Assuming everything went according to our carefully crafted schedule, the trip home would take about a week. I reviewed the plan one last time before giving it my stamp of approval. Each jump destination would place us on the outskirts of a planetary system. While the drives were being prepped for the next jump, sensors would be deployed, and the system assessed for the presence of any Zrynt. If the Zrynt were present and were small enough to be eliminated, we would destroy them and leave evidence pointing to the Zrynt as the culprits.
I cleared the screens at my chair and looked around at those stationed on the bridge. Every system had been double checked and everyone was anxious to be on the move. We were now far enough away from Narrisal to initiate the jump drives. We could jump while in system, but the Tuleeriri had begun frowning on the use of the jump drive next to their home world. I noticed my commanders were congregating behind me. I looked at them and asked, "Why are you still here? If you are looking for something to do, I'm sure I can find something to occupy your time."
Andrew stepped forward and said, "We wanted to be present for the first jump of our journey home. We promise to head back to our ships once we have jumped."
I decided to give them this one small concession. It was going to be a long week, so why not start it off on a positive note. "Okay then, you can stay," I replied, "but I still want to know who couldn't keep a secret for more than five minutes."
I turned to the bridge crew, "Put all ships on alert, and commence jump sequence in one minute," I ordered. The bridge crew went right to work. The countdown reached zero and we disappeared from the Narrisal system.
We safely arrived at our first stop, and in the distance, I could make out a bluish white star. Our charts indicated this was supposed to be a class A star, and I was disappointed to discover there was nothing orbiting around this star besides a dense cloud of debris that was too fine to be called an asteroid belt. I turned to my commanders and said, "Now that you have seen our first stop, I'll need to have you return to your posts. You and your crews are to rest when possible. I can't say how soon the next opportunity will be."
I turned my attention to the bridge crew as my commanders left for their ships. "It'll take about an hour for the engines to charge and be checked for stress. Send out scouts to scan the system and locate a spot to drop our sensor." I was relieved and annoyed at the same time when the scouts reported in. No sign of the Zrynt in this system, but I wasn't too surprised, as this system held little strategic value. Once the subspace sensor was placed and the drives charged, I gave the order to jump again. We had five different systems on our schedule for today, and I was relieved when we found the fifth system free of Zrynt presence. I really expected them to be more widely dispersed, but then again, with so many different stars in the galaxy, it would be nearly impossible to secure them all. That was something we would have to keep in mind as we attempted to eradicate the Zrynt.
I stood and stretched. Hours of sitting had stiffened my muscles, and I looked around the bridge and noted the relief on faces as we went from full alert to normal operations. This still required diligence at each post, but we were done jumping for now and the odds of something happening were slim. The engineers responsible for maintaining our jump drive requested a break after each series of jumps to perform any needed maintenance and check the drives for any irregularities. It would do us no good to be stranded out in the middle of hostile territory without a working jump drive. I turned and saw Shahae sitting stoically in the back. She had chosen a location that was out of the way but allowed her to observe everything. Even I had forgotten she was still here. I smiled and approached her. "Are you hungry?" I asked.
"No, but I probably should eat," she replied. It was then that I realized she looked thinner than when I first met her. I wasn't sure if it was the stress of fighting the Zrynt, or a side-effect of her confinement, but I tried to push the thought from my mind as I escorted her to my office. I had food sent there, and it arrived shortly after we did.
We spent the first part of the meal in silence. I missed the openness we had once shared, so I finally broke the silence by asking, "Shahae, why were you given this assignment? I can't imagine how hard it was to face me, let alone being confined to this ship away from your people."
She took a few deep breaths before answering. "What I went through...I have had difficulty reconciling with the events that took place." I could feel my heart pounding as she spoke. "In my view, I was captured and threatened with torture by somebody I viewed as a friend, an individual I trusted with my life. On top of these events, I discover a plot that would forever change my people. The magnitude of Zalix's betrayal alone is enough to cause nightmares. Things like this just don't happen to our people. There have been many changes since you arrived, and not all of them are easy to reconcile." She paused and took several deep breaths. I watched as a single tear rolled down her cheek, leaving a glistening trail behind. I felt a strong urge to walk over and comfort her, but I knew this was something she needed to get through.
