The SPROC airlock chamber continued its slow spin in near total darkness. The sudden departure of the crystalline entity sometime earlier had left the blue gas giant, Andor, millions of kilometers distant, as the only source of light. And the eccentric spiral of the chamber was such that the plastene window in the chamber door was never at more than a sharply oblique angle to Andor. So the lighting inside would slowly alternate between a very dim blue to pitch black. The deep gloom matched the mood of the twelve occupants.
Hypothermia was setting in as the inside temperature steadily declined. The four staffers who had initially clung together loosely were now hugging each other tightly to preserve body heat. Four other staffers who were on friendly terms had adopted the same tactic. The young lieutenant stayed floating near Commander Stinnik at the airlock window, but due to some unspoken sense of military propriety, neither offered to snuggle up to the other. The two remaining personnel for reasons of their own chose to curl up into singular, knee-hugging, fetal balls drifting in the tide of orbital spin. One of these was the religious staffer who had gasped audibly when the crystal entity sped off, plunging the chamber interior into almost instant darkness. There were no more proclamations of impending heaven.
All were shivering and their breath exhalations were visible with body moisture. Commander Stinnik had to keep wiping the fog away from the plastene window with his sleeve.
"Andoria should be sending ships soon..." he said without conviction to the young lieutenant. With stiffening fingers he tapped his combadge again.
Ironically, Andoria HAD sent several science vessels, but all were tracking the two halves of Pandoria.. now many thousands of kilometers away from the outwardly scattering debris of SPROC and Pandopost. None of the ships had bothered to sweep the debris field with long-range life sensors. Who could possibly live through the destruction of a planet?!
Admiral Than'tosi aboard the Andorian flagship, Shran II, commanded a small fleet of battle cruisers and two other Shran class dreadnaughts as they closed the gap between their fleet and the outward bound crystalline entity. Uppermost in his mind was the departing order from General Kal'sunu: "Destroy that creature at all costs!"
The fleet was nearing warp 2 as they approached the entity well beyond the orbit of Andoria. At approximately fifty thousand kilometers, Than'tosi deployed the battle cruisers in a large, planet-wide circle around the edges of the entity while the three dreadnaughts took a triangular position targeting the central mass of the crystals. During these maneuvers the entity took no notice of the fleet and continued speeding outward.
Too excited to stay sitting, Than'tosi stood before his command chair on the bridge of the Shran II and glared at the image of the entity filling his view screen. His long, thin antennae quivered with anticipation.
"On my mark; all vessels open fire with sustained volleys!"
Than'tosi took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "FIRE!"
The twelve battle cruisers positioned around the perimeter of the entity unleashed a wide variety of phaser and particle cannon beams directly into the glowing crystals. At the same moment the three dreadnaughts trailing behind the entity launched dozens of photon and quantum torpedoes into the speeding mass. The effect was dazzling.
Almost immediately the entity came out of warp as it exploded like an ancient skyrocket into thousands of sparkling crystalline chunks ranging in size from pebbles to small moons.
The rapid deceleration from warp 2 to zero caught the Andorian fleet by surprise. One of the battle cruisers flew directly into a sizeable crystal mass. The ship's deflectors and shields were totally inadequate to protect it from such a sudden, massive impact. It disintegrated before the ship's emergency computer system could shut down its warp core and the entire tangled mass of ship and crystals were vaporized in the resultant anti-matter explosion.
The Shran II was nearly the victim of a similar fate. Only the quick reflexes of its helmsman in dropping out of warp and sharply veering away under impulse power prevented the flagship from slamming into a moon-sized mass of crystal. One of the other trailing dreadnaughts wasn't so lucky. It managed to drop out of warp, but entered the crystalline debris field where different sized masses overwhelmed its deflectors. After sustaining numerous hull breaches in short order, the dreadnaught began imploding. Its commander did manage to activate a warp core dump before another jagged crystal boulder tore through the top of the bridge, sucking him and the bridge crew into the vacuum of space.
Admiral Than'tosi was shaken from his own narrow escape and made a mental note to promote his helmsman for instinctively acting -- without orders -- to save the ship. Than'tosi barked out and order: "All vessels withdraw at least 100,000 kilometers from the crystalline debris!"
After surveying the debris field on his view screen for a long moment, Than'tosi allowed himself the sweet feeling of relief. He made a general announcement to the fleet as well as to General Kal'sunu listening in from Andoria. "We have lost two of our vessels and their courageous crews in this battle... but Andoria has prevailed! We have destroyed the crystalline entity!" He paused while a thin, ironic smile lightly crossed his face. "Frankly, I didn't think it would be this easy!"
Unnoticed at first, crystalline clumps began merging with one another.
The Tycho experienced a suddden little lurch. In the main science lab XO Marchelle Lee was monitoring analytical sensor screens directed at the nearby graviton beam while Councilor Mominee was monitoring longer range sensors directed at the spatial anomaly the ship was speeding toward at warp 2. Dramatic changes on their screens prompted nearly simultaneous reactions from the two women.
"Oh GOSH!" Marchelle's eyes popped wide.
Right afterward Donna exclaimed, "Holy CRAP!"
They turned to look at each other. Marchelle's voice quivered. "The graviton beam suddenly stopped; b-but only for a moment. Then it started up again stronger than ever... and only in ONE direction!"
"I KNOW!" Donna blurted. "Now it's only coming from the anomaly! And the anomaly is WIDENING!!"
Ted's voice, heavy with tension, came over the speakers. "What's HAPPENING, People?!"
Marchelle and Donna both spoke at once.
"The beam's getting stronger..
The anomaly's getting bigger.."
On the bridge Dianne interjected: "The Kallindor I is hailing us, Captain."
Ted winced and squeezed his eyes shut momentarily. "On screen, Dianne."
Director Kal'trax stared uncertainly from the view screen. "Admiral Than'tosi has just announced that the Andorian fleet has destroyed the crystalline entity!"
There was an audible groan from Donna over the speakers.
At the comm station Dianne and Sherriea stared at each other. Then Sherriea said quietly, almost to herself, "Are they ready for round two?!"