Red11
Sam's heart was hammering, holy shit that was close. We're still alive, okay now breathe Sam and think she chided herself. If you were a self-righteous prick like Nero what would you do next? A cold sensation settled in the pit of her stomach when she came to that answer. Attack the earth, destroy anyone the Vulcans would go to for help. He wasn't just after destroying their world he wanted nothing short of genocide. She swallowed nervously.
"T'lin get me Starfleet headquarters, emergency channel" said Sam
T'lin didn't even question her as her fingers slid across that panel with quick efficiency.
"I'm not getting through captain the relay station must be down" said T'lin
"Or destroyed" said Cho
He said what Sam had been thinking already so she didn't bother to correct him.
"T'lin check on the captain for me" said Sam
"Mr. Cho anything on the enterprise?" said Sam
"No captain but its last heading was the Lorenceian system" said Polanski
Sam firmly resisted the urge to swear what the hell was their captain doing. Even if he reached the fleet they were already busy with a Klingon problem it's not like they could drop everything and come to their rescue.
"All right keep an eye out for them, hopefully they'll succeed in getting us a little back up, T'lin get me engineering" said Sam
She pushed more buttons.
"Engineering on line two. Message from the doctor on three, says that Terrell has a concussion and will be out of commission for a while. Mr. Hershey has a compound fracture to his right arm and he dislocated his shoulder same arm, it's his dominate arm so he also will be laid up for a while" said T'lin
Sam was relieved that at least they weren't going to die she had managed to advert their deaths at least. She flicked the switch for line two on the arm of the captain's chair.
"What can I do for you captain?" said Trip
"Trip I need you to get someone on those shield generators right away" said Sam
She glanced at the now repaired front section of their ship. They still had no front view screen but the hole was closed. There were several thin threadlike pieces that had spread from the spot in the hull. She suddenly had an idea, it worked for the hole in their hull.
"Trip get Reese up here with that plasma torch" said Sam
"Captain?" said Trip
"I'll explain later, please hurry" said Sam
Cho and the others glanced at her with confused looks. She could fully understand why but she really had no time to explain herself right now. A few minutes later crewman Reese exited the lift onto the bridge again. He stopped and looked to her for guidance.
"Cut those little tendrils off and take them down to deck six, then weld them over the section that covers our shield generators" said Sam
Reese moved to do so.
"Captain the regulations state that a new species or technology must be studied before it is allowed on a starship" said T'lin
Sam frowned, she was right it did say that.
"It does say that, but under the circumstances, emergency protocols demand I do everything in my power to make sure this ship is still in the air" said Sam
"Plus we're the only one out here" said Cho
Reese was done cutting and he stuffed the piece into the carrying container and headed for the lift. Twenty minutes later engineering called.
"Yes, go ahead" said Sam
"The holes are just about patched, but to tell you the honest truth I am not altogether easy using this stuff on our hull. What if it takes over the ship?" said Trip
"That's why we're docking at the station and sending our passengers down via shuttles" said Sam
"Good thinking, it is however working so far. I'll keep you informed of our progress" said Trip
He clicked off and Sam turned back towards the front screen
"One of our shield generators is showing a test sequence" said Polanski
Sam sat back and waited. The crew was all working to get the ship back up to fighting trim and Sam's only job was to oversee it at the moment.
"I've been informed that we can turn the shields on now" said Cho
"The reinforcement patches are almost complete" said Polanski
"Captain I found the Nerada its directly in front of us on a course for earth" said Cho
Sam's stomach fell. Oh crap why did she have to be right this time?
"The Enterprise?' said Sam
"No sign of her captain" said Polanski
"Are all our systems up and running?" said Sam
"Yes captain" said Polanski
"Neru lay in an intercept course, it's time to draw our line in the sand" said Sam
The girl nervously complied, she glanced at Sam once or twice nervously.
"T'lin take us to red alert, Mr. Cho fire up our weapons and target that ship. As soon as they are in range open fire, Neru be ready for some fast maneuvering"said Sam
The klaxon and flashing red light went off.
"T'lin go ahead and kill the klaxon, then get me all decks no better yet just tell everyone to hang on to something" said Sam
T'lin nodded and relayed the message to all decks. Right after she did so Cho opened fire. Neru was already turning the ship to reangle for another shot. Cho fired again, each shot squarely hitting the Nerada.
