SEASON 3: EPISODE 04

TO DELIGHT IN THE INHUMAN WORD: Part Nineteen

  “Colonel, we have another ship dropped out of warp,” reported Lieutenant Misi.

  “Dominion?” asked Tiki.

  “No, Starfleet.  It’s the USS Fury.”

  Tiki sat in the captain’s chair.  Misi was manning the tactical station and they had pulled Ensign Cole out of sickbay to man flight control, but he had command of the ship.  While talking to Captain Masters it did not take Tiki to realise that Major Daley was not the only injured person with the captain.  Captain Masters had described his injuries as a ‘few cuts of bruises’ but Tiki still ordered the captain to stay put until a medical team from sickbay could be dispatched to check on him and Daley.  The captain had reluctantly agreed which also told Tiki that Masters had more than just a few scratches and bruises.

  As for other senior staff and bridge crew, at the moment medical and engineering personnel were the priority for revival, which meant the three personnel on the bridge at the moment had to handle the situation from the bridge.

  Tiki clapped his hands.  “I knew old Admiral Douglas wouldn’t let us just disappear!”

  “They’re hailing us.”

  “To the USS Swiftfire and unidentified Centaur, this is the USS Fury.  You are both to power down your vessels and surrender.  You will be boarded.  Any other action will be considered hostile and I will open up with all I have,” ordered Captain Werfel.

  “Contact the Fury and tell them...”

  “I can’t,” said Misi.  “The shields are stopping any signals from penetrating.”

  Tiki had forgotten about that issue.  “Get me Stark,” he ordered.  “Stark, we need to do something about the shields blocking our communications.”

  “Colonel, this is Celcho here.”

  “Good to hear you’re up and about,” said Tiki.

  “Thank you.  I’ve had a quick look at the setup the Jem’Hadar used.  It is going to take at least ten minutes to remodulate the communication system to sync back up with the shields.”

  “I don’t think we have that long,” said Misi.  “Shield strength is low.”

  As if to reinforce the lieutenant’s point the ship shook as it reached another hit.

  “That’s not good,” grumbled Tiki.  “The faster the better, Celcho.”

  “I’ll do what I can, colonel,” responded Celcho.

  “The Fury’s launching her fighters,” said Cole.

  Tiki watched as squadrons of fighters swarmed out of the Fury like angry bees from a hive.  They screamed towards the Swiftfire and the Centaur.  The situation was getting more and more dangerous.

  “The fighters seem to be targeting the Armidale, the Fury is coming for us,” said Misi.  “Her weapons are fully powered and she’s ready to rumble.”

  “If our shields fail we’ll at least be able to contact the Fury,” said Cole.

  “Then the Armidale will tear our hull apart,” said Misi.

  “So we can’t fire, manoeuvre or communicate,” stated Cole.  “What the hell do we do?”

  “Do we need all the shields down to send a transmission?” asked Tiki.

  “What are you getting at?” asked Misi.

  “If we shut off just the shield quadrant facing the Fury would a transmission we send reach the Fury?”

  Misi nodded.  “It would still expose the hull.”

  “We could time it for when the Armidale is away from our unshielded section,” said Tiki.

  “And hope the Fury doesn’t take advantage of our exposure,” said Cole.

  “Positive thoughts, ensign,” said Tiki.  “This is our best shot of avoiding the Fury blasting us to pieces.  Get to it lieutenant.”

  Misi quickly readied the ship.  Tiki watched as the Armidale looped around the Swiftfire, its phasers continuously bombarding the ship’s shields.  The Armidale  pulled away from the Swiftfire as it turned to make another pass.

  “Dropping shields and hailing the Fury,” reported Misi.

  Tiki took a deep breath.  “Fury, this is Colonel Tiki.  We have taken back the Swiftfire do not fire on us.”

  The bridge went silent as they waited for a reply.

  “Tiki this is Captain Werfel, glad to hear your voice.  We’re about to launch a boarding action against your ship.  How many hostiles do you have running about your ship?”

  “We think we have them all, captain.”

  “Have any of your crew been abducted from the ship?”

  Tiki hesitated.  “I don’t know.  We haven’t done a head count yet.”

  “That means the Centaur might have some.  We’ll do our best to disable rather than destroy her.  Why are you in command, colonel?  Where is Captain Masters?”

“The captain is...”

  The ship shook violently causing Tiki to pause.

  “The Armidale has fired through our exposed section.  They’ve done some damage to the shield generators.  Power to the shields is fluctuating,” reported Misi.  “I’ve reengaged the quadrant we disabled to limit any more damage.”

