A Thousand Years-Part 3

A Thousand Years

By Drogna

Rating: See Part 1
Disclaimer: See Part 1

***************

Part 3 ( Section 6)

Archer took the Captain’s chair on the bridge of Tyrfing, barely keeping upright as the deck rocked beneath him.

“On screen,” he said to Ensign Riley. The rear view clearly showed three Romulan War-birds pursuing them.

“Hull plating is polarised,” said Lieutenant Pietersen, Tyrfing’s Armoury Officer. “They’re only firing warning shots so far.”

“Sir, the Virideth is hailing us,” said Riley.

Archer took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Put them through.”

“Admiral Archer,” said the Romulan. The screen remained blank. That was one of the things about the Romulans, no one had ever seen what a Romulan looked like and it made them even more sinister. “This is Admiral Valdore of the Imperial Romulan War-bird Virideth.”

“Admiral Valdore,” replied Archer.

“You are in violation of the treaty of Alpha Trianguli, Admiral. I suggest you surrender before I am forced to stop playing and use the full might of my flagship.”

“We’ve been through this with Commander Tamek. We are on a mission of mercy to rescue civilians and the Excalibur. They were attacked without warning by your ships who were the ones in violation of the treaty.”

“Your ship disabled two Romulan War-birds and someone is going to pay for that.”

“Some of the crew of Excalibur have already paid for it with their lives and I’m damned if I’ll let you take their ship.”

“You have crossed me for the last time, Admiral, and you’re only delaying the inevitable by trying to fight us,” replied Valdore.

“I’m not keeping score, you’re the one with the grudge,” said Archer. “This isn’t about our previous encounters.”

“You can’t ignore the past. Everyone thinks that you’re a great peacemaker, “the Architect of the Federation”, and yet here you are fomenting war between our races. Give up, Admiral. The time has come for you to pay for your crimes against the Romulan Empire,” said Valdore. “I will be generous and give you one final chance to surrender.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. You’re not getting your hands on these ships.”

“We will see,” replied Valdore and cut the connection.

“Should we drop out of warp?” asked Captain Austin who had taken over the Science station.

“If we do, we might as well paint a bull’s-eye on Excalibur’s hull,” said Archer.

“We can’t manoeuvre while towing Excalibur,” said T’Pol from her position at the Engineering console.

“We can’t cut them lose, they’ll be sitting ducks,” said Archer. Excalibur was badly damaged and, even if it could manoeuvre on an impulse engine held together with duct tape (according to Trip’s reports), she was already heavily damaged.

“Sir, we’re no match for three Imperial War-birds if we can’t manoeuvre,” said Pietersen. Archer wondered if he had been taking lessons in pointing out the obvious from Lieutenant Commander Reed.

“Hail Excalibur on an encrypted channel. Make sure we’re using a cipher that the Romulans haven’t cracked,” said Archer.

“Yes, sir,” replied Riley.

Lieutenant Commander Reed appeared on screen, bathed in the red light of a Tactical Alert.

“Admiral, we need to drop the cable, we can’t manoeuvre if we’re tied together,” said Reed.

“Your counterpart over here agrees with you, but you’ll be a prime target with the damage you’ve already taken.”

“You have no choice, sir, you have to cut us loose,” said Reed. “We’re just slowing you down.”

“I refuse to just abandon Excalibur in the Neutral Zone.”

“If it comes to it, I’ll set the self-destruct and abandon ship. We’re ready to repel boarders, but we can’t let the Romulans get hold of the technology on this ship.” Excalibur was well ahead of Romulan technology. The war had taught Starfleet a lot about how to build their ships to fight Romulans and exactly what level their enemy’s technology was at.

“Agreed. Try to give us some warning if you need to abandon ship.”

“Pick up the wounded first, sir. The rest of us will take our chances. It’s the only way to do this. Tyrfing can get the civilians to safety and maybe some of Excalibur’s crew too.”

“Malcolm, we didn’t come all this way to leave you behind.”

Both ships shuddered once again as the Romulan ships fired at their target.

“Kelby to Bridge,” sounded the com.

“Go ahead, Commander,” said Archer.

“Sir, we can’t continue to tow Excalibur and take fire. It’s putting too much strain on the systems. Something’s going to have to give,” said Kelby, the sounds of a busy Engineering department could be heard behind him. Having despatched four engineers to Excalibur with Trip meant that Tyrfing was now shorthanded and Kelby had his plate full even without Romulans breathing down their necks.

“Understood, Commander,” said Archer.

“Admiral, Trip believes that if we drop out of warp, we might be close enough to the edge of the Neutral Zone that we can divert power to the transmitters and get a distress call through to Durandal and Athena. However, I will need time to make the required modification to the transmitters,” said T’Pol.

