The general quarters alarm was designed to wake men from the dead, James Lambert thought, and it certainly wasn't doing good things for his headache. The shrill sound echoed once more through the cramped confines of the gunboat, and then blissfully went silent.
Now that he could think again, Lambert looked up to Lieutenant Commander Carmen, his executive officer. "Exec, status?"
"All crew accounted for at action stations, sir," she responded. "The Major and his teams are suiting up now."
"Good," he responded. "Power up guns and ready engines."
LNS Fearless sat at rest, floating in space somewhere in the Texas system. Liberty ships rarely went this far away from Houston and the lanes, but this was something of a special case. The bridge was tense, even though most of the crew didn't know their mission yet.
A strikingly young-looking woman sitting closest to the front viewport looked back at Lambert. "Destination, sir?"
He strode up to the main tactical plot, showing a view of the entire Texas system in three dimensions with nebulae, planets, and sun rendered in crisp detail. He eyed the plot for a moment before speaking. "Here," he said, finger stabbing at a specific point inside of a sinister-looking black nebula. When he pulled his finger back, a small purple diamond appeared, marking the place.
The young woman raised her eyebrows. "Into the Pequena Negra, sir?"
"Yes, Ensign Terrell. I am aware of the risks, but the Navy gives us the annual rads shot for a reason."
She hesitated a brief moment, then nodded. "Yessir."
The ship shuddered slightly under their feet as she engaged the cruise engines. It was only a few short minutes before a large black cloud loomed in front of them. The tension grew higher as the gunboat approached and then slipped into it. All went dark outside, lit only by momentary flashes of light from within the cloud. The debris was thick - the ashes of the Texas Incident that would probably never truly disperse. Lambert looked intently into the viewscreen.
"Ah-ha!" he suddenly exclaimed after a flash of light. "Ensign, twenty points to starboard."
The ship turned, and another flash of light illuminated the unmistakable outline of a space station. There was a collective intake of breath on the bridge.
Lambert just smiled. "Well, they're not shooting at us... I suppose that's a good sign. Lieutenant Hood, send them a docking request."
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