Disclaimer: Enterprise, Star Trek and all related characters are the property of Paramount Pictures, Inc. No copyright infringement is intended. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money has changed hands. The original characters and events are the sole property of the author and may not be used without permission.
"Derelict (Pt. IV)"
by Darrin Colbourne
There were several, tense moments of silence as the two ships hung in space above Coogan's World. Enterprise, NX-01, was practically saucer to saucer with Enterprise, NCC-1701. Of course, -1701's saucer was much bigger, and that was just one reason why Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, currently in command of NX-01, spent those several tense moments stuck for something to say.
Eventually, he got over it. "Corda, hail them." He said.
Corda worked the comm controls. "No response." She said.
"Are we getting through?" Reed said.
"They're receiving us." Corda said. "Just not responding."
Reed thought a moment, then said: "Keep the channel open. This is Lieutenant Malcolm Reed of the Earth Starship Enterprise. I'd like a word with your commanding officer."
The big white starship just hung there, silent.
"All right then," Reed said, "I'll talk. My commanding officer and several others in my crew are aboard your ship. I'd like to get them back. Is there some way we can go about doing that peacefully?"
Again he was met with silence. Well, no one could say he didn't try. Reed made sure the phase cannons were fully charged and that there were torpedoes in the forward and aft tubes. After that, he tried to get a bio-fix on Captain Archer and the others. Enterprise's sensors were still being jammed. On one of his screens he could see Ulysses maneuvering into attack position behind the strange ship, boxing it in.
"Right, last time." He said. "I would like to..."
He was interrupted by the movement of the strange ship. -1701 rocked and swung right, exposing part of the lower saucer. As it turned two massive gold beams lashed out at Enterprise, blasting away at the polarized hull. NX-01 shuddered as if in an Earthquake as control panels flared and exploded. The bridge went dark for a few seconds before auxiliary power came on line. Ulysses fired on the ship as it turned, but her plasma pulse blasts detonated harmlessly against some sort of energy shield.
"What did they hit us with?" Mayweather said when everyone had recovered.
"Those," Reed said, "were real phase cannons."
The first sensation that hit Sato was pain. There was an ache in her head that rivaled every hangover she'd ever imagined. She caught the sensation of movement as she tried to open her eyes and clear away the haze. She felt as if she were bouncing along to somewhere, but knew she wasn't walking. What really threw her was the sensation of gravity. It was pulling down on both her arms and her feet at once. Finally she gathered enough strength to move her head, so she tilted it up...
...and saw somebody's butt. It was a nice butt, as far as butts went. Whoever owned it probably worked out a lot. Of course, it was odd to see someone's butt above her head, especially since it seemed to be attached to legs that were running on the ceiling--
Wait a minute...
"Hello!" Sato called out. "What's going on?"
Suddenly she stopped moving, and she felt arms drop her down till she was standing on her own two feet. The movement caused another wave of pain to wash across her skull, but when she recovered she realized that T'Pol was still holding her. She finally managed to steady herself on her feet, and when the Vulcan was satisfied the Linguist wouldn't fall she withdrew.
Everyone was looking at her. "Glad to have you back with us." Captain Jonathan Archer said.
"Did I miss anything?" Sato said.
"Do you remember being stunned?" Captain Frank Will said.
"Barely." Sato said. "T'Pol's been carrying me?"
"Like a gunnysack." "Trip" Tucker said.
"Thanks." She said to T'Pol.
"It was necessary." T'Pol said.
"Okay," She said, not sure how to take the typically Vulcan response. She decided to move on. "So, what's been happening while I was out?"
"Oh, not much." Archer said. "The bad guys control the ship now."
"And they're trying to keep us on it." Will said.
"And they managed to get it out of the rock and moving." Tucker said.
"Which means it is likely that we are in orbit at present." T'Pol said.
"And have no idea where we'll end up if this thing decides to leave orbit before we can get off." Mercurio said.
Sato just stood there for a second, then crossed her arms and frowned. "In other words, 'Same ol' same ol'." She said.
"'Join Starfleet and See the Universe'." Mercurio said, as she handed Sato and T'Pol their weapons.
"We're going to storm the Engine Room." Archer said. "Feel up to it?"
Sato checked her weapon before answering. "I'll be fine."
Archer nodded. "Okay, then let's go before..."
