Here's the next installment. ^^ Hope you enjoy it. If
u don't know, it's a sequal to the story "True Intentions" which is in the Babylon 5 section. ^^
CHAPTER ONE
Explosion hit the deck as Lochley watched the tiny escape pods flying free with their tiny thusters. Unfortunately, the drakh ships began to fire again, this time both the station and the tiny escape pods. Blast it! a thin cord inside her snapped angrily, while physically she slammed her palm on the computer consol. Pain throbbed up her arm, but nothing ached anymore; she was already bruised and bleeding. She had to help the defenceless escape pods. She turned to an officer. "How much power can we give to the weapon sails?"
"Sir?" the lieutenant asked, blinking deafly.
Lochley sighed despite her fustration. "Transfer all power to the weapon sails," she ordered. "We have to help those civilians out there!" She turned to glare at the lieutenant. The lieutenant Krycek in turn, frowned. "But sir..." she began. Lochley interrupted by a slam of her palm on the consol. "Dammit, lieutenant!" she snapped. "Just do the damned transfer!"
"We don't have much to give, sir," she told the captain bluntly.
So much for an officer, Lochley thought in her sea of fustration and pain. The station was going to blow up as it will and destined to, the escape pods are being fired apon and now a lieutenant that won't obey her command? This was making her sick. She glared angrily at the lieutenant and scowled. Finally, she pushed her way pass the lieutenant to her consol. "Dammit, if you won't do it, I will," she declared. "Remind me to throw you out of the airlock, considered we survive this mess."
"Transfer complete," the computer responded to her commands.
Streaks of energy from the station sliced through space and into the drakh ships. Slam! The ship was now getting crippled as it was. Lochley returned to her post in front of the glass window. Just when things seemed to get brighter, the ship powered up its forward weaponry and targetted the Command Center.
"Captain!" the ensign cried. "They're aiming us!"
"Close glass window!" she barked a command. The ensign grumbled as he quickly tried to shut the doors. Unfortunately, it was slower than she thought; the blast hit the window half way closing in. Slam! She was stunned as the consols began to go haywire with strange energy bolts going around the circuits. Her hand, her body range was caught in the transaction as the windows closed shut. She bolted back at the blast of energy as she slammed on the railing and then to the floor with a reluctant thud.
"Captain!" the ensign yelled. He turned to the Lt. Aliza Krycek. "Get a first aid kit!" The lieutenant thundered to get a kit as the boots of the ensign ran up the rung staircase and to the form of the injured captain. The lieutenant dropped the med kit with a thud before storming off. Ian looked at the lieutenant, obviously annoyed. "Gee, thanks," he said indignantly. He took out a medical scanner.
"Sir," he said after a while, "you're injuries are a little worse than I thought..." He seemed reluctant to say. Lochley looked at the young man, obviously noting it was truly his first assignment. "C'mon, Alex," she coaxed, "tell me what's wrong. I'm a captain; I've seen the face of death more than once." It was true; especially the time she spent with Gideon. The Lorkans trying to kill them and the Sacred Omega...the man was dangerous.
"But..." he blubbered but she silenced him with a chop of her hand as she gazed coolly at him, obviously giving him the sign that it was an order. He sighed; she wasn't going to like the news. He pressed his lips together before stating, "Internal bleeding to your side and a broken hip..." He paused, blinking away some painful memory before continuing. "I don't know how long I can keep you alive."
She nodded in acknowledgement. To see death in the eye...just beautiful. Ah...she prayed to God himself that her crew would live on after she was gone. Then, as the ensign left for some more bandages, a tear began to form from the corner of her eye. Matt...she wasn't going to be able to see him for another while or so, since he was out trying to ffind a cure for the plague. This was crazy, pathetic, barely adequate. And now she was lying moments away from her death to meet her maker.
"We've got a drakh ship on our starport bow," Ensign Arnold Delany reported.
Lochley let in a harsh breath. This was it. Another blast, this time a death throw rocked the ship. The emergancy klaxons were still on but now wildly screaming like banshees as consols exploded and ringed with gold tacts and static. Explosions and fog whipped the air as officers fell to the rung floor.
Her heart was exploding from all the chaos. Finally, as the noise and the fog level dropped, she opened her eyes. She wasn't dead, but she didn't know if she was alive. Or much if anyone was alive. She staggered to her feet and felt a surge of pain; the blood inside was weighing against her. Oh, she was thankful at least that some damage happened to her; that way she wouldn't have to have that stupid meeting with the interstellar alliance.
