Alex knew that sleep would not come easily to him that night. The open floor of the empty storage unit made into makeshift barracks with fold out beds and standard issue sleeping bags neatly folded on top was as hospitable as the Atlantis crew could make their storage compartment into makeshift accommodations. Unsurprisingly he found it difficult to sleep well through the night cycle of the Atlantis as he could hear the various tones of breathing and snoring from his crew, and the footsteps outside the compartment thumping loudly, muffled by the airtight wall that separated the source from him. When he woke up he was not repulsed or frightened by his unsightly appearance and sunken eyes. Many of his crew seemed more chipper and active than they had on the Galaxius but the sadness and grief over their survival still lingered in the air, still they had huddled themselves into small social circles with the Marines all huddled together. Perhaps it was out of a sense of camaraderie that had bound them together. By the time the Chief Of The Boat of the Atlantis stepped in the makeshift accommodations it was already late in the morning and many of his crew were hungry, uncomfortable with the spartan amenities and feeling unwelcome.
“On behalf of Commander Hammer and Executive Officer Benner, I welcome you to the Atlantis.” The C.O.B said with a raised voice that boomed and echoed off the support beams in the storage compartment. The chief was a burly minotaur that stood at least a foot and a half taller than Alex with tanned red skin and white stumps on the sides of his head where his horns had been filed down.
A bit late to be welcoming us, chief. We’ve been here for nearly ten hours.
“I have been tasked with escorting the Phoenix crew to the mess hall and ensure you return here so as not to interfere with Atlantis’ functions.”
Waves of murmurs and hushed voices rose out and filled the silence in response to the chief’s announcement, a few of the conversations could be heard more easily than some others.
“.... Finally I can’t wait to eat…”
“... gotta stretch my legs…”
“...Need to get out of here…”
“Hey, what do you mean ‘not to interfere with ship functions’!?” An offended voice sounded from behind Alex.
He looked around to see many of the crew become more animated as they continued their quietened conversations, looking around to find the source of the voice. A hand was raised out from behind the crowd belonging to a gargoyle with fair skin. He stepped out with a confused expression on his slim face.
“Did you forget that we are also qualified officers? We can be an asset and help out rather than be locked up in here!”
All eyes then turned to the chief as he placed his hands behind his back and let out a deep breath. “The Atlantis is a small corvette with a full crew complement. The addition of a heavy cruiser’s crew has put a strain on resources and sustainability. The commanding officers have thought it best that you remain in here until we arrive for you to disembark. Now without any further delays if you all would follow me and I will escort you to the galley.”
The chief spun around on the back of his hoofs and went outside the compartment and into the main corridor. Alex was among the first to follow the Atlantis’ Chief of the Boat who led them through the network of corridors to the galley. They walked down a straight, lengthy corridor with only enough room for Alex to stretch his arm out, the chief turned around to face the group as he approached a door frame. The chief pressed on a panel with one of his thick stubby fingers and the hydraulic mechanism suddenly hissed and thunked clumsily as the door disappeared inside the wall. Alex stepped into the galley and he was delighted to sense the myriad collection of scents ranging from the smell of vegetable oil clinging to his skin to the smell of lab-grown meat cooking and vegetables being boiled. It hadn’t been until the assortment of scents reached his brain and was analysed and processed that Alex finally realised the cramps that had seized his stomach accompanied by lowly growls from his stomach. Up until now Alex hadn’t realised just how hungry he had been.
The galley was far smaller than the Phoenix’s, the tables were situated more closely to each other while keeping a row of crescent shaped booths along the walls. He chose to sit down in one of the semicircular booths that was situated in one corner of the cramped breakroom. Its ceiling didn’t seem to leave a lot of room for taller species, in fact it looked to Alex to be a few inches shorter than the ceiling outside the galley. Alex pondered to himself if would be able to reach and press his hands against the ceiling without elevating himself onto his toes. The walls had beams of reinforced steel that stretched out across the ceiling to form a truss as if to prevent the ceiling from collapsing on the people inside. Perhaps the lower hanging ceiling was more prone to damage in the event of a battle. On the opposing end of the room lined the bench where crew members lined up and viewed the assortment of meals that had been prepared and served behind heat-protective glass as the Phoenix crew lined up with plastic trays with only a handful of Atlantis crew mixed in the crowd. Each person took what they wanted from serving trays before shuffling along to the other end of the buffet to collect their desired utensils. Alex didn’t want to use his status and rank as a means of getting his fill first and instead opted to wait until his crew had been served first. As he waited, Alex let his curiosity drive his eyes to scan over every bolt and rivet in the room until he spotted three Atlantis crew huddled around a crawl space hatch next to the door his crew came through. Two of them were human and the third a Faun with curved horns who was frequently inspecting their Wrist-Pad every few seconds, they were all hunched over and stared at the empty space in the wall, a tool box layed open at their feet but none seemed interested in its contents, he tried to focus more on what it was they were doing. Perhaps it was just a routine servicing of the internal mechanisms, but why would the Faun be anxiously checking his device neurotically? Over the commotion of his crew eating, chatting loudly and occasionally laughing, the conversation the three Atlantis crew were having could almost be heard with one of them shouting into the open space.
