“We’re getting incoming reports from all transporter rooms,” Counselor Jenovia reported. “We’ve transported most of the injured crew directly to our sickbay. We managed two-hundred sixty injured officers and civilians. And that doesn’t include the eighty-five who are already dead.”
Seth shuddered. What did the Annecta do to them?
“Our sickbay is at full capacity and our medical teams have their hands full. All Medical Holographic Nurses have been activated and are in use,” Ensign Ester added.
“Good,” Seth replied. “Now let’s get this show on the road.”
“They’re three-thousand feet above the planet surface. Their hull temperature is stabilizing as they slow their descend into the lower atmosphere,” Thorn said. “As is ours.”
“They’re moving towards the central continent near the equator of the planet. The same area we visited last time.”
“…One-thousand feet…” Thorn said. “…They’re charging their phasers banks.”
“Captain,” Counselor Jenovia whispered, gesturing towards the main viewscreen. “The Excelsior…”
The entire bridge crew of the Dragonfly could see the Excelsior laying waste to the rich life that occupied the ecosystem of the planet. The forest erupted in a blaze of fire that stretched out for miles. They could see the wildlife vaporize, and the atmosphere darkened with the heavy smoke. This was one time when a crisp and vivid viewscreen did not invoke a sense of awe or beauty.
The sky above the surface rained photon torpedoes. If a ship ever had a face of anger, it was the Excelsior. She fired her phasers at maximum intensity, burning deeper and deeper into the ground, determined to breach the barrier that protected the Annecta aliens. Santiago was going to get through at all costs.
But all of a sudden, the Excelsior stopped.
