After a few moments of total darkness, emergency lights kicked on, allowing the bridge crew to see again. Allensworth stumbled to his feet.
"Damage report."
Merriell regained his posture at the ops station. "Shields are down to three percent. Weapons are offline, life support is holding, warp drive is offline but we have impulse."
"What about sensors?"
"Sensors are functioning."
What an odd set of systems to be offline.
Allensworth wasn't complaining but the shields might as well be out and there is no way to fight back. All he could do was run and that wasn't an option. The captain turned to see the rest of the bridge crew getting to their feet. He saw Dustin Zofchak run into the turbolift. He didn't have to wonder where he was going; he knew he was headed to Engineering.
"What is the planet killer doing now?"
"It's veering off."
"So it's ignoring us now." Sparhawk said.
"It's heading to the system nearest to here."
"Which is?" Allensworth asked.
"The Tucker System."
Allensworth's breath got caught up in his throat. He had to stop this thing.
"Bridge to Engineering." He called out into the air.
"Zofchak here."
"Dustin, the doomsday machine is headed to the Tucker System. I need everything you can give me."
"We're doing our best down here, Captain." The chief engineer replied.
Allensworth knew the engineering crew was trying to get everything restored. "Merriell, Fulks. Get down there and see if you can give him a hand." The two officers left their stations and entered the turbolift together. Kell Perim took over at ops while Ensign James took over at Tactical. "Moran, set a course for the Tucker system. Fastest speed you can give me."
"Aye sir." She said as she entered the command into her panel.
The battle damaged starship began moving but it was only going at full impulse.
"Lieutenant Perim, send a subspace message to Admiral Dowler at Starbase 125. Inform her of our situation and warn her that a planet killer is heading her way. Also tell her that we'll be there as soon as we can."
"Aye, sir."
Dustin Zofchak and his Engineering crew worked furiously in engineering trying to get warp power back online. He was glad that Alex Merriell and David Fulks came down to help. Zofchak was on the lower level while Fulks was on the upper level.
"Warp engines are operating normally." Zofchak said.
"Power relays are functioning normally." Fulks said.
"Forward shields are up to sixty-five percent. Aft shields…sensors must be down."
"Sensors are fine. No, aft shields have completely failed. Damn it, auxiliary generators are out again."
Zofchak remembered having similar problems on the Enterprise-D when they had just battled the Borg and burned out their main deflector dish. It had taken them a few more hours to get the Enterprise back up and running but they were too late to help out at Wolf 359. In fact, this whole situation resembled that scenario. Captain Allensworth had just informed him of the situation. Admiral Dowler had received his message and had a small fleet waiting at Starbase 125 for the planet killer to arrive. He hoped that this would not turn out to be like Wolf 359. At that thought he began to work even faster than he thought possible.
A short time later, Allensworth sat in his ready room with a padd in his hand. At that moment, the door chimed.
"Come in." He said.
The doors swished open revealing the chief engineer. Allensworth was pleased to see Zofchak.
"Ah, Dustin. What can I do for you? How are things in Engineering?"
"We're almost finished with repairs but I've been thinking about this planet killer. It seems that we can't do too much damage to it with our conventional weaponry while it almost destroys us with a single blast. Remembering my history, I remember that Kirk flew the Constellation into the mouth of the thing and beamed out at the last second. I'm not saying that we use the Alexandria but I noticed that one of those Borg cubes is derelict. I say we use the tractor beam and tow it to the Tucker system and shove it right down the thing's throat."
Allensworth thought for a moment. "I think you're on to something. Make it so."
Zofchak slightly grinned before leaving. Hearing his captain say that made him sound like Captain Picard. Once Dustin left the room, Jermaine Allensworth leaned back in his chair.Then suddenly, the comm. system clicked on.
"Bridge to Captain Allensworth." It was Counselor Nycz.
"Go ahead."
"We just received word from Starbase 125; they've engaged the doomsday machine."
At the mention of the doomsday machine, Allensworth's stomach dropped. He got up from his chair and walked out of his ready room and onto the bridge.
"Merriell, put Starfleet frequency one eight four three on audio."
Alex pressed a few buttons and through out the bridge, the crew could hear the voices of several starship personnel talking into their comm. systems.
"Planet killer in weapons range. Hokkaido, Thunder Child. Come about to zero mark two three. Fire all weapons." A male voice said.
Sounds of explosions followed the orders. "Hull breach." A female person yelled. Allensworth couldn't take it anymore after hearing more explosions and reports of starships being overwhelmed.
"Turn it off."
Alex did as he was told and the bridge was silent once again. Everyone on the bridge waited for their captain's orders.
"Move us into position to tractor beam the Borg derelict."
The Alexandria moved into a position above the Borg ship and a tractor beam shot from the underside of the ship and latched on to the Borg cube.
"Set a course for the Tucker system. Maximum warp."
"Course laid in, sir."
"Red alert, all hands to battle stations. Hit it."
The Alexandria sped off towing the Borg cube.