	The light of the bright white sun of Gamma Draconis shone through the haze and smoke that hung like a dense fog.  The bridge of the GTD Victorious was still in shambles, only half of the stations were working, and even those were suffering from the occasional power spike or drop.  The ventilators had been knock out of service when the last Shivan torpedo came nerve rattling close to hitting the bridge; fortunately the fire suppression system remained operational.  Still, the bridge was a shadow of it former self, walls blackened by fires, and the far too numerous blood stains from the more unfortunate members of the bridge crew.  Yet she remained a hive of activity.

	"Has the Capella end of the node been engulfed by the supernova yet?" Vice Admiral Ross Brahms asked his senior operations officer.  Like nearly everyone on his flagship he too had suffered some degree of injury.  Despite holding a clotting agent patch to the small but deep laceration on his forehead, he was still able to carry out his duty.

	Vanessa Burrows glanced up from her station and looked her blood stained commander face directly in the eyes.  She too was wounded, probably a broken ankle, but her spacers boots were doing wonders for support.  "Yes sir.  We can only expect ships to arrive within the next thirty seconds, any later and the shockwave would have gotten them."

	"Lets pray." Brahms turned his head to face the flickering holographic projector.  A bright green sphere representing the jump node cast an eerie kind of green aura in the smoke.

	Damage repair crews were still scurrying about the bridge, on other ships repairing as much of the bridge as possible wouldn't be such a high priority.  The thing that set the Victorious apart from the other destroyers was that she was the fleet flagship as well, and the admiral needed as much tactical and strategic information as possible.

	Suddenly, the jump node flared open.  Bright blue waves of sub-space energy rippled about the unnatural tear in the fabric of space time, and from the size and magnitude of the energy waves, the ship coming through had to be massive.

	Commander Burrows studied the information in front of her intensely.  "It's the Eternity sir.  She looks like she taken quite a beating sir.  Captain Christensen is requesting that repair crews board her vessel immediate.  Her own crews are overwhelmed."

	Not letting his gaze waver from the tactical display.  "The Illustrious has more or less stabilized, yes?" he said while watching the holographic representation of the GTD Eternity slow down from her exit from sub-space.

	"Yes sir.  In fact Captain Wittmann has already responded to her distress call."

	*I should give that man a medal*, Brahms thought.

	The count against the shockwave kept ticking down.  Twenty, fifteen, ten, five.  Brahms sighed and turned his back on the holo-projector, deep down he came to the realization that no more ships would be coming through.

	"Prepare to move the fleet away from the jump node.  Once the Eternity is fit for sub-space travel, we'll move to sector nine-eight by four-one-three."  Only in the corner of his eye did he see the holo-projector display a medium sized jump portal opening.

	Brahms quickly spun on his heels and entered the request into her own computer terminal.  There were two ships emerging from the node, a blackened Triton class freighter and an Erinyes class heavy fighter.  The freighter was leaking atmosphere from numerous blast craters on its surface and the any external features aside from what little armour it did have was long since melted away.  The fighter on the other hand was clearly showing signs of battle, the fighters shield was obviously the reason why it was not burned.

	Answering his question before he even knew he was going to ask it, Burrows reported.  "It's the GTFr Compassion sir, registry GTFr one-nine-seven-oh-five.  She has significant burn damage to her outer hull, all communications antennae are destroyed.  The fighter pilot in reporting as a member of the 67th, the Angry Angels, that's an SOC squadron from the Eternity.  The pilot says that the supernova obliterated Capella shortly after jumping out.  That pilot is the last of them."

	"Get a repair crew on board the Compassion as soon as possible.  The sooner we can get away from the jump node the better.  Make sure that pilot gets commended for outstanding work." Brahms said, still maintaining his ever present gaze on the holoprojection.