Aflame

Posted on 27 Jun 2024 @ 7:55pm by Captain Bane Plase

350 words; about a 2 minute read

Mission: Stranded
Location: Deep Space

ON:

The Nebula-Class USS Cygnus zipped through space at just under warp 3. Behind the vessel, captured in a blue tractor beam, was the Freighter Bixilfiz. Nothing seemed amiss, until it was.

In one-one millionth of a second, an intense, bright white light flashed, as bright as a pulsar, from the Bixilfiz. In the next instant, she exploded into many thousands of pieces, radiating out in a 360 degree arc, with fire, radiation and intense heat.

The shockwave hit the Cygnus less than a second later, obliterating the warp bubble, causing the ship to fall out of warp speed in an instant, her axis completely askew from normal flight pattern. The concussive nature of the shock wave and the immediate deceleration was far too great, and far too quick, for the inertial dampeners and structural integrity field of the Cygnus to compensate. The giant triangular pod that sat atop the Cygnus, which housed the vast majority of the sensor systems and all of the long range subspace communications systems, was completely sheered away, the ripping of tritanium, steel and other composite metals leaving a trail of sparks between the now drifting away pod, and the rest of the superstructure of the Cygnus. The port nacelle, bearing the brunt of Newtonian and Einsteinian physics, buckled and bent severely, the blue glow down the length blinking out, the red of the bussard ramscoop fading from a bright red to a deep maroon.

Barely a moment later, a huge piece of the Bixilfiz's port side smashed into the Cygnus, tearing a giant gash several meters long and wide down the Engineering section of the hull. Adrift, the hull began to get peppered with the remnants of the Bixilfiz, denting, scratching, and in some cases, puncturing holes into the saucer section of the Cygnus. Several plasma fires erupted from some of the punctured areas of the ship, their green flames alive and well in the vacuum of space.

Two full minutes after the explosion, all of the internal lights blinked off, then back on before going out completely.

The USS Cygnus was adrift, and dying.



OFF

 

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