I found out after I fell into normal space, that Typhoon had been attacked on two fronts.  Physically, they were blinding her by taking out her drones, but they had been sending viruses to her computers through an open channel.

That shouldn't have been possible.  I closed the channel aimed at me as soon as I saw it, but it reopened three times.  Finally I launched half of my bomber wing to the source of the signal, while constantly closing the channel.  I followed the commands to open it back to the communications officer.

Beth knew it was a two-fold attack, that's why she sent her 'butcher' message.  It was her way of saying she was getting smashed, and cut.  It's a shame I had to fall into the trap myself to see it.

Her second volley from the Drivers took out the ship that took out her drones.  I hope I pulled her out in time.

I pulled myself back into jump space, and then wrapped my bridge around her, and let us fall back to normal back at the docks.

I kept our ships out of the docks.  Her MACs were still rotated out, and I couldn't reach her.  The ship wouldn't fit into dock like that, and I wasn't going to leave her out here by herself.

I put on the headset I designed for myself, and plugged it into my neck port.  This let me walk around, and still be on communications duty.  Our station was broadcasting something, and I was struggling to intercept it.  Typhoon was broadcasting, I abated the messages from me on the same channel.

I stepped onto the bridge, Heather started to smile at me, and then realized I was not done yet.

"Ensign Jordan Grey, get off that station."

"Cadet, you have no authority on the bridge."  He replied.

"Ensign, and anyone else on the bridge, this cadets orders are to be followed as if they are my own."  Heather replied as she stood, walked over to the ensign, and forcefully removed him from the station.

The signal stopped on my side, but was still going off on Typhoon.

"Captain, there is the same problem on Typhoon, she is still broadcasting, but I can't reach Beth."  

"Can you reach the bridge?" She asked.

"I'm trying, but whoever is at their communications station is blocking mine and Beth's private channels."  I paused for a moment, and realized what the regulations said I was supposed to do.  "Heather, I don't want to hurt her."

"Susan, can you jump us to Tsunami's Zero Flight point?"  I think I know what she has planned.

"Alert O-4 for hostile incoming, and put that trash somewhere he can't touch anything."  I ran off the bridge and back to my pod.

I pulled the headset off, and forgot to unplug it first.  It stung for a couple of seconds. When the pod's plugs entered, I went back to my room, and followed the incoming ships while spooling the Jump Bridge again.

"I know you are getting a work out today.  I only need you to work two more times."

As soon as the sensor white-out started, I jerked Tsunami and Typhoon back to where I made this body.  Typhoon was still broadcasting, but now it was intermittent.  Somebody figured out what was going on.  When the transmission stopped, I pushed a docking request for a single airlock.  It was promptly granted.

I threw my jacket down, and put the headset back on.  Running through my ship was one thing, but I was about to board Typhoon.  Heather caught up to me, she had seen the jacks before, but most of the crew hadn't, and I could hear their whispers.

We opened the air lock, and I stepped across to her ship, and I sealed the air lock behind me.  I went straight to Typhoon's bridge.  There was no one there.  The man at the tactics station took one look at me, and said Beth was in the MedBay.  I ran as hard as I could.  My body wasn't ready for this, but I did it anyway.

My side hurt, my heart was pounding in my chest so hard, I felt like everyone could hear it.  My legs and hips burned, but I wanted to see Beth.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

When I got to the MedBay, Danielle was sitting next to a normal bed, with Beth laying on it.  She was barely breathing, her heart rate was slow.  I knew we were loosing her.

"Danielle, where is her pod?" I asked bringing her out of her thoughts.

"I tried that first, it didn't accept her."

"Not that one.  The one That was supposed to be in here.  The one for when this happens."  I started looking around, and didn't see it.  "Damnit girl!  Get her to Tsunami's MedBay.  Use mine."

Heather picked the body up, and we ran back to my ship.  Beth's body fading fast, her mind trapped, unable to leave, or control her ship.  So this is how we die.

I sealed the airlock behind us again, and Heather rounded the last corner to the MedBay.  She found the bed I had made in case this happened to me, and started plugging her in through her jacket.

"So that's what the button holes are for."  I heard Danielle say.  I turned my back so she could see the ports in my back.  She rubbed her hand around the one I had the headset plugged into.  "You both are like this?"

"All four of us are."  I said quietly.  "I told her the day you adopted her that she needed to get one of these built in her MedBay.  If I can save her, you might want to have a long talk with her about it.  On the bright side, this helps with your cover."

With that I gave a half hearted smile, and took a step toward the bed in front of me.  My legs gave out, and wouldn't move.  Danielle caught me just before I hit the floor.

"Put me next to her.  Heather, I need the plug in her neck to be in mine.  Leave everything else."  I looked at Danielle. "You need to find the communications officer that was on the station during the first jump.  They were broadcasting your location at O-4.  This may take a while, I have to fix something I didn't make."  With that I fell into my room, but this one was different.  It was only Beth and I, but she wasn't talking, moving or anything.

A computer virus had sent her the shut down code before she left the mainframe.  I had to reboot her.  I made a chair in the room, and went to work.

"Tsunami," I heard a boy's voice. "We lost Ernie."  It was Hurricane. "He was sunk while still in dry dock.  They are trying to put out the fires, but he is gone."

So now there are three.  I have to get her back.

An hour later, I had her plugged back into the bed, and waited for the body to wake up.

When she did, she smiled and looked at me, the smile quickly faded.

"What's wrong?" She said.  Danielle, hearing Beth's voice, ran over and hugged her.

"I have some bad news." Heather and Danielle looked at me, I hadn't told them anything yet. "O-4 was attacked during our escape.  During the attack some insurgents successfully boarded Earthquake, and blew up his core.  He has been sunk."

Beth sat up and pulled me towards her and hugged me.  Heather and Danielle did the same.  We lost a brother, and a friend.

"At least you still have hurricane."  I said.  She half chuckled and laid back down.

"This is comfortable, I didn't know I had one of these." Beth said, obviously trying to change the subject.

"You don't,"Danielle said, "but you will have one by the end of the week little lady."

"Yes, Mom." 

"More good news, when I bridge us back to Orbital 4, Tsunami will need to stay there a while.  I damaged the field drives in the jump to O-4.  You rest here, I'm going to get us home."

With that, I went to the server room, sat down in the chair Heather had brought in, and finally let myself cry.  I lost a brother, and almost lost a sister, and now I wanted that new Admiral in front of me, and answering some hard questions.  Once I calmed down, I climbed into the pod, and jumped us home.