The runabout Hudson was making good progress towards Earth with their Ferengi prisoner. Floc had been a model prisoner, making no attempts to escape or protest his innocence. He had spent most of his incarceration sleeping and eating, the rest he’d attempted to engage the security officers in conversation.

The trip had been almost uneventful, the only diversion a distress message the runabout had recently received. However, now that they had traced the signal’s origin nothing could be found, no evidence of a ship at all. Now they had to return to their original mission, on to Earth.

Earth was now about a day’s travel away. Shale and Oakenshield would be glad to see Earth once more and to pass the responsibility for their prisoner onto someone else. Both had been looking forward to searching for the mirror vessel, their last encounter having not ended well. Captain Taybar had passed on the news of the Ferengi Marauder that was due to rendezvous with the ISS Leviathan. But the Hudson and its crew would not have time to visit Earth and then return to their ship to help.

"Shift change." Oakenshield remarked, looking over her shoulder at the two security officers sat in the rear of the runabout’s cockpit.

The two officers rose from their seats and headed back into the rear of the ship. A few minutes later, Lieutenant Bowyer came into the cockpit area.

"Any problems ?" Julia enquired.

"No." Bowyer replied. "Floc is doing his usual ‘Hello. How are you today ?’ speech. Hadlie is getting some food, would either of you want anything bringing up front."

"Actually, I could do with some food." Shale remarked.

"Go back and take a rest." Julia remarked. "I can take over the helm for half an hour or so."

"Thanks." Rick announced, rising from his seat and stretching.

Suddenly an explosion rocked the small vessel. Shale and Bowyer were flung to the floor and it took both of them a moment to regain their composure.

"We’re under attack." Oakenshield announced, swiftly raising the shields and attempting to scan for their attacker.

Shale retook his seat and regained control of the ship’s helm. He started to move the runabout in a randomised pattern, attempting to shake off who ever was firing upon them.

"We’ve been hit." Bowyer announced, taking a seat at the engineering console. "Aft hull is damaged, along with the port nacelle. We’re venting some plasma, but nothing major I’m attempting to seal the crack."

A second explosion rocked the small ship, but this time both crew and ship were prepared for the attack. The shields held and Shale’s manoeuvring meant that the majority of the blast was deflected off the aft shields.

"Minimal damage." Boyer announced. "They seem to be attempting to stop us, not destroy us. That last attack was targeted at the starboard nacelle. At a guess they don’t want us to go to warp."

"Got it." Oakenshield commented enthusiastically. "Some kind of cloaked vessel, but not Romulan. Could be Klingon, but the sensor readings are all wrong."

"Where ?" Shale asked.

"Five o’clock." Julia replied.

Shale turned the runabout around to face the threat.

"Where is it ?" He asked.

"Dead ahead." Julia replied. "Six thousand kilometres, firing torpedoes."

Three torpedoes sped away from the runabout and headed away. Ten seconds later, they hit something and detonated. Suddenly a large vessel appeared on the screen, removing its cloak. The results of the explosion tore into the ships hull, with it’s cloak online the vessel had been vunerable.

"How the hell did they get access to a cloaking device ?" Julia announced.

The Cardassian Galor fired again at runabout.

"Returning fire again." Julia announced. "For what it’s worth."

The Galor was no match for the runabout’s weapons and although they had caused some damage to the vessel when the shields were down, with them now up the crew of the shuttle wouldn’t stand a chance. The runabout rocked again as the third attack hit the ship. Their own attack caused little damage to the larger vessel.

"There’s no way we can out-fight them." Bowyer announced.

"Then we out-run them." Oakenshield announced. "Set course for Earth, maximum warp on my mark."

"Maximum warp." Shale confirmed. "Waiting for your command."

"Hang on tight." Julia announced. "I’m going to launch a salvo of torpedoes and detonate them as soon as they’re launched."

"Won’t we be caught in the explosion." Bowyer commented.

"Not if we divert all the available power to the aft shields." Julia suggested. "Start working on it."

Lieutenant Bowyer wasn’t the best engineer aboard the Hudson, he was trained to be a security officer, but like all Starfleet officers, he had the basic knowledge. "All set." He announced, after thirty seconds.

"OK, loading torpedoes." Julia announced. "Launching in five, four, three, two, one."

Three torpedoes shot out of the aft torpedo launcher and five seconds later exploded.

"Now." Julia shouted as the last of the torpedoes was launched. Shale hit the warp engines, but it was too late. The Hudson started to enter warp and shoot off into sub-space, but the explosion of the torpedoes was just too much for the small vessels’ aft shields. Whether it was the damage already sustained or some error on Lieutenant Bowyer’s part, the runabout caught in the blast exploded into a myriad of pieces.

The one good thing to come from their demise was the damage to the Cardassian vessel as it attempted to cloak once more. Several small explosions erupted from the ship, its shields down causing the full force of the explosions to hit the vessel.

Crippled, but not destroyed the vessel slowly headed back to Cardassian space, to rendezvous with their employer. The same employer who had given them a Klingon cloaking device.