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| - After touring the ship, I headed for the bridge. Before I could even take two steps someone had already shouted the usual, "Captain on the bridge," but I didn't recognize her. Most of the bridge was filled with new faces. Sitting solitary, in the center of the bridge, was the captain's chair, and in it sat the admiral in charge of the project. As I approached him I said, "Admiral, sir." He swiveled around and stood to greet me, "Captain, is it that time already," "Yes, sir. Engineering is the last holdout, and Commander Liat said they should be ready anytime now." He produced a PADD, "Captain, by Starfleet General Order 945010, you are hereby directed to take command of the U.S.S. Parthenon. Computer, transfer all command codes to Captain Eva Reed." A few seconds passed before the computer responded, "All codes transferred." I saluted as I said, "I relieve you, sir." "I stand relieved. Congratulations, Captain, and good luck," he said before leaving the bridge. "Bree, take us to Blue Alert," I said before opening an intra-ship comm line. "All hands, this is the Captain. Begin final departure checks and submit reports to the first officer." "Blue Alert, aye," the helmsman replied. As Blue Alert kicked in, the overhead lighting and all the LCARs panels turned blue. Over the next few minutes Commander Aslei read off the reports to herself, but audible enough the rest of the bridge could hear her. "Primary Warp Core, online. Secondary Warp Core, online. Slipstream Core, online. Main Deflector, online. Secondary Deflector, online. Astrometrics, ready. Phaser Emitter Arrays, charged and ready. Pulse Phaser Cannons, charged and ready. Shields, ready..." "Commander." "Sorry, sir," she said glancing at the PADD. "All stations report ready." I motioned to a Lieutenant Commander to my left, another new face. "Commander?" She turned towards me, and I saw that the right side of her face was missing skin, but instead was metal with circuits flowing through it. I recoiled at first, before realizing she was an android. "My name is ZE-N0N, Captain." A couple of the humans on the bridge began to laugh. I stood and and turned towards them with my best angry glare, "Get back to work." "I'm sure there's some obscure Earth reference here that I don't understand because I'm not from Earth, so let's just leave it at that." "Commander, contact Command and inform them we are ready for departure." "Yes, Captain," the android replied before returning to it's console. "Captain, Command is requesting we hold until the Tempest and the Firebrand are ready for departure as well." "Very well. Inform me when it's time. I'll be in my ready room. Commander Marsek, you have the bridge. Commander Aslei, if you'd join me." Zylla Aslei, an Aenar. She was about an inch shorter than me, her skin was deathly pale, and she had uncharacteristically, red hair for her species. She reminded me of my last first officer, who died saving the rest of the crew of the Parthenon-A. Final Battle of the Iconian War High Orbit, Earth "Captain Kagran and his group are heading for the time portal," Bree said. "The hard part falls to us. Making sure nothing goes after them." "Sir, there's a Iconian fleet heading for the Annorax." "Inform the other ships, we're going in." "Aye." "All ships, stay tight, fire at will." "Sir, a squadron of Baltim Raiders just emerged from gateways." "Intercept them and open fire, then come about to hit that battleship." The four starships pursued the raiders before destroying them with torpedo volleys. "Sir! Incoming attack from the Vonph." "We need to get under those guns. Evasive maneuvers." "The Vonph is firing!" A massive beam of energy erupted from the battleship. "Captain! We've lost the Ride. No biosigns or escape pods detected." "Damn! Computer, U.S.S. Ride, lost with all hands." "They are firing again, sir." Another beam fired, but this one seemed lower yield. "The Falchion was hit, but they are still there," Bree said. "Wait. They are on a collision course with the battleship." "Their captain says their helm is unresponsive and engies are locked online," Lieutenant Valeris responded. "Get them out of there. Transporters?" "Ours are offline. But it's too late," Bree said before shifting the viewscreen to show the Falchion as it crashed into the Vonph. "Damn it all. Computer, U.S.S. Falchion, lost with all hands." "Sir, the Vonph's