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  He felt awfully insignificant as the huge sphere receded into the depths of space, swallowed up hopefully forever. It was baffling to think that he had managed to guide the crew this far while being completely oblivious to the complexities of every situation that had presented itself.

  How much of it was him and how much had been the glove? He stared at it now, bringing it up close to his face and watching it sparkle as he flexed his grip. Had he really done anything but been an idle passenger under the control of this heinous device?

  Did he even know the word heinous? Was the glove not controlling him now? He did feel much smarter than before, more so than he could possibly have chalked up to his own capabilities.

  A small part of him didn't want to go back, didn't want to become the man who couldn't tell if wolves ate apples or not. His past stretched before him like a series of stinging catastrophes that propelled what he was in essence: a waste of flesh, human garbage tossed aside and locked away in his small apartment. Out here, he was the Captain of a starship, or at least he had been.

  His thoughts turned to his former crew then, he had failed them too. Annika and RJ and Hanniman were probably all dead now, not to mention their managing to save a pitiful two members of the Scavanger's crew only to lose them all over again.

  Still, he had saved Smith. He tried to shake the morose feeling off and concentrate on the positives. They were away from the mothership and although he did not know how to pilot the vessel at least they were safe from...

  A massive burst of light temporarily blinded him as the pod turned once more to witness the destruction of the vessel from whence it came.

  If his crew weren't dead before, that explosion certainly would have done the job, he thought morosely.

  A grunting noise from the seat indicated that Smith was returning to consciousness. There were no cries of alarm from the man or questions demanding to know where he was, instead he simply surveyed the surroundings, nodded briefly to Phil and awaited an explanation.

  'We are in one of the Voravian escape pods.' he supplied.

  'That much is evident, Captain Jones.' Smith replied, his voice tired and hoarse. 'What of the crew? The ship? The Voravians?'

  'The Voravians have been destroyed. I don't know anything else.'

  Smith stayed silent for some time then, Phil was beginning to think he might have lost consciousness when he finally nodded. 'A regrettable loss, their sacrifice will not be in vain.'

  His response was so cold, so passionless about those who had given their lives to save all of humanity. Phil felt like punching him, but the Agent already seemed pretty banged up as it was.

  'How can you be so blithe about their deaths?' Phil demanded, knowing that it was the glove asking.

  Smith didn't answer, instead he was looking at the various Voravian controls. 'It may take some time for me to gain command of this escape pod, but it is capable of hyperwarp, I have seen such craft before.'

  Phil found his gloved hand gripping the head of the chair and spinning Smith around to face him. 'I asked you a question, number one. You would be wise to answer it!' his voice was rising, and Phil found that it wasn't just the glove that felt this. For once he was in complete agreement with his cognitive appendange. 'I dragged your carcass to this pod and you've shown not an ounce of gratitude for all that has been done and lost!'

  His second in command stared at him, and through those shades Phil could not see the man's expression. On impulse, his hand snatched up and tore them from his face.

  Immediately, Smith yelled in alarm and shielded his eyes as if stricken by some mighty blow.

  'I will answer your questions, Captain!' he yelled in a strained voice. 'Please just give them back!'

  Phil had never seen Smith so alarmed, even in combat, either there was something underneath the glasses that Smith didn't want Phil seeing or his eyes really were that sensitive. He handed him back the shades into his questing palm and turned the chair so that Smith could don them once more.

  It slowly turned back, but instead of the same implacable face of before he actually saw the Agent shaking with anger, his jaw clenched.

  He suddenly realised that they were trapped in a small Voravian pod together with nobody to come to his rescue.

  'Mr. Jones.' Smith's voice cut through the air. 'I know you are not aware of the importance of my glasses, but if you ever do that again I shall kill you where you stand.'

  The atmosphere in the pod suddenly felt very cold as Phil gulped for air.

  'Your question is a valid one.' Smith continued, as if the previous incident hadn't happened. 'my apologies for not answering it before.'

