Chapter 26
Final Sacrifice
Stardate 2366.095
"Picard to Jordi."
"Go ahead Captain."
"Once we flip the switch, how long before all systems are online?"
"Should be almost immediate Captain. I've built in a subroutine that automatically shuts down non-vital functions. Data has an indicator on his station that shows our energy reserves."
"Thank you Jordi. I expect we'll be engaging the Visis in the next few minutes. Start venting plasma now."
"Aye Captain."
"Data. Could you put that indicator on the bottom of the forward screen. I think it would be a good idea if we could all see how much time we have left to conduct operations."
"Of course Admiral."
Immediately an orange progress bar appeared on the forward screen along with a one hundred percent at the end. The Captain did not say it, but everyone thought the same thing. If that status bar went to zero before they had incapacitated nearly all of the General's ships, their chance of survival was going to be very small indeed, despite Admiral Ruwon's pledges to the contrary.
Said Admiral's ships had just made their turn toward the Romulan fleet. That was Jean-Luc's indication to stay in place and act injured. The Visis' sensors would not work well enough to tell if the Enterprise was truly damaged, so all the Captain needed to do was let the ship drift at an odd angle relative to the oncoming Romulans. The venting plasma should be bright enough to be seen soon.
Admiral Ruwon's ships were now just bright dots at maximum magnification, just slightly brighter than those of the Romulan fleet. At their current closing speeds, the two forces would engage in the next few seconds.
"Data, at the General's current course and speed, how long before he gets here?"
"Seventy-three seconds Captain if they do not stop to engage Admiral Ruwon."
"Little chance of that I would think."
"If everything goes as Lyret thinks, they will see us and keep coming. In any case, I recommend we delay engaging the nullifying field until we see them firing at us. They will be more or less committed at that point," commented the Admiral.
"Good point. Data, alert us when you see them firing and also give us time to impact. Also, secure plasma venting."
"Aye Captain."
"Forty seconds to intercept Admiral," Ruwon's navigation officer informed her.
"All ships. I want something headed toward all of the General's ships, so I'm sending targeting for each of you. On my mark fire a short two-second burst at the incoming fleet, then execute an immediate turn toward the Auspex and target him. We want to give the rest of the ships a wide berth to make sure we avoid the rocks coming our way. Do not get within range of his conventional weapons until I order it. Please confirm."
As her five commander's confirmations came in, Admiral Ruwon considered her next steps. As powerful as the Enterprise was, and despite her challenge to its Captain, she doubted the Federation ship would be able to dispatch all eleven of General Ralaa's ships in the limited time it had. Assuming she disabled the Auspex. As soon as Ralaa realized the Enterprise was capable of using its conventional weapons, his ships would scatter, making them much harder for Picard to target. Admiral Ruwon would then be put in the unfortunate position of protecting the Enterprise when she ran out of power, while simultaneously trying to make sure none of the General's ships escaped back to Romulan space. She would just have to play it by ear she thought, as Hiro was fond of saying.
"Admiral. Intercept in thirty seconds."
"All ships…" she waited another ten seconds, "Fire!"
She watched as the ships under her command fired and immediately executed a hard turn toward the ship at the edge of the oncoming formation.
"Admiral. All of the General's ordinance just passed beneath us."
Without acknowledging her weapons officer, Ruwon said.
"All ships. Target the Auspex's bridge and commence firing."
Ralaa had used standard Romulan tactics in his attack. His ships were arrayed in a blunt cone, with his flagship positioned in the middle to be provided maximum protection. By going after the ship at the back edge of the cone, the hope was the General would not realize he had lost a ship until he was past her and committed to attacking the Enterprise. Then, with her fleet intact, she could turn and head back into the fight.
"Admiral, multiple hits on the Auspex. He is venting plasma. The bridge is open to space. Doesn't look like he will be going anywhere."
Without sensors, there was no way Ruwon could determine the true extent of the damage to the enemy ship, and she could not afford to let it effect repairs and rejoin its comrades.
"Let's make sure. Comm, hail the other ships."
"Go ahead Admiral."
"All ships. Get back into the fight. The Archeron will take care of the Auspex and join you shortly. Helm, bring us in close. Science, my ready room."
They had planned this exhaustively before this moment and science knew exactly what parts of the ship she needed to make "disappear" such as to cause minimal damage while rendering it totally inoperable. In the few minutes while the crew of the ship was running around trying to figure out why their ship was no longer under active control, the Archeron moved close enough to use the Device and made sure the Romulan ship's propulsion and weapons were permanently offline.
When Science re-entered the bridge a few minutes later, Ruwon knew the ship would not be bothering anyone anytime soon.
"Helm, set course for our sisters, maximum impulse."
As anticipated the Visis had made a beeline for the Enterprise once he perceived she was disabled. Ruwon doubted he would have stopped to engage her even if she had managed to take out more of his ships. The Enterprise was just too tempting a prize.
Ralaa was nothing if not honest with himself. There had been a few minor setbacks, yes. He had not gotten as far as he had however, without being resilient and resourceful. The opportunity that had just presented itself would go a long way toward salvaging this mission as well as cementing his power in the High Council when he got back home. Especially if he could take her intact. He had heard that Starfleet was squeamish about honorably destroying their own ship when the battle was lost. How such fvadt weaklings could have fought the Romulan Empire to a standstill he could not fathom. Well the General was here now, and there was not going to be a stalemate this time. He deserved that ship and fully intended on taking her.
"Navigation. Time to the Federation ship?"
"One minute General."
"General, the Auspex has been disabled. They report loss of weapons and maneuvering."
"Then they know what to do! Why are they calling me?!"
"Self destruct has also been disabled."
"Then they deserve to be slaves of the Federation. Do not bother me with news of them any more."
"All ships, commence firing on the Enterprise. Target to disable, not destroy."
The Enterprise was so close to being his he could taste it! He was staring at the ship on his forward screen imagining what he was going to do with Starfleet's flagship. Could he take her back to Romulus and make it his own flagship? Again, if he was honest with himself, the Enterprise was more powerful than anything currently in the military's inventory, despite what the fanatics would blather about Romulan superiority in all things. He would have to expand the captain's quarters of course to make it more befitting his new station – virtually certain when he returned to Romulus with the Enterprise – as both head of the High Council and Commander of the empire's military.
