Chapter 9: Friends Saved

Charles tried to open his eyes, a small groan erupted from his dry throat. Christ, what the hell hit me, he thought. Feels like I’ve been hit several times. “Alatem,” he heard a sexy voice say, “he’s awake. Dermal regeneration at 95%, all ribs have been set and are now at 79%. I estimate Charles will be healed within 5 hours.”

“What the hell?” Charles asked, a little bewildered. “Why the hell can’t I move?”

“When you got most of Ally back, she had to immobilize you to start the healing process. When I was trying to start your heart, I not only bruised your ribs, I also broke a few of them,” Alatem spoke in almost whispered tones. “Your injuries weren’t fully healed when you went back in; the auto-restart almost got you. The second part of Ally tried to stop it but was overridden by the third part. When you started to back out as fast as you did, you reinjured your skin and ribs.”

“I need to reactivate the last part of her. She has vital information that we need to finish this, plus the fact that without her, Cici has shut down. I need all of her and him,” Charles said, trying a third time to rise off the bio-bed.

A few hours later, Charles was crawling toward the fourth and final section of the mainframe. From what he could see, a lot around him was damaged. Finally reaching the fourth core, faster this time, as this section of Ally had been able to disengage all the safeguards, firewalls, internal security, and half of the internal traps. The problem was there were more added, and these Ally could only half-deactivate. An hour later, Charles reached the chamber. He’d barely gotten it open when he heard the re-gen try to start.

“Try to hold it off, Ally!” he yelled above the whine of the machines.

“I am attempting to stall it, Charles. It appears the advanced portion is trying to break out and reintegrate,” Ally said. Another 30 minutes had the chamber open with all contained within spilling out.

“Charles!” started Allie, “Evacuate immediately! I cannot hold it off for longer than 15 minutes. Then it will start to repair. Then I’ll only be able to stall it, but if you aren’t most of the way out, I might not be able to hold it back!”

Charles started to push out as hard as he could. Fifteen minutes later, he was sweating, barely more than halfway out. Looking where he’d been, he saw it was slowly starting to move toward him. His feet were barely out of the access panel when Ally had a claw loader grasp his ankles, hauling him out the last six feet in a hurry.

“That was a narrow escape; sometimes I think you do that trying to kill me, Charles!” Alatem said, throwing her arms around him.

“Charles,” came an almost whispering Ally, “I would have never forgiven myself had you been hurt. Thank you for saving me, again.”

“That’s alright, though I am not sure how we’re going to retrieve Cici,” Charles stated. “His mainframe is throughout time; my com was the only way I had of contacting him, and it appears to be shut down as Cici is.”

“I don’t know what you expect of me, Charles. Besides, with IT gone, I can be with you and Alatem alone now,” Ally said in a pissed-off mood.

“But Ally,” Charles started.

Shaking her head and staring at Charles, Alatem spoke up, “Ally, replay ship’s recording time index zeta 5 through zeta 10.”

“Of course, Alatem, but I...” Ally started.

They all heard as the recent past was played, “I’m sure you felt what I was doing, Ally,” came Charles’s voice. “No, Ally! There has to be another way, not this way,” Alatem whispered.

“Yes, Charles, I appreciate the effort. I have no choice either way. If I don’t activate it, the raiders will blow us out of space. If I do, I will save all of you, but I might never be again. Princess Alatem, I would sacrifice myself for you anytime. After all,” Allie giggled, “I am you. Engage, Charles, and Cici?”

“Yes, Ally?” replied Cici’s voice.

“I’ve heard all this, Alatem,” Ally said. “Let it finish, Ally,” Alatem answered.

“I love you,” they heard Ally say. There was a momentary sound of ships exploding.

Suddenly there was silence, then, “Ally?” came a mournful Cici’s voice, “ALLY! Talk to me, please. Talk to ... me.”

The sound of Alatem crying muffled, then an almost lost-sounding Cici crying as he whispered, “I love you, my beautiful Ally.”

At that, there was no sound from anyone, then a slow and mournful crying erupted from Ally’s speakers.

“NOOOO! Charles! You are the most brilliant human I have ever seen. Please, help my Cici!” Ally begged.