  Phil offered him a faint nod to continue, not quite relieved at the change of tone yet.

  'I should not have spoken so... blithely... about our fellow crew members. My training prohibits me from any emotional attachments and this can cause my observations to come across as... cold.'

  He couldn't help but think that this was an understatement.

  'As for your accounts of hauling me to the pods after my capture by the Voravians, for that I thank you sincerely. I am... sorry... that I was of no use to you.'

  Phil did a double-take, did Smith really just apologise to him?

  'Now if you'll allow me Captain, I shall attempt to figure out how to operate this vessel before it reaches its destination.'

  At least now Phil knew what to say.

  'As you were, Number One.'

  Smith swivelled in his chair and Phil sunk down to the plating of the pod floor. Somehow he felt a little better knowing that their safety was in the hands of his chief security officer. Smith made a capable deputy, no matter how rattled he'd been by the last few hours.

  From the corner of his eye, he spotted a tinge of colour slowly creeping over the window, fearing the worst he called at Smith and pointed.

  'I see it, Captain Jones. It would appear that we are entering into hyperwarp and there's nothing I can do to stop it.'

  The bluey-purple enveloped the window and now they passed through a corridor of pulsing light, presumably headed directly back into the arms of their attackers.

  As soon as it had happened, it ceased.

  Phil looked out the window and saw a series of swirling pods, identical to their own.

  'It appears that we are at a Voravian drop-off point. The pods must have hyperwarped into the vicinity of the nearest ship.'

  Only the ship they had warped to wasn't Voravian at all.

  Phil let out a yell of triumph and disbelief that caused Smith to wince beside him. 'They're alive!' he shouted wildly! They're going to save us!'

  That was when his crew started opening fire on the pods.

  'It would appear that they don't know we're in here.' Smith remarked coolly.

  'Uh-oh.'

  Chapter 28

  Shaft! Belay! Pods!

  The bottleneck didn't make its dreaded appearance, instead the shaft seemed to level out at a specific size, just barely enough to keep the ship from barrelling into the walls. With the gravitational compensator it should have been an easy task for Trigger to just keep it gliding through this shaft until safety. What they couldn't account for were the random bits of debris and girders that came flying toward them out of the dark at high speed. Trigger's reflexes had to be at their absolute peak to prevent the craft from careening into any number of dangers. In addition to this their shields had also been reigned in as much as possible to prevent them from interacting with the proximity of the walls. Trigger knew that it would only take a few mistakes to lose them completely, and any head on collisions would destroy the ship altogether.

  He was determined not to think about it, trying his hardest to force his fears down into a place that wouldn't interfere with his flying. Ordinarily his fear would hone his reflexes to a sharp edge but in this enclosed space he couldn't afford knee-jerk responses to anything. He needed to be calm and collected.

  Why oh why could RJ not be piloting this damn vessel?
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  He swerved down at the last moment as a girder flew out of the dark, nearly smashing its way directly through the cockpit. Too close.

  There was the briefest of bumps, barely anything as they brushed the left wall. It was more than enough to provoke the reaction that Hawkins was dreading to hear.

  'Ensign, shields are down to thirty percent, one more scrape like that and they'll be gone.' came RJ's voice, not a hint of recrimination in it. A simple statement of fact, that's all it was, nothing to get worked up over.

  Oh sweet mother of mercy we're all going to die.

  He ducked under another girder with inches to spare and noticed the stars that had begun to shine through the hole that they were approaching. They were nearly out of here!

  They were going to make it, they were actually going to make it!

  Two small antennae begged to differ as they came lurching out of the darkness and raked a horrible screeching sound upon the bottom of their hull.

  Who puts antennae in a shaft?

  Struggling mightly with the controls, Trigger managed to pull them level once more and narrowly prevented them from crashing into one of the walls as they veered off course.

  'Ensign, shields are down.'

