The Enterprise did not set a course for Krall space but instead set course for a region of space known as the Velolsa cluster. It is a dangerous region of space known for plasma storms, thick dust clouds, spatial anomalies, and other navigational hazards. The region is best known for the fact that most ships can’t see more than a couple of lightyears in the thick soup of the region. The Enterprise chose this heading since the border of this region is just a half dozen lightyears from New Valoria at warp six they could reach the region in just five hours, fifteen minutes, and 21.6 seconds. The region also bordered Krall space, the poor sensor ranges made it the perfect place to escape their pursuers. The Enterprise also has above average sensors, which would help her evade the navigational hazards and make distance on the fleet. 

The Valorians, however, had easily been able to match and exceed the speed of the Enterprise and were currently closing on the Enterprise. The distance she had gained during her early lead rapidly disappearing.

“Sir, the Valorian fleet is still closing fifteen minutes before they are in range to use their warp disruptors,” said Misaki who was monitoring the sensors.

Countryman didn’t need to do the math to know they would be intercepted at the current rate long before they reach their destination. “Eri, increase speed to warp seven.”

“Aye sir, increasing speed,” replied Eri.

“Sir, the engines have never been tested at that velocity,” said Richards.

“I know, but I would rather not be intercepted. If we must fight, I want it to be on my terms. Besides we needed to test if we can actually reach warp seven eventually. Now is as good a time as any,” replied Countryman.

“In that case, I better get to warp engineering and make sure the warp engines stay running,” said Richards as she handed her station off to a junior engineer.

Meanwhile on the bridge of the Valorian fleet commander. One of the officers turned from her seat and reported to the fleet commander. “Sir the raider is increasing speed. She has matched our speed and is continuing to accelerate,” said the officer watching the sensors.

“Helm increase our speed as well,” ordered the commander before muttering at a lower volume, “I thought they were already pushing their engines to maximum.”

“Sir, they are leveling off, warp six-point nine-five, nine-seven, nine-nine. Warp seven, and holding,” reported her sensor officer. Then the helm officer reported that they were matching their speed. Unfortunately, the commander knew they couldn’t go any faster than warp seven.

“Looks like we are both evenly matched for speed. Now it's just a matter of who can maintain this speed longer,” said the commander.

“Sir, at our new speed we will enter the Velsosa Cluster in just under ‘two hours’,” reported the helm officer. 

Around the same time on the Enterprise in her brig, the young pilot had recently woken up from the stun beam she had taken a few hours earlier. The moment she woke up she was almost overwhelmed by the nausea and pain that were the natural side effects of the stun beam. The nausea was bad, but the pain was worse. Her head was hurting so much could hardly think as it felt like it was going to explode, and that it was on fire at the same time. Her nerves felt like they were burning.

The effects were so bad, she didn’t even notice that she was in a brig. Nor did she notice that she was no longer wearing her flight uniform, but something else entirely. The dim lights didn’t register with her either. The brig was small, barely large enough for a small metal bed. A sink and toilet were placed in an open recess on the right wall. Giving the prisoner in the cell a semi-private place to do their business. A similar recess on the other side had a small hidden door that the guards would use to deposit a plate of food on a small metal table bolted to the wall. Next to the table was a metal chair bolted to the floor. She was currently lying on the bed, which was opposite the entrance. The entrance was covered by an electrically charged metal grid with no obvious door in it. While she hadn’t noticed, the guards had fitted a collar around her neck and chained her to the wall. While normally only done with violent prisoners in her case she was chained to protect her from the charged grid.

Almost immediately after waking up, the pain caused her to start groaning and screaming. Within moments the two guards on duty came from the nearby guard post along with the doctor they had with them. The first guard took a look in the cell and opened the door. Instantly the metal grid split down the center and moved apart opening just wide enough for a single person to walk through. The first through the door was the doctor. She had been standing by just in case she was needed. Checking on the young girl hourly to see how she was doing. It was well known that different people reacted to being stunned differently. For a human, it was pretty easy to predict how they would react, thanks to having a large data pool. This meant they could be treated for the side effects easily With aliens though they had significantly fewer data points making their reactions hard to predict which made treating them much harder.

Pulling a scanner from her belt, she scanned the girl. Finding the problem pretty quickly she selected a drug and loaded it into an injector. She brought the injector to the girl’s neck, while the second guard helped her by holding her still. When she pressed the button, the injector automatically sanitized the site and desensitized it before the needle punctured her skin and entered the vein. Releasing the complex mixture that would alleviate the girl’s symptoms. After releasing the medicine the needle was retracted and it finished up with a microburst from the builtin regeneration laser closing the small hole the needle made. The doctor then cleaned up the injector and put it away. The modern injector was a complicated little device that had replaced the needles and syringes of old. It was far easier and more convenient to use, which was the chief reason it became so popular among doctors. The device was even equipped with micro-sensors that helped ensure that it wouldn’t miss the vein. The use of a micro regeneration laser eliminated the need for bandages after use. 

After putting away the injector, the doctor turned to the guard, and said, “Bring me a chair. You can wait outside if you like. She should be okay in a couple of minutes.”

“What happened? Prisoners don’t normally wake up screaming,” said the guard.

“Stun sickness, most cases aren’t this severe. She should recover in a couple of days, but she will need regular injections until then. Also, don’t stun her, right now it will kill her,” replied the doctor not bothering to fully explain stun sickness, since she knew the guard wouldn’t understand it. Nor did she bother explaining that if the stun sickness was left untreated there was a high chance she would die.

The guard left and brought back a chair before taking a position outside the cell. The young Valorian settled down a few minutes later. The pain significantly reduced and the nausea having diminished greatly within a couple minutes of the drug taking effect. She had barely registered her environment when the doctor asked her a question using a translator.

“Feeling better?”

“Yes,” replied the girl.

“I’m Amanda and you are?” said Doctor Amanda, deciding to keep things informal.

“Sali. Do you know why I’m feeling so terrible?”

“Stun sickness, a rather severe case I’m afraid. You should be fine in a couple of days, but you will need regular injections every four hours. Try not to get stunned again that will kill you,” said Amanda.

