A Matter of Honour

Chapter 14

The background hum of the warp engines stayed at the high pitch that marked Emergency Speed to Sarin's ears. Among other things, that meant that the intruders had not managed to breach the engine room, though she was certain she would have a received a report to that effect if it were even imminent. She raised her weapon again, training it on the next corridor junction, just as Ensign Ogden fired.

Her communicator chirped and Sarin used her free hand to bring it to her mouth. "Report."

The tiny voice that answered belonged to the Marine Lieutenant. "Cestor here. I have four stunned Romulans disarmed and locked in a storage cabin just behind the mess hall. Two marines down, one just stunned and one with a probable concussion. I'd like to drop them in SickBay, on my way to the next fight. Where would you prefer that be?"

Sarin squeezed the trigger, taking a moment to consider. "Reinforce Engineering. It is imperative they are not able to reach the Auxiliary control consoles or engine controls. We will join you if possible but are pinned down at the moment."

"Should I send a couple of my people to relieve you, Commander?"

"Negative. I do not believe we are in danger. Engineering remains the priority. Sarin out." She closed her communicator just as she fired again.

Across the corridor, Ogden lifted an eyebrow. "Very optimistic of you, Skipper. I think we're outnumbered three to one."

"True, if you insist on counting the intruder you stunned a moment ago." She squeezed the trigger again. "However, Lieutenant Cestor does not need to split his remaining forces. He has three marines on Harak and two going to Sick Bay. Including himself, that leaves only six. We count six Romulans here, blocked from accessing the bridge. Lieutenant Cestor has dealt with four more. That leaves as many as eight attempting to gain entry to Engineering."

"It's the 'as many as' that bothers me, Skipper."

Sarin nodded. "Somewhat imprecise, I agree, but in the absence of additional forces and communications, for the moment we must assume most of the crew is incapacitated or unable to reach a weapons locker. My tactical preference is to focus our strength where it will do the most good."

Ogden kept her focus on the corridor ahead. "So the marines hopefully deal with the group trying to get into Engineering, then begin a sweep through the ship picking up and arming other crew members as they find them."

"Precisely, Ensign. Until all Romulan intruders are accounted for and the Nancy Wake is secured." A flash of movement was worth at least one shot and Ogden fired at the same time though not quite at the same target, a clear difference in vantage point.

"And if the Romulans get into Engineering before Lieutenant Cestor gets there? Or in spite of him?" She ducked back as two blasters returned fire. At almost the same time, two different voices shouted unintelligible things, presumably in Romulan.

"Then we will adjust our tactics to suit."

"That's rather... vague, ma'am."

Without admitting that the vagueness made her uncomfortable, adding rather unfortunate error bars to her probability calculations, Sarin nodded. "Boarding actions are typically fluid situations, Ensign. I have several potential courses of action in mind should it be necessary to employ more aggressive measures. Unfortunately, all require a more... extreme level of force than I am currently interested in employing." Fortunately, she currently lacked the command authority with the computer to initiate a self-destruct sequence. She wasn't usually interested in limiting her options, but it wouldn't do for a current generation Federation starship to wind up on the far side of the Romulan border for deconstruction.