Once again, I could be doing more productive stuff, but I'm posting another chapter before I take a break this weekend.
Part 11: USS Kolibri
"Sciences and Engineering reports that we are go to fire up the main batteries as well as our engines." Charley Zengilowski had several communicator's set up on the console of his comms station. He had once been a communications specialist on a cargo ship and had the needed expertise to manage the station.
Archie stared out the main viewport. "What about Lieutenant Brikkars and company?"
"Five minutes sir, she says she may be pursued by Borg and believes that we will need to fire the engines prematurely to prevent us from being boarded."
Archie looked at where Silva paced around the bridge, casually looking over the shoulder of crew members and seeing if they were working, even if he had no idea how to perform the simplest of actions on Kolibri's computers. "Very well, fire up engines when you are ready Mister Glodis." A massive Tellarite, almost eight feet tall and muscular to the point of wrestling an Aehallh worm. The big man punched a few keys with his massive fingers and brought battery power to his control panel. The lights on the panels slowly turned on, going from red to green and finally bringing the whole section they were associated with online. A little over a minutes saw the entire bridge alight and the overheads coming on.
"Engines coming online, parameters green." a young Klingon-Human, almost a fifteen in human years, held down the engineering station. He waited for a minute then slapped his panel. "Engines online! All systems green, parameters are within seventy percent efficiency!"
Archie didn't have to look at a face, every face had a smile on it. They were about to pull a one hundred twenty-seven meter long ex-Federation science vessel from a mountain and defy the Borg. For the moment the idea of death became a distant thought.
Zengilowski's hands were lighting as he checked and modified the communications console to his liking. He placed in his ear code and bent his head suddenly. He spun his chair. "Commander? I just received a message from Lieutenant Brikkars and her team. They have delivered the final group and are holding a choke point near the entrance to the clearing. She is asking that you prepare the ship's defenses before she pulls her team back."
Archie stood, he took an earpiece from the hatch in the side of his chair and went up the staboard ladder. Kolibri, unlike most Nova-class vessels, had a ladder on the starboard side, in place of a door that would commonly take you straight to the surrounding decks, that went up to an observation deck that was an arched glass circle around the glass dome of the bridge. Archie went up the ladder and looked out to starboard. Around the mass of the ship he could see the flash of weapons fire and the shapes of his militia teams. He placed the earpiece in his right ear.
"Charley, get me Milo and Dan." a second later Dan's voice came into the earpiece. "Dan, how long until we can get off the ground? And what about shields."
"We can be off the ground on maneuvering thrusters in a minute, I have my men working on that now. Shields is a slightly harder thing to manage; the deflectors are corroded and old, much like our phaser weapons, and I don't know if I can get them working." he paused. "Another problem, now that I think of it, will be breaking through the growth above us. It's not bad on the main hull, but the secondary has been in the ground for seven years ya know. I tasked some men to check the hull and they found a few very thick root systems in the outermost corridors. Not going to be pretty when they get ripped out."
"Get a few men down there with phasers, they can, at least, try to cut the roots off from the source outside the hull. Either way I want us off the ground in five minutes."
Dan was about to say something about such a time being impossible but Archie closed the channel before he could finished the first phrase. He had a panel similar to the one between his and the First Officer's chair, he pressed the tactical station call. A deep yet old voice responded, it was Ruzngu. "Ruzngu, what about our weapons?" he asked.
"Not much to say sir, other than the torpedoes have lost their explosives, and the phasers are too corroded to work. Phasers would take some work but I don't have anyone experienced enough know how to replace a conductor dish, and out torpedoes aren't going to detonate on impact." Archie hadn't known Ruzngu had any experience with weapons systems.
"That's okay, I don't plan to fight but we can use the torpedoes as bullets if we have to." He closed the channel and called up Sciences. "Someone tell me they know how to get our Warp engine running please."
Milo's voice came on. "Milo here, I'm down here with a Starfleet engineer, says she can actually get it running but not well. We take a heavy hit in our engines and we can lose the Warp One point nothing we'll be struggling to get."
"Very well, carry on sergeant." he switched over to his comms channel that had been hailed. "Go ahead Charley."
"Sir, thrusters are ready to fire, we can start them up and try to break free on your command sir."
"Very well tell helm to get ready and do so on my command—" the ship shook as a green bolt exploded against the saucer. "Damage report!"
"Please hold." a brief moment of breath and a low curse. "Nothing much, a militiaman just reported that the Borg have set up a kind of turret that is targeting us, he says they'll try to clear the area."
"No!" Archie ordered. "I want them back on board now, have the engines begin firing as soon as they are aboard."
"Yes sir." Charley cut the channel.
Archie saw the fire die away and figures grow as they sprinted to the area. He turned and went down the ladder unto the bridge, he never noticed the single phaser rifle that was still holing it's position.
