Joyful Gathering, Deadly Surprise II
Posted on Mon Nov 20th, 2023 @ 8:45am by Lieutenant Commander Annalise Faulkner & Lieutenant Commander Lyra Cassiel & Lieutenant Marikit "Kit" Urso & Ensign Jeffrey Simmons & Ensign Ilan Ocara & Petty Officer 1st Class Leon Meier & Captain Ivan Petrov & Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov & Lieutenant Sovas Nyseth & Lieutenant Dr. Daniel Brasken & Warrant Officer Ahira Kasamoto & Lieutenant Asher Stagg & Lieutenant JG Corvin Hartjin & Lieutenant JG Orion Wolff & Lieutenant JG Jonathan Forrest & Lieutenant JG Revana Nazar
Edited on on Mon Nov 20th, 2023 @ 8:46am
Mission:
S1 Episode 6: Joy and Ashes
Location: Various
Timeline: Date 2371-09-06 at 2135
6489 words - 13 OF Standard Post Measure
Annalise turned to look at Stagg and smiled at him. “Shall we then, Lieutenant?”
“I guess so.” Stagg stated with a guarded frown. He stood then and checked to make sure his dagger and phaser were at his sides.
The communication cut off as Annalise stepped away and headed for the turbolift. “Lieutenant Gardner, you have the bridge.”
ISS Vengeance: Bridge
“Aye, sir.” Simmons replied
“All senior staff, this is the Captain speaking.” Ivan said into the shipwide, causing his voice to echo through the rooms and corridors of the ship. “Report to the Bridge. We’ve got something up here I think you’ll want to see.”
“Lowering shields now, sir.” The security officer piped up again.
He watched as the shields dissipated on the display in front of him and then smiled. He looked back up to Ivan. “Shields are dow-”
The sentence didn’t even leave his mouth fully when the entire ship rocked violently. Conduits immediately exploded in dramatic fashion and Simmons was nearly thrown from his chair. The main lights immediately darkened slightly, and the red flashing lights filled the entire ship warning of the now quite obvious threat.
“We’re being attacked from within the nebula!” Simmons called out in a panic after he righted himself.
“Red alert! Power up weapons. All hands to battle stations!” Ivan said, his eyes going wide. All of his instincts had been correct, yet he hadn’t accounted for the nebula. “Damage report!”
“We’ve got hull breaches on decks 4 and 9; forcefields are holding.” said the frazzled Ensign at the Ops console. He furrowed his brow, studying the readings. “Sickbay is already reporting injuries.”
“Damnit, they got us. Whoever they are.” Ivan said, sitting down to avoid falling over from the impact of weapons fire on the shields. He watched the viewscreen, where an ever increasing number of phaser beams were emanating from the nebula and streaking across space toward them.
ISS Gladius: Bridge
Faulkner and Stagg had been about to step on the turbolift when the Gladius herself vibrated and swayed precariously. They hadn’t taken a direct hit but had certainly taken a glancing blow off the hull. Immediately Annalise whirled around and her eyes widened instantly as she witnessed the weapons fire pouring out of the nebula.
“No… no…” Her voice was quiet, and only Stagg was close enough to hear her, but she quickly shook herself out of it. “Red alert! Jonathan, evasive maneuvers! Orion, have you found a way for our sensors to penetrate the nebula?”
“Negative,” Orion grimaced as he steadied himself at the Science station, his fingers tapping away at the console as he continued working on this issue, now with a certain urgency given they were taking fire from somewhere and they couldn’t see where. “The weapons fire has ionized the gasses of the nebula and created more interference, I’m trying something now, I’ll let you know if it works.”
The Terran officer wasn’t a miracle worker, but he was dogged in the pursuit of a task and would see it through to the bitter end as continued to work the problem.
Jonathan was on his way to the bridge. He’d made it into the turbolift, then the ship shuddered as firing started. He was a little concerned when the lift momentarily stopped, but it was for less than five seconds and then it started up again.
The doors opened and he made it out onto the bridge before the ship was hit again, by some unknown enemy. He stumbled, almost falling, but caught himself. “Matthews!” he shouted, “Get out of that damned chair before your negligence gets us all killed.”
Matthews didn’t like the way he was being treated. Didn’t like his cocky superior. He had already thought of how he’d like to kill the other man. But, for the moment, he pretended deference and vacated his spot allowing Jonathan to slide in.
