phil jones2 (40 page)

Phil nodded. 'There is a fleet of ships out there from both sides, from what I can tell. What do you propose?'

'I think a diplomatic solution is possible. They may not have responded well the first time but I believe if we continue hailing them they will be given no choice but to negotiate.'

'Unless they blast us instead.' Smith muttered.

Annika glared at him. 'It won't come to that, you saw what the Voravians were like when Darwin attempted to negotiate with them. They were all for peace until he made a horse's ass out of himself.'

Well, he had to agree with that assessment, even though he only had Annika's word to go by it seemed pretty apparent that it was an entirely Darwin thing to do what she had said. The Lieutenant wouldn't lie to him in order to later gain some leverage, it wasn't in her nature.

When it came to Smith's opinion of his former commanding officer, he didn't appear to want to gainsay Annika's assessment, even if it meant that his argument would be undermined.

'Any other suggestions while we're throwing them out here?' Phil asked, leaving the floor open for Trigger or RJ to voice their ideas.

'That's pretty much it wrapped up in a nutshell.' the pilot said. 'either we fight the critters and get blown to pieces or we try and broker some kind of temporary peace until we figure out what to do with Star Command on our tail.'

It would appear that RJ agreed with Annika's assessment of the situation too, was Smith merely being stubborn in arguing against such a reasonable conclusion?

'I say we go ahead with the diplomacy, we can't do a worse job than Darwin surely.'

Ordinarily this would have brought a contemptuous snort from Smith or some kind of equally dismissive reaction, instead the man nodded at the orders and resumed tapping away at his weapon's console, presumably working on the aforementioned weapons. Somehow this simple compliance seemed far more ominous than any previous insubordination on his security officer's part.

'It will work Captain.' Annika assured him, also playing finger hockey with her console in an attempt to divine how to build a temporary alliance with their lizard foes. 'they were eager to have a lasting peace with Star Command, I don't see why we couldn't come to an agreement based on the premise that Darwin was a complete idiot.'

She was clearly trying to sound as confident as possible in order to lend credence to the idea. Phil shook his head and let his eyes pass over the myriad of digital readouts above his head. How had he known instinctively what she had been feeling when she conveyed that? Ordinarily he wouldn't have had a clue, and now even his mind was interjecting with an exceptional degree of internalised parlance.

Come to think of it, when had he ever thought or used the word parlance before?

It was just like the glove all over again, except that he wasn't wearing the glove... and there was the unmistakable taste of egg nog in the back of his mouth. What was going on here?

The communications system crackled over his head, just to the left of where his eyes had been scanning. 'Captain? Phil? Are you there?'

'What is it Terr... Engineer?'

'Well, you see I was looking at some of the schematics you've got here on the computer's central database, and I couldn't help but notice that our long range sensors could use a bit of a tune-up, so I went ahead and boosted their efficiency somewhat.'

'Excellent work, Engineer.' Phil said, noting the suspect looks that played across both the faces of Annika and Smith. Apparently they hadn't heard of a tune-up before.

'That's not all sir. I was looking through the improved scanners to test them out and I noticed a lot of ships nearby.'

'Impossible.' Smith said, cutting the man off mid-ramble. 'Our proximity alarm would immediately go off if it detected any hostile ships in the area, and I have programmed that myself to detect any number of potential incursions.'

'Well hog tie me and whip me like a mule, he's right Captain!' RJ interjected. 'Given a look over the scanners here and the dots are awfully close to our proximity.'

A helpful screen decided that it was time to cause a further interruption by blowing up in front of Phil's face and detailing just how close all these dots appeared.

'So what am I looking at here, Terry?'

The speaker crackled back into life. 'Relatively speaking sir the ships aren't nearby enough to cause the proximity alarm to fire off like that. Compared to our new scanning range however they are very close indeed.'

'Impossible.' Annika breathed, sending an involuntary shiver up Phil's spine. 'Our scanning capabilities have been improved by a factor of four hundred.'

