The Fifth Reich: Beyond The Stars

by J Palliser

  "Maybe I shouldn't have turned the gain up so high," Kara mused, and wrapped her legs around Sonya's waist. "Oh well..."

  "Don't you dare," Sonya warned her, but to no avail. "Guess I'll have to do it myself," she smiled and tightened her legs around Sonya's waist. Sonya tried to hold her ground, but Kara was too fast and the stimulation too intense. Kara pulled her closer until their hips met, the dildo filling Kara up to exactly the right point. Sonya shuddered and gasped, placing her hands on the bed for support.

  "B-bitch," she growled. "I love you, too," Kara laughed, stroking Sonya's dark hair as she came. The dildo in Kara began to pulse and vibrate, responding to the contractions of Sonya's muscles around the other end. The tension had been building in her for a while, and she knew she was close. And so did Sonya.

  "My turn," Sonya whispered as she slowly came down from her high. She slipped a hand between them and pressed on Kara's clit. The redhead cried out in surprise, and quickly succumbed to Sonya's fingers.

  "If I'm going, I'm taking you with me!" Kara yelped and fell back on the bed, pulling Sonya on top of her. The contractions of Kara's body drove the plug in Sonya, and soon they were both quaking in ecstasy. The energy of their mutual release rolled back and forth between them, each orgasm fueling the next. Screams and moans echoed through the room, a raucous declaration of mutual bliss. Slowly, the intensity began to wane, and they floated back down together.

  "Fuck," groaned a winded Sonya.

  "I think I turned the gain up too high," Kara whispered, her voice weak. "No shit," Sonya groaned. She tried to withdraw, but as soon as she moved the device began to stir again. The stimulation was nearly painful on her sensitive flesh, and collapsed back down. "Please tell me you can reach the drawer."

  Kara only nodded, and reached back lazily to unlock the drawer. She opened it and retrieved the smart-pad. With the press of a button both ends of the strap on deflated, allowing Sonya to finally pull free. "Yummy," Kara giggled, kissing Sonya's shoulder.

  "I'll take that," Sonya grinned and seized the pad. "Now we do it my way." But before she could press a button, the comm panel on the nightstand beeped.

  "No!" Kara whined, still trying to catch her breath. Sonya reached over her and pressed a button on the panel.

  "What?" she barked.

  "Need you two in the Armory. Now," said Zira through the speaker.

  "Fine. Be there as soon as we can," Sonya snapped and closed the channel.

  "Balls," Kara sighed.

  30

  Twenty-Nine

  Deck 19, Armory, 1713 hours "Hey, Dej!" Casana smiled as she stepped out of the turbolift outside the Armory. Dejah passed by her as she spoke, and Casana fell in behind her, trying to read the smart-pad she was holding over her shoulder.

  "I would rather you used my correct name, Lieutenant."

  "See, why can't Harry be that nice about it?" she sighed. "So, you have any idea what Zira wants?"

  "I do not." "Huh. Oh well," Casana shrugged as they entered the Armory. Inside, Sonya was toying with a MOD3 at one of the work benches while Kara looked on from one of the chairs in front of Zira's desk. When Casana and Dejah entered, Sonya stopped what she was doing and looked back at them over her shoulder. The moment she did, an evil smile spread across Casana's face. She left Dejah, and walked quietly over to Sonya, looking her up and down with that same grin on her face.

  "What?" Sonya finally sighed. "What do you want?"

  "Nothing," Casana giggled.

  "Then why are you smiling?" "Because, I know what you were doing when you got Zira's call!" she cried happily. Sonya blushed and looked back down at the pistol.

  "What are you talking about?" she said quietly. "You and Kara were-." Casana stopped mid-sentence as the door opened. Zira and Becker walked in, but stopped as soon as they saw they were not alone.

  "Oh, this can't be good," Becker said.

  "What the hell are you all doing in my Armory?" Zira asked suspiciously, but she was met with four confused faces.

  "Uhh, you asked us here, Chief," Kara replied.

  "Nothing good has ever happened when we were all in the same room together," Becker said nervously. Dejah opened her mouth to speak, but before she could the ship was rocked by an explosion. Casana and Sonya were thrown to the floor, and the lights flickered briefly, but stayed on. The alert lights flashed red, and the alarm sounded.

