SD 06/04/05 - "Getting to the Ironbottom of This" aka "The Wrath of Ironbottom #17" - It's finally over.
Ironbottom has been defeated.
After we came out of transwarp, and narrowly missed running into the freighter Paul Gibbs, we got a sight at what had happened: several destroyers crippled, two space stations pounded to the point their weapons were useless, and only two freighters and a Galaxy-class ship left to resist. The Galaxy ship was the Yammato, a Federation flagship that had stopped by the area. The freighters were the Paul Gibbs, which I mentioned, and the Ambrose. Out of sight but not out of mind were countless smaller ships of various kinds making their getaway with what women and children they could find.
Surprised, Ironbottom commed us. In his Borg getup as "Hybiscus," he was uglier than ever. We took the time to taunt him, distracting him while our weapons and shuttles readied. And boy, was he mad. He had been so sure we were stuck without a ship that he was caught by surprise. He gave no real response to our initial attacks. Drones flew over and slammed into the cube while our attack shuttles launches and flew over and launched smaller drones as well as pecking at it with their own phasers. His shields began dropping quite a bit. We would have got them dropping faster, but unfortunetly our gatling phasers were inopeative due to damaged curcuitry from the trip over via the slipstream. Once they were zero, Tarra and the landing party would beam over via the shuttle, and wreck the "Vernacular" that made the Borg a collective, and under Ironbottom's control.
Unfortunetly, Ironbutt soon recovered from his surprise and began fighting back, with devastating particle beams. They initially tore through our shields and caused massive dammage, rupruting decks, before Lott managed to recalibrate the shields. Even when they worked, we still got some damage. Good thing this Battle Carrier was built like a rock. We soon got the gatling phasers going, and as fierce as their fire was, it only made their shields drop a little as they had adapted to the drone missiles.
Then we got a coded message from the Yammato. They were going to try something that they felt would make their shields vanish completely, but needed a half minute to do it. So for thrity agaonizing seconds, we continued to fire at the Borg cube as we charged at it, noticing the Yammato's deflector array was glowing, and according to our sensors making a lot of noise over there, an "urp-urp-urp" sound that steadly increased in pitch to a whine.
Then the Yammato unleashed a powerful and blinding energy beam right at Ironbottom's cube. It hit the shields, surrounded them, and make them vanish. I recall from reading the Enterprise records that Commander Riker had tried something like that against the Borg cube that kidnapped Piccard, but failed to do much. It probably made a difference that this was Ironbottom and not Piccard we were up against, and that the Yammato settled for destroying the shields, not the ship.
Our away team then beamed over to do their bit of demolition, and I ordered Orlan to veer off. Unfortunetly, Orlan found the curcuits for steering were fried. All we could do was reverse thrust to slow down a little and brace for impact. And what an impact it was. Good thing for me the Kzin engineers installed an air bag in the command chair.
What happened next, maybe it was because it was Borg we were fighting, maybe it was because of Ironbottom, maybe because those charges filed against me had been making me think this was my last mission. I grabbed Treki's Klingon painstick, and told security to join me at Airlock 2, which was just 100 meters away from where the first team beamed over. I rushed over with Orlan and Lynx following me, Lynx carrying quite a number of weapons, notably her mother's "pirate" sword. Melvin simply had the same standard-duty phaser pistol I did. We opened the hatch and rushed in, Lynx yelling a shrill battle cry that this time was more energizing than frightening.
We quickly arrived with Tarra, Halfpipe, Seven of Elleven, and the "BoReD" and the redshirts of the first party tangling with a bunch of Borg. I noticed the BoReD were wearing armbands with the insignia of the French Resistance durring Earth's Second World War, I suppose for the symbolism as well as to distinguish themselves in the fight. The room itself was dominated by a huge crystaline structure, with strange Borg equipment attatched. We joined in the fray, using phasers at a distance, Klingon painsticks and whatever else handy at close quarters. All the while, we closed in on Ironbottom.
Finaly Sherry Halfpipe Holley took her painstick and sent a Borg hurtling into Ironbottom, who fell back onto the Vernacular crystal. He caused a major short circuit, sparks of electricity going across the crystal and his spasaming body. Finally the crystal exploded, sending him onto the floor, and all the Borg, "BoReD" and drone alike began convulsing and collapsed.
For a moment, I wondered if we had killed them instead of rescuing them. Then they began to stir. None of them were moving roboticaly like drones, but more natural like the "BoReD." They then realized they were finally free and cheered, one muttering, "I don't even care that they sniped off my gonads."
And that miserable excuse for a being who had caused us so much pain for so long lay helpless before us.
Defeated, he begged us to kill him. As much as part of me wanted to do so, I felt what should be done was for him to face trial, not to mention relishing the thought of him in prison at the mercy of stronger inmates. Orlan gave him a taste of what was to come by accepting some headphones from a former drone, and slipped them on his head, playing "Barney" music. Lynx went up, and scored him across his rear end with her sword. 'Ole!
Unfortunetly, we didn't have time to toy with him for long. In the middle of the fight, Lott had commed me, saying the collision had caused a breach in the warp core. I told her to go ahead and eject it. As Ironbotton lay before us, I got anothe comm from engineering: the malfunctioning warp core had landed in the Borg cube.