“I have an idea, Captain,” Jon said, his fingers hovering over the console. You’re not going to like it and it’s going to knock everyone on their ass, but it might work. Have you ever heard of an Immelmann maneuver?”
“Oh fuck!” Stagg said, his face turning in anger. He knew this was a trap; if he’d been listened to, they wouldn’t be in this ridiculous position. He went back to his station at the back of the bridge and sat down in his chair, activating targeting sensors and coming up blank. “I can’t get a lock on anything in there. We’re fighting blind.”
Annalise didn’t take the moment to remind Jonathan she had been the pilot of the ship originally so of course she knew what that was and instead she resumed her seat in the center of the bridge. “We don’t need to get reckless yet, Ensign. Standard pattern, bring us into their fleet and find cover behind the Kazon ships. Faulkner to Engineering.”
“Aye, Captain,” the helmsman responded. He may have forgotten she’d once had his job, but he did remember what happened when she was disobeyed. Besides, she was probably right. They could always get clever if they needed to.
“Urso here why the fuck is shit blowing up?” Kit’s voice barked over the comms.
“Kit I need you to put all the power we can muster to our shields and engines. Evacuate non-essential areas and take power from life support if you have to. We need to get out of here.”
“I’ll do what I can.” Kit replied and then the commline cut off.
“Keep trying to find anything to get a lock, Asher.” Annalise instructed calmly but firmly.
ISS Vengeance: Various
[Ocara’s Quarters]
“These are some really interesting readings you’ve been getting off the lifeform. How long until the clone dies off do you think? With the hybrid genome the gene sequence degradation was burning at both ends so to speak.”
Ilan lay in her bed on her stomach with a PADD in her hands. She was naked though her semi-untangled sheet covered her rear for the most part. There was a slight dewy look about her, her cheeks were slowly losing their flush. Her green eyes left the PADD and moved up to Daniel at the replicator as he had volunteered to get up and get a snack for the both of them to share.
Daniel turned his head at the inquiry, his own sheen a bit more pronounced but drying quickly as all he donned to get up was a handy throw blanket around his waist. “I’m not expecting it to last more than a few months considering the modifications made to it during the process. Organics don’t really like working with or around non-organic material and I filled it almost to capacity.”
He wandered back to the bed and laid the tray of snacks on her sheet covered area and started to snack on his own while reviewing the data on the PADD she had displayed at the time.
"If you choke on those I'm not saving you because you're being mean. I'm hungry." Ilan protested but didn't try to grab for the snacks herself. She could probably do it, but at the moment it was too much effort.
"I can't say I'm surprised really. Besides, I can’t imagine people like knowing it’s in there. It’s pretty creepy you know.”
Daniel knew that some people would be unsettled by the state of the clone, but didn’t particularly feel worried about it. Ignoring the complaint he instead picked up the plate and straddled her lower back instead and leaned forward to offer the plate as he pressed down into Ilan a moment before the ship suddenly shifted and Daniel found himself airborne for a moment before rolling on the floor, the plate spilling on the bed as he let go to catch himself.
He jumped up and started a quip of sarcastic protest of being so unceremoniously dislodged until the ship bucked again and he was thrown into a roll to steady himself again. “Ok, that wasn’t you then.” Daniel ran to his clothes to get dressed.
“Unfortunately not.” Ilan growled and got up from the bed to dress herself as well.
What the hells was going on?
[Deck 3 Corridor]
Sovas had been released from Sickbay feeling oddly hollowed out and everything around him felt as if he was caught waking up from a dream and still being asleep. That little moment that always felt like infinity could stretch forever. Whatever Brasken had done seemed to have taken his unwelcome passenger from him, but like an old wound finally healed, he found the discomfort was missed and the absence of the thing wasn’t entirely normal for him anymore. He paused outside the doors to his quarters as Ivan made his announcement, quickly followed by the sudden rocking of the ship as they were attacked, and for a moment, the chaos of the initial attack could be heard on the bridge over the comms before it cut out. Despite his detached feeling, Sovas strode down the corridor and went to the bridge to see how he could help.
[Hartjin’s Quarters]
Corvin, meanwhile, had decided to spend the evening in a much different (and decidedly less solitary) manner after having ended his shift and handed things off to Simmons. He'd felt restless and decided he wanted some company, easy enough to find on the ship - even if the woman he wanted was currently unobtainable to him - as he had brought one of the Engineering crew members back with him. A pretty blonde, though he had spent little time with words. Well, neither of them had, as a trail of clothing had marked the path from the entrance of his quarters before their passionate sounds had filled the air; eventually, they'd had to take a moment to recover, though finally, Corvin had returned, crawling atop the woman as she lay on the bed. She shifted and moaned as he entered her again, his hand moving up to grasp her throat while he started to move again.
