The first chapter of the second part of this story, The Ocean of Night, has been posted, so I'm reposting this chapter so subscribers get a notification. Nothing new otherwise.

Thanks as always to Alelou for advice and support. Sorry for the delay, hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 29 – Into the Dark

August 18, 2156 2030 (Pacific Time) – Enterprise, Jupiter Orbit (Sol V)

Enterprise had completed the final preparations and was scheduled to begin her mission the next morning. Fully fueled, she was now in orbit around Jupiter following standard procedure. Jupiter Station was over the horizon, protected from a warp core breach by the bulk of the gas giant.

Archer had Trip and T'Pol in his cabin for a pre-mission drink. Hawaii must have agreed with them; they seemed much more relaxed around each other and the constant bickering had abated. He decided to wait until they were in deep space before trying to figure out just how close their relationship had become. T'Pol accepted a small glass of white wine. Jon poured single malt into tumblers for Trip and himself.

Jon raised his glass. "To our missing friends." Trip echoed him and T'Pol raised her glass in silent salute.

Trip sat down heavily in a chair. "I am bushed. Normal fueling has me as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs and this was twenty times our usual load of antimatter."

"There were a lot of tenders coming and going all day. I hope there's no new scratches on the paint," said Archer.

"There were no collisions, Captain," T'Pol said.

"I'm glad you got to see more of Earth before we leave. What did you think of Hawaii?"

"I believe I understand the Human penchant for 'resorts'." She took a sip of her wine. "And I discovered the root cause of Commander Tucker's speech irregularities."

August 18, 2156 2035 (Pacific Time) – Asteroid Belt (Sol IV.5)

The Romulan drones, launched by the Alidar two weeks previously, passed through the asteroid belt at ninety percent of the speed of light without mishap. Leaving the asteroid belt, their precision timers completed their countdown and the drones began to power up. When they reached the orbit of Mars, four minutes later to the outside observer, their power up cycle completed. Fusion reactors fired up miniature stars inside of them and their subspace transmitters reached out to the relays left by the Alidar for instructions from their crews. The drones were silent no longer.

August 18, 2156 2139 (Mountain Time) – Cheyenne Mountain, Earth (Sol III)

In the wake of the Xindi probe attack on Earth, the ancient mountain citadel had been transformed from a museum into the command post for Earth's defenses. Two thousand meters beneath the summit of the mountain, CentCom occupied a large room. The big displays at the front of the room showed a peaceful Solar System. The traffic moving about was represented as vector arrows; blue for Starfleet, green for commercial and a few scattered amber alien vessels.

Admiral Kutuzov, the on-duty Commander-in-Chief Sol System, or CinCSol, relaxed at his desk in the back of the command center. In front of him Starfleet personnel were monitoring and directing operations among the eight planets and out to the edges of the Oort cloud. He sipped from his cup of tea, amused as always at the irony of a Russian admiral commanding in a place once dedicated to defending against his motherland.

Alerts popped up on consoles as subspace detectors placed around the Solar System detected the incoming drones and relayed their results. At the front of the room a set of red vector arrows flashed on the inner system display, pointed at Earth.

The young lieutenant at the central console said, "Admiral, we have multiple incoming bogies at high sub-light on a trajectory for Earth. Sir, they're inside Mars orbit already!"

Kutuzov sat up straight, spilling tea down his front. "Tchort! How did they get there? Never mind. What's their ETA?"

"They arrive at Earth orbit in eight minutes, fifteen seconds."

Before the Xindi attack, Kutuzov might have hesitated. Today he did not, taking only a second to make a decision. "Go to DEFCON 1. Situation Goal Line."

At the central console, Lieutenant Chang began keying in commands. Across the Solar System alarms began blaring and people and machines were set in motion.

August 18, 2156 0340 (Central European Time) Prime Minister's Residence, Brussels, Earth (Sol III)

The door burst open and the lights flipped on in Minister Samuels' bedroom. His security detail ran into the room and pulled him out of bed. Before he knew what was happening, he was halfway through the door, his wife being hustled along behind him.

"What the hell?" he asked, rapidly coming awake from the adrenaline surge.

"Starfleet just declared Situation Goal Line, sir," the head of his security detail told him, still carrying him with another bodyguard as they ran down the corridor. "We have incoming enemy ships, ETA seven minutes. There's a shuttle on the pad to take you to Starfleet 1."

