"I want an answer to what just happened!" Freeman exclaimed, a very obvious wave of anger flooding through him after watching the fire-fight and destruction of the runabout from afar. The bridge crew, startled by his emotional display, all turned to stare at him as he continued shouting orders. "Lieutenant Hathaway, take us in to the Neutral Zone. Computer, initiate red alert. Lieutenant Ivanovna, charge all weapons and raise the shields."
The bridge crew scrambled to carry out Freeman's orders quickly, hastened by the anger and urgency in their captain's voice. The Bristol entered the Neutral Zone and began dodging asteroids. The ship had to move much more carefully than the smaller runabout did, as it could not squeak through some of the smaller openings that the Trieste had glided through with ease. The captain's patience was tried to the limit when the Bristol finally arrived at its destination. A Romulan scout ship sat outside the dilithium asteroid and barely had time to get it's shields up before Captain Freeman ordered a full barrage fired into the craft. The scout ship was no match for the Federation cruiser and succumbed almost immediately. The ship's shields fell, and it lost propulsion, exploding on impact with a nearby asteroid and shaking the others about. The force of the explosion pushed the dilithium asteroid away and hit the Bristol, though doing no damage to the fully shielded ship.
"Status," Freeman ordered crisply.
"Romulan ship destroyed, Captain. No survivors. No other ships in the area," Ivanovna reported crisply. "No, wait a minute. I am now picking up sporadic life readings."
"From the Romulan ship? How is that possible?" Freeman objected, looking back at the tactical station and his security chief.
"Not from the ship itself, from inside the dilithium asteroid," Ivanovna reported. "We'll need to get a little closer to it for me to get better readings."
"Lieutenant Hathaway, lock a tractor beam onto that asteroid and stop its momentum. Then move the ship in for a closer look," Freeman ordered. The helmsman did as he was instructed.
"Captain, I'm now detecting multiple lifeform readings inside the asteroid; Human, Betazed, and Romulan," Ivanovna reported. "There appear to be multiple injuries and several fatalities amongst the group. There are also signs of heavy phaser and disruptor fire."
Freeman's face wore a grim expression as he tapped his comm badge, "Security and Medical teams to Transporter Room One. Transporter Room, stand by to beam up our away team in the asteroid." He then glanced up at the tactical station, "Lieutenant Ivanovna, you have the bridge, I'll be in Transporter Room One. Lieutenant Hathaway, as soon as the last of the survivors are aboard, get us out of the Neutral Zone and back into Federation territory." Hathaway nodded and made the appropriate preparations as the captain exited the bridge.
***
With a Romulan pointing a disruptor at the head of Lieutenant Junior Grade Julie Bradley, Perriman had no choice but to toss aside his own weapon. Bradley was eerily speechless, Perriman thought. Usually people with weapons to their heads say something, even if it's crying or pleading. Bradley stood stoically silent however, as if resigned to her fate.
"You two are now prisoners of the Romulan Empire," the Romulan with the disruptor happily informed them. With his elbow, he tapped what was presumably a comm system on his space suit, and called out, "This is Sevik. I have two Federation prisoners. Beam us aboard."
At that moment the whole asteroid seemed to shake and the three felt themselves being pushed along with it, pressed against a wall. Sevik could no longer accurately keep pointing his disruptor at Bradley, but neither Bradley nor Perriman could do anything about it. If they weren't being pressed along a wall somewhere, they were being bombarded with stray asteroid matter, or even worse, stray bodies.
"What's happening?" Perriman shouted through his comm system, but neither the terrified expression on the Romulan's face, nor the twisted look of silent fear now gripping Bradley's face, would afford him any sort of helpful reply.
Just when they thought they were consigned to this oblivion forever, the asteroid abruptly stopped, and its cargo were just as abruptly thrust against the opposite wall. Bodies and asteroid debris were all thrown into them as well. After a few minutes of catching his breath and carefully picking his way out from amongst the debris, Perriman tried to reorient himself in the confusion and perhaps find a weapon. Before he could move two meters, he heard a voice behind him.
"That's far enough Human," Sevik told him. Perriman slowly turned around to face him as he continued, "I only need one of you, and your friend here seems far more cooperative. Having you around is giving me a headache." The Romulan raised his disruptor to point at Perriman's chest . . . and fired.
