“How close was that?” John askedas he gripped the arms of his chair.
“Scraping paint, sir,” Giacomoanswered with a grin.
“One fighter hit the shields. The other two pulled up,” Gillespie reported. “Battleship still intact.”
Giacomo peeled off and turned foranother run. Bismarck suddenly spun out of control as a direct hit sent herreeling.
“What the –?” began John.
“I don’t know where it camefrom,” Gillespie apologised.
“Number four shield’s gone. Number three’s down to eighty percent,” Kowalski called.
“Get them back up,” John ordered.
The intercom was silent for amoment. Frantic voices rocketed around engineering as comments and suppositionflew between the engineers before Kowalski announced, “The shields are drainingpower from the engines. Another hit and we’re history.”
“Weapons here, we’re running lowon torpedoes. Phaser banks are down to ninety,” Wright advised.
“Noted, Mister Wright.”
John should have turned and run. He knew that. But he wasn’t satisfied with just the cruiser. He wanted totake out the battleship as well.
“Giacomo, take us in for anotherpass.”
McReidy turned on him. “Istrongly suggest we get out of here.”
“When I want your suggestions,I’ll ask for them.”
“You’ll get us all killed!”
“I haven’t got time to argue. And neither have you.” He indicated the screen. The battleship covered itcompletely. “Get us as close as you can and fire everything we’ve got… Thenget us out of here at maximum speed.”
They didn’t stay around longenough to find out the extent of damage they had inflicted, if any. A cruiserhad broken off from the main fleet to intercept them. John had spotted itwhile McReidy argued. Gillespie confirmed it. They barely had time to firebefore they ran.
The cruiser was closing in. Giacomo had enough distance to outmanoeuvre her weapons, but not for long. Afew defiant phaser blasts were fired back; torpedoes were already exhausted. Nothing even scratched the surface as the cruiser ploughed on ahead.
“I need more power,” John toldKowalski.
“There isn’t any. The enginesare tapped to the limit.”
“I need more speed.” Johnthought for a moment. “Drop the shields.”
With the power needed to maintainshields now being accessed, the ship’s speed increased slightly. Enough tokeep the cruiser at bay. For the time being anyway.
“What’s ahead of us?” John askedGiacomo.
“Nothing.”
“Good. Keep going.”
“For how long?”
“Until that cruiser turns back.”
“Or we blow ourselves up.” McReidy ground out, her voice clearly overheard by everyone.
John was sitting on the edge ofhis seat, one elbow on the armrest, his chin resting on the back of hisfingers. “Did you say something, McReidy!” The low tone challenged her toanswer.
“Yes, I did.”
She turned defiantly to face hischallenge. His face was set, his eyes narrowed as they pierced through her.
“You shouldn’t have made anotherpass at that battleship.”
“Oh, really?” His brows liftedslightly with the sarcastic lightness of his tone, then flattened.
“We were quite happy with thecruiser and some fighters.”
‘We’ meant the entire crew, butthey were quickly disassociating themselves from her. She could take the blamefor her own words. No one handled his temper as skilfully as she was doing.
“There was no need to risk itwithout full shields. Any of those fighters could have picked us off.”
“That was my decision.” His handdropped, his head didn’t move. She wouldn’t back down. Why wouldn’t she backdown? She defied him at every opportunity, stirring up emotions he wanted leftburied. “And when you get your own ship, then you can give your own orders.”
“And when they scrape up a captain,you won’t have this ship any more!”
That hurt.
The crew flinched; Giacomomouthing a couple of choice words, Gillespie and Tan shared a momentary glanceto the unfolding scenario before turning back to their consoles.
McReidy saw the sudden pain inJohn’s eyes before he lowered them. He closed them briefly, swallowing hard,every muscle in his body tensed to its fullest extreme. All she could do waswatch him and wait for the answer she knew was coming.
He lifted his head slowly. Hisdark eyes burned through her with a fury he had never felt before. In a coldvoice that held no emotion he told her: “You’re relieved of duty… Get off mybridge!”
He couldn’t have hit her harderif he had physically struck her – and he was sorely tempted to do so. Sheaccepted his sentence because she had no other recourse, and stormed silentlyfrom the bridge.
Gillespie tapped Tan on the armand pointed to both consoles. Tan nodded and Gillespie slipped into the emptynavigation seat. Giacomo flexed his hands and adjusted his grip on thecontrols, his frozen attention never wavering from the main screen.
The bridge was silent for hours. The ship raced on, followed by the cruiser. It couldn’t close the distance,neither could Bismarck outrun it. The shift drew to an end, however no one waswilling to mention it. They remained at their positions, fearing to break thespell that had been cast.
The new shift hovered inside thebridge doorway. Looks were exchanged between them, but the tension kept themsilent where they were.
John decided to wait and see howlong it took. An hour passed; then another. It seemed they would remain thereall night.
“Giacomo.”
The pilot leapt out of his seatat John’s voice. “Sir?”
“I want those rosters changed bymorning.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now, all of you, get out ofhere.”
* * *
When Tan reported for work thenext morning, John called him into his office. Tan tensed, his posturestraightening formally as he crossed the bridge.
John relaxed into his chair asthe door closed. Tan stood in front of the desk.
“Relax, Mister Tan. You’re notin trouble.”
Tan remained standing, but histension eased.
“We’re fighting blind, MisterTan. We can’t rely on secondhand information.” John hesitated, knowing he wasabout to ask the impossible. “I need you to crack the Andromedan code.”
“Sir?” Tan’s face screwed up andhis head dropped, causing his body to slump in despair.
“I know we don’t have a language,but a code should be easier.”
Tan’s expression indicated theopposite. He looked to the chair by the wall, dragged it up and dropped intoit.
“Codes are specific messages thatdon’t use an entire language,” John continued. “We’ve been eavesdropping for awhile and we’ve recorded lots of messages. We know by their actions what someof them mean.”
“We don’t know what’s directed atwhat ship, sir, so we don’t know who’s acting on what message.”
“Exactly.”
“You want me to backtrack andmatch everything up.”
John noted that Tan
