The Continuing Story of Deep Space 2: Page 73
The crews of the USS Trophy and USS Dragon, fit enough to fight man to man, had left the large hall in which they had been captured. Weapons ready, slow but firm, they walked through the corridor. This place had to be as big as a starbase. There was no end to the corridors and the large group split at least a dozen times to cover more ground. Ensign Kama Decker was walking side by side Lieutenant Gregory Vandenbever, and although they had both served on different ships, and never met before, it seemed they belonged to eachother. Their group was still more than fifty in numbers, officers and crewmen all armed. Tricorders did not reveal any life forms, nor sophisticated technology. The group maintained contact with the other groups and it was Lieutenant Vandenbever who first remarked that it was strange that they could still use their communicators and that they had not been disarmed. This enemy seemed to be completely stupid. The crews of all those ships, in prison and only a few guards for thousands of prisoners, was indeed reckless. But nobody cared. As they were on their way to freedom.
The group of Ensign Decker and Lieutenant Vandenbever was under command of Commander Ella Zucht. The Commander had lead the group into a corridor which really seemed endless and just straight ahead. While Commander Zucht reported to Captain Yola about her attempt to get through this long corridor without problems the Captain and her group had just turned into a very long corridor them selves. These long corridors did not provide any cover and if this was a set up, they would all be eliminated. But nothing happened. The corridor was exactly two kilometers long. At the end there was an extreme unpleasant surprise, a large window. Looking through the window Commander Zucht and her fellow officers stared into space...
Aboard the USS Strike the first tests were very positive and although the new ship was still close to Deep Space 2, Admiral Arthur knew that very soon something would happen again. He could almost smell it. What would it be ? Another ship disappearing ? He was sitting on the bridge looking at the battle droid in command of tactical.
"Is there a problem Admiral ?"
The mechanical voice of the droid woke up the Admiral out of his daydreams.
"What is your designation droid ?"
"I am tactical droid 38293 Admiral."
"OK tactical droid 38293, is there any change in status of the sensors ?"
"No change Admiral."
But just as the droid had spoken something was detected. A small relay station, close to the Romulan border had lost contact with the USS Rumania. Just before the contact had been lost, there had been a power surge on the USS Rumania. The long range sensors of the relay station did no longer detect the USS Rumania.
"Helm set course, maximum speed to the location where the USS Rumania has vanished. Move it."
Without giving an answer the helm droid activated the engines and the USS Strike jumped to warp speed.
"ETA is 17 hours, 24 minutes and 56 seconds."
Admiral Arthur informed Deep Space 2. And looked over the sensor logs again of the relay station. He didn't believe the Romulans had anything to do with this. This had been done by this unknown enemy. He could only hope there would be some kind of trace left by this enemy...
But almost 17 hours later when the USS Strike arrived, there was no trace, not even a molecule, that indicated there had been someone or something else at this location then the USS Rumania itself. A few hours later the USS Chili arrived. Captain Jaques Denorman, in command of the USS Chili had a short conversation with Admiral Arthur.
"Admiral, I think this is not a job done from in space. I think some kind of criminal has gained access to the ships he wants to make a victim, put somekind of device aboard and then lets this device do its job, while we are chasing ghosts. I don't see any other way to pull something like this off, without leaving somekind of strange energy signature."