Chapter 5:

Panic Situation

6th December 2378

Mission Time Counter: 5 Minutes 48 Seconds

Orbit, Xevenya XII Gas Giant

Great...as if my day couldn't get any worse. Ensign First Class Mitchell Skier grumbled to himself as he looked on at the large nebula-class starship that hung right in front of his fighter. The mere sight of the ship sent shivers up and down his spine...especially since he had heard of what it was capable of and of what it had done to date. There was a reason this ship was the scourge to most of the Alpha Quadrant; especially after it more than proved capable of devastating fleets of smaller vessels in the Andreas incident. Rumors were abound that the Jolly Roger had also single-handedly taken down both Klingon and Romulan vessels – up to and including War Birds. The bounties both empires had put in the ship were significant, to say the least; but had probably lead to the death of many a well-armed bounty hunter. There were, of course, rumors flying about that the Jolly Roger had also taken on a Borg Tactical Cube on the edge of Romulan space…and won the battle in seconds.

And now they were pretty much up against this ship in nothing but stealth craft. Not even decently armed or armored fighters…but bloody stealth craft. Skier would kill to have something, anything - be it a bomber or a fighter – that was actually capable of doing some damage in this situation.

Why not wish for a Borg Tactical Cube while I'm at it? Or some Q's assistance, for that matter. He sighed; somewhat resigned to this. He had never been one for sneaking around or stealth, for that matter. Of course, he had been forced to learn and adapt once he had joined the Silver Scythes…but that didn't mean he had to like it one bit. He still would have preferred to join RT's crew; but their flight complements were pretty full as it is, and while he loved flying bombers, he really wasn't as good at it as the Mad Bombers were.

There was little to do but fret at the situation right now and look at the starship as it floated in front of them. The shape and colors of the ship was disturbing, to say the least; especially the odd cylindrical device where the starship's normal module should have been. The red, eerie glow it emitted seemed…familiar, somehow. Skier couldn't exactly place where he had seen it, though. Then something hit him.

Why is it just sitting there?/i Skier thought to himself.

The ship hadn't made a move towards them; nor had it really done anything. It was just…sitting there; as if waiting for something to happen. The others seemed to have noticed this as well. Daniel's face appeared on the display to his right as a narrow-beam transmission came in. The ship didn't react – either it didn't notice, or didn't care. In either case, it was nothing short of a blessing, to say the least.

"This is good. Looks like the stealth systems are working – either it hasn't noticed us, or it doesn't care. In either case, we have an edge here."

Another signal came through – this time surprisingly from Ashter.

"Sir…that ship is in between us and the Persistance. There's no way we can get across without being noticed."

"If we engage our warp drives and leave now, we will have reached half-way to the Persistance before it can react, however." Moray interjected, his face filling up the screen. Skier made a mental note to thank him later. But for now, though, his attention caught onto Daniel's reply, stomach churning as he listened to it.

"Negative, pilots. We're not leaving yet. We still have a mission to complete – we need a scan of that ship before we go. Command needs to know where it's heading next, otherwise this mission will have been a waste."

"Begging your pardon, sir, but how are we going to accomplish that? It's not like our stealth fields are full-on cloaking devices!"

Skier replied. He was pissed. Yes, the mission was priority, but then they needed the ability to finish it, too! Still, he sighed slightly

"We don't need to get too close to get a passive scan, Dead Man - our stealth fields should hold up if we keep enough of a distance.. Glare, you've had the most stealth experience here - think you can sneak in enough to get a decent scan?"

The line remained static-ridden though, as no reply came in. Skier's vision glanced over the squadron display – Ashter's craft was still intact and working functionally.

Why isn't she replying?

He looked over the other displays, running a quick scan of the area around them. That was when he noticed something that caught his attention.

"Glare! Do you read?"

Skier looked at it in disbelief. He glanced at the display, then up through the cockpit screen at the Jolley Roger and then back at the display again.

Daniel's voice called out again – obviously annoyed at the lack of response. Finally, the channel clicked

"Ermm…I don't think stealth is much of a factor right now, Sir.." Ashter's reply came back. The reason why she said this was made apparently clear as Skier looked at the giant Nebula class starship before them. Despite the black paint and dark color scheme, the one thing notable about the starship that made it stand out was the large number of lights, coming from the many windows and rooms inside the ship. Yet, as Skier watched, these lights suddenly died down one by one as the entire ship went dark. Within the span of three seconds, the only lights remaining on the dark hull was that of the bridge…and the red glow of the device on its star drive section.

"What in hell is happening here? Scanners are showing the ship is shutting down completely."

Daniel was right, the ship was shutting down. Checking his monitors, Skier saw that this was true – the Jolly Roger's warp cores seemed to be shutting down completely.

Odd…why would they just park in orbit and shut down like that?

"Could they be shutting down for repairs and refueling? Not like there's anyone around here other than us anyway." Skier spoke up,

"Unsure. Still, we've got a mission to com- what the HELL?"

Daniel's reply was cut off as a burst of static filled not only all the monitors around Skier, but his helmet as well, causing him to cry out in alarm as the sound was loud enough that it nearly deafened his ears. As it – and the pain - passed, though, he could feel a slight ache in his ears, and the displays came back online. Skier shook his head, holding the suit's helmet in his hands and trying to get the ringing out of his ears.

"What the hell was that?"

"Sensors identify it as a subspace pulse, originating from the Jolly Roger/. It appears to be significantly powered, as the initial pulse overloaded all the sensors and baseline systems."

Moray replied, his face appearing on the screen. Skier noted that the translator had put the voice in as a lot more distressed than before.

Must've really hurt the bugger. Skier thought to himself. Still, he focused on the situation.

