All our muscles were tense as we awaited the drop from the sub-ether. Blake already had the targeting device up and ready to use when we emerged back into normal space. And before us was … just space.

We all just sat there, stunned we weren’t attacked. We were afraid to relax. We just stared out into the space in front of us.

Blake said softly, “I was sure they’d attack. I’m still sure they’re holding their big ships back to use in a final attack.”

We drifted for several minutes. The admiral said, “Maybe the next jump. From here on in, we can’t afford to let our guard down. Lieutenant, let me know when the jump-coils are at ninety-five percent.” He picked up the mic to the 1MC and announced, “Secure from battle stations.”

No sooner did the words leave his lips than the ship was struck amid-ships by four missiles launched from two missile cruisers just as they dropped from their jump. The ship rocked violently from the explosions, causing the lights to blink off and back on.

“Status!” shouted Admiral Yamato to Captain Jennings.

Regaining composure, Capt. Jennings read off her screen, “Shields still holding, but down by fifteen percent. Several injuries reported on deck seven. Inertial damping field still holding but weakened. We’re not going to be able to take much more of this.”

The ship was rocked by another set of explosions.

Admiral Yamato barked, “Pilot! Bring the ship about.”

Blake looked back at the admiral. “But that will make us a bigger target, sir!”

Admiral Yamato again said, “Bring the ship about. Then we can use all four turrets to fire at incoming missiles.”

Blake nodded. “Aye sir.”

When the Gahjin cruisers launched another salvo of missiles at us, we were able to destroy them with the Flex cannons. Our port side was being shot at by smaller fighters so we couldn’t just divert all our shield power to starboard.

Blake looked incredulously at his targeting computer. “We’re at an impasse, Admiral. They fire and then we fire. We can’t do this until they run out of missiles.”

Capt. Jennings shook her head. “I’ve been calculating their cycle time versus our recharge time. Admiral, their cycle time is a bit faster than our recharge rate. Each firing, their missiles get a bit closer before we can destroy them. There is already a lot of stress on the charging system. Our shields are degrading.”

The ship continued to rock from the increasing rate of explosions. An idea crept into my head. Why would I think this? I know nothing about the inner workings of the ship. I stood up from my chair, only to be almost knocked over by another explosion.

“I have an idea to resolve this stand-off,” I said, not really sure what I was talking about. No one reacted. The idea just sort of rolled into my mind. I don’t really know enough about how the engine and cannons work. But here was an idea.

I raised my voice and repeated my message. Blake didn’t turn around. He said, “We’re kinda busy right now, baby.”

Royally pissed at being ignored, I screamed at the top of my voice, “LISTEN TO ME!” Both Blake and the admiral turned to look at me.

“I have an idea,” I said when I had their attention. “What we need to do is right after they fire their missiles, we don’t wait for a recharge. At that exact moment, we dump the Flex engine’s charge into the Flex cannon’s system. We then target turrets one and two on the ship on the left, turrets three and four on the ship on the right and fire. They have to drop their shields for a fraction of a second to launch their missiles. That’s our opening.” I had no idea what I was saying. I was just rattling off some words.

Blake looked at me with an odd expression on his face. He turned to the admiral, “That just might work.”

Admiral Yamato, his face streaked with sweat asked, “What’s the risk?”

Blake sighed deeply. “The whole ship could blow up.”

The admiral nodded. “Do it.”

Blake pointed at me. “Tyler, I have to man fire control. Your idea so you need to make the transfer. See that very large switch on the wall to my right? Click off the three safety switches and grab the bar. On my signal, pull it down. It’s a hard pull, so you’ll have to use extra elbow grease.”

The ship rocking from explosions made crossing the bridge difficult, but I managed to run up to the switch. I flipped the covers of the safety switches and flipped the switches all to red. I put both hands on the large switch and looked over at Blake.

Capt. Jennings shouted, “We’re almost out of time!”

Blake shouted to me, “Wait for it. Next salvo in fifteen seconds.”

The Gahjin ships launched their missiles. Blake fired the Flex cannons at the missiles and they detonated almost on top of us. The concussion through the skin of the ship almost knocked me down, but I managed to hold on.

Blake shouted, “Now Tyler! Pull the switch now!”

I pulled on the switch with all my strength, which isn’t much. He wasn’t kidding when he said the switch was hard. I jumped up and added my weight to push the switch down.

Capt Jennings looked down at her instruments. “Twenty seconds to next missile launch.”

Blake’s voice was strained as he shouted, “You have to do it, baby. I can’t help you with it.”

With one final pull, the heavy switch fell into place. There was a ship-wide “womp” sound as the ship’s power was transferred to the Flex cannons. There was a deafening whine ascending in pitch.

Blake looked in his targeting device. “Flex cannons at two hundred seventy-five percent. Going into overload. Target one locked. Come on come on… Target two locked. Five seconds.”

Capt. Jennings said calmly, “Missiles launched.”

Blake shouted, “Fire!” And all bedlam broke loose.

The barrels of the former fourteen inch guns glowed white hot as a blinding flash of energy blasted from them, making their strange braided trail towards the targets. The recoil from the powerful release of energy actually rocked the old battleship. All the lights on the bridge, in fact through-out the whole ship, blinked out.

The braided bolts of energy first sliced through the missiles just before impact causing them to detonate just meters from the ship. The streams of blue white energy cut through the Gahjin’s shields like they weren’t even there and then sliced through the skin of the vessels, penetrating their missile stores, causing a chain reaction explosion before the energy streams penetrated deep into the vessels’ power cores. The resulting explosion was so intense, that expanding spheres of the shock waves pushed hard against the Texas, causing several plates to buckle and also struck the fighters still attacking the ship to cause them to utterly disintegrate. The brightness of the explosion was so dazzling it was almost blinding through the goggles we wore for firing the Flex cannons.

The dampening field was down as was all the ship’s power. There was no power at all. The ship was dead in space.