Star Trek: The Next Generation – Souvenirs
Written By: Commander Cody CC-2224
CHAPTER 53
On board the U.S.S. Enterprise…
Chaplain Garland and the children were only a few feet from the turbolift shaft doors of the Main Bridge level. This fact generated a spur in his strenuous upward climb.
Using a foldable stainless steel crowbar that he had hanging and swaying on his left-hand belt area of his Starfleet-issued black slacks, the Chaplain deeply inserted the adder-tongued tipped end of the instrument near the curved region of the crowbar's J=shape. (The foldable crowbar could be bent at the middle of its J-shape and straightened out by use of a secure metal clamping system.) Then with all his might he pushed the long end of the crowbar with his right hand to his left, since the short end of the J-shape was "inserted to its right," as the Chaplain would occasionally say to himself whenever he would handle the crowbar. This pushing force was able to pry the tightly secured shaft doors open by a few inches apart from each other, thanks to the crowbar's amazing tensile strength.
After prying the shaft doors open a few inches with his handy-dandy crowbar, the Chaplain climbed all the way up until he was standing at ladder's end. Upon gaining a firm grip on the door's exposed right-hand edge, he pried the right door to his right-hand direction. He then did the same with the other door as well. Very soon he managed to have both doors fully open all the way.
When the Chaplain made his way to the Main Bridge entrance he slid off his heavy duffel bag and his RPD from his back. Then he put himself in prone position and extended both his hands to little Nan.
"All right, little one, I got ya," he said, making every sincere effort to help Nan up to the Bridge entrance level.
Next was little William. Nan was leaning over the edge, worrying herself over William's personal safety, including that of Elizabeth. What if they should lose their grip and plummet to their deaths?
"C'mon, Willy, you can do it!" he coaxed. "Keep a-goin'!"
"I'm…trying!" yelled William. Poor little William was struggling to climb up the long ladder, and the struggle was even greater because he was climbing for what seemed to be a long time upward. Because of the fatigue he was feeling in his little legs he was beginning to feel oblivious to his footing and as a result he nearly slipped and lost his footing. Not only that his hands were so sweaty that he could barely get a grip. The fortunate part was that this little blunder forced William to pay more attention to both his grip and his footing for the duration of his upward climb.
Very soon William was able to hoist himself to the Main Bridge level. The Chaplain, as usual, extended his helping hands and William was able to get up to the ledge in a pretty safe manner.
The next child to be needing assistance a few seconds later was Elizabeth. Elizabeth had never climbed ladders that often. As a result she was starting to have difficulty continuing her upward climb, as her muscles were near fatigue after almost endless climbing. Her legs seemed to ache more because she had never done this much climbing, at least not to that particular extent in a shaft several hundreds of feet deep. Also, she was starting to feel scared that she might fall deep, deep down and plummet and die. And to make matters worse, coupled with this bodily inconvenience of a condition was her almost never-ending nervousness. Of course, Elizabeth knew pretty well that she wasn't the only one experiencing these plaguing ailments; Nan and William most likely felt the same thing she did.
Not only that, Elizabeth's hands started sweating. She started sweating, too, due to the nervousness, the tension, and the excite of this grand and glorious adventure of climbing up deep dark turbolift shafts that seemed far more eerie to her than anything else she encountered in her world.
Elizabeth was only half a foot from the reach of the Chaplain's extended hands. However, before the Chaplain could help her up, something terrible happened to Elizabeth that nearly cost her life.
In a few seconds her left foot slipped off the ladder rung. Her right foot was not fully secure on the ladder rung. As a result of her slip, she was on the verge of plummeting to her death. Coupled with the fact that her sweaty and shaking hands were doing little to secure her to the ladder rung, she was on the verge of losing her grip.
Immediately after losing her footing on the ladder rung, and seeing Elizabeth dangling on the shaft ladder and holding onto the ladder rung with both hands for dear life, Nan started screaming in the most hysterical manner ever, so loud that her voice could literally echo across the vast emptiness of the main turbolift shaft. "NO! ELIZABETH! ELIZABETH!" she yelled in panic.
"NOOO!" cried William.
Eventually in about a mere three seconds later poor Elizabeth lost her grip on one of the ladder rungs. Fortunately for her it was at this point that the Chaplain was in a position to catch her fall because his hands were extended beyond what he called as the "half-foot coverage". By sheer luck, if possibly by the hand of Divine Providence Chaplain Garland managed to catch her left arm with both his gripping hands.
"Ouch!" screamed Elizabeth, as she felt a flash of pain that struck like lightning on her arm joints.
"I got ya. I got ya," he called out, panting in his breath. However, because his entire body was extended to the ledge without proper securing, and because was a little heavier than Nan, Chaplain Garland was losing his footing on the ground while lying prone. Very soon the Chaplain started feeling himself sliding slowly but steadily over to the edge of the ledge. Eventually his sliding speed accelerated, and the Chaplain was on the verge of falling over. Luckily for him he freed his left hand from Elizabeth's left arm, while at the same time keeping his right arm on Elizabeth's left arm. With his free left hand he managed to grab onto a ladder rung nearest to the ledge of the main turbolift shaft entrance just in time before both he and Elizabeth could fall deep down the shaft itself.
Now the Chaplain was dangling and holding on for dear life as well, and so was Elizabeth…again. Poor Elizabeth started to cry.
"DON'T…LET…GO!" the Chaplain bellowed. The deep boom of his voice resonated in the shaft.
