(19) - The sixth day; the stalker

Posted on Sun Apr 16th, 2023 @ 12:48pm by Lieutenant Commander David Wallace & Captain Deke Rivers & Captain Jamie O'Connell & Captain Shauna Callaghan & Lieutenant Commander Angel Devroe

Mission: Mission 10. Move to the Lagoon Nebula.
Location: Various
Timeline: Day 6 - 0238 hours

On:

==USS Thomson==

After six days the almost routine being woke up by the night watch officer was not only odd but unwelcomed, David rolled over in his bed, attempting to not wake his guest. "Wallace here, what's going on?"

"Sorry to wake you sir but drone four while doing a routine sweep of the path ahead picked up a ship at extreme range, we don't have much else to go on." the officer spoke

"Start a full sweep, I'll be up there soon as possible." David said not knowing what else to do seconds later.

"Captain Blumenberg." the comms called out again.

Maria rolled over her red hair a total mess, "What is it Mr Wyatt?"

"Sorry to wake you, drone four has picked up an unknown contact at extreme range, I've notified Mr Wallace, we can't classify the contact."

"I'll be there in ten, put the two spare drones on stand by, signal the other ships." Maria said pushing herself too a sitting position and looking at David who had pulled on a pair of uniform pants, she looked at him mouthing the words 'sorry', "Move to yellow alert."

Maria grabbed her uniform and started to dress, "Were we expecting someone?"

"No, but based on the course plot it could just be an Essary patrol wanting to play cat and mouse, you should brush your hair and maybe show up in just the shirt not the vest." handing her a uniform shirt she had left in his quarters just for this occasion.

Maria pulled up close "You Lieutenant should get a move on, it might look bad if we show up together."

Before they could take advantage of the moment "Captain! the contact has changed course too a closer parallel course, but still is on their side of the disputed zone."

"I'll be up in three." Maria said waving David out the door while wresting with a brush too at the minimum make herself look presentable, "Notify Mr Wallace please."

David ran out the door and the short distance to the turbolift, "Mr Wallace, The contact has changed course, they've shortened their distance and moved into a parallel course."

Seconds later David was on the bridge, "Show me the sensor overlay, with their track from when the came into sensor range."

The main view changed too an expanded display, the convoy in the middle, represented by a spread out cluster of dots, and a blinking dot indicating the unknown contact, the dashed line on the display showing the travel line of the ship, "Well it's Essary, the next question is what class."

Maria emerged from the opposite turbolift, "What's going on?"

The watch officer spoke first, "The Contact entered sensor range about two minutes before I contacted you, it changed course suddenly when we figure they saw us on their sensors."

David spoke next, "Course plot does make it Essary, speed and track make it one of their newer ships."

"That's a little confident in that assessment." Maria said knowing he was holding back something.

David was already at a back station, "Drone four's data feed shows it moving within known specs of either a ship designated Raider two or Blackstar class, the drone is too far away for a solid verification."

Maria had a feeling what David was going to request, "Launch Seven and Eight in a search pattern towards the contact, then hail the convoy, looks like everyone is going too get an unwelcome wake up call, Mr Smithe open hailing frequencies."

==USS Peel==

The Ship had received a message from Captain Blumenberg two days ago requesting their presence back with the Fleet and they made haste and was almost back to their position.

{Deck 2}

Jamie was nicely asleep in bed when he was disturbed "Captain sorry to wake you Sir but we just received a message from Lieutenant Wallace.....the Essary are running a parallel course to the Fleet." "Ok, wake Commander Devroe as well; I will be there in ten minutes."

The Captain dressed in his uniform then ran a comb through is hair, grabbed a cup of java and was out the door in a hurry. Walking onto a nearby Lift "Bridge" he called out.

{Deck 1}

Walking onto the Bridge he noticed Angel was already there "You're fast" he stated as he sat "So is it good evening or good morning" he queried with a grin. Angel grinned back "Yes something like that." Then Jamie called out "Helm how long before we reach the Fleet."
"We're ten minutes out Sir" Helm responded. "Good once we're close enough drop us out of warp and put us above the Fleet." "Aye Captain. "

A few minutes later Jamie tapped his chair Comm "Lieutenant Wallace this is O'Connell, I hear you have some friends running a parallel course with the Fleet.....how can we assist" the Captain queried.

==USS Thomson==

David turned too the main viewer, "Captain O'Connell, we have an Essary Raider-Two class ship running a parallel course along their side of the disputed zone boarder and they're not hiding the fact they are there, the Thomson has two drones on our side of the boarder banging away with active sensor sweeps, this is probably in an attempt too see if we'll flinch, the only upside is we have a complete scan of this class of ship, I believe the standing orders is still not to engage unless we're fired upon."

Maria spoke next, "From what Mr Wallace has briefed us on these ships work in squadrons of three, we've only seen one on our sensor sweep and the drones can only confirm that fact."

David resumed "I'm fairly certain that the other two ships are nearby."

==USS Peel==

The Captain didn't like the sound of Essary Raiders being anywhere in the vicinity "Captain, Lieutenant I'm going to take the Peel and backtrack your coordinates just to make sure you're not being followed......hopefully we can scare them off or at least get them back in their own territory" Jamie explained as he was going over in his mind the best approach "We won't be long.....I'll let you know what we find, O'Connell out."