“C’mon! Time’s almost up!”
Shortly afterword, two scaled hands reached out from behind the corner and pressed themselves at the top of the hatchway and out came the lengthy form of a Naga covered in grime and oil stains and holding a socket wrench. When his body finally spilled out from the crawlspace gracefully, he looked over to his Faun colleague and proudly shouted. “Time!”
The two humans then huddled closer to the Faun as he raised his wrist up for the other two to see and they then threw their fists in disappointment when the faun then responded with. “Ten minutes and forty-three seconds.”
The Naga smiled devilishly, his tongue flicking excitedly. “One coolant compressor clutch changed in less than eleven minutes. Told you I’d get it done!” With deftness in his wrists, the Naga was able to spin the ratchet between his fingers before firmly grasping it as it returned to its normal position.
The Atlantis crew’s voices grew dull and their conversation was slowly subsumed by the eager voices of the Phoenix crew. Alex continued to watch them as the two humans grabbed one side of the crawlspace panel and bolted it back to where it came from and then walked out of the breakroom. The humans and faun wore annoyed expressions while the Naga slithered, continuing to look pleased with himself. When Alex returned his gaze to the breakfast line and saw only a handful of crew were still lined up and so he stood up from his booth and proceeded over to the line and grabbed himself a plastic tray that had once towered on top of the stainless steel benchtop, now existed only a few left. The tray had seven individual compartments inside it, each one varied in size with the largest one being square shaped and occupying the lower left half of the tray. Two smaller compartments only half the size of the large compartment existed next to it and stacked on top of each other with the rest differed greatly in their sizes to occupy the rest of the available space. Alex had served himself the cooked slabs of beef along with a helping of small broccoli that had been steamed. From behind the wall, Alex could hear the orchestra of galley operations occurring unseen. The sound of high-pressure water hissing as it blasts the grime and food scraps off the plates, the clattering of utensils being scrubbed and the thumps of boots pacing around the kitchen with the infrequent murmur of dialogue shared between the chef and cooks.
As he walked back towards his chosen spot, his corner of the galley that closed him off from the rest of the world with the walls pressed up against him, did he hear the crackling of the speaker system inside the galley crackle to life and the crisp quality of a man’s voice spoke into it, leaving an echo in the galley.
“Captain Rowan report to Bridge. Repeat; Captain Rowan report to the Bridge immediately.” And it clicked off.
He rolled his eyes, frustrated with the timing of the announcement as he stood at his small round booth. He turned around and quickly spotted several pairs of eyes fixated on him before they promptly returned their focus to their meals and colleagues. Just what did Samantha want now? Alex still recalled her opinions last night very clear, leaving little room for doubt that she wanted to hear otherwise. But perhaps there was a chance she had time to process her thoughts and collect herself and realise she assaulted her friend. Without wasting any time, Alex had set his tray down on the table and grabbed whatever food he could and started to chew on the softened, moist texture of the steamed broccoli and left the galley. He remembered his way up the decks through the steep retractable stairs found throughout the Atlantis until he had faced the double sliding doors and the two Marines part of Atlantis’s contingent. They gave a sharp salute when he approached them and the doors swiftly flew into the walls on approach, returning his salute to the soldiers as he walked past.
The Bridge hummed with activity, consoles and computers beeped and trilled as each operator vigilantly focused and relaying their information to their nearest colleague, who would then go on to relay that information to one of the supervising officers that paced around the bridge. Executive Officer Benner was hunched over the console shared by the helmsman and navigator with his back towards Alex. It almost seemed like he was entranced with the view of FTL, the accumulated radiation collected by the hull of the Atlantis not giving it a chance to bounce off granting the impression that the long elongated hull that stretched out before them had an aurora borealis of its own against the bleak black backdrop of space unilluminated with flashes of light occasionally seeping in. Samantha on the other hand sat in her chair with her posture stiffened as though she still remained in a foul disposition. Her furry hands gripped the armrests with such strength that the arteries in her hands bulged. Her eyes gently glanced over toward Alex when he walked into her field of view without turning her head. He looked at her and her eyes quickly shot back to the centre of the windows ahead of her.
No words were exchanged nor were thoughts conveyed until Samantha finally stood up on her large muscular legs and tugged on both sides of her spacesuit to straighten it. “Navigator, you have command!” She said in a raised voice. “X.O Benner, with me.”
