Randolph Lalonde: Fragments

The responder team placed a pole on either side of Ashley and Iloona pressed a button on one. A grey material flowed from the poles and slipped under her, joining seamlessly in the centre and solidifying to form the bed of a stretcher. It solidified and Iloona carefully adjusted Ashley's legs so they were both squarely in the centre.

"Bikini's and beaches, I'll make it happen Ash," Oz told her.

"And drinks with umbrellas. Make sure Ronen’s there too," she added drowsily.

Iloona and the responders brought the stretcher's restraint blanket up and over her and sealed it to the sides so their patient wouldn't roll off. "My, the system's drugged you up good, hasn't it?" Iloona smiled at Ashley. Her thin lips stretched back and upward along her narrow snout, exaggerating the expression.

"Uh huh. Oh hi Panloo. Taking over?" She asked as she noticed the nafalli night shift pilot take her station at the helm.

She was wide eyed, trying not to stare at Ashley's awkwardly bent legs. "Yes, I, um-"

"The course and sequence are already set, all you have to do is make sure the ship is doing what it’s supposed to then pilot us into the nebula."

"I see that, you've done well." She smiled, glancing at the bent metal edge of the console. It was crushed in a few millimetres, the only sign of Ashley's body breaking against it before she sailed over top and struck the forward wall.

"I'll see you in medical soon Ash," Oz smiled at her.

"See you soon!" she called back cheerily.

"We'll have her straightened up and recovered in about two days, Commander." Iloona told him as she followed the medical responders and the stretcher closely.

"Thank you Doc."

"Two days? But I'm going to the beach," Ashley muttered.

Oz moved to help Larry to his feet. "You're off duty, everything feel okay?"

"Fine. Suit says I had a concussion and hairline fracture across my forehead, fixed me up before waking me up."

"I know, it was the first thing I checked on."

"Nice to know I'm in good hands," he whispered. "We in trouble Commander?"

"Tons. Now go look after your pilot."

"Yes sir,"

Oz could feel Jason's eyes on him as he returned to the Command seat. "What?"

"Oh, nothing. Just picking up one of those vibes."

"Ignore it."

"Yes sir."

"How hard will it be for them to find us in that nebula?"

"If we power down during repairs and cling to one of the hotter asteroids, we'll be undetectable. I'm wishing Ashley were at the helm for that though, landing on the back edge of a drifting mass isn't exactly a walk in the park."

"Do we have the shields to make it through the tails Laura?" Oz asked.

"Our aft shields are worse than ever, but I don't think we're going in ass end first, so they are."

"What about repairs, Chief?"

"In dry dock it could happen in a few days. Out here? We can patch, place temporary shield emitters in a few hours, but anything else is on the scale of months," answered Liam Grady over his comm. unit.

"What about installing the main thrusters we have sitting in storage?"

"I'll have to survey the damage outside, make sure the prep work is still good. If it is, then maybe. No guarantees."

"All right, get on it. We'll need the speed if we want to get out of this." Oz set his command and control unit to privacy mode and entered a message to the flight control deck that said; Have the hangar prepare three Muriel fighters with wormhole generators installed. Arm all our fighters with fusion rounds. Keep it quiet.

Chief Vercelli looked up through the semi-transparent deck to Oz after reading it and nodded. Is it that bad? Came his coded response.

Oz nodded. It was the only appropriate answer.

"What's going on Oz?" Jason whispered.

"I don't think we'll have much time in that nebula. I need you to code a message for the Captain. Make sure he knows there's nothing he can do to help and he has to find another solution."

"You're thinking those three battlecruisers will have friends before long."

Oz nodded slowly. "If I were running that battle group I'd call reinforcements."

Jason watched him. Oz had become a tactical thinker and a great commander over the years. He was still easy to read up close, however, it was one of his minor flaws as a Captain. "What's on your mind Oz?"

"I keep getting the feeling that we should turn and brawl this out. Running… well it’s just not sitting right."

"We've got holes and old damage from the city ship we ran across at Ossimi. They'd know where to hit us."

"This is a close combat carrier. If they manage to track us in the nebula this will turn into a siege and we're not in any kind of shape to shield up or fight at range."

"So you're taking the safe route, getting us in shape to run. Makes sense."

Oz paused for a moment, staring at the navigational hologram in the centre of the bridge. They were moving fast, but he knew the enemy would be on top of them if they tried to run in a straight line or if they extended their course past the nebula. "Chief Grady."

"Yes Commander?"

"I don't care what you have to do, get those main thrusters installed as soon as we're in a stable position. Until then get our reactors back online and prep any teams who won't be working on the engines to get emergency shield emitters in place. We're going to need them."

"Yes sir," Chief Grady's holographic avatar flickered out.

"Preparing for the worst?" Jason asked.

"Always."

Buster was followed by Hood and Hatter as she walked down the gangway to their waiting Ariel fighters. "So, if we're only going to meet the Captain, why have they set us up with enough fusion rounds to wipe out a small fleet?" asked Hatter, a bug eyed, tall fellow. He'd been named after his tendency to completely lose his temper during simulations. His tantrums had become legendary in the pilot's lounge, and when someone called him "mad as a hatter," it stuck.

"Were you watching the live brief before we were hit?"

"No, I was busy."

"He was busy crushing on Pisser," Hood said with a crooked grin.

"We were having an enlightened conversation, I'll have you know."

"Really? What could have been so important that you missed the most exciting thing on this ship?"

"Uh, well. Don't remember, it'll come to me."

"You tell me when it does." Buster shook her head and checked her fighter over. The machine was hanging so it pointed down towards the lower hull and the punter launch system. It would be her second trip out in the same fighter, without her SIO this time. They had retooled the systems to run with one pilot. The fighter also had a much longer range, especially with the addition of a wormhole generator. They had repaired the scorch damage to her number three engine so well she couldn't tell if they had regenerated it or replaced the pod entirely.

As they focused on preparing for their upcoming mission the other fighters were being rotated towards the sides of the launch bay. The tracks moved the ships to the left and right where they were drawn up into the hangar for servicing or reconfiguration. Buster only assumed they were being loaded with fusion rounds and other heavy armaments, preparing for something dire.

"What was I talking about?" Hatter asked as he began his inspection.

"Armaments."

"Yeah. Why so heavy?"

"If I were to guess, I've got an encoded message for the Captain so we're not really meant to know the details."

"But, we were in a wormhole, then we weren't? What's with that?" Hatter asked.

"Man, I'm surprised you were focused enough to get your certs. You think like a roulette wheel," Hood chuckled.

"The live brief said it was some kind of energy pulse. Dissipates practically anything, I’ve heard of pirates super charging junk in transport lanes to do the same thing. In this case they managed to find our wormhole, plot a course along side and knock us off our rails."