  "Red Alert. Red Alert," the computer called over the speakers. "All hands to battle stations." "Bloody hell!" Kara exclaimed, grabbing the desk to keep her balance as another explosion nearly knocked her from the chair.

  "See? I fuckin' told you!" Becker cried as he ran to the equipment lockers.

  "Something is wrong," Dejah said calmly.

  "Yeah, no fucking shit!" Sonya yelled over the alarms as she got to her feet.

  "Standard procedure is for the Bridge to announce the nature of the Red Alert," she explained.

  "Armory to Bridge!" Zira yelled into the comm panel, but there was no response. "Oh my God," Kara gasped, placing a hand over her mouth. The others turned to see her staring at ship's status display behind the desk. The schematic was flashing red in half a dozen places, indicating hull breaches. One of those places was the Bridge.

  "Fuck!" Sonya screamed. Then, her training took over. "Chief, organize the security personnel and prepare to repel boarders. Everyone else, come with me," she ordered as she ran for the door. Without a word, Dejah, Casana, Kara, and Becker followed her down the corridors. They passed a numbered of injured crewman, but had no time to stop and help them.

  Twice as they ran, the ship shuddered under the force of more hits. Panels blew out and conduits ruptured, starting fires in the corridors. On more than one occasion, they were forced run through the flames, the heat scorching their clothes and causing the flesh to blister. The same halls that had been quiet and peaceful just minutes before now echoed with calls for help and cries of pain.

  They rounded the last turn, and Sonya slammed her palm against the panel. The door slid open, and she ran into the empty Battle Bridge. Dejah went to the Engineering Station and Kara sat down at the Helm, while Casana went to Science and Becker to Tactical. Sonya herself sat down in the large black chair in the center of the room and took a deep breath before pressing a button on the armrest.

  "Crew of the Bismarck, this is Lieutenant Mueller. I am taking command of the ship." As she said this, the ship was rocked by another explosion and Sonya was nearly thrown from the Captain's seat. She looked up, but the view-screen was blank. Her eyes darted down to the small displays on the chair's armrest, but they both showed only the Fifth Reich Seal. She tapped the control panel on one, and the symbol was replaced with a tactical map. At its center was the Bismarck, represented by the Kriegsmarine emblem. Two red blobs circled around it, with one stationary contact directly ahead of them. As she looked at the screen, a small red dot split off from one of the red spots and moved towards the Bismarck. As it hit, the ship was hit yet again, causing the lights to flicker and ship to shake violently.

  "Damage report," Sonya ordered in a voice so calm that it unnerved her. "We have sustained multiple direct hits to the hull," Dejah answered, pouring over the information in front of her. "Gravity-drive is offline. Dorsal phaser array is offline. Aft torpedo launcher is completely destroyed. Impulse power at 68 percent. EPS conduits have ruptured across the ship. Life support is down on several decks. Hull breaches on decks 1, 2, 7, 15, 16, 20, and 32. Emergency containment fields are in place. Shields..." Dejah hesitated.

  "What?" Sonya barked, turning around in the chair.

  "Shields are completely nonfunctional." "Fuck," Kara swore under her breath and looked at Becker. At the same time, he glanced over at her and they exchanged looks of true fear.

  "Helm, ahead full. Get us the hell outta here," Sonya ordered before turning to Casana. "Cass, who's trying to kill us?"

  "That's a good question," she said in total seriousness. "The hulls appear to be Drac Predators, but
the configurations are completely wrong. And they're old models. I'm also not reading any Dracs, only..." Casana paused as she checked another console on the wall next to her before looking up at Sonya. "Wraiths. I'm only reading Wraiths."

  "Here they come again!" Becker shouted, and another shot hit them. A console overloaded in the corner of the room, showering them with sparks, but nothing else.

  "Impulse engines aren't responding!" Kara cried. "Switching to thrusters." "The third ship isn't a Predator!" Casana yelled over the crash of another hit. "It's the Berlin. She's dead in space. I'm not reading any power. No life signs."

  "Captain, turbo-lifts are offline, and Damage Control teams are being overwhelmed," Dejah said calmly.

  "Battle Bridge to Engineering," Sonya said, pressing a button on the chair's comm unit.

  "Bridge, Engineering aye," said a young male voice over the intercom. "Lieutenant (JG) Callum reporting, ma'am."

