Paint and Powder
A Star Trek anthology by Andrew Joshua Talon
DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based work of prose. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager et al are the property of CBS Television, and creation of Gene Roddenberry. Please support the official release.
During the Dominion War...
A few months into the Dominion War, and things were quite grim. This wasn't Enterprise's first war, naturally. She'd been in a few.
This had allowed her to have some perspective though. As her crew was very down and depressed, she did her best to keep their fighting spirit up. Especially after Captain Picard went back to Starfleet Command due to his injuries in one of their recent engagements.
She found herself sitting with Riker in his quarters, going over the crew reviews. Riker looked worn down and exhausted. Enterprise frowned deeply, reaching over to rest a hand on his shoulder.
"Riker? Are you all right?" She asked.
Will looked over at Enterprise, and raised his eyebrows.
"That obvious?" He asked.
"You're not very good at the poker face when you're tired," she pointed out. Riker rubbed his temples.
"War never feels good, does it?" He asked.
Enterprise shook her head.
"No," she said, "but better to win it than to lose."
"Yeah," Riker said. Enterprise smiled at him.
"But you need to find your strength," she said. "You've willingly been in the Captain's shadow all this time. Why?"
Riker looked over at Enterprise, and then back at his reports.
"... I promised that if Picard was ever taken over by the Borg, I would be there to take over for him," Riker sighed. "I was willing to sacrifice my entire career for his sake."
"I know," Enterprise said, resting a hand over his. "But we need you to be our captain. Especially with Captain Picard gone."
Riker scowled, narrowing his eyes.
"We need a victory," he stated, "just one victory."
Enterprise hummed.
"Then we should give them a victory."
Riker looked up at Enterprise.
"Just like that?" He asked.
"Just like that," Enterprise said with a nod. "Plenty of civilizations have found the courage to strike back against an implacable enemy. To prove their vulnerability, to inspire others to keep up the fight..." Enterprise smiled deviously.
"Riker... Will... Have you ever heard of... The Doolittle Raid?"
Riker hummed thoughtfully. He then grinned, a bit of the old fire in his eyes.
"I have. Have you heard of the Trojan Horse?"
Cardassia Prime
Gul Tarok grumbled. This kind of duty was beneath him. He was managing the cargo pattern for starships over Cardassia Prime from the Cardassia One Starbase. The war was taxing Cardassia's entire resources, all being pushed into the war effort.
Still, he supposed it was nice to be on the winning side. The Federation was retreating on all fronts, along with their Klingon lapdogs. Even if their Dominion overlords were pushy sometimes, he supposed it was no worse than it had been under the Central Command.
The entire galaxy would be theirs, after all. Their freedom seemed a small price to pay...
"Ugh," Glinn Albok grunted. He looked up from his console, "sir, the Pakled superfreighter is out of position-again."
Gul Tarok growled as he looked over the main plotting screen. That gigantic Pakled superfreighter had drifted into the main flight path for their ships into the orbital yards. He got up from his command station and strutted across the deck in anger.
"Those stupid..." he spat, "get me those idiots!"
The main screen activated, and the Pakled captain grinned uncomfortably at them.
"We... Do not have things. Things to make us go," the Pakled captain stated.
"I don't care what you don't have!" Gul Tarok snarled, "just get out of the flight path, damnit!"
"We will try," the Pakled captain stated. His face vanished from the screen. The Pakled superfreighter fired its thrusters... Becoming even more of a hinderance to all the spacecraft in the area. Tarok growled.
"Get the tug ships out there now, we won't let them try to sort this-"
One of the large cargo containers on the superfreighters burst open... And three Allied starships burst out. One was a Klingon cruiser, the other was a Defiant-class escort, and the final one...
"The Enterprise?!"
All three starships opened fire with every weapon they had, unleashing a firestorm of death and destruction... Right for Cardassia Starbase One.
Gul Tarok had five seconds to curse all Pakleds to fiery deaths... Just before he met his own death in a fiery explosion.
The Cardassian starbase exploded, a gigantic fireball that blew out debris across the orbital space of Cardassia Prime. All three Allied ships turned around and made for the exit, even as dozens of Jem'Hadar fighters erupted from the nearby orbital defense stations. Enterprise smiled, a feral grin on her face. Gr'oth and Hornet shared the same look, though Gr'oth's was toothier.
"Drop the mines! DROP THE MINES!" She shouted.
Gr'oth let loose every mine the Vor'cha-class cruiser could hold, sending hundreds of antimatter mines into the path of the pursuing Jem'hadar ships. They swarmed the Jem'Hadar fighters, blasting them to pieces in fiery explosions. The rest of the antimatter mines spread out, as a means of forcing the remaining defending ships to break off.
Just long enough to let Enterprise, Hornet, and Gr'oth jump to warp.
Commander Riker leaned back in his chair, as Data worked at the Ops station ahead.
"Pursuing ships?" Riker asked.
"They have broken off their pursuit," Data stated, "the Gr'oth's remaining mines are barring them from engaging."
"Let's not wait around for them to figure out a way around them," Riker said. "Enterprise?"
"Sensor decoys are away," Enterprise reported, "and the deflectors are spoofing them."
Enterprise grinned.
"And Gr'oth is already composing an epic poem about it."
"And Hornet?" Riker asked, a small smile on his face.
"Already planning on writing a holonovel," Enterprise said.
"We have not yet escaped," Data pointed out.
"Yeah, but they don't call me Lucky E for nothing," Enterprise said with a grin.
They would escape, of course. And later damage assessments would reveal they hadn't really done that much. The Dominion rebuilt their main space station in a matter of weeks. But still...
It did exactly what it was supposed to do.
And while Enterprise would never admit it to her more... Pacifistic crewmembers?
It was fun...
Because if there's one thing the Enterprise does well? It is giving hope in times of darkness...