Sali didn’t like what she had just heard. She had always heard that being stunned sucked, but she never thought it could feel so bad. Then she started looking around taking in her cell, and then her change of outfit. The only thing she was wearing was a simple cut, white dress that stopped halfway towards her knees. The dress had absolutely no decorations, but at least it covered her. Thanks to the medicine she could also tell that she wasn’t wearing anything else just the dress.

“Why am I wearing this?” said Sali concerned about what her change of clothes indicated. The fact that she had been stripped and dressed in something else while she was unconscious disturbed her.

“It is commonly called a prisoner’s slip. They’re issued to prisoners as soon as they arrive in any prison or brig. As for your clothes and belongings, those were confiscated,” replied Amanda.

“Can I get them back?” asked Sali.

“Not unless you manage to get yourself released. Just keep in mind you won’t get all of your belongings back. Just the harmless stuff,” said one of the guards answering her question. Sali noted the answer and started considering what she had learned so far. In her current state escaping this brig was a bad idea. The other problem was the internal layout of this ship was a complete mystery to her. Even if she could somehow get out of the brig, she had absolutely no idea where to go to get off this ship. It didn’t take long for her to come to the conclusion that she was going to be here awhile. This meant she would have to learn how to survive as a prisoner in this alien society at least until she either figured out how to escape or was rescued. So she decided to ask a critical question that she had been delaying.

“What are my rights here?” asked Sali worried about what they would say. It was one of the guards that answered her.

“Ah yes, we almost forgot. Normally you would have been informed before you ended up in a cell. However, you were unconscious at the time. Anyway as a prisoner you are only afforded the most basic of rights,” said the guard before describing her rights.

As it turned out basic rights weren’t as bad as feared when she first heard that. In fact they were better than what she heard from rumors about some alien worlds. She was guaranteed food and water, clothing, and basic medical care to name a few. Then there was the privileges system she was informed about. Apparently things like hot water in the shower were a privilege that she would have to earn. After a while, she got the gist of things and it wasn’t long before the doctor left her cell. Before the guards locked her cell, one of them came in and released the thin chain holding her to the wall, but not before telling her about her upcoming trial and warning her about the grid.

Alone in the cell, she started to look around. The bathroom if you could call it that was simple and functional in design. Everything in there was bolted down. The sink had a built-in soap dispenser and on the wall next to it was a surprisingly silent air dryer. Everything was triggered by built-in sensors, including the toilet. The thing of most interest were three little buttons with writing, she couldn’t read, on them in a panel over the sink. She decide not to touch them. The table on the other side of the room was interesting, it was a simple metal table bolted to the wall. That wasn’t the part she found interesting though, no it was the odd symbols on the left side of the table that interested her. Also on the left side was a panel, but this one only has one button.

Leaving the table behind she went back to the bed and sat down. Having looked around she had found that the designers designed everything for function and practicality. The bed was not the most comfortable bed she had been on, but it was comfortable enough, well barely. Her thoughts turned back to escape. The trial would help her learn a bit about the layout but not enough for an escape. The biggest hurdle though would be getting out of her cell. The entrance being a charged grid of metal that crisscrossed at a diagonal angle presented a problem. The gaps were too small for her to reach through without getting shocked, and even if she could reach through them she couldn’t see the controls which meant she would need a tool to get through, one small enough to conceal, insulated to protect her from shock and capable of cutting through the bars. This led her to another problem, where was she going to get said tool.

She could try going through the guards when they opened the door, but she doubted that would go over well. They were armored and had weapons. They also outnumbered her, which is why she didn’t see herself getting very far with that method. Then her thoughts turned to the trial she had coming up. She was a bit surprised really that she was getting one, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to know why. She did have a few sinking suspicions about that however. Sali knew next to nothing about their laws and justice system. She wasn’t going to put all her cards into escape. The trial represented an opportunity to get out of here with any luck she could get herself a light sentence and be out of this cell quickly. For that, she would need to ask some questions, but the trial looked more promising at the moment. Albeit only if the thing she suspected wasn’t true. If it was that would make things a bit more difficult.

Sometime later on the bridge Countryman was talking with Megumi Richards on the ship’s comms.

“The engines seem to be holding up for now, but the heat is building faster than before. We should be fine for a while, but I am going to have to keep a close eye on the engines,” said Megumi.

“Well, how are the mines coming along?” said Countryman.

“We have rearmed and readied about 20,000 already, sir. Another 20,000 will be ready in ten minutes,” said Megumi. The Enterprise only had a single mine disperser but she had two bays filled with mines. Those bays could each hold, thanks to the small size of a mine, half a million mines. These mines had been of great use during the war. Each mine carried a high yield fusion warhead of a gigaton each. Equipped with a form of spatial shielding that allowed it to pass through warp fields, unfortunately, the same field was incompatible with shield penetrators which meant they couldn’t bypass shields. Still, they didn’t need to since they were often enough of them at any given point in a minefield to overwhelm the shields of a target.

Of course they had never been tested at warp speeds. This would be the first time they would ever be used at warp and the first that they would need to pass through two warp bubbles. Which is why he was having their spatial shielding buffed up. The shielding was basically a micro warp coil generating their own bubble around the mine. It was too weak to be any use against weapons, but when passing through a warp field it generates interference that allows the mine to go through. These mines contributed greatly to the war by slowing the Cathamari advance by forcing them to navigate the Sol system at sublight speeds. Countryman was hoping they would help slow the Valorian fleet and buy them extra time.

Turning towards the tactical stations he spoke to Kaori. “Start deploying the mines, pattern Delta four Alpha,” ordered Countryman.

Seconds later on the underside of the secondary hull, a pair of armored plates slide aside allowing a small disk to descend a short distance below the hull. The disk had eight openings along the edge that were short and flat barrels designed to launch mines. The device was the only mine disperser the Enterprise was carrying. It spun up and started firing the mines according to the pattern Countryman ordered. The mines had an onboard micro thruster to stabilize themselves in their intended position, and to later accelerate them towards a target.

