The Good That Men Do - Andy Mangels [110]
“Incoming!” Reed shouted.
The ship rocked again. One of the consoles at the back of the bridge whined, then shot out a volley of sparks. A nearby ensign quickly began spraying flameretardant foam on the console.
“Plating at fifty-three percent and falling,” Mayweather said.
“We have a hull breach on D deck,” Hoshi said. “Guest quarters.”
“That’s also engineering,” Reed said. “They’re trying to cripple our engines.”
Archer wasn’t at all pleased with the turn this mission was taking. “Travis, continue performing evasive maneuvers, but keep us as close to the transport ship as possible. We need to stay within transporter range.”
He tapped another button on his chair’s com unit. “Engineering, sorry about all the rough stuff. See if you can divert any extra power to the transporter.”
“Yes, sir, Captain,” said Burch. The young officer was Tucker’s obvious replacement, but Archer had yet to make the assignment official. He knew he would have to do so soon, or else find another permanent chief engineer, should Trip’s sojourn in the land of the dead continue much longer.
Archer turned toward his armory officer. “Malcolm, can we target their weapons systems? Keep them from firing on us for a while to buy us a little more time?”
Reed frowned, studying a newly mounted tactical viewer that now stood above his other control console screens. “I don’t believe so, Captain. Any serious attempt to disable their weapons tubes will more than likely destroy the ship outright.”
“Do it, pinkskin,” Shran shouted from his seat at the back of the bridge. “They’re trying to destroy us!”
“Only because we started it,” Archer shouted back. He looked over at Reed. “If we destroy their ship, the Romulans could use that fact as justification for mounting an attack against Earth, or even the rest of the Coalition.”
“But the Romulans have already committed acts of war against us,” Reed said.
“Technically and legally, they have not,” T’Pol said. “At least not yet. The Orions abducted the Aenar, which makes them responsible for those crimes. And the Romulans are legally entitled to regard us as invaders in their territory, and therefore as the aggressors.”
“Preposterous!”
Archer turned around in his chair. “Shran, shut up!” The azure-hued warrior did just that, though he glowered angrily at Archer with eyes like blue-white suns.
“Hold on to your chairs,” Mayweather said. “Incoming!” He pushed hard at several of the helm controls, and Archer felt Enterprise turning hard to port as the inertial dampers and the artificial gravity running through the deck plates struggled to cope with the sudden velocity change. Archer held his breath and braced for impact, but none came.
“Good flying, Travis,” he said a moment later.
“Sir, we can’t evade their weapons forever,” Malcolm said, his tone plaintive. “And sooner or later reinforcements will arrive. We have got to withdraw.”
“Any luck on getting the Aenar, Moulton?” Archer asked, directing his voice toward the open-channeled com unit.
“No, sir.” Moulton’s tone sounded stressed. “We still can’t break through their shroud. I thought I had a pattern lock on one of them, but it broke apart during transport. I… lost him.”
“I’m sure you did your best,” Archer said, feeling queasy at the idea that they had just killed one of the Aenar in the midst of what had begun as a fairly straightforward rescue mission.
He had to face the fact that they had run out of options. “Prepare to withdraw. We can’t stay here any longer.”
“No!” Shran unbuckled himself from the chair he had occupied and moved swiftly toward Archer.
“We don’t have much of a choice, Shran.”
“Yes, you do,” the Andorian said, his antennae ramrod stiff with anger. “You destroy both of the warships, we retrieve the Aenar, and then you destroy the transport as well. Leave no trace that we were ever here.”
“Do you really think they haven’t transmitted information