Star Trek: Dominion - Part 17

17

On the Hunter ’s bridge Jim watched the tactical overlay that was being shown on the viewscreen. The distance to the leading edge of the plasma storm was decreasing, as was the distance to the Dinok. As soon as they reached the leading edge of the storm Jim gave the order.

“Helm, set a course for Deep Space 9, warp 7. Engage!”

The Hunter streaked forward into warp igniting a blazing trail of super-charged plasma in her wake. The conflagration engulfed the Dinok as she charged after quarry and totally destroyed it. There wasn’t even any debris left to mark the spot where the Galor-class vessel had once been.

On the Hunter there was a moment of panic as the viewscreen showed the flames from the ignited plasma licking up the sides of the ship. Fortunately the ablative armour handled the worst of it. This protective skin was designed to vaporise and detach from the surface of the ship if weapons fire overwhelmed the primary energy shields. As the flames attacked the Hunter the ablative armour took the brunt of the impact and, as its designers intended, it detached from the ship taking the attached plasma with it leaving the ship relatively unscathed. She flew on unhindered to the Bajoran system and the Federation station Deep Space 9. Six hours later she arrived at the station to a hero’s welcome. It was probably the only piece of good news to have reached the Federation since the disastrous attempt to reinforce the Chin’Toka system against the Dominion.

Most of the crew received medals for bravery. Jim was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Commander and was offered the position of First Officer of the USS Agamemnon.

"With all due respect, Admiral, I'd prefer to remain with the Hunter."

"I thought you'd say that! Very well Commander, report back to the Hunter as XO. Congratulations!"

The End

Star Trek: Dominion - Part 16

16

On board the Dinok there was cheering when a phaser blast appeared to strike the fleeing Defiant-class vessel’s engines. She was visibly slowing.
“Now we have them!” growled Gul Elan. “Ahead full, continue firing! I want that ship disabled!”
“Yes sir!” answered Glinn Dobran. “But their vessel is of a design that it presents a very low profile and a minimal target for our weapons. We are having difficulties in locking onto it!”
“They are slowing sir!” announced the tactical officer. “It appears that their propulsion systems are experiencing intermittent failure!”
On the viewscreen the Federation ship was growing larger as the Dinok closed on it. There were visible fluctuations in their power systems, and especially in the engines. The nacelles were bright one moment then dimming the next. The Dinok closed on her prey little knowing that they were actually walking into an unseen trap.
“They are heading out of the plasma storm,” said Dobran. “They will try to get out ahead of us so they can engage their warp drive and escape!”
He was half right. The warp engines on the Hunter were ready to be engaged but not where Dobran thought.

To Be Concluded....

Star Trek: Dominion - Part 15

15

The lighting dimmed on the bridge and all voices became hushed. The Red Alert klaxons blared for a few moments then grew silent. The red lighting strips flashed on and off bathing the bridge in scarlet.

“Status of shields?”

“Still inoperable sir.”

“Charge phasers. Target their engines. Fire!”

Defiant-class ships employ pulse phaser cannons that release phased energy in rapidly repeated short bursts. They were now targeted on the Dinok’s engines and when they fired twin lances of energy raced out from the Hunter ’s forward mountings in bursts and impacted on the unprotected hull of the Cardassian warship. Their engines were severely damaged, which reduced their forward momentum. As soon as they realised that they were under attack the Cardassians returned fire.

The Hunter took damage as she raced ahead of the Galor-class vessel but Lieutenant Granger’s efforts were not in vain. The damage sustained was minimal and the extra effort that he put into his engines proved useful. The Hunter was able to outrun the Dinok which was rapidly falling behind. Jim ordered Lieutenant Granger to coordinate with Ensign Jokana to simulate damage to the engines so that she would slow down a little but would keep just far enough ahead of the Dinok for the plan to work.

To Be Continued...

