USS Polaris on patrol

The short warp jump from the inner planet to the outer edge of the star system took barely half an hour for the Aquarius class escort starship of Oseno Jureth. From there, the Polaris turned  hard about and went right back into the orbital path of it's last frozen gas giant at a more measured pace. Flying at a quarter of the speed of light in order to thoroughly chart the star system itself, the small crew of the Polaris was alert and about, either participating in the survey or preparing for whatever may come.

They were barely over a hundred million miles within the orbital arc of Eden XII and XI when a scanner beeped on the science control board.

"Sir... we are crossing some kind of decaying cohesive energy stream," Lieutenant Ji'lan, the Orion science officer, reported

"Not a warp trail nor an impulse trail," specified  Lieutenant Kalaar at tactical. "But ti does conform to a similar narrow pattern of dispersion."

"Decaying gravitons, Sir," added the science officer. "Something went inside the star system within the last hour with some kind of gravitic effect, literally bouncing from Eden XII towards Eden XI."

"Nothing yet on sensors, Sir," finished the tactical report.

"Status of of the star itself Lieutenant Ji'lan?" Oseno asked immediately thinking of the widespread devastation the Hobus Supernova had caused. "Can we trace whatever it was back to it's source?"

"The star is steady and conforming to all the normal parameters of it's stellar category. As for the particle trail itself, it definitely comes from outside of the system  and stretches inward," she responded. "Whatever left it came from outside, from the port side of our own initial entry and less than half an hour ago. The angle and varying density of the displaced stellar matter along it tends to suggest that it's speed and trajectory varied in direct relation with it's distance to the planetary gravity wells."

Ji'lan turned to face her Bajoran commanding officer.

"Natural objects sometimes rebound on planetary atmospheres and gravity wells, Sir;  but, for a natural object, repeated bouncings from one planetary body to another and keeping a steady trajectory inward the star system would become statistically more improbable with each additional one."

"In plain language; this looks like the trail of a vessel of some kind," Palos concluded.

"A distinct possibility," Ji'Lian concurred. "But if such would be the case, one that would use a propulsion technology quite different from ours."

"Check our sensor logs, did the Romulans launch any probes or anything into the anomaly? Could they have even gotten anything through? What about the energy beings mentioned in the briefing, do the reading indicate any possibility of their presence?"

"Unlikely, Sir... unless the Romulans have any kind of technology we are totally unaware of... which is also unlikely. And both our logs and their behavior also makes their involvement here just as unlikely. As for the "spirits" of Commander Sisko, there is simply not enough data at this point to properly answer the question. When they were encountered, they had apparently travelled without anything we would understand as a ship or vessel, directly through the energy stream of the particle fountain of the space station they invaded... where the USS Spectre later found them."

Oseno considered his options for a moment, they did have a mission assignment to perform, but at the same time he felt this warranted an investigation. If it was a ship, it could mean first contact with as yet unknown species or on the worse end of the spectrum a threat to the colonial operation.

"Tactical, configure and launch two class 5 probes along our assigned mapping route, we will retrieve them later. Helm, take data from science and plot a course to follow the energy signature and Mister Palos, inform Horizon we are deviating from our planned course to investigate this anomaly."

The officers of the Polaris acknowledged their commander's orders and set about their duties and it wasn't long before Lt. Kalaar announced "probes away."

"Thank you Mister Kalaar," Jureth replied Mister Hunter, do you have a track?"

"I have a start Sir."

"Very well, engage course Mister Hunter."

"Aye Sir."

The Polaris broke off her mapping route and and began tracing the energy trail like the proverbial blood hound on the scent.

Barely a few minutes passed by before Hunter reported from his navigational sensor readings tracking the decaying energy trail they were following.

"Sir, by my calculation, whatever left this trail is moving faster than our full impulse... but it's need to swerve to the next gravity well at very precise angles in order to use it to accelerate without completely falling into it. That makes it follow a very sinuous trajectory our own slower but  straighter flight is overtaking."

"Confirmed, Sir," Kalaar added next. " judging by the growing density and dispersal pattern of the gravitons, it just went by the eleventh planet and will logically proceed towards the ninth one, as Eden X is completely on the other side of the star, unreachable for this... jumping around it does. But... Sir... if it does... then, it's definitely moving inward the system... and on a precise heading for the inner planets."

"We should have it on our sensors momentarily," finished Ji'lan hunching over her own scanner readout.

On the screen was looming the blue-grey and white orb of a frozen gas giant circled by three thin rings of ice particles that crossed one another at the equator of the planet. Aside from the peculiar configuration of it's three separated rings, it looked a lot like Andor, the giant planet around which orbited the inhabitable moon of Andoria, homeworld of the flagship commanding officer. But this was in another universe. Here, it was the last veil between them and whatever was moving away out there.

