The Amalgamation
an excerpt

The friends Lycoris, Ruki, and Justina were walking along the path past Hearthome City on their way to the third gym battle. Lycoris was looking ahead, Buizel on her shoulder as they reached the top of a hill. “Hey guys, come take a look at this,” she said, pointing ahead. “I don’t like the look of that.”
Justina came up next to her friend, the pink blob in her arms blinking quietly as she observed the world around her. She blinked as well, looking out at the horizon ahead. “That doesn’t look so great,” she said in a quiet tone. Ruki nodded as she came up and saw the storm approaching them quickly. Justina looked over the horizon and spotted something else that caught her attention. “What about that tower over there?” she asked, pointing carefully so as to not dislodge the Pokémon held in her arms. “Maybe we can hide there?”
Ruki frowned. “I’ve heard stories about this area,” she said in a slightly nervious tone. “There’s a story of a tower out in the middle of no where between cities that’s home to the dead Pokémon of many centuries. It’s the sort of place that you don’t want to go if you get caught outside in a storm, trust me.”
“I don’t think there’s much of a choice right now, the storm is really close to getting here,” Lycoris said. She swore violently, stamping her foot on the ground. “We should have gotten bikes back in Eterna! They would have been extremely helpful right now.”
“Just run!” Ruki said as the first rain drops hit them from the storm. “We can be there before the worst of the storm hits, at least. Then Happini won’t get too terribly soaked.” (I’m so close, I can’t help but go into brackets to finish writing the last of the 21 thousand words that I need to be ahead of todays schedual. Maybe I’ll get like a fricken lot of words, and be able to get way ahead before my sister manages to hit 25 thousand. I am to be there by the end of tomorrow by the latest, if not tonight at all. Shyeah, I’m so going to get my word count... With out of character stuff! Yeah, right.) Justina nodded and started running down the hill as fast as she could without falling on her face. Ruki followed, calling over her shoulder, “Come on, Lyci!”
Lyci crossed her arms and walked sedately down the hill, grumbling the whole way down that the storm was still far enough off that they weren’t going to get hit by it until a flash of lightning and a blast of thunder heralded the start of a down pour. Lycoris sighed as she got soaked, and pulled her umbrella out of her backpack. Buizel happily ran forward and splashed in the puddles that were forming on the ground while Ruki and Justina made it to the tower without too much hassle. Lyci showed up a few minutes later, dripping rain water on the floor and shivering while Buizel just shook herself off and scampered around for a minute or two to warm up. “Oh yeah, sure. Mock me while you can,” Lycoris said to her Pokémon as she scrambled up her trainer’s shoulder. “Next time, I’ll leave you where a Shinx can hit you.” Buizel stopped and snuffled in Lyci’s hair. “Stop being adorable, damn you!” she said in frustration as she pulled her Pokémon off her shoulder.
Ruki giggled and Happini gurgled with enjoyment at their antics as Buizel started running around the first room of the tower and Lycoris chased after her. “Come back here you!” Lycoris said, nearly tripping over a loose stone in under her feet. Buizel stopped suddenly, fur standing on end and growling low in her throat. Lycoris nearly tripped over her Pokémon as she froze right in her path. “Krystal? What is it?” she asked before Buizel turned and jumped on her, shivering not in cold, but in fear. Fear of what, the young trainer did not know. “I don’t think we’re supposed to be here,” she said, backing away from that spot. “Perhaps we should leave.”
The door behind them, the one that they came in through, closed with a thud that scared everyone, including the Pokémon, and especially Happini. The young happiness Pokémon started crying loudly when the large doors slammed shut. Justina held it close, talking softly to it in the best mothering tone she could to get it to stop crying quite so loudly, which was failing horribly. Squirtle, hearing the cries of the young Pokémon, came out of her Poké ball and started making faces for Happini while Ruki and Lycoris went to check the doors. “They won’t budge,” Lyci said, leaning hard against the door.
“That’s because it’s a pull door,” Ruki said, grabbing a pull handle and yanking as hard as she could with her puny Japanese j-pop girl arms that didn’t look like they could hold more than a pile of text books and possibly a box if totally necessary, which also didn’t work.

“Pull doors, push doors, whatever doors. They’re going to be a pain to open anyways.” Lycoris leaned against the door and looked across the room at a different door. “Let’s head further in. Maybe there’s food here.”
“Doubt it,” Ruki said. “I think this place has been abandoned for a fairly long time.” * Justina joined them at the front door while Squirtle continued to keep Happini happy and not noticing the storm which still raged outside. “But yes, I agree. We should head further in to see what’s in here.”
“Alright, you two go, but I’m going to stay here. I’ll send Squirtle in when the storm dies down. Deal?” Justina asked, looking at her two friends. Lycoris nodded, Ruki nodded, and then the two headed off for the inner rooms of the tower. Happini watched them go for a bit before jumping on Squirtle.
