Captain Matthew Cross' normally stony visage cracked into a slight frown at the sight of the Breen probe ship, but for the imperturbably stoic man that was virtually a scream of rage. What were they doing here? The Breen Confederacy had no claim to the Serenity system, it was in Federation space, albeit at the very fringe. Cross could only conclude that it had something to do with the phenomenon they were sent here to investigate, that they knew something about it that no one else did. Well, there was only one way to find out.
"Dexter, open a channel to the Breen ship."
"Channel open, Captain," said Ensign Dexter Gray from his place in the copilot's seat beside Cross.
A large screen on the left bulkhead came to life, filled with the intimidating masked countenance of a Breen. Small lights on the being's all-concealing helmet blinked in steady rhythm, indicators of who-knew-what. Cross suddenly wondered why the Breen was wearing full refrigeration gear inside his own spaceship. Wouldn't they maintain a comfortable environment for themselves shipwide? Or did the suits serve some other as-yet-unguessed purpose?
He shook himself from his speculations and addressed the viewscreen in his most official voice. "I am Captain Matthew Cross of the Federation recon vessel Longbow. May I inquire as to your purpose here in this system?"
The Breen on the viewer inclined its head in an undecipherable gesture and replied. Its voice was a high-pitched grating noise accompanied by a more bass rumble, like metal scraping on stone. The words, if words they were, were completely unintelligible to Cross, and as a plaintive squawk from the computer testified a few seconds later, to the universal translator as well. The Breen finished his speech, and before Cross had a chance to ask for clarification, the viewscreen switched off.
The Breen's next communication was perfectly clear though. The deck under Cross' feet heaved and bucked violently as a brilliant blue nimbus lit the space outside the forward windows. "They're firing on us!" shouted Dexter.
"Modulate the shields, Ensign, and charge the phasers," ordered Cross, steady as ever. He threw the Longbow into basic evasive maneuvers away from the Breen ship. Hitting the comm switch, he called, "Banshees, engage!"
In the cockpit of the lead Scorpion, Commander Lee Carter wondered what was so important that the Breen felt it worth fighting over, but the time for questions was later, after the immediate threat had been neutralized. She jumped into action. "All Banshees, battle mode and attack!"
At her command, the Scorpion starfighters underwent a startling transformation. Armor replicators materialized coverings for the warp nacelles and cockpit windows, phaser turrets popped out fore and aft and began swiveling around seeking a target, and missile tube doors opened. In an instant, the innocent reconnaissance planes had morphed into lethal fighting machines. They swept now all around the Longbow, heading for the Breen probe ship in intricate spirals designed to stymie the enemy's tracking computers.
"Shoot to disable, not destroy!" called Captain Cross' voice through the comm system.
"Aye aye," grated Carter between clenched teeth as the first disruptor blasts began exploding around her craft, rattling her around the cockpit like a marble in a tin can. If it weren't for the atomic adhesion keeping her in her seat, she'd be covered in bruises already. She switched channels and relayed Cross' order to the rest of her team. "Target weapons and shield emitters only!"
Jo Schmidt heard the order and acknowledged it in her turn. Though cocooned away from the outside universe by the replicated armor sheathing covering the canopy glass, the cockpit's holographic heads-up-display gave her a clear, computer-enhanced, more-real-than-real view of the her surroundings. Pulling on the joystick, she banked her Scorpion to follow Max Vasser's plane inward on its attack run. Phaser beams licked out from nacelle tips, connecting her starfighter with weapon emplacements on the Breen ship's hull. The Breen's shields held firm though, so she arced her plane around and away to come at it for a second pass.
While the Breen ship was busy swatting at the angry pests buzzing about it, Sam Beckett in her stealthed Scorpion was finally in position to spring her surprise attack. Dropping her camouflage screen, she burned in at full power and launched a full salvo of missiles. The deadly projectiles streaked away from her wings, leaving behind corkscrew trails of ions as they homed in on vulnerable points on the Breen's hull. The first three missiles impacted on the target's shields causing them to flare angrily, but the fourth slipped through a crack in the weakened defenses and hit its target.
As an orange fireball erupted on the hull of the Breen ship, Alex Dalton whooped a triumphant war cry from her own cockpit. "Way to go, Sam!"
"All Banshees, press the attack!" ordered Carter.
Five starfighters and one armed recon ship closed in on the Breen ship, phasers flashing, filling space with brilliant orange fire, but the Breen was by no means beaten yet. Flaring electric blue disruptors answered the phasers, splashing across the Scorpions' armor plating and burning black gashes across the tiny ships. Apparently deciding they needed more fighting room, the Breen ship suddenly jumped away from the Crassus towards the empty space between the three Trojan planetoids. The Banshees were close on its heels.
As the battle continued, neither side able to get a clear advantage, Jo's attention was diverted momentarily by an insistent alarm from her sensor pod. She studied the readings for a few seconds, then became alarmed. "Commander!" she called urgently. "The neutrino levels from the anomaly have jumped 400 percent in the last twenty seconds!"
"Where is the anomaly?" called back the Banshee wing commander.
"It's all around it us -- we're right on top of it!" replied Jo. She was frantically trying to focus her sensors to get a more precise location while at the same time dodging disruptor blasts from the Breen probe ship. "I think we should get out of here!" she said. "Neutrinos are now at 500 percent and verteron particles are off the scale!"
At this point, Matthew Cross' voice came across the comm channel. He was trying to get the Breen captain's attention. "Attention Breen vessel," he said emphatically. "This area of space is not safe. I suggest you vacate immediately!" His only answer however, was a fresh barrage of disruptor fire.
At the same instant, the neutrino level indicators on Jo's sensor readout jumped higher. "Commander," she called. "The anomaly is growing stronger the more energy we pour into space. We have to stop the fighting!"
But Jo's warning came too late. Space itself around the Banshees began to optically twist and shimmer like some gigantic funhouse mirror. The stars danced and swirled, while the Trojan planetoids seemed to smear across half the night sky in a madman's finger painting. Directly behind the Breen probe ship, space appeared to part, like a black curtain being torn apart revealing even deeper blackness beyond where no stars shone. The Breen probe ship swung around the rift in great, lazy circles like a bit of flotsam caught in an invisible whirlpool, drawn inexorably towards the rift.
"Let's get out of here!" shouted Carter.
Jo fought the controls of her Scorpion, but the gyroscopes showed that she too was being drawn towards the black tear in space despite everything she tried. "Commander, I'm caught!" Powering up her engines to full did nothing to slow her fall. Just the opposite, in fact. The harder she pushed the throttle, the higher the neutrino levels rose and the faster she was pulled in.
Jo saw the Breen ship hit the mouth of the rift and vanish from sight in an explosion of black light, followed, to her dismay, seconds later by Cross and Dexter in the Longbow. Her tiny starfighter was whipped around the funnel of the whirlpool along with the other Banshees, and she fought back an attack of nausea and dizziness. A terrible sound was building, some kind of horrible screaming whine like the souls of a thousand dying stars crying out their anguish. She clapped her hands over her ears to try and shut the awful sound out, the controls of her fighter forgotten and abandoned, but she couldn't even tell if the sound was real or if it was just in her own head, her own soul crying out.
Just ahead of her, Alex and Max's ships disappeared in a pair of black flashes into the yawning black rift, and she knew that she, Carter and Sam were next. To her eyes, the stars themselves seemed to stretch into infinity overhead, and an instant later it felt like she herself was being squashed and stretched into spaghetti. She was paralyzed, unable even to scream, every nerve on fire.
Then all she saw was black.
back to TOC