Hitchin' a Ride, Part 2

Posted on Tue Feb 17th, 2026 @ 2:08am by Starfleet NPC & Commander Ash Randall & Lieutenant Urvasi Elandorn

7,436 words; about a 37 minute read

Mission: 7. Guile
Location: Experimental Shuttlepod
Timeline: 2439-08-13, 08:45

Leic stepped onto the docking ring, his boots striking the metallic grating with a heavy, rhythmic thud. He ignored the breathtaking view of the Bajoran horizon visible through the station's transparent partitions; his attention was a tractor beam locked onto the vessel at berth seven. Up close, the craft was even more of an engineering anomaly than it had appeared on the Holana’s sensors. It possessed an aggressive, predatory geometry featuring sharp angles and a low profile that suggested it was designed to slip through sensors as easily as it slipped through the vacuum of space. While Urvasi paced the perimeter, tracing the thruster placements with a pilot’s focus, Leic was looking at the tolerances of the hull. He noted the way the plating was fitted with microscopic precision to minimize its sensor signature.

He stopped at the aft section, where the nacelles were integrated into the primary hull in a way that suggested a highly experimental warp field geometry. "Ash, tell your 'parents' they’ve been clever with the thermal dampening," he said, leaning in so far his nose was inches from a recessed intake. "They're using a tri-axial coolant loop. It’s the only way to keep a chassis this small from melting into a puddle of slag if you're actually pushing the power levels I suspect."

Leic reached out and tapped a sequence into a small external access panel near the hatch. It hissed open, revealing a dense, almost claustrophobic cluster of fiber-optic relays and plasma conduits. To an untrained eye, it was a chaotic mess; to Leic, it was a logical map. He began checking the flow rates, his fingers moving with a surgeon’s economy. "The conduits are reinforced with polyduranium," he noted, his voice carrying a rare note of marginal approval. "Good. It might actually hold together. However..." He paused, his scanner chirping a sharp, rhythmic warning. "The secondary plasma manifold is showing a three percent variance. It’s within 'official' Starfleet specs, but at high impulse, it’s going to cause a resonant vibration in the cockpit floor. It'll be annoying, and eventually, it'll fatigue the fasteners."

He straightened up, looking over his shoulder at the two women. His expression remained grave, but there was a flicker of genuine interest in his dark eyes.

Ash peered past Leic into the open access hatch from where she was and nodded. "We'll get to experience that vibration soon enough, Commander." She replied, quietly, seemingly undisturbed by the prospect of the potential vibration. "We're here to test the vessel, as is, of course under the assumption that those who built it worked very hard to not have it melt down or rattle to pieces when the Lieutenant stomps on the gas, so to speak." She added, with a little bit of a smile. The design elements were familiar to the Tuansee engineer and she liked what had been done. It wasn't that Ash was dis-interested in the observations of Leic, oh no, on the contrary she was quite interested but for reasons less about the engineering then his own interest in the vessel.

"The warp field geometry will be interesting." She observed.

Urvasi had come back over to be nearby as the two discussed what was found. There was a light grimace upon her face at hearing about the resonant vibration. She remembered flying the claptraps on Existence Point Planet and in always having to find the null area of speed so as to not vibrate everyone's teeth out of their head. She now asked, "Questions: First, Any affect at warp speeds? Second, When pushing high impulse, there should be a speed where I hit a 180 degree oscillation to cause the vibration to cancel, and thus that should be my preferred speed for this particular crafts high impulse, correct?"

Leic’s fingers paused mid-adjustment on the diagnostic tool, his head tilting toward Urvasi as she spoke. He looked at her with the calculating gaze of an engineer who had just been presented with a variable he hadn't fully accounted for: a pilot who understood wave interference.

"The resonance is primarily a localized harmonic within the impulse manifold's secondary injectors," Leic explained, his tone gaining a more instructional edge. "At warp, the warp field bubbles should theoretically isolate the hull from the sublight power bleed. However, to your second point," He tapped a sequence on his scanner, projecting a small, flickering wireframe of the shuttle's propulsion layout. "You are correct about the phase cancellation. The frequency of the vibration is approximately 412 hertz. If you can maintain an impulse velocity that induces a counter-vibration you can nullify the physical sensation. But, Lieutenant, you’re treating the symptom, not the disease. The fasteners will still feel the stress, even if your teeth don't."

Urvasi yiffered gently as she replied, "Yes, they will feel the stress, but without the vibration, meaning they should be able to hold as the stress is accounted for, the vibration not. Frontier planets extend the life of their shuttles via riding that wave, knowing the shear stresses of the vibrations are much greater against fasteners then just having the stress as a constant press."

