Slavers of Antar

By DocPaul

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Chapter Twenty-One: Nascence

“Malcolm?”

“Nothing, Michael.” Malcolm was receiving calls from their fighters. “I’ve got eight squadrons checking in. They have been here since the Kali and the Rama headed for Karnac.”

“How much fuel do they have?”

“Some are suffering short supply, but others still have reserves.”

“Tell all those capable of traveling to the nearest New Federation Outpost to continue. There they can refuel and head for Karnac. The rest must follow. Leave a few to direct others that rendezvous here.” Those damaged or low on fuel would remain hoping to dock on Shiva—if Shiva survived.

Michael cursed under his breath as he and the others waited for Shiva at the designated coordinates, but she did not come. “How far do our sensors extend?”

“Not far enough. We are outside the Antarian system range.”

“I could extend them a bit further,” Maria offered.

“You can also let me take you back to the medical bed.” Michael glanced at his wife where she was sitting in the navigator seat. “Princess, you don’t look good. Let me put you to bed.” She had internal injuries and more than likely internal bleeding.

“I’m fine,” she reassured him, but as she spoke a searing pain pierced her body, and she screamed as her hands went to her head, and she hit the deck on one knee holding her head.

“Maria!” Michael quickly knelt at her side picking her up as he screamed for assistance. “Kyle! Get in here!”

Maria clung to Michael, her one arm wrapping around his neck. She was crying.

“Maria?”

“Oh god, they’re gone—all of them.”

Michael put his hands on her face forcing her to look at him. Her eyes were dilated and didn’t seem to focus. “Maria? All of them? The Shiva?” She seemed unaware, and he could feel everything she was feeling. Dropping his hands, he sat back on his heels his hands trembling as he shook his head trying to clear it.

“Michael, is—Michael! What is it?”

“The pain. I can’t—she can’t—“

Kyle shook Michael to get his attention. “Michael, the Shiva? Can you still feel Max? Did they clear the system before it went?”

Michael tried. He tried to feel his twin, but all he could feel was Maria—Maria and the pain she was feeling—the horror. “I can’t—I don’t know!”

Kyle picked Maria up. He left Michael there, caught in the confusion, and took Maria to the back medical bay. Placing her in a medical bed, he quickly sedated her. “Julia, watch her. The bed, make sure it doesn’t get too hot or too cold. She has a history of getting out of the bed, even when sedated.”

Kyle went back to the Trinity’s bridge. Picking Michael up by his arm, he pushed him into his normal pilot’s seat. “Michael! Snap out of it. The Shiva—can you feel her?”

“I...,“ Michael concentrated frowning, “yes, I can feel Max.” He turned in his chair. “Malcolm, take us back towards the Antar system. Slowly. If the system is gone, we don’t want to be drawn into something we can’t get out of. They must have been on their way out and blown free, or gotten pushed off their course. They’re alive.”

“Are you sure, Michael?” Malcolm was skeptical. They had limited power supply, and if they didn’t start for Karnac, they might never make it.

“Positive. I can still feel Max, so he’s alive.”

Kyle glanced at Malcolm who lifted a brow. “Michael, usually you can reach Max through great distances. If you can only feel him, how do you know?”

“Something is interfering, but I can feel him.” Michael swiveled in his seat. “Trust me—he’s alive, and so is Sean.”

“Then let’s find them.”

“Aye!” Michael went to work as they piloted back to Antar’s coordinates on Impulse, their sensors pushed to maximum strength. He glanced back at Kyle inquiring, “Maria?”

“Sedated. Whatever usually makes it near impossible for me to read her emotionally was gone. She was even pulling me under with her emotions. I don’t know about Liam, but I’m sure he got the full barrage of them as well.”

“Sorrow,” mumbled Michael, unable to understand why Maria felt the Antarians so closely—how she felt them ripped from existence. Her sadness over their plight and the helpless feeling of being powerless to save them—that he felt had before, but this? This he had no point of reference to understand. At first, he thought she had meant the Shiva, but he still felt Max. Maria was masking his ability to pinpoint his brother, because her feelings blocked his mind from all others’ thoughts. She was adrift in a sea of pain, and it almost knocked out all other sensations. Michael shook his head, trying to discern and separate the feelings he was still overwhelmed by coming from Maria. They were muted, but ever present.

“Helplessness. Despair. Unshakable sorrow—so deep, I can’t...,” his words faltered as he felt overwhelmed again, a hard lump closing his throat making it hard to breathe. His eyes burned from unreleased moisture behind them, from a need to find a place so far away, so sheltered that this pain would leave him—leave her. Broken—she was broken.

“Michael! We need you! Shiva—Max and Sean, they need you. You need to distance yourself from what Maria is feeling.”

Michael nodded, but his hands clenched as he fought the need to go to her, to comfort her, shield her from herself—his overprotective impulse almost overtaking his own sense of duty. There was nothing that was more important than her. And with that thought, Michael almost stood to go find her, to take care of her—take her away from this place, and he would have done so, had not Malcolm spoke.

“Commander! I found them.”

Michael tuned out Maria and focused on his job. They were still parsecs from the old Antarian system, and the space itself felt—hushed, as if a strange vacuum had been created—as if it, the space itself, waited for its own doom.

Michael cursed again when he saw the Shiva. She was floating in space, a dead stick, and a good portion of her hull was blown away as she burned in space.

“Oh god! Life signs?”

“Yes, but her main systems are offline, and a good portion of the ship is venting atmosphere. The bridge is non-responsive. And I can’t get a communication link.”

Michael piloted the Trinity around the great ship, surveying the external damage. The entire crew of the Trinity was silent as they too viewed the damage. “The ventral landing bay, it appears still functioning.”

