Pity is Treason (Part 10)

ORIGINAL WRITING This page was originally published elsewhere as part of a joint sim or fleet effort. It has been duplicated here for posterity.

Characters:	Commodore Zachary O'Connell, Lieutenant Wul, Ensign Turik
Location:	USS O'Carroll, Bridge
Time:	Mission Day 1, 0837
Author:	Greenfelt22
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Even at maximum warp, Zach felt a simple tortoise still moved faster. The Ottawa was a Steamrunner class and no match for the Akira-class under his command when it came to armament and speed. However, whatever rebellion his ship had just endured had wrought damage to the warp drive and disabled the hangar doors. He would not intercept the Ottawa before it reached Unity, and Zach could only hope they would not arrive too late.

It didn't help that the subspace transceiver was still out, even though he'd ordered all engineering resources to its repair. For the first time in five years, he wished he wore his old yellow uniform and was hard at work in a Jefferies Tube with a tool kit.

The bridge, as Zach's gaze told him, was still mostly vacant, save for the manned helm, tactical and operations stations. Until this situation was over, Zach would not allow anyone else on his bridge.

"The Ottawa has dropped out of warp," Wul reported, monitoring his sensors. "And they've opened fire."

Zach frowned, rising from his chair and moving to stand next to the tactical station, keeping his hand close to the newly holstered phaser. Glancing over the wounded lieutenant's shoulder, he watched the battle unfold as Unity began to fall to David's slingshot.

"Prefix code?" Zach called out to the operations station at the fore of the bridge.

"We do not possess the code in our database," replied Ensign Turik, a Vulcan. "And without the transceiver, there is no way to download it from Unity, much less use it to our advantage."

"Then shields and engines it is," Zach said, taking a look at the aft sensors and seeing that the Hopkins would arrive just two minutes after they did. And hopefully, they did not fare the same as he.

And just as Ensign Turik began to repeat what the sensors observed, Zach watched one of the Hopkins' nacelles detonate just before the ship lost warp power. Once Unity was secure, he'd have to come back and tend to the Hopkins.

"Dammit," he muttered, looking back now at Unity who shields just fell below 10 percent.

"Approaching Unity!" the helmsman cried out as Zach moved back to the center of the bridge.

"Drop out of warp!" Zach ordered. "Attack pattern O'Connell Beta." He watched on the viewscreen as two phaser blasts lanced out towards the smaller Steamrunner-class. Neither shot breached the shields, but the ship was definitely shaken.

"Their shields have dropped to forty percent," Turik announced. "They're breaking off and targeting our shields and life support."

"Well it's good to know how much they like us," Zach retorted. "Attack pattern Delta. Keep them away from our ventral quarter."

The viewscreen spun away from the Ottawa as the helmsman launched the ship into a wide spin, keeping only the dorsal hull available for targeting. The floor rocked as several torpedoes exploded outside the duranium walls.

"Shields are at sixty three percent," came the report from Operations. "Minor damage to Decks 3 through 6."

The viewscreen caught the Ottawa in its sights again as the helmsman finished the turn. Three phaser blasts and a full spread of torpedoes streaked out from the O'Carroll and struck the Ottawa. Zach watched the shields collapse and explosions blister along the hull. The report indicated that though the damage was severe, the Ottawa had full power save forward weapons.

And then it was left to the helmsman to shout something O'Connell saw coming as the Ottawa quickly grew on the screen. "They're going to ram us!"

"Evasive maneuvers!" Zach replied, holding his ground, though he wished he had some way to signal them to stand down. "Disable that ship, Mister Wul!" The viewscreen cameras followed the Ottawa as she slid under the O'Carroll's belly, peppering the shields with the sole functioning aft phaser strip. And, as if swatting a fly, a lone phaser blast fired by Wul sent the now powerless Ottawa into a tailspin.

An alarm sounded from the Operations station. "We're receiving a hail from Unity," Turik announced, skipping the obligatory report that engineering had just restored the transceiver. "They're asking for our identification, Commodore."

"I don't blame them at all," Zach muttered just before ordering the call to be relayed to the viewscreen.

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Accreditation

This post was originally written by Greenfelt22 for Bravo Fleet and posted on the Bravo Fleet forums. Use of Bravo Fleet's Pity is Treason (Part 10) is permitted under the Creative Commons 4.0 License and has been modified to suit the story and purposes of the USS Black Hawk Star Trek Role-Playing Simulation.