Preparations

Captain Stryker woke up and quickly prepared to start another day’s work. The ship, his ship had been on the ground too long for Jack’s liking. He liked to be in space, always moving, but the last trip they had made had forced them to make major repairs. After taking in some breakfast, Jack headed down to the Engineering sector to check on the repairs.

“Harper !” Jack shouted as he entered the sector.

“Down here.” Came the reply and Jack looked towards the sound and saw Harper under the warp core.

“How are we doing ?” Jack enquired.

“I’m just making the final adjustments to the new power conduits.” Harper replied. “Once that’s done, we can bring the warp core back online and run a test.”

“How long ?” Jack asked.

“Give me a couple of hours.” Harper requested.

“You’ve got one.” Jack stated.

An hour later, Harper had done the work and the sound of the *Firefly* running under her own power once more filled the ship. Most of the crew were on the command deck, apart from Harper, who had remained in Engineering just in case anything broke. Captain Stryker was sat in the command chair, whilst Beka, the first officer stood in front and to his left.

“Are we ready ?” Beka asked, looking across to the Helm position.

“Helm is ready.” Dylan Anasazi replied from the helm position. “Atmospheric controls on standby, inertial dampeners online.”

“All ships systems show green.” t’Pek announced from the Operations station.

“Shields are on standby.” Trance reported from the Tactical station. “Weapon systems are secured.”

[Warp core is running fine, plasma injectors are set to eighty percent, anti-matter flow is at ninety percent.] Harper reported from the Engineering section. [Impulse engines are on standby and thrusters are online.]

Beka turned the Captain, who nodded back.

“Helm prepare for lift-off.” She ordered. “t’Pek, inform the spaceport control that we are lifting-off for a test run of all engine systems.”

“Spaceport control has cleared us for launch.” t’Pek announced after a few seconds.

“Dylan, take us up.” Beka requested.

“Powering up atmospheric thrusters.” Dylan announced. “Setting ascent angle at thirty-degrees, we’ve off the deck. Ten feet, twenty feet, fifty feet, retracting landing struts, one hundred feet….”

Beka took her seat beside the Captain and activated the console to her left. She switched her attention between the main viewscreen and the console beside her, watching for any problems as the ship ascended into the atmosphere.

Slowly the *Firefly* rose up out of the atmosphere of Serenity and back into open space once more. As they broke orbit and headed out of the system, they saw the huge Starbase slowly moving towards the three planetoids which were the next group of objects out from the New Canada system’s sun. Captain Stryker, like all vessels Captain Stryker knew that there was something odd about the planetoids, but they were in restricted space and any vessel coming within a million kilometres were challenged.

“Helm, take us to the outer system, warp one.” Beka ordered.

“Warp one.” Dylan confirmed, engaging the warp engines.

The vessel increased speed and with a slight creaking of the hull plating, hit warp one.

“Mister Harper what’s our status ?” Captain Stryker requested.

[The warp core is running fine.] Harper reported. [We’re at ninety-two percent of full power. Core temperature is stable.]

“Increase power to one hundred percent Mister Harper.” Jack ordered. “Dylan, take us to warp six.”

The ship increased speed once more as it sped out of the New Canada system and into open space.

“Warp six.” Dylan reported.

“Mister Harper how are we doing ?” Jack asked.

[Warp core is at one hundred and two percent, core temperature is still stable.] Harper replied. [I’m ready to test out the new system as soon as you are Captain.]

“We’re ready, open up the injectors.” Jack ordered. “Dylan, increase speed to maximum.”

[Anti-matter injectors are at one hundred and fifteen percent.] Harper confirmed.

Dylan increased the power to the warp engines slowly until they maxed out at warp eight point four.

“We’re at maximum warp.” Dylan reported. “Engines are stable, we can maintain this speed for about three hours.”

“We’re ready Mister Harper.” Jack announced. “t’Pek, increase power to the SIF, this could get rough.”

[Activating the auxiliary anti-matter injectors.] Harper reported. [Warp core temperature is increasing, power output at one hundred and twenty percent and rising.]

Beka looked across at the Captain as suddenly the ship obtained a jolt of extra speed, the matter\anti-matter reaction created a huge burst of energy.

“Speed has jumped to warp eight point eight, eight point eight-five, eight point nine, warp nine.” Dylan reported. “Nine point one, nine point two……we’re holding at nine point two. Warp engine temperature is rising.”

[Warp core temperature is exceeding maximum tolerances. Power output is at one hundred and thirty percent and holding.] Harper announced. [We’ve got about a minute before the reaction becomes uncontrollable.]

”Just a little longer.” Jack said. “Just for another minute.”

Alarms started to go off on the command deck as the ship’s systems started to show signs of the stress being placed on them. The ship started to shake as the inertial dampeners failed to compensate fully and the hull started to creak loudly as the SIF started to fail.

“Structural integrity is starting to drop.” T’Pek announced. “Now at sixty percent and falling.”

[Warp core temperature is at one hundred and seven percent of maximum.] Harper announced. [Once it reaches one-ten we’ll have a core breach.]

“OK Mister Harper, bring us back down.” Jack ordered.

[Activating emergency cooling systems.] Harper announced. [Temperature is still rising, one hundred and eight, one hundred and nine……Temperature is at one hundred and nine percent of maximum and starting to fall.]

Almost immediately the ship started to slow and the alarms that had been going off ceased. The creaking of the hull and the shaking of the ship also stopped as the stresses decreased.

“Report Mister Anasazi.” Jack requested.

“We’re currently at warp six and holding.” Dylan replied. “Just out of interest how did Harper get us all the way up to warp nine ?”

“He installed additional anti-matter injectors to the core.” Jack replied. “Instant Roman candle. How long did we hold nine point two ?”

“Just over three minutes.” Dylan stated. “Another minute and the engines would have overloaded.”

“Even so, that short burst of speed could save our lives one day.” Stryker announced. “Set a course back to Serenity and take us to Serenity City spaceport. Beka you have command, I’ll be in the back.”

Jack rose from his seat and headed off the command deck, leaving the Bridge to Beka.

Jack headed for his quarters and quickly established a link back to Serenity using the sub-space scrambler Klaas had provided. Within a few seconds, the image of Klaas appeared on the console.

[Mister Stryker, how are you ?] Klaas enquired. The image was a little fuzzy, but Jack could clearly make out his contact on Serenity.

“Doing well.” Jack replied. “Just a quick message to say that we’ve completed repairs to the ship.”

[Then you’re ready to transport our cargo ?] Klaas asked.

“We’ll be docking at Serenity City spaceport in a little over two hours.” Jack replied.

[I’ll meet you at the bar in three hours.] Klaas stated. [Have your crew ready to leave almost immediately, I’ve had some disturbing information that the local police have started to ask questions about some of those you brought back with you.]

“We’ve had a couple of people poking around the ship as well.” Jack replied. “Nothing serious, just asking about the damage, said it was due to a fault with the warp core dropping us out of warp into the path of an asteroid storm.”

[See you in three.] Klaas announced, closing the secure link.