Star Trek: Ascension -Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Having their adversaries sufficiently in their net, the Romulan warbirds rush in and with artillery raging. The Klingon battlecruisers quickly maneuver in formation to engage the Romulans with fierceness uniquely their own. Under the bombardment, the Enterprise maintains its position next to the Titan, but retaliates with full batteries, deflecting incoming warbirds. Encompassing the field of battle the raptors remain unmoved and inactive at the perimeter. Within the battlefield shields flare and streams of phasers fill the scene as the huge ships volley and charge. The Romulan warbirds use their size to force their way into the Klingon formation as the Enterprise moves over the Titan to shelter it. Swimming through the fray like a barracuda in a feeding frenzy, the Defiant picks out the most threatening warbird and rockets around it with her cannons blasting away at its shields.

*

With the sound of battle reverberating through the Titan's hull, Barclay and his engineering crew work relentlessly in trying to stop the destruct sequence as the count hits ten minutes.

"No response, sir," an engineer exclaims through gritted teeth. "It's just not working!"

Glazed in sweat, Barclay moves to the ship's wall schematic as the Titan is buffeted by the battle. His eyes follow the illuminated lines and his countenance is suddenly bolstered. He taps his communicator. "Barclay to Enterprise."

*

The Enterprise command crew is rocked by the blast of a passing warbird but hold to their stations as Torak returns fire.

"Go ahead, commander," Levelle calls over the engagement.

Barclay's voice on the commlink is barely intelligible under the battle. "I'm going to take the Titan's shields offline and need you to transport the crew to safety the instant it happens."

Levelle casts a puzzled look to Torak as he replies, "But I thought you can't access to the command functions?"

"I don't," the commander replies on the commlink, "but I need you’ll know when it happens. Contact the Defiant, we'll need their help getting device out."

Levelle and the command crew are nearly sent to the floor by another volley of Romulan artillery, but none are new to battle.

"Why not just beam it out too?" Levelle presses, hoping against hope for an easy retrieval.

Barclay's tenor on the communications channel clearly rules that out. "We can’t risk damaging the holo-matrix! Trust me!"

*

Barclay doesn't wait for a response, terminating the commlink and moving to a nearby weapons locker where he grabs a phaser rifle and looks to his assistant intently. "Keep trying to stop the auto-destruct sequence."

"Godspeed, sir," his assistant replies, recognizing the nobility of the man who had been the butt of so many jokes aboard ship. But as he returns to his task, he knows that there will be no more jokes about Commander Barclay.

Barclay moves to the main engineering controls and inputs his commands as his crew presses on around him. "Computer, site to site transport Barclay one."

*

Picard and Moriarty stand on the grid plain looking to the horizon. In the far distance they can see the degradation of the matrix closing.

"Where can you run to now, Picard?" Moriarty taunts, sadly. "The degeneration of this prison will catch up with you in the end… just as it will with me."

A sudden blast of energy throws the two to the ground. Alden is again standing before them, his fist clenched so tightly that drops of blood drip from them. His is chest heaving as he seethes with rage, and burning glare cast through eyes bloodshot with vindictiveness.

*

On the bridge of the U.S.S. Titan, Dupree changes her form to the generic humanoid persona worn most comfortably by the Gamma Quadrant Changelings. She stands over the engineering station with eyes so coldly apathetic that they would steal the heat from Alden’s rage. She reaches down to the controls and inputs her last command.

*

Thirty-five decks beneath her Commander Barclay materializes in the shield generator maintenance alcove. He sweeps past the control board and climbs the latter to the generator access Jeffries tube with phaser rifle in hand. He is so close to the exterior of the ship that can easily hear the bombardment of shields and artillery. Worming his way through the crawl space he stops to open a panel in the floor. The components of the shield generator are easily within reach and well-known to the once reclusive engineer. Shield generator maintenance can be a lonely job, but also ideally suited for someone with the affliction suffered by Barclay in the past. Now, knowing exactly what he is doing, Barclay draws the rifle up and sets the controls on overload before lowering the phaser rifle into the generator components. He taps his communicator quickly. "Computer, site to site transport Barclay two."

"Site to site transport has been disabled," the ship's computer replies routinely.

Barclay's face goes ghostly white. "Oh darn."

*

On the bridge of the Titan the Changeling looks down at the controls where she had just disabled the site to sight transport function and smiles that curiously quaint smile so ill-suited to such a detracted species.

*

The underside of the Titan’s hull plating buckles as Barclay’s sabotage cripples the vessel in a fiery explosion. The Titan's shields fall as flames pour from the rupture fed by the oxygen rich interior.

*

Levelle stands and turns quickly, "Torak, get them out of there!"

*

Still working tirelessly to shut down the auto destruct despite the obvious breaching of the hull, the Titan's entire engineering crew is caught up in the blue glow of individual transporter beams.

*

In a decimated intersection near the underside of the ship. that blue beam glows beneath the burning debris that litters the corridor knee high as the atmosphere is sucked into the fiery breach.

*

On the bridge the Changeling regains her footing and rushes to the tactical controls, but regardless of her endeavors the flickering monitor still reads "SHIELDS OFFLINE". She looks up at the view screen and the attacking Romulan warbirds and opens a communications channel, retaking the form of the Titan's commander, "Dupree to warbird Parius!"

