It wasn't long before the three officers were marching down the corridor along the midsection of the station. All three were now wearing their Starfleet duty uniforms including Conserkk, who had changed out of her dress and cancelled her date with the station first officer in order to accompany Blair and Aerin on their quest to determine why the hell the three of them had just been mysteriously promoted, rank pips included.
Thankfully they hadn't passed anyone they knew from the O'Donnell on their way down to the shuttlebay, thereby saving themselves the stress of having to make up a story about why they were impersonating higher ranking officers.
The trio finally arrived at the Hub, and from the central area with the transporter rooms through a corridor to the shuttle bay where an ensign was waiting for them outside of a Type-6 personnel shuttle.
The ensign looked like he had been pacing in front of the shuttle for some time--he was looking at the floor and muttering to himself quietly until he noticed the trio approaching him, at which point he immediately stopped and snapped to attention.
"Ensign McHenry, pilot third class, sir!"
The three officers stopped in front of him. Conserkk cleared her throat and put on a stern poker face and took a step closer to the ensign. She stared sternly into his face, then moved her eyes down to his shoulder. She swept her hand over it, brushing some lint-which, as Aerin and Blair well knew, was imaginary-off of it, then looked him straight in the eye.
"I didn't know Starfleet regulations allowed for uniforms to be so... unclean during a duty shift."
McHenry stiffened. "Uh... no ma'am."
"No what, ensign?"
He seemed to stiffen even more. "No, Starfleet regulations have not changed in that manner. To the best of my knowledge. Ma'am."
Blair looked like he was struggling to keep a straight face at this point. Aerin, being the Vulcan, simply looked on with a slightly condescending look in the general direction of Conserkk.
Conserkk took a half step back from the ensign. "Well McHenry, are you going to ferry us or not?"
"Yes ma'am. Right this way." The ensign disappeared into the shuttle.
Blair snorted as he regarded Conserkk for a moment as soon as the thoroughly chewed-out ensign was out of earshot. "Enjoying your newfound identity?"
Conserkk simply smirked and moved inside the shuttle. Blair let loose of one more chuckle before following Conserkk and resuming "Commander mode." Aerin followed with a barely audible sigh.
Inside the shuttlecraft, McHenry had already started the pre-launch sequence. He tapped a communications control.
"Shuttle oh-one-seven to spacedock control. Pre launch sequence complete, request permission for departure." He closed the channel and turned to Blair, who had been standing behind him, watching.
"Excuse me sir, but Starfleet shuttlecraft regulations explicitly state that all passengers should be in their seats with safety harnesses attached before and during departure processes."
"...oh. Okay." Blair tried shrugging in the most non-chalant manner he could muster and joined Aerin and Conserkk who were already seated and belted in on a bench style seat.
Aerin raised an eyebrow at Blair. "Very 'by the book,' is he not?"
"No kidding!" Conserkk broke in. "Looks like his first week on duty."
"Mmm," Aerin agreed.
After another moment, the communications equipment crackled. "Shuttle oh-one-seven, this is spacedock control. You are clear for departure. Please proceed along pre-specified course to NCC eight three three one seven."
"Acknowledged control." McHenry began punching controls on his console. "Launch in progress."
The whole group felt themselves pushed back in their seats slightly as the shuttlecraft went from zero to half impulse in one point five seconds, but the feeling tapered off as the inertial dampers kicked in.
"Not a bad launch, ensign," Blair noted.
"Thank you, sir." McHenry didn't turn back to acknowledge the complement. He appeared to be giving all of his attention to the shuttlecraft controls. Blair shrugged.
Aerin cleared his throat. "I suggest you let the ensign pilot the craft, Darrian. It is customary for Starfleet to post third class pilots aboard starbases as shuttle ferry pilots."
Blair swallowed. "Thanks for making me feel better about the whole thing."
The three passengers looked out the window at the sight of Utopia Planitia.
"Hey, there's the O'Donnell." Conserkk pointed out the not-so-far-away Dry Dock. She shuddered. "I wonder how well they would accept a medical assistant that ranks higher than the CMO."
"Not to mention a Commander at tactical," Blair laughed.
Aerin stared out the viewport at the O'Donnell, not even bothering to acknowledge the two previous comments with so much as an eyebrow raise.
"Hey." Conserkk poked Aerin on the arm. "You alright?"
"Perhaps not." Without turning his head, he raised the volume of his voice so McHenry could hear. "Ensign, open a channel to the USS O'Donnell, in Dry Dock 47."
"Aye sir."
"What is it?" Blair asked.