And when they finally cleared the blocking orb of Eden XI, there was a long, cold moment of silence where no one even moved for several seconds.

"Sir?" finally said Ji'Lian with a puzzled tone. "I... nothing on sensors, Sir."

"The trail is still there, Sir," then stated Kalaar, just as puzzled. "It still clings to the edge of the planet's gravity well."

"Boost the sensor output," Oseno ordered "Augment with auxiliary power if needed, confirm the presence of the trail and that it is still moving inward."

There was a moment of silence where the only thing that moved was the immense curve of the nearby frozen planet they were now flying around.

"Sir... the trail seems to follow the outer edge of the gravity well of the planet... Whatever it is, it is not going towards the inner planets anymore. It is more like it would try to establish a high orbit. But... the density and dispersal of the gravitons has changed; higher density, wider dispersal... it's accelerating as if to proceed with the rebound but the direction is still orbital. It's like it is..."

Suddenly, the ship trembled violently and the hull boomed with rapid impacts on the energy shields as flashes of light brutally filled the screen.

"Coming from behind!"

Jureth was grateful for the personal inertial dampeners that were now standard issue on Starfleet vessels just then. He gripped the arms of the command chair as he issued orders

"Red Alert! Mister Hunter, evasive maneuvers. Mister Palos signal Horizon inform them we are taking damage from an unknown source. Lieutenant Ji'lan source? Is there a vessel in the vicinity?"

"Aye, Sir! Switching viewer to aft!"

On the screen, the whole image shifted to the rearward view. Against the backdrop of far away stars partly cut off by the reversed curve of the giant blue-white panet, pulses of destructive energies framed the image, coming from what looked like a six-pronged fork-like elongated shape ending with the same number of short, slim nacelles. There were numerous markings on the hull of the object that made look like it was almost furred. A pair of narrow yellowish lights shone over each prong that ended themselves in two jagged edges on top of another. The energy blasts came from between each of those pairs of protrusions and narowly missed the Polaris as it banked sharply away from the new salvo.

"Definitely a vessel of some kind on a pursuit course to us, light cruiser mass and size, configuration unknown, origin unknown!" Kalaar reported between clenched theeth, fingers already fully arming weapons and sending deflector pulses to reinforce the protective energy shields.

And not an instant too soon. Another blast glanced of the starboard nacelle and again sent a sinister vibration right up to them.

"Propulsion system appears as an amazingly large number of sublight gravimetric and atomic maneuvering thrusters systems and a microsingularity-based warp field for faster than light travel," added Ji'Lian with her eyes glued to her sensor readouts. "Weapons are small gravimetric torpedoes similar to what the Borg used to have... each impact is hampering our maneuvering and draining the gravitons of our shields."

Another barrage of energy blobs forced them to bank sharply to starboard, for a second straining even their portable inertial dampeners.

"Shields at seventy-seven percent!" announced the tactical officer.

"I detect some kind of very powerful tractor beam emitters on standby aimed at us... a lot of them! I can't read within the hull itself because of some very heavy armor shielding akin to our own regenerative armor."

The Polaris swerved again and, although the salvo missed it completely, there was again an ominious vibration all accross the hull, as if the ship itself was trembling in panic.

"They are forcing us against the planet's atmosphere and gravity well, Sir!" helmsman's Hunter suddenly exclaimed. 

The ship's intercom just then beeped.

"Bridge! This is engineering! Structural integrity field is already straining near engineering design limits!"

"They are putting us between the planet and themselves," understood Kalaar. "Either their blasts will get us... or we will smash against the planet's electromagnetic field, fall into it's gravity well or burn into it's atmosphere."

"And they are jamming all frequencies, Sir," finished Palos with a somber tone.

"Options," Oseno demanded as he tried to keep his cool "Can we go to warp?"

"We'll have to outmaneuver them to avoid a collision; whoever they are, they fly in our path every move we make," Hunter answered as he banked the ship from another volley of gravitic projectiles. 

The ship shook nevertheless as it skimmed the planet's gravity well at a hard angle.

"Sir, at warp, we will only transfer the conflict at a greater speed," Kalaar analyzed, fingers hovering over the weapon controls. "These gravimetric charges are as fast as our torpedoes.And the power output of their shield is significantly greater than our own, even at full capacity. They would get us by fire attrition unless they have fewer projectiles than we do."

"Negative," Ji'lian countered as they were again shaken by a hard brush with the gravitic field of the planet to avoid a salvo. "These projectiles are energy created from gravitons. As long as they stay near a gravimetric source, they can replenish their magazines indefinetely."

