Chapter 6: Journey of a Thousand Steps

Main shuttlebay, USS Oberon, 0700

LT Cartwright winced as she looked at the large, dark green Romulan shuttlecraft sitting amongst the immaculate light gray Federation shuttles in the Oberon’s shuttlebay. She looked at her tricorder again, it’s Starfleet markings looking slightly out of place with the civilian clothes she was wearing for the mission.

Commander t’Jon, the Oberon’s Andorian first officer, stuck her head out of the side entryway of the shuttle, looking for Cartwright, and said, “The tactical suite is practically nonexistent. I hope you don’t encounter anything more dangerous than a flock of mynocks.”

“My guess is that the Romulans don’t want us to obtain any information at all, even from a 50 year old shuttle,” Jennifer responded. “The plasma manifold off of the main reactor is shot. If we try to do more than warp 3, we’ll end up venting more than just plasma.”

“I’m sure McBride will be disappointed to get the scans, then. He was hoping to get some good data on one of their quantum singularity reactors.”

As Commander t’Jon was about to go back into the shuttle to continue her inspection, Captain Jerran walked into the shuttlebay with the Romulan Tal Shiar officer, LT tr’Kovan. Both were dressed in civilian clothes more appropriate to their cover story. LT Cartwright raised an eyebrow, a gesture that Jerran would probably make fun of, saying she’d been spending too much time around Vulcans, as she noticed that the two were laughing quite boisterously. t'Jon exited the shuttle to meet up with them.

“Will she fly, Commander?” Jerran asked of his XO as he took a look at the ungainly Romulan ship.

“Knowing your definition of the term, sir, I’d say no. But, it probably will get you to where you need to go.”

“Just make sure you keep a line open for us,” Cartwright quipped as she nodded a greeting to tr’Kovan. “Just in case we need to call you for a ride home.”

“I knew your people were paranoid, Lieutenant,” Jerran said to tr’Kovan with a smile. “I had no idea it would extend to endangering our lives.”

“I assure you, that was probably not the intention, Captain,” tr’Kovan explained. “This older ship will serve our undercover needs better, I believe. In fact, this is very similar to a ship I used on my first undercover mission.”

“You’re still alive,” Cartwright said. “So, that must be a good sign.”

“Are we ready to go Lieutenant?” Jerran asked Cartwright before tr’Kovan could respond to her.

“The ship, and I use that term loosely,” she said as she waved towards the shuttle, “is as ready as it’ll ever be. I just need to change clothes.”

Jerran nodded and Cartwright walked off towards the shuttlebay’s departure lounge to change. He turned to tr’Kovan and said, “We can board now and start the preflight while she’s changing.” The captain then entered the Romulan shuttle with the Tal Shiar agent in tow.

As the shuttle was about the size of a Danube class runabout, it had an extensive amount of room inside, including a couple of small crew cabins, a larger cabin for the ship’s commander, and a small dining area. LT tr’Kovan led Captain Jerran to the cockpit at the front of the ship. Unlike a Federation runabout, the cockpit of the Romulan shuttle was more of a smaller version of a starship bridge, with a commander’s seat directly behind the pilot’s and system operation’s consoles. Jerran sat down at the pilot’s console while tr’Kovan took the operations console. After a few moments, the shuttle started humming as the main reactor started sending power to the various systems on the ship. Outside, the warp engines were glowing a faint green, casting an eerie glow onto the shuttledeck.

Once LT Cartwright had returned in her civilian clothes, Jerran relinguished the pilot seat to her, taking the commander’s seat for himself. She looked over the console, familiarizing herself with the different control areas.

“Are you sure you don’t want to let LT tr’Kovan take over?” Jerran asked her with a slight grin on his face.

She looked back at him with a slight scowl on her face. “My Romulan may be a little rusty, but I think I can figure out where the impulse initiator is.” She tapped an area of the console, causing the shuttle to shudder violently for a moment. She grinned back at Jerran who was now gripping his seat and said, “Yup, there it is.”

He just turned to tr’Kovan and said, “Request clearance for launch.”

“Ie, rekkhai,” he said, in Rihannsu. He then blushed slightly and said, “Sorry, I mean aye, sir. Shuttle Hyades to Oberon flight ops requesting permission to launch.”

[Request granted, Hyades,] Commander t’Jon’s voice said over the comm. [You may proceed at a bearing of 180 mark 0. Have a safe journey.]

“Take us out, Jenn, and don’t run into anything on the way.”

The shuttle slowly lifted off from the deck of the Oberon’s shuttlebay and then flew out the large shuttlebay doors at the rear of the ship. Once they were clear of the shuttlebay, Cartwright increased the throttle to full impulse until they were safely away from the Romulan starbase. In a flash of light, the shuttle was off at warp speeds towards their destination of the Iota Pavonis system.