June 15, 004 SDE; 0515 hours:
Countryman walked through the blast doors, nodding to the guard who saluted. He was up early to get the shift started, and as he ca into the room he noted he wasn't the only one.
Greyman looked up from the command chair, "Morning sir."
"How do the en..."
"The engines? Richards was complaining when I ca in. They're hot, we're going to have to slow down soon. We are reading multiple failure warnings and the computer estimates complete system failure in two hours."
Countryman sighed, "Seems we are cutting things close. How do our pursuers look?"
"Three more ships dropped out of warp due to engine failure five minutes ago. They aren't taking this speed as well as we are."
Countryman took his chair and nodded, "They seem to be burning their engines out just to keep up."
Greyman responded, "I'd say ditching radiators was the best move we made."
Countryman wouldn't have said that, but he did think they had a better cooling array. Not to ntion they'd had a few years to adjust the system to work better at high warp speeds. The Valorians were only recently starting to employ warp five capable ships. He'd never expected them to be able to keep up with the Enterprise. Once again he ntally thanked the Krall for their technological assistance.
Turning to the helm, he was about to speak to Eri, but she wasn't yet at her post. A young man from the night shift was on duty at the mont. Glancing at their position, he ordered, "Ensign, take us out of warp."
"Aye, sir, cutting warp engines."
Almost instantly the familiar distorted starscape was replaced with an array of stars to the left and right, but in front of them was a wall of interstellar dust, a brilliant mix of reds and brown with hues of orange thrown in. It was strangely beautiful, but also clearly dangerous, as flashes of light could be seen within. The result of intense electrical discharges in other words lightning, powerful enough to threaten starships. Countryman wasn't too worried about that, it was the other phenonon of the region he was worried about.
"Take us in Ensign, ahead full."
"Aye, sir. Ahead full."
As the ship surged forward towards the periter, Countryman turned to Greyman. "I'm going to be in my office. Let know when the engines have cooled back to nominal, or if the Valorians find us."
"Aye, sir."
Williams looked out the viewport. It seed things weren't quite going the way she'd planned, yet this might have worked out better than the original plan. Still she was going to have to work fast, if she was going to take advantage of the current situation.
A figure stopped beside her, "srizing isn't it."
"Quite," she replied before looking at Evanov and Jason beside him, "I trust your n are in place?"
"They are, we are ready when you say so."
She smiled, "Excellent, in that case, I guess it's ti I got my end of things moving."
Evanov and Jason returned the smile, "It's about ti there were a few changes around here."
The group turned away from each other and got moving. If everything went right they would be in power by this ti tomorrow, either that or they'd all be in jail. Yet she chose not to think about the other possibility, that machine was good but she doubted even he would see her coming.
Velosa Cluster outer limits:
The Valorian Commander paced her CIC, they'd tracked the nace vessel entering the cluster three hours ago. The ship had dropped out of warp just before entering, and they hadn't detected a jump to warp since then. It was possible they were still hiding in the clouds, but she had no way to be certain. The damn region was infamous and here she was faced with it, but the honor of the third fleet was on the line. The bastards had killed the admiral and so many of her friends, she would have them if it was the last thing she would do.
She turned to the comm officer, "Fleet status?"
"Ready sir, three ships were forced to turn back. Too much damage to their warp drives, they'll be limping back at warp one point two, until a tug can link up with them to tow 'em back to port."
That was a few ships too many for her taste, the extended chase had been hard on the engines. nace ships were apparently faster than they realized, as the Battle Carrier Enterprise had maintained a speed of warp five point two for eighteen hours straight. They'd previously thought she had a cruising speed of warp five, but it was possible that she'd been slowed by her own escorts. However that theory felt strange to her, while it was true that a larger vessel would have a more powerful powerplant that didn't translate to being faster. In fact there was a balance to consider that determined speed.
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It was far more likely that they'd always been capable of cruising at warp five point two. This opened other questions, but she figured it was just the techs screwing up sowhere. The nace vessels had always been hard to track, it was only recently that they had been able to track them at interstellar distances. A developnt that was only possible due to recent advancents in sensors capable of tracking gravitons. Without that advancent, they wouldn't have found the nace at all.
Still, with such new systems mistakes could happen, as evidenced by the whole raid at New Valoria. The analysts had gotten confused after the first battlegroup found them and they'd spent too long hunting shadows and ghosts. No one had seen the attack coming, since no one had thought the reading heading for New Valoria was real.
