Voyage Home

An hour later, Stryker was sat in the mess hall alone. Most of the passengers had eaten normal rations for the first time in a week and were settled down for the seven day trip back to Serenity. Harper entered the mess and headed for the storage locker, pulling out a ration bar.

“Hi boss.” Harper remarked, noticing the Captain sat with his back to the locker. “Want anything ?”

“No Harper.” Jack replied. “How are we going with installing the cloaking device ?”

“I’m having a little trouble integrating the device into the ship.” Harper reported. “You’ve got to remember this ship was never designed to have a cloak and it’s been modified so many times over the years.”

“How long ?” Jack asked.

“A couple of days.” Harper admitted. “I’m using some of the spares we got from the Starbase to rig up a temporary power coupling. What I’d really like to do is re-build the dilithium array and install the crystal re-generator we picked up, we’d increase power output from the warp core by thirty percent. But that would mean taking the warp core off-line for at least a week, which I assume you’d prefer we didn’t do right now.”

Suddenly there was an announcement over the comm.

[Captain to the Bridge.] Beka stated.

Harper and Stryker rose from their seats and headed for the command deck. Stepping onto the deck, Jack asked what the problem was.

“We’ve picked up a vessel on long-range sensors.” Beka stated, rising from the command chair. “It looks like it could be the *Northern Star*.”

“Have we switched off our transponder ?” Jack asked.

”Doing it now.” Harper announced as he sat down at the Engineering console. “Re-setting the transponder codes as well.”

“Have they detected us ?” Jack enquired.

“Yes.” Trance announced. “But they’re too far away to make any identification, however we are on an intercept course.”

“Should I alter course ?” Dylan asked.

“How far are they from the cry baby ?” Jack requested.

“They’re about fifty thousand kilometres.” Trance replied. “If we activate it, they’ll be diverted off course by about five degrees, which will take them away from us and add another half day to their journey, provided they respond.”

“Harper, activate the cry baby.” Jack ordered.

Thousands of kilometres away, a small device was floating in a nebula. Suddenly it got an activation signal and came to life.

[This is a class two distress call from the Romulan science vessel *n’Jath* to any vessels in the area.] The device started to announce. [We have been studying a class nine nebula, but our power core has become unstable. Engines and shields are off-line and we’re heading into an ion storm within the nebula. We require immediate assistance…..]

*Northern Star*

Some fifty thousand light years away, a cargo vessel, the *Northern Star* picked up the distress call.

“Captain, we’re picking up a sub-space message.” The communications officer announced. “It’s a class two distress signal…..looks like a Romulan science vessel….identity….. the *n’Jath*.”

“What’s their situation ?” The Captain enquired. “We don’t have time to respond to a distress signal.”

“They’ve lost all power and are drifting towards an ion storm within the nebula they were exploring.” The Comms officer reported. “They have no engines or shields.”

“Ops, are there any other vessels in the area ?” The Captain asked. “If we can avoid this distress call, we can maintain our course and arrive three hours ahead of schedule and claim our bonus.”

“I’m only picking up one other vessel on sensors.” The officer at Operations announced. “It’s a small vessel, probably a cargo vessel like us, but we’re too far away to get any positive identification.”

“Which means we’re the closest vessel !” The Captain remarked.

“Yes sir.” The Ops officer replied.

“Would the Romulans miss one science vessel do you think ?” The Captain enquired of his first officer.

“Captain, I should remind you of Federation law, that any vessel which does not respond to a distress call could be impounded.” The first officer answered.

“I’ve also got some additional data on the *n’Jath*.” The Ops officer announced.

“I hope its good news.” The Captain remarked.

“Sorry sir.” The Ops officer stated. “The vessel has a GQOF clearance, level three.”

A GQOF clearance whatever level it was, was bad news for the crew of the *Northern Star* and everyone on the Bridge knew it. Whilst the Captain was not aware of it, his First officer was infact a GQOF officer, working undercover. But the Captain was not going to go against his employers anyway, even if it meant losing money.

“Helm, set a course for the *n’Jath*, maximum warp.” He ordered a note of resignation in his voice. “Looks like we’re not getting our bonus this time.”

*Firefly*

“Looks like they fell for it.” Trance announced. “The *Northern Star* has altered course toward the nebula.”

“Helm alter course slowly to take us well out of their sensor range.” Jack ordered.

December 4, 2386

The *Firefly* was approaching the Gamma terminus of the Bajorian wormhole and the crew were starting to get worried. They had been monitoring all the subspace channels they could for any news on the Starbase, but so far nothing had been picked up.

By now they knew that the *Northern Star* would have discovered that the distress call they had received was a fake and reported it to the local Starfleet base, before resuming their mission to Starbase G109.

They wouldn’t have discovered who had sent the distress message or where it had come from, because the device Harper called a cry-baby would have destroyed itself completely.

The cry-baby was an ingenious device, created by Harper and used several times to save the *Firefly* and its crew. It consisted of a sub-space transmitter, a signal booster and a fusion reactor. When activated, it would transmit a distress signal, distracting and diverting ships away from the *Firefly*.

The signal booster was designed to create false sensor readings, making the small device appear on sensors much larger. Once any vessel got within visual range of the device, it would self-destruct leaving no trace. Whilst the devices themselves were easy to build, finding transponder data on active vessels didn’t come cheap, making the cry-baby an expensive last resort.

The real *n’Jath* was currently back in the Beta quadrant, having suffered heavy damage in an ion storm. The Romulans never disclosed the exact whereabouts of their vessel, even to the Federation.

“How are we doing with that cloaking device ?” Jack asked Harper as they sat at the mess hall table.

“It’s not proving easy.” Harper admitted. “The cloaking device uses a lot of power you know.”

“I know.” Stryker replied. “All I need to know is when will it be ready ?”

“I can get it up and running now, but it wouldn’t last more than a few hours.” Harper stated. “We’d have to switch all the ships secondary systems off and run all primary systems off emergency power. We’d have no warp drive until we turned it off again.”

“How long will it last ?” Jack enquired.

“Hard to be accurate, but I’d say around three hours.” Harper reported. “If we travelled at half impulse, all the way then maybe we’d stretch it to four hours tops.”

“Let’s hope it’s long enough for us to get back to the Alpha quadrant.” Jack remarked. “Harper, get the cloak ready to go online, I just hope we can time this right.