  There was no percentage, no measure of time left or estimation of potential dangers. They had no shields left. At all. Doomed.

  If this giant ship had any automatic turrets there was no way he was going to escape their blasts. Trigger had never seen a ship this size that didn't.

  They went soaring out of the gap and into open space at full speed, avoiding a final girder that looked to be a lingering attempt from the shaft at trapping them.

  Trigger closed his eyes.

  Nothing happened.

  'RJ, why aren't they firing at us?' Annika asked, clearly as astonished as Trigger was that they hadn't been blown to pieces.

  'Unknown, ma’am. By all accounts they should have pulverised us within seconds of our exiting the shaft.'

  Trigger sat staring out into the vast openness of space, they were free! They'd made it! Well, all of them except Smith and Jones, but nonetheless they were alive! He waited patiently for the order to get them the hell out of here.

  The doors to the cockpit swung open and the sounds of argument spilled into the small space.

  'Captain I cannot in good conscience allow you to command this vessel, you're in no fit state to...'

  'Belay that order!' Darwin yelled, though what order he was actually belaying was lost upon both Trigger, and it would appear, the rest of the crew as well.

  He swayed as he took a deep breath, before half-staggering, half-falling into the Captain's chair.

  'Security chief, train all weapons upon those Voravian bastards and blow them to hell!'

  RJ looked back at the man uncertainly, then at Annika for confirmation, caught between an order and the reality of what he had been asked to do. 'Sir, with all due respect, Captain Jones and Agent Smith are still on that ship. If we target it now and it somehow goes critical, they'll be killed.'

  Darwin bristled at having someone of lower rank question him. 'I am the Captain of this vessel and I order you to fire upon that ship!'

  Annika offered no resistance, and RJ appeared to have no choice.

  Except that RJ didn't turn meekly and fire the weapons as Trigger expected, instead the man was standing, defiant of his Captain's wishes.

  'I'm sorry Captain, I can't fire upon that defenceless ship with the Captain and Agent Smith aboard it.'

  The cockpit grew deathly quiet, and time froze for that brief moment as the realisation of RJ's mutiny registered on Darwin's astonished face.

  'I beg your pardon?' he spluttered.

  'You heard me.' RJ replied grimly, stepping away from his post and offering no further assistance.

  Darwin's astonishment slowly gave way to a grim mask that mirrored RJ's own in a strange manner. He slowly got to his feet and tugged his fresh shirt down, a hand from Hanniman steadying him as he swayed once more as if drunk.

  'If you won't fire upon that ship, I will!' the Captain cried, lunging toward the controls and tangling his feet in the process, stumbling toward the tactical controls and landing face first into them.

  'You randomly mashed the tactical panel, do you wish to launch all weapons?' the computer chirped happily at him.

  'Fire everything!' bellowed the Captain, as if the computer wouldn't have heard him if he had simply spoken the command.

  'Engaging all weaponry on the hostile target, have a nice day.'

  With that, Trigger recoiled at the brief flash as the rear guns lighted up and sprayed the behemoth behind them with everything it had.

  The rear viewscreen popped up for everyone to see as the lasers arced out into space and headed straight toward the target they couldn't miss. Would they have any impact whatsoever upon this vast craft?

  The impacts were brief and seemed to cause minimal damage on the reinforced plating of the Voravian ship, yet for some reason the viewscreen still lingered on the remnants of their failure. If they couldn't stop this hulking thing it would undoubtedly make its way back to the fleet ad destroy them too.

  It was then that he spotted it, a single point of light illuminating the shaft from which they had just exited. A stray shot had managed to find its way past the reinforced defenses and was makings its improbable journey deep into the heart of the ship.

  'Cadet, set course away from the Voravian ship and prepare for a jump into hyperwarp!' the muffled voice of Darwin came as he slowly righted himself.

  Unlike RJ, Ensign Trigger Hawkins was of the belief that getting as far away from the Voravian ship as humanly possible was a very good idea indeed, regardless of who the order came from.

