"Woah!" I said, staring out the bridge viewport. Instead of seeing empty, open space, I saw flashes of light; some close, some far off, and ships all over the place.

"Lord! We have intersystem communications of an unknown source, of two distinct varieties. Attempting to decrypt both now."

"My Lord, forward shields are being peppered with laser blasts of an unknown variety. Shields at 97% and dropping slowly."

"Lord Kyle! Combat Analysis computer has no knoweldge of the attacking fighter designs, and initial analysis shows their engines to use a previously unused form of propulsion to move."

I frowned at all the yelling in my direction, then turned to Communications. "Put all our computers to work decrypting their communications. Engineering," I said, turning to that area of the Bridge, "Rerout as much power as needed to the shields. Keep them up as long as you can."

"Someone punch up images of those fighters where I can see them. Helm, keep some distance from those larger ships off our starboard side. I don't want to engage any capital ships untill I know what we're dealing with."

While the bridge crew worked to carry out my orders, Captain Archer quietly asked, "My Lord, shouldn't we launch a flight of TIEs to keep those fighters off of us?"

"Lets wait untill we know what we're keeping off. However, tell the Bay Officers to have a full Wing ready for Launch as soon as possible."

"At once, Lord."

I glanced at the screen before me, and frowned as the fighters buzzing around my ship began appearing, the images switching rapidly.

"Hold on a second..." I said, closing my eyes to think. Some of the Fighters were rather symetrical, and both numbered and labeled in plain english. Their Designs were also rather familiar. The other fighters were neither symmetrical, nor marked in any language I'd seen on earth. However, they all looked somewhat menacing, and were shaped like some demented aviation engineer had cross bred a flying wing with a batarang.

"Sir, Communications descrambled. One set is Speaking basic, the other is some sort of language the computers have no prior record of. The Computers are trying to decipher now."

"I thought not, Keep on it. SHODAN, patch me into the Terran's communications."

"'Terran,' sir?" Archer asked, quirking a brow. I nodded, then turned to a camera that's red light had just turned on.

"Could you Confed Pilots please stop depleting my shields? I'm fairly certain the cats intend to do that, and you really don't need to be helping them."

"Who the-"

"What the hell are you-"

"This is Captain Eisen, of the TCS Victory, Responding. Am I to assume you're the Captain of that giant ship out there in the middle of things?"

"That'd be me, Captain. Just call me Kyle. Recall your fighters, and I'll deploy some fighters to give your boys and girls some cover."

"Not that I'm ingrateful, but how can I be sure you intend to follow through?"

"Blind faith, and the fact that I'm not furry." I turned to Archer "Lauch all Prepped TIEs. Anything that looks like these," I said, quickly cycling through the Kilrathi Fighters the Sensors had picked up, "are to be destroyed. Turbolaser batteries may fire at will. And prep a wing of Tie Bombers. That Kilrathi Destroyer looks like it's about to make a run on the Victory."

Captain Eisen scowled at a screen near the camera, then nodded at me. "Fair enough, I'll do my best to hold off that Destroyer, but any assistance you can give us is appreciated. Victory out."

"Right. Thunder out." I replied, the videoscreen going dead. Turning to Archer, I shrugged. "Lets hope the Cats are as worried about our size as the Confed forces were."

"Yes, Lord."

Makoto tapped me on the shoulder, then quietly asked "Umm... what's going on?"

"Err.. well, as far as I can tell, We're in the Wing Commander universe. Which, I must say, is FAR from Anime, or Japanese fiction in general. Anyway... This means we're in the vicinity of, if not the middle of Wing Commander Three, Heart of the Tiger. When this battle ends I can see where in that story we are, but for now, we've got a battle to win."

Moving down to the CIC, I watched a holographic display of the surrounding space, Imperial and Confed ships represented by blue dots, and Kilrathi now showed up as red. At first the red outnumbered the blue, but as I watched the Thunder's TIE Fighters launch, the numberes evened out, then grew in Humanity's favor.

I looked up, past the viewport, and past the battle, finally seeing the spectaculer gaseous arms and whisps of what I assumed to be a Nebula. Frowning at an errant thought I couldn't quite place, I turned back to the tactical display, counting the Kilrathi capital ships.

"Hmm... 6 Capital ships on their side, eh? Captain Eisen?" I asked, turning to the communications center, "What system are we currently in?"

"You're flying a ship that size and you don't know where you are? This is the-"

"Sir!" an aide behind Captain Eisen shouted, interrupting his response, "Captain, the jump point... it's not there!"

"What? It aint there?" someone else started, and I sighed.

"We're in the Caliban Nebula, Near the jump point to the Caliban System, in the Ariel System." I said, sighing. Turning back to Flight Control, I growled out "Tell our TIEs to cover the other Terran Fighters. That news is going to shock them for a moment."

"Captain Kyle," Eisen said, somewhat asrcastically while he stared at me through the communications center, "I'm not sure how you extrapolated your location from so vague a report, but any information you have on this unsettling situation would be greatly appreciated." Eisen looked a bit paler than he had a few minutes before, and I could hear communications of shock and anger from Eisen's Pilots.

