T'Nia switched screens on her console again. "Their main power is offline." She continued interpreting the numbers and images in front of her. "Their cloak is inoperative, the weapons systems are inactive, and the shield generator has been destroyed. All targets hit, Captain." Her voice was almost robotic. A lesser person would have taken pride in their ability to change control systems, match targets to scanner results, and fire four perfectly targetted weapons in under ten seconds. As far as she was concerned, she was simply doing her job.
"Perfect shooting, Commander! Thank you." Bolerov was simply beaming. By his estimations, that little display of firepower should have given certain shipful of romulan bystanders something to think about.
"Dropping the mask really wasn't necessary, Captain." Kirk commented. "We could have fired just as easily with the mask still up."
"I was going for shock value. It would seem I got it." Bolerov smiled as he replied. He was looking to not only impress the romulans, but his own crew. That momentary lapse might have shaken it a bit. Andrei allowed his mind to dwell on the phantom memory for just a moment. Why did it happen? It had been five years ago. He had been officially cleared by a Starfleet psychologist. Why would he have that memory? No matter. He would get over it. Those kinds of memories wouldn't get in his way any longer. Andrei couldn't afford to let those memories come back. "Lieutenant Moreau, reset the mask. There may be other assassins about." He added, snapping out of his mental self-discussion.
"Aye, aye, Sir." Tony replied. He spun around in his chair.
"Captain," T'Nia started.
"Yes?" He turned back around.
T'Nia was rapidly attempting to discern the strange readings she was getting from the damaged warbird. Still attempting to discern the cause, she answered, "There is some kind of energy buildup in the warbird's engineering section."
It only took a moment for the seasoned veteran to come to a conclusion. "They've set the self-destruct. Apparently, they don't want us getting on that ship." His voice became resolute. "Liutenant Commander, how much time to we have?"
She was still making calculations. Sensor readings were not her strong suit. Neither was interpreting energy patterns for a quantum singularity drive. "I am still working on the calculations, Sir. One moment."
Tom, sitting behind the captain, was also looking at the readouts. Being more familiar with quantum mechanics, looked quickly at the rising output and offered a guess. "I'd say four and a half minutes, maybe a little less."
Captain Bolerov needed to know how the remans got a hold of romulan warbirds. He also didn't want to trust that information to the romulans behind him. He turned quickly to Kirk. "We need that ship intact, Commander. Stop that countdown."
Stephen couldn't have heard him properly. "Sir?" he questioned.
"Commander, take whoever you need and whatever you need and stop that self destruct." Bolerov's voice remained calm, but quite determined. His eyes locked intently on his first officer.
T'Nia finally got the calculations she was looking for. "The drive system will explode in four minutes, twenty-two seconds... mark." She turned to look at Tom, who breathed on his fingertips, then rubbed his shirt.
Stephen was a little in shock at the order. There were no marines on board... not even a security detail. They had less than half their crew, which would only be two-hundred eighty if completely manned. Compare that to a maximum crew of fifteen hundred on a D'deridex warbird and they'd still be hopelessly outnumbered, even with the damage they endured. Since the self destruct was set, that probably meant there were remans alive in engineering... a race known for their superior combat skills. His options were running out. His eyes darted from place to place on the bridge, instinctively trying to find something that would trigger another idea.
Stephen's eyes eventually fell back on the captain, who had grown impatient. "Go!" He yelled.
Stephen jumped up. An idea was forming in his head. He looked at Tom. "Tom, I need you to get me some stun grenades from an armory and meet me in transporter room one," he said emphatically. He headed for the turbolift door.
Lieutenant Kelly was momentarily stunned, but his mind quickly understood why he was selected. He stood quickly to follow, then had an unfortunate recollection. "Commander, the armories are empty. We've only got a handful of hand phasers scattered about the ship."
Kirk rolled his eyes. There goes that option... maybe there was another. "Tony!" he yelled. He pointed to Tom. "Grab a PADD that understands romulan computer and head to transporter room one on the double."
Tony looked at his friend, turned superior officer, pleadingly... but Kirk was already looking back to Kelly. Grimly, he got up, grabbed a PADD from under his console and tapped a few controls on its face.
Kirk was back to Tom. "Grab three phasers and get to transporter room one... quick!" Hopefully, Doctor Rass would be able to supply an alternative to the first part of his plan.
"Right!" Tom replied excitedly. He shot for the turbolift and was gone with the hiss of the door.
Kirk tapped his comm badge. "Kirk to Doctor Rass."
The badge popped with the almost bored voice of the doctor. "Rass here. Is the fight over?"
Kirk was getting quite impatient that he couldn't voice his needs quickly enough. "Yes... I need your help. I need something that will knock out a bunch of remans quickly in a container that will break easily. And I need it fast." He headed for the turbolift door.
The doctor's voice replied, "A decent enough concentration of anesthezine gas should do the trick. Exactly when do you need it?"
"Thirty seconds, unless you can secure it faster." Kirk replied as he impatiently tapped his foot waiting for the turbolift car to come to the door.
"You're joking, right?" Rass replied with a chuckle.
"No, doctor, I'm not. I need it now, and in something that will break." The turbolift door opened. "Tony... let's go!"
Tony looked up from his PADD. Everything he needed had finished downloading. Slowly he looked up at his friend and the open turbolift door. He was about to transport aboard a damaged romulan warbird crawling with angry reman warriors with a self destruct set to go off in four minutes. So much for the reasonbly safe desk job. Tony headed with Stephen into the turbolift. He had wanted to talk to Elaine one more time, just never found the chance. He had wanted to clear the air with Steve. Now, faced with a mission he'd probably never live through, his heart weighed heavily.
Elaine watched as the two walked into the turbolift. She forced back tears as she realized she really did like him. She wanted to pull him back. She actually felt compelled to take his place. There was so much she wanted to say, but never found the words... or the humility. Under her breath, she whispered, "I'm sorry."
The turbolift door closed with a hiss.