Old Friends, Part 12: Hijacked
Moving with speed no human could match, Orion grabbed Rommie and stopped her from hitting the ground. She seemed to be convulsing. Dylan's eyes went wide with fear, "What happening to her?" Orion was doing his best to stop Rommie from thrashing out and hurting someone, "The link to her main AI has been jammed! It'll take her a moment to adjust." As if on cue, Rommie stopped shaking. She looked straight at Dylan, her eyes wide, "Ship. Nietzscheans. Drago-Kazov pride." She seemed to pass-out. Dylan and Beka ran for the airlock as Trance and Orion carried the unconscious Rommie between them.
Tyr had
been in command, brooding when he heard the hatch open. Thinking it was Harper
and Mary, he called out over his shoulder, "Have you two quite
finished?" An un-familiar answered, "No, we've only just begun."
Tyr span the pilots seat round, and found himself facing a group of heavily
armed Nietzscheans. He tried to jump behind the weapons counsel, but the lead
Nietzschean fired at the same time.
Tyr felt something strike him dead center in the chest. He looked down, expecting to see blood, but instead a pair of metal prongs, attached to a length of wire, protruded from his stomach. His attacker smiled, "Lights out!" Tyr felt as though his entire body was being consumed by fire, and he blacked-out.
Dylan
and Beka reached the airlock just in time to see the Andromeda pull-away. Dylan
punched the airlock control panel so hard it mashed, cutting his fingers,
"God damn it!" Beka grabbed his arm, "The Maru!" they
sprinted along the corridor to the next hatch, and quickly got the battered
transport underway. Dylan tapped commands into the Maru's sensor-control panel
as fast as he could, "Her slipstream drive is off-line, but she can still
out-run us at sub-light." All of a sudden, a shadow fell-over the Maru's
cockpit: Beka leaned forward to see what it was.
The
Shoulder of Orion hung directly above the Maru, and fired grapples at the
smaller ship. Dylan was thrown off his feet as the Shoulder of Orion started to
pull the Maru in. Beka released her safety harness, and ran for the airlock.
Trance was weighting on the other side, "Come-on! Hurry!" Beka
sprinted off towards command, closely followed by Dylan and Trance.
Rommie
sat on the floor of command, her head between her knees. Dylan knelt down beside
her, "Are you ok?" She nodded weekly, "I will be." Smiling,
Dylan squeezed her shoulder. He stood as Mark entered command. The young captain
turned to Dylan, "Orion told me what's happening. Is there anyway to regain
control of your ship from here?" Dylan shook his head, "None: they cut
Rommie's connection to the main AI. We have to assume that they have complete
control of the Andromeda."