CHAPTER 8
On board the IKS Negh'Var: General Tanas's ship.
"General at our current speed we will reach the alien fleet in one minute." The Ops officer said.
"Good…, let's drop to impulse but have half the fleet to cloak and implement a kappa-four tactical deployment." Tanas commanded. Seconds later as the order was implemented, half the Klingon feet seemingly faded way into nothing.
-oOOo-
On board the Centauri command ship.
"Admiral the sensors have just detected a small fleet approaching, they are coming faster than anything I ever seen before." A Centauri said.
"How many ships are in that fleet? And who are they?" The Centauri Admiral asked.
"They are still too far for us to get a positive identification, but that fleet is composed of slightly more than one hundred ships that if in their present course and speed, will reach us in approximately five minutes." The Centauri managing sensors stated.
"Put the fleet on maximum alert." The Admiral Durano Marray addressed his second in command. "How long until the Minbari arrive?"
"We arrived a bit earlier, so the Minbari shouldn't arrive for another hour, Admiral." Captain Urza Lotoru answered.
"I don't like this situation one bit. The Emperor should never have agreed with we helping the Minbari against some unknown dark forces that supposedly are coming, whoever they may be. After all we only have the Minbari word that they are dangerous." The Centauri Admiral stated apprehensively.
"Unfortunately the Emperor and the Centarum did not have the courage to oppose the Minbari request." The Centauri Captain replied.
"Admiral we now have a good reading of the unknown ships, their configurations are different from any other previously met." The Centauri managing sensors informed.
"Hail them." The Centauri Admiral ordered to the Centauri in charge of communications.
-oOOo-
On the Bridge of IKS Negh'Var.
"General I'm detecting tachyon emissions coming from one of the alien ships, but they are highly modulated and too weak be any kind of weapon." The Ops official informed Tanas.
"Are they trying to detect our cloak ships?" Tanas inquired.
"If they are, their emissions are being sent to the wrong place. Solely our uncloaked ships are being bombarded with those tachyon beams." The Ops official said.
"Tactical." Tanas ordered.
Then the main viewscreen start displaying all sort of information's on it.
"Is this information's accurate?" Tanas asked.
"I'm not detecting any malfunction on the sensors or any sort of jamming so the data should be accurate General." The Tactical officer replied.
"That's strange, those vessels appear to be warships but there isn't any indications of they having warp cores, subspace sensors or even shield generators." Tanas stated.
Then Worf approached the Ops officer and asked. "Could not those tachyon emissions be communication beams?"
"Communications using tachyons?" Asked an astonished Ops officer thinking that Worf should be nuts for suggesting such thing.
"Yes, some years ago the Enterprise discovered a primitive race that did not have subspace technology so instead they used modulated tachyon beams for fast than light communications." Worf answered.
Still full of doubts the Ops Officer began doing a more thorough analysis on the tachyon emissions and seconds later come up to a conclusion.
"General, Ambassador Worf may be correct; this can indeed be a very primitive form of communications." The Klingon said with an embarrassed voice and very irritated by not having been him to detect the nature of the emissions.
"Is it possible to reconfigure our communications array and hear those transmissions?" Tanas asked.
"If there is a way I can do it General." The Klingon said with sureness.
"Then proceed quickly and do not fail me again." Tanas replied harshly.
-oOOo-
On board the Centauri Command Ship.
"Admiral so far they are not answering to our hails." The Centauri operating communications replied.
"Could it be that they are the dark forces that the Minbari talked about?" Captain Lotoru asked
"If they are than this can only be a small exploration fleet, I don't see the Minbari asking for help against a force this small."
-oOOo-
On board the IKS Negh'Var.
I managed to successfully reconfigure the matrix of the comm. array General, we will have some interferences but it is done." A now very pleased Klingon informed.
"Put it on screen." Tanas commanded.
Moments later on the main viewscreen appeared a figure that as far as Tanas could tell was human; the only characteristic he had never seen before on any other human was the strange hairstyle in the form of a crest.
"I'm Admiral Durano Marray supreme commander of the Centauri Imperial navy, identify yourself." The figure Said.
"I am a General Tanas of the Klingon Empire, we are looking for several of our ships that came to this Quadrant some time ago, have you seen them?"
