Soleta couldn't believe she was saying it even as she spoke. "It's a fleet of Greek battleships, sir."
And it was. A dozen ships... not remotely space vessels of any land. Instead, as if the Flying Dutchman and his brothers had decided to embark on a cruise, the ships with their proud sails billowing were gliding through space.
"Now there's something you don't see every day," said Morgan.
"Give me a closeup on one," Calhoun said, trying to keep the astonishment out of his voice.
Quickly the screen shifted, and they were staring at one of the ships. "It's an Athenian vessel called a trireme," So-leta said. "It is approximately fifteen feet wide, one hun-dred twenty feet long, with the keel extending an additional ten feet in the front to provide a battering ram, which itself is covered with gold armor. This one has fol-lowed the not-unusual practice of painting the ram to look like the face of a fierce animal: a boar, in this instance."
"Wonderful, Soleta. Now would you mind telling me what these things are doing in the middle of space?"
"The backstroke," said McHenry.
"McHenry," an annoyed Burgoyne whirled on him, "this isn't the time for-"
"It is!" McHenry protested, pointing. "Look!"
He was right. It was at that point that a massive array of oars extended from either side of the ship. They were, in fact, moving backward, and the ship-impossibly- was responding, slowing and changing its angle.
"The trireme is readjusting its course, Captain," McHenry said after a quick glance at the instruments. "They all are. If we maintain our current heading, we will be on a direct collision course."
"The one saving grace in all this," mused Calhoun, "is that if Admiral Jellico thought my report about the Great Bird of the Galaxy was dubious, he's really going to hate this one. Mr. Kebron, try to open a hailing fre-quency. Can those ships hurt us in any way?"
"Not a clue, Captain," rumbled Kebron.
"Best guess."
"No, they can't."
"Captain, they're opening fire!" called a stunned McHenry.
Through the darkness of space they came: arrows. Dozens of them. Hundreds of them, hurtling through the vacuum, leaving streaks of power behind them, and they slammed into the Excalibur from a dozen different di-rections. The mighty starship was rocked, crewmen being slammed every which way. Relays started to over-load but Morgan held them in check. Calhoun almost flipped out of his chair from the impact, and it was all everyone else could do to maintain his or her positions.
'Termission to change best guess, Captain," said Ke-bron.
"They're spreading out, coming in on all vectors," So-leta warned. "They're trying to surround us."
"McHenry, zero degree on the Y axis. Drop us like a rock."
"Aye, sir."
Obediently the Excalibur descended away from the ships, which were all approaching on a single plane as if riding the crests of unseen waters. Ludicrously, the oars were thrusting away against the nothingness of space.
Calhoun was out of his chair, leaning in toward McHenry. "Mr. McHenry," he asked, in a surprisingly calm, conversational tone, "is it possible that Artemis was somehow aware of the conversation that we had in my ready room, and what we're seeing is their response to your comment about their trustworthiness?"
"I'd say it's eminently possible, sir."
"More of them!" Soleta suddenly called out. "Di-rectly to port. They came out of nowhere! Five seconds to collision!"
"All hands, brace for impact!" shouted Calhoun.
The Greek war galleys slammed into the Excalibur, and the ship shuddered under the hammering of batter-ing rams first designed in the sixth century b.c. The star-ship rolled, momentarily out of control until McHenry managed to bring it back on line.
"McHenry," Calhoun called, "target phasers aft, and target photon torpedoes on the forward vessels!"
"Phasers aft, aye! Torpedoes locked and loaded, Cap-tain!"
"Fire!"
The Excalibur cut loose at the triremes. They watched as the phasers made contact with the vessels, saw the ships shudder under the contact. "Damage to enemy vessels?"
"No appreciable damage, Captain," said Soleta. "We, on the other hand, have sustained forty percent loss of shields."
'This is getting out of hand," said Calhoun, "and I'm not even sure what the hell it is we're righting about. Mr. McHenry, get us out of here, best possible speed."
"Aye, sir, best poss-oh hell...! Captain, another half dozen, coming in at 291 mark four."
"Incoming!" called Kebron.
"Hang on!"
Once again the "arrows" blazed through the darkness, slamming in from all sides. Individually they could not do much damage, but the sheer number of them caused the ship to rock furiously under the bombardment.
"Shields at fifty percent and dropping!" Morgan called out, the ops systems screeching warnings throughout the ship. "Lights out on deck three! Turbolift system out between decks five and seventeen!"
"Still no answer to hails, Captain."
"All right, that's it!" called Calhoun. "All hands! At-tention all hands! Prepare for saucer sep! But this is not an evac, repeat, not an evac! Stardrive and saucer sections will both be used in battle! Mr. McHenry, the moment you're ready, separate the saucer from the warp section."
Kebron looked puzzled. "Sir... the battle bridge... ?"
