“I’m not sure what they’re powering up, but it’s not like anything I’ve ever seen before,” Perry added.  “It seems to be ion-based…they’re firing!”

“Brace!”

The ship suddenly shook, and on the view screen, Tom could see the shields around the ship flare to life.  However, unlike what was usual, the shields didn’t fade again.  Instead, they kept flaring to life as lightning seemed to play across them…and beneath them.  Consoles, lights, and bulkheads began to fade on and off, as if they were struggling to maintain power.

Tom looked at his console, but the data on it was becoming scrambled…  “What’s going on?!”  He shot up out of the chair again and looked back at Riley.

He shook his head, panic showing on his face.  “I don’t know!  All the computer systems seem to be going crazy!  Some of our protection protocols are keeping some of them active…” He looked up in the same horror that Perry had a moment ago.  “We’re going to lose power and antimatter containment!”

Tom also let a look of horror cross his face.  He tapped his comm. badge harshly.  “Engineering, eject the warp core and the antimatter containment pods now!”

“Aye, s”  And with that, the comm. channel was closed.  “All communications just went down!” Riley said.  “All the protected systems are starting to be effected.”

The ship shook for a moment, causing the main lights to shut off and the emergency lights to come online.  “I think that was the warp core.  Back up systems are now being effected…”

The emergency lights started to flicker now…which made Tom realize something.  All systems were being affected, which meant soon the ship would be dead in space…without shields.  “Arm yourselves!” he shouted, already moving to the emergency weapons locker on the bridge towards the front.  The lights started to fail more and more, putting his nerves on edge.

“Shields have failed!” Perry stated.

Tom entered in his command codes and ripped the locker open.  He grabbed a type two phaser and a flashlight, then tossed it to the nearest officer.  Perry and the only other security officer on the bridge already had phasers and pulled them out, grabbing an arm flashlight from under their consoles.

After Tom passed out two more phasers, he grabbed his own and his own light and moved away, letting others get their own.  That’s when the lights finally failed.

Everyone who had a flashlight turned it on, casting beams of light across the bridge and creating very, very little ambient lighting.

That was when it began.  The hum of transport and the golden glow of Vrol energy signature engulfed the bridge.  To Tom’s surprise, there were a lot of them, all beaming to various parts of the bridge.  To his right, one was materializing right next to an empty auxiliary control console.

Tom checked the setting on his phaser, then rushed at the Vrol.  Just as it finished materializing, he fired, hitting it square in what was likely its chest cavity.  It immediately went down, bone-tight gold skin and all.  Tom jumped over it and behind the console, two gold beams hitting the bulkhead behind him…but just barely missing him.

Shouts and phaser fire began to echo through the bridge as everyone took cover and began laying down firing patterns.  As Tom glanced over, however, he knew they were outnumbered and would quickly lose.

The hum of transport filled his ears again, and he spun around, making sure to keep low.  To his relief, however, the energy signature was blue, and the form soon took on Riley’s shape.

“How’d you do that?” Tom asked, gold beams lancing over their heads.

Riley opened the palm of his hand, revealing what Tom was ever thankful to see.  “A sight-to-sight transporter!”

He nodded.  “It’s got power for one more transport, sir,” he said, firing once over the console.  “Take it.”  He thrust it at Tom.  “You can get out of here and warn the rest of the ship.”  He patted his tricorder.  “From what I can see, they all transported to deck one only.  They’re probably going to try to take the ship over deck by deck.  Warn the others!”

Tom hesitated, but he knew Riley was right.  He grabbed the transporter device from Riley, then fired once more over the console.  “Good luck, and don’t do anything stupid!” he said.  He entered in the coordinates for deck two.  He looked once at Riley, then activated it.

The bright transporter field quickly engulfed his vision, and a moment later, he was on another dark deck.  Two flashlights fell on him.  “Don’t fire!”

“Commander?” the familiar voice of Tal Celes asked.  He flashed his own flashlight on the two to see Tal and Ensign Sauris.

“Are you the only two on this deck?”

They both nodded.  “Yeah, what’s going on?” Tal asked.  “There was a red alert, then all the computer systems went crazy!”

“They’re not going to last long on the bridge,” he said, standing up from his crouch.  “We need to get off this deck and onto deck two.  So let’s move!”

They looked at each other in confusion, but knew not to question orders.  Both began moving for the nearest Jeffries tube hatch, Tom hot on their heels.  They passed by a window, which gave Tal a look at the Vrol ship outside.  “Are we being invaded?!” she asked, pausing by the window for a moment.

Tom gave her a quick push forward and started to jog.  “Yes, now move it!”

Both moved quickly to follow Tom, both obviously as fearful as he was.  They quickly reached the hatch and Tom pulled it open.  With power and the main computer offline, they didn’t have to worry about entering access codes any more, all doors were simply released.

Commander Ketil stared at the glowing console, the sensor readout of the Starfleet vessel showing the invasion teams ignorance.  He closed his eyes and clenched his fists.

