Hide and Seek

Posted on Tue Jun 18th, 2013 @ 12:48pm by Commander Raven Adams & Khiy Tal'ehrihn
Edited on on Tue Jun 18th, 2013 @ 1:33pm

3,788 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: The Enemy Within: Typhon is Missing!
Location: Khellan and Hawthorne

[Hawthorne]

Morticia saw it again. A blip of something on the long-range scanners. "Thing, scan for energy trails. Is there another ship out here besides the Federation shuttles?"

Thing began to run across the keyboard. He didn't need to as he was interfaced with the computer, but sometimes Morticia suspected he did it just for show. She had to stop loading old episodes of The Addams Family into the main computer.

A moment later a light flashed. Thing had found remnants of an energy signature. It was Borg. She swore under her breath. This was bad.

She immediately sent an encrypted message to Khiy. Found a Borg signature. We're definitely not alone out here."

"Thing, keep searching. We need to find out where the Borg are and how they're involved in all this."

After a few minutes, a trail appeared on the viewscreen. "Send Khiy a message. Let's see where that trail leads. Don't lose sight of the starbase. We'll abort and go back if we get to far." Morticia wanted information, but she wasn't going to be foolish.

[Khellian]

Khiy read over the message and likewise swore. If this was all a borg plot they were in much larger trouble than simply being pulled out of the Alpha quadrant.

Khiy stormed out of the ready room and onto the command deck of the Bird of Prey. "Change heading to these co-ordinates." He ordered. He tapped twice on the PADD in his hands which sent the data to the helmsman.

"Changing course." The helmsman responded while typing in the new commands.

The Andorian captain was clearly unimpressed that his permission wasn't asked, but he chose to stay quiet at the moment.

Khiy quickly typed a message back to Raven acknowledging her course change and to expect his back up. "Let's hope we are up to the challenge..."

[One hour later]

An alarm on the Hawthorne began to sound. "What it is, Thing?" Morticia asked, looking at the control panel. A small spherical ship appeared on the sensors. The shape was quickly identified as Borg. "Cloak and alter course mark 247. If it's going to come after us, I'm not going to make it easy. Arm the torpedoes. We'll use them as mines if it gets too close."

She had some torpedoes. If she set them out as space mines, it would be a strong deterrent. Especially if she wasn't close by to be attacked.

She set in a course to lay out the torpedoes and move around to attack the Borg ship from its weakest point -- if there was one for a Borg sphere.

"Khiy, I could use you right about now," she muttered. "Thing, ready torpedoes, pattern gamma. Wait for my signal."

[Khellian]

"Captain, sensors are showing..." The young woman seemed to stare at the screen; willing the information to be false. "A borg sphere on our current route."

The eyes of everyone on the bridge rested on the specialist.

"A sphere?" The Captain's brow furrowed. He stole a glance to Khiy who seemed not to be affected by the news. "You knew didn't you?"

Khiy briefly looked at the man and then turned his head back to the viewscreen without speaking a word.

"The hell are you trying to do with my ship? We are NOT going into battle against the Borg unless it is absolutely necessary!" The Andorian's hands gripped his chair so hard that Khiy was sure he would rip it apart.

"You mean MY ship." Khiy growled. "And I deem it necessary."

"That isn't your call to make. Helmsman, turn us around. Head back to the..."

The words were cut off in the mans throat as Khiy's fist slammed into the side of the Andorian's head. The man slumped heavily into the captain's chair, clearly knocked out.

Khiy rubbed his knuckle. "Hard headed moron." He grabbed the unconscious Captain by his collar and pulled him out of his chair before unceremoniously dropping him on the cold floor in a heap.

The bridge crew looked between each other for a moment, but much to their credit, turned and minded their own consoles without a word. They had enough good sense not to question the change in command let alone challenge it.

Khiy nodded his silent respect to them before seating himself. "Open a channel to this frequency." He tapped more commands on his PADD, sending the contact information to Morticia's ship. "And someone get this off my bridge." He alluded to the heap of an Andorian at his feet.

"Link open, Mister Tal'ehrihn."

"What's the game plan Morticia?"

"They don't know I'm here yet. If you can take down their shields, I'll download information from the computer. Then I'll distract them and you can finish them off. Unless you have a better idea?" Khiy was clearly the better tactician. Her specialty was getting information from unlikely sources and this particular sphere looked quite enticing.

"That's not a bad idea." Khiy said nodding his head. "It's a hell of a gamble. To be honest I'm not sure a sustained fight will take that sphere down. Not without us taking serious damage, anyways." His finger tapped his chair as he thought of their available options. Suddenly, an old strategy came to mind. "You still carry a healthy complement of mines?"

