First draft
For a brief instant the bridge went dark, then a blue light spread throughout the room when Reyes shouted, "Battle stations!"
There was a flurry of movement as the members of the crew watched the approaching battleship with unconcealed apprehension. Its size was much smaller than the Collective cruisers, but it didn't make much difference in this case. They were completely outclassed.
"They are powering up their weapons, captain." Mitchell informed them.
"Raise shields to maximum!" Reyes tapped on his commlink. "Omen, ready to..."
"Omen's vitals are elevated, captain!" Sarah shouted. "He can't use the chair!"
The bridge fell silent. Dia looked at the red moving dot on the radar, and then at ship outside the window. It was closing the distance quickly. They were almost within cannons range.
Reyes clicked his tongue. "Hail them, Mitchell."
Mitchell fiddled with her console for a while. "They are not responding, captain. Their weapons are..."
The ship's floor shook when a stream of light hit the Nostromus like a huge hammer. Dia's body was thrown forward, and she had to grab the chair before her to break her fall.
"Shields at forty-three percent." Mitchell briefed in that computerized voice. "They are launching torpedoes, captain."
"All engine, reverse full!" Reyes shouted. "Ready to launch countermeasures!"
"They are chasing us, captain." Mitchel said. "Impact in thirty-two seconds."
Reyes ground his jaw. "Sound collision."
The Doppler effect of the siren echoed through the ship.
"Impact in fifteen seconds. Should we launch countermeasures?" Mitchell asked.
"Not yet." Reyes replied, his lips drawn in a taut line as he observed the radar.
The torpedoes were close, incredibly close, the radar pings reverberating through the walls of the bridge.
"Impact in ten, nine, eight..."
"Launch countermeasures!" Reyes ordered. "Full left rudder!"
The Nostromus swerved violently and two small drones, expressly devised to confound the torpedoes' targeting system, were expelled from the tubes. They were so close to the ship that they worked exactly like they were designed to, their energy signatures confounding with the Nostromus'.
"All hands!" Reyes said. "Brace for impact!"
Four large warheads reached the drones simultaneously, and when the internal magnetic field separating matter and anti-matter collapsed on impact, a bright flash of light followed. The Nostromus was just at the edge of the blast radius, but it was still affected. The entire ship teetered, the shockwave pushing it off course.
"Shields at twenty-two percent." Mitchell said. "Captain, according to my analysis, they'll switch to ion torpedos this time."
Reyes cocked an eyebrow at her, regarding her silently for a second, and then shouted. "Full stop!"
The ship came to a halt. The dazed crewmembers glanced at Reyes, their startled gasps causing Dia's gut to tighten.
"Reyes, why are we stopping?" She asked the question on everyone's mind. "We're faster than them!"
"Incoming torpedos, captain." Mitchell added.
However, Reyes didn't answer them. His gaze was locked on the radar, his eyes blinking fast as he muttered something under his breath.
"Reyes!" Dia shouted, and he finally looked up at her.
"Not now, Dia." He said, canting his head toward his pilot. "Mitchell, is it possible to go to 110% on the reactor?"
"Calculating the reactor's meltdown temperatures..."
Reyes' lips compressed. "Mitchell!"
"...it's possible, captain, but not recommended."
Apparently, that was enough for him. "Full speed ahead!" He glanced at Fanning. "Ensign, remove the safety from the torpedoes! Set a ten-second timer!"
"Captain." For the first time, Mitchell showed some kind of emotion on her face: surprise. "Doing this will put the Nostromus on a collision course with the enemy cruiser."
"I know, just do it!" He said, irritably.
Mitchell twisted her mouth, on her face a human-like expression that looked a lot like annoyance. "Roger, captain."
"You're heading directly toward them." Dia sounded shocked.
"That's right." Reyes admitted, the smile tugging at his lips a bit forced. "Buckle your seatbelt, Squirrel. It's going to be a bumpy ride."
Dia didn't question his words this time. There was an edge in his voice, a trace of fear hidden underneath his banter. She sat down, fastened her seatbelt and prayed.
"Impact in fifteen seconds." Mitchell said.
"Redirect all power to the shields!" Reyes ordered. "Engine room, 110% on the reactor!"
Those words threw the crew into a frenzy.
The pirates' movement turned frantic, and shouts filled the air when Mitchell said: "Impact in three, two, one...Impact now."
Dia closed her eyes shut, squeezing the armrest until the metal frame warped inward. The Nostromus wobbled a little when the torpedos skimmed along the ship's shields, but the detonation Dia had expected never happened.
"What the hell..." Dia whispered, her mouth falling open when she understood what happened.
We are too close.
Reyes had reduced the distance between them and the imperial cruiser, and doing so, the torpedoes' safety mechanism prevented them from detonating. The obvious downside was that the Nostromus was now an easy target.
That's when Mitchell had her chance to shine. She performed every type of evasive maneuvers, showing such skill it was enough to put every imperial ace to shame. In her hands, the Nostromus looked like a fighter, nimble and fast as it whizzed around laser beams and energy bursts.
Yet, even with Mitchell's skills, it was impossible to avoid that barrage for long. The battlecruiser's main cannons were powerful but slow, designed for bigger targets than the Nostromus, and posed no threat to them. However, the smaller turrets were another matter altogether. The Nostrumus had just done a displacement roll when an energy burst reached them.
"The shields are down." Mitchell dutifully informed them. "Collision in ten seconds."
The battlecruiser, of course, didn't change course. Its shields were still up, and that meant that the Nostromus was like a glorified tin can compared to that behemoth of metal.
"Five seconds...four...three..."
Dia closed her eyes, perspiration shining on her brow as she waited for the inevitable.
