Chapter 2
I shook my head violently, to clear out my thoughts more than to send that dedication. I tried not to think, to only watch my other crewmembers, also lost in thought, concentrating for the last few minutes of their lives on what was important to them.
The view screen no longer showed the alien face that glowed within the light that shone through the whole bulkhead, nor even the Blade ship that we were headed headlong into. Someone had aimed it in the opposite direction. I stared ahead at the stars whooshing past. For the longest time, I'd hated them. All my troubles had come from the stars. Now, though, I saw that it was really the civilizations around them that caused everything. The stars themselves, they were beautiful no matter how terrible the alien races that called those stars "home."
I couldn't help but smile as I thought, what some people wouldn't give to see this right now. Well, I amended, maybe not the 'right now' part, because it would take a suicidal maniac to want to pay for the next few moments.
If I hadn't been looking at the screen right then, I might've missed it. "It" being a huge, lumbering ship that popped out of Z-space headed right for us.
"Where did that come from?"
For a moment, everything in the bridge went haywire. Lights flickering, somewhere the sound of sparks. In a fraction of a second, everything went back to normal
Then Santorelli reported what he saw on his computer readout. "Captain, progress toward the target is slowing, and the rate of the slowdown is only increasing. The new vessel will hit us far sooner. Any second now."
With dismay, I stared blankly at the screen that I had been looking at with an almost-grin just a moment ago.
The crash was sudden. I went to sit in the captain's chair only to find myself redirected into the station in front of me headfirst. The last thing I remember thinking was, This is so wrong. What happened? What could this all possibly be?