[snip]

Visual scans also showed what seemed a normal iron made ‘asteroid’. But it was finer details now up close which over the next half an hour gave little hints at the true purpose of likely some kind of really well made camouflaged ship. Someone had taken great effort to clearly build a ship as naturally as possible that even on a closer scan would likely pass for a natural asteroid at a quick glance. But being studied now as it was the crew could see small bumps or ‘crater’ holes which given their alignment were clearly carefully made RCS thruster jet holes which would account for the minute burn effect they had seen earlier by a freak chance. Given the positioning of these thrusters they soon could devise a rough shape of likely the ship in some form.

From what could be told someone had indeed at some point in recent months or a year or two at most taken actual local asteroid chunks from within his system. They had then carefully lined some kind of rough spherical/angular rectangular hull with said rock chunks, and taken extreme efforts to then build natural colored and rough shaped hull for everything else to maintain the rough spherical natural asteroid shape. Given the size output of the RCS thrusters and the rest of the structure probably there were at most 4 or so people if any on board the ship. There was no sign of defenses or weapons either at present nor the outlines of what might be considered such in the natural slopes of the rock. It was clearly though not capable of warp travel, nor likely of much more then limited sublight speeds if at all. Its destination was still it seemed either the sun, or if it made the course change to come the northern pole of Vok III

Rand turned toward Morgan, “Pull up the recording.” On the screen their original scan of the asteroid field played, and showed the asteroid ship purposely moving to avoid a collision with another and then resuming to drift. “Sensor readings showed a thruster type energy signature but small. It will either collide with the sun, or if it adjust course again, reach Vok in a few days. We launched a probe,” she motioned to Franks who had the details on the science station. “We confirmed it is a ship, big enough for around 5 people but appears to only have thruster capability, and they took a great deal of effort to use local asteroids to camouflage their ship. It is small enough we can grab it with a tractor beam. We launched a second probe into the field to see if anyone is waiting for them. Colonial space control is curious why we are launching probes. I told them we are gathering astrological scans to update charts while we are here. That you would inform the Governor if it was necessary. If someone is out there, and we know the Orions are about, communications should be cautious. They don’t appear to grasp that. Might be why they keep getting pirated.”

Yeoman Rand

Roman listened carefully to the information as Rand presented it. He was glad he’d returned to the ship. “Do the tractor beam. Let’s ask the Orions ourselves what they are doing in our space, so close to our colony.” He smiled, a faint, barely there smile and Rand’s final comment. “All further communications with the planet should be cautious. We don’t want the Orions overhearing anything of consequence.”

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Franks spoke up. “We don’t know who is in the ship or how many. We are just guessing a crew number based on size of the ship.”

Morgan nodded, “Could be Orions but they are not usually this sneaky.”

The Helm officer spoke up, “Course to asteroid plotted and heading at full impulse Cmdr.”

Sentinel NEs

“Have you tried scanning the ship?” Roman asked, looking between the two of them.

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Franks nodded, “Yes sir. The Ship has RCS style thruster and no warp or impulse drive and no noticeable weapons. The hull is mostly made of Iron. The composition is similar ro the asteroids around it. It appears they mined rock feom the asteroids and attached to the ship hull for camouflage. The dimensions suggest only enough room for 4 people. No scans have returned any information on the interior yet. The second probe should be sending back data in the next minute or so.”

Franks, Sci

Roman nodded. “We proceed with the tractor beam, then. When that data arrives, I want it straight away.” He said to Franks.

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

“Commander, if I may.” Jorik said, turning in his chair to face Roman. “Should we really be heading into the asteroid field? It would be harder to avoid collisions in there. I recommend we stop just short of entering the field. It’d allow us to out-maneuver them if we have to.”

Jorik Thoran, Pilot/Nav

“Keep to the edges. If we have to go in to secure that ship, then do it.” Roman replied, nodding to the navigator. He wanted to know who was on the ship, and why they were here. With the piracy reports, these could very well be their culprits.

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

“Aye sir. Preparing to hold us at the edges of the field, with intercept course laid in at your orders.” Jorik responded, laying in that new course. He also queued up the weapons system engaging, though did not activate it just yet.

Jorik Thoran, Pilot/Nav

NL Morgan, sitting at the security station watched as the lights on her panel began to turn on as the weapons systems began to que. She slapped the comms button for the weapon control room down in deck 2. =o=Hey Richards, whatdaya think your doing? Who told you to que up the phasers and torpedoes?=c=

=o=Signal came in from the bridge ma’am.=c=

Alden didn’t give her any such order and she had not accidentally hit the button. =o=It most certainly did not.=c= Morgan didn’t want to overreact and say someone was onboard the ship. She turned to Alden. “Cmdr. Alden. The weapons activation system was qued. Weapon control says the signal came from the bridge, but I didn’t initiate it. We should have engineering come test the system. We don’t need false fire signals going off.”

NL Tracy Morgan

Roman had noticed the extra movement of Thoran’s arm, and with Morgan’s report, what happened was easy to put together. “Relax, lieutenant, it’s not a system fault.” He turned to their navigator, “Ensign Thoran. I understand the want to be prepared, however the order to que the weapons system must come from myself, per Starfleet regulations. If the ship we are approaching isn’t hostile, we don’t want them to think we are. I want to avoid a fight if we have any way of doing so.” His look to the Ensign was a no-nonsense one, not necessarily angry but very serious.

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Jorik sighed. Not at getting caught, but the reprimand itself. “Aye sir.” He said, reversing his last action to stand down the weapons, though his hand momentarily lingered there, almost as if he wanted to be able to hit it quickly, but he decided against it. “Weapons stood down.”

Jorik Thoran, Pilot/Nav

With their course set within minutes the Sentinel reached the edge of the asteroid field. The asteroid ship was already coming out of the field’s main area of effect entering slightly more open space. The asteroid ship was currently 800km off their forward bow and slowly drifting closer. No signs were evident that it had detected them, further reinforcing that the ship’s ability to detect approaching threats was very limited for the sake of asteroids and such. Closer scans by the probe showed much of what had been said before. The Sentinel’s sensors confirmed this. If there was life on the ship nothing came up. Perhaps it was automated? Either way there was signs of a small compartment in the center of the asteroid ship which was class-m breathable. It was quite small though not much more then a 8x8ft square area with a 6‘5 or so high floor to ceiling. In theory they could beam over if they wanted, or tractor the ship and see what it did.

GM CockRoach