"Captain, wait!" Mercurio said. Something had just occurred to her. "We may have a better option. The ship's no longer in the rock, right?"
"That's right." Archer said.
"So the parts of the ship that were obscured by rock no longer are, right?"
"That is correct, Ensign." T'Pol said.
"What are you getting at, Elly?" Will said.
Tucker figured it out. "The Shuttle Bay! The outer door is clear now! If we can get in and commandeer one of their Shuttlepods or whatever they use, we can use it to get close to Enterprise. Then they won't have any trouble at all reeling us aboard or transporting us off."
"They'll probably have that guarded as well," Archer said, "and we still can't track them clearly with the instruments we have."
"That's true, Sir, but they don't need the Shuttle Bay to control the ship. Most of their people will probably be in Engineering or on the Bridge. That gives us better odds if we try to get hold of a shuttle."
"We still don't know how to open the bay doors." Sato said.
"Between T'Pol, Elly and me I'm sure we can figure it out." Tucker said. "At worst, maybe their transports have weapons we can use to blast our way out."
Archer took only a moment to think about it. "Lead the way, Ensign." He said.
Mercurio brought her weapon to bear and led off down the passageway, prompted by directions from T'Pol. The group hadn't been moving for a minute before Tucker stopped short. "Wait a second." He said.
"Now what?" Archer said.
"Listen!" Tucker said. Just then a sound echoed around them, like air pumped through a submerged tunnel.
"I heard that sound just before the ship broke loose." Tucker said. "I sure would like to know what it is. It does not sound like a good thing."
"We'll find out later." Archer said. "Now, we have a shuttle to catch."
The party moved on. Tucker tried to ignore the sound as it echoed through the ship again.
-1701's phase blasts caught Ulysses in it's Engineering section. The ship was thrown into a spin as secondary detonations tore through the guts of the Warp drive. One warp nacelle was shorted out, while the other overloaded and detonated.
The Starfleet ships had been pursuing the strange starship as it orbited the planet. Reed had wanted to harass the vessel, but it's array of weapons had forced Enterprise and Ulysses to stay on the defensive. Enterprise's polarized hull had let it outlast the phase blasts, barely, but Ulysses's alloy hull was no match for a direct hit.
Reed broke off pursuit to render assistance, leaving the alien Enterprise to continue on it's course. "Hail Ulysses!" He said.
"No response." Corda said.
The starship was on the forward screen. Ulysses was still turning and sparking, venting energy and gases into space. After a moment, debris flew from the junction between the spherical Habitat hull and the Engineering section and the sphere flew off on it's own, propelled by Impulse engines at full power. The Engineering section blew up after that as the ship's warp core breached. The shockwaves rattled Enterprise as she drew closer.
After the space around the two ships had settled, Corda said. "Ulysses is hailing us."
"On screen." Reed said. The image showed Lt. Bridling on a bridge filled with smoke and sparking control panels.
"Enterprise, we're in bad shape." Bridling said. "We had to jettison our main engines. There are systems out all over the command hull, including our pulse cannons and one of our torpedo tubes. Our impulse engines are functioning for now, but there are warnings of surges all over."
Bridling hesitated, but Reed already knew. Ulysses was out of the fight. The two ships were already outgunned. Without a Warp capability and all of its weapons the older Starfleet ship would be destroyed going up against the alien craft.
Reed still had a use for her, though. He checked the position of the enemy ship. -1701 was just rounding the horizon of the planet and would be out of sight in seconds. "Take position above the North Polar Region," Reed said, "and keep a comm channel open. You can be our line-of-sight relay. Watch that ship like a hawk, but stay out of its line of fire. Understand?"
"Aye aye, Sir." Bridling said, then his image disappeared. Reed watched as Ulysses altered course and made for the North Pole of the colony. With that handled, the Lieutenant turned his attention back to the alien.
"Mr. Mayweather, intercept that ship! Put us in his face! I'm through being polite."
Reed couldn't see the helmsman's lopsided grin as he complied. "Yes, Sir!"
"This is it." T'Pol said as Archer's Party approached a wide door. Archer and Will took up positions on either side of the door, while Tucker and the women formed a firing line across from it. Everyone had the strange phase rifles at the ready.
Archer tried to enter but the door wouldn't open automatically. He tried to open it with the control panel near him but nothing happened.
