IMPALA (Farside Saga: Book One)

"What the hell just happened?" the captain said as him and the bridge crew slowly stood up and recovered.

"Danny, you there?" he said into the air.

A series of garbled noises that sounded nothing like Danny's happy voice came across the entire ships intercom system a little too loud making everyone cringe and cover their ears before it went completely silent. He looked over to his chair and saw a red light flashing on the holoscreen. He walked over to the chair and pushed the button as he sat down. A series of letters started scrolling across the screen until it formed a paragraph:

" That was fun....wouldn't wanna do it again though so please be careful next time. Hey cap, I'm pretty sure you've figured out by now it's me...Danny...sorry about that. My audio output has to be fixed, actually, the whole system does. But that's the least of your problems. Unless navigation is fucked, we're not in Kansas anymore Dorothy. How or why don't ask, but give me a minute and ill get back to you on that."

A second screen opened up showing a star chart of the milky way galaxy with a small green dot flashing just outside the Oort cloud. A small white line extended upward towards the text: THAT'S US, 131.3 LIGHT YRS FROM EARTH. A new text appeared on the first screen. "I fixed the intercom....i think." Just then it crackled and a very unpleasant voice came through.

"....cking particle. Of all daggnabbit things a goddamnit photon particle...Johnson, get up there and tighten that seal down." there was a brief pause before an aggravated "hello....this ain't no damn telephone....captain, sorry about that. I guess the sailor in me came out. Imma smack the holy fuck out the person that decided to put the damn cross circuits BEHIND the antimatter field generator." The engineer said.

Jason almost stepped to the challenge but thought about it. He designed it there so as to have easy access without going into the relay chamber.

"When the shields engaged, the photon emitter shorted out causing the antimatter field to drop. A photon particle leaked out and reacted with the antimatter and sent an emp wave through the ship. Most of the ship's systems are protected but the field was still down on the reactor. I'm shocked we're even having this conversation but as a result, I have to dump the whole damn core and install a new one. It should only take about 3 hrs if the fucking tugs haven't shorted out. Otherwise, we're gonna be sitting here for a minute. You might wanna call the shop and have em send a tow truck just in case." the engineer finished.

"Thank you Henry...." the captain said. "Let me know how it turns out. I'll alert the operators now. As far as the tow truck...you got some change to make a long distance call?" he said as he switched screens and saw the operation center still intact and marked with all 127 well and healthy life signs. He was just about to put the call through when suddenly the majority of the bleeps began moving towards the cargo bays anyway. Just then Danny's not so happy voice sounded. "Now that's better. Ok, listening to yall I think I pieced together what happened and that explains why I felt a drag the moment you engaged the engines. I knew I had too much power built up for me to take off that slow. I've recommended to the engineer to bypass the cross circuits to the emitter and run a direct line to the reactor separately from the field generator and place buffers along the fuse points. That way THAT doesn't happen again and the emitter has its own power source. I also sent the operators to the tugs in case you're wondering." Danny said, his voice almost sounding tired. "As to what happened, we now know the stardrive works. The short circuit activated it for .076th of a second but detected the phasic shielding wasn't engaged and basically slammed on the breaks before the inertial dampeners had a chance to fully kick in. The sudden decrease in velocity is what kicked the particle out the antimatter core resulting in the emp wave that knocked out the engines. Good thing the field was still down when it came out cause then we wouldn't be having this conversation. " Danny finished. "Huh! All that protection from the outside and we still damn near kill ourselves." the captain said, thinking out loud. He had a nagging feeling in the back of his head that he forgot something and just as he figured it out, the door to the council chambers opened and a disheveled dark-skinned man and woman crossed the threshold. He was about to demand an explanation but stopped short when he saw the condition of the bridge. They stared in confusion and wonderment at the now dead and hanging view screens and wires exposed from the ceiling and control panels, some still sparking every so often. Just then Danny's voice came back on. "Got a surprise for you....." There were soft creaks and popping of metal that sounded throughout the ship and quickly grew louder and more frequent as the wires, panels, and finally, the main viewscreen began repairing and uprighting itself as it flicked on revealing a vast expanse of darkness. The thrusters kicked in stopping the ships roll and aligned it back towards the milky way galaxy. No one on the bridge knew how far away from home they were except the captain but even the view he saw through the screen made his knees buckle as everyone stared out the screen in amazement. On the viewscreen, against the expanse of darkness, were 3 separate galaxies slightly overlapping each other at different distances with a 4th just ahead of the cluster but closer to the ship. "How's that? I couldn't fix everything so you still got quite a bit of work to do but these little guys are wonderful once u get used to em crawling all over you. Now once you replace ...the ....core...." Danny said, trailing off as his optical sensors picked up everyone staring at the view screen. "Oh...that...." he said, his toned dropping. "I was gonna tell you about that too. My external sensors were still down when I gave you the last known coordinates so I hadn't realized we were still moving off inertia.....and at sublight speeds. I only had the input from the stardrive just before it shut down. We are now at a dead stop...well relative to the speed the galaxies are traveling, but we are now at a fixed point of 158.4 light yrs from earth 123.6 light yrs from the outer edge of our galaxy." the captain finally registered the information Danny was saying as he slowly peeled his eyes from the beautiful but yet terrifying sight before him. "If we can't get the engine working, is it possible we can make it home with just the stardrive?" the captain asked Danny. "Theoretically.....yes, but without the main engines, I can't precisely navigate through the solar system, let alone land. All of our movements would be at light speeds. Would make for a helluva entrance if we pulled up right next to earth tho. And that's the other thing, unless you want to be in violation for destroying a planet, if we did pull up next to one, we'd still be stuck." Danny said. "Fuck!" the captain said to himself as he gripped his greying beard in deep thought. "My thoughts exactly..." Danny said, his auditory sensors picking up on the comment. "So until we get the engine fixed, we're just adrift.....but if it will make u feel any better, the tugs didn't short out."