Star Trek: Dominion - Part 14

14

Jim stared at the viewscreen almost straining his eyes in the hope that he would be able to spot the Cardassian Galor at the earliest opportunity. Any advance warning could be the difference between survival and destruction.
“What do we know about the Badlands that could help us?”
“Well, for one thing, it makes navigation extremely difficult,” announced Ensign Jokana from the helm. There was a sprinkling of nervous laughter on the bridge at the comment.
“Warp drive can’t be used inside a plasma storm,” said Lieutenant Flynn. “It would ignite the highly charged plasma!”
“That’s it!” Jim announced as he thumped the arm of his chair in triumph. “But first we’ll have to let the Cardassians find us.”
“That’s crazy!” someone said and then silence descended on the bridge. Jim looked around at the worried faces of his crew. He knew that he could simply order them to follow his plan but as their friend he felt obliged to offer them an explanation.
“What I plan to do is to let the Cardassians find us. Then we’ll make a run for the edge of the Badlands. As soon as we reach the trailing edge of the plasma storm we’ll jump to warp. That will ignite the plasma behind us taking out the Galor. Hopefully we’ll be far enough away by that time to avoid being destroyed ourselves.”
He could see the crew think this over and one by one they saw that it was their only chance of escape. They were the equal in weaponry of the Galor-class vessel but she was larger in size than the Hunter and without shields she could take more punishment than the Federation ship, even with the help of her ablative armour. That decided the crew began the search for the Dinok. The little Federation warship was now living up to her name, the Hunter set off in pursuit of the Cardassian vessel.
Down in Engineering, Lieutenant Granger, the Chief Engineer began to tweak the systems of what he referred to as his ship. He set his engineering teams to reinforce the Structural Integrity Field while he concentrated on fine tuning the warp engines. He wanted to make absolutely sure that the Hunter would enter warp speed ahead of the shock wave that was sure to follow the ignition of the highly charged plasma of the storm front. They also got damage control teams ready to go at a moment’s notice should they be damaged when they carried out Jim’s plan.
Ensign Jokana continued to pilot the Hunter expertly but blindly through the plasma storm. They had begun to feel that the Cardassians had given up the chase and gone home when they got a flicker on the viewscreen. A few seconds passed before the image cleared and they realised what they were seeing. They had come to within a few metres of the Cardassian vessel. If they had spotted it on their viewscreen a few seconds later it would have been too late, the two ships would have collided. Realising that they were too close to the Cardassian ship Jim now knew that executing his plan now would present a greater danger than before. Nevertheless it must be attempted, it was their only hope.
In the command seat on the bridge Jim sat nervously. It was time to execute his plan but he hesitated. He was afraid that he had miscalculated and by his orders he would doom the Hunter and its crew. Finally he put his doubts aside and decided to press forward.
“Battle stations!”

To Be Continued...

Star Trek: Dominion - Part 13

13

Glinn Dobran was just about to go off shift when his console suddenly began chirping. He ran a quick scan and smiled triumphantly to Gul Elan as he turned to face him on the Dinok’s bridge.

“Sir, I have them. A Federation ship, Defiant-class, has just emerged from the debris field and has jumped to warp. Their course will take them back to Terok Nor.”

He used the Cardassian name for the station which was now known universally as Deep Space Nine. He also saw the glint of delight in Gul Elan’s eyes as he ordered a pursuit course.

“Maximum speed! I want them caught before they can get close to

Federation space and support!”

And so the Dinok set off in hot pursuit of the fleeing Federation Starship. The pursuit did not go unnoticed on the Hunter that, because of her battle damage, could only manage a top speed of Warp 7. Jim was delighted that the replacement warhead was holding together, as well as the ship, but he was a little concerned at the shortfall in speed. A quick calculation showed that the harrying Cardassian vessel would catch them before they reached safety. So Jim began to search his mind, and the navigational database, for a suitable location to make their stand against the Galor. They knew that the Cardassians would not simply let them escape, nor would they give up the pursuit. No matter what trick they tried to shake them, Jim knew that the Gul commanding the Galor-class cruiser would not give up this chase.

The only place that would serve their purposes and was close enough was, oddly enough the same location that had caused the Cardassians so much trouble in the past, the Badlands.

The Badlands is an area of space, on the Cardassian/Bajoran border, that contains severe plasma storms. These storms can get large enough that they are a menace to any vessel attempting to navigate through the Badlands and also cause severe sensor disruption. The plasma storms are large enough to damage, or even, destroy ships that are unmindful of the danger.