"There appears to be some kind of energy fluctuation that is localized in the engineering section of the ship."
Blair squinted out the viewport and did manage to make out some kind of faint blue electrical-looking emissions from the bottom of the starship's hull.
McHenry had slowed the shuttle down to one-quarter impulse as he accessed the communcations equipment. "Sir, I've managed to raise the O'Donnell."
"Put it on screen."
Blair turned to the miniature-sized viewscreen that was just right of the forward viewport. The image of the O'Donnell bridge appeared, with Captain McCullough leaning over the shoulder of the officer who was manning the operations console. In truth, they looked fairly busy. Red lights flashed in the background, indicating that the ship was on alert.
Without looking up from the ops console, McCullough spoke up. "What is it, we're a little busy here."
"Sir, this is Lieut... er... Blair about a shuttlecraft about two kilometers away. Sir, what's going on?"
"Lieutenant!" McCullough looked up from the console he was examining. "I suggest you put some distance between us, we've got some major fluctuations with the EPS power grid on decks twenty six through forty two and the containment fields around the antimatter pods are destabilizing--and we don't know why."
"Blair's brow furrowed. "But won't that lead to a--"
"Yes, a core breach and we all die, we know." McCullough's attention was distracted for a moment by the chief engineer, who was manning the engineering station near the rear of the bridge.
"Sir, containment breach in thirty seconds, there's nothing I can do!"
"Sound evac! Everyone to the nearest escape pod!" McCullough turned back to the viewer. "Blair, get that shuttle out of there, there's no telling what the explosion'll be like from these new high-efficiency warp cores!"
Blair swallowed and nodded. "Yes sir. McHenry, you heard the man, full about." Blair returned his attention to the mini-viewscreen. Most of the bridge crew had filed out already, but the captain remained--he was standing at the tactical station. "Sir, get out of there!"
McCullough didn't bother to look up. "Lieutenant, I'm a little busy coordinating evac at the moment..."
Aerin looked up--he was settled over the shuttle's sensor display. "Darrian, the O'Donnell's warp core is going critical. Five seconds."
Blair stood off his chair and yelled at the viewscreen. "Damn it, get out of there!"
"Core breach, in progress."
As soon as the phrase had escaped Aerin's mouth, the screen of the O'Donnell's bridge was swarmed with flames just a half-second before the feed went dead and the screen snowed over. The four looked out the viewport in time to see the O'Donnell shatter from the inside out by a powerful matter/antimatter explosion. The resulting shock wave was powerful enough to blow the dry dock that encapsulated the starship to pieces.
The four shuttle occupants braced themselves instinctively against the force of the wave, most of which was fortunately absorbed by the inertial dampers.
"I lost attitude control for a moment, but I've got it back now." McHenry tapped at his console in a rather calm... perhaps too calm tone. The three remaining officers, who had been staring helplessly at the violent demise of the O'Donnell, slowly moved their eyes to McHenry, with more than a hint of fury. Save, of course, Aerin.
After a moment, Conserkk exploded. "What the *HELL* are you talking about? If you didn't notice, we just lost our goddam ship!"
Conserkk's usually easy-going green eyes had taken on a noticeably different firey blue hue as she stared into the face of McHenry. The ensign swallowed and turned to the other two officers for help. Blair stared on with a rare look of anger, and even Aerin's passive gaze held a perturbed air.
McHenry swallowed once again after a moment of silence. His eyes then focused directly in front of him, almost at "attention" in his chair. "Ma'am! Starfleet regulations seventy three point two, paragraph six subsection two: in the event of an emergency, it is imperative that all Starfleet personnel on the scene remain emotionally detached in order to insure the safety of themselves and others, ma'am!"
This only seemed to perturb Conserkk even further. "I don't give a targ's behind about any goddamn regulations right now--"
"Ember." Blair's hand was on the woman's shoulder. "He's right. We have to find out what is going on... there's no use in fighting like this."
Conserkk paused, gritting her teeth. She glared at Blair for a moment, then backed away from McHenry grudgingly and took a seat near the back of the shuttle, folding her arms tightly.
"Alright then." Blair threw a glance at McHenry before looking over to Aerin, who was still hunched over the sensor display. "Orion, lets look over the sensor readings... maybe figure out how the hell this happened."
Aerin nodded and gestured to the console in front of him. "As sensors previously indicated, there were some unusual fluctuations in the EPS power grid in the stardrive section of the ship."
Blair nodded. "Yeah. Have you found out what the cause was?"
"Perhaps." Aerin tapped his console. Conserkk straightened in her seat, listening. Aerin continued on. "Shuttle sensors indicate a significant amount of maritime particles in the debris."