The view screen changes to project the image of a General Venarak on his bridge wearing a sinister gleam. Behind him Senator Tevus is held by two guards with disruptors. Dupree stands in silence, uncharacteristically stunned.

"You played your strategy well, Changeling," the Romulan offers coldly, "taking advantage of our own internal unrest to reclaim your prize. Unfortunately, your accomplice here was not so cunning."

With the point of deceit now gone, Dupree returns to her Dominion form, glaring at the Solid defiantly. "That is the only useful quality of chaos, it is so malleable."

"So are Changelings," the Romulan retorts with a dry smile. He pulls out his disruptor and blasts the hostage Changeling who had replaced the wizened senator into a spray of goo, as the guards try to shield themselves from the mess.

*

With her cannons still hammering a now mortally wounded Romulan warbird, the Defiant delivers her last volley upon the ship and soars deeper into the battle as the warbird explodes, engulfing the Defiant in the brief and violent corona.

The bridge crew ride out the fire storm with the thrill and glory exuded by the Worf in the command chair as the Defiant's shield crackle and flare victoriously.

"I have the runabout online, ambassador," Nog calls through the fading fire.

Worf acknowledges, his glowering fervor peering through the stellar battlefield to find the Titan and hedging Enterprise in thicket of artillery. A mere glance to the helm by the Klingon and the Defiant is rushing through the volley to intercept. Worf sets his attention on the tactical station where his officer nods confidently.

"Geordi, our phasers have been set. You may want to reinforce your shields," the ambassador calls, lowering his tone sardonically.

*

Phasers and torpedoes from dogfights on the scale of starships rains from all sides as the Defiant swings behind the Titan and closes in on its main shuttle bay. Without hesitating her carefully calibrated cannons fire on the hangar doors, blasting them away to join the debris of the wounded ships. The runabout Mayweather is swiftly sucked into the battlefield behind the hangar doors, her shields flaring and crackling.

With the appearance of the liberated runabout the Romulan raptors break their perimeter formation and rush into the battle targeting the Mayweather.

"I see 'em, I see 'em," La Forge insists from the helm as Bashir gawks at the rushing raptors. "Sonya, I'm going to need you to get us to the Enterprise while I make sure we get there in one piece."

With maneuvers worthy of the name, the Mayweather leaps into a backflip then falling spiral, avoiding both the raptors and surrounding gunfire. Nearby, a tractor beam emanates from the Defiant and locks onto the battered hull of the U.S.S. Titan, dragging her towards the center of the Romulan offensive. The tractor beam disengages, and momentum hurls the Titan towards the pit of Romulan warbirds as the Defiant speeds away.

*

On the sweltering bridge of the Gorr, Captain Kordor and his crew are rocked amid exploding stations, sending a Klingon officer flying across the bridge. The communications link activates over the roar of battle automatically and issues the voice and orders of the Klingon battle commander, Ambassador Worf. "Fall back to defend the Enterprise!"

Kordor nods to his communications officer, who forwards the transmission instantly to the Klingon garrison.

*

As the Klingon cruisers back away from the suspicious warbirds, a Romulan raptor swoops in and overcomes the runabout that is on a dizzying path to the Enterprise. With a barrage of artillery, the raptor knocks out the runabout's shields and nets the Mayweather in its tractor beam.

*

The telltale sluggish sensation enveloping the runabout tests Gomez’ expertise, applying all of her knowledge and experience in an effort to break free.

"Enterprise!" La Forge shouts, "The Romulans have got us!"

*

On the doomed bridge of the Titan the Changeling takes the operations station with the Romulan ships growing larger and larger on the view screen as they pummel the Titan in hopes of detonating her before. The counterfeit Dupree accesses communication station and brings up coordinates and activates an automated signal. With a press of a tile she transmits the signal into space.

*

Hemmed in by the battle raging around them, the four cornered warbirds hammer the Titan as the smaller raptors flee through pockets in the fray. The Titan's advanced hull plating buckles with every impact but denes the Romulans their much-needed reach inside the ship.

*

In the abrupt loss of the artificial gravity the Changeling drifts serenely in front of the violent images on the view screen and begins to liquefy again. Her amber form solidifies into a dark and dense sphere. At the engineering station the auto destruct sequence hits zero and the bridge explodes, tearing the dome off the top of the ship and sending fire, debris, and the Changeling sphere spiraling through the battlefield expanse.

Titan explodes in a ball of energy that engulfs the four warbirds. Not even their advanced shields can protect the ships from the devastating power of an anti-matter explosion which catches the first warbird and then the next in a chain reaction of destruction.

In the backdrop of the warbirds' destruction the Defiant descends on the raptor that has snared the Mayweather, pummeling it with her weapons. Inside the runabout, proximity alarms fill the cockpit as La Forge and Gomez watch bracingly as the hull of the Defiant swing within meters of the cockpit window.

The Defiant pushes into the raptor's tractor beam while continuing its assault at near point-blank range. The tractor beam warps and buckles under the intrusion of the Defiant, scattering its energy into the surrounding space and releasing the Mayweather from the Romulan grasp.

The disruption destabilizes the raptor, which explodes under the Defiant’s barrage as the runabout flees towards the Enterprise in the face of charging raptors determined to recapture the Dominion prize.