8
The crew just couldn’t believe it. Everything had been going
well up to this point, perhaps too well. The final warhead inspected
proved to be the only one, of the seven their reduced sensor
capability, discovered that was even remotely salvageable. The Chief
Engineer, Lieutenant Granger, was there at the moment inspecting it
and was just starting to extract it from its housing aboard the
destroyed USS Victory. He, himself, risked a quick message to his
ship over a comm channel so he could cheer up the crew.
“Granger to Hunter, I think we’ve struck gold here. The warhead
will have to be manually extracted from the housing, the autosequencer
is out, but initial scans are positive. Granger out.“
That had set the bridge crew cheering and clapping like crazy.
How strange it was that they were now celebrating the demise of a
fellow Starship and its crew that only a few months before would have
been horrific to them. But that was all the recent months of war had
done to their outlooks on life. And death. But no sooner had the
cheering begun on the bridge than the alert klaxons sounded and
drowned them out. Everyone stopped their cheering and concentrated on
their duty stations.
“What the hell is going on?,“ asked Jim from the command seat.
“Multiple systems failure, sir,“ answered Lieutenant Flynn,
shouting to be heard over the wail of the klaxons.
“Shut off that damn noise!“ Jim shouted. The sudden silence
that descended across the bridge was almost deafening, then suddenly
the damage reports flooded in.
“The structural integrity field is failing.”
“Life support is failing on decks 3 and 4.“
“Emergency forcefields have collapsed, we’re venting atmosphere
out through the hull breaches.“
“What’s causing it? Are we being fired on?.“
T’Vral scanned the surrounding space for enemy vessels.
“No sir. The damaged saucer section we have been hiding in is
collapsing all around us.“
“The deck structure must have been weaker than we imagined
before we bored in here. Damn it, we’ll have to get out of here
before it crushes us!“
“Propulsion is off-line sir!“
“What? Get it back on-line, now!”
“I’m trying to sir! The engines are not responding.”
Jim stabbed the button on the control panel on the arm of the command
chair that opened the communications channel to Engineering.
“Bridge to Engineering. Get those engines back on-line now!”
“We’re working on it sir!”
“Hull pressure is increasing sir. She can’t take much more of
this!”
“Do we have anything left in the forward RCS thrusters?”
Lieutenant Flynn accessed the computer and smiled when she saw that
the Reaction Control System had just enough fuel left to nudge them out of their hiding place.
“Yes sir. Engaging RCS thrusters... now!”
At that instant the expelled gas from the RCS thruster ports on the
bow pushed the compact starship out of the collapsing saucer section. They were fortunate that the shattering saucer section spread enough debris around to keep them covered.
To Be Continued....
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