CHAPTER SEVEN
Two Against a Fleet
The Yamato had come under attack once again.
The powerful starship, under Lyle Parker's command, was not up to one hundred percent efficiency, but eighty percent was better than none. The skeleton crew from the Lexington was doing their job, following Parker's orders. The ship jolted hard, but the shields held under the impact. "One Klingon destroyer coming about, charging weapons," Ensign Watson said from the tactical station.
"Charge forward phaser banks," Parker commanded. "Target the lead ship's secondary weapons systems." The destroyer came into view, but before Lyle could issue the order to fire, it cloaked and moved off. In its place, a photon torpedo aimed point blank was fired into the forward shields.
The bridge shook hard from the impact as the view screen pulsed green with rapid disruptor fire. "SHIELDS DOWN TO 50%!" Lieutenant Whitehawk cried out. The engineering station exploded in a rain of sparks, going offline from the powerful impact.
* * * * * *
General Chang watched with great interest as the Lexington banked and engage its impulse engines. Two of his Birds-of-Prey were destroyed, but he smiled privately, as three QuD destroyers filled in the empty gaps where the small cruisers were. The destroyers were not that easily destroyed, and one of them broke formation to join the K'Tinga and B'Rel dispatch squadron.
Chang continued to watch as the destroyers lashed out with its four disruptor banks and when there was an opening in the Federation ship's shields, a photon torpedo. Small shards of the ship's hull blew off upon impact. There was a scorch mark on the engineering hull, as the Federation ship continued to limp its way out of the Archer system.
* * * * * *
The Lexington bridge was a study of battle damage. Several screens on various consoles showed snowy static, and even more consoles were heavily damaged and offline. The ship was still exchanging fire with the pursuing Klingon ships. With warp drive offline, it was going to take increasingly longer to clear the Archer system. In space, the warp engines were streaming with smoke, as the ship continued on its exit course, though at impulse speeds. Another photon torpedo blast hit the ship, the impact so crashing, it sounded like thunder. "Shields at sixty percent!" Jana cried out. "One of the battlecruiser's is cloaking!"
"Switching targeting to manual," Corin said. Geoff keyed in the manual targeting sequences on his console, but before his hands could reach it to execute the command, another blast hit the bridge. Corin flew back from his console, groaning in sharp pain as the console now rained sparks.
"CORIN!" Jana cried out, fearing what had happened to Geoff. The violent shaking of the bridge continued as the lights dimmed again. The Klingons were targetting almost all of the key elements of the Lexington: warp drive, weapons, and sensors. Weapons were hit hard when Corin went down, but they did not go offline.
Forester pressed the comm button on his chair, which opened a channel to Sickbay. "Medical emergency to the bridge!" he ordered, as the shaking of the bridge stopped temporarily. He looked to Jana, who was helping Geoff to his feet. "How is he?"
"I'm better than a failing warp core," Corin replied jokingly.
"Report to sickbay, at once."
Corin nodded as a crewman helped him walk into the turbolift and down to sickbay. The bridge shook again as the Klingon ships showed no sign of letting up their attacks. At Corin's console, a relief officer worked, ready to do what was needed. The disruptor blasts and torpedoes continued to strike at the Lexington as the ship's engines groaned.
"Shields at thirty percent and collapsing!" Jana cried out.
"How long until we've cleared the Archer system?" Forester asked.
"Thirty minutes, sir."
The bridge shook again, this time so violently, five consoles exploded at once, and the bridge lighting dimmed. The lighting returned two minutes later as emergency crew members rushed to the blown out consoles. "Engineering to Bridge!" Brady called, amidst the chaos building within main engineering and the rest of the ship.
"Go ahead, Robin!" Forester replied, wiping the sweat from his brow as the bridge continue to shake.
"We've lost warp drive, sir!" Brady screamed, working with another officer assessing the damage reports still coming in. "The Klingons are pounding us to near oblivion!"
Before Forester could reply, another powerful jolt rocked the ship. There was an explosion in Engineering, and David heard a hiss as engineers screamed in the room, trying to assess the problem. Then Robin's voice came back on, his tone panicked and worried as he worked frantically and futilly at his console. "We have a coolant leak down here! I'll try and get the ejection systems operational, but right now they're offline due to the damaged warp drive!"
Pink smoke billowed through a ruptured conduit near the engine core. Brady worked frantically to try and seal the leak but with the Klingons firing relentlessly, tearing into the Lexington's shields, getting access to try and slow the breach was going to be next to impossible. But Robin was not just any grad from the Academy. He was one of the best in the Fleet next to Montgomery Scott, who was the youth's role model.
Robin held his breath and quickly rushed into the spewing smoke as other officers rushed out of the area. His lungs and chest ached as he worked at an auxilary console. He felt the smoke as if it was acid eating into his skin. His eyes stung in pain as he worked the console. Come on, come on! he said to himself, hoping the smoke would clear. There was a whistling-like roar sound, as the smoke began to dissipate.
Brady coughed heavily and made his way out of the warp core area. He breathed hard and worked at the main console. He opened a channel to the bridge, hoping they were making out better than down here. "Brady to Bridge," he said, his throat raw and sore.
"Go ahead, Robin," Forester's command voice answered, as more chaos and disorder filled the comm.
"I've sealed the warp core, but there's no telling when we may lose it again."
"Status of the warp drive?"
"I can give you warp four, at best."
The bridge shook again, this jolt so violent that the console exploded into multi-colored sparks and threw Sturek and the relief officer to the deck. Behind them, another console blew out, throwing the officer to the deck where a piece of debris had slit his neck. He was dead when he fell. "Set course, heading 39 mark 41," Forester commanded.
On the bridge of the Yejquv Ghop, General Chang watched the view screen with great interest. The Federation starship that violated the Archer system was being dispatched. The threat would soon be over. On the view screen, the starship's shields continued to fluctuate as the Klingon ships weapons found their mark. The Lexington's aft shields englobed the aft portion of the ship, but a photon torpedo pierced through the weakened section.
Then Chang saw the ship bank to port, indicating a new course. Slowly, the ship travelled to another area. The general watched on as a VodLeh battlecruiser and three Birds-of-Prey intercept the Lexington. A photon torpedo aimed straight toward the aft section of the Federation ship, impacted the shuttle deck,
"Their shields are down in their aft quarter," Chang spoke. He smiled and issued his order. "Close in on their aft quarter."
In space, the massive Klingon battleship and its attack squadron turned aft, and with one blast from its mighty assault phaser.fired at the Lexington, disabled the Federation starship. The target was the port warp nacelle and under the stress of the failing shields, it did not stand a chance. The nacelle grew violently red, and then flared. The nacelle twisted and finally gave way.
The Lexington was now adrift. With no warp drive, propulsion was impossible. They still had impulse, but if the crew needed power for warp, they needed to divert power from almost all key systems. And all of the key systems had been been disabled beyond repair for the Federation ship.
"Dispatch four squads of marines to board their ship."
