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el fired at the closest Borg drone, knocking it back against a wall of the bridge. The drone, like most of the ones on the bridge, clearly used to be Klingon. It was an odd sight to see, as the drones had lost most of the distinctive skin pigmentation of Klingons and had the usual dead Borg look in their eyes, as opposed to the ferocity of a warrior. Shrel thought little on this though as he silently turned and fired at another drone which had gotten dangerously close to War'en.
While the bridge crew fought the drones off with weapons, War'en was trying a different tactic to save the ship. He was typing on Engineering console like mad, counting on Shrel to provide him cover.
"Replicators, showers, non-essential lighting... come on, where can I get some more power. I wonder... Sadda to Shuttle Bay! Connect all of the shuttles into the ship's power grid and turn their engines on!"
"Sir, repeat that?"
"I said, plug the shuttles in and turn them on. Reroute their power into the main grid."
"Uh... yes, sir."
Shrel rolled back from a drone that was continuing to advance on him. As he remodulated his phaser, he noticed that at least two others had started advancing on War'en from behind again. He looked over at the ship's helmsman, who had just finished dispatching a drone of his own with the help of the crewman at Ops.
"Will! Cover War'en!"
Will looked over at War'en and nodded. He fired his phaser at the two drones, but they had already adapted. He turned to the Ops crewman. "Remodulate your phaser and shoot the closest one." As the ensign nodded and retuned her weapon, Will rushed the other drone. He pulled his compact katana out from his belt and pressed a button, causing it to immediately elongate into its full form. He grabbed the bridge railing between him and the drones, lept onto it, then used it springboard into the air. Will brought the tip of the blade down into the top of the Klingon drone's skull. The drone came to a stop, jerked a few times, then collapsed. The next drone suddenly fell to the ground as well, as the Ops ensign's phaser shot had scored a direct hit. Will removed the katana from the drone's head, causing an almost translucent blood to ooze out.
"That... was awesome," Will said as he looked down at the drones. War'en looked at him over his shoulder, then down at the drones on the floor with some surprise.
"... and disgusting," said the Chief Engineer as he looked at the strange Borg-augmented blood now pooling on the floor.
"Lacera, we still have some drones to worry about!" came Shrel's voice from the other side of the bridge.
Will sighed. "Man, I can't get a compliment to save my life around here. Fine, fine, I get it. Less talky, more blasty and slashy." With that, he pulled his phaser out and fired on another set of drones that had materialized on the bridge.
War'en turned back to his console and continued entering commands. "Alright... so I've got the power from the shuttles. Now to just reroute it from the main grid to the--"
The
Pandora shook violently. Everyone on the bridge, both Starfleet and Borg, tumbled to the floor. War'en, through possibly sheer determination and stubbornness, got back up first and went back to operating the console. Shrel was up next and checked his tactical readout.
"We took a torpedo hit to the aft hull! We've lost 30% of our maneuverability. The computer can't fight this battle for us, sir. We need to get rid of these drones now if we're going to survive this."
War'en nodded and continued typing. "Just a little more... and... there! That should give us enough power. Computer, use all available auxiliary power to activate ESH squadrons throughout the ship, prioritizing by number of Borg lifesigns!"
Within seconds, groups of Emergency Security Holograms began appearing in various areas of the
Pandora, including one group on the bridge. One of them looked directly at War'en.
"Please state the nature of the security emer--"
"THE BORG!" yelled War'en on shipwide broadcast.
With that, the shipwide firefight continued, this time with the help of an impressive number of holographic crew members. War'en looked over at his bridge crew.
"I've bought us some space, so get back to destroying those Birds of Prey."
"How the hell did you get the power to do that?" asked Will as he rushed back to his Helm controls.
"Well, let's just say that I hope none of you need to do things like eat hot food or take showers for a while. I had to reroute power from practically every non-essential system, which involved doing a hard shut-down of things like replicators and residential plumbing."
"Good thing I went before the fight," muttered the ensign at Science.
The
Pandora, which was now trailing plasma out its backside, turned toward one of the Bird of Prey and began firing again. By now, the weapon improvements had been implemented by Engineering. The assault succeeded in taking down port shields of one of the ships. On War'en's command, a high yield torpedo volley struck the ship directly, causing catastrophic damage to the hull. Explosions began popping up throughout the ship.
