Battle Within

As the battle raged on outside the Lotus another battle was going on within, as Gould's security team volleyed for position with the handful of Klingon warriors trying to hold them back. So far he had only lost one of his five man team to incoming fire and dropped 3 of the Klingons, but they didn't seem to be making any headway. A young human was in charge of his team, Gould regretted never learning his name. "Every time we get one another jumps in, it's like their spawning over there captain!"

Gould knew what he had to do, and he didn't like it one bit. "Lieutenant.. we need to rush that position and get to engineering, we just don't have the time for a drawn out fight."

The man looked at him blankly for only a second the nodded in agreement. "OK men, were going in!, on me!" he yelled to the two other men with him. He waited until they were ready then let out a yell and charged down the hallway followed closely by the rest, Gould brought up the rear. He had to restrain himself from directly joining them, for all he knew the engineering team was dead in there and he was the last person on board that had a chance to get main power back on, so he couldn't afford to be the hero in this.

The fight was fierce and only one man was still standing at the end, Gould had managed to get in the last shot as he came up, taking the Klingon out before he could follow through with an attack on the last security officer. The lieutenant and another man were down, he couldn't be sure if they were dead or not, but the last man had only a single cut down the right side of his chest, it didn't appear to be deep. "Stay on guard" he said sternly as the officer started checking on his friends. Gould pulled out a transport inhibitor and set it up, but just before he could activate it another Klingon materialized near him, and because the Klingons had much less concern for safety the transport was both quick and silent. But not fast enough, the security officer shot him before he could draw a bead with his pistol, the force of the phaser slamming him against a nearby wall.

Not stopping in his work Gould spared only a glance at the Klingon as he fell and activated the inhibitor while touching his comm badge at the same time. "Gould here, Zone one secured, we have wounded, proceeding to primary objective" and motioned for the other man to follow him.

I only hope Vincent wont have to make a choice like that one anytime soon.. He thought.

Josh went quickly to the armory after Captain Gould headed off with his team. After grabbing a type-III phaser and a combat knife, informed his second, Ensign Kiels, of the situation.

“As you’ve probably noticed, main power is down, but we managed to deploy our armor, so we have some protection. Unfortunately, there are three gaps in the armor that may be used to transport boarding parties to us. The captain has taken a team to secure engineering and try to get us running again. I need you to take a team to the gap here,” he said as he pointed to the unsecure area on the map that he’d pulled up. “I will take a third squad and secure the final gap. Be careful and don’t take any unnecessary risks; we need to hold off any boarding parties until power gets brought back online.”

With that, he took his five man team out the door and towards the nearest gap in the armor. Josh led the team as they stacked on the corner of the corridor when they’d arrived near the gap. He ducked out quickly to scan the area ahead and spotted a Klingon boarding party just arriving.

“I’ve got five warriors ten meters down the corridor. They are just beaming in, so it will be easier if we hit them quickly,” he whispered to his team. “Luchs and Wavers with me; the rest of you stay on this corner and prepare to fire. Phasers on heavy stun, fire on my mark.”

When he finished giving orders, Josh waited until the Klingons were looking the other direction, then he, Luchs, and Wavers sprinted across the corridor and took cover. He gave the signal and all six officers moved into firing position and fired at the Klingons. Two warriors went down in the first volley, but the rest quickly turned their disrupters towards Josh’s squad, so they had to take cover once again. Josh saw another Klingon beaming in, so he leaned out and took him down before he knew what was happening.

“You two head around and make sure none of them sneak out through the other corridor,” Josh ordered Luchs and Wavers. Josh and the other three officers maintained contact with the Klingons while these two moved to flank the Klingons. A few seconds later, Josh heard phaser fire from down the corridor and got a message from the flankers.

“Sir, we stopped one warrior trying to flank,” Petty Officer Luchs reported. “We can advance on their rear and pin them in.”

“No,” Josh replied. “Just keep them bottled up for now. They’re not endangering anything vital, so there is no need to rush.”