  “Tell Celcho we can’t afford to lose the shields,” ordered Tiki.

  “It’s too late.  The shield grid is destabilising.”  There was another violent tremor through the shit.  “Another impact on the hull.  Rerouting power to structural integrity, it should make our hull a bit tougher.”

  “Colonel, the Armidale will have a clear shot at the bridge in three seconds,” reported Cole.

  There was not enough time for them to evacuate the bridge.  If the Armidale decided to target the bridge of the Swiftfire they would all be dead very quickly.  Tiki watched the viewscreen as the Armidale manoeuvred.  The ship pointed directly towards him on the screen and a number of torpedoes left its launchers.  Tiki prepared himself for death as the shimmering red orbs grew larger on the viewscreen.

  From left of the screen a series of flashes appeared and an almighty explosion eclipsed the screen.  Tiki only just managed to remain in the captain’s chair as the shockwave crashed into the Swiftfire.  As the explosion dissipated several Peregrine attack fighters streaked across the screen.  There were more flashes as phaser fire lit up space as numerous fighters fell upon the Armidale.

  A much larger and more powerful phaser beam crossed the screen and impacted with the Armidale’s shields.  The leading edge of an Akira class heavy cruiser crossed into view imposing itself between the Swiftfire and the Armidale.

  There was the sound of transporters on the bridge.  Tiki turned to see two beings in black combat armour appear.  Their weapons swept the bridge but they did not fire.

  One lowered his rifle.  “Colonel Tiki?” he asked.

  “Yes,” responded Tiki.

  “We’re SAS from the Fury.  Captain Winters,” identified the speaker.  “We were worried something happened to you when your transmission was cut off from the Fury.”

  “The shields were interfering with communications,” explained Tiki.  “How many of you are there?”

  “A troop, spread out securing areas of this ship.  Where is Captain Masters?”

  “He’s in his quarters.”

  Captain Winters tapped his communicator and sent an order to his men to secure Captain Masters’ quarters.

  “The Fury has extended her shields around us,” said Misi.  “She’s protecting us now.”

  “How disabled is this ship, colonel?” asked Winters after he finishing giving out orders to his troops.

  “Not sure about warp capability, we did a number on the nacelle pylons,” said Tiki.  “Other than that it seems the enemy were able to lock out some of the main computer and we’re still trying to get around that.”

  “Well, we’ll have to rely on the Fury then.”

  Benton fired a pair of torpedoes at the Centaur and watched as they impacted against the cruiser’s shields.  Despite the ship’s damaged appearance its shields were still strong.  She thumbed the trigger for her pulse phasers and strafed its shields.  The Centaur did not pay them much attention, instead focusing on trying to break through the Fury’s shields.

  The Fury had taken position close to the Swiftfire to extend its shields around the other ship.  This also meant the Fury was hampered in terms of manoeuvrability.  The Centaur was able to manoeuvre so that Swiftfire blocked the Fury’s weapons from getting a clear lock on the ship.  This allowed the Centaur to bombard the Fury’s shields without the fear of serious reprisal from the Fury.  The fighters harassed the Centaur to keep the pressure on the Centaur and three squadrons should have been more than enough to deal with a Centaur this particular vessel sporting much more powerful shields than it should have.

  She lined up with the Centaur.  One of its phasers lashed out at her flight, striking Overcome Four.  Benton checked her sensors and was glad to see his shields had held.  The Centaur had rarely fired at them.  The damage on the ship’s hull meant it was missing some of its phaser, creating some safer avenues to attack from but its surprising hardy shields seemed to be the primary reason why the Centaur was largely ignoring them.

  She launched another pair of torpedoes at the Centaur.  They streaked into the target’s shields.  She noticed the ship’s shields start to flicker; they were finally starting to break through the Centaur’s shields.  Benton quickly thumbed the fire control and peppered the failing shields with her fighter’s pulse phasers.  The Centaur’s shields failed and her phaser fire struck the hull.  Numerous phasers and several torpedoes tore into the Centaur’s hull.

  Benton took her flight close to the ship’s hull and switched to micro-torpedoes.  She launched a volley of the smaller projectiles.  At only thirteen centimetres long they were tiny compared to a photon torpedo but they could still do damage to an unshielded target.  Targeting one of the ship’s phasers Benton launched a spread of torpedoes, she saw three tear into the weapon system before the others impacted against the renewed shields of the Centaur.

  She pulled her flight up and away from the Centaur.  With at least a partial shield failure that meant the fighters were starting to gain the upper hand against the enemy vessel.  If one of the fighters could get a run against the shield generators the next time the shields went down they could strip the Centaur of its shields for the rest of the engagement. 

