A silent explosion erupted from the corridor connecting the forward compartment and the Engine Room. Rings of fire and shattered steel scattered into space like crimson ripples blooming in the dark void. The immense thrust of the shaped blast separated the forward compartment from the Engine Room while propelling the former forward, just as originally designed. The violent tremor threw First Officer Stark and Lieutenant Cooper, who had been waiting anxiously inside the forward compartment, onto the deck. Only then did they realize what had happened.
First Officer Stark gritted her teeth and forced herself up despite the pain of her broken ribs. She pressed herself against the porthole and watched the Engine Room, wrapped in blinding currents, plunge into Neptune's raging storms. Seconds later, it vanished into the violent hydrogen-helium tempest. In the heart of that terrible storm, they saw a breach filled with lightning and foul light. Vast quantities of gas and fragments of the corridor were dragged inside by a powerful suction—they realized Captain Miller would never return. The survivors felt no joy at escaping death. Covered in sticky blood, First Officer Stark could only stare at the dreadful vortex in Neptune's atmosphere. That ship from Hell had returned where it belonged, but it had taken the bravest among them with it.
"We should enter the Cryo-pods as soon as possible." Lieutenant Cooper forced the words through his hoarse, parched throat. "He would want us to survive. The people on Earth need to know what happened here."
First Officer Stark gazed at the stretch of space that had buried most of them. She could not imagine whether the people of Earth would still have the courage to step into this wasteland if they knew what horrors awaited humanity in deep space. Would they be dragged into a