“Mr. Tuvok,” he said. “Arm the first volley of quantum torpedoes and have them ready to fire on my order.” Plasma weapons and energy beams might not be effective here, but Riker had yet to see any energetic system, phased or unphased, that a few well-placed torpedoes couldn’t disrupt.
Maybe this fight, if it came to that, might be more stand-up than he had supposed. He hoped it would surprise the hell out of the aliens as well, should that be their intention.
He was about to tell Tuvok to hail them and get this ball rolling when Titansuddenly ceased its pitch and roll, resuming the normal, relatively upright position that her crew enjoyed. The shields were back up.
Riker couldn’t hear it, but he was sure there was some version of cheering rippling through the decks below. Good news always travels fast.
“Shields at eighty-three percent and holding,” said the Vulcan without any display of triumph.
“Well done, Mr. Tuvok,” said Riker. “If you can get Titansome of our new friends’ maneuverability or the warp core back into the green zone, I may have to promote you.”
“Unnecessary, sir,” said Tuvok, bending to whatever new set of problems had flashed across his screens. “I have Mr. Jaza’s sensor pod team working on the problem now.”
That made sense. Jaza’s people had the most direct experience with the strange phenomena present in this region. They would have the best chance at turning the new data into something they could use.
“Good,” said Riker, never taking his eyes off the new ship. It had taken a position almost directly in front of Titanand now hung there, perhaps waiting for some indication from Riker of his ship’s intentions.
Well, thought the captain, taking in the sight. That’s not provocative.
He told Tuvok to hail the aliens. “This is Captain William T. Riker of the Federation Starship Titan,” he said when the Vulcan looked up. “We have entered your space peacefully, seeking some missing comrades of ours and-”
And you killed my wife, he wanted to say. He was suddenly so angry at the thought of her death in this useless situation that he almost wished the aliens would fire on them and give him an excuse to vent.
His words were cut short by a burst of static as Titan’s universal translator, fighting both the effects of the distortion outside the ship and the vagaries of the alien language, attempted to do its job.
“You dare to call yourselves peaceful!”said a low, grating voice that was full of clicks and humming. “You dare to approach Erykon’s Eye!”
“There’s much here that we don’t understand,” said Riker. “Our mission here is only to-”
Again his words were cut short by a burst of angry static as the UT tried and failed to translate the alien’s angry words. It wasn’t really necessary. Everyone present got the gist.
“ Orisha is gone, [possible meaning: soulless] creatures!” said the alien captain, enraged to the point of incoherence. “It has been destroyed by the[possible meaning: wrath/judgment] of the Eye! You awakened the[possible meaning: Holy] Eye! You invited Erykon’s[possible meaning: destruction/anger] !”
“We meant no insult to you or your people,” said Riker, silently motioning for Tuvok to provide him with a visual component to the signal. “We are only-”
“You will be punished,”said the alien voice. “I am A’churak’zen, first among Erykon’s children, and it is my joy to purge you from creation!”
Communication was abruptly severed before Tuvok could provide a visual, but Riker didn’t need one now. The alien captain had confirmed her connection to Orisha, and he had a basic idea of what to expect. He pictured a small army of four-armed insectoids, each seething with fury over the death of their world and holding Titanand her crew to blame.
Oddly enough, he knew precisely how they felt.
“They are charging some weapon, Captain,” said Tuvok. “The readings are different from the ones we took earlier.”
When they fired on the away team, Riker finished the thought. When they killed Deanna. “Set to fire quantum torpedoes, full spread, on my mark,” he said. If these bastards wanted to bang heads instead of figuring a way to power down and maybe find a solution to all this, for once, just this once, he was happy to oblige.
“That is not advisable, sir,” said Tuvok. “The vessel’s proximity to Titanis-”
Before either of them could utter another word, the Orishan weapon fired. This time it was not the immensely destructive power beam that erupted from the alien ship but a massive lattice of interlocking energy fields.
It looks like a net, thought Riker, just before it hit.
Titanshuddered violently as the new weapon overtook them, but it did not suffer the same jolting that it had during its recent difficulties. The shields, for the moment, held the weapon at bay.
“Tuvok?”
“Tractor beam,” the Vulcan reported. “Similar to our own but more powerful by several orders of magnitude, and it is contracting. Our shields are holding it back at this time, but I believe its purpose is to crush us.”
“Can they do it?” said the captain.
“Eventually, yes,” said Tuvok. “Shield strength has already fallen by four percent.”
“So we’re on the clock,” said Riker.
“Captain?”
“Time, Mr. Tuvok,” said Riker. “We’re fighting time. Either we get free of that thing and give the Orishans a reason to back off or they crush Titanand us like an egg.”
Tuvok considered the analogy for a moment before responding. “Yes, sir,” he said eventually. “That is essentially correct.”
“Sensor pod to bridge,”boomed Lieutenant Roakn’s gravelly voice.
“Go ahead, pod,” said Riker.
“If you can spare us one second, Captain,”said Raokn. “We think we may have something for you.”
Riker didn’t spend much time in the sensor pod. After seeing it for the first time when he’d taken his initial inspection tour of Titan, he hadn’t been up again until they’d begun to map Occultus Ora. Then he’d only stayed long enough to get Mr. Jaza’s report, have a few words with his team, and then head back to the business of running Titanand trying to get his wife to see sense.
The pod was darker than he remembered, running with emergency lighting to conserve precious power. All he could see of the upper tier was the grid work, and that only barely.
Jaza’s people-Roakn, the two Benzites, the Deltan woman Fell, the Caitian female Hsuuri, the acerbic Thymerae, and Jaza’s pet project, Dakal-all stood there, expectant, weary, waiting for Riker’s command.
“Well,” he said, not too gruffly. “Let’s have it.”
For some reason all of them looked at Cadet Dakal, which was odd considering he had the least experience of the lot. Jaza had taken a shine to the kid, pulling him out of his rotation in systems analysis for duty with this crew.
“He thinks he’s an operations specialist,”the science officer had written more than once. “But he’s got a mind that’s made for science.”
Dakal looked as surprised as anyone that the rest of the team expected him to deliver their news, but he sucked it up, put on his best expression of Cardassian detachment, and began to speak, only stammering once at the outset.