It took only moments for a minefield to start forming, and in less than a minute the Valorians started hitting the mines. Something that surprised them greatly, but they recovered nicely. Firing their pulse cannons through their warp field to create a flak screen. While the bolts were scattered going through the warp field, that didn’t matter since they were just creating a flak screen. Still, they lost a number of ships to the mines before they started creating the flak screen. The flak screen helped but not entirely plenty of mines got through the screen.

The Commander watched on her screens as one of her cruisers exploded, her flak screen wasn’t stopping enough mines to protect them entirely. Fortunately, they weren’t shield piercing, but there were enough of them that they were overwhelming the shields of her ships.

“Have you figured out how those things, are hitting us at warp?” asked the commander

“Not exactly, sir. As far as I can tell they are generating some sort of spatial field which allows them to pass right through our warp fields,” said one of her engineers.

“Can you block them somehow? I would rather not see another ship go up in flames,” said the commander.

“Maybe, but it would require messing with the warp field. In fact, a theory about how they are passing through the warp field just occurred to me. Give me a few minutes and I might be able to reduce the effectiveness of their mines,” said the engineer before turning back to her console. As she worked on modifying the warp field, a few more ships went up in flames. Explosions at warp speed were a little strange looking, they did not seem to be spherical but stretched washing against the ships behind them. After a few minutes, she sent out her modifications to the fleet. It took the fleet a couple of minutes to implement them, but once they did the amount passing through their warp fields dropped significantly.

“Looks like your modification is working, what did you do?” asked the commander.

“Remember that the process of folding space creates intense spatial disruption around the ship?” asked the engineer.

“Yes, it's why combat at warp is considered a practical impossibility. Torpedoes are normally useless and energy weapon blasts are thrown off course. What does this have to do with what you did?” said the Commander.

“It occurred to me, that they were also folding space, but with a different purpose and on a much smaller scale. Their spatial shielding is designed to interfere with a warp field and create a stable zone around the mine. Thereby allowing it to bypass the warp field intact and on course. I created an interference pattern in the field to disrupt that process, but it only appears to be about forty-five percent effective. Anyway, what they are doing with those mines is quite interesting. The possibilities that tech represents are intriguing to say the least,” said the engineer.

“That’s nice I’m going to stop you here, we have more important things to worry about. Then the possibilities an alien tech might represent,” said the commander as she turned back to keeping her ships alive as long as possible, while the ship they were chasing was creating a massive minefield in their path. She briefly wondered about how many of these mines they had.

Countryman watched on the scanners as the rate they were losing ships dropped again. Still, they had managed to sink over six thousand ships over the minutes they had been deploying the mines. Now it didn’t seem they were working well enough to further justify their use.

“Kaori, stop deploying the mines. It looks like they figured out the trick and found a defense,” said Countryman.

“Aye, sir stopping mine deployment,” said Kaori. An hour later they were almost to the Velosa cluster when Richards called the bridge.

“Sir, the engine heat is getting pretty bad down here. We are seeing the early signs of system failure we need to shut down the engines soon or we risk permanent engine damage,” said Richards. Countryman tapped his controls and checked their eta for the cluster’s perimeter before replying.

“Can they hold out for another seven minutes?” asked Countryman. Richards took a few seconds to respond.

“They will, sir, but not by much,” replied Richards.

“Prepare to open the vents, and batten down the hatches. Set condition red, all hands to battle stations. Misaki status of the Valorian fleet,” said Countryman.

“Aye, sir. Readying the vents, and sealing all viewports,” said Richards.

“The Valorian fleet is four minutes behind us, but they aren’t doing any better than we are with the heat. Some of them have already dropped out of warp. The others all have massive heat signatures, I expect they will be forced to drop out of warp around the same time we are,” reported Misaki as alarms started sounding and the status lights turned red.

Down in the brig, Sali was startled awake by the alarms going off. She had fallen asleep at some point during the last couple of hours. Looking around she saw no one, and the twin set of horizontal light strips across the hall from her cell, that had been a steady blue were now flashing red. It was a couple of moments later when a guard pair walked by. She asked them a question about what was going on.

“None of your concern,” was their reply leaving her effectively in the dark. Then suddenly she heard the distinctive hum of the engines cut out followed by a jolt, which she wasn’t ready for and she fell on her butt. “I don’t think their dampers are all that efficient, I guess they must have been forced out of warp which means the fleet must have caught up with them. With any luck they would rescue me.,” thought Sali, not realizing that the dampers were actually on minimal power and the jolt wasn’t from the ship being forced out of warp. The jolt was from them hitting a small space rock just big enough to give the Enterprise a jolt but not so big that it could damage the ship. The rock had crumbled on impact, while not even leaving a scratch. Since most of the energy was simply absorbed by the ship’s armor.

It was several minutes later that the fleets forward elements caught up with the Enterprise some distance into the dust clouds that encompassed the entire region. The clouds weren’t yet thick enough here to inhibit sensor ranges very much. Making it easy for the forward battlegroups to find and catch up to the Enterprise. Valorian ships while not as maneuverable as the Enterprise or her sunken escorts were faster at sublight speeds. As soon as they caught up they opened fire on the Enterprise. 

The distinctive red pulse of their cannons impacting the hull harmlessly. As the destroyers closed to torpedo range. The moment the destroyers were in range they fired their torpedoes. Most were destroyed when they tried to penetrate the Enterprise’s energy web. A few struck the hull draining the armor. In her cell, Sali felt the jolts of the impacts of the torpedoes. Causing her to curse slightly, while wondering what the hell was going on out there. Then she heard a voice over the comms, “all hands brace for imminent pulse detonation, in five ...”

Hearing the word brace she immediately braced herself, while muttering to herself, “What in Valoria do they mean by pulse detonation?” Something she found out a moment later when the countdown hit zero. This time she felt, a powerful jolt from the sudden and rapid acceleration that the dampers didn’t fully compensate for since they were not at full power. Normally this amount of acceleration wouldn’t faze her since it was normal during fighter maneuvers. Primarily since fighter dampers weren’t as efficient as ship dampers, which meant fighter pilots could expect up to nine gs of internal acceleration. Thanks to her stun sickness and her nausea which the medicine hadn’t fully eliminated she ended up losing her lunch. Then there was another jolt, equally strong that she wasn’t expecting. As she thought the pulse detonation would mean just one jolt. So she had let go of the bed after the first. As a result she was slammed into a wall. 