“Lel to Ketil, we’ve secured the first deck.  Three have been stunned but have recovered.  We’re about to proceed to deck two.”

Ketil pounded his hand on his console.  “If I had control of the invasion team, no one would have gotten off of deck one to warn others and move them down the ship!”

There was a long pause at the other end.  “They have proven themselves to be inferior when it comes to personal combat.  They no longer have the power of their ship to protect them.  This time, we’ll take them all.”

“Starfleet has many different species on this ship,” Ketil ground out between his lips.  “All of which are cunning creatures.  If you underestimate them, they’ll destroy you, and I’ll have control of the invasion teams.”

“They won’t have a chance!  Watch your mouth or I’ll have you removed of your command!”

Ketil shook his head.  “Very well, it’s your battle to lose.  Ketil out.”

With the channel closed, he watched in more annoyance as the life signs now all left deck three and proceeded to deck four.  Move quickly Lel, before they form a barrier…

Tom checked his tricorder and nodded.  “All right, that’s everyone on this deck.  Move down to deck 5!”

Tal and Sauris both nodded, phasers now in hand, and quickly opened the Jeffries tube hatch.  Tom flashed his arm light in the tube to see it empty and quickly crawled in, the other two behind him.

He crawled out into a junction area and flashed his light down the tube that led to deck five.  Crawling up the hatch was someone he was very happy to see.

“Ada!”

She looked up at him, surprised and blinded by his flashlight.  After Tom moved the light out of her face, she frowned at him.  “What the hell is going on?!”

Tom grabbed a hold of the ladder and began descending, forcing Ada to move into the junction on deck five.  “A Vrol ship ambushed us and disabled all of our systems.  Now, they’re invading us…and it looks like they’re doing so deck by deck.”

When he got down and looked at her, he could barely make out her shaking her head.  “That’s not the best strategy in the galaxy.  I hope that they’re just stupid and that they don’t have something else planned…”

Tom was about to take out his tricorder again to scan for Vrol life signs, however, the sound of weapons fire echoed through the junction as a blast hit Sauris, he suddenly fell off the ladder and hit the deck hard.  Tal screamed and jumped away from his body, accidentally firing her phaser at the wall.

Ada didn’t even give them time to think, she simply opened a Jeffries tube hatch and grabbed Tom’s arm.  “Move it!”

He quickly crawled in and began hauling his way through the tube.  He heard Ada yelling at Tal to move it, heard weapons fire, then heard the hatch close behind him.  He looked back, fearing that Ada had stayed behind, but was glad to see her bringing up the rear, moving faster than he thought any one could have through the tubes.

“Get off your ass and move!” she shouted, glancing back at the door.

Tom looked forward again and stopped himself just before hitting a hatch.  He pushed it open and stumbled out of the hatch, trying not to fall to the deck completely.  When he stood up, Tal did the same, quickly followed by Ada.  The hatch on the other end flew open just before she shut the one they just came out of.

Tom quickly moved to the door that led out into the corridor and pried it open, his hands shaking and sweating.  When he finally managed to get it all the way open, he moved out.  They were by the intersection at the front of the ship, and there was only one person nearby.

“Commander Halkrat!”  He flashed the light in the person’s face to see it was Vendar.

“We need to get everyone off of this deck!” he stated.

Ada moved out next to him and nodded her head in agreement.  “Vendar, you and Tal go down that way,” she said, pointing behind Vendar, towards the aft of the ship.  “Tom and I will go around the front and get the other side.  Tell everyone to get off of this deck and to probably head towards engineering, where there’ll probably be an emergency command center set up.”

She nodded and pulled her hand phaser out.  “All right.  We’ll see you in the aft.  We will wait for you.”

The hatch inside the junction suddenly flew open.  Ada and Tom spun around and fired, then moved out of the way as golden beams lanced out.

“No, you won’t!  Now move!” Ada shouted, grabbing Tom’s arm again and running down the corridor.

Before they rounded the front, Tom pulled out his tricorder and scanned the secondary phaser control room they were passing by.  No one in there.  They rounded the corridor, but he didn’t have to scan the other secondary control room, the door was open and it was empty inside.

Behind them, they could hear the sound of footsteps that Tom now associated with the Vrol.  They were already hot on their trail.

Several officers were ahead of them now, gawking at them.  Gold beams lanced between Tom and Ada, nearly hitting two other officers.

Both moved out of the way into open quarters.  “Get down to deck six, now!” she shouted at the officers.  “Stay under cover if you can’t get out of here!”

Tom quickly pointed his phaser down the other way and fired, not even bothering to aim.  Ada, across from him, did aim and likely hit one.

He noticed that all the fire was concentrated on Ada’s position, which meant that they knew she posed the greater threat.  Judging by what he heard and saw, only two were on this side at the moment.  They had to take those two down and get off the deck before more arrived.