Episode 38: Who Shall Turn It Back?
A chill blanketed the dark silence.
Derek stood beside his station, letting his eyes adjust to the lightless bridge.
No one moved.
Not even the quiet scree of rubber on metal broke the stillness.
The constant assault of reports that filled his comm seconds ago stopped.
He expected the same ominous voice that tormented him the first time he'd gone through a Gate. But though uneasiness crawled down his neck, no one spoke.
The faint light of stars pierced the dimness just enough to discern the outline of his officers. Each one sat completely still. What little illumination they had brought faces into focus: Saijo, Rowland, Homer, Dash, Yamazaki. Alori and Eager, backlit by the stars, were the most difficult to see.
Derek's neck itched, as if something had passed within a hair's breadth of him but not actually made contact. His breath escaped in a puff of white as the temperature plummeted.
"Rowland, status report." The words came out a harsh whisper.
"Everything's down. Not even emergency systems are functioning. Life support is out too. Artificial gravity is the only thing—"
Derek's feet left the floor. He grabbed for the captain's chair to keep from ending up halfway to the ceiling.
Yamazaki had clicked his crash harness in place, as had Alori. Dash maintained a death grip on his console, and Homer and Eager used their chairs to regain their feet.
Eager floundered near the video screen.
Saijo and Rowland opened the panels on the backs of their chairs and pulled out EV suits. Helmets, they grabbed from compartments beneath their seats.
Stillness shrouded everything. With Life Support off, even the subtle whoosh of the ship's air circulation system was gone. They could survive for a while with EV suits and what oxygen remained on the ship, but if they didn't get everything working again, they'd die.
"Everyone, into your suits," Derek said as he retrieved his own and scrambled into it. Before clicking his helmet into place, he checked his comm, intent on sending everyone a message to get into EV suits. But it wasn't registering the ship's communications network.
He tapped the status icon at the top of the screen. And his comm went dark. No amount of coaxing brought it back to life.
Derek put his comm away and secured his helmet. He tried the in-suit radio. To his relief, it crackled to life. "Sandor, come in." He waited for a three-count. "Orion?" Again, no response. Either neither man had donned a suit yet, or something was limiting the radio's signal strength.
Saijo grabbed Eager's hand and, with the help of her suit, hauled him back to the deck.
"Rowland, with me." He motioned the other man to follow him. "We have to at least get emergency power on. I'm sure Orion and Sandor are already working on the problem, but since we can't contact them, it's up to us to make sure this ship gets back online." He headed for the emergency stairs, using maneuvering thrusters to stay on target. "Homer, you have the bridge."
The comm officer paled. "Yes, sir." His thin reply barely registered on the radio. Derek wanted to reassure the man, tell him he was more than capable of keeping order in Derek's absence. But there wasn't time for that. Homer would have to find his own confidence.
Derek used the handrails to guide his descent.
Rowland followed close behind him.
If too many crew failed to don suits within the next few hours, the air would thin. Considerably.
Nova was still in the med bay. With her leg, she wouldn't be able to get into a suit without help. Neither would the rest of the injured crew.
Derek and Rowland wound down several flights before reaching the landing they wanted. Thoughts of Nova, suffocating, unable to get to safety, tightened his chest. But everyone on board needed him right now, not just Nova. If he and Rowland got Life Support back on, she'd be all right.
"Any guesses as to what's causing this?" Derek asked Rowland.
"Could be something to do with the engine. That virus Sandor quarantined might have found a way to escape. Or it could be something about the Gate corridor. We haven't entered the Aquarius Network since Argo had her upgrades. There are a dozen things that might be wrong."
"Engine room first then." Derek led the way.
As he and Rowland navigated the halls, they passed dozens of crew members. Some wore EV suits, but most didn't, and many were too occupied with their hallucinations to pay attention to Derek or Rowland. While he didn't want to leave even one member of his crew vulnerable to asphyxiation, in most cases, he didn't have a choice. The best way to help them was to get Argo's power back on, so they could leave the Gate corridor as soon as possible.