She was just getting off the floor when she heard a voice announcing another pulse detonation. She hurried back to her bed and braced herself for another jolt. Saying to herself, “What are they doing out there?” This time after the first jolt she didn’t let go. Each time she thought they were about to stop, another was announced. By the time it finally stopped she was miserable, her arms hurt, she was sore all over and she had lost her grip three times being slammed into a wall each time. One of those times tossed her into the grid. That hurt a lot, after being tossed into the grid, she braced herself near the toilet hoping that spot would be better. That area proved better and she managed to hold her grip better. 

Afraid she would be hit with another strong jolt though she stayed there keeping her grip. After a while when no further jolts came she let go and moved over towards the three buttons. She had ignored them earlier since she didn’t know what they did. Two of the buttons were grouped together on the left, and were colored blue. The third was on the right and colored red. She needed someone here, her cell was a mess and she felt terrible. Guessing the more solitary button to be a panic button or something along those lines she pressed it. Something she figured the cell had since there weren’t guards outside her cell at all times.  A computerized voice immediately told her that a guard would be with her shortly. 

She heard the guard before she saw him.

“So what is the emer... Oh, I see. I’ll get some cleaning supplies up here, a change of clothes and your doctor to check you out,” said the guard before making a few calls on his personal comms. A minute later another guard joined him carrying cleaning supplies along with the change in clothes. Those supplies were nothing more than a scrub brush, two rags, some soap and a large bucket of warm water with three partitions. Doctor Amanda appeared about a minute later.

The guards opened the cell and let her in before placing the supplies by the door inside the cell. Amanda came up to her and scanned her. Sali hadn’t left the cell’s poor excuse for a bathroom. Instead, she had merely sat down on the floor.

“A few bruises, some micro fractures but nothing serious,” said Amanda as she pulled something from her hip pack.

“What is that?” asked Sali.

“Nano injector, it will fix you up quite nicely and quickly,” said Amanda. Just before she used it on Sali. It took a couple of minutes before she was feeling better. The first thing she noticed were her bruises vanishing and then the pain started to go as well. After about three minutes she was feeling the way she was before she was thrown about the cell.

“Alright, I’ll leave you to cleaning your cell,” said Amanda before leaving the cell. Sali wanted to say she hadn’t seen that coming, but she had. When the guard was telling her about her rights, he had also informed her of some of her responsibilities. One of which was that she was expected to keep her own cell clean. So she went for the supplies and grabbed the brush, and started cleaning her cell. Under the supervision of the guards, even being required to clean up what ended up outside the cell. When she was finely done one of the guards walked in and placed the change of clothes, which was just another prisoners slip, on the small sink counter and gave her a plastic bag.

“Clean yourself up, and place your clothes in this,” said the guard. This wasn’t something she had expected, but fortunately, the guard was leaving the cell. She pulled the bucket over towards the bathroom and positioned it so she could use and get the most privacy. Not that she had much, something she would probably have to get used to. Using the spare rag, she had fortunately not used, she cleaned herself up using the now almost cold water, in the third partition she had also not used, fortunately. Once she was reasonably clean, she slipped on the new dress which was identical to the old one, minus the stains from her lunch. As she was turning over the bag to the guard, she noticed the lights were blue again.

“What do those lights mean?” asked Sali as she handed the bag over.

“Those are the alert status lights. Blue is condition normal, while Red means Battlestations. You don’t really need to worry about them, but you should probably brace yourself for a few jolts when those lights are red,” said the guard to her left.

“It would have been nice to know that earlier. Is there anything else I might need to know?” asked Sali.

“Well, not really,” said the guard, just as the other guard closed the cell door, pulling the used supplies with him. The two left soon after the door closed. Leaving her standing in the cell with no idea what was going on, yet again. The only thing she really knew was that they had been in battle with someone, and since she was still here they must have won.

Around the same time, the Commander was waiting for the rest of her fleet to gather. While rewatching the brief battle with the Enterprise, before she had slipped away into the clouds. Intelligence had informed her they had some kind of hypermobility drive. However, the file she read had said they were believed to only be capable of three consecutive jumps, not twenty-seven.

She knew they weren’t really jumps, they only looked like they were. It was really a massive burst of extreme acceleration, followed by an equally extreme burst of deceleration. This meant they must have good inertial dampers to handle it. The energy needed for it was also likely to be quite high which she guessed they could afford to use having nearly emptied an entire fuel depot. They had enough fuel on board to power an entire fleet for a year. She had no idea how long that fuel would last that ship.

All of this meant that she needed a better plan to deal with that mobility of theirs. If not she might lose the entire fleet. She also would need to find them something easier said than done. Especially here in the Valosa cluster. After ripping apart her forward elements in a matter of minutes they had set course deeper in the cluster and disappeared from sensors. By now they had likely gone to warp. At least she knew what to look for, in order to find them. They had learned some time ago, that their ships generated a fairly large number of gravitons which meant all she had to look for were unusual graviton concentrations. Not that knowing what to look for helped her much in this place.

“Sir, the rest of the fleet has rendezvous with us, shall I set a return course for New Valoria?” said her first officer.

“As much as I want to give that order I can’t. Split the fleet into battle groups and establish a search grid. We are going to find that ship, and no battlegroup is to engage the enemy if they find them. We will keep in constant contact, so we can close when we find them and engage them simultaneously,” said the commander. 

“Why can’t you give that order? We lost them, and are clearly outmatched we should return to base,” said her first officer.

“You haven’t considered the political ramifications. The incident at New Valoria will have massive repercussions throughout the quadrant. The events at New Valoria reflect badly on our military. We must find and destroy, or better yet capture that ship to lessen the impact. If we don’t there will be war,” said the commander.

