The crew was working frantically, trying to quickly make repairs to the Bristol. Many of the crew were working on their second and third shifts again, and exhaustion was beginning to take its toll. Normally, most would have worked up quite a sweat from all the lifting and running about, but the temperature on board had dropped to 47 degrees Fahrenheit thanks to the low power being produced by the batteries for life support.
The captain was on the Bridge, helping Ivanovna repair some damaged communications circuits. At one point, crawling out from inside a panel, Ivanovna hit her head. "Dammit!" she yelled, slamming the tool in her hand against the floor.
"Take it easy Lt.," the captain said calmly.
Ivanovna gave a moments thought to decking her captain, but remembered that such an action was a court-martial offense in this situation. Instead she sighed and continued working.
After about ten more minutes, Ivanovna said, "Captain, I think I have communications restored." She got up and went over to her station. "We're getting overlapping hails from the four lifeboats."
"Four? I thought there were five?" the captain commented.
Ivanovna shrugged her shoulders. "Pick one and put them on the viewscreen," the captain ordered her, as he walked down towards the front of the Bridge from where he was with Ivanovna at the tactical and communications station.
An african-american male appeared on the viewscreen, soot and dirt covering his face and his uniform. His face gave a slight hint of brightening at finally being able to get through to the Bristol. "At last," he said, exhaustion and pain quite obvious in his voice. "I am Lt. Commander Benjamin Sisko, first officer.....," he paused. "Former first officer of the U.S.S. Saratoga. I am apparently the highest ranking officer amongst the lifeboats. May we dock with your ship?"
"I am Captain Mark Freeman of the U.S.S. Bristol. How are your power levels?" Freeman asked.
"Fine. Why?" Sisko replied shortly.
"Our life support is running on batteries. It's rather cool in here at the moment," the captain replied.
"We don't care. These lifeboats feel like prisons," Sisko responded with a heavy voice.
"Very well. We'll make room in our shuttle bay for you all. Stand by for our next signal."
Sisko nodded wearily and communication was broken.
"Yilaan, take charge here," the captain said to Commander Yilaan, who was fighting with the computer trying to get more juice out of the batteries.
"Aye," she said, barely paying attention to the captain. Freeman then proceeded to the shuttle bay, hailing the Sickbay to please send a team there, as he was anticipating wounded on the lifeboats. He was greeted with a harried "Aye" from Dr. Giovanni.
The shuttles in the bay were moved and room was made for the four lifeboats. The signal was sent, and Freeman monitored their arrival from within the bay. Several people began to emerge from the lifeboats; the medical team rushed up to see if there were any injured. Freeman hung back until Commander Sisko emerged, a boy of about 11 years old in his arms. Sisko set the boy down and and offered Freeman his hand.
"Thank you for the rescue Captain," Sisko said, trying to force a smile. The boy maintained a tight grip on Sisko's waist.
Freeman shook his hand, "No problem Commander." Freeman looked over the people coming out, "How many in your group?"
"Eighty-seven," Sisko replied, a stoic look overtaking his face.
"Is this your son?" Freeman asked.
"Yes. His name's Jake."
Freeman smiled and offered the boy his hand, "Hi Jake."
Jake barely looked at Captain Freeman, tightening his grip on his father all the while.
"You'll have to forgive my son," Sisko said in a monotone voice. "He lost his mother today."
Freeman's eyes went wide and he withdrew his hand. An ashen look overtook his face. "I'm very sorry Commander," he said.
"It's all part of the risk we take, bringing our families aboard these ships, isn't it Captain?" Sisko said. Sisko's voice never wavered, but Freeman noted a few tears rolling down his dirt covered face.
Freeman put his hand on Sisko's shoulder. "Let me find you and your son some quarters." He then turned to the Lt. who oversaw shuttle bay operations. "Make sure whomever needs it gets medical attention. Try and arrange quarters for as many of these people as you can. If we run out of room, have someone convert Cargo Bay Two into a large sleeping area." The Lt. nodded, and Sisko, Freeman, and the boy left the cargo area.
A half hour later, the captain was on the Bridge, when suddenly the lights, which had been dimmed, flickered on to normal intensity. "Jevor to Bridge," came the chief engineer's voice over the intercom.
"Captain here. We've got lights again Jevor; nice job," the captain replied.
"We have more than lights sir; we have impulse power. Life support now at full intensity, running on auxiliary systems. Turbolifts also fully functional," Jevor reported proudly.
"You and your engineers are the best in the fleet Commander. Pass on my thanks to your people. When you're done....." the captain said.
"Work on getting the warp drive operational?" Jevor interrupted.
"Take a break and join us for a staff meeting in the observation lounge," the captain replied. "Then work on getting us warp drive."
"Aye sir; Jevor out."
The captain pressed his comm-badge. "All senior staff report to the observation lounge." He paused, then continued, "Dr. Giovanni, I know you're busy; we'll pipe the meeting down to Sickbay."
