SEASON 2: EPISODE 04

CHANGE IN COMMAND: Part Ten

  Commander Core braced herself in the Captain’s chair as the ship rocked from weapons fire.  The battle wasn’t going well.  The Jem’Hadar attack ships had come in fast and hard.  The Sparrow and the fighters had done their best to try and even up the odds but they were just outnumbered.  The Sparrow could deal with two or three Jem’Hadar ships on her own and the five small craft could combat one or two of the small Dominion fighters but the Swiftfire couldn’t deal with even one, let alone eight of them.  The Sparrow had destroyed two Attack ships and the other craft had heavily damaged another but the other vessels pounded the Swiftfire and when they got the chance they hit the Sparrow.

  The Swiftfire’s shields were already starting to give way.  In three previous attacks weapon’s fire got through the shields and added damage to the hull before the shields could be raised again.

  “Commander, the Sparrow’s aft shield has collapsed,” reported Karak.

  The commander watched the viewscreen as the Sparrow, which had being harassing one Jem’Hadar fighter received fire from another Jem’Hadar fighter that got behind her.  She saw one of the phased polaron beams strike the back of the vessel, close to the warp nacelles.  The Sparrow danced through space as it tried to evade the hostile fire.

  The Swiftfire shook again.

  “Shields aren’t going to take much more of this, Commander,” reported Elmhurst.

  Core didn’t know what to say.  They had tried their best but it didn’t look like it was going to be enough to get them back home safely.

  “Commander!” came the excited cry from Lieutenant Letac.  “We’re being hailed by the USS Sherman!”

  Commander Core couldn’t believe it.  “On screen.”

  A male human captain appeared.  He appeared to be in his sixties, his hair was stark white and he had more then a few wrinkles on his aged face.  But the captain radiated a command aura that spoke of an experienced man.

  “Swiftfire, it looks like you can use so more help.  We’ll clear this Jem’Hadar rabble up for you.”

  The Steamrunner class vessel dropped to impulse close to the battle and from its shuttlebays launched more Starfleet attack fighters.  The Starfleet reinforcements leaped into the fray.  The Starfleet attack fighters went to the aid of the Sparrow, while the Sherman’s phaser arrays lit up the space around the Swiftfire as the ship engaged the Jem’Hadar.  The Jem’Hadar suddenly had the odds against them, but they continued to fight, they went down to the last ship.

  Commander Core couldn’t believe their luck.  Twice in the same day they had a timely arrival of reinforcements.  The three commanding officers of the ship opened a three-way communication between their vessels.  The Swiftfire’s viewscreen was split into two parts showing each of the captains.

  “You have fantastic timing, Captain Molloy.  What the hell are you doing here?” said Captain O’Meara.

  “We received the distress signal from the probe and realised that it had to be the Swiftfire, so we came to see if you needed a hand.”

  “From the crew of the Swiftfire I thank you both,” thanked Core.  “You saved us all.”

  “You can tell Captain Masters that we are even now…maybe not even, I still own him for stunning me to get me off the ship.  Where is the Captain?”

  “He’s seriously injured.  We need to get him back to a starbase as soon as possible.”

  “I suggest you transport him over to the Sparrow,” said Captain O’Meara.  “Given your limited warp speed we can get him back to a Federation facility much quicker then you could.”

  “I concur,” said Captain Molloy.  “The Sherman can escort you back to Federation space.  The Dominion and Cardassians don’t have any significant forces nearby, plus they would need to be ballsy to take us on after the bloody nose we have already given them today.”

  Commander Core didn’t need to think the offer over.  “Thank you, Captains.  I’ll prepare to transport the captain to your ship, Captain O’Meara.”

  It only took a few minutes for the commander to organise, but she also lost her chief medical officer.  Doctor Murphy insisted on accompanying the captain on his trip back to the Federation and given the relatively few serious injuries Commander Core granted her request, even without the CMO the medical staff on the Swiftfire were an excellently trained group that could deal with any situation, even without their chief.  Captain O’Meara had no problems with Doctor Murphy joining the captain on the journey back to a Federation facility.

  “I owe the Captain my life, the life of my crew, and this ship, Commander.  It is the least I could do.  Captain Molloy, your being in a position to assist us here means that you were far off your patrol route, I’m surprised that the Admiral let you deviate so far off course.”

  “The Admiral expanded my route to cover that of several other ships when she pulled them off their patrols.”

  “She pulled ships off their patrols of the border, why?” asked O’Meara.

  Captain Molloy had a look that gave Commander Core a terrible feeling of dread.  He had some news and it wasn’t good.

  “Two days ago the Admiral received a distress call from the Tenth fleet protecting Betazed.  The Dominion-Cardassian fleet moved through the Kalandra sector and attacked the system.  She gathered most of the task force and went off to help the Tenth fleet and left me here to keep an eye out for you and the Swiftfire.  They got to the system but were about four hours too late…Betazed has fallen.  The task force has redeployed in response, I’m to give you both the coordinates of our new staging area.”

  Commander Core was in shock and by the looks of Captain O’Meara, she was too.  Betazed was such an important member of the Federation, it was a core world, and it was hard to believe that it had fallen to the Dominion.  Plus the gentle and peaceful nature of the Betazoids made it doubly shocking.  She didn’t know the entire tactical picture of the war but she hadn’t seen anything to signify that Betazed was even remotely at risk of invasion.  She turned to face Lieutenant Elmhurst, while she was human she was born on Betazed and her family lived on the planet.  The Lieutenant’s features were pale and she was leaning heavily on her console.  Lieutenant Letac who was next to Elmhurst was consoling the Lieutenant.  She doubted that there would be a species on the ship who wouldn’t take the news hard…well, the Vulcans wouldn’t but they were an exception.

  “I don’t believe it,” said Core as she turned back to face the viewscreen.

  “Believe it, Commander.  We need to get moving.  I’ll set up a channel between my chief engineer and yours to see if we can help you with anything.  We’re going to need every single ship even more then ever now.”