Helmsman Sheba looked up. "Captain. Intersect with Proxian vessel in approximately 2 minutes."
Captain Picard nodded. "Excellent. Garet, your knowledge of Proxian defence systems is well-known. What would be the best way to disable their ship whilst doing minimum damage?"
"Uh…" Garet, the Tactical Officer, didn't know.
"I see that my time is wasted. Ivan what do you have to say on the matter?"
Ivan, despite his boyish android exterior, had a vast intellect. "The Bird of Prey's shields are currently shown from scans to be at 88, due to its engagement with the Federation ships. However, it also seems to be the case that the rear shields are suffering from energy fluctuation, possibly due to instability in the Mars energy. I would recommend harmonising our attacks to Mercury energy in an attempt to destabilise this further.
"Once we have created a flux in the rear shields, we should strike the main power conduits running along the wings with carefully placed Tundra attacks. When the main power is down, the ship will be temporarily debilitated, and we may ensure that it remains that way until the salvage ship arrives." Ivan finished.
Picard nodded again. "Very well."
Lieutenant Sheba spoke up. "Captain, we are coming out of warp, approximately 1.4 nautical miles from the enemy vessel."
"Battle stations!" ordered Picard, grinning. He loved sea battles.
"Captain Felix, Lord Alex!" roared Agatio, the largest blue Proxian. "A Federation vessel has come out of warp just over a mile away!"
"What?" snarled Alex. "What ship is it?"
Saturos who was by far the intellectual superior to Agatio was working furiously at his computer console. "Scanning now, sir." His fingers and eyes flew across the small bright screen. Proxian letters flashed across it, and his eyes widened in sudden fear. "Its broadcast signals match those of the Enterprise."
Alex stood up abruptly, spilling his tea all over the newly furbished bridge chairs. "The Enterprise?" He turned to the other commander. "Felix, this is worse than we thought."
"Wait Alex, we do not as yet have confirmation. It could be a trick, the Federation trying to get us to change our course." He called to the helmsman, Menardi. "Are we in visual range yet?"
"Ten seconds, sir."
"Whatever it is, it's catching up too quickly," muttered Alex as he scrubbed the leather chair.
Felix just tapped his foot.
"We're in visual range, captain."
"On screen."
The large panel at the front of the bridge lit up with the image of a huge dragon head at the prow of a ship. A single huge cannon was glowing menacingly with fire energy, and the vessel's name could clearly be seen.
"Dandelions," cursed Felix. "It is the Enterprise."
Alex stood up beside him. "Felix, we cannot allow this ship to be caught."
"I know that, but what can we do? The Enterprise's weapons systems far outmatch our own. It was one thing with those other ships. They were weak, with weak captains. The Enterprise is different. If we engage them, we'll be ripped to pieces." He sat down and held his head, trying to think.
"The enemy vessel will intercept us in approximately one minute," said Menardi from her post.
Alex ignored her, and sat down next to Felix. "We could use that for which we came," he whispered.
Felix looked up. "But we're still at sea. And we've never tried it before; we haven't had enough time to study it. For all we know, it could destroy the ship."
"But that's what will happen anyway!" hissed Alex. "That or we'll be captured and towed back to Tolbi or Lalivero and all that we've worked for will come to nothing."
Felix thought, then nodded. "At least if we try there's a possibility that we'll escape. You're right Alex."
The Lord Alex smiled and tossed some of his hair over his shoulder for a shimmering effect. "We may die, but we'll die doing what we must." The two men thumped each others' shoulders in a comradely fashion.
"Very well," said Felix as they stood up. "You stay here and take full command of the bridge. I'll head to the warp core and prepare the modifications."
Alex nodded. "I'll send a sub-space message to Puelle informing him of the situation."
"Good. Lieutenant Karst, you come with me." The Science Officer walked with him to the warp pad. Before they left, Felix turned to the blue-head. "If all else fails, we'll eject the core on a course for Prox. Is that in accord with your wishes, Alex?"
"Yes. I'll enter the ejection codes from the bridge."
Felix nodded, then stepped onto the pad with Karst, and they were gone.
"Captain, we're within range of the Bird of Prey."
Picard stood up, straightening out his Federation-issue uniform. "Battle stations, put the whole ship on red alert. Helm, I want you to take full manual control. Mr Garet, charge the Magma Cannon and the A-phasers." He pressed his combadge. "Dr Mia, we may be needing you up here."
"I'm on my way, sir" said the Doctor from the speaker.
Picard spoke again. "Jenna, keep yourself ready for all eventualities. We don't know -"
Suddenly the whole sky darkened, but the darkness felt wrong, as though the sun wasn't being blocked but rather it wasn't there. There was a loud rushing noise, and Picard had to hold onto his head-dress to keep it from being blown away in the sudden wind. Just as quickly as it started, it stopped.
He spun around to face Ivan. "Just what in the world was that?" he demanded.
The young android barely looked up from his console. "It seemed to be a very large elemental disturbance."
"Captain, look!" cried out Mia who had just arrived from sickbay. She was pointing at the sun. A large chunk was missing from the side.
Garet picked his nose in fear. "Captain, we need to know what's going on," he said worriedly.
