Atlantis Rising (26 page)

“Shields are at twenty percent,”
Tactical said.

“Rerouting power to shields,”
Mike said.

“I’m not getting any response,”
Security said.

“Tactical, get me a location on
Anders,” Jon said. “Helm, do an in system jump, now! Pick a planet to hide us
at.”

“He’s not onboard, Sir,” Tactical
said.

Atlantis disappeared in a flash
of light just as beams from the two cruisers passed through where she had been.

ow long until they reach our position?” Jon asked.

“About ten minutes, Sir,” Tactical said.

“Have you scanned for suit beacons?” Jon asked.

“Yes, Sir. Nothing,” Tactical
said.

Jon watched the two Buranis
cruisers slowly spiral out as they searched for them. They were going to have to
do something and fast.

“Plot a jump back to Ghost
Station, fastest route,” Jon said.

“Aye, Sir,” Helm said.

“What is our shield status?” Jon
asked.

“Shields are at forty percent,”
Tactical said.

“I’ve rerouted all available
power to the shields,” Mike said. “They’re recharging but it’s going to take
time.”

“Time we don’t have,” Jon said.

“Sir,” Helm said, “I have two
possible routes. One of them is a bit longer but only by an hour.”

“Put them on the table,” Jon
said. He watched the jump points come up on the panning table. The fastest
route was closest to the cruiser and the longer of the two was a bit further
out. “What do you think Carex?”

“The obvious choice would be the
one away from the cruisers,” Carex said.

“Yeah, I was thinking the same
thing,” Jon said. “They will expect us to go for the one they’re not close to.”

“So, what do we do? Go for the
one closest?” Carex said.

“Tactical based on the last
engagement with the cruisers. Can we make it to the closer of the two points?”
Jon said.

“Our shields should hold unless
they start pinpointing their fire again,” Tactical said.

Jon stared at the hologram once
again, watching the two cruisers.

“Jon?” Carex said.

Jon blinked his eyes as he looked
over at Carex.

“Are you alright?” Carex asked.

“I’m fine. Why do you ask?” Jon
said.

“I was just worried. You’ve been
staring at the hologram for five minutes, without moving,” Carex said.

“That long?” Jon said.

“Yeah, that long,” Carex said.

“Let’s get this show on the road.
Helm, take us to the farthest fold point, best speed,” Jon said. “Tactical,
prepare to engage the enemy.”

Atlantis left her hiding spot as
her engines flared to life. As soon as the cruisers saw her, they turned to
intercept. Jon watched the events unfold on the hologram floating above the planning
table.

Terri stepped off the transport
tube and walked up next to her brother. She was watching the two cruisers as
they closed.

“Are we going to make the fold?”
Terri asked.

“They will engage us before we
reach our fold out point,” Tactical said.

“More power to the engines,” Jon
said.

“Bringing engines to one hundred
and ten percent,” Mike said. He looked over to the reading scrolling across the
screen to his right. Some of the reading started flashing as they climbed. “I
don’t know how long I can keep this up though, the engines are heating up.”

This was one time Jon wished they
had a hyperspace engine, they didn’t require a specific point to jump from.
Hyperspace engines created an event horizon and allowed a ship to enter
subspace and travel. It was a bit slower than folding but it allowed continuous
travel from one point to another.

“Push them until they can’t
handle it,” Jon said. “Then push them some more.”

Mike was too involved in watching
his screens and making adjustments all he managed was a slight nod.

“Should I get my pilots ready to
engage them?” Terri asked.

“No, we won’t be around long
enough for you to deploy,” Jon said.

“Sir, our new speed will put us
at the fold point just as they engage us. They’re adjusting their course to
intercept us,” Tactical said.

“Bringing secondary reactor alpha
online and feeding power to the shields,” Mike said.

This was part of Atlantis’
primary functions and now the engineering crew had to fill in all the little
gaps since she was offline. The amount of monitoring and adjustments were
staggering and made Mike want to turn her back on.

He’d had to assign half the
engineering crew to monitor the
Atlantis
’ systems and make manual
adjustments. He now understood how the Eutharans were able to run their ships
on what appeared to be skeleton crews.

“Just keep those shields up long
enough for us to fold,” Jon said.

He watched the two Buranis ships
close in. One of the ships seemed to be falling behind a bit as though it was
having some type of trouble.

“Are we going to make it?” Terri
asked.

Jon put an arm around his sister,
“Of course, we should be able to hold out long enough to fold.”

Terri leaned her head on Jon’s
shoulder, “I hope so. But, just in case, I’m going down and prepping the
fighters for launch.”

Jon nodded, “Launch Control,
bring fighter status to standby.”

“Yes, Sir,” Launch Control said.

Jon hugged Terri one last time,
“Go get your people ready. Just pray we don’t need them.”

Terri smiled as she separated
herself from her brother, “Of course we won’t and I just want to be ready in
case we do.” Terri turned and started for one of the transport tubes as she
passed Carex she whispered, “You take care of my brother or you’ll deal with me
when this is over.”

Carex paled, not from fear, but
for reasons no one save one person on board knew. “Ye… Yes, Ma’am,” he
stuttered.

Terri nodded as she stepped into
the tube and disappeared from sight.

Jon looked at Carex and raised
his eyebrow.

Carex smiled, “She was just
telling me she was happy I was taking care of her brother.”

“Uh, huh,” Jon said grinning.
“Somehow I think there was a bit more to it than that.”

Carla snickered quietly.

“Two minutes until intercept,”
Tactical reported.

Jon glanced back at the tactical
display above the main table. “All right, snickers,” Jon said. “Take command of
the Secondary Bridge.”

“Aye, Sir,” Carla said.

“Give me ship wide,” Jon said as
Carla left the Main Bridge.

