Star Shot and Time Turner sat in her ready room, scouring through hours and hours of sensor logs because he had picked up a single subspace anomaly. Normally Star would have left the work up to him, but she was determined to learn as much as she could about different aspects of her ship, such as the science station, which was one of the few areas of the ship she was unfamiliar with. Her next area of study was going to be the tactical station. Star didn’t feel as though she was unprepared, but during college, her main area of study was warp field theory, plus a little xeno-biology and stellar cartography thrown in as minor subjects. The Twilight was still a week away from Aquestria, and the entire crew was already starting to become irritated with the sea pony ambassador.
The sea ponies, as they were called by the inhabitants of Equestria, were a race of amphibious ponies that had evolved on a planet that was eighty per cent water. The main problem that they had with diplomatic missions to other planets was the fact that their maximum time they were able to survive out of the water was only a single hour. As a result of that weakness, the sea ponies had developed special suits that were full of water, and allowed them to spend extended periods of time with other cultures.
The ambassador, K’avir, had taken up quarters in one of the smaller cargo holds. It had been flooded to accommodate him but he seemed to have constant complaints about the smallest of things.
A trio of three beeps signalled the comm system in the ready room, and Time Turner groaned when he saw that it was coming from the ambassador’s quarters. Star giggled at the earth pony, before pressing the answer button on her comm system.
“Star Shot here,” she said pleasantly while she waited for his demands with bated breath.
“Captain! I urge you to come down to my quarters at once. I need to talk to you,” he snapped and Time Turner rolled his eyes.
“I’ll be there in a moment, Star Shot out,” she responded, hanging up the comm.
“Have fun on your swim” joked Time Turner as Star got up to leave. She gave him a very exaggerated smile in spite of him and headed onto the bridge. As she walked across the room toward the turbolift, she heard her name being called and turned to find ensign PrimProse waving at her. Star made her way over to the comms station and gave her the ensign a smile.
“Hello ensign, did you find anything interesting?” she asked, and the pink unicorn nodded fervently.
“Yes Captain, It seems to be some kind of distress signal coming from a Pinto ship about three light-years away,” she explained happily and Star raised an eyebrow.
“You seem far too happy about a DISTRESS signal,” said Star, making PrimProse blush.
“Sorry captain, I-I just-“
“It’s okay ensign, I’m only playing. Have Sweetie Belle set a course, warp four,” Star told her, and PrimProse nodded, already transferring the coordinates to the helm. Star smiled and continued her quest to the ambassador’s quarters. Along the way, she made a point to greet every single one of the ponies she came across, hoping that she would get a chance to meet all of them properly as time went on. When she finally arrived at the cargo hold, she entered the door to the survey gangway that ran along the upper edge of the room, allowing for her to communicate with the ambassador without the need for her to wear an environmental suit and go into the water.
“Sh’aal vatir ambassador,” said Star, greeting the sea pony in his own language. A few seconds later, she saw a dark shape beneath the surface of the water, and then a few seconds after that, a scaly green head broke through the water, a scowl plastered across his face.
“What can I do fo-,” she started, before she was interrupted by the sea pony barking at her.
“You’re late! What if I was in danger, nopony would have been here to help me and I could have died!” he said dramatically, his voice gurgling with every word. Star Shot bit her tongue against a few choice words, instead, she gave him a very toothy grin as he continued his complaints.
“I offer my sincerest apologies ambassador, but there was some urgent ship’s business I had to attend to before I could come to you,” she told him, which seemed to silence him, at least for the moment.
“Yes, well… my water is far too cold. My gills are starting to seize up,” he explained irritably.
“I’ll have a talk to the chief engineer, perhaps she can provide some more power to the environmental controls and increase the water to a more comfortable temperature,” said Star as she turned to leave, only to have the sea pony hold up his hoof to stop her.
“One last thing captain, I noticed that we seemed to have changed course. Would you be so kind as to tell me why?” he enquired. She was surprised to find out that he already knew, but she had seen aliens do stranger things.
“Good catch. We just picked up a distress call coming from a Pinto vessel about three light years away. I felt it necessary to investigate.”
“Be careful captain, there are few species in this area of space that are capable of disabling a Pinto ship,” he warned, giving her a concerned look that only served to make her nervous.
“Now we don’t know that they were attacked, it may have just been a malfunction,” suggested Star. K’avir just laughed, which was something that she was not used too; sea ponies rarely laughed.
***
“Bring it up on the main screen,” Star said to PrimProse as they approached the stranded Pinto ship. The main viewer flashed on and revealed the open expanse of space and the endless amounts of stars that stretched into eternity. In the middle of it all was the massive Pinto starship. Pinto ships were approximately four times the size of the Twilight, which was the Luna institute’s biggest ever starship. The particular class of Pinto ship that they were looking at was specifically designed for scientific exploration and terraforming.
“Scans?” she asked, looking over at Time Turner, who had his eyes pressed against a binocular like viewer.
“Warp drive is down, as are weapons and impulse engines,” he explained, pressing a few buttons on the viewer. “Life support is minimal and there are about twenty bio-signs.” Star bowed her head when she heard how many of them were left; the ship would originally have had over one hundred and fifty crewponies.
“Hail them,” she said to PrimProse, who quickly opened a channel, understanding that time was of the essence. “This is Captain Star Shot of the Equestrian starship Twilight, do you need any help?” A minute passed with no response and Star started to get worried. “I say again, this is the starship Twilight, do you need any assistance?” Still no response was received.
“Captain, I suggest we take a shuttle over and check things out for ourselves,” said Swift and Star nodded, gesturing toward the turbolift. Swift got up from the tactical station and made his way over with Star in tow.