'What?' Smith snapped, his fingers dancing raggedly across the console in disbelief. 'You are... correct. Unless this is some kind of trick or ruse or malfunction...'

'It's not.' the Engineer replied. 'You see, all I had to do was...'

Phil knew what was coming, but Phil's own brain and ears saved him the trouble by automatically shutting down at the crucial moment before the technobabble came bursting through the sound systems.

'Most... remarkable.' Smith finally said, and seemed at a genuine loss for words after doing so.

Annika leaned back in her chair and massaged her temples with her fingertips. 'That's... I...'

Apparently the only person who wasn't completely floored by the explanation was Phil.

'So now that these scanners have been improved, what are they showing us exactly?' he asked the cockpit in general.

'A cluster of ships in hyperwarp judging by the shifting coordinates, all of them following what looks to be a single Star Command signature.'

'It's the Scavanger, sir.' Trigger informed him. 'I recognise the signature, they look to be fleeing from a fleet of Voravian attack cruisers and several battle cruisers aren't far behind either.'

Smith turned his gaze to the young Ensign. 'I'm glad that you felt it necessary to inform the Captain of this, but I assure you that I was already most... aware... of the situation at hand.'

Trigger wilted somewhat and fell into silence.

'Is there anything we can do to help them?' Phil asked the cockpit at large.

Silence greeted him like a familiar friend before Smith replied negatively, the security chief seemed to have been waiting for Annika to say something to the contrary but it never came.

'Judging from their flight pattern they appear to be headed toward Earth.' RJ added. 'Darwin is leading them right to Star Command HQ.'

'But why?' Trigger piped up again, making sure to address RJ this time instead of Smith. 'Surely the crew wouldn't go along with an action that would destroy their home planet!'

'I'm reckoning that Star Command wouldn't let him do that. There must be another reason he's leading all the Voravians out of their space and after him, but it beats me if I know what.'

'Well, if we can't do anything about that right now we're just going to have to carry on with the diplomacy.' Phil stated, trying to bring some order before wild speculation broke out.

'Er... sir?' the speaker chimed in. 'It looks like we'll not have to ponder over diplomacy for much longer.'

They all saw it now, two dots detaching themselves from the chasing pack and heading toward the large blue dot. The one that represented them.

'Steady as she goes, RJ. Keep the weapons primed but disengaged Smith, we don't want to give them the wrong ideas.'

'Aye sir.' they replied in unison as the crew continued to watch the dots approaching.

'Estimated time until they get here?' Phil asked nobody in particular.

'Eighteen minutes and twenty-three seconds.' Annika told him. 'Shall I send out the hail I've been constructing?'

'Make it happen.'

The crew watched as one while Annika typed on a series of buttons and sent the message out into the blackness of space, each of them hoping that the Voravians would not only hear it, but listen. Several attempts at holding his breath later, Phil couldn't help but ask the question nobody else had.

'Well? Have they responded?'

Annika shook her head wordlessly.

'Smith, how long until they're within weapons range?'

'Twelve minutes and counting, Captain. We need to act very soon, otherwise the consequences may be... dire.'

Phil waved him away. 'I'm fully aware of that, Agent Smith. We have to allow every opportunity for a peaceful resolution to this conflict, otherwise we may as well invite the whole fleet onto us.'

Smith returning to staring at his console in silence, as if doing so would will the weapons to discharge into the heart of the two Voravian ships that were approaching.

'Annika, I'm going to need faster results than this if we're going to make it out alive.'

She flung her hands up from the typing. 'I'm broadcasting on all frequencies, Captain. They should be hearing this!'

For some reason he was expecting Smith to gloat, he shot him a glance but the man was still frantically working at his weapons console, it was almost as if he hadn't been listening to the exchange at all.

'Do what you can, Lieutenant. That's all anyone can ask of you.'

Annika gave him a hurried smile and resumed her attack at the console, as if pressing as many buttons as possible was somehow going to drive the message through to their implacable foes out there.

'Time, Agent Smith.'

'Five minutes, Captain.'

'Any suggestions from the front?' he asked RJ and Trigger, as if they had been keeping a brilliant idea secret from him until the very last minute.