“Trip is meant to be sleeping,” said Reed, tersely.

“He says that it is hard to sleep while his ship is being shot at,” replied T’Pol, without any trace of the irritation that must have been present in the original comment.

“Tyrfing can act as guard dog for Excalibur,” said Archer, “we’ll keep the Romulans busy while we get the transmitter rigged up. Excalibur can concentrate on staying out of harm’s way.”

“I don’t like it,” said Reed, “but if you think that’s our best chance…”

“I think it’s our only chance of getting both ships out of here,” replied Archer. “Take us out of warp and detach the cable. Did you get that Commander Kelby?”

“Yes, Admiral, we’ll drop out of warp on Captain T’Pol’s signal. I can’t spare anyone to help with the transmitter modifications; we’ve got our hands full down here.”

“Understood, Commander. I believe I can complete them alone,” said T’Pol. She made sure that Trip’s safety program was performing as expected before she gave the go ahead to drop out of warp. She didn’t wait for Archer to give her the nod to deal with the transmitter, but ran from the bridge not caring if it was unseemly for an officer to be seen sprinting down the corridors.

The Romulans that were pursuing them overshot their target as Tyrfing and Excalibur slowed and then engaged impulse drive. Pietersen detached the cable that linked the two ships allowing them room to manoeuvre. Tyrfing put itself between the Romulans and Excalibur and began an attack run on the lead Romulan ship.

Tyrfing swept round in a swooping arc on the Virideth, firing weapons as she moved across the bow of the enemy ship. They inflicted some damage but the Romulans’ hull plating held. Tyrfing and Excalibur had been designed to be quick in a fight for situations like this and Archer was glad of it. They were able to turn rapidly and fire a volley of torpedoes at the second ship before slipping between Virideth and the third War-bird. The third ship was taken by surprise and turned into Virideth’s firing arc, caught by their disruptor just as it opened fire on Tyrfing. Once again damage was minor but Tyrfing took advantage of the confusion to make a strafing run on all three ships that were now out of formation.

Unfortunately the confusion worked in the Romulans’ favour as well and Virideth made a break for Excalibur while Tyrfing was occupied by the two other ships.

“It’s time to finish this, Valdore,” said Archer, with quiet menace. Everyone on the bridge knew that this fight would be to the death.

****

T’Pol headed for the transmitter compartment, Trip giving her instructions for when she arrived at her destination. Trip’s voice in her head was as clear to her as if he was standing next to her rather than miles away across the void of space on another ship entirely.

“You’re going to have to find the main power relays and connect them to the transmitter. You need to be real careful when you do that because they’ll be live,” said Trip, and immediately T’Pol saw that Trip was once more thinking about his own injuries.

“T’hy’la, I will be careful,” said T’Pol. That seemed to still his thoughts and bring him back to the matter at hand.

“Yeah, I know you will. Anyway, once you’ve connected the relays to the transmitter you’ll need to recalibrate the power settings and divert power from the warp engine. I’m guessing we’re only going to get one shot at this and then the extra juice will fry the whole rig. Don’t be in the transmitter compartment when you press 'Send;' it’s going to be like the fourth of July.”

T’Pol reached the transmitter compartment, a cramped, well shielded, room, tucked in at the front of the ship. It was certainly not the safest of places to be when Tyrfing was in the middle of a fire fight with three Romulan War-birds, but she was the only person who could perform the required modifications. She was the only one who had a mental link to the best engineer in the fleet.

She immediately set about taking apart the relays that she would need, according to Trip’s instructions. She concentrated completely on the work, ignoring the shuddering of the deck plate beneath her feet. She pushed all distractions and fear from her mind, knowing how important it was that she complete her work quickly. Her concentration was broken however, by a shocked mental gasp from Trip.

“What is wrong?” asked T’Pol. If she hadn’t been concentrating on the transmitter modification then she might have picked up more from Trip but, as it was, all she’d heard was Trip’s reaction to some outside stimulus.

“I may be a bit distracted, we’ve got some Romulan friends coming on board,” replied Trip. “Malcolm just sounded the intruder alert.”

“You’re still in sickbay?” asked T’Pol.

“Yes, but I doubt the Romulans will care about that. Malcolm’s got his hands full on the bridge so I guess it’s up to us walking wounded to make a stand. There’s a weapons locker down here somewhere,” said Trip, plans already forming in his head. “Are you okay with those modifications? I know it isn’t easy to get my attention when I’m busy sometimes.”

“I believe I will be able to continue on my own,” said T’Pol. “Please be careful, t’hy’la.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not planning on spending anymore time in sickbay than I already have to anyway.”

