A Tick Ahead

Posted on Mon Feb 7th, 2011 @ 11:31am by Yuven Tovsh

Mission: Hippocratic Hijacking
Location: Bridge, SS Torvanka
Timeline: Present

[One day ahead of the Arizona...]

Everything had proceeded as planned. Their long range scans had detected trace Starfleet signals, most likely a ship investigating the attack that Yuven had led on the North Star. Now as they were nearing their arrival at the smuggling hub, he had a chance to go over the reactions to the operation so far.

His clients had been pleased with his progress and apparent lack of effort during the operation, saying that they would consider him for further employment of this magnitude if he kept it up. Yuven did find the thought of that much money satisfying, and he couldn't deny the stability in becoming a mercenary. But in his profession, it was all about keeping up looks, and Yuven had forged a reputation as a pirate and a maverick. But as much as the bulky Kobheerian man wanted to keep up appearances, the thought of playing under a new band still warranted many exploitable advantages. Funding, modifications, better weaponry, frequent repairs and refits. But he would have to think later. The only thing his mind should have been focusing on was the fact he was going to meet his clients, rather than just being briefed over secure subspace communication.

"I've only been to Sutekh Station once," he could hear Y saying to some of the bridge crew. She knew she was allowed to run her mouth right now. The boss was happy, and the job was nearly completed. "It got me one of the best solo assignments ever, though."

"And what was that, Y? You were paid by some politician to dress up, fall in love with another rival politician and poison him, right?" Jack said from the pilot's seat with a grin, though he didn't turn to meet Y's blatantly infuriated appearance.

"As a matter of fact, I was paid to infiltrate someone's mind during a dream and retrieve top secret political information."

"And you say this is your best assignment, Y? It sounds boring," Jracke said from the operations and research console at the far left of the bridge.

"I don't think the man actually believed I would sell the information before I gave it to him. I had managed to," she paused for a moment, smirking as she continued, "Convince this man into paying me early. I then sold the information to the Tal Shiar for quite a bargain."

"One of the most logical and rational things that you may ever do --"

"Jracke, if you want to see your worst nightmares, I would be hap -"

"Enough," Yuven spoke, leaning forward in his chair and balancing his chin on his folded hands. "How far out are we from the station?"

"One minute away. It should be coming into visual range in five seconds," Jracke said.

"Good. Y, signal the station we're docking, priority one. My usual spot should be waiting for me."

"You have a usual spot, sir?" the formerly silent Jack asked from the pilot's console.

"Indeed. Bearing zero-zero-two mark zero-zero-one, port side, docking bay three. More than enough space for the Torvanka."

As the Torvanka completed its final rotation around the moon, using the ship's superior velocity and the moons gravity like a small sling shot, the Torvanka came into view of a massive, criminal made space station. It was at least a kilometre long and four hundred metres wide, and it seemed to be made up of multiple different components and engineering techniques. It seemed to have twelve different compartments, each separated by a circular habitat dome. It had six of these levels, each looking similar, though not exactly like the one above or below it. The station orbited the planet much like space shuttles would from 20th century Earth, with its belly facing the planet, and its top facing away from it. From the middle of the station sprouted a thin control tower, clearly armed with disruptor cannons and defended by external shield generators. It was likely other weapons existed on other parts of the station, though they weren't visible to the outside. If a space station could me a medley, it was a medley of every possible space-faring species that could be found near the Neutral Zone. The station maintained its orbit with what appeared to be thruster and impulse stabilizers taken from Federation cargo vessels and shuttles. It orbited the oceanic moon La'Zoz, of the planet Urmin II, a small gas giant that held a far orbit from its young sun, a blue giant.

The Torvanka pulled into an external docking port on the third level of the station. There were other ships around them, each as unique and feared as the Torvanka, and in some cases heavily damaged. All in all the docking port had a great view of the planet below. But most importantly, the clamps that reached out to secure the ship were most definitely as new as one could find on the black market, common tritanium variants of standard Federation clamps. Yuven could hear that the ship was secured, and soon after that he heard the depressurization coming from the umbilical from the station connecting the Torvanka. They were ready to go aboard.

"Quova," Yuven said, motioning the silent Bolian guard over from his guard position near the turbolift. "You're with me. Let's go meet our clients."

OFF