Chapter 2

Transport Ship "Heavy Duty" - unknown sector:

The emergency lights are activating themselves, allowing a view to the bridge. Smoke is welling from some stations, and many officers are lying wounded or dead on the floor.

Tadaki's head is pounding, he touches his head and feels something wet. He looks at his hand and sees that it is sticky with blood. Dammit he thinks. Then Tadaki gets up unsteadily from the floor and looks around.

He sees the control officer standing at his station he asks him "How bad is it?"

The officer looks up from his displays and answers: "We have heavy damage on the rear, Admiral. Force fields are activated and holding. Main reactors are offline, backup is running at 45%. Warp engines are offline. Sublight engines are offline. And the AI does not respond. All damage control teams are responding."

Thereupon he turns over to another officer asking him: "Do we have anything on the Draidis?"

The officer answers: "On our close range sensors only the "Gift" can be seen, and on our long range sensors we do not have any contacts!"

Then he asks the navigation officer: "Nav, were are we?" Nav looks up from his station and confusedly responds "Admiral I have no idea! The Star 3.4 Lightyears from us is not in our database. I need time to locate our position, without the AI, at least 6 hours."

At this point, the medics reach the bridge and attend to the wounded. He watches them a moment, thinking: Our medical knowledge - our greatest hope and at the same time our greatest curse. This is why the Kaltora Empire has attacked us. Ah, and what is more they were in need of new slaves!

As he has composed himself he asks: "How are her Highness and the others in their capsules?"

The Control officer answers "We have lost some capsules, but the capsule of her Highness is working just fine."
"Good, at last something." he talks to himself.

"And how many persons did we lose?" Tadaki asks. The Control Officer says "So far yet we have 150 wounded and 100 dead, but 300 are still missing. We can not reach all sections of the Ship, and communication through out the ship is also sporadically intermittent."

As one of the medics looks at his head he approaches the Admiral, but the Admiral puts him off with a movement of his hand. But the medic says "Be sure to look for medical attention in the next hour at least, sir!"
As Tadaki acknowledge him, the medic turns to another wounded man.

Then Tadaki shouts "Has somebody any idea what happened to us?"

All officers shake their heads.

"Ok then, com, open a channel to the Gift."

A few moments later he sees a static filled image from the bridge of the "Gif". A young officer salutes.

"At ease, Lieutenant!" says Tadaki, as he absorbs the devastation on the "Gift". And I thought my bridge is looking bad ... but on the"Gift"... He does not see a station that is not destroyed. Many dead bodies are squashed, so they must be identified by their specified genetic material. Two medics carry a heavily wounded officer from the bridge.

The young Lieutenant "Lieutenant Irtea, Sir! Admiral, I must give notice that I have taken command of the Gift; all senior officers are dead or seriously wounded! The bridge of the "Gift" has taken a grazing shot before we could jump to warp."

Tadaki asks "How badly damaged is the "Gift"?"

The Lieutenant answers "The bridge is heavily damaged, but I think the rest of the ship is in pretty good condition. I will be able to tell you more in a couple of hours."

"Ok, Lieutenant, you are in command. You are permitted to do whatever you decide. We will confer in 6 hours to discuss our next actions. So long Lieutenant! Keep your ship and crew safe! Tadaki out!"

Tadaki: "Commander Bortas, you have the bridge! I need an idea of what has happened to us, and an accurate report of the damages we have taken, in 6 hours!"

The Control officer nods and says "Ay sir!"
Tadaki "I will be on the medical deck and then in my quarters, take care of the ship!" With these words Admiral Tadaki leaves the bridge.