Chapter Four
He stood up.
On the screen the massive shadow vessel was turning to
face the Valiant again. It was different than the last one Kline had seen;
this one looked like a bird, a deformed, sick, mutant bird.
"Sylvia, continue trying to evade their fire but
keep on head-on." He ordered.
"If you say so…" She sighed.
"Mantion, prepare to fire on my command," he
turned to Sutter. "Prepare an evasion course for conn, Commander."
"Aye," the women said simultaneously.
"Okay, Sylvia." Kline placed a supportive hand
on her shoulder. "Bring us alongside their main hull close enough so we
can take a few shots with our torpedoes."
She nodded and pushed the impulse engines to full. The
shadow ship fired a pulse at the Valiant but Burnel masterfully evaded
the blast with an impressive barrel roll. The Valiant was soon careening
on top of the shadow ship.
"Fire!" Kline barked.
The silver torpedoes fell upon the shadow ship like a
rain of white fire, the explosions that were left in the wake of the Valiant's
assault were so powerful that a piece of one of the 'wings' was ripped of and
hurtled into the depths of space.
"Looks like we hit them bad," Sutter said as
the Valiant quickly escaped and prepared for a possible second run.
"Nothing on scanners," Mantion said.
"Sensors report that only two of the seven torpedoes
missed, Captain." Eskina said. "With 75% that's not great but it's
acceptable."
"Good," Kline said. "Set a…"
But before he could finish his sentence an energy pulse
fired from the vessel struck the aft section of the shields, throwing the Valiant
forward with such force that Kline was lucky not to fall straight through the
viewscreen. The lights flickered and one of the secondary consoles exploded in
a shower of glittering sparks.
"Aft shields are down to twenty percent!"
Mantion reported. "Compensating…"
"Sylvia," Kline got back on his feet and headed
for his chair, safer. "Bring us around that asteroid," he pointed.
"180 degree curved vector path and head straight back at them."
Sutter got into the rhythm of things and began ordering
around: "Mantion forget the aft shields for now, full power to forward.
Tell the torpedo bays to attempt to match the pattern of the shadow ship,
that'll give us a better chance to hit."
The Valiant circled half-way around the asteroid
and began accelerating towards the shadow ship.
"Ready torpe…" Kline
was interrupted in mid-sentence as the shadow vessel fired three balls of white
energy that raced towards the Valiant and struck the forward shields
with incredible force. A panel on the ceiling exploded in a shower of sparks,
the lights dimmed and through the turmoil Kline heard Mantion shout:
"Overall shield strength down to twenty percent! We will not survive
another assault!"
"Sylvia! Get us out of here!" Sutter was
struggling to remain seated in her chair.
The Valiant's thrusters fired up in such a way that
the ship did a 180 degree turn on itself, Burnel punched in a quick succession
of commands and the ship accelerated to full impulse. On the viewscreen an
aft-view showed the shadow ship grow smaller and smaller.
"Damn…" Eskina muttered.
"Keep a close eye on the field, Greg…If they emerge
I want to be informed instantaneously."
"Aye," replied the Ops officer.
"Captain!" A voice from the back of the bridge,
he turned.
He gasped and rushed to the side of Reeves who was
calling for a medical team. She was kneeling besides an unconscious, deathly
pale Amanda Parker. A pool of blood had formed near the area where her head had
struck the bulkhead.
* * *
When Stevenson had heard about Parker's injury he had
rushed to the turbolift without a second thought. Now, as he walked towards the
door to sickbay he began to ask himself what the hell he was doing. He didn’t
have time to find an answer though and before he knew it he had entered
sickbay.
He saw her sitting up on a bio-bed and walked towards
her. She noticed him and just watched him with a strange look which he couldn't
interpret as he came closer.
"Hi," he said, finding nothing else to say.
"Hello," she said simply.
"How are you feeling?" He asked.
"The injury is not the worst part of the pain…"
She lowered her head.
He frowned.
"I'm sorry…" She said. "I'm sorry to be
such a burden to all of you."
"A burden…? What are you talking about?" He
asked.
"If I hadn't insisted to stay on the bridge no one
would have had to bother themselves to save me…And…"
"And what…?" He raised an eyebrow.
She shook her head: "I can't do this…It's too hard.
I can't help thinking of him."
Stevenson said nothing for a while.
She curled her thighs up against her chest and rested her
chin on her knees.
"Why are you here?" She suddenly asked.
"Why do you come see me?"
He shrugged: "I was worried…"
"Do yourself a favor…" Her tone was bitter, but
her animosity was not towards Stevenson. "Just…Just stay away from me. I'm
just trouble."
He said nothing.
"It…" Tears welled up in her eyes. "It
hurts too much…"
Stevenson's commbadge chirped and he excused himself a
moment, when he came back he said to her: "We need your help."
She looked up at him with a confused look:
"What?"
"If we can reconfigure the torpedoes with some of
the interphasic signatures you saw when the shadow entities attacked Amad we'll do more damage during the next
confrontation." He explained.
"I…I can't help…I can't focus." She wiped her
cheeks. "Please, you don't understand how I fee…"
"Stop…Stop." He said holding up his palm.
"I do."
She frowned: "You…what?"
He took a deep breath and lowered his eyes: "Let me
tell you about my sister..."
He paused for a moment, collecting his memories and she
waited for him to continue.
"She was born paraplegic, her condition was caused
by a rare disease that the doctors didn't pick up before birth and which
couldn't be cured after without taking considerable risk. My parents decided it
was safer for her to learn to live with her condition.
"She was thirteen, I was fifteen…I never paid much
attention to her, I was young and I had a lot of friends. I saw her every day
so I guessed that I saw her enough and went off to goof off with my pals. One
morning—I think it was November the 23rd—I woke up and walked into
my sister's room. She was lying on the floor…"
He took another deep breath and massaged his temple with
his right hand.
Parker was silent.
"The bed had been badly prepared by her nurse…She
had begun to strangle herself in her sheets, she fell off the bed while trying
to remove them and broke her neck."
"I…" Parker stammered. "I'm so
sorry…"
Stevenson nodded imperceptibly: "One month later, a
doctor came up with a revolutionary method of curing the type of paraplegia
that my sister had…If she had lived she would have been able to walk, to
run…"
"It wasn't your fault." She said.
"I know," he said. "But the thing is…I
only realized how much she meant to me once she was dead…Now I'll never be able
to tell her how much I loved her. How does the saying go? You only truly
realize what you really have once you've lost it?"
Parker nodded.
"So," he cleared his throat. "That's my
story."
"I…"
"I realize this isn't easy," he interrupted
her. "I know myself that the pain will never go away…But, I managed to
keep going, despite the pain, despite the hate I felt towards myself…I kept
going."
His stomach twisted, the pain of years, long-gone, were
re-surfacing. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I need you…We
need you. Help us fight these bastards before they kill anyone else. Let's do
our best, because that's what they would want…"
She looked up at him.
He returned her gaze and made a small nod before heading
for the exit.
"Lieutenant,"
He stopped in his tracks and swiveled to face her.
She managed a small smile, something he had never seen
her do. She had the most beautiful smile he had ever seen.
"Thank you…" She said.
He smiled back at her, and left.