Once all three commanding officers were inside Samantha’s small office, it truly show just how tiny it was compared to how Alex had back on his old heavy guided missile cruiser. The Phoenix had been his first real command and throughout most of his career, he assumed that many captains’ quarters shared the same luxuries. But the Atlantis was truly austere with very little amenities, compressed rooms and almost no recreational facilities, at least none that he has seen yet. Then again, vessels like the Atlantis were only designed for short tours no longer than a few weeks at most before needing to be restocked. Samantha sat at her desk with her forearms supporting her upper body on the flat surface. What drew Alex’s attention was that there were now three glasses and a bottle of rum waiting for him on the desktop. Benner stood behind her with his arms crossed against his slender chest. His eyes shifted from staring at the back of his commanding officer’s head and Alex.
“We got word from STARCOM,” Samantha started. “Due to your decision to combat the enemy vessel instead of retreating, resulting in the loss of many of your crew and the loss of a Valkyrie-Class heavy cruiser you are to be detained and brought before the admiralty when we get back to Terra for failure of command. You will be given a chance to defend yourself and your actions.”
The truth struck Alex in the gut like a massive fist travelling at a head-spinning velocity until it hit him, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief knowing that he had to prepare for the consequences, the deaths on his hands. But this revelation didn’t ease up the sensation of guilt that had built itself up in the back of his throat which made it hard for him to swallow. Samantha’s tone came off as though she tried to act tough in an attempt to hide the emotional pain she was burying with all her might. Was it possible she still possessed feelings for him, the bond of their relationship still lingered long after she had excluded him from her life? Or was it that she did not envy Alex for what awaited him back home? Her large golden iris’ hidden behind a thin viscous of moisture that seemed to convey the remnants of any emotional attachment she had for him, undelighted by the possibilities that awaited him.
Then Alex cleared his throat. “Am I to be confined to your brig, Commander Hammer?” He asked calmly.
Benner glanced at the back of his commanding officer’s head and then back at Alex, the rest of him stood still. “I have decided that you may roam freely aboard my vessel until we arrive in orbit of Terra.” Samantha responded, her voice trying to match Alex’s own.
“That’s not what I asked; Am I to be confined to the brig?” He repeated the question once more, making sure he enunciated each word with more emphasis to further highlight what he was truly asking.
Samantha turned around to face her second-in-command, they exchanged glances for a moment and the she turned back to face him, poured rum in all three glasses and gently pushed one of them towards Alex with her knuckle, then promptly he took the glass and swirled the contents around thoughtfully before bringing it up to his mouth and sipped on it.
“As the commanding officer aboard this ship,” Samantha said. “It is up to my discretion how things are aboard my ship. Once we dock with Lonsdale shipyard you are to be clasped in irons and be escorted to await your tribunal.” She explained. Then reached for her glass of rum and took a sip with such immodesty that it could have easily been mistaken that she attempted to swallow the glass’ entire content.
Benner dropped his arms and pushed himself off the wall he was leaning on.
“You were able to retrieve your black box, and the eyewitness reports will aid in your favour, sir.”
Alex chuckled dryly to himself. He was about to open his mouth to respond to Benner when he was suddenly cut off. The office went dark, sending Alex, Sam and Benner into blindness temporarily, a second later the emergency yellow lighting switched on, the alarm buzzed loud enough that it nearly drowned out his train of thought and his training kicked in. Samantha and Benner’s expressions had undergone a similar shift. The office rumbled gently, steady tremors that shook the bulkheads and rattled the rivets and bolts that held them together. Neither of them were prepared for the sudden jolt that threw them to the side, letting out a yelp of surprise and shock. Alex fared better as he was thrust against the cushions. He got up and looked at Samantha and Benner who were both violently thrown against the wall, he got around the table and helped lift Benner and Samantha off the floor as they both rubbed the back of their heads. Behind them, Alex could see the faint dent in the metal panel, he looked at the back of Benners head and let out a breath of relief as he found no evidence of blood. Benner continued to rub the back of his head, his face twisted and hissed in pain while Samantha stood still, her ears firmly stood on her head and twitched.
“We’ve come out of FTL!” She said disbelievingly. Samantha was quick to make a break for the door, taking long leaps that seemed impossible within the small office, she didn’t seem to properly break the seal that held the door firmly in place but instead slammed against the door forcefully with all her might. Benner looked at Alex with a look of concern, opened his mouth to say something only to close it, turned to face the door that his commanding officer had just burst through and swiftly followed after her with Alex closely behind. All three commanding officers arrived on the Bridge, which was in chaos, both Benner and Samantha were darting over from one side of the bridge to the other desperately seeking an answer for what happened.
“Helm, report!” Benner shouted.
The pilot frantically looked over his console, searching for any suitable conclusion to what just happened. His colleague, the navigator, frantically scanned through their monitor in a desperate bid to resolve the issue. Ships didn’t cut FTL propulsion for no reason, if it weren’t for a mechanical reason then something had set off the computer’s vast array of failsafes put in place to prevent FTL capable ships from colliding with hazards.