He turned his gaze back to Ash, noting her calm confidence. The Tuansee’s faith in the designers of this craft was a variable he found less reliable than a polyduranium conduit, but he respected her composure. "The warp field geometry will be interesting, Ash," he agreed. "The nacelle placement suggests a highly compressed field. It’s going to be exceptionally maneuverable at low warp, but if the field isn't perfectly symmetrical, you'll be fighting a yawing motion that could pull the ship out of the corridor."

Urvasi snorted in understanding as her tail whipped, however, she remained silent. That need of a symmetrical field was exactly why the 'two occupant' needs of the craft were created, Pilot and Engineer. Pilot handled the craft, Engineer the on the fly calibration of the power and flight systems.

Leic straightened his back, the hull of the interceptor casting a sharp shadow across his ash-grey features. "I'm going to finish the internal bypass check. I want to see the dampening field generators for myself." He gestured toward the hatch, which was now fully cycling open. Inside, the cockpit was a marvel of efficient, if cramped, design. There were only two primary seats, surrounded by a wrap-around LCARS interface that glowed with a soft, amber hue, "Hard to believe this is only a shuttle pod designed for short duration trips."

Ash peered inside the cockpit and nodded to herself. "Cozy." She commented, quietly, and watched while Leic continued with his inspection. The engineer had already reviewed the detailed scans of the craft that had already been provided to her via Galatea. "Agreed. It is, certainly, shuttle pod sized but size is not always indicative of capability." She observed, in seeming agreement with Leic, and looked to Urvasi. "This is going to fun, I think." She stated and touched her tail to that of Urvasi. ~I'm getting weird vibe here.~ She sent, knowing Urvasi would hear her projected thought.

Urvasi easily picked up the touch psi communication. She returned it, ~Same here... too much information, yet, not enough. I think either he is against us, or he is used to upper echelon sabotaging runs through 'what if we try this' maneuvers that he is genuinely trying to make sure we come out of this test run alive. Right now, I am leaning 30/70 from his reactions.~

Leic knelt with a grunt of exertion, his long, ash-gray fingers finding the recessed magnetic latches in the floor plating between the two pilot seats. With a sharp click-hiss, a section of the deck lifted away, revealing the dense, pulsating guts of the craft. To Leic, this was the ship's true face, not the sleek hull or the aggressive profile, but the complex network of power and logic beneath the skin.

"I knew it," Leic muttered, his voice echoing from the narrow cavity. He reached in, his hand disappearing up to the elbow as he navigated a labyrinth of conduits. He paused, his brow ridges knitting together in genuine confusion. He pulled his hand back, holding a small, glowing filament that looked like a strand of liquid amber. "Bio-neural gel packs?" he asked, his voice carrying a note of sharp disbelief. "They’ve cross-linked them with an iso-linear optical bypass. After the refits on the Enterprise, I expected positronic circuitry to be the new standard for high-performance processing. To go back to organic gel-packs for a mere shuttlepod..." He trailed off, his eyes narrowing as he scrutinized the amber strand. It was a curious choice. Positronic circuits were faster, more stable, and certainly more modern, but for a craft of this diminutive scale, the designers had clearly opted for a different philosophy. Perhaps they felt the organic processors offered a more fluid interface for a pilot's intuition in such a tight frame, but to Leic, it felt like a step backward in reliability. The trade-off was a fragile cooling requirement that made him uneasy.

Urvasi thought about the differences between positronic and bio-neural gel. The response time and learning were definitely on the side of positronic, yet, hysteresis feedback and learning was on the side of the bio-neural gel. This was a first time design, a need of learning and quickly finding optimum operating windows was the core, which bio-neural had a strong heads up on positronic's sterile, yes/no/if then logic sequences. Yet, she was only a 'pilot' among two titan engineers. She would let Ash handle engineering, she would handle piloting.

Leic looked up, his dark eyes sharp and demanding. "Lieutenant, start the initialization sequence," he commanded, sliding the floor plate back into a temporary lock but remaining on his knees. "I’m staying down here for the power-up. If these gel-packs aren't perfectly synchronized with the core initialization, they'll cook themselves before we even clear the docking bay. A shuttlepod has very little margin for thermal overflow."

Urvasi climbed into the pilots seat. She first just touched each control, whispering what they controlled, as she passed over them twice. Next, she felt out how the craft was with her senses to know the ship at rest. Finally, she performed the initialization sequence while feeling out what that startup felt like. Her vibration senses would know if something was off.

As the ship began to wake, Leic placed his palm flat against the exposed housing of the primary power bus. He didn't need a PADD to tell him the status of the ship; he felt the surge of power as a physical sensation through his skin. "Thermal levels are holding," he noted, his voice a low, focused baritone as he monitored the vibrations. "But the secondary bus is drawing more current than the schematics projected. Without the stability of a positronic net, this draw is... erratic."

