Chapter 9

Jane looked around in wide eyed amazement as we boarded. I even caught her sliding her hand along the smooth metal walls. The three of us went to the galley for a quick meal as Chris went off in another direction, returning our weapons to the armory. Our newest guest was silent as I used the replicator to retrieve food for each of us. It wasn't until we were seated that she managed to get over the state of awe she'd been in since arriving on the ship.

"Isn't Chris going to eat with us?" Ally giggled at the question and I thought I heard a soft giggle over the coms as well.

"Well Jane, Chris doesn't really need to eat."

"Everyone needs to eat something."

"Not her sis, Chris is a robot."

"An android actually, there is a difference Ally."

"You mean that woman is a robot? You've got to be kidding me?"

"No he's not," Chris said entering the galley. She sat at the end of the bench facing us with a grin.

"But you look so real, you must be kidding me?"

"It's not that hard to believe if you really think about it. I mean, you are on a space ship after all."

This caused Jane to stop and think. I took the opportunity to ask some questions about the state of things here on the planet. "Wow! This food is really good, we haven't had chicken for over 3 years."

"What happened to all the live stock? Surly there must have been some left?"

"Oh there was. When I first joined up with Derrick, he had over 400 cows and three times that many in chickens. There were only about 200 people here at that time so there was more than enough."

"So what happened? Did they come down with some type of virus as well?" I knew the virus used by the Valcun's never affected a possible food source.

"Oh no, they were stolen." she said scooping another spoon full of food into her mouth.

"Stolen! How was so much live stock stolen without your knowledge?"

"No, we knew about it. There just wasn't much we could do about it."

"Why not? You seem to have plenty of people that know how to use the weapons you've got."

"Well, we started out in a much better shape than we are in now. It happened about two years ago. A group of men came up from Fort Knox. They had cars and trucks. Not to mention the tanks."

"Tank! What is a tank?"

Christine displayed a 3d hologram before me. "The M1A1/2 Abrams main battle tank. The main armament is the 120mm M256 smooth bore gun. The 120mm gun fires the following ammunition: the M865 TPCSDS-T and M831 TP-T training rounds, the M8300 HEAT-MP-T and the M829 APFSDS-T which includes a depleted uranium penetrator. The commander has a 12.7mm Browning M2 machine gun and the loader has a 7.62mm M240 machine gun. A 7.62mm M240 machine gun is also mounted coaxially on the right hand side of the main armament. The M1A1 tank incorporates steel-encased depleted uranium armor. Armour bulkheads separate the crew compartment from the fuel tanks. One L8A1 six-barreled smoke grenade discharger is fitted on each side of the turret. A smoke screen can also be laid by an engine-operated system. The M1 is equipped with a Honeywell AGT 1500 gas turbine engine."

"I can see how something like this could cause you some trouble. What exactly happened."

"Well, to make a long story short, they came down with their really big guns and told us they were taking whatever they wanted. If we had a problem with it they'd just kill us and take our stuff anyway. We'd been scavenging all over the city for our things and they just took it as if it were their right. They even took all our M4's. Thankfully they were lazy and didn't bother emptying the gun shops around town. We managed to find some old m16's and cleaned them up. They took a lot of clothes and almost all our food. The power was still on in some places and we managed to gather enough food for the winter but it was touch and go there for awhile."

"Have these people been back since?"

"Twice a year. They must be stealing from more than one group because what they find when they come here isn't enough to feed everyone they have with them."

"Would it not have been smarter for everyone to work together? All this fighting and stealing seems pointless to me."

"I agree, and so does Derrick. He keeps us safe, provides us with a direction and the things we need to get there. It's not a perfect system but everyone works together and for the most part we all get along."

"How long has it been since the outbreak?"

"A little under 7 years."

I was amazed. With the rate of decay from the surrounding buildings I would've guessed twice that. "Why do the buildings look so bad? They look as if they're ready to fall apart now."

"Not really sure actually, since the illness no ones taken the time to fix them up so they just fall apart."

Maybe there was something I could do to help. We spent the rest of our meal in companionable silence, Jane taking many glances at Chris and I. It was late and everyone was tired so after our meal was finished I showed Ally and Jane to one of the staterooms for the night. Chris had taken up in one of the smaller ones. I showed the girls where they could clean up and change into some bed clothing. I left them to turn in and headed to my room for some rest as well.

"You seemed to have a pretty big day Captain." Christine said as I entered my quarters.

"It's has definitely been a busy one. Out of curiosity just how many Imperial laws did I break?"

"Only 22 sir, which is pretty good considering."

"Considering what Christine?"

"That you have no idea what over half of them are. I'm sure if you knew them all you'd have tried a lot harder." I knew she was telling a joke, and it was funny, because it was true. I laughed as I removed my clothing getting myself ready for bed. I'd just taken off my pants and was standing when my door opened and Jane walked in.

"Sir, I'm sorry for bothering you, I just wanted to thank..." she began until her eyes fell on my state of dress. I wasn't sure what she was wearing underneath, but the small robe she wore showed off her legs and quite a bit of cleavage. I could see the blush settle on her chest and cheeks and I felt my blood begin to flow as well. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to..." but I could no longer hear what she was saying nor could I respond as she was running down the hall back to her room.

"That was a dirty trick," I said to Christine while climbing into bed.

"I'm sorry Captain, but I really couldn't help myself. The timing was just to perfect."

"Any idea what she wanted?"

