to admit that this isn’t about her? That it’s about you? That all the power you wield as a soulless machine being has warped you into something unrecognizable? That the woman that you were, and only think you are now, would be appalled by everything you’re doing. She would be mortified to think that you’re sharing her name and pretending to be her.”
Morgan glared at hir. If she could have fired phaser blasts out her eyes, Burgoyne would have been incinerated. Which prompted Burgoyne to think that maybe she was actually capable of doing such a thing, and it was entirely possible that the next person to enter the ready room would discover a small pile of ash on the floor that would be the entire remains of the ship’s first officer.
Then, with a slight smile, she said, “I think you have other things to worry about at the moment besides me.”
At which point the red alert klaxon began to sound. Morgan vanished as if she had never been there, and Burgoyne muttered, “Here we go again,” as s/he sprinted out onto the bridge.
ii.
There were three vessels this time. The fact that the Excalibur had been moving at a brisk warp one had given her little ability to put distance between her and pursuers.
Individually, each of the ships was smaller than the Excalibur and not much of a threat. Collectively, however, they posed more of a difficulty, particularly considering the star-ship was endeavoring to inflict minimal damage on them.
The ships darted around the Excalibur like jackals around a lion, sniping and biting and then leaping back as the star-ship judiciously returned fire. Their phasers glanced off the shields of their harassers while the attackers, in turn, continued to pound away.
“Aft shields down thirty percent,” Kebron said. He was fighting to keep his tone neutral, and his granite exterior was as difficult to read as ever, but the frustration he was feeling was becoming more and more obvious. “We’re starting to feel it, Burgy.”
“The damned things are moving too quickly,” said Tobias, “for us to get solid target locks.”
“Phaser bombardment would do the job,” Kebron said. “Photon torpedoes, too.”
Burgoyne knew exactly what he was talking about. The crisscrossing, constantly moving smaller ships were able to elude target locks as long as the Excalibur was going easy on them. On the other hand, if the starship were to cut loose, take a more offensive posture, they could take the other vessels out of commission. But they would do so at the risk of destroying them.
“Burgy.” Kebron looked fixedly at him. “You have to let me take the gloves off.”
“No.”
“I know how you feel—”
“I have no interest in discussing feelings right now, Kebron,” Burgoyne snapped. “Do you job, right—”
“New contact!” Tobias shouted. “Moving quickly at four-two-seven mark—”
Explosions rocked the Excalibur. Burgoyne, who had been standing, was almost knocked off hir feet and caught hirself at the last moment. S/he gripped the guardrail separating the upper and lower sections of the bridge and s/he looked to the viewscreen.
It was another battle cruiser, not Thallonian in design but undoubtedly one of the members of the Protectorate, and it was packing twice the firepower of the other ships.
Burgoyne saw the imminent danger, weighed it against the safety of hir crew, and didn’t hesitate.
“Take them,” said Burgoyne.
Kebron immediately turned his attention exclusively to the battle cruiser, opening fire on the closest targets and blasting away regardless of the damage that the ship might inflict. The battle cruiser, on an attack course, was slammed off track, angling to the right and trying to escape the Excalibur’s big guns. Tobias brought around the starship in pursuit while Kebron continued to fire, pounding away at the battle cruiser’s rapidly crumbling shields.
But even the Excalibur couldn’t battle on so many fronts. Focusing her attention on the immediate threat made protecting herself against the assaults by the smaller ships that much more problematic. Kebron fired off warning volleys from the aft phasers, trying to beat them back. One of the shots even got lucky, crushing the nacelles of one of the smaller vessels, causing it to spiral away helplessly. The other two, however, were fast enough to avoid the phasers while continuing to inflict damage of their own.
Finally the wounds that the Excalibur was sustaining became too great to ignore.
“We just lost aft shields!” called Kebron. He was still exchanging fire with the battle cruiser.
The two remaining smaller vessels, sensing the weakness, came in fast and hard.
Xy was pitching in, routing the