The turbolift doors opened and Broska burst through, Rutledge right at her heels. The Bridge was bathed in red as officers scurried around to man their stations. One the viewscreen the golden apertures had closed but in their place were six ships; three were roughly 300 meters long while the other three were the same class as the smaller ship they’d encountered upon their arrival.

“Well, look who decided to bring their friends to the party.” Izzy muttered as she took her place next to Aakon.

“Pretty crappy party if you ask me.” Aakon turned to Jackson. “Threat analysis.”

Jackon’s hands danced over the console, sensors doing their best to get a clear reading. “We are outgunned in every way. Resnik won’t survive a fight with that many ships.”

“Get us out of here Talnot, any destination at whatever warp speed you can muster.”

The Bajoran man seemed ready to slam a fist into the console. “I can’t form a warp field! The Underspace apertures destabilized subspace; it might settle down on its own but no guarantees.”

Aakon’s breath caught in his throat. There was no way out. He glanced at Izzy. “Thoughts Commander?”

“Fight. We won’t win but we’ll bloody their noses on the way out.”

Aakon nodded. “It’s been an honor, Commander.” He spoke softly, just enough for her to hear.

She nodded, her voice caught in her throat. “The honor has been mine, Captain.”

“K’Vevka, send out a distress signal. Maybe we’ll be lucky enough to get some help.”

“Distress call issued.”

Aakon watched as the ships on the viewscreen formed up and advanced; there were no threats to be exchanged over subspace. No grandstanding. Just destruction.

“Mr. Rutledge, target phasers and quantum torpedoes on the smaller ships. Take them out one by one.” Izzy tapped out a few commands into her chair’s console. “Talnot, I’ve sent you a few evasive patterns I’ve been working on. Maybe we can give them a few surprises.”

Aakon tugged at this uniform. “Fire at will Lieutenant.”

The sleek profile of the Gagarin Class ship turned towards their attackers; its thin profile almost made it seem like less of a threat. Moments later two points of golden light met in the middle of the outer saucers section and shot out of a beam of energy powerful enough to rain destruction on most targets. The Vaadwaur ship that had been targeted shuddered as their shields lit up and shimmered, withstanding the first onslaught. Four blue orbs of matter/antimatter followed the phaser beam by 3.21 seconds; the first two torpedoes pulled the shields down before the last two slammed into the hull, ripping it apart as if it was a wet paper towel being pulled.

The victory was short lived as the five other ships brought their weapons to bear. Over a dozen beams of pure polaron energy slammed into the Resnik; her shields glowing a bright blue as they expanded out into their bubble configuration, desperate to keep the power energy weapons as far away from the hull as possible by letting the despite across a wide area. The shields held for several more minutes as the Resnik dispatched quantum torpedo after quantum torpedo to the smaller ships. It was an impressive feat but the lack of damage on the outside belayed the situation inside. 

As the shields became less and less able to hold back the polaron energy from the opposing ships more and more leaked though, Throughout the ships EPS relays began to erupt; plasma fires now raging on decks 9 and 12. Primary power faltered but the gallant efforts of the engineering crew kept the lights on; not unlike how the Titanic remained lit until nearly the end. Sickbay was quickly overwhelmed as dozens of injuries flooded in; dozens more scattered throughout the ship with no medics available to help them. They lay dying in the dark and dust questioning why the universe chose to forsake them.

The exterior of the ship was beginning to match the interior. As the shields began to fail grid section by grid section the gleaming white of the hull changed to charred black or red where small plasma fires had erupted and were being fed by the atmosphere leaking from the ship. The Resnik and her crew were determined to not go down without a fight; they had dispatched the remaining two smaller ships but now lacked the ability and firepower to take on one of the larger ships, much less three of them.

The cruiser closest to Resnik launched a torpedo, purple streaking across the black of space. It found its target easily as there wasn’t a shield to protect it any longer. The starboard impulse engine erupted in a spectacular explosion as the torpedo slammed into it. The ship listed to its starboard side; now almost mortally wounded. Explosions ripped across the hull as the entire EPS system tied to the engine blew, stopping only when the last few failsafes managed to halt it. Resnik wasn’t dead yet but like a wounded animal at the end of a hunt she could do nothing but lay there and wait for the death blow.

