Chapter Three
« What the hell is THAT? »
Patrickson
grinned on the screen of the padd that Kline was holding.
«
It's the USS-Eagle, Commander Kline. Our new
'Federation Bird of Prey'. » said Patrickson.
« Bird of Prey!!! » Kline's mouth was hanging open. «
You mean... »
«
You got it, Kline. That ship is our new cloaking prototype. »Patrickson
smiled proudly.
«
Do we have the right to make cloaking ships like this? » Kline asked.
Patrickson
sighed: « Well...Not....exactly. But the negotiations with the Romulan Star
Empire are progressing relatively quickly...We should have the permission to
share technologies in a few months. »
«
A few months... » Kline grunted. « Which means we can't use this until then,
right? »
Patrickson
hesitated, then shrugged and said: « Well, SI is ordering you to test-run
this ship. The cloaking device we've designed is a bit different than the ones
we've installed on the USS-Defiant, for example. We've studied new
Romulan devices and some discovered on Remus, their sister planet, and we've
made the perfect cloak. Theoretically, it should be impossible to track this ship. And we've
even incorporated a program that should permit you to fire while cloaked. But such an attempt might compromise the cloaking
field so I'd advise against it. »
« More illegal stuff. » Kline sighed. « Okay. I'll begin
transferring personnel immediately. Kline out. »
Half an hour later, the crew of the Valiant
was entirely aboard the USS-Eagle. The senior staff
was stepping onto the bridge.
«
Pretty damned ugly... » Eskina sighed.
Kline
walked to his command chair, placed in the center of
the circular bridge: « Well, my chair looks comfy enough. » He dropped into it
and let out a brief scream. The whole crew stared at him as he rubbed his head:
« I hit myself! This chair is as hard as iron! »
Yasmin
Reeves asked: « Where should I sit, captain? »
Kline
glanced around the bridge, and located a free chair: « Why don't you sit at the
science station for the time being? »
She
nodded and took her place. At the same moment, doctor Tarses stepped onto the bridge:
« Hi, everyone. I just want to say that you'd better not get hurt because
sickbay might worsen your condition if you go there. »
«
Calm it, doc. » said Kline, smiling. « It's just a test run. We won't be using
sickbay all that much. »
Tarses
sighed: « I hope you're right. »
Burnel
sat down at the helm station located at the front of the bridge, her human hand
scanned the console. Memorizing the precise locations for
each button.
«
Are you good, Burnel? » asked Kline.
« Yes, sir. This is standard Starfleet configuration. Although it doesn't look very Starfleetish...
»
Kline
understood what she meant; the whole ship was greyish and uninviting. The
buttons on the consoles were either grey-blue or grey-green. The colors of
Starfleet seemed to have abandoned this ship.
«
So, » Sutter said. « If I understand this correctly...We just need to test this
new type of Federation cloaking device and basta?
»
«
That's right. » Kline said. « If possible, without being seen
by anyone. Even by a Starfleet ship, captains that aren't part of Starfleet
Intelligence usually have a heavy sense of respect towards the treaties that
the Federation signs with other races. Senses that we shouldn't have, being
officers in the shadow... »
«Understood. » Sutter said, looking uneasy.
«
Activate impulse engines, Miss Burnel. » Kline ordered.
«
Activated. » she reported.
«
Take us out of here. One-quarter impulse. »
« Aye. »
The
winged, Federation vessel slowly started moving towards the exit hatch of the
starbase's bay.
«
Eskina, I want you to engage the cloaking device as soon as we've cleared the
doors. It's paramount that nobody sees us. » Kline said.
« Yes, sir. » Eskina programmed the computer to activate the
cloak accordingly.
The
Eagle's two long wings connected by a Starfleet-type saucer rose
slightly to allow the ship passage through the hatch without hitting the sides
of the doorway. The wings could move up or down 30 degrees maximum.
As
soon as the ship cleared the doors, it disappeared behind the transparent
cloaking shields that it generated.
« Status? » Sutter asked.
«
Cloak is... » Eskina checked his console. « ...perfect. No problem at all. »
« Impulse engines functioning. » Burnel reported. « Warp
engines on line. »
«
Okaaaay.... » Kline rubbed his hands together. « Set
a course, bearing nine-oh-seven mark two-one-five. Full
impulse. »
The
impulse engines fired and the ship started moving slowly towards the bearing
Kline had given.
«
We're on a direct course to Tryssiell. » said Burnel.
« Tryssiell? » Eskina raised an eyebrow. « What's that? »
«
It's the asteroid you must be reading on your screen. » Burnel said. « It's
named after the Rigellian god of mountains. »
«
Pretty nasty looking. » said Eskina, studying the three dimensional image on
his screen.
«
It's the best test area for us. » said Kline. « There're hundreds of small fragments
from Tryssiel that detach themselves and are caught in the asteroid's
gravitational pull. Most of them get stuck in orbit of it and after a few
hundred years it's become a pretty dense asteroid field. »
«
Miss Burnel, put us in orbit around the asteroid. And take us into the field of
rocks. That way we can test the resiliency of our cloaking shields. » Kline
said.
On
the viewscreen a cloud of small rocks began to appear around the asteroid, the Eagle
entered the field and the bridge began shaking slightly.
«
Shields are holding, captain. » said Mantion at her tactical station. «
Deflector systems are holding they aren't affected by the cloaking device. Impacts
from the rock pieces are having only negligible
effects. »
«
Excellent. » Kline said. « Okay. Let's test our sensors. Run a deep scan of the
asteroid. Just to make sure no one can detect our scanning beams. »
«
Scanning... » Eskina said.