SEASON 2: EPISODE 06

A DREADFUL OPERATION: Part Seven

  Some distance from the Val’toka system, where the Val’toka primary was nothing but an insignificant dot of light among the millions of other dots in space, the group dropped out of warp.  In the interstellar void the large warship, by humanoid standards, was nothing.  If space could laugh it would at the efforts simple beings were exerting to control such a small and fragile object.

  “That wasn’t too bad,” commented Daley to Colonel Lazenie.  With the ship now secure her part was over and she had joined the colonel on the bridge of the vessel.  “We got the ship and dealt out a bit of helpful destruction along the way.  Now we just have to get back to the Federation, which would go a lot faster if we didn’t drop out of warp.”

  “That was the simple part,” said Lazenie.  “The difficult part is getting this ship all the way back to the Federation.  To do that, we need to wait here for awhile.  But the part of this mission for you, your marines, Wing Commander Benton, and her pilots is now over.  Sadly it is nearly time for us to part company.”

  She gave the colonel a quizzical look.  “How?  You took our modes of transport off us when we…”

  There was a loud alarm that interrupted Daley and diverted everyone’s attention.  “Battleship exiting warp directly aft of us!” warned the officer manning the sensors.

  “What?” asked Lazenie.

  “It must have followed us from the docks, it matches one in the yards…it also matches the battleship the Valiant attacked, which explains why it is in any shape to chase after us.  It was probably the only operational ship in the entire facility other then this one.”

  “How did it track us?  We didn’t detect it following us, which means we should have had a good lead on it.”  The dreadnought shook and sparks fell from the ceiling, indicating that the vessel was now under fire.  “Fire on it!”

  The officer manning the tactical systems complied and a worried expression came to his face.  “Weapons are inoperative.  That weapon’s platform did a lot of damage and it looks as if our jury-rigging of the power supply system to get the weapons working is fried.”

  “Order the fighters to engage that vessel.  Get a message to engineering that we need weapons or shield NOW!  I believe this is your area now, captain.”

  The officer gave out orders to the helm for evasive manoeuvres.  Daley thought that it was a bit pointless.  The ship was five kilometres long and over two wide, it would be hard to miss, even if manoeuvring.  Maybe if it could move like the fighters that now had to run cover for the ship then maybe it would make a bit of difference.

  The bridge shook as the dreadnought continued to receive a pounding.  Daley wondered how long it would take to destroy a ship this big, but then realised that they didn’t need to destroy the ship.  All they needed to do would be to disable it to stop it from entering warp and escaping.  With no where to run they could just board the vessel, two dozen personnel wouldn’t last a second against the complement of the battleship following.  Their only chance would be to jump to warp and try to outrun the other vessel.

  Which was exactly what the crew of the bridge were not doing.  Daley couldn’t fathom why they simply did not jump to warp; they couldn’t fight so the most prudent course of action was flight.  The bridge shook again violently and more sparks fell from the ceiling, one of the consoles exploded in a shower of sparks and flame, but luckily it was unmanned.  With the damage they were receiving soon running might be out of the question.

  Suddenly another ship dropped out of warp in front of the dreadnought.  Rachel held her breath at the new vessel’s sudden arrival; this was not going to be good.  But upon a second look she realised it was definitely not a Cardassian or Jem’Hadar vessel, in fact it appeared to be of Federation design.  Its roughly wedge shaped saucer section oriented the ship towards the battleship.  It was a sleek ship that was reminiscent of the Norway class with the saucer, engineering and the nacelles all in line giving it a small frontal profile.  The ship was large, over six hundred metres in length but was compact.  The battleship fired on the ship causing a cascade of blue hue as the shields dissipated the energy.  The ship replied with a barrage from its six pulse phaser cannons that were built into the forward hull, a weapon more commonly installed on small, fast escort vessels like the Defiant class.  The weapon’s fire pounded a small section of the battleship’s shields.  Torpedoes and ordinary phaser fire joined the assault displaying the vessels devastating forward facing arsenal.  The attack gave the battleship pause as the Starfleet vessel looped around in a tight arc and made another pass at the mammoth ship, displaying significant manoeuvrability for a ship of its size.  The battleship had been in docks and given the scarring on its underside showed that it hadn’t been fully repaired from its last battle and its shields fell relatively quickly.  The Starfleet cruiser passed over the exposed hull and rolled to present its dorsal side to the battleship.  Dozens of small blue lights streamed from amidships of the cruiser and slammed into the battleship, tearing into the hull.  The battleship commander decided that the better part of valour would be withdrawal, it was more then a match for the larger dreadnought given that it couldn’t raise its shields or power up its weapons, but the smaller Starfleet ship was another matter.  The lumbering warship turned and fled into warp.  The Starfleet cruiser seemed more then happy to let the warship flee and did not attempt to pursue the matter.  The ship pulled abreast of the giant dreadnought as if to offer its protection, which given the size disparity seemed ludicrous.

  Daley just stared agape.  She didn’t know what to say.  She looked to Colonel Lazenie, who gave her a half smile.

  “Hail them,” ordered Lazenie. 

  The viewscreen changed to display the image of a humanoid Starfleet captain.  “I trust I was on time.”

  “As always.  Let me introduce Captain Alec Cushing of the USS Devastator, Achilles class.  He has being in it from the beginning, he helped acquire the freighter for the mission.  Captain, this is Marine Captain Rachel Daley of the starship Swiftfire.”

  “Devastator is an interesting name for a Starfleet vessel,” commented Daley.

  “One must signal the difference between normal Starfleet vessels and vessels of war.  While the ordinary naming convention shows that we honour and appreciate our past and often the ideals we strive for, this signifies to enemies of the Federation that we will defend our ideals.  It shows that we are mostly a reactive military force, but in times of war you need to be aggressive and willing to strike at the enemy.  The signal that the names like the Devastator give is just that.”

  Daley had to admit it made sense, but deep down it also frightened her.  It felt like a mild corruption of being for the Federation and Starfleet.  This was the kind of thing that worried many people in the Federation, that the war would change Starfleet and the Federation for the worse.

  “One ship is a bit light for an escort all the way back to the Federation, especially given the state of this vessel,” said Daley directing the statement to Lazenie.

  It was Captain Cushing that answered, “No, I’m here to take you and your people back to join the Swiftfire.  The dreadnought has other arrangements for its trip back.”

  Daley realised that this was what Lazenie had meant before the battleship attacked.  Their part was now done and the dreadnought would disappear into the shadows of the Intelligence and R&D divisions of Starfleet.

  “You’ll find your dropship and the fighter pilot’s craft are onboard the Devastator.  We will transport you to Deep Space 9, where you will meet back up with the Swiftfire.  Beam over when you are prepared to depart.”  The captain then closed the channel.

  She turned to face Lazenie.  “Well, it was…interesting working with SOC,” she said.

  “SOC remembers people who are useful to it, I’m sure we’ll see each other again.”

  She had no doubt that SOC would keep tags on the people involved; even if to just make sure that they kept details of the mission and of SOC confidential.  She gave Lazenie a wide smile.  “I look forward to it.”