Chapter Five
Bait
A rigid Captain Picard stood in front of the view-screen, arms folded, intently watching the tactical display as four Runabouts, two White Stars and the five resistance EAS warships formed a loose cluster around the Enterprise-D. Tactical analysis from Data and Yar, predicted the enemy would have to strike against EAS forces at a prescribed point, exiting far enough to quickly and properly organize the attack, yet close enough to take the enemy by surprise. The five EAS resistance ships included two Hyperions, two Novas and an Omega class destroyer and their compliment of fighters, now painted white and gold to help distinguish them from their loyalist brethren. The capital ships and many of the fighters had not yet undergone the full upgrading process, but they had received several gifts such as subspace communications and four compatible, first generation, spatial charges, with upgraded propulsion. The capital ships possessed three-dozen high-speed, first generation photonic torpedoes with warheads delivering forty-five megatons worth of punch per missile.
As much as he preferred that the EAS not to take advantage of the situation, he wasn't foolish enough leave his forces separated. If any of them were damaged, he was sure that the temptation to 'liberate' one or more of the resistance ships would be too strong to ignore. The idea of a White Star or the Enterprise falling into Clarke's hands gave him pause.
Standing next to and just behind Picard, Commander Riker bellowed the last of his orders in preparation for the latest engagement. Behind him, Lieutenant Yar was finishing her own preparations, nodding quickly as she finished. He in turned nodded to Picard.
"Sir, General Pickett is on line. He's plotted the most probable exit points and they are relaying the coordinates to us. They are respectfully requesting that we be held in reserve, to plug up any holes that will occur."
"Acknowledged, Number one. Keep the channel to the Evanston open," he added. "I want our allies to be informed of what's happening. Order our Runabouts to back off by ten million kilometers. And I want to speak to Commander Ivanova and Captain Chamberlain."
A few seconds later: "Ivanova here."
Captain Chamberlain appeared on the split screen a moment later.
"I would like for your two groups to vector away from us at forty degree angles to maximize our effectiveness. We will serve as the anchor for the Earth Alliance.
"Understood, Captain Picard," Susan answered. "I would suggest that the White Stars and Chamberlains squadron wait in hyperspace until the proper signal is given."
Picard immediately agreed, understanding that their tactics were tailored for those types of vessels. Changing the plan slightly, the Enterprise and the Runabouts moved away at warp four to a distance two minutes from their original position. When the battle began, the Runabouts would run escort for the resistance EAS warships.
Riker, talking softly to Lieutenant Tasha Yar, ordered a more detailed analysis of the suspected Drakh ships slowing converging on the spot where the Federation starship had been only a few moments earlier.
"I see they want to have a go at us. Obviously the Centauri don't have a desire to get pasted again."
"I believe, Number one, that their intelligence is better this time," Picard said dryly. "They know what they're up against. I'm betting that these new ships are the heavy hitters. They know that the Vorchans are no match for us, even with their speed and agility."
"And their Primus battleship's shields are almost useless," Tasha added. "Even with all of their armor, the shields they're projecting are little better than our navigational deflectors. Our phasers and photon torpedoes-"
"We've had good luck so far, Lieutenant," he cautioned. "I don't want us to become over-confident," Riker said cutting the conversation off for the benefit of the Evanston, who was still on visual. "Remember what happened when we encountered the Shadow vessel."
Picard's mood darkened considerably. He had been caught unawares of the deadliness of its weapons capability and hyperspace phasing abilities. Since that attack, all three Federation crews, the Klingons and B5 tech support had worked hard to counter the threat. Shield frequencies and been modified to better resist their beam weapon. It would take a sustained five-second burst from a Shadow ray could collapse a starship's shields and slice the ship in half. However, Federation phasers could easily produce exactly the same result on Shadow Battle crabs, as they were called, armor. And the deflector's graviton pulses could effectively neutralize the Shadow's ability to initiate hyperspace phasing. That gave him a little satisfaction.
