The needs of the many…

Finding One's True Self: Part 48

By Xan Steel

Raybia sat at the XZR console listening to everyone else on the bridge. During their attempt to rescue Altair from the planet, their capital ship problem compounded. There were now four in orbit. She looked at the readouts on her console and noticed that they had encircled the planet and set up both a Jump and a Warp inhibitor. Though there appeared to be one good thing out of it. Due to the planets ionization layer in the atmosphere, it was preventing the Warp inhibitor from reaching the planet's surface. As she glanced over her console, she noticed that one button. The one she was trained never to use, except in extreme cases, and this appeared to be one of them.

"Damn it!" Tygera said aloud. "I wish this ship had more powerful weapons, as it stands we need some sort of miracle just to get past them." Raybia sat there remembering her times with Rubicant. He was the best friend she had, but a particular thing he said came to mind at that moment. That is when she hit that one button.

The floor below the console opened up and started to bring her and the console below the bridge level. Tygera turned to look at her once she heard the noise. "Raybia what are you doing?"

She turned to look at her, while her eyes gave a slightly sad expression, "Giving you the miracle you need." Tygera looked at her confused until she was completely below the bridge and the floor closed over her.

Tygera contacted Julyna over the comm system, "Captain, Raybia just went below the bridge with the XZR console, saying she was going to give us the miracle we needed. Does that mean something to you?" She finished only to hear Julyna scream 'What' back over the comm system.

In five minutes time both Julyna and Altair where on the bridge. She ran over to where the console was and ripped off a small floor panel and desperately started punching in codes. Sadly, every one of the codes she tried came back with ACCESS DENIED. Julyna turned and began to pound on the floor while yelling, "Raybia I forbid this, you get back up here now, there's a better way!"

Down below we see Raybia removing her clothing as a blue light bathed the area. Upon finishing she walked over to what looked like a large support column and put her handpaw on a square pad. A computer voice spoke, "RECOGNIZE RAYBIA SYLVERTINE! ACCESS GRANTED!" The column sized panel began to slide open in front of her, and what lay waiting inside looked like an odd harness. There was two cylinder like footpaw holders on the bottom, open and waiting. There was two cylinder like handpaw holders more to the middle, also open and waiting.

There came a sudden visual and audio communication from the panel behind her. "Out of all of my students that I trained. I Never expected that you would be the one to use the XZR CORE." He finished.

Raybia smiled a bit, "Captain Wergolet, it's been a while."

"Tell me Raybia, is what you're about to do, really worth it? You know, once you're in the system it won't let you go, not until you cease." He said in a somewhat sad tone.

“Yes, I know, but the entire weight of the Galaxy depends on this ship finishing its mission and delivering its most important cargo." She said in a soft voice.

He gave an exasperated tone "Raybia, think of your family back home."

Raybia's tone strained softly, "I have, which is why a saying that a close friend of mine once said a long time ago began to make sense to me."

“What's that?"

“That the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few." He was quiet as she continued, "Computer dictate a message to my family." She waited to hear the confirmation, "MESSAGE WILL RECORDED AND SENT ONCE COMMUNICATIONS HAS BEEN REESTABLISHED."

Wergolet spoke again, "It seems they've erected a communications blackout."

"Then how are you getting through?" She questioned.

He made a sound that was between a huff and a single laugh, "I'm only here to observe, but I have direct access to all XZR systems in use, so a communications blackout wouldn't stop me." They both heard Julyna's muffled yelling. "It seems as though your Captain is not happy with you." He implied.

"No, but she'll come to understand once this is all said and done. Computer record message." She waited to hear it's acknowledging alert, “Hey everyone, I'm sending you a final message. I know this will come as a shock, but sadly things are not going well for us and I must take steps to insure our mission is a success. To my sweet little ones, you remember your super hero comics, the ones you always shared with me? Well, your Memaw is having to become one. You see I must save my close friend, my Captain, and the rest of the crew so we can complete our mission. I miss and love you all so much, and I wish I could be there now holding all of you." She hit a button on the console to end recording as it saved the message and put it in a pending status.

Wergolet could see this was hard on her, but he knew her determination first hand and nothing would stop her. She spoke in a meek tone, “Wergolet?"

