CHAPTER 7

LAST FLIGHT OF THE LEGACY

I smirked at the two people before me, both in rags, clinging to each other like superglue.

"We can come back later, if you want." I said mildly as I put the cannon back on to it's stand on my leg.

The man was the first one to speak, "Who…who are you?" he asked in a thickly Russian accent.

"Commander Daniel Kennedy Dearing, First Officer of the R.L.S Legacy, at your service" I said with a bow and a kindly smile, "Or your saviour, one of the two,"

The woman blinked, "Your Daniel Dearing?"

I looked at her curiously, "Have we met?"

The woman shook her head, "No, but the Army knows your mother. Around seven years ago she apparently tried to rally all the armed forces in the world to try and find you. Didn't get very far though," she looked down in thought, "Kept rambling on about how you were mad and had married a cat. Or something like that. She was dismissed as being a lunatic."

"I didn't marry a cat," I said tightly, "I married a feline."

The woman blinked, "Oh so she was right, you are mad then?"

Peter chuckled as he came round and lent on the doorframe, "No he's not mad. His wife's and evolved feline. Quite pretty if I do say so myself."

I regarded Armstrong out of the corner of my eye, to which he winked, before giving a cocky grin at the stunned looking Russian.

"Why Volenski, I must say this is the best I've seen you in ages," he said with a hint of sarcasm, "You look great and you've got yourself a girlfriend. Will you never cease to amaze me? Susan Walden too! My, your looking radiant this evening! I always knew you two would get together."

Volenski stood up slowly with his companion hesitantly, hardly daring to believe it.

"Peter?"

"The one and only Mikhail!"

"But how did you…"

"The Enterprise saved us," Jenny said with a smile as she came up next to me.

"But what are you…"

"Geez, you try and save a person's life and what do you get? Zip, bupkiss, nuffin' " Armstrong sighed in mock agitation, throwing his arms up for emphasis.

"Stow it Doctor," I said sternly, while Jenny giggled uncontrollably, "Can we save the mushy reunion for later? In case you didn't realise, we're in the middle of a high security base, which is swarming with Procyons, and any minute they'll probably realise…"

Suddenly alarms blared as the lights in the hallway dimmed to red.

"That we're already…here," I sighed.

I suddenly saw a flurry of fur as our prisoners escaped from Silver and ran down the hallway, leaving the old Cyborg unconscious.

"Ah great," I muttered furiously as I brought out both my pistols, "Armstrong, Jenny, you'll have to drag Silver back to the longboat."

"Drag him?" Gasped Peter,

"All the way back to the Longboat!" Jenny groaned.

"What do you want us to do, leave him here?" glared at hem, the red of my cybernetic eye making them flinch, "I know the guys a pain in the ass, but he's our pain in the ass. So take him and deal with it. You two," I indicated to Volenski and Walden as they looked up at me, "I'm sorry I'm ordering you about but we have to move. Can you walk?"

Volenski nodded, "Yes Commander, I don't think Susan can though."

"Carry her," I said flatly as I looked around the corner of the corridor.

"What?"

"You know carry? Pick up? Take with you? Any of this ringing a bell?"

Volenski was about to reply when suddenly bight blue plasma fire suddenly ricocheted down the corridor, black scorch marks scarring the shining white wall.

"We have to go Mikhail," Walden whispered frantically while I picked off a few guards down the hallway as they tried to advance, "So make like a coffee to go and Pick-me-up!"

Mikhail blinked, before nodding and scooping the young woman up in his arms.

"What are we going to do?" Jenny asked frantically as she and Peter dragged Silver over to us, his large face drooping down, his feet dragging along the floor, "This is a dead-end corridor! What are we going to do?"

"Anyone see a garbage shoot?" Peter asked as he actually looked around.

He looked up to see us staring at him in disbelief.

"What?"

"No more Star Wars for you," I smirked as I picked off another soldier.

I shook my head as I pulled back. More and more Procyons swarmed into the corridor.

"We don't have time for this," I muttered with agitation as I holstered my Pistols.

"Daniel what are you doing?" Jenny whispered frantically as I suddenly stepped out into the middle of the corridor.

"Whoa, hey guys," I said as I put my hands up above my head, "Don't shoot," I said as the Procyons stopped mid rampage, "I don't wanna hurt you,"

"Empire scum!" The leader spat from the end of the corridor, "Who do you think you are?"

"Who are you then?" I asked sharply, "That's my question to you sir?"

The Procyon smiled as he stroked his whiskers.

He was obviously the one in charge, seeing his clothes appeared to be decorated more.

"I am Captain Leinad Noycorp of the P.S.R Ice-Fist, and conqueror of the Terran system.

