SIM:Darwin-A Sims/Making Contact
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((Bridge, Deck 1))
::As they carried on Greir found himself greatly relieved that they hadn't lost the trail. He had always been pleased with his choice of first officer but Kael's technical knowledge filled a gap in his knowledge and meant that he truly could come at problems with different ideas and solutions. He was able to provide sound advice and contribute good ideas in areas he knew little about. So it was proving to be quite an effective team so far.::
Loren: Captain, Antares class freighter, dead ahead!
::That was exactly what Greir had been waiting for. Antares class freighter, just as they expected. Now they just had to make the positive identification using the transponder codes the station had provided.::
Reinard: oO Here is is, the moment of truth! Oo
Reinard: Miss James, put the ship on the main viewer. Mister Loren, Check the transponder codes. Do we have a match?
Nessa: Response
Loren: Aye, Captain, that’s our freighter.
::They had a match alright, and Greir was glad they'd found the right ship. He smiled with satisfaction although it was a little early for celebrations. After all they still had to figure out what these guys were carrying and what they were up to. It was time to ask the hard questions and get some answers.::
Reinard: Hail them.
Nessa: Response
Thomas: Looks like they want to do it the hard way.
::Why did that not surprise him? While he hadn't been in the position of hunting down ships and challenging them to stop in the past it didn't surprise him that they wouldn't answer hails. He did find it really irritating however. He watched on the viewer as the ship began to turn as if coming around to face them.::
Loren: They have raised shields and are powering their forward weapons array, Captain.
::Of course they were powering up their weapons. Could they not see they were heavily outmatched? They couldn't seriously expect to win could they? He didn't expect this was some effort to provoke a fight to the death and hoped they weren't really so keen to die. The Darwin could soon destroy them if he wanted but it wouldn't get them any answers and whoever had wanted the weapons - if there was another party involved - would find a new courier.::
Brice: Response
Orrey: ::Jansen nodded to Brice some.:: That's a very valid option to consider.
Thomas: ::Turning to the Captain.:: It's pretty obvious they aren't going to surrender.
Reinard: Let's get that ship under control. Miss Falcon, evasive manoeuvres. Mister Loren, target their weapons first. Once they're disabled stop their engines.
Thomas: Let's try and keep her intact though.
::Greir was glad that Thomas had added that. In the heat of the moment an officer could get a little over zealous. He couldn't even say it was the ensigns that generally did it because in his experience there were some ensigns that were far more level headed and calm than a few higher ranked officers he'd served with.::
Falcon: Evasive pattern Alpha-Six, shifting starboard.
::That was a fair point but with the freighters fire power not proving to be too much of a threat this conflict was going to be pretty short lived indeed.::
Loren: Aye, commander.
Thomas: Knock out their shields. Ensign James, ready a tractor beam to bring the Freighter into the sphere.
Nessa: Response
::Greir was looking forward to meeting the Commanding Officer of this vessel if for no other reason than to find out why they thought it a smart idea to ignore hails and open fire on a vessel obviously a good deal more powerful than them. It was truly astonishing the lengths some people would go to, even when hopelessly outmatched to protect their ill-gotten gains.::
Thomas: Still no response to our Hails?
Falcon: No, sir. They seem content to just sit there and take the pounding.
Thomas: Tractor that Freighter and get it into the sphere. We'll see how willing they are to cooperate once inside.
Nessa: Response
::Today they were the USS Space Jail and they had effectively slammed the entire ship and its occupant into the cell. They were going to need to make sure the ship stayed disabled and get the crew under control. If they regained use of their engines or other systems it could spell trouble. The idea of them trying to go to warp despite being trapped in the bubble wasn't going to be good news for either ship. He didn't know whether they would rather self-destruct than submit to a boarding and face justice for any wrong-doing and he preferred not to take any chances. Falcon and James coordinated with each other and Greir watched with some satisfaction as they hauled in the disabled freighter.::
Reinard: In some ways that's the hard bit done. Now let's see about getting some answers before that crew's lips tighten up too much and they start deleting logs.
::He knew they could recover deleted data, but he didn't want to give them the chance to hide or delete things if possible as they would only be making their work more time consuming.::
Falcon: Seeing as we've got him at point blank range, I'd recommend making a close-up scan of the freighter. We might be able to counteract their jamming and get an idea of what we're dealing with.
Reinard: That seems like a sensible idea. We don't know if they have or are setting up traps for us after all. Even without that we should know what hazards we're likely to be walking into.
Falcon: Oh, something else. If their jamming field is localized to the cargo bay where they have their illicit goods, I'd also recommend we try to get a feel for the ship's overall layout. While it is Antares-class, her crew might have made some modifications. If we end up needing to go over there, it wouldn't hurt to have an idea of the lay of the land.
Reinard: Agreed. Start the scans. Mister Loren get me the status of the ship. Mister Orrey run bioscans and tell me how many people are aboard. Miss James get me its deck layout.
Loren: Aye, Captain. Scanning the freighter.
Nessa: Response
Orrey: Response
::He felt if they could establish those basic things first of all they'd have a decent foundation from which to start their work. In case there was something he had overlooked that might be beneficial, he looked to his first officer to see if he wanted to add anything to the pot.::
Thomas: Response
Anyone: Response
::It appeared they'd hit the ship real well and it was running on minimal power and most systems were offline. As they replied there was a chirp from Ops. These people were extremely predictable and this made Greir question how experienced they were at this.::
Reinard: Of course, now that we have them backed into a corner with no options they suddenly want to talk. Put them on screen.