“What if we are destroyed? Wouldn’t that be worse?” asked the first officer.

“We must take the risk, the confederation is not ready for war. Our fleet is stretched too thin, and I fear the new ships the council ordered might not be ready in time for the war. As it is, our relations with the Krall have already taken a turn for the worse over the course of the last year. The intel update I got an hour ago, mentioned that we now stand at the brink of war with the Malora, the Voskar and the Toral Confederacy. The Krall have increased their border patrols but they don’t seem to be preparing for war just yet. Command wants that ship destroyed, or captured. They believe it to be our only chance at averting a multifront war. We have five months to find that ship, and take care of it, since command expects us to be at war within the next six months. I am not however going to have us stay out here that long, if we don’t find them in the next three months we’re going home,” said the Fleet Commander.

“I guess I can live with that,” said the first officer.

Captain’s log June 29th 004 SDE,

The last week has been fairly uneventful if you don’t count the anomalies. If you do, then the three plasma storms that hit us over the week are the only real event. The Valorian charts weren’t kidding about this being the perfect place to hide. Sensors are practically useless in this thick soup. In open space, you can normally pinpoint a star system hundreds of lightyears away and determine some of its basic characteristics, such as the number of planets. Here you can barely even see them, from seven lightyears away and forget learning anything about them without visiting them. Well, you could learn some things like mineral composition without entering the system, but you have to get close enough. Right now, we are currently tracking a plasma storm that we expect will hit us sometime tomorrow. This one is a class three a little stronger than the previous storms, so we are expecting a little turbulence when it hits, but nothing we can’t handle. 

Inside the ship, though the week has been a little more interesting. The upcoming trial for the Valorian we captured is the talk of the ship. I assigned Reia to be her legal counsel for the trial, and she has been reading up on our legal codes. She told me she is going to talk with the young girl today, who I believe is name Sali. I have heard she has been well behaved down in the brig. As for the trial I’m still not decided on her sentence. Nor have I figured out what I’ll have her do during her stay in our brig. The only thing I am certain about is that she won’t be leaving the ship. I think I’ll visit her myself later, and ask her about her skills. Can’t have one person doing absolutely nothing for the ship afterall. I also have the political angle to think about.

Reia hesitated briefly before entering the brig. She didn’t entirely feel ready to meet the girl who she was supposed to counsel. Honestly part of this hesitation was because she felt that she should have at least spoken to the girl earlier. Entering the brig she found it to be far larger than she expected, but given the size of the ship, she should have expected that. She crossed the corridor and knocked on the only normal door in the brig she had seen so far, which had a guard standing on either side. The response was immediate, and she entered the office of the guard captain.

The guard captain was a middle-aged woman, with a distinguished appearance. Unlike the other guards, she wasn’t wearing her armor. Instead it was on display to her left, ready to be equipped in a moment’s notice. She was wearing a standard uniform instead. The woman was clearly doing paperwork on her terminal, but she looked up and smiled politely before saying, “Ah Advisor Reia, I have been expecting you. You want to see Prisoner Sali, yes?”

“Yes, mamm. Is there a room I can use or will I be meeting her in a cell?” asked Reia.

“I’ll have the guards show you to the meeting room, I set up for you. Sali will be there in a few minutes,” said the guard captain. A minute later a guard showed up, after she pushed a button on her desk. The guard was also nice and led her to her meeting room. That was placed near the center of the brig area with several other meeting rooms.

Sali was asleep when her cell door opened and a guard woke her which surprised her. The cell wasn’t normally opened and when it was it was usually in the evening. Those times in the evening they escorted her to a shower room, where she was allowed a cold shower. The first time she got a cold shower she met a couple of other female prisoners. She wasn’t allowed to talk to them, so she didn’t know why they were imprisoned. As for the door opening, by her reckoning, it wasn’t even breakfast yet and was still early morning ship time. This was a very odd time for the cell being opened. She couldn’t be sure of the exact time since she wasn’t given the luxury of a clock. One thing she did know for certain is the wake-up call hadn’t sounded. This is why she knew something was up.

Pushing herself off the metal bed, she got up and turned towards the guards. Before she could even ask the one who woke her told her that she was to follow them. He then pushed her gently towards the door. Being escorted like this was nothing new to her. She passed a number of cells, most of which were empty. A few had occupants who were still asleep, what they had done to get in here she had no idea. Then suddenly it occurred to her that her early wake-up call and escort might be due to her trial. She was really hoping that she wasn’t being escorted to the trail. She still knew nothing about what to expect at the trial. She had asked the guards, but they had simply ignored the question.

After passing several rows of cells, turning a number of corners, even passing a few shower rooms and the occasional guard post. Not seeing any guards outside the rooms seemed odd. They reached an area that had actual proper doors in it. She hadn’t seen those the entire time she was here. She was led to the third door on her right, the guard in front of her opened the door. Then the other guard shoved her in, causing her to stumble a bit. By the time she recovered her balance, the door was already closed.

Looking around she found herself in a room, that was a bit larger than her cell. The only furniture in the room was a table and a few chairs bolted to the floor. The chairs looked to be far more comfortable than the one in her cell. What drew her eye the most, was the presence of another Valorian in the room. At first, she thought the other woman was a prisoner as well, but that thought only lasted until she noticed that she wasn’t wearing prisoner’s garb.

“Hello Sali, I’m Reia and have been assigned as your legal counsel,” said Reia, while signaling she should sit down.

“Does that mean you are getting me out of here?” asked Sali hopefully as she sat down. The chair was just as comfortable as it looked

“I can’t get you out of here, and if you are thinking of escaping I would recommend against it,” said Reia.

“Why can't you?” asked Sali disappointment in her voice.

“I’m here to help you get the best sentence at your trial, not break you out. As for a breakout, don’t even try it. You’ll just end up making things worse, and even if you succeed in getting out of the brig you won’t make it off the deck,” said Reia, and then before Sali could respond Reia said, “Now then at the trial, I recommend you plead guilty to the charges, they have both video and eyewitness testimony to your crimes. As the charges go, the only one you will have to worry about is the one involving trying to blow up your fighter. The other two are of far lesser value and won’t really affect your sentence.”

