The Warp journey from Nesre Secundus to HJG-1034 is clear sailing, until it isn't. You have the bridge for the last stage of the journey, and manage to get a front row seat to your near destruction at the hands of fate.

Yasha's voice snaps over the intercom, "Warp Storm dead ahead. Stand by for emergency revision to real-space."

Jace's voice comes in, flat and hard with fear, "Warp Engine ready for revision in three minutes."

Frank's voice is level and even, his fear locked behind adamantine concentration, "Navigator, call the dance."

Yasha comes back, "Polar south, and burn plasma. There is an area of relative stability there.”

"Polar south it is. Engines to full power. Jace, cut the Warp Engine as soon as practicable."

Seven thundering beats of your heart later, Jace pulls it off, "Emergency revision in Two, One, NOW.”

The view beyond the viewports changes from the flash-flicker-freeze madness of the warp storm to the cold black of the void in sync with the bottom dropping out of your stomach and your heart skipping a beat. But your troubles are just beginning, because you have managed to revert to realspace in dangerously close proximity to the only notable infrastructure in the system: A ruined and abandoned shipyard shrouded in debris. And your engines are still burning at full thrust. Before you can so much as open your mouth, Frank is already maneuvering.

"Ah, bugger. Everybody, hang on to something! Jace, engines to twenty percent power and burn retros, we need to shed speed now. Going to an evasive heading."

Your stomach is recovering, "Frank, get us out of here, best possible route."

Franks grin is manic now, "engines to eighty percent power Jace, and stand by damage control. Best way out of this mess is through. Simo, target anything big enough to wreck us down this corridor."

He paints a path on the navigation display, and your bowels clench. It goes right through the center of a battleship slip, still occupied by a luckless half-finished hull. Simo doesn't even nod, he just plugs in his spinal jack and gets to work with his triggers. You can feel the Sunsear Turrets start to sing out, vibrating the hull with volley after volley, and you watch debris turn into hyper-velocity shrapnel in short order.

"Bridge, Jace here. Void shields at thirty percent and failing. These shrapnel and micro-meteors are going to tear us up inside of two minutes."

"Frank, Simo, you heard him. Find or make us a clear path."

Frank nods, "Engines to eighty-two percent, and over-burn the dorsal thrusters. Need to get under this slipway door..."

Simo smacks his augmetic hand on the console, "Number Two Turret just overheated and shut down. Jace, get a damage control party up there, I need it back quick."

"Already dispatched. Void shields at two percent and KRA-KOOM scratch that, void shields GONE."

Simo puts a dent into the console with his second hit, "Number One Turret is down. No signal from the on-mount sensor."

You glance out the viewport, "Probably because of the pinnace crashed into it. Frank, we've no guns and no shields. How much longer?"

Frank doesn't bother to respond, "cut engines two, five, seven, and over-burn port thrusters." The result of the last course change puts the Aegis in a hard turn to starboard just in time to avoid crashing into the side of the half-finished battleship. But Frank is laughing like a madman, "all engines to zero, burn retros, over-burn fore starboard thrusters. And...DONE! Engines and thrusters to station keeping! In orbit and clear of the debris field, Sir."

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Frank, remind me to buy you a drink next time we are in port. In the meanwhile, I'm going to check on Yasha.”

It is nearly a day later before Yasha recovers from the revision enough to speak coherently. When you see her, you are shocked to see that she has drawn her headband down over her regular eyes in addition to the Navigator's Eye in the middle of her forehead. "Yasha, what happened?"

"It was the Warp Storm. I made the mistake of opening my regular eyes in addition to my Navigator's Eye, and now my eyes are pained by bright lights. I should be back up and functional by the time we are ready to leave the system however. Dare I ask what happened after we left the Warp? I can't remember much."

You take a seat at her bedside, "We exited much to close to the old shipyard, but Frank managed to steer us out of too much danger. Jace already has the void shields back online, but the Sunsears are going to take longer to fix. Jace plans on an expedition to the shipyard for extra parts and materials. How are you feeling?"

"Awful. First was that bad return to realspace outside Wolf 359, way to far out-system. Then was that headwind on the Helia run, and then I put us onto a shoal on the Nesre Secundus run. And now this; I was blind enough to steer the Aegis headfirst into a Warp Storm violent enough that I should have seen coming. I feel like a blunt groundsider on a bad batch of bliss-out."

"Yasha, you have no reason to thrash yourself over this much! You got us to Altair and Wolf 359 in damn near record times, dropped the Aegis right on our first waypoint in Helia, managed to avoid gutting us on the shoals, and gave enough warning to avoid the worst of the Warp Storm. Not to mention the fact that you got the Aegis back to Viking when all she had was a Gellar field, two-thirds of a hull, and a few auxiliary thrusters for propulsion. You are the best Navigator I have ever served alongside, bar none."

"I still feel like a lump of meat at the moment."

"You are much more than that. Tell you what, you are feeling like crap because you are having problems navigating right?" Yasha nods, uncertain where you are heading, "Then how about you accompany Jace, Morrigan, Frank, and myself when we head into the space station? You helped get the Aegis back into working order, and we could use someone who can sense the warp. It'll get you off-ship to stretch your legs at the least."

Yasha nods again, "Yes. I think I would like that. Vir will probably want to accompany us as well if I go however."

You grin, although you are unsure if Yasha can see it, "Very well Navigator, welcome to the Away Team. I'll leave you to keep recovering and check on Jace, see if he has any idea how were are going to to get ship components back aboard."

A few minutes later, down in the Plasma Drive control area.

"Here is the ship status update you asked for Sir."

You take the dataslate and give it a glance, "well Jace, any idea how we are supposed to get replacement Sunsear components back aboard?"

Jace scratches the back of his head, "to be honest sir, we're probably going to have to tow them behind the shuttle, or better yet between two shuttles. Upsides are that we don't have to take the Aegis back in close and that the components can be hauled up into position easily. Downside is that it will be slow and tricky. I think I've got a route plotted that avoids the worst of the debris stirred up in our wake, but I'll triple-check it with Frank. On a side note however, scans are showing something rather interesting, If you are willing to spend the time to investigate it."

You cock an eyebrow, "What kind of 'interesting' Jace? The kind that will get us killed, or the kind that will make us rich?"

Jace shrugs, "the chance for both outcomes is non-zero, of course, but we have a chance to not just repair our Sunsears, but upgrade them as well. In the short term, we can pull mars-grade components out of that half-finished battleship. That will at least improve the quality of our Sunsears, and possibly turbo-charge them. The Aegis can't pump the power needed to fire full-up battleship weapons, but I may be able to tinker the focusing lenses into place, which would double our range easily. Long term, we might be able to repair and complete the battleship entirely, scavenging most of the station in the process. if the parts I'd need are not aboard, I can probably make them over there; it is a shipyard after all.

Your eyebrowss are all but glued to your hairline, "you are telling me that we could get a battleship operational?"

Jace nods, "yes, given sufficient time. I have no idea as to the legal aspects, but I can get the ship itself up and void worthy."

You let out a wolf-whistle, "I think I can sic Zheeves on the paperwork, but we have a few other things to do first, like finishing our current contracts. Long term, we can drop you off with whatever support and supplies you need and an astropath to keep us informed. For now, go cross-check that flight plan with Frank."