CROSSING LINES
A STAR BLAZERS/ STAR TREK/BABYLON 5 FANFICTION WORK BY:
JASON BOND
Chapter
Four
The Legend
Comes To The Rescue
Earth
January 23,
2271
11am Earth
Standard Time
Captains
Elizabeth Lochley and Susan Ivanova had been inside their Thunderbolt fighter
for hours now, save for a brief break back on the Titans for a brief two
hour rest and refuel. They had made their way to Sector 14 to monitor the
situation and all that they had found was the signal from the Yamato repeating
over and over. That, and the fact that the temporal
rift that Ivanova and the others took to go back in time to defend
Lochley activated
her internal comm unit and spoke to Ivanova, "How much longer do you want
to wait out here?"
Ivanova paused
briefly to think it over and said, "We probably should give it at least
another couple of hours, just in case. Maybe this is just some anomaly..."
"Then why the dreams, Susan? Why did it tell me to
wait for a ship to come through the portal? I'm sure the woman in the dream
didn't mean a jumpgate, so this has to be what she
was referring to!"
Ivanova
shrugged inside her space suit, "Well, it's your call, Liz. But we can't
stay here forever because the brass back home will start asking
questions."
Lochley just
had time to let out a sigh when her console began to beep. "Hang on! I've
got something!"
Ivanova sat
back up in her co-pilot's seat, "Any idea what it is?"
"Not
sure, but whatever it is, it's big.," replied Lochley,
who then switched over to the comm system for her squadron, "Lochley to
Alpha Squadron. Follow me to the temporal rift so we can check out what is
coming through."
Her wingman, Patricia Harletpool,
responded, "Affirmative, Alpha leader."
Earth
Defense Force Space Battleship Yamato
March 22,
2203
7pm
"If my
sensors are reading this right, Wildstar, this appears to be a rift in the
space time continuum.," said Stephen Sandor, chief
science officer.
Derek Wildstar
looked over the readings himself and then out at the rift right in front of the
ship. "Do you think we still should go in?"
"It's
worth the risk, Wildstar, because we're not sure if that enemy will come
through and try to attack Earth. We need to know the make up of their forces at
least and try and do something about it should they be
planning to come through."
Wildstar stood
up and looked at his friend and Yamato co-pilot, Mark Venture, and gave a brief
command, "Venture, take us into the rift."
Venture looked
up at his commanding officer, giving Wildstar a second to reconsider, but all
Wildstar did was give a brief nod. "Yes, sir! Taking us into the rift. Activating main
and auxiliary engines."
The ship's
engines came to life and began to move towards the rift.
Derek got up from his post and made an excuse to go to his communication
officer's post to scan the room. He was relieved that his crew, while nervous,
looked determined. He had his own doubts as to doing this, but the enemy that
had attacked the station came through the rift, he didn't know if Yamato and
the rest of the Earth Defense Force could handle it.
Venture spoke
up, "Time to rift...10...9...8...7...6...5."
Derek looked
to his fiancée, Nova, and she looked back at him and gave him a nervous smile.
He looked back out the window on the bridge and gazed deeply into the spinning,
shiny veneer of the rift.
"4...3...2...1...contact!"
On board
Thunderbolt fighter
January 23,
2271
10:45pm
Earth Standard Time
Captains Lochley
and Ivanova were looking up at the immense structure that was the flight deck
of the Yamato, and waited for the airlock to recycle so she could meet
the crew. When the signal blared that the atmosphere and pressure were back to
normal, they took off their helmets and looked towards the doorway.
"You
nervous about this," asked Ivanova.
"Yeah, you?"
"I
haven't been this nervous since meeting that first one ship out at Sector 957.," Ivanova replied, then noticed that the door was
opening.
Coming out
were several humans who appeared to be wearing a variety of uniforms, most
white, but a couple that were yellow and others that were brown. They looked to
be daily shift uniforms and not dress uniforms. The leader was at the head of
the pack, and his white uniform had red piping.
Ivanova
decided to introduce themselves. "I am Captain
Susan Ivanova of the Earth Alliance starship Titans, and this is my
colleague, Captain Elizabeth Lochley, commanding officer of space station
Wildstar
looked blankly at her for a moment, then snapped to
attention. "I'm Captain Derek Wildstar of the Earth Defense Force ship, Yamato.
We came through when we heard your distress signal and decided to lend
aid."
Ivanova
nodded. "I know. That signal came through to us too. It's from several
years ago, and the events that took place didn't happen."
"Didn't
happen? Then the ships attacking your station?"
Ivanova held
out a hand and stopped Wildstar, "It's a long story. Those ships are gone
now, but we have another enemy to worry about now. Earth Defense Force, you
say? What year is it back where you came from?"
Wildstar
looked back at his crew, and replied, "2203. What year is it here?"
Ivanova's face went pale, but she managed to reply, "The year
is 2271 here."
Wildstar's jaw
visibly dropped, and there was a loud murmur among his crew. "2271, you
say? Then what happened to Earth when we left?"
Ivanova looked
to the floor briefly, feeling awkward and trying to comprehend all of this, "Captain
Wildstar, to the best of my knowledge,
there has never been a Yamato in Earthforce that I
know of, and this ship's design is unknown to me. So we've got a lot of things
to talk about...," Ivanova was interrupted by her link. "Ivanova here.," she replied.
"Captain,
this is LaCoste. We just got a message from Minbar. There's a huge Drakh force
headed there to attack, and, Captain, they have a Shadow planet killer."
Ivanova's face went pale again, then she
snapped back to her professional side and spoke, "Set a course for
Minbar." She then looked over at Wildstar and then spoke back into her
link, "Send star charts and coordinates over here to the Yamato. I'll see
if they're willing to lend assistance."
"Yes,
captain. LaCoste out."
Ivanova walked
up to Wildstar and asked, "Captain, if you don't find it
presumptuous..."
Wildstar held
out his hand and said, "Just help us plot a course and we'll be there for
the fight, Captain. If you'll come this way..."
Ivanova and Lochley
made their way to the elevator tube with the rest of the crew, wondering if
they were making the right decision to bring this unknown ship into the fight.
TO BE CONTINUED....
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