Star Trek Hunter
Episode 27:
The Sword of Destiny
Scene 9:
T’May
The U.S.S. Enterprise, N.C.C. 1701-F, was one of a kind. The ship had been designed just after the Third Borg Incursion, and launched less than two years after its predecessor had been retired. While the Enterprise E had remained in service for several years following its near destruction in battle with the Scimitar, the ship had never really recovered. Like its predecessor, the Enterprise F was a prototype for a class that never went into production. Also like its predecessor, it was the fastest ship in the fleet until the Hunter had broken the warp 10 barrier.
The Enterprise F was the first Star Fleet vessel with dedicated interceptor bays and was built with far heavier shielding and weapons than any other Star Fleet vessel. The Enterprise E was retired shortly after being severely damaged in the final battle of the War with the Dominion and the lessons learned from that battle had influenced the design of its successor: This new Enterprise had been built for war.
The Enterprise’s first officer, Commander T’May, was seated at the desk in the captain’s office, gingerly massaging the back of her head as she received the message: “The facility Captain LaForge was being held in on Saketh has been completely destroyed by a romulan attack.” The face on the viewer in the captain’s office belonged to Rear Admiral Red. “We have not received any evidence of his survival. We are not declaring him dead, but we don’t have any leads on his whereabouts even if he is still alive. The Enterprise needs a captain, T’May. I am hereby promoting you to the rank of captain and assigning the Enterprise to you as your command. I need you to bring the ship back into the fight as soon as possible. Message ends.”
T’May deactivated the viewer, then opened a drawer in Geordi’s desk - it was her desk now. She removed a small box, removed a single platinum rank pip and attached it to her collar. She decided against taking something for the pounding headache, choosing instead to control the pain through discipline rather than risk her mind being slowed by medication.
The Enterprise had received this message in the midst of a running battle with several klingon ships. Under T’May’s command, the Enterprise had single-handedly taken out a Vor’cha class cruiser, a Martok class cruiser and three birds of prey in one pitched battle and lost all five of her interceptors along with their 2-man crews in the process. The Enterprise had limped away from that encounter. So had an elderly G-class bird of prey.
Both ships had made it into a vast gas cloud - a stellar nursery. This made the cloaking devices for both ships useless - but they were offline anyway. It made the shields for both ships useless - but they were both offline as well. It made the sensor arrays for both ships nearly useless, which they pretty much had been by the end of the battle anyway. No one on either ship was certain which ship was hunting the other. Surviving crew members on both ships were racing to make repairs. Entire decks on both ships were depressurized and exposed to space.
There was a predictable but unavoidable drop in morale when T’May stepped onto the bridge with four pips on her collar. “Midshipman Larek, put me through shipwide.”
“Shipwide broadcast enabled, Captain,” the young vulcan replied. Larek was 100% vulcan and acted like one - but having been born and raised in Laredo, Texas, he had a thick Texas drawl that sounded strange coming from a vulcan - at least to T’May, who had been born and raised in Vulcana Regar and was always surprised at the odd mannerisms of terrestrial vulcans.
“This is Captain T’May. I want to assure you that the search for Captain LaForge continues. But given the amount of time he has been held by the enemy, it is doubtful that he will return to the bridge of this vessel when he is found and returned to the Federation.” The new captain realized she was gripping her neck. Fortunately, her crew had not noticed. She quickly removed her hand, took a breath, and pushed the pain to the background again. “Until further notice, all crew members are to be armed at all times in case we are boarded. I am reducing status to Yellow Alert until further notice. Get some rest if you can. You might not get another chance soon. Hydrate. Ingest sustenance. Maintain your strength.”
It was less than 20 minutes later when a broad swath of greenish lightning lit up the clouds of ionized gas that surrounded the Enterprise. Ionized gas that had filled some of the compartments that were open to space conducted electricity which supercharged open EPS ports and entered open conduits in those sections. Energy coursed throughout the ship, causing a few secondary explosions and playing havoc with systems throughout the ship, undoing many of the repairs.