"Of course. I've laid out some already, in case it found me before you got here." She smiled slowly, catching on to what he had in mind. "Shall we play a game of hide and seek?"

"Makes sense, doesn't it?" He smiled. "I'll take the first volley, if it's all the same to you."

"Go right ahead. I'll fill out the net and grab the data when the shields drop. And Khiy, be careful."

Khiy smirked a bit. That statement was decidedly 'Raven'. Morticia would have said something like "Don't screw up."

"Yes Ma'am." He simply said before closing the channel. He leaned forward in his chair and watched the image of the sphere loom ever larger in the viewscreen as the Khellian closed on it's position.

"Target it's shield generator. When we come out of cloak I want to hit it with a full spread. Two volleys at the most and then we cloak to reposition." He outlined. "We will switch to target their weapons on the second pass. After that...well we'll play it by ear."

[Hawthorne]

Once her 'mines' were in place, Morticial fell back and prepared for an assault on the Borg computers. It had literally been years and she was eager to see if she could remember all the tricks she used to use.

"Thing, find their comm signal and get the freequency to piggyback into the main computer."

Thing waved a finger and went to work, dancing across the keyboard.

She sent Khiy a coded message. "We're ready when you are."

[Khellian]

Khiy watched with anticipation as they closed on the sphere, aligning themselves for a strafe. The first volley had to be perfect for this plan to work. If it wasn't, Both Khiy and Morticia would be in serious trouble.

The room was filled with nervous energy, nothing had ever been attempted like this for them. Attacking Borg is as close to insane as it gets. The stakes couldn't be higher and yet they all relished the challenge of it; not many in the private security sector could say that they had taken out a borg sphere. Glory is everything.

"Time to earn your pay, gentlemen." Khiy said with a grim smile. "...FIRE!"

The Khellian came shimmering out of it's cloak a half second before it rained hell upon the unsuspecting sphere. Green pulses lanced out from it's wing mounted weapons moments before three torpedo's launched from the ship's nose.

The unwary sphere had only time to stop it's course before it's hull was viciously assaulted. The disrupters blasted away huge panels of tritanium, sending chunks of debris into space. The weakened exterior plating did little to soften the brunt of the following torpedo's which punched three times consecutively, breaching into the superstructure. Huge gouts of flame burst from the sphere before being snuffed out by the vacuum of air.

The sphere, seeming not to notice the barrage, returned fire almost instantly scoring a glancing hit on the K'vort class destroyer before it vanished from sight and sensors.

The comm link suddenly was hijacked and the voices of thousands of Borg filled the bridge:

"WE ARE THE BORG. LOWER YOUR SHIELDS AND SURRENDER YOUR SHIP. WE WILL ADD YOUR BIOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVENESS TO OUR OWN. YOUR CULTURE WILL ADAPT TO SERVICE US. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE."

Khiy, ignoring the chill that ran up his spine, surveyed the damage from the viewscreen as the Khellian raced past it's mark. A gapping hole glowed from the sphere where the attack had landed.

"Damage report." He demanded.

"We took hit to the port side shields. It's down to 83 percent. The sphere took heavy damage to it's hull..." The tactical officer looked over his shoulder to his Captain. "Their shield generator is destroyed." He barely held back a smile.

"Someone should tell them about futile resistance."
Gruff laughs came from the bridge crew. "Reposition and wait for my word." ~Good luck Morticia~ Khiy silently prayed.

[Hawthorne]

Morticia watched the battle and smiled. Khiy was in fine form. He was still one of the finest tacticians she'd ever worked with.

With the shields down it was time for her to go in. "Thing, activate Sherlock. Download everything to the backup."

Thing began to dance across his keyboard, his fingers light as he did so. Thing loved getting new data to play with.

For several minutes she practically held her breath. If they found out what she was doing and cut her off, or turned on her, she would be in deep trouble. She watched the controls as they slowly marked the data transfer.

Finally the download was complete. "Okay, Thing, back out and seal the door. It's our turn to draw the ship."

She slowly pulled away from the Sphere. When she was just outside weapons range, she dropped her shields.

"Okay, little buddies, come and get me."

As if it had heard her, the sphere turned and began to pursue her. It hit the first three of her "mines" and paused.

"That's our cue. Get us out of here," she told Thing. "Now it's back to Khiy."

The sphere hit three more mines as it slowed. The Hawthorne shook as it was hit by a phaser beam.

[Khellian]

Khiy watched Morticia's progress while under the shroud of his ship's cloaking device. He didn't have to question whether or not she milked them for data, it was a forgone conclusion. That was one of the reasons he liked working with her, she was dependable and deadly with a computer.

"Target their weapons array. We have to draw their attention away from that ship." He ordered when he saw her pull away.

