Chapter 3; Going home from Karsakini And Life and Death.

Going home from Karsakini

And Life and Death.

Molly dropped to her knees beside Ken as the rest of her medical staff arrived, checking the wound she saw the blade had cut deeply in to the stomach between the esophagus and the duodenum.

"Crap, this wound is bad, Nancy how about the side."

Nancy Ortiz was examining the stab wound in Ken's side; it was a clean in and out. Grabbing her medical pad, she started scanning him.

"I think his lung has been nicked, but I am not sure. Yet!"

Nancy waited for the scanner to finish the scan, and when it gave the final report her eyes went wide.

"Molly his lung is punctured and so is the heart."

"Oh my God! We have to hurry," Molly said in frustration.

Samuel Ortiz rushed into the elevator, dropping the medical bag next to Molly and his wife; he knelt next to the other body and quickly scanned him.

"This one is dead doc; I think every bone in his body is shattered," replied Sam.

"Okay, leave him for forensics; let's get the Admiral into medical."

Ken was swirling in and out of consciousness; he could hear Molly talking as if he was in a long tunnel. Opening his eyes, he focused them on Molly's face as he looked up into her eyes.

"Ken, you are going to be Okay, but you have been stabbed. Your assailant is dead, Jessica killed him."

Ken started to speak and coughed, blood was suddenly in his mouth, and he felt it running down the side of his face as he gasped out. Feeling himself starting to fade out, he gasped out his orders,

"Kalaria has command!"

"Okay, Ken. Kala takes over, now no more talking."

Ken took a quick breath, closed his eyes, smiled, and then his lungs did not rise again.

"God damn it." Molly said in anger.

Molly's hands flew to her case, and she ripped it open. Yanking out the band, she pulled it out as Nancy reached over and ripped Ken's shirt open. Slapping the band across Ken's chest, she activated it and yanked her hands back as his body jumped from the shock. Grabbing the scanner, she started reading his vitals as they came up on the miniature screen.

"Come on Ken, breathe," Molly said as his body jumped once again.

Kala and the rest of the squadron guided Tina towards the massive battleship while the T'Lari fleet fled for its life. Looking over at Tina, she smiled at her friend and a spike of fear went through her, followed by two sharp stabbing pains.

"KENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!" she screamed into her cockpit.

Shoving the throttle to full power, she left the squadron behind her as she sped back toward the ship.

On the flag bridge, the crew was still at battle stations as the enemy fled, unknown to anyone there, no one knew that Ken had just died on the medical deck. The ship continued to recover the surviving fighters and bombers while SAR shuttles went through the combat zone searching for survivors and recovering the dead to be buried at home.

Stella watched the T'Lari ships fleeing and then her eyes drifted to Apocalypse Squadron coming in. Then she saw one of the fighters literally jump ahead of the rest of the ships and come barreling towards the fleet.

"What the hell?" Stella said as she activated the ID on the fighter, and she saw it was Kala.

"Com, please open a com to Commander Kalaria and ask her what is wrong..."

"The Admiral has just died in medical. He was attacked in the transport tube by one of our own," Jessica said to the bridge crew.

Ken opened his eyes and looked around; he was standing on a mountaintop. Looking all around he saw nothing but a grey mist surrounding him.

Nancy had been examining her scanner, and reached over into the medical bag, where she grabbed an injector, and she loaded it with adrenalin and injected it into Ken's arm.

"Damn it, come on Ken, please," Molly said as two med techs arrived and set up a gravity stretcher.

"I got a pulse." Nancy shouted in excitement as she glanced at the scanner while handing another injector to Molly.

"Good, now let's get him on the board now," Molly said as the techs moved in and pushed her aside, they bent down, gripped Ken's shoulders and feet, and lifted him up onto the gravity stretcher.

Taking the offered hypo, Molly injected its contents into his right side near the chest wound so the nanobots could go to work on the lung damage. Running down the hallway, they entered medical and moved to the first empty bed where they set him down. Stepping back, Molly issued her orders to the bed's computer.

"Bed nine hundred and nine. Force shield up, gas patient, full nanobot healing, and emergency blood enhancement."

