Hot pursuit

[John Hino]

[Feather]

John got up quickly and fired up his wrist-scanner to scan the pilot's chair for the device.

[Narrator]

John would find a small fusion bomb there, more than enough to vaporize this ship, slowly charging there. It did not appear to have been triggered.

[John Hino]

"It's not armed, but we need to get rid of it all the same," he said as he carefully removed it.

"Get the airlock ready."

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan shook his head, taking the bomb from John. "See what sense you can make of the ship, someone's got to fly this thing, we've got friends in trouble out there," he said, gesturing in the direction of the Messenger.

[John Hino]

"Right," he nodded, moving to remove the unconscious Skrull and take over pilot's chair.

He examined the controls carefully. "C'mon John... you can do this..." he muttered, breathing out.

[Narrator]

The controls were, unfortunately, in Shi'ar. There was enough for him to be able to recognize, though, like obvious directional controls, energy readouts (although what energy was what was unclear), and area-wide sensors.

He could pilot the ship. He could tell that the Messenger was adrift and tumbling through space.

And he could tell that there was a power spike forming on the Raptor.

[Derek Scott]

Derek, meanwhile, gasped as he fell back into his seat, trying to... well, do something with the blaster-wound in his gut.

[John Hino]

[Feather]

John took the controls and steered the Feather towards the other ships.

[Madrox Saavedra]

[Raptor]

Madrox rushed the cockpit, carefully firing precision laser shots at the Skrull and his weapon so not to hit the ship's controls.

[Narrator]

[Raptor]

The Skrull lunged at Madrox to try to push him back. Before either of them could really withdraw, the ship's collision alerts came on, in time for the passengers of the ship to look up in horror as a rather sizeable section of the Messenger that had been blown off filled the cockpit's viewport as it careened toward them.

[Raptor and Messenger]

The Messenger, with its engines shredded by the bomb blast, would find itself without any sort of sensors, directional control... well, really anything. Life support seemed to be working, but they were in a pretty sorry state.

Both ships, though, had a good view (the Messenger only for a few moments, as it was tumbling) as the debris struck the Raptor, detonating the bomb.

The explosion filled space brilliantly for a moment, then all was black.

[Daniel Uriel]

Daniel, in the midst of punching the Skrull into oblivion, looked up in shock as the explosion lit their shuttle. Oh god... Kyra...

[Ryan Gabriel]

"NO!"

[John Hino]

[Feather]

John's eyes went wide and trembled in shock.

"Oh... God..."

[Narrator]

The occupants of the Messenger were still tumbling. They had no shipwide sensors, and Ashlie couldn't detect anything aside from metal shards and radiation from the fusion bomb. There wasn't anything Rachel could pick up telepathically outside their ship.

On the Feather, John would see two things. First, there was an odd reading near the wreckage of the Raptor, accelerating at an odd angle. It appeared to be nonmetalic, but had an odd energy signature that might be a lifesign. Second, the blip on the radar that was the messenger was still moving rapidly, probably more rapidly than they could catch up to, and was converging with the blip that was the Skrull ship (which some people might remember they had been chasing) and the blip that was the warpgate.

[ASHLIE]

[Messenger]

ASHLIE just freezes. She is technically aware of the concept of death but has a hard time truly understanding it.

"Are... they... gone?" she asks, as if slowed down by loading time.

[Daniel Uriel]

"I... think we have other things to worry about," Daniel said, numbly, watching the view of the warpgate tumble past the window... then again, closer.

[John Hino]

[Feather]

John raced the ship for the possible lifesign. Being the only way to save anyone, it was the only choice.

"Please be alive..."

[Narrator]

John, out of sight of the Messenger, would have a hard time catching the object. Clear of the radiation, he'd be able to easily see why. It was a dense black crystal, about the size of a short bus, that (if he was understanding these readouts correctly) was being held in place with a psionic field.

Meanwhile, the Messenger tumbled even further, the other dots converging closer on the sensors...

[ASHLIE]

[Messenger]

"There is nothing to worry. Our engine-section has been destroyed and we have no means of controlling our vector." As dry as the words are, she sounds... resigned? It's hard to tell through the electronic voice.

[John Hino]

[Feather]

He locked onto the psionic field and tried to get ahead of the object. If he could just line up with it then maybe he could catch it in the rear airlock.

[Narrator]

Several things happened at once.

John would feel against the ship as the crystal lodged itself in the rear hatch.

Captain Britain, Derek, and Kyra would find the stress of maintaining their combined powers against the vaccuum lessen as the hatch closed and the airlocks cycled, letting air into the entry hatch.

And the radar screen was forgotten as, when the three dots converged, there was a violent flare in space. Space actually rippled for a moment, tossing the ship about. When this died down, though, there was no sign of the warpgate or either of the ships except atomized space dust that was expanding in a cloud.

[John Hino]

John widened the scans, hoping even though he knew what they would find.

"No... please no..."

[Narrator]

The comm system came to life as the spatial disruptions died down.

"-peat, come in. What in the name of the Imperium did you just do!"

[Derek Scott]

Derek felt his crystals crumbling as he, looking pale and still curled around his gut wound, sagged to the deck and passed out.

[Ryan Gabriel]

They're alive. Bear's alive. But... Rachel... Ryan forced some of his panic out of his voice as he answered the comm call. "Recommend you start scanning your crew... the pilots were Skrull imposters, they planted bombs on all three ships. One was destroyed, one... was cripped, and then crashed into the warpgate with the ship they hijcked."

[Narrator]

"By the marriage... Stand by, scanning... Nothing. At least the Skrulls didn't get the Phoenix, we will sing the Endsong for those who are lost."

"We're reading spatial disruptions spreading toward you from the Warpgate's destruction. Everything in its path is being destroyed, and you're well withing the area of effect. Prepare to be evacuated back to your planet."

[Kyra Raphael]

"I think we did it." Kyra said as she collapsed onto the deck.

[John Hino]

"I'm sorry Ryan... I... did what I could..." John said, unable to look him in the eye.

[Ryan Gabriel]

"My fault," Ryan said quietly, staring blankly out the window. "Shouldn't have played it like this... all comes back to calls I made. It's my fault..."

[Narrator]

As the Students were left to try to deal with what had just happened, the Shi'ar cruiser, now mostly mobile again, began towing them out of range as it started transporting the students, two at a time, down to the surface.

((NARRATOR'S NOTE: Feel free to keep reacting here. Students would be returned to their point of departure in the quad in fresh threads.

THis ends issue 9, but this is not nearly the end of this story.))

[Janice Gilbertson]

"What's... what's going on?" Janice said, breathing heavily. "We... made it?"

[Madrox Saavedra]

"Yeah... I think so," Madrox answered, standing up.

[Janice Gilbertson]

"...remind me never to be in an exploding ship in the vacuum of space again."

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear weeped openly.

[Kyra Raphael]

"Daniel...." Kyra said, as she reached for his mind and realized that she couldn't touch it "Oh Gods, Daniel...where is he?"