“The Enterprise is hit! They’ve lost their flight deck. They’re losing air too fast!” Winger said. “The Vorpal fighters are coming about to help . . . they’re going to be too late.”

“Get us over there!”

“We’ve lost too much reactor mass, Captain. We can’t make that kind of acceleration,” the chief engineer said, shaking his head.

“Damn it!” Eric swore, slamming his hands down. “Put the E on screen.”

“Captain . . .” Winger hesitated.

“Put her on screen.”

The screen flickered and the crippled image of the Enterprise was front and center, everyone looking on as three Drasin ships circled around and came back in on her firing. Eric’s eyes spotted pods launching from the ship, even as the Enterprise fired back and crippled one of the three with her main laser.

The beams intersected, slicing the gleaming hull of the Earth-built ship apart cleanly. The big ship separated, her engines floating one way while the habitats went another. The lasers stopped and Eric watched as the ships closed in on the pods and habitat modules.

“Don’t look away,” he said, his voice carrying. “This isn’t something that should be forgotten.”

The alien ships slowed as they got in range of the Enterprise habitat modules, their own bays opening as a mini swarm of drones launched across open space . . . and then everything vanished in a massive sphere of white light.

“W . . . what happened?”

Eric didn’t know who spoke. He didn’t care.

“Carrow blew his reactor, the Tokamak,” he said. “Probably had a couple pulse torpedoes held in reserve just for that.”

Even the Drasin seemed stunned by the action, and for a moment the attacks slacked off. Only for a moment, however, and it was clear that the aliens had no interest in giving them time to grieve for the fallen.

“The swarm has regrouped. They’re turning entirely on us again,” Winger said softly.

“Let them come,” Eric announced. “They couldn’t take the Enterprise, and they’ll not take the Odysseus.”

The words were dark, but his tone was almost lighthearted, and for a brief moment those who heard him speak felt like they’d just watched a victory instead of a crippling loss.

“Miss Chans, continue firing, please,” he said, breaking the moment.

“Y . . . yes Capitaine,” she mumbled, returning to her task.

“Commander, bring us around to cover the Vorpals,” Eric ordered. “Let’s team up.”

“You’ve got it, sir. Coming about.”

With the Odysseus now covering for the Vorpal fighters that had survived this far into the battle, and they providing a fair amount of cover in return, the battle almost instantly raged back to that of a full-blown war. The Drasin were slowly cutting away at the Odysseus, however, leaving her crippled piece by piece.