Urvasi was following along with her vibration senses. The current draw back and forth seemed fine, yet.. there, she felt an oscillation current riding between a plasma coil and the regulator feed going to a bio-neural gel pack regulating transverse power. She figured that was what Leic felt off, that 'overcurrent' due to the oscillating power within that loop.

The cockpit lights dimmed for a heartbeat before a surge of power raced through the floorboards. Leic watched the amber filaments pulse with a sudden, violent light, reflecting in the dark depths of his eyes. He stayed perfectly still, his senses attuned to the rhythmic hum of the core, searching for the moment the organic processors hit their peak. "Systems are online," he confirmed, though his posture remained tense. "Lieutenant, run a diagnostic on the RCS thrusters. Give me a 'tap' on the port and starboard attitude controllers. I want to see if these gel-packs can handle the computation load of a sudden vector change without spiking the manifold pressure. In a craft this small, every micro-burst matters."

Urvasi called out, "Diagnostic on the RCS Thrusters is concurrently running. However, Commander Pragal, Commander Randall, I am sensing an oscillation of current between the transverse maneuvering power plasma coil and the regulator bio-neural gel pack causing increased current demands for any shift x pattern maneuvering. It is not just attitude or horizontal maneuvers, but in the transverse across those maneuvers. Umm.. might I suggest putting in a capacitive coupling to shorten time by 45 degrees, or shorting out 26.2 % of the plasma coil to remove the oscillation length parameter?" She hoped she was close to what was required... Urvasi only knew what her vibrational hair pickups coupled with her spatial, multi compartmented mind with flying experience was telling her.

"Give it 30 more seconds to settle in and the oscillation will clear up." The Chief Engineer of the Enterprise stated, quietly. "Positronic anything is difficult to get while iso-linear, anything, and bio-neural-gel packs are very available." She observed while she waited for the oscillation to subside in much the same way the idle of an ICE would smooth out after warming up.

"It’s a curious choice," Leic continued, his voice dropping into a low, analytical hum. "Positronic circuits are objectively superior in every metric of stability. These gel-packs are temperamental; they require precise nutrient levels, and they have a tendency to overheat when pushed. To find them in a modern prototype..."

He leaned further into the maintenance crawlspace, his dark eyes scanning the way the gel-packs were nestled alongside the primary power bus. There was no room for the bulky cooling baffles typically required for organic processors in a frame this small. "The designers must be prioritizing the 'fuzzy logic' of organic processing," he mused, though he didn't sound convinced. "Or perhaps they are banking on the gel-packs' ability to self-repair mid-flight. But in a shuttlepod this small, a thermal runaway from the warp core will liquefy these processors before the emergency suppressors even cycle."

He looked up at the two women, his gaze lingering on Urvasi. "Lieutenant, start the initialization sequence," he commanded, his voice regaining its sharp, Cardassian authority. He didn't move from his kneeling position, instead placing his palm flat against the exposed housing of the primary power bus. "I’m staying down here. I want to feel the thermal transition through the hull. If these gel-packs aren't perfectly synchronized with the core’s magnetic containment, they'll cook themselves before we even clear the docking bay."

Urvasi had a smile smile upon her muzzle as she listened to the two Engineers. Urvasi called out, "Aye Aye, Sir." As she had already done the initialization process for bringing the controls and power systems online, she knew Leic meant to bring the engines online. She checked the telltales for the docking clamps to see what load they could bear, then began feeding power to the impulse engines. Her eyes narrowed, then she called out as she began feeding some power to the warp nacelles as well, however, without any warp field coils active. "Impulse engines at hovering power, supplying energy to warp nacelles without warp coils active to have active power flow such as in test power handling simulations of small craft. Docking clamps rated for 1.8% of impulse power, can go to 1.3% if or when needed."

Pragal’s hand remained pressed against the primary power bus, his palm acting as a live sensor. He felt the low-frequency thrum of the impulse engines waking up, followed by the sharper, high-tension whine of power flooding the warp nacelles. It was a bold way to test a cold system, but he appreciated the logic of a live-load simulation. As Urvasi called out the specific oscillation between the plasma coil and the regulator, Leic’s head snapped toward the bio-neural housing. He watched the amber fluid swirl with a frantic, rhythmic intensity. He listened to her suggestion about capacitive coupling or shorting the coil, and then to Ash’s more patient, "wait-and-see" approach.

"Wait for it to settle?" Leic repeated, his voice tight with the skepticism of a man who dealt with the volatile mix of Cardassian and Federation tech on DS9. "Commander Randall, on a station with a stable fusion reactor, 'settling in' is a luxury. On a shuttlepod with organic processors and an active plasma loop, an oscillation at this frequency is a precursor to a feedback loop." He adjusted his grip, his eyes tracking the glowing filaments. "However," he added, glancing up at the cockpit, "The Lieutenant is right about the transverse draw. I can feel the 'tug' on the bus every time the regulator tries to compensate for that oscillation. It’s a geometry problem."

