Chapter 1

The raid had gone off as projected, to a certain point. Extrication did not go as it should have, though. The paired cyborg and ship had accomplished their mission goals, and were on their exit trajectory when the plan went sour.

Intelligence had told them that the planet would have only a class C battle fortress, with two light cruiser, and 15 fighter elements guarding it. Most of the ships that were stationed at this planet would be gone, in response to a feint that had been engineered just for this purpose.

Cyborg, Eric Falstaff, and his ship were tasked to insert a slow gestating, but highly contagious virus into the planets atmosphere. Their cover mission, was attacking the shipyard circling the planet. The ship was new, and was one of a very few of its type. It was loaded with the most advanced weapons that the Coalition had.

The ship was only 600 meters in length, but had as much weaponry as any heavy cruiser three times its size. It also had weapons that outclassed anything up to the size of a dreadnought. The reason the ship was able to carry all this, was that there was only one crew member aboard the ship. All other space was devoted to weapons, the 'jump' and 'space normal' drives, and the advanced electronics. Life support for one human cyborg took hardly any room at all.

Eric and his ship, CCS-14, (Coalition Cyborg Ship) had accomplished the primary mission. It was during withdrawal that things went to hell. He had severely damaged the battle fortress, and had destroyed both the light cruisers and most of the fighters. He had even taken out a large chunk of the shipyard circling the planet. This all went according to the plan.

What was not expected, was a Federated battleship, with a three cruiser escort. They jumped in-system, at about the time Eric was trying to leave. They were headed directly for each other, and there was nothing Eric or his ship could do to avoid the confrontation.

CCS-14 had been charging its jump coils, and was ready to make the jump. It just had to wait until it was out of the gravitational influence of the planet it had just infected with the virus. Unfortunately, the enemy was between CCS-14 and its jump point. At the speed they were traveling; there was no possibility of stopping, or changing to a new vector, before making contact with this new enemy force.

Eric was having coffee in the galley when CCS-14 informed him of the new battle situation. He dropped his cup, ran back to the control room, and buckled himself into his command chair. He attached the contacts to his temples, where subcutaneous leads were buried. As soon as the outer contacts were aligned over the skin where the internal contacts were buried, they locked into place magnetically. He was now in mental contact with his ship. His awareness changed. He could see what the ship saw.

It had taken him months of training, and an internal computer added to his brain, to get him used to this perspective.

As Eric watched, the battleship ponderously turned sideways. It presented a 3-kilometer side view, filled with missile and beam weapons. The three cruisers moved themselves in front of the battleship as a screen.

Eric checked the status of his ship, and noted that the battle screen was already in place. He did not have his ship turn sideways, as he wanted to present the smallest target possible. His ship was firing torpedo's from the forward tubes.

Already his anti-missile defense was working as fast as it could. If he turned his ship to present a broadside, he could employ more weapons, but would present a larger target. He felt his ship buck as a missile impacted and blew with nuclear fury against his battle screen.

Again and again, his screens were hit. His Ion canon was working as fast as it could recharge. It shot every 15 seconds. When it did, it smashed through the defenders screens, and inflicted damage. Unfortunately, smashing through those screens diluted the full effect of the canon's power.

The ship bucked and shivered as his battle screen deflected direct hits. Finally his screen started to fail, and enemy beam weapons of a weaker, but still deadly ability started to chew into his hull.

It was still thirty seconds until he could jump, and the enemy had figured out where his jump point would be. That area of space would soon be full of missiles, according to computer projections.

Missiles were already on the way to that location, and his battle screen was almost gone. More and more beam weapons were inflicting damage to his ship. Sensors were damaged, and back-ups came on line. A forward torpedo tube was hit and put out of action.

With only 3 seconds to go, he ordered the ship to jump. His battle screen had totally failed, and missile impact was imminent. Despite still being in the gravity well, the ship jumped. As his ship jumped, the small gravity effect from the planet, coupled with the missile's nuclear explosion, caused a radical change in the jump field as it formed.

As CCS-14 came out of the jump, alarms were sounding. The computer sent repair bots to several of the damaged areas. The computer started reporting a litany of damage. It also reported the fact that they had not come out of the jump where they had intended.

Eric disconnected himself from the ships sensors. He closed his eyes, just listening to the damage report. Not good. The jump coils had burned out, and there were no replacements on board. He was effectively limited to normal space drive. On top of that, they were lost!

While they still had faster than light communication, there seemed to be no one to talk with. There were no relays reporting their existence, no communications had been intercepted or detected at all! This was unheard of!

For three days, Eric worked until he was exhausted, helping with what repairs he could. He ate, worked, ate again; and worked until he nearly dropped from exhaustion. He put his entire purpose of existence into fixing his ship. It took his mind off the fact that there was no place to go.

The ship was performing sensor sweeps of the surrounding systems, in hopes of finding an inhabitable planet for Eric. It had also launched 5 of its 8 remaining jump capable probes. Eric was just existing, on a day-to-day basis. He was numb with the knowledge that the universe he had known all his life was effectively gone.

"Eric. Probe V-233-1 has discovered a planet that is habitable. At present I am changing course for this planet. At best possible speed, it will take 10 years, 3 months, 12 days, and 2 hours to reach the planet.

"I suggest you prepare yourself for an extended cold sleep cycle. I do not have enough supplies to last for more than a year. Even going on emergency rations, that would extend your awake time by only 4 months, to 16 months," the computer said tonelessly.

"Why can't we use the drive coils from the probes? I am sure you told me why we can't, but I can't seem to remember," Eric asked his computer.

"Jump coils for probes are not compatible with the ship. They are too small, and are shaped wrong to fit into the jump chambers," the computer responded. "Also, you are suffering from shock. While it is not deadly to you, I suggest that you ingest the contents of packet S-3 from the pharmacy. Afterwards, you should start preparations for extended cold sleep," the computer told him.