Josh leaned out and shot another warrior as he stepped out to fire, but had to take cover quickly as two more Klingons beamed in and fired. As he turned to retake his cover position a bat’leth crashed down where he was standing and cut his rifle in two. Luckily the warrior had swung with enough force to cleave a man in half, so he nearly fell over when he only met the resistance of a rifle. Josh instinctively raised what was left of his rifle into the Klingons face with one hand, while grabbing his knife with the other. He quickly pulled his knife from its sheath and forced it into the Klingon’s throat while he was still stunned. As the warrior fell away, Josh saw two bodies lying on the other corner, one Klingon and one of his security team. He tapped his combadge to issue new orders to his flanking team.

“Luchs, move in on the Klingon rear. We just got hit by a scout team, so we need to finish this fight and search the area for more,” he said.

“Moving in now sir,” replied Luchs.

Josh watched as phaser fire came at the Klingons from their backs and he watched as they moved into the corridor to avoid it. Chief Petty Officer Kendricks stepped out from the corner opposite Josh and took down the last of the Klingons with ease. Now that the bulk of the fighting was over, Josh moved to check on his fallen trooper, Crewman Terris. As he checked his vitals only to confirm his fears, Ensign Kiels reported from the other gap.

“We arrived just as the Klingons started moving out, so we were able to effectively ambush and subdue them with no casualties,” Nidiri reported.

“Very good,” Josh replied. “We found at least one scout team on our deck, so we are searching the deck for more. I suggest that you do the same. Leave a team behind to deal with any other attempts by the Klingons to get on board.”

“I’ll get right on it sir,” she replied.

Josh then turned to his squad to issue orders. “Split into teams of two and search the immediate area for any more scouts; engage if you can do so without high risk, or call for reinforcements if you find any Klingons. I’ll remain here to ensure that no more warriors beam aboard. Move out.”

Finally Josh reported to the captain, “Captain Gould, we’ve secured the two beam-in points. At least one team of Klingons got past us, but we took them down and we’re searching the area for others.”

Gould and the security officer reached the door to main engineering to find it was sealed, the readout showed clear however. Gould started manually overriding the controls. "The section must have sealed up when engineering was breached, well.. whatever it was, radiation or vacuum, it's gone now." and the door opened as he pushed the last button.

A hazy mist seemed to fill engineering but it was thin enough to see through clearly, several men could be seen laying around and in short order they found Adams unconscious near environmental controls.

"He's alive sir" Gould nodded checking the display. "They had a coolant leak, it looks like Mr Adams managed to cap it off before they all suffocated.. amazing."

He moved only the main power control settings "Main power went down purely as a matter of protocol, that last hit ruptured a plasma conduit that back burned into the core.. or would have if the failsafe had not engaged. Just a bypass and an a reset and we should be back on line.. and.. here.. wee....... go."

The warp core started the throb again and various controls came back on. Gould looked around the room and smiled until his eyes followed the security guards finger to the wall closest to the impact. His smile turned grim.

"Gould to bridge, main power restored Mr. Tomah, what's our situation?" he walked closer to the area he was looking at.

*hold on sir, sensors just now coming back on line.. aw hell! full reverse!* Gould don't ask what was going on, he instinctively reverted to being an engineer and brought the impulse engines to full power, the navigator did the rest.

Outside the Klingon warship loomed over the Lotus, carefully swallowing the tiny ship into its larges bay, its primary hull already slipping inside. The Lotus lit up and for a second seemed to stop moving, holding it's place just inside the Ghawran, but that was an illusion, the Lotus was building up speed and simply matching the larger ship until quickly enough they reached full power and pulled way. The Ghawran turned away so as not to expose their now vulnerable docking port to incoming fire.

"Good God what I wouldn't give for an armed photon!" Tomah said as the bay doors closed before them.

"Commander, contact the Spectre and see how their doing, if their clear tell them to start the Horizon run now, we'll catch up as soon as their clear." He gave a deep sigh and looked again at the wall. "I've got something I have to look into.."

He shook his head as his eyes followed the jagged crack that ripped its way through the entire length of engineering, right through the bracing for the port warp nacelle..

As Josh knelt next to the body of his fallen team member, whose phaser he was pointing at the beam-in point down the corridor, he couldn't help but think about the first time he had lost a comrade. It had been two years ago while he was on a deep cover assignment in the Romulan Empire when his partner's cover was compromised. The soldiers came in the night to take him away, but the Vulcan did not go peacefully.

