Lift-Off : Part Two of Two

It had been a pretty boring five days, but finally the *Firefly* was in the Gamma quadrant. They had cleared Deep Space Nine without any problems, the clearance codes had worked. The codes had also got them past the patrol vessels stationed at the terminus of the wormhole. The patrol had scanned the ship, but it had only been a cursory scan and the almost empty cargo containers had fooled them.

The ship was now on course for the Starbase, which was still almost three days away, at maximum warp they might shave off a few hours, but every second counted.

“Do we have anything on long-range scanners ?” Jack enquired from the command chair.

“There’s no Federation or Dominion vessel within three light-year of us.” t’Pek replied. “We’re clear for the moment.”

“Any signal from the target.” Jack asked.

“Nothing so far.” t’Pek answered. “I’ve been scanning the sub-space band you asked me to constantly, but so far no signal. Which reminds me, why are we scanning for a signal on a sub-space band no-one uses anymore ?”

Jack didn’t give t’Pek an answer because he knew it would only make the crew more on edge. The frequency t’Pek was scanning was still used, but only by a few. It was just above the sub-space frequencies sent out by red giants, which made it useless for any meaningful communications. If you didn’t know that there would be a signal, then it would be assumed to be just more background noise.

“Let’s stay on course.” Jack ordered. “Harper how’s our present doing ?”

“There’s a class three nebula about five light years from the Starbase, it’s more or less on our current course.” Harper replied. “It means we’ll have to take a longer route back, but it’s the only place I can see where it will work.”

“What did you choose in the end ?” Jack enquired.

“Just like I said, a Romulan science vessel.” Harper stated. “The *n’Jath*, assigned to the Gamma quadrant to explore and exploit in the name of the Romulan Star Empire.”

“So long as it works, I’ll be happy,” Jack remarked.

“It will.” Harper affirmed. “The *n’Jath* and the nebula go together perfectly.”