Conserkk spoke up. "Maritime particles? 'The hell are those?"
"I've heard of them... some kind of molecules that are found in class three nebulaes?"
"Quite correct, Darrian," Aerin continued. "According to the computer analysis, an introduction of maritime particles into the power distribution network would affect all EPS-related systems in that section of the ship. It just so happens that the antimatter containment fields are particularly vulnerable to the fluctuations produced by these particles."
Conserkk's eyes squinted as she tried to examine the sensor readings from her position in the back of the craft. "Will Starfleet get the same readings we are from the debris?"
"Highly unlikely," Aerin responded. "The maritime particles are decomposing rapidly... it is unlikely Starfleet will be able to send out an analysis team to the place of the O'Donnell's destruction before the amount of maritime particles is contributed to normal background radiation."
"So I guess we better tell them then, huh?"
"I'm already on it." Blair swiveled in his chair to face the computer panel that accessed communications. He tapped the activation control.
"Starbase two, this is shuttle oh-one-seven, come in please."
A moment passed, and nothing was heard.
"Starbase two, come in." The four officers stared out the viewport at the comm-silent base.
Blair scrutinized the console. "Looks like something's jamming the transmission... Orion, is the interference from the O'Donnell explosion and/or debris enough to block a comm signal?"
"Negative... sensors indicate that the jamming signal is being generated by... Federation technology." Aerin looked up and raised an eyebrow at that last part.
Conserkk broke in. "Federation tech? What ship is it coming from?"
Aerin's face crinkled just the slightest bit in acute frustration. "It does not appear to be localized at any point with a ship..."
Blair's eyes narrowed. "A cloaked ship? With Federation technology? How is that possible?"
Aerin pursed his lips together in thought. "If memory serves, the only Federation ship with a cloaking device is--"
"The Defiant?"
***
"Hail the Defiant," Blair said without looking away from the view of the ship that presented itself out the viewport. The Defiant was the manifestation of the Federation's latest developments in integrated combat systems and was equipped with the only cloaking device available to Starfleet, giving it the ability to become hidden from sight and sensors. It was designed exclusively for combat, contrary to most starships in the fleet, whose primary purpose is exploration. That's what made Blair nervous.
McHenry moved to comply with Blair's orders, and after a moment, the computer gave a responsive chirp. "No response, sir. They're running silent."
"Interesting." Aerin stood over the sensor display. "The Defiant is not emitting Federation transponder frequencies."
"Which means Starfleet has no idea where they are. Until, of course, they decloaked just now." Blair straightened his uniform as he looked back at Aerin. "The question is, of course, why."
Aerin nearly shrugged. "I do not know." He looked down suddenly as his console beeped insistently in alarm. "Darrian, the Defiant is powering its weapons… they are targeting the Starbase."
All four looked out the viewport in horror as the Defiant opened fire on the base with a stream of pulse phasers and a salvo of quantum torpedoes. The weapons punched through the station's shields immediately, which had only been activated a few moments before. The remaining un-shielded-against weapons exploded into the hull of the base, making a crater roughly the size of a Galaxy-class cruiser in the upper half sphere section of the base. The small warship then veered off from its vector and cloaked, disappearing from sight and sensors.
A few moments passed-all four stared on in astonishment-until Blair spoke up. "Anyone mind telling me what the hell just happened?"
"The Defiant blew a hole the size of a class-3 asteroid in the Starbase, what does it look like?" Conserkk stared out the viewport at the smoldering station with the still glowing wound.
"I know that, but-" There was a bright blue flash that flooded the shuttle's interior for a few moments, but subsided before Blair could finish his inquisitive phrase. "…the hell is that?"
"We were just scanned." Aerin stiffened in his chair. "Once again, no ship at the source coordinates." He raised a brow and peered at Blair. "The shuttle was the only object scanned."
"Shields, get the shields up." Blair hunched over McHenry, who was seated at the conn in the forward most area of the cabin as Conserkk pulled herself away from the starboard viewport and planted herself in the chair that faced the shuttle's small tactical station. She tapped a control as she sat down.
"Shields up." She turned her head in Blair's direction, but didn't move her eyes from the panel. "You think they're going after us? I'm charging weapons."
"Did you want to be caught with the shields down if they decided to? And transfer weapon energy to the shields, the peashooter on this thing wont do anything resembling damage to the Defiant if she comes after us."
Conserkk nodded and made the appropriate adjustments. Blair propped himself to McHenry's right, one hand against the ensign's chair and the other resting on the edge of the console to his forward right. He squinted as he scrutinized the vastness of space that was visable through the large forward viewport. "Come out come out… if you're going to come out, do it!"