“Ship wide active, Sir,” Com
said.

The crew stopped briefly in their
tasks as Jon’s voice echoed across the ship.

“Crew of the Starship
Atlantis
and all other personnel aboard, we’re about to engage an enemy that is blocking
our exit from this system. We’re out numbered and at a slight disadvantage.
With any luck we will be folding shortly to make our way back to Ghost Station.

“These people we’re fighting, the
Invaru and Buranis, are the people who attacked our home planet and are
enslaving our people into a lifetime of servitude. I plan to make this very
painful for them. I plan to make them pay for every life they have taken. I
will make them pay for every step they take forward. I want them to regret the
moment they attacked Earth. I formally declare war on the Invaru and their
Buranis allies.”

A cheer echoed through the ship
as Jon spoke those last words. Hope glimmered in the eyes of the people they
had rescued. Some of the former military leaders of Earth shook their heads.
They believed Jon didn’t have the power or authority to do such a thing. Sure,
he owned a pretty space vehicle and even showed them he can hold his own.
However, that didn’t change the fact that Earth still technically had a
government and they represented several of those governments. Several of them
resolved to take this up with him once this little crisis was over. They would
begin restructuring the government, as it should be. In fact, they would find
out they had a lot to learn about Jonathan Hunter and the people who followed
him, including Atlantis and Ghost.

“Thank you and God bless us all,”
Jon concluded.

‘Condition Red all crews report
to battle stations. This is not a drill,’ a bland computer voice said across
Atlantis
. Bright lights dimmed and took on a deep red hue throughout
Atlantis
. Marines jumped into action as they spread out to position
themselves at key points throughout the ship.

The
Hammer
pressed her
advantage as the
Scythe
fell behind. Beams lanced out striking
Atlantis
in several spots as she fired back. Undeterred
Atlantis
spearheaded straight towards the fold point.

“Sir,” Tactical said. “The
Scythe
has not entered engagement range. She seems to be having power
problems and her engines are fluctuating.”

“How long until we reach the fold
point?” Jon said.

“Thirty seconds Sir,” Conn said.

Atlantis shook as the
Hammer’s
weapons struck her shields once again.

“Shields at fifteen percent,”
Mike said. “I’m rerouting all available power from non-critical systems.”

Atlantis shook again and klaxons
began blaring.

‘Warning, main reactor coolant
leak. Sealing emergency bulkhead doors Engineering Section Five through
Engineering Section Ten. Main reactor offline,’ a bland computer voice said.

“Shields down, engines offline!”
Mike yelled. “Switching to secondary reactor.”

“How long until shields are back
up?” Jon said. “Kill those klaxons.”

“Less than a minute,” Mike said.
“We have a fire in secondary Engineering. I’m dispatching fire crews and
maintenance bots. We need to bring Atlantis back online without her the bots
have no real direction.”

“No, she’s not to be brought back
online until we work her quirks out. That is an order. Dispatch additional
personnel if you have too, but she stays offline,” Jon said.

Atlantis
shook again as weapon beams struck her hull.

“Hull breech decks three and
four. Closing emergency bulkheads,” Mike said.

“Get those engines back…” Jon
said as he disappeared in a shimmering light.

Mike’s jaw dropped as Jon’s
personal bodyguards ran towards the place he had been standing. “What the hell
was that?” Mike said.

“Transporter,” Carex said. “Get
those engines back online, now. All weapons stand by to fire on the
Hammer
.”

“…online and get us to that…” Jon
blinked as everything shifted. He found himself standing on a foreign bridge
surrounded by armed guards. They all had their weapons trained on him.

A squat Buranis with deep reddish
brown hair stepped between the guards as he spoke.

“Welcome to the
Hammer
,
Captain Hunter,” he said, as a grin spread across his face.

“I’m Captain Jodeas. Helm, bring
us about and jump to hyperspace immediately.”

“Yes, Sir,” Helm said.

“What about the
Atlantis
,
Sir?” an officer asked.

Jodeas glance up at the large
screen, which showed the
Atlantis
drifting in space as her lights
flickered.

“Leave her, the Emperor wants the
Princess alive,” Jodeas said. “We have something that will give us the keys to
Atlantis
and Ghost Station,” Jodeas said as he looked at Jon again and
grinned.

“I doubt that very much. I won’t
help you in any way,” Jon said. He folded his arms in an act of defiance.

Jodeas smiled as he spoke, “So
you do have Ghost Station. Tell me, how did you manage that?”

Jon’s eyes narrowed. He had
slipped. He was going to have to watch himself around this man. Jon was almost
kicking himself in the ass. Ghost Station wasn’t ready to defend herself.

“You’re pretty quiet,” Jodeas
said. “Don’t feel bad all men make mistakes.”

“Do Ewoks?” Jon said.

Jodeas raised an eyebrow,
“Ewoks?”

“Yes. It’s a small furry creature
that looks like a big cuddly teddy bear,” Jon said as a smile cracked his face.
“Kind of like the way you look, short, cuddly and cute.”

“I take it that was supposed to
be an insult?” Jodeas said.

“Oh, look! You also share their
intelligence,” Jon said. “Smart, yet so stupid at the same time.”

“You know I could have you shot
and say you tried to escape,” Jodeas said.

“Yes, you could,” Jon said.
“However, I doubt the Emperor would like that very much. The ship’s logs show I
arrived here safely.”

“Logs can be altered,” Jodeas
said. “How about we just try to get along? I have nothing against you, Captain
Hunter”

“Sorry, I don’t play with Teddy
Bears,” Jon said.

“Fine, maybe a few hours in the
Brig will cool you down,” Jodeas said.

Jon looked thoughtful, “Or really
any type of dolls. My sister on the other hand…”

“Sir,” Tactical said. “The
Atlantis
is turning to intercept.”