"Captain they are returning fire" said Polanski
"Evade" said Sam
Neru did so and the shots missed.
"Keep hammering them Mr. Cho" said Sam
She was counting on her ships maneuverability because it was smaller. Cho fired again and this time Neru didn't turn in time
"Shields still at full captain" said Polanski
Cho fired again and suddenly the ship stopped moving. Sam turned to look at Neru, she was frozen and shaking. The Nerada had fired again and Neru was frozen in fear. Sam climbed out of her seat.
"Move!" said Sam
Shaking still Neru vacated her seat. Sam hit the controls and maneuvered the ship out of the way of the blast.
"Continue Mr. Cho, Polanski monitor any damage we do" said Sam
Neru had moved back to her previous station and looked crestfallen. Sam didn't have the time or inclination to coddle her right now. She was too busy dancing their ship out from in front of the Nerada's guns and then giving her ship a clear shot and doing it again.
"Captain their shields have dropped 10%" said Polanski
He sounded excited and she didn't blame him
"Ours?" said Sam
"Still full" said Polanski
Beside her Cho's fingers danced across the firing sequence, spitting fire from each of their guns in no particular order.
"Captain I'm picking up the enterprise" said Polanski
"Good they can join us" said Sam
The Nerada fired again and Sam had to take the ship near vertical to avoid the shot.
"Reinforcements still holding captain, shields still at full" said Polanski
Sam turned the ship sharply and came up over the top of the Nerada. At this angle the ship was directly below them but their guns were at the top of their ship. Sam hit the port thrusters and barrel rolled the Reliant so Cho could fire.
She was very glad everyone had followed her example and strapped in because they were looking down at the ceiling at the moment Cho opened fire and she rotated the ship finishing the maneuver so they were now below the Nerada. It was at that point the Enterprise opened fire and Sam was given the double duty of avoiding their guns and the Nerada's.
Together they were chewing the larger vessel up and overloading its ability to regenerate.
"Captain a smaller ship just launched out of the Nerada" said Polanski
"Life signs?" said Sam
"One Romulan, also there is a radioactive signature similar to what they employed on Vulcan" said Polanski.
He gave T'lin a worried glance.
"Mr. Cho target that ship" said Sam
"But captain the proximity..." said Polanski
"Can't be helped right now, if that ship gets away it will do to earth what it just did to Vulcan" said Sam
She turned the ship sharply. Cho opened fire on the smaller vessel and then sent one more volley into the Nerada. The first few shots missed the smaller ship.
As they were leaving the close proximity to the Nerada Cho fired at the smaller vessel one last time and this time hit it. Sam jumped their ship to full impulse and streaked away from the smaller vessel before it exploded.
Boy did it explode the tiny ship went off like a nuclear bomb and using part of the Nerada made a black hole. Sam turned when she was beside the enterprise. Without a front view screen Sam had only the screen for the sensors on her display.
"Captain they are hailing the enterprise" said T'lin
"Acting Captain Kirk offered them assistance, they refused" said T'lin
She had a self-satisfied tone to her voice that conveyed she was pleased by their refusal.
"Very well Mr. Cho one last time, light them up" said Sam
The last of their torpedoes streaked towards the Nerada alongside those of the Enterprise. The Nerada went up in flames and the vessel was pulled apart by the black holes gravity. Sam turned her ship towards home.
"Captain the Enterprise is hailing us" said T'lin
She sounded better more at peace with what happened. Sam took a deep breath. She had kept her promise, Nero had been brought to justice.
"Put him through" said Sam
"Do you require any assistance?" said Kirk
Sam chuckled
"Naw, I think we're going to just limp back home now" said Sam
He chuckled
"Okay, we'll follow you home. Ladies first" said Kirk
Sam chuckled
"That's for elevators" said Sam
"Huh?" said Kirk
Sam chuckled and told T'lin to cut the feed.
"T'lin record this" said Sam
She pushed a few buttons and nodded in Sam's direction.
