Forwarded by the ASC-VSO Posted: 7 Jan 2004 16:38:59 -0800 In: alt.startrek.creative From: shouldknowbettertt@yahoo.co.uk (shouldknowbetter) Title: Cry Havoc Series: ENT Begins with "A Logical Proposal" "Cry Havoc'" is seventh in the series Part: 5/6 Story 24/34 Series Author: ShouldKnowBetter Email: shouldknowbettertt@yahoo.uk.com Rating: PG-13 Codes: Tu/T, all "Enterprise" characters, Soval, action, drama, angst Summary: A planet holds unexpected treasure for Enterprise's crew. CRY HAVOC Part Five As the hours ticked by and Enterprise progressively closed the gap with Pushkin, Archer began to hope that they would catch up with the rogue ship in time; and if Dexter hoped that he could hold Archer to ransom over the lives of two of his crew, he was very much mistaken. Archer would regret the loss of Tucker and Reed for the rest of his life and grieve for them as sincerely as anyone, but he wouldn't hesitate to destroy Pushkin if that was what it took to stop Dexter precipitating them all into a disastrous war. Then T'Pol reported calmly, "Pushkin is dropping out of warp." She raised her head from the scanner. "In the vicinity of another vessel." "Klingon?" "It would appear so." "What's our time to intercept, Travis?" "Fifteen minutes, sir." "Pushkin will be within firing range of the Klingon vessel within twelve minutes," T'Pol informed them all and Archer swore silently. "Increase our speed, ensign. I want you to come out of warp between those two ships." "Captain Archer," the lieutenant manning the engineering station protested, "the warp engine is already running hot. If we …" "It's a risk I'm prepared to take, lieutenant. Hoshi, do we have short range communications yet?" "Sort of, sir, but only very short range. We're not in hailing distance yet." "As soon as we are, patch me through to Pushkin. Ensign," he turned to Reed's replacement at tactical, "charge the hull plating and bring weapons on line." They could only wait and Archer took advantage to move over to the science station. "T'Pol, can you tell if Trip's alive?" "Sensors are unable to discriminate one individual at this range." "That's not what I meant. You two are bonded in some way. Is he alive?" She stared back, expression unreadable. "I do not know." The captain drew a quick breath and admitted to himself that the question had probably been out of line. Just because T'Pol wasn't showing any sign of worry was no reason to try to alleviate his own fears. They were two minutes away and the woman at engineering was becoming increasingly frantic in her pleas for Archer to slow down when T'Pol remarked, "Pushkin's weapons have been powered down." At the same moment, Sato said, "They're in hailing range. They're responding." Immediately an image of Pushkin's bridge appeared on the view screen, dominated by a furious Dexter. "Archer!" he roared. "Damn you and your treacherous crew. I should have killed them. Killed you all." "Captain Dexter." Archer was on his feet, trying to pitch his voice to cut through the other man's hysteria. "Back off from that freighter." "But we have to destroy them, Jon." In a stomach-wrenching change he had gone from raging to dead calm. "All of them. War's the only answer." "War's never the answer. Move Pushkin away." "We're in position, sir," Mayweather reported sotto vox and Dexter must have received a similar report for his mood changed again. "Don't stand in my way, Jon, or I'll destroy you too." The screen went dark and Sato shook her head. "They've cut the channel, captain." "Try hailing Commander Tucker. It sounds as if he and Reed might be on the loose over there." Things were starting to go wrong for Tucker. He had made it to auxiliary control with an ease that surprised him until he remembered that Pushkin was operating with a skeleton crew, and been able to gain control of a number of key systems. But now someone with a higher security clearance was cutting him out and there appeared to be an assault team determined to break in. "Tucker to Reed." "Go ahead." "Tell me you've taken the bridge." "Sorry, sir. They've erected a force field across the access shaft." "Well, you invented the damn thing! Get rid of it." "I'm trying, sir." "Try harder! I'm running out of ideas for not killing us." His communicator bleeped to indicate an alternate call and he jumped, switching channels eagerly. "Enterprise?" "Trip," as usual Archer sounded confident and unconsciously Tucker relaxed just a little, "what's your status?" "I'm in auxiliary control. Malcolm's trying to get to the bridge but we're running out of options." There was the sound of an explosion against