“Commander, I’ve got fighter pilots communicating. They directed others from the rendezvous point, and are requesting landing coordinates.”

“How low is their fuel regiment?”

“Gold team and red are the lowest. They were first into the battle. Kip’s green team reports that they’re at less than half strength, but their fuel is holding.”

“Can you get me a read on that bay?”

Malcolm tried to access the Shiva’s internal sensor net with the Trinity. “Negative, but our sensors are reading atmosphere. She appears to be working.”

“Inform the fighters of our coordinates. Tell them to hold at failsafe distance. The Trinity will land first.”

Kyle protested, “Michael, the prisoners we rescued—we can’t take them onto a ship that’s no more than a floating hull.”

“I know. We land and unload everyone needed to stay on the Shiva. We’ll need Jonesy and Liz for repairs, and more than likely doctors. After we assess the damage, we’ll refuel Trinity, and Malcolm will pilot her to Karnac with the survivors, and anyone else that needs to be evacuated immediately. Once she clears Shiva, we’ll begin landing the fighters.”

“Commander,” protested Malcolm, “I would prefer to remain with the Shiva.”

“I can’t go, Mal. If I can find another pilot, then okay, but otherwise, I need a good pilot to get these people home.”

“Understood.”

Michael piloted the Trinity towards the ventral landing bay, and once landed, the members of the Shiva that needed to stay were the first to disembark. Michael swore again when he saw the internal damage.

“Deck Commander!”

“Commander!” Lee, the forward steward and deck controller rushed to Michael.

“Lee, it’s good to see you.”

“You too, Michael.”

“What is the situation?”

“Not good. This bay is hardly functioning. We have debris in the landing modules which we’re trying to clear. The full squadrons of fighters are off loaded, and this bay can’t hold them all.” The man wiped the blood and soot from his face. “We’re laying new strips of deck for landing. Some were blown and buckled. I don’t know how many we can land at once.”

“There’s not that many left; most are at under half regiment. I’ve sent the ones that could make the nearest outpost on.”

“Still too many to hold.”

“Fuel?”

“Our refueling tanks survived the attack and explosions, one of the reasons we’re still functioning. The aft bay was the first to go, that and the port side. The other bays are functional except they have no power, and landing there would be suicide. Crews are trying to get power back.”

Michael surveyed the damage. “We’ll have to land the low fuel fighters first, and have them take off again. We’ll send fighters who can make it to Karnac or the closest New Royal Federation outpost. There we can retrieve them at a future time. The only fighters we’ll keep are those damaged. Any fighter beyond salvage will be jettisoned to make room for the others. I need at least two full squadrons of able fighters on hand. We can’t leave the Shiva defenseless.”

“Sir, I know you wanted to send the Trinity out, but I am requesting she remain in port,” Lee requested, his face earnest.

Michael glanced at Malcolm, who was more than happy to remain. “I need to get the rescued prisoners to safety.”

“Commander, until the Shiva’s communications come back online, I am unable to instruct the incoming craft to docking procedure. The Trinity is my only hope for communication.”

“Very well. Is the medical bay accessible?”

“Most of the ship is destroyed. It is hard to get from one deck to another. All the lifts are off line, and this deck had fires that we put out. Engineering has sent crews, but we can’t tell how deep the damage is. I sent a few to the medical bay, and they haven’t returned.”

“The bridge? The Captain?”

“No word. I’m sorry, Michael. No one has heard.”

“I saw the Sarasvati go. Who was her Commander?”

Lee gave Michael a sympathetic look, his voice hushed for their dead. “Mallechi.”

Michael rubbed his eyes feeling the loss one of his best friends and co-pilot deeply. The Sarasvati had given her life to save the Shiva. He acknowledged Lee’s condolences, but there was no time to mourn—not now. Later. “Kyle, who needs to go to the medical unit?”

“Maria is my greatest concern. She has internal damage and bleeding. I can’t leave her in Trinity’s medical bay too long. I—she’ll need surgery. There are a few others retrieved from Antar that also need immediate attention.”

“Then sickbay first, engineering, and then the bridge.” Michael looked at everyone. “Malcolm, you stay here with the people we retrieved who are able to wait for attention. If you can leave once communications are reestablished, then do so. I can’t attest to the integrity of the Shiva, and saving them one fate to condemn them to another is not acceptable. Jonesy, you and Liz need to get to engineering, find Sean, and tell him to get communications back up. I need external sensors. If the Antarian system is gone, we’re still too close to be out of danger.”

“Understood.” Jonesy took Liz’s hand, and Julia started to protest, but Liz shook her head and followed the Anubian out of the bay as they tried to make their way to Engineering. She wasn’t ready to tell Jonesy about her pregnancy, and if he knew, he would demand she leave the Shiva.

“Wait!” Julia gripped Kyle’s arm. “I want to go with Jonesy and Liz. I need to check on Sean and the others in engineering. I’ll make my way to the medical unit afterwards and bring out anyone needing attention.”

“That is assuming there is still a medical unit.” Kyle pointed out.

Michael didn’t have time for chit chat. “Go then.” He went back aboard the Trinity to get Maria. Carrying her off the ship, he was stopped by the man whom Ava had promoted to requisition officer on Antar, David of Calumet.

“Sir—Commander, can I not help?”

Michael paused. “It is our job to rescue and protect you. The Trinity will be able to leave once communications are established. It is for your own protection that we send you to Karnac. Here—,” Michael glance around, “here I cannot promise you anything.”

“My Lord, the people of the Shiva came to my rescue when I had no hope that anyone would come. I can’t—I won’t stand idly by as they die for my sake. Please, I’d like to help.”

It was hard to refuse. “Help a person needing medical care and follow me.” Michael took Maria and called to Kyle to follow them.

