phil jones2 (24 page)

'Engaging all weaponry on the hostile target, have a nice day.'

With that, Trigger recoiled at the brief flash as the rear guns lighted up and sprayed the behemoth behind them with everything it had.

The rear viewscreen popped up for everyone to see as the lasers arced out into space and headed straight toward the target they couldn't miss. Would they have any impact whatsoever upon this vast craft?

The impacts were brief and seemed to cause minimal damage on the reinforced plating of the Voravian ship, yet for some reason the viewscreen still lingered on the remnants of their failure. If they couldn't stop this hulking thing it would undoubtedly make its way back to the fleet ad destroy them too.

It was then that he spotted it, a single point of light illuminating the shaft from which they had just exited. A stray shot had managed to find its way past the reinforced defenses and was makings its improbable journey deep into the heart of the ship.

'Cadet, set course away from the Voravian ship and prepare for a jump into hyperwarp!' the muffled voice of Darwin came as he slowly righted himself.

Unlike RJ, Ensign Trigger Hawkins was of the belief that getting as far away from the Voravian ship as humanly possible was a very good idea indeed, regardless of who the order came from.

'Aye sir, setting course... away.' he said, tapping on a series of buttons to hopefully pilot them out of the distance of any projected explosion that may or may not happen.

For what certainly wasn't the first time, nothing happened.

For a scant few seconds, anyway.

The briefest of flashes illuminated the contents of the shaft from which they had recently exited, then a chain reaction wrought its way through the insides of the ship, catching alight as if the surface had suddenly been coated in hot oil.

'Get us out of here now, Cadet!' shouted Darwin, all composure now lost as he clawed his way back into the Captain's chair.

Trigger engaged the hyperwarp engines without further adue, and for a brief moment he had the terrible feeling that they were offline. Surely not?

No, the engines flared into life, now under the supervision of Hanniman, and blasted them into the bluey-purple corridor that signalled their escape from the massive explosion about to erupt behind them.

Then there was space.

The crew sat in silence as the safety harnesses disengaged, slowly staring at each other and taking in the impact of their actions. They had done it, they had destroyed the Voravian mothership and escaped from the clutches of their most hated foe.

Annika was the first person to speak, but there was no sense of jubilation in her voice at this victory. She was all business as she read out what her scanners were telling her.

'The last laser fired scored a critical hit, their vessel was already compromised from the lack of reinforced deck plating and the black acid that bit through it. The ship was completely destroyed, with no survivors.

It was then that Trigger remembered this crew had just lost their Captain and second in command in one fell swoop, no wonder she wasn't celebrating. In his shock and wonder at surviving he had completely forgotten the grief that would inevitably follow for those around him.

'There goes the finest Captain I've ever laid eyes upon.' RJ said, staring at Darwin pointedly.

Silence reigned, even Darwin had nothing to say to that, apparently respect for the dead wasn't beyond the man's sensibilities.

Surprising himself, it was Trigger that finally broke the silence. 'Shall I set course back to Star Command, Captain?'

Darwin nodded in a subdued fashion. 'Aye Cadet, take us home.'

Trigger punched in the coordinates and prepared to jump back into hyperwarp, glad to put all of this behind him. He had never expected that his term on the flagship of the fleet would be as dangerous as it had turned out. He had been attacked and nearly eaten by any number of creatures and quite frankly could use some shore leave.

'Belay that order, Ensign.' RJ said, ratcheting the tension up instantly. Why couldn't the man just accept that what was done was done?

Darwin turned very slowly in his chair to look at the man defying him once again. 'Your actions are in direct violation of my orders, speak any further and there will be a court-martial when we return.'

'No, wait sir, RJ has a point.' Annika said, inexplicably coming to his defence by pointing wildly at her console, where several white dots were flashing as they crawled their way across the screen.

'What are your sensors picking up, Lieutenant?' Darwin asked, completely ignoring RJ now.

'They look to be some kind of pods ejected from the Voravian ship shortly before its destruction, they're headed this way.'

