Take the slow boat to Risa
The Murgatroid took its own sweet time getting to Risa. That made them easy to track. According to Starfleet's data, the Defiant class puts out a minimal ion trail and can operate at extremely high warp. Nevertheless, the trip there put no strain on the Revenge's engines and they made no efforts to mask their trail. They also did not take a direct route, but communiques from Starfleet indicated they were to be searching for Voyager and Janeway along the way. It took me a while to search through recent records to discover the reasoning behind this, but I did sort it out of a morass of unorganized reports...some of which were written in crayon and scanned as image files. What kind of crew am I following???
They arrived at Risa more than a week ago. I could tell from sensor readings that they were beaming down much of their crew, probably for shore leave. *shrugs* After a few days of recording not very interesting transmissions from them, I decided to head down myself. Leaving the Revenge in orbit, I beamed myself down so that the ship could continue monitoring the Murgatroid.
I downloaded information about the planet from the Risa Tourist Board. Unlike Risa in my universe, this is not one entire planet of seedy prostitution, polluted and wretched. The skies are clear...the people are friendly...it made my skin crawl. There was just something wrong about seeing that much pleasantness in one place. I took an antihistamine and pushed through the pain.
+I ditched my normal Empire uniform on the ship for what passed to be comfortable 'native' clothing, something that the Federation database insisted on calling a 'Hawaiian' shirt and 'baggies'. I think the database is doing something to the computer on the Revenge, because it insisted that I also wear some eye protection (even though Risa's star is not overly bright, unless looked at directly) called 'Ray-Ban Wayfarers'. After a few minutes, I gave up the argument and put them on. Even though they contained no psi-active components, I still had the feeling when wearing them that I was on a mission. Huh.
I homed in on the various areas of clusters of Murgatroid combadges. The very first group I saw, I received a shock. My counterpart was there! He too was dressed casual, and enjoying a drink with some of his crew. I got out of there quickly and searched for the next group. He was there as well! I skedaddled once again, and found another group quite by accident. This time, they were walking down the street in some sort of parade (the sign they were carrying said "Mardi Gras", but I don't speak Risaan, so I don't know what it meant) and my doppleganger in the parade spotted me! Despite my training, I was frozen for a moment...and he smiled and waved at me! I raised my hand and waved back weakly...and then someone shoved a drink in my waving hand. After quickly scanning it for poison, I downed it...I desperately needed it.
After that, I beamed back up to the ship. I don't know why the Mib Khan of this universe didn't see anything odd about me being in that crowd, but I'm not going to question my good fortune. I took off my odd Risaan garb and settled back in for more surveillance.
Passive scans of the Murgatroid didn't indicate much...but at one point, an EVA team came out to perform some repairs. Conveniently, they were on an open com frequency and mentioned that Storvik was still on board and pulling lots of shifts. Excellent. My plans were working.
At that point, the computer on the Revenge indicated an unusual radiation leakage from the Murgatroid. The computer had detected kaon particles on a standard Empire frequency! This meant that the probability of the Storvik on the Murgatroid being from our universe went from less than 5% to greater than 90%! He must have employed the old 'temporal loop' trick to keep someone out of his hair while he did something underhanded. I quickly referenced the Starfleet database for that technique, but the search terms of 'kaons' and 'temporal loops' yielded only theoretical studies. They had studied kaons (unusual particles that only travel backwards in time) but had not yet found any practical uses for them, the fools. Right as I finished my search, the Murgatroid's deflector dish let off a burst of chroniton particles (a useful byproduct of kaon production) and their transporter activated again, for the first time in days.
The transporter beam trace led to an asteroid, of all things. The asteroid was very difficult to spot with sensors, as it was rich in sensor-dampening material. It then began to move under impulse power, out of the Risaan system! I risked a full power scan of the Murgatroid, and noted no Vulcan lifesigns. This 'asteroid' must be a ship, and Storvik escaping on it! I quickly set course to follow the ship's ion trail, and I hope to be able to keep up with it. This should prove fascinating.
They arrived at Risa more than a week ago. I could tell from sensor readings that they were beaming down much of their crew, probably for shore leave. *shrugs* After a few days of recording not very interesting transmissions from them, I decided to head down myself. Leaving the Revenge in orbit, I beamed myself down so that the ship could continue monitoring the Murgatroid.
I downloaded information about the planet from the Risa Tourist Board. Unlike Risa in my universe, this is not one entire planet of seedy prostitution, polluted and wretched. The skies are clear...the people are friendly...it made my skin crawl. There was just something wrong about seeing that much pleasantness in one place. I took an antihistamine and pushed through the pain.
+I ditched my normal Empire uniform on the ship for what passed to be comfortable 'native' clothing, something that the Federation database insisted on calling a 'Hawaiian' shirt and 'baggies'. I think the database is doing something to the computer on the Revenge, because it insisted that I also wear some eye protection (even though Risa's star is not overly bright, unless looked at directly) called 'Ray-Ban Wayfarers'. After a few minutes, I gave up the argument and put them on. Even though they contained no psi-active components, I still had the feeling when wearing them that I was on a mission. Huh.
I homed in on the various areas of clusters of Murgatroid combadges. The very first group I saw, I received a shock. My counterpart was there! He too was dressed casual, and enjoying a drink with some of his crew. I got out of there quickly and searched for the next group. He was there as well! I skedaddled once again, and found another group quite by accident. This time, they were walking down the street in some sort of parade (the sign they were carrying said "Mardi Gras", but I don't speak Risaan, so I don't know what it meant) and my doppleganger in the parade spotted me! Despite my training, I was frozen for a moment...and he smiled and waved at me! I raised my hand and waved back weakly...and then someone shoved a drink in my waving hand. After quickly scanning it for poison, I downed it...I desperately needed it.
After that, I beamed back up to the ship. I don't know why the Mib Khan of this universe didn't see anything odd about me being in that crowd, but I'm not going to question my good fortune. I took off my odd Risaan garb and settled back in for more surveillance.
Passive scans of the Murgatroid didn't indicate much...but at one point, an EVA team came out to perform some repairs. Conveniently, they were on an open com frequency and mentioned that Storvik was still on board and pulling lots of shifts. Excellent. My plans were working.
At that point, the computer on the Revenge indicated an unusual radiation leakage from the Murgatroid. The computer had detected kaon particles on a standard Empire frequency! This meant that the probability of the Storvik on the Murgatroid being from our universe went from less than 5% to greater than 90%! He must have employed the old 'temporal loop' trick to keep someone out of his hair while he did something underhanded. I quickly referenced the Starfleet database for that technique, but the search terms of 'kaons' and 'temporal loops' yielded only theoretical studies. They had studied kaons (unusual particles that only travel backwards in time) but had not yet found any practical uses for them, the fools. Right as I finished my search, the Murgatroid's deflector dish let off a burst of chroniton particles (a useful byproduct of kaon production) and their transporter activated again, for the first time in days.
The transporter beam trace led to an asteroid, of all things. The asteroid was very difficult to spot with sensors, as it was rich in sensor-dampening material. It then began to move under impulse power, out of the Risaan system! I risked a full power scan of the Murgatroid, and noted no Vulcan lifesigns. This 'asteroid' must be a ship, and Storvik escaping on it! I quickly set course to follow the ship's ion trail, and I hope to be able to keep up with it. This should prove fascinating.