Chapter 20: The New Crew

Ted sat in the vehicle holding the cake, as the car shot through the hallways. It came to a dead stop in front of a familiar conference room. Ted led everyone into the room, and they saw Amy standing there. Setting the cake on the table, he turned to the others.

"Go ahead and pick a spot. James break out the food, I will get dishes."

Going over to the replicator, Ted issued some commands.

"Computer fifteen plates, fifteen coffee cups, and flatware settings for fifteen, please."

The items appeared on the replicator pad. Everyone looked in shock as the dishes materialized out of thin air. Carrying the plates over to the table, he set them down. They all looked at the plate on top showing "USS Washington," across the top, an image of the ship in the center and across the bottom was the ships nickname "The Big W."

Martha picked up one of the plates and examined it.

"It looks like very fine china, it's beautiful."

Amy smiled at Martha's words.

"Thank you. This is the ship's china. I thought it would be appropriate for the first official meal on the ship." Walking over to the food, she looked at it. "What type of food is this Ted?"

Ted came back with the silverware.

"This is 'fast food' from a restaurant called KFC or Kentucky Fried Chicken. The chicken is the 'original recipe' version," Ted said. He pointed at each side dish and named them to her as he pointed them out. "That is coleslaw, mashed potatoes, gravy, macaroni and cheese, and baked beans," Ted started filling his plate as the rest began to do so as well.

"I wonder what's taking them so long."

"They are on their way now Ted. You do know that this food is high in cholesterol, sugar and carbohydrates."

Laughing Ted replied, "Yeah, we know, and we still love this type of food, and they better hurry or they won't get any."

Amy smiled at the young man, and replied, "That is no problem I have scanned the food, and I can now replicate it if you want."

"Maybe next time, but tonight it's the real thing,"

Just then, Ken and Tammy came in through the door.

Marie stood up and looked for Andy. "Where is my husband?"

Tammy walked over to her mother.

"Mom, did you know Daddy is real sick?" When she shook her head no, she continued. "Why didn't he tell us?"

Marie went white at her daughter's words. "How sick is he?"

Tammy hugged her mom.

"Mom, without Amy's medical technology, Daddy had less than three months to live. Amy is curing him, now. He will be in Medical for the next seven hours. It will be eleven hours for Lisa. Daddy has, or had, prostate and colon cancer and Lisa has leukemia. Tomorrow they will be fine, thanks to Amy."

Marie's tears flowed down her face, and she started to collapse. Tammy caught her, and helped her into a chair.

"I didn't know, I didn't know. Damn you, Andy, you should have told us."

Tammy knelt by her mom and hugged her, "I don't know momma, I don't know."

Ken watched the two women hug. When they separate, he walked over and handed Tammy a plate of food.

"Here you go, Tammy. I put everything you like on it," he said. Turning to Marie, he continued, "They will be ok Mrs. White, I promise. Now eat your dinner, and then we will all talk. When you are all done eating, please place the dishes on the replicator pad, it will take care of them."

Ken sat down beside Tammy and ate his dinner in silence, he was thinking of the things he had to do. Like building more ships, the stations, setting up sensor and scanning stations in the solar system as well as preparing to take on the world governments to get them to back them.

Everyone finished their food and placed the dirty dishes and garbage into the replicator. Grabbing some cloths that appeared, they wiped the table down. Ken moved to the front of the room and sat at the head of the table. Before Ken could say anything, Amy did.

"Captain, Molly and her party have arrived. I am going to enlarge the room so you can address all of them at the same time, if that is ok with you."

Ken looked over at Amy, and replied, "Go ahead, Amy."

Walls started folding back into the main walls and a larger room formed. Then a large replicator formed several more tables and dozens of chairs. As she finished the last of the adjustments (adding several trays of drinks on the tables), the doors opened and Molly came in with her mother, leading a large group of people.

"Hi, Molly and Kathleen, it's good to see both of you. If you and your party would take a seat, I will explain what is going on."

Surprised, Molly looked at Ken and stammered, "Hi, Ken, I mean ... hello, Sir. I didn't know you would be back tonight. I hope you don't mind me bringing my family in as recruits?"

Laughing at Molly's confusion, Ken replied, "No, it's ok. Hello everyone, I am Kenneth Thompson, I am the Captain of the Federation battleship USS Washington, and I would like to welcome every one of you on board the ship. I know this is all new to you and you have many questions. Please hold them until we are done."

Ken looked out at the larger group, and he could see the questions there.

"Now, to begin with, humanity is not alone in the galaxy. Some of the other races out there are not friendly, and some are just down right nasty," Ken said. Looking over at Amy, he asked. "Amy, could I please have a hologram of a T'Lari warrior? Please compare it to a six foot tall human."

"Yes, Sir," responded Amy.

Suddenly, standing in the room, was a seven and half foot tall T'Lari warrior in full battle gear. Its six arms grasped various weapons. Its grayish skin was shiny under the light, while its red eyes were gleaming down at them with their six-inch mandibles snapping back in forth.

