"I choose….. TO FIGHT!" Ranak said, as he slammed his hand down on a console, triggering the launch of what was left of the Prowlers missiles.
The Admiral quickly ran from Command. He knew that Ranak wouldn't surrender. He also knew that the Prowler was a doomed ship, and if there was anything he knew, it was that it wasn't a good idea to stay on a doomed ship.
Harper saw the missiles coming and quickly linked with Eternity. What her sensors detected, he could now see and feel. It was as if HE was the ship. Eternity's engines became a part of him. He could feel them as they hummed, operating perfectly inside of him. He knew how much stress they could take, and what they could perform. As the missiles drew closer. Harper easily guided his new metallic form of a star ship out of the way avoiding all of the approaching missiles,…
Except for one.
There was no time to maneuver. Harper knew the last enemy missile was going to hit. He knew that Eternity was nearly indestructible, but he still didn't like the idea of getting hit.
"Brace for impact!" Eternity announced. Seconds later they felt it hit, as they were thrown about Eternity's Command Deck.
Harper managed to stay in his command seat, but was shaken a bit.
"Eternity! Report!"
No Response.
Harper looked around and noticed that Eternity's hologram had apparently went offline as well.
"Eternity?" Harper tried again.
He still got no answer.
"Harper." Rommie said. "That missile was apparently loaded with a new highly explosive and penetrating warhead. We've lost engines and targeting systems. Eternity has activated an automated systems diagnostic program. She will be offline for several minutes."
"That's not possible!" Harper exclaimed. "She's supposed to be indestructible"
"She's not destroyed Harper." Trance said. "Just slightly damaged."
"Yeah, but with us unable to maneuver, or shoot back," Harper said, "we're sitting ducks, and those Ubers won't wait till we're up and running again before they try to attack again."
"They can't attack." Rommie said. "They fired all they had at us that last time."
"Then I better get down to Engineering and try to get those engines working again." Harper said. "Rommie, You have Command while I'm gone."
"Thank you Harper." Rommie said. "And Harper,… Good luck."
"Thanks Rom Doll."
When Harper got to Engineering, he was surprised at what he found. Things didn't look as bad as what he had expected. It would still take several hours to get the engines back up and running, but that's faster than what he thought it would take.
Harper quickly got to work on the Engines, while Rick attempted to get weapons back online.
The Nietzchean ship was much worse off than Eternity. Almost half the Prowler's crew were lost to the vacuum of space in Eternity's first attack. Emergency doors came crashing down to prevent other decks from decompressing. Many that did survive, were badly injured, and with internal communications still down it was becoming even more chaotic.
Somewhere down the corridors, ran Admiral Stark, desperately searching for an escape pod. Not very brave of him, but he was only half Nietzchean, and besides, Nietzcheans did have an inner drive to survive. Unable to find an escape pod, he ran toward the hangar deck, where his slipfighter was docked. He only hoped that part of the ship was still intact.
On the Prowler's Command Deck, Captain Ranak watched as Eternity was unable to evade the final missile. He was slightly surprised and disappointed that the ship wasn't destroyed. Their new experimental warhead had already been tested many times, and there wasn't a ship built with tough enough armor to survive even one direct hit. It was designed to be a ship-killer. However, when Eternity failed to retaliate, he knew that the hit wasn't a complete failure. Unfortunately, that missile was the last one of it's kind, and he didn't have the luxury of time to wait for his engineers to construct another.
"Julius." Ranak said. "What do the sensors say regarding the Kludge's ship?"
"The enemy vessel's engines and targeting systems are both offline." Julius confirmed. "But it is only a matter of time before they are able to bring them back online."
"And we, being out of ammunition, are unable to take advantage of their unfortunate predicament?"
"Yes captain." Julius answered. "Should I open a slip portal, so that we can flee to safety? Our slipstream drive was undamaged in the battle."
"FLEE!" Ranak shouted. "YOU WANT ME TO FLEE! FROM A KLUDGE!"
"I'm sorry captain, but under the circumstances, if we wait here till they become fully operational, they'll destroy us."
"Tell me Julius. Are you afraid to die?" Captain Ranak asked, as he slowly walked closer to the now very nervous Nietzchean officer.
"Captain! No Captain!" Julius announced as he snapped to attention.
"Neither am I Julius." Ranak said coldly. "And I'd rather die than to admit that a Kludge beat me in battle. If our only means of survival is to run from a Kludge Julius, what kind of honor would we have amongst our fellow Nietzcheans? We would be a disgrace! As for you ever finding a mate that would accept you, forget it! What female would want someone that ran away from a Kludge? No Julius, the only way that we can leave here with honor is to die here, taking that Kludge and his ship with us."
"Set a course for the enemy vessel!" Ranak shouted. "RAMMING SPEED!"