“I don’t understand, X.O.” The helmsman replied shakily. “Engine diagnostic systems are green; Jump Drive diagnostics are clear of errors.”
Samantha had closed the gap between her and her pilot with only centimetres separating the two as she looked over his shoulders and scrutinised his displays to find anything that he missed. She had clearly gotten way too close for his comfort and had repelled his head away from the Corvette Commander’s face. Benner, on the other hand, didn’t see a problem either and he marched over to the pilots free shoulder and started peering over it as well. Even Alex could feel the breach of personal space the pilot was experiencing from the furthest end of the Bridge.
“Perhaps some kind of hazard drifted into our path?” Benner postulated. “A comet, rogue planet. A meteor storm perhaps? Where did you plot the points?”
Samantha turned to face the navigator. “Check in with the G.W.I.N array, see if the nearest satellite picked up anything.”
Deliberately ignoring the instructions Samantha relayed from STARCOM, direct orders passed down from the admiralty calling for him to be confined to the brig, Alex instead made himself useful. Starting towards an unoccupied console, abandoned by its operator; Alex tapped in the corner of the display to minimise the current screen which seemed to be tracking for any radio signals in the area. He switched the display function to that of a diagnostic screen. The screen displayed a black background with white writing and diagrams using geometric shapes that nearly represented the complex machinery situated in the engine room. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, none of the machines were highlighted or flashing red, that was a good sign… for now. No yellow important message boxes were displayed either. Then he swiped the screen to check the next layout of machines. Alex furrowed his brow as he scrutinised the screen for any hint as to what was wrong, which he admitted his lacklustre engineering and mechanical skills not helping him much. Many of the diagnostics that were displayed told Alex nothing useful or anything comprehendible. He switched the screen once again to view a different section of the engine, this time it was the heart of the engine; Even in its crude geometric depiction of the engine’s outer casing, it was still easily recognisable. With its sublight and Faster-Than-Light functions splitting off from the central core of the engine. The Össträrite tanks had enough fuel for Jumps so they didn’t just run out of fuel midway through the journey. Alex then opted to investigate if the Atlantis’s sublight propulsion could be interfering. While Alex was the first to admit he knew very little about the engines of starships he still had a basic understanding of the physics involved and how it works. He knew for a fact the sub-light engine’s shielded ignition chamber utilised a series of liquid helium cooled laser emitters that when fed a sizable fuel pellet would create a powerful and sustainable chain reaction that would combust with the force of a nuclear explosion, the shockwave was then channelled through a series of pipes, then the plasma matter would be divided and ejected from the Atlantis’s three engine thrusters that propelled the vessel. Even still, he proceeded to investigate the ignition chamber to ensure that the laser emitters were properly aligned. As he ran a diagnostic on them, Alex pondered over whether or not he would remember what the correct numbers were supposed to be.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
He heard heated voices behind him. One voice he didn’t recognise was scolding someone else for failing to include additional information, he was certain it had nothing to do with him and he refocused on trying to blur them out so he could focus and concentrate.
The voices transitioned to a low hum however the recognisable timbre of Benner’s voice still stood out among the background noise. “How far did we travel from our entry vector?” The Executive Officer asked.
“Seven lightyears, sir!” The navigator replied.
Samantha started toward her chair, reached for the microphone that was clipped to the side of the chair frame. “Chief engineer report. Who the Hell broke my ship?”
Her tone swiftly changed from a stern tone to one of near accusation, like she believed deeply in the concept that someone had caused the ship to stop her Jump.
The speaker replied with a masculine, stentorian, baritone voice. “Ma’am, I can’t give you a clear answer yet, my team and I are scrambling all over the machines trying to find the cause. Sub-light engine control rods deployed all at once but why they did so is unclear. Internal radiation levels reading at six thousand four hundred and twenty-six roentgen and steadily declining. Jump Drive was working fine, pressure in Össträrite pipes and fuel lines were holding steadily at two thousand twenty-three kilopascals. Our hydrogen heat sink is being vented into space as we speak.”
“You mind dumbing it down, chief?” Samantha said irritated. “My background is tactical, not engineering.”
For a moment, the engineer didn’t speak. Alex had no difficulty imagining the engineer trying to figure out a simpler way to explain.
“The reactivity that powers our thrusters has stopped. Our Jump Drive’s functions are tied to the safety systems of the reactor. When one set of engines experiences a fault that shuts them down, it shuts down all main methods of propulsion in the event a complication could interfere with another system.” The engineer said. Even from across the bridge, Alex could hear the restraint in the man’s voice. From the brief dialogue he gathered Alex suspected the engineer was a man who spoke meticulously regardless if who he spoke to knew what he was saying or not.