“What kind of sentence am I looking at?” asked Sali dreadfully. The answer proved not to her liking when Reia told it was ten years minimum. She already hated this brig, and she found herself dreading the idea of spending the next ten years of her life in an alien brig. 

“Can’t you get me out earlier than that?” asked Sali, but without much hope.

“No, but their legal code contains an early release system. If you are on good behavior throughout your sentence, you might be released after a review of your case, which should happen every two years after the first, which for a ten-year sentence will happen during your third year,” said Reia. Sali brightened when she heard that, it gave her a little hope she could get out earlier. The next couple of hours were followed by a great deal of talk on her upcoming trial. During which time she learned about the real reasons for her trial. At least they were treating her nicer than would be expected in a similar case on other worlds.  After a while, the conversation switched to learning about each other.

“So how long have you been aboard?” asked Sali.

“It's been about three years since I came aboard,” replied Reia.

“Three years? You must have some interesting stories to tell. How did your first days go here?” asked Sali.

“They were awkward, I made so many social blunders, thanks to not knowing anything, that any conversation outside a military setting ended awkwardly. Then I also miscalculated my rations that first month and didn’t leave enough for me to eat the entire month. I ended up running out, during the last week of the month. I was too embarrassed at the time to actually ask for help, so I ended up starving for the last few days of the week. That was no fun at all, which is why after that I always made sure I had enough ration credits in reserve to last the month,” said Reia answering the question.

“How did you end up starving yourself?” asked Sali

“Well, I was trying their food back then, and I ordered one too many of the more expensive options that month. So how about you? How was your first week here?” asked Reia.

“Terrible, and boring. Stun sickness is far worse than what people say. You know all they would serve me was flavorless gruel the first couple of days I was here. When they finally gave me proper solid food, it was still pretty flavorless. Just some kind of grain with no flavor, and a fish that needs something. What sucked the most was being thrown about the cabin, especially being tossed into the bars,” said Sali.

 Reia chuckled a bit and replied, “I heard about that, you know you are the only person to get thrown around that day. Did you even use the bracing bar on the bed?”

“I, uh, lost my grip on it,” said Sali.

“Maybe you need a children’s harness,” suggested Reia.

Just before Sali could reject that idea, she was bounced by a small jolt. Just enough to lift her barely two centimeters out of her chair, and drop. Soon followed by other small jolts. Sali glanced at the alert lights in the room which were still a solid blue.

“Looks like that plasma storm we were expecting hit,” said Reia.

“Plasma storm? Wait we aren’t in the Velosa Cluster are we?” asked Sali mentioning the only place she knew of that had a tendency of being hit by plasma storms and was reasonably close to New Valoria.

“I can’t answer that,” said Reia.

“Somehow I expected that answer,” replied Sali, then she asked a question no one had answered for her, “I have been wondering for a while, but why is the brig so dark?

“It’s not just the brig, but the whole ship. They keep the lighting minimal across the board. I know it takes some getting used to,” replied Reia, just as there was a knock on the door. Reia responded to the knock saying, “Come in.” a moment later the door opened to admit the Captain. Countryman walked to the nearest chair and sat down next to Sali.

“Hello, there Sali is it? I’m Countryman, captain of this ship and I will be the judge for your trial,” said Countryman.

“I didn’t expect to meet the captain here in the brig. Why are you here?” said Sali.

“Well, you should have. I normally inspect the brig every three to four months with the occasional surprise inspection. However today I’m here to see you. I assume Reia has already covered the trial, is that correct?” asked Countryman.

“Yes, she did and she was pretty clear about the way things will go,” said Sali.

“Well, in cases like yours where the result is so cut and dry, the sentence is often decided beforehand which is why I am here. I am going to ask you some questions, that will help me decide your sentence...” said Countryman than Sali interrupted.

“Wait are you saying my sentence is going to be decided today?” said Sali.

“No, it will be decided during our next session on Wednesday, that's the day after tomorrow. You will need to have your defense ready by then. However if you are ready with it now, we can decide it today. As for your trial, it is scheduled for next Monday. But if we can decide your sentence today we can move it up to Friday,” said Countryman. The idea of getting her trial out of the way faster appealed to her, but she didn’t have her defense ready so she said so. Over the next hour and a half, she was asked a lot of questions. Mostly about her skill set and experience. One of the questions was if she had a prior criminal record, which she made the mistake of lying about.

“Actually you do, your full name is Sali of Clan Arimae, correct?” said Countryman. Sali nodded since that was her name, and she found herself wondering how they knew her clan name.

“Our contacts gave us some information about you, including your record. It's mostly minor pranks. The most serious crime here is a case of theft when you broke into your commanding officer’s quarters and stole her entire wardrobe. Apparently you served a month in the brig for that,” said Countryman.

“But that was ten years ago! I don’t even have a prior record here, why would my record in the confederation matter. Besides, they were just pranks!” replied Sali.

“They matter because they reveal your character and your lying just now doesn’t reflect well on your character. The pranks don’t matter so much, you were a teenager at the time. Teens can often be pretty stupid, you were just testing your limits then. Anyway, that concludes our session. I’ll see you again on Wednesday,” said Countryman before he left. Turning to Reia who was still there, she said, “I think I just made a mistake.”

“You did, but it was a minor one. Just try not to get caught in a lie again. Anyway it's about time you get back to your cell,” said Reia as she moved to leave the room. Sali hesitated about leaving her seat, but she did and left the room. Where she was promptly escorted to her cell by the guards. Where she found the breakfast she missed waiting for her.