When they reached main engineering, Derek and Rowland pried open the door. Inside, a couple dozen headlamps were the only light in otherwise-inky darkness.
As soon as Derek stepped into Engineering, his in-suit radio picked up Orion's voice.
"…be all right, fellas. Everything's goin' ta be okay. We'll find the cause of the blackout and be right on our way." He launched into an unexpected—but not unwelcome—prayer.
Derek had never heard the old engineer pray aloud, but the ease with which the man spoke to God was uniquely calming.
When Orion ended his prayer, the darkness didn't seem quite as thick, and the group of suit-clad engineering corpsmen stood quietly, awaiting instructions.
Derek approached the group and laid a hand on Orion's shoulder. "Power's out all over the ship. I brought Rowland to find the problem."
"Good to see ya, Captain," Orion said. "All of us are at your disposal."
"Rowland," Derek nodded to the young man. "You go ahead. I need to speak with Orion."
Rowland quickly divided the engineering crew into teams and set them to investigating various connections and conduits.
"Let's go into the hall." Derek took Orion outside the group's comm range but stayed within line of sight. "Something's very wrong here."
"Aye." Orion scanned the hall, then looked into the still-dark engine room. "And we're not alone."
Derek's skin prickled. "You feel it too."
"Tisn't hard ta know what it is. But that doesn't make things any better. Isn't the first time this ship has been overrun by evil spirits, and if we survive this, I doubt it will be the last."
"Evil spirits… Demons?" Derek was glad the others couldn't hear him.
Orion's sober nod tied his gut into a knot.
This had to be a mistake. "How do you know?"
"That feelin' something's trying to smother you, the deep darkness and eerie, tense quiet. Not to mention that pull in your spirit, like the light inside you is straining against something. When you've been near evil, you don't forget it."
The sting of a thousand tiny, watching eyes skittered over Derek. "No. I suppose you don't." His hand hovered near the thruster controls as the odd urge to run back into the engine room hit him. "How is everyone?"
"Some were terrified outta their minds," Orion said. "Reasoning didn't help, so I prayed over the lot of 'em for a good while. Had just finished when you and Rowland arrived." His face pinched. "We can't have a repeat of what happened during the Iscandar trip. I don't know how much Nova's told you, but I think we all were terrified when we faced the dragon here in this room. I thought Homer was going to melt where he stood. Sandor, Nova, and I kept brave faces, but all of us were shaking in our boots by the time that thing was gone. Conroy and Noble fared better, but all of us remember just how fierce that confrontation was.*"
Derek surrendered to the urge to step back into the engine room. The darkness here was somehow lighter than it was in the hall. Not so oppressive.
"They haven't taken physical form, which is a good sign." Orion kept his voice down.
The old man watched his group of engineers as they swarmed the bay, following Rowland's instructions. "I don't think there are any more of those things in here. No one's drowning in fear anymore, and everyone's stopped seein' things. Had one who couldn't stop scratching. Ripped right through his sleeve and into his arm. He's all right. Just had to be bandaged up. Another two took swings at each other. I had to get between them. Almost got my head knocked off. About a dozen others curled up on the floor and wailed like babes. But evil can't withstand the Light of God, Wildstar, no more than an egg can an elephant. We'll come through this." He gave Derek a fatherly pat on the back. "Stay alert, and don't give in ta fear."
That was the hard part. Fear loomed larger-than-life right now, and surrendering to it would be all too easy.
Nova's leg ached. Nine days in traction felt like months. All she wanted to do was get out of bed, even if all she could do was hobble across the room a few times.
She filled most of her time reading, talking with the Jeshurunians, and sleeping.
Her comm lay in her hand. A message from Derek sat at the top of the screen.
I meant what I said earlier.
He'd sent it less than half an hour ago and hadn't said anything since. Not that there was time to think about that right now. Reports said they were on their way to Saturn-Titan to assist the EDF fleet in a battle with Cometine forces.
