Spies Like Us "
By: Krystal, Hologram, [RNPC]
Maxine Lucinda Tapert, Computer Specialist, [PC]
Mihkat , Pilot , [NPC]

Stardate: 58205.29 0900

As Blitzer woke up, he was aware of Maxine asleep beside him. She tossed and turned just like last time.

Feeling well rested the felionoid sat up and stretched. He watched Maxine sleep for several minutes and then got up. He stepped into the head that had a small sonic shower which he used.

Next, a quick trip to the galley. He made himself a small bowl of niltar which he slurped down. Satisfied, he limped back up to the flight center. His leg still hurt quite a bit. Passing the Sickbay module, he stepped in and grabbed another blanket.

When he entered the flight center he found the pixie still perched on top of the jar, singing and preening her wings. The view screen was flipping through the planet's broadcasts, pausing every once and a while on something that would grab Krystal's attention and have her pausing in her singing to watch.

"Good morning pixie girl," said Blitzer with a little sing-song in his voice, "how are you?"

"Moorrrnnniinnggg.." she singed back and wiggled her fingers at him, fluttering off the jar and hovering nearby.

He picked up the bug jar and looked at it, shaking it a bit. "It looks dead."

Krystal fluttered to the side of the jar and peered inside. "Most bugs do when they're sleeping or hibernating... Do bug sleep?" she wondered. "My sensors indicate it is simply dormant at the moment... You could probably shake it awake," she grinned at him.

He smiled at the pixie and shook the jar pretty hard. "Yep, its moving now." he said, setting the jar back down on the floor. He looked up at the view screen, "What are we watching?" he asked.

Krystal tipped her head and looked at the view screen. "I don't know what they are," she tipped her head and watched the highly entertaining screens.... "But I've watched the news too," she told him.

Blitzer looked up at one of the screens which contained renditions of odd looking characters whose attributes where greatly exaggerated. He was captivated by the antics of these simplistic looking entities "Ok, I know these.." he gestured to them, "would be more fun, but let's see what the news is saying."

"Okay...." Krystal nodded and fluttered her wings a bit. Suddenly the view screen split and displayed several different news broadcasts simultaneously.

Blitzer listened to the different simultaneous sounds, his ears darting back and forth as he mentally processed the information.

He stood concentrating with his arms crossed. "Mark this one for later," said Blitzer pointing to one of the virtual displays, "and this one."

He listened for several more minutes, asking the pixie to save several others, all of which she did. She looked up and back over his shoulder as Max entered the flight deck rubbing her eyes..

"What are you two doing?" she asked with a yawn and settled into her seat.

"We're just watching the news, they have lots to say," said Blitzer. "Play the first one," he said to Krystal.

A man appeared on the viewer he was talking to another who was dressed in fine clothing, obviously a diplomat, "...and mark my word, the Maquis will come barging in. There will be no discussion or talks of peace. They will come firing weapons and instigating mass destruction."

Blitzer crossed his arms, "damn right we will."

Max blinked. "We will? Mass destruction?" But her question went unanswered for now as another broadcast came to the foreground.

The next video played, static interrupted the transmission, "...Deleplane is our elected government, they must be restored to power. ....puppet government has done everyth... they can to scramble our transmissions...we are .... and running out of...."

"Oooohhh... Now those guys need to be heard..." Max pointed out. "I wonder if we could help them out...."

"Without giving away our position?" asked Blitzer, "you have an idea?"

"Well... Not one that doesn't require using that relay station," Max admitted. "And I definitely don't want to go back there."

Blitzer swallowed hard, "good," he looked back at the view screen which was filled with images of chanting crowds and angry demonstrations. "I just hope the Zion gets here soon."

"When's she due again?" Max asked, and was already working on something in the computer.

"We're losing her," Krystal whispered to Blitzer and giggled.

"I'd guess about 1300," said Blitzer. "But its anyone's guess. "

He looked at Max who seemed to be concentrating, "What are you doing?"

Maxine blinked and looked over at him. "Uuhh... Nothing..." She looked like she just got her hand caught in the cookie jar. "Well, okay... I was looking to see if there was anyway we could help the rebels with their broadcast and not give our position away," she admitted.

"Oh..." said Blitzer. He scooped the jar off the floor and looked at the bug. He shook the jar hard and watched it for a couple moments. "Just so it doesn't involve going back to that relay station."

