42. Chapter 42 (2/2)

the birds-of-prey had an advantage over the delus class to begin with, though that might be compensated for by a veteran crew, but the warbirds were in a whole different class, and the delus class ships were badly outmatched here, despite their numerical superiority. the romulans knew it too, for the warbirds kept course for alpha centauri, shrugging off the hits by their delus pursuers with a regal indifference, while firing banks of disruptor cannons at the starfleet vessels. the delus were holding their own for now, mainly through agility and maneuvering tactics which placed the delus ships at the aft of the warbirds, thus providing the smallest target, and avoiding a

oadsides scenario, but it would only be a matter of time before their luck would run out.

the other delus ships had better luck with the birds-of-prey, but nothing to

ag about, and even here the human ships were getting the worst of it, if not by so wide a margin, and so the jockeying for advantageous positions continued in the running battle, even as phaser cannon batteries struck out at the romulan ships, and romulan disruptor batteries struck out at the human ships, all as the romulan warbirds drew closer and closer to alpha centauri.

right on time at 1900 hours, trip returned to ryan's office, and the two then took an embassy car to soval's house on the northern side of the capital city, in a place called the seven hills, because well, there this neighborhood was surrounded by seven magnificent hills. there was some prestige to living here, for it was this area which was first settled some three thousand years ago at the city's founding, but it was more than that. this site allowed a wonderful view of the rest of the capital city from high above, and better yet, the area boasted a number of hot artesian springs, which formed the basis of the extensive network of mineral baths, reputed to be a cure for just about any illness.

"beautiful place," said trip, watching the terrain and houses as the car made way for soval's house.

"yes," said ryan. "the relatively high amount of water in the seven hills supports a richer plant life mix."

trip murmured his understanding of that fact, and in short time their car had reached soval's house.

if asked to guess soval's taste in architecture, trip would have drawn a blank. vulcans tended to be somewhat restrained, so trip would have known it wouldn't be tacky, but nothing more than that… he'd certainly never have expected soval's sprawled out compound. oh the main house was grand enough, but it was build of rammed earth and stone, and so it fit in beautifully with the rugged vulcan terrain… and the subsidiary buildings were laid out in something of a square pattern, leaving space for a large and beautiful outdoor courtyard of sorts, but a private one, and this night that inner courtyard was beautifully decorated by the catering company with which soval had contracted for this evening.

to his surprise, trip enjoyed himself at that party right from the start. the stream of appetizers was continuous and of endless variety, each different kind delicious, and to trip's surprise a dozen or so types of liquor were served, along with the expected risan teas, earth's coffee and regulan juices… soval was clearly a gourmand, or at the very least the ambassador had been wise in selecting that particular catering company.

ryan had ditched trip in order to speak to a vulcan navy rear-admiral he'd long been acquainted with, which suited trip just fine, and so he moved about the party, eating and making a tasting tour of the various liquors, conversing politely with a number of soval's guests, which perhaps not surprisingly, included a fair number of alien species, mostly diplomats or their families.

it was just after trip had given a young denobulan female the slip, for trip was certain that admiral ryan would not approve of the activities which the young woman had just proposed, that trip was approached by a middle aged vulcan, bearing two fluted glasses, one of which she held out for trip to take.

"much obliged, ma'am," said trip. "what is it?"

"regulan ovril," said the vulcan. "you'll like it, it has a bit of sweetness to it."

trip took a sip, and nodded approvingly, then said, "it's quite good, and you were kind to share it with me, ma'am."

"i am t'les, captain tucker," said the vulcan, "and soval tells me that you know my daughter."

"you must be ensign sato's mom," said trip, a grin on his face, for he'd recognized the name the moment he'd heard it.

"no," said t'les, and it was impossible to know how she felt about trip's quip: she had a hell of a poker face. "i am t'pol's mother."

"oh, ok," said trip. "you know, i mean no disrespect, but t'pol can be quite infuriating at times. she's often driven me to the

ink of madness."

"and now i see that you truly do know t'pol," said t'les, only the slightest upturn at the corners of her mouth.

"that i do," said trip, "and i'll tell you that i've seen t'pol in some pretty stressful situations, but i've never seen her so intimidated as when she spoke of her accomplished mother."

"is that so?" said t'les. "i would like to hear some of the things which t'pol has done in starfleet, captain. perhaps we could find someplace to sit down and talk."

"i apologize, but i can't do it, t'les," said trip, for just then ryan caught trip's eye, then gestured towards him. "admiral ryan wishes to speak with soval and i right now apparently, and then i'm scheduled to meet with some mid-level members of your high command, in order to prepare me for my assignment here on vulcan."

"i understand," said t'les.

trip nodded, then inspiration struck him. vulcans worked on a four day on, three days off schedule, and the off-days would begin tomorrow.

"what are you doing tomorrow, t'les?"

"nothing," said t'les. "what do you have in mind?"

