From: tlb2665@usl.edu (Burleigh Thomas L)
Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative
Subject: ST:USS Cavalier, Chapter 14, "The Riker Maneuver"
Date: 5 Oct 92 14:58:32 GMT
Organization: University of Southwestern Louisiana


(C) Copyright 1992 by Thomas L. Burleigh. The following are the property
of Paramount Pictures, Inc: the characters of William T. Riker, Jean-Luc
Picard, D'Tan, and Spock; the Borg, Romulan, and Vulcan races; the
StarFleet organization; and, the USS Enterprise. This story is an original
work of fiction base on Star Trek: The Next Generation, a registered
trademark of Paramount. All rights reserved.


                                ST:USS Cavalier
                                  Chapter 14
                              "The Riker Maneuver"

   "Bring up the Holoview", Riker ordered.
   The bridge disappeared and was replaced by a field of stars. Then the
thin blue lines that outlined the USS Cavalier shown. Riker turn and saw
that the Borg ships - all 25 of them! - were closing in fast.
   As they were getting closer, the Borg ships were taking on a definite
outline of a cube. Which, they apparently intended to trap the Cavlier in.
   Closer and closer....
   (Alright,) thought Riker, (let's see how close you want to play it!)
   "Helm, increase to Warp 5."
   "Yes, sir." the helmsman responded.
   After a moment, Cdr. Thompson spoke up from his Tactical helm, "Sir,
they are up to Warp 5.1 and closing."
   "Also," piped up Lt. Cdr. Shaw at Engineering, "the Emergency Warp
Nacelles can only go up to Warp 6. I should have the Magnetic Drive up in
about five minutes."
   "Make it sooner if possible, David." Riker responded. Then addressing
the helm, "Ensign, keep us just ahead of them. When they get too close,
nudge up the Warp by .1.  Keep do it to by us some time."
   The helmsman kept the Cavalier ahead of the chase through inspiration
and much heavy presperation. As the Borg ships got close enough to just
surge forward and enclose the Cavalier, they would speed forward just a tad
bit more, making the Borgs have to compensate and try again. This game 
continued for serveral minutes until Shaw spoke up.
   "Sir, we're now at Warp 6 - the maximum rated speed. The emergency
nacelles will automatically shut down in a few minutes. But, I'll have the
Magnetic Drive up in about two."
   "Captain," replied Thompson, "not good enough. They'll have us trapped
by then!"
   "Helm," commanded Riker, "lateral evasive manuevers, but not too radical
- let them get behind us before the next evasion."
   The Cavalier slowly shot left, right, up and down, with the Borgs surely
and steadily following suit. The tension level on the bridge was, by now,
up to the highest it could go. Everyone on the bridge breathed a sigh of
relief when engineer Shaw reported that the drive was ready. But, instead
of ordering a course forward and away - what any sane person would had done
- Riker ordered the unexpected.
   "Maintain lateral evasions. Lay in a course down and back and come to a
full stop on my mark."
   Riker sat in his command chair without further comment. Although he
couldn't see the faces of his bridge crew, he could almost empatically
sense what was going through his crew's mind. (Good god,) they must be
thinking, (he gone mad!)
   But, there was no comment from the crew. Riker had been successful in
similar situations in the past. They all executed their orders in spite of
their doubts. Call it faith in command.
   Riker watched as his ship once again jerked away from the opening of the
really giant cube outline by the Borg ships. He then barked, "ENGAGE!"
   The Cavalier shot downwards, then slowed back behind the Borg ships.  As
Riker had guessed, the Borg ships were automatically adjusting to the
Cavalier's course changes.
   So, the three top forward ships shot downwards and automatically slowed
down as the Cavalier had done. But the ships behind them weren't able to
react to the head ships in time.
   The Cavalier bridge crew watched in fascination as the Borg ships rammed
into each other. Some pairs of ships exploded as they collided. Most of
them however bumped into each other knocking large chunks off of each
other. About half of these ships exploded from the large loss of mass
comprising their main internal reactors.
   A few of the ships managed to evade and avoid the chain collision. And a
few of the ones that did ram weren't destroyed yet.
   The Cavalier's crew jumped up and cheered as the mass destruction
finished. The Holoview went off and Thompson brought the sight of the
aftermath on the main viewer. Riker calmed the cheering down just a little
bit. Then, with a huge grin on his face, he turned to his first officer
and said, "Cdr. Thompson, signal the Borg to surrender!"

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