Christian almost walked onto the bridge of the Vega, anticipating a reunion with an old friend. It had been at least two years since the last meeting, when the Vega had been badly damaged in the Great Voyage's retreat back to the Sirius sector. He promised to help as soon as possible, but desire ran up against opportunity. We had to rebuild our home and recreate lost connections to survive. Would James forgive him? Though a sliver of truth was on Christian's side, willed they caught an automated probe released from Vega and were able to create a jump drive to recover her as the old wormholes quickly closed nor their old type of jump drives were able to take Vega altogether with rest of the fleet. With all his thoughts he reached James. He hadn't changed a bit, still the same uniform, though already worn out.
"James!" called out Christian. James turned sharply and stretched a smile across his face. They shook hands firmly "Long time no see, Chris." Christian shrugged "I did my best to get here as early as possible. A lot of work has been done. Our engineers were finally able to manufacture a jump engine that works on the principle of collective jumping. So we'll never again have the problem of a de-energized ship failing to jump. Like what happened with Vega. Anyway, we could take you out of here right now, but the technology is still quite new but I want the Vega powered up and making the jump on its own." James nodded, knowing his old friend "Not a second's hesitation, my friend." he said affirmatively. Christian looked around the ship's deckhouse, more like an electrical workshop - many panels were disassembled. Some microchips were literally soldered with wires to the regular wiring. James realized what surprised Christian "Yeah, we haven't been sitting idle either. Much has been done to get the ship running at full power and out of this cursed place. But as much as we were assured of an evolutionary new approach to fixing Vega's reactor, upon reading all the documentation... It turned out to be the same reactor as it was, but with improved turbines, well, and a different type of cooler. Which showed it to be barely repairable when you are doing it like in open ground, without all tools provided." Christian nodded, though he didn't go into much detail, he'd never been much of a techie, more of a humanitarian. But still wanted to give one remark "By the way, I wanted to tell you how we found you. We caught Vega's SOS buoy in the Omicron Kappa area." James looked dumbfounded "How so, we didn't send any buoy though wait..." He ran his fingers over the console and the display unfolded a model of the ship with the statuses of the systems "Indeed, no buoy was found. It most likely went on a critical reactor malfunction automatically." James continued.Christian looked at the model and thoughtfully said "Actually, by calculating it’s the departure coordinates we found you by chance." James looked puzzled "You can't go against fate." - he said rhetorically.
The Sakkara team, along with local specialists, had installed the generators and the new jump module. Gordon walked back through the corridors of Vega, meeting the rare companions along the way, all busy preparing the ship for its return to the inhabited part of Sirius. Just to think that recently all these decks had been de-energized and lifeless, Gordon thought. Still, a few damaged decks remained closed, but otherwise the ship had become alive and functional, not like its been when he guided Alexandria by hand here. Almost reaching the bridge he felt a vibration on the deck that sounded like a distant torpedo striking the ship.
As he reached the bridge, he saw personnel running everywhere, taking up their positions. And Christian and James at the head of the command center. He ran up to them and asked "What's going on? I heard something while walking here." Christian looked away from the call and replied "The guests came much earlier than we thought. The Nomads came with reinforcements." Gordon looked at the sensor’s array panel and he couldn't believe his eyes "Could this be a mistake? I've never seen anything like this in their arsenal." Christian replied "No, it's not a false positive. The thing is huge. To our luck, everything is ready for the jump. We're changing plans and staying on Vega, Alex has taken temporary command of the Hyperion." Christian looked away from the dialog, Gordon had let him know the ship was ready to jump. He pressed a button on the panel turning on the stereo "Lyra Wing, prepare to jump in ten seconds." A shudder ran through the ship, even more powerful than before. The shields could barely cope, but they absorbed the shock, but it wouldn't be able to take any more on itself. Gordon looked at the camera output from Vega and saw the outline of a monstrously unwieldy ship approaching, the likes of which Vega and Hyperion could not defeat, even together. It was now or never. Christian began counting down, and the Nomad forces were getting closer by the second, seeking revenge for their awakening. "Three, two, one... "
The sensors were blinded, the room lit up with a blue glow and a fine shudder ran through the ship. A moment later they found themselves facing Kadesh Orbital City in orbit of the planet Palmyra. The sun's rays flickered whimsically in the planet's atmosphere as if they had never left Omicron Zeta. They finally made their way back home.
