Battle Stations

            “Are you married, Jon?” He was surprised at her question. If she had to ask, she was right. They really didn’t know each other very well at all. He frowned and smiled at the same time, a quirky unconscious trait of his.

            “No. What else?”

            “Do you have any children, real children?”

            “Told you before, no.”

            “Why not? You seem to like them, at least Branni.”

            “Up until the last year I’ve been…very busy, for lack of a better explanation.” He handed her one of the glasses. “Here’s to ‘getting to know you’,” he said, tapping his glass to hers. “We call it dating. Dinner, talk, walks on the beach.”

            “I look forward to it,” she replied with a smile, taking a sip of the sparkling wine.

            The Endeavour lurched sideways to port as if it had been thrown by bolt of plasma. A klaxon blared throughout the ship and a red strobe light flashed above the door. Jonathan and Riaan were thrown off the sofa onto the floor, dropping their drinks and landing in a heap.

            Archer scrambled up first, grabbed Riaan and hauled her up quickly.

            Tactical alert! All hands to battle stations! Senior officers report to the bridge!

            “Stay here!” Archer directed Riaan.

            “What happened?!  Where’s Branni?”

            The ship entire ship shook again just as before. The sound was deafening, and Riaan fell to the floor again. Archer had already grabbed a table to hold on to.

            “Are you okay?” He stepped over to pick her up again. She nodded. “I’ll find Branni. You stay here, I’ll be back!”

            Archer sprinted to the turbolift and headed immediately for the bridge. It was more instinct than protocol; he’d been a captain more than a decade and an admiral considerably less time. Before the lift reached the bridge, another jolt this time to starboard stopped the lift and knocked him to the wall before it started on its way again to the bridge. He was almost out the door before it even opened.

            “What the hell is going on?” he shouted at the crew, grappling over to the captain’s chair when another jolt knocked the ship to the side.

            “The deflector wouldn’t realign and we hit a meteorite or some damn thing!” shouted Captain Mitchell. “Seems the ship dropped out of warp, right into the edge of an asteroid field. Think it belongs to that sun,” he said. On the view screen the bow was surrounded by assorted sizes of jagged, rocky white planetoids. A bright white star in the distance couldn’t have been more than 50 AUs ahead.

            “Helmsman, negative Y 90 degrees. Ventral view, get us out of this mess. We can go under it rather than around it,” Mitchell said.

            The Endeavour shook like an earthquake as it hit another floating rock. The ventral camera filled the view screen with gold and silver sparks. An explosion at the con knocked the helmsman back; he yelled in pain as his hands were seared by the flames. Archer jumped into the con pit and took over the helm. He didn’t answer to whatever the captain had said to him. He pounded a couple of buttons and grabbed the stick, making a sharp turn to port.

            Engineering, what’s rocking the boat up there?

            “We’re locking it down, Commander, stand by!” Mitchell shouted in the comm. A final jolt to starboard, some sparks at the armory station, and the ventral view was clear of floating rocks. Archer changed to a forward view. Also clear. A stream of smoke remained after the flames subsided.

            “Medic to the bridge,” Sato called. She had been knocked out of her chair but managed to climb back in to make the call.

            “Jamison, is everything okay down there?”

            “We had a few bumps and bruises, but otherwise fine.”

            “Damage reports coming in” Sato announced.

            “Admiral,” the captain called. “My thanks.”

            Archer helped the helmsman to his feet and was careful to avoid grasping his hands.

            “No serious injuries reported, Captain,” Sato said.

            “Good news. Stand down tactical alert, all stations. Engineering?” Mitchell called into the intercom. “Jamison, organize repair crews. There’s some hull breaches according to the con up here.”

            “Yes, sir, we blew out a few EPS conduits but otherwise I think it’s just minor hull damage we’re looking at. I’ve got the exterior lenses looking for major damage.”