STAR TREK: Enterprise - Shockwave

by Paul Ruditis (Novelization)

  With the information in hand, Archer placed the futuristic device back in its casing and returned it to the locker, figuring this would be the safest place on the ship to store it for the time being, since only he and Reed were aware of its specific contents. They returned to the corridor and placed the mag-lock back on the door.

  “Download the information into the tactical computer,” Archer instructed. “And plot out the attack plan.”

  “Aye, sir,” Reed replied as he headed for the armory.

  Archer returned to engineering, where he found Trip working with his team fine-tuning the two large particle beacons that were sitting on the deck. Even though Archer had provided the specifications, they were unlike anything he had ever imagined.

  He looked over the strange devices as he made his way through the workstation. “Trip?”

  “I feel like a chef who’s just made a meal with ingredients he’s never tasted,” he said, moving back to his work.

  “You followed the instructions?”

  “To the letter.”

  [95] Archer moved over to examine one of the devices more closely.

  “Bridge to Captain Archer,” T’Pol’s voice came over the com system.

  Archer tapped a nearby companel. “Go ahead.”

  “We’re approaching the colony,” she replied via com.

  “Have Mister Mayweather locate a binary system two point five light-years away and set a course,” he instructed.

  “Understood,” she responded, ending the transmission.

  Energized that his plan was coming together, Archer headed back toward the corridor. “Let’s get these mounted on the grappler arms,” he said, giving one final instruction before leaving Trip to finish the job.

  Stepping out into the hall, he resisted the temptation to find a port and look out at the charred planet they had returned to. He felt a twinge of guilt bubble up once again over the lives that had been lost only two days ago. This time, it wasn’t guilt borne out of responsibility, but regret over the fact that he had not spent the time to properly mourn the losses of the colonists. He had been so wrapped up in blaming himself for what had happened that he never guided his crew in a properly respectful service in honor of the Paraagans. Although he was aware that this was not the day for such a ceremony, he made a mental note to himself to come back at a proper time.

  Soon after, Enterprise was flying at impulse, approaching two stars linked together by plumes of glowing [96] hydrogen. On the bridge Archer was pleased to see more and more of Daniels’s information being confirmed.

  “Head for the smaller star,” he instructed Mayweather. “Then the inner moon of the second planet.”

  Mayweather nodded in response and worked the helm, inputting the captain’s directions.

  Archer hit a button on the companel built into the helm. “Bridge to armory.”

  “Reed here,” came the reply.

  “Have you plotted all the target points?”

  Down on F-deck, Reed was looking over a two-dimensional version of the Suliban stealth-cruiser schematic on his workstation as tactical crewmen were busy loading torpedoes into the launch tubes. “Aye, sir.”

  “Stand by,” Archer instructed from the bridge.

  On the viewscreen a small barren moon could be seen looming larger as they moved the ship closer. Archer looked to Trip and T’Pol. “I’ll meet you two in the launch bay. If this goes well, I shouldn’t be long.” He didn’t want to think about their options if the early part of the plan didn’t succeed.

  T’Pol and Trip headed for the turbolift as Archer turned his direction back to Mayweather. “Lower the beacons.”

  The ensign worked the controls, lowering the grappling arms into place. The end of each arm was fitted with the beacons that had been installed by the engineering team, replacing the clamps that had been used to retrieve Shuttlepod One just days ago.

  Pressing the controls on his command chair, a monitor popped up from the arm. He tapped a few buttons, [97] transferring information from his computer to Hoshi’s station. “Modify the viewscreen,” he instructed her, “and bring up these coordinates. Full magnification.”

  Hoshi worked the controls, and the viewscreen moved in to a closer display of the moon, focusing on a rocky outcropping on the surface.

  “Activate the beacons,” he said to Mayweather, who did as commanded.

  Slowly a shadow of green appeared in front of them. It was in the same flat design with a horseshoe-shaped bow as the schematic provided by Daniels’s device. The Suliban ship was attached to a small docking structure hovering above the rocky outcropping. Both the ship and docking structure were somewhat transparent as the beacons revealed them to be cloaked.