Captain's log July 6th 004 SDE,

We have entered a small system in a particularly dense region of the cluster. The soup is so thick here that we can barely see more than a couple of lightyears. Our initial survey of the system turned up four planets and several asteroid fields. Including one large gas giant, two planets in the habitable zone, both very cold, and a molten world that is too close to the system primary. Of the two planets in the habitable zone, the one closer to the star has liquid water, while the other only has frozen water which is why we are in orbit of the second planet. Our initial survey reveals it be a harsh place to try and establish a colony. Most of the surface is covered by ice, with limited vegetation found mostly near the equator. Most of the liquid water also being near the equator. Geothermal activity has created warm regions in chains across the surface where life has managed to take hold. Our scans have found decent veins of minerals across the surface, that could fuel a colony. However it may be worth it to establish a colony here, and the current ecosystem won’t be a problem it will take time, but we can terraform the planet. Furthermore, it is isolated enough that we should be safe enough to rebuild.

As for today’s trial, the details have all been worked out. It will start at mid-afternoon and by evening the sentence will be officially announced. She’s a nice girl, while unfortunate she will be spending some of her best years in a cell. Outside of being a pilot, she doesn’t have a good skill set. So for the work portion of her sentence, I’ll have her assigned to the factories making civilian goods.

Countryman was reviewing the latest survey data when Megumi walked up to him.

“Sir, I think we should land the ship. There are several good sites for landing I have found. This planet represents a good place to conduct some much-needed maintenance, I need to patch the engines, and inspect the hull plating. Normally I would do all of that in space, but with this dust cloud. It could cause problems if dust got into any of the connections when I expose the engines. Also, Kaori would like to see you in lab twenty-seven with one of the younger scientists. I think his name was Paul, or was it his twin Al. I can never tell which one is which with those two,” said Megumi.

“I have a hard time telling the difference as well, you just have to notice the subtle differences,” said Countryman.

“I’ll try to work on that, next time I’m in the same room as the pair,” replied Megumi. Then Countryman went to work landing the ship. As soon as he gave the order to land the status lights turned green, and a general announcement for landing stations went out. It took only a couple of minutes to land the ship on one of the sites Megumi had recommended. The area was a nice flat ice field. To the west of the ship were some cliffs, hills and mountains. While to the east and north was more flat land. Well mostly flat, there were the occasional hill or depression in the land. To the south was the shore, where cold water lapped at a barren shoreline. 

After landing Countryman gave Megumi the go-ahead for the maintenance, before heading down to lab twenty-seven to see Kaori and the scientist that want to see him. It took mere moments for the lift to deposit him on deck 23. The deck was primarily labs and living quarters for the scientists. There were additional labs on other decks, with the majority of the other labs on deck 102. The labs not on those decks were attached to the hangers and intended for studying captured alien ships. Countryman had been on this deck many times, mostly for inspections or to see a scientist about his or her project report and demonstration. As such he already knew exactly where to go to reach his destination. Taking only a few minutes to reach lab twenty-seven.

The lab was a midsized lab, near the door was a workstation, that is shielded by a clear, reinforced polymer material. In front of it by about a meter was a particle cannon the casing loosely mounted and aimed at a simulator plate on the far side of the room. The simulator plate was a large metal plate designed to simulate different types of armor. The thickness and material could be changed from a flip of a switch at the workstation. Right now it looked set to simulate overlord armor for a light cruiser around five meters thick. The lab had two backdoors the one on the left contained weapon parts and spare cannons stored, while the other contained another workstation and a fabricator for weapons research. The two he was looking for were at the workstation. A couple of quick steps and he joined them.

“So what did you two want to see me about?” asked Countryman. The two turned around and Kaori explained, “Sir, remember the C series particle cannon project?”

“Yes, I’m carrying a C-2 prototype for the EX-94. The C series as I recall shows the best promise for range and firepower but is lacking in fire rate. Some versions fix the problem, only to suffer from overheating issues. What about it?” replied Countryman.

“Well, we have solved those issues. That cannon is our prototype version 57b. The original 57 developed on Earth showed amazing promise but was originally abandoned in favor of the 58 for next-generation bolt snipers due to several key issues. We integrated components based on both Valorian and Cathamari weapon design. The result is a cannon far superior and more reliable to the old 57. Armor penetration improved by a factor of ten, yield is up sixty-seven percent. Range improved only slightly compared to the old 58, but if we upgrade the cannons on Enterprise our cannons will see a fifty percent increase in range. Fire rate will drop however by 100 bolts per minute,” said Al, who should probably wear a nametag.

“Interesting, well let’s see it,” said Countryman. Al turned to the controls and a couple moments later the cannon fired a three-round burst into the simulator plate. Three powerful blue bolts slammed into the plate one after the other leaving a large hole in the plate.

“The cannon was set to simulate a range of twenty thousand kilometers, and as you can see it ripped right through that plate. Our current cannons would have been stopped by that armor,” said Al.

‘Impressive, what about our beams, have you made any improvements with them?” asked Countryman.

“Yes, sir, we managed to increase their range, power, and focus. While also improving their recharge rate and increasing their firing time. We based the improvements mostly off scans of Krall ship weapons, but some components were based on Cathamari weapons design. We were not able to lase the beam like the Krall do with their plasma beams, but we did manage to replicate the shield penetration effect their beams have. Albeit at a far lesser degree, according to simulations, we can expect a twelve percent shield penetration rate on a ship with average shields. Whereas the Krall can expect upwards of eighty percent shield penetration against the same ship,” said Al then he continued, “Anyway, sir. Thanks to our increasing knowledge of alien plasma weaponry it might be possible to design one of our own. It will take years with our limited resources and we can only follow one of the paths we are familiar with. At least for now,” said Al.

“Interesting, what are the options along with their strengths and weaknesses? Also, I would like a demonstration of the new beam cannons,” said Countryman. Kaori immediately went about setting that up, while Al answered the question.

“We have three paths open to us, the first one is the Cathamari path. These are inelegant brute force weapons, they have superb power and a decent fire rate. The downside is these weapons generate a lot of heat, are bulky and suffer from limited range. Honestly they are not much more sophisticated than a plasma thrower. The next path is the Valorian route for design. Weapons like theirs have superb range and fire rate, but are lacking in power. The reason for this lack of power is due to the fact that the decaying disruption field they use cannot contain a large amount of plasma.