Samantha’s lips peeled away on her snout, quivering to reveal her needle-like teeth in anger. Any self-control she possessed as a result of her command training faded before letting out a vicious growl, baring her teeth as she slammed the microphone back into its slot with fierce aggression
Many officers who had looked at their commanding officer during her frustration were quick to avert their gaze to avoid making eye contact with her. The console to the left of Alex pinged loudly, the Naga sitting next to him worked quickly, scanning her screen.
“Sirs, passive scans just detected a massive burst of solar radiation alongside a massive thermal signature. A vessel of unknown configuration entering real-space. Four kilometres off our port bow, zero degrees elevation.”
Benner looked over in Alex’s direction. “Friend or foe? Y’know what, it doesn’t matter. ” Then he threw his head behind him toward a Lykan with a headset on the other side of the bridge “Comm’s officer Selve, tell them to get lost. Say we are in the middle of a military exercise and they are to get lost.”
The Lykan nodded, he spoke with a soft yet firm tone of voice into his headset while staring at his screen. Then nothing as everyone awaited a reply, something in the back of Alex’s mind had crept forward to the forefront of his conscious stream of thoughts. A shadow of a worry that perturbed him enough to switch the screen to control one of the external cameras on the outer hull. As he spun the lens around, the camera feed switched to static. Lights suddenly went out and the emergency lighting didn’t replace the darkness with its cautious tones of amber. Gasps and yelps of shock and fear permeated through the darkness for a moment before Alex’s rational mind took control. He could still sense where ‘down’ is, meaning artificial gravity is still functional. When he stretched his hearing to its limits he could hear the panicked breathing of unseen officers and the quiet hum of ventilation still fed recycled, filtered air. So at least life support and environmental functions weren’t affected. With only the dim lighting from the illuminated screens glitching and distorting their image and the faint light from distant stars seeping in provided only the barest amount of light for Alex to see around. His eyes ached as they struggled to allow light in. No doubt, the Lykans present could see with near perfect clarity but his eyes were not blessed with night vision. He could make out faint silhouettes in front of the windows, and only the dimly lit faces of officers still facing their consoles.
The immediate and unexpected burst of sounds pierced his ears with a sharpness that induced physical pain. Alex squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to cover them, drowning out the shriek as best he could. His efforts were not good enough as the shrieking noise forced its way into his head like a power drill to his skull. But through his hands, the loud shrill tones made him feel cold as only one thing he knew made that horrendous chittering sound. The shriek stopped so suddenly that Alex wasn’t aware it had until a few seconds later when the absence of the noise was quickly filled with a ringing sound followed by the hypnotic thumping in his ears. Lighting was restored a second later along with the monitor screens no longer glitching erratically. Alex made a break to the nearest window on the bridge and scanned around with his eyes looking for anything. He then gazed out towards the starboard side of the Atlantis. Alex could see the large engine module attached above the main hull of the ship and the many reinforced joints that held the engine to the ship. Further astern he could tell what the engineer meant earlier that their engines were dead. No sky blue hue was emitted by either the Starboard or aft engine, which only Alex had a limited view of, nor did the thrust vectoring move. To the left of the starboard engine glinted a small yellow glare. It flickered more intermittently to be a star like the rest of the lights surrounding it. The alien vessel, so far away, was now closing the distance between the two ships.
The ringing in his ears slowly subsided over time, enough for voices behind him to be heard but still be indistinct. After rubbing his ears with both hands, the ringing continued to subside and the speaking behind him turned from muffled tones to clear speech.
“-some kind of sonic attack?” Samantha asked.
“Unknown, but our connection to the G.W.I.N is down. Possibly a static burst designed to cut us off?”
“Instruments are reading vast quantities of proton radiation out there.”
Alex felt his heart leap in his throat, he stood up and dashed over to where Samantha and Benner stood. After frantically grabbing her by the loose folds of her suit for support he struggled to speak. “Commander’s you have to get us out of here!”
They both looked at him with curious expressions before looking at the enemy vessel before looking back at Alex. “Listen to me! That thing obliterated my ship and a dozen others. This corvette doesn’t stand a chance.”
“What do you propose; we turn tail and run?” Benner asked.
Samantha then chimed in. “I am not in the habit of showing them our backs, Captain. They want a fight then we’ll give them one. ALL HANDS TO ACTION STATIONS, PREPARE FOR NUCLEAR DEPLOYMENT! AND SOMEBODY GET THE ENGINES UP AND RUNNING!”
