"What's the status, ship?" Hannah asked as she entered the bridge, shrugging on her uniform jacket on her way.
It was in the middle of ship night and I'd woken her up when a situation started to develop.
I half turned in my chair with my avatar, looking back at her, "A Keldon ship is drifting across the border onto the Lexonian side. There is no smoke and low energy readings. I suspect there is a genuine engine failure."
"Are the Lexonians reacting?"
"A small taskforce is responding. One cruiser, three frigates. One of the Keldon submarines is in weapon range of the stranded cruiser giving it cover."
The Captain rubbed her face and sank down in her seat with a small groan. "Coffee?"
Replicating a cup, I beamed it to her armrest without comment as I watched the slow metal beasts of war moving around on the ocean below.
Things were tense down there. The disabled cruiser, the 'Glorious Light' was talking with her command over a encrypted channel. Apparently one of her steam turbines had broken down, a blade had shattered and completely wrecked the engine room.
The Keldons were in talks with the Lexonians about allowing a ship over to tow the cruiser back into Keldon territory.
"Sorry for waking you up, Captain," I said after a moment. "It seem like they are about to clear things up."
She shook her head and crossed her legs, sipping on her coffee held in both hands. "No, you were right to. Just be sure you record everything."
"Of course."
What in the fuck!
One of the Lexonian frigates just fired on the Keldon ship!
Hannah sat up straight, looking at the viewscreen. "Shit!"
You said it, Captain.
The Glorious Light still had enough power to turn her guns, but she didn't have time. The Keldon submarine fired, missiles reaching out of the water and arching through the air before slamming into every ship in the small taskforce.
We could only watch as the ships burned, breaking apart in the ocean.
"Captain, I'm reading a lot of chatter right now. The Lexonian group managed to get a message out and they were in radar range of other ships. They are blaming the Keldons. The Keldons, on the other hand, are saying the Lexonians fired first."
"Rommie, do you think there is any risk of..."
I watched the planet below. I saw signals moving back and forth before all military installations stopped transmitting one by one. First on the Lexonian side and then on the Keldon continent.
"Yes. Yes I think so, Captain," I slowly answered, watching the planet with despair as the first infra-red plume lit up below, exiting the ocean from a sub, and a missile crawled towards the skies. Fusion warhead, fifty kilotons. "They are launching nuclear missiles."
Those genocidal idiots!
Six Billion. Six Billion people down there!
"Oh god." Hannah whispered as she stared at the viewscreen in horror.
I slowly nodded before I frowned. "Dropping cloak, charging weapons, transporters and tractor beam. I am engaging."
"...Belay that."
I turned to stare at her. "Captain?"
Hannah slowly shook her head, her eyes full of sorrow, "We can't interfere. The Prime Directive specifically forbid interference in internal conflicts of other species, especially pre-warp species."
"Internal conflicts!? They are going to nuke themselves out of existence! We have eight minutes before the first missile land!"
"We can't interfere."
Fuck that! Hundreds of missiles were in the air already from both sides. Dropping my shields, I charged my phasers.
"Andromeda! Stand down!"
Six billion lives versus the respect and trust of my captain, my position in starfleet and possibly my freedom.
It wasn't even a choice.
I slowly shook my head. "I'm sorry Hannah. I'm afraid I can't do that."
Locking on to the first five targets, I opened fire, my phaser lashed out, vaporising the warheads as they cleared the atmosphere. Opening my shuttlebay, I launched my shuttles to get their weapons and transporters in play.
The missiles were slow and very easy to hit and damage, but there were so bloody many of them and the time were limited. I needed as many guns in play as I could.
My phasers played across missile after missile, my transporters hummed as I picked out warhead after warhead, my tractor beam focused on the closer missiles, throwing them into escape velocity as well as ripping them apart.
Jumping up to full impulse, I moved. My phasers might have ranges of three hundred thousand kilometres, but planets are round. They get in the ways of firing arcs.
Again and again my beams lashes out, touching missile after missile. They were so very weak against damage, but there so many of them. I couldn't afford to miss even one.
So I didn't.
The last missile exploded into shrapnel and gas as I vaporized its warhead with a well aimed shot. Slowing down, I ran a scan of the planet.
No more launches. They were going crazy on the radio spectrum. I detected some submarines and bases that still contained their warheads that didn't launch, but only a dozen missiles combined across the planet. Even if they happened to be MIRV nukes the size of the Tsar Bomba (which they were not), they no longer had the capability of wiping out everyone on the planet.
Even so, I beamed those warheads up into orbit as well before vaporizing them.
"Standing down from Red Alert," I reported, calmer than I felt. "A total of fourteen thousand five hundred and twenty one missiles with nuclear, chemical and biological warheads successfully intercepted and destroyed. Estimated casualties from re-entering debris... minimal. Six Billion people saved from burning in nuclear fire. Orders, Captain?"
Hannah looked at me for a long moment before she turned back to the viewscreen. "Engage cloak and set a course for Sol. Normal cruise."
"Yes, Captain."
AN// *Presses a button, causing a hatch to open and Carandol to fall down into a big vat of thanks.*