"Looks like they know how to use the locks." Will said.
"We've got some great skeleton keys right here." Tucker said, and aimed his rifle. The women followed suit, and the four of them fired simultaneously as Archer and Will cleared the area. The electric whirring of the phase beams rose in pitch as they poured more and more energy into the door, which began glowing red-hot, then white-hot. Then the door burst inward and disappeared into a cloud of sparks with a loud bang and a pall of smoke.
Archer and Will rushed in before the cloud faded, scything their weapons back and forth looking for targets. Archer saw a shadowy figure trying to get his bearings and fired. The beam hit and his target went down. He turned around in time to duck an energy blast. Will was trading shots with another target. The other Starfleet Captain won the duel. The others rushed in as Will and Archer fanned out looking for more targets.
The smoke had cleared enough for them to see, just in time to catch the third attacker as he came out of another door in the Shuttle Bay. The man in black raked the bay with energy blasts, forcing the boarding party to dive for the deck. Archer and Tucker returned fire, but the target ducked back into the door and closed it before they could score a hit.
"Damn!" Tucker said as he jumped up. "T'Pol, Elly, come on!"
The three of them ran to the door the bad guy had just gone through. "This probably leads to that observation deck up there." Tucker said, indicating a booth with glass windows above them. "Maybe there are controls for the outer door, too." With that, they set up another firing line and started to blast the door.
Meanwhile, Archer, Will and Sato ran over to the large, boxy spacecraft that dominated the center of the room. the two captains immediately began trying to get it open, but the markings on the side of the ship caught Sato's eye.
"Captains! Look at this!" She said. Archer and Will rushed over to where she was standing. They immediately understood what got her excited.
"They named this, too." Archer said.
"Galileo." Will said.
"Why would an alien ship have a shuttle named after a human astronomer?" Sato said.
Before anyone could offer an opinion, a shrill monotone voice announced from the loudspeaker: "Warning! Shuttle Bay depressurizing! Shuttle Bay will be depressurized in one minute!"
Archer looked up into the windows of the observation deck and saw the attacker fiddling with some controls, then looked where they had come in and saw that an emergency bulkhead had covered the doorway.
"That's just one more mystery we don't have time to solve!" He said. "Let's move! Try and get into the shuttle! 'Trip'! T'Pol, Elly! Get over here!"
The rest of the party rushed over as Archer and the others tried frantically to get the shuttle's rear entrance open. Will hit the right control by accident. The team was boarding the ramp before it descended all the way to the deck.
"Warning! Depressurization in 30 seconds!" The computer announced as Will worked to close the shuttle. Once it was closed, the boarding party would have to rely on what oxygen there was in the still-pressurized small craft.
"There!" Will said as the door sealed. The only light coming into the shuttle was through the cockpit windows. There were two seats at the controls. T'Pol immediately sat in the one on the left and laid her weapons down, then whipped out her computer and began scanning. Archer came over to her.
"T'Pol, how much air do you think we have?" He said. She didn't answer. She seemed intent on her scanning device.
"'Earth to T'Pol'!" Tucker said.
"You are not on Earth." T'Pol said, never looking up from her device. "I heard the Captain and will answer him shortly, but the answer may be irrelevant if my theory is correct."
"That theory being?" Archer said.
"I am conducting an analytical scan of this shuttle, one detailed enough to allow me to intuit the functions of the controls. If I'm successful, I will be able to activate the craft's life support systems and possibly fly it out of the ship."
"Why couldn't you have done that with the ship itself?" Mercurio asked.
"It would have taken too long, several hours at least for the whole vessel."
"How long will it take to do the shuttle?" Will said.
"Approximately eighteen minutes."
"And the amount of air?" Archer said.
"If everyone would refrain from talking," T'Pol said, sounding more irritated than her upbringing would indicate, "and make no unnecessary movements, we would have...more than eighteen minutes."
Archer didn't like her bluntness, but everyone took the hint and found places to sit while T'Pol worked. Relaxation didn't come easy, however, as the ship trembled around them several times.
"Looks like wherever we're heading," Sato said, "there's some turbulence along our route."