He looked back at the glowing gel pack, his dark eyes narrowing. "But shorting the coil by 26.2% is too aggressive for these organic packs, Urvasi. You’d drop the impedance too fast and shock the gel’s synaptic pathways. They’d go into a localized seizure." He reached for a small calibration tool on his belt, his movements fluid and precise despite the cramped quarters. "I’ll split the difference. I'm going to manually bias the regulator feed by 12.5% to damp the oscillation length without losing the gain." He worked the tool into a secondary port, his ridges tensing as he watched the amber light begin to steady.

Urvasi did not take the words as admonishment, but as correction. She only thought of the variances in harmonics to cancel out what she felt. She didn't know the systems or their multi-harmonic signature like engineers did. She was happy Leic thought of a way to try and see if that would work. In the sub-harmonic world, that of 20 Hz or less, 12.5% was not enough, but this was in a higher 'acoustic' range, and with learning bio-gel packs, it was probably more than enough. Besides, Leic and Ash would easily know, being the consummate engineers they are.

"There. The pulse is smoothing out," he noted, the vibration beneath his palm shifting from a jagged stutter to a rhythmic purr. "The gel is adapting. Ash, you were right, it needed to warm up, but your intuition on the transverse draw saved us a blown manifold. If you'd 'stomped' on the thrusters with that oscillation active, we’d be breathing vaporized nutrients right now."

He straightened his posture as much as the crawlspace allowed. "The power flow is now synchronized. Thruster diagnostics are showing green across the board. Give me those 'taps' on the attitude controllers now, Lieutenant. Let’s see if this 'cozy' little craft moves as well as you fly."

Ash stood next to the hatch while Leic and Urvasi continued to sort things out with the vessel they intend to flight test, eventually. The choices made for bio-neural gel and isolinear processors were intentional on the part of the designers; cost and availability were principal in those choices with availability being primary. "Should be acceptable." Ash stated, quietly.

Urvasi listened to Leic, waited a second, then heard Ash's statement. With Ash's approval, Urvasi shifted the controls to be log based, allowing her movements to become precise adjustments along the long, short affect curve of the log. She performed an transverse waggle, i.e. upper left, lower right, up center, lower left, upper right, making sure to micromanage the stresses to not exceed 1% on the clamps. "Engineers, Pilot, Transverse waggled completed. Applying maneuvering energies to warp nacelles for same style evasive actions."

The Cardassian's fingers didn't leave the bus. As the pod performed the transverse waggle, the sensation through his palm changed from a static hum to a series of sharp, directional tugs. He could feel the power surging into the RCS assemblies, the plasma venting through the injectors in rapid-fire bursts. The pod strained against its tethers like a hound on a short leash, the metallic groan of the docking clamps echoing through the hull.

"The damping is holding," Leic called out, his voice vibrating slightly from the kinetic energy of the thrusters. "The gel-packs are processing the vector changes without any significant thermal lag. But watch the field coils on the nacelles, Lieutenant because the draw is asymmetrical during the upper-right transition. It’s small, but in a vacuum, that could translate to a two-degree drift." He watched the amber filaments as Urvasi began feeding maneuvering energy into the warp nacelles. Even without the coils active, the sheer volume of power moving through the secondary conduits was immense. The crawlspace was getting warmer, the air thick with the scent of ozone and the faint, sweet musk of the nutrient gel.

"Steady on the power feed," Leic cautioned, his eyes fixed on a specific manifold that was beginning to glow a deeper, angrier shade of orange. "We're pushing a lot of juice through a very small straw. If those nacelle feeds don't sync with the primary impulse bus, you’re going to get a kick-back that could strip the magnetic seals." He glanced at Ash, his expression one of hard-won professional interest. "She’s right about the evasive handling, Ash. The response time is... impressive. It’s faster than the Defiant was at this scale. But it’s thirsty. If we lose the regulator in a high-speed turn, the inertia will likely pancake the crew before the computer can compensate."

He turned his focus back to the diagnostic tool in the port, making one final, minute adjustment to the bias. He wanted to ensure that the "learning" the gel-packs were doing didn't lead them to prioritize efficiency over structural safety. "Diagnostics are still green, but the nacelle induction is peaking at 92% of rated capacity for station-tethered testing," Leic shouted over the rising whine of the engines. "I’ve seen enough. Shut down the test cycle and vent the nacelle manifolds, Lieutenant. I want to check the physical fasteners on those bio-neural housings before we disconnect. If they’ve rattled loose even a millimeter, we’re not leaving this dock." He stayed where he was, waiting for the power to bleed off, his hand still acting as the final arbiter of the ship’s readiness.

