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Location: Valkyrie â€" 2 Hours Later

The death of Colin had hit the crew of the Valkyrie very hard. There was an unusual silence from all the crew members while the senior staff had a meeting to decide who should command the Valkyrie and what was to be done about Munchy.

Diamond dried his eyes as he watched Djynn give the morbid report on the Valkyrie's systems. All of them were missing Colin's leadership and nobody sat in his empty chair as a sign of respect to him.

"The good news is that emergency power is back so we can operate partial ship systems. However the main core of the Valkyrie is completely fried, Blackfire is attempting to repair it now."

Nobody of the three people that were in the room wanted to really be there. Aries wanted to go and beat up Munchy for some answers but Diamond had advised against it and they should keep him sedated.

"The bad news..." said Diamond chillingly. "Is that the Dark Collective obviously know our position. I discovered a transmission that was sent through our power grid just before it blew out, it gave away our location... they are probably sending some ships here now..."

Djynn and Aries both looked like they had swallowed a lemon. "How long do we have?" asked Djynn, his tail drooping slightly.

Diamond raised his tired eyes, he had been absolutely exhausted from saving Ultraviolet from death and had not had any time to rest as only Djynn, Blackfire, Aries and Anna remained to coordinate repairs to a ship that was usually manned by at least ten seniors commanding a crew of one thousand. There were only one hundred fifty left on the Valkyrie.

"About four hours, if their ships are the same speed as us... maybe less...I dunno..." he sighed. "Even with teams working at their best, the Valkyrie will not even have main power by then..."

"Then what do we do?" shouted Djynn becoming frustrated at the desperate nature of the situation.

"We abandon the Valkyrie..." said Diamond. Djynn immediately stared at Diamond as if he had gone insane.

"Do what!?" shouted Aries

"Look, if we stay here we are going to die. The Valkyrie is equipped with one working escape shuttle that has an on-board acceleration drive. It is normally used to reach escape velocity when the ship explodes... to protect the crew. But... what if we out fitted the shuttle with the same time drive that we were planning to use on the Valkyrie... the modifications would only take a couple of hours... I think we could do it..."

"No we could not!" shouted Djynn. "This ship has one hundred and fifty people on it, if we left they would be defenceless and would be picked off easily.

"There is no other option" reminded Diamond. "I believe the original plan was to send the Valkyrie back in time to the Battle of Terra and stop Terra from being destroyed... besides if we succeed, nobody, not even Captain Colin would have died and history will be altered."

This was a lot to consider for Djynn who had technically inherited command of the ship on the event of Captain Colin's death. He did not like the idea of one hundred and fifty people on the Valkyrie being left to their deaths but Diamond was correct, those people would be find if the destruction of Terra could be stopped.

There was an awkward silence with Djynn staring at Colin's chair and saying to himself. "What would you do?"

After a few seconds he turned around to Diamond and Aries. "Tell Blackfire to help you install the temporal drive onto the shuttle..."

"Sir, ya cannot be serious..." complained Aries, getting up in outrage.

"I have made my decision Lieutenant." snapped Djynn as Aries sat back down in his chair. "Now lets keep this limited to the senior staff, we do not want to incite panic amongst the crew.

"Murderer!" goaded Aries to Diamond as Djynn left the room. "I hope you can live with yourself." He said in a huff as he left to go out onto the bridge.

"I don't have to live with myself for much longer..." muttered Diamond to himself as he sat in the silent and dark briefing room.

Location: Valkyrie â€" Holding Cells â€" 2 Hours Later

"Fascinating" muttered Anna as she watched the medical monitors that had been set up in the holding cells. Munchy was laying unconscious on stretcher, shut off from the rest of the world and totally unaware that Anna was probing and scanning him constantly.

She had found it hard to get over the death of so many of her friends on this incredible journey but she knew that somehow Silver was still alive... somewhere. She had allowed Diamond to take what was now known to be Divine Lance Gungnir, the very weapon that had taken Silver from his rightful place at her side.

"What have you found?" asked Blackfire as an armed fox in ballistic armour opened the door to the large holding cell for him.

Anna looked up and nodded, her wolf ears twitching from the sound of the clanging metal doors opening. "Well he is still Terran underneath... there seems to be a virus that is almost... well rewriting his genetic code."

Blackfire looked down at an unconscious Munchy and also felt sorry for him before remembering that he killed Colin. "I have concluded that he did not kill Colin of his own free will" said Anna, almost ecstatic about that fact, she pointed to the biological growth on the back of his head.

"This organic... thing... is constantly sending out signals to a central point. I would guess that he's hooked to some sort of... and I hate to use this phrase "hive mind"."

Blackfire was completely confused about what Anna was so happy about but then he did understand that Munchy could not have been in control of his actions.

"Mmmmm..." nodded Blackfire, scratching the scales on the back of his neck. "Well look... the shuttle is going to leave in about two hours and we are going to need a good pilot.."

"I heard..." said Anna immediately and then lowering her voice so the fox outside could not hear her. "But leaving the others here to die is just... not right"

"Well.. if we are successful, they will all be fine."

"Um... true" smiled Anna, she continued to watch the medical monitors. "But I plan to save Munchy before them..."

"Why bother?" snapped Blackfire. Anna looked up at him in disgust.