"Sir," Petty Officer Luchs said as he tapped Josh on the shoulder, "we've searched the deck. There are no more Klingons around."

Josh acknowledged the report with a nod as the rest of the team took up positions covering the beam-in point. Josh stood up and tapped his combadge.

"Lt. Vincent to Mr. Tomah, with power back on-line the armor should have finished its deployment, can you confirm?" Josh asked. "And if the sensors show no more intruders in my area or Ensign Kiels's position, I should be returning to the bridge shortly."

The sound of incoming fire could be heard against the hull, an odd, dull thumping that few members of the crew had ever heard before, the sound of weapons fire striking an unshielded ship.. and doing no damage. *Your clear to return to the bridge Lt. Vincent, and god speed to yah.* Tomah replied.

Then switched channels *Captain, The Spectre is still engaging the Birds, they just launched a valley of torpedoes at the big ship, but its just shrugging them off.*

Gould tapped his badge "Understood, keep laying fire to the weaken shield area and try not to let them damage any one part of the Lotus to much. We need to keep that ship focused on us for the time being and give Summers a chance to finish off those BoP's" He had a tricorder out and was walking along the length of the fissure. "Ensign.." he said to the remaining security officer "Your clear to return to station, evac Mr. Adams and the rest to sick bay and see if you can have them back as quickly as possible, I'll see if I can increase the dampers to relieve some of the stress off this area.

Nervously the guard nodded "Aye sir. Sick bay, medical emergency 4 to beam to sick bay." within seconds he and the rest were gone in a flurry of light. Gould went to his task.

Lt Vincent gave a quick briefing to his teams and started off to the bridge, he noticed petty officer Janin Olsen carefully checking the area ahead.

She explained that the main transporter's power had been rerouted and she couldn't get a hold of main engineering.

"Is it clear down there yet sir? I do hold A level two engineering degree, I'd like to be of help if possible"

"I believe the area is clear, but I will send an officer to escort you there, just to be safe," Josh replied to the petty officer.

He stepped around the corner and motioned for Ensign Kiels, who was just leaving the armory, to join him.

"Nidiri, I want you to escort Miss Olson to engineering," he ordered. "Then lend a hand to Ensign T'Pala at the brig. She'll have her hands full with the Klingons that were stunned in the fight."

All three entered the turbolift, which first went to the engineering deck where the pair of women exited and moved towards main engineering. Josh then rode it back up and exited on the bridge. He stepped out and relieved Mr. Tomah at the tactical station.

"Thank you for taking over sir," Josh said." I can take it from here."

"Vary well" and with a nod Tomah resumed the command station. "Did you get a chance to check on the captain, I don't like him working alone down there."

"Don't worry sir" Vincent said while checking his display "I sent him some help, I sent Petty officer Olsen to assist him with a guard.." more weapons fire impacted the Lotus, distracting him.

Outside the ship was being pummeled horribly by both disrupter and torpedoes impacts, all to vary little effect as the more maneuverable Lotus simply changed facing to repair it's armor. "The Klingons must be going out of their minds" the helm officer said with a smile.

Tomah had gone silent looking the viewscreen, as the huge warship seemed to fill it entirely.

"Continue sporadic torpedo fire, we want to keep them thinking this is a fight and not just a delaying tactic." and then suddenly he stood up and walked to the lift. "Take over Vincent, ill be back in a few minuets" and left ignoring any words of shock or protest.

Sainthill looked over at Vincent with a curious expression that amounted to the Vulcan equivalent of a shrug, and went back to his work.

Meanwhile in engineering Captain Gould had set up an improvised field projector and was planning to use it to help reinforce the structural integrity of the damaged hull. He paused moving his hand to his pistol when the doors opened but relaxed as Olsen walked in. She saw him and got a nervous look until he moved his hand away from the weapon.

"Petty officer Olsen sir, we met before?" Gould just nodded "I remember you, what are you doing here Olsen?" he went back to work aligning the projector.

"Lieutenant Vincent sent me sir, he thought I might be of help sir, I have an engineering degree.. sir." she was so nervous it was almost cute.

