I barely noticed the dimmed lighting in engineering, my eyes having already adapted well before I got there.
I didn't bother asking for a report, I already knew all I needed from my visor on the way, "Carey, boost the sensor output," I ordered as soon as I stalked in through the door, "Jamal, shields. Keep an eye on the phase variance."
A dozen Kazon vessels had intercepted us through the nebula we were passing by.
They had timed it perfectly.
And they were big fuckers too, almost as large as Voyager. They may be manned by cavemen, but their energy weapons were real. And in numbers, they did damage.
Shields down to seventy two percent.
The ship shuddered again, readings telling me that something had struck our port side. Airloss, something had breached the hu-
The airloss went away as emergency force fields snapped into place.
"Zephyr to Navari," I said, opening a comm channel, "Something struck us, port side midships, deck five. Sensors are fuzzy in that region, suspect boarders.."
"Navari here," Dinah responded, "Security deployed."
I could go hunting, but it was not my station. I had to keep the ship from being blasted from space.
The deck shuddered again. Shields at fifty nine percent.
"Bridge to Engineering."
"Zephyr here, Captain," I answered.
"We're heading into the nebula, can you scatter their sensors?"
I glanced at the readings, "The place is irradiated, it shouldn't be difficult to add to the confusion. But we'll be as blind as they are."
"We don't need to find them, we just need to get away," she said, voice firm.
"Yes sir, we'll get it done," I said and shifted my tail as the deck shuddered again before I turned my head, "Carey, set up a reflective dampening field and shift the shield refactoring to the frequency of our warp plasma."
Carey got to work, but spoke up, "That'll burn our shield emitters out real quick."
"Just need a couple of seconds," I told him, "I want a big plume of expanding warp plasma to hide our ion trail. Just enough for it to get into the murk. Try to keep enough shields so we don't irradiate our external hull."
"Got it. Ready."
I eyed the sensors as I opened a channel to the bridge to explain my plan.
We had just about entered the border of the nebula. The shields fleshed down to fifty percent as another pair of beams hit us.
We were passing into the dense nebula.
"Initiate."
The ship rumbled and the strain on the shields shot upwards as they started to hold in our warp plasma, letting it flow up and around the hull.
"Reverse polarity!" I ordered. A second later, the plasma exploded out from the ship and I activated my comm, "Zephyr to bridge. Now!"
As I watched, our sensor strength went down to barely anything and we slowed down as we changed to a low emission profile.
Sensors didn't work in this irradiated murk anyway.
I took a slow, deep breath and then just waited, eyes on the passive sensors. No energy spikes, no spotted Kazon vessels. Just the irradiated murk of the thick nebula.
We just needed to keep quiet and sneak out and then figure out where the hell the Val Jean was in all of that!
And I need to call my agent, I'm supposed to be on a show about starships, how the hell did I end up on the set of Das Boot. I refuse to grow a beard.
Sighing, I opened a channel, "Zephyr to Navari. Anything new on that hull breach?"
"You'll want to see this," she said, "I'm on my way now. Meet me there."
"On my way," I confirmed.
"Carey, you're in charge, keep emissions down but keep us moving," I said before I turned and left engineering, heading towards the impact point. It would be interesting how they got through our shields, but it wasn't a massive surprise, plenty of ways to do it.
What's interesting is how the Kazon of all people figured one of them out.
A couple of minutes later I entered the corridor and moved up to join a damage control team and a number of security standing around what looked like a boarding pod sticking through the hull. It was surrounded by some kind of hardened foam, likely a way to stop air from escaping the breached hull.
"The occupants?" I asked.
"Detained and in the brig," Dinah said, glancing at me, "They launched six more boarding pods, this one was the only one to make it through both weapons fire and shields."
It was an ugly thing. Brown and with what looked like some sort of cutters around the opened hatch.
Boarding pods were not exactly unheard of even back in the Alpha Quadrant. Just like drop pods for inserting ground forces somewhere quick and dirty.
But they were risky as all hell and the survival rate is horrendous. Only species that really used them regularly was the Klingons.
"Anyone actually confirmed it won't blow up?" I asked casually.
"We searched it," Carlsson said, one of the engineering crewmen. A tall black guy, he was wide enough at the shoulders I briefly wondered exactly how he managed to fit into the thing to look, but shook the irrelevant thought away,
I nodded, "Alright," I said and peered into the opening. It seemed to be little less than a tin can with some controls and crash harnesses, able to hold maybe a dozen people, packed in like sausages, "Secure it in place for now," I said slowly, "Make sure it doesn't shift. We can't remove it while under thrust, not if we want it intact. And I want this thing recovered and completely disassembled. I want to know how they got through our shields."
"Same here," Dinah agreed, "I'll leave that to you. I'm sure the Captain wants to have a talk with our guests."
Me too. They put a hole in my ship! Tried to take what was mine!
But I did not want a reminder of what Kazon tasted like, so best leave them to the others.
So I nodded again and stood up fully again, "Carlsson, get this thing welded into place. The foam looks solid, but I want it held with lines to structural elements and force fields set up at each side of the corridor. Entire area off limits, just to be safe."
"Yes, sir."
How the hell did the Kazon find us for an ambush!?
