Part 8 (2/2)
”Only three torpedoes left,” the helmsman reported in a frightened voice even as Yar relayed the message to send Bosinney to Engineering.
”Go, boy!” she heard Dare tell Bosinney, then his voice just a bit clearer as he turned back to the intercom, ”Security armed and deployed to transporter and shuttle bay, and at least one phaser issued to each department. I'm on my way to the bridge with arms for all of you.”
The Starbound was too small to have a turbolift. By the time Dare reached the bridge, Jarvis had deployed the last of the torpedoes and only the s.h.i.+elds stood between them and the enemy.
One of Yar's screens whited out with overload. When it came back, she reported, ”Aft s.h.i.+eld out, Captain.”
”Captain,” reported Sethan, who had kept at her controls all this time, ”I have life-form identification on the hostile s.h.i.+p. Copper-based blood. From size, body temperature, s.h.i.+p's atmosphere, and attack pattern-” she swung around in her chair, a doll-like figure p.r.o.nouncing their doom, ”- they can only be Orions.”
This isn't happening, thought Yar. It's another test-it has to be! Orions never come this far into Federation s.p.a.ce- But as the back of her mind tried to deny it, the foreground kept her to Starfleet efficiency. ”Engineering reports damage to portside warp engine in that last blast, Captain. We're losing power.”
”Losing speed,” reported the helmsman. ”Warp four point six. Warp four. Warp three point five ... and holding.”
”Hostile s.h.i.+p closing!” Yar reported.
”Surrender,” said Captain Jarvis.
”Captain?” Yar spoke without thinking.
Jarvis spun her chair to face Yar. ”Surrender, Ensign! We've no weapons left, our engines are damaged, and our distress signal is jammed on all channels. If Orions take us alive, Starfleet has a chance to ransom us.”
Yar clamped her teeth over the automatic response, If they can find us.
”Better alive,” said Dare, although his thunderous expression told how much he hated to admit defeat. ”Always better alive.”
He was right, of course. There was only one reason for Orions to take such an incredible risk: they had to know about the dilithium. Slaves were not worth an incursion so deep into Federation territory ... which meant that the people were expendable. If they did not surrender, the Orions would simply blast the crippled Starbound to rubble, and from the remains sift out the impervious dilithium crystals.
Before she had even thought it through, Yar's reluctant hand had set the surrender signal broadcasting.
There was ... ”No response!” she reported in astonishment. ”Captain-they don't acknowledge our surrender!”
”What the h.e.l.l?!” demanded Dare, pus.h.i.+ng Yar away from the Security console. He double-checked the signal. ”It's broadcasting, and the visual light display is active if their jamming keeps them from picking up the radio signal. What can they want beyond surrender?”
What the Orions wanted, apparently, was to cripple the Starbound totally. They sent another barrage of torpedoes against the helpless training s.h.i.+p, then came alongside and boarded via a docking tube to the shuttle bay hatch. Since their surrender had not been accepted, Security and other armed personnel met them there. With only Phaser One operative they had little chance against the Orions' disruptors, phasers, and blasters.
”Dare,” Yar objected as they watched the slaughter on the s.h.i.+p's monitor, ”shouldn't we send the personnel from the transporter now that-”
”That's just what they hoped we'd do, Ensign!” he interrupted. ”There they come!”
Sure enough, Orions were now transporting aboard-and the Security trainees Dare had placed in the transporter room blasted them before they were recovered enough to move. ”Good work!” he told them over the intercom. ”Stay there for a moment-”
”Dare!” Yar gasped, directing his attention to the viewscreen that showed the chaos in Engineering. Orions were beaming in there-obviously they had scanned the Starbound thoroughly now, since her s.h.i.+elds were down, and did not have to aim for the transporter pad.
”Form a circle!” Dare instructed at once. Not even Captain Jarvis questioned the order, and they were all at the perimeter of the bridge when a knot of Orions appeared in the middle. With a cold smile, Dare was the first to fire, but the rest of the bridge crew were not far behind, and the boarding party fell as fast as it materialized.
For a few glorious moments, Yar thought that the crew of the Starbound might yet drive off the pirates.
But Orions were materializing everywhere now, and still coming steadily through the shuttle bay. And where they entered, they killed.
On the monitors, the bridge crew followed the progress of a contingent of Orions toward the bridge. As the enemy approached, the Starfleet members prepared. They had locked the doors to the corridor, of course, but it didn't take long for a barrage of phaser and disruptor fire to melt them away. Orions surged onto the bridge.
