Tracking

Previously……

"Hellcat to away teams." Chu announced. "The target is moving away from the system and we're going to follow, you're on your own. We're sending down the co-ordinates of the probable landing sites for bogies two and three."

Now….

"Transmitting co-ordinates now." Ensign Vasquez reported.

"Good." Chu replied. "Status of the Jem'Hadar vessel ?"

"It's heading out of the system." Shale stated. "Warp eight point four, we can keep up with them without transferring to slipstream."

The Hellcat was indeed capable of warp eight point four, but if the Jem'Hadar increased their speed to beyond warp nine, then the Hellcat would probably lose them.

*But why were they running away ?* Chu thought to himself.

"Do we have any idea why they suddenly broke orbit ?" Chu asked.

"None." Vasquez reported. "Wait…. Commander, I've just double checked the sensor logs."

"What have you found ?" Chu asked, realising that the young Ensign must have noticed something.

"They broke orbit before the shuttles were attacked." Vasquez replied. "They fired up their impulse engines almost as soon as the shuttles were launched. That's at least a minute before the attack."

"Search the sensor logs some more, see if you can find anything that may give us a clue as to what would have made them break orbit." Chu ordered.

It took an hour, but suddenly Ensign Vasquez raised her head and shouted. "Got it."

"Got what ?" Chu enquired.

"A rogue signal." Vasquez replied. "Hidden in the background signals from sub-space, if you weren't looking for it, you'd miss it. It appears to be a modulated signal, at the high end of the subspace radio frequencies."

"Can you decipher it ?." Chu enquired. "Is it a message ?"

"Yes, but it will take some time." Vasquez answered. "And we won't know until we do. But I can tell you where it came from. The signal was highly directional, targeted at the Mirisam system."

"So where was the origin ?" Chu asked.

"Checking." Vasquez replied. "Somewhere along this line."

The holographic viewscreen appeared between the upper and lower levels of the small Bridge and an image of the sector of space they currently were in appeared. A red line, leading away from the Mirisam system tracked across the screen.

"Anything on that line ?" Chu asked.

"Still checking…" Vasquez announced. "We've got no systems within a day of our current position. Wait…. I've got an abandoned Dominion customs station in the Regial Seven system."

"Abandoned ?" Chu enquired.

"The Regial Seven system is part of the neutral space between Federation and Dominion space. Part of the treaty that the Dominion and the Alpha quadrant races signed created a buffer zone and the customs base was in that zone."

"What do we have on the base and the system ?" Chu asked.

"The system is basically a group of asteroids, formed from the debris of the systems exploding sun." Vasquez stated. "There are three major asteroid clusters and numerous other smaller clusters. The entire area is bathed in theta radiation, not enough to do much damage, so long as you have shields. The greatest concentrations are within the asteroid clusters themselves."

"What about the base itself ?" Chu asked.

"Build inside one of the largest asteroids, which gives the base enough protection from the surrounding radiation to not require shields. Of course the radiation also shields the base from sensors." Vasquez continued.

"A perfect place to hide." Chu remarked.

"Exactly." Vasquez replied.

"We're on course to pass straight through the centre of the Regial Seven system." Shale announced. "At our current speed, we'll reach the system in three days, seven hours."

"Vasquez, open a secure channel to the Taurus, we will need their help." Chu ordered.

Vasquez took a few moments before replying. "Channel open."

"USS Hellcat to USS Taurus." Chu announced.

[Commander Barker, what is your status ?] The voice of Captain Taybar replied.

"We have dropped off our passengers on Mirisam V." Chu reported. "But the Jem'Hadar arrived earlier than we expected. We know that they launched at least three shuttles and that one shuttle was destroyed upon entering the atmosphere. The other two were damaged, but probably survived."

[Probably survived !] Aki enquired.

"As soon as the rogue vessel launched, they broke orbit and headed out of the system." Chu continued. "We've discovered an encrypted signal which was received just before they left. We're working on deciphering the message now. We believe that we have however discovered a possible location for their base."

[Where ?] Aki asked.

"The Regial Seven system, an abandoned custom base hidden in one of the asteroids. Vasquez is sending you all her data as we speak." Chu repelled.

Aki looked down at her chair console. [We have the data Commander. We'll pick up the away team and meet you at Regial Seven.]

"Commander, I've managed to read the message." Vasquez interrupted.

"What does it say ?" Chu asked.

"Return to base immediately." Vasquez announced. "Base has be compromised by a Dominion spy in our midst's. Target eliminated, but forces are being mobilised to our location."

"Did you get all that Captain ?" Chu asked.

[Confirmed.] Aki replied. [Looks like the away team are on their own for now. We'll rendezvous with you at Regial Seven in three days, but keep me informed if the situation changed.]

"Understood. Hellcat out." Chu replied.

Chu thought back to his time on the USS Leviathan, when Captain Devore was forced to abandon some of his crew on Limerus IX when the ship was destroyed. Ironically it had been the Hellcat that had saved many of the crew, both when the Leviathan was destroyed and later when Captain Devore and the USS Leviathan-A came back for the crew.