STAR TREK: Enterprise - Shockwave Read online

  The cell-ships disengaged their tractor beams and quickly moved away from Enterprise. The crews obviously did not want to get caught in the ship’s demise. The arcs of energy cracked more wildly then before and the explosions rocked the ship.

  One of the plumes of plasma ignited in a spectacular flash. It sent out an immense wave of gaseous flames [219] toward one of the Suliban ships. The pilot of the cell-ship frantically worked the controls to get himself out of the line of fire and impending explosion. His tiny cockpit was illuminated by the fireworks.

  The two cell-ships rolled back to the nebula trying to put as much distance between themselves and Enterprise as they could. The Suliban looked back as the ship faded from view and pitied the poor souls trapped on board.

  As the Suliban ships disappeared behind the red veil, the arcs of energy surrounding Enterprise diminished and the explosions on its outer hull sputtered out. The plumes of plasma exhaust were last to disappear, but soon even they were slowly fading into space.

  After a brief moment, the two nacelles flared with power. Enterprise lurched forward, but rather than exploding, it jumped to warp, escaping Suliban territory.

  On the bridge, T’Pol was in the captains chair with most of the crew in their usual positions monitoring consoles and performing their duties. Reed, however, was down in sickbay, recovering from the brutal beating he had taken at the hands of their captors.

  “The antimatter stream is back to normal,” Mayweather reported from his station.

  “You may have overdone your pyrotechnic display,” T’Pol said to Trip as she confirmed the information from her own screen on the arm of the chair. “The scorching on the starboard nacelle is extensive.”

  “I’ll try to remember that the next time we have to fake [220] a reactor breach,” Trip responded with his typical brand of sarcasm laced with Southern charm.

  An alarm started beeping—just one of the many alarms the ship had sounded in the past hour.

  “Cell-ships! Thirty of them,” Hoshi anxiously announced from her station. She had managed to replace her uniform, but had not had enough time to take that hot shower. “Thirty-five! Approaching at high warp.”

  “Maintain your course and speed, ensign,” T’Pol ordered Mayweather calmly.

  Mayweather, however, shared Hoshi’s concern.

  Silik continued to watch the evolving shape within the glowing column of light. It had definitely taken on the form of a humanoid figure. But the mysterious being had yet to respond to him.

  “I’ve tried to reach you,” Silik explained, hoping that he would not be punished. “I’ve tried for two days.” All the excitement he had felt about making contact had shifted to fear. “I did what you told me but Archer wasn’t aboard Enterprise. There was some kind of temporal signature. I need instructions!”

  The figure continued to stand motionless in the light. There was no response.

  “I don’t know how to operate this device,” Silik pleaded. “I need your help!”

  Finally the figure spoke—but its voice was severely distorted and completely unintelligible. To Silik it was a gift. He had made contact.

  [221] “I hear you, but I don’t understand,” he said with equal amounts of excitement and trepidation. “Repeat what you said. Please repeat what you said.”

  There was an interminable moment of silence as Silik waited for the words to come again. He noticed movement within the light and assumed that his benefactor was trying to break through the centuries to relay his instructions. Silik was practically shaking with excitement. He was not going to be punished. He might even be rewarded. All he could think about were the new and exciting gifts that he was about to receive.

  The figure shifted on the platform and then suddenly leaped forward through the column of light. He exploded into the reality of the temporal chamber. His body took on solid form with a most definitely human appearance, as it jumped off the platform.

  “I said, ‘You’re an ugly bastard.’ ” Captain Archer tackled the Suliban and the two men landed hard on the floor and rolled across the deck. Silik quickly overcame his astonishment enough to fight back, but Archer had already used the element of surprise to his advantage. He gained the upper hand before the Suliban could think to use any of his genetic tricks.

  Silik threw a punch at Archer, but his fist hardly connected. Without hesitation, Archer brought up his own hand. He was holding an object that Silik couldn’t make out. Archer didn’t give the Suliban time to react as he brought the hand down hard on Silik’s face.