"What?!" He directed his attention to the subordinate who had interrupted his ruminations.
"I said General, that the Enterprise has stopped venting plasma."
"What? How?"
He looked at he screen again and indeed the ship had stopped venting. There was no way they could have repaired the ship that quickly and …
"All ships! Evasive maneuvering now! Destroy the Enterprise!"
"Captain. Romulan ships are firing. Engaging shields now."
Picard kept his eye on the energy progress bar on the forward screen. That was why he was even more surprised when a loud bang was accompanied by an eruption of sparks from Data's console.
"Captain, we appear to have a malfunction with the nullifying field," Data stated unnecessarily.
"Jordi!"
"On it Captain! Give me a minute!"
"I don't think we have that much time Jordi!
"Data, move us out of the path of those rocks!"
"Helm not responding Captain. My console was damaged. Rerouting circuitry."
"Captain look!" His weapons officer exclaimed.
Picard looked at the main screen to see the oncoming Romulan fleet suddenly scatter and increase their rate of fire. It was as if they figured out the Enterprise was playing possum. But how?
Merde!
No sooner had he posted the question than he knew the answer. He would have to be more careful next time. If, there was a next time. The Captain was fully aware this might turn out to be a fatal mistake. Nothing for it now; he'd just have to make do.
"Impact in ten seconds Captain!"
And soon he thought as shudders and bangs emphasized the need for urgency.
"Damage report!"
"Minor damage to the forward nacelle Captain. Data managed to get us out of the way of most of the initial shots. The next wave of projectiles is too wide to avoid. We're going to get pretty banged up in about twenty seconds if we don't get those shields up!"
"Maneuvering back online Captain. Moving us out of the path of the incoming projectiles as best I can."
Come on Jordi! Come on! He said; thankfully to himself.
"Try it now Captain!, Jordi shouted on the comm.
"Engaging", Data said without waiting for the Captain's command.
This time Jean Luc was relieved to see there were no sparks.
"Conventional weapons operational Captain!"
"Target incoming ships. Fire at will!"
What happened next was nail biting to say the least. Jean-Luc watched as the status bar visibly moved toward zero. The Enterprise was getting hits, but Picard feared not quickly enough. Of the eleven ships left, three had been destroyed, but the energy reserves were already down to sixty percent. The problem was that General Ralaa's ships were no longer in a nice, tight, easily targeted, group, having scattered in numerous directions when Picard had secured plasma venting. The General had assumed, correctly, that the Enterprise was not really damaged and had been just playing dead.
Picard found himself willing the status bar to slow down.
"Jordi. Are all non-essential systems offline?"
"Yes Captain."
"We need more than that Jordi. Take life support offline save for engineering.
"But Captain…!"
"We've got about ten minutes of power left Jordi, and eight ships, make that seven, left to destroy. That's not enough time. If we don't get them all, we're all dead anyway. Do it now!"
"Aye Captain. That will give us another four or five minutes."
"And we're going to need every one of them."
Immediately the only light illuminating the bridge came from the forward screen, and the battery powered emergency lights. He wasn't sure but he thought he could see the status bar's rapid race to zero slow down. He hoped it wasn't just wishful thinking.
General Ralaa assessed this latest development. Things were just not going his way and he was starting to get annoyed. The Enterprise seemed to have regained the ability to function normally, which meant that his ships were outclassed. He hoped his remaining forces could somehow overwhelm the federation ship, but that was doubtful. It looked like they could keep the ship busy for a short time at best. Time to cut his losses.
"General, Admiral Ruwon's fleet is maneuvering to intercept us."
"Comm, signal the Irix and the Trolarak to take our flanks. I want to take out that susse-thrai upstart before I have to deal with the Enterprise. Order all other ships to head back to Romulus."
The General's ships came about and immediately opened up on Admiral Ruwon's oncoming fleet. His ships were larger than hers, save for her son's and the one he had captured. In addition, the Visis had the advantage of guns that had been thoroughly tested, while two of the Admiral's ships' weapons were already offline. She was significantly outgunned. The result of the first pass was predictable. Two of Ruwon's ships were put out of action although not destroyed. Her strategy of concentrating fire on one ship at a time did bear fruit however; The Irix was slowly spinning, having lost all maneuvering control.
The Enterprise accelerated hard to starboard. Seven ships left and not nearly enough time to take care of them all.
"Captain, the General and two of his warbirds have reversed course and headed toward Ruwon's formation," Data reported.
That presented Picard with a problem as the General's four other ships had decided that discretion was the better part of valor and were headed at maximum impulse out of the system. In short order their systems would work well enough for them to engage their warp engines and escape his grasp. On the other hand, the increased distance between the two groups of ships meant that he only had enough power to go after one of them. The choice was obvious, even if he did not like it. Jean-Luc could not under any circumstance let the Romulans get back to the Empire and report what they had found in this system.
"Helm, target those four ships." Ruwon would have to take care of the General on her own.
"The right choice Jean-Luc. It would be suicide to let those ships get back to Romulus," Hiro commented.
Jean-Luc could see the concern for Ruwon etched on Admiral Mifune's face. He knew there was a good chance the "right choice" would result in Ruwon's demise.
Three ships and five minutes of power left.
"Weapons. As soon as those ships are in range, fire. Even if we cannot destroy them, we'll stop them from going to warp."
"Aye sir. Firing."
"Two more ships disabled Captain." Data reported.
"Detecting warp signatures."
"Firing," added weapons almost immediately.
The large flashes on the forward screen told the Captain he had gotten the last two ship. Unfortunately, the status bar told him the rest of what was important, as the Enterprise started to drift.
"Energy reserves depleted Captain," Data reported unnecessarily.
"Battery power engaged."
If there was a silver lining at this point, it was that their momentum from chasing the last Romulan ships was carrying them out of the system and away from the gravity wells of Beta Virginis and its planets.
"How long will emergency power last Data?"
"Not more than twenty four hours Captain."
"Captain to engineering."
"Go ahead Captain."
"We've got twenty four hours of battery power left Jordi. I don't expect a rescue anytime soon so we need to be able to hold out as long as possible before we are forced to abandon ship."
"I'll see what I can do captain."
"Thanks Jordi."
So, we've got the forward screen, rudimentary sensors, and communications. The last two were effectively useless given the nebula's influence. Not much to work with. He realized that the Enterprise's fate depended on Admiral Ruwon prevailing against General Ralaa.