"I know that!" snapped Picard. He wasn't usually like this, but he had never seen anything like this before, and even he was scared. "Ivan, we need any data you can give us."
"I'm working on it, sir."
Just then the sea around the Proxian ship ahead seemed to be sprayed up by an invisible whip. Drops of water spiralled up into the air in a large circle around the boat, hung suspended for a second, and then blew out and away from the centre.
Picard blinked as a few droplets hit his cheek, and then felt a sharp pain. He put his hand up, and when he took it away he saw that the water had flown with such force that the impact had made his cheek bleed.
He stood in shock for a few seconds, then regained his composure and turned back to Ivan. The android had not been injured like everyone else had.
"Have you got anything yet?"
Ivan shook his head a bit worriedly. "I'm not sure. It appears that a very large amount of energy is either being drawn… or created… around the bird of prey."
Picard narrowed his eyes. "Why do say 'created?' I thought it was impossible to create elemental energy away from the lighthouses."
"I too believed that, sir, but looking at this…"
Picard turned back around to glare ahead at the Proxians. Mia was hurrying around to heal the injured crewmembers. "It doesn't matter. We just need to stop that ship."
"Sir," Ivan spoke up yet again. "Scanners indicate fluctuations in the warp core of the enemy vessel. It is possible that they are using impure Psycrystals, but the output seems too great for Psycrystals of any kind."
"Is that what's producing the disturbance?" wondered Picard. His thoughts were cut short.
"Sir!" shouted Sheba. "Enemy vessel is turning to port, 90 degrees!"
"Curses," muttered Picard. "Ivan, get the enemy's shield fluctuations and send them to Isaac." He pressed his badge. "Isaac, Ivan will send you the enemy's shield frequencies. I need you to set the A-phasers to disruptive frequencies in order to break past their defences."
"Yes sir!" bellowed Isaac from Main Engineering. "Finally something to do!"
It's a good thing we keep him down there all the time, thought Picard. He shook his head and got back to the job at hand.
Felix and Karst were working furiously at consoles in the bird of prey's engineering section. Before them the immense warp core glowed a violent blue. Swirling shapes blew around within it.
"Lower the Psycrystal Injection Field and recalibrate the harmonisers for manual injection," said Felix.
"PCIF is down, the harmonisers are calibrated," replied Karst. Vapour billowed from a huge pipe as locks on it disengaged and motors retracted it. "I am readjusting the LLPE for PES."
"You know what to do, Karst," said Felix. He tapped a few more buttons, then stepped away. "As soon as the manual injector is in position, alert me."
"Yes sir."
Felix walked around to the other side of the core. A large metal door barred his way, a small screen beside it.
The captain pressed his hand against it, and a thin green light sped up and down, scanning it. He then placed his eye in front of it, and his iris was checked. Finally a pair of tweezers pulled out a nose hair for genetic analysis. Once the computer was satisfied that Felix was Felix, huge gears pulled the door back, and he stepped inside. A small box lay before him on a pedestal.
Back on the other side of the core, Karst saw Felix leaving the vault and then climbing up into a Jefferies tube.
Excellent, she thought, smiling to herself. Captain Felix will show those Federation scum what happens when they decide to interrupt what's none of their business.
Felix grunted as he lugged the heavy box behind him. Soon he saw his destination.
He entered a glass tube high up the warp core. Below he saw Karst still working to get the core ready. Pressing his Proxian combadge, he said "Karst, are you ready yet?"
She looked up from below and waved, a happy expression on her face. Her voice came back. "Almost sir!" She even sounded happy. She pressed the last few buttons. "There."
Ahead of Felix the injector blew off the tube. The chugging of heavy machinery could be heard as the huge pipe slowly spun around. From the other side another pipe, just as large, moved around. It lowered itself and then pneumatic pumps forced it out to lock onto the Jefferies tube. Metal catches spun out, securing the manual injector in place.
Everything was now in place. Felix keyed in the command to open the injector; a metal plate whirred and opened. Inside there were four loops of metal. In the middle there was a standard Psycrystal, connected to the four loops. This part of the injector had been specially modified for the mission.
Just then Alex's voice came through on the communication. "Felix, just what are you doing? There are some very strange things going on up here."
"Don't worry," said Felix as he opened the case. Inside there were four large jewels. "We're almost done. We're just loading the injector now."
"Well, you need to hurry up! We're going to turn, get ready to fire."
"You do that," muttered Felix to himself as the combadge went silent. He pressed more buttons, and the injector's door whirred shut again. He quickly picked up the case and scurried back through the Jefferies tube, leaving the suspended glass section.
Karst looked up as an exhausted captain came running over.
"We're done," he said to Karst and his combadge at the same time. Then to Karst only, "Raise the PES shielding and prepare to ignite the crystal."
Around the core a hole appeared in the floor. From it rose a huge steel tower, completely surrounding the warp core. As soon as it locked into place with a resounding crash, gigantic cracks of electricity burst out from the core to the walls of the chamber.
"Preparing to ignite," said Karst.
A smirk grew on Felix's face. Now is the time. Now the Federation will pay.