Then the Borg's own alert sounded. I found a Borg intercom and ordered an evacuation. And so with the familiar "Spaceballs" music, panicky ex-drones raced to both the Gutter and the escape pods. The path to Airlock Two was so crowded, a number of redshirts went to the escape pods instead. Finally it was just us and a few redshirts left to enter.
Then there was a sickening, loud, crunch of metal. And the airlock was suddenly out of reach as the "Gutter" drifted away ...
And we were pulled forward by the vaccum of space!
We began to claw our way back, trying to get back to a corridor door and shut it. Then I saw some redshirts being transported out. Rescue! If we could just hold out a little longer. Lynx, Tarra, Half, and I ended up next to each other, holding onto a few peices of metal.
Then the metal gave way and snapped, and we tumbled toward the emptiness of space that would surely be our doom.
I managed to snag Treki's painstick onto a couple struts sticking out, hoping the transporter would lock onto us. Precious seconds ticked away ...
And finaly the sparkles that signaled we were being beamed over ...
And the next thing I knew, we were on top of some kind of vegetation in some storage hold, sharing it with numerous redshirts and ex-Borg. There were also some of the "rescue balls" we on the "Gutter" were using in case of hull ruptures. Cosmo was in the one closest to us. Half got him out of it. Guess it takes, fortitude, to ride in a rescue ball for a while without complaining.
Looking down, I found the vegetation we landed on were the leaves of Argelian Red Ferns. Fairly rare. I'd hate to get the bill for all those red ferns.
We felt a little shaking, and through a display screen we saw the reason why. The Borg cube began exploding and blew up. The "Gutter," thankfully was far enough to escpae further damage.
A few crewmen, all Caitains, were tending to the bruises the redshirts had, and dealing with the occasional wounded ex-Borg. Then the ship's Captain, also Caitian, came in and went up to us. He explained he was Commander Abrams of the freighter "Paul Gibbs," and thanked us for getting rid of the Borg cube. "Abrams" not exactly being a common Caitian name, I looked up his record a few minutes ago. His grandmother had married a Terran (the kids were through artificial insemination), and his father kept the surname, as did he.
I don't remember much of the conversation after that as I passed out from exhaustion. The next thing I remember is waking up in bed with Lynx. Granted one could assume quite a bit, especially with the playful flirting she did with me on the bridge, but it could have just been humor on part of the locals. I wonder if Cosmo told her about the groin injury I suffered in our first tangle with Ironbottom's goons?
So here I am making this PADD entry from the couch while watching Lynx snooze. She does seem very peaceful in her sleep. I'm taking the oportunity to get some files from the databanks on follow-up reports. Although some people have yet to be accounted for, no bodies have been found and the Gibbs and Ambrose detected there was nobody left on the Borg cube when it finally blew up. There are rumors that some in Federation uniforms and what looked like pale-skinned humanoids wearing heavy hoods and cloaks took the first flights out of here, so it seems we will have at least a few unaccounted for. Although we have a number injured, no one has been confirmed dead.
Of the "Gutting Claw" itself, the ship is still spaceworthy but badly damaged. The warp core is gone, the warp engines fried, the hull took a beating from the particle beams and the collision, but it held together. Few ships can lay claim to besting a Borg cube, none other to liberating the drones, so we have to give Marcus Ritt some credit. Ironic, he had turned his back on the Caitians, and his master creation ends up saving one of their worlds. No doubt this mixing of Kzin and Federation technology will be thouroughly scrutinized by our technicians. Will it fly again or end up a curiosity in a museum shipyard? Time will tell.
So what now? With Ironbottom discredited, no doubt those ridiculous charges will be thrown out. I recall Commander Riker had been offered a promotion after he blew up a Borg cube. It would have meant leaving his friends, and I cannot do the same. Exploring strange new worlds without Ironbottom breathing down my neck will be reward enough. I will be reccomending promotions for most of my bridge crew. Lynx & Tarra Nebendi, Cosmos Ennin, Lott Taldasi, Melvin Orlan, and Halfpipe Holley each proved invaluable in our reactivating the "Gutter," and the pursuit of Ironbottom. Although Lera t'Resan is also eligable for a promotion, I fell she too would prefer to remain here.
Ironbottom, I still don't know if he survived. If so, he faces either life in prison or in a mental ward. Considering what he did, I don't see any doctor advocating his release. I certainly wouldn't mind him dead, but I find it more satisfying for this monstrosity so used to being powerful and getting his way reduced to just another insignigicant inmate with no control at all over a dull and despairing life.
Of the crewmen from other ships who served with us to avenge their comrades and in the end helped set them free, I'd like to think some of them will transfer over to us permanently, but I feel once the ex-Borg are stripped of the bionics and given adequate counseling, most of the crews will be reunited. Good luck to them all.
I imagine we'll soon get another science vessel, maybe another Cardinal class ship, and go about our journies into the unknown.
But for now, I shall enjoy this welcome break and rest with my dear friends.
No one, ship captain or otherwise, could ask for any better.