Myriad Universes 02_ Echoes and Refractions - Keith R. A. DeCandido [121]
Benteen walked over to Ledrah’s console. “Get an emergency squib to Starfleet Command.”
Nodding, Ledrah said, “Already on it.”
Looking up, Hahn saw the da Vinci taking evasive action while the alien ship kept pounding away at it. The Sabre class had a compact design, with the nacelles attached to the lower hull, and one of those nacelles was venting plasma. As for the Lexington, it was holding its own, but sensor readouts at the bottom of the screen indicated that their shields were almost gone as well.
“All torpedoes and phaser banks fire!” Hahn cried, even as consoles started exploding around him.
“Shields down!” Ledrah said, as if that weren’t blindingly obvious. “Hull integrity on habitat level down to twelve percent!”
Benteen said, “Evacuate the habitat level, now!”
Somehow, Hahn didn’t think that these Jem’Hadar people were going to give the various off-duty and civilian personnel in those areas time to evac.
Three of the starbase’s four phaser banks fired on the enemy vessel, along with a spread of torpedoes. The former blew a massive hole in the vessel’s underbelly, and Hahn saw debris and bodies blown out into space.
Dammit, Hahn thought, this shouldn’t be happening. I’m supposed to be a teacher, not a killer. Yet he gave the order to Ledrah: “Continuous fire!”
The Lexington continued to fire away at their own foe, but they were taking a pounding as well. The strut holding on the port nacelle was quickly severed, and then the Nebula-class vessel started spinning out of control.
“Lexington has lost attitude control,” Dax said. “They’re-”
The Jem’Hadar fired on the out-of-control starship, and it was destroyed.
Then, just as suddenly, the ship attacking the da Vinci exploded. “What happened?”
Dax’s eyes had grown wide. “I-I don’t know. The da Vinci’s powerless, and they’re venting plasma, but somehow they managed to destroy that ship.”
“Da Vinci to starbase,” came Gold’s voice. “Requesting immediate evac, we’ve got a warp-core breach in progress, we-”
A moment later, the da Vinci was consumed by the mutual annihilation of matter and antimatter.
“Sir,” Benteen said, “the enemy ship!”
Looking up, Hahn saw that the Jem’Hadar vessel that had been firing on them was still approaching.
Ledrah said, “They’re heading right for us, sir-full impulse.”
Hahn felt his body go numb. The starbase had thrusters that enabled it to maintain its position, but nothing that would get it out of the enemy ship’s way.
“Keep firing,” Benteen said. “We’ve got to destroy them before they ram us!”
But Hahn knew it wouldn’t happen. They’d been firing continuously on the enemy ship, and there was just no way it was going to be enough to destroy it before they rammed into-
“They’re heading right for the fusion core,” Dax said, sounding remarkably calm.
I love you, Crystal.
First Omet’iklan watched on the forward viewer as the Federation starbase and First Taran’atar’s ship annihilated each other. Omet’iklan was surprised at the outcome of the battle. The Vorta’s intelligence had indicated that the Federation Starfleet was weakened by their lengthy conflict with the Romulans. Omet’iklan suspected that that intelligence came from the Cardassians, who were remarkably arrogant and wrongheaded.
However, Omet’iklan was a soldier, born and bred. He was ordered to lead the fleet, along with First Taran’atar’s and First Talak’talan’s ships, and destroy the Federation starbase nearest to the Dominion border. He followed those orders without question. The Vorta had insisted that they would, at best, suffer only minor casualties, not lose two-thirds of the fleet, but that was of no consequence. Omet’iklan and his men had made a note of the battle tactics used, and of how much better the Starfleet shields held up against Dominion weaponry than they had before. The Vorta had not warned them about that in their intelligence, either.
The only thing they had not been able to determine