(G243 19/06/2015 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP) 35

(G243 19/06/2015 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP) 35


DAY 97 (thu) cont ...

It was now 1515 hours. What remained of the Aeroshuttle crew did there best to get organised.
Paterson went through to the crew area to get a replacement uniform, which made an embarrassed
Rumbleton scuttle through to the cockpit.

Ensign Kirk felt he could really do with the help of Ensign Kevek, but the vulcan was still in a daze,
using all his concentration to keep Meion's spirit from nebulising in his mind.

Kirk next asked Crewman Dell for a status report and it was far from a good one. The Aeroshuttle was
barely hanging in there. Systems had been damaged after ramming into the Numiri mountains and after the
interference during its capture.
Dell went on to mention that Munro's plan had been to find the Banean double agent from amongst the three
spies and squeeze the Missile Defence codes from them.

Kirk saw the sense of this. They had not achieved the primary mission of getting to Major Midscht, but
if they could get off the planet and back to Voyager then at least part of the secondary mission would
be accomplished.

He started by using a medical scanner on the three Banean spies just in case one of them actually was a
Numiri, but they were all as expected, i.e. Banean's disguised as Numiri.

The snow was beginning to ease off a little so Kirk ordered Paterson to move the AS to the north and
follow the storm. When they landed again he tried the scanners, but quickly turned them off again when
he realised how much scanning activity was going on in the area, all looking for them.
It dawned on him that they were now up against the clock, it was only a matter of time before the snow
storm blew out and they would easily be discovered.

Dell tapped into the local weather reports and found that the storm was moving east so Kirk had Paterson
'valley hop' east, staying low as possible. After a couple of hops though Paterson's lack of experience as
a pilot lead to her pranging the AS against some rocks and it was an hour of frantic repair work before
they were fit to take off again.

By 1930 hours they had found as good a spot as they could and as darkness fell they shut down as much
as possible on the AS to be state of 'darkness'.

Kirk had another of his waking dreams as shown below:


''
You are in a crowd. A tall figure in a cloak is pursuing you. You run and push through the
crowd but just as you think you are getting away, the cloaked figure shoots you in the back.
You feel a searing pain, but then nothing more...
''

Kirk called a meeting of the remaining Starfleet personnel. He proposed just flying up into
space as quickly as they could and forcing the traitor's hand. Once the missiles started coming for
them the traitor would have to hand over the codes to save his own skin.
Dell thought it was a bit of a gamble and Paterson proposed interrogating the spies. Rumbleton agreed
and added that they had a few hours at least to give something a try.

At first Kirk wanted to put the spies into stress positions, but the Baneans were tough customers and
simply refused to be interrogated. Dell, Paterson and Rumbleton had not been trained in interrogation
techniques and were simply not very intimidating.

Kirk had had some basic training but referred to the Starfleet manual to check what he was and was not
allowed to do. Basically he was permitted to talk to them and nothing more.

So, for lack of a better approached he talked to them individually and promised this; he would drop the traitor
off at a friendly planet if they handed over the correct codes.

Yona Hoom said it sounded like a great offer but he wasn't the traitor. Wijy Kone, the female, said that the others were
the traitor, while Bras Gorom said he thought Wijy was the traitor and that all he wanted was to go home.

He then called them all together and said,
'I'm modifying the offer. Whoever the, lets say, misguided agent is may not trust me. I'll give all three
of you a communicator and a phaser, I'll leave you all on a safe planet once we get off.'

But perhaps fatigue was setting in for Kirk, because as Yona pointed out, 'This still has the same problem as the
first offer, in that the traitor has to take you at your word.'

In exasperation Kirk then got them to write down on a bit of paper in private either the code or 'This is not the code'
and drop it into a box in the darkened lab area. When he went to the box though it had three bits of paper in it
that all read 'This is not the code'!

Tired and stressed Kirk cried, 'Fuck it! We take off in five minutes! The traitor better get that code ready!'

As they got ready to go Dell talked to Kirk privately, 'Is there nothing else you can think of?'

Just as he was about to reply Kirk had another vision, shown below:

''
You are in a darkened room. A shadowy figure enters holding a gun. You cannot see their face.
You step backwards in fear and hold your hands up in surrender. The figure pulls the curtains
across the window to their right hand side and shoots!
You slump to the floor and then darkness..
''

Dell was concerned and helped Kirk back up to his feet, 'Are you ok sir?'
'Just another whacky dream.', he growled, 'We take off in three minutes.'

But despite his resolution, Kirk's first 'take off' was a ruse to try and fool the traitor into
showing his hand. Whoever the traitor was though had nerves of steel and the plan failed.

It was still dark and still snowing, but by 2200 hours Kirk had had enough and ordered Paterson to
take them to 5000 feet. Passive scans showed a flight of three jet fighters heading towards them so
Kirk ordered the AS straight up into the atmosphere.

The ancient Preserver Tech Missile Defence System detected them and began to fire volleys of three
missiles in their direction. The AS went as fast as they could but after several hits they were down to half
speed and then after a couple more just 6% of impulse.

Kirk ordered all power to be cut and to simply drift in space. Luckily for them the MDS no longer
saw them as a threat and stopped firing at them. What was left of the scanners though revealed that
a Numiri patrol craft was on its way to pick them up.

Kirk sent a microburst of information to Voyager, appraising them of the situation and requesting help
(At the point Voyager was still in orbit around the Banean homeworld). There was also a small fleet of
Banean destroyers just beyond the range of the MDS and Kirk messaged them.

A quick calculation told him that it would take 65 minutes to drift at their current velocity towards
the destroyers and to try and cut down this time he used the manoeuvring thrusters to narrow the approach.

This was enough to trigger the MDS again though and another missile struck them, turning the AS into a lifeless
hulk. Kirk ordered them all into EV suits and they abandoned the shuttle, setting off the self destruct sequence
as they went.

After five minutes of going as fast as they could away from the AS it exploded, blown to tiny fragments, the
remains of Meion and Munro scattered forever to the void.

Try as they might, the EV suits did not have enough thrust to get them to the waiting Baneans in time
and in 15 minutes they were picked up by the Numiri patrol vessel.

'Get in the airlock or we will shoot you!' came the order and Kirk saw no option to comply. Himself, Dell,
Paterson and Rumbleton, as well as the three Banean spies, were prisoners of the Numiri once more.

(Incidentally, dear reader, if Kirk had but known, his dreams were in fact clues to the identity of the traitor.
Someone back on Navamore (for reasons that yet remain a mystery) had put the murders committed by the traitor
into the minds of Kirk and Captain Akar. The dreams revealed that the traitor was tall, male and left handed.
Thus Wijy Kone was ruled out as she was female and Yona Hoom as he was right handed. This meant that in fact
Bras Gorom was the traitor as he was met all three criteria!)