Yeoman Jamie Piper burst through the door to Commodore Hunter's inner office.
Hunter looked up from the padd he was reading and saw his normally cool and efficient assistant wearing an unprecedented frown. "Piper! What's the matter?" he asked. Suddenly he had the unshakable feeling that the universe as he knew it was about to change irrevocably.
"There's been an incident at Lake Town Spaceport, sir," replied the young blonde, fighting to regain some of her composure. "A local was mugged and his runabout stolen."
Hunter breathed easy. It seemed there was no world-shattering emergency after all. "So?" he said. "I'm sure the local police can handle it."
"That's not all, sir. The surveillance cameras at the spaceport got a clear shot of the thief. It was Vince Kelly!"
Hunter's blood went cold. So Vince Kelly was on this planet! And he was up to something no good. Something for which he needed a spaceship. "Did space traffic control or Starbase 901 track the runabout?"
"Yes sir. He's on a course for Txamsem. He should arrive there in about twenty minutes."
"The gas giant?" asked Hunter, perplexed. He would have expected Kelly to head for someplace inhabited. There was nothing in the Txamsem system besides a dozen rocky moons and a helium-3 gas mine, was there? He asked Piper, knowing she would somehow have the answer at the ready.
"That about covers it, Commodore," was her reply.
"Well, we can ask Kelly himself all about it after we capture him," said Hunter, deciding on a course of action. "Call up to the Starbase and ask Captain Mallory to send out a squadron of fighters to intercept him before it's too late."
"Aye, sir," replied Piper smartly, turned on her heel and left the office to carry out the Commodore's orders, but it was already too late…
Hundreds of miles above the planet Serenity, alert klaxons sounded deep within Starbase 901. A quintet of pilots rushed to their starfighters, and less than five minutes after Commodore Hunter's request for aid, Banshee Squadron was launched and on its way. Powerful impulse engines accelerated the five light starfighters at more than 25 gees towards the Txamsem system, but it was already too late…
Commodore Hunter watched the screen on his desk with rapt attention. The monitor displayed the grimacing visage of the diabolical Vince Kelly.
"By the time you see this transmission, it will already be too late," the villain said with unbridled triumph. "I have launched a nova bomb into the fourth planet, Txamsem. It will detonate in approximately thirty minutes, causing a gravitic implosion that will ignite the planet into a small star. The shockwave and gamma-ray burst will burn everything in this solar system to ashes!"
Kelly paused and leaned closer to the camera, his evil grimace growing even more twisted and obscene. "It's been nice knowing you all, but this time I will have the last laugh! Bwuhahaha!"
The screen went dark and silent, cutting Kelly off in mid-maniacal guffaw. Hunter leaned back tiredly in his chair, feeling the weight of the universe on his shoulders. Behind him, Piper stood quietly, faithfully waiting for his next orders. And what could those orders possibly be? There was no way to evacuate the millions of people spread throughout the entire solar system in less than half an hour. Their only hope was the fighter squadron from Starbase 901, but he knew the chances of them getting there in time were pretty slim -- Txamsem was just too far away.
Well, he would do what he could. "Piper, alert all Starfleet units on the planet. Have them start civilian evacuations immediately. Maybe we can save a few people at least."
He watched Piper's retreating back as she left to carry out his orders. So young… he mused sadly. He prayed that the Banshees would be successful, but feared it was already too late.
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