Chapter 8

The Wildstar

"Triphasic Torpedoes, captain!" Riker exclaimed. "They've just upped the stakes!"

"Explain to me," Will was barking at Tom now, "exactly how a starship with NO COMPUTER CORE is not only buzzing around us like a hornet, but also SHOOTING BACK?!"

Tom was shaking his head, his fingers flying over his panel in an attempt to discover the answer. He'd learned from experience to be afraid of his captain, especially once he got to pointing a phaser at you!

"I'm trying," Tom hissed. "Their shielding is just too good!"

"OK then, explain THAT to me."

"I don't know how they've managed to pull it off, but their shield output has increased by over a hundred thousand terraquads. We could direct all our scanners at highest resolution to them right now, and our computer would just call it a massive floating spacial distortion!"

The deck plating shook again, causing Will to grab the edge of Riker's console for support.

"So you're telling me that the only way we can get info on them is to get their shields down?"

Riker nodded nervously. "I'm afraid so, Captain."

House snorted. "Yeah, cuz THAT'LL just be a piece of cake!"

"House," Will warned. "Be positive for a change, will ya?!"

"Oh, OK," House sneered sarcastically, faking a good mood. "No problem, Captain, Sir!"

"Dick," Will snorted.

The deck shook again, and Will growled under his breath. They'd been taking pot shots at the Wildstar in an attempt to appear an inferior foe, but the young Commander Goku was swiftly changing his mind about the chosen combat tactics. At the rate they were going, they'd get nowhere, and it was no secret that he didn't feel the most comfortable taking on a ship as close to them in power as the Wildstar most certainly was.

"Tactical, arm all tri-launchers and Type 7 phaser banks."

The replacement lieutenant at the console nodded. "Aye, Captain. Should I charge the Plasma cannons as well?"

Will went silent for a moment as he examined the facts. They had held back on the Wildstar, and were now paying the price for it. He hadn't been given all the details on their target, but was now quite certain that the ship probably held a few surprises of its own. Especially if their engineer was Vegeta, as the personnel reports he'd received stated. Finally, he nodded slowly.

"Affirmative, Lieutenant."

Serena was looking from left to right rapidly. Through her brain ran a single thought. She knew that, inside Engineering, Vegeta and Steven were engaged in an old fashioned face off. A little voice in her head was telling her that, of the people who were ordered to evacuate engineering, she was the only one that hadn't fled to a secure location. That meant that she was the only one left to stop any intruders that could attempt to storm engineering. A scowl fell across her face, an expression of determination resting over her features. She would not allow that to happen.

"As long as I'm standing," she breathed to herself, "No one's gonna get in there. Don't worry, Commander Vegeta. I'll make sure your fight goes uninterrupted!"

As she took a moment to bask in her own heroism, a group of no less than ten intruding security personnel came around the corner, guns at the level. Their weapons quickly came to bear on her, the head of the group of insurgents stepping forward.

"You!" he pointed at her. "Meatball head! Open that door!"

Serena took a second to allow a surge of panic to run through her, then stomped it to hell and stood a little taller, her hands finding her hips.

"Not on your life, buster," she shot back. "As long as I'm breathing, no one gets through that door!"

The man grinned a little, bringing his phaser rifle back up and pointing it straight at her.

"Well, that can certainly be rectified."

Serena set to work immediately. Grasping the locket that hung from a chain around her neck and was safely tucked under her tunic, she began to power up. She hadn't transformed in a good long while, and since her current opponents were nothing more than your average run of the mill human beings, she saw no need to do so, either. She quickly gathered her chi and poured it into her arms, getting ready to blast the group in front of her.

I'm so glad Lita taught me how to do this stuff, she thought as she completed her preparations.

"I wouldn't recommend shooting that weapon, mister," she intoned, her voice dripping with no small amount of warning.

"And just what're you gonna do to make me lower it, blondie?"

Serena's face twisted into a half-cocked grin as she chuckled for a moment.

"Shoot and I'll show ya." She retorted.

The man straightened his stance, lining up his sight with Serena's head with a shrug.

"My pleasure."