It was his science officer who provided a first option.

"I have analyzed their propulsion system; it uses gravimetric currents to propel itself and thrusters for maneuvering. The farther we are from a gravity source like this planet, the less power and speed they will have to move. Sir, if we go away from this planet, better yet this system, our impulse drive will give us a distinct maneuvering advantage... and they will eventually exhaust their torpedoes just as we do."

"Or... if we go in..." Kalaar suddenly realized. "We have atmospheric capabilities; maybe they don't. And if they do, the closer to a massive gravity source like this frozen gas giant, the less maneuverability they will have... and the stronger gravity of the planet will hamper the targeting and trajectory of their torpedoes the same way."

They shook harder this time as one of those projectiles impacted their shields.

"Shields at forty-seven percent!"

It took Oseno less than a second to make his decision.

"Mister Hunter, I hope your atmospheric flight qualifications are as good as Captain Siduri claimed. Take us into the atmosphere of the planet, maximum allowable speed. Mister Palos, keep trying to push out a distress call to Horizon. Mister Kalaar, see if we can add some punch to our weapons to at least disable theirs long enough for us to get out of here."

"Here goes nothing," grumbled the pilot.

As her phasers blasted warning shots that forced the other to dodge away precipitously, the Polaris suddenly banked under a return salvo and swirved in an sharp elliptical arc downward almost like those antique propeller fighter airplanes of Earth as it plunged towards the immense blue white orb of the planet. It shook as it righted itself into a proper amgle to enter the thick atmospheric cover of the frozen gas world, fortunately amplifying the evasive maneuvers of the ship against the following energy discharges of the enemy vessel.

"They're engaging in a pursuit course," reported Kalaar.

On the screen, they saw the alien vessel almost flip end over end to match their sudden change of direction and also angle towards the planet. And then, as they too started to shake and heat up under the friction of the dense gases of the atmosphere, it suddenly split apart like a fragile piece of wood shattered in multiple pieces along it's length.

Several officers almost whooped with joy and relief as they saw the strange ship break apart. Then, all open jaws froze in astonishment.

Their pursuer had not broke apart under atmospheric pressure and heat; instead, it had detached itself into six identical, stiletto-shaped parts, larger than an old style runabout but still smaller than an escort type starship like the Polaris. 

Like a six-fingered hand opening to grab and crush them, the separated alien vessel now plunged after them into the planet's thick cloud cover, using the thick clouds to try to hide their movement, flashing colored lights briefly to one another before resuming the chase with renewed speed.

"They're moving to flank us on both sides!" instantly understood the tactical officer.

Oseno nodded grimly acknowledging the assessment, this was beginning to look like a kobyashi maru scenario. 

"Enough running...Mister Kalaar, quantum torpedoes, full spread aft, multiple targets. Mister Hunter, steady as she goes, maneuver as you see fit." 

"Aye, Sir," both officers acknowledged.

As the Polaris plunged deeper into the dense cloud covering of the planet, the pursuing squadron spread out in two groups, port and starboard, and closed in slowly but surely. Their energy projectiles were fired in alternative salvos, forcing their prey to flight in an ever narrowing corridor directly towards the planetary surface. Their intent was clear; either they would be blasted out of the sky or they would crash.

Using the clouds as a screen, Hunter managed to bring about the Starfleet warship to swirve and angle between both flanking groups and at the same time fire her torpedoes fore and aft. Five color-changing stars flew towards each attack group, hitting them in a fast succession of blinding flashes and thundering detonations within the cloudy atmosphere, which ignited briefly with cold gases brutally heated and burnt with added roar and light. 

"Direct hits!" confirmed Kalaar. " All their shields are weakened by ten percent. They're on evasive and moving to regroup."

"Those burning gases must have blinded their sensors for a brief moment," hypothesized Ji'Lian. "These clouds are so dense to begin with, scanners have difficulty penetrating them a few kilometers beyond direct line of sight. Burning methane at close range would overload all signals briefly."

The hunters indeed had spread out to avoid the brunt of the impacts but they all trailed some burning fumes around their energy shields as they scattered within the clouds to obviously regroup for another pass as the tectical officer had pointed out.

"Shields at thirty-six percent," announced kalaar after another volley that shook them hard.

"Integrity field buckling!" the chief engineer exclaimed with oubvious alarm. "We can't fly this way much longer in such a dense atmosphere without adequate shielding!"

"They're still jamming all frequencies," Palos informed them all.

