The Alpha Centauri Mystery - Part 14 - Hunter and Prey, by Ben Versteegt.
After a Romulan attack on the Starfleet base on a planet in the Alpha Centauri system, Ensign Sandra Burke escaped the system on board the Federation Starship Aquinas, after having caught (with the help of her Ferengi friend Zaag) a Cardassian who also wanted to steal the samples. The Aquinas was subsequently attacked by another Federation Starship, a Prometheus class. The Aquinas was all but destroyed. A vengeful Captain Ayer has now joined forces with the same Romulans who attacked Alpha Centauri, in order to find the samples that the Prometheus class vessel has stolen, as well as Sandra, his niece, who has been abducted. As time passes by, Ayer begins to realise the implications of what he is doing... But there is no turning back anymore.
And now the continuation...
"We're entering weapons range!" the Romulan at tactical reported. The Romulan warbird had closed in on the Prometheus class starship. This hadn't been hard to do at all. After all, the Federation starship's engines were damaged when the Aquinas had detonated its warp core. When it came to speed, the Prometheus class starships were usually the fastest in the fleet, and could outrun a Romulan warbird easily. But now that its engines had been damaged, the roles were reversed.
The Romulan commander looked up from his console. He had been looking at the schematics of the Prometheus class that had been -- reluctantly -- provided by Captain Ayer. Now, the look in his eyes betrayed that he was enjoying this moment. The damaged Prometheus class was no match for a Romulan warbird, armed with the knowledge of the Starfleet ship's weaknesses.
"Should we decloak, sir?" asked the subcommander at tactical.
"Not yet. I want us to stay under cloak until we are right on top of them."
The Romulan subcommander frowned at this unconventional strategy (usually bombarding the enemy from a distance was enough to sufficiently damage or destroy them), but he didn't speak up.
Ayer did. "Is there a reason why you want to decloak so close to the ship?"
Seemingly annoyed, the Romulan commander turned to the Captain. "From a close distance, we can target the weapons array and shield generators more easily. It will be easier to disable our target and beam back the samples." He smiled. "And your abducted crewmember of course."
Captain Ayer didn't return the smile but just kept looking in the Romulan's eyes for signs that there may be other reasons. He found them. "But you don't need to be so close to the ship to hit those targets."
The Romulan's smile turned into a broad grin. "I do when I want to efficiently disable that vessel with as few shots as possible. It's a matter of honour, you wouldn't understand." He turned back to his tactical officer before Ayer could respond. "Status?"
"We're right on top of her, Commander. It's now or never."
"Then by all means..." he said, fixing his eyes on the viewscreen. "Decloak."
Light filled the Bridge as the warship declaoked right above its target. Immediately, two bright green beams surged from the warbird to the Starfleet ship's already damaged engines. It didn't take long for the Prometheus class vessel to be forced out of warp; armed with the knowledge of the Prometheus class' engines, it was all too easy to disable them in a few shots. The Romulan warbird dropped out of warp as well and continued its barrage. The next target were the shield and weapons systems.
The Starfleet ship didn't have time to recover from the attack at its engines, but it seemed that whatever crew manned it, did a great job. The moment they dropped out of warp, they fired phasers and torpedoes at the warbird, seriously rocking the ship. Even though the shields absorbed most of what the Federation ship threw at the warbird, nobody on the Romulan Bridge could remain standing without considerable effort.
"Their weapon systems appear to be fully functional, still," the Romulan commander said as he pushed his fingertips against each other and observed the other ship's tactics. "Tactical, what's the status of their shields?"
"Weakening, sir. We'll have destroyed their shield generators in just a few moments." Thanks to the data Captain Ayer had provided, they knew exactly what parts of the shields to target.
"Excellent. What about their weapons? Do they pose a threat?"
"Our shields are down to 78 percent, commander. Their weapons are strong, but we will be able to take them out before they do any significant damage."
Just as the tactical officer had predicted, the Federation ship's shields had been disabled within moments. Ayer realised there was nothing he could do but watch, but if there was a chance -- any chance at all -- to convince the Romulans to stop their attack now (which Romulans weren't particularly known for), then he had to try it.
"Just beam Sandra and the samples over to this ship and let's get out of here," insisted Ayer.
"They seem to have some sort of transporter inhibitors installed on several decks," the science officer said. "We can't beam anything or anyone in or out."
A sly smile appeared on the Romulan commander's face. "Then I guess we'll have to do it the hard way." As another torpedo barrage hit the Warbird's shields, the commander of the Romulan vessel turned around to his tactical officer. "Target their Bridge. Full disruptor power."
"What?" Ayer screamed in protest. "You can't do that! Those officers on that Bridge will die!"
