Legacy of Force: The Omega Directive
Commander Tuvok felt the Enterprise lurch under what felt like disruptor fire. He quickly headed for the door behind his captain wondering briefly what could be attacking them, Commander Seizemore, Doctors Jarn and Crusher, Captain Greenbough as well as the Founder and the Imperial delegation were all close behind them. Captain Picard hit the com-badge on his tunic and demanded, "Bridge, this is the Captain, what's going on up there?" The whole party headed toward the doors of the lounge.
"Desalle Three Ensign,!" Commander Greenbough's voice barked an order. "Unknown ship simply appeared out of nowhere and started firing on us and the Midgarth's Warder, sir! Both the unknown vessel and the Warder are launching fighters...," suddenly the ship rocked hard to starboard, and there was a trembling throughout her hull.
"Sir, that blast punched right through our port shield. We've got hull breaches on decks six through nine on the secondary hull," Ensign T'Lear said. "Structural Integrity Fields are at twenty-nine percent."
"Keep my ship in one piece, Mister!" Picard commanded Greenbough over the com.
"Aye sir," he answered. "Implementing "keep your ship in one piece maneuver now, sir."
Picard looked over at the Thulian captain, and asked. "Any idea who our attackers are?"
The tall red-bearded man shook his head and said, "No, we're deep in Imperial space. We should be safe." He stopped and touched his own collar and said, "Greenbough here." Silence followed as the captain seemed to listen to something only he could hear. Tuvok wondered if imperial officers had sub-skeletal implants or if he was simply accessing the imperial psionic network. The fact that he was vocalizing suggested the former possibility. "Open me a door, Commander Murphy. I'm coming over." Turning back to Tuvok and Picard he said, "Captain Picard, I must return to my own ship."
"I'm sorry Captain Greenbough but we can't lower our shields to let you beam over," Captain Picard tld him.
Greenbough smiled and replied, "No need captain. Our transport system doesn't work on the same principle as your transporters. We can get there without placing the Enterprise in any more danger than she already is."
Picard nodded and said, "Very well, Captain. Good luck."
The big man stopped and gave Captain Picard a very strange look. "You'd better keep your luck, Captain. I think you need it more than we. But I appreciate the thought. May your actions be be bold and carry you through this battle."
Suddenly, the air in the passageway split and a hole opened up revealing the interior of the Midgarth's Warder's Command and Control center. A tall, broad, dark-haired man was sitting in a swivelling chair. He turned to face the hole himself and said, "Any day now captain. The aliens are preparing a straffing run on the Enterprise. I don't know who the Federation helmsman is, but he's either mad or a genius, or both."
"On my way, Commander. I hope your husband has those fighter upgrades completed," Captain Greenbough said as he stepped through the hole which closed behind him immediately.
"Who is currently at Flight Control Ops?" Picard asked.
"Ensign T'Lear," Tuvok told him.
"Why am I not surprised, Commander?" Picard asked as they headed toward the lift, Commander Seizemore and Counselor Jarn in tow. Suddenly the ship shook violently from side to side. Tuvok found himself slamming into the bukhead to his left, then ricocheting off the ceiling, and finally landing hard on his legs back on the deck. Looking over, he saw the Captain bouncing down the passageway before lying very still. Doctor Crusher dashed forward to check the Captain's status. He appeared to be unconscious.
"Take care of the Captain, Doctor. I'm going to the bridge to see if Commander Greenbough needs my assistance," Tuvok told her.
"I'm with you, Commander," Commander Seizemore replied.
He looked at her, his mind racing through her possible assistance on the bridge. She was after all the designer of the transwarp engines. She might be of help after all. After considering all possibilities, he said, "Come along, then Commander, and you too, Doctor Jarn. The rest of you would be better served joining Doctor Crusher in sickbay." He then hurried toward the lft.
Twenty eight point nine seconds later the lift doors opened to deposit them onto the bridge. He looked up at the main view screen to see the starfield pitching and rolling as if it were spiraling out of control. However the steady whine of phaser fire, and the occasionally lurch from the torpedo tubes told him that the there was a method to the madness of their course. He quickly headed to his station and unlocked the console. The tactical readout that appeared showed the Enterprise being harrassed by a dozen fighter sized ships. Ensign T'Lear had her pitching and rolling three hundred sixty degrees on all axis. Every time her fingers touched the firing controls, another fighter blossomed into a expanding field of gas and fire. The damage control readout showed several major hits at the aft section of the secondary hull, and one that had punched all the way through the interconnecting mechanism just behind the saucer section.
