Part 1: Math and Aftermath
"Bortus, our child is endangered by this continuing conflict with the Kaylon." Klyden sat on the couch and stared defiantly at Bortus. "I will therefore be relocating to Mochlas with our Son."
"Now is not the time." Bortus pulled on his uniform and headed towards the exit to their private quarters. "We will discuss it tonight when I return."
Klyden watched the entertainment system viewscreen and waited for Bortus to depart. The screen flicked off and Klyden relaxed before digging out the hidden headset.
"You have reached BE21 Technical Support," Klyden focused on the Job at hand and bought up the autocue list. "please quote your MT system error code."
"S-O-1-1-2-A." Came the voice on the line and Klyden recognized it as the Shield Oscillator error code for overheating of the shield oscillator from excessive use at random frequencies. "You are currently experiencing overheating due to rapid cycling of your Shield Oscilator."
...
I'll give that a try." Chief LaMarr quickly disconnected from tech support and ejected the Shield Oscillator for a cold replacement oscillator module at the high point in frequency modulation and the shields failed to collapse. "Yeah, that did the job. Thanks."
...
Captain Edward Mercer struggled to achieve escape velocity from the imploding Kalon homeworld. The shuttle engines were, the computers assured him, at FTL despite being at a crawl through space-time. Kaylon vessels were struggling to hold their position let alone target the shuttle. The glitter of energy beams curved downward into the maelstrom. Right now every craft above this world-eater was casting a dark energy shadow equal to its mass. As long as that matched, they could at least hold their position. When it did not, death became a certainty.
"Well its official," Captain Mercer added the dark energy shadow being cast by the shuttle to that of the Kaylon battle cruiser by moving behind it and the colossal war machine crumpled instantly and was pulled in. "I'm going to prison for Genocide."
"Today, I'm okay if you burn down half the galaxy," Doctor Claire Finn held her still and unconcious sons tightly to her. "I'll save my regrets for tomorrow."
"You say that now Doctor Finn but..." Something went to critical on the control board. "Nope. No. No. No. Shit."
"Okay..." the shuttle was dying and there were no more Kaylon battle cruisers within range to steal mass from. Ed stared at the Orville closing on their position. "We may have a problem."
"Anything I can help you with?" Claire Finn understood the precarious nature of their situation. She squeezed her children tighter. It had been a reckless decision to go to the Kaylon homeworld. To endanger the crew just to rescue Marcus and Ty. "I just..."
"No Doctor it's... fine," There was now no way they could shut down the FTL drives on the shuttle and enter the shuttle bay of the Orville. He stared at the Doctor squeezing the life from her children and looked back at the Orville. They could steal just enough mass from the Orville to escape if they slipped over the hull. Ed adjusted the angle of the shuttle, pointing it away from the Orville shuttle bay. "I'm just doing the Math."
"Who...?" Kelly Grayson stared down at the prone and unconcious form of Bortus, her hands soaked with the injured Moclan's blood. The Crowd above her fighting pit cheering the name Ke-le repeatedly. "Now... which one of you hungry bastards wants a piece?"
"Fas..." The distorted voice of Isaac behind her startled Kelly and she turned to look at the Mechanoid. "...c...i...n...a...t...i...n...g."
"Isaac?" The mechanoid melted away with a solar flare before Kelly could reach for him. "Isaac!"
"I...c?" Kelly, struggling to breath, woke to find Isaac, otherwise dormant, standing over her bed, the tentacles of connection wires down her throat, up her nose, and in her ears. And she pulled them out, the pain of detatching felt like hooks ripping from her inside flesh. "What the fuck?"
"Captain," The voice of Bortus came at her from a corner. "Are you all right?"
""Bortus?" Kelly was overcome with a sense of confusion. "What the hell is happening?"
"We have lost." Kelly looked out the window at a ruinous debris field of smashed Kalon ships as Bortus continued his oratory. "We are Lost."
"The Kalon homeworld..." It didn't look like they had lost. The head of a Kaylon bumped against the window before drifting away. It looked like they had ended the conflict. "What happened to it?"
"The Kaylon are destroyed." Isaac's voice reminded Kelly that he was still in the room. "The Kaylon Genocide is full circle at the hands of Captain Kelly Grayson..."
"Captain?" Bortas had refered refered to her as Captain, and now Isaac. Kelly laughed. "They don't promote Commanders guilty of Genocide to Captain."
"You are correct Captain Grayson," Isaac illuminated the injured Bortas, and began to probe his orifices with his tentacled collection of sensors. "However, Violet protocol requires the Commander to be promoted to Captain irrespective of legal stature in event that the Ship and crew are at a distance from home beyond their capacity to return in their expected lifetime and are without a Captain."
"Without a Captain?" Her thoughts jumped to Ed, Claire, Marcus and Ty. "What happened to the shuttle?"
"Captain Mercer was unable to safely enter the shuttle bay." Kelly closed her eyes at Isaac's explanation. "My scans indicate the shuttle Drive was at FTL when we crossed through their dark energy shadow."
"Did..." Kelly didn't realy want the answer. "...they come through with us."
"Fortunately they did not." Isaac retracted his probes from Bortus putting an end to the Moclan's suffering at Isaac's not so tender medical care. "I am done Commander Bortus."
"Unlike the Orville..." Isaac returned his attention to Captain Grayson. "...the shuttle would not have survived the experience."
"And what about you two?" Kelly focused on Bortus. "How are you going?"
"I will... live." Isaac interjected himself into the conversation. "Commander Bortus has sustained lung damage."
"Oh God!" Kelly lunged at Bortus and embraced him in an akward hug and looked at Isaac. "How bad is it?"
"I should be able to regenerate his lung tissue damage..." Isaac set aside his contemplation of the probability that Claire had perished. "...on the grounds he gives up smoking."
"Jesus Bortus..." Kelly was happy the crisis was minor and released her death grip on the living corpse of Commander Bortus. "I thought you stopped."
"From my cold..." Bortus whispered the words in her direction. "...dead hands."
"Okay." There was only one thing for it. "Isaac delete Cigarettes from the Orville synthesizers database."
"Yes Captain." Isaac focused on connecting to ship systems for a moment. "Cigarettes have been deleted."
"You have made an enemy today..." Bortus got to his feet and walked out taking his tears with him. "Tyrant!"
"Isaac?" Captain Kelly Grayson refocused her priorities and got to her feet. "How is the Orville and the rest of the crew?"
"Ninety-eight crew deceased Captain." Isaac placed a metal hand on Captain Grayson's shoulder. "Unfortunately I was able to re-attach Lieutenant Malloy's head."
"Huh..." Kelly was taken aback by the unfamiliar levity. "You made a joke."
"Yes Captain Grayson." Isaac offered Kelly her Uniform, and she only now realized she was naked. "I thought it appropriate."
"It wasn't..." A Kaylon body sporting the head of Lieutenant Malloy appeared in the doorway. "...in the slightest."
"Oh fuck." Kelly pulled on her clothing, her first Captaincy had just become a horror movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment