Chapter 8 - Nea'Kemna

Lucas was down in the engine room fixing the resistor coils and I was seeing to our fighters, setting them up with the old warship's systems, something I can make light work of. My mum was on the bridge talking to captain Me'rass, who had just informally de-ranked himself to commander. Apparently, his reasons were that he wasn't the one running the ship, just giving out orders to the crew. A crew we haven't gotten around to scrounging up yet. But I'm sure something can be sorted once we get to Rylgarr. The preparations are almost complete. The computer systems are back online with all new safety and lock out codes. We each have our own override code if things ever get intense and we're under heavy fire or mutiny and someone's trying to hijack the ship. So far, no word has been said about changing the ship's name or ID beacon. We might alter the ID a little bit, but the ship's name stays as it is. I like it and so do the others. Nea'Kemna seems to fit all our bad tempers. It's Kenemian for fury, so if anyone attacks, that's what they'll get. And trust me, that's not something you want to happen, especially with Lucas on board. Just because he's small, doesn't mean he's not capable of wrecking an entire city. I climb down from my ship, having finally sorted out it's sytems and aligning them with the Nea'Kemna's and Lucas appears next to me, smiling from ear to ear.
''Done it, I'm assuming?''
He nods.
''We're all set to go get Ann. Oh, I can't wait to get to Rylgarr to watch the fire works.'' He grins and makes his way out of the docking bay.


I'm sat on the bridge, at an ensign's position. Wouldn't be the first time I've been in a position like this, but at least this time I wasn't ordered to take up the post. I made the choice myself, in a bid to familiarize myself further with the ship. An ensign has to do a bit of everything, so it's the best place to start, really. Lucas is in the seat next to me, also doing some ensign work. Something he growled at me for, until I persuaded him that you can still keep an eye on engine functionality from there. He grudgingly agreed, growled at me once, gave me a nasty image in my head and settled down to exploring the ship from his console. My mum was stood at the back, working away at one of the rear consoles. She looked at home back there, so I said nothing and let her get on with whatever it was she was doing whilst I guided the ship and Lucas scanned for any signs of enemy activity. We didn't exactly know who the enemies were, but travelling in space, that's a common thing. You generally never know who or what's comming after you until it de-cloaks and is right on top of you, ruining your shields. That's another thing we need to do. We need a cloaking device. Some of these ships, Me'rass said, were installed with cloaking systems, but this one was one of the many that were at the bottom of the waiting list and the Battle of Kensar ended before it made it anywhere near the top for a fit. I looked back down at my console and something showed up on the long scan. I looked into the ID of the vessel and it read as a galactic cruiser, class B. A loud bleep and Me'rass spoke from behind.
''Open the channel.''

I opened the channel and a tall, wiry woman with round rimmed glasses on looked at us. She looked as if she didn't know whether to be relieved or scared. She was definately of the Human variety. And she was in a blue and white captian's uniform from the Xanaar sector. She was a long way from home.
''I am captain Jenkins of the passenger liner White Rose. We are in dire need of assistance.'' She said.
''What kind of assistance?'' Me'rass asked.
''We have been attacked by pirates and our lower starboard decks have been sealed off due to decompression. At least fifty six of my passengers and crew alike, have been reported injured or dead.''
''Is your ship holding it's own? Or is the damage spreading?''
''It's holding. But we need to get back to T'rarn. I don't suppose... I'm sorry to ask this of a warship, but our engines are down.'' She fumbled with her words.
I looked over my shoulder at Me'rass' questioning look.
''We can give you a tow.'' I said. ''But we're the only crew aboard.''
A look of reliefe flooded Jenkins' face and her posture sagged briefly.
''Thankyou. Your assistance is very much appreciated.'' She said and the channel went blank again.
When we approached the location of the White Rose, we could see the extent of the exterior damage. There was no rear side left of the ship. It had been torn open completely, revealing the a quarter of the rooms of three decks. A force field shuddered around the tear and the walls of the rooms had been covered by metal sheeting.

''Right, let's get a beam locked on and tow this thing to T'rarn.'' I heard myself saying.
I knew this was the least of my worries. Hell I shouldn't even be helping, I should be carrying on towards Rylgarr with nothing weighing us down. But my more civilised side told me help. After all, Rylgarr was on the way to T'rarn. And we might benefit from this good deed, adding another white point to counter our black ones. We manouvered Nea'Kemna into position with ease and locked onto the White Rose. The ship shuddered as we slowly powered forward, the massive space liner being dragged along behind us. I was hoping the ship's operations computer wasn't lying to us when we read up on how much the ship could pull without the engines blowing up on us. We slowly gained more speed and leveled out at just above half power. It'd cost us a little time if we kept up this pace, but I'm supersticious, and believe in the whole karma thing, having experienced it many times before, almost getting killed in horrible ways more than once. I'd rather go out feeling numb or in a quick, painless explosion during a race. Something for the media to chew on for a while. The communication channels stayed quiet for a while. We kept a constant check on the White Roses' systems to make sure that we weren't gonna be caught up in any explosions. The start of the day, three hours away from Aster-985 and already we were being slowed down. At this rate, it'd take us a day to get to one of T'rarn's maintanence stations. A pit stop we could just barely afford, but at least it gave us something other than Ann and the Onnotian to think about.