“You have the bridge Time Turner,” she said as the turbolift closed. Together the descended to deck ‘E,’ otherwise known as the shuttle bay.
While Star got settled in the shuttle and started to get it ready to launch. Swift walked over to the nearest weapons locker and retrieved two shiny silver bracers that had a small silver box on top of it. One of them he strapped to his wrist and the other he kept for Star. He jogged back to the shuttle and passed her the bracer.
“Are you sure we’re going to need a mage pistol?” she asked as she strapped it to her wrist.
“You never know,” Swift replied, giving her a shrug. Star sighed as she continued to run final checks on the shuttle. The shuttle bay was then evacuated and the bay doors were opened, releasing the bullet shaped ship out into space.
Being an accomplished pilot, Star Shot was able to make the smallest adjustments in course and dock with the Pinto ship in one of the smoothest maneuvers that Swift had ever witnessed. The airlock of a Pinto ship sealed around the shuttles, and with a pneumatic hiss, the small space was pressurised.
***
When the two ponies entered the ship, they found all of the corridors surrounding the airlock deserted, a fact which made Star slightly nervous, as most of the escape pods were nearby. Swift gave her an uneasy look as they started to head toward the bridge where the twenty bio signs were located.
As they continued, Star tried to look for any sort of reason why the ship had been stranded. There were no signs of exterior damage, and the interior was no different, aside from the four or five areas that they had to navigate around due to depressurisation.
It took the better part of an hour, but Star and Swift finally arrived at the bulkhead to the bridge. After knocking and shouting in the hopes that one of the Pinto’s inside would hear, and with absolutely no luck doing that, Swift broke open the electrical panel to the side and started to pull out wires in a random attempt to unlock the door. Surprisingly, a loud clunk was heard from within the door and with a smile, he tore out another wire and the door slid open just enough for the ponies to squeeze through. Swift went first, leading with the mage pistol just in case there was anything dangerous inside, even though Star was confident that they would only find some Pinto’s in danger.
***
Star’s mouth dropped open as she looked around the bridge and at the Pinto’s that were inside. It was like a small shanty town completely contained within the confines of the bridge. Tents made out of blankets and pieces of metal that looked like it was pieces of the wall were scattered throughout the room. When they entered, a female Pinto noticed them and walked over to greet them. She looked extremely dishevelled but she remained stony faced as was typical of Pintos.
“Hello, my name is Tashin. I assume you received our distress signal?” she enquired flatly, cocking her head to the side slightly, as though she was studying them.
“Yes we did. I am Star Shot, Captain of the starship Twilight, and this is my tactical officer; Swift. We tried to hail you, but we got no response,” she told her, giving her a warm smile.
“That is because we took the comm system offline in order to provide more power to the life support and environmental controls. It seemed logical.”
“What happened here? Were you attacked?” Swift asked as his eyes rested on an injured Pinto receiving medical attention not far away.
“In a sense,” said Tashin cryptically as she turned and started walking through the bridge with Star and Swift in tow. “About a week ago, we came into contact with a Taurian ship who demanded that we surrender our vessel and all of our supplies. In return, they were going to allow us to take some shuttles and file as many ponies on it as possible, as well as leaving an amplifying beacon for our distress signal. We naturally refused, feeling confident that we would be able to beat them in combat. We managed to disable their warp engines, but then they fired some kind of modified torpedo at us. It struck our Starboard cargo hold and detonated with some kind of energy that knocked out most of our systems, life support included. They fled and we were stuck here with diminishing air until our engineers were able to get it going again. However, it was not perfect, and we had to continually re-route air here just to survive.”
“What happened to the rest of the crew?” Swift asked, continuing his mini investigation.
“Dead. Most of them were trapped due to locking bulkheads in areas that were already low on air,” she replied and Swift gave Star a confused look.
“So this is just the bridge crew then?” assumed Star, which Tashin confirmed with a nod. “Okay, pack up anything you need and make sure any of your wounded are fit to travel. We should be able to get you all back in one trip.”
“That seems unlikely. Your shuttle is only rated for a maximum of ten ponies,” Tashin said, raising an eyebrow.
“She’s right captain. I’ll give the Twilight a call and get Time Turner to send Sweetie Belle with the other shuttle,” said Swift, already retrieving his communicator.
“Make it so. Tashin, is there any way I can help get your people ready for travel?” she asked and the light blue Pinto began to provide her with instructions on all of the things that would need to be packed up. Star went to work while Swift got in contact with the Twilight, simply glad that she was able to help.
***
It was an hour before the second shuttle finally arrived and the Pinto’s were being packed into each one, albeit with a little difficulty. There were four of them that had to be carried on stretchers due to different kinds of injuries, taking up a considerable amount of room.
With one final bio scan to make certain that there were no more Pinto’s on board, Star and Sweetie Belle released the docking clamps on their respective shuttles and activated the thrusters, ready to make their way back to the Twilight. Swift was seated next to Star, unnecessarily acting as navigator, when the comm suddenly went off, and she answered it to discover a very concerned Time Turner.
“Captain, you and Sweetie had better get back here, long range sensors have picked up a Taurian ship on an intercept course at high warp,” he said quickly, and she could tell that he was afraid. The Taurians were a war-like race of bi-pedal aliens, and in fact, they were the only space-faring bi-pedal species in this part of the galaxy. They closely resembled minotaur, and the only differences between the two were that Taurian horns are serrated, as well as a few key differences in the genetic makeup of each species. Certain Pinto’s have the belief that the Equestrian minotaur are distantly related to the Taurians.
“Acknowledged, we’ll be there in a moment,’ replied Star as she put on a burst of speed. She did not want to be out in the open when the Taurians arrived.
“This is going to be close,” noted Swift.