Engage

"Let's begin," Josh said when the Cadet had no questions. "Computer, run program Kobayashi Maru Simulation Four, and pause."

A Defiant-Class bridge appeared around the Captain and the Cadet, complete with a full bridge crew. Officers at each station were frozen in their activities. Josh moved to stand behind the captain's chair that rose in the middle of the bridge, then motioned for Cadet Decatur to sit.

"As I stated earlier, this is your ship, the USS Maelstrom," Josh stated. "You are on your way to investigate reports of raiding along the border of Ferengi space. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the bridge and when you are ready, take your seat and tell the computer to resume the simulation. Good luck. Captain."

 

    The USS Maelstrom might be in calm space right now, but B’Zinga’s mind was on high alert. It was especially hair-pulling for her - thankfully not literally - because she never got to be a team leader in many of the group projects in Starfleet Academy. She was quite happy when someone else took the head leadership role, and she was quite content with doing what other would call “busy work”.

    However, this situation was inescapable. Here she was, the captain of her own ship, and she had a crew of NCOs awaiting her command. After a nervous glance around the room, she walked to the captain’s chair, took a seat, and scanned the names on the PADD in front of her. She was especially looking for her officers’ names, species, and duties.

    Then, she quickly glanced around the room, hoping to see that all the equipment was in good condition. She also glanced at the report to see whether or not the USS Maelstrom was, to use the old Terran idiom, ship-shape.

    “Computer, resume simulation,” she replied in a somewhat shaky voice. She hoped that the next challenges ahead would be manageable.

The bridge crew jumped to life, each hard at work at their stations.

"Sir, we're picking up a distress signal," stated the human communications officer, Ensign Jones. "It's breaking up quite a bit, but I'll patch it through now."

"This is the Federation freighter... we were attacked by...engines are down...severely wounded," came a panicked voice over the comms.

"I've also just picked up a distress signal from a Ferengi ship a few lightyears from here," reported the Vulcan Ops Chief, Lt. T'Rahl.

    B’Zinga’s pace quickened as she heard that there were two ships that needed her help. If only she had other ships to help her.

    “Let’s hear what the Ferengi distress signal has to say, Lieutenant T’Rahl,” said B’Zinga. “Maybe it has information that would help all of us.”

    She turned to her science officer. “Scan the area for any possible threats.”

    Then she turned to her first officer. “Any idea how far the Federation freighter is from our ship?”

"Aye sir," replied Ensign Jones as he patched the Ferengi message through.

"We've been attacked! We need assistance! They stole our very valuable cargo!" an angry voice said.

"That's the whole message sir," Jones reported. "It just repeats after that."

Lt. T'Rahl chimed in then, "It will take roughly 30 minutes to reach either ship, Captain. They are very near to each other."

"I'm not picking up any signatures besides the freighters," the Tactical Chief, Lt. Tanya Harrison, reported. "I don't know who attacked them, but there have been reports of Orion activity in the area. Also sir, the Federation freighter is leaking plasma very quickly."

    B’Zinga took a few moments to think about the current situation. So apparently there were two ships out there that needed help that were fairly close to each other - a Federation cargo ship and a Ferengi vessel. The Ferengi ship wasn’t able to give much information other that whoever attacked them was interested in stealing the ship’s cargo - whatever it was, Orion or otherwise.

As much as B’Zinga wanted to save both of them, she knew that she might only be able to save one ship - or none at all. If she wanted to have a chance of saving one ship, she had to act quickly and decisively.

She made up her mind that the Federation ship came first - after all, the Federation was her people, her culture. And she had to be honest, she wasn’t a fan of Ferengi and their value system. She thought that the Ferengi obsession about profits was trite and short-sighted. There was so much more to life than slips, strips, or even bars of latinum.

“Set a course for the Federation cargo ship,” said B’Zinga. “And get the ship on Yellow Alert - I have a feeling that there’s something out there, even if we can’t detect it right now. While we’re on the way, keep monitoring the condition of the ship as well as scanning the area for enemies.”