  Archer eyed the image, satisfied and determined. “Right where they’re supposed to be.”

  “Aren’t we in range of their sensors, sir?” Hoshi asked with concern, but not fear.

  “They can see us,” he confirmed. “But they have no idea we can see through their cloak.” But Archer knew that didn’t mean they should lower their guard. “Just keep on the same course, Travis.”

  Tension rose as they watched the viewscreen.

  Waiting.

  Archer tapped the companel. “Malcolm?”

  “The closer the better, sir.”

  The Suliban ship loomed ever close on the viewscreen. After a long tense beat an alarm at Hoshi’s station broke [98] through the silence. “They’re charging weapons!” she announced.

  Archer returned to the companel. “Now, Mister Reed.” Without waiting for a reply, he turned and went for the turbolift.

  As the captain made his way to the launch bay, Enterprise let loose a barrage of fire from the two forward phase canons. The Suliban ship was hit by the programmed precision strikes at various points in the hull. Each phase blast illuminated the vessel as the ship’s cloak fritzed. After a half dozen hits the cloak blew out and the ship was fully revealed.

  In the armory Reed and his crew were at work. The lieutenant’s eyes were glued to the schematic of the Suliban cruiser, which had glowing red blips indicating the damage as it was inflicted.

  “Their cloaking generator’s down,” a tactical crewman to his side confirmed.

  “All four weapons banks as well,” Reed noted.

  They kept working as outside the ship, the Suliban stealth-cruiser was hit by another series of precisely targeted phase-cannon strikes.

  “Port and starboard engines disabled,” the crewman went on to report.

  “Okay,” Reed acknowledged as he continued to align the weaponry. “Here’s the tricky part.”

  Focusing the battle, a single phase-canon blast struck a lower section of the Suliban hull. It was now safe for the captain to proceed.

  [99] Reed eyed the schematic, confirming the damage, and tapped the companel. “Reed to Shuttlepod Two.”

  In the launch bay Trip was at the helm of the shuttlepod, with T’Pol in a jumpseat behind him. Archer had just made it inside and was pulling the hatch closed behind him. “Archer here,” he said into the com.

  “She’s all yours, Captain,” Reed’s voice came over the system. “Good luck.”

  Upon hearing the go-ahead, Trip drop-launched the shuttle, flying it toward the moon and the Suliban ship.

  Chapter 10

  “That last shot should’ve sealed off the two lower decks.” Archer took three phase pistols from the weapons locker, handing one to T’Pol, who was looking over the cruiser schematic on a padd. He kept the other two for himself and Trip. “If Daniels was right, there shouldn’t be more than twenty Suliban for us to deal with.”

  “Is that all?” Trip sarcastically asked, piloting the shuttle.

  The pod carefully made its way to the Suliban cruiser, dropping beneath the alien ship. Toward the middle of the vessel, Trip edged the shuttlepod up to the docking port, easing its way up before clamping onto the port with the exterior hatch.

  Moving through the docking port into the Suliban ship, Ar
cher slid aside a small hexagonal hatch in the floor of a room with similar hatches on the walls and ceiling. Armed with their phase-pistols Archer and T’Pol climbed [101] up into the room first. Stepping to the controls of the main wall hatch, Archer confirmed information on his padd and punched a code Daniels had given him into the wall unit.

  He turned to see that Trip had also ascended from the shuttle with his phase pistol ready as well as two Starfleet-issue stun grenades—one attached to the belt on his waist and the other in his hand. Poised by the controls to the wall hatch, Archer nodded to the commander that he was ready.

  “The stun grenade’s on a three-second delay,” Trip said in a hurried whisper as he activated the grenade with its pulsing blue light and high-pitched whine.

  Archer tapped one last command into the controls, and the hexagonal wall hatch slid open to reveal a seemingly empty corridor. Trip quickly tossed the grenade through the hatch as the three of them jumped back within the airlock chamber to shield themselves from the coming blast.