"At 22:00 earth standard time the federation vessel USS Reliant engaged in combat the Nerada captained by the Romulan criminal known only as Nero. A fight the Nerada subsequently lost and was sucked into the black hole they created" said Sam
She gave the signal to cut it
"Go ahead and transmit that to all decks" said Sam
She glanced towards Neru the girl was still cringing somewhat.
"Neru you've got the helm" said Sam
She stood up and stepped back. The crew turned and gave Sam a confused look. Neru stared with wide eyes, her antennae were down indicating she was ashamed of her earlier behavior. Sam gave her a level look and the girl inched closer. She gave Sam a look that said are you sure.
"I haven't got all day cadet" said Sam
Neru quickly sat down and rested her hands on the controls. Her antennae slowly came back up as her confidence returned. Sam sat down in the Captain's chair.
"Captain I have Mr. O'Malley on line two" said T'lin
Sam hit the button on the arm of her chair.
"Yes Mr. O'Malley" said Sam
"I've got that head count you asked for Captain" said O'Malley
"Great what are the numbers?" said Sam
"Ah they stand at 5,365 not counting crew members which ups the number by another twenty" said O'Malley
"Sorry Captain I had hoped the numbers would be higher too" said O'Malley
"No that's fine Mr. O'Malley you guys did the best you could, have medical go through and check for injuries" said Sam
"Already on it captain, O'Malley out" said O'Malley
"Neru can we do warp?" said Sam
She shook her head no.
"No captain the port nacelle is damaged, we are lucky we even still have engines" said Neru
Cho sighed and was frowning at his display.
"What is it Mr. Cho?" said Sam
"Captain, I've just been informed by our gunners that we melted the firing mechanism on one of the photon cannons and one of our phazers has gone missing" said Cho
Sam sighed
"Don't worry about it Cho they can replace her guns, just be glad you still got deck under your feet" said Sam
"Captain I've got engineering on line one" said T'lin
"Go ahead" said Sam
"Captain?" said Trip
"Hey Trip how bad are we?" said Sam
He let out a huff of air.
"Not as bad as I thought but she's still gonna spend a lot of time in dry dock. Speaking of which our docking clamps are damaged, so you might want to have them tractor us in" said Trip
"Will do thanks for the heads up, just do whatever you can to keep us in the air Trip" said Sam
She closed the channel and shook her head. Man this ship was messed up something fierce it would be a wonder if they ever let her on a ship again. It was relatively smooth sailing back to base if you don't count the starboard stabilizer going out and having to pilot the ship at a 45 degree angle to keep it from going into a spin. Needless to say by the time they reached the station everyone on the bridge had a sore spot on one side of their bodies.
The station tractored them in and extended a boarding ramp so her passengers could disembark. The Enterprise was pulling into the adjacent bay as Neru shut down their engines. Everyone sighed in relief and slowly stood up to stretch. Working the kinks out of abused muscles as they did so.
"Captain, O'Malley wants to know if he has your permission to disembark the passengers" said T'lin
"Yes of course tell him to go deck to deck if he has to. Have him coordinate with station security and set up some sort of survivor's roll call or something. We should try to reunite as many families as we can" said Sam
The turbo lift slid open and Terrell was standing there. Sam saluted him
"Captain on the bridge" said Sam
Terrell smiled
"At ease, there is already a Captain on the bridge. Lieutenant Morningstar" said Terrell
Sam blushed somewhat.
"How are you feeling sir?" said Sam
Terrell sighed and looked around the bridge, his gaze stopped at the repaired spot and he frowned.
"Much better since the doc let me out of the sick bay, still a bit of a headache though" said Terrell
The lift door slid open and out stepped a man in a medical uniform. He narrowed his eyes and glared at Terrell.
"You did good kid, go ahead and go, I've got this" said Terrell
Sam nodded and headed for the lift.
"Doctor Diaz" said Sam
She nodded in the doctor's direction as she passed.
Was Terrell mad about the damage to his ship? Or was he just sore because he missed everything? The lift doors closed and she leaned her head back on the back wall. She did it she got them all home safe and sound. That had to count for something right?
Sam exited on the deck they had attached the boarding ramp to. It was at that point she finally got a look at the refugees. Men women and children moved numbly towards the doors all in various states of shock. Sam suddenly felt bad for being in such a good mood in face of such a horrible tragedy. She blended in with the exiting crowd and headed for the door.
