Recon Part III "
By: Dr. Alyssa Caitlin Northrop, Acting Chief Intel Officer, [PST]
M'Ressha Mikaht, fighter pilot , [RNPC]
Krystal, Hologram, [RNPC]
Maxine Lucinda Tapert, Computer Specialist, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.28 0030

Blitzer hurried down the corridor to the mission module where Alyssa was and chimed the door.

From her place on the bunk Alyssa called out, "Come."

This made the doors open wide to admit the felinoid pilot. "What's the matter, Blitzer?"

"I think you'd better see this," he said gesturing towards the LCARS monitor on the wall.

"See what?" Standing up, she watched him move towards the wall monitor.

Blitzer went over to the monitor and activated the long range sensor. "We just picked it up," he said, "It's a Federation Sovereign class ship."

A mirror image of the Zion stared back at Alyssa from the wall monitor. She hadn't heard anything about the Federation having rebuilt their Sovereign Project after their first prototype was destroyed. This was most certainly bad news. "Ok....let's make sure we steer clear of that thing for now. If she's armed like the Zion she could blow us away without even a second thought."

"I'll let you know when we are approaching orbit."

"Good...let me know when we're in Transporter Range of the beam down coordinates. Once I'm down you can do one of two things. One, hide the runabout in the planet's magnetic pole...or keep yourself on the opposite side of the planet. Up to you. And yes I know that we're cloaked...but let's just call this some insurance."

Blitzer nodded, "Understood chief, we'll make the necessary preparations."

Blitzer turned and walked up the corridor to the flight control center. He smiled and nodded at Max as he sat down. "Did you find any more about that ship?" he asked.

Maxine smiled back at him and shook her head. "I couldn't pick up anything with a passive scan. We won't be able to tell much for another 6 hours. I can instigate an active scan, but then they'd know they were being scanned, which we don't want," she answered.

Blitzer nodded, "Ok. We should each take a sleep rotation. We're going to need to be bright-eyed and bushy tailed."

"Bushy-tailed?" Max grinned and Krystal giggled and tried to get a look at his tail..

Blitzer did a double take, "What?" he said, "It's an old earth saying."

"A'roight, a'roight. You want first watch, or do y'want me to take it?" Max asked.

"I don't need to sleep," Krystal announced to the world.

Blitzer looked at Max inquisitively as he wondered if the A.I. could reliably handle a watch. It would give them both more down time.

Maxine looked from Blitzer over to the pixie with a quirked brow and then back to the Cait. "She doesn't need to sleep," she agreed thoughtfully. "And she could monitor th'systems.... then wake us if anything needed our attention..."

"I guess that makes the most sense then, because we can both get a longer sleep cycle and be awake before we get to the Pacifica sector."

"A'roight," Max smiled. "And I can check if I wake up... I don't usually sleep for long periods of time," she told him.

Blitzer smiled, "I don't sleep for long periods of time either, I cat nap." He said with a smirk and a side-ways glance, "...another Earth expression."

"Uh-huh.." Max glanced back, green eyes watching him speculatively.

"Yay!!" Krystal clapped and grinned at them. "I get to DO something," she preened her wings rather proudly

"Indeed you do, little faerie, don't let us down!"

Krystal stood proudly and shook her head. Then she saluted Blitzer and grinned. "No, sir!! You can count on me, sir!!"

Blitzer got up and stretched, "I didn't even notice what this bus had for sleeping accommodations.

"Wake us right off," Max instructed the pixie as she slipped to her feet and padded quietly after Blitzer.

He looked in the first room, there were some bunks. It was designed for the flight crew. "I saw some other sleeping quarters in the back, but this is fine for me in case there is an emergency."

"This looks fine to me... I can sleep just about anywhere," Max told him.

"I can take the top one," he said with a tone of chivalry.

"Nah, no need... I'll sleep on th'floor," she told him as she reached for a blanket and pillow.

Blitzer gently took hold of the pillow as she picked it up, "The floor?" his ears cocked forward, "nuh, uh," he said shaking his head, "If you feel bad about it, why don't we share the bottom bunk?" He smirked, "I don't bite."

Maxine blinked, opening her mouth to speak and then closing it as she shook her head a little. "It's not that... I mean... I don't feel bad... it's just... you see... well... I fall out of bed," she admitted with a soft grunt.

