Chapter 32: The Haunted

Ken walked down the passageway towards the medical bay. Stopping at the door, he paused to gather his courage for what he was about to do. Then he walked into the room. The noise of the wounded assaulted him. The mangled bodies frightened him. He felt all this was his fault. Looking around the room, he saw Molly and her mother rushing around getting the wounded up on to the medical beds for the healing they needed. Gretchen helped by stopping the bleeding with pressure bandages. Tina walked around the room offering the wounded bottles of water. As he stood there, he was shoved to the side as the doors opened and two crewmembers rushed in carrying a woman on an anti-grav stretcher.

The gunnery officer looked up and realized he had just shoved the captain out of the way.

"Sorry, Sir, I didn't see you there."

Lifting the girl off of the stretcher, they set her on one of the medical beds.

Ken walked over and looked down at the dark haired girl. She was unconscious and nanobandages covered her face and chest, while her left arm and leg were in splints. Her right leg was missing from the knee down. There was a nanocuff on it, to keep her from bleeding to death.

"What happened to her?"

"Sir, her gun turret was flattened. We had to literally rip it apart, to get her out. Somehow the force shield stayed up, and she didn't loose any air, but she is badly hurt," replied the young man as he looked at the Captain. He reached over and tenderly brushed the hair out of her eyes as they flickered open and she moaned in pain, then he leaned down and gave her a kiss.

"Get better, my love."

Ken watched the heart-felt moment, looked over, and saw Molly watching him. Nodding his head towards her office, she nodded hers in return, and started walking that way.

"Lieutenant, I hope she recovers swiftly."

Looking up at the Captain, Lieutenant Bill Carlos replied. "Thank you, Sir and although my name is Bill Carlos, people call me Bull. She is my fiancée Karina Williams. We had planned on getting married in a few weeks, and were hoping you would say the words over us."

"I am not a pastor or preacher," Ken said in surprise.

"You are the captain of a ship underway. By Federation law, that gives you the authority."

"Oh! I didn't know that. Then it will be my privilege. I will leave you with her, and I pray she gets better. Now if you don't mind I need to go talk to the doctor, so I will leave you two alone."

"Thank you, Sir, and good luck," replied Bull as he took Karina's left hand in his.

"You're welcome, Bull."

Turning, Ken started walking towards the office, suddenly he saw someone watching him out of the corner of his right eye. Turning his head, he saw a blank computer screen.

'Weird! I could have sworn someone was looking at me. Must have been a reflection from the lights in here.'

Shrugging his shoulders, he walked in the room where Molly was just sitting down.

"Hi, Molly. How bad is it?"

Molly looked up at Ken, glanced at her computer screen, and sighed, "Bad, Captain. We have sixteen dead, seventy-seven wounded and six still missing. Most of them I recruited." Molly said with tears running down her face.

Ken shook his head as he walked over and pulled her to her feet and said, as he took her in his arms. "Seven are missing."

Molly looked up at Ken and then back at the computer pad in her hand, "No, I have six missing." Releasing Ken, Molly sat on the edge of her desk while Ken sat in one of the chairs.

Ken sighed and continued, "Amy is missing, too. I think we took a hit somewhere that was vital to her. I have repair crews working on it. We were on the bridge and all of a sudden she disappeared and the ship's intercom screamed as if she was in pain." With a sigh, he looked into Molly's face and said, "The real reason I came down here, is that I have some bad news for you." Ken choked a little and continued, "Molly, your nephew James was killed when his escape capsule was damaged by the Crytherian's fire. We don't think it was deliberate, the..." Ken got up and moved over to Molly taking her in his arms as she cried out in pain.

Molly started slamming her fist onto her desk, "No! ... Oh, God! ... No! First Mathew, and now James, I don't know if I can take it anymore." Molly cried out as tears started running down her face. Then Ken was there, pulling her up to her feet. Molly leaned into Ken and suddenly started hitting his shoulder as he held her.

"Its ok, Molly, we are here for you." Ken continued to comfort her as he saw movement out the corner of his eye again. Looking, he saw nothing. As he stood there, holding her, the door opened and Molly's mom was standing there. Waving her in with his hand, he guided Molly into her mother's arms to let her cry and be comforted by her mother.