"One Bird of Prey down, sir," reported Shrel. After a moment, he spoke again, this time with uncharacteristic alarm. "The second Bird of Prey is positioned directly behind us sir! Those shields are only at 10% and we've already sustained significant hull damage in that area!"
"Power to aft shields and fire all aft weapons!"
Pandora shook again as the remaining Bird of Prey fired its disruptor and plasma cannons, which succeeded in ripping through the ship's shields and striking the hull. The Ops console blew right in the face of its manning ensign, causing her to fall back and scream from the burns and cuts suffered to her face. A small explosion erupted from the ceiling of the bridge, causing material to rain down on the area near the port turbolift. War'en tried to ignore the pit that was forming in his stomach.
"Bring us around! Keep our backside away from that thing!"
"I can't, sir!" reported Will. "That last hit took out our impulse engines! I've got... some of the thrusters..."
"Shrel, fire everything we have. Keep it away from our back!"
The
Pandor fired another set of beam weapons and a torpedo volley out from its rear. The Bird of Prey withstood the exchange.
"Their shields are weak, but not dow-- Sir! Raptor decloaking directly ahead!"
War'en's face lost all of its color as the Klingon Raptor picked that moment to decloak, directly ahead of and above the
Pandora, already moving toward them. Shrel's voice was starting to take on a rather uncharacteristic alarm.
"Raptor is firing all cannons and torpedoes... AT THE BIRD OF PREY!?"
"WHAT!?" exclaimed half the bridge crew, including War'en.
Sure enough, a barrage of cannon fire lanced right through the Bird of Prey's weakened fore shields. A volley of torpedoes quickly followed, causing massive explosions throughout the ship.
"All power to aft shields! NOW!"
The Bird of Prey detonated near the
Pandora, causing more rocking. When it subsided, Shrel looked back at his display.
"The ship is still intact sir, through we've suffered significant damage. There are also still a number of drones throughout the ship, but the ESHs seem to be working. The number of Borg lifesigns is steadily falling."
War'en nodded and looked over at Science. "Ensign Emerson, call for a medic to the Bridge and take care of Engisn Hu," he ordered as he motioned to the injured Ops officer. Emerson nodded and quickly moved over to her.
The ESH personnel turned to War'en. "Sir, the Borg have been removed from the Bridge." War'en looked around and saw that indeed all of the drones has been neutralized and were lying motionless on the floor.
"Good. Move to other decks that are reporting problems." The holograms acknowledged the order and hustled out of the Bridge.
"Sir, we are being hailed by the Klingon Raptor," reported Shrel, who was back to his normal calm self.
"On-screen."
The red-lit interior of a Klingon bridge appeared on the viewscreen, with its Klingon captain front and center. The Klingon laughed with a sneer as he looked at the bridge of the
Pandora. War'en did his best to not show irritation at the insult.
"This is Lieutenant Commander War'en Sadda of the Federation starship
Pandora. We are grateful for your assistance. However, I must admit I'm confused. Why have you helped us after firing on us before?"
The Klingon Captain laughed again. "I am Captain Ghol of the
Qoj. And we fired on you, Trill, because we thought you were in league with the Borg."
War'en gave Ghol a look of incredulity. "The Borg? Why would you think the Federation was in league with the Borg?"
"This planet is a colony of Borgs and Humans living together. One of our ships was attacked by a Federation ship manned by the Borg. We were here investigating the wreckage when you arrived!"
War'en let out a breath and forced himself to calm down. "I think... we have a lot to sort out. I invite you to join me on my ship. Perhaps together, we can work out a way to drive the Borg away from this system and... make the colonists on this planet pay for what they've done."
A smile cross Ghol's face. "I agree, Trill. Once you've cleared your ship of Borg, I will make arrangements to join you on your ship."
With that, the communication cut off. War'en frowned and looked at Shrel. "Direct the efforts to eliminate the remaining Borg on board. I'll be down in Engineering helping to repair the ship. When Captain Ghol arrives, have him meet me in the conference room. Until I return, you have the Bridge." He then turned to Will. "Will, once Ensign Hu has been helped, I want you to provide assistance to Ensign Emerson and assist her in trying to determine the fate of the away teams."
The two officers nodded as War'en moved to the turbolift, though he had to maneuver around debris that had fallen from the ceiling. As he did so, the turbolift doors opened and a harried-looking medic arrived to help with Ensign Hu.
