'So is this, and yet here we are.'
They had stopped now, both their booted sets of feet right beside his closed entrance that he peered out of while holding his breath.
'I don't think this is impossible.' she breathed at him, drawing closer. 'We're both professionals, it won't get in the way of our duty to the ship. We both knew that when I walked away from you on the Voravian mothership.'
'Very well.' Smith said, clearly not a man of great words.
'Oh you.' the woman said, followed by what sounded like a friendly punch, given that Smith didn't draw his gun and blast her to pieces for making contact with him.
The footsteps receded, but the knowledge of what Terry had just heard didn't. He carefully clambered his way out of the hiding place and crept on toward Engineering with more questions than answers.
As soon as he made it to the computer there, that would all change, he would make sure of it.
Chapter 40
Trifle! Hive! Crumpled!
'Report!' Phil asked in what he hoped was a calming tone. He didn't want to become Darwin and ever since the transmission they had received from the former Captain he scrutinised his every word to the crew.
'The ship suffered a major hit, it looked to be a scout vessel from what the scans are telling me.' Annika said.
'Weapons were ineffective until I applied my modifications, that was enough to prove a deterrent... for now.' Smith added, clearly implying that they wouldn't survive another encounter.
Phil found himself massaging his temples, the stress of this last encounter and being paralysed and incapable of making a decision had destroyed what little confidence he had previously held. But for the response from his well-drilled crew the Voravian scout ship would have destroyed them. 'Any suggestions before we head even deeper into Voravian space?'
'This won't be the last time we encounter a ship of this magnitude, if anything they will get even larger and more numerous as time goes by.' Smith informed him, the usual beacon of hope.
'So what do we do when that happens?'
Silence once more took hold of the crew, apparently they weren't full of ideas as to how to combat this threat. It had all seemed too simple to just fly into the heart of Voravian space and figure everything out, he hadn't realised that they had a way of dropping the ship out of hyperwarp at will. It would seem that the blueish purple wasn't a protection from everything after all. Then again, nobody had told Phil that it was, he had just assumed that nobody could get them out of it since it hadn't happened before.
Assumptions were very dangerous, and more than likely to get him killed if he kept them up.
'Captain you're not going to believe this.' Annika said.
Phil was prepared to believe anything at this point, he just hoped it was good news for a change; based the Lieutenant's tone he suspected he had better be prepared for the worst. 'What is it, Lieutenant?'
'Two Voravian vessels bearing down on our position sir, judging from the damage it looks like it was the one from before but with company.'
Not for the first time, a sinking sensation developed in the pit of Phil's stomach. If the ship barely scraped through an encounter with one of these vessels how was it going to make it through two? He didn't have the pink glove to mastermind any glorious escape this time, all he had were his own wits and if they had deserted him any faster he would have been covered in trifle.
'Awaiting your orders, Captain. Should I open fire?' Smith said, prompting Phil to come out of his own worried thoughts.
Except Phil himself didn't know what to do.
'Captain, we need a decision.' Annika this time.
'Captain Jones, they are closing to within range of their weaponry.' Smith.
The ship lurched forward without any given command, and all three members of the crew stared at the pilot.
'I'm taking us into a nearby asteroid field, hopefully that's enough to put these Voravians off our tail. If not then at least it gives our Captain some thinking time.' RJ said, without turning around to acknowledge that he had just taken matters into his own hands without the Captain's go-ahead.
It appeared that the crew were with him, as nobody made an attempt to gainsay this decision as there simply weren't any other suggestions forthcoming as an alternative aside from hold their ground and be blown into space debris.
The ship tore through the darkness of space and lodged itself firmly within the asteroid field. If the Voravians ships were anything like the ones Trigger had told them about then that should be enough to deter them for a time. The few minutes this dashing gave them soon morphed into a brainstorming session between the members, which is quite a common scenario when your life and the lives of all those about you is put in immediate jeopardy.
'If any of your folks could kindly come up with a back up plan that would be great.' RJ said, still focusing on the approaching Voravian vessels instead of the crew behind him.
'If this were a larger ship I would suggest luring the Voravians into the asteroid field and then detonating it, but we have no warheads beyond basic torpedos and they lack the yield to cause any damaging cascade effect.'
'We can't afford to get caught up in hypothetical scenarios.' Annika said, addressing Smith. 'We could try and continue communicating with them in the hopes that they'll respond.'
'An entirely hypothetical scenario if you ask me.' Smith shot back.
'What... what about trying to concentrate all our fire on their weaponry and then make another break for it?' Trigger asked.
'Did you not hear the Lieutenant, Ensign Hawkins? Your suggestion is entirely... fanciful. I can assure you.' Smith replied, silencing the young man and sending him scrambling back to monitoring his controls.
The vessels were drawing nearer now, Phil dimly recalled as if from a dream. There was nothing he could do, no solution he could come up with to save this fine crew bandying ideas back and forth without his input. They were doomed, and his own stupidity in taking the command chair had doomed them.
Why then had Star Command tracked his movements and even abducted the people he knew in his daily life? Why show all this interest to someone who didn't have the glove any more?