Once again the K'vort dropped her cloak and fired upon the sphere.

The first few shots punished the surface, blasting large chunks away, but the torpedos failed to capitalize on the initial damage. Instead of landing on target, the sphere began to spin on its axis, spreading the damage over it's plating. The torpedo's pocked the surface in large blazing explosions that, while devastating, failed to cause any critical damage.

"They've adapted to our attack strategy." The weapon specialist observed.

"I see that. Keep firing." Khiy said evenly. He was glad there were no empaths on the bridge because if there was they would note how concerned he was. If they couldn't disable the sphere's weapons it would pick them apart. They would have to change up their strategy if they had any hope.

The Khellian once again opened up, sending deadly bolts at the spinning sphere. Each time the blasts hit a fresh plate, ruining the symmetry of the craft but otherwise doing no critical damage.

The sphere had been given a blazing crown of fire and melted tritanium before volleying damage in return.

The arcs of green found their marks on the attacking ship in rapid succession. Each time they struck the shields it not only depleted their strength but cause kinetic damage as well. While looking like no damage had been taken, it was a very different story inside the ship.

Each blast rocked the Khellian, throwing people off balance and rupturing power conduits.

Khiy barely stayed in his chair after the first few hits. The sensor specialist wasn't as lucky. She was thrown out of his chair and hit her head hard on the floor panel. She got up slowly, head bleeding from the impact, and pulled herself back into her chair with little regard to the blood rushing down her face.

Sparks blasted out of a panel to the left of Khiy, forcing him to shield his face.

"Open a link, get her back on the line." He said, referencing Morticia.

"Link open."

"Morticia, I can't land a solid hit on them right now. We need to re-think this." He looked over to his operations officer. "Cloak us already, damnit."

[Hawthorne]

Morticia took control of her ship herself. She accessed her favorite back door through the environmental controls and pulled power from weapons and shields. There was no way she was going to let them hurt Khiy. Then, for good measure, she set all the Borg on a sleep cycle.

"Okay, Thing, go in and sever all communications between the Borg. Make them deaf to each other. Cut them off from the hive. Let's see them try to attack after that."

While Thing worked, she pulled more data from the sphere was going to be destroyed, she wanted all the data she could get.

[Khellian]

Khiy watched on the viewscreen as the spinning sphere suddenly stopped. It appeared, for all intents, dead in the water. He smiled, recognizing Morticia's famous handiwork.

"Light it up..." He growled.

The ship re-appeared and fired all weapons in rapid succession. Great swaths of the the sphere were ripped away as the Khellian tore at it unrelentingly.

"Give it everything." He said with satisfaction at the damage being done.

The muzzles of the disrupter cannons on the wings glowed red
from the heat of being discharged so quickly and a small fortune of torpedos punched into the hull of the sphere causing terrible damage. Each hit capitalized on the last, digging deeper and deeper into sphere, effectively coring out the monster.

The Borg had completely lost shields, their weapons were down, propulsion down and most of the Borg had gone into a sleep cycle. They were confused as their communication relays had been blocked; or at least initially. Slowly a unified voice became apparent once again. It would take time to become fully operational and it would have to happen in stages. They knew where to start...

"Mister Tal'ehrhin, they are starting to regain control of their systems!"

The Borg's weapons cut through space and slammed into the Khellian at all points. It was clear to everyone that this was not intended to disable them, but a kill strike.

People were thrown from their stations and showers of sparks rained upon them. Smoke started billowing from damage panels creating a haze on the bridge.

"Keep firing!" Khiy yelled.

The sensor specialist jumped from out of her chair and took the station of, judging from the blood, a very dead tactical officer. Her hands danced on the panel and the Khellian responded with a salvo of her own.

The Bird of Prey bore down on the sphere and the two ships were locked in a deadly grudge match of disrupters and cutting beams; Each tearing at each other in what seemed to be reckless abandon.

"SHIELDS DOWN TO 9 PERCENT!" A worried voice cried. The ship rocked violently again and the same voice yelled. "SHIELDS ARE DOW..." The specialist was muted as the sphere's cutting beam scored a direct hit against the Khellian's exposed hull; ripping a huge gash starting from the front of the K'vort and stretched all the way to the back.

The bridge decompressed, sucking everything not bolted down into space. The emergency decompression system locked everyone sitting in a chair into place, those who weren't in a chair didn't fair as well. The body of the tactical officer was sucked out along with a very live and screaming helmsman who couldn't find any purchase.

