The shuttled rocked again as another surface-to-air missile narrowly missed them.  “Too close,” muttered Vaughn.  As they neared space, he began to look for any signs of unfriendly starships.  “No sign of unfriendlies yet,” he reported to no one in general. Finally, the shuttle tore out from the mirror Earth’s atmosphere and made its way to the rendezvous point.  Mansel tried to raise either ship again, but failed.  “This isn’t a good position to be in,” the Captain muttered. The small viewport showed open space.  For a brief exhilarating moment, Vaughn thought they might be home free, but was immediately proven wrong. The collision alarms sounded, blaring in the ears of the small team.  For a confusing second, Vaughn looked out of the window and saw nothing ahead of them.  Then instinct took over and he drove the shuttle into a hard dive.  The others last their footing due to the unexpected movement. “Defenses up!” Vaughn yelled over the alarms.  “Arming weapons!” "For what?” asked Blackbird struggling to regain his balance. From above, the now fully decloaked form of the Crimson Star loomed over them, already swiveling her turrets to fire upon the mostly defenseless shuttle. Vaughn chose another erratic course, keeping Anarcha and her gunner surprised.  The Crimson Star’s gunnery struggled to retarget the shuttle while crumbling under Anarcha’s withering glare. Feeling somewhat good about himself, Vaughn prepared to execute yet another confusing maneuver.  His sensors sounded as  another ship entered the area.  He left Cain to assess the new information as he conducted his next move. “Another enemy ship!” the alternate Executive Officer declared, watching the data scroll across the screen.  “It’s a captured Long Sword V class ship!” “This isn’t shaping up well at all,” Vaughn commented, right before the Crimson Star’s gunner managed to snap off a shot and succeeded. “Shields almost gone!” exclaimed Vaughn. “We’re running out of options,” Mansel said. Then the fuel light came on. “Vaughn!” cried Cain, “of all the shuttles out there, you had to pick the one with no fuel?” “Sorry,” was all the Explorer’s Executive Officer said. The shuttle continued to jink every possible way, more and more shots scoring its weak hull. “It’s no use guys,” said Vaughn, becoming tired.  “Sooner or later they’ll get us.”  He tapped the fuel gage, hoping it would move up.  “And we’re on E.”  He threw his hands up in disgust as they sensor sounded.  A third ship entered the fray. “This one’s a friendly!” shouted Mansel, grabbing onto Vaughn’s shoulder and squeezing it so tight that the Commander had to pry his fingers loose. The Stealthlon blazed into the area, guns sounding.  Both ships turned its attention away from the shuttle and towards the stolen UNSF ship. From behind them, the Explorer entered the scene as well, laying down cover fire for the shuttle as they raced to board her. “We’re gonna make it!” exclaimed Brungess.  “We’re gonna--” He was cut off as the Crimson Star scored a lucky buy exacting hit on the shuttle’s miniature engines.  The control panel short circuited and went dark.  The shuttle had already began gliding as best it could towards the Explorer’s waiting shuttle bay.  Now, it’s prefect course was being altered from a straight line to a gentle downward curve.  “Are we still going to be able to make it?” Mansel asked, casting a worried glance at Vaughn. The Executive Officer shook his head.  “It’s gonna be a tight one, Darryl.  I really don’t know.  If Broadaway has his stuff together, we might come out of this alive.” “Comforting.” The shuttle continued its descent.  Both Cain and Vaughn tried to no avail to hotwire something.  The shuttle bay loomed closer. “Gentlemen,” said Blackbird, speaking for the first time in a while, “brace yourselves.” The shuttle barely made it.  It impacted with the Explorer’s deck two feet from the bottom.  The resulting impact caused the shuttle to drive forward nose first and carve its way into the bay.  Fortunately, the extra drag of the nose helped the shuttle to slow down enough to prevent hitting the opposite wall with excessive force.  It did, though, hit the wall with enough speed to make all five inhabitants be tossed around inside like rag dolls.  The horrible screeching of metal against metal stopped, and the shuttle came to a rest, embedded in the wall.