Samuels fought down a wave of nausea as he remembered the Xindi attack. "Put me down," he told his bodyguards. "I can run."

August 18, 2156 2040 (Pacific Time) Starfleet Headquarters, Earth (Sol III)

It had been a long day of negotiations on weapons and technology exchange between Earth and Andoria. After it was over, Admiral Gardner had invited Director Talarak back to his office for a drink. The past few months had built a healthy respect between the two. As usual, Talarak had requested 'tekila' and so Gardner was searching through his bar for a lime for his own tequila shot when the view screen on his desk lit red and the alarm sounded.

Gardner rushed over and punched for CincSol. Kutuzov quickly and efficiently relayed the situation to the Chief of Naval Operations.

He turned to Talarak. "Director, we have what looks like an incoming attack. The command bunker will be about as safe as we can get." He ushered her out the door. Their drinks were forgotten on the little bar.

August 18, 2156 2041 (Pacific Time) – Enterprise, Jupiter Orbit (Sol V)

Archer had managed to get a couple of vacation stories out of T'Pol when the tactical alert sounded. Enterprise suddenly shuddered and Jupiter disappeared from the window.

"What the hell?" said Archer. Trip and T'Pol put their glasses on the table and ran out the door. The wall communicator chimed. "Report," he hollered as he mashed the button.

Ensign Gutierrez' voice came out of the communicator. Gutierrez was the new Starfleet, trained after the Xindi attack and his voice had changed to that flat, unemotional tone military personnel tended to adopt when the stress levels were high and they were doing everything exactly by the book to avoid mistakes. "Sir, we are now at DEFCON 1. Situation Goal Line has been declared and we are responding to an all ships recall that was issued by CentCom."

"I'm on my way," Archer said, and ran out the door as Enterprise cleared Jupiter's gravity well and went to warp, headed for Earth. Shran's words came back to him, The ship is strong. The ship will get everyone through.

T'Pol clamped down on her trepidation as she took the center seat. After Azati Prime she had no desire to ever command in battle again. Lieutenant Commander Reed had beaten her to the bridge and was running through the litany of combat preparations. She turned her head when she heard the turbolift door open, but it was Lieutenant Mayweather, not the captain, who emerged and headed for the helmsman's seat.

The next time the turbolift opened it was the captain. "Report," he snapped out as she rose from the chair. His face was set in the hard grimace he had worn in the Delphic Expanse.

"We are at Warp 3. All stations are at tactical alert. Shields are raised and all weapons are online. CentCom is vectoring us on an intercept course with the incoming ships. ETA is three minutes, forty seven seconds." She headed to the safety of the science station.

He turned to Reed. "What do we know about these ships?"

"They're at high sub-light, decelerating rapidly." He worked the controls on his console. "We're starting to get some resolution. It looked like one large ship originally, now I'm seeing forty-eight small ships, all fusion powered. They appear to be armed with disruptors and… " He looked up. "High yield thermonuclear weapons."

August 18, 2156 2044 (Pacific Time) – Warbird Alidar, Interstellar space (near Sol)

Subcommander Merik watched the tactical displays intently. The drones, a light year away, were red on the displays. Green icons, representing enemy ships, were beginning to change their vectors, pointing at the cluster of drones.

"Prepare for incoming hostiles," he ordered the control crews. "Begin evasive maneuvers and engage the enemy at will."

August 18, 2156 2047 (Pacific Time) – Enterprise

Archer looked at the tactical display on his chair. Enterprise would be first on the scene. He glanced around the bridge at the stations. He prayed that they wouldn't lose anyone today. The intruders showed as a swarm of blips in loose formation ten or fifteen kilometers across, jinking around wildly.

The helmsman spoke up. "Emerging from warp in…5…4…3…2…now!"

As soon as Enterprise re-entered normal space, weapons fire from the intruders began bombarding her shields. "Weapons free," Archer ordered, but the phase cannons remained silent. He looked over at the tactical officer.

"They're skittering around. I can't get a bloody lock on any of them."

"Scans are showing no life signs and no inertial dampening fields," said the science officer, hunched over her viewer.

The tactical officer nodded. "That's why we can't get a lock. The inertial dampening keeps a ship from jinking sideways normally. Torpedoes are going to be useless against them as well."

