Pantheon - Michael Jan Friedman [199]
“Aye, sir,” said his helm officer, following one of the Nuyyad ships as it sped away.
“Get a lock on their aft shield generators,” he told Vigo.
Again, they were able to benefit from the Magnians’ participation in their sensor operations. The Pandrilite looked up. “Got them, sir.”
“Fire!” barked Picard.
The Stargazer’s phasers raked the enemy’s hindquarters with a devastating barrage. Unfortunately, they could dog only one vessel at a time—and the second officer was wary of getting caught in a crossfire.
He turned to his navigator. “Where is the other one?”
“Bearing two-five-two-mark-six,” Gerda told him. “But it’s got its hands full with what the Magnians are throwing at it.”
Picard nodded, satisfied with the way the battle was going. It was just the way they had planned it.
Suddenly, Gerda swiveled in her chair, her eyes wide with surprise and anger. “Shields are down!” she snarled.
The second officer didn’t understand. “We haven’t even been hit,” he pointed out.
“Nonetheless,” the navigator insisted, “shields are down!”
Picard cursed beneath his breath. “Fall back!” he told Idun, the words leaving a bitter taste in his mouth.
But as if the Nuyyad had sensed the Stargazer’s untimely vulnerability, the enemy vessel wheeled and came after her. The second officer looked on helplessly as the Nuyyad’s cannons belched vidrion fury.
“Brace yourselves!” he cried out.
A moment later, the deck slid out from under him and sparks shot across the bridge. No, Picard thought. This cannot be happening. We had them.
Hadn’t the enemy been at a distinct tactical disadvantage? And hadn’t they just reconstructed the Stargazer’s deflector grid unit by unit? How could it have failed again so quickly?
Abruptly, a chill climbed the rungs of the second officer’s spine. The saboteur, he thought. It was the only explanation.
A second vidrion barrage pounded them, sending the Stargazer reeling to starboard. Flung into the side of the captain’s chair, Picard heard the deckplates shriek like banshees.
“Evasive maneuvers,” he told Idun. “Pattern Omega!”
As the helm officer sent them spiraling out of harm’s way, Picard tried to take stock of his options. Shields or no shields, he told himself, he had to create an opportunity to strike back.
Then Vigo called out the best thing the second officer could have hoped to hear. “I’ve got the shields back on-line, sir!”
Uncertain as to how long they would stay on-line, Picard turned to the viewscreen. The Nuyyad vessel was bearing down on them, following up on the surprising damage done by its volleys. Quite possibly, the enemy commander expected to finish them off.
The fellow was going to be disappointed, the second officer thought. With the Stargazer’s shields restored, Picard had all his options in front of him again—and he knew which one he wanted to use.
“Divert power to tractor beam,” he snapped. “Target a point on their shields in line with their main emitter.”
Normally, a tractor beam was useless against an enemy’s shields. However, this wasn’t just any tractor beam. It was one that had the minds of more than a dozen Magnians to strengthen and manipulate it.
“Ready phasers and photon torpedoes!” the second officer called out.
But even as he gave the order, he saw the enemy release a volley of bright green vidrion packets. They loomed on the forward viewer, growing gigantic before Picard could do anything about them, finally filling the screen from edge to edge.
Then they tore into the Stargazer with all their savage, disruptive force. But Jomar’s vidrion-laced deflectors seemed to hold against the Nuyyad assault, keeping its destructive potential at arm’s length.
“Engage tractor!” the second officer told his navigator.
Gerda did as she was told—and used the ghostly beam to punch a hole through the enemy’s shields. Seeing the aperture, Picard smiled a grim smile and glanced at Vigo.
“Fire!” he said.
Instantly, the weapons chief drove his phaser bolts through the gap created by the tractor beam, piercing the outer skin of the Nuyyad ship. Then he followed up with a