Carpathia IV: Episode 37 - The Two Ships
Space, NCCS Sentinel
Several Weeks Later
Amenaru trudged down the corridor toward his quarters, running his fingers through his hair, which was even more mussed and unruly than usual. Though all missions had their share of tedium and hardship, this one beat them all. They weren't exploring anything new. They hadn't even seen another planet or star system since they left. Just testing sensors, deploying sensor relays, and battle drills. Constant, surprise battle drills, to the point where Amenaru could hear the sound of klaxons in his head every time he drifted off to sleep.
Though looking forward to a nice shower and perhaps a nice soak in the sento, he spied Kit further along in the corridor. Strange, he thought, because Kit was still on the bridge when he left. He must have found a faster route to the officer's quarters and this was information he needed, tired as he was of getting dressed down every time a battle drill was called for being too slow.
Amenaru: Kit!
Kit turned and smiled as Amenaru rushed up to him.
Amenaru: How did you get here before me?
Kit seemed confused for a moment and raised his finger to his mouth.
Kit: There are lots of lifts and some of them are a little hard to find if you don't know where they are.
Amenaru smiled broadly, feeling like he was just let in on a secret.
Amenaru: Oh, can you show me sometime?
Kit: Yeah, I can do that. They're not hard to find if you know where to look.
Delighted, Amenaru not only hoped he could get to the bridge faster, but also spend some time with Kit.
Amenaru: I'd like that!
Kit: You look a bit run down. Are you okay?
Amenaru sighed while rolling his head around on his neck.
Amenaru: All these battle drills! I didn't know Commodore Amaranth could be such a hard-ass. I mean, I get why we're doing this, but it's taking me some time to get used to it.
Suddenly, the lights changed to a dark red hue with the alert klaxons immediately following, sending a startled Amenaru leaping nearly into the ceiling.
Amenaru: Yipe!
By the time Amenaru landed, Kit was already halfway down the corridor on his way to the lift.
Kit: Let's go!
With Kit as motivation, Amenaru recovered quickly and sprinted down the corridor after him.
The doors to the lift onto the bridge hadn't opened all the way before Amenaru and Kit spilled out and rushed to their stations. Immediately, Amenaru noticed that the atmosphere on the bridge was different, though he couldn't say why. Objectively, it would be impossible to tell if this were another drill or a real situation, but the mood and tension that permeated the air was real. More striking was the fact that Adell wasn't excoriating him for being too slow, like he did every time condition red was called while he was away from the bridge.
Aire heard the lift doors in the back of the bridge open and shut, though he took no overt notice of it. Instead, he focused intently on the blip on the viewscreen in the front of the bridge. There wasn't much to go on. A blip and a direction, nothing else.
Aire: Status.
Nalma: Just finishing downloading the data from the sensor relays. For now, all I can say is the mystery ship blew through our new sensor net at the densest location doing around Q12.5.
Adell: Not exactly a stealthy course of action. It's not like the sensor net is hard to detect.
Aire: Ksenva's quarry, perhaps?
Adell: Possibly. Teek, change course to intercept.
Teek: Changing course to intercept, Commodore.
While Teek turned the ship's wheel, Adell gave his next order to Kit.
Adell: Contact Captain Yoshida and tell him to follow at a bit of a distance. A quarter light year should do it.
Kit: Yes, Commodore.
Aire leaned close to Adell and spoke softly.
Aire: Should we consider sending the Furious Spectre back to the station?
Adell: You might be right, but the station is weeks away and I'm not keen to separate. I think we're better together. I still remember what happened the last time we went in separately.
Nalma: Commodore, I have the readings. The ship is of the same design as Ksenva's and appears to be heavily damaged with multiple hull breaches. Reading severe power fluctuations. New speed estimate is nearly Q12.2, which is still higher than we've observed from this type of ship previously. No power to any weapons systems or shields.
Adell rubbed his face while he took in the information.
Adell: Could be our runaways.
Aire: Could be a trap.
Nalma: A very risky trap for them. The way they're running their engines, I'm surprised it hasn't exploded yet.
Adell: What's their course? Have they turned to meet us?
Nalma: Negative. Straight line since they breached the sensor net. With the kind of damage they have, I wouldn't be surprised if their long-range sensors are down. They might not even know we're here.
Aire: They have our attention, which is probably what they wanted. This is looking like a desperation move. They saw a sensor, could easily tell it was not Vashta design, and decided to punch through it.
Adell nodded.
Adell: Good chance of that. I suppose we will get to meet our band of mystery rebel...
Before Adell could finish, Nalma barked out a new update.
Nalma: Another ship has breached the net. Since I'm already in the system, info download is commencing.
Adell leaned forward in his chair and gripped his armrests.
Adell: Ksenva?
Aire: Could be. If that's the ship she's looking for, she wouldn't give a damn about our sensor net.
Nalma: Second ship is at nearly Q11.9. Minor damage consistent with our previous battle.
Adell stood and straightened his uniform.
Adell: That clinches it, then. Kit, get me Captain Yoshida.
A moment passed before Keiichi's face appeared on the forward viewscreen.
Adell: Captain, I assume you've got the readings on both ships as we do?
Keiichi: We have. It looks like the second one is Ksenva.
Adell: We will intercept Ksenva. I want you to take the first ship. We suspect runaways, so hopefully they will be positively receptive to your appearance, but be careful anyway. If anything goes wrong, even a little, run.
Keiichi gave a curt nod.
Keiichi: Understood. Spectre out.
Adell returned to his chair as Keiichi disappeared from the viewscreen. Adell tapped at his armrest console, bringing up a star chart showing themselves and the two ships. Drawing his finger along his console control pad, Adell moved a small dot between the two ships.
Adell: Teek, adjust course to that point, max speed. We're going to get into Ksenva's path. Kit, advise Command of our situation and send all data collected so far.
Commissioned art in this episode from:
Jenova87
Zelbunnii
Less_End
Thatwildmary
Colourbrand