At that instant, the deck suddenly shook, the sound of an explosion resonating through the doors to main engineering, signalling the start of the fight inside. The man lost his aim, instantly taking to keeping himself on his feet as the rest of his group did the same. Serena was completely unprepared for the shaking deck plates, and was quickly thrown off her feet with a massively operatic wail. Her hands shot forwards to break her fall before she thought about what she was doing. In a flash, she realized that she should have rolled it out instead. As her hands made contact with the deck, the power she had been building up shot out of her palms, giving it a full powered assault. A sound akin to a gunshot reverberated off the walls around them, and a wave of raw power pulsed into the plating. It buckled at the braces, and a whole section of the floor, a good ten feet squared, broke free and began to fall to the deck below.

"YAAAAAAHHHHH!!" Serena screamed. Across from her, the security insurgents lost their footing, tumbling down with the deck plating clumsily. A massive thud echoed through the halls of the deck below as the plate, the intruders and Serena safely on top of it, crashed down with all its weight.

The dust began to settle around them, and Serena quickly jumped to a standing position, brushing her tunic off.

"Whew!" she breathed. "I totally meant to do that!"

"Dude!" a new voice said, causing Serena to whip around and face it quickly. What she came eye to eye with was a giant walking turtle!

"AAAAAAHHHHH!!" she screamed again, instantly feeling kind of stupid as she remembered that some of the new Wildcard additions at the starbase had been turtles.

"Righteous moves, Blonde lieutenant!" another voice said.

"Yeah," another one piped up, this voice a little lower and more gruff than the previous ones. "Ya totally squashed the bad guys!"

"The odds of that happening are at least ten thousand and fifty to one! That's incredible!!"

From behind Serena came a chorus of groans and 'my head's as the 'bad guys' that fell with Serena and the deck plate began to come to their senses.

"Heads up, guys," Leonardo warned, slowly removing his sword from its sheath. "Looks like we ain't done yet!"



Lita looked from left to right down the hallway she intended to enter. Once she was satisfied that it was clear, she entered, moving along the inside of the wall in case anyone should decide to make a sudden appearance.

Xandir's group had been easily dealt with, and she was all too ready for more. She turned her thoughts inward, reflecting on her past relationship with the Leviathan's security deputy. They had hit it off fairly quickly, and she had been certain that they were going to be fast friends. The thing that really threw a bomb into the mix for her was when she found out that he worked for Section 31. It had been a very real shock for her, and she'd quickly cut all ties with him, ignoring his communiqués and avoiding him at every turn. This had rapidly frustrated Xandir, and he soon gave up. She hadn't seen him since that day, taking to ignoring the viewscreen of the Sheffield whenever the Leviathan bridge came up on it.

I'm sorry it came to this, Xandir, she thought to herself. I can't support what section 31 is doing here. At least you didn't make me have to kill you...

Still, she had seen that the enemy's rifles were set to kill, and had heard Xandir's and Rebecca's commands to make them that way. It seemed that what had started as a not too friendly game of tag had just upgraded to a kill or be killed battle of survival. Her thoughts came to an end as she approached the turbolift she'd been looking for. The doors whooshed open to greet her, and she quickly entered, relaxing only once the doors had shut firmly behind her.

"Bridge," she said to the computer. A scowl of confusion crept onto her face when the computer beeped an error and answered her.

"Turboshaft 1 has no power above deck 4. Primary power past that point has been severed. Computer core has been compromised."

"Crap!" Lita cursed. The computer beeped again.

"Please re-state command."

"Um..." Lita thought for a second. "Take me to deck 4, then."

The computer chirped compliance, and the turbolift began to move up. Lita began to puzzle on this new information. If there was no power above deck 4, then that meant that the bridge was without power. That made no sense though, since she could still feel the shifts of the inertial dampers working with the movements of the Wildstar at high impulse speeds. The weapon impacts were causing the ship to shake, but the lowered intensity of the shaking meant that the shields were up. With these facts gathered, she came to a conclusion. There must be a backup command center set up somewhere that has power. She had no clue where to begin looking for it, but figured that Deck 4 was as good a place as any to start.

