Chapter 18: Ken and Jenny Recruit

Under the Arizona desert, work continued in a deep cavern. Amy sent four spider bots into one of the shuttles. She ordered them to go into the storage compartment, and to shut down. She then sent a maintenance droid onto the shuttle's passenger deck. It placed two briefcases of money into another storage compartment. Another spider bot carried in a large cooler of food, and a stack of four cases of beer, securing the requested items to the shuttle's floor.

Amy was waiting for night to fall before she would send the shuttles down the launch tube, and into the sky. Their onboard computers were ready to go, their weapons racks were loaded with offensive and defensive weapons. She did a final check on all their systems, and replaced a bad chip in one gun turret.

Out in the great cavern, the final piece of the gantry was replicated and the spider bots moved it into position. Tomorrow Amy would start laying the keel of the new destroyer. Aboard ship, the construction of the Mechs continued. The last Cheetah was completed while the Death Stalkers were about half-finished for Ken and Ted.

Also out in the bay, some more spider bots were placing shield generators around the cavern walls. This was to protect the cave from collapse when the great engines were finally started after being inactive for so long, just in case the start-up proved too much for the cavern. The main tunnel was almost finished, with only one hundred feet of the two-mile length to be completed. Defensive laser batteries were built into the walls and roof, to defend the base from any attacking force that might get inside the cavern's tunnel.

Just under the desert floor, spiders scurried about building defensive stations that would pop up out of the ground, if the base was attacked, power conduits, access tunnels, and sally ports were built to allow the base's defenders to attack or retreat. When finished, fifty heavy laser platforms, thirty rail guns, and sixty small lasers would circle the base in a five-mile radius, along with sensor platforms, and communications lines.

One small spider set up a laser and fired the weapon into the cavern's wall. This quickly dug a small tunnel five miles long. The laser was then installed in the roof of the tunnel, as a defensive weapon. The spiderbot then proceeded to the end of the tunnel. It dug out a small cave, and installed a shield generator on the roof. It built another laser, repeating the process until fifty-nine miles of tunnel had been excavated. At the end of the small tunnel, the spider found a main fiber optic phone line and tapped into it, giving the base access to the world.

Ken signaled and pulled into the driveway behind his mom's car. Getting out, he stepped back and opened the door for Tammy.

"Here you go, Tammy."

As Tammy was climbing out, her parents pulled up behind them.

Tammy looked up into Ken's face as she climbed out of the SUV, and said, "Thanks, Ken."

"You're welcome, Tam."

Ken walked hand in hand with Tammy, and followed the rest of the family members into the house. Martha stopped and watched Ken and Tammy coming towards the house, and sighed with happiness.

"Everyone take a seat, I will make coffee."

She turned and went into the kitchen.

Marie followed Martha into the kitchen. She was so happy that she would be able to find out what was wrong with Lisa, and save their house from foreclosure.

"I'll help you, Martha."

"Thanks, Marie. I need to get the second coffee pot out."

Martha dug the second coffee pot out, as Marie made the first pot. She plugged the machine in and started making the second pot. Pulling out three carafes, she set them on the counter. She got a tray out, and set cups and saucers on it, along with sugar, splenda and creamer.

"Marie, do you think Lisa will want milk, soda, water or juice?"

Marie reached over and took another tray from under the counter.

"Make it water and a juice. With her nose the way it is, the carbonated water in soda causes her to bleed at times. Do you have any straws for her?"

Martha pulled a bottle of water and a small bottle of Sunny D from the fridge.

"Yes, I do. They are in the Pringles can on the counter."

Marie grabbed the Pringles can, and opened it. She saw it was almost full with straws from various fast food restaurants.

"Hey, that's a neat idea! Saves waste and the filling of the landfill."

"Yes, it sure does."

Reaching over to the first pot of coffee, she pulled it out of the machine, filled the first carafe and poured the rest into the second one. Setting the empty pot down, she stopped and looked at Marie.

"Marie, is Andy ok? He looks a little pale today."

Marie released the tray she was going to pick up, and looked at her best friend.

With tears in her eyes she said, "Martha, I don't know. He will not talk about it. He went to the doctor, but he will not tell me what they told him. I was thinking of calling his doctor, but I know that would not be right, it would be showing a lack of trust. When he is ready, he will tell me. But I am so worried about him, and about Lisa."

The tears started running down her face as she pulled a napkin from the holder.

Martha reached over and pulled Marie into a hug.

"It's going to be ok Marie, you will see. We know Amy can cure Lisa ... or Ken thinks she can. We should have her check out Andy at the same time." Releasing Marie, she kissed her on her lips, as she said, "Wash your face. When you cry, you look awful. I'll get everything else ready."

"Thanks, Martha, I'll be right back."

Marie went into the bathroom and cleaned up. When she came back, Martha was pouring the second pot of coffee into the carafes.

Martha saw the second pot of coffee was done and grabbed it off the hotplate; she filled the two remaining carafes.

"Feeling better, Marie?"

"Yes, I am, and thank you," she said, picking up two of the carafes as the coffee pot started making more.

"Good."

Placing the Dasani water and the bottle of juice on the platter, she picked it up and carried it into the living room. Marie followed with the carafes of coffee. Martha set the platter down on the coffee table and started passing out cups. She held up the bottle of juice and bottle of water. "Lisa, do you want water or juice?"

Lisa glanced over from her chair, where she was looking at the pictures on the digital camera's screen.