"Their mistake for getting in our way of the samples," the commander of the Warbird replied, as if it were a normal thing. "Besides, it is the fastest way to end this battle."
Despite the horrifying, but at the moment, very real prospect of the Prometheus class' Bridge being blown off, Ayer couldn't help but feel impressed at the strategy the Romulan Commander was using. In destroying the Bridge, the Romulans would have made sure that chaos would ensue on the Starfleet ship for the next couple of minutes. After all, with the senior staff gone, the rest of the crew would have to reorganise and take their orders from someone else. The time for them to get reorganised would be plenty of time for the Romulans to literally tear the ship to pieces, if they wanted to.
"Disruptors fully charged, commander." The tactical officer sounded excited, as if he couldn't wait to destroy the Bridge of the enemy.
"Wait!" Ayer shouted. "My crewmember could be on that Bridge!"
The Romulan commander didn't seem impressed by Ayer's argument. "It would make no sense to keep prisoners on your Bridge."
"You're having prisoners on your Bridge," Ayer replied with a sparkle in his eyes.
The Romulan in charge couldn't argue with that. Still, he seemed determined to destroy the Starfleet vessel's Bridge. "Then your crewmember will die."
Ayer was shocked by this remark, but didn't let it show. "What about the samples?" he countered. "What if they're on the Bridge, like they were on our ship?" He paused, and took a few steps towards the command chair. "You wouldn't want to blow up the samples along with the Bridge, would you?"
The commander clenched his teeth. He hated it when Ayer was right. He had so desperately wanted to blow up a Bridge -- what a spectacular sight that would be. But no, his chance to blow up a Bridge had been ruined by this Starfleet Captain. "Target their weapons!" he burst out. "Cripple them!"
If the tactical officer was disappointed at not having been able to blow up a Bridge, he didn't show it. He seemed equally happy with destroying any and all weapon systems the Starfleet vessel had locked on the warbird. Flashes of green and orange filled the Romulan Bridge as the two vessels exchanged weapons fire.
"Their weapons are disabled, commander," said the tactical officer after a few minutes. "Their ship is disabled."
"And how about us? What's our status?"
"The damage to our ship is minimal."
"Very good." The commander sat back in his chair. "Can we disable their transporter inhibitors?"
"We can, sir..." the tactical officer began. "We can just target one of their transporter inhibitors with our disruptors and fire. Our disruptors would tear right through their hull and destroy that particular transporter inhibitor, breaching their inhibitor field."
The commander seemed to like that idea. The same sly smile as a few minutes ago came over his face again. "Proceed."
"There is... one problem, commander," the tactical officer said in a wavering voice, obviously afraid of the punishment he would receive if he defied his commanding officer.
His commander shot him a glare. "What?" he asked simply, his voice betraying his annoyance.
"It appears that our sensors cannot locate the samples," came the nervous reply. "If we start to randomly destroy a transporter inhibitor, we may accidentally destroy the samples as well."
The look of the commander's face said it all. He wasn't happy with this news, to say the least. "Is there a place on that ship which is *not* protected by that transporter inhibition field?"
He received an affirmative answer. It appeared that there were no transporter inhibitors present in the shuttle bay and in several cargo bays, as well as in a few corridors and quarters. Apparently, this transporter inhibition network had been set up in a hurry.
"Very well... if we can't beam up the samples, we'll have to get them ourselves." The commander stood up. "Subcommander, assemble a team to beam over to that ship. I will be joining you."
The subcommander knew better than to question his commander's orders, so he just nodded and began to signal other crewmembers to join him in a transporter room.
Ayer had walked over to his officers. Watters and Zaag had been joined in the back of the Bridge by Zjavick, the Chief Engineer of the Aquinas, who had been stunned. He had just recovered, but had gathered enough strength already to glare at Captain Ayer with a look that said it all. He still didn't approve of them helping the Romulans.
"When do we leave?" Ayer asked the Romulan commander.
"*We* don't leave, Captain Ayer. *I* leave with my team. And you, dear Captain, are not in it."
This surprised Ayer. "But what about my crewmember? We have to save her!"
"When we see a captured Starfleet officer, we'll bring her back to the ship." The commander smiled. "In the meantime, you will be treated as... guests... on board this ship." He turned to one of the Romulan crewmembers on the Bridge. "Centurion, escort these prisoners to the brig."
The surprise in Ayer's eyes was apparent. "Some way to treat your guests," the Captain heard Watters say. As they were being led into the turbolift by a few Romulan guards, Ayer looked at the viewscreen, at yet another damaged ship, and wondered why the hell he had helped the Romulans.
