No longer dripping from Decon, Asimov finally got back into the vessel, humming as he stood by the kitchenette, a coffee maker, clearly fabricated using food grade lab equipment, soxhlet extractor and a flask, with a heating mantle and a water cooler, cycling away, freshly cloned and hyper grown coffee beans having been ground and now was brewing some coffee.
The smell attracted the former comms officer, who stumbled in from her nap in her quarters. "Mmphf….? Is that Coffee I smell?" The herbivore reptile said, opening cabinets as she searched for her specially made mug.
She set it down next to the ceramic cup of her Captains, giving an odd look to the old fluid vessel, white, with a handle, and a circular blue insignia with what looked like the silhouette of the ship itself on said blue circle, with a red ring around it at an angle.
She shrugged. Not her business if that was all he had.
She perked up as she saw him pull the flask/carafe off the mantle and extractor, setting another cup beneath the extractor to let the last few dregs of coffee fall out of the extractor, before carefully pouring them each a even amount of coffee, giving a twist as he finished to prevent any droplets of coffee from being wasted, before setting the flask on a swirling heating mantle, keeping the coffee warm and kept it stirred, placing a stopper at the top to prevent additional water from leaving it.
"Honey?" He offered, pulling out a very fresh bottle of honey that had been brought in by one of the drones from the Aquaponics Flow hives that had been successfully cloned. Zedara nodded, curious as to the taste of human honey compared to the version her own kind cultivated from their 'honey beetles' as the humans called them.
She reminded herself to be careful in that section, tough skin or not, humans didn't bother removing the stingers from their bees when they cloned them, and those little suckers could leave a sting that hurt worse than what most expected from a small insect.
The golden syrup was carefully poured in from the metallic honey dipper, some in each cup before Asimov poured some synthetic milk into his cup, swirling it a little to mix it, before holding it up to a hatch where the collarbones would meet on a completely flesh and blood human, and poured it down into it slowly, giving a satisfied hum.
"Is that Coffee I smell?" Came a light, feminine voice. Asimov's head turned to look behind him at one of the Saline, or as humans called them, Grey guards, the aliens large head no longer covered by her hood, even when her slim body still was, the cloak moving oddly as it entered and exited the gravity reducer field her kind employed when in ships of multiple species or on planets with higher gravity then they were used to. "It is. Need a cup?" Asimov offered, getting a nod as the thin alien produced a shot glass from her bag and poured herself a shot.
Waiting for it to cool, she sat at the table connected to a wrap around sofa setup recessed into the wall, groaning as she sat back, looking up and noticing a small hub of CRT screens hanging from the ceiling, and idly noticed before her a series of ports of some kind, and a smaller screen. Possibly an entertainment system of some kind? Or a briefing table? Either way, it was off and had no visible way of interfacing with it. Not that she had, anyways.
The Trike groaned as she sat down nearby, even as Asimov remained standing, still drinking his own coffee as he read the medical Padd, scrolling through it as he read up on medical necessities of some kind.
The moment the shot was cool enough, the Grey picked the glass and knocked it back, before pouring herself another.
"Still waiting for the paperwork to clear?" Zedara asked as she sipped on her coffee, the cup she used hooking onto the side of her beak and allowed her to tip it in and slowly trickle the liquid in. "Unfortunately. Apparently, a few of them had a sizable bounty on them and were known for trying to break into people's ships on the docks. The Tarantian was their muscle when it came to dealing with some of the more stubborn ones, and had quite the history with morgue. They didn't expect him to be joining his victims quite as…..violently as he had." Asimov said, head tilting up to look at her.
That had gotten a sputter and a cough out of the Grey when he had said that.
Still coughing, she sat her drink down on the table hard. "E-excuse me!? A Tarantian?!" She said, her pitch black, almond shaped eyes widening as she stared at him in shock. "Large, biologically armored, lozenge or pill shaped creature with six legs, and scythe for arms?" Asimov said, before he walked up to the table, an arm segments allowing it to bend over the table as his 'palm' ejected a data connector and he plugged it into the terminal before her.
Above the Grey, the screen lit up, revealing the image of the sentient he had fought.
There was a dent in its carapace above its head, a large one, though it's mask kept hidden if it was dazed or not.