She'd overheard murmurings about Gamilon ships when Penny last came in to bring her some Nutri-gel and water, and the most recent report said they'd encountered a small fleet, including Desslok's flagship.
Nova opened the latest damage and casualty reports. The list of injured had grown. No deaths. Thankfully.
If only she didn't have a broken leg. Saijo was probably at Radar, but what she wouldn't give to be back on the bridge, or helping Hansen, Penny, and Dr. Sane tend the wounded. Anything but being stuck here, helpless to do anything for her fellow crew.
Argo shuddered.
Nova waited for another damage report to ping into the queue, but none came. Instead, an odd chill crept over the room, and in the corner near Nova's bed, both Bahn and Silesia rustled.
Silence pooled around all three of them until Silesia said, "We've passed into a place of great darkness."
"I've not felt the like in all my years." Bahn shuddered.
"We're inside a Gate." Nova gripped her comm in one hand and the edge of the bed with the other. Derek had advised everyone that they were going through the Aquarius Network again and to be prepared for hallucinations and bouts of panic.
Reports hadn't detailed the state of the EDF fleet, but if Derek had taken Argo through a Gate to reach them, it wasn't good.
"Queen Starsha spoke of a Gate once. She said little of it." Silesia's voice was quiet, and silence soon overtook the room again. The only sounds were the buzz of an aging light, the hiss of recycled air, and Nova's steady breaths.
They waited in the thickening quiet.
A terror-stricken scream from outside heralded the ordeal.
"I can't hold him," Hanson's voice rose above the wail. "He's going to—Get away from that! No, don't—"
The whine of laser fire preceded a host of terror-filled shrieks and cries for help, and a surge of footsteps roared through the medbay as those patients who could stand rushed to get out of the shooter's sights.
"They're everywhere," the panicked man cried. "Everywhere! Run for your—"
The sharp thud of one body crashing into another stopped the terrified yell.
Dr. Sane burst into Nova's room. Behind him, Hansen straddled a patient and wrestled an astro-automatic from his hand.
"The starflies are back," said Sane. "There are only a few so far, but more are coming. You can hear them in the halls. I'm sealing your door to keep them out. Don't open it."
Nova got a glimpse of the med bay in chaos. Men and women ran in circles, swatted the air, swore, screamed, waved bedding and personal effects. But there were no tiny red lights.
"Wait. Dr. Sane, there aren't any starflies. It's the—"
Sane hurried out, and a red light blinked above the door.
"—Gate." She turned to Bahn and Silesia. "It's causing mass hallucinations." She took a deep breath. Chill air burned inside her chest as a sense of heaviness filled the small room.
"Something is here," Bahn hissed. "Something malevolent."
Shadows darkened. The sheets scratched her hands and good leg. Cold seeped into her exposed fingers. She rubbed her hands and arms, trying to warm them. Her hands froze around her arms, clinging raggedly to the robe and pale medical gown she still wore. The robe, though a help, wasn't nearly enough protection from this biting cold.
And Dr. Sane had locked her in. Even if she could get herself out of traction, she'd have to use an emergency override code to open the door. She tried to remember the one she'd chosen upon boarding two years ago, but the numbers kept jumbling.
Outside, the clamor of shouts and wails turned fevered.
The obnoxious blare of a ship-wide comm announcement preceded a panicked declaration.
"They'll kill us this time! Abandon ship! We're overrun—" It cut off with a desperate scream.
The roar of fear outside grew louder. Fists pounded on her door, and fellow patients begged to be let in.
Nova uttered silent prayers as the crew's fear intensified, and the sense of impending doom loomed closer.
Another blare reverberated through the med bay. This time, Derek's voice spilled over the noise. "This is your captain speaking." His following reassurances did nothing to cure the panic outside.
At least he wasn't being tormented by hallucinations like so many others.
When Derek's voice ebbed, and the subtle whine of the ship-wide comm vanished, Nova bowed her head, put her hands over her ears, and prayed.