“One moment,” said Kyle. He turned to his son. “Liam, you must stay with Malcolm. Should the Trinity take off for Karnac, you are to be on board. Once you are on Karnac, you are to contact your grandparents.”

“You’re sending me back.”

Kyle placed a hand on his son’s shoulder. “No. I don’t want you to be alone. Your grandparents are on Karnac in the Senate. They will care for you until I return.”

“I want to stay here with you.”

Michael made an impatient sound. Maria was in need of surgery. “I know, but I can’t watch over you right now. I need to do my job. Work with Malcolm, follow his instructions. I am depending on you to do as you are told.”

Liam sighed nodding. “Yes, Father.”

Kyle kissed his son’s forehead before following Michael towards the most direct route to the medical unit.

~~~

It was an arduous task to get to Engineering. The subdecks and access crawlspaces between were in ruin. They had to clear a path to get to the main engineering deck. Liz’s mouth opened wide in shock as they entered the main engineering. It was almost destroyed, with upper walkways pulled down,  EPS conduits hanging, and the consoles blown. The main reactor core was glowing in deep red as it heated out of control.

Members of the engineering team were pulling down wiring and conduits, rewiring consoles as they tried to get their systems back up. Julia followed behind Jonesy and Liz, her eyes scanning those working, trying to find him.

She couldn’t locate him at first, but then his voice blared across the din of the construction noise and hissing wiring. Sighing in relief, she grinned to herself as his irritated voice sounded like music to her ears. “Sean!!!!!” she screamed over the noise and confusion. It took a moment for him to hear her.

Sean came around a pile of metal, and Julia drew in her breath. She couldn’t speak. He was alive, and that was saying a lot. His right arm was strapped to his body, and he was missing his shirt having scavenged it to strap his arm. He had a wound across this forehead, and his hair was darker from blood. His entire body was covered in soot from fire, with bleeding cuts and wounds on his torso.

“Doc!” Sean moved towards them, but he stopped to look at his two engineers. “My Lizard! Jonesy, it took you long enough to get them back! I’m swamped here.”

Liz’s eyes were glassy, refusing to cry, she wiped a hand across her eyes. She hadn’t realized how worried she had been about him when she saw the damage to the Shiva. It was annoying to her to realize how upset she would’ve been had Sean been killed. She threw herself into his one good arm and hugged him tight.

“Shop that, Liz! Engineers, they don’t cry.”

“Shut up, you stupid fool!” Liz stepped back. “What can I do?”

“Communications. The conduits are fried, but you can reroute the transwiring network—if anyone can, you can.”

“On it—boss.” Liz smiled and went off to find her tools among the debris. Jonesy nodded to Sean.

“The warp core?”

“It’s going critical unless I can get some of those cryogenic tubes back up. Three of the tanks exploded, and the remaining six are stressed. They are shutting down, on and off.”

“I’ll work on it.” Jonesy stopped looking at Sean’s arm. “What is up with the arm? Dislocated?”

“No. It’s fine. I’ll have it looked at later.” Sean said distracted his eyes never leaving Julia. “Get to work.”

“Aye, boss.”

Julia licked her lips as she came closer. “Let me look at that arm,” she said huskily.

“Leave it. It’s okay.”

“You almost have a heart attack over a splinter in your finger, but your arm is practically ripped from your body and you want to wait? It’s okay?”

Sean shrugged it off. “I’ll have you look at it later.” His eyes were for once serious. “You know that I wanted to come for you.”

“You did come for me—you all did.” Julia cleared her throat. “Jonesy told me that the Captain forcibly removed you from a ship right after I was taken—that you were coming for me and Liz.”

“He banned me from the bay—bastard.”

Julia smiled slightly, but her eyes weren’t amused. “I felt you. I felt your anger,” she wasn’t sure how to continue, “and I couldn’t tell if you were angry at me or yourself.”

Sean rubbed his forehead for a moment. She talked and analyzed everything too much. The fact she could sense him felt natural, especially since he could feel her from the moment he first met her. Despite her feeling irritated at times with him, he always took that as a good sign. There couldn’t be anything worse than having her not notice him. Wrapping his good hand around her neck, he pulled her closer, his body moving up hard against her. His mouth never gave her a chance to protest as he kissed her hard and deep, and then slowing it down, he savored her taste.

When he would’ve pulled away, her arm tightened around his neck, and she kissed him. Swallowing a smile, Sean cleared his throat giving her a cheeky grin. “Sorry, Doc. I know how much you love to put your hands on me, but I can’t get naked with you right now. I’ve gotta work.”

Julia blinked twice, his words hardly breaking through the haze that was clouding her brain. When she kissed him, she felt so much more than she had expected. So much of him seemed to flood by her defenses, and for a moment she had been overwhelmed by everything Sean. That didn’t last. As soon as his words made sense, a flood of red moved up her neck, and she pushed him away from her roughly turning on her heels.

“I need my damn head examined!” Julia stomped out of Engineering trying to leave that place and the offensive Sean as quickly as possible, but due to the damage and teams working to restore systems, she was hampered. “Move!” she barked at a technician as she walked out in a steam of anger. It took her ten minutes to realize that she had gotten herself lost in the torn decks, for a moment uncertain where the medical unit was, but she would rather have her nails ripped off painfully than ever see Sean again. Bastard.

Jonesy watched Julia leave in a cloud of anger after having witnessed the kiss. “Damn, you’re the only man I know that can get a woman that worked up.”

“Yeah, she wants me. It’s my burden,” Sean sighed, slapping Jonesy hard on the back. “Let’s get to work. I’ve got a date with the Doctor later. Did I mention that she is in love with me?”

“Oh yeah, she looked like she would love to kill you.”

Sean smiled happily, his world suddenly not so bleak. Liz was back with Jonesy, and the Doc was swearing at him. Perfection. “It’s the Attilaan mating way!” His smile sudden bled from his face as he turned and faced his destroyed engines. “Oh god, look at this mess! Someone needs to die for this.”