Data tuned from his position and addressed the Captain. "Judging from the positioning of the Centauri and Drakh vessels and the fact that they do not seem to be initiating an attack. Judging by their relative inactivity at this point in time, I believe that they will hold off their attack for the time being. "
"Why?" Tasha asked curiously. "They're less than five minutes away. This would be a perfect time unless-"
"They are waiting for something," Data finished for her. "You are correct, Lieutenant. The next squadron of Earth Alliance vessels is scheduled to arrive in two hours twelve minutes. It is quite possible that they may be waiting for all of the EarthForce ships to congregate in one area before they begin their attack. They may not be aware that we are monitoring their movements in hyperspace and that we are preparing for them. If this supposition is correct, then the revised estimate for them to begin their attack is approximately two hours, twenty-four minutes. This estimation," Data continued, "also takes into account the deceleration of the arriving vessels and their relative deployment in the fleet."
Tasha nodded in understanding. "So unless they do a recon in normal space, they have no idea that we're waiting for them. And they don't dare perform one right now unless they want to give up the element of surprise."
"Logically, they will perform a fast scan of the area before they begin-if we allow them to."
"As soon as the rest of the ships arrive," Picard finished.
The EAS stepped up patrols significantly to discourage any last minute scans.
***
In spite of himself, the scene of the Enterprise bridge crew being playing out in front of him on the viewscreen fascinated Captain Drake. His assumption about Picard being a micro-manager was wrong. And the alien called Data was amazing. Never had he seen hands that moved so swiftly across consoles. For a moment, he believed that the alien was putting on show for his benefit.
"Captain Picard?"
"Yes Captain Drake?"
"May I ask what species Lieutenant Commander Data is? I've never seen anyone quite like him."
He saw Picard give his permission to Data to answer the question.
"Captain Drake," Data said unemotionally. "I am an android."
"Data," he said, understanding the significance. The name fit and chided himself for not thinking the obvious. There were so many discoveries coming from these people that lately his mind was becoming numb with each new revelation. The Data robot seemed so naturally a part of a living crew that it had never occurred to him that it was a mechanical entity. This was something new from him to adjust to. Picard was an adversary, misunderstandings or not; and President Clarke's mandate was clear. Right now they were allies he snorted. But when this was over, everyone knew that EarthForce command would issue orders to apprehend or destroy the Enterprise, Ambassador, the Yeager, and the Klingon vessel before the other races got access to the secrets onboard.
But what was interesting, he noted with some personal distain, was his slow change in attitude as time distanced itself form the debacle of B5. Whether they were from some alternate reality-absurd!- or most likely from a distant, unknown and forgotten colony was irreverent. Unlike Sheridan, these people were not traitors, but rather distant cousins caught up in their mess. He didn't consider the aliens onboard as part of the equation. Many in Earth-Dome considered Picard and Garrett to be under alien influence. Those opinions, coming from so many armchair Generals were shortsighted at best and disaster-prone at worst. He had since changed his opinion on that. That change had brought about other questions. Secretly, he was intensely curious as to how the crew's relationship to it was. His natural prejudice towards Picard was as strong as ever but his natural inquisitiveness pushed him to explore those questions and the Fed ship just for the joy of it.
One day, when this was over and relations improved, if ever, he might just ask. But his priority here and now was to make sure that he and his crew survived the next few hours. But then the question was what would happen next?
***
Eight Centauri cargo ships moved slowly to their exit point deep in the Centauri-held territory, escorted by four warships, something unheard of until recently. Captain Conda Risse couldn't decide if he should be elated or terrified by this gracious honor. Escort vessels, three Vorchans and a modified man-o-war Primus crisscrossed his route constantly on high alert, waiting for the Narn pirates and their alien ally.
Conda's nerves were frayed and he feared for his life, escorts or not. Three previous convoys, along with their protection had been attacked then butchered by the hated Narns. Two more had been seriously damaged. Logically he understood perfectly well that the Narn were a defeated people but yet now they were fighting with a renewed vigor. And that was something he couldn't understand. That was not part of their psychological personality traits. Once defeated, they usually remained docile provided that they were presented with the correct incentives to keep from angering their masters. They were nothing. But with this new ally helping them, they were now something to be feared. And most importantly he hated being what amount to being bait. Bait had a tendency to be killed in the line of duty. The only thing that kept him reasonably stroke-free was that hyperspace attacks were rare. But soon he would be ordered into normal space.