He looked at her oddly for a second "Ok then, check to see if the warp field modulator was effected by the energy displacement of the structural integrity field, I'll finish up here then we'll work on reinforcing the lateral plasma injector."

As she started checking the modulator Gould watcher carefully for a few seconds and then spoke up again "You know what? better check the injector first.. if that goes the rest wouldn't matter." She looked at him suspiciously then smiled and moved across the bay to check the injector.

Gould finished setting the projector and stood up "It just needs a cycling unit regulator, ill be right back." But Olsens phaser came up in a flash. "I don't think so captain.."

His right hand twitched but he didn't go for his phaser. "Let me guess, your one of the children?"

She shrugged "What gave me away? If you don't mind me asking." the phaser holding steady on him.

"I make it a habit to know all my crew members that have engineering experience, in case the need arises.. You don't have any, I checked your file." He shrugged as well "It's an old habit from my chief engineering days."

"Well, at least it wasn't my acting" she gave an amused look."Not that it matters much, since you and everyone else on this ship will be dead soon."

Goulds face got deathly serious "Your no horizon child are you? you knew every inch of this bay and how to work it, your training must have been extreme.. spy?"

She gave a slight smile "Lets just say I represent a group of people that would rather this whole universe just fade away, and all I have to do to make that happen is stop this ship, that and letting the Klingons destroy the Spectra wont hurt either." she shrugged again "And I'll be safely away in your personal yacht captain, watching it all fall apart."

Then her face went grim "Lovely talking to you captain Gould, but our time is up" and she pressed the fire button.

Nidiri stopped for a brief second to make sure that what she’d just heard was correct. Quickly deciding that it was, in fact, a phaser shot, she turned with her rifle at the ready and entered the engineering bay. The captain lay a few meters inside the room, but as she scanned the area, Nidiri did not see Petty Officer Olsen. She knew Olsen must be in the room somewhere, so she kept her eyes up as she moved to check the captain’s vitals.

“Ensign Kiels to bridge,” she said into her combadge. “Medical emergency in engineering, the captain has been hit. He is still alive, but he is unconscious.”

“Beam the captain to sick bay immediately,” Josh ordered to the ensign manning the ops station. “Ensign Kiels, what happened down there, how was the captain injured?”

“He was hit by a phaser, sir,” she replied as the captain dematerialized from engineering. “There is no sign of Petty Officer Olsen; I believe she shot the captain.”

“Stay put, I’m sending a security team to you now,” Josh ordered Nidiri. “When they arrive I want engineering locked down and searched. We can’t afford to have our own people hitting us from inside while we’re fighting the Klingons.”

Josh, who hadn’t had time to take up the command chair since Commander Tomah had hastily departed, typed in orders for the security team on the security console.

“Commander Tomah is on his way down to you as well... I think, so keep your eyes opened for him. Bridge out,” Josh said.

He then stepped to the command position as Ensign Hermann relieved him at tactical.

“Fire a full torpedo spread at that behemoth, Ensign Hermann. Try to find an weak spots in their shields and hit them as hard as you can,” Josh ordered as he waited for word on the captain.

As the captains body materialized on the med bed Dr. Bindo ran a scanner over him with precision reflexes. "He's got several minor phaser burns, and concussive shock.. nothing life threatening. I'm going to try and revive him" And applied a hypo to the side of his neck, it made the appropriate sound.

Goulds eyes flittered open "Dr. Bindo? I'm in.. sick bay?" He raised up on one arm holding his other hand to his face.

"Captain, can you remember what happened?" Bindo said with a concerned look on her face.

"I was talking to Olsen, she had a phaser.. right, now I remember.." and he stood up with a wince. "I recalibrated the field projector to scatter an incoming phaser shot, I guess it didn't work as well as i planed it."

"It worked well enough captain, your still alive." Bindo said with a smile.

He didn't smile "Yes, but why an I still alive.. I have to get back to the bridge" and without another word trotted off to the turbo lift. "Gould to bridge" he said tapping his com badge. "Give me a status report" He was surprised to hear Vincent's voice instead of Tomah's.

"Captain, it is good to hear you're okay," Josh replied. "Ensign Kiels is locking down the engineering bay where we believe Petty Officer Olsen is still located," Josh replied. "The Klingon boarding parties have been cleared and we are..."

