Trailblazer stumbled against the wall as the ship shook again. She had told that man not to get so close. But he wouldn’t listen. He just had to show off his piloting skills. Now they were running for their lives. If they survived this, she’d smack him. She knew she would. For now, she needed to get to engineering. She just might be able to increase their odds. She secured the bag she was carrying and continued her way to engineering.

The ship was s stealth scout ship. The UESS Coyote, the most advanced scout ship the United Earth Force could currently produce. It was under the command of Captain Steven Bellman. They were on patrol when they received orders to examine an area of space. It seemed that the enemy, a collection of A.I. controlled machines, had a drone research ship stationed there. By itself, it wasn’t strange. The A.I.s had such ships stationed in a lot of places. What was strange was the evidence that that one ship had been stationed there for millennia. That was highly unusual and worthy of investigation. Even more so when Earth’s allies told them there was nothing in that region of space.

When they arrived, they found more than just a ship. There was a whole fleet there. Everything from dreadnoughts to destroyers were there. Along with several score more research ships. The captain immediately ordered the ship to activate the stealth systems. Once the systems were fully active and Captain Bellman was sure they had gone unnoticed, they began to look around.

It took them two days to find what the A.I.s were looking for. And that was because they had gotten lucky. A random asteroid was moving through the region. When it reached the area in question, part of it suddenly disintegrated. The ships sensors detected a ripple in space where the asteroid was. Even with the disintegrating asteroid, they could barely detect the cause.

The cause was a barely detectable energy barrier. One unlike any they had seen before. For one thing, the barrier stretched for parsecs. Nobody had the knowledge or ability to make a barrier that size. For another, it was of an energy that was unknown. It was obvious that the A.I.s wanted whatever was making the barrier. And it was equally obvious they the humans and their allies couldn’t let them have it. Because the fleet was there, it was believed that the A.I.s were close to breaching the barrier. They sent a message back to command and received the expected stay and watch. They were only to act if the A.I.s were able to make a breach. They only had enough supplies for a month before they would have to leave in order to resupply. They were promised to be relieved or resupplied before then.

It was two weeks later that everything fell apart.

They hadn’t been idle for those weeks. They had performed their own scans of the barrier and dutifully sent the data to the science team being assembled. The crew, though, noticed that one member seemed to be very nervous. Her name was Trailblazer and she was relatively new to the crew and they weren’t quite sure what to make of her. The captain said she was okay, and that was good enough for the crew. She said it was nothing when asked. And since whatever was wrong didn’t interfere with her duties, they let it slide. They had leaned not to pressure her on things when it wasn’t an emergency.

The day had started normal. But the pilot, Adam Penknife, was starting to feel adventurous. He started to get closer and closer to the enemy fleet. Trailblazer had warned him not to. She told him that nothing good would come of him showing off. And she was right. He got too close. They were detected. And now, the chase was on.

“Trailblazer, just what the fuck are you doing?” There were times when she hated personal communication systems.

“Saving our hides,” Trailblazer snapped back. “I have an idea that’ll help us escape, Captain.”

“Will the ship be intact after you do this?”

“I am not going to blow up the ship!”

“There are reasons why I call you trailblazer,” the captain said.

“Those were not my fault,” Trailblazer growled. “And I am not going to tell you my name! You can call me something else.”

“I call them as I see them,” the captain replied. “Now, go and do what you’re going to do. Just try not to blow up the ship while you’re at it.”

Trailblazer opened her mouth to argue but said nothing when the ship shook. “Right,” she said. “Save the ship first. Then argue. And I really wish the captain would choose something else to call me. Trailblazer reminds me too much of home.”

Once in engineering, Trailblazer went straight for the shield generators. The room was a scene of organized chaos. People were dashing from control panel to control panel, doing what they could to keep the ship running. Dodging people, Trailblazer pulled a disk shaped device out of her bag. One the sheet was what looked like a complicated circuit. She quickly placed it by the generator and opened a panel.

“What are you doing,” a thunderous voice demanded. “We need those shield generators to say up!”

“Sorry Chief,” Trailblazer said. “But I have a way to get us out of the mess that idiot Penknife got us in. For that to work, I need this generator.” She didn’t stop working while she talked. She had reached inside the panel and shut down the generator. Quickly she pulled out two cables as the ship started to shake more often.

“Chief,” the captain shouted. “Shields just dropped by 40 percent. What’s going on down there?”

“That would be Trailblazer’s doing,” the chief answered. “She’s fucking with the generators. Says she has some plan to save us.”

“Trailblazer.”

“Just trust me captain,” Trailblazer said. “I got this.” Just then the sip shook even more violently than before. This cause Trailblazer to bend some of the components on the device she was working on.

“Celestia’s flaming tits,” Trailblazer shouted. She quickly corrected her accident. She didn’t notice the looks she got from the engineering chief and several other people. After double checking her work, she reached into her bag and brought out five crystals. The chief’s eyes widened when he saw the crystals. Each was the size of a large chicken’s egg and looked to be flawless. Any one of those would net a person several thousand credits on the market. And she was carrying five of them in her bag?!

Once she was satisfied with their placement, Trailblazer then touched each crystal while muttering. The chief was surprised to see each crystal glow with a soft orange light. Trailblazer then attached the cables from the generator to the device. She then turned and glared at the chief.

“Uh, captain,” the chief said after a moment. “The shields should have more power now.”

“Chief Engineer Byrne,” Captain Bellman said. The chief winced. The captain did not use a person’s whole name unless he was unhappy with them. “Why are the shields orange?”

“Yes! It worked,” a gleeful Trailblazer shouted. “Captain. I need the ship to dive into the barrier.”

“Are you fucking crazy,” the captain roared. “That’ll destroy the ship!”

“We don’t have a choice! We can’t outrun those ships. And there’s too many to fight. The only thing we can hide in is the barrier. And that will only work if we can get inside it.”

“You better be right about this shit! Or it’s your ass, Trailblazer!”

“Captain Bellman, I have never led you wrong when it came to a path,” Trailblazer solemnly said.

“There’s always a fucking first time,” chief Byrne muttered. Trailblazer shot him a look.

The captain didn’t answer, but everybody in engineering could feel the ship change heading. Ever since they had started running, they had tried to get some distance from the barrier. The A.I.s kept herding them back. Limiting their options for escape. This sudden change caught them by surprise. They hesitated for a moment before following.

Everybody on the bridge tensed every time the shields were struck. They didn’t know what Trailblazer did to the shields, but they could see they were effective. Before, the shields would flash, and the ship would shake with every hit. Now, the only sign the ship was under attack was the flashes from the explosions. When Trailblazer arrived on the bridge, several crew members could not help staring at her in awe.

Then the moment of truth came. The ship dove straight into the barrier. The shields’ glow increased greatly. Everybody either looked away or shielded their eyes. When they could look back, the glow of the shields was dimmer, but still brighter than it originally was. “I told you it would work,” Trailblazer said. “And I didn’t even blow anything up.”

Captain Bellman silently pointed at the view screen. Trailblazer turned and saw flaming debris floating past them. “Fuck.”

Author's Note

Thank you for reading this. I'll warn you know: don't expect updates often. I am a hobby writer and this is my first fanfic. I write more as a past time than anything else. Hopefully you, the readers will enjoy my story.

Also, I don't have any proof readers. Please point out any mistakes I have missed.