Operation Outrun

## Part 1

Captain Johnny Johnson was finding it sort of hard to feel comfortable in his new chair.

It just didn't feel right to him yet. It needed time to break in.

His crew were getting along okay, but it wasn't very easy.

His Chief Engineer Adligii, a Martian, had said that there was a small problem with the impulse drive, but it wasn't so bad.

"It could cause some stalls after about an hour or so at full impulse." he had said. "We're doing our best to have it fixed."

*We'll keep an eye on it* *till* *then*, Johnny thought acceptably.

"Captain, we're picking up a priority 1 distress call from the USS Ladyluck, an Akira class." Lt. Cmdr. Dave said.

"On screen." Johnny stood up. *An event so soon?* he thought.

The face of Lt. Tom Johnson, his son, lit up.

"Tom! What's going on?" Johnny said.

"We're under attack! Some huge unknown ship dropped in and destroyed our shields and engines! The Captain and many of the crew are already dead, we can't hold on much-"

An explosion ended the transmission.

"Helm, prepare for maximum warp, use the coordinates of that transmission, engage!" Johnny commanded.

The ship lurched forward, and half a second later jumped into warp.

"Seems it's not just the Impulse drive having problems," Tim alerted.

"Noted, Lieutenant." Johnny achknowledged, returning to his seat. They were on a rescue mission now, all that mattered was they got there in time.

## Part 2

Johnny's mood radiated through to the bridge crew by the grim look on his face. He sat in his chair, watching the stars whizzing by on the view screen. If only they could go faster.

Tim and Jack punched buttons on their helm consoles as they neared the Ladyluck's coordinates.

"We have entered the sector, Captain." Tim said.

"Begin Red Alert, take us to quarter impulse! Ready phasers!" Johnny shouted commands.

Dave punched buttons on the tactical station as he readied the phasers.

"On screen." Johnny said.

The screen lit up: A heavily damaged Akira class cruiser lay adrift underneath a massive starship, which had locked some sort tractor beam on it.

"Beam them out of there, chief." Johnny transmitted to the transporter room.

"Beam out complete." the transporter chief replied.

"Hail the unidentified vessel, Mr. Dave." Johnny said.

Dave pursed his lips as he sent the standard frequencies. He looked up. "No response."

"Again, Dave." Johnny said.

He pressed it again.

As soon as he pressed it, a volley of heavily charged disruptor blasts flew from the other vessel, knocking the shields down.

"Shields are down!" Dave yelled as the torpedoes slammed the Guardian.

The lights dimmed and the ship rocked.

Plasma vapor leaked from an exposed conduit, and more torpedoes slammed the ship.

"Dave! Get those shields back up!" Johnny said.

Dave fought the rocking of the ship and tried the shields. "The computer's trying, they've been too damaged." Dave said. This time, ionized particle beams hit them, ripping the forward hull to shreds.

"Engines-?" Johnny asked.

"Offline." Dave reported. "But weapons are still working."

"Fire at will!" Johnny issued the command.

Torpedoes blasted from the Guardian's torpedo launchers while phasers streaked from the phaser strips.

The phaser fire was absorbed by the other ship's shields. For now, the torpedoes were also ineffective.

Johnny grit his teeth. They were left with no other choice. "Ready the transphasic torpedoes." he said.