Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek Enterprise, and I don't own the character of Travis Mayweather. I hope you enjoy this beginning to a tale of mystery and terror.
Commander Travis Mayweather clutched his console as the ship rocked around him, throwing screaming crewmen to the floor. Captain Stein, master of the USS Challenger, swivelled about in his chair to face the tactical station, where Ensign Mallard was frantically attempting to bring the polarized hull plating online.
"DAMAGE REPORT!!" yelled the captain, squinting through the smoke and sparks raining down from the damaged wiring above.
"Hull plating is GONE!" shouted Mallard, punching up display after display on his console. We've lost all but one photon tube, and there's a containment breach in the warp core! Chief T'van is shutting down warp power as I speak!"
"Damn." Stein hissed, turning back to the viewscreen. "Mr Mayweather, I don't suppose you encountered anything like this in your illustrious career on board the Enterprise?"
Mayweather gritted his teeth. He had had just about enough of the captain and his superior attitude. "Well, Captain, maybe your career on the Columbia was-"
"ENOUGH!" They both turned to the attractive young Ensign manning the communications board. "For god's sake! You're supposed to be commanding officer and first officer, so act like it!"
Ensign Troy snapped at her superior officers, then added a hasty "Sirs."
Before anyone else could speak, the bridge was rocked by another almighty explosion. Mayweather pitched forward, slamming his forehead against his console, resulting in a nasty gash. "What the hell are they hitting us with?" he spat through broken teeth at Mallard.
"Unable to say, sir." the young security chief replied. "This is a totally different configuration to anything the federation has ever encountered."
"Troy!" Stein shouted. "You have to get though to them! For god's sake, find out what they want!"
"I can't, sir! They're just blocking every signal-" The young woman was thrown over her console as another of the strange energy pulses tore right through the hull as if it were no more than tissue paper. To Mayweather, the floor seemed to erupt, the metal squealing as it shredded, leaving a huge hole near the back of the bridge, filled with torn circuitry. They couldn't stay here for much longer arguing amongst themselves, thought Mayweather. He turned to the Captain.
"Your orders, sir?"
But Stein did not respond. The Captain was staring in horror at the spread-eagled corpse of ensign Mallard, whose console was now a few scattered chunks of metal. Stein mouthed silently, incapable of much more. Mayweather wished he had gotten to know the young ensign better. Mayweather limped over to the Captain's chair, opening a channel with the rest of the ship.
"All hands, this is first officer Mayweather speaking. Prepare to abandon ship."
"NO!" Stein grabbed Mayweather's wrist and stared dementedly into his eyes. "You can't! You don't understand! I must- the ship must-"
Mayweather had no time for these ramblings, as another explosion gave the ship a tremendous shudder from bow to stern, threatening to tear it in half. "I've just about had enough of you." he snarled. "You and your supposed 'hush-hush' missions have resulted in the death of about half this crew!" He leant in close to Stein, yelling now, not caring if it was a superior officer he was berating. "Well, I've had ENOUGH! We're all getting off this ship! You too, captain!" He stood up straight, heading for the scorched bridge doorway. "Come on, Jen," he called to Troy, who shut down her communications board and hurried over to the young commander.
"I'm staying." Captain Stein stood up, folding his arms resolutely.
"Some people just aren't worth trying to get sense into." Muttered Mayweather, as he and Troy entered the lift. As the lift took his surviving bridge crew away from him, Captain Stein took a datapad from his pocket, and stared at it thoughtfully...
Troy took her place in the co-pilot's seat on the evacuation launch, thankfully mostly undamaged. She turned to Travis, studying her superior officer's handsome face. She knew better than to speak to him about abandoning the captain. She glanced at her pilot's controls.
"We've cleared the shuttlebay." She noted. "Enemy ship appears not to have noticed us." There was a note of confusion in the attractive ensign's voice.
Mayweather turned to face her, frowning. "That's strange." A loud beeping emitted from a console in the passenger cabin, where 30 very crushed crewmen were squeezed. A Tellarite, Ensign Ragaan peered at the display.
"Commander!" the Tellarite shouted. "The Challenger's about to go!" As if on cue, the Evac launch was rocked by a massive explosion. On the viewscreen, pieces of scorched debris flew in all directions. One piece of debris, however, flew in an orderly line, with clear impulse power.
"The Captain's pod." Mayweather breathed.
They watched as the Captain's personal pod flew towards them, when suddenly, the enormous, imposing blue alien spacecraft shot out a tractor- beam towards the pod, drawing it into a small hatch in its belly. Through Troy's shock, something else nagged at the back of her mind. "How come that thing totally ignored a great big 30- man launch like this, but goes all the trouble of capturing a tiny pod like that?"
Mayweather's next words sent a chill down Troy's spine. "They were specifically after the Captain."
Troy considered these implications before speaking. "So whatever they wanted, the captain had."
"And whatever the Captain has, they've now captured..." A deathly silence fell in the cabin...
Captain Stein raised his head groggily. He quickly assessed his situation, which, he realised was a situation where he was lying in a huge chamber, which by the painful design of the floor, belonged to a people not very well acquainted with human physiology. "He-hello?" he quavered into the semi-dark. "Wha-what do you want with me?" A horrible, gut-wrenching scraping was his only answer. He summoned up all his courage and called out "What do you want with me?" That was when his captors emerged.
His scream of pure terror could have reached the escaping Evac-launch, but as everyone knows: in space, no-one can hear you scream...
How exciting! Next time, Mayweather must put together a crew for a rescue mission- with the help of some old friends.