Chapter Seven
Stevenson's plan was that the Eagle would
wake the creature up, since the ship was cloaked, the creature wouldn't see
them and would roam around the area. Using the program to fire while cloaked,
the Eagle would push the creature out of the crater, upon seeing the Sovereign,
the creature would most certainly attack, even though it wouldn't cause much
damage to the starship, it would be sufficient a diversion for the Eagle to
slip past the Sovereign without being detected and without having to
repair the alignment of the compensators.
«
Are we ready? » asked Kline.
« Ready, sir. » Burnel said.
The
commander turned to Stevenson who was sitting at the Engineering station. He answered:
« We're ready sir. All we need is the order. »
Kline
nodded, took a deep breath, the margin of error was slim in this operation. The
creature could have extra-sensory powers and detect the Eagle even if it
was cloaked, or the creature could make the whole asteroid close up on the
Starfleet ship, or the creature could just turn away from the Sovereign
instead of attacking it. Or the cloaking shields might even fail after the
weapons fire.
Sutter
seemed to sense the commander's concern: « Commander, we can still try to go
around the creature. Even though it's much more dangerous.
»
«
No... » Kline said. « Let's do it. »
Stevenson
said: « Ready to start cloak-weaponry systems. »
Mantion
reported: « Weapons at full strength, cloaking shield is holding. »
« Fire! »
A
red phaser beam, that seemed to appear from nowhere, lashed towards the
creature and hit it in its midsection.
« Direct hit. He's moving! » said Eskina.
On
the viewscreen, the creature contorted strangely, and then began moving
clumsily towards the Eagle.
Kline
frowned: « Is he coming towards us? »
«
There's no way to tell, sir. » said Eskina. « But if I were to take a wild
guess, I'd probably say he was. »
The
long creature continued moving, slowly towards the Eagle, Kline found
himself gripping the arms of his chair. He clenched his teeth, if the creature
had detected them; somehow, they were going to be crushed like a bug.
«
Fifteen seconds to impact. » Burnel reported.
«
Can we move out of the way? » asked Sutter.
«
If he's detected us, it won't make any difference. We're too close. » said
Stevenson.
The
massive space creature now took the entire viewscreen. No one on the bridge
said a word.
«
Five... » Burnel said.
Kline
closed his eyes and counted the seconds down in his head...he counted them as
slowly as he could. Trying to keep the seconds as long as
possible before they slipped out of his hands.
Three........Two.......One.......
Zero. . .
.
. .Zero. . .
Kline opened his eyes.
The
creature had turned; it was heading towards the exit of the crater.
Captain Kalian stared at the emptiness of space on the viewscreen.
«
Ferguson. » she said. « Do you still read the strange readings? »
« No, sir. But I've been going over the sensor logs. I'm
positive that something was there. » answered the young ensign,
«
Okay...We'll stay here five more minutes, then we'll report to Starfleet. » she
sighed, having to report an invisible space disruption to Starfleet command was
not something she was looking forward to do.
«
Captain! »
Kalian sighed in relief: « Is it a ship?
»
« On screen. »
She stood up from her command chair.
The large worm-like creature emerged
from the large crater. Strangely, Kalian thought it looked quite angry,
although she couldn't really know its mood.
« Shields up! »
« The shields won't be effective, sir.
» said the tactical officer. « The outer shell of the creature is made out of a
strange material. I don't think our shields will be any good. »
« Back us off! No... » she was cut off,
the creature rammed into the massive starship. Everyone was thrown across the
room.
« Damage report! » said Kalian.
« No damage, captain. » said
Meanwhile, a semi-cloaked vessel known
as the Eagle escaped quickly towards the nearby starbase.