"I cannot say that I have. I however have also never encountered anyone of your race before, so what purpose those ships you are looking for had to came to this Quadrant and why are you looking for them?" Admiral Marray asked.
"We are not from this Quadrant and the reason why our ships came here or why we are looking for them is a matter that only concerns us." Tanas said extremely bluntly and as the blood in his body started to boil.
"We were told that a new dangerous race was arriving and that they would bring much destruction, so unless you can convince us that you are not them, I will have to retain you here until your identity is confirmed to us and our allies." Marray said convinced the alien would easily comply without much protest due to his far superior number of ships and their sizes.
"You dared threatening us? Then you and your pitiable ships not only will feel our wrath in all its might but also will learn the meaning of what a true warship is." Tanas threatened.
"The Centauri Admiral was shocked with the audacity of the alien.
"You must be truly mad for dare making threats to the great Centauri Republic with your tiny fleet of undersized ships." Marray said absolutely certain of the superiority of his forces.
"Soon you will learn that size and numbers are irrelevant. I scanned your entire fleet and it's beyond pathetic to any standards, even now in their weak state the Cardassians would be able to offer a better challenge." Tanas answered with scorn and then gave an order to someone outside the screen and moments later one hundred and twenty-five ships suddenly appeared behind the Centauri fleet.
-oOOo-
On board the Centauri Command Ship.
The sudden appearance of all those ships caused waves of distress through the entire Centauri fleet.
"Admiral, Admiral many ships appeared behind us from nowhere!" Captain Lotoru shouted alarmed.
"Cut communications." Marray Commanded. "How did those ships get this close without being detected?"
"Unknown admiral one moment it wasn't nothing there and the next moment they just appeared from nowhere." Lotoru said.
"Open communications again." Commanded Marray then address to Tanas. "I don't know how you did that trick but you fleet is no match to us, if you don't surrender immediately I will be forced to destroy you." Marray said trying to appear convincing in his speech.
"A Klingon warrior is always ready for a good battle and doesn't fear death, now let's see if your courageous words have any meaning or are like the last growl of a Targ being slaughtered." Tanas said with a deadly grin and ended the transmission.
"Admiral the energy readings of the alien ships raised tremendously and the majority of our scans start being deflected." Captain Lotoru said nervously.
"BATTLE STATIONS, BATTLE STATIONS FIRE ALL WEAPONS AT WILL!" Admiral Marray Yelled.
-oOOo-
Meanwhile on other location others events were about to happen.
"Captain we are entering in the solar system corresponding to the coordinates that Q supplied. Data said with its impassive voice.
"Thank you Data, let's slow to impulse power and be ready for whatever may be there." Picard Said.
"Captain I am detecting several powerful minds and they are clearly angry with our presence here, I think that they are going to attack us at any moment." Troi said
"Red alert and sensor at maximum." Picard commanded.
"Energize phasers and load all torpedo launchers." Riker added.
In the next following moments, the Enterprise crew bridge was invaded by anxiety due to the news of the possible imminent threat; suddenly in the front of the Federation starship, three vortexes begin forming.
"Three spatial vortexes forming on heading 093 mark 187, three unknown vessels are exiting from those wormholes!" The Tactical Official exclaimed.
"On main viewer and hail them." Picard said
Immediately on the main viewscreen three large unknown ships were visible, they were cylindrical in shape, an greenish-yellow hull with a dark mottled pattern hull and had four protuberant inward curved structures at the front resembling some sort of tentacles with arcs of energy emanating from its tips and converging in the middle.
"Captain the sensors read those ships as organics and their energy readings are sky-rocketing, I believe those frontal structures are weapons about to fire and I don't think the Enterprise will be able to survive their combined power." Lieutenant Daniels said from his tactical console.
"Did we have any answer to our hails Mr. Data?" Picard asked.
"Not sir, but so far I was not yet able to determine if our hails were received or just ignored." Data answered.
"They are going to attack us now Captain!" Deanna Troi shouted.
"Evasive maneuver zeta epsilon now, Ensign Perim." Picard ordered the female Trill Conn Officer.
