Defiance
Author's Note: Of all my stories, Defiance has probably suffered the worst delays. Well, here's another update- the final one.
Defiance was intended to be a short story to be written in a short time. It didn't meet the latter, but this tale is winding down now to its bitter conclusion. I thank everyone who reviewed up till here and to everyone for their patience. I was going to drive this on a little longer, but here's where it should end. It's not a fulfilling one, nor is it a happy one. But it's an ending to a story, and one that I believe is a true conclusion- what I wanted it to be, just shorter.
Chapter 6 Breaching the Border
The Verity shuddered and jerked, vibrations coursing through the ship's hull as it fought to ride the warp stream. The walls of the channel were pale, flickering. No longer did they hold the brilliant, shifting radiance of a clear and sunlit sea. Now, they reflected the bitter and harsh tones of a storm-tossed sea, darkened teal fading to navy blue, patches of near-black studding the stream walls here and there.
Though the corridors were still well-lit with white light, the illumination panels mounted in the ceiling were flickering every so often, reminding every surviving crewman aboard that their ship was a damaged one. Computer terminals displayed various diagnostics in red and green lines of text, pinpointing the many and varied malfunctions now plaguing the ship.
Kelmar stood before the ship's plasma core, watching the behemoth structure pulsate with intermittent bursts of energy. The plasma core looked like a fat cylinder that had been squashed in one direction, forming oval faces, and laying sideways. It was crafted of highly-polished silver that reflected the lighting of main engineering in dazzling patterns. In the front, a center-mounted terminal controlled the plasma reactions inside, while on both sides, reinforced crystalline glass and force fields showed the swirling green and white of the plasma within.
All along the core were regularly-placed trace lines which also reflected this glow, allowing engineers to visibly discern if part of the core was losing power. Normally, the plasmas core was an absolutely beautiful sight, alight with the colors of nature, yet showing the dazzling silver of civilization.
Now, however, sprays of sparks were shooting out from patches of darkened metal, and the plasma that eddied within the core now showed tints of blue, cooler plasma. The core was acting much the way a fur did when coughing, firing off random bursts of energy through the power conduits as it struggled to maintain reaction temperature.
The bewildering mass of gauges displayed on the central computer showed both falling and rising readings, all taken in by Kelmar at a glance. The core temperature was dropping as a whole, while specific portions, particularly those damaged by the concussive shock of the Elorian weapons, were cooling even more rapidly. Plasma pressure was falling as well, while the density was increasing towards the critical point. If the plasma became too dense, it would become too turgid to sustain more reactions.
The otter turned to another engineer. "Proton burst, through the main injectors. Fifteen seconds."
"Understood, sir!" barked the other, and he scurried off to another console. Keys were tapped, and main engineering shook as the plasma reacted, almost igniting the loose protons before absorbing the heat that the particles now carried. The core temperature rose briefly, then began to fall, again in graduated steps.
"Continue the bursts at one minute intervals," called Kelmar, even as his own paws flew across the keyboard before him, manipulating current flow inside to maximize thermal capacity. Not for a moment did his gaze tear away from the screen before him- losing the plasma core at warp meant almost certain death.
The bridge rocked and shuddered to another bump in the current, causing the lights to flicker briefly before the conduits re-aligned and the anomalies ceased. Alanaldo scowled at the viewpanes before him, watching the dim walls peel away and fade from sight. The navigational computer was having difficulty pinpointing Corneria, but it looked as if, at last, they were well on their way there.
At their current speed, it would take two more days to reach their home planet- if the ship didn't come apart before then. With Revi and Lionel monitoring every facet of the ship with their eagle eyes, though, and Kelmar banging away down below, Alanaldo doubted that.
Of course, he mused, it wouldn't be a comfy ride. He was slammed back into his seat as another proton surge was released. And then he allowed himself the luxury of an oath.
Stars wheeled by in place of the rising and setting sun, with little change to mark the passing of night and day. Only the ship's chronometer confirmed that they were closing on their destination.
All at once, alarms went off around the ship, stirring a brooding bridge crew back to life. Alanaldo looked towards Revi, whose paws brought up diagnostics at a furious pace, watching readings and meters all over the blue-tinted screen.
"We've passed through some kind of energy field. Looks like a detection grid."
"A detection grid?" exclaimed Alanaldo, shooting up from his chair and striding to the tactical terminal. "None should be-"
"Two ships approaching!" interrupted Revi. "Their hulls match Grallian alloy signatures! They're charging weapons!"
"How?" demanded Alanaldo, before slamming his paw onto the comm panel. "Kelmar, we're going to need all the power we can get, now!"
"Plasma core's redlining as is, captain!" came the reply, "But I'll give you what I've got!"
