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.



"Wanderers" (Pt. VIII)

by Darrin Colbourne





Seebok Choi regretted that it had to come to this, but the humans had given her no choice. It was the first time in centuries that her people had operated so openly, so the human ship needed to be dealt a swift, decisive blow before it could expose them further. That was why she had taken command of the Osha'ziraan herself and gone after Enterprise. It was part of her job to see to the security of the race, and the ancient battleship was just the weapon she needed to carry that task out.

Now it was just a matter of finding Enterprise. She knew it had to be in this system. This was where her people's distress signal led her, and she couldn't imagine the hopelessly curious Humans passing up the chance to discover who they'd been jousting with.

Well, now they'd find out the hard way.







"What are we dealing with, T'Pol?" Captain Archer said from him his seat on the bridge. His eyes were transfixed on the image of the enemy warship on the screen.

"The Nhomahad'jhipzhi," T'Pol said, drawing on her memories from the mind meld, "a race of wanderers with a singular, ambitious goal: Shape the order of the galaxy to facilitate their rise to ultimate power. This is a goal they have apparently worked on for a hundred years, ever since their homeworld was destroyed by a race of conquerors. Their plans for achieving this goal require that they operate in absolute secrecy, manipulating interstellar political and cultural events one by one until the shape of the galactic cultural landscape makes an attempt to overthrow known space a feasible proposition. It is a plan that requires utmost patience, and has a 55,663 to 1 chance of succeeding if given enough time."

"So what have these...Nomad-gypsies got against us?"

"To use the Human vernacular, I believe we have 'blown their cover'. The space construct that we destroyed was apparently a forward staging base, used to launch covert operations into known space. Our intervention apparently set them back several years as far as operations in this part of the galaxy are concerned."

"Great. So I guess it's unlikely that they'll leave us alone if we give them their man back and promise never to reveal what we know about them?"

"The fact that we know at all is a threat to them. There is nothing we could do to prevent them from attacking us. You're only options are to fight or flee, as you have already reasoned."

"And we may not be able to do either...but we may be forced to do both." Archer rubbed his eyes, hoping he could force an idea into his brain. He was surprised when it worked, and it showed on his face. He got up and went to the briefing room aft and called up the scans of the gas giant on the table monitor. When he saw what he needed to see he came back onto the bridge.

"Travis, I'm going to need you to do some more of your fancy flying!" He said. "I have another really bad idea!"





"There!" The tracking officer called out. Seebok Choi rushed over to his console and looked at his monitor. Enterprise had just made a complete orbit around the gas giant. They knew exactly where the human ship was now.

But Seebok was wary. The Humans had been careful not to reveal their presence to this point. Why reveal it now? Could they be trying to set a trap?

Ultimately, it didn't matter. They had to chase down and destroy Enterprise, trap or no trap. Osha'ziraan should be equal to anything the Humans could throw at her.

"Best speed to the gas giant!" She said to the helmsman.





"Here it comes!" Reed said. "Should be in their weapons' range in four minutes."

"Guess they took the bait." Mayweather said as he completed another fast orbit.

"You know what to do when they get here!" Archer said.

"Aye, sir! Stay ahead of them."

"Can you do the modifications in four minutes, Malcolm?"

"My feet and fingers will fly, Sir!" Reed said as he rushed off the bridge. Archer took a moment to smile at the flowery response before he turned his attention back to the screen.





"Coming into range!" The weapons officer said. "In three, two, one..."

"Fire at will!" Seebok called out.





A beam a third Enterprise's width erupted from the enemy ship. Mayweather narrowly dodged it, then continued dodging and weaving as he pulled into a tighter orbit around the gas giant. The hull was polarized, but a few solid hits from that weapon would decimate the Starfleet ship no matter what.

Mayweather's jinks were erratic enough that they could be felt through the inertial dampening. Reed had a hard time staying on his feet as he and several technicians worked on a torpedo in the Armory. They were almost done with the modifications that Archer wanted.





The weapons' officer kept firing. Enterprise was certainly an agile ship, and certainly whoever was at her helm was an accomplished pilot, but it was only a matter of time before he connected.





Enterprise rocked with the impact of the beam, almost throwing the bridge crew out of their seats. Mayweather fought hard to regain control of the ship as T'Pol assessed the damage.

"Polarization down fifty-tree percent!" She said. "We'll be helpless after the next hit!"

That meant it was time to put the plan into effect. Archer called the Armory. "Archer to Reed! It's now or never!"

"It's done!" Reed called back. "Loading right now!"

Archer nodded. "Take us in, Mr. Mayweather!"





Seebok watched in amusement as the Earth ship dove into the gas giant's upper atmosphere. So that was their plan! It wouldn't work. Osha'ziraan could easily withstand the pressure.

"Follow them!" She said with confidence.









"Now where is it?" Archer said, watching the screen.

"It should be a few points off to our right...!" Mayweather said as he navigated the ship. The enemy had followed them in still firing, just as they'd expected. Mayweather had to shake off the energy blasts before he could make the turn, then gunned the impulse engines once he'd done so.

Then it started to expand on the screen. It looked like a solid wall of clouds, laced with traces of lightning, that stretched across the massive horizon. A giant storm, hundreds of miles wide, that appeared as a large spot from space. Rotating in its mass were thousand-mile-per-hour winds and lightning bolts the size of large buildings.