She lost control of her legs and slammed back onto the floor, her head slamming hard on a consol on her way to the floor. Uch. She could feel some blood pouring down from her temples as her eyes fluttered aimlessly. Sounds, like a ship. Oh, she knew that sound all too well. Earthforce ships tended to have a certain ring to it...someone had answered the distress call! They were going to live! Babylon 5 wouldn't be torn down to pieces of molecules after all.
The captain's hopes dropped; she was lying on the bridge of her station with internal bleeding, hemmrage and a bleeding scalp. Beautiful. Who knows how long it'll take before emergancy medical teams get on board the station? She wasn't going to live after all. At least she could give Commander Corwin, her executive officer, that damned promotion that he wanted ever since he became a first officer. Hotshot.
As she gazed into the ceiling, she began to wonder if anyone would remember her. Of course, after all, they remembered the first commander of this station, Commander Sinclair. Then of course they'll remember Lochley. Maybe. She wasn't sure. As the ceiling filtered her brain with the patterns, she prayed at least an angel would swoop her up from falling...
"Drakh ships are leaving the vacinity," Matheson reported as the Excalibur glided into Babylon 5 controls. He began to run a scan of the station before turning. "The station has been evacuated, sir," he reported. "Station intergrity still intact, but barely. Loss of energy capsules on all weapon decks and we've got severe damage to the hull and some hull breaches the enviormental systems couldn't plug up."
"Looks like the station put up one hell of a fight," Gideon observed from his chair. Scorched hulls, wearied gunpower...Gideon was afraid of even looking inside the station. The casualties would be even more devastating.
"Yes sir."
Gideon brushed his hair back. What were the chances that there was anyone on board the station alive? He knew Lochley's moves; he knew she would have evacuated all civilians and left the personnel on board to try to make sure all the pods were away from danger. He would have done it himself. "Personnel?" he asked.
"I'm recieving around 5000 Earthforce personnel," he replied. "About two thirds are wounded as far as my scanners can tell." A note in his first officer's voice was trembling in shock and sorrow. Matheson was no fool; he has seen alot himself, in the PsiCorps.
Captain Gideon nodded in acknowledgement and studied the station for a brief moment. "I want you to take out all scout ships and recover the life pods," Gideon ordered. "I also want landing troops to scout the planet. Contact Dr. Chambers and tell her we're going to the station. You have the bridge, Lieutenant."
"We, sir?" he clarified in question.
Matthew sighed. "I have to see someone on board to see if she's still intact," he stated bluntly. Matheson raised a brow in suspicion but said nothing, obvious sign that he knew why he was going over; Lochley. The lieutenant chuckled to himself as he turned around. "If I have known better," he said to his captain, "I'd say you have gotten fond of her."
"What's that suppose to mean, Matheson?"
Matheson shook his head, still smiling. "It means," he said slowly, "that something came up between the two of you. When you met her on Mars, you were obviously stressed over her striking apporach and now you want to check on her? Hmm, one of these days..." He continued to work on the orders. "Sir, we're off by one man fighter. Tyle seemed to have a shore leave..."
"Is there anyone avalible at the current time?" Gideon asked.
Matheson turned around. "There is one person in mind..."
"You want me to fly a fighter?" The question was obvious as a surprised Trace Miller was sipping some coffee. The man was a hell of a pilot but apparently felt like a yo-yo at times for being avalible all the time. Gideon was across him, also drinking some coffee. He shrugged as he offered him a hand. "C'mon, Trace," he coaxed, "you're one hell of a pilot. We need someone to track down pods that escaped the attack."
"Who told you I was avalible?" Trace asked suspisiously.
"Dosen't matter," he replied quickly. "We're only asking you to drive one in search for the life pods that escaped the damnable fight bab5 put up with. C'mon Trace, we need a winger here. Lives, flying a Starfury. What do you say, Trace?" He sipped some coffee, but his eyes never left Trace's as he fumbled at the coffee mug.
"Okay," he replied slowly.
Gideon nodded. He knew Trace wouldn't pull down on an offer like that. "Matheson will be in command of Alpha Leader. You're his wingman." "Beautiful," he remarked sarcastically. Gideon ignored the hint of sacasm. "Dr. Chambers and Galen and Dureena will be taking the landing scouts and Mr. Eilerson and I will be taking another scout to the command deck for recovery teams."