shields and weapons are down." "Bring us in range and fire everything we've got." Though it cost the crew of the Falchion their lives, the remaining two ships managed to destroy the battleship. "Orbital Arc clear, sir." "Right, we've got a breather, I suggest we take it. Tell Kagran to get his ass through the portal." "Kagran and the others have passed through the portal." "Sir, we've got something big here," Bree said putting it on screen. "Lovely." "Iaidon Dreadnought on sensors." "Son of a bitch. Get me the captain of the Argia." "Coming onscreen now." "Fleet Captain Reed, you called?" "Captain Alddaya, retreat and join up with the reserves en route." "I'm afraid I can't obey that order." "Too bad. Now go. Even if we hadn't lost half the wing, there's now way we could hold off that ship. We'll keep them busy and buy you time to get out of here, but stop wasting time," I said before closing the channel. "Helm, lay in a strafing course. Tactical, how many torpedoes do we have left?" "Course laid in." "We're down to 10 quantums." "Load them all. Status of the Argia?" "They just engaged warp engines. They are clear of the combat zone." "We're nearly in range sir." Lieutenant Buri began reciting a poem. "Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them. Rode the six hundred." "I think you overestimate our numbers a bit, Lieutenant. There's only fifty people aboard this ship." "Captain, we're in range." "Fire!" "No effect sir, our cannons didn't put a dent in the shields, and the torpedos didn't pierce them." "I'm detecting energy from the portal." "If they are returning, they are going to be sorely disappointed, the Iconians still exist." "The dreadnaught is firing!" "Brace for impact." As the attack landed the ship rocked so hard it seemed lucky everyone managed to hold on to their seats. "Damage report!" "Engines and shields are gone." "We need to evacuate," I said opening a intra-ship comm. "All hands, abandon ship." "Sir! The Dreadnaught is charging it's main weapon." Time seemed to slow down as the beam fired. "Computer, activate emergency protocol Evlam 91540," Commander Evlam said. "Commander, what----," I said before being cut off by a transporter beam. "----are you doing," I finished as I felt thrusters fire beneath me. "We're in an escape pod, but how?" "You can thank Commander Evlam for that I think," I said rotating the pod around, just in time to see the beam hit the Parthenon. It pierced through the entire ship before dying down. I yelled at the window as what was left exploded. "Captain... I was right. Captain Kagran's forces have returned." We drifted for a few minutes before an open channel announced the end of the war. Commander Aslei and I had been conversing for a few minutes when we received the notification that the other two ships were also ready for departure, and so we headed back to the bridge. "Seal gantry airlock, then retract the gantry." "Airlock sealed, gantry retracted." "Retract umbilicals, and release clamps." "Umbilicals retracting and docking clamps released." "Clear all moorings, standby thrusters and impulse engines." "Moorings cleared, impulse engines online, thrusters standing by." "Good work. Now we wait for the signal to fire thruster---," I said before being cut off by the signal. "Thrusters to full, take us out." "Thrusters full, will clear drydock in five seconds." "Standby, impulse engines to one-quarter. On my mark." "We're clear of drydock---," Bree said before being interrupted by Zenon. "Captain. Something's wrong with the Firebrand. Their warp core is overheating, I've tried hailing them, but no response. All lifesigns are faint." "Hail the Tempest, tell them to break off and go to full impulse. That goes for us too, Commander." "Full Impulse, aye." "The Tempest is matching our speed, Captain." "Put aft view on screen." I swiveled around to the screen behind me. The ship seemed to flash for a few seconds before the core breached, destroying the ship and the drydock section the three vessels were in. "Contact Starfleet Command." "Captain, we're being told to warp to Mars." "Commander, take us to Warp 1." "Course plotted, engaging warp engines." The two ships quickly made their way to Mars, where they were told about the threat, and sent on to their respective destinations. "Commander, lay in our course to the gates, 9.5." "Course laid in." "Engage."
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