At that time, the Captain's voice came over the comms, calling for all of the senior staff and something they should see as he growled. He was acting Chief and should likely be there, though any thoughts of anything else were rocked away unpleasantly, the sudden shuddering of the ship before the lights shifted to the bloody red and warning klaxons started to sound.
"Who does a man have to kill to fuck in peace?" He growled, momentarily regretting having to leave his companion. Still, they were needed as he consoled himself with a final grope of her rear before jumping out of bed to pull his clothes on and grabbing his weapons, hurrying out of the room to get to the bridge.
[Deck 5 Corridor]
Ahira was happy with his new assignment as the ship’s Master of Arms. It was as the Captain had promised, busier than his previous position. But that business had come with a price. He hadn’t seen Leon, a man he’d grown to like quite a bit, in more than a week.
So he’d sent a message to the engineer to meet him for a drink. Tensions were running high and he thought it would benefit them both. After a couple of drinks they were headed back to his new quarters. Ahira almost reached for Leon’s hand as they exited the turbolift. But pulled it back to his side.
“Are you really doing okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m alright.” Leon smiled slightly. “It has definitely been an eventful few days and we still don’t know exactly what happened to that poor slave girl that got her trapped into the computer. I’m just glad there’s been a bit of a break so we can spend some time together.”
“I’m glad to hear that. You’re right it has been a crazy couple of days, especially with my new job. I’ve missed spending time with you. Did you have anything you wanted to do?”
“Let’s check out your new quarters. Maybe watch an old movie or something?” Leon asked and smiled.
“That would be fun. And I wouldn’t mind practicing kissing. If you’d be okay with that.”
The comment caused Leon to chuckle and smile, though he didn’t look objectionable to the idea. They just arrived outside of Ahira’s door when suddenly the ship rocked violently. Leon grabbed hold of Ahira as they stumbled both to steady himself and help keep Ahira up. Suddenly the lights dimmed and the corridor filled with the flashing red of Red Alert.
“I have to get to engineering.” Leon said immediately, frowning deeply and already letting Ahira go.
“And I’ve got to get to the bridge and get a status report.”
Then he turned and dashed in the opposite direction of the engineer.
[Nazar’s Quarters]
While Revana would have typically been on duty at this hour, she had been covering for M’Tras as department head while the Caitian woman was off-ship doing engineer training. The work had been simple as she was already cued in the work tasks and administrative duties of the department. She was curled on her couch with a PADD in hand reading some trashy romance novel she would never admit to liking. It was entertaining enough and gave her a break from the constant stream of work. When the Captain’s announcement sounded over the speakers, she stood and started putting on her uniform. When the ship rocked, however, she dramatically increased her pace. She needed to get down to Engineering where she would be in command.
ISS Vengeance: Bridge
“Corvin, can you get a lock on any of the ships inside the nebula?” Ivan asked, looking over his shoulder at the tactical console. He wished he could have Lyra there during this, but Corvin was competent and would get the job done.
“Shady bastards,” Corvin cursed under his breath as he fought with the targeting sensors, there didn’t seem to be any sort of calibration that would let them get a solid lock in this celestial muck cloud. “Nothing solid, there’s too much interference from the nebula and the weapons fire has ionized the gasses, it's created too many sensor ghosts, best we can do right now is fire blind and try to target the impacts.”
Ivan sighed and turned the other direction.
“Sovas, establish a link with the commanders of the Fleet. Including Gladius.” Ivan said, and waited for confirmation.
“Link open Captain,” The half-Vulcan replied as he continued to monitor the ships systems while also trying to find a way to cut through the interference of the nebula to target the enemy that was stabbing at them. That it seemed to be an increasingly fruitless task gave him something to focus on, to feel as the frustration built inside of him and he could ignore the hollowness he felt.
“All vessels, this is Captain Petrov. We can’t find a way to fight whoever is attacking us, so I’m ordering a strategic retreat. Whoever it is, we can hunt them down later like the dogs they are.” he said resolutely. “Stand by for coordinates.”