"Comm. It's a long shot, but see if you can signal the Tyson with the laser. Apprise them of our status and tell them to get a message out to Starfleet that we're going to need to be picked up from the planet's surface. Keep repeating it.
"Data, let's see what's happening with the other battle. Bring it up on screen, maximum magnification."
At this distance, Jean-Luc could just make out the combatants and the flashes that indicated the firing of their rail guns.
"It looks like Lyret has three ships left, although it appears one of them is not firing," commented the Admiral.
"I imagine it guns have malfunctioned. She did say they were installed rather hastily, replied the Captain.
All they could do was watch. The ship with no weapons continued to dart back and forth in front of Ruwon simultaneously drawing fire and acting as a shield for her.
"Data. Can you tell whose ship that is without weapons?" the Admiral asked. At maximum magnification, the images were not large enough for humans to resolve properly, but Data's enhanced senses might be able to.
"That is Commander T'Aihai's ship sir."
"She's not going to last long if she keeps that up," the helmsman said. As if to punctuate the Lt.'s point, a bright flash indicated that Rehu T'Aihai's battle was over.
Admiral Ruwon knew her situation was desperate. The General's last minute decision to divide his forces left her facing more ships than she had planned. Rehu was doing her best to act as a shield so the Admiral could keep up her own fire, but was taking a terrible beating in doing so.
Ruwon and her son were concentrating on one ship per their original plan. The advantage being they could more quickly disable a particular ship, and indeed, Admiral Sarine's ship appeared to be on the ropes. His maneuvering was slow and he was down to one rail gun.
"Comms, raise Commander S'Talla."
"Go ahead Admiral."
"S'Talla, target the Trolarax's propulsion. I'll target the rail guns."
The disadvantage of course, was that whatever enemy you were not concentrating on, was free to pummel you at will.
"Will do Admiral. I've taken significant casualties and have multiple hull breaches. Maneuvering is almost gone and I will run out of rocks shortly."
That was not good news. It effectively left Ruwon by herself facing two ships with superior firepower. It was a hard decision, but she knew it might come to this.
"S'Talla. Fire your remaining rocks and withdraw. Rendezvous with Gryphon and Modo Gloria, effect what repairs you need and GET BACK TO ROMULUS!" When you get there, muster whatever forces you can and intercept the General's remaining ships. He must not make it back alive! I will hold him here as long as I can. To the mother," and she signed off. Luckily, - well, luckily here was relative – her son's last volley ensured the Trolarak could no longer leave the system, and her ship disabled one of their remaining rail guns. Now she could concentrate on the Visis.
"Helm, order the Shikra to shield us from the Trolarak. "Weapons, concentrate fire on the General. Target warp engines."
It was a desperate move as it assured her eventual destruction. She was betting that if she disabled the Visis' warp engines, the Trolarak would not leave him behind until he repaired his flagship, which would give S'Talla more time to put together a fleet to stop him. The downside of course was that the Trolarak was free to target Rehu's ship without having to dodge any incoming rocks. This battle was lost, but with a little luck the families would win the war. Time to make final plans.
"Science, to me."
She whispered to her science officer who immediately went to her ready room. "Sister," she indicated to one of her bridge officers, "assist Science." They emerged with the device and exited the bridge. The key to her families' survival was that device. If she was to ultimately perish, she wanted to ensure it, at least, made it back to Romulus.
As Ruwon listened to the increasing frequency of damage reports, she reflected inexplicably that her only regrets were not being able to tell Hiro her news and not being able to perform the cleansing ritual with Sahrafel and Ugaya. The things one thinks about in desperate situations she thought.
"Admiral, the Shikra is hailing us."
"Put it through comms."
The forward screen switched its view to the bridge of Commander Rehu's ship. It was obvious that the Commander had fought valiantly. The bridge was filled with smoke and showed extensive damage. A fire in the background and a sister lying prone across her console evidenced an explosion. A few supporting beams had fallen behind the Commander. She was obviously severely injured and spoke with difficulty.
"Admiral Ruwon. Severe casualties. Venting plasma. Maneuvering almost gone…"
"Rehu, withdraw now!"
"… I wanted to tell you. It has been an honor. To have you as Pid-Kom of our families."
"Commander Rehu! I am giving you a direct order! Withdraw now!"
"Apologies Admiral. Communications are not working well."
Her smile indicated she knew exactly what Ruwon had told her to do. With that Rehu gave an order to one of her people and cut communications. The forward screen showed her turning and heading straight for the Trolarak. The General saw what she was doing and turned his guns on her. Ruwon's ship began to turn as well.
"Helm, do not turn! Continue targeting Visis! We don't want Commander Rehu's sacrifice to be in vain!"
Ruwon watched in horror. Pieces of Rehu's ship fell away as she charged headlong into withering fire. As much as Ruwon admired her sister's courage, the Trolarak still had maneuvering and had a good chance of avoiding being rammed. Indeed, the commander of the ship was moving slightly out of the path as Rehu approached. Apparently her stabilizers had been hit, as her ship was approaching at an odd angle. Even though Rehu was still heading straight for the enemy, the loss of the stabilizers unfortunately would make it harder for her to actually hit the enemy ship. From where Ruwon sat, it looked like Rehu would get closer than anyone could have reasonably expected under the circumstances, but she would still miss slightly to the port side of her target. The only reason Trolarak was maintaining his current position close to the path of the incoming Shikra, was so he could more easily continue his hammering of her ship.
Ruwon could not keep her eyes off the spectacle even as her ship continued firing at the General. It was odd she thought, that Rehu's ship had lost maneuvering but was maintaining the same angle to the target. If she couldn't maneuver, her ship should have been tumbling at least a little bit. But if she still had some control, why wasn't she adjusting her trajectory to match the Trolarak's movements? It made no sense.
Unless…
Sister, you are a genius!
"Weapons, switch fire to the Trolarak! Target its starboard side!"
"Admiral?"
"Do it now weapons!"
Ruwon hoped she wasn't making a fatal mistake. If she was wrong, she was going to take unnecessary damage from the two other enemy ships to no advantage.
Her fire on the enemy ship had its desired effect. Its commander moved slightly to port to avoid the path of her fire, which put him closer to the path of Rehu's oncoming ship.
