Chapter 8: A Day of Healing and Play

Amy stood there watching Molly heal inside the bed's force field. Several hours ago she had released Ted from medical, and sent him to his cabin to sleep. She ran a final diagnostic on her patient and shut down the force field.

"Molly, it is time to wake up," she stood there as Molly's eyes fluttered open. "Hello, Molly. How are you feeling?"

Molly dreamt of her mom making her breakfast, before school. She sat and ate the hot pancakes. The butter and hot syrup was dripping deliciously from each forkful. Suddenly, a voice interrupted her sleeping thoughts, calling her to awaken.

Molly slowly opened her green eyes, and looked up into the strange room.

"What ... where am I? Who are you?"

She looked around, confused. Suddenly, the last three weeks came back to her. She went pale as the memories flashed through her mind. Tears streaked face as the memories of her abuse returned. She sat up, and curled her legs under her.

As her legs came up and under her thighs, she realized there was no pain from her left ankle for the first time in uncounted days. Looking down at her ankle, she saw pink skin that looked like a newly healed sunburn. She rubbed a finger over it.

"How ... how did it heal like this? What is going on? Please don't hurt me!"

Amy looked at the confused girl. Once again, she wished she could have the ability to physically touch another person.

"Molly, it's ok. My name is Amy. I have summoned someone who can tell you what is going on. As for your wounds, I healed them with my medical knowledge. I am physically unable to touch you, much less to injure you, so you have no need to worry about that."

Amy looked down on Jenny as she slept.

"Lights!" she ordered.

The lights came on and she continued, "Jenny, I need you to come to Medical. Molly is awake, and she is very confused. I think she needs you and Tammy to come and talk with her."

Jenny pulled the blanket over her head as the lights came on. She heard Amy's voice and groaned.

"All right. I'm coming. Let me get dressed."

As this was going on in Jen's room, another image was in Tammy's room.

Amy looked down on Tammy as she slept.

"Lights!"

The lights came on and she continued, "Tammy, I need you to come to Medical. Molly is awake, and she is very confused I think she needs you and Jenny to come and talk with her."

Tammy sat up and looked around at the room. Focusing on Amy, she climbed out of her bed.

Standing there in all her glory, she replied, "Ok. I am up. Let me get some clothes on, and I will be right there."

Tammy came out of her bedroom and saw Jenny coming out of hers.

"Morning, Jen. I see we were summoned together."

Jen ran her fingers through her long brown hair. With a loud yawn, she replied. "Mornin'. Damn! I need some coffee, or more sleep."

"I hear you, there. A very cold cup of coke would be nice, too."

Walking out of the common room and out into the hallway, they came to a transport tube and step in.

"Medical."

It quickly whisked them to the medical deck, and they walked right in.

Walking into the room, they saw Molly sitting on the bed talking with Amy.

"So you have no need to worry about that."

Amy paused and looked up, as the doors opened, " ... and here they are. Let me introduce you to two of my friends. This is Jenny and Tammy. I will leave you three to talk."

With those words, she faded out of sight.

Molly screamed and backed up to the top of the bed.

"Where did she go? How did she do that? What the hell is going on, here?"

Tears ran down her face, as she trembled in fear.

The girls looked at each other, then rushed over to the bed. Both Jen and Tammy tried to comfort her.

Jen placed her arm around Molly and said in a calming voice, "Molly, its ok! We saved you, and brought you here, so our friend Amy could heal you."

Tammy moved up and sat beside them on the bed.

Tammy reached out and took Molly's hands in hers.

"Jenny is right. We mean you no harm. In fact, we hope you will join us, and help us save the world and the human race."

Molly looked at both women in a very confused manner.

"What do you mean by join you and save the human race?"

Jenny looked at Molly, and walked over to the replicator.

"Molly would you like something to drink?"

Molly nodded her head. Then in a quiet voice asked, "Some water would be good, and a blanket, I am a little cold."

"I should have thought of the blanket right away," she said. Facing the replicator, she added, "Computer! One light blanket, and three bottled waters, please."

Like magic, the items appeared on the metallic surface. Jenny picked up the blanket and water bottles, and headed back to Molly who sat there with her mouth open.

"Trying to catch flies?"

Molly snapped her mouth closed.

"How did you do that?"

Jen handed the bottles to Tammy, and wrapped the blanket around Molly's shoulders and tucked it around her.

Molly clutched it tightly to her naked body.

"Thanks."

Tammy opened one of the bottles and handed it to Molly.

"Here you go, Molly."

Molly sat and stared at the open bottle of water.

Tammy passed another bottle to Jen, and then opened hers. Taking a sip of the cool water, she looked at Jen, then at Molly.