Minutes passed, and the racket outside didn't dissipate. Neither did the sense that something was terribly wrong.
Nova opened her eyes and reached for her comm, which lay abandoned beside her on the bed.
Just as she picked up the device, the whole med bay went inky dark.
Arach walked Argo's halls, hand on the pommel of his sword. At Shaddai's behest, he'd left Arkan to come here.
Every Gate corridor he'd walked crawled with demons. A host of them converged here to assault the ship and crew.
The voices of those aboard who were praying echoed around him. They might be afraid, but they hadn't lost faith. A good sign.
But there were still so many here being tormented by the host of Hell.
A crewman floated past, ten demons assailing him.
"You'll never make it home," one hissed.
"This is a fatal mission," another said.
"Your children will never see you again," chanted a third.
Arach wanted to sweep the lot of them away. But an inaudible command stayed his hand. It wasn't time to act.
A second crewman, this one wearing a space suit and covered in the Holy Spirit's glow, came alongside the despairing one and spoke words of encouragement.
The demons scattered, hissing and spitting at the light-covered man.
Sometimes, the twisted spirits morphed back into a semblance of the wondrous beings they'd once been, before they rebelled against Shaddai and He cast them from Heaven. Arach had known them all, stood beside them. Now, they were gone, unredeemable, their choice made.
A cloud of demons scattered as Arach stepped into the ship's engine room. The Spirit's glow covered several men and women, and there were scant few demons lingering here. The few who did hid in remote corners and were small, shivering things, too cowed by the presence of the Spirit to act.
Captain Wildstar stood with an old man. Both wore the Light.
Just as Arach reached the pair, a hellish scream ripped through the ship. It emanated from the bridge.
Derek's suit comm chirped.
"W-Wildstar." Homer's unsteady voice. "It's Dash. He's lost his mind!"
The din of enraged screams almost drowned out Homer.
Derek headed for the engine room door, leaving Orion with Rowland and the rest of the engineering team. "I'll be there as fast as I can."
It took five full minutes to maneuver through the halls, avoiding hallucinating and distressed crew. He wanted to help them all. The weight of his responsibility to his crew hit just a little harder every time he had to leave someone to their dark visions.
He reached the bridge just as an enraged screech tore through the comm.
Derek pushed through the partially opened doors.
Dash and Alori tangled on the floor. Dash had turned on his boots, rooting him in place as he held Alori against the deck with a knee and both hands.
Saijo and Eager jetted away from them.
Yamazaki wore a pained expression, as if he wanted to intervene but didn't know how.
Homer hid behind his chair, peering at the fight.
"Lt. Jordan Dashell, stand down!" Derek bellowed.
The other man's attention locked on Derek. Sheer fury burned in his eyes. He didn't let go of Alori. "You have no authority here."
It wasn't Dash's usual tenor. Something far deeper and more sinister laced through it, razor-sharp and deadly.
"This is my ship." Derek kept his voice even, praying it wouldn't crack.
Dash—or the thing using him—laughed derisively. The sound filled Derek's helmet and rattled through his suit. "This piece of disgraced metal is nothing more than a flying coffin. Your sentimentality over it sickens me. Every one of you will die here. My master declares it, and none of you have the power to stop me." His eyes flickered over Derek's shoulder. "Not even you."
Derek dared a glance behind him. No one was there.
Arach gripped his sword tighter as the gigantic demon curled around Lt. Dashell hissed at him. It had taken the form of a snake, and its jaws hung open in a clear threat.
"Why did you choose this one?" Arach said, stepping around Captain Wildstar to stand between him and the demon.
The foul spirit's jaws snapped shut. "I owe you no answers, angel." Its forked tongue flickered around the lieutenant's face. "But I will tell you. His anger is deliciously thick, and he has given into it many times as of late. Why should I not take advantage of it? After all, we will soon have this ship. And we will destroy it."
Certainty came to Arach. "No. You won't."
"Then why do you not stop me?"
"Because my Lord has not bidden me to."