"You and Mr. Eilerson," Trace mused. "Dosen't sound like a good team you've got there, Captain." He bemused a grin and looked down at his steaming cup. "Wherever there's trouble, usually the name "eilerson" pops into your head. But...it's up to you." He sipped whatever it was from his suppose-to-be coffee mug.
Gideon hesitated, thinking. He was right. The hell he was right. Max was like his evil double, the ego the size of the entire galactic core, his mouth as big as the entire ship. He was always quipping but smart. Why the hell did he need him at all in the first place?
"Nah," he replied with a sheepish and bitter grin, "I think I'll take Dureena instead. That way, Max's ego won't smother me while I try to find the command crew of Babylon 5." Trace nodded in his brass decision as he took a sip of that stuff, thinking to himself of the entire idea. "My, my, will Dr. Chambers be surprised," he mused at his captain's decision. And at that moment, Gideon wished he could smack the guy.
"You! Out of all the people I have on the ship, the captain put you?!" Chambers was indeed disappointed and was fuming out all her fustrations with Max. Not only did she have to work with him two thirds of the day to find the damned cure, but now she has him on her team?! There was a time he could've frailed that damned galactic ego of his.
Max shrugged as he pulled on the jacket. Regulations said that before boarding a vessel, he should at least have himself in check. His collegues remained on boards; what was there to pick around in an independant station anyhow?
"Tell me exactly," Chambers said, her mouth in a twisted frown. "How on earth did the captain decide for you to go?" Max shrugged; he wasn't sure himself. "The captain thought that since I am an archaeologist as well who finds himself to dig alot," he stated, zippinng up his vest, "I might as well help you."
"You can start by shutting up."
"Will do."
Chambers turned to the rest of her team. "Okay, team, listen up!" she hollered. Silence claimed them. "Okay, once we board the station, the first thing we do is to search for survivors. Find them, load them and then ship them to their Medlab, is that understood?"
"Yes, doctor," they murmured.
"Proceed."
She swung her enviormental pack onto her back and ushed her crew out the doors and to the shuttle bays. Behind her trotted Max. She sighed as she rubbed her temples wearily at the fact she was tugging along her most annoying counterpart of this entire rescue mission. Max Eilerson. Him, out of all the people on the ship.
Oh, this was going to be a long day.
u don't know, it's a sequal to the story "True Intentions" which is in the Babylon 5 section. ^^
CHAPTER ONE
Explosion hit the deck as Lochley watched the tiny escape pods flying free with their tiny thusters. Unfortunately, the drakh ships began to fire again, this time both the station and the tiny escape pods. Blast it! a thin cord inside her snapped angrily, while physically she slammed her palm on the computer consol. Pain throbbed up her arm, but nothing ached anymore; she was already bruised and bleeding. She had to help the defenceless escape pods. She turned to an officer. "How much power can we give to the weapon sails?"
"Sir?" the lieutenant asked, blinking deafly.
Lochley sighed despite her fustration. "Transfer all power to the weapon sails," she ordered. "We have to help those civilians out there!" She turned to glare at the lieutenant. The lieutenant Krycek in turn, frowned. "But sir..." she began. Lochley interrupted by a slam of her palm on the consol. "Dammit, lieutenant!" she snapped. "Just do the damned transfer!"
"We don't have much to give, sir," she told the captain bluntly.
So much for an officer, Lochley thought in her sea of fustration and pain. The station was going to blow up as it will and destined to, the escape pods are being fired apon and now a lieutenant that won't obey her command? This was making her sick. She glared angrily at the lieutenant and scowled. Finally, she pushed her way pass the lieutenant to her consol. "Dammit, if you won't do it, I will," she declared. "Remind me to throw you out of the airlock, considered we survive this mess."
"Transfer complete," the computer responded to her commands.
Streaks of energy from the station sliced through space and into the drakh ships. Slam! The ship was now getting crippled as it was. Lochley returned to her post in front of the glass window. Just when things seemed to get brighter, the ship powered up its forward weaponry and targetted the Command Center.
"Captain!" the ensign cried. "They're aiming us!"
"Close glass window!" she barked a command. The ensign grumbled as he quickly tried to shut the doors. Unfortunately, it was slower than she thought; the blast hit the window half way closing in. Slam! She was stunned as the consols began to go haywire with strange energy bolts going around the circuits. Her hand, her body range was caught in the transaction as the windows closed shut. She bolted back at the blast of energy as she slammed on the railing and then to the floor with a reluctant thud.