***
"Captain, I have a lock on our four crewmen," said Transporter Chief McClellan to Captain Freeman as the latter entered the Transporter Room, joining the medical and security personnel already present.
"Beam them aboard immediately," Freeman ordered.
The transporter chief nodded and activated the mechanism. "Captain, it appears an energy weapon has been discharged towards one of our shipmates," she noted with interest. "I am deactivating the pulse now," she continued as her fingers moved quickly about her control panel. "Energizing," she said finally.
Ensign Lu and Commander Yilaan both fell to the floor once their bodies had completed materialization on the transporter pad. Bradley stood unmoving as Perriman clutched frantically at his chest, then sighed with great relief.
Medical teams rushed up to attend to Lu and Yilaan as Perriman stepped off the transporter and popped his helmet off. "Your timing couldn't be better, Captain, thank you," he said with a grin, stashing his helmet underneath one arm.
Freeman nodded and patted him on the shoulder. "Welcome back, Commander. Report, please."
"Ensign Lu is dead sir," he began, with a forlorn glance over his shoulder. "Commander Yilaan took a couple of hits but is alive, when last we checked." Freeman glanced over at the medical personnel attending her, who nodded in agreement as they carted her off to Sickbay. Freeman then returned his attention to his chief engineer so Perriman could continue his report. "We had originally left Bradley aboard the runabout; she beamed off at the last second before the Romulans destroyed it. We then were engaged by a Romulan boarding party, if you will, inside the asteroid. We stunned most of them, but one surprised us. He was in the process of shooting me in the chest when you beamed us up."
Freeman raised his eyebrows, "We're fortunate to have made it here when we did." Freeman then paused, "Were you able to obtain any samples?"
"Affirmative sir, we were. That is, Yilaan was," Perriman replied. "She had the cases with her, so they're probably still attached to her space suit."
Freeman nodded, "Go get them and go down to Engineering and run some tests on whatever fragments you may have retrieved. I want to know if we sacrificed Ensign Lu and the runabout for something other than a dream." Perriman nodded and set off to Sickbay to root through Yilaan's space suit.
"Lieutenant Bradley, are you alright?" Freeman asked, noticing she hadn't left the transporter pad. "Lieutenant?"
Almost as though she woke up from a deep sleep, she shuddered briefly, then acted as if nothing happened, "Sir? Yes sir, I'm fine." She then glanced about the transporter room and popped her helmet off. "Glad to be back sir," she said, forcing a smile.
Freeman eyed her for a moment, then said, "Lieutenant, you don't seem fine. Report to Sickbay at your first opportunity."
"As you wish sir," she said neutrally, and left the room.
"Beam up the Romulans, Chief. I'd like to have a word with them as well. Security, stand by," Freeman ordered, nodding to the security team present.
As the chief was about to comply, an urgent call came from the bridge. "Red alert!" Ivanovna's voice called out over the intercom. "Captain to the bridge, immediately."
"This is Freeman, report," Freeman barked.
"Captain, two energy signatures are closing on us, consistent with known Romulan emissions. We can't get a lock on them but they're closing fast," Ivanovna replied.
"Raise the shields and get us out of here," Freeman ordered. "I'll be right up." The Bristol then lurched violently to one side as Freeman exited the Transporter Room, staggering slightly against the grain as he struggled to stay on his feet.
Freeman ran down the corridor towards the nearest turbolift, pressing his comm badge to reestablish communication with the bridge. "Lieutenant, return fire, all weapons and continue on course out of the Neutral Zone," Freeman ordered.
"Understood, Captain," Ivanovna replied.
The captain returned to the bridge just as the ship was returning to the relative safety of Federation space. "Take us to a distance one hundred thousand kilometers from the border and then stop," Freeman ordered Lieutenant Hathaway.
"Understood, Captain," Hathaway replied.
"The two Romulan vessels have now broken off the attack and have stopped one thousand kilometers from our border, inside the Neutral Zone, Captain," Ivanovna reported, even as their visual image on the screen made the report for her. "Their shields are still up and their weapons are still powered," Ivanovna added ominously.
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