only a matter of time before they blast through that bulkhead and take the ship!”
“This isn’t a simulation, Nathan!” she warned.
“You think I don’t know that?” he argued, looking around the room. “Really?”
Cameron considered Nathan’s idea. It was a hell of a gamble, but she had to admit that without the more powerful maneuvering thrusters, there was no other way to break free from the enemy ship.
“You’re in command,” she agreed, turning to reprogram the maximum pressure limits on the docking thruster’s reaction chambers. “Resetting max chamber pressures,” she announced. “Which side would you like to blow up first?” she asked sarcastically.
“Port side!”
“Firing port docking thrusters, at full power.”
The ship slid slightly sideways to starboard, causing Nathan to stumble to his left slightly. There was a loud crack as the cowling over the forward side of the flight console cracked, probably the result of the severe jostling they were taking.
Suddenly, there was an explosion. It came from forward of them, underneath and to port. It was much louder than in the simulation and the entire ship lifted slightly before suddenly dropping back down, nearly knocking Nathan off his feet.
Without warning and in a surprisingly fast motion, the ship slid quickly out of the hole it had made in the enemy ship, the force of the exploding docking thruster making the hole even bigger, severing the beam that had impaled them and allowing the ship to slip free. It was like someone suddenly pulling the rug out from under his feet, and the motion knocked Nathan to the floor. That’s when he realized the inertial dampeners were probably off line.
“We’re free!” Cameron exclaimed, not believing it herself.
“No kidding,” Nathan said, grabbing the tactical console and pulling himself back to his feet.
The sudden separation from the enemy ship left the forward section open to space, and Nathan hoped the sudden decompression had sucked the intruders out into space.
“Kaylah!” How many intruders left in the forward section?”
“None, Sir! They were either sucked out or died inside!”
“How many of our people?”
She paused for a moment before reporting. Nathan knew he wasn’t going to like the answer. “Six, Sir,” she answered solemnly. “They’re sealed up in their berths.”
Nathan tried to brush their deaths away, like he figured a good leader was supposed to do. But all he could think was, I just killed two people! He knew that many others had probably died already today, but the deaths of these two were the direct result of a decision he had made. And with full knowledge that he was putting them in harm’s way. He wasn’t sure that he could ever forgive himself. But he had to find a way to live with it, at least for now.
The Aurora backed slowly away from the damaged enemy warship, leaving a gaping hole in her side. Debris and the bodies of dead enemy soldiers floated freely, leaving a ghastly trail that led from the bow of the Aurora back to the hole. But once the ship began to move away, the warship’s guns again had a workable firing solution, and immediately opened up on her as she tried to escape.
The first salvo struck them near the bridge, catching them off guard, nearly knocking Nathan off his feet again. There should really be a chair, here! he thought, tired of always having to fight to stay standing.
“Jesus!” he exclaimed. “How can they still be able to fire!” Every second of the last twenty minutes had been a constant struggle to survive. And just when he was starting to think they had a chance, fate would throw another obstacle in their way.
The rounds continued to land on the upper side of their bow, bouncing them around so violently that Nathan could barely hear himself think. He was scared out of his mind and felt like he would piss himself every time they took a hit. At the moment, following in his father’s footsteps and going into politics didn’t seem all that bad.
Without any shields, each strike was ripping chunks off of their exterior hull, exposing the subsequent layers underneath. Nathan knew that before long, there would be more hull breaches, and eventually their luck would run out and one of those shells would get deeper inside before it detonated, ripping them apart in the process.
A few of the lights on the bridge snapped back on, along with a few additional systems. The main view screen flickered a bit, but still did not come back to life.
“Maneuvering just came back online!” Cameron reported.
“Get us out of here!” he pleaded.
More explosions shook the ship, the last one causing the entire ship to slide sideways a bit, slamming the tactical console into Nathan’s side nearly knocking the wind out of him.
“Can’t we move any faster?” he shouted.
“We’re at full reverse thrust!” Cameron defended. “It’s just not enough! This ship wasn’t designed to go fast backwards!” Another red light on her console turned green. “Wait! The orbital maneuvering systems just came back on! Maybe if I end over…”
“…Not exactly by the book, Ensign!” Nathan interrupted, already liking the idea.
“Yeah, I wonder where I picked up that bad habit?” she said.
“You’re not waiting for me to give you permission, are you?” Nathan asked. The inertial dampeners were still off line, and Nathan could feel himself getting heavy as she pitched their nose up hard.
“Not a chance,” she smiled.
About ten seconds later, Nathan went from feeling abnormally heavy on his feet to feeling abnormally light as Cameron ended their end-over flip in abrupt fashion. He grabbed hold of the console in front of him just in time to keep himself standing as she fired the orbital maneuvering system at full burn.
“OMS are burning!” She watched her flight display as their velocity steadily increased. The orbital maneuvering system was only designed to increase their orbital velocity to increase an orbital altitude. If they only had the main propulsion working, they could get out of there in seconds instead of agonizingly long minutes.
“Engineering! Bridge!” Nathan called over the comm.
“Yes! Nathan!” It still sounded like all hell was breaking loose in the background.
“Vlad! We’re gettin’ pounded! Can you give me any weapons?”
“I am sorry, Nathan! But we only have one reactor online, and only running at fifty percent! I could maybe connect rail guns to same reactor, but it might be too much for one, I don’t know.”
“What about torpedoes? Can you give me torpedoes?”
“Torpedoes should work. If crew can load the tubes, torpedoes have their own power source. Just push button and they go. But Nathan, you should know this.”
“Why would I know this? I’m a pilot!”
Cameron held her hand up in the air, without turning around.
“Oh, and I suppose you did?” he asked her. She offered no verbal confirmation, just a self-righteous smile that Nathan couldn’t see from behind her.
“Is there anything else I can do for you Nathan? I am very busy right now.” Something exploded in the background, and Vladimir shouted some more directions at someone.
“No thanks. Do what you can, bridge out.”
Nathan looked at the torpedo bay status display. There were no torpedoes loaded in the forward tubes, and the aft tubes were not yet completely installed.
“Torpedo Room! Bridge!” he called over the comm. “Torpedo Room! Do you copy!” No one answered. “Damn!” He looked at the status display again, when he noticed something. One of the torpedoes that the captain had launched at the enemy warship had not detonated, and it was still active.
“Kaylah!” he shouted. “Scan that warship! One of our torpedoes didn’t detonate! Can you tell me where it is? Is it still stuck in them?”
Kaylah worked her console for a few moments before responding, as more of the enemy rounds exploded against the hull, continually bouncing the ship.
“I’ve got it! It’s stuck just aft of amidships!” She spun her head to look at Nathan. “Right in front of their reactor plant!”
“What kind of reactor?” he asked. They were still awfully close to that ship, and if they were using antimatter, he doubted they would be far enough away to survive the blast.
