"Gorn ship, this is the Bristol. We are ready to initiate the ceremony," said the captain over subspace channels to the Gorn ship.
"Excellent Captain! We are also prepared. I will beam down to the aforementioned coordinates in precisely five minutes," the Gorn commander replied.
"Acknowledged. Bristol out," said Captain Freeman as he ended the transmission.
On board the Gorn ship, things were not as pleasant as they seemed to our Federation friends, however.
The Gorn commander turned to one of his bridge crew, "Fools! They have handed us victory in this battle!" He then turned to face another, "When the shields drop, hit them with everything you can; I will take care of their captain on the surface."
The other Gorn crewmen acknowledged their captain's orders with nasty grins and pats on each other's backs for such a devious plan.
Back on board the Bristol, the captain was preparing to beam down. "I'd feel better if you had a couple dozen guards with you," Commander Yilaan was saying to the captain as he prepared to leave the bridge to go to the meeting on the planet.
"So would I, Commander, but that isn't part of the ceremony," Freeman replied simply.
"I have a very bad feeling about all of this," warned Yilaan.
"Look, I'll keep an open comm channel, and at the first sign of trouble you can beam me out," said the captain, with a tone of voice indicating 'this is the final word on the matter.'
"Aye sir. Good luck," Yilaan replied, smiling at her captain.
"Thanks," said Freeman as he headed for the transporter room. "I might just need it."
"Transporter room one," called Commander Yilaan over the intercom. "Our Captain is headed your way to beam down to the planet," adding the comment, "you control the shields," to the transporter chief, since beaming through shields is not possible in most cases for Federation ships. The shields would have to be lowered for the captain's departure, and raised again after transport had occurred.
"Commander, this is odd," said Lieutenant Hathaway, the male Human helmsman temporarily replacing Lieutenant Valen at the conn.
"What is it Lieutenant?" said Commander Yilaan, walking over to look at the panel.
"I'm getting weird power emanations from the Gorn ship," he replied, obviously baffled by what he saw.
"Transport initiated," came the words of the transporter chief over the intercom.
Yilaan's eyes widened as her brief prior experience with the Gorn a few days ago allowed her to recognize that the power fluctuations on Hathaway's console were consistent with the Gorn's charging of their weapons. Since the Gorn used an unfamiliar design for these things, it was not always immediately obvious what they were doing. It was also obvious that they could cloak their activities as well as their ship. She recognized what they were up to a moment too late to act; as the shields were down to beam the captain to the surface, the Gorn warship fired a fierce volley of torpedoes and disruptor energy at the undefended Bristol.
Screams emanated from the bridge crew as Yilaan and many others were tossed like rag dolls to the port side of the ship. A panel exploded in the back of the bridge; a crewman cried out in pain and fell to the floor.
"Ivanovna, get those shields up! Damage report!" Yilaan yelled over the red alert klaxon.
Sparks were flying, and a small fire was growing at the back of the bridge. "Commander, we've sustained heavy damage to decks 2 through 4 and 20 through 31. Warp power is off-line. There is a hull breach on decks 23, 24, and 25; sealing off commencing!" Ivanovna reported, steadying herself.
"Bridge this is transporter room one, the transporter is down; the captain has been de-materialized, but he is caught in the mechanism. His pattern is still in the buffer and I am unable to reintegrate him either here or on the planet," came a voice over the intercom.
"Dammit!" Yilaan yelled back. "Don't lose him!"
"The shields are up but functional only at low power," Ivanovna said.
"Bring weapons to bear on the Gorn ship," Yilaan ordered. "Break orbit and initiate evasive maneuvers, sequence beta!"
"Aye Commander," said Ivanovna with unnerving calm. She activated the phasers and photon spread, hitting the Gorn vessel, while Ensign Gates completed the maneuvers asked for.
The Bristol rocked again from another full blast from the Gorn and the crew was shaken about. Another bridge crewman was attempting to put out the fire that had started with the earlier panel explosion.
"Shields down to nine percent Commander; another hit and we will be defenseless," Ivanovna reported urgently. "The navigational sensors are off-line, and life-support is beginning to fluctuate."
"Continual fire, all weapons!" called out Yilaan, bracing herself for another enemy hit.
"Captain, this is Jevor," came the chief engineer over the intercom. "I'm having trouble holding anti-matter containment."
"The captain isn't here right now," replied Yilaan, "but thanks for the update. Keep us together Jevor!"
Another hit by the Gorn caused the Bristol's bridge lights to dim. A simultaneous blast by the Bristol then rocked the Gorn ship. "Commander, our shields are gone," said Ivanovna, keeping her voice steady.
"Shall I engage full impulse away from here sir?" asked Lieutenant Hathaway, employing Starfleet's gender neutral note of "sir" as a general expression of address of a senior officer.
"Negative, we must protect the colony," Yilaan responded.
"But sir!" Hathaway started to complain.
"Ivanovna, continue the attack!" Yilaan said as she glared at Hathaway.
"No power for phasers Commander; firing torpedo spread," Ivanovna reported. "Commander, I'm reading what appears to be a warp core breach in progress on the Gorn ship."
"Back us off!" said Commander Yilaan.
"Coming to 332 Mark 109, full impulse!" shouted Ensign Gates over an abundance of background noise, as she implemented the maneuver.
A few moments later, the Gorn ship exploded, shaking the Bristol but causing no further damage. The Bristol's bridge crew paused to breathe a sigh of relief as their foe was destroyed. The momentary silence was broken by Yilaan, "Engineering, get someone to transporter room one immediately! The captain is caught in the pattern buffer." Switching gears, she continued, "Sickbay, we need a team on the bridge."
"I'll take care of it personally," said Chief Engineer Jevor via the intercom. "I have the anti-matter containment stabilized."
"I'll send someone up as soon as I can!" the doctor replied to Yilaan's second order.
Jevor rushed to the transporter room, blood coming from a gash he took in the arm during the attack on the ship. "Alright Ensign, let's get him out of this thing. Shunt the power from module D to converter three-alpha, and switch the primary and secondary matter relays to standby." The transporter chief complied. "Energize," said Jevor.
The captain's pattern became visible for a second or two and then disappeared. "Engineering, we need emergency power!" Jevor shouted into the intercom. "Ensign, switch off the automatic safety protocols and put us entirely on manual."
"But sir, that's not...." the ensign started to say.
"Do it!" Jevor told him, raising his voice. "They're disallowing reintegration of the captain's pattern." The ensign looked doubtful, but complied. "Energize," Jevor ordered.
The captain's pattern appeared again, wavered for a few nerve-wracking moments, and then completed its rematerialization.
Jevor beamed. "Welcome back sir!" he said happily.
Captain Freeman looked very dazed and confused as he staggered somewhat off the transporter platform, but nodded at Jevor in acknowledgement. "What happened Commander?"
"The Gorn betrayed us sir; we managed to destroy them, but we've taken heavy damage," Jevor reported, blood still oozing out of a long gash in his arm.
"I see. You better have that taken care of Jevor," said the captain, as he made his way towards a turbolift to take him to the bridge.
"Not to worry sir," said Jevor confidently, "I'll have us ship-shape in no time!"
The captain stopped and looked at Jevor. "I meant your arm, Commander."
"Oh, ah, aye sir," Chief Engineer Jevor replied as the captain left.
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