Fortunately the Hunter , being a smaller ship than the pursuing Galor-class warship, could manoeuvre around and between the plasma storms with relative ease. This had been proven earlier by Captain Sisko and the USS Defiant when they had pursued the Maquis, the Federation colonists and former Starfleet officers who fought the Cardassians all along the Demilitarised Zone for their freedom, to one of their hidden bases there.

“Helm, alter course to the Badlands. Are there any plasma storms present at the moment?”

“Yes sir. A great-grandmother of a storm,” smiled Lieutenant Flynn.

The Hunter raced as fast as she could for the limited safety of the Badlands and managed to get there just ahead of the Dinok. The little starship danced around the plasma streamers as she tried to avoid the fire from her pursuer. Because of her small size she provided a very small target aspect ratio for the Cardassians to aim at and, consequently, many of their shots failed to hit the little warship. Several minutes later Jim decided that he’d had enough of a one-way firefight and that he wasn’t going to run anymore.

“Helm, get as close as you can to the largest plasma streamer ahead. When the Cardassians come abeam of it, I want the Hunter to circle around it as quickly and as closely as you can. Stand-by phasers and torpedoes! I want us to come around fighting!”

“Aye sir.”

The concentration on Ensign Jokana’s face was clear as she danced her fingers over the controls of the ship. Her expert control sent the ship in a turn so tight around the plasma streamer that the inertial dampers took a couple of seconds to react. As a result several crewmembers who were not seated were thrown violently to the deck. She broke out in a sweat which began to run down her face and into her eyes, she was concentrating so hard, but she did not let it interfere with her piloting skills. She did not want to let down her Captain, her ship or her crew.

The Hunter , being a smaller and more manoeuvrable vessel than the pursuing Galor, danced and jinked around the plasma streamer. She came so close that the streamer was only a few metres from the hull. Because of the severe sensor interference that is part and parcel of the Badlands the Dinok almost missed the Hunter’s evasive turn around the plasma streamer. The Galor-class vessel took longer to round the streamer because of her larger size and had to take drastic evasive action to avoid a collision with the particularly nasty and wholly unpredictable streamer that her quarry had just turned around. This unpredictability suddenly became clear when the Dinok’s evasive manoeuvre was not executed swiftly enough and she took a heavy hit to

her forward superstructure. Her speed dropped significantly as her helmsman tried to avoid any further collisions that might severely damage or possibly destroy them.

This gave the Hunter time and space to work with. She came around bringing her weapons to bear on the Dinok. As soon as they were lined up the Hunter flew in on a strafing run. Her pulse-phaser cannons tore into and brutally assaulted the Dinok’s shields. As she passed over the much larger Cardassian vessel she let fly with a quantum torpedo from her aft launchers. The shields of the Dinok could not withstand this assault and collapsed.

Unfortunately the Hunter ’s previous battle-damage was worse than they had first thought. Her own shields collapsed under the strain of the manoeuvres that she was put through. Until they could figure out a new plan of attack Jim ordered them deeper into the Badlands. Still hugging the plasma streamers, as closely as safety allowed, they began to mask their trail. The sensor interference, while it hindered their own tactical situation, served to hide the Hunter from the Cardassian sensors. Now it was a game of hide-and-seek where the victor would be the one left alive at the conclusion

of the game!

Slowly drifting through the currents and eddies created by the streamers and the plasma storm the two ships pursued one another. Neither knew where the other was and their sensors were extremely limited in their effective range. Even the viewscreens refused to operate fully. Any spike on a sensor scan could be the enemy vessel or it could simply be another product of the Badlands that served to confuse and dismay all sensors.

To Be Continued...

Star Trek: Dominion - Part 12

12

Slightly later than his ninety minute deadline Lieutenant Granger’s voice came across the bridge speakers.

“Granger to Bridge. Diagnostics complete. We had to replace a few burnt out circuits but the warhead is now fully active.”

“Excellent. How soon can we get under way?”

“She’s ready for restart now, Captain!”

Jim could almost see the prideful smile on Granger’s face as he winced at being called Captain. He had to fight off a sudden urge to vomit as he gave the order to get the ship under way. He sat back in the command seat and watched with pride as his crew, yes they were his crew now, went about their work with a renewed purpose.

“Right then, let’s get going!”

“Yes sir,” replied Lieutenant Flynn as she began the start-up sequence for the vessel. The voices formed a chorus on the bridge as the sequence was gone through.