The turbolift slowed to a stop, and the doors whooshed open once more. The sound of weapons fire instantly had Lita out of the lift and against the wall. Her battle training kicked in, and she moved silently against the wall in the direction that the noise of fighting was coming from. She quickly came to an intersection, and peered around the corner she was leaning on. Her eyes grew in size as she saw a medical officer behind an overturned table in front of the holodeck doors with nothing but a hand phaser in his arsenal taking random shots at a group of six men; all of them armed with type 3 phaser rifles. There was no way a metal table would continue to hold off that level of firepower. Without a second thought, she shot around the corner and dove into the fray foot first.

Her foot slammed across the face of the first intruder, twisting his head around so suddenly that his neck snapped under the force of the impact. He crumpled to the ground lifelessly, Lita moving on to the next officer before he'd even completed his fall. A fast leg sweep had three others dropped for the moment she needed to take on the two left standing. She ran up to the first of the two, ducking under phaser fire and tucking into a roll. When she came out of it, she shot one foot out underneath herself, propelling her body upwards rapidly. Her right hand balled into a fist, connecting with his jaw with a satisfying crunch. His head flew back, and he began to fall as well. Her jump sent her flying over the 

head of the second officer, her wrists coming together with palms facing out. As she reached the apex of her leap, her brow furrowed with rapid concentration. Her open palms now pointed directly down over the officer, she gathered Ki rapidly.

"Kameha mei HA!!" she hollered out. A blue blast shot forth from her palms, descending quickly to flatten the officer where he stood. There was a sharp cry of pain, and the man slumped to his knees, falling slowly to the side to connect with the deck plating.

From behind the table, Bones' head slowly appeared. He surveyed the scene before him, his jaw dropping slowly. He'd watched the three officers get back to their feet from the floor, not sure at all how they'd ended up there, and leap at a woman in an SI uniform that hadn't been there before. The thing that really caught him by surprise was the blinding speed with which the woman retaliated. He quickly found himself in a standing position, cheering her on for all he was worth.

"Yes! Get him!! No no no, go for the jugular! YES!! Oh! Perfect!! Hey, that one's favouring his right leg! Right Leg!!"

The remaining three officers fell in short order, and soon Lita was dusting off her hands as she moved towards McCoy.

"You're amazing!" Bones said instantly. "That was spectacular! And to be a Chi adept... Simply astounding!!"

Lita smiled humbly. "Thanks, Doc. Umm... listen, I'm having a little trouble locating the bridge-"

"Say no more," McCoy's hand came up quickly. "I can tell you exactly where to find it!"

Rebecca's group moved with practiced precision stealthily around the corridors. Night goggles on, they moved through the halls like a well-trained, perfectly synchronous marine squad. As she moved along the inside of the wall, her 'sawed-off' hefted and at the ready, voices began to drift slowly to her ears. They moved in on the corridor intersection, and it became more apparent to her that the voices were both male; One gruff, and one young. It sounded as if they were arguing. She chuckled mentally at the irony of the fact that their petty bickering would ultimately be the end of them... whoever they were. She turned to her group and mixed some hand signals, directing them in her plan of attack as she peered around the corner.

Instantly, she balled up her fist, signalling her men to disregard her previous commands. There, not three yards in front of her, Logan and Scott were engaged in a heated argument.

Perfect, she thought sarcastically. The first fighters I come across worthy of my time, and it just happens to be the x-men!

"I don't give a damn any more whether or not you take the god damned thing," Scott was hollering. "Just treat it nice, for fuck sake!"

"Are you saying that I don't know how to ride a fuckin BIKE?!" Logan shouted back at him.

"No," Scott was giving as good as he was getting. "I'm just saying that you're a maniac behind those handle bars!!"

Logan's eyes scrunched up suddenly, and Scott could already see that their argument that they'd just been engaged in had been cast to the wind. Looking down from Logan's eyes, he watched the lupine man's nose twitch a couple of times, and instantly jumped into business mode.

"What is it, dude?" Scott asked. "What do you smell?"

