"Battle for Manoon Ch 2" by Bjørn Tore Lædre

Sierra-Alfa had by, which means Nandi couldn’t imagine, turned completely around. And as a consequence the dangerous bit of the station was pointed at the Tellus. Nandi’s first thought was that she was dreaming. An extremely bad dream was all it was.
‘’Full ahead, hundred per cent power on the reactor’’ ordered Nandi. At the same time she was trying to calculate a course that gave them the best chance of surviving. The coordinates that came to her fingers was a fast turn to port. The ship followed the commands flawlessly as far as she could tell at least. The whole situation was difficult to survey; she was so used to the tactical hologram that LCD displays didn’t give the same result.
‘’Reactor at hundred per cent capacity, primary cooling heating up rapidly. Ten minutes to meltdown’’ reported Moore.
If she didn’t get the ship out of the enemy’s firing line it would hardly matter that the reactors went critical. If it came to that she intended to use the battleship as a fire ship. The fleet had pulled of maneuvers like that in the past so it wasn’t that fare fetched concluded Nandi. ‘’It will take thirty minutes to assemble a stealthy nuclear missile, Madam Admiral’’ informed Nelson.
‘’We don’t have thirty minutes Nelson. The only thing I can do at the moment is to maneuver out of that monsters field of fire. And that is vaporizing the main coolant faster then I dare to think about. We need solutions now sailor. Understand me!’’ yelled Nandi. Never missing a beat at punching in maneuvers etch more desperate then the last. Her head was pounding like she had a fit of migraine.
Number after number got pressed in to the navigation computer. If gave the ship its chance for survival, but it didn’t give the Fleet Admiral time to think. Her mind was just numbers not a chance to blow that bastard into the next universe. Think! Use your head Olsen; your head always has the answer. This time is no different than all the other times your life has been on the line. Her entire career had been one battle after another. That was the reason she sat in the command chair of the ESFM Tellus. The reason she was the only woman in history to climb to the rank of Fleet Admiral.
‘’If anyone has a brilliant idea, I’m open for anything at the moment’’ she announced to anyone that had an idea. It seem like a acted of desperation, and basically it was.
No one offered a word. The dance that the two giants had engaged kept going on. Sierra-Alfa was only a few seconds behind the Tellus’s turn. Any slip from her commanding officer was destined to end in disaster. Nandi though about the roughly thousand crewmen she had onboard. Their lives were worth fighting for as they fought for the rest of human kind.
‘’Five minutes to meltdown, ma’me’’ said Moore solemnly. He had given up the hope of living past this day.

‘’Hanson, signal the marines to assemble at the flight deck double time. Then get of this ship. I don’t see any way of saving both the ship and the colony. At least I can save as many combat personnel as possible. Earth is going to need them before this war is over. You can join them if you wish. The only thing I need is the systems and navigation’’ said Nandi in an defeated tone. The world seems dark and hopeless now. The last thing this ship would do before dying the hero’s death was to take the enemy along with it in to oblivion.
‘’I’m staying, ma’me. You go Moore, I can control the systems’’ said Hanson.
‘’Ma’me?’’ asked Moore.
‘’Go, kid. Get the marines and all personnel you can of the ship. Good luck’’ said Nandi, she was relieved that Hanson chose to stay with her. He had saved her once, now she had no chance to repay the favor. The ensign left the room, now the Private First Class and the Fleet Admiral sat face to face and just looked at each other. The time slowed down in Nandi’s mind. The two people that sat opposite of each other couldn’t be more different. He was probably not even born at the time she was in her first battle as a fleet officer. Now she looked at the young man, she hadn’t looked properly at him at all. He was far from what most people would call handsome. But he had his attractive features.
‘’How old are you Hanson?’’ she asked calmly wile tapping in a collision course on Sierra-Alfa.
‘’Nineteen, ma’me’’ answered he just as calmly. His eyes deceived him, he was fare from calm. What kept him from breaking in to a panic was beyond her comprehension.
‘’You aren’t out of your teens and here you are. Ready to die for the good of the human race. Well I’ve been waiting for this day since the day I joined the fleet. The funny thing is I didn’t think I live long enough to become Fleet Admiral. The hostility the appointment was met with is justly proved now it seems. I’ve failed in the job I was assigned’’ said Nandi. The marine didn’t answer; he just kept watching the systems displays.
‘’Nelson, I want you to transfer yourself to one of the Evacuation craft. If you survive this battle humans has the knowledge to fight these Stations in the future. You’ve been a good friend Nelson. Goodbye’’ said Nandi. And then the two massive craft destroyed each other.

The AI had just enough time to reassemble himself in the small computer of the Evak craft 21 before it left the Tellus flight deck.
‘’God speed, Nandi Olsen’’ answered Nelson.