~~~

“Go away, Michael.”

“Kyle—“

“I mean it. You standing around uselessly. Waiting isn’t going to help her. I need to operate, and she will have to be put in a regenerative tank to finish the repairs.”

“She won’t stay in the tank—you know that!”

“Her time will be limited. There is only one regenerative tank left that functions, and the need is too great. I’ll do what I can with the time I have.” Kyle looked over to where Maria was being prepared for surgery. “Listen, the bridge is still inaccessible, and no one has heard from Max. I think your duty lies in finding the Captain.”

“Maria is my duty.”

“Michael, be reasonable.”

Michael sighed heavily as he looked about him. The medical unit was only partially functional as an entire suite of rooms was destroyed by what had to have been a fire. The outer corridor leading to the medical unit was littered with wounded. Ava and Julia, who had only just showed up mumbling to herself, were already triaging the wounded. He looked around, his hands useless to help here—he had no place here except to wait.

“I’ll call you or find you as soon as I have results.”

“If something happens to her—“

“I know. Go, Michael. Max needs you. Go find him. There is nothing you can do for Maria right now except let me work.”

Michael looked at the wounded and dying. He bent down and kissed Maria’s cold lips, her face colorless, and for once, even her lips were pale. Straightening, he walked out before he lost the ability to do so.

~~~

It took longer than he liked to make it to the bridge. Michael had to reroute around the main access to subsystem crawl spaces. There were numerous hull breaches, and engineering units were everywhere, trying to seal them as other survivors were digging out trapped crewmen. The power loss on decks kept going in and out as other areas went up in flames.

The bridge had two engineering teams working to open the deck doors onto the bridge when Michael arrived. The crew stopped when they saw him.

“Commander.”

“How soon?”

“We’re almost there—cutting through the doors has been difficult since the command module was designed to withstand hostile takeover closing into a self-contained unit.”

“Any other way in?”

“There is a sub-access through the lower deck up through the panel relays, but it’s impassible. We tried already. Sean sent us to help restore the bridge. The Astrolab was complete destroyed. That part of the ship was blown away so we can’t redirect helm control to that area.”

“Who has helm control?”

“Currently?” asked Jack, Sean’s night shift lieutenant. “No one. Shiva is a dead stick. Engineering is rerouting relays to gain control in engineering, but it would be easier to repair the main controls in the bridge.”

“Get those doors open.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Michael surveyed the damage. The main deck leading to the Bridge was in shambles, as was all of the Shiva. The C-deck that housed their quarters had a full breach, and had been blown to contain fires. It would take some work before they could reestablish livable atmosphere there. Michael rubbed his face. Maria was in surgery, her life held in a delicate balance, and between the Zephyr, Astrolab, and their living quarters—everything that was part of Maria was wiped away as if she never had been on the Shiva.

He refused to think of it. She would survive. She had to, because there was no other possibility.

“Commander!”

Michael was the first through the opened doors. He went through, and barely cleared the door as he stopped in amazement. The Bridge was laid open to space with a huge portion of the forward manifold missing, as a chunk of the hull had been blown away. The room was as quiet as a tomb and just as cold.

“Jack!”

Jack, a large man with reddish hair and an impressive beard that Michael truly admired, came through behind Michael. “Oh crap!” Jack looked about in wonder. “The deck was protected by the forcefield along the hull, even after this piece blew. The field emitters closed the gap, but environmentals are offline. Luckily air is routed in from another source, but it got cold in here.”

Michael yelled for rescue crews as he forcibly made his way to the command chair picking up large pieces of scrap metal. The engineering crew arrived and began to clear consoles and debris looking for surviving Bridge crew.

Liander was helped to his feet. He tried to talk to Michael, but his body was so chilled the chattering of his teeth made it impossible.

“Evacuate all Bridge crew. Take them to the nearest holding area, the cantina if possible, and get hot liquids into them. All crew members in dire need of medical assistance need to be taken to the medical unit immediately!”

“The Captain—“ Liander started, but the words caught in his throat.

“I’ll find him,” said Michael.

Liander pointed to a spot in front near the front helm control. “There—he was there before the system went, and the room exploded. I saw him blown that way.” Liander was pointing to the area near the breach where the largest debris field literally covered the entire front of the helm control and navigation.

Michael handed his second in command over to rescue workers and the medics. “Go get warm, Liander.”

The man refused. “Not without the Captain. Mike—I... we tried to escape, but our engines were only running on half impulse. We—we tried.”

Michael nodded to the medic behind Li, who reached out and injected the weapons officer in the neck rendering him unconscious. Turning, Michael watched as other bridge members were extracted. They had lost Lydia , the communications officer, and Seth wasn’t looking very good. Michael joined the rescuers as they dug out Rafe and Caleb.

It felt eerily familiar to Michael, as his hands reached down to remove the piles of debris burying his brother. He had once unburied his brother to save his life so many years ago, and today it felt as it had that at that moment; it was the beginning of change for all of them.

Michael saw Max first. He saw his hand. Working in double time, they cleared away the rubble to pull Max free. Michael cursed yet again.

Max was covered in blood, but his face was pale despite his black beard and hair. The scar transecting his left cheek was blood red from where it had been ripped open again, and one leg was at a disturbing angle. His skin was cold, but Michael could feel him, his own breathing shallow to match his twin’s. Slowly Max’s breathing increased as the twins began to breathe easier, Michael pulling Max with him away from the rubble.

Max’s eyes opened to see Michael, and a slight smile pulled at the side of his mouth. “There you are.” His voice was low and husky as it took some effort to talk. “Shiva? Out of danger?”

“Yes took damage, but you saved her. You saved us all.” Killing Thoth and the Antarians was no small feat. Had they failed, the Shiva—destroyed, the last bastion of defense against the Slavers of Antar would have been removed, and like Khivar, Thoth would’ve enslaved their universe.

“I would’ve liked to see Isabel and my sons one last time. Tell her—I...,” he stopped in a heaving breath, his voice low and thready. “I would die for her.”

Michael swore as his brother’s eyes closed. “Max? You’re not dead yet!” Looking around, Michael yelled, “Medic!”

The medic quickly looked over the Captain. “Commander, his internal injuries—I don’t know that I can get him to the medical unit. There is no easy access and he can’t go through the subways.”

Michael stood and looked around at the amount of injured and dying. “How many are still buried?”

“We think we’ve got them all out. All personnel are accounted for.” The medic wiped a bloody arm across his sweaty forehead. “We’ve got six dead, seven critically wounded, and five that can walk, but still need care.”

“Gather everyone together. Take as many of the rescue workers as necessary to evacuate them immediately.”

“Commander, I’m telling you, there is no way to get them to the medical unit until the main access is cleared, and we’ll lose all our critically wounded before that.”

“Don’t tell me what can and cannot be done! My brother, your Captain is dying, as is the entire Bridge staff. Now get them ready to transport!”

“Yes, Commander.” The medic rushed off, not seeing the hope, only the futility of it, but the Commander was now Captain, and his orders weren’t to be questioned.

Michael found Jack. “Your crew needs to get us working helm and navigation. I have to go to the medical bay, but I’ll be back. You get hold of Sean, and you tell him I want communications, external sensors, helm control and full engines back immediately, and I don’t care what he has to do to get it! We’re sitting blind.”

“Yes, Commander.” Jack nodded to the man as he stood over his twin, ferocious and protective. “I’ll have communication and helm back before you return.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Jack. I’m not going to be that long.”

Michael nodded to the medic when he came back to inform him that they were ready to transport. Michael lifted Max up under his arm, as the medic took the other side. Concentrating, Michael stared at the closest wall in the direction of the medical unit. The room hushed in shock as the wall opened into a distortion corridor directly opening up to the medical unit.

“Holy, mother of invention,” swore the medic softly under his breath.

“Take the most critically wounded through first! Hurry, I’m not sure how long I can hold this open.”

Michael and the medic holding Max watched as the other members of the Bridge were evacuated, the engineering teams watching in wonder. Though Max was one of the more critical, Michael took him last. Max was the Captain, and he would find it unacceptable to not evacuate his people before himself.

