Tell Ensign Knight that she's the best person for the job and you need her at her post?

From Create Your Own Story

The Bridge of the Excalibur is in shambles and the fate of the ship rest in the hands of a frightened 19 year old girl. Ensign Knight is shaking like a leaf, the poor girl is on the verge of panic.

You rush over to her and grab her firmly by the shoulders.

"Ensign Knight!" you shout. "I need you to pull it together. You are this ship's navigator, its up to you now."

"I-I can't" she whimpers. "I'll just mess it up again."

"Lindsay, this was not your fault. I gave you the order to fly into the nebula, it was me. Do you understand? It was me. This is not your fault."

Ensign Knight becomes very still as the panic subsides. She is still very scared, but she nods her head.

"Okay" she says. "I can do this. I can do this."

"Good girl. Thenalak, show her how to read the new sensor data."

Thenalak moves swiftly to the navigation controls and explains to Knight how to read the new data.

"These sensor have a short range," she warns. "so you will need to react quickly."

"And remember," Chief Engineer Martinez interjects. "Thrusters only! If you try to use the booster engines while the inertial-compensators are offline, we'll all just be splats on the back wall."

"Thruster. Got it." says Ensign Knight, sounding a little more confident.

She grasps the controls firmly. Beads of sweat roll down her brow as she tries to concentrate on the sensor read out. The data tells the tale, she sees a pocket of plasma off the starboard bow about to burst... her hands fly across the control panel adjusting course and speed. The ship gently rumbles as the plasma ignites... that was close. Everything is a mess, small fires burn on control panels. Cmdr. Jenkins chokes on the smoke slowly filling the room. Ensign Knight can feel the blood running down her cheek and dripping off her chin. Another blip in the data. This time to port. Ensign Knight once again expertly works the controls, avoiding a substantial burst of plasma that would have likely crippled the ship. She licks her lips, but that doesn't help. A damaged light flickers over head. Fire flickers to the left. The data read out flickers in front. All these flickering lights are making it hard to see exactly what the data is trying to say. Excalibur nears the edge of the nebula.

"I can to this." Knight repeats to herself.

There is one last blip of data. Its almost as if the nebula knows its about loose its prey. It lashes out wildly. A large pocket of plasma dead ahead is about light up the void. There is no steering around this one. All the panic returns to Ensign Knight as she desperately struggles to find a solution. She jerks the controls hard to port, but the plasma burst envelops the ship. The navigational controls explode in the ensign's face as the ship is again rocked by the blast. You hold tight to your chair to keep yourself from being thrown around too badly. You look over to see Ensign Knight on the floor flat on her back. Her face is badly burned and there is blood spurting from her neck.

"Cmdr Jenkins..." you start, but stop when you turn to see a large piece of shrapnel deep in your second-in-command's skull.

"Martinez!" you call out. "Are you still alive?"

You hear a faint cough and then, "Yeah, I'm still here."

"Take the helm."

"Aye si--"

Martinez never got the chance to take the helm because at that moment the Excalibur's hull breached flooding the ship with burning plasma and everyone was incinerated in an instant.

Back home the Excalibur has become a cautionary tale to stay away from the Dark Nebula.