"I don't think you could get me into that station. Not and still have any hearing or fur left," she told him. "You're gonna make it mad if you keep shaking it like that," Max pointed out.

"Oh, it's mad alright..." said Blitzer. When he realized that she couldn't hear the complex and angry sounding patterns the bug was emanating, almost began to describe it to her, but decided that might freak her out. "Yeah, it's mad," he re-iterated as he set it back on the floor.

Maxine eyed him and the 'mad' bug for another moment before turning her attention back to what she'd been trying to work out. "What if... we get close to one of the sats. Close enough that I could 'ack into it? I think I could filter out the interference an' give the rebel broadcast a 'igher priority..." she glanced over at him. "Course that won't take care of what they're doing on the ground and it'd only be a matter of time till they figured out 'ow to recalibrate their interference again....."

Blitzer looked at the viewscreen Max superimposed on the big blue marble below. It showed the relative positions of the various comsats that were exchanging traffic with the surface. "Is that the one," asked Blitzer.

Max nodded. "Yeah. It's the one that correlates to the rebel position the best," she told him.

Blitzer activate the impulse engines and reminded Max to monitor the cloak. He pointed the shuttle in that direction and accelerated to 1-quarter impulse. "This satellite is in a very low orbit," commented Blitzer. He slowed the ship down as the site of the satellite grew larger and larger in their view port until Blitzer stopped the runabout very close to it.

He nodded at Max, "do your stuff." he said with a smile.

"A'roighty then..." she grinned over at him and hooked up directly to the computer. "Should only take me a few minutes... I 'ope. I'm going t'start with the same coding they 'ad locking down the relay station. 'Opefully they're lazy sots and 'aven't changed things too much. Otherwise it'll take a little longer," she told him as she worked, her voice finally trailing off as she became lost to the code.

"She's gone again," Krystal pointed out and fluttered over to perch on the console in front of Blitzer.

Blitzer nodded, "Can you monitor the rebel's transmissions and see if she is succeeding?"

"Aye, Aye, sir," Krystal saluted and even played the transmissions for him. It took a while but they gradually cleared up and became just as strong as the "official" broadcasts from the planet.

"There... I think that should do it..." Max finally sat back and turned to focus on him and Krystal. "Listening in?" she smiled when she heard the rebel broadcasts.

"How are they beaming this signal and not getting detected?" asked Blitzer.

"Hmmmm..." Max fiddled a little and listened a little more. "It sounds like the non-federation aligned population still controls a large portion of the planet, and probably the satellites too. I'll bet a lot of them are privately owned. So the government can't shut them down because they need them too."

Blitzer nodded. "I see... can we attempt to identify areas where there are concentrations of anti-federation people?"

"Hrmmm.. I don't see why not," she nodded.

"Could we then also identify areas where the Federation have strong holds?"

"Yeah... Or at least where they're broadcasting from, which we could assume would be a stronghold," Max agreed.

Blitzer nodded, "Let's get to work then."

With a nod and a sort of wicked grin, Max did just that. "A'roight then..." A few moments later a grid overlaid the planet on screen with a myriad of lighted pinpoints. "Let's eliminate all the non-Federation broadcast signals..." First she isolated one of the broadcast and super imposed it on screen so she and Blitzer could see it. "Let's make a call on them... Some are obvious.. Like the cartoons," she grinned..

Blitzer looked at the screen, "cartoons?"

"They used t'call them that," Max explained. "About three 'undred years ago... They're digitally improved an' generated 'olomatrix enthronizations now. DIGME's for short." It was hard to tell if she was serious or not.

Krystal giggled.

It was hopeless. Blitzer felt pretty stupid when it came to most of the techie-things Max talked about.

"Well all I know is... I hope the Zion gets here soon, all this sitting around spying is making my tail sore. I'd much rather..." suddenly Blitzer's ears locked on to one of the many screens that were being played. "This one," he said pointing at one which displayed what appeared to be an interactive child's show. "There's something above voices." He turned his head toward Max, "can you filter out the children?"

Max glanced over at him and nodded. "Should be able to, sure..." She pulled the broadcast to the center view and enlarged it. All the other screens quieted and that one became their focal point. "Filtering now... Taking out the children..." she told him as the kids voices died out.

