"Inspection & The Next Step"

[Joe Manning 0]

It was a busy scene in QoB's cargo hold, as the 'hired help' carried crates down the hatch, 'motivated' by the painstik taps into their backs. The painstiks were all wielded by former slaves who had been pressed into QoB's crew. For some reason, they seemed to savor slave-driving duty a bit more than the rest of the crew, so the painstiks which were once used to keep them submissive were usually put in their hands when the slaves were needed to perform manual labor.

 

Most of the cargo which had been marked for sale had been moved outside the ship, where it awaited pickup by various buyers. Sargh and Xandra had already communicated progress in his negotiations with Gimok; the Ferengi would be picking up most of the cargo. Pike and Smokey had arranged smaller exchanges with suppliers in the colony, including one of the local engineers. The necessary space had been cleared in the hold and critical repairs could commence.

 

As far as Mench was concerned, all was well on Gandora. No one had yet reported the unusual occurences in the colony -- the sightings of shadowy pursuers in the forest outside the colony and the elderly Klingon's confrontation with Sargh in Bernard's Cafe. No one was even aware that rumors were willfully being spread around Gandora that a band of Klingon pirates was somewhere on the planet ... and that said pirates had recently attacked a ship in the Cepheus Gamma system. Mench had no intention of staying on Gandora long, but the danger of remaining on the planet was growing more rapidly than he knew.

 

"Send it in," the Commander said into his comm unit.

 

With an unmistakable energy hum, the armored car rolled up the cargo hatch into the hold, sending several slaves and Bekks scattering to the sides. Mench calmly sidestepped out of its way as the car pulled to a perfectly abrupt stop at the center of the hold. Its front and back wheels pivoted and the car swung around in one smooth motion, so that its nose was pointed toward the hatch. For such a bulky vehicle, it moved with incredible grace.

 

The car's three main doors swung out and downward on hinges near the wheels, forming walkways to the three control seats. Nikita emerged from the front seat, walking right on the computer displays on the interior side of the door. Mench wondered how those controls could remain clean and undamaged, but considering what a technological marvel the vehicle was, he imagined that some kind of self-maintanence system was built right in.

 

Mench smiled at Nikita as he tucked away his communicator. "Magnificent." The Engineer retrieved a scanner from her belt and followed the Commander as he slowly circled the vehicle.

 

With his first good, long look at the tank, Mench could fully appreciate its size. The three control booths made up only the front third of the car. The taller and wider back section appeared to simply be a solid mass of metal, but creases around the edge suggested the existence of a large door. Separating the two section were the vehicle's guns, one larger blaster mounted on top and two more pointing outward from its sides. Experience had already shown that the weapons could be pivoted and that the two smaller guns were disruptors. The whole assembly rested on ten broad wheels, five to a side. They were the most advanced looking component of all, with treads composed of interlocking metal plates and hubs which glowed a soft blue.

 

Those hubs reminded Mench of Romulan technology.

 

"The wheels have gravity generators!" Nikita said, looking at her scanner. "Just like QoB's, but smaller."

 

So that's how the car could stick to QoB's hull. "Gravity generation can often be reversed, can it not?" Mench asked aloud. Could this thing hover as well? "What about the weapons?"

 

"Two are disruptor cannons. Between Mark 3 and Mark 4 as far as I can tell," Nikita said. Not bad for an armored car. The cannons showed signs of Klingon manufacturing, but the blaster on top looked more like a Starfleet gun. "The big one is a phaser. It's tied right into the car's power cell and it looks like it's got impressive energy output."

 

Mench circled around the rear side of the vehicle and his eyes drifted to the crease that ran around the entire back section. He reached into a pocket inside his tunic and pulled out the controller that had been adhered to the inside of the car's crate. There were several unlabelled buttons. Assuming that Gular would not have been stupid enough to provide a control device with an unmarked remote-destruct control, Mench began experimenting with the buttons. One opened and closed all three main doors. Three more underneath it controlled each door individually. Another button fed power into the engine, filling the hold with its characterisitic hum. Finally, Mench found the control that opened the rear door ...

