Rebecca paced the bridge, and Captain Fitzpatrick sat calmly going over engineering reports at his center seat.  It had been two hours since the initial contact and the Seventh Fleet had settled into defensive positions.

Cheon kept his attention glued to the tactical console and maintained a vigilant routine of scans of the area around Denver. He was so focused on the task at hand that he did not realize that someone was standing next to him.

“Cheon are you alright?” Stephens asks.  “We have them on the run for now. Relax buddy”

Cheon briefly gave Stephens a glance. A glance that said volumes, “Have you ever seen a Cardie ever run from a fight?” he asked the helmsman as his eyes returned to the console, “I haven’t, so that tells me that they will be back and very shortly.”

“And we will be ready for them. We are here in force. This isn’t just a small skirmish.” Stephens replies.

“I’m reading a massive warp signature bearing 091 mark 270,” Operations announced in alarm.  “A mixture of Cardassian and Dominion.”

“Red Alert!” Fitzpatrick announced sitting bolt upright in his seat.

Rebecca took up position next to Cheon so she could use the tactical console to monitor the whole battlefield.

“Captain I recommend attack pattern Beta-4-7” Stephens says keying his console up for just that.

“You do that Mr. Stephens,” Fitzpatrick replied.

Rebecca groaned as her fingers danced over the controls.  She gave Cheon a sidelong glance,  “I am reading 175 Cardassian ships, and they appear to be lead by the Valdora, flagship of the Ninth Order.  There’s also another seventy-three Dominion ships including fighters and battlecruisers.”  She swallowed. There was no way they could win this, and the Dominion had flanked them cutting off retreat. “Captain the enemy fleet is encircling us. We are surrounded.” She wondered if this was how Custer felt when he realized he was in trouble too.

“Commander, broaden your scans three sectors out. You will find an even more disheartening scene,” Cheon stated as he flicked his findings over to her console. A second and third wave of Cardassian and Dominion ships were moments away from entering into the battle.

Stephens sent the Denver through a series of maneuvers that were impressive for a ship of her size. He was doing his best to avoid the Cardassian phaser fire and the super destructive Dominion polaron beams, while at the same time giving Cheon as many openings as he could to return fire.

“Mister Stephens, evasive pattern beta-4-1 and if you would also be so kind as to hit the proverbial brakes after you are leveled out,” Cheon said as he flicked over what he was seeing to a navigation console next to the helmsmen as well as the armrest of the Captain. The computer had analyzed a possible opening in the ‘blockade’ that the Cardassian and Dominion forces had formed around the fleet.

“Aye evasive pattern beta-4-1” Stephens echod putting the Denver through another defensive pattern right before bringing the ship to a standstill.

“The Hamburg,  Cheongju, Quetzalcoatl, and Armstrong have been destroyed.  Five more Federation ships are heavily damaged.  Admiral Morin’s flagship is venting drive plasma and is taking heavy fire,” Rebecca reported her fingers dancing over the console.

The Denver took another series of enemy weapons fire that shook the whole ship.  One of the science stations at the back of the bridge exploded in a shower of sparks. Lights flickered and then returned to normal.

“Damage report,” Fitzpatrick shouted over the noise.

“Shields at 52%.  Hull breeches on decks 12 and 15.  Casualties are coming in from all around the ship,” Operations reported.

Cheon had managed to destroy several of the attacking ships before his console was rendered useless by feedback from one of the impacting enemy torpedoes that had managed to slip through the weakened shields. The last thing Cheon remembered was the feeling of being weightless before his body came to a rest on the deck.

“Helm get us out of here!” Fitzpatrick shouted as the hull creaked and groaned under another impact.

Ignoring what was happening around him to his friends and crewmates Stephens punched in a series of commands that would take them threw the opening in the blockade that the computer had found. “Working on it. Just keep them off of us for a few more seconds.”

Rebecca was as Cheon’s side feeling for a pulse.  It was there, light and irregular. “Bridge to sickbay: medical emergency.”

She wanted to remain at Cheon’s side, but their making it out of here alive no longer rested on his shoulders.   She found a functional science station at the back of the bridge and transferred tactical control to that location.

“Targeting sensors and aft torpedo launchers are off-line,” she reported.   She saw a window of opportunity and fired a full burst at a Jem’hadar fighter and it exploded in a ball of flame.

Stephens brought the Denver to the opening in the blockade and pinched it, jumping to warp 5 immediately to get them out of the grey.

“We’re being pursued,” Rebecca announced.

“On screen,” the captain ordered.

Rebecca called up the the aft view on the viewscreen.   A Dominion battlecruiser flanked on either side by a pair of Galor-class warships and two dozen fighters was closing in.

“Helm maximum warp!”

“Aye Captain. Maximum warp: Stephens says as he increases the speed to Warp 9.4 ”Lets get out of here”

“How many ships made it out?”

