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CHAPTER THREE

"This is Beta station. Alpha station come in please..."

No response.

"What the hell is going on?" Ensign Robert Thompson scratched his head.

"Let's try to contact Delta station...They're nearer to Alpha than we are." Lieutenant Roxanne Lee suggested.

"Good idea, lieutenant." Thompson nodded and opened a communication channel to Delta station. "This is Beta station to Delta station. Please come in."

At first, there were parasitical noises that didn't seem to mean anything, then there was a loud crashing sound and they heard a voice: "Hello?"

"This is Beta station...Who is thi..."

"Commander Sheridan, commanding officer of..." There was the sound of phaser fire and it was followed by a high shriek. "...Delta station. We are under attack by unidentified aliens...They're everywhere!"

"Have you attempted to evacuate?"

"We followed procedure and let the families and civilians leave first." Sheridan said. There was more phaser fire and more shrieks. "We're only a dozen or so left out of the seventy officers that were left behind...I've sent a team to plant an antimatter mine on the reactor core of the station. Then we'll get the hell out of here and hope that the explosion will destroy the attackers--these damned aliens can go through walls!."

"Well, that's a good plan you conjured up..." Thompson said. "We've been reading the evacuation shuttles approaching. Would it help if we sent some shuttles to help?"

"It would be a blessing."

"Good. Our shuttles will be in position near Delta station in fifteen minutes."

"Right." Sheridan said. "We'll be waiting..."

They closed the channel.

The two officers exchanged glances.

"We need to inform the other stations of this." Said Lee.

At the same moment, in the central desert of Gyltian, the planet-wide communication antenna control crew heard shrieks from behind the walls of the complex.

Then, the enemies entered through the doors, through the walls, attacking all the unsuspecting Starfleet officers...The enemies quickly gained access to the power core of the antenna.

In a few swift movements, the attackers went right through the power core, causing failures and power blips that began to disrupt the power flow to the station. The enemies quickly escaped from the antenna power core room, the computer said: "Warning...Power flow has been disrupted. Overload in ten...nine...eight..."

But there was no one to hear the warning and the seconds ticked away.

"...five...four...three...two...one..."

"What the..." In Beta station, Ensign Thompson stared at his console that had red blinking lights all over it. "Communications are down."

"What?!" Lee bent over his shoulder and stared at the console in front of him. "How's this possible?"

"I have no idea..." He shook his head.

"Well...Delta station needs us. We need to send our shuttles over there to help them, and prepare to receive the evacuated people that are heading this way."

"I'll try to find out what's going on with the communication systems." Thompson said.

"And I'll go and inform Commander T'Pion."

* * *

The lift doors opened and Lee emerged into Beta station's command center. Since it was the command center of a ground station, and not a starship, it had less priority and, thus, was smaller than any bridge on a Federation vessel.

Lee walked to Commander T'Pion, the Vulcan was the Starfleet officer assigned to command Beta station. She turned to the lieutenant: "You wanted to see me, miss Lee?"

"Yes...We've managed to communicate with Delta station. They say they're under attack and need evacuation assistance." Lee said.

"Under attack? By whom?"

"Commander Sheridan--the commander of Delta station--didn't say. But they were going to overload the central power core of the station to attempt to take out the most of these enemies possible."

"And we must send our shuttles to evacuate them?" T'Pion said.

"Yes...I'd also recommend we polarize the exterior plating of the station. Sheridan said that the enemies can go through walls."

"Will this be effective?" T'Pion asked.

"I don't know...But it's the best we can do for now...Also I'd recommend we go to battle alert and arm all officers with phasers or rifles. We have no idea how powerful these attackers can be."

"Agreed. Your recommendations are all made of good sense, lieutenant. I congratulate you." T'Pion said. "I will immediately order our shuttles to pick up the crew of Delta that survived."

"Thank you...Unfortunately, our communications are not functioning."

"Is anyone attempting to fix the problem?"

"Ensign Thompson is working on it. But I speculate that the attackers could have destroyed our communication antenna in the desert."

"That would be unfortunate, but it would be a logical conclusion."

"Request permission to alert the people of the threat." Lee said.

T'Pion raised an eyebrow, and then said: "If you wish."

"Thank you, ma'am." Lee walked to the command chair and turned on the intercom. While she informed the whole station of what happened, T'Pion ordered the shuttles to go and get the officers of Delta station.

Commander Sheridan tapped his commbadge, he had tried to communicate with other stations but, somehow, the communications didn't work. At least the commbadge still worked.

"This is Sheridan to the demolition crew. What's your status?"

He heard a few phaser rifle blasts on the commlink, and then he heard lieutenant Dallian's voice: "This is Dallian, commander." There was another blast in the background. "Ensign Jackson is placing the mine on the core...He's setting it to detonate in five minutes."

"That'll barely give you the time to get out, lieutenant."

"We know, sir." She said. "But theses things might escape if we leave them too much time...We have to take the risk."

The commander hesitated, and then said: "Agreed...Some shuttles from Beta station are coming over to evacuate us. If we all get out they can bring us to safety."

"Excellent." She said, and then he heard her speaking to someone. "The bomb has been successfully placed. We're getting the hell out of here."

"Good luck."

"You too, sir."

The severed the commlink and Sheridan went to the two officers that had stayed with him instead of going on the demolition team, he said: "Let's go...This whole complex is going to be a crater in four minutes. Try to slow down as little as possible...Go!"

They sprinted across the enormous central corridor of the station towards the exit, there was none of the foes coming from the walls...Sheridan wondered why. They got outside one minute later, and the following minute, the demolition team of ten officers emerged from the exit, except that there were only eight left.

"Forsythe and deSuza didn't make it." Dallian said.

"We should get farther away." An ensign suggested.

"Good idea." Sheridan said. "Let's go!"

They ran away from Delta station as quick as they could. When they were several hundred meters away, they stopped and turn to watch.

First, the mine exploded on the reactor core, causing the coolant and plasma to eject through the ceiling of the station due to the extreme pressure. The explosion ignited some of the flammable substances in the core and, soon enough, the explosion came. It was so huge that, even at their great distance, the officers could feel the burst of hot air blow against them. The shockwave tore through nearby trees and pieces of debris were ejected hundreds of meters into the air.

A few minutes later, the station was nothing but a smoldering pile of debris and ash.

The surviving members of the crew of Delta station all gave out a sigh of relief. There seemed to be no more of the attackers coming their way. Then, to punctuate this lining of good, shuttlecrafts began to descend from the sky and landed on the floor near the crewmembers--three of them.

An officer came out of one of the shuttles, the one designated Reedian, he smiled at the survivors: "Nice to see you, is anyone injured."

Sheridan turned around to study his crew, no one seemed to be injured to the point of needing immediate medical attention, and he shook his head.

The officer turned and saw the destroyed station in the distance, he gave out a low whistle: "Well...You seem to have been working."

"Yes...We have been." Sheridan smiled, and then pointed to the shuttles. "May we come in?"

"Sure! We're impatient to hear about these attackers."

They suddenly heard the shrieking again.

Sheridan frowned: "If we don't get out of here soon, you'll know much more than you'd ever want to know about the attackers. Let's go!"

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