Just as he finished his final order, a beam of phaser fire made contact with Vengeance’ shields and was quickly followed up by a train of similar beams. Collectively, the ripped at the double layer of shielding, causing the aft section to become weak enough that sound of that energy got through. The ship shook violently and, at the front of the Bridge, the helm exploded with sparks of electric energy. Ensign Saundra McMillan, the Assistant CFCO, was blasted out of her chair. Her head made contact with the steps that lead up to the command area. Ivan rushed forward and checked on her. She was burned beyond recognition, but he still placed his fingers on her neck to check, in vain, for a pulse. He pursed his lips and stood up again.
Sovas picked himself from the deck, having been knocked off his feet as he pushed some debris from his console and started to check their systems. “We have damage reports coming in from the aft section of the ship, numerous fires with damage control teams responding, engineering is reporting loss of main engines and partial operation of impulse engines, seems the gods have decided this is where we make our stand,”
“Sir,” He quickly added and looked over at Ivan before returning to the task of managing the internal emergencies while also monitoring the other vessels of the fleet.
“Damnit..” Ivan said, balling up his massive fists. “It looks like we need to stay and fight while we get them back online.”
He tapped his commbadge roughly.
“Bridge to Engineering, I need those engines back online now.”
“We’re assessing the damage now, sir.” Revana’s voice came back. The room around her was smoking and sparks were flying left and right as the engineers waded through to do their duty. “Our initial readings tell us that we’ve got damage to the port nacelle. It’s not the kind of thing we can fix in a few minutes.”
“How long do you need, Ensign?”
“Forty hours, at least, Captain. And that’s if we work around the clock.” she answered, her sultry voice lowering as she delivered the bad news.
“That’s completely unacceptable, Ensign. We need to get out of here now!” Ivan said, raising his voice. He was still clearly in control of his emotions, but his anger was proportionate to the situation.
“I’m sorry, sir. I don’t know what to tell you. You’re just going to have to find a way to keep us alive.”
Corvin had never expected to live this long and if he was going to die, he’d make their ambushers pay in blood because he wouldn’t go with a quiet whimper, but a defiant roar that would haunt the survivors in their bed. He began to calculate ways to triangulate the direction of the fire. He felt that while it might be a long shot to hit the enemy, they could make the most of the shit they were in.
Sovas arched an eyebrow at Revana’s statement as he paused momentarily and considered that he’d just been rescued from the fate of death by the psionic parasite, only to be turned into a frozen corpse in the depths of space. It was a thought that brought interesting sensations with it. It felt good to feel something.
The turbolift doors to the bridge opened to reveal Andrei and Lyra. She stepped out first just as the ship bucked violently again; this time she was quick enough to brace her feet so she didn’t go anywhere. It already looked like hell with things sparking all over the place and what appeared to be a dead pilot at the foot of the command stairs. Despite what she and Andrei had just come up from, she frowned at the sight, but didn’t waste time as she turned to the tactical station. Formally reinstated or not, she didn’t care. She wasn’t going to sit in her quarters while the world around her was literally getting blown to pieces.
Her cold dark eyes fell on Corvin as she approached. “Move.”
Almost even before the order was given, Corvin all but leapt out of the seat to give it over to Lyra as he took up a different station, configuring it for security and tactical feeds before looking over at his Chief. “What do you want me to do, Lieutenant?”
As Lyra took over at her station, Andrei walked down the stairs and joined his father in the command area. As the ship bucked again, he furrowed his brow.
“We can’t go to warp anytime soon.” Ivan said grimly, his face on the screen. “Escape is no longer an option.”
Andrei looked at his father with an appraising eye and understood that the older man was staring death in the eye. It was only then that he realized they all were, because the old man didn’t see a way out. He set his jaw, not accepting the inevitability of the situation.
“Lieutenant Cassiel,” he said in a broad, commanding voice as he turned to face the tactical console. “Fire blind into the nebula and keep track of impacts. When you hit something, try to hit it again. Save the torpedoes though. In this situation, it would just be a waste.”
He knew she was technically not cleared for duty, but he had no intention of stopping her. This situation was too dire for that. He looked to Ivan who also seemed to accept the situation as it was.
“Andrei, the helm is dead and needs repair. Transfer engine controls to the auxiliary console and try to keep the fire off of us.” Ivan said, placing a beefy hand on his son’s shoulder. Andrei responded immediately by stepping up and behind the command level and reconfiguring the centrally-placed Intel console for helm functions.