"A Tarantian warrior caste!? What in the Moons of Vega is- was that thing doing on board the station!?" She sputtered, staring at the image, even as Zedara snorted. "Being muscle for the raiders. Apparently, sluggers work quite well against them, though the caliber in question….. I don't think many but a Trask, the Captain, maybe a Glinch, some fool augmented out of their minds, no offense captain, or someone in heavy armor could use that monstrosity." Zedara said, getting a nod from her Captain.
"Understandable Zedara. Which reminds me….." he said, reaching behind him, in his pack, and pulled four things out. One was a black case with latches, a small, plastic box that rattled a little, a holster with a belt, and a pack of some sort. "Until a new part is fabricated for your blaster, you may use this. Standard Browning 1935, three magazines, along with one box of 9mm. The last bag contains a cleaning kit, oil and a data chip with lessons on how to clean, maintain, load, and operate the firearm. Modifications were made to accommodate your hands" the cyborg explained, as Zedara carefully opened the case first and examined the pistol, before opening the pack, and plugged the chip into the console before her.
The two nonhuman were silent as they watched the video, the sound of the translated words coming through, drinking their coffee…. The Grey continually knocking back shot after shot of coffee, odd, darker patches appearing where her cheeks would have been.
"Wait…..THATS how you aim it?" Slurred the Grey, as she watched the video. "What about Aim assist? What about targeting optics? Why a set of metal posts? And where's the gas and charger ports?" She said, swaying.
"The pistol is a small slugger. Well, smaller than the Captains." Zedara said as she examined the pistol, slowly following the video on how to use it, wisely following the safety video shown at the beginning, checking the slide, watching how each part worked. "Fascinating. Many similarities between the two weapons…."
"They were designed, initially, by the same man. The 1935 was finished by his friend when the man in question passed. My pistol is just a modified, upscaled variant of the original 1911 design." Asimov said, even as the Grey pouted. "Slugger? But they have so little ammo and are so loud" She whined, as Asimov seemed to frown.
Moments later, the door opens, as Hota wandered in. "Have you seen……oh." The Grey Diplomat said, spotting his guard, who giggled. "Hey -----" her next words were in a garbled mess of another language, consisting of squeaks, clicks and squelches.
The diplomat stared at the others cheeks, at the flask in one hand, the shotglass, and then the mugs the other two had. "....Etan, I would normally reprimand you for drinking on the job, but we are about to fly anyways." The male Grey sighed, taking the flask from her hand and poured himself a glass.
"Drinking- caffeine gets you drunk?" Asimov said, head tilted, even as Zedara leaned away from Etan, who made grabby motions towards the pistol, forcing her to quickly lock it back up, away from drunken hands.
It wasn't loaded, but she was going to use caution anyways.
"It does. Normally, we drink it in lesser amounts, what we consider a beer is what most humans call a tea, while an espresso is a hard liquor. Coffee is closer to moonshine, or wine, depending on it." He said, knocking back his shot, and slowly swallowed, savoring the taste. "Or a vodka. This…..this is a very good vodka to us." He said, humming as he swirled the drink in the flask, holding it up to his gaze.
"Perfect preflight drink. Especially since this time we can't just sleep through the trip." He said as he seemed thoughtful. "If I may….?" "I suppose, though since it's a booze to you, why drink before a flight?" Asimov asked, curious as he watched the alien pour two more shots, smacking Etans hands away, and gathered the shots up. Zedara grabbed the flask before Etan could get more.
"We don't handle spaceflight well. Normally, we would use sleeper capsules and an autopilot, or hired pilot of another species, to fly us to where we need to go. Unfortunately, there wasn't any way we could use our ship, so we placed a contract with the Guild. Caffeine….calms us in some ways. Lets us handle spaceflight a little better. Doesn't mean we can take the helm, of course, for the same reason why a human, or another species, can't fly when THEY are inebriated." He said, calmly…. Well. Calmly as he could while he felt the caffeine hit him….he was buzzed at best, his metabolism rapidly introducing it to his body.
Zedara and Asimov looked at one another….
"Horizon? Please lock all caffeine and coffee or tea related cupboards. Crew permissions only." Asimov said, as they heard a series of clicks, and if anyone looked at the cabinets, they would see a yellow light on the locks.
"Spoil sports." Etan giggled, before laying down on the sofa and fell asleep, giggling as she slept her caffeine off.
/-------------------------------------/
Hours later, the Saline diplomatic team was comfortably tucked into their flight seats, the chairs reclined, harness/crash webbing extended over them, as was for Asimov and Zedara.