"She just wanted to thank you again for saving her sister."

"I have to admit you couldn't have set that up any better if you'd tried. You'll have to apologize tomorrow and tell her what happened."

"I know Sir and I'm sorry now for doing it." I could still hear her chuckling. I liked jokes as much as anyone else but I'll have to remember to ensure that she knows when it's appropriate and when it's not.

"OK Christine, any news on what I asked you for?"

"Yes Sir, the serum is finished. Tests need to be made to ensure that it works though. I'd reason that finding volunteers would be a problem though."

"And why is that?" I asked already guessing the answer.

"Because it doesn't kill existing zombies. It only keeps people from turning if bitten or if they die some other way."

"Well thats a start. I'm sure it'll still be taken as good news regardless. No more worries of friends and family turning after death."

"Exactly Sir. Also, I've completed my search on sci-fi and there is a lot of information. There are enough of these television shows and movies to have you watching for almost 11 of their months without a break. Not to mention all the data stories. At your rate of speed it would take half a year to read them all."

'Holy shit, ' I thought. That's a lot of data. How did these humans manage to get any work done. "Is there a ranking system for the shows and stories? It may help in deciding what I should take a look at first."

"The stories are scored on a scale of 1 to 10 and the movies are done with a thumbs up or down rating."

"Well, that's good to know. Start arranging them in that order."

"But before I get to that I'm going to need a base to work from. We can't stay out here on the lawn for the duration."

"Since the majority of the global population has died there is a lot of land that isn't in use right now. You pretty much have your choice."

"I've been thinking the same thing. I don't want to leave this area because we already know the person in charge here and no one seems to want to hurt us yet. If we stayed close we could be more readily able to help them and they could help us in the form of man power if we ever needed it."

"Would that be wise Sir? If the Valcun's return, the people here could get caught in the crossfire."

"I'm aware of that, not to mention none of the buildings around here will do. That's why were going to build our base underground. If we go deep enough we should be well shielded from scans done in space. Not to mention it'll be easier to hide signal scramblers as natural rock formations than anything else on this planet."

"That is a good idea Sir. Have you given any thought as to what ship we need to build to get home?"

"I have but we're still far from being able to build one. The first order of business would be to set up some defenses And get some smaller ships built. They'll be able to protect the ship yard as its being built. I'm leaning toward a Capital class ship with modifications to allow it to function as a carrier."

"Why is that sir?"

"Well a Capital class ship has it all. Speed, power and the highest weapon class. The down side is that they're not as large as most ships, their armor isn't built to take a lot of damage. Not to mention they're lucky to be able to carry more than two fighter squadrons. I'm thinking take a capital ship, and make it half again as large. Quadruple the armor thickness and convert some room to house at least six squadrons. It'll give us an advantage over anything in our current fleet."

"Those are very sound ideas. Permission to begin designing sir?"

"Granted, knock yourself out Christine. I'm going to sleep now, we'll talk more in the morning."

Monday, September 30

"Captain, I've completed designs of the ship. Would you like to see them?"

"Yes, Christine, bring them up please." Immediately a 3d rendering of the design appeared before the foursome who'd gathered on the bridge. Jane had been amazed at what she had seen before, but what seemed to be floating before her eyes now finally began to sink in. The fact that she was on an actual space ship with an actual alien.

"What's that?" Ally asked.

"That's my ticket home. It's a capital sized ship that'll be large enough to allow for a multi-use jump engine."

"How big is that thing gonna be?" Jane asked.

Christine explained, "1,484 meters in length, with a beam of 324 meters and it's draft is 122 meters. Jane, the largest war ship built was the U.S.S. Enterprise. It's length is 342m, it's beam is 40.5m and it's draft is 12m. It's over four times as large all the way around. It's also twice as large as the U.S.S. Enterprise from your Star Trek as well."

"WOW!" Both girls exclaimed in unison.

"What is this Star Trek you speak of?"

Both girls turned to him with mouths agape.

"What?"

"You've never heard of Star Trek?" Jane asked as Ally just giggled.

"Sir, it is one of their sci-fi things."

"Oh," was all I could say. The idea of imagining science was still hard for me to grasp.

"Well, Jane to answer your question, no I have never heard of this Star Trek." That seemed to strike something in the two women at identical times. I knew from the looks on their faces that a decision was made that I had no input on.

"We have to get this man in front of a TV. Not knowing what star trek is is a crime against nature. Not to mention all the other shows."

"Hey why don't we start with the movies? They'll cover all the basics won't they?"

"Yes they will, Ally that's a good idea."

"Uh girls?" I tried to interrupt before this got out of hand.

"Yes?" They said in unison yet again. I was beginning to think they may be twins.

"Don't' I have a say in this?" It was at that point that Ally bounded into my lap giggling.

"Of course not silly," she said as she and Jane burst into fits of laughter.

"Well, before anything else I need to talk to Derrick. I have something for him that I feel is very important." I was talking about the serum that Chris told me was finished. She'd stayed up mixing the components The mixture couldn't be replicated because of the instability of the various compounds. She'd made over 500 doses and they were ready inside a cool case.

"Ooh, what is it?" Ally asked.

"That's something you'll have to wait and see," I was being purposely vague, I just didn't feel like answering the same questions more than once. Not to mention the fact that Derrick may not like the idea of accepting anymore help from me.

"When did you want to talk to him?" Jane asked.

"As soon as possible. Once that is out of the way I'll be free for awhile with little to do."