  The stun grenade clattered across the deck and released a blinding concussive blast that briefly lit up the darkened gray corridor. The flash revealed several camouflaged Suliban clinging to the walls and ceiling, lying in wait, but the force of the blast dropped them to the deck, unconscious, and visible.

  Archer fell to one knee at the threshold, aiming his weapon into the corridor. Confirming that the area was clear, he cautiously stepped through the hatch with T’Pol and Trip quickly following, phase pistols at the ready.

  [102] As the hatch sealed shut behind them, T’Pol consulted her padd and nodded in the direction of the corridor in front of them. They started down the darkly lit hall, moving past the fallen Suliban soldiers. Archer had never been in a Suliban cruiser before, but the interior was reminiscent of the cell-ships in which he had once had the unfortunate circumstance of being trapped. The dim blue lighting made it all the better for the Suliban to hide.

  On the move, the trio wound their way through the maze-like gray metal passageways with the familiar hexagonal designs on the walls and floor. T’Pol followed the schematics map that Reed had downloaded onto her padd and, reaching another intersection, she pointed them to the right and down an adjoining corridor.

  Before they could move, however, Suliban weapons fire flashed through the hall behind them, hitting a nearby bulkhead. The team split from Archer in the right corridor and T’Pol and Trip diving to the left. Without pausing, Archer spun back toward the corridor from which they had come and laid down covering fire as his officers crossed the open intersection unscathed and continued down the corridor. Once he confirmed they were safe, he fell in behind them.

  From the Enterprise armory, Reed watched moving representations of his crewmates on the monitor at his workstation. He highlighted a section of schematic and a representation of the cruiser’s interior came up with three blips representing the captain, commander, and sub-commander.

  [103] “Just ten more meters,” Reed said, wishing that he was on the cruiser with them instead of just watching over them.

  With Suliban in front of them and behind, the trio rushed down the dimly lit passageways as weapons blasts buzzed over their heads. Firing back, they cleared the halls as they neared their ultimate destination. Rounding yet another corner, they finally came to the room they had been searching for—the ship’s computer core.

  Archer paused to confirm that the route to the room was clear. “Go!” he urged them as they moved toward the room in conceit with one another. As the hatch opened, Archer stepped though first, quickly followed by the others.

  The chamber was filled with computer stations, banks of complex Suliban graphics filling the screens. A roiling mass of energy swirled along one wall. As Archer and T’Pol went into the heart of the room, Trip took up position by the doorway. Activating another stun grenade, he flung it out into the hall to give them some time. The force of the grenade knocked out their pursuers as it briefly lit the computer room.

  “Which one?” T’Pol asked as she checked the various stations.

  Archer quickly climbed a ladder to the upper deck to consult the computer core itself for the location of the specific terminal they needed. “Here.” He jumped back down to the main level and took a seat at the station farthest from the entryway.

  [104] Looking over the panel, he tried to recall the information that Daniels had provided him. There had already been so many aspects of the plan that it was beginning to get a little overwhelming. Carefully he tapped a sequence of controls and was rewarded by the sound of several servos disengaging.

  A small section of the console slid open to reveal a jumble of Suliban circuitry and a collection of data discs. Eyeing the mixture of computer parts, Archer reached in to remove the three translucent data discs he had been sent to retrieve. Slipping them in his pocket, he shot T’Pol a look of satisfaction.

  Suliban soldiers were rushing toward them, dropping through the ceiling and coming up through floors as the trio hurried back to the shuttlepod, following the circuitous path they had already taken. They managed to stay ahead of their pursuers until they reached another intersection, where T’Pol checked her padd to find that they were no longer alone.

  “Captain, they’re all around us,” T’Pol said, betraying no emotion.

  The screen showed half a dozen Suliban were coming at them. But what it could not show was that some of the determined soldiers were crawling along the walls and ceilings as others hurried, crouched beneath them. The genetically enhanced soldiers were moving fast and would overtake Archer, Trip, and T’Pol at any moment.

