X
"We are cloaking", the Human Tactical Officer currently on duty aboard the Qeh said with dread.
Ben Maxwell turned to the woman. "What?"
"Our shields are down!"
Maxwell alerted Sela and Sloan. Before they could arrive, the ship shook.
"Did Voyager just fire on us, Tactical?"
The woman turned to Sloan. "Negative! The shot came from an unknown vessel, but I see nothing on scanners. Warp Drive and weapons are down!"
"Cloaked", Maxwell muttered, as Sela and Sloan entered The Bridge. "Find that other ship!"
Janeway and The Doctor felt the ship shake as well. The Doctor used the tricorder, which wasn't used for medical purposes, to begin the process to beam them to Voyager, which he had always felt would be the safer option.
Nothing happened.
"Oh, no", The Doctor said, mild alarm in his voice.
"What's going on, Doctor?"
"I don't know, Admiral", the hologram said honestly. "We should have been on Voyager by now."
Just as he finished, the door opened violently, the two Centurions with their weapons at the ready. "Centurion Chatet, step away from the prisoner. We are under attack!"
"I am not done with the patient yet. I'm a Medic, not a soldier!"
It was standard for all Centurions, while onboard, to carry a Disruptor with them. The Doctor's was holstered to his right, with Janeway standing behind him. With no clear line-of-site to the Human female, the two Centurions never did see her pull the weapon from the holster, and they were too dead moments later to comment about it anyway.
"Come on, Doctor", Janeway said, grabbing one of the dead Romulans, The Doctor grabbing the other. "All hell is breaking loose, and we're in the middle of it." They stowed the two dead Centurions in a bedroom closet.
"Any ideas, Centurion Chatet", Janeway said with a serious mocking tone?
"I think I know where we can access a computer to get us beamed out of here", he said calmly, leading Janeway into the hallway. There were others scurrying about, but seeing an armed Centurion with the prisoner, no one paid them much attention.
Shelby looked over at Ops. "Did we get Janeway and The Doctor?"
Ops shook their head. "Negative, Admiral. I'll send a message to Phantom and see if they arrived there."
"Make it quick." She hit her communicator. "Storming party, stand by for possible deployment." The was no response, nor did she expect one.
"Admiral", Ops was back to her quickly, "Phantom says they don't have them either."
"Commander Marinovich", Shelby said tensely, "prepare to beam you teams over on my mark."
"Aye, Admiral!"
Tuvok didn't look up, concentrating on his readings. "Voyager did not receive the Admiral and Doctor. They are still onboard the Romulan Warbird."
"Shit", Tom Paris said, just loud enough for the others to hear him. He kept Phantom moving slowly, in an erratic pattern near the Warbird, hoping they couldn't see the cloaked ship.
"Voyager is preparing to insert the Marine forces. I am preparing another photon torpedo to completely disable their Impulse drive as well." A few moments later, Tuvok concluded his statement. "Their Impulse drive is down as well. They're dead in space."
"Admiral", Seven noted from her station. "The Warbird's Impulse drive is down. They're not going anywhere."
With that news, the fifty Marine SpecOps forces were beamed to different parts of the Romulan ship to try and retrieve Kathryn Janeway and The Doctor.
"Teams are onboard", Tactical advise Shelby and Seven, the two women sharing a look.
"Impulse is gone", the Warbird Tactical officer said loudly. "We have intruder alerts on multiple areas of the ship."
"Goddamn them", Sloan said, as he realized he had been played by Shelby. "Get Janeway up here, immediately."
"What are you gonna do with her, Sloan."
Sloan looked coldly over at Maxwell. "What do you think?"
When Sela tried to raise the guards assigned to Janeway, she got no answer. Without a word, she looked at another Centurion on The Bridge, and they raced away before Sloan could say anything to both of them.
The Federation Marines hadn't beamed onto The Bridge. They came onboard in four different groups, three into the area where prisoners were held, and one to disable the Engineering staff and hold that vital part of the ship.
Meanwhile, The Doctor and Janeway had headed forward on the ship, to the closest turbolift to head down to the lower levels. The Doctor had been told that most of the Marines would be in the area of the prison cells, and that's where they were headed.
The doors to the lift opened, and just as they were beginning to close, Commander Sela and the Centurion jutted around a corner. The Centurion fired a quick shot.
The doors to the turbolift closed, Sela cursing as they did.
Kathryn Janeway lay sprawled on the floor of the turbolift, a massive Disruptor wound to the right side of her chest and shoulder.
"Admiral!" The Doctor bent down toward Janeway. She had a pulse, but he could tell it was thready, and she was bleeding, and suffering from grievous phaser burns. He needed to find the Marines, and quickly.