The last path would be difficult since we have less data on Krall weapons. but if we pursue similar weapons design, we could see powerful, highly accurate long-range weapons with a decent punch. As near as we can tell they use some kind of spatial field manipulation along with a modulated energy pulse to guide and contain the plasma. The downside is their weapons take longer to charge, and as such, they have a lower fire rate,” said Al.

“As interesting as the options may be, with our limited resources it might be best if we stick to particle weapons development for now. They have proven reliable and we have a lot of experience with them. Maybe we can revisit plasma weapons when we have more resources,” said Countryman. A couple minutes later Countryman watched the beam being tested. The mark two cutting beam they had simply sliced through the plate as if it was warm butter.

“Looks good, how complex are these modifications?”

“Not too complex, we can upgrade the entire weapons array to this standard in about ten days, sir,” said Al.

“Set up a field test, and if it goes as well as the lab tests. Schedule the refit with Richards, we are currently on the ground so now would be a great time to update those weapons,” said Countryman as he checked the time. It was about time for the trial so he excused himself after the acknowledgment. Before he could leave Al gave him a pad, it was a project report on the Mark II Electro Cannon development project. He read it on the way to Sali’s trial, the report basically said they were still in the simulation phase and had not yet moved on to prototype testing. They had found a promising design, but it had a materials issue. Simulations showed that the cannon would fail due to a breakdown of the conductor rails which charged the bolt. Usually on the first or second shot. The problem was the materials simply couldn’t handle the energy being channeled through them by the new design. He made a few mental notes to have a materials research lab to partner with them and then put it away.

Meanwhile, in one of the ship’s lounges, Williams and several of her lackeys were gathered.

“That damn cyborg has done it again. He just landed the ship on a worthless ball of ice that isn’t even worth considering as a colonization candidate, without the council's authorization. At every turn, he disregards the council, and he has them so wrapped around his finger that they let him. Not only that, but they refuse to even see reason, and replace him with a more proper captain,” said Williams.

“How are we going to do that? He basically has all the power on the ship,” said Sanchez.

“I have the support of a number of the top commanders. I wasn’t able to get Forrest, but I don’t need him. Now listen closely here is how we are going to do this,” said Williams.

Around the same time, Eri was taking advantage of the fact she didn’t have to fly the ship to help the hanger crew, by testing one of the recently refitted fighters. This was an opportunity she had been looking forward to for a while. She had been wanting to fly one of the 1204s since she had first laid eyes on one, and now she finally had her chance. She met Flight Leader Robert Meyers next to the fighter. She had already stopped by the locker room and changed into a flight suit. She had already taken some time to familiarize herself with the fighter so she was ready to fly.

“That flight suit looks good on you. I will be flying a modified X-1205 behind you in case something goes wrong. Get in and double-check the preflights,” said Flight leader Robert. The 1205 he mentioned and been outfitted with a mag tractor and outfitted so that a fighter could dock on her underside.

“Yes, sir,” relied Eri as she got into the fighter's cockpit. She initiated the fighters startup sequence and began running the preflight checks. After double-checking the sequence everything read blue across the board. She reported it was blue and moments later the flight crew cleared the hanger and she launched the fighter. A few seconds later the flight leader followed her out in his X-1205. Moments later she hailed his ship.

“So, Robert let's do a few flights over the ship and then attempt a low altitude orbit before breaking the atmosphere,” said Eri.

“Sounds like a plan,” replied Flight Leader Robert.

Soon they were winging out over the frozen ice field that surrounded the ship. Below she could see Megumi’s work crews already hard at work. Several groups were walking along the hull conducting a thorough inspection of the hull plating. While the majority of the workers were working on the engines which were already exposed. A repair arm being used to remove large damaged components and replace them with spares. They made several passes around the ship, before winging out along the equator. While keeping a close eye on the gauges, she watched the landscape. Below them they crossed small seas the occasional green spot, ice fields and frozen mountains. As the terrain passed below them rapidly, she was enjoying the fighter’s excellent handling.

Before long they came upon the ship from the opposite direction they left from. A quick chat over the comms with Robert and the two pulled up and increased speed to break from orbit. Once in orbit, she opened the comms again.

“Looks like the engines check out fully. Let’s move on to the weapons test,” said Eri.

“I saw a good spot for a weapons test out near the fourth planet. She has quite a bit of debris in orbit, which will make perfect target practice. We will fly out to the planet, and test your main guns first. Then we test your launchers, and see if there are any issues, that weren’t found by the hanger crew,” said Roberts.

“Sounds like a good plan, setting a course for the fourth planet,” responded Eri. The two ships then made for the planet. Being some distance away it would take a few hours to reach their destination.

Back on the ship, Sali was sitting in her assigned seat for the trial. While she knew it was basically a formality. It had been an interesting experience so far. Still, she was looking forward to the sentencing phase that was coming up soon. Mostly because she would finally learn what it will be. While she knew Countryman had already decided her sentence, she had to wait for the official announcement to know what it was. This was why she was also extremely anxious since in a few minutes her fate would be official.

Then she heard what she was waiting for the announcement that the sentencing phase would begin shortly. In the couple minutes, she had to wait for the announcement, she was hoping she managed to get one of the lighter ones. She hated having nothing to do as well, so the cell was just terrible for her. Fortunately, she didn’t have to wait long before she heard Countryman announcing her sentence.

“For her crime of attempting to detonate a sabotaged reactor and firing on our shuttles, the war criminal Sali of clan Arimae has been sentenced to twelve years in the brig, and will be expected to labor in the factories producing civilian goods,” announced Countryman.

Sali didn’t know how to feel about her sentence,  she didn’t manage to quite get the one she wanted. She did, however, get one on the light end of the spectrum. While she had been wanting something to do, she wasn’t sure about working in a factory. She was still trying to sort her feelings out when a guard came over and rebound her wrists. Before proceeding to escort her out of the room.

At the same moment, one of Williams’s lackeys came up to Countryman and announced that he was summoned to a meeting with the officer’s council. As the lackey, turned around to leave Countryman smiled, as he knew exactly what this meeting was about. He had already noticed that William was making her move, pulling out a comm device he made his counter move. Alerting those loyal to him, that Williams was about to try something stupid.