4
Three hours had passed since the last Dominion vessel passed by
the Hunter ’s hiding place. It was 0200 hours and frayed nerves were
beginning to show themselves. Several minor disputes had broken out
among the crew. Mainly they were disputes over points of view as to
how to best repair certain systems. These were quickly stamped out
because, much like an untended camp fire, they were liable to blow
out of all proportion and burn down the forest.
Jim was exhausted. He had been on his feet for about fourteen
hours before his newly promoted First Officer, Lieutenant Andrea
Flynn, had told him to get some rest before she ‘relieved him of
command‘ and threw him in what was left of the brig. So here he was
lying on his own bunk in his own quarters. He may be the Commanding
Officer of the Federation starship Hunter but he would not take the
Captain’s quarters. To do that would be to dishonour the great man
who had been, not just a leader, but a friend to all his officers
whether they were Senior or Junior officers. Before his worn out
brain even realised what was happening Jim fell asleep. His crew
worked on through the night in four hour shifts. They worked for four
hours, rested for four hours and were back on duty for another four
hours. Several who were supposed to have been ‘resting’ quietly
sneaked back out to finish the jobs they had started on their
previous duty shifts.
Lieutenant Flynn, a good friend of Jim’s since their Academy
days, made sure he wasn’t disturbed until he had at least six full
hours of sleep. At least the sedative she had slipped into his tea
had broken down the defences that Jim had built up against the
onslaught of his fatigued body enabling him to get some rest. After
all, she told herself with some mirth, that was her duty as First
Officer. At precisely 0800 hours she entered Jim’s quarters and woke
him.
They had a breakfast of Combat Rations (ComRats) and cold
coffee in the Mess Hall while Andrea brought Jim up to speed on the
status of the repairs. For a small crew they had done a magnificent
job in getting as much done as they had. They were now able to
manoeuvre, at impulse speed at least, and fight. Her photon launchers
were out of commission as was her dorsal phaser strip. However, her
quantum torpedo launchers and pulse phaser cannons were fully
operational. She was still a ship with teeth and she would use them
again in defence of herself and the Federation.
The sensor grid had been returned to an operating efficiency of
75%. This meant that the ship’s eyes had developed a few blind spots.
This could prove a very dangerous prospect if they had to fight
against more than one enemy vessel at a time. When Jim and Andrea
took the short trip on the turbolift to the bridge half an hour later
Jim was mightily surprised. The bridge had been transformed from a
scene of utter of carnage, after her earlier battering, to one of
quiet efficiency. Every duty station was manned and operating, despite
the fact that several consoles were doubling up on their duties
because several terminals had been damaged beyond the crew’s ability
to repair.
Jim took his place in the command seat. It still felt a little
uncomfortable for him to be there. He looked approvingly around the
bridge at his crew, receiving a few proud nods from the officers
manning their stations. They were proud of their accomplishments in
getting so much of the ship repaired in so short a time, and quite
rightly too.
“Tactical. Any Dominion ships on sensors?“
“None sir,“ replied Ensign T’Vral. “But we are operating on
passive systems only. It is highly unlikely that a Dominion vessel
would detect our passive scans.“
Jim mulled this over for a few seconds. It was entirely
possible for a Dominion vessel to be hiding among the debris like a
spider just waiting for an unsuspecting fly to tip off the web and
spring the trap. The problem was he needed information before they
could dare to move the Hunter from her concealment. He needed to know
if, in fact, there were any Dominion vessels in the vicinity and also
if there were any Federation starships still around, hiding like
themselves. More importantly he needed to know if there were any
other Defiant-class vessels near to them because, as much as he felt
like a grave robber, they needed to extract its warhead – providing
it was operational – and attach it to the Hunter in order for them to
use the warp drive to escape back to Federation space. Trying to get
there on impulse was out of the question. Not only would it take them
hundreds of years but there was absolutely no chance of them even
getting out of the Chin’Toka system undetected. Unable to wait any
longer Jim ordered a quick, but low powered, active scan of the
vicinity of the battlefield. A few tense seconds passed before Ensign
T’Vral gave his report with typical Vulcan stoicism.
“Captain,“ he began, using the correct title for Jim even
though it made Jim a little uncomfortable, “there are no Dominion
ships within sensor range. They either have withdrawn back to the
planets to support their ground forces or they are hiding within our
sensor holes. It is possible, though unlikely, that there are cloaked
Breen vessels hiding out there among the debris. I am detecting the
remains of approximately 311 Federation, Klingon and Romulan vessels.
I am unable to ascertain the number of Dominion casualties due to the
low power of the sensor scan.“
Jim waited, a little impatiently, as the Vulcan Tactical
Officer slowly gave a rundown of the results of the sensor scan. It
ranged from the amount of radiation that was still present and
affecting the sensors to how many escape pods were destroyed while
they were evacuating crews from dying starships. Finally he got to
the information Jim was waiting on.
“I have detected the remains of seven Defiant-class vessels
ranging from 5 to 500 kilometres from our current location. I am,
however, unable to determine the status of their navigational
deflector arrays from such a low power scan.“
Seven. That was more than Jim had dared hope for and he
suddenly realised he had been holding his breath. He exhaled slowly
and forced himself to calm down, to approach this ‘logically’.
“We can’t take the Hunter out to check out those ships so how
do we found out if there is a suitable warhead out there that we can
salvage? Suggestions?“
“The only thing I can think of is to go EVA. We can hop from
hull to hull, using minimal thrusters, to get there. A two man team
can easily manage it sir without being detected. It might take us a
while but it’s better than revealing the presence of the ship,“
volunteered the Hunter ’s Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Granger.
“We might not have enough time for a two-man team to search all
seven vessels. We can send seven teams out which will minimise the
search time,“ replied Jim. “Each team can send their tricorder data
on a narrow-band comm line back here. Anyone not in line of sight
should not be able to pick up their transmissions.” He didn’t add the
‘I hope’ that he felt like saying and probably everyone on the bridge
was thinking.
“Okay Granger, have your teams prepped for departure within the
hour. First team to find one wins a prize,“ he said with a wry smile,
hoping to ease the tension on the bridge. Everyone knew that sending
out one team would take longer but would be infinitely safer, as it
would draw less attention than fourteen environment-suited
To Be Continued....
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