Chapter 33: Jessica and Repairs

Down in engineering, Chief Engineer Samantha Wayne looked at the damage report and them the schematics and back at her engineering team. The readings were still saying the same thing.

"Look, I don't care what the diagnostic says. The shield generators should have resisted the four hits. However, for some reason they were only putting out ten percent of the power, and the diagnostic was saying they were kicking out one hundred percent. Therefore, we have one of two problems here. One is that there is a diagnostic error on the system queries, and not all the shield generators were spinning up to full power; or two, the ship was sabotaged, somehow. Therefore, we are going to break down into three teams. I will take team one and track down the power lines and see if we have a short somewhere. Tanya, I want you to take team two, and check all the generators. If the problem is there, we need to find it and fix it right away."

Tanya Kandinsky looked up from her diagnostic board and brushed her long black hair over her shoulder, and replied, "Ma'am, that's four hundred generators."

"Just concentrate on the mid-ship portside generators. If there's a problem, it's going to be in that area. There are only fifty of them. Then work your way back to the power supply. Also, pin your hair up. It's going to be downright dirty work."

Looking over the assembled crew personnel, she spotted William O'Neil reading one of the diagnostic panels, and said to him, "William, I want you to pick four or five people, and get them working on the codes. Go through them line by line if you have to. If you see an error in it, highlight it and let me know at the end of the shift. We have the masters stored down here in the vault. If we need to, we will shut down and reload them."

William nodded his head, and replied, "Yes, Ma'am."

He looked at the group of people, chose five of them, and led them out the door.

Samantha looked around and saw that the crew had started to break up. Then the doors opened, and Tim Sanders walked in.

"Hey, Tim! I want you to take five or six people and supervise the spider bots. Work on the exterior hull first, and then on weapons. We may need them sooner than we know. Once those repairs are finished, we will start working on the interior."

Tim looked up as he heard his name called and he saw Samantha standing on a small platform.

"Yes, Ma'am. I'll get on it right away."

Running over to his workstation, he grabbed his mini computer. He looked around, selected six of the engineer techs and they headed out.

Samantha walked over to her group, and they started going over the power conduit schematics. Sam looked up and around the room. Seeing Mr. and Mrs. Thompson come in, she walked over, "Have you seen Commander Thompson? Sorry, I mean your daughter Jenny? She was supposed to meet us down here five minutes ago, and she's late."

Martha looked up as the chief addresses her and replied, "No I haven't." Activating her com unit, she tried to contact her. 'Jenny Thompson, this is your mother. Please contact me.' A sudden pain shot through her head and she rubbed her forehead with tears in her eyes. "Ouch, that hurts."

Samantha looked over at Martha, and said. "I am sorry I should have warned you that the com units are not working. We think it has something to do with Amy being down."

Rubbing her forehead again, she looked at Samantha, "Ouch, now you tell me! I will go up to the bridge and see if she's there. If I find her, where do want her to meet you?

Sam thought for a second, and responded, "Have her meet us in Power Room Three. It's the closest to the amidship's shield generators."

"Ok, I will have her meet you there, if I find her."

Kissing her husbands cheek, she walked out the door.

Sam gathered her crew around her and broke them into two person teams. She sent them out to start the repairs. Soon only Mr. Thompson was left with her. Gathering her tool belt, they walked towards the door.

"You're with me, John. Let's go fix this ship."

Lieutenant Commander Jenny Thompson stood in the transport tube and headed back to the engineering section. Her lift took her around the damaged sections of the ship. Suddenly the tube stopped and the doors opened. Stepping out, she looked around and saw she was not where she wanted to be. Stepping back towards the lift, a force shield snapped on and hurled her across the passageway where she slammed against the far wall, leaving a blood trail as she slid down the wall. Jenny lay there unconscious as the instigator of the trap appeared.

The ghostly form of the bloody woman grinned evilly at her victim. "I have one of you now, only four more to go." Summing the largest spider that was under her control, she ordered it to drag the woman to the end of the hall. The spider retracted its claw and clamped it onto Jen's forearm. The claw squeezed and the bone snapped in the thing's steely grip. It started dragging her down the passageway to a T intersection. As it reached the intersection, a door suddenly formed on the wall and opened. The rogue spider dragged Jen into the room. Inside the room, the ghost stood and points at a bare wall. "Put her there. Make sure she cannot escape. Spread her legs and arms apart, four-inch bands around wrist, ankles, belly and throat; make sure the throat one is not too tight, she must breathe for me, but have the bands connected to the power supply with a voice activated command relay. The command for it shall be pain. She will know my horror before she dies, this I swear. Spider, make a headband that will disable her beacon and com unit. Place it on her head; let it cut her head make it so it is too tight. I don't care."

