Ens. Gnai - Just Glad It’s Over…
Lich
((Crew Decks - Nova Gamma Borealis))
With the hologram reprogrammed to show the false ship appearing at the aft of the pirate vessel, all there was to was wait. Would their ruse hold? Would the pirates turn tail and flee? Or would they push on and call the bluff once again? Gnai stood at the console, worried. The tension in the air was thick, and nothing could be heard past the murmur of the warp core and light beeping of consoles.
Dakora: Get ready to open the hail on my signal.
Crowded around the only little view screen in the comm room, they watched as the Independence came out of “cloak” right behind the offending ship. Its canons and torpedo launchers pulsed with energy as it did. Gnai thanked its luck for holding out so far.
Dakora: Great work, all of you. Now it’s my turn.
Savel: Good luck, Commander.
Sadar: Response
Pirate Vessel: =/\= Federation vessel - USS Independence, right? Thank you for reappearing, and you’ll note that we’ve powered down our weapons systems, as promised! ::pause, light chatter in the background:: Are you ready to negotiate? =/\=
Lt. Cmdr. Dakora’s nerves seemed to disappear as he signaled Lt. Jg. Sadar to open the comms again. He seemed confident, and in charge of the situation. The pirates would have to be far more observant than they had shown themselves to be so far to realize the facade he was putting on.
Dakora: =/\=Pirate Vessel, this is Commander Dakora of the USS Independence. There will be no negotiations. You may beam your people off the Nove Gamma Borealis and vacate this system immediately, or you will be fired upon. You have one minute to comply.=/\=
Gnai checked its chronometer. They didn’t even have that much time. The seconds kept ticking down.
Savel: It should appear, to them, that they would have no choice but to comply with our demands.
Sadar: Response
Pirate Vessel: =/\= You just want us to beam up our people and leave…? That’s it? =/\=
Lt. Cmdr. Dakora started to perspire, just slightly. They were stalling.
Again, he motioned to Gila.
Dakora: =/\= Vacate this system immediately, or you will be fired upon. ::Summoning a hardness to his voice that would’ve made MacKenzie proud, he continued.:: You now have 45 seconds to comply.=/\=
Savel: And counting…
Sadar: Response
Pirate Vessel: =/\= ::puzzled:: Why do you care so much about this system? ::pause, muffled yelling about the speaker being an idiot and playing with fire:: I mean, yes, we’ll vacate it. We’ll leave! ::beat:: But what’s so special about it? =/\=
The XO’s sweating got worse, dripping down his face. Such a strange biological response in certain humanoid species, to lose the water in their bodies because of fear.
Dakora: =/\= 30 Seconds. ::He turned to Savel.:: Ensign Savel, prepare a full spread of torpedoes. =/\=
Of course, they had no torpedoes. They didn’t even have a ship. Time seemed to crawl by as the final few seconds passed.
Savel: Aye, Commander. I am arming our full functioning torpedoes.
Sadar: Response
From the small console it was at, the distance between the holographic ship and the pirates started to increase, slowly and then more rapidly.
Gnai: Sir ::beat:: it looks like they’re going!
Just as it had reported, the pirate ship had turned tail. With a flash, its warp engines came online and it vanished in a streak, off to go harass some other system most likely. What an odd choice of shake-down tactics.
On board, everyone seemed to relax as the pirates left and they were finally safe. Gnai briefly wondered how the civilians on the decks above them felt, as they were powerless during the entire encounter. They would have seen a Federation ship warp in and disappear, only to reappear and chase off the pirates - but did any of them believe it for a second?
Dakora: Mister Blueberry, please take us home. ::He laughed mirthlessly.:: I’d hate to have to knock another star off of my review of your tour service…
Gnai wouldn’t hate to do so. If anyone asked, this whole operation was a scam. Seeing the wormhole was wonderful, but it wasn’t certain it was worth booking a seat with this con artist, and risking attack by pirates. Next time it wanted to investigate some sort of interesting anomaly in space on shore leave, it was going to rope one of its compatriots into borrowing a shuttle.
End Scene for Gnai :)