'DEC-24-2004-23:58:34.08' burned steadily in a small corner of the pilot's console, silently counting time as the huge battleship continued to cruise towards home. Evan sighed and shook his head, not making it home by Christmas after all. His wife was going to MURDER him if he didnt help put the kid's toys together.

A heavy hand thumped his shoulder, jolting the ship's pilot out of his self-pity session, "Cheer up Richards. Might not make it by midnight, but you'll be there in plenty of time for Santa to visit, hmm?" Captain Davis was a large man, not fat, but one of those battleship commanders that lived up to the image they always projected: Damned near seven feet tall and looking as bulletproof as the ship he had responsibility for. Evan had seen the man first hand, carry two engineers out of a wrecked Explorer during a training accident on Tycho, and likely would have followed the man into Hell had he asked. As it was now, he just wanted to follow the Captain HOME.

The Communications engineer cleared his throat and called across the cramped deck, "Captain, base is calling us, sending a change of orders request." Evan groaned. Change of Orders meant only one thing-they weren't going home just yet. The captain gave Evan's shoulder an understanding squeeze as he answered, "Put em over the intercom. Hate those damned headsets."

Davis cleared his throat and glanced up at the cieling. Not that that did any good, but it was where the intercom speakers were, "This is the Subgenius, Captain Davis speaking. What can we do for you, Base?"

The voice on the intercom crackled and solidified, "Davis, we need you to check out the Manchester listening posts. We lost them, all of them, about 4 hours ago. If this is a deviant attempt to sneak something past us, blast them to hell and fix the posts. Shouldnt delay you boys for much. Sorry to do this to you on Christmas and all, but you're all we got."

The captain simply nodded and clipped, "Understood base. We'll report once we reach the Manchester area," then made a motion to the Communications engineer to cut the line. Once he was sure he wasnt being listened to, his obedient voice grumbled, "Richards, you heard the man...lets go fix the precious tinkertoys so we can all go home and sleep." Evan simply nodded, pulling on the pilot's helmet and slipped his hands back into the form-fitting gloves, murmuring under his breath, "Autopilot off. I have control."

Instantly the ship faded away to a mere outline in his vision, giving him full sight of his surroundings as if he himself was floating through the Umbra. Evan knew this was simply the work of the neurohelmet overriding his optic nerves to make him see something that wasnt really there, but damn if it wasnt breathtaking to have it happen. The gloves easily translated the movements of his fingers across the illusory landscape, a holographic representation of the entire New England area flickering before his gaze as he zoomed in on the Manchester area. He watched stability indicators for a moment, a cloud of dull grey infinity symbols hovering around Manchester proper where the UmbraNet had been taken down, "Captain, I have a stable translation zone." A few more touches of his fingers and the map was replaced with a warning, 'Void Engines ready. Translate? Voice command to confirm.' Evan cleared his throat, "Ready to translate on your command, Captain." Captain Davis nodded, "Hell yes, Major, lets get this over with."

Evan stilled his fingers, and allowed the translation warning to sound before he raised his voice, "This is Major Evan Richards, Confirming translation order." He closed his eyes to avoid losing his lunch-one thing he never got used to was the sickening lurch of your vision when the ship actually exchanged places with the target area, and he was not about to blow chunks on this shiny new deck. He heard the small beep confirming the completion of the translation order and opened his eyes, glancing over the dozen-odd position and indicator reports. Heh, less than 6 inches off of perfect target! And Instructor Daniels said he'd never get DimSci down! "Captain, confirmed translation. We are in position. Orders?"

Davis simply grunted, "Good...find the first one and lets go have a look. You know, if the Ivory Tower wasn't so damned paranoid..." His political commentary was cut off by the Weapons Officer, "Sir! I have an unidentified object, suspected living entity, approaching from 090, and damned fast! I have-" A dull thud rocked the ship suddenly, as if it had been rammed from the side. Red warning indicators suddenly lit up Evan's vision like the Christmas tree at his house he very desperately wished he was in front of at the moment, "We're hit! Evasive maneuvers..." He quickly changed the options visible to him, forcing the huge ungainly craft to spin around and face its assailant. But there wasnt anything there! The Communications Officer sent off a contact warning back to Base control, but didnt wait for a reply.

He heard the Chief Engineer suddenly cut in on the intercom, "Captain, we're losing an engine! It's overloading, I've got to shut it down!" But before Evan had any chance to react, the ship sprang back into startling reality around him, disorienting the pilot before it sank in that the flight control system just crashed, "Captain, I've lost the helm!" Panic became an almost tangible force in the cabin as its icy hand closed around some of the crew, but Captain Davis was going to have none of that, "AllRIGHT! Weapons, blow the holy hell out of anything that MOVES, Helm, get us the hell out of here NOW, go to manual control, Defense, get that damned shield up. MOVE, people!"

Evan yanked his hands out of the gloves and started typing commands furiously. Much slower than with the neural connection, the lumbering battleship slowly swung its nose around, only about halfway through its turn when it rocked again, this time as if kicked from behind. Evan saw immediately what the problem was, "Captain, the remaining two engines are in overdrive, I cant shut them down! We're going to hit!" A second, smaller explosion was heard more than felt behind him, followed by a scream of pain. He had enough time to turn around and mutter, "Sweet Christ..", before the wall of burning plasma flooded the bridge. Had anyone been left alive to care, the abrupt sickening crunch of the Subgenius plowing into brick building and dirt as it nosed over, would have been enough to break a few bones.

Everything seemed to fall silent for a moment, until the rest of the caved in building gave way, dumping a heavy shower of brick and mortar on the crippled battleship, smashing the side of one of its precious Void Engines. Several sparks flew across the cowling, before the engine simply gave up and exploded, a rippling wave of energy flooding out at high speed and dissapating into thin air.

A brush of a gloved hand across the glass of the door revealed nothing but melted colors on the other side of the viewport. One more turn of the bar, and the airlock finally gave way, spewing what was probably incredibly foul air out past the lone explorer. Webbing was carefully torn away, and the suited individual leaned their head in to look around the ruined and blasted command bridge of the Subgenius for a moment, before stepping back. Slowly backing up several steps, the figure turned and took off at a light lope, jogging the mile and a half to where a small explorer craft sat, humming quietly to itself. The cockpit opened, the figure jumped inside, waiting for the canopy to close before removing the helmet, and allowing the red hair to fall out behind her. She punched in her notes furiously for several moments before giving the craft the order to head back home. It was against orders, it was against a few major directives, but she had gotten away unhurt, accrediting her taking an ancient vaccuum suit and no technology with her to that fact. Not like she could make a report right now-if the Suits at the base found out, she wasnt JUST court-martialled, she'd be brainraped and dead. But she grinned anyway. She knew how to get in and out of the Dead Zone.

And she knew where the Subgenius was.

Things were looking up for the Void Engineers after all...