^_^	



Rieekann rehearsed over and over again what he was
going to say. Three seconds after he felt the jaw
wrenching feeling of the bomb, he opened his eyes. 
	"Damage assessment," Rieekann said. he said so
calmly, and coolly, that Piett knew that he had said it
over and over again in his head.
	"Massive interior damage to hangar bay, and to
tractor beam," Piett replied.
	"Be more specific then that!," cursed Rieekann.
	"All right, all right. Tractor beam totally
destroyed, and hangar bay needs repairs before any
attempt can be made to leave the ship."
	"Damn. Attack the HyperGens with everything we have.
Show no mercy!"

	The World Devastator exploded, taking with it
assorted sensors aboard the first Frigate, which, with no
sense of direction, was helpless to really help the
HyperGens. However, she moved toward the Grand Destroyer
at flank speed.

	General Ozzel knew his ship was falling apart. He
knew that the Destroyer would certainly obliterate the
ship. But he knew his duty, and was going to stand until
the last.
	"Commander!," he yelled. "Prepare the ship for
ramming! Destination, the Destroyer!"
	"Yes, sir, but we'll all be destroyed!"
	"I'd rather go down as a hero, then as the first
casualty of war! Proceed with my orders immediately!"
	"Yes, sir." The Frigate moved faster toward the
Grand Destroyer.

	"Amy! What happened?," Ria asked in a weak voice.
	"We'll be all right," Gretchen reassured. "We're
going home. We completed our mission." Ria nodded. Rita
rushed back.
	"We'll be on the Destroyer in five minutes. You'll
be all right. Just hang in there. We'll be all there for
you," Rita said. "You've come this far. From now on, it's
all uphill."
	"I sure hope so," Ria replied. Rita stroked the
young girl's head. 
	"Where are you guys from?," she asked.
	"We're from Earth," Rita replied. "Where are you
from?"
	"Kraakatorass." Rita's mouth dropped. The name of
her home planet made her shiver a little. Ria obviously
noticed.
	"What's wrong?," she asked.
	"Nothing. Just relax." Rita thought back about how
her home planet had been evacuated ten years ago because
of a collision with a nearby moon. The remains were
habitable, but the massive loss of life of her people was
just devastating.

	Rieekann just happened to look over to his left
shoulder. The Frigate was moving toward the Destroyer at
full speed.
	"Evasive!," he yelled. The Destroyer began to turn,
as everyone gasped, and yelled. The turn was sharp, but
Rieekann knew better. Silently, he said the most gut
tearing thing Piett had ever heard.
	"We hit it."

	The Frigate slammed into the Destroyer's middle,
sparking numerous explosions. It was immediately
disintegrated because it's shields were gone, but the
Destroyer was cut in half. Shrapnel struck ships left and
right. The Drencher got some of it stuck in it's Drive
engines, making the Hyperdrive's range limited. More
quakes rocked the ship, and more of the ship separated
itself from the Bridge. The Bridge was immediately
sealed, and made air tight. Rieekann knew they still
stood a chance, but the future was grim. There was four
people were on the Bridge, and oxygen was plentiful, but
he knew he would have to act fast.

	"Radio Peers and tell him that the Grand Destroyer
has been hit. We need a rescue team." Piett nodded and
quickly raced over to a computer.
	"Sir! Sir! Mayday! Mayday! We've been hit, badly. We
need assistance, fast!" Peers obviously heard, and knew
who it was, but he didn't get so much as ask how much
damage was sustained, when all power was gone. The Bridge
was dark. The Bridge, along with some of the rest of the
ship, drifted in space. Rieekann was silent. He could
only pray that the Frigates were destroyed before any
further damage was caused.

	The Revenger fired one last missile. The second
Frigate exploded in fury, causing much damage to her
sister's starboard side. 
	"It's now one on one, Admiral," Captain Reken said
to his superior officer, Admiral John Denton.
"Congratulations!" The Captain walked away from the
Bridge. Denton walked closer to the end of the Bridge.
The Frigate, taking much damage, was on fire on one side.
The war was almost over. Suddenly, there was a sound.
Reken answered the beckon.
	"Sir? It's Peers!" Denton rushed over to the
computer. Peers looked very stressed out.
	"Peers! It's an honor. . . ."
	"Be quiet," Peers commanded. "The Destroyer is gone,
but the Bridge is still intact. you must rescue the men
trapped in the Bridge immediately!"
	"Yes, sir," Denton said, looking up. The Frigate
exploded in fury. Denton smiled. "All the Frigates have
been destroyed."
	"Quickly! get to the Destroyer's Bridge. They're
airtight, but for how long, I don't know."
	"Yes, sir!"