The Prowler maneuvered so that she was on a collision course with Eternity, as her engines were brought up to maximum.
On board Eternity, Rommie observed as the enemy ship began to move.
"Harper!" Rommie announced over the com system. "You better hurry up. Our friends out there are becoming restless."
"I'm working as fast as I can Rom Doll, but there's no way these engines will be fully functional in less than two hours. One and a half tops."
"Then I think you better try to get them less than fully functional Harper, because that ship is now on a collision course with us."
"A collision course?" Harper asked. "That's ridiculous! Ubers are supposed to be all about survival."
"Yes." Rick said, entering the discussion. "But they are also about honor. If he were to flee from, pardon me for saying, a Kludge, then how do you think he would look in the eyes of other Alphas?"
"Not very good." Harper admits. "But that still doesn't change the fact that I can't fix these engines in time."
"Perhaps if you stopped talking and started working Harper." Rommie said.
"I'm working, I'm working!" Harper shouted over the Com system.
"But there's no way these engines can be repaired in time." Harper said to himself. "How could we have come so close, only for it to end like this?"
Harper worked frantically, trying to get the engines online. He was bypassing everything he could think of that he could safely bypass in order to try and get the engines online more quickly, and some things that weren't very safe to be bypassing.
Rommie, unable to do anything else, watched as the Prowler drew closer.
"Rick." Rommie called.
Rick was busy trying to get the weapons back online. He knew if Haper was unable to fix the engines in time, weapons were the only other thing that could save them. Unfortunately, Harper had a better chance of repairing the engines in time than he did of getting weapons restored. He continued working, as he replied to Rommie's call.
"Yes Rommie." Rick answered. "What do you need? I'm a little busy down here."
"Sorry Rick. I was just wondering how those weapons were coming along."
Rick let out a sigh.
"Not good Rommie." Rick replied sadly. "Even with these android arms of mine, I don't think there's anyway weapons will be back online before that ship impacts with Eternity."
"Understood." Rommie said, and cut the com link.
Rommie looked at Trance.
"Trance? Tell me Things are going to be ok."
"Rommie, I'm sorry, but… I really don't know. I never saw this, none of this. We were supposed to make it to Earth Rommie."
"Then, Perhaps there is still hope." Rommie said, as she once again looked at the main screen to see the ship even closer than before.
"If nothing happens to stop that ship," Rommie said. "It will impact with Eternity in less than four minutes. Trance…. You might want to be with Harper."
"No Rommie. He needs to do this. If I go down there, I'd only be a distraction."
"Trance," Rommie said. "I want you to know that I consider you and Harper my two closest friends, and it's been an honor to know you and to serve with you."
Trance Hugged Rommie and said, "Thanks, but don't start talking like this is the end, ok? This can't be the end."
"I'm sorry Trance, but our chances don't look to good at the moment."
While the Eternity's crew worked zealously to restore Eternity's systems, Captain Ranak stood on the Prowler's Command deck, and watched as the image of Eternity became larger and larger on the view screen.
"Captain?" Julius asked. "Uh,… Are you sure about this?"
Beads of sweat had formed on his brow. Truth be told, he had no desire to die, but he couldn't go against his captain. His only hope was that the captain would come to his senses and realize that, in life there would always be a chance to redeem one's honor. There were only seconds left before they would all die.
"Are you having second thoughts Julius?"
"Captain?" Julius said. "Aren't you?"
"Truthfully, I did give a thought to turning from our course, and leaving the area. I would naturally lose my position as captain as soon as my superiors found out what happened here. I would then have to seek employment elsewhere, but who would hire someone that was afraid of a Kludge? So I would change my name, maybe become a mercenary, and cut all ties with my family, which would have disowned me anyhow. But Julius, this won't just disgrace us if we flee. It would bring dishonor to our families. Is that something you want to do?"
"No sir. I don't." The words that his captain spoke convinced him that this was truly the only answer. They could survive, but at what cost. "For the honor of our families Captain. I'm with you."
------------------------------------
On board Andromeda, Becka was concentrating on the slipstream and at the same time thinking about her friends.
"Becka." Dylan said. "How are you doing?"
"No problem Dylan." She replied. "It's not like I was taking us to Tarn Vedra."
"Andromeda?" Dylan asked. "How much longer till we reach Earth's system?"
"Approximately two minutes Dylan."
"Then I think it's time we go to battle stations . We don't know what we'll find when we exit slipstream, so we'd better be prepared for the worst."
"Sounding battle stations." Andromeda said, and immediately her voice began calling every crewmen to battle stations.
A short time later Becka announces, "Exiting slipstream in 3... 2... 1..."
Andromeda's Command crew was immediately shocked by what they saw once they exited slipstream.