"Enemy closing in from 135 mark 45 and 235 mark 315... overtaking us from behind, port and starboard," Kalaar then read from his targeting scanners. " Their supply of projectiles is inexhaustible as long as they have power and their shields and armor are in better shape than ours. Sir, if this hide and seek game continues like this, they will have us by simple attrition in the long run."

Oseno needed something to turn the tide of this fight, at least long enough for his ship to escape. He briefly recalled a maneuver by then Commander William Riker where he used metreon gas collected in the Enterprise E's ramscoops to destroy pursuing enemies; except in the Polaris case, they didn't need to collect the gas. It was already there and he didn't need to destroy his enemies, just slow them down. 

"Mister Hunter, take us back up, maximum speed. Mister Kalaar give me another full spread, maximum yield. If Lieutenant Ji'lan is correct we can blind their sensors long enough to break the atmosphere and go to warp. As soon as Mister Hunter pulls up you fire those torpedoes and set them to detonate in front of our friends. Or, if anyone has a better idea I'm open to suggestions." 

"Ah the Riker maneuver; excellent, Sir!" Kalaar immediately exclaimed. Then, he frowned as he implemented the torpedo arming his commanding officer had ordered; "But... Captain; once we escape, either they will relocate and possibly pursue us... or they will fail to do so or decide otherwise and resume their original course... towards the colony."

"My plan is to take us back to Horizon, Lieutenant," Oseno explained. "If they pursue us, at maximum warp we should reach Horizon and she can cover us. If they resume their original course we can immediately contact Captains Kheren and Syntron and warn them. However if we don't try to escape there won't be anything left of us to do either of those things. But, as I said... I am open to suggestions, though if you have one I suggest you make it quickly."

"Only presenting options, Sir," apologized the tactical officer. " And you're covering them all. Torpedo spread ready, detonation distance calculated, target locked.; on your word, Captain."

"Escape trajectory towards colony site locked in," added Hunter with a nod to his fellow officer. "Reaching upper atmosphere in twenty seconds; orbital ecliptic in thirty; warp power at the ready... and if they angled back to us as they did earlier, they should appear directly aft... "

"Now!" cut in Ji'Lan glued to her scanners.

On the screen still tracking their aft view, two squadrons of three dagger-shaped ships bursted through the cloud cover in a converging charge, spitting fiery gouts of energy towards them. In a desperate maneuver only a nimble flying machine in a dense gaseous environement could achieve, the Polaris went into a complete roll, managing to dodge all the projectiles. They all flew past them between their spinning nacelles like burning oil drops between the turning blades of a fan just as they bursted through another thick cloud.

"Fire!"

"Torpedoes away!"

barely a second later, the balls of energy hit the clouds they just emerged from and it suddenly flared like paper thrown into a blaze, engulfing the image of the chasing vessels as they desperately tried to swerve away without colliding with one another. Then the fire spread out in the heavens and blinded them all.

The viewer switched to a forward angle and the blackness confused them an instant, until the flickering of unknown stars filled their eyes.

"Warping towards the inner planets in three... two... one... warpspeed!"

So close to a planetayr gravity field, the sudden acceleration to hundreds of times the speed of light strained their lifesaving inertial dampeners so much that, even with the portable one they wore in addition to that of the ship itself, they all felt queasy in their stomachs as the stars jumped  into streaks of lights before a blinding flash filled the whole screen. Then, they saw the fiery orange ball of the star grow by the second as they flew towards it.

"Warp 9, Sir," the helmsman said with a sigh of relief. "ETA with last position of the Horizon; ten minutes."

"Still no answer from them," Palos reported. "Signal might be blocked by one of the planets between which they were flying when we left them. Can,t raise the phoenix either, Sir; that I can't explain for now; our comm system is fully operational. It's like they simply don't receive us."

"No sign of pursuit yet, Sir," Kalaar then added with a tone that was anything but one of relief.

"Keep trying to raise Captain Kheren Mister Palos, wost comes to worse they'll know something is wrong when we come out of warp, or they'll pick us up on sensors before then."

Oseno sat back in the command chair and almost sighed with relief himself, but held it back wanting to present himself as the calm and collected captain of a starship, not the prone to emotional outbursts security officer he was not that long ago. For the third time in recent memory he'd almost lost his ship, and it was different with the Polaris than it was with the Alsea. When the Alsea was falling apart from battle damage there was at least an enemy they could fight, that they could damage. Here their quantum torpedoes had barely scratched this as yet unknown species shields, it reminded him of the Enterprise D's first encounter with the Borg. The Polaris had been outmaneuvered and outgunned, and she was close to the pinnacle of Starfleet escort design, but there had been no Q to save them. It was due to ingenuity of her crew that the little escort had managed to get away at all.

"Oseno to engineering, damage report."