Around the corner, Rebecca clenched her teeth into a silent snarl. She'd completely forgotten that Logan had senses that were considerably sharper than those of most quadrupeds in existence. If he'd smelt them out, then the jig was up. Her mind raced to a conclusion, and she made the only choice that seemed sane to her, regardless of how stupid it sounded at the same time.

"Trouble," Logan answered, his eyes darting over to the corner Rebecca's group was concealed behind. There, peering out from around the corner, a set of beautiful eyes suddenly scowled.

Seeing that she had been found out, Rebecca put her plan into action and dropped her arm fast, signalling her group to go in firing.

"Get Down!!" Logan jumped at Scott, slamming him to the deck as no less than four pulse blasts flew overhead where they had just been standing. The wall at the end of the corridor exploded, showering sparks and bits of debris around. Smoke began to fill the hallway as wall circuits began to smoulder, the shower of sparks finally subsiding.

Logan was back on his feet in a heartbeat. This ended up being to his advantage since he was barely able to avoid the butt end of a phaser rifle swung where his head used to be. With a snarl, he reached out and grabbed the man that had attacked him by the throat. With a mighty heave, the officer flew backwards, impacting the destroyed wall at the end of the corridor. An unknown amount of volts immediately coursed through him, his body shaking and bucking involuntarily before he finally slumped down the wall in a state of complete unconsciousness.

Logan, having been too wrapped up in seeing the fate of his attacker through, was completely caught off guard as another rifle stock connected with the back of his neck. With a sickening snap, he crumpled to the ground, now completely lifeless.

"Logan!" Scott cried out, leaping to his feet and diving into the fray. Without a second's hesitation, he unleashed his visor blasts upon the insurgents, bringing four of them down before most of them had a chance to cry out.

Rebecca growled out loud. So far, the fight was not going in her favour. Without a second thought, she hefted her 'sawed-off' to the level, took aim, and fired. Scott, however, had stepped up the pace at that exact instant, causing the shot to miss him for the most part, the energy blast grazing his side instead.

Scott was completely unprepared for the incredible amount of pain he found himself in. A hand moved quickly to his side, and he fell to his knees, his mouth open in a soundless cry of agony.

Rebecca snickered to herself. So much for the incredible x-men. She was certain that she was in for the fight of her life, but it had all ended up being child's play. She watched with satisfaction as Scott slumped against the wall he was beside, his hand still clutched to his side.

"Like taking candy from a baby," she mused. Shaking her head, she moved forward. There seemed no point in checking the five that had fallen. She was almost certain that they were dead, and even if they weren't, they would do her no good now. Besides, she still had a half a dozen men with her, and saw no reason to worry yet. She hadn't gotten four steps before a familiar gruff voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Just where do you think you're going?"

Rebecca whipped around, her eyes widening in disbelief. Though the information had never been tested to her knowledge, she had been certain that breaking Logan's neck would keep him from ever rising again. Proof to the contrary stood not half a corridor away from her, where Logan was rubbing the back of his neck and twisting it from side to side with a couple of snaps and pops.

"You forgot the lollipop," he growled, a scowl settling into his expression.

"It's not possible," Rebecca breathed, her troops rifles all pointed at Logan. "I broke your fucking neck!!"

A feral grin split Logan's face as he extended his arms out a little on either side of him. His claws leapt forth, Logan giving off a mild grunt at the brief flash of pain this caused him.

"Oh, we ain't finished yet," he promised before leaping at them.

Vegeta stared evenly at Steven, the two fighter's eyes locked with some primal need for combat that not many other people would understand. Excitement was running rampant through Steven's veins, and Vegeta held his composure even as his insides burned to get on with the show.

"Tell me, Commander Stoltz," Vegeta finally said. "I'm curious. After dealing the decisive blow to the warp core, how do you plan to get off the ship?"

Steven chuckled lightly at the question. Vegeta seemed to be questioning his position as a master tactician. Of course, why not answer him? It's not like Vegeta would be able to stop him, anyways.

"Simple," he grinned, holding his attack posture. "I may not be able to survive in space, but I can certainly hold a protective barrier around myself long enough to be beamed aboard the Leviathan."