“See that you do not,” replied T’Pol. She felt Trip’s focus move from her and towards the problem of the approaching Romulan boarding party. She kept a mental finger on the pulse of Trip’s thoughts and turned her own attention back to the transmitter.

****

Trip sat up on his cot in the corridor outside sickbay. He detached the oxygen cannula and pulled out the drip needle from his arm. He pressed his hand against the wound that the needle had left and waited for the blood to clot. He threw back the bedclothes, put his shaky legs over the side of the bed and stood, using the wall for support. He was dizzy for a moment but the sensation passed. He found his uniform neatly folded under the bed and struggled into it as quickly as he could. Unfortunately his boots were no where to be found, so barefoot was the order of the day. He went to the nearest com unit.

“Tucker to the Bridge,” he said, but he got no reply so he tried again. “Tucker to the Bridge.” It looked like communications were down. This wasn’t good news.

“Listen up,” he said to the medical staff and wounded in the corridor. “We’re about to get a Romulan boarding party come storming through here and I’m damned if I’m going to lie here and let them take this ship without a fight. Does anyone know where the weapons locker is on this level?”

“Yes, sir,” said a male crewmember from the other end of the corridor. He had some nasty burns on his upper body that one of the medical staff was re-dressing. “I’ll take Ensign Bell and we’ll distribute the weapons to anyone who’s well enough to help out.”

“Good idea,” said Trip, “make it quick.” The two bandaged crewmembers disappeared down the corridor and Trip turned to look at what they had to work with to defend their corner of Excalibur. It certainly was a ragtag bunch and given what he knew about the damage sustained, most of the wounded were engineers not security officers.

As long as Malcolm could hold the bridge and Lieutenant Flintoff kept them out of Engineering, they should be able to retain control of the ship. If the Armoury fell then that would make life harder, but no one ever controlled a ship from the Armoury. What worried Trip was that, although the main forces would go for the strategic locations, there were bound to be Romulans throughout the ship whose aim would be to capture or kill any crew that they found. The wounded in the corridor and inside sickbay would be easy targets. Trip’s mind was already working to come up with something that would keep everyone out of harm’s way. If he could get the emergency bulkheads to close then that would certainly give them a better chance of survival. He located the panel that he need and pulled the cover off.

“Captain, are you sure this is a good idea?” said Phlox, approaching his errant patient.

“It’s either this or get captured by the Romulans,” said Trip. “I don’t know about you, but that’s something that I’d rather avoid.”

“Some of these men and women should not even be out of bed,” said Phlox. “That includes you.” Around him covers were being thrown back and drip lines detached, as wounded decided that there were more pressing things to do than lie in bed all day.

“I promise as soon as we’ve kicked these sons of bitches off Excalibur we’ll all go back to bed,” said Trip. “All the critical cases are in sickbay, right?”

“Of course, it’s where we are able to provide the best care.”

“Anyone who’s out here and can’t fight should be moved into sickbay.”

“I’ll see to it,” replied Phlox. “Although it’s going to be a bit of a squeeze.”

“Do your best, I don’t want anyone getting caught in the crossfire. One more thing, Doc, have you seen my boots anywhere? They weren’t under my bed.”

“I removed them in the hope that it would make you less likely to try to get up, unfortunately that doesn’t appear to have worked. I will go and retrieve them.” Phlox disappeared into sickbay proper to find where Trip’s boots had been stowed.

The two crewmen, who’d been despatched to get weapons, reappeared clutching an armful of rifles and phase pistols. They gave Trip a phase pistol and then handed out the rest to anyone who indicated that they could hold a weapon, keeping back a couple of rifles for their own use.

“I didn’t catch your name,” said Trip to the crewman who’d volunteered to go to the weapons locker.

“Lieutenant Jones, sir,” said the officer.

Trip looked at him. “You’re Malcolm’s second.” He only knew this because Reed had once mentioned his second in command in one of his letters.

“Yes, sir,” said Jones.

“Well that’s good because I could do with some help on the tactical front,” said Trip. “How’d you end up being injured?” He’d mistaken him for an Engineer because of the burn injuries.

“I was near Engineering when the conduit ruptured, so I joined the fire control team,” said Jones. Trip nodded at this. Fire was a dangerous thing on board a ship, everyone was trained in fire control and expected to help out in emergencies. “I saw Commander Zukov lying unconscious and got him clear but on the way back another conduit ruptured just in front of me. I was actually pretty lucky to get out alive.”

“Anymore of your guys down here?” asked Trip. He was certain that most of the wounded knew how to use a weapon, but they hadn’t been trained in combat. The more security officers he had to work with the better.