Blitzer listened closely, below the screen was a graphical representation which he could see corresponded to the different frequencies. "Ok," he said pointing to one of the frequencies, "filter this one out."

Max had to grin cause he was like a kid with a new toy... and he was good. She filtered out the one he indicated, totally not understanding why because she couldn't hear what he could.

"Now amplify this one."

The audio played a wispy vocalization. Blitzer's ears continued to study the sound.

"Now that's strange sounding," she frowned. "M'runnin' it through the UT now and not getting anything that makes any sense..."

Blitzer put his paw over his snout, hesitant to speak, "It...It sounds like talking but the sound is changed, like it is cut in two."

"Cut in two? Let me check the wave pattern...." she mused and then blinked. "You're good," she told him. "The bloody thing's inverted... I'll switch it 'round..."

"Its a hidden message!" said Blitzer, "now play the message from the beginning."

"You know what we must do," said a woman's voice. "...the federation must not be allowed to dictate the edicts of our planet. We must fight for our home, this occupation by the Federation will not end if we do not. Bocca Coja does not represent our voice, but only the voice of Deleplane. He is gone, we must mourn that later, but first, take back what is ours. Join us in the fight. Magracie court, 1600 join the resistance.

"Bloody 'ell... Rebels," Max grinned over at the Cait pilot.

"I think we found a freedom cell," said Blitzer, "We should attempt to contact them."

"A'roight, that sounds like a good--- Uht-oh... Problem..." she pointed to the view screen. "Looks like the Cardassians are shifting around again..."

Blitzer watched as one of the galors approached, it closed to less than 50 meters from the Tigris. Blitzer held his breath and with wide eyes he looked like he was ready to spring in to action a the slightest hint of trouble. "Do you think they can see us?"

Max had actually reached out a hand to rest on Blitzer's arm when she got the impression he was going to leap through the screen, and she shook her head. "No. They can't, or they would have fired at us at 1500 meters. And they're too close to fire on us now... They're probably checking out the sat and want to control it like we did....I know I would if I were them..."

Blitzer's tail began to thump the floor anxiously, "their navigational deflector is only 50 meters from our torpedeo launcher." said Blitzer with a smile, "The array is coupled directly to the main EPS node. With the array off and no shields, a direct hit would..." Blitzer's eyes widened at the prospect of making such a big kill... and a big explosion.

"'Eh now... whoa there, Tiger..." Max looked over at him. "Let's just think this through, eh... I mean... what would 'appen to us? Or the sat? Not that I'm not all for blowing them out of the sky... but I don't want t'go with them, yanno?"

Blitzer looked at her with a quirky look, he was amused by her expression.

With a great deal of animation, Blitzer explained, "No, no... it wouldn't happen like that, see the torpedo would detonate on the array and certainly destroy it. Almost always it will rupture the main EPS feed, they take a lot of plasma," he said nodding his head matter-of-factly, "...so then they have to shunt that plasma right off the warpcore which usually causes widespread system overloads." Blitzer smiled as he continued, "Three out of ten times the shunt will fail and blow out near the warp core. Next thing you know, cascade failures and the whole EPS structure comes apart." He described the scene using his paw as if he were painting a picture of it, "boom."

"Big boom.." Pixie chimed in with a shower of dust to help simulate Blitzer's description.

"Normally the Galor's deflector array is heavily shielded. This type of ship was never designed to be cloaked."

"Okay... I only understood about 'alf that," Max grinned over at him. "If we fire the torpedoes, 'ow much time do we 'ave t'get away? Will two of them take out the whole ship?"

"Well..." said Blitzer with a shrug, "after the shunt activates in 5 to 10 seconds, another detonation will usually put big strain on it. But believe me if we fire two torpedoes, we will not have a chance to fire another pair." Blitzer shook his head, "Two bad we didn't have some remote control mines or other ordinance."

"Y'could probably modify a torpedo and use grav boots t'walk a pair of them over an' stick them on the array," she suggested.

"What?" asked Blitzer, "Grav boots?"

"Well.. Yeah.. " Max nodded. "I bet the torpedo could be modified into a magnetic mine," she told him. "Actually forget the grav boots... Can you get close enough to the Galor's sensor array so we could just release the torpedo and have it attach to the dish gravemetrically and magnetically?"

