Laxor Prime

“Redirect fire, main batteries, pattern Aled.” Jen ordered as the Indomitable shook from incoming fire.

‘Shields holding, Captain. Reactor safeties disengaged, charge modulated to 120%.’ The tactical AI advised.

‘Hurry up people, our shields aren’t going to last forever’ She spoke through the mind link.

In the Indomitable’s hangar bay, Raz was laid out under the Maven's main console, stripping down the backing covers, and tossing them aside. Thick hardline wires had been pulled into the ship’s cockpit through the cargo hold, with maintenance drones and two of the ship’s engineering crew busy connecting them to the Maven’s warp drive in the back, while Raz and Spark were in the process of plugging in the nav computer.

“Pass me the patch line, Spark.” She said, busy swapping existing connections around.

A maintenance drone hovered closer, pulling the thick cable close to her hand.

“No, no. I need an eight-pin socket for this.” Raz said looking at the cable.

‘Aren’t you patching through the diagnostics port?’ Spark asked.

‘No, we’re going through the expansion slot. Otherwise the nav computer will go into maintenance mode and won’t actually fire up the drive. Would you please just pass me the eight-pin, for fuck’s sake?’

The drone’s nanites reshaped the connector to the desired interface and Raz plugged into the console’s guts.

‘Raz, this isn’t a memory module, you’re plugging in, it’s a whole other nav system. The feedback loop can…’ He started to say.

‘You just need to compensate in the code. How’s that coming?’ She asked, gracefully sliding out from under the console and picking herself up.

‘Don’t ask. I’ve had to do some really creative coding to get the Maven’s firmware to translate to and from imperial data formats. Luckily the Indomitable’s mainframe will be doing the hard work, so we should be fine. Still no guarantee your warp drive can generate a bubble large enough for both ships.’

‘We only need to sustain it for a few seconds.’ She replied, moving through to the cargo hold, where the two techs were plugging in the last of the hardlines. The ship shook again violently.

‘That one went through our shields. Tell me you’re done down there.’ Jen chimed in.

“How’s it coming, gentlemen?” Raz asked the techs, Jerron and Terk, picking herself up after almost losing her footing.

“External power bypass is done, uploading the new code to the hyperdrive. Twelve seconds.” Terk replied.

‘We’re almost done here, Captain.’ Raz transmitted, then started listening in on the bridge chatter as she quickened her pace on her way there.

‘Interceptors are turning back, Captain.’ The weapons officer said.

‘Don’t give them a chance to regroup. Finish them before we come into weapons range of the frigates. Nav, status.’

‘New datasets integrating. Plotting warp course to Lax… Oh crap.’

‘Warp navigation reveals a number of gravitational anomalies in our path. This data doesn’t make sense, there are no other stellar bodies between us and Laxor Prime, ma’am.’ The navigation AI filled in the blanks.

‘They don’t appear to be significant, but the entire system is like a gravitational minefield. Our course could be affected.’ The nav officer finally said, concerned.

‘We’re out of options. Try to compensate and get us as close to Laxor Prime as you can. All crew, switch your suits to hazard mode.’ Jen ordered, masking the worry in her thoughts.

‘This could get ugly.’ Spark told Raz privately. ‘You should put on your helmet.’

The nanites spread up her neck enclosing her head as Raz reached the bridge. Everyone’s cysuit had now changed form to the familiar basic configuration, complete with helmets. She took the jump seat next to Keelin, whose suit retained the classic design flourishes, even as it now completely encased her, looking like something out of a museum display. Keelin took her hand as she sat, a feeling of warmth and comfort catching Raz off-guard, almost making her jump.

‘It’s okay.’ Keelin spoke to her. ‘I’m sure you’ve done everything you can. We’ll be okay.’