"Sir, incoming torpedoes from the direction of the anomaly!" interrupted Ensign Hermann. "They came from the Spectre, but they're going to come real close to the hull."

Outside the Lotus, four torpedoes shot past the Lotus mere meters away from the ablative armor and smashed into the Klingon cruiser.

"The torpedoes took out their port fire control room," Hermann reported. "One of the torpedoes did not detonate and is now lodged in the ship."

"Very good, move us to their port side and concentrate fire on the weakened area," Josh ordered before continuing with the captain. "Sorry for the interruption sir, we got a little surprise from the Spectre. We are maneuvering to the Klingon's port side to capitalize on the damage done by the Spectre, which has moved towards the anomaly to stop the Birds of Prey. Mister Tomah left the bridge just before you were shot, I assume he was headed for engineering."

Meanwhile in transporter room two..

The form of a woman quickly materialized on the pad, a phaser could be seen in her hand. "What?! she cried angrily.

"Hold it right there Olsen" Tomah moved around the control console holding a phaser. "Don't even bother, I deactivated your weapon."

She looked at it then tossed it aside. "What are you doing? I gave you your orders 'Tomah' now your upsetting our plan to replace the captain."

Tomah frowned, looking vary unlike himself. "Your orders were to be my replacement 'Olsen', but that wasn't enough for you was it? you wanted to destroy the ship, didn't you? I cannot allow that."

"You fool! we could wipe out this entire 'empty space' forever! if command knew of this situation they would allow this course of action, you know that!" her face seemed to morph as she spoke, losing control of her form slightly.

"No, I don't believe they would, I can't.. such a crime goes beyond the scope of reason, to condemn them all to death? even if they did order it, I would not follow such a command.. now, you will surrender to me without further incident, and I will arrange for your 'escape' later.

She looked at the phaser then back at him. "This must be done, there is no other way" as he started to speak "Please don't.." she started to shift, moving at him quickly.

He fired and the phaser struck her dead on, it was set to kill. She gasped and staggered back, he shook his head sadly and fired again..

"Tomah to the bridge, I have secured the intruder in transporter room two and she is incapacitated, I need a security detail down here pronto" as he stood over her half deformed body. "I don't think she was human."

Captain Gould had just re-entered the bridge as Tomah said this. "Good job number one, make sure you get her safely secured in the brig then get back to the bridge."

Tomahs voice brightened *Is that you sir? glad to hear your voice. When I registered a phaser shot before I yanked her out of engineering I feared the worst.*

"For good reason, but we'll compare notes later, Gould out." As he walked over to Vincent one of the security officer yelled out "Captain on the bridge!" and Gould painfully winced. "Its like someone's playing the drums on my head.." he said to Vincent.

"If I may sir, that may be the continuous impact of incoming disrupter fire you are feeling" Sainthill offered.

"Is that what that is?" Gould looked up at the ceiling as if he might see the hull buckling. "What's the status of the Klingon ship?" and returned to his chair.

"Their port shields are severely weakened," Josh replied. "The Spectre took out their port fire control room with a torpedo barrage and we have just maneuvered onto their port side to exploit that damage."

After typing in a few commands on the console, Josh added, "I've sent Ensign Kiels and her security team to assist Mr. Tomah with his prisoner."

"Inform them I believe its an Undine, from what I got her to admit before she tried to kill me anyway.." Gould said a little annoyed. "So take appropriate measures."

"Aye sir" Vincent replied.

Gould looked at the Klingon ship on the main screen. "Tactical evaluations?"

Vincent was the first to speak up, as Chief of security. "Armor is holding but were running low on torpedoes captain, the thing can take a lot of damage sir."

Then Sainthill "Shields are available at 45% at your order sir but.. "he hesitated.

Gould looked over at him "Go on lieutenant" "Sir, I estimate a 63% probability that combined with the Spectre we could disable the Klingon ship given its current condition, but this includes a 94% probability that the Spectre would also be disabled in the conflict, and 47% that the Lotus is effectively so.