“Impulse manifold purged and clear.”

“Initiating impulse pre-start sequence.”

“Micro-fusion generators on-line.”

“Culminate the nadion emitters!”

“Culmination sequence in progress.”

Lieutenant Granger arrived on the bridge looking pleased with himself. And well he might! Jim thought as he nodded his thanks to the Engineer whose efforts had saved the ship.

“Dilithium matrix is aligned and calibrated!” he announced as he took his seat. “Opening anti-matter injector ports.”

“Emergency life support and damage control systems standing by.”

“Autonomous guidance system initialised and active.”

“Verify astrometric database!” Jim ordered.

“Data sets loaded and verified,” answered the helm officer.

“Phaser safeties engaged,” called the tactical officer.

“Field stabilisers on-line.”

“Synchronising warp-plasma flow.”

“Nacelles holding at pre-warp threshold.”

“Weapons array on-line! Phasers are fully charged, quantum torpedo launchers loaded and standing by!”

“Helm, set a course for Deep Space Nine, half impulse until we

clear the debris field, then maximum warp!”

“Aye sir. Course plotted and laid in. Firing impulse engines!”

The Hunter ’s crew now held their collective breaths for two reasons. The first was wondering how far they would get before being detected, and the second was would the new warhead hold up under the stress of warp flight? The answer to the first question came very soon after they left the cover of the debris field. They were detected instantly.

To Be Continued....

Star Trek: Dominion - Part 11

11

Jim stared in disbelief at the panels around him. They were actually glowing from the restored power, albeit at minimal power levels. They wanted to restrict their electronic signature to as little as possible until they were ready to make their run for Federation space. He barely managed to keep the smile from his face as he opened the comm channel to Engineering.

“Well done Engineering! How long until the new warhead is in place?”

Chief Engineer Granger came on the line.

“Sir, we’ve got the warhead lined up at the bow but the debris

is making it slow going to attach. We have to keep clearing the tracks before we can move it in and we don’t dare use the autosequencer to pull it in, just in case the Spoon-, er Cardassians, manage to detect the energy signature. It’ll take another hour to get it attached manually, then about thirty minutes to run diagnostics. No point in all this effort if we blow up due to a faulty power relay!”

“Very well, keep me informed! Bridge out!”

This is going to be a long 90 minutes! Jim mused as he looked around the bridge at the expectant faces. He rubbed his tired face and ran a hand through his hair to try to shake the lethargy that had been stealing over him because of the stress of the new position he had been forced to adopt.

“Okay people, we’ve got ninety minutes, let’s get this ship ready to fight!”

The crew adopted his assertiveness and made it their own as they went about their tasks and repairs. All over the ship the crew moved like an army of ants, repairing anything they could that was vital to getting the ship in a condition to fight her way home. None of them doubted that they would indeed have to fight for their freedom and so all of their efforts were spent in repairing the primary systems. They would not have time, nor would they be able, to repair the secondary systems as well. They would have to wait until

they returned to Deep Space Nine before being repaired – if they could get there. It was by no means a foregone conclusion that they would make it but everyone, including the Hunter herself, was giving one hundred and ten percent.

An air of hope began to rise on the ship as the minutes ticked by without reports of systems failure. The Damage Control and Engineering teams began to report in to the bridge with encouraging news. The major hull breaches had been sealed as best they could, many be welding pieces of shattered bulkheads over the exposed hull plates, and all reparable systems aboard had been repaired. Several sections of the ship remained without power or life support and, having been evacuated earlier, were sealed off.

To Be Continued...

Star Trek: Dominion - Part 10

10

Glinn Dobran stared at the screen before him. He was searching

for something that had been there before for a few moments but

appeared now to be gone.

“Sir, I swear I saw something on the sensors.”

“What did you see?,” asked Gul Elan.

“Well for a moment it looked like a Defiant-class ship but now

all the sensors are showing is a massive debris field moving.”

“Where was the contact?”

“Right beside that Galaxy-class saucer section that’s collapsing.”

Dobran indicated the area that he had seen the contact. He enlarged the area and performed another sensor sweep of the area. All the sensors could pick up were parts of destroyed ships. There was so much debris that they would have found it hard to differentiate between a piece of debris or an actual starship. The two Cardassian officers watched the screen intently for a few more minutes. Nothing changed.

