phil jones2 (8 page)

'Everything is fine Annika, why do you ask?'

She hadn't moved away from him.

'If there's anything I can do to make your stay here any better. Please do tell me.'

Phil looked around the room frantically, there was nowhere to go.

'I... er... I'm fine, thank you. How are you?'

But Annika didn't answer, instead she stood staring at him in the uniform with an indecipherable expression on her face.

'Annika I really think we should be getting to the...'

A blast came from the outer hull, causing the ship to shudder, Phil to take a step back and Annika to tumble gracelessly toward him. He instinctively grabbed her in a hug to keep her from falling. He could feel everything moving underneath that catsuit now and it scared him half to death. He let go of her immediately as if he had thrust his arms into burning coals.

An alarm sounded, causing him to jump even more. He'd never get used to that noise, especially when it spelt imminent danger.

'Captain you better get up here!' RJ yelled over the intercom. 'We've just made contact with the Voravian Battle Cruiser.'

Chapter 9

Ducks! Debris! Saviour!

T
hey ran to the cockpit together, neither of them making comment on what had happened in Phil's quarters. All thoughts of which were quickly being extinguished thanks to the intrusion of reality and the imminent Voravian attack. Didn't Hanniman say their ship was no match for the battle cruiser?

Stumbling into his chair, he swivelled round and stifled a scream. The thing was vast, stretching across the whole of the view screen and outmanoeuvring them at every turn.

'How the hell is a thing that size managing to stay with us?' Phil asked Smith, who seemed immersed in his console.

'Mr. Jones, as much as I'd like to detail to you the workings of space and matter therein, I'm rather busy trying to prevent our imminent destruction.'

Phil felt powerless in the command chair, watching as his crew hammered away on various buttons and holographic terminals to no avail. What exactly was he meant to do in this situation?

The ship was rocked by a barrage of Voravian weaponry, it groaned worryingly and a holographic terminal flipped up out of the arm of his chair to provide him with a flustered looking Hanniman in Engineering.

'Captain, one more hit like that and we'll be blown apart. We need to get out of here!'

He didn't know how the thought struck him but he didn't care given the circumstances. Swivelling in his chair yet again he stood up and with an authority he didn't even realise he possessed he demanded RJ's attention.

'Yes Captain?' RJ said, still frantically steering the craft between bolts of light whose sound echoed over the hidden speakers of the ship to let him know how close these shots were getting.

'How far to the nearest star from our current location?'

It was Smith that answered, punching up a screen that showed them on the edge of a system, being harried by the giant Battle Cruiser. 'We're on the very rim of a system now Mr. Jones, why do you persist in asking questions?'

'Agent Smith that's enough from you!' shouted Phil, seemingly silencing the man in shock. Though with Smith's expressionless face it could well have been rage.

'RJ, set shields to reverse and fly us directly at the star in this solar system, if we can't out-gun them we can surely out-run them.'

The now-flickering image of Hanniman came up once more. 'Captain this vessel wasn't designed to keep up with the larger Battle Cruisers, I'm not sure we have the necessary speed to out-run them.'

Phil glared at the screen, he knew exactly what to do here. 'Then you will find the speed, Engineer.'

'If I reinverted the...' Phil stopped listening there, he knew he wouldn't understand it anyway. '...then perhaps I could give our speed a temporary boost.' Hanniman finished.

'Make it so.' Phil demanded, turning his attention to the cockpit once more.

'Captain, it's going to take me at least five hours to reconfigure the...'

'You have twenty seconds, Engineer.'

'Twenty seconds?' Hanniman replied in disbelief. 'Captain there's no way that...'

'I said make it so! Twenty seconds, starting from now.'

The screen blinked off, Phil just hoped that was Hanniman trying to do his job as quickly as possible and leaving no time for courtesy.

With the shields remodulated and concentrated to the rear to deflect any parting shots the Voravian Battle Ship aimed at them, they hurtled toward the sun of the system. Phil just hoped his gut instinct was right on this one, otherwise they were doomed. Phil really didn't like being doomed.