B’Zinga was glad that the officers on the ship were holograms and not some her Academy classmates. There was a silly rumor - it was more of a joke, as almost no one she knew actually believed it to be true - that Jocelyn had a decent amount of Orion blood. It was jokingly used an explanation of why B’Zinga viewed Jocelyn as simply irresistible. As much as she thought the joke was funny, she was not in the mood for any jokes right now, and thus she was glad that none of the people on board knew of the joke.

((OOC: The rumor about Jocelyn having Orion heritage is untrue. But you know how wild rumors can be …))

"Aye sir, replied the XO. "Yellow alert, everyone be prepared."

Nearly thirty minutes later, the tactical chief looked up from his console to report.

"We'll be arriving at the freighter shortly. Their life support is nearing failure," she said. "We'll only have ten minutes to get anyone off that ship before it fails completely. No sign of movement from the Ferengi."

B’Zinga made a decision to concentrate on the Federation ship. She could deal with the Ferengi later. Right now she had to get the Federation civilians out of the freighter. If she were to beam them all into the USS Maelstrom, it would certainly be a tight fit, but at least she could save lives.

“How many life signs do we have on the freighter?” asked B’Zinga. Her voice quickened as she spoke. “And are we able to get a transporter lock on them?”

She then turned to Ensign Jones. “Hail the freighter, please.”

B’Zinga said, “This is Captain B’Zinga Decatur of the Federation starship Maelstrom. We received your distress call earlier, and we’re here to assist you. What’s the situation on your ship?”

((OOC: I edited your post to account for the transmission going through.))

"It's hard to tell if we can get a lock," replied the Operations Chief. "There is a lot of radiation blocking the signal, but I should be able to get them if I make a couple adjustments to the transporters."

"Thank you for responding Captain," came a reply over the comm channel. "We've taken heavy damage and suffered many casualties. I'm one of the six surviving crewmembers. And we won't be surviving much longer; our life support is going to fail any minute."

"Sir, the Ferengi ship has disappeared from my scans," reported the Tactical Chief, sounding stunned. "I didn't pick up an explosion. It's just gone."

((OOC: Thanks!))

    B’Zinga saw the Ferengi ship disappear. It was … strange. But she couldn’t think much of it right now - right now, she had to save the lives of those Federation citizens.

“Make those adjustments then, Lieutenant,” replied B’Zinga. “The faster we get the crew off the vessel, the faster we can get out of here. I have a feeling that we’re in for some trouble.”

B’Zinga then turned to talk to the freighter though the comm channel. “We’re going to get you beamed up here as fast as my officers can get a lock on you,” she said. “But while we’re working on this, tell me as much as you can about what you experienced.”

She then turned to her tactical officer. “Do a thorough scan of the area for something unusual. I have a very bad feeling about this.”

((OOC: You can have the officers on the Maelstrom beam up the freighter crew when the officers have a lock on the crew.))

"I'll get right on it Captain," said the Ops Chief as he headed off the bridge, to the transporter room.

As he left the room, the freighter captain's voice came over the channel again, "I can't tell you much about what happened. Their first attack took down our warp engines and sensors. They had just taken down our shields and I believe they were preparing to board us, then they stopped. That was about a half hour ago."

"I think I know who did it Captain," the Tactical Chief said. "The Ferengi ship has just decloaked to our rear. Now that we're close, it appears to have weapons and a cloak jury-rigged to turn it into a raider. It's brought friends too, a Klingon Bird of Prey and an Orion cruiser. Incoming fire!"

    B’Zinga growled immediately when she heard the tactical officer’s report. So it was a trap, it seemed. Klingons, for all they talk about honor, were so dishonest - if they were as strong as they seem, why all this diversion to attack Federation ships.

    “Lieutenant, is there a way you can beam the survivors out in a firefight?” asked B’Zinga as she was thrown to the back of her captain’s chair. She knew that transport while battle was risky, but who knew - the operations chief could have a few tricks up his sleeve.

    B’Zinga then called out to the Federation cargo crew over the channel. “We’ll do our best to help you out. We’ll transport you once conditions are safe enough.”