The snake demon laughed, a hissing, spitting sound. "Then I will relish having you watch as we destroy these feeble men."
Still, no divine prompting to act came.
He kept a firm grip on his sword hilt and waited.
Derek faced Dash.
Alori grabbed Dash's hands, trying to pry them off his neck. Abbreviated gasps rasped through the comm as the navigator's air supply dwindled. "In the name of—"
Dash's hands clamped down harder, cutting off Alori's words. "No cheating!" he growled.
Alori's swipes grew weaker.
Derek couldn't let another of his crew die. Not when he could prevent it. He drew his sidearm. "Let him go."
"Make me," Dash hissed.
Derek aimed at the man's arm and put his finger on the trigger.
Nova's comm still wouldn't work, and the emergency lights hadn't come on. Even artificial gravity wasn't working. The only thing keeping her in place was her grip on the bedrail and her traction setup.
It was too dark to see until Bahn set himself aglow with a faint green bioluminescence.
Bahn and Silesia floated inches above the deck. Bahn kept a grip on Silesia's planter, preventing her from free floating into the ceiling while he anchored himself to the floor with several thick roots.
The cacophony outside rose in volume. Screams of terror speared through the door.
"We have to do something," Nova said.
Silesia spoke, her voice small and gentle. "We cannot leave this room. Even if we could, you are injured, I am far from whole, and Bahn cannot move freely with so much metal to impede him."
Nova offered a silent prayer for help.
The groan of metal filled the small room.
Dr. Sane, with the help of Hansen, muscled open Nova's door, using the manual override. Both wore EV suits but hadn't put on helmets yet.
"There are too many." Hansen swatted the air. "We've got to get off the ship. Away from these things."
"Not without Nova." Dr. Sane sailed to her, stopping himself with a brief push from the maneuvering jets. He fumbled with her traction harness.
"You don't need to leave the ship to get away from starflies," Nova said.
"If you can't see them, you're blind," Hansen said as he ducked and eyed the air warily.
Dr. Sane was halfway done freeing Nova's leg.
"I can't see them because they aren't there," she said.
"Yes. They are," Hansen insisted as he bumped into the wall after a particularly vicious swat at thin air.
"We're going to get as many people off the ship as we can," said Sane. "Go back the way we came. Maybe the Gamilons and Cometines will have destroyed each other."
Nova used her good foot to push Sane away from her broken leg. "That's suicide."
"It's the only way we'll survive," Hansen snapped.
Nova tightened her grip on the bed. "Don't do this."
Dr. Sane wasn't deterred by her feeble efforts. "I won't leave you here."
"If you force me and everyone else in the medbay to go with you, it'll be a death sentence to us all, not to mention the men and women in the defense fleet who're waiting for Argo's help."
"They'll call someone else."
"There is no one else," Nova insisted. "Listen to yourself. You're not making sense."
"Saving lives is my job." Sane untangled the last of the traction harness, leaving her leg free for the first time in over a week. "I'm not abandoning you or any of my patients to die." Using the suit controls to add to his strength, he tried to pull her away from the bed.
Nova pried his hand free. "I said I'm not going with you. We have to stay on board."
Sane grabbed her arm again. "Hansen," he called.
The other man sailed to Nova's bedside, and he took Sane's place. His grip was much firmer than the old doctor's, and, even with both hands, Nova strained to keep hold of the bed.
One by one, her fingers lost purchase on the rail as Hansen turned up the power on his suit thrusters.
Derek had to shoot Dash. There wasn't another choice. But as his finger tightened on the trigger, everything in him screamed that there had to be another way.
Dash shook Alori by the throat as the fill-in navigator grabbed hold of Dash's hands, trying, feebly now, to dislodge the other man.
He had maybe ten seconds before Alori lost consciousness, and based on Dash's behavior, he wouldn't let up after Alori was out.
Praying he wasn't making a mistake, Derek fired.
The energy bolt streaked into Dash's arm, leaving a smoking black patch on his EV suit.
