"I've lost the other ship on sensors! I need long-range sensors if I'm going to be able to track the other ship. They still have a weapon lock on us!"
"That ship can see farther, shoot farther, hit harder, and run faster than we can, Captain." said the First Officer. "We're outmatched in every way. We may need to break off pursuit until reinforcements can arrive."
"We don't have time for reinforcements."
A Seeker-class versus a Miranda-class—Aaen thought. The First Officer was putting things mildly, at best. Odyssey's practically a child's toy compared to that other ship. We could out-maneuver them . . . .but how could we use that to our advantage?. . . . Unless!. . . . Aaen turned around to Sensors. "Are we near any planets, moons, or stars?"
"Sensor readings are still very vague right now—it's hard to tell."
"Quiet, Aaen." the Captain snapped.
"He may be on to something, Captain." said the First Officer.
"I don't care. I'm the Captain."
The First Officer walked forward and then stood next to Aaen. "What did you have in mind, Aaen?"
Aaen responded quietly. "The other ship is running. We need to figure out why they attacked Starbase One. If they wanted to destroy Starbase One, they could have. They had the element of surprise and the armament. They were looking for something. The best way to get answers is if we can get close enough to board that ship or gain enough of the element of surprise to get close enough do enough damage to it to disable it. I'm not entirely convinced that we're dealing with more than one intelligence here, on that ship."
"You mean, sneak attack?"
"Precisely."
"But they out-gun us."
"Yes, which is why we need the element of surprise to—"
"Incoming torpedoes! From twelve o'clock!"
"Evasive maneuvers, now!" the Captain said. The First Officer returned to his station.
"Engaging thrusters!" A red dot appeared in the center of the screen, and gradually became brighter—and must faster than the last shot they dodged.
"—Aaen!" said the Captain.
"I see it!" Aaen found himself wide-eyed, trying to time the speed of the torpedo with his use of the thrusters—
Five. .
Four. .
Three. .
Aaen weighed in the firing angle of the other ship, the speed of the torpedo, and then quickly decided which thrusters would give Odyssey the best chance—
"Aaen!"
TWO. .
—NOW!—DOWN-Port Roll-UP-Port
The torpedo filled the main viewscreen, it's trajectory curving as it tracked Odyssey—and then passed through the lower-right-hand corner of the screen—Starboard Roll. . . The hull vibrated violently for three seconds. Now level out.
"It missed!" Sensors said, cheerfully.
The bridge filled with gasps of relief.
"Incoming! THREE more!"
"C'mon, Aaen!" Operations cheered.
"They're too close together!" Aaen said.
"I can use our torpedoes to counter theirs!" Jason said.
"Do it!" said the Captain. "Only use torpedoes."
"Okay! Loading Photons."
"Better hurry, Jason!" Aaen said.
"Auxiliary power to the forward shields!" the Captain said to Operations.
"I might be able to get around one or two of them, Captain."
"Dodge all three."
Those torpedoes look big enough to knock us clean out of translight! Aaen thought, wide-eyeing the trio of red explosive dots in the center of the main viewscreen.
"I think we should take Aaen's suggestion." the First Officer said to the Captain.
Aaen adjusted the thrusters sharply—sending Odyssey into a barrel roll shifting on the Y-axis, rotating to 11 o'clock, down to seven o'clock—the first torpedo soared past; the second followed Odyssey more closely.
"Torpedoes ready!" Jason said.
"Target the second incoming torpedo." said the First Officer.
"Target locked!"
"Fire first torpedo!" the Captain said.
"Torpedo, away!" The muffled scream of the torpedo filled the bridge as it shot out of its launcher at its target. Less than a second later, the main viewscreen filled with a large, brilliant fireball.
"Target destroyed!" the bridge filled with cheers. The stars disappeared, and turbulence started to build gradually. The crew felt pressed into their seats as they held on to their computer stations.
Odyssey neared the 12 o'clock position; the third torpedo was in the top of the screen. Aaen rolled Odyssey around and leveled out to their original position relative to the pursuit, Aaen estimated. The third torpedo was in the center of the screen, and getting brighter fast!
"Incoming!" said Sensors. "Impact. .in three—two—ONE!"
The main viewscreen filled with bright gleaming red that instantly that drowned out the steaming stars. The forward shields lit up brightly as a sudden, violent vibration rattled the bridge; the sound of a large explosion filled the bridge. Overhead light fixtures flashed and flickered sporadically. The bridge computer screens flashed and filled with chain lightning. Odyssey just took one for the team, Aaen reasoned, clenching his jaws.
Aaen struggled to read his screen readout amid the violent turbulence. "We're on a flat spin. .and shifting on the X and Y-axis'!"
"Our translight field is collapsing!" said Operations. "We're losing main power!"
"We're losing speed!" Aaen said.
"Forward shields are down to fifteen percent, and falling!" Jason said.
"Long-range communications are offline!" said Communications.
Aaen watched his screen as the yellow translight speed indicator bar inched left—translight three. . .two. . .one—looking up at the main viewscreen. .the translight field flashed away—the stars became still.
"I need more power to the thrusters if I'm going to be able to stabilize our heading!" the lights started gradually dim.
"There's a large planetoid nearby!" Sensors said.
"I see it!" Aaen said.
"Divert all available power to thrusters!" said the Captain.
"Aaen, you've got all remaining power!" said Operations.
C'mon, Odyssey, hang in there, Aaen thought as he tried to steady the ship. Ten seconds later, the space around Odyssey became still.
"Main power is not balanced. Main reactor breach in sixty-seconds." said the Main Computer. An alarm followed the announcement.
"Balance the power." the Captain said. "Get me a damage report as soon as possible, Operations."
"Aye, sir!"
"Where is the other ship?" the First Officer asked.
"I can't see anything on Sensors. Long and short-range sensors are re-initializing." said Sensors.
"Start doing short and long-range scans for the other ship as soon as you can." the Captain said. "We need to know what the name of the other ship is, how many people are on board, and how many torpedoes they have."
How about scanning for a residual translight signature? Aaen thought.
*****
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