Lt. Jessica Beadle, 22, first assignment. Nick mentally kicked himself. In the confusion of this morning, he had completely forgotten about her. She should have been in the meeting. "No, no," Nick waved her apologies away with a hand, "you did nothing wrong. That was a normal reaction to something nobody could have seen coming." Remembering the way Winky tried to use her shock as proof the Prize was weak, he adds "And it's not your fault the pirates are so cold-hearted. It only means you have a good soul."

Before he can give the crew any further instructions, Nick is cut off. A familiar voice speaks over the intercoms: [color=f7976a]"The [i]Moray[/i] is now in position and ready to commence the operation. I believe the term is, [i]'it's go time'[/i]."[/color]

Hard to suppress a smile at that. "Yes, Lieutenant," Nick radios back, "that's the term."

[center]-----[/center]

Yeah, it was go time. 

3 minutes later, the [i]Moray [/i]and the [i]Prize [/i]are firing in tandem at a ship full of unsuspecting (and drugged) pirates. Captain Carabello is gripping his communicator like it's a phaser pistol, issuing commands like: "Alpha team, get the hostages!" and "Beta team, there's a weak point in their hull!" Without even pausing for a breath, he's spitting out the same kind of orders to his Bridge crew: "Focus shields forward!" All the while, the [i]Prize [/i]is shaking from the shockwave of a pirate torpedo that scraped their shields. 

He was trying to sound calm. He was failing. But there's no time to worry about that now. As soon as Alpha says they have the hostages safely on board, Nick was going to demand surrender from the pirates. And if that doesn't work... well, the galaxy would be safer without them around.