Hard Crash - Christie Golden [7]
"McAllan's right. It's impossible to distinguish weapons from propulsion from anything else."
"Maybe it's unarmed," suggested Abramowitz. "Maybe the people who built it are non-violent. It could have crashed accidentally."
"You saw what they did to that pilot," said Faulwell with unusual vehemence. "That sure wasn't non-violent."
Duffy quickly took his seat. Gold leaned forward, resting his head on one hand. He rubbed a finger along his chin as he considered the options. "Let's find out. Corsi, fire a warning shot."
On the screen, their phaser blast appeared angry and red. The ship stopped dead in its tracks. Looking unsettlingly like a dog sitting and begging, its stern section dropped suddenly and it lifted its upper two "arms." Blue-black balls of energy exploded forth and screamed out of the atmosphere striking the da Vinci. The ship shuddered with the impact.
"Shields down thirty-three percent ," said Wong.
"It's got weapons," La Forge commented.
"And it's not very non-violent," said Gold. "We've got to disable it. Corsi, it's all yours."
Corsi's lips thinned. Inwardly, Duffy cringed. He liked to avoid Corsi whenever possible, because it seemed to him that whatever he said or did was exactly the wrong thing. She was utterly intent upon the task at hand and her blue eyes were like ice now. He was very glad he was not the object of such intense concentration.
Corsi fired. And fired again. And again. Red phaser energy shot through space. Despite her poorly concealed rage and passion, she knew what her captain wanted. For some reason they had been unable to locate the weapons systems--indeed, any specific system--on the vessel. Now that it had fired on them, however, their targets were clear the two major appendages. Corsi concentrated her fire on those.
To everyone's astonishment, the heavy attack seemed to have little to no effect. The ship merely resumed its bizarre squatting position, targeted the da Vinci with deadly accuracy, and returned fire. The Federation vessel rocked violently. The impact knocked Duffy out of his chair and he fell heavily for the second time that day. He was bruised and bloody, and something felt wrong in his hand. Once this was over, he'd have to go see Emmett. He found that the hologram was even nicer to deal with than the flesh and blood doctor--quite a switch from the earlier programs.
"Ineffective, sir," said Corsi in a low, angry voice, stating the obvious. She continued to fire on the ship's appendages.
"Evasive maneuvers. Transfer all power to the forward shields. Let's take its hits here. Try different parts of the hull before we back off," said Gold. "Nothing's completely invulnerable." But he didn't sound too certain.
Now Corsi directed the da Vinci's phasers randomly. She attacked the rear appendages, the bow, the stern. At one point, when the ship raised itself again to fire, she got a clear volley in at its underside.
It stumbled. One spiky leg waved frantically.
"That's the spot, Corsi!" cried Gold.
Heartened, Duffy leaned forward as Corsi fired again. The ship collapsed. It clambered to its "feet," but Corsi knew where to aim now and was merciless. After five more rounds, the ship teetered for a moment, fell heavily, and lay still.
Silence on the bridge. But the ship was motionless. They had disabled it. Duffy let out his breath. He wasn't aware he'd been holding it. All at once, he became aware again of the alien piece of equipment he'd been clutching in a death grip.
"Captain," he said, "I recovered this from the vessel. I think it's a tricorder of some kind. We may not have been able to access the main computer, but this might have something on it worth knowing."
Gold's eyes lit up. He and Geordi exchanged looks, and La Forge grinned.
"Duff Man found a key," said La Forge with a trace of pride. After all, Duffy had been under his command at one time. Duffy grinned