Darwin snorted in derision. 'Just a few lizards trying to escape their fate. Target these pods with what's left of our weapons and destroy them.'

'Belay that order.' came the voice of RJ yet again.

This time Darwin span quickly and stood to his feet, snarling agressively at the impassive Texan for defying him yet again. 'Hanniman, escort this man to the brig.'

The Captain proceeded to walk straight past RJ and launch a single laser shot at one of the pods, destroying it completely.

There was a crackle on the communication systems and then Hanniman's voice finally arrived. 'Sir, we don't have a brig per se, shouldn't you hear what the man has to say first?'

Before Darwin could respond, RJ was talking. 'All I'm asking is that you run a sensor sweep on the remaining pods, Captain. If it turns out that it's all Voravians then blast away.'

A look of confusion passed over the Captain's face but in Annika's eyes Trigger saw a glimmer of hope as she frantically ran a sensor sweep without even asking for confirmation from her superior.

Seeing as Annika was already obeying RJ's suggestion and there was no logical reason to defy the man, Darwin took himself away from the fire button, slumped into the Captain's chair and suddenly looked very tired.

'Captain, I'm picking up two human life signs on-board one of the pods, should I...'

Darwin cut her off. 'Tow them home with us, Lieutenant, the poor bastards have earned it.'

'Yes sir!' Annika trilled, a grin spreading over his face as she gave a strange fist pump in the air. RJ smiled at her in recognition.

Shortly after, Trigger punched in hyperwarp on command. They were finally going home.

Chapter 29

Crowd! Glove! Earth!

T
he journey back was one of relative silence, with both Phil and Smith in disbelief at how they'd somehow managed to escape the clutches of the Voravians. Phil had wondered for a time who was on the other craft, and Agent Smith had attempted to figure out the communications systems in their escape pod before finally abandoning the effort as a lost cause. It would appear that Voravians didn't care much about what people in escape pods had to say, as he hadn't found anything at all like a comm system.

After a while, Phil just watched the strange pulsing glow of the hyperwarp tunnel they had entered. He knew so little about the mechanics of everything he had been through yet somehow he had managed to survive it in spite of that. It boggled his mind how he had lurched from one lethal situation to another with all the grace of an inebriated ballet dancer. It had all seemed like one great cosmic joke at the beginning, but as time had gone on it had taken an entirely different tone of increasing seriousness as he realised what was at stake.

He couldn't recall how much time had passed as he sat thinking to himself in the small pod, but the tunnel finally faded away back into the dark curtain of space, illuminated by the familiar glow of a blue planet beneath them.

There were various worrying clunking noises and Smith reassured him that it was the technicians going to work on the pod and that they wouldn't get sucked out into space at the very last after all they had survived.

Then the door to the pod was forced open with a clang and Phil spotted the grateful face of Hanniman peering in at him.

'A safe and pleasant journey I hope, Captain? I can't say I'd vouch for your company's entertainment value.'

A brief snort of derision from Smith allowed Phil the time to formulate a response. 'I don't know Doctor, Agent Smith isn't so bad when you get used to him.'

The Engineer offered him a brief smile and then was back to business. 'They're waiting for you out here, I doubt you'll be wanting to stay in that pod any longer, no matter how cosy the trip was.'

They slowly clambered out and were confronted with the research room of Star Command, the same place that he'd been tested in all that time ago. This time though it was full of bodies all looking up at him expectantly.

'Hello there.' Phil said awkwardly, wilting under their collective gazes.

The crowd erupted into applause and he found his face heating in a most peculiar way, he wasn't used to this whole adulation business, hero or not.

The next thing he knew he was engulfed in catsuit.

'Phil! You did it!' Annika gushed with a smile brighter than a thousand stars. 'You destroyed the mothership!'

He had the decency not to argue the point overly, he really didn't think he could have destroyed that vast mothership simply by tangling himself in wires.