Dash hissed, but he didn't let go of Alori. "What are you going to do now, puny man? Kill your own?" He uttered a choked laugh. "Not that you haven't killed before. I've seen you do it. Want to know how many children you helped murder on Gamilon? I counted them—what was left of them, that is. Their charred bones and broken bodies still litter the soil of that dying world, and you are the one responsible."
Derek had re-lived that day in far too many dreams. The day they'd dealt a crippling blow to Gamilon's defenses. The memory of that desolate crater where once there'd been homes—government buildings, places of business… people…
He'd killed them. Guilty and innocent alike. Who was he to set himself up as a leader and protector now?
The barrel of his astro-automatic sank until it pointed at the floor instead of Dash.
Nova couldn't hold on much longer. Hansen was too strong. They were going to drag her out of here, and she couldn't stop them.
Help. It was the only prayer she had.
Bahn's leafy vines snaked around Hansen and Sane, wrapping them in cocoons of green. Both men struggled as Bahn secured them to the wall near the door. "No one is leaving this ship."
Hansen flung choice curses at Bahn, but the Jeshurunian was unmoved.
In relief, Nova pulled herself back toward the bed, arms still tense from the brief struggle. She crooked one arm through the bed rail and concentrated on keeping her broken leg straight. The nano-mesh cast helped tremendously, treating muscle spasms and keeping other pain at a minimum while supporting the fractured bone. She wasn't scheduled to come off traction yet. Hopefully, this wouldn't impede healing.
Outside Nova's room, Penny zipped past in an EV suit, calling orders to patients and staff to get ready to leave for the hangar. If only they could keep everyone here.
"Bahn," Nova said, "I know you're limited, but can you bar the door to the med bay?"
"I have already used a good portion of my resources to hold these two." Bahn waved a branch at Sane and Hansen. "But I will try."
Bahn's vines extended away from the two men, creeping toward the room's open door. It was three minutes before he announced. "It is sealed. They may try to release the door, but I have entrenched myself around the manual override. Even if they saw through my vines, it will be almost impossible to dislodge them. It would take a concentrated flame some time to burn away. It is possible fear might fuel someone to persist long enough to break my hold, but let us pray my temporary measure remains in place until all is well once more."
Bahn's faint glow cast Hansen and Sane in deathly green hues. Both men stared at Bahn in terror, and neither said a word. Maybe they'd stay quiet.
With all the chaos down here in the med bay, Nova hoped Derek, and everyone else on the bridge, was all right.
The demon curled around Lt. Dashell spewed accusations at Captain Wildstar, the chief of them being "murderer."
Arach had seen it too many times. Men and women crippled by the past. This man had killed innocents in a war he and his fellow crew saw no way out of. But did the blame for their deaths rest solely on this man's shoulders? Only Shaddai knew all who were at fault for that moment of slaughter. Just as only Shaddai knew all at fault for the deaths of so many on Earth during the bombings.
"Whatever he may have done, it is covered by the Blood of the Lamb," Arach said. "Forgiven by Shaddai."
"That does not preclude me from using it against him." The demon hissed.
The quiet whisper Arach had been waiting for finally came. It was time to act.
"Perhaps not," said the angel. "But if you choose to persist," he drew his sword, "I will stop you."
The demon eyed his sword, and its face soured. Arach's blade had dispatched many a dark spirit, this one included. The sword burned with the fire of the Almighty.
"But this one does not belong to the Most High." The demon flicked its tongue over Lt. Dashell. "I have taken him fairly."
Arach pointed the sword at the demon. "Leave this man and this ship. And take your horde, or by the order of Shaddai, I will cut down every one of you."
The demon glowered, but fear lingered behind its disgust. "Very well." It slowly released Lt. Dashell and withdrew from Captain Wildstar. The thundering accusations it had whispered moments ago died as the demon slithered off the bridge to collect its fellow minions.
Arach sensed their departure as, a few at a time, the host of Hell seeped through the hull or out seams between exit doors and vanished into the nether of the Gate network to hunt easier prey.