~~~

Sean swore a nice long ugly streak of obscenities as his engineers revved at a higher warp than he could control. Taking a heavy wrench, he pounded the hell out of a local console.

“Jonesy! The containment field?”

“It’s holding, but barely. I can’t get the cooling reactor online, and the cryogenic tanks are blown. They will have to be replaced.”

“Do I look like I have a few extra tanks in my back pocket?” Sean didn’t expect an answer to that. “Okay, shut down the fourth and seventh reactors. They’re too hot, and if we run them they’ll go critical. Relay the power drainage through the main reactor loop, and have Liz—“ Sean looked about. “Where the heck is Liz?”

“She’s in the forward manifold compartment. She and a team are rewiring the phase wiring, to get the Bridge back up and running.” Jonesy scratched his forehead leaving a long greasy spot across it. “Michael is bitching about the lack of power and control in the command module. Liz thinks she can have it rewired in about ten more minutes.” Jonesy looked at his notepad. “Communications are up, but no one told Michael. He’s just going to call down here every few minutes demanding an update.”

“Bastard. Sitting on his cushy ass.” Sean spit, wincing at the amount of blood that had come up. Leaning heavily against a bulkhead, he closed his eyes for a moment to get the room to stop spinning.

“Sean, you don’t look that great.”

“Yeah, good. I don’t feel that great.” Sean checked the console that he had been brutally ‘fixing’ with the large wrench. “Aw, good. External sensors are up.”

Sean did a few reads, testing the strength of the sensors and the outer hull integrity. He swore when his panel showed the damage to the forward array and command module. The blown hull at the Bridge would take extensive repairs. His sensors were then moved outward, and when he focused on the area that once had been the Antarian solar system he stopped short. Recalculating the sensors to a maximum shield grid, he reran the scan.

“Oh, this is so not my day!” Sean slapped the communication badge. “Bridge! Michael, you got your ears on?”

“Sonnabitch, you lazy bastard! About time you got—“

“Shut up! I’ve got external sensors online. Are yours available?”

“One moment.” Michael’s voice faded as they heard him talking to other people. Jonesy read the scan over Sean’s shoulder, curious about the chief engineer’s reaction. His face paled beneath his dark skin as he understood what had Sean in a tizzy.

“Oh, this cannot be happening!”

Sean shot Jonesy a long look of suffering. “Par for the course. Feels like a frickin’ normal day in my life! Michael!”

“We’re reading it,” said Michael over the intercom. “Sean, can we power out of here?”

“Sorry, Michael, there is no way. We’ve got engines online and working, at best, half impulse. The problem is helm control. Liz is rewiring your area as we speak, and she has an estimated time of completion of about ten minutes, but Michael, we can’t outrun this.”

“Why did I know you were going to say that?” Michael was quiet. “What can we do?”

“It’s a spatial tear in the fabric of space. The thermolytic reaction must have detonated the Granilith, and it tore through the matrix of space. We’re looking at an impact with that tear.”

“How long?”