“Run an energy scan. See if there are any active power emanations. If there are we will know for certain.”

It was as just as Dobran ran the energy scan that the Hunter’s

main power failed. That little accident saved them from detection. If

they had been spotted they would have been immediately destroyed by

the marauding Cardassian patrol craft. They had been assigned the

ignominious task of patrolling the ruins to see if any ships had

survived the Dominion fleet’s assault and to terminate any that had.

So far all they had found was dead hulks and a few escape pods that

had not been picked up by the retreating Federation Alliance fleet. These survivors had been beamed aboard and held in the detention cells for interrogation later. They numbered twenty-seven so far. Gul Elan had been extremely put out that his vessel was not permitted to take part in the liberation of Chin’Toka. That honour was being left to their Breen allies.

“Alert me the instant that contact reappears.”

“Yes sir.”

If it is a surviving Federation ship, Elan thought to himself as he returned to his command seat, I intend to take it intact. That will take the smug look off that damned Vorta!

The Cardassian Galor-class cruiser, Dinok, swept back and forth across the debris field like a bloodhound that had lost the scent of quarry and desperately wanted to reacquire it. Back on the Hunter things were finally starting to look up.

To Be Continued....

Star Trek: Dominion - Part 9

9

While all the commotion was going on aboard the Hunter Crewman

Richmond was being dragged and carried back to the ship over the

destroyed hulks of the devastated fleet, all the while his precious

oxygen was slowly bleeding from his torn suit. They could not call

for help because it would not arrive in time and the Away Teams were

unaware of the Hunter ’s predicament.

When they arrived back at the saucer section they found, to

their delight, that the ship had emerged from its hiding spot and was

much easier to gain access to. They hauled the, by now, inert form of

Crewman Richmond through the airlock and waited for the atmosphere to

be returned to the room so that they could remove their helmets. As

soon as they did they called for a Medical team to meet them in the

airlock. While they awaited their arrival Crewman Richmond was

attended to. His helmet was released and removed so that he could

breathe and a tricorder was scanned over his body. It revealed what

they had expected but were hoping against. They were too late.

“Bridge, Crewman Richmond didn’t make it.”

When that message came over the comm system the bridge became

deathly quiet. Everyone looked to Jim to see how he would respond.

Richmond was the first crewman to die under his command. He swallowed

hard and gently pushed the comm button on his chair.

“Understood. Report to me on the bridge as soon as you can.”

“Aye sir.”

It was the hardest thing that Jim had ever had to do to keep

his voice level as he gave his orders.

“Alright people. We still have jobs to do. Let’s get to it.”

He then slowly made his way to the Ready Room leaving

Lieutenant Flynn in command. No sooner had the doors closed behind

him than the tears began to fall. He stifled the sobs in his left arm

as he wrapped his arms around his head. He had never had to deal with

something like this before. The closest he had come was when his uncle died when the Borg had decimated a forty vessel strong Federation fleet at Wolf-359 years earlier.

Five minutes later as Ensign Blackman exited the turbolift onto the bridge Jim re-emerged from the Ready Room. He had taken the time to compose himself before he stepped back onto the bridge. Blackman spotted him coming from the Ready Room and walked over to him and gave him a brief account of what had happened.

To Be Continued....

Star Trek: Dominion - Part 8

8

The crew just couldn’t believe it. Everything had been going

well up to this point, perhaps too well. The final warhead inspected

proved to be the only one, of the seven their reduced sensor

capability, discovered that was even remotely salvageable. The Chief

Engineer, Lieutenant Granger, was there at the moment inspecting it

and was just starting to extract it from its housing aboard the

destroyed USS Victory. He, himself, risked a quick message to his

ship over a comm channel so he could cheer up the crew.

“Granger to Hunter, I think we’ve struck gold here. The warhead

will have to be manually extracted from the housing, the autosequencer

is out, but initial scans are positive. Granger out.“

That had set the bridge crew cheering and clapping like crazy.

How strange it was that they were now celebrating the demise of a

fellow Starship and its crew that only a few months before would have

been horrific to them. But that was all the recent months of war had

done to their outlooks on life. And death. But no sooner had the

cheering begun on the bridge than the alert klaxons sounded and

drowned them out. Everyone stopped their cheering and concentrated on

their duty stations.

