| Stories → Star Trek: Rise of the Eagle → Chapter 1 |
It is a well-known fact that new age Vulcans hate war. But somehow, T'pol felt a faint rush of triumph as the Romulan gunship exploded. She brushed the feeling from her head, scolding herself and trying to meditate. "Three more to starboard," yelled Ensign Cate, "they have destroyed the Vulcan escort and are flanking us." T'pol swore in Vulcan and reopened the tactical display. "Bird-of-prey to the rear," she yelled, "I can't read it very well. They've improved the cloakng device, though that may give us a slight tactical advantage." Archer turned to face her. "How so?" he queried. "The cloaking device weakens their shields," she explained, all the while watching their formation, "a direct hit should cause an overload, and the shields and cloak link to the warp core so any attempt to shield or recloak would cause a breach." Archer nodded. "Track the bird of prey" he ordered, "Maybe we can hit two birds with one stone. Fire when the bird of prey is nearest to the other warships." T'pol nodded. "Understood, Captain," she replied, and began tracking. She began an ionization scan and found that the poor cloak emmited ionized tachyons. The ship was easy to track. She noticed the pattern of ship movement. "I recommend you fire in exactly 17 seconds," she yelled over her shoulder. "Four Suliban ships destroyed," yelled an ensign. "Ensign Cate," announced Archer, "fire… NOW!!" The photon torpedoes fired and struck the bird of prey. "Reccomend firing an ionized tachyon stream to reengage their cloaking device," yelled T'pol. "Make it so," announced Archer. The cloaking device restarted and the ship exploded, antimatter meeting matter and exploding. The attempt at ejecting warp plasma succeeded only in destroying two other warships. The remaining ship flew out of the debris field and fired at the Enterprise. The ship rocked and shook but it held. "Shield strength at 75%," came the voice of Trip over the comm, "we should probably get out of here. They are much stronger than us." Archer sighed. The ship rocked again. "56%," Trip yelled. "Fire deflectors, phasers and torpedoes," yelled Archer, "use the warp core to strengthen the shields." It was almost possible to hear Trip's anguish. "Very well, sir," he reluctantly yelled back, "but if we get killed I'm holding you responsible."
The blast weakened the Romulan shields to 64%, but they weren't dead yet. Phasers struck the shields of the Enterprise and scorched them away. They barely managed to hold. The Enterprise responded with a volley of phaser fire and torpedoes. The Romulan starboard and port shields buckled and vanished, and their front shields were weakened to 18%. They activated the cloaking device and moved to the Enterprise's rear. They were quickly detected and the warp core had been damaged beyond repair, but they had a final card up their sleeves. They ejected the warp core and fired it at engineering. The core went straight through the shields with only a 20% decrease in speed and hit with a blast. The explosion penetrated to the Enterprise's warp core and caused a coolant leak. The Romulans were quickly destroyed by a blast of phaser fire, but the damage had been done.
"Engage warp core ejection," yelled Trip, "and hurry!" Lt. Gavin, an Ænar, shook his head. "I'm sorry, sir," he announced, "we don't have power for the ejection sequence." Trip swore. "Reroute it from the phaser banks," he ordered. "The phaser banks?!" yelled Gavin, "we'll blow the circuits and then we're beyond help." "We don't have time to play safe, Lieutenant!" Gavin shook his head. "Yes, sir." He headed to the computer consoles. "We can't manage more than a 5% diversion. That should keep us alright for three hours, four tops. We'll have to improvise the rest." Trip nodded. "Improvising is what humans do best." He grinned. "There is no script."
"All the Xindi-Aquatic ships are destroyed. The Xindi-Primates are losing. And we have two Insectoid ships left. They're fleeing. The Vulcan backup fleet has been rerouted to the Alpha Centauri system to prevent an attack on Hercules Epsilon." Archer sighed. "T'pol, do you have any good news?" She nodded. "The Andorians are sending reinforcements, a massive war fleet. It should arrive in hours. And the Si Wang-Mu's refit has been completed. She'll be here after the Bird of prey orbiting Mars has been flushed out. But we're on our own for five hours with two hundred warships twenty minutes away with eighty low-weaponry escorts that will probably do as much damage as a kid throwing rocks." Archer made a groaning noise. "That, T'pol, is not good news." The ship shook. "20 warships in orbit of Sarek VI have engaged most of our escorts. The exchange of firepower is definitely in the Romulan's favour." Archer nodded. "Take us to the battle. They need our help."
The Enterprise and the Romulans exchanged phaser fire. Six Romulan ships exploded, but the Enterprise was battered and weakened. The shields went down to 23% and began fluctuating. A direct hit by a trilithium warhead crippled the bridge. Ensign Cate was struck by debris and fell down. She would not get up again. Archer crawled out from under the remains of his chair, coughing up dust. "T'pol!" he telled. "Here," a voice groaned. "Tactical status," he groaned. "We are, in all likelihood, going to die in about two minutes 34 seconds. Unfortunately, I can provide little good news." Archer nodded. He tapped his combadge. "Phlox, don't start treating casualties yet. You lead the evacuation." "Yes, captain. Shame. She's a fine ship." Archer nodded. "Get the non-essential personnel out of here, T'pol. What about the Romulans." "The Andorian fleet arrived early. The new modifications to their warp drive were better than we expected. The Romulans won't be a problem." Archer nodded. "T'pol, join the evacuation. You don't need to go diwn with the ship." "Neither do you." She lifted the wounded Archer up and carried him to the turbolift.
The warp core was ready to blow. But then, something unusual happened. The firepower that had been engaged represented incredible amounts of energy. The energy had to go somewhere. A subspace anomaly was forming. Photon torpedoes flew through the Andorian ranks. Eight direct hits and the resulting explosions were transferred into the anomaly, and it entered normal space. The giant, pulsating blue light enveloped the Enterprise as it entered the final stages of warp core meltdown and absorbed that energy, fully opening as a window in time. As the Romulan fleet broke rank and fled, the Enterprise vanished along with the anomaly.