Disclaimer: I don't own Starfleet, Spock, Giotto, Nyota or any random Klingons, Romulans or Cardassians
Special thanks to beta Notes from a Classroom.
Tremors
The human crewmember cowered before Nadock and the other Klingon freighter captains. "The blast should have ignited the reactor capsule and vaporized the entire colony in one blow," he said.
"Well, it failed," snarled Vagarth, one of Nadock's fellow captains. "We should kill this human immediately."
Nadock snarled, "No! He lived on Epsilon 1235...he can still be of use to us...can't you human?"
"I can...I can...I can be useful," the human stammered. Nadock watched him, disgusted with his fear and servility.
He turned to his two engineers -- a Romulan and a Cardassian. Nadock was an equal opportunity employer.
"What is the status report on the planet below, Romulan?" Nadock bellowed. Nadock could not remember the Romulan's name...but he respected him.
The Romulan had identified the location of the few monitoring devices in system and helped Nadock and his fellow captains avoid them. And it was the Romulan that suggested they communicate in targeted bursts of light in a language he described as "Morse Code" to avoid radio wave frequency surveillance. Nadock would reward the Romulan with the opportunity for an honorable death.
"The nuclear power capsule is still intact. But the main power grid has been hit...approximately 80% of power is down. The subspace relay center is intact, but currently offline," the Romulan responded.
"Sir, should we launch another missile strike at the power capsule?" his helmsman asked with a gleeful snarl.
It had been a direct hit...the capsule should have blown if it was as old and decrepit as the human had claimed. They had come too far to fail...
"No," Nadock looked to the engineers. "We have too few missiles to waste on another failure..."
"Captain Nadock," said the human, straightening up, "I know where their emergency shelter is."
The Romulan smiled...the Cardassian tilted his head.
From the planet below a phaser beam crackled against the freighter's shields. Nadock hissed in annoyance; a few of those and his ship would blow. "How long until that cannon is down!"
x x x x x x x
The call with Nyota had left Spock content and relaxed. His meditation was extremely deep, but he snapped to consciousness immediately as the earth moved. That didn't mean he knew what was going on. Catching his swaying body with his hands, he looked around. There were no lights in the house anywhere...
From below he heard Roland shouting to Angel, "Was that an earthquake or...?"
He heard shouts from the room where his crew was billeted. "Electricity is out!" Ensign Giotto yelled.
"I'm on the comm...I can't reach anyone at the power facility..." Angel replied. "Wait...I've got someone from central on the line. They say it was a..."
Spock jumped to his feet to join his team in the sleeping quarters. The earth shook again and explosions boomed in the distance...for a moment there were no voices in the house. He stabilized himself on the door frame. That wasn't an earthquake. He'd lived through earthquakes in San Francisco and on Vulcan. This felt different; there was no familiar rolling sensation...the movement was too fast...
Looking up; he found his eyes locked with Ensign Singh's. The human's expression was unreadable. Spock remembered that the red-shirted Ensign had requested to be assigned to assist Spock specifically.
Perhaps Singh felt a bond after their previous encounter with Klingons? Perhaps he hoped for words of reassurance now? Spock had no idea what those words would be...or even if they were needed.
Spoke spoke only what he did know. "Prepare to evacuate," he said. "We are under attack."
Ensign Singh turned to the four other Starfleet crew members. "You heard the man! Get ready to move!"
Spock's hand went to the back of his pocket and had a small moment of panic. Then he felt Nyota's encryption device safely tucked away there. He would leave his two-D console behind, but not that. He went forward to retrieve his pack.
From below he heard Angel shout, "Roland, they hit the emergency shelter!"
x x x x x x x
Nyota was in a good mood as she walked into the sensor array lab. Spock's unexpected and passionate call the night before had left her relaxed and happy -- if a little sleepy. She was literally humming and swinging her hands to an internal rhythm when she accidentally let go of her PADD. She winced inwardly as it flew from her fingers and hit the floor with a resounding crash.
Chang-He jumped in his seat, saw what had happened, and grinned. "Butterfingers!"
Giving him an annoyed look, she stooped and picked it up. As she straightened she felt the ground sway beneath her feet and the room momentarily went black. She blinked. Her vision was still slightly dark.
Trying not to show her disorientation, she made her way to her station. She took a deep breath; the swaying stopped and clarity returned. Then she did what she always did when she came on shift...she tuned into Epsilon 1235. It was approximately 02:00 colony time...and since their subspace station literally sat in the middle of the colony, there was no time lag.
