Either way, their side of the bulkhead was clear. Jessica signaled for the others to cease fire, after which the master chief swung the hatch closed and locked it before any more enemy troops could come through.
“Bridge!” the master chief’s voice called over the comm. “The forward section is secured!”
“Good work, Master Chief! Standby!” Nathan looked at Cameron. “Try and back us out.”
“It won’t be enough thrust to…”
“…Just try!” he pleaded, cutting her off.
“Okay,” she conceded, as she began to apply braking thrusters. “Firing braking thrusters at twenty-five percent.”
The ship began to vibrate, shaking an already loosened panel off one of the side consoles.
“We’re not moving!” Cameron reported.
“Bring it up to fifty percent.”
“Increasing thrust to fifty percent.”
The vibrations became louder, and the ship shook even more. But still it did not back away from the enemy vessel.
“It’s no use!” Cameron protested, “It’s just not enough thrust!”
“One hundred percent!” he ordered. Cameron spun her head around, giving him a look of disapproval the likes of which he had not seen from her before. And for a moment, he didn’t think that she was going to follow his orders. Finally, being able to wait no longer, he barked at her, “DO IT!”
His tone was also something that she had never heard from him, and it startled her somewhat, as she turned back to her console and brought the thrust up to one hundred percent.
“Braking thrusters at maximum!” she yelled over the sound of the ship as it bounced and rattled. Damaged consoles started sparking again as the vibrations caused their burnt circuits to short again. A portion of an already weakened overhead beam fell behind Nathan. Bits and pieces began falling everywhere.
“Sir!” Ensign Yosef shouted from her console. “We’re stuck on something!”
Nathan ran the few steps from the tactical console to Ensign Yosef’s side, struggling to keep his balance as the ship shook. He looked over her shoulder at the console.
“There!” she indicated, pointing at the image on the sensor display. It was a black and white image that looked much like a computer enhanced x-ray, but with multiple colors outlining some of the objects in the image.
“What is that?”
“It looks like a beam, or part of the enemy ship’s structural frame!” she reported. “It must of given way when we collided, and impaled us causing the hull breach! That’s where they came in!”
There was another object that Nathan couldn’t identify at first, something large. It had several lines and tanks, all clustered together along with some nozzles coming out of it.
“Is this in our ship or theirs?” he asked, pointing at the unidentified yet familiar looking object.
“Ours, Sir. It’s the…”
“…Docking thrusters!” Nathan spun around to face Cameron, suddenly having an idea. “Cameron. Remember how we stopped the roll in the simulator?”
“You can’t be serious!” she protested, remembering it clearly.
“It might break us free!”
“Nathan, there are still eight people in the forward section!”
“But they’re all at the aft end of that section! In the simulation, it only damaged the forward part! And it’s only a matter of time before they blast through that bulkhead and take the ship!”
“This isn’t a simulation, Nathan!” she warned.
“You think I don’t know that?” he argued, looking around the room. “Really?”
Cameron considered Nathan’s idea. It was a hell of a gamble, but she had to admit that without the more powerful maneuvering thrusters, there was no other way to break free from the enemy ship.
“You’re in command,” she agreed, turning to reprogram the maximum pressure limits on the docking thruster’s reaction chambers. “Resetting max chamber pressures,” she announced. “Which side would you like to blow up first?” she asked sarcastically.
“Port side!”
“Firing port docking thrusters, at full power.”
The ship slid slightly sideways to starboard, causing Nathan to stumble to his left slightly. There was a loud crack as the cowling over the forward side of the flight console cracked, probably the result of the severe jostling they were taking.
Suddenly, there was an explosion. It came from forward of them, underneath and to port. It was much louder than in the simulation and the entire ship lifted slightly before suddenly dropping back down, nearly knocking Nathan off his feet.
Without warning and in a surprisingly fast motion, the ship slid quickly out of the hole it had made in the enemy ship, the force of the exploding docking thruster making the hole even bigger, severing the beam that had impaled them and allowing the ship to slip free. It was like someone suddenly pulling the rug out from under his feet, and the motion knocked Nathan to the floor. That’s when he realized the inertial dampeners were probably off line.
“We’re free!” Cameron exclaimed, not believing it herself.
“No kidding,” Nathan said, grabbing the tactical console and pulling himself back to his feet.
The sudden separation from the enemy ship left the forward section open to space, and Nathan hoped the sudden decompression had sucked the intruders out into space.
“Kaylah!” How many intruders left in the forward section?”
“None, Sir! They were either sucked out or died inside!”
“How many of our people?”
She paused for a moment before reporting. Nathan knew he wasn’t going to like the answer. “Six, Sir,” she answered solemnly. “They’re sealed up in their berths.”
Nathan tried to brush their deaths away, like he figured a good leader was supposed to do. But all he could think was, I just killed two people! He knew that many others had probably died already today, but the deaths of these two were the direct result of a decision he had made. And with full knowledge that he was putting them in harm’s way. He wasn’t sure that he could ever forgive himself. But he had to find a way to live with it, at least for now.
The Aurora backed slowly away from the damaged enemy warship, leaving a gaping hole in her side. Debris and the bodies of dead enemy soldiers floated freely, leaving a ghastly trail that led from the bow of the Aurora back to the hole. But once the ship began to move away, the warship’s guns again had a workable firing solution, and immediately opened up on her as she tried to escape.
The first salvo struck them near the bridge, catching them off guard, nearly knocking Nathan off his feet again. There should really be a chair, here! he thought, tired of always having to fight to stay standing.
“Jesus!” he exclaimed. “How can they still be able to fire!” Every second of the last twenty minutes had been a constant struggle to survive. And just when he was starting to think they had a chance, fate would throw another obstacle in their way.
The rounds continued to land on the upper side of their bow, bouncing them around so violently that Nathan could barely hear himself think. He was scared out of his mind and felt like he would piss himself every time they took a hit. At the moment, following in his father’s footsteps and going into politics didn’t seem all that bad.
Without any shields, each strike was ripping chunks off of their exterior hull, exposing the subsequent layers underneath. Nathan knew that before long, there would be more hull breaches, and eventually their luck would run out and one of those shells would get deeper inside before it detonated, ripping them apart in the process.
A few of the lights on the bridge snapped back on, along with a few additional systems. The main view screen flickered a bit, but still did not come back to life.
“Maneuvering just came back online!” Cameron reported.
“Get us out of here!” he pleaded.
More explosions shook the ship, the last one causing the entire ship to slide sideways a bit, slamming the tactical console into Nathan’s side nearly knocking the wind out of him.