"We're pretty beat up Sir, the structural integrity field is going to require some significant repairs when we can manage," replied the Andorian engineer Akaal. "I've stabilized it, but we will need Lieutenant Solius expertise when we get back to the ship. Everything else is...marginal. We blew out a couple of conduits in the shield system, but those are bypassed, and our impulse drive is a little shaken from the atmospheric flight but some calibrations and adjustments once we're docked should fix that."

"Understood Mister Akaal, thank you, Oseno out."

Jureth turned back toward the viewer and waited for the sight of the Horizon to fill it, and as far as he was concerned it would be just as good as when then ship under the command of Tom Paris had rescued the Alsea from the Klingons and Romulans.

His thoughts were interrupted by the low growling voice of his tactical officer.

"Sir... they're back."

The viewer switched aft and the now familiar form of the alien light cruiser appeared, albeit strangely different.

"Overtaking us at warp 9.5, Sir... and they have reconnected. But I read some hull damage, especially along one side... and one of the six parts seems to be missing altogether."

"Confirmed," Ji'Lan said her eyes to her scanner readouts. "Power output lower by seventeen percent and overall mass by fourteen percent from initial reading."

"I don't know about you but to me it looks... angry," offered Palos. "And they are again jamming us."

"Any sign of Horizon? We should be close to her by now." Oseno responded "and just for kicks Mister Palos try to hail them anyway. All frequencies, all channels...use morse code if you have to." 

Palos jerked upright as if oseno had just slapped him.

"Morse code... that's it!"

He turned towards the Bajoran with a smug smile on his face.

"Sir, those flashing lights we saw on those separated parts of the alien ship... They were LOS lasercomm signals; coded coherent light used for communication. That's how they can coordinate their attacks under all that comm jamming of theirs. We can easily do the same with just one phaser emitter and contact the Horizon, even if only by reflecting it on those moons hiding her from us."

The ship banked hard to avoid a first volley from their pursuer resuming their attack on them.

"And we can scare off our friends back there just like before, Sir," then said Kalaar grinning wolfishly. "Since you reminded me of the Riker maneuver, I had engineering collect methane from the planet's atmosphere with our ramscoops when we flew there. And I have torpedoes ready in the aft tube."

Oseno smiled "Excellent work gentlemen...proceed."

Jureth sat back proud of his people, and with new respect for Lieutenant Palos. The intelligence operative had proven himself more than capable during this mission so far. Jureth hadn't trusted Palos when Starfleet Intelligence forced the brash, cocky officer onto his staff, but the man was showing himself to be a true Starfleet officer and capable of accomplishing any task set in front of him.

And they did not let him down.

On the viewer, a thick gaseous trail formed behind the Polaris, lightly tinted blue by the computer rendering of the screen to make it visible to the bridge officers as it spread like a fog between them and the enemy craft closing in fast. Then, five color-changing stars spread out in a circular pattern to explode within the methane cloud at the precise moment the alien attacker was engulfed by it. A blinding, blueish fire suddenly flared up and spread like flames on an oil patch, The elongated ship of the unknown cruiser emerged from it, for a moment burning like a torch for a moment. But the coldness of space barely snuffed out the flames that several explosions dotted the already scarred hull, fueling anew the clinging remnants of the methane again for a few seconds. When the fires finally died out, the strange alien vessel started to drift like a burned out log, only a few lights still flickering here and there.

"Got her, Sir!" Kalaar exclaimed, his fist pumping the air as a brief sigh of relief went around the bridge.

"The methane fully hit their armor and vaporized much of it," explained Ji'lan looking at her sensor readouts. "They are disabled; minimal power, no propulsion, tactical and sensor systems offline. It seems that, with more than a sixth of their structure gone, they had to shut their shields down to get enough power to overtake us as they did..."

"And they were going too fast to avoid the unexpected gas cloud," finished Hunter grinning.

"Firing pattern Sierra also deliberately kept them in a straight line of flight to avoid the surrounding torpedoes," explained Kalaar. "This attack pattern is used to strike multiple target or seek an unlocated enemy in a close area; but here, it lured them into trying to avoid the spreading salvo through it's empty center of fire; which was of course us, their intended target. That put them nicely in between all the detonations within the densest part of the gas cloud." 

The science chief answered Jureth's next question before he stated it.

"Intermittent and undefined lifesigns, Sir; their remaining armor still reflects much of our scans."

"Jamming also still effective," Palos reported. "But I sent a lasercomm hail and detailed report to the Horizon."

Oseno nodded "Good work people, very good work. Resume our course to Horizon Mister Hunter, our friends hopefully won't be attempting to slow us down further."