Disclaimer: Violence in later chapters.

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Chapter 9:
Shield

The science panel exploded.

"Shields down to fifty percent." Tuvok held onto the station as the ship rocked with another volley from the attacking spearhead ships. "Their weapons are disseminating beams Captain, they can penetrate the shields."

"Casualty reports coming in from across the ship." Harry said.

The noise on the bridge was unbelievable. Tom had taken evasive action almost immediately but the pursuing ships were far more manoeuvrable than the Voyager was and did not stop firing. Janeway was holding onto her seat as Tom threw the Voyager in hairpin bends and roller coaster motions.

"Captain," Tuvok was acquiring target lock on the lead ship. "Shields down to twenty four percent. We can't take many more direct hits."

The master situation display blinked and a power conduit above it exploded shower sparks and fumes over Alaya.

"Damage to decks three through ten."

"Assign repair teams." Chakotay was watching Tanner as he looked round the bridge.

"Hull breach on deck twelve." Kim messaged the repair teams. "Minor damage to life support system. Structural integrity field holding."

"Tom!"

"I'm doing my best Captain." Tom said as he programmed in a route that would take them within five meters of the Victory.

"Captain?" Tanner was standing holding the rail behind their heads. "Captain, I have an idea but I'll need access to your shield controls."

Janeway eyed him with suspicion, what did he have planned? The engineering panel burst in a shower of sparks. "You can access the shields from there." She pointed at the control panel behind her head on the rail.

Tanner jumped round the stairs and, holding onto the rail, made his way to the panel.

"Shields at ten percent." Tuvok was firing a wide beam from the dorsal phaser array.

The spear head ships were closing as the passed the Victory, the relief was almost audible as they passed without incident, three-pursuit ship impacted on the Victory's shields. The screen showed a group of spearheads directly in the path of Voyager, one fired.

"Shields Down!"

The screen exploded inwards, showing the bridge with sparks and glass. Paris ducked below the conn as Janeway and Chakotay held their arms up to their faces.

"Activate your shield grid!" Tanner was holding onto the control panel.

The light around the bridge dimmed, panels that weren't being accessed went black. Paris looked down to see the warp power output, increase by ninety percent.

"What have you done?" Janeway turned to look at Tanner.

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Outside, the Voyager's shields came back on-line, but they were a constantly visible and glowing yellow, as charged plasma was fed into them. Two spearhead ships were on the verge of the shields radius as they came up, the shield sliced through the ships and sent twisted metal cascading into space. Another spearhead couldn't manoeuvre fast enough and impacted on the shields.

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"Shield grip overloading."

"I'm not surprised." Tanner was regulating the plasma flow. "You're emitters are not designed for this kind of power being pumped through them."

"What happens when they fail?" Janeway was on her feet, there must be something she could do.

"They fail!" Tanner didn't really have much of answer to this, it was rather self-explanatory.

"Our shield grid will be burnt out and useless if we do not terminate the plasma flow in three minutes." Tuvok was keeping his eyes on the flow regulators and the targeting scanners. If the shields failed, they would be defenceless.

"Captain, the Victory is coming about." Kim had been watching the events outside on a small monitor at operations. "There's a build up of energy on the Victory's power core."

"Must be preparing to fire their main guns." Tanner had activated the forward visual array and was now piping it through to all non-essential monitors that were still active. "They're turning toward that squid, thing."

"Two minute to shield collapse." The slow elegant motion of the Victory seemed to have an almost flawless logic to it.

The bridge was still with bathed breath. Any minute the Victory would fire and, with any luck, destroy the gigantic, black shimmering squid. All eyes were on the monitors as the Victory completed its turn and was now facing the object moving closer.

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The Victory crew were ready, they had re-routed power to the capacitors and they were about to fire. The bridge had turned a dim shade of red ad the main lights cut out.

"Two seconds to optimal firing range." Said Wells.

They could see the great creature looming upon them in their screens. The only clue to its position was the lack of stars in one spot of space in front of them.

Lieutenant Riley was at tactical. Noticing a change in subspace he quickly checked the readings. "Hyper-space fissures opening!"

Their screens changed to views all around them. Space was filled with multiple fissures. Most of them a hazy shade of blue but the occasional one was a vivid green.

"Optimal firing range. Firing main guns." Riley tapped the large red icon.

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The shimmering squid drifted closer to the Victory. The thousands of spearheads swarmed it and wave after wave attacked the Victory and Voyager. Space had come alive; fissures surrounded the three parties locked in battle. Two streams of blue light fired from the Victory's weapons array situated just above the central line of the ship. A large blue panel that stretch from one side to the other and was about a fifth the total height of the ship. The light impacted on the Squid. The explosion was enormous, the spars of light and plasma were thrown from the skin of the beast but no visible damage remained.

Out of the fissures they came thick and fast, thousands of them. And they opened fire.

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Author's Notes:

Dum Dum Dum...

There's a nice short chapter for you, full of action.

R&R please people.