"Raybia?"

"I have a favor to ask of you."

"Of course."

"Will you keep watch over me for as long as you can?"

There was a long pause between them.

"Yes."

"Thank you."

She looked up and began to step towards the cylinders, "Initiate system startup." The XZR CORE lit up as she began to put both of her footpaws into the lower cylinders. Then she placed her handpaws into the upper cylinders. They instantly snapped shut and locked as she felt the bio-electronic prongs penetrate her lower legs and arms and began to attach to her nervous system. From behind the column came more cables with bio-electric prongs. With each cable stabbing into her body, two in her upper calves, two in her upper arms, five along her spine, one in each temple, and finally the last one in the back of her head. Wergolet watched all of this with an unwavering stare, however deep inside it hurt to watch her go through this as she winched in pain but made no sound. He saw a few drops of her blood hit the floor, as the final piece connected to her. The Visor. Once the system finished, he watched her beautiful mocha eyes becomes blueish grey and almost lifeless.

"Raybia, can you still hear me?" There was a short pause,

"Y...Yes."

"Activate your personal protocol."

She nodded to him, "Computer activate protocol DELTA ZETA OMEGA 738290." The system reacted and began to process her information and insure mental stability. Once it finished she reacted more normally. "Thank you, Captain."

"Now it's time to save everyone." He said almost like a command to her.

"Aye Aye, Captain!"

The Visor began to display power levels, weapons, shields, engines, ship configuration, and communication status.

"Initiate Battle mode."

From the outside, the ship changed shape as the wings lifted to a flatter position, and then flipped over pointing to the back, as point defense turrets opened up along the edge of the wing. The tails lower half split open as the upper portion flipped over and slid inside the lower half. While at the same time the lower half closed to seal the upper tail in, the base of the upper tail, that was still exposed, slid apart to reveal a beam array underneath it, a Tetryon based Energy Lance. This was the ships strongest weapon. The ships structural integrity field amped up to three hundred times over normal to insure the ship would hold together under extreme stresses.

She began to run through a series of tests to insure her connection with the ship was one hundred percent, once she was satisfied she sounded the alarm on the ship to get everyone to the appropriate areas and begin shutting down non-essentials. She used the ships transporter to beam the reserve power cells that Rubicant had been storing to engineering. Once everyone was where they were supposed to be she then used the atmospheric thrusters to angle the ship and point it to the nearest Capital ship. The Veridian, captained by Merkynii. 

Meanwhile on the Veridian the crew was scrambling to get to their stations and began prepping for a battle. A lieutenant turned to Merkynii, "Captain the Kestrel is in battle mode and is angled at us."

"Understood lieutenant bring our weapons and shields to bare against them. Once they break through the atmosphere of the planet, fire four volleys of Hemlock Missiles." He commanded.

“Yes Sir."

Raybia knew that destroying the Capital ship was out of the question as her ship didn't have the firepower for it, however disabling it was a more viable option. She figured if she pushed enough power through the Lance she might get one or two shots from it before it burned out. After that she really didn't have anything else strong enough to penetrate the ships hull. Hopefully she wouldn't need anything else, as she only had to really disable it long enough to make the Jump once the Warp and Jump inhibitors dropped out.

Raybia alerted everyone to secure their stations and to set the inertial dampening harnesses to maximum, as she was about to do that one thing that Piloting Academy told her to never do. Warp inside a planets atmosphere. She was lucky this time as the planet was uninhabited. Once everyone checked in, she set the engines to maximum warp, and engaged.

Because of how warp drive works, with contracting space in the front of the ship, and expanding it behind the ship. Once the ship blinked out it left behind the formation of a two-hundred-mile-wide compression crater as well as punching a hole through all the atmospheric layers, the Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere, and the Exosphere. This would over time cause the atmosphere of the planet to degrade severely before it could recover.

The Veridian was caught by surprise by this action, as it saw what looked like an atmospheric spike suddenly appear. The Kestrel slowed down instantly once it hit the Warp inhibitor, but Raybia keep the engines at maximum velocity while shutting down the warp drive to add its extra power back into the shields and weapons. She angled the ship slightly as she approached the Veridian's Port-side with her Port-side. The proximity alarm went off as the scanners picked up forty incoming missiles. She set the point defense turrets to freely target the incoming missiles, while she charged the Lance, and realigned the shield grid, into a layered lattice at the bow of the ship, in case any missiles managed to get through the point defense turrets.

