Darkness Dawning – And away we go
by Soghla' HIchop Matlh & HoD Ro' Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' Jared & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Sogh Marla Varquis & Sogh Thor'nan Mal'Kor

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Title   And away we go
Mission   Darkness Dawning
Author(s)   Soghla' HIchop Matlh & HoD Ro' Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' Jared & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Sogh Marla Varquis & Sogh Thor'nan Mal'Kor
Posted   Fri Aug 10, 2012 @ 1:53am
Location   Fhew
Hichop noticed the debris from the front of the ship just appear. Three new life signs were now registering in the cargo bay with the doors now closing. Hichop bellowed with what can only be described as joy "Degh, yIqIp" which means 'Helm Punch It'. He turned to Tell, much calmer but still serious, "Scan for any of those scarab and start with the cargo bay and our hull. We don't want any unwelcome stowaways."

In the Hold Ro' Maybel and Jared lay panting on the deck. Even thoughthe doors were not fully closed the SIF was maintaining the atmosphere here. As the giant bay door swung ponderously upwards a skittering noise called their attention. Rolling over an looking back they saw six or seven of the scarabs had made the trip through the void with them and were even now scuttling for purchase and making for air vents.

May'Bel could just make out the scuttling shapes. His visor had cracked badly as they had landed, and between the cracks and the gently venting air he was struggling to see through it. He reached around for his disruptor pistols, lying somewhere nearby, but there was no way he'd find them in time to stop the scarabs getting...

Jared passed straight over him in a smooth diving movement. In a single smooth motion he grabbed both of May'Bel's dropped disruptors, performed a forward roll, and then leapt up into a high somersault. Mid-air he twisted and started firing.

One, two, three... Ro watched as one by one, scarabs were blasted into fragments with bolts of red disruptor fire. With pinpoint accuracy, the metal automatons were picked apart - some in midair.

Four, Five... Jared landed lightly and dropped into a kneeling position, still sliding forwards. He twisted around as he slid, still firing.

Six... The bolt sizzled past Ro's head so close it left an after-image across his vision, but a scarab on the wall behind him was blown into fragments. Ro watched as the last darted towards an atmosphere venting duct, getting within centimeters of the opening before a red bolt blasted it apart against the hull.

Seven.

Jared finally slid to a halt, looking round intently for more scuttling shapes. There was a look of lethal concentration on his face - something cold, and deadly.

Behind them the singularity went active. There was no sudden light or roar of sound to start with. The ship simply vanished, all five kilometres disappearing down to a pinpoint that would not even show up on a map of itself. Of course, all of that compressed matter has to go somewhere, and suddenly there was an accelerating shock wave rushing towards them at relativistic speeds.

Space was stretching and warping, destroying any chance of the Fhew making a stable warp field. The impulse engines were roaring and putting out more thrust than they had ever needed to do before, and still the wave was gaining on them. 'Iw'a'na' struggled with the controls and glanced over his shoulder.

"Er, Captain?" he asked, not entirely sure who he was meant to be addressing by that name. "I don't think we are going to make it."

"NOT Make it" Hichop said still beaming, "Then Spin around so we can face her. But maintain our direction and speed as best you can. When she approaches transfer all power except engines to the forward shield with our nose up to the crest and hold it. Once we are riding the wave return power to other vital systems. This will be a story that you will be telling your great grandchildren, the day you save the Universe from ancient forces and laughed in the face of a point singularity"

She’s going to hate me for this. Oh well, here we go.

Marie indiscriminately dumped cargo. Big and little, heavy and light: out it went. Anything to give them a bit more speed. Out went Tell’s prize, the targs, her own precious pieces she’d scavenged. She didn’t have time to think about what any of it was worth. If that wave hit them it would all be gone anyway and them along with it.

Tell dragged Marla over to engineering and between the both of them they managed to shut down non essential systems. What power there was running through redundant equipment was re routed. With the cloak off line more power could then be re directed and if Tell took life support down to minimal it should give them the boost they needed. They might be breathing vapour for a while later but it was better than nothing.

"Tell do you think that's enough?" asked Marla

"It'll have to be" replied the engineer "Other than space the rest of the crew I..." Her voice trailed off as an idea occurred to her but it would be a last minute thing.

"You have nearly twenty percent more power." she called out "Don't damn well waste it.

Germite had just finished working on Jason when he felt the ship spin around. He wondered about that, usually in space, the inertial dampers kept you from feeling such an action. He then heard the clank of the cargo hold doors shutting. Again, this was a strange thing to experience. He put it off to the idiosyncrasies of being about a ship as old as the F'Hew. Curiosity overwhelmed Germite, so he decided to go see what had happened in the cargo hold. He saw Ro', May'bel and Jared on the deck. "HoD!!! How did you get here?"

Ro' got slowly to his feet. His suit had protected him from the vacuum, but he had hit the deck hard and was trying not to show the pain.

"Get me to the..." he began, but before he could say bridge the world exploded.

The wave hit the Fhew across the bow, burning out the Navigational deflector grid and forward shields in a flash. The energy flow feeding back down the EPS and rupturing onto several decks. the Helm panel exploded, throwing 'Iw'a'na' to the floor. The engineering and damage control stations burst as well, but Tell and Mara were merely singed and took a few cuts to their face and arms.

The wave washed passed them and the ship spun lazily, adrift and with most of its power reserves gone. In a finaly requium the light in the hold exploded in a shower of sparks. From the darkness came Ro's unmistakable bellow, "TELL!"

Tell wiped a trickle of blood from her left eyelid just as she heard the bellow. "I'm already there." she shouted back muttering a few curses as she kicked the door in its usual place to get it to open.

Jared, still kneeling on the deck, untensed slightly. At that point, he suddenly seemed to notice the disruptors in his hands.

He dropped them, and crawled back away from them with an expression of horror - as if they were dismembered limbs, or human refuse. He got to his feet shakily, starting to whiten with nausea. His hands were shaking.

"I... I'm going to go and scan for more. I... should be able to detect their energy signature from the bridge."

There was an audible quaver in his voice.

As he left the bay, May'Bel managed to seal the hatch and re-pressurize. Then, pulling his helmet off as he went, he walked over and picked up his two disruptor pistols. He gave the doorway through which Jared had headed a curious look.

Then he re-holstered his weapons and moved out of the bay.