—- USS Luna, Main Bridge —-

Lieutenant Claudia Jara spotted sensor ‘ghosts’ a bit before the three Klingon B’rel-class starships decloaked. The Luna’s sensors were sensitive, but she had not decided if it was picking up background radiation, or something more serious until the Klingon hunting party appeared. She was about to raise the sensor blip with commanding officer Commander Olivia Carrillo when they dropped their cloaks and went from being sensor anomalies to bonafide Birds of Prey.

“Commander the Klingons are here,” Jara said as they appeared on the main viewscreen. The Klingon ships hung mercilessly, and had the Luna’s crew not been expecting them it might have been a reason to panic especially given how dangerous interactions with Klingons had become in the last few months.

“Any idea which ship is the lead one?” Carrillo asked, not wanting to have to play viewscreen tag with whichever was the task group commanding officer on their side.

“We’re being hailed by one of the Birds of Prey,” said the Communications Chief Lieutenant Randolph McKenzie.

“Mark that down as the lead ship Jara, and on screen McKenize,” Carrillo said tugging at her uniform as the face of a female Klingon appeared. She seemed at best disinterested in being there, and at worst as if she was being punished somehow.

“We have been sent to assist you Starfleet,” she said, punctuating her words by spitting off screen.

“Good I have an idea, and don’t worry I think you’re going to like it,” Carrillo said.

—- Jaressi Centre, Main Ops —-

Starric grinned at his two guests, “Don’t think you’ll fool me, I’m a Betazoid.”

“I’m not worried I dated a Betazoid,” Jake Dornall said smiling, “And the best way to keep a relationship going is to keep surprising them.”

Starric laughed at the bravado, “He was Betazoid, I could even read that from you. You’re like an open book.”

Dornall shrugged, “He was a she, and if you got her gender wrong what else are you going to get wrong. Come on man, just because we still have all of our teeth doesn’t mean we work for Starfleet.”

Starric held up the commbadge in the shape of the Starfleet emblem. He smiled, turning to Lieutenant Syvia Voosha. He was not getting much insight into the thoughts of Dornall, he clearly had training, but perhaps the girl would be more willing to give up the game.

“I bet he always does this, lets you take the fall for his sarcasm, lets you be the punching bag,” Starric said trying to sound sympathetic.

“I don’t know man, I just met him, I work on the docks unloading cargo,” Voosha shrugged.

Starric rolled his eyes, “So you’re saying that neither of you are Starfleet?”

“What’s a Starfleet?” Voosha asked, realizing she’d probably played a bit too dumb with that one.

“What’s a Star…” Starric started and drew back his hand ready to hit her when an officer at a control station nearby spoke up.

“We have a Starfleet vessel approaching, explorer-class,” the officer said.

“What’s a Starfleet, cute,” Starric said shaking his head, “Bring shields online, sound red alert, tell all crews to get in their ships and those that are armed get out there. There may be some hunting to do.”

“We’re being hailed,” the officer said.

“Onscreen,” Starric said.

“This is Commander Olivia Carrillo of the USS Luna. We’re looking for of our crew,” the woman on the screen said.

Dornall nodded at the screen, “Hi Commander.”

Starric shook his head, “They’ve been found guilty of treason, and espionage.”

Carrillo nodded, “Sounds serious, but you could let them go and we all go about our ways.”

“The Booty, Triumphant, and Plunder are all launching sir,” the officer at the tactical screen said.

“Thing is you brought an explorer to a firefight. I have three ships and a station full of weapons,” Starric said, “And you’re too far from Federation space to send off a call for help. So why don’t you just leave now, and remember who runs Jaressi Centre.”

Carrillo sighed, “I thought you were going to say that, I’ll talk to you in a bit. I’ve just got to even these odds.”

The screen went dead, Starric could sense that the officer on the Starfleet vessel had been more confident than he’d expected.

“Well this is fun,” Voosha said, “Was that a Starfleet?”

“Target the Starfleet vessel, blow it out of space,” Starric said.

The three pirate vessels targets the Luna-class ship, then suddenly one of them (the Booty) exploded. At tactical the officer was looking at readings, “We have three Klingon ships decloaked. One of our ships are gone, the other two are entering warp.”

Starric cursed, this was what you got from trusting pirates, they’d run rather than put up with much risk and three Klingon ships counted as a risk.

“We’re being hailed by Starfleet again,” the officer at the conn said.

A second later a relaxed Commander Carrillo reappeared. She smiled, “So we could do the thing where we all fire torpedoes at each other for a bit, and maybe you hit us, but in the end three Birds of Prey and us trump whatever you have hobbled together over there, or you could drop your shields, and we get out people.”

Starric nodded at the security team to let go of the prisoners, “Drop shields, end red alert.”

Carrillo smiled, “Smart move. Don’t worry I’ll tell everyone you were very scary so they don’t overthrow you.”

—- USS Luna, Briefing Room 1 – 6 Hours Later —-

Lieutenant Commander Jake Dornall gestured to the blip on the monitor, “We’ve tracked the cargo ship here, it’s a suspected pirate handout. It’s also in the region of the most activity by this ship we’re looking for.”

The Klingons had completed their role and left to do whatever Klingons do when you’re not watching them.

“But,” Carrillo said, sensing a but.

“But even with your weapons pod we need something else,” Dornall said.

“Something else?” Carrillo asked, unsure of what he meant.

“We have a location,” Dornall said, “Let’s head back to Starbase 86 to prepare.”