<USS Avalon> Log-No Greater Love

No Greater Love

Dodge Thomas

 

 

The turbolift ride to engineering was silent as usual. When he arrived however, 
the hall was filled with a silence of a different kind. People rushed to and 
fro, worried looks on their faces telling more than Dodge wanted to know. The 
tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. 

The doors to engineering parted just as they had every time before, however, 
this time they only slid apart half way before stopping. Carson Fuller nearly 
ran over him on his way out.

?What?s going on Carson??


?Piss off Thomas. And as for that little she-bitch, she?s all yours. I don?t 
want anything to do with her.? 

Dodge noticed he was rubbing a rapidly reddening mark on his face. ?Where?s 
Leila??

?Hanging upside down from the rafters, waiting for her next victim. Go to 
hell.? He stormed out of engineering on that note and was gone.

Leila, of course, was not hanging upside down from the ceiling. She was crying, 
her makeup smearing and dripping down her cheeks.

?Leila, are you all right??

?Not now Dodge.? She wiped the tears away. ?You need to look at this, hurry.?

Dodge glanced at the readout, then took a harder look at it. ?Is this what I 
think it is??

?Yes.?


He read the readouts, then summarized. ?The rifts are dumping high quantities 
of temporally-charged magnetic particles into space?and the Avalon?s warp core 
is acting as a beacon. Am I right so far??

?Yes. Not only that, but the magnetic particles are de-polarizing the magnetic 
locks that hold the warp-core containment field in place, not to mention EM 
relays all over the ship. Within minutes, ships systems will start to crash.?


?Why didn?t you contact the Captain??

?Inter ship communication went down as soon as I contacted you.?

?Anilla!?


Anilla Aguatequa rushed up from her station. ?Yes sir??

?I need you to get this PADD to the bridge. Give it to the Captain. Make sure 
he knows what?s going on down here!?

The voice of the computer spoke above him.

?ATTENTION, ATTENTION, ALL PERSONAL. YOU NOW HAVE SIX MINUTES UNTIL WARP CORE 
CONTAIMENT BREECH.? She repeated herself three times.

?And tell him that we don?t have much time left!?

?Yes sir!?

The lights in engineering, and doubtlessly all over the ship dimmed greatly, 
then came back up to a sub normal level.

?Leila, what are our options??

?None. We can?t leave without accelerating the process. Any more power dumped 
into those engines would result in a catastrophic failure in the--?

?Okay! I get it! Can we shut the core down??

?Not without first shutting off the magnetic interlocks.?

?That?s no good. The core?ll still blow. How about a core dump??

Leila thought for a moment. ?Yea, that?d work, but the Avalon would be 
powerless. We?d drift right into that rift and god knows where it goes.?

Dodge gave her an odd look for just a second. ?Okay?Then we need to evacuate 
engineering.? He raised his voice so he could be heard above the noise. All 
ready, air compressors and coolant mechanisms were failing, filling engineering 
with a plethora of hisses and groans. ?All right everybody! We need to evacuate 
this area right now. Drop what you?re doing and get out of here!? 

There was an explosion behind him, and the panel to the coolant systems control 
blew clean off.

?Coolant leak! We have a coolant leak! Everybody get out of here!? 


There was a renewed panic as everybody rushed out of engineering. The doors 
automatically would seal after a coolant leak and everybody knew it.

Dodge looked at Leila, her makeup still smearing down her face. ?Let?s set the 
auto dump system and get the hell out of here!?

?Right!? She rushed over to an engineering control panel and entered her code. 
Dodge did the same.

?Okay, it?s primed. Let?s get out of here!? He shouted.

?Right behind you.?

They were almost to the slowly descending blast doors when another alarm 
sounded. 

?AUTOMATIC SAFTEIES FAILURE. AUTO-DUMP PROCEEDURE ABORTED. SAFTEY FORCE-FIELD 
FAILURE. HULL BREECH IMMANENT.?

Dodge stopped in his tracks. ?The ship must be drifting into the rift already. 
There?s no way to dump the core automatically now!?

?What do we do then?? Leila was almost screaming over the noise.?

?You go. I--I?ll stay and dump it manually.?

Leila stared at him for a second, then turned to leave.

?Leila! Wait.?


She stopped. 

?I know this isn?t the best time or anything?? Sparks showered down on the two 
of them. The emergency door was already one quarter of the way down. 
??but--I--I love you.?


?What?!?

?I?m saying I love you. I love you.?

Her face softened as if she had lived her entire life in the dark and had, for 
the first time, seen a sunrise. Her lower lip trembled and tears filled her 
eyes. Then she pushed past him and headed to the engineering panel.

?What are you doing?? Dodge asked frantically.

?I?m staying to help. You can?t dump this on your own and you know it!?

?But, you?ll die.? He began to plug in the manual release codes.

The ship trembled. Both of the primary coolant ducts glowed red hot. Several 
pipes had ruptured over-head. Dodge entered the last sequence and hit the 
ignition panel. The emergency door behind them clamped closed.

Dodge walked over to Leila, meeting her halfway around the descending warp 
tube. Tears filled both of their eyes.

?You didn?t have to do it, you know?? Dodge almost whispered.

?Yes I did.? She smiled almost imperceptibly.

?But why??

?Because--I love you too.? They embraced, their lips meeting one last time.

The room around became dark and cold as it opened to the void of space. They 
felt no pain as gravity lost it?s hold on them. For a moment all was as it 
would be. Blue within blue lights danced around them, the rift most likely. 
Then a blinding flash, then nothing.

The Avalon listed sharply to starboard, drifting rapidly into the rift. It?s 
dorsal surface already was completely immersed. On it?s belly, a tiny hole 
appeared. A long cylinder, eight and a half decks long slid out just as the 
entire ship was engulfed by the rift. There was no sound, of course, when the 
warp core went critical, nothing but a blinding flash, then nothing.

The stars twinkled as they had for countless millennia. Neither the Avalon, nor 
the rifts stood out to mar the perfect black blanket of space, and all was once 
again silent.

 



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