“Captain McShane to the Bridge, McShane to the Bridge.” The intercom of the Determined blared on all 763 decks of the massive starship.


McShane woke with a start from his sleeping quarters. Jumping out of bed, he grabbed his blue captain’s jacket with an orange collar and cuffs, and thrust the door open with extensive force. Like a car breaking through a brick wall. As he is about to step out into the main hall of deck 258, Riley Grant from the Engine Room comes bounding, nearly out of breath down the hall.


“Sir… We enc… Encountered a puh… Pulling force, we need… Need you on the bridge.” Grant said, between his panting. “You go ahead… I need to catch my breath.”


“Good job, Grant. I’ll get back to you about that promotion by tomorrow.” replied McShane as he walked into the shiny silvery red lift, pushing the button marked “Bridge” on the control panel.


The lift raced into action with a whirring hum, gaining speed at an amazing pace. Lurching to a stop, the lift opens into a room of gargantuan proportions. All the walls are fully covered with flight and navigation computers. Many people are bustling everywhere, delivering paper and messages to all of the stations and officers. Captain McShane walked across the skybridge, fifty feet above all the others. Calls of greeting and respect rang as the crew noticed him. He reached the end of the bridge and put his eye to the retinal scanner. The screen flashed “Authenticated”. And the doors to the bridge opened for him to hear two of his lieutenants arguing.


“We have to wait!” shouted Lieutenant Renet.

“We have waited long enough, and if we wait any longer, it may be too late!” stated Lieutenant Isemin.

“No... We need to wait.” countered Renet.

“Wait for what exactly?” questioned McShane, surprising them, for they had not heard him enter over their own argument.

“Nothing now, because you’re here.” answered Lt. Renet

“It appears that we are having a dispute about a mysterious pulling force that we encountered, it has tampered with our light drive.” Explained Isemin, glaring at Renet.

“So... What do we do?” Asked Renet.

“”I will need to think this over...” McShane said as he walked over to the helm and sat for a few minutes, pondering their situation and possible solutions. Just as he started to stand up, he fell back down with a jerk. The ship instantly fell into chaos. People on the bridge started yelling to one another and checking the systems.

“Engine room to bridge, come in McShane.”

“This is McShane, talk to me.”

“Captain, this is Grant speaking. Our engines are shutting down one by one, and our generators are already off, we are running solely on back up power now.”

“Do whatever you can, Grant, and if you pull this off, you will most definitely get that promotion, no doubt about it. McShane out.”


“Sir, we are being pulled forward by an outside force. What do we do?”


“Our engines are down, as well as main power. Arm ion beam lasers...”