	Ria felt a sharp jar. Her heart was beating slower,
and she knew she wouldn't survive much longer. She felt
four hands grasp her just as she went into
unconsciousness. She was put onto a long stretcher, and
wheeled into an emergency room. There, her chest was
opened up, and her main arteries were taken out, and
placed onto a machine. Just then, her heart failed. The
veins were then taken out, and attached to the tube, and
the machine was turned on. The doctor waited three
minutes, and then smiled. She was going to make it.

	Bridget, Amy, Roger, Gretchen, and Rita waited
outside the emergency room. The Doctor came out, and took
off his gloves. The four visitors rose. 
	"How is she, Doctor?," Roger asked.
	"Luckily, we were able to put her heart on a
machine. Just as we put it on the machine, her heart
failed."
	"She's going to live?," Gretchen asked, in a voice
that didn't sound right.
	"If that's good news to you," the Doctor replied.
	"I apologize, I just meant. . . ."
	"I know. You're all stressed out. We'll be going to
Hyperspace in about a day or two, to Dsadia because the
Hyperdrive is damaged and we need to repair it. Go to
your bunks and have a good night's sleep. Come back
tomorrow morning to see how she is doing."
	"Thank you, Doctor," Roger replied.
	"No, thank you. You rescued her, you deserve all the
credit. I'm just doing my job." He walked away, and
checked on Ria.

	The Revenger hadn't engaged the Raw for three
minutes, when the ship exploded into a mass of molted
machinery. The remaining two HyperGens were at the
fringes of the Revenger's scopes now, so the Captain
decided to withdraw, and get it's people out of the
debris of the Destroyer.

	"Sir," Captain Reken said to Admiral Denton.  "We
have a problem. The Destroyer is depressurized at the
exact spot of the Bridge. We'll have to remove much of
the remaining area around it." Denton was a little
confused at the way Reken told him the information, but
the message was clear: The Bridge had to be separated
from the rest of the debris.
	"Send a team out there to detach the ship from the
Bridge," he replied.
	"Yes, sir," Captain Reken replied. 

	Rieekann heard the noises just outside the door. He
knew now that there was no air behind the door. There had
been not much talk for the past hours they had been in
the Bridge for. He relaxed, knowing that they would soon
be rescued. The temperature had dropped rapidly, and
frost was forming on the windshield of the Grand
Destroyer's Bridge, or what was left of it. Rieekann
shivered, for all he had on was his uniform, which
provided very little warmth. Piett was near him, banging
his head against the computer's desk, while the other two
were sleeping in chairs at the other end. Rieekann only
prayed that Peers would give him a little rest and
recreation before he chewed him out for destroying the
Grand Destroyer.

	"Ria, how are you feeling?," Gretchen asked. She was
still hooked up to the machine, but all the color had
returned to her face. Her hair was washed, rid of all
blood clots, but her body was still dirty, and sticky
from the dried blood she had lost. She was covered by a
large blanket so her visitors or her couldn't see her
insides.
	"I am well, thank you," Ria replied. "The Doctor is
replacing my dead heart with an artificial one shortly.
I'll be out of here in about a day. Thank you for saving
my life. I hope someday I can do the same for you, all of
you." Tears streamed down Ria's face as she spoke.
Gretchen, and Bridget were also watery- eyed, while Roger
just smiled. 
	"We were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It
was only a matter of time before somebody screwed up."

	It seemed everything was all right.

	Well, almost. The debris from the Grand Destroyer
drifted, causing much a concern for the Revenger as she
drifted around the Bridge of the Destroyer. 
	"Why don't we just haul it all in?," Reken asked.
	"We will, we will," Denton assured. "I want to make
sure that they're all right. I don't want to have a
welcoming team enter the Bridge with Medals of Honor
without medical assistance if there's a man in there with
a broken arm."
	"So what do we do?," Captain Reken asked, giving all
hope up of a quick, safe rescue.
	"Send a walkman out there, and have them see if
everything's all right."
	"Yes, sir."

	Rieekann dozed off for about five minutes more, when
he became aware of a man in a space suit outside the
window. He quickly got up, raced over to the window, and
waved. The man outside gave him the OK sign, which
Rieekann gave back. 
	"You guys," he beckoned, his voice scratchy from
being in the confines of a disabled Bridge that could
easily become a coffin. The others woke up, and stood
next to Rieekann. Convinced everyone was all right, he
radioed the Revenger to alert them that everyone was all
right. Rieekann, overjoyed, smiled for the first time
since the ordeal.

