[okay, it was long. Too long for the post size limit.]
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He ordered the ship into battle, following Lieutenant Blake’s plan and then contacted the marine’s commander again. “You tell the doc to be ready,” the Chief said, “because it’s going to be bloody.” He gave Rob a death’s head grin. “We’ll give ‘em hell sir.”
“I’m sure you will. Transporter control is now at your discretion. Good luck.”
As before, Jake Carawan was quick to give a running status report on the
Cousteau. “Shields repaired since the last combat. Other damaged systems,” he added with some surprise, “are still disabled.” Rob considered that a good thing. The cruiser with two working photons would be a nightmare. He wondered if the ‘gremlins’ weren’t able to manage repairs. It had been more than enough time, he though, to repair at least the torpedo tube.
One tube was bad enough, he quickly decided, as he watched it blow through the forward shield of the Watson as they approached. The police ship launched a shuttle which released a scatterpack of drones. Defensive phasers from the
Cousteau knocked out two of the six drones and the other four downed two of its shields in return.
Holmes took the lead position from
Watson and closed on the cruiser. The larger ship fired its heavy phasers at the police cutter and destroyed its forward shields as well. Some energy penetrated into the ship. Rob held his breath when he saw the location until the damage report said sickbay was unharmed. The collective release of air made him realize he wasn’t the only one.
With all three ships having shields down, there was no need for special maneuvering to get them in position to board the
Cousteau. The biggest challenge was in keeping the smaller maneuverable police ships behind the cruiser so it couldn’t use its heavy weapons. In return they couldn’t fire on the
Cousteau without risking injuring their own marines.
Crewman Ingolia at the communications station turned on the box intercom so the bridge crew could hear what was going on. The first sound was Chief Lick’s voice, saying “Team one away, team two into the transporter.” After that, it became confusing.
“DZ clear – we’ve got company – six at the hatch.” The sound of phaser fire punctuated the speech and the voices lost their distinctiveness. “They’re trying to flank us – Cobb, Loewe, cover position one – team two in.” Rob was sure enough of the voices at this point that he thought marines from Watson were in with his own troops. “Ahh – they got Jody – break out the pr4 – clear the zone – can’t sir – Sam, Sam, Sam! - there’s too many of them.” The phaser fire was a steady hum now and there were indistinct yells and screams. If the gremlins were making sounds, Rob couldn’t distinguish them from those of the marines. Then there was the reassuring hum of the heavier phaser cannon. The feeling didn’t last long. “They’ve got one too – cover! – hit the deck – break out the other one.” There was more screaming and then a panicky voice shrieked for an emergency beam out. After that, the fighting didn’t last long and the voices on the speaker were more controlled as the marines returned to the ship.
Rob looked around the bridge to the ashen faces. “Speaker off,” he ordered. “Contact
Watson, recommend we withdraw.”
Chief Lick’s second in command contacted the bridge. “It was no good sir. There were too many of them to establish a safe beam in point. We were never able to get an edge.”
“Where’s the Chief?” Rob asked. He didn’t want to lose both his captain and the chief on the same mission. His chance for promotion looked like it was rapidly disappearing. He banished the unwanted thought angrily.
“Sickbay, sir. He took one in the leg. He’ll survive, sir. He’s one tough bastard.”
Rob had to switch his attention to the other conversation as Lieutenant Blake appeared on his viewscreen. “Lieutenant Cole, we’re going to back off for a moment – long enough for you to prepare your shuttle as a scatterpack and us to retrieve ours if we can. Then we’ll try your idea and prepare for a long sublight trip.” Blake’s expression was grim.
The
Cousteau pursued the two police ships for only a short distance as they were able to quickly distance themselves from it. Rob took it as a sign that the gremlins were learning the limits of their ship’s acceleration and maneuverability. It would make future combat more dangerous. He fervently hoped that it didn’t mean they were also figuring out how to balance the warp engine output.
Lieutenant Blake asked for a report on the scatterpack preparation. Rob looked over at Ensign Etheridge. “Thirty seconds, sir,” he echoed the weapons officer’s statement.
“Very good,” Blake replied. “We turn back in sixty seconds. We go in together: we want it to move into the scatterpack.”
Rob acknowledged his orders. He really wanted to confer with Holmes’s two senior officers. Both were in sickbay though and he didn’t have enough time to make it there and back again. With a sigh and a frown, he tried to figure out how to beat the
Cousteau down without having his own ship blown up in return. Two shields on his ship were already down and one was weak. They had already taken internal damage.
Watson was in slightly better shape, but the older cutter wouldn’t take as much as Holmes before being disabled. They had gotten lucky against the cruiser so far, but each hit against his small ship was going to be far more critical than each shot the cruiser took. What the marines had taken earlier, he expected to take now. Rob hoped the end result would be better.
Chief Lick stared at the stump of his leg and the fancy medical gadget that started just above the knee. He looked up and around him at his boys lying on beds in sickbay. His worst fears had been justified and when some fool from the other ship had panicked a tough situation had nearly turned into a disaster. He resolved to find a way to get some Romulan ale to his own ship’s transporter techs. They had gotten everyone out, even the dead.
He felt the ship’s engines respond as they accelerated away from the
Cousteau. What could they do now other than get in a bloody firefight for which he held little hope? A few quick passes, he could expect success from but the superior durability of a Starfleet cruiser was going to tell in a long battle. His eyes fell on one of the few beds that didn’t hold a marine. “Doc,” he called. “I need you to wake up the Captain.”
Jan Law looked down at her tricorder; a reaction Lick knew meant she wasn’t sure of what she should do. He also knew enough not to say any more. If the doctor felt it was safe to do so, she would wake the captain. Otherwise no matter how many times he asked, in whatever terms, he would not sway her. She was a good sawbones. “Alright,” she finally said, “but she’s not leaving that bed.”