Immediately the Enterprise began to angle to starboard but only avoiding one of three powerful discharges of energy while the other two struck the secondary hull making the shields of the Sovereign class ship to flare brightly during a second before failing. Throughout the Enterprise chaos was everywhere with consoles and plasma conduits blowing all over and throwing crewmembers through the air.
"STATUS REPORT!" Picard shouted amid the chaotic bridge.
"Ventral and port shields are down and we have hull breaches from deck twelve through seventeen, Captain." Lt. Daniels said.
"Turn forty five degrees to port and return fire." Picard ordered.
Immediately the Enterprise began firing its phasers in rapid succession hitting all the alien ships and making the colors of their hulls in the affected areas change to a darker color before erupting in small explosions.
"We manage to do some damage, but not enough to incapacitate any of them and now all of them are closing on us from behind." Daniels said.
"Fire aft torpedoes!" Riker ordered.
The fingers of the tactical Officer flew over the buttons of his console inputting targeting data and a second later three torpedoes left the rear of the Federation ship closing fast on the following ships.
Two of the pursuers seeing the danger turned quickly to escape the incoming torpedoes but the remaining one in an act of arrogance refused to take evasive actions from weapons fired by a younger race ship and decided to intercept the approaching glowing projectiles with its powerful weapon.
When the powerful energy of the beam reached the torpedo heading it way, the Vorlon expected it to disappear quickly, but to his amazement that was not what happened and the shield of the torpedo managed to resist the powerful beam for full two seconds before being overwhelmed. Unfortunately for the Vorlon those two seconds did all the difference as allow the torpedo to get too close before detonating thus causing the resultant photonic shockwave to hit the Vorlon dreadnought with an incredible destructive force and tearing apart its frontal struts.
At first, the arrival of the young races that not under their control had irritated them, but after their recent loses and now seeing another of their Dreadnoughts almost destroyed, that simple irritation changed to pure hate.
"Captain one ship is disabled but the other two are closing on both our flanks!" The Tactical Officer yelled.
"Ensign Perim take us into warp six any heading now!" Picard stated with urgency.
The helmsman promptly inserted the appropriate commands but nothing happened.
"Warp is offline, Captain." Ensign Kell Perim replied.
"Geordi what is happening, we need to go to warp now." Riker asked to the Chief Engineer.
"The last attack blew half the relays in engineering Commander; I need at least two minutes before I can give you warp." Laforge said.
"We don't have two minutes Geordi." Riker replied.
"There is nothing I can do about that Cmdr., a main plasma conduit blew in engineering injuring, or killing half my staff, I simply don't have the manpower to replace the relays sooner." LaForge Said with a stressed voice.
Resigned to not having warp Picard issued a new order "Ensign engage Heading 027 mark 760 at my command." Picard said to the Trill helmsman.
Then Picard addressed the tactical Officer. "Mr. Daniels on my Commander fire a volley of torpedoes from the aft launcher and set them to detonate at ten thousand meters from the Enterprise, the explosion should blind the sensors of the ship that is approaching from our port for couple seconds."
"Aye captain"
"NOW!" Picard shouted.
Immediately the Enterprise made a sharp turn and fired a volley of torpedoes from the rear launcher detonating them at the pre-determinate location.
"Torpedo Launcher two full spread and maximum yield now."
"Firing now captain." Daniels said.
As ordered the Enterprise forward number main torpedo launcher fired a volley of three quantum torpedoes against the Vorlon ship approaching from starboard and caught it unprepared by the sudden tactic, the Vorlon was not able to even try the slightest evasive maneuver and second later three torpedoes found its mark obliterating the Vorlon Dreadnought.
The remaining operational ship upon seeing the dreadful event waste no time and immediately fired his deadly weapon with catastrophic consequences for the Federation Starship. On the interior of the Enterprise and as in the previous attack, destruction was everywhere but this time on a much higher scale, then all over the ship most lights went off, only emergency lighting being on.
"Captain we lost main power, weapons, shields and impulse power, we are sitting ducks." Lt. Daniels said to Picard with fear in his voice.
The Vorlons crewing the ship that made the successful attack were pleased with their last action and again powered it's mighty weapon to deliver the final blow to those that had dared to bring death to their people and there was nothing that anyone could do to stop them.
TBC