"With the turbolift out, there's no time to get down there. Mr. Burgoyne... Miss Primus... looks like we're about to test some of those modifications."
iii.
Crewmen were at their posts on the battle bridge, but the command chair and the helm station stood empty. The officers looked around as the great rum-bling sounding throughout the ship signaled that the saucer section had disengaged from the warp section.
And then, just like that, Morgan Primus and Mackenzie Calhoun appeared there.
They looked around, slightly disoriented for a mo-ment. Then Calhoun looked at the battle bridge crew and said, "As you were."
"My God, it worked," said Morgan, appearing mildly impressed. "I know the test runs operated flawlessly, but still..."
"You can admire your handiwork later, Morgan." Quickly he moved to his command chair while Mor-gan took her place at the helm. The battle bridge had
both conn and ops at one station, and Morgan oper-ated it with confidence. "Bring us around, heading 221 mark eight They want ramming? Let's give them a ramming they'll never forget"
"Let's give them a ramming they'll never forget," said Calhoun on the main bridge of the Excalibur.
He was in his command chair, a large visor over the upper half of his head, covering his eyes. Some feet away, Morgan was at the ops station, wearing a similar device.
Soleta saw that Ensign Pfizer, standing near her, was looking on in astonishment. "I... don't understand..."
"Brand-new Holotechnology... one step beyond the new Starfleet Holocommunicator," Soleta explained, keeping an eye on her sensor readings. The armada seemed confused over the fact that there were now two opponents as opposed to one, and had been reconfigur-ing their attack courses in order to accommodate the new battle scenario. "The captain and Miss Primes are able to see everything the holos see. The computer built into the helmets has a synaptic engrain link, so their very thoughts are able to manipulate the holobodies. The captain can effectively be in two places at once."
"Mr. Burgoyne," called McHenry, "warp sled engaged."
And that was another perk of the new Excalibur that Soleta appreciated. In the past, saucer sections had been limited in their maneuverability owing to the fact that the faster-than-light engines remained with the warp-drive section of the ship during separation. But the Ex-calibur was different. It had been outfitted with an experimental warp sled, based on the type that was stan-dard issue on most shuttlecraft, but designed to propel the significantly larger saucer section. The warp sled had limited range and power, and didn't go much above warp one. That, however, was more than enough for the type of emergency battle sit
uation in which they now found themselves.
"Triremes regrouping," announced Kebron.
"Bring us around at 118 mark four," said Burgoyne.
"Bring us around at 228 mark two," said Calhoun.
Morgan guided the warp section of the ship with precision as Calhoun called to the tactical officer, "Goodwin, reroute power to forward shields! Pre-pare to fire aft torpedoes! Primos, full speed ahead. Take us right through them!"
"If they don't scatter... ?"
"They'll scatter," Calhoun said confidently. Good-win, when they do, fire a full complement of photon torpedoes!"
"Eight vessels, coming in fast to starboard, Burgy!" warned McHenry. "Four more to port!"
"Hard to starboard!" ordered Burgoyne. "Fire phasers!"
The starship's phasers cut loose, pounding the ap-proaching Greek vessels. The ships rocked under the as-sault.
"Energy surge!" Soleta called out. "I think they're about to fire another wave of those energy arrows!"
"Port pursuers are closing fast!" warned Kebron.
Burgoyne thought quickly for a moment, and then said, "Mr. McHenry, get ready to roll the saucer section ninety degrees!"
"Burgy, the stress that will subject the hull to-"
"I know exactly what this ship can handle, Mark. Get ready... keep approaching... don't slow..."
A broadside of arrows, propelled by unseen godly archers making impossible shots, were suddenly un-leashed from the array of vessels ahead of them.
"Now, Mark!"
Propelled by warp speed and McHenry's firm hand, the saucer pivoted ninety degrees on its axis. The arrows, however, had been aimed at a horizontal target. Although several struck home in the front section, the damage to die saucer was minimal. The vast majority of the arrows, however, sailed right past their intended target...
... and smashed into the four ships that had been in pursuit of the saucer. Although they showed consider-able resistance to the weaponry of the Excalibur, their own energies directed at them had a much more devas-tating affect. The ships erupted, overloaded on their own power, and a moment later they erupted, blowing apart in all directions.
In a most un-Vulcan display of enthusiasm, Soleta cried out, "Got them!"
"Sir, they're not scattering," said Morgan. There was a touch of concern in her voice.
Calhoun leaned forward, watching the Image on the screen. "Maintain course and speed. They'll move."
They drew closer, closer, and the galleys held firm, drawing in toward one another.
"Captain... twenty seconds to collision," warned Morgan. "Even with forward shields at full, I am not certain we can survive a head-on collision."
'They'll move."
"Fifteen seconds."
"They'll move."
The warp section of the Excalibur, in a deep-space game of chicken, hurtled toward the Greek ships.
"Ten... nine... eight..." Morgan was counting down.
