Pantheon - Michael Jan Friedman [180]
“Evasive maneuvers,” said the second officer.
“Aye, sir,” Vigo responded, implementing one of the patterns they had programmed in advance.
On the screen, the shuttles began banking and weaving, making the enemy’s job that much more difficult. Unfortunately, it would get easier again as they got closer to the Nuyyad vessel.
“Thirty seconds,” said the navigator.
Picard desperately wanted to accelerate the shuttles’ progress. But he didn’t dare have them drop in and out of warp speed so close to a planet, where gravity added a potentially disastrous layer of difficulty.
In the end, he had no choice. He would have to grit his teeth and hope the shuttles did their job.
The Nuyyad fired another series of green vidrion blasts. However, to Picard’s relief, none of them found their marks. The four remaining shuttles went on, intact.
Gerda looked up from her controls, no doubt eager to see the drama with her own eyes. “Twenty seconds.”
The enemy vessel unleashed yet another wave of vidrion splendor. For a moment, as the Stargazer’s shuttles passed through it, Picard lost sight of them. Then the emerald brilliance of the energy bursts faded and he was able to catch a glimpse of the smaller craft.
There were three left, it seemed. Part of that light display must have been one of them exploding.
One less shuttle meant one less shot at success. That was the inescapable reality of it. But they were getting close now to the enemy. With luck, Vigo’s plan would pan out.
Again, Picard shot a look at Ben Zoma. As before, the man didn’t seem to have a care in the world.
“Phaser range,” the weapons officer announced.
“Fire on my mark,” Picard barked.
The Nuyyad bombarded the shuttles again, lighting torches of pale green fire in the void. Picard squinted to see through them, to get an idea of whether any of his craft had made it through.
“Five seconds,” said Gerda. “Four. Three…”
Then Picard spotted them—not just one of the shuttles, but all three. As his navigator counted down to zero, they smashed headlong into the Nuyyad’s deflector shields.
And went off.
If the vidrion bursts had been showy, the shuttle explosions were positively magnificent, magnified by their reflection off the enemy’s shields. But Picard didn’t take any time to appreciate their glory. His sole interest was how much damage they could do.
“Fire!” he bellowed.
Instantly, the starboard phaser banks lashed out with everything they had, driving their crimson energy through each of the three spots where the shuttles had exploded.
Picard turned to Gerda. “Report!”
“We’ve penetrated their shields!” she told him. “Sensors show significant damage to their hull!”
He turned back to the viewscreen, smelling the victory they had been hoping for. “Fire again, Mr. Vigo!”
A second time, the Stargazer’s phaser beams slashed through the enemy’s tattered shields, piercing the vessel’s outer skin and setting off a string of small explosions.
But the Nuyyad wasn’t ready to call it quits yet. A moment after Picard’s ship fired, the enemy unleashed a salvo of its own.
“Brace yourselves!” the second officer called out.
Fortunately, Idun managed to slip past most of the barrage—but not all of it. The force of the vidrion assault drove Picard to the deck, his head missing the base of Ruhalter’s chair by inches.
Consoles exploded aft of him, shooting geysers of white-hot sparks at the ceiling. As a cloud of smoke began to gather, he dragged himself up and glared at the viewscreen.
The enemy ship had suffered extensive damage, her hull plates twisted and blackened from stem to stern. Still, she was functioning—and if she was functioning, she was a threat.
Picard meant to put an end to it. “Mr. Vigo,” he said, trying not to choke on the smoke filling his bridge, “fire again!”
On the screen, the Nuyyad vessel seemed to writhe under the impact of the Stargazer’s phaser beams. She was wracked by one internal explosion after another as the directed energy ripped into key systems. Finally, unable to endure the torment