  Archer released the item from his hand. It was the piece [222] of concrete he had used to pound out the copper wire. It rolled across the deck while Silik lay dazed from its impact. Archer reached into the Suliban’s holster and removed his weapon. He placed it against Silik’s temple as his prisoner stirred to consciousness.

  “If you try shape-shifting on me,” Archer said, pressing the weapon into the mottled green yellow skin, “or pulling one of your chameleon routines, I promise you, Silik, I’ll blow your head off.”

  Chapter 22

  “Has Enterprise left the nebula?” Archer asked, still holding the weapon on Silik.

  “Can’t you see? I’ve brought you Archer!” Silik called out to his benefactor in a last desperate attempt to vindicate himself. “He’s here! Archer’s here! There’s no need to punish me!”

  “Where’s my ship, Silik?” Archer insisted.

  It finally started to dawn on the Cabal leader that he was alone. “They’ve left,” he said. “They’re gone.”

  “How many cell-ships did you send after them?” Archer asked.

  But Silik’s mind was too preoccupied to respond.

  “Silik!” Archer persisted.

  “I don’t know,” Silik answered honestly. He’d turned the mission over to Raan, and could only guess. “Twenty? Thirty?”

  [224] “You’re going to call them off,” Archer said, then remembered something that T’Pol had told him. “And then you’re going to give me back those data discs. Now get up, nice and slowly.”

  “My soldiers won’t let you leave,” Silik defiantly stated.

  “Get up,” Archer demanded.

  Silik reluctantly rose to his feet. Archer pushed him toward the exit, but stopped before they crossed the threshold. The captain held tightly to his prisoner as he removed the weapon from Silik’s forehead. Archer slowly turned back into the room and took aim. It only took a single blast to obliterate the device sitting on the platform.

  Enterprise raced through space with a pack of cell-ships on its tail. Hopelessly outgunned, the Starfleet vessel returned fire as it fled.

  Sickbay shuddered under the assault and Phlox’s critter collection let loose with a series of howls and chattering. The doctor alternated between calming the animals and tending to one disagreeable patient.

  “I need to get to the bridge,” Reed insisted as he sat up on the biobed, taking a moment to steady himself.

  “No, Lieutenant, you don’t,” Phlox replied as he attempted to gently guide Reed back down on the bed. “I’m not happy with the looks of that concussion. I don’t need you injuring yourself again by slamming yourself into a console.”

  “If the ship is destroyed it won’t very well matter what [225] happens to my head,” Reed replied caustically. He tried to stand but fell back onto the bed. A moment later the ship trembled again. If he had only waited a second he could have blamed his fall on the jolt.

  “And if you can hardly stand you can hardly expect to be able to aim the ship’s weapons can you?” the doctor shot back with a menacing look. The amiable doctor with the impossibly large smile Reed was used to was gone.

  A pain shot through Reed’s head. He knew the doctor was right but it didn’t make it any easier. He had been trapped in his quarters while Suliban took control of the ship and now he was stuck in sickbay during a relentless attack. He didn’t care that he had sacrificed his own body in their scheme to retrieve the captain. He didn’t even k
now if that sacrifice had been worthwhile—was the captain back? And he couldn’t believe that he had taken a brutal beating from the Suliban and yet couldn’t manage to defy one generally easygoing Denobulan doctor.

  The ship shook once more as it came under fire.

  I need to be at my station, Reed thought as he reluctantly lay back on the bed.

  “Hoshi? Any sign of the Vulcan ship?” Trip asked in desperation.

  “Not yet!” she yelled over the din. There was nothing on her monitor except for the thirty-five Suliban ships.

  Enterprise rocked with a hard shake as consoles exploded around the bridge.

  [226] “Hull plating on the port-aft quarter’s offline!” Mayweather reported.

  Another jolt shook the ship.

  “Alter course,” T’Pol commanded. “Ten degrees starboard.”