Vegeta grunted at his answer. He'd only ever seen one other person handle a barrier strong enough to protect against a warp core magnitude explosion, and that was Gohan... when he was eight years old, to boot! Mind you, no one had known he was on the sidelines to bear witness to Gohan's level of firepower in destroying the Makyo star. That kid had talent, that was for sure. But the talent had been all natural. He seriously questioned Steven's ability to do as he was boasting. Of course, Vegeta himself was capable of performing the feat, but that was not where his train of thought needed to go. Not only would he survive the battle, but he fully intended to still have the ship at the end of it, as well. He wondered for an instant if Gohan had kept up on his training, or if the civilian fleetyard he was running had taken that away from him.

"Vegeta," Steven breathed, bringing the super saiyan's attention back to him. "You don't have time to worry about things like how I'm getting off the ship."

Vegeta chuckled now, taking a moment to marvel at Stevens level of cockiness for a man who was facing his certain doom.

"Then, by all means," he crouched low suddenly before propelling himself toward Steven at incredible speed. "ON WITH THE SHOW!!"

Steven barely managed to block the first attack, swinging his arms up in front of his face and producing a Ki shield just in front of himself. Vegeta impacted the shield at full speed, and the fight was on. The instant that Vegeta hit the shield, it shattered with a thunderous boom, and fists began to fly. The power behind their blows was such that Engineering shook hard under their feet.

Steven focused hard, pouring everything he had and more into his fighting. The two were trading back and forth between defence and attack, no connecting blows able to get through the other man's defences. In the back of his mind, Steven marvelled at Vegeta's speed and strength. The technical part of his brain was analyzing his pattern of attack, trying for all he was worth to find a pattern and break it. It quickly became evident to him that Vegeta intended to follow no pattern. His styles shifted rapidly from one form to another, occasionally throwing in a move that Steven had never seen before. He quickly came to realize that there would be no catching the super Saiyan off guard from bad form. He would have to hold out until Vegeta made a mistake. Finally, one of Vegeta's attacks made it through Steven's defences, the engineer's left fist gliding past his arm that he had moved to intercept just a nanosecond too late. It slammed into Steven's jaw with all the force of a freight train behind it. Steven let out a sharp yell, taking three steps back on instinct to avoid getting hit again.

Vegeta straightened his posture a little, observing Steven with curiosity and fascination. As a fighter, Stoltz was ahead of the rest. He seemed to be able to adapt to Vegeta's own moves when he threw them into the mix, and he knew that Steven had been watching him for errors in form or slip ups. He chuckled mentally. The marine would have no such luck against him. Vegeta didn't make mistakes. While he conceded that he had, on occasion, overestimated his own strength, he also settled on the knowledge that this fight wasn't going to be about strength. There would be no energy blasts coming from him today. He couldn't speak for Steven, but he was in no hurry to put holes in the equipment around them. No, this battle would hang on who the fastest and smartest of the two was, and Vegeta felt nothing but confidence that he was the champion of both.

In front of him, Steven ran the back of his hand over his jaw, wiping a little blood away from his cracked lip. He held his hand in front of his face for a moment, surprised to see his own blood there. He 

felt anger beginning to boil up inside him, doing his best to trample it back down and keep it under control. It would do him no good to lose his cool in this situation, though he'd never had anyone be able to strike him before.

"Impressive," he finally muttered. "You're good."

Vegeta laughed out loud now, enjoying the irony of his own thoughts. Yes, he was good, as Steven just stated. Yet he wondered if the marine had any clue that Kakarot was even better. Oh, but wouldn't it be fun to make him sweat about that? All he had to do was mention to Steven that he wasn't even fighting the strongest Saiyan alive, and he was certain that it would spark a new level of fear within the man. He trampled the urge, however, not really wanting to say anything that might make Steven quit the fight. Their first round had been too much fun, and Vegeta was feeling the thrill of fighting someone that was at least close to his level in skill, even if he wasn't quite on par with the Prince himself.

"You have no idea," Vegeta replied. "You fight the Prince of all Saiyans today, boy. Are you certain you're good enough to take me on?"

