Storming Heaven

“You’re welcome,” she said. “Now stand back.” Pe

From the communicator, a man’s voice said, “Transport complete. The tree’s safe inside our arboretum. But you three had better hurry up and head back, because—”

The station’s Red Alert resounded ominously inside the vast terrestrial enclosure. The botanists, and every other person Pe

32

“All hands to battle stations,” Captain Khatami a

Lieutenant Neelakanta made some fine adjustments at the helm and keyed the switch for the station’s comm cha

A woman’s voice responded from the helm’s speaker. “Endeavour, this is Vanguard Control. Outer doors are open, and you’re clear to proceed.”

“Acknowledged,” the Arcturian helmsman said. “Clearing bay doors in ten seconds.”

Departure from spacedock normally took twenty-five seconds, but Khatami had seen fast exits such as this many times over the years. Within seconds, the gray curve of the lower half of Vanguard’s massive saucer hull dominated the viewscreen from the edges in.

“Endeavour, you have cleared bay doors. The lane is clear, and you’re free to navigate.”

“Helm,” Khatami said, “bring us about, bearing nine one, mark one five. Lieutenant McCormack, raise shields and arm all weapons.”

“Shields up,” McCormack confirmed. “Phasers and torpedoes armed.”

“Charge up the tractor beam, too, Lieutenant,” Stano added as she moved to stand beside Khatami’s command chair. “It might come in handy.”

Khatami looked up at her first officer. “Brushing up on starship combat tactics?”

Stano smiled nervously. “Always worked when I crammed for tests at the Academy.” Her forced joviality vanished as the image on the main viewer pa

Hector Estrada held one hand over the transceiver protruding from his left ear and swiveled his chair to face Khatami. “Captain, the Panama and the Buenos Aires confirm they’re in position and awaiting your orders.”

Neelakanta chimed in, “Sagittarius is clear of spacedock and moving into a defensive posture on our aft port quarter.”

“All ships, proceed to first coordinates as pla

“Full impulse, aye,” Neelakanta said over the rising hum of the ship’s engines.

Khatami turned toward the sensor console. “Klisiewicz, how’s the evacuation going?”

“Ten minutes ago, it was a crisis. Now, it’s officially a disaster.” To McCormack, he added, “Aft viewer, please.” McCormack switched the viewscreen to an image of the steady stream of civilian vessels pouring like a flood from Vanguard’s open docking bays and leaping into warp—but there were several vessels still docked at the lower pylons. “Sensors show way too many people inside the station. I think a lot of people just missed their rides.”

Stano looked at Khatami. “I’ll have all transporters stand by to beam out survivors on your order.” She got the captain’s nod of approval and stepped away to make it happen.

“Forward angle,” Khatami said, and McCormack returned the screen to its default view. The elegant Miranda-class frigate Buenos Aires and the stout Equus-class cargo transport Panama were directly ahead, holding position between Vanguard and the incoming Tholian armada. “McCormack, have Sagittarius cover zones one and two with the Panama. Buenos Aires can cover three and four. We’ll defend five through eight.” She turned and looked back at the communications officer. “Estrada—send the message packet.”

Estrada nodded and transmitted a vital signal back to Earth in a coded subspace radio burst: a packet of prerecorded messages by the Endeavour’s crew and officers, final missives to be delivered to their loved ones by Starfleet Command in the event that they or the ship did not survive the battle to come. It wasn’t the first time Khatami had recorded a possible farewell to her husband, Kenji, and daughter, Parveen, nor was it the first time she had served aboard a ship whose crew had all prepared parting sentiments on the eve of battle. But until now, she had never actually taken the extra precaution of sending the messages home for safekeeping.

That was because, until now, she had never been asked to face down an enemy armada with two warships, a scout vessel, and a freighter.

On the viewscreen, the gray specks grew larger and more distinct with terrifying speed, until the Tholian ships’ triple-wedge hulls hove into view like an arrowstorm descending with deadly intent from the darkness. Khatami drew a sharp breath. She felt as if she were standing alone on a beach at night, waiting for a tidal wave to crash down and sweep away all in its path, knowing in her heart that it would be as unstoppable as it was inevitable.

She forced herself to exhale and clear her mind. Making a silent survey of her bridge, she was pleased to see that everyone remained focused and alert. Tensions were high, but her crew appeared resolute. Wiping the sweat of her palms over her black trousers, Khatami was almost hypnotized by the terrifying spectacle of the Tholian armada bearing down on Vanguard.

She couldn’t stand to sit still. She stood and paced around her chair as she addressed her bridge crew. “Listen up, everyone. In the next few minutes, any one of you might need to take over at any one of these stations. If the worst comes to pass, one of you might find yourself in command. No matter what happens, know that I have faith in you. Most important, I want you to remember this advice: Whoever’s on weapons control, fire for effect. Use the phasers to dimple enemy shields, then use torpedoes to break them. Don’t ignore an enemy ship because it’s damaged—it can still be used to ram us or the station. If its shields are down, destroy it. Last but just as important, stay alert for the retreat signal from Vanguard. When that sounds, we’ll have to beam out as many survivors as we can. The people on that station are counting on us to pull them out before it’s too late. I’m counting on all of you to make sure we don’t let them down.

“That’s all. Man your posts.”

As her crew returned to their duties, Khatami returned to her chair and beheld the hundreds of incoming vessels that now filled the forward viewscreen.

She gripped her chair’s armrests and grimaced.

Allah help us all.

Most of Vanguard was being maintained by a skeleton crew, but in the operations center, every console was ma