"I'm…I'm trying!" Elizabeth whimpered, feeling herself starting to shake out of an extreme level of fear that she never experienced before in her childhood life. It was a type of fear that one experienced when one was in the midst of a near-death experience. Tears started spilling out of her blue eyes. One slip from the Chaplain's saving hands and Elizabeth would be gone forever. One slip from the ladder rung and the Chaplain would be gone forever, too, along with Elizabeth. If they fell and managed to hit rock bottom both the Chaplain and Elizabeth would be dead.
While hanging on for dear life the Chaplain had an idea flash across the back of his mind like a bolt of lightning. "Lis-sen," he called out in a strained grunt. Immediately Elizabeth perked her tear-stained face up to the Chaplain who was trying his best to save her life. "I'm…I'm a-gonna lift ya up. You've…you have got to catch one of them nearest rungs that's in plain sight of ya before I let you go. It's one of 'em horizontal bars. You'll have to use whatever free hand you can. Can you do that?"
"I…I think so…" Elizabeth whimpered again, not having the confidence to even attempt such a ladder stunt as what the Chaplain was describing to her.
The Chaplain grunted and screamed with all his might. Channeling whatever physical strength into his right arm so as to give the impression that he was hooked on steroids for quite a long time, he lifted his arm carrying Elizabeth up. While the Chaplain was holding Elizabeth's left arm in his firm bearlike grip Elizabeth was preparing to grab hold of the nearest ladder rung. After swinging a bit with all his might and hoisting Elizabeth up with his free right hand, with his left hand still clinging to the ladder rung, Elizabeth was able to use her free right hand to catch hold of the nearest ladder rung.
Poor Elizabeth was starting to hyperventilate due to the sheer nervousness running down her spine. But the Chaplain wasn't finished with her yet.
"We're not finished, darlin'!" he shouted at her. "You gotta climb, dammit! Climb!"
Elizabeth struggled desperately to climb the ladder to the ledge, despite her fearful circumstance and shaking body. By the time Elizabeth was up, the Chaplain hoisted and strained himself over the ladder and onto the ledge. Elizabeth lent a helping hand.
The Chaplain panted for breath. Elizabeth was already traumatized by this horrific, near-death, and in tears. Wracked with frayed nerves, and convulsive sobbing, she crawled over to the Chaplain.
"Come over here, ya big lug," he coaxed. The Chaplain took hold of her and embraced the sobbing girl very closely like father to his daughter.
"It's all right…it's all right…" he tried to console her, panting. Whether things would be all right in the future for the little group remained to be seen. Elizabeth sniffled and blew her nose. At this point Chaplain Garland started ruminating over whether getting to the Main Bridge is well worth the effort, including their lives. This takeover of the Main Bridge nearly cost Elizabeth's life.
"Sorry that I yelled," the Chaplain said softly to her.
"I don't…I don't ever…ever…w-want to g-go through t-this…ever…again!" Elizabeth cried out loudly, while sobbing in the Chaplain's arms. "I…I-I d-don't want…N-Nan…and W-W-William to go…g-go…through this! N-not Lissie! N-not Ben! P-please!"
"We won't," the Chaplain promised her, while at the same time recovering his breath. Nan and William drew close to Elizabeth, doing their best to comfort her in her hour of fear.
"All of us won't," said the Chaplain quite determinedly. "Not on my vigilant watch."
The battle of the Corellian Sector was still going on. The Federation starships in the offensive group continued battling the secondary lead cube. A handful of the starships received heavy damage from the Borg cube's array of space weapons.
On the Main Bridge of the secondary lead cube the Borg Queen was surveying the real-time live action footage of the space battle. She noticed that the Phoenix was making a run for the front part of the cube. It was going to hover over the cube while unleashing a barrage of photon torpedoes that could potentially damage the cube.
"Target the Phoenix," she ordered coolly and simply.
The secondary lead Borg cube unleashed a single gravimetric beam against the Phoenix's dorsal area of her saucer section near her rear impulse engine system. The Phoenix was crippled.
In the Main Battle Bridge of the Enterprise Captain Picard was surveying the battle while the Enterprise was remaining stationary.
"Captain, the Phoenix has taken heavy damage on its impulse engine systems," Worf informed the captain.
"You mean they're dead in the water?" asked Riker right away, looking back at Worf in dismay.
Worf cast an unintentional glare at Riker while looking up at him. "It appears so," he said quickly.
Chaplain Garland pushed himself up from the carpeted floor of the completely dimmed Main Bridge. After picking up his heavy duffel bag along with his heavy RPD, he made his approached to the tactical station at the middle of the Bridge. Right after setting down both his heavy machine gun and his duffel bag, he proceeded to access the console manually. However, the system kept locking him out, much to his vented frustration.
"I'll be damned," Garland muttered rather cynically in frustration. The controls are bloody locked!"
Chaplain Garland, knowing something about Galaxy-class starship systems, managed to bypass the security systems in order to bring the main systems online. Unzipping the right-hand side of his duffel bag he brought out a square-ish device that looked like a 21st century DSM device. It turned out it was actually a device used to bypass security systems in most of the ship's functions. Plugging the device in, he waited for the device to provide him unlimited clearance with tampering with the tactical console systems.
In the meantime Elizabeth wiped her eyes and ruffled her mobcap while securing it on her head like a child-sized bike helmet. Her flaxen-blonde hair looked a mite disheveled. Little Nan and William were waiting for Chaplain Garland to solve the problem.
The device worked. After Chaplain Garland had clearance, he wasted no time in activating almost every system on the main bridge. Much to the children's astonishment, the view-screen and the flood of fluorescent lights came on as sudden day.