The sensor specialist held on to the tactical duty station for dear live as the cold dead space tried to pull her into it's icy embrace. She could feel her grip start to slacken on the console and she feared what would happen next. She wanted to scream but it was stuck in her throat as her grip broke. She was dragged away silently as her body flailed for any grip. Just then the emergency forcefields crackled into place, stopping the decompression. The specialist bounced, skipped and rolled across the bridge before hitting hard into the temporary shield.

Khiy deactivated his brace and ran over to the tactical station so the Khellian could continue firing. Fortunately there was still power to weapons despite the wicked glowing scar stretching the entire ship.

If the Khellian fared badly in the last assault, the sphere faired far worse.

The stacked damage finally took it's toll as the final torpedos punched into and through the sphere in a spectacular explosion of orange and green. A hole several meters in radius could be seen straight through the Borg ship.

The weapons fire from the sphere ceased immediately as near catastrophic damage was done.

Acrid smoke once again billowed into the Khellian's bridge; so thick that it was difficult to see anything more than a few feet in front of the remaining bridge staff. Fallen beams and loose cables littered the room from the extensive damage.

The bridge staff were busy with putting out small fires, all except the sensor specialist who got up very slowly. She was clearly shaken from the close call.

Khiy looked over to her and gave her a nod in question. She returned nod slowly twice and made her way over to the tactical station to relieve him.

"Open a link to the other ship." Khiy said, seating himself back into the command chair.

[Hawthorne]

"No!" Morticia yelled as she saw the Sphere fire on the Khellian. She again went into the Borg computers, this time not taking as much time to get in without being seen. She needed to distract them from Khiy. She cut power to the phasers again, knowing it wouldn't take long to reroute power.

In the time she had she pulled up an old program she'd used years before during her days as an "Independent Merchant" and sent it as a virus into the air filtration system and the regeneration system.

She wasn't sure how well it would work after so long. Surely the Borg had adapted to such tricks. But if it didn't turn them into friends it would at least make them see the Khellian as non-threatening.

She sent a quick message to Khiy to let him know what she'd done.

[Khellian]

Khiy read the message from his friend before looking to his staff. "Give me a damage report."

"Shields are out. Several decks have breaches reported. Forcefields are holding. Hull integrity down to 47 percent. All critical systems are...surprising reporting only minor to moderate damage." She paused for a moment as the final report came in. "8 dead and 19 wounded."

"Damnit..."

"Link established, Mister Tal'ehrihn." The comm specialist said about Morticia's ship.

"How are you holding up?" He asked.

[Hawthorne]

"Better than you are," came back the reply. "How bad is the damage?"

Morticia was busy adapting her old program to the current situation. She'd sent it over to begin to affect the Sphere, but if she had the time to tweak it to do just what she wanted, it would be in all their best interest. Especially if they could make use of some of that technology.

[Khellian]

"Not so great. How does it look from out there?" He wondered if she could give the ship a visual inspection.

[Hawthorne]

"You have a gash down the side that looks like you've been cut open." She didn't want to ask, but had to know. "How many did you lose?"

[Khellian]

"Eight..."

[Hawthorne]

"I'm sorry, Khiy. What do you want to do with the Sphere? Tow it back to Typhon?" There was likely a lot of technology still on the Borg ship they could salvage.

[Khellian]

"Is it safe to move?" He inquired. "We might have crippled them but they will regenerate quickly. I can't imagine the Typhon will be happy to see a merchant escorting a Borg sphere to their front door."

[Hawthorne]

"But we need to find out how to create a wormhole to get us home. What better way than to use a Sphere?" Morticia asked. "We have the data, but we don't have the hardware. Thing has already begun to sift through the data in search of anything pertaining to the Typhon."

She paused for a moment. "Khiy, you will have salvage rights. I'm sure Raven can talk the Captain into it."

[Khellian]

Khiy couldn't deny that the notion of a Borg sphere as a prize was something to be longed for. It was made all the more so tempting considering the damage his ship had taken in the process. Every panel replaced would be straight out of his pocket otherwise.

He loked over to the woman manning the tactical console. "Is the ship okay for a haul?"

She tapped the console which protested noisily at power being re-distributed. "Shouldn't be a problem now." She affirmed.

"Alright, Morticia, we'll drag the sphere back. I'm not sure what kind of Mojo you are using on this thing, but don't stop. I'm not sure the Khellian can go another round."

"I'll keep the Borg busy. I can disrupt their systems long enough to get us back and maybe work on something to permanently fix them when we do."

She would need to get back to the station to really fix the Borg, but for now, she had a few tricks that would work.

At a signal from Khiy, he began to tow the Sphere back to Typhon with Morticia and Thing keeping a close eye on the Borg and their systems.

OFF

Khiy Tal'ehrihn
Owner, Trans Galactic Trading

Morticia Gomez
Independent Merchant

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