Disclaimer: Star Trek is not mine. I'm so sick of typing that.
The previously promised chapter in which things become more exciting.
CHAPTER THREE
Somewhere in the Palladium system. Aboard a small ship hidden within the wispy edges of a gas giant. The man at the center of the bridge studied the ship on their long-distance sensors with great interest.
"So the starship Enterprise has come wandering into our little neighborhood. How very interesting." He waved a careless hand at the viewscreen. "Impressive, isn't she?"
"The most. Engines can reach warp eight in a pinch, photon torpedoes, phasers, heavy shielding…"
"Very interesting," the first man repeated thoughtfully. Within moments he reached a decision. "Take her out, warp two. We're going to engage the Enterprise."
On the face of it, the very idea was absurd. Their relatively tiny ship, take on a starship? But past experience had shown, their leader always knew what he was doing, and his luck was remarkable. And so, while questioning glances flew, no questions were raised, and they merely bent to their respective tasks.
* * *
"Captain, ship approaching starboard, warp two," Sulu announced. "Closing in one minute. Shall I raise shields?"
Lowell didn't answer. He was studying the viewscreen, and thinking.
Sulu glanced back. "Captain?"
"Regulations, I seem to recall, require that we raise shields when closing with another ship, until peaceful intent has been assured," Lowell said thoughtfully. "But we are here to help the people of this sector, and we don't want to appear overly militant. Does anyone remember if the regulation specifies ship size?"
"Closing in fifteen seconds, sir," Sulu interjected.
"That particular regulation, General Order 12, paragraph six, line two, has no size-specification, but applies for all ships," Spock said from the upper ramp.
"Hmm. Well then, shields—"
"Keptin! They're firing phasers!" By the time Chekov got to 'firing' everyone knew anyway.
They could feel it. Spock stayed in his chair. He always did. Lowell went half out of his. Sulu and Chekov knocked against their consoles, but at least stayed in place.
"We seem to have found the Sharks," Spock murmured.
"Shields up!" Lowell snapped.
"Shields up," Sulu confirmed with certain undisguised relief.
They'd only received eight seconds or so of direct fire raking their starboard side, but that was more than enough. Weapons-fire without shields is not a pleasant thing.
"The pirates?" Lowell asked.
"They flew by and kept going," Sulu reported. "Warp two, Mark 3.469. Shall we pursue, sir?"
"Yes…yes, of course. Warp, um, warp three."
"Warp three, aye."
"Damage report?" Lowell requested.
"Severe damage to decks 6, 7, and 8, minor damage to decks 5 and 9. No casualty reports yet, do you want me to call Sickbay?" Uhura asked.
"No, they're probably harried right now. They'll call us when they get a chance," Lowell said immediately. He didn't call Sickbay very often. Frankly, Dr. McCoy unnerved him a bit, though he wouldn't admit it for the galaxy. The man had a disconcerting lack of regard for command authority. He was a good doctor though. "The Sharks?"
"Still at warp two, sir."
"Keep following."
* * *
It had been a gamble. A very large gamble, going in like that, after a starship. He'd figured that it was very likely that the captain would get his shields up in time, and he'd have to peel off and run for it. They'd make it, but it would take a month to get his people's confidence back. And in this business, gang leaders with gangs who lacked confidence in them generally didn't last a month. But you didn't get anywhere in life if you never gambled.
And this gamble had paid off. In spades. Sensors weren't as fine as he'd like, but he knew they'd inflicted damage. And he'd learned something more important. The starship captain was slow. Which gave him an advantage. Because the leader of the Sharks was many things, but he wasn't slow.
"What's the Enterprise doing?"
"Still following," helmsman said. "Still at warp three."
"Good."
"How's it good? They're catching us! Let me go to warp four, huh?"
"Keep her at warp two."
"She's closing."
"Keep her."
"Hundred-thousand kilometers."
"Steady…"
"Eighty-thousand kilometers."
"Steady…"
"Sixty-thousand…can I go to warp three at least?"
"Steady at two."
"All right, but she's at forty-thousand."
"Steady…"
"Twenty-thousan—"
"Full stop!"
"Full st—?"
"FULL STOP!"
The helmsman shrugged. "You pay for the funerals." Then he stopped.
From faster than light to nothing in two seconds flat. It's a wonder anyone stayed in their seats, but they did.
"Enterprise is still moving—no, she dropped out of warp, twenty-thousand kilometers ahead!"
"Fire phasers!"
"Aye, aye!" The combination helmsman/weapons officer whooped. "Direct hits!"
"Warp five, right angle to our previous course."
The mood was absolutely jovial. The helmsman was beaming as he complied. "Now I remember why I'm workin' for you, Cap'n!"
The man at the center of the bridge allowed himself a half-smile that in no way did justice to the elation he was feeling. "You just keep on remembering that."
* * *
"Twenty-thousand kilometers….eighteen-thou—Keptin, they've vanished—no, they've dropped out of varp!"
Lowell blinked. "Well then, drop out of warp."
They did, but by then they were well past the pirates.
"Captain, they're behind us," Sulu reported. "And firing!"
Once again half the bridge crew achieved flight. By the time they righted themselves their shields were at 67 percent, and their port nacelle was having some problems.
"The Cochrane Deceleration Maneuver," Spock commented. "Created by Garth of Izar at the Battle of Axanar. Fascinating."