	"The spaceman reports that everyone is all right,"
Reken reported. Everyone's suffered minor scrapes and
cuts. No casualties, no deaths."
	"Good. Proceed with the boarding. Alert Peers that
we are boarding now," Denton said. He smiled. The crew
was all right, and he felt obligated to their survival.
	"Any word on those HyperGen cruisers?," Denton
asked.
	"They jumped Hyperspace ten minutes ago," Reken
replied. Denton raised an eyebrow. The cruiser had
suffered Hyperspace problems, and he had hoped that once
he got Rieekann out of the mess he had gotten himself
into, he would intercept the HyperGen's present course,
and attempt to Disable them. Now, with one less thing to
worry about, the remains of the Destroyer held fast onto
his mind.
	"Prepare to board," Reken yelled.
	"Hey, that's my line," accused Denton.
	"Sorry, sir," Reken replied. Denton adjusted his
suit.
	"Prepare to board," he said. Reken rolled his eyes.

	The Revenger snuggled up against the Destroyer's
Bridge. Rieekann held to a strut to avoid falling over.
With lateral control lost, this wasn't going to be
pleasant. Then, all at once, the shifting stopped, and
then there was a hissing sound. The door opened when the
hissing sound stopped.
	"Hello, Rieekann, fancy to see you here," Denton
said.
	"Yeah, well let's get out of here. I feel as cold as
an iceberg from Earth, if not colder." They were the only
people in the Bridge right now. 
	"I agree. Peers is waiting for you."
	"Peers is here? Why didn't he want to kill me
personally?"
	"No, Rieekann, Peers is at Miaka. We won a battle.
We lost a battle also."
	"The thing that gets me is why we weren't floating
in the Bridge," Rieekann said, as they heard the thing
detach. 
	"Check your shoes," Denton replied. He lifted one
up, and checked.
	"Magnets?," he inquired.
	"Yup. The floor in there was magnetic. I thought
you'd know that by now."
	"I haven't been in a Dreadnought Destroyer for a
while."
	"Well, that explains it. Let us go to the Bridge,
and head back to Miaka."
	"Is Peers by any chance mad? If he is let's take our
time getting back, shall we?" Rieekann sort of gave a
half hearted laugh.
	"Peers has a Medal of Honor waiting for you, for
risking your life."
	"But Denton, we didn't win. We lost two ships, and
we accomplished nothing."
	"Yes, but you were exceptionally brave for going
after that cruiser. In a way it's my fault. If only the
rear gunners had opened fire on the Frigate before it hit
your ship."
	"You can't live in the past," Rieekann said, and
then added, "around Peers you can't live in the present
or the future, but don't cry over spilt milk." Denton
nodded, straightening out his shirt. Only then did
Rieekann realize that his fly was down.

	Ria was due out of her operation in a few minutes.
The whole operation itself was a success, but she refused
to be seen until she had taken a nice hot shower to get
all the dried blood off of her. She could feel her heart
pumping by checking her pulse on her neck, but when she
put her hand to her chest, she felt nothing. After the
shower, she put on a pair of pants, and a shirt which she
had borrowed from Rita. After combing, drying, and
combing her hair again, she put her shoes on, and went
out to meet her friends.
	"Rita, where's your Father?," she asked.
	"Oh, new orders," she replied. "I take it the
operation was a success?"
	"Oh, yes. I hope you guys didn't stay awake too long
worrying about me." Ria seemed as happy as she always
was. 
	"Gretchen, did you by any chance tell Rita what our
mission was?," Bridget asked.
	"No," Gretchen smiled, weakly.
	"Amy?," Bridget asked.
	"Umm, not exactly. I told them that we weren't
alone, and had three HyperGens on their way."
	"Those HyperGens arrived at a convenient time," Rita
commented.
	"Yeah, I know. We radioed them to come, and then the
guards came bursting in the doorway," Ria replied.
	"How were you going to get off planet?," Rita asked.
	"By the first transport that came in," Gretchen
replied.
	"You were going to hijack a transport?"
	"Yes," Amy said. "When Ria got shot, we thought that
everything we had fought for was lost."
	"What do you mean by 'everything was lost'?"
	"We'll explain when we get back on Earth, which
should be in a few days. I don't think that any of those
Frigates you called for survived," Ria replied.
	"I know. They were basically on an escort mission,
that's all. they were supposed to stay close to us so we
could jump Hyperspace."
	"So they knew they weren't coming back? Kind of
depressing, isn't it?," Bridget said.
	"Yeah," replied Gretchen. "Knowing that you won't be
coming back makes things look bleak."
	"They volunteered for the mission," replied Rita.
	"Let's get something to eat. I have not had anything
since that cheese burger I had on Miaka," Ria said. They
walked down the corridor, happy that Ria had survived.