  Mayweather slowly turned the ship as T’Pol had ordered. He was angling its vulnerable port quarter away from the pursuing cell-ships so the less damaged sections of hull could absorb the repeated impact of the Suliban weapons.

  Tensions were rising on the bridge as the siege continued.

  “They’re closing!” Mayweather yelled.

  Trip frantically worked the tactical controls and the aft phase cannon let loose a powerful beam. It struck a cell-ship, which tumbled out of control and smashed into another vessel. Both enemy vessels were destroyed.

  “The lead ships are overtaking us,” Hoshi reported with barely concealed fear.

  A massive jolt struck Enterprise as the crew held onto whatever they could to keep from flying across the bridge.

  The attacking cell-ships continued to blaze around Enterprise. They were pummeling the ship with weapons fire in what seemed remarkably like a space-based version of a bee swarm attacking.

  “Port hull-plating’s down!” Mayweather reported, with fear beginning to creep into his own voice. “Ventral plating as well.”

  Several blasts resounded across the bridge and then ... [227] everything suddenly went silent. There was a long quiet beat.

  For a moment, Hoshi thought she had died. “Why did they stop firing?” she asked as she checked her monitor.

  “Why waste ammunition?” Mayweather responded with a sense of defeat. “They have us surrounded.”

  The swarm of cell-ships encircling Enterprise hung in space. None of the ships made a move toward the Starfleet vessel. The Suliban did not try to initiate contact.

  The silence continued on the Enterprise bridge as the crew tried to figure out what was going on.

  “Are long range sensors still operational?” T’Pol asked.

  Hoshi gave a somber nod. “No Vulcan ship,” she replied.

  And then the bridge monitors displayed a truly astonishing sight. The cell-ships were starting to peel away from Enterprise one by one. They were retreating from their prey as if they were the ones in danger.

  Mayweather studied his console, confused. “Sub-Commander?”

  “I see them,” T’Pol responded, confirming the scans on the armchair console.

  “Son of a bitch!” Trip rejoiced as he watched the last few cell-ships disappear from his screen. “He did it!”

  An alarm sounded at Mayweather’s station.

  “One cell-ship,” he reported with a smile. “Approaching from aft.”

  “Stand down weapons,” T’Pol commanded Trip solely [228] for the sake of formality. She then turned to Hoshi. “Open a channel.”

  Hoshi worked at her station, then nodded to T’Pol.

  “Enterprise to Suliban vessel,” T’Pol said.

  “Go ahead, Enterprise,” Captain Archer’s welcome voice came over the com.

  Smiles from the entire crew, save the Vulcan, spread across the bridge.

  “Good to hear your voice, Captain,” Trip spoke for them all.

  “Good to hear yours,” Archer agreed from behind the controls of the Suliban ship. “I feel like I’ve been away for a thousand years. Is everyone all right?”

  “Lieutenant Reed suffered some minor injuries,” T’Pol reported. “But he’s recovering in sickbay.”

  Archer was pleased to hear that his crew had gotten through the experience mostly intact. Although he could see that his ship had suffered a fair amount of damage.

  “Captain, I’m curious,” T’Pol added over the com. “Why didn’t the other cell-ships try to stop you?”

  “I know it’s not standard Starfleet procedure, but I took a hostage,” Archer admitted as he looked down to confirm that Silik was still unconscious at his feet. “By the time he wakes up, we’ll be long gone.”

  Archer had considered taking the Suliban prisoner with them as he was responsible for the deaths of the Paraagan colonists. But the captain knew they had only gotten a brief reprieve from the cell-ships. If they held on to Silik, he expected that the Suliban would stop at nothing to [229] retrieve their leader, even if it meant killing him in the process. Archer knew that he and Silik would have their day again some time in the future.

  “Request permission to dock.” Archer lightly asked.

  “Permission granted,” T’Pol replied, finally allowing almost the smallest hint of a smile as her lips curled up slightly at the edges.

  Chapter 23

  A day later, the crew had managed to clean up and heal some wounds. Repairs to the ship had begun, but it was going to take a while to get everything back in ship-shape. Trip’s faked warp core breach was a little closer to the real thing than anyone would have hoped. Of course, they still had to learn whether or not they really needed to bother with the repairs at all.

