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In A Different Time
Chapter 3: Asteroids, Krill, and Quesadillas

There was an explosion behind them. The ship rocked and the bridge crew gripped tightly to various pieces of equipment and chairs, trying to stay put. Ed himself practically pitched forward. But he kept put in the captain's chair. He gritted his teeth and shook his head. This wasn't going very well. Their shield was almost destroyed. "Damnit, we need to get them off our ass. Engineering!" He called, pressing the communication buttons on his keypad.

"Yeah?" Answered a voice.

"The shield can't take another hit like that." He said.

"Yeah, we know." The man answered. "Working on it, Captain."

"Can you repair it?" Ed asked.

"No, sir." The man answered quickly. "Not without taking it offline."

"How long?"

There was a pause. "5 minutes, minimum. Probably closer to 10 to get it back to 100%."

Ed nodded and glanced at Gordon. "Okay. Do that. Divert all power to the engines."

"Uh... okay." The voice said, a bit shakily. "Will do."

"Gordon... uh... Helmsman Malloy." Ed correctly quickly. "I want you to get us away from them. Keep us out of range of their weapons for at least 10 minutes."

A smile spread across Gordon's face as he turned back to his terminal. "All power to the engines. Here we go." He glanced sideways at the Navigator beside him. "This is so cool!" He whispered to her.

"Don't talk to me." She said, not lifting her eyes off her terminal. A pretty humanoid, with light purple skin and darker purple hair.

Gordon nodded slowly. "Sure." His fingers started flying over his terminal, his eyes never leaving the viewing screen. The ship turned upwards tightly and made a tight circle around the Krill battle cruiser. Gordon may be a lot of things. Alcoholic, immature, dimwitted, juvenile, and loud where a few such words used by various people in the last 24 hours alone. But when it came down to his job, to his love of steering the ship, he had laser focus and amazing abilities that couldn't be surpassed by anyone. There were reasons he was the best in his class, despite his other less than appealing attributes. "I call this Hugging the Donkey." He said as they continued to make the sharp circles.

The Navigator beside him, Alluette, rolled her eyes and shook her head. "There's a asteroid field up ahead." She said. "Be careful. We're drifting closer."

"Oh that's cool!" Gordon said with a wide smile. "That'll work."

She turned to frown at him. "What will work?"

Gordon smiled as he changed tactics. He pulled away from the Kill ship and turned them towards the asteroid field. Then he gunned the engines towards it.

Ed's eyes widened. "Gordon! What the hell are you doing?"

Gordon leaned back slightly and glanced over his shoulder. "Trust me! I have a plan." He said, not slowing.

"A plan." Ed repeated in a mocking tone, rolling his eyes.

"Pay attention!" Alluette snapped from beside him. She reached over and thumped Gordon in the back of the head. "Eyes on the road!"

Gordon snapped back towards her and glared. "No hitting!" He said. "Plus I'm awesome. I got this."

"You're not even looking!" She snapped.

"I'm looking enough." He countered.

Ed shook his head. "Helmsman Malloy, please take this seriously."

Gordon rolled his eyes and shook his head as he looked back at the viewing screen. What the hell? Since when did Ed not trust him? He was totally taking this seriously! Gordon knew exactly what he was doing as he weaved the ship through the very tight field. He swerved around the asteroids, as close as he could to them. The Krill battle cruiser was still behind them, but they slowed down significantly. A few small asteroids collided with their ship and Gordon smiled. The union ships were more agile. He knew what he was doing. Then he suddenly banked right sharply. "Kill the lights." He said, opening the channel to engineering. "Kill everything for a minute."

"Say what?" The voice asked.

"Do it." Ed said with a sigh. He didn't sound too thrilled about it. And he wasn't. He had no clue what Gordon was planning.

"Sure thing."

A few seconds later, the whole ship went dark. Gordon leaned farther over his terminal as he slowed the ship down to practically nothing. They were barely coasting along. He turned them again and they pulled alongside a rather large asteroid. It was easily twice the size of the ship and effectively hid it.

"The Krill ship passed us." Alluette said in disbelief. She shook her head and leaned over her terminal. "I'm going to scramble our frequency."

Gordon leaned back in his seat, smiling. He folded his arms behind his head, looking rather pleased with himself. "Told you I got it."

She rolled her eyes. "We're hiding." She said flatly. "That isn't a plan. They'll come back."

