Chapter Four
Commodore Trixiandredianlekspil of the
Xiiian transport ship heard his operations officer call his name. He swiveled
in his command chair to face the officer and asked: « What is it? »
«
I'm not certain, commodore. » The green-skinned female said. « For a moment it
appeared as if there was a starship bearing one-oh-seven mark two...but it
immediately disappeared. »
«
Any speculations on what it could be? » The commodore asked.
« Not at this time, commodore. »
He
sighed and turned back to the viewscreen: « Are there any Federation starships
in the area? »
An
officer at the front of the bridge said: « Yes. The USS-Sovereign.
One of the most powerful ships in the fleet, it's only a few hundred thousand
kilometers away from the asteroid. »
«
Excellent. » The commodore smiled, they had a shipment that was urgently
required on Ferenginar and he didn't want to waste more time than was needed. «
Send them a message about this disturbance. Starfleet is the curious type;
they'll come around and check it out. Meanwhile, set a course to
Ferenginar. Warp seven. »
And
the Xiiian transport ship warped away as the Sovereign received the
message.
« Captain, recieving a message
from a Xiiian transport ship that has just left the area. » Lieutenant
Robert DesVroges said. « They say that they've detected an anomalous reading
near Tryssiell. The asteroid. »
Captain
Severine Kalian frowned: « Did they specify the type of reading? »
« No, sir. Just a simple, straightforward
message, not unlike the Xiiian culture itself. » DesVroges smirked
slightly at his own cleverness.
« Right. » Kalian nodded. « Bring us towards the coordinates
that they've sent us. We'll try to make a better analysis. »
«
Uh... » DesVroges licked his lips. « Captain, which coordinates are you
referring to, exactly...? »
She
looked at him: « You mean they didn't send us coordinates? »
He
shook his head slowly.
She
sighed: « Great, well. Conduct a deep scan of the area; we're bound to find
these readings if a thirty year-old Xiiian cargo ship managed to see it. »
« Uh-oh... » said Eskina.
«
What is it? » Kline asked.
«
We have a problem. I think someone's detected us. » Eskina said.
«
What? » Burnel frowned. « How the heck is that possible? »
«
Uh-oh... »Eskina said again.
Kline
raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
«
We have another problem...It's the USS-Sovereign. »
Kline's
shoulders slumped, the last ship that he wanted to have searching for him was a
Sovereign-class vessel that was at least twice as large as the Eagle,
and equipped with the most advanced equipment in the Federation.
«
Let's turn around and head for the starbase...We don't want anyone to see us, remember?
»
«
We remember. » Sutter nodded to her captain, and then turned to Burnel. « Turn
us around. Set a course to the starbase. Full impulse.
»
Burnel
started punching in the controls on the conn terminal, when the chief
engineer's voice was heard: « Wait! This is Stevenson! Don't engage impulse
engines yet! »
«
Why not? » asked Burnel.
«
Because I think the engines are the source of the failing in our cloak.
» he explained.
«
What failing? » Eskina studied his console. « I don't see anything wrong with
the damn thing... »
«
That's because the computer controls of the cloaking device are also
malfunctioning...wait, I'll be right up. Stevenson out. »
Sutter
sighed: « Looks like he's had an illumination. »
Burnel
nodded: « Obviously... »
John
Stevenson literally stumbled out of the turbolift: « I'm here... » he said,
panting.
«
Okay, John. What's your theory? » asked Kline.
«
That's just it... » said Stevenson. «It isn't a theory, it's a fact. The
cloaking device is not properly aligned. But we can't realign it automatically
because the sub processor of the computer access to the cloa...
»
«
Whoa! Wait up, lieutenant... » Kline said. « Not so fast. Explain this again. »
Stevenson
took a deep breath and then started over: « I think that we've been detected
because our cloaking-shield movement compensators are slightly misaligned. So
every time we move, our cloaking shield destabilizes for a few seconds. And the
reason why the computers don't detect this flaw is because they are programmed
to think that the present alignment of the shield is appropriate. It isn't,
someone badly programmed the computer. »
«
Okay, can we realign it? » Sutter asked.
«
Not automatically, as I said before, because the sub processor controlling alignment
systems is directly connected to the main computer core. This means we can't
change the alignment by using the computer systems because it thinks we are
perfectly cloaked and there's no reason to change the alignment. » Stevenson
was out of breath.
«
So, can we do it manually? » asked Burnel.
Stevenson
shook his head: « Unfortunately not, the alignment of the shield is controlled
by two reactors on the starboard and port sides of the ship. The reactors are
directly connected to the energy reserves and are sealed out from the rest of
the ship to avoid the radiation from escaping and killing all of us. »
«
So we're dead... » Kline said.
«
That's pretty pessimistic, captain. » Sutter said.
«
I'm not being pessimistic, I'm being realistic. » Kline smiled. « Well,
okay...Maybe a little pessimistic. »
«
So what do we do? » Reeves asked, still sitting in the science station at the
back of the bridge. « Pray that the Sovereign doesn't read us and wait here?
Or decloak and explain the whole thing to them... »
«
That's out of the question. » Kline shook his head. « Unfortunately, word gets
around quickly in the Federation. As soon as the Sovereign sees us
decloaking, in less than a day the information will have reached Romulan ears
and we'd be in deep, deep trouble. »
«
Why don't we shut down the power so the reactors don't emit any more radiation,
then we go and fix them manually? » Mantion asked.
Stevenson
nodded: « That could work, but shutting down the reactor would mean shutting
down the cloak... »
Mantion
blinked a few times, before realizing the naïveté of her question.
Suddenly,
Stevenson's face lit up: « But...What if we cloaked ourselves behind something else?
»
« Something else? » Reeves raised an eyebrow.
«
Yes! » Stevenson smiled. « We hide inside the asteroid! And while we're inside
we fix our cloak-alignment and cruise safely back to the starbase. »
«
That's a good idea. » said Eskina. « But the problem is: How do we get to the
asteroid without being detected by the Sovereign, if we move they'll see
us. »
«
Not if we keep out of their sight. » Burnel smiled. « I can move us into the
dense part of the asteroid field surrounding Tryssiell. The particles in the
field should be confusing enough for the Sovereign's sensors that they
won't read us if we stay on the opposite side of the asteroid compared to them.
»
Kline
looked doubtful: « Are you sure this can work? »
«
It's a bit harder than confessing our blunders to the Sovereign,
captain. But it can save the mission. »
«
What are our chances? Burnel? » he turned to her.
She
shrugged: « I can try. »
Kline
turned to Stevenson who said: « We can try. »
Kline
sighed: « Somehow, I doubt I'm going to like this. But let's do it, people.
Let's half-fill our glass instead of half-emptying it. »