‘Captain’ Mara Sirtus strode to the command chair and hesitantly but resolutely sat in it.

She sharply said, "Helmsman, status?"

A dark redheaded female wearing lieutenant’s chevrons confidently answered with a pleasing yet determined smile, "I am Second Mate Leara Morita. Ion power is warming up. She’ll be ready on your command captain."

"Excellent." Mara turned to her left, "Navigator, have you plotted our exit path from here so we don’t reveal the base?"

"It is done. We will exit under gravitron power to skim just above the ground for several hundred kiloscons east before we go to ion power. We will accelerate at a 30 degree angle so it will be difficult to track our origin," a black haired young man firmly said whom Mara thought she recognized from cadet school.

It might also make us a better target she additionally worried. "Lt. Garun, are all weapons online?"

The brown-skinned Tuscan smartly said, "Hot and ready for action at your command."

"Comm officer, are we cleared for launch?"

"We’re just waiting for the ramp to be opened in about five minutes, sir."

Captain Sirtus asked of the command crew, "Anything I need to be aware of before we launch?"

No one said anything but a few shook their heads negatively.

"Very well," she acknowledged. "Everyone be on your toes. Sargon, inform operations Brightstar is ready for launch."

As the ramp came down to open up the sky, Captain Sirtus saw the smoke from the capitol in the far distance and said a silent prayer.

"Shields up...Launch!"

The crew felt Brightstar quietly hum under gravitron power as it glided up the ramp and rose to skim over the ground at a fast clip. Two minutes later, the ion engines kicked in and Brightstar shot towards the sky at the preplanned angle. Seconds later the viewplate turned dark as the atmosphere thinned and the stars slowly came into view.

They could now see their once-beautiful planet, Artesima, in the rear view plate, now dotted with huge clouds of smoke.

"There’s an enemy ship!" a crewman yelled as everyone saw it on the forward view screen simultaneously.

"Fire lasers!" the captain quickly ordered.

Lt. Garun fired the forward laser cannons with pinpoint accuracy but the enemy ship had its shields raised and the lasers caused no more than a pyrotechnic light show and got its attention. The enemy ship, which looked not surprisingly like their own, turned towards them.

"Lt. Garun, as soon as we are in range, fire the proton torpedoes with no timing delay!"

"Aye…aye, sir."

"Everyone, button up and hold on because we’ll feel the blast."

"Torpedoes away!"

The blast severely rocked the Brightstar. The torpedoes didn’t breach the enemy shields but the proton blast did, knocking all the enemy’s controls off-line. Their shields failed and the enemy ship was now defenseless and dead in space.

"Lt. Starfield, assemble a boarding party in the transporter room! Don’t hesitate to shoot anyone who offers resistance… Sargon…damage report!"

The crew of the Spectari commanded battle cruiser was severely shaken with many casualties.

Commander Marak-sen was one of them. His second-in-command tried to call for assistance, but the comm station was inoperative. Just then the Brightstar boarding party appeared and disarmed or killed those few remaining renegades who failed to immediately surrender.

When Spectari General Rasu-sen in the Corona III witnessed the loss of the battle cruiser with Commander Marak-sen, he immediately ordered the remaining ships to attack the Brightstar. "Lock onto that ship and don’t lose it!" He ordered.

The action of the Brightstar allowed the rest of Battle Group Alpha ships to safely exit the secret base undetected.

"We have company and we’re outnumbered!" Sargon exclaimed.

"Take evasive action! Retrieve the boarding parties and jump to hyperspace!" Captain Sirtus ordered. She realized they had been lucky because the pirates weren’t expecting the torpedo tactic in close quarter combat. Now they will be. …

Security Chief Hank Travis was in the Antigua Command Center; catching up on the deployment of the latest automated Hyperwave-activated sensor stations. He viewed the giant wall chart depicting their part of the universe. The screen twinkled, identifying the wider coverage area by the newly modified sensors. He knew there was a vast amount of space out there to search.

The Galactic Council members were unaware of the havoc and destruction being wreaked by the escaped Spectari two galaxies away.

"The sensors are set to certain scan patterns and the Hyperwave zips them around preset coordinates. If there is any sign of activity, the sensors immediately relay those signs to the Central Command Computer and alerts are broadcast automatically," Dr. Ted Olmstead explained to the security chief as he would to one of his astrophysics students. "If the Spectari are anywhere in our space, we should receive ample warning."

"And as soon as we do, we will deal with them. I just hope we can keep them from obtaining a teleport device," Hank said.

"Even if they do, we have them well secured now with the thumbprint and voice security," Ted said.

"Don’t underestimate the enemy. Given enough time, they probably would find a way around it, so we must make certain they don’t have that opportunity," Hank determinedly said. Then he added, "Besides our own space, John has asked us to deploy units in that other galaxy that produced that renegade starship because he thinks that is where they may head if we don’t locate them in our own space. Will you assign a team to do that?"

"Certainly, Sir. I will get right on it," Ted said.

Ted immediately assigned Sethanni to head the team to deploy the Hyperwave sensors to the newly identified galaxy and asked Tom Johnston and George Garrett to assist him.

Sethanni promptly deployed a dozen Hyperwave units to gather coordinates in that part of the universe so they could deploy the newly automated sensing devices. A task that would have taken months or years was now reduced to a matter of minutes thanks to the Hyperwave, computerization, and teleport function. …