“Aye, sir.” Lyra nodded, looking down at the console and only taking a few seconds to get oriented. She had made sure any security officer that came to the bridge learned the tactical station layout on her preferred specifications instead of them being allowed to set up their own.
“Corvin, I need you to track the incoming fire relative to our position with the nebula.” She instructed then looked over to Sovas. “Sovas, I need a compositional analysis of that nebula in front of me.”
Though Lyra didn’t technically have authority to put forward orders like this, she did so. Right now was not the time to worry about stepping on toes or bruised egos - without engines and the ability to take evasive maneuvers, their only option was to fight and to do that effectively, she needed the assistance of ops and Corvin. There wasn’t time to bounce things between middlemen for permission. Like her beloved and his father both, command came easily to her which was hardly surprising given her breeding and disposition.
“Copy Lieutenant,” Corvin turned his attention immediately to the task at hand, finding that while the nebula muddled the sensors, the weapons fire lit up like a Christmas tree, making his task easier. “Tracking incoming enemy fire.”
“Starting Lieutenant.” Sovas replied coolly as he set to his task, scanning the nebula more intensely as he steadied himself against the rocking of the ship as it was impacted by more weapons fire. He looked over the reading as they compiled before his attention returned to Lyra. “The nebula is composed of high concentrations of carbon and nitrogen, ionized helium, hydrogen, and other particulate matter composing the space dust within the cloud.”
ISS Gladius: Bridge
“Vengeance is dead in space as far as escape is concerned. They’re completely fucked. No warp capability.” Asher said with a gravely bark in his voice. As the ship rocked again, he slammed his first down on the console. “That one just knocked out our comms.”
“Dammit.” Annalise cursed and shook her head as the Gladius too rocked from weapons fire, though their shields were holding for now. “Gardner, try to re-establish comms. Jon, try to keep our dorsal side toward the fire if it is unavoidable, our shields there are the strongest. Orion, I need suggestions yesterday.”
“Yes, yes, the cannons to the left of us, the cannons to the right of us so on and so forth,” Orion replied while he steadied himself at his station, not having been idle since while they couldn’t target the enemy because of the nebula, each time they fired a shot it presented a beautifully pristine beacon for the sensors to trace. “I have an idea for how we can get a firing solution on the enemy ships, their weapons fire is strong enough to cut through the interference but you have to be watching for, I can monitor the sensors and then have them feed coordinates to tactical as the shots coming from the enemy don’t appear to be altering their position.”
Jon’s experienced hands dance across the console. The Gladius slewed quickly to the port side. The maneuver was quick and effective but the ship was tilted to the right almost at a 45 degree angle and it took a moment for the inertia dampers to kick in.
As everyone held on for dear life at the maneuver, Kit’s voice cracked onto the bridge again, angry.
“Urso to bridge. Forrest, I swear to all the gods if you are doing these fucking pirouettes in space to be fancy and not useful I’m going to come up there and take your godsdammed hands off. We don’t have power to sustain this!”
“Understood, Kit. Keep us afloat.” Annalise responded to her enraged engineer and cut off the comm again.
“Jon,” she addressed the young man with as much patience and calm as she could manage in a crisis, “I’m going to tell you one more time to use the two Kazon ships as primary cover. Move with them and it will keep us out of the brunt of the fire until we are ready to attack.”
“That is what I was trying to do ma’am. But you also said to keep our dorsal side to them. I wasn’t trying to be fancy, I was trying to obey your command.” There was just the merest hint of heat in his words.
“Gently, Ensign.” The captain replied. She either hadn’t noticed the heat in Jonathan’s voice or she was choosing to overlook it - for now. “Asher, Orion, see what you can do. Gardner I need that comm open again.”
“As gently as I can,” the helmsman replied. There was no heat this time, or at least most of it was gone, but he still sounded determined.
“Copy that,” The Terran noble brusque reply came as he worked on gathering the data and began to link them into Asher’s consoles. It wasn’t perfect but it was better than firing blankly into the nebula, his attention to Asher. “Everything is linked to your feeds, I’m running an analysis of the cloud now,”
“Firing now.” Asher said, having kept Jon’s tone as a topic for intervention later in his mind. Discipline was his job, but I’m this ship, he was also the tactical officer and that was most important right now.
In the cold of space, arcs of phaser fire emanated from Vengeance, Gladius, and the other ships of the Fleet into the nebula with no visible effect.
