Chapter Eight
A few minutes later,
the Sovereign was still being battered by the space creature. The crew
didn't even have time to stand after one hit because another one would follow
immediately after.
« Status? » asked the captain.
Suddenly, the whole bridge crew heard a voice say: « This
is Commander Kline, of the starship Valiant. We are coming to assist
you, stand by. »
Finally. The captain sighed in
relief.
On the viewscreen, a small Defiant-class cruiser
swooped in, it looked like a bug compared to the large creature, but knowing
the Defiant-class vessels, and Kalian knew the creature was in for a
battering.
Two photon torpedoes were shot from the Valiant; they
struck the creature in the tail, not causing much damage. The Valiant's
crew obviously knew that the creature was very resistant, or they would not be
firing weapons at it. The Federation's goal is not to destroy. A sentence that they needed to repeat at every class.
The Valiant accelerated and started moving towards
the asteroid, the creature was now more annoyed with the smaller vessel than
with the Sovereign.
The cruiser fired aft phasers which struck the creature
head-on, still making no appreciable damage. As the vessel approached the
asteroid, it went to full impulse in the direction of the crater from which the
creature had come out.
« What are they doing? » asked
Indeed, the Valiant and the creature were going
pretty fast.
Suddenly, the small ship deactivated their aft impulse
engines and sharply turned to the right by firing aft-right thrusters and
forward-left thrusters. The ship was still rapidly approaching the asteroid.
Then, the warp engines of the small ship flared for half-a-second and the Valiant
was thrown across the star field faster than the speed of light. The warp
jump did the correct effect because the creature still saw an image of the Valiant
at its previous position. It accelerated even more. When the image of the Valiant
disappeared, the creature still had too much momentum. It couldn't stop itself;
it fell into the crater, crashing into a wall. The Valiant came back
towards the asteroid and fired two quantum torpedoes at the crater. The entrance
caved in, rock fell into the crater, blocking it. The Valiant made sure
it would never open by melting the rocks together with a prolonged phaser beam.
« Wow. » said
The voice of commander Kline was heard again: « There you
go, Sovereign. We've sealed up the beast. Do you need assistance? »
« No, thanks, commander. We're not so badly damaged, but thank
a lot for saving us from that large space-worm. » Kalian said.
«
Any day, captain. » said Kline. « We'll be going back to the
starbase, stay clear of asteroids, okay? »
She
smiled: « Yes, sir! Sovereign out. »
Patrickson was a bit less happy when Kline called him one hour later. Kline
had explained the problems with the cloaking device.
«
Well. » Patrickson sighed. « I'll have to give a spanking to the ones who built
the Eagle. But I'll be giving something to all of you, commander. »
«Oh?
And what's that? » Kline asked.
« A virtual pat on the back, commander. » Patrickson smiled.
« Be sure to pass it on to the rest of your crew, okay? »
«
Aye. » said Kline. « Kline out. »
Epilogue
On board the USS-Valiant
Yasmin Reeves sat in the mess hall, holding a mug of black coffee. Suddenly,
someone walked up behind her.
«
May I join you? » a voice said.
She
turned and saw Gregory Eskina standing there, holding a cup of green liquid.
She
shrugged: « Sure. »
He
smiled and sat down in the chair opposite to her.
First
he said nothing, then looked up at her and said: « I think...I think I need to
apologize. »
She
raised an eyebrow: « Apologize? For what? »
He
sighed: « For being such a headache. I had this strange preconception that I
couldn't work with another cryptologist...And because of that I was quite
unpleasant. »
She
smiled: « It's okay, I've been insulted and shunned much more on other ships. »
He
nodded: « Well, in any case: I'm sorry. »
She
took his hand and squeezed it: « Don't worry about it. »
He
smiled: « Thanks. »
She
let his hand go and said: « So, how did you get involved with Team One? »
Meanwhile, across the room, Kline and
Stevenson watched the two cryptologists laugh together.
«
Well. » said Stevenson. « That's surprising. »
«
Pretty. I thought Eskina was going to strangle her or something similar. »
Kline smiled. « Well, it looks like it's going to be okay from now on. »
«
Good. I'd hate to have a war going on onboard ship. » said Stevenson.
«
Yeah, let's hope the peace lasts. » Kline smiled, and then raised his glass. «
Here's to peace. »
Stevenson
hit his own mug against Kline's: « To peace. »
Excellent... Truly excellent...
The
dark-haired man smiled as he read the outcome of the operation involving the
infamous Team One. The sabotage of the cloaking device had been perfect, and
the way that the team managed to get out was impressive. Surely, the team was
the only way that he could manage to finally implement his plan.
He
stood up and smiled at his associate: « I think they are the ones we need. »
«
Perfect. » said the associate. « When should we get going? »
«
Soon... Be patient... »
The End
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