Hours had passed. Things were quiet. Rukia was keeping an eye on the space station and the patrols weaving through the local sector. Every time they got close to the Yamato’s position, she held her breath. They always passed by, however, not even bothering to give the debris a cursory glance. Her console beeped, as several more ships emerged from the station and began to join the patrols. She directed a scan at one then frowned as data from the probes came back. She tapped a control.

“Commander, could you come to the bridge?” she asked. It only took a few moments for their executive officer to appear from her office just off the bridge.

“What have you got, Commander?” she asked, approaching the tactical console.

“New contacts just joined the patrols….” Rukia began, bringing up their details on the main view screen. “Heavy frigates. Something must be happening.” she added. Amaya studied the data on the screen, when another blip appeared,

“Another new ship?” she asked. Rukia tapped a few controls getting scans of the vessel.

“Oh that’s not good.” she commented.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Command and Control craft. Looks like it has improved sensors.” she said.

“Will they be able to detect us?” Amaya asked, stepping down to the command chair. Rukia studied the data then shrugged.

“I don’t know. Its possible…” she said. Amaya nodded.

“Keep an eye on it… mister Soren, be ready to get us back to full power…” she ordered. The crew tended to their tasks and Amaya kept her eyes on the view screen watching the sensor contacts of the patrols as they moved along what she assumed were their assigned patrol routes. Another patrol was approaching their position. It wavered slightly as it passed the debris field, but didn’t stop. That was how things continued for the next half hour, until the command and control craft Rukia had identified started its own patrol. Amaya didn’t like the look of that. Something was definitely happening on the station.

“They must be getting the auction going.” Amaya commented.

The craft turned toward their position, and Amaya held her breath.

‘Don’t see us. Don’t see us.’ she thought, eyes tracking the sensor contact. She looked back to Rukia.

“Pull the probes back… out of its path.” she ordered. She watched as the probes repositioned themselves. It left them unable to clearly scan the station, but minimized the possibility of the craft’s improved sensors detecting them. The craft began a long lazy turn to take it further away from their position and Amaya thought they had gotten away with it when the craft paused and began to double back.

“Well that’s not a good sign…” Rukia commented. “They may have detected the probes moving.” she added.

“Or the Sovereign-class hiding behind this large piece of planetoid.” Amaya said, tapping a finger on the arm rest of the command chair. She hoped it wasn’t coming back for them. The ship paused and began to scan the area again. That was a bad sign.

“Soren…” Amaya began, watching as several more ships began to divert from their patrols.

“Commander…” Rukia started before she was cut off.

“I see it… Soren I need power back now. Take us out of grey mode. Rukia, when you have the power, take us to red alert. Helm, as soon as you can take us out of the debris field.” the XO ordered. Several more ships were already moving toward their position and as the ship began to power up, they increased their speeds. The Yamato’s lights brightened as power was restored and then dimmed again, taking on a red hue as the ship went to red alert. The ship lumbered out from behind the large chunk of debris it had been concealed behind, and then surged ahead, moving out of the field.

“Target that command and control craft. Take out its engines.” Amaya ordered.

“Aye, Commander. Engaging to disable.” Rukia reported, selecting the craft as the ship’s primary target. She cleared the view screen of the sensor display, freeing it up to display the bulbous craft. Phasers lanced out from the Sovereign-class impacting the smaller vessels’ shields. The ship rolled and brought more of its arrays to bear, multiple orange beams impacting the Orion ship. It didn’t take long for the smaller vessels’ shields to fail and the beams to begin impacting the hull. It returned fire, but its weapons barely scratched the Yamato’s shields.

“They must have put all their power reserves into their sensors.” Rukia commented as the vessel began to vent plasma from one of its nacelles. It began to roll to port and started to drift toward the debris field. “Its engines are offline.” she added.

“Good target the nearest two patrol vessels. Take out their weapons.” Amaya ordered. Rukia shifted her targets and frowned as several more contacts appeared from the station.

“Commander more contacts coming from the station.”

“More patrol craft?”

Rukia took several moments to identify the new contacts, juggling that with firing weapons at the already attacking patrol craft. The Yamato rocked more as their weapons impacted the shields. While the command and control craft hadn’t been able to do much, the patrols clearly had more power in their weapons.

“Not patrol craft… shuttles. Romulan. Klingon. Cardassian. Others. They all appear to be on escape vectors.” she reported, switching her attention back to the patrols.

“Get scans of as many as you can… we’ll report them to Intelligence. What about the captain’s ship?” she asked.

“Nothing yet.”

The Yamato rocked again as a torpedo impacted the forward shields.

“Shield down to ninety-five percent. If those other patrols start to hit us, we could be in trouble.” Rukia said. The ship could certainly handle them in a one on one, or even the two on one they were in now, but there were at least five more patrols out there.

“Then let’s discourage them, shall we?” Amaya asked. “Target the lead ship with quantum torpedoes. Fire a burst at them, get them to back off.” she finished. Rukia tapped her console and brought up the torpedo targeting system and highlighted the closest patrol. She waited for the system to lock the target. It only took a moment and then the fire control illuminated. She set her finger over it and then hit the control.

The Sovereign-class was a formidable ship. Designed in part as a response to the Borg, it had various weapons systems. None more powerful than the quantum torpedo turret mounted on the ventral side of the saucer. It tracked the Orion patrol as it acquired it as a target and then spat out a burst of four blue-white torpedoes. The patrol craft immediately heeled over and began evasive maneuvers. They had no desire to die apparently. The maneuver was mildly successful, confusing the torpedoes tracking systems just enough that only one actually found its way to the target. The ship’s shields flared brilliantly and failed immediately as small explosions rippled on the hull. While it wasn’t destroyed, the occupants were certainly not having a pleasant time. The other ships slowed and began to keep their distance from the Yamato. It appeared that their desire to live out weighed their desire to fight. Amaya was fine with that.

“Has the captain’s ship left the station yet?” she asked.

“Not ye–” Rukia stopped, then changed tone immediately. “Yes, I’m detecting it now… they’re taking a similar escape course as the other shuttles did, deeper into the Badlands.” she reported.

“Alright… Helm… get us out of here. We’ll take a roundabout course and find the captain after we lose these patrol craft.” Amaya ordered. She felt the ship begin to roll and turn away from the station and its patrols.

“No pursuit detected… I don’t think they fancy their chances against us.”

“They’re smart then… take us out of here, then bring us around and start searching for the captain.” Amaya ordered.

The Yamato continued away from the station leaving a pair of disabled Orion ships in its wake. None of the other ships gave chase. As they disappeared into the Badlands, Amaya sat back and exhaled.
“Yellow alert.” she ordered. “Begin scanning for the captain.” she added.