Raz only realized how tense her body had been the entire time, as she exhaled, finally unclenching her jaw. She’d clearly misjudged the elves, keeping a guarded stance around them at all times, yet all the while during this emergency, none of them had even so much as looked down at her, despite her being obviously an outsider, to both this crew and their entire race. Even Jen, who was initially reluctant to take her input in decisions affecting her ship and crew, was quick to consider and accept her opinions when the situation demanded it. As for Keelin, she’d done her best to make her feel welcome and at ease, despite being a complete stranger.

‘All hands, brace for warp.’ The navigation officer announced shipwide.

‘Talam, I hope this works.’ Jen thought to herself, turning her head to look at Raz.

‘Three… Two… One… Warp.’

First the familiar blue shift, then space distortion. Raz clenched her gut. Then the kick. Her stomach churned. The Indomitable went to warp. It worked! Before she had time to feel any sort of elation however, the ship shuddered. She felt an impact from the right, then one from the left. The borders of her view started pulsing red. Then they dropped out of warp, as if crashing into an ocean. Sparks erupted around her. She looked up to see Laxor Prime filling the holodome above her head. The image flickered, then went black. The lights went out for a split second, then amber lighting filled the bridge. She felt the Indomitable’s hull groaning under her feet.

‘Fire in engineering!’ The first voice broke her stunned bubble.

‘Navigation offline!’ Another shouted over the mind link.

‘Main power bus just exploded, running on backups.’

‘Away damage control.’ Jen raised her voice over the ruckus. ‘Helm, take us down.’

‘Captain, all nav systems are dark, I have no course input.’ The helmsman replied.

‘Junior Helmsman, use your eyes! Point the bow towards that planet and land us on the surface! Anywhere will do.’

‘All hands, be advised. Emergency atmospheric descent underway.’ An AI announced.

Keelin squeezed Raz’s hand. Unable to contribute in any way, Raz squeezed hers back and held on. The Indomitable tumbled end to end, until the helmsman reined her in and started a manual descent into the planet’s atmosphere. The hull started shuddering continuously, as it flew through the atmosphere belly first, trying to arrest their velocity. Plasma started forming around them. With the holowindows off, Raz looked through the ship’s sensors, only to see nothing but a blazing inferno below them. The shaking continued, reverberating through the ship, dislodging maintenance covers and wall panels. After what seemed like an eternity, the flames started to dissipate, even though the noise was only getting louder.

‘Upper atmosphere penetrated. Engaging reverse thrusters.’ The helmsman announced.

Large panels on the outside of the Indomitable’s engines slid backwards, covering the exhausts and redirecting them forward. Simultaneously a number of smaller engines on the ship’s bottom fired up, along with a pair of slightly larger engines revealed behind the retracted hull panels of the bow. The sudden deceleration felt to Raz as if the ship had crashed into a wall, prompting the hull to groan anew.

Finally, the ship slowed down enough to stop shuddering and shaking. Raz looked through the ship’s exterior sensors, however the ones along the bottom weren’t transmitting any data. She thought of looking through the hull and the walls around her disappeared, looking as if her chair was getting closer to the ground by itself, seeing that they were actually much lower than she thought, vast swathes of jungle as far as the eye could see, approaching from below, save for a large dark patch underneath her, which she assumed must be the damaged sensors. Kicking up a large cloud of dust and foliage, the Indomitable came to rest on her large landing legs, crushing thick jungle vegetation under her hull.

“Landing complete, Captain.” The helmsman said letting out a sigh.

The crew erupted in jubilation, waves of elation flooding the network. Raz leaned her head back against her seat and exhaled deeply, blocking everything out for a second, then dissolved her helmet.

‘Good work everyone.’ Jen said ship-wide. ‘Shut down all unnecessary equipment. Active emission masking protocol in effect. Submit status and damage reports within the hour. That is all.’

Raz looked over to Keelin as her bangs and ponytail swung free from her own helmet retracting. She looked back at her with a smile.

“See, I told you we were going to be fine.”

Raz sighed in relief and smiled back at her.

“I am going to need my hand back, however.” She added.