*Through the first door, the two trainers turned explorers found a room filled with chairs covered in white sheets and dust. Ruki was just about to open her mouth when a different voice piped in from somewhere else. “Bridge to the captain.”
Lycoris sighed. “Computer, freeze program,” she said in exasperation before tapping the left side of her chest. “Go ahead, Commander.”
“You might want to come take a look at this,” he said through the com link. “We just found an anomaly in the nearby star system that Iris thinks is a neutron storm.”
“I’m on my way,” she said. “Computer, end program.” Around her, the image of the haunted tower turned mansion faded into the familiar grid work of the ships holodeck, and the door appeared before her. She walked towards it, her outfit staying the same as it was in the program. Walking briskly, she headed for the turbolift ten meters down the corridor to the left, and entered the elevator like contraption. “Bridge,” she told the computer, and the lift started rising up. It stopped three decks from the bridge to let on a young looking boy wearing the yellow uniform of security and engineering officers, but the lapel pins on his turtleneck undershirt stated that he was the Chief of Security. “Ah, Nicolas, your sleep was well, I trust?” she asked.
“As well as could be, Captain,” he said, shuffling his feet slightly and standing straight with his arms behind him. “I was in a simulation with Lieutenant Kelly until around midnight last night. His training simulations are much like the old Earth video games that Commander Eric and you seem to enjoy.”
“Oh, you mean like that Metroid Prime Three Corruption game? That is indeed a lot of fun, and it keeps the reflexes sharp and in tune,” she was saying as the doors to the bridge opened. “Status report.” She moved quickly to her seat in the middle of the bridge, removing her hat as she went. Nico relieved the crew member at Tactical and examined the sensor readings.
“We’re still several light years away from the neutron storm, but it’s heading this way. Unless we change course, Captain, we’ll fly right into it,” he said. “I would suggest a course adjustment of five point seven mark thirty nine. It would get us past the storm in one relative piece.” Lycoris looked at her first mate Eric, and then down at the pilot, Iris.
“Lay in a course, Ensign,” she said. “Five point seven mark thirty nine. Warp three on my mark.”
“I wouldn’t suggest that captain,” she said in a slight british accent, swivelling her chair around to face the command chairs. “Neutron storms disrupt warp fields even when you’re light years from it. *I would suggest that we go at impulse speed until we are past the heart of the storm, then move to Warp One."
Lycoris looked at the younger girl dubiously, but nodded. "Use the same heading, at impulse speed. Get us past that storm before it hits us too hard." Isis nodded and turned her chair around to lay in the course. "Mark." Isis pressed a few buttons on her console, and the stars that could be seen in the view screen ahead of them changed and moved, signalling that they were themselves moving. "Show me the neutron storm on screen."
The star field changed to that of a sparking green and blue ball of neutron energy, swirling around an orange core that was throwing out waves of energy from it. The planets nearby were being hit by these waves, and Lycoris could see that each wave was throwing the planets out of alignment with their planets. "That looks like quite the storm," she said. Eric next to her nodded his assent, and pressed some buttons on the panel between them, switching the view to show the solar entity that this system used as a star. It was a binary system, one red giant swirling alongside a smaller white dwarf, the energy between them going back and forth.
"Captain, scans read a colony on the nearest planet," the girl in Ops said. "M class, high oxygen content in the atmosphere, low minerals, there are two continents, both with very low population density."
"Is there any way that we can get a signal out to the nearest Deep Space station to get them to send out a ship to pick them up before the storm hits them?" Eric asked, looking up at both Tactical and Ops stations. The girl shook her head. "Sorry Commander, the neutron storm is throwing off to much interference; the sensors could just barely pick up their distress signal."
"Captain, if we went to pick them up, we wouldn't have enough time to get clear of the storm before it hit us, we would be trapped and disabled in moments," Isis said, turning around again. The crew member next to her had taken over the helm for a moment, keeping their course steady and on track for the moment or two Isis would be turned around.
"Even if we are trapped, we don't know how long the storm would last. It could completely destroy the ship," Eric said. "Or it could just put our warp engines offline for more than we could afford to have them offline. Remember, we need to be at the research station before next week, or else our mission is a failure, and you all flunk the class."
Lycoris took a deep breath and held it for a moment before letting it out slowly. She had a thinking look on her face as she looked at the possibilities quickly in her head. "Computer, if we go for the planet to save them, what chance do we have of avoiding the neutron storm?" she asked out loud. A female voice replied in a tinny voice with, "Five point one seven chance of avoiding the storm completely. * There is a fifty point nine percent chance of being caught by the storm and having warp engines sent offline."
