of him, sir," the Officer answered. Helm began to
program the maneuver while the Governor again called Morn. "This is
your last chance!" he ordered, "unless you surrender in five seconds we
open fire."
25 Morn did not reply. "Helm," he ordered, "commence maneuver."
26 "Yes sir!" Helm acknowledged. Suddenly, just before the Governor's
ships started firing The Son's Pride suddenly rose, pivoted, and let go
her own barrage into the belly of the cruiser above them. The other
crew was taken completely by surprise. Her engines a blazing inferno,
she maneuvered off to explode a short distance away.
27 The rest of the Governor's ships firing at where The Son's Pride had
been, found themselves hitting each other. The Son's Pride sped away
getting two good shots from her stern tubes into a destroyer while she
moved off. Confused and bewildered, the station's ships were slow to
take pursuit, but they quickly did.
28 "Communications," ordered Morn, "broadcast a general alarm. Tell
Fleet we're under attack by this system's forces for unknown reasons.
Request immediate aid, and I MEAN IMMEDIATE! Send it open. We can't
take the time to code it."
29 Several systems away the Communications Officer on The Lord's
Vengeance picked up the general alarm, and quickly relayed it to North.
At the moment they had just dropped pods themselves, and were waiting
to pick more up. "Navigation," inquired North, "how long to get there?"
30 The Officer went to work. "If we use the standard routes sir, five
days."
31 "That wouldn't do them much good," snapped North. "Their ship would
be a vapor ball by then. Any other ships responding?"
32 "Just about everybody in the sector, sir," Communications answered,
"but the Governor of that station