the door and Tucker ducked instinctively, seeing the buckled metal when he straightened. "Trip?" "I'm OK but they're nearly in. They still think we're the bad guys." "Can you de-polarise the hull plating?" "No. Dexter's shut me out." He glanced at the one path he had managed to keep open; Dexter didn't think he'd use it. "I can activate the self-destruct." There was no immediate reply and Tucker winced as he noted the manoeuvring thrusters power up. "Cap'n, he's gonna ram you. A direct impact on a warp nacelle and she'll blow." He could hear Archer giving crisp orders to Mayweather at the helm and more to tactical and felt Pushkin shudder as she was hit by her sister ship's phase cannons. "Cap'n?" "Not yet, Trip. We've still got other options." Another explosion from the direction of the damaged door sent Tucker down behind the console again and this time he stayed down as projectile weapons' fire arced over his head; the Klingons had removed all Pushkin's store of advanced weaponry. "Hey! Don't use those things in here! You'll damage something." The protest was instinctive and he certainly hadn't expected a response, yet he got one and a very tentative one at that. "Commander Tucker?" "Yeah." He resisted the urge to ask who the hell else they had expected and cautiously stood up; T'Pol would later accuse him of being far too trusting. "Harry?" It was one of Pushkin's engineers heading up the security detail, a man who had worked shoulder to shoulder with him for days. "Would you consider pointing that weapon elsewhere?" Contritely the man jerked the gun up, as did the two behind him. "Sorry, sir." "Right." Tucker's mercurial temperament bounced back to optimism. "Let's get to Engineering and stop this before we all get killed." He led the way at a run, hailing Enterprise as they went. "Cap'n, some of Pushkin's crew have come to their senses. I reckon if I can get into Engineering I can cut main power." "Try it." Archer's voice was strained. "We're taking damage here." Archer hadn't been exaggerating. Enterprise and Pushkin were too evenly matched for comfort and Dexter didn't care what he did to his own ship, nor about the risks he took with his crew's lives, as long as he could destroy Enterprise. Then his next target would be the Klingon freighter which had retreated to a safe distance but was not running away. Enterprise had lost warp power soon after the battle began when the over-stressed warp engine had shut down and now her hull plating was failing and her weapons no longer doing much to slow Pushkin down. All Travis' skill couldn't keep Enterprise from being crippled before much longer. Grimly Archer was starting to acknowledge that destruction of Pushkin from within might be his only option when Tucker's news about the change of heart of some of Pushkin's crew had made him delay the order. Then barely five minutes later Pushkin's under body caught Enterprise's upper decks and the impact and a series of explosions flung them all to the deck as the lights went out. Archer dragged himself up as the emergency lights flickered reluctantly on and looked around his wrecked bridge, hardly registering the pain from a broken wrist. T'Pol was crawling back to her station, green blood trickling down the side of her face, but Mayweather was sprawled motionless on the deck in front of the helm and no one was stirring by tactical. Furious, Archer stumbled over to take the helm himself but it was dead. "What's our status?" "We have emergency power only." T'Pol sounded shakily unlike herself. "Hull plating and weapons are off-line. Hull breaches on decks 2 through 5. Emergency bulkheads have closed." "Comm.s?" "Possibly." A quick look showed Archer that the Vulcan woman was clinging tightly to her console, holding herself up with difficulty. He took a moment to guide her into a chair then turned to the comm. station where Sato was back in place although looking very shaken. He activated the channel himself. "Trip?" "Cap'n. You OK over there?" "No. Trip, it's your call now. Do what you have too." "Yes, sir." Archer thought he heard the other man draw a breath to add something but all he did was sign off. The captain did the only thing left to him and began to check on the status of his injured crew. Continued in Part Six -- Stephen Ratliff ASC Stories Only Forwarding In the Pattern Buffer at: http//trekiverse.crosswinds.net/feed/ Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASCL/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:ASCL-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! 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