"let me buy you a meal at the restaurant of your choice," said trip, "and we'll speak of your rebellious daughter to your heart's content."

that offer pleased t'les greatly, and so the vulcan passed trip a business card.

"come to my house instead, for lunch, captain tucker. i will cook for us," said t'les. "my address is printed there, so a hire-car can

ing you there easily."

"it's a date," said trip.

"a date?"

"a scheduled time for cordial social interaction," said trip. "if you should speak of this to t'pol, tell her we're dating. tell her that i'm dating the hell out of you. she'll know what it means."

"i will do so," said t'les.

"until tomorrow, t'les."

"i look forward to it, captain tucker," said t'les.

"captain!" said the trebia's tactical officer to captain volkov, "i've got radiological signals from the warbirds. they're going to nuke alpha centauri."

"fuck me," said volkov. "comm, order all ships to focus their attacks on the warbirds! three teams of eight."

"aye, captain," said the trebia's comm officer.

the tactical officer sighed, for although volkov had made the right call, the delus class ships would be chewed up by the birds-of-prey if they were not fighting back… tough call to make, but volkov had made the right call, and if alpha centauri was nuked this day, it would never be said that the crews of this squadron had not done their duty honorably.

what followed was a nasty scene with every delus ship concentrating fire on the warbirds, while relying on mobility and fast fading shields to keep the birds-of-prey from blasting them all to hell, yet none of it was enough, at least not for the trebia.

a salvo of disruptor fire struck the trebia, practically gutting the ship and venting the contents of two sections into space, but that wasn't the worst of it…

"captain," said hendricks, the trebia's chief engineer. "that last hit did us in. i've got a warp field

each in progress. we're done."

"how long?" said volkov, hoping at least that the crew could evacuate the ship and reach alpha centauri: he'd go down with the ship.

"ninety seconds or so," said hendricks, and volkov paled at that, for failing his crew was a captain's worst nightmare, and no matter the facts, volkov considered the loss of his crew a failure on his part.

even as the captain processed the situation, the

idge crew looked at each other grimly: none of the crew would make it off this ship in ninety seconds.

"understood," said volkov, silent for a few seconds, and then he spoke again. "do we still have impulse?"

"yes, captain, and i can rev the hell out of the impulse engines," said hendriks, already seeing the captain's plan. "not like we have to worry about voiding the warranty."

"get them hot, chief," said volkov.

"aye, sir," said hendricks. "pleasure serving with you, captain."

"likewise, chief," said volkov, and then the captain focused his attention on the

idge crew. "comm, reach out to the valley forge and tell saltan he has command of the squadron."

"yes, captain," said the comm officer.

"helm, your target will be the lead warbird," said volkov.

"aye, captain," said the helm officer, a young man willing to do his duty to the bitter end. "i now have full impulse power."

"the valley forge asks if we need assistance," said the comm officer.

volkov ignored that officer, his world collapsing upon itself, even as the clock was running out.

"do it!" said volkov, and on the captain's command, the trebia launched itself at the lead warbird like a spear of the gods at full impulse speed.

a common misconception is that shields are an invulnerable barrier so long as they're functional, but that's just not the case. the strength of shields is determined by the power output of the engines, thus larger ships tend to have larger engines, and thus stronger shields, but no ship's shield was strong enough to deal with what happened next.

the trebia had a mass of 340,000 metric tons, just about half that of an nx class ship, and this mass was accelerated in the blink of an eye to full impulse speed, 70 million kilometers per hour, to almost instantaneously deliver a blow too speedy to avoid, too powerful to deflect… no shield could withstand that sort of hit, and though the trebia

oke up on impact with warbird's shields, that incredibly fast moving mass of metal plowed onwards into the warbird and turned that huge romulan ship into a de

is field faster than the

ain could process the initial stages of that visual data, and then that even larger de

is field composed of the wreckage of two ships, in turn damaged another six romulan birds-of-prey, while outright destroying two others, and damaging another warbird.

both sides were stunned by the violence of the trebia's death, yet almost immediately, nine more delus class ships began overpowering their impulse engines… out of the romulan ships, only the two remaining warbirds carried nukes, and it was clear to the romulans that the warbirds would not be allowed to approach alpha centauri… it seemed the starfleet officers had decided that no matter what happened here next, alpha centauri would not burn this day.

the romulans took note of the fact that at least nine more ships were willing to duplicate that startling maneuver, surprised for the first time since they'd begun their war against the humans. a man willing to die in order to destroy you, well, that man is hard to beat, and with that thought the romulans retreated, for there was no purpose to be served in losing two more of the rare and valuable warbirds this way.

oh, certainly, they might have tried to cloak themselves and close in on alpha centauri, but cloaking the huge warbirds would take 9.2 seconds, and if the humans were truly committed and willing to sacrifice themselves, they could die and take the warbirds with them before the cloaking device could conceal them. at that realization, the romulans retreated, and with that retreat the battle of alpha centauri came to a close with both sides bloodied badly, and a true victory for the humans. their first.