Chapter Six
Turning the Tide With One Press of the Trigger
Whitestar 214
January 24, 2271
9:40pm Earth Standard Time
"What the HELL are they doing," yelled John Sheridan, who was still shocked at the ship that jumped in and started attacking the fleet. Now they were heading straight to the Shadow Planet Killer, and it looked to him like a suicide run.
Delenn's ship linked in and she appeared on the main screen to her husband. "John," she said, "Susan's on board that ship, and so is Loughley!"
"What! Why the hell are they on that ship," replied a flabbergasted Sheridan.
"Titans linked in and let me know what the situation is. Apparently the ship came through the temporal rift in Sector 14 back in Babylon 5 space, and Ivanova gave them the star charts to help with the battle."
Sheridan looked down at his panel, trying to take in the situation. He
turned to his executive officer on board the ship and commanded,
"Contact that ship. I want to know what they plan on doing."
Drennier tried to contact the ship, but could not make contact. "Sorry, sir. Unable to reach them. I'll try to reach her personal link for you."
Sheridan nodded, then looked back at the battle going on outside his ship. Many Whitestars had already been destroyed, as well as several Minbari cruisers and destroyers. Yet, this one ship was responsible for over two third of the destroyed Drakh fleet, and Sheridan still could not believe the image of that ship's beam weapons slicing through the Drakh vessels like a hot knife through butter.
Drennier got a communication and informed President Sheridan, "Sir, still trying to get a link to Ivanova and Loughley, but I do have a positive ID of the ship from the Titans. According the them, the ship's named the Yamato, and, according to XO LaCoste, she's not EarthForce."
Sheridan looked away for a second, then turned back to his XO, "There has to be an explanation for all this. Keep trying to get those two."
"Yes, sir! Wait a sec, sir. Sensors picking up a massive buildup of energy on board the Yamato."
"What? Put me through on an open channel to that ship!"
Drennier did so, and Sheridan spoke to the vessel, "This is President John Sheridan of the Interstellar Alliance to the Yamato. Come in, Yamato!"
Drennier looked back down at his console and shook his head, "Ten seconds until it goes critical."
Sheridan's voice grew desperate. "SUSAN! ELIZABETH! GET OFF THAT SHIP," he yelled.
Then the space in front of the ship went white with light.
Space Battleship Yamato
January 24, 2271
9:50pm
Derek Wildstar took out the trigger to the wave motion gun and maneuvered the arm of the device to right in front of him to get a visual fix on the target.
"One minute to firing. Everyone put on safety goggles."
Nova rushed over to Ivanova and Loughley and handed them each a pair of dark shaded goggles. "Hurry. Put these on, because when the wave motion gun goes off, the light will be blinding."
Ivanova and Loughley nodded and quickly placed the goggles on their heads and over their eyes. They looked at each other in the dim light on the bridge, and felt the shudder of the Drakh weapons slamming into the ship, apparently to little effect. They were taking damage, sure, but the hull had yet to be breached, and Ivanova had made the calculation that most of the ships she knew of would have been breached long before this.
"Ten seconds to firing...9...8...7"
Ivanova and Loughley held each other's hand as they looked on. Ivanova quickly whispered, "If this goes wrong, see you in the next life."
Loughley nodded and said nothing as the countdown continued, "3...2...1...Fire!"
Suddenly, the ship lurched, and they could feel the energy surging within Yamato. Then the sky went white.
Whitestar 176
January 24, 2271
9:52pm
Delenn looked on as the she watched as the front of the Yamato began to glow at the opening. For a brief second, she thought it was some sort of beam weapon port or something, but she dismissed it off as she asked herself why a port would be that big.
Shaneen looked down at her panel and her eyes went wide, and the Ranger yelled out, "Delenn! Massive energy buildup on board that ship! Ten seconds until it goes critical! Switching panel to proton screening mode!"
The screen went noticeably darker, but the glow from the front of the ship continued to build.
Delenn whispered, "In Valen's name.," as tears stung her eyes, expecting her two friends to die in mere seconds.
The flash of blinding light came, and Delenn reflexively shielded her eyes from the glow. She lost her balance and fell down onto the floor.When she looked back up, she expected to see the Yamato gone and the Shadow planet killer still there, but her eyes went wide when the Yamato was still there and the Shadow planet killer was blowing up before her.. Her jaw dropped as she watched the massive device, designed to encircle her homeworld and surround it, then send fusion bombs spiraling down and drilling into the planet's surface, then detonating at the same time,ripping apart her world, being destroyed in one fell swoop by a single blast from that ship.
Sheridan linked over, "My God, Delenn, did you see that? How did they do it?"
Delenn relied, "I don't know, but I think we should go aboard and find out how they did it."
Space Battleship Yamato
January 24, 2271
10:00pm
Ivanova and Loughley were both sweating from the heat generated inside the ship by the buildup of wave motion energy. Despite her uniform being soaked, she was impressed at the way they could insulated the ship from most of the heat from the energy.
Nova came over and checked on them, asking them, "Are you two ok? The first time experiencing this can be overwhelming. But you did better than others have."
Ivanova and Loughley nodded and slowly unbuckled their seat belts, then slowly got up from their chairs. They both walked over to the window looking out into space and were astonished at the sight of the Shadow planet killer being consumed by both the wave motion gun blast and the detonation of the myriad of nuclear weapons inside the device.
"My God. We did that? It seems so unreal, " Ivanova said, in a low tone.
Derek chuckled and stood up from his chair to stretch his legs. Mark Venture stood up as well and patted him on the back, saying, "Good shot, Derek!"
"Thanks, Venture! I wasn't sure where exactly to hit it, but at least the job is accomplished.," replied Derek, who then turned to his radar tech, Christopher Eager, and asked, "What's the status of the Drakh fleet, Eager?"
Eager scanned his console, then turned to Derek, "What's left of it has turned tail and fled. As far as I could tell, there was only a couple of dozen ships left, and about a hundred fighters."
Derek briskly nodded and noticed that his communications officer, Homer, was busy with something on his console. "Homer, are we getting a communication?"
Homer looked up and nodded to his superior officer, replying, "Yes, sir. There are separate messages being sent by someone named Delenn and Sheridan, and they are asking to come aboard."
Ivanova stepped forward to Derek and said, "I know these people, and you can trust them. Let them board."
Derek nodded and turned back to Homer, "Homer, send them an affirmative reply and tell the launch bay to get ready for them."
Homer nodded briskly and went to work.
Derek turned back to Ivanova and Loughley and asked, "Are you two alright?"
Loughley replied, "After seeing that, I think I feel a whole lot better about things," and smiled.
The crewmembers on the bridge, as well as Ivanova, burst out laughing, breaking the tension.