Elizabeth had never seen the lights of the Main Bridge light up so suddenly. This also included the controls as well. But needless to say Elizabeth had become quite fairly accustomed to well-lit rooms, as did the rest of her friends from her own time, thanks to the Enterprise's ultra-efficient lighting system. However, the one thing that nearly dazed Elizabeth, as did little Nan and William, was the sudden and almost abrupt lighting up of the Main Bridge itself. For three children who in their time were so used to gradual lighting by candlelight, it was so unusual for them to find an almost pitch-dark room so well-lit up so suddenly. Not even wax candles, much less tallow candles, generated that kind of intense and excellent fluorescent lighting.
"How did you manage to turn everything on?" asked Elizabeth rather curiously.
"I know something about Galaxy-class Federation starships because I was stationed on one initially when I was a Starfleet ensign," he replied a mite enthusiastically. "As for my hacking skills, I acquired them when I joined the Maquis. They had training sessions on hacking most Starfleet vessels and others as well."
Chaplain Garland and the children then took their appropriate positions on the Main Bridge. Nan was assigned to the helm control of the Enterprise. Elizabeth assumed the role of comm. officer, and William would be assigned the Bridge position of ship's gunner. For Nan, a black joystick emerged below near the front part of the helmsman's seat until it was within Nan's reach. However, the gunner's systems would have to be based on the NAV controls, which Chaplain Garland, with all his hacking skills, managed to assign to the NAV control panel.
The reason for such an arrangement was due to the fact that this was exactly the same position that the three children were in during the Bridge simulation that Transporter Chief Miles O'Brien took them to for excursion purposes. The only way for Chaplain Garland to arrange these three in such a position was if he was sort of told, perhaps by O'Brien himself. It was only logical that something like that would have happened; otherwise how would the Chaplain be able to assign these specific roles to Elizabeth, Nan, and William?
Nan couldn't decide for herself whether she should be excited or simply scared. The same went with William, and even with Elizabeth. This was the moment; the opportunity when they would put their excursive adventures to the test the real combat of space battle. But were they even officially qualified for this? To the Chaplain; three willing helpers were all he needed.
However, Nan found out, much to her surprise and disappointment, that the controls of the Enterprise helm differed slightly from the holodeck Bridge settings she encountered in the holodeck version of the Enterprise. Chaplain Garland ordered the computer to access the manual steering column and transfer helm control to manual. This was done for the purpose of making some sort of reckless attempt to engage a lateral run against the 2nd Borg cube. The Chaplain made his hurried rush to the gunner's side and immediately programmed all weapons systems to be fired at one touch-button, wherein William would hit that button at the right time. Chaplain Garland had to specify what type of arsenal, too. He also made sure that he engaged the auto-shield modulation system.
"Now we're all set!" the Chaplain concluded in a rather excited tone of voice. This was the moment when both he and the children under his watch would make a difference in the battle of the Corellian sector.
That is, if Capt. Picard and his senior officers weren't monitoring their activity on the Enterprise's Main Bridge.
Meanwhile, on the Battle Bridge, Lt. Commander Worf was alerted by a steady rapid four-beat beeping sound on his console.
"Captain, I am picking up a life-form reading on the Main Bridge," he informed quite loudly.
"How many?" Picard asked promptly. He didn't expect anyone to be able to make it to the Main Bridge after everything on the Main Bridge was on total lockdown. That also included the turbolift which lead directly up to the Main Bridge itself.
"Four, sir," answered Worf.
"Can you identify them?" asked Picard.
"Three of them are human children. However, I cannot identify the other."
Picard immediately sprang up from his captain's chair to take a good (long) look at Worf's monitor on the Battle Bridge's tactical console.
Worf was right about three of the life forms identified as human children. Picard managed to identify the other. Who else could it be but the Chaplain. For a pretty long time the captain regarded the Chaplain as a friend, if not a close one.
"Chaplain…Garland," Picard muttered to himself in utter astonishment.
How on earth did Chaplain Garland and the children ever gain unauthorized access to the Main Bridge itself, especially when the Bridge was at total lockdown? And more importantly, why? What did the Chaplain himself plan at the beginning? Was the Chaplain using the Borg invasion as an opportunity to seize command of the Enterprise? Did the Chaplain manage to disable any security sensor systems on the Main Bridge upon his arrival? Did he happen to have a set of rogue override commands for a Galaxy Class starship? These were the disturbing questions that were lingering in Picard's mind at this very moment.
The Chaplain, in spite of his seeming lack of reverence and his "semi-scandalous" lifestyle, was never known to break people's trust, especially after what he had been through for the past forty years. However his mind was racing desperately over why the Chaplain would not only take command of the Bridge, but also put the lives of three of the children from time in jeopardy. Whatever reason it was, Picard was desperately hoping that it did not have something to do with the Chaplain's own amusement. But the Chaplain still had to be questioned, personally by Capt. Picard himself. "What the hell could he be doing in there with three others?" he asked himself quietly.
He faced his tactical officer. "Open a channel to the Main Bridge," he ordered quietly. Somehow he just couldn't get over the rather unsettling fact over how the Chaplain and the three children managed to access the Main Bridge itself. Perhaps in all those months in his friendship, however brief it might have been maybe at the beginning, with the Chaplain himself, the Chaplain kept some dirty little secret from Picard that had something to do with his career in the Maquis before the organization went renegade after the Federation-Cardassian War. For the most part his lingering reaction was one of surprise, but he was not about to panic over someone sneaking into his Bridge. At the very least it wasn't the Borg.