She took a moment to compose herself before continuing, "I don't blame you for what happened, Zack. If I hadn't been in that room when you arrived, things would have turned out very differently. I admire your resolve in doing what you believe was best, but to answer your question, I was given this assignment as an attempt to help me overcome the trauma of these events. As hard as it was to come here, I know it was a wise decision." She looked down at her plate and blinked several times, trying to stop the flood of tears threatening to spill over. "I need to go," she said as she stood up. I quickly jumped up and cut her off before she reached the door.
I grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to look at me. "Running is not going to help," I said a little more sternly than I intended. I relaxed my grip and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry for everything I put you through. I always believed you were innocent, but honestly, I was scared. I'm further from home than I had ever thought possible, fighting for my life at every turn, and the only thing I know without a doubt I can trust is this ship and my crew. My crew is all I have right now. They are my family. I almost lost everything at Zalix's hands. I know you would never harm any member of my crew, but when I saw you there with Zalix, I let my fear cloud my judgment. I am sorry." I pulled her close as she wrapped her arms around me. It was the first real hug I'd had since before Jen died.
We stood there and took comfort in each other's embrace. I wasn't sure how much time had passed when Shahae slowly pulled away. I let my arms drop to my sides as she stepped away. She walked towards the door again.
As she reached it, she turned, and I saw a small smile threatening to make itself known. I couldn't help but smile encouragingly. "Thanks Zack," she said as she turned and left the room.
I started clearing dishes of uneaten food, feeling better than I had in a long time. As much as I hated cliches, it really did feel as if an unseen weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I put the dishes and leftover food in Admiral Jones' old office and made a mental note not to have someone take care of them later. For now, exhaustion was starting to set in and I wanted to sleep. I awoke a few hours later when I heard a soft knock on my door. I looked at the time, trying to clear away the fog of sleep. I still had an hour before I planned to be back on the bridge for day two of our trip home. Thinking it was Shahae, I walked up to the door and opened it, and instead of Shahae's pure white hair, I was staring at a full head of red hair. "Are you going to invite me in?" Lisa asked.
"Sorry," I said as I moved away from the door, running my hands through my hair.
She watched me as she entered. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm fine." I answered. "I just got out of bed. I guess I'm still trying to wake up."
Realization dawned on her. "I'm so sorry," she said. "I didn't realize you were asleep. I'm such an idiot." She started to leave. What was it with women always trying to run out my door? I put my hand on her shoulder to stop her.
"It's alright," I reassured her. "I was going to wake up soon anyways. So, how is the world of engineering treating you?"
"I love it," she replied excitedly. "Whoever designed the engines on this ship was truly a genius. I've been studying them almost every day, and I still don't completely understand them." We talked for the next hour. It felt nice to visit with a friend. I walked with her out of my office and we said our farewells in the hallway. After she was out of sight, I walked to the room next to mine to wake Shahae.
I knocked on her door but received no response, so I entered the office at the front of her quarters. She was given a commander's quarters, so it was identical to mine. I walked up to the door of the bedroom and knocked. Still, I didn't receive a response. Not wanting to place myself in a diplomatically compromising situation, I placed my ear on the door to see if I could hear anything that would tell me Shahae's current status. I could hear the rustle of bed sheets, and suddenly I heard her scream. I threw open the door and rushed inside and saw Shahae laying on her bed in a tangle of sheets and blankets. Her hair was soaked, and she was tossing and turning in the bed. Realizing that she was having a nightmare, I grabbed her shoulders and gently shook them while calling out her name. She bolted up to a sitting position. I immediately noticed the milky white skin that covered her back, and I turned my back to avoid seeing things I should not.
"Are you alright," I asked. I could feel her jump.
"What are you doing in here?" she asked, half hysterically.