Kathleen walked towards the office, looking for her daughter. She stopped at the CMO's office door. She started to open it, and heard Molly cry out. Quickly she opened the door and she saw Molly crying on Ken's shoulder. Ken waved her in and she stepped into the office and took her daughter into her arms.

"What's going on Ken?"

Ken sighed and told Kathleen the bad news, "Kathleen, I had to tell Molly that your grandson is dead." Wrapping both of them into his arms, he apologized for losing him.

"Kathleen, I tried to get the Crytherians to surrender without them killing anyone, but they wouldn't listen."

Ken felt the tears run down his face and drip into Molly's hair.

Kathleen reached her hand up and grabbed Ken's ear. "Now listen here, young man, yes my grandson is dead. Did you kill him? No! James died defending this ship and the Earth! And that is how we will remember him. Any other way and it cheapens his loss. We will mourn him, as I will mourn all the rest we have lost. However, we must go on and we must be victorious or we all die. I watched the footage of the T'Lari and I saw what the Crytherians did to those prisoners. They are evil and we must overcome them. Just like the world did against Hitler and his maniacs. Do you understand me, Ken?"

Ken looked at Kathleen in surprise and shock. Clearing his throat, he responded, "I am sorry Kathleen, I will do better, I promise."

Patting his cheek she continued, "Good, now get out of here and go back to work. Let me deal with my daughter. Later tonight, Jenny and you will have dinner with us and we will talk. I will make ... What the hell?"

Kathleen looked over at the in the corner of the room and saw an image of ghostly figure covered in blood. A huge knife was clutched in her left hand. Her right forefinger was pointed at Kathleen. Looking up into the face, she saw a snarl of evil and then it quickly faded away as it slid the knife across its own throat. Kathleen shuddered from the image and looked back at her daughter.

Ken turned and looked where Kathleen was looking but saw nothing there.

"What was it, Kathleen?"

Shaking her head, she said. "It was like a ghost, it was female. She was covered in blood, and had a knife that looked like a small sword. She slit her own throat with it." Looking at Ken, she continued, "Ken, she looked so evil! It was frightening!"

Ken looked back at the corner of the room, but did not see anything.

"I will have the holographic projectors checked out, as soon as we can get the time for them." Looking back at Kathleen, he continued, "The priority now, is the repairs. Now I need to get up to the bridge, and take charge of the situation. Get me a status report on the wounded as soon as you can."

Giving both women another hug, he headed out of medical and back towards the transport tubes.

Stepping in he said to the computer, "Bridge," and as he turned around, he saw a ghostly figure with a knife raised in her arm. Before he can say anything, she slammed it down into his chest.

At the same time, he heard in his mind, 'Die you fucking bastard!'

Jumping back, he slammed into the back of the tube as the image faded and slid through the floor. He felt a cold wave descend into his body, as he looked at the ghostly knife in his chest. He watched it slowly fade away. Ken slid his fingers up to where the knife once was, and felt for a wound, finding none. The transport tube came to a stop, and the doors opened. He saw his sister standing there waiting to board the tube.

Jenny stood there looking at her work pad and as the doors opened for the tube. She started to walk onto the transport tube, and looked up to see her brother sitting against the wall. His hand was pressed to his chest and his face was a pasty white.

"Ken, are you ok? You're white as a ghost."

Ken sat there looking at his sister, not hearing her at first, as his fingers pressed to his chest.

"Jen I ... I don't know. I think I was just attacked by a ghost."

Jen looked at her brother in surprise.

"A ghost? Come on, Ken, you know there is no such thing as ghosts."

Ken looked down at his chest and said, "Well you could have fooled me. I can still feel the knife that she stabbed me with, it made my whole body feel like it was freezing."

Straightening up with a shiver, he asked, "So what are you working on?"

Jenny glanced at the electronic tablet and said, "Damage reports, we took a lot of damage on the portside. I am trying to find out why the shields failed. They shouldn't have failed. They were only hit with four nukes. If I didn't know better I would swear it was sabotage, but who would do that?"