Worf pressed a touch-button on the tactical console. "Channel open, Captain," he informed gruffly.
While seated in his captain's chair, Capt. Picard cleared his throat before speaking over the comm channel. "Chaplain, what the hell are you doing on my Bridge?" he yelled.
On the Main Bridge, Chaplain Garland became pretty startled over Capt. Picard's sudden "comm intrusion". "What the hell…" he muttered in frustration and dread as he fumbled over the right-hand console panel of the captain's chair. Possessing both dread and excitement of being discovered, and with the three children, he pressed the comm button in trepidation as he proceeded to answer the comm.
"Um…who is this?" asked the Chaplain, having some lingering feelings of embarrassment of being discovered. But he already knew that; there were sensors all on board the Enterprise itself.
"Captain Picard of the Enterprise, speaking from the battle Bridge," said the captain. His tone did not seem warm and friendly this time; it had a professional curtness to it. "What the hell are you doing up there? It had better not be…"
Chaplain Garland had no time to listen to Picard's justified rants about the Chaplain's seemingly restless escapades of heroism. "Just prepping the necessary coordinates on what would appear to be our final run against that damn Borg cube," he spoke up quite loudly.
"Who are you with?" Picard asked right away crossly.
"What?" the Chaplain called out.
"We have received got a reading of three life forms on the Bridge, Chaplain," the captain informed him quite bluntly. "Who the hell are they? Did you leave our guests in the Guest Quarters for your own amusement…?"
"On the contrary," the Chaplain interrupted him quickly. "Three of our guests from time, Captain, are with me," answered the Chaplain. "Miss Cole and the Merriman toddlers."
Picard heaved a rather frustrated sigh. It seemed to the captain that the Chaplain himself was acting irresponsibly for his own amusement in the field of heroism, with no regard to the safety of the three children. At the same time, however, the Chaplain might have some rather valid reasons for bringing the three children to the Main Bridge, and it certainly was not for their own amusement. But he felt he had to warn the Chaplain himself.
"Chaplain, if something happens to them, you'll be culpable in violating the Temporal Prime Directive," he warned him quite seriously.
"Well, I ain't got nobody else to assist me, and it sure as hell looked like those three voted to come along!" said the Chaplain. "You can thank William Merriman for that!"
"You could have asked some of the crewmen to assist you," said Picard.
"I couldn't leave the others," replied the Chaplain. "Not alone, at the very least, if ya know what I'm talkin' about. At the very least, I need someone who can give me a rudimentary readout of the tactical console, and I need someone who can pilot the ship and someone who can press the firing button at the split second."
"Who's at the helm?" asked Picard.
"Nan Merriman," answered the Chaplain.
"And the NAV?"
"Um…William, as I recall."
"And Miss Cole is at the tactical station, I assume?"
"Affirmative, Captain."
The seeming weirdness of the Chaplain's situation, as well as that of the children, at least in the mind of Capt. Picard still unsettled him rather greatly. Aside from all that jazz, it was also the inconvenience due to his reputation as a starship captain. But more than that. From Picard's point of view, the Chaplain was putting the lives of the three children at risk, rendering them liabilities. If something bad happened to them, Picard would be blamed for their fates. But at this point, there seemed to be nothing for Picard to do at this point. The Chaplain was already at the bridge, and the captain's prudence dictated that sending in a tactical team to apprehend him was going to be counterproductive at the very least. Besides, in spite of what the Chaplain was doing at this very minute, the captain still kind of trusted him, and the Chaplain had his reasons for coming over to the Enterprise's Main Bridge. However much the notion that every man must be supposed a knave nagged the back of his mind, he still desperately hoped that whatever the Chaplain was doing right now had something to do with him actually having a trick or two up his sleeve in the fight against the Borg.
Picard hung his head, his hands on his hips, in the position as if trying to mull over…something. "What do you want now, Chaplain?" he asked over the comm.
"I want y'all to trust me," replied Chaplain Garland.
Picard heaved a rather exasperated sigh as he reclined back in the captain' chair. "Do I have a choice," he said to himself quietly.
"It's either that, or nothin'," said the Chaplain, answering as though he could even hear Picard's low-toned statements made unto himself.
Captain Picard was now more forceful in his reply. "Fine," he said now more forcefully.
"And one other thing, Captain," the Chaplain continued as if trying to make a last request to the captain of the Enterprise. "And one other thing, Captain," said he. "I'd like power to the main turbolift restored so that we can make our own little getaway from the Bridge in case the Borg drones start beaming directly to our position."
"You've got it!" Picard said finally. "Picard out!"
Immediately after that Capt. Picard turned to Commander La Forge if he was up to some task that he was about to give. "Geordi, is there a way we can remotely restore power to the main turbolift system?"
Commander La Forge's basic proposal had something to do with rerouting the flow of electrical current from the nonessential functions of the ship to the main turbolift leading up to the Main Bridge. It would be necessary because due to the children having VIP status the Chaplain and the children would need a backup escape route in case Borg drones started beaming aboard the Main Bridge itself.
"Yeah," said La Forge. "Remotely switch the circuit breakers to close position, allowing for interrupted alternating current flow. Then we can reroute electrical power from any nonessential functions of the ship: transporters, replicators, force fields, any whatsoever…probably life support as well."
"Transporters?" Commander Riker burst out.
"The three latter suggestions in the list of separate power sources are out of the question," said the captain.