"I think that work better, in case the Cardassians move off before the Zion gets here. I've had some training on retasking photon torpedos, I think I can do it with your help," he said.

"*My* 'elp?" she squeaked.

"Yeah," he said wiggling his paws, "fingers would be handy."

Maxine blinked and eyed his paws. "Oh... roight...."

"But we better hurry."

He got up and headed to the engineering sector of the runabout. He picked up some tools and looked around.

He didn't know much about anything else in engineering, but his marine training included ordinance management. He quickly located the torpedo launcher and activated the controls.

The mechanism hissed and unchambered both the port and starboard torpedo launcher. His paws moved about the control screen. As he did so, the torpedo magazine positioned the torpedoes so they could be accessed.

Blitzer slid his paw over the first torpedo's access panel causing it to open. An eerie blue glow filled the engineering compartment. "Okay, bring those fingers over here."

"Just remember these are the only fingers I 'ave, so be careful what y'do with 'em," Maxine said as she moved to stand next to him. "Tell me what t'do..."

Blitzer handed a spanner wrench to Max, "Ok, first, be really, very careful not to interrupt this circuit. It is the anti-deutirum confinement."

"Uhhh... roight..." Max took the spanner and eyed him and then the circuit. "Go on.."

"This is the guidence system, remove it and replace it with this one," said Blitzer handing her an isolinear board.

"Gotcha... piece o'cake," she winked at him and set to work. Maxine had a steady hand. If she was nervous working with explosives, it didn't show... much. But he knew because of that hint of fear that entered into her scent.

Next he handed her a small laser welder, "disconnect the warp sustainer coil supply conduit from there and connect them to this plasma relay here." Blitzer watched her complete it. "Good, now reroute the accentuater circuit to this power tap."

"M'glad you know what *you* are doing... This is all Greek t'me," she admitted and followed his directions.

He smiled, "Now connect the detonation circuit to the subspace control link."

"Okay... how's that?" It was a rhetorical question cause they were both still standing staring into the guts of the thing. She lifted her hands and gave him some room when he motioned for her to step back.

Blitzer replaced the access panel on the torpedo. "Good, lets do the other one now."

"That one should be easier, eh?" She let out a deep breath and blew the short hairs that curled around her face. "Remind me later that I don't like this..." she muttered as the pair got to work on the second torpedo.

When they finished Blitzer activated the controls which placed the ordinance back into launch position.

As they walked back toward the flight control center Blitzer continued to explain to her, "...then you will need to reprogram the torpedo's guidance system and change the code to arm and detonate via subspace link up."

Something that was a whole lot easier for Maxine to do than what he'd just had her doing. She looked grateful and relieved to be back dealing with code. It took her a short while to do as he asked because reprogramming guidance systems was a very precise and exacting thing. "Okay... Ready 'ere." She finally finished and looked over at him.

Blitzer maneuvered runabout even closer and activated the weapons control system. He released the maglock on the torpedo launcher and the field aperture. As the tubes depressurized, both torpedoes drifted out of their tubes toward the Cardassian battleship. "I hope they don't have enhanced hull sensors," said Blitzer backing the runabout slowly away.

A moment later the torpedoes shimmered and disappeared as they attached themselves to the cloaked cardassian ship.

Maxine watched and then held her breath as the torpedoes disappeared. When there was no reaction from the Cardassians, she smirked and looked over at Blitzer. "They're still trying to 'ack into the sat," she told him.

"Y'know... I wonder if there's a way t'jam them... that'd give our guys a bit of a boost..." she observed. "Pixie you keep working on isolating the Federation and Rebel strongholds while I fiddle with this...." Then she looked over at Blitzer with widened eyes. "'Ey... we need to let our guys know about that Rebel rally at 1600... Or Northrop... And let's monitor all the comm. traffic and make sure the Cardassian's and Feds don't know about it, eh?"

"Yeah," said Blitzer looking at the chronometer display, it was almost 1300. "The Zion should be along shortly, we should be ready to transmit the data just as soon as they uncloak." He looked out the view port at the satellite and new very close by was a cloaked ship. "We're probably close enough to that satellite they'd think it was the sat that was transmitting. We could perhaps try to get the information to Northrup."

Blitzer's tail swished back and forth with nervous anticipation. His eyes were locked on its target. It was a waiting game. One that Blitzer was particularly good at.

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