"Enterprise, the Drake has lost power, request emergency beamout!" Gwendolyn's voice came over the bridge intercom.
"Energizing," Jackson said. A beat. "We got her."
"Tractor beam on the Drake!" the captain said.
The Freighter continued to move away from the anomaly, albeit slowly. A tractor beam leapt out from the Enterprise to encompasse the Drake. This tractor beam did not work any better than the previous tractor beam. The Drake didn't slow down by much. The Enterprise then tried to beam the shuttle away. Unfortunately that didn't work either. The shuttle then collided with the freighter amidships. The exchange of momentum imparted a greater spin on the freighter, causing the thrust from the active thrusters to go wild.
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Natima saw the anomaly move off the screen, after the freighter shook. Obviously something had hit it.
In the engineering section, Daniels, Hernandez and Lezalia tried frantically to counteract the collision.
"No good, we are now moving back towards the anomaly," Daniels said.
"That is not good!" Lezalia said, there were many times in her long life in which she was very scared (including running from the Borg after the destruction of El Auria), but this was one of the most frightening moments. Stuck. In an unfamiliar ship, on which people were disappearing. Falling into an anomaly which could lead to anywhere. Definitely frightening.
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"Captain, what do you order?" T'Shala asked a second time.
"Evacuate non-essential personnel from the saucer section to the main drive section, and prepare for saucer separation," the Captain said.
"Aye captain," Jackson said.
"Is it logical to take the saucer in?" T'Shala asked.
"Probably not, but the order is given," Walker said.
"Yes Captain," T'Shala said.
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"Unknown biosign on the bridge," the computer said. Natima Dacet did not like the sound of that. She backed against the veiwscreen and looked around the bridge. Nothing, or at least, nothing visible. Then an eerie light began to fill the bridge. She edged along to the nearby turbolift. The light coalesced into something, spectral, for the lack of a better term. It came towards her. "No! Stay away!"
She whipped out her phaser "I will fire, if you keep coming closer!"
It came closer. An otherwise fatal phaser beam went through it. Dacet upped the setting and moved closer to the turbolift. It came closer. "Leave me alone!" she said again. Another phaser beam went through it, damaging a section of console behind it. The turbolift door opened; slowly. The being moved in towards Dacet. A final wide beam caused extensive damage to a section of the bridge, and enraged the unknown being.
"Unknown and Cardassian biosigns have disappeared," the computer said.
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"The Saucer section is evacuated Captain," Lewis said, the section being empty except for him and Captain Walker.
"Bridge to Auxillary Bridge, stay in current location until we return," Walker said.
"Acknowledged," T'Shala said.
"Computer, initiate separation," Walker said.
"Separation initiated."
The Enterprise took 30 seconds to separate. The Saucer then raising its sheilds and moving towards the freighter.
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In the Engineering section of the freighter, Kenneth, Hallia and Yolanda were huddled together as the freighter groaned around them. Kenneth had tried to divert power to the impulse engines, but they were still offline, with the problem being elsewhere. A look at the warp core had revealed that the the dilithium crystals had been rendered useless somehow. It also appeared that the recrystalization mechanism was missing from the dilithium chamber.
"Kenneth, there is the eerie light again!" Hallia said. The light coalesed into an apparently spectral being.
"Not again! Raise the forcefeild," Hallia said.
"Raising forcefeild," Kenneth said. He pressed a button on the nearest console and a forcefeild rose between the 3 Enterprise crewmembers and the apparently malevalent unknown lifeform.
The being moved towards the 3 of them. It came into contact with the forcefeild. The forcefeild sparked, wildly, but still held.
Yolanda breathed a sigh of relief. "I hope that the Enterprise knows something is wrong and is coming to rescue us," she said.
"That is most likely," Kenneth said.
The being kept on hitting against the forcefeild, creating more interference each time.
"You should prepare to raise another forcefeild, I am sure that the emitters are going to overload eventually," Hallia said.
"Agreed," Kenneth said, he set back to work preparing another forcefeild.
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The Enterprise saucer approached the freighter.
"Ok, Lewis, angle the ship so the bottom is facing the anomaly, and so that the freighter is in front of us, and raise forcefeilds on all decks, in fact increase gravity on all decks except 1, to 2 G, that may negate the effects more," the Captain said.
"Aye captain," Lewis said, he manouvred the ship into position, raised the forcefeilds and increased the gravity.
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The forcefeild failed, and the being was knocked back by the activation of the second one. Yolanda squeeled as that happened.
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"Ok, scanning the freighter, reading the Away Team, including 3 in the engineering section and 1 near the bridge, 30 biosigns of freighter crew and 10 unknown readings" the Captain said.
"I wouldn't recommend beaming aboard the unknowns, sir," Lewis said.
"Agreed, prepare to lower forward dorsal sheild on my mark, preparing to beam all known biosigns to the bridge and observation lounge, followed by the Drake to the main shuttlebay."
"Acknowledged," Lewis said.
"Mark!" the Captain said. Lewis dropped the sheild, and the Captain energized.
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As the second forcefeild failed, Hernandez, Lezalia and Daniels were beamed away just in time.
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Hernandez, Lezalia and Daniels materialised on the bridge. "Just in time Captain, Samuel, but I don't know about the rest of the away team," Yolanda said.
"Sara disappeared from right next to me!" Hallia said.
"Nice to see you too, I have their transporter signals, and energizing," the Captain said.
Natima, Sara and Toren materialised near at the back of the bridge. Each of them were scared out of their wits. "That was very close! I was knocked into a turboshaft by one of those unknown forms, straight through the turbolift floor, any longer..." Natima said.
Sara and Toren were huddling next to each other and nodding, showing that they had similar experiences.
"Whom I could lock onto of the freighter's crew are in the observation lounge, and the Drake is in the main shuttlebay," the Captain said.
"Raising sheild and getting out of here! Finally," Samuel said. He input the commands and then went over to Yolanda and gave her a short hug.
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The Enterprise saucer beamed aboard the Drake (in much need of repair after the collision) and activated the engines on the bottom of the saucer which were usually used for landing and taking off from planets. The saucer immediately shot away from the freighter and the anomaly, back towards the main drive section of the Enterprise, which was still holding station. As the Saucer got on its way, the freighter collided with the anomaly, creating an explosion, which then buffeted the saucer.
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The crew on the bridge of the Enterprise took stock in their narrow miss, and noticed that both the anomaly, and the freighter had disappeared. The crisis was over, but the recovery and investigation had just begun.
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~Finis~
For now
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Review! Let me know what you think.