“What the hell is going on?,“ asked Jim from the command seat.

“Multiple systems failure, sir,“ answered Lieutenant Flynn,

shouting to be heard over the wail of the klaxons.

“Shut off that damn noise!“ Jim shouted. The sudden silence

that descended across the bridge was almost deafening, then suddenly

the damage reports flooded in.

“The structural integrity field is failing.”

“Life support is failing on decks 3 and 4.“

“Emergency forcefields have collapsed, we’re venting atmosphere

out through the hull breaches.“

“What’s causing it? Are we being fired on?.“

T’Vral scanned the surrounding space for enemy vessels.

“No sir. The damaged saucer section we have been hiding in is

collapsing all around us.“

“The deck structure must have been weaker than we imagined

before we bored in here. Damn it, we’ll have to get out of here

before it crushes us!“

“Propulsion is off-line sir!“

“What? Get it back on-line, now!”

“I’m trying to sir! The engines are not responding.”

Jim stabbed the button on the control panel on the arm of the command

chair that opened the communications channel to Engineering.

“Bridge to Engineering. Get those engines back on-line now!”

“We’re working on it sir!”

“Hull pressure is increasing sir. She can’t take much more of

this!”

“Do we have anything left in the forward RCS thrusters?”

Lieutenant Flynn accessed the computer and smiled when she saw that

the Reaction Control System had just enough fuel left to nudge them out of their hiding place.

“Yes sir. Engaging RCS thrusters... now!”

At that instant the expelled gas from the RCS thruster ports on the

bow pushed the compact starship out of the collapsing saucer section. They were fortunate that the shattering saucer section spread enough debris around to keep them covered.

To Be Continued....

Star Trek: Dominion - Part 7

7

Although she had suffered terrible damage and was split in

half, from the bridge section forward, the ship was still in one

piece while the aft section had been blown to pieces. Ensign Caldwell

crossed his fingers as he accessed his tricorder. He opened it up and

began its scanning cycle. Please, please, please, he kept saying

softly, chanting it over and over again like a mantra. His tricorder

vibrated softly in his hand to indicate that it had finished its scan

cycle. The tricorders had been modified to use vibrations to alert

the user because they would not hear the tell-tale little beeps that

had become second nature to them when the used the little scanning

device. Now that there was no little beep Ensign Caldwell suddenly

found that he missed its reassuring little sounds. Deciding that he

could not ignore his tricorder’s insistent vibrating he looked at the

read-out. He couldn’t believe his eyes at first and performed the

scan again. The exact same reading as before was there. He reacted

without thinking out of sheer enthusiasm.

“Ensign Caldwell to Hunter . The Victory has come through for

us! We have a functioning warhead here!”

He looked at the display read-out again. The tricorder had

actually found an energy signature. There was a chance that they

could salvage the warhead from the Victory for use on the Hunter

enabling them to engage their warp drive and escape. Everything

depended on them now getting the massive section of the starship

detached from the Victory , moved over to and attached to the Hunter.

But there was now a bigger chance of them being detected because

Lieutenant Granger and his assistant jetted over to assist Ensign

Caldwell. The risk was deemed worth taking if it sped up their

chances of getting away before being discovered by a marauding

Jem’Hadar, Cardassian or Breen warship.

To Be Continued....

Star Trek: Dominion - Part 6

6

That then left them with only two ships to search and their

teams were just arriving at them. One was the USS Victory , which had

been on the Hunter ’s port wing during the initial attack run, and was

now drifting 50 kilometres away, and the other was the USS Swiftsure

which was slightly closer in. The Victory had been blown in half by

multiple torpedo strikes directly amidships from above and below from

several Cardassian warships but she had not been hit by the energy

dissipaters. The status of the Swiftsure was largely unknown. The

Hunter ’s sensors had been off-line when she had been destroyed so it

was not known whether or not she had succumbed to Breen energy

dissipater fire. If she had, then all their hopes were pinned on the

Victory because their sole remaining shuttlepod could not carry all

40 survivors of the Hunter ’s original 73 person crew.

The Victory and Swiftsure search teams had left at the same

time to investigate the vessels. Lieutenant Granger was checking over

the Swiftsure with his tricorder. He did not look too happily at the

readout on its display screen.