"Tough to see. Tough to track. Tough to hit." Ash commented, with a little bit of a grin. "Purpose built to be a little rough around the edges with outdated technologies that, at these scales, is quite capable." She added, while continuing to watch Leic do his thing.

As soon as she heard 'shut down' Urvasi was already shifting down the power to the nacelles in a very controlled fast to slow curve as though coming down out of warp. As she did this, she also shifted from hovering to idle, then power down on the Impulse engine. After a few more seconds, with the power feed to warm up standby, she shut down the power to the warp Nacelles. She checked the cockpit telltales in front of her, all green. She called out, Commanders, Pilot, ship on standby, telltales all green." She thought for a moment, then asked, "Does the Engineer position have any telltales for the areas you have identified as a concern? If not, what if we quickly rig up sensors and link their telemetry to a PADD that can be put where both Commander Randall and I can see it so we can compensate as needed? I think recording that telemetry besides reacting appropriately to it would add a depth of dimension for results for the flight."

The Cardassian waited until the high-pitched whine of the nacelle manifolds faded into a series of cooling metallic pings before he pulled his hand away. His palm was flushed a deep, dusky violet from the heat of the bus, a physical testament to the raw energy the small craft had just channeled.

"The standard diagnostic suite covers the manifold pressures," Leic replied, his voice echoing from the floor cavity as he began a physical inspection of the housing mounts. "But it treats a two-percent variance as 'nominal.' For this ship, at the speeds you intend to fly, two percent is the difference between a clean turn and a structural failure." He pulled a small, high-intensity torch from his belt and shone it on the primary fasteners of the bio-neural racks. The intense beam reflected off the polished polyduranium. He reached out, checking the torque on a series of hex-bolts by hand.

"Recording the telemetry is a sound suggestion, Lieutenant," he said, the characteristic Cardassian dryness returning to his tone. "However, I don't 'rig up' sensors. I integrate them." He shifted his weight, his boots scraping against the sub-deck. "Ash, if we bridge the secondary EPS tap here," he pointed the light at a junction just behind the gel-pack housing, "we can feed a raw data stream directly to the auxiliary console. I can calibrate a PADD to mirror that feed with a high-resolution sub-harmonic filter. It will give you a real-time visualization of the stress on the fasteners and the gel-pack saturation levels." He looked up from the crawlspace, his brow ridges silhouetted against the amber light of the cockpit. "It will be messy, and it won't be pretty, but you'll see the 'heartbeat' of the ship before the main computer even realizes there's a problem. I’ll have it ready by the time you finish the final pre-flight checklist."

Urvasi's expression was a shifted head with a focused intent upon Leic. She listened to what he proposed, then shivered slightly at his words. What he said, was exactly what she meant at the 'rig up' response. A proper telemetry, but without the 'aesthetics' to make it look good, a rigging. L'Tandrey and Vulienrey did such all the time. She thought about explaining, then silenced herself. She was only a Lieutenant, he was a Lt. Commander, and worthy of her respect, and silence of her not knowing of what he did as he was an Engineer, she was just a freaking pilot. She turned to start performing her pre-flight check, hoping she didn't cross more lines to cause reprimands upon her record. However, she knew Commander Ash overrode anything by Lt. Commander Pragal responded with, so she just rode what was said.

Ash crouched down to see where Leic planned to bridge the secondary EPS tap and nodded understanding. "Sounds like a plan." She responded and looked to Urvasi, fairly sure the Lieutenant was itching to clarify something but opting leave it alone rather than risk offense. The demeanor of Leic was fairly typical of Cardassians, in general; hard edges and, for the most part, all business. "Lets get started on the check list, as suggested." She said, quietly.

With a series of sharp, methodical movements, the Lieutenant Commander began to lock the floor plating back into place. "And Lieutenant," he added, pausing to look Urvasi in the eye as he stood up and brushed the dust from his uniform, "if that PADD turns red, you don't 'compensate.' You drop to sublight and wait for the engineers to tell you the ship isn't about to vibrate into atoms. Understood?"

Urvasi turned towards Leic in the cockpit, the pilot's seat, her expression very stern as she replied with a very, cold, calculated manner, "I understand perfectly the meanings of the colors in accordance with Pilot protocol and experimental craft scenarios. I will perform my duties exactly, along with understanding the craft I am flying to the point of stopping a test when necessary for the personnel involved. Equipment can be easily replaced, Experienced personnel are Irreplaceable, especially those showing special understanding of experimental craft, and why Commander Randall expressly desired the desire of my piloting this particular craft. Please, I request your engineering expertise to help in understanding the ex craft, I only request the respect that I am an experienced pilot in the know of piloting that ex craft with a unique understanding of what is required." Her tail, whiskers, and ears shifted in a specific manner as she added, "I received your praise for Efficiency, may I ask for your respect in knowing when to bring a craft to a halt when parameters exceed what the craft can actually do?"

