Chapter 12 : The Aftermath 6

Mary was hot and sweaty; she’d worked almost all day to get the first of the three reactivate able reactors clear. Even with the help of the anti-grav units it had been hard going, she decided she just might kill Jim after all, she did NOT like to perspire and she wasn’t about to ask a pregnant Amber to help. Mary was glad as hell that the last proximity alert hadn’t been enemy ships, with only 3 reactors going they were sitting ducks even to the weak ass tyrants in this section of space. Damn it she thought, with all this damage Dickie still wasn’t able to get all repair functions going and they needed at least 2 more before it would be able to gain more control. Sighing she got back to work she was almost through to the anteroom of the reactor, at least with this one going she’d be able to take a hot shower.

Jim was pissed, a few seconds sooner and they wouldn’t be having all this trouble, Mary was more than capable but she still hadn’t had enough time with the system yet.

“Jim I’ve reached the anteroom of the reactor, it’s a mess down here good thing we added that extra shielding or this one would toast,” came Mary’s voice from the com.

“Alright, come on back after you’re done and take a break you’ve more than earned it,” Jim answered.

“I will after I look at the other 2, I want to make sure I can actually clear them,” came Mary’s reply.

“Hell, I should be back up tomorrow Mary, I’ll... , “ Jim started.

“I told you you’re not moving till we’re sure you’re not injured more than the readings say, you do and you’ll have more than just me to deal with,” Mary snapped back this was twice he’d been hurt after he’d sent her to safety and she’d be damned if it was going to happen again.

Jim threw up his arms in defeat with just one of them he might be able to climb out of this bed but not both. Damn, Jim thought he felt like a prisoner they wouldn’t even let him go to the bathroom alone, sighing he laid back deciding for the moment not to fight it. Amber smirked, finally there was someone that could actually get Jim to listen for once, sitting down Amber sighed they needed to get back to Imperial space soon. Even as she sat she felt the baby begin to move again, damn it! It was sooner than she thought; sifting through all the dates she began to wonder if she hadn’t gotten the date wrong when she got pregnant, ‘bout her luck she thought, well their luck. With all that he’d been through the last few years, she wasn’t sure if she could have remained sane, plus all the shit of them both losing their families, sighing she slightly cringed as she felt the baby move again.

Mary had finally cleared through to the anteroom, after a thorough check of all the reactor and associated systems she walked to the system control room. Finally getting it started she noticed that the light levels were finally up where they should be; good she thought it’s about time. The added power enabled Dickie to use more anti-grav units, so finally the hallway and the rest of the anteroom were clear in no time. Jim felt more of the bio bed come to life, good he thought she had the fourth back on they ought to be at half speed now, and the shields also at half sighing he knew if they could drop the shields they’d be back a lot sooner. Well there was no helping it now he guessed, touching his ear he opened his com, “Dickie status,” Jim said.

“We now have sufficient power to properly assess damage to the station, structural integrity holding at 95%, shields are at half power now rising to 55%. We are now at half speed on the hyper engines, I have lost control over 35% of the station including the tunnel drive, I am attempting to repair now, it appears that quite a few circuits are burned out on super sub level 5, plus there is extensive damage to panels 5 through 10 in the control room. I am afraid that till they are all repaired we won’t be able to use the tunnel drive, I am afraid there is no way to by pass them,” Dickie reported.

Jim silently cursed his luck if he wasn’t here he was sure he and Mary could already have had the station back up. Sitting up a moment the room began to spin, damn it he thought as he quickly feel back on the bed, well that sucks. Amber arose quickly hurrying to the bio bed when she heard Jim’s groan, starting the scan again when she saw that more of the bed was functioning. The fact that his brain was still showing swelling worried her, she wasn’t a doctor but she knew that wasn’t good, looking over the interface she began to enlist more of the bio bed’s medical applications. After a few minutes the look of relief on Jim’s face caused her to breathe easier, according to the read out, he’d have to be here another 3 days before the bed would release him. Sighing she was glad, she wasn’t sure what she’d do without him, with the bed finally at 100% she could finally rest. Mary was finally on her way back to control, the fact that Dickie was finally able to clear more of the debris was also encouraging. After checking in on Jim and adjusting the settings Amber had set slightly, she smiled and made her way to the bunk area, damn but this shower was going to feel damn good!

Three days later Jim was finally able to get out of bed, Mary had 6 of the reactors operational now, though Dickie still had no control over the tunnel drive or 35% of the station. Mary was good but the circuit repair she wasn’t that sure of, not the way almost everything on the station had been reconfigured. Jim sighed it was going to take quite a bit of repair work, he and Mary had just made it to super sub level 5 when Jim saw that almost every circuit had been cut, cut? Jim started to inch his way forward repairing everything he came to, when there was a clicking and hissing coming from around a corner, what!? There were actual Krang on the station, pulling a pistol Jim started to advance when Mary stopped him.