As if in response to his demand, the Defiant slowly appeared, decloaking, directly in front of them, putting the shuttle and the small starship head to head, speeding towards each other.
"Holy shit-evasives!"
"Yes sir!" McHenry pulled his right index finger into a 45-degree length over a circular touchpad in front of him, pulling the shuttle into a tight right turn.
The Defiant veered left, unleashing a barrage of pulse phaser bursts into the shuttle's port and aft shields. The interior of the cabin shook slightly, and a few display panels flickered.
"Shields down to 60 percent!" Conserkk turned towards Blair from where she was sitting. "We can't take much more of that!"
"Darrian, if I may?"
Blair looked over his left shoulder at Aerin for a moment, then nodded.
"Thank you. Excuse me, ensign."
"Yes sir." After throwing the shuttle into a sharp left turn, McHenry slid out of the pilot's chair and was replaced by the Vulcan, who, Blair could've sworn, cracked his knuckles covertly before taking the seat.
With a few flicks of his wrists and dancing of fingers over the helm, Aerin ignited the underside port thrusters and gunned the impulse engines to 80%, inverting the craft and corkscrewing it down the Z axis at nearly half the speed of light. This maneuver didn't throw off the pursuing craft, which unleashed another barrage of pulse phasers, which decimated the shuttle's rear shields.
A power conduit ruptured near the back of the shuttle's cabin, showering sparks from the ceiling-based conduit onto the floor.
Conserkk, who had been bracing herself on her console, released her grip as the shuttle equalized. She checked the readout on her panel, then glanced up to Blair. "That last hit fried the shield generator. Another good hit and we're screwed!"
Blair's forehead began to shine with sweat. "Orion, we need to do better than that if we want to remain unincinerated…"
"I am sorry-" Aerin grunted as he pulled his finger sharply over the panel a half-second after a collision alarm sounded, banking the shuttle into a barrel roll, then immediately into a tight right turn, narrowly evading a rather nasty pair of quantum torpedoes. "I am sorry, but I cannot shake the enemy vessel."
Aerin's hand flicked the other way on the panel, but it was too late. A follow-up burst of pulse phaser blasts from the Defiant nicked the back of the shuttle's cabin, but the main burst slammed into the shuttle's port engine, taking it nearly clean off.
The inside of the shuttle rocked violently, throwing everyone off his or her chairs as the shuttle flew out of control, tumbling side over side starboard in response to the hit.
"Warning," the shuttle's computer intonted. "Outer hull breach. Multiple microfractures detected. Structural integrity collapse imminent. Estimated time to decompression: Fifteen seconds."
Blair struggled to his feet and glared out through the thick smoke that now existed inside the shuttle's cabin through the spiraling stars through the forward viewport. Small electrical fires burned everywhere in the cabin, and there was a big cracking sound as the hull began to buckle under the pressure.
"Well, it's been nice knowing you all." He made a feeble attempt at straightening his uniform, which was now singed black across the shoulders and ripped at his left sleeve. The others looked at each other worriedly as the computer counted down impassively.
"Warning. Decompression imminent. Four, three, two, one…"
***
"Transporter room, do you have them?"
Lieutenant Junior Grade Tarlsk K'Sathe cocked a brow as he paused for a moment as he waited for the comm system to respond. He glanced to the officer at the engineering station to his right, at the far side of the command center. "Ensign Cassidy…"
"Sorry sir, just another comm system glitch. Try it now."
K'Sathe was just about to open his mouth and try again when he was interrupted.
"-ter room to bridge. What the hell?? Transporter room to bridge, come in."
Cassidy smirked a bit at the somewhat unprofessional use of language by the transporter operator. K'Sathe ignored it and spoke up.
"Chief, did you get them or not?"
"Yes sir I did, but-"
"But what?"
"Ensign McHenry and party already left the transporter room, sir. They said they were on their way to the bridge. They should be there momentarily."
"Very well."
"And sir? He brought some fairly high-ranking officers along with him."
At that moment, K'Sathe heard the turbolift doors open near the back of the bridge. He gave an acknowledgement and closed the comm, then stood and faced the four new arrivals, who seemed oddly out of place-their bruised bodies and singed and tattered uniforms in comparison to the relative cleanness of the bridge on which they had just set foot. K'Sathe looked at Blair specifically and inclined his head slightly in acknowledgement. "Greetings, Commander."
Blair squinted just a bit as he looked over K'Sathe. He then nodded in return greeting. "I was hoping you could point me in the direction of the captain of this boat. I need to talk to him immediately."