Alex couldn’t believe what he heard. Did they not hear him, were their ears still ringing from the auditory assault that thing broadcasted? There was no way the Atlantis would last long in a fight against that alien ship. He began to recall seeing the holographic display Milo had set up once they had gathered enough data from scavenged black boxes to piece together the remains of Capricorn fleet. But at least he stood a chance with the Phoenix from afar; her rows of guns and missile pods alike battering the enemy. If only he had considered using the onboard atomic warheads then maybe he stood a chance. The Atlantis on the other hand was far inferior for combat than the Phoenix was, her only means of defending herself were two aft facing guns situated in the underside of the prow and a few X-Ray laser emitting emplacements in lieu of standard cannons. At best it only sported a few missile pods on each side that could release their full payload in one strike for maximum damage alongside its complement of four vertical launch tubes each filled with an atomic payload. Despite the weapons on board, a Corvette nevertheless was still no match for whatever that thing was.
“Belay that!” He blurted out.
Samantha’s stern expression focused on him. Quickly closing the gap between two until she was mere inches from his face. “The Hell do you think you are doing, Rowan?”
“Sam, we are severely outmatched, fighting that thing only jeopardises everything. Our lives, the crews lives, the Atlantis. All of it.”
Samantha stood still as she thought on that last point, then she glanced to her navigator and asked. “Nav, how far is the Fourth Fleet from our current position?”
“Roughly one point four light-years from us, ma’am.”
Samantha then pondered on that for a moment.
“Comms, try and send out a call for help. Inform Fourth Fleet that the Atlantis is about to engage with an unidentified vessel with hostile intent and are in need of assistance.” Instantly Alex’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped. Was she truly intent on fighting this thing, was she oblivious to what happened to his ship? She then turned to her second in command who still stood next to the pilot. “X.O coordinate with engineering and get our engines up and running.”
Benner responded affirmatively before stepping out of the Bridge.
“Commander Hammer, listen to me” Alex carefully enunciated. “Don’t risk our crews on pride. We don’t stand a chance against that thing. As soon as your Jump-Drive is up and running we should Jump as far-“
“Captain Rowan, you are out of line!” She snapped at him. “This is not your ship and this is not your crew. Return to your quarters or I’ll have you sent to the brig!”
It was then that the sting of betrayal finally convinced him to give up, there was no more room for him to plead his case against the inevitable. He wasn’t halfway out the door by the time he heard Samantha call out orders and prepare the Atlantis’s weapons. Swiftly the ambient lighting shifted to combat mode, an alarm rang out with a preprogrammed message alerting the crew to prepare for combat.
Solemnly he made his way back to the makeshift quarters aboard the vessel, the cramped corridors seemed to be closing in on him as the sense of defeat was closing in all around him. Repetitive muffled thumps came from the walls, the sounds of footsteps grew louder and clearer and a trio of Atlantis crew ran past Alex ahead of him. The sounds of machines whirred from within the walls, a series of clunks and a thump came from the walls. And from elsewhere, a gentle rumbling of the sub-light reactor powering up. A series of thwump sounds was heard above Alex and he could hear the sound of the missile pod retracting into the ship where it could be reloaded, evident by the clearer noises of loading arms from the munitions storage reloading the pods.
Just how long did he have before Samantha would realise the futility of the situation and call for a retreat? How many of her crew would need to die before she would make the wise decision?
Several sources of buzzing sounds sounded off. X-Ray weapons firing highly charged energy in a concentrated beam to cut the alien vessel. Alex was taken by surprise when a sudden jolt shook the ship, threatening to trip Alex over his own footsteps. The lights flickered.
Then a loud bang rang throughout the halls. Alex was nearly thrown against the wall so suddenly and off-guard that he didn’t have time to process the sound before he fell to the floor. The corridor around him started spinning and he tried to stabilise himself by pressing his hands against the wall, the alarms continued to ring out before hearing the alarm for an atmospheric breach. Three people in fire gear ran past without acknowledging his presence; the third person collided with his shoulder, nearly bowling Alex over once again and continued to run with their colleagues without so much as glancing over their shoulder to check up on him. Alex found himself struggling to climb up the wall and stand up, his head throbbed and was gripped with each intermittent pulse of his heartbeat. The alarms continued to ring out, interior lighting flickered. Another salvo of missiles fired alongside intermittent thumps as the prow mounted cannons fired. The pulsating sensation in his head intensified. After running his hand over the source where the pain emanated from and brought in front of him he was shocked to see the blood coating his palm and fingers.
Yet, in some strange way, seeing it confirmed in front of him sobered him up to a degree that made the pain dissipate and his focus was clear and his head no longer in a spin. He looked back down the corridor he came through, the descended ladder that led to the deck above him. Then he looked back and proceeded to backtrack his steps back to the Bridge.
In the short time he left, Alex was surprised by just how much had changed in his absence. Several windows were sealed behind blast shields while the shining, shimmering outline of shattered glass contrasted against the dark grey metal shield. The bodies of three crew members were lined up next to each other on the floor next to the elevated dias that housed the captain’s chair. Their faces were bloodied and bruised with cuts doting their scorched burn marks. Everyone else was yelling to each other, Samantha stood at the helm trying to pilot the ship when she turned over to look at one of the radar consoles and saw Alex standing nearby, she scowled at him for a moment but he steeled his expression and marched towards her.