“Not sure. I would have to map its progress, but either way, this area will be dead space, and as it continues to tear, all other systems in the near vicinity are threatened.”

Michael sighed heavily. “I’m so damn sick of being a savior of the universe. What can we do, and as long as the answer isn’t die, I am willing to entertain possibilities.”

Jonesy interrupted Sean and Michael’s conversation. “The Cadre Conference in the last millennium outlawed subspace weapons because they caused this same problem. They resulted in damage matrix and spatial tears in space. There were dead spots where time was no longer time, and any ship entering that area was drawn in the temporal wake until matter unmade itself.”

“What was their solution?” Sean asked hopeful that the Conference of egghead scientists had offered a solution to the tear.

“They outlawed the weapons—there was no solution except not to use them.”

“That doesn’t help me here!”

Michael’s voice came back over the COM. “Sean—Maria would know! She knows more about space than any one person on the Shiva or in this universe. I’m on my way to the medical bay. Get me full power to engines and find out how fast the tear is growing!”

~~~

“I won’t do it!”

“Dammit, Kyle, I need her! Wake her!”

Kyle swore and nodded to his anesthesiologist. “If he brings up in level of consciousness, she will feel pain.”

“Kyle, if I don’t talk to her, we could all die.”

“Then at least put on a damn mask, and do not cross over in my sterilized field.”

Michael waited as the anesthesiologist brought Maria back to consciousness. Glancing at Kyle, he avoided looking at the area where Kyle was working, his wife flayed open was not something he could handle at that moment—having to handle her in pain was already too much.

“Max?”

“Julia is operating on him. As soon as I finish Maria, I’ll go assist.” Kyle noted the fluttering of Maria’s eyes as she slowly became awake. “He’s not looking good, Michael. You need to prepare yourself for the worst. The breaking of a twin bond is hard—ask Sean. All these years, and he still can’t let Serena go.”

“I know, but Max isn’t going to die. He wouldn’t do that to me—or to his family.”

“Maybe it is his time?”

Michael never commented on that as Maria came awake. “Princess,” he said getting closer to her. “I need your help.”

“It—it hurts.” Maria winced in pain. “I—can I have a drink?”

Michael looked at Kyle who shook his head no. “She can have nothing.”

“Sorry, honey. You’re in surgery. After you awake, I promise.” Michael clenched his shaking hands. “Maria, the implosion of the Granilith in the thermolytic reaction caused—“

“A spatial tear.” Maria guessed weakly.

“Yes. The Shiva is damaged, her main computers are offline, helm is out, and we have at best half impulse—maybe only quarter.”

“You can’t outrun it?”

“No. We can’t leave it either. It will devour systems in its wake. Can we seal it? It is like the tear created by a subspace weapon.”

Maria seemed gone again, her eyes closed.

“Maria! Baby, you’ve got to wake up! I need you.”

“Isolinic burst,” was all she said.

“What? An isolinic burst? Maria—Princess,” said Michael sharply needing to wake her. “How do we make an isolinic burst? Maria—“

“A subspace weapon.”

“Maria—Princess, we don’t have a subspace weapon. How do we improvise?”

“Drop a core reactor in it,” she whispered weakly as the pain on her face touched him in his mind almost as much as it touched him physically.

“Michael! I can’t—she has to go back under.”

Michael nodded, but not before kissing her on the forehead, and whispering that he loved her. Slowly backing out of the operating theatre, he watched for a moment at the door before making his way back to the bridge.

“Sean! How much time?”

“The rate of growth, my best estimate is ten minutes; maybe less before the tear is upon us.”

“How long on Liz?”

“She said that partial stations should be up, and helm in a few moments.”

“Get her going! The Princess says that you need to toss a reactor core into the rip, so if we drop a core or few, when the tear catches up to it, it should work in an explosion much like an isolinic burst, sealing the tear.”

“Isolinic burst? That’s what she said it needed?”

“Yes. Can you do it?”

“I’ll have to. I’ve got, as it turns out, a core that is on the verge of going critical. My cryogenic tanks are down. I can jettison it and two other spent cores, but that will leave us short on speed.”

“Just get it going, and get me helm control. The Shiva can’t take another blast.”

“Understood.”

~~~

Sean leaned heavily against the console and he prepared to dump the main reactor core and the two other spent ones. The room was spinning around at an alarming speed, and his stomach was doing the same.

“Liz? What is the situation on your repairs?”

“Give me a few more minutes.”

Sean’s hands tightened on the console as the room when dark for a moment. “I’m not sure we have a few more minutes. I can’t dump the cores until we have helm control back.”

The COM came alive with Michael’s voice. “Sean! Dammit, we’re estimating a six minute window. I need helm control now!”

“Liz, did you hear that?”

“I’m working! Leave me to do it.”

“Michael, Liz is working as fast as she can. Give her a few more moments.”

“Sean,” Michael didn’t get to finish as the helm came alive. “We’ve got helm control! Do what you’re going to do!”

“Aye. Dump in three-two-one... Cores are away! You better punch it!”

Sean could feel the Shiva move before he heard the engines rev to the stress. Blinking, he tried to clear his sight as Jonesy came up behind him and straightened him. Michael’s voice came over the shipwide intercom informing everyone to brace for impact as Sean counted down mentally towards the collision of the cores into the spatial rift.

He didn’t feel the percussion wave as it hit Shiva, because he lost consciousness for a moment. It was Jonesy putting him back on his feet that brought him back.

“What was the damage?”

“Minimum. Michael got us clear.”

“Thank god!” Sean bent over on the console trying to get his feet back.

Jonesy looked at the arm that had been bound by Sean’s shirt. It was soaked in blood. “Sean, your arm is bleeding!”

“Dammit. I guess the cauterization didn’t hold. I’ll be fine.”