"Water, please,"

Martha handed the bottle of water and a straw to Lisa.

"Here you go, dear."

Taking her cup of coffee, she sat down beside her husband while Marie sat beside hers.

"Ok, Ken, it's all yours."

Ken cleared his throat and looked at everyone.

"Thanks, Mom. Ok now, where to begin. Well you all know about the ship and Amy. What you do not know is this. Last night, while we were on the way home, an alien ship attacked us. It was a Tralcan fighter, a race that comes from a star system called DX Cancri on our human star maps. This system is about 11.8 light years from Sol. They control three neighboring star systems. At this time, they are at currently at war with the T'Lari. In less than twenty years, they will be overrun by them. The Tralcan's are very xenophobic and attack anyone who comes into their star systems, but being at war with the T'Lari, I cannot blame them."

Taking a sip of his coffee, he continued.

"Amy also told me that they shouldn't be here in our system, but they were here. She also reports they look like elves from our J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth or Lord of the Rings. Which if you think about it, makes you kind of wonder where all the folklore about elves comes from. If it is from them, then that means they have visited us before, many hundreds of years ago. It makes me wonder why we were attacked and the only reason I can think of is they must have thought we were an alien influence and they thought we must be destroyed. Now I'm hoping we can make peaceful contact with them, and offer them help, but only once we have enough ships built. With Amy's database on weapons and shields, we should have roughly a five hundred year advancement in technology on the T'Lari. The only problem is that the T'Lari are very formidable warriors. We will have to be very careful when we fight them. We cannot allow any of our ships or databases to fall into their hands. They are very crafty at figuring things out."

Taking another drink, he looked around the room. His eyes settled on Jen.

"We also have a local problem. As you know our city is being stalked by a serial killer."

Ken looked at each person and saw his or her reactions to the change in topic.

"We know who he is, and who his victims are."

Stopping again, he took a sip of coffee and cleared his throat.

"Well, one of his victims would have been Jen. He would have killed her in less then three months. But we will stop him."

Ken stopped as everyone looked at Jenny who was sitting next to Tammy and Ted. They saw the fear in Jenny's eyes.

Ken looked over at his baby sister and saw the fear.

"Jen, we will stop him, I promise you. We have all sworn we will stop this person. Now, I propose we stop him on August 17th. That is when he will be grabbing his next victim. Her name is Tina Maria Wayne and she is only thirteen years old. This little girl deserves to have a life! She does not deserve to be kidnapped, raped, and murdered, as she is walking home from her best friend's house.

"Now, we cannot do anything for the other eight women he has already killed, but we can save the other twenty-eight women he would have killed. He is also the one who killed our friend Amy Lasker. I think he has hurt this town enough. So we have seventeen days until he strikes, and when he does, we will be ready."

Ken looked over to Lisa.

"First we need to get Lisa to medical, so Amy can see what is wrong with her. So tonight, when the shuttles come in, I was thinking of all of us going. That way you can all see the ship. That is, if you want to."

They looked at each other, and slowly nodded their heads in agreement.

"Ok, so everyone goes, then. I have thought of the perfect place to hide the shuttles. It is out where the hills go into the mountains. There is a gully there, which is wide enough for both shuttles to hide, and not be seen by anyone. With the holographic projector, they should be safe there from the view of over-flights.

"Amy said she could have the shuttles here and on the ground in less then twenty-five minutes. Therefore, we will stash the first one and then take the second back to the ship. We should be back here by morning.

"So, this afternoon, I recommend we all take a nap. We should get some rest, while we can."

Looking at Lisa, he reached over and picked up the box of tissues, handing them to her. She took them and started crying, as she felt the blood running out of her nose, yet again.

Jen and Tammy got up and moved over to the loveseat that Lisa was sitting on to comfort her.

Jen held her hand and said, "It's ok, Sweetie. We will find out what is causing this, and Amy will fix it. We promise."

She looked at both girls, her eyes pleading.

"I hope she can figure out what is wrong. This is so depressing! I can't do anything, because I don't know when it will start again," she continued crying as her mother moved in.

Marie walked over to the couch and helped Lisa up to her feet.

"Come on, Honey. Let's go home and you can take a nap. You will feel better afterwards, I promise," she led her daughter out the door and to the car.

Andy got up and followed along with Ted and Tammy. Ted stopped and faced Ken. "We'll see you tonight ... say, around nine."

Walking up to Ted, Ken held out his hand and clasped Ted's hand.

"See you then. Now get your sis home, and into bed. Tonight she will be healed. I promise your family this."

Ted turned and walked out the door. Ken stood there watching, as his best friend's family climbed into their car and backed out of the driveway. He closed the door as they drove out of sight. John walked up behind Ken and placed his hand on Ken's shoulder.

"We will help them, Ken. Did I ever tell you how Andy saved my life and Marie introduced your mother to me?"

Ken thought back on the many times that his dad told the stories of his Vietnam experience and how his parents met down in Mexico, while he was on leave from the Navy.

"Yes, Dad, you have told me many times. I am thankful every time I think on it. You can tell me again, anytime you want. I learn something new, every time. I am just worried about Lisa, and about something Marie told me in confidence.

"I have also been concerned about what would have happened if I had died in the cave. I think about how both you and mom would be all alone, because Jen and I are dead. Ted dead three years later, as a police officer. Lisa, I do not know what happened to her.