'I've got nothing, Captain.' Trigger replied. RJ gave him the same answer but with a distinctly southern twang and a few epithets thrown in for good measure.

They sat in silence then, each of them trying not to stare at the Lieutenant as she attempted to save their lives.

'Done.' Smith eventually cut in. 'Should Lieutenant Annika's plan fail, I have one of my own.'

Phil looked up at him, a strange hope growing in his heart at another last-minute option. 'What is done exactly, Agent?'

'The weapons modifications I was speaking of before. I...accelerated the process somewhat, so they may be slightly... unstable. They should serve as a useful deterrent should our attempts at diplomacy prove... less than adequate.'

They now had a viable alternative, unless...

'How unstable are we talking here, Smith?'

'Captain I cannot be completely certain as to their efficacy, but the power drain is substantial and may cause a feedback loop through the primary Engineering systems that they're drawing power from.'

The speaker crackled into life once more. 'That would destroy the ship!' came Terry's voice.

'...potentially destroying the ship.' the Agent finished as if he hadn't heard the protestation.

Phil found himself shrugging. 'So if diplomacy fails, the ship is destroyed. If your plan fails, the ship is destroyed. It looks like we need one of these plans of ours to succeed.' he was surprised at his own calm, had he really been in that many life-or-death situations that they no longer fazed him?

'How much time do we have left, Annika?' he asked.

'Twenty seconds, sir. I don't think diplomacy is going to work.'

'Raise shields and prepare weapons, let's hope Smith's improvements are just that, brace for impact!'

'Emergency impact bracing spheres activated.' the computer informed him. 'Have a nice day.'

A strange blue glow surrounded him, akin to that of his previous safety harness. Apparently he wouldn't be flying around the bulkheads should their shields fail. Then again the vast expanse of space would probably greet him anyway should their shields fail.

'You have my permission to fire when they are in range, Commander.'

Smith nodded and resumed his focus upon his console, upon which a small timer was slowly winding its way down to zero. Upon noticing Phil's observation of the timer, the computer helpfully superimposed it on the screen in front of him, the large red numbers counting down their doom with impeccable accuracy.

He didn't think much as the numbers continued to lessen, in truth he didn't have much time to do so. His life didn't flash before his eyes and he didn't wet himself, nor did he have any great epiphany or realisation beyond the fact that he really wanted this to work.

'God speed everyone.' RJ murmured as the numbers neared their conclusion. Trigger was vibrating in his seat like a pogo stick with a lawnmower attached to it.

'Firing weapons.' Smith said, aware that the phrase was completely redundant given the timer but a stickler for procedure all the same.

A surge of energy rumbled from deep within the ship, causing his seat to transform briefly into a rather effective massage chair before the blazing light distorted the viewscreen ahead of them and the pent-up force shot out into space and directly toward the first of the Voravian vessels.

'Direct hit.' Smith yelled over the roaring noise that Phil hadn't noticed until now. 'Firing second burst.'

Once more the energy built within the ship, and judging by the squeals of protest from various computerised systems around them, the ship wasn't that impressed with Smith's efforts.

'Warning, systems overload imminent, structural integrity compromised.' the computer warned them in a panicky tone, notably refusing to ask them to have a nice day.

The energy soared out in a blinding cornucopia of power that riddled Phil's eyes with colours he didn't know existed before nestling firmly across the bow of the second Voravian ship.

As the light winked out, he watched the two craft turning and ostensibly making a swift getaway. They had seen enough combat and were high-tailing it out of there, as RJ would have put it. They had survived yet again, but judging from the bursts of static from the speakers and the flickering lights it hadn't been without substantial damage to their own systems.

'Engineering?' Phil shouted. 'Is there anything critical down there?'

Nothing, the communication systems were down.

'I'm going down there.' he said, surprising himself. 'Terry could be in a spot of bother.'

Smith looked up from his console, it definitely wasn't an approving look. 'Captain, as the chief security officer the safety of the crew is in my hands.'