To Kill A Mocking Station

Posted on Tue Feb 10th, 2026 @ 1:04am by Lieutenant JG Vanya Karolyi & Lieutenant Commander Hadir Prenar & Lieutenant Laural Hawke

1,814 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: A Day In The Life
Location: Various
Timeline: TBD

Hadir stepped into the shuttle bay having already forged the orders to take the shuttle. He did tell Captain Rutherford that there would be a shuttle missing and he should close his eyes. As he stepped in wearing his tactical field uniform he spoke. "Clear the bay. That's an order. If you want to know why suffice to say that your clearance is not high enough." All of the personnel present left although they did give the Cardassian some strange looks. A few button taps later and the encrypted go message was sent to Vanya and Laurel.

Five minutes later, Vanya walked in. She was dressed in a comfortable black jumpsuit and matching boots. She carried her field pack with everything she thought she'd need for the trip. As she entered the shuttle bay she went over to Hadir and nodded. "Ready to go."

Laural wasn’t far behind. Wearing a pair of khaki green cargo pants, black combat boot and a black t-shirt with a white punisher skull painted on it. Walking up to the two of them, she gave them a smile, “alright, let’s have some fun” she said, tossing her rucksack down.

"Nice shirt," Vanya said by way of greeting when she saw Laural. "I don't know about you, but I'm ready to have some fun."

"Excellent ladies. Please set your phasers to kill and fire in the vicinity of the warp nacelles and shield emitters. Do not damage them but make it look good. We will be taking the Colorado here." Hadir pointed to the runabout that was closest to him. "We are stealing it so make it look good." He fired two shots toward the nose of the craft.

Taking out her phaser, Laural adjusted the settings appropriately, “what do you think? Attack pattern Alpha 2 or Theta 6?”

Vanya shrugged, then aimed towards the shield emitters, making sure she was close enough that to anyone watching, it would look like she tried to take them out. It was kind of fun to aim to miss for a change.

Hadir attached his phaser to the hull of the runabout, and then set it to overload. "Take cover if you please." No sooner had Hadir and the women taken cover than the phaser exploded. "There now. We have been hit by a torpedo. Let’s get on board and get going." He made his way to the shuttle and took the pilot's chair.

Vanya looked at the runabout. It was nicely done. She'd definitely remember that trick if she ever needed it. Then she boarded the shuttle and took her seat.

Hadir's hands danced over the controls. It had been some time since he flew a shuttle, but much like a bicycle you never forget. "Right then we will skip the preflight and stand by to blast the shuttle doors open." His right hand triggered a coded message to Captain Rutherford informing him that they were about to blow a hole in the side of the ship.

"Ready on your command," Vanya said.

"rock and roll" Laural added, taking her seat.

"Fire!" Hadir ordered and two orbs of energy shot forth from the shuttle. They impacted the shuttle doors with a massive explosion. The doors disintegrated and the shuttle bay decompressed. "Engaging forward thrusters. Set a course for the station at maximum warp and engage as soon as we are clear."

"Aye, aye," Vanya replied with a jaunty salute. Most of the time she was the one who collected and archived the data. She looked forward to being part of the action.

Waiting for the shuttle to clear the ship, Laural prepared a subspace pulse. It would scatter their warp signature and make it look like they were somewhat competent. She waited for the warp core to warm up before triggering it. The ship would suffer some subspace disruptions for a short time, but it'll clear itself.

Just as the shuttle began the jump to warp Hadir fired two phaser volleys at the Majestic. They were targeted at non-essential systems but were fired hot. It had to look good, look like they stole the shuttle. Plausible deniability was essential for their success. He knew that the Captain would in turn make it look as if they narrowly escaped and put the appropriate notes in the ship's log.

Now that they were safely at warp Hadir turned in his chair with another of his trademark Cardassian smiles. His brilliant green eyes twinkled as he spoke. "Well ladies it appears that as of this moment we are fugitives. I suppose we should discuss the next step in the plan. Upon arrival we will set a three hour automatic retrieval in the transporters then beam aboard. There is no need for covert insertion as they most likely know we are coming, but not why we are coming. This station is overrun by artificial intelligence that learns. It is for this reason we need to move quickly. Once aboard you ladies will find the nearest computer and do what you do best. You will have three hours or until I get all the charges set to get as much information out of the computers as you can. I am going to insert a cascade failure into their power systems and set charges around their core. Then once safely back aboard the shuttle we will launch tri cobalt devices and destroy everything. There is to be no evidence that this place ever existed. Save for what is in the Starfleet Intelligence computers. If we are caught or otherwise found out we will be disavowed. Thoughts? Suggestions?"