"I got a plan." Gordon reiterated.

"Yeah?" Ed said loudly from his seat. "What?"

"Trust me, Ed." Gordon said.

"Captain." Ed corrected sourly.

Gordon frowned again, watching Ed in the very dim emergency bridge lights. He could feel the tension. From the moment they stepped on the bridge. Actually, from the moment they stepped off the elevator earlier. Ed hadn't waited for him the hall. Ed hadn't even looked at him! Not once since they left the elevator and weaved through the halls. And on the bridge, Ed was acting as if Gordon was just some lowly green Ensign, who didn't know anything. "I can't do this." Gordon lifted his hands, rather dramatically, and spun around fully in his chair. "Ed!"

"Captain." Ed corrected again.

Gordon shook his head as he stood up. He stepped closer to Ed, striding across the bridge.

Ed frowned for a moment and straightened up in his seat. "Helmsman Malloy, back to your station." He said, his voice cracking a bit.

Gordon ignored him. "I only said what I said in the elevator cuz I thought you were freaking out."

Ed's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open slightly. "We uh... can discuss that matter later, Helmsman Malloy. Return to your station."

"No!" Gordon said, stepping closer.

"Gordon..."

"No." He hissed lowly. "Fuck this."

Ed's eyes widened more. "Gordon!"

Gordon shrugged slightly and tilted his head. "Okay, so... yeah." He ignored Ed as he tried to get his thoughts out. "It like... happened cuz that stuck up bitch was a stuck up bitch." He paused for a second and tilted his head the other way. "Well... not exactly because... I mean... like... then. It happened then cuz her." He said, trying to stress the word. "You know what I mean?"

"Gordon..."

"Like it wasn't bad or something." He shook his head. "Although I was pretty drunk. But we both were." He correctly quickly. "But I wasn't that drunk. Like it wasn't bad." He wasn't explaining himself right. He knew he wasn't. But he was a jumbled mess of nerves and he was having trouble processing. He just wanted Ed to understand that he didn't regret it, that he didn't regret Ed.

Ed let out a sigh and shook his head. He leaned his elbow on his chair and rubbed at his forehead. Why Gordon was choosing this exact moment, in front of so many people, to bumble his way through whatever he was trying to say, Ed had no idea. He couldn't have waited until afterwards? "Gord..." He said the nickname softly.

"I thought you were freaking out!" Gordon said, slightly louder.

Ed sighed again, louder, his whole body heaving with the movement. He ran his hand over his face slowly and glanced up at his friend for a moment. Then he pulled his hand away and let it fall to his lap. His eyes dropped to the floor as he spoke. "I was... a little..." He admitted softly. "But... for others reasons... than the obvious."

"Ah. Gotcha." Gordon said slowly, nodding his head. "Cool. Okay... so... cool." He nodded again.

"Okay. Hello?" Alluette waved her hands in the air from her seat. She was glaring at the two of them. "If you two girls are done, can we please get back to not getting killed by the Krill battle cruiser now?"

Ed sat up straighter in his chair and nodded his head. "Right, right. Lieutenant Alluette is correct."

Gordon crossed his arms. "Why does she outrank me?"

"Because I'm taking this seriously!" She snapped. "And I wasn't late. Now get back here!"

Gordon turned slightly and glared at her. "You're not my boss."

She stared at him blankly for a moment. "You just said I outrank you!"

Gordon stuck his tongue out at her.

"Helmsman Malloy." Ed said loudly.

Gordon ducked down a bit as he turned back to Ed. "Yes, Captain?"

"Back to your station." Ed said sternly.

Gordon nodded and hurried back to his seat. He sat down and turned to Alluette. He leaned closer and started explaining his plan quickly. The purple Navigator rolled her eyes but leaned closer.

Ed breathed in deeply and exhaled it. That... could have gone worse. It could have gone a lot better, too, if it had happened anywhere and anytime else. And then there was suddenly a face in his periphery. Ed jerked back and blinked at her. "What?"

She was the XO, the commander sitting in the chair next to his. A human, from Earth. And she was suddenly very close and smiling widely. And annoyingly. "Very smooth." She said softly.

Ed's eyes narrowed into a glare. "Shut up, Ral! No one likes you." He hissed under his breath.

She let out a laugh and leaned back in her seat. "Whatever you say, Captain."