"If we have no choice, we may have to do just that, Captain," replied La Forge. "Right now, most of the systems, essential and nonessential, are still functional. Whatever systems on board the Enterprise that are still functional…it's gonna get compromised. Those Borg are taking over the ship real fast, Captain. Very soon we won't have much of anything to use for a secondary backup for your Chaplain friend and your VIPs to get off the Bridge if Borg drones start popping in as uninvited guests."
For some reason Picard's face reflected skepticism, as he really was skeptical about Geordi's proposal. Transporter systems? What about Data, the Corellian Bridge Officer Kese, and the other two children from time? What about them? If they needed immediate options, the transporter systems would need to be kept active, which meant that they could not afford to have interference by a diversion of electrical power. If power was cut off from the transporter systems, Data and the rest of his assault party would not be able to get back on board the Enterprise.
"We can attempt the use of the transporter systems instead as a temporary power source," suggested Geordi. "The systems themselves may be feasible for secondary backup usage."
"That'll put Mr. Data and whatever party he has in a vulnerable situation," warned Commander Riker.
"Do it," ordered Picard briefly.
At this point it was already apparent that Capt. Picard was woefully unaware that Felicity and Ben are with Data and the Corellian Bridge Commander Kese. But even if he was, he would still give the order anyway because power was needed for the turbolift for the Main Bridge, so that Chaplain Garland and the three others would not get trapped in the Main Bridge. At least Felicity and Ben had Data and the Corellian officer, and both Felicity and Ben were big enough to defend themselves, at the very least, if not strong enough. Nan, William, and Elizabeth had only the Chaplain to watch and guard them, and even he would not be enough to defend the three others against a possible Borg boarding on the Main Bridge. This was why Capt. Picard had to make sure that an escape route was available for the four of them on the Main Bridge. Besides, if Felicity and Ben couldn't be rescued outside the Enterprise, at least Chaplain Garland and the children could.
Chaplain Garland gave the order for little Nan to move the ship a little closer, about 8000 meters, according to the distance meter with the measurements displayed directly on an easy-to-read LCD screen positioned at the middle of the helm console. Capt. Picard managed to send the coordinates from the battle bridge, the secondary bridge of the Enterprise's star-drive part. The Enterprise was now set on a direct collision course against the secondary lead cube on full impulse power. A large percentage of electrical power was being diverted to the saucer impulse engines.
The Chaplain in the meantime was tapping various touch-buttons on the helm console while Nan was at the helmsman's seat. "Diverting…auxiliary power…to the saucer impulse engines…!" he said to himself in such a manner that even the children could hear him.
Meanwhile, on the second lead Borg cube, information was relayed in unison by the Borg collective about the status of the Enterprise and where it was currently heading.
"Federation-starship-heading-directly-at-Cube-unit-0-0-1-5. Identification: U-S-S-Enterprise, N-C-C-1-7-0-1-D. Federation-starship-bearing-at-3-2-3,-mark-4-1-4."
What this basically meant that despite the verbosity of the info relayed by the Borg Collective, the fact was certain that the Enterprise was now heading straight for the Borg cube. In seconds, the Borg Queen was alerted at the Enterprise homing in, perceiving it to be setting a collision course at the cube she was on.
The Borg Queen issued a single order to the cube, bellowing like a typical spoiled child. "FIRE EVERYTHING!" she yelled.
The cube vessel launched a salvo of several gravimetric torpedoes. They homed on the saucer section of the Enterprise like wasps.
Things were not so good on the Main Bridge. The Enterprise was suffering from a constant barrage of gravimetric torpedoes. Nan and William were getting more and more fearful by the second, even to the point of losing their morale.
"This is hopeless!" cried Elizabeth. Her own statement seemed to echo what Nan and William were thinking during this very moment, that is, if they had some idea as to what was at stake here.
"Don't get all fearful, Missy!" the Chaplain tried to encourage her in an effort to bolster morale in her, and possibly to little Nan and William as well. "We're not at our breakin' point! At least not yet anyway! Just read out the goddamn stats!"
"What do you mean?" cried Elizabeth. At this point she was finding herself unable to know what to do on the tactical console. And apart from that all three children feared greatly that the Enterprise was going to break apart.
"Whatever you can make out of that goddamn console, just read it out loud!" bellowed the Chaplain.
In spite of her sheer fright Elizabeth struggled to focus herself on not only making out what the tactical console computer screen was displaying to her, but also struggling to interpret what was being conveyed as best as her eleven-year-old mind could. She couldn't really give some sort of a technically intelligent answer; her mind just wasn't mature enough to handle those kind of sophisticated technical explanations that the experts were so good at that it was almost second nature to them. So Elizabeth's explanations comprised mainly of a few simple words that would normally be expected of a five-year-old struggling to interpret the overall story of a well-known but rather complex piece of literature of her time like Gulliver's Travels.
Elizabeth continued staring in shear concentration at the console computer screen. Very soon she took notice of blinking little red blips approaching a figure of a Galaxy-class starship.
"We've got…things incoming!" cried Elizabeth, feeling both panicky and frightened at the very same time.
"Torpedoes?" bellowed Chaplain Garland. "Damn them! Maintain current course and speed!"
The gravimetric torpedoes kept pummeling the Enterprise. The incoming projectiles lit up with bright green lights hitting the vessel were more than enough to scare both Nan and William out of their childish wits, including Elizabeth, no less.
"Steady, folks! Ne'er mind those damn things!" cried the Chaplain.
On the Master Systems Display, bright red outlines all around the visual outlinish diagram of the Enterprise started flashing like crazy; an indication that both dorsal and ventral sections of the shield grid arweree reaching their point of compromise.