  Before Benton could loop back around for another pass her sensors noted a series of new contacts entering the area.  As the computer identified the contacts she swore.  It was a large wing of Jem’Hadar attack ships, fifteen vessels in all.  That was a force that was more than the Fury, tied to the Swiftfire was it was, and her fighter squadrons could handle.

  “Golden Hearts and Howlers squadrons form up and move to engage the new Jem’Hadar vessels,” came the orders from Captain Werfel.

  Benton pulled her flight away from the Centaur.  Benton kept an eye on the Centaur as she formed up with the rest of the squadron.  To her surprise the Centaur did not press its attack; it instead broke away from the Fury and Swiftfire.

  “She running!” said Benton over the squadron communications channel.  “The Centaur is running!  I’m taking my flight after her.”

  Benton rolled her fighter around and headed back towards the Centaur.

  ”Wing Commander Benton, where the hell are you going?” called the squadron leader of the Golden Hearts.

  “We’re going after that Centaur.  If it gets away we might lose some of my people.  We’re still close enough that we might be able to take out her engines.”

  “You’re lucky you’re only under my command temporarily, wing commander.  Good hunting.”

  Benton split her flight into pairs and vectored towards the Centaur.  She was low on torpedoes but had plenty of micro-torpedoes left.  The third squadron from the Fury, Hardball squadron, was still attacking the Centaur.  The Centaur’s shields failed again and the fighters peppered the hull

  “Come on, take out her engines!” she muttered.

  The Centaur was heading way but Benton’s flight was catching up, but not fast enough.  She willed that the other fighters would do the job but the Centaur suddenly shot forward and disappeared as it went to warp speed.  She cursed and hoped that the Centaur had not taken any of the crew with it.

  “Back around,” she ordered.  Benton felt her anger increase.  She did not know why the Centaur had run but it had escaped their clutches, now someone had to pay for that.  “Let’s give these Jem’Hadar some pain.”

  “The Centaur’s shields have failed,” reported Lieutenant Eboda.

  Werfel nodded to acknowledge the report.  His ship had not been able to do much in the small engagement.  The need to protect the disabled Swiftfire had seriously hampered their abilities to engage the Centaur that Colonel Tiki had identify as the USS Armidale, which was one of the ships that had been on the list he had compiled earlier.  The Armidale had battered the Fury’s shields but thanks to the ship’s fighter squadrons Werfel had been confident that they would have defeated the enemy ship.  However, the arrival of fifteen Jem’Hadar attack ships was a different matter.

  “Maybe we should evacuate the Swiftfire,” suggested Commander Zhou.

  It was a sensible suggestion.  They were vastly outnumbered and if they evacuated the Swiftfire they could at least then run.  The problem was that it would take time to evacuate the other vessel, probably more time than they had.

  “The Armidale has gone to warp.”

  Werfel did not understand why the Armidale would run now.  It had reinforcements and had the Fury and Swiftfire at a significant disadvantage.  Whatever the reason for it leaving the battle Werfel was glad it did, it gave them higher odds of surviving the battle.

  “Target the enemy formation,” he ordered.

  Fortunately the Jem’Hadar had not arrived on the opposite side of the Swiftfire to the Fury, so they did not have the waste much time getting the Fury into a position to attack the enemy ships.

  “Targets locked,” reported the tactical officer.

  “I want a three torpedo spread from each of the forward launchers.  Torpedoes set to proximity detonation,” Werfel ordered.  “Tell the fighters to keep clear.”

  The Fury had seven forward facing launchers, which meant a total of twenty-one torpedoes would be in their initial salvo.  Given the closure rate between the two forces Werfel calculated that he would only get one major salvo before the Jem’Hadar made their first pass, after that they would split up and they would have to deal with multiple attackers from multiple vectors.

  “Torpedoes ready,” relayed Eboda.

  “Fire.”

  The bank of four launchers in the rear pod spat out twelve torpedoes like an angry viper.  The whitish-blue orbs of quantum torpedoes flashed over the bridge and towards the Jem’Hadar.  From the saucer’s underside nine more torpedoes joined them, a mix of quantum and photon torpedoes.

  Werfel watched the viewscreen as the torpedoes quickly shrank as they sped away from the Fury.  They virtually disappeared from view when the starscape erupted into a cacophony of rapidly expanding spheres of destruction.

  “Four ships destroyed,” reported Eboda.

  Werfel was satisfied with that figure, though he would have been happier with more.

  “Open fire with the phasers,” he ordered.