Blitzer's jaw dropped slightly and closed gently, he drew a deep breath and sighed, "ah..well, Ok...then let me make you a nest," as he reached up and took the mattress off the bunk and laid it on the floor.

Maxine watched him silently... a nest. He was making her a nest... What an odd feeling that was.

He took the other and laid it on the floor as well, "in my culture, sleeping above another person is a gesture of superiority," he explained as he covered her bed with the blanket.

"That wouldn't have bothered me," she told him quietly as she watched while he took the other blanket and wrapped himself in it and settled on one of the mattresses. "Bonne Nuit" he said with a smile.

Maxine finally let out her breath in a soft grunt as she settled down on the mattress next to his. "No one ever made me a nest before," she grumbled and pulled the blanket over her. "If... I.. uhhh... kick you or anything... I don't mean it... I kind of thrash a bit..." she warned him, glancing over at him and offering him a warm smile. "G'night.."

Blitzer cracked open an eyelid, "Okay."

Maxine stared at him for several long moments before grunting softly again and pulling the blanket over her head as she curled onto her side facing him.

It wasn't too long before the soft regular sounds of her breathing indicated to the Cait's keen hearing that the woman was fast asleep. And it was just as he was dozing off himself that he found her warm body suddenly pressed against his as she shifted in her sleep.

He purred slightly, it was something he hadn't done in a long time, but he just felt like it now. Slowly he drifted off to sleep.

He hadn't been asleep for very long before he was startled awake by Max's arm and leg sprawling half over him. No wonder she fell out of bed.

He gently rolled her back to her side, and patted the back of her shoulder with his paw. She seemed to settle down after than and slept soundly.

After several hours of napping, Blitzer got up quietly, not disturbing the sleeping computer tech who was still motionless.

He entered the flight control center and found the pixie decorating her hair and body with all the holographic representations of the sparkling things she'd collected. She had safety pins and bright colored beads, shiny washers and even a sequin or three. It was a marvel where she managed to come up with these things and how she managed to keep them. She looked up and grinned at him waving excitedly.

"Good Morning Krystal," he said with a grin, "do you have a report?"

"The sensors are still tracking the Sovereign class ship," she told him. "It's where you left it. We're still not getting any information about her registry, but I didn't look without you," she added. "And look what I found!" she exclaimed and held up some bright purple string. "Everything is operating within .00214% of normal. Well within Starfleet standards."

Blitzer feigned a salute to the pixie, "very good, carry on. I'm going to get some juice and some food."

"Yes sir!" the pixie saluted and giggled, waving as he left the flight deck.

Blitzer went to the back of the runabout where the galley was. He activated the replicator which produced a small breakfast for him. He picked up a morsel and took a bite. He wandered about the galley looking out the portholes and at the various monitors and equipment that was laying about.

When he finished he returned to the flight control center and sat down and watched the pixie for a few moments. "What are you doing now?"

"Braiding," she told him with a smile as she wiggled the lock of hair she was braiding. "And monitoring that Sovereign class ship."

Blitzer leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes. His ears darted about listening to every slight noise.

He heard Maxine shifting differently a moment or two before Krystal announced, "Maxine's waking up...."

Blitzer's eyes opened, "yes, she is," he said in a hushed voice.

The computer expert wandered onto the flight deck a few moments later, rubbing her eyes and yawning with a small squeak. "..mornin'..." she grumbled and glanced at the chronometer to see that it was 0700. "..'ungry..." she grunted and after a absent smile at the pair of them turned to wander back to the galley.

"She's not a morning person," Krystal grinned at Blitzer after Max left.

Blitzer turned to the pixie and chuckled, "You know her pretty well."

"Uh-huh," the pixie nodded. "We live together," Krystal told him.

"Does she have a boyfriend?"

That made the pixie blink and giggle. "Nonono. She--- eep..." she stopped as soon as Blitzer made a shushing gesture and winked at the pixie. She giggled back and looked up to watch the computer tech return.

Max looked much more awake when she stepped onto the flight deck and was carrying two cups. One had hot chocolate with a sandwich balanced on top of it, and the other a chai tea. "Where are we?" she asked as she handed the drink she brought for him.

Blitzer took the drink and sipped it, "Thank-you, how'd you know?"

"Checked the replicator logs," Max told him as she settled into her seat and took a sip of her hot chocolate.