-1701 came to a stop over where the other attacking ship went down. That gave Reed the opening he needed. When Mayweather got Enterprise into position Reed strafed the big ship, raining phase blasts and torpedoes down on it. The target shook under the impacts, but NX-01's weapons still couldn't get through the mystery ship's shields. As Enterprise passed the other ship's stern, -1701 fired a volley of phase blasts, knocking out several thrusters and an impulse engine on the smaller ship.
Mayweather gritted his teeth and fought the lurching of the ship, trying to keep it from dipping into the atmosphere of the planet. He managed to stabilize the ship's orbit just as the other spacecraft started to pull away.
"They're breaking orbit!" Mayweather called out.
"Don't lose them!" Reed said, wondering how he'd stop the ship and get his people back.
Mayweather had to work hard to compensate for the lost impulse engine and thrusters. It was difficult to do. With the loss of half of its propulsion and maneuvering systems, Enterprise was off balance.
"I'm kicking in the Warp engines!" He said. They were both still working, and they idled at light-speed. Once he was moving, he could easily overtake the other ship, swing back and let Reed blast it. He set a course to leapfrog the bad guy, energized the warp engine, and the ship leaped forward...
...and then Mayweather cursed as -1701 kept pace and stayed ahead of them. Someone on the mystery ship had read his mind.
In a few minutes the two ships would be out of the system. With nothing but open space ahead of them, the Ensign had no illusions about their chances.
"If that thing goes into full warp before we get them off..."
He didn't have to finish. Reed knew all to well what the consequences would be. "Beat them to it!" He commanded.
T'Pol had only been working on the shuttle for a few minutes when Sato noticed something amiss. "Did anybody feel that?" She said. "It felt like we went to warp."
A second later, a low hum rumbled through the ship and the shuttle, rising in pitch until it became a shrill whine. The sound disappeared as quickly as it had become noticeable, but everyone was sure it meant that they were running out of time.
"With those big engines," Tucker said, "there's no way Enterprise will be able to keep up for very long."
"T'Pol," Archer said, "faster would be better."
"But not necessarily more efficient." T'Pol said, in an even tone. She didn't look up from her computer to answer. She stared at the screen, working the controls as fast as she could manage, trying to puzzle out the controls. She then paused for a moment, as if a sudden realization had come to her. She worked some more controls, saw what she wanted, then dropped her computer and started hitting switches on the shuttles control panel. The lights came on in the interior, and several sounds vibrated the shuttle as several power systems came on.
"What did you do?" Mercurio said.
"I activated the emergency start and autopilot controls." T'Pol said. "Finding the controls for those two systems was much easier than trying to discern all the controls at once."
"And that just occurred to you?" Tucker teased as he took the other seat at the controls.
"Actually, it was one of several options I considered but rejected, because it would not guarantee us the ability to control the shuttle, but the current circumstances forced me to reconsider. We have life support now, so everyone may breathe normally."
"Can we fly out of here now?" Will said.
"I do not know how to do that yet." T'Pol said, reaching for her computer.
"May I make a suggestion?" Tucker said. Before anyone could answer, he started hitting switches on the control panel in front of him. All of them. Strange noises sounded in the craft, and suddenly the shuttle lurched, making scraping sounds as it tilted and jerked in the shuttle bay. Warning sounds blared through space as Tucker tried to control the craft by God and guess. T'Pol, at a loss to figure out how to deal with her human crewmate's actions, started hitting controls on her side, trying to balance Tucker's childlike approach with more educated guesses. The rest of the team was astounded, but after a few minutes of this the pair managed to swing and jerk the shuttle forward. Another minute and the jerking stopped, and the shuttle was actually moving forward. Tucker moved his hands, leaving the craft under the control of T'Pol's surer touch.
"I knew I could inspire you." Tucker drawled at her with a smile. T'Pol just watched the controls and let out a very un-Vulcan-like grumble.
"I think you forgot something!" Will said, pointing at the forward window. The shuttle was rapidly approaching the still-closed Shuttle Bay door.
"I don't think we have to worry!" Archer said. "Keep going, T'Pol!"
It was close, but suddenly the doors started to part, opening to space. Stars were streaking behind the spaceship as the shuttle pulled out. The shuttle scraped one of the doors as it exited, but got out otherwise unscathed.
The mystery ship tried to change that as the shuttle started to pull away. Packets of energy were launched at the shuttle and detonated around it, throwing it off course and causing it to spin and pitch out of control. T'Pol fought the unfamiliar flight controls, trying to right the shuttle. Finally she picked a direction and hit the warp controls, hoping the warp field would provide balance.