  'Aye sir, setting course... away.' he said, tapping on a series of buttons to hopefully pilot them out of the distance of any projected explosion that may or may not happen.

  For what certainly wasn't the first time, nothing happened.

  For a scant few seconds, anyway.

  The briefest of flashes illuminated the contents of the shaft from which they had recently exited, then a chain reaction wrought its way through the insides of the ship, catching alight as if the surface had suddenly been coated in hot oil.

  'Get us out of here now, Cadet!' shouted Darwin, all composure now lost as he clawed his way back into the Captain's chair.

  Trigger engaged the hyperwarp engines without further adue, and for a brief moment he had the terrible feeling that they were offline. Surely not?

  No, the engines flared into life, now under the supervision of Hanniman, and blasted them into the bluey-purple corridor that signalled their escape from the massive explosion about to erupt behind them.

  Then there was space.

  The crew sat in silence as the safety harnesses disengaged, slowly staring at each other and taking in the impact of their actions. They had done it, they had destroyed the Voravian mothership and escaped from the clutches of their most hated foe.

  Annika was the first person to speak, but there was no sense of jubilation in her voice at this victory. She was all business as she read out what her scanners were telling her.

  'The last laser fired scored a critical hit, their vessel was already compromised from the lack of reinforced deck plating and the black acid that bit through it. The ship was completely destroyed, with no survivors.

  It was then that Trigger remembered this crew had just lost their Captain and second in command in one fell swoop, no wonder she wasn't celebrating. In his shock and wonder at surviving he had completely forgotten the grief that would inevitably follow for those around him.

  'There goes the finest Captain I've ever laid eyes upon.' RJ said, staring at Darwin pointedly.

  Silence reigned, even Darwin had nothing to say to that, apparently respect for the dead wasn't beyond the man's sensibilities.

  Surprising himself, it was Trigger that finally broke the silence. 'Shall I set course back to Star Command, Captai
n?'

  Darwin nodded in a subdued fashion. 'Aye Cadet, take us home.'

  Trigger punched in the coordinates and prepared to jump back into hyperwarp, glad to put all of this behind him. He had never expected that his term on the flagship of the fleet would be as dangerous as it had turned out. He had been attacked and nearly eaten by any number of creatures and quite frankly could use some shore leave.

  'Belay that order, Ensign.' RJ said, ratcheting the tension up instantly. Why couldn't the man just accept that what was done was done?

  Darwin turned very slowly in his chair to look at the man defying him once again. 'Your actions are in direct violation of my orders, speak any further and there will be a court-martial when we return.'

  'No, wait sir, RJ has a point.' Annika said, inexplicably coming to his defence by pointing wildly at her console, where several white dots were flashing as they crawled their way across the screen.

  'What are your sensors picking up, Lieutenant?' Darwin asked, completely ignoring RJ now.

  'They look to be some kind of pods ejected from the Voravian ship shortly before its destruction, they're headed this way.'

  Darwin snorted in derision. 'Just a few lizards trying to escape their fate. Target these pods with what's left of our weapons and destroy them.'

  'Belay that order.' came the voice of RJ yet again.

  This time Darwin span quickly and stood to his feet, snarling agressively at the impassive Texan for defying him yet again. 'Hanniman, escort this man to the brig.'

  The Captain proceeded to walk straight past RJ and launch a single laser shot at one of the pods, destroying it completely.

  There was a crackle on the communication systems and then Hanniman's voice finally arrived. 'Sir, we don't have a brig per se, shouldn't you hear what the man has to say first?'

  Before Darwin could respond, RJ was talking. 'All I'm asking is that you run a sensor sweep on the remaining pods, Captain. If it turns out that it's all Voravians then blast away.'

  A look of confusion passed over the Captain's face but in Annika's eyes Trigger saw a glimmer of hope as she frantically ran a sensor sweep without even asking for confirmation from her superior.