Here's an excerpt from the rewrite of my Hunt For Red October-as-a-Star Trek story "Romulus Ascendant":
Romulus Ascendant
The ship emerged from warp in Vaebn Three’s massive shadow.
“We have secured from hyperspeed,” Revlaek reported. “Vaebn Three is 183,000 kilometers distant.”
Suddenly the Battle Alert klaxon went off.
“Vessel decloaking!” Druhel announced. “cHR Ra’kholh, distance: one thousand kilometers and closing!”
“Get us to the planet!” Tacitus ordered. On his tactical display he could see the Ra’kholh, one of the ungainly Akif-class Klingon-model battlecruisers, gaining on them.
“Ra’kholh is firing torpedoes!” Druhel said. Fortunately for them, Rihannsu fleet engineers had never been able to rig the Kll’inghann ships to generate the more deadly plasma torpedoes, so Ra’kolh only carried photons. But they were destructive enough.
The spindly Klingon ship recloaked even as her torpedoes continued toward Romulus Ascendant. Three of the torpedoes sailed clear, but the last-
“One of the torpedoes has acquired us!” Druhel warned. “Aft disruptors ready! One shot will detonate it!”
“Hold your fire!” Tacitus ordered. “Pilot, increase speed! Take us into the atmosphere!”
d’Taj realized what Tacitus was doing. “All hands, brace for turbulence!” he called out as the ship plunged toward the gas giant. “Sound collision!”
Romulus Ascendant hit the atmosphere, punching through a fast-moving band of methane that struck the ship hard, knocking it sideways at six hundred kilometers an hour.
The inertial dampers overloaded and the compartment pitched, throwing everyone to starboard.
A second later the torpedo detonated on contact with the atmosphere. The shockwave hammered Romulus Ascendant, rippling through the great ship’s superstructure. The bridge went dark as the computer shifted all power to structural integrity, and d’Taj held onto the railing around the command pedestal and prayed to the Elements the ship would hold together.
Finally, the shaking subsided and the instrument panels around the bridge started to light up again.
“That was real!” the subcenturion at Communications stammered as he climbed back into his seat. He cast an accusatory glance at Tacitus “Khre’Riov, they’re trying to kill us!”
d’Taj forced himself to smile as he gave the headrest of the subcenturion’s chair a reassuring pat. “Relax, boy. Of course it was a real detonation; these are live-fire drills, not computer simulations. And if they were trying to kill us, we’d be dead.”
“Still,” Tacitus said, “the Ra’kolh’s commander was foolish to run an attack drill inside the Neutral Zone. The Federation monitoring stations might have detected it. Pilot, you will stay in the atmosphere and maneuver to the planet’s south magnetic pole, then bring us to an altitude of 400 kilometers and hold station. That should keep us from being seen while we complete our repairs.”
He looked confidently ahead, and pretended not to see the suspicious glances of the crew.
USS Tereshkova
“Captain, we’re getting some very interesting images from the Number Eight drone,” Mandala Flynn’s science officer said.
“What do we have, Val’tir?” Flynn asked.
The Coridani brought up the pictures on the display screens above their station. “This is a gas giant in system RNZ-215, Romulan designation Vaebn.” The images were a bit fuzzy, but the bands of gases in an area of the planet’s southern hemisphere were clearly disturbed; dark-colored scarring radiated out from what looked like an impact point.
“This isn’t far from where those ships were detected,” Flynn said. “Are there any unusual readings in the area?”
Val’tir shook their head. “It’s too far away to tell. Captain. This could be almost anything: cometary impact, an asteroid strike-“
“Or a torpedo detonation.”
Val’tir took a deep breath. “That, too. But why would the Romulans be shooting at a gas giant?”
“Maybe they weren’t.” Flynn said. “The drone picked up two warp signatures.”
“The Saratoga only saw one,” Val’tir reminded her. “Lieutenant Sgeulaiches is more experienced than me, I might’ve misinterpreted the data.”
Flynn smiled at her nervous young officer. “No you didn’t, Val. I have faith in you. Besides, what makes more sense: a single Romulan flying into the Neutral Zone for some target practice on a boring old gas giant-“
Val’tir’s eyes widened “-or one ship chasing a second into the Neutral Zone and firing at it! But why?”
“I don’t know,” Flynn replied. “But I’m guessing someone up the chain of command knows more than they’re telling us.”
