Voyager Trek: USS Enterprise - The Cage Taker

Intro
''On stardate 7004.3, a ship of political dissidents was bound for the Romulan Neutral Zone. Aboard were several AWOL Starfleet officers and a group of dissident Federation representatives determined to meet with Romulan Unifications.

Their vessel, the Surak'', has been pursued into the Bassen Rift by Romulan pursuers.

Alarms starting blaring in the crowded control area of the VSS Surak. The vessel shook under the repeated battery of Romulan disruptor fire from a large, blue-winged D-7 cruiser-hawk spinning down deeper into the increasingly chaotic Bassen Rift.

"Check the circuit," Spock said over the din, laboriously trying to pilot the vessel out of the energized clouds. "I said more power to the screens, Anne."

The rag tag crew of political protestors were dodging the disruptors of a Romulan cruiser that had been tipped off to their entry of the Neutral Zone, in what Spock mused had been an otherwise peaceful mission, despite his own standing in the Federation having been put in severe danger.

"I used the power to charge the phasers!" The dark-haired young woman was tying to operate the power board and the weapons board at once in the starboard access seats, with limited success. "We need to fight them off!"

Spock overrode some of her system modifications by gunning the impulse throttle, momentarily draining some of the batteries, and giving the ship added speed in a graceful roll under an ion streamer as Surak jumped to warp.

"If we fire those weapons, our entire mission will be invalidated. Our guns must remain under diplomatic seal to prove our point."

The warp pulse caused a lag in systems response, the aft phasers bled charge until the ships power normalized. Anne Darvin slapped her board in frustration.

"Mister Spock!" Janice Rand called from the aft station, "receiving a signal from a small Romulan fightercraft moving away from the cruisers."

The tiny bird-like shuttle, with two disruptor-tipped wings glowing with active weapons charge, swam towards them through the green clouds.

"Onscreen"

The female Romulan commander, whose name was known only to Spock, appeared on the cockpit viewer.

"It's no use Spock. You'll be coming to Romulus as my guest, this time."

Spock considered this a moment, and continued to work on the warp calcultions. His eyebrow rose as he checked the subspace interferometry.

"Perhaps not. Romulan cruiser, stand by -- incoming space warp"

The Commander signaled her subordinates. "Don't listen to him Tal! Continue pursuit!"

It was the last signal received on that vessel, it broke into three pieces as a spinning starburst of deadly energy stretched space into new dimensions around the space cloud.

A complex web of energy filagrees were swirling into a cage-shaped formation around all ships in the area. Some vessels vented under the pressure and impacts. Energy levels rose...

Suddenly, the Bassen Rift was empty.

=The Cage Taker=

Act I
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