“Should we return fire, Captain?” 2nd Lt. Brown Johnson was the surviving ranking bridge officer and had quickly taken on the role of executive officer.
“That wasn’t weapons fire,” T’May responded. “One of their disruptor cannons exploded. But you should be able to determine the vector it came from.”
“I have a vector, but not range,” responded a young tellerite ensign who was seated at what was left of the navigation station - which was having to double as the pilot station because the pilot station was completely destroyed. “And the vector is very wide.”
“Consider the maximum possible speed for the Bird of Prey based on known condition, projected repairs and interference of the gas cloud and track the vector as it grows,” said T’May.
“Red alert, Captain?” Johnson asked.
“We don’t know where they are, how close they are or what condition they are in,” T’May responded. “The only thing that has changed is that we have a rough idea of where they aren’t. Ensign bav Orlan, make your course 20 degrees starboard, positive 15 degree angle on the bow. Take us away from them, Ensign.”
“Shouldn’t we move toward them, sir?” asked Johnson. “They might be vulnerable if one of their cannons exploded… Captain?”
T’May wondered why Lt. Johnson had a concerned expression and realized that she was grimacing. She disciplined her mind again, quickly erasing the signs of pain from her face and deliberately slowed her heartbeat. “I am calculating a 68…” Percentages suddenly failed her. “A high probability of a trap. There are unlikely to be more than 15 surviving crew members on that bird of prey. They will not hesitate to sacrifice their ship and their lives to destroy the federation’s flagship.”
Lt. Johnson stepped up close, said very quietly, “Are you all right Captain?”
T’May removed her hand from the back of her head - it seemed to have traveled there against her will. “I sustained an injury to the back of my head when we lost inertial dampeners on entering the cloud, but I will persevere. Thank you, Lieutenant.”
The bridge was quiet for a few moments. The working sections of the view screen displayed mostly static.
Ensign Vreuess bav Orlan spoke up. “I think we’re receiving a transmission from the klingons, Captain. I’m only receiving audio.”
“Put it through.”
Most of the transmission was garbled beyond recognition and the universal translator did not have sufficient context to provide accurate translation: “ShhHoc elth goat for success, Captain Battle. Balth SuS doc arrangement greth hunt thanks Iw’hoc blood goat this day, Captain Battle. We salute threlth and your courageous crew. SuS oath death today!”
T’May was gripping her head with both hands. The high pitched whine that had come through with the transmission had felt like it was driving a steel rod right behind her eyes. She deliberately pulled her hands away from her head.
“Why did they call you Captain Battle?” asked bav Orlan.
T’May’s voice was almost indistinct. “She was using my name, but the universal translator was malfunctioning. In thlingn Hol, t’may means battle.”
“So it was our Captain Battle who destroyed five klingon ships today…” Ensign bav Orlan was clearly amused.
“In my language, T’May means child of peace…” T’May gripped her head and groaned. Then something in the viewscreen caught her attention. She released her head and stepped up quickly to the viewscreen - her eyes only inches from it.
The Enterprise’s new captain whirled. “REVERSE COURSE! Launch the ship’s log drone! They’re right in front of us!”
“I’m trying, Captain, but the helm is not responding well,” said bav Orlan, her hands a blur on what remained of the navigation console.
“How is that possible?” asked Lt. Johnson, only to see his new captain fall back against the viewscreen and grasp her head with both hands.
“They left that cannon out there with a timed charge and flew right around us,” said Midshipman Larek. “They…”
Larek did not get to complete his sentence. What was left of the klingon bird of prey collided headlong at full speed into the port side of the U.S.S. Enterprise, driving its prow deep into the engineering hull. Only a heartbeat later, the remaining photon torpedoes in the klingon ship’s armory detonated, breaching the warp cores of both ships and setting the entire ionized gas cloud ablaze with forks of lightning and massive secondary explosions throughout the stellar nursery. The explosion was so intense that a condensed mass of gasses nearly a light-hour away was soon engulfed in celestial fire and a new star was born.
*t’may (thlingn Hol - battle)
Well, there are the movies, The Flintstones, and Scooby-Doo.
Good stuff!
Green girl got game... 