Gauntlet - Michael Jan Friedman [78]
“I hadn’t expected to see you here,” he told Greenbriar.
“I hadn’t expected to be here,” Greenbriar replied in a comradely tone of voice. “At the last minute, Admiral McAteer changed his mind and dispatched us to back you up.”
“Yes,” said Picard, “I knew that. I meant I didn’t think you would be able to penetrate this far into the system.”
As he spoke, his mind raced headlong. What is going on here? he demanded of himself.
Picard’s friend Corey Zweller had warned him that McAteer wanted to see him fail, so that Admiral Mehdi could be seen to fail as well. But how badly did McAteer want it?
Badly enough to take the lives of Picard and his crew?
And if the Stargazer and all its hands were to be lost here, in this dangerous place, who would question it? Who would know that the Cochise had followed her in?
No one but the captain and crew of the Cochise—and Admiral McAteer, of course.
Suddenly, the captain realized what he was saying—and rejected the idea. I’m being paranoid, he thought. I’ve been on edge so long, I’ve begun tilting at shadows.
McAteer might have been a lot of things, but he was also a high-ranking Starfleet officer, a man trusted implicitly by other men of good judgment. It was unthinkable that he would sacrifice the Stargazer just to further his personal ambitions.
Wasn’t it?
As he asked himself that question, he noticed Ben Zoma leaning over Gerda’s console. A glance told him that Greenbriar’s ship had come within their limited sensor range—although it wasn’t as limited as the Cochise’s sensor range, since Greenbriar’s instruments hadn’t been enhanced by the Stargazer’s Chief Simenon.
Ben Zoma was scrutinizing the Cochise intently, examining her power levels, her structural integrity, her crew, anything that might have told him something was wrong. And Gerda was following his every move.
Inwardly, Picard smiled. It seemed he wasn’t the only one wary of Greenbriar’s appearance here.
“How did you make it this far?” he inquired of Greenbriar.
“The same way you did, I expect,” came the man’s reply. “We warp-jumped the debris field, then altered the polarity of our shields to make it through the vortex belt. And when we couldn’t see in this muck, my chief engineer came up with the idea of—”
Without warning, Gerda whirled in her seat. “Captain,” she said, her eyes hard and angry, “the Cochise is powering up her weapons!”
Picard didn’t even have time to utter a curse. “All available power to the shields!”
They made the adjustment just in time to ward off a blinding red phaser barrage. Nonetheless, the impact sent everyone on the bridge reeling hard to starboard and tore one of their plasma conduits free of its moorings.
“Return fire!” the captain bellowed as the conduit whipped back and forth capriciously, spraying superheated plasma at a bulkhead.
Vigo punched back at the Constellation-class Cochise with his forward phaser banks, but Greenbriar’s ship was already executing evasive maneuvers. Only one of the energy beams managed to strike her.
And a moment or two later, Picard’s colleague came about for another pass at him.
“Shields down fifty-four percent,” Gerda noted.
The captain absorbed the information. His ship was at a distinct disadvantage. She had already been battered by the White Wolf, whereas Greenbriar’s vessel was all but unscathed.
And Greenbriar himself was one of the most experienced captains in the fleet, while Picard had been given command of the Stargazer only a few short weeks ago.
A lopsided match if ever there was one, Picard thought. He had to find a way to pull off an upset.
“Evasive maneuvers,” he told Idun. Then he glanced at Vigo and said, “Fire at will.”
Picard’s helm officer moved them off the bull’s-eye, giving the Cochise a running, twisting target. And as soon as Greenbriar’s ship came within range, Vigo greeted her with a sizzling phaser salvo.
But the Stargazer was brutalized as well. The captain was thrown back into his chair as an aft control bank erupted in flames.
“Shields down seventy-six percent,” Gerda reported.