"Thank you Captain," Giovanni responded.
Freeman pressed his comm-badge again. "Freeman to Sisko."
A weary voice replied, "Go ahead Captain."
"We're having a meeting in the observation lounge; if you can manage it, a report on what happened here today might be helpful," Freeman said.
Sisko sighed. "Aye; I'll be up shortly."
Freeman, Yilaan, and Ivanovna started for the lounge. "Gates, plot a course for Earth. Ahead full impulse. Engage."
Ensign Gates did as she was ordered. The Bristol pivoted about sluggishly and proceeded on the course set for it.
Within a few minutes, everyone called for had arrived in the observation lounge. There was a long table with multiple chairs. The captain sat at the head of the table on one end; Sisko sat at the other end. The other officers scattered themselves about the side chairs.
"I asked Commander Sisko to join us so that we could hear first hand what happened here today, and report it immediately to Starfleet," Freeman began, once they all sat down. "Commander, I know you're feeling a great deal of pain and anguish right now. Just give us the bare bones of the battle, and then return to your son."
Sisko nodded in appreciation. "Thank you for your compassion Captain. It's actually a pretty straight forward story really. Nothing we threw at them even scraped their electro-magnetic screen. We were amongst the first wave to attack the craft. I watched their cutting beam lock on to the Manchester in front of us; within seconds the entire forward half of the saucer section was destroyed. Soon after they locked on to us with their tractor beam and it drained our shields." Sisko paused. "Our shields fell, the captain gave the order to maintain the attack. We took a direct hit by their cutting beam on Decks 1-4. All the Bridge crew died except myself and the Lt. at tactical. The computer announced that there was a warp core breach in progress, so we began to attempt to evacuate the ship."
Sisko continued, while the Bristol's officers exchanged concerned looks. "I got to my quarters and found most of the ceiling had come down. As I was trying to reach my son, I noted the Coral Sea out the window. She took a direct hit and the primary hull exploded. I managed to get to my son, but.....but," Sisko's voice began to waver and his face screwed up in a twisted pattern of pain.
Freeman put up his hand, "You don't need to tell us that part. What happened when you left the ship?"
Sisko regained his composure somewhat, after a few moments of uncomfortable silence in the room. "About thirty seconds after we left, our ship exploded. The explosion took out a ship that lay crippled nearby; I don't know which one it was. Many lifeboats were launched. Though they were never explicitly targeted, many were caught in the explosions of other ships and destroyed, just as one was destroyed when your warp nacelle exploded earlier."
While Yilaan and Freeman exchanged pained looks, Ivanovna spoke up. "What effect did the random settings on the phasers and shields have against their attack?"
"Very little; modulating shield frequencies bought us a few seconds at most, and so far as I could tell, nothing any of us threw at the Borg had any effect," Sisko replied.
"Thank you Commander. Go to your son," Freeman said. Sisko gave him a pained smile and left the observation lounge.
There was silence in the room for several moments after Sisko left; everyone was brooding over what he had had to say. Captain Freeman finally broke the silence. "Bridge, this is the captain. Change course for Starbase 39. Maintain speed." He then addressed the officers in the lounge. "Status report on repairs," he inquired.
"We'll have the new warp configurations ready in a few hours sir," Jevor reported. "They should give us about warp 2.5 or so, but it's better than nothing."
"Agreed. Doctor have you been monitoring all this?" the captain asked.
"Aye," Dr. Marisa Giovanni's tired voice came back over the speakers. "We have twenty three dead, plus an additional seventeen who were in areas removed from our ship by the Borg and are missing. Injured number ninety, plus another twenty-two from the lifeboats."
Freeman let out an audible groan at the casualty count. "Thank you Doctor." He looked around, "Anything else?"
"Transporters are still out," Jevor reported half-heartedly. "Chief McClellan and several others are working on them. We've also been having a hard time with the shield generators. Weapons are operational at minimal power."
A dark and somber mood was quickly filling the lounge. The captain looked around and noticed this, "Alright out with it! What is it?"
"Captain, how can the Borg be stopped? What's to stop them from wiping the Federation clean off the map?" Reiv asked.
"I don't know Lt. Clearly brute force isn't the answer; probably guile and a little luck are what's needed. I'm going to transmit a message to Starfleet and let them deal with it," Freeman responded.
"Let them deal with it?" Reiv shot back, half raising out of his seat. "Captain, how can we...."
"Because we're crippled Reiv, that's how!" the captain yelled at him. "Our mission now is to get these survivors back to a Starbase."
Reiv sat back down and didn't respond. "Dismissed," the captain said in a normal tone of voice.
After two hours, the captain found himself in his quarters, thinking about what had gone on today. The intercom beeped, "Captain, we're picking up a ship on long range sensors."
"Ivanovna, is it the Borg returning?" the captain asked, his heart beginning to race.
"No sir; they're coming from the opposite direction that the Borg went. I think it might be a Federation ship."
"I'm on my way. Freeman out."
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