“Cauterize? You cauterized your own wound? With what?”

“Acetylene torch.” Sean shrugged it off. “Jonesy, I don’t have time. We need to get environmental controls back on decks, rescue trapped personnel, and my engines are barely functioning. At this rate, we won’t even make Karnac in six months. Give me a bit of space to get back to work, okay?”

Jonesy knew Sean too well to argue. Backing away, he found himself outside of Engineering. Giving it a few moments of thought, he found his way slowly picking through the damage towards the Bridge.

~~~

Michael paced around in the reestablished command chair of the Bridge. The forward hull was still gone, and they had a lovely view of the stars as they worked, but his Bridge crew was less than half strength with engineering crews trying to fix panels, and get all systems back online. Liz had come up from the forward manifold beneath the command module, and was busy rewiring the weapons control.

Jonesy came onto the Bridge and paused when he saw his fiancée. Nodding to her, he crossed over to stand beside Michael.

“What’s up, Jonesy?”

“Sean. He passed out in Engineering. He has an injury he’s refusing to let anyone look at, and it’s bleeding heavily.”

Michael swung fully around in the chair. “How bad?”

“He cauterized it himself with an acetylene torch.”

“Order him to the med bay.”

Jonesy lifted a brow, and Michael cursed.

“Fine! I’ll go do it!” Michael stopped for a moment, a bit of spite made his face lighten for a moment. “Tell you what, I’ll worry about Sean if you worry about your pregnant fiancée. This area might not be the best place for her, especially if the forcefield goes and we’re all sucked out into space.”

Jonesy turned sharply at Michael’s words, his eyes meeting Liz’s, and she gave Michael a deadly stare. “Traitor!” How Michael knew was beyond her, but it was probably Julia while she was caring for Maria.

Michael strode through the door ignoring Liz as Jonesy advanced on her, so he missed the kiss, which was perhaps for the best. Michael hated it when people got mushy on his watch.

~~~

“What the hell is going on?” Michael demanded as he entered Engineering. He stopped in his tracks as he took in Sean’s face, the sweat covering it with a pale grayness. “God, you look like crap!”

“Thanks,” said Sean waving a suggestive finger at Michael. “Get the hell out of my space!”

“What happened to your arm? You need to go to the medical bay right now.”

“I don’t have time. I’ll go later.” Sean turned back to his work ignoring the way the light of the room seemed to brighten and dim as he struggled to remain conscious. “They have enough work in the medical bay. They don’t need to concern themselves with my little scratch.”

“Uh-huh.” Michael stared at the blood soaked shirt covering Sean’s bad arm. “Sean...,“ he called out, and as the engineer turned Michael’s fist made full contact. Sean hit the deck like a sack of potatoes.

Kneeling by his friend, Michael gently removed the shirt that Sean had tied around his bad arm, and sat back, his own face graying, as he hit the COM. “Medical! I need a medical team to Engineering immediately! Bring a stretcher! Now!”

He swallowed the bile rising in his throat as he stared at Sean’s partially severed arm, the edges darkened by the cauterizing job Sean had done. “You crazy bastard,” he said softly as he held his friend’s head in his lap. “Now I’ve got to worry about losing you too.”

~~~

The medical bay was finally dark and quiet. Most of the wounded had been cared for, and many where placed in a makeshift hospital. The Trinity had left hours ago for Karnac, and was already in contact informing them that relief teams and ships were on the way to help the Shiva do the major repairs that would get her underway to join her there.

Squadrons of fighters rotated in shifts as patrol craft kept the Shiva’s outward defenses secure. Michael had finally taken a break to visit what used to be his and Maria’s quarters. The C deck had finally reestablished environmental controls, but the damage was severe. He had no place to sleep, and nowhere he wanted to be except where he was.

“How is Maria doing?” he asked Kyle. He hadn’t seen Kyle come up behind him, but he knew he was there.

“Surprisingly she has not roused, not even once. I’m so used to her thrashing about while in the regenerative tubes that her stillness is disturbing.” It had taken some work and most of the day, but they finally had other regeneration tubes up and working. Their need was great.

“She took a heavy hit mentally when the Antarian system went, perhaps as hard as the one that hit her when her own world was destroyed.”

“I know. The damage was pretty extensive. You could see where she had been on the mend, but when she shifted to open the corridors, and then shifted back, the edges didn’t meet up clean. I had to stop a lot of internal bleeding, and the regenerative tube will mend her faster than time could.”

“Max?”

Kyle looked at Max who was next to Maria in another tube, his body heavily bruised in testament to the damage he had sustained. “His one leg was crushed. He’ll have to stay long enough to regrow the bone. Julia repaired as much of the shattered area as possible and gave it clean edges for new growth, but he will more than likely walk with a limp. Julia thinks if we leave him submerged even after the bone grows, that it will thicken and harden more consistent to his old bone. The damage to his face was hard because of the old scar tissue, but I think after this injury, his old scar will be reduced in size. We have better healing techniques now. He had a punctured lung, and his heart showed damage from being crushed. His left arm had been dislocated, and that was the easiest of his injuries to repair.”

“He’ll make it?”

“Thanks to you, Michael. They’re still talking about how you opened that corridor, how you’re an Ancient like Maria.”

“I’m not an Ancient, but there is some much more that I am today then I was.”

Kyle rubbed his chest feeling his new heart beating hard and strong. “I know. I found a hidden power within myself, one that I never imagined.”

“Ava?”

“She is still working on some patients. Her skills are as good if not better than both mine and Julia’s. She’ll make a nice addition to the crew.”

Michael laughed. “You asked her to stay?”

“No, but I will find a way to convince her.”

“Man, do not start telling me stories about your sex life!”

Kyle punched Michael on the shoulder. “I think it’s my turn. Yours and Sean’s sex life was giving me gray hairs.”

“You mean making you jealous.” Michael laughed, but his eyes became serious. “Sean?”

“Julia operated on him. I really didn’t want to do that to her, but in truth, she specializes in sports medicine, muscular regeneration and limbs. His arm—God,” Kyle rubbed his face. “How he went on after the injury is a mystery! He—he really saved us all.”

“How is Julia taking it?”

“Not well. He’s in a tube in the next room. I’ve only got eighteen tubes up and working, and all of them are in use with the most severe cases. Sean, will be here for a while.”

Michael nodded and thanked Kyle as he left him alone with Max and Maria. He stayed with them for a while, but then went to check up on Sean.

Julia was sitting on the floor next to Sean’s tube writing notes on her hand monitor. She looked up when he entered the room. “Hi. I thought I heard your voice and Kyle’s.”

“Kyle went to check on other patients.” Michael squatted down to Julia’s level looking up at Sean. “Is he okay?”

“He’ll survive, and that in itself is a miracle.” Julia was silent, and Michael waited a moment before noting her that fact.

“What is it?”

“He’s such a baby about everything, and then this happens, and I realize that I didn’t even really know him.”

“He wanted your attention, but not like this. He couldn’t leave his duty, not when there was so much need.”

“I understand that, Michael. I do, really,” she paused, “but, I should’ve demanded to look at his injury. I let him send me away, and I stomped off in anger.”

“Sean’s choice, Julia, not yours. Maria had to know that shifting would damage her fragile body, but she did it to save you—to save all of the prisoners, and us. There are often choices we make, ones that injure us or bring us great harm, but without duty and honor, what is there? I think few people can understand a soldier—a warrior, better than another warrior.”

“And if it cost you her life?”

“It won’t, because wherever she goes, so do I—even in death.”

Julia wiped away a tear that had found its way down her cheek. “When he gets out, I’m going to kick his butt around the upper observation deck—if it still exists.”

Michael laughed standing, his hand resting on the tube. “Careful, you’re threatening the man with something he would take as a promised date.”

“Sick pup,” was all Julia said as she went back to watching over her patient.

