Chapter Two: Surprise!

Houston, we have a problem

Kaillee jerked to awareness when the emergency sirens went off. Red flashing lights and the alarm ensured that everyone on board knew that they were to make all haste to their combat stations. She hoped that they could escape, there was no way that a transport ship like theirs could hold up against hume weaponry.

Already as dressed as she needed, Kaille snagged a stimulation inhaler to fully alert herself, and rocketed out of her quarters toward the bridge. She nearly collided with Mina on the way, a quick kick off a wall and swinging from a utility pipe from the ceiling vaulting her over her head. Neither slowed, not having time.

Tearing onto the bridge, Kaille lunged toward her captain's console. "Rune, status," She commanded, swiping through warning messages and bringing up a holographic three dimensional display of near space.

"Three hume cruisers rounded the third planet from this system's star around three minutes ago. I hightailed toward an asteroid field, hoping that or stealth was still effective." He paused, taking a breath. "It apparently isn't. They broke off from what appears to be war games, and took standard hunting positions. We will be in range of their fire in approximately one minute, ten seconds."

While relaying information, Kailee strapped herself in and prepped the non-telek interface for ship to Kerr interaction. An asteroid field would give them a chance to outmaneuver the larger ships. Initiating the ship wide speakers, Kaillee relayed the information.

"We have three cruisers right on our tail. We are going to try losing them in an asteroid field. Everyone, strap in. I want our shields overclocked and weapons power to half. We can't out power them, aim to hinder their guns and make debris to cover our asses."

Time was up, they should be firing shortly. While she had time, Kaillee mounted the interface to her head and connected with the ship. Taking control of the vessel, she began to maneuver toward a dense section of debris, slightly changing the course at irregular intervals to make a harder target.

The ship suddenly jerked and shook violently. "Nes, I need status!" Rune yelled into an intercom, relaying information for the focused captain.

"Grazed by a particle weapon, shields deflected most of the damage. Residual radiation interfering with thruster two components, working to clean up." The reply was no nonsense and blunt.

The ship passed peripheral asteroids, turning into a dense cluster of rocks and ice as the Kerr began to fire at nearby larger pieces. Sections broke off and drifted or flew in various directions, creating a thicker cloud of debris behind them.

Beams of blue and red began cutting into the field around them, alternately creating explosions of rock and ice, or bright flashes in which the struck objects disappeared entirely. Humes used primarily charged particle and plasma weapons. They appeared to be firing upon them with both.

The Kerr ship weaved and bobbed fluidly between the various sized chunks of mass, all the while covering its trail with smaller chunks broken off the large ones. The cruisers were now at the field, but only one entered behind them. The other two split off, one going around in opposite directions. All the while the ships were peppering the field around the Kerr transport.

"We can't escape at this rate, we are covered on three of six sides and we will run out of field eventually. " Kailee announced calmly, her irises slowly beginning to glow a vibrant, electric blue. "Nes, drop shields and power weapons to full. Get on a weapon yourself. We are going to make a strike at their bridge. Lets see if we can take one out with us."

Rune glanced at his captain, grim determination set in his features. "I love you," the whispered words would never reach her, but he needed to say the words out loud, for himself.

Kaillee was intent on her maneuvering, but could see Rune's features soften slightly when he looked at her. Poor guy, he won't be able to get me to himself. She really did have a soft spot for him, too bad everything ended this way.

She swung the ship around, her crew letting loose a salvo toward the nearest cruiser's bridge. Kailee followed with the ship, knowing that she would be able to get a few of the b******s if she rammed them.

"KAILLEE STOP!" Rune yelled, his eyes wide and hands frantically flying over his displays. "We have a Tele field coming! Someone's helping!"

Everyone on board the ship jerked violently against their restraints, the ship directed by Kaillee away from incoming fire. "Where and how far?!" She had no knowledge of anyone on this route.

"Originating 175 degrees starboard, 4 degrees vertical from our current orientation. Kaillee... Its huge! This is incredible..." His voice trailed off into a whisper.

Splitting her focus, Kaillee captained the ship behind a gigantic piece of ice, and enabled her three dimensional display to show tele fields. Her breath caught when she did, amazement and fear filling her.

The semi-spherical field was already the size of a small moon, and rapidly expanding as it approached. It wasn't leaving them a way out though, they were going to be crushed along with the humans.

Directing the ship away from the field center, she punched the thrusters and tried to get the ship out of harms way. She slammed into her restraints time and again, forcing her transport into loops and swerves that were increasingly dangerous. They needed to get out of this infernal asteroid field! Her full measure of concentration was in evading the debris, forgetting about the Hume ships for the moment.

Remembering them when one of the flanking ships appeared directly ahead of her, she screamed at Nes "Full shields! Drop the weapon power!" They needed to get by that ship, it was still in the tele field.

The Kerr transport began shaking and jerking more violently, only becoming more aggressive as they exited the debris field and into open space. Their shields could hold momentarily, but it couldn't take a full assault for more than ten seconds.

They closely skimmed the hull of their enemies, open space before them. The back end of their ship was clipped by the tele field, sending the transport spinning wildly into disarray, the G forces too much for most on board.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Nes wasn't sure what happened, he was disoriented and light headed. He tried to raise the captain on the communications channel, to no avail. Successively he tried to get a hold of anyone else. No answer.

He did a quick systems check, surprised that there was only minor damage to the shield generators. they had been overloaded. Everything else was intact.

Making a decision, Nes unstrapped himself and began to check the crew. He grabbed a med kit, and began to check their battle stations.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The crew were gathered in the bridge after rehabilitating, all of them nursing massive headaches and sore bodies from lack of blood to the brain and harsh movement on the body. They all studied a direct visual of the carnage outside, awe keeping them silent.

All three ships were destroyed. They had careened headlong into a semi solid field traveling in the opposite direction. There was also the effect of the asteroid field, having been propelled by the tele field in a scattergun effect towards the ships. They were shredded and silent. Their crews had to have been mangled by the sudden stop, a ship travelling in one direction at a few kilometers per second doesn't leave much intact when brought to a dead stop.

After a few minutes the shock began to wear off, and curiosity urged them. "Who did it?" Crysta asked, her green eyes looking around the command room as her striped tail and ears twitched nervously.

"I don't know," Rune whispered."But, I know where the field came from. We can find out."

Author's Note

How do you like the action?