At first it seemed to be working, the loud whirring noise of the engines at full speed had given them a brief spurt of distance between themselves and the Voravian Battle Cruiser. Then a shot from their opponents thudded into them and the whole vessel shook.

'Shields are down, Captain.' Annika supplied, looking scared.

'Evasive manoeuvres RJ, keep us on course for that star.' Phil responded, trying to keep the note of panic out of his own voice.

Smith remained ominously silent.

The terminal winked open once more and Hanniman's flustered features greeted him. 'Captain I'm ready to give the engines every boost that I can, there's no guarantee that it'll work though and it could burn them out entirely.'

Phil nodded. 'On my mark Engineer.'

The crew seemed to pause then, as if waiting for their ship to come to pieces in this final attempt at flight.

'Mark!'

The engines were deafening now, scaling upward in pitch and rocketing them forward directly into the star. It was a huge white orb that now dominated the view screen and made it impossible for them to see anything outside of its blazing brightness.

'RJ I want you to get as close to that star as you possibly can. Skim the surface and avoid any eruptions.'

For once, Phil Jones had overestimated the technology surrounding him.

'Captain, we can get within a few thousand kilometres of the star but any closer and the systems will overload, what is it you have planned exactly?' Hanniman asked.

'Wait and see Engineer, wait and see.' Phil said, wondering where this surge of confidence had come from.

As they grew closer to the star the temperature rocketed up, Phil found himself sweating profusely and hoping that these strange new feelings weren't misplaced. How hard could it be?

'We need to level out pretty soon Captain otherwise we're going to get cooked.' RJ. said, hammering at a number of buttons in the cockpit and not turning his head.

'Take us right into those few thousand kilometres and try and keep us from getting any hotter.'

As if reading his thoughts, the computer chimed in at that moment. 'Temperature rising to unsuitable levels, engaging emergency cooling systems.'

That was more like it. Cool air blasted through unseen vents and Phil let out a groan of relief as it washed over his sweat-streaked face. He wasn't looking forward to peeling off this uniform should they survive.

'Warning, hull temperature exceeding recommended levels.' the computer helpfully reminded them. Nobody said a word as they approached the surface of the star, between bouts of furtive activity Phil felt the eyes of his crew upon him. They were waiting for him to reveal his great plan for saving their lives, he really wasn't sure this was going to work. Oh dear.

'Warning, hull temperature critical, further escalation will result in death within three minutes. Have a nice day.'

Phil couldn't help but feel that the computer didn't understand the concept of nicety. Perhaps it was being passive-aggressive and wanted them off the ship, perhaps it was planning on taking over. One crisis at a time, Jones.

So he had three minutes left to live and for some inexplicable reason his legs hadn't turned to jelly and he hadn't managed to wet himself. Had he really got so used to life-or-death situations already?

An explosion rocked the ship and he leapt from his seat with a squeal. Perhaps not.

'Sir, the Voravians have closed the gap on us.' RJ informed him. 'We're sitting ducks unless we do something now.'

Phil found his feet, thankfully his legs still obeyed him. 'Level out and maintain orbit with the star at this altitude, pilot.'

'Are you quite mad, Mr. Jones?' the sneering voice of Agent Smith asked. 'That will present an even wider target for their weaponry to unload upon. They cannot miss.'

Phil wasn't having it though, he'd seen the enemy face to face and knew how they fought. 'The Voravians will try and pursue us instead of gunning us down, have faith number one.'

If Smith was gaining belief in his Captain's orders as a result of these words he didn't show it. Phil suspected that the Agent would have led an open rebellion against him had he not realised the crew wouldn't stand for it.

It was now or never, he had to repay their faith in him.

'We're in orbit with the star, sir. The computer calculates that we have just over two minutes before we're cooked.' Annika supplied.

Could he really pull this off in two minutes? As with most things that Phil had speculated on so far, there was only one way to find out.

'RJ, what's the status of the Voravian vessel?'

'They're following our rear in synchronous orbit, Captain. They haven't opened fire yet but they're closing fast.'

Phil found his way back to his seat and mopped his brow. 'On my mark, I want you to fire directly underneath us. Bring up the Voravian ship on the view screen.'