Nessa: Response
::It took quite an effort for Greir to mask his surprise when he was confronted with two Laudeans on the screen before him. The number of Laudeans who went off-world was relatively low... unless things had changed recently and he hadn't heard about it. That seemed unlikely too. He generally liked to think of his people as good and law abiding and in fact by far most of them were. It was just that he hadn't considered the possibility of them roaming the stars and committing crimes like a gang of common Orion thugs. Up until now he'd never had reason to think of the criminal element of his people as being anywhere else but on Til'Ahn, butting heads with law enforcement there.::
::He wondered if the two Laudeans were as surprised to see him in return and whether they would try to use the common ground they shared to their advantage. After a brief pause and once things had sunk in he spoke up, hoping that the momentary lapse had not been noticed.::
Reinard: =/\= This is Captain Greir Reinard of the Federation Starship Darwin. Identify yourselves. =/\=
Abel: =/\= Response =/\=
::Well if they were Federation citizens then they would be able to look up and check their IDs. Til'Ahn wasn't a member world of the Federation and citizen status was not automatically given out to just anyone. So if they were lying they would find out soon enough, though for what it was worth it really did seem that they were telling the truth about that. It was a shame they would risk their citizenship with dodgy dealings.::
Reinard: =/\= We've identified that you're carrying undisclosed, illegal cargo. For this reason it is our intention to board and search your vessel. =/\=
Abel: =/\= Response =/\=
::Greir wasn't sure whether the Laudean actually believed what he was saying or if he was just playing dumb. Either way he decided he could entertain it up to a point. In the interest of trying to foster the spirit of cooperation he decided to elaborate further.::
Reinard: =/\= I assure you that I'm well within my rights to stop and search your vessel. You might think you can hide your cargo using a jamming field but you failed. Legitimate businessmen have no need to hide what they are carrying either. =/\=
Abel/Inala: =/\= Response =/\=
Reinard: =/\= If it was merely high valued goods you were hauling then you could easily run with or ask for an escort; and be that as it may this area of space has not been rife with crime lately. It doesn't explain the weapons signatures the station picked up and why you would choose to run rather than submit to an inspection. I'm sure you can see how you have built quite the picture of deception. =/\=
Abel/Inala: =/\= Response =/\=
::Greir was pretty sure that there were more weapons there than could reasonably be justified for personal use for hunting. If they were doing such things legitimately there would be permits and no need for jamming devices or running from authorities. Things weren't adding up and he was going to have a thorough search of the vessel to find the full extent of what was going on.::
Reinard: =/\= Well you can talk about it further with me on my ship as we'll transport you to our conference room and interview you. A boarding party will be sent onto the ship. If what you say is true and your cargo checks out we'll release you and we can all happily chalk this up to a misunderstanding. If however we find weapons or anything else illegal its better you declare it now or you'll only be further exacerbating the problem. =/\=
Abel: =/\= Response =/\=
Reinard: =/\= Keep your ship powered down as it is. If you or any of your crew makes any attempt to resist us, interfere with our work or try to power up any ship systems the individuals involved will be taken into custody and held in our brig. Do I make myself clear? =/\=
::He was taking a no nonsense approach. Just because they were Laudean it didn't make him a soft touch and if they thought for a minute they could trick him they'd have another thing coming to them because he was an excellent lie detector. He knew of at least one other person here who he thought would be at least as capable and planned to have them on his team.::
Abel: =/\= Response =/\=
Reinard: =/\= Stand by for transport. Reinard Out. =/\=
::He turned to his bridge crew ready to take charge and gets things on a roll. Thomas was going to have the fun task of leading the away team. Greir planned to give him enough personnel that he could break them into smaller teams at his discretion if he wanted to search more than one deck at a time. He decided to sort that out first.::
Reinard: Commander, I want you to lead the away team. How you choose to run it is up to you. There are only 12 crew members, and 2 of them will be with me in the conference room momentarily but watch out. If any of the crew give you trouble send them over to the brig, I can't have people interfering with our investigation.
Thomas: Response
Reinard: Interview them and see if you can get anyone to talk, check their logs and check their cargo areas. Find the weapons and see what you can find. Report in as appropriate.
Thomas: Response
::They seemed to be generally in agreement about the way forward and since the freighter only have 4 decks it probably wasn't going to take all that long to search. That said it would be prudent to look for hidden cargo, some of his crew had more experience with freighters than others and perhaps that would come in useful here. He now needed to tell Thomas who he was getting to work with.::
Reinard: I want you to take Commanders James, Malcolm and Edwards as well as Lieutenant Baker, Ensigns James and Carter with you. On my team I will have Commander Brice as well as Lieutenants Orrey and Falcon and Ensigns Loren and Corbin. We will meet with and interview the Captain and his First mate to see what we can find out. I'll have the relief crew beam the two of them directly into the conference room once my team is assembled and ready for them. Are there any questions before we get down to it?
Thomas: Response
Commander Greir Reinard
Commanding Officer
USS Darwin-A
Cadet Steward: UFOP: SB118 Academy