As the last fighter winked out of existence, Commander Greenbough turned and asked, "Where's the captain?"
"In sickbay by now, I would assume. He was injured in that last hit. For now, you have the con, Commander. I sent the delegates there as well. Captain Greenbough has returned to his ship."
The other officer simply nodded, and his eyes narrowed. Turning back to screen he commanded grimly, "Tactical report!"
"We are currently free of hostile fighters. Most of them have broken off to engage those from the Midgarth's Warder," Ensign T'Lear said. "The main craft is powering up weapons to fire on us again."
"Bring us around one eighty mark three. Divert power from aft shields by fifty percent, and use it to reinforce the SIFs of the hulled sections. Let's give them as small a cross section as possible to hit."
"What do you have in mind, Commander?" Tuvok asked.
"Back before the integrated phaser arrays were developed, starships used paired banks of phasers on the dorsal and ventral saucer sections. When she was in command of the Constellation Two, Admiral Shir Khar developed a maneuver to destroy a Klingon wolf pack with a single pass that would take advantage of the fact that a ship could charge both circuits, but only fire one of them. I'm adapting the idea to our integrated phaser array circuits." He looked over at the flight control station and asked. "Do you have the flight parameters Ensign?"
"Aye, sir," the young woman said a little too enthusiastically for Tuvok's comfort.
"The Captain ordered you to keep his ship in one piece, Commander," Tuvok said.
"And I am, Commander. We are deep in Imperial space and are facing an enemy that is faster than us, and has us out-gunned. Our aft SIFs are compromised. If we run, they'll catch us and destroy us. If we stay and fight and- fight smart- we may actually come out of this alive. Running is not an option."
"You could try talking to them, Commander," Tuvok said.
"First I have to get them to stop shooting at us, Commander," Greenbough said. He turned back to Ensign T'Lear and said, "Implement, Shir' Khar ten."
Tuvok could hear a slight shift in the whine of the ships engines. He watched his tactical read out as the Enterprise closed with the alien vessel, her phasers lancing out to strike the forward section of the vessel that looked like a giant fluke with a starfish mouth. It was over two and half kilometers long, and trying to turn so that it could bring its considerable array of broadside disruptors to bear on the Enterprise. Ensign T'Lear compensated for the shift in position as they bore down on her.
"We're through their shields, Commander," T'lear said.
"Maintain fire, Ensign," Commander Greenbough said. "Up and over."
"Aye, sir," T'lear acknowledged.
Tuvok watched as Enterprise rose on the y axis until it was above the alien vessel. As the great starship rose, the flight control officer tipped the aft section higher until she was flying dorsal first keeping the Enterprise's bow facing the alien craft, her forward phasers pouring devastating fire from both the ventral and dorsal sides of the primary hull into the enemy. Tuvok noted the charge on the weapons slowly deplete. When they reached fifty-one percent, the Ensign switched over to quantum torpedoes and set off a volley every three point two seconds as they raked along the dorsal section of the attacking craft. By the time they reached the aft section, the torpedoes had stopped exploding against the enemy's shields and were now wreaking havoc on its hull while the phasers circuits recharged. As they cleared the aft section, the Ensign T'Lear rolled the ship a hundred eighty degrees, and switched back over to phasers, continuing to fire into the aft engine section of the alien vessel.
Tuvok noted that Imperial fighters suddenly swarmed in on the hull of the attacking vessel and their configurations began to change. They ceased to be fighter craft and became anthropomorphic exoskeletal armor of a huge stature. With their new limbs they began to tear into the hull of the alien craft in a boarding action like he'd never seen before.
"Take us back three thousand clicks," Commander Greenbough ordered.
"Why?" Tuvok
"Because I don't want to fire on an ally by mistake," Greenbough said.
"They're locking weapons on us, sir. I'm getting a strange energy build-up, Commander," T'Lear said. "I don't recognize the siguature.
"Take us back ten thousand kilometers. Prepare to go to go to warp four," Commander Greenbough commanded.
"Aye, sir," T'Lear said.
Tuvok watched at the Enterprise backed away from the huge ship. He looked down at the energy signature coming from the vessel, and his hot Vulcan blood ran cold. Then the monitor winked out to be replaced by a single image on the screen. The Greek letter Omega.
"Captain, all ship's functions have been locked out. Transwarp engines are off line, shields are dropping., subspace communications are shut out."