“Let me help, Sam. Let my crew help.” He said.
She glared at him for a moment then said; “Benner is helping out in the engine room, you're my new first officer. And get your helmsman in here!”
He nodded and took his place next to the captain’s chair, on his Wrist-Pad he called Clemens up to the bridge. He watched as the corvette tried to maintain its distance from the alien vessel, however, its golden beam of energy still posed a serious concern even from afar. Alex scanned the monitor attached to his post and pulled up the external cameras to get a better look at the alien ship. Just as he remembered it pulsed with a golden glow before discharging its beam at them, he pinched the screen to bring the view as far as it could go. Alex narrowed his gaze at the fuzzy, pixelated view of the far distant vessel. The strangely designed vessel looked almost aquatic in nature with the outer hull consisting mainly of smooth curves and strange architecture that ended with canards surrounding the engine in the rear. Running along the equator of the alien vessel appeared a strange rib-like depression, the depression glowed brightly with two pulses meeting to create the discharge that was shot at them. Loud hums of energy emanated from the floor below him, the tell-tale sound of X-Ray lasers firing. The weapon emplacements along the slender hull frame moved and hummed coarsely as it fired. Alex didn’t expect to see coloured beams of light from the energy weapons, with the frequency set within the X-Ray segment of the EM spectrum there would be no visible light. Apart from the droning sound of power he’d never have known they were firing. It was considerate of the manufacturer to apply several light fixtures at the base of the emitters to glow red when they were being fired as a safety measure.
Samantha ordered another volley of missiles followed by an authorization to deploy nuclear warheads and ordered Benner back to the bridge to provide his codes. And as her X.O was in the middle of explaining he was too preoccupied until another blast cut the transmission mid-sentence, leaving Samantha in a fit of rage. Clemens arrived on the bridge a moment later panting as he looked around to find the controls for the Atlantis helm.
“You’re Captain Rowan’s pilot!?” Samantha demanded.
“Aye, ma’am.” Clemens responded, giving her a sharp salute despite the carnage and battle raging on around them. “Midshipman First Class Zachary Clemens reporting.”
“Are you as good as he speaks of?” She then glanced over to Alex when she spoke.
Clemens looked surprised for a moment, he looked over to Alex as though he was waiting for him to give Clemens any indicator of what to do. The pilot looked back at Corvette Commander Hammer and he nodded. “Aye, ma’am. I like to think my skills are top tier.”
“Take your station, and get us the Hell out of here!”
And with that Samantha looked around the bridge from her chair, spouting orders. Another blast from the alien vessel rocked the Atlantis resulting in an officer spouting “Starboard engine damaged, thrust output down to twelve percent!”
“Status on the AURA shields!?” Alex barked out.
“Shields holding for now, that energy weapon is damaging the emitters. A few more hits and it’ll hole us.”
Alex and Samantha looked over to each other. The damage already done to the Atlantis seemed to have damaged Samantha’s confidence in her choice. He could see the regret in her eyes, thankfully Alex still had something that could fix this. An ace up his sleeve.
“Ensign Clemens, as your commanding officer I order you to get us the fuck out of here!”
When the young man from Manchester with slick, raven black hair spun around to face Alex, for once it warmed his heart to see his pilot with a wide, mischievous grin and then press his hands flat against each other letting out a constantina of wet cracks. Then he faced the front, quickly glanced over the controls and gripped the throttles. Alex watched in a split second his pilot adjusting himself to the new configuration and scanning over the controls and diagnostics. He then pulled on his seatbelts and strapped himself in. “Everyone better buckle up, because this is not going to be easy.”
“I need the Jump Drive fully prepared and all mechanics to keep the engines from blowing up.” Clemens barked at Samantha, she acknowledged and contacted the engine room through her wrist-pad as she sat down in her chair and strapped in. The alien vessel fired off another discharge that nearly struck the bridge. Its bright glow filled the remaining windows with a light momentarily so intense that it could have been mistaken for a star and then the light was gone, Alex’s eyes had already adjusted to the light by the time it was gone and the whole world around him seemed quite dark until his eyes readjusted once more. His stomach shifted slightly to the right for only a brief moment before he felt the inertia pull him to his right. The stellar vista shifted and settled a brief second later. A beam of light shot past them and Clemens flinched in the opposite direction, he looked ridiculous as though the beam nearly struck him inside the pressurised vessel. Then the Atlantis swung in a different direction as Clemens threw his hands wildly around whilst keeping his grip on the controls.
“What’s the status of the Jump Drive?” Shouted Clemens.