K'Sathe threw a glance to Cassidy, then looked back at Blair. "But sir," he began. "You are the captain."
Thankfully they hadn't passed anyone they knew from the O'Donnell on their way down to the shuttlebay, thereby saving themselves the stress of having to make up a story about why they were impersonating higher ranking officers.
The trio finally arrived at the Hub, and from the central area with the transporter rooms through a corridor to the shuttle bay where an ensign was waiting for them outside of a Type-6 personnel shuttle.
The ensign looked like he had been pacing in front of the shuttle for some time--he was looking at the floor and muttering to himself quietly until he noticed the trio approaching him, at which point he immediately stopped and snapped to attention.
"Ensign McHenry, pilot third class, sir!"
The three officers stopped in front of him. Conserkk cleared her throat and put on a stern poker face and took a step closer to the ensign. She stared sternly into his face, then moved her eyes down to his shoulder. She swept her hand over it, brushing some lint-which, as Aerin and Blair well knew, was imaginary-off of it, then looked him straight in the eye.
"I didn't know Starfleet regulations allowed for uniforms to be so... unclean during a duty shift."
McHenry stiffened. "Uh... no ma'am."
"No what, ensign?"
He seemed to stiffen even more. "No, Starfleet regulations have not changed in that manner. To the best of my knowledge. Ma'am."
Blair looked like he was struggling to keep a straight face at this point. Aerin, being the Vulcan, simply looked on with a slightly condescending look in the general direction of Conserkk.
Conserkk took a half step back from the ensign. "Well McHenry, are you going to ferry us or not?"
"Yes ma'am. Right this way." The ensign disappeared into the shuttle.
Blair snorted as he regarded Conserkk for a moment as soon as the thoroughly chewed-out ensign was out of earshot. "Enjoying your newfound identity?"
Conserkk simply smirked and moved inside the shuttle. Blair let loose of one more chuckle before following Conserkk and resuming "Commander mode." Aerin followed with a barely audible sigh.
Inside the shuttlecraft, McHenry had already started the pre-launch sequence. He tapped a communications control.
"Shuttle oh-one-seven to spacedock control. Pre launch sequence complete, request permission for departure." He closed the channel and turned to Blair, who had been standing behind him, watching.
"Excuse me sir, but Starfleet shuttlecraft regulations explicitly state that all passengers should be in their seats with safety harnesses attached before and during departure processes."
"...oh. Okay." Blair tried shrugging in the most non-chalant manner he could muster and joined Aerin and Conserkk who were already seated and belted in on a bench style seat.
Aerin raised an eyebrow at Blair. "Very 'by the book,' is he not?"
"No kidding!" Conserkk broke in. "Looks like his first week on duty."
"Mmm," Aerin agreed.
After another moment, the communications equipment crackled. "Shuttle oh-one-seven, this is spacedock control. You are clear for departure. Please proceed along pre-specified course to NCC eight three three one seven."
"Acknowledged control." McHenry began punching controls on his console. "Launch in progress."
The whole group felt themselves pushed back in their seats slightly as the shuttlecraft went from zero to half impulse in one point five seconds, but the feeling tapered off as the inertial dampers kicked in.
"Not a bad launch, ensign," Blair noted.
"Thank you, sir." McHenry didn't turn back to acknowledge the complement. He appeared to be giving all of his attention to the shuttlecraft controls. Blair shrugged.
Aerin cleared his throat. "I suggest you let the ensign pilot the craft, Darrian. It is customary for Starfleet to post third class pilots aboard starbases as shuttle ferry pilots."
Blair swallowed. "Thanks for making me feel better about the whole thing."
The three passengers looked out the window at the sight of Utopia Planitia.
"Hey, there's the O'Donnell." Conserkk pointed out the not-so-far-away Dry Dock. She shuddered. "I wonder how well they would accept a medical assistant that ranks higher than the CMO."
"Not to mention a Commander at tactical," Blair laughed.
Aerin stared out the viewport at the O'Donnell, not even bothering to acknowledge the two previous comments with so much as an eyebrow raise.
"Hey." Conserkk poked Aerin on the arm. "You alright?"
"Perhaps not." Without turning his head, he raised the volume of his voice so McHenry could hear. "Ensign, open a channel to the USS O'Donnell, in Dry Dock 47."
"Aye sir."
"What is it?" Blair asked.
"There appears to be some kind of energy fluctuation that is localized in the engineering section of the ship."
Blair squinted out the viewport and did manage to make out some kind of faint blue electrical-looking emissions from the bottom of the starship's hull.
