PEGASUS (FARSIDE SAGA: BOOK TWO)

SAMANTHA

"So...did Davis suspend your flight license too?" Mike asked as he sipped his coffee. Samantha leaned back in her barstool with a heavy sigh, hooking her feet on to the bar's bottom rail, as she took in the scenery. 'Starship USS Enterprise', she thought as she looked at the setup.

They sat at a minibar in the mess hall of the Pegasus after almost forty-five minutes of being reprimanded by High Comand Gen. Davis. The mess hall made the ship feel more like an elaborate restaurant in an expensive hotel somewhere rather than a military and research vessel. The neon green light strips around the decorative tables, windows and carpeted isles for the dining area, the indigo neon light trimmed bar area, to the neon blue lit stage area where a holographic jazz band entertained the few quests that were there, made her feel like Captain Picard was going to walk through the entrance at any moment.

"Yep, three months. You?" She answered after she finally sat back up.

"Wow, I only got a month for speeding." Mike said.

"Ha, lucky you. Speeding, endangerment, and because I told him where he could take the first two months, " Samantha said, the last being under her breathe as she turned her head and blocked her face.

"Besides, it was worth it." She finished as she sipped her coffee with a wide grin, looking at her son in the eyes.

Mike stood up as he signaled for the holographic bartender. Shaking his head with a smirk, he paid for the drinks, then playfully called her a cheater as he bent down and kissed her forehead.

"Going out on a particle collection run with the class before take off. See you later for lunch. Love you!" Mike said as he stood back up.

"Love you too son." Samantha said as she reached up and gently squeezed his arm. She watched him leave the mess hall as she smiled, then finished her coffee before leaving herself.

"Mrs. Dodge, you're wanted in the science bay." A technician said, catching her from behind as she made her way to the lumilift.

Wondering what the summons was for, she turned and followed the slim young light-skinned woman back down the hall. Her charcoal grey uniform indicated her as a Maintenance Tech Supervisor.

"Is Johnson stuck in the simulator again?" She asked the supervisor.

"Umm, no ma'am. Some guy name Tyson said he needs you for something." The supervisor answered.

Hearing the name Tyson, she automatically knew the reason. He had the warp field matrix scanner set up. They continued on to the science bay before parting ways.

Walking through the sliding doors, she spotted Tyson bent over by a four-foot device that looked like a bunch of gears and cogs all turning and spinning around each other on a platform. He looked up towards her when he heard her come in.

"Come here, look at this." He said as he stepped to the side and handed her a tablet looking control unit that was connected to the device by a thick cord.

She took the unit and looked at the display monitor. Two oscillating white lines ran across the top of the screen while the normal rainbow-colored line oscillated across the bottom.

"What am I looking at?" She asked, curious as she stared at a purple and black line that was beginning to seep out from the rainbow-colored line.

"I know right? Now watch this!" Tyson said as he bent down and fiddled with a few of the controls.

The top smaller gears started spinning faster as a purplish light started glowing from within the device. A gravity field formed around the device as it rose three feet into the air with a soft whine.

Samantha looked at the control unit again as the black and purplish line began oscillating faster and clearer as it filtered out the rainbow-colored line.

"What happened to the rainbow?" She asked.

"That's just it. It's still the same frequency. Whatever it is, it's coming from the warp field itself. Almost as if the warp core is drawing power from somewhere else." Tyson responded.

Just then, the ship's alarm sounded.

"Attention crew and passengers. All personnel report to your stations. Passengers report to your quarters. This is a shipwide alert!!" The soft female voice repeated over the intercom.

Samantha and Tyson both left the lab after shutting down the device as they heard the docking doors opening through the walls. They made it to the crew quarters just as the ship suddenly felt like it was shoved to the side. The ship tilted a little towards the rear and before the gravity compensator kicked in, the ship felt like it was snatched by something as everyone in the corridor rolled back down the hall just as the gravity kicked in.

Concerned for her son, she ran to the Hanger Bay Area and prayed his class made it back from their collection run. She made it to the hanger bay only to see three ships still missing. None of the shuttles had 'SAM' painted across the canopy like a windshield banner. Her heart dropped. Although she hated the name Sam, she wished she would've spotted it on one the shuttles at this moment.

She saw a pilot stumbling out the cockpit struggling with it's helmet. She ran down the catwalk and made it to the lumilift just as the pilot entered and was coming up to the catwalk. The pilot finally freed the helmet from a soaked tangle of long black hair falling around a young dark-skinned female face just as her chest cleared the catwalk. Samantha practically lifted the frightened young pilot off the lift on to the catwalk before the bottom half of her legs were up, causing the lumilift to disengage early and the rings to freefall back down before the secondary buffers kicked in and caught them.

"What happened, where's Mike?" Samantha asked almost hysterically, trying not to scream at the girl.

"I don't know. We had just finished towing the escape pods...they were right behind me..." The young female said, shaking in shock.

She slowly turned her head towards the shielded hanger bay entrance, causing Samantha to do the same. It was then they noticed the stars streaking by in ribbons of rainbow-colored light.

