Synthesis - James Swallow [32]
“Reasoning unknown.”
“Maybe the other ship knows we have this one onboard,” said Keru. “It might think we’re holding it prisoner—” Another blast rocked the deck, and the Trill fell against one of the consoles.
“Or it could be here to destroy it,” Chaka clacked. “We may have put ourselves in the middle of a dispute between locals.”
“Can you stop this?” Riker said firmly, stepping close to the forcefield around the nexus-core unit. “If you can’t, we’ll be forced to defend ourselves.”
“I can stop the attack.” The answer came immediately. “In order to do so, you will be required to provide me with a direct interface to the Titan’s primary systems matrix.”
Keru’s face creased in a humorless sneer. “That’s all? And what’s to stop you from taking control of the entire ship?”
“Nothing,” replied White-Blue.
“I think,” said Troi, “it’s asking us to trust it.”
Lavena’s webbed fingers fanned across the helm controls in a flurry of movement, spinning the Titan in a hard kick-turn better suited to an atmospheric flyer than a Luna-class starship. She felt the ebb and flow of the vessel’s artificial gravity as the internal compensators struggled to keep up with the wild evasive motions she was plotting.
It still wasn’t enough; the ship rang with another punishing impact wave as the alien vessel found their range and hit hard.
Tuvok’s voice was calm and direct. “Shields are at forty-three percent and falling.”
“I can’t keep him off our backs forever, Commander,” said Lavena. “That other ship’s so fast I can barely stay ahead of it.”
“To hell with this,” growled Commander Vale. “I’m sick of playing punchbag. Hard about, aggressive posture. Orient the shields forward.” Lavena felt the officer at her shoulder. “Aili? I want a jousting pass.”
“Aye, ma’am.”
Vale called to the tactical officer. “Tuvok, give me a maximum phaser strike on one of those weapon arms. If we give him a bloody nose, maybe he’ll back off.”
The Vulcan nodded. “Targeting. The alien ship is firing again.”
Green lightning lit the bridge from the viewscreen, throwing hard shadows across the walls.
“Take the shot,” snapped Vale.
Amber fire erupted from the Titan’s upper phaser ring, spinning itself into a tight rod of lethal power that reached out at the attacker. The blast fell like an axe blade on the joint where the lower port structure curved up from the main body of the fuselage. A ring of electromagnetic energy flared around the impact site, and with a gout of immense sparks, the entire assembly was abruptly severed.
The structure writhed as it tumbled away, trailing gas and fragments of hull metal, and the alien ship listed as it struggled to compensate for the sudden and unexpected loss in mass. The two craft passed each other, emerald beams reaching out after the Starfleet ship, raking Titan’s underbelly.
“A solid hit!” called Y’lira from the science console. “Severe power-flux readings at point of impact, but the aggressor is compensating quickly…” Her moment of enthusiasm dimmed. “Very quickly.”
“Commander,” said Tylith. “That’s not all. The section that detached…” She pointed at the sensor sweep display on her console.
“Show me!” Vale demanded.
The screen flicked from one view to another; suddenly, the weapon arm was there in the middle of the display, floating free. As Vale watched, the structure began to distend and move. Just like the larger craft in the debris field, the weapon platform unfolded, reconfiguring itself. It grew a thruster grid at its stern and a fan of whiskery sensor probes at the bow. The mouth of the green-lit cannon emerged from the mass of the new, vaguely snake-shaped construct. It oriented itself toward the Titan and came after them on a flare of thrust.
“Multivector assault mode,” observed Tuvok. “The modularity of these craft is quite remarkable.”
“Rather not see it up close, though,” ventured Rager.
“Both alien, uh, craft are now on attack courses,” said Y’lira.
“Okay, that didn’t work,” Vale said aloud, grim-faced. “Time for