"Captain!" the ensign yelled. He turned to the Lt. Aliza Krycek. "Get a first aid kit!" The lieutenant thundered to get a kit as the boots of the ensign ran up the rung staircase and to the form of the injured captain. The lieutenant dropped the med kit with a thud before storming off. Ian looked at the lieutenant, obviously annoyed. "Gee, thanks," he said indignantly. He took out a medical scanner.
"Sir," he said after a while, "you're injuries are a little worse than I thought..." He seemed reluctant to say. Lochley looked at the young man, obviously noting it was truly his first assignment. "C'mon, Alex," she coaxed, "tell me what's wrong. I'm a captain; I've seen the face of death more than once." It was true; especially the time she spent with Gideon. The Lorkans trying to kill them and the Sacred Omega...the man was dangerous.
"But..." he blubbered but she silenced him with a chop of her hand as she gazed coolly at him, obviously giving him the sign that it was an order. He sighed; she wasn't going to like the news. He pressed his lips together before stating, "Internal bleeding to your side and a broken hip..." He paused, blinking away some painful memory before continuing. "I don't know how long I can keep you alive."
She nodded in acknowledgement. To see death in the eye...just beautiful. Ah...she prayed to God himself that her crew would live on after she was gone. Then, as the ensign left for some more bandages, a tear began to form from the corner of her eye. Matt...she wasn't going to be able to see him for another while or so, since he was out trying to ffind a cure for the plague. This was crazy, pathetic, barely adequate. And now she was lying moments away from her death to meet her maker.
"We've got a drakh ship on our starport bow," Ensign Arnold Delany reported.
Lochley let in a harsh breath. This was it. Another blast, this time a death throw rocked the ship. The emergancy klaxons were still on but now wildly screaming like banshees as consols exploded and ringed with gold tacts and static. Explosions and fog whipped the air as officers fell to the rung floor.
Her heart was exploding from all the chaos. Finally, as the noise and the fog level dropped, she opened her eyes. She wasn't dead, but she didn't know if she was alive. Or much if anyone was alive. She staggered to her feet and felt a surge of pain; the blood inside was weighing against her. Oh, she was thankful at least that some damage happened to her; that way she wouldn't have to have that stupid meeting with the interstellar alliance.
She lost control of her legs and slammed back onto the floor, her head slamming hard on a consol on her way to the floor. Uch. She could feel some blood pouring down from her temples as her eyes fluttered aimlessly. Sounds, like a ship. Oh, she knew that sound all too well. Earthforce ships tended to have a certain ring to it...someone had answered the distress call! They were going to live! Babylon 5 wouldn't be torn down to pieces of molecules after all.
The captain's hopes dropped; she was lying on the bridge of her station with internal bleeding, hemmrage and a bleeding scalp. Beautiful. Who knows how long it'll take before emergancy medical teams get on board the station? She wasn't going to live after all. At least she could give Commander Corwin, her executive officer, that damned promotion that he wanted ever since he became a first officer. Hotshot.
As she gazed into the ceiling, she began to wonder if anyone would remember her. Of course, after all, they remembered the first commander of this station, Commander Sinclair. Then of course they'll remember Lochley. Maybe. She wasn't sure. As the ceiling filtered her brain with the patterns, she prayed at least an angel would swoop her up from falling...
"Drakh ships are leaving the vacinity," Matheson reported as the Excalibur glided into Babylon 5 controls. He began to run a scan of the station before turning. "The station has been evacuated, sir," he reported. "Station intergrity still intact, but barely. Loss of energy capsules on all weapon decks and we've got severe damage to the hull and some hull breaches the enviormental systems couldn't plug up."
"Looks like the station put up one hell of a fight," Gideon observed from his chair. Scorched hulls, wearied gunpower...Gideon was afraid of even looking inside the station. The casualties would be even more devastating.
"Yes sir."
Gideon brushed his hair back. What were the chances that there was anyone on board the station alive? He knew Lochley's moves; he knew she would have evacuated all civilians and left the personnel on board to try to make sure all the pods were away from danger. He would have done it himself. "Personnel?" he asked.
"I'm recieving around 5000 Earthforce personnel," he replied. "About two thirds are wounded as far as my scanners can tell." A note in his first officer's voice was trembling in shock and sorrow. Matheson was no fool; he has seen alot himself, in the PsiCorps.