  "Lieutenant, what's the status of your Damage Control teams?" " We have teams trying repair the warp engines, restore..."He paused as they were hit again. "Restore life support, and reach the Bridge," the young Lieutenant answered. Everyone in the room could tell from the sound of his voice that he was in over his head, and starting to panic. Sonya's mind raced, but she forced herself to be calm.

  "Callum, listen closely," she said.

  "Aye, ma'am," he replied, his voice shaking. "I need you to retask your Damage Control teams. Focus on the warp drive, weapons, and the shields." The comm was silent for a moment, and Sonya held her breath.

  " Battle Bridge, can you confirm? You want me to pull teams from life support and the Bridge, and put them on shields and weapons?"

  "That is correct, Lieutenant," Sonya answered, wincing as she said the words. Again, there was a pause. "Aye, ma'am," he finally croaked, and the line went dead. Sonya looked up to see Kara and Becker looking back at her. She looked back and forth between them, a shameful expression on her face. Kara opened her mouth to say something, but before she could they were hit yet again. The hit was especially strong, and something in the ceiling above Sonya exploded, sending shrapnel down onto her. "Sonya!" Kara shrieked, and started to stand.

  "Stay at your post!" Sonya ordered, her voice shaking from the pain. Reluctantly, Kara sat back down.

  "Ma'am, they're too fast for us," Becker called out. Another hit, and an alarm sounded. "Hull breach," Dejah reported. "Deck 22. Containment field in place. We cannot continue to absorb this amount of fire for long, Captain."

  "Okay then, let's give them some back. Kara, come about," Sonya ordered, wiping a bit of blood out of her eyes.

  "Coming about, aye!" "Targeting is down," Becker informed Sonya. "I'm gonna have to aim manually." The ship banked and turned, trying to come around before the Wraiths could close on them. On her screen, Kara saw the Wraiths accelerate towards them, trying to close the gap as quickly as possible, and smiled to herself. She banked the ship hard in the opposite direction and reversed the thrusters, bracing herself against the console. The ship lurched to a stop awkwardly, and the Wraiths were moving too quickly to react.

  "Shit, Kara!" Sonya swore behind her. "What the hell are you doing?" "Were you even awake during Combat Maneuvers at the Academy?" Kara shot back. As she did, the Wraiths overshot them, and appeared on the now-functional view-screen.

  "Remind me to thank you for that later," Sonya apologized. "Becker, fire." But he already had. The launchers above and below them hummed and the photon torpedoes streaked towards the Wraith ships. Most missed their targets, but a pair struck one of the Wraiths, impacting one of the wings. The first knocked the shields on the small ship down while the second blew a hole in the wing. The ship jerked hard to the side from the impact and the wing broke from the rest of the hull, but it began to come about with the other ship.

  "Becker!" Sonya shouted, and he followed the torpedoes up with phasers against the damaged ship. Again most missed, but one hit the center of the ship. There was an explosion, and the ships engines flickered to a halt. "Finish him!" Sonya cried.

  "I can't, we used everything on the first volley! Phasers are still recharging and torpedoes loading." "The other ship is coming about!" Kara yelled. On the screen the other Predator had come about and was bearing down on them.

  "I'm getting some unusual readings from that ship," Casana said. "Incoming torpedo!" A powerful explosion rocked the ship, and several consoles overloaded, sending shards of the screens flying through the air. The screen filled with an orange flash, and when it faded the view was cluttered with debris.

  "Massive damage to the saucer section," Dejah reported, calm as ever. "Superstructure has been compromised. Containment fields are in place, but they will not hold."

  "Show me," Sonya ordered. An image of the ship's saucer section appeared, revealing a gaping hole in the ship, through which stars could be seen. "Holy shit," she muttered, dumbstruck by the sight of a gaping hole in what had been her home for more than a decade.

  "We're losing thrusters!" Kara screamed, and the lights flickered and failed. After a moment, emergency lights came on, but the consoles had mostly gone dark.

  "Main power is offline," Dejah said. "We are defenseless." The room was silent, save for the sound of alarms and feet moving around outside. Shouts back and forth from the corridor, muffled by the walls, could just be heard over the noise. But the room's five occupants were in their own world, staring back and forth at each other.

  The moment was broken by a flash on Casana's console, one the few which still had power. The Arcadian turned and examined the console. "Neutrino surge directly above us! A ship is decloaking!"

