By morning, swirls of glowingcolour filled the main screen. The supernova remnant floated in the wind ofits raging pulsar. It spun over a hundred times a minute, ripping waves ofradiation through the still spreading gasses, dust and rubble it had picked upin its path.
“She is pretty,” Hartfordcommented from navigation; McReidy attending to some emergency with theambassadors.
“Pretty dangerous,” Johnanswered. “Perfect place to hide if your systems can handle it.”
Humphries had reported noabnormalities overnight. The day shift gave their systems a once over toconfirm.
“Demagnify main screen,” Johnordered. “There’s more out there than the nebula.”
The nebula resolved to a tinycloud amid the background of space.
Within an hour, Tan was tappinghis earphone.
“Problem, Mister Tan?” Johnasked.
“No, sir,” Tan shook his head. “Not yet, sir.”
John looked to Gillespie, whoshook his head. “No interference here, sir, but we have hit the edge of thenebula.”
“Normal view on screen.”
Streaks of pale green and pinkclouds drifted about the ship. Spreading outwards, curling, folding in onthemselves. Fingers of momentum that wanted to pick up the ship and carry herwith them.
“Giacomo?”
“Nothing I can’t handle, sir. Just like riding the waves of a star.”
John nodded. They’d keep goingfor now.
Tan reinserted his earphone andsettled comfortably back to work.
Half an hour later and he pulledthe earphone from its connection. A burst of static echoed around the bridge. It squealed and screeched for a few seconds, as though something was trying tomake an artificial connection, then went silent.
“The nebula, sir,” Tan explained.
John nodded. “Giacomo, altercourse.”
“Yes, sir.”
Giacomo steered the ship out ofthe clutches of the interfering winds. The colours and gasses thinned and thepulsar rotated in oblivion to the difficulties it caused.
It was barely midday whenGillespie’s sensors lit up.
“Sir, I’m picking up somethingoff the port bow,” he told John. “It’s skimming the edge of the nebula.”
“Identify.”
“It’s too far away. It shouldn’tbe one of ours, unless there’s something out here we don’t know about.”
That was always possible. Eavesdropping was one thing, but that wasn’t going to pick up everything and asreliable as Drago’s information was, he couldn’t keep track of or predict themovements of all the other allied worlds.
“Giacomo, reduce speed. Take ustowards the object. Move in slowly… Put it on main screen. Mister Gillespie,let me know as soon as you’ve identified it.”
He put the ship on yellow alert. He would not fight this time. Whatever the ship was, he would let it go. Thesafety of the ambassadors was of the utmost importance.
“It’s a fighter,” Gillespieidentified. “Andromedan… short range.”
“What’s it doing out here on itsown?” John wondered.
The ship suddenly lurched to portas it was hit on the starboard side.
“Shields up,” John ordered. “Evasive manoeuvres. Giacomo, get us out of here.”
“Engineering to bridge,”Kowalski’s voice came through the intercom. “Starboard engine’s shot topieces. We can’t run.”
“Return fire. Giacomo… do whateveryou have to. Gillespie, head count. Tan, get us some help.” John flicked theintercom. “Lieutenant Commander McReidy, I need you on the bridge. Someoneget to weapons now.”
McReidy responded immediately. She barely excused herself from lunch with Cush as she acknowledged John’scall. The dining room jolted and she nearly missed the door, putting a handout and pushing off the wall as she steadied herself. She bounced off thecorridor wall and ran to the bridge. The main screen spun as stars zigzaggedand phaser tracers darted across the view, while wispy tails of the faintestcolour smoked and softened the harsh black background.
“Heavy cruiser,” John told her. “One so far.”
Hartford eased out of herconsole, his hands remaining on the controls as she took her seat and movedunder his grip. He let go and cleared out of everyone’s way.
“Go make yourself useful, MisterHartford,” John told him.
“Yes, sir,” he acknowledged andraced from the bridge.
Giacomo flew in his usual erraticstyle. Tan was desperately trying to call for help on a transmission thatseemed to be constantly jammed. He tapped his earphone, ran the channels andrepeated his call. Gillespie was looking for more enemy ships.
“Sir,” Tan turned to John. “Captain Drago’s got two cruisers. He’s half a day away.”
John shook his head. “We won’tlast that long. Find someone else.”
With the starboard engine gone,they were down on power, and down on manoeuvrability. Shields were holding ata reduced level, enough to keep them safe. For now. Weapons systems werestill operational. They could hold off one cruiser almost indefinitely, butnot its companion.
Another cruiser appeared, to jointhe first. John swallowed hard. “Plot a course to Drago.”
“We can’t outrun a cruiser,”McReidy told him.
“We haven’t got a choice! Engineering, I need as much speed as you can give me.”
“At the moment, we couldn’toutrun a lifeboat,” came Kowalski’s answer. “Sir,” he added as anafterthought.
“Repair time?”
“I’ve got no idea. It’s too hotto get near.”
“Independence, two hours away.” Tan’s news brought a sense of relief.
“Plot a course,” John ordered. “Don’t lay it in yet. Mister Kowalski, put everything into the shields. Helmon auxiliary.”
“It’s too slow,” Giacomocomplained.
“Doesn’t matter. Just stay put… Where’s that third ship?”
“Got it,” Gillespie answered. “It’s coming out of the nebula directly behind us.”
“Range?”
“Less than a minute… It’s abattleship.”
John thought as much. It was thefighter’s homeship.
“Has she launched fighters?” Hedidn’t think she would. With Bismarck almost crippled, it wasn’t necessary.
“No, she’s after our portengine.”
Two in front, one behind. Ittook John only a second to think of something. “Let’s play chicken. Red, Iwant deflectors moved.”
“Gotcha, sir,” Red answered.
“Giacomo, manoeuvre the portengine towards the battleship. Pretend you don’t know she’s there.”
Giacomo mumbled somethingunintelligible.
“Shields are overloading,”Kowalski warned.
It was not news that anyonewanted to hear.
“Boost with the auxiliaries,”John ordered.
That was something Giacomo didn’twant to hear. The helm dropped in response accordingly.
“Battleship’s arming up,”Gillespie advised.
“Deflectors aligned?”
“On your call, sir,” Redanswered.
“Don’t anticipate, Giacomo,” Johncalmly warned.
Giacomo started sweating. Theship was almost at a standstill. Shields were holding, but they couldn’t stopthe continual buffeting and the controls shook under his hands. He was readyto take off on command.
John held him till the lastsecond. “Now!”
The next few seconds wereorganised chaos. The two cruisers’ phasers deflected off Bismarck’s shields atthe approaching battleship. A fraction of a second later, their torpedoes hadclear space to the battleship, destroying her completely.
