Danny Amor's Online Library/Danny Amor's Online Library - Volume 1.iso/html/startrek/old-incomplete/st-sw-anewenemy.p7

Internet Message Format | 1995-08-20 | 7KB

Path: tivoli.tivoli.com!geraldo.cc.utexas.edu!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!news.moneng.mei.com!uwm.edu!msunews!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!nntp.brisnet.org.au!softtech!au!org!brisnet!closer!william.gracie
From: [e-mail] (William Gracie)
Date: 21 Jan 95 22:41:46
Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative
Subject: SW: A NEW ENEMY (PT7)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: Soft-Tech [phone]
Lines: 110
Xref: tivoli.tivoli.com alt.startrek.creative:4912

Please note that this story, some of the characters and colonies and the
situations in this story are copyrighted (1995) to Raymond N. Cooper.  I don't
care where this story is sent so long as I remain credited as author and this
tag remains here...
                        STAR WARS
                       CHAPTER VII
                          A NEW ENEMY... (pt7)
                           by
                        Raymond N. Cooper


   Tyran paused.  "No, Lieutenant.  Continue with your previous orders."
   Larod stared out at the twin ships.  He could see the shields flare into
visibility, small dots whipping around the two vessels.  "Admiral... if this is
their last stand, why are we running?"
   "They plan to do something.  I'm sure they'll eject their anti-matter
engine.  We really need one of those to study.  They'll try and destroy us with
that."
   "But, Admiral..."
   "But nothing, Captain!  The Rebels defeated us at Draffyd-4 by throwing a
laboratory anti-matter pod at us.  It destroyed them also, but this is a
different galaxy... They may have found a way to shield themselves from an
anti-matter explosion.  We haven't.
   "We go."
   "Sir!  They have launched a pod at us!"
   "Make the jump now!" Tyran roared.
   The Deathwing leapt into hyperspace, followed by the Lodestone, but the
Hammerhead was too slow, catching the detonation from the ejected warp core.
The massive wedge-shaped ship spun out of control, life-support failing,
engines spurting random bursts before dying.  Escape pods ejected from the
superstructure, heading for the colony below.  Finally, one whole minute after
the detonation, the Star Destroyer broke up in a blaze of nuclear death,
matching a supernova in intensity and heat.
   The two Federation ships were buffeted by the debris, some of which was
quite large.  To the crew of the ships, it seemed as if the ship itself was
being torn apart.
   The battle bridge of the Enterprise was in the process of becoming even more
damaged.  Consoles ripped themselves free from the floor, and the crew were
scattered like ninepins.  Picard slapped his comm badge.
   "Damage report!"
   Geordi, from Engineering, linked in first.  "Warp drive is off-line.  We
have some power back on impulse, shields are down to twelve percent, structure
is compromised on decks 38 and 39, and we are no longer in for any trouble from
a containment breach.  The warp core successfully ejected."
   For once, Picard thought silently.  He didn't have time to act on what he
had just been told as Doctor Beverly Crusher joined in.
   "We have injuries on deck 31, Captain.  We also have... twelve casulties."
   Silence descended upon the battle bridge.  Worf thumped his console.
   "Tactical is on-line, Captain.  The Grissom survived the blast.  We managed
to destroy one of our enemies.  The other two escaped before the core could
detonate."
   Picard turned to Ops.  "Mister Data?"
   "Geordi was correct with his status report.  We do have impulse engines
on-line, Captain.  We can manage one-quarter impulse."
   "At that speed, it would take us sixty-four years to reach the closest
Starbase, Mister Data."
   "Correct, sir.  But you seem to be forgetting the cargo of the Farrgut."
   "Cargo?  I didn't know it had any cargo.  Any that was relevant to the here
and now, Mister Data."
   "It did, sir.  At the moment, it is carrying four dormant warp cores.  With
one of these, we could repair the warp drive, install the core, activate it,
and give pursuit to these self called... Imperials."
   Picard paused.  "How soon before the Farragut arrives?"
   Data consulted his console.  "Approximately two hours ten minutes, Captain."
   "Inform me when they arrive."
   Riker looked up from the conn, where he had been studying engine
responsiveness.  "Where are you going, sir?"
   Picard turned to his First Officer.  His face was drawn, his legs were
shakey.  "Out.  I'm going out.  To see the ship.  And the crew and families."
The Captain left the battle bridge.
                       ******

   Meanwhile, on T'Ruffen, stormtroopers waited anxiously for a Star Destroyer
to come to their aid.  They were on the surface of a hostile planet, with
little in the way of weapons, apart from a planetary Ion cannon, four AT-ATs,
two AT-STs, an AT-PT and several speeder bikes.  Fine for the general populace,
but they had seen the battle.
   They had seen the Hammerhead get wiped across the heavens.  They had watched
the debris fall to the planet below.
   They had seen their comrades die.  Thirty-seven thousand of them.  With one
weapon.
   The crowd still stood where they had been left.  Patiently, they watched
their captors, waiting for a hero to emerge from the skies or their ranks. One
did.  Knocking over a stormtrooper, he grabbed a blaster, and struggled with
the unfamiliar trigger.  He worked it out, pointed it at a trooper, and fired.
The stormtrooper danced the macabre dance of death by energy weapon,a smoking,
fiery hole punched through his plasteel armour.  He turned it to another
trooper, but didn't hear the noise behind him.
   Hydraulics whined in protest as the foot of an AT-AT crushed down upon the
man, making a new style of artwork never seen before on T'Ruffen.
   The crowd grew still and silent as two troopers pulled their companion away
from the crowd, to the safety of an Imperial doctor.
                       ******

   The pilot, Alpha 3, was used to being kept closed up in a TIE Fighter in
open space for long periods of time.  That she could cope with.  The artificial
gravity structures of a TIE could be handled better in zero-gravity, but they
became very uncomfortable when in a one-gee environment.
   She looked out through the cockpit's transparisteel windows once
again,noting all the guards outside.  She must have looked strange to them all
in her pilot's armour, she realised.  The black helmet and uniform looked more
like an insect's head than a flying uniform.  The only problem was, every time
she moved, be it to scratch her arm, or shift into a more comfortable position,
they raised their guns a little bit higher.
   From a door on the inside wall of the shuttlebay, someone of importance
entered.  His stance, his uniform was different to all those guards posted
outside her ship.  As he got closer, it was possible to pick out the gold pips
on the neck of his uniform.  He had four, more than anyone else Alpha 3 had
seen yet.
   He must be the Captain, she assumed.