Each of the diplomatic team members had a flask of tea, sitting In the cup holders of their chairs. Etan was still asleep.
"EHS Event Horizon, this is station Akina. You're cleared to undock. May the stars guide your flight." The control deck said, as the cyborg captain nodded. "May the solar winds be in your favor." Asimov responded, getting silence on the other end of the line, before they heard a barking laugh of amusement in the background. "We read you Horizon. First time we've seen our co-controller look like someone slap them with a Nebula Diver." Came a deeper voice crackled through, full of mirth. "Not often we get the human call back here."
There was more laughter in the background, and a yelp of indignation. "Ease off, drinks are on me tonight. Someone finally cleared out some of the dock raiders, so hopefully we won't get as many complaints about missing detritus anymore." The growling voice said jovially, followed by a panicked yell.
"Ship decloaking, voidside! It's in front of the EHS Event Horizon!"
That got Asimov's attention, watching as a ship dropped its optical disguise, revealing a heavily armed, patched together hulk of a ship.
Three massive engines glowed behind it, a crumpled, scorched, brick like body, and maw like front, four large barrels sticking out of the maw. Above the maw was the bridge, visible due to the lights from the windows, while running along rhe sides of the larger vessel were cannons of all shapes and sizes, a Mish mash of various weapons.
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Hailing frequencies opened, revealing a raggedy looking creature, not unlike a fish with a large scar running across where the eyes should have been, replaced with a optical visor. "Oi, chumps! Me an me boys are gonna be taking that ship of yer' hands. Got someone who paid a pretty credit for it, and who am I to deny business?" The Fish like sentient smirked. "So if I was yous, I'd leave that ship, quicklike."
Asimov stared at the Fishman, before chuckling, despite the situation. "Interesting….. slight problem." The cyborg said, tilting his head in amusement. "You have to catch us first." He said, before the Vox channel shut down….and then the impulse engines blazed, sending a shudder through the vessel as it shot forward like a missile towards the larger ship.
Adjusting its path, it zipped past underneath the pirate vessel, who wheeled around slowly, it's Reaction Control Thrusters underpowered for trying to catch the smaller, more nimble Event Horizon.
By the time it had swung around, the smaller ship was already diving into the asteroid belt with a hefty head start.
-------------/
Captain Brogan stared at the screen before him…before letting out a dark laugh. "Got a shiny fin, Dat one. Still, it's a humie, ain't much o' a surprise, I suppose." Said the amphibious sentient, before turning to his command crew. "After em, you Vac-'eads! Karesh offered up a good chunk o' credits for dat ship and 'er Captains head on a pike!" The amphibious captain said as the crew roared, both in anger and in adrenaline.
It had been a while since someone in the sector had pulled a stunt like this. Their reputation was on the line, on top of those credits.
No one got away from the Black Star pirates and lived.
--------/
"Zedara, what are the scans of the asteroids around us? Horizon, open Salvage scoop doors, and bring all turrets online" Asimov said, even as the vessel nimbly danced out of the way of a set of asteroids.
"Composition looks to be standard nickel magnesium composites, captain." Zedara said, before her console had a loading screen flash up, before a cheery chime was heard.
A stylized circle, with a corona, like a black hole around it flashed on the screens new hud before it raised up.
/ADS scanners online. Stress points marked/ flashed across a small CMD window at the bottom, like some strange text box.
Asimov instaintly swung the turrets around, taking aim at a different asteroid each, as it clicked. Right. Insane, human captain. Most saw them as using rocks still.
They were right, but not the way they would expect.
Zedara gave a feral grin as watched as her captain placed the targeting systems on those markers, setting them to maximum power. Bright lasers shot out from the now unfolded turrets around them, shooting at asteroids around them, hitting stress fractures…..
The fractures heated up, glowing brightly as the minerals inside expanded, pushing the rock apart, even as the bonds tried to keep them together.
/proximity alert! Hostile vessel closing in! Unlocking Tether controls. Please use(ERROR) *Ģìvê ťĥêm ĥəĺł* / flashed across the screen, making Zedara balk.
She then saw a image flick onto her screen, showing a stylization of Asimovs head, a black hole again, and then a representation of her head, though hers had a cable with a line through it…..
She grabbed a data connector and breathed in slowly, and jacked it into the adaptor Asimov had fabricated for her personal link.