One moment Dash had Alori by the throat. The next, he floated limp. His boots were still on, anchoring him to the deck.
"Eager, check on Alori," Derek ordered, before finding the monitor on the upper arm of Dash's suit. He was alive, just blacked out. "Dash? Dash." He shook the man's shoulder.
Slowly, Dash came to. Skewed glasses framed bloodshot—but clear—eyes, underscored by dark smudges. The haze of rage was gone. A haunted look replaced it, and he didn't have to say a word for Derek to know he remembered every second of what had just transpired.
"Get back to your post," Derek said.
"Yes, sir." Dash took his seat. In the ensuing quiet, he patched his suit, and soon the black char mark from Derek's weapon was gone, hidden beneath a synth-fiber square.
No one said a word, not even Homer, who still glanced around nervously at frequent intervals.
Every corner of the bridge was cold and silent, but it didn't have the same weight as before. The sense of impending disaster had melted, leaving only the vague feeling of disquiet that came with all Gate crossings.
Dash's accusations still thundered in Derek's head. He had killed—innocents. And he carried the weight of it every day. What he'd done couldn't be undone. No amount of regret or wishing could bring anyone back from the dead. Only God could do that, and He hadn't intervened.
But now wasn't the time to dwell on the past. Countless innocent lives depended on him to get this ship to Saturn in time to help the defense fleet.
He prayed Rowland could do as promised and get the power back on.
Derek's comm buzzed twice, starting its boot sequence. He pulled it from a sealed suit pocket. Within two seconds, it was online. Backlogged messages poured in from all over the ship.
The lights came on.
Bridge terminals flickered to life.
An emergency message flashed across Derek's comm screen, eclipsing everything else.
Artificial gravity will re-engage in 60 seconds. Navigate to a safe place.
The countdown started immediately.
When it hit zero, weight settled on Derek's shoulders and kept him in his seat.
Another notice flashed.
Life Support systems restored.
Derek switched off his boots and unsealed his helmet, relieved to not have to rely on the suit mic to be heard by the other bridge officers. "Yamazaki, engine status."
"I need to run a diagnostic, make sure the sudden shutdown didn't cause any lasting damage, but we should be at full power within a few minutes."
"Get us out of here at best speed as soon as possible."
"Yes, sir." Yamazaki set to coordinating with Orion down in the engine room.
Rowland stepped out of the elevator moments later, trying to fold his EV suit so it would fit back into its compartment. He hurried to the Science station and stowed both suit and helmet.
"Report," Derek said.
"Captain, I'm still not sure what caused the shutdown. It's as if everything was turned off at once by an untraceable signal or invisible program. There was no mechanical failure. Not a single component is damaged or defective. There is no apparent reason for what happened, sir. It could have been Feld—Deun's virus, but we found no evidence of that. However, it's unlike any virus we've encountered, so it could still be the cause. I sent Sandor my findings as soon as the power came back up, and he'll be looking into it further while we traverse the rest of the Gate corridor."
Derek hoped there was another explanation. "Take your post, Rowland."
The man sat.
"Engines are ready, Captain," Yamazaki said.
"Eager, how's Alori?"
Eager had the helmsman's helmet off now and was helping the other man sit up.
"Fine… sir…" Alori croaked, a hand to his throat. Deep purple bruises had already formed on his medium brown skin. "I can't… talk…. But I… can still… fly." Alori nodded thanks to Eager and reclaimed his post.
"We'll get a medic up here as soon as we're under way," Derek said.
Dash kept his eyes on his station, running diagnostics on every weapons system onboard.
"All ahead, full," Derek ordered. "Captain Gideon is waiting for us."
Episode 38 Notes:
* To read about the incident in the engine room during the trip to Iscandar, read Cure Seekers, Episode 37: Through the Night, and Episode 38: Yet to the Truth and Faithful.
The title for this chapter is taken from Isaiah 14:26-27
This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?