Remembering how Ships in the Wing Commander Universe used jump points to travel from system to system, as opposed to Hyperdrives, their exits from any one system was often limited. The loss of a jump point, something they thought impossible, was a serious blow to their morale, especially since the Victory was planning on jumping to Caliban from here in a few more minutes.

"Captain, as big as the Thunder is, I'm afraid even she can't fight off 6 capital ships without sustaining a significant ammount of damage. Pull back to the nearest jump point, I can't remember it's name off the top of my head. I'll do what I can to cover your retreat, and, if need-be, I can pick up any ships of yours you're unable to gather."

"Much appreciated, Thunder. Pulling back to the Delius jump point." Eisen said, before turning to start issuing orders to his ship. Turning to Flight Control, I quirked a brow.

"Understood, my Lord. Orders passed to all Wings in flight and ready to launch."

"Great. Now... here's the thing, Our Hyperdrive will work, but without an accurate map of the galaxy, we going to be jumping blind right?"

"That's correct, Lord Kyle," Captain Archer started, "While the sensors will pull us out of Hyperspace if we enter a gravity well, the safest course is to follow pre-designated paths through hyperspace, something, am I understand, this universe fails to have developed?"

"Nope. So what we're going to need is a list of coordinates for most nearby jump points, and any mass that would make an impassable gravity well. SHODAN?"

"Already searching for it. Their Communications Officer is making it difficult to do this undetected."

"That's fine, We have a while before they get to the Jump Point. If you have to, just copy everything on their computers into one of ours and sort through it here."

"Working."

I turned to the Tactical Display, and watched as the TIE-Bomber wing made its first run on the Destroyer that had been hounding the Victory. A few Kilrathi Fighters had formed a defensive screen, but some of the Confed Ships had formed up to escort the bombers, and drew them away from the TIEs into dogfights.

"Blair's out there..." I said, quietly. Kind of weird, I thought, to watch the work of someone who'd previously been the character I controlled from my keyboard. Snapping out of my daze, I watched as the Bombs tore a sizable chunk out of the Destroyers shields, and the last few penetrated to damage the Hull beneath.

The TCS Victory began to pull out, its fighters holding off what fighters tried to attack, and the Kilrathi Destroyer was too busy dealing with the attack from the TIE-Bombers to give it chase. Already, they were swinging around to give it another pounding, and scans showed it's structural integrity beginning to fail as each blast drove the wounds deeper.

Another Kilrathi captal ship, this one a Carrier by the large opening at its ends, moved towards the Crippled Destroyer, and a new wave of fighters exited, heading towards the TIEs circling the growing wound.

"Pull back the Bombers, and send in the Fighters. Cover the Bombers, but watch them, the might change course, and head for the Victory."

"Understood, my Lord."

I turned to Makoto, who looked worried, and frowned.

"Where's Nabiki?"

Makoto blinked, glancing around the bridge, before turning towards the door, "I don't know, but that's a good question."

I blinked as she walked out the door, Captain Bowen following, and turned back towards the Tactical Display. "I didn't mean to send you away..." I muttered, before looking at the screen again.

The Victory had pulled far enough away that its more damaged fighters were returning, and The Kilrathi Fighters had turned away, to engage the TIE fighters and three Confed Fighters still duking it out near the Destroyer.

"Download Complete." SHODAN said.

I turned towards Communications, "activate the communications relay, again. I want to hear what's going on out there."

The Officer flipped a switched, and I heard a familiar voice wearily talk over whatever communications medium Confed Fighters used to converse with all in-system craft.

"-on without us, Victory. We'll try to catch a ride with our new friend."

"Understood, Colonel. Good luck, and godspeed." Eisen responded, the Victory speeding up.

"Well, if I'm going down, They're coming with me!" Someone said, right before one of the Confed Fighters turned and accelerated towards the Destroyer.

"Maniac!"

"Burn, Kitty, Burn!" One of the pilots said, firing off three missiles at the hole the Thunder's Bombers had made in the shield. The missiles streaked into the hole in the superstructer and detonated inside, more pieces of the ship jetting out. Suddenly, there was a flash, and the Destroyer went up, flames erupting from fractures and holes all over.

I heard cheering on the Radio for a second, before the tone became more severe.

"Taking damage... I... Shit, Colonel, get out of here, My shields..." Maniac said, his ship tumbling away from the exploding Destroyer.

"Beam him aboard! Now!" I said, turning towards the Viewscreen SHODAN often frequented.

"Complying. Locking on." SHODAN said, her voice maddenningly calm.

Turning back to the display, I watched as the Kilrathi fighters turned towards their carrier, and turned to Flight Control. "Assign an escort to lead the two Confed Fighters towards a cleared Landing area. Recall all the other TIEs, and begin following the Victory. SHODAN?"

"Yes, Kyle?"

"Where's Major Marshal?"

"In Sickbay. I'm decoding the Galactic Map as we speak."

"Ahh.. Right." I said, the answer to my second question already answered. Turning back to the Bridge, I glanced at the Tactical Display, before turning to Flight Control.

"Tractor in our friends when we can get a good lock on them. I'm heading down to the Bay to greet them when they land. Admiral has the Bridge."

I turned and walked out the door, Captain Archer following me quietly, and I pondered what I would say first to Colonel Blair when he landed.