"Is that so?" I said with a fake smile, "And there I was thinking your name was Larry, you look like a Larry."

Noycorp's eyes narrowed. "How dare you insult me. Who are you anyway?"

I bowed to him low, "I am Captain Sassy pants of H.M.S Dimwit," I said as I changed my cybernetic hand into it's most deadly form, "Oh sorry, my mistake, that's you isn't it?"

And before he could reply the Cannon was onto my arm again, making the Procyon's flinch.

"Now, Shut up and DANCE!"

Setting my cannon to heavy stun, I suddenly aimed at the floor and promptly shot at the Soldier's feet, making them jump back.

"Don't just stand there!" Noycorp bellowed as his men were mowed down by my cannon, "Kill him, KILL HIM, KILL HIM!"

But they couldn't. in their efforts to try and escape, most of them were being pushed to the floor, causing them to be caught in my line of fire, leaving them in a crumpled heap in my wake.

By the time I got to the end of the corridor, Noycorp was gone, his soldiers laying strewn over the corridor floor.

"Are…they dead? Walden asked uncertainty as she gazed at a nearby soldier.

I smiled grimly as I looked down the corridor to see if I could find Noycorp, "Nah, just out-cold. If there's one thing I hate, it's unnecessary death."

I sighed in anguish, "Damm, Noycorp's gone. We got to get back to the Legacy. Knowing guys like him he'll alert the fleet to our presence, and there's a hell of a lot of ships out there."

"Did you get them?" Amelia asked impatiently as I strode up to the Bridge.

"Yeah I got them," I said quietly as I took my position beside my captain, "They're a little beaten up, but aside from that they'll survive."

"Casualties?"

"Silver was knocked out by a Procyon, but aside from that we're all O.K."

Amelia smirked, and gave my hand a quick squeeze, "Very well. Mr. Hawkins, set a course back for Montressor."

"Uh, Captain?" Jim said hesitantly as Morph suddenly turned into a miniature of the thing he was staring at, "I think we have a problem."

I looked out to the stars, only to steal a glance at Amelia in anguish.

Procyon ships, around a hundred Ice-Fist class vessels, surrounded the Legacy, their Nova Mortar Cannons rolled out and painfully obvious.

"Damm," I said through gritted teeth, "They must have tracked the Longboat."

"Calm yourself Commander," the Captain soothed, placing a hand on my tense shoulder, "It wasn't your fault,"

I relaxed, relived that she didn't blame me. I was about to reply when Armstrong ran up to the Bridge, Jenny following, a piece of paper clenched in his fist.

"CAPTAIN! COMMANDER!" he shouted frantically, "Morse just got a message from Noycorp! He says he'll give us five standard minutes to make our peace with whatever gods we worship before he fires!"

"Damm Procyons!" Amelia swore, "Always so cocky. That's what's so annoying about them."

"We don't have many options," I muttered, my telescope in my eye out, moving so fast it was almost a blur, "the Nova Mortar was designed to make sure nothing got out of it's blast radius. It doesn't look like…wait!"

I focussed in on the gap between two of the ships.

"If we blast those two ships," I said quickly pointing them out, "We can blow an opening and, with any luck, knock the other ships, throwing off their targeting, like a domino effect."

Amelia looked at the two ships, weighing our options.

Finally she nodded, "Very well Daniel, you may proceed," She chuckled slightly, "it's not like we have much of a choice."

I smiled grimly, "Thank you Captain. ALL GUNNERS MAN YOUR STATIONS! YOUR TARGETS: THE TWO SHIPS DIRECTLY AHEAD. STAND BY TO FIRE ON MY MARK!"

The gunners nodded and ran to their Cannons, each aiming to the closest ship as I turned to Jim.

"Mr. Hawkins, stand bay for all head full. When I give the word, give it full throttle."

Jim nodded grimly, "Aye Commander."

I smiled at him before looking out ahead of us, "We're ready Captain,"

She nodded.

I looked at her for a moment, before deciding to tell her again, what I told her for seven years.

"Amelia," she looked up at me, her eyes betraying her emotions, "No matter what happens, in life, or in death. I love you, and always will."

She smiled up at me, her eyes having no hint of the commanding ones she had when I first met her.

"I could never love another man more then you Daniel. In this life or the next."

I smiled, before turning out to the deck, my face hard.

"GUNNERS STAND BY!" I bellowed as I raised my right hand.

I watched as Peter and Jenny held each other tightly for comfort.

I smiled again, knowing a new romance would blossom if we got out of this alive.

I looked and noticed that the enemies Mortars were powering up.

It was now or never.

Do or die.

"FIRE!" I roared as my hand came down.

