“How’s the stealth field holding up?” Maxon asked directly. Aaen and Mason noticed a shift in her voice—she was starting to panic, Aaen noted.
Jensen checked his computer screen. . . “There was some disrupter damage to the aft outer hull—looks like the stealth field’s still operational. . .” The humming was getting louder. “We need to keep moving,” Jensen added.
Maxon turned around, “Aaen, plot a course back to Starbase One.”
Aaen was already working on that, keeping in mind the humming as he watched the sets of coordinates appear on his screen out of a seemingly scrambled grouping of decimal numbers. The coordinates appeared, and he immediately began making the changes to their heading. His computer chimed acknowledgment as the cabin felt like it was shifting position. The stars moved in the view screen—
—The crew noticed the humming gradually stopped. . .
“New course entered!” Aaen boldly declared.
“Maximum speed. Translight-nine!”
Aaen turned his head as if to silently correct the order, then looked over his left shoulder. “Maximum is Translight nine-point-nine-five.”
Maxon leaned over, “Do it!” she yelled over the alarms.
The impulse engines quickly powered down as Aaen watched the translight engine control instrumentation quickly respond to his carrying out the order. A raging roar filled the cabin as the stars turn into violent streaks of white light.
The alarms stopped, but the lights stayed red. Aaen noted the translight engine heat was on a gradual, steady climb. The translight coolant levels were. . .oh crap.
Jonathan’s screen flashed, accompanied by a brief alarm—a sensor alert, the crew noted.
“Jonathan, what’s wrong?” Jensen asked, noting a frustrated look on Jonathan’s face while he read some new information on his screen.
“I’m not sure. . . I’m getting some really weird readings from. . .” the look on his face suddenly changed to shock—
A blinding white light filled the view screen as the cabin suddenly began violently vibrating and rattling as the shuttle was engulfed in a high-voltage frenzy as the nose violently shot straight up; the crew snapped as they were pressed into their seats as they grabbed their stations and pushed away in hopes of physical stability while feeling as though they were suddenly thrown forward by a synchronized blow to the back. A flurry of alarms filled the cabin as the lights erratically flickered on and then off violently—the computer screens began flashed white.
“. . .REPORT!” Maxon commanded to the rest of the crew as she struggled to stay upright.
Jonathan was first, forcing his weight against a wall, “Sensor readings are sketchy! From what I can tell, hundreds of spacial warheads just detonated. .directly in our flight path!”
Aaen eyed his screen amid the flashing. “TRANSLIGHT ENGINES ARE OFFLINE!” he checked the navigational readings, “We’re tumbling through space!”
“There’s extensive damage to the primary stealth field assembly—URGH!—we’re losing main power! We’re not gonna have the stealth field for much longer! I’m also detecting damage to the translight nacelles. . .!”
The bridge lights began to gradually dim as green flashing lightning pulses filled the viewscreen. The flashes lit up the bridge. There was barely enough light from the overheads to see the floor. Judging by the number of pulses, Aaen guessed—
“Holy-cow. .there’s an entire fleet decloaking. .they’re flying all over the place.” The cabin started to mildly shudder with each flash. The shuddering varied with the brightness of each flash. “Looks like they still can’t get a weapon lock on us.”
“Yeah, but somehow they’re getting an idea of where we’re at.” Aaen quipped.
Maxon looked at Mason. “Jensen: shields up. Mason—quick, put all translight engine power in the impulse engines! Commander: make sure we’re on our original heading and engage full impulse.”
Aaen checked his instrumentation, made a few adjustments to their heading with the thrusters to get them back on course, then said, “Heading: confirmed. Increasing speed to full impulse!”
“. . .Good job.” Maxon said gratefully. Aaen noted her tone of voice calming. “Mason, start working on repairing the translight engines. Try to keep the stealth field online as long as you can.”
“Aye!”
The impulse engines quickly grumbled, the sound gradually turned to a mechanical whine then gradually faded out.
Another alert sounded—Mason snapped. “New long-range message! It’s from Admiral Carrell!” More green lightning pulses lit the bridge; the shuddering caused the crew to push against the walls for physical stability. Aaen sharply used the thrusters to maintain the shuttle’s heading.
Maxon leaned toward Mason. “What does the message say?”
“. . .Admiral Carrell got our mission status update. . . The sixth fleet is being dispatched to our neutral zone border at these coordinates.” Mason pointed at the coordinates. Aaen leaned over and read the coordinates—doubt about whether they would make it there at this speed immediately followed.
“Mason—I need translight engines back online as quick as you can.” Aaen declared directly.
“—Captain, I’m picking up a distress beacon, it has a Federation signature,” Jonathan announced.
Maxon turned around. “Where from?” More green lightning lit the bridge.
“The planet surface.”
“It might be our source,” Aaen suggested.
“Lock onto the signal with transporters and beam it into the transporter buffer. Jensen, work on finding a way to keep the source in the transporter buffer as long as you can.” Jonathan pointed and commanded.
Jensen nodded and began working. The sound of the transporter filled the bridge about a minute later, Aaen guessed as he struggled to keep the shuttle on its heading.
“How are they even getting close?” Maxon asked.
. . .Aaen was lost-in-thought for a few seconds as he contemplated possible answers. . . Then he had a hunch and he turned around and glared at the ‘prize’ which was resting horizontally on the floor between Jonathan and Jensen. Another sharp hull shudder forced the crew forward against their stations.
*****
Steve H. told Jordan Foutin, "You are the next Tom Clancy. You really are a gifted writer."
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