Ascent of Lies

Chapter 15

"COMPUTER, END LOG."

Fujita looked at the star-filled space outside the viewscreen of the shuttle. The same star-filled space as she had been staring at for since yesterday evening. She was not one to easily give up, but right now she did not see any way out. The Admiral had sent a distress call out the moment that they had entered this system. But no one – not even the Salaminia – had answered it. They had not heard from the Salaminia at all since the dimensional shift.

Some time ago, Fujita had brought the passed-out Anderson to a biobed in the back of the shuttle and had changed his bandages. The wound was severe and the bleeding would not stop; the man needed surgery within the day to have any chance of survival.

Fujita tried to think of what to do, but her mind was a blur from exhaustion. She ran through the ship's status one more time and came to the same conclusion as last time: the shuttle was deprived of power and emergency rations and life support would be good for no more than four days. There was nothing they could do except wait to be found.

Fujita felt herself grow weary, and for a moment – just a moment – she gave in to her exhaustion.

---

Fujita shot up. It took her a moment to orient herself, as the blackness outside had been replaced by a slab of musky green. The silence was broken by a cracking sound that came from the shuttle's communications system.

Fujita drew a breath. Had they–?

Then a dark voice spoke, sounding more like the shadow of a voice than a voice itself, in a way similar to shadows being the absence of light. "The human discovered us", it croaked.

Discovered; not in the way of having found them for the first time, more of having understood them for the first time. The word – if any emotion could be heard through it all – sounded angry.

Fujita did not respond, she wanted the Agaeci to speak. However, before it could continue, the Admiral saw a beam of light hit the hull of the Romulan ship in front of her. A phaser. A Starfleet phaser.

The warbird started moving away from the shuttle, making space for the starship to enter the Fujita's line of view. Through phaser shots, the Admiral was able to see the contours of a sleek white starship, and she recognized it immediately. It was her Starlight. She could not help but smile at the sight of her home and her family.

The Romulan vessel and the Starlight were caught up in a heavy fire fight. All Fujita could do was watch while her crew was being hurt. The Starlight managed to blow off part of the warbird's starboard hull, but in turn the Romulan ship destroyed one of the Starfleet ship's nacelles. Next, the Starflight made the Tekoyua manoeuvre and managed to close in on the warbird from behind, taking out its weaponry systems. The warbird tried to get away, but they could not shake the Starlight off their tale.

Suddenly, the warship disappeared, leaving the Starlight alone on the battlefield. Fujita sighed. The Agaecii would without a doubt be back, but for now they were probably in some far away dimension, and her ship and its crew were safe.

"USS Starlight to the unidentified shuttle", Fujita's second officer B.J.'s voice sounded through the communicator.

"Diru here", Fujita answered, a smile apparent on her face. She had ever been so glad to hear her Chief Security's voice.

A moment of silence followed, in which B.J. was likely too surprised to speak. Then a row of cheers broke out.