Mayweather headed straight for it.





"They're insane!" The weapons' officer said.

"Enlighten them!" Seebok said. Suddenly she wasn't as confident as she had been. "Destroy them before they go in!"

"But...surely they'll be destroyed when they go in?"

"'If' they go in! They could be bluffing to make us back off and give them time to escape!"

The weapons' officer continued firing.





"It's just a big hurricane." Mayweather kept telling himself as he checked the wind data the scanners were giving him. "It's just a big hurricane...just a really, really, REALLY big hurricane."

"Travis, you'll do fine..." Archer said, never taking his eyes off the mass of clouds closing in rapidly on the screen, "...I have confidence in you."





"What if they do go in?" The helmsman said, his voice quavering.

Seebok thought for a moment, then grimaced. "We have to verify the ship's demise." She said. "We can't leave their destruction to chance. If they go in...we go in."





"Entering in three, two, one..." Mayweather said, "...now!"

The world outside went black as the ship slewed sideways. Mayweather fought the ship again, this time to right it. Enterprise was being tossed around, and only his herculean efforts brought her back to a proper attitude.

"Sensors are useless, Captain!" T'Pol said. "Hull polarization has failed! Outer hull starting to break up!"

"Get us to the eye, Travis!" Archer called out.





Osha'ziraan was experiencing the same problems as Enterprise. It was bigger and could take more punishment, but even this ship was being tossed around. The worst part was they couldn't even see the Humans, much less verify their destruction.





"I think we're almost there!" Mayweather said, after a harrowing journey through the stormy abyss. It was none to soon. The ship was starting to lose medium chunks of hull plating.

"Is that torpedo loaded?" Archer asked when Reed returned to the bridge.

"Loaded and ready!" Reed said. He armed it when he got back to his station.

It came as a shock when the buffeting stopped and they could see outside again. There was a solid wall of clouds again, only this time it was surrounding them. They were inside the eye of the great storm, an expanse of calm in the center only about a few hundred meters wide. Mayweather headed for the direct center and pulled up.

"She's sluggish in the climb!" Mayweather warned. "We must have taken some damage to the impulse engines!"

"Just keep going up, Travis!" Archer said. "Aft view!"

The screen switched to Enterprise's rear camera, showing the dark tunnel of clouds that led to the planet's surface as the ascended. Archer was holding his breath. He couldn't expect the storm to kill the enemy. They would probably find the eye any second now...

"There!" He said as the big ship emerged. "Lock torpedo on target!"

"Locking on!" Reed said as the ship pulled up to pursue them.

Archer waited till they got close, then said "Fire!"

The modified torpedo ejected from the aft tube and sped downward, attracting lightning to it like a superconductor. The area surrounding it glowed with raw baryonic power, turning the torpedo into a packet of ball lightning with a solid core by the time it reached the enemy ship.

The torpedo punched through Osha'ziraan's shielding and slammed into the forward hull before detonating, disintegrating the bridge of the ship and sending shockwaves throughout the structure. The engines went offline immediately, and the burning hulk fell back into the storm.

Mayweather worked the impulse engines hard, fighting the vortex surrounding them and the gravity of the gas giant. His diligence was rewarded. Soon Enterprise was back in orbit, battered and scarred but mostly intact and functioning.

"Damage reports, all decks!" Archer said into the PA.







"Still no word?" Riyu Cho said. He wished Seebok Choi had not taken it upon herself to lead the mission to kill the Humans. It had been several hours since the base had had contact with Osha'ziraan, and it looked like the attack might have failed.

"Still no word." Suun Rivaksh said.

Riyu thought a moment. It was a setback, certainly, but one they could overcome. They'd just have to put off their plans for a little longer. They had all the time in the universe.

"Very well." He said. "You will be my new viiratu'chann."

Suun smiled. "Thank you, ziraan." She said. "I am honored to serve you."





"...and we have to replace at least twenty different hull plates." Tucker was saying in Archer's quarters later. He was finishing up the extensive damage report to the Captain.

"All that could take days." Archer said.

"Ten days, fourteen hours and 37 minutes." T'Pol said. "Assuming no problems."

Archer smiled. "Well...maybe we'll be lucky in that respect. The Nomad-gypsies seem to have given up since they lost their big ship."

"Good for us." Tucker said. "We're gonna be laid up in this system a while. We don't need any uninvited guests."

Archer nodded in agreement.

"What will you tell Starfleet?" T'Pol asked.

"Everything." Archer said. "Though I don't know if they'll believe it. An entire race of spies and saboteurs, dedicated to overthrowing the galaxy? How do you counter something like that?"

"Fight fire with fire." Tucker said. "Come up with people that can fight them on their terms."

"It's too big for just another unit of Starfleet. You may need another agency entirely."

"That would require an amendment to the United Earth charter." T'Pol said.

"That's right." Tucker said. "That would make it...what...section 30?"

"Section 31." T'Pol corrected.

Tucker nodded as he and Archer thought about it.

"Ahhh...we probably don't need to do anything that drastic." Archer said. "Besides, Starfleet would never let an organization like that exist. Now let's get back to the repairs. Do we have enough spare uranium to make the hull plating...?"





FINI