"Weapons. Switch fire back to the General. Time to Rehu's closest approach of the Trolarak helm?"
"Eight seconds Admiral."
"And how close will she get?"
"She will miss by approximately three hundred kilometers Admiral," her helm officer informed her. Lyret appeared to be the only one who suspected Rehu had something up her sleeve.
"I don't think our sister is finished yet helm."
As if to confirm her faith in Rehu, her ship suddenly turned and her starboard phasers lanced out at her target. At this close range, they were just as effective as if there was no interference from the nebula at all, and the Trolarak was literally cut in half. Unfortunately, that was all Rehu had left and the Shikra started tumbling violently, breaking apart as it did. No escape pods could be seen leaving the doomed ship.
Greet the mother for me Ruwon thought. She had no time to grieve for her sister however as she had her own problems. She had managed to keep her ship mostly intact, but one of her six rail guns had been knocked out, and the Visis still had all twelve of his. Unless she got lucky, this battle was not going to last much longer. At least she had managed to damage his warp nacelles. There was no way she could judge the exact extent of the damage to the warp engines, but from the banged-up nacelles she was looking at, she didn't think his ship was leaving the system any time soon.
Admiral Mifune and Captain Picard were both the type who could be charitably described as men of action. Sitting on the sidelines, not being able to do anything but watch, just was not in their DNA, and everyone on the bridge was feeling their frustration. They watched as Admiral Ruwon's ships disabled one of the General's.
"Picard to Engineering."
"Yes Captain," Jordi answered.
"Can we get any power by shutting down some of the subsystems?"
"Which ones Captain?" Jordi's frustration was beginning to show. This was the third time the Captain or the Admiral had contacted him to basically ask the same question.
Yes Captain, we've shut down all systems on all decks where there are no personnel.
No Admiral, there is not sufficient power in the shuttles to move the ship any appreciable distance, and even if we did, we would have no weapons that could hurt the General.
Yes Captain, we still have missiles left, but I didn't mention them because their range is not nearly large enough to reach the General's current position.
Even if we could move the ship closer, he had added before either of the officers had asked the next obvious question.
"How about water recycling?"
Since the Captain could not see him, Jordi took the opportunity to give his eyes a generous roll.
"Captain. Two things. First, if we did that, within twenty-four hours, the ship would become very unpleasant for everyone aboard. Second, I already looked at your reasoned proposal and found that it would give us just enough power to reach a speed that will get us to the General's position in approximately ten days," he paused before continuing.
"Anything else Captain? Admiral?"
At their silence, he gave an abrupt "Jordi out," and cut communications.
Jordi was well aware, just as the bridge was, that Admiral Ruwon was probably not going to be able to fulfill her promise to protect the Enterprise. His job therefore, was to ensure the ship could be destroyed when General Ralaa came for her. This time he knew she was really dead in the water, as she had not come to the aid of Admiral Ruwon. He would approach carefully of course, fully expecting that the Captain would have a few surprises for him, but would try his best to take the ship intact. With no power, the normal self destruct was not guaranteed to function as it was supposed to and Jordi's job was to make sure backups were in place to finish the job properly. If anyone had asked, Jordi would have told them that this was by far the most difficult task he had to do since he joined Starfleet. As with most Engineers, the machines they worked on were loved as if they were their own children. Doubly so with the Enterprise, as she was the pride of Starfleet. Jordi considered the Enterprise his baby and with every step he took to ensure her destruction, the feeling he was actually hurting the ship was palpable.
"It's alright girl. I'll make it quick. You won't feel a thing," he said without thinking. The other engineers within earshot didn't say a word. Some were already shedding tears and the rest were all experiencing variations of the same sentiment.
Hiro and Jean-Luc continued watching. They saw S'Talla limp out of the fight and head toward the other two of Ruwon's disabled ships slowly making their way out of the system.
"They're going to have to fix those ships before they attempt to go to warp," The Admiral said unnecessarily.
"Yes, but I'm betting they want to get as far away from the General as possible before they do so. Probably want to find a nice cubbyhole out in the asteroid belt to hide in."
"We could help them."
"Yes we could. Theoretically. I think it's obvious to them that if Admiral Ruwon cannot stop the General, he'll come for us next, and they don't want to be anywhere near us when he does."
"Not a vote of confidence in Lyret's chances."
"Or ours."
"There is that. She's still getting off ordinance though. All she needs is one good hit on his engines and he won't be able to get here."
They both looked at each other and shared an understanding that the likelihood of Ruwon winning this battle was very small.
As soon as the Enterprise had lost all power, Jean-Luc had started the evacuation of the ship as a precaution. Now that it looked like the bad guys would be coming their way soon, this task was taking on more urgency.
"Data. What's the status of the evacuation?"
"Sixty-five percent of the crew is on the surface of the planet Captain. The shuttles will be arriving back in their bays in fifty seven minutes."
"We need to speed things up Data. Have everyone in the next wave outside of the shuttle bays and ready to go before they arrive. And stuff as many people as we can safely in each of them. Admiral Ruwon is doing her best but I suspect she won't be able to delay the General much longer. How much more time do we need to get everyone to the planet?"
"Five hours at least Captain."
That was not the only problem. Beta Virginis 3 was back in the general direction of the bad guys. On her way to intercept the Enterprise, the Visis could easily make a side trip to destroy the shuttles. Which meant that at some point in the evacuation, Jean-Luc would have to ground them. Which in turn meant that the rest of the crew would have to make the trip down in escape pods. Sometimes there were just no good options the Captain thought.
As if to underscore Jean-Luc's concern, a bright flash on the screen indicated one of the ships in the battle had been destroyed. This was a surprise as with rail guns, only a very lucky shot could cause a ship to lose containment of its antimatter. Everyone stared in shock at the forward screen, waiting the few seconds it would take for the brightness of the flash to fade so they could see who was left standing. Almost immediately they saw General Ralaa start to move in their direction.
"How long until he gets here Data?" the Captain asked.
"Hard to say Captain. If he has normal impulse power, over five hours. He will be able to intercept the shuttles in three and a half though Captain."
That meant they could get one more load of people down to the planet, where the shuttles would have to stay for the duration. The good news was that the ship's compliment of almost forty shuttles, along with the Captain's yacht the Calypso, would be sufficient to evacuate all of the remaining crew. They would cut it close, but it might be enough if they plotted a wide trajectory away from the incoming Romulans.
