“Sensors?” He asked.
“The ship is no longer accelerating, but it is light damage. They are still coming.”
Eric nodded.
“The other ships?”
“They will—” Suddenly the ship computer started showing damage to the hull.
“What was that?” Eric asked.
“Damage report. We sustained light damage to the hull.” High Prime said.
“The second ship is firing laser weapons on us Ship Master.” Sensor Handler said.
“Evasive maneuvers. Opal can you predict their fire?”
“Not yet, I need a few more hits to be able to see a pattern.” Opal said.
“Comms send everything we are getting back to Fleet.”
The Voyager computer showed areas of the ship’s hull where temperature raised significantly, areas where the ship was hit by lasers. Three more laser beams struck the ship, one of them holding long enough to penetrate the outer hull. The third ship came into range and opened fire with its laser weapons. The lasers started raining fire down on Voyager. The hull was breached in several more places. A shot at the back of the ship disabled the Voyagers drives. And suddenly they were dead in space. Eric was thrown out of his chair by the force of the explosion, and everything went black.
Sometime later, Eric got up from the floor feeling lightheaded with a piercing pain in his stomach, he looked around the bridge. Half the stations were on fire, with several of his crew members dead. His High Prime was on the floor a gash on his head, Eric couldn’t see if he was still breathing. The holo was remarkably still operational. Eric could see that the hostile ships were close to them now. They didn’t destroy them, so it suggested that they wanted the Voyager. Eric stumbled to one of the stations, the Comm Handler was on the floor, dead. Her skull was split open. He found the damage report that was generated by Opal, most of the ship was open to space, he checked the internal sensors, and looked for any life signs on the ship, there were none. He then tried the comms, but no one answered him. He saw that the FTL comm was still operational. He keyed it open and sent all the ship logs of the battle back to Sanctuary, he looked down at his stomach, a metal rod had ripped through him, it was from the nearby railing, he had no idea how it managed to impale him. Then, he sent a message saying that he planned on destroying the ship. He went back to his station and somehow managed to get himself in the command chair.
“Opal are you still with me?” He asked.
“Yes Ship Master.”
“I need you to engage the self-destruct sequence.” He sure as hell wasn’t about to let the bodies of his crew be dissected by aliens.
“I will need your command codes Eric.”
Eric nodded and sent the codes to the ship’s computer where Opal could access them.
“Trigger the self-destruct when the enemy ships close the distance. I want to take the bastards with us.”
“Only one ship is approaching, the other two are keeping their distance.” Opal said.
“Well, one is better than none.” Eric said.
“It was an honor Ship Master.” Opal said.
“Likewise Opal, likewise.” Eric said, and lost consciousness.
Opal waited for three minutes until the enemy ship came into blast range. She triggered the self-destruct sequence. It forced the fusion reactor that powered the ship to produce more power, while no safeguards were active. Soon the reactor blew, and the Voyager became a fast expanding ball of white fire. The blast engulfed the shuttle that the enemy ship was sending. A moment later Voyager was gone, along with the entire back part of the enemy ship. An instant later the ship exploded, the debris flying in all directions. There was nothing left of Voyager, but dust.
Chapter Eleven
Olympus city
Laura walked the long corridors of the palace on her way to one of the meeting rooms. She was dreading the duty ahead of her. She tried to think of an easy way to tell Tomas the news, but couldn’t think of one. Navigated through the enormous palace by her implant, she finally arrived at her destination. She steeled herself and entered.
She was the one that called for this meeting. There were four people inside. Civil leader Nadia Wilson, she was the people’s voice. Minister Seo-yun Hyeon, she was in charge of most everything concerning technology. Field Master Elias Bakas, he was in charge of the army. Elias was Laura’s counterpart. And then Tomas Klein. They were sitting at a round table, which Laura knew was a holodesk. Tomas was sitting directly across from the entrance. The table had only five chairs. Laura made her way to the free chair, across from Seo-yun and at Tomas’s right.
“So, what is the reason for this meeting Laura? It sounded serious.” Tomas asked.
Laura steeled herself for a moment before she spoke.
“There was an incident.” She said hesitantly.
“What kind of an incident?” Nadia asked.
“We lost the Voyager.” She said.
“Lost? You mean we lost communications?” Seo-yun asked.
“No. The Voyager was destroyed.” Laura said.
“What happened?” Tomas asked.
“Voyager entered a system and proceeded to the planet. They sent a shuttle team to the surface, as per protocol. When the shuttle returned, Voyager’s sensors detected missiles. Ship Master Eric Donaldson ordered countermeasures immediately, and they managed to take down all but three missiles. The ship survived the three hits, but the sensors then detected three ships on an intercept course. Voyager tried to get to the hyperspace barrier, but the hostile ships had faster acceleration. They disabled the ship, presumably killing most of the crew. Seeing that there was no way for them to escape, Ship Master Eric Donaldson engaged the self-destruct sequence.” Laura said.
“Do we know who attacked them? Was there any attempt at communication?” Elias asked.
“No.” Laura said, answering both questions.
Tomas closed his eyes and covered them with his hand, Seo-yun reached over and covered his other hand with hers. She leaned in and whispered something in his ear. A moment later Tomas nodded. He turned to Laura.
“Do we know if those ships are the same as the ones the Traveler encountered?” He asked.
“We believe that they were not. The drives are similar, as is the material they are made of. But they don’t look anything alike.” Laura answered.
“But we can’t be sure.” Elias said.
“No. Though the ships that attacked Voyager didn’t even attempt to communicate. But then again, neither did we. And I doubt it would have made a difference. Those that the Traveler encountered on the other hand, did establish communications. And it was them that initiated the talks. I believe that they are two separate races.” Laura said.
“Inform Ship Master Kisaragi of the Voyager’s fate. And make sure she is prepared to turn and run away.” Tomas said. “Now, Voyager was on a long term exploration mission, and it didn’t arrive in that system from here. I’m assuming that there is no chance of them being followed here?” Tomas asked. Seo-yun and Laura shook their heads, and Tomas nodded. “Good. Laura, I will release all available resources and personnel to the Fleet. I want the ships ready as fast as possible. After they are finished we will talk about expanding the Fleet. If there is a hostile race in our neighborhood, we won’t be able to wait for the younger generations to grow up. We are going to need to draw from other departments, army mainly.” He said looking at Elias. “And Nadia, I need you to schedule a conference for this evening, I need to tell the people what happened.”
“Yes Tomas.” Nadia said.
Tomas got up, and nodded at the rest of them. “All of you have things to do, I suggest you get to it. I have a speech to write.” With that, he walked out of the room. Seo-yun got to her feet and followed him out.