~~~

The Shiva limped home to Karnac on impulse engines for a few months, and finally at warp speed once her main containment reactors were fixed and a new reactor core was initiated. She was a broken ship, a great ship that served a higher purpose, and as was her name, she had proven to be a ‘destroyer of worlds’ as the Antarian system faded into a memory.

Unfortunately, Shiva’s crew was not so resilient. At a loss of over half their complement, the remaining survivors mourned their lost crew members and slowly tried to rebuild the missing pieces of their lives. Many had been evacuated as replacement crew and repairs crews came in to help effect repairs.

It took four months for Shiva to make the journey home, and in that time her crew joined her on the mend, their physical bodies mended, but their spirits were badly broken.

Max and Sean both spent over two months in regeneration allowing for broken, crushed and severed limbs to regenerate on the body as replacements to those lost. Max’s face had a new scar in the place of the old, and it was not as stark. It was possible that by the lateness of his life that scar would reduce itself to a long white line. He still walked with a limp, but with therapy chances were good that the limp would resolve once his leg became stronger. Isabel had returned to the Shiva on the first transport, bringing supplies and new crew. She was waiting beside the regeneration tank when he came awake, her face the first thing he saw.

The crew was happy to see the return of their Captain to his rightful place, some with a tear in eye, perhaps for the emotion of having Michael no longer serving as acting Captain, but mostly because Max had been sorely missed.

Sean, after two months of regeneration had a terrible need to cause terror, so he quickly reclaimed his position on the cantina cooking roster, and started a new batch of his special blend of whiskey brewed deep in Engineering. Shiva was looking at a threat almost as large as Khivar and his whacked out clone versions. Julia was the most noted victim of all things Sean. Having finally agreed to date him, she was often ambushed by the curly headed engineer, sporting much less than a naughty grin and a wicked need for mischief.

Liz and Jonesy had decided to marry the moment they returned to Karnac, and Sean protested that he wasn’t through haggling over their bride price. It took Jonesy flexing his muscles and hanging Sean upside down for Sean to finally concede that Jonesy might have a point. What was the difference between ten place sittings and six? Especially with a baby on the way!

Maria was the last to mend. Physically, she was out of the regeneration tube before Sean and Max, but mentally, she was still closed off. She spent six weeks in regeneration, and to the amazement of everyone, she did not stir once. Since she had been released by medical, she had remained utterly quiet. Michael watched over her, his face creased in concern, but he let her settle. Maria would find her own way, in her own time, and he had no doubt that she would find it with him. What made him worry the most was this constant lingering sadness, and a disturbing background feeling of pain.

The Astrolab was lost when part of the Shiva was blown away. Maria had opened a new one once the outer hull was repaired, and she was slowly refitting it. She had time. It would be months before Shiva would get to port, so she tirelessly worked on the lab, keeping much to herself, occasionally helping with repairs when help was requested.

Max glanced around the makeshift lab, and watched as external sensors came online with mapped out regions of space far exceeding his own sensors on the bridge. He watched as a bird’s eye view of the universe rushed by, and the view of a planet came on the viewer, a planet that was blue with water and lush in vegetation in a solar system of nine planets and one sun.

“Which planet is that?”

Maria stiffened. Her defenses had been down, and she hadn’t felt his presence until he spoke. “Earth,” she said softly.

“Terra? Before she was Anterra?”

“Yes. The green Earth.” Maria closed her eyes for a moment to regain control of emotions that threatened to overwhelm her.

“Maria,” said Max as he came into the lab, his hands picking up instruments, as he slowly walked around, his eyes not meeting hers. “You’ve b