"How do we compensate?" Archer asked.

The science officer turned away from her viewer. "The new point defense mode for the phase cannons should be able to react quickly enough."

The tactical office ssaid, "We're going to have to get in pretty close. Within two kilometers and the targets will need to be on an intercept course."

"Will it work?" Archer asked.

"As long as the shields hold out. We're at ninety-five percent. We're going to take a beating."

"Helm, how long until we reach Earth?"

"Less than three minutes at this rate."

"Sir, Vineta, Repulse and Discovery have just arrived."

Be smart, Archer told himself. "Phase cannons to point defense mode. Full impulse, take us in front of the formation, then reverse course to go right through. Tell the other ships to follow us and to make sure their IFF is working."

Enterprise leapt forward, the other Starfleet ships following close behind and took up a position directly in front of the formation of violently maneuvering drones and then spun to pass through their formation. Enterprise's point defense system, the last ditch defense against incoming torpedoes, identified the onrushing drones as threats and rapidly pulsed out phase cannon fire that splashed off their shields. The lights dimmed on the bridge as disruptor bursts from the drones hit Enterprise's shields. In five seconds they were through the formation.

"Report!" snapped Archer.

"We took out one of the drones. Vineta took one out as well. Repulse took heavy damage. Our shields are at forty percent."

"That's fifty-five percent of the shields we lost. Think we'll survive another pass?"

"We should. We can bring the hull polarizers online as well."

"Bridge to Engineering. We need the shield regenerated. Can you do it?"

Down in Engineering, Trip looked over at Melek and Rostov at the shield generator console. "Well, you heard the man. Can we boost them?"

"We need thirty seconds," said Melek. "And another twenty five terajoules of power and we should be able to boost to seventy percent."

"Back to seventy percent in thirty seconds, Cap'n," replied Trip as he rerouted power around the grid. As usual during a battle, he had no idea what was going on outside the ship. He could feel T'Pol's anxiety in the back of his head, he could see the power drains around the ship and he could feel the hits the ship had taken. The captain had announced the situation to the ship while they were under warp. It didn't sound too good to Trip.

Archer looked around the bridge and took a breath. "Helm, leap frog and take us through them again in twenty seconds."

"Aye, aye sir."

August 18, 2156 2150 (Mountain Time) – Cheyenne Mountain, Earth (Sol III)

The atmosphere in CentCom was tense. The defending ships had made near suicidal attacks on the incoming drones and although they had taken out several, nearly forty still remained. The red vector of the drones merged with the Earth's blue circle on the display and it switched from the inner Solar System view to a tactical view of near-Earth space. Lieutenant Chang announced, "Hostiles have reached Earth orbit. Attack shuttles are scrambling now."

"How many hostiles remaining?" asked Kutuzov.

"Thirty eight. Correction, thirty seven. One of just exploded inside SpaceDock. Nuclear fusion weapon, yield of approximately fifty megatons."

Kutuzov took another look at the displays. More ships were incoming but it would be a few minutes before they arrived. This was supposed to be defense in depth. Somehow the unknown enemy had skipped through most of the layers.

"Attack shuttle status?"

Chang tapped around his screen. "Unable to overtake. The hostiles are in a forced orbit at seventy-five gees. The shuttles don't have enough inertial compensation for that. The heavies are keeping up."

"What's the period?"

"Ten minutes."

"What are they doing? Why didn't they just vector straight to their targets?"

August 18, 2156 2053 (Pacific Time) – Warbird Alidar, Interstellar space (near Sol)

The drones were skimming around the Earth at over 230,000 kilometers per hour as the crews on Alidar tried to get a terrain lock and identify where their targets were. So far they'd identified the secondary ocean and were now somewhere over the largest landmass. Although the drones were moving slowly by interstellar standard, the terrain sped by with confusing rapidity at this low altitude. Navigational arrays bounced out ranging pulses, mapping the surface as the navigation computers tried to match the territory to their maps.

The navigator for the group was sitting in front of him, calling out their progress. "Caspian Masutar identified." A few seconds later, "We have a lock on Everest rahai. Lock on Kang, Kangchenjunga rahai," the young uhlan spat out, the unfamiliar names catching in his mouth. "Guidance platform is aligned and tracking." Two points define a line; the tall mountains had been proudly marked on the stolen maps and now oriented the drones for their attack runs.