The only people left would be the bridge crew, Jordi, and the bare minimum needed to prepare the ship such that General Ralaa's capture of the Enterprise would be a hollow victory. Once that job was complete, the last shuttle would evacuate them as well. Jordi had taken care of ensuring the self-destruct would work properly if it came to that. Data had triply encrypted a subroutine on the computer interface that would not allow anyone to operate any part of the ship without the passwords. Jean-Luc was confident the only way the General could get the ship back to Romulans would be to tow it. In that eventuality, Picard could remotely initiate the self-destruct mechanism. Not that he needed it as he did not intend on leaving the ship; he just wanted his crew to think he was going to do so they would not be tempted to remain behind with him.
Hiro was in shock. He did not trust himself to say anything quite yet. He noted that Jean-Luc immediately took the new information into consideration. A very good leader Hiro thought. Well, that was why he had recommended him for command all those many years ago. Hiro forced his mind back to the matters at hand. Maybe Ruwon managed to make it out in time.
"Data, can you see any escape pods?"
The forward screen was at maximum magnification, but was not sufficient for any human to see anything as small as an escape pod. Hiro hoped Data might be able to tell if any pods got away.
"I did not see any Admiral, but at this distance some of the crew may have made it out without my being able to detect it."
Jean-Luc didn't say anything. The suddenness and size of the explosion meant that it was unlikely anyone had time to make it out of the ship alive and he knew the Admiral was well aware of that fact.
"Captain, the Visis just started moving toward us. She will intercept us in five and a half hours at this current course and speed."
"Thank you Data."
"Captain to engineering."
"Yes Captain," Jordi replied.
"We've got company coming. They'll be here in five and a half hours. What kind of surprises do we have for them?"
"Been working on that Captain. So far we've got two dozen missiles and double that number of mines. Not much else, but my team and I have been working on ways to deploy them so as to maximize their effectiveness."
"Thanks Jordi, and let me know when you have something definitive."
Mines and missiles. Not much to work with, and only effective when they were a surprise. The General would be expecting them and would undoubtedly have a plan to deal with the threat. The odds were long, but Jean-Luc was not about to give up the Enterprise without a fight.
General Ralaa had no intention of being surprised again. If he couldn't take the ship intact, he had no qualms about obliterating it. Destroying Starfleet's flagship would be a victory in itself, and sufficient to maintain his status as head of the military when he reported back to Romulus - even considering the disaster this mission had turned out to be. The humans had an expression – wanted dead or alive. An intact Enterprise would be quite a coup, but given the circumstances, blown to bits would work just as well.
As he turned toward the Enterprise, he noted she was drifting and probably had no power. Whatever that faelirh of a Captain had done to restore full power must have left him with nothing. Even so, the General was not about to go charging in like last time. All of the opposition in the system had been vanquished so he had time to figure out the best way to handle the earth ship. Besides, since it was drifting out system, the longer he waited, the more his normal system performance would return. Now that he thought about it, it would also allow him enough time to make necessary repairs to the damage he had sustained in his battle with Ruwon.
"Helm, half speed."
"At that speed General, we will not intercept the Enterprise for another twelve hours."
"I am aware of that helm. I want all systems repaired before we engage the humans. I don't intend to be surprised again."
"Captain. The Visis has slowed significantly."
Both Hiro and Jean-Luc were surprised to hear that.
"Any indication as to why Data?"
"Insufficient data Admiral. At this distance I cannot ascertain if the damage presumably inflicted by Admiral Ruwon was enough to cause the General to reduce his speed."
"Any other reason you can think of that would cause him to slow down?" The Captain asked.
Neither had an answer for that, but the Admiral speculated.
"Well he knows we are dead in the water or we would have come to Lyret's aid. Maybe he just figures he has plenty of time."
Jean-Luc was still concerned. The Romulans he knew did not hesitate when they had a sure kill in their sites.
"Could he be waiting to intercept the shuttles?"
"Unlikely Captain. They are most likely too small for him to see at this distance, and at his current speed we will easily be able to evacuate the entire crew down to the planet before he gets close enough to do anything about it," said Data.
"All I know for sure is the General is much too smart of a commander to change tactics like that for no reason. Let's think on it. Let me know if any of you come up with any ideas.
"Data, where are we on the evacuation?"
"Shuttles are just coming in now Captain. They have sufficient capacity to take the remaining crew down to the planet."
"Captain to engineering."
"Go ahead Captain."
"Jordi, I want you to rig a missile firing protocol to the Captain's chair."
"It would be difficult to put something reliable together on such short notice Captain."
"And not necessary," Data interrupted.
"It will have to do. I need both of you to supervise the final evacuation. There's no need to risk anyone, especially since the only thing we can do to defend ourselves is fire rockets at the Romulans."
"Well you have to be able to aim them sir, " Data added.
"And deploy the mines properly," added Jordi helpfully.
"I will manage. Do I need to make it an order gentlemen?"
"No sir," they both said simultaneously.
The next six hours passed uneventfully. Jean-Luc was alone with his thoughts and had plenty of time to reflect on his life and career as he sipped his earl grey. That his chances of getting out of his current predicament were vanishingly small, curiously, did not preoccupy his mind. A part of his objective mind wondered about this, but the fact was Jean-Luc had led a fulfilling life, and gotten to know some truly great people, so his imminent demise just did not overly concern him. He hoped the Tyson had received his message and had gotten word out to Starfleet to send assistance to his crew on the planet's surface. They might have to rough it for the next thirty days or so, but he had made sure enough supplies went down with them so it would not be a problem. If Admiral Mifune was correct, Admiral Lucas Brown had ordered other assets to Beta Virginis at about the same time he himself had been ordered to bring the Enterprise here. They were so far away however, that they were not able to get to the system any sooner - too late to alter his own fate, but plenty of time to recover his crew safely.
"Jordi to Captain Picard."
"Jordi? How did you manage to cut though the interference?"
"Oh no, sorry Captain. I was working on cobbling together a few more missiles and missed the shuttles. I'm in engineering. I got the departure time wrong. I thought they were leaving at 14:00 hours when they actually left at 13:00 hours. Sorry again, but we do have another dozen missile ready to go."
"Jordi!"
"Don't blame Jordi Captain. I told him the incorrect departure time."
