“Wait! Wait! I think I’ve got it!” Zony shouted. “Yili, transfer maximum power to the low-band emitters in our SRS relays!”

“Low band? But that–”

“Give me that power, Yili!”

The engineer reconfigured the power board. The bridge lights flickered as the energy sources switched over from auxiliary reactors to batteries. Suddenly Zony’s circuits were flooded with excess energy. She poured it all into her short-range sensors. The purpose wasn’t to find anything in particular. It was to drive as much power on the SRS wavelengths as possible. Finally one of them matched the communications harmonics and all the visible light on the bridge changed color subtly.

“Zony what are you doing?!” Colonel Moody shouted. All the visible wavelengths on the bridge shifted blue, which made all the instruments glow with an otherworldly haze.

“Cover your ears, everyone!” Zony shouted. A sound like a continuous loop of glass breaking began to echo over itself louder and louder. Everyone switched their Triple-S systems to compensate for the noise, which rapidly peaked far above 200 decibels. Anything that wasn’t attached to the deck or bulkheads began to rattle violently. Several items clattered to the floor.

A ghostly after-image that looked like the outline of a human form faded into view. It was almost completely transparent, but it was visible enough to see a distinct outline. It moved as if trying to get the Argent boarding party’s attention. A shattered voice echoed, sounding very much like a sound wave pulled apart in packets over a digital voice connection.

“Z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-o-o-o-o-n-n-n-n-e-e-e-e sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-i-i-i-f-f-f-t h-h-h-h-a-a-a-a-a-a-r-r-r-r-m-m-m-m-o-o-o-o-o-n-n-n-n-n-i-i-i-i-c-c-c-c–”

The Signals officer looked like she understood what the Captain was saying and she scrambled at her controls. The light shifted even more intensely into the ultraviolet spectrum and the vibrations strengthened. Millions of volts poured into the gigantic SRS magnets under the bridge deck. The huge energy loads began to ionize the internal atmosphere. Static electricity popped and arced off the energy shields on the boarding party’s tac suits.

“ZONY! SHIFT HARMONICS BY ONE POINT FIVE!” The voice ripped through the air like a point blank lightning strike. Zony keyed the configuration command and punched the power to maximum. A series of vibrations that felt as if they might detach the Dunkerque’s Bridge from the rest of the ship pounded and ripped at the bulkheads and deck. One final blast of sonic energy exploded across the bridge, pulverizing several control panels.

A moment later, Captain Jason Hunter stumbled forward and fell on to the bridge deck plates.

“Skipper!” Several marines, Yili and Moo ran to their Captain’s aid. Jason quickly regained his feet.

“Secure for maneuvering. Yili, transfer all power to sublight engines and stand by to engage auxiliary navigation!”

Everyone on the bridge reacted with well practiced efficiency. In a matter of seconds, the entire boarding party was secured in four-point shock harnesses at stations all around the strike cruiser’s bridge.

“Hostiles on Deck Two!”

“Engineer, all engines aft flank!”

“Aye, sir. Helm answering all engines aft, flank speed!”

DSS Dunkerque forced the entire Argent boarding party forward in their shock harnesses until the weight and pressure threatened to cut off their ability to breathe, even through their tac suits. The enormous vessel accelerated backwards rapidly.

“All stop!”

Yili punched the counter-thrusters and the vessel slowed in space so quickly several of the Argent Marines lost consciousness. Their heads lolled on their shoulders as Hunter drove the ship forward again.

“All ahead flank! Roll port two hundred seventy degrees!”

The vessel surged forward as the G-Force alarms began to sound across all decks. Yili felt the mighty ship’s structure begin to groan and complain at the fantastic loads being forced into its many stress points, but Captain Hunter was relentless.

“Starboard engines to 125%! Port to 75%! Reverse your roll two hundred seventy degrees starboard!”

The shearing forces caused at least two or three major bulkhead supports to buckle and threw everything aboard that wasn’t secured into the opposite wall at a relative velocity exceeding 100 MPH. It was the equivalent of being locked in a metal box and thrown down a mountain.

“All back full!”

“Yili slammed the velocity controls back again. The Dunkerque began cavitating, fighting her own pressure and momentum with the unbelievable forces generated by the auxiliary engines. An out-of-phase sympathetic vibration shook the vessel like an uneven wing in a wind tunnel.

“All stop!”

The Dunkerque came to rest in space. Only Zony, Yili and the Captain were still conscious.

“Now give me a life signs report.”

Zony studied her instruments for several seconds. “Negative respiration, sir. I don’t think anything organic could have survived that with no safety systems.”

“Very well, Signals. Can you take the system we just improvised and apply it to the entire ship?”

“Sir?”

“It will pull us out of this region of space and put us back in contact with Argent.”

“I’m going to need a ton of power for that much mass, Skipper.”

“Engineer?”

Yili nodded.

“Outstanding. We need to get this vessel back intact. We’re going to need her.”

“Need her? For what, sir?” Zony asked.

“A war against someone who knows our tactics better than we do.”