She hissed as she felt her systems link to the ship….. this wasn't how most ships operated….it was like she WAS the ship. Well. Part of it. She could feel her Captain, mind spinning as he now was able to toss tactics to her, while she felt another presence snarling at the chasing vessel.
She was unaware of her beak clacking in anger in reality as she began feeling the anger of the vessel at Ĥëř crew being threatened.
Asimov wasn't sitting idle, either, and he wasn't going to leave the now critical asteroids floating in space to do no damadge.
Tethers lit up on the underbarrels of the mining lasers, gravity beams latching onto the now dangerously glowing asteroids, and he yanked.
The beams bowed like whips, and eight different asteroids were flung behind them, right as the enemy vessel shot out from behind a larger asteroid, not expecting to have near detonating lumps of rock and a now destabilized metal chucked at them.
Upon impact with the hull of the larger vessel, it became the last straw for the asteroids, making them detonate, knocking the enemy vessel off course, leaving dents in the armor at best, punctures at worse, one rock detonating between all four of the main cannons, striking the charging capacitors, causing a larger explosion as they discharged violently into the tabanna gas tanks used to help form the plasma.
For a moment, the enemy vessel looked like it was breathing fire…..
But it wasn't out for the count. It's main cannons were offline, it's systems were damaged, but its massive engines still burned, forcing it forward, still giving chase, faster then the smaller vessel, but nowhere near as nimble.
"Zedara, keep a scanner out for Dilithium asteroids." Asimov said as he banked the ship hard and wove through several tight asteroids, the larger vessel tailing them barely having time to pull to broadside the asteroids, unable to stop, unable to take them head on due to the ships damaged primary cannons, but it could give chase, its maw still venting gas and fire like some monstrous entity belching fire.
Zedara nodded with her physical body, using the sensors like an extension of her body, which was weird to feel…… Was this why her Captain was so calm in that body of his? Because human tech, even outdated as this, could feel like a natural body, even with it being….. shared like this.
She swept the sensors through the asteroids, watching the readings as they flicked through her skull, thankful the ship and the adapter helped her mind process the data without overloading. "Dilithium deposits, starboard side, captain." She called out, using her real eyes to glance around.
The Grey's looked more then a little ill, two were emptying their flasks, while Hota gripped his chair in a deathgrip.
She felt the vessel twist, the ship turning hard, before accelerating again, going the opposite direction…..
And then she felt the ship swing around, hard, turning a full one hundred and eighty degrees, bringing them about to stare at the chasing vessel.
She could feel the amusement burning through the vessel itself as they accelerated hard, zipping past again, the mining lasers burning hard, tethers firing away, striking the shields of the enemy vessel, burning away at them, wearing the shields down a bit, part of the Captains plan…..
She could feel it, burbling under his mind, even as she finally felt him reaching out, dipping the ship into aethereal currents to help sling them just that little bit faster.
Insanity, but one with methodology…….
She loved the plan, but she wasn't sure that their passengers would, even as the ship swung about again, sitting in the middle of the dilithium asteroid field.
-----------/
Brogan ground his sharp teeth against one another, feeling a few pop loose. They would grow back, even as he watched his crew scurry around, running damage control throughout the ship.
"Decks three and four are venting atmosphere! Multiple hull breaches! Decks five and two have managed to isolate the breached rooms, but the remainder of the crew on deck two are cut off from the rest of the ship!"
"Main cannons ar' offline, tabanna gas tanks are ruptured, can't hold a mole of gas. Primary capacitors for them are completely fried and discharged into primary munitions control systems, switching to backups"
"Shields takin' a beating, the short from the primary capacitors fried half the shield capacitors! Down to forty percent, and dropping!"
"Medicals running out of supplies, and are over run, requesting to convert galley to overflow room!"
"Engineering is sayin' the generators are overtaxed and over heatin, engines are running too hot, if we aren't careful, they're gonna blow! Reaction Control is completely shot on the starboard side from the detonation on that side, punched a hole on the RCS relay on that side!"
The helmsman yelped as they saw the Horizon, such a small, frail ship, spin around and race right past them, making Brogan snarl. "After dat ship! I want dat Captains 'ead for a grog bowl!" He roared, spittle flying from his mouth as everyone was thrown to the side, the ship groaning as they spun around, unable to spin on a dime like the little vessel due to the loss of half the rcs control.
"Captain, the engines can't take much more o' dis. Engineering reports da primary ignition coils are getting ready ta melt down on us!"
