"Cat's Eye to Banshee 1. Come in Griffon."
"This is Banshee 1 on secure channel. Go ahead, Cat's Eye," replied Commander Lee Carter. She was flying point ahead of her squad somewhere in Serenity's tenuous Oort Cloud, but Outpost 901's Cat's Eye recon vessel was even farther out. Using their sophisticated scanning pod, they were always on the lookout for anything suspicious here on the fringes of the Serenity system, be it pirates, smugglers, or even the occasional Ferengi claim jumper.
"We have a confirmed contact bearing 0 degrees mark 22 heading straight for Serenity. Copy?"
"Roger, Cat's Eye. Are they transmitting an IFF signal?"
"Affirmative. The signal is that of a Cardassian medium freighter, but they're coming in way too hot. My guess is some sort of smuggler or blockade runner."
"Understood. We'll take it from here. Good work, boys," acknowledged Carter. Switching frequencies, she began giving orders to the rest of her team. "We've got a bogey burning in hot and heavy, ladies. Let's go say hello."
A chorus of four aye's, one each for Max Vasser, Sam Beckett, Jo Schmidt, and Alex Dalton, answered her, and the five sleek Banshee starfighters banked and shot off to intercept the newcomer.
On the bridge of the Cardassian freighter, the deck plates vibrated and groaned under the pilot's booted feet, voicing their pain that these extreme speeds were placing them under, but if the pilot could, he would have wrenched even more speed from his already over-taxed ship. Fast as his freighter was traveling, the five small blips on his sensors -- his computer had identified them as Federation starfighters -- were easily able to close the distance between them. The lead fighter was already hailing him. He made a mental note to investigate how they had found him so easily after this was all over. For now, his best option was to stall them as long as he could.
Snapping a toggle on the panel before him, he accepted the starfighter's transmission. A woman's voice filtered through the speakers. "--Repeat. This is Commander Lee Carter aboard the Federation starfighter Griffon. Please slow your ship and respond. You are trespassing in Federation territory."
He toggled the transmit button and put on his best 'scared-to-death' voice. "This is the Cardassian freighter Xylo to the starfighter Griffon. I'm declaring an emergency! My engines are overloading and I can't shut them down! Request assistance!"
The frightened, trembling voice of the freighter captain issued from the speaker grille on Carter's dashboard. "Hold your course, Xylo," she replied. "We'll clear your flight-path of traffic. Once within range of Serenity or Starbase 901, you'll be beamed off your ship before it explodes."
With that, the five Banshees banked again and zipped off ahead of the out-of-control freighter to warn off anyone who might be in the way of its headlong rush.
The freighter captain toggled off the communicator. The feigned fright fell from his face and was replaced by a twisted grimace of pure evil. He chuckled diabolically to himself. "Those Starfleet pansies can always be counted on to flaunt that sickening compassion of theirs."
He set about programming a new course into his navi-computer, to be activated at the perfect moment -- when his ship entered Serenity's asteroid belt. He'd come too far to be thwarted by a bunch of women when he was so close! As surreptitiously as he could, he began warming up the ship's disruptor cannon.
"Commander?"
"Go ahead, Jo," replied Carter.
"I ran the freighter captain's voiceprint through standard checks and the computer came up with a match -- the freighter captain is actually Vincent Kelley!"
Carter's response was stunned disbelief. She'd never thought the sound of that name would ever sully her ears again! "You can't mean the same Vince Kelly we've all come to know and despise!" she cried.
"Who's Vincent Kelly?" asked Alex. She was the rookie of the group, having joined the Banshees after Vince Kelly's last appearance
"A former Starfleet officer turned super-terrorist," answered Jo. "He used to work on Supply Base 901 during the First Mulluran War, but he snapped during battle while aboard the USS Arizona and let the ship be destroyed. He was court-martialed and discharged from Starfleet in disgrace. After that, he sold his services to the Mullurans and anyone else who was paying, and tried to destroy the Starbase several times. The weird part is that he was reported killed on Nimbus III last year!"
"Actually, he's been allegedly killed several times," corrected Max. "He just won't stay dead, the bastard."
"And now he's resurrected again, and we've found him," said Carter.
"Lucky us," grumbled Max.
"I wonder what he's doing in Serenity," said Alex.
Any further discussion on the matter was forestalled however, by the sudden flash of light filling space around their cockpits and the violent turbulence that rattled the five women in their seats.
"Lee!" cried Sam. "I'm hit!"
Carter craned her neck and caught sight of Sam's starfighter, the Wyvern, tumbling end-over-end out of control, its entire port wing blown off and spraying sparks in an ever-widening spiral as the plane spun like a huge pinwheel fireworks display.
"Alex! Take care of Sam!" snapped Carter. "Max and Jo, follow me!"
As Alex's Manticore swung around Sam's stricken craft and began slowing its tumbling with tractor beams, the Griffon, Basilisk, and Chimera doubled back on their heading to cut off the freighter. Not surprisingly, it was no longer where it was supposed to be.
"Jo, find it. Quick!" snapped Carter impatiently.
After no more than a second's pause, Jo's triumphant voice came back over the comm. "Got 'im, boss. Heading 35 mark 340 right for that big clump of asteroids."
"Looks like he had this well-planned," said Carter. "Try to take him alive if you can."
The three Banshees shot towards the large asteroid field, jinking nimbly to avoid smaller, outlying rocks as they advanced. Moments later, the Xylo hove into visual range from the backside of the largest asteroid in the group.
"He's still moving way too fast for a freighter," reported Jo. "And definitely too fast for inside an asteroid belt. There's no way he can last in there."
"Maybe we can tractor him out," suggested Carter.
Vince Kelly gave no indication that he would be taken easily though. As the Banshees jockeyed for position, the Cardassian freighter opened fire, brilliant green disruptor beams suddenly filling the vacuum. Many of the shots struck asteroids, blasting them into shrapnel which struck the Banshees in a raucous, ferrous hailstorm.
Carter had to shout in order to be heard above the staccato din. "Return fire, but stick to phasers! Try to take out that cannon of his!"
"If he keeps up these speeds, he's going to do our job for us!" was Max's shouted reply.
Those words proved to be prophetic. Directly ahead of the speeding freighter loomed a medium-sized asteroid. Apparently, Kelly saw it too, because the freighter began a ponderous turn, but it just had too much momentum built up. Its starboard side scraped the asteroid, sending the ship sideslipping in the opposite direction directly towards another waiting space rock. This one struck the hapless freighter fully amidships. The ship wrapped itself around the rock like a speeding car around a telephone pole, and finally cracked open like a bashed watermelon.
Escaping atmosphere quickly formed a crystallized nimbus around the two halves like a gauzy death shroud, but moments later, a massive explosion engulfed the whole thing. The light blinded Carter, but she had enough presence of mind to swing her starfighter around in a gracefully swoop and head away from the explosion. When her vision cleared a few seconds later, she was gratified to see Max and Jo still on her wing.
Once at a safe distance, she swung around again to view the devastation. There was nothing left of the Cardassian freighter Xylo or presumably of Vincent Kelly, and there was a large, new, vacant zone in Serenity's asteroid belt where the matter/antimatter explosion had annihilated everything it could reach.
"Well, that's the end of that, I guess," opined Max, satisfied that their work here was done, happy to have rid the Galaxy of another bit of evil insanity.
Carter nodded, though Max couldn't see the gesture from her own cockpit. "Let's go collect Sam and Alex and head back to the barn."
back to TOC