“No, killing is my job keep going, we need to get everything back up that we can,” with that she cloaked and was gone. Within 5 minutes there were screams and massive confusion coming from where they’d heard the Krang. 20 - 25 minutes later it was all quiet Jim was reattaching the last circuit for this small section when Mary appeared.

“Their all dead, I took this off of them, a map to this place, though they were having trouble with all the locks and doors they’ve tried to destroy everything they could,” Mary reported.

Jim nodded repairing everything he could, at least they had 2 of the MTM’s working now, plus Dickie was able to assess the tunnel drive now.

An hour later Dickie finished its analysis of the tunnel drive, “Captain, I have finished examining the tunnel drive. There is no apparent damage to the drive, the extra shielding you and Mary provided served to more than protect it. I have still have no control over it yet, though the repairs you effected with Mary have given me control over 85% of the station now.”

Jim was nodding when Dickie finished, “Alright Dickie, continue to monitor all systems and immediately notify me of any changes that may occur within them.” Jim sat still for a few minutes trying to figure out why the tunnel drive still wasn’t working. “Dickie scan the entire drive and try to determine if there is any way to activate it without panels 5 through 10, We’ve partially repaired 5 and 6 but the others may take longer.”

“Compliance, though at present with the configuration you have set up that may not be possible,” Dickie quipped back.

Jim and Mary went back to work on panels 5 and 6 an hour later they had just finished and reactivated them when a chime went off alerting them that several offline systems were now operating.

They both breathed a sigh of relief and settled in to start work on the next 2; Jim had to stop only a few times this time to explain how and why he’d changed configuration. Again, Mary could see an almost brilliance to how the system was operating now, another hour and they weren’t much further with them when Dickie spoke up.

“Captain I have finished the analysis you have requested, now that we have panels 5 and 6 operating, I have about 30% control of the tunnel drive. I can start it, I can even open a tunnel but I cannot stabilize it for long, you may get 10 to 20 minutes each time, the down side is we’d have to wait at least 12 hours before we try again. Also, we would not be able to get very far, maybe 18 hours to a day and a half further but it would be closer to Imperial space,” Dickie finished to the grim faced three standing in the control room.

“Alright, Dickie? What is our distance from the Creca world?” Jim suddenly asked.

“I estimate that we are still 18 days from them at full hyper speed, we are still deep quite within the Krong/Krang space, we are still too far to beam the Creca a message, I suggest using the tunnel drive to get closer,” Dickie suddenly added.

Jim was rapidly thinking 2 days would put them a lot farther, possibly give them more time, looking at Mary and Amber they both nodded. Jim started to smile finally they were all on the same page.

“Alright Dickie, I want you to activate the drive, hold us in the tunnel as long as you can,” Jim instructed.

“Compliance Captain, I suggest that all three of you strap your selves in, this will be somewhat violent without the stabilizers that panel 10 controls,” Dickie answered back.

They all watched the space in front of the station roll and boil more violently than before then it suddenly opened, the station lurched, then started to shake as they slowly gained speed. There was another violent lurch then they were in the tunnel.

“Dickie call off the time while we are within the tunnel, shut down all non-essential systems that may enable you to sustain the tunnel longer,” Jim said as the station began to gain speed.

“Compliance Captain, though without the star engines this is the top speed we will be able to obtain,” Dickie answered as Jim saw that their speed had leveled out. “5 minutes so far,” Dickie said.

Jim and Mary could see that the tunnel was slightly different after 10 minutes instead of a steady glow the walls of the tunnel were starting to flash dark every now and then, at 15 it was occurring with more frequency.

“Dickie shut down every system not essential to life support, shields and the tunnel drive!” Jim yelled above the noise the tunnel drive was starting to make, “watch for stress and heat build up within the tunnel drive!”

“Compliance,” Dickie replied, “the increase in power may extend the tunnel time.”

They all watched as the blinking of the tunnel walls slowed and almost stopped, though their joy was short lived. At 20 minutes the walls started to slowly blink again, Jim smiled when they hit 25 minutes, they might get further. They’d just hit 30 minutes when the alarms started to go off, Dickie informed them that some of the other systems had shut down with the strain on the reactors. At 35 minutes Jim was hoping they didn’t rip the ship to hell and back, finally at 40 minutes Dickie announced that the tunnel was failing. There was an extremely violent lurch then they were free.

Touching his ear Jim asked, “Status report.”