"A subspace pulse? How the hell did it release a pulse when shut down? Where did it originate from?"

Even as Ashjter replied, Skier's blood ran cold. It wasn't what Ashter said, though that frightened him – no...it was what he saw on the sensors that scared the shit out of him. How is this possible? Skier thought to himself. These readings…he tried to make sense of it. The subspace pattern around the Jolly Roger was moving; changing. It's warp reactor was offline, as was it's fusion drives…yet, there was an enormous shift of energy …it was almost as if the ship was drawing energy from subspace itself.

But this was not the most disturbing, however. What was disturbing was the eerie feeling of Déjà vu that ran up and down his spine just now. He had seen these readings before…somewhere. He searched his mind, his memories for some indication as to where he had seen this before, but none came to mind immediately.

The radio crackled as Ashter spoke up – the effects of the subspace field must have been interfering with communications. Still, even through the static, Skier could feel the apprehension in her voice as she too saw the sensor readings.

"Sir! The ship is powering up…Prophets, save me…are…are these readings right?"

"Affirmative…these power levels. Good god, I've never seen anything like them – that ship's outputting nearly five warp cores worth of energy right there – and it's taking it all from subspace, from the looks of it. Wait – hold on…anyone else see that? Something's happening to the ship's subspace module!"

The ship remained dark; the only lighted portions being the bridge and the subspace device. Yet, as Skier watched in horror, the blood-red glow began to slowly become brighter. White particles seemed to form around it as well, adding to the glow on the top of the saucer section. They streamed into the device – almost as if they were being sucked in.

"Sir! The power is being fed to the subspace device – the output readings are coming in now. I believe the device is going to discharge all the energy soon!"

Skier ignored Moray's reply. Instead, he just kept staring at the device. That glow…why…why was it so familiar? It was then a small white glow began to form just in front of the device. Yet, as Skier watched the glow began to grow rapidly till it seemed to consume the entire front of the device's dish, and clearly illuminated the top of the saucer section.

And then…it fired.

The beam (laser? Phaser? Skier couldn't recognize which one) was bright red, lancing out from the dish and down into the gas giant below. It parted through the clouds with ease; cutting into the gas giant like a hot knife through butter. He glanced at the sensors, and his face went white as he saw the power output.

"oh…shit." Skier muttered to himself, shaking his head and looking at the reading again. This wasn't right. This couldn't be right. How could a ship conceivably output such power? But it was then that Skier realized the more important question:

What was it shooting at?

Why would anyone conceivably shoot into a gas giant? As powerful as the beam was, it still wasn't enough to cut through the giant planet below them.

"What…the hell is that?" Ashter whispered over the comms.

"More importantly, what the hell is Markhavan shooting at?" Daniel piped in, his thoughts echoing Skier's own.

The answer, however, came back in the form of multiple sensor alarms that suddenly rang out all over him.

What the hell?

Skier jumped in alarm, his hands moving to check the sensor display. However, his thoughts were interrupted as Moray's voice came over the channel as he shouted out the alarm.

"INCOMING! Brace for impact!"

There was no time to move, no time to even react, save for Skier to raise his arms before the massive beam of red light penetrated the upper layer of the gas giant's atmosphere and found its place right in the center of their fighter formation. The white core of the laser nearly overwhelmed him, had the filters not come on at the last instant.

Still, it was powerful enough that the shields automatically came online to protect the fighter craft, lest they be roasted to death. Still, it was nearly useless as they only absorbed part of the energy. A blast of heat moved through the confined cockpit as the beam vaporized a significant part of his port wing, all the while the shockwave pushing his fighter away from the others.

Multiple alarms rang in the cockpit as Skier struggled to regain control despite still being half-blinded by the flash. He droned them out, trying to concentrate.

Come on Skier…this is no time for a panic situation. Think. He looked at the displays – all of them were blank, save for one. He set it to show the ship's status and condition. As the reports came in, however, the situation looked grim. His port wing was gone almost completely, while half the weapon support systems were fried. Most external sensor equipments had been burned out, while hull integrity was dangerously low. They had been very lucky to have been at the distance from each other. Any less, and there was a good enough chance that he would have probably been roasted by now.

First priority: Stabilize.

Grabbing the control stick, Skier pulled back on it. It responded sluggishly however, and he could barely manage to get it to stop. But stop it did after several seconds of struggling.

Second Priority: Check on the others.

He tried to activate the passive or backup sensors, but to no avail. Cursing, Skier tried pinging the active sensors – and found that they were working just fine.

Not like we're still in stealth anyway. He thought to himself, activating them. Immediately, the display changed to show the status of the other ships. To his relief, the others had fared significantly better – either their shields had come up earlier, or they had been farther away. But what caused him to take pause, however, was that the sight of the Jolly Roger. It was now active, with all lights running…and slowly but surely turning towards them.

Oh…fuck. This is not good…not good at all. Skier thought, his mind rushing into panic despite his best attempts to contain it. He was about to hit the comm. channel and contact Daniel, but was cut off as a signal came in.

"Damnit all to hell! That blast fried all the stealth systems! Alpha wing, abort mission, repeat, abort the mission! The Jolly Roger's on an intercept route to our position - we need to get the fuck out here!"

"That's a negative sir, warp drives are down – we have no way out!"

Skier checked the warp drive…and then began to panic.

Oh God…we're dead, we're all dead!

Fear ran through his mind. With no way to escape, and heavily damaged fighter craft, there was little hope of leaving this engagement alive…and there was no way to know if whatever was down there in the gas giant was going to fire again and wipe them out. But then…it was either it or the ship that was now turning towards them.

Why do I always get the bad missions? He asked himself. Unfortunately, the only reply he got was silence.