could feel his heart thumping against the inside of his chest.

Burnel was as stiff as steel, her eyes didn't blink and she was staring straight out the window. The only sound on the bridge was the one of Sylvia's fingers on the console, the metallic fingers of her right hand made small clicking sounds every time that they struck the smooth surface that was the conn console. The bridge crew had gotten accustomed to the sound and it had become rather normal to them.

So far, Stevenson's plan was working, Burnel was managing to pilot the massive starship through the dense field with little difficulty.

But suddenly, an asteroid directly off the starboard bow of the ship exploded. Some pieces of the asteroid were heading straight for the Card and the ship's shields were down.

"Twenty seconds until impact..." Mantion reported.

"Can we get the shields back up?" Kline asked.

"Not in time." Stevenson said. "And if we do all the asteroids around us will explode."

"Fifteen seconds..."

"Burnel!"

"I'll try..." She said.

"Ten..."

Burnel brought the thrusters passed the safety limits, the ship began moving away from the moving pieces of asteroid but the aft starboard thruster overloaded and the Card started tumbling out of control, straight towards an extremely large asteroid.

"I'm losing control..." Burnel said through clenched teeth. "I can't compensate!"

"We're heading straight for that large asteroid." Eskina said. "We need to change course!"

"Easy for you to say..." Burnel said.

On the screen, the asteroid kept getting larger and larger. In a few seconds they would hit it.

"Stevenson here!" The engineer's voice suddenly said. "Sylvia! If you can incline the ship fifty degrees starboard I can engage the warp engines."

"What? But won't the asteroids explode?" Kline asked.

"The inclination of the ship will point us in a safe direction. If we're lucky, we should be able to get out of this field without getting scratched. Trust me..."

Burnel didn't hesitate and didn't wait for the captain's order, she expertly controlled the remaining thrusters so that the ship turned upon itself approximately 50 degrees starboard and Stevenson coordinated the timing so that the warp engines powered up and engaged precisely at the right moment.

The power that had been drained from the ships' stabilizer systems and the inertial dampers caused the maneuver to be rather bumpy for the whole crew. The warp engines brought the Card passed the light barrier and the path that Stevenson had plotted through the field seemed to be safe. That was until the Card deviated slightly from the course because of the systems that were offline. The ship's port engine came into contact with one of the asteroids, the outer structure of the nacelle was compromised and the ship spinned wildly out of control. Burnel reflexively activated the emergency stop and the ship decelerated and finally came to a halt.

"Report!" Kline said, climbing back into his command chair.

"Port nacelle has suffered a direct impact," Mantion reported. "We are in no immediate danger but we are not going to be using our warp engines soon..."

"How are the other systems?" Sutter asked.

"All critical power systems are functioning, but shields, propulsion and weapons are all offline." Eskina said.

Suddenly, on the viewscreen, the starfield began to distort.

"What...?" Kaytan frowned.

"A ship is decloaking dead ahead." Eskina said.

"The Klingon bird-of-prey?" Kline asked.

"No." Mantion shook her head. "It's bigger."

The ship decloaked.

"I don't want to be pessimistic or anything..." Eskina said. "But I think we're dead."

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