“We have traveled 3 days closer to the Creca world, though we are still barely out of message beam range, we... , “ Dickie started when there was another proximity alert going off, “Captain I am detecting a large world ahead. From what I have deduced of their language it is a Krong world, the first I have detected since we have entered this area of their space. It holds a rather large number of the Krong; I am also getting odd readings in the center of a huge building in the largest city.”

Jim rushed to look at the readings, from what he saw it was putting out a lot of energy and... ? Em waves? Jim backed away, was it possible that they had stumbled onto the brain hold? No, he didn’t believe that for a second, he was sure his father had something to do with that. Looking closer he could see different energies coming from the building some of them were definitely human!

“Move us away beyond their detection,” Jim ordered as they felt Dickie start the sub-light engines. A few minutes later they were behind the moon of the planet, “any pursuit?” Jim queried.

“None that I am detecting Captain, it appears we have escaped before their sensors detected us.” Dickie informed the three.

Amber eyes also grew large when she saw the readings, “Jim you aren’t going to try and go down there are you?” she cried.

“Not unless I have no choice, first, I have to figure a way to keep them alive once they are here,” Jim replied as a thousand ideas flew through his mind.

“Unless you want a major ass kicking, you had better tell me what’s going on,” Mary advised when amber backed from the sensor panel.

“We’ve detected human em patterns down there, when I was going through the Krong records I found that they would take the brains of their strongest enemies. I believe that they took the brains of three of the heroes of the first battle against the Krong,” Jim said trying not to get too excited.

“Ah, you mean the Stocks,” Mary replied, though not shocked knowing Mary and the way she had for gathering information Jim was still a little surprised.

“Yes that’s right, the heroes of that attack deserve peace or a chance to live again, I intend to bring their brains on board, though at present I am not sure how yet, as we don’t have the equipment yet, nor the power. I worked on the DMTM and we only have one operating, it would take all three synced with each other just to get one of them and the equipment they are housed in,” Mary nodded thinking a moment.

“I believe that for once I have an idea, that you don’t,” Mary smirked, as she pulled out the disk Jim had given her before they’d left. “I did a little work on something like what you are describing when I almost killed Anthony,” Mary said, for a moment drifting back in time. “I thought I might have to put his brain in another ‘holder’ while his body healed, the war ended and I never saw him again, so I abandoned it, which YOU took with you, had I had it I might have actually finished the idea.”

Jim again cringed at the mention of the recent argument they’d gone through. As they both looked over the data Jim became more and more impressed, this was damn good! Hell with that, it was brilliant!

“I do believe that this would do it, though you might have to find a way to adapt our power source to their machinery,” Jim stated.

Looking over the power readings from the planet Mary just shrugged, “Shouldn’t be too hard, it’s not too different than the power readings of the generators used over 50 years ago.”

Again Jim was a little shocked, he knew that Mary was extremely smart but even he hadn’t seen the similarities of the 2. “Come on Jim, you remember that second mission we did to that outer world? I had to adapt to their power generators and they were no different than this,” Mary said, a little irritated that Jim didn’t remember that mission.

Jim could only stand there his mouth open, though Amber was trying her best not to burst out laughing.

The rest of the day Jim worked on panel 7, it wouldn’t have for them to be taken, right after they got what they were after. Mary had started modifying several power outlets in the heaviest protected cargo bay.

Finally the seventh panel repaired Jim moved over to the eighth surprised to see that Mary was over half done with it.

“Reporting,” Dickie broke in, “I now have 90% control over the station, I have 50% control over tunnel drive. I am now commencing auto repairs on reactor 7, repairs should take 2 to 3 hours. With the restart of reactor 7 we should get almost half power to the star drive while within the tunnel. Though I have more control, I estimate that stability of the tunnel won’t be maintainable for very long, we will need the stabilizers associated with panel 10.”

Sighing Jim said, “Yeah I know Dickie but we have to have the 5 before it working or repairing 10 will be for nothing.”

The next day Mary and Amber awoke in the bunk room, looking around Jim was nowhere to be found. Both of the women looked at each other and smirked, just like Jim to forgo sleep to work on his machines. Sure enough, they found him slumped over panel 9, it appeared he’d just started on it when he fell asleep. Looking closer Mary saw that in fact, he was almost finished it, damn it! He’d have to have worked on it all night to get this far, a little miffed Mary knew Jim was pushing with everything he had to get the station back up. It was strange it was almost as if he knew the Stocks that had been in that first battle and owed them something. Shrugging it all off for the moment Mary helped Amber get Jim to the bunkroom; she then went to check whether or not reactor 7 was ready to go. As soon as Mary got it up and running she saw a marked difference in all the power readings good they were almost there.