Sheltering behind the central consoles, the bridge crew gave a good accounting, but without full weaponry they had no chance. Henderson went down, then Captain Jarvis. Chief Engineer Nichols swore loudly as he drilled one of the Orions full center in his breastplate-but his voice cut off abruptly as another's shot took off the side of his head, blood and brains spattering Yar and Sethan.
Dare was shooting coolly, every shot counting-but for what?
Yar's phaser was discharged. She dropped it, scuttled behind the Captain's body to find the one she had dropped-and shouted ”Dare-look out!” as one of the fallen Orions in the center of the bridge moved, aiming a disruptor at the Security Chief.
Dare turned, felled that Orion, but was exposed to one of those by the doors, who shot him in the back.
As her fiance fell, Yar felt something inside turn to ice. She rose to her knees, took aim at the one who had shot Dare, and drilled him through the forehead. And she kept shooting until that phaser was discharged, and she was the last of the bridge crew taken, backhanded by the Orion who finally captured her. She struck the wall, and blessed oblivion overcame her.
Tasha Yar came to in the Starbound sickbay with the worst headache of her life. She had a concussion, Dr. Trent informed her, and applied an instrument behind her ear which quickly dispensed with the headache.
But not her heartache. ”Doctor-what happened?” she demanded.
”The Orions are gone,” the doctor said grimly. ”They took the dilithium crystals-turns out we were carrying some consignment Starfleet Command thought would be safe aboard because no one would expect it here-d.a.m.n their little bra.s.s hearts!”
”But ... they left us here?”
”Starfleet personnel don't make good slaves,” the medic said bitterly. ”Too strong-willed and determined.”
”How many survived?” Yar asked, the scenes of slaughter returning to her reluctant memory.
”Most of the trainees, for all the good it does us.”
”We're alive,” Yar said, pus.h.i.+ng out of her mind the fact that Dare was not. ”We can still get back to Earth.” She sat up. ”Who's in command? The Captain-?”
”Dead. They killed every experienced officer except Adin and me, and since he's unconscious I guess that leaves me in command.”
Yar heard only one thing in the doctor's statement. ”Commander Adin's alive?! Where is he?”
”Hey-you shouldn't get up yet!” the doctor began. Then, ”What the h.e.l.l-we'll all be dead in a few days anyway. Adin's over-”
Yar found Dare in one of the sickbay life-support beds, waxen pale and barely breathing. One of the nurses told her, ”The setting the Orions use kills instantly if the target is the brain. But if they hit somewhere else, the person can be revived with life support-if he's worth bothering with.” She looked sadly from Dare to the other patients in the same condition. ”Slavers' mentality, I suppose. After twenty or thirty minutes the victim is brain-dead.” A tear slipped her control. ”We lost at least ten people because we didn't have support beds or personnel to save them!”
But the immediate losses were not the worst of it. Once a.s.sured that Dare would not regain consciousness for hours yet, although he would survive unimpaired, Yar set out to discover the condition of the s.h.i.+p. The few people moving about had been conscious to the end-and their reports were grim indeed.
The Orions had left most of the medical personnel unharmed, but it was a brutal kindness. They had removed not only the dilithium crystals from the cargo, but those from the Starbound's own warp engines-and then methodically wrecked the impulse engines, the single shuttlecraft, and the life capsules. They had also removed irreplaceable components from the subs.p.a.ce radio, so the s.h.i.+p could not call for help. Finally, they had gone through the severely stunned victims of their attack and shot all the officers in the head-except for the chief medical officer and two experienced nurses.
When the pirates had gone, the medics worked their hearts out to save as many lives as they possibly could ... only to learn that they had doomed them to a lingering death. With neither the warp engines nor the impulse engines operational, battery-operated life support would fail in six days-and by the time Starfleet began to wonder why Starbound was late for her next planetfall, everyone on board would be many days dead.
Yar roamed the corridors, anguishedly searching for someone-anyone- with an idea to save them. But the trainees were too stunned to think, and there were no experienced officers left to guide them.
Except Dare.
How had he survived? All Yar could remember was his being struck in the back. He had fallen forward over some others of the bridge crew. Perhaps the Orions had not turned him over to see his face or insignia. However it had happened, Yar breathed a prayer of thanks to any G.o.d who might have had a hand in saving him. Even if only so that she and he could die together.
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