“Godsdamnit, I can’t tell if I’ve hit anything at all. There’s too much interference!” Asher said in an angry voice. His mind was still focused on the task at hand, however.
“Launch a probe?” Jon suggested, “at least we wouldn’t be blind and it might give them something else to focus on.”
“Fantastic suggestion,” Orion remarked with a wryly sarcastic tone, his attention briefly diverting to Jon before it returned to his station as he continued to rotate sensor frequencies and through the EM bands searching for a way to pierce the dense clouds of the nebula. “The sensors of the probe would be as useless as those on the ship and any distraction would be marginal at best since even a single shot would destroy it.”
“A for effort though.”
ISS Vengeance: Bridge
Despite the best efforts of both the Gladius and Vengeance crews in figuring out how to acquire targets inside the nebula, it seemed to be for naught. There was no sign that any alien ship had been damaged, much less destroyed. The onslaught they were enduring seemed endless, and the Shadow Fleet was starting to show significant wear and tear. They couldn’t hold out forever.
Another violent shake of the Vengeance had everyone grabbing for something solid. Immediately after, the turbolift doors opened and the Chief Intelligence Officer stepped out. Immediately, she moved toward Andrei who was at her station, frowning.
“I’ll take my station.”
“No, you won’t.” Andrei responded in an unbothered tone that insisted there be no argument whatsoever. His beloved “sister” had been such a drag recently. She worked too much, drank too much, and was downright gross with her boyfriend. Though, he supposed that wouldn’t be a problem anymore after what he had just done.
“Take the Science console and configure it for your work. You’ll figure it out; you’re a smart girl, if nothing else.”
Obviously she was frustrated but it wasn’t the time to argue. She moved the few steps to what would usually be the science station to set up there.
“Captain, our starboard shields are failing! I’m rerouting power but that won’t hold.” Lyra called to Ivan over the sound of weapon impacts.
Ahira moved towards the small arms locker. “Captain,” he said, "I suggest we give everyone a weapon, or two and set them to maximum. If they make it on board the ship, I want everyone of the bastards to die.”
There Ahira thought to himself, I guess I really am a good Imperial citizen.
“I love the enthusiasm there, just one problem,” Corvin growled, it wasn’t clear if he was being sarcastic or if he meant what he said to the other man, but he spared a glance over while he steadied himself at his station the ship shuddered under the impact of weapons fire. “I don’t think they’re interested in boarding us, something tells me they’re a damn sight more interested in erasing us from existence.”
“Major damage reported from across the ship.” Sovas’ deep voice cut across the din of the bridge, his hands continuing to move over the console. “Hull breaches on multiple decks, bulkheads locked down and force fields holding for now.”
As he spoke the lights flickered, sending them into darkness for several moments as the half-Vulcan growled in annoyance as an ominous groan ran through the ship. “It seems the Vengeance agrees.”
“Commander, turn our starboard side away from the nebula and give us some cover.” Ivan ordered his son positioned behind him.
“Copy.” Andrei said in response as he worked the only relatively familiar controls of the modified console. “Maneuvering thrusters are low on power, but I’ll do what I can.”
As the Vengeance began its ponderous turn, a fresh barrage from their unseen enemies impacted the starboard side of the ship.
The crew may have thought they had experienced violent jolting of the ship before, but it had been more like the bouncing of a baby compared to this. The ship lurched with an audible metallic groan than on a primal level was a sound that would make hair stand on end. The suddenness and intensity of the violent impact to the side of the ship and the resulting explosive damage was enough to toss people from their chairs or away from their consoles all over the ship. Power conduits ruptured, explosions followed, fatalities were no longer an “if”, now it was a matter of how many had died.
Andrei was standing behind the auxiliary console when the explosive force pushed him sideways and quickly to the floor. Fortunately, he was able to roll into the fall and avoided any injuries. He stood back up and, not bothering to clean his uniform, went back to the console. He checked over his shoulder for Lyra, but was highly focussed on turning the ship.
Lyra had been unseated from her station and thrown from her chair, though her quick reflexes had her catch herself with her hands on the bulkhead before her body - and more importantly her head - had impacted it. Cursing under her breath she turned to resume her station after giving a quick glance toward Andrei to make sure he hadn’t been seriously hurt. When she confirmed that fact, her eyes trailed quickly down to Ivan but instead moved past him. What she saw there gave her a millisecond of joy, but she took no time to savor it and looked back to her console.
