Dax turned away from the visual pickup and gave her a pleading look. “I’m sure we’ve discussed it before, Lieutenant . . . over one of our games of Xiangqi?”
Williams blinked a few times. “Oh. Maybe we have at that.”
“Right. Now, this isn’t a signature you can detect with a normal scan, but if we run it through a subspace phase discrimination filter, then any ship that’s been hit by a transporter beam in the past week should light up clear as day.”
Kuldip had grown increasingly agitated as Dax spoke, and Reed spotted him working a control on his console while trying to appear nonchalant. The captain was about to challenge the shipyard operator when he noted movement on the main screen image. “Sir!” Achrati cried. “One of the ships is launching.”
Williams pumped her fist in triumph. “Good going, Tobin, you spooked them!”
“Val, Regina,” Reed said, “don’t let that ship get away.” He turned to Dax. “There is no transporter signature, is there?”
The Trill gave a bashful smile. “Now there doesn’t have to be.”
The Grennex was making a break for the exit, but before Pioneer could follow, a pair of the shipyard’s large manipulator arms moved into the Starfleet cruiser’s path, reaching toward it with grippers deployed. Williams was able to keep the arms from grabbing hold by raising Pioneer’s deflectors, and a couple of quick phase-cannon shots were enough to blast them out of the way. Almost immediately, though, the ship rocked from what Reed recognized as particle fire. “Three fighters have launched,” Williams announced. “And sir, the Grennex is clear and the yard’s shields have just gone up. They’re not letting us out.”
“Niyilar Seventeens,” Veurk observed as one of the fighters took up station to the fore. “Small but powerful. Highly maneuverable.”
“Which we’re not, sir,” Tallarico said, “as long as we’re stuck in here.”
The fighter on the screen shot forward and strafed the dorsal surface of Pioneer’s fan-shaped hull, rocking the bridge. Reed clung to his seat arms. Veurk stumbled and caught herself on the side railing. “Mister Kuldip, you may consider your operating license revoked!” The only answer was another fighter strafing the bridge.
Williams tried returning fire, with no effect. “Damn! They’re too maneuverable. The targeting sensors aren’t designed for point-blank range. Sir, we need to get into open space.”
“Can you lock onto their shield generators?”
“I’ve been scanning, Captain. They must be buried inside the asteroidal shell.”
Tobin Dax grinned. “Um, not everything is. I think I’ve spotted a vulnerability.” He stepped over to the tactical console, pointing at her targeting display. “Val, could you target, ah, these two conduits over here? Just enough to put holes in the casings—a few meters wide should do.”
Williams looked puzzled, but at this point she trusted the engineer implicitly despite his unsure diction. She had to divert one phase cannon from defense against the fighters, but it was doing little good in that regard anyway. The cannon fired two short pulses, causing faint flashes of light near the edge of the exit portal, amid a cluster of equipment barely visible at this range. But Williams and Dax seemed satisfied by the result. “Now,” Dax went on, “just a pinpoint rupture of this tank over here.”
“Magnify that,” Reed told Konicek. The screen zoomed in on the equipment cluster just in time to see a third bolt penetrate a tank adjacent to one of the two damaged conduits. The tank burst and a cloud of vapor erupted into the vacuum, engulfing the two conduits.
A split second later, a blinding electric arc jumped between the conduits, dancing and twisting for nearly half a second before it faded out. But all the interior lights of the shipyard, plus the outer shield and every active robot arm, shut down moments later.
“Oh, it worked,” Tobin said, relieved. “I was afraid the gas would dissipate too quickly to allow a current path to form.”
“Regina, pursue the Grennex,” Reed ordered, but Tallarico was already engaging thrusters.
Williams, still staring at Dax, let out a laugh. “All that high-tech handwaving for your fake solution . . . and now you save our hides with a lousy short circuit?”
Dax shrugged. “Patter should be confusing. Engineering should be simple.” He went back to his station. “Oh, and the power surge should’ve shut down any external weapons, too. That might help.”
Tallarico fired the impulse engines as soon as Pioneer was clear, not worrying much about how radiation backwash might affect Mr. Kuldip’s precious shipyard. Reed couldn’t disapprove. But the fighters were close on the starship’s heels. Getting some distance and room to maneuver made it easier for Tallarico to evade their fire and Williams to target her own, and soon two of the fighters were adrift and the third in retreat.