The Cardassian Chief Engineer of Deep Space Nine rose to his full height, the cramped ceiling of the shuttlepod forcing a slight, predatory hunch to his shoulders as he did so. He didn't immediately respond, though, choosing instead to watch the Enterprise's pilot. Leic noted the rigid set of her ears and the sharp, deliberate flick of her tail. In the silence of the powered-down cockpit, the cooling of the metal hulls sounded like a series of small, metallic gunshots. His dark eyes remained unreadable for a long moment, a classic Cardassian trait, before he slowly inclined his head. It wasn't a bow, but it was a distinct lowering of his guard.

"You speak of respect, Lieutenant, as if it is a commodity to be traded. On a Cardassian vessel, respect is the byproduct of survival and precision. You have already demonstrated both," Leic said, his baritone steady and devoid of its previous biting edge. He reached out and methodically adjusted the strap of his tool kit. "If I didn't respect your ability to handle this craft, I wouldn't be 'integrating' a custom sensor patch for you to ignore. I would be filing a formal protest with Commander Randall and directing the Yard Commandant to keep this bay door locked."

Urvasi bristled slightly at the 'commodity' comment. No, respect was given through earning it, then beholden in understanding. However, his final sentence showed he was giving that respect in not filing the formal protest. She thought about a correction, but now time, was not it.

He stepped forward, bridging the small gap between the pilot's seat and the maintenance access, "When an engineer tells a pilot to stop, it isn't because we doubt their skill. It’s because we know the exact point where the math stops working and the physics take over. My concern isn't you, rather it’s the bolts I just tightened and whether they'll hold." He paused, a ghost of a shadow crossing his features as he remembered other pilots who hadn't listened in a former posting. "You have my respect, Lieutenant, and you have my telemetry. Use them both to keep this ship in one piece."

Urvasi now was able to be heard. "I thank you for your respect. No, it is not a commodity to be traded, it is an understanding to be earned, always. I will use your telemetry wisely, I only wish to return Commander Randall, the experimental ship, and myself, in one piece."

Leic turned his gaze to Ash, the dry smirk returning. "Commander, I’ll need exactly six minutes to bridge that EPS tap and sync the PADD. I suggest you finish your checklist. I’d hate to be the one waiting on you."

Already having ran the checklist, Urvasi began doing a second sweep to make sure nothing was amiss with the ship after their initial testing even as she brought up the power plant to standby power in preparation for dustoff.

With that, he dropped back down into the crawlspace, his ash-gray fingers already reaching for the secondary power couplings with a surgeon's focus. Leic’s fingers had just begun the delicate process of bridging the secondary EPS tap when the cockpit was suddenly bathed in a rhythmic, golden pulse. The ship’s internal speakers emitted a low-frequency, two-tone chime—the distinctive sound of a Yellow Alert being called.

"I do not believe we're going to get six minutes." Ash mused, after hearing the yellow alert signal and tapped her com badge. "Commander Randall to Dock, Master Control. I read Yellow Alert. Please confirm." The Senior Officer called.

The gravelly voice of the Dock Master crackled over the comms again, the sound of secondary alarms bleeding through the transmission. "Dock Master to Holana and Test Craft. I’m confirming the Yellow Alert. DS9 just pushed the signal to all local berths. Cause is currently listed as 'Unspecified Tactical Anomaly' originating from the Denorios Belt. Operations hasn't cleared the logs yet, but they’ve locked down the sector and are requesting all experimental flight profiles to stand by for a security sweep."

A sharp burst of static hissed through the channel. "The problem is, your engine test just spiked right as the alert went live. To the station’s automated monitors, you look like a primary sensor ghost. If you don't clear the pylon in the next ninety seconds, the station is going to mag-lock your docking clamps until a security team can board you for a manual inspection."

Hearing 'ninety seconds', Urvasi began bringing the impulse engines into full standby mode and ready for application of thrust.

Leic’s jaw tightened. "An 'unspecified' anomaly," he repeated, the word tasting like ash in his mouth. "The most dangerous kind. It means the station's sensors are seeing something they can't define, which usually leads to the tactical officers shooting first and asking questions once the debris clears." He slammed the floor plate shut, the magnetic locks engaging with a finality that signaled his work was done. He didn't waste time with a graceful exit; he moved with the urgent precision of a man who knew the station's protocols better than the people currently manning the consoles. He thrust the modified PADD toward Urvasi.