“A few, Ensign Bell, Ensign Trescothick and maybe a couple more who are too badly hurt to help us. A support beam came down in the Armoury and seriously injured a couple of my people. What’s your plan, Captain?”

“This is the emergency bulkhead control. It’s meant to bring down an airtight door automatically when a pressure seal blows but, if I can rewire it, we can drop them manually. The only problem is that these are great against vacuum but I’m not sure how long they’ll hold against Romulan disrupters.”

“We need to set up a second line of defence,” said Jones.

“You read my mind, Lieutenant,” said Trip.

****

Archer had seen the problem even before the fight began. Tyrfing and Excalibur together would have had trouble holding off three Romulan War-birds, but with Excalibur basically hamstrung, their chances were almost non-existent. Reed had done his best, he was a skilled tactician, but with the damage they’d already taken it was only a matter of time before Trip’s rapid repairs to the impulse drive gave out and Excalibur was, as Trip would say, dead in the water. Tyrfing was drawing as much of the attention as it could, but the Romulans were like a wolf going after the weakest member in the herd.

Virideth had converged on Excalibur while the remaining two ships continued to attack Tyrfing.

“Aim for their engines. Ignore their weapons, if we can disable them then we can help Excalibur,” said Archer as Tyrfing manoeuvred into position to fire another volley of phaser cannon fire at their adversaries.

“Sir, I’m detecting a Romulan shuttle docking with Excalibur,” said Pietersen.

“Excalibur is no longer answering hails,” said Riley.

“I don’t understand why they don’t finish the job,” said Austin. It was painfully like watching a cat playing with a mouse.

“They want the ship intact,” said Archer. “The Romulans don’t have anything that’s a match for the Excalibur class and capturing the pathfinder would be a real victory for them.”

“T’Pol to the bridge.”

“Go ahead, T’Pol,” answered Archer.

“I have completed the modifications to the transmitter. Captain Tucker believes that the extra power will most likely overload the circuits and make it impossible to repeat the message. It is possible that there may also be damage to the long range communications.”

“Understood, T’Pol,” said Archer. “This is our only chance. Ensign Riley, do you have the message ready?”

“Yes, sir. I am sending now,” said Ensign Riley.

Deep in the bowels of the ship, T’Pol pressed herself against the bulkhead outside the communication compartment as the transmitter circuits failed spectacularly due to the increased energy passing through them. Sparks bounced around the compartment starting small fires. T’Pol grabbed a fire extinguisher from across the corridor and dowsed the flames quickly and efficiently. She looked at the damage. It would be repairable but she had no idea how long those repairs might take.

“There’s a few hours work for Kelby there. Told you it would be like the fourth of July,” said Trip’s voice in T’Pol’s head. “All we have to do now is hope Durandal or Athena picked it up.” She noted that he was preoccupied with some electronics and wondered what he had planned.

“Are you prepared to defend yourselves?” replied T’Pol sensing her t’hy’la’s anxiety across their bond, almost automatically.

“Don’t worry, Svai, we’ve got a plan. Malcolm won’t activate the self-destruct unless it looks like we’re going down.”

“I would prefer you to be on Tyrfing,” thought T’Pol.

“Right now, I wouldn’t mind being on Tyrfing either,” replied Trip. “I don’t want you worrying about me though, I’ve got Malcolm’s Second in Command with me and he’ll look after us.”

T’Pol could easily detect the underlying current of doubt in Trip, but she refrained from bringing her knowledge of his real feelings to his attention. Malcolm’s Second in Command could be the best Armoury officer in the fleet and she knew she wouldn’t have been satisfied that he was the one in charge of Trip’s safety.

“Vulcans do not worry,” replied T’Pol.

“This one does,” said Trip without a pause.

“You are in a dangerous situation.”

“Nothing I haven’t dealt with before.”

“It is logical for me to be concerned about your well-being,” said T’Pol. She was heading for the bridge now, having put out the last of the fires that had started in the transmitter compartment.

“You concentrate on keeping Tyrfing safe. We’ll take care of things over here,” said Trip. He felt T’Pol’s mental nod and then her focus shift as she arrived at the bridge.

****

Lieutenant Commander Reed was well aware that he was short staffed in all areas and that included the bridge. He simply didn’t have the people he needed to keep track of the Romulan War-birds and Virideth had got close enough to despatch a shuttle and get men aboard. Reed had watched while Tyrfing had managed to distract two of the Romulan War-birds, but it couldn’t occupy all three ships. Virideth had fought Excalibur to a literal standstill. If they ever got out of this then it would need more than a few engineers to get the ship running again. Damage reports were coming in from all across the ship.