Alex looked on his screen and studied the diagnostics for the Jump Drive. The screen had shown the crudely geometric imitation of the vastly complex machine fully powered up and its individual components steadily reaching one hundred percent. Liquid Helium coolants filled the gaps between the inner and outer casing of the Össträrite ignition chambers and the laser emitters’ heat exchangers. The energy levels needed to successfully enact a Jump hadn’t been achieved, yet it slowly rose. The navigator verbalised the readouts to Clemens just as he swung the Atlantis to the side once more, dodging another burst of energy. Clemens pulled the controls towards his chest and twisted his wrists to divert the direction of the sub-light engine's thrust to push the ship on an upwards incline along both its Longitudinal and lateral axis.
When Alex looked back on the screen all things showed they were ready for Jump. “Jump Drive ready, Clemens!”
“Got it, everybody get ready!” Clemens shouted back.
“Wait!” The Navigator said with alarm. “We don’t have any Jump coordinates, you’ll be jumping blind!”
Clemens scoffed amusedly. “I don’t need coordinates, I just need to shake them off.”
Clemens ran his fingers over the consoles around him and then gripped the pilot controls again, he pulled the throttle towards him and engaged the jump drive. “Three… Two… One, JUMP!”
He thrusted the controls into the console as though he tried to drive the steering column right into the bulkhead of the Atlantis. The walls hummed and vibrated. The stars dilated and stretched themselves out as though they tried to get away from the Atlantis only to be pulled back towards them in an instant and surpassed them a moment later. Clemens then disengaged the jump drive a second later and the stars returned to normal in a newer configuration. For a moment all was quiet, the alarms continued their shrill buzz, consoles beeped and pipe fixtures hissed as their contents slowly leaked out.
Alex looked over to Samantha and both had let out a sigh of relief. As they unclipped their harnesses which flung off them, Clemens looked out the windows to scan the nearby vista, as he pressed his face against the window his face was bathed in white light.
“Can somebody tell me where we are? I think we are a short hop from before but I can’t tell.”
“Navigational charts say we are one lightyear from our previous location.” Clemen’s new colleague said.
Collectively the entire bridge shared a sigh of relief. Alex, for his own doubts, felt relieved that they managed to survive. Narrowly escaping death from an relentless foe.
One of the consoles beeped.
“Ma’am, passive scans just detected a Jump flash. Reading, one thousand kilometres directly behind our stern, zero elevation.”
Rowan snapped his attention toward the bridge officer, his chest weighed down on him with heavy breaths. Struggling to hide his surprise and shock he found himself unable to control the shakes in his fingers and it was then that Alex was grateful he wore the thick stubby gloves to hide the subtle shakes in his fingers. They escape the combatant vessel and end up in some random region of space and another vessel just so appears out of nowhere?
Deep breath, calm your mind. Examine the situation.
While the shaking in his hands did not subside he found himself grateful that his shaky breath had gone, he checked on his screen to see their location. It was next to impossible for a ship to track another’s Jump unless they knew of the coordinates. But there it was far beyond the eye’s capacity to see, was another vessel in space with them.
Samantha got out of her chair and walked over to the human officer. “Any external camera’s working?”
“Aye, ma’am. Pulling up feed now.”
Alex was curious and made his way over, he took to looking over the other shoulder of the dark skinned human and saw the familiarly unfamiliar starship menacingly rotating on its axis to face down the Atlantis. His heart skipped and he found himself unable to swallow as well as refrain from showing the surprise on his face.
“Clemens get us out of here!”
The pilot tapped on his console and the jump drive engaged once more. He allowed the blind jump occur for a little longer at the request of Samantha and Alex who both agreed that more distance from it was what they needed. When they strolled around the bridge freely it nearly made Alex jump in his suit when the alien vessel emerged once more and this time within eye shot. Its lateral depression pulsed up once more and blasted out a ray of light that struck the Atlantis’ hull with a loud bang. The atmospheric breach alarm sounded off once more and Alex checked to see where the damage was located. The screen showed that the laser had punched a hole cleanly through the side of the Atlantis.
“Hull breach on decks two, three, and four. Affected areas port to starboard.” Alex reported. “Airtight bulkheads are sealing off affected areas. Electrical grid is severely damaged on those decks… Casualty reports coming in, five dead, another dozen injured and seven are unaccounted for.”
Samantha growled, baring her sharpened white fangs. “Set the ship back to Action Stations! Clemens, be ready to get us out of here!”
Samantha sat down at her chair and turned to face Alex. “Tracking us in Jump is next to impossible unless they know our next move. Its not like they are connected to the G.W.I.N array, right?”
“We cannot keep jumping blindly and randomly if they can follow us. Eventually we will run out of fuel. Assuming they don’t damage this ship to the point we cannot safely Jump.”
The guns on the Atlantis unleashed another volley alongside a barrage of missiles whose muffled launches sounded like the deafened beats on a war-drum.