The beds shield came up, as blood continued to flow from the wounds. The nano bots flowed into him as the gas was flooded into the enclosed compartment and Ken fell into a deep sleep.

Kala watched as the ship quickly grew in her cockpit and ten minutes later, with fear running through her mind because she couldn't feel him, she banked her fighter around towards the stern. Landing in the nearest landing bay, she hit the auto shutdown and was climbing out of the cockpit even as the engines were powering down. Jumping to the deck, she was running towards the doors as Jessica appeared and Amy walked through the doors.

Seeing both of her sister wives she screamed and went to her knees.

"Nooooooooooooooo. Not again! I just found him."

Jessica and Amy looked at each other in confusion, and then it dawned on them. Rushing to Kala's side, they knelt beside her. Amy took Kala in her arms while Jessica placed her ghostly hand on Kala's hand.

"Kala he's alright. He is in medical, it was close," Jessica said trying to calm her down.

Amy rocked the crying woman, as she whispered in her ear,

"He's okay, Kala, he is okay."

Kala reached out with her mind, and tried to contact Ken. However, no answer came to her.

"I don't feel him. Why don't I feel him? I can feel Tammy but not him," she said to her sister wives.

"I don't know Kala, all I know is that Molly told us he was alive and that one of us needed to be here for you," Amy said as she pulled Kala to her feet.

As they started walking to the doors, Kala shivered in dread as if something terrible had just happened. Once in the passageway they stepped into a transport tube and shot across the ship. At medical, they walked in and Kala burst into tears as she saw Ken and Tammy lying in beds besides each other. Going to them, she looked down on her lovers and started to cry.

"How bad is it?" she asked, tears streaming down her worried face.

"Tammy will be fine in about three hours. I'm more worried about her babies," Molly said as she walked over to the bed.

"Babies?" Kala asked in surprise, turned to look at Tammy, and tried to reach out to them.

"Yes, the stubborn fool never let me know. She is pregnant with triplets," Molly said as she checked the scanner on the bed.

"Triplets? What is a triplet?" Kala asked.

Molly looked at Kala in surprise.

"It means she is going to have three babies."

"A blessed event, we must do a reading over them. It is very rare for a wife to have more than one, sometimes two, but three is extremely rare. It means they are destined for greatness."

"We can hope ... oh, by the way, Ken says you have command. So you need to get to the bridge and take us home."

"I am?" Kala said as she looked over at her husband, "Then I'd better get to the bridge. Let me know when they are awake, and I can see them."

Kala turned and started to walk to the doors and stopped. Turning she looked at the medical personal.

"Hear me now. No word that the Admiral is alive is to be leaked out. I will root out these assassins, but will need all your help. When you can, you will move the Admiral to his quarters. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes you do Kala and I agree. My staff will follow your orders on this," Molly said as she looked at her friend.

"Thank you, Molly."

Turning she continued on her way, walked out of medical and stepped into the transport tube.

"Flag bridge."

The tube took off and forty seconds later the doors opened, and she was walking down the long corridor to the flag bridge. Taking a deep breath, she stepped on to the bridge and looked around. Commander Salaneo sat in the command chair. Looking at the main tactical screen, she saw the last T'Lari icon vanish into hyperspace. Walking down the ramp, she stopped behind the chair just as Stella turned the chair.

"Commander Salaneo, I relieve you."

"I stand relieved Ma'am. The last T'Lari ship has jumped. SAR has recovered seven pilots from the fighters and all crafts are landing now except for Apocalypse Squadron, they are five minutes out and then the fleet will be ready for fold space. All spiderbots have finished replicating weapon systems around the main planets. All dead that can be recovered have been recovered."

"Thank you Stella," Kala said as she sat down in her husband's chair.

"Ma'am, I am sorry... " Stella broke off as the tears came to her eyes.

"Thank you Stella, I know you have all served with the Admiral ... Ken longer than I have. We must remember what his mission was. He wanted to get the escapees home to Terra. Are all planes recovered?"

Stella wiped her eyes, sat down at her console, and activated it. With a quick scan of the board, she made her report to Kala.