The ships were closer, closer still, and Calhoun was certain he could actually see people moving around on the open deck, people in togas similar to Artemis', but other outfits as well, some with a Viking look to them, some Egyptian...
"Seven... six... Captain, they're moving!"
Sure enough, the vessels were suddenly moving to either side, getting out of the way.
And Calhoun, at the last moment, spotted the gods, arrows at the ready, on either side.
Just as he'd expected.
"Y axis, down angle, forty-five degrees!" shouted Calhoun. "Go! Go!"
The warp section angled away as the arrows were unleashed. At point-blank range, they could not miss.
They didn't. The ships struck each other, en-veloped one another in waves of energy that ripped through every plank, every oar. The sails went up in electric flame, and the gods vanished in an eruption of energy that was nearly blinding.
A roar went up on the battle bridge, and Calhoun smiled wryly.
"Excellent maneuver, Burgoyne," he said.
"Excellent maneuver, Captain," Burgoyne replied. "McHenry, bring us around to-"
And suddenly Calhoun knew. Or rather he sensed it before he knew it for himself.
"Hard astern!" he called, and the warp section whipped around...
... as Soleta's sensors told her the situation at the same time as Kebron's tactical array.
"Something's happening to the ships!" she called out.
And there it was, up on the screen. The smashed-apart ships, glowing in the darkness, were being gathered up by the remaining vessels, and they were joining with one another, fusing, growing larger and larger as they did so.
"Mr. Kebron!" called Burgoyne. "Lock phasers on target-"
"-and fire!" Calhoun ordered.
The photon torpedoes blasted out of the warp section, tearing into the rapidly evolving construct, as the-
-saucer section's phasers blasted through it. And it did no good at all. The ships came together, and then they were as one, and behind the ships, hanging there in space, impossibly, was the face of Artemis, sneering contemptuously at them. Through the vacuum, she spoke to them, and she said...
"Did you think it would be as easy as all that?"
The vessels came together as one, and the damned flung, Calhoun realized, was almost as large as the saucer section. The battering ram, pointed and potentially devastating, gleamed as if lit by inner energies. There was that hideous face painted onto the ram, the eyes cold and merciless, and when the oars were raised upward-as absurd as such a sight should have been-it made the vessel look like a huge bat bearing down upon...
"The saucer section!" Calhoun called out "Burgoyne-"
"-it's going for the saucer section!" Calhoun still had the headgear on that enabled him to see through the eyes of his hologram, but he was still physically on the bridge of the saucer section, reacting vocally to what he was seeing.
Burgoyne realized it about the same time as Calhoun did, and s/he ordered, "McHenry! Evasive maneuvers!" There was no point in giving McHenry specifics; there was no one better at getting the hell out of the way of something than Mark McHenry.
Except he couldn't.
Not that he didn't try. He cut the ship hard over, and the saucer was able to get out of the direct path of the now dreadnought-sized vessel coming straight at them. However, the Excalibur saucer was bound by the laws of physics, able to maneuver only just so fast and no faster, while the godship moved to laws all its own. The monstrous trireme adjusted with miraculous speed, and Burgoyne realized with horror that the pointed and fearsome ram was coming straight at them, and there, in the depth of the void, they were out of space.
"All hands, brace for impact!" shouted Burgoyne, and for just a moment a part of hir stepped back and com-mented, We seem to be saying that a lot lately. Got to work on that whole maneuverability thing.
The ram slammed into the underside of the saucer section, a third of the way in from the forward rim. It punched through the remaining shields as if they weren't there, and lanced upward and through, driving a hole through from the point of entrance up through where it emerged on the other side. Several hundred feet further in, and it would have hit dead center and punched right up through the bridge.
The Calhoun hologram came to a complete halt Like a puppet waiting for someone to pull his strings, he simply stood there, staring into nothing-ness, fritzing occasionally. The Morgan hologram did likewise.
"Bring us around," ordered Goodwin. Lieutenant Beth, who had taken up her emergency post on the battle bridge, walked through Morgan. She did so without hesitation and with an utter lack of squea-mishness, knowing that this wasn't the actual per-son. "Let's nail these bastards."
Since they were somewhat distracted by the activ-ities of the Beings, the crew on the battle bridge didn't notice when Morgan's hologram vanished.
iv.
Xyon was in a complete state of panic.
He was bolting through the corridors, faster than Moke had ever seen him move. "Maaaaa!" he was screamin
g. Moke had never been more sorry that he had taught him that damned word than right now. Xyon wanted his mother, that was all there was to it, and it was going to be impossible to explain to him that they were in the warp section while his mother (and father, for that matter) were over in the saucer section. Add to that the shaking that the ship had en-dured in the past minutes, the blaring klaxon of the red alert, the general air of emergency, and that had been more than enough for Xyon to get himself worked up into a total fit.
Star Trek - NF - 12 - Being Human Page 20