The pursing starships continue to pound at the drones. At this slow speed, the starships had gotten close enough that the evasive maneuvers were no longer effective.

The group's tactical officer spoke over the common channel. "Sir, Defender Four has a huge anti-matter signature. If we can cause a warp core breach, the collateral damage will be bigger than our warheads."

"Excellent analysis," Merik said and allowed himself a feral grin. He made a quick decision, looking at his list of targets. "Drones Three, Six, Seven and Fourteen, concentrate on Defender Four. All other units begin your attack runs." The drones spun and re-vectored to their targets.

August 18, 2156 2054 (Pacific Time) Starfleet Headquarters Bunker, Earth (Sol III)

Talarak sat, watching the Humans as they battled for their planet. Gardner paced, clearly uncomfortable at being on the sidelines at this moment. He had told her that Kutuzov, in another bunker, was commanding, even though he was subordinate to Gardner. An Andorian general would have simply grabbed control, but Gardner said Kutuzov was competent and already in command and there was no sense in wasting time trying to take over.

Her translator was hard-pressed to keep up with the rapidly speaking Humans. Terse bulletins in their clipped battle language came over the speakers, using words that were clearly repurposed as they made no sense otherwise. She was able to make enough sense of their communications and displays to understand that Enterprise was being targeted now. She suddenly recalled what Gardner had told her earlier about Enterprise's fuel status and her trained engineering mind did some quick arithmetic.

"Admiral," she called. "Did Enterprise take on all of that anti-matter you mentioned to me before?"

"Yes, they completed fueling this afternoon. Why?"

"They're being targeted by the drones, correct? If their warp core breaches, the explosion will be about forty gigatons as you measure it. That will rip the atmosphere off half the planet."

The blood drained from Gardner's face.

So that's why they call them white people, Talarak thought.

"Get me Enterprise Actual," Gardner shouted.

August 18, 2156 2054 (Pacific Time) Enterprise bridge, Earth (Sol III)

"Admiral Gardner for Enterprise Actual," the communications officer called.

"Shields down to ten percent, they're coming around for another pass," said the tactical officer.

"Hull polarization to maximum. Little busy here, Admiral," he said to the image on the little view screen on his chair.

"Enterprise, you have to break off now!" Gardner shouted. "With all that antimatter on board if your warp core breaches you're going to take out China."

Stunned, Archer looked to his science officer for confirmation. Eyes wide she looked back at him and nodded. A trio of hits rocked the ship. "Shields are down, hull polarizers are online," came the word from the tactical officer.

"We'll be OK, we always are," Archer said.

"Damn it, Jon, that's an order. You're the biggest danger right now. We've got plenty of ships, you're not making that much of a difference. And if there's a second wave, I want you and the backup library out of range."

Archer looked around the bridge at the stations, then blinked and saw his crew. He'd been prepared to spend his life and theirs in defense of Earth, but now their deaths would cause more damage, not protect. He didn't know how he would live with himself after the drones delivered their deadly payloads but the braver action was not to sacrifice himself and his ship. "Enterprise is breaking off," Archer responded. "Helm, get us out of here," he snapped out.

Gardner looked off-screen, nodded, and then turned back to the screen. "We have a line on their control signals, try to track down the mother ship. The signals are coming from about two light weeks out, vector two three zero mark seven. And Godspeed, Enterprise."

"Helm, heading two three zero mark seven, take us to warp five." He thumbed the communicator button. "Good luck, Sam" he said softly.

Enterprise boosted away from the planet under full impulse, leaving the drones in her wake. As she rose, more and more of Asia spread out below her. The bridge crew looked up from their stations at their home. On the view screen streaks of phase cannon fire rose up from ground defenses, searing bright orange columns in the atmosphere. Two bright flashes appeared on the ground. Starships maneuvered in front of Enterprise, firing desperately at dark shapes. Now, mushroom clouds rose where the bright flashes had been. There was one in China and another, ahead, in Japan. "No, not again," wailed Hoshi.

Earth disappeared from the view screen as they entered warp. The mushroom clouds remained seared on their retinas.

Author's note: Wow, 29 chapters. Thank you for reading this far, I've enjoyed writing this immensely and appreciate all of the reviews. This is not the end, but it is the end of the beginning. The story continue in part 2, The Ocean of Night, which is now online.