Merkynii on board the Veridian continued to order a steady steam of missile fire while making sure the shields where angled at the Kestrel. With the Kestrel speeding at them at full velocity it was able to push past most of the missile barrage, while the turrets managed to take out a few of them along the way. Once Raybia knew she was in range of the Veridian, she aimed the Lance along the lower one eighth of the ventral side and fired.

On the bridge of the Veridian everyone watched a bright blue beam erupt from the tail of the Kestrel and penetrate the shields while beginning to slice into the hull as it sped past them. Power fluctuated across the ship as the beam had cut through several major power junctions, not to mention exposing the underside to open space. Once bulkheads sealed off the open sections, reports came in, and what surprised them was that there were no casualties, only some minor injuries to a handful of crewmen. It was almost like she knew where to strike.

Raybia noticed that she hadn't completely disabled the ship as the inhibitors hadn't dropped and communications still hadn't been restored. She still had thirty missiles on her tail, but the Lance was burned out according to the computer. She searched through the weapon database to find something of use. This is when she discovered four magnetic thorium-hydrogen tracer rods. Blazing Stars as they are called. This gave her an idea that might work. She had them automatically loaded at maximum intensity, and then began to bring the ship back around. She passed under the Veridian again with the missiles in tow, and then cut the main engine. She spun the ship around to face the missiles, and just as she cleared the bow of the Veridian she fired all of her ventral thrusters at maximum velocity.

Merkynii watched as the Kestrel started passing underneath them. "Captain, sensors indicate that her main weapon is offline, but she's still moving towards the front of the ship."

Merkynii gave and order, as he had an idea of what she was doing, "Bring the main cannon online and prepare to fire."

His weapons officer gave an acknowledgment, "Yes sir, main cannon will be ready to fire in five seconds."

A large cannon on the front of the ship spun around in place and readied itself. His lieutenant that was watching the scanners when he spoke excitedly in disbelief, "That's not possible!"

"What is it lieutenant?"

"S... She's pulling a one-hundred-degree turn! She literally out turning our missiles! That's not possible!"

Merkynii just snorted at him, "You've never faced someone at the helm with and XZR system have you? Get ready to fire."

They watched her start to peek up from the bow of the ship, followed by what one could only describe as a fanlike display of missiles. It was rather pretty to see.

“Target locked!"

"Fire!"

Raybia saw the edge of the ship appear and targeted four key spots and fired. From Wergolet's view he saw three large green plasma balls racing towards the Kestrel, as the Kestrel launched what looked like four tiny suns. One hitting the main cannon, another hitting the shield generator, the third above the main engine, and the final one hitting the communications array. However, they did no damage and only remained in place. This is when the missiles noticed a larger heat signature and re-targeted them instead of the Kestrel. Raybia managed to maneuver out of the way of two of the plasma balls, but the third managed to skim along the tail and damage the Lance completely and the mechanism to return the tail to its normal state. 'Well there goes planet side landing for now.' She thought to herself. The missiles hit their targets taking out the main cannon, shield grid, engines, and communications array.

"REPORT!" Merkynii yelled.

His lieutenant spoke up, "We're dead in the water Sir. She turned our own missiles against us with magnetic tracer rounds. We only have emergency power, and environmental controls, and again only injuries, no casualties."

"Damn she's good." Merkynii said.

Wergolet continued to watch both his view window and view screen. "Sir, she turned their own missiles against them, and they are completely disabled. She is making a run for it."

“Will she get out of the area before the other two move in and block her?" Wergolet asked.

There was a long pause before his lieutenant answered. "No, the others have already moved in enough to keep her in the inhibitors a little while longer, but she is making progress at her current speed, estimated time to Jump. Two minutes." He replied.

Everyone on board the ship was on edge, and it seemed everyone wanted her to escape, however things to a dark turn at a minute in. His lieutenant yelled, "By the Master!"

"What is it?"

He changed the view screen to show a long view of the planet. From a visual view, it looked like it was blooming. "Sir, sensors have picked up..." His voice was shaking.

