Conflicting Choices

The 10 of the sergeants were successful in gathering the survivors. The lieutenant had ordered them to move out of the 'space' and head towards the Voyager. Everything was going on as per the plan until they were ambushed by some crafts.

The holographic crafts started to shoot laser beams at the rescuers and the survivors. The rescuers tried to fly back to the Voyager but it was hard for them to do so when they were carrying the survivors. Those of them who were hit by the holographic laser beams had to play dead.

The images of battle crafts were starting to appear on the huge screen inside the main cabin of the Voyager that the students were in. A red alarm started to blare inside the Voyager and before anyone could react to the attackers, the Voyager was starting to get hit by the missiles.

"We are taking direct hit from the front." After getting hit for around five times, Alexis panicked and shouted, "Shield efficiency dropped to 95 percent. What are your orders Captain?"

Jimmy was stunned for a few seconds because the attack was unexpected by him. He lost his nerve and forgot who the in-charge of the missiles was. Then he shouted at the ones who were inside the main cabin, "Who takes the command of the missiles?"

There were no fighters in this simulation because they would be later recruited from the military school. So the missiles department also came under Alexis who was currently handling the conn of the ship under the Captain.

"It's me Captain. What are your orders?" Alexis shouted at Jimmy almost irritated. This kind of stressful situation was not helping her anger issues.

Jimmy blurted out his command aggressively. "Target and fire at will."

Alexis shouted at the co-captain next to her side, "You take the ones on the left; I will take the ones on the right." Then she immediately started to lock and fire missiles at the crafts which were too close to the Voyager.

As the Voyager was very large and the battle crafts were smaller, it was impossible for the Voyager to avoid getting hit and the shield efficiency was constantly dropping as it was taking more and more hits. Though both of the pilots were trying their best to target and take down the enemy crafts, there were just too much battle crafts for them to handle.

"Captain, the shield efficiency has dropped to 40 percent. We have to go into hyperspeed and jump through the wormhole now. Or else our ship will be greatly damaged." Alexis shouted as she was taking down a battle craft.

Jimmy contacted Andy to know how the rescue mission was going, "Captain to Lieutenant, give me the status report of the rescue mission. How much time will it take for you all to arrive inside the Voyager?"

Andy replied with a heavy breathing from the other side, "Captain, 4 of the sergeants and 2 survivors were killed. The rest of us are trying our best to avoid the attack and come towards the ship but I don't know if that is possible. The attack is heavy."

Jimmy asked to Alexis, "How much time can we wait for those who went for rescue?"

"I am sorry Captain, but if we are to do the jump safely then we have to leave now. The shield can only hold for about a minute. As soon as it is down, we don't know what damage we will incur. And we might not even be able to jump through the wormhole." Alexis was trying to take out another craft as she was talking.

Jimmy's conscience was split and he was unable to think straight. Was it right to just leave the 10 people who were still outside? Or was it right to wait for those 10 to arrive but then risk getting hit in the vital engines of the Voyager?

In the end he chose to take the risk. "Let's wait for a minute then. After that we will head out." He commanded to Alexis.

Then Jimmy contacted to Andy and ordered, "Lieutenant, you all have one minute to return back to the ship. Do you copy?"

"Yes sir. I copy." Andy replied with the same heavy breathing.

All 40 students that were inside the ship were feeling the tremors when the Voyager was being hit by the missiles. They were bracing themselves for the possible damage simulation.

"Shield efficiency down to 10 percent, we are going to get fully hit any seconds now." Alexis was continuously giving the status report to the Captain.

Jimmy glanced at his watch, it had been 45 seconds already, and the rescue team had yet to arrive. Finally he could hear Andy through his comms device, "Captain, 7 of us successfully made it to the ship. The others are dead."

Jimmy immediately ordered Alexis, "Alexis, we are ready to go."

"Yes Captain" Alexis prepared the ship to go into hyperspeed to get some distance before jumping through the wormhole so that the enemy ships would not be able to follow. The co-pilot was still busy firing while Alexis was making her preparations.

But before they could enter into hyperspeed, the shield completely broke down and - BAM - they were getting hit by strong missiles from several directions.

Alexis turned the ship around and the ship went into hyperspeed. But the battle crafts also followed them, continuously firing at the spaceship. With no defense system left, they were getting hit constantly.

Alexis tried activating the spin engine but it did not work. "Engineering Officer, why is our spin engine not working?" she shouted in her comms.

Natalia immediately replied in a concerned tone, "The spin engine took a direct hit. The damage is too great for us to be able to fix it." Natalia had already assessed the damage and her team had tried their best to fix the engine but she and her team were unsuccessful.

"Captain, our spin engine is out cold. And we cannot shake those enemy ships off with no defense. What do you want us to do?" Alexis reported to Jimmy.

"If we cannot outrun them then use the rest of the missiles to take down as many of them as possible." Jimmy was unable to think straight and just said whatever came to his mind first. The pressure was too much for him to handle.

And Alexis did as she was asked. She set the ship on a course and then turned on the auto-pilot mode. Then both of the pilots started to engage in firing missiles while still running at hyperspeed.

But several other engines were already damaged and the ship finally came to a halt. The battle crafts surrounded them from all sides and fired everything that they had all at once. Everyone inside could feel the hot air as if they were really on fire. Everyone was panicking and some were even feeling sick.

After about a minute of experiencing the ship blowing into pieces, the simulation room finally stopped its crazy movements and came back to its original position.

The students sighed and started to calm down after going through such an overwhelming simulation.

A student gripped his chest and slowly got up from the floor. "Man that was just crazy. For a second I felt like I was really going to die."

"Yeah, they scared the soul out of us. Did they really need to go that far?" Another student whimpered, his legs still shaking from the earlier experience.

Jimmy's face was all red because he was embarrassed and at the same time angry at himself for not being able to handle the situation well.

He was thinking lots of other possible scenarios for how this simulation could have gone. "I could have done things differently if I had not panicked. 40 lives were greater than 16 lives. I could have just left when there was time. And even though I waited for them, when the spin stopped, I could have just ordered everyone to get in the Escape Capsule and abandon the ship while the ship was in hyperspeed. At least that way they would have better chance of survival."

Alexis noticed that Jimmy was sulking in his seat. He had disappointment all over his face and was just lost in his own thoughts.

Alexis went to Jimmy's side and tried to console him, "You don't have to be so sad Jimmy. This was a good learning experience for us all. It is better to die here in the simulation than in the real word, isn't it?"

Jimmy came back to his senses and tried to smile at Alexis. Then he thought about what she just said. "Yes it is better to die here than for real." He thought to himself and tried to overcome his guilt for having 'killed' 55 people, including the survivors who ended up being dead.

Professor Harvey gathered everyone in a hall and then started to talk about the simulation. He first started with a question, "Raise your hands if you were scared when you thought you were going to die in there."

All of the students raised their hands. It was their first time experiencing this type of simulation and they felt as if the death they were going to face was real.

Harvey asked again in a loud voice, "Okay. And how many of you panicked and could not think what was to be done at the moment?"

Few of the students, including Jimmy raised their hands.

Then with some seriousness in his voice, Harvey started to talk again, "In real expeditions, there is a high probability that you will encounter such unexpected situations. Your life will not be as easy as a routine in the unchartered territory. You need to be prepared for any surprises. You need to train your mind in such a way that you will make a rational decision even at the face of death."

Harvey's serious tone turned into a normal one and then he said with a clap, "Alright everyone, I expect the report of today's simulation in the next class. Focus on what could have been done better by you. That is it for today. Class dismissed!"