"Data?!"
"Yes Captain. Obviously there is something wrong with my programming. I've been running diagnostics on my systems to ascertain what might have gone wrong. When I determine what the malfunction was, I will let you know."
"I was resting Captain and overslept," his helm officer chimed in.
"I was helping Jordi Captain, sorry."
"Apologies Captain. I thought our ride was leaving the forward shuttle bay, not the one aft. By the time I made it down there, the last one had already left."
Jean-Luc did not know what to say. Under the circumstances he was finding it hard to be angry at this blatant disregard for his orders. Another part of him couldn't help but wonder about how Data could have managed to stay on board. He generally didn't do deception very well. Totally irrelevant under the current circumstances, but Jean-Luc wondered nonetheless. By the time all of the lame excuses and made up apologies came in, he had a skeleton engineering crew, a full bridge, and most of his security personnel. Someone had obviously planned this little mutiny. He would have to get to the bottom of it at a later time though. He hit the ship wide.
"All personnel "accidentally" left behind in the evacuation. We've got a fight coming. Fortunately or unfortunately, I expect the Romulans want to take the Enterprise intact, so there probably will be multiple boarding parties. As best we can, let's plan to make it as difficult as possible for them. Bridge crew, get up here on the double. Captain out."
As he waited for his bridge crew to join him, he couldn't help being upset that the most likely outcome of his futile act of defiance was going to probably get all of his people killed. If he had not insisted on staying here himself, none of them would be in any danger. It unfortunately brought up the unpleasant memory of when he had insisted on continuing the fight against a Borg boarding party when it was obvious that fight had been lost. He had let his ego contaminate his decision-making and lost too many good people as a result. Was he doing the same thing here? Were people going to die because he couldn't bear the idea of losing his ship? To be fair, he had ordered them to evacuate. But he should have known that there were many of his crew who would refuse to leave him to be killed regardless of his orders.
Data and his chief engineer exited the turbo lift with the rest of the bridge crew.
"Captain, Data and I have been analyzing the Romulans' behavior, and I think we have something."
"It is not good news Captain."
Jean-Luc looked at Data. His statement was out of character. Jean-Luc wanted to ask if the normally taciturn officer was embarking on yet another one of his experiments on trying to be more human. Jordi brought him back to the present.
"We've all been confused about why the Romulan's are slow walking it. They are being much more cautious than they need to be, even if they suspect we are playing possum. We analyzed the previous battle and determined that if Visis had sustained any damage, it had to be relatively minor. He stayed back during the encounter and let his other ships take the bulk of the hits."
"Then what do you think he's doing?" the Captain asked. Both Jordi and Data hesitated, which as an aside, made Jean-Luc even more certain Data was experimenting, as he was not normally sensitive to the concept of being reluctant to impart bad news to a superior.
"Out with it Jordi."
"Captain, when we lost power, we were heading out system at quite a clip. Although the sun's gravity is slowing us somewhat, we are well past escape velocity and will keep moving away from the nebula."
Picard suddenly realized what Jordi was getting at and it sent a chill down his spine.
"Ralaa is waiting until we are both far enough away from the nebula so his normal systems are operational again."
"That's what Data and I believe. Since we have no power to speak of, it will not help us, but the General will have a number of options. He need not use a shuttle to board us. Once his transporters come back online, he could simply beam multiple teams aboard."
"Or he could use his tractor beam to tow us across the neutral zone and not risk his ship or people at all." Data added.
"He'll have to know we would destroy the ship before he could get us anywhere near Romulan space."
"He would suspect that Captain. Humans are not nearly as willing to blow a ship up underneath them as Romulans are, and he'll know that as well. In any case, towing us would take time, and he would figure he would have some leeway to work out a way to prevent us from destroying the ship."
"Well he's in for a rude awakening then. The self destruct is a last resort, but if that's our only option by the time we reach Romulan space, that's what I'll order."
"Yes Captain. In the mean time, Data and I have been working on some delaying tactics. We've got to move fast though before their sensors are working properly."
Jordi and Data's proposals were good ones given the circumstances, but definitely long shots. Their tactics boiled down to hoping for a miracle. The longer they delayed the Visis' return to Romulan space, the better the chance they had that the Tyson could get a message off to Starfleet and help could get here, or that one of Admiral Ruwon's remaining ships could effect repairs and get back into the fight. Who knows, maybe they might even get lucky, and one of their missiles would get through and score a fatal hit.
Five hours later they were as prepared as they were ever going to be. General Ralaa was still shadowing them. Data had estimated that at their current speed they would be far enough away from the nebula in two hours for their systems to be fully operational. If Jordi and Data were correct, that's when the General would make his move. What exactly he would do was unclear. The smart play would be to keep his distance and use tractor beams. Picard's options in that case were limited, so he hoped the General would try to board. To do that, he would have to get close, and at that distance the Enterprise's missiles just might have a chance to do some damage.
"Comm, hail the Visis."
"Go ahead Captain."
"General Ralaa. We couldn't help but notice you skulking on our flank. Can we help you with anything?"
"Ahh Captain Picard. You've led us on a merry chase, but your time is up I'm afraid."
"I wouldn't be too sure of yourself on that point Ralaa. We do not intend to go quietly."
The General visibly bristled at the Jean-Luc's deliberate omission of his title, something the Captain knew the Romulans were sensitive about.
"I intend to take your ship as my trophy Captain. All I need do…"
"Let me guess Ralaa. The shellacking we gave you earlier has made you skittish, and even though we have no power left, you are afraid to approach us. Is your plan just to let us drift all the way to Romulus? Or will you eventually pluck up the courage to get close enough to board us?"
Picard could tell that hit home.
"Captain Picard. Defiant as ever I see. Faced with certain defeat, I note you still have not chosen an honorable death and destroyed your ship as a Romulan would do."
"Don't concern yourself with that Ralaa. I have no problem ordering a self-destruct if I was facing someone who had a chance of besting the Enterprise in battle. Since I am only facing you, I did not think it necessary."
With that, the General got very angry indeed.
"Picard, I thought to spare you the humiliation of a dishonorable death. I have changed my mind. You will suffer Captain. That is my promise to you!"
And with that he abruptly cut communications. Almost immediately, the Romulan ship started accelerating toward the Enterprise.