He smiled at her, "Of course," he took another drink and said, "this is something you don't get to do in a fighter," setting his cup down.

"I can imagine.. Too cramped," she agreed and tore her sandwich in two, offering him half. "Thank-you," said Blitzer graciously accepting the gift. He chomped down the sandwich and then licked his lips.

"Now then," he said checking the navigational console, "We're about 10 lightyears from Pacifica."

"Hmmm... Close enough to check that ship out, do you suppose?" Max asked. "It's still there, isn't it?" She eyed the pixie who paused in her braiding to nod. "Roight... Let's just 'ave a look..."

Blitzer watched as Max worked the console.

"Got her...." she said after a moment and a sideways smirk to Blitzer. "Take a look..." she brought it onscreen. "She's th'USS Yamato. There's 214 life signs on board... Hmm... skeleton crew for that ship, eh? Wager th'rest are planetside..." she told him and then blinked. "Eh now... what's this?"

Blitzer's brow furrowed as he wondered...

"Looks like echoes... 'ang on... I'm tweakin' th'sensors.." Max told him. "We got some intel from that Federation prisoner, Mason..." she told him as she worked. "We can find th'blighters from their unmasked warp signature... Looks like an echo..." Her voice sort of trailed off for a moment.

"Oh Crikey.." Max glanced over at him and then she and the pixie both straightened and began their little duet again as she turned to point to her console. "Th'sensors are detectin' eight Galor class Cardassian Battlecruisers," they reported. "Whoa.... Is that garrisoned?" It was Max that actually asked him and then answered her own question with; "That's garrisoned...."

"We'll have to make certain that we are extra stealthy," recheck the cloaking matrix."

"Checking..." Krystal announced.

"We're good for now," Max told him after a moment. "We'll keep checking the closer we get."

Serveral quite moments pasted. The serene but dark reality of their mission began to set in as they drew closer to the planet.

Blizter broke the silence, "How did you sleep last night?"

Maxine opened her mouth to give him some automatic answer and then closed it again as she scrunched up her face and looked at him for a few moments, grunting softly before finally answering. "Better than usual," she admitted, frowning because it surprised her some. "Did I kick you an' stuff?"

"No, not that I noticed," said the Caitain with a shrug and a wry smile.

Max let out a relieved grunt. "Good, I was worried I would," she admitted, and her eyes went back to scanning the computer readouts.

Before long they entered the Pacifica system. Blitzer completed the pre-orbital check list while Max and Krystal continued to scan for any thing that might indicate they were detected.

Blizer put the runabout into standard orbit, away from any of the cloaked vessels and away from the Federation ship.

Blitzer headed down the corridor and found Northrop, "Chief, we've entered orbit. There's no indication we've been detected."

Northrop grabbed her bag off the chair and crammed the PADDs she was reading into one of the deep pockets. She slipped her pistol back into the shoulder holster and then pulled her jacket on. Slinging the bag over her shoulder, she left the room at the back and headed up front. "Ok....you both know what you need to do. Ensign Tapert.....if you find out anything you think I should know, call me. Signal with a click. Before you start talking, wait for me to click back. This way, if I'm in a position where I can't respond, you won't give me away."

"Aye, aye. Signal with a click and wait for your response. Covert is th'word, ma'am," Max agreed, acknowledging her instructions.

That said, Alyssa got up onto the small transporter pad in the rear of the bridge. "Energize."

"Good luck, Chief," Maxine said as she activated the controls and the blue haze of the transporter swallowed up the Intel Officer.

"So what's the plan?" Maxine looked over at Blitzer when Alyssa was gone. "Hide in the planet's magnetic pole...or play duck'n'dodge with th'Yamoto and Battlecruisers?" she asked curiously, evidentially confident that he could do it.

Blitzer nodded, "Magnetic poles."

He turned his chair to face the flight controls and input the parameters, the ship responded to his paw gliding the LCARS panel. The runabout banked across the northern hemisphere of the planet until it came to the pole. Blitzer maneuvered the ship so the nose was pointing toward the pole. "That should do a good job to mask us. Double check the Cloak."

"Roight..." Max nodded and did the double check. "Compensatin' for the pole's magnetic field," she told him. "An' no worries now."

"Well, lets hope the hard part is over," Said Blitzer leaning back and putting his hands behind head.