 

The Commander had to back up as the door lifted off its rear hinge and swung back and downward. Another ramp was formed leading into a spacious chamber which took up almost the entire rear section of the vehicle. "This isn't a tank ... " Mench remarked as he slowly walked up the ramp, Nikita right behind him. "It's a truck."

 

Aside from two flat seats at either side, the rear chamber was nothing but space. It ran all the way up to a glass panel which revealed the ship's power cell and engine. Several belts and hooks hung from the interior, no doubt for securing fragile goods. This space was designed to haul cargo, and considering the crew's current mission, Mench could figure out precisely what cargo it was meant to haul.

 

"Look," Nikita said, moving over to the righthand chair. The cargo space was not empty, apparently. There were five backpacks strapped to the chair, a PADD tied to one of them. Nikita picked up the pack and handed the PADD to Mench.

 

"Anything inside them?" Mench asked as he looked over the PADD. He tapped the activation control on the front of the device, and frowned at the displayed message: DATA ENCRYPTED. PLEASE INSERT ISOROD KEY.

 

The pack jingled as Nikita pulled out several lengths of cable, one with a splayed hook on the end. She reached down to the bottom and pulled out a handled suction device. "Climbing equipment?"

 

Mench glanced up at her only briefly, pondering the message on the PADD. He again reached in to his inside pocket, this time procuring the isorod that Gular had given to him, the isorod which contained details of the Cepheus Gamma cargo ship. There had been no indication that the isorod had contained anything else, but ...

 

"It's all the same," Nikita said, rummaging through the other packs. Mench stepped away from her and inserted the isorod into the round port at the top of the PADD. For a few troubled moments the encryption message remained on the screen, then it suddenly turned green and the PADD beeped. A new message began displaying on the PADD's face:

 

"Well done, Commander Mench. As you are the only one capable of decoding any of the contents of this data device, its delivery suggests that you were successful in retrieving the GC-13. I am sure that you next will begin or have already begun examining the vehicle more closely. When you have the complete picture of its capabilities, you will find it to be a remarkable piece of engineering. That complete picture will still be some time in coming, however ...

 

"I regret to inform you that the isorod which I gave you is NOT the true key to this PADD. The device's true contents are the final details of your mission and the schematics of the colony which you will be assaulting, but there is one more task which you must complete before you may receive those final details. I am sure that you are agitated at this sudden revelation of an intervening mission phase of which I made no prior mention, but you must understand the value of deniability. Should you have been captured in Cepheus Gamma, the less you knew of your mission the better. I assure you that there is only one more stop on the way to Goldrock, and the rewards will be well worth it ...

 

"You are to next proceed to Sector 063 by 114 by 220, a two weeks' journey into Federation space at your vessel's normal cruise speed (no greater haste will be required, unless you were delayed in retrieving the GC-13), but directly on the path to Goldrock colony. There you will find a Starfleet space station -- Starbase 215. It is little more than a stopover for ships making the long journey between the Federation core and the Tholian reaches. It is not well defended, nor are Starfleet patrols thick in the area. Of course, I still advise the utmost secrecy and discretion ...

 

"You will have two objectives on Starbase 215. Your primary objective is to retrieve the station's communications beacon and transfer it, undamaged, to your vessel. The beacon must first be manually disconnected from the station's power supply; attempting a matter transport without doing this first would put the device at great risk of irreparable damage ...

 

"Your secondary objective is to retrieve the encryption key for this data device. This will be far less difficult. An operative placed by my associates has embedded the key deep inside Starbase 215's computer. Simply insert the isorod that you currently have in this PADD (no other isorod will do) into any computer port on Starbase 215, and enter the command 'Megan Redwing Cyclops 713.' Computer protocols placed by our operative will recognize both the command and the isorod and will transfer the encryption key. The next time you insert the isorod into this PADD, its contents will be fully revealed ...

 

"The fate of the Starbase and its crew is of no consequence to my associates. I would stress to you, however, that the station's destruction or the death of any of its crew would draw Starfleet's attention to the region. The haste with which you will execute the final phase should ensure that you escape any such attention long enough to complete the mission, but it is no doubt in your own personal best interests to keep your activities concealed from the authorities. Good luck, Commander ... "