McHenry had slowed the shuttle down to one-quarter impulse as he accessed the communcations equipment. "Sir, I've managed to raise the O'Donnell."
"Put it on screen."
Blair turned to the miniature-sized viewscreen that was just right of the forward viewport. The image of the O'Donnell bridge appeared, with Captain McCullough leaning over the shoulder of the officer who was manning the operations console. In truth, they looked fairly busy. Red lights flashed in the background, indicating that the ship was on alert.
Without looking up from the ops console, McCullough spoke up. "What is it, we're a little busy here."
"Sir, this is Lieut... er... Blair about a shuttlecraft about two kilometers away. Sir, what's going on?"
"Lieutenant!" McCullough looked up from the console he was examining. "I suggest you put some distance between us, we've got some major fluctuations with the EPS power grid on decks twenty six through forty two and the containment fields around the antimatter pods are destabilizing--and we don't know why."
"Blair's brow furrowed. "But won't that lead to a--"
"Yes, a core breach and we all die, we know." McCullough's attention was distracted for a moment by the chief engineer, who was manning the engineering station near the rear of the bridge.
"Sir, containment breach in thirty seconds, there's nothing I can do!"
"Sound evac! Everyone to the nearest escape pod!" McCullough turned back to the viewer. "Blair, get that shuttle out of there, there's no telling what the explosion'll be like from these new high-efficiency warp cores!"
Blair swallowed and nodded. "Yes sir. McHenry, you heard the man, full about." Blair returned his attention to the mini-viewscreen. Most of the bridge crew had filed out already, but the captain remained--he was standing at the tactical station. "Sir, get out of there!"
McCullough didn't bother to look up. "Lieutenant, I'm a little busy coordinating evac at the moment..."
Aerin looked up--he was settled over the shuttle's sensor display. "Darrian, the O'Donnell's warp core is going critical. Five seconds."
Blair stood off his chair and yelled at the viewscreen. "Damn it, get out of there!"
"Core breach, in progress."
As soon as the phrase had escaped Aerin's mouth, the screen of the O'Donnell's bridge was swarmed with flames just a half-second before the feed went dead and the screen snowed over. The four looked out the viewport in time to see the O'Donnell shatter from the inside out by a powerful matter/antimatter explosion. The resulting shock wave was powerful enough to blow the dry dock that encapsulated the starship to pieces.
The four shuttle occupants braced themselves instinctively against the force of the wave, most of which was fortunately absorbed by the inertial dampers.
"I lost attitude control for a moment, but I've got it back now." McHenry tapped at his console in a rather calm... perhaps too calm tone. The three remaining officers, who had been staring helplessly at the violent demise of the O'Donnell, slowly moved their eyes to McHenry, with more than a hint of fury. Save, of course, Aerin.
After a moment, Conserkk exploded. "What the *HELL* are you talking about? If you didn't notice, we just lost our goddam ship!"
Conserkk's usually easy-going green eyes had taken on a noticeably different firey blue hue as she stared into the face of McHenry. The ensign swallowed and turned to the other two officers for help. Blair stared on with a rare look of anger, and even Aerin's passive gaze held a perturbed air.
McHenry swallowed once again after a moment of silence. His eyes then focused directly in front of him, almost at "attention" in his chair. "Ma'am! Starfleet regulations seventy three point two, paragraph six subsection two: in the event of an emergency, it is imperative that all Starfleet personnel on the scene remain emotionally detached in order to insure the safety of themselves and others, ma'am!"
This only seemed to perturb Conserkk even further. "I don't give a targ's behind about any goddamn regulations right now--"
"Ember." Blair's hand was on the woman's shoulder. "He's right. We have to find out what is going on... there's no use in fighting like this."
Conserkk paused, gritting her teeth. She glared at Blair for a moment, then backed away from McHenry grudgingly and took a seat near the back of the shuttle, folding her arms tightly.
"Alright then." Blair threw a glance at McHenry before looking over to Aerin, who was still hunched over the sensor display. "Orion, lets look over the sensor readings... maybe figure out how the hell this happened."
Aerin nodded and gestured to the console in front of him. "As sensors previously indicated, there were some unusual fluctuations in the EPS power grid in the stardrive section of the ship."
Blair nodded. "Yeah. Have you found out what the cause was?"
"Perhaps." Aerin tapped his console. Conserkk straightened in her seat, listening. Aerin continued on. "Shuttle sensors indicate a significant amount of maritime particles in the debris."
Conserkk spoke up. "Maritime particles? 'The hell are those?"
"I've heard of them... some kind of molecules that are found in class three nebulaes?"
