The Fleet intel reports on the strange signals showed them originating across the frontier, moving into the Scutum sector, and returning. The distance to the nearest listening posts was too far for an accurate location. They would have to patrol the region and hope they got lucky.
The first five days were uneventful. They drifted in the sector in close proximity with several large asteroids. The passive sensors were operating at maximum sensitivity. Nothing out of the ordinary appeared.
On the sixth day a K’Rang ship appeared, dropping out of FTL just a few thousand kilometers from the frontier. Chief B focused every sensor on that ship. The new K’Rang-style sensor gave an incredibly high-resolution image of the K’Rang ship. The ship was about twice the length of the Vigilant and half again as wide.
The sensor feed to Kelly’s station showed a smaller ship, about twice the size of a fighter, detach from the larger K’Rang ship and move toward the frontier. It quickly penetrated the frontier and made a run through the center of the Scutum Sector. It was incredibly fast, accelerating quickly to just below FTL speed. Kelly couldn’t figure out how they could get such power out of such a small ship.
“Petty Officer, can you get any kind of a reading on the engine in that thing?”
“The petty officer spoke into his intercom and said, “Sir, Chief Blankenship will be here shortly to answer your question.”
The captain looked over at him and said, “It is fast, isn’t it?”
“Yes, sir. I’m trying to think what they could be using to get speed like that out of such a small vehicle. How restrictive are our orders, sir? Could we capture this thing?”
“I’ll let you read the orders again, but I don’t see that flexibility in them. I read them as we are to observe only, unless GR citizens or property are endangered.”
Kelly rolled his eyes. “Got it, sir, no action unless they shoot first.”
The K’Rang ship continued its high speed run through the Scutum sector. Kelly wondered if it was intentionally showing off, hoping to draw a GR Fleet reaction. Kelly saw the wisdom in following their orders to the letter. It was probably equipped with a self-destruct mechanism and they could gain more information from observing the ship secretly than analyzing a debris cloud.
Chief Blankenship appeared. She said, “Sir, you asked about the engine. As best we can determine it is an extremely efficient reaction engine with an unshielded gravity well FTL drive. It is running at about 98 percent efficiency. They seem to be injecting something into the exhaust stream to give them that much thrust. We’re trying to see what that might be. We are tracking the flight path. If we can run through the flight path later, we might be able to use the sniffers to figure out what it is.”
The captain said, “Good enough, Chief. Once this thing clears out, we’ll do just that.”
Chief B continued, “One other thing, sir, as sharp as that ship is turning, there isn’t a living being on board. Nothing human or K’Rang could survive those G-forces.”
“Thanks, Chief, that's all for now.”
Chief B went back to the sensor section.
The ship turned back toward the Vigilant’s position and slowed down. It began a series of slow, wide right and left turns making a serpentine path across space. As the ship got closer, the turns got tighter and tighter. An itchy feeling came over Kelly.
“Captain, I think it's homing in on us. That thing is going to come right at us if it keeps going as it is.”
“Exec, I think you're right. Helm, prepare to lift us out of here on a course dead away from that ship. If it gets within 10,000 km of us, execute. Gunnery, don’t move the turrets at this time, but prepare to fire on the ship if it gets within 9,000 km.”
Helm and weapons answered aye aye.
Kelly watched the ship continue to close the range and home in on the Vigilant, wondering what signature was giving them away to the drone.
The captain looked up from his terminal and said, “Helm, we’re not waiting. Come to course 175, mark 0 and get us out of here now. Prepare to go to FTL if I call for it. Gunnery, slew your turrets as we move off.”
The helmsman acknowledged the order and pulled the ship quickly out of the asteroid field. The K’Rang ship oriented on the Vigilant and sped up. The distance closed slightly until the Vigilant picked up speed and then the distance remained constant. As the K’Rang ship increased speed, so did the Vigilant. The captain ordered the helmsman to stay outside of 10,000 km distance from the K’Rang ship. It required the helmsman to keep accelerating to stay ahead of the K’Rang ship. Their speed was approaching FTL.
“Helm take us to power 2 and steer us away from the frontier. Exec, let’s see what kind of legs this thing has. If we leave him behind, we’ll slow down some and lead him away from the frontier.”
The helm smoothly accelerated the Vigilant to power 2. The K’Rang ship fell behind. The helmsman slowed the ship down until they were just maintaining the distance from the K’Rang ship. They calculated the top speed of the ship to be power 1.6, or at least that was all it was currently showing.
Kelly said, “Gunnery, keep targeting that ship. It may be faster than it is letting on. Let’s keep our guard up.”
The chase kept up for the better part of that day, with no signs of the K’Rang ship breaking off. The captain called Kelly and the section chiefs into his ready room. “All right, what are we up against? I want to hear your opinions.”
Chief Blankenship spoke first. “When we went into FTL the reaction engine was replaced by a primitive FTL engine. We are seeing a standard FTL signature. Our assessment is that it’s a little faster than it’s showing, but probably less than power 2.”
Chief Miller spoke next. “I agree with Chief Blankenship. The engine signature shows it to be a single coil system. That’s about the only FTL engine that can fit in a ship that size.”
Chief Pennypacker said, “I’ve looked at the sensor readings. The ship is unarmored. It has minor navigational shields. I can cut it up into little ship bits in no time.”
Chief Billings said, “All ship systems are at 100 percent. The bridge crew is ready for any action you choose, Captain.”
Chief Watson was next. “I’ve been looking at the active scans we’ve made on this ship since its been chasing us. I can’t figure out what it is. It doesn’t appear to be a scout drone. If it is, it shouldn’t be chasing us. It should be running the other way. It's not fast enough or armored enough to be a combat drone. I don’t like the way it is chasing us away from the frontier. I recommend we kick this K’Rang piece of crud in the butt and get back to the frontier.”
It was Kelly’s turn. “I agree with Chief Watson on not liking the way it seems to be chasing us away from the frontier. Why don’t we increase speed to high FTL, leave this guy in our dust and use the long-range sensors to see what he does. It might not be a bad idea to move away and circle around behind him. Let’s get behind him, between him and the frontier.”
“I like that idea, Exec. Let’s see what he does when he loses us. Let’s all get back to our stations.”
Orders were given to the helm to increase speed to power 4.
The Vigilant quickly pulled away from the K’Rang ship. As the distance increased to 250,000 km, the K’Rang ship slowed, halted, and turned back toward the frontier. The Vigilant made a wide turn around the K’Rang ship, keeping it at least 300,000 km away.
The captain ordered a max speed run back to the Scutum sector. In two hours they were at the fringes of sensor range of the sector. They slowed to sub-FTL and scanned ahead for any anomalies. The K’Rang ship that had launched the probe had moved away from the frontier, but was still in range of the Vigilant’s sensors. The Vigilant moved in slowly.