- As bait.
Drazi cruisers, desperate to stave off the Centauri advance often attempted lightening attacks in an effort to destroy or cripple a freighter, anything to slow his people then retreat to the safety of hyperspace before the Centauri guard ships blew them out of space. That was the responsibility of the fast moving Vorchans with new, upgraded defense screens, the perfect vehicles for this type of cover. Centauri scientists had been working overtime to improve them. However, the Centauri Captain wasn't comforted in the least by any of this. The Drazi were one thing, these Narn pirates another.
Condo's personal opinion was that his government should not have attacked the outsider humans and their alien ally in the first place. He'd heard the stories of the aliens participation in the destruction of nearly two dozen ships-of-the-line and he had also heard rumors of the impossible boarding of the surviving vessels by the foreign aliens. The rumor had stated that the Captain of that ship watched helplessly as one of his bridge officers was gutted and then incinerated before his very eyes. Yes, the government tried to keep it quiet, but rumors like those were impossible to keep suppressed for long. No one could keep the rumor press for working overtime these days.
He remembered being swallowed up in the righteous, indignation and outrage at such a terrible loss of people and equipment to an inferior enemy such as the Earthers. His people were no one to laugh at and fully agreed with his Emperor that the Centauri people rise up and demanded extract against those on B5, Earth itself, the so-called Federation and the Klingon perpetrators. He had screamed as loud and as long along with the rest, as the shame seemed too much for him and his people to bear. He firmly believed that Cartagia had been correct at least in this instance. Vengeance was their right and only blood could wipe the stain of humiliation from the people of Centauri Prime.
However, now he saw things in an entirely different point of view. Regulated to being bait for maddened Narns and killer aliens was sobering to say the least. He wanted to take his ship and run-anywhere. Now Conda was could only pray to every god he remembered that the military knew what they were doing and could do it without getting him and his convoy killed in the process. Being sacrificed for the greater good was something he had no intentions of doing for his people
***
Fully cloaked, the Klingon B'rel class attack cruiser K'mpec's Honor, began stalking the convoy the instant it dropped into normal space. This was its hunting ground and like the predator it was, the Klingon ship had claimed it as their territory and that territory lay between Centauri space and what was formally Drazi-held region. With two Mark eleven pulse disruptor cannons supplemented by six Mark eights and six photon torpedo tubes of various sizes, in its own universe, the ship was feared by everything less than a Nebula sized battleship. Combined with high-density, tritanium-duranium armor and their shield system, that it was a predator was not in question. At only three hundred ninety meters in length it was at first underestimated by Centauri combat vessels two to five times bigger. But that was the past; now aging Vorchans and Primus ships were replaced with the latest upgrades performing escort duty. And the Klingons couldn't be more pleased.
Weapons control Officer Koss tracked the convoy as though it represented one of his favorite snacks. Of particular interest was the Primus escort, moving swiftly back and forth between the front and rear ships under its protection. It looked extremely skittish bouncing around like that he thought. "Target is one hundred thousand kilicams from optimum firing range."
Captain Koral grunted his affirmation. "Three minutes until we strike. Load photon torpedoes. Energize disruptors."
Seated next to him, his first officer, Commander Worf growled menacingly as the cruiser stalked the unsuspecting Primus. His blood burned for the warship, but strangely not for the convoy itself. Killing defenseless beings onboard unarmed vessels held no pleasure for him anymore. Evidently it didn't for Captain Koral either. More often he crippled the ships allowing time for crews to escape.
However the Narn had no such compassion against their enemies.
"Are we ready to strike another blow in the cause of freedom?" G'Kar asked no one in particular while smiling viciously at the intended target."
"Yes." Worf suppressed another growl. He liked the one called G'Kar, but the Narn talked too much like a politician. He must have been born one.