Louis Brikkars had once said, to a friend, that if she was asked to sacrifice she'd spit in the person's face and be a selfish brat. Disruptor fire bracketed her position, her only ability to fire was through a naturally formed rock hole that was too small for a shot to be accurately fired through. Her beam rifle cut at drone after drone, occasionally successfully taking one to the ground. The militiamen had left here, all but one had fled. The one now crawled up from where he had noticed her not following.
"LT we have to go!" he yelled.
Louis stuck the barrel of her rifle though the hole and fired blind, addressing the man. "Go, I'll hold them off."
He was beside her and laying down a suppressive barrage with his rifle. "Now's not the time for gallant bravery LT. Come on before I make you." he met her eyes with the same glare she had fixed on him.
Louis dropped her rifle and drew her pistol, grabbing the man's collar and placing the discharge point of the phaser to his jaw. "I'll be right behind you, we can't take off with them crowding us like this, and now you'll never make it without covering fire."
The man was nervous, she could tell by his breath and his head that twitched and gazed at the advancing Borg. He nodded, biting his lip. He's too young, Louis thought, he'd never have stayed, he wants to be the hero. He crawled a few yards off then stood and ran. He left his rifle for Louis, who slipped the weapons over the top of the rock and spread the area with fire.
Louis ducked down again when the energy cells in the weapons ran out. He tossed her last cell into the rifle and drew her pistol. She opened the power plate and took a hairpin from the bun on the back her head. Shaking her hair down she carefully used the pin to move wire's about and produce an energy buildup. When treated right, a phaser pistol with an overcharged energy cell and proper fuel, which was the surplus of mortars that the Borg were setting up to shell Kolibri and her position, she could send this clearing and possible a hundred extra yards alight. It was all about timing, once she threw the weapon at the mortars she'd have only have two minutes before the weapon went critical and blew up. She finished the rigging and twisted around unto her knee. Taking her rifle in one hand she crouched and tossed the weapon through the air. It twirled and flew well from her baseball strengthened arm.
Louis didn't stay to watch is land. She was up and running, a hailstorm of fire from the airlock covered her charge as she felt the heat of disruptors at her heels. A mortar exploded to her left and she veered right, twisted from the hot dirt and shrapnel that flew through the air.
Pain and heat became of her back suddenly. A person not so tuned to piercing pain would have fainted and fallen over, Louis stumbled on and tripped over a stone before she hit the ground.
Lieutenant Ree watched as the person he had only wanted to save died. His position was struck by fire, two men were laid flat by the heavy long range storm. He drew them back into the ship. As the door began to close he noticed the lieutenant move, begin to rise and roll over. As he advanced to help a burly Sergeant of the Guard grabbed him and held him back and ordered the door closed.
"She's not dead!" he screamed.
"She is to us lad, just let her go and report to the captain on our situation." Just as the last inches of the door closed, a well placed shot came through and clipped a man's leg. The sergeant got in Ree's face. "GO!" he bellowed.
Louis lay on her back and tried to forget the pain, a loud screech filled her ears and she felt her eyes grow heavy. Her last thoughts were of the little Pakled boy who had been the janitor for the area that her quarters were situated in. He always seemed nice, and for one time she had wanted to know him. She'd do that as soon as she got back to Walker.
The overloaded pistol Lieutenant Louis Brikkars, USS Walker, Officer of Operations, had thrown landed on five yards from the ready ammunition the Borg had beamed in to bombard the Kolibri's engine section and prevent her form take off. As Kolibri separated from the ground that had embraced her for seven years the improvised went off and one piece of shrapnel, a piece of the discharge point, punctured the side of a mortar bomb and set off the packed explosive inside. It's detonation set off the sixty other bombs nearby and flung them across the area. The explosive blasts shook Kolibri as she became her own ship again and gained the clearing top, it almost propelled her up.
At that moment Lieutenant Ree stepped unto the bridge, dirt covered and tired from the run up from the starboard airlock. His eyes began to droop as he stood on the bridge with his hands all but windmilling in wonder of what to do.
"Ree, what the hell was that?" Archie asked.
Ree's head slowly came up from where it had been staring blankly at the floor. "That was a Starfleet woman." He dropped from exhaustion, Silva caught him and realized that blood was streaming from his lower back and he was growing cold.
Archie ordered him to sickbay, Silva was strong enough to carry him down the ladder and all the way there.
"We've reached the mountain top sir, engines holding steady." Glodis stated.
"Thank you mister Glodis, please, take us away and up at maximum impulse power." Archie sat and crossed his legs. He banished the thought of Lieutenant Brikkars and set to the more important task.
Getting the two hundred odd lives, that he had already saved once, out of the system and too safety.