"WARNING," chirped the voice of the Enterprise'sshipboard computer emotionlessly. SHIELDS AT CRITICAL LEVEL. RECOMMEND ENGAGEMENT OF AUTO-EVASIVE MANEUVER SYSTEMS."
The ominous tone of the computer's verbal warning system sent a cold chill straight down Elizabeth's nerves. That thing, whatever it is, might not be mistaken, she thought to herself in a fearful manner, as her stomach knotted over the possibility of something terrible going to happen on the Enterprise. It was something she just couldn't get out of her eleven-year-old head easily.
"Shouldn't we…do what the computer…what 'tis called…suggests?" she asked frighteningly.
"No!" cried the Chaplain. "It'll throw us off course! Just keep 'er at full heading!"
As the Enterprise made its fairly cumbersome approach at the second Borg cube, Nan took a firm grip onto the joystick with both hands and immediately banked the ship hard to port. As was featured in the simulator two days ago, that similar joystick was at the front part of the helmsman's seat. The joystick's support column was also adjustable, as if the techies who were designing the Enterprise's helm console were anticipating some guy who was as short as Nan to be piloting the helm.
At the right moment, in almost perfect timing, Chaplain Garland executed the order to fire the Enterprise's onboard weapons. Immediately without a moment's hesitation little William hit hard on a single touch-button on the NAV computer screen. The starboard phaser banks and modified Mark VI torpedoes began to fire in both directions from the starboard bow, ninety degrees relative to the saucer section, at zero elevation, at a certain area in the Cube, where it will cause critical damage. (The phasers swept a bit on the target while five modified torpedoes fire from the launch.)
"That Borg cube's gonna need a helluva lotta punishment!" remarked the Chaplain out loud.
On the Main Bridge of the Federation starship Exeter Capt. Price surveyed the catastrophic explosion ripping a vital section of the Borg cube's hull structure. On his worry-etched face, his face slowly generate da gleeful smile. Finally, some sort of victory, even if it was against one bloody Borg cube!
"Target that explosion and fire," the captain ordered. "Fire the antimatter warheads."
"The Exeter's tactical officer inputted the firing coordinates onto the tactical console. Then she pressed the "Fire" touch-button. Outside the Exeter's front torpedo bay four modified Mark VI photon torpedoes armed with class-10 antimatter warheads were launched.
The Phoenix even acted as an auxiliary unit in the destruction of the secondary lead Borg cube.
"Fire! Fire at will!" ordered the ship's captain with great urgency.
The Phoenix immediately fired its shipboard weapons. Four Mark VI torpedoes of the same modifications of the same torpedoes fired from both the Enterprise and the Exeter were fired out of her main front photon launcher. Along with the torpedoes fired from the Exeter they homed in on the lead enemy vessel. Seconds later the Borg cube was hit.
The explosion was utterly catastrophic in nature. The antimatter warheads inside the torpedoes caused critical structural damage. The warheads combined from both starships that fired them unleashed almost ten times the catastrophic explosion of a crude Hiroshima bomb. The searing white-hot heat melted the Borg cube superstructures seconds before the explosion touched them. It was beyond hell. The blast ripped structures apart.
The Borg Queen had only a second or two to act quickly. Almost without a moment's hesitation she activated her emergency transporter unit located on her left breast. Seconds later she was beamed out of the flaming secondary lead cube.
In a final culminating and stunning explosion the cube disintegrated to the point where ship parts floated in opposite directions in space, creating what would appear to be a ripple effect of cube parts spreading around in a vast radius.
On the third Borg cube, the multitude of voices of the Borg drones in unison informed their Queen about the three children on the Main Bridge of the Enterprise. Their tone was cold and devoid of virtually all human emotion. The Queen, however, who was an individual and had a mind of her own, was beginning to have a longing for revenge. She wanted vengeance, if not justice, and she wanted the children for her own assimilation purposes.
"Bridge-scan-complete," informed the drones. "Four-life-forms-identified."
"Target the bridge," ordered the Queen coldly.
On the Enterprise Bridge Elizabeth was breathing a heavy and satisfied sigh of relief. At the very same time, however, she was just as wrapped in the shock and awe that little Nan and William were wrapped up in. Clearly these children had never, even in their lifetime, witnessed a destructive explosion of such magnitude that not even gunpowder could imitate. And especially one that took place in the vast emptiness of space. And to top that off, each of the children were silently questioning the strange aspect of not hearing even the slightest sound of the explosion itself.
In the meantime, however, little William was busy jumping for joy in his seat, crying out, "Yes! Yes! Take that, bad ship!" Nan, however, only shot back a shocked glance at her little brother. Elizabeth, on the other hand, was already finding herself unable to restrain her questions about what she perceived as a "silent explosion".
"Why…why did we not hear anything?" she asked falteringly.
"Hear a-what?" asked the Chaplain, putting his right finger to his right ear, as if to catch thoroughly what Elizabeth was trying to say to him.
"The sound," said Elizabeth, wondering if the Chaplain could really hear her. "We had no sound. Nothing at all. Why?" she finished with a descent of her inflection.
"Cause there ain't no atmosphere in space," the Chaplain answered Elizabeth in point of fact, and in quite a blunt manner without going into too much elaborate scientific detail. "Space is a vacuum."
"Meaning…" Elizabeth pressed on, trying to get this strange scientific notion wrapped around her eleven-year-old head.
"Sound needs air to travel. Without it, ya don't got no sound."
"So…if there was no air, we…um…we wouldn't hear each other speak?" Elizabeth continued pressing on.