Before she could even start to contemplate on the dire outcome of the situation, the rainbow colors slowly turned purple and black. Cocking her head to the side in wonderment, it finally clicked in. She took off running back down the catwalk towards the now empty corridor. The young pilot, coming out of her shock by the sudden movement, didn't want to be left by herself and ran after her.

"Where are we going?" The pilot asked when she caught up. The faint sound of screeching could be heard. The screeching was replaced by a deep rumbling just before Samantha finally answered.

"Huh! Oh, Science Lab." Samantha answered, finally remembering the pilot as both ran around a corner.

The pilot was just about to ask what for when...

"You saw it too," Tyson said, coming out of nowhere running alongside them.

"Yeah. What the hell is going on?" Samantha asked, unphased by the sudden arrival.

"We're about to find out," Tyson said as he pointed to the flashing purplish light coming from the opaque sliding doors.

The walls, floor, and ceiling rippled like water in slow-moving waves. The doors hissed open as they slowly approached. The waves seemed to pulse through the air from the device. The device floated four feet off the ground, pulsing a deep purple glow in time with the waves. Each wave giving the three an almost dizzying effect, as Tyson wobbled his way to the device and once again shut it down. The device gently settled back down and began to whine down. Tyson, exhausted, sat down and slumped against the device. He finally noticed the pilot.

"Who's your friend?" He asked.

Just then, the gears on the device started grinding as the device began to shake. Suddenly, there was a bright purple flash....then everything went dark.

______________🌌_____________

MIKE

"Woooh! Hey John, you see that?" Mike asked over the intercom.

"Yeah, but I don't believe it." John answered.

"What IS that?" A female pilot asked.

"Let's go find out" Mike said as he engaged his thrusters.

Similar in design to the Star Wars' x-wing starfighters, ten J-37 collection shuttles emerged out of sub-space and we're now heading towards the strange phenomenon surrounding the Icarus and Pegasus. The two ships looked like they were inside a cacoon of water as the space around them rippled.

"Pegasus...this is Zulu Class Leader Michael Dodge, care to explain umm...what's going on here?" Mike broadcasted once in range.

Nothing

"I repeat, this is Zulu Class Leader Michael Dodge, come in...over." He repeated as him and the class slowed to a stop just outside the rippling cacoon.

Still nothing. No static, no white noise, not even a feedback. Almost as if the speakers were disconnected.

"That's weird." The female pilot said.

"Val, John, and Mary...come with me. The rest of you guys hang back." Mike ordered.

The four past through the outer wave with no problems, but only to discover there was another rippling cacoon. This vibrated the ships roughly but they managed to pull through. Instantly, their comms light up with chatter between the Iccarus and Pegasus, but they lost comlink with the rest of the class. They looked and saw escape pods being launched from the Icarus, but they were flying erratic. Two crashed into each other and exploded, causing a third to fly into the debris and add to the chaos. The rest were flying everywhere but their destinations. There was a huge wave that pulsated off the Icarus causing the space around them to ripple. The escape pods stopped flying erratic and was drifting about. The wave expanded out towards open space, passing through Mike and his classmates as they all sat there looking at the scene wondering what to do. Just then their comlink was reconnected with the rest of the class and Mike ordered them to regroup by him. From there, with orders from the Pegasus, they began towing and pushing the escape pods into the Pegasus.

Val had just finished pushing the last escape pod in when the Icarus exploded. She flew out the cargo bay and was heading around towards the hanger bay when Mike, John, and Mary came around and flanked her sides. All four were almost to the door when a rainbow colored flame ring struck the Pegasus rear end. Val made it inside the Pegasus, Mike made it inside the shielding just before it engaged, leaving John to crash into it and Mary stuck on the other side.

Mike looked at the Pegasus and saw the fuel lines to the warp core beginning to light up. He looked to the side and saw the shield already engaged on the hanger bay doors. Knowing they were about to jump into warp, he had to somehow attach to the ship and hope his shuttle is strong enough to withstand the speed they were about to take off at. With quick thinking, he landed the shuttle vertically against the hull and engaged the magnetic clamps. He had just enough time to close his eyes and say 'Dear Lord' before the Pegasus launched into warp. Opening his eyes after a while, he saw he was still alive and attached to the ship. Once the Pegasus was in warp, the gravitational force against his ship became almost non-existent. He was just about to relax and ride it out when three things happened. The rainbow colored warp tunnel began turning purple and black, the Pegasus began to pick up speed causing his shuttle to slowly loose it's grip and screech across the hull. He hit the port side maneuvering thrusters to counteract the force pulling him off the Pegasus, but that caused a crack to form between the A and M in SAM painted across the top of his canopy, and spread quickly. Already wearing an evo suit, Mike reached for his helmet and almost had it connected when the glass shattered, exposing him to open space. The seat harness kept him from being pulled out and before he could take the first non-existent breathe of air, there was a bright purple flash...then everything went dark.