“Thirteen,” Rebecca replied.  “The Chancellorsville and Bunkerhill are badly damaged.”

Just as she said that their Dominion pursuers closed in on the two stricken ships and destroyed them.  Rebecca stood mouth agape.   Almost 1,000 Starfleet officers were killed in cold blood.  They were retreating.

Rebecca kneeled next to Cheon her hand on his chest.  She had no idea if he could hear her, but she spoke, “Dr. Kyo will be here.”

Seong heard the emergency call-out but she was not prepared to see who was being beamed to medical. As soon as the beam ceased and Cheon came into view Seong almost lost it, and she might have had her medical training not kicked in and taken over. Swiftly she began to sound out orders.

Anticipating the captain’s request operations gave a summarized damage report, “Hull breaches on decks 2, 5, 6,7, 10, 11, 15, and 22.  Emergency force fields are in place.  Dorsal shields are inoperable, and ventral shields are at fifteen percent.  Starboard impulse engine is destroyed,  and there are EPS power disruptions all over the ship.”

“Bridge to Engineering.  We’re going to have to make repairs on the fly. We’re being pursued.”

Burkely was already in high gear before the order was given and he replied back that they were already on it. Once more deep in Denver’s bowels he was repairing blowing EPS conduits and rerouting power through circuits that normally would not have been used for what they were being requested to do.

“Engineering to Bridge. Captain, I can not give you the impulse engine without dropping out of warp. I can have the dorsal shields up but only at 25%. I have all of the crews that are not here with me assisting with damage control. Engineering out,” he stated as he stinted a conduit from the backup life support into the dorsal shielding.

-Conference Room, Next Day-

Rebecca was exhausted.  They were still being pursued by the Dominion ships, but there was a hope that they would turn back once they crossed Federation lines.

She looked down at her grimey hands and absently tried and subsequently failed to rub them clean.  Her uniform was black with soot and Cheon’s blood.

Systems were slowly coming back on line, but there were still issues,  and now a new issue was cropping up.  The warp core wasn’t designed to be ran at high warp for this long. This was causing a litany of problems including EPS power surges sometimes undoing engineering’s hard work.

Rebecca leaned over her coffee trying to stay awake.   The adrenaline of battle long since faded.

“Okay people report,” Fitzpatrick announced walking into the conference room.

Burkely stood against the wall in the conference room, normally he would have taken a seat in those god awfully small chairs that surrounded the conference table but he was still in an EVA suit as he had been hands-on with helping a damage control team prior to hearing the call that he was needed by the Captain.

“Most of the minor stress fractures have been repaired,” he stated, “however, decks 5 through 7 have a nasty hole from a spicy quantum torpedo. That will take a better part of the week to repair.” He said as he looked down at the PADD he had. “I was able to get the dorsal shields up to 56%, however, I would recommend not having that section of shielding absorbing any direct impacts from the Dominions torpedoes as I am having difficulty in keeping them above or at that percentage.” Looking up from the PADD a sigh left his lips, “Without dropping out of warp I can not start nor give an estimate on the starboard impulse engine as the starboard EPS grid is fried and…” his voice trailed off as he stated that the starboard engine pylon was inaccessible.

The captain nodded, “Helm report?”

“Captain we can only maintain warp 9.4 for another 3 hours before we have to drop to warp 5 in order to avoid engine troubles. Burkley has enough on his plate without me overloading the engines.

Fitzpatrick sighed, “Do what you can.  Beg, borrow and steal whatever power you need to maintain current speed.  That includes life support.”

“Aye”

The captain turned his gaze on Dr. Kyo.  He had put this one off to the last.  Dreading an already terrible answer,  “Casualty report.”

Seogn was about to reply to the Captain when a soft chime announced that someone was outside the door of the conference room and then the door slid as Cheon stood there. Tears flooded her eyes as she looked at her husband. Returning her attention to the Captain she replied, 28 missing and can only be presumed as casualties as the computer states that they had been in the gaping wound on the Denver, Captain.”

“Mr. Lovecroft, Commander Talon and I are trained engineers.   The two of us will be lending a hand to your department. Mr. Stephens,  with Commander Kyo in sickbay you will be in command while the XO and I are making repairs.”

“That will not be necessary, Captain,” Cheon stated from the door, “I could use another pair of eyes on the bridge while the Captain, the XO, and Commander Lovecroft are other wise indisposed of with the repairs of the Denver.”

“Can you work in engineering ?” Fitzpatrick asked Cheon?

A sigh left Cheon’s lips as his shoulders slouched, “Any other time I would love to, Captain, however, I am not fully sure if I am capable and think it best if I did not.”

“Okay people let’s get to work.  We’re in survival mode and this damaged ship is our lifeline,” stated the Captain