Weapons were still functional, although barely. They were still firing on Virideth but getting a target lock was becoming increasingly hard as they only had the canon’s rotation to give them any chance of hitting the moving target. The Armoury officer in Reed was frustrated but, as the Acting Captain of Excalibur, he couldn’t concentrate on his own little area. The weapons problem was only one of many he had to deal with to save his ship.

Excalibur class ships had been designed with the Romulan war in mind. Tyrfing, Durandal and Excalibur had been completed in time to stand at the battle of Cheron with Enterprise, Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavour and Columbia. It had been a hard fought battle nonetheless, even with the addition of the three new ships. The Excalibur class design took into account that Romulans would attempt to board a ship in order to capture it if the opportunity presented and fortified the strategic locations accordingly. That meant that there were coded locks and two inch thick bulkheads protecting engineering. There was a secondary bridge for use if the main bridge was captured or disabled and both were protected by automated defence systems. The Romulans would have a hard time reaching any vital areas. If all else failed then there was a self-destruct system that was guaranteed to vaporise the ship.

Communications had gone down in the second attack run and although he was sure that Flintoff and her team would be trying their best to reroute things, they wouldn’t be able to leave engineering now that the intruder alert had sounded. The standing order was there to protect the people who had the most knowledge about the ship’s inner workings from capture, but it also ensured that the security bulkheads remained locked. With communications down, he couldn’t contact his officers to tell them to do anything, he just had to hope that their training was sufficient for them to deal with the intruders.

His thoughts also kept returning to the wounded in sickbay who would be fairly helpless without security forces to protect them. He was all too aware that their number included Trip. He could only hope that there were enough men left in his security force to spare some people to protect sickbay as well as the critical ship’s systems. He knew that his Second in Command had been wounded in the first attack by the Evarra and he couldn’t remember for the life of him who was left to take charge of the Armoury. Perhaps that head injury was finally getting to him.

“Ensign Harmison,” said Reed, “do we still have the security camera feeds?”

“Yes, sir,” said Harmison, who was currently occupying the Armoury Station even though he was one of the most junior members of Reed’s Armoury team.

“Get me pictures of our Romulan friends,” said Reed. “At least we can see what they’re up to. Are internal sensors functioning?”

“Yes, sir,” replied Ensign Giles at the Science Station.

“Good, I want to know where the Romulans are,” said Reed.

“I have four groups,” said Ensign Giles, “it looks like they’re aiming for Engineering, the Bridge and the Armoury. I can’t determine a destination for the fourth group, they’re just moving through the ship.”

“I have visuals, sir,” said Harmison. “They’re wearing environment suits as usual.”

“They’re nothing if not predictable,” said Reed. If any of the Romulans were killed or captured then the suits produced an acid like chemical that would make sure there was no one to interrogate and no bodies to examine. Even after a year long war with the Romulans, Starfleet still knew next to nothing about their physiology. There was considerable speculation about why they should go to such lengths to keep their identity hidden.

Reed looked at the main view screen which was split into four smaller screens and showed views of the corridors of the ship with the four Romulan teams progressing through them. This was a typical pattern of intrusion that the Romulans used. Three teams would concentrate on the strategic areas of the ship while the fourth would deal with any stray crew members that they found. If any area gave a lot of resistance then the floating team would move to join them. Reed was desperate to join the fighting but his place was on the Bridge this time, and if he was right then the action would reach them soon enough.

Part 4 (Section 7)

Return to Part 2 (Sections 4 & 5)

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Half a dozen of you have made comments

Great battle sequences, but sort of a funny place to stop. Is there more of this posting or are you just trying to keep us on the edge of our seats?

Very nice. For a moment, I was concerned about the Rommie boarding party but you covered that base very nicely. I agree with Distracted that seemed an odd place to stop but I'll go with it.

Looking forward to the next installment!

ahh kick kick
dont pause there,,,
but very great pacing of your action plus working
in good characterization..

“They’re nothing if not predictable,” said Reed. If any of the Romulans were killed or captured then the suits produced an acid like chemical that would make sure there was no one to interrogate and no bodies to examine. Even after a year long war with the Romulans, Starfleet still knew next to nothing about their physiology. There was considerable speculation about why they should go to such lengths to keep their identity hidden.

"

loved the way you delt with the canon issue

What a place to stop!! More! More!!!

Hope there are no 'Aussies) reading this! - or perhaps they would prefer Messrs Flintoff etc to be in space?

Like it, keep going.

I was waiting for someone to spot that the England cricket team had joined the Enterprise cast. Shiny gold star for you. Poor Aussies.