“Nothing. Not a damn thing. Not one bloody system has an ounce

of juice left in it. Everything is drained. It’s just like during

World War III when the nukes went off and the EMP blast killed

anything with an electrical circuit within the blast radius,” he said

to his assistant. Rather than use his suit’s comm unit, so the crew

wouldn’t hear the defeat in his voice, he sent a message and his

tricorder readings to the Hunter . Everything now depended on the

Victory but only those on the bridge of the Hunter and Lieutenant

Granger, who had been kept informed of the search teams’ progress,

were aware of this fact.

Hovering over the wreckage of the starship that resembled his

own ship in almost every respect, except that his ship wasn’t all

‘shot to hell’ as his assistant had put it when they saw the state of

the Swiftsure , Granger said a quiet prayer and gripped the lucky

charm that he always carried inside his equipment pocket when he

performed EVAs even harder. Please God, don’t let it end like this.

Don’t let me fail my shipmates and condemn them all to death!

To Be Continued...

Star Trek: Dominion - Part 5

5

It was 1000 hours on the second day that the USS Hunter was

spending in the Chin’Toka system when her small army of engineers,

armed with all the necessary tools to remove the warhead from

whichever ship proved to have an operational or reparable deflector

assembly, stood ready for a hard day’s labour. Everyone hoped that

they would be lucky enough to find that one of the closer vessels

would be salvageable. The teams that had to travel out to the

farthest vessels went first. They started out from the shuttlebay,

stepping out through the atmospheric forcefield into the vacuum of

space. They crawled out to the edge of the remnants of the saucer

that concealed their vessel. Taking a visual aim on the area of space

that contained their target vessel they pushed off into the debris

field only using short, controlled bursts from the manoeuvring jets

on their environment suits to alter their trajectory as necessary to

avoid a large price of debris, or a hulk that was once a beautiful

and mighty starship, and to maintain their velocity. It was difficult

and tiring work for the engineering teams, as well as slow going, as

they were crawling across the devastated hulls as much as possible

both to conserve propellant and to remain as hidden as possible. Just

before they moved from one vessel to another they performed a quick

tricorder scan of the debris field to ensure that no enemy vessels

were about.

It took just over an hour for the perimeter teams to travel the

full five hundred kilometres out to their target vessels. Given the

same return time, or a little longer depending on fatigue, the three

hour oxygen supply in their environment suits would be almost gone by

the time that they got back if they took too long to search the ship,

and/or remove the warhead. Almost as soon as they got their the bad

news began to filter back to the Hunter .

The three outermost vessels were utterly useless. They had been

incapacitated by the Breen energy dissipater weapon. Not one single

system aboard the vessel had the slightest erg of power in it. Even

the independently powered hand phasers that were in the storage

lockers that were checked when the engineering teams boarded them

were drained of all their energy. There was nothing that could be

salvaged from them and one team member was carrying an injury on the

return trip. Crewman Richmond had tripped while crawling over the

hull of a Romulan Warbird and broken his left arm in two places and

twisted his right ankle. The fall had also opened a small tear in his

environment suit when he caught it on a jagged outcropping of hull

where a Cardassian torpedo had penetrated the ship’s outer plating

which was rendered as fragile as an eggshell with no power to its

Structural Integrity Field, or its shields. The relentless Cardassian

fire ravaged the helpless Romulan vessel killing all on board. The

leak in Richmond’s suit was not immediately life threatening in and

of itself, but coupled with his injuries the leak and the distance he

had to travel back would tax the young engineer’s strength to its

very limit.

The two mid-range ships were not in much better shape. They had

some salvageable parts but their warheads had been damaged either by

weapons fire or by drifting into another ship and were beyond repair.

The two teams gathered what they could from Lieutenant Granger’s

wish-list that he had generated before they had set out. It was a

list of spares that the teams were to look for as a secondary option

should the warhead prove of no value. Things like plasma relays, bioneural

gel packs and any power-packs that contained any energy at all

in them were on the list. Hope was fading fast on board the Hunter

that the search teams would find a salvageable deflector assembly as

the time ticked slowly along. All they could do was wait. Wait and

hope and pray to God, or the Prophets or whatever deity was in one’s

faith for help.

To Be Continued...