Splayed out on the deck with her neck twisted at an awkward and unnatural angle lay the Captain’s bastard daughter.
Corvin was thrown against his station, just managing to bring his hand up to cushion his forehead from striking the display, though the impact still cracked the screen underneath before he flung backwards, just catching himself on the railing before he was completely thrown over it. It took him a moment to recover while he cursed under his breath, dragging himself back to his station as he started to check his station and weapons.
Sovas was tossed forward, bracing against the station in front of him before the violence of the situation caused them to be flung to the deck. He lay there stunned for a moment, having cracked his head and felt the intensely jarring pain while he didn’t know if the darkness swimming in his vision was from the loss of power or because of striking his head. Slowly, he picked himself up and steadied himself at his station.
Ahira, remembering the last time the deck underneath him had shifted, managed to twist his body as he was falling. He didn’t look graceful, not that anyone was watching, but he did manage not injure himself, though he did have the misfortune of staring into the eyes of the dead woman.
Ivan too had rolled out of his seat, though he didn’t go very far and hadn’t hurt himself. The fact he had already been low to the ground was a huge help to him. However, since he had been close to Ahira, he landed close to him as well, and that meant he made contact with the lifeless body of his daughter. As he blinked and came to his senses, he focused on the feminine body in front of him. At first, for all its twist and mangle, he didn’t recognize it. But then, after a space of disbelief, he knew who it was.
“Ka…Kassandra?”
Andrei noticed the display but, unlike his father, felt nothing.
“Report!” He called out, focusing on survival above grief for the mistake that was his bastard sister.
“Starboard shields are gone. Aft shields are down to fifteen percent, sir.” Lyra all but growled through gritted teeth. Surely she wasn’t going to die like this.
“Direct hit to deck eight,” Sovas called out after taking a moment to recover from being so violently flung to the ground, again he felt the thrill of the situation and savored the sensation and even savored in his own way the sight of mangled corpse of the Captain’s daughter and for a brief moment he felt that her stupidity, especially after the chain of command incident after Ivan had been injured in the Vidiaan attack on the ship, had finally been adequately rewarded. “Emergency force fields inoperable, the last attack sheared through the Marine berth, no response and no way to tell if there are any survivors.”
Ivan stood from the deck, bracing himself on the metal railing beside him as he forced his eyes away from the sight of Kassandra. He had failed her all her life, in conceiving her and every moment after. He’d tried so hard to make it right, but it seemed he would now never have the chance.
“Okay, people. Let’s think about this, because this is not how we die!” He bellowed, turning to the rest of the room. “We die for the Empire on the other side of the galaxy, our names on the lips of our loved ones, not here…not now.” He said, stepping away from the body of his fallen offspring. “I’m open to ideas.”
“I’d say if we had engines, try something with one of the red matter torpedoes, use the pings we have to target a general area and then the matter detonation would do the rest.” Corvin looked to Ivan, not sure what else they could try.
“The red matter weapons won’t work with the nebula’s composition. Even if they did, we don’t have engines to get away from the singularity that would be formed.” Lyra spoke up immediately, not wanting to bat around an idea that wouldn’t work.
“We need to figure out a way to get eyes in the nebula.” She looked from Corvin to Ivan. “Even following the sensors and pings we are getting from what we are doing now isn't good enough.”
“What if there was some way that we could physically tag the enemy ships, send out someone in a shuttle or launch a probe, place beacons on the ships and use the beacons to draw a bead on them?” Sovas offered up, reaching a hand up to touch the back of his head to check if he was bleeding, which he was but at least he knew it was there.
Ahira didn’t have any ideas about what to do. How they could survive. He wasn’t a pessimist by nature, but his thoughts turned dark. If the ship in the Nebula didn’t want to take prisoners and truly want them dead, their chances of pulling that off were almost 100%.
He wasn’t afraid to die exactly, but he wasn’t looking forward to it. There was too much uncertainty about what, if anything, might be waiting for him.
Then those thoughts drifted toward Leon. Was he still alive? Had he been hurt? What was he dealing with?. He regretted that the two of them had dodged the issue of what they meant to each other. It was too soon for him to have fallen in love.but the no labels thing wasn’t working for him and if they survived they were definitely going to have to have a talk.
“The Alexandria II” Ivan said. “She’s ready, has AI capabilities, and her owner is experienced at doing the impossible.”
TBC