"They're getting away!" Mayweather said unnecessarily as the mystery ship started to recede in the distance. He'd leaped to High Warp as soon as they cleared the star system, but the other ship accelerated faster, and Enterprise had only been able to keep pace for a few seconds. Ultimately, the Starfleet ship reached its limit, while the alien ship kept accelerating.
Reed pounded his fist on his control panel, enraged at the loss of his people. He was contemplating what he'd say to Starfleet Command when warning alarms sounded on his and Mayweather's controls.
"Uh, Travis..." He said, a note of panic in his voice.
Going to warp had been a bad idea. The shuttle's warp field had interfered with the ship's and vice versa, but the ship's was more powerful, which meant that the shuttle was thrown around even more as it pulled away.
It took all her Vulcan skill and reflexes, but T'Pol finally got the ship traveling in some semblance of a normal attitude. She was tempted to relax and try to find her way back to Coogan's World, but she didn't have time.
"Uh, T'Pol..." Mercurio said, her voice taut with fear.
T'Pol looked out of the forward screen and saw a blue blur headed right for the shuttle.
"T'Pol..." Tucker said as she worked the controls and the blue blur got bigger...and bigger...and bigger...
"Brace for collision!" Archer yelled as the shuttle lurched to the side when the screen filled with blue.
"What the hell was that?!!" Mayweather said as he completed his turn. He'd barely had enough time to bank the ship when he spotted the smallish white blur hurling at them from the mystery ship. He'd assumed it was some sort of weapon at first, but he didn't know of any weapon that could travel at warp.
"Intercept it." Reed said. He wanted to know what it was as well.
Once she saw that they were clear, T'Pol slowed the shuttle down, coming out of warp, then turning off the impulse engines. As they drifted, Archer checked on his people. "Did everybody survive?"
"I did." Will said.
"I think I did." Sato said.
"I don't think my uniform did." Mercurio said.
"I know the feeling." Tucker said.
"I will not pilot this vessel any longer." T'Pol said. "We must make no attempt to move it until we have a better understanding of the controls." She looked pointedly at Tucker with that. Controlled emotions notwithstanding, Vulcans had as much of a survival instinct as any species, and she'd reached her limit of tolerance.
"No argument." Tucker said, earnestly.
"What almost hit us?" Will said.
"I think I know," Sato said. A smile had crossed her face. She was looking at one of the three screens above the forward glass. Everyone followed her gaze, and all the other humans smiled as well.
"Now that is a sight for sore eyes." Archer said as he whipped out his communicator. "Archer to Enterprise."
On the bridge of -1701, the gunman sitting in the Captain's Chair contemplated the report he'd just received from the man at the helm. "Damn." He said. "Prepare to send the destruct signal on my mark."
The shuttle was too big to be pulled into the Shuttlepod Bay, but this time no one complained about having their molecules scrambled. When they resolidified in the transporter room, Tucker made a big show of kissing the bulkhead. "Good to be home!" He said.
"Glad to have you back, Commander." Reed said. "I'm afraid the ship took a few hard knocks while your were gone."
"I'm on it!" He said. "Ensign, I could use your help."
"Aye, Sir." Mercurio said. She smiled as she trotted out of the room. She hadn't seen a Warp Five engine before.
"What about Ulysses?" Will asked.
"I'm afraid she caught the worst of it, Sir." Reed said. "Most of her crew are all right, but Bridling had to jettison the warp engine. You'll need a tow back to the Fleet Yards."
"Speaking of towing," Archer said to T'Pol, "let's get to the bridge and get the grapplers ready. We're taking that shuttle back as well. I want the Corps of Engineers to tear it apart piece by piece till I get the answers I want."
Just then a massive shock rattled Enterprise. When it was over, Archer frowned.
"Somebody tell me that wasn't what I think it was." He said.
"Bridge to Archer." Mayweather's voice called over the intercom.
Archer found a comm panel and pressed the button. "Archer here."
"Sir, that shuttlecraft just exploded!" The helmsman said. "I couldn't tell you why..."
"That's all right, Travis. Carry on." Archer closed contact then. Of course, as soon as he said "We're taking it back" it went bye-bye. He hated Murphy's Law.
TBC...