Five hours passed in near silence. Each hour, captain Jenkins would contact us with an update on her ship's condition. It was steadily declining and the in the last report, she'd announced that the containment shields were starting to fail and that she'd estimated their survival time at twenty three hours. That's not good, especially with over a hundred rich bastards on board. One family alone could put the company in ruins. Not a pleasant thought really. But that's the way you had to think out here, especially in a situation that she was in. If you didn't think like that, then you'd only be speeding things up by not motivating your crew properly, because without the right amount of terror, you could end up dead very quickly. Usually not in a nice fashion, either. I looked over at Lucas. He was tapping away at his console, his face locked in concentration.
''I thought you'd done with browsing the ship's systems?''
''I have. I'm just trying to see if we can go into hyper space with the liner in tow.''
''Without destroying us all, I'm assuming?''
He nodded.
''Another hour and I should have it....'' He said.
I don't quite know what he's planning to do, but I was sure I had a fair idea. A ship that's being towed by another can enter the same slip stream together. Only some ship's aren't equipped with the correct equiptment to do it. And I didn't know if this ship was capable of pulling such a feat without one of us or both being torn apart. That was a worrying thought. I decided to stare out of the window, empty headed. Something I'd learned to do many years ago.

An hour passed. Lucas nearly shrieked with triumph. Jenkins contacted us again.
''Things have destabalised quicker than we expected. We've lost three hours in the last hour. I'm afraid it's beginning to look like we're going to need to abandon ship.''
''But you've lost half of your escape and run around shuttles.'' Me'rass said.
Jenkins nodded.
''That's why we're arranging a lottery. Some crew members have made the choice of staying behind on the ship, to make more room for the civillians, so if you can, please sever your beam from my ship and we will slow you down no longer. You're obviously in a hurry, and I am deeply gratefull, as are everyone else, for your assistance.''
There was a moment of silence.
''Wait! I think I've figured a way that we can get to T'rarn within seventeen hours.'' Lucas said, breaking the stunned silence.
Everyone looked at him.
''If I can extend the shields and bring you in closer behind us, that'll slow down the containment shield's failure. And, being within our shield, that should allow you to be pulled through the slip stream with us. That is, assuming you can get one of your hyper drives back online.'' He said.
The man was a genius. Although, I'd only be shooting myself in the foot if his plan failed. I agreed to give it a go and so did mum and commander Me'rass after a moment's heated debate. Captain Jenkins was all for it, her philosophy being that if it didn't work, it wouldn't really matter, since our survival rate for an in-slip stream accident was in the eighties somewhere. Something that my brain just barely agreed with.
''We shall give it a go.'' Jenkins said and the channel closed again.

Half hour later, the channel was opened again.
''We have our secondary hyper drive back online. It isn't very strong, but I'm sure we can keep up.'' Jenkins said, a small amount of relief settling on her taught features.
''Then we shall commence at once.'' Me'rass said.
I watched on the radar as the White Rose edged closer and closer to our exhaust. Once we felt they were in close enough, our shields were raised, enveloping the liner, and our hyper drive brought online. Nea'Kemna Protested with a groan and shudder as the hyper drive flared into life, but soon stopped struggling as White Rose engaged her own hyper drive. The bright light of the slip stream wrapped around us. I looked down at my console. The liner was still there, close enough to show up on our near scan, showing the usual amount of stress it had been for the hours before. As long as those readings didn't change, we were sound. If they changed for the worse, we had to drop out of the slip stream immediately, and possibly flee for our lives. Really depends on how good your reflexes are. I stood up and stretched, trying to stop a yawn and failing. I'd gotten little sleep last night. Aster-985 isn't the quietest of all stations I've been on. My mum walked up beside me.
''Why don't you go to bed? I'll take over here. Same with you Lucas. You look just as tired.'' She said.
I shook my head.
''I'm fine.''
''Bed. Now.'' She said in a voice that I knew all too well. It was the voice any mother used to send their disobedient child up the stairs and into bed.
''Okay. Fine. Just lemme know if anything happens.'' I grunted and walked off the bridge, ignoring the commander's slightly amused expression.

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