  Lines of golden light sliced through the blackness of space and stabbed into the distance.  The reply was almost instantaneous as purple coloured lines of light returned.  It would have probably been a beautiful display of lights if they were not so deadly.

  The Fury shook under the impact of the enemy fire.  The Fury managed to destroy another attack ship before the formation peeled around the Fury and Swiftfire.  Now the battle was going to get interesting.

  “Tell the fighters they are free to engage.  Divert as much power to shields and weapons as you can.  Reorient the ship to reengage the enemy.”

  The problem now would be that the Jem’Hadar would split up and hit the Fury from multiple angles.  They would not be able to engage all the attack ships, leaving some free to pummel their shields without reprisal.  Given the number of hostiles Werfel knew his shields would not hold for long before the enemy would start ripping apart the hull of the Fury and the stranded Swiftfire.

  The Fury glided around the Swiftfire as it moved to a better position to engage the Jem’Hadar attack ships.  The ship’s phasers thumped as they lashed out at the attack ships.  The Fury could not be reckless with its fire with three squadrons of attack fighters zipping around after the attack ships as well.  Phased polaron beams hammered the Fury’s shields in response.  Another attack ship was destroyed, this time by the attack fighters.

  “Shields down to under twenty percent,” reported Eboda.  “Two or three more passes and we’ll lose our shields.”

  Werfel weighed his options.  “Contact the Swiftfire.  Tell them to prepare for a mass beam out.”

  After coming so far to chase down the Swiftfire it felt to Werfel like a failure on their part to abandon the ship.  However, he had a responsibility to his ship and crew not to get them killed.  If came down to a choice between his ship and the Swiftfire the choice was simple – the Fury came first each and every time.  He just hoped they could evacuate the Swiftfire before the Fury’s shields gave in.

  “Sir, we have an incoming hail.”

  Werfel signalled for them to accept the hail.

  “Watch your fire, Fury, friendlies incoming,” said an unfamiliar voice.

  Captain Werfel was expecting for it to be from the Swiftfire.  He glanced over to his tactical officer questioningly.

  Eboda was quick to respond.  “I have twenty-three new contacts approaching fast.  Warp signatures indicate...they’re all Federation!”

  Werfel thumped the arm of his chair.  “The cavalry’s here!  Signal for everyone to watch their fire.  Put our ships on screen,” he ordered.

  The viewscreen showed empty space for a few seconds before seemingly out of nowhere several starships appeared an entire Federation tactical wing.  The smaller and faster ships shot forward of the larger and slower to accelerate vessels.  The powerful and deadly Starfleet force closed on the Fury and Swiftfire and phaser blasts flowed around the two Akira class vessels as if to create a protective fence around the ships.

  “I’m getting an id on the force; it’s the 73rd Tactical Wing, Tenth Fleet,” reported Haddad.

  “Divert weapon power to the shields,” ordered Werfel.  “Our weapons won’t decide this but we can still be stripped of our shields and lose it all.  We came for the Swiftfire and we’ll leave with the Swiftfire,” he said triumphantly.

  The inclusion of the 73rd Tactical Wing decided the battle.  The Starfleet reinforcements hunted down and destroyed the remaining attack ships without suffering a loss.  Before the explosion of the last enemy ship had faded the Fury was hailed by the tactical wing.

  “We are being hailed by the USS Eleemosynary,” reported Haddad.

  Werfel ordered for the hail to be put on the viewscreen.  A humanoid Starfleet admiral appeared.  Werfel was surprised to see who it was; it was the commander of the Tenth Fleet.  “Captain, we detected the battle here and thought we’d stop by,” said the admiral.

  “I...We appreciate the assistance, Admiral Hastur.  I must confess I am surprised to see you this far from your fleet’s position.  Did Rear Admiral Douglas send for you?”

  Hastur shook his head.  “No, I am out here in relation to the theft of the Swiftfire.  After Admiral Douglas informed me of the Klingons venturing out here and the loss of one of her ships I decided to bring in some of my forces in case the Dominion was about to make a thrust through this area.”

  “How did you find us?” asked Werfel.

  “We picked up a large explosion in an area of space that was meant to be empty.  We knew something was going on out here, so we came to check it out.  It’s a good thing we did, captain.”

  Werfel grinned widely.  “Very good I’d say, admiral.”

  Hastur smiled back.  The arrival of the admiral’s tactical wing was extremely fortunate for both the Fury and the Swiftfire.  The smile soon faded and a serious look returned to the admiral’s face.  “I need to know your status, captain.”

