Can one Man make a Difference?

<snip>
Sorry Solvay, I don't have time for this." She manhandled him up the ramp and gave him an ungainly shove that propelled him forwards into the shimmering light.

Then she dove in herself.
</snip>

Jamie watched as the others jumped through the shimmering portal as well. He took one last look around, trying to take in some of the information that was in the 'gate room' around them, before leaping in himself.

Black. Nothing. If one had to describe it, it would be called a void. No light, technically, therefore, no darkness. But the lack of light made it look rather black, at least to Jamie.

"Hello?" He called. Or at least tried. While he could feel his mouth moving, and his vocal chords vibrating with the effort, his ears picked up nothing.

It felt much like space-walking. No feeling of gravity, or mass, or, well, anything. Slowly, lights began to appear in the distance, small twinkling pips of light.

Stars?

"Hello?" He called again. This time, he felt something in his ears. Not really sound, as one would expect it, but more like the pressure of movement.

Then light flooded back into the world in one go. Metal corridors stretched out from either side, and alarm sirens rang out, along with flashing red lights.

He stood up, and looked about, confused. "The Hercules?" He asked.

"Yep." said a voice behind him. It was a young man, wearing nothing suitable for engineering work on a warship.

"What am I doing here? I thought the portal was going to break the fourth wall?" Jamie asked, though not entirely sure what that meant.

"Where do you think I'm talking to you from?"

"Ok... So Why here? Why the Hercules?" Jamie asked.

"Because it's the question you want the answer to more than any other. Could you have made a difference if you had stayed?"

"Well?" Jamie reiterated.

"I'm not going to tell you. The escape pod you took is right there. See if you can help. Whether you succeed or fail, it won't make a difference to anyone but you."

Then, people appeared. The engineering team he had been with at the time, and he felt younger. The young man he had been talking to previously faded out of sight, with a nod.

Then the people started moving. Slowly at first, to give him a warning of what was to come. He picked up his toolkit, and began to run with them, his speed matching theirs within seconds.

"Core Overload Imminent." blared a warning beacon. The engineering team stopped.

"We need to get down there. We can help." the young woman in the team said. Her overalls had a name tag that read "Jones, F"

"Without deflectors, we're dead anyway." Jamie said, remembering the situation. "You guys get to the deflector generators and get those back up. I'll head to the core - there's not enough space for everyone there anyway." He said, taking control of his team. Technically, he had been quite high ranking in the SCED, but the command staff always told them what needed fixing first, so it was like internal rankings only.

The team split, and ran in different directions. Jamie, lugging his heavy toolkit with him, ran towards the core of the ship.

Jets of steam burst from nearby piping, sparks of plasma jumping with them with a deep, blue energy. Get near those jets, and you were a gonner.

Oddly, it reminded him of something in the back of his mind, like something he had experienced before, but not yet.

Upon entering the core-room, it was obvious what was happening. There was a loud roaring noise from the core, enough to drown out the warning sounds. It didn't look pretty. Plasma sparks were jumping from the core to the surrounding metalwork, the scream of someone who got too close to it as they were fried in an instant, filling the air with the acrid smell of burned flesh.

Jamie approached the other engineers at the scene.

"Can we eject it?" he asked. Always good to know your exit strategy before you get into anything.

"No sir." came the reply. "plasma fire fused the secondary locks."

"Can we kill the reaction?" He asked, his secondary plan.

"Yes, but then we'll be a sitting duck."

"It's a backup plan. Jamie said. "Shunt the plasma flow through the bussard collectors. We'll reverse the system." He said, taking cues from a previous disaster that would have been averted if they had tried this straight away.

The computer system beeped away as it diverted the flow of the plasma from the core. It was still overloading, but it reduced the strain on it, giving them more time.

Jamie then hit the comm panel.

"Captain. The Core overload has been delayed. We've got about five minutes to escape the battle zone before we kill the reaction. There's no other way."

"Understood, Engineering. Displays say whatever you did has saved everyone onboard. Well-" the Captain began, before he was cut off by someone else on the bridge.

"Sir! they're coming right for us! Main deflectors are down!"

The captain stood up from his chair. "Intensify forward firepower, I don't want anything to get through."

On the viewscreen, a Hymenoptera ship, shaped much like a dragonfly flew towards them, a trail of guts and chitinous shell trailing behind it. It was obviously limping, and heading straight towards them.

"Intensify Forward Firepower!" the captain shouted again.

"Too late!" said someone else, as the dragonfly flew headlong into the bridge. The resulting explosion set off a chain reaction throughout the ship, knocking out all engines. Without propulsion, the gravity well of the Hymenoptera homeworld began to draw it in. Unlike the fiasco a hundred years ago with a reboot of the classic Star Trek, this crash did not happen in a matter of minutes. All power had gone from the SS Hercules, and its end would be long and drawn out.

However, there was no time for that. It only took a minute for the core to overload once more, and with the bridge gone, there was nothing else they could do.

Jamie sat up with a scream.

In front of him, a Pyramid stuck out of the coarse sand. grav-sleds carrying slabs of stone shuffled up the slopes, pushed by hordes of underdressed people, burning in the bright sunlight.

"Are you ok?" someone asked. His mind wasn't in gear, he didn't recognise the voice. That dream... it had been so... real.

Is that how it would have gone? It was just a dream. Anything can happen in dreams, right?

"Uhh... Yeah..." He replied, and moved to scratch his head. "Huh...." He said, looking down at his hands. There was a mild plasma burn on the back of his hand, and he was holding a wrench. It was stamped with the Space Corps logo.

<tag. Notice the references?>