"Exactly," said the Chaplain quite abruptly, as if he was so anxious to get the discussion to end quickly. "C'mon, folks. Let's git the hell outta here. We're finished with business as we are, and…"
Suddenly Chaplain Garland and the children felt a violent earthquake-like lurch on board the Enterprise.
To bring down the shield grid on the bridge the Borg Queen orders several gravimetric torpedoes to target the bridge section. The Borg ship unleashed an overwhelming barrage of gravimetric torpedoes. They kept hitting the Enterprise. Ripples were forming in the deflector shields.
The sudden and unexpected violent lurch made by the gravimetric torpedoes impacting the Enterprise was literally enough to knock Chaplain Garland and the three children off their feet. Nan and William were already finding themselves sprawling on the carpeted floor of the Main Bridge.
Suddenly computer screen panels started blowing off their places due to the violent impact of the gravimetric torpedoes fired from the last Borg vessel. Electrical circuits were busted and sparks flew off like crazy, startling the children greatly. (Both Elizabeth and Nan scream when electrical sparks nearly hit them. The lights flickered off and only the red hues of the emergency lights are kept on. All four were knocked to their feet.
"AUTOSHIELD MODULATION SYSTEM IS OFFLINE," warbled the computer.
Elizabeth felt very terrified. "What's all this red?" she asked instinctively in a shout as she looked around the room in a flustered manner, with the blinking red lights going on and off in rhythm.
Chaplain Garland grunted in sheer pain as he struggled to push himself up from the debris-scattered floor. Then after he straightened himself out he strapped on his trusty shoulder-worn RPD light machine gun on his right hand side, hoping that it wasn't too damaged during the Borg attack.
"Emergency lights," he answered finally in a rather gruff manner. "They're powered by the backup generator system on board this ship." He managed to help Nan and William up on their own two feet before he stretched and contracted, that is, relaxed, his body. "And you'd a-better hope that those goddamn generators don't get busted by those space zombies as well," he added quite forcefully, before casting a brief look at Nan and William, to see how they personally were doing so far. "You all right?" he asked pretty simply.
Nan and William made nervous head nods, their eyes wide with fear and utter shock, as the Chaplain looked at them again. "This still ain't no time to get scared shitless…" he had to remind them briefly, lest they of all people let down their own guard.
Elizabeth, despite experiencing the shock of the attack, was gradually recovering her wits. "Well…" she began. "…Most of the time I can't help feeling scared…even now…" she remarked a mite solemnly as cast a look at Nan and William as she gathered them under her wing. "And the same…can be said…of these two little mites." Even she herself felt scared, but in spite of all that she tried her best to comfort little Nan and William during their fearful hour, for her best friend's sake, and she sought consolation in them in her hour of fear as well.
At this point Elizabeth most likely didn't understand quite thoroughly what the hell Chaplain Garland was talking about, but she could only make her own personal affirmation of hope that nothing further would go wrong…if ever. Chaplain Garland made his stumble across the Main Bridge in order to get himself access to the tactical console.
"Whatever it is you were talking about, I do hope that everything goes all right," said Elizabeth as she shivered in fear.
Chaplain Garland grunted in pain again as he leaned himself over on the starboard side of the security console. "Well…hope all you want," he said in his same gruff manner. "I'm afraid I suspect…that it's only a matter of time before those Borg drones start touching on those generators." He managed this time to make his own way to the security console to do a quick check on the deflector shield grid status. As he pushed himself to the middle of the console a console panel blew off near his face, which was followed by stray electrical sparks gushing out of the gaping area where the console once was.
"Damn!" yelled the Chaplain vociferously. The grimace in his face was already betraying his heated frustration over the bloody panel more than the fear of getting his face hit. Chaplain Garland attempted to check the console for the shield grid status, but was unable to, as power to the security console has been cut off. The console screens were totally blank, as they had lost all electrical power. It was at this point that the Chaplain heaves a very frustrated sigh.
"Computer…" shouted the Chaplain. He paused to get his breath back. "…What…what is the status of the deflector shields?"
It took a little more than three seconds before the computer responded. "DEFLECTOR SHIELDS AT ZERO PERCENT," was its emotionless and synthesized reply.
"Damn!" the Chaplain swore again. He looked up slowly, as a rather frightening feeling came to him. If the shields were completely down, virtually everything on board the Enterprise, including the Main Bridge, and possibly the Battle Bridge was vulnerable to the Borg. Of course Captain Picard made sure that the Battle Bridge was equipped with its own power generator used to power the Battle Bridge's surrounding force field, which would prevent beaming directly into that particular Bridge itself. But the defense systems on the Main Bridge were offline, which put Chaplain Garland, Elizabeth, Nan, and William in…grave danger.
"That can only mean one thing…" he said to himself quietly.
Quickly he made sure that his heavy machine gun was loaded and locked. In a few seconds three Borg drones beamed directly on the Main Bridge. In a split second Chaplain Garland whipped out his M9 Beretta sidearm and started popping lead at the advancing Borg drones. The gunshots were so loud for the three children that they both covered their ears. But, Elizabeth, having to mind Nan and William, had to stop covering her ears so she could lead Nan and William to the short temporary safety of the Chaplain's behind, grimacing in sheer pain as the loud gunshots hurt her ears.
Then Elizabeth grabbed on to the handle of the Chaplain's heavy machine gun hanging on his right side. Gripping as hard as she could, and tensing her body, she forced herself to pull the strong trigger. The replicated RPD fired live replicated machine gun rounds directly at the Borg drones, which drilled into their cybernetic bodies and damaged them totally beyond repair. Elizabeth kept up the live machine gun fire until every last one of the Borg drones present on the Main Bridge itself dropped dead.
