• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 533 0

All at once, it was gone. Lhiau, of course. Despite the pain she'd just endured, she was pleased. She was, finally, starting to get under his skin.

/ do not like you. I do not trust you. I will obey my superiors, but the moment we have done with you I will come for you. She thought the thought as clearly and precisely as possible.

Foolish Little Dagger. You tell me nothing I do not already know, and certainly nothing I fear.

Let him rot, then. She returned her attention to the viewscreen, frowning again at the lack of clarity of the transmission. Perhaps R'Mor was correct and the wormhole was interfering.

"They've cleared the wormhole," said Verrak, and his voice was tense. Jekri couldn't help herself. A slow smile tugged at her lips, and she placed a hand on Verrak's shoulder and squeezed briefly.

Her pleasure was short-lived. "Dammit, the transmission is just as bad as before. Why didn't it clear up once they left the wormhole?"

"Something inside Telek's wormhole may have damaged the ships," said Lhiau. "It wouldn't surprise me at all."

She ignored him. Despite the fuzzy, erratic picture, it was sufficiently clear for her to make out the shape of the Federation vessel. Voyager. She would belong to Jekri soon.

The ships fanned out into attack pattern gamma, surrounding the ship and approaching at angles that ensured that they could fire on the ship without harming another vessel on the opposite side.

'Target weapons and propulsion," she said aloud, as if she were the one on the bridge of the lead ship. "Do not damage the ship if you can help it. We want this lamb whole and only hamstrung, not bleeding to death."

"Target their weapons and propulsion systems," said Janeway. There was no point in firing a warning shot across the bow of one of the vessels. The Romulans had already been warned, and it had clearly made no difference.

Out of the seeming emptiness of space there appeared the glow of a photon torpedo. "Evasive ma-

neuvers!" cried Janeway, and Jenkins obediently dove.

"Firing again," said Kim. The attack had come from another one of the thirteen vessels, and this time there was no chance to avoid it. The ship shuddered a little under the direct hit.

"Shields are holding," intoned Tuvok. "Down six percent."

"Only six?" Janeway was amazed. The attack had been on target and severe. The damage ought to have been much, much worse.

"The dark matter has apparently begun damaging the effectiveness of the Romulans' weapons systems." Tuvok glanced up. "However, the attack has also scattered mutated dark matter throughout our shields. Damage is already beginning."

"Are you saying it's more virulent than before?"

"Firing again," interrupted Kim.

Janeway cursed softly and gripped her chair. Another direct hit, and it felt harder this time. "Return fire," she ordered Tuvok.

The ship swung around, and on her screen Janeway saw that they had locked on to one of the ships, although the main viewscreen showed nothing at all.

Tuvok fired.

The ship exploded.

So did the ship immediately beside it.

Janeway shielded her eyes from the dreadful brightness. "What just happened?" she demanded.

"I don't know," said Kim, his fingers flying. "It just... blew up."

"We targeted their weapons systems, per your orders, Captain," said Tuvok. "The attack should not have destroyed the warbird."

Another ship fired again. Again, Voyager trembled. "Shields down twenty-two percent," Tuvok said. "They are permeated with dark matter."

"Janeway to engineering. Torres, has there been any reaction by that glowing sphere to the battle?"

"Negative, Captain. Should there have been?"

"I'm not sure." Dammit. Tialin, you're sure as hell not making this easy for us. I thought that thing you gave us caught dark matter and ate it for breakfast. "Status report?"

"For a while there, we seemed to have gotten rid of all the dark matter on the ship. Now it's back."

"It's the Romulan ships," said Telek. "They are saturated