"Giza to Alexandria and Sakkara, report in. We are ready to go." came the message over the stereo. "Alexandria is ready," Gordon said affirmatively. "Meet us at the Hyperion's left wing." - Gordon got permission from Giza, turned on the engines and docked off the Hyperion, heading for the rendezvous point. Rounding the battleship Gordon saw 2 more ships ahead, the Giza was ahead and the Sakkara to the right and slightly behind, a classic arrow formation. He stopped the Alexandria on the opposite, left side of the Sakkara and reported "Alexandria is on automatic formation on Giza" said Gordon and relaxed into the seat, the ship was on autopilot and no longer required the pilot's attention.
"Overboard radiation is normal, no highly contaminated nebulae detected along the way, apart from a debris cloud orbiting the former Freeport XV... Sensors indicate elevated iridium and titanium content in the northeastern part of the Peloponnese cloud, which is not peculiar to it. Could be Vega, plotting an approximate course..." - Giza reported. Gradually the support ships moved out of the Hyperion controlled area and passed by the Freeport XV remnants and headed towards the nebula. All seemed to be calm, but as they entered it, Nomads ships appeared out of nowhere.
"Spread out!" Gordon grabbed the helm and began to steer the ship sharply away, trying to keep the main backbone of the enemy ships at bay. Due to the suddenness of Giza's attack, as the lead ship gets a salvo from all the guns of the Nomads cruiser and she disappears in a bright burst of blast. "No!" shrieked Alice, imagining how many people were aboard her. Gordon stayed focused, trying to get deep into the nebula so that the Nomads would lose the trail and have time to regroup and wait for help from Hyperion.
"We seem to have broken away" said Gordon, hiding the ship behind a large asteroid. "Where the hell is Hyperion with support!" exclaimed Mateo in response. Gordon was distracted by the system recordings looking for the trajectory Giza was taking "No one could have guessed that Nomads forces were here. They may have been combing the sector looking for Vega, so we need to hurry." he plotted the trajectory in the on board computer and steered the ship along it "Let's hope Giza's data was correct. In any case, I think the Hyperion is already heading in our direction for backup."
Alexandria blindly followed the coordinates previously provided by Giza, the crew scrutinized the radar in various spectra. "Nothing so far" said Mateo, constantly switching radars in different modes "Not in radiation or infrared mode, everything looks like we won't ever encounter anything here." They have already traveled half way from their set route, something noticeably darkened their path, the team found no sign of the ship on the sensors - the radiation background was normal and everything was normal on the infrared sensors, relative to the other objects in the Peloponnese cloud. As Gordon approached Alexandria to the object he was stunned by what he saw, it was Vega. Outwardly without any signs of life, with numerous holes and traces of burned out armor.
"What do we do next?" asked Dylan fearfully "The Nomads could show up at any moment" Mateo glanced at him, imagining Giza's fate "It would be safer for us to dock at Vega and disembark. The Hyperion will be here shortly, but it is not in our best interest if the Nomads get ahead of them" Gordon picked up the narrative "Yes, that would make the most sense, dock and unload our hold, without Giza, in such extreme conditions, we are free to make our own choices." Alice looked carefully at Gordon "How are we going to dock without navigational guidance yes and who is going to open the airlock for us from the other side?" Gordon and Mateo looked at each other. Mateo had plenty of experience in boarding ships but he didn't like to broach the subject "We'll carefully navigate the Alexandria in manual mode. Painstaking work, but nothing impossible" Gordon said and turned back to the panel as he continued to steer Alexandria towards Vega, looking for an airlock with no damage. "God's blood, she's taken quite a beating," Gerald pointed out. Without taking his eyes off the controls Gordon replied, "It's all old damage. She successfully covered the homeships flotilla on the final jump to Sirius. Either the crew failed to stabilize the ship and died or left it alone for some reason." He selected a suitable airlock and with careful, almost surgical movements brought their transport to the battleship. He had no right to make a mistake, or the Alexandria airlock would be damaged and there would be nothing more they could do. Sweat beaded on Gordon's temple. With centimeters to go, the whole crew held their breath, the tension was palpable. A muffled, soft thud went through Alexandria "Locking!" said Gordon, pressing a few keys on a nearby panel. "All right, time to head for the exit. We need to unload the hardware as soon as possible."
The team prepared the containers and loaded them onto the levitating platforms and advanced to the end of the ship where the airlock was located. "Checking spacesuits before we leave, also changing oxygen tanks." Gordon said, looking around at team. "Ready" reported everyone and they walked forward.
Gordon bypassed the standard airlock safety systems, as Alexandria had not "seen" the docking, and while docked she didn't realize she was docked - all of Vega's systems were de-energized, so she warned of fatal decompression when the airlock opened "She thinks too much for such an old ship." muttered Gordon pressing the confirmation key. Alexandria's airlock opened towards the doors, presenting the slightly greenish backside in front of them that belonged to the battleship already. The crew approached frustrated, Alice trying to scan the inside of the ship "The hull are too massive to scan it though. I thought we could power them from our side" she said. Mateo shook his head "That usually works on civilian ships. Here we need hydraulic emergency openers. I think I've seen them on our side." He went back to the transport and soon returned with them. Primitive tools, representing a two meter long stop with a telescoping part and a hook-like end. Standard equipment on almost every ship could come in handy in the event of an emergency aboard or critical malfunction. "Let's hope the lock is not locked, otherwise we will have no option but destructive methods, which will be very problematic to do given the thickness of the metal" he said. The team helped him set up and hook up the equipment. "Turn it on" said Gordon in an orderly tone. Mateo turned on the pumps and with a deafening whirring noise the devices began to pull the doors open. It was a success, the doors managed to open almost completely. Apparently the ship had been de-energized not on alert, which could be a good sign that the team managed to survive all the time they had been left on the own.
The team went through the airlock, there was some chaos inside - although this part of the ship was intact, there was clearly equipment being dismantled here. The crew tensed somewhat as it could be pirates "Alice, stay behind, lead the platforms. Dylan, Gordon flank the platforms, Mateo - cover my back." They drew their plasma rifles and ducked. Quietly and without talking, they walked down the corridor and into a large room with wrecked freighters and fighters on board, apparently it was a hangar before. As they walked forward and saw a wall of scrap metal from various ships, a blinding light came on from all sides, "Drop your weapons!" someone yelled on their stereo frequency, indistinguishable silhouettes surrounded them.
"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.
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.
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