The spider followed her orders and hoisted Jenny up on the wall. Several smaller bots came out and started forming the bands and attaching them to the wall. When done, they look like they were as one with the wall, as no seam was detectable. Then the large spider replicated the headband and forced it down on her head. Blood ran down her head in small trickles from the edged metal, making her moan in pain.

The ghost looked at her pet spider, and said, "Good, now I need a video unit, so they can see her," she said. With a hideous laugh, she continued, "Build one so they can see her."

She stood and watched the spider build her desired item and when done it stood on a tripod facing Jenny.

"Wake up, plaything. Come on, wake up."

She floated there looking at the young girl, getting more agitated as the female did not wake up.

Suddenly, she said, "Pain!"

The camera came on as she watched the pain flicker through the girl's body.

Jenny drifted in her sleep. She saw her family, friends, and the horror of the battle. Then the images changed to her last birthday. She stood there in surprise, not expecting the party thrown at her home, four days before her birthday. All her friends were there, her mom had made her favorite cake, a strawberry cream cake with real whipped cream as a topping. Her mom walked up and handed her a slice of the cake.

As her fingers touch the plate, pain shot through her head as if someone had taken needles and started pressing them deep into her body. Jenny screamed, her dream shattered, and she slowly came to and looked around.

She heard someone saying, 'Wakey, wakey, little girl.'

She floated over and looked into the girl's face, as Jenny was shocked. The girl moaned as she started to come around. Noticing the eyes as they started to flutter, she floated back a few feet, so Jen will see all of her captor. She hoped Jen would scream her head off when she saw her bloody form.

Jenny opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was apparition of a human woman floating in front of her. Its once beautiful gown was dripping blood as it moved. A huge knife was held in her left hand. When she looked up in to the face, her heart literally climbed up into her throat as she went white with fear. She screamed as it grinned at her and bits of flesh fall off. Catching her breath, she tried to get away and realized she couldn't move. She had been fastened to the wall with metal bands. With sweet dripping from her face, she forced herself to look back up at the creature and could tell it was once a human girl around her own age, but now it had red eyes and blood and gore dripped from its body.

Looking at the camera, she said, "Camera on!" Turning around she yelled, "Scream you bitch, scream for me." Looking at the woman she said, "Pain."

Jenny started jerking as she felt pain shoot through her body; her head was withering in the bands. She tried to pull away, but she was held fast against the wall. Screaming out, she said, "Please stop! Oh God, please stop! It hurts so much! Why are you doing this?"

With blood and gore dripping from her, she drifted in front of the girl. "Good, let it hurt, like it hurt me for a thousand years. You shall feel my torment, but for only a few days at most." Turning to face the camera, "Beware, this is the fate that awaits you all; humanity shall die for what they did to me. All I asked for was justice, but what did I get? I got a thousand years of torture. So let it be known, first you will all suffer, and then you shall all die. Then it will be Terra's turn, but she will go quickly." With an evil grin, she said, "Mild pain." Bloody drool dripped from her face as she floated away. Floating over to the wall, she passed through it. Behind her, Jenny started writhing and screaming in pain.

Ken walked onto the bridge cursing under his breath from the attack and sat down. Grabbing a datapad, he started going through the reports on the damage and the captured ships, when his mother came onto the bridge. Finishing the report, he looked up at his mother.

Martha stood there at the doors and looked around. She saw her son doing something with an electronic pad. Walking over, she waited for him to finish and then asked, "Ken, have you seen Jenny?

"Hi, Mom. I saw her about ten minutes ago heading for engineering."

"She's not there, I was down there with your father and she was supposed to meet us, but she never arrived. Chief Wayne asked me to ... Oh my God, Jenny! Ken, look at the screen," Martha cried out.

Ken whipped his chair around and saw his sister on the screen. She was hanging from a bulkhead. Her blood was dripping from under some type of band around her head. Other bands attached her to the wall. Then the sound came on, and they heard her screaming.

As they watched an apparition floated in front of the camera. They could tell it was once female. Her once fine clothing dripped blood as it moved in front of the camera. A huge knife was in her hand. It turned to face the camera; its red eyes glowed as she spoke to them. With an evil grin, she floated over to a wall, and she passed through it. On the screen, Jenny writhed in pain and screamed once again. As the screen went black, they continue to hear her for ten more seconds.

Ken sat there in shock, his hand slowly crushed by his mother's. When she grabbed it, he had no idea. Reaching over with his other hand, he gently pried it free of his mother's grasp and slowly rubbed his fingers. Reaching down, he turned on the ship's intercom. It squealed as if it was being killed.

"Damn it. Ok I need runners. I want everyone told about this. They are to be on the lookout for a hologram of a human woman. They are not to approach her, but summon security. All crew are to travel in groups of three or more. They are to be advised that this hologram is to be considered extremely dangerous. She has already captured Commander Thompson. Tell them to keep their eyes and ears open and that Jenny is being tortured. If they hear any screaming, they should report it to the bridge."