Frank Levine made his way through the corridor, dodging other repair crews as they scrambled from one emergency repair to the next. Almost forgotten, he had volunteered to assist Lieutenant Rakes in repair efforts. The last thing he needed was for the XO or CO to remember he was onboard, and start wondering what he was doing. Better to blend in by helping. Besides, he was a Starfleet officer. He wasn’t going to sit around idly while his fellow men and women got slaughtered.

Reaching the busted EPS conduit he had been assigned to, Frank knelt down next to the petty officer already peering into the hole in the wall. A quick tricorder scan revealed unfortunate news.

“Well the conduit is working fine, but this EPS tap is toast. We’ll need to replace it.” Frank told the petty officer, while snapping the tricorder shut. “Start the removal process. I’ll go get another.”

The petty officer didn’t even look up. She just sighed, pulled a hyperspanner off her belt, and started disengaging the EPS tap connections.

Frank got up calmly and made his way down the corridor. Out of sight for the moment, he turned down the passageway towards Astrometrics.

Astrometrics

William Bishop was elbow-deep in a console when Lieutenant Levine entered the Astrometrics Lab, and didn’t hear the door swish open. Kneeling in a now-cold puddle of spilled coffee, Bishop was trying to reroute power to bring the console back online. Navigating inside the Briar Patch was a nuisance under normal conditions. With an enemy vessel hunting you down, it was a nightmare. He needed Astrometrics back online so he could hopefully warn the bridge before the Vaadwaur got the jump on them.

“What seems to be the trouble, Commander?” Frank’s unexpected voice startled Bishop, causing him to jump and hit his head on the console.

“Damn it. This console overloaded during the battle. I’m pretty certain the console itself will run, it just needs power reconnected. I’m trying to reroute it… but engineering was never my strong suit.” Bishop rubbed his head, feeling a small trickle of blood come from the fresh cut.

Frank stepped forward, careful to avoid the puddle and broken shards of ceramic mug. “Let me take a look, sir. I’ll have it up and running in about ten minutes, if you want to go get that taken care of.” He flicked his eyes up at Bishop’s new injury.

“Ah… alright. Thanks Lieutenant.” Bishop nodded at the man he didn’t recognize, and shuffled out the door.

That was convenient, thought Frank. Opening a side panel to the console, Frank took in the damage. Bishop had been correct, it just needed the power coupling to be shifted to backup. Fortunately for him, Frank had showed up in time to stop him from accidentally overloading the console a second time. Shifting two connections, Frank stood and watched the panel blink back online.

He pulled up the last two days worth of data the ship’s passive sensors had collected in the Briar Patch. Then, filtering out what he didn’t need, Frank had the 3D display show him any unusual flow patterns within the gaseous anomaly.

There. Two faint, but distinct trails made by something passing through the area. The paths didn’t correspond with the Truckee nor the Vaadwaur intruder. Somebody else was here, but hadn’t shown their faces yet. Perhaps they were content to simply observe? Frank hoped not, and prepared a message to send out. The Truckee was running as dark as possible at the moment, so there were no outbound signals he could hide his message in. He just had to hope nobody would notice with all the chaos going on.

Frank was out of time. The petty officer he’d left at the EPS tap would be wondering about him soon. There was no need to wait around for Commander Bishop to return, so Frank Levine deleted the record of his message, ran a diagnostic of the console for Bishop to find when he returned, and exited Astrometrics.

Bridge

Captain Beardsly leaned back in his chair with a grimace. The situation was grim. His bridge crew had just given a round of status updates. Shields at 45% and climbing. Several hull breaches. All sealed, but still holes in the ship. Sensors were operational, though that was little comfort in the Briar Patch. Aft phaser array was on the fritz, and couldn’t be counted on. Their only chance was the find the Vaadwaur and sneak up from behind, then sneak away again. Even if they could do that, Marcus wasn’t convinced they could prevail. He needed another option.

Turning to his XO, Marcus whispered. “What do you think? We already knew we couldn’t win a stand-up fight. Now we’re worse off, and we don’t even know if the Briar Patch is messing with their sensors like it is ours.”

Peldun Aldiib thought a moment before replying. “Then we must consider alternatives. It won’t get us anywhere to simply hope we’ll find them first.”

When his executive officer didn’t elaborate, Marcus prompted him. “I’m listening, commander. Whatever you’ve got, say it. I’m open to suggestions.”

“In that case, I have an idea. It is predicated on the assumption that their sensors are at least partially affected, as ours, but even if not, it should work…”

One hour later…

“Vaadwaur ship incoming!” Lieutenant Commander Nhar shouted as his panel blared a warning at him. The enemy ship emerged out of a particularly dense cloud of stellar gas.

Marcus leaned forward. This was it. He’d briefed the crew. They’d prepared. Now they just needed the Vaadwaur to take the bait.

“Bring us about, head straight for them! Weapons free, fire at will.” The words had barely left his mouth before the crew responded. That was ok, Marcus had given standing orders for this engagement. The Truckee whirled about, it’s relatively small bulk allowing it to maneuver much better than some of the more desirable classes of starships. Marcus watched as their red torpedoes hurled towards the Vaadwaur, passing the enemy’s green plasma weapons halfway.

The Truckee rocked as its regenerative shields absorbed another punishing blow. Only the blows didn’t stop. More and more directed energy fire landed on the Truckee‘s shields, and Marcus watched the shield status on the tactical readout drop steadily.

“We’re taking more hull damage. Fire reports on decks 2 and 3. Phaser arrays down! Our deflector has been hit!” Dhalan Nhar tried to keep the panic out of his voice as he reported the damage as it scrolled across his panel. So many lives at risk, and he was STILL stuck on the bridge!

“Cease fire. Hail them. Hail them! Surrender.” Marcus stood, bracing himself on his chair until the ship’s inertial dampeners regained control and stabilized the deck. The weapons fire had stopped from both sides. The Vaadwaur must have accepted their surrender. Or, were simply considering it…

“They’re answering, sir.” Dhalan Nhar reported. “Audio only.”

“Federation vessel. It is… admirable of you to have tried. I don’t know why your Star Fleet fields such pitiful ships, when you have better platforms available. It is unfortunate for you.” The Vaadwaur voice held a hint of pity, though Marcus didn’t think the enemy commander was mocking him. “Are you sure you wish to surrender? There will be no exchange of prisoners. You will not be returned to your Federation, as there will be not Federation by the time we are done.”

Marcus furrowed his brow at that, but before he could reply, the Vaadwaur commander continued. He must not have actually intended to allow Marcus to reconsider. “Very well. Prepare to be boarded. I am commandeering your vessel. I’ll put it on display around my new planet.  Not much of a trophy… but it surely won’t be the last. If a single member of your crew resists, I will simply execute you all. There will be no more discussion.”

Marcus looked around the bridge, slowly. He saw fear, but he also saw resolve. They were ready.

“Enemy sensors are scanning us. It looks like their transporter system is about to start-”

Marcus cut the doctor off. “This is it. Computer, execute order Beardsly-omega-six. Good luck.”

The computer chimed in response, and every panel on the ship went into lockdown. Power redirected to force fields around Sick Bay and designated triage centers. Simultaneously, transporter confinement beams surrounded the senior staff, and every able-bodied crewmember across the ship. By the time the Vaadwaur boarding parties materialized, the crew of the Truckee had vanished.