Steven's mind raced as he scowled at Vegeta. Was he good enough? He'd been training his whole life, and had achieved a considerable level of power. By human standards, he may as well have been God-like. Yet, he couldn't seem to break Vegeta. Mind you, it was still only the first round. His eyes flitted about the room for a second, taking in the surroundings. His thoughts went into overdrive, rapidly addressing and dismissing different plans of attack. He knew that this fight wouldn't be won by the strongest of the two, and was trying to find a way to use that to his advantage when he realized something. If Vegeta was as strong as he seemed to be, then Ki blasts were a walk in the park for the Super Saiyan. He should have been able to let off a blast that would bring the house down, squashing the young marine along the way. Vegeta hadn't fired off a single blast.

An idea flashed across Steven's eyes, and Vegeta crouched a little again. It seemed that Steven was ready to continue.

"Prince or no," he breathed, "I know I don't have to beat you... just outsmart you!"

That said, Steven turned a few degrees and fired a blast at the plasma relay wall. Vegeta's eyes doubled in size, realizing Steven's game in the flash of an instant. Still, he knew that he couldn't let the marine destroy the ship. Whether or not it was a trap, Vegeta knew that he would have to take the pain to save the Wildstar.

"NO YOU DON'T!!" He hollered, barrelling for the wall at top speed. He barely managed to get in front of the blast, and twisted quickly, taking it in the shoulder instead. He grunted hard, the nerves down his arm all set aflame. The blast had been strong enough to make his arm numb. Steven was following right behind it, a roundhouse kick connecting with Vegeta's head full tilt. The Saiyan was forced back against the wall, and Steven leapt forward, slamming fist after fist into the Prince's gut for all he was worth. He had no intention of losing the battle. It was only a matter of time.

Logan came barrelling towards Rebecca's troops at top speed, a mighty roar sounding past his lips as he raised his claws to strike the closest man. No less than five shots flew at him in response. While three of them missed, the two that hit him did something Rebecca had never seen before: They did absolutely nothing to him. His battle cry went uninterrupted, and his advance did not slow in any way. The group instinctively backed up a little, but Logan was already upon them. With his first swing, he took the end off of the rifle of an officer who barely managed to avoid losing his head instead. Rebecca quickly put some distance between herself and the group, taking aim with her sawed-off and firing shots off, trying to hit Logan without hitting her men. It proved to be a futile effort, however, as the lone fighter demonstrated why he held the name 'Wolverine', his movements wolf-like in speed as well as deadliness. Two more of her officers fell to his claws before she decided on a rather wise plan of action: Run!

Leaving her men to Logan's not-so-tender mercies, she quickly vanished back around the corner and away from the fight that she was almost certain would have ended up being her fate. She shook her head a couple of times as she jogged down the next corridor, her memory flying back to just moments earlier, and the sight of two pulse rifle blasts that were set to kill striking Logan dead center in the chest and doing absolutely nothing. She'd heard of his ability to regenerate, but had no idea exactly how far that ability ran. She could only imagine how viruses and the like probably had no effect on him, and that was even BEFORE witnessing that incredible spectacle not a minute ago. Pulse blasts that were set to kill did one thing and one thing only to accomplish that: Hit the central nervous system with a jolt big enough to short it out. Logan was obviously quite immune to that little hat trick!

As she reached the end of the corridor, she entered the turbolift she found there, turning inside it and simply saying "bridge". Even if it wasn't where it was supposed to be, Rebecca could think of no other place to start looking.

"Turboshaft 1 has no power above deck 4. Primary power past that point has been severed. Computer core has been compromised."

She snorted back at it. She was certain that the computer was smart enough to deny her information she requested, but decided to attempt it anyways, just in case she was wrong on that particular matter.

"Computer, locate current command center," she instructed. She was answered by a short double-negative from the speakers as the reply happened exactly as she predicted.

"You are not authorized to access that information. Security clearances must be created by Commander Tendo or Commander McCoy."

Smart, Rebecca thought. The Wildstar was a military ship in all aspects. She concluded that Ranma must have rigged the security clearances to... wait a second...

