“Will it work?” Marcus asked, looking over the battle strategy.

Captain Grumby nodded. “It should. I was able to locate their fleet, 3 warships and two freighters. They look to be headed to Argus Base. It’s a neutral base run by the Jindarians. They will likely dock and restock there. We just have to wait until they mostly get off their ships. ”

Beckett Szalinski spoke up, “The Jindarians are not very good at security, and I have found some ins. I can override their docking clamps, lock out the ones holding the fighters, and release the freighters. We beam aboard, take the freighters, and basically run. By the time the Vaadwaur figure it out and get their ships free, we should have at least an hour head start.”

“An hour lead, and those freighters only have warp 5, where the warships have warp 8. They will catch us.” Marcus said.

Jonas nodded. “Not before we reach friendly territory, but yes, they will catch up. It’s the best plan we have that doesn’t involve combat; the freighters only have shields, so all they can do is run; we are no match for that many Vaadwaur Warships.”

Kerry thought for a moment, “What if there were not that many warships?” She said, “We could launch some EMP mines in the path behind us. It won’t destroy them by any means, but it might slow them down.”

Dan Ger also chimed in, “We could also use probes and program them with the ship’s warp signatures, them in a few different directions. The Vaadwaur would likely split up to figure out which were the real ships.”

Captain Grumby thought about it and said, “Let’s do it all: lock the docking clamps, take the freighters, and duplicate their signals in some probes. Then drop some EMP mines in all the pathways.” He laughed, “If all else fails, it will confuse them and make it take longer for them to catch up to us. We should be well into safety this way.”

With the plan agreed upon, they went to work. Marcus helped Szalinski prepare the EMP mines and probes. His fine motor skills, usually great for operating, came in handy for the small, fine adjustments, and soon they had it all done and ready.

The ship made its way to the Argus station or just out of its sensor range and saw the Vaadwaur ships were already docked .

Szalinski went to work and soon confirmed he had the docking clamps locked out on the warships and the freighters were released. They moved closer and beamed over easily dispatching teh few gaurds and got underway with the freighters.

The Merced launched 4 probes with their warp signatures masked to match the freighters and took off after the real ones dropping the emp mines in the path behind them before hitting warp.

A couple hours later there was nothing, no chase no sign that the Vaadwaur had caught on our were even trying to chase them. That was troubling, so Marcus and Dan beamed over to the first freighter and checked in the holds, sure enough 100 Federation citizens were here. From various races and places. All alive, not all in teh best of shape, but Marcus found none that were in danger of dying before they could be saved. Scans clear and good all around.

Then they went to the second freighter and found no people outside of the crew who took the ship and the couple Vaadwaur, this freight was loaded with supplies and munitions. Not what was expected to be found as originally it had been reported both ships had hostages on board. It was then they found a device hidden amongst the crates it had been well buried and had they not been suspicious would have probably been missed it was a tracking device. That would be why the Vaadwaur were not giving chase.

Marcus let the Captain know and they got the two Vaadwaur off the ship and then set the ships course for the nearest sun. The munitions and supplies would burn as well as the tracking device.

They decided to beam the Federation folks over into the Merced it might be a little crowded for a bit but it was the best idea. All of them were scanned and cleared of any tracking devices. Then beamed over in groups. Marcus detected no diseases or anything infectious. So it was done.

Both freighters empty of people as they flew towards the nearest sun. The 4 Vaadwaur in the brig and the rest on the ship as guests.

A course was set for Starbase 17 at full speed.