Nyota didn't expect to hear anything other than the hum of static, although an occasional short band hobbyist wouldn't be unusual. What she did hear made her take a sharp breath.
Don't be nervous...Don't be nervous...these things are held together by duct tape and spit. Right...this isn't unusual.
But she couldn't ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach. From Epsilon 1235 there was nothing but complete and utter silence.
x x x x x x x
"Spock!" He heard Roland shouting. "Ensign Singh, Ensign Giotto, Lieuten--"
"We are here..." Spock replied. His team was behind him. None of them seemed panicked, a testament to Starfleet training.
"We have to evacuate..." Roland said. "People in central have confirmed by telescope that there are at least five freighters hovering in orbit..."
His voice was drowned in the sound of explosions. Spock noticed Roland had a pack on his back...and what appeared to be some antiquated firearms.
Roland saw his gaze. "No energy signature. But not as customizable as phasers. They only have one setting -- death."
Ensign Giotto said from behind Spock, "Lieutenant Commander, they have contraband firearms. I don't think we should trust..."
"Ensign Giotto," Spock said with sudden certainty, "if he had any intention of killing us, we would already be dead."
"Thank you for being logical, Mr. Spock," Roland said.
Spock didn't have time to reflect upon the compliment; he knew something else with certainty. "We can discuss this later. We must depart." He swung his own pack over his shoulder and started for the door.
"The main shelter has been hit, Roland. Where do I tell people to go?" Angel said as she and Roland fell into step behind Spock.
Spock noted that although Angel spoke loud enough to be heard, she didn't sound nervous. She sounded like Nyota when she was determined...
"The twin cliffs...tell them to go to the twin cliffs..." Roland said.
"Yeah..." said Angel. "Yeah, that is best..."
Exiting the house, Spock stopped short...and the humans behind him nearly ran into him. And then he heard six collected gasps as they saw what he saw. Roland's home was at the edge of the colony...the porch overlooked the center part. Dark specks of shuttles were dropping from sky, lasers ripping from them in rapid succession. The colony was bursting into flames. An anti-spacecraft cannon sent off pulses of lasers into the night sky above, ignoring the small shuttles, aiming for the freighters above in the atmosphere. There was an explosion above...and then concentrated fire from the cannon before it fell silent.
There was a buzz on Angel's comm, "We hit a ship above, but the cannon is down...and the tunnel to the secondary armory has collapsed, Roland," she whispered.
Spock swung his head. What? They'd left weapons with Epsilon's police force; it was regulation to only allow weapons with an organized fighting force when Starfleet personnel were on these unincorporated colonies. But they had a secondary armory?
Roland was staring at the fires. "Doesn't matter, Angel; we're not going that way right now."
There was no time to think about this. Spock turned to his officers. "Get to the shuttle craft, now." He nodded at Roland and Angel as they moved by him. "You, too." They were Federation citizens. It was his duty to protect them.
Roland nodded and pulled Angel, who had just begun shouting into her comm. "Tell everyone to get to the cliffs! Shuttle craft have been spotted...they plan to invade..."
The three of them began to lope after Spock's team when they heard the whir of engines overhead. A large spotlight came down and flashed across Roland's house and the lawn...then stopped on the Federation shuttle craft. As the spotlight hung on the shuttle, Spock looked up for identifying markings on the craft shining the light.
"Spock!" shouted Roland. Spock looked down at the man, now wrapping his arms around Angel. "Get down!"
From the front of his team he thought he heard Ensign Singh shouting, "Hit the dirt!"
Spock looked up again...he could almost see the craft's markings....
Suddenly Roland was ramming Spock with his and Angel's bodies. "I said, get down!"
...and then he was in awkward pile of himself, Angel, and Roland. He tried to move...but stopped as an explosion ripped through the night air.
Debris flew above Spock's head. Where there once had been a shuttle, there was now a blasted-out inferno.
Angel was the first to stand. "Everyone up! Everyone up!"
Pulling himself to his feet, Spock quickly scanned his team members; they all appeared unhurt.
The spotlight began to move across the lawn in their direction.
"This way!" screamed Roland. "Run!"
A/N:
Those crazy Klingons!
I don't want to bog my readers down with logistics...so I try to include only what is absolutely necessary. If something seems really implausible it's probably one of those little things I thought would put you to sleep so I left it out….but let me know and I'll slip in a line here or there...
Notes and I really appreciate your feedback, everyone. Please review if you liked it – or if you didn't. Help me become a better writer so I can better entertain you!