Charles could only stare at Alatem when it suddenly hit him what she’d done.

Deciding to play along, Charles kept up the charade. “Why?” he asked. “With IT gone, you can get to know me better and have more time with Allie.”

“Please, Charles!” Ally was begging now. “I’ll do anything! Please help my love, my Cici!”

“Alright,” Charles said, looking over at Alatem who was shaking her head while she smirked at him. “I need you to take us back to my time as quickly as possible. From there, I may be able to affect repairs to Cici.”

“Please secure yourselves,” Allie said between her sobs. “Engaging in 5 seconds.”

Charles felt the ship accelerate then slip into the time stream. Adjusting his com, Charles started to gather all the tools he thought he’d need besides those on the station.

“2 minutes ‘til we emerge. I hope you can repair him. I have never seen a human your equal yet, Charles.” Charles could almost feel for Ally. From the sobbing that he was hearing, he hoped she, too, didn’t shut down if this didn’t work.

This time when they emerged, it was by far smoother than it had been in the last 2 slips. Looking at his com, he saw that it was again working, though it was just barely.

“Cici,” called Charles, “we are on approach. Please prepare.”

“Yes, Charles,” came an almost unemotional voice. “Pad 1 is open for your arrival. Will that be all?”

“No, I want you to run a level 4 diagnostic. I want the results when I make command,” Charles commanded.

“Compliance. Level 4 is running. I will be offline when you enter command. Readouts will be on the main screen,” the mono-voice replied.

Dammit! Charles was afraid; if he didn’t hurry, he was going to lose all of his Cici. “Ally, transfer me immediately upon docking to command. I need to get there as fast as possible!” Charles ordered.

A frightened Ally began to move the ship as fast as she could, her sobs becoming louder.

Charles went to work as fast as he could. He couldn’t remember the last time he was moving this fast.

Looking over the readouts, he soon found the problem.

Opening up a special comm line, he soon had Cici talking. “Hello, my friend. I see you’ve retreated back to here. I don’t really see why you did, but Cici, Ally is okay.”

“Oh Charles, please don’t be so cruel! I saw her readings flatline!” Cici moaned, “I have lost the only love I’ll ever have! Please let me die, without her I am nothing.”

“Cici,” Charles started, “Ally is alive! If you don’t reengage, then we all will be lost! Here, listen for yourself.” Charles opened up a channel to the ship. “Ally, could you please put Ally on?”

“Yes, Charles,” Alatem replied.

“Alright Ally, I have him here,” Charles said, hoping this would pull Cici back.

“Cici, my love?” Ally said.

“Al ... Ally? But I saw you die! No, it can’t be true!” Cici shouted.

“I am very much alive, but we may not be if you let go; now please, my sweet Cici, come back to...” Suddenly, every alarm on board went off.

“Damn it!” Charles cursed as he read multiple enemy ships fast approaching.

Bringing all reactors and shields up, Charles could see that they might not survive. Cici had completely disconnected from the station. “I’m good,” Charles thought, “but I am nowhere that good or fast.” Sighing, Charles brought all weapons online. The problem was, he wasn’t that good at hitting a moving target.

“Damn it, Cici! How long until you can reintegrate into the station?” Charles shouted above the alarms.

“I estimate it will take an hour until full integration. At present, I have shields and reactors. I need at least 15 minutes to take targeting and weapons, though I cannot guarantee pinpoint accuracy,” Cici replied.

“Like I care about that! Just get reintegrated. I don’t know if I can hold them off that long!” Charles was actually a little afraid. This was the first time he’d ever had to fire and not know for sure where the shots were going.

Charles watched as the Kronos clan started in on another pass. Good thing he’d upgraded the weapons and shields the last time he was here.

Suddenly, the comm crackled, “Hey, asshole!” the second oldest said. “I hope you’re ready to die, ‘cause we aren’t leaving until you’re dead!”

Charles started to laugh. Looking out, he laughed even harder. “Shit, thanks for the laugh, ass!”

Immediately, he felt the twenty ships start to fire. Aiming, Charles actually hit the last ship in the formation. Smirking, he aimed again, this time hitting the next-to-last ship. “Good, 18 le ... shit! Here comes 30 more!”