Star Trek Here We Stand

by heavyneos

Part of my B5 SI story: Q asks David to help out the Enterprise as Temporal Cold War Shenanigans threaten to derail the launch of the NX-01 and jeopardise the formation of the Federation. David now Horatio must get the NX program back on track or risk the future that Gene Roddenberry dreamed may become a dystopian nightmare.

13. Chapter 13

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Star Trek Enterprise: Here we stand

Chapter 13:

Red Key Mission PT2

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Commanders Log: April 07 2151.

Our escape has gone well so far, we have left all three pursuing ships in our dust and are making good time to Vulcan. Long ranged sensors have detected the three ships braking off their pursuit about an hour ago, after sending a high beam encrypted transmission to an asteroid belt in our direct path. Captain Archer has stood down from red alert to yellow alert and dropped the ships speed to Warp 5 Sub-Commander T'Pol and the Captain have been sequestered into his office since then and I have been left in command.

I have the Sensors looking for anything out of the ordinary once we pass the asteroid belt, I will feel a lot better. Natural choke points in space are rare but if we detour, we could be putting the Ambassadors timeline in jeopardy, as well as cause Civil War that could destroy Mazar leaving Vulcans left flank exposed to Orion Pirates and Privateers.

Such an eventuality would spread the Vulcan High-Command too thin making it increasingly difficult to rain in both the Andorians and the Telerites as well as making them a tempting target for the Klingons and their Expansive Empire.

-(-)-

Horatio was sat on the very edge of the captain's chair his eyes locked on the screen as the tactical display was put up on the main viewer. He really didn't want to deal with Orion's today, the ship had been through a bit of a ringer by maintaining warp 6+ for the first time and since trials and holding that speed for long enough that the engineering teams wanted to check over the structural integrity.

With the Orion's trouble came in two flavours annoying and deadly, and depending on who the transmission went to it could be copious amounts of both. The standard Orion raider fleet usually consisted of three elements light Raiders, medium Corsairs, and heavy Marauders according to UE classifications.

The NV and NY class ships can handle the light raiders even with three to one odds or the Corsairs on a one-on-one basis though the latter would be a close-run thing, but it's the bigger Marauders that they have to worry about. Thankfully the Enterprise had very little to worry about unless they come with numbers and the Orion's always came with numbers.

As the tactical screen being to fill with green dots of various size his hand began to shake. But it wasn't fear that caused his left hand to shake, he had seen experts in the field of neurology and all manner of psychologists it was the shakes similar to a horse in the gate waiting to launch but he was always embarrassed by it. So, to counteract that he had taken to holding his swagger stick and flicking a null switch on and off he found giving the hand something to do would counter act it and he was thankful that he had it today.

"be on guard this is the spot where ambush…" he didn't even get the word out as the ship shook from an impact but then something strange happened. It was as if all the gravity suddenly turned off for a moment the bridge crew were floating then Reed had the sense to grab the rail as Horatio held onto the arms of the chair when they crashed into the deck. It felt like they were trapped in a Gravity chamber as the G's began to drive them all into the deck painfully.

Horatio was driven into the Captain's chair and unable to move a muscle he could see at Mayweather's station the ships emergency safeguard had activated pulling the ship out of Warp and into the open. On the screen the tactical systems had had identified several ships their silhouette, size, power output and hull composition.

The war book had done its job and pulled up their identification in seconds six Orion Raiders, two Orion Corsairs and one Marauder. The NX class by themselves could walk through ten Raiders with little damage, the Corsairs would pose a little concern by themselves but with the raiders they present a significant threat add to that the Marauder and this was very much an up-hill battle.

But with what was happening to the gravity made this difficult fight near impossible. It was then that another red dot appeared at the extreme edge of the tactical display the war book identified it as a modified bulk freighter and that it was putting out a lot of gravimetric distortions.

Horatio knew that he had to act quickly to save the ship and the crew. He forced his arm forward feeling the muscle tear in his chest back and shoulder. He was reaching for the rotating switch on the arm of the chair tears began to streek down his eyes as he forced himself to move, he could hear the hull begin to buckle and screech in protest.

The tip of his middle finger got to the selector switch and with every ounce of strength he parted his fingers turning the switch he watched as the tactical targeting switched between ships before landing on the modified freighter. With a roar of effort, he forced his arm to the firing switch it hit the toggle switch with enough force for the tumbler in the switch to engage his other finger hit the other switch for a slower but similar effect.

