Wes's Story, Pt4

[Wes Roberts 0]

Revenge

Cruising Federation Space

6 years ago (Aegis relative)

 

The ship's bells chimed five times in the middle of the evening watch,and Wes rolled over in his sleep. Maighdin's arm wrapped around him and she snuggled as close to him as her pregnant belly allowed. Family life was apparently treating Wes quite well, as some of his decrees as the defacto ruler of Caledonia definitely more family oriented. The intercom next to the bed chirped...then chirped again. With a drowsy slap, Wes hit the button and grunted.

 

"Sorry to disturb you, Captain," Third Officer Roberts' voice came through the hundred year old speaker. "We're picking up a distress call—civilian freighter Thor's Tvíburar under attack by unidentified ships."

 

"How far out?" Wes was starting to wake up, a tactical portion of his mind acknowledging that they may be into combat soon.

 

"Ten minutes Captain. Her distress call damn near blew out the bridge speakers."

 

He was sitting up, feet on the floor; Maighdin was already pulling on a track suit, and throwing her husband's on to the bed. "Mr Roberts, sound battlestations, and plot an intercept course. Ahead maximum warp."

 

"Yes sir." The intercom clicked off, but the ship's internal paging crackled tolife, with the accompanying red flashing lights and klaxons. "General quarters, general quarters, all hands man your battlestations. General quarters, general quarters, all hands man your battlestations."

 

-=-=-

 

"Approaching coordinates, Captain," Egeanin reported. "Dropping to sublight." The Revenge dropped out of warp, her impulse engines driving her into towards the debris field that was the last reported position of Thor's Tvíburar. "Doesn't look good for the civilians, sir. Negative lifesigns, negative escape pods, positive organic material. And three ships matching the configuration of Black Kris dreadnoughts leaving information. Looks like 5 light minutes out."

 

"Egeanin, plot a warp jump ahead of them. Gareth, weapons lock on their engines and shield generators."

 

Khaiell looked over at Wes. "Are you sure that's wise? Taking on three dreadnoughts by ourselves?"

 

"Have I ever steered us wrong, Khaiell?"

 

"No, but it seemsthat we'll be taking on more than we can handle this time."

 

 

The Revenge made its jump, and opened fire on the Orion dreadnoughts. The pirate ships broke formation as the lead vessel's port nacelle erupted into a shower of sparks and plasma. Her sisters came in and returned fire on, trying to drive the Revenge away. Wes stubbornly held his ground, phasers and torpedoes blazing away. The second dreadnought exploded, a warp nacelle flung into the damaged first ship's impulse deck, totally disabling her. The third dreadnought turned tail and jumped to warp, her shield generators knocked out.

 

On the bridge of the Revenge, Wes smirked. "Stand down battlestations,maintain Yellow Alert. GW, away boarders."

 

"Standard procedure, Captain?"

 

Wes nodded. "Standard procedures. Free any captives and slave girls; space the pirates." The Tellarite nodded, and left the bridge. "Damage report."

 

"Some shock damage to ship's systems, Captain. Engineering is on it."

 

"Very good, Egeanin. Bring us alongside, and extend the docking tunnel."

 

"Looks like GW decided to space the pirates first, my Lord."

 

"Indeed it does, Maighdin. And while Starfleet may consider us pirates, I prefer to consider us to have a moral responsibility. Yes, we attack civilian ships, but we don't space the crew. Yes, we'll take captives and hold them for ransom, but we don't return a corpse. We don't attack defenseless colonies and outposts.

 

"There's beensome grumbling amongst the new crewmembers we picked up at Tor'tug A,and I'll admit to being remiss in briefing them as to how we operate. I want you, my senior officers, to remind them of my policies, onesthat have seemed to have kept this crew together and profitable..."

 

"Captain, sensors have just picked up a ship dropping out of warp near the remains of the Thor's Tvíburar. Getting a tentative ID now...Sovereign-class warship...IFF coming up USS Arcadia, NCC-1742-E."

 

"Crap. Egeanin,open a channel to GW, and start locking on to lifesigns."

 

"You're on,Captain."

 

"GW, we're running out of time. Starfleet's shown up too little, too late. But since we're the only ship under power, they'll think we attacked both the Orions and the Thor's Tvíburar. We're going to do a mass beam out into the aft hangar. We'll separate the wheat from the chaff there."

 

"Right Captain. Alright you louts..." The transmission ended with GW shouting to his personnel nearest to him, before he changed channels and contacted the rest of his team aboard the dreadnought.

 

"Energize at your discretion. As soon as everyone's aboard, punch it."

 

"Aye sir."

 

"So, Wes, what are we going to do with any of the pirates we haven't spaced yet?"

 

"They'll get achance to reform themselves, Khaiell. I'm going to dump them on that empty southern continent, you know the one separated by 10 thousand kilometers by ocean from any other continent, with just enough supplies to colonize it. We'll probably keep an eye on them overtime, and see how they do."

 

The Romulan just sighed. "Your planet, Wes, and your rules. Who knows, maybe in a hundred years, we'll be applying to the Federation for membership as a 'lost colony'."

 

Wes looked at him and laughed, as the Revenge once again slipped out from under the noses of the Starfleet, and shot to warp.