The Garden - Melissa Scott [95]
"We have lost contact with Voyager as of the Andirrim attack," Tuvok answered, "due to the ion field in the upper atmosphere and the shields here. But we have reason to believe that Voyager is holding its own."
Against five ships, Torres thought, and then shook herself. First of all, Voyager wouldn't be fighting five ships at once, because at least some of the Andirrim would have to be dealing with the orbital stations. And, second, Voyager's weaponry had been consistently superior to anything they'd seen in the Delta Quadrant-it was demonstrably more powerful than the Kazon-Ogla's, and the Kazon-Ogla dominated the Andirrim. The odds were- She stopped then, and shook her head. No matter what she did, she couldn't quite convince herself that those odds were in Voyager's favor.
Janeway stared at the main tactical display, relegating the constant murmur of command and confirmation to the back of her mind at least until someone addressed her directly. In the main screen, the Andirrim ships circled against the planet's face, the orbital stations a net of white light, brighter light rippling across it as the powerful cannons fired. The secondary display repeated the image in schema, with Voyager's symbol at its center, and she frowned at the sight of one of the Andirrim ships turning toward them.
"Ship two firing," Kim announced, his voice unnaturally calm. "Shields at maximum."
"Returning fire," Pao added, from the security station, and a moment later Voyager shuddered under the impact.
"No damage," Kim said. "Shields still at ninety-eight percent."
"Their phasers are about eighty-five percent of ours," Chakotay said, quietly, "but that doesn't mean they can't hurt us. Or that it's necessarily their maximum strength."
Janeway nodded. So far, the Andirrim ships had concentrated on the defense barrier, firing at Voyager only sporadically, but any offense action from Voyager was likely to change that-and she wasn't sure the ship could handle five enemies at once. "Keep us out of engagement, Mr. Chakotay. This isn't our fight-"
"Captain!" Kim called. "The Andirrim have disabled one, no, two of the satellites."
"Have they breached the barrier?" Janeway asked. Two of the pale dots had vanished from the tactical display; she could see others moving, the pattern shifting to compensate for the missing pieces, but couldn't tell if the shift would be adequate.
"Not yet," Kim answered. "But it's putting a serious strain on the system."
"Right." Janeway studied the screen a final time, noting the positions of the Andirrim ships, and smiled at Chakotay. "It wasn't our fight, I should say. Take us in, Mr. Chakotay. We have our away teams to protect."
"Aye, Captain." There was a grim pleasure in Chakotay's voice. He touched the controls, and the image in the main screen swung wildly for an instant as Voyager moved into the attack.
"Engage the flagship if you can," Janeway said. "Stand by phasers, Mr. Pao."
"Standing by. Ready to fire."
In the screen, the nearest ship-ship four, in their hasty numbering-had seen their move, and was turning to face the new attack. Janeway smiled to herself, imagining the sudden burst of communica-
tion on board the Andirrim ships, and nodded to Pao. "Fire when ready, Mr. Pao."
Pao's hands moved quickly across her console, setting the final parameters, and in the screen Jane-way saw the target codes shift and re-form. "Firing. Hits on their screens, but the shields are holding."
"Ship four is firing," Kim said, and Janeway saw the bolt of light flare on the screen, rapidly blanking the rest of the image. She braced herself, and the ship shuddered under its impact.
"No damage," Kim said, "but engineering reports that we're starting to see energy fluctuations."
"What's the range?" Janeway asked.
"Point-zero-two to point-one megajoules."
Janeway frowned. It was a large fluctuation, but at the lowest end of the spectrum. "We can live with that," she said. "Let me know if it reaches