"Ma'am, the last of the SAR shuttles are approaching now. We can fold in twenty minutes."

"Thank you, Stella. Com, send orders to the fleet to lock tractor beams on all T'Lari ships and to flank us and prepare to fold. Destination is point Relay."

"Sending now," replied the com officer.

Reaching down, Kala activated the intercom for the ship. "All hands now hear this; Admiral Thompson was attacked and killed by a traitor less than twenty minutes ago. I want everyone to know I will be personally be leading the investigation on his murder, and I will catch whoever was involved. Also under General rule number twenty-nine of Federation law: 'Any attack on a superior officer is an automatic death sentence if said officer is killed in the course of the crime'. Therefore, I want every one of you to think about what has happened to this fleet. Now we have a responsibility to the ex-slaves, which Admiral Thompson made his number one priority that is why we are taking your loved one's home. To our guests, rest up, get better, and I pray that all of you decide to join the new Federation. If you want training, tell us, and we will set you up for any training you wish. That is all for now."

Around the ship, the crew stood in shock at the news of the Admiral's death, but in several sections, three groups of men and women met and slowly drew up plans on what their next job was. As they gathered and talked, Amy and Jessica were watching and listening to every conversation on the ship. Knowingly breaking several Federation laws, they did not care, for these traitors must be apprehended and disposed of, but for now, they waited for the traitors to make their first move, and then they were going to pounce and pounce hard.

The USS Oregon folded through space, her blackened and ripped hull sparking from damaged conduit lines. While her crew searched for more of their own dead as the enemy dead were disposed of. Half her weapon bays were out of commission along with two of her four hanger bays. Every medical bed was full, and there were thousands of escapees. Two particular escapees were sitting in one of the many rooms converted into emergency sleeping areas. Nineteen-year-old Jennifer Holland sat comforting Winnie Simpson. She lay in her arms crying her heart out. The rapes and abuse, she had suffered at the hands of the miners had almost shattered her mind. Now they were going home.

"It's okay Winnie, we're going home. Soon you will be with your parents."

Winnie lay there sniffling, her eyes red from crying, her body still hurting from the rape the night before.

"I hurt, it hurts so badly," Winnie said as she hugged Jennifer.

"I know, as soon as we can, I promise we get a doc to look at you."

"Thanks, Jennifer," Winnie said, as she laid her head back down on her shoulder and whimpered.

Stephanie Johansson walked out of the shower, wrapped around her body was a clean towel. Her hair wrapped in another.

"Oh God I died and went to heaven. That shower was wonderful. How are you feeling Winnie?"

"I ... I will be okay." Winnie said with a sniffle and then continued, "I just want my mom to hold me again."

"We know sweetie, from what I gathered, we shall be home in three weeks..."

The chimes from the door interrupted her. Stephanie walked over to the door, opened it, and stood there in shock as she took in the long green hair and the silly 'save the whales' shirt on the young woman standing there.

"Hi Stephi," Lynn Hanson-Wilson said to her surprised friend from school.

"Lynn, oh my God," Stephanie said as she jumped into the arms of one of her best friends.

Jennifer slipped out from under Winnie, ran to Stephanie and Lynn, and joined the hug.

"What are you doing here?"

"I am a shuttle pilot on the USS Washington; I was temporarily assigned to the Oregon when she lost most of her shuttles when her number three bay went up. I was going through the list of survivors and was surprised and relieved to see your two names on it. However, I have some bad news for you Jennifer and I'd suggest you sit down."

Jennifer looked at her friend in confusion and then walked over to her friend Winnie and sat down.

"Okay I am sitting," Jennifer said.

Lynn guided Stephanie over and sat her on the other side of Jennifer. Sitting on the coffee table, she took Jennifer's hands in hers.

"Jen, several months ago, we were closing in on the Crytherian, who had kidnapped all of you. He had set a demolition charge in his base. Jen it was bad, it was a one-megaton nuclear warhead. Half of Reno was destroyed in the blast, along with Boomtown, and including your home. Your parents did not survive the explosion, but your little sister did. She is on Mars base with about ten thousand civilians who joined us or had no one to take care of them. I am so sorry."