Phil sat up a bit straighter in his chair. He had to think of something, he had to find out why this organisation wanted him so badly and dying here wasn't going to answer that question.
'They're passing into the asteroid field sir.' a dismayed Trigger Hawkins said.
'It would appear that they have a more advanced set of tactics than your average Star Command Captain.' Smith replied, somehow taking pleasure in deriding Darwin even now.
The large vessels slowed as they came to the rocky debris, careful to avoid colliding with the larger chunks lest they damage their hulls. Phil watched on the viewscreen that had blinked up, hoping against hope that they would cease there and that Trigger was wrong.
Trigger of course, was not wrong.
The continually large vessels bustled their way through the smaller asteroids, not even deigning to shoot out any lasers to pulverise them into dust. Phil decided that to ruminate on such matters would be a bad idea, just in case he somehow gave them the idea to destroy... actually, scratch that. They were probably thinking along those lines anyway.
'Any suggestions, Captain?' Annika asked, the slightest hint of panic in her voice. The crew were understandably on edge, given that they were about to be blown into space dust like the proverbial asteroids they were surrounded by.
'I really don't know.' Phil said, surprising himself with how calm it came out. 'I'm not the man you think, I don't have the glove and nothing any of you say can change that. No amount of pep talks or motivational words are going to make an idea pop into my head that's going to save us all.' he looked around them all, taking in their expressions but not really reading them. 'I'm sorry.'
The speaker crackled, causing the crew to jump. They were all expecting the fatal blast from the Voravians to hit any moment, ending their adventure and encroachment into thei
r space.
'Hello? Computer? Is this working? Can anyone hear me?' came a voice from the intercom.
'Affirmative. Have a nice day.'
'Er... well... Engineer Stevens reporting for duty, Phil. I mean... Captain Jones.'
'Engineer Stevens?' Smith said in his usual dead-pan drawl, but his eyebrows had decided to crawl up his forehead in disbelief and mounting anger.
'Oh.. hello there Agent Smith. You said I couldn't use the computer in the sick bay, but you didn't say anything about the computer in Engineering so I thought I'd have it teach me a few things.'
Before Smith could express just what he thought about Terry's use of the computers on the ship, Annika cut in. 'What is it you need, Engineer Stevens?'
'Well...' the voice crackled. 'I couldn't help but notice you have a bit of a problem with the Voravians out there. Or so the computer tells me anyway, it's quite handy with keeping me up to date.'
'What about the Voravians, Engineer?' Phil asked, wondering what the man was doing down there in the first place. He was a gym coach, not an Engineer. Was this all some kind of terrible practical joke?
'Well, I figured if we...'
As Phil was wont to do, he zoned out as soon as the slew of technobabble hit. It wasn't that he was disinterested by it, he was very interested in anything that would keep him from dying a horrible death, it was just a complete lack of comprehension on his part.
Whatever it was that Terry was saying seemed to individually light up the faces of the crew. He watched Annika smile, watched RJ nod in appreciation and Trigger's anxiety decrease to levels that prevented him from constantly fidgeting in his seat. Smith remained quietly seething, but his eyebrows had since wound their weary way down his forehead once more.
'That's... brilliant.' Annika gushed, in a way that sent a slight pang of annoyance through Phil. He had only heard her use that voice with things that he had done before. 'I shall make the calculations immediately!'
'Calculations for what?' Phil asked, completely at sea yet again and not liking his latest well-worn expedition.
'I'll explain after, Captain.' Annika replied between a multitude of button presses. 'right now I just have to get this done.'
Phil looked around and noticed that it wasn't just Annika that was hard at work, they were all mashing buttons furiously in a frenzied concerto, a hive mentality, a...
Before Phil's addled brain could come up with any other metaphors for how busy his crew were, the ship exploded.
Well, not exploded exactly, but there was an extremely loud booming noise and they shot forward, pinballing between the surfaces of asteroids with the squealing of hull plating abrading off the rocky faces of their unintended targets.
There was another series of explosions behind them, but they were more distant than the initial one that had nearly stopped his heart. While general common sense dictated that the less explosions the better, he had a feeling that the ones behind him were a positive thing.
'Yee haw!' said RJ, punching his fist in the air and ramming what looked to be a lever up while mashing buttons with his other hand. 'Take that you little varmints!'
'We did it!' Annika crowed, and the waves of happiness emanated from all of the crew save Agent Smith, who stood stolidly at his post and could be described as marginally pleased. If marginally pleased could sour new milk that is.
'That's nice.' Phil said, letting a deep breath out. 'What exactly did we do then?'
The communications channel crackled open. 'Well you see Captain Jones, it was just a simple case of reinverting the...'
'In English please. Annika?'
Annika's smile held more than a little humour in it. 'What Engineer Stevens did.' she started, making clear to Agent Smith that she had said Engineer. 'was turn our own propulsion system against the Voravians, sending a massive jet of energy out to react with the chemicals within the rocks.'
RJ nodded. 'Them rocks had certain reactive elements that blow up if your engines get too heated, we just directed our engine trail back into the Voravian vessels.'
Phil blinked, trying to take all this in. 'So... we blew them up with our own engines?'
