Read The Solarian Celebration: Book 3 of the Alliance Conflict for Free Online Page A

The simulation started with Ella saying, “Now entering Trilon…” and everyone on the bridge getting thrown out of their chairs when the ship was hit by an ion cannon.
    Figur interrupted and said, “There should be a regulation or something requiring beings to wear their safety straps when they exit hyperspace.”
    Solear replied, “Excellent suggestion.  Perhaps one of the Admirals present can create such a regulation.  It certainly would have been helpful if it had been followed at that time.”
    All 8 senators looked at Admiral Dolen.  Dolen took a note on his communication pad and said, “I will create the required regulation.  Thank you Senator.”
    Solear continued the playback.  The ion cannon blew a huge hole in the side of the Sunflower and destroyed the primary power generator.  Next, the emergency pressure sensor module failed to activate and the entire ship lost air.
    Frank whispered to Korno, “Apparently he traded dead humans for the prisoners.”
    Senator Korno smiled and said, “Captain Solear.  You ship was hit from nearly point blank range by an ion cannon.  I am horrified by the damage it did and the lives you must have lost, but I am actually a little surprised that it didn’t do more damage.”
    Solear stopped the playback at this point and replied, “Their ion cannon was only at 55% power and our shields were at nearly full power.  I believe that they purposely fired it at a low level because they wanted to take at least some of us prisoner.  A full power blast would have severely damaged the ship.”
    Korno replied, “Judging from the scans, I would argue that it did.”
    After quite a few chuckles, Solear continued, “Only the bridge section still had air.  The rest of the ship was exposed to space.  The bridge crew was now effectively trapped inside the bridge.  The Hiriculans sent 6 HAS units to pry us out.”
    Figur interrupted, “So, you had no power, couldn’t jump, and were boarded by 6 HAS units.  How did you manage to stop that?”
    Solear continued, “The Humans, per existing regulation, were wearing their protective gear when we exited hyperspace and were hit by the ion cannon.  Two died from the blast, but the rest were alive and unharmed.”
    Solear paused, but this time was not interrupted.  He continued, “The Humans rerouted the trunk line from the primary to the secondary generator.  This restored power to the shields, missile launchers, and the ion cannon.”
    Admiral Wertak spoke for the first time.  He said, “That is a minimum four hour job in ideal circumstances.  How long did it take your crew?”
    Solear responded, “Just under 5 minutes.”
    Wertak scoffed.  Clearly, he didn’t believe it.
    Admiral Wertak said, “Five minutes.  The amount of work required to reroute the trunk line to the secondary generator is tremendous.  You have to drag the trunk line halfway across the ship, reset circuit breakers, and change the flow of electricity.  The entire ship would have been completely dark, let alone in vacuum.  How did they accomplish this in 5 minutes?”
    Solear was hesitant to say that the humans practiced simulations almost non-stop and that this was one of them.  He also didn’t want to mention that they rewired part of the ship even before the attack and added several non-regulation components such as car batteries to the ship.
    He answered, “The Humans were aided by the fact that a significant portion of the ship was missing.  It made moving the line much easier.”
    Solear continued the playback.  Two transports left the Hiriculan destroyer and landed on the Sunflower .  Exactly 5 minutes later the Sunflower’s power was restored.  The Sunflower fired its ion cannon point blank at the Hiriculan destroyer.  It took less than a hundredth of second to completely vaporize the enemy ship.
    Frank couldn’t believe what he saw.  The ship didn’t explode or break-up.  It just literally ceased to exist.  One second it was