"The Dock Master is right. If we stay here, we're a stationary target for a nervous computer. I’ve hard-coded the sensor patch into this PADD; it’ll give you a raw feed of the ship’s internals and whatever is happening in the Belt that the station can't see." He stood up, his dark eyes flashing toward the cockpit window. "I'm heading back to the Holana. I’ll provide sensor cover and shadow your flight path. If the 'unknown' out there decides to become known, you’ll want the Runabout’s shield profile between you and it."

Urvasi already had the impulse engine in station keep with the maneuvering thrusters at angled hot dust off. She called out, "Go, seconds left."

She triggered the docking clamps even as Leic exited the experimental ship. She lifted up and away on thrusters, then turned the ship to watch the Clamp and Leic. Sure enough, a couple of seconds later the clamps could be seen slamming shut with red ambient telltales lit up showing mag lock. Urvasi made sure to stay near the area though so as to keep the 'ship here' sensor triggered. She said, "Ash, let me know when your settled. I will be under shadowing Leic as he leaves which will demand my full attention."

"All set." The Tuansee replied back as she strapped in. Inertial Dampers were all well and good but Ash knew they'd be exceeding their limits at some point and bouncing around inside the cockpit wasn't where the engineer wanted to be. "Something has gone sideways with the Klingons, guaranteed." She commented, and shook her head.

Urvasi relaxed in having to monitor the experimental shuttle and into flying as a shadow of Leic on the Holana. She replied, "Understood, shifting to being Leic's shadow." Her stance softened as she added, "Ash, we may be needed as a distraction... I feel honored serving with you, and meeting Commander Pragal. I... I.. see you on the other side of the emergency, with fresh data on our Experimental Craft."

Ash nodded. "It has been an honor, Urvasi, though I don't see a fat lady waiting in the wings to sing us off the stage so, this isn't our final act." She reassured her and took up monitoring, well, everything, that wasn't pilot related in the cockpit. "I think the coin is in the air we're waiting for it to land, heads or tails. Hopefully, its not a heads I win...tails you lose situation but I get the impression that a 'win' will not necessarily be reason to celebrate." She explained.

Urvasi let out a short, deep yiff from her throat, the equivalent of a humor 'hrmph' of a Terran. "Yeah, complicated is complicated, and, please, don't mind me. As Vulienrey live within the L'Tandrey Protectorate, we get caught in a lot of L'Tandrey customs, such as paying honor in a tense situation with a possible outcome of life ending. I will work on it."

The Holana’s impulse engines flared, a brilliant blue-white wake expanding behind it as the larger runabout cleared the pylon. For a moment, the experimental craft was tossed in the powerful wash of the Rio Grande Class engines, the bio-neural gel-packs pulsing a frantic, rhythmic purple on the PADD as they worked to compensate for the sudden turbulence.

As soon as they ship was stabilized, the X-ships impulse flared as well in following the Holana to get outside the planet's wrapped gravity field for being able to warp. Urvasi shadowed the Holana within a 5cm variation.

The comms channel crackled to life, Leic’s voice cutting through the ambient hum of the cockpit. The previous professional friction was gone, replaced by the cold, sharp clarity of a Cardassian who had seen the winds of war shift before. "Commander Randall, Urvasi... listen carefully," Leic’s voice was taut, vibrating with the urgency of the situation. "The 'unspecified anomaly' just turned into a diplomatic nightmare. The meeting on the station has collapsed. Apparently, the Klingon General took one look at the Dominion delegation and lost his temper. Admiral Deix hasn't just called off the meeting, he’s officially ordered a lockdown of the wormhole. The Klingons have responded with a formal threat of war."

Urvasi listened as well as tracked where they were. There, getting outbound from the gravity well as well as approaching the atmospheric line.

A series of data pings hit Urvasi’s secondary console as Leic forwarded the station’s tactical update. "The diplomatic teams have retreated to their respective ships, but they’re still docked. The Enterprise is holding at the lower pylon, and the Shenzhou is at the upper. The Klingon Bird of Prey is still at the Docking Ring - they haven't powered up weapons yet, but they're sitting there like a stone in a glass house. They're waiting for the Admiral to blink or for the General to give the order to detach." Leic’s tone hardened, the weight of the situation clear. "The station is moving to Red Alert. We’ve cleared the pylon, but we’re too far out to crawl back on thrusters if things go south. At our current impulse speed, we’re three hours away from the station's safety. That’s three hours of being a slow-moving target while a Klingon General decides if he wants to start a war. We need to be back inside Deep Space Nine's defensive perimeter now."

On the PADD Leic had integrated, the scrolling data shifted. The bio-neural "heartbeat" settled into a low, expectant thrum, the organic fluid in the packs beginning to glow with a deep, steady amber.