She nodded back at him. 'It was a brilliant piece of strategy, absolutely brilliant.'
Phil slumped in his chair and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. They had been saved once more, and in spite of his having had absolutely nothing to do with it, but rather because it was Terry he had something to do with.
Somehow Terry was involved in this adventure, it was too big a coincidence that he had just saved them all, even if he didn't have a pink glove attached to his hand. If Terry was involved, then that meant Phil was involved too.
Straightening in his seat, Phil tugged down on his crumpled uniform and decided to act the rank it portrayed.
'Get to work on repairs, Engineer Stevens. We're going to need your expertise should we run into any more trouble.'
'Aye Captain, Stevens out.' came the clear response.
'Annika, I need you to keep transmitting on all frequencies that we don't mean to harm these Voravians, we just want to talk to them, but that any further act of aggression will result in their losing more ships.'
He turned to Smith. 'Get those weapon modulations as tightly controlled as possible, we may need to punch through their own weapons systems if things go wrong with negotiating.'
Finally he rose from his seat and made his way to the con, leaning a boot on it in a fairly Rikeresque pose. 'RJ, I want a full diagnostic on piloting systems so that they're in tip-top condition for any further mishaps. Trigger, you can help him.'
'Aye Captain.' they both said in unison.
'I'm going to take some time in my ready room, I expect you to all have reports for me at 0800 hours.'
'Aye Captain.' the entire crew said.
With that, Captain Phil Jones left the cockpit, and his ship continued soaring into the heart of Voravian space.
Chapter 41
Hog-tie! Burst! Transmission!
It was a brief respite, but one that Phil sorely needed. He had felt like he had been going a million miles an hour ever since hurling himself out of his own apartment window. Even prior to that his schedule had been practically non-stop since returning to Earth from his previous adventures, so this was what stress from too much work felt like presumably. He couldn't say he appreciated it too much.
He awoke to the sound of a continuous beeping, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out exactly where it was coming from. His groggy head realised shortly after that the immediate solution to that problem at least was apparent.
'Computer?'
'Yes, Captain Jones?' the computer sweetly replied.
'What's making that beeping?'
'An incoming hail from the cockpit to your quarters. Have a nice...'
'Wait, patch it on through.'
'Yes, Captain Jones.' the computer said once again, and it may have been Phil's imagination but there was almost a hint of reproach in its tone at being interrupted. 'Have a nice day.' it finished, but only after a slight delay.
Annika's voice finally came through, the computer having managed to talk over the top of the greeting. 'Captain? Are you there?'
'I'm here Lieutenant, what's happening up there?'
'It's 0800 hours, sir.'
'That's nice.' Phil said. 'Why are you calling again?'
'You said you wanted a report from everyone at 0800, we're all waiting for you in the cockpit.'
He blinked and rubbed sleep out of his eyes, it was that time already? He did dimly remember saying something like that. Then again, he said and did a lot of things yesterday. Assuming that even was yesterday, given that he was in the perpetual darkness of space now. They had day and night cycles in space, right?
'I'll be up in a minute.' he said, struggling to rise out of the layers of sleep that continued to pin him to the warm bed.
'Captain? Are you there?'
Phil shook the grogginess out of his head. 'What?
Didn't you already ask me that just a minute ago?'
'Sir, that was fifteen minutes ago.' Annika replied in as polite a tone as possible.
'I'll be up in a minute.' he said, this time sacrificing the warmth of the bed with a savage kick at the blankets that sent them flying. If only the Voravians were that easy to take out.
He reminded himself shortly after that the blanket had won the first round by causing him to doze off again. If he couldn't handle a blanket out here in space, what was going to happen if the Voravians got hold of him? A sobering thought.
He ambled his way up to the cockpit after washing his face, deciding that it was the Captain's perogative to be late and without any immediate danger he was in no rush. After all, what difference did it make if he arrived fifteen or even twenty minutes late?
He stopped himself. That was exactly the kind of thinking that Captain Darwin would have exhibited, he could even hear the man's voice reciting it verbatim in his head. No, he owed it to his crew to respond as efficiently as they had been up until now. Without their quick thinking and teamwork he doubted he'd be here at all. Picking up the pace he made it to the cockpit with a rather breathless stride, now they all had to figure out what on Earth... what in space they were going to do.
'And I told you that if we don't make any effort whatsoever it'll bring them upon us anyway!' a voice came from ahead.
'Yes, but waving the white flag at them and playing friendly will only invite further aggression. For the moment the Voravians do not know our location... that would change most swiftly were we to reveal that.'
It was Smith who had the last word, leaving Annika pouting at her console and somewhat crimson-cheeked after the whole encounter, as if they had been shouting for some time.
'What's all this then?' Phil asked, putting on his best police constable's voice.
They both began to speak at once, citing any number of baffling things in their favour before Phil held up his hand and ordered the senseless noise to cease.
'One at a time... please. Now Smith, tell me what you two are getting so worked up over.'
'Captain.' Smith eyed him with a cool gaze. 'I am not worked up... we were merely having a... spirited debate as to the relative merits of our opposing plans.'
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