The First citizen of Narn walked a fine line between politician and combatant. The fact that he actively participated in attacks against the Centauri had infuriated them to no end. G'Kar was at the very top of what the humans aptly called the Centauri 'hit list' and there had been several overt attempts at kidnapping and assassinations-with extreme prejudice. Cartagia was angry enough to order the entire Narn population eliminated, but not even he could defy the tide of public opinion. Narn lived because Cartagia feared his own destruction. Genocide had a tendency to come back on you.
The Klingon warship accelerated quickly, de-cloaking at nearly three quarters light speed behind the Primus man-of-war. Its Captain, suspecting something like this, having exhaustively studied the reports of previous attacks, ordered flank speed and emergency breakaway maneuvers, frantically trying to break the target lock on his ship. But he didn't have a chance as a photon torpedo, moving close to light speed, slammed into the rear of the Primus detonating with the explosive force of a twenty megaton blast. Gravimetric shielding held for almost twelve whole nanoseconds before being completely overwhelmed by the antimatter annihilation. The rest of the ship followed the engine compartment into oblivion.
The entire rear of the sixteen hundred meter-long battleship vanished. The tremendous levels of gamma and x-ray radiation penetrated the cockpits of the nearby Sentri escort ships, instantly killing those members of the crew unlucky to have survived the initial attack. From the outside, the overall brightness of the blast belied its true energy output, but the ship had been effectively killed within the first thirty or so nanoseconds of the detonation.
Before the light faded, four G`Quon Narn ships exited jump points, attacking the Vorchan escorts who were only just beginning to respond the death of their comrade. Faster and more maneuverable, the Centauri scored first, heavy ion beams raking a Narn heavy cruiser unable to get out of the way in time. However instead of hitting and cutting through armor, it was mostly deflected by Klingon-derived shielding, not nearly as strong as the B'rel class ship but effective enough to keep the ship from being incapacitated or outright destroyed by a first or second strike. The Narn returned fire, hitting a Vorchan's hull, drilling into it. Damaged, it went evasive to allow its partner to protect it and get in a few hits against the enemy.
Watching the battle, every fear that Captain Drako imagined was playing out in front of him. The escorts couldn't handle the sneak attack and the devastating firepower of these pirate vessels. One Primus was dead in space and the other was taking a brutal beating from the two Narn ships. Now the two Vorchans were fighting for their very survival against the alien marauder. And he solemnly believed that their lives could be measured in minutes. Then he and his convey would die immediately afterward. Orders or not, he was about to make a run for it.
The order had almost been given when four jump points opened just about on top of him. Three Drakh Destroyers and five of the heavy fighter-gunships, known as Raiders, passed so close to his cargo ship that he was terrified that one of the ships might collide with his. However, now that the trap was fully sprung his only duty was to get his convoy to safety and away from the fighting. Those Destroyers were big, big and powerful enough he imagined, to handle anything those aliens could throw out. He actually gasped as he saw those monstrous ships pass by. The Destroyers were actually twice the length of a Primus and they literally dwarfed the small enemy vessel. That only gave him little comfort because size wasn't everything-but it helped.
"Power up the jump engines!" he yelled at his crew. "There isn't much time left before the big weapons start saturating this entire area! If you want to live, we leave now!"
His crew needed no further incentive. Engines powered up in record time and the fleet was on the move away from the battle zone.
***
The Drakh were fast and brutal. The closest Narn heavy cruiser responded to the threat a little to slowly and was caught between a Drakh vessel and two Vorchans. Its makeshift shields flared into red and collapsed as ion bursts, particle beams and the Drakh heavy weapons plastered its hull. The Narn exploded as armor melted and vaporized, nuclear fuel melted and ignited, while ammunition popped off inside the ruined vessel. The odds had changed suddenly, and now the attackers were themselves prey, trying to escape these new vessels, whose weaponry was on par with the Minbari. The remaining Primus and Vorchans started to retreat, giving the Drakh space to track and kill the tiny Klingon warship. The surviving Narns were quickly moving off in the opposite direction with a Drakh Destroyer giving furious chase. The other two locked onto and went after the Klingon ship.
***