The tell tail sound of launching photons echoed through the bridge, one followed a few seconds later by a second, before he collapsed back into the chair. the tactical screen showed two torpedoes highlighted in flashing blue blow passed the Orion's and head straight for the freighter.

He watched several of the raiders turn to chase the torpedoes, but it was too late, there was no way they could catch them now. It was getting harder for him to breath as the torpedoes got closer darkness began to encroach on his vision.

Seconds ticked by as the photons moved, he could only pray that they worked. The torpedoes began to give off a mechanical beep as they neared their target as they grew closer the beeping began to get more intense and rapid.

The first Torpedo hit the shields and his heart sank it was all going dark now he could feel himself struggle for even a little breath. Then he saw blinking the second torpedo was still going to the target before it impacted the ship, and he threw himself out of the chair as the gravity he had been struggling against was suddenly gone.

He landed on Mayweather's chair grasping the back of it with his good arm again he pulled himself onto the control console and entered evasive pattern three. The fast escape pattern that used nearby cover to hide the ship from over whelming numbers.

As he took the helm, he looked down to see Travis start to come around he turned onto his back gasping for breath like a fish gasping for water on the deck of the ship. His eyes began to focus as Horatio began to dance the ship through the asteroids very carefully.

The Marauder fitted from his powerful weapons array destroying several of the pure rock asteroids. The debris from the explosion hit the polarised plating sounding like rain on a tin roof. Horatio winced as he knew that Trip would blow a gasket if he damaged the ship too much.

"Malcolm" he called over his shoulder his arm tucked tightly into his side the pain starting to overcome him. "Mal, I need you."

He turned the ship to skim the surface of a large iron asteroid when a large explosion hit just to the port side the shock wave shook both the asteroid and the ship. He turned the ship away and into a tighter cluster hoping that they would force the Marauder to disengage.

He watched the tactical display as the Marauder slowed to a stop and the smaller Corsairs and Raiders ploughed in after the Enterprise. Believing that they had the better of the ship, Horatio Reasoned.

And they would be right he thought, he was in no shape to continue at this and until the crew recovered, he was alone.

"Sir?" he looked down for a moment before turning back to the viewer he had toggled the screen to the joint tactical and open view. He narrowly avoided an oncoming asteroid before he spoke.

"ensign, are you ok?" he asked trying to keep the attackers at least two asteroids away from the ship.

"what happened?" He asked as he slowly got to his feet clutching his head with one hand and steadying himself with the other.

"we're under attack can you man your station." He stood for a second shakily his hand off the rail testing himself and almost immediately fell back down if not for the rail, he grasped it tightly trying to come back from the groggy condition.

"attack?" he asked, looking around, the lights were red for an alert, but he only saw Horatio sitting at any station, and that station was his wasn't it, he was slowly coming back when he remembered "weren't we at warp."

"and now we're under attack and I am in no condition to keep piloting." The young man's eyes seemed to focus on Horatio, noticing the arm was tucked tightly into his side, he nodded the last of the greyness leaving him and his awareness kicking back in.

"If you're ready sir I can take over." Horatio moved his lower body off the chair before Mayweather slid over sat in and took over with practiced ease.

Horatio made his way over to Reed's Tactical position and peering over the console he saw the man laying down unconscious with a nasty bruise on his head and a knot the size of a tennis ball beginning to form.

Instead of going up and around he went underneath the console despite the pain it was easier to assess the damage to Malcolm. His pulse was stead, and his breath was fine, but he was out like a light and the bump was concerning.

Using his remaining functional limb his left, he tapped comm.

"Medical team to the bridge, emergency." He said as he stood over Malcolm doing his best not to hurt the man any more than the strange event had.

He targeted a raider and fired the pulse phasers then when the shields had been breached followed up with the beams, they hit the ships hull and passed through it gutting the small ship from stem to stern.

He managed to repeat the feat twice more before the raiders pulled back. The pulse phasers showing their utility in quickly dealing with shield systems and opening them up for the stronger weapons to end the threat effectively.

"Mr Mayweather, we are faster more manoeuvrable, and our weapons are much stronger." He reminded the man, "there's no need to play coy with them like an NY or NV brake and attack."

"yes sir." The reply was almost gleeful

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With a combination of aggression and pure skill Mayweather used the asteroids as cover so that the hunter became the hunted and for the Orion Corsairs and the remaining Raiders the asteroid cluster had become their tomb.

They exploited the NX Class's manoeuvrability to run rings around and destroy the Corsairs hitting them with the pulse cannons then either the torpedoes or the beam phasers. The armour plating on the Orion's was no where near as effective as there own and they burned through the hull with ease.