"Data, has the Visis gained full use of her systems yet?"
"She has not Captain. She needed to wait another hour before she was at 100%. Your plan has evidently succeeded."
Jean-Luc had hoped to goad the General into attacking before his sensors were fully operational. Compared to modern weaponry, the Enterprise's missiles were antiques. If Ralaa had full use of his sensors and weapons, he could detect the missiles and swat them out of space with relative ease. If he was still partially blind however, he might miss some of the incoming ordinance.
"Engineering, the Visis is moving toward us. Those countermeasures ready? "
"Yes sir. Control has been routed to the weapons terminal. I would wait until the General is as close as possible before launching."
"Understood Jordi. If they get past the missiles, expect boarding parties especially in and around Engineering. Seal it off as best you can."
Jordi had strewn magnetic mines in the Romulans' path, some hidden in the local asteroid field that the Enterprise had come through and some not, along with hidden missiles. If they were lucky, Ralaa would concentrate on those he could see and miss the stealthier ones. A long shot for sure, but as Ralaa was busy avoiding the mines, Jean-Luc would launch the missiles. He hoped the one two punch would be effective.
"Aye Captain. The Romulans will have a hard time getting in here and we've got some surprises waiting for them outside in the corridors."
"Good luck Jordi.
"Data, let weapons know the optimal time for launch of the missiles."
The bridge watched as Ralaa accelerated toward the field. As he entered, the first of the mines started moving toward his ship. Jean-Luc started willing the explosions as the mines were too small to be seen at this distance.
"Missiles activated Captain."
The screen showed the missiles hidden in the asteroid field fire off and converge toward the Visis.
Well, the next few minutes would tell. Unless General Ralaa did something really stupid, not just somewhat stupid like attacking before he had all of his systems operational, the odds were that he would eventually prevail and Picard would be forced to initiate the self-destruct. But things had not gotten to that point yet, and the Captain was hopeful.
In order for the General to gain access to the Enterprise, he would have to get relatively close for his transporters to work properly, which would give Picard another opportunity to use his remaining missiles. Unless of course, he planned a close high-speed pass, which it looked like he was about to do. That would make transporting more difficult under ordinary circumstances when both ships were maneuvering, but the Enterprise was effectively stationary. Merde! The Captain thought to himself. Best laid plans and all that.
"Weapons, fire our remaining missiles, wide spread."
"Aye Captain, firing."
"Belay that order weapons!" Data countermanded the Captains order.
Jean-Luc was sufficiently surprised again by Data's uncharacteristic behavior that he was momentarily at a loss for words.
On the forward screen, phasers lanced out from the Romulan vessel destroying the first wave of missiles. Suddenly the Romulan ship was surrounded by what looked like thousands of little, extremely bright stars.
"Data…" the Captain started to say.
"Weapons, fire missiles now!" Data practically shouted.
"Data. What did you and Jordi put in those missiles?" More curious now than upset that his order had been countermanded.
Magnesium chaff Captain. It will not harm their ship, but it will effectively blind their visuals. With theirs sensors still degraded, they will not be able to see our second wave of missiles. We hope sir."
"So that's why you didn't want to launch until you got a hit with the first wave."
"Yes sir. We could not fire when they could still see our launch. If we did, they would know to maneuver out of the way even if they could not see well enough to use their phasers to destroy the missiles. This way, we have a much better chance of getting a hit."
"Brilliant Data, absolutely brilliant!"
"Thank you sir, but we are not out of the woods yet. If they are smart, they will anticipate our strategy and maneuver regardless."
There it was again. He would really have to get to the bottom of Data's unusual behavior when they got out of their current predicament.
Picard had not expected much from his defensive efforts originally, but now it looked like they might have a chance of getting a disabling hit. He thought "keep coming, keep coming!" until some of his crew turned to look at him and he realized he had been speaking out loud.
On the forward screen they all watched in rapt attention as the second wave of a dozen warheads headed toward the Visis.
"Weapons. Time to impact?"
"Twenty seconds Captain. If they don't try to get out of the way in the next fifteen however, we are almost sure to get a hit.
"They won't be able to accelerate fast enough to get out of the way," she added by way of explanation.
Picard would remember this moment as the longest fifteen seconds he had ever experienced in his life. He would swear that he had actually aged a whole year.
"There they go Captain!" weapons said as the Romulan ship started to accelerate perpendicular to their path toward the Enterprise.
"Too late suckers!" Data said almost immediately.
"That was an even dozen Captain. All of the missiles hit the ship."
The humans could not tell, but Data's superior vision had determined that there had been a dozen explosions in a half second exactly where they had been aimed. With the magnesium chaff still burning however, even he had to wait to see what kind of damage they had caused.
"That's gonna leave a mark, " Data opined.
Definitely needs to be checked out Picard thought.
"Take that sucker!" Data exclaimed, showing an amusing lack of variety in his apparently, newly expanded vocabulary.
"Are you alright Data?"
"Yes Captain. I was just expressing joy at the fact that we managed to destroy the Romulan ship's main sensor array. Did I use the wrong expression?"
"No you did not Data. It looks that they still have impulse though." The Captain said as the Romulan ship came within transporter range.
Almost as soon as he finished saying it, multiple alarms starting raising a racket. His environmental officer immediately spoke.
"Multiple incursions Captain. Three around engineering, one inside it. One, two decks below us."
His security officer immediately informed his people about the invaders. Transporting directly into engineering was risky, as the General had to know it would be heavily defended.
"Closing bulkheads around engineering," his environment officer calmly informed him.
"Evacuating atmosphere."
Unless the Romulans thought to bring spacesuits or at least breathing gear with them, they would not last very long.
"Romulans around engineering are down Captain."
Apparently they did not, but if they got word to their ship before they expired, Ralaa would not make that same mistake again.
"Where are the Romulans targeting the bridge?"
"Slowly making their way here. They will be entering the kill zone shortly. I'm guessing they heard that their comrades were in trouble and are taking precautions."
Picard really wanted to know what was going on in engineering, but did not want to distract Jordi; he was sure to have his hands full right at this particular moment. He would either take care of it and let him know, or very shortly Jean-Luc would get a hail from Ralaa asking for his immediate surrender.
Jordi to Captain Picard. Engineering secure."
"Casualties Jordi."