"Remain calm lieutenant, and just tell us what it is." Wergolet said calmly.

“One hundred Phantom Torpedo's... each with a five hundred isoton yield." He finished softly. At this point, even Wergolet was stunned by the shear firepower.

He recomposed himself, "Time to Impact."

"Forty-five seconds. Oh, wait she just passed the inhibitors edge, she's in the clear, but she's not jumping? Why?"

Wergolet knew why, "Time till she clears the Communications blackout?"

"She never will as they are targeting her ship directly now Sir. Thirty seconds until impact."

Wergolet moved to the comm station, "Ensign I'm temporarily relieving you."

“Yes sir." Wergolet sat down and began running the console at blinding speeds.

2000 meters and 20 seconds to impact.

Raybia cut power to the rest of the ship and began funneling it in to the engine core as she needed it to make one massive jump. Momentum would have to do now.

1600 meters and 16 seconds to impact.

Iris took Rubicant off the bio-bed once the tests had finished and pulled him into her lap on the floor since he didn't have a harness on, they cuddled softly in a dimly lit medical.

1400 meters and 14 seconds until impact.

Samantha had managed to make it to engineering on her own and entered to see Feros standing near the engine core. He turned and saw her and then ran to her pulling her into an embrace. "So, this is how it ends?" She asked as he smiled at her.

1000 meters and 10 seconds until impact.

Altair had Julyna in an embrace on the bridge. She nuzzled his chest and he gently stroked her head. "If we make it through this I'm so going to yell at her." She said softly to him, as he gave a lighthearted laugh.

600 meters and 6 seconds until impact.

Tygera, Zalina, and Adreena had huddled together for warmth on the bridge. "I never expected it to end this way." Zalina said softly.

Tygera spoke softly, but what she said was uncharacteristic of her, "What life can give, it can also take away."

400 meters and 4 seconds until impact.

The mess hall was filled with crew members huddled up for warmth, many crying as the view windows told them the story.

300 meters and 3 seconds until impact.

Gytaroo was in hir quarters unsure if shi should start budding or not, if shi did would the offspring even survive? Shi was an emotional mess and didn't know who to turn too.

200 meters and 2 seconds until impact.

In the XZR CORE Raybia is suddenly bathed in a blinking red light. She looks at the console window where it's coming from and sees a message from the computer. "COMMUNICATIONS REESTABLISHED! PENDING MESSAGE TRANSMITTED!" She smiles.

A brilliance beyond the dawn rips the obsidian sea in half before Wergolet and his crew. He squints to protect his vision, but his eyes never waver from the imaginary. His crew hold up there handpaws to block out the blinding light as best as they can when Wergolet notices something dangerous heading to them. "RAISE SHIELDS AND GET THE BOW OF THE SHIP POINTED AT THE MOMENT OF DETONATION! EVERYONE BRACE FOR IMPACT!" They barely make it in time as they're hit by a massive energy wave.

 The ship is rocked hard, while many crewmen are thrown to the deck as consoles explode all over the ship. "INCREASE POWER TO THE STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY FIELD!" He yells again. A few seconds pass as the rocking eases up, they update him. "No casualties or injuries, and only minor damage to the ship."

Wergolet sighed, "Check the Kestrel's last known location for debris."

A total of ten minutes pass before his lieutenant started laughing. “AH, AH HA! I can't believe this."

"What it is it?"

The lieutenant pushed a button to display his information on all the view screens in the ship. "It's a confined Hyper-Jump signature! They made it!" It was at this point the entire ship erupted in cheer.

After the excitement passes they receive an incoming hail, "Captain, it's a message from Fleet Admiral Gor."

"Patch him through." The screen blips over to show Admiral Gor on the screen. "Admiral." Wergolet says calmly.

"Ah Wergolet I wondered who was observing our battle simulation. You and your crew okay over there?" He asked.

"Oh of course, as you know I have the toughest crew in the fleet Sir."

"Hahah that you do my friend. Hell, of a display of firepower though, wouldn't you agree?" Gor questioned with some mild enthusiasm.

"Oh absolutely. Is that a new weapon your trying out?" Wergolet asked.