The Verity's engines blazed with ionic flame, becoming starbursts in the eyes of its pursuers. Within the ship's hull, the roar of the engines became a high-pitched, keening scream that threw crewmembers to the deck in agony. Main engineering resembled a fireworks display as overloading plasma and electrical conduits vented excess energy in explosive showers of sparks. The smell of smoke was thick in the air, an acrid scent rising from the overloading plasma core as it was forced to react hard plasma.
Despite all efforts, the plasma density continued to rise, drawing closer and closer, then far beyond the redline for plasmatic reactions. All over the ship, the lights dimmed and flickered. Computer consoles flashed on and off, while others crashed completely. The containment fields maintaining core integrity began to fail, setting off piercing alarms and adding to the din in engineering.
There was a sudden, massive explosion that drowned out every other sound and filled the entire ship with blinding white light. Captain Alanaldo was wrested from his seat and thrown asunder, slamming into the wall and sliding down with an unheard grimace of pain.
Amazingly, when the sparks cleared, the ship was intact. The bridge was screeching to the shield failure alarm, even while the computer struggled to bring hull polarization online. From the cracked viewpane, the captain could see erratic waves of blue energy racing across the hull, conflicting with one another to depolarize the armor, even while another wave would undo the error.
"Damage report!" he gasped out, scrabbling with both paws before finding purchase in the wall and wrestling himself into a standing position. There was no answer from damage control- through his spinning vision, Alanaldo was able to discern Lionel's charred corpse, burnt almost black from the flames erupting from his station.
After a moment, the computer responded, voice distorted and crackling. "Shield failure on all sides. Main plasma core is offline. Warp drive is offline. Hull polarization disrupted. Structural integrity compromised. Weapons are functional at fifty percent efficiency. Auxiliary power to starboard hull has failed. Fission fusion cores are online."
"Fire suppression systems are online," came the same voice, some seconds later. Plumes of concentrated carbon dioxide came rushing from key points around the bridge, flooding the room with white vapor. The deck was no longer visible beneath the shifting clouds, but at least the fires stopped.
Alanaldo wrested the helm over, surging the ship around to face onto its attackers. Ahead, he could see the massive shapes of the Grallian ships, their coppery hulls standing in stark contrast to the shining jewel of Corneria behind them. The computer marked out defensive installations and multiple habitat rings, all bearing the same Grallian signature.
Not a single trace of Cornerian alloy could be found. His ship was the last, then. Revi had one paw clasped to his breast, the other resting against tactical, the station he had served so long at.
The sensor data scrolling over the viewpanes was being broadcast now to every screen aboard the vessel. Few were still alive to see it.
Kelmar and Gary were two of them. Gary watched in silence from his sickbay, the static-filled, blurring image on the screen filling his world, even as the hiss of decompression sounded around him.
Kelmar only bowed his head. All around him, the corpses of crewmen littered the ground, joining the rubble of his ship in the destruction that lay thick upon the ship. The dark plasma core in front of him showed a swirling blue, and the lights were those of orange emergency lamps as power faded away.
Abruptly, the containment fields around the core collapsed, sending a wall of dry plasma into main engineering through the shattered panels. Great sprays of electricity ignited it, and Kelmar was incinerated in the resulting inferno, the remains of his body borne outwards upon a plume of violet flame before turning to dust.
"Warning- a plasmatic detonation has been detected in main engineering. Auxiliary power is offline." Alanaldo barely registered the voice, standing upon his wrecked and ruined bridge. A few seconds later came another alert.
"Decompression of sickbay on deck five."
"Weapons are offline," said Revi, voice flat, wiping away an unwanted tear from his eye. "Their next volley will have us."
The captain gave no answer, save for the turn of the helm. The engines, coughing erratically and spewing smoke responded to the final command, thrusting the ship forwards towards the Grallian battleships before dying out completely.
The dead lance of steel hurtled onwards for a few moments. It was met by a single beam of red plasma, which diffused over the polarized hull plating for an instant, before it broke through. The ship glowed from within, crimson light flooding out stress fractures in the hull, before the Verity exploded outwards, hull scattering into darkness and bodies whirling out into space.
Many years later, a team of Grallian historians pieced together the sensor logs recorded that day. The destroyed ship matched the war records of the Cornerian Starfleet vessel, the CSS Verity. The ship was presumed lost one-hundred years ago, going missing only a year before Corneria's capitulation.
The captain of the IGS Quicksilver, one of the two battleships that had destroyed the Verity that day, eventually published an article of his thoughts. The ship was an old one, he knew, but its final charge had left a lasting impact on him.
Now, so long after that crew was dead, so long after their home was taken, they were awarded their final tribute. Reconstructed Cornerian flags flew for one day as antimatter fireworks burst in the sky. Cornerians could remember the time when their home was their own- one last time.