    She then turned to the communications officer. “Hail the Klingon Bird-of-Prey. I would like to have a conversation with this petaQ if possible.”

"We'll need to drop the shields to beam them out," the Lieutenant replied. "The freighter crew is small enough that it should only take a few seconds."

Another volley of disruptor fire and torpedoes hit the Maelstrom.

"Shields are down to fifty percent," reported the Tactical Chief.

"There was no response from the Bird of Prey Captain," reported the Comm officer. "I am, however, receiving a message from the Ferengi ship. Patching it through now."

"Federation ship, we claim your cargo for our own," a Ferengi voice said. "Hand over all valuables or die."

B’Zinga sighed as the Ferengi captain issued a demand. She wondered if this was really a Ferengi captain at all, but no matter - she wasn’t going to give in so easily.

This situation reminded her of some of the stories that Jocelyn had told him about his ancestors. Yes it was a very Klingon tradition to tell these stories, by B’Zinga thought that Jocelyn was exceptionally good at it. One story came to mind in particular - a story about a 19th century American naval officer named Stephen Decatur who fought pirates who demanded tribute from his country.

It was a rather interesting coincidence, B’Zinga thought - she had recently married Jocelyn and took his last name, and now she had to deal with what seemed to the 25th century version of the Barbary pirates.

“Give us a few moments to prepare the cargo,” she said over the channel as she shook her head and faked a sense of exhaustion. She then turned to her communications officer. “Mute channel please.”

If the channel had successfully been muted, she called both her tactical and ops chiefs. This time, she was talking in a firmer voice. “All right, this is the plan … I’m going to make small talk with the enemy captain. Meanwhile when I say the code words … ‘blabbering blatherskites’ I want the shields dropped and the survivors beamed on board. And for good measure - let’s have a few small containers filled with simple non-valuable goods … beamed on to their ship for good measure. Once you get the survivors, Lieutenant T’Rahl, I want you to say a sentence with the word ‘green’ - this will be our signal to raise the shields again and work on hightailing out of here. It’s a bit far-fetched, but we don’t have many other options. Understood?”

 

 

The bridge officers nodded at their captain's orders and set to work preparing for her plan.

"You don't need to prepare anything," said the Ferengi. "Lower your shields and we will take care of the rest. Don't try to trick us, that's what your friends here did and look how it turned out for them. Heh. They're luck that you interrupted our work when you came into the area; it gave them a few extra minutes of life."

 

The officers had all finished their preparations by the time he finished talking, and each gave a signal to let the Captain know that they were ready.

 

    “Oh no,” said B’Zinga over the channel once it was unmuted. “I would never trick you. As I’m sure you know, Klingons are known for their honor, not their treachery. We won’t make the same mistake as the blabbering blatherskites that came before me had done. In fact, if you check your transporter pad in a few moments, you’ll see a box containing what you seek …”

    As she talked, B’Zinga waited for Lieutentant T’Rahl to give the signal that they had the freighter crew members on board.

Lt. T'Rahl jumped into action at the Captain's codewords and after a few seconds, the freighter crew was on board.

"The arboretum is green, Captain," the Lieutenant said. "And the plants are in full bloom."

The ship suddenly rocked after being hit by a torpedo volley from all three ships they were facing.

"We detected your transporter!" the Ferengi snarled. "I told you not to try any tricks with me. Now you will pay!"

Another volley of torpedoes hit the Maelstrom.

"Captain, that first volley took down our warp engines," reported Tactical. "We got our shields up in time to absorb most of the second volley, but a torpedo got through and crippled our communications array. Shields are now at 40 percent."

    “That’s okay, we don’t need to talk to them anymore,” said B’Zinga when she heard that the communications array was down. “Our weapons and shields will do the talking. Let’s make sure that our guests are all well and healed up. In the meantime, let’s try to dodge what they throw at us and target their weapons systems with all we’ve got. If their weapons are down, they can’t hurt us. We might not be able to blow them up, but we might be able to reach safety. Once we’re in a safe place, we can notify Starfleet to take care of them. I just care that we can get out of here.”