Keru looked at her. “But this isn’t something we want to be hit by.”
She saw it then. The alien vessel’s upper “tail” was bent close to its “head” now, and in the space between, a blue-white ball of energy was building in intensity. There was no mistaking its intent.
“Interesting,” said Ra-Havreii as Jaza worked his console. “That appears to be a warp field. They’ve weaponized it somehow. Clever.”
“Clever like a knife in the throat,” muttered Vale. She nudged Jaza, who nodded without looking up. Almost there. “Right. Everybody strap in. Whether they mean to or not, they’re giving us a chance to get out of here, and we’re taking it.”
Jaza swore as the others flung themselves back into their seats. There was a staccato chorus of buckles rebuckling and what sounded like a prayer from Modan. The alien weapon glowed white and large outside their little shuttle.
“Jaza…” said Vale.
“Ten seconds,” he said through his teeth.
“I don’t think we have-”
“Got it!” he said, triumphant, and, just as the alien weapon erupted, “Firing starboard thrusters!”
The Ellingtonlurched violently to port as the beam of coalesced warp energy ripped through its previous position.
“Yeah, that’s not good,” said Vale. “Not nearly fast enough. We have to get moving.”
“They’re charging the weapon again,” said Keru from his post. “Whatever you’re going to do, Mr. Jaza…”
“Ra-Havreii!” said Jaza, his eyes fixed on the new ball of energy building on the alien vessel. “Assume I know nothing and tell me why we can’t sustain a warp bubble here. Specifically.”
“We can, in a ship this size, in theory,” said the engineer. “But it would be unstable, porous. The safety protocols would de-initialize the drive to prevent our being shredded by the tidal-”
“So we can use the drive,” said Jaza, already out of the cradle and heading back to the rear of the shuttle.
“Only if you want to kill us,” said Ra-Havreii.
“Nobody’s dying,” said Jaza, suddenly rising from his chair and heading aft.
“Jaza!” said Vale, her own gaze zeroed on the alien weapon. “What are you doing?”
He didn’t answer. For a moment all Vale could hear was the rush of blood in her ears. They might dodge this thing once more, maybe twice if they were lucky but maneuvering thrusters just weren’t going to cut it against plasma weapons.
“Jaza!” she called out to him. “What the hell are you up to?”
“Chris,” his voice rose up muffled from the aft engine compartment. “When that thing fires I want you to go to warp.”
“But I thought we don’t want to go to warp,” said Modan. “Because of the dying.”
“Commander Vale, I strongly recommend not listening to anything Mr. Jaza says from this point forward,” said Ra-Havreii. “An unstable warp field will create catastrophic effects for us.”
“Find another plan, Mr. Jaza,” said Vale.
“No time,” came the response. “We’ll make it, Chris. Trust me. Just be ready to activate the drive when I say.”
Vale’s mind flashed to Troi, who hadn’t participated much in their discussion. Indeed, she had been silent throughout the encounter, attempting instead to reach out to Will Riker on Titanand somehow convey their situation. With the comms down she was the best link between them and home. Her telepathy might be substandard under normal conditions, but in situations like this, stress, coupled with the bridge she shared with him, could sometimes overcome that limitation.
Will, she sent her thought to him. Will, are you there?
Deanna?Yes. She had made contact. It was tenuous, but it was there.
She tried to project- we’re under attack-help/escape. There was the barest hint of exchange, the thought equivalent of a garbled coded message, from which she could be sure he got nothing useful, not even the feeling of love she projected. She could feel him, of course. She could feel all of Titan’s crew. But he couldn’t feel her. Not now.
Almost worse was the fact that, in its current state, Titanwas almost completely unable to defend itself or to run if it came to that. All they could do was watch as the Orishans, or whoever these people were, destroyed the Ellington.
“Chris,” said Jaza’s voice. “Get ready!”
The Orishan vessel clearly meant to fire another shot. The nimbus of destructive energy in what Vale’s mind had already begun to call its warp cannon continued to grow. It was odd. While a part of her watched the weapon power up with a certain amount of dread, another part was intrigued. The charge time between firings clearly showed that, aggressive as they were, these people had never been in anything like a real battle. On equal footing, the lag between volleys was a fatal abyss.
Good.
Titan, with its still-viable complement of torpedoes, might not be totally helpless against this thing that was now so obviously not a warship. The Ellington, on the other hand, was on borrowed time. Eventually the alien weapon, slow as it was, would find its target.
“The weapon is near maximum charge, Commander,” said Keru. “They’re definitely going for another shot.”
“Jaza!” she said, hoping the fear that had crept under her door didn’t show too much in her voice. “Tell me something!”
“I’ve disabled the safeties, Chris,” he yelled. “When they fire the weapon, punch it.”
“I reiterate,” said Ra-Havreii. “This is an extraordinarily bad plan. The shuttle will be torn to-”
“I heard you the first time,” snapped Vale. The great blue-white ball of writhing energy had grown to its original proportion. “Everybody, brace.”
“Christine,” said Troi, in a voice Vale had not heard before but recognized as possessing the same steel that had often characterized her mother. “Be sure.”
She wasn’t, not about any of it, but it was too late. The Orishan cannon fired and time slowed to a crawl. Adrenaline surged through her body, and it seemed that she was outside herself watching as the lethal tongue of space-distorting energy roared out at them, watching as her hands danced across the manual control console, activating the drive.
It came alive at precisely the instant the beam hit the shuttle, and whether it was the cause of the violent upheaval they suffered or the reason they survived it, she wasn’t sure. The ship was rocked horribly, lurching in a new direction with every tick of the clock. Systems all over the Ellingtonwent insane, sparking, spewing their guts into the main cabin. Alarms sounded. Some random bit of sudden debris narrowly missed Vale’s head as she was jerked out of its path by the ship’s distress. Modan screamed again but Vale forgave her. The others rode the tumult in grim silence, obviously as terrified as the young ensign and, just as obviously, having the experience or sufficient grit to keep their fear at bay.
Then, just as suddenly as it had washed over them, the storm of violent energies was gone. Despite its pummeling, the Ellingtonhung where it had in space, listing a bit, to be certain, but still very much intact.
Far ahead the Orishan vessel continued to loom but, for now, took no further aggressive action.
Weren’t expecting that, were you?thought Vale. Well, take as long as you like to chew it.
Ra-Havreii was the first to speak. “I can’t believe that worked,” he said. “We should all be dead.”
Vale had the feeling that he was more right than anyone wanted to admit, but she wasn’t about to look too deeply into the throat of this particular equine.
“Well done, Mr. Jaza,” said Vale. There was no response. “Jaza, report.” Still he said nothing, and she began to fear the worst. It suddenly occurred to her that there were no safety nets in the shuttle’s power room, no place to safely ride out the sort of pelting they’d just had. There was nothing down there but hard metal.