“Even to save the ship?” Lick said, trying not to sound like he was being serious. It didn’t work.
“If it will save the ship,” the doctor said, deadpan, “she can leave but I will have to accompany her.” Doctor Law removed the oxygen mask and pressed a hypospray to the Captain’s neck. It did not take long to work.
Chief Lick watched as Lieutenant Decker’s breathing became more rapid and her eyes opened. He let the doctor handle the captain’s initial reaction. Then he got her attention. “We’re in a tough spot, ma’am,” he said. “Blake on the
Watson’s in command. We tried to board
Cousteau and got beat off. Now they’re gonna try and get the computer to eject the saucer automatically due to massive damage. I don’t know what we…”
He had to stop as she interrupted him. “Is the captive still alive?”
“How did you know?” he asked, astonished.
“Get me to the bridge,” she said tersely. The combat alert sounded.
Holmes was leading this time, her scatterpack already deployed and drones launched, and the two ships were nearing photon torpedo range for the
Cousteau. Rob Cole sat uncomfortably in the center chair and prayed the first shot would miss. He gave it no thought when the turbolift door opened.
“Mr. Coles, I’d like my chair back,” Jessie Decker said.
He could have cheered, Rob was so relieved. It wasn’t until he stood up that he noticed Doctor Law standing beside the Captain. Decker was probably trying to be a hero and had somehow conned the doctor into certifying her fit for duty. He hesitated then decided to let her have it. “The bridge is yours, Captain. Welcome back.”
“Thank you,” she replied and quickly, but gingerly sat down. “Let the drones overtake us,” she said, quickly sizing up the situation. “Give us as much ECM as you can. Then turn and run toward the third planet. Make sure
Cousteau pursues.”
Rob Cole could almost feel the anger behind the sudden beeping of the comm. channel from the
Watson. “What do you think you’re doing, Lieutenant?” the other cutter’s captain asked.
Jessie replied calmly, “Sorry I couldn’t inform you sooner, Bart." Rob was surprised to hear his usually formal captain, use
Watson's captain's first name. I’ve got a plan to save our bacon and the
Cousteau too. Stay with us and keep your aft shields up.”
Rob expected him to protest, but Blake answered with curt agreement. The two ships turned and retreated, with the cruiser in pursuit. With no ships to worry it, the Cousteau easily handled the drones and destroyed the shuttle.
“I want hit-and-run raids ready with whatever marines both ships have left. We’ll be targeting their warp engines,” Jessie explained. “Once we’ve done as much as we can with that tactic, I want Watson to launch a scatterpack. We’ll follow it in then we’ll get behind the
Cousteau and lock tractor beams onto it. Our plan is to push it beyond the orbital distance of the third planet.
“I don’t have enough drones remaining for a second scatterpack,” Blake protested, “and I fail to see the advantage of this plan.”
“Use anti-drones if you have to. We just need to give their phasers something to shoot at. We’re going to get hurt badly enough as it is,” Jessie replied. “As for the other idea, I’ll have to explain it later. Trust me that it will work.”
Rob watched Blake think it over. In the end, he agreed no doubt for the same reason Rob would have: he didn’t have any better idea of his own. “We’ve only enough troops for one attempt on the engines. We might as well make a combination of the two tactics,” he said.
Jessie agreed. Before they reached the third planet’s orbit, the two cutters turned back into the cruiser. The shuttle from
Watson was launched as they began their turn. By the time the ships were facing the Cousteau, the drones were deployed. Holmes launched its own missile and five drones headed toward the cruiser. The gremlins had learned the destructive power of drones and used three of their ship’s heavy phasers to make certain they were destroyed.
That left one phaser and the photon torpedo to fire at
Holmes. The weapons smashed the weak forward shield of the cutter. Rob held on tightly as the ship was badly shaken by the impact. He noted Doctor Law sacrificing her own body to cushion the captain. Damage reports began flowing in from all departments. He didn’t bother to pass them on. They all realized
Holmes had been hurt, the question was how badly. The cutter continued to perform its mission, though. A moment later, he received word that a raiding team had been able to sabotage a conduit box in
Cousteau’s engineering compartments. Along with the efforts from a similar team from
Watson, the strike had resulted in a ten percent decrease in the output of the cruiser’s warp engines.
Watson turned sharply once past the
Cousteau and attached a tractor beam to the cruiser’s main hull.
Holmes, damaged and having reduced capabilities, was forced to make a more leisurely turn and let her sister ship carry out the stratagem. Using the Starfleet cruiser’s own engines to help push it past the third planet’s orbit was the only chance the two tiny ships had of success and it worked perfectly.
Holmes was still within firing arcs of the
Cousteau’s phasers as the cruiser’s weapons recharged. With her shields destroyed and internal damage already heavy, Rob was sure the impending strike would cripple his ship. When no strike came, he looked askance at his captain.
“
Cousteau is, is continuing to maintain its present course and speed. Shield reinforcement has been dropped and the photon torpedo in her tube is no longer being armed,” crewman Carawan reported.
“Send teams over to secure
Cousteau’s engine room and bridge,” Jessie ordered.
“You’ll find the creatures all dead," she explained. "I don’t know what the reason is, but you recall they didn’t want to go far from the second planet. There must be something about the planet that kept these creatures alive when they were near it.”
“You were in sickbay when the creature died, captain,” Rob said. “I don’t understand how you knew.”
“One of the marines in sickbay, trooper Marsden, was telling someone about it,” Jessie clarified. “Sedated doesn’t mean dead you know.” Rob wasn't the only one on the bridge that laughed.
“Speaking of which,” Doctor Law said, “now that the ship has been saved you should be back in bed.” Rob Cole had to grin as his c.o. gave him a helpless luck.