"Well, Molly, this is going to be a long story. If you can hold your questions until the end, it will go faster.

"Now, it is like this. You are in a large space ship. It crashed into the earth, roughly twelve hundred years ago. This ship came from the future, after a battle with an alien race. That race considers humans to be a food source."

Molly sat there and listened to the two young women explain what was going on, and how they came to be involved.

Ted was staring out the open landing bay of the ship. The force field was shut down, so the breeze came in.

"Amy, are you here?"

"Yes I am, Ted. Is your wound bothering you? I noticed you have been sitting here in the dark, since I released you from medical. Is something wrong?"

He shook his head as he continued, "No, nothing is bothering me. I have just been thinking."

Amy walked around the chair and sat on a brace at the side of the bay's door.

"And if you don't mind me asking, what have you been thinking?"

"Amy, I have been thinking about what job I want on the ship."

Surprised that Ted was so calm, she asked, "What have you decided?"

"When we rescued Molly, it felt really good. My dad was a Marine, and I always figured I would go into the Marine Corps, especially after 9-11 and the other attacks. Only thing is, I do not believe in President Kincaide's war in Iraq. I believe he lied to the people, and before you say anything, I do not want to know if he did or not. Now, I strongly believe we should go after Osama Bin Laden with all our might, and that he will one day be captured."

Amy thinks on what Ted has said and she saw a way around it.

"I understand, Ted. How about this? With Ken's permission, we will combine the Marine's jobs with internal security for all of what we build. We will call it Marine Fleet Security. This will eliminate internal security, fleet security, and planetary security.

Ted listened to Amy, then asked, "I do have one historical question, if possible..."

"Go ahead, Ted. I will answer if I can."

Ted took a sip of his cold coke, and said, "Is Osama Bin Laden ever captured?"

Amy checks her database and replied to the question. "No, he is never captured, the reward for him eventually reached two hundred million US Dollars, but still his group defended him. He eventually died in 2026, at the age of 69, from cancer. In 2028 a unit of Navy Seals, raided his former stronghold in Tajikistan. They found his grave there. For twenty years, we assumed he was in Pakistan or Afghanistan. It came as a major surprise to the free world, when his remains were found in Tajikistan."

Shaking his head in frustration he said, "Twenty years and they still don't catch him. That's not justice."

"No, its not. But what else were they supposed to do, when he was hiding in the wrong country. Now, back to the job you asked for. I will assign you the rank of Brigadier General of the Marine Corps. Onboard ship, you will be called: Commander. You will be fully trained."

Setting his glass down, he looked Amy in her face.

"We should catch him, and turn him over."

"That is up to the Captain. But we do have more important things, like recruiting a crew, and building the ships to defeat the T'Lari."

With a sigh, he said, "I know we do, but it just turns my stomach that he's running loose."

Amy thought on how to get Ted off this topic, and it came to her.

"I do have a present for you, down in cargo bay one. That is, if you would like to go see it."

Ted looked up at Amy in confusion.

"A present? What is it?"

Smiling at her young friend, she said, "If you would like to see it, I can direct you there. You should take Ken along. He just got up to go to the bathroom."

"Sure, why not," Ted got up and moved towards the door.

Amy admired the view of Ted walking away. "Umm, Ted."

Ted stopped, and looked back at Amy.

"Yes, Amy?"

A faint blush came to Amy's cheeks as she replied, "You might want to get dressed, first?"

Ted looked down and said, "You're right! What was I thinking?"

Amy giggled, and replied, "I don't know, but if I was a human, I would say 'nice ass'."

Ted blushed a bright red, and quickly looked for something to wear in the closets.

"Where are my clothes?"

He continued to look and then heard a hum behind him. Turning around, he saw some clothes in the replicator. Walking over, he slipped them on, and moved towards the door. As he neared the door, it opened and he walked across the hall to Ken's room. Knocking on the door, he waited for Ken to answer or open the door.

Ken walked back to the bed after going to the bathroom, when there was a knock at his cabin door. Grumbling to himself, he moved towards it. Opening the door, he saw Ted standing there.

"Morning, Ken. Amy was wondering if you want to go down to Cargo Bay One with me."

Ken looked at his watch and fumed, "At three o'clock in the fuckin' morning? Are you nuts?" Ken rubbed his face and stepped back. "Sorry, Ted. I shouldn't have said that. Let me change and clean up, and I will."

Ken went into the bathroom and washed his face. Grabbing his comb, he quickly combed his hair. After washing his hands, he walked out, sat down on his bed, and slid his boots on.

"What's down in bay one?"

