In search of distress

[RedEclipse]

"Gordon, I can take off the ones on the right" said Dylan. Gordon was taken aback by his offer "Are you sick of living? Everyone slowly put their weapons on the floor and raised their hands." Whether they were pirates or not was of little concern to Gordon as the main group from Hyperion should be arriving soon. The team synchronously placed the weapons neatly on the floor. Two men ran up and searched them for other weapons. Finding nothing, they signaled to their main group that the travelers were clear. "Who are you? What's in the containers?" asked the same voice over the stereo. "We came in the aid of your distress call.." replied Gordon calmly "We came from Hyperion, but most of our ships were caught by the Nomads. We have the equipment to power Vega. We're here to help." he continued. The lantern in front went out, though it was still impossible to make out their identifying marks "I don't believe a word of it. You will go on with me, we will establish your identity." The people surrounding them parted and the team staggered forward, towards the hangar exit, further on they passed through several long corridors that were de-energized. But ahead at the airlock between sections, the airlock indication was lit. Apparently part of the ship remained inhabited. The crew and their escorts stepped inside the airlock and the door behind them slammed shut. The compressors hummed and the visor of Gordon's spacesuit fogged up - the system was working properly.

The doors swung open, presenting the team with a different corridor, but with the lights on. "Helmets off." said the escort in an orderly tone. They all took off their spacesuit helmets and continued onward, meeting many people along the way - it was obvious that they were not pirates, but Vega's crew. Eventually they came to a bridge, something resembling the bridge of the Hyperion, the Vega had once been reconstructed and unified with other Phoenix ships where possible. They walked to the center of the bridge, in the middle, with his back to them stood a man of medium build, just over 40 years old. Red-haired, Gordon couldn't believe his eyes - it was James. "James, I've brought our guests to see you." said their companion. James replied without distraction, "Just a second... Thank you, John. Let's talk to them now..." he turned and saw the team "Gordon!" he exclaimed and walked over to him and shook his hand "We seem to have been waiting for this day for so long!"

"I hope Jack has been courteous to you?" said James reproachfully looking at him. "That's okay, after all you've been through, it's quite a welcome. Speaking of what you've been through, I take it you couldn't fix the ship on the spot?" James shook his head "Unfortunately even with all the attempts to cannibalize the ship subsystems, its internal systems, we were unable to get the propulsion system running at a sufficient level. We also found some components on the Freeport XV that have helped to stabilize her operation. But it wouldn't have been enough to protect the ship from those Nomads. That's why we went into standby mode, shut down all the systems we didn't need and locked ourselves on this deck, hoping the Nomads wouldn't find us. Gordon nodded his head remembering his recent encounter with them "Indeed, we shot the Nomads, they took us by surprise, they must have sensed that Vega was staying here and lurked" James squinted his eyes in the distance "I see you brought us something." Gordon nodded "These are mobile reactors, they should be enough to power all of Vega's systems, I hope you still have some smart engineers left to hook them up? We also have some experimental equipment. In fact, it's already been tested on Hyperion. It's a hyperjump module, but you'll have to be told about that by more senior people, the engineers who were supposed to hook it up to the ship died with the transport ship." James nodded, taking that for granted. After all they had been through, such losses didn't seem like something supernatural. He asked, "Where's the Hyperion?" Gordon leaned on the panel and looked at his watch "by my calculations he should be arriving any minute now. Can you get all the ship's operational systems on standby?" James pondered, calculating something in his mind "The battery compartment should be fully charged, we should have enough for a day of uninterrupted operation." Gordon nodded "Come on, turn everything on time to host the big guests" James ran his fingers over the dashboard and tapped all the modules that were lit "off" and changed their status. The ship came to life, all systems were working, including external sensors and cameras - Hyperion was already side-by-side in front of Vega.

Christian was waiting for a report on the status of the Hyperion's subsystems after the encounter with the Nomads. Although their cruiser had only managed to scratch the flagship, the condition of all systems, and especially the propulsion system, was extremely important in places where help was nowhere to be expected. Giza was destroyed, a huge blow to the Phoenix and its skilled personnel. The Sakkara was saved, or rather its crew was saved. The ship was docked with the Hyperion and could only be used at great risk.
"Sir, all systems are in order. Prepare the shuttle?" said over the stereo. Christian pressed a button to respond to the message "Yes, please. Alert Sakkara's team as well that we are moving out." he cut the comms and headed directly for the shuttle.
Sakkara's team was already on the shuttle. Once aboard they immediately headed towards Vega. Literally after a moment of free flight, the shuttle sent a docking request and the request was silently accepted. Christian couldn't wait to see his old friend James, it had been several years since they had met and he had no hope of seeing him alive.