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Star Trek Chapter 03
Justin knew that it was one thing to have a ship with a cloaking device and it's quite another to use it. Smuggling is dangerous-getting caught by the Federation was one of the less problematic consequences if things went wrong. The Feds would just confiscate your ship and revoke your license-leaving you on some out of the way rock to earn a living as best you can. The Romulians would put on a show trial and then send you for "rehabilitation," the Klingons would simply blast you out of the sky and the Cardassians would torture you in front of a live studio audience. Then there was the criminal element that you were dealing with.
Still, as a freelance trader, it was not unusual for Justin to be offered business that was across the line of legal-at least in some systems. What did surprise him was how quickly it happened.
Upon receiving exit clearance, Justin registered his availability with the local trade cooperative and soon was contacted by a client needing a rapid shipment of agricultural products to Caliese, a quick hop of only 20 parsecs-two days at the most. The customs declarations were in order and, six hours later, Cooper's Revenge jumped into warp carrying two environment controlled containers filled with highly perishable fruit.
Fruit delivered, Carter was loading three containers of some sort of fish when a Ferengi approached.
"I understand you have a cargo for Sirus, a cargo of Caliesean octopus."
"Yes," Carter responded as he watched an overhead crane move the third container into the locked position on the 'top' of his ship.
"But your load is somewhat shy of your certified mass, it must not be paying well."
"It'll cover costs," Justin replied, looking down at the big eared creature.
"I also have a small cargo for Sirus. It may fill out your load some."
"Sure," Justin was now interested, "but I have a time limit-this cargo is perishable."
"Oh, I can load within the hour."
The cargo was not technically illegal. Some things are banned on some worlds but not on others. Sometimes it was convenient to transit through one system's space while traveling to another and, if you were just passing through, was it really illegal? The Comoni were religious fanatics and would not take kindly to the transport of Cygnan Herb through their space, even if it was (sort of) legal where it was going. Anyway, it'd give Justin a good chance to test the cloaking device against the rather unsophisticated sensors of the Comoni.
Once in warp, and out of Caliesian space, Justin tested the cloak. The deflector array continued to work and Revenge didn't explode. Still, his fuel usage jumped 20%, so after an hour he shut it off.
Two days later, as he approached the Comoni Nav beacon, he engaged the cloak. Normally, once within 100G a.u., he'd be hailed for ID, but the hail never came. He passed within 38K a.u. of Comoni 4, the inhabited planet, and wasn't noticed. He sped out of the system at warp 2, pleased that the cloak worked. He had passed the 200G mark and was about to drop the cloak when the proximity alarm sounded.
Then came the hale: "Freighter Cooper's Revenge, this is the Federation Star Ship Enterprise. You are ordered to drop your cloak and stop. Prepare to be boarded."
At the same time the ECM went crazy due to a phaser lock.
"Jesus Fuck!" Justin muttered-it had been too quick for the shock to set in yet. Without thinking he did as commanded, first switching off the cloaking device and then shutting down the warp drive.
The stars in the viewer which had appeared as rainbow colored streaks suddenly became points, then his old ship came into view and circled around in front of Revenge. Ten seconds later the lights on Revenge's control deck seemed to shimmer and two ghostly forms began to appear near the aft bulkhead. Two Starfleet MPs, both sergeants, appeared.
"Justin Cooper?" the smaller one said, a young blond woman.
"Yes," Justin said, spinning around in his chair, sitting in a relaxed posture and forcing a bored expression on his face.
"You are under arrest..."
The other MP hit him in the face with the butt of his gun, he remembered a flash of light, then darkness.
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