"Commander Tendo or Commander McCoy?" she echoed.

"Affirmative," the computer responded. "To obtain clearance from either, please proceed to Sickbay."

The wheels in Rebecca's head turned rapidly as she fit facts together. The Wildstar had been incapacitated when its computer core was dumped. Then, she somehow miraculously recovers and begins shooting back, complete control regained. She knew the captain of the ship was a man named Ranma Saotome, and that all bridge functions that related to internal security needed clearance codes that could be given to you, as an officer, by the captain or his first officer. Yet, right now, the computer seemed to think that these codes could be obtained from the people running sickbay. Why was a Turboshaft seventeen decks down from there responding to verbal commands like it was a part of sickbay?! The answer dawned on her quickly, a grin beginning to split her expression.

Sickbay IS the ship right now! The 'bridge' must be located there!

"By all means, let's go see the commanders, then!" she replied, a cheer in her voice that wasn't there before. This was quickly lost when the deck shook harder than it had yet, throwing her back against the turbolift wall hard. She quickly recovered, standing straight again.

"Computer, what's going on?"

"Wildstar is under attack," the reply was simple. Rebecca rolled her eyes.

"No shit, Sherlock," she growled. "Identify weapon type!"

"High yield Plasma discharge."

Her eyes grew twice their size. The Leviathan was obviously having problems keeping the Wildstar under control. She had to pick up the pace, before Will had to resort to destroying them rather than losing control of the situation.

"Computer, proceed to sickbay, maximum track!!"

Two beeps sounded, and Rebecca braced herself on the railing as the lift took off at blinding speeds, heading for what she hoped was the 'bridge'.

"We're entering range now, Captain!" The urgent voice bellowed. Two heads on the bridge instantly turned to face the helm station, the combined reply a blend of "Slow ta impulse" and "Onscreen" from Ranma and Grissom.

"Um... doing both..." the Lieutenant responded, a smirk lighting his face that passed on to Grissom.

The viewscreen flickered to an image of two ships, locked in obvious combat. Shots were flying back and forth, shields glowing blue almost constantly as the two titans battled. Grissom leaned forward in his chair, a long whistle of awe at the spectacle rising from his tactical officer. Silence greeted the bridge for a few seconds before Ranma and Akane realized exactly what was going on. Taking a step towards the viewscreen, his hand coming to rest on the helm console, Ranma finally broke the silence.

"Hail the Wildstar, Commander."

"Ranma," Akane whispered, as worry grabbed her for the first time. The spectacular light show taking place on the viewscreen making her face the possibility that she was about to lose her new home and friends.

"It's OK, Akane," he reassured her. "Goku knows what he's doing."

Akane only nodded numbly in reply. Though Ranma's words had been a small comfort, it was too small a comfort to stand up to the feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach.

"Captain?" the Commander looked to Grissom, unwilling to follow one of Ranma's orders without her captain's approval, unlike the helm officer. Grissom didn't even hesitate as he nodded back at her.

"You heard the Captain's order, Commander," he replied, Giving Ranma the floor for the moment. With a small swallow for the glare she was receiving from Ranma, the ops officer gave a quick nod and set to work.

"Channel open on a secure frequency, sir."

OK... 200 people have read this chapter as of a week after it's posting... and only 1 person has reviewed on it... is there really that little to be said about this latest installment?

Review away, Folks! I NEED to hear what you're thinking of the story so far! Am I on the right track? Is there something I haven't thought of? Should I learn how to friekin write?? ALL Authors need to see feedback from their work, or it just isn't worth it any more. I post these stories for the enjoyment of others... Which means if you enjoyed it, I'd love to hear about it! Alternatively, if you DIDN'T enjoy it, I'd love to know why? As long as you don't flame me, I accept constructive criticism with just as much enthusiasm as a positive review!

Next up: The Leviathan. We'll take a look at how the battle is going on the other side of the fence. Also upcoming, Ranma and Grissom come to the Wildstar's aid, but it appears that the Leviathan also has backup!

Matt Saotome