"I tried knocking, but there was no answer," I explained quickly, trying to right the situation. "I heard you scream, and I thought you were in trouble, so I came to help. That's when I saw you were having a nightmare, so I woke you up...I swear I didn't see anything...I'll wait in your office." I left the room as quickly as possible. It took me several minutes to calm my beating heart. I knew I was blushing furiously during the whole incident. It took every ounce of self-control I had to keep the blood from rushing back into my face. The moment she stepped into the office, my self-control all but evaporated and the floodgates let loose, resulting in my face resembling a tomato.
I watched her walk in with a very serious look on her face. I was afraid that the progress we had made in making amends would be forever destroyed. She then lost her resolve and broke into a fit of laughter. "I'm glad you find this funny," I said. "If you are done laughing at me, we're needed on the bridge."
"I'm sorry" she replied after she had calmed down. "I was upset to find you in my room at first, but it was sweet of you to try and help. As humorous as I find your reaction to my sleeping habits, I do appreciate your attempts at maintaining my modesty." We spent the trip to the bridge in silence. I was trying hard to push the events from my mind.
The bridge was a bustle of activity when we arrived. We were scheduled to leave in less than ten minutes. Our first stop for the day was a class G main sequence star. We arrived near a familiar looking bright yellow star. The star was nearly identical to Earth's sun. Once I pried my eyes away from the star, I noticed the massive Zrynt presence in this system. We had a hard time getting an accurate count because of the distance as well as the overwhelming number of ships. I checked to make sure our emissions were minimal, and all stations were ready. After verifying we were all but invisible, we carefully scouted a location for the sensor. We dropped three sensors due to the heavy Zrynt presence, and with such a strong presence a little redundancy wouldn't hurt.
Tensions were high as we waited for the drives to charge, while hoping we would stay undetected. The engine crew offered to skip their routine check, which I quickly dismissed. Now more than ever we had to make sure the engines performed as expected. The thought briefly crossed my mind to take on the forces here, but while I had complete confidence in my ship and my crew, I didn't think we would stand a chance against such overwhelming numbers. We jumped to the next system without incident, and everyone let out a collective sigh. Our current location was outside a much smaller star system with a brown dwarf at the center. There were Zrynt present here as well, but it had more of a scouting party feel to it. There were a handful of scouts and a single destroyer. We placed our sensors and prepared to engage them. They never had a chance as we destroyed them without a chance for them to return fire. Cleanup and leaving our Zrynt evidence took much longer than the actual battle. It took us almost an hour to clean up the debris, and once we were done, it looked like another Zrynt force had taken the fleet. We fought two more battles before arriving at our last stop of the day which happened to be a small, nearly spent nebula. The vibrant colors had an enchanting effect, and it was easy to get lost in the beauty. The Zrynt must not have found any value in this place as we could find no trace that they had ever been here.
I stared at the rest of our planned route home. Our course was a jumbled mess of random turns and even backtracking in several places. If the Zrynt managed to somehow track our trip home, I didn't want to leave a straight line pointing directly to Earth. The tension of the journey was more taxing than I had anticipated, and I felt drained by the end of the day. This exhaustion was the reason I had opted not to travel longer than ten hours a day. We were able to split the stress between two crews, and it gave everyone time to decompress at the end of the day. Shahae joined me for dinner again, but this time our conversation was much lighter, and I could see herself slowly return to the confident woman I had first encountered.
Much to my delight, Lisa dropped by the following morning. I would never admit to it, but I was glad she came by again, though secretly I wondered if my commanders were partially behind it. She would be able to keep an eye on my mental health.
Before long, we began seeing nearby systems with familiar names. We engaged the Zrynt less and less the closer we came to our home planet, which was both comforting and worrisome. It was nice to know we weren't near the heart of Zrynt space, but it was obvious they were expanding towards us. The days melded together, and the stress seemed to ease. Meeting with Lisa every morning and dining with Shahae at night didn't hurt either. My meetings with Shahae quickly turned towards her role as ambassador and she quizzed me every night about the information she had read during the day.
