“Report!” he shouted as he reached for the manual release control, located on the left arm of his chair.
“Shields holding at seventy percent,” Keru said from his post at the aft end of the bridge. “Phasers are armed and ready.”
Riker knew that under normal circumstances, returning fire would be one of his prime options. But this situation was anything but normal. Old and new Romulan ships—vessels crewed by opposing Remans and Romulans—were moving quickly to engage one another in the night skies over Romulus. It was difficult to tell the two sides apart, let alone determine with certainty which side had attacked Titan.
“Any idea who hit us?” he asked.
“It’s not immediately clear,” Jaza said, his hands playing over his console. “Both the Romulan and Reman ships are firing at each other. I’m not certain that salvo was even meant for us.”
Riker looked to the forward viewscreen, where he saw what must have been several dozen ships engaged in aggression. Angry red disruptor beams ionized the night sky, briefly seeming to entangle one vessel with another in a lethal cat’s cradle. “Give us some distance,” he said. “Maybe we took fire because we’re too close.”
As Lieutenant Rager and Ensign Lavena entered course corrections into their respective conn and ops consoles, Riker turned to Vale, who was seated at his right. “Tell the Phoebus, T’rin’saz,and the Der Sonnenaufgangto withdraw from disruptor range.”
“Yes, sir,” Vale said, tapping commands into her armrest console. The Starfleet aid ships had already moved to a one-thousand-kilometer orbit over Romulus, but that still wouldn’t necessarily keep them entirely out of harm’s way if the gunners on either side of the Romulan-Reman conflict decided to target the convoy deliberately.
Riker started to turn toward Tuvok, Spock, and Akaar, intending to ask the admiral to escort both Vulcans down to sickbay, when another blast rocked the ship. A spray of sparks arced out of a conduit above the upper corner of the main viewscreen, which blacked out a moment later. Riker stumbled to one side, thrown against a railing as Titan’s inertial dampers kicked in, righting the deck.
“Get that screen back on line,” Riker ordered, swallowing a curse. “In the meantime, activate every other available monitor so we can see what’s happening out there.”
As he moved to the aft end of the bridge, several monitors had already taken up the forward viewscreen’s slack.
“Shields down to forty-eight percent, Captain,” Keru said. Riker could hear the timbre of concern in his voice.
“The Klingons are moving in toward us, but they’re not firing at the Romulans,” Jaza said. “They appear to be taking up defensive positions between Titanand the skirmish line.”
“Circling the wagons,” Riker heard Deanna say while he studied one of the tactical displays and considered his options.
He spared a quick glance toward Akaar, Tuvok, and Spock. The expressions on all three faces were inscrutable, but Riker knew they were probably contemplating the same question he was; how to defend the ship without actually engaging in—or escalating—the developing battle. If the Klingons are holding back,Riker thought, then Khegh must have decided that the Romulans have him overmatched, and that today isn’t such a good day to die.
The turbolift doors opened, and a pair of engineers stepped onto the bridge, carrying their tools on a small hovering platform. Riker barely spared them a glance.
“Mr. Keru, can you target just the weapons on those ships?” Riker asked. If Titancould force both sides to stop firing at each other for at least a while, then some other more permanent solution might present itself.
“Hard to say, Captain,” Keru said, frowning at his monitors. “We’ve taken some damage. But I think I can get a lock on the weapons of some of those older ships the Remans are using.”
“Lieutenant Rager, get me Khegh,” Riker said. A moment later, the scowling visage of the burly Klingon general appeared on one of the monitors.
“A touchy situation, is it not, Captain Riker?”Khegh said, baring his yellow teeth in a fierce smile.
“General, we need to stop the hostilities,” Riker said. “Do you have any influence over the Remans?”
Khegh’s smile disappeared. “They seem to have chosen their course, Captain. I doubt we could dissuade them.”He assayed a guileless expression, but failed miserably. “And truthfully, why should we want to?”
“We are prepared to target only the weapons systems of the Reman ships,” Riker said, feeling a trickle of cold sweat begin to run down the back of his neck. “Can you engage the Romulans, withoutdestroying their ships?”
“Where is the fun in that?”Khegh asked, grinning again. He turned and barked an order in Klingon, addressing his crew. “Besides, I thought you wanted to keep us from fighting these treacherous RomulanpetaQ .”
“Believe me, asking you to fire on Romulan ships isn’t my first choice,” Riker said. “But we need to stop this war before it gets completely out of hand.”
He wasn’t surprised when Khegh signed off without acknowledging him.
“The Klingons are breaking away from us,” Vale said, looking up from her console. “Our shields are still at less than half-strength, Captain. Staying out of harm’s way would be as good an idea for us as for our convoy ships.”
Riker slapped the combadge on his chest. “Riker to engineering. We need to get our shields back to full power, Ledrah. Now.”
“We’re already working on it, sir,”the chief engineer’s calm voice replied.
Riker strode back down toward his chair, aware that the eyes of his wife had been on him for the last several minutes. He could feel her calming influence, even though she wasn’t speaking aloud.
He turned toward Keru. “Mr. Keru, you may fire when ready, but I do notwant any of those ships destroyed. Just make sure they can’t take any more potshots at anyone else.”
“Yes, sir,” Keru said.
Tuvok stepped toward the captain’s chair. “Captain Riker, if you require additional help, I was the tactical officer aboard Voyagerfor seven years. I can assist Mr. Keru if you have a targeting console to spare.”
Riker nodded curtly. “Glad to have your help, Commander. Two good marksmen are better than one.” He turned to see the forward viewscreen flicker to life for a moment, then wink out again. In that instant, Riker caught a glimpse of one of Khegh’s Klingon battle cruisers swooping in toward one of the newer Romulan warbirds, while a phaser burst from Titanlanced out toward an older, Reman-crewed ship.
“Sorry, sir,” the engineer said, holding up a pointed spanner. “We’ll have it back up in just a moment.”
Riker noted that the pair working on the viewscreen were the Polynesian twin ensigns. He could never tell them apart, so he was glad in this instance that he could just use their mutual surname. “As quickly as you can, Ensign Rossini.”
“I’ve tried hailing Praetor Tal’Aura, but our signal apparently isn’t getting through,” Deanna said, looking up from the console she had snapped down from the side of her chair. Her dark eyes grew wider, and he felt her speaking directly into his mind.
This is not your fault, Will. I’m not even sure that Ambassador Spock could have prevented this, regardless of what he believes. He might only have delayed the Reman attack.
Small comfort,Imzadi ,he thought in response. It feels as if we’re trying to keep a boat from sinking with a bucket brigade.