Phoenix Rising

ANDROMEDA appeared in a new universe with a flash of light. She tumbled for a minute in clear space. In the distance, there were five ships that were too far away to identify visually. What short-range sensors detected from the ANDROMEDA’s position were intermittent flashes of light, energy bursts from weapons fire. The ANDROMEDA automatically fired her thrusters to stabilize her flight. The long-range sensors were temporarily offline as they reset from the jump. Admiral K’torr was sitting at the helm maneuvering ANDROMEDA. He was the only one conscious on the bridge. The main view screen was configured in sections for post-jump operations. The view on the screen was the forward view from the ship. In the lower left corner, he had a systems’ status summary. While the lower right corner of the screen was setup with a tactical view of the area. From the experiences of his duplicate, Admiral Alec Hill, K’torr would need it if they had to fight before the crew recovered from the jump. The crew’s post-jump recovery time had improved sharply from over a few hours to almost ten minutes for most. And as K’torr reviewed the tactical display, it appeared that he was about to need the custom screen configuration. The sensors were feeding him data that he did not like. Suddenly, the alarms sounded. “Warning! Inbound missiles, starboard side! Impact in ten seconds,” the automated female computer voice reported. The bridge lights had already been set to red for battle. So, there were no flashing lights this time. Point defense systems were already activated and targeting the missiles. ANDROMEDA fired on the missiles as they entered range and eliminated them quickly. “Alec, prepare for battle. We have a group of five ships that are engaged in battle with someone,” K’torr reported to engineering. “And it looks like we have caught their attention!” “I am ready. I have four personnel standing by here, engineering is ready to fight,” Admiral Hill assured him. K’torr thought that Alec almost sounded like he was cheering. This was their first battle together. “ANDROMEDA, target all ships, engines only, at full power,” K’torr commanded the ship’s computer. He turned the ship away from the pack that was now hunting them and began accelerating. “Acknowledged,” she responded to her commander. ANDROMEDA fired repeatedly on the pursuing vessels. Three of her pursuers were disabled by her attack and were set adrift. But the remaining two ships were still on her heals. “Plotting new course into this system’s star, increasing power to the engines to 150%!” K’torr made sure to say everything that was happening and what he was doing so everyone would know. ANDROMEDA turned to starboard as she targeted and fired her weapons at the advancing ships. Completing her turn, ANDROMEDA’s engines pushed her away from her aggressors and continued to accelerate as she used the red giant’s mass as a force multiplier. It allowed the red giant to pull them in and increase their speed with a minimum expenditure of energy. “ANDROMEDA, target each pursuing ship with one drone, six-degree offset, attack pattern echo!” He commanded her to fire the drones to appear as if she missed. Then, they would turn back just outside sensor range and return on attack vectors to destroy the engines of ANDROMEDA’s pursuers. “ANDROMEDA, fire on all targets! Engaging new course,” K’torr dove straight for the star at full speed and slowly adjusting course to swing around the star. He wanted to use the star’s gravity pull to increase their speed and slingshot ANDROMEDA out the other side of the star at a higher speed. As the hounds closed the distance on ANDROMEDA, K’torr realized that they could not keep this pace up and avoid the hounds on her tail. He glanced around the bridge at his crew and nodded his head from side to side. Admiral K’torr was wishing that the bridge crew had already recovered to help him. He sat at the helm thinking of a way to guarantee his people survived this battle. He could only think of one way to guarantee his people’s survival. “ANDROMEDA, prepare an escape pod for launch,” K’torr paused. “I will blow-up the last ship when they attempt to take me prisoner,” he whispered. “Forgive me, C’sila,” he continued speaking in a lowered voice. K’torr glanced back at Captain C’sila in the command chair. “Tell A’duna and my family how I lived and died,” he begged. Alec heard everything K’torr had said and understood what he was about to do.