Our last stop before jumping to Earth was a star named Gliese 710. Gliese 710 is just under sixty-four light years from Earth, and everyone was excited to be so close to home. We arrived outside the system as we had the dozens of stars already visited. Gliese was an orange dwarf and there was a minimal Zrynt presence, mainly clustered around a small single planetoid orbiting the star. We prepped for one last skirmish against the Zrynt before our last jump home. There were only a dozen or so scouts, hardly worth our time, and I almost considered leaving them alone, but the thought of them so close to Earth kept me from staying my hand. Once the sensors were deployed and the engines checked over, we jumped the short distance to take out our new mortal enemy.
We jumped in and took out the surprised scouts without retaliation. We were prepping the jump drive for the last jump when the bridge erupted into chaos. "The planet is moving," called the navigations officer.
I reacted without thinking. "Gunners, open fire!" I commanded. "Navigations get us to a safe distance. I want to see what exactly we are up against." Luckily for us, the jump drives were partially charged in preparation for our final jump. The gunners were able to fire a modest salvo at the planet sized ship before we jumped. I was dismayed to see every round dissolve as a red hued barrier was erected. The barrier was semi-transparent, and it had stopped everything that we had fired at it.
I received a message from Tamal, "Captain, I am requesting permission to undock. I have an idea of how to get past those energy shields."
"You have permission," I responded. "I'll transmit a rally point if things don't work out. Please be careful." It was a difficult decision to make, but I trusted my crew completely, and if this did work out then we might be able to salvage some new tech.
I watched as the Phoenix detached. "Take us in for round two," I commanded. "We are going to provide cover for the Phoenix as they try something. Weapons, see if you can come up with a solution to get past that energy field." The Phoenix and the Unity jumped next to the giant ship. The Zrynt ship hadn't retaliated yet and I worried what it would be like when they did. The energy shield had to use an enormous amount of power, and I visibly shuddered, thinking about that power being redirected at us.
We fired everything we had, but nothing seemed to have any effect. I watched as the Phoenix launched a barrage of missiles, with each missile detonating right before it made contact with the shield. I understood what he was trying to accomplish and as much energy as Tamal was pushing against that shield, all it caused was a slight fluctuation. I was out of ideas, and every second we stayed was a second closer to them firing on us. "Send word to the Phoenix to fall back," I commanded. "I'm afraid this is one ship that we'll have to leave standing."
"Captain, we're detecting an energy spike from the enemy ship," called somebody from navigation.
"Get us out of here!" I yelled. I watched in horror as a massive beam of white light struck the Phoenix. I was shocked to see the ship was still there, though visibly damaged. The damage must not have been too severe, as the ship disappeared a moment later. We jumped less than a second later, and I scanned our rally point, trying to locate the Phoenix. "Does anyone have eyes on the Phoenix?" I asked.
"Negative sir," the navigations officer replied.
"Find them," I commanded harshly. "The Phoenix has a limited jump range, so it shouldn't be hard to find out where they went. Keep an eye on the Zrynt ship as well. We have no idea what it's truly capable of."
Our search for the Phoenix involved jumping to a new location and scanning for signs of the damaged ship. "Sir, I think we found them," called out the navigations officer.
"Let's go get them then," I commanded.
"Captain, it looks like the Zrynt found them first," he replied. I watched the main screen as the Phoenix battled against the Zrynt Lord. I knew it was a hopeless battle and as much as I wanted to jump in and intervene, I knew I couldn't risk the lives of the rest of my crew. Not to mention the drives were overworked as it was taking longer and longer to charge in between jumps. I felt a hand rest on my shoulder, and I looked up into Shahae's eyes, they were full of compassion and understanding, but I didn't look long though. I watched as the phoenix absorbed another hit. This one was even more devastating than the first. The ship accelerated suddenly, making a suicide run towards the Zrynt ship. I watched it impact the energy barrier then explode. They must have initiated the self-destruct, I realized. We all sat, shocked at what we saw.
I watched as the Zrynt ship pulled away. It hadn't been scratched while there was nothing left of the Phoenix. I felt drained of all emotion, like I was running on autopilot. I gave the word to make haste back to Earth, then left the bridge.