Remnants and Fallout

[arvg]

Captain Alvarez sat in the Hispania's command chair, staring in shock at the great bridge windows, the transponders beeping a warning as the Coalition task force closed in upon them. The darkness of deep space seemed claustrophobic to the proud young man, when the realization washed over him that he had just destroyed both the Maltese and Cretian Nations, and the Coalition as well.

Sirius as they knew it, was gone, wiped away. It would never exist, and so neither did any of them.

"Paradox," Doctor XiaoBei remarked, standing a few feet away from him. "But that was the plan of this mission, to create a paradox where we controlled the Hispania..."

"But?" Alvarez asked, looking up at last towards the doctor.

"But we don't have time to crack the Hispania's computers before the Coalition forces are upon us. We can't change its course, and we can't complete our mission. Which means..."

"The Coalition dies with the Hispania," Alvarez surmised.

"There is always another option," the enigmatic doctor replied, lighting a cigarette. "We detonate one of our onboard bombs, taking out one of the main engines. Then engage the faster than light drives. It will knock the Hispania off course, and with a little creative programming, I can fire the engines in a sequence that will put the Hispania in a giant loop of Sirius... the best we can hope for is that it will circle around Sirius and end up where we want it. But it is much like firing a bullet to hit another bullet in mid air. Not exactly an exact science."

"Doctor," Alvarez stated standing. "You should get back to the Resurgency, and tell Admiral Broch the plan. We're going to need someone to... delay that war fleet." He pointed at Comrade Ling. "Get back with him, they're going to need a good pilot."

Taking a deep breath, Enrico Alvarez looked around him at the remaining cluster of Coalition officers. "Hermanos, I want you to take the Alliance uniforms off of the dead men, and jettison the bodies along with your coalition uniforms. Get dressed... When the Resurgency breaks seal from the Hispania, we're going to be all alone over here..."

His mind was wildly flying. They had killed the command crew, and the security forces, leaving them with a small chance that once they engaged the drives, they could slip into the stasis pods and ride out the rest of the journey. Once they hit the other end they could impersonate the officers and blend in."

He stripped the uniform off of the former Alliance Captain, holding up the badge with his family's name on it, his ancestor. A few minutes later he was dressed, setting the baseball cap on his head with the Spanish command leaves on its brims.

He stepped to the communications console, "Admiral Broch, we're ready on this end, awaiting your orders."

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