Subject: FRONTIER: Still boarded

SD 70722

Engineering

Cautiously, Ramsay entered Engineering, motioning to the two security 
guards to spread out. The entire area was darkened, but he could 
vaguely see the outlines of several engineers lying on the ground. He 
got down close to the ground and crawled as silently as he could 
toward them. Found pulses for each - probably stunned.

Elliot was not among them. At first he presumed she was elsewhere in 
Engineering, but after a thorough search they found nothing. Although 
she could undoubtedly disguise herself as any object in their 
vicinity, why?

"Computer, locate Lt.Cmdr Elliot."

"Lt.Cmdr Elliot is in Main Engineering."

He flipped open a tricorder, calibrated it for wristcom signals, and
programmed in Elliot's codenumber. As he followed the readings, the 
tricorder bleeped ever-more furiously until he was looking at a tiny 
spot of orange goo encircling a wristcom unit.

Ramsay tried to imagine the effect of a phaser on a shapeshifter, but 
he couldn't be sure if this was all that remained of his Chief 
Engineer.

His frustrations began as he looked at the damage that had been 
incurred. It was as if someone had been at all the panels with a huge 
knife. It would take a while to get things operational, but right now 
a priority woould be securing sections of the ship. The forcefield 
system was still partially functional, he could probably seal off some
of the Kzinti that way.

Ramsay fine-tuned what was left of the internal scanners, and watched 
the Kzinti life signs moving around on decks two and three. At
crucial points he closed off the corridors with fields, moved them 
slowly together, trapping a good dozen Kzinti at an intersection.

Meanwhile a somewhat dazed Festore had joined him at the console. 
"Anything I can do, sir?"

"See if you can get us some shields. I don't want any more boarders." 
He paused for a moment, considering the relative silence around him, 
and muttered, "I wonder why they're not trying to transport in here."

"They've tried several times." A slim blonde officer was walking over 
to their position. "I've reconfigured our transporters to interfere 
with their signals. Unfortunately, I couldn't cover the entire ship. 
They can't beam onto either the bridge or Engineering, but that's it."

"Good work, Lt..." Ramsay couldn't quite remember her name, though he 
knew she was the transporter chief.

"Braun. Katie Braun."

"Right. Keep an eye on the forcefield system, I'll see if I can get 
the main systems on-line." He relinquished the one working console to 
her, and set about repairing the shredded master engineering control 
table.

Several seconds later, the security guards returned with Keanu and 
Leana, who had just managed to seal the bulkhead behind them in time. 
Ramsay could tell instantly that Keanu needed some medical assistance.

He sent one of the security guards down the J-Tubes to determine the
whereabouts of their medical staff. Meanwhile he found the emergency 
medical kit and tried to remember as much as he could of his first-aid
training.


Bridge

Houston watched as the turbolift opened to admit numerous officers 
onto the bridge. She had noticed the forcefield system being activated
from Engineering, the Kzinti had been temporarily held at bay to 
permit a rapid evacuation of Deck Two. They couldn't stop the Kzinti 
transporting in or out, but the transporter chief had tied up some 
power to interfere with incoming beams and prevent direct boarding in 
Engineering or on the bridge.

This was good strategically because they could initiate a 
counter-strike from a safe position, wheras the boarders were having 
problems penetrating the security system.

A security officer from Engineering arrived via J-tube, looking for 
medical assistance. Dr. Sykes followed him back through the tube, 
which meant there was one doctor in each safe zone.

They didn't have all the resources of Sickbay at hand, but luckily 
most of the injuries didn't require such attention. Phaser stuns and 
burns mostly, a few broken bones. K'Ich Pa apparently had some 
advanced form of medical training, but they were still a little 
swamped.

The first officer was not as alert as she apparently would have liked 
to have been. Waking up in the middle of a red alert with Kzinti 
filling the corridors was not an enthralling prospect. Aiming a phaser
with a splitting headache was hell, and the exhaustion showed in her 
eyes. Through Houston's status report, she seemed to lack 
concentration.

The security chief looked a little pale for some reason. Houston 
searched for a probable cause... and found a large selection of gore 
decorating Patrick Simony's uniform. He had apparently not found a 
phaser until later.

The situation under control, Houston resumed her attempts to patch the
severed comm-control links. When they could contact Engineering, a 
plan of action could be agreed on and they might be able to get out of
their current predicament.

Several panels suddenly blinked on. Ishara responded to the 
suddenly-illuminated helm, and took in their surroundings. Numerous 
ships still surrounded them, the larger vessel was maintaining its 
tractor beam lock. And, presumably, still attempting to take over the 
Frontier.

"I have partial impulse power." she reported. "Not enough to overcome 
the beam."

Murray walked to the tactical station and added, "Deflectors are 
on-line, apparently in stand-by mode. We have enough power for a few 
phaser shots perhaps... torpedo launchers are on-line."

Caroline's mind was a little more focussed now. "What if we launched 
one of the dilithium resonator torpedoes at that ship?" She gestured 
at the enormous vessel on the crackling viewscreen.

"They'd return fire immediately," replied K'Ich Pa. "We wouldn't be 
able to put our deflectors up fast enough."

"But if we reduced the launch velocity..." started Murray.

"They wouldn't think it was a torpedo, right?" finished Caroline. 
"Plus they're concentrating on boarding us, and they'll have their 
shields down. Lt. Murray, fire one slow torpedo. When it gets within a
few hundred metres, detonate it."

Murray punched away at the controls, "Let's just hope this works."

                       Respectfully submitted:

                            Sam M. Edwards
                  [Captain] Will Ramsay, CO FRONTIER
                 [Cmdr] Caroline Ramsay, XO FRONTIER
               [LtCmdr] Joanna Houston, 2O/OPS FRONTIER

                     "Eat any good books lately?"
                                  Q