"Entering Zeon space. The fleet's first target, Betazed, is on long-range sensors. We'll arrive, at present speed, in ten minutes." Talara reported.
"Edwards, on my mark." VonBach ordered, "Red alert!" Lights about the bridge fell red and the shields blinked into place, "Now, fire the Fusion Catalyst!" An outsized probe-looking thing shot from the ship and drifted foreword, "It requires a confined energy burst to properly ignite. Lock phasers on it and fire."
"Aye, sir!" Edwards fired.
On the screen, the phaser hit the Catalyst, causing it to begin to break.
"All power to forward shields, activate the electron shield to combat the EM pulse." VonBach ordered, "Divert from Life Support if necessary."
A large white explosion came from the Catalyst. It quickly grew to engulf the Destiny.
"It's stripping our shields faster than we imagined. The anti-EM field is holding, but shields are down to 30 and falling." Bronski reported, shielding his eyes from the powerful light on the screen.
"They must hold. Emergency power to the shields." VonBach screamed.
"Shield efficacy is up to 200, but strength is still dropping. 23!" Bronski called.
VonBach stood, "All engines, full reverse!"
"17. We'll never clear the blast radius in time." Bronski called.
Talara smiled, "I'll be the judge of that. If I may?" She looked to VonBach who nodded, "Hold on. Adjusting flight display for 90 degrees positive Z axis." The ship shot straight up (relative to its previous position).
"We're too damn slow!" Bronski reported, "Shields at 2!"
"I need more power, Bronski!" Talara screamed.
VonBach approached Talara, "Jump to warp."
Talara spun, "Are you daft? A warp jump would shread up in this explos-"
"Shields failing! Hull breaches all over!" Bronski reported.
"A warp jump would kill us!" Talara screamed.
"Any better ideas?" VonBach asked Talara.
"Warp core breach in progress." Bronski sighed.
"Damn it! End simulation!" VonBach yelled as the bridge around them fell away.
"We're too close to the blast. We can't hold against it near as long in reality. I did things in the simulation that aren't possible in testing." Bronski said.
"So how do we get it farther out?" VonBach asked.
Talara walked up to him, "Stupid pink-skin! Lower the yield."
"As large as the explosive yield is, Commander, ships did survive unscathed due to the sheer size of the fleet." Edwards reported, "And we took too much damage to fight them."
"And you wonder why Starfleet rejected this idea?" Starwind laughed, standing by the arch leading out.
VonBach spun, "How long have you been there! I mean, Sir!"
"At ease, Joseph, before you have a heart attack." Starwind smiled, "Well, if you can get this thing down well enough so that it doesn't wind up slow-roasting my ship,I'll give you the go-ahead. Any defensive developments?"
"Well, sir, we modified our forward shields to hold off the EM wave, but it was a minor modification. I wonder if the EM wav will effect other ships at all?" Bronski reported.
"The best action, sir, would be to have all engines full reverse when we fire the Catalyst. We might be able to escape the blast radius alive." Talara reported.
"What about a shuttle remotely controlled by out bridge crew?" Starwind suggested. Silence fell on the lot, "Bronski, you and VonBach work on modifying a shuttle. Talara and Edwards, prep Holodeck Two for remote piloting."
"Aye, sir!" They all exited.
Starwind sighed, "I wonder why I'm doing this? Shouldn't I just get us home? Or have we gone too far? Have we done too much? Is the Terok Nor incident our fault? My fault?" Starwind spoke to himself, searching for answers, "What the hell are we doing here? How do we go home? Can we go home?" Starwind sighed and turned to exit the Holodeck. "I wonder."