“Finn here. As the Chief was saying; some of the fine circuitry we installed to work on the main emitter array is just a quick fix. It's not actually made to take a heavy power load, it's more for testing while we try to rebuild the system. I can't say it'll even work, it's not supposed to,” Finn reported from the emitter control room several decks beneath them.
“Helm, complete your plotted course with a wormhole set to fifteen point five compression. That should get us to our fighters in about ten minutes.”
“Nine point two one minutes,” confirmed navigation. “good estimate, Captain.”
“Ma'am? The drones are coming,” Agameg announced, looking up from his station to the main hologram where on one end the Triton was represented along with the last fighter being drawn into its underbelly by an energy field and on the other end three Eden carriers drifted lazily in space, their hundreds of fighter drones starting to make their way across.
“All rail cannon batteries, fire explosive flak rounds, switch to solid core rounds once those drones are within one point five kilometres. Torpedo stations, load fusion munition five and fire at will at those carriers.”
“Each torpedo bay will only have one shot using that ammunition,” Agameg advised.
“Don't worry, they'll either turn and run or be destroyed after that volley,” Alice replied.
The Triton came to life, filling the space between it and the enemy carriers with flak rounds that exploded in front of and amidst the hundreds of sleek, silver fighter drones. The lower deck defence guns, beam turrets and torpedoes began launching from armoured tubes lined up along the front and sides of the ship as well.
The bridge crew that had time to look at the main holographic display saw dozens of drones blown to pieces or shredded by a churning wave of fragmented flack fire, while the majority of the enemy ships pressed on. It took them only seconds to cross the gap between the carriers and as soon as they were in firing range they split up. The broad wave of fighters became a scurrying mass that surrounded the Triton in the blink of an eye.
“The drones are trying to drain our energy shields with particle weapons. We're down to ninety three percent,” Laura reported. “We need to divert more power.”
“We're on it,” reported Chief Grady.
“Chief Vercelli reports hangars are secure, pilots are aboard,” relayed the Flight Deck officer.
“Charging up our main emitters, we've already lost one power circuit, I was able to re-route, but I won't be able to do it again,” Finn reported. “This is a bad idea. If we shut down the emitters now we could save some of the temporary components and rebuild.”
“How long until we have a wormhole?” Alice asked, ignoring Finn's objections.
“Three minutes at fifteen point five compression.”
“Do better.”
“I don't want to burn the systems out, we don't have any replacement parts.”
“Do what you have to, just get us out of here,” Alice ordered.
“Ma'am, all but two of our munition five torpedoes have been destroyed by beam weapons. The pair that haven't been destroyed are slowing down,” Agameg informed.
“Slowing down?” Alice asked as she opened her eyes. She used her command console to take control of the main holographic display and zoom in on one of the fusion torpedoes. There were two drones attached to it. “Detonate them!”
“I can't, they've been hacked.”
The propulsion system on the torpedo flared out and the drones turned the fusion weapon around.
“That's coming for us, can we take two direct hits?”
“With full shields, yes, but we're down to sixty eight percent and dropping. We're looking at possible hull damage.”
“All guns and missile bays, focus on those torpedoes, ignore everything else!” Alice ordered as she focused the view of the main holographic display on both of the munitions. They each had drones attached and both were being guided back to the Triton from the half way point between it and the enemy carrier. They began to evade, dodging flak, beam and rail cannon fire.
A group of missiles fired from the Triton's underside launchers and to Alice's surprise they all headed towards one of the captured nuclear torpedoes, not both. She glanced to Agameg then back to the main display in time to see one of the torpedoes explode as three of the seeker missiles struck it. One of the fusion torpedoes was destroyed, leaving the other to finish closing the distance between it and the Triton.
“All hands, brace for impact!” Alice announced ship wide. The sounds of the inertial dampener systems powering up in anticipation of the massive explosion was nearly deafening. The main tactical display on the bridge pulled back to show the Triton, its guns still firing at the incoming torpedo while all the other drones fled in every direction at incredible speed.
Many of the crew members closed their eyes in anticipation of the worst, or started to pray, but as the ship shook mildly and systems went down for a second, it became obvious that for the moment, they had survived. All the holographic representations of the absent crew members had disappeared while the systems that projected them reset.
“Damage report!” Alice called out as she held the right side of her head in her hand.
Agameg's systems began to come up first. “We're down eleven turrets, they took too much electromagnetic damage. The main emitter is still charging and is at forty nine percent, it should be completely charged up in twenty three seconds. All other stations are reporting ready so far, but only half the ship is online.”
“Energy shields are down to six percent, gravitational shielding is gone. We're recharging but it's slow,” Laura reported.
“Hangar decks reporting one small fire, other than that they're fine,” reported David Monroe. “No injured.”
“Botanical Garden is fine, life support is good ship wide, the computer core was unaffected and is re- establishing its link with all systems,” reported the operations station at the rear of the bridge.
The bridge returned to normal but to the crew's horror a new wave of drones were on their way from their enemy carrier to join their current assailants, which were already swooping in, firing at the Triton with renewed vigour.
“Finn, get us a wormhole, now!” Alice ordered.
“I increased the charge rate, I'll need Triton stationary in nine seconds,” replied Finn's flickering hologram.
Alice looked to Laura, who was startled at the sight of her. “Shields?”
“Trying to charge up, but they're almost gone. Your eye is bleeding,” she said as she managed the controls.
Alice brought her hand back up to her right eye. She knew there was something wrong already from the stabbing pain that started the instant the fusion torpedo went off, but to see her hand come away covered in blood confirmed that something in the electronics had burned out and done damage to the delicate socket. “I'll live,” she said quietly.
“We are stationary,” Ashley reported.
“Several of the drones are making suicide runs against the shields, two have broken through and impacted our hull,” Agameg reported, trying not to sound alarmed.
“Where? Show me.”
Agameg brought up a second large hologram in the middle of the bridge and focused in on the dorsal section, right between damaged turrets. The two drones had attached themselves to the hull and as they looked on they were joined by three more.
“This is Frost! The little buggers are drillin' inta the hull an' my gunners can't get a shot on 'em.”
“Stephanie, get your people in there!”
“Already on my way with four squads Captain,” Came Stephanie's reply, “If this lift would move faster we'd already be there.”
“Wormhole ready!” announced Finn.
“Open it and just go!” Alice ordered.
The main emitters released all the energy contained within its capacitors and power cells at once, compressing the space in front of it and initiating a firing sequence of smaller energy emitters located across the Triton's hull as it crossed the wormhole threshold and began moving through compressed space.