  Taking position behind a bulkhead, Archer flipped open his handheld communicator. “Archer to Reed.”

  [105] “Go ahead,” the lieutenant’s voice shot back.

  “We could use a little help here,” he said, though his calm voice was not in keeping with the tense situation.

  Reed checked his scanner and watched as the blips moved through the ship. “I see them.” He worked on the controls. The beacons had not only included the technology to reveal the cloaked ship, but they also helped in displaying the positions of Suliban on the ship. The enemy appeared on Reed’s monitor as red blips as opposed to the Starfleet blue. This technology went far beyond the powers of the sensor device that Daniels had introduced to the crew during their last encounter.

  Confirming the readout, Reed aimed the phase cannon at the starboard section of the cruiser and fired. A bolt of energy shot out from Enterprise, hitting directly on target and destroying part of the Suliban ship.

  The Enterprise team had braced themselves against the wall, as the ship rocked from the explosion. The corridor to their right imploded, sending the Suliban flying, engulfed by the debris.

  Archer, T’Pol, and Trip remained hunkered down against the wall as the shaking from the blast subsided. Once they saw their path was now clear of their pursuers, they made their way back into the intersection, turning left into the opposing corner.

  Returning to the airlock chamber, Archer opened the wall hatch and Trip dashed inside first to clear it of Suliban, but found that it was empty. Without stopping, he [106] opened the deck hatch leading back down to the shuttlepod and began climbing down into the pod.

  Archer moved to the controls for the wall hatch and was punching in commands when a Suliban lunged at him. The hatch slid shut, blocking the soldier from entering behind them.

  T’Pol began to make her way down the ladder as Archer reached her, lending a hand to help guide her back into the ship. Once she was safely inside, Archer descended into the pod, closing the hatch behind him. Working the controls of the pod, Trip readied for their departure as the others took their jumpseats.

  Above them, a pair of Suliban soldiers forced their way into the airlock chamber. Working at the control panel, they commanded the hatch in the floor to slide away and dropped down the port onto the hull of the escaping shuttlepod.

  Inside the shuttle, the Enterprise team could hear the
sound of the docking mechanism straining to disengage as the pod tried to pull away from the ship. The shuttlepod would not fly.

  “What’s the problem?” Archer asked.

  “I can’t release the docking clamps,” Trip said, still working.

  “Ignite the thrusters,” the captain ordered.

  A banging noise came from above, drawing their attention to the ceiling. T’Pol drew her phase pistol and took position beneath the hatch, preparing to fire if the Suliban managed to breach the ship. More thumping and [107] scratching could be heard as the Suliban tried to force their way inside the craft. Then the entire shuttle began to shudder as the thrusters strained against the powerful docking clamps.

  Archer ordered a risky maneuver. “Go to full power!”

  Following the captain’s orders, Trip pushed the shuttlepod to maximum power and finally wrenched itself away from the cruiser.

  As the docking clamps tore away, the Suliban soldiers tumbled out of the port, falling through space. Their genetically altered respiratory systems allowed them to remain conscious as they dropped toward the moon, caught in the slight gravitational pull as they fell to their probable deaths.

  Shuttlepod Two was still trembling from the violent launch as Trip’s fingers danced over the controls steering them back to Enterprise. The pod rapidly ascended from the moon allowing the team to take a moment to breathe and enjoy the success of their victory, secure in the knowledge that the Suliban were not going to follow.

  Archer was relieved that they had made it and amazed by what they had just done. He tapped the companel on to speak with Enterprise. “Archer to Mayweather.”

  “We see you, Captain,” Mayweather’s voice came over the com.

  “Set a course back toward the Vulcan ship,” Archer said, the relief in his voice now obvious. “Go to warp four as soon as we’re aboard.”

  [108] “Yes, sir.”

  Archer cut off communication with his ship. Taking one of the discs from his pocket, he examined the device. The small data disc seemed so insignificant to look at, but it was all the proof he needed to exonerate himself and his crew.