Chapter 8

Keys – 1 week of Colin's absence.

She was beginning to get worried, it had been a week and still no sign of Colin. It wasn't like she thought he was dead, but she was still worried. Not that the state his ship was in helped. They were low on supplies, and repairs were helping but she didn't know if they had enough supplies to get the ship working again. It was wearing thin on her nerve, she had been working for 2 days without sleep and had snapped at multiple engineers, just today. Then she got a report that tested her limits for today. The report had fuel amounts, the ship was running on what was, if they really tried, three more weeks of fuel. And they couldn't spare a single drop for any ship. Even to go down to the planet and get Colin.

1 – More week later.

She was an absolute mess. The first week without their captain was bad enough but now it was just getting absurd. They weren't in any danger of dying anytime soon, and the ship wasn't on fire or leaking air. But she was emotionally a mess. She straightened her uniform and walked onto the bridge. She went to the console and started working, adding assignments, rerouting supplies, prioritizing repairs, when a voice came in over the intercom "Commander Keys, please report to the astropaths command center." She got up and made her way to the turbolift.

When she walked out of the turbolift, a man wearing the astropaths navigator uniform ran up to her and saluted, she returned the salute and gave him an odd look. "What do you need me for?" she asked. "I have both good and bad news. We are not going to die due to asphyxiation, starvation, or dehydration. Our sister ship the Ascent is on its way." "So what's the bad news?" "That would be the enemy battlegroup 6 days away from our current position." He said in a grim tone. "We aren't even close to combat ready, we'll be eliminated. How close is the Ascent?" she asked mentally going over their chances in a one on 15-30 engagement. "6 days away." The astropath responded. "WHAT, you mean to tell me is that we have up to the window of one day?" she said yelling at the astropath. She stopped yelling and started pacing. A light began blinking on the console attached to the navigator's holo-table. He turned around just to not have to deal with another outburst from the commander and saw the light. He started typing, and the planet they were orbiting appeared on his table. A blinking red light appeared on the surface. "Commander, you need to see this." He said turning around. "What?" she snapped angrily walking over to his table. "What's that" she asked pointing to the blip on the planet.

"That would be Sheila's rescue beacon." The astropath said "But that has only happened twice. What has he run into?" she asked with fear in her eyes. Her mind going back to the two other times she knew Colin had activated the beacon. Once in testing, and the other when he had been kidnapped and tortured for days by the high shadow heretic. "What could be happening." She said quietly. Then the red dot blinked, and blinked again, then again. This continued for some time, until the pattern started repeating. "It's Morse, give me a second to translate." The astropath said quickly typing into the console. "All fine here, please respond." He said. "But how can we respond, he have no way to get a message to him digitally, we can even drop a message." He said slowing his voice and looking at the commander. "DROP PODS!" they both shouted at once excitedly. "I'll send some supplies and launch it at his position." She said running out of the room. She got to the command deck and yelled for a drop pod to be readied for Colin, and prepare to launch. "Commander one slight problem, we can move the ship, the drop pod will have to be in space for about half a day." The ordinance officer said.

"That is no problem, load this message into it with the supplies and launch." She said giving the officer a small box. He inserted it into his console, typed some buttons and a yellow light appeared. "Commander, the pod is ready for launch, awaiting material." "Good, now get back to work people, and launch the pod as soon as possible." She said walking back to her console and got right back to work. (This brings the commanders story up to date Colin's.)

Ian

He had received communications that his older brother's ship the Eclipse was stranded after the battle, and he had the coordinates to the solar system they were in, but not his exact location. He sighed and sat back down in his chair. He looked out at the warp in front of him and grimaced, his brother was a very strong and experienced leader, and his space combat skills were nigh on godlike. If he was completely honest, he was scared. If his brother was godlike, then what hurt him so bad they only had a distress beacon, which was the scary part. He still had 6 day of travel in the warp, and by the inquisitors reports, an enemy battlegroup was closing on his brothers position just as fast as he was. Colin had relied on luck sometimes, but this was just cutting it close, and I hope to god he has a plan. He thought to himself, rubbing a skull and machine symbol on his left wrist.