He picked up the wounded, retired Admiral, and headed directly toward the holding cells. He could hear the sound of weapons discharge getting louder as he approached.
"Voyager, Marinovich", the Commander called, as his forces fought off the Romulans, "Alpha squad informs Engineering secured, but we're under heavy fire, no sign of the Admiral."
His men and women were dug in, so far not taking any casualties, the element of surprise had worked well for them. Had this been a ship with a full compliment, they'd have been in serious trouble-the trouble was bad enough without a full compliment, but they were holding their own.
Another minute, perhaps a little less went by, the Marines taking two quick casualties. Commander Marinovich saw movement to his left. He prepared to fire his weapon, but realized that the Romulan approaching him had an unconscious Kathryn Janeway slung over his shoulder.
"Doctor?" The Commander held his gun steady, just in case.
"Yes, and not a moment too soon, Commander", the former EMH stated urgently. "We need to get the Admiral back to Voyager STAT. She's severely wounded."
"What happened to your beam-out?"
The Doctor shook his head. "I have no idea, but we're beyond that now. Can we get her back?"
"Stand by, Doc", the man said, hitting his communicator. "Voyager, Marinovich, we have the Admiral. She and two Marines are critically wounded. Requesting immediate beam-back to the ship!"
Seven's eyes went wide hearing that Kathryn had been injured. She locked eyes briefly with Shelby, who gave a terse nod. Seven left The Bridge for Sickbay.
"Transporter Room", she commanded with the same urgency, "beam all our people back." She turned to the Helm. "Helm, when we have them all, get our asses out of here, course your discretion, Warp 8. Ops, inform Phantom that we're leaving momentarily."
The word was sent to Phantom. Within a minute, the Transporter Room called back. "Admiral, all members accounted for onboard. The Admiral and the two Marines were beamed to Sickbay!"
"Very well", Shelby said with some small relief, knowing this might not be over yet, "prepare to take out the Warbird, then we'll depart."
"Sloan, Maxwell", Sela said over her communicator. "The prisoner escaped."
"Commander", Sela heard Maxwell's voice respond, "whoever was onboard, they've beaming back as we speak, and we're dead in the water."
"You and Sloan beam to Shuttle Bay Three", she advised in a clipped voice. "They're going to fire on this ship in a matter of moments."
The two Human men didn't need to think twice about it, and moments later, they, Sela, the Centurion who had escorted Sela, and two others, were onboard a Romulan Scout shuttle. Sela lifted off from the Qeh the moment the last of Voyager's Marines re-materialized on that ship.
Tuvok received the message onboard Phantom. "Mr. Paris, prepare to go to Warp 8, course at your discretion. Voyager is preparing to destroy the Warbird."
"Fire a couple of shots for us, Tuvok", B'Elanna said with her own dawning relief.
"I was planning to do so", the Vulcan said, B'Elanna swearing she heard some protest in the man's voice. "Firing now."
The Warbird Qeh was between the Romulan shuttle and Voyager-and whatever else might be out there, the six inhabitants mused, certain there was a cloaked ship in the vicinity. The scout ship could cloak as well, and did so, heading, at least for the moment, away from Admiral Shelby's ship.
Within ten seconds of departing from Qeh, the smaller ship witnessed the destruction of the old Warbird, as it exploded from multiple torpedo's fired from Voyager and Phantom. Sloan and Sela took the destruction of the Romulan vessel better than Maxwell did-Maxwell had at least somewhat of a conscience, and didn't like sacrificing all those people so they could get away. Sela and Sloan looked at their underlings as nothing more than cannon fodder, so didn't really care about the collateral damage.
Sela herself was at the helm of the scout ship when Qeh disintegrated. "I'm going to keep us right here", she informed the others, taking the ship to minimum power and idling the engines. If Voyager and Phantom were looking, they wouldn't see much of anything. "They'll depart the area now, and we'll let them."
Even though she wouldn't shed a tear over the loss of the crew on the Qeh, Sela, like Sloan, hated to lose, and took any opportunity at vengeance that they could get. Sloan, seated behind and to the left of Sela spoke. "After they're clear, we're heading toward Earth", he pronounced. "I'm not gonna give up on killing Seven-and I think a few other should join her in whatever there is in the afterlife."
"I highly doubt I and the three Centurions will be welcome with open arms on Earth, Sloan", Sela noted calmly. Not that she would turn down the fight. "It would be pleasant to settle a few scores, however."
Maxwell didn't say a word about what was being discussed. "If none of you mind, I'm going to close my eyes for a few hours. You two can come up with a brilliant plan while I'm sleeping, if you don't mind."
The man got up and went to one of the three, small sleeping quarters onboard, leaving Sloan and Sela to exchange quiet glances at each other.