Star Fields

Chapter No.111. Battle.

Chapter No.111. Battle.

War is only a last resort.

The next day I arrived on the command deck and sat down in my Captain's chair. It was situated on a platform behind the helmsperson's and weapons stations. It reminded me a lot of how the Enterprise was configured in Star Trek. There were several control sections on the arm rests and the seat could swivel.

Alexa came onto the command deck and took her seat next to me. She turned and flashed a smile at me.

The others soon occupied their seats at their assigned stations.

"Well, I suppose we should go to the next candidate habitable planet."

It wasn't going to be that easy, it seems!

"There is a large number of ships coming out of warp," Judy said. "Their configuration matches Tyco's proto-human collective."

"I was afraid of this. Go to Red Alert! Activate all weapons! Inform the Two Scath and the Myst ships to do the same. Prepare for combat."

I watched the main screen as the armada of ships approached and split into three sections. There were at least a hundred of them, totally outnumbering us."

"Do you wish to summon the rest of our fleet?" Judy asked.

"No. This is obviously a Tyco trick. We will deal with them here."

Judy began the maneuvering to avoid enemy fire. However, I was able to deflect their weapons fire. Causing it to veer off at angles. Madison began firing our weapons while Judy maneuvered around to get a better attack angle.

The violence of the battle escalated as the Scath and Myst ships began blasting enemy ships to pieces. Our vessel tore into the main armada and began blasting ship after ship. The violence of the battle surprised me. It was as if Tyco had gone mad.

Marie suddenly got up and ran to the elevator. I knew that something was wrong, but I didn't realize it until it was too late. I managed to form a protective energy shield around her before she exploded. What I witnessed made me sick to my stomach. The ball of energy contained the jagged pieces of Marie. Red blood stained the inside surfaces of the containment sphere. The sight of it was disgusting.

There was nothing I could do now to save her. I had a more important task of protecting our vessels. However, as sudden as the attack began, it ended. The remaining enemy ships retreated and went into warp.

"Do you wish to pursue?" Judy asked me.

"No, we've killed enough today." I turned to look at the pieces of Marie that remained. "I want her resurrected in a new android body."

"We will take care of it, Jason. You must render Marie's debris into a metal container and teleport it to engineering. They will transform the ruminants into useful material. The intact nanobots will be collected and reused."

I imagined a large metal drum and made what was left of Marie go into it. After ending the energy shield, I teleported the container to engineering.

I looked at the massive amount of debris floating in space. Many androids had been destroyed in this insane attempt to kill me. It made me sad and angry, but I could not allow my anger to result in more death. I assume that Tyco thought that I had been destroyed, but I wasn't sure about that.

"How did we miss the explosive in Marie?" Molly asked.

"It must have been shielded from our scans. We need to know how that was accomplished before we have another disaster."