"Helm maintain our present course...warp five" came the order." Aye Captain....initiating warp five now." About seven minutes went by when Tactical advised "Captain there is one Raider on our current course....looks like they're following the Base."

"Comms hail them" Jamie ordered. A few moments later "No response Captain" Comms stated. Tapping the controls on his chair arm "Essary Raider this is the Federation Starship USS Peel, Captain O'Connell commanding.....what are your intentions" Jamie stated.
Still no response as Number One walked up and stood by the Captain, Jamie glanced to his right and nodded "Yellow Alert" Angel called out as Jamie repeated himself "Raider what are your intentions" he stated again more sternly.

"Captain the Raider has changed course and is heading back to their own territory" Tactical stated. "Good I didn't want a confrontation with these people. Computer stand down yellow alert" came the order as Jamie and Angel both walked back and sat in their respective chairs. Tapping his Comm "Captain Blumenberg we found one Raider and he was following you but he changed course and headed back to their territory; I have no idea where the third Ship may be but we'll be back to you soon and will fly over the Fleet and perform constant sensor sweeps" Jamie explained.

==USS Thomson==

Maria watched the confrontation on the sensor feeds, she looked over to David "This is going to turn into a game of chicken."

David grunted then said "The fact they were in our blind spot has me annoyed, we need to redeploy the drones."

Maria changed to all business "Thomson to starbase, looks like the Essary want to play cat and mouse."

== M-69 ==

Aboard the station Shauna was listening to incoming reports. =^= Callaghan to all ship’s, do we have any confirmed details on what’s happening? =^=

==USS Thomson==

Maria spoke out =^="This is Blumenberg, the Essary had three of their Raider two class ships shadowing us, I don't think they were looking at starting anything, just reminding us they were there."=^=

David bounced the data feeds of the last few minutes to the space station, then looked at Maria, she resumed =^="It looks like they have fully pulled back to their side of the border, but there banging away with active sensors to remind us they're watching."=^=

==USS Peel==

Finally the Ship caught up with the rest of the Fleet and Base "Helm match speed with the group and keep us well above them" O'Connell ordered. "Aye Sir.....matching speed now." "Tactical...Science I want continuous scans along the borders....let's make sure they know there're being scanned.....maybe they'll behave themselves" Jamie ordered as he turned to Angel "Now we wait and hopefully avoid a fight." Number One commented "It seems if they had the intention of engaging any of us they would have done so by now." "Let's hope your assumptions are correct Commander."

==USS Thomson==

David looked over the sensor data, the twenty minutes that had been their first encounter with Essary didn't sit well with him. He started the usual searches, no transporters, no probes, no nothing. David kept looking over for something, as he scrolled through the data all he could find was active sensor passes, he sat back in frustration.

Captain Blumenberg could see David's frustration, even felt it herself. "Dale, do a sensor log dump from the drones, I think Mr Wallace is convinced this wasn't all it appeared."

David sat there for another twenty minutes, the endless rows and data, the images, and the various other data feeds came up with, nothing. He paused it was closing in on zero-five hundred hours and David was tired again he leaned back "Other than maybe doing a security sweep of the station I don't know what to do, there wasn't any noticeable transporter activity, definitely no shuttle launches, this could have been mind games."

Captain Blumenberg leaned in and whispered "Go get breakfast."

==USS Peel==

Everyone on the Bridge was quiet and performing their tasks masterfully as Command sat, with the Captain hoping they would be moving away from the disputed zone soon putting more distance between the Fleet and the Essary when Tactical called out "Captain the Essary seem to moving back from the boarder somewhat." That put a smile on the Captains face "Good but keep up the scans for now" he ordered as Tactical did so. "Science do we still have a clear path to the Nebula" Jamie queried. "From what I can tell from long range sensors there're no problems ahead and it looks like we are slowly moving away from the boarder as well." came the reply. "That certainly is welcome news; maybe the crew can relax and take a breath" Number One commented as Jamie nodded in agreement.

==USS Thomson==

David had fallen asleep in his quarters at the small desk, the cup of coffee was ice cold next too him. "Mr Wallace to the bridge!" the comms called out. David snapped awake, "Computer what is the time?"

~Zero-nine-thirty~

David left his quarters to attempt to return the bridge, as he rode the turbo lift up he mulled over the last six hours, as he exited the lift he saw things had returned to normal, he walked over too the mission specialist station and looked over the sensor logs, the Essary had pulled back, he tapped some commands into the console; =^="M sixty-nine ops this is Wallace, no new Essary activity to report, the run in with that patrol appears to be nothing more than posturing."=^=

David saw a message in the bottom corner of the display ~Go get some rest, you look horrible~

David looked at one last set of readouts from drone number eight, the three Essary ships had resumed what looked to be an active patrol pattern of their side of the disputed zone, as he prepared too log off and leave he saw a navigational note 'Special Navigational marker seven.' David hadn't seen a marker like that before, when he put in a request to verify, he got 'Classified'. David was annoyed, the classification code didn't match anything he recognized. He looked at Maria who was occupied with he job as commander of this ship.

=^="Commodore Sureth, we're approaching special navigational marker seven, do we need to adjust course?"=^=

" Hold course. Give no indication of being " spooked " by them. Sureth replied.


"Acknowledged." David said looking at the coding on the order for it, he made a note and left the bridge station.

End