The USS Grus had finally made it free of the barrier that essentially blocked one sector of space from the next; or at least would do within the next hour.  Thanks to the efforts of its skilled helm officers and the unlikely brain power of the ships resident Tribble, they had almost reached open space.

At first the tangled mass of distorted subspace had seemed like an unfathomable maze, but they had picked their way through it; and now ahead they could see on the view screen a large area of space without any of the blackness which prevented warp travel.  Beyond that, for the time being at least, was normal space.

Their tail, whatever the other ship was, had kept with them.  It was close enough to watch and react to their every move, navigating the twists and turns as they did.  However getting any sort of accurate scan on the vessel to their rear was being thwarted by the chaos of the anomaly they were both travelling through.

Ensign Harris was currently at the controls as he had been for the past few hours.  It had taken him a while to get used to the unusual method of navigating when he’d been on his previous shift; this time he felt more relaxed and able to fly the ship quicker and still skilfully avoid the distortion that would collapse the warp bubble in an instant.

“How’s our friend behind use?”  Lieutenant-Commander Vought asked looking towards C’Rren sat at the Science station.

“Still following our every move and maintaining their distance.”  The Caitain replied.  “Though once we’re both out of the distortion field, I should have a better idea of what it is/”

“Thankyou Ensign.” Vought nodded. “Number one, be ready for anything.”

Lieutenant Devron now occupying Tactical briefly looked over his shoulder. “Ready as always Captain.”

The Saber took another sweeping turn as Ensign Harris banked the vessel to Starboard and past another tendril of the anomaly.   Three minutes later, their mysterious shadow performed the same maneuver.  By then however the Grus had made two more turns.

“That’s not good!”  C’Rren sounded puzzled.

“Is there a problem?” The Captain asked the Science Officer.

“Sir; modified Orion Raider closing in fast!” C’Rren shouted out.  A rapid and unexpected change of speed from the vessel behind had now brought it close enough for the ships systems to finally analyse it in detail.

Whilst the USS Grus was carefully navigated the last part of the jumbled mess, at warp 2.8; the now no longer entirely unknown vessel had leapt forward at warp 4, sprinting for open space before they could.  It past them close enough to set of collision warnings, yet made no attempt to fire upon them.

Devron’s fingers hovered above the weapons control ready to unleash both phaser fire and photon torpedoes, if the Raider attacked.  He, along with the several other members of the crew from their previous ship, Jaxartes, had tangled with Orion pirates before; but to have one of them following them here was unexpected.

When they exited the subspace barrier, the Orion ship was sitting there waiting for them.  “I have an Incoming transmission from the Raider Captain.” Ensign Cho announced as they dropped out of warp virtually on top of the Orion vessel.

“On screen.” Called out Vought.

The face that appeared seconds later was that of a young Orion female, with long flowing black hair cascading over the shoulders of what looked to be a red leather jacket.  Both Ensign’s Harris and Cho recognised the woman instantly.  She’d stood on the Bridge of the Jaxartes right in front of them, along with her henchmen, when they’d seized control of the corvette.  They were both thankful that she couldn’t see them.

“I’m Navaar Orci, you might have heard about me.” Her voice sounded friendly; yet with a dark edge to it.  “I’m so grateful for your assistance in guiding my ship through the barrier.  It would have taken so much longer without you.”

“And I’m Lieutenant-Commander Chance Vought, Captain of the USS Grus.” Vought replied.  “Now what are you playing at Navaar?”  Vought wasn’t in the mood for games; he’d read through the reports of what this woman was capable of.  Her actions to date had been, some would say outlandish other brazen.  Were as most Orion pirates, in fact anyone conducting illegal activities, tended to work in the shadows and attempt to go undetected; Navaar Orci didn’t seem to care.  Yes she’d managed to steal an entire starship without anyone at first noticing, but that was her showing off to her fellow criminals.  It was her way of proving she was better than them, because she could do the impossible.

Rumours had circulated that she’d been kicked from the Orion Syndicate; they also said she had bold plans to one day rival them.

“That’s what I love about Starfleet. You’re always straight to the point.” She smiled. “If you must know I’m searching for one of my ships.”

“And if I stop you?” The Lieutenant-Commander asked sternly; glancing across to Lieutenant Devron for a read on how things might go if they tangled with this modified raider in combat from their currently stationary position.  The look told him they’d win, but would suffer for it.

“I think not mister Vought.” Navaar sounded calm, unflustered by the thought of a fight. “You see there’s currently a Romulan Stealth Mine hovering directly above your starboard nacelle.

Vought looked across to Devron hoping for even the slightest hint of confirmation.  He knew she’d used them before, to deadly effect, and the USS Valparaiso they’d been used against hadn’t detected them until they’d activated.  So he couldn’t rule out the possibility she was telling the truth.  How Navaar ever managed to get her hands on these devices was another mystery to add to the list.

“You’re treading on dangerous ground here.” The Captain of the Grus glared at the Orion.

“Just add it to the long list of crimes you’ve probably already got me down for.” She replied flatly, before giving a wink. “Dagger One, out.”

Her image was replaced by that of the Raider; which dipped its nose briefly, as if taking a bow.  Then it turned away and jumped to warp.

“That woman is a real piece of work.” Lieutenant Devron Commented.

“Oh, she’s much worse in person, trust me.” Ensign Harris added.

“You can both reminisce later; gentlemen.” Lieutenant-Commander Vought butted in.  “Once you figure out if we’ve got a mine stuck up our ass or not!”

The Bridge crew set about trying to detect if a Romulan Mine was indeed cloaked and sitting somewhere off the ships starboard side, or in fact the Orion had lied to then.