Pantheon - Michael Jan Friedman [179]
For a moment, no one said anything. Then Vigo spoke up again, his blue brow furrowed with concentration. “I think I have an idea, sir.”
“By all means,” Picard told him, “share it with us.”
The Pandrilite described what he had in mind. It didn’t involve any exotic technology. But before he was finished, everyone in the lounge was a little more hopeful.
Even Jomar.
Ten
Picard stood in front of the captain’s chair and gazed at the forward viewscreen, where he could clearly see a Nuyyad vessel in orbit around a blue, green, and white planet.
The enemy ship looked exactly like the first one they had encountered. It was immense, flat, diamond-shaped…and more than likely, equipped with the same powerful vidrion cannons that had inflicted so much punishment on the Stargazer already.
Picard tried not to contemplate how much more damage they could do without any shields to slow them down.
“There it is,” said Ben Zoma, who had come over to stand beside him.
The second officer nodded. “Slow to half impulse, helm.”
“Half impulse,” Idun confirmed.
Picard turned to Vigo, who was sitting in Werber’s spot behind the weapons console. “Are the shuttles ready?” he asked.
“They are, sir,” came the Pandrilite’s response.
The second officer turned back to the screen. “Release them.”
“Aye, sir,” said Vigo.
Picard watched the viewscreen. If the Nuyyad vessel had picked up the Stargazer on her sensors, she wasn’t giving the least indication of it. She was just sitting there in orbit around Santana’s planet, looking like a large, deadly blade.
Abruptly, a handful of smaller craft invaded the screen from its bottom edge—seven remote-controlled Starfleet shuttles hurtling through the void at full impulse, rapidly leaving the Stargazer behind. The shuttles, which ranged in size up to a Type-7 personnel carrier, looked dwarfed by the Nuyyad ship even though the latter was much more distant.
“Status?” Picard demanded.
Gerda answered him. “Eighty seconds to target.”
The commander could feel his heart thud against his ribs. Eighty seconds. Five million kilometers. The difference between victory and defeat, life and death, survival and annihilation.
Ben Zoma cast him a look of confidence, a look that seemed to assure Picard that everything would be all right. Then he retreated to the engineering console and began monitoring ship’s systems.
Each of the shuttles carried an antimatter payload big enough to punch a hole in the Nuyyad vessel’s shields. But to accomplish that feat, they would have to reach the enemy unscathed—and that, Picard reflected, was easier said than done.
He had barely completed the thought when one of the shuttles became a flare of white light on the viewscreen. Cursing beneath his breath, he whirled on his weapons officer.
“What happened, Mr. Vigo?”
The Pandrilite shook his large blue head, obviously as confused by the premature explosion as Picard was. “I don’t know, sir. I didn’t trigger it, I can tell you that.”
“I can confirm that,” Ben Zoma interjected. “The payload seemed to go off on its own.”
The second officer could feel his teeth grinding. If the other shuttles went off prematurely, they would be all but toothless. The Nuyyad vessel could pick them off at its leisure.
“Fifty seconds,” Gerda announced.
It was time for the Stargazer to enter the fray. “Full impulse,” Picard told Idun Asmund.
“Aye, sir,” said the helm officer.
“Power phasers,” the commander added.
“Powering phasers,” Vigo replied, activating the batteries that could still generate a charge.
“Forty seconds,” declared Gerda, her face caught in the glare of her navigation controls.
He glanced at Ben Zoma. His friend returned it—and even managed a jaunty smile. I’ve still got confidence in you, it seemed to say.
Suddenly, a green globe shot out from the Nuyyad ship and skewered one of the shuttles. Again, Picard saw a flash of brilliance. Then a second shuttle was hit. It too vanished in a splash of glory.
That left four of the smaller craft—a little more than half of what they had started out with. And they still