The cannons went off one my one, each cannon firing off a purple ball of deadly plasma.

The cannon fire ripped though the Nova Mortar Cannon like paper. With nowhere to direct the energy, the Remains of the cannons overloaded blasting both ships to a million pieces.

"Go Jim GO!" I cried as the Legacy suddenly lurched forwards.

The resulting explosions threw the other ships off course as their mortars fired, sending them all over the place. Some of the ships collided with each other, resulting in them either blasting themselves to pieces, or throwing them out of control.

All the while the Legacy shot through the confusion, just as the Nova Mortars came down.

The ship was rocked about like a toy boat in a storm by the shockwaves of the deadly weapon.

The Ice-fists weren't so lucky.

Those which weren't in the heat of the explosions, were thrown out into deep space by the resulting shockwaves.

"We did it!" Jim cried happily as the rest of the crew cheered.

The cheering stopped abruptly as the ship was suddenly rocked by laser fire.

"we're not out of this yet!" I snarled as a small group of Procyon Gunboats suddenly screamed past, "GUNNERS FIRE AT WILL! Jim, Keep us on our heading full speed!"

"AYE AYE!" the crew shouted in reply.

The ship was rocked again and I caught a glance of a dorsal fin flying off.

"They're grouping up behind us Captain," Yadrif, our navigator called from his station.

"We have no weapons on the aft," Amelia whispered frantically, "It makes sense they would try and take us out from there."

I was about to reply when a roar of engines above my head came to my attention as a Procyon cutter flew in low, hitting the Mid-mast and sending it crashing to the deck.

"Engines at only 15 percent of capacity," Yadrif called out in fear as the other Dorsal fin flew off, "Any more and we'll be sitting ducks!"

"Right now, only our momentum is keeping us at full speed," Jim spat through gritted teeth.

"And that's not our only problem," Whispered Trent as he pointed shakily ahead.

A row of Procyon Man-O-War blockaded our only way out, boxing us in.

"That's it," Amelia whispered as the crew flew into chaos as the Mizzen sail crashed down and smashed one of the cannons, "We're dead."

"It would certainty appear that way." I whispered back as the blockade came ever closer.

Amelia couldn't take it any more. She almost literally threw herself into my arms, kissing me like no tomorrow.

"I love you Daniel," she whispered in my ear as we broke for a moment, "More than anything in the universe."

I gazed into her Emerald eyes, knowing they would probably be the last thing I would see.

But it wasn't.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a gateway erupted in a flurry of green.

We both looked at each other in amazement as the Legacy hurtled at breakneck speed.

"No," I whispered, "That's impossible,"

But it wasn't. As the Legacy passed though the gateway, the blackness of space was suddenly replaced by a almost sea blue sky, the empty oblivion below us replaced by the green of a grassy field, the Procyon blockade replaced by a range of snow-capped mountains in the distance.

I gazed around in wonder, but I had very little time to look as the planet's gravity suddenly took hold of the ship, pulling her into a dive.

"ALL HANDS, BRACE FOR IMPACT!" I roared as I shielded Amelia with my right arm, forcing Jim down as I did so.

The Legacy hit the ground with a sickening crunch as she ploughed her way across the meadow.

The once graceful bow splintered and shattered as the ship was forced onto one side.

I grabbed the Wheel for support as Jim slide down the slanting deck, Amelia catching him as he went by.

The Legacy was being torn apart as she continued to make her way, sending wood flying in all directions.

At the last moment, the once great, now battle scarred ship managed to turn, so now her hull was now full on.

With a sudden jolt and a crack the ship smashed herself across a large rock, almost splitting her in two, but bringing the onslaught to a stop with a sigh.

I suddenly felt weak as I hung there, a feeling of dampness across my chest.

As I looked down I realised a large hunk of wood had embedded itself in my chest, blood staining my uniform.

"Oh my," I murmured. I could feel the darkness clouding in on me, my vision getting foggy.

My fingers finally gave out on me and we dropped to the ground.

"My god Daniel!" Amelia cried as I fell onto all fours beside her, "Daniel, are you all right?"

I wanted to reply, but the pain was steadily increasing.

My arms gave way underneath me and I collapsed to the ground, only to be greeted by a pair of snow white boots.

I looked up from where I lay, to see a young girl, who looked no older than eighteen, standing in front of me, smiling kindly.

The darkness seemed to totally envelope me, I knew death was coming.

All the while the girl stood out against the darkness, shining white against the black. she kneeled down next to me, whispering a phrase thatseemed familiar.

"Ye Not Guilty."

Eventually though, she too began to disappear into the blackness, and as I died I whispered one word to the darkness.

"Fina."