"What!?" she squealed. "He was not in control of his own actions... I just proved that Blackfire..."

"Doesn't matter" snarled Blackfire, showing his sharp white teeth. "I agree with Aries, throw him out the airlock."

Location: Valkyrie â€" Shuttle Bay â€" 2 Hours Later

"And further more... Ultraviolet is recovering in the medical bay and is unable to accompany us on this mission."

Djynn announced to all one hundred and fifty crew members who were all piled on to the massive shuttle-bay. A lot of the faces in the crowd of people were cadets who had never had any experience in space combat since before the Battle of Alexandria.

The Shuttle-bay was the largest room by far on the entire ship, it had huge impressive metal racks that suspended fighters in the air for a quick delivery into a battle. However there was only one ground assault shuttle that looked like a smaller version of the Valkyrie only it now had piping and conduits all over the original hull to house the temporal drive of Asgard design.

But this huge space was now packed with crew as the Valkyrie senior officers all stood on the gangway to the shuttle; Djynn, Aries, Blackfire and Diamond, all kitted out in black suits to armour them in this dangerous mission.

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttttttt!" screamed a voice that shot through the crowd. It was Anna who was running with someone else as they reached the shuttle, she stopped to look at the four.

"Um... I believe that you will want an experienced pilot" smiled Anna. Djynn nodded instantly as the rest of the crew watched.

"What... um... about an experienced combat officer?" she smirked as she turned to reveal a uninfected, uncorrupted Munchy who was standing there completely cured from the Dark Collective infliction.

"What... but how?" said Diamond in complete surprise. "Nobody has ever recovered from the Serenity Virus before..."

"Well..." said Anna, sounding all chirpy and excited. "He didn't"

"What...?" said all three of them in almost perfect unison.

Anna tapped her nose as Munchy walked on-board that shuttle and smiled at Blackfire and Diamond who just scowled in hatred of him. "I actually killed him... then resuscitated him and boosted his T-Cell count... it was easy... it cleansed his body when I gave him a blood transfusion."

Munchy nodded his head, he was painfully aware of shooting Colin and Ultraviolet. He could see everything he did in crystal clarity but he could not let that phase him, he had a mission to complete.

"I'm..." he started to say and Diamond just stopped him. "I understand..." he smiled.

Djynn moved forward to continue his speech to the rest of the crew. "I know the rest of you are wondering... what is going to happen now. There is a planet below us that is capable of supporting life, try and repair the Valkyrie. But if needed, vacate to the planet below." his voice suddenly changed to a much more subtle tone. "Many of you will be aware of the modifications that we made to the shuttle... this is a temporal drive..."

Diamond opened his eyes in horror. "No... don't tell them about that!" he said to himself as he stared at Djynn in annoyance.

"It will take us back in time, where we believe we can save Terra and Alexandria from destruction... I know that many of you liked Captain Colin and I could never take his place but I must ask for you trust... and your blessing for this dangerous mission."

"WHAT IS HE DOING!?" shouted Diamond in his mind as the whole room went silent. Djynn bowed his head, hearing a clap, then another, then another. The whole room burst out in cheers and applause that made Djynn weep softly and tears to fall from his eyes.

He then turned and waved to his crew one last time. Anna powered up the engines of the shuttle and closed the hatch.

"Ready...?" asked Djynn to everyone. They all nodded except for Diamond who was in a strop about Djynn revealing the plan to the rest of his crew. They never needed to know that? What was the point? Was it for trust?

The shuttle flew through the shuttle hatch that was like a field that allowed the shuttle to pass through but kept the atmosphere inside the ship.

"We are clear..." said Anna who was sat in the cockpit of the cramped shuttle. Diamond felt incredibly cramped inside this shuttle as the walls had uncomfortable rounded sides, a low ceiling and was certainly not designed to fit so many people.

Blackfire suddenly gave an alert from the console next to Anna in the cockpit. "Warning, multiple contacts..."

Everyone rushed to the window to see a fleet of vessels that were Alexandrian design come out of some faster-then-light drive right in front of the helpless and adrift Valkyrie that was spinning slightly over Xan'thera.

Djynn looked away, he could not watch any-more of this massacre...

The Last Flight of the Valkyrie.

"Heavy comm traffic..." said Blackfire as he switched the communications unit which filled the small shuttle with terrified voices. Diamond stared at the ships, it was exactly as he suspected, the vessels were of Alexandrian design but it was light somebody had dipped them in oil... the trademark of the Dark Collective.

Alexandria had been absorbed...

"Multiple hostiles!"

"What do we do!?" shouted a male officer.

"There's no power to any systems!"

"No weapons, no shields..."

"Commander Djynn please don't leave us..."

The comm suddenly crackled and fizzled out as out of the cockpit a huge explosion could be seen as the Valkyrie was ripped to pieces by the fire from the ships that had just emerged. They then turned about and started heading directly for the shuttle...

"Shit! They found us... activating temporal drive!" shouted Anna. "Everybody hold on!"

The shuttle began to ripple, the same effect used by Asgard ships before it shot off, for a moment, the ship looking as if it had been stretched out like gum before it shot into a large blue vortex that opened.

Djynn collapsed in tears, the voices of the damned her could not get out of his mind. They needed to end this... now