Then he noticed the expression an Annika's face change, he couldn't quite read it but it seemed much more subdued in spite of the ongoing applause. She said something to Smith he couldn't quite hear as he was whisked away by throngs of happy Star Command employees.

'Lord have mercy on my soul, it's Captain Jones!' bellowed a distinctly Texan voice approaching him. RJ clamped him in a huge hug that nearly took the man's hat off and then urged him away from the crowds, who allowed space for the crew members to reunite.

'Someone upstairs is looking out for you.' the man said in his ear.

'I don't know about that...' Phil replied, really not in the mood for a religious debate.

RJ was having none of it though. 'Did I not tell you that if you believed in yourself and kept doing what's right that you'd make it through?'

Phil nodded.

'Looks to me like it worked out, glove or no glove, don't you think?'

Phil nodded once again, then looked down at his hand. It was empty. Where had it gone?

RJ offered him another smile and then let him continue through the crowds of people. After having worn the glove for so long, Phil felt naked without its reassuring prescence. He also felt decidedly stupid, no doubt he'd soon find out just how much of his heroics were due to the glove giving a hand. Or him giving a hand to the glove. Whatever.

After spending a long time mingling with the crowds they finally dispersed, leaving the crew to talk amongst themselves. There was little time do so though, as they were soon summoned for an immediate debriefing with Grand Admiral Burroughs. Phil silently hoped he wouldn't have to say much, he didn't trust himself to speak now that he was missing the glove.

They trooped through together to the same briefing room that served as the man's office and before they knew it they were all facing his desk once more.

A door hissed open and they all stood to attention, but instead of Burroughs it was Darwin who marched through.

'All stand to attention for the Grand Admiral of Star Command.' he ordered, completely redundantly.

Phil attempted to stand to even further attention, and nearly toppled forward into the desk but for a steadying hand from RJ. He really wasn't looking forward to this.

The stately Admiral marched through with great aplomb, as if he himself had single-handedly defeated the Voravians with his master-stroke and was due all the credit and applause. As he seated himself Phil relaxed slightly, only to realise that the rest of the crew still stood at attention.

'As predicted, the mission I sent you on was a complete success. Well done to all of you who participated, you were as gallant and practical as the folks at the Human Genome Station suggested you would be.' he motioned Darwin closer toward him before continuing.

'Thanks to the heroics of the Scavanger's Captain, the entire crew was able to make it safely home. Had he not been there I doubt things would have gone according to plan.'

Darwin smiled ingratiatingly and Phil felt more than a pang of annoyance.

'Sir, how exactly did you manage to fight off the Voravians?' Trigger asked, then quickly clamped a hand over his mouth when he realised it had not been his turn to speak.

The Captain looked noticeably irritated at the question and tugged at his collar. 'Well you see, Cadet, when I took on the Voravians I knew that I only had to coat myself in the blood of one to reflect the majority of the blaster bolts that would be aimed at...'

'How did you know their blood would reflect the bolts, Captain?' Trigger persisted.

'Well, you see, I... never you mind! The point is that the blood shielded me from the bolts and...'

'Why didn't we just cover the entire crew in Voravian blood then, Captain?' Trigger pressed, growing bolder and more than a little irritated at the man's hedging.

'That's quite enough Cadet!' Burroughs roared. 'how dare you question your superior with this tone!'

Something had changed in the nervous Ensign though, and being called Cadet repeatedly seemed to cause his eye to twitch slightly. There was a steely determination about the man that Phil had never seen before as he stepped forward and planted his feet to the ground as if bracing for a gale.

'There was absolutely no reason for the Captain to do what he did, none whatsoever, it makes no sense and it's completely against Star Command regulations.'

RJ stepped forward so that Trigger need not face these men alone, he did not say any words but the look he gave his superiors spoke volumes.

Instead of the storm of anger that Phil had expected from the affronted men, all that came was a set of knowing smiles.

'You two are very bright individuals, we thought you might see through us eventually. I would suggest you not be quite so insubordinate to your future Captain though.'