The Sharks, meanwhile, were running again, many times faster than what had previously been believed to be their top speed.
"Pursue, at warp six," Lowell ordered. "Oh, and fire at will," he added as an afterthought.
"Aye, sir," Sulu said. "Wish I knew how they got a warp-five engine onto that rat-trap of a ship."
"I suspect they are draining power from most of their shipboard systems," Spock said in answer. "I doubt they can maintain this speed for any length of time."
Spock, as he always was (to the intense annoyance of most of the crew), was completely correct. The Sharks were eating into their own life support by the end, but they kept at Warp Five for almost an hour. A few well-executed maneuvers and a lot of fast thinking kept the Sharks in the game, despite the Enterprise's faster speed, stronger weapons, and better shields. The Enterprise could move faster, but the leader of the Sharks could think faster.
Shots were exchanged on either side. A few lucky shots and a few slow reactions knocked the Enterprise's shields down to fifty-percent. The Enterprise was scoring shots too though, and the Sharks' situation was growing desperate.
Desperate times, as they always do, called for desperate measures. And the Sharks weren't half bad at desperate measures. The Sharks' leader had one particular move in mind. It was a last case-scenario, last-ditch, desperation, do or die, sort of measure. He didn't even hesitate. He outlined the plan, received a few dubious looks, and they went for it.
The next time the Enterprise scored a hit, the helmsman dropped the Sharks' ship out of warp and sent them into a tailspin. After several times around they vented impulse baffles, then cut power to everything. Except for one little monitor, that showed two little blips. One moving, one stationary.
"Someone please explain to me why we had to spin like that." The man at the back of the bridge was having troubles with his stomach.
"Between the spinning, and the cloud from the impulse baffles, and now the shut down, they're going to think they just killed us, and come in with their guard down. And then…"
* * *
The bridge crew watched as the pirate ship suddenly flipped around, and spun, apparently out of control. A cloud erupted and slowly spread away from the ship, and all power went out.
"I think we just did it," Sulu said, a little surprised at the sudden reaction. Shields must've been lower than they'd thought.
"If you mean the pirates have lost the capability to continue the battle, it is a possibility," Spock allowed.
"Let's move in closer," Lowell suggested.
Sulu started to comply.
"Captain, perhaps we should do a sensor sweep first," Spock cautioned.
"On a defeated ship? No purpose in that," Lowell said dismissively.
So they went in. Completely unprepared for battle.
* * *
The Sharks watched their single monitor, and waited. The Enterprise moved in. And all at once the Sharks' ship flared back to life.
"Fire! Fire everything! I don't care if you burn out our phasers, just hit them!"
They did.
* * *
Spock was the only one on the bridge to stay in his seat. Alarms clanged, consoles sparked and smoked, and half the lights sputtered and died. Spock checked his read-outs. There was no good news. Shields were virtually gone, hanging on at nine percent. The minor problems in the port nacelle had developed into major problems, and the starboard nacelle was having its own difficulties. There were hull breaches, minor to major, from decks two to nine, and phasers would be out for some time.
"Captain, I believe we may have a problem."
There was no response. Spock turned to view the rest of the bridge. The bridge itself was recovering nicely; automatic fire extinguishers had already put out the worst of the smoking consoles, emergency lights were filling the gaps, and the worst of the alarms had already gone quiet. The bridge crew wasn't recovering quite so quickly. Sulu and Chekov were slowly getting back into their chairs. Uhura was sitting next to hers, one hand to her head. She appeared conscious though. Unlike Lowell, who was sprawled near his command chair.
Spock stepped past Uhura, and keyed Sickbay. "Bridge to Sickbay. We need a medical team." It was then he saw that they were being hailed, audio only. He flicked the necessary switch.
A voice played out over the bridge, an exultant voice. "Repeat: This is the leader of the Sharks. We're coming alongside. Prepare to be boarded."
Whatshername: Glad you're enjoying this, thank you for reviewing right after I posted and was feeling jittery about it! So where's more TRM?
Silverfang: Please, please, please tell me that you didn't mean that Lowell was like Kirk. Because hopefully by now you've caught on that he really isn't…I mean, really isn't…
Wedge Antilles: Believe me, the shirts are the least of anyone's concerns.
Katharos: YES! You got it! Lowell is BO-RING! Ditto for the Enterprise's mission! (well, until now, that is.) You had exactly the reaction to Lowell I was going for. : ) And as for Kirk being a pirate…Hmm. It's an interesting concept. But on the other hand, "not killing crews" just means they aren't coming aboard and killing everyone when they steal stuff. Can you really picture Kirk as part of a gang of lowlifes and scum from Rigel who travel around the seedier parts of the galaxy primarily attacking unarmed merchant ships and stealing their cargo, and who knows who gets killed in the initial fight? Yeah, they're after tougher ships than most pirates, and yeah, as you can see, they went for the starship when it turned up, but the money is in the cargo ships and that's who they're mostly attacking. Nogura is more concerned by the instances of attacks on challenging targets, which is why he mentioned them. Anyway, it is an interesting thought though.
Anonymous: Well, now you know how they deal with action!
Beedrill: Something different. A chance to branch out. I feel like one of the comedians who say they want to do dramatic roles. And yes, poor Spock! I feel sorry for him too, even though I put him in the position.