"In a secon, da only one melting down is gonna be yous if ya don' stop ya yammering and GET DAT KARKING SHIP."
Brogan roared again, face shifting color as he got up.
"Captain, the ship, she's ahead, jus……..sittin dere." The navigations officer said, frowning as the Wellian glanced up, the creatures many furry arms rapidly dancing across the controls. "Boss, dey're 'ailing us." The comms officer said, as the image of Asimov, his domed head glinting in the of the gas giant behind Brogans vessel.
"Captain of the Black Star, We will give you one chance, stand down, or we will ensure your ship WON'T be leaving here under your own power." The cyborg said, his voice echoing oddly, like two other voices Echoed underneath his own.
"When I git me 'ands on yer skull, I'm gonna enjoy scoopin out yer brain and crushin' it in me fist!" Brogan snarled, before the navigations officer yelled out in terror. "Captain! The asteroids, dey're-"
"I DON CARE! GIVE THEM A FULL BROADSIDE!" Brogan roared, as the Black Star groaned, creaking as it swung around, cannons on its side bristling as crewmen unloaded on the smaller vessel.
Only for the Event Horizon to engage her Impulse engines, blazing as it raced….up?
"Captain! Multiple detonations detected! DILITHIUM CASCADE!" Screeched out the horrified navigations officer, making the entire crew pale
"GIT US OUT OF HERE, YA KRIFFIN IDJITS!" Brogan yelled, as the ships frame groaned again, pops heard as her RCS engines wheeled her around to try and follow the Horizon.
"Multiple structural frame failures, SAS And RCS systems are attempting to keep us steady, engines on emergency speed!" Called out one of the command crew as the ships engines burned, blazing as the ship burned brightly, rapidly catching up to the Horizon…..
Or would have.
Behind the Black Star, the asteroids they had struck and exploded detonated the others near them, the cycle building up, getting more and more powerful, the explosion and violent ball of plasma and destruction flinging molten, burning rocks forward, striking the Black Star as the Event Horizon nimbly strafe left, right, up, perspectively, and down.
"Engine one has been hit! Reducing output to keep damages from increasing!"
"Electromagnetic wave detected! It's right behind the debris wave!"
Brogan snarled. "Git the ADS to shoot down the Karking asteroids! Git da shields back to sixty percent, or someone's hide is gonna be me new rug!" The Fishman snarled, even as ice filled his veins.
"ADS firing on all sides, but we can barely keep up! Computer Core can't process fast enough without additional power diverted to-"
The ship shuddered again, consoles sparked as the crew was thrown around. "Navagation, what in Thalls fury was that!?" Brogan said, afraid of the answer.
"Multiple Dilithium fragments thrown out from the edges of the explosion, destabilized and detonating around us, captain!"
"Multiple impacts in engineering! Venting atmosphere, generators hit! Engines are failing, ignition coils melting down on engines two and three, reducing power to attempt to try and keep going!"
"Shields failing! Multiple EM strikes from the dilithium detonations are usin" up the remaining capacity!"
The lights flickered, the ship shuddered as the screens went to show what had happened.
On the screen showed the debris field, flying at them at an absolutely insane speed, unable to be outrun, even as they tried to burn fuel to increase their speed. They were now barely keeping pace with the Event Horizon, due to the damage to the engines and failure to the generators…..
The ship shook, shuddering from the impacts, screams and cries of alarm ringing out, along with worsening damage reports from multiple decks, even as Brogan snarled….
"Sir! Unusual readings from the Event Horizon!" One of the navigators said, not the main one, who was arguing with the engine crew, trying to get more speed, ignoring the reasons they couldn't.
"On-screen, NOW!" Brogan snarled…
And watched as the Horizon appeared on the screen, and then they saw why they were getting the readings.
The Event Horizons ring had opened the shutters, extending an engine ring of some kind, while white lights spun around the ring, speeding up rapidly with each lap, energy crackling off the vessel…..
A sphere began forming around the vessel, warping reality around it, a whirling corona of energy forming around it, like the ship's Namesake, the ship itself still visible in the field, despite the appearance and presence of the field.
The new ring shaped engine began glowing, as the nozzle, more or less two rings, one inner and one outer ring, contracted, the white exhaust of the new, unknown engine being compressed into a finer and finer stream of energy, while the ship seemed to glow brighter and brighter with each passing moment, the lights that had been racing around the ring a solid ring of light now…..
