U.S.S. Pathfinder — NCC-1774

MD 2.0107

USS Albion – Cargo Bay 1

Knit didn’t like to abandon this ship and he was glad that he was not in charge of this mission. Mekott would pay with his life for this failure. All his successes of the past would not help him a bit. For that it was obvious to Knit what awaited the Captain.

The pirate approached the cargo bay accompanied by two other Orion pirates. Mekott had ordered to bring the Federation Captain to him.

Knit knew the crew would probably try something to get free. He considered entering the bay the most dangerous part. Once they had the Captain it was unlikely that the Federation scum would attack them. So they would have to enter the room being very careful.

He waved to his followers to enter the cargo bay first. They drew their weapons and positioned themselves at the doors sides. Knit stood behind them in the corridor. The guard at the right door threw a small cap to trigger the opening mechanism of the door. With a slight hush the doors slid apart. Immediately a brown container flew through the gate passing the guards. Knit already regretted that he didn’t bring more of them. But with the others transferring as much Federation property to their ship, no one was available. Maybe it wasn’t so bad if the greedy Mekott was gone.

The guards dumped on the ground and rolled to the center of the gateway firing their blasters blind into the cargo bay.

“CEASE FIRE! WE SURRENDER!” someone shouted from the inside.

The guards stood and nodded to Knit. He walked into the bay and saw why they Federation scum had surrendered so fast. Several red shirted bodies lay in the front area of the large room. They didn’t move anymore. Some of them were covered by large brown cargo tons.

“Anyone else?” Knit asked dryly through clenched teeth pointing his weapon on a larger group.

As no one replied he started looking for the Captain. He couldn’t find her.

“Where is your Captain?” he barked.

After some whispers the group he had pointed his weapon at split up. The female human in her yellow shirt walked slowly but steady until she reached the front of the group.

“I am here.” Captain Maria Garcia said in a calm voice.

“You’ll be with us.”  Knit grunted, made the few steps to her and grabbed her arm tight.

At the door he pushed Captain Garcia in the hands of one of the guards. When catching her, the receiving guard laughed briskly and gave the Captain a tight hug. He tried to kiss her.

“Not here, you idiot!” Knit barked.

The guard threw him an angry glance, but let off the Captain.

Knit turned to the crew.

“For the rest of you, don’t follow us. And to make sure you don’t, here’s a present.” He grinned.

The other pirates left the bay with the Captain while Knit drew a small ball like device from his belt. He turned the upper and lower half to opposite directions. A white light on the top began to blink. He threw it on the ground of the cargo bay.

“You better don’t move.” He laughed hard leaving the bay.

The ball was still rolling in the room when security guards immediately set into motion to follow the pirates. Another guard raced to the ball when it puffed and the metal plating of its exterior was blown a few inches away. The energy of the small explosion let it turn until the blinking white light was on top of it. It now lay in the center of the cargo bay.

On the upper half the engineer saw two laser emitters racing over the ball.

Immediately he shouted

“FREEZE!”

The security officers stopped in motion and turned wondering.

The white light of the bombed turned red and one of the emitters shot a short red laser beam.

“This is a bomb. It scans it’s surrounding with invisible laser beams and remembers where it detects objects. In random time intervals it sends out a red laser beam to detect any movements. When one object moved only the slightest bit, it goes off.” the engineer explained.

The laser emitters raced of the upper surface of the ball pointing to another direction each time.

“Just great.” Ensign Marin said. “I can see the invisible beams and they hurt like hell. The navigator closed his tearing eyes.

<< to be continued >>

Respectfully submitted

Kevin Richter

— NRPG —

All: Sorry that it took me so long to get this out. The follow up will follow soon.