Stardate: 71028:1556
Title: Drastic Action (Part 2)
Author: Captain Deadilus
Time: Current
Scene: Rennas vessel 'Conquer'


As the leading edge of the shockwave bore down upon the populated Rennas homeworld and the pair of Horizon's, Grand Warrior Glim'Plel found himself at a loss as to what to do. On the one hand, he could destroy the enemy that had wrought certain death on his people; on the other hand, he could relay the information to the scientists below and help to co-ordinate an evacuation, albeit a small one.

Luckily for the Horizon, Glim'Plel chose the second alternative. As his communications officer and the scientists onboard the Conquer proceeded to relay the data to their counterparts on the doomed world below (for the hivemind effect was not strong enough at this distance), the Engineers onboard the Horizon worked to restore their own warp drive...


=/\= USS Horizon =/\=

Lily stood on the Bridge in shock almost as much as the rest of the crew, her father and fellow Captain included. Captain Deadilus was the first to react as he tapped his combadge.

"Deadilus to Engineering. Tell me you can give us warp power within the next twenty minutes."

[Remmick here, Sir. We're still dealing with blown-out conduits across the ship, and even working flat-out it'll be at least an hour before we can give you Warp One and several hours before we are back to normal.]

"I have an idea," Lily piped up.

Scott turned to her. "Did you know about this?"

She simply shook her head. He didn't know whether to believe her or not, but in the end he realised he really had little choice in the matter.

"What's your idea?" He prompted her...


=/\= Future Horizon =/\=

Lily rematerialised on the bridge of her USS Horizon to find Commander Barek sat firmly in the command chair, hand phaser already drawn.

"What have you done?" She looked at her fellow officer with disgust.

"I did what you didn't have the guts to do. I stopped the slaughter of our people. I wiped out our enemy before they even had a chance to threaten us." He verged on screaming at the Captain, raising his phaser slowly higher.

"You're no better than them," Lily retorted.

Barek raised his phaser level, and Lily realised that the Vulcan had obviously gone slowly insane after the destruction of his homeworld and death of his family. Staring at the lethal end of the phaser, she heard the familiar discharge noise before realising the turbolift doors had opened, spilling out several security officers.

As he slumped to the floor, Lily quickly bent down to remove the phaser from his clutches and check his pulse. She realised that her officers, fearing a Rennas assault, had set their weapons to maximum to counter the tough insectoid exo-skeleton. The Commander hadn't stood a chance.

Sparing no more time pondering over the deceased Barek, she ordered helm to move them towards the other Horizon. As the two vessels maneuvered to within inches of each other, proximity warning alarms blaring on both bridges, Lily ordered their shields extended around the other vessel and the temporal drive to be spun up.

~

The shockwave and debris from the supernova tore through space, making short work of the distance from the collapsed star to the Federation vessels. Even at full shield strength neither vessel could survive the impact from a supernova.

~

"Temporal drive is set," came the report from Science I.

Lily looked at the viewscreen, waiting just a few seconds more.

"Engage."

~

In a blinding flash of light the pair of Federation vessels vanished, mere seconds before the remnants of the star tore through the Conquer and the planet Renna. As chunks of iron from their sun bombarded the planet, the mantle shattered and the energy released from the millions of explosions sent planetary temperatures off the chart, causing the atmosphere to burn away before the planet finally succumbed to the inevitable and simply disintegrated.

The small fleet of Rennas survivors, crowded into a handful of warp-capable ships, watched on in horror as their world was destroyed before they made their way out of the system at warp speed, and for several minutes the remnants of the star proceeded to pass through the previously occupied space, smashing fragments of the world down in size with every passing second.

And then all was quiet as the trailing edge of the ever-dissipating shockwave passed. The Renna system, or rather the space it once occupied, lay silent and dark for another twenty minutes before a blinding flash of light returned the Federation vessels to the exact spot they had departed from only thirty minutes previously...

~

As the viewscreen came to life, one Horizon Captain looking at the other, a collectively-held breath was exhaled.

"You should come back with us," Scott said.

[I can't do that, Dad,] Lily replied, the Horizon's bridge crew silent as the truth behind their relationship became clear. [We don't belong to this Federation any more than we belong in the alternate future that would await us if we returned.]

"Where will you go?" Scott asked.

[We'll find our own space in time...] With that she closed the link, pointing the Horizon further out into the depths of unexplored space before engaging the warp drive...


=================
Captain Scott Deadilus
Commanding Officer
USS Horizon
NCC-72400
=================