"Quite correct, Darrian," Aerin continued. "According to the computer analysis, an introduction of maritime particles into the power distribution network would affect all EPS-related systems in that section of the ship. It just so happens that the antimatter containment fields are particularly vulnerable to the fluctuations produced by these particles."
Conserkk's eyes squinted as she tried to examine the sensor readings from her position in the back of the craft. "Will Starfleet get the same readings we are from the debris?"
"Highly unlikely," Aerin responded. "The maritime particles are decomposing rapidly... it is unlikely Starfleet will be able to send out an analysis team to the place of the O'Donnell's destruction before the amount of maritime particles is contributed to normal background radiation."
"So I guess we better tell them then, huh?"
"I'm already on it." Blair swiveled in his chair to face the computer panel that accessed communications. He tapped the activation control.
"Starbase two, this is shuttle oh-one-seven, come in please."
A moment passed, and nothing was heard.
"Starbase two, come in." The four officers stared out the viewport at the comm-silent base.
Blair scrutinized the console. "Looks like something's jamming the transmission... Orion, is the interference from the O'Donnell explosion and/or debris enough to block a comm signal?"
"Negative... sensors indicate that the jamming signal is being generated by... Federation technology." Aerin looked up and raised an eyebrow at that last part.
Conserkk broke in. "Federation tech? What ship is it coming from?"
Aerin's face crinkled just the slightest bit in acute frustration. "It does not appear to be localized at any point with a ship..."
Blair's eyes narrowed. "A cloaked ship? With Federation technology? How is that possible?"
Aerin pursed his lips together in thought. "If memory serves, the only Federation ship with a cloaking device is--"
"The Defiant?"
***
"Hail the Defiant," Blair said without looking away from the view of the ship that presented itself out the viewport. The Defiant was the manifestation of the Federation's latest developments in integrated combat systems and was equipped with the only cloaking device available to Starfleet, giving it the ability to become hidden from sight and sensors. It was designed exclusively for combat, contrary to most starships in the fleet, whose primary purpose is exploration. That's what made Blair nervous.
McHenry moved to comply with Blair's orders, and after a moment, the computer gave a responsive chirp. "No response, sir. They're running silent."
"Interesting." Aerin stood over the sensor display. "The Defiant is not emitting Federation transponder frequencies."
"Which means Starfleet has no idea where they are. Until, of course, they decloaked just now." Blair straightened his uniform as he looked back at Aerin. "The question is, of course, why."
Aerin nearly shrugged. "I do not know." He looked down suddenly as his console beeped insistently in alarm. "Darrian, the Defiant is powering its weapons… they are targeting the Starbase."
All four looked out the viewport in horror as the Defiant opened fire on the base with a stream of pulse phasers and a salvo of quantum torpedoes. The weapons punched through the station's shields immediately, which had only been activated a few moments before. The remaining un-shielded-against weapons exploded into the hull of the base, making a crater roughly the size of a Galaxy-class cruiser in the upper half sphere section of the base. The small warship then veered off from its vector and cloaked, disappearing from sight and sensors.
A few moments passed-all four stared on in astonishment-until Blair spoke up. "Anyone mind telling me what the hell just happened?"
"The Defiant blew a hole the size of a class-3 asteroid in the Starbase, what does it look like?" Conserkk stared out the viewport at the smoldering station with the still glowing wound.
"I know that, but-" There was a bright blue flash that flooded the shuttle's interior for a few moments, but subsided before Blair could finish his inquisitive phrase. "…the hell is that?"
"We were just scanned." Aerin stiffened in his chair. "Once again, no ship at the source coordinates." He raised a brow and peered at Blair. "The shuttle was the only object scanned."
"Shields, get the shields up." Blair hunched over McHenry, who was seated at the conn in the forward most area of the cabin as Conserkk pulled herself away from the starboard viewport and planted herself in the chair that faced the shuttle's small tactical station. She tapped a control as she sat down.
"Shields up." She turned her head in Blair's direction, but didn't move her eyes from the panel. "You think they're going after us? I'm charging weapons."
"Did you want to be caught with the shields down if they decided to? And transfer weapon energy to the shields, the peashooter on this thing wont do anything resembling damage to the Defiant if she comes after us."
Conserkk nodded and made the appropriate adjustments. Blair propped himself to McHenry's right, one hand against the ensign's chair and the other resting on the edge of the console to his forward right. He squinted as he scrutinized the vastness of space that was visable through the large forward viewport. "Come out come out… if you're going to come out, do it!"
