Star Trek: Voyager: The Nanotech War

Captain Kathryn Janeway clung grimly to the arms of her captain's chair as the ship bucked and shuddered beneath her.

"How much longer " she bellowed over the noise.

"About ten minutes!" Ensign Harry Kim yelled back from the science station. The bridge lights were dimmed, indicating an ongoing emergency.

"Shields at fifty-two percent," Tuvok reported from tactical. A nearby sensor panel exploded in a noisy shower of white sparks. The lieutenant commander's calm Vulcan features didn't even twitch. Janeway, however, had to work at keeping her own face schooled into a calm she didn't feel -- this ion storm was one for the record books. Even Tom Paris's boyish face was grim as he bent over the navigation board in a desperate attempt to keep the ship at least halfway steady. To Janeway's left, First Officer Chakotay's fingers stabbed madly at his own boards. Though Janeway suspected he was doing nothing but monitor data, at least he could do something. All Janeway could do was watch and issue orders.

Janeway's chair dropped several centimeters as another barrage hit the ship and her morning coffee sloshed around her stomach.

"Janeway to engineering," she said. "B'Elanna, can we go to warp yet "

"I wouldn't, Captain," came B'Elanna's voice over the intercom. "We'd do some serious damage to the plasma manifolds, and the injectors are already misaligned. I'm trying to route more power to the inertial dampers, but it's a losing battle."

"Shields at forty-six percent," Tuvok said.

Janeway clamped her teeth together.

The stars on the viewscreen leaped and squiggled into white worms as another ion onslaught hit the ship. Janeway was about to tell Tom to blank the screen when something flicked past. An alarm buzzed at Tuvok's station.

"What the hell was that " Janeway demanded. The ship shook again.

"A ship," Chakotay interjected before Tuvok could reply. "It dropped out of warp and coasted past us."

"It is emitting a distress call," Tuvok said. "The ship is damaged. I am detecting only minimal shields."

"Mr. Paris, match course and trajectory," Janeway ordered. "Tuvok, can we extend our own shields around it "

"Extending the shields would lower them to less than thirty percent," Tuvok replied. "An inadvisable move at this juncture."

Another panel sparked, and a small cloud of acrid smoke exploded upward. The ensign staffing it jumped back with a yelp. Automatic fire-suppression units kicked in, filling the bridge with the chemical smell of extinguisher compound.

"I'm reading one life sign on the ship," Harry Kim said. He was operating the board with his left hand. His right was currently clutching the top of his console for balance. "It's a small ship, barely big enough for a--" His eyes widened. "Captain, the ion storm is eroding the shields around that ship's warp core. Breach in one minute."

"Extend those shields, Mr. Tuvok," Janeway snapped. "Lieutenant Torres, all power to the shields."