================================================================================================= Prozetro Story - Rough Draft II ================================================================================================= "Jump was succesful, we're now in normal space", Ensign Rodrigues was the communications officer aboard 'The Inquisitor', a Victory-class cruiser under Captain Sean Archer. The ship had been recently attacked by pirates while traveling through hyperspace. Hyperspace was a parallel dimension that enabled travel between star systems. In normal space such travel would've taken years, while in hyperspace even the longest journeys took only a week. Most Confederate vessels were equipped with hyperdrives and only the smallest fighters could not utilize the jumpgates, which were used to access hyperspace. Nearly every star system had a jumpgate, it was required first to colonize the planet and then allow the colony to trade with other nearby star systems. Traveling inside a star system required no jumpgates, instead vessels used smaller turbolifts. The turbolifts accelerated the ships to incredible speeds, but they only worked for short distances. Of course, if you were not in a hurry, you could just take a regular from planet to planet. This took a bit longer, but was effective for cruises and other such things. "We seem to have arrived at Sol Nexus. It's a small star system with 4 planets, only 1 of them inhabited. The Prozetro Colony is stationed on the planet", Rodrigues continued. "Do they have a space dock for necessary repairs?" Captain Archer asked. "Yes sir, though a small one. The colony is pretty young and out of the way, it seems that not many freighters pass through here", Rodrigues turned to face Major McKenzie, the ship's senior engineer, "How bad is it, sir?" McKenzie had just returned from Deck 6, checking the ship's primary power systems. All bigger ships were powered by small nuclear reactors, to give them enough power for hyperspace travel. "It's not looking good, we just barely made the jump. Our equipment just isn't enough to repair all the damage", McKenzie took his seat in the cockpit. "Patch me through the colony", Archer said and turned to the large screen occupying one wall. It was used to communicate between ships and planets. Any ship or colony with video feedback could speak to Archer in real time. It had been developed only recently and some of the older ships still used only audio for communications. "Hmm... I can't seem get the signal through. There must be something wrong with our sensors", Rodrigues's hands danced on the keypad, trying to establish contact again, but in vain, "Just can't do it, sir. We'll have to fix our sensors first." "They were working fine a minute ago... Strange. Well, I guess we'll have to wait. Monitor the space dock for any shuttles", Archer said and sat back in his chair. 'The Inquisitor' had lost most of its fighters in the battle and its only remaining shuttle had been decimated after the vessel's high-ranking passenger, Admiral Robar had taken it to escape certain death. Miraculously the vessel had survived but was in a really bad shape. "It seems that we have some problems with the reactor again", McKenzie reported from his station, "I'll get down there and see what I can do." McKenzie stood up and went to the door. He was stopped by an explosion. The vessel rocked. The door leading away from the cockpit shattered and the air was filled with smoke. Red warning lights activated around the ship and the fire detectors rang their alarms. "What the hell was that?! McKenzie!" Archer shouted as he sprang into action. The Captain ran to his fallen officer while Rodrigues tried desperately to stay in place. "Sir! The reactor is malfunctioning! Coolant is leaking from Pump A! Reactor core going critical in 2 minutes!" Rodrigues took a microphone next to him and activated it, "Ship personnel, this is Ensign Rodrigues. There has been new developments. The reactor core will go critical in exactly 2 minutes. You need to evacuate the vessel. I repeat, all ship personnel evacuate the vessel." "Come on Ensign, we need to get to an escape pod", Archer lifted McKenzie to his shoulders and headed towards the door. Rodrigues came after him, but just after Archer had gone through the doorway, another explosion rocked the ship and threw Archer and Rodrigues to the floor. "Argh! I think I broke my arm!" Rodrigues screamed as he stumbled up again. Archer kneeled beside McKenzie. "He's dead", the Captain stated grimly and got up, "Right, we should have a few moments. Let's get moving." Archer moved to help Rodrigues. "We need to get to the Deck 11 escape pods!" Archer yelled as steam poured out of a broken pipe. The alarms were still on and the corridor was filled with smoke. Visibility was very poor and the sounds nearly consumed the Captain's voice. Somehow the pair managed to get to a staircase and got to lower level. There was a dead officer lying on the floor as they made their way to another doorway. "Oh gods... That was Sergeant Velasquez", Rodrigues turned his head away from the grotesque sight. After awhile they arrived at the escape pods. "Alright, we're here. Let's get inside", Archer yelled again as he tucked Rodrigues inside. The Captain took a quick glance around and noticed a groaning figure on the floor. "Come on buddy, get up, I'll get you outta here", he said quietly. After pushing the wounded man into the escape pod, he took another glace around, grabbed a few survival kits and activated the pod. He dived inside just before the door fully closed and took a better position. The escape pods were large enough to hold 6 people and they had small engines for a little maneuvering. The door closed, hissed and after a slit second the pod was launched. Archer looked out of the window as his beloved ship was consumed by a huge fireball. He closed his eyes and leaned to the wall. Something made him open his eyes. He took another look out of the window. The empty hull of the ship, nearly destroyed, was getting bigger and bigger. Archer's eyes widened. He tried to steer the pod, but in vain. Fortunately the ship didn't pass them too close, but they went spinning nonetheless. Archer managed to peek through the window again and saw the destroyed ship heading towards the planet. He failed to notice the lack of other escape pods before he fell asleep though... * * *