  Werfel glanced down to his arm rest to access the last report on the Swiftfire.  The SAS troop he had deployed to the ship were providing nearly contact status updates on the Swiftfire and its crew.

  “As you can see the Swiftfire is heavily damaged.  The crew have control of the ship back but according to the last report I got from them they are not yet sure how long until we can get her underway again.”

  “Wasn’t there another Starfleet vessel involved?  A Centaur?” asked the admiral.

  Werfel nodded.  “She fled the scene when the Jem’Hadar attack wing arrived.”  Hastur gave Werfel a questioning look.  “We’re not exactly sure why either,” he admitted.

  Hastur looked off screen and gave orders to one of his crew.  “We’re not detecting another ship anywhere near here.  With that in mind I’m going to forego going after that ship to set up a defensive perimeter around your vessels to discourage any further predation by the Dominion.  Searching for a ship that we have no idea where it is would take too many of my ships away.  That said I do not want to hang around here, captain.”

  “I appreciate that, admiral,” thanked Werfel.  “I’ll organise with the Swiftfire to get her warp drive back online.”

  Hastur was about to say something but was distracted by someone off screen.  Hastur looked off screen and nodded to whoever had spoken before turning back to address Werfel.  “We also picked up something that I’m confident that the Swiftfire lost.”

  The viewscreen image changed to show an Excelsior class vessel drop out of warp.  Behind it the vessel towed a battered starship nacelle.  Werfel realised it had to be the one the Swiftfire was missing, unless ships were suddenly shedding nacelles.

  The image switched back to Admiral Hastur.  “You or whoever is in command of the Swiftfire can arrange with Captain Galloway of the Dallas for the nacelle.  You should be able to strap it on temporally.  If you require any additional technical expertise to help get the Swiftfire running just contact me, Admiral Hastur out.”

  Hastur disappeared from the viewscreen as the admiral closed the channel.

  “Contact the Swiftfire,” ordered Werfel.  “Let’s get her repairs started immediately.”

  Werfel was soon back in contact with the Swiftfire.  Colonel Tiki had been replaced as temporary commanding officer by the ship’s second officer, Lieutenant Commander Whitechapel.  Captain Masters was getting treatment for injuries he sustained and the XO, Commander Core was undergoing surgery at that time.  Whitechapel reported that a head count had revealed that no one had been taken from the Swiftfire, which was good news given the Centaur had escaped.  She also explained how the ship had been captured, which was second hand information given Whitechapel had been unconscious for the entire event save for the final two or three minutes of the engagement.

  Werfel offered to leave his SAS troop on board until the rest of the crew of the Swiftfire were up and running.  He also offered engineering teams to assist the Swiftfire with its repairs and medical teams to support the ones on the Swiftfire.  Whitechapel had accepted and also asked for the Fury to provide its work bees to help glue the missing nacelle back into place, which Werfel agreed to.  Soon the field repairs to the Swiftfire were completely underway.

  Once they were done communicating with the Swiftfire the viewscreen switched to show the lead ship of the task force, the USS Eleemosynary.

  “Nice ship,” stated Werfel.  There was little he could do from this point other than wait, it was up to the engineers to get things moving.  “I don’t recognise it.  It looks like a beefed up Ambassador class.”

  “It’s a new design, the Emissary class,” said Commander Zhou, identifying the design.  “It’s based on the Ambassador design.  The prototype was involved in the Battle of Guyra.”

  Zhou had served in the battle on the USS Redoubtable, his previous assignment.  From what Werfel had gathered from Zhou the Redoubtable had been disabled and the crew were forced to abandon and scuttle the ship when the Federation forces were forced to withdraw from the battle. 

  “So how did the Emissary do?” Werfel asked.

  “Actually the prototype was the USS Ambassador,” corrected Zhou.  “From what I know of the class at that point the class was going by Ambassador-B class.  I guess they came up with a more permanent name after Guyra and decided to put the class into production.  She’s a powerful ship, a heavy explorer.  As for the USS Ambassador, it did not survive the battle.  It was listed as lost afterwards, not sure of the particulars.”

  Losing the prototype before the class was in production was not something that Werfel would have considered favourable to getting the ship into full production.  Obviously despite this it had proved its worth.

  “She must have done well to have more built.  Plus admirals don’t pick lemons for their flagships.”

  “Not the smart ones,” countered Zhou with a playful smile.   “You know what they say; you lose 20 IQ points as soon as they put a box around your pips.”

  Werfel laughed.  It felt good to relax a bit; they had all been uptight with the hunt for the Swiftfire.  “Be that as it may, but today I’ll be raising a toast to Admiral Hastur and his impeccable timing.”