That's when Reyes shouted, "Drop torpedoes! Hard to starboard!"
The Nostromus steered, the overhead light dimming a fraction as the hull grated against the cruiser's shield like a car skimming along a guardrail. Then they whizzed past it. At the same time, the cruiser's lower hull rammed against the torpedoes. That blue light was enveloping the enemy ship when the main screen went black. Dia saw sparks flying off the power cables running along the metal ceiling and then the bridge went dark. The lights came back on a moment later, but most of the stations and systems were still inactive.
"Engine room!" Reyes shouted. "What's going on?"
"The reactor temperature is critical!" One of the engineers said. "We had to turn it off!"
"Shit!" Reyes cursed. "Mitchell, report!"
"The main reactor, shield generator, and the FTL are offline. However, the auxiliary reactor is fully functional. The outer hull suffered minor structural damage, but the frame of the ship is not compromised."
Dia sighed with relief but tensed again when Reyes asked, "What about the enemy?"
"Scanning. Stand by." Mitchell said.
Dia's mouth fell open, a shudder of revulsion rocking her when the battlecruiser appeared on the main screen. Just like it'd happened with the Observer, the imperial ship was breaking apart from the inside. However, since the cruiser was much bigger than a destroyer, the process was much slower this time. Dia saw a series of flashes of light, probably internal explosions, as sections of the ship detached from the cruiser's main body.
"Impact confirmed." Mitchell said, waking Dia from her reverie. "Their hull has been breached. They are losing atmosphere, captain."
"Weapons?"
"Down." Mitchell replied. "Their reactors, shields and engines are also down."
Reyes let out a deep breath. "Fanning, what about our TPSC?"
"It's still working, captain."
"Good." Reyes said, his lip curling in a vicious smile. "Let's finish them off. Plasma torpedoes..."
Dia's eyes snapped toward him. "Enough, Reyes! They are defeated!"
"But they are not dead." He replied, unperturbed. "Fanning, launch torpedoes."
Dia frantically unbuckled her seatbelt and stood in a rush, but Fanning was faster than her.
"Aye, captain." He said and pushed the button.
Dia watched powerlessly as two torpedoes zoomed toward the cruiser, her hand outstretched like she wanted to grab the missiles, alter their trajectory and avert the impending disaster.
For anyone else, that was just a fantasy, an impossible task, but not for her. She closed her eyes and attempted to repeat her feat, control the torpedoes like she'd done with that Oculus on Daxum. However, the only thing she obtained was to tire herself out. The torpedoes were too far. She could barely feel them, so to speak. She was at the height of her despair when her eyes fell on the TPSC console. She redirected her thoughts, focusing all her energies toward a single purpose: activate the self-destruction.
She felt that familiar pain as if something was clawing at her brain, but she endured it. Differently from what had happened with the Oculus, this time she felt a tearing sensation. Then she gasped for air, sweat plastering her hair to her head when a large quantity of energy left her body at once. A whisper of sensation shot her gaze upward. She opened her eyes, a sigh of relief escaping her lips. The main monitor was still displaying the battlecruiser's image.
"What the hell happened?" Reyes asked Fanning, muscles flattering along his jaw.
The red-bearded pirate scratched his head. "Captain, our torpedoes...autodestructed."
"I can see that, Fanning!" Reyes yelled. "I want to know why!"
That's when they saw a tiny sphere darting outside the cruiser. Then another and another until dozens of pods were ejected. Escape pods.
"Goddammit!" Reyes cursed.
"Captain, should we open fire?" Mitchell asked.
"No, it's useless. There are too many of them." He answered, his lips tight. "Mitchell, bring us inside the Nebula."
"Affirmative. Estimated speed: five stellar knots. Estimated time of arrival: seven minutes." She said, for once omitting the decimals. "Captain, at the current speed we'll need seven days to reach Aegis IV."
Reyes furrowed his brow. "Can the main reactor be fixed?"
"Affirmative. The damage is considerable but not catastrophic. Considering our resources and manpower, approximately ten hours are required to complete the repairs."
Reyes made a sour face. "What about the torpedoes? Why did they autodestruct?"
"Unknown." Mitchell said. "A full diagnostic is required."
"Speculations?"
"The available data is insufficient, captain." Mitchell said. "However, this may be caused by a misconfiguration of the torpedoes' safety mechanism."
"Watch your mouth, bot!" Fanning hissed, thrusting his fists in the air like a b-movie's villain. "I made no mistakes."
Mitchell rigidly titled her head toward him. "...the only alternatives are a malfunction or a remote detonation."
Fanning's mouth snapped shut, biting off the retort he wanted to hurl. Everyone, Reyes included, was staring at him, suspicion and hostility in their gazes.
There was a nervous pause. Then Reyes asked, "Mitchell, what are the odds of two torpedoes malfunctioning at the same time?"
"Extremely low, captain." Mitchell said, putting the final nail in Fanning's coffin.
"Just like I thought." Reyes glanced at Fanning, his eyes narrowing dangerously.
The pirate went white. "Captain, wait. I'm not..."
"Ensign Fanning, you're relieved!" Reyes shouted without giving him the chance to explain. "Security, escort him to the brig!"
Three pirates came running and grabbed him.
"Captain, I'm innocent!" Fanning shouted as he tried to wiggle out of their grasp. "I swear to you..."
His words turned to screams when one of the guards torqued his elbow skyward. Then a second guard poked him with his shock baton and Fanning went into convulsions. The crew didn't seem particularly shocked when they dragged his limp body away. Dia, however, was dazed. She faltered, leaning against the wall, her fatigue second only to her guilt. Fanning was no saint, but he'd had nothing to do with this. Yet, she just stood still and watched while the guards dragged him away. She stood there and did nothing.