Amelia and the Mystique arrived at their destination two days after her escape from Supply Base 901. Now they had arrived at the New Canada system and were approaching the M-class planet situated there. They had come to his planet in search of the one thing that would get the most hated person in Amelia?s life off her back, hopefully for good.
"Any signs that we?ve been detected ?" Amelia asked.
[None. Our scattering field is operating at 98 percent.] Monica replied. [There's a Defiant class vessel in geo-stationary orbit above the location of the colony, but no other vessels in orbit. That vessel has some kind of masking technology employed, but our enhanced sensor system is enabling us to detect it, no problem.]
"Monica, how close could we get to the planet without being detected ?" Amelia asked.
[Hard so say. That Defiant is probably fitted with the latest sensor technology, maybe a thousand K, maybe a little closer.] Monica replied.
Too far for a decent sensor sweep of the area Amelia thought. Amelia spent the next ten minutes thinking things through. One thing that she was good at was taking a situation, analysing it and seeking out the best alternative solution. Usually these were very conventional, but occasionally she came up with the most ridiculous ideas imaginable. "Eureka" Amelia shouted.
This sudden outburst even caught Monica off-guard. (If a computer system can be caught off-guard).
"Monica, you said that the Defiant ship is in stationary orbit over the colony right ?" Amelia asked.
[Yes.] Monica replied.
"So it?s probably safe to assume that they?ve scanned only half the planets surface ?" Amelia said.
[Unless they sent probes out, Yes.] Monica replied.
"How much data would we gather if we made a pass across the planet at say four hundred K distance, travelling at close to light-speed." Amelia asked.
[What are you thinking ?] Monica asked. [There?s no way we can get close to light speed, unless??]
"Unless what ?" Amelia asked, already knowing the answer.
[Unless you plan to sling-shot around the sun.] Monica replied. Amelia just smiled.
"You haven?t answered my question." Amelia said.
[We could make a detailed sensor sweep of the planet. We?d not pick up too much detail though.] Monica answered.
"But we would detect large structures, power sources, that sort of thing ?." Amelia enquired.
[Yes.] Was the only reply Amelia got. Within ten minutes the Mystique was heading towards the New Canada sun, building up speed, which Monica annoyingly reeled off. [One hundred thousand K per second, one hundred and twenty, one hundred and forty.]
Amelia meanwhile was constantly working the shield and SIF controls, keeping the small vessel in one piece as the gravity pull from the sun tried to rip it into pieces.
[Two hundred and forty, two hundred and fifty, two hundred and sixty.]
"Now." Amelia shouted. The impulse engines of the small vessel started to pull them around the sun and they shot off back towards New Canada. After just over a minute, the impulse engines cut and the reverse thrusters kicked in. Slowly the
Mystique started to slow down.
[Two hundred and sixty, Two hundred and fifty eight.]
Within ten minutes they had passed New Canada and were some sixty thousand K from the planet.
"Let's see what we've got." Amelia announced as she brought up the sensor scans. Most of the scans were garbage and needed cleaning up, but after half an hour Amelia was starting to get a clearer picture of the planet surface. However, what she saw didn't please her. There were no major power sources on the planet at all. She did pick up two smaller power sources, but Amelia knew that to operate the cloning tanks, power was one of the key ingredients. These two power sources were probably small fusion reactors.
There was a small base on the far side of the planet away from the colony, which was well hidden using a tetryon based shield system. This would probably explain why it hadn?t been detected when the colony was established. Who would be looking for a hidden enemy base.
[Amelia, something's happening close to the planet.] Monica announced. [There's a sub-space anomaly occurring.]
Amelia quickly brought the area of space onto the main view screen, just as the Supply Base emerged from the anomaly.
"What the?" Amelia exclaimed.
[Isn't that the supply base we just left ?] Monica remarked.
"Yep." Amelia replied, scanning the anomaly. "Looks like someone's been creating wormholes. I knew that the theory was sound, but I always thought that the power requirements were very high. Someone once told me of an experiment where they used a Starbase to create the wormhole, but when they sent a probe through, it came out the other side in pieces. The atomic bonds between the metals in the probe had been ripped apart."
[Amelia, I've scanned the area and I've detected the faint echo's of several other wormholes.]
"So they've been doing a little experimenting. That means that it's an act of desperation, not a new means of transportation." Amelia remarked.
[Amelia, I've just detected a vessel approaching New Canada, it's coming in at high warp.] Monica announced.
"Destination ?" Amelia enquired.
[The dark side of the planet.]
"Can you identify it ?" Amelia asked.
[No. It's of an unknown design, not registered in any Federation database.] Monica replied. [It's stopped.]
The unknown vessel had stopped, but not for long. Transporting the remainder of the Son'a and unknown aliens aboard, it was soon on it's way again. Leaving behind a series of explosions which destroyed their small spy outpost. The battle had been lost, but there would be no evidence for the humans to find. Over forty Son'a and nearly the same number of the unknown aliens had been killed, during the battle, but this war was only just beginning. With the technology that they had obtained and the resources at hand, soon they would be able to conquer this region of space and claim it as their own.
The Son'a base commander stood tall in front of the vessels' Captain. He knew that these new allies were intolerant of failure and he guessed that he would be punished in some way.
"Report." Was all the tall alien said.
"We were losing the fight, abandoning the outpost was our only real option. Our numbers may have swelled with the new technology that we now possess, but we are still only a small race of people. The planet had already served it purpose and rather than risk losing more of my depleted race, I sent the signal." The Son'a commander said.
"Your race is strong in battle, but weak in numbers that I grant you. Preserving your people is a noble act on your part." The tall alien replied, slicing the head of the Son'a Commander from his shoulders with the short sword he had in his hand. "However, we do not tolerate cowards." Quickly, the still bleeding body of the Commander was dragged away.
"Set a course for the Nebula, maximum speed. We must report this incident to the council of war."