  Enterprise had docked with the Vulcan ship, D’kyr, only a short time ago. The conversation between Archer and her captain had been brief and more clipped than the usual human and Vulcan interactions. T’Pol seemed to be avoiding her compatriots altogether, which led Archer to believe that there was something going on with the sub-commander of which he was unaware.

  The two D’kyr officers had joined the senior staff on the Enterprise bridge. They were all standing stiffly at attention, watching the viewscreen. Both Vulcans and humans [231] were in dress uniforms. The atmosphere was formal and tense.

  The image projected before them originated on Earth and was carried through the communications satellites Enterprise had previously deployed, Echo One and Echo Two. Onscreen was Admiral Forrest, Commander Williams, and two other high-ranking members of the Command Council. They, too, were in dress uniforms. Ambassador Soval was also in attendance with his own Vulcan dignitaries. The meeting that took place over light-years was one of the most important in Earth’s recent history.

  Archer couldn’t help but think that, based on what he had seen in the future, they were about to determine no less than the fate of humanity. It was a daunting task to convince the Command Council of the events of the previous few days. He stuck mainly to the facts surrounding the events in retrieving the data discs that proved their innocence in the tragedy at the Paraagan colony. A previous hurried conversation with Admiral Forrest had led them both to agree to only briefly touch on the whole notion of time travel with the Vulcans. That was a subject for conversation at a much later date.

  After the captain had stated his case, the members of the Command Council made only a few comments, apparently preferring to discuss the incident in private. They did agree that there was much to consider. Even if Enterprise had proven the crew’s innocence in the eyes of Starfleet Command, other factors would most certainly come into play. And everyone knew that “other factors” meant the [232] Vulcans. But with that part out of the way, Forrest turned the tribunal over to the Ambassador Soval.

  Soval took a moment to consider all that he had been told. “While your explanation of how you obtained the discs is somewhat implausible,” he said, “it’s obvious that Enterprise was not responsible for the destruction of the colony.”

  Archer nearly broke out with a victorious cheer at finally getting through to the Vulcans. He settled for just a slight hint of a smile.
“It may seem implausible to you, but ...”

  “Please allow me to finish,” the ambassador interrupted.

  Archer tried not to let his annoyance show. I should have known we wouldn’t get off that easily, he thought as his body stiffened, preparing himself for Soval to continue.

  “In less than a single Earth year,” the ambassador said, “you’ve engaged in armed conflicts with over a dozen species. You’ve escalated the conflict between my people and the Andorians, which included the destruction of one of our most sacred monasteries. You helped eighty-nine Suliban escape from detention.”

  Soval paused for a moment to let the accusations hang in the air. Archer was tempted to interrupt again and explain himself, but he knew it would be pointless. Soval was gearing up for something and was not going to be swayed.

  “You may claim to be on a mission of exploration,” the ambassador continued. “I, however, consider you reckless and irresponsible—a danger to the quadrant.” He turned to Admiral Forrest. “Regardless of the evidence presented [233] here, I plan to advise the Vulcan High Command not to change its recommendation to Starfleet. Enterprise should be recalled.”

  The bridge crew did its best not to react. However, Trip could not contain himself. “You guys have wanted to scrub this mission from day one!” he accused. “We prove to you that we didn’t kill thirty-six hundred people, but you don’t want to hear it! You’re pathetic!”

  Archer shot him a look. This wasn’t the time or the place. Although Archer certainly couldn’t disagree with a thing his friend had said.

  “That’s enough, Commander,” Forrest admonished Trip, despite the fact that he too agreed with the sentiment. Turning back to the captain, he said, “No one is more pleased than I am that Enterprise wasn’t responsible for the tragedy, but Ambassador Soval’s argument may be valid.” This was the hardest part of the job for Forrest—remaining neutral. “Starfleet Command has a difficult decision to make here.”