McCallister’s mind raced, a torrent of fear and determination. The weight of his crew’s lives bore down on his shoulders. A minor explosion from below jolted the bridge, another hit from Korvain’s fleet. The Odyssey shuddered, and McCallister felt the urgency of time slipping away.

“Captain, there’s a nearby asteroid field. It’s risky, but we could use it for cover,” Rosle suggested from the helm.

McCallister’s voice was firm, his eyes reflecting the weight of his decision. “Do it.”

The Odyssey strained, its engines roaring as it hurtled towards the asteroid field. The crew held their breath, their hearts pounding in their chests. 

“Shields are at fifty-three per cent,” Reyas declared.

As they neared the asteroid belt, McCallister ordered Alfie to send more power to the deflector dish. “We need to ride it rough for a bit,” He added before turning to Reyas. “Karyn, the moment we pass any large asteroids, open fire on them. If we can create some larger dust fields, it may slow Korvain’s fleet down.”

“On it,” Reyas responded.

The ship continued to shudder as Rosle did her best to avoid not just Korvain’s fleet but also the asteroids. 

“We need a way out of here, sir,” Rosle said urgently, her brow furrowing as she manoeuvred the giant starship away from danger.

Tapping his combadge, McCallister called down to Main Engineering. 

“That’s the last of the injured on their way to sickbay,” Duncan said as he re-entered the heart of the ship. They had helped those who were hurt after the main explosions in engineering. However, engineering still looked like a mess. It looked more like a battlefield than an engineering room. Emergency lighting was on, most of the fires had been put out, but not everything was working. 

“We’re not out of the fire yet,” his husband said as he approached him. Court gestured for Duncan to follow him back to the centre of the room, where the others who had helped the engineering staff stood. They were all working around the long ‘pool table’, the primary operations console for engineering. Everyone was busy trying to keep the ship together. 

“What’s happening?” Duncan asked as he returned to the group.

“Korvain is chasing after us,” Banfield replied; she had transferred the readings from the ship’s sensors to a nearby holographic display. “We need to jump to warp to get out of here.”

“We can’t do that, Corella,” Tierra said from where she sat on one of the small stools. After being partially treated, the chief engineer had been injured but refused to leave her engineering room. Instead, she sat, holding her left shoulder with her right hand, demanding she could help. “The ODN conduit between here and the antimatter storage deck has been severed.”

“What about the chevron’s warp drive? Isn’t it meant to serve as a backup to the primary warp core?” Duncan asked. “Is it still operational?”

“Let me check,” Carter said, tapping away at the console nearby. The deputy chief engineer was quick in his assessment. “It’s not damaged, but it is offline.”

“Can we get it online?” Court asked, an edge of frustration seeping out of his voice as he posed his question.

“Yes, but for it to be the backup drive, we need to deal with the ODN conduits,” Jen remarked as he rubbed his forehead. “Without them, we couldn’t modify the subspace field to jump us to warp safely.”

“Lukiz, Carter, start looking into it,” Duncan ordered Jen and Westerham. Both men just nodded and moved away from the group towards one of the other stations in engineering. 

“Bridge to Engineering, Max, I need to know where we stand with getting out of here,” McCallister called from the intercom.

Tapping his badge to respond, Duncan spoke up. “Captain, we’re working on a plan to get the chevron’s warp core back online and see if we can jump out of here with it.”

“That’s great news. Keep me posted. We’ll do our best to keep Korvain’s fleet occupied.” 

“Even if we restore the chevron’s warp core, the structural integrity field is still damaged from the massive hull breach we have,” Banfield pointed out to the holographic representation of the Odyssey floating above the pool table. “If we attempt to warp out of here, we’ll take further damage to the outer hull.”

“Can we transfer more power to the SIF?” Duncan asked. 

Tierra shook her head. “We’re already operating on emergency power; we don’t have enough.”

“Then we need to let people know we need to evacuate the outer hull of those affected areas,” Duncan said as he turned to Court. “Tobie, get the word out that we must evacuate the outer hull. Emergency forcefields must be activated on every deck and every section that will receive the most damage.”

Court nodded and wished Duncan the best before he rushed out of engineering to get on with his task. 

“Captain,” Jen called out to Duncan. “We’ve got some good news and some bad.” He waved for Duncan to join him and Westerham on the other side of the room.

“Good news first, commander,” Duncan insisted as he moved over to where the two engineers were.

“The conduits are easily repaired,” Jen shared.

“And the bad?” Duncan probed. 

“The crawlway is in a warp-plasma shaft,” Carter replied. 

Jen turned to Duncan. “That means that anyone we send would never survive the radiation.”

“Can we send our holographic engineers to fix it?” Duncan quizzed.

“Yes, but the radiation may affect their programs; we won’t know until we try,” Jen answered.

The ship then shuddered a bit more. A few more explosions went off around them.

“Korvain is getting close,” Banfield said above the commotion. She moved herself to operate the console, which showed the latest information from the bridge about their ongoing battle. “Shields are down to thirty-one per cent.”

“Damn it, that last blast knocked out three power transfer couplings in the chevron section,” Jen cursed. 

“Meaning we can’t use the chevron’s warp core?” Duncan asked.

“Let me get up there and see if we can repair it,” Jen said; he called for Jaceon to come with him before he tapped his combadge. “This is Commander Jen to all hands. Is anyone near to the chevron’s engineering section?”

“Lieutenant Jonarom here, sir,” replied their chief communications officer. “I’m nearby, treating Commander Keli.”

“Is she stable, lieutenant?” Jen said as he went to the nearby engineering locker and retrieved a repair kit with the necessary tools. 

“Yes, why?” 

“Jonarom, I need you to go into the engineering section and get me an update on the chevron’s warp core, mainly the transfer couplings. Jaceon and I are on our way to you now.” Jen ordered.

“Keli here, sir; I’m sending Jonarom there now,” Kellis said between short, sharp breaths.

Jen smirked, knowing that Keli would have glared at Jonarom and told him to leave her where she was and do as he was told. 

 “I’m on my way,” Jonarom said after a second. 

Jen gestured to Duncan that he was on his way with Jaceon. They rushed towards the nearest turbolift doors. “Carter, take over sorting out those conduits,” Jen called over his shoulder. 

Carter just nodded and went back to their previous work. 

“Even if we do get warp drive up and running, we need to assume that Korvain can chase after us,” Banfield said to Duncan as he returned towards her. “We need to find somewhere to avoid them.” 

“What have you got in mind?” Duncan asked, intrigued by her thought process.

“We make it look like he has destroyed us by detonating a number of our photon torpedoes, venting plasma from the nacelles and opening up all of the shuttle bays and hanger deck. Then, just as our shields appear they’re about to collapse, we jump into high warp and head here,” Banfield stated as she pointed to a class nine nebula on a map of the local space. “This nebula should cover us while we make repairs and rendezvous with the Themis.”

Gazing at the pink and purplish balls of gas, Duncan momentarily considered the idea. He couldn’t suggest anything else. “Let’s tell the captain.”

Meanwhile, across engineering, Westerham reviewed the work coming in front of him from their holographic engineers. They weren’t being fast enough, and the radiation was affecting their ability to move faster. It was interfering with their projectors. Considering there was so much at risk, he wasn’t prepared for their plan to use the chevron’s warp core to fail. At that moment, he looked over at his wife and smiled. He knew what he needed to do. Picking up his tools, he made his way towards the crawlway.