Ted shrugged, and replied, "No idea, Amy wouldn't tell me ... said it was a surprise for me."

Ken looked up from tying his steel-toed boots.

"Then shouldn't you be the only one to go?"

Scratching his head he looked at his best friend, and replied, "She suggested you should be there. I think her suggestions should be taken notice of. She knows more about what is going on, than any of us."

Ken stood up and moved to the replicator.

"Two coffees ... hot, with two sugars and two creams, each," he said.

The coffee cups materialized, and he picked one up. Taking a sip, he looked back to the replicator pad, picked the other up and handed it to Ted. "Ok, we'll wake up on the way. Let's go."

Walking out the door, they headed down the hall to one of the transport tubes. They stepped into the tube. Instantly, before they had said anything, it took off and delivered them to the right out-board cargo bay: Cargo Bay One. Stepping out of the tube, they looked around and saw a sign on a pair of massive doors announcing Cargo Bay One. As they walked up to the doors, Amy appeared.

"Good morning, Captain. I hope you two like my little surprise," Amy said.

She turned and walked through the closed door.

As they stepped close, the doors opened, and the two men walked into the darkened bay. As they looked around, Ken saw at Amy's glowing image.

"Amy, can we have some light?"

"In a minute, Captain. Just follow me, please."

With those words, she walked across the huge bay. After three hundred feet, she came to a stop. As she stood there, a light appeared from straight overhead, forming a spotlight within which was a circular curtain that was thirty feet tall. A cord hung near her shoulder.

"Ted, will you pull the cord?"

She stepped away as Ted walked over.

"Sure."

Reaching up he grasped the thin cord, yanked it. He watched the curtain fall. As it hit the ground, they stood there staring at a twenty-five foot tall mech.

"My god! It's a mech like the ones from Mech Warrior 4."

"I call her the Cheetah. She weighs in at 35.8 tons, is armed with four small lasers and a set of twenty short-range unguided missiles firing twenty missiles per load. There is a magazine of two hundred and forty missiles. They are similar to the Hydra 70 rockets of your time, but the explosive is a standard Federation compound. A single hit would blow one of your M-1A1 tanks apart. The second set of missile launchers, are four tubes of long-range missiles, with a one hundred and twenty missile magazine. These missiles are both ground-to-ground and ground-to-air missiles, which the pilot can fire in single, pair or volley rounds. These missiles are similar in size to your sidewinder missiles, but with a more powerful warhead. Even one hit would destroy one of your B-52 bombers."

"Her power source is a type three hydrogen reactor and her speed should be around 150 kph. She has a small shield generator that should keep out all small arms and even some artillery rounds. Under continuous hits, though, eventually anything can get through. There are two small storage chambers in the legs, one containing supplies, the other contains the smaller spider bots as a repair system. The lasers have a range of four hundred feet, the short-ranged missiles up to one thousand feet and twenty-five miles for the long-range missiles. They have a titanium frame and battle steel similar to the Washington's armor.

"I am also building four other classes and they are the Lancer's, Bengal's, Giant's, and the Ninja's for right now. If you want the other mechs, we can build them as personal mechs for soldiers who go above and beyond the call of duty. We can have them choose their own personal mechs, have them designate what weapons they want, type of paint job or anything else they want, but for now I have them all with standard armaments."

Ken stepped back and looked at the deadly looking mech. "Sounds like a good plan to me, I cannot wait to try these babies out in the open. Where will we train? What about jump jets?"

Amy thought for a second and remembered the cavern that was hollowed out six hundred years ago, to supply material for the replicators.

"There is a large cavern that you can run small one or two man operations in, but for larger units I think we should figure on using Mars, or the back side of the Moon. As for jump jets, I haven't solved that one yet, but I'm working on it."

Ken listened to Amy as he walked around the mech, and asked, "OK, cool. What about simulators for training?"

Amy grinned because she had expected this question.

"I am converting the top twenty-five feet of this bay into two new levels. That leaves the lower sixty feet as the assault bay along with drop ships and a ramp. When finished, the top decks will have two hundred simulators, a lounge, a dining hall, locker rooms, and a pilot's briefing room.

"In addition, there will be eight special cargo lifters code-named Bellow Wood. They will be able to carry three mechs apiece, and have been assigned to this level. Repair bays and ammo storage will be in the lower section as well. The ammo bays will be double the thickness of the outer hull, with a shield generator on each wall, as well as the floor and ceiling.

"A special lift will take any wounded to the med deck, and will bring pilots from their quarters."

Ken listened with interest and looked around. Now that the surprise had been revealed, the hold was lit up. The half-constructed mechs were scattered around the hold.