"Keeping the AI distracted will be the hard part," Vanya said. "I brought tools to get into the computer from here as well as from the station itself. I could set up a secondary subroutine through passive relays to access data from here. Perhaps with you setting the explosives and Laural and I actively accessing data, the passive path will be overlooked."

Hadir had practically forgotten about the AI. Now, he chastised himself for it. After all it was the whole reason that they were going to destroy the station. "We are going to need a red herring distraction. My work, and your work are both needed. That said what can distract something that is the entire computer?"

"Blowing up the station," Vanya replied wryly. "But if we could make it believe the threat is somewhere else long enough to get in and out, it would work." She paused for a moment. "Could we make it believe another ship is the actual threat?"

"Possibly, but highly unlikely. If this AI was smart enough to take over the whole station it is most likely smart enough to see through most ruses. I think a straight forward attack is the most likely way to achieve victory. We can board the station in suits in the event the AI wants to deactivate life support." Hadir explained further, the more he thought about it the more he thought this was not going to be as easy as he thought in the beginning.

"True, but anything we try will be highly unlikely," Vanya replied. "There will need to be an element of luck in anything we try. We just need to make sure the odds are in our favor." She couldn't help smiling as she added, "Too bad we can't just throw it a bone first."

“Maybe we can” Laural said, thinking it over. “We need to fool the sensors into either believing we’re not a threat or that we don’t exist. If we launch a full spread of torpedoes and have them detonated at the edge of the station’s sensor range, then using the impulse engines and a little physics, we give the engines a 1 second full burn then shut everything off. Compete silence. The momentum should carry us in”

"I can mask our signal and silence the comms," Vanya added. "That should help you bring us in without notice."

"I am reminded of an old saying I heard on Earth. 'Run silent, run deep.' A plan worthy of the Order. And from me that is high praise." Hadir laughed at his joke. It was an excellent plan if it worked. "There is one flaw though. For your plan to work we will need a docking bay open and ready. If you detonate those torpedoes, the station may raise shields in response which would render the transporter useless."

Laural thought for a moment. Hadir had a good point, and their shuttle defiantly didn't have the power to punch through a station's shields. "oh, wait. does the system have an asteroid field?"

Vanya ran a quick check. "Yes. There is an asteroid field. Sending the location to you now." It would be easier for Laural to see the data than be told about it.

Hadir simply turned to face Laural with a tilt to his head. It was the kind of tilt that Cardassians got when they questioned what someone was thinking or saying. At the moment Hadir wondered where the woman intended to go with this.

"we could grab a small asteroid, one full of Iron or another similar heavy metal and launch it towards the station. Using is as camouflage, we sneak past the station’s sensors, using thrusters only to line the shuttle up with one of the docking ports and force entry that way"

Now that was an idea Hadir thought, one that could just work. "Alright.. I like it. But there are two problems. The first is to execute that plan it will take some pinpoint flying. I am cleared as a pilot but I confess I am not that good. Secondly, how do we move the asteroid. Using our tractor beams could trigger the station's sensors and your whole plan would be for naught. I hate to be the wet blanket on this. But, that is how I see it."

"Asteroids collide about every ten million years. Perhaps we could arrange for two to collide?" Vanya proffered.

“We shouldn’t need a full power tractor beam if we select a small enough asteroid. Or we could land on a sizeable one and use the shuttles engines to push it?” Laural suggested.

"Alright. Start scanning for a suitable asteroid and inform me when you have one." Hadir gave the order. He loved this plan. It had the benefit of never being done, and being the first to do anything always appealed to a Cardassian. He turned back to the helm and kept them moving toward their destination.

"Yes, sir," Vanya said, beginning another scan to find a suitable asteroid. At least she had plenty to choose from.

(To be continued...)

Lieutenant Commander Hadir Prenar
Chief of Tactical Operations
USS Orcrist

Lieutenant Laural Hawke
Intelligence Officer
USS Orcrist

Lieutenant JG Vanya Karolyi
Analyst and Archivist
USS Orcrist

 

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