"What in the name of Hel's dark half just happened?"
"Unknown, sir," T'Lear said. "All bridge stations are locked down."
A series of explosions rocked the ship. The lights switched to emergency lighting and there was the smell of an electrical fire somewhere on the bridge. "Status!" Greenbough demanded.
"Unknown sir. We are blind and helpless," T'Lear.
Tuvok hit his com-badge and said, "Tuvok to sickbay."
"Sickbay," Doctor Crusher answered.
"What is the Captain's status?" he asked.
"Unconscious Commander," she said. "He has subdural bleeding and I'm going to have to operate."
"Most unfortunate, Doctor," Tuvok said.
"What do you mean we're locked out of all stations?" Commander Greenbough demanded, of Commander Seizemore.
She looked at him and said, "There is something overriding all higher warp functions, Commander," she said. "I don't know what it is, but it seems to be in the computer system itself. I'll see what I can do to get around it."
"A vain attempt, Commander," Tuvok said. "The system will not unlock until Captain Picard can come to the bridge and enter his personal command cyphers."
Commander Greenbough turned to face him and said, "And you know this how?"
"We had a similar situation like this aboard the Voyager, Commander. It is a subroutine installed by Starfleet to deal with an emergency of proportions that affect all galactic civilizations."
"Commander," Doctor Jarn said, "Captain Greenbough on the Midgarth Warder wants to know, and I quote, What the hell do you think you're doing?, sir. He says that he can't fire on the enemy vessel with us in the blast range, with no shields."
Commander Greenbough nodded and said, "Describe our situation to him. Tell him we're working on it."
"Aye sir," he said.
Greenbough turned back to Tuvok and asked, "You mean to tell me that Starfleet installed on this vessel a subroutine that would override all our higher functions in the middle of a battle?"
Tuvok nodded wondering at the man's incredulity. "Affirmative."
He turned to Commander Seizemore, "Do what you can to get around it. I need some kind of access to the ship's system if I'm going to get us out of this situation. Right now, we're just waiting for whatever that weapon they were charging to hit us."
"I am aware of our situation, Commander," Tuvok said stoically.
"Then I suggest you aid Commander Seizemore in finding a way around the subroutine," Greenbough told him.
Tuvok raised an eyebrow. He recognized an order when he heard one, whether it was phrased as a suggestion or not. He strode over to the console under which the small red-head lay. "Do you require any assistance, Commander?"
"Yeah," she said. "Hand me that probe on the floor," her voice said from under the console.
"Commander, Captain of the Warder wants to inform you that he's going to have the Enterprise towed to safety, while he engages the enemy. He says, to tell you that you're still a slacker."
"Tell him...," Commander Greenbough's tone became hard for a moment. Then he straightened his tunic. Then in a much calmer tone he said, "Tell my brother that I appreciate the assist."
"Aye sir," Doctor Jarn said quietly.
Tuvok assisted Commander Seizemore for almost an hour as she ran down several routines through the ship's computer. Finally, she tapped into the the holodeck's sub routines and did something that Tuvok was unsure as to exactly what it was, but suspected it was highly illegal. Smiling over to the com, she said, "Commander, you should have all functions restored in twenty seconds."
"How did you do that?" Tuvok asked.
"I could tell you Commander, but then I'd have to kill you," she said with a smile. Then as she pulled herself out from under the console she said, "I hacked Captain Picard's personal command cyphers and then used the holdoeck recordings to enter them into the computer directly. I then purged the whole damn subroutine, and plan on kicking several people's asses when I get back to San Fran."
"You hacked the Captain's cyphers?" he asked incredulously.
"I did," she said.
"I'm afraid I'll have to place you under arrest for that, Commander," he said.
She gave him a long stare and said. However, before she could reply, Commander Greenbough said, "Belay, that Commander. She did what I told her to do. If you want to press charges, do it later when the Captain is back where he belongs. Until then, I need her and you here."
All the station monitors went blank and then rebooted with complete access. A small cheer went up through the bridge crew. As the main view screen came back online, all signs of the battle were gone. The Midgarth's Warder's ventral hull was up close to the Enterprise and they were in orbit around a blue green planet. "What in the name of Sif's golden locks has happened while we were blind?"
"Commander, Captain Greenbough is hailing us," T'Lear said.
"Put him on," Commander Greenbough said.
The screen wavered to show the Command and Control Center on the Warder. Captain Greenbough said, "Welcome to Thule Prime. I trust you've gotten your little problem worked out."