Wren Walton stepped onto the bridge, “Report”.  She made her way to the command chair, and Chief Kondo De La Fontaine made his report.

“Two shuttles have just left the atmosphere and are on an intercept course with us.  Estimating arrival time in less than two minutes.”  He tapped at his console, “Sensors are reporting elevated power levels on both shuttles, but the readings are hard to quantify. Sensors are having difficulty determining exactly what it is…getting loads of static and interference.”

Park Seoyeon reported where she had sat at the science console, “The power levels are crescendoing pretty damned fast – this looks like they’re attempting to overload something.”  She was working her hands on the console as she spoke, the hair on the back of her neck slowly standing up.  Something wasn’t right. “Captain, I think…”

Kondo shouted from his console, “Shuttles are speeding up – intercept in less than ten seconds!”

Wren stood from her chair as the screen shifted to show the shuttles screaming towards the Mackenzie.  She didn’t have time to lower the shields as she’d intended.  A sudden, bright, and overwhelming burst of light and energy exploded on the screen from each shuttle.  The deck fell from underneath everyone, tossing and turning as multiple klaxons and alarms rang across the bridge.  Lights exploded in showers of sparks and fire, the bridge falling into brief darkness before the emergency lights flooded the chaotic scene.  The bridge sat at an awkward angle, and bodies were sprawled across the deck in varying positions of pain.

Wren groaned as she shifted to her feet.  Consoles flickered in the shadows of the emergency lighting.  She croaked out, “Report!”

Kondo had pulled himself back to his console.  He was coaxing information as he ran down the situation, “Main power is scattered across the ship – the inertial damping system has failed.  The gravity stabilizing system is malfunctioning, so we’re sitting at an angle.”  The others began to pick themselves off the floor.  

The Chief of Security, Seraphina Pearce, was first, “They’ve crashed into the shuttle bay…scattered reports that they’re armed and on the move.  I can’t lock down most of the ship…,” she tapped furiously at her half-working station, “I’ve managed to secure the battle bridge and engineering…but that’s all I can do from here.  Communication badges are online, but the rest of the system isn’t responding.  I can’t secure the bridge.”

Park hobbled over to one of the doors, “We can manually secure them, but it’ll be a permanent solution until we restore the system.”  She winced as she rubbed her leg, blood staining her uniform pants.

Wren sat in the center chair, “Pearce, get out there and coordinate the security response.  Kondo, go with her.  We’ll secure the bridge with myself, Park, Oscar, and Gabriella.  The rest of you, get out there and do your best to secure the ship.”

It took a few minutes and some work by the three remaining able-bodied officers, but each door was manually secured and locked out.  Wren turned to the shadow-filled bridge, thankful the emergency lights were holding.  “Let’s see what we can do from here to help.”

“Shit.”  Commander and Chief Engineer Katsumi Okada leaned heavily on the master situations display in the center of the Mackenzie’s Engineering.  The ship was leaning, making things challenging for the engineering crew.  Two crewmen had gone in search of magnetic boots while she tried to make sense of what they had done to her ship.  

One of her shift leads was grasping onto the table with one hand and tapping at the table, “Whatever it was – it was targeted to impact specific systems.  If I’m reading this right, we’re losing our orbit incrementally.  Without access or power to thrusters or impulse engines, we’ll eventually crash into the planet.”  He wiped the sweat on his forehead, “I think they knocked out the air cycling systems, too.  Damn.”

Okada tapped at her side of the console, “Bridge has locked us in – whoever it was, they’ve boarded the ship.”  She banged at the console as it flickered, then resolved, “If their goal was to send us into the planet, mission accomplished.  What are they sticking around for?”

Her new assistant chief, Carolyn Crawford, appeared, being helped by another crewman.  She gave a shrug when Okada gave her a questioning look, “Played pinball with a few pylons using my legs.  I’m good for now, Chief.”  She sat roughly in a nearby console, “They’ve got to have someone coming to pick them up; that much is clear.”  Crawford slapped the side of the console and grunted with approval, “The deal must be for something on the ship, on top of throwing us at the planet.  Something valuable.  Something…”

A new Klaxon alarm rang from the MSD, and Katsumi groaned, “That’s the security alarm on the quantum torpedo storage.  So that’s one thing they’re going to take.”  She tapped her badge and alerted Security Chief Pearce, who was as thrilled as she was, and closed the channel.  The Chief Engineer looked at the ship’s map, “We carry the latest and greatest of a bunch of crap.  Armory is certainly going to be a target.”  She was about to theorize on the next when the main engineering door thundered with an explosion but held.  Staring at the door for a beat, she growled, “Activate emergency boarding procedures.  Secure all weapons in hand.”  She walked to the door and went to work on activating the additional blast shield doors.  More explosions could be heard. Whatever else they wanted was in engineering.