"Yeah, it's called the Phantom Torpedo, has a highly configurable payload and speed to boot. Though I think I'm going to recommend it be limited." Gor explained.

"I would have to agree with you on that Sir. To much more and I don't think anything would have survived." Wergolet's tone sounded more serious.

"Well it was good to see you again Wergolet."

"Like wise sir." The screen blipped out. Wergolet sighed as he turned from the screen, "Commander you have the bridge. I'll be in my office if you need me," he finishes as his commander acknowledges him.

Wergolet enters his office and heads over to the replicator, "One glass and a bottle of Bulorian Rum." A few seconds later it appears before him. He takes it over to his desk and sits down to pour himself a drink. While sitting there, he gives a lonely toast to Raybia for making it safely, he then leans back trying to relax when his door chimed. "Enter." The door opened to reveal his commander. "Ah Commander everything going good so far?"

He walked in and sat down in a chair in front of Wergolet's desk. "Sir, a battle simulation? Really?"

Wergolet let out a lighthearted laugh, "So that caught your attention?" He took a sip of his drink, "You have to understand something about us old ones. We're set in our ways, even, if need be, going completely against the rules."

"Is that why you took Raybia's message and retransmitted it for her?"

Wergolet looked at his young commander for a moment before answering. "One day you will get your own command, and when you do remember my words. You are more than just a Captain commanding a ship. As you get to know your crew, they start to become family to you, you get attached to them. Raybia is family to me, all my students that I trained are family to me, and I never want to see harm come to them if I can help it. Everyone on this ship is my family, and I would do anything to protect them." His commander sat there looking at him somewhat stunned as he had never heard this side of his Captain before.

Wergolet saw his commander's look change. "You're wondering about my conversation with Gor?" His commander nodded, "Gor is an interesting male. He knew I would step in to rescue the Kestrel in my own way. Hence the reason he called it a 'Battle Simulation' before I said it. It puts the blame squarely on him."

"But why would he do that?"

"Raybia and him have a history together, and even though they are separated, they do have a family together." The commander had a shocked look come over him. "Now don't go all crazy on me commander, I know you think he was trying to kill her, but that's the reason I'm here. I was the meddling middle male. He knew I wouldn't let her be killed in battle. He was counting on that."

"But your conversation?"

"Our conversation was actually code. When I told him that 'to much more and nothing would have survived' that was me telling him that she had succeeded in escaping."

"But why go to such lengths in secrecy?"

"I'm not sure how much you actually know, but if you've paid attention then you would know like me, that the Alliance has been changing, and not for the better." Wergolet answered.

"I have noticed some oddities in the past."

"One oddity that stuck out to me, was the fact that the Kestrel and her crew were labeled Rebels for no real reason. Things like that make you question your superiors, quietly of course, and then you start to look for allies."

"Allies Sir?"

"People you can trust in the use of code phrases and words that mean something different to you and your ally, but that others only see as a normal conversation." Wergolet finished.

There was a moment of quietness between them before the commander spoke again. "I noticed that you didn't cheer like everyone else." Wergolet stood up and walked over to his view window. "I would think you would be happy with them escaping." The commander added.

Wergolet took a sip of his drink before he answered. "It's because she won't survive the week."

"What do you mean?"

Wergolet sighed, "The XZR system has a CORE option that is to be used as a last resort. Her Captain, Julyna, knew this and was against her using it. Unfortunately for Julyna it was already to late to stop. You watched how the system acted when Raybia entered it right?" His commander nodded. "As the system requires more energy, it will slowly consume her body. Eventually the wall behind the unit will open and bring her body inside, and then cremate her remains once it's drained her completely." Wergolet's tone denoted his sadness.

His commander had a look between horror and sadness. "Why would they develop such a system in the first place? That sounds completely barbaric." He said in a slightly raised and upset voice.

"You are right commander, it is barbaric. There is however one exception, and that is if she's dies before hand. The system would then release her body." Wergolet finished.

The commander huffed somewhat angrily. "So even though she saved everyone, she still dies either way?" Wergolet nodded as he took another sip. The commander picked up the bottle of Rum and brought it over to Wergolet and refilled his glass. He then held it up, "To the bravest Female I've ever known, and may she find peace." He then tinkled the bottle against the glass and took a deep drink.