Chapter 24


Riker suddenly leapt to his feet and ran up behind the Ferengi posted at the helm. He could just feel the hands holding disruptors swing his way, but he didn't care. "What is the matter with you, don't you know how to fly this thing?" he demanded, laying a heavy hand on the nervous pilot's shoulder. "Get out of my way if you want to live," he shouted when the Ferengi growled at him in response. But very quickly the young officer's eyes seemed to register that he understood, and he allowed Riker to push him away without too much resistance.

Riker sat down quickly, and was immediately reminded that he'd never actually flown a Ferengi ship. Thankfully the controls appeared translatable. He set a course of retreat, hoping that Captain Picard, being the reasonable man that he was would decide to call off his attack. But then again…he had fired first.

"What is that alien doing?" yelled Brom. "Get him away from the controls!" Armed officers ran toward Riker, but Beverly suddenly stood in their way and turned to Brom.

"He trying to save all of our lives," she asserted as the ship rolled under her feet and she grabbed for a railing. "Can't you see he's going to kill us all?" Her eyes returned to the view screen with a silent plea. Please Jean Luc, don't kill us all...


"Captain," shouted Zev, as the bridge was struck directly by a plasma torpedo, "our shields are failing sir. They have a weapon that appears to be able to sap our shield strength."
Picard didn't turn around from the helm controls even as his nose filled with the smoke that began to billow from overhead. He coughed. Battle was challenging enough, but with only three crew members there was so little margin for error. "Put out that fire first and then attend to the shields," he ordered her sharply.

A few moments later he heard her using the fire suppressant spray at the back of the bridge.

"Vigo, target the stern of that ship, let's slow it down," he barked.

"Aye sir, firing!"


Beverly felt her stomach drop when she saw a blast from their ship strike the top of the Stargazer and a burst of red showed an explosion. Jean-Luc was on that bridge. Was he injured?

The Ferengi bridge erupted in cheers.

"We have scored a direct hit to their bridge! Their shields have been severely compromised," Bero shouted triumphantly patting the weapons master on the back. "It is only a matter of time now until our names are written into the history books..."

"There are a hell of a lot of dead people in history books," Beverly reminded him and then staggered as a blast shook the ship.
A second later the ship shook again more violently this time and Beverly struggled to stay upright as she made her way toward Brom's command chair. She had simply had enough of this.
"What is that female doing?" a suspicious officer asked pointing his weapon toward Beverly as she walked past him.

"Ignore her!" Bero screamed. "Attend to your duties, she does not matter."

The ship shook again. "Daimon, they've struck us from behind….and our aft propulsion cylinder has been damaged by their fire," reported the weapons master.

"He really slowed us down with that one," Riker shouted trying to maneuver the ship away from the Stargazer which was now barreling toward them at a high rate of speed. "And I've lost some control over pitch here," he added, now sweating bullets. If he had ever imagined what it might be like to meet Picard in his prime, this particular scenario had never really crossed his mind.

Beverly grabbed the arms of Brom's command chair and swung him around roughly to face her. "You need to surrender... now!"