Eric watched the female captaincy student carefully as she weighed the new information against what her crew told her. She leaned forward in her seat and nodded slowly. "Isis, set in a course for the planet. We have just enough supplies to get everyone to the station and to get us home again. A five percent chance of getting away scot free is just enough that we can pull it off with some fancy manoeuvres," she said. She then leaned back and pressed a button on the panel. "Attention crew, this is your captain speaking. We are going to save a fair sized colony from the neutron storm that we are going to skim passed. I want everyone to welcome these people to our ship with politeness and care, but still continue your work to the best of your ability. Prepare cargo bays three and four into living quarters for the time being. Thank you for your attention." She ended the full ship call and fell into a readiness. "Red alert."
The klaxons started screaming as the lighting throughout the whole ship lowered and the red lights started flashing at regular intervals. "Captain, we are approaching the edge of the storms wake," Nico said, his hands moving like grass in a breeze upon the console. "Shields are holding at eighty five percent strength."
"Divert power to fore shields, and get us through that energy wake," Lycoris ordered as the ship shook violently. "We have to get to the planet before the storm reaches them, or they're toast." Eric sat back and watched the crew carefully, keeping his face in a schooled calm as he mentally evaluated each of the bridge crew on their assignments. Isis was working hard under the pressure, compensating for each bout of turbulence the ship went through, while Nico sent warnings to her console at regular intervals so she could get ready ahead of time. Lycoris was calm and keeping her head, and the girl in Ops, whose name was Kimberley, was keeping scans constant. "Captain, scans are showing a second eye in the neutron storm!" Kimberley said frantically as the panel in front of her beeped loudly. "It's stronger, and moving quickly around the weaker eye!"
"How close are we to the planet?" Lycoris asked.
"Less than five miles," Nico replied. "We are within range to start sending out shuttles to start ferrying colonists on board."
"Do it, that's an order," the blue haired captain said. "Full power to the shields; keep the storm from pulling us in too fast. *Reverse engines and get the shuttles prepped. Send one out then when they're halfway, send the next one." She did not look at Eric, who didn't say anything, nor did he give her any clue as to what she should be doing. She just continued giving orders, and received updates on the status of the storms moving through the system.
The ship was shook again as another energy wave hit the ship dead on. "Shields down nineteen percent!" Nico said. "They are holding at fifty five percent."
"Casualties reported near engineering!" Kim said, tapping furiously at the console. "Damage reports coming in now. Decks ten through fifteen report plasma leaks, seven through nine reporting micro fractures along the hull. Captain, we have to move now or we are not going to survive this!"
"Hold position!" Lycoris ordered. "We are going to save this colony! The Federation has a reason for them to be out here."
Another girl came onto the bridge, her hair bright as the twin red suns over Marot Prime, and her eyes as green as the oceans found there. "Captain," she said quietly, moving up to the observation platform above the command chairs. "This area has been known to be prone to plasma storms as well as neutron storms. They usually follow in the wake of each other, and devastate ships that are caught in them." She looked at her with piercing eyes that seemed to look into the captain's soul. "If this ship is caught in the neutron storm, we will be torn to shreds by the plasma storm. It will rend the shields to nothing, as a monster tears its prey to bite sized pieces to eat."
Lycoris nodded. "We still have to get that colony off the planet," she said calmly. "We have no choice, as a crew of the Federation; it is our duty to make sure that the people on the colonies are safe from everything." Lycoris turned back to the screen and leaned forward in her chair. "Now, how is the –"
"Captain, the first shuttle has landed on the surface near the location of the largest colony. Michelle is reporting that there is nothing there, just a transmitter sending out a false distress signal," Nico said equally as calm. "Commander Eric, if I may pose a question?"
"You may, Nicolas," Eric said, standing up with a smile. "I am sure that your question will be 'Was this another test?' If so, then yes. You four here, Nicolas, Lycoris, Isis, Kimberley, have all passed with flying colours. The rest of you pass as well."
Lycoris blinked at the man that was their bridge control teacher. "Then all the readouts were faked?" she asked calmly. "There are no neutron storm, no plasma storm, and no settlement to save?" she added, her voice slowly gaining in anger.
"This mission was not to get to the science station without trouble, I take it," Kimberley said quietly.
Eric rubbed his forehead carefully. "You can say that, I guess," he said, looking to his assistant. "This mission was to see how well you all worked under pressure, and you passed successfully." Kimberley sighed a sigh of relief and passed out at her station, collapsing to the floor. "Okay, maybe not. Bridge to Sick Bay, can you send up a medic? Miss Kimberley has fainted from stress."
"There's a team on its way, Commander," the head nurse said.
"Now," Eric said, turning to the rest of the bridge crew before continuing with, "Now that that's out of the way, we can continue with the mission we were originally sent out on. Reach the science station before the week is out and you all will get your final assignments and your postings."
Everyone let out a collective sigh as the turbo lift doors opened and a boy in a blue and black jumper suit uniform stepped out and moved over to the Ops station to look after Kimberley. The rest of the afternoon was uneventful, save for a couple of course adjustments due to their course to the planet. They picked Michelle back up on the way through, and then continued on their way through this sector of space.