said.
order your crew to surrender. Do you want these children
to die?”
Taggart was staring at the view screen as if he was
looking directly at me. His chest heaved as he took a
breath. “Very well, I order you to… lock onto my com
badge signal and fire!”
“Nooo!” Kadek roared. A flash of light glinted off
his dagger as he drew it and stabbed it into Captain Taggart’s side. I watched helplessly as Taggart doubled over.
“Number One, you have the bridge… make me
proud.” He gasped for breath and then collapsed out of
view.
The numbness I had felt turned to burning rage.
“Cut the comm!” I ordered. “Flores, what do we have on
weapons?”
“I can give you all we’ve got on emergency power.”
“Do it!”
“Locking on and… firing! Direct hit! The ship is
decloaking!” The view screen revealed a Negh’Var Class
Klingon battlecruiser. “Their structural integrity is at
55%!”
“Fire at will!”
“I’m afraid that’s all we’ve got, sir,” Zara spoke
up, “and until we get the plasma injectors back online,
we’re dead in the water.”
“T’Vrell, send a distress signal.” I ordered.
“I’m sorry, the communications array is offline,”
T’Vrell said with a hint of fear in her voice.
Suddenly, the room began to spin around me as a
powerful darkness began closing in. I sunk into my chair.
The frightened chatter of my colleagues rang in my ears.
“What are we going to do?”
“We’ve only got power for minimal lighting and
life support now!”
“What are we going to do without a Captain?”
“We’re all going to die!”
Die like Captain Taggart did… What do I do?
What do I do now? I could see him in my mind: the captain doubling over as the blade pierced him through.
His last words reverberated through the empty
space of my mind, “Number One… make me proud…”
Those words were for me. I had to do this. I couldn’t let
him down, not now, not at this crucial moment.
Encouraged and determined, I stood up. “No!” I
said. “We are not going to die! We can do this! We are the
class of 2409! We are Starfleet Academy’s best and
brightest, and we are not going to die!”
The bridge became dead silent, and a great calm
filled the room. Elisa stood up at her tactical console. Her
eyes glinted with tears, but she forced a little half-smile.
“What do you want us to do, Captain?” Words could not
describe how grateful I was for her at that moment.
Captain Taggart turned to me. “What are your
thoughts on this, Anjohl?”
“Tachyon emissions can indicate a cloaking device, perhaps a cloaked ship,” I said.
“You’re right.” He looked down, his eyes seemingly searching the floor for answers.
“Is this part of the training?” I ventured to ask.
Taggart held me in his stern gaze. “No. This is
real.”
Suddenly the ship shook with a mighty force.
“We’ve been hit!” Elisa called out. “Photon torpedo to the
port nacelle! Structural integrity is at 87%”
“Shields up! Red alert!” Taggart ordered.
“Two of our plasma injectors are offline,” Zarva
called out.
Potter was tapping furiously on her console.
“We’re losing warp field integrity!”
“Drop out of warp!” commanded Taggart. Potter
obeyed, and the ship came to a stop in normal space.
“Second torpedo on an intercept course!” Elisa
yelled.
Taggart gripped his chair. “Brace for impact!” The
entire ship quaked.
“Shields are at 75%,” Odok said.
“They’ve hit our starboard nacelle,” Zarva said.
“Plasma injectors are shot. We’re not going anywhere anytime soon.”
“But who are they?” Potter sounded exasperated.
“Captain! Torpedo salvo headed this way!” Elisa
exclaimed.
Taggart got on the comm system. “All hands,
brace for impact!” All around us, lights flickered and computer consoles sparked.
“Shields are down!” Odok yelled. “Switching to
emergency backups for power.”
“Captain, we’re being hailed,” T’Vrell said.
“Onscreen,” Taggart said, a note of desperation in
his voice. A huge, ugly looking humanoid being, a
Klingon, filled the view screen. His black dreadlocks came
to his shoulders and his lip was curled into a sneer.
“I am Captain Kadek of the I.K.S. Chot. You will
surrender your miserable excuse of a starship to the
Klingon Empire.”
Captain Taggart shot out of his chair. “Over my
dead body!”
“As you wish,” Kadek replied with a smirk.
“Energize!” Suddenly Captain Taggart dematerialized in
front of my eyes and appeared on the view screen next to
Kadek. Two burly-looking Orion security officers seized
him.
“Now Captain,” Kadek said, “be reasonable and
6