Gould gave a heavy sigh "Understood, a battle for another day. Helm break off contact and plot a course for the Spectre. Tactical, stand by to drop armor and bring power to all weapons. Helm.. Picard maneuver, put us in the middle of it as fast as you can, while we still have surprise on our side." He looked around the room.

Vincent "Ready captain".

"Course plotted sir" the helmsman stated.

Gould nodded looking at large ship on the screen one more time "Engage"

For less than a second the ship jumped to warp while simultaneously dropping the armor and raising its shields. The Kligons expecting the Lotus to remain engaged with the dreadnought didn't notice it there until the alarms went off, but by then Vincent had his targets.

"The Spectre just blasted the port Bird of Prey and its fighters are moving in to finish it off," Josh reported when the Lotus dropped out of warp. "It is currently looping to attack the starboard ship, so I'm targeting the middle enemy and firing."

The Lotus moved in behind its target as the Spectre looped overhead and Josh fired a full phaser barrage which dropped the Klingons' remaining shields. Just as the shields dropped, he followed with a torpedo salvo which tore into the ship and destroyed it.

"Target destroyed sir," Josh said.

Gould had a satisfied look to him "Excellent work everyone. Helm, start plotting course for the trench maneuver around the Azimuth Horizon. Sainthill, contact the Spectre and tell them were out of time and must start maneuver immediately, that dreadnought will have to wait."

What was left of the Klingon Birds of Pray were to damaged and too few to effectively threaten their mission, and they just didn't have time to play 'Devil in the dark' with them.

Tomah entered the bridge first going over to check Vincent's post before returning to his chair. "The prisoners been secured behind a class 3 force field captain, the EMS is working on it now." and sighed. "Why does it turn out all the pretty new girls are spy's or assassins?"

Gould cracked a smile but said nothing. "Helm, as soon as we get conformation from the Spectre start our run."

The helm officer acknowledge the command and waited.

Several seconds past before Sainthill spoke up again "Spectre acknowledges the order captain"

"Vary good, helm engage main engines" Gould said as he straightened his uniform.

**Exterior View**

With a defiant disrupter shot from a crippled Bird of Pray bouncing off it's shields the Lotus quickly angled it self into position and warped away, leaving both dead and dyeing ships behind to solve their own problems.

They had enough of their own to deal with.

"Mr. Sainthill, give me an all system readiness report as soon as its possible, Vincent make sure were not being perused then join Tomah and my self in my ready room, we have to beside with to do about our prisoner.

With that Gould walked into his ready room with Tomah in tow. "Sainthill, you have the bridge."

**Sickbay**

"Fascinating species Undine.." The EMH said as it worked to keep it alive behind the level 5 containment field. "Either of these two wounds could have killed a Gorn, and yet it persists."

Dr. Bindo was following his actions via monitor "I'm more interested in how she managed to get past our security screening, at the vary least we'll have to inform Lotus Fleet command that the Undine are still able to do that.." she scrunched her eyes at the screen and sighed "Is that a subclavian pulmonary artery? what an odd place for that to be.. Well.. if nothing else, this is the first time we've got a chance to work on a 'live' Undine."

With a twitched eyebrow the EMH responded "You know of course that 'it' might not be a she, we still don't know if the race even has a made or female distinction, In any case, she's fairly lucky to even be alive."

Bindo looked over at him. "I'm not sure I'd call it luck considering her future.." Then paused "But why do you say it's luck anyway?"

The EMH shrugged "If Lt. Commander Tomah had known what to shoot for 'she' would be quite dead now, he barely missed hitting vital areas with both phaser hits, a few centimeter more and this would be an autopsy"

"And even then I'd insist on the force field" Bindo said with a shake.

The EMH smiled at her "that's understandable"

**Bridge**

"Aye sir," Josh replied to the captain's orders.

He then checked the sensor readout on his console to make sure the Klingons had not followed them when the warped away. The few red dots that remained were barely moving, so it was apparent that they hadn't pursued the Lotus at warp. When Josh was satisfied that they were not being stalked, he left his station and entered the ready room.

Captain Gould was seated in his chair behind the desk and Mr. Tomah was seated across from him. Josh took the seat next to Tomah.

"Sensors are clear, Captain," Josh reported. "We should be alone for a while now."