And then the shutters opened, a white flash of light, burning the cornea of the poor fools who stared at the vessel when the ship dove out of reality, the flash gone, even as the ship shook in the wake of the effects, a invisible wave causing reality to warp, expanding out from where the Horizon had once been, and they were headed right for it
"Heavy gravitational waves, incoming!" The helmsman cried, even as the entire crew realized what had happened….
The Horizon had escaped, and now? Now they were stuck between an EM wave and a gravitational wave……
Moments later, the EM wave struck the Black Star as it tried to turn and alter its course, shield capacitors frying, exploding throughout the vessel, fire exploding out from the sides of the ship, systems burning, overloading with electromagnetics, consoles sparking, melting, belching smoke…..
and then the gravitational wave struck them, sending the already tumbling, groaning ship spinning end over end uncontrollably, her frame twisting and screaming inside the still atmospherically sealed sections of the ship, bending and groaning under the strain…
The last thing Brogan saw was the burning, atomizing wave of plasma racing at their vessel, just behind the EM wave, set off by their own cannons….
And then, knew nothing, forever more.
------------------/
The Event Horizon stared down the Black Star, amusement burning through her positronic brains. The irony of the name wasn't lost on the smaller vessel, but she craved to show the *namestealer* why SHE had earned her name.
She listened to her Captain/çĥįłďs attempt at letting the sentients live, a wonderful gesture, one that made her sigh initially. Sentimental……wait….
She snarled as the enemy vessel unleashed a barrage of firepower, before she felt the vicious, victorious feeling from her Captain, before she felt his plan…
She gave a amused rumble, and burned at maximum power, racing up out of the field before the Thief could realize what it's crew had just done, laughter filling her mindspace, even as she felt her crew work together with her.
She enjoyed the sensation of adrenaline racing through the two organics bodies, loving the rush it sent through her circuits as they raced from certain doom, their opponent hot on their Tails.
She laughed again in a tinkling, beeping laugh in her inhabited sections as they danced around speeding rocks, listening to her astrogators mind as he reached out, flicked them around asteroids before them, even as the Blackstar rammed them without abandon behind them, not caring for hull damage, just trying to escape its fate.
And then she felt it, with growing fear as she saw the EM wave racing out, a byproduct of so many dilithium and radioactive detonations at once.
She didn't want to go back to sleep, she didn't want to loose her crew, her captain/Çĥįĺď, her passengers……
And then she felt the Trike shielded in their connection as Asimov drove his mind into the fabric of reality, stretching out and out……
"Initializing Chronoton stabilizer fields." She heard, as she felt her Vohle drive beginning to charge up, as Zedara's mind flooded with confusion and shock. Horizon could feel the fear, horror and confusion of the Grey's as her ring began glowing, Vanir collectors spinning up, pulling at the fabric of reality around them.
She could feel her primary drive extending out from the rings shroud for it. "Charging Vohle drive, Vania collectors spooling up. Chronoton stabilizer fields online." She heard inside her bridge, as she felt reality warping around them, bending to her drives very will, Her intent.
She would not fall here, she would show them why she earned her name!
"Drive charged. Diving in three, two, one, Vohle drive on full." Asimove said, as he shut Her Impulse engines off, and Horizon felt reality send out a ripple, her laughter gaining a dark edge as the slipped into the Sea between Seas.
No longer could she detect the enemy vessel, but they no longer existed on the same reality plane.
"Translating coordinates for Human Federation to Vohle space coordinates…..engaging Drive motivators." Asimov said, his voice tinged with her own as they worked in tandem, his mind feeling out for safe Eddies as the ring glowed, burning with energy expelled from it, pushing her forward.
She strafed around many of the glowing spheres, a set of one or more lights with a spinning, expanding disk coming from them, despite yearning to go to them, to explore their stars they represented…..
But no. Her passengers needed One star, and she would get them there, safely, unharmed.
"Destination ahead. Prepare for Realspace transition in three…" Horizon and Asimov said in unison, as they burned towards one of the glowing, spinning stars, getting closer and closer. "Two……" She could hear the protests and questions from her passengers, requesting what was going on, what kind of drive WAS this. "One, surfacing….."
Horizon dove into the Stars Gravitational disk, sending a ripple across it….
And erupted out, staring down a massive gray vessel, bearing down on them with massive cannons panning through