April 16
th
, 2151
Location: at the outer edge of the Alpha Centauri system
The corridor on deck 5 bathed in a flashing red light as the sound of an emergency claxon echoed through the U.S.S. Invincible.
Captain Balthazar Edison was running. His eyes darted in every direction as pearls of sweat dripped down his forehead. His heart pounded inside his chest and all he could hear was the sound of his own breathing. This wasn’t one of his early morning jogging runs through the ship. It was already past 1700 hours and right now he found himself running for his life as his ship was under attack by Orion pirates.
He quickly glanced over his right shoulder and saw two Orion assailants, still trying their very best to catch up to him. One of them raised his weapon and fired a shot. Edison ducked to his right and kept on running. Luckily, the phaser blast hit one of the wall panels instead of blowing his head off his shoulders.
That blast however gave his body the extra adrenaline shot he needed to push him far enough ahead, keeping himself safe out of firing line.
As he finally arrived at the ship’s shuttle bay, he slammed the door key and slipped through the opening doors.
***
Once Edison found himself safely inside the shuttle bay, he leaned with his back against the doors. He closed his eyes, trying to take a moment for himself to recuperate and gather his thoughts. As he opened them up again, he saw dozens of his crewmen hurrying towards the various shuttlepods that were parked inside the shuttle bay.
An officer ran past him, shouted “Captain!” and threw him a phase rifle.
As Edison held the phase rifle in his hands, he immediately realized he had to seal off the doors in order to keep the Orions out of the shuttle bay. It would buy his crew a few more minutes to complete the evacuation of the ship.
He took a few steps forward, turned around and aimed the phase rifle at the narrow seam between the doors. As he pulled the trigger on his rifle, a yellow beam emerged from the rifle’s beam emitter, welding the doors together in a red-hot glow.
***
On the other side of the door, one of the Orion assailants was already trying to open the door by firing at the door’s locking mechanism. A small explosion followed, but to their frustration, the doors stayed locked.
With no other alternative left, they decided to resort to brute force and started firing directly at the steel doors.
***
As the Orions tried to burn their way through the doors, the last shuttlepod, with Edison on board, exited the Invincible’s shuttle bay.
“Did everyone make it safely to the shuttlepods?” Edison asked a young red haired ensign sitting across from him.
The ensign didn’t answer. It was almost as if she looked right through him. Her lips trembled as she nervously fiddled with the data padd in her hands. The woman was clearly still in shock.
Just as Edison realized he wouldn’t be getting an answer out of the ensign, the Asian lieutenant piloting the shuttlepod shouted, “Yes, captain. Everyone is accounted for, sir”, before turning back to his pilot controls.
A look of relief washed over Edison’s face. Perhaps he had failed at keeping his ship out of those green bastard’s hands, but he’d be damned if he left any of his crew behind.
***
Edison's shuttlepod manoeuvred through space, deftly evading the blazing beams unleashed by the Orion Interceptor's menacing particle cannon. Meanwhile, the U.S.S. Invincible, a venerable heavy cruiser boasting four decades of service as one of the United Earth Stellar Navy's inaugural vessels, hung serenely in the cosmic void. Clinging to its steel-plated hull like voracious parasites, a series of compact two-person Orion attack pods.
***
Aboard the Invincible, green fingers wormed their way through the narrow crack of the turbolift doors that gave out to the bridge.
As the doors slowly slid open, they revealed three heavily armed Orion pirates standing inside the turbolift.
To their surprise, the bridge was abandoned. They quickly stepped out of the turbolift and went from station to station, checking the ship's systems until they finally gathered around the captain’s chair.
Suddenly, one of the Orions noticed a small display on the arm rest of the captain’s chair. He leaned in closer, to take a better look. On the display was a text reading: auto destruct – silent countdown – 10 seconds.
As they watched the countdown, the Orions realized something was terribly wrong. One of them tried to reach for his communicator, but before his hand could even reach his belt, there were several massive explosions throughout the ship.
The three just stared at each other, horrified by the realization that they were already too late.
***
The only system aboard a ship that no captain or crew ever wants to put to the test is the self-destruct system. But it worked. Perfectly. The U.S.S. Invincible exploded into thousands of pieces, many of them smashing right into the Orion Interceptor, crippling the pirate ship.
Meanwhile, a dozen shuttlepods raced out of harm’s way at impulse speed, heading towards open space, into the deep unknown.
TO BE CONTINUED.