The light on the bridge of the warbird was shocking. Flashing primary bits of color offended random parts of your view, regardless of where you looked. It was the kind of light you wanted to look away from, except that everything else was so dark your eyes couldn't help but crave it. The captain stepped onto the bridge and let the door close behind him. The normal light of the turbolift had provided the only measure of relief. With it gone, The captain stared widely into the viewscreen that showed nothing but pure energy, and made him nothing but the focus of tension. But being Captain, he reminded himself, meant keeping your eyes open, no matter how much it hurt. They all tried to work, couldn't help but steal glances back at him, and he couldn't help but steal glances at them--Navigation, Tactical, First Officer. He hadn't had a chance to learn their names. All things considered, it probably didn't matter.
"Captain, we are nearing Military Outpost Four."
The captain nodded to Navigation and stepped carefully down the two steps to the absolute geographic center of the bridge. Or, as close as he could tell in the flickering light. He picked the spot and stood firmly, deciding not to notice his first officer honing in on a spot of his own and taking the lead.
"The same?" he answered Navigation. There was a flurry of tactical work.
"Yes, Sir." Tactical strained to read, "the same residual radiation, defenses inoperable, no intact structures, no functioning machinery, no life signs. It's like the others in this system, Sir." He turned to the captain. "The outpost is destroyed."
The captain pounded a fist in frustration. "Who could have done this? Why would they have done it?"
"Sir," Tactical paused at the suddenness of his word. Coming that soon after the Captain had spoken, it was almost a breech of etiquette, but all things considered... "Sir, reading another energy surge from thespatial anomaly. The wave will reach us in a matter of seconds."
"Compensate as it passes us," the captain answered.
"Yes, Sir." "The Federation," First Officer decided. "They could have done this."
But the captain shook his head. "The Federation doesn't have this kind of power. Not anymore."
The ship rocked, the way a ship would on a high sea. The spatial anomaly. The captain stood his ground, reaching out for something to keep his balance, trying not to show that that was what he was doing. A panel sounded. It was the kind of light that made the sound difficult to locate, so the captain looked around for who seemed to be attending most closely.
"Tactical?""Check-in from base outpost," came the reply.
"Good. Ask them what they make of this latest energy surge, compared to previous monitoring. Do they have any indications of the potential for harnessing it for--"
"Sir, it's not a check-in. Sir, it's a distress call."
A garbled cry for help over the com, almost unintelligible throughthe interference.
"Hard about!" the captain ordered. "Get us back there!"
"Setting course!"But the ship lurched. Not the spatial anomaly, this was the violence of an impact.
The captain leaned hard on the rail. "What was that?"
Tactical worked furiously. "Trying to get a fix."
Navigation. "The signal from base outpost is gone."
And the ship lurched again, hit. The flickering primary light changed for a moment to pure interference as systems failed. Normal, thecaptain thought, if not particularly comforting, it at least left youknowing what to do. "Evasive maneuvers, sequence Beta four! Get that screen back on! Show me who is attacking us!"
"Trying!"
An image, garbled with massive interference that made you have to strain to see, appeared on the screen. Whether it was one ship or the broken distorted and reflected images of several was impossible to say, but as it drew closer, it became less anonymous. And within seconds it was simply there. The captain let his hand slip off the rail. "I don't believe it."
The astonishment was general; curses, from someone a "how did they get here without being spotted?"
First Officer froze. When the captain ordered the new course to be set, Tactical spun in his seat. "Into Federation space?"
"Do it! Drag them with us! We must show them! Send a distress call!"
Navigation was already on it. As the ship was hit again, he leanedfarther into the com panel. "Enterprise--" and lost his breath, but through the interference, very little would have been heard-- "in need of your assistance--" and Navigation's nerves disintegrated with the hull. "Help us!"
When the warbird blew apart, the pieces of it flickered and spun randomly with a shocking light of their own, and were gone.
On to Chapter Two.