It quickly became a game of cat and mouse with the Orion's supplying the mice. As the battle continued it became apparent that these were not simple raiders. They were too organised and disciplined the real pirates would have broken off their attack to save their ships for easier prey, they do not try and execute an echelon flanking manoeuvre.

Nor do they attempt a fighting retreat with military precision. From the vantage point outside the more clustered belt, the Orion Marauder had been completely removed as a combat asset, the commander of the large ship could only watch in impotent fury as the fleet they had assembled for this attack was mauled by a single Earth ship.

The commander realised that she only had two options retreat and face the consequences or attack and face the possibility of being destroyed. Discretion became the better part of valour, so the Marauder retreated. Despite this loss they could report the capabilities of the Earth ship to high command.

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With the Marauder gone Horatio could breathe a sigh of relief, he knew that the Enterprise could have won the engagement, but he was unsure if the damage she would sustain would allow them to keep getting to Vulcan or not.

He ordered that the freighter's debris scanned heavily before leaving the bridge to the freshly arrived Sub-Commander T'Pol who appeared no worse for wear though.

On his way to sick bay, he had met up with Captain Archer who was being assured by Dr Phlox that Porthos was fine, and that Archer needed medical attention though. Horatio noticed the man had a severely broken nose.

The ship had gotten back underway after an extensive period scanning the gravity interdiction device that had pulled them from warp and Horatio was on his way to the briefing.

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"as far as we can tell" came the southern drawl of Commander Tucker "it's some type of gravimetric projector." He said as he showed the ships tactical display, he had his leg in a medical boot and his left arm in a sling. "it's similar to our own gravity plating but ran through the deflector making some hind of gravity projection field."

"is that what snapped us out of warp?" asked Hoshi, her neck was in a brace, and she had some bruising on her face.

"not by itself." He replied, "the gravity pulse activated an engine failsafe program, is a program that stops a starship from warping into a planet, like the Sulaban did a few months ago." Tucker continued as the tactical display of the gravity device spun lazily on the screen. "the program itself is a hold over program from the previous OS that should have been next to impossible to activate how they knew it was there is my main worry sir."

"this program is classified, isn't it?" asked Horatio as he looked over the device that almost killed him.

"it should be." Said Trip as the implication hit him "level three Classification officers and certain ranks of engineers and programmers only."

"sir," Horatio said to Archer getting his attention, "if they have the particulars of this program that's Classified level three there is a potential that the entire previous operation system has been compromised, more so than I even bleated before."

"my god." He whispered in horror

"if my guess is right, and I think it is, then the corruption in the fleet may be even more deep-set that we thought." said Horatio as Archer's face paled drastically

"you put a new operating system in the ship before we left." He turned to Horatio

"I did Sir, as approved by Command after hacking the Warp Delta and making it dance." He said seriously," but, there were several smaller programs that had to be grandfathered into the Operation System by order of command, mostly emergency contingency plans and classified info."

"and this was one?" he asked seeking clarification

"yes sir, the new OS is a much more comprehensive system with a lot more protections and is currently only operating in the NX class." He said standing to attention, "if they have the previous system or enough of a template of one has been given to the Orions that they can exploit programming back doors, then Star Fleet may be in for a world of trouble."

"Admiral Forest will be meeting us on Vulcan we can take this to him this meeting is officially classified."

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Commanders Log: April 14 2151.

We're a few hours away from Vulcan but the news isn't very good for the Enterprise. We have done what we can for the ship, but we may need to take her back to earth for dry dock, the damage done by [Classified] the gravity device [Classified]has been extensive and the structural integrity of the ship may have been compromised.

We have been stuck at Warp 4 for the last few days, but we will still be arriving half a day before schedule.

We also picked up a Vulcan escort two days after the ambush [Classified] we've been going over the data on collected on the gravity device and our initial assessment has proven to be sound according to several of the Vulcans scientists. It appears to be similar to the Sulaban weapon that we had encountered before but much cruder and more primitive perhaps but just as effective.

They have revealed that the Orion Navy has recently listed several official navy units as KIA during a military exercise. Intelligence reports have throne that out the window. The ships we have encountered were all supposedly lost in a skirmish at the Klingon border Star Fleet Intelligence and the Vulcan high command have stepped up surveillance and infiltration of the Orion system. [Classified]

We'll be at Vulcan soon hopefully we'll get better look at the damage there.

[End Log]