That was a mistake she wouldn't repeat, which is why she'd been keeping a close eye on them and didn't get fooled when they changed course. That had thrown her a little, but only due to how fast it had happened, they'd dropped out, changed course, and were back at warp so fast they hadn't had ti to close the gap. If anything, they'd lost progress due to having to change course themselves.
She let out a breath, "Take us, in warp two. Active scans, the mont we see a graviton wake, tell ."
"Aye sir."
The engines started to hum as they surged forward, heading into the stormy dust cloud at warp two. It was barely faster than the speed of light, but she wasn't willing to go very fast in the Velosa cluster. Hopefully, the nace had the sa feelings about this weather, the damn soup that perated the whole region was notorious for rendering sensors practically useless.
The commander knew her max sensor range would be barely two lightyears at best. More likely they wouldn't see more than a lightyear. A thought that brought forth thoughts of flying blind. Little did she realize that didn't change much for the human ships. Humanity just didn't have the experience the Valorians did with long-range tracking but they more than made up with it elsewhere.
In fact she might not have been able to see the Enterprise, but that didn't hold for her adversary, who was very much aware of where she was. As their sensors were better able to cut through the soup, and more importantly they weren't really using them to track her fleet anyway. They had a different thod, which worked quite well. Although one not really applicable for her to use against them.
Tension filled the CIC as the fleet stread into the dust clouds. Officers intently studied their consoles, as every pair of eyes kept a constant track of the data they were receiving, looking for any sign of the nace warship.
Countryman stepped onto the bridge, where he was promptly t by Greyman. The last five hours had been sowhat tense for him, as he couldn't help thinking about the fleet that was already here looking for them. Yet so far it seed they hadn't spotted him.
"Richards has cleared us for limited warp. She says the engines are sowhat strained but the secondary warp engines are fine. However she suggests we don't exceed warp four if we don't have to. She'd like to give the engines a proper overhaul before we push them again."
"Understood."
Countryman stepped past Greyman and headed down the stairs. Misaki looked up from her console as he passed, she smiled, "Morning sir."
"Morning, how's the ship look?"
"Aside from engine strain, pretty good. The dorsal plates and bulkheads are still holding despite traveling at high warp."
"Excellent, and the departnts?"
"Mood is generally improving, but so people are still looking for things to do. Several requests to reactivate the factories have also been put forth."
"Well we have the fuel, but we don't have much material to spare these days. I don't think we can really afford to bring them back online yet, but I'll discuss it in today's Council eting."
"Sounds good sir."
Walking up to the central strategic display, he took a glance at the positions of the Valorian fleet. They were now entering the region, several battlegroups spreading out in a clear search grid. The ships were averaging warp two, which was pathetically slow, but still faster than he was moving at the mont. Taking a mont to consider, he turned to Eri.
"Helm set course four eight, mark two zero, speed warp factor four."
"Aye sir, course 48 mark 20, speed warp four."
Countryman stretched a little, then gave the order. As Eri took them underway, he turned back to Misaki and Greyman who had co down to join him. "Okay we need a system where we can lay low for awhile, possibly conduct so repair. Misaki I want you to conduct continuous scans."
"Aye, sir, what am I looking for?"
"Any system that might provide safe harbor while we conduct repairs preferably with a high mineral content. We'll need raw materials if we are going to fix the damage we've sustained."
Misaki nodded, "Right, so just about anywhere would be good. As long as it has the materials we need to fix the ship. Richards gave a list of things to look out for, so I'll use that as a reference."
Countryman smiled, "Perfect."
Leaving her to get to work, he took the steps up to the balcony. At the top he surveyed the bridge for a mont before taking his station. Settling into his chair, he relaxed a bit. They weren't out of the woods yet, but things were starting to look up. There was just one little headache he'd have to deal with. One that would move all too soon, still for the mont he could afford to relax.
The next few hours passed in largely dull monotony, as they put the Valorian fleet behind them and proceeded deeper into the Velosa cluster. Until finally Greyman walked up from the lower bridge.
"Sir, it's about ti for the Council eting."
"Right, bring your pistol."
Greyman frowned, "Sir?"
"Trust ," said Countryman as he got up to go to the eting. Just monts before the Beta shift arrived to watch the bridge. Right on schedule as well.
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