"Now, everyone, meet the enemy. This creature would rather eat you, than be friends. In 2498 or year 22 PD, which is Post Discovery of the enemy, they will destroy the earth. In the final battle, this ship was hurled back in time to 800 AD. She has been sitting here ever since then, waiting to be discovered by the human race.

"Just before the ship dropped out of time, Captain Charles Windsor issued his final orders for the ship's AI to initiate repairs, and to gather a crew to her. Therefore, Earth would have a chance to go on to fight the nastiest enemy; humankind is ever likely to meet.

"I am hoping you will all join us. If not, we ask you never to talk about the ship or us. Before you say yes or no, you should know that this war will be a war of total annihilation. By that, I mean total genocide of the entire T'Lari race. By 2476, they have wiped out five other races that we know of.

"If you join up, you must give up your US citizenship, and take the Terran Oath of Allegiance. Tammy, Ted, Jenny, Molly and I have already done so. We need your help, and we need many more people.

"I plan to build a fleet of one thousand 'State Class' battleships to strike back at them. That is a minimum crew of five thousand each. Not all these ships will be manned. I figure a third of them will be spare ships, kept as an emergency fleet to be activated when needed. I am also hoping to find allies out there to join us. Now, we will leave you all alone to talk."

Nodding to Ted and Tammy the three of them walked out the door."

Everyone looked at each other, and then Matt got up. Looking at the hologram, he asked it.

"Is Ken for real? I mean the alien race. I can see the ship is real as is the device over there making the plates and stuff. But this enemy is what gets me."

Amy walked over to the young man. Looking him in the face, she responded to his questions.

"He is deadly serious. Let me show you what happened to the passenger liner Queen Ann in 2482."

Amy turned to the view screen and a ship appeared on it. Amy told them what was happening as they watch it on the screen.

"This was the Queen Ann, a seventy million ton passenger liner carrying ten thousand refugees from Andromeda Prime. It had to be left behind because of damage to her engines. She was found by a T'Lari destroyer."

The next scenes showed the destroyer pulling up beside the liner. Suddenly boarding tubes streaked from the side of the destroyer, clamping onto the hull of the liner.

The next scene was one of horror! It showed one of the corridors. Armed humans were taking up defensive positions. They were firing their weapons down the hall as the T'Lari warriors charged up the corridor. The lasers hit a shield that the first one was carrying.

As they reached each human defender, he or she was quickly torn apart. Some of the T'Lari stopped and consumed some of the flesh as they fought. They broke down the doors to one of the rooms and a mother and small child were dragged out, the baby was devoured alive in front of the woman. Then, while the woman was still screaming, she was dragged down the corridor towards the nearest hatchway.

Amy heard a gasp and a voice that said, "Oh my God!"

Turning around she saw several of the older women running out the door. Looking at everyone else, she saw they have all turned a little green.

"I think you have seen enough. I am sorry but you must know what you face."

Matt sat down and shook his head, trying to clear the images.

"My God, how do we stop them?"

Ken stepped in and heard Matt's question, and said, "We do it by building better ships than they have, and destroying them ... to the last planet ... the last ship ... and the last being. That ship she showed you had over eight thousand children on board! Not one survived. Think of what is going to happen in five hundred years. Earth is destroyed by the T'Lari super battleship, and over ten thousand warheads hit the planet rendering the surface uninhabitable."

Ken walked among the tables and looked at each person; he saw determination in his or her expression.

"So, may I assume you all want to join up?"

Everyone huddled together and started talking, while James walked over to Ken.

"Ken I am in, even if the rest are not. You were right, this is an adventure of a lifetime, and it is the right thing to do. What do I do?"

Ken watched the terrible four get up and come over as he said, "I will explain more in a bit," Facing his other friends he said, "What did you four decide?"

Matt stepped up to Ken.

"Ken, we have decided I will speak for all of us. We are in Ken. We all agree they have to be stopped. We don't want our children to fight them when we can."

"Thank you." Looking at the rest of the tables, he continued, "What about the rest of you."

Stella Salaneo stood up.

"Captain, I have been chosen as spokesman for our group, and we are in. You give the orders and we will follow them to the best of our abilities."

Ken looked at the beginnings of the ship's new crew, and said, "It is going to be a lot of hard work."

Stella cocked her head to the side, grinned at the handsome man, and replied, "Sir, I help my father run a restaurant, so there is no problem with that."

"Ok, then. I am happy you all decided to join us."

Just then, the doors opened and Tammy walked in with his and her mom.

"Mom, Mrs. White, are you both ok?"

Martha smiled weakly at Ken, and replied, "We're fine. The images just upset us. We both agree that we will join up."

"I am happy you are both ok."

The makings of a crew, was starting to form.

Turning to Amy, he said to her, "Amy, it's all yours, explain what is going to happen."

Amy told them how they would be enhanced, their bodies literally rebuilt from the inside out. She explained that communication and locator chips would be installed and how it takes two weeks for training. The kids all agreed to disappear and report onboard right away. Some of the adults say they cannot just disappear, but they want to join. Since the ones who want to join up right away all live alone, or with family members who are joining, it would be easy for them to go through their training.

"Ok people, I am going to replicate each of you some money."