Varek seals the hatch as more plasma bolts hammer against the exterior hull. The interior lights flare to life in low blue as the engines spin up beneath our feet.
“Release docking clamps,” I command.
“Clamps disengaging,” the cruiser replies.
The vessel shudders as magnetic anchors retract. Outside the viewport, Alliance security teams spill into the docking bay, weapons raised.
“They’re locking targeting,” Varek warns.
The bay doors grind open under emergency override.
A plasma cannon fires from across the bay, slamming into the cruiser’s starboard side with bone-rattling force. The entire vessel lurches violently, throwing Elara sideways.
I catch her mid-fall, dragging her toward the command deck as the hull groans under stress.
“Strap in!” I bark.
She grips the support rail instead.
“Just fly the damn thing!”
Energy fire streaks past the viewport as we clear the docking spur. Alliance cruisers pivot in tight formation outside Virex, engines flaring blue-white against the void.
“Multiple target locks,” Varek says sharply.
“Deploy countermeasures.”
Brilliant flares erupt from the cruiser’s aft ports, dazzling arcs of light that scramble targeting systems. A missile streaks past our hull close enough that I feel the heat shimmer across the viewport.
“Jump window in five,” Varek calls.
The cruiser shudders again as another bolt grazes the port wing.
“Hold steady,” I mutter, guiding the nose of the vessel toward open space.
Elara braces herself against the console, breath coming fast, hair falling loose around her shoulders.
“You’re bleeding,” she says.
“I’ll survive.”
“Of course you will.”
“Three,” Varek calls.
A final plasma barrage tears across the void behind us, one bolt clipping the cruiser’s aft plating hard enough to send shockwaves thrumming through the deck.
“Two.”
The stars ahead stretch, elongating.
“One.”
Space fractures.
The cruiser surges forward into jump.
The violent compression of fold-space engulfs us in blinding light, then absolute silence as Virex Station collapses into a distant point of fading brilliance.