"Ash, Urvasi, if you want to test that warp drive, now is the time," Leic commanded from the Holana. "The Admiral’s lockdown only applies to the wormhole, but the station’s traffic control is about to become a nightmare. We aren't spending three hours in the 'no-man's-land' between the station and the fleet. I’m slaving my nav-com to your signature. We’re going to perform a micro-warp jump. We'll warp in close and drop directly into DS9's primary shield envelope." He paused, his voice dropping to that low, analytical hum. "Urvasi, this is the moment of truth for those gel-packs. They need to calculate the field geometry for a warp jump in a craft with almost no nacelle separation. If the oscillation we felt earlier comes back during the jump, the warp field will collapse. Give me a clean translation to warp, and let's get back to the station before the shooting starts."

Upon hearing 'micro-warp jump', Urvasi began plotting the course and time between where they were getting ready to reach edge of atmosphere to where DS9 was from the time that passed. She verified with sensors and feeds from sensor buoys at the planet and at DS9 for helping ships navigate between the two. She began feeding power to the nacelles to bring them online as well.

The Holana began to pull ahead, its nacelles beginning to glow with the pre-ignition haze of a warp field. However, at the same time, the X-ship's nacelles were also showing a growing glow of the initiation of a warp field due to Urvasi's faithfully following the conversation. She turned to Ash, "We are ready as we are ever going to be. Hang on tight..."

"Inertial dampers should keep us from being mushed...mostly." Ash joked in response.

Checking distance between the two craft so that their warp fields would not overlap, Urvasi replied over comms, "Understood, Commander Pragal. I am sending you my micro hop information. Alright, we are clear of any gravity feedback from the planet and we are getting to the edge of atmosphere, kill impulse. Micro jump in 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1.. NOW!"

On the Holana, Leic watched the chronometer tick down in sync with Urvasi’s countdown. His hands were steady on the runabout's flight stick, but his eyes were glued to the secondary diagnostic relay he’d slaved from the X-ship. As the countdown hit zero, the space in front of the runabout stretched into the familiar, star-streaked tunnel of warp space.

The jump lasted only seconds, but they were followed by a violent, momentary shudder that felt like being kicked by a Mastodon before the stars snapped back into points of light.

Urvasi targeted a specific warp factor of 2 at a very specific interval in the microseconds. The ship's jumped, and then came out of Warp to be under the Enterprise at an angle so that the Enterprise was between them and the Klingon Bird of prey. Now they could come up to the Enterprise and dock in shuttle bay 3. Urvasi turned to Ash, "Well, it's not the expansive test we were going for, but we are here in one piece and at a most advantageous position given the current circumstances."

"In deed." Ash responded, quietly.

"Translation complete," Leic reported, his voice cutting through the comms with a sharp, professional edge. He immediately banked the Holana, coming about to keep his shields positioned between the X-ship and the station’s docking ring. "The micro-jump was clean, Lieutenant. No field degradation and no core feedback. You threaded that needle with less than a two-percent variance in the warp field envelope." He glanced at his tactical screen. The massive, shadowed underside of the Enterprise’s saucer section loomed directly above them. From this angle, the Century Class ship was a fortress of duranium, effectively cutting off any direct line of sight from the Klingon Bird of Prey still moored at the upper ring.

Urvasi hit the comms to the Enterprise, "Enterprise, Shuttlepod, Commander Randall and Lt. Elandorn request permission for Priority Dock in Shuttlebay 3." Now it was a wait game for everything to clear through the protocols.

Leic slowed the runabout, matching the X-ship's drift as it approached the hangar's atmospheric curtain. "Ash, Urvasi, get that craft inside. I’ll be returning to DS9. The station is still at Red Alert, and the Klingons are likely wondering how a shuttlepod just 'teleported' across three hours of impulse travel. Let’s not give them time to investigate."

Urvasi hit the comms, "Working on it now, Commander Pragal. Thank you for the assist and special panel." Urvasi's tone changed into one of cultural intonation, "May the Creator always keep you safe for your family."

He watched the small craft glide toward the Enterprise’s landing lights, a flicker of genuine Cardassian pride crossing his features. "You have your data, Commander Randall. I suggest you download it before the Admiral decides to requisition your processors for the war effort."

"Another advantage to outdated technology is it doesn't, generally, get requisitioned...at least, not immediately." Ash replied, with a little chuckle. "But, point well, taken."

"Shuttlepod, Enterprise, you are cleared for docking in Shuttlebay 3. Proceed to the Bridge after landing."

Urvasi did a short, "Confirmed, Enterprise. Docking now."

Urvasi maneuvered the shuttle pod with haste yet deliberateness. Going inside only took seconds, then she landed in the center of the landing lights showing the bay to settle into. She powered down and then removed her harness. She turned to Ash, "Please, Commander, lead the way."

Ash was alreasy unbuckled and preparing to exit the shuttle. "Let's go then." She replied, as she hopped out.

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