Ian. Smethurst - Eye of the Dracos

Lieutenant Logameier manipulated the controls, rolling the craft gently so that it exposed its underside to the Liberty. Slowly and very carefully, he reversed the upside down craft, metre by metre, inch by steady inch until the rear hatch gently locked into position with the Liberties hull.

With a sigh of released nerves, he magnetised the docking coupling clamping the shuttle secure.

“Welcome home,” he said as he released the rear hatch with a whoosh of escaping air, revealing the battered interior of the Liberty.

“You know, that was some top notch flying, you sure you don’t want to study as a pilot?” Michael asked as he clapped him on the back.

“Nah, I’m happy just tinkering around in the ships engine room.”

After a brief walk; Michael, Kathryn, and Nikolai made their way to an elevator, and were quickly deposited on the bridge. Logameier waved as they parted ways, he returned to engineering to help with the emergency repair effort.

“Been having a little trouble with the bad guys, I see.” Michael said as he took over the central chair.

“Just a little,” Kinraid smiled, “The Arizona managed ‘t’ pick up te’ majority of the escape pods, survivors ‘ave been distributed amongst te’ fleet. We ‘ave tree crowded little ships out there, so we ‘ave, and we’ve managed ‘t’ replace our own losses.”

“Good work commander, have one of the Eisenhower survivors pilot the shuttle back to the Arizona immediately, so we can engage plasma drive and get the heck out of here, I don’t want to delay.”

“Right wi’ ya’ cap’n” Kinraid said as he took over the auxiliary sensor officers station from Lieutenant Hicks, and quickly began compiling a list. Just a single name came up, Ensign Andrews, Quinn contacted the ensign to let him know of his orders.

Michael smiled as he looked toward Eldathar ahead, “Well I believe we should be getting underway, plot a new course back to charlie gamma base, bearing zero-eight-five degrees, elevation minus twenty-one. Initiate plasma drive as soon as the shuttle is secured, and contact the fleet to do the same.”

“Understood captain,” a relieved Eldathar replied.

“All ships are standing by,” Quinn said.

The tiny shuttle successfully detached from the dark outer hull of the Liberty, and Michael watched the tiny craft gently fly out towards the much larger Arizona, waiting patiently alongside them.

The first rays of sunlight shone through from the curved edge of the planet below, illuminating the command structure and dorsal laser turrets of the cruiser, as well as the silhouettes of the Ghandhi class destroyers to either side of it. It looked almost as if a new dawn had come to Auriga III, and in many instances it had, it was no longer a forgotten world, and the Dracos were no longer a forgotten race either.

“Shuttle is safely secured aboard.”

“Then let’s get the hell out of this crap hole!” Nikolai said.

“You heard the man,” Michael smiled as he looked at Eldathar.

“Goodbye sergeant,” Kathryn whispered as she stared at the planet below, “you will always be in my heart, rest in peace my love.”

The fleet slowly came about, firing their inter-system boosters with a great roar before activating their plasma drives and disappearing through the swirling multi-hued morass that was the plasma wake.

The Aurigan sun shone out brightly as they left, a fitting tribute to the brave, gentle hero they had to leave behind.

The return trip to Charlie gamma base had taken two days, for the Liberty alone it would have taken but a matter of hours, yet had to keep pace with the slower vessels of the E.D. F flotilla.

In that time Kathryn’s leg had come on a long way, she had taken some much needed time to rest, and could walk with only minor discomfort.

The worst of the damage had been repaired, although the ship still looked rather battered, the micro-fractures in the ships hull and the great twisted rent near the ships engine would require the services of a major naval yard to fix fully.

Nikolai paced about the ship as usual, being a commando there was one thing the Russian hated, and that was having to sit on his hands. He had been informed that his own Stockholm class lander had been picked up by the Yukon while out on patrol, and was being transported to the base, he was pleased to know it would be there by the time he arrived.

Michael had a sense of pride at how his ship and crew had performed, they had faced a powerful and relentless enemy, more powerful even than themselves, and defeated it. Though both he and Nikolai had a new found respect for the Kallan’s capabilities in battle, he wondered how the Dracos would fare now that the galaxy knew of their existence again. He guessed that they would simply become more isolationist than they were before and that saddened him. Yes the Dracos were brutal and aggressive and sadistic, despite this the galaxy could still learn a great deal from the technology and skills they employed.

Kinraid had grown in stature immensely, his handling of the incident with the Eisenhower had shown that he was a capable commander, and Michael suspected that his name would feature highly on the list of possible commanders of the future Valley forge.

“Approaching Charlie gamma base captain,” Eldathar pointed out.

“Understood, contact the fleet, tell them to drop out of plasma drive on my mark.”

There was a brief pause before Kinraid announced, “fleet confirms, all ships standing by.” He kept an audio-link open so that the other ships could hear Michael’s orders.

“Mark!”

At once bright white flashes heralded the return of the flotilla, with the battered Liberty at its head.

The numerous twinkling lights of the outer structure of the small naval yard and research facility were plainly visible in the distance. A Lincoln class supply vessel drifted out from the station, no doubt just completed its latest supply run. Its inter-system boosters fired up and glowed brightly as it headed away from the station.

“ Gentlemen, we’ve come back home.” Michael gave out a slight sigh of relief as he said it, the mission had been a brief but gruelling one.

“Wherever home is,” Kinraid replied.

Michael smiled at the sentiment, it was true, the Liberty was one of the most well travelled of all ships in the navy. Home was wherever they happened to be at the time.

“Increase power to main engines, lay in a standard approach vector.”

“Aye captain,” Eldathar replied, a smile broke out across the Solarians own blue tinged features, he was also relieved to finally leave that place, the whole thing had been a great wrench on him personally.

“Contact Charlie gamma base command and control, and request permission to dock.”

“Aye, sir.” Kinraid carried out the order with his usual level of light hearted professionalism. “Charlie gamma base confirms, we’re cleared for approach, ‘tey also say welcome back, Liberty.”

“Good to be back,” Michael replied with sincerity.

The matt-black hull of the warship, slowly glided into the small sub-orbital dockyard. Michael watched as Eldathar expertly guided the ship in, thinking that the small, cramped interior of the relatively remote facility seemed to close over them, as though protecting them, the thought gave Michael a measure of warmth as he continued to watch.

The interior lights played along the black and silver hull of the ship as it gently drifted further inside, highlighting the crumpled twisted port docking hatch, the site of the damaged inter-connecting corridor.

The giant searchlights continued to inspect the flotilla as they all slowly glided inside the facility in close formation, it showed up the horrific jagged rent in the Liberties aft section, a painful reminder of just how powerful those Dracos warcruisers really were. If they could do that to the Liberty, a typical E.D. F vessel stood no chance.