  "More Wraiths?" Sonya asked desperately. "Maybe. No! It's Centauri!"

  "On screen!" Above the Bismarck, a Centauri battlecruiser decloaked, and unleashed a flurry of torpedoes and Ion fire on the Wraith ships. Neither stood a chance, and under the storm of fire from the Centauri they were both destroyed. Sonya sat stunned in her seat, unable to comprehend what had just occurred. She simply stared at the view-screen as the Centauri ship moved slowly away from them, gently turning to come face to face with the Bismarck. Something in her mind clicked, and she realized that Casana was speaking to her.

  "Uh, Harry?"

  "Don't... um..." Sonya mumbled. "Don't call me that."

  "Their hailing us," she said.

  "Onscreen," Sonya said dumbly as she stood. The screen flickered, and a Centauri officer appeared. "Reich vessel, I am Commander Alara of the CDF Imperious," she said matter-of-factly. "We apologize for violating the Neutral Zone. Do you require assistance?"

  "Why did you...?" Sonya began, but trailed off.

  "The Centauri Empire has no tolerance for piracy," Alara sneered. "Do you require our assistance or not?"

  "Yes... yes, we do," was all Sonya could say.

  "Very well. We shall begin coordinating with your Chief Engineer immediately," she said, and closed the channel.

  "Did we just get saved by Centauri?" Kara asked in disbelief. Sonya didn't hear her. She simply fell to her hands and knees and stared at the deck. Her stomach turned as the reality of what had just happened dawned on her, and she vomited. With a deep breath, she sat back on her legs and gazed down at her uniform. The clasp on the jacket had fallen open, exposing the white fabric of the lining. As she watched, small drops of blood fell from her face, staining the material bright red.

  "It's okay, love." The words snapped Sonya out of her daze. Kara's arms wrapped around her, and she helped Sonya to her feet. "Dejah" Sonya said weakly, "contact Engineering and retask Damage Control to life support and the Bridge."

  "Yes, Captain."

  "Jacob, get back to the Armory and help the Chief put together security teams to keep an eye on the Centauri." "Aye, boss."

  "I'll try to contact the Reich," Casana said before Sonya could give the order. "I'm taking you to Sickbay," Kara said, leading Sonya out of the room. But Sonya stopped at the door and looked back at Dejah.

  "What's the time?"<
br />
  "0929, sir."

  ***

  Deck 2, Maintenance Tube Junction Room, 1002 hours

  "Well?" Sonya asked as she looked up the Maintenance Tube towards the ensign a deck above her.

  "Still working on it, ma'am," he called back over the sound of the laser torch.

  "How long, Ensign?" she scowled, though he couldn't see it. "Just another couple of minutes, ma'am. I can see the Bridge access hatch on the other side of the blockage," he answered. "Watch out, ma'am." Sonya stepped back from the ladder and a twisted, scorched piece of metal crashed to the deck in front of her. "Just one more cut, then we're in," he informed her, poking his head down into the shaft.

  "Pick up the pace!" she yelled, growing impatient. "Internal sensors and transporters are still down, so we need to cut our way in to help any wounded."

  "Aye, ma'am," the young Ensign said nervously. He was a first year officer, fresh from the Academy, and had only been on the ship for a few months. Under normal circumstances, Sonya would never have pressed him like this. But these were hardly normal circumstances.

  "Well?" she heard Casana say as she crawled down the Maintenance Tube.

  "Just another minute or two," she frowned, still looking up the ladder. "Still need to make another cu-" "Got it!" the Ensign cried, and Sonya rushed up the ladder, followed by Casana and a pair of medics. They passed the sweat-drenched Ensign at the top of the ladder and crawled on down the tube towards the Bridge. The top of the crawlspace had collapsed, and Sonya's uniform caught on a sharp piece of twisted metal, ripping the material. Sonya ignored it, and forced open the hatch.

  She crawled out of the hatch and was greeted on the other side by a scene of near total destruction. Virtually all of the consoles had been destroyed, and the room was littered with debris. Only a handful of lights still functioned, flickering valiantly against the darkness. In the center of the room, Commander O'Slo sat in the Captain's chair. Aside from her, the room was deserted. As medics and engineers emerged from the hatch behind Sonya, she silently stood.