A loud chime permeated the Station Commander’s Office as the comm activated and broke Viran’s concentration from the reports he was reading on his PADD. 

“Sir, we have a ship attempting to undock without authorization,” came an urgent voice echoing through the room.

Before Viran could muster a response, he bolted up out of his chair in excitement. “On my way,” he said, already moving towards the door. The doors swooshed open revealing the station operations center, the skeleton night crew working in the dimly lit command center. Viran looked up at the view screen as he approached the center of the room and the situation table at its center. Immediately he ordered, “Notify the Arimathea and Freedom to go to red alert. Prepare a tractor beam.”

“Admiral, it appears the tractor beams are down. I’m not sure why,” one of the dozen voices in the crowd of ops pierced through the commotion.

“Sir,” another voice spoke up, “The Arimathea and Freedom are both reporting critical failures in their systems. They’re dead in the water.”

Viran’s jaw tightened, but his voice remained steady, “How long before we could scramble some runabouts to intercept?”

“A few minutes, but the ship is undocking now. It looks like a small Ferengi cruiser on lower pylon four.”

As Viran absorbed that information and began processing what to do next, Commander Feld stepped off the turbolift and into Ops, fastening his uniform jacket as he walked to join Viran. “Admiral,” he said, “I’m pretty sure that cruiser is carrying those goods we were worried about.”

“Perfect,” Viran said as he turned from the situation table at the center of the room back to the view screen. “They don’t seem to be in any hurry.” The Ferengi vessel was moving slowly, as if daring the station to stop it.

Commander Feld brushed his hand along the commands on the table trying to bring systems to life. Defeated, he submitted, “You would be too if you disabled our ability to stop them. Phasers are down, too.”

Viran reached back to the situation table and pressed a few commands, activating the comms, “Ferengi vessel, this is Admiral Viran. Return to the station immediately or prepare to be disabled.”

After a few tense moments, the face of a Ferengi appeared on the screen. Viran wasn’t familiar with the face, but it wasn’t Kalva. Undoubtedly, one of his underlings was doing the dirty work and keeping Kalva far from danger. Finally, the Ferengi screeched over the viewscreen, “What do you want Andorian?”

“Return to the station immediately and prepare to have your cargo searched.”

The Ferengi scoffed, “You don’t have the authority to do that.”

“I do, and the second you undocked without clearance you violated at least seven Federation laws. Return immediately or I’ll be forced to stop you and then we’ll take our time searching our cargo,” Viran was ever confident, perhaps unjustifiably so.

Calling the bluff, the Ferengi captain smirked, “According to my sensors, you’re having a little engineering trouble. I’m not sure you could make good on that threat.”

Viran looked at Commander Feld who looked up from the console he was monitoring and whispered, “We have two Arrows heading out right now to intercept.”

The Ferengi captain looked down and then back up at the viewscreen, “You’re going to have to do better than that, Admiral.” With a mocking wave, the Ferengi cut the transmission, his ship continuing to creep along, almost daringly.

As the Ferengi’s face disappeared from the viewscreen it was replaced by the runabouts leaving the station to intercept. Commander Feld added, “The Ferengi ship is charging weapons.”

Viran tapped a few commands into the situation table, activating the station’s comm, “Lieutenant Idrin, have you been listening?”

“We have, Admiral. Captain Ashcroft is awaiting the word,” the female voice came back over the comm.

“The word is given,” the Admiral retorted as he turned himself back to the viewscreen. Within seconds, the viewscreen was nearly filled with the sight of a Federation starship dropping out of warp directly in front of the much smaller Ferengi vessel.

The comm in Ops activated as the Starfleet vessel hailed the Ferengi vessel, “Ferengi vessel, this is Captain Elizabeth Ashcroft of the USS James Hutton. Stand down and prepare to return to Deep Space 2. Fail to comply and we will disable your vessel by force.”

Viran allowed himself a satisfied smile as the Ferengi vessel came to a halt.

Feld turned to him, incredulous. “The Hutton was here the whole time?”

Viran turned to Commander Feld with a smirk on his face, “The Hutton actually arrived much earlier. I just ordered her to hide deeper in the Tormerac system, ready to jump to our location when the time was right.”

“You knew that Kalva would try to move the goods as soon as you tipped him off?” Feld sighed in relief. “Respectfully, Admiral… that was a bold gamble, sir.”

“When dealing with the Ferengi, I find it’s best to remember the 62nd Rule of Acquisition: the riskier the road, the greater the profit. I’m sure Kalva felt the same way about that cargo haul we’re about to confiscate.”