"Yes!" Ed snapped. "I'm the Captain! Everyone needs to listen to me!" There was a slight whine to his voice.

"Oh yes, Captain." Ral said in a mocking tone again. "Whining is very Captainy."

Ed glared sideways at her.

"Uh... Captain?" The Engineering guy called loudly from the sound system. "Sorry to interrupt whatever is going on up there."

Ed sighed deeply and leaned back in his chair. "No, you're not interrupting."

"Good." The guy said. "Because we're done. We've got the shield back at 100%."

"Gordon? Alluette?" Ed looked across the bridge at them. "You guys ready?"

"Sure." Gordon said.

Alluette rolled her eyes. "The Krill cruiser is back in range." She said. "Coming up pretty fast."

"Trajectory?"

Alluette put it up the screen. "I've got our frequency scrambled, bouncing off all the asteroids. It'll be impossible for them to locate us with their scanners."

"So what..." Ed shrugged slightly. "We just sit here and wait until they give up?"

Gordon tilted his head for a moment. "Well... yeah. That's an option." He said. "But not my plan."

"Which is?" Ed prompted.

"Battle cruiser is big." Gordon said. "And they aren't good in the asteroid field. So... like... we wait for them to pass us and we sneak out and fly up their ass and like fire everything we got."

"They'll be moving slower than us." Alluette continued. "We move into position behind them and target their weapons first."

"That's what I just said!" Gordon said loudly.

"A lot less eloquently."

Gordon blinked. "What?"

"You two stop fighting!" Ral snapped loudly, leaning forward a bit.

"Yes, yes." Ed nodded his head, from his seat beside her. "Let's get going."

Surprisingly enough, Gordon's plan went off great. They'd been able to sneak up on the Krill, catching them completely off guard. They took out the Krill's weapons before the ship even turned. The Krill sent out a few shuttles but the Union ship destroyed them quickly. When they finished, the Krill ship was practically in two pieces.

"Damage report?" Ed asked, leaning back in his seat.

"From the Krill?" Alluette turned in her seat, to look across the bridge. "Nothing. From Gordon ramming us into that large asteroid..."

"I was trying to avoid the shuttles!" Gordon snapped.

She smiled. "A small breach in deck 6. It's already been shut off and contained. And some facial damage to the hull there. But nothing we can't fix ourselves."

"Awesome." Ed smiled widely.

"Awesome?" Ral raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, Ral. It's awesome." Ed said, not looking at her. "Someone hail the Krill ship."

"Channel open, Captain." Someone said.

"Krill ship." Ed said, speaking loudly and evenly. "This is Captain Ed Mercer, of the Union Ship... uh... El Quesadilla. You are trespassing in Xeleyan airspace and you were warned."

The white faced alien on the viewing screen glared. "Avis has deemed this area ours." He practically growled.

Ed frowned. Their interactions with the Krill were still new. He didn't think he'd heard that name before. "You may think so..." He started.

"I know so!" The Krill captain interrupted.

"Be that as it may..." Ed said evenly. "You attacked a Union planet. You and your... commanding officer are under arrest. If you surrender now and come willingly, we will tow your ship to the beginning of Krill space and let your crew go freely."

The Krill captain glared again and turned away. A second Krill man come in view and the two huddled together, conversing in whispers. After a moment, the captain turned back, not looking happy at all. Although, had anyone ever seen a smiling Krill? "We have no choice but to agree to your terms." He said. "You may send a shuttle over." The screen went black.

Ral leaned closer to Ed, a smile on her lips. "El Quesadilla?" She whispered.

"I panicked." Ed hissed back. "I forgot the name of the ship and I'm starving. Haven't eaten anything since... lunchtime yesterday." His statement was punctuated by a growl from his stomach.

"Clearly." Ral said with a smile. "The ship is the USS Constance."

"Fuck." Ed breathed out. "That's not even close. You think they'll dock points?"

Ral shrugged. "No clue."

"Ready a shuttle." Ed said, slipping out of his chair. He stood up and Ral followed, standing up beside him.

"Simulation terminated." A loud robotic voice announced.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

Author's Notes: This chapter was a lot of fun! To try to plan and visualize. I'm not too good with spacey stuff. But I will try to get better with spacey stuffs. And OMG! I asked for a ship name earlier today while scribbling this. And my Child, Kaysen, said El Quesadilla. Which was not what I was looking for. XD