Close, But No Cigar

In The Nick Of Time

Today was the day. Or Steve hoped, as he and his engineering team worked to get the Orville ready, and all the former crew returned to the ship. Pria was right, security in general was relaxed, and the Benzians paid no attention to the veritable fleet of shuttles heading toward the Orville.

Otherwise, in general, the news wasn't good. The so-called Kaylon synthetics started their attacks, managing to inflict great damage almost immediately. Tearing through the cluster of Conglomerate ships surrounding Kaylon before the reinforcements could reach it, they sent wave after wave of attack ships. Xelayah was decimated in short order, even with a sizable contingent of military craft defending it, and other planets followed. Moclus beat them back temporarily and was mostly spared for the moment, although it had suffered much damage, as the Kaylon fleet moved on, the remaining Moclan ships joined in the fight against the Kaylon. The Krill, realizing they would eventually be attacked as well, joined in the defense. It was a brutal conflict. Much destruction was taking place, even with the combined might of the ad hoc alliance defending against the determined Kaylon attack.

"We've got to get moving before the Kaylon fleet gets here," Pria exhorted.

Joanna and John were on the bridge along with the rest of the bridge crew. "Move out," Joanna commanded, and the Orville took off, heading toward the coordinates Pria provided.

After a few hours they reached the wormhole. "A few thousand ships are heading this way," the security officer cried out. "Kaylon! And quite a few of them are headed to the wormhole."

"Shit! They must have plotted our course! How soon?" Joanna asked, wondering why they bothered to expend so many resources just to get one ship, or why they even cared, then figured that artificial lifeforms had their own logic, so it made sense to them.

"It is going to be, I believe the expression goes, neck and neck, by the time we get to the wormhole," Bortus replied.

Pria was looking at a hand-held control device, explaining, "I'm looking at how long until the wormhole will get us to your timeline. It's early yet, we need another two minutes."

"The ships will reach us in 85 seconds," Bortus intoned.

"Get us as close to the wormhole as possible," Joanna commanded.

"Aye, sir," the helmsman responded.

Hovering at the entrance to the wormhole, the Orville waited as the Kaylon fleet approached. "Divert all shielding aft," Joanna ordered. The ship shuddered at the impact of the Kaylon weaponry. "Fire at will."

Fortunately, Steve and his team installed upgraded shielding and weaponry on the Orville, so they had a chance against the onslaught. Even so...

"Shielding down 14%," Bortus informed the bridge.

"How long?" Joanna asked Pria.

"Twenty seconds."

The ship shook again. "Shielding down 34%"

Shudder.

"Shields down 56%"

"Fifteen seconds."

Shudder. Shudder. Boom. Some of the bridge crew were knocked off their seats.

"Go, now! Fire all torpedoes aft. Scatter pattern alpha."

Pria cried out, "we still need to wait another..."

Joanna whirled on her, "we need to get through that wormhole and destroy it before any of them have a chance to make it through! We'll destroy before we get through if we have to!"

Pria just nodded and remained quiet. She noticed none of the crew protested the captain's declaration, apparently, they'd come to the same conclusion, that the Kaylon had expanded their goal to include other dimensions as well as their own universe, no matter how long or how much effort it would take to accomplish their goal of eradication of all biologicals.