Chapter 15

Amber and the Imperial fleet were only three hours away when the instruments on the bridge went crazy. Holy shit, what the hell had that been? The scientists on board said it was the same intensity as a supernova. The temperatures were almost as hot. They’d been trying to raise Jim and Mary for twelve hours now. Amber understood the reason he and Mary had gone, but a few more people wouldn’t have hurt.

For hours since they’d picked up the energy readings, they could only guess at the status of the battle. Two hours later, they dropped out of light speed. What met them was something of a nightmare. As far as the eye could see, there was wreckage, parts of bodies, ships, and star drives. Nothing was left intact. Moving closer, they saw what appeared to be a planet, most of it blown away. Amber didn’t really care about anything she saw. Where was the station? The closer they got to the signal the station was sending out, the thicker the debris grew.

Mary had managed to stop the bleeding, but Jim had passed out. She was afraid he’d slip into a coma. Moving Jim to the infirmary, she hooked up her spare power packs to the biobed and equipment, barely enough to heal. She looked at the readings. It had barely repaired a fraction of the damage to his brain, but as far as she could see, he wasn’t bleeding on his brain.

Adjusting a few more settings, the healing started to speed up, but it would only prolong his life if there wasn’t enough energy for proper healing. Cursing, she went to the reactor room and adjusted more settings, finally getting one reactor online. Feeling the air starting to clear, she rushed back to Jim. The biobed had finally gotten enough power, but it’d take far too long at this rate. Damn it! She tried again to get the reactors online, but the configuration was unlike anything she’d ever seen.

Two hours had passed, and though the one reactor had helped very much, Mary was afraid she was going to lose Jim. Crying for only the third time in her life, she cursed Jim for sending her so early. Had she been closer, she’d have been able to get him in sooner. Sighing, she consigned herself to wait till the reactors were back up. A half-hour later, a proximity alert went off. What the fuck?

She thought they were all dead, and she’d not had a life reading in hours. Getting to a window, she saw the imperial fleet bearing down on them. Amber was staring at the station. The outer ring was severely damaged, with massive damage to the central spire. I forgot to try to move, and both light-speed and conventional drives were wrecked. All six hanger bays were damaged. Yet, through all this, Amber was reading two life forms onboard the station: WHAT!? Two? That’s all? Locking into an emergency portal, Amber and her troops moved into what was left of the station, heading for the central command. Amber stopped short, screaming when she caught sight of Jim in the bio-bed and Mary covered in blood.

Jim was falling. Damn, you’d think they’d have a meal on this flight, spinning. Jim looked at what he thought was the bottom or down. He could hear his sisters and brother screaming for him to save them. Try as he might, but he wasn’t getting any closer. Groaning, his arms hurt. What the hell had he run into? Jim was a little disorientated. He was seeing people he knew, but they seemed to be ignoring him, and it was really starting to piss him off. Reaching out, Jim saw Amber leaning over him, or rather his body, huh? His body? Try as he might, he couldn’t touch her. Now he was really pissed off. What the hell was going on?

It had been a week since Jim and Mary had stopped the invasion of the Krong, a week of horror for both Amber and Mary. Jim should be dead from all the injuries he’d sustained. The doctors worked feverishly, trying to save him. At times, it seemed his body was straining to reach something, though no one seemed to know.

Amber refused to leave his side as did Mary, still cursing under her breath that she’d listened to him in the first place. The empire, though they knew that the Krong had been at the borders poised to attack, didn’t know how they had been defeated only that the Empress was at the bed side of someone that had aided in that defeat.

A week after they’d brought him in Jim groaned trying to get out of bed, nearly falling out of the bio bed. Amber had been asleep along with Mary when Jim started to struggle to get lose from the bed.

“Bout time you woke your lazy ass up,” Mary smirked, “You do realize I am pissed at you, I don’t like owing people, and I especially don’t like owing you, you dick!” With that, Mary turned and stormed out of the room.

Jim just stared after her wondering what crawled up her ass? Amber grasped his face, kissing him long and deep. “I’m glad I didn’t have to resurrect you. I really didn’t want to have to kill you,” she whispered, tears of joy flowing freely from her eyes.

“Amber? Where the hell are we? Why the fuck can’t I move?” The irritation was apparent in his voice. “The last thing I remember was telling Mary to get to the safe room, then waking up here.”

Sighing Amber had been afraid of this. the doctors said that some of his memory might be repressed, blocking out pain and stressful moments. “I’m still alive so I assume that the new tech that I integrated into the station’s systems actually held out,” Jim murmured to himself more than anyone else. “The station, were they able to save it? Please tell me that at least one reactor remained online.”

Amber just shook her head, leaving it to Jim to worry about his tech. “Yes, the station survived. Had it not been for the fact that I had been on the station for so long, we might never have found you in time. Since four of the reactors eventually came back online, Dickie won’t allow anyone on board, especially after we removed you. Once the second reactor restarted (amazing in itself), it followed us back home.” Jim breathed a sigh of relief.