"Two of my engineers and one security officer were hit. The Romulans came heavily armed, and there were about thirty of them. The only thing that saved us was that we started throwing junk we had collected at them when they started to materialize. Enough of them died from that, that we had an advantage over the ones who were left."
"Good thinking Jordi."
The General apparently had been hoping that if he sent enough people into engineering, at least some of them would be able to open the doors and let the rest of his troops in. A good plan actually. If he tried it again, it might even work. His fundamental advantage was in numbers. It would be expensive, but the General would eventually prevail in a simple war of attrition. This particular battle was going to go to Picard however, as on the forward screen he saw the remaining Romulans pass the final bulkhead.
"Closing forward bulkhead. Closing rear bulkhead," said environment.
Almost immediately, the bridge crew saw a group of people start to beam in with the men environment had just trapped. Unfortunately, the General had learned his lesson sooner than Picard had anticipated. These new soldiers were kitted out with full vacuum gear, and while some brought breathing masks for their unequipped comrades, the others got to work on the forward bulkhead with what looked to be either an industrial cutting beam or a heavy duty phaser. Whatever it was, Picard had obviously misjudged the outcome of the current battle. The Romulans made quick work of the offending bulkhead and restored adequate atmosphere. It would take longer to cut a hole large enough for them to walk through, but that was just a matter of time. The bridge itself would still be difficult to compromise, as it was small enough that a large force could not beam onto it, and one had to take a turbo lift to access it. All environment had to do was turn it off and any bad guys would be faced with a difficult climb through access tubes.
That was not the immediate problem though. Already, teams of Romulans in hardened spacesuits and equipped with breaching gear, were staging in numerous areas around engineering, evidently preparing for a final assault. Picard could see that the soldiers easily outnumbered his people five to one. Adding to his problems was the fact that the Enterprise had finally drifted far enough out of the system that the Visis' systems were fully operational. Picard knew this because Ralaa had parked his vessel within shouting distance of the Enterprise, just far enough away to be safe if Picard implemented the self-destruct. Even if he had any missiles left – he did not – the General could easily destroy them before they got anywhere near his ship. The Captain had a few options left but not many.
"We are being hailed Captain."
"Put it on the forward screen Lt."
"Captain, you have lost. Surrender your vessel and I will spare your crew."
No one missed that Picard was not included in the General's offer.
"General. You forget that we can still destroy the Enterprise if need be, taking all of your soldiers with us."
"They are military Captain. Romulan soldiers understand their duty to the Empire. You have one minute to stand down, or I will order…"
At first, Picard thought there was a problem with communications as the image of the General froze for a half second before being replaced by one of his ship disappearing in a bright flash. To say that everyone on the bridge was surprised was an understatement.
"Well I didn't see that coming," commented Data deadpan.
"We are being hailed Captain."
"Forward screen."
"Sorry I'm late Captain. Got your message, but it looks I missed most of the party."
"Lt. Johnson! How?!"
As improbable as it appeared to be, the Tyson had just dropped out of warp and been the cause of the Visis' demise.
"Forgive me Captain. I've got about three minutes of power left. We're detecting multiple Romulan incursions on your ship. Let me take care of those first and then we can talk."
"Romulans are being beamed out Captain."
"Where to environment?"
"No way to tell for sure Captain. Off the ship. I wouldn't think Lt. Johnson would bring them to his vessel however. It's not equipped to handle prisoners."
Which meant he had beamed them into open space. As harsh as their fate was, Picard knew that if the Lieutenant had brought them onto his ship even in a secure location, the Romulans had breaching equipment and would most likely have taken his ship in short order. As General Ralaa had said, they were soldiers and knew that violent death was always a possibility.
The Romulan threat taken care of, Lt. Johnson came back on.
"Captain, I've secured the nullifying field. If I transfer my remaining power to the Enterprise, she won't have enough to go to warp, but she should be able to establish a stable orbit around the planet until Starfleet can get some help to us."
"Sounds good Lt., you literally showed up in the nick of time. We cannot thank you enough."
Immediately after the Tyson had determined the Visis had stopped patrolling the nebula, she had headed toward BV3 against the Captain's orders. Picard was beginning to lose track of all the people he needed to cite for insubordination. The Lt.'s plan was to provide what assistance he could. The Tyson was much smaller than the other vessels in the battle, so he knew the only way he could go toe to toe with any of the Romulan warships was to engage the nullifying field and use his conventional weapons when theirs were still inoperable, or as it turned out in this case, by surprising them. To carry out his plan though, he needed to save as much energy as possible before turning on the field, so he had taken it slow to the planet only to find that the Enterprise was adrift, on its way out of the system. He had immediately engaged the field, gone to warp, and arrived to find the Romulan ship parked near the Enterprise. Had he known the General had full use of his systems, the Lieutenant might have hesitated. Lucky for him, the Enterprise had disabled the Visis' sensors. The General had not expected an attack and had been taken completely by surprise.
The next few weeks were uneventful. The energy transfer complete, all of the Tyson's crew were moved to the Enterprise and she established an orbit around the planet. All personnel were recovered from the surface, along with some unhappy Romulans left behind by the General. The scientific team continued their exploration of the library with help from the twins.
Admiral Mifune came back to the ship and immediately retired to his quarters.
Riker reported that Commander S'Talla had sent shuttles to the planet six hours earlier to pick up his remaining people and a precious few who had managed to get to escape pods before their ships were destroyed. None of the shuttle pilots knew Admiral Ruwon's fate and she was presumed to have been killed when her ship blew up. Jean-Luc went to see the Admiral on a few occasions, but although he was polite, it was obvious he preferred to be left alone.
A few weeks later, two Starfleet vessels arrive in system. One was configured specifically to repair starships far away from any space-dock and quickly patched up the Enterprise so she could make it back to a proper repair facility orbiting Earth.
With only a minor hiccup, Admiral Mifune was placed on sabbatical from his position at the Academy, pending the results of a board of inquiry into the incident at Beta Virginis. The twins continued assisting the scientists with their work on the alien library. Jon took a position at Starfleet HQ so he could be closer to his father, whom he felt, needed him more than ever.
Jean-Luc, his Enterprise fully operational again, was assigned to finish up the aborted negotiations with the Mirfakians. Apparently, much to his chagrin, something about the Captain had inspired confidence in the ruling council, and they had refused to talk with anyone else until he returned. Just his luck!
