The Explorer dipped to stay behind the second ship, but the first one started raining fire on them from below.  Mansel and Vaughn exchanged glances, knowing that the ship wouldn’t hold up too much longer under the firepower of two ships. “Continue evasive maneuvers, Broadaway,” ordered Vaughn.  “Lieutenant Hardy, jam their transmissions so they can’t call for help.” “By the looks of it,” Mansel mumbled, “they won’t need much help.” “Captain,” Lamb spoke up from his station at Tactical, “suggest we boost power to the main cannon.” “That’ll drop an awful lot of energy,” Vaughn warned, “a lot of it from our shields.” “A risky maneuver,” Mansel said, but quickly agreed with Lamb.  “Reallocate power to the main cannon.” The Explorer’s main cannon, located on the underbelly of the ship’s disk section, whined as it started to come to life.  Never before had the ship’s cannon been used, only tested.  Lieutenant Commander Lamb had been dying to give it a try; it seemed that he would finally get his opportunity.  The lights dimmed somewhat as Lamb brought the main cannon online.  He grinned ruefully as he started to calibrate the targeting sensors.  His smile faded somewhat as the power levels from the phaser banks and the shields started to drop.  “This monster is sucking a lot of energy, Captain,” he reported. “What’s our shield status?” “Fifty percent--” he started to say before the ship was rocked and sparks flew from his console.  “Forty three percent,” he responded. “You okay Lamb?” Commander Vaughn asked, looking over to the tactical officer who was visibly shaken. Lamb nodded and wiped the sweat from his forehead.  “I’m fine, sir” he said, looking down at his screen.  “Console’s out, sir,” he reported with a hopeless shrug. “Shrug it to the secondary station then” Mansel said, hoisting a thumb at an empty chair near Talaj.  He quickly made contact with Lieutenant Commander Fleury and told him to send some techies to fix the damaged console as soon as possible. “How much longer until the main cannon is ready?” Vaughn asked, impatient. The Excelsior-class ship was still managing to outmaneuver the enemy vessel, but it was becoming more and more harder for Broadaway.  It seemed that their were targeting the Explorer’s maneuvering abilities. “Another thirty seconds sir,” Lamb responded.  “Just firing it will decrease our shield capacity greatly.” “Better make it a good shot then Lamb,” Mansel replied, never taking his eyes off the viewscreen.  The disabled ship was starting to take a few quick shots at the Explorer, trying to weaken their shields.  Mansel ordered Broadaway to move the ship out of their firing range.  “They won’t be moving for a while,” he said. After what seemed like an eternity, Lamb finally announced that the main cannon was online. “Target their sublight engines,” Mansel said.  “We don’t want to destroy the ship, just enough to disable it.  Be ready to fire on my command.” “Aye.” “Lieutenant Hardy,” the Captain called out over his shoulder, “make contact with the engaging ship. Tell them to surrender their vessel or we will use excessive force on them to make them surrender.” “They’re not gonna go for it,” Vaughn said, looking over at Mansel.  “I doubt they’ll even reply.” “I doubt they will too,” answered Mansel, “but just to show that I did things by the book, I’m taking my precautions.” “Good thinking.” “Thank you.  Any response, Hardy?” “Just static, captain.” “Very well then.  Lamb, fire on their sublight engines.” With a wolfish grin, the Tactical officer stabbed the button to release the raw energy.  The force at which the kinetic energy hurtled from the ship dimmed the lights once again and headed straight for the enemy ship. No more than a second after it hit, the ship’s integrity buckled and life support failed.  With a blinding flash, it blew sending a shockwave powerful enough to rock the already battered Explorer and moving the other disabled ship away a few thousand kilometers. “What happened!” cried Mansel, spinning on Lamb.  “I told you not to destroy them!” Unabashed, he looked at Mansel, then at the few drifting pieces that remained.  “This cannon doesn’t have a power setting, Captain,” he said.  “If you intend to use it, that means you intend to destroy whomever you’re using it against.” “I’ll deal with that later,” the commanding officer growled, looking back to the viewscreen.  “Let’s see if we can talk to the people on the other ship.  Broadaway--” Mansel didn’t get to finish the sentence.  As he was giving the order to move closer, the ship blew, it’s resulting shockwave significantly smaller than that of the first one.  For a few seconds, the bridge crew stood and stared out the screen, stunned. "They must've set the self-destruct," Vaughn mummured. “What an explosive personality these guys have,” Lamb muttered to himself.