"Thanks, Miss Cole," said the Chaplain quickly, looking at Elizabeth. "Though I think I should really warn you about…"
There was no time to finish his piece. Immediately five more Borg drones materialized on the Main Bridge itself.
"Oh, no," said the Chaplain, wide eyed in surprise more than terror.
Chaplain Garland opened fire with his heavy machine gun. The Borg drones were deterred, but only just, for they were advancing faster in their mindless automaton marathon pace. Between machine gun bursts, the Chaplain ordered the children out of the Main Bridge and into the turbolift.
"Come on! Into the turbolift!" screamed the Chaplain himself. He made his advance to the main turbolift backward, as he kept on pumping live replicated rounds into the already machine-gun-ripped bodies of the Borg drones. Normally it would have posed a hazard to use the turbolift in the even of a major Borg invasion. But for the time being Chaplain Garland was going to have to take that chance…for now, as there was no other way to get back to Deck 10, where the safety of the Guest Quarters was. After making his way to the turbolift, the Chaplain pressed the turbolift button. While waiting for thirty seconds the Chaplain protected the three children by keeping the Borg at bay with whatever machine gun ammo he had. When he ran out of ammo, he switched to his M9 sidearm, which he loaded upon realizing that his sidearm was empty.
In a few seconds the turbolift came up, and Chaplain Garland shoved Elizabeth, Nan, and William into the main turbolift itself. The ride in the turbolift was not without incident, however, as Garland and the children heard a loud thud. Then there was drilling on the ceiling area. However, by the time the tool was recognized as Borg in origin, the turbolift manages to reach the level where the guest quarters are located. Garland and the children sprinted out of the turbolift, passed hurriedly the rows of corridors occupied with Borg fighting and Starfleet personnel using WWII weapons against them.
When the little group made their hasty arrival back to the Guest Quarters, Chaplain Garland wasted no time in setting up a physical defense barrier against the doors in case the Borg attempted to gain entry through the doors. However, the Chaplain knew full well that this barrier would only be temporary because the Borg were excellent at adapting to most situations, probably even the toughest ones, but he did not tell the children that because it would make them lose orbs of courage. He did, however, know that the Borg, just like all other finite entities, had limits as they what they could do and what situations they could adapt to, even if the Borg themselves would dare not admit this.
So Chaplain Garland and the children, when asked, if not ordered to, assisted each other in setting up a barricade beside the room's entranceway. The first thing they utilized was the force field system. Then to top that off, they added the room's desk. After much pushing and shoving of furniture to barricade the Guest Quarters entrance, the four plopped down beside the left hand side of the king-sized bed, flat-out exhausted...and at the same very same time immensely relieved to have escaped the clutches of the Borg with their lives.
"Do…you think that will hold?" asked Elizabeth, as she struggled to recover her breath.
"…Think so," the Chaplain replied, as he struggled to recover his breath, too.
"What if it doesn't?" asked Nan, who was worried as usual about what would happen if the Borg came back.
"Well, frankly, little one…it's gonna be helluvan interestin' day," the Chaplain finished quite plainly.
For most of the time I was suffering from "writer's block". But there were other aspects to this delay of chapter submission, apart from my summer schoolwork ('cause I was taking summer classes at the Germanna Community College back in '10). My mind could just literally blank out from staring at a brightly lit computer screen for lengthy periods of time. And at times I just had to give my eyes a break from staring at the computer screen for a long time. So I literally had to print out at least three drafts, go over them, analyze them, correct them, etc. before I could submit them to FanFiction dot Net. Aside from all that I needed to fill in the narrative gaps, which I initially noted in ALL CAPS so I could notice them easily.
Originally I decided to just submit chapter 52 as one whole chapter. However, after running through it nearly five times, and modifying it in the same number of times it took to run through the entire chapter, I decided that the chapter was far too long out of the ordinary.
And now for yet another overdose of Author's Notes:
A/N (1): The scene where Chaplain Garland and Elizabeth are hanging on to the ladder rungs for dear life was inspired by the scene in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, where Capt. MacTavish prevents Sgt. Gary "Roach" Sanderson from falling off the ice ledge in the beginning mission ("Cliffhanger"), and the scene from Batman Begins, where after a battle in the monastery in the Himalayas Batman is about to fall off a snowy ledge whole having to prevent both himself in his "mentor" Ducard from falling off, too. (Is it possible that either two derived movie scene ideas from each other?)
A/N (2): The phrase of the quotation "…Every man must be supposed a knave…" was from Alexander Hamilton.
A/N (3): The coordinates were just simply a bunch of randomly made-up numerical values.
A/N (4): "Elizabeth continued staring in shear concentration at the console computer screen. Very soon she took notice of blinking little red blips approaching a figure of a Galaxy-class starship." This idea was derived from the comedy sci-fi movie Galaxy Quest.
A/N (5): The scene where the Exeter and the Phoenix destroy the last Borg cube with modified Mark VI photon torpedoes, in respective order, was a montage to Star Trek VI, where the Excelsior and the Enterprise destroy the Klingon Bird-Of-Prey with Mark VI photon torpedoes.
A/N (6): The phrase "orbs of courage" was a reference to the classic Golden Compass video game (the video game based on the Golden Compass movie, which is base on The Golden Compass, one of the books of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy). In the video game the playable character Lyra Belacqua has courage orbs that can be lost if she gets dis-"courage"d in a tough situation in the game.