Despite the universe, in all its so called wisdom, opting to take so much away on this day it finally decided to give some back. In flashes of light two starships dropped from warp. The mighty Sutherland Class USS ibn Al-Haytham slid in between the Resnik and her attackers, extending its powerful shields around the stricken ship. While nothing close to a combat vessel she still brought her powerful weapons to bear on the Vaadwaur ships as her four Runabouts quickly launched, harassing the Vaadwaur ships. Moments later the Steamrunner class USS Givens brought her weapons to bear on the enemy vessels. She too was not a powerful ship but she was fast, small and could strike quickly at any spot where the  ibn Al-Haytham managed to weaken shields. In minutes the coordination between the two vessels resulted in the lead Vaadwaur ship’s engines going offline; it drifted into the port side of its sister ship, both of them lighting up the darkness of space as their matter/antimatter reactors gave way. The shockwave slammed into the ibn Al-Haytham, the energy weakening her shields. Two of the Runabouts were severely damaged, limping home to safety as quickly as they could. 

The remaining Vaadwaur ship was not immune to the blast, its main power going offline as it was much closer to its brethren than the other ships were. It drifted slowly, wounded but ready to strike the moment it found its footing again.

On the Bridge of the Resnik the crew started to pick themselves up. Nothing but emergency lights remained, consoles flickering their last breath.

“Report!” Aakon choked out, the acrid smoke cutting off his voice. 

He heard nothing for several moments before he caught Rutlidge pulling himself up out of the corner of his eye. “Hull breaches all decks except 1, 5, and 14. Life support is failing. Sickbay is not responding. Warp core is offline. Structural integrity is at 11%. All emergency forcefields have failed.

He did his best to look around the bridge but he could feel an intense pain go from his collarbone down his left arm if he tried to move. Something was broken. He didn’t know what. He was able to see the two consoles at the front of the bridge. Both had blown out in one of the many explosions. K’Vevka was on the floor, her body twisted, face burnt, eyes open and looking upward. Life had left her body. Talnot was not far away; the upper part of his uniform charred black, injuries marked his face. There was no rise and fall to his chest. Life had left him as well.

Tears streamed down Aakons face. He could barely breathe, much less audibly cry, but the tears fell nonetheless. He wasn’t sure if it was pain, grief, or both.

The overhead speakers crackled to life, somehow hanging on to some power that was still flowing. “This is Captain Vako of the ibn Al-Haytham. Prepare for an emergency evacuation.”

Aakon knew that anywhere that had speakers heard the call. He remained on the floor, tears marking his cheek; there was little else he could do. Moments later he felt the start of the transporter cycle kicking in. Moments before he was whisked away the tears on his cheek gathering enough mass to overcome the artificial gravity of the ship and fall to the floor; a mournful goodbye to a broken ship and her now broken crew.

In space the ibn Al-Haytham finished her task, the wounded but not dead Vaadwaur drifting further and further away. She pulled her shields back as the Givens came alongside her. In one last attempt to protect the Resnik the ibn Al-Haytham fired off a quick burst of her tractor beam and sent the Resnik drifting into a deeper part of the nebula that would mask her from sensors before both ships lept to warp. It was an act of kindness, almost, in the ship’s darkest hour. Now there was a glimmer of hope. A salvage ship could come to retrieve her and those whose graves she had become; perform repairs to get her stable enough to tow. Resnik would fly once again with a different crew on her bridge. The crew that had last called her home, however, was battered, broken and now suffering like so many others were through the Alpha and Beta Quadrants.

Time is said to heal all wounds, but there are some that run so deep that can only be healed by one thing: family. The crew of the Resnik was lucky in that regard; as dawn broke through the night all across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants the one thing they had left was each other; a family bonded and forged in fire that would stop at nothing to put the pieces back together again.