As if in response to his demand, the Defiant slowly appeared, decloaking, directly in front of them, putting the shuttle and the small starship head to head, speeding towards each other.
"Holy shit-evasives!"
"Yes sir!" McHenry pulled his right index finger into a 45-degree length over a circular touchpad in front of him, pulling the shuttle into a tight right turn.
The Defiant veered left, unleashing a barrage of pulse phaser bursts into the shuttle's port and aft shields. The interior of the cabin shook slightly, and a few display panels flickered.
"Shields down to 60 percent!" Conserkk turned towards Blair from where she was sitting. "We can't take much more of that!"
"Darrian, if I may?"
Blair looked over his left shoulder at Aerin for a moment, then nodded.
"Thank you. Excuse me, ensign."
"Yes sir." After throwing the shuttle into a sharp left turn, McHenry slid out of the pilot's chair and was replaced by the Vulcan, who, Blair could've sworn, cracked his knuckles covertly before taking the seat.
With a few flicks of his wrists and dancing of fingers over the helm, Aerin ignited the underside port thrusters and gunned the impulse engines to 80%, inverting the craft and corkscrewing it down the Z axis at nearly half the speed of light. This maneuver didn't throw off the pursuing craft, which unleashed another barrage of pulse phasers, which decimated the shuttle's rear shields.
A power conduit ruptured near the back of the shuttle's cabin, showering sparks from the ceiling-based conduit onto the floor.
Conserkk, who had been bracing herself on her console, released her grip as the shuttle equalized. She checked the readout on her panel, then glanced up to Blair. "That last hit fried the shield generator. Another good hit and we're screwed!"
Blair's forehead began to shine with sweat. "Orion, we need to do better than that if we want to remain unincinerated…"
"I am sorry-" Aerin grunted as he pulled his finger sharply over the panel a half-second after a collision alarm sounded, banking the shuttle into a barrel roll, then immediately into a tight right turn, narrowly evading a rather nasty pair of quantum torpedoes. "I am sorry, but I cannot shake the enemy vessel."
Aerin's hand flicked the other way on the panel, but it was too late. A follow-up burst of pulse phaser blasts from the Defiant nicked the back of the shuttle's cabin, but the main burst slammed into the shuttle's port engine, taking it nearly clean off.
The inside of the shuttle rocked violently, throwing everyone off his or her chairs as the shuttle flew out of control, tumbling side over side starboard in response to the hit.
"Warning," the shuttle's computer intonted. "Outer hull breach. Multiple microfractures detected. Structural integrity collapse imminent. Estimated time to decompression: Fifteen seconds."
Blair struggled to his feet and glared out through the thick smoke that now existed inside the shuttle's cabin through the spiraling stars through the forward viewport. Small electrical fires burned everywhere in the cabin, and there was a big cracking sound as the hull began to buckle under the pressure.
"Well, it's been nice knowing you all." He made a feeble attempt at straightening his uniform, which was now singed black across the shoulders and ripped at his left sleeve. The others looked at each other worriedly as the computer counted down impassively.
"Warning. Decompression imminent. Four, three, two, one…"
***
"Transporter room, do you have them?"
Lieutenant Junior Grade Tarlsk K'Sathe cocked a brow as he paused for a moment as he waited for the comm system to respond. He glanced to the officer at the engineering station to his right, at the far side of the command center. "Ensign Cassidy…"
"Sorry sir, just another comm system glitch. Try it now."
K'Sathe was just about to open his mouth and try again when he was interrupted.
"-ter room to bridge. What the hell?? Transporter room to bridge, come in."
Cassidy smirked a bit at the somewhat unprofessional use of language by the transporter operator. K'Sathe ignored it and spoke up.
"Chief, did you get them or not?"
"Yes sir I did, but-"
"But what?"
"Ensign McHenry and party already left the transporter room, sir. They said they were on their way to the bridge. They should be there momentarily."
"Very well."
"And sir? He brought some fairly high-ranking officers along with him."
At that moment, K'Sathe heard the turbolift doors open near the back of the bridge. He gave an acknowledgement and closed the comm, then stood and faced the four new arrivals, who seemed oddly out of place-their bruised bodies and singed and tattered uniforms in comparison to the relative cleanness of the bridge on which they had just set foot. K'Sathe looked at Blair specifically and inclined his head slightly in acknowledgement. "Greetings, Commander."
Blair squinted just a bit as he looked over K'Sathe. He then nodded in return greeting. "I was hoping you could point me in the direction of the captain of this boat. I need to talk to him immediately."
K'Sathe threw a glance to Cassidy, then looked back at Blair. "But sir," he began. "You are the captain."