Smith had swivelled his chair to face the Captain directly. 'Mr. Jones, you may not be aware of this but firing directly at a star at this range with our weaponry will destroy us all.'

Phil glared at him, he really needed to do something about that insubordinate tone.

'Agent Smith, if you continue to defy me I will be forced to have the head of security escort you to the brig.' That sounded good.

Smith smiled. 'Mr. Jones, I am head of security for this vessel.'

'Ah.' Phil refused to break eye contact with the man's odd shades. 'Then I will ask you to trust me one final time and if I'm wrong you'll never need worry about trusting me again.' where the hell was he getting these words from?

'Sir the Voravian ship is charging its weapons!' Annika cried.

'Mark!' Phil shouted, his voice cracking horribly.

The lasers pulsed out of the ship at a greater speed than Phil had expected, impacting upon the star's surface and playing havoc with the view screen's glare reduction.

'Hanniman, I'm going to need everything you can give me to get us out of here!' Phil yelled, hoping the intercom would deliver the message loud and clear.

'Aye Captain, I shall try and put us into hyperwarp now.'

'Hyperwarp? This close to a star? Have you taken leave of your senses Engineer?' Smith said.

'I'm either crazy or very talented. I was working on a new equation that should theoretically allow us to jump much closer to the gravitation pull of...'

'Can you do it, Hanniman?' Phil asked, ignoring Smith.

Hanniman puffed out his cheeks and blew. 'We're about to find out sir.'

RJ angled the ship out of orbit and away from the explosions starting to mount beneath them on the view screen.

'Get us out of here, RJ.' Phil said, sounding more confident than he felt. Perhaps it was because he knew now that he was banking on other people's ingenuity rather than his own.

The purple and blue surrounded them as they prepared to be launched into hyperwarp and clear of imminent disaster. Phil even dared to lean back in his seat somewhat, surely they had escaped now?

A stuttering noise caused the purple to flicker and then disappear altogether, then the blue slowly faded out into black. Phil was no hyperwarp specialist but he could tell immediately that something had gone horribly wrong.

The frantic face of Professor Hanniman appeared on the view screen for all to see. 'I don't understand!' he spluttered. 'It should have worked!'

A solitary slow clapping filled the cockpit, to a man the crew turned to Agent Smith.

'Bravo Professor, here I had expected Captain Jones to doom us all but it seems that you have beaten him to the proverbial punch.'

Hanniman scowled at him but was silent.

'Professor can you get us out of here on impulse?' Phil asked, already knowing the answer.

The man looked crestfallen, Smith's words had rang true and cut him deeply. 'I'm afraid we are doomed, Captain. I have failed you, I am sorry.'

Then it dawned on Phil what they needed to do. 'Professor, can you give us maximum impulse regardless? I have an idea.'

Smith groaned but unlike before nobody paid him any heed.

'RJ, as soon as those impulse engines kick in I want you to get us to a safe distance, then continue in a wider orbiting pattern around the star.'

'Captain I don't see how that could help any...'

'That's an order, pilot.' Phil said, cutting him off in the hopes that if they didn't think about it long enough then everything would be okay.

He could see the look in RJ's eyes, the trust was beginning to ebb away from them now. The crew really did believe that they were about to die and that Phil wasn't going to magically save them as the glove-wearer should.

The ship's engines roared into life, possibly coaxed into giving their last out of desperation from Hanniman down in Engineering. Phil hoped it would be enough, he'd know sooner rather than later. The view screen had been switched back to the pursuing Voravian vessel now that their attempts to hyperwarp out of the area had failed. It was closing in at a great speed with weapons primed and ready yet still Phil's plan had yet to come to fruition.

For the second time in their struggles it was as if Phil's thought triggered the event. A huge eruption from the surface of the star shot upward and engulfed the Voravian ship, sending large chunks of debris flying everywhere. He slammed his fist down on the arm of his chair and yelled in triumph, then pain, then horror.

A huge chunk of the Battle Cruiser was spinning directly toward them away from the wreckage, faster than they could possibly hope to move. Meanwhile the eruption from the surface of the star seemed to be spreading to a position directly underneath them.