Captain Gideon nodded in acknowledgement and studied the station for a brief moment. "I want you to take out all scout ships and recover the life pods," Gideon ordered. "I also want landing troops to scout the planet. Contact Dr. Chambers and tell her we're going to the station. You have the bridge, Lieutenant."
"We, sir?" he clarified in question.
Matthew sighed. "I have to see someone on board to see if she's still intact," he stated bluntly. Matheson raised a brow in suspicion but said nothing, obvious sign that he knew why he was going over; Lochley. The lieutenant chuckled to himself as he turned around. "If I have known better," he said to his captain, "I'd say you have gotten fond of her."
"What's that suppose to mean, Matheson?"
Matheson shook his head, still smiling. "It means," he said slowly, "that something came up between the two of you. When you met her on Mars, you were obviously stressed over her striking apporach and now you want to check on her? Hmm, one of these days..." He continued to work on the orders. "Sir, we're off by one man fighter. Tyle seemed to have a shore leave..."
"Is there anyone avalible at the current time?" Gideon asked.
Matheson turned around. "There is one person in mind..."
"You want me to fly a fighter?" The question was obvious as a surprised Trace Miller was sipping some coffee. The man was a hell of a pilot but apparently felt like a yo-yo at times for being avalible all the time. Gideon was across him, also drinking some coffee. He shrugged as he offered him a hand. "C'mon, Trace," he coaxed, "you're one hell of a pilot. We need someone to track down pods that escaped the attack."
"Who told you I was avalible?" Trace asked suspisiously.
"Dosen't matter," he replied quickly. "We're only asking you to drive one in search for the life pods that escaped the damnable fight bab5 put up with. C'mon Trace, we need a winger here. Lives, flying a Starfury. What do you say, Trace?" He sipped some coffee, but his eyes never left Trace's as he fumbled at the coffee mug.
"Okay," he replied slowly.
Gideon nodded. He knew Trace wouldn't pull down on an offer like that. "Matheson will be in command of Alpha Leader. You're his wingman." "Beautiful," he remarked sarcastically. Gideon ignored the hint of sacasm. "Dr. Chambers and Galen and Dureena will be taking the landing scouts and Mr. Eilerson and I will be taking another scout to the command deck for recovery teams."
"You and Mr. Eilerson," Trace mused. "Dosen't sound like a good team you've got there, Captain." He bemused a grin and looked down at his steaming cup. "Wherever there's trouble, usually the name "eilerson" pops into your head. But...it's up to you." He sipped whatever it was from his suppose-to-be coffee mug.
Gideon hesitated, thinking. He was right. The hell he was right. Max was like his evil double, the ego the size of the entire galactic core, his mouth as big as the entire ship. He was always quipping but smart. Why the hell did he need him at all in the first place?
"Nah," he replied with a sheepish and bitter grin, "I think I'll take Dureena instead. That way, Max's ego won't smother me while I try to find the command crew of Babylon 5." Trace nodded in his brass decision as he took a sip of that stuff, thinking to himself of the entire idea. "My, my, will Dr. Chambers be surprised," he mused at his captain's decision. And at that moment, Gideon wished he could smack the guy.
"You! Out of all the people I have on the ship, the captain put you?!" Chambers was indeed disappointed and was fuming out all her fustrations with Max. Not only did she have to work with him two thirds of the day to find the damned cure, but now she has him on her team?! There was a time he could've frailed that damned galactic ego of his.
Max shrugged as he pulled on the jacket. Regulations said that before boarding a vessel, he should at least have himself in check. His collegues remained on boards; what was there to pick around in an independant station anyhow?
"Tell me exactly," Chambers said, her mouth in a twisted frown. "How on earth did the captain decide for you to go?" Max shrugged; he wasn't sure himself. "The captain thought that since I am an archaeologist as well who finds himself to dig alot," he stated, zippinng up his vest, "I might as well help you."
"You can start by shutting up."
"Will do."
Chambers turned to the rest of her team. "Okay, team, listen up!" she hollered. Silence claimed them. "Okay, once we board the station, the first thing we do is to search for survivors. Find them, load them and then ship them to their Medlab, is that understood?"
"Yes, doctor," they murmured.
"Proceed."
She swung her enviormental pack onto her back and ushed her crew out the doors and to the shuttle bays. Behind her trotted Max. She sighed as she rubbed her temples wearily at the fact she was tugging along her most annoying counterpart of this entire rescue mission. Max Eilerson. Him, out of all the people on the ship.
Oh, this was going to be a long day.